Once

winner of the World Cinema Audience Award for a dramatic film at this yr's sundance film festival. Once is a sort of modernized musical set in Ireland, feat. The Frames frontman Glen Hansard and newcomer Marketa Irglova. directed by John Carney, Glen's former bandmate. high def trailer here. US release set for May 18th.

The Frames formed in 1990. they tour in chicago (the metro) quite often, and i saw them open for nadasurf. they were surprisingly good for an opener- full sound, improvisational, conversational. glen seemed really approachable and funny. he did a couple medley covers of bob marley and johnny cash. i'd rec the songs 'fitzcarraldo', 'lay me down/ring of fire', and 'the swell season' from glen's solo debut album of the same name. glen reminds me of that umbrella mark in sheet music (forgot its name) bc he stretches out words and syllables just as how violins are played sometimes. full sweeps. as for similar artists, i'd say matthew good, maybe even the less polished stuff of counting crows.

from the Once official US website:
Marketa: "We have been working together for the past six years. We met in the Czech Republic, where I am from, when The Frames were over to play a few gigs."

"Glen got me up for a song and I started playing piano and then we started to write songs. It was very slow and very natural process. Then we recorded an album a year ago."

Glen: "It was released around the same time as we started to work on the film. When I met Marketa it was immediately obvious how remarkable she was, and so for me, there was a whole new breath of creative life to be working with someone who could give so much to the music. I am very lucky with my band, they are incredibly creative, but when I met Mar it added a whole new area, a whole new voice, a whole new contrast to what I did. I think John [Carney, ONCE director] caught sight of that."

you can hear all the songs on that website. i like the opener 'falling slowly' and near the end 'all the way down'.