Sunday, January 15, 2017
Spider's out to get ya
I pretty much thought the 70s Midnight Special program on NBC was as cheesy as most of the pop rock they presented from that musically sorry decade, but they did raise their game once to glorious heights by presenting a mini-concert of David Bowie and band, in full glam regalia, on their show. Recorded at the legendary Marquee Club in London's Soho, it is Bowie at his most compelling and bracing. The first song in particular , 1984, is especially notable, a lean, stripped-down hard rock version that has all the things Bowie's tunes have for us, nicely turned changes, suddenly menacing riffs, a combination of industrial grind, gay disco and hard rock brutalism. The drummer was Aynsley Dunbar, who plays like man determined to make that kit he has is never played again; hard, furious, fast, he has the power of Keith Moon and the efficient virtuosity with the tricky time signature. Bowie, of course, is odd, compelling, still something to look at all these decades later, a presence with talent to match his audaciousness.
"LIVE BY NIGHT" : Affleck is not the auteur he thinks he is
Ben
Affleck rebuilt his reputation mostly on the strength of his skills as an able
and savvy director, having directed the successful and justifiably praised
films “Gone Baby Gone”, “The Town”
and ‘Argo”, for which he won the Oscar for Best Director. Affleck
is a marginally good actor, good when the scripts and casting are on the money — think of how wonderful John
Wayne was in “ Red
River” and how awful he was as Genghis Khan in “The Conqueror” — and his
evolution , during his time off camera, into learning the craft of film
direction (and the obligations of being a producer) seems to have given a sharp
and canny sense of what kind of material he can be credible in as an actor and
director. He’s been doing good work in films he hasn’t directed but starred in,
such as “Gone Girl”, “The Accountant” and
“Batman v Superman”; he has gotten praise from critic and fan both for his
sharpened sense of the camera lens. As with Wayne and fellow actor-director
Clint Eastwood, Affleck has learned to do fine work within his limited range as
an actor.
But
the 4th time is the charm, the warning, seen in his new period crime drama “Live by Night”,where
we come across him as a petty criminal in 30s era Boston, finding himself
caught between a war between the Irish and the Italian gangs that are vying for
domination. Long story brutally abbreviated, our hero finds himself working for
the Italians as he heads up their Miami rum running operation. What unfolds
after that is a string of gangster movie cliches and hackneyed melodramatic
plot turns that cannot fool you into thinking that what’s happening between the
characters on screen — whether the premise is love, lust, betrayal, revenge or philosophical convictions that become
endlessly compromised by real life complications — is
anything more than mere mechanics. The story is a machine running on the fuel
of over familiar parts. The script, based on a novel by the
estimable Dennis Lehanne, is credited to Affleck alone , and this where
the blame for the film’s listless wade through lifeless plot turns must fall;
he displays a tin ear for fresh dialogue and is unable, in this effort, to
create anticipation, a sense that a viewer does not how any of this will end.
That
I was able , many times, what was going to happen ten later in the picture
based on the heavy-handed foreshadowing of both image and chatter doesn’t make
me smart, only that “Live by
Night” has the predictability of a sub-standard television
cop-drama.(It may mean, also, that I spend too much time watching movie.)There
are several plotlines that attempt to create an eventual ironic consequence
that would cast the respectable coat of Tragedy around this production, but
such elements and effects work only if the writing hand is subtle and nearly
invisible in the laying out of the story elements that will eventually turned
one’s assumptions about what’s happening on their head, elements that are seen,
noted, and then nearly forgotten about until they emerge again and consequently
change the tone and meaning of the story, unexpectedly but credibly. What the
movie lacks in cogent transformation it makes up in plot demarcations being hit
squarely (and without grace).
Affleck’s writing and direction hasn’t the
patience nor grace to make this work. Glaring as well is Affleck’s casting in
the lead role. Affleck is too tall, too squared jawed, too muscular; he looks
uncomfortable in the suits he’s put himself; worse, often times he appears
about to burst out of them, Hulk style.And again, about Affleck’s acting limits
come into play, which is to say that his facial expressions are not subtle nor
do they lure you in to read the lines of his face or the shine or lack thereof
in the eyes; Affleck seems to have fixed expressions for happy, sad, angry,
raging, laughing, crying, mostly robotic and seeming unmotivated by the tragedies, murders and raging extremes happening around him. Much as I've defended Affleck in the past as an actor, this time he seems aware of only where he he is in relation to the camera.
It’s worth noting that the praise for writing on Affleck’s other efforts as director — “Gone Baby Gone”, The Town” and “Argo” — were for efforts where there were collaborators in the scripting, in the persons of Chris Terrio, Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig. The implication seems clear, that what the author scribes provided were a sensibilities that could carve Affleck’s contributions to the respective project’s line and and theme into something sharper, less obvious. The dispiriting stream of over used tropes in ‘Live by Night” is such that it blunts the efforts a fine cast , Zoe Saldana and Chris Cooper in particular. This is cool professionalism from actors trying to eke out small moments of good craft from a script that gives them no love.
It’s worth noting that the praise for writing on Affleck’s other efforts as director — “Gone Baby Gone”, The Town” and “Argo” — were for efforts where there were collaborators in the scripting, in the persons of Chris Terrio, Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig. The implication seems clear, that what the author scribes provided were a sensibilities that could carve Affleck’s contributions to the respective project’s line and and theme into something sharper, less obvious. The dispiriting stream of over used tropes in ‘Live by Night” is such that it blunts the efforts a fine cast , Zoe Saldana and Chris Cooper in particular. This is cool professionalism from actors trying to eke out small moments of good craft from a script that gives them no love.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Your sponsor is not a trained professional
I dislike the self-help phrase "Feelings are not
facts." The people who say have smiles that are so tight that it makes you
think those rigid smirks are the result of a string of psychotic breakdowns;no
one who utters the convenient adage truly seems convinced that it’s of any real
use to someone who’s losing their emotional equilibrium. One has to do a bit of
interpretation to get a sense of what the author was trying to say. I refute
this cliché thusly: if I am sad, elated, angry, in love or grieving, it is a
FACT that I'm feeling that way. The knee jerk bootstrappism of the cliché, on
the face of it, discounts feelings and implies you ought to ignore them. Bad
advice, dangerous advice. If you're feelings are out of hand and seeming too
much to handle, one is advised STRONGLY to get help to understand the feelings
and what one can do to recover. Feelings are not facts" is intended to tell sufferers
that one should not let their feelings overwhelm them and prevent them from
being proactive in their life. That I am feeling depressed, bereaved, elated,
et al, however, are, in themselves, facts, and
excessive states of each or in combination thereof that prevents the sufferer
from engaging their daily life fully cannot be dismissed with this smug phrase.
There are reasons one continues to be overwhelmed by fear, grief, anxiety,
angst, a feeling of impending doom; if ignored, these feelings can become truly
immobilizing. The danger in this is that the phrase seems to have
morphed from being a part of a psychiatric / therapeutic treatment modality
where distinctions are explicit and the aim, guided with professional aid, is
to repair and reinforce a patient's coping skills, to make them increasingly resilient in spite of their
feelings. The phrase implies a short cut and, sadly, I see many who would
otherwise benefit from a more therapeutic situation vying for a faster fix.
Generally speaking, they don't appear to be making progress. I see a lot of
this and, in fact, have my own issues to wrestle with as a sober alcoholic. There
is an AA phrase, an unfortunate one I think, that states that alcohol is merely
a symptom of an underlying disorder. I know precisely what the author of that
phrase meant, that there are reasons why we drank, emotional distresses and
such that are now triggers toward the temporary and potentially terminal relief
booze supplies, but it is said so often by members without thought that it
implies strongly that if one attends and corrects the causes of the symptoms,
one may return to normal drinking. It undercuts the importance of remaining
abstinent. Alcohol, in my experience, was not a symptom, it was (capital was)
and remains (capital remains) the problem itself. Generally speaking, all the
other things that AA offers effective help in--making amends, righting wrongs,
developing a workable spirituality that allows one become a better person, a
sober person--are impossible to achieve unless one adheres to permanent
physical sobriety. I just don't appreciate complicated problems being
trivialized by way of bumper sticker slogans.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
More old record reviews
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band (Warner Brothers) This is one of the few times tha t all of Beefheart's freaky talents have been . captured successfully on record, easily the first time since 1968's Trout Mask Replica. The music is as crankishly idiosyncratic as it's ever been (jump-cut time signatures, a free mixing of "free-jazz" randomness and pop song structures, blues and neoclassical shades blending into thick atonal texture) and Beefheart's vocals, one of the raspiest voices anywhere, de liver his dadaesque, free-associative lyrics with the same kind of off-kilter verve.(One would be remiss in thinking that Beefheart's lyrics are without substance or lack meaning: no less than Wallace Stevens, who explored his dreams of a world of perfect arrangements and their contradictions, Beefheart, nee Don Van Vliet chooses to inspect a terrain of imperfect things, material and organic, and forge connections and conversation between them with nothing but the force of applied and intense whimsy. )
The effect sounds like an Unlikely super session between Howlin' Wolf and Alfred Jarry (costumes designed by Max Ernst) . His new Magic Band, featuring ex-Zappa sidemen as Bruce Fowler (trombone) and Art Tripp (drums) , handle the demands of the music with disciplined ease, executing Beefheart 's quixotic time signatures and self-deconstructing arrangements with a professionalism that tends toward both perfection and liveliness, usually an unlikely symbiosis in art-rock groups. However cerebral Beefheart's music sounds, though, it should be POinted out that Shiny Beast is a fun album, full of good humor and strong material. This time out, The Captain is out to entertain and beguile, a work of art that does what any object of scrutiny must do, which is to offer a genius's blend that confuses, edifies, confounds and elevates the individual attendee .
The effect sounds like an Unlikely super session between Howlin' Wolf and Alfred Jarry (costumes designed by Max Ernst) . His new Magic Band, featuring ex-Zappa sidemen as Bruce Fowler (trombone) and Art Tripp (drums) , handle the demands of the music with disciplined ease, executing Beefheart 's quixotic time signatures and self-deconstructing arrangements with a professionalism that tends toward both perfection and liveliness, usually an unlikely symbiosis in art-rock groups. However cerebral Beefheart's music sounds, though, it should be POinted out that Shiny Beast is a fun album, full of good humor and strong material. This time out, The Captain is out to entertain and beguile, a work of art that does what any object of scrutiny must do, which is to offer a genius's blend that confuses, edifies, confounds and elevates the individual attendee .
K-Scope - Phil Manzanera (Polydor)- Though K-Scope lacks some of the rhythmic interest and angular improvisations that made his previous Diamond Head record one of the more interesting experimental rock releases of 1976, Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera 's new album one is still intriguingly off the beaten path. The music is a bit more human this time out, i.e. more easilty accessible to a broader listenership, and Manzanera himself keeps a relatively low profile throughout, keeping his guitar chores to setting mood, rhythm duties and occasional fills. The saxophone work by ex-King Crimson member Mel Collins adds an agreeable jazzy drift to the instrumental tracks.
Tokyo Tapes - Scorpions (RCA) Recorded live in Japan (the new hard-rock capital of the world), the German Scorpions play their way through four sides of machine-shop heavy metal. The songs are generally undistinguished (this band exhibits little originality in the songwriting department) , the drum work tends to be as rigid as rigor mortis, and the singing, in phonetic English, approximates the sound of a barking dog_ What makes the album a delight, though, is the guitar work of Ulrich Roth. Like Edward Van Halen, Roth's style combines flash (ala Jeff Beck and Johnny Winter), technique (Allan Hold s worth and Harvey Mandel), power (Leslie West a and Hendrix) and taste (Ritchie Blackmore). His solos are swooping, over-powering sorties, with dizzying sonic riffs, fleet-fingered note configurations and screaming obstinate sustains. This leads to a monotonous virtuosity that begs to be paid attention to, though. As is the case with most fret masters in rock and roll, the harmonic palette is limited compared to the full chromatic smorgasbord classical or jazz formats afford musicians given to playing many notes; after a bit , all those scurrying steeple races up and down the guitar neck resemble inspiration and melodrama less and the mechanical fury of factory machines more. Maybe that’s the point.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
BEST RECORDS OF 1980
(from the UCSD Guardian, where I was bloviating for a few years as Arts Editor during the late Seventies, early Eighties.-tb)
After a modicum of meditation, soul-searching, and late-night phone calls, I've decided that this annual autopsy we call a "year-in-review" won't be as grisly as I imagined. In fact, the most outlandish generalization one could make about the state of pop music in 1979 is that it was merely "okay." As in any year, there were plenty of decent albums that passed through my hands on to mine and my writer's turntable, but there was a sizable proportion of discs from new and established artists that fall well below what one wants to hear. In any case, rock and roll don't seem to be dying at the present moment, though I, like anyone else who's been involved with the stuff too much for their own good, would have to have heard more records that reached the high watermark. What follows are my annual hit-and-run comments on the previous year's more or less notable releases.
1) Armed Forces — Elvis Costello (Columbia): Although Nick Lowe's production is at times heavy-handed and strains too often for effect (too much piano, echo chambers, an overkill of vocal over dubs), Costello remains a formidable talent that no amount of cheap garnish can obscure. At best, (more times than not) Costello is dead on target. At worst, he's utterly incoherent and artlessly paranoid.
2) Nice Guys — The Art Ensemble of Chicago (ECM): By definition, avant-garde or "free" jazz is supposed to be difficult for the uninitiated to warm up to, but the Ensemble's latest seems (to me at least) to be the one '79 release in the genre that even Mangione fans can find enjoyable. Nice Guys is a brilliant crazy quilt of styles and strategies, with the shifting textures and colorations of saxophones, trumpets, drums, bass, and a plethora of more obscure instruments proceeding through a fascinating session of unconventional improvisation.
3) Trevor Rabin — Trevor Rabin (Chrysalis) Rabin is a singer-songwriter-guitarist from South Africa who's same-named debut album supplies the kind of mega-rock that Todd Rundgren's been promising for years. Rabin proceeds through a far-fetched array of styles, from Mountainesque heavy-metal, syrupy ballads, McLaughlin-inspired jazz-rock, Zappa-like ensemble virtuosity, through disco and reggae, often blending these incongruous strands into the same song. And, incredibly, it works.
4) Van Halen II — Van Halen (Warner Brothers): Edward Van Halen plays flashy hard rock guitar with admirable vengeance and ingenuity; that is enough for me.
5) One of a Kind — Bill Bruford (Polydor): The former Yes, King Crimson and Genesis drummer deftly leads a band of superb musicians through a session that combines the best of progressive rock (compositional organization with a rich sense of harmony and counterpoint) and the best of fusion rock (inventive soloing meshing hard-rock dynamics with fleet-fingered technique). Guitarist Allan Holdsworth performs as though in a state of grace, and bassist Jeff Berlin is someone to watch out for.
6) New Values — Iggy Pop: Iggy, who is the godfather of punk if anyone is, has finally transcended the problems that've too often stopped him from delivering that all-purpose knockout punch. The music is crunchy, cantankerous rock and roll, Iggy's vocals have the appeal of the off-hand remark, and the lyrics succeed in being anti-intellectual without the obnoxious posturing that is the calling card of many whom Iggy has influenced. Iggy proves here that he is the main-man.
7) Shiny Beast (Bat Pull Chain) — Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
ner Brothers): Beefheart, rock's most idiosyncratic avant-garde individualist, is refreshingly in place for once, seeming to have hammered his worrisome kinks and quirks into a form that benefits his talent for constructing fractured, asymmetrical, dada-derived music. Splendid use of free jazz tonalities, urban blues, Caribbean rhythms, and rhythm and blues. (Warner Brothers): Beefheart, rock's most idiosyncratic avant-garde individualist, is refreshingly in place for once, seeming to have hammered his worrisome kinks and quirks into a form that benefits his talent for constructing fractured, asymmetrical, dada-derived music. Splendid use of free jazz tonalities, urban blues, Caribbean rhythms, and rhythm and blues.
8) Fear of Music — Talking Heads (Sire): Talking Heads, I fear, is more of an alliance with art-rockers like Eno, Roxy Music and John Cale than with the New Wave, but that hasn't stopped me from liking them. Their music has a cleverly controlled graininess that puts them half-way between garage band amateurism and the post-twelve tone rigors of the "new music" conceptualists. David Byrne's lyrics, sung in a voice that sounds as though it might evaporate at any moment, expresses the tortured holistics of the paranoid mind while allowing as little self-pity as possible. This is the work of a refreshingly straightforward sociopath.
9) Rust Never Sleeps — Neil Young (Warner Brothers): Young, who, like Norman Mailer, has been producing advertisements for himself for years to little advantage (self-revelation must attain the universal, not the therapeutic, it's to sit well as something I'd like to investigate), has released a masterpiece of a kind, a rock and roll testament that deals with American icons, institutionalized violence, and the sand-trap of self-love (among other themes). And Crazy Horse helps Young play some of the dirtiest rock and roll of the sear.
10) Squeezing Out Sparks — Graham Parker: Parker bites the head off of everyone who's ever done him dirt with music and lyrics that have the mainstream kick of the old Rolling Stones. Blunt, uncompromising stuff.
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