Echo and Chime: Girls Names' Dead to Me

Girls
Names,
Dead
to Me,
Slum-
ber-
land
[4/26/11]

"An old-fashioned style pop album, albeit one with a perverse haunted feel."
--press note description

I've given Crystal Stilts and Pains of Being Pure at Heart a try,
but I can't quite get with their program, though I can under-
stand the attraction. I love echo and chime, so you figure I'd
be all over those NYC outfits, but taste is a mercurial thing.

After one listen to Belfast's Girls Names, which shares a label
with the latter, I encountered the same exact ingredients, and
yet they appeal to me in a way their better known peers don't.

Click here for the "Bury Me" video.

While listening to Dead to Me, I've tried to pinpoint the differ-
ence, but I don't think it has anything to do with superior music-
ianship. If anything, the drumming seems a bit sluggish. It's part-
ly that they remind me of understated, dark-tinged UK guitar
groups like Felt. Their bio also cites the Walker Brothers, Oran-
ge Juice, Black Tambourine, and the Sound of Young Scotland.

It isn't goth or Joy Division-style post-punk, but there's a melancholy air to this material, starting with vocals mixed so low they melt into the music, much like another instrument, rather than
the focal point of the enterprise. They're just loud enough that you can hear some, but not all of the lyrics. The advantage to this approach is that one listen doesn't reveal everything. You have to
pay closer attention...assuming you're sufficiently intrigued.

Click here for "Séance on a Wet Afternoon."

The closing track, "Séance on a Wet Afternoon," marks the first
Girls Names song I ever heard. I don't know whether they took
the title from the book or the movie, but it's a great choice either
way, and aptly encapsulates the rainy-day mood of their debut.
 
Endnote: For more information, please click here. First im-
age from Your Music Today, second: Béla Tarr's Sátántangó.

Movie of the Month, Part 27: The Girl

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

THE GIRL [***1/2]
(Fredrik Edfeldt, Sweden, 2009, 95 minutes)

An unnamed Swedish nine-year-old (the remarkable Blanca Engström) gets left behind for the summer when her aid-worker parents travel to Africa in 1981. They want to bring her with them, but the agency deems her too young, so they entrust the girl to her aunt, Anna (Tova Magnusson-Norling), a single woman who doesn't appear to have much experience with children.

For the next few days, the slight redhead attends a swimming school, while Anna drinks, smokes, plays records, and throws raucous parties. The girl and her friend Ola (Vidar Fors), a shy farmer's son, find Anna's antics amusing, but then she goes off on an extended holiday with an old boyfriend, leaving the kid to fend for herself--a development our heroine actually sets into motion.

Click here for the age-restricted trailer.

The girl lies to Ola and to her hard-drinking neighbor, Gunnar
(Leif Andrée), about Anna’s whereabouts, giving her license to
do whatever she wants, like pursuing a fleeting friendship with
Gunnar's boy-crazy teenage daughter, Tina (Emma Wigfelt),
and her more sophisticated friend, Gisela (Michelle Vistam),
who like to pretend they're the female members of ABBA.

The girl, who spends more time watching than speaking, doesn't
know how to cook, but she attempts to keep the house clean (and
to raise a tadpole). Mostly, she observes the teens and the adults
around her behaving more badly than the kids. The story is ab-
sorbing enough as it tracks her movements, but then something
happens, which isn't her fault, though she's present at the time.

Afterward, she isolates even more, almost as if she were go-
ing through a sort of premature mid-life crisis. Even so, Fred-
rik Edfeldt's film is hardly depressing, even if tragedy lurks a-
round every corner. Shot with care by Hoyte Van Hoytema
(Let the Right One In), it offers the same suspenseful ap-
peal as Hirokazu Kore-Eda's No One Knows, which also
featured children left on their own. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part
26: Fish Tank - The Criterion Collection

Endnote: Slightly revised from the origin-
al text. Film still from Time Out New York.

April 2011 Reviews

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

Amazon DVDs: Friday Night Lights - Season Five [3-disc set], Michael Winterbottom's A Summer in Genoa (with Colin Firth and Catherine Keener), and Identity (with Aidan Gillen) [2-disc set].  

Amazon Theatricals: Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff (with Michelle Williams and Bruce Greenwood), Morgan Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Julian Schnabel's Miral (with Hiam Abbas), Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and Water for Elephants (with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson). 

Armchair Commentary: Sidney Lumet obituary. 

SIFF: Four more notes for the program guide.

Seattle Film Blog: Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains and Some Days Are Better Than Others (with Sleater-Kinney/Wild Flag's Carrie Brownstein and Shins/Broken Bells front man James Mercer). 

Video Librarian: Steve Reich - Phase to Face, Carancho, Clannad - The Motion Picture, Anton Chekhov's The Duel, Let's Talk About Sex, The Owls, Great Directors, I'm Just Anneke / The Family Journey, 9000 Needles, Nature - Elsa's Legacy: The Born Free Story, Hidden Battles, This Land Is Our Land - The Fight to Reclaim the Commons, The Heretics, Loving Lampposts, Miss HIV, Mother Nature's Child - Growing Outdoors in the Media Age.

Endnote: Image from The Film Stage.

Essential Charm: Keren Ann's 101

Keren
Ann,
101,
Blue
Note-
EMI
[3/22/11]

I've been
following
Keren
Ann's
career
since she
lived in France, sung in French, and collaborated with musi-
cian/producer Benjamin Biolay, who's since married (and col-
laborated with) Chiara Mastroianni. That was a long time ago.

[Image above from the album; click here for the single cover art.]

When she first signed to Blue Note, Keren Ann, who divides her
time between New York and Tel Aviv, still sang a few songs in
French, but her fourth effort for the label is an all-English affair.
(Though I've also followed Biolay's career, I've enjoyed Ms. Zei-
del's output better, since she has a greater facility with a hook.)

Fortunately, her essential charms remain intact. Every record is
slightly different than the one before, but it's hard to imagine her
selling out, as it were, or going down a completely new path--only
her mod Vidal Sassoon-like hairstyle marks a significant change.



There's a reason she shares a label with singer/songwriters like
Norah Jones and Priscilla Ahn--pretty women, pleasing melo-
dies--but I prefer her releases, since they offer more of an ed-
ge, which may not be evident at first listen...so keep listening.

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

My name is trouble, my first name’s a mess
No need to greet me, I’m here to confess
That if you let me hold you, I won’t hold my breath
And if you let me love you, I will love to death.

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

As with previous recordings, her sixth album opens with an ex-
quisite pop gem, in this case "My Name Is Trouble," in which a
wistful vocal floats over a chiming, quasi-psychedelic keyboard
pattern. It's bouyant and noirish at the same time, reflective of
the cloak and dagger cover--just substitute pistol for dagger.



There are at least six remixes on YouTube, none of which im-
proves it in any way. This Hecedemon version, however, stands
out from the rest as it slows the song down instead of speeding
it up, and replaces playful organ with stately piano. Haunting.

The rest of the album, I'm happy to say, lives up to the promise
of the single. At times, 101 recalls the French duo Air, back when
a female vocalist was part of their arsenal (see Moon Safari, Virgin
Suicides, etc.). Keren Ann's songs are more succinct--no long, in-
strumental passages--but they give off a similar luxurious glow.

"Run with You" and "Strange Weather," in particular, feature a
vibrant mix of strings, heavenly choir, and effervescent keys.

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

79 Star Trek episodes, 78 revolutions per minute , 77
developing nations...72 virgins, 71 solar eclipses, 70 souls
in the house of Jacob...66 verses, 65 notorious crimes...

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

There's no filler, but the most distinctive material opens and
closes the set, ending with the title track, in which she counts
from 101 to 1. It's her most overt statement about her Israeli
heritage yet, though she includes pop culture references, too.

And that about sums up Keren Ann: as a student, she was prob-
ably at the top of her class, but she was also the first--maybe the
only one--to debate "Ginsberg and Korsow," sneak flasks into
school dances, and steal smokes behind the gymnasium. The
warm meets the cool, the tough meets the tender: the folk-
pop chanteuse meets the trenchcoat-clad femme fatale.

Click links for reviews of 2002's La Biographie de Lu-
ka Philipsen, 2005's Nolita, and 2007's Keren Ann.

Endnote: Click here for an interview with Keren Ann,
who plays the Triple Door on 6/17. For more information,
click here or here. Image from Blue Note/EMI Records.

Hypnotic: New Music from Moon Duo, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Seapony

Moon Duo,
Escape, Woodsist

Dark, buzzy, propul-
sive, and minimal.
--Andy Beta,
SF Weekly

San Francisco's Wooden Shjips came first, but Moon Duo (Erik "Ripley" Johnson and Sanae Yamada) has quickly acquired a similar reputation for gloriously unhinged guitar work and hypnotic motorik rhythms (yes, I overuse the word "hypnotic").

Last year's mini-LP Escape follows up on 2009's Killing Time
EP on Sacred Bones, and features only four tracks, but they're
plenty expansive (the release clocks in at 28:48 minutes).

While the band doesn't eschew vocals, they downplay them; those
that do materialize never compete with the oceanic instrumenta-
tion--guitar, organ, and drum machine--which takes center stage.

They're like a cross between Neu!, Suicide, and Loop (their AMG
bio also cites Spacemen 3 and Silver Apples). On the title track,
however, Johnson and Yamada speed up the pace, lighten the
mood, and evoke Jesus and Mary Chain by way of Suicide.

Click here for "When You Cut" from upcoming album Mazes.
 
Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Belong,
Slumberland/Collective Sounds [3/29/11]

I definitely see this album as keeping with what
we started doing at the beginning, only more.
-- singer/guitarist Kip Berman

Their first record was a hit, so New York's Pains of Being Pure
at Heart have upped the ante--and will probably meet with even
greater success. Belong doesn't represent a radical departure,
but rather a bigger, bolder version of their signature sound. Cre-
dit the participation of producer Flood (PJ Harvey, U2) and mix-
er Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain).

If anything, it's too slick for my taste what with the super-sized
guitars and drums. If John Hughes were still around, and still
making movies about disaffected teens, these songs would fit
comfortably on the soundtrack next to selections from Simple
Minds and the Psychedelic Furs, which is good news for '80s re-
vivalists, but I prefer M83's spacey, electronic take on the era.

Click here for my review of their debut.

Seapony, Go with Me, Hardly Art [5/31/11]

I am obsessed with this band.
--Marco Collins, KEXP

Seattle trio Danny Rowland, Jen Weidl, and Ian Brewer offer up
reverb-drenched pop in the C86/Slumberland/Simple Machines
vein. Tour mates Pains of Being Pure at Heart have helped to re-
vitalize this style, on which Seapony puts their sunny stamp.

Other than their timekeeper, an Alesis HR-16, though, there isn't
much new going on here, and I'd prefer greater urgency--"I Real-
ly Do" and "Nobody Knows" feel a little sluggish--but the tam-
bourine-shakes and handclaps keep things humming along.

Click here for "Blue Star" and here for "Dreaming."

Endnote: Moon Duo plays the Funhouse on 4/8, while Sea-
pony plays the Havana Social Club on 4/4 and the Crocodile on
4/22 with Pains of Being Pure at Heart. For more informa-
tion about the latter, please click here. Image from SF Weekly.

The Other Girls: Vivian Girls' Share the Joy

I don't
wanna be
like the
other girls.
--Vivian
Girls, "The
Other Girls"

Vivian Girls, Share the Joy, Polyvinyl Record Co. [4/12/11]

Intentionally or otherwise, Brooklyn's Vivian Girls have always
sounded like the Shangri-las for a new era: sweet vocals blended
with volume, distortion, and spoken-word vignettes. They began
as ladies with attitude, driving rhythms, and a sense of unease.

It was pop music, and it's still pop music, but sprinkled with
the gloom of goth-rock. They aren't predicting the end of the
world or even the end of love, but the trio favors minor key
melodies and harmonies that convey more sorrow than joy.
When they sing, "It's all all right with me," they don't sound
doubtful, so much as resigned, thinking they can't do better.

As Cassie Ramone explains in the press notes, "These songs
focus a lot on the themes of alienation, reconciliation, identity,
and trying to figure out what really matters in life. It's a dark
album, but unlike our first two albums, it has a happy ending."



A lot has changed since 2009's Everything Goes Wrong, about
which I had mixed feelings. The Girls moved from In the Red to
Polyvinyl, drummer Ali Koehler left to join ex-tour mates Best
Coast (Fiona Campbell now fills her spot), bass player "Kickball"
Katy Goodman issued her debut as La Sera, and guitarist Cassie
formed the Babies, whose self-titled release just hit the streets.

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

They ain't comin' back, it's too late. They
shot my baby, but they killed my faith.
--"Sixteen Ways" (Green on Red cover)

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

The good news is that these side projects are worth your while
if you have any interest in the parent band. More important-
ly, Share the Joy, which takes its title from a Burt Bachrach-
Hal David composition, is a solid effort from Cassie and crew.
I still prefer their first record, brief running time aside, but
they've tightened things up since Everything Goes Wrong.

In the end, though, it has the feel of a transitional release, like
they're still adjusting to these changes. Their third disc isn't bad,
but it isn't great either, and since they've proven they're capab-
le of that very thing, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed.

Endnote: Vivian Girls play the Vera Project on 5/6. For more
information, please click here or here. Portrait from Polyvinyl.

Don't Despair: Sonny & the Sunsets' Hit after Hit

Sonny
& the
Sunsets,
Hit after
Hit, Fat
Possum
Records
[4/12/11]

Girls, don't despair, 'cause soon, I'll be there.
--Sonny & the Sunsets, "Girls Beware"

This album arrived out of the blue. I hadn't heard of Sonny & the
Sunsets before, other than as a mention from their publicist. Suc-
cessor to Tomorrow Is Alright, Hit after Hit turns out to be a
pleasant surprise--something I wish I could say more often.

Click here for "Reflections on Youth."

If I had to select one term, I would say: party record. Their
sophomore effort isn't raucous, so much as celebratory. The San
Francisco quartet, which includes Kelley Stoltz on drums, puts
their stamp on garage-rock with male-female vocals, a hint of
twang, and lacings of reverb, like a better behaved Black Lips
(Ryan Browne and Tahlia Harbour round out the line-up).

The retro cover art and colorful song titles give some idea as to
where their collective heads are at: "She Plays Yo Yo with My
Mind," "Teen Age Thugs," and "The Bad Energy from LA is Killing
Me" (if anything, it's slowly poisoning the entire West Coast).


"An unassuming, low-key gem." --Tim Sendra on Tomorrow Is Alright

After listening to Hit after Hit, I visited YouTube to check out
their earlier effort, but I prefer this release, which rocks harder,
though their basic sound remains the same. And lest they seem
like a novelty act, the quartet handily dodges that deadly bullet.

Sonny & the Sunsets incorporate humor, but they aren't set-
ting jokes to music. They may inhabit a world of girls and boys
rather than women and men, but that doesn't make them juve-
nile either; they're just keeping the spirit of the garage alive.

Click here for "Mr. Lucky," B-side to "I Wanna Do It."

A friend cited Jonathan Richman--adding but "thankfully not so
gratingly infantile"--possibly in regards to Sonny Smith's aden-
oidal drawl, and I'd agree that there's a little of that here, too.

This fine record comes recommended to fans of the Monkees,
Thee Headcoats, and Holly Golightly. If you're throwing a house
party, and you're looking for something to get the toes tapping
and the heads bobbing: meet your new favorite soundtrack.

Endnote: For more information, please click here. In reading up
on Smith, I found that he counts John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), Tim
Cohen (Fresh & Onlys), and Shayde Sartin (Skygreen Leopards)
as friends. He's in good company, for sure (at least two of those
gents have played with him). Image from Sonny & the Sunsets.