I've already made a couple music posts this week (and that reminds me - Tucker's got a couple posts about Larry Norman and christian rock - including a very cool Glass Harp clip), but let's try another one: the iPod was generous, walking home in the cold today.... here are some of the songs I heard.
1 Undertones - She can Only Say No
2 REM - Wake Up Bomb - from New Adventures in Hi Fi, which I have almost never listened to in all the years I've had it
3 James Brown - I Don't Mind - live at the Apollo
4 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Hey, Hey, My My (From Weld)
5 Nick Cave - Oh My Lord - one of those wild epics of his, and a fine song
6 The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fucker - I wonder what Anton's worked up about? some fucking bitch tried to drag him down, if I got the lyrics right - gee...
7 New Pornographers - Use It
8 Come - Brand New Vein - how did Hole become a big hit, and Come just a minor underground act? couldn't be Courtney Love starfucking, could it?
9 Eric Dolphy - Bird's Mother - Eric Dolphy is so good
10 Boogie DOwn Productions - You Must Learn - hey! BDP! nice stuff....
Let's see - what can we find for video? Can't find the song above, but here's the Undertones, doing Teenaged Kicks - can't beat that!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Another Guitarist Down
Goodness - two musical obituaries in two days - this one perhaps even more obscure than the last, but a good deal more central to my particular musical life. I see on Alicublog that Pere Ubu's Jim Jones has died. I doubt that the true depths of my devotion to Pere Ubu has come through on this blog: but they are, and have been, one of my favorites, since I first discovered them in the mid-80s. Jones was part of the Cleveland scene in the 70s, turning up on a great many records, and he joined Pere Ubu proper when David Thomas put them back together in the late 80s, and stayed throughout the 90s, until his health forced him to retire. Of all the Pere Ubu guitarists through the years, he's probably the least distinctive - of course Laughner and Herman and Thompson were about as distinctive as punk (and post and pre punk) guitarists got.... But Jones' stay was a pretty impressive run for the band. Not up to their first pass through (but what is? who was better in the late 70s?), but they still produced - what, three? great records (Tenement Year, Worlds in Collision, Raygun Suitcase), and 2 other excellent records, plus a great live record (Apocalypse Now) - they're on the shortlist of the best bands of the 90s, as well as the 70s... Jones' virtues are probably summed up in the solo on Memphis I mentioned a couple weeks ago - a basic, uncluttered, snarling riff that makes the song. He did that consistently, playing just what made the songs... I don't know how much of their less experimental and abrasive sound from that period was his doing, but it's good music, sometimes great, and he served it well.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Larry Norman
I see on Slacktivist that Larry Norman has died. That may not be an obituary anyone would expect to see here - I don't make much of my upbringing, but I have spent my time among the evangelicals. Saner evangelicals than what we usually hear about, but still... Oh, I remember the periodic paroxysms of the evils of rock and roll that went through my circles - the terrible, shocking revelations that the Rolling Stones used drugs! that "Queen" was slang for "transvestite"! and other wonders... This often translated into pressures to only listen to christian rock in some circles - it never had much affect on me (I was in the throes of Bruce Springsteen worship at the time), but around some people... Then, as now (from what I know of it), christian rock was a wretched and lifeless genre. There were three bright spots I remember: Phil Keaggy, who had the decency to shut up and play guitar (and was the first "real" concert I ever attended, featuring lots of soaring guitar solos - bless him); Keith Green - a strange, jagged, piano driven singer songwriter, whose songs hold up on their own to this day - I have quite a few of them on the iPod, highly ranked... And Norman - whose music did sometimes fall into a bland 70s soft rock vibe, but was still quite listenable - and topped with genuinely sharp, funny, smart lyrics. No wonder Black Francis name dropped him. Anyway - an hour on youtube later...
Acoustic version of Why Should the Devil Have All the Good music - a reminder of how funny he was:
And Electric:
And proof that it's not just me - here's Frank Black covering Six Sixty-six:
Acoustic version of Why Should the Devil Have All the Good music - a reminder of how funny he was:
And Electric:
And proof that it's not just me - here's Frank Black covering Six Sixty-six:
Monday, February 25, 2008
Jose Luis Guerin Films
It's taking me forever to write about the Harvard Film Archive's retrospective of films by Jose Luis Guerin - but I'm going to do it, no matter how long it takes. I suppose one of the advantages of writing about films like this, undistributed (mostly), usually only seen in festivals and special showings like this one, is that there is not the sense of timeliness you get with current releases. They'll show here and there, they'll turn up on video formats, and people will be talking about them, here and there, once in a while, for years. They are wonderful films: beautiful, clever, full of ideas and images that stay with you, and tend to get inside your head. You start thinking about other films through them - I do anyway. They create new contexts - for instance - seeing Tren de Sombras, with its reproduced (invented) films puts a twist on not just fake Nietzsche footage, but big budget Hollywood fare. They give me too many things to think about, and I might as well think about it in public.
This post, then, is just an introduction: capsule reviews of the films themselves. Subsequent posts will dive in a bit deeper. Hopefully sooner rather than later, though who knows.
Inisfree - shot in Ireland, on locations John Ford used for the Quiet Man, with extras from the Quiet Man, as well as discussions of the film, reenactments of scenes from the film, and so on. Guerin talked about the myth of the lost paradise, and its application to the Irish in America. But that myth comes up over and over in Guerin’s films, as we shall see. This is a handsome film, consistently interesting in what was on screen, but a bit fragmented and disorganized - it's a very young film, it seems.
Tren de Sombras - recreations of amateur footage from the 20s, at times presented as if real, at others shown explicitly as reproductions. Both are manipulated - the film is distressed, manipulated - slowed down, sped up, reversed, repeated, and so on, sometimes as if it were just the found footage, at other times, explicitly being manipulated for this film. This alternates with footage from the present - shots of the village and castle in Normandy where it was shot, some of them straight documentary, others more ambiguous. Guerin spends a lot of time in the house, shooting the rooms and props - shooting especially at night, the shadows on the wall, which make a visual rhyme to the distressed film: but that’s what a film is, after all - shadows on the wall.
En Construccion - this is the closest to a straight documentary of these films. Film about the destruction of a block of slums in Barcelona, and the erection of a new apartment building in its place. Gentrification, Catalan style! Shot over a year or so (though it took a couple more years of work - Guerin had the luxury of time because he had a student crew to work with - this was their education, three years making this film) - roughly following a group of characters. Juani and Ivan - a pair of lowlifes - he's lazy, does nothing - she's a prostitue, tough and charismatic (and very reminiscent of Vanda Duarte); some of the workers - the man in charge of the bricklaying and his son; another bricklayer and his two Morroccan assistants - one skinny and strong, the other a smart, talkative, communist; an old sailor turned tramp, and a couple of his friends; a couple kids - especially a girl, related to the foreman. Guerin films them as they build the place, start to finish basically, showing them working together, talking together, etc. - and then the place is done, and they are replaced by the finish carpenters putting in fixtures, and real estate agents giving tours, and prospective tenants complaining about the rest of the neighborhood. Though it ends better than that - with a family getting their kid to wave at the old people living across the street. And then we see Juani carrying Ivan down the street as the camera retreats and a crowd follows them - then she puts him down and he picks her up and we cut to credits...
(This film is very similar to Pedro Costa’s Vanda’s Room - story of a slum being razed, shot over a long period of time, etc. - and both of them centered on a dark haired husky voiced drug addicted woman - Juani and Vanda: who not only anchor the film, but were apparently instrumental in getting it made. Vanda’s room was the center of the production as well as the content of the Costa film - and Juani’s room was the center of Guerin’s production, their headquarters, and she was the liaison to the community. Both being made almost simultaneously, as well...)
In the City of Sylvia: 3 days in Strasbourg: a young man, day by day - first he walks around the city with a map, then settles into a café. The next day he comes back, and looks at the people at the café - we look at the people at the café - for a very long time. We watch them, we watch him watching (taking notes, sketching) - then, he sees one particular woman, and sets out to follow her when she leaves. Follows he through the city, at first without her noticing, then with the owman trying to evade him - he finally catches up to her on a tram, and tells her what he is doing. Is she Sylvia? He says he knew her, six years ago. She says no. He keeps trying - she says no. He apologizes and apologizes, and she gets off the tram, no longer angry at him. Later he goes to a bar, tries to talk to one woman, watches people dancing, while a bartender reenacts Manet. The next day, he’s back at the café, then follows another woman to a train station - where he sits all day, looking at people, as we do. And that is all.
Some Photos from the City of Sylvia: Black and white still photos related to the City of Sylvia film. Starts in Strasbourg, telling the same basic story of the fiction film: Guerin (or a narrator) looking for a woman he knew 22 years ago... Going to their old places, looking for her in the streets, riding a bicycle, etc. Starting there, it moves to the broader themes - the woman glimpsed - from Dante and Petrarch to Goethe to Alfred Hitchcock. (Doesn't mention Citizen Kane though that is the basic situation: a woman seen once, the man projecting a whole alternate life on her). Moves to Madrid, Florence, Avignon (where Petrach saw his Laura) - showing the streets again, women, etc. We see hints of the coming film: Manet’s Folies Bergere painting quoted in the fiction film; the graffiti - "Laure, Je T'aime" that occurs throughout the streets of Strasbourg comes from a wall in Florence - "Tiamo Laura" - etc. This is all very much in the vein of Chris Marker: still photos like La Jetee (and shots that are very similar to La Jetee - people on the streets, shots in museums, etc.) - the style of Marker’s essay documentaries, with written titles playing the same role as the voice overs in Marker's films. A travelogue, like Sans Soleil, which itself contains a meditation on Vertigo, among others - as are these two Guerin films. That, I fear, will have to be something I develop later.
And running through all these films is the theme of the lost paradise: the mythical place in Innisfree; the lost time and places in the lost films of Tren de Sombras; the destruction of the old neighborhood in En Construccion (which wasn’t much a paradise - though neither was Ireland, with its wars and unemployment, when you take it as it really was); and the lost women of the two Sylvia films. And that myth, the woman glimpsed who represents another life, suggests another dimension of these myths: the idea of the shadow self - the person you could have been, a life you could have lived. But I will have to come back to that, too.
This post, then, is just an introduction: capsule reviews of the films themselves. Subsequent posts will dive in a bit deeper. Hopefully sooner rather than later, though who knows.
Inisfree - shot in Ireland, on locations John Ford used for the Quiet Man, with extras from the Quiet Man, as well as discussions of the film, reenactments of scenes from the film, and so on. Guerin talked about the myth of the lost paradise, and its application to the Irish in America. But that myth comes up over and over in Guerin’s films, as we shall see. This is a handsome film, consistently interesting in what was on screen, but a bit fragmented and disorganized - it's a very young film, it seems.
Tren de Sombras - recreations of amateur footage from the 20s, at times presented as if real, at others shown explicitly as reproductions. Both are manipulated - the film is distressed, manipulated - slowed down, sped up, reversed, repeated, and so on, sometimes as if it were just the found footage, at other times, explicitly being manipulated for this film. This alternates with footage from the present - shots of the village and castle in Normandy where it was shot, some of them straight documentary, others more ambiguous. Guerin spends a lot of time in the house, shooting the rooms and props - shooting especially at night, the shadows on the wall, which make a visual rhyme to the distressed film: but that’s what a film is, after all - shadows on the wall.
En Construccion - this is the closest to a straight documentary of these films. Film about the destruction of a block of slums in Barcelona, and the erection of a new apartment building in its place. Gentrification, Catalan style! Shot over a year or so (though it took a couple more years of work - Guerin had the luxury of time because he had a student crew to work with - this was their education, three years making this film) - roughly following a group of characters. Juani and Ivan - a pair of lowlifes - he's lazy, does nothing - she's a prostitue, tough and charismatic (and very reminiscent of Vanda Duarte); some of the workers - the man in charge of the bricklaying and his son; another bricklayer and his two Morroccan assistants - one skinny and strong, the other a smart, talkative, communist; an old sailor turned tramp, and a couple of his friends; a couple kids - especially a girl, related to the foreman. Guerin films them as they build the place, start to finish basically, showing them working together, talking together, etc. - and then the place is done, and they are replaced by the finish carpenters putting in fixtures, and real estate agents giving tours, and prospective tenants complaining about the rest of the neighborhood. Though it ends better than that - with a family getting their kid to wave at the old people living across the street. And then we see Juani carrying Ivan down the street as the camera retreats and a crowd follows them - then she puts him down and he picks her up and we cut to credits...
(This film is very similar to Pedro Costa’s Vanda’s Room - story of a slum being razed, shot over a long period of time, etc. - and both of them centered on a dark haired husky voiced drug addicted woman - Juani and Vanda: who not only anchor the film, but were apparently instrumental in getting it made. Vanda’s room was the center of the production as well as the content of the Costa film - and Juani’s room was the center of Guerin’s production, their headquarters, and she was the liaison to the community. Both being made almost simultaneously, as well...)
In the City of Sylvia: 3 days in Strasbourg: a young man, day by day - first he walks around the city with a map, then settles into a café. The next day he comes back, and looks at the people at the café - we look at the people at the café - for a very long time. We watch them, we watch him watching (taking notes, sketching) - then, he sees one particular woman, and sets out to follow her when she leaves. Follows he through the city, at first without her noticing, then with the owman trying to evade him - he finally catches up to her on a tram, and tells her what he is doing. Is she Sylvia? He says he knew her, six years ago. She says no. He keeps trying - she says no. He apologizes and apologizes, and she gets off the tram, no longer angry at him. Later he goes to a bar, tries to talk to one woman, watches people dancing, while a bartender reenacts Manet. The next day, he’s back at the café, then follows another woman to a train station - where he sits all day, looking at people, as we do. And that is all.
Some Photos from the City of Sylvia: Black and white still photos related to the City of Sylvia film. Starts in Strasbourg, telling the same basic story of the fiction film: Guerin (or a narrator) looking for a woman he knew 22 years ago... Going to their old places, looking for her in the streets, riding a bicycle, etc. Starting there, it moves to the broader themes - the woman glimpsed - from Dante and Petrarch to Goethe to Alfred Hitchcock. (Doesn't mention Citizen Kane though that is the basic situation: a woman seen once, the man projecting a whole alternate life on her). Moves to Madrid, Florence, Avignon (where Petrach saw his Laura) - showing the streets again, women, etc. We see hints of the coming film: Manet’s Folies Bergere painting quoted in the fiction film; the graffiti - "Laure, Je T'aime" that occurs throughout the streets of Strasbourg comes from a wall in Florence - "Tiamo Laura" - etc. This is all very much in the vein of Chris Marker: still photos like La Jetee (and shots that are very similar to La Jetee - people on the streets, shots in museums, etc.) - the style of Marker’s essay documentaries, with written titles playing the same role as the voice overs in Marker's films. A travelogue, like Sans Soleil, which itself contains a meditation on Vertigo, among others - as are these two Guerin films. That, I fear, will have to be something I develop later.
And running through all these films is the theme of the lost paradise: the mythical place in Innisfree; the lost time and places in the lost films of Tren de Sombras; the destruction of the old neighborhood in En Construccion (which wasn’t much a paradise - though neither was Ireland, with its wars and unemployment, when you take it as it really was); and the lost women of the two Sylvia films. And that myth, the woman glimpsed who represents another life, suggests another dimension of these myths: the idea of the shadow self - the person you could have been, a life you could have lived. But I will have to come back to that, too.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
There's an Award Show today, isn't there?
If I were going to watch it, this would be the year, I suppose. 2 honest to god outstanding films up for best picture - another very solid achievement in Michael Clayton, and even Juno, whatever its flaws, isn't embarrassing. Which of course means that Atonement will win. Anyway - everyone else will be watching it and writing about it: taking a not quite random sampling - here's The House Next Door's Oscar link page; Edward Copeland and company predict; and if I decide to pay any attention to it, I'm as likely to read Moviezzz' live-blog as to watch it. I have to wrap up - I'm going to see one of the many controversial films not in this year's Oscar race - The Band's Visit starts in 45 minutes: I'd best get going.
And of course the thing itself: the TV page, and the Academy's page.
Anyway, none of this is any fun without predictions and snark, so without further ado, the ones that interest me, at least a little:
Best Picture:
* Atonement - will win, because the worst film with a chance will win, and this has to be the worst of these films, not that I have any intention of testing that theory empirically.
* Juno
* Michael Clayton
* No Country for Old Men - this one could win, and if it does, may portend a laudable shift toward good films being rewarded. But I've thought that before.
* There Will Be Blood - this is what should win; this is a great film - and time may reveal it6 to be even more than that.
Achievement in Directing
* Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men - I think they'll win this one, even if they don't win best picture. Maybe they should, though Anderson and Schnabel more than hold their own.
* Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
* Jason Reitman, Juno
* Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
* George Clooney, Michael Clayton
* Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood - I assume he will win, as he probably should
* Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
* Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
* Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
* Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
* Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men - This is a good guess to win, and certainly deserving.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
* Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
* Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
* Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
* Julie Christie, Away from Her -another good guess, and the best... though this was not a year for the ladies, I'm afraid. The big downside of those 70s channeling genre films...
* Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
* Laura Linney, The Savages
* Ellen Page, Juno
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
* Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There - this is my vote; it's a reasonable guess too, though the talk about it seems to have faded once the film came out.
* Ruby Dee, American Gangster
* Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
* Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
* Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
* Persepolis
* Ratatouille - this will win, which is more than fair; this and Persepolis should replace Juno and Atonement in the best picture race.
* Surf's Up
Original Screenplay
* Diablo Cody, Juno - this is going to win, I imagine
* Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
* Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
* Brad Bird, Ratatouille - this is the one that probably should win
* Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Adapted Screenplay
* Christopher Hampton, Atonement
* Sarah Polley, Away from Her
* Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
* Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men - I don't know if it will win, but it's a fine choice. As are most of the rest - which means Atonement will probably win....
* Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year - Ha ha ha ha ha!
* Beaufort (Israel)
* The Counterfeiters (Austria)
* Katyn (Poland)
* Mongol (Kazakhstan)
* 12 (Russia)
Achievement in cinematography
* “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.) Roger Deakins
* “Atonement” (Focus Features) Seamus McGarvey
* “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski
* “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins
* “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit - another strong slate, but this is probably where I'd vote. It was a good year for the cameramen, and no mistake.
And of course the thing itself: the TV page, and the Academy's page.
Anyway, none of this is any fun without predictions and snark, so without further ado, the ones that interest me, at least a little:
Best Picture:
* Atonement - will win, because the worst film with a chance will win, and this has to be the worst of these films, not that I have any intention of testing that theory empirically.
* Juno
* Michael Clayton
* No Country for Old Men - this one could win, and if it does, may portend a laudable shift toward good films being rewarded. But I've thought that before.
* There Will Be Blood - this is what should win; this is a great film - and time may reveal it6 to be even more than that.
Achievement in Directing
* Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
* Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men - I think they'll win this one, even if they don't win best picture. Maybe they should, though Anderson and Schnabel more than hold their own.
* Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
* Jason Reitman, Juno
* Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
* George Clooney, Michael Clayton
* Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood - I assume he will win, as he probably should
* Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
* Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
* Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
* Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
* Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men - This is a good guess to win, and certainly deserving.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
* Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
* Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
* Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
* Julie Christie, Away from Her -another good guess, and the best... though this was not a year for the ladies, I'm afraid. The big downside of those 70s channeling genre films...
* Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
* Laura Linney, The Savages
* Ellen Page, Juno
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
* Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There - this is my vote; it's a reasonable guess too, though the talk about it seems to have faded once the film came out.
* Ruby Dee, American Gangster
* Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
* Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
* Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
* Persepolis
* Ratatouille - this will win, which is more than fair; this and Persepolis should replace Juno and Atonement in the best picture race.
* Surf's Up
Original Screenplay
* Diablo Cody, Juno - this is going to win, I imagine
* Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
* Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
* Brad Bird, Ratatouille - this is the one that probably should win
* Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Adapted Screenplay
* Christopher Hampton, Atonement
* Sarah Polley, Away from Her
* Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
* Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men - I don't know if it will win, but it's a fine choice. As are most of the rest - which means Atonement will probably win....
* Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year - Ha ha ha ha ha!
* Beaufort (Israel)
* The Counterfeiters (Austria)
* Katyn (Poland)
* Mongol (Kazakhstan)
* 12 (Russia)
Achievement in cinematography
* “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.) Roger Deakins
* “Atonement” (Focus Features) Seamus McGarvey
* “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski
* “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins
* “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit - another strong slate, but this is probably where I'd vote. It was a good year for the cameramen, and no mistake.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Philosophers on Film?
While I continue to procrastinate in writing about last week's Jose Luis Guerin retrospective (I will, I promise) - I see some interesting footage making the rounds (though it seems to have been around a while), purporting to be of Frederich Nietzsche, on his sickbed. It's not, of course - as Brian Leiter notes - it's digitally altered photos. It's pretty easy to spot - the pictures are famous; the animation isn't all that good (the morphing is obvious in most of the shots) - and the cinematography itself is quite impossible in 1899 - camera movement, zooms - no, no, no. On the other hand, there is this footage - which is a good deal more believable. For one thing, Nietzsche (or the actor playing him, if this is staged - which is always a possibility) moves - really and actually. The film itself looks about right: the camera is stable, the shots relatively brief; and it looks beat up in a convincing way. Splotchy, scraped up, with flashes of white - even on YouTube's crappy video, you can get an idea of what the actual damage looks like - even if it's not authentic, it's been accurately damaged.
That may prove relevant to some Guerin films...
That may prove relevant to some Guerin films...
Friday, February 15, 2008
Friday Guitar Gods
As it happens, two different blogs I read posted mp3's of guitar playing magnificence this week - Girish offers Robben Ford on a Joni Mitchell song, and Bill Frisell backing up the Ambitious Lovers (Arto Lindsey's post DNA group); and Neddie Jingo posts songs and videos featuring Django Reinhardt. Much inspiration and happiness to be found there....
Now I'm not going to try to match that... instead, inspired mostly by Girish's title (Short Sharp Solos), and the fact that the record his post called to mind - the upcoming collaboration between Bill Frisell and Earth, is very unlikely to feature much in the way of short anything - here is a list, not scientific by any means, of songs with short sharp solos - guitar solos (or parts) that don't last long, but that feel (to me anyway) Epic. These songs have short, or just normal solos, but they feel like friggin' Dazed and Confused. (In fact, I'm tempted to include Dazed and Confused, the original version - which though the solo isn't particularly short is quite sharp - it's dense and compact and thrilling, an effect lost when Jimmy and co. started stretching out toward the half hour mark... [though to be honest, other than the violin bow crap, D&C never bothered me much - even the long versions are structured more like medleys, with the segments fairly well constructed, each part a separate solo, which mostly work... it's the "boogies" - their live versions of Whole Lotta Love, crap like that, that makes me want to burn my zep records....]) That digression lasted longer than it should have: much like Dazed and Confused! Anyway - here is a list - 10 short (rock) solos that feel like epics:
1. The Byrd's Clarence White on the version of So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star from Live at the Fillmore - actually, while everything White plays is great, it's that one note he plays at the 1:35 point that does it... you could put that 2-3 seconds on permanent loop, and I would be happy...
2. Eddie Phillips' on Makin' Time (Creation) - speaking of dazed and confused... bringing out the violin bow, and putting it to far better use than Jimmy Page did. It's a cool song, but the solo jumps out of it...
3. Johnny Ramone's bit of Black Sabbath riffing on Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue...
4. Almost everything Bob Mould or D Boon ever played would count: both of them could fit more into their 12-15 second solos than most guitar players get in a minute. If I were choosing one example each - I'd point to the version of Hanging On on the live Husker Du record (The Living End)...
5. ...and Sell of Be Sold on the Minutemen's What Makes a Man Start Fires? - it's a simple bit, but perfectly cool, and, like everything they played, built out of the band dynamic, the interplay of bass and guitar, the rhythm.... who was better in the 80s?
6. Jim Jones of Pere Ubu on Memphis, from Raygun Suitcase: it's nothing fancy, just a snarly little riff, but it slices into the song....
7. Tom Morello on Shadow on the Sun (the first Audioslave record) - I almost feel guilty putting an acknowledged guitar god on here (not that Boon or Mould or White [as under-appreciated as they come] aren't guitar gods) - but this solo, some helicopter noises, then 8-10 seconds of soaring sounds - is too good not to mention. Those two audioslave records are mostly disposable, except for Morello's parts - probably RATM for that matter too...
8. Paul McCartney's solos on Tax Man - and Tomorrow Never Knows...
9. Wire's Sand in My Joints - some of my old AOL cronies used to cite this as the greatest anti-guitar solo ever - I can't deny it... and it fits perfectly here....
10. and finally - there are a few notes at the end of the Replacement's Within Your Reach, a little pattern Paul Westerberg (I assume - I think that's all him) plays as it fades... that are perfect. All you need right there. Just enough.
Video - not much way to beat the Reinhardt video and links Neddie Jingo has, but I'll put up something - maybe a fine performance by one of the masters of understatement - Luther Perkins!
Now I'm not going to try to match that... instead, inspired mostly by Girish's title (Short Sharp Solos), and the fact that the record his post called to mind - the upcoming collaboration between Bill Frisell and Earth, is very unlikely to feature much in the way of short anything - here is a list, not scientific by any means, of songs with short sharp solos - guitar solos (or parts) that don't last long, but that feel (to me anyway) Epic. These songs have short, or just normal solos, but they feel like friggin' Dazed and Confused. (In fact, I'm tempted to include Dazed and Confused, the original version - which though the solo isn't particularly short is quite sharp - it's dense and compact and thrilling, an effect lost when Jimmy and co. started stretching out toward the half hour mark... [though to be honest, other than the violin bow crap, D&C never bothered me much - even the long versions are structured more like medleys, with the segments fairly well constructed, each part a separate solo, which mostly work... it's the "boogies" - their live versions of Whole Lotta Love, crap like that, that makes me want to burn my zep records....]) That digression lasted longer than it should have: much like Dazed and Confused! Anyway - here is a list - 10 short (rock) solos that feel like epics:
1. The Byrd's Clarence White on the version of So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star from Live at the Fillmore - actually, while everything White plays is great, it's that one note he plays at the 1:35 point that does it... you could put that 2-3 seconds on permanent loop, and I would be happy...
2. Eddie Phillips' on Makin' Time (Creation) - speaking of dazed and confused... bringing out the violin bow, and putting it to far better use than Jimmy Page did. It's a cool song, but the solo jumps out of it...
3. Johnny Ramone's bit of Black Sabbath riffing on Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue...
4. Almost everything Bob Mould or D Boon ever played would count: both of them could fit more into their 12-15 second solos than most guitar players get in a minute. If I were choosing one example each - I'd point to the version of Hanging On on the live Husker Du record (The Living End)...
5. ...and Sell of Be Sold on the Minutemen's What Makes a Man Start Fires? - it's a simple bit, but perfectly cool, and, like everything they played, built out of the band dynamic, the interplay of bass and guitar, the rhythm.... who was better in the 80s?
6. Jim Jones of Pere Ubu on Memphis, from Raygun Suitcase: it's nothing fancy, just a snarly little riff, but it slices into the song....
7. Tom Morello on Shadow on the Sun (the first Audioslave record) - I almost feel guilty putting an acknowledged guitar god on here (not that Boon or Mould or White [as under-appreciated as they come] aren't guitar gods) - but this solo, some helicopter noises, then 8-10 seconds of soaring sounds - is too good not to mention. Those two audioslave records are mostly disposable, except for Morello's parts - probably RATM for that matter too...
8. Paul McCartney's solos on Tax Man - and Tomorrow Never Knows...
9. Wire's Sand in My Joints - some of my old AOL cronies used to cite this as the greatest anti-guitar solo ever - I can't deny it... and it fits perfectly here....
10. and finally - there are a few notes at the end of the Replacement's Within Your Reach, a little pattern Paul Westerberg (I assume - I think that's all him) plays as it fades... that are perfect. All you need right there. Just enough.
Video - not much way to beat the Reinhardt video and links Neddie Jingo has, but I'll put up something - maybe a fine performance by one of the masters of understatement - Luther Perkins!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Kon Ichikawa
I was sad to read today about the death of Kon Ichikawa, director of films like Harp of Burma and Fires on the Plain, Tokyo Olympiad, The Key, An Actor's Revenge, etc. - while he wasn't exactly neglected in this country, he has never been counted in the upper echelon of Japanese directors (not that being in the upper echelon ensures having their films available: Naruse is usually rated among the best, but very few of his films are circulating in the US in any form). And while he may not be quite the equal of the best - Ozu and Mizoguchi, Naruse and Imamura, Kurosawa - he's not far off. And that is very heady company.
It's depressing to see this is my first post in a week. I wish I had more to offer just now... I should have more to offer in the next few days. One thing keeping me off line was a Jose Luis Guerin retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive - that was very inspiring. I hope to get back to thinking about it, and write something up. And Ichikawa deserves some attention. So I can hope to have some content in the next couple days...
It's depressing to see this is my first post in a week. I wish I had more to offer just now... I should have more to offer in the next few days. One thing keeping me off line was a Jose Luis Guerin retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive - that was very inspiring. I hope to get back to thinking about it, and write something up. And Ichikawa deserves some attention. So I can hope to have some content in the next couple days...
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Super Tuesday
Politics? don't have much to say. Did my bit for democracy - always a neat experience. The ordinariness of it makes me very happy... I suppose it's not always so simple and low tech (the paper voter rolls, the paper ballots and felt tip pens, the nice retirees running the affair), though it seems hard to beat the low tech version.... I haven't said much about politics - Massachusetts is not the most interesting place to have a vote most of the time - we're pretty predictable.... this year - it's an interesting primary race: I won't mourn either of the big dems winning, though I suppose, given a choice, I'd rather not see Hillary Clinton nominated. Since I did have a choice, I chose. If Edwards had still been around, it might have been a tougher choice - as it is, I took Obama.
I don't think I will do much more political writing this year. It's hard to talk politics: there's not much that can actually get done until Bush is out of office; every other issue pales next to the simple necessity of getting a Democratic president and as many democrats in congress as is humanly possible. The republican party does not deserve to hold any power at all: they have blown it, doing this country terrible damage... Someday, hopefully, we can get around to pushing for important useful things - some kind of decent health care system, more sensible tax and spend policies (instead of sending out rebates as a stimulus, why not try to create some jobs? fix a bridge, whatever...). Get the hell out of Iraq, and try to undo the damage that's caused... But first things first.
And - since god knows how much I'll post in the next day or so - non-politics: Burt Reynolds gets his due at Welcome to LA. And Edward Copeland's Best Best Actor poll is up - all sliced and diced...
I don't think I will do much more political writing this year. It's hard to talk politics: there's not much that can actually get done until Bush is out of office; every other issue pales next to the simple necessity of getting a Democratic president and as many democrats in congress as is humanly possible. The republican party does not deserve to hold any power at all: they have blown it, doing this country terrible damage... Someday, hopefully, we can get around to pushing for important useful things - some kind of decent health care system, more sensible tax and spend policies (instead of sending out rebates as a stimulus, why not try to create some jobs? fix a bridge, whatever...). Get the hell out of Iraq, and try to undo the damage that's caused... But first things first.
And - since god knows how much I'll post in the next day or so - non-politics: Burt Reynolds gets his due at Welcome to LA. And Edward Copeland's Best Best Actor poll is up - all sliced and diced...
Monday, February 04, 2008
Oops!
Well, I guess I'll post about the Super Bowl - probably my first, and hopefully my last, football post at this blog. I suppose it's a sad day, the local 11 going down to defeat - worse, failing to complete a perfect season. That's more disappointing than the locals losing - perfection is worth chasing. For someone to make it - would be impressive. A lot more impressive and admirable than another boring upset. On the other hand - that was a pretty lame outing from the Pats, so they hardly deserved to win - though they did have the game pretty much won. Make that one sack, and it's 19-0 and Don Shula can shut up already. But that play - the catch Tyree made on that play - that was a thing of beauty. You make plays like that, you deserve to win. If the Pats weren't going for perfection, I'd have been pulling for the Giants after that catch. Especially if your opponent can't make a sack when they have the guy in hand, twice....
Anyway - the bigger point is that thank god the football crap is done! now we can get back to the important sports news - Celtics! Red Sox! Pitchers and catchers, pitchers and catchers, soon, soon...
On another note - Bobby Knight resigned. Good riddance - about 20 years too late, probably. He's a strange figure - in a lot of ways - his commitment to graduating players, notably - he was a very admirable figure. And he was obviously a hell of a coach. But he was also a dick,a nd got worse and worse as the years passed, to the point where his presence spoiled the game. Years I paid no attention whatsoever to college basketball, I would make a point of cheering against Bobby Knight's teams. I certainly won't miss him...
Finally - one good thing about the Patriot's losing is that congress is not likely to try to investigate "spygate". Leaving them more time to deal with the important problems facing the country - like Roger Clemens' steroid regimen! whoo hoo! good lord, we are run by imbeciles.
Anyway - the bigger point is that thank god the football crap is done! now we can get back to the important sports news - Celtics! Red Sox! Pitchers and catchers, pitchers and catchers, soon, soon...
On another note - Bobby Knight resigned. Good riddance - about 20 years too late, probably. He's a strange figure - in a lot of ways - his commitment to graduating players, notably - he was a very admirable figure. And he was obviously a hell of a coach. But he was also a dick,a nd got worse and worse as the years passed, to the point where his presence spoiled the game. Years I paid no attention whatsoever to college basketball, I would make a point of cheering against Bobby Knight's teams. I certainly won't miss him...
Finally - one good thing about the Patriot's losing is that congress is not likely to try to investigate "spygate". Leaving them more time to deal with the important problems facing the country - like Roger Clemens' steroid regimen! whoo hoo! good lord, we are run by imbeciles.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Friday Music Notes
Been a while since I've pulled out this trick... the Friday Random Ten! But that alone is excuse enough.
1. Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
2. Kings of Leon - Genius
3. Beatles - Polythene Pam
4. Mars Volta - A. Part I
5. Johnny Cash - Long Black Veil
6. Ramones - Cretin Hop
7. Dinosaur Jr. - Cats in a Bowl
8. Replacements - Mr. Whirly
9. Merle Haggard - Mama Tried
10. fIREHOSE - Too Long
Meanwhile, on the broader music front - I did indeed attend the second concert in three months, seeing 6 Organs of Admittance, along with Thalia Zadek and Mick Turner. An enjoyable evening. Zadek was good - I've seen her a few times through the years, with Live Skull back in the day, with Come - this time, she had a piano player and violinist along, which gave her act a decided Nick Cave flavor - not a bad thing... Mick Turner played an improvised set, playing along with a slide show of paintings and landscape movies shot from the windows of buses and off the decks of boats: playing little guitar figures over loops and such... he's good at it, though it seemed to me to fall between the audio-visual poles... the projections were blank and repetitive, there, it seemed, to give the musicians something to play against - except the music felt like it was there to support the visuals... both sound and vision seemed to be pointing to the other, with neither quite clicking.... Though it was well done....
And Six organs of Admittance: Ben Chasny played a handful of songs alone, acoustic, then brought Elisa Ambrogio out to abuse an electric guitar. She can make a dreadful noise, no doubt - I don't know if she can actually play a lick on the guitar, but she knows how to get a racket out of it. Chasny stuck to singing and playing fairly straight, leaving the noise to her... in some ways, they're a bit less interesting than they are on record - Ambrogio's brand of guitar wanking is a bit flatter and less interesting than what gets put on his records, and the songs definitely miss the arrangements - the acoustic raga sounds, the percussion, with the occasional electric wigout... But I must also say - I like bands that reinvent themselves, and Chasny's performances seem to reinvent his material constantly... playing 1000 Birds, say, as an almost straight garage rocker.... it's good: they were quite enjoyable.
Anyway - here's Chasny droning out - we didn't get much of this: he left the noise to Ambrogio...
And the two of them, doing 1000 Birds (in a completely different style to how they did it in Boston) - you can't see much, but it sounds good:
1. Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
2. Kings of Leon - Genius
3. Beatles - Polythene Pam
4. Mars Volta - A. Part I
5. Johnny Cash - Long Black Veil
6. Ramones - Cretin Hop
7. Dinosaur Jr. - Cats in a Bowl
8. Replacements - Mr. Whirly
9. Merle Haggard - Mama Tried
10. fIREHOSE - Too Long
Meanwhile, on the broader music front - I did indeed attend the second concert in three months, seeing 6 Organs of Admittance, along with Thalia Zadek and Mick Turner. An enjoyable evening. Zadek was good - I've seen her a few times through the years, with Live Skull back in the day, with Come - this time, she had a piano player and violinist along, which gave her act a decided Nick Cave flavor - not a bad thing... Mick Turner played an improvised set, playing along with a slide show of paintings and landscape movies shot from the windows of buses and off the decks of boats: playing little guitar figures over loops and such... he's good at it, though it seemed to me to fall between the audio-visual poles... the projections were blank and repetitive, there, it seemed, to give the musicians something to play against - except the music felt like it was there to support the visuals... both sound and vision seemed to be pointing to the other, with neither quite clicking.... Though it was well done....
And Six organs of Admittance: Ben Chasny played a handful of songs alone, acoustic, then brought Elisa Ambrogio out to abuse an electric guitar. She can make a dreadful noise, no doubt - I don't know if she can actually play a lick on the guitar, but she knows how to get a racket out of it. Chasny stuck to singing and playing fairly straight, leaving the noise to her... in some ways, they're a bit less interesting than they are on record - Ambrogio's brand of guitar wanking is a bit flatter and less interesting than what gets put on his records, and the songs definitely miss the arrangements - the acoustic raga sounds, the percussion, with the occasional electric wigout... But I must also say - I like bands that reinvent themselves, and Chasny's performances seem to reinvent his material constantly... playing 1000 Birds, say, as an almost straight garage rocker.... it's good: they were quite enjoyable.
Anyway - here's Chasny droning out - we didn't get much of this: he left the noise to Ambrogio...
And the two of them, doing 1000 Birds (in a completely different style to how they did it in Boston) - you can't see much, but it sounds good:
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