http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 19 May 2005 14:18:43 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/19/141843.php Joel CarisThe Shins played the final date of their recent tour Monday, May 16 at the Crystal Ballroom in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. I gained access to the show at the last minute and attended with a friend, happy to be able to catch them at the end of their tour. I first became acquainted with The Shins through the movie Garden State and had since picked up their two albums, Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World. I loved the music and wanted to see how they stacked up live.The Shins' popularity has grown quickly of late, with a definite push from their presence in Garden State. They create upbeat, fun pop songs that burrow into the brain, taking up residence and emerging at the strangest times. There's a lightness to the sound that's not always reflected in the lyrics, but that is immensely appealing and very catchy. Chutes Too Narrow, their most recent album, has a particularly light-hearted and playful feel to it at times, though the songs are not fluff pieces, either.However, there's a certain lowkey sense to the music that might leave one to wonder what they would be like live—to be curious about just how much energy they might be able to bring to a show. I wondered this myself, having never seen them perform in concert, but I was in no way disappointed with the show Monday night. Perhaps they were particularly pumped up by the fact that this was the final show and that they were back performing in Portland, but The Shins showed up with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, tackling their set without the slightest bit of hesitation.It started, though, with The Brunettes-a New Zealand band accompanying The Shins on their tour. They proved to be a great fit for The Shins, offering poppy and upbeat music-almost childlike in certain songs. There were times that their music became almost too ideal, bordering on silly, but overall they put on a wonderful performance that was welcomed and cheered by the crowd. Their final, intricate song brought the set to an exhilirating close, setting the stage perfectly, so to speak, for the main course.And then came The Shins and the crowd went wild, thrilled to have the hometown band on stage. They launched into their set and James Mercer blanketed the eager crowd with his clear and melodic voice, stretching throughout the venue. The audience cheered, clapped, sang along and swayed and pressed themselves against significant others, enraptured by The Shins. No one could mistake this band as anything less than well-loved and surely no one could be surprised that they were a Portland favorite.The band played a nice mix of songs from both Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World, hitting on their most popular tracks. They ranged from full on, upbeat and raging, energetic songs to a few more subdued, acoustic performances that left the crowd engrossed and entranced, swaying and often touching those nearby. They even found time to sneak in a new song that may end up on the new album they're going to begin working on now that the current tour has finished. The band joked in between songs and expressed their love for Portland on numerous occasions, claiming that their tours would always start and stop in the city, as this one had. "Portland is the beginning and the end," they told the crowd, to many enthusiastic and prideful cheers.The performance never let up and this band, who can come across so gentle and serene on their albums, never once allowed the mood to sink too low. Slow songs were followed up by faster paced, energetic performances that had the crowd clapping and stamping their feet, jumping up and down and singing along. Their chatter in between songs enlivened the audience and they never were anything but gracious and funny and entertaining. It was clear, as well, that they were having fun with the performance, perhaps most obvious when the band broke into a brief and tantalizing cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean before moving back into a song of their own.By the time the band was bringing The Brunettes on stage to offer them gifts as thanks for their presence on the tour (a blanket, smoked salmon, a sausage and rubber balls-draw your own conclusions) the entire place had an air of intimacy to it, despite the hundreds of people in attendance. There was nothing particularly formal about this show; it was as much a friendly gathering as it was a paid performance. By the end of the night, after the show closed out with a rousing rendition of "Caring Is Creepy," any questions about just what kind of show The Shins would put on had been answered. They put on a damn good energetic one, and closed out their tour on a high note.Now for that new record.(Cross posted at my arts and culture blog, The Between.) Music29759@blogcritics.org Thu, 19 May 2005 14:18:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/26/183144.php Joel CarisThere are a lot of movies I'm anticipating this year. I'm thinking The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy should be pretty good (I'm reading the books now) and Star Wars Episode III might actually be decent. I definitely am pumped up for War of the Worlds and Batman Begins, and I am quite certain that Peter Jackson's King Kong later this year is going to kick ass. No doubt there are plenty of other movies, as well, that I'm not even thinking of right now and, as is usual, I will surely find many smaller movies to get excited about over the course of the year.However, the movie that I most want to see this year, without question, is Serenity. This is a science fiction flick that is coming out September 30th. Now, this is a movie that you've either probably heard of and are excited about or you have never heard mentioned before. Serenity is a movie written and directed by Joss Whedon which also happens to be a feature film spun off from the television show Firefly, which aired for eleven episodes on Fox before the evil, evil network just up and canceled it after screwing around with the show's scheduling, airing and promotion. Basically, they killed it and it never was given enough of a chance to find an audience.The show was awesome, period. It was absolutely brilliant. It was a science-fiction-slash-western that had people flying through space with six shooters. They wore western type get ups and flew around in a beat up, run down ship that half the time barely stayed in the air. There was nothing clean and sparse about the sets like you saw with Star Trek but instead was dirty and gritty and none of the characters—save for Inara, the prostitute—were particularly couth or refined. Within the show's future universe, you have the Alliance as the overarching universal government (which is all clean and sparse and sterile) and then you have the cobbled together crew of Serenity (the ship in Firefly) who are rebels and outlaws and shifty characters who are looking to keep away from the Alliance for a variety of reasons, often keeping to the outskirts of the universe. But these people are not villains or evil, they're more scruffy heroes that maybe have had some clashes with the law, but who are ultimately good people simply trying to avoid an oppressive regime.If the show had been allowed to live, it no doubt would have gone in some incredible directions. As it was, the full fourteen episode run found on the DVD set was amazing, but it left many storylines unresolved.Then, somehow, this failed and canceled series was given a greenlight by Universal to be turned into a full fledged motion picture, which is the sort of miracle that makes this world sufferable at times. It was given a fairly big budget (though a bit small by major sci fi movie standards) and Joss seemed to be given quite a bit of artistic freedom to make an awesome movie based in the Firefly world with the Firefly characters.So what's the point of all this? It's to tell you that the trailer for Serenity has been released today and is available on Apple's movie trailer site. I've watched the trailer four times so far and it is magnificent. All the characters I know and love are back and the wit seems to be there, as most evidenced in the "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die" line, which is pure Joss Whedon funny. The action scenes are clearly bigger and better than anything ever seen on the television show and the special effects look to be very impressive. The show was incredibly entertaining, with humor and action and great character development, fun dialogue, excellent acting, a fascinating future world and intriguing plot developments, a great bad guy in the Alliance and horror movie type monsters by way of the Reavers, not to mention all kinds of convoluted relationships and personal secrets and so on. I expect the movie to be the same, but on a much larger and more impressive scale. Which means you should keep your eye on this, because this is a movie to see. It's the movie to see this year.Go watch the trailer. Do it!(Cross posted on my arts and culture blog, The Between) Video28687@blogcritics.org Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:31:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/26/135926.php Joel CarisPerhaps a year ago, I went to a concert co-headlined by Thrice and Thursday. I went to see Thursday primarily, but Coheed and Cambria were also the openers and I wanted to see them, as well. I had stumbled upon the band through a recommendation on a website and came to really enjoy their music. As it turned out, though, the entire band had basically become ill before the show and the only person who was even able to make it onto the stage was Claudio Sanchez, the lead singer. I have to give him credit for even giving the show an attempt, as he could easily just have canceled their set. But instead, he showed up, guitar in hand, and proceeded to put on a short, acoustic set, despite the fact that he was sick as well. It wasn't brilliant, but it was a damn good effort all considering and it was clear the audience really appreciated and enjoyed it.Well, now Coheed and Cambria has a DVD out of their live performance at the Starland Ballroom and I have to say that the performance is awesome, offering up the kind of full and complete performance that, unfortunately, the band was unable to put on that night I went to see them. The band clearly is healthy and enthused for this show and its filled with energy and effort, a real showcase for the band's talent.First, though, let's talk a bit about Coheed and Cambria's music for those who aren't familiar with the band. They are a mix of punk and hardcore, of emo and a bit of metal, all twirled together in a strange and offbeat, yet impressive and entertaining package. The lead singer's voice is quite distinct, very high pitched at times, although that aspect of his voice is somewhat muted in this recording. There's plenty of the typical heavy guitar and drumwork that is so prevalent in this type of music, but it's all done very well and the band clearly packs a lot of talent.The best part of the music is the unique vocal talents of Sanchez and the solid lyrical work, while the instrumental part of the music serves as a very solid and workable backdrop—nothing overly unique but very competent and appealing, nonetheless.Now, for this DVD in particular, the main concert alone—which is a ten song set and runs just under an hour—is probably enough to justify the price of the DVD for fans of the band, but there's plenty more to be found on the discs. The DVD also has three Coheed and Cambria music videos, a making of featurette on the "Blood Red Summer" video, a second live performance from the 2004 Skate and Surf Festival that has four songs and runs about twenty minutes, an interview with two band members—Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever—and "Mike and Josh in Blizzard '05," which is basically another (somewhat silly) interview with two of the band members. Best of all, it also comes with a separate audio CD of the Starland performance, for when you just want to listen to the music and not watch it at all. This is a very nice bonus as it is essentially a full-length live CD that could easily be packaged and sold separately but is instead included here.The DVD is a full-featured package, well worth the price for those who enjoy the band.Now, let's take a closer look at the disc. First of all, the main concert at the Starland is very impressive. It comes in both stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The difference between the two is considerable and you'll definitely want to partake in the Dolby 5.1 track if you have a surround sound system. The sound is much richer and encompassing, the bass resounding, and the overall mix much more satisfying. In surround sound, this concert sounds absolutely amazing. In stereo, it sounds decent, but you lose much of the richness of the sound. Playing the Dolby track gives it much more of a sense of being at an actual concert.The camera work during the concert is decent, but nothing amazing. There are no fancy features here like multi-angle or anything like that, but the video is serviceable. It's presented in widescreen and the picture is solid. You can see the energy of the band during the show and that's the main thing. Indeed, they come to this show ready to put on one hell of a show, with raging instrumental work and emotive, at times screaming, lyrics. The band goes all out during the concert, never letting up.Now for the rest of the extras. The music videos are solid, if far from perfect. First of all, they're presented only in stereo sound, which is a disappointment. While the sound isn't bad, it's far from the quality of the main concert's Dolby track. The videos themselves, as well, are a mixed bag. The "Favor House Atlantic" video is meant to be humorous and playful, but the tone didn't work very well with me. For the most part, I just found it silly. "Devil in Jersey City" was a much more traditional video, with quick cuts and the vague outlines of a story in what appears to be a science fiction, outer space setting. It was decent and enjoyable, but very similar in its construction to a thousand other music videos out there. Finally, perhaps the best video is for "Blood Red Summer." It's low budget and a bit cheesy, but the story is somewhat interesting, with strains of 28 Days Later and the book I Am Legend. The lead singer, Sanchez, is seen holed up in a house in the woods, attempting to fortify the building so as to keep out his fellow bandmates, who we soon see have been turned into some kind of zombies or vampires. It's a fun video and a bit more original than the other two.The making of featurette on the "Blood Red Summer" video is short but interesting. It gives some insight into the band's obsession with science fiction stories and shows some of the tricks used to film the video. Altogether, the music videos and the making of featurette run about seventeen minutes.The other stubstantial extra is the live performance from the 2004 Skate and Surf Festival. The video is okay and, like the main concert, it includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track. This isn't as rich or enveloping an audio presentation as with the main concert, but it still sounds good with deep and heavy bass. The concert is short and sweet, cutting out after twenty minutes, but it's still a great extra.Finally, there are two short interviews: one with Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever done in a studio and another, less formal, one with Michael Todd and Joshua Eppard, who appear to have been caught in a blizzard and unable to make the other interview, so they did a quick, makeshift taping of an interview that turned out to be pretty silly. Both run about five minutes.Of course, the best extra in the package is the included audio CD. It's the same main concert that is on the DVD and the sound is great. This band really shines live and this is a fun CD to listen to, combining tracks off both their album and presenting them in a fast and energetic live format. Altogether, considering the DVD you get with all the extras and the bonus CD—which could easily be sold as a separate, full concert CD—this is a great, valuable package that is well worth the reasonable price for any Coheed and Cambria fan. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Starland Ballroom Set List: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 Delirium Trigger A Favor House Atlantic The Crowing Devil In Jersey City Blood Red Summer Time Consumer Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow) Everything Evil The Light & The Glass2004 Skate & Surf Festival Set List: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 Devil In Jersey City A Favor House Atlantic Blood Red SummerCoheed and Cambria Media: MP3s Devil In Jersey City Delirium Trigger The Crowing A Favor House Atlantic Videos A Favor House Atlantic (WMV) Devil In Jersey City (Quicktime) (Cross posted at my arts and culture blog, The Between) Video28668@blogcritics.org Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:59:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/25/165904.php Joel CarisLast Tuesday, April 19, I attended a Crooked Fingers concert at Berbati's Pan in Portland, Oregon. The band has been touring in support of their latest album, Dignity and Shame, and I caught them on the final few shows of their tour. Having really enjoyed their newest album, though not finding it perfect, I was eager to see them live and they proved to be no disappointment.The opening bands, Reclinerland and Dolorean, both put on good shows. They served as great warmups for the main act, with their sound complimenting Crooked Fingers very well. Being unfamiliar with both bands prior to the evening, I was pleased to find their music enjoyable and appealing. However, once Crooked Fingers came on, it was clear they were the main show.Eric Bachmann, the lead singer, and the band as a whole is well-suited to performing live. They arrived with energy and enthusiasm, launching into their set with an admirable abandon. Crooked Fingers generally has a great sound, with a mixture of subdued and contemplative songs and more upbeat, gravel-voiced tracks that indulge in a greater amount of energy. Both kinds of music translated very well into their live performance, with them becoming animated and energenic during the more upbeat songs and settling into a wonderfully atmospheric and moody tone during the slower songs.The guitar work was magnificent throughout the show, as were the drums. The interspersed trumpet was also very nice and effective, lending a great mood to many of the songs from Dignity and Shame, an album that used horns to great effect. Meanwhile, Barbara Trentalange did a magnificent job providing back up vocals and taking the lead during a few Dignity and Shame tracks, as well as kicking in with some work on the flute during certain songs.Trentalange was one of the evening's pleasant surprises. In my review of the Dignity and Shame, I took some issue with the lyrical work of Lara Meyerattken, who shows up throughout the album. While there is certainly nothing technically deficient about her work on the album, her voice seemed ill-suited at times to the overall Crooked Fingers sound. For the live shows, it seems, the band is touring with Trentalange, whose voice came across as much more complimentary for the songs and for Bachmann in particularly. She has a slightly lower-pitched, more smoky and sultry voice that wove in and out throughout the songs, proving to be a very compatible and complimentary presence that added nice depth to the music. She also added her vocal talents to a few older Crooked Fingers songs and that worked out nicely, as well.The songs from Dignity and Shame sounded better live than they do on the album. This was not just because of Trentalange's presence, either. Rather, the songs seemed deeper and more charged and energetic during the show, really playing to the strengths. For instance, "Destroyer" was a song that I only thought to be okay on the album but that sounded amazing live, particularly when the heavy guitars and drumming kicked in. The band performed with complete abandon, breaking the crowd into a frenzy.Crooked Fingers performed about an hour long set, ending initially with the closing, title track from Dignity and Shame. It sounded beautiful and showed off Bachmann's skill on the piano. However, once the song was done, the night was not over. After exiting the stage for a moment, the band came back, plucked instruments from the stage, unhooked them, came onto the floor and proceeded to perform three songs without benefit of any sound equipment as the crowd gathered close around them in a circle. While hard to hear the vocals at times—even while standing right next to the band—it proved to still be an intimate and appealing moment. After the three songs, they then returned to the stage and finished off the night with a flourish, performing three more tracks before bringing the show to a close.Altogether, the concert lasted about four hours with the opening acts, not finishing until about 1:30 in the morning. It was an amazing and energetic show from a very talented band and it showed off their music quite well. The show proved to be one of the best live shows I've attended and any Crooked Fingers fan would do well to catch them live if ever given the chance. Unfortunately, their current tour just drew to a close, but they'll no doubt be back on the road eventually. In the meantime, their current album is a great effort, flexing their musical abilities and broadening the scope of the band while still providing amazing and familiar music that any fan should enjoy.__________ Crooked Fingers MP3s: Dignity And Shame Crowned In Chrome Doctors Of Deliverance You Can Never Leave Sunday Morning, Coming Down (Cross posted at my arts and culture blog, The Between) Music28623@blogcritics.org Mon, 25 Apr 2005 16:59:04 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/12/042028.php Joel CarisI love movies. I love music. I love television shows--the good ones, anyway. I think all of these are very worthy art forms. However, they don't compare to books for me--though they all come close in certain ways. Writing and storytelling in general is, I suppose, the oldest art form and it is, as far as I'm concerned, the truest art form.There are reasons for this and I was thinking about that recently. It came as I was listening to music. Music is something that I would have one hell of a hard time living without. I wouldn't give up books for music, but it's the closest that any form of art comes to overtaking books for me. But the other day I was listening to some music and calculating out how many songs I could listen to on the way to work and I figured about four, based on a three to four minute run time for each song. And when I'm thinking of songs, that's what I figure: three to four minutes. That's how long most songs are. It's not universal, obviously, and there's plenty of variance. But within the genres I typically listen to, a song is most often three to four minutes long.Which is strange, when you get right down to it. Why are songs so often of similar length? Why is it that when you listen to the radio, most of the songs played will run about three to four minutes? Isn't that strange? Music, after all, is a form of art and so there should be a greater variety to the length of songs, because stories vary so much. Songs often tell a story in some form. Sometimes through the music, sometimes through the lyrics and most often through a combination of the two. They are aiming for emotion and response and all that good stuff, much like any art form. So it would make sense that you would see a wider variety of song length because stories come in all shapes and sizes. Even from the same artist, on the same album, you would think that there would be greater variance.Except that the commercial aspect of music, to a large degree, dictates the length of a song. Three to four minutes is a good length for radio play. It just fits well for the format. Ten minute songs don't, and neither do thirty second songs. That's a pain in the ass for radio stations. And how long is an album? Well, it's ten to fifteen songs. And albums are now on CD and a CD holds, at most, eighty minutes of music. Most often, though, albums run around forty to fifty minutes. Ten four minute songs is forty minutes. Fifteen three minute songs? Forty five minutes. Twelve four minute songs is forty eight minutes. The math just works, doesn't it?Television? Let's not even talk about television. Twenty two or forty four minutes. If it's twenty two minutes, it damn well better be a comedy and if it's forty four, then it better be a drama, though you can throw in comedic elements if you'd like.How long are movies? They're around two hours long. Unless it's a comedy, in which case it's an hour and a half. Or an animated movie, which is usually an hour and a half, as well, or even a little shorter. Eighty minutes is common for an animated movie. Why is that? Because children have short attention spans and unless you're Pixar, you don't keep them occupied very well for more than eighty or ninety minutes.Movies aren't four hours unless they're miniseries shown on television and split over multiple nights. It's because people don't want to sit in a movie theater for four hours. Just as important, it's because theater owners can't screen enough showings in a day to make enough money. The studios can't make their record opening weekends on four hour movies because they don't screen often enough to get enough people into the theaters. So movies aren't four hours long.But here's the deal: movies aren't four hours because of economics, not because of artistic visions. Why did Peter Jackson make three Lord of the Rings movies rather than one damn long one? Because of the economics and logistics. In reality, he did make one long movie, he just had to break it up into three parts. Quentin Tarantino was making one movie with Kill Bill, but it eventually was split into two movies because of economics and logistics, not because of artistic vision (though he did, ultimately, end up making two distinct and separate films out of one story.)Music and movies are wonderful, but they're incredibly restricted. Artists make three minute songs because that's what's expected, so it's in their minds while they make the music. They create forty five minute albums because that's the standard for the market and labels are loath to mess with expectations, lest it lead to lower sales.Even when the economics change, they stay the same. The rise of iTunes and other digital music services promised to cut loose the reliance on the album format and let artists focus more on the artistic side of music rather than the commercial side. Except that iTunes sells albums for $9.99 and push that aspect of their business, rather than pushing the single track experience. And what if you're Green Day and you want to make a new album that's a bit more experimental, that has a couple tracks stuck in there that are nine or ten minutes long? No problem--so long as you break that track up into four different songs that simply lead into each other, rather than making one ten minute long song. That way, the label sells it as four different songs on iTunes but make it one track on the CD and you get to pretend you're being original rather than just bridging four different songs and giving them an overarching theme.But books are different--sometimes. In the world of literature particularly, books are different. You get one thousand page behemoths like Infinite Jest sitting next to a quick, two hundred page read. You have Checkpoint, which barely makes it past one hundred pages, taking up space with the five hundred page Cloud Atlas. Writing allows much greater freedom because the commercial restraints are smaller. Even in genre writing, you have more leeway. Sure, you're expected to pump out at least three hundred pages if you want to write a horror novel so people feel they're getting their money's worth--because, at that level, the stories are looked at much more universally as entertainment rather than art, the way music and movies are--but you can go for a mammoth, multi-character eight hundred page novel, as well. Most people aren't going to complain, so long as it's good and entertaining. But there's no real option to make a five hour movie, even if it's the best movie of the year. No major studio is going to finance and release it.Hell, with books, there are even tricks to massage the requirements. Say you're writing a horror novel and it's a short one--something that would normally come in at around two hundred pages. The publisher might be nervous about putting out such a slim volume and charging the regular price, so all they have to do is bump up the type point, widen the margins and fill up three hundred pages. Simple as that. Sure, anyone paying attention knows what is going on, but that mental barrier of how thick a horror novel needs to be is just that--it's a mental barrier that is unconcerned with the realities of what you're getting. And, again, if it's a good story, people aren't going to complain.Want to write a series of thirty second songs? Good luck finding a label that wants to deal with that, but you might be able to throw them in during a live show, so long as they're surrounded by more conventional songs. But if you want to write a bunch of five and ten and twenty page stories, then that's no problem. Just write enough to fill a collection and you have your published work--a series of stories told the way you want to tell them. And you're free to mix it up--have a five page story followed by a thirty five page tale, followed by a ten page story and then a hundred and twenty page novella thrown in for good measure, if you so desire it.And perhaps you have strange and offbeat ideas that you want to explore, something that the mass market will never embrace. Well, you have a hell of a better chance succeeding in the world of publishing than you do in the world of music and movies. Yes, it's still going to be considerably harder to find a company willing to take a chance on you, but they do exist and are out there. The publishing world has it's major players, but it's not dominated to the tune of 90-95% by a few major corporations the way that both music and movies are. There are small and independent publishers. There's a huge world of literary magazines. There is independent publishing online and there's even the opportunity for self-publishing without spending too great of sums of money. Hell, you can start a blog and write whatever you damn well please, for free, and if enough people like you, you could even make some money off it. And again, this comes back to the economics because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to produce a book than it is to produce a movie or a CD (though computers are beginning to change that.)There's flexibility in writing that doesn't exist in other art forms. A book can be seven hundred pages because you don't have to sit and read it all at once. You can take as much time as you want and you can make yourself as comfortable as you want. You can read it in a couple days of marathon reading sessions or take a leisurely couple weeks--hell, a month if you want. The artists get to tell their story the way they want to, taking as much time and space as they want, and the reader gets to digest the story at their own pace rather than having to go at the pace of the artist.It's amazing how the simple negation of time constraints makes an art form so much more flexible. It's also amazing how the proper economic model can make an art form all the more freeing. There's no radio play constraints in writing. You don't have to hit a certain time length and you don't have to avoid profanity. The limitations on what you can write aren't there nearly so much, because there's no sanitation necessary for the mass market and there are no government agencies overseeing everything to make sure no one is offended. Sure, there are no doubt commercial restraints within the publishing world--particularly if you work within the genre market--but the amount of freedom when compared to music and movies must be damn near dizzying. It still, ultimately, boils down to telling a good story and not how you tell that story. That's why I love books and that's why no other art form can replace writing. Books28046@blogcritics.org Tue, 12 Apr 2005 04:20:28 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/02/153209.php Joel CarisNorwegian rap group Gatas Parlament created a music video recently for their song, "Kill Him Now." Early on in the video, it talks about killing President Bush and, under pressure from the United States government, the Norwegian government banned the video. However, because of this little thing called the internet--which has a way of spreading around various types of speech that people find distasteful--the video can be viewed in full with English subtitles on iFilm.The existence of the video brings up some interesting questions about freedom of speech, particularly when that speech is being used to possibly advocate murder. The other question, of course, is whether or not the damn video is any good.The most controversial part of the video is the beginning and the end. At the beginning, you have a news announcer reporting that the (real) site killhim.nu has raised enough money to hire an assassin to kill President Bush. At the end of the video, we see the actual killing of Bush--or, the implied killing of him, through some juxtaposing of images of the president with images of an assassin carrying what appears to be a missile-launcher.But this video isn't just about hating Bush, it's about hating America as a whole. The group has a litany of complaints about U.S. foreign policy dating back before Bush's presidency. These complaints run by quickly, accompanied by graphs that appear to be very informative, though I can't say for sure since they're not in English. Mixed in with these graphs and the lyrics and various other images, though, is what perhaps is the real source of the group's hatred toward America: clips from Saved by the Bell. Particularly, clips from the episode of Saved by the Bell that involves a dance competition.Now, the group might have some fair criticisms about U.S. foreign policy. Perhaps they have some legitimate beefs with President Bush--I know, personally, I haven't been the biggest fan of his. However, I really would expect Saved by the Bell is the true source of their ire. Because, in case you've never seen the show, it's bad. I mean, it's really bad. And if I were watching that show and took it as any sort of indication of America--especially if I were watching an episode guest-starring Casey Kasem, for god's sake--well, I would probably hate America too. I'd be wondering just how we might bomb it right off the face of the earth.So is the video any good? Well, actually, it kind of is. I mean, it seems like a decent rap song, despite the fact that I can't understand the lyrics. Something a bit along the lines of a Norwegian version of Sage Francis, perhaps, who I quite like. I mean, they seem to have some talent for this rapping thing, whatever you may think of the substance of the song. Again, I say this with the caveat that I'm kind of guessing, since the actual sound of the lyrics is gibberish to me. (Though fun gibberish, I must say. It's an interesting language.)The other question is whether or not the video goes too far and whether it should be allowed to be seen. This is a trickier question. Personally, I'm loathe to infringe on free speech rights, but there are always certain limits, and those limits generally come into play when the free speech puts someone else at risk of harm. I remember the trial awhile back of some anti-abortion activists for making up wanted posters of abortion doctors and basically calling for their killing on websites. They were found guilty of making illegal threats that went beyond free speech and the ruling was upheld--just barely--by an appeals court. Much like the appeals court, I was very divided on the decision, but ultimately leaned more toward finding them guilty. They were basically advocating the killings of private citizens, and that went too far in my mind.Yet, I feel a bit more lenient toward this video. Now, I realize that my political beliefs may influence that view, but I would argue it's more the fact that I think politicians and other people who have made a conscious decision to put themselves on a public stage are a bit more fair game, as well as the way the threat is carried out in the video. Basically, I find the video to be more a skit than an actual call for Bush's assassination. Basically, I don't see it as a true threat, but rather as fiction. That's how it's played in my mind, which is the real dividing line. They talk about an assassin being hired, but they don't explicitly call for someone to go out and kill Bush.It's a fine line, without a question, and I think the band purposefully walked that line in a very careful manner. So I say let the video play, if for no other reason than for the fun of hurting your head by watching a rap video that attempts serious critiques of U.S. foreign policy while interspersing it with clips of a Saved by the Bell episode guest-starring Casey Kasem. If it's an attempt at subversion, then . . . hats off to you, Gatas Parlament. (Cross posted at my blog on arts, media and culture, The Between.) Video27670@blogcritics.org Sat, 2 Apr 2005 15:32:09 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/30/143350.php Joel CarisThe Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower's newest album, Love in the Fascist Brothel, is a CD that's hard to summarize. It's punk and hardcore, screaming vocals and furious sound. It has a touch of jazz, it has screamo, it has post-punk-hardcore--or whatever you want to call it. There are guitars and drums and saxophone--oh yes--and vocals that, unfortunately, are not as easily understood as they should be. The album has Nazi and fascist imagery, terrible (albeit purposefully terrible, it seems) artwork and it runs about twenty four minutes, so it's hardly a long and arduous trip. It's more short and loud, which works well enough but certainly leaves room for a longer run time.I enjoyed seeing The Plot in concert recently (make no mistake, they are damn good live) and much of what I wrote in that review stands in regards to the CD itself. The layering in of the occasional bit of saxophone is a very nice touch that sets this music apart from some of The Plot's contemporaries. The record is overflowing with energy and enthusiasm as the band rips through the album's ten songs. The music is full of fury and invigoration and it's a performance that can certainly be admired.However, the album has its problems, as well. The vocals too often become lost in the music. This might be a matter of poor mastering on the record or it could be a problem with the band itself--I suspect it's a combination of the two, based on their live show. Many of the lyrics are solid and interesting, creating intriguing imagery, but they are typically obscured by the music to the point that they cannot be understood. Too often the lead singer, Brandon Welchez, seems to be mumbling in the background when he should be grabbing the listener and dragging him through these songs, demanding attention. He has a great and unique voice that mostly feels wasted on this album, shunted into the background.There is still a lot to love about Love in the Fascist Brothel, though. It's bursting with creativity, for starters. The music is fascinating, constantly changing and shifting and morphing. These guys are never satisfied with the sound they have, constantly moving it forward, adjusting the level, changing tempo and switching up the pace. The tempo, though, typically remains a fast one as The Plot push ever furiously forward. The music is crazed and chaotic and it works wonderfully. There is a strange mix of control and chaos, of a tight sense of random noise that adds up to something greater. The Plot does a magnificent job of straddling a fine line between noise and music. They constantly assault the listener but typically do it in a compelling way.The constant change, however, intrudes upon the ability of the songs to distinguish themselves. The album begins to blend together, with little in particular truly standing out and impressing itself upon the listener. There are moments here and there, from a variety of the songs, that do become recognizable--the frayed opening of "Exile on Vain Street" and the epileptic cowbell on the same track; Welchez's clouded voice repeating, "I'm choking on the sweet taste of honey" in "Drake the Fake"--but even with these moments, they're just snippets of songs and the complete tracks themselves mesh together with their counterparts, failing to find consistently distinguishing traits.There's plenty to be impressed with on Love in the Fascist Brothel, but the album has its share of faults. For those who enjoy hardcore music, they may find themselves really appreciating The Plot's approach. There's no doubt that this is fascinating and original--the work of a great talent. Yet, the album burns out early, the vocals are too often obscured and unintelligible and the songs could stand to separate themselves more. I would recommend the album for fans of this type of music, but still hope for better from The Plot in the future. They have a ton of promise, without question, and it will be interesting to see how well they live up to that promise.__________ "Exile on Vain Street" - MP3 Music27484@blogcritics.org Wed, 30 Mar 2005 14:33:50 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/28/140840.php Joel CarisThe Blood Brothers, on their latest album, Crimes, are a mess of sound and fury, macabre lyrics, screaming and throaty singing and fast, fast songs that, nevertheless, are often times not nearly as fast as on past albums. The Blood Brothers have evolved with their latest album, injecting at least a partial sense of pop into their hardcore past. It's still an incredibly unique sound, though, and terribly entertaining.The level of intensity that the two singers, Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie, maintain throughout the album is impressive. They scream their way through the songs, track after track, laying themselves out with such energy and enthusiasm that it becomes certain that they'll have to collapse at some point. But they keep going, never losing the overall intensity and manic energy that constantly propels the record forward.There are moments, though, when they slow down to some degree - though "slow down" is relative to this band, not to the music scene as a whole. The screaming will abate from time to time to create a dark mood, a black atmosphere in which the twisted and imaginative lyrics shine and take hold, tunneling into the listener's mind. You can hear this at the beginning of the third track, "Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck," as the song opens with the whispered lyrics, "Those tire tracks / zigzag your torso like the Devil's self portrait." This is one of the quieter songs on the album. It sacrifices some of the energy of other tracks for a focus on moodiness and macabre story-telling. Ultimately, though, to say it is quieter is to speak in relative terms, as it is not actually quiet, which becomes apparent when the screaming kicks in, laden with dark emotion and disappointment, pain and loss.With this album, listeners will find longer and more layered songs than they did early on in The Blood Brothers' career, a change that works very well. While this is no pop album, by any stretch of the imagination, there's far more melody on Crimes than on The Blood Brothers' early albums. They have moved beyond the hardcore scene without completely abandoning it, creating a fascinating mixture of musical genres that still manages to assault the listener, just in a more melodic way. There are still short and crazed tracks, but they are mixed in with more complicated songs that serve to give a slight breather.Their two singers create a strange but enjoyable mixture of high- and low-pitched vocals that can quickly grow on the listener. The juxtaposition can perhaps best be heard on "Live at the Apocalypse Cabaret" as the two singers trade off lines, alternating and at times overlaying each other to create a wonderful mixture of high and screaming and low and grumbling, gravel-voiced lyrics pressing up against a screech that threatens to disintegrate under its intensity. Some of the change ups on the album are near-breathtaking. In "Rats and Rats and Rats For Candy," The Blood Brothers throw nearly everything at the listener, switching maniacally between high and low vocals, throwing out constant tempo changes, moving from slower and more pronounced lyrics to intense screaming. The song is pandemonium, yet it never becomes frustrating or annoying. It enfolds the listener in energy and insanity, driving forever forward.Then the album shifts gears again and moves into contemplative and dwelling lyrics with the title track. This happens again and again, the switch between different musical styles, a variety of tempos and intensity, never long being content with one pace. It offers a great variety and ever-changing musical landscape. It's hard to lose interest in this album as it barrels along, always morphing and evolving.Try to understand the lyrics as Johnny Whitney screams, "The carnival's glossy ghosts, / zebra-painted horses parade, / the cotton candy prostitutes, / caramel apple corpses singing, / 'Just this way to the neon orange gallows! / Tonight we tie the noose around the killer's collar! / Watch him play his wind pipe organ!'" Listen as Jordan Blilie growls, "If the brick / you throw / puts a bullet in your skull / and a police boot lands atop your gaping jaw?" on the song "Peacock Skeleton With Crooked Feathers." Then revel in the pure and dark macabre as the two of them together sing, "If tuxedos slither off corpses / and copulate wild on wedding cake, / and the priest starts snapping photos?" These songs are in no way tame and seem specifically designed to evoke emotion and drag up dark and imaginative imagery, to slither and snake their way into the listener's mind. The album evokes a black world, complete with dysfunction and pain and descriptive horror. Yet, this does not come across as a depressing album, either, with the malevolent lyrics consistently expressed in a playful and at times taunting manner.Crimes is an impressive balancing of moods and sounds. It's an amazing mixture of hardcore and melody, with a touch of pop thrown in to keep everything off-balance. The Blood Brothers are not producing the same music they once were, but this is not a bad development. Instead, they have evolved and created a style of music that stands apart from the crowd and that deserves wide recognition. I'm excited to see what they'll come up with next. Music27388@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:08:40 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/21/155407.php Joel CarisStrange and Beautiful, releasing on March 22, is lovely and melodic, overfilled with quiet piano work and brooding vocals, moody stories that seem perfect for a quiet and rainy day or a thoughtful night. There are songs on the album that are catchy, as well, but Aqualung never ventures into upbeat pop territory with this album. Instead, the listener is treated to contemplative melodies and the inner peerings of a talented musician.Aqualung is, essentially, Matt Hales. He hails from the U.K. and has made a name for himself there with two albums: a self-titled debut and his follow up, Still Life. For his U.S. debut, songs from both of his U.K. albums have been pulled together to form Strange and Beautiful. The album starts off with the title track, which introduced the U.K. to Aqualung when it was used in a Volkswagen commercial. Hales sings the simple refrain, "I'll put a spell on you / and when I wake you / I'll be the first thing you see / and you'll realize that you love me." It is instantly appealing and one of the most pop-oriented tracks on the album, yet manages to not be forgettable, either. It's a sorrow-tinged love song that introduces the listener to Hales' voice, which comes across throughout the album as contemplative and searching, sad and thoughtful without succumbing to outright depression.The album is mostly coherent, yet also varied. Being a mix of tracks from two different records, one would worry that the music would not always flow as a whole. However, some of the songs have been remixed to address this potential problem and the album does indeed flow very well, moving from track to track without ever jarring the listener, though it flows better in the second half than the first.While the album as a whole is strong, there is certainly a differing level of quality amongst the songs. The title track is great but the next two are merely decent songs, never reaching the sort of heights as the first. But the fourth track, "Brighter Than Sunshine," then comes in and picks the record back up. This is a much more positive, upbeat track that, pardon the pun, really shines. The album then moves into a mixture of strong and simply good songs before flowing into an amazing second half.Interestingly, as "Brighter Than Sunshine" makes clear, even an upbeat song from Aqualung feels mere steps away from tumbling into dark corners of the mind. This is a strength of the album - the ability to always be within reach of the more melancholic states of mind. Combine that with the fact that this tactic never seems indulgent or tiresome and you have the perfect album for when you're in a quiet mood. Hales' voice is smooth and soothing, confident over his piano work and always imparting a sense of weariness that, nevertheless, does not overwhelm or depress the music. It's a fine line he straddles, being able to perform an upbeat track while keeping the listener aware that sorrow often comes hand in hand with happiness and joy, feeling it lurking there under his words, ready to come forward at any moment.Pain, meanwhile, is readily apparent throughout Strange and Beautiful. Loss and disappointment is a constant refrain. Yet, the album seems full of hope, as well. This is not the work of someone who has given up on life or become defeated by disappointment, but rather by someone who recognizes setbacks, appreciates challenges, and uses failure to push himself forward.Aqualung is original, yet familiar. You'll hear definite strands of Coldplay throughout the album and there are moments that sound like less-eccentric Radiohead as Hales' voice takes on qualities of Thom Yorke. Thankfully, though, the songs never come across as derivative. Aqualung's music is clearly its own, building on the artistry of others rather than attempting to mimic it.The greatest strength of the album comes toward the end, starting with "You Turn Me Round." This is where the record's atmosphere fully kicks in. The songs become darker and more melancholic, laced with pain and too much experience. The vocals are gorgeous and the piano work encompassing. "If I Fall" is soft and subdued, plaintively asking for safety and comfort. The following song, "Easier To Lie," is a strong and subversively up-tempo track.Strange and Beautiful's final two songs are magnificent, offering a wonderful cap to the album."Extra Ordinary Thing" is a haunting lullaby, with Hales' voice sounding consistently on the verge of being overwhelmed with emotion. The piano is perfect, building on and accentuating the lyrics to create a pervading sense of beauty and unease.The final track, "Another Little Hole," perfectly sums up the album, continuing the quiet and haunting tone of "Extra Ordinary Thing." Hales bookends the opening song's tale of putting a spell on his love by singing, "The day is breaking / and time is taking / the love we're making away. / The gods have spoken / the spell is broken / and love will tear us apart." It's a sorrowful song and not particularly hopeful, but it is beautiful. And that, perhaps, is how best this album -- and Hales' expressive lyrics -- can be described: beautiful. Sorrowful and lilting, yes, and haunting and thoughtful, without a doubt, but first and foremost beautiful. How appropriate the album's title turns out to be.__________ The Official North American Aqualung SiteYou can check out tracks from the album and videos through the Aqualung media player at: http://www.aqualungmusic.com/mediaplayer/Learn more about Matt Hales with this video featuring interviews with him. home video and performance footage: T3 (Windows Media): http://www.redmusic.com/video/Aqualung/EPK.asx T1/DSL (Real): http://www.redmusic.com/video/Aqualung/EPK_high.ram 56K (Real): http://www.redmusic.com/video/Aqualung/EPK_low.ram__________ For more writing on arts, media and culture, visit my blog, The Between. Music27061@blogcritics.org Mon, 21 Mar 2005 15:54:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/17/184230.php Joel CarisEditor's Note: Very minor spoilers.The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou manages to be both dry and silly at the same time, which is an impressive, if confusing, achievement. While everything about it will seem familiar to any Wes Anderson film, it also is quite a bit different than his past three films. There's more of a punchiness to the film that accentuates the dry humor. There also is less drama, or at least less affecting drama. It borders on ridiculous--okay, hell, it pushes right over the border at times--and yet never loses that Wes Anderson flair that most people either love or hate.The movie deals with Steve Zissou, played wonderfully by Bill Murray, heading out on a final voyage at sea to track down and kill the jaguar shark that ate his partner. Joining him on the trip is Owen Wilson's character Ned Plimpton--who may be Zissou's son, we learn early on--Cate Blanchett's character Jane Winslett-Richardson, who is a reporter writing a cover story to give the crew some badly-needed press, and Zissou's regular crew, headed up brilliantly by Willem Dafoe. Oh, and there are some well-abused interns. Dealing with sea life in a few different sequences, the film takes the opportunity to use some awesome stop-motion animation by Henry Selick, which really adds to the film and gives it a unique presence. It's very cool to look at and makes the underwater sequences quite memorable.This movie is funny, without a doubt. I found it even more amusing the second time I watched it, though that was probably influenced by the two dark beers I had in me. Still, there is a constant sense of shenanigans overhanging the proceedings, which works beautifully. As I said, there is also a heavy amount of dry wit, which is common in any Anderson film. It all meshes together very well to create something that is very entertaining and familiar for Anderson fans. Yet it stands apart from his other films.The movie has taken some critical hits. It generally received favorable reviews, but there were many critics who claimed it to show that Anderson's shtick is getting a bit old and others that said it simply could not measure up to his other works. I'm somewhat mixed myself on where I stand on this. First of all, the movie is definitely less affecting than his others, particularly The Royal Tenenbaums. This isn't necessarily for lack of trying, either, though the film does give the distinct impression that it was going for a more light-hearted feel than the very heavy Royal Tenenabaums. But there certainly are attempts at emotional story-telling here. There is a scene toward the end of Life Aquatic that I won't reveal, lest you have not yet seen the movie, but that feels as though it should have hit me harder than it did. The characters in the movie are wonderful, but they didn't get to me the same way as in Anderson's other movies. This can be a little disorienting if you go into the movie expecting something more along the lines of Tenenbaums, which just kicked my ass emotionally. Bottle Rocket was largely the same and even Rushmore--hilarious as it was--had some very affecting moments to it.This movie, however, is in no way a failure. It's silly and ridiculous, very funny, outrageous at times in its absurdity and incredibly creative. I can't fault any of that. In fact, I can do nothing but celebrate it. No, nothing slams me emotionally like in The Royal Tenenbaums, but that doesn't make this a bad movie. It makes it a different and more understated movie and I certainly appreciate Anderson taking more risks.The main relationship in the movie--between Zissou and Ned--is a tough one to deal with. There are some nice moments there and Anderson does a great job of writing Zissou as a reticent father figure, as someone who easily proclaims to his (supposed) son that he never wanted to be a father, that he in fact hates fathers. Zissou makes some real mistakes as a parent, both in the course of this film and in the character's history, as recounted during the movie. However, the audience isn't led to hate him or feel that he is a terrible person. He's just someone who probably should never be a father. He acts poorly at times but does not do it meanspiritedly, which allows us to still care about him and wish the best for him even while recognizing his deficiencies.The relationship between the two is mixed up nicely with the presence of Jane, who ends up creating tension between Ned and Steve. It's tough to judge how well Blanchett does in this movie. She's a great actress, without a doubt, and does a wonderful job. However, she isn't an Anderson regular and she seems less prone to the quirkiness that is featured in abundance in most of Anderson's characters. However, it seems that it is probably purposeful, as her character acts largely as a straight man for the other characters to play against.Wes Anderson is famous for his details and they are well represented in Life Aquatic. They're seen in off-hand comments by the characters, in the opulence of the ship they travel on, despite how it looks on the outside, in the way that Zissou deals with relationships--particularly with people who disappoint him in some way or who pose an emotional threat to him. It's seen in the only female crew member being topless throughout the first half of the movie, without any explanation whatsoever. There are silly moments, like when the crew runs through a puddle and suddenly Zissou is covered with leeches--and is the only one, much to his chagrin. It makes no sense and will leave most viewers wondering what the hell Anderson was on when he wrote the movie, but if that sort of humor hits you the way it does me, you'll be laughing like mad. I live for these offbeat moments. They're one of the main reasons I so love Anderson's movies.If you like Anderson's movies, you're going to enjoy this. If you haven't gone for his movies in the past, this one might be a little more accessible, but it's still very much a Wes Anderson movie. If you don't get him, you probably never will. But if you go for his humor, you're going to love this. Maybe not as much of his other movies, but you'll like it. You'll laugh. You'll scratch your head. And you'll immediately start looking forward to his next work.__________ The Films of Wes Anderson: Bottle Rocket The Films of Wes Anderson: Rushmore The Films of Wes Anderson: The Royal Tenenbaums Video26895@blogcritics.org Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:42:30 EST