three things about music this week
1. I had a dream the other night about seeing The Cowboy Junkies. Apparently they had fallen onto hard times, because their singer, Margo Timmins, was playing drums as well. She wasn't playing well, either. She was doing two thing that I notice more often amongst bad female drummers than bad male drummers: first, she was using her elbow instead of her wrist, and second, she was following rather than leading. This definitely brought down their version of "Murder, Tonight, In The Trailer Park" (from their best record, BLACK-EYED MAN), although their surprise cover of Red House Painters' "San Geronimo" turned out pretty well.
I'm not sure why I was thinking about Cowboy Junkies, although they were the favorite band of an ex-girlfriend who turned up later in the dream, but I decided to check their web site to see what they'd been up to. It turns out they'd been busy as ever, promoting a reasonably new album and a 20th anniversary celebration of THE TRINITY SESSIONS. The last album I heard by them was 2004's OPEN, which was ambitious though not great, but it makes me feel good to see a band who fashions have long bypassed and who are very unlikely to ever return to their peak of popularity continuing to explore, continuing to release music.
2. I saw WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY last night. It reminded me of the Simpsons gag where action star Rainier Wolfcastle, famous for the role of McBain, does a stand-up comedy movie, with gems such as this:
McBain: "Men always leave the toilet seat up." (Beat.) "That is the joke."
Audience Member: "You suck, McBain!"
McBain pulls pin on grenade and throws it into audience.
If McBain wrote the script for WALK HARD, it would be "Musical bio-pics oversimplify the lives they portray and fall prey to formula." (Beat.) "That is the joke." And it's pretty much the only joke, apart from Jack White doing a surprisingly entertaining Elvis impersonation. It's not horrible - John C. Reilly is game as always, I could watch Jenna Fischer saw wood all day, Jane Lynch kills in her two minutes as the celebrity interviewer, "Darling" is a good joke, the marijuana scene is brilliant, and the variation on the childhood tragedy is a pretty amusing one. But it's hardly recommended.
Talking with my friend, he complained that the music bio-pic genre seems to have stories that always rely on luck, rather than somebody planning to be big and actually executing that plan. He indicated that the only bio-pic that he'd like to see would be Madonna's, because she actually schemed, wanted to make it big, and made it happen. Since then, I've been thinking about whether bands plot and scheme to make it big, or it just happens, or it's forces out of their control that make it happen, and which would make the most interesting story. I have reached no conclusion in particular, other than realizing that my favorite music bio-pic is 32 SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, which is as counter to traditional narrative as you can get while still being chronologically narrative.
3. I watched PERFORMANCE on Wednesday for the first time in a decade, and marvelled anew at what a different time it was for rock stars then. Check out "Memo From Turner" below, which is Mick Jagger's big musical number in the film, although he does play a bit of "Come Home In My Kitchen" in another scene.
PERFORMANCE is all about the fluidity of identity, which happens to be the topic that I'm focusing on for a new project. It raises this question in any number of ways, including showing Jagger influenced by both blues and electronic music. I wonder what would have happened to Mick Jagger if the blues never existed. Would he have quietly toiled his days away as an accountant? Would he have been a star anyway, just in a different musical form? And would that Mick Jagger be the same Mick Jagger in any meaningful sense? How gossamer and contingent is identity?
Next week, if all goes well, show reports about Explosions in the Sky, Dead C., and Interpol.
I'm not sure why I was thinking about Cowboy Junkies, although they were the favorite band of an ex-girlfriend who turned up later in the dream, but I decided to check their web site to see what they'd been up to. It turns out they'd been busy as ever, promoting a reasonably new album and a 20th anniversary celebration of THE TRINITY SESSIONS. The last album I heard by them was 2004's OPEN, which was ambitious though not great, but it makes me feel good to see a band who fashions have long bypassed and who are very unlikely to ever return to their peak of popularity continuing to explore, continuing to release music.
2. I saw WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY last night. It reminded me of the Simpsons gag where action star Rainier Wolfcastle, famous for the role of McBain, does a stand-up comedy movie, with gems such as this:
McBain: "Men always leave the toilet seat up." (Beat.) "That is the joke."
Audience Member: "You suck, McBain!"
McBain pulls pin on grenade and throws it into audience.
If McBain wrote the script for WALK HARD, it would be "Musical bio-pics oversimplify the lives they portray and fall prey to formula." (Beat.) "That is the joke." And it's pretty much the only joke, apart from Jack White doing a surprisingly entertaining Elvis impersonation. It's not horrible - John C. Reilly is game as always, I could watch Jenna Fischer saw wood all day, Jane Lynch kills in her two minutes as the celebrity interviewer, "Darling" is a good joke, the marijuana scene is brilliant, and the variation on the childhood tragedy is a pretty amusing one. But it's hardly recommended.
Talking with my friend, he complained that the music bio-pic genre seems to have stories that always rely on luck, rather than somebody planning to be big and actually executing that plan. He indicated that the only bio-pic that he'd like to see would be Madonna's, because she actually schemed, wanted to make it big, and made it happen. Since then, I've been thinking about whether bands plot and scheme to make it big, or it just happens, or it's forces out of their control that make it happen, and which would make the most interesting story. I have reached no conclusion in particular, other than realizing that my favorite music bio-pic is 32 SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, which is as counter to traditional narrative as you can get while still being chronologically narrative.
3. I watched PERFORMANCE on Wednesday for the first time in a decade, and marvelled anew at what a different time it was for rock stars then. Check out "Memo From Turner" below, which is Mick Jagger's big musical number in the film, although he does play a bit of "Come Home In My Kitchen" in another scene.
PERFORMANCE is all about the fluidity of identity, which happens to be the topic that I'm focusing on for a new project. It raises this question in any number of ways, including showing Jagger influenced by both blues and electronic music. I wonder what would have happened to Mick Jagger if the blues never existed. Would he have quietly toiled his days away as an accountant? Would he have been a star anyway, just in a different musical form? And would that Mick Jagger be the same Mick Jagger in any meaningful sense? How gossamer and contingent is identity?
Next week, if all goes well, show reports about Explosions in the Sky, Dead C., and Interpol.
7 Comments:
Very odd clip but once I saw Nichlas Roeg was directing (thank you IMDB) it made total sense. :P
1. Okay. That's a weird thing to dream about.
3. Thanks for the exposure. I put Performance in my Netflix queue. Recently watched Mick Jagger in another early movie performance, the Rutles. I thought he was the funniest thing in the movie.
You probably don't want to discuss it as it is a work in progress but I'm now curious about this new project you mentioned.
Ramon, it makes more sense in the film. Not saying "sense", just "more sense".
Kilian, the project is a feature-length screenplay that will hopefully then become a feature-length movie. Early days, though. Curious to check out THE RUTLES now.
i saw the cowboy junkies the first time they came to houston. and now i have a headache 'cause senility won't let me remember the name of the club. it was in the heights, usually hosted blues acts, and had overpriced drinks. it wasn't fitzgeralds-more like fitzgeralds stuck up older brother.
the junkies were stunning, but easily the quietest show i ever attended, that show and once when robyn hitchcock played acoustic at a large outdoor festival have been the only times i wanted to ask people to be quiet so i could hear the music.
for someone like jagger or madonna, once they reach a level of international recognition, how does that play into identity? when mick jagger is home alone, is he still a rock star, or does the homely guy who studied accounting come out?
good post as usual. thanks.
I was at that Junkies show, too, and can't remember the name of the venue either. I saw A Tribe Called Quest/De La Soul there as well.
"for someone like jagger or madonna, once they reach a level of international recognition, how does that play into identity? when mick jagger is home alone, is he still a rock star, or does the homely guy who studied accounting come out?"
That is the question, and the only answer offhand is this Kurt Vonnegut quote: "You are who you pretend to be, so be very careful who you pretend to be."
Rockefeller's
hmmm, I remember Rockefeller's but I'm thinking of a different place, which, come to think, wasn't in the Heights but might have been in the Richmond Strip or something. Weirdly, I never saw anything at Rockefeller's.
So I guess we were at a different show.
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