BUG21 for the hard of travelling

There is nothing to quite match the visceral mind-thwack you get from watching these little beauties on the big screen at NFT1. When it's all nuzzled together by the beardy wonderman, you know you'll walk home replete with sensory delight (that's a lactose-free version of Angel Delight).

Adam and the BUG team try their hardest to bring their format to other parts of the country but the flagship shows are in London. This precludes all but the most tenacious of country folk from enjoying it so here's but a second-hand experience.

BUG21 must have had some decent work because the majority of the films shown are available on Vimeo rather than (or as well as) YouTube. Do me a favour and pop them out on HD rather than squint at them on here. At least attempt to recreate the evening on some small level. Of course, if your provider is BT, you're condemned to jerk-vision. You might as well grab a friend and reenact each of them in your tea break.

Adam started rolling with his hootin' version of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl. I'm going to link the song with the lyrics. You can imagine where Adam went with this. I laughed just as loudly the second time. Let's hope he plops it on his channel.

One might argue that a few of those selected were predictable but since this is one of the rare opportunities for such glorious exposure, a sense of deflation would have pervaded my evening if some of these had not been included. My only fear was that they started with such a strong one, the evening might have only gone downhill. It didn't. Much.

MGMT - Congratulations

Director: Tom Kuntz
If you dribbled all the way through the wide open scenes in Where The Wild Things Are, you'll need plenty of absorbent cloths whilst watching this one. It's OK to shed a tear. You can claim you were sobbing at the b e a u t y of it.

I seem to remember Adam had a little bit of fun with Tom's surname but at the end of the day, Buckles has a problem pronouncing anything in German (Die Antwort being a particular bug-bear of mine - think about it).

Everything Everything - Photoshop Handsome

Director: Jon Everything
I'm very frustrated to report that my stupid brain was unable to find the demented version that BUG showed of this. It has some insane Photoshop tomfoolery but where can it be? Adam introduced it by saying something like "they shot a performance of themselves against green screen and threw it out into the huge, frightening dog's bowl that is the internet and invited creative people to embellish it along the lines of the theme of the song which is called...blah. Around forty people eventually screwed around with the footage and then Everything Everything chopped it all together to create an absolutely mind melting brain bomb." It was produced by BUG's own Phil Tidy which is why HE has it and WE don't. It's not even on his Vimeo Channel.

I was one of the handful who admitted that they liked Everything Everything when Adam polled us. I saw them in the balmy sunshine of an early evening Lake Stage at Latitude. They were wickles.

Chase and Status - Let You Go

Director: thirtytwo (Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern)
I'm afraid I begged my companion to shred my eardrums while this noise was playing but it was worth the endurance to hear Adam run through the YouTube comments.

Chromeo - Don't Turn the Lights On

Director: Keith Schofield
This isn't offensive as such but the track's a blandah and the video idea wears a bit thin. I'm not keen on eye manipulation at the best of times.

The XX - Islands

Director: Saam Farahmand
About time too, thankyouverymuch.

Trentemølle - ....Even though You're with Another Girl

Director: Adam Hashemi
A beautiful, sexy, story-telling film with a few nutty bits thrown in. We're back on track.

The Wilderness Downtown - Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait
Director: Chris Milk
This gorgeous thing looks even better on the big screen and Adam punched in the riverside address of the National Film Theatre so we had some wonderful images. Spend time with this. It will be your friend.

UNKLE - The Answer


We were shown this just before John Hillcoat took to the stage, if memory serves. I'd seen it on-line and wasn't relishing the thought of seeing Mr Winstone's mug even closer and bigger but stick with it because the visual teasers stuff comes later. Some of it felt like a clip from Enter The Void, toned down for YouTube consumption. It's a clever piece and it's nobody's fault that I'm not so keen on the starring talent. I think we saw a little Hillcoat showreel up front too, so I might be wrong about the playing order.

Grinderman - Heathen Child


Giggle yourself into oblivion.

Adam's interview with John was completely mesmerising. I wanted to take both home and make chocolate brownies for them.

The Books - A Cold Freezin' Night

Director: Paul de Jong, Nick Zammuto

Go ahead and disturb yourself.......in a nice way.

Grum - Through The Night

Director: The General Assembly

I'll forgive the awful low-loader driving action at the start of this. It's ruddy good fun, nicely done and then Adam worked his YouTube comment magic on it.

John Grant - Chicken Bones

Director: Ewan Jones Morris, Casey Raymond

An annoyingly catchy retro tune, with an f-bomb in the chorus, sidles up comfortably with a great film.

Glez - Todo El Tiempo

Director: Jesus Hernandez
Stick with this. What seems like an annoyingly lazy technique blossoms into something truly enjoyable. You may want to mute it & ping a Fleet Foxes track on while you watch, though.

Click them, you fool. I know they're too small like this.


Adam finished up with his Tom Waits rejected literal theme tune for the Iron Man 2 trailer.

This BUG was filmed so I would imagine it will pop up at the BFI sometime soonish. The Director's Cut version on tonight only has flippin' OK Go guesting.


There are some other AdamyJoey bits to mention but I don't want to clog this post any more than it is already.