Critics Critiqued: Don't Be a Prick

Words to
live by
from Ron-
ald Bergan
(click here
for the
complete
post):

[I]f objective film criticism, like democracy, is never attainable, it should not discourage critics from trying to achieve it. Anything that minimises the complex personality of the critic standing between the film—that obscure object of desire—and the prospective viewer, must surely be encouraged.

There is no need for the writer to use the first person singu-
lar, which is superogatory. At least it should be used spar-
ingly. A review is not about the critic but the film.

"Slow". This is often employed without even the adverbs "too" or "so". When a critic calls a film "slow", it is immediately taken as pejorative. Would one criticise a piece of music by saying it is slow? The word itself carries no negative connotation. It is as neutral as "fast", "shot on video" or "in black and white", although these terms, even unqualified, can also carry with them some prejudice. Slow usually implies that the critic has found the film boring, another meaningless subjective term. If someone announces that they find opera or Shakespeare boring, it says nothing about opera or Shakespeare, but about the speaker.

"Too Long". Time is ex-
tremely subjective. The
criticism doesn't really
have anything to do with
the running time of the film,
but with how the critic exper-
iences that time. One could sit
through 3-4 hour films which
don't feel long, while a bad
15-minute short seems in-
terminable. A critic who thinks a film is "too long", is again revealing that they have become bored with the style or content and not the length.

"Pretentious" or "obscure"...generally
means the critic has not understood the film.

Click here for Evan Derrick's take on the same topic

My favorite rule from Derrick's post:
2. Respect the Medium You Are Criticizing:
To put it plainly, when reviewing films, don’t be a prick.

Despite my support for Bergan's words, I've committed some of the very crimes he rails against, but I'm working on it. In fact, I'm committing one right now by using the first person (hard to avoid in a blog context). Elimination, however, may not be advisable with the kind of writing I do, i.e. short reviews aimed at a general audience.

To my surprise, most commenters disagree with Bergan. As
one notes, "Impartial artistic critique is by definition impossible,
or if it were possible it would be lacking in true emotional con-
tent and would hence be worthless." Point taken. If his aren't
necessarily "words to live by," they're certainly "words to think
about," and I've been thinking about them for several days now.

Endnote: Thanks to GreenCine Daily for drawing my at-
tention to these pieces. Earlier today I was compiling a list
of the 10 most essential Spanish-language films, so I had to
find a place for Luis Buñuel. 1977's That Obscure Object
of Desire, however, doesn't count, because it's French, des-
pite the participation of fellow Spaniards Fernando Rey and
Ángela Molina, and Los Olvidados isn't available on DVD,
so I opted for Viridiana...even though I've never seen it.

Images from Flickhead, i.e. Molina and Carole Bouquet (click the
link for more info about Allan Tannenbaum's photograph), Sag-e-Laila (I love Bouquet's smirk; very Buñuel-esque), and The New York Times (Rey as Mathieu and Bouquet as the elusive Conchita).

Artists of Varied Persuasion, Part II

Various Artists, No Band Is an
Island, Knw-Yr-Own Records [8/5/08] (***1/2)

The floor is sticky / the screen is all aglow.
Sitting alone / at the motion picture show.
--Calvin Johnson, "Sitting Alone at the Movies"

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

It's foolish to expect to like every song on a
various artists compilation, and I didn't like
every one on No Band Is an Island, but
the ratio of hits to misses is impressively high.

Bryce Panic ("Masterpiece") and Kimya Dawson
("We're All Animals") provide my least favorite sel-
ections, but I still feel that Dawson's whimsical work
enhanced Jason Reitman's Juno; separated from
an engaging narrative, however, it isn't my thing.

Also, "Animals," which features kids and the goofy "Uncle Bob,"
is directed more at children than adults ("When you get older,
your body will grow hair...some people shave theirs off, but I
let mine grow...the hair on my leg feels like long johns...").

As for Panic, I found his rapping irritating, but he does have a
way with words ("Naomi Klein wrote about me in The Nation").

I also have mixed feelings about Kaisle Feeled's "My Wave's
Your Wave," a long acoustic jam, Sandman the Rapping Cow-
boy's "Barack Obama (Will Rock Your Mama)," a weird hiphop-
country hybrid ("He's got a rad personality / his skin is brown"),
and ...WORMS' repetitious "Abide," in which the Oregon quartet
screams "Bye-bye, atmosphere!" over and over...ad nauseum.

That leaves most every-
thing else, highlights of
which include: "Lion
Tamer" (Mirah), "Sup-
port Your Local Bandid-
os MC" (Photosynthesis),
"Mysterious Ways" (Nate
Ashley, above), "Wind Sum-
mons" (Mt. Eerie), Leiber &
Stoller's "She's Not You" (Bryan, Frank, and Bob), "Do the Dol-
phin" (Coconut Coolouts), "Cowboy Lullaby" (Khaela Maricich,
the Blow), "My Music Is My Sweat (Dub)" (Angelo Spencer et
l'Orchidee d'Hawaii), "Sitting Alone at the Movies" (Calvin
Johnson, Dub Narcotic Sound System), and "Certainty" (D+).

Except for the drum machine, I dug Karl Blau's jazzy "You
Can Use Your Words," as well, which comes on like a one-
man cross between George Benson and Mose Allison (!).

If the primary goal of a compilation is to introduce artists
from which listeners will want to hear more, this 22-track
set successfully primes the pump, and several of these
acts have full-lengths on the way, like Dawson's Alpha-
butt (on Olympia's K Records), Ashley, Photosynthes-
is, the Pyramids, and the reissue of Maricich's 1998
Look For It in the Sky It Will Always Be There (all on
Anacortes's Knw-Yr-Own Records). And on that
note: congratulations to Knw-Yr-Own, which roar-
ed back into life this year, on their 21st anniversary!

Click here for Part I: Various Artists - Music from Northern Ireland

Endnote: Started by Bret Lunsford (Knw-Yr-Own, D+, Beat
Happening), the seventh annual What the Heck Fest takes place
in Anacortes from 7/18-20 and features several of the acts on No
Band Is an Island, i.e. Ashley, Blau, Coconut Coolouts, D+, Daw-
son, Graves, Johnson, Maricich, Mirah, Mt. Eerie, Ô Paon, Photo-
synthesis, Spencer, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive To Death,
and ...WORMS. Also, click the links for reviews of D+ - On Purpose-
1997-2007: Hits, Rarities and Live Cuts and Mt. Eerie's Micro-
phones and Black Wooden Ceiling Opening. Images from Spin
(Johnson; photo by Alex Crick) and Knw-Yr-Own (Ashley).

Artists of Varied Persuasion: On New Music from Northern Ireland

Artists of Varied Persuasion

Various Artists, New Music from Northern Ireland, Northern Ire-
land Music Industry Commission (***)

If you had asked me, before I received this compilation, to name
a few acts from Northern Ireland, I would've cited Van Mor-
rison, the Undertones, and Stiff Little Fingers (I might've even made a case for Undertones spin-off band That Petrol Emotion).

According to this two-CD set, Snow Patrol, Ash, and the Divine
Comedy [right] also call the North home. (In a recent article for
The Independent, Andy Gill describes Snow Patrol as "the weedi-
est of the Coldplay copyists trailing in the band's wake." Ouch.)

The only other name that rang a bell was Oppenheimer, since I just
reviewed their second CD, Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It.

To judge by these 28 tracks, Nor-
thern Ireland's music scene isn't
significantly different from that
of the Republic of Ireland—or
even America and Great Britain.

Nonetheless, these sounds aren't
as off-kilter as some of the stuff
that's been coming out of Scotland
and Wales (courtesy Arab Strap,
Mogwai, Super Furry Animals,
etc.), but the compilers probably chose to focus on those
artists most likely to cross over into the commercial arena.

Also, women are conspicuous by their absence. One female per-
former, Claire Sproule with the wispy "Waiting," out of 28 equals a
measly 4%, not counting Chris Elliot's Jupiter Ace house anthem
"Dreams Come True" featuring singer/songwriter Alison David.



Are there significantly fewer women in Northern Ireland,
fewer female musicians, or are they just not receiving the nec-
essary encouragement? If this compilation is representative, there's a story in there for some enterprising music writer.

So, most selections are all right, but not mind-blowing—
though Lafaro and the Answer [below] certainly rock hard
enough. I'm glad Northern Ireland has become a more pleas-
ant place to live, and I hope that continues to be the case, but a
blistering punk landmark like Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable
Material never would've emerged from the North of today. Hap-
pier times make for happier music. I wish no one unhappy times,
but I need more tension in my tunes, regardless as to the genre.

That said, Londonderry lad Neil Han-
non (the Divine Comedy) stands out
like a velvet suit in a rack of t-shirts.
He contributes the Spanish-inflected
"A Lady of a Certain Age" (off 2006's
Victory for the Common Muse), the
story of a bright young thing who
turns into a careworn dowager as she
drifts through Europe. Aside from his
own records and work with Tom
Jones, Ute Lemper, and Charlotte
Gainsbourg, Hannon appears in Scott Walker: 30 Century Man.

Things I learned from the liner notes: composer David Holm-
es (Out of Sight, Ocean's 11) hails from the region. Also, out-
er Belfast's the Answer features a vocalist who shares a sur-
name with the best known actor to emerge from the North.

His name is Cormac Neeson and, as his first name indicates
(see McCarthy, Cormac), he sings as if he'd been raised in the South—
the American South. (As Neeson told the BBC in 2005, "We play
high voltage rock and roll for the most part—bit of blues going on
there, bit of soul.") As with Hannon, Neeson just may have the
goods to conquer the wide world beyond his tiny country.



Philomena Lynott thinks so. According to The Independent:

The ultimate stamp of approval, though, came when Philo-
mena Lynott, mother of late Thin Lizzy legend Phil Lynott,
allowed The Answer's Micky Waters a go on the black, mirror-
scratch-plated Fender bass that her son is pictured with on the
cover of Lizzy's seminal 1978 album, Live and Dangerous.

"It was incredible—too much, almost," says The Answer's
bass guitarist. "Philomena had it locked in her basement and,
because Phil wrote on it, you could feel all that history, all those
songs. We played a gig to help raise funds for the bronze statue of
Phil that went up in Dublin, and that was Philomena's way of say-
ing thanks. She's a lovely woman. We call her the queen of Ireland."




Endnote: Aside from the paucity of women, Music from
Northern Ireland, a promo-only release, appears to be 100%
non-black (to judge by the booklet photos). I could raise a ruck-
us about that, except I suspect the North isn't as integrated as
the Republic (and I'm not suggesting the South doesn't have a
ways to go). I'm sure that will change as Northern Ireland
becomes a more attractive travel destination. For more infor-
mation about the Answer, please click here or here. Images
from Planetary Group, the All Music Guide, and Wikipedia.

July 2008 Reviews

Christmas
in July

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

Amazon DVDs:
A Woman of Independent Means (mini-
series with
Sally Field)
[two-disc set],
Psych - The Complete Second Season [four-disc set],
and Grant Gee's acclaimed documentary Joy Division.

Amazon Essentials: I'll be creating four lists: African,
German, Italian, and Spanish-language cinema (Ousmane Sembène, Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Ber-
tolucci, Víctor Erice, and Guillermo del Toro, here I come!).
Also: Indian cinema, Stephen Frears, and James Ivory.

Amazon Theatricals: Brideshead Revisited (see
below), The Wackness (Sir Ben Kingsley rides again),
and Hamlet 2 (with Steve Coogan and Elisabeth Shue).

Still playing: Baghead, Gonzo, and Wanted.

Fuzz.com: Gary Numan - Replicas Redux [click here for
blog version) and Matmos - The Supreme Balloon (click
here for blog version). I'll also be attending (and taking pic-
tures) when Matmos plays Seattle's Triple Door on 7/7.

Seattle Film Blog: An Evening with the Bobcat, Last Year
at Marienbad (Alan Resnais), A Colt Is My Pass-
port (with Joe Shishido, Bad Motherfucker) and
an interview with Mark & Jay Duplass (Baghead).

Coming soon: interviews with Courtney Hunt (Frozen River),
Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water) and Alan Ball (Towelhead); all
conducted at the 34th Seattle International Film Festival.

Video Librarian: Genesis - When in Rome 2007/
Come Rain or Shine [three-disc set], Movin' on Up -
The Music and Message of Curtis Mayfield and the
Impressions, Meatloaf - In Search of Paradise, A&E
Biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama,
Roxy Hunter and the Secret of the Shaman Mov-
ie, MANswers: Best of Season One, Tour Smart,
Buddy Miles: Changes, and Ja Rule: 2005.

Endnote: Image of Anthony Andrews (Sebastian Flyte)
and Jeremy Irons (Charles Ryder) from Navelgazer. In
Julian Jarrold's new version of Evelyn Waugh's text, the
parts are played by Matthew Goode (Match Point, The
Lookout) and Ben Whishaw (Perfume, I'm Not There).

Float On: Oppenheimer and More

Oppenheimer,
Take the Whole
Midrange & Boost It,
Bar/None Records

The wild sounds and colors blend together madly like the
pop/rock equivalent of a Bollywood musical full of too-bright
colors, people dancing wildly, and big smiles all around.
-- Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

With a title like Take the Whole Midrange & Boost It, I was
expecting something with more oomph, but Oppenheimer's
space-age pop is lighter than air. It's like ELO on helium, and Jeff
Lynne's combo weren't exactly heavy (ah, but they were good).

These mad Belfast scientists, Rocky and Sean, have talent to
burn, but there's isn't a lot to grab onto. Carefully-enunciated
choir-boy vocals layered over Vocoder, Moog, Casio, and E-bow
emanations makes for a dreamy, robotic sound (Do androids
dream of electric sheep? No, they dream of Oppenheimer.)

Granted, pop doesn't have to have a dark side, but if it's too light,
it might just float away. The one exception is "The Never Never," on which guest vocalist Matt Caughthran adds some protein-
filled crunch to Oppenheimer's electronic soufflé.

Rachael Sage, Chandelier, MPress Records

Despite Rachael Sage's feisty lipstick-red haircolor,
Chandelier is thoroughly mersh singer/songwriter stuff
(you won't find any indication of a punk-rock past here).

Her achingly sincere vocals and intricate piano-playing re-
flect classical training, and I'm sure she crafted this record
with care, but I have zero tolerance for ladylike Lifetime-mov-
ie-of-the-week material. If you're into Jane Siberry, Sarah Mc-
Lachlan, or Rachael Yamagata—though on "Mexico," Sage cites
"Costello, Emmy Lou, and Steve"—you may feel otherwise.

Topaz & Mudphonic, Music for Dorothy, MOWO! Inc. [8/26/08]

Austin singer/sax player Topaz McGarrigle cranks out the jazzy boogie-woog-
ie on Music for Dorothy.

Clearly, he's spent a minute
or two with Little Feat and
the Allman Brothers Band,
and that's okay. I may have been born in the East and raised in
the North, but I've got a high tolerance for Southern-friend rock
'n' roll (granted, Skynyrd doesn't do it for me, but you can't win
'em all). Bring on the harmonica, the Hammond B3, and the Wur-
litzer electric piano! And lyrics about frogs and cicadas. Some-
where Kandia Crazy Horse is nodding her head in agreement.

Endnote: Images from the All Music Guide and Planetary Group.

Listening Station: The Age of Rockets, Dirty Hearts, Falcon, Mar, and Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

The Age of Rockets,
Hannah, Desolation
Yes, Hesitation
No Music [9/23/08]

Like Death Cab for Cutie or the Postal Service (both featuring Seattle singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard), Andrew Futral's New York trio Age of Rockets serves up glitchy pop with little-
boy-lost vocals. It may not be completely original, but if you're down with Gibbard and other soft-spoken gentleman of the indie-rock persuasion, their second platter offers abundant appeal.

As for Gibbard, I don't mean to sell him short; he's good at what he
does, and I don't doubt his sincerity. His brand of music isn't quite
my cup of tea, but I've never understood the hate certain people
harbor towards it (as if he were Dick Cheney's more evil twin).

It doesn't make a man weak or effeminate because he wears his heart on his sleeve; on the contrary, exposure takes risk. Plus, anyone who uses a harmonium (see Age of Rockets multi-in-
strumentalist Saul Simon Macwilliams) is all right in my book.



The Dirty Hearts, Pigs, Socyermom Records [7/22/08]

At first listen, Austin's Dirty Hearts rock out like Social Distortion with more funk in their step, i.e. brass-punctuated punk. But that was just the opening track ("Record Store").

Altogether, their sophomore disc plays more like the Replace-
ments or Elvis Costello & the Attractions (the keyboard playing recalls Steve Nieve). They aren't ripping off their forebears and they aren't devoid of style, but the Hearts splice together sever- al genres—new wave, post-punk, etc.—with a harder edge. Other than some daft lyrics ("I'm alone like the bitches in heat" and "I'm thinking t-bone/you're thinking tofu spread"), Pigs isn't half bad.

Falcon, Falcon EP, Friends of
the American Songbook [7/22/08]

Falcon is not a tribute band.
Falcon plays all new material.
-- From the Falcon press kit

Anyone who dislikes this EP will surely feel like a heel, since the material springs from the pen of a musical prodigy who succumbed to spinal meningitis in 1988 at the age of 14. Two of his Petaluma Junior High friends formed
a band and, with his family's blessing, they intend to draw exclusively from Jared Falcon's 336-song repertoire
(the Brooklyn quartet includes Longwave guitarist
Shannon Ferguson and drummer Jason Molina).

If I wanted to pick nits, I'd say that Neil Rosen's voice
squeaks too much and that "Listen In" is a mite repet-
etive, but all five tracks put most teenage scribbles to
shame, and the gentle arrangements showcase Fal-
con's introspective lyrics with affection and respect.

Mar, The Sound, Ring Road Records [9/07/08]

After spinning Mar's fol-
low-up to The Silence three times now, I still can't think
of anything interesting to
say about it. Like a less agitated My Bloody Val-
entine (or Spain without
all those jazzy embellish-
ments), singer/Rhodes player Kyle Reidy's Arkan-
sas outfit offers up perfectly pretty dream-pop.

Just as their Iceland-recorded debut featured contributions
from Jimmy LaValle (the Album Leaf, Black Heart Procession)
and Gunnar Tynes (MúM), the new CD features violinist Anton Patzner (Bright Eyes) and cellist Zoe Keating (Imogen Heap).

As background music, Mar (a reference to Reidy's mother) gets the job done, and never distracted me from the project I was im-
mersed in at the time—but when it was over, I forgot all about
it. Consider The Sound a work aid...rather than a sleep aid.



Natalie Portman's Shaved Head,
Glistening Pleasure, Team Swan

Do you wanna see Shamu with me? Yes, I do. I love Shamu!
-- "Sophisticated Side Ponytail"

The name screams "novel-
ty act," but it's the music
that counts, and this Seat-
tle quartet's first full-len-
gth is a bundle of fun.

I mean, if you aren't in-
to electro-pop or elect-
roclash or whatever the kids are calling it these days, Glis-
tening Pleasure might not rock your world, but they
manage to capture the high spirits of CSS, the Go! Team,
and United State of Electronica without actually aping any
of those combos (for one thing, their lyrics are a lot sillier).

If anything, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head are more deep-
ly rooted in the 1980s, even if these 18-20 year olds were pre-
natal during the new wave era, making me—at least—a decade
older than their target audience. What the hell, let's dance!

Note: NPSH are on tour with CSS through
August (click band name above for dates).



Endnote: Images from Falcon (Mayumi Nashida), the Age
of Rockets (Jenny O.), Mar (Brandon Jennings and Red Bal-
loon Pictorials), and Natalie Portman's Shaved Head.

Heavenly Pop Hits from Baskervilles

Baskervilles, Twilight,
Secret Crush Records (***/2)

Imagine Mates of States with
a hyperactive horn section, and
you'll have some idea what the
Baskervilles sound like.

At least that's the formula the
14 songs on their second full-length bring to mind, since these fast-paced ditties feature boy-girl vocals and boisterous keyboard-playing. Others tunes recall slightly more sedate UK outfits, like Heavenly and Belle and Sebastian (Mates hail from San Francisco, the Baskervilles from New York).

I'm not surprised Seattle's KEXP has been playing the heck out
of this thing. It's extremely accessible, and in the best possible sense, since "accessible" sometimes means watered-down.

The aptly titled "Smash," in particular, deserves to be a hit,
and it might not be entirely coincidental that the title rhymes
with the Primitives' irresistible 1988 single "Crash." (Ah, but whatever happened to those Brit-poppers...)

Since the Baskervil-
les revive fond memor-
ies of jangle-pop acts, like
Chris Stamey and Game
Theory, it only makes sense
that Let’s Active’s Mitch
Easter returned to prod-
uce Twilight or that the
Bongos’ Richard Barone
(“Barbarella”) helped
to arrange “Smash.”

"Sweet and Sour" and "Moves" also deserve wider exposure, but without the push of a major label that might not happen. With hope, however, the band has made a few videos, since they have the goods to conquer MySpace/YouTube with ease (granted, they aren't spring chickens, but I'd like to think that's a minor obstacle).

It certainly doesn't hurt that Stephanie Finucane (keyboards, guitar) and Rob Keith (guitar, trombone) have great voices, both together and separately; Keith even has that mid-Atlantic thing going on, which might seem pretentious in another context, but works like a dream with the Baskervilles' bouyant melodies.

Endnote: Images from the band's MySpace Page ("Baskervilles
in Japan" and "Who Took the Tape?"). Incidentally, as one of their influences, they list fabulous Frenchman Jacques Dutronc. Yes!