Video of the Day: Lisa Hannigan, “I Don’t Know”
I Don't Know
The former Damien Rice muse is in a much better mood these days, and she proves it by constructing her own cheery origami world. She even managed to construct a cut-paper twee, I mean tree.
Random 10 for May 19, 2009
Doves - Kingdom of Rust
1. Doves, “Kingdom of Rust.” Why is it that Kingdom of Rust is so below the radar? It’s been four years since Some Cities, and absence should have made the heart grow much fonder. Pursue it, love it, wallow in its Northern Soul misery.
2. Jarvis Cocker, “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time.”
3. Jon Brion, “Her Ghost.”
4. Kanye West, “Good Life.” While we’re on the subject of things that went relatively unnoticed, “Good Life” should have been a massive hit, but thanks to a volley of unkind words between MTV and ‘Ye, not so much. I mean, hell, it’s got T-Pain on it. Isn’t there a law or something?
5. Ween, “Mister Richard Smoker.”
6. The Appleseed Cast, “Raise the Sails.”
7. Colourmusic, “Yes!”
8. Martha Wainwright, “The George Song.”
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Dragon Queen.”
New Frontier - Donald Fagen
10. Donald Fagen, “New Frontier.” If I had to select the Top 10 videos of my youth, this is definitely near the top, partly because of my abiding love of Steely Dan but mainly because it captures the graphic style and iconography of early ’60s nuclear scare so beautifully. This was directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel (sister of Ian Dury and the Blockheads member Chaz Jankel), the team that went on to create “Max Headroom.”
Video of the Day: Passion Pit, “The Reeling”
If this hasn’t been the Video of the Day, it was an oversight. If it has, it deserves to be again. Manners is out today — review to follow.
SNL: “Jeopardy”
Easily the funniest skit since the election ended.
Anton Yelchin’s “Star Trek”/”Terminator” Summer
Separated by just two weeks on the summer movie schedule but worlds apart in their sensibilities, “Terminator Salvation” and “Star Trek” might just represent the polar extremes of science fiction’s future vision. In one, humanity harnesses technology to create a gleaming, electronically perfect platform for exploring the universe. The other involves technology taking over the planet and destroying everything with a pulse.
Anton Yelchin is that connecting tissue between the utopia and the dystopia, which puts the 20-year-old actor in an enviable position. By taking on the roles of Kyle Reece in next week’s “Terminator Salvation” and Chekov in last week’s “Star Trek,” Yelchin is an essential element in re-launching two successful franchises, and due to scheduling, the star of “Charlie Bartlett” and the Showtime series “Huff” could end up being this summer’s king of the box office.
“They’re both really incredible to be a part of and to experience, and to be on the set is just insane — they’re both iconic franchises but two totally different moods and philosophies, really,” Yelchin said during a press day at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. “It was pretty wonderful to go from one universe into a totally different universe even though they’re both science fiction.”
Yelchin was born in Leningrad during the last gasp of the Soviet Union, five years after James Cameron’s original, modestly budgeted “Terminator” became a surprise hit. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were ice skating stars who emigrated to the U.S. when Anton was six months old, giving their son ample opportunity to fully absorb American pop culture.
And the first two “Terminator” movies were front and center in Yelchin’s imagination.
“I think I saw them way too early. Like, I saw ‘T2,’ which came out in ’91, and I saw it on TV a couple of years after that, so I was about four or five when I saw it, and I was so into it,” he said. “I was obsessed with it: I had all the action figures, I had a Terminator factory that made gelatin Terminators — hey, they put one out and I had it.”
Now, instead of building gelatinous killing machines, Yelchin must construct new identities for two characters established by other actors: Reece was created by Michael Biehn in the original “Terminator,” and Walter Koenig originated Chekov in the 1966-69 “Star Trek” series. Yelchin, who will appear later this year in “New York, I Love You” and “Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac,” said he closely studied both actors’ performances, hoping to capture some of their techniques and qualities for his own versions of their characters.
“Every day, every week, pretty much,” Yelchin said of his DVD-assisted study of Biehn and Koenig. “There’s a set of guidelines I want to follow, and I take those guidelines from the character that was created by the original actor. For me, I had to adjust certain scenes to those guidelines as opposed to adjusting those guidelines to the script, because I felt like this was something that people would want to see in that character.”
DVD Review: “Paul Simon and Friends: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song”
Rating: 76
With the exception of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which has been covered by hundreds of performers, most of Paul Simon’s songs are mainly associated with his own performances — his distinctive voice and artistic sensibility are hard to separate from “The Boxer,” “Slip Slidin’ Away” and “Graceland.” But this Library of Congress Gershwin Prize awards concert from 2007 offers new proof that in the proper hands, his work is endlessly adaptable.
Following an introduction by Bob Costas, “Paul Simon and Friends” begins appropriately with Lyle Lovett’s version of “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” — Lovett, whose verbose lyrical style often mirrors Simon’s, is a sympathetic choice. But then subsequent singers prove how malleable Simon’s songs can be: Stephen Marley’s take on “Mother and Child Reunion” proves that Simon’s reggae had a ring of authenticity, and Yolanda Adams and Jessy Dixon turn “Gone at Last” into a legitimate gospel rave-up.
But even with such fine turns, everyone is waiting for Rhymin’ Simon to take the stage, and the final section is devoted to some of his best live vocal performances in years, including a set with Stevie Wonder on “Loves Me Like a Rock” and “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.” And when erstwhile partner Art Garfunkel arrives for “Bridge,” the old friends and sometime “frenemies” almost sound better than they did 40 years ago. Like the man of honor, “Paul Simon and Friends” is all class.
Video of the Day: Metric, “Gimme Sympathy”
Gimme Sympathy
Who would you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones? Emily Haines seems to tip her hand on this one.
Thanks to Todd for pointing me to this joyous grab for pop stardom. My review of Metric’s Fantasies is forthcoming.
Static, Episode 13: Sherree Chamberlain
Interview
“You Don’t Love Me”
“Windmill Wings”
“Circus, Dear”
Music Review: Winter Gloves, “About a Girl” (Paper Bag)
Rating: 70
Montreal’s Winter Gloves gets maximum mileage out of minimalist arrangements on “About a Girl,” precisely because vocalist/keyboardist Charles F writes strong melodies that don’t require high-tech baubles to make them sing. Powered by analog keyboards, ancient beat boxes, organic drums, sparse guitar and liberal use of glockenspiels, “About a Girl” achieves a certain majesty without going overboard — this wall of sound is more like a mesh, allowing plenty of air to circulate.
“Factories” kicks off with distorted electric piano and electronic bass as Charles F sings about finding tranquility in a city of industry. Simple organ chords meander below the band’s skyward harmonies on the track, segueing into the tense single “Let Me Drive,” a propulsive dance-rocker almost entirely built on brittle drums and Farfisa drones. Elsewhere, “Invisible” achieves synth-pop icy cool even when the only synthesizer in the mix is a lo-fi pulse rhythm.
Much like Wolf Parade, Winter Gloves’ raw mix provides a kind of rough exoskeleton for songs that, in more candy-coated production environments, would be chart-ready pop music. But Winter Gloves’ approach on “About a Girl” celebrates the melodies — the closing track, “Piano 4 Hands” achieves liftoff with only a rumble of distortion, some glockenspiel and handclaps. There’s nobility in that simplicity.
DVD Review: “Chandni Chowk To China”
Rating: 14
“Chandni Chowk to China” is a digitally delivered headache, a frenetic, culturally insensitive disaster in which Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar takes a scorched-earth approach to comedy, blighting all 2 ½ hours of this slapstick menace with his desperate mugging and scenery munching. No amount of enthusiasm for Indian cinema can compensate for this exhausting, painful time waster.
Sidhu (Kumar) is marking time as a lowly vegetable slicer at a roadside food stand in Delhi when two Chinese strangers claim he is the reincarnated war hero Liu Sheung. Upon arriving in China, Sidhu falls for the beautiful Sakhi (Deepika Padukone), who is on a quest to find her family origins, but Sidhu soon must confront Chinese mobster Hojo (Gordon Liu of “Kill Bill”) and his assassins, including Suzy Meow Meow (also played by Padukone).
This probably looked great on paper: a merging of Bollywood’s more manic slapstick tendencies with Chinese martial arts, but “Chandni Chowk to China” is a mess. This is not an example of a cultural phenomenon not translating to Western tastes — “Chandni Chowk” was a widely panned box office failure in its native country, as well. While much of the problem rests with Nikhil Advani’s hammy directing, most of this atrocity is Kumar’s fault — it’s like watching the worst tendencies of Jim Carrey, Robin Williams and Tim Allen morphed into one subtitled, irritating sight gag.
