The Musicarium

From the Library #4: Wavves - King of the Beach

2012-01-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Wavves
King of the Beach
2010 Fat Possum (US)/Bella Union (UK)

For this, the fourth “From the Library” column, I chose to listen to an album by a band I know absolutely nothing about. I think I had seen the name “Wavves” on Pitchfork once or twice, but I can’t recall whether those mentions were positive or negative. I’ve heard some of my more musically oriented friends reference Wavves with dismissive indifference, but I’m generally not one to think something is good or bad based solely on what others say. The Andover, Massachusetts library had a copy of the band’s third studio record, King of the Beach, and I, overcome with mild interest, decided to check it out.

Wavves, at least on King of the Beach, often sound like a little-known alt-rock relic from 1992. Their music calls to mind a sun-baked skate park adjacent to the beach. Even the cover looks like a goofy, fond remembrance of late 80s/early 90s fashion sensibilities, with a neon font and alternating loud colors providing the backdrop. You can visualize the band draped in Vuarnet and Ocean Pacific duds as they rip through each track.

If you can see behind the surf rock/skate punk nostalgia, though, you’ll find some pretty lethal hooks. Nowhere is this more evident than the opening title track, with its juxtaposition of heavy guitar parts and loose, jangly garage pop. The first half of King of the Beach is energetic and fun, and its appropriate hang loose vibe is endearing and ingratiating. The band floats through the beginning of the record with a seamless, easygoing, rocking vibrancy. They wear their influences on their sleeve: “Take on the World” vaguely invokes Nirvana in its progressions, the Pixies in its melodies.

King of the Beach takes a more electronic tone during its second half, and though this provides some high points, the record suffers for it. The effects on some of the tracks, like the vocal reverb on “Mickey Mouse”, stand in stark comparison to the sharpness of the record’s first side, and the lack of imagination is evident. The electronic elements had provided a nice touch, but they eventually drown the record’s energy in drones and bass.

Wavves have here released an album that’s been done a thousand times, save their psychedelic and electronic touches that differentiate it from the slacker rock masses. King of the Beach generally rocks, but when it doesn’t, it’s at least interesting, which makes it more valuable than an instantly dismissible alt-rock redux. Wavves’ marriage of skate/garage pop and electro-pop is occasionally a rocky one, but it’s an overall success.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #26

2011-11-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

1) Pink Floyd – “On The Run” – The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

Well, this is a good start. It’s difficult and somewhat pointless to dissect individual songs on The Dark Side Of The Moon since they’re all supposed to work together, but “On The Run” might best be described as a sonic maelstrom. There’s so much going on here. The Dark Side Of The Moon is an album that reflected the alienation and detachment that many young people felt from the world around them in the early 1970s and no song on the record epitomizes that better than “On The Run”. The looping drones periodically build themselves into blasts that sound like attacking combat helicopters, maniacal laughter lends a sinister foreboding to the track, and the whole exercise ends with an abrupt explosion of noise. It’s quite a brave way for the band to begin what would be their magnum opus.

2) moe. – “Any Colour You Like” – Live: Philadelphia, PA 10/31/00 (2000; not an official release)

We go from the real deal to a cover. moe. played the entire Dark Side Of The Moon album during their 2000 Halloween show in Philadelphia. It’s interesting to hear the style differences between the two bands playing the same material back to back. No one would mistake moe. for Pink Floyd, but they do an admirable job with “Any Colour You Like”, incorporating just enough of their jammy playfulness without distracting from or overpowering the essence of the original. The sound quality is quite good, and the excited cheers of the audience provide a nice touch of importance to the song. This is worth tracking down and checking out if you’re a fan of either band.

3) Bruce Springsteen – “Trouble River” – 18 Tracks (1999)

18 Tracks is a condensing of a 1998 four-disc rarities box set simply called Tracks. This single disc was meant to appeal to more casual Bruce fans that would rather opt for one CD rather than shell out for the more expensive deluxe edition. “Trouble River” was originally recorded in 1990 for the Human Touch (1992) album but ended up on the cutting-room floor. It’s one of three songs on 18 Tracks that did not also appear on the Tracks box set.

There’s a nice, steady downbeat on “Trouble River” and an excellent guitar solo in the middle, but the song lacks Springsteen’s normal ferociousness. It’s a little bland, and would probably sound out of place if released on a studio album. It’s a very, very strong b-side, however, and it’s indicative of the quality work on Springsteen’s proper records that this didn’t make the cut. “Trouble River” makes me want to take a closer listen to Human Touch, Lucky Town (1992), and some of the other stuff he was doing at the time.

4) String Cheese Incident – “Mauna Bowa” – On The Road: Louisville, KY 4/17/02 (2002; live album)

We discussed the version of “Mauna Bowa” from Carnival ’99 (2000) in The Random Ten #16, but since this is a different live performance, we’ll take another listen to it. I also swear that I don’t listen to this much moe. and String Cheese Incident. It seems like every time I write one of these columns, both groups show up. iTunes must be randomizing to suit the tastes of 2003 John Lacey.

I do love this song, though. Michael Kang’s violin is the driving force for the track, which is also helped by the galloping bass line. “Mauna Bowa” is sunny, rustic, charming, and fun. Jam bands with more classic instruments can be hemmed in by that because those instruments create a readily identifiable southern-country hoe-down sound that can wear on the nerves. Those instruments can sometimes, however, create a lightness and playfulness that’s often missing from the music of rock-oriented jam bands. “Mauna Bowa” shows how those other bands can suffer for not having that extra dimension.

5A) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – “Friends” – The Art Of War (1997)

Covered in Random Ten #23. Next.

5B) Death Angel – “Disturbing The Peace” – Act III (1990)

Death Angel was a second or third tier thrash band in terms of popularity, active in the 80s and early 90s and then reuniting in 2001. Act III is considered their finest album by fans and critics.

Death Angel and other technical speed metal bands of the day had a truly great sense of melody. Like Megadeth and Metallica, they knew how to appropriately build to choruses, they know how and when to incorporate small note changes from one guitar riff to the next, and they truly knew how to write songs. There’s a reason (beyond metal being somewhat of a mainstream 80s fad) that thrash bands were on major labels and sold a lot of records.

I like the snarling vocals and all, but sometimes I wish these tracks were instrumental. The musicianship is so creative and strong that the yelping vocals are almost a distraction from the other things going on. “Disturbing The Peace” is a great hidden thrash gem from a band little-known outside metal circles.

6) Guided By Voices – “Bright Paper Werewolves” – Under The Bushes Under The Stars (1996)

Guided By Voices are a very influential and highly-regarded indie-rock group prone to writing very short songs and singing about very weird topics. When they want to (as indicated by their greatest hits compilation, Human Amusements At Hourly Rates [2003]), they can really write great fully-formed songs, but they’re usually content to play solid melodies in very short increments.

“Bright Paper Werewolves” runs 1:16, but the band squeezes great melody and vocals into that timeframe. Singer Robert Pollard sings with raspy passion, especially for the song’s final verse. His lyrics are full of imagery and life, and there’s an elegant simplicity to the way they’re assembled, even if you don’t know what he’s singing about. Great stuff; like always, I wish it was longer.

7) Grateful Dead – “Tom Dooley” – Beyond Description (2004; Beyond Description is a box set of remastered Grateful Dead albums and additional outtakes. The song was originally recorded at the time of Reckoning [1981])

“Tom Dooley” is a traditional North Carolina folk song made famous by the Kingston Trio in 1958. Reckoning was an acoustic live album from the Dead released in 1981, and the song sounds right at home amidst the other material on that record. It’s a pretty standard Grateful Dead folk number, featuring great guitar work and vocal melodies from Jerry Garcia and company. I guess I know why the Grateful Dead are known primarily for their space-rock noodle jams, but they were a truly accomplished country folk group as well, and maybe more people would drop their preconceptions of the band and be open to listening to them if they were familiar with songs like “Tom Dooley”.

8) Wilco – “Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” – Being There (1996)

“Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” is the pseudo-acoustic inverse of another song on Being There, “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”. “Outtasite” appears on disc one and is much more of a rocker, while “Outta Mind” blends into the more laid-back tone of the second disc of the record.

It’s always interesting to hear different versions of the same song, but “Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” sounds superfluous. There’s another, better version of the song on the same album, one that squeezes basically all it can out of the vocals and progressions. There’s not much more to say within the same framework. This version gamely tries to make a different statement, but it ends up sounding like something that would make a great live rarity rather than a studio track.

9) Iced Earth – “The Pierced Spirit” – Burnt Offerings (1995)

Iced Earth is a thrash/power metal hybrid that often incorporates dramatic and theatrical themes into their work. They’ve released several concept records: The Dark Saga (1996) was about the Spawn comic book character, Horror Show (2001) was about monsters and horror film characters, and The Glorious Burden (2004) concerned the American Civil War.

Burnt Offerings was released before any of the aforementioned records and sees the band as a more straightforward metal outfit. “The Pierced Spirit” is meant as an interlude before the album’s centerpiece, a twenty-minute song influenced and named after Dante’s Inferno. It’s a simple piano and acoustic guitar track meant to build tension and emotion before the explosion of the “Dante’s Inferno” track. It’s not much on its own, but it works in the context of the record.

10) Belle & Sebastian – “Mary Jo” – Tigermilk (1996)

My roommate and I joke about how Belle & Sebastian might be the pussiest indie pop-rock group ever because they have a song called “I Don’t Want To Play Football”, which might be tongue-in-cheek but is hilarious to laugh at anyway. Tigermilk is their highly-regarded debut album, and “Mary Jo” is the final track from the record.

I’m happy to report that this song is a winner. There’s a definite Ben Folds vibe here, as the group gently sings about a girl in denial about getting older over a soft piano/acoustic guitar background. The lyrics are outstanding, and suit the music greatly: “Mary Jo, living alone / Drinking gin with the telly on / She wants the night to follow day and back again / She doesn’t want to sleep / Well, who could blame her if she wants?” The protagonist is lonely and pathetic, but the music provides a hope that things may turn around for her. It works well, and now I don’t think “I Don’t Want To Play Football” is quite so funny anymore.

John Lacey

Commercially Viable - Miller Lite

2011-11-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

I like drinking Miller Lite. Then again, I like drinking shitty, domestic swill. I don’t have any particular affinity for Miller Lite. I don’t care about its vortex bottleneck, its wide-mouth can, or whatever half-assed gimmick they came up with this month to sell more beer. Miller Lite, to me, could just as easily be Bud Light, or Budweiser, or Coors Light, or any other low-rent light beer. They’re all pretty much the same: cold, cheap, and watered down.

That’s what makes Miller Lite’s perpetual “manliness” ad campaign so frustrating. There have been about a thousand of these ads thus far, and the premise is always the same. A man is confronted with a choice between Miller Lite and another, unnamed light beer. The man says he doesn’t care which beer he drinks. The bartender, always gorgeous, chastises him for his indecisiveness, and then we get the big comedic reveal, where the man is shown to be “unmanly” because he was crying on a rollercoaster or texting or, as in the above ad, wearing skinny jeans. Usually, the man is sheepishly shown drinking a Miller Lite at the end of the ad while his dipshit friends and more inexplicably hot women giggle at him.

Let’s watch the ad. The Art Garfunkel/Seth Rogen/John C. Reilly hybrid-looking guy orders a “light beer”. I’m pretty sure there’s never been anyone in the history of drinking who has placed an order for an unspecified light beer. Even though they all taste the same, a person would at least blurt out a brand name. This would be akin to walking into a Subway and asking for a “sandwich”.

She, of course, is ready for this, and holds up two beers (Miller Lite and generic “Light Beer”), asking him if he’d prefer “more taste or less taste”. Why wouldn’t she just give him the beer with more taste? Who says Miller Lite actually does have more taste? And what kind of bartender asks that fucking question?

When posted with the eternal more taste/less taste query, shithead here actually says “I don’t care”. I know we’ve established that his order of any light beer and her response with “More taste or less taste?” are both completely implausible and never would happen. But if this sequence of events were to actually unfold, wouldn’t you just ask for the beer with more taste? I know the idea of Miller Lite actually having more taste is completely unproven and unscientific, but if some knockout bartender is asking you which beer you want and implying that one is better than the other, and you don’t really care which one you drink anyway, wouldn’t you just ask for the Miller?

These problems annoy me far more than the lame punch line, which has doofus dressed in skinny jeans. He’s unmanly, you see, and that’s why he didn’t order the Miller Lite! He’s not worthy of it! Of course, because being shamed by one beautiful woman isn’t enough, there’s another ten sitting adjacent to him (somehow completely alone in a crowded bar) to really twist the knife in. The opposite of hilarity (depression?) ensues.

We go through the whole “Miller Lite! Yeah!” portion, and then we get perhaps my least favorite joke in the history of commercials. Having finally learned the lesson of never being not manly, our hero approaches his friends with a bucket of Miller Lite. He then asks them, “The score still 21-32?” A friend responds, “Yeah, just like your jean size”.

Ahem.

- No one with even a passing knowledge of or interest in sports would ever read off the score backwards like that. Other than children under the age of six or an adult who has legitimately never watched a sporting event in his or her life, people do not do that.
- The assholes who wrote this commercial knew this, and certainly could have come up with another joke to fit the scene that actually made sense, but chose the lazy route anyway.
- These same assholes got paid to write this.
- The joke fucking sucks.

This commercial in particular is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, but all of the recent Miller Lite ads take the same approach, and they’re all terrible. If someone is drinking a Miller Lite, that person wouldn’t care if it was a Bud Light or a Coors Light. One doesn’t have more taste than the other, we don’t give a shit about bottle grooves or color-changing labels, and a man is not an effeminate loser, no matter what he drinks (except maybe Tab). These commercials are like the perfect storm of misguided broseph humor and genuine incompetence.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

2011-10-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Directed by Robert Altman
Starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie
Awards: Nominated – Best Actress (Christie)

“I got music in me!” insists John McCabe, protagonist of Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller. McCabe is a different kind of Western hero. His first scene in the film gives us a fairly standard Western character entrance. He arrives into a small town on horseback, with townspeople gawking at the well-dressed outsider. He enters a local saloon and sits down to play some cards, and the locals fall over themselves to sit at his table. He carries himself with a confidence and air of superiority, and he speaks with a tone of vague, easygoing menace. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a different kind of Western, however, and before long McCabe is confused and incoherent, drunkenly mumbling about his grievances to no one in particular.

McCabe (Warren Beatty) sets himself up as the leading businessman of the frontier town of Presbyterian Church, a remote, lonely place somewhere in the wilds of Washington state. Altman and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond do well to film the town in a perpetual state of gloom. Presbyterian Church is always foggy or snowy; the sun never shines here. The town is naturally beautiful, but there’s a constant quiet, eerie pall over the place.

McCabe establishes a brothel in the town, largely to keep his workers happy and energized while they build his various projects. He’s soon visited by Englishwoman Constance Miller (Christie) who convinces him that they should be partners in the whorehouse business. She has experience, and her expertise will lead to more money for both of them. He agrees with her assessment.

Typical Western protagonists, heroes and anti-heroes alike, would be domineering in such a partnership, running the business and dictating how things are done. Here, McCabe’s attempts to assert his authority are rebuked by Mrs. Miller. She uses his money to build an opulent whorehouse with adjoining bathhouse, something not agreed to by McCabe. When he complains, she uses logic and economic sense to convince him that their construction was a good idea. She doesn’t take advantage of McCabe; she’s just actually able to reach him with thought and reason.

The local mining company, Harrison Shaughnessy, later offers a sum of money to McCabe for all of his land and his holdings in the area. McCabe overplays his hand, rebuffing the initial offers from the company and expecting they’ll return to him with more money. His refusal becomes his death sentence. When the company sends bounty hunters to the town, we see McCabe trying to make a deal with their leader, a mountain of a man named Butler. “I don’t make deals!” he laughs, and McCabe knows that he is in serious trouble. There is no bravado; he doesn’t kick in the saloon door and start shooting. He’s resigned to his fate.

To see how much different this film is than the average Western, witness its final sequence. The bounty hunters are after McCabe. Rather than meet them on main street at high noon, McCabe slinks around town, hoping to pick them off one by one. He’s scared of them, and he hides from them. Never has a Western hero been so desperate.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller sweeps away the romanticism and excitement of our conventional idea of the Old West, the one we usually see in films. McCabe has too much vitality, is too smart, is too nice and fair for Altman’s West. Mrs. Miller is too forward-thinking, too much of an entrepreneur. Altman’s Old West is led by simpletons and brutes. It’s a lifeless, stagnant place, a place destined to claim both McCabe and Mrs. Miller as soon as they arrived.

A-

The Random Ten #25

2011-10-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

1) Grateful Dead – “Easy Wind” – Workingman’s Dead (1970)

Some Dead fans point to American Beauty (1970) as the seminal Grateful Dead studio record, but I’ve always preferred the down-home rusticity of Workingman’s Dead. It’s a straightforward blues/country record full of pleasant listens, which in my opinion is superior to the often syrupy-sweet American Beauty.

“Easy Wind” is a dusty blues rocker, spending a good portion of its time on guitar solos and harmonicas. What’s different about Workingman’s Dead is that the solos and the jamming aren’t interminable space-rock noodle fests. This is competent blues jamming; rarely boring and always used in the purpose of furthering the song rather than creating a diversion from it. The Dead’s studio work is often unfairly maligned, but they never reached this high level of songwriting and craftsmanship again.

2) In Flames – “Dead Eternity” – The Jester Race (1996)

We should ask ourselves: should melodic death metal be a thing? Death metal is supposed to invoke thoughts of darkness, destruction, and yes, death. It should be brutal and unlistenable to all but those with a morbidly refined palette. It probably shouldn’t sound like Iron Maiden.

That’s my main problem with In Flames, a band I used to like a lot back in 1999/2000. I don’t think I understand melodic death metal anymore. It sounds cheesy, overproduced and clumsy. The guitar riffs are top-notch, but they simply don’t match the screeching Swedish death metal vocals of singer Anders Fridén. It’s like death metal was dragged to the prom and this is how it dolled itself up. “Dead Eternity” might well be a very good song, but I don’t think I’m the man to review it.

3) Neil Young – “See the Sky About to Rain” – On the Beach (1974)

On the Beach was originally released in 1974 but wasn’t issued on CD until 2003 for reasons still unexplained by Young. During that time, after the album went out of print on vinyl, it developed a rabid cult following whose pleas and petitions helped bring about a re-release.

It’s a good thing, too, because the album is full of gems like “See the Sky About to Rain”, a delicate country-tinged number that makes great use of slide guitar and Young’s understated vocals. The slide guitar and organ accompaniment make the song bend and wave, adding a nice ripple effect to the music and making it a little more than a standard “pretty good” Neil Young song.

4) Wilco – “Handshake Drugs” – More Like the Moon EP (2003)

This version of “Handshake Drugs” was originally released on a bonus disc added to the Australian version of the band’s famous Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002). That bonus disc was released on its own via the band’s website in 2003 and would be called More Like the Moon (or Bridge, or Australian, depending on what part of the world you live in). “Handshake Drugs” would see a proper release on 2004’s A Ghost is Born, so this version provides us with an earlier look at the song.

Naturally, this version doesn’t sound as full as the later album version, but it’s not too much different. There aren’t any different lyrics or different pieces in this older version. I’d imagine that crazed Wilco lunatics might be able to hear subtle differences, but to the layman they might as well be the same.

Because “Handshake Drugs” is a really good song anyway, this version is good too. The main difference is that the version from A Ghost is Born is much louder and more chaotic, especially at its conclusion. Though that version fits that album particularly well, I think I like this softer and smoother version a little better.

5) David Bowie – “Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me” – Diamond Dogs (1974)

I don’t know whether it’s good or bad that most of Bowie’s music sounds like it was written for a movie. The theatrical nature of his work can often be a distraction. It all sounds like it was written for another purpose. I think this is the main reason why I haven’t really gotten into him too seriously.

Despite my overall thoughts of Bowie and his music (which, I admit, is grossly uninformed), it’s hard to quibble too much with this song. This is a tight, towering rock song, with great piano, guitar, and choruses. Because of “Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me”, I’m going to try again with him and see if it sticks this time.

6) Anthrax – “In a Zone” – Stomp 442 (1995)

This would be from the album that tanked so badly that Anthrax got thrown off of Elektra Records. In the 1980s, every semi-competent thrash band was signed to a major label because it was the trend of the day. Even Testament was on a major label. As the 90s dawned, it seemed like these labels were looking to renege on their commitment to the whole metal thing, and lucky for them, mainstream audiences turned away from metal when the whole grunge movement blew up. Of the popular thrash bands of that time, only Metallica escaped that era relatively unscathed in terms of popularity.

This really might be the most boring song I’ve ever heard. It’s like listening to one of those generic metal riffs that play football games into commercial, except that it lasts five minutes. This was the second Anthrax album to feature lead singer John Bush, and it’s remarkable how much more life their earlier records had with previous singer Joey Belladonna. Those albums sounded fun and lively; this tries to mask its dullness and flatness with a more “aggressive” sound that really makes this whole thing sound like shit. No wonder they got booted from their label.

7) The Clash – “Lover’s Rock” – London Calling (1979)

Better. I don’t think it’s fair to call the Clash underrated, but people may not be fully aware of all of the things they could do. Their first album is full of terrific punk tracks, and they were able to then morph and change themselves with each album moving forward from there. They progressed incredibly rapidly, never dwelling too long on one kind of sound and instead doing all sorts of different things on each subsequent album.

London Calling is a very famous record, but “Lover’s Rock” is buried towards its end and isn’t as well known as some of the other songs on the record. Like everything else, it’s truly great. It moves along as a slow-moving light pop tune, with Joe Strummer’s snarling, rough British voice playing well against the easy going music. A breakdown in the middle portion quickens the pace, with Strummer rambling between backing vocal harmonies. A fine song.

8) Beck – “Total Soul Failure (Eat It)” – Stereopathetic Soulmanure (1994)

Stereopathetic Soulmanure was released independently a week before Mellow Gold and its single “Loser” hit stores. Wikipedia describes this as “comprised mostly of home demos, live performances, and abstract noise experiments”. You can imagine what this sounds like.

It’s basically Beck fucking around with a drum kit and an off-key guitar for two minutes. I don’t think this is necessary even for Beck loyalists.

9) moe. – “Tambourine” – Warts and All, Vol. 1 (2001; this is a live version. “Tambourine” originally appeared on Dither (2001)).

Warts and All, Vol. 1 captures moe. playing live in Scranton in 2001. “Tambourine” is from their 2001 album Dither, released the same year. Dither is a very good album, finding moe. at perhaps their strongest and most focused in the studio. As with all jam bands, though, “you have to hear them live, brah!”, so moe. released a whole bunch of live concerts under the moniker Warts and All (think the Live Phish series or String Cheese Incident’s On the Road releases).

On Dither, “Tambourine” was a fast-paced diversion, a two-minute ditty gently nestled between a number of monster rockers on that album. Here, it’s a little more fleshed out, given a lengthy intro and slowed down to give the verses some space. What was once a pretty good, completely forgettable song is now a slightly longer, pretty good, completely forgettable song.

10) Ride – “Vapour Trail” – Nowhere (1990)

About four years ago my friend Brendan gave me so much music at once that I still haven’t gotten around to listening to it all. Ride’s Nowhere is one of those records I haven’t heard yet.

What a shame. I grew intrigued when I saw that Ride was a highly regarded British shoegazing group, and when I read that Nowhere was listed at number 74 of Pitchfork Media’s “Top 100 Albums of the 1990s”. I became more intrigued when I read that this particular song was listed at 145 of Pitchfork’s “Top 200 tracks of the 1990s”. And I was really intrigued when I put the song on and listened to the first few notes.

“Vapour Trail” is beautifully dim. The vocals are low, the guitars are murky, the bass is prevalent. It sounds like a sad song, but something about it is unmistakably victorious; well-timed strings cause the song to rise out of its own downtrodden self and create a bittersweet melancholy that makes it truly memorable. More than a pleasant surprise to me, this is an absolute triumph.

John Lacey

The Dailies 8/7/11: In Brief, Part Two!

2011-08-07T09:29:00.001-07:00

Hoop Dreams (1994) – A-
Director: Steve James
Featuring: Arthur Agee, William Gates and their families
Awards: Nominated – Film Editing

Is it a surprise that a majority of our top flight athletes, particularly in football and basketball, are from poor African-American communities? It goes without saying that life in some of these communities is about as tough as life gets in America. To those people trying to make it in such communities, I imagine life there seems inescapable except by only a few avenues, some legal and some illegal. To those kids playing sports in inner-cities and urban neighborhoods, they aren’t a fun diversion. A sport like basketball is life; it’s a lottery ticket, a way to escape the ghetto and a way to finally live without scrounging and clawing.

This makes it all the more cruel when kids with real talent and dreams of stardom are sidelined by knee problems, frosty relationships with coaches and family, no money to pay high school tuition; the list goes on. Hoop Dreams follows the stories of two Chicago basketball prospects, William Gates and Arthur Agee, for about four years. We see both Gates and Agee recruited by top private high schools, we see their high school experiences, and we meet their families and see the hardships they endure. The access Steve James gets for Hoop Dreams is unbelievable, and the amount of craft and love that he puts into telling the stories of the two boys is monumental. Hoop Dreams is about more than basketball. It is also a documentary about the difficult, turbulent lives of good people in the inner-city, struggling to make ends meet.

The stories of the two boys are probably shared by thousands of similar young men who had tones of talent but didn’t make the NBA, either due to their own flaws or by external factors. Agee didn’t impress the coaches at prestigious St. Joseph’s High School (where Isiah Thomas played his high school hoops), and when the school alerted his family that they were well short on Arthur’s tuition payments, he was shuffled off to an inner-city school. Arthur’s new coach remarks that if Arthur had played as well as the school initially thought he would, he’d still be enrolled there despite being late on payments. Bingo.

Gates’ knees were his worst enemy, failing him at a time when scholarship offers were pouring in. Also a player at St. Joseph’s, Gates’ coach may have rushed him back into action after his knee injury, further aggravating the problem. These things happen sometimes.

What I asked myself while watching Hoop Dreams was whether this system is demeaning and whether there could be a better one. Should the high schools and colleges that recruit these athletes be commended for providing this kind of opportunity when we know that such opportunities would not exist for these men if they weren’t good at sports? Hoop Dreams brings up the question, but doesn’t answer it. I’m not sure I can.

On Golden Pond (1981) – B+
Director: Mark Rydell
Starring: Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon
Awards: Won –Actor (Henry Fonda), Actress (Hepburn), Adapted Screenplay. Nominated – Picture, Supporting Actress (Jane Fonda), Cinematography, Director, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound

Henry Fonda makes his final film role a memorable one, winning an Academy Award for his portrayal of grumpy retired professor Norman Thayer. His wife in the film, played by Katharine Hepburn, also won an Academy Award for her efforts. Norman has had a historically chilly relationship with his middle-aged daughter (played by Henry Fonda’s real life daughter Jane, and On Golden Pond follows Norman’s revitalization when his daughter leaves her stepson to stay with the old couple at their vacation home on Golden Pond.

On Golden Pond is quite formulaic, but it allows the two leads to fill in the spaces on their own and their work makes the material much more dynamic. The film presents an outline of a story about a couple advancing in age and dealing with the realization that their days will soon end. Fonda and Hepburn, masters that they are, give a realistic depiction of the thoughts and feelings that would accompany such a situation.

The story of the film contains many enjoyable arcs and moments, not the least of which is Norman’s gradual thawing demeanor in the presence of the oft-brash and misunderstood stepson (Doug McKeon). The best thing about On Golden Pond, however, is the relationship between Fonda and Hepburn. Their love may be a tad idealistic, but it feels real, and their tremendous performances provide perhaps the most in-depth, truthful look at an elderly relationship I’ve yet seen on film.

Bullitt (1968) - C
Director: Peter Yates
Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon
Awards: Won – Film Editing. Nominated – Sound

Can a great car chase scene elevate an otherwise mundane action film? You know the one I’m talking about. Steve McQueen chasing after a couple of bad guys through the streets of San Francisco, with hub caps flying off the cars at every bump or sharp turn. It’s one of the most memorable chase scenes in film history, but unlike in The French Connection, where that film’s fantastic chase scene was built into an already fantastic movie, the chase scene in Bullitt provides a temporary thrill. Bullitt is confusing and quite boring for a cop thriller. There are a lot of meetings, a lot of walking into offices.

The cast, by and large, is blameless. Steve McQueen plays the titular detective, tasked with protecting a key witness long enough for him to testify in court a couple of days later. McQueen was known as the “king of cool” for a reason, and his very presence in most any film is electric. McQueen kills bad guys, fornicates with beautiful women, and does the “I play by my own rules” cop routine. No problem there.

The problem comes with the plot, which starts out as a slow burn but rapidly takes so many twists and turns that it becomes difficult to unravel. We get body doubles, characters who are suddenly introduced and just as suddenly killed, a strange airport foot pursuit, and of course, that car chase. Robert Vaughn plays a wealthy city humanitarian/politician who is depending on the testimony of the witness. He’s supposed to be a threat to Bullitt, but he eventually becomes a simple nuisance to the detective and the viewer. If Bullitt wasn’t too busy shoehorning more angles into its plot, we might have had a classic cop drama. Instead, it’s justifiably known only for its most famous scene.

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) – B+
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston

It seems that after The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), audiences were tired of Wes Anderson’s act. Anderson’s style is undeniably unique; he uses colors, music, fashion, even the fonts on his title cards to create his own tone and atmosphere. Most of his characters are similar, too. Generally, they’re wealthy, often from high society and old money. And also generally, they’re miserable, trying to make amends with family members, friends and lovers over past misdeeds and trying to build a functioning adulthood on top of a dysfunctional, almost nonexistent childhood.

I say The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was a turning point for Anderson’s career because his next feature, The Darjeeling Limited, was lightly promoted and lightly discussed upon release compared to his previous films. Audiences who grew tired of Anderson and passed on The Darjeeling Limited did themselves a tremendous disservice, however, because this is one of his finest films.

The film follows the travels of three brothers (Wilson, Brody, and Schwartzman) as they make their way through India, first by train and later however they can. We get the idea that the brothers don’t see each other or talk much, and we later learn that the trip was organized so that the three could visit their mother (Huston), who relocated to an Indian nunnery and whom they haven’t seen in years. Though the themes in The Darjeeling Limited will be familiar to Anderson viewers, the sense of adventure in this film is unseen in any of his previous pictures. There are jokes along the journey, but the highlight of the film is watching the three brothers repair their relationship against their exotic locale and watching how their locale factors into their efforts. The Darjeeling Limited may have a warped sentimentality, but its themes of family, togetherness and brotherhood are sincere and fulfilling.

A Man for All Seasons (1966) – B+
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Paul Scofield, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles
Awards: Won – Picture, Actor (Scofield), Cinematography (Color), Costume Design (Color), Director, Adapted Screenplay. Nominated – Supporting Actor (Shaw), Supporting Actress (Wendy Hiller)

Sir Thomas More, whose story is told in A Man for All Seasons, is a character I don’t believe could exist in a film set in the modern day. His unwavering faith in God and his steadfast personal convictions in relation to this faith would seem unbelievable if put into a modern context. Of course, A Man for All Seasons, based on the famous play (and the real story of More), is set during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Henry demands a divorce, you see, because his wife is unable to yield a male heir to the throne. Henry would like a more fertile upgrade, but the pope refuses to grant Henry a divorce. Henry decides to split with the church, and Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor, is told by Henry to support the divorce to lend their arrangement legitimacy. More’s allegiance, however, is to the pope and the church, and the film tells the story of his persecution and his adherence to his convictions.

Paul Scofield won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of More. He is perfectly stoic and reserved in the role. He plays More as a man comfortable with his decision, unswayed by the carrots of titles and lands dangled in front of him by the king and his subordinates. Sharp casting gives us Robert Shaw as the guffawing but manically temperamental Henry VIII and Orson Welles as the acquiescent Cardinal Wolsey. The principals are all very strong, but the film is carried by Scofield, whose calm demeanor in the face of certain death provides the enduring image of the film.

A Man for All Seasons ends in an English court, where Sir Thomas is convicted of treason against the king and is sentenced to death (this is based on a very famous real life episode, so I assume I’m not spoiling anything). In the scene, More lays out his case and makes a convincing argument for his innocence before being betrayed by a former associate and subsequently condemned. Scofield and the story are so strong that I found myself rooting for More’s acquittal, even though I knew how the story would end up.

In the Heat of the Night (1967) – B
Director: Norman Jewison
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
Awards: Won – Picture, Actor (Steiger), Film Editing, Sound, Adapted Screenplay. Nominated – Director, Sound Effects

In the Heat of the Night is a film that is a pure product of its time. I don’t know if there is a community in this nation right now that would be thrown upside down simply due to the presence of a black man. I’d like to think not, but perhaps I’m speaking from my liberal and sheltered existence in Massachusetts and not from reality.

This is exactly what happens in In the Heat of the Night, when Sidney Poitier is apprehended and suspected of a murder he did not commit. He is quickly exonerated of the charges, but the local bigoted white sheriff (Steiger) discovers that Poitier is a respected homicide detective in Philadelphia and reluctantly requests his assistance in solving their murder. Poitier is ordered to help by his supervisors back home, and he is then forced to brave the rubber necks and racist barbs of both the townsfolk and the sheriff.

In the Heat of the Night is carried by the strong performances of Poitier and Steiger, who rise above the mostly blasé murder plot and give great color and punch to the dialogue and action scenes when called for. Poitier and Steiger eventually develop a professional trust and a personal, if uneasy, friendship. The film’s best scenes are those of Steiger trying to deflect the racist pressure of his colleagues and the townsfolk to kick Poitier out of town; he is a stubborn man, but racism is not in his heart. His conversation with Poitier about his unhappy personal life is another highlight.

The film does have problems. The plot itself is cookie-cutter and the real drama comes from the race-based dynamic between Poitier and the townspeople. Though they threaten Poitier physically at points, the racist thugs look to come from out of a comic book and the realism of their threat suffers for it. I also felt like the racist whites were too east a target, because they are so dimwitted in the film that I didn’t get the sense that they should know any better. To see this racism from more fleshed-out characters would have better driven the point home. Despite the flaws, In the Heat of the Night does take an honest look at racism at a time when very few forms of media did so, and coupled with its performances, the film is a winner.

John Lacey

The Dailies 7/25/11 - In Brief, Part One!

2011-07-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) – A-
Director: Sam Wood
Starring: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, Paul Henreid
Awards: Won – Actor (Donat), Nominated – Actress (Garson), Director, Editing, Sound Recording, Written Screenplay, Picture

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a heartwarming tale about a stuffy schoolteacher who takes a position at Brookfield Public School in Britain and remains there for sixty years. The film’s many charms include Donat as the initially misunderstood and later beloved Mr. Chipping, who eventually comes out of his shell at the school and becomes an institution almost equally important as Brookfield itself. His interactions with students through the years are artfully written, as we see Chipping teach the sons and grandsons of his first classes of students. The honest and believable love between Chipping and his wife Kathy (Garson) is an additional treat in this joyful look at a long and fulfilling life. Goodbye, Mr. Chips was later made into a 1969 musical starring Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark in the lead roles.

Westworld (1973) – B
Director: Michael Crichton
Starring: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin

Westworld is perhaps the apex of unsettling, dystopian 1970s science fiction. The film follows two men (Benjamin and Brolin) and their vacation to Delos, an amusement park populated with lifelike androids who indulge the human guests with their every wish. Naturally, the robots malfunction and turn on the humans, systematically killing them. Westworld’s bleakness and grimness in story and in look and feel play nicely against the fancy, technologically advanced androids and the gizmos and gadgets that control them. Brynner, playing a mindless, automated version of his character from The Magnificent Seven (1960), is very effective as a methodical robotic gunslinger.

Control Room (2004) – C-
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Featuring: Hassan Ibrahim, Josh Rushing, Samir Khader

Control Room would have been more interesting if it discussed the nuts and bolts of how Al Jazeera, the Arab-language news channel, operates and functions. We hear motivational ideology and political strategy from those who represent the channel, and Control Room does clearly display the fine line Al Jazeera had to walk following the 2003 coalition invasion of Iraq. Al Jazeera had a responsibility to present the news to its constituents honestly and fairly while facing pressure from coalition and anti-coalition governments, and this conundrum is expertly discussed and argued by both sides. However, it felt like Control Room could have gone deeper, that the viewer never gets a sense of the influence of the network, and that the backdrop of the 2003 Iraq invasion limited the scope of the film too intensely. Watching it made me very much like to see a better, more informative film about Al Jazeera and media in the Arab world.

Some Kind of Monster (2004) – B+
Director: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Featuring: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo, Kirk Hammett, Bob Rock

Although Some Kind of Monster came out seven years ago, and although by the time it was released the long hair and, I would argue, the good music were long gone, there is still something jarring about seeing Metallica sitting at a therapist roundtable talking about their personal problems. Some Kind of Monster is an honest, personal and oftentimes emotional look at the world’s most famous heavy metal band. It works because of that honesty; because we feel we’re seeing things that the people involved don’t want to show us. Of course, these aren’t the smartest men in the world, and they don’t always eloquently relate their emotions to each other or the camera, but seeing through their bravado infused dimness and bullshit reveals real drama. At the time this was filmed, the members of Metallica had lost all confidence in themselves and in each other. It’s a sad but important document if you wish to understand what twenty years in a world famous rock band can do to some people.

Throne of Blood (1957) – A
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki

Throne of Blood is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in feudal Japan. It is directed by Akira Kurosawa and stars his longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune. It would seem to be easier to work within the boundaries of a famous story, but we’ve looked at films on this blog before (Stray Dog, Yojimbo) that confirm to us that Kurosawa is a master of working within his own material as well. What Kurosawa does here is more impressive because he transforms one of the most famous stories in history and makes it his own.

The film stays true to the Macbeth story, with Mifune playing the title character and giving in to his inert evilness with prodding from a witch’s prediction and from his power-hungry wife. The gradual disintegration of Mifune’s soul as he is pulled by the evil forces around him is haunting and mesmerizing. I assume this won’t spoil anything, because the source material for Throne of Blood is so ubiquitous. In one particular scene of the film, the Lady Macbeth character (played by Isuzu Yamada) is prompting Mifune to kill his lord and hands him a samurai sword with which to commit the deed. Mifune, in one of the better moments of acting I have seen, takes the sword, wild-eyed, and cackles, briefly but maniacally. He realized what he is about to do, and in that split second gives in to his self-degradation. It is a brilliant scene in a brilliant film.

I’ll be back very shortly with Part Two, where we’ll talk about On Golden Pond, The Darjeeling Limited, A Man for All Seasons, In the Heat of the Night, Hoop Dreams, and Bullitt.

Commercially Viable #2 - Klondike Bars

2011-06-19T15:51:00.001-07:00

One of the most tired jokes in the history of the world might be the idea of a husband not wanting to listen to his wife. We’ve seen it in thousands of sitcoms, movies, commercials and radio advertisements. Brad Garrett and Kevin James have based their careers on it. The joke, usually, is that the wife is rambling on and on and on about friends, relatives, the price of milk at Shaw’s, all of the weeds growing among the tulips, the long lines at Macy’s and whatever else, and the husband is just so bored. The husband loves his wife, you see, but he doesn’t want to actually have to talk with her. Even though the wife is talking mostly about pointless trivialities, bless her heart, she’s trying. But the joke goes like this: wouldn’t wives be so much better if they’d just let us watch the football game in peace, am I right fellas?!?

Today’s odious entry into “Commercially Viable” is a new commercial from this past April, according to YouTube. You may have seen these; the people in the ads are promised a Klondike Bar if they can stand doing something unsavory for five seconds. One of the ads shows two biker dudes holding hands for five seconds, because men should never under any circumstances show affection towards each other, and if they do, they’re probably a little…you know. Somehow, that Klondike ad is not their most mind-numbingly awful. That honor goes to the ad above, in which a man is given a Klondike Bar for the herculean task of listening to his wife for five whole seconds.

Of course, we start with a dumpy “everyman” (hair uncombed, jeans, flannel, a real man) sitting on a couch watching a game. That’s the first problem with the commercial and with jokes like these. Sports, in general, are not entertaining to women. Women will put up with sports and some will root for the home teams and take a genuine interest, but by and large women could give a shit less. And that’s perfectly fine! We all have our own interests and our own time-wasters. That’s what these kinds of jokes miss. Who’s to say the ever-present game is more important than what the wife is talking about? Is it really so painful to turn away from an 11-2 Red Sox-Orioles rout in mid-July for a few minutes to speak with the presumed love of your life?

The gentleman in the ad is lucky he has someone willing to even look twice at him. That he actually managed to marry an attractive woman would constitute a miracle. Look at him at the thirteen second mark. Double chin, greasy hair; this is an unkempt, slovenly man. He should spend the majority of his days shouting for joy from the rooftops that he has a nice, pretty wife who tries to engage him in conversation because, you know, she loves him. But no. Shithead here is a man, so the game and getting a chocolate bar and whatever else he can think of are superior to participating in the natural give-and-take of marriage.

So he makes it the five seconds (which nearly kills him if his blubbering cheek fat is any indication), and as a reward he’s showered with confetti and two models give him a (new!) Klondike Mint Chocolate Chip bar. I really don’t think that receiving a Klondike Bar, even a free one, is worthy of confetti and celebration. Particularly when all the moron did was pay five seconds of attention to his wife. At the end of the ad, the wife looks at the models, puzzled as to what’s happening, as the man screams “I did it!” Yes, you’ve thoroughly embarrassed yourself and you’ve driven away your doting wife. Congratulations!

With this kind of trope, I always wonder, “Why is this couple married?” If he can’t stand to talk with his wife for five seconds without receiving a choclately reward, why bother with this sham? I’d like to ask that to the makers of this farce, as well as every other hack screenwriter and actor who has leaned on this antiquated and unfunny gag.

John Lacey

The (Guest) Random Ten #24

2011-05-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

(Ed. Note: This is a guest Random Ten written by work associate and singer/guitarist Nick Murphy. If you're in the Boston-area, look for his band, The Acre, playing fine venues all over the city)

1) The Frames – "Lay Me Down" - For The Birds (2001)

So far, so fucking good. The Frames are a band that never quite peaked here in the US, but areabsolutely massive (some say even bigger than U2) in their home country of Ireland. You may have heard of the band’s alter ego, the Swell Season, which consists of all the members of the Frames and the daughter of the Czech Republic, Marketa Irglova. Marketa and the Frames' incomparable front man, Glen Hansard, also starred in a quasi-documentary/musical a few years ago, Once, in which they won an Oscar for best original song.

While the Swell Season has flourished in playing increasingly larger venues across the US, the seven or so Frames records have remained relatively unknown and untouched. The band is marked as one of my top bands to see live and, fuck it, top bands ever. For Christ's sake, Glen Hansard is the reason I gave up being a teacher in college and took loads of poetry classes in the hopes of becoming a musician. Here’s to hoping …

“Lay Me Down” is the second track of the band’s most beloved album, For The Birds. The Frames have had quite a tumultuous experience with record labels so when it came time to record this one, they thought, “screw it, we’ll do it ourselves.” The result is an immaculate record produced in large part by 90s simmering rock producer, Steve Albini. While Albini worked extensively with the Pixies and Nirvana in the early 90s, the sound the Frames achieve with this record is nowhere near that of the raucous tilt de Frank Black and Kurt whats-his-face. Subtle textures and skewed flits of melody run rampant throughout the album, but the main focus is on Glen’s songwriting. Here, “Lay Me Down” is about “lovers, fathers and the cold, cold ground” as Glen once said at the Middle-East Upstairs in Boston. The song washes over you like a cool breeze with only the hint of a ghost in the form of a minor chord Glen tossed in as a wink to an ex-lover.

2) The Anniversary – "The Death Of The King" - Your Majesty (2001)

The early 2000s was a weird time for Midwestern, independent, emo-pop bands. With the rise of the Get Up Kids, the Promise Ring, the Anniversary, Hot Rod Circuit and other Moog-toting bands rounding out the Vagrant Records line-up, we saw an influx in sweater vests, horn-rimmed glasses and the sale of above-mentioned Moog synthesizers. Something happened after 1999 that changed the way these bands thought about their instruments. Maybe it was Y2K, Radiohead’s Kid A or the discovery of a band called the Rolling Stones, but everyone wanted to make more complex and interesting music. What the fuck right?

While the Get Up Kids went off and found Jesus (aka the Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo), the Anniversary thumbed through their parents’ vinyl collection and realized, “hey … these albums from the late 60s don’t suck!” The result - Your Majesty. Maybe these kids were onto something; with the revival of late 60s pop more prevalent than ever today, maybe the Anniversary should give it another go. Or not.

3) Wilco – "My Darling" - Summerteeth (1999)

My first foray with Wilco’s saccharine-soaked pop-opus, Summerteeth, was in the movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. After Jay Bennett is excused from the band (we’ll save that worn path of the carpet for another day), we hear him playing a stripped-down-acoustic style of the song in what seems to be some high school auditorium while Tony Margherita (Wilco’s longtime manager) explains how shitty Jay’s life is after leaving Wilco. While I was stunned at the relative “bluntness” of Tony’s words (“Jay wore out his welcome”) I couldn’t help but notice the sullen and apropos version of “My Darling” Jay was playing for the soundtrack as Wilco moved on without him. One could make the argument the band hasn’t sounded the same since Jay left, but has the band ever sounded the same … ever? I will give it to him though, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is my favorite record of all time and I don’t think it would have been possible without Jay’s wild eccentrics.

From here I grew to love Wilco, find Tony Margherita’s name absolutely hysterical and could be the best defacto band manager name ever, and lament Jay’s 2009 death due to an accidental overdose while he was suing Wilco and the producer of the movie, Sam Jones, for royalties not rendered - a strange end to a really interesting musician.

4) The National - "Daughters Of The Soho Riots" - Alligator (2005)

Matt Berninger is my favorite lyricist, period. So shoot me – I don’t give a fuck. The guy can flat out write. He has this knack of writing what you’re feeling into these short, disjointed, arbitrary yet gorgeous images that depict loneliness, pent up aggression, self-doubt, anxiety and general musings on everyday interactions. His wife, former New Yorker editor and sometime the National songwriter Karin Besser, once said “the tension of sharing a small space with another adult is something he captures really well.” I couldn’t agree more, Karin.

This is especially true on the group’s third album, Alligator. Matt’s lyrics are murkier and darker than ever with lines in this song “break my arms around the one I love / be forgiven by the time my lover comes”, “you were right about the end it didn’t make a difference / everything I can remember I remember wrong”, and “I have your good clothes in the car / so cut your hair so no one knows / I have your dreams and your teeth marks / all my fingernails are painted.” I like to think Matt sits up late right after his wife goes to bed and writes these songs in the dark as he stares at the woman he loves and only feels anxiety about having someone rely on you. For his best pillow talk moments, check out “About Today” from the band’s EP Cherry Tree with the highlight: “’hey, are you awake?’ / ‘yeah, I’m right here’ / ‘well, can I ask you about today?’”

5) Local Natives – "Airplane" - Guerilla Manor (2009)

This is the first single of an absolutely stunning record by LA-based band Local Natives. If you haven’t heard of these fellas, please take a moment to punch yourself in the thigh and dig your head out of the sand.

I could go on forever about the drums, perfect California harmonies, and killer riffs on the rest of the album, but I’ll stick to this tune. On first listen you think this is a song about wanting an ex-lover back with the chorus reiterating “I want you back, back, back / I want you back.” In today’s “I’m so sad because she left me” culture it’s not out of the realm of reason. Psyche! It’s about the dude’s grandfather! But regardless of the lyrics, the dynamics, subtle and polite use of strings accompanied by the aforementioned harmonies create an absolutely gorgeous song.

6) Elliott Smith – "Amity" - XO (1998)

Oh Elliott, why did you leave us so fucking early? The last few years I’ve submitted to a hiatus from Mr. Smith - I spent my late teens and early 20s huffing Elliott Smith songs from a paper bag. But I think it’s high time I go see my local dealer (Newbury Comics) and sift through his vinyl (fuck you, I have all the albums but I’m a vinyl junkie).

After his Oscar nod and subsequent performance, Elliott signed to the dismal fuckers in Dreamworks Records (who only a few years later folded under the weight of being idiots). Thus Elliott had a much bigger budget to flesh out his previously recorded 4-track tunes. Being a big fan of the mid-60’s flash-in-the-pan heartthrobs, the Beatles, his albums grew denser with orchestration, John Bonhman-esque drums, keys and all-around better production quality (which some cite as a detriment to Mr. Smith’s songs). While his sound grew, his songwriting remained introspective and tight as his vocals remained on top of every mix - and rightfully so. No other track (save my favorite on the album, “Waltz #2”) demonstrates his new budget and affection for those mop-heads quite like “Amity.” “Amity” moves with an easy punch and demonstrates Elliott’s heavier songwriting prowess while showcasing his abilities as a guitar player (sneaky good), piano player and arranger. This song makes me miss him – I will dive back into his albums this rainy weekend.

7) Ray Lamontagne – "Barfly" - Till The Sun Turns Black (2006)

Ray is a weird dude. Painfully shy and a bit surly, he has one of the best voices in music. I remember reading an interview which he pretty much shat on every other singer in the world stating “everyone sings through their nose where I sing from the fire in my gut” or something like that. Maybe he was talking about indigestion, but I like to think he was being poetic.

Ray’s songs are often wrought with self-loathing and portray images of drinking gin in the middle of rain soaked field with your arms around the one you love, mud caked all over your clothes – my kind of guy! Ray hinted at those sentiments with his fantastic debut, Trouble, but really hit his stride with Till The Sun Turns Black. Produced with Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker and Gold, Kings of Leon), this album sounds like it should – straight from the early 70s. I think there is something lost in today’s production techniques with the focus being more on blasting your ear drums into oblivion via stupid ear buds (guilty as charged), so it’s really nice to hear an album with so many subtle nuances that reward close listening. The Hammond B3 in the right channel, the wonderfully brushed drums, the harmony in the left channel and that fucking guitar tone – perfection.

8) Ryan Adams – "Answering Bell" - Gold (2001)

Speak of Mr. Productivity himself, Ryan Adams. Following his absolutely perfect break-up record, Heartbreaker (which has more celebrity cameos than an episode of 30 Rock … hiooooooo), Ryan took his new found success (and unfortunate happiness) into the studio to record his follow-up, Gold. Once the darling of the dwindling alt-Country movement, Ryan explores pop on this record while still keeping his toes in the Country water. The result is an overproduced, confusing and sometimes genius record. While Gold is full of hits and pop songs, that’s not what we completely want out of Ryan, is it? We want to hear him heartbroken, drunk and kind of pissed – well at least I do. And don’t get me wrong, I love songs off this album (I actually think “When The Stars Go Blue” is my favorite), just not the whole thing. He’s had a fistful flubs since this one (Demolition, most of RocknRoll, and all of 29), but I bow to the church of Ryan Adams look forward to his next opus.

Oh and “Answering Bell” – not on that list of songs I love off this record. Tempted to just say “next” but I don’t think those are the rules.

9) Okkervil River – "A Girl In Port" - The Stage Names (2007)

As we wind down this mix I want to congratulate my iPod on a shuffle well done – great job!

Okkervil River’s The Stage Names is the first part of a concept movement focusing mainly on the pitfalls, allure, mystery and sex behind fame and pop culture (Lady GaGa – you’ve been warned). And honestly, Will Sheff, Okkervil’s principle songwriter and lead man, shines when he’s got a concept to reign in all of his ideas. On their previous album, Black Sheep Boy, Sheff wrote about 3 albums worth of songs based on a minute-and-a-half Tim Hardin tune of the same name – you can see where I’m going here.

“A Girl in Port” is Sheff at his best: mellow, pensive, heart sore (“with my tender heard, with my easy heart”) and tired. Beyond Sheff’s own self, he’s plain-and-simple a great story teller going into great vague detail that creates a story in your head but tantalizes you enough to actually make it your own and decide on an end. Plus those fucking horns that close the song, like a depressed mariachi band – so good.

10) The Shins – "Turn On Me" - Wincing The Night Away (2007)

Ever have that relationship that you just feel like the other person hated you? That’s what this song is about or rather getting out of a relationship and being super angry at the other person and not in a “you’re such an asshole” way but more of “well, you were a waste of time you jerk. And you’re still an asshole!” Make sense? No it didn’t make sense to me either.

This song is a prime example of why James Mercer has caught the attention of so many people – his writing is witty, clever, cutting and precise. When he sings “You had to know I was fond of you / fond of Y-O-U” you almost cringe in thinking of the person who he’s seething at. And yes, James, adults do play “the most ridiculous, repulsive games.”

Mercer needs to get back with the guys from the Shins – as much as I’ve enjoyed Broken Bells (I’m actually sick of Danger Mouse – he’s overproduced every single band I really love [Beck, the Black Keys]). I want the jangle of the Shins back.

***
Well that was fun – I appreciate John letting me ramble. I’ll have to do it again sometime.

Nick Murphy

Forgotten Records #9: Metallica - St. Anger

2011-05-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Metallica
St. Anger
2003 Elektra

Why was it forgotten?

It depends on who you ask, but there are multiple reasons St. Anger has gone down in infamy as a forgotten/ignored album.

1) Lack of radio play. “St. Anger,” the song, was played on mainstream rock radio for about the first week that this album was out, back in June of 2003. However, something odd happened every time it was played; it was actually criticized by the DJs. Yes, mainstream rock radio DJs, who had no problems replaying the same Seven Mary Three or Bush songs from 1996 over and over again even seven years past their prime, were all of a sudden becoming music critics. “What’s up with the drum sound?” they asked. “Where are the guitar solos?” “Why is it so fast?” Once the DJs made their statements on the album, mainstream radio rock listeners, as they often do, followed suit, calling stations to complain about how bad the song was. I distinctly remember one WAAF caller that summer complaining that Metallica should record more songs like “Fuel,” which goes to show you how many true Metallica fans are rock radio listeners.

2) The production. I’m not going to say that St. Anger sounds great. The production is very abrasive, especially the sound of Lars Ulrich’s snare drum. The fact that it wasn’t played on radio is not surprising, based on the production alone. Rarely do you ever hear anything raw on the airwaves nowadays, and this was raw-bordering-on-bad production.

3) Lack of hooks/melodies. Sure, some of the songs have choruses, if you can count “Frantic-tic-tic-tic-tock!” repeated over and over again as a chorus. On the whole, though, there was nothing you could sing along with like “The Unforgiven” or “The Memory Remains” or even “Master of Puppets”. Sure, you could yell along with some of the choruses, but it wasn’t overly catchy or melodic, something that Metallica had generally always been, even back in the Kill ‘Em All days.

4) The songs are way, way too long. Long songs had always been part of Metallica’s repertoire, going all the way back to “Seek and Destroy”, but songs like that were generally filled with hooky, memorable, dynamic parts. Most songs on St. Anger sound like they were originally 3 or 4 minute long punk songs, but the band decided to play them twice in a row. If most of these songs were cut in half, they would be a lot better and easier to listen to repeatedly.

5) Lack of guitar solos. Kirk Hammett has always written some of the most memorable solos in heavy metal history. The fact that he was relegated to a second rhythm guitar on this album was flat-out offensive to most Metallica fans, and to guitar fans as well. Solos could have provided much needed breaks to these overly long, abrasive tracks, but there was no relief to be found. The scene in the Some Kind of Monster documentary where Hetfield, Ulrich and Rock talk Hammett out of recording guitar solos for the album is still painful to watch. Hammett rightly points out that by not including solos in the album, it dates the album to a period of music, a trend, and he’s dead-on. No mainstream metal or rock bands in the first few years of the decade had guitar solos on the radio, and Hammett wanted to defy that trend. Unfortunately, he lost that battle. At least the album didn’t end up sounding like Staind or KoRn, thankfully.

6) Songs didn’t translate well live. The only good recording of a song I’ve heard played live from St. Anger in concert (not counting the DVD of the band performing all of the album’s songs live in the studio that came with the CD release, which I actually liked a lot) was a live version of the song “Dirty Window,” the shortest, catchiest song on the album. It translated well live not just because of catchiness, but because they added a guitar solo to the live performance. This showed the potential that this song, and maybe the album, could have had if they’d let Hammett rip it up. Unfortunately, I witnessed Metallica play “Frantic” (a song that, musically, is very solid) and “St. Anger” live on the Summer Sanitarium tour in 2003, and despite shortening both songs from their original album length, they just sounded out-of-place. Most people use “Nothing Else Matters” as the “piss break song,” but I saw a mass exodus for the bathroom stalls during these two performances.

Should it be forgotten?

Metallica have said repeatedly that Death Magnetic (which I reviewed here) would never have happened if they hadn’t gone through the trials and tribulations of St. Anger. For that reason, St. Anger should not be forgotten. The band was on the verge of falling apart during the 3 year process of making St. Anger. Bassist Jason Newsted had left the band after 14 years, leaving them with producer Bob Rock to fill his shoes on the album. James Hetfield checked himself into rehab, and basically left the band hanging for nearly a full year. The band hired Phil Towle, a “therapist for the stars,” to help “coach” them on how to get along and how to function.

Upon Hetfield’s return from rehab, there was resentment, bitterness, judgment being passed at every corner, and an overall bad vibe among band members. St. Anger is a collection of bad vibes and inner demons being purged. It is the only Metallica album where Ulrich and Hammett contributed lyrics as well as music. The lyrics might not be as poetic or intelligent as some of Hetfield’s earlier compositions, but they are nothing if not honest. The lyrics document not just one man’s inner struggle, but three men who were once close as brothers struggling to rediscover themselves and move on in a positive direction.

A Metallica fan would say that the band needed to go through the growing pains of St. Anger to move on and reclaim their throne as the most dominant force in metal today. A fan most likely has seen Some Kind of Monster and has come to respect the agony they endured making the album. But is the album actually any good? There are some great riffs and some decent songs sprinkled throughout, but it’s not an album most would care to listen to on a regular basis. It is abrasive, harsh, aggressive, raw, but undeniably powerful. There has never been an album like St. Anger, before or since, by any band. It is a truly unique piece of work, and for that, it should not be forgotten.

Matt Steele

The Random Ten #23

2011-05-10T17:16:00.001-07:00

These are easy and fun to write, so here you go! I’m also going to start embedding what I consider to be the best or most interesting song into the article, depending on YouTube availability. It only took me 2 ½ years to figure out how to do that!

#1) Led Zeppelin – “The Rover” – Physical Graffiti (1975)

As seen in Random Ten #21. Let’s try again.

#1) Bob Marley & the Wailers – “One Love/People Get Ready” – Exodus (1977)

Ahh, new! And incredibly famous. You ever hear this one?

Bob Marley gets an unfortunate bad rap because every asshole in college has that mosaic poster of him smoking a joint (I had it, too!). He was somehow morphed into a posthumous crusader for white, teenaged pot smokers and his music has become subsidiary to that ever-present image of him with the weed smoke coming out of his mouth. And that’s too bad, because Bob Marley has a lot of really good music that will be dismissed by many offhand simply due to the nature of his fans. Just like a great number of rappers and bands like U2 and Dave Matthews Band, an artist doesn’t necessarily suck just because a bunch of morons follow them. Except 311. They fucking blow.

#2) Dave Matthews Band – “#41” – Listener Supported (1999; this is a live album. “#41” originally appeared on Crash [1996])

Speaking of the well-dressed, flatbrim-hatted, “I totally like all music, brah, even though I listen to two bands” devil.

You know what this song reminds me of? Driving around North Andover smoking weed and delivering pizzas as a teenager. I was so (not) awesome. People looked at my shitbox Buick and heard “#41” blaring out the windows and must have thought, “That guy is a fucking loser.”

But to those hypothetical people of the past I say that “#41” is a really good song. Matthews can come across as creepy and desperate in some of his love songs, but in “#41” he mostly hits the right notes. Maybe some of his and the band’s success can be attributed to his “everyman” voice. He’s a crooner, but he doesn’t have the voice for it. This works in his favor in this case because he sounds like any other person in love except with the ability to articulate it. The simple guitars and the horns don’t allow the track to delve into uncomfortable sappiness, so it never feels completely emasculating or embarrassing. The prerequisite jam, however, is really, really, boring. This is a good pop song; I know it’s live and everything, but the jamming here doesn’t elaborate or improve on anything. It just makes me forget the good parts.

#3) U2 – “Mofo” – Pop (1997)

Just because I mentioned these bands doesn’t mean I want to listen to them. You may remember Pop as the album that had that song where the members of U2 dressed up like the Village People for the video. That’s about all I remember of it. I want to say critical opinion was dismal, but I’m sure the album sold like a hundred million copies anyway.

I really want to listen to the rest of this record, because if all of it sounds like “Mofo” it is amazing that one of the biggest rock bands in the world escaped this relatively unscathed. I think U2 was going for some sort of house/trance/techno/rock hybrid here, which just sounds really weird from them. I appreciate that they had the balls (and the status) to try something like this, but “Mofo” is not a pleasant listen. This sounds like the music you hear during some futuristic fight scene in a shitty movie like Underworld. Not good at all, but an interesting one-time curiosity.

#4) Beck – “The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton” – The Information (2006)

I feel like I wrote about this song in a Random Ten once but I can’t seem to find that. This does, however, give me cause to dust off my old column on The Information. Recycling!

Where U2 sounds odd trying out radically different forms of music, Beck sounds at home, no matter what he does. He could release an album of Cat Stevens covers playing nothing but a Theremin and no one would bat an eye. I bet it would be awesome, too.

You may guess this track is split into a few movements. “The Horrible Fanfare” is the first, and it lives up to its billing. Airy, dark and haunting, the first two minutes of the track sound like a drum machine death march. “Landslide” is more straightforward and inviting, but still lumbers along slowly. Bits of light are allowed through only via Beck’s up tempo vocals and some piano flourishes. “Exoskeleton” then returns the track to insanity, featuring ambient noises and spoken word dialogue about God knows what.

What’s cool about Beck is that he never comes off as pretentious. This song is a great example. All sorts of crazy shit is happening, and though this isn’t a great listen, none of his embellishments induce an eye roll or an exasperated “jeez”. The end of the song with the disembodied male voice talking about spacecrafts and exoskeletons over beatless droning? That’s just Beck.

#5) Dr. Dog – “I Hope There’s Love” – We All Belong (2007)

Dr. Dog has a great feel for melody and how even the simplest vocal harmony can make a song memorable. “I Hope There’s Love” resembles a lo-fi Beatles in this respect; overtly simple but incredibly effective. The entire song is nothing but tinny vocals and what sounds like one of those terrible children’s keyboards playing an accordion tone. It works.

#6) Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “Friends” – The Art Of War (1997)

The Art Of War is one of my favorite records ever because it was such a colossal misstep. After the success of E. 1999 Eternal (“Crossroads”, “1st Of Tha Month”), Bone Thugs decided that the best follow up would be a double disc record, forcing listeners to slog through 28 songs. A double-disc usually isn’t a good idea for even the most prolific, proggy, “intelligent” rock group, but for a rap combo whose primary subject matter is how much weed they smoke? Death. They never truly recovered from this.

Before I started the track I was hoping they might incorporate the hook from Whodini’s 1984 hit of the same name, and they do! Of course, that makes me want to hear that other song and not this one. When the beat is right and the hook is memorable, Bone Thugs can actually sound pretty good. But when the indecipherable lyrics are piled on top of a boring melody, as happens here, patience and tolerance don’t last long.

#7) Pantera – “Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks” – Far Beyond Driven (1994)

When I first heard Pantera, I deemed them the heaviest metal band on earth. What other band could be heavier? Well, I had yet to hear death metal bands who sung about stabbing fetuses with ice picks or black metal bands who loved Satan so much that they actually burned down churches. When I did find out about those other bands, I was content to solidify myself a few rungs up on the heavy metal ladder. Pantera’s fine. Rotting Christ might be a bit much.

“Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks”, like most of Far Beyond Driven, is incredibly methodical. The song is a seven minute dirge. Pantera eschews some of the melodies and relative lightness of a lot of thrash metal. Their music is often legitimately scary. Singer Phil Anselmo’s scowl halfway through the track would foreshadow some of his later work in various black metal groups. His menacing and off-putting grunting in the last minute of the track, coupled with the spiraling and whiny guitars, sounds particularly demonic. “Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks” isn’t pleasant, but it arguably captures Pantera at their most evil, and may be worth a cursory listen just for that.

(It’s also amazing that an album that originally had this as a cover debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts.)

#8) The Jayhawks – “Sioux City” – Blue Earth (1989)

May as well revisit these guys! This is such a drastic change from the last track that I think I need a minute to cleanse my palette. This sounds like a song from Aladdin to me right now.

OK. Actually, it sounds like Johnny Cash. Very simple all around, very pleasant throughout. “Sioux City” is a nice three minute ditty with a good chorus, nice changes, and good guitar parts. This is a standard “pretty good” alt-country song.

#9) Phish – “Weigh” – Slip Stitch And Pass (1997; this is a live album. “Weigh” originally appeared on Rift [1993])

You know what this song reminds me of? Driving around North Andover smoking weed and delivering pizzas as a teenager.

Slip Stitch And Pass seems antiquated now because pretty much every concert the band has ever performed is available for sale or download. I’d still argue that it is near essential for Phish fans, however, because it presents the band at a high point in their career (early 1997) playing very tight and concise songs. “Weigh” is only a few seconds longer than on Rift, but the band sounds like they’re having fun on it, working in their experimental style within the shortened time limit. Maybe that’s why the album is so interesting. Phish doesn’t sound abridged here; nothing sounds missing on “Weigh” or elsewhere on the record. It’s just that even their live performances can occasionally benefit from temperance and brevity.

#10) Steely Dan – “Throw Back The Little Ones” – Katy Lied (1975)

Steely Dan kinda sounds like a cheesy jazz lounge act. An awesome cheesy jazz lounge act. Unconventional vocals, great piano, really smart in both lyrics and arrangements. Steele Dan always manages to be genuinely and happily surprising, deviating from the path to take the song somewhere unexpected but also essential. “Throw Back The Little Ones” contains a lot of great moments like this, including a simple, wonderful piano outro that serves as the finale for both the song and the record.

John Lacey

I'm Checkin' 'Em Out - Songs: Ohia

2011-05-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new column at the Musicarium, “I’m Checkin’ ‘Em Out”. My friends are all big music fans, and I’m constantly being told to check this band out, listen to this album, you should buy this, etc. This column will take a look at one song by a band I’ve heard good things about and will help determine if they warrant further inspection. At the end, I’ll label the song as a “Yea” (good!), a “Nay” (bad!), or a “Meh” (don’t really give a shit to ever hear them again). You may say it’s not fair to boil an artist’s catalogue down to one random song I found on YouTube, but I say I don’t care.

Songs: Ohia
“Farewell Transmission”
Magnolia Electric Co.
2003 Secretly Canadian

To be upfront, I’ve experienced some previous songs of Songs: Ohia through Pandora. I don’t remember what any of the song titles were and I had never heard “Farewell Transmission” before, so I still think this fits within the guidelines. I do remember that I liked what I had heard. I remember those songs being minimalistic, sparse, and quite eerie, like Sun Kil Moon with the volume turned down even lower. Yearning for something, anything, to listen to that also sounds like Sun Kil Moon, I thought back to Songs: Ohia, and found “Farewell Transmission” on YouTube.

This is a complete departure from what I had heard before. The guitar riffs are grimy and dirty and endlessly repetitive, but in that kickass Neil Young sort of way. The guitar is instantly memorable, containing enough power to carry the song all the way through seven and a half minutes with only limited variation.

Much like some of those elongated, stretched out Neil Young songs that are carried by a central, repeating guitar part, the changes in “Farewell Transmission” are treated as monumental occurrences. Tangibly, the choruses are louder and are accompanied by harmonizing backing vocals. But they’re meant more as a release from those repeating portions, more as a blow off. Songs: Ohia (and principal songwriter/guitarist Jason Molina) gets this just right. The choruses boom, providing a sense that the verses are truly building to something. When the song bridges back to the verse riff, after those changes, it’s rejuvenating to hear it again. In a way, “Farewell Transmission” feeds itself.

This song and others like it prove that lyrics can stand out without Bob Dylan-level wordsmithing. The strength and simplicity of the tune work with what sound like pieced together lyrics. I’ve found myself singing the words without knowing what they mean. A passage towards the beginning shows Molina half singing and half stating the lines as a matter of fact, not unlike Stephen Malkmus of Pavement: “Someone must have set ‘em up / Now they’ll be working in the cold gray rock / Now they’ll be working in the hot mill steam / Now they’ll be working in the concrete”. With this style of singing and the terrific music behind it, the lyrics gain a level of natural authority. When Molina sings, “I will be gone, but not forever”, I believe him, though I don’t know what I’m supposed to be believing.

I can safely put this in the category of “Yea”. I’ll be purchasing this album and others just like it very soon.

John Lacey

From the Library #3: Harry Nilsson - The Point!

2011-04-19T19:38:00.001-07:00

Harry Nilsson
The Point!
1971 RCA Victor

My travels to the library are good for my music collection in a few ways. The first, obviously, is that I’m adding to it, checking out albums that are either missing from my collection or albums I’ve been meaning to take a listen to. In the first and second “From the Library” columns, I discussed records by two of my favorite artists that had somehow slipped through my anal-retentive, perennially accumulating grasp. But the library is also good for stockpiling music; creating a nearly never ending current of new, good music that I can turn to. Some of it I’m completely unfamiliar with, like the subject of today’s “From the Library” column, Harry Nilsson. I vacillated between writing about Nilsson and another famed singer/songwriter, Tom Waits, both of whom I’ve never listened to and know nothing about. I’ve heard tremendous things about both, but Nilsson’s album The Point! is a new checkout from this past week, and being fresh in my mind, it won out.

A cursory glance at Wikipedia (which also provides many of the album facts in this and the following paragraph) tells me that The Point! is a children’s tale about a boy named Oblio. Oblio lives in a mythical place called the Pointed Village, where according to law everything must have a point, including its residents. Oblio has a round head, and this causes some problems for him and lessons are learned. Nilsson apparently said of the how he came to this idea, “I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to a point. I thought, ‘Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn’t, then there’s a point to it.’” This whole project may sound like the delusions of a drug fueled madman, but I’ve heard dumber ideas for a concept album before.

An animated film of the same name was released in 1971, airing on ABC. Dustin Hoffman originally voiced the narrator, who was also the father of Oblio in the story. Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady) performed the voice of Oblio. Later versions had to be released due to legal issues, with both Ringo Starr and Alan Thicke voicing the narrator in subsequent editions. There was even a 1975 live musical based on The Point!, with lead roles in the London production being performed by two members of the Monkees. Sadly, on the album version, Nilsson handles narration duties.

As someone who has never listened to Harry Nilsson, he showcases a very distinct Beatles sound throughout The Point! He had been a close friend to members of the Beatles, particularly John Lennon, and Nilsson’s succinct craftsmanship owes them a debt of gratitude. The album features a number of songs tied together by one to two minute long narrative tracks, where Nilsson tells Oblio’s tale and tries to give the listener a sense of what these songs are about. It doesn’t always work. Though the music is always pleasant, the story goes wayward several times. After Oblio is kicked out of the Pointed Village for being a roundhead, the following songs are about bodies decomposing in the sea and about how Thursdays are the craziest days of the week. Maybe it’s designed for kids and they eat this shit up, I’m not sure. But it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me even in the context of the simple storyline.

The music is always good but never attention getting. Third track “Me and My Arrow”, middle-of-the-record cuts “Think About Your Troubles” and “Thursday (Why I Did Not Go to Work Today), and penultimate track “Are You Sleeping?” are all quite charming 70s pop songs but really don’t radiate well and they sound dated. The album does succeed in creating a dreamlike and cheerfully otherworldly atmosphere, however, suitable for the fantastical subject matter of the record and the fantastical state of mind Nilsson was in when he came up with these ideas. The Point! comes off as a second-rate cross between Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street, but it does efficiently mimic enough of their elements to create an enjoyable experience.

Though The Point! doesn’t fit together very well, there is a real sense of adventure on this record. The subject matter obviously contributes, but these songs, while somewhat flat, are playful, whimsical, and charming. As a unit, The Point! works to at least create a fun and unique atmosphere unlike much else I’ve seen in pop.

C+

John Lacey

Commercially Viable - Golden Corral

2011-04-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I really don’t like television advertisements. I find them all to be some degree of insulting or annoying. They continually act as a barrier, preventing me from watching the program I’m trying to watch. I’ve never understood the anticipation of the new Super Bowl ads; they’re fucking commercials! We don’t like them every other day of the year. Why do we pretend to care about the newest talking dog Bud Light commercial?

In the best of cases, commercials are white noise. They pass without incident and without fanfare. But in the worst of cases, a television ad is an affront to me personally as a consumer or even a person. “Commercially Viable” will discuss those commercials that make you lunge for the remote whenever they appear, or cause you to talk to yourself about just how stupid that commercial is.

Our first entry is a 2010 (I think) Golden Corral ad. Golden Corral is a chain of Applebee’s-esque casual dining restaurants found throughout the United States. Judging by the Golden Corral website store locator, Golden Corral seems to be most prevalent around the southeastern seaboard, with a large number of locations in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Thankfully there’s only one location here in Massachusetts, located in the western city of Springfield, a city I don’t envision wanting or having to go to again.

This is only a thirty-second spot (there may have been a longer one originally that was cut to this length), but boy, does it pack in the shitty. We open with some fat jerk, his “just pretty enough for a commercial” wife and his two middle-school aged children standing at a microphone. The premise of the ad is that the man and his family want a lot of good food with all the fixin’s, and they’re whittling down all of the available choices by asking a series of inane questions to a group of people who represent different restaurants. Think of it as a gluttonous, high-cholesterol version of “Guess Who?” If the restaurant doesn’t have what they’re looking for, POOF! They fall through a trap door, and the fat guy and his wife continue to ask their rib-related questions to the others.

The father in the commercial states, “We’re in the mood for baby back ribs for dinner tonight. Who’s got ‘em?” Is this normal? All four members of a family want the same thing, and beyond that, they all want to eat ribs? I can see the fatso father wanting ribs, but the dainty and skinny wife? The twelve year old girl? They want ribs too?

After eliminating some of the self-respecting franchises who know their limitations and don’t try and pull off fifth-rate ribs, moron throws out this gem: “And we’re hungry, so it’s gotta be all you can eat.” All you can eat? First of all, the father in the ad definitely shouldn’t be eating all-you-can-eat anything, except maybe grass. He’s visibly overweight and would probably be a heart attack risk if he actually tried to gorge himself at Golden Corral’s all-you-can-eat rib buffet extravaganza.

But secondly, who the fuck is so ridiculous as to require unlimited food for their dinner? Really? The normal serving of ribs just can’t possibly satiate you? I really don’t think there is anyone, even the fattest people in this country, who legitimately think like this. There is no one thinking, “For dinner tonight, I want ribs. But I don’t want to worry about portions or anything. What I’d like for dinner is all of the ribs I can possibly eat.”

Never mind that even a normal plate of ribs would probably be too much for the wife and the two small children. They need all-you-can-eat ribs too, apparently, because now mom chimes in. You see, they don’t just want ribs, and they don’t just want the all-you-can-eat variety. They want them as part of an endless buffet (which I imagine includes an assortment of microwaved vegetables and other meats), and they want them for ten dollars.

Ahem.

If you’re the kind of person who actually thinks, “I’d like all-you-can-eat ribs for dinner tonight”, are you really going to pull punches when it comes to cost? I like to imagine this family rib shopping, calling every restaurant within fifty miles asking about rib availability and pricing. Dad hits the jackpot: “Honey, Longhorn Steakhouse has a rib buffet!” But mom, ever the wet blanket, responds, “Is it around $10? Remember, we’re on a budget.” Then dad solemnly hangs up the phone, cursing Longhorn Steakhouse and its $15 rib festival, and reopens the phonebook.

Our discussion of this commercial wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the wormy Golden Corral spokesman, who smugly drops his dumbass catchphrase (“Thanks for dropping by”) in his stupid Alan Seuss voice when the family finds that their idiotic cuisine requirements can be met by his restaurant. I don’t have anything witty to say here, except that his catchphrase, his stupid face, and the way he raises his eyebrows make me hate this commercial about fifty thousand times more.

We go through a little spiel about what the offer actually is, come on down to Golden Corral, blah blah bullshit bullshit. Thankfully, we get one more scene of the family wolfing down this swill, providing the dad an opportunity to channel Jay Leno with his incredulous “Ten bucks??? Glad we dropped by! (hahaha)” pseudo-joke.

This commercial is the perfect storm. It’s like being on the Hindenburg, except that you also have yellow fever. The family is awful. The food looks awful. The wormy guy is awful. The premise is absolutely god-awful. And since Golden Corral seems to be the official sponsor of MLB Network, and they have now produced several of these types of commercials, the idea of having to see them multiple times a day is frightening.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #22

2011-04-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

#1) String Cheese Incident – “San Jose” - On The Road: Atlanta, GA 4/21/02 (2002; this is a live album, the song originally appeared on A String Cheese Incident [1997])

Count me as someone who really likes songs named after places. “San Jose” appears on the second String Cheese Incident record and is here presented from an April 2002 concert.

I wrote two Random Ten’s ago that I’m always happy to see String Cheese Incident show up on a Random Ten. “San Jose” ensures that this sentiment remains true. A lot of String Cheese Incident songs sound exactly the same, and “San Jose” sounds an awful lot like nearly every other song I’ve ever heard from this band. I’m not going to call String Cheese Incident one of my favorite groups, but that similar sound is always effective and pleasant, and in small doses it can be borderline euphoric.

“San Jose” runs nearly ten minutes, and contains a nice repeating piece where the music stops entirely to allow the audience to yell “Woo!” in unison. String Cheese Incident is good at changing up their winning but redundant formula just enough so that their songs have some new hook or something just different enough to make you care. They aren’t musical geniuses, but it’s fun, so who gives a shit?

#2) String Cheese Incident – “Texas” – Born On The Wrong Planet (1997)

Uh, OK. Hey, it’s another String Cheese Incident song! And it’s also named after a place! And guess how long it is?!?

I just blew my String Cheese bead, so I don’t have a lot of interesting things to say about them right now. I will say “Texas” is a more engaging song than “San Jose”, taking a more subdued tone and telling more of a story. It benefits from being a tad darker, but String Cheese Incident doesn’t fully commit to that direction, leading to a bizarre and disharmonic chorus which begins on a dark note and ends on a lighter one. A Spanish sounding jam basically closes out “Texas”, fitting rather awkwardly with what came before. It’s not great, but “Texas” does see String Cheese Incident trying to expand their sound, and it’s hard to fault them for that.

#3) Red House Painters – “Mistress (Piano Version)” – Red House Painters (Rollercoaster) (1993)

Red House Painters was the original band of singer/songwriter Mark Kozelek, now touring and releasing records under his own name and the Sun Kil Moon moniker. I’ve gushed on this blog over Sun Kil Moon and Kozelek’s work in general, and I’m sure you can find some of those articles on the blog history to the right. The gist of it: I think he’s fucking awesome.

But he ain’t for the faint of heart. Kozelek is morose, endlessly sentimental and regretful, and his music reflects that. His attitudes help make his music so good, but it’s certainly not for everyone, and probably should be listened to alone if only so others don’t think you’re a psychopath or (if male) hopelessly effeminate.

“Mistress” is included elsewhere on Red House Painters as a rock number (hence this different “piano version”) and here Kozelek slows everything down. His piano is the only instrument on the track, and during the chorus it builds on itself and provides a faint tease that it might take off. Wisely, it doesn’t, and what we’re left with is a triumph on an album full of them.

#4) Oasis – “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” – Heathen Chemistry (2002)

Out of twenty-two Random Tens, Oasis has appeared on five. I feel like they’ve been showing in every recent column. If we’re applying Musicarium sabremetrics, Oasis is appearing at a 23% clip, causing me to curse myself for taking all of their albums from a friend’s hard drive for free years ago.

I’ve written so much about them that there’s not a lot more to say. Big, dumb rock band, usually sound good, etc. So instead of rehashing that, I’ll write about how lame “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” is. Adding strings does not add emotional gravity to your music. This sounds like a retread of the warmed over stuff they were doing two years prior on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. The chorus is mind-numbingly cheesy and the whole exercise has the unmistakable top 40 musk of Matchbox 20 all over it. Crappy, crappy, crappy. Of course, because this is Oasis, the song has to be at least five minutes long.

#5) Modest Mouse – “What People Are Made Of” – The Moon & Antarctica (2000)

“What People Are Made Of” is the final track on perhaps the finest Modest Mouse album of all. It’s a perfect closer, at times abrupt, chaotic, deliberate, even delicate, taking the varied components of the record itself and encapsulating them into one final song.

I’ve always admired Modest Mouse’s raw yet processed power. Modest Mouse songs like this one and like countless others seem on the surface to be completely out of control, but there is order and structure. There are hooks, strong choruses, movements that make sense for a band writing thoughtful but traditional rock music. This might be hard to hear within their oft-maniacal music, and “What People Are Made Of” is a good place to listen for it.

#6) The Black Crowes – “Jam #2” – The Band Sessions (1997; not an official release)

“The Band Sessions” were studio recordings from 1997 which were supposed to result in a new album. The band did release an album, By Your Side (1999), after cancelling the recording sessions for what was to become Band and scrapping what songs they had put together. Many of those songs ended up being released on the Lost Crowes compilation album (2006), which rounded up a number of those lost songs and put them out officially.

You can probably guess that “Jam #2” never made it onto Lost Crowes. It’s a two minute and forty-five second jam, most likely unrehearsed and created on the spot. I don’t really see the need to listen to this again.

#7) The Smashing Pumpkins – “1979” – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995)

Ahh, Christmas 1995. I got a boom box and my first CD’s, among them Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The others? A Boy Named Goo, some shitty Edwin McCain album, Sixteen Stone, and I think the first Silverchair record.

I remember “1979” hadn’t been released as a single by that time, so I listened to lead single “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” thirty times in a row. For a twelve year old, Mellon Collie was a daunting task, boasting twenty-eight songs split over two discs. I poked around, not caring for much else that I found because I would only give each song three seconds to grab me. But I did find “1979”, and when it broke big, it was “my song” the one I found and appreciated before anyone else.

It’s still a great song, sixteen years later. I have a difficult time divorcing the song from the video (you know, the one with all of the kids making out and going to parties and jumping into a pool or something). The song worked great with that video, which was about teenagers being teenagers and doing teenage things. Even though the record was released four or five years before I reached my partying teenage years, I now listen to the song and picture myself, as a teenager, in that video. Talk about staying power.

#8) Drive-By Truckers – “Zip City” – A Southern Rock Opera (2001)

One of the best songs by one of the best bands on earth. “Zip City” is narrated by a Southern teenage boy, who relays the story of his courtship of a younger girl and wondering why he wastes his time. The song is absolutely punishing in its delivery, managing to be both catchy and bleak at the same time, the perfect tone for its subject matter.

The real wonder of “Zip City” is in its lyrics, when the narrator tells the girl exactly what he feels towards her (pardon the formatting, this website is awful and I'm actively looking for a new one):

Maybe it’s the twenty six mile drive From Zip City to Colbert Heights

That keeps my mind clean, Gets me through the night

Maybe you’re just a destination, A place for me to go,

That keeps me from having to deal With my seventeen year old mind all alone

So keep your drawers on girl, It ain’t worth the fight

By the time you drop them I’ll be gone And you’ll be right where they fall the rest of your life

Singer/guitarist Mike Cooley turns in the finest performance of his career on “Zip City”, with his whirling guitar solos adding weight to every word. It’s a must-hear.

#9) moe. – “Buster” – No Doy (1996)

Yeah. Going from “Zip City” to “Buster” is like going from an Aston-Martin to a Geo Tracker. Though I’m predisposed to be upset at moe. and “Buster” because they are following “Zip City”, I’ll do my best to be impartial.

moe., as a jam band, certainly shares some traits with the twice aforementioned String Cheese Incident. “Buster” is a light and airy song akin to String Cheese’s “San Jose” that we heard earlier. I’d consider moe. to be a more interesting group than String Cheese Incident, because they’re less tentative to experiment with shifts in their tone and are willing to try new things. Their follow up to No Doy, 1998’s Tin Cans And Car Tires, shows moe. travelling as far across the musical spectrum as the confines of being a jam band will allow them to, yet they retain the same signature sound they had developed for themselves previous to that release.

One thing I’ve often wondered is why jam bands release studio records at all. “Buster” sounds alright, and it might bring the house down live, but in the context of a record it’s a tedious bore. Jam bands have released strong, cohesive records (see Phish: Farmhouse, Billy Breathes) and also putrid, not-so-cohesive records (see Phish: Joy, Undermind). But I’d rather a band try something new, even to see it fail, than release an immediately superfluous album. If No Doy’s version of “Buster” is more polished but less engaging and ultimately less fun than a live version, why do I need this?

#10) Sonic Youth – “Eric’s Trip” – Daydream Nation (originally released 1988; this is a live version of the song released on the deluxe reissue of the album in 2007)

I’ve heard Sonic Youth is really good from a whole lot of people. I don’t know this firsthand because for some reason I’ve never bothered to listen to them. Every other time I’ve given a good listen to a heavily influential indie rock band, from Pavement to Dinosaur Jr. to Guided By Voices, I’ve ended up liking them, so I’d imagine this would be no different.

I don’t know if this live version of “Eric’s Trip”, recorded in Dusseldorf in 1989, is the place to start. It’s very sloppy and noisy, and though I imagine that’s part of Sonic Youth’s charm, it’s hard to get a good handle on them in this environment. I appreciate a blistering three-minute romp as much as anyone, however, and I admire the energy and primitive hooks evident in this performance. There’s definitely enough here to warrant further inspection.

John Lacey

The Dailies 3/31/11: No One Who Speaks German Could be an Evil Man!

2011-03-31T17:03:00.000-07:00

Once (2006) – B

· Directed by John Carney

· Starring Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová

· Awards: Won – Best Original Song

· Once is a charming romance-musical, with main characters Glen Hansard (guitarist and vocalist of real-life Irish rock band the Frames) and Markéta Irglová falling for each other in Dublin, helped in no small part to their mutual love of music. The songs they create undoubtedly mark the high points of Once, and the storyline sometimes feels like a device to simply get us to the next musical number. It’s not the characters or their budding romance we’re attracted to, but the songs that come as a result of their relationship. Once is a pleasant time, but sometimes it feels more like an elongated music video than a real film.

Death Proof (2007) – C-

· Directed by Quentin Tarantino

· Starring Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson

· Snappy, lengthy dialogue is a hallmark of Quentin Tarantino, but there are some instances where a verbose approach is not the right one to take. Death Proof is about a maniacal stuntcar driver (Russell) who enjoys killing young, beautiful women. Yet it spends most of its almost two-hour runtime in bars or around a breakfast table listening to those same young women talk, and talk, and talk, about God knows what. When Russell appears in the film, things work, but the film spends way too much time dilly-dallying and not enough time delivering on what it claims to be. It’s a real slog.

The King's Speech (2010) – A-

· Directed by Tom Hooper

· Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter

· Awards: Won – Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor (Firth), Best Original Screenplay; Nominated – Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Supporting Actor (Rush), Best Supporting Actress (Carter)

· Though people might be sick of hearing about it, The King’s Speech is a truly terrific film and deserved to win last year’s Best Picture Academy Award. For those who don’t know the story, Firth plays Britain’s King George VI, a man expected to be a shining example to his subjects in all facets of life, but who is afflicted with a speech disorder that prevents him from even talking to his people without stuttering. He enlists the help of a commoner speech therapist (Rush) to help him with his problem, and the growth of their relationship throughout the film is one of its many joys. For those who are repelled by the hype, it’s well worth checking out.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – B

· Directed by David Lean

· Starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

· Awards: Won – Best Actor (Guinness), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music (Scoring), Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay; Nominated – Best Supporting Actor (Hayakawa)

· David Lean, also the director of other epic films such as Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, is one of my favorite directors. I had heard fantastic things about The Bridge on the River Kwai, and while I’m not disappointed, it fails to live up to the levels of those aforementioned films. The Bridge on the River Kwai follows two stories; in one, Alec Guinness is a British colonel trying to maintain control of his men within a Japanese POW camp during World War II, and he is eventually tasked with leading them to build a railroad bridge over a Thai river. The other story follows William Holden, an American soldier, and a group of British officers trying to thwart its construction. Guinness is fantastic, but the film feels too conventional compared to some of Lean’s other output. Lawrence of Arabia is a journey. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a movie.

Feature Presentation

Das Boot (1981)

· Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

· Starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann

· Awards: Nominated – Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay

Life on a U-boat during World War II was difficult, dangerous, and cramped. The likelihood of U-boat sailors surviving the war was not high; the very nature of a U-boat submarine means near certain death should it be sunk. U-boats danced in and out of danger, attempting to clandestinely attack Allied ships and slink back down into the depths before the inevitable counterattack. Surviving a U-boat mission required nerves of steel and perennial efficiency and teamwork from the crew. Any slip-up meant death.

Das Boot follows the voyage of the U-96, a German U-boat on a mission in the Atlantic. The nerves of steel on the boat are supplied by Capt.-Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (Prochnow), who leads the men on the boat by example and never loses his cool. While under depth charge bombardment and with the ship being violently rocked and lights and alarms going on and off, he forcefully directs his subordinates. The captain holds the ship together in many ways; he not only attempts to steer the boat out of danger, but his presence maintains and safeguards the morale of his men.

It would be easy to lose one’s morale on a U-boat. Director Wolfgang Petersen expertly displays the ship’s narrow, unfriendly confines. His camera work follows men as they run though the boat, crawling through hatches, climbing ladders, avoiding obstacles piled up in their way. Through this perspective we get a feel of how tight the quarters are and the effort required simply to get from one place on the ship to another. A U-boat is no place for the claustrophobic.

There is a sense of dread palpable throughout Das Boot. The damp aura of the ship provides some of that, to be sure, but it’s the vulnerability the men feel throughout their journey that causes it. There are stretches in Das Boot where the men on the ship are waiting to die. Much of the movie consists of pulse-pounding scenes of the men gasping and praying through depth charge attacks. Any moment could be their last, and there are no prisoners of war taken from a submerged submarine.

Being in such tight quarters and sharing such experiences leads to the crew’s (and the film’s) ultimate triumph. Sunk to the ocean floor, and facing a multitude of crises, the crew works together and relies on one another to fix the boat and miraculously raise it from the depths. The ship’s second-in-command, Chief Engineer Fritz Grade (Wennemann), has one of the best scenes in the movie, when after countless hours spent fixing the boat, he reads off the ship’s rising depth meter in jubilant disbelief.

There are other strong performances in Das Boot as well, including that of narrator Lt. Werner (Grönemeyer) and the ship’s only fervent Nazi, played by Hubertus Bengsch. But it’s the ship that stars in the film, providing shelter and life to its occupants but filling their every moment with worry. It’s Petersen’s understanding of this that makes Das Boot such a one-of-a-kind experience.

A-

Braveheart (1995)

· Directed by Mel Gibson

· Starring Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen

· Awards: Won – Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Makeup, Best Picture; Nominated – Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay

Braveheart is the film at least partially responsible for bombastic, stylistic and sappy blockbusters winning Best Picture Oscars. Sure, before Braveheart, epic films like Ben-Hur and the aforementioned The Bridge on the River Kwai won that award, but those films had substance, strong acting, and heart (pun intended). Recent Best Picture winners like Titanic and Gladiator have their merits, but they’re depthless. They’re enormous enterprises that look impressive but don’t really do anything. Much like Braveheart.

Braveheart certainly has the look and scope of an epic film. It follows William Wallace (Gibson), the famous Scottish crusader who rebelled against British injustices in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Braveheart follows Wallace’s life, beginning with the killing of his father and brother at British hands, then the killing of his wife at British hands, and you get the idea. Wallace seeks revenge, not unlike Steven Seagal, and his charisma and determination spark a full scale rebellion against British authority in Scotland.

The storyline is effective in its simplicity, but the film plays just like every other Mel revenge film, except this time he’s in a kilt. It ain’t Shakespeare, and little in terms of Braveheart’s story truly differentiates itself from Ransom or Payback. It’s a revenge fantasy that stops periodically to dabble into romance or political squabbling. That the direction Braveheart takes is couched in historical legend doesn’t elevate it, but rather cheapens it.

Braveheart would be truly abysmal were it not for its amazing battle scenes, which provide the unquestioned highlights of the film. They are tremendously choreographed, and Gibson (acting as director) does well to depict the maelstrom of chaos that was medieval combat. I found myself anxiously awaiting the battle scenes and suffering through the other slop, and perhaps that’s a part of Braveheart’s problem. The showdowns between the Scottish and the British serve to punctuate how mundane the rest of the film is.

Braveheart isn’t a bad film, but its mythic elevation and Best Picture win remain puzzling. It’s entertaining, and nothing more, which is still more than a lot of films can say. It’s just that when the next bloated, overexposed “epic” blockbuster wins a major Academy Award, we’ll know what to blame.

John Lacey

Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots

2011-03-15T18:19:00.001-07:00

Drive-By Truckers
Go-Go Boots
2011 ATO

Since July of 2009, the Drive-By Truckers have issued four releases. One was a live album, another a rarities/B-sides album, the third the 2010 studio album The Big To-Do, and now another studio album entitled Go-Go Boots. There’s only so much melancholy and depravity a band can write about in such a short period of time, which may explain the inclusion of “Everybody Needs Love”, an Eddie Hinton cover with a shiny and happy chorus that stands in stark contrast to the usual subject matter of the band.

Not to worry, however. Though “Everybody Needs Love” may find the band taking a quick detour, they quickly u-turn back to the lyrical areas they’re most comfortable with. Go-Go Boots tells stories of hit men-hiring and sexually deviant priests (in different songs), a former policeman at the end of his personal and professional rope, brutally depressing family holiday dinners, and more topics of the downtrodden and morally bankrupt. The Truckers haven’t lost any of their lyrical abilities; all three songwriters are sharp as a tack throughout Go-Go Boots, and tracks like “Cartoon Gold” and “The Thanksgiving Filter” present some of the finest wordsmithing the band has yet produced.

Go-Go Boots was recorded concurrently with The Big To-Do, with songs from the recording sessions being split between the two records. Since The Big To-Do was released first, about a year ago now, it would make sense to think that the songs on Go-Go Boots are leftovers that didn’t make the cut for the previous album. That isn’t necessarily true (the band apparently recorded enough album-quality tracks at the time to give them the luxury of splitting the songs up into the two albums), but the result still feels a tad haphazard and unbalanced.

De facto bandleader and lead songwriter/guitarist Patterson Hood tackles most of the writing and singing duties on Go-Go Boots, and he has many shining moments, particularly during the chilling “The Fireplace Poker” and the soaring chorus of the aforementioned “The Thanksgiving Filter”. As always, however, the best songs are contributed by guitarist Mike Cooley, who penned its two best tracks, “Cartoon Gold” and “Pulaski”. The tone of Cooley’s songs, heavy on banjos and aided by his sweet Southern drawl, are musically lighter than most of Hood’s tracks, but don’t spare any of the angst and restlessness found elsewhere on the album. They provide depth to Go-Go Boots and albums previous, and the record would have benefitted from their increased presence.

Hood is largely responsible for a lot of the methodical muscle of the band’s previous albums, but Go-Go Boots finds him lightening things up somewhat. Missing are many of the booming guitar riffs and raucous rock songs that peppered those old records. They’ve been replaced on Go-Go Boots by a softer touch, maintaining their straightforwardness but taking the volume down a tad. This results in some fine songs, but the sameness begins to stand out about three-quarters through the listen.

Go-Go Boots is a solid collection. Little is outstanding, but each song is at the very least pleasant, and added together they make for an enjoyable listen. Often times the “we had these songs left over from the last album, so we might as well put them out” records are miserably boring and stale; Go-Go Boots avoids that pitfall with its inspired songwriting and its differences from the album recorded alongside it.

John Lacey

From the Library #2: The Roots - Rising Down

2011-02-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

The Roots
Rising Down
2008 Def Jam Recordings

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of “From the Library”, where I discuss in-depth a record I’ve taken out of one of my local libraries. In the column’s debut, we took a closer look at Neil Young’s This Note’s for You album. Today, our subject is Rising Down, the 2008 album from rap-rock combo and Jimmy Fallon house band The Roots.

The Roots had been on quite a tear when Rising Down was released towards the beginning of 2008. Since their major label debut, Do You Want More?!!!??!, was released in 1995, the group had released a string of critical and commercial hits, their popularity continuing to grow with each album. 1996’s Illadelph Halflife, 1999’s Things Fall Apart, 2002’s Phrenology and 2004’s The Tipping Point each built upon the last with continued infectious beats, inventive rhyming, and a growing footprint of a rap group with something to actually say and the talent to back it up.

In 2006, Game Theory was released, which was universally beloved by critics but lacked the head-nodders of those previous records. Instead, it replaced them with a significantly darker and more methodical tone. The music remained strong, but Game Theory threw a curveball to those fans expecting more of what the group had done in the late 90s and early 00s. It wasn’t inviting as those earlier albums had been, and to me, the record was stale in its bleak poignancy and rather unmemorable overall, tempering my excitement for their follow-up, Rising Down.

Rising Down picks up where Game Theory left off, with dark, forceful and direct beats creating an aural minefield towards the beginning of the album. The tone is set by opening track “The Pow Wow”, consisting of audio from a recorded call between group members in which they scream and swear at each other. The title track and “Get Busy” follow, both suggesting that The Roots have not adjusted their attitude from Game Theory; these are angry and urgent songs. Some of the movements suggest music from monster movies, particularly the beat on “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)”.

Rays of light do break through the murkiness occasionally. “Criminal” has terrific moments, boasting an airy beat that mixes well with the unchanged, perennially straightforward rapping. “I Will Not Apologize” continues the slightly lightened mood, and “Unwritten” strikes most similar to the classic atmospheric Roots beats of old.

But those moments are few and far between. Rising Down presents a very gloomy look at the world, and though much of the music is quite good, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by that. Though the entire album is solidly constructed and filled with good music, it becomes difficult to tell one muscularly downtrodden song apart from the others that surround it. I may have been spoiled by those earlier records, whose vibrancy in both music and message radiated from my speakers. Rising Down, for all of its strengths, doesn’t do that.

C+

John Lacey

The Biltmores - Providence

2011-02-11T10:30:00.001-08:00

The Biltmores - Providence (2011)

It’s good to be back on the Musicarium. I’ve been pretty busy these last few months, so I apologize for my lack of contribution to this wonderful blog. Luckily, John and company have been picking up the slack. John sent me over an assignment recently, and I was excited for it. The assignment? Reviewing the new Biltmores record, entitled Providence.

(Note: I was given a brief list of some of the band members, so if I get any of that information wrong in the review, blame John.)

Opening with “We’re Home,” Providence starts with a laid back, melancholic guitar riff. Anybody who’s read my Random Ten entries knows I tend to veer towards the heavier side of things when it comes to my musical tastes, but every now and then I like to expand my horizons. “We’re Home” is definitely a track that I can see myself returning to again in the future. I love the verse riffs, and the refrain of “You should get over it,” stuck with me long after I first listened to it. At only 3:17, this was a song that left me wanting more.

Second track, “Static,” was not really my cup of tea, but at 2:16, it’s a good bridge between the first and third songs. It reminded me a little of Snow Patrol, and it was a little too laid back and mellow for my tastes. The instrumentation is top-notch, though. One thing that struck me during this track was that the production of this record is fantastic. The guitar tones are crisp but have a great dirty sound, and the drum sound is huge. All too often, modern rock records have an over-compressed, air-tight sound to the drums, which I usually hate (and it happens even more frequently in the metal scene). These guys went back to the John Bonham style of recording drums, in a big room, where there’s ambiance and room to breathe, or at least they did a great job of making it sound that way.

“Bonebridge” picks up the pace a little, which was needed after the mellow “Static.” The guitar break that starts at 1:12 is one of my favorite moments from the whole album. Also, the horns (or what sound like horns) during the last chorus add a great atmosphere to bring the track to a close. Very good song, and another one I wished was a little longer, which is definitely a good thing.

“Wasn’t It Funny?” is one song that grabbed me instantly from the lyrics, which begin with, “And no I just can’t get that song out of my head,” an appropriate line for a song as catchy as this. This track also features the first real guitar solo of the record, which reminded me a lot of Edge from U2 and how he uses few notes to maximum effect.

“Like You Do” follows, and it finds singer/guitarist Dan Baxter singing in his upper register, and on this track he reminds me a little of Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon. I know most people only remember them for the video for “No Rain,” but Hoon was a great vocalist, and Baxter’s expressive vocals are really solid throughout the album, and they shine on “Like You Do.” The piano also adds a great build-up to the end of the track.

“Always There” begins with some nice arpeggiated guitar work, and contains some nice dynamics throughout. The slow build-up of the drums throughout the verses really makes the loud choruses have a great impact.

“Jason” begins with another great two guitar riff, and drummer Brendan Leonard’s snare work is fantastic. You can tell this is a band who are all great at their instruments, yet they’re never flashy for the sake of being flashy. After about a minute into the song, I realized this was an instrumental, and it takes a lot for an instrumental song to a) not be boring, and b) be catchy, and this song manages to do both. Instrumentals on rock records are far from common these days, and all-too common on metal records (and are usually wanky and horrible), but “Jason” deserves its place on Providence.

“Ocean State” is a bluesy number, which is only appropriate for a song about Rhode Island; I mean, who wouldn’t get the blues being in such a shitty state? (Thanks, I’ll be here all week.) But seriously, after a bluesy and quiet first verse and chorus, the song adds layers of keyboards and vocals to its second half, and ends up rocking pretty hard by the end. Another winner on an album full of them.

Speaking of shitty states, here’s “Delaware”! “Hello. I’m in Delaware” – Wayne’s World. A more somber track than its predecessor, this song has some strings accompanying the electric and acoustic guitars, and it’s one of the more emotional efforts on the album. The end of the track with the quiet drums, guitars and strings is a beautiful piece of music.

Next song, “Right The Ship” starts off sounding like an introspective singer-songwriter ballad, but the rest of the band kicks in after about a minute, and the end of the song builds to a great crescendo of guitars and drums. It’s followed by “Day Old Newspapers,” which features another nice two-guitar intro. This is another one where the chorus sticks with you. The repetition of “I am unattached again” is a great accompaniment to the quiet guitar parts underneath. This song again ends with some nice loud guitar work, and some great lead guitar melodies.

“Clowns” closes the album with some melodic piano and guitar interplay throughout. Another strong track, the album closes on a fairly mellow note, but with no songs over 4 minutes in length, it’s a record that demands to be listened to again.

This was my first experience listening to The Biltmores, but I’m glad John sent this album over to me to review, because I can see it entering my current rotation of albums really quickly. Highly recommended for fans of great songwriting and well-played, laid-back rock.

Matt Steele

The Dailies 1/27/11: Who’s Harry Crumb and why is His Movie So Awful?

2011-01-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

Trailerz

Metropolis (1927) – A-
· Directed by Fritz Lang
· Starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Brigitte Helm
· A monumental silent action-drama that still features some of the most memorable set pieces in movie history

True Grit (2010) – B+
· Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
· Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld
· Awards: Nominated – Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Picture, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay (True Grit is nominated for these awards for the upcoming Academy Awards)
· A sharp and fun remake that is nearly as strong as the original.

Gangs of New York (2002) – B-
· Directed by Martin Scorsese
· Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz
· Awards: Nominated – Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay
· An epic film about rival gangs in late 1800s New York City is derailed by a busy and confusing ending.

American Gangster (2007) – B
· Directed by Ridley Scott
· Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin
· Awards: Nominated – Best Art Direction, Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee)
· A sleek dramatic thriller with an engaging story and strong performances all around.

Features

The 400 Blows (1959)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy
Awards: Nominated – Best Original Screenplay

We all knew those kids when we were growing up who were always in trouble. Maybe some of them ended up straightening themselves out, but many were forever lost, continuing to find themselves in compromising situations. For those of us who stayed the course and didn’t get into trouble very often, we saw those kids more and more sparingly as we grew older, only catching wind of their latest tribulation from the gossip of random acquaintances.

But how did those kids get that way? Could they have been good kids with real potential, who were never given a real chance? The 400 Blows looks at these types of situations from the point of view of Antoine, a French boy living in Paris in a cramped apartment with his parents. His parents share a loveless marriage, and Antoine receives little affection from either of them. To his parents, he’s a cute diversion at best, and a hopeless terror at worst. Antoine’s troubles are exacerbated by his demeanor in school, where he goofs off and talks back to his stuffy schoolteacher.

Antoine, no older than twelve, can never seem to do the right thing. With every misstep, his parents throw up their hands and wonder what’s to be done with him rather than provide any positive reinforcement. He is expelled from school and leaves home, and soon after he takes to theft as a way to eat and provide for himself. In one heartbreaking scene, Antoine is loaded into a paddy wagon full of thieves and prostitutes after being caught having stolen a typewriter. He peers through the bars of the wagon as they wind through the city streets, crying, but stoically accepting his punishment and his fate.

The 400 Blows is supposedly a semi-autobiographical account of director Francois Truffaut’s childhood; he was in and out of trouble throughout his youth and the cinema was the only thing that saved him from prison. Truffaut is one of the lucky ones, but how many children do we lose to loveless parenting and a lack of understanding? A.

Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989)
Director: Paul Flaherty
Starring John Candy, Jeffrey Jones, Annie Potts, Shawnee Smith

I recently went through an SCTV kick, where I watched a couple of full seasons of that influential Canadian sketch comedy show. It first ran on Canadian television, and later aired on NBC and Cinemax in the US. SCTV helped launch the careers of Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Dave Thomas, Catherine O’Hara (the mom from Home Alone), and John Candy. I don’t think anyone can dislike John Candy, and I’ve long loved his work in films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck and Stripes. So after watching some SCTV I thought I’d delve a little deeper into the Candy catalogue with the 1989 film Who’s Harry Crumb?

Holy shit. John Candy always struck me as a guy who could make any film tolerable simply by being on screen. Who’s Harry Crumb? taught me that this is not the case. Candy plays Crumb, a bumbling detective brought in by his boss (played by pederast Jeffrey Jones) to solve a kidnapping case. You see (spoilers!), Jones is implicit in the crime, and he knows Candy is such a boob that he’ll never figure things out. Haha!

So we get an hour and fifteen minutes or so of pratfalls, car accidents, Candy in various idiotic and unfunny disguises and general “fat guy buffoonery”. Not a bit of it is funny. Even Candy seems disinterested, with a perennial empty smile on his face as the straight-man shitty detective who doesn’t realize what a fucking dope he is.

In one particular soul crushing scene, Candy is dressed as a Turkish/Russian air conditioner repairman to gain entrance to a hotel room. He encounters fellow SCTV alum Joe Flaherty (the “You will not make this putt!” guy from Happy Gilmore), who plays the security guard for the complex. They have a hilariously unfunny exchange, and soon Candy is in the vents, eavesdropping on a suspect in the case. But SHE TURNS THE AIR CONDITIONING ON, causing Candy to fly back through the vent, landing on the security guard. This gag required 10 minutes of build up. Oy.

A bunch of stupid stuff happens and none of it matters. Who’s Harry Crumb? lacks a story, it lacks care, it lacks heart, and most importantly, it lacks laughs. It’s a testament to Candy that not even this pile of shit can tarnish his legacy. F.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #21

2011-01-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

#1) Atlas Sound – “An Orchid” – Logos (2009)

Atlas Sound is the solo project of Brandford Cox, better known for his work as the guitarist and lead vocalist of Deerhunter. “An Orchid” is very much a structurally sound psychedelic song, keeping a basic beat and acoustic guitar melody but distorting the vocals, causing them to ebb and flow with the music. This phenomenon is interesting, but much of the track is dull, pseudo-psychedelic fluff. The final third of the track introduces some changes to the melody, but “An Orchid” sounds more like an experiment than a song.

#2) Nick Drake – “Day Is Done” – Family Tree (2007; song was originally released on Five Leaves Left [1969])

“Day Is Done” originally appeared on Drake’s debut album Five Leaves Left and was subsequently included on this greatest hits/odds and ends compilation from a few years ago. This is an alternate take of the song and not the original studio version.

“Day Is Done” is an acoustic track with a melancholy tone, with Drake’s low singing voice helping to punctuate his sorrowful lyrics. Drake had a way of singing that hardly sounds like singing at all; his voice gently bends over the guitar and blends in with the music beautifully. This is an obvious outtake, with Drake flubbing his lines at one point and laughing at himself. It’s a nice addition to the collection, however, because it exposes a little of Drake’s humanity. When he was alive, he tried to hide it, and since his early passing, excessive mythologizing has robbed us of the rest of it.

#3) Led Zeppelin – “The Rover” – Physical Graffiti (1975)

YES. This is perhaps the best Led Zeppelin song ever. When I first heard “The Rover”, probably back in 1999 or so, I immediately decided that Physical Graffiti was my favorite Led Zeppelin album and that this was the best band of all time. Yes, I went through this phase.

“The Rover” is just so infectious. The guitar riff rules. The vocals rule. The drumming is great. The chorus kicks ass. Everything about it sounds so big; it’s a monolithic rock song on a monolithic rock album. Along with opening track “Custard Pie”, “The Rover” gets Physical Graffiti off to a legendary start and the album never lets up. Arguably Led Zeppelin’s finest hour.

#4) De La Soul – “Me Myself And I” – 3 Feet High And Rising (1989)

I don’t remember where I got 3 Feet High And Rising, but I can tell you that I’ve never listened to it. Travesty, I know. I’m aware that it is considered one of the finest hip-hop albums of all time and I should have given it due recognition years ago.

“Me Myself And I” is perhaps the biggest hit De La Soul ever had. It features one of those late 80s beats that immediately spring to mind when you think of a Jheri-curled Deion Sanders; I think Sega used a variation of this beat for most of the levels on the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.

But that’s not De La Soul’s fault. This is a legitimate hip-hop hit, and represents part of a mainstream movement away from the early days of hip-hop and over to a newer and more thoughtful (lyrically and musically) kind of rap. The sound is somewhat old-school, but the advancement between De La Soul and much of what came before them is more than evident.

#5) Ben Folds – “There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You” – Sunny 16 (2003)

Ben Folds will not stop appearing on the Random Ten. Comparatively speaking, I don’t have that much of his music, and yet he’s on here every other time. I long held out hope that he’d ditch the ridiculous hairstyle and make a triumphant comeback, but his recent appearances as a judge on NBC’s The Sing-Off have tempered those expectations.

Before his music pencil dived into the shitter, he released a series of EP’s between 2003 and 2004, with “There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You” coming from the second. The song is right in Folds’ wheelhouse, discussing the plight of someone being made fun of and wishing they were cooler (I think; I guess it could be about anything). Folds has made a living on being a sarcastic observer of youth culture and attitude, something that has failed him recently as he’s, you know, gotten old. But here he still has some teeth, and the melodies, though drenched in Foldsian childishness, are memorable.

#6) Radiohead – “Thinking About You” – Pablo Honey (1993)

We discussed Pablo Honey-era Radiohead here, when “Prove Yourself” was featured on the Random Ten. It’s still strange to hear standard pop-rock radio songs being played by this band. The song doesn’t bob and weave much, sticking to acoustic guitars that follow a simple and enjoyable melody.

It’s hard not to think of Pink Floyd when I hear Pablo Honey. Just like no one knew what Pink Floyd was capable of when they were noodling around on their guitars in acid dens in England, how could anyone know what Radiohead would go on to become from hearing this?

#7) Oasis – “Roll It Over” – Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (2000)

Oasis recently split up again, with perennial dickhead vocalist Liam Gallagher being a dickhead and fighting his brother and guitarist Noel, causing the breakup. It’s too bad the band can’t keep their act together, and not just because of their music. Hearing the never-ending string of breakup/reuniting stories is getting incredibly boring and annoying in a Favre kinda way.

People compare Oasis to the Beatles, but they’re really more of a mash up of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, although not in the same league as either of those bands. Competent imitation, however, will lead to some good songs, “Roll It Over” being one. It’s big, dumb, and pompous, but it sounds good, and isn’t that what’s important?

#8) Brian Eno – “I’ll Come Running” – Eno Box II: Vocals (1993; song was originally released on Another Green World [1975])

“I’ll Come Running” is pulled from Brian Eno’s Another Green World album, a beautiful record on which only a few tracks actually have vocals, this included. Eno is considered the father of ambient music, and the early manifestations of that movement can be seen on the Another Green World album. “I’ll Come Running” might be the most poppy and straightforward number on that album, with a light piano and cheerfully detached vocals from Eno. In the context of the album, it provides a nice contrast to some of the more experimental things Eno was doing.

#9) The Clash – “White Riot” – The Clash (original U.K. version released 1977, this is from the U.S. version released 1979)

The Clash had it right. When you listen to them now, they don’t sound particularly threatening or heavy. But at the time, I’d imagine “White Riot”, from their debut record, was a revelation. Other punk bands certainly existed and some even had mainstream support, but few could write a song that seemed loud and dangerous but made you tap your feet.

That the Clash were able to write hit singles and endless catchy songs in a style of music people by and large deemed inaccessible is a tremendous feat. I guess it’s easy to figure out; the music and the hooks are really good.

#10) Wire – “Ex Lion Tamer” – Pink Flag (1977)

Somewhat similarly to the Clash, Wire created poppy punk songs with infectious hooks. Their music was a little looser and perhaps not as bright as some of the Clash’s work, but the result is often the same. Snarling, British vocals rasped over energetic and forceful instrumentation, repeated for 1:27 over and over until the album is complete. We’ve discussed this phenomenon with bands like Sebadoh in the past; if your songs are going to pass by quickly, you better include something memorable in them. Wire were experts at this and Pink Flag rivals anything the Clash ever did.

John Lacey

Nintend'oh! #2: Jackal!

2010-12-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

Jackal
Developer: Konami
Release Date: June 1986 (arcade); September 1988 (NES)
“You've been chosen to be one of the few, the proud, the Jackals.”

Welcome to the second installment of Nintend’oh, the column that provides fresh perspectives on the finest entertainment of yesteryear – The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)!

It’s been 19 months since I reviewed Paperboy and a lot has changed: the name of this blog is considerably better (shorter), the Knicks seem like they may not be totally and unfathomably awful, I’ve moved to a new state, I’ve gotten a new job, I am now a hunter, I wear glasses, I married my beautiful wife Erin over the summer, I have two new nieces Elizabeth and Keira…the list goes on and on. The most notable and important change, however, is that I will be getting a new gaming console, the Xbox 360. But, to quote Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Let me put this in perspective for some readers. This is the first time in 10 years that I’ll be getting a new system with new games. New games in that they are actually new; they're currently being made and released in present day. This is a momentous occasion. It’s a daunting task, really, because there is so much out there that I know so little about. I find the unknown simultaneously arousing and frightful. The term “fear-boner” has found itself in regular rotation. I’ve taken to researching various titles for the Xbox and the result is, well…interesting. No matter what game title I enter into Google, no matter what YouTube search query I use, and no matter what Gamespot review I read, I always arrive at the same conclusion. Let’s just say that if I were a character on Lost, Jackal would be my constant. To illustrate my point, here are snippets of my stream of conscious as I search out new games to buy for Xbox:

- Wow! A new Bond game – is it money!? Will it be as money as Goldeneye? It’s a first/third person shooter, but it has some driving levels…Shooter…Driving…JACKAL

- EA’s Madden 2011 looked pretty money. The Jets are stacked in it. Stacked Jets…throwing bombs…Jets and Bombs…War…Wait, doesn’t EA make those Medal of Honor games too? Are those money? I heard the newest one takes place in Afghanistan…Afghanistan borders Iran…Iran Contra…Iran borders Iraq… Saddam…Desert …Kicking ass …Kicking ass in the desert? … JACKAL

- NHL 2011 looks incredible. It’s almost as fun as NHL 94 for Genesis or Blades of Steel for NES. Blades…Of steel. Awesome game…cool graphics…all your friends will want it…JACKAL.

Jackal, or as I like to call it, 特殊部隊ジャッカル, is a fantastic game for the NES. It is the NES port of the popular arcade game Top Gunner (which certainly tried to play off the popularity of Top Gun which also came out in 1986). Jackal is an overhead run and gun game that can be played single player or multiplayer (simultaneous). The player controls an armored jeep with the dual objectives of rescuing POWs and defeating the boss at the end of each of the eight levels. The player is awarded points when POWs are transferred to rescue helicopters at several pick up locations interspersed throughout each level. If a player earns enough points, an extra life will be granted. If the player catches a POW that is blinking, that player's weaponry will be upgraded. Any collision or contact with an enemy will cause the jeep to spontaneously combust and costs a life.

Jackal is a tremendously fun game. For those familiar with the classic game Choplifter, Jackal is essentially Choplifter-in-a-Jeep. Combining rescue missions with a run ‘n gun arcade style game was not only awesome but considerably ahead of its time. There’s something inherently fun about driving games, but driving games that employ fighting and/or shooting are even better (remember Road Rash or Skitchin' for Sega Genesis?) There are several aspects of the game that make it incredibly enjoyable even 22 years later. The mechanics of the game are spot on; players can quickly adapt to the controls of the vehicle and the shooting, but mastery requires repeated play. The pacing of the game is perfect. Like most games, it starts out easy and gets progressively difficult as the player gets further along in the game. However, there is no sudden or drastic shift in difficulty. This makes Jackal uniquely engaging from the beginning of the first level to whenever-it-is-that-your-game-ends. The weaponry in Jackal is extremely fun to play and manipulate. Each weapon brings its own dynamic to the style of play used by the player. Honestly, it’s also just fun to run people over and flatten them. Especially foreign people!

The best aspect of Jackal is the multiplayer option. In my opinion, playing Jackal in two player mode is one of the highlights of the playing the NES altogether. Aside from Contra or Double Dragon II, Jackal is the best tandem two player game ever made for the NES. The ebb and flow of the game is so effortless in Jackal. Jackal’s maps are quite large and don’t fit on one screen (known in inner geek circles as being a “push-scroller”) and this works perfectly. The “push-scroller” nature of the maps and simultaneous management of the increasing difficulty and varying landscapes provides for much strategizing on the part of the players. For example, one player can stick with the original weapons and be aggressive on the front lines, while player two hangs back and retains the upgraded weapons and is more defensive minded to minimize unnecessary deaths and loss of weaponry. This strategizing on two player mode is what makes Jackal one of the top NES games of all time.

Jackal is also awesome because of its unintentional humor. Think about it; you are essentially given a map of different parts of the world (the Middle East, Rome, Europe) and you basically obliterate every area to shreds in the name of saving American POWs, should you so choose. You don’t even have to save anyone. You can just scorch the non-American earth and leave the POWs if you want. There are heat-seeking missiles firing out of moving Medusa busts, you get to run people over with your jeep, you get to mow people down with heavy artillery, you get to ruin the ruins. It’s awesome. Take a look at this story and try to tell me that you’re not fired up about kicking some foreign ass and saving some American tail. By the way, if you aren’t fired up, then you’re either a terrorist or a communist (probably both):

The characters that you can choose from are Colonel Decker, Lieutenant Bob, Sergeant Quint (my personal favorite) and Corporal Grey. Who you choose has no impact on the game play whatsoever.

If you dominate a level you get this screenshot:

If you get dominated on the level you get this screenshot:

Wait a minute. Is that Saddam Hussein? In our jeep? Is he on our side? If not, then why do the bad guys look befuddled when I just had an awful round? What the hell? IS THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN?

All in all, Jackal has everything; fun game-play (especially multiplayer), intuitive controls, funny enough story line, funny characters, challenging maps, awesome music, great weaponry and the replay value is essentially never-ending. The game does not have any glaring flaws.

Look out for the next installment of Nintend’oh coming soon (if by soon I mean 19 months).

Dan Baxter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svGkctaM43w (Jackal NES game play)

The Dailies 12/2/10 - Tru(man) Grit

2010-12-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Trailerz

Ed Wood (1994) – B+

- Directed by Tim Burton

- Starring Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette

- Awards: Won – Best Supporting Actor (Landau), Best Makeup

- A touching and revealing look at a perennial optimist who directed some of the worst movies of all time.

L.A. Confidential (1997) – B-

- Directed by Curtis Hanson

- Starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger

- Awards: Won – Best Supporting Actress (Basinger), Best Adapted Screenplay. Nominated – Best Art Direction (Set Decoration), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Picture

- A slightly rushed and haphazard pseudo-noir film with great performances from Crowe and Spacey.

Jackass 3D (2010) – B+

- Directed by Jeff Tremaine

- Starring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, and the rest

- Jackass is funny.

Stalker (1979) – C

- Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy

- Starring Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko

- A tremendous idea about an uninhabited mystical no man’s land becomes bogged down with endless metaphorical babbling dialogue and provides no action and little payoff.

Features

True Grit (1969)
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall
Awards: Won – Best Actor (Wayne). Nominated – Best Original Song

I had never given John Wayne much thought before. Even after delving into the legendary films of the past and trying to discover for myself the cinematic giants who created and starred in them, John Wayne never struck me as particularly interesting. There seemed to be something about the majority of his films, with their cardboard plots constructed only to showcase him blowing the shit out of Japs, Commies or whoever America’s enemies were at the time, that was childish, vulgar and antiquated. Wayne’s persona superseded his acting; he appeared to me to be a spokesman for thoughtless jingoism. And because I never did much investigation into his body of work, I assumed that he never played a part beyond a “rah-rah” American soldier, which wasn’t very appealing to me. Wayne, it appeared to me, was a relic of an era that I had missed and I was not keen to discover.

But through all that personal garbage, I didn’t realize that Wayne was more than a bygone icon. He could legitimately act. I watched the classic, John Ford-directed Stagecoach (1939), and thoroughly enjoyed both the film and Wayne’s performance. With the forthcoming True Grit remake coming this month, I thought it would be an appropriate time to watch the original film (for which Wayne won that year’s Best Actor Oscar) as preparation.

Wayne stars as Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed, cantankerous marshal of the old West intimately familiar with the mostly lawless nearby Indian territories. He is hired by a teenage girl named Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), who pays Cogburn to enter the Indian territory and hunt down and capture the man who killed her father. Famed country singer Glen Campbell accompanies the two on their mission as a Texas Ranger who is tracking the very same outlaw. Other famous and familiar faces appear throughout the film, such as Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall.

True Grit works because of the interaction between Wayne and Darby. Darby’s character is smart and resourceful, refusing to be pushed around by the male-dominated old West. Because of her attitude, she proves a worthy foil for Wayne, a hard-drinking old-timer who initially seems to care more about money (and himself) than justice. Their back and forth needling eventually gives way to a close friendship, one that is believable due to the quality acting involved. Wayne called one particular scene, in which he discusses his ex-wife with the girl, the best scene he ever did.

Wayne carries an appropriate balance of tenderness and menace in True Grit. We know because of what other characters say about him and how he conducts himself that he is a man to be feared. But Wayne plays the old gunfighter not so much grizzled as mellowed by his hard life, and his spitfire female companion finally gives him cause to come out of his shell.

Pieces of True Grit are a tad hokey. The film is rated G, so the standard western gunfights and killings are subdued and tame. The music and some dialogue lend themselves toward an aura of comedy, which works well for the film, though I wonder how the Coen Brothers will choose to play the material with their remake. True Grit is a fun, enjoyable film with great performances; a film that has caused me to rethink my stance on John Wayne and investigate some of his other films.

B+

The Truman Show (1998)
Directed by Peter Weir
Starring Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
Awards: Nominated – Best Supporting Actor (Harris), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay

Jim Carrey’s career has followed an interesting trajectory. After a few years on the sketch comedy show In Living Color, he burst onto the national scene in the early 1990s and immediately became one of the biggest stars in the world. After several smash comedy hits, he branched out into “legitimate, dramatic acting” with films like The Truman Show and later Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He carried these films to critical and commercial success despite their lack of fart noises or other scatological humor, proving that audiences would pay to watch him in more challenging and less juvenile roles. From there, unfortunately, he largely disappeared, coming out of hiding once a year or so to voice a computer-animated Ebenezer Scrooge or appear in some children’s schlock. Carrey is still a big name, but it seems he hasn’t appeared in anything anyone has cared about in close to a decade.

The Truman Show was Carrey’s first foray into a more dramatic film, though it is more appropriately termed a comedy with some dashes of humanity and drama. As you most likely know, Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, the star of a reality television series that follows him around 24 hours a day. Truman has no idea he is on television; the producers of the show have created a domed world that contains Truman and the other citizens (re: actors) of his town.

The Truman Show is fascinating in its exhibition and description of Truman’s artificial world and how everything works within it, and the best parts of the film are scenes where Truman is growing suspicious of exactly what is happening around him and starts testing his surroundings to try and figure things out. Indeed, much of The Truman Show can be considered a science-fiction caper, with Truman coming to realize his situation and seeing what wacky things he can get away with.

The film does miss some golden opportunities and does not delve into areas I would have liked to see explored. Truman has no existential crisis when he finds out everything and everyone he has ever known were manufactured. He doesn’t question how he came to adopt his constant cheery disposition and whether that’s who he really is or whether he’s been engineered to be that way. There are no meaningful confrontations with his wife, mother, or best friend, the three closest people to him. These conversations would have made the film a little more human and would have helped bring us down from the high-level concept and technical mumbo-jumbo we are bombarded with throughout. The Truman Show proved Carrey had the capacity for a true dramatic role and lends hope that he has another great act left within his career.

John Lacey

People We Hate #2

2010-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is pretty self-explanatory. We post a picture of someone we dislike or find annoying. You comment on it. Caption the photo, say whether you agree or disagree with the hatred, etc.

Kathy Najimy

From the Library: Neil Young - This Note's For You

2010-11-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

Neil Young
This Note’s For You
1988 Reprise

I don’t know if you know this, but libraries are a great place to pick up new music, particularly the libraries of Somerville and the Merrimack Valley. These libraries are not only stocked with classic albums, but commonly contain droves of records from indie-rock Pitchfork.com darlings. I enjoy “shopping” for music at the library because I don’t know what I’m going to find there and because I’m still working with a limited selection. I can’t type a band into a search box and automatically download every album. I’m at the mercy of the front-desk weirdo who orders these albums, and hence I sometimes need to go out on a limb and try out something I wouldn’t have thought to listen to previously.

For fans of legendary and/or prolific artists like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, the library is a godsend. These types of musicians always have numerous unknown and unheralded (re: shitty) albums that the library always seems to have. For a completist like me, this is fantastic. I’m certainly not going to buy a copy of Empire Burlesque, and even the Slovak on the other side of the bit torrents I frequent doesn’t have it. It’s called filling the gaps; I’m missing certain albums from my favorite artists and the library helps me to track down those records.

One such filled hole is This Note’s For You, a Neil Young album released in 1988. Young had released a string of critical and commercial flops throughout much of the 80s (some self-inflicted; he released the nigh-unlistenable Trans to spur his release from his record contract), leading to the release of this album. This Note’s For You helped Young get back on the right track career-wise and set up his true “comeback” album, Freedom, released the following year. The song “This Note’s For You” actually won MTV Music Video of the Year honors for 1989, which I still think is absurd. The content of the video is vehemently anti-MTV, but beyond that, it shows how much MTV and the music business as a whole has changed that Young would have even been considered for such an award, let alone win it.

You could mistake This Note’s For You for a concept album. From its blue, rain-soaked cover art, to its title, to its blues-jazz bar band sound, everything about it gives off the vibe of a smoky basement music club. Young plays the small-time, big fun bandleader on This Note’s For You. It’s a rare and different sound for him, one that works very well.

There are shades of the grunginess that would come to define Young’s 90s albums and which we still hear off-and-on today. “This Note’s For You” stays with the blues tempo, but its edges are sharpened by a forceful opening and refrain. The subject matter is more biting as well, with Young bemoaning the corporate permeation of music and lambasting other artists whose songs are used in commercials to promote corporate interests. Towards the song’s end, Young assures what he assumes to be a mainstream-sick audience, repeating “I got the real thing, baby”. We didn’t know it at the time, but Young was then issuing what would basically be his credo for the rest of his career.

Later, on “Hey Hey”, Young pleads to the listener, “Get offa that couch, turn off your MTV!” Young posited himself as a lone warrior trying to repel the commercialization of music while everyone else in the mid-to-late 80s seemed to embrace that mentality. Rather than sound curmudgeonly, however, Young is so direct that he sounds passionate, inspired, and ultimately correct. He’s stating for his followers and anyone else who will listen, “This is what music is, not that”. That sentiment makes the MTV Video Award win that much more astounding.

There are points where Young falls into the trappings of the era. “Twilight” strays from the album’s M.O., delivering a beat reminiscent of a darker Police song and ultimately sounding dated. Neil was dipping his toes into the 80s distant-sounding big bass soundscape here. That he entered uncharted territory for himself is admirable, but the execution is lacking.

Throughout much of This Note’s For You, including the excellent “Married Man” and “Sunny Inside” (both helped in no small part by a vibrant horn section), Young sounds truly excited and inspired, feelings lacking from much of his earlier 80s output. The record sounds intimate due to its simplicity; there’s no place where the care and craft Young put into these songs can hide. Young is reacquainting himself with the type of music he was raised on, and judging by the late-career renaissance that followed, This Note’s For You represented a cleansing of the palette. It allowed Young to deconstruct, get comfortable, and earn a fresh start.

As a smoky, bar room blues-jazz album, This Note’s For You is an absolute triumph. For a Neil Young album, it’s a terrific curiosity, exhibiting a sound rarely heard in his music. It is a very good album, well worth the zero dollars I paid for it.

B+

John Lacey

The Random Ten #20

2010-10-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

Welcome back to the Random Ten. This was supposed to be a Random Twenty, with Mr. Steele collaborating, but prior engagements prevented him from doing so. He’ll be back with his own Random Ten next week.

#1) Peter Gabriel – “Mercy Street” – So (1986)

So, featuring songs like “Sledgehammer”, “In Your Eyes” and “Big Time”, was one of the biggest albums of the 1980s. “Mercy Street” is a lot different than those songs, replacing their intoxicating exuberance with a toned-down seriousness that doesn’t work quite as well.

Gabriel’s sound is interesting because it is so synonymous with the 80s. “Mercy Street” has a plodding, brooding, and vaguely computerized/vaguely foreign beat that date the song but don’t make it feel old. Peter Gabriel was ahead of his time, and even though his then-state of the art methods are now antiquated, there’s still a vibrancy and contemporaneousness to his music that continues to stand out.

“Mercy Street” isn’t very good, though, clocking in at around 6 ½ minutes but containing a boring intro and outro that take up almost half of the runtime. It’s bland, but Gabriel had a way of making even his bland songs sound interesting.

#2) String Cheese Incident – “Hotel Window” – On The Road: Louisville, KY 4/17/02 (2002)

“Hotel Window” sounds like it might be originally written by someone else, but I couldn’t find any information online. Anyway, I don’t listen to “SCI” too much anymore, but I’m always happy when they show up on a Random Ten. They have the capacity to play some balls-out jams, they play some interesting covers (such as Talking Heads’ “Naïve Melody” and Paul Simon’s “Under African Skies”), and then they can come with a traditional rock ballad like “Hotel Window”.

As with many jam bands, would-be strengths of more straightforward rock acts are sacrificed to lengthy instrumentation and improvisation. Bill Nershi is not a very good singer, and his vocals on “Hotel Window” don’t fit well; they’re nasally and low, where the lyrics and music call for a singer able to hit a more soulful note.

There isn’t much else I can say to the negative. Of course, an extended jam fills out the middle portion of the song, bookended by a couple of quick verses. The music matches the lyrics nicely, creating a hopeful but lonely aura around a person watching over a city from their hotel room window. It’s a nice listen.

#3) U2 – “Twilight” – Boy (1980)

“Twilight” is from U2’s first album, released back in October of 1980. The sound here is post-punk, with Bono providing a snarling slant on his vocals and staggered, direct guitar riffing from The Edge.

There is a lot of force to the early work of U2. Their new material is so layered and purposefully larger than life that it is able to replicate through engineering what they were effortlessly able to do in their beginning. Not to say their new material is bad, but “Twilight” has amazing vitality and raw strength readily apparently thirty years later. If you couple that sound with some monolithic hit singles, it’s not hard to hear how U2 became U2.

#4) moe. – “Plane Crash” – Tin Cans & Car Tires (1998)

It is an undeniable fact of life that studio albums from jam bands are not as good as their live work. Jam bands are great at improv and experimentation, two traits that don’t fit the rigid structures of a studio record.

We just discussed String Cheese Incident, who were able to cobble together a couple of half-decent studio albums due to their bluegrass/country background and traditional, old-timey songwriting. Bands like moe., on the other hand, come up with a really cool guitar riff and then play endless variations on it for eight minutes. Live, while on drugs? Fine. On a record? Boring.

Tin Cans & Car Tires is moe.’s best studio album, though it still falls into those riff-heavy, repetitious trappings described above. “Plane Crash” is the album’s standout. The song is about being deathly afraid of a plane crash and it is forceful enough in both lyrics and music to get that feeling across. Some of the lyrics are a bit foolish, but their simplicity is also effective. Consider the chorus:

Strap me in, tie me down
And roll me a bone
I’m getting on an airplane
And I’m flying home

Strap me in, tie me down
I’m learning to fly
Drive across the country
I get too fucking high

The chorus rightfully explodes with energy and an appropriately desperate and frightful vocal style. The song concludes with a rolling jam and what sounds like an instrumental panic attack, with a violin added to complete the foreboding effect. This might be moe.’s best song.

#5) Leo Kottke – “Echoing Gilewitz” – A Shout Toward Noon (1986)

I know Leo Kottke best as the classical guitarist who has collaborated with Mike Gordon, bassist of Phish, on two albums. This was a library pickup that I’ve never listened to, so let’s learn more about him together!

“Echoing Gilewitz” is Kottke playing an acoustic guitar with no accompaniment, and it is appropriately beautiful. It’s soft, contemplative, and slightly sorrowful; it’s like the guitar equivalent of watching a sunrise by yourself. Not for everyone, but quite good.

#6) The Beatles – “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” – Help! (1965)

You probably know “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”, or at least I hope you do. It’s a timeless pop rock classic.

The Beatles made everything sound so simple. This song is haunting, mesmerizing, hopeful and tentative at the same time, all while sounding great and coming in at barely over two minutes. A flute accompaniment shortly before the song’s conclusion pushes it into “brilliant” territory.

The lyrics aren’t very complex, but they match the music to a T. The Beatles did the “I miss my baby” songs to death in their early days, but they managed to not only make them sound fresh and interesting, but made them some of the best songs ever produced by anyone.

#7) Iced Earth – “Vengeance Is Mine” – The Dark Saga (1996)

I gotta be honest. I was digging this list so far, and I don’t really feel like listening to a metal song I haven’t heard in ten years and which I only keep on my iTunes for the sake of posterity. Matt, you want to help?

But seriously, let’s give it a whirl. This is from a concept album based on the Spawn comic book (really), and the lyrics are predictable violent babble and forced rhyming:

Profaner to humanity menaced by flesh and bone
Screams of the unknown youth to him the sweetest tone
Undying in his will to kill his bloodlust is profound
For the blood of the lamb I’ve got to bring him down

But…BUT…the guitar riffs and blast beat drumming are definitely awesome. It’s hard not to like some of the thought that goes into the music here. The melodies are complex and often legitimately harmonious, making “Vengeance Is Mine” childish but enjoyable.

#8) Robert Johnson – “Traveling Riverside Blues” (alternate take) – King Of The Delta Blues Singers (1961; song originally recorded 1937)

Ah, Robert Johnson. You sold your soul to the devil just so Led Zeppelin could make a more famous version of your song. Zeppelin may have lengthened and electrified “Traveling Riverside Blues”, but the song undeniably remains Johnson’s.

From 1937, this recording obviously sounds old. Johnson’s legend casts a shadow over his work, and due to the crackles and tininess of the original recording, you’re almost listening for hints of a diabolic influence in the music. His legend shines through, and the song is simply great.

#9) Beastie Boys – “Live At P.J.’s” – Check Your Head (1992)

Another raucous outing from the Beastie Boys, with the three rappers passing off verses and punctuating each other’s lines throughout. A lot of what the Beastie Boys do sounds awfully similar to me, but “Live at P.J.’s” is greatly aided by a funky beat, nice tempo changes and some inventive rhyming. “Live at P.J.’s” is very raw; it sounds like a live performance at some dingy night club, which is the song’s premise. Two songs from Check Your Head have showed up on the Random Ten over the last couple of months and I’ve liked them both. Perhaps it’s time to give the record a serious listen?

#10) Little Feat – “Cold, Cold, Cold” – Waiting For Columbus (1978; the song was originally released on Feats Don’t Fail Me Now [1974])

“Cold, Cold, Cold” appeared as part of a medley on Little Feat’s seminal album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. This is culled from their Waiting For Columbus live album of a few years later.

Little Feat has an unmistakable southern rock sound. Like so many other 70s southern rock bands (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, even the Band, to name a few), their music pays homage to the past while adding muscle and inventiveness to their influences. Now Little Feat sounds almost traditional, but for the time this was advanced stuff. The guitar flourishes, organ, and horn flares sound right at home. The songs of Little Feat, including this one, are infectious and fun, the way southern rock should be.

John Lacey

People Play Games #3: Monopoly/Battleship

2010-10-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

People Play Games is back, taking another look at old video games that are uniquely terrible for one reason or another. Today, we’ll discuss video games based on board games, looking at the examples of Monopoly and Battleship, both for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

It’s hard not to like a good board game. They’re inexpensive, they’re easy to learn, and they provide simple but competitive fun. Additionally, most of the classic ones have been around for like a hundred years, so board games like Monopoly and Battleship are ingrained in American culture. Even if you’ve never played a game of Monopoly, you probably know how it works and what it’s about.

For some reason, video game companies thought that consumers would want to spend $50 to play these age-old American institutions in a newer, shittier way. Never mind the fact that a copy of the real Monopoly is probably in the area of $20, that a board game is inherently more interactive and fun because you are actually rolling the dice and moving the pieces, and that no one has any need or desire for a digital Monopoly game.

This miscalculation could be forgiven if the video game sported amazing graphics or put a new, fun slant on the original game. Of course, it doesn’t. Unless I see the thimble and the iron popping out of my television set or unless I’m getting real money to play it, I think I’d rather play the real game with real people.

But does it feel like the real Monopoly? When playing board games, there is inherent and constant shit-talking, especially when some poor sap just landed on your deluxe hotel property and now has to fork over all of their cash. In the NES Monopoly, the game moves so fast you hardly have any idea what the fuck is going on. The computer rolls the dice, lands on a property and purchases it in the space of four seconds.

Yeah, that looks just as good as playing the real thing, right? So Monopoly for Nintendo offers no discernable reason for playing it over the real board game and it costs $30 more. Why was this made?

If Monopoly is the baseball of board games (a patient and strategic game, takes forever to play, has been around forever), Battleship is the football. The action is violent and quick, players slowly squeeze the life out of each other once they get a “hit”, and the game can turn around in an instant if your opponent gives you an opening. Again, this sounds more exciting in real life, right?

Battleship for NES adds some insane “wrinkles” to the classic game, allowing the player to use “depth charges” and shoot five missiles at once. I point to this as evidence that the game didn’t need to be made in the first place. Everyone loves Battleship. I don’t think you can find a person who knows what Battleship is that doesn’t adore it. People like it the way it is. The only justification for its existence on Nintendo is that the programmers piled some stupid shit on top of it and claimed it was a new game.

In past articles on the Musicarium, we’ve discussed media that claimed to promote family values while simultaneously undermining them. The Tamagotchi allowed kids to raise a virtual pet when a real life pet is much more fun and rewarding. TGIF told families to sit and watch other, better families on TV and passed this off as a family activity. Board games can be played by anyone, but I’d wager the first thing you think of when you think of the term “board game” is a family sitting around a table playing one. In this instance, board games are perfect the way they are. The idea of improving on them by making a group of people perform yet another activity where they sit around a television is a tad insidious.

Although, it is cool to see the enemy battleship actually blow up.

John Lacey

People We Hate #1

2010-10-11T18:31:00.001-07:00

This is pretty self-explanatory. We post a picture of someone we dislike or find annoying. You comment on it. Caption the photo, say whether you agree or disagree with the hatred, etc.

John Ratzenberger

Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses - Junky Star

2010-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
Junky Star
2010 Lost Highway

Junky Star is the latest release from Ryan Bingham, the Americana-country-folk-rock fusion artist known primarily for his amazing guitar work and raspy “beyond his years” vocals. Junky Star is the third official album from Bingham and his Dead Horses backing band, following 2007’s Mescalito and 2009’s Roadhouse Sun. Bingham also contributed to the soundtrack for the 2009 film Crazy Heart, penning the Academy Award-winning track “The Weary Kind” for that movie.

His previous efforts are strong throughout and provide many reasons to be excited about his emergence. They don’t quite put it all together at once, but there were enough inspired moments to believe that Bingham was capable of creating a masterpiece, and it was hoped that Junky Star would hit the home run that fans had been waiting for.

In order to create such a cohesive, strong album, Bingham is forced to walk a tightrope between his two styles. He has one hand in traditional acoustic country-folk and the other in stampeding hard rock, and these styles often manifest themselves from song to song or sometimes within one track. The first two songs, “The Poet” and “The Wandering”, are both harmonica driven tunes displaying this dichotomy between the two styles of Bingham’s music. “The Poet” is direct and controlled, while “The Wandering” is fast and loose.

Bingham has the ability to go dark, as evidenced by the twangy, desperate and paranoid “Strange Feelin’ In The Air”, perhaps the album’s best song. This track contains a fine example of Bingham’s oft-employed breakdowns, where the song deviates from verse-chorus conventions and explodes into a multi-layered groove. Some of Bingham’s material, like the title track of the record, can be sparse, but it often works in reflection of what he’s singing about, especially on his Springsteen-esque stories of the dusty downtrodden.

Junky Star covers a variety of styles without problem. The record moves from contemplative acoustic folk to riff-heavy Americana to road house bar blues and back again, and neither the music nor the album’s structure suffer for it. The record strikes a much better balance between his tones than his previous work and keeps things on an even keel, eschewing the jarring transitions between tracks that disrupted his other albums and allowing things to fit together more seamlessly.

Bingham is only twenty-nine, but we get a sense that he is the real deal, and it’s not just because of his rootsy music. His gruff voice and stories of the dust covered back roads of the country ring authentic. He’s a trustworthy guide, knowledgeable of the material he’s singing about despite his young age. There’s a Bob Dylan quality about Ryan Bingham; someone who tells human stories with authority and who is talented enough to back up those stories with his music.

I’m not certain that this is the breakthrough that Bingham was hoping for, however: there really isn’t one knockout song in particularly that carries the rest of the record on its back. But there are a number of good songs not discussed above (the eerie “Hallelujah”, the sorrowful “Self-Righteous Wall”, and the raucous “Direction of the Wind”, to name three), and Junky Star represents a collection of music featuring a number of improvements over his previous two albums. Better lyrics, better structure, and evidence of an improved songwriter jump to mind. Maybe he’ll hit the grand slam next time around.

B+

John Lacey

The Dailies 9/29/10 - I've Fallen Way Behind

2010-09-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve watched a lot of movies recently, many of them really fucking good. So let’s dive right in.

Trailers

Stray Dog (1949) – C
- Directed by Akira Kurosawa
- Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji
- Yes, it’s a Kurosawa picture, but the incredibly slow pace and the hopeless reactions of the characters to nearly every obstacle they encounter led to the average grade.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – B-
- Directed by Stanley Kramer
- Starring Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters and countless others
- Awards: Won – Best Sound Effects. Nominated – Best Color Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound
- An endlessly spoofed treasure hunt comedy featuring pretty much every funny screen personality from the turn of the century to its release.

The Wages of Fear (1953) – A-
- Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli
- An effortlessly and incredibly tense story of four downtrodden men tapped to drive unstable dynamite across treacherous terrain.

The Hustler (1961) – A-
- Directed by Robert Rossen
- Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George S. Scott
- Awards: Won – Best Black & White Set Decoration, Best Black & White Cinematography. Nominated – Best Actor (Newman), Best Supporting Actor (Gleason), Best Supporting Actor (Scott), Best Actress (Laurie), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture
- A movie about a pool hustler that becomes much more than that due to four epic performances by the principals.

Stroszek (1977) – A
- Directed by Werner Herzog
- Starring Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz
- A Herzog classic that doesn’t star Klaus Kinski, and already one of my favorite films ever.

Rocky Balboa (2006) – B+
- Directed by Sylvester Stallone
- Starring Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Tarver, Milo Ventimiglia, Burt Young
- Much, much better than a sixth Rocky movie has any right to be.

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) – C-
- Directed by James D. Scurlock
- Featuring various talking heads
- A documentary that purports to inform us of predatory credit card practices and ends up telling us nothing we didn’t already know.

Features

The American (2010)
Directed by Anton Corbijn
Starring George Clooney, Violante Placido, Irina Bjorklund

Here’s a film that’s too patient, too deliberate and perhaps too directionless for its own good. The material in The American screams for more action; for the film to shed its meticulousness and give us some sort of blow-off that never arrives. I’m a believer that one can make a good film about anything, and there is a good film to be made with this story. Unfortunately, that film will have to be made another time.

George Clooney plays an experienced assassin who takes into hiding in Italy shortly after the film begins. You see, the film opens with Clooney being nearly killed by assassins in Sweden, which causes him to go on the run. We are not told who the Swedes are or why they want to kill Clooney, but this actually becomes inconsequential as we continue. The American admittedly does a fine job of keeping Clooney’s encounters in Italy self-contained, so that we don’t need to know who is pursuing him to get the gist of what’s happening.

Though the film begins promisingly, it eventually feels like we just start following Clooney’s character around as he does different things. It doesn’t feel like a cohesive film. Things happen, and the camera films them, but it all feels empty and rather pointless. The American is so purposely esoteric that it eliminates most of the investment we have in its characters.

The American does have its merits. It looks fantastic. It is shot very sharply and very well. The Italian scenery is great to look at. It features a couple of incredibly beautiful women. Clooney does a nice job as the tired, lonely veteran assassin, who just wants to leave the killing business and settle down on a villa somewhere but realizes that’s probably not realistic for his line of work (which is itself a tired theme). The other actors and actresses perform admirably as well. It’s too bad there’s just not enough going on to care.

C-

The Town (2010)
Directed by Ben Affleck
Starring Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner

The Town is half blue-collar crime film and half romance film, with elements from each intersecting with each other in different ways. It’s a slick film with well-done action sequences, but its great flaw is its attempt to try to be more than it really is.

The Town concerns a group of bank robbers from the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, who are led by Ben Affleck. We start with a bank robbery in Harvard Square, where things go awry and the group takes a hostage (Hall). After the robbery, the gang finds that the hostage lives in Charlestown and Affleck sets off to intimidate her, but ends up falling for her instead. He then has to keep his bank robbing activity secret from her while continuing his illegal activities.

The film serves as a commercial for Boston, with great chase scenes taking place in the claustrophobic North End section and a final shootout occurring at Fenway Park. These and other action scenes in The Town provide the most enjoyable aspect of the film; back to basics police vs. bad guys car chases and gunfighting.

Storyline problems, however, haunt the film. Believability issues are a constant, glaring annoyance. Rebecca Hall’s character repeats that the hostage encounter was the worst experience of her life, but when she finds out that Affleck was one of the robbers (he was disguised during the heist), her fury dissipates almost immediately and she remains in love with him. The police, despite knowing that Affleck and his gang are responsible for the rash of bank robberies in the area but not having enough evidence to convict, somehow forget to tail them at the end of the film, allowing them to participate in the Fenway Park theft.

The acting helps us move beyond these problems. Affleck has played “young blue collar Boston bozo” more times than I care to remember, but he does it reliably well. His best friend and second-in-command Jeremy Renner is terrific as the psychotic muscle of the group. Jon Hamm, so great as Don Draper on Mad Men, is unfortunately saddled with a one-dimensional and thankless role as stock “threatening FBI agent”.

The Town should have stuck to its guns as an action-thriller. The love between Affleck and Hall is forced and unbelievable and barely affects the outcome of the film. The addition of cornball romance to the central story was used as a device to make the film seem like more than it really is when it would have been fine all along.

B-

John Lacey

Film Convention #2: Badass Western Artifacts and Weaponry

2010-09-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Two vital components to any western film are aura and legend. Successful westerns need to convey an inherent primordial lawlessness and chaos that would allow the characters in them to exist and thrive. Everything contributes to this feeling: the horses, the guns, the outpost town and its saloons and hotels, the desert or mountain surroundings, even the dirt and grime that covers most of the people. All of these factors must be spot-on in order to create the western illusion and to allow us to suspend our disbelief.

Nothing in a western embodies aura and legend more than the heroes and villains in these films. Their exploits are often well known by the other characters in the town, who speak of them in reverent or frightful tones. Western heroes and villains often have either cool or menacing nicknames, immediately distinguishing them from the two-dimensional riff-raff that otherwise inhabits the town. These characters command authority, from the other characters, from the filmmakers, and ultimately, from the viewer.

A convention often used in western films to push these main characters over the top is to adorn them with an artifact or weapon that works to strengthen the character’s motives or to make them seem even more unstoppable. Today, we’ll take a look at a few examples. Some are items, but not weapons, that spell doom for an enemy when they make their appearance. Others are unique or formidable weapons, like guns or knives, that give them an advantage in their nomadic travels and chance encounters.

“El Indio” – played by Gian Maria Volonté – For A Few Dollars More (1965)

“El Indio” is the principal villain in the second film of the Man with No Name trilogy (following A Fistful of Dollars and preceding The Good, the Bad, And the Ugly). Indio is the most wanted fugitive of the outlaw west. He’s a seemingly bipolar killer who operates under the pretense of being a bandit and bank robber. Though much of the action in the film revolves around an Indio-orchestrated bank robbery, the man himself is insanely detached from his actions, and we only see glimpses of his genuine humanity when he tortures and kills his enemies and those unfortunate enough to run afoul of him.

To torture, he uses a musical pocketwatch. He obtained the pocketwatch, we learn, from a woman he raped years ago. The woman was so disgusted and shamed that she committed suicide in the middle of the crime, and Indio stole her pocketwatch as a keepsake of that demented moment. Indio challenges his opponents to duels in the film, using the chimes of the pocketwatch as an indicator of when the duel begins and when the participants can fire on one another. Only Indio knows the chimes of the watch and exactly when the music will end. Multiple scenes in For A Few Dollars More consist of Indio’s enemy rigid with fright, awaiting an inevitable death while they both wait for the chimes to complete. Indio couples this unfair advantage with his expert gunmanship, meaning that the chimes of the pocketwatch mean certain death for whoever hears them.

“Silence” – played by Jean-Louis Trintignant – The Great Silence (1968)

Sometimes these weapons and artifacts don’t have a long back story. Silence, the appropriately named hero of The Great Silence, eliminates evil bounty hunters with a simple but awesome rapid-fire pistol. No story is given as to its origin, but we can tell from the way that Silence shoots this pistol that he’s had it for a long time, and that it has ended the lives of many people. Whereas in some films, like the aforementioned For A Few Dollars More, the item adds to and builds on the character, in some cases the character adds to the item. The protagonists in The Great Silence are Silence, a mute, scarred gunfighter railing against frontier injustice, and the maniacal Loco (played by Klaus Kinski), a bounty-hunting killer indiscriminately and excessively ravaging the local populace. Their conflicting personalities drive the film, and in this case they lend weight and importance to their weapons, particularly whether Silence has enough firepower to overcome his nemesis.

“Harmonica” – played by Charles Bronson – Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

The harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West serves a similar purpose to the pocketwatch in For A Few Dollars More (which makes sense, because Sergio Leone directed both films). The harmonica is meant to portend doom for those who hear it. Charles Bronson (he of Death Wish fame) plays “Harmonica”, who is actually unnamed in the film but gains this moniker because of his penchant for playing an eerie repeating tune on his namesake throughout the film.

Harmonica spends the film following Frank (Henry Fonda, in perhaps the best villainous performance in film history). You see, years before the events of the film, Frank tied a noose around Harmonica’s older brother’s neck, and forced Harmonica to support his brother and save him from hanging by standing underneath him for support. As Harmonica struggled, Frank stuffed an actual harmonica in his mouth, hence the gimmick and the name. The older brother died, but the harmonica became a calling card and provided a swan song to those that would soon be defeated in battle. Frank, too, is forced to hear that eerie song right before Harmonica gets his revenge.

“Django” – played by Franco Nero – Django (1966)

Django may have the greatest weapon of all western characters. A hero, he drags a coffin with him everywhere he goes. We don’t at first know what is in the coffin, but when Django is pressed into combat, we learn that it conceals a machine gun, which makes quick work of his pistol-carrying adversaries.

The Django character is an interesting case because the machine gun itself is so ridiculous and dwarfs the relatively puny weaponry of his foes, allowing Django to destroy large quantities of enemies at once. More interesting is the visual aesthetic of Django dragging his coffin, an image that has been recycled by a number of musicians and films (including countless copycat Django-themed westerns). The coffin gun provides both the character and the film an iconic weapon and an indelible image.

“Britt” – played by James Coburn – The Magnificent Seven (1960)

You may know James Coburn as the old commodore who didn’t cheat well enough at the final poker table in Maverick, but thirty-five years prior he was a switchblade-throwing hero in The Magnificent Seven. Coburn later became a western veteran, but here he was a fresh-faced newcomer to the genre, playing a character that is lightning-quick with a knife.

Knives aren’t often used as primary weapons in westerns because they aren’t as exciting as guns, but the film takes pains to show just how good Coburn is to establish him as a threat. When we’re introduced to him, we see him challenged to throw his knife faster than a bullet. He easily wins the contest, but the challenger demands that they duel, knife against bullet, for real. Coburn wins that battle, too, showing that western weaponry isn’t limited to enormous or otherwise crazy guns.

John Lacey

Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

2010-08-23T16:17:00.001-07:00

Sun Kil Moon
Admiral Fell Promises
2010 Caldo Verde

Mark Kozelek, the driving force (and perhaps the only force) behind Sun Kil Moon, began his music career in earnest as a member of the band Red House Painters. That band released several albums over the course of a decade or so until they split in 2001, and since then, Kozelek has been releasing a string of albums under both his own name and the Sun Kil Moon moniker. Admiral Fell Promises is the fourth album to bear the Sun Kil Moon name, following the fantastic Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003), Tiny Cities (2005) and April (2008) albums.

Kozelek’s lyrics are perhaps the main attraction to his music. He’s a very literal wordsmith. His music is soaked in nostalgia; most Kozelek songs, Sun Kil Moon or otherwise, concern remembrances of particular people and places. Kozelek is brilliant at bringing the listener to these places and painting an image with his words. The music acts as a solvent for those words, allowing us to glide through Kozelek’s thoughts and feelings seamlessly.

Though most of Kozelek’s output follows the same trajectory, most of his albums will erupt in a cascade of sound at just the right moments to provide some relief from the occasionally heavy melancholic nostalgia. Admiral Fell Promises is much more straightforward than Sun Kil Moon’s previous albums, opting for perennial sparseness and lightness and eschewing the more rocking elements of the previous records. Beautiful guitar work and strong lyrics abound, but Admiral Fell Promises doesn’t pack the punch of Sun Kil Moon’s earlier work and can’t match the otherworldly heights of those albums.

We start with “Ålesund”, a very pretty song with a simple acoustic guitar complimenting Kozelek’s haunted voice. All songs on Admiral Fell Promises consist of Kozelek and his acoustic guitar, which makes this sound more like an exercise in classical guitar than a rock record. Any type of percussion is rare and the music is rarely punched up, relying on Kozelek’s powerful vocals and force of will to push songs over the top.

The album continues with a number of nice, thoughtful songs, all providing enjoyable listens but never deviating from the mean or powering their way out of the speakers. The album’s fourth track, “Third And Seneca”, is the first to command attention, starting light but eventually picking up and changing tempo and sound, providing the album with a needed shift. Kozelek sings about the view from his apartment window and thinks about the places he’s been in illuminating simplicity:

Seattle black, Alaska blue
Oregon gray, raincloud Vancouver
Dead in Denver, drowsy Idaho
Just dreams away from your love, San Francisco

Sometimes songs go the other way, which also works well. “The Leaning Tree” starts softly, but morphs into a somber acoustic soundscape without resorting to a jarring transition. Songs continue to flow nicely into one another, each beautiful but largely lacking impression. Admiral Fell Promises is almost boringly beautiful, because Kozelek makes every song sound so nice and it seems so easy for him to write them. One nice thing about Kozelek is this effortlessness. Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon might be revelatory for people who like to slow down, take their time, and look around every now and then. Kozelek isn’t in a rush, and he’s one of the few songwriters with the innate ability to transfer this spirit into his music and have it make sense.

Despite the collection of good songs and the cohesion between them, Admiral Fell Promises can’t help but feel like a slight disappointment based on Sun Kil Moon’s previous, absolutely brilliant output. Where the three previous Sun Kil Moon records were dynamic and different, Admiral Fell Promises doesn’t take any chances and doesn’t stray far from its melancholy classical acoustic core. The lyrics remain top notch, but the album lacks the strength to make them as vibrant as they should be. This album is certainly a worthy endeavor, but one that might cause some lapses in concentration while listening to it.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #19

2010-08-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

#1) Wilco – “I Must Be High” – A.M. (1995)

“I Must Be High” is the first song from Wilco’s first album, A.M. On A.M., Wilco had not yet progressed into the atmospheric, droning rock they would later become famous for. There would be elements of those strange places Wilco would boldly go on their second album, Being There (1996), and their experimental pop-rock would become fully fledged with the Summerteeth album (1999).

There’s nothing on “I Must Be High” or A.M. in general that indicates that Wilco would head in that direction. It’s mostly straightforward country-influenced pop rock, not differing a great deal from what lead singer and guitarist Jeff Tweedy and his other Wilco band mates at the time had been doing with previous band Uncle Tupelo. Much of A.M. could be considered bland in light of Wilco’s later work, but there’s a lot to like, including “I Must Be High”. It’s a solid pop song, and is perhaps the strongest track from an album that showcases a new band trying to find its footing and starting off by playing what they know.

#2) The Jayhawks – “Ain’t No End” – Blue Earth (1989)

We’ve covered the Jayhawks here a few times before, and each time I hear them I always enjoy the experience but then never follow up by continuing to listen to their material. Whereas a lot of their songs can be called bluegrass-infused alt-country, “Ain’t No End” is more reminiscent of Neil Young in terms of guitar work. It’s a more grungy sound; not as clean as a lot of what I’ve heard from them previously. Usually, dirty alt-country is solid, but “Ain’t No End” doesn’t have any surprises or rewards within it. It’s just a nice boozy rock song, which is perfectly acceptable.

#3) Ryan Adams – “Come Pick Me Up” – Heartbreaker (2000)

I don’t think Ryan Adams has the capacity to write an unpleasant song. Pretty much every song I’ve ever heard from the guy is competent and enjoyable, even though he’s often writing about horrific break-ups or unrequited love or various other maudlin topics.

Adams has a way of writing about love and relationships in a way that sounds corny on the surface, but works because of the music surrounding those words. On “Come Pick Me Up”, he pleads for the object of his affection to “steal his records”, because even that type of relationship with this girl would be better than none at all. What sounds lame actually comes across sounding poignant, helped in no small part by a great harmonica section that pushes the song over the top.

#4) Pink Floyd – “Stop” – The Wall (1979)

“Stop” is a 29 second interstitial piano piece on side four of Pink Floyd’s opus The Wall, sandwiched between “Waiting For The Worms” and “The Trial”. It’s meant to push the story of the album forward, and really isn’t much of a song on its own. It’s too brief to be noteworthy.

#5) Beck – “Ramshackle” – Odelay (1996)

You can’t say Odelay was Beck’s breakthrough album, because he’s been on the charts pretty much since day one with “Loser” from the Mellow Gold album (1994). Odelay was the album, however, that proved Beck was not a fluke, spawning several hit singles and selling millions of copies.

“Ramshackle” is a light guitar driven song that is a noticeable departure from some of the busy, electronic singles that made Odelay such a success. “Ramshackle” is a definite harbinger that Beck would change his style significantly in the near future, shifting over to minimalistic guitar-based pop on Mutations (1998) and the brilliant Sea Change (2002). What remains interesting about Beck is that his sound is so unmistakable, whether the song is raucous and rambunctious or slow and introspective. He shines through his material, no matter what type of music he’s playing, which is a strong credit to him. He also usually writes really good songs.

#6) Sebadoh – “Sickles And Hammers” – III (1991)

Sebadoh are purveyors of fast paced garage-indie, and their catalog largely consists of songs that last no longer than a minute. Sometimes this is a blessing, because some of these songs consist of nothing more than abrasive noise that could hardly be considered songs at all. Other times, however, Sebadoh strikes a pleasurable chord, and the short length of their songs is more of a frustration. “Sickles And Hammers”, from the band’s much lauded third album III, is fifty seconds of blazing electric guitar and drumming. Like most of their output, it’s very raw, but that sound is a great match for this kind of material. If only it were longer.

#7) Beastie Boys – “Namasté” – Check Your Head (1992)

Some people love the Beastie Boys and consider them to be their favorite band. They’ve always been more of a curiosity to me than a necessity. I was first introduced to them through my older sister, and I heard their string of big radio hits, but I’ve wondered for a while what it is about their music that speaks to so many people.

“Namasté” is not a “stereotypical” fun/raunchy Beastie Boys song. It’s more of a jazz-funk fusion beat, with spoken narration in lieu of rapping. It incorporates psychedelic elements (echoes and other effects), and though it was unexpected, “Namasté” is quite a pleasant listen.

#8) Zero 7 – “Futures” – The Garden (2006)

Zero 7’s The Garden album includes all sorts of different styles, with some sprawling electronic epics and some songs that tone down the machine-made effects and take a more traditional approach. “Futures” has an excellent melody, with simple acoustic guitar, a great bassline, and sprinkles of electronic elements. The vocal harmonies conjure images of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which end up fitting the music well even though they sound out of place. This is interesting and quite good.

#9) Radiohead – “Prove Yourself” – Pablo Honey (1993)

“Prove Yourself” is a song from Radiohead’s debut album, which gained them worldwide exposure, but not quite the cartoonish super-exposure that would follow with their subsequent albums. Though I really enjoy Radiohead’s atmospheric and electronic work on their more famous records, they were once a really good pop rock act, as “Prove Yourself” shows.

The song is charmingly 90’s sounding, going through the standard verse-chorus-verse-solo convention, but it is really catchy and good. For Radiohead fans that are unfamiliar with their early work, this is well worth checking out.

#10) Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Naked In The Rain” – Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

I remain of the opinion that Blood Sugar Sex Magik is one of the best albums of the 90s. It contained singles that could be played on both rock and top 40 radio, and a number of unheralded songs that glued the whole thing together. “Naked In The Rain” has the classic Chili Peppers sound, with Anthony Kiedis singing like a wild man and Flea moving the song along with one of his trademark funk basslines, all linked together by a simple and strong chorus. It shows how good the album is that this song was unable to stand out among all of the other great songs on it. Highly recommended.

John Lacey

The Dailies 7/27/10: Two Different Kinds of Nightmares

2010-07-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Trailers

- Until the Light Takes Us (2008) - C
- Directed by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell
- Featuring Varg Vikernes, Fenriz, Hellhammer

- Lone Star (1996) - C-
- Directed by John Sayles
- Starring Elizabeth Pena, Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson

- Gosford Park (2001) - B+
- Directed by Robert Altman
- Starring Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren

The Town That Was (2007)
Directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland
Featuring John Lokitis, Todd Domboski, David DeKok

The Town That Was is a documentary that looks at the nearly uninhabited borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, located in the east-central portion of the state. Centralia, once an active mining town with thousands of residents, became a ghost town after a mine fire started underneath its surface and quickly spread out of control in the early 60s. The fire could not be contained (and actually continues to burn today), and various health risks to residents, such as sinkholes and noxious gases, caused most of the populace to move away by the early 1980s.

The film states the facts of what happened to cause the town’s demise and talking heads are used to articulate the feelings of the townspeople on having to leave Centralia. The Town That Was does well to present the history of the town in a humanistic way. Rather than present Centralia as an oddity, the filmmakers do well to show that it was once a vibrant community with real people in it. The use of old video footage of town parades and picnics is well used in stark contrast to the nearly empty place Centralia is today.

The town and its peculiar situation makes the work of the directors much easier. The imagery is inherently eerie and off-putting. We see the few remaining homes of people too old or too stubborn to leave; the local cemetery; a solitary bench with stencil letters reading “Centralia, PA”. In the cemetery, former residents, who loved the town and called it home and died in some cases long before the fire started, are now one of the only markers that indicate there was even a town there to begin with.

A few former town dignitaries and residents are spoken with, but Centralia is largely represented by John Lokitis, a thirty-something man who still lives in one of the town’s few remaining homes as one of its remaining people. Lokitis refused to abandon Centralia, even though the majority of residents fled while he was still a child. In the film, he laments that everyone moved away and claims that the state government overstated the health risks involved with staying in Centralia. He continues to mow the town’s lawns and put its Christmas lights up. He seems possessed.

The film detours and spends a lot of time looking at the plight of Centralia through Lokitis’ eyes. He’s fascinating. He’s a dopey, single, still-young guy who for some unknown reason cares so much about preserving the town’s legacy in any way he can. He continues living there even after his parents and family have left, and he seems to hold genuine scorn for the people who chose to accept a government buyout of their properties after the town was declared unlivable. He is portrayed as a hopelessly unflappable champion of a town destroyed and forgotten, and the film rightfully allows us to decide whether he’s noble or foolish.

The Town That Was has a runtime of seventy minutes, barely qualifying it as a movie. The filmmakers have an annoying habit of holding the camera on a subject for a few seconds after they’ve stopped talking, as a clumsy way of trying to add gravity to whatever had been said. The film has stylistic and technical flaws, but it covers its subject matter both imaginatively and well. B.

(The Town That Was is available for free viewing on hulu.com.)

Inception (2010)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy

Otherworldly, mind-bending thrillers, by their very nature, ask viewers to take certain leaps of faith and suspend logic in particular instances. Depending on a variety of factors (the quality of the film and its acting, the egregiousness of the leap of faith in question) these suspensions of logic are either welcomed or laughed at, and they can either make a film like this or break it. Inception gambled, creating a film with a fantastical foundation that unfortunately tries to pile on too much mumbo-jumbo and quick-cut action, bogging the film down and making the whole exercise exponentially more confusing.

Before extrapolating on that, it must be said that Inception is an entertaining film. It is very inventive, both in terms of its plot and its special effects. It’s impeccably shot as well, with director Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) capably handling the difficult task of visually creating a dreamscape on film.

The premise of Inception is terrific. A team of skilled “extractors” (or dream-thieves) are tapped to plant an idea within the head of a target rather than extract information. Early scenes that discuss how the dream world works and how the dream areas are created are fascinating. It would take too long to relay the intricacies of how “inception” works, but for the most part, the first hour of the film lays out the rules and guidelines for the plot quite well.

The bulk of the film is spent following the planting of the idea in Robert Fischer’s head (Murphy), and that’s where things get tricky. New concepts, techniques, and procedures are brought up constantly, making it difficult to follow both what’s happening at that moment and how it figures into the timeline of the film as a whole. In order for the inception team to plant the idea into his mind, they have to go into a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream (seriously), with scenes occurring consecutively within different levels of the dream world. It sounds confusing because it is, and though when watching the film we receive sharp action scenes as distraction, it’s really difficult to pinpoint what’s happening, where it’s happening, and why.

The film’s final act, comprising roughly the last forty-five minutes, was particularly troublesome. Instead of a reasoned, understandable conclusion to the film, we’re treated to a maelstrom of action scenes set in different locales, pertaining to different aspects of the plot. Every shot within the last forty-five minutes is either an explosion, someone dodging gunfire, or a zany plot twist. What began as an inventive and interesting action-thriller goes full-tilt into craziness due to hyperactive imagination and a lack of patience. There is a brilliant film to be made with the jumbled pieces of Inception, but the way they were assembled makes it nothing more than an interesting, sleek, and ultimately empty action film. C+.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #18

2010-07-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

#1) She & Him – “I Should Have Known Better” – Volume One (2008)

I’ve heard nothing but good things about She & Him, the American indie-folk duo comprised of actress Zooey Deschanel (she) and songwriter M. Ward (him). Until now, however, I’ve never actually took the time to listen to any of their material. “I Should Have Known Better” has a luau-lounge sound, like something you’d hear at a dimly-lit, red-tinged Chinese restaurant’s bar. Like a lot of luau-sounding music, it floats by easily, nudged along by the soft alternating vocals of the two musicians. It’s pleasant and professional, but a bit airy.

#2) King Crimson – “The Great Deceiver” – Starless And Bible Black (1974)

Along with Yes and perhaps early Genesis, King Crimson is thought of as one of the quintessential zany 70s prog-rock groups. They’re best known for what people call “the album with the crazy face on it” (In The Court Of The Crimson King [1969]), but the band has released about 100 other albums since then.

“The Great Deceiver” alternates between a pseudo-rant from singer John Wetton and bursts of unfocused power that contain some inventive riffing. The song eventually devolves and starts going all over the place, introducing new tempos and movements at random. It’s not quite good, but it’s certainly interesting.

#3) Modest Mouse – “The Good Times Are Killing Me” – Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004)

Good News For People Who Love Bad News is the album that contained “Float On”, a hit that sent Modest Mouse from little-heard indie rock darlings to rock superstars. They’ve yet to replicate the runaway success of that song, though their 2007 follow-up, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts.

Most Modest Mouse songs fall into one of two categories: frenetic and hectic or contemplative and subdued. “The Good Times Are Killing Me” falls into the latter group, though lead singer Isaac Brock still sounds as manic as he usually does despite the softer tone. The title and subject matter of this song always struck a somber chord with me; the idea that the “good times” are just booze and drug fueled parties that are really wearing us down rather than providing us with any long-term happiness. Modest Mouse has a knack for looking at basic ideas with an esoteric slant. Good song.

#4) Megadeth – “Psychotron” – Countdown To Extinction (1992)

Countdown To Extinction is a criminally underrated metal record that stands with anything else Megadeth released before it, and probably represents their last complete album. “Psychotron” has great riffs and is forceful enough to get its message across, but it loses points for the ridiculously stupid chorus, during which Dave Mustaine sings:

Part bionic
And organic
Not a cyborg
Call him psychotron

You see, the song is about a half-man, half-machine sentient evil robot. Really dumb. That’s the problem I have with a lot of metal at this point in my life. The music still sounds good, but the lyrics not only are inane and unenlightening, but cause me to cringe with second-hand embarrassment. Too bad, because everything else is good here.

#5) Sunset Valley – “Matinee Idol” – Icepond (2001)

“Matinee Idol” is good, soft indie-rock surrounded by a low and contemplative buzz. It features understated guitar and vocals that wisely eventually break into a jarring electric guitar part to liven things up. After this sequence repeats a couple of times, the song takes on a trance-like atmosphere and begs for another listen.

#6) The Magnetic Fields – “I Shatter” – 69 Love Songs (1999)

Released on the second volume of the three-volume concept album 69 Love Songs, “I Shatter” is really cool and really strange. It features a repeating violin (or some such stringed instrument) with vocals that are put through an effect that makes them sound simultaneously monstrous and robotic. The juxtaposition of these vocals against the classic sound of the strings provides an interesting dynamic that is charmingly strange. “I Shatter” is a bit of a curiosity, but it’s worth a listen for its inventiveness.

#7) Stone Temple Pilots – “Big Bang Baby” – Thank You (2003; originally appeared on Tiny Music…Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop [1996])

“Big Bang Baby” was the lead single from STP’s 1996 album Tiny Music…Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop. Stone Temple Pilots was a singles machine throughout most of the 1990s, churning out a slew of mainstream rock hits that were fun to listen to and immediately caught attention.

It’s too bad the band didn’t have more depth beyond its hit-making abilities, because they certainly had ample talent and knew how to write hooks and choruses. “Big Bang Baby”, like much of their output, is formulaic and predictable, but it’s energetic, fun, and easy to get into. Sometimes big, dumb rock can be rewarding, and STP’s collection of singles is proof of that.

#8) Grateful Dead – “West L.A. Fadeaway” – In The Dark (1987)

“West L.A. Fadeaway” was written about John Belushi and his descent into drugs and subsequent early death. It is culled from the Grateful Dead’s unexpected hit album In The Dark, which contained their biggest chart hit in their career, “Touch Of Grey”.

The song bounces along nicely, though it does sound quite dated (you wouldn’t have to guess when it was recorded too many times before landing on 1987). It has the requisite jam and is allowed to breathe through a semi-majestic chorus. “West L.A. Fadeaway” is a decent song, but it’s hard to shake the idea that a lot of the Dead’s 80s studio work sounds overproduced, too glossy and too manufactured, meaning it barely sounds like the Dead at all.

#9) Big Star – “She’s A Mover” – Radio City (1974)

Big Star lead singer and guitarist Alex Chilton recently passed away a few months ago, and when I saw Wilco in April, they closed their set with a Big Star song, “Thank You Friends”. It’s easy to hear the influence Big Star had on Wilco and other contemporaries.

“She’s A Mover” is tight but twangy indie-sounding rock, with a brief runtime and just the right amount of hooks to bring the listener back for more. The song sounds like it has one foot in the past (the Beatles influence is evident) and one in the future, because we’re now aware of what this influenced. A really good song.

#10) Dire Straits – “The Man’s Too Strong” – Brothers In Arms (1985)

From the album that produced gigantic mid-80s hit “Money For Nothing”, “The Man’s Too Strong” is more of a folksy ditty than a rock anthem. It’s refreshing to know that there was a time when an album that sold about ten million copies could have a song that sounds like this on it; it would be an impossibility now.

That’s not to say “The Man’s Too Strong” is very good. It’s atmospheric in an 80s way (synths and guitar effects) and quite boring throughout. It doesn’t sound like anything that would accompany “Money For Nothing”, but I respect Dire Straits mastermind Mark Knopfler a little more for that.

John Lacey

Shit from the 90s #6: TGIF!

2010-07-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

In 1988, ABC executives decided to revamp their Friday night prime-time schedule. Rather than use Friday night as the customary dumping ground for low-rated shows the network needed to burn through in order to fulfill their obligations, they tried something zany. They thought, “You know who’s watching TV on Friday nights? Families with young children who have nothing else to do!”

It was a good idea. No one with a social life watches TV on a Friday night, but families have no choice. The kids are too young to leave home alone. Parents are too lazy and too tired after a workday or watching the kids all day. Most parents have long had their adventurous and free-wheeling spirits broken by those same children years before. Millions of mothers and fathers saw the ads, turned to their spouses, and said with resignation, “You know what? Instead of taking the kids to the Ground Round, let’s order a pizza and watch Family Matters instead.”

The idea was simple enough, but ABC needed both content and a catchy name. The catchy name they stole from early 70s Akron DJ Jerry Healy, who initially would say “Thank God It’s Friday” during his rush hour broadcasts (courtesy Wikipedia). ABC, fearing reprisals from atheists, I suppose, changed the term to “Thank Goodness It’s Friday” for their block of programming. This, of course, led to innumerable dipshits using the phrase non-ironically throughout the 90s and even into today. It also gave name to a low-rent restaurant chain, T.G.I. Friday’s, now found on every street corner in America.

The content was easy, too. Families are the target audience, right? So why not make every show on TGIF chock full of bland, inoffensive, unfunny comedy that the entire family can halfheartedly pretend to enjoy? Most shows on TGIF were about families, and each tried to strike a balance between the characters and their wacky high jinks and those same characters learning life lessons with the help of their family unit. Many of the shows also had a bumbling knucklehead who would constantly do and say stupid things and annoy the main characters.

What’s interesting about TGIF is the idea that instead of doing “family things” like talking, playing games and simply enjoying each other’s company, real families would instead gather each Friday night to watch fake families do those things. There’s something off-putting about a product that markets itself specifically to families, but requires that those families do very un-family things (like sitting silently and watching television). If the shows had actually been good, I could understand blowing my family off for television, but in looking back the carnival of crap that was TGIF, I wish I could have some of that time back.

A Selection of TGIF Programs

Perfect Strangers
- Years active: 1986-1993
- Years in TGIF lineup: 1988-1992
- Premise: a naïve and crazed Greek shepherd named Balki comes to live with his straight-laced cousin in Chicago. Hilarity ensues as Balki constantly does foolish, un-American things, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of his cousin.
- Drawing card: Balki, played by Bronson Pinchot. The loveable dope was at the forefront of all ads and promotional materials for the show.

Family Matters
- Years active: 1989-1998 (1997-1998 season was on CBS)
- Years in TGIF lineup: 1989-1997
- Premise: follows a large, African-American Chicago-based family and their oft-hilarious trials and tribulations. The family includes people young and old and everything in between, setting up all kinds of opportunities for its members to gain valuable life experience. Nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel breaks things and annoys everyone.
- Drawing card: Urkel, played by Jaleel White. Steve Urkel became a legitimate sensation in the United States in the early 1990s based on his nasally voice, ridiculous appearance, and his throng of catchphrases. Honorable mention goes to Waldo Geraldo Faldo (Shawn Harrison), Eddie Winslow’s dimwitted friend.

Boy Meets World
- Years active: 1993-2000
- Years in TGIF lineup: 1993-2000
- Premise: a middle school (and later high school) boy copes with the transition of moving from boyhood to adulthood. Of course, he has a wonderful family and strong friends to help him each step of the way!
- Drawing card: Uh, I dunno. There wasn’t really a kooky sidekick who would spout off catchphrases. I guess Shawn Patrick Hunter (Rider Strong), best friend to main character Cory Matthews, best constitutes the BMW drawing card.
- Recommended viewing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgbvtZAYv1g&feature=related

Step By Step
- Years active: 1991-1998 (1997-1998 season was on CBS)
- Years in TGIF lineup: 1991-1996
- Premise: two already large families combine when single dad Patrick Duffy marries single mom Suzanne Somers. The show is spent detailing the uneasy tensions between the two sides of the newer, bigger family.
- Drawing card: Cody (aka “the Code Man”), played by Sasha Mitchell. Perhaps the archetype for “dumb and crazy TGIF sidekick”, Cody helped popularize the phrases “Dude!” and “Ch-yeah!” in the United States and abroad.

John Lacey

Forgotten Records #8: Megadeth - The World Needs A Hero

2010-06-27T08:36:00.001-07:00

Megadeth
The World Needs A Hero
2001 Sanctuary

It’s amazing to think that Megadeth are out there today, in 2010, playing balls-to-the-wallthrash metal again. When you take a look at the band’s musical output from 1992-2002, it’s hard to find anything that resembles thrash metal, with a few exceptions (“FFF,” “The Disintegrators,” “Victory,” but that’s about it). This isn’t to say that the band put out all crap music during this era. On the contrary, they released a string of excellent albums that, while not thrash, were still on par with the great song writing and musicianship the band had been known for in their 80s output.

Countdown to Extinction (1992), Youthanasia (1994) and Cryptic Writings (1997) were increasingly melodic, mid-paced albums that still packed tight riffs, memorable hooks and top-notch lead guitar playing throughout. Were they perfect albums on par with thrash classics Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? (1986) and Rust in Peace (1990)? No, but Countdown is essentially a perfect heavy metal album throughout.

Youthanasia seemed even more slowed-down than Countdown, yet its bottom-heavy production gave the riffs a little more weight, and the band experimented a little more with different sounds (the harmonica solo in “Train of Consequences”) and even languages (the chorus of “A Tout le Monde”).

Cryptic Writings took these experiments even further, featuring synths sprinkled throughout certain songs, exotic instruments like sitars (“A Secret Place”), and country-tinged acoustic metal (“Use the Man”), yet it contained two absolute thrash burners, and a NWOBHM-esque masterpiece (“She Wolf”). Unlike their peers in Metallica, Megadeth showed they could experiment, yet not be seen as sell-outs and frauds.

Then came Risk.

The less said about Risk, the better. Let’s just say, in the lead-up to the album’s release, Dave Mustaine was spouting off bullshit along the lines of getting in touch with his “real” roots, referring to the The Beatles and other bands he said "really" inspired him to play music, not Venom and Motorhead. Right. Because Killing Is My Business… sounds so Beatles-esque, with hardly any Motorhead or Venom influence at all, right, Dave, right. Essentially, Risk was a misstep that made Metallica’s Load and Reload seem like metal masterpieces. Risk was universally panned by metal and rock critics, and metal and Megadeth fans alike, and for good reason – it SUCKED. They took every experimental sound from Cryptic Writings, removed any passion, intensity, or thought, and made a whole album out of it. Don’t believe me? Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDKrCr2tbEw.

After the Risk debacle, longtime lead guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza left the group (or were fired, or left, depending on who you ask, because Dave Mustaine can’t keep a story straight to save his life). Mustaine even went as far as to try and blame the commercial sound on Marty Friedman, which is ridiculous, considering Mustaine IS Megadeth, and you know, he WRITES EVERY SONG.

Rumblings were seen all over the internet that the band was recording a return-to-form along the lines of Rust in Peace, to make up for Risk. That album was to be called The World Needs a Hero. This is the story of that forgotten record.

Why Was It Forgotten?

Basically, because the album is not that good. From the opening riff of “Disconnect,” you could tell this was a band trying very hard to write a heavy metal record, but not doing a great job at it. Overall, the album is too slow, too restrained, too cheesy (the spoken word bits of “1000 Times Goodbye” are cringe inducing, as are the lyrics of “Moto Psycho”; let’s not get started on the stolen-riff fest that is “When”). You can tell Dave Mustaine really thought he was tapping into the whole old-school vibe by even using songs with ellipses in the title (“Recipe for Hate…Warhorse,” which desperately tries to recall “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due”and “Rust in Peace…Polaris” but fails miserably).

Then Dave did what many chastised Metallica for in 1997: he recorded a sequel to a very popular song. The original “Hangar 18” was one of Megadeth’s biggest “hits” and more popular songs that they still play live to this day. However, “Return to Hangar,” aside from having similar lyrics, has nothing in common with the original musically. It's pretty much a clunky, punky dud, with the exception of the last 2 minutes or so, which is just guitar shredding. If more of this all-out, fast riffing and soloing had been sprinkled throughout the album, it would have been considered a return to form. Instead, it’s mostly considered a very mediocre, cheesy attempt to reclaim past glories.

Should It Have Been Forgotten?

Yes. The band currently plays no songs from this album in its live set (although occasionally they will play “Return to Hangar” immediately following “Hangar 18,” but that’s just a good 4-minute excuse to go take a piss or get a beer). In fact, the only really good song from the album, “Dread and the Fugitive Mind,” was not even technically a new song, as it had been previously released on the awful Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years compilation (which I call awful because it barely contained any of their thrashier 80s material).

Megadeth
Still Alive…And Well?
2002 Sanctuary

BONUS FORGOTTEN RECORD – Megadeth - Still Alive… and Well?

(This came from a conversation I had with John the other day. I made a joke about this god-awful compilation that came out after the Rude Awakening live album, when the band had “broken up” near the end of 2002.)

A terrible compilation after the 'break-up' of Megadeth, compiling their Sanctuary-era releases, meaning extra tracks and live bullshit from Rude Awakening and World Needs a Hero. Still alive? Yes, they were, but certainly not well, because this was a piece of shit rip-off cash-in that sucked donkey balls. It’s amazing the band released a decent album after this in 2004 with the “comeback” (even though they never really fucking left) The System Has Failed.

Matt Steele

The Dailies 6/22/10 - Movies Everyone Else Loves (That I Haven't Seen)

2010-06-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Dailies. Before we discuss today’s films, I wanted to share the news that Blockbuster Video is closing close to 1000 stores in the calendar year of 2010 (so I guess that means 500 have already closed?), and the store nearest my apartment in Somerville is one of those casualties.

Usually, I’m a sucker for long-established institutions. I bemoan the coming deaths of the newspaper and the record store. I regularly play twenty-five year old video games. But fuck video stores. Who wants to pay three or four dollars to rent a movie for a couple of nights when you can buy it outright for a little over double that? Who wants to pay late fees? Why do none of these stores carry anything made prior to three years ago? I think it’s hilarious that Blockbuster was so short sighted that they rapidly over-expanded and then had no way of coping with changes in format (DVD) and delivery (Netflix/OnDemand/Redbox/people stealing movies online).

I’m proud that I contributed to the death of video stores by switching over to Netflix long ago. I was also happy to be able to pick the bones of my local Blockbuster by purchasing a used copy of Michael Clayton and a brand new copy of Reservoir Dogs (expanded edition!) for about $15. So keep an eye on your local Blockbusters and other video chains and be ready to scavenge their good movies when you get the opportunity.

Fight Club (1999)
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
Academy Awards: Nominated (Sound Effects Editing)

Today’s theme is “movies that everyone else has seen and seems to love”. Fight Club is the first entry, a movie beloved by many people in my generation. IMDb voters have Fight Club currently ranked as the #17 best movie of all time (which is fucking insane).

The aesthetic of Fight Club might be its most striking quality. It’s very dirty and gritty looking; from the rec centers that host the local cancer support groups to the dilapidated estate that Norton moves into. The look of Fight Club might be the best thing it has going for it; it perfectly matches the tone and pace of the film. Norton and Pitt, of course, provide strong work as the two catalysts, each crazier than the other in their own ways. For the two people who haven’t seen this, they let off some steam by creating a fight club, which soon boils over into a myriad of much more illegal activities.

The plot twist is what everyone talks about with Fight Club, though I think it hurts the film more than it helps. Much more interesting is the dynamic between Norton and Pitt, with Norton playing the pseudo-straight man to Pitt’s maniacal Tyler Durden. How will Norton extricate himself from Pitt when things get too ridiculous? Will we get a more detailed picture of the psychological grip Pitt has on Norton? These are interesting questions that are set up and then unfortunately go unanswerable, because the movie takes a ridiculous left turn for its last forty-five minutes. What was already a mind-bending, enjoyable thriller actually becomes tedious and complicated with the added twists. Fight Club is an entertaining film, but the idea of it being a cultural touchstone is beyond me. B.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Statham, P.H. Moriarty

Well, we know who to blame for the rash of fast-paced, low-rent action-thrillers that have inundated theaters over the last ten years! Guy Ritchie absolutely deserves credit, however; he truly did create a new style of filmmaking with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. It’s new, funny, and hip, and a combination like that is sure to be imitated ad nauseum (see Formula 51, Layer Cake). Quick cuts, lots of action, and little wasted film or dialogue are Ritchie’s hallmarks, and they work together to create a fun, violent crime caper.

The film works because of the large ensemble cast working within it. These characters are all intriguing in their own ways, and the seamless way Ritchie weaves all of their stories together is very well done. I’d relay the plot, but there’s simply too much happening all at once. People owe other people money, drugs are involved, guns are involved, and everyone ends up wanting to kill everyone else, sometimes not knowing why. It’s a thoughtful, well acted, and funny crime film that rightfully helped to launch Ritchie’s career. B+.

The Usual Suspects (1995)
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri
Academy Awards: Won (Supporting Actor – Spacey, Writing – Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)

Speaking of insane IMDb rankings, The Usual Suspects is listed as the twenty-third best movie of all time. Just in front of Once Upon a Time in the West. Yikes.

A little like Fight Club, but more jarring in this instance, The Usual Suspects shows us that twists can simply be a disguise for a film that really wasn’t all that great to begin with. People tend to focus on the crazy twist with a positive, “Can you believe that?”-type reaction, often ignoring either a poorly constructed film or the idea that the film would have been fine without the ridiculous swerve. In The Usual Suspects, we listen to Kevin Spacey talk about the exploits of he and his thieving pals, as they’re apparently extorted into completing a monumental illegal task for mysterious crime lord Keyser Soze.

Without giving away specifics, everything about his story, and everything we see in the picture, turns out to be false. These types of twists aren’t exciting to me; they’re grating. If the movie was about a bunch of lies, and nothing we saw was true, than it basically wasn’t about anything. So what’s the point?

The Usual Suspects is helped by its great acting. Spacey, Byrne and Kevin Pollak are their dependable selves. Particularly enjoyable are Benicio del Toro (as the rambunctious and vaguely foreign Fenster) and Stephen Baldwin (most recently seen in SyFy original Sharks in Venice and a recent religious website, Restoring Stephen Baldwin, asking people to donate money to him). Everyone in the film does good work, but its twist is ultimately a betrayal to its audience, not some brilliant artistic maneuver. C.

Stagecoach (1939)

Director: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell
Academy Awards: Won (Supporting Actor – Mitchell, Music – Scoring). Nominated (Art Direction, Cinematography – Black and White, Director, Film Editing, Picture)

Despite my love of Westerns, I’m not overly familiar with either John Wayne or legendary director John Ford. Stagecoach serves as a great introduction to both, featuring Wayne in his breakout role and the first “talkie” Western Ford had directed.

John Wayne truly does have an unmistakable screen presence. In Stagecoach, he plays the Ringo Kid, a notorious gunman. He’s gentlemanly and likable, but we get the sense that he could become deadly if provoked. Though Stagecoach was released in 1939, it’s not a dopey old-time Western with a bunch of cowboys singing as they ride along. Stagecoach foreshadows the bleakness of the later spaghetti Westerns, with characters both killing and getting killed while fighting for their lives against Indian tribes pursuing their stagecoach through the desert.

Stagecoach features a strong ensemble cast. In addition to Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Donald Meek and Thomas Mitchell all make significant contributions. Mitchell, in particular, is rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors. In 1939 alone, he appeared in this film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone with the Wind. In Stagecoach, his constantly drunk Doc Boone is terrific, especially one scene where he’s forced to sober up as quickly as possible so he can deliver the baby of one of the passengers. He won an Academy Award for supporting actor for the performance, one that contributes equally with Wayne’s in making this a classic Western. B+.

Yojimbo (1961)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Eijiro Tono
Academy Awards: Nominated (Costume Design – Black and White)

Yojimbo is another Kurosawa masterpiece again featuring his frequent collaborator, Toshiro Mifune. Mifune plays a samurai without a master, who happens to wander into a small town. The town has been ravaged by two warring gangs of criminals, and Mifune sees an opportunity in this situation. He spends the film playing each group against the other, never revealing his true intentions or allegiances.

Sergio Leone lifted the plot and many of the film’s shots for his A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and watching Mifune play the nameless samurai in Yojimbo, you can see where Eastwood drew inspiration for his “Man with No Name” character. Like the “Man with No Name”, Mifune keeps no true alliances, he’s always one step ahead of his adversaries, and we get the idea that he might be a bit more compassionate and good than he lets on. Like Eastwood’s character, however, Mifune also has the capacity for revenge and vengeance, as he shows in the film’s finale. The nameless samurai is one of the most badass characters in the movies; smart, funny, and essentially invulnerable. A.

Crazy Heart (2009)
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Ferrell
Academy Awards: Won (Original Song, Actor – Bridges), Nominated (Supporting Actress – Gyllenhaal)

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges plays washed-up country star boozebag Bad Blake, and as the film opens we find that he has been reduced to playing his music in bowling alleys and sleeping with geriatric groupies after the gigs. He eventually meets a Santa Fe writer, played by Gyllenhaal, and the film from that point follows Bridges as he tries to put his life back together.

The ending of Crazy Heart is a bit too tidy for Bridges, who proves himself to be a perennial fuck-up throughout the course of the film. It’s forgivable, however, because Bridges is so strong in the role. He proved he can play a listless dirtbag in The Big Lebowski, but Crazy Heart sees him playing a dirtbag in transition, trying desperately to sober up and fly straight.

Perhaps what I liked the most about Crazy Heart was the mythology and aura surrounding the new song Bridges writes in the film (in real life, “The Weary Kind” by Ryan Bingham, which won an Oscar). He plays a bar of it here and there and the other characters who hear it are mesmerized by its power and beauty. It becomes a hit for his protégé, Tommy Sweet (Ferrell), and it was a nice touch that this song was built up as a beautiful, larger than life force without actually playing it and ruining that mystique. B+.

John Lacey

The National - High Violet

2010-06-14T16:36:00.001-07:00

The National
High Violet
2010 4AD

The National is a sentimental indie rock band with the rare ability to create a sonic atmosphere of contemplativeness and introspection for the listener. When they are able to pull off this trick perfectly (see their 2005 album Alligator) their music is incredibly brilliant. Active listening is rewarded and welcomed, but the National’s best work is that which amplifies getting lost in thought. Their previous albums, for the most part, had this quality; they could take you to places in your own past, and then they could dissolve into the background without being dull or uninteresting.

This quality can be good and bad, because there’s a fine line between an album lulling a listener into introspective thought and an album lulling a listener to sleep. High Violet, unfortunately, largely misses the mark the band had previously set, giving us a number of morose songs, each quiet and unremarkable. The first five tracks hum with low bass and dimness, with little differentiation between them and very few memorable segments. Unlike on the group’s two previous albums, Alligator and Boxer (2007), there’s very little relief in the way of a foot-tapping beat or a melodic movement.

Things do turn around at about the halfway point. Lead single “Bloodbuzz Ohio” features a yearning chorus and bright piano work, and is followed by “Lemonworld”, a simple, effective, lyrically dependent plodder akin to some of their strong earlier work. “Conversation 16” provides some great vocal work, but it’s High Violet’s penultimate track, “England”, that is its centerpiece. It strikes just the right tone of foreboding, with a hint of regality due to its utilization of horns. “England” reaches heights not otherwise heard on High Violet, which is a shame, because the song proves the band can still hit those transcendent notes instead of covering their songs in a melancholic veneer.

C+

John Lacey

The Simpsons Project #11

2010-06-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

The Simpsons Project #11 (Season 1, Episode 11)
The Crepes of Wrath
Original airdate: 4/15/90

Welcome back to another installment of the Simpsons Project. After today’s episode, “The Crepes of Wrath”, we only have two more episodes left in the first season to review. And it’s only taken a year and a half to get to this point! We’ll be discussing season 21 in no time!

Anywho, “The Crepes of Wrath” begins with a nice sequence of Homer stepping on Bart’s misplaced skateboard and tumbling down the stairs, throwing out his back in the process. Homer was clutching one of Bart’s talking Krusty dolls as he fell, and with Homer incapacitated, the doll becomes stuck in talk mode, repeating the phrase “I like to play with you!” until its voice wears out. Bart’s messiness causes Marge to order him to clean up his room, and in doing so Bart finds a forgotten cherry bomb that he pledges to put to good use.

Shortly thereafter, we’re introduced to Agnes Skinner, the principal’s overbearing mother (who keeps referring to him as “Spanky”). She is touring Springfield Elementary, and stops to use the bathroom at the same time Bart is flushing his cherry bomb down the toilet. Agnes is apparently blown through the roof of the school, which infuriates Principal Skinner. He visits the Simpson home and recommends Bart for the school’s foreign exchange program. According to Skinner,

“We have transcended incorrigible. I don’t think suspension or expulsion will do the trick. I think it behooves us all to consider…deportation.”

Bart capitulates and is sent to France, and the Simpsons agree to take in an Albanian boy, who Homer thinks will be “all white with pink eyes”. The episode splits into two stories at this point. The Albanian, Adil, is actually a spy, and he uses his kindness, charm, and the fact that he isn’t Bart to convince Homer to bring him to the nuclear plant so he can steal secrets. Bart, meanwhile, is put to backbreaking work by his French hosts at their rundown winery.

“The Crepes of Wrath” can be seen as Skinner’s coming out party, where he first exhibits some of his morally superior tendencies. His language and demeanor is curt and rude, but it’s guised by a sense of intellectualism and authoritativeness that allows him to get away with the things he does. His introduction of Adil to the Springfield children is full of backhanded compliments and false courtesies, as he welcomes the Albanian boy while describing his heritage as “offensive” and “backwards”.

Both Bart and Adil’s situations quickly unravel and the story returns back to normalcy. Bart finds that he has picked up enough French to tell the police of the cruel treatment he has suffered. Stateside, the FBI uncovers Adil’s espionage and deports him back to Albania.

This isn’t a terribly funny episode. Skinner has some strong moments, but the point here is to show the terrors Bart puts his family through and their unwavering love for him despite this. Laughs are light, and this may be the weakest episode of the first season.

B-

John Lacey

"You may find his accent peculiar. Certain aspects of his culture may seem absurd, perhaps even offensive. But I urge you all to give little Adil the benefit of the doubt. In this way, and only in this way, can be hope to better understand our backward neighbors throughout the world." - Principal Skinner

The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever

2010-05-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Hold Steady
Heaven Is Whenever
2010 Vagrant

The Hold Steady’s new album, Heaven Is Whenever, follows their unrightfully slagged 2008 album Stay Positive (review here, and yes, it’s becoming weird that this site has been around long enough to review multiple new albums from bands), which stands as one of their strongest efforts. Since Stay Positive, keyboardist Franz Nicolay left the band to focus on something called Guignol, which, according to Wikipedia, is his new “gypsy-klemzer troupe”. Listening to Heaven Is Whenever, it’s hard to say that Nicolay’s departure has hurt the band; they’re still great songwriters. Some of the little flourishes his piano work provided, however, helped those older Hold Steady albums reach heights that Heaven Is Whenever can’t quite get to. Though the band soldiers on admirably without Nicolay, Heaven Is Whenever does give off the feeling that something is missing.

We begin with a soft and thoughtful opener, “The Sweet Part of the City”, which does a really nice job of beginning things, even though it’s followed by several rockers in a row. Its bittersweet, mournful tone opens the door to a cavalcade of straight-on rock tunes (four in a row and five of the next six).

Heaven Is Whenever finds the Hold Steady all-business, rarely taking detours or introducing contrasting pieces or movements within songs. This lends the album a very streamlined feel, which works well while actually listening to it. The sequence of “Soft in the Center”/”The Weekenders”/”The Smidge”/”Rock Problems”, tracks two through five, steamrolls over the first half of the record without letting up or slowing down. This speed hurts the album when considering it as a whole, however, because it feels like it’s over before it even begins.

Even though the band’s previous albums have comparable lengths, those albums each had an epic feel that made them sound bigger and more important. Heaven Is Whenever lacks that staying power, rocking out for forty or so minutes before disappearing. True standout moments are few and far between. “Hurricane J” provides a blistering three-minute romp, and “Our Whole Lives”, with its matter-of-fact, unapologetic chorus, helps carry the album strongly to its conclusion.

Heaven Is Whenever is a very good rock record, but it rarely reaches the transcendental heights of the band’s previous efforts. Heaven Is Whenever may be a victim of the Holy Steady having spoiled us in the past. If any of the songs went beyond merely the very good, this might stand as one of their best.

John Lacey

Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

2010-05-19T08:52:00.001-07:00

As a kid growing up in the grunge era, I had always assumed Ronnie James Dio was a bit of a joke. My only memories of him as a kid were from music videos where he pranced around on rooftops and sang about rainbows and holy divers while wielding swords and shields. For a long time, I could not get past the silly image of this 5’4” (and I’m being generous) man with a receding hairline and crooked teeth, as he sang about “circles and rings” and “dragons and kings.”

When I turned 18, however, that all changed, when I bought Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell on a whim one day. Some of the song titles turned me off initially – “Neon Knights,” “Lady Evil,” “Wishing Well,” – but, I figured, it’s Sabbath, it can’t be that bad. I had been a huge Ozzy-era Sabbath fan, with the exception of Never Say Die!, their last release with Osbourne fronting the band. Tony Iommi had long been one of my guitar idols, and I’d read how Dio really gave new life to the band and resurrected their career in the 1980s, but I was still reluctant. I’m glad I put my fears aside, as Heaven and Hell pretty much blew me away from the start. “Neon Knights,” as silly as the lyrics may have been on the page, sounded completely genuine and honest coming from the convincing, powerful pipes of Ronnie James Dio. Damn, I thought, I was wrong about him all along.

I had the pleasure of seeing Dio (the band) open for Iron Maiden in the summer of 2003. I had avoided most of Dio’s (the band, again) recorded output due to those cheesy music videos I referenced before, but seeing the band live really made them connect with me a lot more. Hearing the classics like “Holy Diver” and “Stand Up and Shout” in person made them seem a lot less cheesy, and a lot more ass-kicking. When the band busted into “Heaven and Hell” and Rainbow’s “Stargazer” (another classic from Dio’s pre-Sabbath supergroup, also featuring Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple fame), I was simply blown away.

For whatever reason, I listened to Heaven and Hell a lot in the summer and fall of 2002, and many times in the years that followed, yet I didn’t pick up it’s follow-up, Mob Rules, until about 2006. Maybe I held Heaven and Hell in such high regard that I didn’t want to be disappointed with what came after it. Either way, I regretted doing so, as Mob Rules is a classic follow-up, still very worthy of the Black Sabbath name. Around the time I got that album, rumors of the Heaven and Hell line-up of Sabbath reuniting for a tour began to surface. It ended up being the Mob Rules line-up, but a part of me realized I had to see them at some point. Luckily, that wish came true in the summer of 2008 when I saw the band co-headline at the Mohegan Sun arena with Judas Priest.

Dio was 65 at the time of this show, but you would not be able to tell judging by his energy and the power and intonation of his voice. Hearing the classic Sabbath mark II tracks in person with the guys who recorded them originally was just awesome. It also seemed that the public perception of Dio changed around this time, as he was no longer a cheesy laughingstock of metal, but a stalwart, pioneer and visionary of the genre. It seemed like the reunion with Sabbath, then re-named Heaven & Hell, really legitimized Dio for a lot of the mainstream rock and roll and metal press. The band capitalized on such good fortune and recorded a brand new album in 2009, The Devil You Know, which was met with great critical and fan reaction. The band was supposed to tour this summer, despite Dio announcing that he’d be undergoing medical treatments throughout the year. Unfortunately, that tour was cancelled just weeks ago.

I’m not going to deny that a large portion of Dio’s lyrical output is fantastical garbage, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is that one of metal’s most influential voices and pioneers has sadly passed away, after battling stomach cancer, at the age of 67. Every reaction I’ve read to the news has said what a humble, kind, funny and genuine spirit Dio was, which makes it all the more of a shame. I wish I could have gotten to see Heaven & Hell perform live one more time, as they really put on one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. R.I.P. Dio.

Matt Steele

The Random Ten #17

2010-05-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

John #1) Masta Ace – “Last Rights” – Disposable Arts (2001)

“Last Rights” is the penultimate track from Masta Ace’s absolutely magnificent Disposable Arts album. This song is really a skit, serving to wrap up the story of the album (Ace leaves the tough streets behind and goes to rap college, or something). Nothing happens in this “song”, but everything that precedes it is terrific. Masta Ace is unlike most rappers I’ve heard. He still boasts and brags, but he’s coming from a place of bitterness and anger because he’s not famous or rich but considers himself much better than his contemporaries. He may have a point. There’s angst in his songs, towards the record industry, other rappers, and himself. It’s a fascinating and sometimes transcendent listen, and a much different take on the “look how much money I have” style of hip-hop.

Matt #1) Metallica - "The Call Of Ktulu" - Live: Cleveland, OH, 12/18/83 (not an official release; the song originally appeared on Ride The Lightning [1984])

This is one of the earliest live performances of this classic Metallica instrumental, although I find it weird that they played it live at all. An 8-minute instrumental of epic proportions, this didn't exactly fit in with the Kill 'Em All tunes the band was playing at the time. Regardless, this was an early sign that Metallica were not ever going to try to live up to expectations, and they would continue to progress and do whatever the fuck they wanted, when they wanted. Cliff Burton's bass acrobatics are more prominent in the mix on this bootleg than on Ride the Lightning, so it's great to hear the late bass legend tear it up on this one.

John #2) Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – “Games” – Jacksonville City Nights (2005)

Jacksonville City Nights represents one of my favorite album titles, if that counts for anything. “Games” is a standard light and airy Adams tune. It’s compact and brief, with a memorable harmonious chorus and some nice slide guitar work throughout. It’s a nice song, but it’s not long enough to develop into much.

Matt #2) Bruce Dickinson - "I Will Not Accept the Truth" - Skunkworks (1996)

An underrated solo album that's often unfairly labeled as Dickinson's attempt at grunge, Skunkworks really is a fine piece of work. "I Will Not Accept the Truth" is a fine hard rock song, with Dickinson's ear for melody and catchy hooks very apparent throughout. Much different than Iron Maiden, sure, but still a great performance from one of metal and rock's greatest vocalists ever.

John #3) Drive-By Truckers – “Moved” – Southern Rock Opera (2001)

“Moved” is culled from DBT’s two-disc concept album, Southern Rock Opera, about a Lynyrd Skynyrd-type rock band and their formation, trials, tribulations, and disintegration. Southern Rock Opera is much more ambitious and sprawling than it might initially let on, and its completion and subsequent success helped to put the band on the map. “Moved” features sparse instrumentation, with rough and tinny vocal accompaniment. “Moved” is truthfully not one of the band’s finest moments, but it’s meant more to move along the story of the album than to rock out. It’s just kind of a grungy country song.

Matt #3) Probot - "Dictatosaurs" - Probot (2004)

Probot was Dave Grohl's metal side project that featured vocalists from King Diamond to Cronos (Venom) to Lemmy, to even Jack Black on a secret track. "Dictatosaurus" features Snake, of Voivod fame, and not surprisingly, it sounds a little like Voivod. I was a huge fan of the Probot project when it was first released, as it contained Max Cavalera's best song since his appearance on Deftones' "Headup," "Red War," and also featured some great riffs and songs throughout. "Dictatosaurus" is a good tune if you're a fan of Snake's unique vocals, which I am.

John #4) The Flaming Lips – “She Don’t Use Jelly” – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (1993)

Though the Flaming Lips had already been around for about ten years releasing a multitude of albums prior to this, “She Don’t Use Jelly” was their first pseudo-hit and the first true nationwide exposure for the band. According to the Flaming Lips documentary Fearless Freaks, without “She Don’t Use Jelly” the band either would have been dropped by Warner Bros. or would not have been given the artistic freedom to blossom on their subsequent releases.

The song is also fucking awesome. The lyrics are simple, but fun and charmingly bizarre; weird but inviting. A raucous guitar part enters with the chorus and really makes it difficult not to like the song. “She Don’t Use Jelly” is a staple of lo-fi indie/garage rock, and a song worthy of notice.

Matt #4) Brutal Truth - "Everflow" - Kill Trend Suicide (1996)

I'm normally not a huge grindcore fan, as most songs sound the same and are just blasting away for 30 seconds before the next track, but Brutal Truth are pioneers that know how to write an actual song, even if it's only 45-seconds long. "Everflow" is a punishing track that gets right to the point and leaves you feeling beaten and abused, like most good grindcore should.

John #5) The Black Crowes – “Oh Josephine” – Warpaint (2008)

This is timely! The band recently announced that they’re breaking up yet again at the conclusion of this calendar year. They had broken up once before, in 2002, and returned a few years later with this album.

I have traditionally been a huge Black Crowes fan, but Warpaint struck me as banal Americana/country from a band that was rusty and relying on their old bag of tricks to get by. I haven’t listened to the record since, but “Oh Josephine” is not a bad song. Banal Americana/country can still sound pretty, but this isn’t particularly memorable or exciting, and probably doesn’t need to be 6 ½ minutes. There’s no urgency, and the indelible Black Crowes stamp is not here. It’s a song I’ve heard a thousand times, often done better. A really nice cascading ending helps things, but it’s a bit of “too little, too late”.

Matt #5) The Rolling Stones - "Miss You" - Forty Licks (2002; song originally released on Some Girls [1978])

The "woo-hoo-hoo-ooh-hoo-hoo" vocal hook of this song will now be in my head all day. Thanks a lot, Mick. One of the Stones' most instantly-recognizable tracks, this is one of their bluesier, soulful numbers, that is catchy as hell. Great song from a legendary band.

John #6) R.E.M. – “Wendell Gee” – Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985)

Early R.E.M. is often either frantic or sonically strange and powerful, which is why “Wendell Gee” was quite startling to me. It’s a straightforward slow-paced tune with banjo accompaniment, and the type of song that’s perfectly suited to gazing out of a train window (which is what I’m doing as I write this). Perhaps that low-key contemplativeness is appropriate for the album with lead single “Driver 8”, about a tireless, lonesome engineer. This is a really nice song.

Matt #6) Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - "A Kiss Before I Go" - Live: Boston, MA 9/7/08 (not an official release; the song originally appeared on Jacksonville City Nights [2005])

Sound quality isn't top-notch on the bootleg I have from this show, but this is a great song, nonetheless. Firmly located on the country side of the country/rock spectrum that Adams so frequently resides in, "A Kiss..." combines two of his favorite lyrical topics -- lost love, and alcohol. A catchy tune and a great performance from a show I attended a couple years back.

John #7) Neil Young – “Bite The Bullet” – American Stars ‘N Bars (1977)

“Bite The Bullet” is a criminally underrated track from Young’s American Stars ‘N Bars album. It features tremendous guitar work and structure, strongly foreshadowing Young’s grungier tendencies over the last twenty or so years. It doesn’t deviate from the mean too much; there’s no fifteen minute feedback section here like there are on so many of Young’s 1990s albums. “Bite the Bullet” is just a seldom heard, kick-ass rock song.

Matt #7) Rage Against The Machine - "Testify" - The Battle Of Los Angeles (1999)

The opening track from Rage Against the Machine's last original studio album, "Testify" was also a rock radio staple of the early 2000s. A great opener for the album, as it just builds up on Tom Morello's muted picking while the drums and bass increase in volume, the main riff and chorus are undoubtedly catch and heavy, something that all of the best RATM songs are.

John #8) Ben Folds – “Zak And Sara” – Ben Folds Live (2002; the song was originally released on Rockin’ The Suburbs [2001])

I cannot seem to stop writing about this guy. Anyway, this is a live performance of a song that had initially appeared on his solo breakout album, Rockin’ The Suburbs. The crowd is amped up for this and sings along with it, which sounds great. On the original, “Zak And Sara” features full instrumentation, and the song works much better there than here, where Folds is alone with a piano. Certain pieces scream for a snare hit or bass fill, and though this is a faithful and strong rendition, I’d recommend tracking down the studio version.

Matt #8) In Flames - "Murders in the Rue Morgue" - Subterranean (1994)

A bonus track from the re-issue of In Flames' Subterranean EP, this Iron Maiden cover sounds great, musically, but Mikael Stanne's vocals don't do the original justice. Still, an energetic cover from a band that would not have existed were it not for Iron Maiden, so it's nice to hear them pay respect where it's due. If you're a fan of Iron Maiden but not too big into death vocals, this cover might not do the trick for you, but if you want something on the heavier side, this is a good cover.

John #9) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Here Comes My Girl” – Greatest Hits (1993; song was originally released on Damn The Torpedoes [1979])

Ever since a friend of mine referred to Tom Petty as “darts music” (aka you should only listen to him when drinking and playing darts), I have a hard time taking the man seriously. His Greatest Hits album is fun (it’s probably the quintessential greatest hits album from any artist ever), and I love his Wildflowers record, but there is something about him that, while not quite cheesy, is very simplistic. In ways, he strikes me as a much better Stone Temple Pilots, another singles machine whose entire body of work can largely be summed up by a greatest hits album with no need for further exploration (again, save for Wildflowers).

“Here Comes My Girl” is a nice song, just like everything else on his Greatest Hits compilation. I’m all ears for an older album from Petty I really need to listen to, so please share, but for now I’ll have to stick with this compilation whenever I feel the need to listen to some Petty, or play darts.

Matt #9) Dave Matthews Band - "Fool To Think" - Everyday (2001)

This album got shit on by hardcore DMB fans upon its release. Personally, I like a lot of tracks from this album, as they're short, to-the-point, and pretty catchy overall. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of "Fool to Think." It's not awful, it's just not that catchy, and the timing of the riff and beat just seems a little off, but not in a good way. I had to skip ahead to the next track, I'll be honest.

John #10) Sufjan Stevens – “Come On! Feel The Illinoise!” – Illinois (2005)

I’d describe much of what Sufjan Stevens does as a sonic collage, one I truly like and appreciate. He just sounds so different, and yet so inviting. That’s a winning combination.

We have that here with “Come On! Feel The Illinoise!” Horns, backing vocals that play off each other, and Stevens with his strange song structure and strange timing. Often times bands or artists strive to be different and end up creating something off-putting or unlistenable. Stevens has largely avoided that pitfall, and in the process has created some strong, memorable music. Kudos to him.

Matt #10) Anthrax - "Time" - Persistence Of Time (1990)

...and I'm glad I skipped to the next track, because this is one of my favorite Anthrax songs. The opening track from 1990's Persistence of Time, "Time" is an epic, mid-paced thrash song that builds and builds one great riff after another. Even the usually-effeminate Joey Belladonna sounds monstrous on this one, and the lyrics are pretty great. Dan Spitz's solos could be very hit-or-miss at times, but he nails the one on this track. Great song from Anthrax's last album with Belladonna (well, until he rejoined the band AGAIN just a week or so ago, and is apparently recording an album with them now. Color me indifferent.)

Matt Steele/John Lacey

The Dailies 5/5/10: Moons Over London (And Washington, Sicily and the Confederate South)

2010-05-05T16:32:00.001-07:00

Moon (2009)
Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

In the last Dailies column, I expressed my fondness for Westerns, explaining that I’m a sucker for the genre as a whole and hence my opinions on Western films might want to be taken with a grain of salt. Another genre of films that I’m particularly taken with is well-thought out futuristic science-fiction in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Moon, the debut feature film of Duncan Jones (alternately known as Zowie Bowie, son of rock star David Bowie), is a spiritual sister to 2001 and a terrific film whether you’re a fan of science-fiction or not.

It’s the future, and man has progressed to the point of conducting mining operations on the moon. Sam Rockwell (Matchstick Men, Frost/Nixon) is a lone human living on the moon, making sure that the mining is carried out successfully. Small changes begin affecting him as they had not before; he sees visions and starts becoming easily distracted. Eventually, these visions manifest themselves into something much larger; a full-blown conspiracy featuring clones, false memories, and even a creepy semi-sentient robot. It’s hard to describe too much of Moon without giving things away, though the film eventually does relay what’s happening long before its conclusion.

This may sound fantastical and ridiculous, but Moon is not “science-fiction” in the way that Avatar or even Star Wars fits that description. Moon is sparse, thoughtful, and deals with fundamental truths in a unique setting and way. It nails the loneliness and isolation, the grayness and bleakness of the moon and space, so much so that they embed themselves into Rockwell’s character and we cannot view him without thinking of his surroundings. It’s a taut, psychological thriller with a heart, all while set on the moon, which strikes me as a tremendous achievement. A-.

Eastern Promises (2007)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel
Academy Awards: Nominated (Actor – Mortensen)

David Cronenberg is a very talented director, but he has a tendency to submarine his own films with absolutely jarring and insane plot twists that betray the viewer and the time they spent watching to that point. His previous feature before Eastern Promises, A History of Violence (2005), contained one of the most foolish, inconsiderate and plain bad plot twists I had seen in any movie this side of Mystery Science Theater, so I went into Eastern Promises with some trepidation.

I’m happy to report that Cronenberg was largely able to resist the temptation to crazy up Eastern Promises, largely letting the story play out logically and satisfyingly. Viggo Mortensen plays Nikolai, a low-level Russian Mafia member slowly working his way up the ranks of the London organization. Mortensen is tremendous in the role, and sufficiently menacing; his empty glare and eerie calm throughout the proceedings build him as someone to be reckoned with, but also someone above or beyond all of the ramshackle bloodshed that accompanies the Russian mob. Nikolai is expertly handled by Mortensen and screenwriter Steven Knight. He does bad things, but then he does things that aren’t so bad, or things that could be considered thoughtful and empathetic. Why?

The use of realistic Russian Mafia imagery, such as their tattoos, is highly prevalent in Eastern Promises. A making-of featurette included on the DVD described the painstaking process the makers of the film endured to make sure all of the tattoos were legitimate and truthful. It’s a nice touch, and perhaps was indicative that Cronenberg and his crew were too busy researching for the film to add on a jarring ending. B+.

The General (1928)
Director: Clyde Bruckman/Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack

Enough of these “talkies”! The General is perhaps the most famous silent film this side of Charlie Chaplin, and rightfully so. Its technological achievements, including some of the most captivating train scenes I’ve ever seen in any movie, are enough to make it special. Adding the madcap goofiness and charm of Buster Keaton, a superstar of silent films, is enough to make it legendary.

Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a locomotive engineer who is madly in love with his fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Mack). The Civil War has broken out, and Lee’s whole male family has joined the war to fight for the rebellion. Gray desperately attempts to join, but is rebuked because he is too valuable as an engineer. When Lee is captured by Union officers, Gray springs into action, resulting in a really long and really entertaining train chase scene.

The ingenuity of The General is what makes it so great. Without sound, it’s obviously more difficult to convey emotion, but Keaton is a master of the medium. He’s the king of the long face, but he’s never licked. He’s forever manic, running to and fro in an often-misguided attempt to take action, and his good-natured, innocent idiocy is hard not to get behind. He’s also very funny; his train is chasing the Union train, and at one point he attempts to fire at it with a cannonball. The cannon hits a bump, however, and soon it’s pointed directly at Keaton and his own train. It’s Keaton’s expression, a “that’s not supposed to happen” type puzzlement, that makes much of the film work. The General might be old and silent, but its quality of filmmaking and its universal story make it timeless. A-.

Catch-22 (1970)
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin

The most impressive thing about Catch-22 is its ensemble cast, a who’s who of both film and comedy stars that make Catch-22 the It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of war spoofs. Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Art Garfunkel, Charles Grodin, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Martin Sheen, and even Orson Welles make appearances in Catch-22, and the enjoyment of watching such a talented cast work together saves the film from being a total stinkbomb.

Catch-22 is too goofy and esoteric for its own good. Scenes oscillate from being genuinely funny to head-scratchingly absurd, to the point where the film’s message (“Look how insane war is! It makes no sense!”) becomes muddled because much of the film makes no sense also. Individually humorous scenes bleed into hypothetical, abstract discussions of war and its meaning, adding little and serving largely to derail the film.

A bright spot is Jon Voight, who is tremendous as Milo Minderbinder, a soldier/prudent capitalist who sells the unit’s supplies to the Germans in exchange for chocolate and other nonessential goods. The rest of the cast performs admirably, but it’s what they’re performing that causes the film’s problems. C-.

(I am aware that Catch-22 is a famous novel originally written by Joseph Heller, but I’ve never read that book and can only comment on the film itself.)

The Leopard (aka Il Gattopardo) (1963)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon
Academy Awards: Nominated (Costume Design – Color)

The Leopard is a three-hour Italian epic film detailing the later life of Don Fabrizio Salina, the prince of a principality of 1860’s Sicily. He represents the old guard in the time of Garibaldi and Italian unification, and the film looks at the changes to the country and the aristocracy through his eyes. The prince is played perfectly by Burt Lancaster, an expert American actor who contributes a strong balance of royalty, humanity and an understanding that his way is the old way, and he’ll soon be useless.

The film follows his family and the dalliances and loves of its members; much of The Leopard could be considered the stuff of soap opera or the romance novel. These scenes can be forgiven by the strong acting and the beauty of the film. Director Visconti treats every frame like a painting, playing the natural beauty of the Sicilian landscape against the man-made ornateness of the regal homes and buildings the characters frequent.

The real reason the film is a winner is Lancaster, the prince who sees his princedom and way of life crumbling around him, but who understands that this represents the natural order of things. He isn’t stupid or stubborn; he knows change is coming, and he’s had his time at the top. In a final ballroom gala scene (which lasts forty-five minutes), we can see through Lancaster how ridiculous their way of life is. He’s distant and separate from the huge mansion, the beautiful women, the handshakes and pats on the back. Why are they celebrating when they simply happened to be born into royalty? What’s the point of their parties, their loves, their existences, especially now that the writing is on the wall? We may not get answers to these questions, but we get a feeling the prince does. B+.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Academy Awards: Won (Writing – Original Story). Nominated (Actor – Stewart, Supporting Actor – Harry Carey, Supporting Actor – Rains, Art Direction, Director, Film Editing, Music – Scoring, Picture, Sound – Recording, Writing – Screenplay).

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a famous film about corruption in politics, a topic that seems commonplace now but for the time drew a furor from the US government. The plot: Jefferson Smith (Stewart) a hapless, good-hearted rube from an unnamed state, is appointed to be an interim senator. Much of the first half of the film deals with Smith’s foreignness in relation to the politics of Washington, the duties of being a senator, etc. He’s trained in these areas by Saunders (Arthur), his secretary, who essentially acts as a mother figure to Smith and helps him get adjusted to his new position.

Smith is just a patsy put in place by the senior senator of the state and family friend Senator Payne (Rains), who is terrific in the role. Payne works with powerful people and has those people to thank for his position of power in the senate. When Smith begins investigating Payne’s relationships with his benefactors and threatens to unravel their schemes, Payne and his associates set out to destroy him.

This is a classic Jimmy Stewart role, where he stumbles and murmurs and acts nervous and unsure of himself. His demeanor is now iconic, but it fit the role of Jefferson Smith quite well. Rains and Arthur both contribute tremendously, as does Senate President Harry Carey, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Things in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington fly together quickly, however, in an often unbelievable fashion. This was made in a different era, but I expected a little more complexity and intrigue in the storyline. Spoilers: Payne and his friends want to force through a shady deal to build a dam, and Smith just happens to want to build a boy scout camp in the same place. In an earlier scene, the press misquotes Smith during his initial news conference, so he goes around Washington punching members of the press and anyone he sees reading a newspaper. These scenes struck me as more than a little absurd.

The ending of the film is as good as advertised, however, with Smith desperately attempting a filibuster in order to clear his name against ridiculous odds. It’s the film’s saving grace, and one of the most famous scenes in cinema history. B.

John Lacey

High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine

2010-04-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

High On Fire
Snakes For The Divine
2010 E1 Music

High On Fire (or HoF, as I’ll refer to them throughout this review) have been one of the most consistent(ly awesome) bands of the 2000s, by churning out a thrash-meets-Sabbath-meets-Motorhead style of metal that has firm roots in the 80s, yet sounds more raw and vital than most modern metal. Their last release, Death Is This Communion, kicked up the speed and experimentalism a bit, but the band didn’t stray too far from their signature sound. I’m pleased to report that Snakes for the Divine is, again, a High On Fire album through-and-through, and a damn good one, at that.

Usually known for their downtuned, sludgy riffing, HoF kick off the new album with a surprisingly Maiden-esque guitar lick, something usually reserved for Matt Pike’s frantic soloing style. This isn’t to say that this opening title track lacks any heavy riffing; as soon as the full band kicks in, this is unmistakably a HoF tune, and a great opener for the album. The lead bass riffing during the choruses brings to mind Cliff Burton’s work on Kill ‘Em All, and that’s certainly a plus. At 8:24, this is an epic opener, but one that never gets boring.

Early leaks of the album had a lot of message boards up-in-arms over the production of the album, but I gotta say, I don’t think any of the complaints were warranted (although the production on the actual album release is much clearer and less overly-compressed than the leaks). HoF were never known for their great production prior to DitC, but the production on that release was clean, yet still very heavy, and that’s the case with Snakes.

“Frost Hammer,” the second track and first single/video, starts off like an oldschool HoF tune, but has a Mastodon-ish breakdown in the middle with a lot of vocal harmonies. It’s not as scary as it sounds, trust me, it works. The “Frost Ham-mer!” breakdown near the end brings a total metal anthem feel to the track, and the solo, of course, rips. “Bastard Samurai” opens with what sound like synths (!), but again, they are just there as an intro before the full band settles on a MASSIVE groove about a minute into the track. The verses are a lot quieter than standard HoF fare, which is a nice refresher, and makes the heavier parts that much more effective. Probably the heaviest HoF song to date, this is another winner.

“Ghost Neck,” partially based on the trials of drummer Des Kensel and his spinal fusion surgery (using a piece of cadaver bone as part of the surgery), opens with a series of low-end, legato riffing that creates a hypnotic effect. This song is one of the thrashiest on the record, bringing to mind early Exodus in the verses, with some awesome riffing in the bridges. So far, this is on pace to be a better record than DitC, which I was certainly NOT expecting.

Instrumental “The Path” serves as a breather from the thrashy onslaught, and gives us some nice, tasteful lead playing by Matt Pike for 1:20, before “Fire, Flood & Plague” kicks in. Another epic thrasher, the album has yet to produce a sub-par, or even forgettable, track.

“How Dark We Pray” is a slower, Sabbath-ish number that certainly brings to mind Tony Iommi with the lead guitar intro, and is one of the more melodic tracks on the whole album. Moody-yet-heavy, this is a more subdued HoF than we’re used to, but again, not boring or disappointing in the least.

The album concludes with the awesomely-titled “Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter,” (because, really, what is more metal than fire spitting? Oh, right, fire spitting HOLY flames…) and at 4:17, it’s the shortest proper track on the album. It ends things on a brisk note, as it’s mid-paced and fairly straightforward, but it’s almost as if the band ended with a more standard HoF track as if to say, “We’re still High on Fire, we’re not getting too weird on you.” Unlike, say, Mastodon, who ended Crack the Skye with one of their longest, most experimental tracks ever (“The Last Baron,”) HoF aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just expand it and make it a little more diverse.

And I’m MORE than fine with that, as long as they keep releasing albums that are THIS good. Is it better than DitC? I’m still torn, but it’s certainly AS good, and for a band to keep releasing albums as good as the last one, is no easy feat. I’m happy to say that HoF have definitely done that here.

A-

Matt Steele

People Play Games #2: M.C. Kids

2010-04-20T16:51:00.001-07:00

Welcome back to “People Play Games”, where we take a closer look at subgenres of old video games. In our first installment, we discussed John Elway’s Quarterback and awful sports games that signed superstar athletes to be their pitchmen. Today, we’ll talk about video games with ridiculous commercial sponsorship through the prism of M.C. Kids, a 1992 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) release.

You see, it wasn’t enough for McDonald’s that every child emerges from the womb crying for a Happy Meal. Though already unavoidable and ubiquitous, McDonald’s decided to enter into the video game market, trying to gain headway into that elusive “children who play video games but are ambivalent towards McDonald’s” demographic. To do this, they tapped Virgin Interactive, a company best known for its chain of record stores and its flamboyantly rich thrill seeking chairman.

The result was M.C. Kids, a McDonald’s-themed game where two children team up to save Ronald McDonald’s house, or something. I’ll let Wikipedia explain:

“The game is loosely based on the McDonald’s fast-food franchise and features two teenagers that venture into the McDonald’s fantasy world ‘McDonaldland’ in order to return Ronald McDonald’s magical bag, which has been stolen by the Hamburglar.”

“Loosely based” might be a tepid choice of words considering that the plot revolves around the misdeeds of the Hamburglar. Nonetheless, I was excited to jump right into M.C. Kids after reading that description, and I held out hope that the Grimace would also make an appearance.

Sadly, reading the Wikipedia plot description and watching the opening extrapolation were about as much fun as I had playing M.C. Kids. You control a wide-eyed, McDonald’s-loving full-blooded American through various forest levels, avoiding the attacks of rambunctious raccoons and spiders. Each level plays like a warmed-over Super Mario Bros. 3, if you subtract the ingenuity and charm of that game by 100%. There was an objective of some kind in each level (something having to do with Ronald’s “magical bag”), but I was successfully able to run as fast as I could through the entire stage without stopping every time. Fun!

Though I would have loved to have seen the Hamburglar, my patience quickly wore thin and I had to turn the fucking thing off. I’d imagine the majority of America’s children did much the same eighteen years ago. Unfortunately, the awfulness of the game and the shamelessness of its message didn’t stop other food and drink companies from releasing various games for the NES, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis in the early 90s. 7-Up (Cool Spot, that red dot with sunglasses that no one remembers), Domino’s (Yo! Noid) and Cheetos (Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest) all released video games hoping that kids would be so dumb that they’d play these games and then immediately purchase the products they hawked. Judging by the dearth of video games based on Papa John’s or Diet Coke these days, I’d like to think we were smart enough to think for ourselves. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m dying for a McFlurry.

John Lacey

The Whigs - In The Dark

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Whigs
In The Dark
2010 ATO

Much has been made of the Whigs’ recent tour with garage pop darlings Kings of Leon, and their subsequent shift in style evident on their new third full-length record, In The Dark. Whether intentional or not (and you’d have to think it is), In The Dark is more polished and more deliberate than either of its predecessors.

The first two Whigs albums, Give ‘Em All A Big Fat Lip (2005) and Mission Control (2008), featured repeated three-and-a-half minute bursts of raw energy. Things are much more methodical and much less frenetic on In The Dark. Those first albums were scintillating but also charming; the rambunctious and exciting nature of the band created a youthful aura around those records that made the music even more powerful. That feeling is largely absent on their new album, replaced by a toned-down pop sensibility that is different from their earlier material, but not entirely without merit.

The album starts off fairly strongly. “Black Lotus” is a solid indie-pop track, and the heavily Kings of Leon-influenced “Kill Me Carolyne” is a nice listen. Things quickly begin to drag, however, beginning with “Someone’s Daughter” and “So Lonely”. What follows are quick and unspectacular rock songs, each with similar structures and multiple choruses, none making an impression.

The slower, more deliberate style works in some places, such as in the opening riff and chorus of “I Don’t Even Care About The One I Love” and the soaring vocals in “I Am For Real”. Unfortunately, nearly all of the songs suffer from sounding so similar to one another; themes and melodies are consistently repeated from track to track. Even when something tickles the ear, it still sounds like a variant of something else you’ve already heard in another song.

The upsetting thing about In The Dark and the Whigs in general is that they had already crafted their own sound and mystique. They really didn’t need to abandon it to try and mold themselves to become a “Kings of Leon-type band”. There are enough good ideas here to hope that even if they continue on this trajectory, they can still release very good records. But I can’t help but feel discouraged that this band that I once saw upstage the Drive-By Truckers in concert has willfully tempered the qualities that made them so great.

John Lacey

Fleeting Moments #1: Ben Folds – “Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)”

2010-03-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Way to Normal (2008)

Welcome to a new feature at the Musicarium, “Fleeting Moments”. Here we’ll take a look at good individual songs from albums or even entire careers otherwise mediocre or awful. Often times, a usually dependable artist will release a shitty album that does have one good song or even part of one good song on it. Other times, a usually shitty artist will miraculously release a good song. I thought it would be interesting to find examples of this and write about them.

We begin with the opening track from Ben Folds’ 2008 album, Way to Normal. My review of the album was actually the first official post for the Musicarium back in December 2008 (and you can read that here). At the time, I listened to the record a couple of times, wasn’t terribly impressed by much of it, reviewed it and gave it a C-, and barely listened to it ever again. But there was one song I went back to time to time; the opening track, “Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)”, a goofy tale about Folds falling off of the stage at a concert in Japan and the ensuing x-rays that resulted.

I had read many negative reviews of Way to Normal before I first heard it, but in listening to “Hiroshima”, the first song, I was delighted. Folds has released some legitimately brilliant material since the dissolution of Ben Folds Five. Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001) is fantastic from beginning to end, and Songs for Silverman (2005) has a multitude of strong moments that compensate for some unevenness. The negative press concerned me, and there were moments on Songs for Silverman and some of Folds’ five song EPs he released between 2003 and 2004 that were equal parts bewildering and embarrassing. But after hearing “Hiroshima”, I was confident that Way to Normal would be another winner.

Folds has been much more serious in his solo work than he was with Ben Folds Five. Much of Ben Folds Five’s output could be described as a frolicking, cheerful retelling of relationships gone bad and youth gone by the wayside. They rarely delved into serious remembrance or yearning (except, of course, for “Brick”, their biggest hit), choosing instead to be humorous bystanders to the sad sacks they sang about. Ben Folds Five was a great band because they sounded different, they wrote great songs, and they talked about the same shit everyone else talks about in a unique and entertaining voice.

When Folds moved away from that when he went solo, he became more ordinary. He was still writing some great music, but much of it didn’t feel special anymore. “Hiroshima”, however briefly, recaptures some of that self-deprecating charm. It’s big and bright, with memorable piano and simple chorus of Folds and a crowd yelling “Oh Oh Oh Oh” repeatedly. Folds singing about his mishap in Japan is sentimental, but stupidly so; and it sounds like something Ben Folds Five might have released.

I don’t mean to say that the song is only good because it sounds like Ben Folds Five. But in light of the rest of the largely putrid Way to Normal, in which Folds oscillates from “too sweet and too zany” to “too corny and wistful”, “Hiroshima” provides the only balance between those extremes and is thus the only truly good song on the album.

Listen to the song on YouTube.

John Lacey

The Random Ten #16

2010-03-23T14:47:00.001-07:00

Matt #1) Baroness - “Swollen and Halo” - Blue Record (2009)

Those who’ve read this blog know that Blue Record was my album of the year for 2009 (ed. note: you can read that at http://themusicarium.blogspot.com/2010/01/matts-top-10-albums-of-2009.html). “Swollen and Halo,” one of the more laid-back, melodic rockers on the LP, is also one of the best tracks in the bunch. Great riff follows great riff follows great riff, and John Baizley’s cleaner singing approach really fits the vibe of the song. Amazing track from an amazing band.

John #1) Oasis – “Up In The Sky” – Definitely Maybe (1994)

We start with a cut from Oasis’ first album, Definitely Maybe, which immediately made the group superstars in the United Kingdom and garnered them a large amount of attention stateside. “Up In The Sky” is pretty straightforward Oasis; you should know the drill by now. A big, booming riff, some nice progressions and movements, relatively boring vocals, etc.

It does sound really clean for a debut record, though, and in listening to this it’s understandable why British people were shitting their pants. They sounded like the real deal at the time, but considering whom they were being compared to constantly (*thebeatlesakathebestbandofalltime*), they couldn’t sustain the momentum or make music nearly as good. Being compared to the Beatles was helpful in ways; I don’t think Oasis would have ever become as big if those comparisons never existed. Unfortunately, it’s very unfair to the band, and music fans the world over will forever think of Oasis as “that band that didn’t become the next Beatles”. There will never be another Beatles, so we can probably let that go at this point.

Matt #2) Slayer - “Born of Fire” - Decade of Aggression – Live (1991)

Captured on the original Clash of the Titans tour in 1991, Slayer were at their live peak, as well as their peak of popularity (until about 2004 or so, when they started selling out mid-sized arenas on a regular basis again). “Born of Fire” is a thrasher taken from Seasons in the Abyss, but it sounds a lot more raw and violent in the live setting. Tom Araya’s vocals were rather clean in the studio version, but here he really goes for it.

John #2) Megadeth – “Skull Beneath The Skin” – Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good! (1985)

Megadeth gets a raw deal. Their brand of thrash is every bit as fast, nasty and melodic as Metallica’s early output, but no one ever talks about them except to discuss how insane/drunk Dave Mustaine is. This tune, taken from the band’s first album, is a technical metal fan’s dream. Fast, tight, complicated and raw; exactly what thrash should sound like. Hearing this prompted me to spend twenty seconds adding the album to my iPod, which is about the highest form of praise I can mete out.

Matt #3) Halford - “Jawbreaker” - Live Insurrection (2001)

“Jawbreaker” originally comes from the criminally underrated Judas Priest album, Defenders of the Faith. What Defenders lacks in production – the drum sound is so 1980s – the songwriting more than makes up for. This live version of that album’s second track, “Jawbreaker,” features much stronger production than the original studio version, as well as a rabid South American crowd singing along with every word. Halford’s live band in 2000 was absolutely top-notch, and did an amazing job at recreating old Priest tunes, even better than Priest themselves were doing at the time with vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens. If you’re a Priest fan but never checked out Halford, the band, their debut album Resurrection and its live follow-up are mandatory listening.

John #3) String Cheese Incident – “Mauna Bowa” – Carnival ’99 (recorded 1999, officially released in 2000)

Let’s quickly go to the other end of the musical spectrum! String Cheese Incident, to create a segue, is like the Megadeth of jam bands. They flawlessly play complex, fast music that is pleasing to the ears without it being muddled or too busy. “Mauna Bowa” is an instrumental track that features great violin work from Michael Kang. Its tropical vibe and island rhythms, combined with a recurring violin refrain from Kang and a manageable length (seven minutes) make it a fun, solid track.

Matt #4) Dr. Dre f/Xzibit & Eminem - “What’s the Difference” - 2001 (1999)

This is probably my favorite song from 2001, although Eminem’s rap hasn’t aged that well over time. The main beat and chorus are catchy as hell, and Dre and Xzibit’s verses are well-constructed and executed. I’m no expert on rap, by any means, but this is one of my top 10 rap tunes of all time, easily.

John #4) Slayer – “Postmortem” – Reign In Blood (1986)

More thrash! This time, darker and with satanic themes! This is Slayer, and the Reign In Blood album revolutionized metal and helped move the genre into the extreme places it has since gone. Oh, the song rules, too; it’s really, really heavy and evil sounding. I may have to dust off my Jnco jeans from eighth grade when I was into metal and start listening to this stuff more often.

Matt #5) Alice in Chains - “Dam that River” - Live (2000)

Half of Alice in Chains' Live is a great documentation of the band at their live peak. Half was recorded post-Alice in Chains, when the band played approximately 5 live shows before going into exile for 6 years, leading up to the death of frontman Layne Staley. This version of “Dam that River” comes from 1996, when Staley sounded about as worn-out as he looked. Not an easy song to sing by any means, this version sounds way too bare and stripped down, and shows a band falling apart at the seams. Staley’s singing along with the guitar riff prior to the first verse is just awkward and pathetic. Depending on your view of the band, they’ve either tarnished their legacy completely in recent years by continuing in Staley’s absence, or they’ve reclaimed their glory with a renewed vigor. Either way, everyone should be glad that Live isn’t most people’s lasting image of the band.

John #5) Jethro Tull – “My God” – Aqualung Live (recorded 2005, officially released in 2006)

Talk about letting the air out of the balloon. My brain was just set aflame, and it took a couple of minutes to actually pay attention to this once it started. This is simply a live performance of Jethro Tull’s masterwork 1971 Aqualung album. These old bastards actually sound pretty good considering this was recorded in 2005. Everything sounds on point and Tull’s famous sludgy guitar riffs remain intact. Of course, we need to break for five minutes to listen to Ian Anderson play the flute. I get it, you’re talented. Stop.

Matt #6) Lamb of God - “Laid to Rest” - Ashes of the Wake (2004)

Ashes of the Wake was the album that turned Lamb of God into the modern-day Pantera, if not in sound, then at least in popularity. “Laid to Rest,” the opening track from their now-classic 3rd release, is a modern metal staple. Say what you want about the state of metal in the 2000s, but Lamb of God picked up the ball that Pantera dropped, and have run with it, full steam ahead. I saw the band perform this song on Ozzfest 2004, prior to the release of the album, and I knew their 3rd release was going to be a phenom. Did it hit Number 1 on the charts like Far Beyond Driven? Certainly not, but it brought this band out of the underground and into the front of the “mainstream” metal pack, alongside Mastodon and Killswitch Engage. One listen to the passionate riffs and vocals of this song, and it’s easy to see why.

John #6) Mother Love Bone – “Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns” – Mother Love Bone (1992; the song was originally released on the Shine EP [1989])

I fucking love this song. It features one of the most haunting intro piano pieces of anything I’ve ever heard. I was first exposed to it with Pearl Jam playing it live (Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam were initially in Mother Love Bone and play this song routinely). Usually, Pearl Jam plays a few bars of the intro piano part and then they go into the “Crown Of Thorns” section of the song. The Mother Love Bone version is much better. The intro piece, “Chloe Dancer”, makes the song what it is. It’s simple but elegant and important-sounding. After two minutes, that becomes “Crown Of Thorns”, a quintessential early grunge track, and one of the first that showed the legitimately majestic heights the genre could reach. Listening to this, it’s hard not to wonder what would have happened if lead singer Andrew Wood hadn’t died and the group hadn’t eventually morphed into Pearl Jam. Judging by this, they might have been even better.

Matt #7) Killswitch Engage - “The End of Heartache” - [Set This] World Ablaze EP (2005)

Taken from their live DVD, and promotional EP of the same name, this version of “Heartache” features the band’s insanely rabid hometown crowd, recorded in Worcester, MA in 2005. This was right near the end of the touring cycle for The End of Heartache (the album), and the band had turned the title-track into a minor radio rock hit. The catchy hooks and 80s-inspired riffing (“Panama,” anyone?) struck a nerve with fans, and the back and forth between Howard Jones and the crowd’s singing is nothing short of inspiring. If you’re a KsE fan, you need to hear this. As I always say about KsE, you either love them or hate them. I don’t love them as much now as I did in 2005, but this song still rules.

John #7) Jeff Buckley – “Alligator Wine” – Grace (original album released 1994; this track is from the “legacy edition” released in 2004)

“Alligator Wine” finds Jeff Buckley performing a twangy blues track included on the deluxe reissue of his seminal Grace album. The song sounds like Buckley mimicking an old blues singer to an electric guitar and repeating snare hit. Not very noteworthy, and probably for completists only.

Matt #8) Kiss - “Love Gun” - Love Gun (1977)

One of the songs and bands that first inspired me to pick up a guitar, mainly because of Ace Frehley’s simple-yet-ass-kicking solo. “Love Gun” is, to paraphrase Sean William Scott in Role Models, about Paul Stanley’s dick. The lyrics are Kiss at their nonsensical best, with some vague and some not-so-vague innuendos thrown out left and right, all about sex, naturally. Still, the rollicking beat and Gene Simmons’ always-underrated bass work really carry the tune, and I had the fortune of seeing the last incarnation of the original line up on their “farewell” tour in 2000 (The band, of course, still continues touring to this date, with replacement players Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer in for Ace and Peter Criss, respectively).

John #8) Grateful Dead – “They Love Each Other” – Dick’s Picks Vol. 10: Winterland, San Francisco, CA 12/29/77 (recorded 1977, released 1998)

The Dead returned to their hometown at the end of 1977, and thankfully for us the affair was recorded and officially released twelve years ago. “They Love Each Other” is a nice, soft, rolling number; pleasant sounding and expertly handled but featuring few surprises. It moves along unassumingly for eight minutes, with some nice understated jamming towards its end. Decent but forgettable.

Matt #9) Celtic Frost - “Inner Sanctum” - Into the Pandemonium (1987)

Celtic Frost simply did not give a fuck, and I will always commend them for that. From over-the-top extreme metal (for the time) on Morbid Tales, to string-based, operatic singing and new-wave covers on third album Into the Pandemonium, they really did whatever the hell they wanted, and managed not to really alienate their fanbase until the release of their dumbed-down, hair metal-esque fourth album, Cold Lake. Their reunion in 2005 and subsequent album Monotheist rightfully restored the band’s legacy in metal history, although they unfortunately disbanded for good in 2007. Into the Pandemonium ran the gamut of styles, but “Inner Sanctum” is the one song on the album that sounds like it could have come from To Mega Therion or Morbid Tales, as it’s pretty much a heavy, thrashing metal song all the way through. My favorite track from Pandemonium would have to be “Mesmerized,” but “Inner Sanctum” is a close second.

John #9) Nirvana – “Rape Me” – In Utero (1994)

Luckily, I didn’t buy this album at Wal-Mart so the objectionable lyrics haven’t been censored. As opposed to the earlier Mother Love Bone song, “Rape Me” is much louder and more aggressive, with a metal-sounding chorus. Both approaches work, however, and here Nirvana chooses to eschew subtlety and go full bore. Nothing wrong with that. Rightfully famous.

Matt #10) Iron Maiden - “Wildest Dreams” - Dance of Death (2003)

Dance of Death was Iron Maiden’s second studio effort following the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith in 1999. Released in 2003, “Wildest Dreams” was the lead track and first single from the album, which I think was a mistake, because, frankly, it’s not that great of a song. The album was great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s one of the rare albums where they lead off with an average track and then each subsequent track gets better, all the way up until the album’s climax, “Paschendale.” This song is almost too upbeat, with no great riffs or parts that really stand out, and the lyrics, meant to be a rousing, crowd-pleasing anthem, are just kind of there. Not Maiden’s best effort at all.

John #10) Deep Purple – “Space Truckin’” – When We Rock, We Rock And When We Roll, We Roll (1978; the song was originally released on Machine Head [1972])

Let’s end with a classic ‘70s radio hit! Whooooooooooooooeeeeeeee! This song makes me picture myself driving down the highway in my convertible, pedal to the metal, sun in my hair and a beer in my hand. Maybe I should actually try that sometime, instead of thinking intently about life while listening to a Decemberists song. Deep Purple sounds a lot more fun.

It’s obnoxious, sophomoric, and mind-numbingly simple, and it’s fucking great. It has some of the sexuality of the big Led Zeppelin rock anthems but doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Space Truckin’” is a perfect early ‘70s hard rock song.

Matt Steele/John Lacey

Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do

2010-03-18T17:09:00.001-07:00

Drive-By Truckers
The Big To-Do
2010 ATO

From the heels of their critically acclaimed and well liked opus Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (2008) comes the new Drive-By Truckers record, The Big To-Do, the group’s eighth studio album. The Drive-By Truckers have made a career performing songs about hard drinking and hard living, with a raucous but also a truthful and sometimes sorrowful sensibility. It’s their tenderness and delicateness when covering such subjects, even when they’re at full volume, that makes their songs and albums perennially engaging and often times brilliant.

Thankfully, that spirit continues with The Big To-Do. De facto leader Patterson Hood kicks things off with a blistering opener, “Daddy Learned to Fly”, featuring a memorable, rough guitar riff and setting the bar for the rest of the album really high. The band has three principal songwriters (guitarist Hood, other guitarist Mike Cooley, and bassist Shonda Tucker), which allows their records to change shape and move in different directions without deviating too far from the mean. Hood assumes most of the songwriting duties on The Big To-Do, largely successfully. “Drag the Lake Charlie”, lead single “This Fucking Job”, and “After the Scene Dies” are all riff-heavy, big-chorus anthems that work well and carry the momentum of the tremendous opener.

It’s unfortunate that Cooley’s contributions are diminished, however, because he routinely provides the most enduring tracks to Drive-By Truckers’ records (he only penned three songs on this album). His “Birthday Boy”, which looks at a day in the life of a prostitute, features a memorable melody and perfect slide guitar accompaniment, and is one of his finest moments. Shonda Tucker chimes in with two tracks, and though her songs on Brighter Than Creation’s Dark may have been that album’s lowlights, she shines in the eerie “You Got Another” and “It’s Gonna Be (I Told You So)”.

The album does taper off towards its conclusion. The Hood-written “Santa Fe” has its moments, but the second half of the record, though solid, passes without much fanfare. To be frank, some of The Big To-Do sounds like a retread of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, even down to lyrical content and track layout.

I’m not advocating for Patterson Hood to start playing a didgeridoo or for the band to incorporate a West African chorus, but a little more ambition would be nice. Even still, though I might not fully grasp the science of it, I think if you dilute something that’s fucking awesome to begin with, the end result is simply something slightly less fucking awesome.

B+

John Lacey

(Ed. Note: This marks the 100th post on the Musicarium. I realize not many people care, but I kinda do, and I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has ever written a column for this blog and anyone who has ever read it, particularly Matt Steele, who has contributed routinely since day one. Here’s to 100 more!)

The Simpsons Project #10

2010-03-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

The Simpsons Project #10 (Season 1, Episode 10)
Homer’s Night Out
Original airdate: 3/25/90

Hi, friends. Welcome back to another installment of the Simpsons Project, where I take on the herculean and insane task of trying to review every episode of the series for my (12) faithful readers. Today’s entry: “Homer’s Night Out”.

We begin the episode with Homer bemoaning his recent weight gain (he’s “ballooned” up to 239 pounds, his standard weight for the remainder of the series). He curses his sweet tooth as the cause for his portliness, asking God “why are all the good things so tasty?”, but he soon distracts himself by telling Marge that he’s been invited to a co-worker’s bachelor party. She’s rightfully nervous about his attendance, but he assures her the party will be “very classy, a tea and crumpets kinda thing.”

Meanwhile, Bart purchases a miniature spy camera from the back of a comic book and immediately uses it to photograph a semi-nude Homer performing a half-assed workout in the bathroom. Later, with Homer attending his bachelor party, the rest of the family decides to go out to dinner. Unbeknownst to both Homer and his family, the party and the dinner are being held at the same Springfield eatery, the Rusty Barnacle.

There’s a great moment when the bachelor party, in an adjacent room, is so loud that Marge complains to the waiter. He promptly pleads with the partiers to quiet down, to which Homer curtly and rudely responds, “Hey, shut up.” It’s a quick scene, but it’s indicative of the complete jerk Homer is to become later in the series, rather than the good-hearted half-wit he is towards the beginning.

The rest of the plot is set up when Bart sneaks into the party to find Homer frolicking with a belly dancer, a scene he promptly snaps a photo of. Bart immediately develops the photos and is easily persuaded to give copies out to his friends. They soon make the rounds in the neighborhood (along the way giving us a rare glimpse of Mr. Burns’ earlier, much smaller, less ornate office), and it isn’t long before Marge is made aware of Homer’s carousing.

Many of the first season episodes focus primarily on the storyline and it seems like jokes and one-liners were added in on the fly later, to varying degrees of success. Later seasons would much more seamlessly blend story and non-stop cutting edge hilarity. There are a lot of missed opportunities and predictable jokes in “Homer’s Night Out”, and their presence makes later episodes feel that much more vivid.

Anyway, Marge kicks Homer out of the house, and his first stop is ladies night at Moe’s, where “unescorted ladies drink free”. Homer eventually grovels to Marge for forgiveness, but she is more concerned with Homer’s negative example to Bart of objectifying women than his borderline infidelity. Marge makes Homer take Bart to meet the belly dancer, Princess Kashmir (AKA April Flowers), so that he may understand that she is a real person with emotions and feelings and not just an object.

In a nice ending, Homer is unwittingly thrust into the center of a showgirl conga line. Though he initially plays up his newfound swinging image for the audience, he notices Bart and stops the routine, pleading with the men in the crowd to recognize women as something more than curvaceous sexpots. Marge, having snuck into the audience without Homer’s knowledge, immediately forgives him, and their relationship is mended. Well-known and with a nice story, but not all that great. C.

John Lacey

The Songs We Love To Hate

2010-03-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: These diatribes were created for educational purposes only. They do not reflect the views of the author. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Erin, and feel it is my social duty to offer the general public a fresh look on popular tunes. I am not a professional writer, nor a celebrated virtuoso. But, I possess a self-proclaimed degree in urban observation paired with a judging attitude, and witty disposition. Jackpot! So, while I am not an expert on the subject, I do feel qualified to deconstruct, expose, and reveal your specious top 40 hits for who they really are.

In today’s essay, I would like to discuss the cultural phenomenon of the dive bar digital jukebox, and the musical selections that can be requested with a 4 credits per dollar purchase. Specifically, this is a summary of the most deadly earworms to grace audio mediums. Alternatively, this list could be used strategically to introduce unsolicited social awkwardness in a bar.

Scene: You, sitting at your local “paddy’s pub” with (enter beverage choice here) in hand, watching a couple in the corner on their first match.com date, 2 business men discussing work on a paper napkin, another group of friends scrolling through photos from a night of mayhem, friends playing darts in the corner, a guy trying to pick up a girl way out of his league / girl giving the wrong number, et cetera. The musical ambiance: each song hand selected, is an amorphous mix of classic rock, 90’s grunge, and modern hip-hop. Each tune seems to fit into place, nothing too unexpected. Then, like a bitch slap across the face, bringing you straight back to middle school, you hear the first 5 ascending notes of “The Thong Song”. Compliments to Sisqo, all action in the bar has ceased for what seems to be eternity. You look around, to make unintentional eye contact with everyone, searching for the one soul that decided, “Yes, this was a good musical decision”. With one swift shot, one song has made the entire bar uncomfortable, yet, simultaneously feels good… like the last time you indulged in a guilty pleasure. However, because every song carries a certain level of “Cool”, your reputation lies on your immediate reaction to Sisqo’s poem…. Maybe you do have a look in your eye so devilish, and occasionally like to shake that thang like who’s the ish, but you can’t let your neighbor know that. The various looks of disapproval provided by terrible music are a green house for awkward situations to flourish.

So, after a poll amongst peers, and heavy researching, I bring to you the list of most inappropriate earworms that could possibly be played via dive bar jukebox, complete with my own personal annotations.

1.) Sisqo – "Thong Song"
Catchy tune, which allowed females to feel confident about a whale’s tale coming out the back of their jeans. And funny thing, Sisqo even pinpoints the demographic that digs his song. White girls who also have Ricky Martin’s album, and therefore will automatically acknowledge the limerick, “and ya cruise to the crews like connect da dots… cuz she was livin la vida loca” …

2.) Ricky Martin – "Livin' La Vida Loca"
A metro-sexual man in tight pleather pants, shaking his bon-bon, with his hands in the air singing Spanglish sweet-nothings into a woman’s ear.

3.) Lou Bega – "Mambo # 5"
The seven independent women in Mr. Bega’s life and/or anyone who shares their name made this song popular. Kudos to Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary, and Jessica for taking one for the team, and consequently introducing jive-dance to the Billboard charts.

4.) Los Del Mar – "Macerena"
Is it possible to just sit and listen to this song? I think we have a social experiment on our hands.

5.) Shawn Mullins – "Lullaby"
I don’t even think this counts as a song. Shawn Mullins is merely speaking deeply throughout the song. To be quite honest it creeps me out that he knows so much about a girl by merely observing her from the stage. Creep.

6.) Aqua – "Barbie Girl"
This one needs no explanation.

7.) Trashmen – "Surfin’ Bird"
I am not sure if this 60’s jam is in modern jukeboxes. I challenge you to download and listen to this obnoxious jig for more then 15 seconds.

8.) Eiffel 65 – "Blue"
Actually, this song could become a hot topic of discussion; the trippy lyrics suggest what life would be like if everything was blue, even your girlfriend. What a terrible thought.

9.) Chumbawamba – "Tubthumping"
Actually, this is my guilty pleasure. A musical successory.

10.) Jennifer Lopez – "Jenny From The Block"
Question: Did J.lo ever find someone that was actually fooled by the rocks that she had?

Honorable mentions:
Dead Or Alive – "You Spin Me Round"
Anything by Nickelback
Rednex – "Cotton Eyed Joe"
Creed – "With Arms Wide Open"
The Pretenders – "500 Miles"
Tatu – "All The Things She Said"
La Bouche – "Be My Lover"
Phantom Planet – "California"
Tal Bachman – "She’s So High"

I would like to thank all that responded to my poll. It is my intentions for you to take this information to the next dive bar jukebox. Just to mix things up, make your next outing a little spicy and classless for everyone else.

Erin Briskie

Forgotten Records #7: Slayer - Diabolus In Musica

2010-03-09T15:10:00.003-08:00

Slayer
Diabolus In Musica
1998 American

Slayer’s quality of output following the departure of drummer Dave Lombardo in 1992 has been a point of contention for fans for a long time. Some say that 1994’s Divine Intervention was a band treading water, others say it’s an underrated classic. I’m sort of in the latter camp. Some of the songs are forgettable, but there’s nothing bad on the album, and some songs are fucking great – “Divine Intervention,” “Serenity in Murder,” “Killing Fields,” and the blazing “Dittohead.” The production left a little to be desired, but overall, the band’s 6th studio release wasn’t anything too offensive for longtime fans. Their next studio release, however, certainly was.

Undisputed Attitude, a collection of hardcore/punk covers, certainly pissed off a lot of the longtime Slayer faithful. The fact that Slayer, thrash metal legends they were and still are, branched out into a genre like punk really upset a lot of closed-minded metalheads that only wanted to hear the band tackle Venom and Judas Priest songs. Pioneers that they were, though, Slayer went outside the box and tackled a genre that most didn’t expect. The fact that they picked relatively obscure bands to cover also showed that they were nowhere near the edge of selling out. As a one-off, studio project record that it really is, Undisputed Attitude still kind of kicks ass, with the band sounding as vital and fresh as they had in a long time. Fans wondered if they could top the aggression and intensity on their next studio album. What they got for a response was the band’s most experimental record yet.

Diabolus in Musica opens with “Bitter Peace,” which starts off heavier and slower than traditional Slayer fare, but ends up in a thrashing frenzy like the Slayer of old. A great, overlooked opener, the album starts off on a great note. “Death’s Head” simplifies things… a lot. Focusing more on a latter-day Sepultura-like groove, the song has some catchy riffs that might make a 14-year-old want to jump up and down, but it doesn’t make for a Slayer classic by any means. The nu-metal “jumpdafuckup” style continues on “Stain of Mind,” which somehow remains in Slayer’s setlist a lot to this very date. The verse riff is eerily similar to Coal Chamber’s “Loco,” from the same year, and that is far, far from a good thing.

“Overt Enemy,” the 4th track, opens with some slow bass and drums, and spoken word samples about war, death, blah, blah, blah. They’re trying to create a creepy and eerie vibe, but failing miserably, with some guitar harmonies that sound really off key and out of place. The heavy riff that comes in at about 0:55 is decent enough, but then the vocals come in and sing the same stupid melody that the guitars had just been playing, and let’s face it, Tom Araya is not much of a “singer.” This song is too slow and too dumbed-down to really ever pick up. Another miss on an album full of them.

Thankfully, “Perversions of Pain” picks things up next. Opening with a slow, doomy riff, once the drums kick in, the song starts to sound a lot like classic Slayer. The chorus is more subdued, recalling “Seasons in the Abyss.” I forgot how much I really liked this song until I listened to this album again to write this. The thrashy riff at 1:25 is total old school Slayer, and the solos are great. “Love to Hate” follows, with Tom Araya shouting over a pretty basic riff. The dumb lyrics aren’t helped by the vocal delivery in this one. Not a terrible song, but not a winner, either.

“Desire” opens with some echoing clean guitars, sort of like “213” from Divine Intervention, but where that song took the clean guitars and built on it, these riffs here just get repeated with drums and distortion backing them. Not the heaviest way to start a song, but it’s something different, and the song slowly gets better from there. Araya basically whispers the verses in this one, but it works in the context of this song. Sometimes they try to be too creepy or scary for their own good, but this song is catchy enough and dark enough to work. “In the Name of God” features some Machine Head-like starts and stops, with some great double-bass work from Paul Bostaph going on underneath. The refrain near the end, “Antichrist is the name of god!” is stupid, for sure, but for a catchy, blasphemous Slayer chant, it’s pretty good. It’s no “God hates us all!” though; that would come on the next album.

And then there’s the song about rugby. Yes, rugby. “Scrum” is actually a decent track, but the lyrics are about Kerry King’s fascination with the sport from down under. If you can get past the lyrics, this is a decent enough song, but not totally memorable, either. “Screaming from the Sky” is another clunker, with some bouncy riffing that just sounds uninspired and directionless. “Point” ends the album with a not so great intro, sounding too much like the other uninspired, bouncy, jumpy riffs I just mentioned, but the song does pick up once the lyrics come in. Nothing amazing, but at least it doesn’t leave the album on a complete down-note.

Why was it forgotten?

The fad of the day was the early rumblings of the nu-metal scene. KoRn and Deftones had just released their second albums, and bands like Coal Chamber and Soulfly were picking up steam. Older thrash bands like Slayer were either in their experimental phases – Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax – or trying to get too extreme, like Testament and Overkill. Slayer sort of did both. They tried to get heavier by tuning down their guitars and slowing the pace, but they also experimented with different sounds and textures, sometimes to good effect (“Desire,” “Perversions of Pain”) and sometimes, not so much (“Overt Enemy,” “Stain of Mind”).

Should it have been forgotten?

Aside from a few songs, yes, it should have been. Slayer have ignored this album in their live shows, the exception being the sub-par “Stain of Mind” (although, it does get mosh pits moving; then again, mosh pits are for idiots and teenagers). Having listened to it again for the purpose of writing this column, it’s not as bad or forgettable as I remembered it being, but it’s still a pretty mediocre album in a catalogue full of mostly awesome ones. I am glad, though, that I rediscovered the awesomeness of “Perversions of Pain,” a lost, underrated Slayer classic.

Matt Steele

Film Convention #1: She'd Never Go Out With That Guy!

2010-03-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hi, and welcome to a new column here on the Musicarium, Film Conventions. In this column, I aim to take a closer look at various things that crop up repeatedly in films. I’m not trying to determine why these motifs are utilized and why directors keep going to the same well, nor is this meant to be any kind of exhaustive list. There are simply a bundle of things I’ve seen in a lot of different films and I thought this would be as good a place as any to discuss them. So there!

Today, we look at the “attractive girl who is interested in a really weird, but at his heart, good guy”. This motif has been used for generations by lazy screenwriters, is a staple of nearly all films starring Saturday Night Live alums, and recently started being employed by Judd Apatow and his ilk. Usually, the girl in question isn’t drop-dead gorgeous; “wholesome”, “pretty” and “potentially obtainable” are qualifiers that come to mind. Rather than be repelled by the idiotic/childish/scary/angry/ridiculous/insane antics of the film’s protagonist, our woman finds herself drawn in by the hero’s dim-witted, sweaty charms and down to earth good looks.

Sometimes, but not always, there will be a villainous character for the hero to play against for the affections of the female, making her a sort of damsel-in-distress. The villains are always bigger clowns than the heroes, except that they’re evil. Usually these villains are self-obsessed, concerned only with sex and not the woman’s feelings, and in extreme cases controlling, bossy and forceful. Basically, these films give us a paint-by-numbers complete asshole, and perhaps the only person less desirable than the hero of the film.

My question: why would a good-looking, often professional woman waste their time with either man? In real life, they wouldn’t, but here are a few examples from movies when they do.

Movies without a villainous jackoff

Dirty Work (1998)
Woman interested in man she’d never really be interested in: Traylor Howard

Though Julie Bowen in Happy Gilmore (which we’ll get to in a second) sets the standard for good natured, good looking women falling for buffoons, Traylor Howard gets close to the benchmark she sets. Howard has short, blonde hair, a gentle and calm demeanor, and appears to be the one person in the world not put off by Norm MacDonald’s never-ending sarcasm and meanness. She handles his awkwardness and strangeness with interest and affection, and never seems to wonder why the guy is such a dick.

After Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange team up to destroy her grandmother’s apartment building, Howard finally gets mad at him and realizes what a creep he is. Later, the two men manage to clear their names and out evil millionaire (but not “evil millionaire vying for the woman’s affection”!) Travis Cole as the real culprit behind the vandalism. Norm gets the girl in the end, and she never wonders how someone could be so pathetic as to destroy and steal from an entire apartment building. A first-class “she’d never go out with that guy”.

Billy Madison (1995)/Happy Gilmore (1996)
Women interested in man they’d never really be interested in: Bridgette Wilson (Sampras)/Julie Bowen (pictured)

Since these two movies are essentially exactly the same, I thought I’d lump them together. Plots: borderline retarded man-child (Adam Sandler) is desperate to achieve a particular goal. He needs to complete a difficult task in order to achieve this goal. He meets a woman along the way who helps him achieve this goal. They fall in love. Please note that I enjoy these two movies and I’m not trying to denigrate them by pointing this out; this is simply what they are.

In both films, the Sandler character is a brain-dead, drunken moron. He swears, complains, is bitingly sarcastic and rude, gets in fights, constantly bemoans his standing in life, and is in general a disgusting and awful person. In Billy Madison, Sandler is actually forced to go back to grade school because he’s considered such an idiot by everyone he knows. Yet, both in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, the Sandler character is able to attract a hard-working, purposeful, professional woman. It’s not really explained how, it just sort of happens, although in Billy Madison his grade school teacher, Bridgette Wilson, seems mildly impressed by and attracted to the idea of Sandler grabbing her breasts. In both films, the woman suddenly realizes she loves this dope, even though there’s absolutely nothing to love.

Tommy Boy (1995)
Woman interested in man she’d never really be interested in: Julie Warner

Of all the “she’d never go out with that guy” candidates, this seems to me to be the most feasible in real life. In Tommy Boy, Warner is not a knockout, nor does she have a slightly masked sexiness that the other women mentioned have. She’s simply plain and unremarkable, if slightly cute. Additionally, the behavior of her love interest, Chris Farley, is oafish but not rude or crass, causing her interest in him to be slightly more realistic.

But still, Farley is a bumbling moron in Tommy Boy. Characters constantly joke about how he’s retarded. He can’t seem to walk three feet without walking into a wall or having his pants fall down. And though the barbs hurt Tommy, and he wants to be cooler and less accident-prone (causing him to be a more sympathetic character), no woman of Warner’s stature would take a chance on him. He’s very fat, he’s very stupid and his never-ending string of mishaps is liable to kill her.

Movies with a villainous jerkoff

How High (2001)
Woman interested in man she’d never really be interested in: Lark Voorhies
Villainous jerkoff she wouldn’t have been with before: Chris Elwood

How High might give us the biggest shithead in movie history. Chris Elwood is simply an asshole; he’s a jealous, angry, rude, evil dunderhead. He acts like a young, cocky professional wrestler. Even though Voorhies is black, Elwood makes racial jokes at the expense of his competitor, Silas (played by Method Man). By his actions he practically begs his girlfriend (Voorhies) to leave him.

Even though Elwood is an asshole, Method Man isn’t much better. He’s constantly high on marijuana, he cultivates said marijuana, he’s studying at Harvard fraudulently, and he’s largely a jerk. I’d imagine there would be other men at a university such as Harvard, in a city like Boston, that Voorhies could hitch her wagon to. Her oscillation from one extreme to the other; from ultra-conservative racist blockhead to super-high dunce, might make her the quintessential “she’d never be with that guy” character.

Hot Rod (2007)
Woman interested in man she’d never really be interested in: Isla Fisher
Villainous jerkoff she wouldn’t have been with before: Will Arnett

Isla Fisher isn’t wholesome; she’s downright gorgeous. This makes her attraction to Hot Rod good guy Andy Samberg that much more laughable and implausible. Samberg is a self-styled daredevil who risks his life on a daily basis to impress his stepfather and show how cool he is. He is constantly surrounded by his troglodyte friends, who help him with his stunts and enjoy lighting off fireworks. And for some reason she enjoys their company.

Perhaps her enjoyment of their boneheaded antics stems from her perennial mistreatment at the hands of her boyfriend, played by Will Arnett. His is the classic “dickhead boyfriend” character; checking out other women right in front of Fisher and being concerned more about himself and his “bros” than with her. He also explicitly tells her that he’s “going to buy some dongbags”, which I actually thought was hilarious. Fisher presents another case of being interested in two men that no sane, reasonable woman would ever be interested in; the crazed man-child and the ludicrously self-centered shithead.

Back to School (1986)
Woman interested in man she’d never really be interested in: Terry Farrell
Villainous jerkoff she wouldn’t have been with before: William Zabka

Back to School presents a rare case where the hero is simply a mope. Keith Gordon plays Jason Melon, a shy college freshman who can hardly say two words to girls without coming off as self-conscious and awkward. Instead of having some idiosyncratic trait (like being a daredevil or a golfer who can hit the ball 500 yards), Melon is an introvert. And, from what I’ve seen, nothing in real life is as unattractive to women as being an introvert.

His love interest is Valerie Desmond (Farrell), who is really tall and pretty. She immediately takes a liking to Melon, for whatever reason, even though his jokes are awful and he mumbles incoherently whenever he encounters her. Of course, standing in the way of their ill-conceived destiny is the go-to asshole of the 80s, William Zabka. He does much of what Arnett does in Hot Rod, except it’s not meant to be funny in Back to School. He objectifies and humiliates Desmond and tries to make Melon’s life a living hell. On one hand, we have an unidentifiable doofus, and on the other, a jerky alpha male, with a sweet but pretty college girl in between. In real life, she’d choose neither.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t quickly mention Road House (1989), in which the town’s preeminent sexy but compassionate doctor (Kelly Lynch) once dated a cold hearted millionaire who ruled their town with an iron fist. When she finally left the old evil guy, who did she shack up with? A bouncer with a heart of gold, known primarily for his ability to rip people’s throats out.

If you feel I missed a particularly good one, feel free to leave a comment or post it on Facebook!

John Lacey