One Year and Counting…

Well, it’s been a little over a year since I started this crazy blog. Hard to believe. It was slow going at first (and then slow going again this spring and summer) but I’ve written over 100 posts and had right under 40,000 visits during that time.

I think my understanding (and appreciation) of music and film has improved greatly since last August. Hopefully, my writing has improved along the way as well. Those are the main goals in this little project and if, by chance, someone benefits from reading these reviews, well, that’s just icing on the proverbial cake.

Thanks for reading. I’m always open to suggestions on how to improve the ole blog (unless that suggestion is “post with more regularity,” I know that one, it’s just a matter of executing that plan).

Mikky Ekko: Strange Fruit

Nashville is growing, both in its number of citizens and in the diversity of its citizens’ musical output. In times past, it seemed that in order to live within Nashville’s city limits one had to have an old acoustic guitar and an unwavering admiration for late ’50s country pop. However, the capital city of Tennessee, long known for its country, folk, and Americana music, is now attracting musical artists of various shades and stripes, and Mikky Ekko is one such artist.

His recent Strange Fruit EP stands as a whirlwind of styles which restlessly roams and turns throughout the album, making the music difficult to classify. Yet, Mikky Ekko’s influences and interests are on full display as he draws from blues, classic rock, electronica, California pop, and gospel to create a fascinating sound, which places him somewhere on the outskirts of the Radiohead universe.

Read the rest of my review of this debut EP at Stereo Subversion

Debating Matisyahu’s Light

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve started to contribute to Stereo Subversion. This week I participated in my first of their “Internal Debate” series. The subject was Matisyahu’s new record, Light. Here is my portion:

Matisyahu, presumably growing weary of the “Hasidic Reggae Guy” label, seeks to expand his sound on Light by downplaying his God-given reggae skills in favor of a bewildering blend of radio pop and bland hip-hop. I admire Matisyahu’s apparent desire to push himself artistically, but the songs here simply lack the color, beauty, and personality of his earlier records. Light is a disappointment only because I know its creator is capable of so much more.

Check out the rest of the Internal Debate here.

Truth be told, the first few times I listened to Light, I kind of liked it. It has some great beats and Matisyahu definitely has some skills on the microphone. However, once I pulled out my copy of Live at Stubb’s and gave it a spin, I was reminded at how great this guy is in reggae. That record has so much power and life in it. Another interesting note about Light is that it seems like the faith aspect of Matisyahu’s lyrics is a little more generic and a little less explicitly Jewish. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it makes Light lose a little of Matisyahu’s personality. Light is an example of an artist bravely attempting new things but losing what made him great in the first place. Hopefully, Matisyahu will be back to his reggae and explicit Jewish faith the next time around.

Inception Trailer

So if you are Christopher Nolan and you directed one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, The Dark Knight, how do you follow that up? Apparently, with an original, mind-bending, sci-fi crime film called Inception:

It’s being described as a “contemporty sci-fi thriller set within the architecture of the mind.”

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, and Michael Caine.

Release date is set for July 16, 2010.

Based only on this teaser, Chris Nolan, and Leonardo DiCaprio, this will definitely get me into a theater seat next summer.

What do you think?

Jason Domnarski Trio: Inventing the Wheel

(I’m pleased to announce that I’ll now be occasionally contributing music reviews to Stereo Subversion, an online magazine dedicated to exploring meaningful culture. My first submission, a review of Jason Domnarski Trio’s Inventing the Wheel, was posted today.)

At the halfway point, it could be said that 2009 has been a fairly decent year for indie piano jazz trios. February saw the release of some very good piano jazz on The Bad Plus’s druggy For All I Care and Marco Benevento’s quirky Me Not Me. These records taken together demonstrate the versatility of the piano jazz band template; the first revealed that straight-laced, no frills piano jazz is far from boring, while the second demonstrated the bizarre musical terrains in which the same band can roam. And so it seemed entirely appropriate that in the midst of the hot summer months, a record of cool and breezy originalpiano jazz tunes would arrive courtesy of Jason Domnarski Trio, a band that has become a common fixture to several New York City jazz clubs.

Read the rest at Stereo Subversion.

Happy 50th Birthday, Kind of Blue!

The greatest jazz album of all time, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, was released 50 years ago today. This is one of my favorite albums ever and I’m certainly not the only one– it’s widely considered the best jazz album of all time and it also holds the distinction of being the best-selling jazz album of all time (one of the few times when those two come together).

This is a record made for everyone. To say that you don’t like Kind of Blue doesn’t mean that you don’t like jazz, it means that you don’t like music. Go find a copy to listen to today.

For my money, this may be one of the best (and most recognizable) album openers ever: “So What.”

Part one of the BBC documentary: “1959: The Year That Changed Jazz.”

Blogcritics.org

I’m happy to announce that starting now I’ll be contributing music, film, and book reviews to Blogcritics, a massive online community of blogging critics who operate under the slogan, “A sinister cabal of superior writers.” Their website is pretty interesting and they have reviews, opinions, and articles on nearly all things pop cultural.

For my first contribution they allowed me to post a slightly revised version of my M.Ward: Hold Time review (which you can see at their site here), but from now on, all my contributions to Blogcritics will appear there first before I post them here. I’m looking forward to working with them.

Neko Case: Middle Cyclone

(out of 5)

From the cover alone, you could easily assume that Middle Cyclone would be Neko Case’s rawest and rowdiest record yet. Reading the lyrics could also give that impression since they are full of references to tornadoes, elephants, killer whales, man-eaters, and warnings about Mother Nature. And so, it’s a bit odd when you finally listen to Middle Cyclone because it comes across as a somewhat mannered and polite album about the ferocity of the natural world. It’s also a head-scratcher that the album ends with a half-hour (which is nearly as long as the combined length of the fourteen songs that preceed it) recording of a peaceful marsh at night when one might expect the sound of Niagra Falls or some equally powerful natural force. The only way I can make sense of it is to assume that Case is perhaps trying to communicate the duality of Mother Nature–her tenderness and her ferocity.

There is still much to like about Middle Cyclone, primarily Neko Case’s siren-esque voice. She has one of the best voices in music today, set apart by its equal beauty and power. Case’s songwriting is nothing to scoff at either and Middle Cyclone features a few of her best songs to date including the unlikely love song, “This Tornado Loves You,” the memorable “Prison Girls,” and the funny “The Next Time You Say Forever.”

It’s hard to ignore the similarities between Andrew Bird’s album earlier this year, Noble Beast and Middle Cyclone. Both spend time exploring humanity’s relationship with nature. However, whereas Bird widens the gap between human beings and animals, Case seems to narrow it. One of the strengths of Bird’s album is that he communicates this as much with his music as with his words, his songs are complex and syncopated and far from the primal sounds produced in the natural world. However, Case’s mannerly arrangements and polite pianos seem disconnected from her wild and dangerous lyrics.

Neko Case has time and again declared in interviews that she is a control freak and unfortunately, that really comes across in this recording. As co-producer, songwriter, and performer, she has control over nearly all aspects of the album’s sound. I do think that Neko Case still has some wonderful albums in her, but in order to make them she’ll need to give up some of her control to a great producer, like Joe Henry (THE singer-songwriter’s producer), who can help her capitalize her strengths and unleash the wild, creative beast that lurks within. Middle Cyclone is a fine album with a few great songs on it, but it would have been much better if some of those animalistic instincts had found their way into these songs.

The Hurt Locker (Bigelow, 2009)

Just another day on the job.

(out of 4)

War movies do not usually draw me to the theater. I can attribute this to several things, but mostly I think it’s because these days they don’t say anything that hasn’t already been said by superior war films in the past. So, I wasn’t too excited when I first heard about The Hurt Locker because it was a war movie. The fact that it was an Iraq War movie was a double whammy in my book since there has yet to be even a decent film made about the Iraq War– that is, until now.

The main reason The Hurt Locker succeeds is because it actually has something fresh to explore, namely, the addictive aspect of 21st century warfare. “War is a drug” is the tail end of a quote at the beginning of the film and the movie spends two hours exploring that very idea with compelling characters, memorable visuals, and non-stop intensity.

Director Kathyrn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days) and writer Mark Boal (In the Valley of Elah) immerse the audience in the lives of American soldiers by following a bomb squad through their days of neutralizing and disposing of bombs in Baghdad. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty form the bomb squad and each create a character that is believable and likable.

The story is told in an episodic manner (including a title card counting down the days that the squad has remaining in their tour), during which we see the squad responding to different calls and how they unfold. As a result, the film never loses the high level of intensity that is established in the film’s opening scene.

Perhaps the most masterful stroke of The Hurt Locker may be its ability to balance its heart-pounding intensity and its contemplative themes. Typically, war films fall distinctly on one side to the neglect of the other, but then, this is not your typical war film. The Hurt Locker is immediately the best film about the Iraq War and its fearless look at the mental and emotional tolls of war, not to mention its exploration of war’s addictive aspects, makes it one of the first essential films of 2009.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Yates, 2009)

Dumbledore and Harry: an evil-fightin’ duo.

(out of 4)

There are basically two philosophies for adapting books to film, filmmakers attempt either a point-for-point replication on screen, in which each point of the book is seen on screen, or a major points interpretation, in which scenes are added and subtracted but the book’s major plot points are retained. The former only works with certain kinds of books (see Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men) and the latter, due to length of book or difficulty in filming, requires added scenes, subtracted scenes, and merged scenes. The first couple Harry Potter films attempted a point-for-point adaptation and as a result they felt tedious and often boring, because, among other things, book pacing and movie pacing are different. However, the most recent films in the Potter franchise have been forced away from the point-for-point adaptation model because of the increasing lengths of the books on which they’re based. So it was expected that the sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s beloved series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, would follow that trend and it does not disappoint.

By leaving out some of the less important subplots from the novel (Potter fans, get your stones ready), director David Yates and company have been able to make a strong film that focuses on the main plot points (which won’t be discussed in this review) of the book while retaining its mood and tone. Many fans consider Half-Blood Prince to be the darkest volume in the series and the movie captures that well. And in a smart move, they slice the darkness with just the right amount of comedy, which reminds us that our heroes are still teenagers and keeps the film a family friendly affair.

Speaking of our teenage heroes, the acting is much better this time around. While the adult acting, relying on many talented British actors, has always been fine in the Potter films, the youth actors have often turned it stiff performances, this has been particularly noted in the past regarding Emma Watson’s portrayal of Hermione. Watson is much improved this time around, as are most of the young actors. It might be overlooked, however, because Half-Blood Prince is practically stolen by the terrific Jim Broadbent who brings to life one of the funniest and saddest characters in the Potter series, Professor Horace Slughorn. With a single facial expression he elicited laughter from the entire audience in the theater.

Yet, not all will look as favorably upon this film as I have. Many fans of the book will be displeased with the changes made to certain crucial scenes (particularly near the end of the film). Though other scenes, like the creepy cave scene, are so perfectly captured from the book that I felt as if I had seen them before. Though there were a few changes I wish hadn’t been made (like the laughably short amount of time given to explaining the film’s title), the risks taken have made Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince into a strong film, one that fans and newcomers alike can enjoy on hot, summer afternoons.

I suppose it’s only fitting that the best Harry Potter novel would also become the best Harry Potter film (so far). But who knows, with David Yates at the helm for Potter installments 7.1 and 7.2, fans of this endearing series can hope for something perhaps even more magical in the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2011.