Eclectic Affair: New Music from What Laura Says and Too Late for Roses

What
Laura
Says,
Bloom
Cheek,
Terp-
sikh-
ore
[6/8/10]

It isn't hard to identify the artists this Phoenix five-piece enjoys the most. I hear echoes of Harry Nilsson and 10CC on some selections, Air, Grizzly Bear, and Devendra Banhart on others. Of course, it could always be coincidental; they may simply share similar musical influences.

I find the combination of styles appealing, the multi-layered
harmonies, the atmospheric organ work, and the T. Rex-like
rhythms. On the whole, their second disc is a pretty eclectic
affair—at times, they even sound like an old funk-rock band.
Except for a misguided attempt at reggae stylings and a few
awkward lyrical passages, I rate Bloom Cheek a success.

Click here for "Training" and here for "I Suppose."

Too Late for Roses, Debut, Launchpad [6/1/10]

This Cali trio serves up modern rock with a heavy back beat. If anything, the rhythm section, Wyatt Lund (drums) and Jordan Martin (bass), is the best thing about Too Late for Roses.

Kark von Kries has a full-throated style, but he evokes too many other arena-rock guys, from Bono to Scott Stapp (he also handles flute and percussion). If the band is angling for a  major label deal, that could be to their advantage, but I prefer more distinction.

Debut, however, offers a few surprises, like the ambient "Winter Tide," which features lapping waves and seagull cries—and clocks in at 19 minutes—and the experimental "Soundtrack from 'Masks'." But I still like the rock stuff best, semi-generic vocals and all.

Endnote: For more information about What Laura Says, please click here; for Too Late for Roses, here. Image: Planetary Group.

White Noise: Part Four

I have two bookshelves. Both are so overstuffed, I've taken to storing books in the kitchen and in the hallway. This shot includes reference books (A Biographical Dictionary of Film, Film Noir Reader, Placing Movies), books I haven't started (I Put a Spell on You, King Suckerman, Union Dues), and book I haven't finished (The Collected Stories of John Cheever, Sirk on Sirk).


This shot includes books I've read (Cruel Shoes, Gone with the Wind, How the Irish Became White, In the Cut, Monty, Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story, Mystery Train, Please Kill Me, The Ice Storm, and White Noise). Plus, an assortment of nail polish and fragrances. I don't keep every book I read, so these are all titles that made some sort of an impression. Those that don't, go away (I sell or pass them on). The spine is hard to read, but the oldest is by A. A. Milne: The House at Pooh Corner.

Click here for Part Three: The
Complete Book Club List

Images courtesy Kodak one-time use camera.

White Noise: The
Complete Book Club
List, Part Three

Here are the titles book club has tackled since 2007. For a history of the club, please click here. For part one of the list (2000-04), click here; for part two (2005-06), click here.*

* The third link is currently inoperable; I'm hoping to find a way to retrieve it.

2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007

02/07: Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang
[Winner of the Man Booker Prize]
05/07: Martin Amis - Money: A Suicide Note
07/07: Mike Davis - Dead Cities [I swear I'll finish this...someday]
09/07: Cormac McCarthy - The Road
[Nice lead-in to No Country for Old Men]
11/07: John Nathan - Mish-
ima and/or Legs McNeil & Jennifer Osborne - The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry [I read both]

2008 2008 2008 2008

02/08: Jonathan Lethem - The Fortress of Solitude
05/08: Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker
07/08: Max Brooks - World War Z:
An Oral History of the Zombie War*
09/08: Rose McCauley - The Towers of Trebizond
11/08: Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections

* Soon to be a major motion picture.

2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009

1/09: Herman Melville - Billy Budd and Other Stories
5/09: Jack Black - You Can't Win [I loved this]
7/09: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith - Pride and Prejudice
and Zombies and George MacDonald Fraser - Flashman: A Novel
11/09: Willa Cather - The Song of the
Lark and Amitav Ghosh - Sea of Poppies
12/09: Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010

3/10: Zachary Lazar - Sway
4/10: Lord Auch (Georges Bataille) - Story of the Eye
and the Invisible Committee - The Coming Insurrection
7/10: Joshua Gamson - The Fabulous Sylvester: the
Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco
9/10: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
12/10: Charles Burns - Black Hole

2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011

5/11: Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Good Squad
7/11: Kate Buford - Burt Lancaster: An American Life
10/11: John Fowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman
12/11: Samuel R. Delany - Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand



More to come...and suggestions are always welcome.

Endnote: Images from The Voice (Jonathan Lethem)
and the BBC (Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens).

Beware the CD Reviews of March: Wetdog, Etc.

Wetdog, "Frauhaus!," Captured Tracks

From "Lower Leg," the first song off their second album, you might think London's Wetdog are trying to pick up where Switzerland's Kleenex/LiLiPUT left off in 1983. On that track, in which tribal rhythms meet call-and-response vocals, you can also hear the Slits and the Raincoats (and on their MySpace Page, I spotted a picture of Ari Up, indicating that they're either fans, former bill-mates, or both). As compelling as those reference points may be, you could always listen to the original artists to scratch the same post-punk itch.

  

Fortunately, Wetdog reveals their own unique personality as this tinny 14-track disc continues to spin—not that "Lower Leg" isn't a completely persuasive song (it is!). The more you listen, the harder their rickety ruckus becomes to describe. On some numbers, they make a noirish noise; on others, they're all sunshine and sweet harmonies. 

On "Snapper," they come on like a lounge band in space. Short on years, long on ideas, the trio appears to be trying things out; seeing what sticks and what doesn't, which means that "Frauhaus!" isn't as cohesive as the Vivian Girls debut, another reference point, but it's just as appealing for those who like girl-group sounds with extra kick.    

All Leather, When I Grow Up, I Wanna Fuck Like a Girl, Dim Mak  

More irony, more distortion, more annoying tones.--band press notes  

From the title, you'd expect loud and irritating. On their follow-up to Hung like a Horse—yes, that was fun to type— All Leather delivers volume and attitude, but it's hard to tell what they're going on about. Songs include "I Do it with My Prick Out" and "Babe, Does This Band Make My Butt Look Big," but as in the works of Locust and early Ministry, the noise rolls right over the vocals. It does little for me, but your mileage may vary. If anything, they're less irritating than expected...for what that's worth.   

The River Raid, In a Forest, Sunset/Above the Sky 

On the successor to their self-titled debut, this three-guitar Brazilian quartet offers generic modern rock that's virtually indistinguishable from the UK/US variant (especially Oasis). That doesn't make it bad—but I've heard it before. So have you. Click here to play "Alright."   

Endnote: For more info about Wetdog, who play SXSW on 3/18, please click here or here; for All Leather, here or here (the River Raid also play this year's fest). Wetdog image from batteryinmycamera.

Proper
Procedure


Gil Scott-
Heron's I'm
New Here
comes with
the follow-
ing advice.
I've done
my best
to repro-
duce the original formatting, except for the white text-on-black background (it's the first thing you see when you open the CD).


***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****


There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of any investment.
Music, for example. Buying music is an investment.
To get the maximum you must


LISTEN TO IT FOR THE FIRST TIME UNDER OPTIMUM CONDITIONS.


Not in your car or on a portable player through a headset.
Take it home.
Get rid of all distractions (even her or him).
Turn off your cell phone.
Turn off everything that rings or beeps or rattles or whistles.
Make yourself comfortable.
Play your CD.
LISTEN all the way through.
Think about what you got.
Think about who would appreciate this investment.
Decide if there is someone to share this with.
Turn it on again.
Enjoy yourself.


Gil Scott-Heron


***** ***** *****

Click here for my review of I'm New Here.



Endnote: Image from Elbows Music Blog Aggregator.

Movie of the Month, Part 16: The Beaches of Agnes

I recently reviewed the following film for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.



THE BEACHES OF AGNES [***1/2]
(Agnès Varda, France, 2009, 110 minutes)

To love cinema is to love Jacques Demy, painting, family, and puzzles.

--Agnès Varda, The Beaches of Agnès

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

As French New Wave veteran Agnès Varda (Cléo from 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I) explains in her enchanting documentary, she's spent a lifetime filming other people, because "It's others I'm interested in, others I like to film." The Beaches of Agnès, on the other hand, allows the self-described "pleasantly plump and talkative" 80-year-old artist to turn the camera on herself for a change.

Because she has fond memories of trips to the beach as a child (dubbing it "my favorite landscape"), that's where she speaks about her life, surrounded by mirrors, photographs, and recreated scenes from her past. Actors, like Jane B. for Agnès V.'s Jane Birkin and Séraphine's Yolande Moreau, appear in these memories.



Some of these images, Varda says, "have haunted me for a long time." To this material, filmed in France and California, she adds visits to significant locations with clips from her filmography, putting her movies into more of a personal context (suffice to say, there's no separation between the woman and the work).

In chronological order, Varda moves from her childhood in Brussels to her adolescence in Paris to her years as a photographer to her relationship with Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Donkey Skin)--their children would also join the family business.

In looking back at her career, Varda honors other artists with whom she has collaborated, like Alain Resnais, who edited La Pointe Courte, actor Philippe Noiret, who starred in the film, and avant garde essayist Chris Marker, who interviews her disguised as his feline alter ego, Guillaume. For a movie about times gone by, The Beaches of Agnès is far more playful than regretful. Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 15: Passing Strange

As part of this year's P.O.V. Series on PBS, The Beaches of Agnès airs on June 29 (check local listings). Slightly revised from the original text. Image of Agnès Varda and Guillaume from Film Forum.

March 2010 Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Scarecrow and Mrs. King - The Complete First Season (with Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner) [five-disc
set], Breaking Bad - The Complete Second Season [four-disc set]
(click here for my review of season one), and 44 Inch Chest (with Ray Winstone and John Hurt).

Amazon Theatricals: Alice in Wonderland (with John-
ny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter), The Runaways (with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning), Remember Me (with Emilie de Ravin and Stewart's Twilight co-star, Robert Pattinson), Diary of a Wimpy Kid (from the book by Jeff Kinney), and Please Give (with Catherine Keener).

Still playing: Crazy Heart, The Ghost Writer, The Imaginarium
of Doctor Parnassus, Invictus, A Prophet, and Youth in Revolt.

SIFF: Three blurbs for the 2010 program guide (more to
come). This marks my eighth year working on the guide.

Seattle Film Blog: Still Bill (review delayed till DVD release).

Still playing: For the Love
of Movies - The Story of Am-
erican Film Criticism and
The Red Riding Trilogy.

Video Librarian: Brain Injury Dialogues, The Duke
of Bachata, The Glass House,
Green, Heart of Stone, At Home in Utopia, My White Baby, Spice
and Wolf - The Complete First Season [two-disc set], Maria Hol-
ic - Complete Collection [two-disc set], North Face, Mommo,
Bad Company - Hard Rock Live, Oscar Peterson - The Life
of a Legend, The Missing Person, Afghan Star, Bar-
bie in a Mermaid Tale, Free Willy - Escape from
Pirate's Cove, iCarly - iFight Shelby
Marx, and Hachi - A Dog's Tale.

Endnote: Michael Shannon, star of The Missing Person,
plays Kim Fowley in The Runaways. Image from Apparition.