For the Price of One: A Chat with Mark and Jay Duplass, Part Five

A Chat with Mark and Jay Duplass (click here for part four)

“Well-made and genuine, yet also simplistic and unre-
markable. That is just what its makers intended it to be."
--Neil Morris, Indy Week

Here's a continuation of the interview Prost Amerika's Steve
Clare and I conducted with writer/directors Mark and Jay
Duplass at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival.

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

Kathy: I have a question about time and not budget. What
were the lengths of the shoots for The Puffy Chair, Baghead,
and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon? How did they compare?

Mark: Puffy Chair was a three-week shoot initially, and then
we did a week of re-shoots and some road footage. And then
Baghead was straight three weeks—a little easier to shoot.

Kathy: That sounds really short.

Jay: Baghead was three weeks, no days off, re-
shooting consistently for all that time. To me
that was the issue. We did so much work.

Mark: And Do-Deca was four and a half weeks. A little more time.

Kathy: For you guys that was almost leisurely. I just interviewed David Gordon Green, and that was a question I asked him, as well.

Mark: I love that guy.

Kathy: He’s great. I think George Washington was
between 19 and 21 days or something like that, but
for Snow Angels, he had 45 days, which to him was
incredible. I’m curious as to how these things com-
pare. In comparison, 21 days seems so short.


Mark: We could definitely use some more time. We have a small crew—days are not that expensive—so we’re definitely expanding a little more.

Left: Green with Paul Schneider


Kathy: Do you work weekends, too?

Mark: We work six-day weeks.

Kathy: Green said he works five-day weeks.

Jay: Five days would be incredible, because you know
what’s gonna happen is you work five days and then
one of those weekend days, you have to do re-con.

Mark: Or re-shoots or something on your one
day off. We’re really working seven days a week,
because our day off is for prepping and stuff.

Jay: Our crew gets one day off, but we don’t, but having four
and a half weeks on this last one made a huge difference.

Mark: It’s a bit of a bigger movie. There are more set changes.

Kathy: And it’s through Sony?

Mark: No, we did this all independently.

Steve: What’s next in terms of timeline? This festival
ends, and then it opens in which towns on what dates?

Mark: Baghead starts June 13th in Austin;
then on July 4th, I know it goes to Portland.

Jay: And on July 18th, it’s here. Then it goes to New York and LA after what we consider to be our special cities, the places we want to take it.

Right: Steve Zissis, Elise
Muller, and Greta Gerwig.

[After this interview Sony moved the Seattle opening to 8/8.]

Steve: We hear you. Make no mistake, as representatives
of the Seattle film industry, you’re preaching to us, because
we like the idea of being the capitol of the independents…

Kathy: But there are still people in Seattle who
need that New York or LA stamp of approval,
and those people are everywhere you go.

Mark: Hopefully, this Baghead thing will work out.

Steve: Well, once we’ve run this interview, they’ll be queu-
ing around the block. All we have to do in Seattle is say these
are nice guys, and they’re not spoiled, and people feel a bond,
because everyone likes to think of themselves as nice people.

Mark: That’s good. We work really hard to present our-
selves as not conceited assholes…that we are. [laughs]

Steve: Which reminds me. On that point, during the ques-
tion-and-answer last night, you called somebody an asshole.
I wanted you to make me a promise that every time you
come back to Seattle, you’ll call somebody an asshole.

Mark: You got it [laughs]

Steve: Even if it’s me.

Kathy: Who did you call an asshole?

Mark: Someone who asked what the budget was.

[Baghead takes to task people who ask this question at festivals.]

Steve: I actually like that he called someone an ass-
hole. So often when stars come up, the questions are
sycophantic and the answers are sycophantic.

Jay: That’s our thing. Q&As can be horrid, but if you
just let it go, and go with how horrid... It’s like what
we were talking about, just trying to keep it fresh.
Don’t feel like you need to give an obvious answer;
give up what’s coming to you at that moment.
That’s something people usually enjoy.

Mark: It’s better than: DVX100AP.

Steve: This is one of the
things—I can’t speak for
Kathy—but I know when
I do an interview, I always
try to imagine how many
interviews you’ve done,
and what you’re sick
of talking about.

Above: Gerwig, Zissis, Ross Partridge, and Muller

Mark: I appreciate that.

Kathy: I try to read as many interviews as I
can beforehand, but you only have so much time.

Jay: You can’t read everything.

Mark: You guys are great

Jay: Yeah, this is a great interview.

Steve: Well, thank you.

Kathy: It probably helps that I saw Baghead a
long time ago, so I’ve had time to think about it.

Steve: I saw it last night, so I’ve not had time to think about it.
Because I end up reviewing so many—as I’m reviewing films, there
has to be a level playing field—unlike Kathy, I never read anything
about a film beforehand… The whole thing was new to me.

Kathy: But reviewers have been pretty good about
not giving the film away. I didn’t know how it was
going to end either, and I liked not knowing.

Jay: That’s one of the most exciting things to us about
the film: the process of discovery. Not only about
what’s going on, but what the movie actually is.

Click here for part six

Endnote: For the record, I disagree with Neil Morris
that Baghead is "unremarkable," but I appreciate what
he's getting at in the quote above. The film doesn't draw
any undue attention to itself, i.e. it isn't flashy or tren-
dy, but that's kind of remarkable in this day and age.

There are no more Seattle screenings, but Baghead con-
tinues to expand across the US. Please click here for a list of
release dates. Images from Sony Classics and Movie Habit.

Thoughtful and Cooperative: D+'s What Is Doubt For

D+, What Is Doubt For,
Knw-Yr-Own Records

D+ represents democracy
in action. Bret Lunsford
(Beat Happening) found-
ed the band, but on the
evidence of their six full-
lengths to date, he doesn't
lead in the traditional sense.

For some groups that might spell anarchy, but in this case, Lunsford, Karl Blau, and Phil Elverum (Microphones, Mt. Eer-
ie) all sing. In fact, they often share vocals within songs, and their voices are just different and similar enough that this approach works wonderfully well. All three have an intense yet laconic style; they can harmonize, but you can still tell them apart.

So, if the vocals are fairly "neat," as it were, the arrange-
ments can get a little messy. "Wishful Thinking," for in-
stance, comes off like two or three tracks played at once.
That isn't, however, a bad thing, and Lunsford acknow-
ledges that songs often take shape during jam sessions.

In the end, though, they do take the form of finished
songs, not doodles or sketches (although Guided by
Voices managed to build an entire career out of that
sort of thing). D+ never recalls Beat Happening, but
there's still a minimalist aesthetic at work, resul-
ting in brief silences between notes and words.

It's easy to say that D+ sounds
so thoughtful and cooperat-
ive, because they're based in An-
acortes, rather than Seattle, Port-
land, or even Olympia (where
Beat Happening hung their hats).

Maybe it's even lazy to make that claim, but I'm sure there's some truth behind it. When I interviewed Lunsford earlier this year, he admit-
ted, "Olympia was almost over-stimulating. I'm happy to be home and have all of these creative friends around me. It is all very rich."

And yet, as the title indicates, he still has his doubts. Not
about Anacortes or about his friends, but about life. And
not about whether it's worth living, but how best to live it.

In "Certainty," Lunsford asks questions, like "I don't
think I know who you are," "I don't think I know
that I failed," and "I don't think I know where
I'll be." In "Wishful Thinking," he notes,
"Think I think, but I ignore more."

There's as much thinking going
on as asking. Like most of us,
he's unlikely to find the ans-
wers any time soon, but at
least he's on the right path.

Click here for my review of
D+ - On Purpose: 1997-2007

Endnote: Images from Knw-Yr-Own Records.

Precious Gems: New Music from Muy Cansado, Sleeping in the Aviary, and Two Sheds

Muy
Cansado,
Stars &
Garters,
Precious
Gems
[8/19/08]

A loud and loose trio, Boston, MA's Muy Cansado play rock
and roll with a little country on the side. After a couple of listens,
they don't bring any specific bands to mind, but if pressed for
comparisons, I would cite the Replacements and the Pixies.

Chris Mulvey handles the regular-guy vocals and Joey Santiago-
style guitar-slinging, but bassist Lisa Libera, who has more of a
post-punk approach, pitches in for "Erased." She should do
that more often. Stars & Garters is well worth a listen.

Sleeping in the Aviary, Expensive Vomit
in a Cheap Hotel, Science of Sound [10/14/08]

"The best three-piece
since Grand Funk."
--From their MySpace Page

Quirky title aside, this
Madison, WI quartet brings
the noise on the follow-up to
2007's Oh, This Old Thing?

Granted, noisemakers include ukelele, tea kettle, accordion, and
saw, but don't be fooled. Creativity and quirkiness don't have to go
hand-in-hand, and Sleeping in the Aviary keeps cuteness at bay.

In fact, singer/songwriter Elliot Kozel's lyrics are downright
dark ("She had a pawn shop gun in her teeth," "I'm old, but
I'm young enough to die"), and the band can get as quiet
and spooky as the grave. "Gas Mask Blues" combines
the two approaches particularly well, as it begins like
an Appalachian lament before exploding into full-
bore rawk. Keep an eye on these kids.

Click here to sample a few tracks.

Two Sheds, EP, Filter US Recordings

Oh, it breaks my heart to be alive.
--"To Be Alive"

Two Sheds deliver torchy
folk-rock. Caitlin Gutenber-
ger writes and sings swirling,
string-laden, waltz-like songs
with backing from Johnny
Gutenberger, Russel Miller,
and James Finch, Jr.

Ms. Gutenberg whispers, drawls, and bites into cer-
tain words just like Rickie Lee Jones and Lucinda Williams before her. Here's hop-
ing her career shines as bright and lasts as long.

I enjoyed the credits almost as much as the music:
"To Be Alive" features "cat food crunching" from
Buddy the Cat, while the EP was "recorded, en-
gineered, produced, mixed, pickled and drank
by Robert Creek and Two Sheds at the Han-
gar and at the home (Sacramento, CA)."

Click here to sample a few tracks.

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

Endnote: For more information about Muy Cansado, please
click here or here; for Sleeping in the Aviary, here; and for
Two Sheds, here. Images from Planetary Group and the
Two Sheds website. And for the record, I love Grand Funk!

August 2008 Reviews

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

Here I do something magnificent and beautiful and people ask why. There is no why!--Philippe Petit on his Twin Tower stroll

Amazon DVDs: William Friedkin's The Night
They Raided Minksy's, Stanley Kramer's The
Secret of Santa Vittoria, Jellyfish (Israeli a-
ward winner), The Price of Sugar, Twenty-
Four Eyes - Criterion Collection, A Grand-
pa for Christmas (with Ernest Borgnine),
and Priceless (with Audrey Tautou).

Amazon Theatricals: Man on Wire (the best docu-
mentary of the year), The Rocker (with The Office's
Rainn Wilson), Bottle Shock (with Bill Pullman and
Alan Rickman), Lakeview Terrace (with Kerry Wash-
ington and Patrick Wilson), and Ping Pong Playa.

Still playing (or yet to open): Bag-
head, Brideshead Revisited, Gonzo,
Hamlet 2, The Wackness, and Wanted.

Seattle Film Blog: Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie and interviews with the
Duplass Brothers (Baghead) and
Courtney Hunt (Frozen River).

[Baghead and Man on Wire open on
8/8, Frozen River on 8/15, The Rock-
er on 8/20, Vivre Sa Vie on 8/22, and Lakeview Terrace on 9/19.]

Video Librarian: disFIGURED, Inside the Circle:
A B-Boy Chronicle, Snoop Dogg: Drop It Like It's
Hot (I loved this), Depression - Out of the Shad-
ows, Love Iranian-American Style, Mixed Bles-
sings, Men Are Human, Women Are Buffalo,
Intimidad, REO Speedwagon: Live in the
Heartland, Iggy & the Stooges - Escaped
Maniacs, Water (from the makers of
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?),
We Are Together (South African
music doc), Phineas and Ferb:
The Fast and the Phineas,
and Recount (click here
for my Amazon review).

Endnote: Meanwhile, work continues on my special sec-
ret music project, which I've been at for four years now.
Images from The New York Times (James Ricketson/Mag-
nolia Pictures and Discovery Films) and The Errant Aesthete.

All Those Pretty Flowers: New Music from the May Fire, Hypatia Lake, Rurik, and the Discovery

The May
Fire, The
List EP,
Rock
Whores
Record-
ings

I wanna be on the list, a taste of a perfect dream.
Shiny nights glowing skin, chocolate melting kiss.

Damn, I wanna be on the list, too. Singer/guitarist Catty
Tasso dominates the latest EP from this San Francisco
quartet, and she fills the front woman spot with ease.

Neither all-pop nor all-punk, Tasso occupies that strong
yet spirited midpoint, like Blondie's Debbie Harry or the Pix-
ies' Kim Deal before her. She also evinces the trace of a Ger-
man accent, which is ironic, since she hails from Chile.

As for the six songs on the May Fire's follow-up to 2006 CD
Right and Wrong and 2007 EPs Plastic Army and La Victor-
ia, they're catchy but not insubstantial. Good, solid stuff.

Peter Bradley Adams, Leave-
taking, Sarathan Records [8/5/08]

“The unusual title and theme of the album is inspired
by a line from the Mark Strand poem titled 'The View':
‘He’s always been drawn to the weather of leavetaking.'"
--Peter Bradley Adams

If you're in the mood for country-
oriented folk-pop, Peter Bradley
Adams is your man. Unfortunate-
ly, I'm never in that kind of mood,
but I refuse to hold it against him.
It's my "issue," if you will; not his.

Raised in Alabama and based in Los
Angeles, Adams has a well modulated
tenor, and his string and piano-decor-
ated second album goes down easy.

Better yet, it isn't too pretty, i.e. too slick or saccharine,
but more distinguishing characteristics would be ideal. Many
sincere and talented musicians walk the same path; Adams
might wish to veer further off-course next time around.

Digital Primate, Siege Mentality, Public Opinion [import]

Digital Primate fuse reggae with techno and hiphop.
Songs "I Don't Give a Fuck" and "My Bush Would Make
a Better President" give some indication as to where
these Melbourne ladies and gents are coming from:
they may be pissed, but they still wanna dance.

As the group states in Siege Mentality's CD booklet, "Please consider the current state of the world and work out your own position within it." (They include websites.) Plenty of profanity, skittery grooves, and production from the Mad Professor.

The Discovery, EP, Pforder Records

It isn't usually fair to judge a CD by its cover art. That said,
the Discovery's self-titled EP bears an unappealing paint-
ing of a frame-filling eye: a black and gold swirl stands in for
the iris, while a snot-like tear oozes from the inner corner.

The four songs from this Arizona
outfit are clunky, Jamaican-in-
fluenced pronouncements about our
troubled world. The fourth track
splices original lyrics with Phil
Collins' "In the Air Tonight."

I wouldn't say the music sounds exactly like the picture, but neith-
er quite works—not for me, at any
rate. And I like "In the Air Tonight."

Hypatia Lake, Angels and Demons,
Space and Time, Reverb Records

Hypatia Lake keep doing that voodoo that they do—and
do well—on their third disc. As with Your Universe, Your
Mind and ...And We Shall Call Him Joseph, the Seattle band
follows in the footsteps of S.F. Sorrow-era Pretty Things.

Recorded and engineered by Scott Colburn (Animal Collec-
tive, Arcade Fire), the only significant difference seems to be increased clarity, i.e. more separation between instruments.

A dramatic and moody muse continues to guide these men,
who also bring to mind such diverse acts as Pink Floyd, T-
Rex, Gary Numan, and Ennio Morricone, especially on the
angelic, windswept "Jeremiah, Close Your Eyes Now."

Rurik, Re-education, The Athir Creative Inc.

Rurik consists of two excitable fellows, Christofer Dale (key-
boards) and Kevin Jackson (drums). Their second record, after Definition of Order, features fast-paced dance-rock in the Sparks or Devo mode. It doesn't qualify as new wave revival, however, since the production projects more of a post-millenial sheen.

Unless you're hopped up on something (or naturally hyper-
active), it just might wear you down. Except for "Every Time I
Ride Alone," Rurik remains revved up from start to finish, but
a few more mellow moments would've been most welcome.

War Tapes, War Tapes EP, Sarathan Records [9/16/08]

I feel like I've heard this LA four-piece before. They produce dark,
atmospheric post-punk that recalls U2 and Interpol. The thing is,
no one can do what those Irish rockers do—and bands like In-
terpol and Editors just make me wanna listen to Joy Division.

It isn't cool to admit, but I've always had a soft spot for U2.
Yes, it's partly an Irish thing, even though they rarely sing a-
bout their homeland anymore (see "Sunday, Bloody Sunday").

In any case, since the 1980s, the
Alarm, Big Country, and hundreds
of others have tried to fill their shoes,
but few have come close. Now we
can add War Tapes to that list.

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

Endnote: The title of this post comes from the May
Fire song "The List." They play the High Dive on 9/2,
while Hypatia Lake plays the Comet on 7/31. For more
information about the former, please click here, from whence
the image at the top originates; for the latter, click here, from
where I swiped the poster graphic. For more about Adams,
click here; for the Discovery, here; and for Rurik, here or
here. All other images from Planetary Group.

Back to the Future: The American Dollar and More

The American
Dollar, A Memory
Stream, Yesh
Music [8/19/08]

Explosions in the Sky
proved that instrumen-
tal rock could become both
popular and lucrative.

The Texas outfit provided the soundtrack for the foot-
ball film Friday Night Lights, then the NBC series, and
they've been selling out mid-sized venues ever since.

The American Dollar's John Emanuele and Rich Cupolo
ply a similar sound, and it's also been co-opted for the small
screen (see MTV's Battlegrounds). Whether the Queens duo's
similarity to EitS is coincidental or intentional, their third CD
serves wonderfully well as the score to an imaginary film.

Waves on Waves, self-titled, VIP Group [9/9/08]

This flamboyant Nashville
trio—throughout the cov-
er art, they cavort in head-
dresses, eyeshadow, ear-
rings, and tattoos—pumps
out 1980s-style synth-pop.

Front man Thornton (one name only, please) has a gentle yet forthright voice, akin to post-Soft Cell Marc Almond.

Sexually ambiguous imagery aside, Waves on Waves (for-
merly Thornton) play it pretty safe on their debut. Lyrics
like "Today I wrote the Holy Book" ("We Want To") join with
sweeping synths and Edge-influenced guitar work. The shiny
results recall a less dance-oriented Erasure or Spandau Ballet.

Wax Fang, La La Land, Don't Panic! Records [10/14/08]

Wax Fang's leader lives to shout. You can envision Scott Carney
in your mind's eye—even if you've never seen pictures of him be-
fore. There he is on stage, arms stretched out to the sky. Or may-
be he's on his knees, beseeching the crowd to heed his words.

Sounds off-putting, doesn't it? The thing is, some guys can pull
off these sorts of dramatics, namely Queen's Freddie Mercury.

Well, the aptly-named Carney sounds
nothing like Mercury, but I'll be damn-
ed if the Louisville singer/guitarist
doesn't make the old-school front man
schtick seem fresh. In fact, he's so good
at the loud stuff that when he turns the
volume down, as on the introduction
to "Cannibal Summer," he falters.
Briefly. This man wasn't meant for
the ballad, but the operatic rocker.

Partially recorded at Memphis's famed Ardent Studios with
drummer Kevin Ratterman and bass player Jacob Heustis,
Carney's follow-up to Black & Endless Night recalls the tight-
trousered days of Queen, Bowie, and The Rocky Horror Show.

La La Land isn't small or subtle. It's big and intense. By all
rights, this thing should suck. Miraculously, it doesn't.



Endnote: Every other CD that comes my way these days
sounds like an '80s flashback. Not counting the indie music
of the era—especially the bands on Rough Trade—I don't
share the nostalgia that fuels these musicians, though I'm
trying to be understanding. That said, I'm more tolerant
of the '70s revivalists, because that's my favorite era.

For more information about Waves on Waves, please click
here or here; and for Wax Fang, here. Images from the My-
Space Pages for the American Dollar (album cover by Greg
Brophy) and Wax Fang (I own that same edition of The Rock
Yearbook). The latter, incidentally, list Kenneth Anger, Werner
Herzog, Terry Gilliam, Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, and
Journey (!) among their influences, to which I say: Right on.

State of Play: Tracking My Reviews

Every few
months,
I check
Google
to see
where
my re-
views
(and oth-
er pieces)
are ending up. Here are some of the more interesting results.

Bibliochat
Amazon review of Born Into Brothels

Bohemian Aesthetic:
Amazon review of Sara Bareilles - Little Voice

Mininova:
Amazon review of David Ford - I Sincerely
Apologize for All the Trouble I've Caused

[I also reviewed his new disc for KEXP; it's pretty similar.]

Out and About Vancouver:
Amazon review of No Country for Old Men

Running Rooster:
Amazon review of H.R. Pufnstuf

Salt Lake Public Library:
Amazon review of State of Play

[Soon to be a major mo-
tion picture...that will not
surpass the miniseries.]


Seattle Film and Music Office:
Kathy Fennessy at SIFFBlog recently had the opportunity to visit the set of Lynn Shelton's new feature Humpday, which stars Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project) and Mark Duplass (co-director of Baghead) in a story of "male bonding taken too far."

Stupid and Contagious:
Amazon review of the Kills - No Wow

Style Wars:
Amazon review of Style Wars

Sylvia Juncosa:
AMG review of Various Artists - Away from the Pulsebeat

Endnote: GreenCine Daily linked to my pieces on Funny Games,
David Gordon Green, and Hal Ashby, while Prost Amerika cross-
posted my reviews of La Chinoise, Shotgun Stories, and The
Saga of Anatahan and my Sound interview with Alexis Ferris.

The NWFF also linked to my Ashby tribute, my Humpday
report, and my Shotgun Stories review. Also, click here
for a photo from a NWFF panel ("Critics Critiqued") in
which Jay Kuehner, Charles Mudede, and I participated.

Images from The Medium Is Not Enough (John Simm,
State of Play) and Digital Entertainment News (Simm
as the reporter; David Morrissey as the politician).