Q. Last question, what’s your favorite rock record?
Chomsky. (Mumbles) You’ve got me on that one.
Category Archives: Films
Classic Album Review: Beat Happening
Artist: Beat Happening
Full Title: Beat Happening
Year: 1985
Label: K
Track List
1) Our Secret– 8/9
2) What’s Important– 9
3) Down At the Sea– 9
4) I Love You- 8
5) Fourteen- 8
6) Run Down the Stairs– 9
7) Bad Seeds (Live)- 5
8) In My Memory-8/9
9) Honey Pot- 8
10) The Fall- 7/8
11) Youth- 8
12) Don’t Mix the Colors- 8
13) Foggy Eyes- 8
14) Bad Seeds– 9
15) I Let Him Get to Me- 8
16) I Spy– 9
17) Run Down the Stairs– 9
18) Christmas- 7/8
19) Fourteen- 8
20) Let’s Kiss– 9
21) 1, 2, 3- 7
22) In Love With You Thing- 7/8
23) Look Around- 8
24) Untitled- Ungraded
Comments: This is the unflinching, incredible debut from the seminal “twee pop” group Beat Happening. You can call it twee, lo-fi, noise, etc. but ultimately it is Punk Rock- at its finest. In this record, BH, known for their amateur quality/attitude, are at their most primitive; the production is about as lo-fi as it gets before it becomes simply rubbish. On this LP, most songs are astonishingly decent pop tunes, with passion taking the front seat over musicianship. One can hear a lot of 60s surf rock influence as well as the outsider feel of The Shaggs and Half Japanese. Lyrically, most numbers are innocent in nature- “Down at the Sea,” ” Run Down the Stairs,” etc. There are also more than a fair share of love ballads- “Our Secret,” “I Love You,” “Honey Pot,” and the classic “Let’s Kiss.” Admittedly, not every track is good and some do suffer from the lack of “quality” recording and perhaps would have sounded better with a finer studio. My two favorite tracks are definitely “Bad Seeds” ( the guitar riff reminds me of the music in the James Bond Films; a very bad ass song!) and “I Spy.” All in all, this is a pretty nice debut from Beat Happening and it certainly is amongst the annals of “YOU CAN DO IT TOO!” records.
Grade: B+
“Bad Seeds” with clips from Over the Edge (1979)
Film Review: Inception
Full Title: Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Year: 2010
Comments:
Let me begin by stating that Hollywood, the mass media, and the film viewing community as a whole seriously needs to stop hyping films up as the next big thing or the “greatest film since…” I walked into this movie expecting to see something on par with the likes of Nolan’s previous work, The Dark Knight (2008), which I had a massive hard-on for, but alas, like many overrated pictures these days, it did not come close to delivering the wonderful package I anticipated. Seriously, nearly everyone on IMDb and several other patrons had built this up as one of the greatest movies of all time and blah blah blah. Well, for me the first half of this film was decent and had an interesting premise: A man can create dreams in other people’s minds and interact in them. I really dug those first few times they illustrated how the dream process worked i.e. when Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) shows Ariadne (Ellen Page) the tricks of the trade. Overall, the acting is pretty good and the plot holds my attention for the first half. Once they start the actual “job,” the inception, I’m totally severed from the story. I simply felt bored and lost all concern for the characters. SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
The movie became too confusing with dreams within dreams within dreams within his dream within her dream to the point of extreme ridiculocity. And my friends and I noticed various similarities between this and Shutter Island (2010), DiCaprio’s previous film. Mainly because of the whole alternate reality/dream like world and the attempt to be with one’s deceased wife again and take care of their children. We questioned whether it was pure coincidence or directly capitalizing on the success of Shuter; I think a little bit of both. All in all, I felt really dissapointed about this flick and at the same time I acknowledge it’s not my cup of tea and perhaps I didn’t fully understand it.
Grade: B
Classic Film Review: Stop Making Sense
Full Title: Stop Making Sense
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Talking Heads and various special guests
Year: 1984
Set List:
1) Psycho Killer
2) Heaven
3) Thank You for Sending Me an Angel
4) Found a Job
5) Slippery People
6) Burning Down the House
7) Life During Wartime
8) Making Flippy Floppy
9) Swamp
10) What a Day That Was
11) This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
12) Once in a Lifetime
13) Genius of Love
14) Girlfriend is Better
15) Take Me to the River
Encore:
16) Crosseyed and Painless
Comments:
Stop Making Sense? When did the Talking Heads ever make sense?! Haha, of course their brand of weirdness, a “good” weirdness is exactly what made the Talking Heads, the Talking Heads. The other night I had the pleasure of revisiting this 1984 classic via a screening at the Sommerville Theater. I had been a fan of the live CD Stop Making Sense for years, but never got around to seeing it’s cinematic coutnerpart. Well, what better a venue than the Sommerville Theater?! And it was. The sound was a tad lower than desired, but besides that it fit really well for this presentation. Now to the film itself. David Byrne kicks things off with the TH classic, “Psycho Killer,” just Byrne himself gently rocking out on acoustic guitar with a tape player. As the song reaches its final moments, Byrne stumbles to the beat. He fake trips then catches himself, then again and again; fitting perfectly with the music. Next, the nerdy, neurotic singer is accompanied by his bandmate, Tina Weymouth (who is looking rather attractive here) on bass. The two launch into an impassioned, acoustic version of “Heaven.” And with each song another member hits the stage to join the circus. It should be noted that the Talking Heads put on an extremely entertaining show with incredible energy, charisma, and showmanship, without any of the big theatrics, i.e. light shows, back drop videos, etc. (at least in the first half of the film), oft-seen in such concert films. This speaks volumes for how well they can captivate an audience with just themselves as the visual stimulants; essentially less is more. They use a lot of light humor in their approach, such antics as the “Running Man” dance; at one point Byrne acutally runs around the whole stage at full speed! We also see him playfully push a lampshade back and forth, each time catching it at the last second just as it is about to hit the floor, amongst other weird, but amusing stunts. Byrne and crew seriously dance their asses off as the tunes become heavier and funkier. Songs that stood out in particular included “Burning Down the House,” “Life During Wartime,” and “Once In a Lifetime.” Perhaps they stood out to me because they are some of the bigger songs and/or some of my favorite TH numbers, but either way the performances were near perfect. Without a doubt, the most iconic moment in the picture is when we see the fabulous frontman in his lovely “Big Suit,” once again a bizarre, humorous, and ultimately memorable element of the Talking Heads’ craft. All in all, there is very little to nothing I can say bad about this movie. My one complaint, (a very small one) is that at some points it drags a bit on some of the tracks I am less enthusiastic about, such as “What a Day That Was” and “Girlfriend Is Better.” I feel like it wouldn’t have hurt to do some time truncating in these areas. Probably just me, but in the long run, this didn’t really harm my opinion of the performance. In short, for concert films this is top notch and certainly sets the bar for competition.
Grade: A/A-
Film Review: Get Him to the Greek
Full Title: Get Him to the Greek
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Year: 2010
Comments: First off, I must admit, I did not anticipate this film to be a Summer Blockbuster/Must See Comedy of 2010 to begin with. I did however, anticipate that this movie would be pretty funny, with me laughing out loud numerous times. A comrade of mine informed me that GHTG was the funniest movie since the Hangover (2009), which I really liked, but thought was overated itself. With those possible credentials, I gladly accepted an invitation to see the flick. Sadly, my expectations were not satisified. Before I start my critique, I will give y’all a little synopsis. So basically, we follow up on the exploits of Forgetting Sarah Marshal’s (2008) decadent Rock Star character, Aldous Snow (Russel Brand). Initially he and his wife are clean from drugs, but after the release of an embarassing flop album, he dives right back into the frenetic lifestyle, he enjoyed before. Essentially, his life and career are in shambles; he needs a revival. Enter Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), a hip, young worker at Pinnacle Records and an enormous fan of Aldous. Aaron works for a corporate thug (P. Diddy) that only cares about marketing, image, and record sales, in other words, Diddy plays himself. And so this slick shit is looking for something big, to boost record sales. Aaron suggests asking his hero, Aldous Snow to do a ten year anniversery show of his classic, Live at the Greek album. The idea seems plausible; the only problem? Making sure Aldous arrives at the show. Thus a dream (or so he thinks) comes true for Aaron, for he is to be Aldous’ babysitter for a few days, untile he GETS HIS ASS TO THE GREEK. Wild, substance induced, adventures and minimal hilarity ensue. Now, that’s a really brief plot description and I trimmed out various, important details, so if you are looking for a full summary, look elsewhere! Ok, as I stated previously, I only laughed hard a few times and in general did not feel as amused as I should have. The premise works, but they do not take it in the right direction. They clearly suffer from the modern comedy syndrome of trying to throw too much shit at the wall and only half of it sticks. A lot of ideas are displayed here, but with very little substance to support them. The film should have abandoned its emotional elements and made a straight up, raunchy comedy. Not to say there are no raunchy jokes, there are plenty, but the film does not consistently stick with this style of humor and instead jumps around, leaving the viewer with a feeling of “where are they going?” A comparison to the Hangover, as made by my friend, is pretty far off, but just for a minute, let’s look at the two films and see why last Summer’s comedy was superior. Firstly, the Hangover never got too caught up in having a moral or creating a drama, etc. and smoothly provided an entertaining, hilarious ride for all of us. Secondly, the Hangover stuck like glue to its premise and amused the audience with one, wacky, unpredicatable moment after another, keeping your attention the whole time. Initially, GHTG appears to follow the same suit, but instead drags, stops to focuse on other plot details, and merely unleashes a couple of said wacky scenarios. A dedicated/enthusiastic fan only has three days to chase his heavy drinking and drugging Rockstar idol around, as he crawls to the most important concert of his career. Wow, what a great premise.There’s so much more they could have done with this and I’m positive the flick would have been infinitely better if they eschewed all the other aspects of the story. Just imagine if they took that concept and doused it in some chaotic humor of the Hangover variety. Well, they did not and so I found this film to be merely average. Not bad. Not good. Just average.
Grade: C
Really Classic Album Review: Sounds of Silence
Artist(s): Simon & Garfunkel
Full Title: Sounds of Silence
Year: 1966
Label: Columbia/ CBS
Tracks:
1) Sounds of Silence- 9
2) Leaves That Are Green- 8
3) Blessed- 7/8
4) Kathy’s Song- 9
5) Somewhere They Can’t Find Me- 8
6) Anji (instrumental)- 7
7) Richard Cory- 8
8) A Most Peculiar Man-9
9) April Come She Will- 10
10) We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’- 8
11) I Am a Rock-9
Comments:
Simon & Garfunkel kick off this ditty with an impassioned, classic, Folk Rock anthem in the title track. The song showcases the duo’s great talent for harmonious vocals, soft, emotional, pop ballads; a far, far cry from their Tiger Beaty teen idol counterparts. A focal point, I often feel is necessary to make- that S & G were not just another wimpy, sensative, Teeny Bopper group, a category/genre that they are sometimes cast aside to. “Leaves That Are Green,” is a nice, catchy number, not too adventerous, but sound. “Blessed,” at least for my money, doesn’t quite cut as deep; it’s an ok tune, but not on par with other tracks. Enter “Kathy’s Song,” a rather soft spoken ballad, that is extremely direct, musically and lyrically. It’s as if Simon is singing soley for Kathy. The tune utilizes the “less is more” logic: it’s simply Simon and his Gee Tar singing his poetry, without any major choruses or instrumental changes. It really gives the ballad a distinct quality and overall feel. Clearly, the band had a knack for writing poetic numbers with deep themes behind them. Later on in the album, we hear two back to back character studies of two very different (or very similar?) suicide victims. The first being “Richard Cory” (based on the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem of the same name, we read in Brennan’s class, if y’all recall :) a fast paced tale about a extremely successful businessman, who seems to have it all and then one night decides to “put a bullet through his head.” This unexpected suicide is contrasted by the next track, “A Most Peculiar Man,” a slow, softer, song about a lonely man, who “lived all alone, within a house, within a room, within himself.” This fucking guy leaves on the gas in his car and thus takes his own life, much to no one’s chagrin. The two studies brilliantly stand in stark contrast to one another. They are followed up by the gentle, folky, “April Come She Will,” the LP’s strongest track, in my humble opinion. It’s so peaceful and almost Summerlike- reminding me of kicking back, relaxing, and thinking about “life.” And ok, also the fact that the months idenitfied include the Summer season! Another reason why I adore this lesser known S & G track is the fact that it was featured in the classic film, The Graduate (1967) as was the title track, the much, much more famous song. For some reason, April stands out to me more and instantly brings back images of the film and the scene it’s featured in. April, her only crime? Brevity… 1:53 is too short! This LP closes with another Folk Rock anthem in “I Am a Rock,” a highly catchy and memorable ditty that contains just about everything that made the pair loveable to begin with. Overall, this is a solid listen, but comparably weaker than most of their efforts. It feels more like a bunch of decent songs, rather than a whole album. With that being said, if you like 60s Folk Rock, poetic lyrics, songs with stories, a shit load of harmony in your vocals, etc. then you will probably dig this, and naturally if you are a fan of Simon and Garfunkel, then by all means, check this out.
Grade: B+
Song of the Day
Not that pussy MCR version.
Chris On…
The Work of Harmony Korine : Recently I have had a growing fascination for the work of writer, director, producer, actor, etc, Harmony Korine. I’ll be up front right now, I have only seen one of his feature films: Gummo (1997), his directorial debut, which I reviewd a couple of months back. I have also been a huge fan of the film Kids (1995) for years, but Korine only wrote the script, it was directed by Larry Clark, nonetheless a classic that highly recommend y’all check out. Since, viewing the bizarre (to say the least) Gummo I wanted to dig more into the psyche of its creator. Why does he make such strange, really distubring films? and more importantly how does he do it?! Well, reading up a bit more on Korine and seeing some hilarious interviews of him, especially on Letterman :), I discovered the man believes that film as an art is dead and that there has been very little progression in its history. Therefore, he makes films that he has never seen done before. His tactics include non linear storylines (Gummo had no real plot, but consisted of various vignettes), using non actors (often asking random folks if they wanted to be in his flick), and giving his actors (or non actors lol) different scripts, so they are confused with what they are working with, to the extent that they believe they are working on different films, as well as other unconventional methods. Two particular qualities stand out to me about his work. Once again, I have only seen Gummo , but even based on trailers of Mister Lonely (2007) and Trash Humpers (2009), you get a feel for what his films are like in general; previews are enough! Anyway, firstly, imagery is incredibly strong in his movies. Usually for me, one thing that makes a film really great is how memorable it is. With Korine you are bombarded with numerous, highly memorable images. Even if you don’t want to remember them! He simply has a knack for capturing off kilter, unsettling, images that burn deep in your brain for months and more. Even with his trailers, the images are so unusual that they are etched in your psyche for an undetermined amount of time. Every now and then I view a trailer and as time goes by, I vaguely remember what I saw. The images of goons literally humping trash and driving around wearing weird masks from his latest picture, Trash Humpers (2009) is still on my mind and will be for quite some time, I imagine. I’ve read that Korine sees his films as successful, if someone walks away with a lasting image. Well, I guess he has succeeded admirably. Secondly, I really dig the way he does not create intentional meanings behind his works. Most artists intentionally develop some morals and themes in their stories, but not old Harmony. He sees this as “belittling” to the viewer. Thus, the audience can sit back and interpret whatever they like from the mess (I mean that in the best possible sense of the word, which I suppose is ironic, considering I am now explaining my intentions on how awesome it is for an artist not to explain their intentions, go figure). Unlike, most other films, his works do not comfortably hold your hand and cross the street with you. It’s more like you’re dodging oncoming traffic during Rush Hour! Overall, if you are a fan of film, especially, unique, artsy films, then it is a must for you to see at least one of Korine’s films. But, I will give you a heads up, they are not your average “indie” flick that serves as a minor departure from the mainstream, like Eternal Sunshine (2004), which don’t get me wrong, is a great and strange film, but still maintains a mainstream quality, at least compared to Korine’s work. His movies are totally devoid of anything mainstream. Therefore, some people might be turned off by their intense, sometimes, morbid nature. Well, too bad for those poor souls cause they will be missing out on some of the most original art I have ever seen.
Hot Femme of the Day
Phoebe Cates, preferably circa 1982. To see more of Phoebe, check out Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
Classic Film Review: Shield Around the K
Full Title: The Shield Around the K
Director: Heather Rose Dominic
Year: 2000
Comments:
The title says it all. The metaphorical shield truly represented K’s mythical way of battling the corporate ogre in a unique and highly confrontational manner. For those sad souls out there that are unfamiliar with K, here’s a brief breakdown. K was and still is a defiantly and charismatically independent label; one of the greatest models for how an indepedent label can successfully operate. Calvin Johnson (K founder and Beat Happening frontman) challenged his audience and contemporaries by creating and documenting music that was unabashedly simple, coy, and as far away as possible from the mainstream. These kids challenged the mold of expecation of what a Punk band should look, sound, or act like. By making poppy, “twee,” love rock (as some call it), artists like Beat Happening distanced themselves from not only the corporate world, but also the oft-macho hardcore scene, which was dominating underground music at the time. All in all, this doc does a great job of articulating this important aspect of K Records as well as offering some great archive footage, interviews, and music videos and ultimately a detailed, informative backgound of said topic. One thing I (sorta) didn’t like was the fact that the film focused too much on Beat Happening; after all it was supposed to be about the K label and not about Beat Happening solely. Then again, they and their history are obviously vital to the K tale and since they are one of my all time favorite bands, I don’t mind seeing them on screen. Lastly, this doc features various key figures including, Ian Mackaye, Gerad Cosloy, Slim Moon, John Foster, amongst others. So, if you dig cutting edge (well, then cutting edge) Punk Rock or want to learn more about seminal, underground music then grab some black candy and check it out.
Grade: B+
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 