The Loves are unashamed fans of 60s pop and rock, who throw in their unique, fuzzy, low-fi, comedic touches into the mix. The band, who formed in Cardiff in 2000, have decided to call it a day with the release of their fourth album, …Love You, released on Fortuna POP! in January, and will be breaking hearts with their last show on Valentine’s Day 2011. Their new single, ‘December Boy’, is out on December 6 on 7†and download. For more information go to the Fortuna POP! website. Frontman Simon Love tells Electric Sheep about some of his favourite films. SARAH CRONIN
1. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Or What I Thought Being in a Band Would Be Like. Liars. One day I’ll make the indie A Hard Day’s Night and it’ll involve: not getting soundchecks, being bumped down the bill because another band brought the drums, not getting paid, sleeping on floors, late night toilet stops at service stations, playing to three people in Stoke and the never-ending challenge of getting your mix CD played next.
2. Head (1968)
The Monkees attempt to get rid of their teenybopper image but just end up getting rid of their teenybopper fans. I saw this for the first time late one Friday night, coming through the static on S4C, on a portable black and white TV. They’ve never looked cooler than they do when they’re all in white performing ‘Circle Sky’. Except for Davy. He never looked cool. Bless him.
3. Harold and Maude (1971)
Everyone I’ve shown this film to has at first balked at the premise (19-year-old Bud Cort falls in love with 79-year-old Ruth Gordon), but by the end they are either in tears or singing, ‘If you want to sing out, sing out and if you want to be free, be free’. Everyone though still curls their toes when it shows them in bed together. For more examples of Bud Cort’s ossum-ness see Brewster McCloud or choice number eight in my list.
4. The Wicker Man (1973)
The film I’ve seen the most times in a cinema, and I still get freaked out by the Hand of Glory every time. I love this film because there’s no happy ending, no police helicopters come over the cliff to save Sergeant Howie, he dies. Sorry for spoiling it if you’ve not seen it before. Other spoilers: he’s two people, he might be a robot, he was a patient at the mental asylum all along, but Ben Kingsley thought it’d be good for him to pretend to be a policeman and all M. Night Shyamalan films are shit.
5. Star Wars (1977-1983)
Before triple-chinned, badger-haired, one-idea-for–40-years-not-counting-Howard-the-Duck director George Lucas raped my childhood with episodes one to three of the ‘saga’, the three original films brought nothing but pleasant memories to me. Like the time my father got me out of school early to go and see Return of the Jedi, telling my teacher that I had a dentist appointment just so we wouldn’t have to queue, and the time we ‘rented’ The Empire Strikes Back from his friend who had it ‘on pirate’ in a double bill with ET. In the playground I was Han Solo and Gavin Naish was Luke because he had blond hair. Glory days.
6. Back to the Future (1985-1990)
As well as wanting to be Han Solo, I also wanted to be Marty McFly when I was a youngling. I had a sleeveless body-warmer like him (but mine was maroon and white, not orange) and I begged my parents for a skateboard for Christmas in 1985. Instead I got a hi-fi. When I did finally get a skateboard it was wonky. If you leaned left you went right and vice versa, and somehow I managed to rip the nail off my little finger while sat on the board going downhill at high speed. Like all right-thinking people my favourite film is Part II, and come 2015 I will wear my clothes inside out.
7. Clerks (1994)
The filmic equivalent of a garage band – all heart and very little style. I saw Mallrats first and then spent a small fortune (for me) on getting this on video. I’m glad I did. Why is Jeff Anderson not a massive star now? This clip is a million times funnier than anything Adam Sandler’s ever done. But then again, an orphan being injected with cat AIDS and then being set on fire is a million times funnier than anything Adam Sandler’s ever done. The man’s a dick. Anyway, I love all of Kevin Smith’s films. Even Jersey Girl. Seek out his ‘Smodcast’ podcasts on iTunes. Or better yet, seek out the ‘Tell ‘m Steve-Dave’ podcasts.
8. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
This pick could be any of Wes Anderson’s films, but I chose The Life Aquatic because it was the first of his I saw in the cinema. All of his work has the things I look for in films : 1) symmetry in the shots; 2) captions or titles in the film (always in Futura in Wes’s case); and 3) brilliant soundtracks (his soundtracks piss on the ones put together by Justin Quarantino). Also The Life Aquatic stars Owen Wilson, who I am gay for. See this for further proof of Wes Anderson’s aceness.
9. The Sasquatch Gang (2006)
I’d read about this film a while ago because it was made by the producer of Napoleon Dynamite, but then heard nothing of it for a few years until I found it in CEX for £1.50. It’s the same story told from four different perspectives, and the timelines are all chopped up so everything only makes sense at the end of the film. The Loves watched it once when we had a night off from our gruelling tour schedule in Leeds and for the rest of the weekend we were shouting ‘Crap off!’ and ‘This bark smells’ to the bemusement of everyone who wasn’t us. It stars Justin Long (another person I am gay for) and has a cameo by the most excellent Stephen Tobolowlosky.
10. Superbad (2007)
I bought this because I had £15 burning a hole in my pocket, needed something to watch and loved Michael Cera in Arrested Development. I think it’s the film I’ve watched the most over the last five years, although I’m not allowed to watch it in company as I either laugh too hard or speak along with the characters, which annoys people. The comparisons of this and American Pie are ridiculous. You believe Cera, Jonah Hill & Christopher Mintz-Plasse would do the things they do for sex. The cast of American Pie looked like they came from an advert for Calvin Klein. Except for the pie fucker.
Honourable mentions go to Hudson Hawk, Chinatown, Hot Rod, Napoleon Dynamite, Starship Troopers, True Romance, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Double D POV.