« April 2007 | Main | June 2007 »
May 29, 2007
* contemplating the political perspective and dogmatic relevancy of...Red State Update
Grant and I seem to alternately get patted on the back and taken to task by various readers from time to time regarding our occasional predilection to address political matters in the pages of No Depression. We tend to think politics is inherently related to art, though I can understand why some folks would ideally wish to keep the arenas separate. Certainly it's easier for a lot of us to agree on what songs and singers and bands we like without also fretting over the artists' political views (as the Dixie Chicks' saga showed so plainly). Ultimately, though, trying to completely separate political persuasion from artistic expression is pretty much an impossibility, it seems to me.
That said, we often CAN agree, regardless of our politics, on what's funny. Not always, of course, but ... righty or lefty, Democratic or Republican, conservative or progressive, Blue Stater or Red Stater, commie pinko or fascist pig -- I defy y'all to check out this rant and tell me it ain't funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la5n-Xaypsc
I stumbled across these guys a few months ago and have been checking out their frequent YouTube postings ever since. They have their ups and downs but they're almost always worth a look-see; the new one above ranks up there with their best, I believe.
And, lest this post appear to come across as having no musical content whatsoever, let it be known that Jackie & Dunlap (a.k.a. Travis & Jonathan) also have a certain musical je nais se quois as well. Check out this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gUwG7CtqYY
Enjoy.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
* "take this sinking boat and point it home..."
A couple months ago, we were all set and psyched to have the Frames perform at our South By Southwest party in Austin when we received late word that they were canceling the trip on account of a project/opportunity which had arisen on short notice for lead singer Glen Hansard. Seems he'd recently been in an indie film that suddenly had bright prospects after winning an award at Sundance, and he needed to go into the studio to record some songs for a potential soundtrack. While we were certainly sorry to lose them on our bill, it was nice to know that it was for a rewarding reason.
I'd sort of forgotten about all that in the weeks following SXSW until two days ago, when I sat down to watch the movie-review TV show "Ebert & Roeper" (as I often do on Sunday nights) and was blindsided by their comments about one of this week's new films. They thumbs-downed just about everything on the docket -- from the new Wilson brothers flick to the third Shrek installment the latest Bollywood offering -- but they both fell head-over-heels for an Irish indie film called Once. Michael Phillips (subbing for Roger Ebert) called it "the most charming thing I've seen all year"; Richard Roeper said of the film's music, "I felt like I had a great secret that I wanted to share with the world."
Sure enough, this is the movie Hansard stars in.
The Frames' Stateside manager, Howard Greynolds, had actually been kind enough to send me a promo-DVD of Once a few weeks back, but I'd set it aside during the post-SXSW deadline rush and hadn't actually gotten around to viewing it yet. Last night I finally sat down and watched it, and, for the most part, I can see why Roeper and Phillips were so impressed. To view the film's trailer, go here:
http://www.oncethemovie.com/oncesmall.html
Once isn't a "big" movie -- far from it; the entire thing was made for $150,000, less than one-tenth the budget for even a modest indie hit such as Garden State -- and that smallness is probably at least in part what appealed to Roeper and Phillips, who must review Hollywood's often blustery major-studio fare week in and week out. Still, it's not just the indie/underdog phenomenon at work here. Once works first and foremost because it tells a story well and, especially, because it conveys emotions brilliantly. If the first thing a film must do to succeed is to make you feel something for the characters, then director John Carney and his actors are right on-target here.
The music -- drawing largely from songs Hansard and co-star Marketa Irglova recorded last year for an album called The Swell Season -- is a huge part of the movie, frequently carrying the weight of dialogue for extended portions of scenes. Hansard's strengths as a songwriter have long been evident in his work with the Frames, but they're more focused here in these largely stripped-down settings, and Irglova proves an almost perfect foil, both musically and dramatically.
On a more personal note, one of the scenes that struck me most deeply was set on an Irish seaside overlook with a very familiar (to me) floral landscape. Behind the actors, the hillside was alight with the bright yellow glow of what could only be Scots' broom -- in (almost) its native environment. Every spring here in the Northwest, we see that radiant yellow flourish everywhere, as our own regional Scots' broom bushes hit full bloom. Though oft-classified as a weed, it is, in my estimation, one of the loveliest plants in the world...
...and thus it seemed quite befitting for a backdrop in this beautiful little movie.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 15, 2007
* "workin' on a building of love..."
Severe sleep deprivation can sometimes spark a cathartic outburst of emotion, such as cranking up the stereo really really loud to whatever song happens to be running through the mind and the car stereo at the moment said sleep is being deprived. This morning, following a night of surreal and seemingly never-ending struggle to strap together an impossibly byzantine realty jigsaw mindmelt, that song was "Working On A Building Of Love", Ryan Shaw's recent resplendent cover of an old Chairmen Of The Board minor hit.
The song somehow seemed to capture the essence of the building in question, a structure whose status remains in limbo at this very bewitching hour. We'll find out how it all shakes out soon enough ... but in the meantime, there is time for no small amount of reflection on how it all went down. And, indeed, when thinking of those who helped out immeasurably -- most especially our parents, both mine and Lisa's, who have graciously supported and advised and encouraged us as we made our way -- it's not hard to hear, and feel, Shaw's passion as his voice swoops and soars through the chorus once again: "I'm workin' on a building of love...."
With just a little luck, yes, that's is exactly what it'll be. Thanks to those who gave the love that will bring the building to life. We hope to have y'all over soon.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 8, 2007
* ND #69 Revisited
Continuing what ostensibly will be a new regular blog series -- now that our May-June issue is on the stands, what follows are a few comments upon some of the stories and reviews to be found amid its pages....
* You may have noticed a new department toward the front -- "Most Valuable Player," which will be a recurring piece for the foreseeable future that focuses on supporting players. The irony of profiling Austin guitarist Rich Brotherton as our first MVP subject is that nearly two decades ago (circa 1989), the Austin Chronicle was putting together a series of short profiles of local sidemen (and women) that they also happened to title "Most Valuable Players" -- and they asked me if I'd write one on Rich Brotherton.
As it turned out, I ended up not doing the piece for various reasons, but Brotherton reminded me recently that the guy who did end up writing it was my former UT college roommate, Rob Thomas. You can catch some more recent tag-team liner-notes work from Rob and me on the 2002 Dualtone reissues of the Reivers albums Saturday and End Of The Day. In his day job, Rob is the creator/executive producer of the CW Network series Veronica Mars (and previously of the ABC series Cupid).
* Mark Guarino's review of a star-studded show at Las Manitas Avenue Cafe during SXSW was rather more news-oriented than our live reviews usually are, but with good reason. The looming loss of Las Manitas (at least at its present location) to make way for a giant Marriott hotel is the latest in a long line of black eyes for the city of Austin in terms of how it has treated its cultural and musical landmarks. To the city's credit, there are plans afoot to help Las Manitas relocate; but of course that was also the case with the late, great Liberty Lunch when it was bulldozed circa 1999 to make way for a high-tech office building, and we never did see the Lunch resurface.
Austin's rapid growth is unavoidable, and there's no getting around the need for a certain degree of change to its infrastructure. But when you target for removal the very things which make the city unique in the first place, you lose that uniquity. Perhaps it's silly that I'm still miffed over the 1980 destruction of Armadillo World Headquarters only a couple years before I'd have been able to attend events there myself. But that was wrong when it happened. And the insistence on repeating such past mistakes continues to be wrong today.
Austin Chronicle music editor Raoul Hernandez wrote many years ago, in a vehement response to the city's Liberty Lunch demolition plans, "You do not tear down landmarks." I was with him all the way on that....and I still am.
Raoul's piece, by the way, is archived here:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue23/music.liblunch.html
* One fairly interesting side-topic from my interview with the Avett Brothers that didn't make it into the final print version of the article was the impact of YouTube on contemporary artists' live performances. The Avetts have been a heavily YouTubed band -- do a search and you'll find literally hundreds of clips that fans have posted from their performances. Which is great for publicity, of course -- but if you look a little closer, you'll presently find almost no clips of songs from the band's new album Emotionalism (which comes out next week) on YouTube. The reason being that the band has almost entirely avoided playing the new album's songs live yet, because they want the record to have a fresh impact upon its release. It's an unusual conundrum that bands now face in the everything-is-everywhere internet age.
Avetts bassist Bob Crawford and I talked a little bit about that in our interview. "With YouTube, it's the kind of thing where you can't beat 'em -- we can't stop it," Crawford acknowledged. "It's going to happen, whether we want it to or not. So, in many, many ways, it is a great thing. It probably helped our growth. We came to Seattle the first time, we'd never been there, we had 175-180 people. We came to Seattle the second time, we had 400 people. We didn't build this crowd from 15 like we have done in North Carolina. This crowd heard about us somehow. And probably MySpace, YouTube, the file-sharing sites, you know, word-of-mouth.... But yes, we have censored ourselves. We have not exposed these songs, because we would like to have the record come out first."
That said, don't be surprised if the new songs start popping up on YouTube in a few days, as the band should finally unveil its new material onstage at a handful of northeast shows this weekend. Meantime, here's a real nice clip of the Avetts at Merlefest 2006, including some footage from their unamplified set at the No Depression booth....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8B8ym5Ce_0
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)