People Don't Live Or Die, People Just Float

Jeff, Who Lives At Home (Duplass and Duplass, 2012)

Mark and Jay Duplass, brothers behind Cyrus, Baghead, and The Puffy Chair, continue to expand the definition of mumblecore with their latest film Jeff, Who Lives At Home. While it would be easy to describe this movie as a tale of a slacker who attempts to find his place in the world, what the Duplass brothers do with this film is so much more expansive because of the way they build upon the concept of a genre they helped popularize. Existing between the realms of drama and comedy their latest creation is more concerned with the humanity than it is with laughs, but it also willingly paints with the broadest of strokes in order to further reach for the universal. But by doing this I couldn't help but wonder if the shift of focus from the nuanced examination of relationships that have defined previous Duplass brothers films would be needlessly sacrificed for a more sprawling affair.

Found Your Pictures, Mailed Them To Your Mother

Tape Club (Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, 2011)

Last week I wrote up a short post highlighting some of my most anticipated music releases set to come out this fall, and as I mentioned in that post some of the releases have already been made available for listening by the bands. PolyVinyl Records band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin first popped up on my radar last year when they released their fantastic album Let It Sway. Their latest release Tape Club, streaming in full over at the band's BandCamp page, is actually not a full on follow up, but rather a collection of unreleased songs, B-Sides, and various other recordings from the band's ten year history.