"Once" w/ the Swell Season

[Nick15]

Did anyone see this show today??! Absolutely amazing...they played about 9 songs at the Michigan Av Apple store in Chicago, would have been more but the sound was not ideal for performance. I took a ton of pics and have videos, I will put em up when I get a chance.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by julia

just a FYI Once was nominated for 2008 Film Independent’s Spirit Award .

(Hello Julia [img]images/smilies/july%202006/wave.gif[/img]- long time no see)

[srahman24]

Originally Posted by Nick15

Did anyone see this show today??! Absolutely amazing...they played about 9 songs at the Michigan Av Apple store in Chicago, would have been more but the sound was not ideal for performance. I took a ton of pics and have videos, I will put em up when I get a chance.

Can't wait to see it! You lot in chicago are incredibly lucky when it comes to them!

They're in good company with the Independent Spirit Awards...

[julia]

Originally Posted by Angela

(Hello Julia [img]images/smilies/july%202006/wave.gif[/img]- long time no see)

Hey Angela, waves back.. Good to see Your name again...

Happy Holidays,
Cheers!!!

[tuckatangent]

Can't remember if I've posted in here yet, but the show in Austin a few weeks was absolutely magical. I hope they come back next year.

[dboyd]

i'm not sure if anyone has posted this yet but Glen and Marketa playing Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." in Wiltern and during the song glen gives marketa a lil kiss on the lips! hehe.. it's pretty cute. great cover too!

[mariaoran]

^no link!? ... such a tease David!!

*Sooo cute!!*

[dboyd]

omg hahha sorry!!! i completely forgot!! hahaha wow... sorryyy :P u got it tho

[srahman24]

The nomination list was released earlier this morning: http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/...ominations.txt

Ah, unfortunately Damien didn't get a nomination this time.

But Glen and Marketa got two:
- Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
- Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media (Falling Slowly)

I'd say this makes them a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination too.

[Cali]

can you imagine glen and marketa at the oscars

[borneoman]

And the Golden Globes nominations will be announced next week too (I think)... I think they could grab a bunch of nominations there since movies are split into 2 categories: drama vs musical/comedy

I was thinking that Once might be nominated for Best Movie in the Musical/Comedy category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you reckon??? Or even Glen as actor???

[srahman24]

Aw, I think Glen as actor is a bit of a stretch (considering the other heavy weights involved)

But I'd love to see a Best Musical/Comedy nomination!

[mariaoran]

yes yes!!! i wish them sooo much luck at the Grammys and i reeeally hope they keep getting nominated for more awards!!!!!

They soooooo deserve it!!!!!

[She'sAlwaysDressedInWhite]

Originally Posted by mariaoran

yes yes!!! i wish them sooo much luck at the Grammys and i reeeally hope they keep getting nominated for more awards!!!!!

They soooooo deserve it!!!!!

champaign is in the fridge for the weekend

so so happy

[October Sky]

Originally Posted by borneoman

And the Golden Globes nominations will be announced next week too (I think)... I think they could grab a bunch of nominations there since movies are split into 2 categories: drama vs musical/comedy

I was thinking that Once might be nominated for Best Movie in the Musical/Comedy category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you reckon??? Or even Glen as actor???

I've always thought Marketa for best actress as well. The movie got so many good reviews and was so loved by all these newspapers and magazines that it seems like it would get enough attention to be considered. For the Oscars, maybe even a Best Foreign Film nomination? I mean, an actual forgeign language isn't required in that category, right? Maybe even screenplay...I really loved how this movie was written and that it definitely was not a typical romantic musical.

[Rai]

Best Special Effects?

[mariaoran]

Originally Posted by She'sAlwaysDressedInWhite

champaign is in the fridge for the weekend
so so happy

haha well ... its the weekend already soooo... open it up!! we´ll celebrate the special effects category!

[dboyd]

Interview about Once and glens busking days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36uoIFvDZRA

which led me to learn this little fact about the lovely marketa irglova...now, i never knew this.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketa_Irglova
marketa is only 19!!!?!?!??!? that's insane! she is only a year older than me! she was 17 when they were filming the movie too i think or something... wowwww, insane.. i didn't know that! hahaha... wow

[tuckatangent]

Yeah, it surprised me too. She looks older on screen, but younger in person.

[mariaoran]

golden globe noms came out today! ... none for Once

... at least not on the main ones, havent checked the other ones they give before the show (dont know where to look!)

[borneoman]

Yep, just checked and nothing and that was me thinking Glen could even get a nom for best actor Very disappointing choices in the music categories, of course they nominated a Clint Eastwood song, and even Shakira

[Rai]

^They surely appreciated her honest body parts

But since Ikea Knightley got nominated for best actress (alongside with Blanchette's Elizabeth and Jolie's Marianne Pearl... ), the whole thing just lost its credibility. I've seen dining tables that could express emotions more convincingly than that matchstick

[mariaoran]

what movie did she write songs for????

[Rai]

Originally Posted by mariaoran

what movie did she write songs for????

Shakira? El amor en los tiempos del cólera. (Utter rubbish. The film, of course. Dunno about the music)

[Cali]

haven't heard the song and i'm not a shakira fan, but the song was written by pedro aznar who is a really good argentinean songwriter

[muskoxen]

Originally Posted by nothing_at_all

i find glen hansard a bit of a prick so i refuse to watch it. It also looks like every other "heartfelt independant movie" with **** actors and a ****, unrealistic storyline.

wow. tell me how you really feel.

"I could create a world where it’s O.K. to break into song, without an orchestra coming up out of nowhere."

that made me LOL just a little.

I have yet to see it, but i'm pretty excited to. I, personally, love Glen. He's hilarious.

[dboyd]

it's not like a stupid fairly tale where they break into song at random... if you think it will be another stupid "heartfelt movie with blah blah blah" and random times where they break into song.. it's not really like that.. it's worked in, and it's not random... u'd understand if u watched it :P.. i think they discussed this in an interview too.. but ya, just my 2 cents

[soda]

there is a nice skyscraper animated flash ad for Once dvd on pitchfork ( http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/ )

...yes, blame my profession for looking at online ads.....

[dboyd]

so.. i was checking to see if glen and mar have got a website going for "The Swell Season" but nothing doing.. so i checked out their myspace to see if they had an official link there... but i only found the frames site... i decided to peak at the blogs and i noticed that glen and mar actually write them their selves and reply to peoples comments and messages!!! It's died down a bit now i believe but they are one of the bigger artists that actually control their own myspace! I just think they are freaking awesome and completely true to their fans.. <3

[administrator]

there was an interview with glen and marketa in the irish times last Saturday... here it is:

They've got love and they've got awards for their soundtrack and performances in Once . And they've got strong views about how Ireland is changing. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová talk to Róisín Ingle from the Czech Republic, where they are spending Christmas with Irglová's family

A love story at Christmas: once upon a time a musician guy meets a much younger musician girl. Neither are actors but a few years later they star in a small film with a tiny budget which proceeds, against all expectations, to wow the world. While promoting the movie the guy and the girl fall in love, or it could be they started falling when they were filming. Or maybe they were "falling slowly" for years, just like one of the songs from the film, which, as everybody knows by now, is a quiet gem of a modern-day musical about a Dublin busker and a piano player from Czech Republic called Once .

It doesn't really matter when it started. This week they are in the girl's home town in the Czech Republic, preparing for Christmas together, reflecting on a life-changing 12 months. "It's something I always hoped for," says the piano playing girl, Markéta Irglová (19), of her romance with the guy, Dubliner Glen Hansard (37), lead singer with successful Irish band The Frames, and, although he doesn't tend to shout about it, he was also Outspan in Alan Parker's The Commitments . "Everything good started happening when I met Mar, things straightened out," he says. "There is some kind of fortune around her."

This is not just another love story, however, and it turns out that Glen Hansard doesn't want this to be just another interview. On the phone from Valasske Mezirici, he wants to talk about his disappointment with Dublin, with post Celtic-Tiger Ireland generally, and he has no desire to hold back. Still he is cautious, knowing how his criticism will go down in a country, a capital that already has mixed feelings about him. In Dublin earlier this year, a poster of Once was defaced, with a P placed in front of the O, and for a while now Hansard has been pilloried in animations on the Eyebrowy website, which depict him as the self-regarding muso at the centre of a navel-gazing Dublin music scene based around Whelan's pub.

"It's important to get it right," he says of this interview in a text message after we speak at length. As well as a time of joy, this is also a confusing, transitional period for the Dubliner. It turns out global acclaim isn't sitting easy with the man who, over the past 17 years with The Frames, had become more comfortable with the notion of struggling than with success.

It's true that Hansard has had to adjust over the past 12 months. Once , the film made in Dublin over three weeks at the end of 2005 for around €100,000 in which he stars with Irglová, has brought him longed-for professional glory. Directed by his ex-Frames bandmate John Carney, it scooped one of the most coveted awards at the Sundance Film festival early this year. The Once soundtrack Hansard co-wrote with Irglová has gone double platinum in Australia and Korea, he is up for two Grammy nominations and last week it was revealed that two songs from Once are in contention for the Best Song Oscar, with the LA Times tipping Falling Slowly for the prize.

In New York, a city he used to enjoy getting lost in, he is now recognised as he walks the streets. Millions have been to see Once in American cinemas. He has had the David Letterman experience. Hansard, finally, has arrived. Despite all of this, he insists he is "walking around with this huge sadness", which he says is a response to his newfound success.

"Don't get me wrong," he says, trying to explain. "I am absolutely over the moon; I couldn't be happier, it couldn't have come at a better time. For so long it has been us against the world - The Frames were kicking the world in the ass trying to get its attention. Then one day I made a film with John Carney and the world has turned around and said 'what?'. It feels very good but when you've been in a band and struggling to pay your rent, the weird thing is when success comes, if all you have known how to do is struggle then you are going to struggle with success.

"I find myself walking around in a daze thinking, God I feel really sad, why am I so f***ing sad?" he says. "The part of me who was struggling has died, so it's like mourning someone who has passed. In interviews people are now referring to me as a guy who is successful. Nobody wrote about The Frames for years and now Rolling Stone is saying we are this great Irish band. I feel in between two places. I don't know what is ahead of me. My goal was to get somewhere and now I have got somewhere and before I set sail to my next destination there is this sense of sadness."

Later he suggests this in-between stage, this confused point, is probably not a good time to be doing interviews. But at the same time he has a lot to get off his chest. For starters these days Dublin makes him feel claustrophobic and Ireland is not, certainly in the near future, the place he wants to call home. "I am so proud to be Irish but there are so many problems with the Irish at the moment. Our nation is in a state of not knowing who it is right now. There's a painful change going on. It feels to me there is this caustic atmosphere. If I ever go to Whelan's now, which is rarely, I have to say I feel a dead energy," he says.

He won't refer, in this context, to an economic boom or a success story, and prefers the term "economic upheaval".

"I think it has been damaging," he says. "Everybody has just suddenly realised they can have what they want and they are all acting more like Americans. There is a different atmosphere than there was when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. The Irish are not cool people, Italians are cool people, and people from London and New York are cool. We aren't, we are a heady kind of people, so an Irish person wearing an FCUK top with Deisel jeans and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses - we just look like idiots. I don't think we wear that stuff well."

You get the sense he can't get over how it happened, how Ireland went from being "not that far away from being a third-world country to being like pigs at the trough". He doesn't understand how having made "a bit of money" from the film he still can't afford a house in Dublin.

"I find it depressing the way we treat ourselves . . . the country is being divided into small lots of expensive apartments, new roads, new cars . . . the Government is almost forcing us to pull up to standards that we can't afford, that are beyond us, so there will be a collapse. We could do with some humility here."

After a busy year, Hansard and Irglová are "adamantly on holiday". The Czech Republic has been a bolt hole for Hansard since he became friends with Marek Irgl, Markéta's father, a publisher. Six years ago The Frames played a music festival in the town and were guests of honour at a garden party held at the Irgl home. Hansard returned there in 2002 when, dossing on his mother's sofa in between flats, he had become disillusioned with the Dublin scene.

PART TWO TO FOLLOW