KMFDM's Our Time Will Come - Album Review

KMFDM
OUR TIME WILL COME
2014
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Ultra-heavy-beat pioneers and industrial-rock legends KMFDM turned 30 earlier this year, and with no signs of stopping they also released their nineteenth studio album, Our Time Will Come, on Tuesday Oct. 14, 2014.

And, it's one of their best albums.

In my opinion, 2005's Hau Ruck is the best album they've released since the 2002 reformation, and I also consider it to be the second best album of their career (only topped by 1995's Nihil). Our Time Will Come may not be quite as good as Hau Ruck, it's really too early to say, but it's somewhere just beneath it - say, around No. 5 on a Top 5 KMFDM albums list.

So, with that all in mind - where it ranks, in my opinion, in relation to other KMFDM albums - let's move on.

Opening the album is "GENAU" (German for "exactly" / "precisely") which is a fun song, that's not a self-referencing "KMFDM song" like the past few openers. It's a humorous ride through the German language (some of the song is in English, too). Besides being fun, it's interesting musically: it's rocking, it's got some of the best synths the band has used in almost 15 years, and it's a family affair - featuring lead vocals by Sascha, trading off vocals with wife Lucia, and bookending the song are a few lines by their daughter (including the opening line, "Hello, teenage America," which also opened the 1992 song "Vogue"). In some ways, "Genau" reminds me of "Megalomaniac" meets "Juke Joint Jezebel," which isn't a bad thing at all. It gets better as it goes, and gets better the more I listen to it (like the album as a whole). By about halfway through the song it should be apparent that this album has a tightness of musicianship, an excellence of songwriting craft, and a crispness of sound mixing that elevates it above even some of their better work over the past few albums. In less than two minutes I was sold that this album wasn't just going to be good - it would be something special. "Genau" is just a well done song. One that, if they still decide to release it as an actual single, would be a great song to use to bring their new music to the masses. And if this is the sound of "the German in you," then my inner German sounds friggin' awesome! (5/5)

Following that, we move into "SHAKE THE CAGE," which is sort of KMFDM's thoughts on the whole Snowden/NSA thing. However, it's not beating anyone over the head politically. It's funky, (yeah, that's right, I said funky) with a killer bass line running through it straight out of something like "The Problem" from 1993's Angst, with an equally killer guitar riff straight out of 1994's Nihil runnin' over it. It's got a great 'softer' vibe through the verses, that starts to get punched up as it goes, and then it really kicks in for the rockin' sing-along chorus. Keep an ear out for a Jules guitar solo towards the end, too; a nice touch. This is such a good song. There's a maturity present that the band has sometimes eschewed in favor of fun, while this song maintains its fun and listenability. A standout song, "Shake the Cage" is hands-down one of the best songs of its kind that they've ever done. (5/5)

Track three is "RESPEKT," which is downright hilarious. I'm not completely one-hundred-percent sure, but it seems to be a sort of mockery of the trolling behavior online. It's funny, but musically it's this uber-pounding, hard-rocking ultra-heavy-beat 1996's Xtort-era craze. But I love that it so embraces it's goofiness, while still managing to rock your socks off. Think of a funny, sarcasm-fueled Combichrist song channeled through KMFDM. The music and lead vocals are aided by guest Tom Stanzel of the Seattle music scene. And, one of my favorite 'little things' is the metallic hammering of an anvil that pops up to echo the vocals, it's such a great minor detail that ultimately adds a lot. (4/5)

Up next we find the title track: "OUR TIME WILL COME." Like "Shake the Cage," this song is unexpectedly awesome. These types of songs may not be the ones that old-school fans want to hear mixed in with "A Drug Against War" and "Flesh" on a live set list, but they're the kinds of songs that perfectly demonstrate just how far the band has actually come over the years. Musically. Lyrically. Stylistically. There's depth here, both in the songwriting and how the song is layed out, that they just didn't have back-in-the-day. It's got a really cool slower-yet-intricate beat and groove, with some piano sprinkled over it, then some minimal guitar and synth arrangements, all building to a great chorus. Lucia's vocals, too, are amazing, as are the synth "breakdowns." This song is another standout, and while it may be softer and less in-your-face than what people sometimes want or expect, I think this album, by way of songs like this, showcases the band working to its strengths without feeling like they're repeating themselves. Being more creative without feeling like they're just experimenting. This song is also a great example of why I think the album is one of the best. (5/5)

Track five is "SALVATION," which was released early to the band's Soundcloud page a week or so ago. It sort of - at first - appears to be KMFDM-by-numbers,  but it's so good that that claim quickly becomes ridiculous. The band is playing with a lot of new ideas here in a sound environment that's familiar, and the resulting hybrid of old and new comes out feeling fresh rather than mashed-up. It's similar to songs like 2003's "Stars & Stripes" and 2005's "New American Century" where Jules' guitar riff magic is just allowed to drive the song. But, the effect-laden vocals from Sascha are unexpected, and then Lucia's pop-diva vocals come in for a bit to help lead in Sascha's overly-commanding chorus. The song weaves the electronics and guitars together nicely (especially towards the end), and moves from crushing hard-industrial-rock to poppy-dancefloor-electronica and back again in flawless fashion. By the time the familiar lyrics from 1990's "Naive" show up in the bridge, the song has become this awesome animal all its own. This is probably the best of the faster songs on the album, and while it doesn't do anything that might be strikingly outside the box, all of the new "little things" succeed in reminding us that sometimes feeling familiar is a damn good thing. (4.5/5)

Track six, "BLOOD VS. MONEY," is another slightly-political song (again, nothing too on-the-nose to put anyone off), featuring Sascha's anger over the way things are being handled in the financial sector post-2008's collapse. The synths are dark and the beat is strange, reminding me a bit of the cool-as-hell beat from 1996's "Ikons" mixed with something like 1999's "Rubicon" and "Adios," with lyrics and vocals that actually remind me more of some of the things Sascha and Skold were doing with side-project MDFMK in 2000. It's a heavy, dark song with screaming vocals, but it's not a very fast song (the beat is more interesting than that). Again, it could be at home on 1999's Adios, just with the amount of electronic stuff going on in the song. This richness of sound and attention to detail helps elevate several tracks on the album, that could have wound up being simply pretty good, to a much higher, better level. (4/5)

At number seven, "GET THE TONGUE WET" not only has the most interesting song title on the album, but might be the most creative song the band has had in quite a while. I'm not even sure if I like some of the choices, per se. (When you hear it, you'll know the part I'm talking about). I mean, it all works, but certain things are so... different, but at the same time that is exactly the appeal. And once the song gets going it's really badass. This is both a new-classic-KMFDM pop song in the vein of "Looking For Strange" and "Real Thing," while at the same time it's the most unlike KMFDM - in a more mainstream pop-song sort of way - that I think they've ever done. It ends up being one of the highlights of the album simply because of it's creative choices and how much it stands out. Plus, it is super-duper fun to listen to. I have a feeling that this song will either grow on me to become a favorite, or possibly the opposite, in the years to come. It's interesting, cool, fun, catchy, has a great guitar-noise solo (at home beside some of NIN's With Teeth-era stuff) and features some truly awesome vocal work from Lucia. (4.5/5)

The eighth track, "BRAINWASHED," begins with voices and samples and strangeness, and then opens up into a sluggish industrial metal monster that in some ways reminds me of a Skold-era KMFDM song (the way Sascha's vocals are sung). It's completely badass and I absolutely love it. It's the heaviest song on the album, and the guitar riffin' here is crunchy and catchy, the ultra-slow ultra-heavy beat is infectious (try to get through it without slow-banging at least a little bit), and the lyrics to this one were the ones out of any song on the album that were stuck in my head all day. I like that the song feels in some ways exactly like its title, like it's brainwashing you - just pounding and heavy and slightly-repetitous in a good way - as it builds in ferocity. Here and there the song adds these tiny little textures (there's a keyboard part that pops up briefly that I friggin' love) as it goes, just making it sound that much more complete. This one will/should be a staple of live shows from here on out. (5/5)

The ninth track, "PLAYING GOD," is sort-of another KMFDM pseudo-pop-song, in the vein of tracks 2, 4 and 7, but... it's also something else. There's a vibe that I get from this that, again, harkens back to the craziness and richness of Xtort and Adio. If you haven't noticed by now, there's a lot of referencing to their past on this album, not just in a fun fan-service-song full of popular KMFDM phrases, but some really interesting throwbacks to styles, particular sounds, re-using lyrics in alternate contexts, it's self-homage without the need of a wink and a nudge. It's like their whole career was building up to this album, and so I've tried to include as many of the references that I've caught on my initial listens, all of the things that reminded me of something from KMFDM-past, in hopes that you'll see that while the album is definitely new, fresh, and creatively showcasing the band at a peak, it also knows its own history and that's on display, too. "Playing God" is my favorite song on the album, and I don't even know if I can explain why. It's just a really great song; it's fun to listen to, it's interesting, and it stands tall over any other song of its kind out there in every possible way. It's got the guitars (some awesome riffs), the beats (I love this beat!), the synths and bass lines (the way these seamlessly intertwine with the guitars reminds me of why I love KMFDM so much in the first place), all of the weapons from the KMFDM arsenal. Yet, as I said, it's wrapped into a more pop-song package - while still managing to retain its badassness. And above all else, it's sooooo well done. The lyrics and vocals, in particular, stand out amongst the stand-outs. (If "Brainwashed" isn't stuck in your head, this one will be). The way the beat and synths/electronics work together building up as the guitar riffs kick in... it's just awesome. In my opinion, "Playing God" - more than any other song on the album - will be the one that I personally include on all my KMFDM playlists/mix CDs/whatever in the years to come. (5/5)

And now we come to the end. The album's closer, "MAKE YOUR STAND," is over six minutes of club-stomping coolness. It's repetitive - musically and lyrically - in that electronic music way, but it works so well. Featuring lead vocals by William Wilson that lend the song a different feel to the rest of the album, and guest musicianship by Tom Stanzel and composing by Seattle DJ Paul Aleinikoff that all aids in the sheer amount of stuff going on in this song. KMFDM haven't had a song like this since probably... actually, I don't know if they've ever done a song like this. 1990's "Freide" maybe? Some of the remixes of "Megalomaniac" from the MDFMK single? This song is almost like a love-letter to certain type of electro-industrial that KMFDM generally has one foot in, but never two. But there are most-definitely those KMFDM moments, never letting the song get away from "their sound" too much. In particular, the badass slide-guitar that creeps over the track occasionally, very 2003's "Bullets Bombs & Bigotry" or even 1995's "Ultra." As an album closer, it is completely kickass because of the fact that it just goes. In electronic music, having great forward momentum can never be over-stressed. And I love that sort of "big finish" in a final track, because, though we live in a digital world, I still love it when an album feels put together right. Pay attention to how the song goes from being a love-letter to something like Front 242's "Headhunter" club remixes to something akin to a Nitzer Ebb song at around the five minute mark, and then back into the club jam. Damn that's nice. (4.5/5)

Ya know...

The more I think about it (and listen to it, as I write this it'll mark my fifth full listen-through), Our Time Will Come might end up being higher in the band's career Top 5 than I originally thought. I mean, if my initial song ratings are in any way 'correct,' then that means that the worst songs on the album are the 4 star songs; "Respekt" and "Blood vs. Money." But, honestly, those two songs, while maybe they aren't as stand-out as the rest on this album, are better songs than many of the band's most well-known and "classic" tracks. What does that say about those songs, or this album, and how the band has evolved?

(It says that this album is damn-near flawless from start-to-finish, and the only reason not to admit it is because of some foolish stubborn nostalgia for the classic albums).

I think that might be right, I'm afraid to say that the albums I grew up with and consider to be part of the band's Golden Era - 1993's Angst, 1996's Xtort, 1997's 'Symbols,' and 1999's Adios - aren't quite as good as I claim them to be. I love 'em, but I'll freely admit that not one of those albums is amazing from start to finish. Each of them has songs that I either tend to skip or flatout just don't like.

1995's Nihil may still be their high water mark, and it probably always will be, but I was willing to admit to myself when 2005's Hau Ruck kept getting better and better the more I listened to it. Hau Ruck, like Our Time Will Come, has no songs that I dislike or skip. So, who knows... Our Time Will Come, almost two decades later than Nihil and almost a decade after Hau Ruck, might join those ranks as KMFDM masterpiece No. 3.

Regardless of where you or I end up ranking it amongst their other 18 albums, KMFDM has made a statement of sorts with Our Time Will Come. They've said, "This is KMFDM in the year 2014, and we're just as alive and relevant as we've ever been, if not more so. We're just as creative and musically inventive as we've ever been, if not more so. We've matured, but haven't lost our sense of play. We've moved into new territories, without forgetting the plethora of components that led to our success over the past thirty years. We are constantly evolving, moving forward with momentum, while always maintaining one foot firmly rooted in the past so that we never forget. We are KMFDM, and our time has come."

In summation, Our Time Will Come is as close to perfect as an electro-industrial-rock album can get, and that it happened in 2014 and not the early-to-mid 90's is probably the most amazing thing about it (when was the last Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, or Skinny Puppy album released that you'd seriously even consider saying was equal to their best work. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's not a stab necessarily at the later output of those groups, but... it is what it is).

Our Time Will Come is well worth picking up, I cannot recommend it enough. It's a great place to start if you're just now getting into them, a great place to pick 'em back up if you've been away for a while, and if you've maintained your fandom to the fullest throughout the years... then honestly what the hell are you even reading this for, just go pick it up already and enjoy.

It's now available in stores and online, or for purchase through the band directly via the KMFDM Store (www.kmfdm.net), in several formats and options: digital download, CD, or as a CD plus T-shirt & poster bundle.
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5 out of 5

- gARTh -

gARTh's 2013 Movie Awards: Winners

gARTh's 2013 Movie Awards

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W I N N E R S :

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Film: 12 Years a Slave

Director: Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity

Actor: Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

Actress: Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine

Supporting Actor: Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter - The Wolf of Wall Street

Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze - Her

Editing: Rush

Cinematography: Gravity

Stuntwork: Iron Man 3

Art Direction: The Great Gatsby

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

Make-Up: American Hustle

Visual Effects: Gravity

Sound Mixing: The Great Gatsby

Music - Original Score: Arcade Fire - Her

Music - Original Song: Lana Del Ray - "Young and Beautiful" - The Great Gatsby

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Feature: Muse - "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" - World War Z

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Trailer: Lou Reed - "Perfect Day" - You're Next

Animated Feature Film: The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)

Documentary Feature Film: 20 Feet from Stardom

Foreign Language Film: The Hunt (Jagten) - Denmark

Animated / Vocal Performance: Scarlett Johansson - Her

Villainous Performance: Sharlto Copely - Elysium

Comedic Performance: Dwayne Johnson - Pain & Gain

Cameo / Bit-Part Performance: Michael Cera - This Is the End

Breakthrough Performance: Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips

Breakthrough Filmmaker: John Krokidas - Kill Your Darlings

Cast: The Wolf of Wall Street

Scene: Evil Dead - Finale: And the rain shall turn to blood.

Quote: The World's End 

"Tonight, we will be partaking of a liquid repast, as we wind our way up the golden mile commencing with an inaugural tankard in The First Post, then on to The Old Familiar, The Famous Cock, The Cross Hands The Good Companions, The Trusty Servant, The Two-Headed Dog, The Mermaid, The Beehive, The King’s Head, and The Hole in the Wall for a measure of the same—all before the last bittersweet pint in that most fateful: The World’s End. Leave a light on, good lady, for though we may return with a twinkle in our eyes, we will in truth be blind—drunk!"

Tagline: John Dies at the End

"Just So You Know... They're Sorry For Everything That's About To Happen."

Poster Art: (select link to view)

Nebraska (One Sheet)

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Most Underrated Film:

Films that did not receive a wide release, were unsuccessful at the box office, were not nominated for any major awards or receive acclaim at any major film festivals, and were generally unknown to most audiences at the time of their release... but were well-liked by most critics and audiences that did happen to see them.

+1 - Directed by Dennis Iliadis. Written by Bill Gullo.

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"Grindhouse" Film Award:

Films that uphold the "Grindhouse" traditions of off-beat, exploitative, and taboo subjects, guerrilla filmmaking techniques, and unconventional narrative structures, without which filmmaking as a whole cannot move forward.

John Dies At the End - Written and Directed by Don Coscarelli.

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Special Achievement Award for Excellence in Filmmaking:

Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity

Often, the films that become notorious for their awe-inspiring visuals are not always the films that tell the most in-depth stories or have the best written characters. George Lucas and James Cameron are filmmakers who have built careers on pushing the film medium forward (by giant leaps), but their films are not always remembered for being the very best films, they are simply outstanding and dazzling visual entertainment.

Alfonso Cuarón has likewise built his career on visual storytelling, but in a way that has seperated him from the likes of Lucas and Cameron. The Little Princess, Great Expectations, and Y Tu Mamá También are all visual feasts, but of a more arthouse variety. The characters and story are still in the forefront, while the visuals he utilizes are servicing the characters and story and not the other way around. It wasn't until his first blockbuster film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, that he showed that he could still maintain a focus on character and story within a huge world of big-budget visual effects. After that, he proved that it wasn't just the Harry Potter formula, with his brilliantly made science fiction film Children of Men - which has some of the greatest camera moves and visual trickery ever put on film.

Seven years later, he returns with Gravity. On the surface, Gravity is almost a simple story - two people fight for survival in a life-threatening situation in outer space. This scenario brings to mind, at first, something akin to Apollo 13.

But, being the kind of visual director that Cuarón is, Gravity turns out to be much more that just a story of two people in space. The way the film is made, and the realistic detail in which outer space and what it's really like, bring a seemingly simple thriller story involving minimal characters into uncharted territory. Because it's all trickery - of the camera, of the sound, of the light, and using digital effects to put it all into a life-like framework that now makes a film like Apollo 13 seem quite tame.

And whether people respond to the characters and the story of a film like this doesn't matter, because at the end of the day the biggest character in a film like this is its environment. Much like the forests of Pandora in Avatar, space in Gravity is the central focus. And Cuarón has filmed his subject so well, and using such interesting devices to do so, that it's amazing how real it seems. It's not just "special effects," it's not just an amazing sound design or great performances by the actors to sell it, it's a combination of everything in the book and then some, all masterfully crafted by an artisan of the film industry and placed before you to experience. Not just to watch as entertainment - but to experience.

And that, more than anything else, is what motion pictures were made for.

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Special Achievement Award for Excellence in Performance:

Adèle Exarchopoulos & Léa Seydoux - Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle)

Raw emotion, powerful and real and unflinching. Say what you want about the movie, its director, or the taboo subject matter (that it expertly handles to the point of rendering it passed shock onto endearing) but any way you look at it these two female leads give performances for the ages. That the characters are so well defined, so well captured in every little detail, two living and breathing real women, makes the subject matter seem much more real than it actually is (it is only a movie, not sure why all the fuss).

Both actresses shared in the film's win of the Palm D'or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first time ever that anyone other than the director was given the award. And deservedly so. The film is great, it's direction, writing, cinematography, everything is handled very well... but like Charlize Theron in Monster, the performances of Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux overshadow the film itself, and have already helped to carve out their own little nitch in film history. Twenty years from now, no one will remember all the fuss caused by a bunch of prudes over some sex scenes, but their performances will remain just as strong and captivating.
 

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Special Achievement Award for Excellence in Writing:

Spike Jonze - Her

While best known for his directing - Charlie Kaufman's brilliantly written films Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, the beautifully imaginative take on Where the Wild Things Are, and a slew of the best music videos to come out of the '90's - Spike Jonze is not always remembered as a great writer in his own right. However, he did co-write Where the Wild Things Are, not exactly an easy tale to tell, and whether anyone knows it or not, his off-beat sense of humor has been on display for years - he's the creator of the show "Jackass" and has helped to write and put together each of the theatrical films. All of these collected works, though, could not have prepared the world for such a touching and beautifully crafted love story in Her. And yet, though his time working with Kaufman probably rubbed off on him a bit, this is a tale I don't think anyone other than Jonze could have told.

The use of subtlety in acting gives realism and nuance to the most trivial of facial expressions or body language. In direction, subtlety brings out "the little things" that sometimes matter more to the telling of a story than anything else. The use of subtlety in writing is, however, not only difficult to do in the first place, but difficult to convey. Somehow, Jonze does it. In his use of the words he has his characters speak, to the way scenes play out almost unconventionally. It's poignant in that way that afternoon sunlight filtering into a room or raindrops on a window pane can hold one's gaze for minutes - or hours. It's such a simple thing, when you stop and think about it, but man is it amazing how wonderful it is while you're captivated.

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Special Achievement Award for Technical Innovation:

Neil Corbould, Glenn Freemantle, Emmanuel Lubezki, Tim Webber, & Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity

For the development of the lighting aperatus known as The Lightbox, a nine foot cube outfitted with 4,096 LED bulbs that could replicate any lighting effects, and shadows, onto and across the actors faces.

For the development of a newly designed harness that could move the actors in any direction, puppeteered by off-camera crews, to simulate weightlessness in a way never before achieved.

For the development of a two-ton camera rig that could move around the actors in a similar weightless fashion.

The mixing/bluring of the production design, the photography and camera, the visual effects, and the practical special effects into one organism with one goal in the way that this film was made (taking four and a half years to get right), is almost unheard of. Similar to the 2002 Special Achievement winner (David Fincher and the DP's of Panic Room) and 2009 Special Achievement winner (James Cameron and the crew of Avatar), the technical innovations of Gravity are just as stupifying in their end result as the film as a whole, and will most assuredly have an impact on future films and future generations of filmmakers and technical wizards.

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Thanks to all that participated.

- gARTh -

gARTh's Movie Awards 2013: Nominations

NOMINATIONS

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The following is what I hope to be an all-encompassing list of nominated films, performances, and technical achievements for films released in the year 2013.

Links have been provided for further information on nominated films, scores, songs, and to view images. (Apologies if the links are broken or no longer working).

Thank you in advance for your participation.

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Film:

[ ]    12 Years a Slave
[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    Captain Phillips
[ ]    Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    Her
[ ]    Nebraska
[ ]    Philomena
[ ]    Rush
[ ]    The Wolf of Wall Street

Director:

[ ]    J.C. Chandor - All Is Lost
[ ]    Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity
[ ]    Paul Greengrass - Captain Phillips
[ ]    Ron Howard - Rush
[ ]    Spike Jonze - Her
[ ]    Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
[ ]    Jeff Nichols - Mud
[ ]    Alexander Payne - Nebraska
[ ]    David O. Russell - American Hustle
[ ]    Martin Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street

Actor:

[ ]    Christian Bale - American Hustle
[ ]    Bruce Dern - Nebraska
[ ]    Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
[ ]    Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
[ ]    Idris Elba - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
[ ]    Tom Hanks - Captain Phillips
[ ]    James McAvoy - Filth
[ ]    Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Joaquin Phoenix - Her
[ ]    Robert Redford - All Is Lost

Actress:

[ ]    Amy Adams - American Hustle
[ ]    Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
[ ]    Sandra Bullock - Gravity
[ ]    Julie Delpy - Before Midnight
[ ]    Judi Dench - Philomena
[ ]    Adèle Exarchopoulos - Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle)
[ ]    Greta Gerwig - Frances Ha
[ ]    Brie Larson - Short Term 12
[ ]    Meryl Streep - August: Osage County
[ ]    Emma Thompson - Saving Mr. Banks

Supporting Actor:

[ ]    Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
[ ]    Daniel Brühl - Rush
[ ]    Bradley Cooper - American Hustle
[ ]    Joel Edgerton - The Great Gatsby
[ ]    Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
[ ]    James Gandolfini - Enough Said
[ ]    Jake Gyllenhaal - Prisoners
[ ]    Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street
[ ]    Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Sam Rockwell - The Way Way Back

Supporting Actress:

[ ]    Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
[ ]    Felicity Jones - The Invisible Woman
[ ]    Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
[ ]    Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
[ ]    Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
[ ]    Léa Seydoux - Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle)
[ ]    Octavia Spencer - Fruitvale Station
[ ]    June Squibb - Nebraska
[ ]    Sharon Stone - Lovelace
[ ]    Oprah Winfrey - The Butler

Adapted Screenplay:

[ ]    Peter Berg - Lone Survivor
[ ]    Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope - Philomena
[ ]    Don Coscarelli - John Dies at the End
[ ]    Destin Cretton  - Short Term 12
[ ]    Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, & Richard Linklater - Before Midnight
[ ]    Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber - The Spectacular Now
[ ]    Michael Polish - Big Sur
[ ]    Billy Ray - Captain Phillips
[ ]    John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave
[ ]    Terence Winter - The Wolf of Wall Street

Original Screenplay:

[ ]    Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
[ ]    Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack - Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, & Darius Marder - The Place Beyond the Pines
[ ]    Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - Inside Llewyn Davis
[ ]    Aaron Guzikowski - Prisoners
[ ]    Spike Jonze - Her
[ ]    Bob Nelson - Nebraska
[ ]    Jeff Nichols - Mud
[ ]    Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright - The World's End
[ ]    David O. Russell & Eric Warren Singer - American Hustle

Editing:

[ ]    12 Years a Slave
[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    Captain Phillips
[ ]    Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    The Place Beyond the Pines
[ ]    Prisoners
[ ]    Rush
[ ]    The Wolf of Wall Street

Cinematography:

[ ]    Ain't Them Bodies Saints
[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    Inside Llewyn Davis
[ ]    Oblivion
[ ]    Only God Forgives
[ ]    Prisoners
[ ]    Rush
[ ]    The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
[ ]    The Wolf of Wall Street

Stuntwork:

[ ]    Fast & Furious 6
[ ]    G.I. Joe: Retaliation
[ ]    The Grandmaster (Yi Dai Zong Shi)
[ ]    Iron Man 3
[ ]    Lone Survivor
[ ]    Rush
[ ]    Star Trek Into Darkness
[ ]    Thor: The Dark World
[ ]    The Wolverine
[ ]    World War Z

Art Direction:

[ ]    12 Years a Slave
[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    Gangster Squad
[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    Her
[ ]    Oblivion
[ ]    Oz the Great and Powerful
[ ]    Pacific Rim
[ ]    Star Trek Into Darkness

Costume Design:

[ ]    12 Years a Slave
[ ]    47 Ronin
[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    The Grandmaster (Yi Dai Zong Shi)
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
[ ]    The Invisible Woman
[ ]    Man of Steel
[ ]    Oz the Great and Powerful
[ ]    Thor: The Dark World

Make-Up:

[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    The Butler
[ ]    Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Evil Dead
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
[ ]    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
[ ]    Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
[ ]    The Lone Ranger
[ ]    Rush

Visual Effects:

[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
[ ]    Iron Man 3
[ ]    Jack the Giant Slayer
[ ]    Man of Steel
[ ]    Oblivion
[ ]    Pacific Rim
[ ]    Star Trek Into Darkness
[ ]    The Wolf of Wall Street

Sound Mixing:

[ ]    All Is Lost
[ ]    Captain Phillips
[ ]    Gravity
[ ]    The Great Gatsby
[ ]    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
[ ]    Iron Man 3
[ ]    Lone Survivor
[ ]    Pacific Rim
[ ]    Rush
[ ]    Upstream Color

Music - Original Score: (select link to listen)

[ ]    Arcade Fire - Her
[ ]    Alexandre Desplat - Philomena
[ ]    Alex Ebert - All Is Lost
[ ]    Henry Jackman - Captain Phillips
[ ]    Jóhann Jóhannsson - Prisoners
[ ]    M83 - Oblivion
[ ]    Thomas Newman - Saving Mr. Banks
[ ]    Steven Price - Gravity
[ ]    John Williams - The Book Thief
[ ]    Hans Zimmer - 12 Years a Slave

Music - Original Song: (select link to listen)

[ ]    Airborne Toxic Event - "Hell & Back" - Dallas Buyers Club
[ ]    Big Harp, Mike Mogis, & Nathaniel Walcott - "At Your Door" - Stuck In Love
[ ]    Coldplay - "Atlas" - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
[ ]    IAMEVE - "To Feel Alive" - Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
[ ]    Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez - "Let It Go" - Frozen
[ ]    The Lumineers - "Gale Song" - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
[ ]    Karen O - "The Moon Song" - Her
[ ]    Lana Del Ray - "Young and Beautiful" - The Great Gatsby
[ ]    U2 - "Ordinary Love" - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
[ ]    Pharrell Williams - "Happy" - Despicable Me 2

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Feature:

[ ]    Chester Burnett - "Smokestack Lightning" - The Wolf of Wall Street
[ ]    The Cryin' Shames (Burt Bacharach) - "Please Stay" - The Place Beyond the Pines
[ ]    Elton John - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - American Hustle
[ ]    Muse - "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" - World War Z
[ ]    Primal Scream - "Loaded" - The World's End

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Trailer:

[ ]    Awolnation - "Sail" - Disconnect
[ ]    Lou Reed - "Perfect Day" - You're Next
[ ]    Sleigh Bells - "Crown on the Ground" - The Bling Ring
[ ]    Kanye West - "Black Skinhead" - The Wolf of Wall Street
[ ]    Jack White (U2) - "Love Is Blindness" - The Great Gatsby

Animated Feature Film:

[ ]    Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
[ ]    The Croods
[ ]    Despicable Me 2
[ ]    Epic
[ ]    Ernest & Célestine
[ ]    Frozen
[ ]    Monsters University
[ ]    The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime no monogatari)
[ ]    Turbo
[ ]    The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)

Documentary Feature Film:

[ ]    20 Feet from Stardom
[ ]    The Act of Killing
[ ]    Blackfish  
[ ]    Cutie and the Boxer
[ ]    Dirty Wars
[ ]    Sound City   
[ ]    The Square
[ ]    Stories We Tell
[ ]    Tim's Vermeer
[ ]    We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Foreign Language Film:

[ ]    Blancanieves - Spain
[ ]    Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle) - France
[ ]    The Broken Circle Breakdown - Belgium
[ ]    The Grandmaster (Yi dai zong shi) - Hong Kong
[ ]    The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) - Italy
[ ]    The Hunt (Jagten) - Denmark
[ ]    Metro Manila - Phillipines
[ ]    Omar - Palestine
[ ]    The Past (Le Passé) - France
[ ]    Wadja - Saudi Arabia

Animated / Vocal Performance:

[ ]    Kristen Bell - Frozen
[ ]    Benedict Cumberbatch - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
[ ]    Scarlett Johansson - Her
[ ]    Joey King - Oz the Great and Powerful
[ ]    Bill Nighy & John Kassir - Jack the Giant Slayer

Villainous Performance:

[ ]    Sharlto Copely - Elysium
[ ]    Benedict Cumberbatch - Star Trek Into Darkness
[ ]    Woody Harrelson - Out of the Furnace
[ ]    Sean Penn - Gangster Squad
[ ]    Michael Shannon - Man of Steel

Comedic Performance:

[ ]    Nick Frost - The World's End
[ ]    Jonah Hill - This Is the End
[ ]    Dwayne Johnson - Pain & Gain
[ ]    Simon Pegg - The World's End
[ ]    Kristen Wiig - Girl Most Likely

Cameo / Bit-Part Performance:

[ ]    Joe Don Baker - Mud
[ ]    Pierce Brosnan - The World's End
[ ]    Michael Cera - This Is the End
[ ]    Andrew Dice Clay - Blue Jasmine
[ ]    Chris Evans - Thor: The Dark World

Breakthrough Performance:

[ ]    Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
[ ]    Annie Rose Buckley - Saving Mr. Banks
[ ]    Rila Fukushima - The Wolverine
[ ]    Jacob Lofland - Mud
[ ]    Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave

Breakthrough Filmmaker:

[ ]    Lake Bell - In a World...
[ ]    Josh Boone - Stuck In Love
[ ]    Ryan Coogler - Fruitvale Station
[ ]    Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon
[ ]    John Krokidas - Kill Your Darlings

Cast:

[ ]    12 Years a Slave
[ ]    American Hustle
[ ]    August: Osage County
[ ]    Blue Jasmine
[ ]    The Butler
[ ]    Mud
[ ]    Now You See Me
[ ]    The Place Beyond the Pines
[ ]    Prisoners
[ ]    The Wolf of Wall Street

Scene:

[ ]    Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues - The news anchor battle royale.
[ ]    Evil Dead - Finale: And the rain shall turn to blood.
[ ]    Gravity - Mid-orbit collision.
[ ]    Iron Man 3 - Party Time Protocol initiated.
[ ]    World War Z - Outbreak in the traffic-clogged streets of Philadelphia.

Quote:

[ ]     American Hustle - "You're nothing to me until you're everything."

[ ]     Dallas Buyers Club - "Watch what you eat and who you eat."

[ ]     Her - "Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel, and from here on out I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I've already felt."

[ ]     Philomena - "I forgive you, because I don't want to remain angry."

[ ]     The World's End - "Tonight, we will be partaking of a liquid repast, as we wind our way up the golden mile commencing with an inaugural tankard in The First Post, then on to The Old Familiar, The Famous Cock, The Cross Hands The Good Companions, The Trusty Servant, The Two-Headed Dog, The Mermaid, The Beehive, The King’s Head, and The Hole in the Wall for a measure of the same—all before the last bittersweet pint in that most fateful: The World’s End. Leave a light on, good lady, for though we may return with a twinkle in our eyes, we will in truth be blind—drunk!"

Tagline:

[ ]     Blackfish - "Never Capture What You Can't Control."
[ ]     John Dies at the End - "Just So You Know... They're Sorry For Everything That's About To Happen."
[ ]     Pain & Gain - "Their American Dream Is Bigger Than Yours."
[ ]     Warm Bodies - "There's Nothing Hotter Than a Girl With Brains."
[ ]     The World's End - "Prepare to Get Annihilated."

Poster Art: (select link to view)

[ ]    Byzantium (Teaser)
[ ]    Captain Phillips (One Sheet)
[ ]    The Conjuring (One Sheet 2)
[ ]    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Special One Sheet)
[ ]    Kiss of the Damned (One Sheet)
[ ]    Nebraska (One Sheet)
[ ]    Only God Forgives (One Sheet 10)
[ ]    Stoker (Teaser)
[ ]    Trance (One Sheet 5)
[ ]    The Wolverine (Teaser)

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 "Grindhouse" Film Award:

Films that uphold the "Grindhouse" traditions of off-beat, exploitative, and taboo subjects, guerrilla film making techniques, and unconventional narrative structures, without which film making as a whole cannot move forward.

[ ]    Bad Milo!
[ ]    Escape from Tomorrow
[ ]    Frankenstein's Army
[ ]    John Dies At the End
[ ]    V/H/S/2

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Again, thank you for your participation. Please have votes in no later than February 28, 2014.

- gARTh -