Patrick Daughters is coming up and coming up fast. He's cut his teeth on some amazing videos (namely Feist's "Mushaboom" and her latest, "1234") so how long is it until he's directing Michel Gondry-like feature-length mindfucks? We actually hope he dazzles us with a few more videos before he takes the leap (though he's already done almost all of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs videos and clips for the Shins, Bright Eyes and Beck)
Daughters is also the newest member of the prestigious filmmaker's brat-pack the Directors Bureau, whose membership includes founder Roman Coppola, sister Sofia , and Shynola (Radiohead and QOTSA vids) to name a few (a former early member is Mike Mills).
The video is shot all in one take -- all-in-one-shot a la some of the lengthy scenes in "Children of Men" is the new MTV-like, cut, cut, cut.
Feist "1234" (Directed by Patrick Daughters)
*Update: Feist's "My Moon, My Man video (also directed by Daughters) is online.
Check the Feist piece in the New York Times Arts section.
PS. I will kiss the person who can help me figure out how to do the "after the jump," expand and close style format of blogs. This page's info doesn't seem to work (my template has no "style" tags, huh?. Email if you have any tips, please.
4/13/2007
Patrick Daughters Is The New Michel Gondry
Tiesto Admits: "I Have No Talent; Helen Keller Can Play Piano Better Than I Can"
How is this tied into soundtrack or movie music? It's a video about a guy who makes music and is funny as balls. Close enough.
4/12/2007
One Marijuana Joint and Your Life Is Fucked: You Will Miss Roky Erickson
The Rock Snob Dictionary defines Outsider music as a "Broad term for any music played or recorded by nonprofessional musicians or, in some cases, by professional musicians who ought to consider another line of work... Outsider music’s Dr. Demento–ish doyen, Irwin Chusid, hosts a weekly radio program, entitled Incorrect Music, that straddles a difficult line between affection and amused contempt for its showcased performers, not a few of whom are mentally ill."
Analogous to Syd Barrett, fascinatingly ill drug-casualty, Roky Erickson's story is pretty fucking tragic and unfair and one can argue that he falls into the apologist "Outsider Music" ghetto. Whatever your thoughts are, the new documentary, "You're Gonna Miss Me," by first-time director Keven McAlester tries to capture his sad and unfortunate tale.
Roky's story kinda goes like this: His band the 13th Floor Elevators pretty much invented the term "psychedelic rock" with their howling, banshee Nuggets rock. Best known to lowest-common denominator peeps as the band that had a song played in music nerd-porn film, "High Fidelity."
That track, "You're Gonna Miss Me," was originally written with his first band the Spades. Then he joined the Elevators and their re-cut version of said song was a minor hit in 1966. Then he began to ingest boatloads of LSD and smack and this is where it gets bad (surprise, surprise). The police, who weren't particularly big fans of the drug-championing Elevators, arrested Erickson for possession for one measly joint. To avoid jail time Erickson unwisely pleaded mental insanity and basically fucked himself for life.
At first he's put in a minimum security joint and after several failed escape attempts he was transferred to a jail for the "criminally insane." For 3 and 1/2 years the singer was subjected to electro-shock therapy, various drug tests and by the time he was released in 1973 he was a french fried version of his former self.
He attempted to release albums with his new band the Aliens throughout the '70s and '80s, but none of them could match his early success and they were doomed for obscurity (it didn't help that Erickson got screwed with publishing contracts and basically never made a cent throughout most of his life). In the '90s he was dead broke and was reinstitutionalized, became a cause celebre for snob bands like the Butthole Surfers and R.E.M., they recorded covers in hopes of bringing him to a wider audience – they fail.
Custody battles for Erickson's sanity ensue and now his mother apparently has him under lock and key and refuses him any treatment outside of good ol' timey religion and prayer.
Erickson becomes the puppet of a surreal family power struggle and it all sounds pretty depressing, fascinating and unfunny. Apparently, the 53-year-old now has 3 teeth, one matted dreadlock (hot!) and a notarized document on his wall declaring himself an alien, "so whoever's putting shocks to my head will stop." Good times.
"You're Gonna Miss Me" opens in limited release on June 8 and Palm Pictures is putting on out DVD July 10.
Much like Daniel Johnston, a sideshow, exploitative trainwreck aspect tends to surround figures like him. There's a cult of fans that just gleefully squeal in delight at retarded "outsider" music and it kind of rubs me wrong. Whatever, I'm sure the filmmakers intentions are angelic; I wanna see it.
Erickson's only performed a scant few times in the last decade and Gothamites should know he's playing his first-ever New York shows this weekend:
April 13
April 15
(they are naturally sold out)
"You're Gonna Miss Me" Trailer:
Roky Erickson performing "Two Headed Dog and Starry Eyes" in 1992.
A more lucid Erickson in 1983.
Kurt Vonnegut: 1922 - 2007
Cultural satirist and novelist Kurt Vonnegut died today. He was 84. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries from a fall in his Manhattan apartment a few weeks ago and he had been hospitalized ever since. He meant everything to many, many people.
Vonnegut wrote more than a few cannon-worthy books, including "Breakfast of Champions" and "Slaughterhouse-Five;" he also ruled enough to disown his daughter after she married television hack Geraldo Riveria. He was bad-ass in every sense.
Not many of his film adaptations were good. "Slaughterhouse" was solid, but Bruce Willis nearly brought the author to an early death with his turn as Dwayne Hoover in the incomparably bad "Breakfast of Champions." As one colleague reminds us, he did make a cameo appearance as himself in Rodney Dangerfield's "Back To School."
No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC
Download: Dennis Wilson "Farewell My Friend" (mp3)
Download: Quickspace "Goodbye Precious Mountain" (mp3)
Download: Elvis Costello & The Attractions "Man Out Of Time" (via Idolator) (mp3)
More: Vonnegut Wiki quotes.
Friends and Neighbours: Joseph Heller (Catch 22) interviews Vonnegut.
4/11/2007
A Well-Respected Man: Scott Walker 30 Century Man
Where does one start with enigmatic crooner Scott Walker? His impressive career is incredibly difficult to summarize in a simple blogpost, but here's a basic overview.
The handsome baritone balladeer started his career in a Righteous Brothers-esque trio called the Walker Brothers (none of them brothers, natch) that briefly threatened the Beatles in popularity and at the height of their British Invasion-era fame, he quit and started an esoteric solo career that made him a deeply-respected cult figure, but unknown to the populace at large. Walker melded Sinatra, Spaghetti-Westerns, grand Phil-Spector-esque orchestral production into something romantically dark and deeply rich and unique (Walker's music became more challenging as time progressed; venturing into the abstract and sometimes bordering on the unlistenable).
Known as one of the most reclusive and mysterious figures in rock, Walker hibernated and disappeared for many extended periods of time (including hiding out in monasteries to study chanting) poking his head above sand only to infrequently produce records, release a rare album (between 1974 and 2006 he released a scant 4 proper full-lengths; 2004's The Drift was his first in 11 years) and scoring the not-too-occasional soundtracks (the film "Pola X"). In 2003, U.K. magazine, Q, gave Walker a British achievement award only bestowed twice before (to Brian Eno and Phil Spector).
Having had its North American premiere at SXSW and playing at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival, the documentary, "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" looks to shed some light on his near legendary inscrutability (director Stephen Kijak seems to have scored some unprecedented access to the singer, now well into his '60s).
Well-adored in the music snob community, the film is filled with A-list testimonials from admirers like David Bowie (an executive producer and longtime enthusiast), Brian Eno, Johnny Marr, Damon Albarn, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker (Walker produced Pulp 's 2001 disc, "We Love Life"), Sting, the Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde, Soft Cell's Marc Almond, Richard Hawley, Ute Lemper (Walker wrote cabaret songs for her) and more.
As huge Walker fans we couldn't be more excited. Here's hoping the film gets a regular theatrical release soon.
"Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" Trailer:
Scott Walker "Mathilde" (written by Jacques Brel and introduced by Dusty Springfield)
Download: "Funeral Tango" (mp3)
Download: "Black Sheep Boy" (mp3)
Desperately Seeking Wu-Tang: The Documentary
Hip-hop had a less than stellar live track record in the late '90s/early '00s and the most infamous culprits were Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan, who over the years gained a notorious reputation of being one of the most unreliable live rap groups ever. Their concerts were often fiasco's, on-par with the worst Guns N' Roses shows. Oftentimes the shows would start infuriatingly late and half or more of the 9 members were no-shows, but you never knew when something random and chaotic might happen (in perhaps characteristically unpredictable fashion, on the lam Wu-banger ODB once shocked thousands by showing-up unannounced at a high-profile New York gig).
Essentially every time there was a Wu-Tang Clan performance the hip-hop cognoscenti would make odds on who would actually show up. Two of nine? Three? More?? The starting line-up of real Wu members (not affiliated stand-ins) in attendance was always remarkably low. It didn't help that around 2003 the group splintered; all of the members started doing their own thing (solo projects) and reunions were met with even internal skepticism.
Naive optimist/promoter Chang Weisberg actually bet the bank and his personal farm that he could actually corral all the delinquent Wu members in one place (the 2004 Rock The Bell festival) and the new documentary, "Rock The Bells," directed by Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan, is essentially the story of how -- despite being grossly mismanaged -- it all miraculously went down. Members were booked individually (smart), 15,000 fans almost rioted and organizers and members nervously awaited the will-he or won't-he appearance of clown jester Ol' Dirty Bastard (who died 4 months later).
The Voice has a great piece on the documentary calling it "Dave Chappelle's Block Party booked on United 93." The film opens in select theaters today. Ironically and conveniently timed, Wu-Tang will perform at the Rock the Bells festival again this summer.
"Rock The Bells" trailer
4/10/2007
Fassbinder Begins At MOMA
The restored version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 13-part (plus epilogue), 15 1/2 hour marathon, "Berlin Alexanderplatz," begins its North American premiere tonight at the Modern Museum of Art. Only New Yorkers, brave souls, insomniacs, the unemployed and these OCD obsessives are going to be able to catch all or even some of this epic, however, the filmsnobs at Criterion will be putting out the entire box later in 2007. "Berlin" was named one of the top 100 films of all time by Time Magazine in 2005.
A key player in the German new wave movement of the '70s, one major note about Fassbinder was his exhaustive productivity; he made 43 films in the span of 14 years (he died of an cocaine and sleeping pills concoction overdose in 1982 at the age of 37). I'm not going to front like I've seen "Berlin" (why bother, nobody really has), but much like Kieslowski's 10-part masterpiece, "The Dekalogue," Fassbinder's extensive film was made for TV, so you shouldn't feel too bad for missing it in theaters. And as the excellent NYTimes piece notes, it's arguably the more "authentic viewing experience."
I tried to post some mp3s of Fassbinders music collaborator of choice, Peer Raben, but I was unfortunately unsuccessful.
In lieu i found a performance of "Alles Aus Leder," a song written by Raben (with German lyrics from Fassbinder).
Download: Mark Eitzel "I Am Fassbinder" (mp3)
4/09/2007
The Darjeeling Limited Takes Shape
Rumors abound with the new Wes Anderson film, "The Darjeeling Limited," which wrapped principal photography recently.
This much seems true:
- The film is about 3 brothers (Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody) who set out to India in search of a rare albino tiger who they believe is their deceased father re-incarnated.
- The film was written by Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola (Sofia's older brother)
- Natalie Portman and Anjelica Huston also star in the film
- The apparent script leaked online on April 2 and was then taken down at the behest of Fox's lawyers. What is purported to be the script can be read here (Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are surely perusing and making notes).
- A review of the film was posted on Ain't It Cool, but was taken down by lawyers. The review has been posted here (warning: spoilers).
- a fake poster has been circulating around the Interweb.
- Kumar Pallana is apparently not in the film (wtf?)
Rumors:
- Bill Murray plays the dead father, but it's apparently a cameo (though this rumor seems to be for all intents and purposes, real)
- French band Mellow (who also did the score to Roman Coppola's auspicious and underrated debut "CQ"), Mark Mothersbaugh and music used in Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray's movies ("The Apu Trilogy") are to be utilized.
Download: Mark Mothersbaugh "Let Me Tell You About My Boat" (mp3)
Late-Day Dailies
- Grindhouse flopped ($11.5 million) and apparently studio exec Harvey Weinstein is having second thought about letting Tarantino and Rodriguez release them as individual feature length films.
- Remember when David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees" tantrums were youtubed all over the interweb? Some speculated that O. Russell's bete noir, George Clooney leaked the clips. But George says, "Hey man, not me."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You've denied leaking the Huckabees footage. But is it possible we will ever see any similar material from Three Kings?
- Kate Beckinsale loves breasts. We love her and her breast envy too.GEORGE CLOONEY: The funny thing is that that tape has been going around for about two and a half years. And everybody's seen it. I saw it when we were shooting Ocean's Twelve. I felt bad for Lily but I also felt a little vindicated for anyone that thought that that had anything to do with me on [Three Kings].But, you know, the last thing in the world I would have done is stick it on the Internet. I don't even know how to get onto YouTube. So there's not going to be any Three Kings things. There are pranks I like to play [but] that [posting this kind of footage online] falls into the world of screwing with people's careers. I'm up for a good fight, but not sneaky. I like 'em face-to-face.''
- The Whitebread "Spiderman 3" soundtrack has leaked tracks. Can't say we care (the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs track was recorded like 3-4 years ago and was performed on tours after Fever To Tell. The song is that old and that throwaway).
Broken Glass: Revisiting "Kicking & Screaming"
I saw the Criterion DVD re-release of Noah Baumbach’s "Kicking & Screaming" this weekend and I have to say this film keeps getting better with age. It’s a film I originally loathed – affluent, Gen-X-y white teens with their self-involved very-90s problems got on my nerves at the time – then tolerated, then I fully came to appreciate and enjoy it.
The film is all about dialogue though and I think the reason I disliked it so much initially is that it’s totally flat direction-wise – covered in all master shots without any inventive camera moves at all. But one assumes on a shoe-string budget, Baumbach probably had to just cover things as quickly as possible without too many different and time-consuming (i.e. time equals money) camera set-ups.
It's kind of akin to a band that has great lyrics, but h0-hum music, but perhaps after a while all of it grows on you.
It’s funny, I had just finished, my imaginary, "If I Were Noah Baumbach" playlist, but I had totally forgotten about the music in the film (I was really thinking more about "Squid & the Whale"). The Pixes’ "Cecilia Ann" kicks off the film, there’s a bunch of country crooner Jimmie Dale Gilmore songs, including two songs he composed specifically for the film (Which? Not sure. Incidentally, Gilmore plays "Smokey," the gentle "pacifist" bowling league player who almost gets killed by John Goodman in "The Big Lebowski"), Nick Drake’s “Time of No Reply,” and a bunch of Freedy Johnston songs. There’s even a song “written” by Noah Baumbach, Nicci Sun ("In This Heart of Darkness") and performed by the amazing Chris Eigeman. I say "written," because Eigeman is supposed to sing dialogue in the movie during a scene when he’s bored out of his mind staring at his books (hence the Conrad novel), but Baumbach’s music supervisor was worried about getting sued if Eigeman improved anything remotely similar to a pre-recorded song, so they "wrote" a little melody for him to sing (and Eigeman was completely embarrassed to sing in falsetto).
The original score, by Phil Marshall and Will Baum in the flashback sequences – very plaintive, but emotive guitar and keyboard drones – is surprisingly moving as well.
I totally forgot that Beck’s wife, Marisa Ribisi, also has a tiny, tiny part in the film as well.
Download: Nick Drake "Time of No Reply" (mp3)
Download: Freddy Johnston "Bad Reputation" (mp3)
The Sopranos: Brimming With Portent!
The Sopranos last night was a portentous slow-burn with tons of exhausting what's-gonna-happen dread and Lynchian foreshadowing. As usual, the Sopranos producers have an incredibly cinematic way of using music and last night wasn't much different. Who would've thought the Dave Brubeck Quartet's amiable, "Take 5," (the most popular song ever done in 5/4 time) would be utilized so ominously in the monopoly scene before the big fight? The closing was bitterly ironic as well; a bouncy and jubilant, "This Magic Moment" plays as Bobby is reunited with his family after just having commited his first ever murder (You'll recall Lou Reed's excellent version of this was used in Lynch's "Lost Highway," connection perhaps?)
I'm slighty confused that the Soprano's episode guide mentions neither of these songs in their music section, but my eyes and ears did not decieve me. I believe they have an old one up for some reason; the Stones' "Moonlight Mile" was not used last night. I think that was probably the end of last season (memory serve me now).
Rolling Stone has an interesting Sopranos music section on their website right now where show producer David Chase discusses the use of music and its importance in the show. Unfortunately most of it is in Flash and can't be embedded here, but it's worth checking out. And Mr. Chase, please note that Daniel Lanois is from Hull (the region of Arcadia), not Montreal (just keeping you honest). Other things gleaned: Chase didn't ever want a score used in the show (hence the songs), he originally wanted a different theme each week, but HBO, "wisely" talked him out of it and he decided to cast Little Steven in the show after watching him induct the Rascals at the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame (he was impressed with his "presence").
RS: Do you try and avoid Mob hits?
Chase: If it's a good song and it works in the spot [then you use it, no matter what], you really don't know if a song's going to work to picture, but when it works there’s this electric charge.
Amen.
Update: The Greatest Music on Television? The Soprano's/E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt (consigliere Silvio Dante) has written an excellent piece on the history of music in films and TV. This deserves its own post, but I'll put it here for now.
Download: "Take Five" (mp3 sample, not the Dave Brubeck version, sorry, all I could find online)
Lou Reed "This Magic Moment" (from "Lost Highway")
Dave Brubeck "Take Five" (live 1961)
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