Best of 2012 Pt 5

Lambchop - Mr. M.
         This one is another entry from the start of 2012 — and it's a Nashville band to boot. Lambchop have been following their own muse for something like 15 years, evolving from the world's "most fucked up country band" to introspective chamber pop. A tribute to the late Vic Chesnutt, Mr. M's a melancholy affair that haunts, long after the strings come in and out.

  

Alt - J - An Awesome Wave 

      It's no surprise that England's 2012 Mercury Prize winner is a fascinating album that never bores. What is shocking is that this shimmering "folkstep" debut got picked up by a US major label and is actually being promoted.

Warning: the following video is considered highly unsettling by many.

Best of 2012 Pt 4

Oh, Japandroids, how do I love thee? It takes a surrender. When you've lived through 85% of the rock era, you hit a point (several, really) where you realize that just about everything that can be done with 3 chords has been done, and we should all move on, already. And then some little punk comes along and flogs the corpse until it sits up like a Black Plague victim in a Monty Python movie and yells, "I feel happy ..."

 

Django Django - Django Django This exciting UK electronic outfit was putting out singles for a couple of years and finally put them all in one place, on this Mercury Prize nominated album that gets a lot of mileage out of its minimalism. "Hale Bopp" contains one of the best lyrical metaphors I've encountered in ages.

Best of 2012 Pt 3

So here we are with more of the spring crop of 2012, of which there was much goodness. The third lp from San Diego/Brooklyn residents Delta Spirit made its online streaming debut on, of all places, the Wall Street Journal's website. We were happy to let our airwaves be occupied, anyway.

Here's one I forgot to throw in with the winter stuff. Lana Del Rey's controversial debut. 

Why controversial? Well ... that's a great question. Even before Lizzie Grant (her given name) first appeared, not quite ready for prime time, on Saturday Night Live she had detractors. The visually arresting videos she put up on YouTube took in millions of hits; anyone who saw the sheer number of people checking her out, months before her album even came out, could easily guess sales would be on the high side out of plain curiosity factor. So you had a group of self-appointed taste-makers dissing it purely because they didn't get to be the first ones to decide if it should be a hit or not, or if people who should like it or not. Some people get uptight when they have no control over things. And I get the idea our Lizzy likes making some people uptight.

Best of 2012 Pt II

Continuing with what I started yesterday. This next pair of albums both came out in the spring, and brought vastly different vibes and coastal mentalities to its soundtrack. From California, Father John Misty, the stage name of former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, carried a late '60s/early '70s psychedelic throwback to a modern conclusion on Fear Fun.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Beach House were cooking up their fourth, Bloom, with electronic landscapes that paid a nod to the 1980s.

Great Music to go under the tree.

Seems like 2012 is going to go down as a fantastic year for new music getting heard. Not just any kind of music (but every kind) but good music. Stuff that matters. Here's a brief rundown of the standouts, off the top of my head.

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

This is what the year started with .. and things only got better. ... 

Next up:

Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

              

... more to come.

A Look or Three at Red Riding Hood

     If getting caught with one of the sinus infections Nashville is famous for has any benefit, that would be getting caught up on movie-watching. Among this months fare on HBO is Catherine Hardwicke's retelling of the fairytale classic Red Riding Hood, with the luminous Amanda Seyfried in the title role. When the previews were first around I had some interest in this movie, as Hardwicke was the director of the first Twilight movie and was dropped from the second in that series, claiming, as I recall from the news stories at the time, she was at odds with Summit over the rush to cash in and get New Moon finished.

     In my review of Twilight it was Hardwicke's striking visuals that saved the movie from being an utter joke. Not surprising, then, that Red Riding Hood would be equally striking to watch. Also, like Twilight, the movie's score and soundtrack merge for a lush experience both visually and aurally.

       Unlike Twilight, movie critics aren't falling all over themselves to try to be fair in their reviews. Is the story weak? Well come on - what do you want from a fairy tale?

     Hardwicke's spin on the Grimm tale has the big bad wolf coming for young Red, but this time, he doesn't want to lunch on Red (or Valerie, as she's named in this version) and be done with it. He comes during a "blood moon," a rare full moon event wherein a werewolf can reproduce, so to speak, and create another of his (or her) kind, and this werewolf wants Valerie as Lucy to his Vlad.

        Acting? Let's say it's adequate. Scenery chewer Gary Oldman does everything asked of a veteran actor sent in to lend credibility and some small pathos to a role that could easily have gone 100% straight camp, as the heavyweight Medieval cleric come to aid in hunting/killing the wolf and ends up witch-hunting. Seyfried isn't asked to do much beyond stand around looking mysterious and sexy and vulnerable and wise beyond her years. Her typical line is no longer than five words. Most often, she's reduced simply to calling people out: "Peter?" "Henry?" "Father?" "Grandmother?" With dialog like that, perhaps underplaying it even more is a virtue.

       Most of the movie deals with Valerie's dilemma about the wolf: just who is it presenting the danger to her and her village? Her childhood sweetheart, a poor woodcutter? The wealthy blacksmith's son who she finds herself engaged to? Perhaps Grandma, with those big teeth? And about that wolf - is it her doom, or her salvation?

      Among all the vivid imagery in Red Riding Hood that stands out is the repeated use of long, pointy things. Pointy teeth. Pointy things on trees (above pic). Pointy things on doors and on gates. Pointy knives. It becomes overkill. If one is going to compare Red Riding Hood to Hardwicke's previous blockbuster, though, you can at least get a chuckle at the visual stab at Twilight's chastity.

How Can Lana Del Ray Not Become the Breakout Artist of 2012?

NY's Lana Del Ray (the stage name for Ms. Lizzy Grant) is poised to become the It girl for 2012, and it's not undeserved. She's got a sultry voice, a unique, atmospheric sound that music-oughtta-be-art lovers are going to eat up, and undeniable sex appeal. Described as a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra," the pouty torch singer already has a few in indie circles who are lining up to question her creds. I really don't think the wider world of music appreciators is going to care.