Super 8 review

Super 8

I've always enjoyed movies told from the point of view of children, The Sandlot (1993) was one of my favorite movies as a child and as I got older, I fell in love with Carol Reed's brilliant film The Fallen Idol (1948). There's something magical about the innocence of a child's eyes. Unfortunately, though, these types of movies have all but been abandoned lately, replaced by animated movies or depthless comedies and fantasy adventures. Super 8 is a return to movies starring kids where the kids aren't performing super-human feats like in the Spy Kids movies and Chronicles of Narnia or caricatures of kids as adults view them, instead they act like kids, doing kid things with a kids heart.

Much will be made about how director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg are trying to harken back to movies like E.T. (1982), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) both directed by Spielberg, and The Goonies (1985), written and produced by Spielberg, which is true. But to end it there is cop-out writing. The key to the direction of Super 8 can be found in the credits when the movie the kids have been making, "The Case" is shown. It's a zombie movie and the director, Charles (Ryan Griffiths), who has a Night of the Living Dead (1968) poster on his wall, throws in a reference to George Romero, the king of zombie movies, by having the zombie-creating chemical be produced "the Romero chemical company". This is a child's way of showing an influence (though some might say Quentin Tarentino also does it this way). Abrams also fills his movie with tributes to the films that influenced him, however he does it in a much subtler fashion. I'm not just talking about the Spielberg children/alien movies, either but a plethora of movies ranging from the B-movies to blockbusters.

Super 8 is set in the small town of Lillian, Ohio and revolves around a group of kids, who while making a movie on their Super 8 camera, become involved with an escaped monster and an attempted military cover-up. To give away much more of the plot would be a disservice to someone who hasn't seen the movie, but there's a lot about this movie that can be dissected without spoiling the plot. The "monster lose in a small town" and military aspects hearkens back to the big bug movies of the 50s such as Them! (1954) or Earth vs. the Spider (1958). Part of the joy of this kind of movie is how Abrams doesn't show you the monster until much later in the movie, instead we're only shown fleeting glances, a technique Abrams used in Cloverfield (2008), but one that reminded most of how in Alien (1979), Ridley Scott keeps the Xenomorph more of an idea, a shadow, or a dot on a scanner until the very end of the movie. M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002) is another movie that uses this tactic and was clearly an influence on Abrams. This heightens the suspense and induces true excitement, not just cheap thrills based of monsters jumping out of closets that have taken over horror since the slasher movement began. Even blockbusters like Jurassic Park (1993) makes an appearance, with the monster attack on a bus echoing the T-Rex's on the jeeps and the King Kong "sympathetic monster" angle is explored. So when I hear that Super 8 is just a repackaging of E.T. and The Goonies, I'm understandably incredulous of how much the reviewer formed their own opinion. Yes it's true that those movies are a big influence on Abrams, but he also brings a lot more to the table and offers a return to the time of moviemaking when movies were about a feeling and had a heart, not being beaten to death with special effects an d flat characters.

Is Super 8 a perfect movie? No, but any movie that brings back that true, warm feeling of childhood adventure is a welcome return to movie making these days.

4.5/5

Song of the Day: June 9th

Red House Painters: "Wop-a-Din-Din" from Old Ramon

There's a lot of subtlety in the work of Mark Kozelek, whether it be the progression of chords in a slow building ballad or the boxer metaphors found in Ghosts of the Great Highway. However, no Kozelek song is written with more of subtle wink than "Wop-a-Din-Din" which, despite seemingly being a straight-forward love song, could easily go misunderstood by most of the people who listen to it. It starts out simply enough, with an opening stanza like "she's got big green eyes and a long Egyptian face/she moves across the floor at her own pace" it's seem to be pretty clearly a love song. Later, however, you may wonder at a line like "and if I role an kick around, I might knock her to the ground/but she'll come back anyhow" or "she'll yawn and stretch, and stare me down expressionless/and lay back down in her nest" but you may just chalk that up to some rough times and a little artistic expression. You'd be wrong, however, as this song, though never acknowledged anywhere in the lyrics (not even in the parts in Spanish), is about Kozelek's cat. That's what makes his work so interesting, he doesn't have to spell it out for his audience with a *wink-wink* at the end, he just lets the song speak for itself. This isn't lowest common denominator songwriting. If you get the joke, good for you, if not it's just a love song to human instead of a cat. And make no mistake, this is a love song.

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X-Men: First Class review

X-Men: First Class

Of the major superhero film franchises, X-Men hasn't had a universally acclaimed groundbreaker like The Dark Knight or a unmitigated stinker like Spider-Man 3 or either Fantastic Five movie. The X-Men movies have been continually solid, sometimes leaning towards excellent (X2) while other times dipping to just merely okay (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) while always remaining entertaining and watchable. I've never left an X-Men movie disappointed, though I admittedly enter with the expectation of being entertained and that's it. For a comparison, if I got an X-Men type experience when seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I'd be disappointed because I expect more than just entertainment from that franchise. X-Men: First Class continues this trend of singles and doubles without swinging for the fences.

The differences between First Class and the other X-Men movies is clear by just looking at the cast list. Past X-Men movies have featured such stars as Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Liev Schreiber and even early roles by young future stars Anna Paquin and Ellen Page while the biggest star in First Class is arguably Kevin Bacon. This actually works to the movies advantage, instead of reacting to a new character by saying "oh hey it's Halle Berry!" you think "sweet, it's Havok!", making the movie a more engrossing experience and less of a E! red carpet special. But the cast of First Class is B-list in fame only, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both give excellent performances as main characters Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) respectively, while Jennifer Lawrence (Raven), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), and Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy) all shine in supporting roles. Kevin Bacon, as usual, is great as main villain Sebastian Shaw, though he isn't given a death worthy of the performance (more on that later). The one flaw in the cast is January Jones, she's a pretty face to be sure, but to call her flatter than a piece of paper is an insult to the acting skills of paper. She just shows no life at all, even when she's being choked by metal bars and quizzed for information she can't muster up much more than a pout. It doesn't help that she's given some of the worst dialogue in the movie ("Oh, and I wouldn’t call it a war, since that suggests both sides have an equal chance of winning.") or that her character is little more than eye candy in many scenes.

Story-wise, First Class suffers from the same problem almost all origin films do: too much to tell and not enough time to do it. The main plot revolves around the discovery of mutants by the C.I.A. and Xavier's attempt to bring together mutants to fight Shaw's "Hellfire Club", which wants to destroy all non-mutants. Other storylines include Lehnsherr's quest for revenge and the struggles Raven and McCoy face with mutations that make them stand out from normal humans. All of this is entertaining, but it takes up too much time and distracts from the heart of the story. What is the heart of the story? It's the same thing that makes all X-Men stories great, the friendship and rivalry between Xavier and Lehnsherr and their neverending debate about how mutants and humans should co-exist (or in the case of Lehnsherr, not) but we don't get much of the friendship aspect because things are rushed so much in the early stages. In a matter of minutes, their relationship goes from first meeting to fast friends with only one scene with them in between. This would have been a much better movie if more time had been spent on their relationship and less on the Lehnsherr/Raven/McCoy love triangle, which not only isn't really resolved but doesn't really carry any emotional weight. That's the other problem, because there are so many characters and storylines, the truly emotional scenes like Lehnsherr facing off with Shaw, who killed his mother are rushed and he dies with hardly a fight despite spending the previous 15 minutes to his death building up vast amounts of nuclear energy to power his mutation. There are other missteps along the way, such as despite the movie being set in 1962, little to nothing of the world at that time is shown. If not for some Russians, short dresses, and an occasional "groovy", the movie could be easily set in modern time. But the core problem with First Class is the core problem with all X-Men stories, we don't have a strong emotional response to the prejudice against mutants because we're not mutants and there's no such thing as mutants so it doesn't, deep down, ring true. Sure, you feel a little pang when the young mutants are called "freaks" but it doesn't grip you the same way say, To Kill A Mockingbird does.

With all that said, however, First Class is an enjoyable summer movie that you can go see with little chance of feeling like you wasted your money while being thoroughly entertained throughout. If you're expecting a movie that will challenge you mentally and emotionally, you'll be disappointed, but if you go hoping to be entertained by (mostly) great acting with colorful characters, action, and the nostalgia only superheros can bring, you'll be happy.
3/5

Song of the Day: September 15th

Shearwater: "La Dame et la Licorne" from Palo Santo
Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg has an amazing voice. There's no debating that; it's a piercing, pure voice that can't be compared to any other vocalist because it's so unique, only words like sharp, searing, soaring can describe it. But one of the reasons that it is so spectacular is that the band know so perfectly how to use it; in the beginning of his voice starts as a gentle purr over a light piano chords, but suddenly it explodes over the top, then just as rapidly, it returns back to gentle slowly building towards a massive closing crescendo. The piano mirrors the vocals, growing louder and more decisive in its chords; which is really the thing with Meiburg's vocals, they're another instrument.
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Live video

Song of the Day: September 14th

Broken Social Scene: "Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl" from You Forgot it in People
For a bunch of people in their twenties or older, Broken Social Scene nail the feelings of teenager pretty well here, but it's the style at which they are delivered that really drives things home; Emily Haines' wavering, effects laden vocals display the indecision of youth and the gentle repetition of "park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me" begins slowly, but then reaches an unbelievable height of intensity. The song is basically a banjo an strings with a little percussion, which create a light background that Haines' voice fills like a instrument in itself. The song maybe folkish, but the melody is pure pop. Which suits a band like Broken Social Scene, which has never done what it was supposed to.
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Live version!

Playing for Change

Playing for Change is a project that covers "peace" songs using separately recorded musicians from around the world. If that doesn't make any sense, just watch their video of Bob Marley's "War/No More Trouble" and try to ignore Bono ruining it.

The version of "Stand by Me" is also highly recommended.

Song of the Day: September 12th

Belle & Sebastian: "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying"
from If You're Feeling Sinister
For a songwriter with some of the best one liners in music, Stuart Murdoch really out does himself on this song. From the very first line through the whole song, Murdoch is very self-aware, something more songwriters need to be: "nobody writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me", "think of it this way, you could either be successful or be us" and that's just in the first couple lines. He shifts gears from self-referential to fantastical, telling a fairy tale: "Said the hero in the story, 'it is mightier than swords, I could kill sure but I could only make you cry with these words'". Each line is painstakingly crafted to lead into the next continuing the winding story; usually in songwriting you get great one liners or a great story, Murdoch does the rare and has both.
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Great live version

Beck covering Leonard Cohen

Currently on Beck's website (beck.com) there are two covers of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and "Master Song" (both originally from Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen) and while there's nothing groundbreaking here, it's a pretty fun listen as one of the most interesting musicians around covers one of the best songwriters ever. These are part of the "Beck's Record Club" series that already covered The Velvet Underground & Nico and Skip Spence's Oar and apparently intend to cover all of Songs... too. Beck's band this time includes MGMT, Devandra Banhart, and members of Wolfmother and Little Joy. They update with a new song every Thursday.

Song of the Day: September 11th

The Magnetic Fields: "I Wish I Had an Evil Twin" from i
Stephin Merritt likes to write about fantasies; namely songs about people who want to act out of their situation ("The Nun's Litany", "Busby Berkley Dreams", "Love in the Shadows") and his crowning achievement in this department is this song. No other song I've ever heard more clearly or blatantly expresses repressed human emotion. Who, at some point in their life, wishes they could act with responsibly? Who doesn't want to punch some person they dislike, or talk confidently to a girl they're nervous around? Now some of these feelings are not something we should be experiencing, but we all have them and lines like "sometimes the good life wears thin, I wish I had an evil twin... all men would writhe beneath his scythe" while violent, shows clearly just how despicable humans can be when they get worn down by this world. The gentle stings and plunking keyboards make the song seem ever more consumed with and under current of suppressed frustration and rage.
Watch live!

New Clinic song: "The Lion Tamer"

Vintage keyboard obsessed garage rock band Clinic has released a new song "The Lion Tamer" as part of the Mass Freakout Sampler for the eponymous concert series. The song which features distorted vocals backed by Clinic's typical face paced rhythms, muddy guitar and prominent use of synthasizers. The song has a very low-fi early garage rock feel to it. Clinic is one of those bands that will change the production values and feel of their songs a lot, but the keep the same general style to their music.
Due to how it was released it's impossible to tell if it's part of a new release or not. Stay tuned!
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Song of the Day: September 9th

Akron/Family: "I'll Be On the Water/Running Returning" from Akron/Family
Today I'm cheating a little and doing two songs that appear back to back on Akron/Family's self-titled debut. Though one leads into the other, both musically and lyrically, so well that they really could be considered two parts of the same song.
"I'll Be On the Water" musically is very simple, it's a simple lo-fi acoustic line with ambient bird and wave noises that build ups up into the twangy banjo and clattering, rattling percussion of "Running, Returning". Lyrically, the first song is about realizing you're in love with someone, though written in typically bizarre Akron/Family style ("thinking of you, there's lightning bolts in my chest") while "Running, Returning" is about realizing just how much you love them ("love is on it's way, and it's more than I can see"). That's what's so interesting about the songs, not just how beautiful the music is, but that the songs actually continue not a story, but an emotion. And the band doesn't even bring attention to it, it's simply there. This isn't some prog-rock opera about a robot that thinks it's a human and falls in love with a cat, it's a progression of emotion, of feeling.
Listen: "I'll Be On the Water"
Listen: "Running, Returning"
Bonus: Amazing video of a live version of "Running, Returning" set to a mirrored scenes from Bambi. I know it sounds weird, but it's awesome.

New Los Campesinos! song

"The Sea is a Goof Place to Think of the Future" is a new song from Los Campesinos!, presumable from their already completed, as yet to be titled next album due to be released in early 2010. Though it's entirely possible this is a leftover that won't actually appear on the album, since the band has been know to do that (see: "The International Tweexcore Underground", "How I Taught Myself to Scream").

As for the song... It's interesting. They've slowed down a bit, though they still yell and shred a little at the end, for the most part it's much slower and subdued. Lyrically they're also a little different, less tongue in cheek humorous and more dark and serious. While I'd hate to see them go this direction significantly, they do it pretty well and one or two songs would be nice as a change of pace.

Song of the Day: September 8th

The Avalanches: "Frontier Psychiatrist" from Since I Left You
The Avalanches are collage artists, and "Frontier Psychiatrist" is their masterwork. All their songs seamlessly blend together different samples from countless different sources, most of which no one has ever heard of, which separates them from most other sample happy party artists. This song however, is a different creature than any of their other songs, the music aspect is much like their other songs; sampled beats, strings, horns, and guitars form the background to an insane string of couple word spoken samples so you get a wacko lines like "he was white as a sheet" read by what sounds like some children's book author followed by "and also made false teeth" by some 50s actor. It's just and insane collage of wacky audio samples stuck together perfectly into a coherent song. Throw in horse noises and gunshots and an amazing vinyl scratch breakdown of bird and parrot noises and you've got the craziest sample based song ever. And also the best.
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Song of the Day: September 7th

Animal Collective: "The Purple Bottle" from Feels
"The Purple Bottle" is a love song. And since it's written and performed by Animal Collective, it's a love song quite unlike any other. The interesting thing about the song is just how genuine it is, there's real happiness and joy in this song. From the gigglish "do da do do do do's" to lines like "I talk too much about you" and "I've got a big big big big heart beat, I think you're the sweetest thing" speak of a real love, but also a childlike love. Or perhaps I'm mistaking childlike love for a innocent love. A love not complicated by adult issues, but all about what love should be about: you and your love sharing life together.
Musically the band's style uses their signature rhythm driven sound with rapid click and thumping from the percussion with dreamy guitar bubbling over the top. The band again uses vocals as an instrument, with chanting and a closing vocal breakdown freakout. By that kind of stuff is to be expected with Animal Collective.
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Song of the Day: September 6th

Portishead: "Sour Times" from Dummy
This is a song that hard to forget, which is odd because it's so unassuming. A simple hip-hop beat, a creeping, and slight guitar are all that's really there musically, but perhaps the reason the song is so unforgettable is because of Beth Gibbons. Gibbons mirrors her band in that she, while a phenomenal vocalist, is somewhat unassuming, she doesn't stand out style or talent wise, but the emotion and inflection she puts in her delivery is out of this world. This especially, she really takes things to another level, when she sings "nobody loves me", it sounds like she's really feeling depressed, but then you hear the next verse "like you do" and she genuinely sounds in love. This song, for how simple it appears on the surface, is a complex experience to take in.
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Song of the Day: September 5th

The National: "You've Done it Again Virginia" from Lit Up
Matt Berninger has never been known as cheerful songwriter; he's made his living writing dark, self-deprecating songs about losers and lost loves but "You've Done it Again Virginia" is perhaps his saddest song. It tells of a real tragedy, not heartbreak, but something that really destroys you're life: hopelessness and alcoholism. As the title character Virginia tries to navigate the labyrinths of adult life and love she becomes increasingly desperate and lonely and more and more reliant one alcohol. After a failed date she goes home and consuls herself with drink; eventually her life devolves into nothing but stagnate lifelessness: "if you had another wish to wish, you'd be fun and moving" and blame and self-loathing: "Well you've done it again Virginia, made another masterpiece... how does it feel to be you?".
You may think that when your boyfriend or girlfriend says something mean to you, it's a tragedy, but it's important to have perspective about what real tragedy is and how it can destroy lives, and how important caring and love is. You never know what state someone may be in inside.
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Song of the Day: September 4th

Iron & Wine and Calexico: "16, Maybe Less" from In the Reins
Calexico and Sam Beam were made for each other; both excel in creating music that makes an unobtrusive background that meshes perfectly with the vocals, enhancing them instead of distracting from them. Calexico simply does this on a larger scale with a full band, while Beam does it with just a guitar. As a backing band here, Calexico create a murky country-folk soundscape that fits the songs references to trees and ponds perfectly. Twangy electric and acoustic slide mix with shimmering pedal steel flow over John Convertino's signature hollow drums seamlessly.
Lyrically, the song is one of Beam's best because it's one of the few times he drops his poetic, hyper-literate shtick and writes true human emotions in traditional, American folk song style. The song bleeds regret and nostalgia as Beam begins relating a story of first love, but then changes gears to the climax of the song... "I met my wife at a party when I drank too much, my son is married and tells me we don't talk enough, call it predictable, yesterday my dream was of you". In truly heartbreaking fashion, he contrasts the innocence of youth and the complex sadness of adulthood. The message is this: love is simple and joyful as a child, complex and painful as an adult.
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Best albums of 2009 (so far...)

20. Clark: Totems Flare
19. Woods: Songs of Shame
18. The Pains of Being Pure of Heart
17. Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor
16. The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
15. The XX: XX
14. Dinosaur Jr: Farm
13. Wild Beasts: Two Dancers
12. Bibio: Ambivalence Avenue
11. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
10. The Antlers: Hospice
09. Circulatory System: Signal Morning
08. Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
07. Mos Def: The Ecstatic
06. Annie: Don't Stop
05. Fever Ray
04. Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
03. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!
02. Mew: No More Stories...
01. The Twilight Sad: Forget the Night Ahead

Click here for brief write ups.

Best albums of 2008

click the link: Best albums of 2008

Shearwater: Rook

Shearwater is one of my very favorite bands, and one of the few bands that I can confidently say will be remembered a long time from now, so it seems odd that it's taken me nearly a month to write anything about it. The reason for this is two-fold; the first reason is that this is the type of album that takes time to digest, to understand in whole. The second reason is that I wanted to wait until I could acquire the album on vinyl and listen to it that way, before I wrote my final thoughts on the album. My thoughts are this: this is one of the best albums of the year and the best full-length album the band has released (the Thieves EP is in a different category all together). It may not have the dynamic, standouts that Palo Santo had, or the contrasting in singers and songwriters that Winged Life has, but it is the band's most consistent, mature, elegant, and best constructed album. The Talk Talk influence that lay beneath the surface of previous albums is brought to a head here, with almost every track save "Century Eyes" having the stamp of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock on it. That's not to say that this is a Talk Talk tribute album, indeed not. Besides the band's own considerable original input, there are traces of Nico, John Cale, and even Van Morrison in here. And besides, Talk Talk is a band that is incredibly under referenced by non-instrumental groups. However, all the staples of a Shearwater album are here, Jonathan Meiburg's stunning, otherworldly, choirboy vocals, and the blend of piano, banjo, electric guitar, bass, and drums that forms the foundation of so many of the band's songs. Each song is also accented with multitudes of strings, horns, harps, woodwinds, and even the world percussion instrument or two, in such a way that balances perfectly the dark, organic base of the songs with grand, sweepingly majestic flourishes. It's a dense, albeit painfully short album, that places Shearwater firmly in the upper-echelon of mature, professional bands.
Note: the album's b-sides "North Col", "So Bad", and "The Rainbow" (a Talk Talk cover) are all worth checking out, and are available as bonus tracks on the itunes release of the album.
Listen ("Leviathan Bound")