Video of the Day: OK Go, “All Is Not Lost.”
Damian Kulash and his collaborators in forward-thinking video worked with Kulash’s sister, Trish Sie (the chief architect of the group’s music video aesthetic) to create “All Is Not Lost.” For an interactive version best experienced on Google Chrome, go here.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller with Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, “Don’t Go To Strangers”
The Modfather knew what it was about. From Russell Brand’s “For Amy,” published yesterday.
It was only by chance that I attended a Paul Weller gig at the Roundhouse that I ever saw her live.I arrived late and as I made my way to the audience through the plastic smiles and plastic cups I heard the rolling, wondrous resonance of a female vocal. Entering the space I saw Amy on stage with Weller and his band; and then the awe. The awe that envelops when witnessing a genius. From her oddly dainty presence that voice, a voice that seemed not to come from her but from somewhere beyond even Billie and Ella, from the font of all greatness. A voice that was filled with such power and pain that it was at once entirely human yet laced with the divine. My ears, my mouth, my heart and mind all instantly opened. Winehouse. Winehouse? Winehouse! That twerp, all eyeliner and lager dithering up Chalk Farm Road under a back-combed barnet, the lips that I’d only seen clenching a fishwife fag and dribbling curses now a portal for this holy sound. So now I knew. She wasn’t just some hapless wannabe, yet another pissed up nit who was never gonna make it, nor was she even a ten-a-penny-chanteuse enjoying her fifteen minutes. She was a f—— genius.
Amy Winehouse, 1983-2011
Amy Winehouse, circa 2003
Amy Winehouse was a great singer whose formidable talent became only a footnote in her short biography, something that almost got lost in the noise generated by her self-destruction. There are two superb proper studio albums, two strong collections of b-sides and a few random tracks such as her memorable cover of The Zutons’ “Valerie” on Mark Ronson’s “Version” album, but unless the demos she worked on with producer Salaam Remi come to light, the last thing we’re likely to hear is a duet with Tony Bennett that will be released in September. But there is no trove that can be plundered for years the way record companies release “new” material by 2Pac or Jimi Hendrix. Just 2003′s “Frank,” 2006′s “Back to Black,” and those last few other crumbs.
Whenever something like Winehouse’s death on Saturday at age 27 happens, my reflex is to search the archives and read my thoughts when that person, regardless of what followed, first made an impression. This was the first paragraph from my “Back to Black” review in early 2007:
“Amy Winehouse’s voice arrives like an unexpected sledge to the head, because most rhythm & blues singers don’t sound like this anymore. She is pained but in total control, emphatic, empowered and free of the melisma that plagues “American Idol” pretenders. The laments of Winehouse’s second disc, “Back to Black,” come armored with the lyrical and vocal passion of someone done worse than wrong, and with the weight of someone who is 60 and slugged it out in Detroit, not 23 and British as a scone.”
At that point, Winehouse was completely new to American audiences — “Frank” was not released domestically until “Back to Black” and its ubiquitous singles, “Rehab” and “You Know I’m No Good,” became hits. I started hearing “Rehab” when Sirius’ Left of Center station championed it in late 2006, and that paragraph realistically reflects that first blush of discovery. If anything, I was more enthusiastic about the much jazzier “Frank” once it was re-released, because the maturity of Winehouse’s jazz phrasing at age 19 was something to behold. Dig a little deeper into those “Frank” b-sides, and her version of “Someone to Watch Over Me,” accompanied only by piano and including the prologue section, is revelatory: without the production frippery of Ronson and Salaam Remi, the depth of her talent for vocal interpretation comes through better than it does in almost any other recording she made. In some ways, she was the quintessential post-hip-hop jazz singer — her vocal takedowns often had the sting of rap but she delivered them with Blue Note grace.
Reactions to Amy Winehouse’s death probably reveal more about the reactor than the subject herself. If one’s primary experience was American tabloid regurgitation of U.K. tabloid reports, then Winehouse was a more repugnant iteration of the Lindsay Lohan model of media creation, drugged out of her mind and notable mainly for just that. Or, if the extent of the experience is the line “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said ‘No, no, no” and taste runs to smirking irony, then there’s a bit of glib “I told you so.”
But fans mainly saw all the drugs and health scares and public misadventure and faltering performances as a sad “drip, drip, drip” that kept her from doing what she was supposed to do. The drug use was terrible and it wreaked constant and instantly visible havoc on her, but those who paid attention to her work hated the fact that the drugs were taking away golden opportunities, such as the side project she discussed with ?uestlove but was unable to bring to fruition because of not only narcotics, but the scotching effect they can have on your ability to enter the U.S. and work with said genius.
As Steven Hyden of The AV Club wrote in his thoughtful Winehouse obit, the list of rock and pop stars who died at 27 just got longer. In addition to Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the man who started it all, Robert Johnson, now there is Winehouse. Why 27? Maybe it’s the average life expectancy when no one around you will say “No.” Way too many people profit off the continued disaster of celebrities: they are much more pliable when lost in a narcotic fog, and if they ever do get clean, there are always a dozen dealers lining up to get them back on the pipe.
I refused to comment on Winehouse’s disastrous performance last month in Serbia because the footage was like watching a slow-motion snuff film. It became watercooler fodder for people who never heard a note she sang. Schadenfreude is an emotionally dangerous, disgusting pursuit, but laughing at someone as they’re killing themselves is a lot easier when it’s on a computer screen, I guess. While all that was going on, I simply wanted her to get back to this:
Ali Harter is hitting her REM Cycle
Oklahoma songstress Ali Harter recently caught up with electronic reggae artist INABEATHEAD to cover the wonderful tune by REM “Losing My Religion.”
Listen to the song below and if you like it, you can buy it on iTunes!
For more info or to hear more sultry goodness by Ali, visit her website http://www.aliharter.com.
LOSING MY RELIGION feat ALI HARTER by INABEATHEAD (R.E.M. Cover) by Inabeathead
Video of the Day: Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon, “History of Rap Part 2″
You think you’ve seen the best, now here’s the rest. Timberlake and Fallon just tear through 30 years of hip-hop on this callback to the medley they did a few months ago. JT was on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” to promote his new comedy with Mila Kunis, “Friends With Benefits.” My review will be here on Friday, but let’s just say it’s highly recommended, just like this amazing clip.
– Lang
Video of the Day: Beastie Boys featuring Santigold, “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win”
Spike Jonze plays with dolls that look a hell of a lot like Mike D, MCA, King Ad Rock and Santi White, complete with a cliffhanger involving plastic zombies. Spike is great, but the Beasties really need to be checking out Kyle Roberts.
– Lang
Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake talk “Friends With Benefits” and Marine Ball Antics on “Today”
The illustrious Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake discuss the new anti-rom-com this morning with Lester Holt — I mention this because, like director Will Gluck’s last film “Easy A,” “Friends With Benefits” is a helluva great time, and because mentioning Mila Kunis is an excellent source of Web traffic and generally admirable in all ways. Look for Mila Kunis on the cover of LOOKatOKC this Wednesday, and Mila Kunis will also grace the Weekend Look cover in The Oklahoman on Friday.
Mila Kunis.
– Lang
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Video of the Day: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, “The Body”
The grown members of TPOBPAH confront memories of their younger, more carefree selves in the impressively cast clip from the band’s latest disc, “Belong.”
– Lang
Movie Review: “Phase 7″
Rating: 72
Not everyone left to make their way in an apocalypse will have the necessary skills to survive, and as Edgar Wright proved with “Shaun of the Dead,” some of the last remaining humans might be complete dopes. With “Phase 7,” director Nicolas Goldbart introduces the world to Shaun’s inept Argentine cousin.
Much like “Shaun,” “Phase 7” (currently in midnight showings at AMC Quail Springs Mall) is a darkly comic trip down a familiar horror road: Survivors attempt to hold on after a deadly virus brings society to a standstill. At first, Coco (Daniel Hendler) and his extremely pregnant wife, Pipi (Jazmin Stuart), seem completely oblivious to what is happening around them, shopping and bickering at a Buenos Aires supermarket as frenzied fellow shoppers fill their carts in anticipation of the gathering storm. Even after the World Health Organization and Argentina’s authorities enforce a quarantine, Coco and Pipi just treat it like an annoyance. Coco seems more annoyed at the lack of Internet than he does at the possibility that he could die.
With their new apartment building shut down by the local authorities, Coco and Pipi get to know their neighbors a little too well. Guglieri and Lange (Carlos Bermejo and Abian Vainstein) are the first of the group to turn on their fellow tenants, attempting to kill the elderly Zanutto (Federico Luppi) to take his food and medicine. Coco winds up on friendly terms with Horacio (Yayo Guridi), a survivalist who was paranoid long before suspicion was needed, and the two mismatched knuckleheads soon become a united front, much to Pipi’s irritation.
While it is rarely as funny as “Shaun,” “Phase 7” is cut from the same cloth in one key respect: It illustrates how some people are not natural heroes no matter how the pressures of a catastrophe might hit them. When the world is running down, Coco amuses himself by sculpting his shaggy beard into a grotesque sideburn-handlebar mustache combo. If it weren’t for Horacio, who is obsessed with the notion that the pandemic is “Phase 7” of a plan to shape a “new world order,” Coco and Pipi might just argue themselves to death instead of defending themselves and planning for some kind of post-apocalyptic future.
Clearly working from a minimal budget, Goldbart restricts most of the action to the apartment complex as the tenants’ worst impulses come to the fore. As order breaks down, the body count climbs in the building thanks to an unexpected aggressor’s uncommon shotgun skills, and Goldbart spares nothing when it comes to gore and carnage. “Phase 7” does not redefine its genre, but it provides a goofy counterpoint to Stephen King’s “The Stand,” showing that the slack and incompetent could inherit the Earth.
— Lang
Blu-ray Review: “Sucker Punch”
Rating: 64
A great technician with a strong visual sense, Zack Snyder is one of Hollywood’s best maximalists and, since breaking through with his surprisingly good remake of “Dawn of the Dead,” the boyish 45-year-old built an impressive resume by attacking as many genres as he could in rapid succession. “Sucker Punch” has enough visual ideas for four movies, and it’s not too surprising that Snyder decided to cram them all into this rapid-fire fever dream about a teenager trying literally and figuratively to escape a ghastly mental ward. It is the most comic book-inspired film of 2011 that did not actually come from a comic book, an experiment that works only fitfully but is as interesting for its failures as it is for its successes.
Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is framed for her sister’s death by her evil stepfather and sent to an asylum where, as a coping mechanism, she develops layers of fantasy to sustain herself. First, she and Amber (Jamie Chung), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and sisters Sweet Pea and Rocket (Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone) are all being exploited by the asylum in a perverse burlesque club. Second, as Baby Doll plots their escape, she falls into second-level fantasies that power her through to freedom. For these sequences, Snyder creates baroque visual conceits, including an anime-inspired duel with a giant samurai and a steampunk-infused World War I battle.
“Sucker Punch” received a critical drubbing but is nevertheless worth the time and effort put into the “Maximum Movie Mode” function on the Blu-ray, in which Snyder periodically steps into the frame to discuss how some of the more complicated shots were executed. It’s hard not to be swayed by Snyder’s enthusiasm and he is to be commended for following his creativity to an illogical extreme. Not many mainstream, big-budget directors are given such latitude. Snyder’s next film is “Man of Steel,” and Warner Bros. will undoubtedly keep a tighter reign on him for that project. With that in mind, “Sucker Punch” plays like a forum for Snyder to get crazy ideas out of his system before it’s time to toe the line for a make-or-break “Superman” reboot.
— Lang
