Movie of the Month, Part 25: Still Bill

I recently
reviewed
the follow-
ing DVD for
Video Lib-
rarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

STILL BILL [***1/2]
(Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, 2009, US, 78 minutes)

Documentaries about R&B stars often end in death, obscurity, or
sustained stardom. Co-directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack re-
count a different story, since Bill Withers was in his 30s when
he entered show business, only to walk away from it in the '80s.

In the film, he speaks about his past and his present, while archival
footage fills in for days gone by. He also travels back to his home-
town of Slab Fork, WV and to New York City for a tribute concert.

His laconic, colloquial way of talking makes the 70-year-old ex-
ceptionally good company (a quality that segues into his sing-
ing, in which he combines soul with folk and funk elements).



Aside from a stutter, which he conquered as an adult, Withers
suffered from asthma as a child, and dealt with instructors who
doubted his abilities, which only strengthened his resolve. From
high school, he joined the Navy, and became an aircraft mechanic.

His first single, "Ain’t No Sunshine," put him on the map, but when
the suits pushed him in a more conventional direction, his enthu-
siasm evaporated (one suggested he cover Elvis's "In the Ghetto").
"The fame game was kicking my ass,” Withers laments, to which
friend Cornel West counters, "You have been true to yourself."

Towards the end, Withers works on songs with his daughter, Kori,
proving that he hasn't lost the desire to make music. Other speak-
ers include Tavis Smiley, Angélique Kidjo, and My Morning Jack-
et's Jim James (wife Marcia and son Todd also offer a few words).

Concludes the singer, "We are remiss in overvaluing entertainers."
True, but Still Bill offers a necessary corrective for one who has-
n't always gotten his due. Audio options: 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0
Stereo (click here for a list of the extras). Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 24: ELO Live - The Early Years

Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. Click here
for my review of +'Justments, here for Just As I Am/Still Bill,
and here for Soul Power. Bill Withers still from Vishows.

Charmed, I'm Sure: La Sera's First Album

La Sera, self-titled,
Hardly Art [2/15/11]

Brooklyn singer/bass
player "Kickball" Katy
Goodman (Vivian Girls), AKA La Sera, strikes
out on her own for this
Seattle-recorded debut.

I was charmed by the
first single, "Never
Come Around," and had
high hopes for the rest
of the record. I wasn't
disappointed, though it isn't quite as immediate as the debuts from the Vivian Girls or the Dum Dum Girls. (Comparisons are inevitable, so it seems better to embrace than to resist them.)

Instead, La Sera reminds me more of Frankie Rose and the
Outs (Rose has played with the Vivian Girls and the Dum Dum
Girls). In other words, it's more of a grower, but Goodman al-
so combines delicate vocals with dusky surf-garage melodies.

At first listen, the reverb-drenched "Never Come Around" is
the clear stand-out, while the other cuts are more amorphous,
but on subsequent spins, their subtle hooks grew in stature.



"Sleeptalking," for instance, sounds like a female-sung Mighty
Lemon Drops song, while "Devils Hearts Grow Gold" has an en-
chanting nursery rhyme-like quality and "Left This World" re-
calls Heavenly with its sprinkling of tambourine and hand claps.
Explains Hardly Art, "Her inspiration sprung from an attraction
to early pop hits from the 1950s and ethereal choir vocals."

Click here for "Devils Hearts Grow Gold" mp3 and here for video.

Though Goodman has a pleasant voice, I wouldn't call it forceful,
but I don't consider that a problem, since the spare, yet effective
production indicates that she understands her limitations (she
collaborated with producer/multi-instrumentalist Brady Hall).

She often sings at the top of her range, but never pushes too hard
or overwhelms the instrumentation. Instead, her multi-tracked
vocals float around the guitar, bass, and drums; sometimes rising
above, sometime melting into the mix. Very charming indeed.

Katy Goodman image from SXSW. During this year's festival, 

La Sera plays the Austin Convention Center on Thurs, Mar 17. 

Make a Smile for Me: Part Two

Click here for part one

Shortly after I posted a few Bill Withers covers in honor of Still Bill, which premiered on Showtime yesterday, February 4th, crate digger extraordinaire Larry Webber suggested several more. Here are the four I like the best. The reggae interpretations are great, but I prefer the funkiest of the funk jams.

2024 update: all videos are no longer embeddable.  :-(

[video]
In the All Music Guide, Jason Ankeny describes Eddy Senay's Hot
Thang (1972/Sussex) as "a virtual primer in psychedelic funk."

[video]

The AMG classifies vibraphonist Roy Ayers as "one of the prophets
of acid jazz," but that doesn't mean he couldn't funk it up, too (see al-
so his score for 1973 blaxploitation classic Coffy). This cover comes
from Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Red, Black and Green (1976/Mercury).

[video]
Bill Graham favorites Cold Blood (1968-76), featuring front woman
Lydia Pense, hailed from the Bay Area. They re-formed in the '00s.

[video]
Trombone player/arranger/musical director Fred Wesley proves
he could make it on his own outside the James Brown organization.
Wesley has also played with Parliament and Ike and Tina Turner.

More: Horace Andy - "Ain't No Sunshine" (and an alternate
version), Lyn Collins - "Ain't No Sunshine," Prophets of Soul -
"Ain't No Sunshine," Ken Boothe - "Ain't No Sunshine," Augus-
tus Pablo - "Ain't No Sunshine," and B.B. Seaton - "Lean on Me."

Endnote: Image from AllStarsPics, which notes
Withers' full name: William Harrison Withers, Jr.

February 2011 Reviews

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

Amazon DVDs: The Doub-
le Life of Véronique - The Cri-
terion Collection [Blu-ray]
The Norman Conquests [three-disc set], All About
Eve [Blu-ray] (special fea-
tures), Nuremberg - Its Lessons for Today, and Weeds - Season Six [three-disc set].

Amazon Theatricals: Tom Shadyac's I Am, Ni-
colas Philibert's Nénette, and The Oscar Nominat-
ed Short Films 2011 - Animation and Live Action.

Still playing: Blue Valentine, The Company Men, Country Strong,
The Fighter, How Do You Know, Inside Job, The King's Speech, Love
and Other Drugs, Somewhere, The Town, and Waiting for Superman.

Seattle Film Blog: Gregg Araki's KABOOM and Lemmy*. Also, cleaned up interviews with John Scheinfeld (Who Is Harry Nilsson [and Why Is Everybody Talkin' about Him?]) and Keith Fulton (Brothers of the Head).

*Alas, the screener never arrived. 

Video Librarian: Felicity - An American Girl Adventure,
The Girl, Sasha, 1 a Minute, Changing House, Invitation to
World Literature - The Odyssey, The Lazarus Effect, Rachel,
Romantic Warriors, Sin by Silence, Teenage Witness - The
Fanya Heller Story, Two Spirits, and Vanishing of the Bees.

Endnote: Image from emusic.

Make a Smile for Me: Part One

Since I just reviewed the Bill Withers documentary Still Bill, here are a few of my favorite Withers covers. And if you can't get enough, the Docurama DVD includes The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová) with "Stories," Corey Glover (Living Colour) with "Who Is He and What Is He to You" and Yim Yames (Jim James/My Morning Jacket) with "Ain't No Sunshine."

Of the three, I prefer the latter as James takes the most understated approach to the material (overstatement seems gauche). The extras also offer brief chats with Withers associates like actor/football great Jim Brown and Graham Nash (Hollies, CSNY).


Corey Glover's heartfelt, if overstated cover can't quite compare.


Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and the inimitable Ms. Jones.


Holly Golightly adds reverb and twang to this Withers classic.


Diana's disco extravaganza trumps the Bonnie Prince Billy version.

Update: Still Bill will have its US broadcast premiere this Fri, 2/4,
at 8:30PM on Showtime. For more information, please click here.

Click here for part two

Endnote: Image from Grio.com (AP Photo/Reed Saxon). Click
here for my review of +'Justments (which includes "The Same
Love That Made Me Laugh"), here for Just As I Am/Still Bill, here
for Soul Power, and here for Golightly's God Don't Like It (which
includes "Use Me"). I'll be posting my DVD review next month.

Everywhere You Go: Black Cats II

Click here
for part one

As I finally got caught up with Kaneto Shindo's Kuroneko
yesterday (at SIFF Cinema through Thurs., 1/27), this seem-
ed like a good time to recognize more black cats. Instead of
videos, here are the photos and panels that caught my eye.











Black cats are a stylist's best friend (white will do in a
pinch). Socks doesn't wake up for less than $10,000 a day.











Felix is a foot fetishist.


















Mark Twain was a feline fancier and the web offers several pictures
of the author with tabby kittens (one of whom looks a little irritated).
His daughter, Jean, used her Brownie to capture this fine fellow.


















Everyone knows about Catwoman (soon to be played by Anne Hathaway), but fewer are likely to know about Felicia Hardy, AKA The Black Cat, who appears to share a little DNA with Socks above.
















Even Wonder Woman finds them intimidating (actually, this superheroine is her similarly-garbed lookalike, Phantom Lady).


















One of the best things ever. Better even than this Béla Tarr t-shirt.

Endnote: Click here for "The Quintessential Black Cat."
Images from The Cat Network, VisualizeUs, We Shall March,
Spiderfan.org, postmodernbarney ("The Mystery of the Black
Cat"), and Boing Boing ("Cat Flag" created by Art Yucko).

Inner and Outer Space: Irmin Schmidt and More

Irmin Schmidt
and the Inner
Space, Kama-
sutra: Vollen-
dung der Liebe,
Crippled Dick
Hot Wax

When it comes to Can, I'm not a completist, though they're one of my very favorite bands (frankly, I don't have the storage space or the disposable income to collect everything by most any artist).

I prefer their early material--when vocalists Malcolm Mooney
and Damo Suzuki were part of the line-up--to their later work.

And by early material, I'm including the recordings composer-
keyboard player Irmin Schmidt made as Inner Space, the
name of their Cologne studio, before he co-founded Can.
According to his Wikipedia entry, Schmidt "has written the
music to more than 40 films and television programs."



For this release, his collaborators include drummer Jaki Liebe-
zeit, guitarist Michael Karoli, and Mooney ("There Was a Man").

The AMG speculates that Holger Czukay and David C. Johnson
handled bass and flute, respectively (the latter made his exit in
1969). Therefore, it's a Can record in all but name. The group
would follow it up with their unofficial '68 debut, Can...Delay.

Like Inner Space's Agilok and Blubbo, which finally saw release
in 2009, Kamasutra serves as the score for a German film of
the same name. Can would continue to contribute to many mo-
tion pictures throughout their career, as exemplified by 1970's
exceptional Soundtracks, which features the lilting "She Brings
the Rain" and majestic "Mother Sky," their crowning achieve-
ment (it receives pride of place in '71's wrenching Deep End). 

From descriptions of the film, Kamasutra doesn't sound like
anything special, but the score is another matter. Other than
"Man" and "I'm Hiding My Nightingale," it's an instrumental af-
fair combining elements of jazz, psychedelia, folk, and African
polyrhythms into a concoction that should be familiar--if
not downright exhilarating--to Can's fervent followers.

To my mind, Can is the German equivalent of Traffic, while Traf-
fic is the UK equivalent of Can (bassist Rosko Gee and percus-
sionist Reebop Kwaku Baah played with both). That's particular-
ly apparent here since Johnson's woodwind work saturates the
entire enterprise. I also like the way it feels as if Liebezeit is
pounding his kit somewhere within the recesses of your skull.
I can't quite explain the effect, but it's eerie and hypnotic.

Mostly, I can't believe that it took over 40 years for this LP
to see the light if day. Suffice to say: it was worth the wait.
 
Cage the Elephant, Thank You Happy Birthday, 
Jive/Sony

On their second record, Kentucky's Cage the Elephant pro-
duce the kind of clean modern rock we used to play on KNDD.
Matthew Schultz's wavery pipes provide the most distinguish-
ing feature, especially on "Indy Kidz" and "Sell Yourself," where
he explodes in blood-curdling screams. (While listening to the
CD, I found out that Cage records an Endsession on Sunday.)

Jaden Carlson, Tell Me What You See, self-released [2/22/11]

Nine-year-old Colorado kid Jaden Carlson makes music aimed
more at adults (like her band mates) than the kiddie set. Her soph-
omore disc offers down-home rock hampered by the unexception-
al vocals of a child with a severely limited range. With experience,
this Michael Franti protegé may become a better singer--she's al-
ready a good guitarist--but for now, the instrumentals form the
set's highlights. Otherwise: this feels like a vanity project.

Endnote: For more information about Cage the Elephant,
please click here; and for Jaden Carlson, here. Image of Ir-
min Schmidt from Wikipedia (photograph by Heinrich Klaffs).