This Sunday night, the best thing ever to hit 69 bpm once again blew the roof off First Avenue, as the mostly-local supergroup, GAYNGS, reunited in Minneapolis for the first time since their debut show, "The Last Prom on Earth," played two nights at First Ave almost a year ago.
Just to see the GAYNGS gang all together again would have been draw enough for the hundreds of people who showed up on Sunday, but the group took it a step further and made the evening into its very own local music showcase:"Affilyated," by opening up the Mainroom, 7th St Entry, and the Record Room to over twenty different acts, all associated (or Affilyated har har har) with GAYNGS in some way.
The show, which held the same title as the recently released Doomtree regrind of GAYNGS' debut album (listen to and download it here), was a definite nod to heavy ties with the Minneapolis hip-hop collective, with solo sets by Dessa, POS, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, and Lazerbeak in the Record Room, and an incredible whole-crew blowout in the mainroom right before GAYNGS finally went on at about 1am.
With shows going on simultaneously in all three First Ave spaces all night, it was impossible to catch every one, but the crew and I made it around to as many as we could, rubbing shoulders with some of the most talented and humble artists the Shiver Cities have ever produced.
Stefan Alexander, aka P.O.S.
Yep, he was actually that close... I think all shows should be in the Record Room from now on.
Every man and woman in the room forgot about their boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, or wives when Dessa came in...
Dessa, killing it.
Even bears in moonboots were welcome at the drumtastic Marijuana Deathsquads show.
Mike Mictlan and Dessa in the Mainroom with the Doomtree crew.
GAYNGS.
Dessa and J. Vernon with GAYNGS.
Har Mar Superstar spent a good portion of the GAYNGS set muggin' it on a speaker... this, of course, was after he came in and sang "One More Try" in a white cape. YES.
I love when a band creates a hand sign that basically encourages you to flip them off all night.
Let's be serious... this was the highlight of my night. DOOMTREE!
I hope you were there too, folks - if not, the next time you hear "GAYNGS" and "First Avenue" in the same sentence, you'd better get it together!
This year is certainly turning out to be a bright one musically. The most recent addition to this spring's music goodness is a new project by, well, a s#*t ton of local and regional artists (and some out-staters), called GAYNGS. The project, which will be releasing their first album, Relayted, on May 11, includes members of Bon Iver, Megafaun, Lookbook, and Solid Gold, as well as P.O.S., Dessa, Michael Lewis (Andrew Bird's sax player), and many more. The hype alone could sell their record, but as happenstance would have it, the music always brings it home, and no matter how many pretty faces have shown up to be a part of Gayngs, the sound coming out of their first two released tracks, "The Gaudy Side of Town," and "Faded High," is what will have me lining up at the record store in a few weeks.
Additionally, they will be playing two shows at (surprise surprise) First Avenue on May 14, one at 5pm and one at 10.
Here's a first listen of the two released tracks on Myspace.
Nothing in life is easy. On any given day, a seemingly never-ending flow of junk makes the average person want to burrow down beneath the covers and call it quits. But to be truthful, most of us have it pretty good. Not to promulgate the proverbial parental lecture ("you don't know how good you actually have it, you're lucky"), but what if it was worse? What if a run-of-the-mill argument with your partner was coupled with the fact that you couldn't talk to anyone about it, what if no one could even know who your partner was? What if your heart was close to bursting with love and affection, but instead of yelling it from the rooftops, you had to swallow it down your throat so that even the tiniest shred of hope for that love wasn't ruined?
It is a timeless story- that of lovers simply being unable to love each other. Many of us have been there before, either experiencing it first or, if we’re lucky, secondhand. Although each story is different, the basic plot line stays the same. This familiar tale, with all its heartache and pain but also its simple joys, is explored in Noel Coward's classic film, Brief Encounter, which first appeared on screen in 1945, but was witnessed by yours truly last night at the Riverview Theater in south Minneapolis.
The film is a cultural icon, and I first brushed up against it in another of my all-time favorite films, The History Boys, the screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s successful London play. In it, two of the precocious sixth-form grammar school boys perform Brief Encounter’s final scene, in defiance of the more “useful” things their shrewd new instructor is hoping to teach them. After the performance, the instructor looks impressed but awash as to what to say, finally settling on “God knows why you’ve learned Brief Encounter…” which is met with raucous laughter by the other students. It seems a fitting enough question at the time: “why Brief Encounter?” and I’m sure most of the audience, regardless of how schooled in 1940’s cinema they are, might also ask the same thing of the cheeky students. I was one of those people, until I actually saw Coward’s work in action, and realized why it was they chose to perform this scene, or, more importantly, why it was chosen for them by their warm and yet personally unfulfilled closeted English teacher.
And so, sitting in the 1960’s style auditorium at the Riverview last night, this seemingly insignificant bit of humor in The History Boys finally made sense to me. It is not only the story of Brief Encounter: two lovers, both married, finally find what it is they have been missing in their respective relationships, share a shred of happiness, and then go on with their lives; but of Noel Coward himself, and my own speculation on what the play must have meant to him – a gay man unable to live life as what he actually was. Indeed, while certain insiders may have known, Coward’s sexuality, during his lifetime, was never discussed, but swept under the rug, as many were. He was a successful author, actor, director, singer, and playwright- lauded in society and well-loved among friends, and yet, Noel Coward the man was never the same person as Noel Coward the public face. Just as his Brief Encounter lovers Laura and Alec were, he was forced to turn something beautiful and real into a thing that must be spoken of only in hushed voices, or not at all. Coward’s own love, like that of his main characters, was a love that had to be much more familiar with furtive glances, skulking in corners, and quick rendezvous than the leisurely hand-in-hand walks in the park an un-adulterous or heterosexual pair would have been allowed.
Suddenly, it all makes sense. Who better to write the quintessential story of impossible ardor than a man who had spent his entire life facing true love as something that was, for him, outside the realm of possibility?
As if the story needed to be any more gut-wrenching, this extra layer of background knowledge on Coward’s own life takes it to an entirely new level of heartache. As a viewer, you feel the love, the second thoughts, the first kiss that - had circumstances been different - would have happened a long time ago. When Alec and Laura meet for a second time, you feel the intensity of the first time she holds his arm, and at the end of it all, you feel the overwhelming desire to run after him on the train platform, wanting to leave your own life behind to follow his, or simply not to live at all anymore. Coward’s script turns Alec and Laura’s story into what a great movie should be- something real, and something that, regardless of individual moral standards or auspices, causes every single person in the theater to understand, not just to feel for its characters, but to feel like its characters. Gay or straight, married or single, no one is exempt from being Alec or Laura, no matter how hard or softly their story may hit in their own lives.
There is never enough time in the day to give the Minneapolis/St. Paul music scene the credit it deserves. As much as the Twin Cities may seem to be a little Midwestern-bubble, we export talent like cheese and wine from the south of France. So, it should be no surprise that once again, one of our own has outdone not only the local music scene, but in my humble opinion, pretty much everyone else too. Dessa, the first and only female MC in the Doomtree collective (POS et al), released her debut full-length album, A Badly Broken Code, last month and let me tell you, after just one listen, it was worth the wait.
First off, Dessa is one smart cookie. While her spoken word background could lend her to being the female, Midwestern, wonder-bread version of Saul Williams, she stands alone. Her poetry, unlike his, is less likely to deliver a forceful blow with one line and more likely to make a lasting impression by the sheer weight of lyrical intrigue, woven throughout each and every line, all fitting together to make a warm bowl of literary oatmeal that sticks with you long after the actual meal is done. There are, of course, some serious stand-out tracks, such as the autobiographical opener: "Children's Work," "Dutch," a crafty piece that solidly shows her Minneapolis hip-hop roots, and the chilling song "Matches to Paper Dolls," which not only showcases her lyrical aptitude, but her amazing voice as well.
What really stands out in Dessa's favor is the thought that has clearly been put into what exactly she says. It may seem strange, but in the world of hip-hop, what is said too often becomes less important than how it comes out. For Dessa, there are no throw-away lyrics; everything has a point and purpose, and the metaphors, literary allusions, and profoundly complex yet incredibly familiar stories she tells are in a league of their own. Who else could write a heart-wrenching song about playing second-fiddle in a relationship to, well, an actual fiddle ("The Chaccone")?
I've included links to some YouTube versions of a few tracks below, but if you enjoy A Badly Broken Code's intelligent ear-candy, I encourage you to go grab the album and help support one of the Shiver Cities' best.
TV On The Radio was well-represented in the podcast.
I know everyone is getting fairly tired of "so-and-such of the decade" lists, and normally I would count myself among the over-reminisced masses, HOWEVER, I was just tipped off to a great way to relieve and re-explore some of the best music that the last decade had to offer. With the official Shiver Cities stamp of approval, Pretty Much Amazing's podcast has put together a podcast/playlist of the best songs of 2000-2009. Check it out, as available for online listen or download. Some of my personal favorites that made me act like a proud mother at a parent-teacher conference were:
-MGMT- "Kids"
-Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova- "Falling Slowly"
-Sigur Ros- "Gobbledigook"
-The White Stripes- "Seven Nation Army"
-Bon Iver- "Skinny Love" (Hooray hurrah!)
-TV On The Radio- "DLZ" and "Wolf Like Me"
-Fleet Foxes- "He Doesn't Know Why"
-Arcade Fire- "Wake Up"
-Gnarls Barkley- "Crazy"
Although I don't always agree with particular song choices from an artists' repertoire, I was happy to see that most of my absolute favorite musicians of the last 10 years made the list at least once! So go listen up, or even just check out the list, and tell me what you think!
To my dismay, at this time of year when I need to be most productive, the sheer volume of movies released seems to directly correlate with how much work I need to get done.... productivity FAIL.
So, in another procrastination spectacular, I hauled-tail over to the St. Anthony Theater to check out Wes Anderson's new stop-motion film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The prognosis? Cussing fantastic.
I'm incredibly glad that Anderson jumped on the rights to Roald Dahl's classic novel before anyone else did, because I highly doubt it could have been handled with such ingenuity, humor, or even sheer random depth in a cinematic undertaking by another director. As per Anderson's usual head-cocking randomness, Fantastic Mr. Fox was filled with laugh-out-loud WTF moments ranging everywhere from plot-furthering revelations like "Blueberries? Beagles love blueberries." to unexpected black-power fists for wolves on the hillside.
For the film, Anderson rounded up a solid list of actors to voice his puppeteered animals and their human enemies, including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, and Michael Gambon. I will have to admit, it was a bit unsettling to hear Dumbledore's voice coming out of a crazed Hard Cider magnate, Mr. Bean, but Gambon breathed Dahl's quintessential English-Gothic villain to life despite his recent turns as Hogwarts Headmaster.
The story, about one Mr. Fox (Clooney) who decides to face his mid-life crisis (at the age of seven fox-years) by reverting to the chicken-stealing habits of his youth and ends up pulling his entire animal town into the melee, is very simple, but manages to be complex on screen. Mr. Fox doubts who he is, and despite being a husband and father, he wants the "glory" he once had (compounded by a not-so-subtle moment when he loses his tail). His adolescent son, Ash (Schwartzmann), is going through his own crisis of identity as well, and the Fox's talented houseguest, cousin Kristofferson, only compounds Ash's desperate (and hilarious) cry for reverence from somebody, anybody.
Where Anderson's other movies have left off, Fantastic Mr. Fox certainly picks up, but, I believe, with improvement. Unlike Anderson's previous films, Mr. Fox manages to keep pace or even pick up speed where many of his others lost their elements of absurdity to prolonged catharsis. Maybe this is because unlike Anderson's other films, Mr. Fox, no matter how entertaining to adults, can and should still be a kid's movie. There is adult humor, sure, but it is tacful and subtle, and Anderson even managed to turn adult emotion into kid-friendly fun by using the word "cussing" where streams of profanity could have been had it been rated higher. This tounge-in-cheek homage to "Yep, this sure could have been an adult comedy" keeps Anderson in his normal sphere while causing a little girl in front of me in the theater to blissfully laugh as hard as I did.
Example:
Badger: In summation, I think you just got to not do it, man. That's all.
Mr. Fox: I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.
Badger: The cuss you are.
Mr. Fox: The cuss am I? Are you cussing with me?
Badger: No, you cussing with me?
Mr. Fox: Don't cussing point at me!
Badger: If you're gonna cuss, you're not gonna cuss with me, you little cuss!
Badger: You're not gonna cuss with me!
[Both start snarling at each other, and then settle down]
Mr. Fox: Just buy the tree.
Badger: Okay.
Surprisingly, my favorite aspect of the film was that it proved that audiences don't need computer-generated graphics, flashy visuals, 3-D, or enormous budgets to make a fantastic animated film. To say the least, it was a complete visual delight, and proved the artfulness and care it takes to produce puppeteered stop-motion animation did not go out of fashion with Wallace and Gromit. When you come right down to it, goofy expressions just look goofier on clay-based puppets than they do on a CG character... don't believe me? Go see how fantastic Mr. Fox is for your self, and try to cussing prove me wrong.
Last week I was excited to finally begin my Oscar-season movie viewing when I headed over to the Uptown Theater, grabbed a bag of popcorn, and plopped down in a seat for Lone Scherfig's Sundance-favorite, An Education.
I was initially excited to see the film because of the reputation of both its director and its starring cast, but I left the theater impressed not only with the talent it employed, but the grasp of the film itself. Jenny (Carey Mulligan), is a sixteen year-old student at a girls school in 1960's suburban London, and despite some stickiness in her studies of Latin, she is bound for an Oxford education. She is the smartest girl in her class, and is praised by her instructors, most notably her English teacher (Olivia Williams), who is her woman role-model in academia. She has doting parents, played by a hysterically awkward and gullible Alfred Molina, as well as Cara Seymour, whose lack of outright sophistication allows them to be as easily wooed as Jenny by the charms of David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man she meets who is twice her age. After giving her and her cello a ride one rainy day, David takes Jenny down the rabbit hole of the adult world she's never had, taking her to parties, clubs, concerts, and exotic cities on a regular basis. Of course, it is not all fun-and-games, as Jenny's involvement with David and his less-than ethical livelihood eventually threaten her standing in school, her relationship with her peers, and her Oxford future. Add David's glamorous friends, Danny and Helen (played by a suave but caring Dominic Cooper and a blissfully "blonde" Rosamund Pike), and the recipe for Jenny's sojourn "off the chosen path" gets more potent.
I won't let you in on any of the dicier plot details, because much of the roller coaster that David takes Jenny (and us) on stems from ignorance of just exactly what is going on, but I encourage everyone to go and see the film for themselves. The film is set to show at the Uptown all month, so eat your turkey and pie and get there!
Only in America can beat poets become hip-hop gods. Well, if they're Saul Williams they can...
Williams, an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam was kind enough to grace Minneapolis with his magnanimous presence last night at the Varsity Theater as the headliner of the Afropunk Tour. The tour, which also featured Dearling Physique, No Bird Sing, and American Fangs in this stretch, has been a huge success in every city it has stopped in so far.
Williams' purple peacock look.
Williams' set included songs off of his 2007 collaboration with Trent Reznor, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, his self-titled debut album, as well as the incredible spoken-word that first made him famous including the intro to The Dead Emcee Scrolls, his most recent undertaking.
It was a high-powered, chest-pounding show that, as any good small-venue should, left you throughly deaf afterwards.
Some of the evening's highlights were the most unanticipated moments, including:
Williams, pre-tackle...
-a tiny 5-foot nothing white girl dancing awkwardly and then eventually tackling Saul Williams when he came down into the crowd by trying to hug his legs.
-the tour's Budweiser and Converse sponsorship, which led to random outbursts of "Budweiser!" by performers throughout the night, including the emcee's assertion that they were cool enough to sponsor the tour, so the least we could f---ing do was "drink Bud and wear Chucks."
-Williams, in his second song after the encore, forgetting the lyrics and instead singing, on perfect pitch and timing: "To forget all the lyrics you ever f---ing wrote, trying to remember the lyrics to this song that nobody f---ing knows"
It was a great show, and yes, Saul, some of your fans do know your insane lyrics well enough to know when some are out of place... but we love you anyways.
A Few Videos I managed to crappily record at the show:
For all of you Milwaukeeans who were lucky enough to have seen Bon Iver's last tour stop for what will be a year or two, I'm jealous. Luckily, I managed to catch Bon Iver last year at First Avenue here in Minneapolis, and the experience was incredible! For all of you who have seen them, or haven't been blessed enough yet, I've scratched up a recording of their stop at the Riverside in Milwaukee on October 11th. I've listened to the whole thing a few times through already, and I must say, I'm a bit hurt that my Bon Iver concert memories, such as Justin Vernon having the entire audience scream at the top of our lungs at the end of "The Wolves" seem to be far from unique, haha. But who cares? Still AWESOME. The performance, in its entirety, for yours (and my) listening pleasure!
There are some things that, by default, just suck money away. Rent, gas, groceries, etc are all the bane of my wallet's existence, and, while I enjoy eating, having a house, and being able to travel in my car, none of these things really give me any great joy. Being a frugal femme, I'm not a huge fan of spending copious amounts of money on anything, much less things I don't really need for basic subsistence. This is where the concept of "the splurge" comes in.
A "splurge," for those of you who don't know, is the occasional shelling out of too-much-money for something that, while more expensive than you'd like to pay, is an every-once-in-a-while indulgence that puts a smile on your face. While for most women, the "splurge" normally is applied to something in the way of clothing and accessories, for me, it is always applied to music. Not just a 9.99 iTunes download of an album, but a short drive (see, that's what the gas is for) over to the hallowed halls of the Electric Fetus for some good old-fashioned vinyl.
Mmmmmm vinyl. Honestly, I used to be a skeptic of every hipster-kid's assertion that you haven't really "heard" anything until you've heard it on LP, but after doing a compare and contrast of digital, CD, and vinyl, I'll admit that I'm full-fledged on the "I heart vinyl" train.
Old vinyl is spectacular: nothing can really compare to cranking up Earth, Wind, and Fire on LP, but something I'm a big, big, fan of is how new artists are jumping back to releasing their albums on LP. This is great for a few reasons, a. it frickin sounds better, and b. along with most new releases on vinyl, the band will include a download code for the digital copy of the album too. It's a simple measure that I hope will encourage more current artists to jump on the LP train, because their fans can have a great copy of the record as well as the music on their iPod/mp3 players - ta da!
Some things I'm cranking up right now on the record player:
-Beirut's Gulag Orkestar
-Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago
-The White Stripes Icky Thump
-Kings of Leon Only By The Night
-Iron and Wine The Shepherd's Dog
-Silversun Pickups Swoon
All of these are current artists who have realized that the depth, volume, and layering of sound that an LP provides gives their listeners a really badass musical experience. In the TC, check out the Electric Fetus or Cheapo for all your vinylicious needs.
So come on, jump on the bandwagon, I promise you won't be dissappointed!
October is a great month for moviegoers. Sleeper hits that sometimes become Oscar favorites abound, and all the hype of the November-January "Oscar Season" hasn't yet hit. So, here's a heads-up on what to check out this month:
October 9: An Education
From All Movie Guide: "A suburban London teen finds her traditional education replaced by something slightly more sinister when an older, more worldly suitor sweeps her off of her feet while placing her future in jeopardy. London, 1961: 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is smart, attractive, and eager to start her adult life. She's grown tired of the familiar adolescent routine, so when urbane newcomer David (Peter Sarsgaard) appears in town, Jenny senses a rare opportunity to shake things up a bit. Quickly falling under David's spell, the impressionable Jenny begins accompanying her newfound beau to classical concerts, art auctions, crowded pubs, and dinners that stretch into the small hours of the night. But Jenny is brighter than most kids her age, and her parents always dreamt of getting their exceptional daughter into Oxford. These days it seems like she's headed in a different direction -- will David ultimately be her undoing, or the person who helps her finally realize her true potential?"
ShiverCities Points: Peter Sarsgaard has long been a supporting character to watch, and he definitely deserves a role that will put him in the limelight. I can't wait to see him corrupt the Oxford-bound youth of London. PLUS: The film also stars Dominic Cooper, the favorite bad boy of both The History Boys and The Duchess.
October 16: Where the Wild Things Are
Ok, this one is easy. For anyone who was a child, is a child, or has had a child, you are familiar with Maurice Sendak's beautiful book. Take this, add Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers and a soundtrack completely done by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and you've got cinematic gold. (I'm excited too, but check out this link, because we've all got to laugh at ourselves.)
A mixture of real actors, computer animation, and live puppeteering, Where the Wild Things Are follows the adventures of a young boy named Max (Max Records) as he enters the world of the Wild Things, a race of strange and enormous creatures who gradually turn the young boy into their king.
October 16: New York, I Love You
This year's follow-up to last season's Paris, Je T'Aime is another short-film montage, composed of 12 short films from some of the world's most respected directors, it aims to pay tribute to the city of New York in a more down-to-earth fashion than conventional film depicts.
ShiverCities Points: While I'm still waiting on a Twin Cities, I Love You, I'm excited to see the work of directors such as Natalie Portman, Allen Hughes, Scarlett Johansson and Randall Blasmeyer all wrapped in to one - Paris, Je T'Aime was a beautiful project, and I'm hoping New York, I Love You doesn't disappoint. PLUS, where else can you see Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Emilie Ohana, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thirlby, Blake Lively, Drea De Matteo, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf, Ugur Yucel, Taylor Geare,Carlos Acosta, Jacinda Barrett, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Amurri, Eli Wallach, and Cloris Leachman all in one film? HOLY CRAP.
This season, there are just about as many documentaries slated to come out as there are fictional films, and with all the edu-tainment flying around, its hard to know what's worth your time. I am here to make a humble suggestion.
Davis Guggenheim, the same man who brought us An Inconvenient Truth back in the Bush years has turned to something a little less heady, but no less intriguing. He has based his whole film, It Might Get Loud, on one simple question: What would happen if you put three guitar gods in a room and just started filming? The answer is an intriguing and fun film, both for fans and novices alike.
While Guggenheim doesn't shed any new light on the world of electric guitar, he masterfully tells the stories of three of its heroes: Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin), The Edge (of U2), and Jack White (of the White Stripes). The multi-generational "rock talk" that takes place is interspersed with footage of the director's one-on-one time with each of the three men, and new views into their individual lives, which are often incredibly funny, are laid out. Some of the best moments from the film include:
-All three guys jamming together, each soloing and adding their own spin, but when Page's turn comes, White and The Edge can only sit there and watch him play with looks on their faces that can mean nothing else but "HOLY SHIT."
-White, on his dilapidated farm in Tennessee, making an electric guitar out of a board, a nail, a guitar string, and an empty glass bottle. He silently plays riffs off his new instrument and then looks up at the camera and says with a smirk: "Who says you need to buy a guitar?"
-A hand-drawn cartoon that accompanies White's description of his small room as a child, which was so full with musical equipment that he slept on a mat, diagonally in front of the door.
-Footage of the Edge in his highschool band: big hair and making googly-eyes at the camera during footage of an early performance. Hilarious.
It Might Get Loud continues at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema in Uptown. For showtimes visit the Lagoon's webpage.
