BOOKS LAST READ
Douglas Keesey - Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir from Chinatown to The Dark Knight (2010)
David Toop - Ocean of Sound (1995)
Haruki Murakami - The Elephant Vanishes and other Stories (2007)
Nick Cave - The Death of Bunny Munro (2009)
Ken Garner - The Peel Sessions (2007)
Noam Chomsky - Chomsky on Anarchism (2005)
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sidney Lumet R.I.P
Legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet passed away a few days ago, on April 9 2011. He was 86. As it usually happens after such sad events, plenty of articles have been written in memoriam, celebrating and analysing his work and its importance and impact on American cinema. His first feature came out in 1957 (the all-time classic masterpiece 12 Angry Men), and his last came out in 2007 (the superb, underrated Before the Devil Knows You're Dead); his filmography spans fifty years.
Instead of writing generally about those of his movies that I have seen, I preferred to focus on what I consider Lumet's greatest skill as a director: his masterful capability to draw amazing perfromances from actors of the highest caliber, with great dialogue-driven scripts as the source material. As a proof, he guided seventeen actors and actressses in a total of fourteen Oscar nominations and four wins. Network still holds the record for most Oscar-nominated performances from a single movie (five) and the most Oscar-winning performances (three - tied with Α Streetcar Named Desire). A common feature on those performances -which probably had as its origin Lumet's work as a theatre director prior to his film career- was a scene-stealing monologue. Below I present some of those scenes which are now part of film history and set the example as acting performance at its best. WARNING: spoilers might appear.
Credits:
Network: written by Paddy Chayefsky. Dog Day Afternoon: written by Frank Pierson. 12 Angry Men: written by Reginald Rose. Serpico: written by Walso Salt and Norman Wexler, based on the book by Peter Maas.
Peter Finch in Network (1976)
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
Network is one of the most socially potent films of all time. Peter Finch won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as the "Mad Prophet" TV presenter Howard Beale; he remained the only posthumous recipient in Oscars' acting categories, until the late Heath Ledger won one for 2008's The Dark Knight.
Ned Beatty in Network (1976)
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature Mr Beale, and I won't have it.There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no East. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!"
The great character actor Ned Beatty was nominated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award for Network. This is the famous "Corporate Cosmology" scene, some minutes before the movie's end; it is Beatty's only scene in the film. A terrifiyngly visionary and sadly prescient speech.
Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982)
"...I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims - and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court... If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts."
Newman delivered one of his most heartfelt performances in this great underrated courtroom drama. He plays a cynic, stubborn, uncompromising, dispirited, heavy-drinking lawyer, who agrees to take over a quixotic case, as a last chance to save both his miserable life and dwindling career. His face expression on the verdict announcement is one to truly treasure forever.
Instead of writing generally about those of his movies that I have seen, I preferred to focus on what I consider Lumet's greatest skill as a director: his masterful capability to draw amazing perfromances from actors of the highest caliber, with great dialogue-driven scripts as the source material. As a proof, he guided seventeen actors and actressses in a total of fourteen Oscar nominations and four wins. Network still holds the record for most Oscar-nominated performances from a single movie (five) and the most Oscar-winning performances (three - tied with Α Streetcar Named Desire). A common feature on those performances -which probably had as its origin Lumet's work as a theatre director prior to his film career- was a scene-stealing monologue. Below I present some of those scenes which are now part of film history and set the example as acting performance at its best. WARNING: spoilers might appear.
Credits:
Network: written by Paddy Chayefsky. Dog Day Afternoon: written by Frank Pierson. 12 Angry Men: written by Reginald Rose. Serpico: written by Walso Salt and Norman Wexler, based on the book by Peter Maas.
Peter Finch in Network (1976)
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
Network is one of the most socially potent films of all time. Peter Finch won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as the "Mad Prophet" TV presenter Howard Beale; he remained the only posthumous recipient in Oscars' acting categories, until the late Heath Ledger won one for 2008's The Dark Knight.
Ned Beatty in Network (1976)
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature Mr Beale, and I won't have it.There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no East. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!"
The great character actor Ned Beatty was nominated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award for Network. This is the famous "Corporate Cosmology" scene, some minutes before the movie's end; it is Beatty's only scene in the film. A terrifiyngly visionary and sadly prescient speech.
Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982)
"...I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims - and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court... If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts."
Newman delivered one of his most heartfelt performances in this great underrated courtroom drama. He plays a cynic, stubborn, uncompromising, dispirited, heavy-drinking lawyer, who agrees to take over a quixotic case, as a last chance to save both his miserable life and dwindling career. His face expression on the verdict announcement is one to truly treasure forever.
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
"Attica! Attica!"
In this classic real-life story of a bank robbery gone wrong, Pacino, at the height of his powers, gives one of the all-time best performances in cinema. The scene above is probably the most famous of the movie; however, my favourite one is Pacino's improvised lengthy monologue on the phone with Chris Sarandon. It is a heart-wrecking, emotionally naked display of method acting. Famously, Pacino, always the method actor, was physically and mentally exhausted after the shoot of that scene. He almost collapsed when he heard Sidney Lumet telling him "That was perfect Al, we need to do this once more".
Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men (1957)
"I have a proposition to make to all of you. I'm going to call for another vote. I want you eleven men to vote by secret written ballot."
In this pivotal scene in 12 Angry Men, Fonda turned the tables in his favour. The film is the definition of ensemble acting and was Lumet's debut feature. It was shot almost completely in the "jury room"; still, thanks to Lumet's direction, it never drags or becomes too theatrical. This is one of the best films of all time: as with many of Lumet's films, its ideals and messages will always come across.
Beatrice Straight in Network (1975)
"This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion, and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it! And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance!"
See the clip here
This is the shortest performance to ever win an Oscar. Beatrice Straight had only three scenes in the film; the most famous being the breakup scene with William Holden. Here, she brings to life all the anger, pain, and sadness a cheated woman suffers.
Faye Dunaway in Network (1975)
"Now, I don't want to play butch boss with you people. But when I took over this department, it had the worst programming record in television history. This network hasn't one show in the top twenty. This network is an industry joke... I want ideas from you people, that's what you're paid for. And, by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you all better read it, or I'll sack the fucking lot of you, is that clear?"
See the clip here
Dunaway won her only Oscar for her performance of an ambitious, heartless TV executive.
William Holden in Network (1975)
"You're television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you. But not me. Not as long as I can feel pleasure, and pain... and love."
See the clip here
Holden, in his last great performance, plays the idealist, old-school executive who refuses to sacrifice his identity and his integrity. He finds the inner balance by breaking up with both women in his life. But there is price to pay for independence and freedom: he ends up alone in order to remain true to his heart and his beliefs. On the film's first breakup scene, Beatrice Straight's emotional outburst steals the show; in this scene, Holden's acidic verbal attack on the cold, emotionless Dunaway is even more impressive, delivering his speech with a downplayed, subtle acting style.
Al Pacino in Serpico (1973)
"What's this for? for being an honest cop? or for being stupid enough to get shot in the face?"
I decided to close the post with the words of the late great Sidney Lumet himself: in this video, he talks about Pacino's superb performance of real-time New York policeman Serpico, who tried to expose the deep police corruption inside the New York Police Department. "It's my life you fuck!".
Saturday, April 2, 2011
MOVIES LAST SEEN
Somewhere (2010): 4.0
Moon (2009): 7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs.the World (2010): 6.0
The King's Speech (2010): 8.0
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): 7.0
Fearless (1993): 7.0
True Grit (2010): 7.5
A Room with a View (1986): 8.0
Notorious (1946): 9.0
The Usual Suspects (1995): 8.5
The Painted Veil (2006): 7.5
In a Lonely Place (1950): 7.5
There Will Be Blood (2007): 9.0
Network (1976): 10.0
All or Nothing (2002): 7.0
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008): 5.5
Ali (2001): 7.0
Le Samurai (1967): 8.5
JFK (1991): 8.0
Somewhere (2010): 4.0
Moon (2009): 7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs.the World (2010): 6.0
The King's Speech (2010): 8.0
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): 7.0
Fearless (1993): 7.0
True Grit (2010): 7.5
A Room with a View (1986): 8.0
Notorious (1946): 9.0
The Usual Suspects (1995): 8.5
The Painted Veil (2006): 7.5
In a Lonely Place (1950): 7.5
There Will Be Blood (2007): 9.0
Network (1976): 10.0
All or Nothing (2002): 7.0
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008): 5.5
Ali (2001): 7.0
Le Samurai (1967): 8.5
JFK (1991): 8.0
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
CD Compilation: In an Alternative Country
Country music can get badly stereotyped amongst indie music fans. To make justice, I propose below a small selection of ballads from indie bands, which -either the band, the song, or both- fall under the "Alternative Country" tag. This is a music subgenre (also often mentioned "Americana") which could be loosely described as the meeting point of indie and country; Alternative Country artists operate outside the traditional mainstream country, follow the indie aesthetics, and successfully incorporate into their music other music styles and influences beyond country.
I have consciously avoided all the ancestors of Alternative Country such as Neil Young, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers. I have also chosen to include into the compilation only artists whose music I have followed and feel quite familiar with to write about it; obviously there is tons of great stuff out there. Hopefully this list will urge you to discover it.
1. The Gun Club - Idiot Waltz (1993)
The late Jeffrey Lee Pierce was the founder, leader and songwriter of The Gun Club, a great band who was sadly ignored at its time. They were a significant part of the 80's US alternative scene. Two of their albums were produced by Blondie's Chris Stein and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie; they toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (guitarist Kid Congo Powers was a founding member of The Gun Club before joining The Bad Seeds). Still, they never reached the popularity of their peers.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a true bluesman down to his heart, but he enriched the blues idiom with raw punk energy, rockabilly rhythms and even country touches. The best testament of Gun Club's sound remains their now-classic debut Fire of Love (supposedly recorded within two days), best exemplified in titles such as "She's Like Heroin to Me", "Ghost on the Highway", and "Sex Beat". I preferred to include in the compilation the haunting country-tinged ballad "Idiot Waltz" from their swansong Lucky Jim, where Pierce sounds more devastated and resigned than ever: gone is the sexual lust and full force of their debut, now replaced with Pierce singing "Turn on the headlights for the Idiot Waltz, turn on the lights, watch us fall", or the line "Your body don't get me off no more, it takes a lot of smack to do that", openly pointing at his addiction.
Pierce sadly passed away at 38 from post-surgery brain hemorrhage, after a stroke caused by a blood clot sent him to coma, but his music legacy remains intact.
2. Tarnation - Halfway to Madness (1995)
Paula Frazer is one of my favourite female singers. She is the founder, leader and songwriter of Tarnation, a band who is the primary reason I started to search more about Alternative Country. She was singing traditional American music from an early age, namely religious hymns and gospels, in the process training and stretching her vocal cords. Her exquisite voice is as light as a feather, but incredibly emotive; her range is truly impressive and when she employs her otherwordly yodelling it sounds like nothing else in indie music.
Tarnation's short career contains only two albums, Gentle Creatures and Mirador, released during the 90's in the famous 4AD label. Their music was aptly described by Mojo magazine as "Judy Garland romanticism in a world inhabited by Reservoir Dogs."
I honestly could not decide which song to include in this compilation, but finally I opted for "Halfway to Madness" from Gentle Creatures, a touchstone album for Alternative Country. Its songs are full of dark, romantic imagery, an ever-present lurking atmosphere of despair and sorrow, and with the aching lap-steel guitar in a prominent role. But it's Frazer's vocals that will haunt you forever: in "Halfway to Madness", her yodelling comes in to close each chorus and finally the song (a pattern Tarnation often employ).
The opening trio of "Game of Broken Hearts", "Halfway to Madness" and "The Well" sets the tone perfectly from the start: "There's nothing you give that's not dangerous or cold. Is that there is to a game of broken hearts?" , or "When I met you halfway to a place we call madness, with a rock in my heart, I sank in despair" or "So long, good-bye, to that great moaning sky and I'll cast my heart down the well". Frazer obviously has issues of the heart.
Mirador released two years later featured lots of surf, heavily-reverbed guitar clearly influenced from spaghetti Western soundtracks, thereby expanding their sound and making it more electric - although one has to listen this album in order to understand what "electric" means in Tarnation's case.This album contains the undisputed highlight of their career (and their most famous song) "Your Thoughts and Mine", with its Mexican Mariachi horns, a Spanish guitar solo, a great chorus and a powerful crescendo for finale with -again- Frazer's unforgettable yodelling on top.
I didn't miss the chance to see her solo performance -just her and her acoustic guitar- in Athens' small Rodeo Club in 2009: there, a total of around 150 people were not only obviously enchanted by her unique, amazing voice, but also from Paula Frazer herself, such a calm, down-to-earth, slightly shy but so lovely person.
3. Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy (1993)
This 90's L.A band had a moderate hit in indie world with this song from their debut. In Grant Lee Phillips they had a great frontman and songwriter and their live performances gave them an edge over other country-and-folk influenced bands at the time. Their sound was centered around Phillips's twelve-string electric-acoustic guitar and his powerful, resonant voice. The chorus of "Fuzzy" remains one of the best moments of 90's music, still as original and impressive as the first time you heard it. You have to listen to the live version of the song though to fully appreciate its power: Phillips sings no words, just the song's main melodic line in a spectacular falsetto, while at the same time his guitar plays the same riff with a heavily distorted sound in a high octave; no difference to the album's version here. But it's Paul Kimble's bass that totally blows your mind, as it turns into a monster with the use of a distortion pedal. This is an explosion similar -and dare I say equal- to the chorus of Radiohead's "Creep", no less. Grant Lee Buffalo never reached that early peak again, but "Fuzzy" remains unforgettable.
4. The Walkabouts - Long Time Here (1993)
These guys from Seattle have a long career behind them. They were almost completely ignored in their country where their albums couldn't even get released, but on the contrary so loved across the Atlantic that somewhere in the mid-90's they were even in regular airplay in MTV Europe (remember "The Light Will Stay On"). However, they never reached the commercial success levels of the famous Seattle grunge bands, primarily because their sound was never in- or out-of date: Walkabouts' music covers a vast area of what is loosely called "Americana", as they play a mix of alternative rock, country and folk.
Walkabouts' principal songwriter Chris Eckman shared vocal duties with his partner Carla Torgerson (apparently they were met when both were working in a salmon canning factory in Alaska!), usually alternating the main vocals song after song in their albums. Interestingly, their voices couldn't be further apart: Eckman's is low, darker, unrefined, "like pouring honey over gravel" as Melody Maker wrote in its review of Setting the Woods on Fire in 1994; Carla's voice is lighter, folky, much more melodic.
Within two years in 1993 and 1994, The Walkabouts released their masterpieces: New West Motel, the covers album Satisfied Mind and Setting the Woods on Fire.
New West Motel is the album where the band's dichotomy is best showcased. One one hand you get grungey rock anthems with the Neil-Young-ish gritty overdriven guitar tone which Chris Eckman prefers, such as "Sundowner" with its catchy fiddle riff, "Sweet Revenge", and their classic single "Jack Candy". On the other hand, you get plaintive folk/country ballads enriched with piano, accordion or mandolin, such as "Wondertown", and my choice for this compilation "Long Time Here", with Carla Torgerson's yearning lead vocal: "But your hell is hotter than the typical thirst and in Vegas the ice is not cheap".
7. Lambchop - Soaky in the Pooper (1994)
This group from Nashville is a collective of musicians, with singer and songwriter Kurt Wagner its de facto leader and only permanent member. The band once counted 17 musicians as members. Lambchop started as an alternative country band but they have incorporated many other music styles ever since, with the classic 70's soul being a major influence, as evidenced in their 2000 masterpiece Nixon. Their first two albums though are the ones to listen to for sheer country pleasure. "Soaky in the Pooper" is from their debut I Hope You're Sitting Down. The song is funnily titled, but Wagner actually narrates a fatal drug overdose taking place in a bathroom. All of Lambchop's eclectic attributes are present: acoustic guitar arpeggios, gentle strings and brass arrangements a la Tindersticks, and Wagner's instantly recognizable mumbled baritone (Tindersticks' Stuart Staples -again- is a close reference).
Lambchop are still active and continue to record new albums; after 15 years it's fairly safe to say their prime is long gone, but their stamp in US indie scene has been secured.
11. Calexico - Across the Wire (2003)
Named after the Californian bordertown (itself a portmanteau of the words California and Mexico), it was obvious this band would borrow heavily from two different musical traditions: the Mexican-Latin sounds such as mariachi, as well as the American country and folk music. They have also delved into classic jazz, even post-rock. Consequently, this duet has the most diverse sound of all the artists of the compilation. Feast of Wire is probably their best album, where they collect successfully all their eclectic influences into various well-crafted songs and finally serve a unified undistinguished package, the Calexico sound.
"Across the Wire" is a good example of their approach, mixing mariachi horns with straight-from-the desert lap steel guitar, the Mexican with the American. It also makes a nice upbeat closure for the compilation.
I have consciously avoided all the ancestors of Alternative Country such as Neil Young, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers. I have also chosen to include into the compilation only artists whose music I have followed and feel quite familiar with to write about it; obviously there is tons of great stuff out there. Hopefully this list will urge you to discover it.
1. The Gun Club - Idiot Waltz (1993)
The late Jeffrey Lee Pierce was the founder, leader and songwriter of The Gun Club, a great band who was sadly ignored at its time. They were a significant part of the 80's US alternative scene. Two of their albums were produced by Blondie's Chris Stein and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie; they toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (guitarist Kid Congo Powers was a founding member of The Gun Club before joining The Bad Seeds). Still, they never reached the popularity of their peers.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a true bluesman down to his heart, but he enriched the blues idiom with raw punk energy, rockabilly rhythms and even country touches. The best testament of Gun Club's sound remains their now-classic debut Fire of Love (supposedly recorded within two days), best exemplified in titles such as "She's Like Heroin to Me", "Ghost on the Highway", and "Sex Beat". I preferred to include in the compilation the haunting country-tinged ballad "Idiot Waltz" from their swansong Lucky Jim, where Pierce sounds more devastated and resigned than ever: gone is the sexual lust and full force of their debut, now replaced with Pierce singing "Turn on the headlights for the Idiot Waltz, turn on the lights, watch us fall", or the line "Your body don't get me off no more, it takes a lot of smack to do that", openly pointing at his addiction.
Pierce sadly passed away at 38 from post-surgery brain hemorrhage, after a stroke caused by a blood clot sent him to coma, but his music legacy remains intact.
2. Tarnation - Halfway to Madness (1995)
Paula Frazer is one of my favourite female singers. She is the founder, leader and songwriter of Tarnation, a band who is the primary reason I started to search more about Alternative Country. She was singing traditional American music from an early age, namely religious hymns and gospels, in the process training and stretching her vocal cords. Her exquisite voice is as light as a feather, but incredibly emotive; her range is truly impressive and when she employs her otherwordly yodelling it sounds like nothing else in indie music.
Tarnation's short career contains only two albums, Gentle Creatures and Mirador, released during the 90's in the famous 4AD label. Their music was aptly described by Mojo magazine as "Judy Garland romanticism in a world inhabited by Reservoir Dogs."
I honestly could not decide which song to include in this compilation, but finally I opted for "Halfway to Madness" from Gentle Creatures, a touchstone album for Alternative Country. Its songs are full of dark, romantic imagery, an ever-present lurking atmosphere of despair and sorrow, and with the aching lap-steel guitar in a prominent role. But it's Frazer's vocals that will haunt you forever: in "Halfway to Madness", her yodelling comes in to close each chorus and finally the song (a pattern Tarnation often employ).
The opening trio of "Game of Broken Hearts", "Halfway to Madness" and "The Well" sets the tone perfectly from the start: "There's nothing you give that's not dangerous or cold. Is that there is to a game of broken hearts?" , or "When I met you halfway to a place we call madness, with a rock in my heart, I sank in despair" or "So long, good-bye, to that great moaning sky and I'll cast my heart down the well". Frazer obviously has issues of the heart.
Mirador released two years later featured lots of surf, heavily-reverbed guitar clearly influenced from spaghetti Western soundtracks, thereby expanding their sound and making it more electric - although one has to listen this album in order to understand what "electric" means in Tarnation's case.This album contains the undisputed highlight of their career (and their most famous song) "Your Thoughts and Mine", with its Mexican Mariachi horns, a Spanish guitar solo, a great chorus and a powerful crescendo for finale with -again- Frazer's unforgettable yodelling on top.
I didn't miss the chance to see her solo performance -just her and her acoustic guitar- in Athens' small Rodeo Club in 2009: there, a total of around 150 people were not only obviously enchanted by her unique, amazing voice, but also from Paula Frazer herself, such a calm, down-to-earth, slightly shy but so lovely person.
3. Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy (1993)
This 90's L.A band had a moderate hit in indie world with this song from their debut. In Grant Lee Phillips they had a great frontman and songwriter and their live performances gave them an edge over other country-and-folk influenced bands at the time. Their sound was centered around Phillips's twelve-string electric-acoustic guitar and his powerful, resonant voice. The chorus of "Fuzzy" remains one of the best moments of 90's music, still as original and impressive as the first time you heard it. You have to listen to the live version of the song though to fully appreciate its power: Phillips sings no words, just the song's main melodic line in a spectacular falsetto, while at the same time his guitar plays the same riff with a heavily distorted sound in a high octave; no difference to the album's version here. But it's Paul Kimble's bass that totally blows your mind, as it turns into a monster with the use of a distortion pedal. This is an explosion similar -and dare I say equal- to the chorus of Radiohead's "Creep", no less. Grant Lee Buffalo never reached that early peak again, but "Fuzzy" remains unforgettable.
4. The Walkabouts - Long Time Here (1993)
These guys from Seattle have a long career behind them. They were almost completely ignored in their country where their albums couldn't even get released, but on the contrary so loved across the Atlantic that somewhere in the mid-90's they were even in regular airplay in MTV Europe (remember "The Light Will Stay On"). However, they never reached the commercial success levels of the famous Seattle grunge bands, primarily because their sound was never in- or out-of date: Walkabouts' music covers a vast area of what is loosely called "Americana", as they play a mix of alternative rock, country and folk.
Walkabouts' principal songwriter Chris Eckman shared vocal duties with his partner Carla Torgerson (apparently they were met when both were working in a salmon canning factory in Alaska!), usually alternating the main vocals song after song in their albums. Interestingly, their voices couldn't be further apart: Eckman's is low, darker, unrefined, "like pouring honey over gravel" as Melody Maker wrote in its review of Setting the Woods on Fire in 1994; Carla's voice is lighter, folky, much more melodic.
Within two years in 1993 and 1994, The Walkabouts released their masterpieces: New West Motel, the covers album Satisfied Mind and Setting the Woods on Fire.
New West Motel is the album where the band's dichotomy is best showcased. One one hand you get grungey rock anthems with the Neil-Young-ish gritty overdriven guitar tone which Chris Eckman prefers, such as "Sundowner" with its catchy fiddle riff, "Sweet Revenge", and their classic single "Jack Candy". On the other hand, you get plaintive folk/country ballads enriched with piano, accordion or mandolin, such as "Wondertown", and my choice for this compilation "Long Time Here", with Carla Torgerson's yearning lead vocal: "But your hell is hotter than the typical thirst and in Vegas the ice is not cheap".
Unfortunately I never saw The Walkabouts live, even though they came many times in Greece as they were always popular here; however, I did saw Chris and Carla (their acoustic side-project) in a tiny Athens cafe-bar called "Hartes" around ten years ago, where they played a mindblowing ten-minute version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer".
5. Richmond Fontaine - Western Skyline (2002)
The Portland-based alternative country band is the first on the list that is still active. Their frontman Villy Vlautin is an acclaimed fiction writer, a fact explaining the often narrative style and vivid imagery of their songs: their album The Fitzgerald for example was written after Vlautin stayed for two weeks in the Fitzgerald Casino Hotel in Reno (he was actually born and lived in Reno until his mid-twenties before moving to Portland). Vlautin's heroes are drunks, gamblers, murderers, a fascinating tableau of characters remindful of writers such as Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver. No wonder then that Vlautin cites as his principal music influences Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen, whose songwriting has also being compared to fiction writing.
"Western Skyline" is the closing song on Richmond Fontaine's 2002 album Winnemucca and is the first song of theirs I heard. In an interview on the "Comes with a Smile" website Vlautin said for the song:
"I wrote that song for my uncle Bill. He died in a hunting accident in 1968. He was 18. He fell on his gun and it went off. His friend held him in his arms until he died. I used to fish the Truckee river all the time, and where I'd go was right by where he died. And every time I'd be there he'd appear in my mind. For years. He was supposedly a great kid. I was named after him, he was my godfather. I used to sit there and think about the poor kid who had to hold him. What would you say to your dying friend, how would you say it? So I'd go around and around
about it, and in the end I felt I'd tell him a drunkard's dream. That where he was going there was a golden light, that there were women who were gentle and kind, and everything had a nice light to it, and we'd be walking downtown having a good time."
The song's tragic storyline is hidden behind a deceptively beautiful melody while the pedal steel guitar punctuates the longing and desolation in Vlautin's voice. This is one of the undiscovered gems of Alternative Country.
6. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (1993)
Undoubtedly this is the most famous song on the compilation. It has soundtracked scenes in CSI, House M.D., The O.C, Alias and other series; it was recently included in Pitchfork's Top 20 Songs of the 90's; even more prestigiously, it was included in John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty for the celebration of the millenium in 2000. My guess is Mazzy Star hadn't planned it this way since it has eclipsed everything they attempted ever since; but it didn't do them any harm either.
The song's defining characteristics are easy to spot. There's simplicity: just a three chord variation and a steady country-waltz rhythm repeating throughout the song; there are the strategically placed small details in the arrangement: the piano embellishments, the slide guitar riff and the tambourine; but in the end Mazzy Star's appeal always comes down to Hope Sandoval's uniquely coloured voice. No wonder she always has been in-demand for various collaborations: since 1994 her vocals have adorned -and actually define- songs by The Chemical Brothers, Air, and Death In Vegas among others. I will just pinpoint three of Hope Sandoval's performances: The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Sometimes Always", a wonderful duet with Jim Reid (Sandoval was also dating William Reid at the time); the freak-folk gem "Angels' Share" from Vetiver's 2004 debut; and her most recent guest appearance, the lead vocal on Massive Attack's "Paradise Circus", the definite highlight of their latest album Heligoland.
In "Fade Into You", Hope Sandoval is constantly slightly off-key or at least appears to be: it's as if she doesn't care to sing technically perfect, she is resigned. Her sexy, seductive low croon is also misleading; the song has been described as a love ballad, but the lyrics are actually quite hard to decipher: "I look to you and I see nothing, I look to you to see the truth", or "Some kind of night into your darkness colors your eyes with what's not there".
It was tempting to not choose "Fade Into You" for the compilation, merely for the sake of controversy; just to avoid taking the soft option. Other choices could be "Rhymes of an Hour", which soundtracked the saucy scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's film Stealing Beauty where Liv Tyler has sex for the first time; or Mazzy Star's great cover of Green On Red's "Hair and Skin". It's just that sometimes the easy option happens to be the best too.
7. Lambchop - Soaky in the Pooper (1994)
This group from Nashville is a collective of musicians, with singer and songwriter Kurt Wagner its de facto leader and only permanent member. The band once counted 17 musicians as members. Lambchop started as an alternative country band but they have incorporated many other music styles ever since, with the classic 70's soul being a major influence, as evidenced in their 2000 masterpiece Nixon. Their first two albums though are the ones to listen to for sheer country pleasure. "Soaky in the Pooper" is from their debut I Hope You're Sitting Down. The song is funnily titled, but Wagner actually narrates a fatal drug overdose taking place in a bathroom. All of Lambchop's eclectic attributes are present: acoustic guitar arpeggios, gentle strings and brass arrangements a la Tindersticks, and Wagner's instantly recognizable mumbled baritone (Tindersticks' Stuart Staples -again- is a close reference).
Lambchop are still active and continue to record new albums; after 15 years it's fairly safe to say their prime is long gone, but their stamp in US indie scene has been secured.
8. Sixteen Horsepower - Haw (1995)
Sixteen Horsepower will be forever revered by everyone who dared to delve into their fascinating soundworld: a distinctive mixture of blues, country, rock, and Appalachian folk. Their leader was David Eugene Edwards, a man of strong religious beliefs; his grandfather was a preacher who used to take young David with him in his travels within Colorado, visiting and spending time in small desolate towns. This experience obviously shaped Edwards' personality, as he he told in an interview in pennyblackmusic.co.uk. Edwards grew up to be a devoted Christian; however, as it is very often the case with artists, he was also struggling with the cosmic aspects of his life and how these can come to terms with religion. No wonder then his lyrics deal with religion, faith and redemption.
Their debut album Sackcloth 'n' Ashes (a biblical term) is one of the masterpieces of the last twenty years waiting to be discovered. In this album, Edwards fully captured his music vision. Each song is performed by three instruments only: bass and drums, played by the band's rhythm section; and the lead instrument, alternating in each song between banjo, bandoneon and lap steel guitar, all played by Edwards. The results are stunning. The album is a Gothic monolith, with Edwards' theatrical performance and lyrical imagery resembling Nick Cave. Almost all songs are written in minor key; this is definitely not a pop album, we're talking heavy, serious stuff here. Joy Division were another big influence on Sixteen Horsepower - look out for their great cover of "Day of the Lords".
Sackcloth 'n' Ashes is full of highlights. Ι could easily include in this compilation "Black Soul Choir" with its skipping beat and the jangly banjo riff, or the devastating "Harm's Way".
"Haw" manages to have about seven or eight minor and no major chords; an impressive feat. It features Edwards' excellent lap steel guitar work and his typical theatrical storytelling (listen how he sings "lady" in the line "roll over little lady" in 1:52, or how he stretches "bleed" in the next line "you're gonna bleed to get away").
Open wide your eyes and ears and convert yourselves to Sixteen Horsepower's majesty.
9. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Loom of the Land (1992)
Cave is no stranger to country and his appearance in the compilation should not look strange. Testaments to this are aplenty: Johnny Cash and Hank Williams were among his heroes; his 1985 album The Firstborn Is Dead is considered one of the early landmarks of Alternative Country; and, as a final seal of approval, "Loom of the Land" was covered by The Walkabouts in their great covers-only album Satisfied Mind.
I consider the album Henry's Dream to be Nick Cave's stronger effort. That means I hail it as an absolute masterpiece. Unjustly, it's seldom mentioned amongst his best. Even himself has supposedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the albums production (i.e. not raw enough). But a more beautiful song than "Loom of the Land" I doubt he has ever written.
The song apears to be a love story. A poetic lyric introduces us to a picturesque romantic scene: "It was the dirty end of winter along the loom of the land, when I walked with sweet Sally hand upon hand". Still, my sense is the unfolding story is darker than it appears; there is a strangely sinister feeling lurking underneath the chorus lyric "keep your little hand upon my shoulder, now go to sleep". Truthful my suspicion or not, Cave finally unleashed his ultimate statement on that field four years later, the death-fixated but funny-as-hell too Murder Ballads.
10. Cowboy Junkies- Misguided Angel (1988)
The secret in the intimacy, warmth and beauty suffusing the Canadians' classic album The Trinity Session lies in the story behind its recording. The practically unknown-at-the-time band gathered into the Church of the Holy Trinity of their hometown Toronto, placed a single microphone in the middle, pressed the record button on a DAT recorder, and recorded the album straight to tape within an one-night session, with no overdubs or fills.
The Trinity Session is clearly an album where the recording environment has defined the final result (Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral also springs to mind). The natural reverb and ambience of the church fills up every song; the drums are mostly played with brushes, as if not to disturb the serene atmosphere throughout; the guitars are strummed lazily; and the songs move to a funereal pace. Sometimes they do not seem to move at all: they just stay still. And on top of it all, there are Margo Timmins' soft, leisured, wonderful vocals. She does not possess a technically gifted voice, but she manages to colour each song with an unpretentious beauty. Her diction is her primary asset: though she almost whispers most of the time, every sung word is clear, every line cuts through the mix.
In the album's opening song, "Mining for Gold", Timmins provides a wonderful a cappella performance of a traditional country ballad. In "Misguided Angel" the arrangement is sparse, the song is almost bare: a guitar plays the basic chords, an accordion here or a harmonica there adds some touches, and Timmins' soothing voice covers everything like a warm, well-used blanket.
The band along with its own compositions chose to include in the album a significant number of covers of songs by some of their favourite artists, including Hank Williams's all-time classic country standard "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and, most notably, The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane", which became their most famous song. Cowboy Junkies created with The Trinity Session a timeless album of country and blues Americana. As Pitchfork wrote, it still sounds great in the dark.
11. Calexico - Across the Wire (2003)
Named after the Californian bordertown (itself a portmanteau of the words California and Mexico), it was obvious this band would borrow heavily from two different musical traditions: the Mexican-Latin sounds such as mariachi, as well as the American country and folk music. They have also delved into classic jazz, even post-rock. Consequently, this duet has the most diverse sound of all the artists of the compilation. Feast of Wire is probably their best album, where they collect successfully all their eclectic influences into various well-crafted songs and finally serve a unified undistinguished package, the Calexico sound.
"Across the Wire" is a good example of their approach, mixing mariachi horns with straight-from-the desert lap steel guitar, the Mexican with the American. It also makes a nice upbeat closure for the compilation.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Poll: the best Neo-Noir films
Ολοκληρώθηκε η διαδικτυακή ψηφοφορία για τις καλύτερες Neo-Noir ταινίες. Στην κατάρτιση της αρχικής shortlist βασίστηκα στις επιλογές του ενδιαφέροντος βιβλίου του Douglas Keesey "Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir, from Chinatown to The Dark Knight". Να ευχαριστήσω για τις ψήφους τους: Nick M., Kostas K., Popi "Pops" T., Panagiotis "Tarasque" G., Elpidiou "Sister Bliss", Marianne A., Takis "Tax" T., George Ouz., Chris "Murdock" P., Tonia "Nea" R., George "GthePoet" C., George "Simon", Dimitris "Katsiou" K., Stathis "Mr Lubitel" D., Chris St. και Dimitris "Ippokampos" Ts. Ακολουθεί η τελική λίστα. Τα λέμε στο επόμενο poll...
25 - Body Heat (1981)
24 - Vanilla Sky (2001)
23 - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
22 - L.A Confidential (1997)
21 - The French Connection (1971)
20 - The Dark Knight (2008)
19 - Collateral (2004)
18 - Blood Simple (1984)
17 - The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
16 - Sin City (2005)
15 - Fargo (1996)
14 - Memento (2000)
13 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
12 - Lost Highway (1997)
11 - The Matrix (1999)
10 - Blue Velvet (1986)
09 - The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
08 - Mulholland Dr. (2001)
07 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
06 - Blade Runner (1982)
05 - Old Boy (2003)
04 - Chinatown (1974)
03 - Taxi Driver (1976)
02 - Se7en (1995)
01 - The Usual Suspects (1995)
25 - Body Heat (1981)
24 - Vanilla Sky (2001)
23 - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
22 - L.A Confidential (1997)
21 - The French Connection (1971)
20 - The Dark Knight (2008)
19 - Collateral (2004)
18 - Blood Simple (1984)
17 - The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
16 - Sin City (2005)
15 - Fargo (1996)
14 - Memento (2000)
13 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
12 - Lost Highway (1997)
11 - The Matrix (1999)
10 - Blue Velvet (1986)
09 - The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
08 - Mulholland Dr. (2001)
07 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
06 - Blade Runner (1982)
05 - Old Boy (2003)
04 - Chinatown (1974)
03 - Taxi Driver (1976)
02 - Se7en (1995)
01 - The Usual Suspects (1995)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
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