2011: The Year That Music Got Better (Pt.3)

2011 was a strange year to say the least! For one thing - I actually agreed with The Grammys! Bon Iver as best new artist (even though he's not a new artist) and Adele took home six awards. I am not going to bother posting Adele in my best of 2011 because as you already know she's like BUTTA. And if you haven't heard Bon Iver PLEASE check him out. Okay so next, here are some Aaron pics you might have missed out on.

Old 97's: The Grand Theatre Vol. 2 These Texas boys have been going strong since the mid nineties and they haven't missed a beat.  Their blend of country-twang-rock-punk makes you want to dance and smash things and then kiss your girlfriend. Or if you're a girl, you probably want to go home with the lead singer. Lead singer/songwriter Rhett Miller also has an impressive solo catalog, he really can do no wrong musically. And when I say country twang I am referring to Johnny Cash not Toby Keith. I would say I'm surprised that Old 97's aren't huge by now but I'm not. They almost might be too good to be famous.

Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee pt. 2  One of the year's best treats - The Beastie Boys came out with a new album! Beastie MCA(Adam Yauch )survived a battle with cancer, they are in their fourties, and what do they give us? A party CD. The Hot SauceCommittee pt. 2 is the most fun you will have with your speakers. Who else could provide lyrics such as; "Don't tell me nothin, don't tell me nada. Don't stop me now because I'm doing the lambada"? They could have gotten introspective, they could have gottten cynical, but it seems as though they just wanted to keep the party going. Though their medium is Hip Hop we get a grab bag of sounds and influences here.

Bright Eyes: The People's Key Conor Oberst started recording music at age fourteen with his father's four track recorder. He has been playing his guitar and singing live since thirteen. This guy is not one of those child prodigies that wails on the guitar with crazy squealing leads and wants to impress his audience, but rather, holds onto his acoustic guitar like a life raft and writes songs as if you are reading his diary. At 31 he recorded The People's Key with his band Bright Eyes (their ninth studio release). This album is incredible because Conor Oberst bridges the gap between deep music and something you actually want to keep on your play list. You don't have to listen to the lyrics but you're missing out if you don't.

 
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi: Rome Sometimes I have a hard time with mellow albums because it's challenging to find a chill cd that isn't depressing. I want to light incense and relax but I don't want to think about my ex or take emotional stock of my life. I don't want to meditate and go to Fern Gully either - I just want to chill. Rome was my go-to chill album of the year. Danger Mouse has established himself as one of the best producers of our time and he teamed up with Daniele Luppi, an Italian film composer. Together they came up with a fictional movie soundtrack that throws in songs with Norah Jones and Jack White(from The White Stripes) on vocals - it's freakin cool!

2011: The Year That Music Got Better! (Pt. 1)

In my opinion music has been suffering a slow death ever since Kurt Cobain shot himself and Axl Rose lost his band (you know the real Guns 'N Roses). The mid nineties showed a shift in the musical terrain and that shift was a downward spiral (not to be confused with the Nine Inch Nails album of the same title). Since that time I have been searching every year for something new and inspiring, something to give me hope, something that is not like reading an AARP magazine while waiting for a dentist appointment. And then, the unthinkable happened. As I went through 2011 gathering new music, I discovered more than a handful of new bands that didn't suck. In fact, they were really good! Veteran artists were releasing equally good work, music with a modern edge, while staying true to old school roots. Oddly enough most of the new bands sound like they could have just as easily come out during the mid-eighties to early nineties. As Tricky said - "Brand New You're Retro".  So here is my first blog in a series of 2011 "best of" picks(Not listed in order of importance). I welcome all of your feedback and recommendations, as I'm sure I have missed some good gems. Also make sure and click on "join this site" to the right if you like!

TOM WAITS - BAD AS ME : This album is as vintage and cool as anything Mr. Waits has done. Waits always delivers more than a collection of music. We get a guided tour of a moonlit underworld full of vagrants and misfits, drunk polkas, sinister blues, and alley cat rock 'n roll - all drug up from the bottom of a Louisiana swamp and bottled with moonshine. Songs howled, not sung. And music that is beat out of the instruments rather than played. Then, in an effortless shift in tone, Waits shows us his soft side - looking back at the hell raising all nighters with sadder and wiser eyes. This is Waits' best selling album to date, and that is no small piece of business considering his following goes back as far as 1973. However, I don't think it has taken that long for Waits to mature as a songwriter. Maybe it has taken the rest of the record buying public this long to catch up.

SOPHIE HUNGER - SOPHIE HUNGER: If I had a musical crush this year it was Sophie Hunger.  On her self titled album, Hunger is credited for songwriter, guitars, vocals, piano, and harmonica. She sings in three different languages (English, Swiss, and German), and pulls influences from Folk, Jazz, Blues, and Dance.  The overall sound can best best be described as Sinead O'Connor circa '89-'91 but with the abstract experimentation and frayed emotion of P.J. Harvey. To add a cherry to this delightful Sundae, Hunger even quotes Bob Dylan in her acoustic song "Sophie Hunger's Blues". This album was the twenty-eight year old's first North American release and went fairly unnoticed, but I am predicting that will change. In the liner notes Sophie has scrawled the following words in childlike penmanship: "Hello America, can you hear me?" We are listening Sophie!

WILCO - THE WHOLE LOVE: Wilco's founder and singer/ songwriter Jeff Tweedy has gone through many changes since the band's first 1995 release "A.M." Most of the band's lineup has been replaced and their sound has gone from roots rock, alt country, indie folk, to art rock( Pitchfork magazine described their late nineties sound as "The Beach Boys soaked in bong water"). With all of the changes and experimentation, Tweedy has arrived with Wilco's strongest line up and perhaps the album that can finally eclipse 2002's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (The band's most successful and widely accepted release ). What's great about The Whole Love is it's complete accessibility.  This isn't  just a record for die hard fans like Sky Blue Sky or Wilco(The Album), this an album for anyone who likes great music. So if you haven't heard Wilco, this is an excellent place to start.

LADY GA GA - BORN THIS WAY:   Okay, I too went goo goo for Ga Ga. Maybe it's because pop music hasn't had a strong female leading the pack of hot divas since Madonna. Maybe it's because I am happy to see a young female with talent sending positive messages of empowerment. Or maybe I'm just relieved to see a pop star that wasn't discovered on American Idol. Sure there have been many deserving divas who have burned up with stage with hot dance moves and belted out some scorching vocals. But there's something wonderful about a girl who started in New York  not too long ago playing her keyboard at open mic night. Much like Madonna who started as a drummer and went around New york with a demo tape in her back pocket.  This success story wouldn't mean as much, however, if there wasn't true talent behind it. And there is plenty of talent here. Hopefully Born This Way is just a preview of what's to come.

See you on Pt. 2! Thanks for reading!

















 

You Kill Me (The Art of a Dark Comedy)

 What exactly defines a dark comedy? To let us laugh at otherwise overtly unfunny subject matter. A dark comedy is also made with a certain audience in mind, while your blockbuster comedy is made for a mass audience, so for the longest time dark comedy was something associated only with independent films. Those big studio heads began to take notice, however, when smaller films such as "Pulp Fiction" and "American Beauty"  took home big bucks and big Oscars. They were movies about dark things we shouldn't be talking about much less laughing at and they were crossing over into the mainstream.
2007's  "You Kill Me" is one of those rare gems that successfully combines both the independent dark comedy with the mainstream feel good comedy we all love to love. The film follows Frank Falencysk (Ben Kingsley), a hitman for a Polish mob in New York.  Frank takes pride in his work but something has interfered with his professionalism lately- he is an alcoholic. His mob boss pulls an intervention and sends Frank to San Francisco, where he is to get a normal job and dry out. Frank starts a job at a mortuary and begins attending AA. He wants nothing more than to return to work and to the professional he used to be, but in order to do this he must get sober.
Kingsley plays this role with a touching sincerity that makes you forget he is a man who kills people for a living. We are really rooting for this guy. He is suddenly in strange surroundings, faced with new horrors. The new enemy is not the rival mob in New York, but the temptation to drink that lurks around every dark corner. Enter Frank's new found love interest, Laurel (Tea Leoni), whom he meets at the mortuary when she checks on the body of her dead step father. Tea Leoni is such a gift to modern comedy, if you haven't seen her in "Spanglish" or "Fun With Dick and Jane", I highly suggest checking out both movies just to watch her act. She belongs in a Hitchcock movie with her dry wit and bizarre comic timing (Hitchcock loved those sassy blondes).  The following dialogue occurs on their first date.  FRANK: "I need to tell you something. . ." LAUREL:"Your gay."  FRANK: "I'm in AA"  LAUREL:" Well...okay. As long as your not gay. If I had to deal with dead bodies all day, I'd be drinking too."  FRANK: "Ooooh I'm okay with the dead bodies."
 The film is packed with these kind of scenes, and nothing is overdone. The dialogue is subtle and you actually have to catch the jokes, as they aren't screamed and accentuated by loud music or flying DNA ( such as the "hair gel" in Something About Mary - and yes that was funny), 
Frank also finds a new friend in his AA sponsor Tom played by Luke Wilson. Luke Wilson is pitch perfect with his sad, thoughtful eyes, lending support to Frank as he wanders through this new world of sobriety. In a touching scene early in the film Tom says: "Give it up because you want to. . .the first year it's all about trying, if you think it's about solving your problem, you'll fail. . .a lot." FRANK: "I'm already pretty good at that."
TOM: "You wouldn't be giving up anything you need."
And this is another example of what makes this dark comedy work so well. Humanity. The laughs come from characters we believe in so when it's time to feel sympathy for Frank he already has us. So often dark comedies are dark and shocking without the other elements necessary to carry an entire film. . 
You Kill Me is unique in that it is a film I would recommend to most anyone. The subject matter is dark but hilarious, the plot never takes the easy way out, and the characters are completely original. Film snobs and mass audiences can all find something here.  Martin Scorsese once said that "every time a movie actually gets made it's a miracle." The greater challenge in life always lies in keeping our sense of humor when we find ourselves in dark places. In this sense, a great dark comedy is a miracle. If it scares us a little to be laughing at such strange subject matter, all the better. The dark can be scary, but it can also be hilarious if you spend enough time there.

Life VS. Movies Pt. 1 (These Things Really Happen)

"Why do you always quote movies?" Someone asked me once.
I thought about this and realized that I do indeed have a movie quote for every situation in life. Is there something wrong with me and my perception of reality? Or haven't we all related just a little too much to our favorite films? Don't we all have a scene from a certain movie that makes us say:
"Oh totally. That's my life."?
Has my movie watching  gone beyond casual enjoyment and now become a conglomeration of scenes that make up my life's screenplay? Yes. Most definitely. Is that a bad thing?  Am I like Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy, a character who lives in T.V. land and therefore has become a complete sociopath?
Or maybe I am like Tom Hanks in Castaway, stranded on my own desert island with movies as my only companion instead of a volley ball named Wilson. I know there are others who were traumatized when Hanks made his last escape on that man made raft and lost Wilson in the ocean. Who wasn't heartbroken as Hanks flapped his arms uselessly, screaming, choked and waterlogged: "Wiiiiillllson! No! Wiiiiiilllson!" Oh yeah, I've been there.
It could be something as mundane as trying to get to work on time and the world is so stacked against me I feel like Indiana Jones in that opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana has just grabbed the small golden statue and consequently set off a trap. He runs with a boulder fastly approaching behind and a stone door closing in front. After narrowly escaping under the stone door, and of course grabbing his lucky hat, he is greeted by a villain who smugly takes the statue from him.
CUT TO:
Fifteen minutes to get across town. After beating the traffic jam on the road that never has traffic except this certain day, a construction site seems to instantly have sprouted up in front of me. A construction site where men are simply standing around and moving cones.  Noticing the gas is on empty I realize I have forgotten to shave and that my name tag is on the sink next to the unused razor. My cell is dead so I can't call my manager to tell him I'm going to be late. 
CUT TO:
Rushing in to work, hoping to sneak in undetected. Yes! I discover my name tag is in my pocket. Like Indiana Jones grabbing his lucky hat, I put it on and clock in. Five minutes late, but undetected, I take a breath to compose myself. But there to greet me is the only manager who cares about punctuality, conveniently called in on his day off to do inventory. The words "late" and "write-up" are said.  I want to explain but how could I explain narrowly escaping a rushing boulder, poison darts, deadly pitfalls, and a slamming stone door? So I take the write-up.
Writer/director P.T. Anderson explained the relationship between life and movies pretty well in a scene from his masterpiece opus Magnolia. The genius actor Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers the following lines:
"I know this all seems silly. I know that maybe I sound ridiculous, like maybe this is the scene from the movie where the guy is trying to get a hold of his long lost son, but this is that scene. You know? I think they have those scenes in movies because they are true, because they really happen."
I couldn't have said it better myself Mr. Anderson. A movie begins as a screenplay, a screenwriter slaving away at their laptop, trying to put into words their inner most feelings, hoping that somewhere, someone will "get it". So the next time you watch a movie as ridiculous as Top Gun and find yourself feeling embarrassed because you know every line, remember you are in good company. "You can be my wing man anytime".