Dimple Records' In-Store Magazine, June 2010 by Red Flag Media

Grind for the Green :

Rappers Meet Tree-Huggers

Don’t Call It a Comeback The New Sound of

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Gaslight Anthem Stay True to Their Punk’n’Roll Roots

Indie Hip-Hop Janelle Monae’s Cosmic R&B Odyssey

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Ariel Pink Music, Movies, and the World Beyond Pop Culture $4.95 | june 2010 | ISSUE 2

plus Wye Oak, Born Ruffians, Futureheads, Optimo & More

A D D You may not share his taste in music, but at $10 or less, these Dad favorites are a great soundtrack for bonding over the barbecue.

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New Folks You Should Get to Know

The Young Veins

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Take a Vacation

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Ryan Ross makes the rest of us look like slackers. At the age of 23, he’s already been in one chart-topping, adored band (Panic! At The Disco) and been mature enough to to realize that his skills were taking him away from the dance-floor synths of that Las Vegas powerhouse and started his second band. The Young Veins ARE that band, and their re-imagining of ‘60s pop, Nuggets-era garage rock, Tropicalia, and girl groups has made its way on to the glimmery, rollicking debut, Take A Vacation. The perfect California summer soundtrack. Even if your summer isn’t spent in California.

A Utah band by way of California and the Midwest, even these four describe themselves as “an arranged marriage where divorce is not an option.” A nice way of saying that even though they’re pretty different folks, their music and the love of it keep ‘em rocking. Maybe you’ll hear the love of The King of Pop, The Boss, Led Zeppelin or Depeche Mode in the debut album, or more likely in their live show. They just wrapped up a tour with Muse and 30 Seconds to Mars, and head out now with Paper Tongues. So even their touring partners aren’t exactly cookie cutter.

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greenmind

sustainable living in pop culture and beyond

Participant taking a turn at riding the bicycle at G4G’s pedal powered hiphop music conference.

On the Grind Zakiya Harris and Grind for the Green bring hip-hop and environmental activism together by Jess Harvell

Cowbell june 2010

hen Zakiya Harris co-founded Grind for the Green with her husband

Ambessa Cantave in 2007, she was an educator looking to bring the sustainability movement into the classroom. “I’ve worked in a variety of public school settings, in-school and after-school programs,” she says. “I’ve also been a vegetarian for the last 10 years. I’m very health-conscious, environmentally-conscious.”

But Harris began to notice certain contradictions in school policy. “It was okay to talk about police brutality with young people, and deal with social justice issues in the classroom,” she says. “But then we would be feeding them really terrible food.” This disconnect, promoting a healthy mind while ensuring an unhealthy body, began to nag at her. “I didn’t understand why we weren’t addressing all of those issues,” she says. “And so Grind for the Green was really born out of that mission, really engaging those intersections between social justice and environmental justice. Being able to say that we can talk about these issues, but we can also feed

our young people organic food. We can talk about climate change in an interesting way, and we can use art as a medium to do that.” Aimed at young people of color in San Francisco, Grind for the Green combines the traditional youthworkforce development program with an education in an eco-friendly life. But unlike the mainstream green movement, which often targets white middleclass communities, Grind for the Green attempts to reach a new audience on its own terms. “Not only are we serving young people of color, but we hire and employ young people of color,” Harris says. “We’re always stressing cultural relevancy. photo by Lady Tragick Photography

Hip-hop is one way we’re using cultural relevancy; we see hip-hop as a culture, not just a type of music. Having a staff that reflects our young people is also [a form of ] cultural relevancy, because at the end of the day, if they’re not reflected, if they can’t see themselves…[environmentalism] just becomes this foreign concept that doesn’t ever really hit home.” The young people who sign on with Grind for the Green are already intimately familiar with the environmental issues that affect their communities, especially those from low-income areas. “They know about the issues because they’re living those issues every day,” Harris says. “So, it’s nothing to talk to them about food justice because they live in neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores. They’re just not using the words ‘food justice.’ So what’s new is the language.” Grind for the Green introduces kids to the wider world of environmental activism, but the program’s focus remains local. “They’re able to get a broader context [for the issues], but also to understand how poverty and place work together and affect health,” Harris says. “We tell all of our young people that we can look at their zip code and pretty much identify how healthy they are.” In a community where jobs are often at a premium, GFTG also trains its volunteers in a variety of business skills, like marketing and publicity, in addition to what Harris calls “ecoliteracy leadership development.” The teens then go on to plan, promote and manage concerts featuring local and national hip-hop acts. “Every single aspect of our festival is completely produced by the young people,” Harris says. “A 21-year-old kid is going to pick up Dead Prez from the airport. So they’re just filled with this sense of empowerment.” The concerts themselves offer new models for both green activism and sustainable event-planning. According to Grind for the Green, “all event collateral is printed on recyclable materials, all food is organic and packaged in biodegradable foodware, all events include a green pavilion to educate participants about green practices, programs and careers.” The final concert of the season is solarpowered, and some Grind for the Green events are bicycle-powered. (The bicycle in question even looks cool, judging by the photo above.) Grind for the Green’s events have attracted a number of well-known, socially conscious hip-hop acts—rappers known for being politicized, even radical. “Traditionally when you’d think of a ‘green hiphop artist,’ you’d think, well, who are those rappers in the industry who’ve watched [corporate farming documentary] Food, Inc., who know how poisoned

“

We tell all of our young people that we can look at their zip code and pretty much identify how healthy they are.”

—Zakiya Harris, Grind for the Green co-founder

a lot of the food can be, who eat healthy?” Harris says. “The Mos Defs, the Talib Kwelis, the Dead Prez-es. Talib Kweli and A contestant shakes his Dead Prez have both come out to our events before, and they’re at G4G’s like, ‘Wow, we’re so happy to be here, but we don’t know what stuff Beat Battle to say.’ What do you mean you don’t know what to say? You’re Talib Kweli. You have a song about this issue and that issue.” Harris claims terms like “green” and “environmental” can alienate those who’ve had little contact with the movement, so Grind for the Green events often become as much about educating the artists as the youth volunteers. Harris wants rappers to start incorporating green ideas into both their onstage message and their daily lives. “[Dead Prez] couldn’t even believe that, for every product and every service that you have right now that’s poisoning the Earth, there’s a green alternative,” she says. “When they saw the solar trailer that was powering their concert, [we realized] there was so much for them to learn, too.” Grind for the Green is unique—Harris can’t think of any other environmental advocacy group using hip-hop to attract young people of color—but that’s not to say the organization’s success couldn’t be replicated outside of San Francisco. The trick seems to be making young people understand that the sustainability movement isn’t just about volunteering for a few hours a week. It’s about bringing those values to your day-to-day life, wherever you might live. “If you’re just talking about food, or you’re just talking about doing the neighborhood cleanup, or you’re just talking about climate change, you aren’t giving young people this holistic frame of consciousness, of eco-literacy,” Harris says. “The idea that it should inform whatever they do, whether they’re going to be a chef or a writer or even if they do want a green job. Once you open them up, people are changed forever…they’re going to carry on that stewardship of the Earth wherever they go.” june 2010 Cowbell

Cowbell june 2010

/green_mind

Perfect Sound Forever

f you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that the compact disc

Bands and fans alike can reduce the CDs negative impact on the environment

holds a special place in your heart. Maybe it’s rushing to your local record store on a Tuesday to pick up that new release; or stumbling by Scott Orwig across an out-of-print EP while rifling through a used bin; or just meticulously arranging your existing collection. (Alphabetically by band, then chronologically by album, of course. It’s the only sensible way.) CDs provide a unique, tangible experience that even the biggest MP3 collection just can’t match.

Unfortunately, CDs have their downside, using toxic inks, carcinogenic dioxins and non-biodegradable plastics. Old CDs can sit in landfills for decades just because you happened to outgrow your nü-metal phase. Like most things that are mass-produced on the cheap, CDs aren’t necessarily made with the environment in mind. But the music industry is changing its ways, however slowly. CDs first arrived in cardboard long-boxes that were meant to fit in racks designed for vinyl LPs. Decried by consumers and artists alike for its environmentally unfriendly excess packaging, the long-box was eliminated in favor of the ubiquitous plastic jewel case. The jewel case was greeted as an improvement—despite being molded out of difficultto-recycle polystyrene plastic and wrapped in toxic PVC shrink wrap—and it quickly became the industry standard. But there are other options. Digipaks have been widely adopted by record labels both large and small; they replace much of the jewel case’s plastic with recycled cardboard. Companies like Oasis Disc Manufacturing have even improved on the conventional digipak by molding the plastic CD tray out of 100 percent recycled plastic bottles. And in 2006, Universal Music announced that it would begin using completely recyclable paper packaging for its “20th Century Masters” series of compilation CDs. In an effort to further cut down on the label’s use of paper and ink, the “20th Century Masters” CDs do not include extra art or liner notes. Instead, these are made available for download on Universal’s website. Digital art and liner notes may be fine for some, but opening a jpeg file on your computer’s desktop is a poor substitute for the experience of flipping through a CD booklet 10

Cowbell june 2010

to read the lyrics as you listen. Minnesota-based Earthology Records (earthology.net) knows this, and that’s why the company manufactures sustainable CDs for indie bands and labels. The brainchild of Craig Minowa, leader of indie rock band Cloud Cult, Earthology uses 100 percent recycled plastic jewel cases (or recycled cardboard digipaks), post-consumer recycled paper, soy ink and corn-based, biodegradable shrink wrap. Their facility is even powered using geothermal, wind and solar energy. Minowa’s obsession with sustainable CDs began in the early days of the new millennium. After wrapping up Cloud Cult’s sophomore release, 2001’s Who Killed Puck?, the longtime environmentalist realized that existing CD production methods didn’t jibe with his green sensibilities. Rather than shelve the record, he took action, distributing collection boxes to local colleges where students could drop off used jewel cases. Minowa cleaned up the old cases—one at a time, by hand—and used them to package Who Killed Puck? It was a simple, if inelegant, solution to a serious problem. But it did eventually lead to the cutting-edge techniques Earthology employs today. Of course, packaging is just one part of the issue. While a CD case can be made out of just about any material, the disc itself requires polycarbonate plastic, a substance potentially hazardous to the environment. If disposed of improperly, your old, scratched CDs will still be around for hundreds of years, releasing Bisphenol A, a toxin thought to contribute to neurological damage, cancer and obesity. CD manufacturing is also an energy-intensive process. To manufacture just one pound of plastic, it takes 300 cubic feet of natural gas, two cups of crude oil and 24 gallons of water. With one pound of plastic, you can make 30 CDs. Back in AOL’s late ’90s

CD manufacturing is also an energy-intensive process. To manufacture just one pound of plastic, it takes 300 cubic feet of natural gas, two cups of crude oil and 24 gallons of water. With one pound of plastic, you can make 30 CDs. heyday, it’s estimated that the company mailed out over two billion CDs to potential customers. That’s 66,666,666 pounds of plastic. Iron Maiden fans take note: That’s the real Number of the Beast. It’s unlikely that a nontoxic, biodegradable compact disc will ever come to pass, so what can you do with your damaged or unwanted CDs? You can try selling your collection back to your local record store for a couple bucks. If your local record store doesn’t buy used CDs, try donating them to thrift stores like Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Or you could unleash your inner artist—surely you can think of something cool to do with a bunch of shiny silver discs? But even if a record store won’t take your CDs, and you’ve got all the coasters you need, resist the

urge to throw your old discs in the trash. CDs are considered a Class 7 recyclable plastic, and many local recycling centers will gladly take them off your hands. If you can’t find a center in your town that accepts them, there are a number of national organizations that accept old CDs and jewel cases by mail. Some of these organizations, like the CD Recycling Center of America (cdrecyclingcenter.com), ask for a small donation, while others like GreenDisk (greendisk. com) charge a fee. Either way, you’ll likely have to pay for your own shipping, but you’ll walk away with the satisfaction of knowing that you kept your discs out of a landfill. After all, our regrettable musical decisions aren’t Mother Nature’s fault.

Craig Minowa (bottom left). of the band Cloud Cult turned the sustainable CD into both a cause and a business

Bonnaroo 2010 June 10-13 Manchester, TN

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My Morning Jacket Dr. Dog

Andrew Bird

Kris Kristofferson

Bobby Bare, Jr. The Boxmasters

John Prine

Sarah Jarosz with Black Prairie

Black Francis with Joey Santiago

Ray Price

Todd Snider

Bobby Bare, Sr.

Lucinda Williams

Nanci Griffith

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NIER In Stores Now Nothing is as it seems in Square Enix’s latest ActionRPG game, set in a crumbling world plagued by disease and dark, unrecognizable creatures. Players assume the role of the unyielding protagonist, NIER, resolute in his quest to discover a cure for his daughter, who is infected with the Black Scrawl virus. With powerful allies and a mysterious book, NIER encounters things that will confound even the mightiest of warriors. AVAILABLE FOR

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Visit IndieBound.org for more great reads and to ﬁnd an indie bookstore (or other great indie business) near you.

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HOW WILL YOU

ROCK THIS SUMMER? LET US COUNT THE WAYS.

Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet [ SPECIAL EDITION ] Direct from the Bon Jovi archives, there are TEN classic albums reissued as SPECIAL EDITIONS. For the first time ever, Bon Jovi fans have exclusive access to rare live recordings as bonus tracks on their classic studio albums.

Scorpions Sting in the Tail Germany’s most-successful international music export, will be calling it quits after this album and a three-year mammoth tour, which will take them across five continents (including the U.S. this summer).

Peter Frampton Thank You Mr. Churchill The follow up to the Grammy® winning Fingerprints takes Peter Frampton back to the beginning with this autobiographical classic. Eleven rocking tracks featuring Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam / Soundgarden), The Funk Brothers (Motown legends), and many others.

Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. [2 CD DELUXE EDITION] One of the greatest albums in rock ‘n’ roll history, Exile has been remastered with ten never-before-heard tracks including the single “Plundered My Soul” and “Following The River” all originally recorded during the Exile era.

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Ten exciting collaborations from the former Beatle including: “Walk With You” and “Peace Dream” with Paul McCartney, “The Other Side Of Liverpool” and “Fill In The Blanks” with Joe Walsh, and “Who’s Your Daddy” featuring Joss Stone.

Featuring duets with Merle Haggard, Shelby Lynne, and Neko Case; integrating rock, R&B, blues, folk and country in a way that has distinguished Wolf’s storied career.

june 2010

/music

Chaos Fact The Futureheads seize control of their future with The Chaos

by Brian Baker

COWBELL may 2010

haos theory holds that dynamic systems are sensitive to initial conditions. Small variances in those conditions, the so-called butterfly effect, make predicting an outcome almost impossible. Or, to put it in terms more familiar to music fans, an idiosyncratic band (the dynamic system) releases an indie single (the initial condition) whose unexpected mainstream success (the small variance) goes on to alter the band’s sound (the unpredictable outcome).

“

I think with this record we wanted to give ourselves the thrill of having something a little more complicated.” —Ross Millard

Perhaps chaos theory was on the minds of the Futureheads when they began recording The Chaos, their fourth and arguably best album. The butterfly effect certainly seemed to be at work when the band released their self-titled debut in 2004, and its uncharacteristically straightforward cover of Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” became a Top 10 single in the U.K. Some listeners came away from “Hounds” with a less than accurate impression of the Futureheads’ complex brand of post-punk pop, a fact that steered the band’s decision to record a more mature and thoughtful sophomore album, 2006’s News and Tributes. “It was admittedly a little MOR or a little Fleetwood Mac, or something like that,” guitarist/vocalist Ross Millard laughs. “But it was our dream, in a lot of ways, to make a record like that at that point. With the benefit of hindsight, there was nothing ‘radio’ about that album. There was nothing that would appeal to the people who got off on ‘Hounds of Love’ or ‘Decent Days and Nights.’ But I think that album was badly A&R’ed, from a major label point of view, because they let us do exactly what we wanted to do and put it out exactly how we wanted it. It was a triumph for us creatively, but in terms of their business model, it was madness.” Although it was the record the band wanted to release, there’s a case to be made that the Futureheads weren’t quite ready to record as expansive as News and Tributes. With its jittery guitars and spiky rhythms, reminiscent of new wave giants like XTC and Wire, The Chaos is an update of the Futureheads’ core sound and a fitting complement to their triumphant third album, 2008’s This Is Not the World. But The Chaos also retains the slightly ominous (yet still playful) tone of World, when there was considerable doubt that the Futureheads would even continue on as a band. “We became uncomfortable being signed to a major,” Millard says of the leadup to World. “In the beginning, we had no intentions of music ever being our day jobs or sole focus in life. And when ‘Hounds of Love’ charted, it was the second-highest new chart entry behind Akon, and it snowballed into this madness where that becomes normality. And you enjoy it, to an extent. But parting with Warner Brothers was necessary. They could have kept us in the studio remaking and remaking, and that would have finished a band like us.” If the newly unshackled Futureheads returned to form with This Is Not the World, then The Chaos bristles at that form a bit; it’s a careful re-imagining of the band’s longstanding influences. “It was a strange one because this was the

first record that we truly knew from start to finish would be released on our own label,” Millard says. “We made the last album before we had the notion of putting our own label together, so this is the first one with that resource in mind, if you like. It was good to know from the start of the process how it would be coming out, and we knew we could take our time with it.” From the XTC-covers-Queen bombast of “The Connector” to the careening, discordant melodies of the title track, if the Futureheads had a conscious goal on The Chaos, it was exploring sonic complexity. “We wanted to bring the chops back,” Millard says. “We wanted to bring the technicality of the Futureheads back to the forefront of what we were doing. Certainly on the last record, and to a certain extent the second album, we wrote songs that were based on the idea of either having space in the music or being more straight-up influenced [by certain bands], with a more traditional four-on-the-floor drumbeat, or bigger chords, or simpler hooks and melodies. I think with this record, truthfully, we wanted to give ourselves the thrill of having something a little more complicated.” Millard points to The Chaos’ closing track, “Jupiter,” as indicative of the Futureheads’ desire to craft something new out of the clockwork-precise mayhem of their first and third albums and their measured, meditative second. “It was added on at the last minute,” he says. “In our own short-sharp-shock kind of way, it’s a little tip of the hat to Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ maybe, where you have these big a cappella sections and dueling guitars. A lot of our fans associate some fairly quirky things with the Futureheads, and all of those elements are present there—that sort of Gregorian [chant] section at the start, and the harmonies and these fidgety, noodly little guitar licks, and big chords for the chorus. I think [the song’s] got everything in terms of our musical biography. We’ve started touring the record and this is the song we close the set with. It makes you The Chaos is feel like a tough guy.” in stores now from Dovecote

june 2010

/music

Ruff Never Smooth

f all the great ’90s record labels, Sheffield, U.K.’s

Warp has best weathered the new millennium. After charting the rise and fall of the rave era, from the austere bleeping of hardcore techno to the convoluted rhythms of intelligent dance music, Warp’s relevance might have easily faded with the changing tastes of a new decade. Instead, the label’s diversified in the smartest way—signing forward-thinking bands that can’t be easily tagged in one genre. You can’t say that Warp “went rock” when electronic music briefly fell out of favor in the early years of the 21st century. Their “guitar” bands, like Battles and Animal Collective, have more in common with digital-editing wizards like Aphex Twin than they do with your average plug-in-and-play garage band setup. So where does that leave Born Ruffians, probably the most straight-forwardly rocking band on Warp’s roster? 18

june 2010

Born Ruffians bring old-school punk fun to a label known for arty electronica

by Jess Harvell

“Once we signed, I started to hear about people’s blogs and et cetera wondering why Warp had signed us,” Born Ruffians singer/guitarist Luke LaLonde says. “I suppose we were part of a new direction for Warp, which I find exciting. I don’t feel like we fit in too much... I think as far as Warp Records goes, we’re an odd man out on a label filled with other pretty odd folks.” True enough, because Born Ruffians play taut, catchy guitar pop with little in the way of neo-psychedelic frills or “is it live or is it laptop?” computer trickery. They might be the friendliest band Warp’s ever signed, three twentysomethings who sound like they discovered punk rock at an impressionable age and decided they identified with its nervous energy, but not its aggression. (The trio becomes a foursome live, with the addition of ex-Caribou bassist Andy Lloyd.) Their second album, the brand new Say It, offers the kind of goofball romanticism first patented by Jonathan Richman. LaLonde favors spiky little melodic runs, the treble cranked way up, and

his hooks channel everything from jittery country strumming to a sloppy, choppy take on the tropical funk of ’70s Brazil. Bassist Mitch Derosier and drummer Steve Hamelin are the ideal new wave rhythm section, despite the fact they were born well after new wave’s heyday. It’s a sound that might play best on scratchy vinyl 45s rather than hi-fi digital downloads, a sound that could have gotten the Ruffians signed to Stiff, one-time home to not-quite-punks like Wreckless Eric, Ian Dury and Elvis Costello. Like Stiff’s late ’70s all-stars, the trio is equal parts literary and whimsical, two forgotten punk virtues, with keen ears for subtly incorporating non-rock melodies and rhythms. The Ruffians are also that rarest of bands—the after-school project that outlasted graduation. The trio met while attending high school in an Ontario suburb called Midland, where cousins LaLonde and Derosier met one-time trombonist Hamelin. “I convinced [Derosier] to take bass guitar in high school music class with some kind of hidden foresight,” LaLonde says. Once freed from the bonds of mandatory schooling, the three lit out for the more rock-fertile environs of Toronto, where they moved into a group house and put their backs into the Ruffians. “We started to refine our ‘sound’ and jammed in our basement nearly every day, working on new material and scrapping most of our Midland repertoire for our new city life-inspired tunes,” LaLonde says. “Within our first year in Toronto, we had a record deal and a tour lined up for the fall, so we all deferred school in order to do the band full-time. We’re still postponing our ‘educations,’ I guess.” Listen to their debut EP, 2006’s Born Ruffians, and it’s not entirely surprising that the trio was signed and ready for the road after only a year on their own. All those city days spent in close quarters allowed the band to hammer the kinks from their minimalist arrangements. The results are certainly manic; LaLonde can leap from cuddly croon to snotty yelp and back again in just a few notes. But the Ruffians are never sloppy, with songs that seem to build toward chaotic freak-outs, only for the band to snap back into pop-friendly formation at the last second. “We’re not afraid to tell each other when to play, or more importantly when not to play,” LaLonde says. “In the past I’ve demoed songs in my room and recreated them with the band, but Say It was written and arranged entirely in rehearsals. Ideas were modified and refined in a room with the three of us.” You can hear that sense of refinement and expansion on the band’s two albums, 2008’s Red, Yellow and Blue and now Say It. Moving on from the stripped-down mania of their early EPs, the Ruffians have grown more nuanced and exploratory as songwriters without dulling the music’s dizzy power-pop

charge. They’ve eased off the throttle, tempo-wise, but only just a bit. They’ve also traded the one-take energy of the practice space for an ongoing collaboration with underground studio whiz Rusty Santos. Say It is in A producer best known for stores now capturing the effects-heavy from Warp delirium of 21st century neopsychedelic bands like Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance, Santos’ touches on Say It are more subtle. He occasionally nudges the band toward new instrumental textures, like the muted strings and horns on “Come Back.” But he also realizes the Ruffians are a band that writes sing-alongs rather than soundscapes, allowing the innate dorky charm of LaLonde’s voice, and the twinned humor and heartbreak of his lyrics, to carry each tune. “Sometimes my lyrics come from a nonsensical, irrational place,” LaLonde says. “Sometimes they come from somewhere with a great deal of meaning

“

My fear of sounding pompous is sometimes outweighed by my desire to share something I think is quite profound.” —Luke LaLonde

and an honest, specific intent. Some songs contain both these things in one, and maybe that’s part of where the [album] title comes from, a sort of plea to myself to ‘say it.’” But his lyrics wouldn’t be half as interesting, or oddly affecting, if LaLonde suddenly turned into a confessional songwriter. He’s a natural comic storyteller, for one thing, couching familiar themes (relationship woes, familial discord) in tales of aging superheroes and siblings squabbling over household chores. Not that the Ruffians should be mistaken for a joke band. “My fear of sounding pompous is sometimes outweighed by my desire to share something I think is quite profound,” LaLonde says, and the best moments on Say It walk a wobbly line between the band’s urge to tug at listeners’ heartstrings and their love for vocal nonsense and irrational wordplay. The Ruffians’ spare throwback sound sets them apart from their label’s usual brand of florid experimentalism, and there’s likewise something immediately ear-catching about their inability to play it lyrically straight. It’s a welcome antidote to the overwrought histrionics and blunt-edged love songs of the postemo era. You kind of hope they never come right out and say it. june 2010

/music / the_playlist ►

African Crossover the_playlist

orld music” is a crude, all-but-meaningless

When African music comes to America—Konono No. 1, King Sunny Adé and more by Michaelangelo Matos

term. It’s also one of the music industry’s most resonant marketing success stories. The world music umbrella is broad enough that something under it becomes a hit every few years. As a rack in a record store, it offers a welcome point of entry for listeners vaguely curious about the international names that flicker into the English-speaking pop mainstream, however briefly.

Some American fans have begun to twist the blandness of the old phrase, punning on this stuff as “whirled music.” It’s a smart move: “Whirled” evokes the pleasantly dense and disorienting array of international styles competing for the ear, the thrilling sense of suddenly discovering so much music, from so many nations. And, of course, the artists themselves are often stirring together a number of styles old and new, local and international, in ways that will grab listeners reared on US rock and pop. Assume Crash Position (Crammed), the latest album from contemporary African crossover act Konono No. 1, a Congolese percussion-and-thumb-piano troupe, is a perfect example of the “whirled music” philosophy. Konono have a unique hook—they play through largely homemade amps that give the music a crackling, distorted sound. There’s noisy novelty value in the band’s 20

june 2010

approach, but Konono’s music communicates total seriousness. The troupe’s made this music together long before the wider world heard it, and the years have given them an authoritative sound that cuts through the pop scene like an axe. As with many African crossover acts, Konono offer the grooveappeal of funk and the visceral impact of rock, while not much sounding like either. “African crossover” itself describes a range of styles that don’t really have that much to do with each other, even though they share the same continent, but once you’ve discovered the albums in this month’s Playlist, the territory will feel that much more familiar. (You’ll also find dozens of new regional avenues to explore.) It’s a shame about the cheesy branding that so many world music labels saddle their releases with, but it’s easy enough to ignore. And from jam band heads to indie rockers to funk aficionados to “whirled” fans, music geeks of all stripes can find something new and bracing in Africa’s hybrid sounds. illustration by tim gough

THE ROOTS

Various Artists, The Music in My Head Vol. 1 & 2 / Stern’s (1998 & 2002) These two CDs, compiled by writer Mark Hudson, serve as the soundtrack to his novel about a British music-industry player discovering the sound of West Africa. Taken together, the two volumes of The Music in My Head provide a one-stop introduction to the hard-edged but melodic African music of the late ’70s and early ’80s that helped pique the interest of later U.S. and U.K. audiences. The selections include crossover titans Youssou

THE CLASSICS

Various Artists, The Indestructible Beat of Soweto / Earthworks (1985) bor. Juju is lively and percussive, but also sonorous, with honeyed guitar melodies and vocal harmonies. Konono fans will especially dig Juju Music’s lovely talkingdrum feature “Sunny Ti De Ariya.” The Indestructible Beat of Soweto is the compilation that, along with Paul Simon’s Graceland, kicked off a mid-’80s fervor for South African township jive. Jive is a busy, infectious sound— full of chattering guitars, bub-

bling synthesizers and bounding rhythms—often flavored with the kind of saxophone that, as Simon correctly noted, has plenty in common with ’50s R&B. Every cut on Indestructible Beat is great, and the sequencing couldn’t be better. It ends with the all-male a cappella troupe Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whose Classic Tracks is the place to start for their voluminous and deeply pleasurable catalog.

Etran Finatawa, Introducing / Riverboat (2006) Tinariwen, Aman Iman / World Village (2007) If you’ve heard the terms “desert blues” or “desert rock” thrown around lately—and not in reference to Queens of the Stone Age and their kin—chances are it’s been applied to Etran Finatawa and Tinariwen. Both are bands from the Sahara, and both play a keening, hypnotic guitar music that’s weighty but never ponderous.

THE FUTURE

stage. And rather than the softer synthesizers that many veteran African artists began to use later in the ’80s, these are live, blazing grooves, and the singing is often in-your-face, as when N’Dour’s voice vaults toward impossible high notes on Etoile de Dakar’s “Thiely,” from Vol. 1. The churning rhythms and startling melodies here provided the model for many African sounds to come.

King Sunny Adé & His African Beats, Juju Music / Island (1982) These titles are the cornerstones of any African music library; they’re also turning points in African music’s wider acceptance in the U.S. Fela Kuti, the legendary Nigerian domo of Afrobeat, was among the first African artists to attract hipper American ears thanks to the militant funk of albums like 1976’s Zombie. King Sunny Adé is also from Nigeria, but juju is many streets apart from Afrobeat, its better known neigh-

THE CROSSOVER

N’Dour (both solo and with his early band Etoile de Dakar), Salif Keita and Orchestra Baobab. Music also contains groundbreaking ’70s work by the legendary Franco, whose slivery guitar roundelays and perfectly oiled orchestras can be heard in much of the continent’s pop. The reason The Music in My Head falls under the “roots” category is that most of it predates these artists’ ascension to the world

The first step for many US listeners was 2003’s Festival in the Desert, a live recording from a three-day gathering in northern Mali that features an appearance, among many African stars, by Robert Plant. His presence brought more ears to Ali Farka Touré, Oumou Sangare and Salif Keita, and it helped spur Tinariwen’s future success.

Tinariwen’s 2007 Aman Iman showcases them at their fieriest: rough vocals, strident guitar, the whole band undulating like a snake. Niger’s Etran Finatawa are even more beautiful. Introducing is the perfect introduction their eerie harmonies and slo-mo rhythms. If you like rough, hypnotic music with the earthiness (if not the sound) of old-school blues then this is your new favorite band.

Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali / Nonesuch (2009)

Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly / Thrill Jockey (2009) The real crossover act from Mali in recent years has been—what else?—a middle-aged, married, blind couple. That’s partly because Amadou & Mariam pick up on plenty of non-African pop, from reggae (as big in Africa as anywhere) to rock and soul. But the duo has also taken off because their harmonies are as delightful

as they are inventive, much like Amadou’s stop-what-you’re-doingand-pay-attention guitar playing. Extra Golden began nearly a decade ago by bringing two Chicago musicians together with two Kenyan players. Their style is benga, a percussion-heavy Kenyan genre that emphasizes skittering, propulsive beats and sweet-but-tart

guitar. It’s music that translates easily for indie fans, and as crosscontinental collaborations go, it’s unique. For one thing, they’re as much rock as benga; Thank You Very Quickly’s opener, “Gimakiny Akia,” could play to an Allman Brothers crowd. Expect more of Extra Golden’s brand of global crosstalk in 2010, and beyond.

june 2010

/music Wye Oak continue to expand their shimmering sound on My Neighbor/My Creator / by Maura Johnston

Full Bloom

june 2010

enn Wasner is on the line from Utah, where Wye Oak have

just passed through one of those late-season mini-blizzards that continue to blow through the American west during what most other parts of the country refer to as “springtime.” “It was kind of hot and sunny where we were, and then within a couple of hours, it was crazy snow,” Wasner

says. “We came down off the mountains, and now we’re back to regular spring temperatures. Being on tour is crazy that way, ’cause you never really know what the weather’s going to be, where you’re going to be. Here, it’s just in constant weather upheaval.” ¶ Having now passed through snow, rain and other meteorological mishaps on multiple tours,

Wye Oak’s growth has been steady as their namesake. Guitarist/singer Wasner joined forces with drummer/multi-instrumentalist Andy Stack in Baltimore in 2006, initially recording as Monarch, only to rename their band in tribute to the largest white oak in the United States. The tree stood in Maryland for an estimated 460 years, until a thunderstorm caused its demise in 2002. The duo’s 2007 debut, If Children, was soaked in reverb and indie-pop hooks, with Wasner and Stack’s voices sweetly harmonizing to tell stories of youthful anxiety. Thanks to the swirling feedback that blanketed much of the album, the word “shoegaze” was tossed around a lot in thumbnail descriptions by critics, although it was a patently inaccurate use of subgenre shorthand. Unlike shoegaze’s oft-obscured lyrics, Wasner and Stack’s emotions were jarringly clear, out in front of the music, the equivalent of a friend staring straight at you while pouring their heart out. The 2009 follow-up, The Knot, showed the duo reaching for more—more instrumental textures, more weariness in Wasner’s voice, more reverb. On the just-released My Neighbor/My Creator, Wye Oak brought in some Baltimore-based collaborators, and the results are often heart-rending. The producer on Neighbor/Creator is Chris Freeland, drummer for the math-rock outfit Oxes; his brother, Mickey, contributed a rapped verse to a droning, late-night-ready remix of Knot track “That I Do.” “Working with a producer—I feel funny even saying that, because it’s just a couple of our close friends in Baltimore,” Wasner says. “I never referred to him as ‘producer’ in my head, but I guess that’s accurate… It was really, really fun and special for us to let some other people...enter the creative process, because for as long we’ve been a band, we’ve been a really, really insular unit. It’s been just us. We write, and sing, and play pretty much everything on every record and record it ourselves. So, it’s kind of tricky for us to open that process up a little bit.” The sound of My Neighbor/My Creator is all over the map, perhaps thanks to the band opening up to that outside influence, with the raucous, almost country-rock “Emmylou” serving as an official Jam of the Summer contender, and the loose, swinging “My Neighbor” sounding like Fleetwood Mac run through several distortion pedals. And then there’s “I Hope You Die,” unique in the band’s catalog for eschewing guitars entirely, instead spinjune 2010

/music

ning a gorgeous, woozy cascade of keyboard chorus classes. We just went through and I don’t think that dissolves into saxophones. Considering picked out some esoteric singers that I felt [My Neighbor] that Wye Oak’s stripped-down, two-person were interesting, key voices. Usually, their relive show is based around Wasner’s six-string actions were... basically just laughter across is necessarily melodies, replicating the singular “I Hope You the board. an indicator of Die” sounds impossible at first. “I think, especially in middle school, kids “I rewrote the part for guitar, and restrucaren’t really willing to go out on a limb in the direction front of a group and say, ‘I like this,’” she contured it a little bit,” Wasner says. “And it’s actually become one of our stronger songs in the tinues. “They’re really more like, ‘I’m gonna we’re heading. live show now… Lyrically, melodically and I laugh because everyone else in the group is But I’m sure think as far as the art of the song, it’s the same laughing.’ Which is obvious. I wasn’t really song. It’s just a really, really different working expecting much; I was just hoping that maybe we’ll always of it. That’s the kind of experience where we if I could plant a seed in someone’s head, that have times have to go into a room and just try a bunch of somewhere down the line, when they’re comdifferent feels and sounds, and approach it in ing into their own, maybe they’ll remember when we’re a bunch of different ways.” and go back to it, and it’ll stick with them in like, ‘Let’s do The onstage transformation of familiar some way.” songs is one part of makes Wye Oak a sight to Stack and Wasner are slated to begin work something behold in concert. The other is that it’s imon Wye Oak’s next full-length early this sumlike this. Let’s possible to fathom how two people in a club mer. What’s next? More collaborators, for can still summon that exquisite level of noise, one thing, although their identities are curtry something The pair have only honed their live chops as rently under wraps. And perhaps another different. Let’s left turn from the new directions mapped they’ve grown more comfortable performing together, pushing the boundaries of what their on My Neighbor/My Creator. “I don’t think do something limited instrumentation can achieve. [My Neighbor] is necessarily an indicator of that sounds “There are certain songs that we have that the direction we’re heading,” Wasner says. we just can’t play [live],” Wasner says. “We’ve “But I’m sure we’ll always have times when totally not like tried and we’ve tried and it just doesn’t work. we’re like, ‘Let’s do something like this. Let’s the last record And I’m sure that will always be the case. But try something different. Let’s do something I don’t think that’s a problem for us, because that sounds totally not like the last record we made.” we really enjoy the act of reshaping these we made.’” —Jenn wasner songs—it’s not so much a drag as it is a fun Despite their musical restlessness, Wye experiment.” Oak have planted solid roots in their local One aspect of the band that’s remained constant is Wasner’s community. Wasner speaks of the musical cross-pollination in voice, though it’s grown stronger since Wye Oak formed, start- Baltimore, still the group’s home, as something that always feels ing in a husky lower register and blooming outward only when like “three different areas of your brain [being] tapped into.” And a song’s emotional tenor demands it. Wasner has long admired Wye Oak are ready to take the city’s sense of wide-open possibilities, and the lessons singers who stray from the American Idol path of melisma-heavy they’ve learned from the last four years of “good singing.” She’s even tried her hand at schooling the next generation of young vocalists during a brief teaching stint. playing together, in as many musical direc“One of the things I really wanted to do was try to introduce tions as they can. “That’s what [a band is] for,” to [the students], if I could, to the concept of unusual voices still Wasner says. “That’s part of the joy… I just feel being ‘good,’” she says. “Because a lot of singing instructors have like, what’s the point of having a band if you a really short-sighted view of what makes a good voice. I wanted don’t feel like you’re free to follow your bliss My Neighbor/ My Creator hits to teach them about some voices with character that maybe are and do what excites you at that time?” stores June 8 different from what they’re used to hearing on the radio and in from Merge 24

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june 2010

Out of This World

Of Montreal, Deep Cotton and Saul Williams. Like her mentors OutKast, Monáe is seldom happy sticking to one style, writing songs that spin through as many sounds as possible in just a few Janelle Monáe’s spaced-out vision redefines minutes. “Sir Greendown” is the kind of ’60s throwthe boundaries of R&B / by Gary Graff back that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Amy Winehouse album, but elserowing up in Kansas City as the older of two chil- where Monáe plays both disco dren, Janelle Monáe was often left with only her diva and retro new wave rocker. imagination to entertain her. “I had a little sister,” The ArchAndroid is an “R&B” alMonáe says, “and we always created characters bum unafraid to play with both Caribbean-style melodies and and stuff. Musical theater is just in me, naturally, prog rock ambience. And don’t to sing and to really travel to another world. I’ve even bother trying to keep track The always been infatuated with whimsy. I’ve always wondered of the flavors, from classical to ArchAndroid is available now smoky jazz, that Monáe weaves from Atlantic. what types of other worlds are out there.” Vinyl arrives into the nearly nine-minute June 29. So when it came time to release her first solo record, Monáe closing track “BabopbyeYa.” chose to create the first installment in an ongoing science fiction “It was important to make sure the music was challenging and spectacular, rather than string a few potential singles together was able to complement the concept,” she says. And the concept and hope for an easy hit. After an attention-grabbing cameo in has already grown beyond the music. The ArchAndroid is accomOutKast’s Idlewild film, the 24-year-old R&B singer and song- panied by a graphic novel, and Monáe plans to film a video for writer unleashed Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase, named for each of the album’s songs to put some visual flesh on the sonic the futuristic city where Monáe’s story-songs take place. The narrative. (She’s also “in talks” to develop a feature film based 2007 EP introduced listeners to the tale of Cindi Mayweather, a around the concept.) She’ll spend part of the summer on Sarah messianic hero destined to deliver the downtrodden citizens of McLachlan’s resurrected Lilith Fair tour, but there’s always the Metropolis from slavery. future growth of her musical Metropolis. “We Now Monáe returns with The ArchAndroid have a ‘Suite 4,’” Monáe reveals. “And we also (Suites II and III of IV), which offers the next have a ‘Suite 0.’ But I don’t predict the future. two chapters in the Mayweather saga. “As an I’m just kind of living right now and just foartist, I do have huge ambitions,” she says cusing on art. I have to listen to my maker. If I’m around a of the not-exactly-modest creative vision it’s something I need to say at a specific time, required to see the project to completion. I’ll say it, but I choose not to try and discuss lot of thinkers “There’s no limit to the things that I know I that, as anything can change.” and a lot of can do. The ideas are there. I just understand She pauses and laughs, acknowledging the power of art and music and how inspirathat “sometimes people will think you’re people who have tional and life-changing it can be, ’cause I’ve crazy when you’re talking about… androids imaginations, definitely been changed in the way I perceive and all of that.” Her obsessions certainly set life by song.” her apart from the current crop of R&B/pop and they want Making The ArchAndroid was certainly a synthesists. She’s closer to Lady Gaga than to use that to do life-expanding process for Monáe. She once Rihanna, but even the former isn’t dealing in considered a career on Broadway, studying at quite the same conceptual depth. And Monáe something fun New York’s American Musical and Dramatic doesn’t feel a need to justify or apologize for Academy. Now she’s laying down trippy sci-fi music that might be misunderstood by the and exciting. epics in studios from Turkey to Germany to general pop audience. I haven’t really Russia—even recording in a one-time mental “I’m around a lot of thinkers and a lot of asylum called the Palace of the Dogs. And it’s people who have imaginations, and they want surrounded not just distances she’s bridging. Monáe lists to use that to do something fun and exciting,” myself with a long and diverse set of inspirations that she she says. “I haven’t really surrounded myself drew on when making The ArchAndroid: with cynicism or cynical thinkers. I’m allergic cynicism or “From Salvador Dali’s surrealism to David to them. cynical thinkers. Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Pink Floyd’s The “And I think in terms of art, you can go Wall, Stevie Wonder’s Innvervisions and Muto so many different places,” she continues. I’m allergic to sic of My Mind to Johnny Williams to Walt “I can create colors that have not been creatthem.” ed before. You can go all out—and, you know, Disney.” Actual guests on the album include I will.” OutKast’s Big Boi on the single “Tightrope,” —Janelle Monáe

june 2010

/music

Spinning Out of Control

In a world with too many DJs, Optimo stands alone by Jess Harvell

good DJ mix is hard to find. The best DJ mixes, whether spun for a live audience or designed

for home-listening, are literally transformative. They change not only music itself—one song becoming another, a remix in real time—but our attitudes and ideas about music. A masterful DJ can make you rethink long-held ideas about music history, playfully expose the essential slipperiness of supposedly well-defined genres, cast a forgotten (or maligned) record in a new light. It’s a lot deeper, and more difficult, than staying on beat.

The problem is that there are just too many DJ mixes out there, to buy on CD or download for free, and then listen to at your leisure, all without ever having to set foot on the dancefloor. The combination of theoretically limitless hard drive space and superhigh-speed downloads means that any bedroom DJ with a laptop and a dream can upload their latest sloppy mixes to the internet. Add in the podcasts, vintage club tapes that have been ripped to MP3 by obsessive fans and officially-licensed mix sessions, and you’ve got the makings of a benign plague. Trying to pick out the exemplary stuff from this glut is just about impossible, and that’s why Optimo are essential. For over a decade now, the Scottish duo of Keith McIvor and Jonnie Wilkes has been synonymous with DJ mixes that take risks and ignore musical boundaries, all without leaving listeners scratching their heads or impatiently tapping their feet, wondering where the beat went. Their CDs, like 2006’s mind- and history-rearranging Psyche Out, where acid rock finally meets acid house, are probably the most fun you can have listening to someone else play their favorite records. Optimo mixes are virtuoso mash-ups, but without the show-off cheekiness the phrase “mash-ups” implies. McIvor and Wilkes can somehow make U.K. prog-punks the Stranglers harmonize with the inhuman machine sounds of house legend Mr. Fingers, 28

june 2010

but they’re not straining to prove how clever they can be. Even as the sonic combinations startle you, they also sound natural, as if two very different songs had been secretly recorded by the same artist all along. Perhaps that’s because Optimo is not only the name of the duo, but also their long-running (but recently terminated) Glasgow club night. Like all good club DJs, Optimo are out to entertain rather than experiment. They just have the wide ears, and a sense of restless inventiveness, that most club DJs lack. Optimo didn’t have world-conquering or game-changing ambitions when McIvor and Wilkes came together at the tail end of the 20th century. They just wanted to escape the post-rave rut. “It was a dull time for electronic dance music, which seemed to be either relentlessly hard or boringly deep,” McIvor says. “The fun, sex and femininity had gone.” For most of the ’90s, he’d been a resident DJ at Glasgow’s Pure, one of the premier techno clubs on the planet, renowned for its marrow-melting volume and fervent audience of adrenalinecharged ravers. By the end of the decade, though, he was itching to start a club night that allowed him to move beyond a rigid electronic Fabric 52 is in format and into the more esoteric corners of stores June 29 his record collection. from Fabric

Despite the fact that he “didn’t really know around the world. The duo’s first shot aimed at him very well” at the time, McIvor “had a feelthe international audience was 2004’s How to When we mix ing Jonnie [Wilkes] would be the perfect person Kill the DJ [Part Two] (Tigersushi), and “deto work with.” The first Optimo was held on a lirious” is probably the only word to do it juslive, it’s almost Sunday night in 1997 at Glasgow’s Sub Club. tice. In just over an hour, McIvor and Wilkes always to get “There was no specific playlist,” McIvor says of weave more than 50 tracks together, sometimes Optimo’s early days. He spun a diverse selection three or four at one time, until Blondie, minipeople dancing, of post-punk, funk and other genres, while Wilmal techno giant Ricardo Villalobos, industrial so it’s good to be weirdos Nurse With Wound and Chris friggin’ kes favored fierce, hedonistic house and electro. “It was very obvious which one of us was playing Isaak are dancing with each other thanks to Opable to indulge at that point.” timo’s jaw-dropping choreography. Since then, our interests in Optimo’s output, both on CD and via podcasts “There was no plan,” McIvor says. “No ambition and no desire to become popular. We never on their website, has been steady and imposother areas.” imagined such a thing was possible.” Nearly sible to categorize. 2008’s Sleepwalk is almost —Keith McIvor the inverse of How to Kill the DJ, a dreamy wash two years passed, and Optimo’s Sunday night timeslot drew only a handful of hardcore dancof ambient music and exotic low-key pop from across the decades. ers, thanks to the work week looming overhead. “Then, suddenly, “Sometimes one of us will take on the whole project,” McIvor one week there were 300 people there,” McIvor says. “Which we thought was a little odd, no doubt a one-off fluke.” But Optimo’s says of the duo’s working process. “Jonnie did the [2007] Walkaudience began to steadily expand: 400 people one week, 500 the about CD whilst I did Sleepwalk. With How to Kill the DJ and next. “It was as if people in Glasgow finally got it, en masse.” Psyche Out… we each did half in our own respective studios, JonOptimo quickly developed a devoted fan base undeterred by nie doing the first half, and then I joined them together.” It’s quite the club’s odd hours. “People had to make an effort to be there.” unlike the rowdy, communal give-and-take of an Optimo club McIvor says. “Eventually people would base their whole weeknight, both DJs and audience feeding off each other’s energy, but it ends—and even lives—around going out on a Sunday.” With the does allow McIvor and Wilkes a bit more musical room to breathe. weekend gone, and casual clubbers home in bed, Optimo’s patrons “When we mix live, it’s almost always to get people dancing, so it’s weren’t there to drink, flirt or network. Optimo became known as good to be able to indulge our interests in other areas.” a club for true music freaks, a place where no genre was off-limits, Not so, however, with the duo’s most recent mix, this month’s so long as it kept the crowd dancing: Jamaican dancehall, noisy Fabric 52, Optimo’s contribution to the long-running mix series New York no wave, German psychedelic rock. “It attracted quite released by London’s Fabric nightclub, one of the last “super a wild, freaky crowd—an arty, open-minded, sexually and racially clubs” standing. “With the Fabric mix, we had very little discusdiverse crowd,” McIvor says. “It was a very unique mix of people, sion about what the other was going to do, apart from trying to which led to a very wild, uninhibited energy that I have seldom each convey the sort of set we would play if we were playing in seen elsewhere.” Room Two at [the Fabric club],” he says. “Unbeknownst to each By the first years of the 21st century, it was no longer just a dull other, we both veered off message a little bit, but also both came time for dance music, it was downright bleak. The rush of the ’90s, up with perhaps our most straight-ahead dance mix.” the obsession with DJs and dancing and obscure electronic reEven though Fabric 52 hews closer to traditional house and cords, had begun to wear off. Rock critics seemed to lose interest in techno than any of the duo’s mixes thus far, terms like “tradidance music en masse. And not always wrongly: House, techno and tional” and “straight-ahead” are always going to be relative in the drum ‘n’ bass had become largely predictable, even stale. The most context of Optimo. Fans of electronic dance music will be both interesting stuff was happening so far underground that it might rewarded—it’s an unsurprisingly entertaining mix—and subtly as well have been invisible to everyone other than devotees. challenged. The two DJs blithely cross national borders and bring One way out of the impasse was the Optimo approach: Keep it insular scenes together, from the tribal rhythms of U.K. funky fresh by mixing it all up. Word of Optimo began to spread outside house to the most astringent minimal techno Germany has to of Scotland; jet-setting clubbers made pilgrimages to Glasgow to offer, finding the pleasure principle in each. visit the club where no one could guess which record they might Fabric 52 is in some ways the beginning of a new era for McIvor hear next. “The one problem with having such an open policy is and Wilkes, arriving on the heels of the last official Optimo club that, over time, not having a formula becomes a formula in itself, night this past April. “I always told myself if I ever felt I wasn’t in that people have an expectation of hearing crazily diverse regiving 100 percent, it was time to stop,” McIvor says when asked cords,” McIvor says. Optimo’s philosophy had never been “anywhy they closed up shop after 13 years. “It hadn’t reached that thing goes” eclecticism for its own sake. It was about finding point, but I could sense it was on the horizon.” He’s quick to note, grooves in unexpected places, challenging audiences without however, that “all that is ending is the weekly Optimo night,” and losing them entirely and exposing people to under-heard records, that he and Wilkes will continue to tour, release records (they more like friends swapping mixtapes than DJs playing for a payrecently started a label) and, thankfully, record more mixes as ing audience. Optimo. After several decades spent redefining the DJ’s job deThat’s where Optimo’s DJ mix CDs came into play; they were an scription, it’s hard to imagine the duo pulling a full-stop when opportunity to spread the club’s tight-knit, record-obsessed vibe there’s so much music left to mix. june 2010

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/music

Sound and Vision Ariel Pink makes the leap from lo-fi maverick to real-deal pop god / by S cott Orwig

riel Pink isn’t as weird as you might think. The

prodigious cassette aficionado has spent more than a decade amassing a catalog of over 500 songs, all without ever setting foot in a studio. But strip away the mess of tape hiss and reverb from his homerecorded albums and the Ariel Pink sound is pure pop. His best songs sound like Bowie tunes played through blown-out speakers, and he writes classic pop-rock hooks, even if his recording techniques are the lowest of the lo-fi. 32

june 2010

At the turn of the millennium, Pink was just another bedroom musician living in Los Angeles, releasing limited edition CD-Rs and playing live gigs that were polarizing in their sloppiness. A fortuitous 2003 encounter with Animal Collective, and a subsequent deal with the band’s Paw Tracks label, led to a 2004 reissue of Pink’s 1999 album, The Doldrums. The Paw Tracks deal provided Pink with nationwide distribution for the first time, along with the indie-cred boost that comes with an Animal Collective endorsement.

Solo Bliss It’s a project that requires commitment from the members. They’re kind of responsible for getting inside my brain and trying to pick out the tunes and ideas that I would come up with.” —ARIEL PINK

Six years later, as one-man bedroom bands like Washed Out and Memory Tapes find themselves profiled by the Wall Street Journal, every music critic and MP3 blogger is rushing to proclaim Ariel Pink the godfather of the new lo-fi scene. But Pink says all those solitary hours fiddling with four-track recorders were just part of growing up. “It feels like a first record to me,” Pink says of the new Before Today, the first album he’s recorded with an actual budget, thanks to a deal with venerable British label 4AD. “It feels like an accomplishment, whereas [home recording] feels sort of like, you know, picking up dirty dishes and putting them back on the counter.” Pink established his reputation as an iconoclast who recorded using any means available. He wrote songs on a four-string guitar while teaching himself to play a proper six-string. He made drum noises with his mouth in lieu of lining up an actual rhythm section. But his records were never meant to sound like the work of an outsider artist, or someone offering an ironic commentary on pop music. Pink was actually paying tribute to his roots, albeit in the only way he could. Before Today, like the rest of Pink’s catalog, is a nod to the radio stations that he obsessed over as a kid. It’s ’70s pop and ’80s rock as reinterpreted by a songwriter who hears things just a bit differently than the rest of the world. Ariel Pink’s music has

It’s been called “glo-fi,” “chillwave” and “hypnagogic pop,” but the hazy music made by these one-man-bands has more than a little in common with Ariel Pink’s oddball sound. Washed Out, Life of Leisure If you had to guess what Washed Out sounded like based on name alone, you’d probably come pretty close. One of 2009’s breakout successes, Ernest Greene makes summertime pop that sounds like the tape’s been purposefully faded. With a knack for plucking perfect samples from obscurity, Greene takes a cheeseball disco cut like Gary Low’s “I Want You,” slows it down, roughs it up and turns it into “Feel It All Around,” a can’tmiss beachside jam. (Mexican Summer) Neon Indian, Psychic Chasms Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo takes chillwave off the beach and into the club. Like a garage band version of Daft Punk, Neon Indian makes big, hooky electro-pop built on samples ranging from Todd Rundgren to Pineapples. Songs like “Deadbeat Summer” and “Terminally Chill” are as laid-back as their names suggest, but elsewhere on Psychic Chasms, Palomo’s 2009 debut, tracks like “Local Joke” and “Should Have Taken Acid With You” are as dancefloor-ready as it gets. (Lefse) Toro y Moi, Causers of This Toro y Moi’s woozy, warped-record sound is as lush as it is lo-fi. Like fellow South Carolinian Ernest Greene, Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bundick specializes in off-kilter chill-out tunes, but trades Greene’s lackadaisical simplicity for a meticulously-woven tapestry of samples, stuttering vocals and nods to old-school soul and R&B. The strongest musician of the bunch, Bundick’s songs are less immediate than those of his compatriots, but ultimately reward patient listeners with their complexity. (Carpark)

always been about turning the songs in his head into something real, even if his D.I.Y. skills and limited means lagged behind his enthusiasm. Before Today is the closest he’s come to doing his songs sonic justice. All the off-kilter hooks, sly humor and nods to oldies radio have made the jump from bedroom to multi-track studio. The hiss is gone, but Pink’s ramshackle take on old-school bubblegum remains otherwise unchanged. The album’s lead single, “Round and Round,” would be a show-stopper even in lo-fi form, a bouncy bass-driven groove fleshed out with tinny keyboard flourishes and layered falsetto vocals. Given the full studio treatment, “Round and Round” becomes a revelation, especially the unexpected, lush chorus. But as carefully produced as june 2010

/music

Before Today is, it’s Pink’s band that makes the real difference. “It’s a project that requires commitment from the members,” Pink says. “They’re kind of responsible for getting inside my brain and trying to pick out the tunes and ideas that I would come up with.” Before assembling his new full-time band, Pink’s live shows were a mess. Described as “shambolic train wrecks” in a 2006 New York Times review, the shows ranged from glorified karaoke—with just Pink, a microphone and a tape deck—to haphazard jam sessions with local pickup bands. Far from an aesthetic choice, Pink’s inconsistent live shows stemmed from indifference. “I didn’t take live performing very seriously,” he says. “Those ‘train wrecks’ were my brain on the rails. It was pretty humiliating to do that.” A proper live show was always the goal; after all, as Pink puts it, “everybody wants a kick-ass band.” Pink’s previous records were driven by a frantic desire to capture the never-ending stream of tunes running through his head, but these days he’s a bit more selective. “I don’t [record] with the same frequency that I used to,” he says. “I’ve got so many more responsibilities now… I don’t necessarily have

june 2010

I didn’t take live performing very seriously. Those ‘train wrecks’ were my brain on the rails. It was pretty humiliating to do that.” —ARIEL PINK

to be screaming onto tape every five seconds just to get myself heard. I’m not a stupid kid who just needs to get everything out. I’d rather take my time and just come out with something good.” He’s also recently found himself in the unfamiliar position of elder statesman. 2009 releases by Washed Out and Neon Indian offered reverbdrenched, chilled-out pop tunes that suggested a kinship with Pink’s sound. The connection flatters him, but he’s quick to downplay his supposed centrality to the scene. “There’ve been plenty of solo artists before me,” he says. “The reviewers and interviewers will throw me in with [other lo-fi acts], and the comparisons might not always be apt, but I know my influence is felt, so it’s good. I’m happy about that. It gets me up in the morning.”

Before Today is in stores now from 4AD

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TOUR DATES 6/25 - CARSON, CA 6/26 - MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 6/27 - VENTURA, CA 6/29 - PHOENIX, AZ 6/30 - LAS CRUCES, NM 7/01 - SAN ANTONIO, TX 7/02 - HOUSTON, TX 7/03 - DALLAS, TX 7/05 - ST. LOUIS, MO 7/06 - INDIANAPOLIS, IN 7/07 - BURGETTSTOWN, PA 7/08 - CLEVELAND, OH 7/09 - TORONTO, ON 7/10 - MONTREAL, QC 7/11 - HARTFORD, CT 7/13 - MANSFIELD, MA 7/14 - DARIEN CENTER, NY 7/15 - SCRANTON, PA 7/16 - CAMDEN, NJ 7/17 - UNIONDALE, NY 7/18 - OCEANPORT, NJ 7/20 - COLUMBIA, MD 7/21 - VIRGINIA BEACH, VA 7/22 - CHARLOTTE, NC 7/23 - ST. PETERSBURG, FL 7/24 - WEST PALM BEACH, FL 7/25 - ORLANDO, FL 7/26 - ATLANTA, GA 7/28 - CINCINNATI, OH 7/29 - MILWAUKEE, WI 7/30 - DETROIT, MI 7/31 - TINSLEY PARK, IL 8/01 - SHAKOPEE, MN 8/02 - BONNER SPRINGS, KS 8/05 - EDMONTON, AB 8/07 - SALT LAKE CITY, UT 8/08 - DENVER, CO 8/10 - SAN DIEGO, CA 8/11 - POMONA, CA 8/12 - MARYSVILLE, CA 8/13 - NAMPA, ID 8/14 - GEORGE, WA 8/15 - HILLSBORO, OR

juneCOWBELL 2010 35 1 JUNE 2010

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june 2010

Career Opportunities

The Gaslight Anthem get ready for the big time—but not without reservations / by Jeanne Fury

lame Jersey Shore. Hell, blame the Boss. But New

Jersey has been misrepresented. The state of 8.7 million people is not just a land of opportunity for tanned brats and their equally-tanned parents. Nor is it a blue-collar Disney World where a helping hand is always at the ready. And it can be hard to see the glamour in those “glory days” when you’re living check-to-check in the Garden State. If you’re not up for the grind, working-class Jersey might just kick your ass, and keep you down. The Gaslight Anthem—singer/ guitarist Brian Fallon, guitarist Alex Rosamilia, drummer Benny Horowitz and bassist Alex Levine—came up through the same New Brunswick, NJ, do-it-yourself scene that gave us the Bouncing Souls, Lifetime and Thursday. But the “Jersey band” marketing hook the quartet’s been saddled with also has plenty to do with their sound. The Gaslight Anthem’s first two albums—2007’s Sink or Swim and 2008’s The ’59 Sound—are firmly rooted in the Bruce Springsteen songbook: charming paeans to underdogs set to lovingly arranged, golden-toned, old-school rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a sound that’s taken them from hometown basements to international arena gigs in just a few short years. But judging by their new album, American Slang, the Gaslight Anthem are ready to move away their all-toofamiliar influences, into a sound that’s more personal, and certainly less “New Jersey.” “For some reason, people have grabbed this ‘New Jersey’ thing and ran with it,” Fallon says. “People put a lot of [emphasis] on us [being from New Jersey], and they think that if we photos by ashley maile

came from somewhere else, we would be totally and completely different.” “People constantly ask me to describe the ‘New Jersey sound,’” Rosamilia says. “And I don’t know what that means.” Perhaps popular culture’s been fed Jersey-branded snake oil for so long that it’s impossible for anyone who wasn’t raised in New Jersey to see the reality behind the fiction. But these natives can assure you that it’s less about dancing in the dark than high-tailing it the hell out of there at the first opportunity. “I’m kinda jaded about this whole glorification of New Jersey,” Fallon says, his voice growing agitated. “It’s not what people think it is! You can get caught there. I watched my father spend his whole life in a factory and then get canned and not be able to find a job in his 50s. Are you kidding me? That’s not a place I want to go to. You get turned around like processed meat. There’s no opportunity there. People kind of romanticize it, but it’s not ‘Born to Run.’ It’s not like that. And that song is about leaving New Jersey! New Jersey is the only state with a ‘state song’ about leaving the state.” june 2010

/music Sink or Swim’s music referenced songs by Bob Dylan, Joe Strummer and Springsteen, combining the soulfulness and songcraft of classic rock with a punk edge. The band stood out in a scene based around hardcore’s loud-and-fast rules. Fallon’s lyrics celebrated music’s magic, its ability to whisk you From Garageland to Glastonbury away from your mundane routine, if only for a few The Gaslight Anthem have yet to abandon New Jersey, of course, despite tour commitments that minutes. The “jukebox Romeos” in “We Came to now keep them away for weeks or months at a time, Dance” woo the girls onto the floor amid a bar of hard-working regulars, and eventually everyone and before they ever loaded into a van, they were lets loose, wringing every last drop of awesomejust another band from New Brunswick. According to NewBrunswick.com, the city is home to “50,000 ness from the night before they’re forced to return residents, a number that triples during the busi- to their otherwise uneventful lives. The Gaslight Anthem were intent on not only myness day.” Rutgers University is responsible for a thologizing those moments in their songs, but also sizeable chunk of the city’s transient population, bringing the very same feeling to their own audiand New Brunswick’s underground music community has only benefited from the yearly influx ences. The band logged 200-plus nights on the road promoting the album, touring the U.S., Europe and of freshmen. Australia. They recorded the Señor and the Queen “Every year you get these [college] kids coming in EP in 2008, offering another evothat need to live somewhere, so peocation of their humble roots. (See ple rent houses pretty cheap,” Rosongs like “Blue Jeans & White samilia says. “You [also] get people T-Shirts.”) But with the release of like me and my friends, who end up their second full-length that same living there because it’s cheaper. It’s year, their star suddenly soared. a full house and you’ve got a baseI was really For The ’59 Sound, the band took ment, so why not put on a show and uncomfortable their retro punk/soul framework listen to the music that you want to and gave it an added sheen, like listen to live.” as we were polishing the chrome on a clasThat’s how D.I.Y. scenes, and writing the sic car. Emusic.com named it the bands, get started: cheap rents, top album of 2008; The New York shared values and a lot of kids in one whole thing, Times commended the “lustrous place with nothing better to do. The just talking so songwriting.” Bruce Springsteen members of the Gaslight Anthem himself joined the band onstage drifted from one band to another directly. I was at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival in the early days of the 21st centrying to write in 2009, during a performance of tury, logging plenty of time on the the title track. If there was ever basement circuit, playing ad hoc something any question as to whether the venues on multi-band bills. Evenbare.” band could stand alongside their tually the quartet came together well-known influences, here was in the mid-’00s, fixing on a sound —brian fallon the answer. that separated them from the local While the band was riding this emo and pop-punk hopefuls. They wave of acclaim, Rolling Stone published a list of gigged hard and often. “That’s what makes us a Jer“40 Reasons to Get Excited About Music,” and the sey band,” Rosamilia says. “People from Jersey have Gaslight Anthem came in at No. 28. Well, technithis ridiculous work ethic.” The title of the band’s first album is indicative of cally, it was the singer who charted, with a headline the attitude the band took from their early punk rock that read, “Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem is days: Sink or Swim. You might flourish; you might the Next Jersey Rock Hero.” The Gaslight Anthem had always been content to record the album they tank. Either way, you give it your best shot. “Whatwanted to hear, when they wanted to make it. But ever job you have put in front of you, you should do with the added pressure of being named next in it to the best of your ability,” Rosamilia reasons. “If I’m going to get paid to be in a band, I have to at least line to assume the Boss’s mantle, the band started try to write the best record ever made every time I worrying for the first time about where to take their do something. That’s just my logic. I’m not saying sound next. “The pressure from the success of [The’59 that I’ve done that. That’s what I strive for.” 38

june 2010

The Gaslight Anthem

Sound] made us [think], What if we blow this whole thing?” Fallon says. “We based our whole lives [around that worry]. We ended up… just thinking about what we had to do for ourselves, because that was the only way that we were going to survive with any dignity. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who have to live with [the new album]. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who had to make it absolutely personal.”

Slang Kings

Gaslight Anthem’s third full-length, American Slang, is about discovering who they are as a band, and who they are as people, now that they’ve escaped New Jersey’s orbit and gone around the world. Fallon abandoned his usual songwriting method—crafting stories about the trials and tribulations of imagined characters—and pulled inspiration from his own life. “I was really uncomfortable as we were writing

Last Exit to New Brunswick

Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi are still New Jersey’s most popular exports, but the Garden State has also been home to a thriving D.I.Y. scene for more than three decades, notably around New Brunswick, home of Rutgers University. These are just some of the bands that helped make New Jersey punk a national phenomenon.

The Misfits, Static Age (1978) Lodi native Glenn Danzig formed the Misfits in the mid-’70s, combining punk rock with his fascination with the occult, comic books and horror movies. The Misfits’ full-length debut, Static Age, is arguably the finest record Danzig ever released. The band’s dark, brooding grooves combined punk, hardcore and rockabilly, while Danzig crooned about casually killing babies (“Last Caress”), sexualized the assassination of J.F.K. (“Bullet”) and name-checked the cast of a 1959 Vincent Price movie (“Return of the Fly”). Static Age remains such a bristling listen, it prompts us to continually revisit the question, “Who’s really the Boss?” Bouncing Souls, How I Spent My Summer Vacation (2001) Last year, the Bouncing Souls celebrated their 20th anniversary, a feat that makes them elder statesmen in the New Brunswick basement scene. (Not that they’ve slowed down with age; the Souls released Ghosts on the Boardwalk this year.) The rousing sing-alongs of Summer Vacation saw the band growing out of their caffeinated skate-punk roots. “Pirate Radio,” “True Believers” and “Manthem” celebrate a tightly-knit scene that’s seen some downand-out days, perfect for dancing around your bedroom and bellowing the gospel of friendship and unity.

Thursday, War All the Time (2003) Perhaps the most commercially successful band to date to come out of the New Brunswick scene, Thursday rose to prominence in the early ’00s with songs that affixed heart to sleeve with a nail gun. The band seamlessly combined the catharsis of emo with the aggressive-yet-melodic attack of post-hardcore. On the band’s major label debut, and third full-length, War All the Time, singer Geoff Rickly’s piercing screams make his frustration over lost love come across loud and clear. Bolstered by the single “Signals Over the Air,” about the distraught disconnect between two former lovers, this unabashedly screamo album hit No. 7 on the Billboard Top 200. My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004) Call them emo, call them goth, call them whatever. Jersey City’s My Chemical Romance conquered the world with the release of their major label debut, a mix of tortured longing and shattered screams, hard-driving pop-punk and catchy choruses.MCR’s brand of misery found plenty of company. The band turned a preoccupation with death, loss and darkness into hit singles like “Helena,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Thank You for the Venom,” inspiring millions of boys to experiment with black makeup along the way. A year later, MCR were opening for Green Day on a sold-out tour and playing the main stage of the Warped Tour. The guyliner revolution was in full effect. Screaming Females, Power Move (2009) The latest export from New Brunswick is a cantankerous punk trio led by one of the most badass, artful and technically proficient shredders in music today—23-year-old Marissa Paternoster. In 2009, Screaming Females were everywhere: the Dead Weather, Arctic Monkeys and Dinosaur Jr. all asked the band to sign on as an opening act. But Paternoster, bassist King Mike and drummer Jarrett Dougherty continue to be just as comfortable playing to packed basements throughout the Mid-Atlantic’s netherregions. Their third album, Power Move, not only boasts ferociously fuzzy riffs and rhythms, it also showcases Paternoster’s dexterity as a vocalist. On tracks like “Bell” and “Adult Army,” she sings, yells and shrieks with regal confidence, her tireless energy enough to leave you slack-jawed and panting.

june 2010

/music

the whole thing, just talking so directly,” he says. “I was trying to write something bare.” From the very first song, Fallon’s voice is rougher around the edges than usual; he delivers each line forcefully, from the gut. There was no tour on the immediate horizon when the band went into the studio to record American Slang, so Fallon says he was able to put his vocal cords through the wringer. Then there’s the more confessional nature of the material itself, which lends a tense edge to his voice throughout. “Maybe there’s a little more angst,” he says. “The vocal style of the last record was more a kind of crooning, longing thing. This one was different. It was more emotional.” Whereas The ’59 Sound evoked a nostalgic world of soda shoppes and muscle cars, American Slang sounds much more modern—call it The ’10 Sound— rather than an exercise in retro-rock. Songs like “Stay Lucky” and “Diamond Church Street Choir” swing with a vigor that was only hinted at on earlier recordings, while Fallon offers the most direct and affecting lyrics he’s ever written. Desperate souls lurk around every corner on American Slang. The songs are populated by the casualties of big dreams, big mouths and zero momentum. They’re men and women who did one great thing a decade ago and never got up the nerve to try and top it—people who wound up settling for mediocrity or worse. It’s almost the inverse of the band’s earlier preoccupation with warm, comforting nostalgia. But preserving the past doesn’t mean you have to let it trap you. “We Did It When We Were Young” and “Old Haunts” both tackle the “good old days” with a certain fondness, as something to be appreciated, if not necessarily worshipped. “God help the man who says, ‘You should have known me when,’” Fallon cautions on “Old Haunts.”

“A lot of people live their whole lives in something they achieved a long time ago,” Fallon says. “And it’s a sad thing because they don’t move on, and they don’t develop as people, and they become bitter. That song is almost like a warning…We’re all guilty of it. The last line is, ‘Old haunts are all we’ve ever known,’ because we’re creatures of habit. We do things that we’re comfortable with, but you have to break out of that.” For the Gaslight Anthem, leaving those old haunts meant gaining a worldwide audience. In part, American Slang is a way for the band to explore their own anxieties: How do these former D.I.Y. guys handle the great expectations suddenly dumped in their laps? “You get messed up trying to fulfill this crazy dream, this American dream,” Fallon says of the title track and that peculiarly American idea about success. “[That] you can just reach out and grab it, it’s for everybody. But it’s not really for everybody. It’s a select few that actually get to taste that, and you end up being knocked around. But it’s also that romanticism. It’s that American dream that never quite goes away.”

The F-Word

It’s when the dream starts to become reality that things get tricky. Rosamilia laughs heartily when asked if the band members consider themselves to be rock stars. “Not in any way, shape or form,” he says. “We established our influences, but now it’s time to move on and find out what we’re made of,” Fallon says. That uncomfortable and somewhat terrifying process is the subject of “Orphans,” American Slang’s most aggressive song, where feverish punk riffs are almost trampled by relentless drums. Certain bands meant the world to the Gaslight Anthem when it seemed no one else cared, but you can only stand behind someone else’s music for so long. “All

It’s the kind of thing where you don’t know what to do with it. You become something that’s bigger than yourself; it’s a hard thing to wrap your head around… We’re all kind of self-deprecating. We just don’t think we deserve anything. But we’re all thankful.” —Alex Rosamilia 40

june 2010

The Gaslight Anthem

you have to latch onto and be a part of is your story,” Fallon says. “It’s time to stop living everyone else’s story and start living my own.” If that story eventually leads to fronting one of the biggest rock bands in the world, so be it, even if the prospect freaks him out. “I’m not exactly looking forward to being pushed in the spotlight,” he admits. “We’ve never been a band who was not trying to reach as many people as we could. But at the same time, there are certain compromises that we’re not willing to make. I just hope [fame] doesn’t mess us up.” “It’s the kind of thing where you don’t know what to do with it,” Rosamilia says when discussing the f-word. “You become something that’s bigger than yourself; it’s a hard thing to wrap your head around…

We’re all kind of self-deprecating. We just don’t think we deserve anything. But we’re all thankful.” When considering how his life might have turned out, Fallon readily admits that he could have disappeared into the ether, become yet another laid-off factory worker in Nowhere, New Jersey. How he wound up the singer of a band that’s been chosen for this opportunity is a mystery to him. But it’s not something he takes lightly. “The only thing left is just to be grateful for [success],” he says. “Man up to it and be proper about it and be grateful and be gracious. And become the one band that becomes the biggest band in the world, but is still cool to everyone else and hasn’t lost the whole entire plot. I almost feel a responsibility.”

American Slang is available now from Side One Dummy. Vinyl arrives June 29.

june 2010

/music

The Hidden

Renaissance

or much of the late ’90s and early ’00s, some of the most creative hip-hop came from outside the genre’s mainstream. Fiercely underground groups like Black Star, Company Flow and Hieroglyphics caught on with college kids and hip-hop preservationists alike, while nonconformist MCs screwed over by inept major labels got a second lease on life. (Notable examples include Kool Keith as Dr. Octagon and Zev Love X as MF Doom.) Underground hip-hop quickly spread outward thanks to cross-genre experimentation and the internet’s ability

Independent hip-hop stages a nationwide comeback by nate patrin

june 2010

to build and sustain an international fan base. Whether operating in direct opposition to the moneyed thug-life themes of popular rap, or simply approaching familiar hip-hop concerns from new angles, indie hip-hop had the makings of a major movement, one bent on returning the genre to the core elements of beat and flow that artists like Eric B. & Rakim and Ultramagnetic MCs had mastered in the late ’80s. So why has independent hip-hop lost much of its rebel status in the last few years? The hip-hop underground was largely seen as a corrective to the kind of rap played by MTV and BET, and it was caught with its Eckos down once legit lyricists like Jay-Z and Nas reclaimed the charts , supplanting the late ’90s wave of studio gangstas in shiny suits. Indie hip-hop acolytes later had crunk to complain about, but Clipse, OutKast and Ludacris were always around to prove that top-level rhyming and club popularity weren’t mutually exclusive. By the time Kanye’s Benz-and-a-backpack approach hit paydirt mid-decade, the idea of an indie hip-hop scene pitted against the forces of commercial rap was starting to look more like an antipopulist downer than a movement to reclaim forgotten b-boy values. And when the creative bottom dropped out of mainstream hip-hop near the end of the decade—see the ubiquity of one-time granolarap purveyors the Black Eyed Peas—the once-strong underground was unable to pick up the slack. Many factors helped to erode independent hip-hop’s base in the last decade. Internet-savvy fans had a head start when it came to MP3 file-sharing services, and smaller hip-hop labels had a hard time coping with the financial hits that came with piracy. Many albums were delayed for months or even years; Jean Grae & 9th Wonder’s excellent Jeanius was leaked in 2004 but didn’t see commercial release until 2008. A number of crucial acts—Pharoahe Monch, Cannibal Ox, Del the Funky Homosapien, Q-Tip—went

on extended hiatuses, sometimes for five years or longer. Other rappers and producers like Mos Def, RJD2 and Cage pushed too far in uncharacteristic or experimental directions, and wound up alienating large portions of their fan base. Definitive Jux, one of the most-revered indie hip-hop labels, is currently in a state of limbo. And if you’re an artist like Murs or Wale, uncompromising but with enough buzz to find your way onto a major label, good luck getting your album promoted, much less keeping label management out of the studio. At the same time, U.S. hip-hop trendsetters (and critics) have increasingly ignored the flashy lyrical virtuosity of indie hip-hop in favor of gangsta rap mixtapes that prioritize sledgehammer production and outsized personality. After all, popular hip-hop tends to skew young, and there’s nothing kids like more than clowning on the values of their cranky elders. When the muchbuzzed-about Southern rapper Waka Flocka Flame put down lyrical rappers in an interview earlier this year, claiming he’s not concerned with mic skills because lyrical MCs don’t get paid, he faced the predictable backlash from thirtysomething hip-hop heads. But inthe genre’s mainstream, street cred takes priority over everything else, old-school notions of creativity included. Still, it’s a good sign when a musical movement can go through that level of turmoil and neglect, while still holding out hope for the future. There’s plenty of cause for optimism when it comes to indie hip-hop. Rising stars with crossover potential, like Jay Electronica and Wiz Khalifa, have the internet going nuts over their lyrical prowess. Veterans like Monch and Grae have albums due later this year. Madlib and the rest of the Stones Throw label’s roster are enjoying one of the best-ever creative runs in independent hip-hop. MF Doom, Mos Def and Q-Tip all dropped classic comeback albums in the last few years. And inroads by producers from fertile, compatible strains of bass-centric music like U.K. dubstep have shown the promise of expanding underground hiphop’s production palette in futuristic new directions. Best of all: There’s so much high-quality music coming out of so many different regional scenes that keeping track of underground hip-hop is a full-time job. Where indie hip-hop used to have a fairly discernable personality—super-scientific rhymes, beats in homage to old-school NYC rap, the rhetoric of anti-gangsta political firebrands—the genre’s foundation has taken on so many different influences, gone through so many different permutations, that “indie hip-hop” has become as vague and wide-spanning a term as “indie rock,” offering something for everyone if you know where to look. There’s a lot to contend with out there, so here are four scene-based starting points, whether you’re rediscovering indie hip-hop or exploring for the first time. june 2010

/music

The Minneapolis Sound

The Twin Cities underground has grown into one of the most distinct and tightly-knit hip-hop scenes in the U.S., as likely to take inspired left turns into punk and indie rock as it is to modernize vintage sounds from the golden age of hip-hop. The Rhymesayers label can take much of the credit, rising to prominence on the work of area groups like Dynospectrum and Atmosphere, and subsequently releasing well-received albums from locals (Brother Ali, P.O.S.) and nationally-known MCs (MF Doom, Freeway and Jake One) over the past decade. But there’s also a strong core of musical collectives keeping the scene diverse, bedroom labels and artists who release their own material.

Detroit’s Dilla Legacy

Every producer offered their own eulogy for J. Dilla—rapper, producer, member of the renowned Ummah/Soulquarians production team (Common, Erykah Badu) and soul-rap maestro—after he died in 2006. Many outsiders hopped on Dilla’s postmortem bandwagon, but it’s clear that the producer and MC had the greatest impact on his hometown hip-hop scene. Many of the best Detroit hip-hop albums of the past five years have exuded Dilla presence, and not just in their glowing bass, immaculate drums and truncated loops from classic R&B records. (All hallmarks of Dilla’s best productions.) When the father figure of your underground scene is as accomplished as Dilla, the end result is a city filled with MCs and producers who strive to do his legacy proud. Recommended:

Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats)

Recommended:

Big Quarters From the Home of Brown Babies and White Mothers (Lake City Browns)

Producers and MCs, brothers Brandon Allday and Medium Zach portray themselves as everymen on this album, a down-to-earth yet defiant look at the world through the perspective of a couple Mexican-American b-boys carving out their own niche in the Midwest. This 2009 sophomore album was one of Minneapolis’ best records, in a year that was overflowing with excellent indie hip-hop—political without resorting to empty sloganeering, empathetic without the duo sounding weak and full of radiant neosoul beats that delicately knock your head off.

Also check out:

Toki Wright’s A Different Mirror, which carries the torch for the end-of-the-’90s conscious rap of Rawkus Records. Brother Ali’s Us, the spiritually-minded MC’s most humanistic album to date. And the brainiac, skatepunk-friendly lyricism of P.O.S.’s Never Better, with beats that fit multiple definitions of “hardcore.” 44

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Curtis Cross has been tagged as a possible “next Dilla” for years, but it was with the release of Tronic in 2008 that this lofty aspiration started looking like a genuine possibility. As a producer-slash-MC, Black Milk fits Dilla’s profile: serviceable lyricism bolstered by flesh-and-blood-sounding synthesizer bass and crisp snares. This album, Milk’s third, infuses his now-familiar style with a generous dose of post-Kanye futurism. Milk’s developed a knack for making swarms of electronic riffs and melodic flourishes sound natural in a traditional boom-bap context, though he still lets classic, no-nonsense drum breaks carry much of the weight.

Also check out:

Finale’s A Pipe Dream and a Promise, where a relentless, verse-spitting machine demands constant rewinds. eLZhi’s The Preface, showcasing a Slum Village vet coming into his own with a high-concept solo debut. And Phat Kat’s Carte Blanche, sneering roughneck rap over some of Dilla’s and Black Milk’s most subwoofer-abusing beats.

SoCal

The Southern California indie-rap community stretches from longtime hero Madlib’s hometown of Oxnard up to San Diego, origin point of acclaimed new jacks Gonjasufi. That route takes you right through Los Angeles, a hotbed of blunted style dating back to the days of Project Blowed and beyond. The lasting legacy is a weed-fueled, ’70s-warped production style informed by deep funk, roller rink electro-boogie and the deeper corners of jazz fusion. That goes well with a lyrical style that can swing from futuristic bravado to poetic abstraction and back. Both Stones Throw (Madlib, Oh No, Dam-Funk) and the Brainfeeder collective (Flying Lotus, Daedelus, Gaslamp Killer) have since staked significant claims to the scene’s more adventurous corners.

The New East Coast

Fans generally know what you’re talking about when you refer to East Coast hip-hop—Pete Rock, DJ Premier or RZA-influenced beats underpinning complex, streetwise rhymes—but the full spectrum of the underground is harder to take in, especially when you go outside New York City’s five boroughs and travel along the seaboard. And while there have always been aesthetic differences between backpacker favorites like Mos Def and Sage Francis, modern East Coast indie hip-hop covers everything from hipster electro to throwback Wu-Tang griminess to excursions into dubstep and IDM. Hardcore East Coast heads still check for many of the same artists they followed 10 years ago; fortunately, those same artists tend to deliver. But shifting stylistic priorities mean that the urge to bring back the values of 1988 is eventually going to contend with a new generation’s desire to push into the future.

Recommended:

Roc Marciano Marcberg (Fat Beats)

Recommended:

Johnson&Jonson Johnson&Jonson (Tres Records)

Rapper Blu and producer Mainframe, as Johnson&Jonson, released one of the more personable and introspective albums of the last few years, evoking the Pharcyde’s early days even as the record solidifies Blu’s rep as one of L.A.’s most singular MCs. It all feels a bit out-of-time, heavily indebted to both the ’70s (the way it draws from funky classic rock production) and the golden-age ’90s (its lyrical agility). But it also has a 21st century confessional streak that sees Blu reminiscing over youthful indiscretions. Johnson&Jonson pulls off an odd reversal. It sounds familiar enough to feel like you’ve lived with and enjoyed it for decades from the first time you hear it. But after a year’s worth of nuance-revealing replays, it still sounds like an innovative, out-of-the-blue surprise.

Also check out:

Gonjasufi’s A Sufi and a Killer, transmuting Cali hip-hop aesthetics into wild garage-psyche rock. The Knux’s Remind Me in 3 Days..., featuring slick-flowing siblings who carry themselves like a new wave OutKast. And Nocando’s Jimmy the Lock, reinforcing the art of battle rap and translating it into a collection of cerebral club jams.

There’s a certain visceral rawness that only comes from the music of East Coast hip-hop veterans who’ve spent more than a decade rapping like they have something to prove. The recently-released Marcberg stands to be one of this year’s more intense examples. The former Flipmode Squad/UN member’s selfproduced solo debut features a sinister earlyWu vibe, with rumbling beats muffled through bleary tape hiss. Roc lends his rhythms with a sharp, grimy street-rap ferocity, heavy on intricate narratives. This is the kind of album fans ate up during the Giuliani years, and it feels just as essential now.

Also check out:

Shape of Broad Minds’ Craft of the Lost Art, Philly rapper/producer Jneiro Jarel’s sprawling multiple-personality acid-rap opus. Das Racist’s Shut Up Dude, where smart, comedic Brooklynites play with race and hip-hop culture, à la Ego Trip magazine. Diamond District’s In the Ruff, DC revivalists doing justice to the early ’90s DITC/Gang Starr aesthetic. june 2010

/movies

Weenie Ennui

Michael Cera’s diffident rebellion continues in Youth in Revolt / by Jonah Gruber

heap to make and season-proof, the teen comedy

is a film industry staple. They draw one of the widest theatergoing demographics of any genre, and they’re almost always profitable. And in order to maximize that profit, mainstream teen comedies are now served in four familiar flavors, with varying degrees of success. ¶ There are the movies aimed at the essentially normal (but horny) kid. There are also the movie for normal kids who think they aren’t so normal. There are the 200 or so films about a male protagonist who’s really into chess/computers/poetry/glee club, but wants a girl 46

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who’s a cheerleader/ballet dancer/rugby player. And then there are ever-lucrative stoner movies, offering young, baked audiences a place to sit for a couple hours other than the park. These efforts also have a tendency to let their cannabis-addled characters speak in catchphrases that filter into the conversation of entire graduating classes. It’s important to note that the modern teen comedy is overwhelmingly (and unfairly) the domain of the male protagonist. The types of comedies marketed toward teenage girls are even narrower in tone to maximize the attendance of the smaller female audience for comedy. (That’s according to the studios.) But whether aimed at young men or young women, “soundtrack” plus “angst” divided by “relationship trouble” rarely makes for an instant classic. Michael Cera has carved out a niche for himself as the shy, deadpan kid who’s too brainy for his own good. The guy is endearing, funny and impossible

Michael Cera is so honestly vulnerable that he comes off as the only genuine teenager in his films. This allows him to act as a bridge between dissimilar audiences, serving as both straight man and fool, often in the same film.

to hate, even when starring in one of the decade’s worst movies (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist). This is perhaps because Cera is so honestly vulnerable that he comes off as the only genuine teenager in his films. This honesty allows Cera to act as a bridge between dissimilar audiences, serving as both straight man and fool, often in the same film. So successful is his shtick that he’s become an industry unto himself, starring in multiple teen comedies since departing from Arrested Development, his television breakthrough. Youth in Revolt finally lets Cera play a total dick, a role the nice-guy actor obviously relished. Cera is Nick Twisp, another nice guy, who becomes obsessed with Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), a mysterious neighbor who lives in a nearby trailer park. In order to steal the girl away from her perfect French boyfriend, Twisp allows himself to be possessed by a sophisticated criminal alter-ego named Francois Dillinger. With Dillinger inside him, Twisp is able to perform all manner of uncharacteristically Twispian feats to win her heart. Cera-as-dick gets to set things on fire and take the whippings when Cera-the-nice-guy gets into trouble. Youth in Revolt wants to position itself in the tradition of the left-field teen comedy, the movies about young people that actually are on the outside of things. Less successful, and therefore rarer, these films appeal as much to grown-ups, if only because the emotional tone is often richer and more complex. They nod to the most important work about the superfluous angst of privileged Americans, The Catcher in the Rye. (All angry young men of means owe some if not all of their stock to Holden Caulfield.) They also recapture the experimental tone of early ’70s filmmaking, especially director Hal Ashby’s eternally golden coming-of-age film Harold and

Maude. Stoic, sometimes bitter, socially-awkward, and prone to strange habits and obsessions, the teenagers in these movies feel like the real thing. Unfortunately, Youth in Revolt lacks both the finely observed characters and the dramatic undertone of the outsider teen comedy: the inimitable Ghost World, the painfully funny Squid and the Whale, the joy-inducing Rushmore. Harold and Maude, the tale of two funeral-frequenting eccentrics who fall in love, profoundly influenced the young directors of the ’90s and early ’00s who came to define the modern outsider teen comedy. Harold (Bud Cort)—a young, suicidal oddball from an extremely wealthy family—wound up the prototype for the later Max Fischers, Enid Coleslaws and plenty of Cera’s characters as well. Maude (Ruth Gordon) became the model for the supporting player who saves the kid from self-destruction, shows him that life might be worth living after all, and makes him understand the value in being himself. What makes Harold and Maude so enduring is that the protagonists are three-dimensional enough that audience falls in love with them as well. (So much so, in fact, that we hardly notice that Maude is decades older than her teenage lover.) The characters actually grow. By contrast, Youth in Revolt’s characters, especially the object of Cera’s affections, come off as flat and bored, walking clichés about alienated kids. As a romance, the film is just odd. Sheeni seems to merely tolerate Twisp. It’s hard to identify—let alone fall in love—with either of them. The best teen comedies, the ones that wind up on the critics’ lists, are the ones that allow us to laugh at our one-time angst, our old lack of grace, our changing bodies, all without shying away from the darker aspects of adolescent life. They remind us that we were all once this awkward and confused and adrift, and that luckily we made it out. Youth in Revolt doesn’t take enough risks to have earned its title, and it lacks even the playfully puerile charm of Cera’s own Superbad. It will send adult viewers back to those films, like Rushmore or Harold and Maude, that better capture the emotionally knotty teenage experience. Nice soundtrack, though.

Youth in Revolt will be available June 15 on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Bros.

june 2010

/movies

Run for Your Lives

he future, as the old song goes, is not what it used

Ten years into the new millennium, Death Race 2000 returns

to be. After revisiting 1975’s car-crash classic Death by Sean L. Maloney Race 2000—starring the late, great David Carradine and a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone—the reality of life in the 21st century might seem just a bit, well, underwhelming. After all, what real progress have we made? ¶ We have yet to see sports cars with knives mounted to their hoods and tommy guns for headlights. Drivers still don’t get points for flattening unwitting pedestrians. The world’s scientists have yet to implant an explosive device in someone’s palm. Where’s our hand-grenade, science? And while you’re at it, can you find a way to transmogrify NASCAR from an exercise in boredom to a transcontinental demolition derby? Pretty please? Produced by the legendary Roger Corman and directed by cult-auteur Paul Bartel—who would go on to make ’80s oddball classics Eating Raoul and Lust in the Dust and act in such distinguished Cormanfare as Piranha and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School—Death Race 2000 is the essential cross-country car race film, the cornerstone of an entire genre. Five racers, including Carradine as the man-machine antihero Frankenstein, burn rubber from New York to “New L.A.,” battling each other with a brutality usually reserved for mid-term elections. Meanwhile, a revolutionary army, led by the ridiculously named Thomasina Paine, is trying everything they can to stop the race and the corrupt U.S. government that sponsors it. Did we mention that the drivers are allowed to run over pedestrians if they happen to get in the way? It’s all about the ratings, after all. A conflicted black comedy that both skewers America’s love for aggressive autos and presents the slaughter of innocents as slapstick, DR2K’s absurdist satire of network television and cartoonish violence is still entertaining after all these years. There are many predictions about the future that Death Race 2000 gets wrong—the actual date of the world financial meltdown, Moscow as the capital of the United Provinces of America, not a single mention of the mighty Jason Statham. But then there are the predictions it nails dead-on. Like the American government demonizing the French in the early years of the 21st century. Or television’s devolution into a cesspool of celebrity worshippers, partisan political hacks and corporate sycophants. Okay, that particular prediction wasn’t much of a stretch, and the shock of a televised contest measured in points-perkill has been blunted by two decades of reality television rewarding our very worst instincts. But Death 48

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Race retains its visionary edge. Skeptics might think that “visionary” is going overboard, even if this is the Citizen Kane of carchase comedies. But DR2K remains an eminently watchable piece of over-the-top pop culture parody, one that’s finally getting the digital makeover it deserves. The new DVD and Blu-ray editions finally present the film in its original, widescreen version along with a slew of extras, including audio commentary from Corman himself and Death Race’s own Calamity Jane, the lovely and talented Mary Woronov. Now if only we can talk somebody into giving Corman’s equally bonkers Battle Beyond the Stars the DVD-era overhaul.

Death Race 2000 (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics) hits stores June 22 on Blu-Ray from Shout Factory.

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june 2010 COWBELL

/movies

Wayward Journey

Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train remains an idiosyncratic film classic / by Bret McCabe

im Jarmusch’s Mystery Train now looks less like the movie

Sundance into a launching pad for films that broke the New York director to a broader audience and moving from the underground into Hollywood. more like a clarifying statement of intent. During its original By 1995, a list of various Sundance 1989 release, the languid comedy/drama anthology delivered award-winners included many of toa few Jarmusch firsts. It was his first color movie after two day’s bankable veterans: Todd Haynes, Fellini-surreal black-and-white visions of America (1984’s Robert Rodriguez, David O. Russell, EdStranger Than Paradise and 1986’s Down by Law). Its estimated ward Burns, James Mangold. But over $2.8 million budget more than doubled Law’s estimated $1.1 mil- the decade, Jarmusch ventured further and further away from independent filmlion, and Train’s distribution by Orion Classics put it alongside such making’s mainstreaming, carving a sintextbook art-house fare as Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire and Pedro gularly unique path in American cinema. His ’90s efforts—Night on Earth, Ghost Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Dog: The Way of the Samurai—never atIn that context, Jarmusch’s third feature felt like tained the box office success of his independent contemporaries, but none of an underground NYC director stepping into the those filmmakers came up with 1995’s Dead Man, the first western to completely mainstream, but Mystery Train—which receives reimagine the genre since Robert Altman’s 1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller. the deluxe Criterion treatment this month—stands Whether it capped his ’80s run or ushered in his ’90s reas a stylistic line in the sand, defiantly drawn by a consolidation, Train’s plot continued Jarmusch’s fondness contemporary auteur. Mystery Train was given an for fringe dwellers and outsiders. The entire movie takes award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1989 place over the course of one summer day and night at a runCannes Film Festival. The Palme d’Or that year down Memphis hotel, where the night clerk is music legend Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, decked out in a red and black suit. went to Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape, a debut that earlier had taken the audience award Just as chiaroscuro black and white cinematography deat a little festival in Park City, UT, called Sundance fined the mood of Law and Paradise, here Robby Müller’s Thanks to its critical and box-office performance, Mystery Train crisp camera captures hot, primary colors, creating a humid (Criterion sex became the movie that put independent film- Collection) hits claustrophobia that settles over Jarmusch’s Memphis like making on the mainstream distribution map over stores June 15 morning dew. DVD and Bluthe course of the 1990s, almost singlehandedly on Into the hotel wander three sets of drifters: the young JapaRay from Image keeping the Miramax brand afloat and turning Entertainment. nese rockabilly couple Jun (Masatoshi Nagase) and Mitsuko (Youki Kudoh), making a pilgrimage to the home of Sun Records; an Italian widow (Nicoletta Braschi) stuck in Memphis while taking her husband’s ashes home; and a hapless trio of drunks-turnedrobbers (Rick Aviles, Steve Buscemi and the mighty Joe Strummer) who hide out at the hotel. A gunshot and the ghost of Memphis’ favorite son loosely tie the stories together, but Jarmusch, as ever, is less interested in the mechanics of plot than in the deliberate exploration of people and their lives. This edition features a new digital transfer, Jarmusch answering questions sent in by fans, excerpts from the 2001 Hawkins documentary I Put a Spell on Me and essays from film critic Dennis Lim and Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick, allowing you to revisit a classic in style. 50

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Edition” box, infamously featuring shot glasses, a deck of playing cards and a “Pin the Pasties on the Showgirl” game. None of said artifacts are available in the repurposed 15th anniversary “Sinsational” Blu-ray edition, but all of the original set’s on-disc extras are, including Stranger editor David Schmader’s commentary, which went a long way toward establishing the box office flop as the cult phenomenon it was destined to be. Incredibly, there are still inhabitants of this planet willfully unfamiliar with the film, but a brief summation of the prologue alone should remedy that. Fresh off the preceding year’s Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas, Elizabeth “I’m So Excited” Berkley stars as switchblade-wieldShowgirls’ Blu-ray debut doesn’t come with doggie ing drifter Nomi Malone, who hitches from parts chow, but we still like it / by Andrew B onazelli unknown to Vegas. After an obligatory round of slots, she’s propositioned by a middle-aged t’s perfectly natural to want to like Joe Eszterhas. The slimeball (“Sooner or later you’re gonna have Hungarian-American grew up in an Austrian refugee to sell it!”), has her only suitcase stolen and is camp, wrote for Rolling Stone when it was relevant and so distraught that she pounds the hell out of a penned a memoir about finding God after years of writing random car. Said car’s owner, Molly, is so taken with Nomi’s pleasant countenance—not to mendialogue like “She got that magna cum laude pussy on her tion ensuing barfing fit and liberal application of that done fried up your brain!” (That last gem, from 1992’s condiments—that she instantly offers her a cot in Basic Instinct, helped earn him an insane-by-any-measure $3 her vile trailer. (Don’t worry—feminist icon Eszmillion payday.) Not to mention the fact that he has the hair of terhas repays Molly for her kindness in a horrific third act twist.) Flash forward a week. Nomi has a a Greek god (who moonlights at an adult bookstore). meh job at mid-level strip joint the Cheetah, but The only problem is that pretty much every movie Molly’s an assistant to Crystal Connors (Gina Gershon, who somehow survived he wrote--in the ’90s, at least--was the worst movie this to score a plum role in Bound), star of T&A fiasco Godof the year it was released. 1995’s Jade—his most for- dess at the Stardust hotel, and once Nomi gets a glimpse gettable in a staggering five-year run that includes of those silicon-stacked slave girls dry-humping in front Basic Instinct (immortalized in Mad magazine as of papier-mâché volcanos to the tune of fifth-rate Prodigy, Basically, It Stinks), Van Damme’s “introspective” you’d better believe a future star is born. Nowhere to Run, Sliver and Burn Hollywood Burn— All of this idiocy ensues in the first 10 minutes of the film, only resides in obscurity because it came out the if that, so don’t worry—Eszterhas and madman director same year as Eszterhas’ masterpiece, Showgirls. Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall, Black Book) have anShowgirls—15th Anniversary And by “masterpiece,” of course, we mean “mad- other two hours of camp to slather on. If you can live withSinsational house of pole-licking, lap dance ejaculation, spine- out the shot glasses and want to impress your significant Edition hits bending poolside orgasms, projectile vomiting, other with the resolution of Nomi’s high-end “Ver-sayche” stores on BluRay + DVD gang rape and face-stomping.” All of which make eveningwear, the price is, well, not right, but the least ofCombo June 15 the world go ’round, hence the 2004 “V.I.P. Limited fensive thing about this endeavor. from MGM.

Wages of Sin

june 2010 Cowbell

/movies

Pretty Great Performances Peter Lorre delivers one of the all-time cinema psychos in M / by Joe Gross

or an actor whose career was all but launched by this still-

extraordinary movie from 1931, Peter Lorre actually isn’t in Fritz Lang’s M as much as you might think. But Lorre’s bulging eyes, twitchy face and pudgy hands still hang like a storm cloud in the public’s imagination. This is what happens when you help define what psychosis looks like on the big screen.

Directors often get all the credit when it comes to great films. But what about the actors, the ones who elevate a mediocre flick to classic status, or take an already amazing film to the next level? Each month, Pretty Great Performances looks at one film—whether it’s part of the canon, or unfairly neglected—and the actor who rescued it from failure or added that extra layer of awesomeness. 52

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Lorre pulls grotesque faces, as if to show us how the police see him. Does he see himself this way? Is this enjoyment or self-loathing?

As the film opens, a child murderer is plaguing Berlin. He has eluded police for months and crackdowns are destroying the everyday world of organized crime—brothels, clubs, etc. This cannot stand. The heads of the various crime organizations—led by Gustaf Gründgens as Der Schränker, looking for all the world like James Woods—decide to take matters into their own hands. They enlist Berlin’s vast network of beggars to create a zone defense to find the killer. Meanwhile, the police, headed by Inspector Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) are using state-of-theart methods—fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, the records of recently released mental patients—to track the killer. The race is on. We first see Lorre’s Beckert in shadow—the hat and top coat forming one demonic shape, more myth than man—looming over Elsie Beckmann, a little girl playing with a ball. He whistles Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and buys her a balloon from a blind peddler. Even then we barely see his face as he leads the girl to her doom, his crime represented by her ball rolling away and her nowreleased balloon flapping frantically on some power lines, signaling something is horribly wrong. We get a brief glance at him a few minutes later; Lang uses the then-brand-new trick of off-screen dialogue commenting on the visual action. Lorre, looking very pale, almost as if he is wearing whiteface, mugs in front of a mirror. On the soundtrack, a graphologist at police headquarters discusses the murderer’s psychosis. Lorre pulls grotesque faces, as if to show us how the police see him. Does he see himself this way? Is this enjoyment or selfloathing? It’s hard to know what to make of this first scene;

the rest of M has a documentary feel, where this scene feels stagy. It’s almost as if it was inset at the last minute, just to show what the killer looks like so the audience won’t get confused later. (Or perhaps it was simply a way for Lang to show off how well he already used sound on his first talking picture.) We finally see Beckert again some 50 minutes into the film. This is the Lorre we see for the rest of the movie—heavy topcoat, hat, a regular guy walking the streets. This is also where Lorre’s performance starts to move into the record books. Check out the way his eyes pop when he first sees a new potential victim; it’s almost a spittake. Half a second longer and it would be punchline. Instead, Lorre looks like he’s trying to decide whether this prey is worth the hunt, worth the sickness mixed with pleasure, both of which he wants to indulge and tamp down. His whistling is his leitmotif—famously one of the very first leitmotifs used in motion pictures—but it also serves to quiet the voices in his head. A beggar sees the killer, marking him with the famous “M” by bumping into Beckert and smacking his chalked hand onto Beckert’s topcoat. The beggar covers brilliantly by pretending to trip on an orange peel that Beckert has just dropped and yelling at Beckert, who looks about ready to jump out of his shoes, cowering like a chastened animal. Then the chase is really on. Beckert sees the mark, realizes what has happened and hides in a bank building, before being carted off to a kangaroo court of bums and criminals, presided over by Schränker,recalling like the Nazis with whom he would soon sympathize. (It’s hard to miss the Nazi-ish ruthlessness of the criminal mob decrying the efficacy of Weimar police department.) Lorre’s monologue here flares and then simmers and flares again. “But I can’t help it!” he howls at the crowd’s verbal assault. “I really can’t... help it.” He calls out his captors for their moral failings: “All of you, criminals... probably proud of it. All of which you could easily give up. But me, can I do anything about it? Don’t I have this cursed thing inside me?” Lorre takes the squirming audience through the internal tremors of his crime, talking of how his psychosis “shadows” himself. “Along with me runs the ghosts, except when I’m doing it.” For a moment he looks orgasmic: “Then I don’t remember a thing.” Not only does Lorre’s terrified, almost child-like performance define the broken-child-as-hideous-adult-monster dynamic we all know, but he was a pioneer in another area well-known to modern filmgoers. Before M, Lorre was known in Germany as a comic actor, and his performance prefigures Jack Nicholson’s Joker, Robin Williams in the truly disconA new Blucerting One Hour Photo, Mo’Nique as the monstrous mother Ray version of in Precious and any comedian who’s ever played a bad guy on M (Criterion Collection) is Law and Order. Lorre’s performance is one of the earliest to in stores now note the flip-side, the mirror image, of that egomania crucial from Image to good comedians or stand-up comics: psychosis. Entertainment. june 2010 Cowbell

/movies

High-Concept Lowlifes

The Killer Inside Me and three directors who get the novel-to-movie adaptation right by Jess Harvell

or fans of crime fiction, few novel-to-film adapta-

tions have been as eagerly anticipated as Michael Winterbottom’s stylish, brutal and already controversial take on Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, which opens in limited release this month. Originally published in 1952, the novel is the story of Lou Ford (played by Casey Affleck), an aw-shucks sheriff in rural Texas who also happens to be a misogynist, murderer and onetime child molester. Having managed to keep his unsavory urges under control for decades, Ford just wants his quiet life. Needless to say, the smiling lawman routine doesn’t hold for long, and Ford’s inner psycho comes out to play with predictably stomach-churning results. 54

Cowbell june 2010

The Killer Inside Me is an all-time classic of queasily amoral pulp fiction; Thompson’s worldview is so bleak that the phrase “hard-boiled” seems too sissified to do him justice. And Winterbottom, probably still best known for the manic comedy of 24 Hour Party People, has decided to play Thompson’s story a little too straight, right down to the crowddispleasing ultraviolence. But the problem with Winterbottom’s adaptation isn’t the brutality, tough to take as it may be. It’s that he’s tried to recreate Thompson’s tone—the novel is one long, sinister interior monologue by Ford—through a series of interminable voiceovers by Affleck. It’s a surprisingly bland choice from the director, who’s never shied away from finding unique visual solutions to word-heavy scripts. Crime fiction (and non-fiction) might seem like one of the easier genres to successfully bring to the screen, what with the fast-moving plots, rapid-fire dialogue, audience-baiting twists and attractive lowlife protagonists. But great film adaptations, whether they’re working from novels or plays or comic books, are rarely faithful. As with Winterbottom’s voiceover blunder, many filmmakers run the risk of mangling what made the original unique by attempting to simply re-create it in another medium. The best directors explode the source material, sometimes remaking the story and altering the

tone entirely, in order to exploit their own cinematic skill set and twist a familiar genre into new shapes. All three of the following films play fast-and-loose with both the rules for “successful” adaptations and the conventions of the crime and mystery genres. If you think there’s no surprise left in stories about cops and private eyes—or vitality, or invention— these are movies for you. And unlike The Killer Inside Me, they’ll never leave you with the sinking feeling that you should have just picked up the book.

Made in U.S.A.

Directed by Jean Luc Godard (1966; France) Donald Westlake’s “Parker” novels, written under the nom de plume Richard Stark, represent crime fiction at its leanest and most vicious. A quasi-criminal and borderline nihilist, Parker, the ostensible hero of these tales, is a complete cipher; we never get inside his head. And so the stories unfold with a brutal and near-cinematic logic, all terse dialogue, spare scene-setting and bursts of ugly and violent retribution. It’s no coincidence that the most famous film adaptation of a Parker novel, 1967’s Point Blank, starred Lee Marvin, the king of tough-guy stoicism. Point Blank may be the most famous Stark adaptation, but it’s not the best. That honor goes to Jean Luc Godard’s whimsical political fable, Made in U.S.A. (It’s also no coincidence that Godard’s looser-than-loose “adaptation” never got Westlake’s approval.) Winsome and utterly un-Parker-like Anna Karina plays Paula Nelson, a “private detective” who seems more interested in figuring out her place in the political upheaval of the ’60s than discovering who killed her boyfriend, the ostensible “plot” of the film. The result, like many of Godard’s genre films, is part essay (characters tend to speak in philosophical monologues), part meta-movie experiment (the narrative is jumbled at best), and part homage to the melodramas of classic Hollywood. Full of colorful characters and wry comic touches, it’s the last truly playful film Godard would make before his work took a darker, more expressly political turn in the late ’60s. As a “crime film” it’s a bust; anyone wondering whodunit will be left unsatisfied at the climax. But as an adaptation, it’s perverse and masterful, with Godard subverting the original’s masculine clichés at every turn.

Memories of Murder

Directed by Bong Joon-Ho (2003; South Korea) Memories of Murder is actually a double adaptation. It also revitalizes one of the most overworked subgenres in recent film history. Memories of Murder is based on a string of real-life murders committed over a five-year period in rural South Korea, that spawned a popular true-crime book. Thus “ripped from the headlines,” as Law & Order would have it, this disquieting tale of still-unsolved crime was adapted for the stage in the late ’90s. As directed by the masterful Bong Joon-Ho, the

film version stands as one of the few serial killer movies worth two hours of your precious time. Thanks to the success of 2007’s The Host, Joon-Ho is now recognized as one of the 21st century’s great pop auteurs. In less assured hands, his films might feel tonally discordant. Horror is also suffused with humor, and dramatic scenes are punctuated by slapstick pratfalls. But it’s this wide emotional range, and his focus on small human moments within his breakneck plots, that make Joon-Ho’s familiar subjects (giant monsters, serial killers) feel fresh. And with its striking use of color and composition, it’s hard to imagine Memories of Murder as something as static as a stage play. It’s the best kind of adaptation: one you can’t imagine as anything other than a film. It’s also a crime film that’s less about the crime, or the criminal, than about how the aftermath affects those assigned to solve the case. Schlumpy everyman Song Kang-Ho is perfect as smalltown police detective Park Doo-man, whose mounting frustration over his inability to bring the killer to justice causes him to slowly unravel. More psychologically unnerving than graphically gory, Memories of Murder is a character study where the killer’s sense of obsession infects the men hunting him.

The Long Goodbye

Directed by Robert Altman (1973; America) Often considered one of Altman’s secondstring classics, The Long Goodbye is actually one of his best, an attempt to bring Raymond Chandler’s iconic detective Philip Marlowe into the 1970s, and a film whose ambiguous “heroism” and laconic mix of humor and dread still feels surprisingly current. Every move Altman makes in The Long Goodbye is a textbook example of a genius filmmaker taking a classic novel and refashioning it to fit his own style and obsessions. To say that it’s “nothing like the original” is a high compliment here. Along with the less-refined and more brutal Dashiell Hammett, Chandler is one of the two fathers of modern crime fiction. He was also an unrepentant moralist in a genre built on sleazy antiheroes. So Altman has great fun recasting Philip Marlowe, that straighttalking arbiter of street justice, as an often ineffectual schlemiel who learns that notions of “wrong” and “right” are a lot less certain in the ’70s than they seemed in the ’40s. As played by sleepyeyed Elliot Gould, the anti-Humphrey Bogart, Marlowe bumbles through a mystery (the supposed suicide of a close friend) that grows only more confusing the deeper he gets. Even the snappy cadences of Chandler’s famous dialogue, a gift to old-school screenwriters, are undone by Altman. As in so many of his films, the characters talk over, under and around each other, and rather than driving the plot forward, the mumbling and small talk makes it that much harder to keep up. The Long Goodbye moves less like a thriller than someone having a dream about a mystery novel they read. Or maybe it moves like life—too odd and meandering, the revelations simultaneously complex and banal, to reach one of those satisfying conclusions they teach you about in mystery writing workshops. june 2010 Cowbell

/movies/new_releases

JUNE 8

180 Degrees South 1984 Los Angeles Comedy Comp 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It American Experience: My Lai Amish at Work Amish Barn Raising Vol. 2 Amish Children Amish Values and Virtues Amores Infieles And, There You Are Animation Express A-Team: The Complete Series Banana Leaves Behind the Player: Dan Jacobs Behind the Player: Dimmu Borgir Behind the Player: George Lynch Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 5 – The Assault Bloodlock Bob Hope: Thanks for the Memories Collection Buddha on the Silk Road Caddyshack: Anniversary Edition Chad Wackerman Trio: Hits Live Coach Cop Dog Creek Cross Burning in Willacoochee Cry of the Owl Cryptic Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Seventh Season Cycles Dan Cummins: Crazy With a Capital F Danish Solution Dennis Brown: Living Legends – Live in Concert Die Hard 3: Die Hard With a Vengeance Drifter Drunk in Public Elysium F 15 Eagle FA: 18: Hornet Family Matters: The Complete First Season Fear the Forest Felix Fine Art of Formal Dining Fly Fishing Adventure: Massachusetts Cape Cod Stripers Franny’s Feet: Let’s Dance From Paris With Love Frontline: Behind Taliban Lines Frontline: The Suicide Tourist Frontlines: The Quake Ghetto Report Vol. 2 Ghostwriter Girls Next Door: Seasons One & Two Girls Next Door: Seasons Three and Four Goatsucker Guapo Hiding History of the World Cup Hollywood: It’s a Dog’s Life Holyman Undercover Horses: The Story of Equus Hot Wheels Battle Force 5: Season 1 Vol. 2 Icarly: Isaved Your Life Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer Inventing Cuisine: Le Solfege Du

COWBELL june 2010

Legum Jack Says Jackie Chan and the Karate Kids: 8 Film Set Jim Henson’s Dog City: The Movie Kurokami: The Animation Part Two L.A. Proper Le Prince Des Jouets Long Pigs Mark Schulman: A Day in the Recording Studio Masterpiece Theatre: Small Island Metal Man Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog MLB: Reds Memories – the Greatest Moments in Cincinnati Reds History Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Season 2 Part 2 Modern Boy Morgan Heritage & Luciano: Living Legends Live in Concert Naruto: Shippuden Vol. 10 National Geographic: Is It Real? Vampires Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (19631972) Nic & Tristan Go Mega Dega Ninja Nonsense: The Complete Collection Nip/Tuck: The Sixth and Final Season Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) NOVA: The Pluto Files Oceans One Fine Day Peripheral Vision Pornographer Power Kids Reflections of Amish Life Reggae Rap Reggae’s Vintage Superstars Reiki: What It Is, How It Feels Safari: An Extraordinary Adventure Samurai Deeper Kyo Secrets of the Dead: Deadliest Battle Secrets of the Dead: Japanese Supersub Shinjuku Island Sid the Science Kid: Change Happens/The Bug Club/Feeling Good Inside and Out Sing When You’re Winning Slogan Sorority Girls 3D Squatterpunk Starstruck Stigma Street Kings Surrender Cinema Ultimate Pleasure Box Tales of the Gold Monkey: The Complete Series Tavis Smiley: MLK – A Call to Conscience TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection Through a Dog’s Eyes Toe to Toe U2 360 at the Rose Bowl Ultimate Fighting Championship: Rampage Greatest Hits Unsaid

JUNE 1 Alice in Wonderland

Directed by Tim Burton Tim Burton continues his quest to remake all of our childhood memories with this dark take on the Alice tales. Because there are so many film versions of Lewis Carroll’s phantasmagorical classic, from the Disneyfied to the art-house creepy, Burton’s colorful grotesquery didn’t feel quite as heretical as his much-maligned take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And in many ways, Alice in Wonderland is the film Burton’s career has been leading to for decades, containing all of his pet obsessions on one DVD: children in danger, misunderstood monsters, set design that revels in its own fakeness, Johnny Depp. Disney

Up Down & All Around War Boys Wheels on the Bus… and More Musical Favorites Widow Wild Asia: Between Two Worlds Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives Worse Than War WWE: Undertaker’s Deadliest Matches JUNE 15

30 Years to Life/Survivor Adopted Adventures of Champion Air Bud 3: World Pup American Dad Vol. 5 America’s Legendary Heroes of Aviation Animals Antarctica Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 7 Autopilot Barney & Friends: Songs From the Park Before & After Stonewall Best Years: The Complete Second Season

Blind Menace Bob the Builder: Building From Scratch Book of Eli Born Into Sh*t Boston Girls Buffalo Bushido Burma VJ Canto, Volume 1 Cartel Charles Bronson/Chuck Norris Chiefs Circle of Pain Clannad: Complete Collection Collapse Communion Control Alt Delete Coyote Dancing David Hockney: A Bigger Picture Day of Vengeance Deported Desperados Collection Distance Divided Heaven Everwood: The Complete Third Season Family Guy Vol. 8 Gary Owen: Upgraded Gene Autry Great Banjo Tunes Happy Tears Harry the Dirty Dog & More Terrific Tales Haunting in Connecticut Haunting of Winchester House/ Ghost Stories Hawthorne Season 1 Here’s Lucy: Season Three Hiroshima Horror Hospital Horseman Hunid Racks of Comedy Volume 1 It Came From Kuchar Johnny Bravo: Season One Katsura Funakoshi: Whispering Gaze Late Night Double Feature: Driller and Driller Killer Leave It to Beaver: Season Three Lewis Black: Stark Raving Black Line Dance: A Beginner’s Guide Macgyver: The TV Movies Making of Prima Donna Mary and Max Max & Ruby: A Visit With Grandma Mike Sherman Quintet Live at Sweet RH Moonchild Live in Cleveland My Three Sons: The Second Season Mysterious Island Mystery Train National Geographic: Wild – Mystery Gorillas/Search for the Great Apes Nesio Nikki and Babs: Dos and Doubts Paramedics Vol. 2 Pathfinder Planeta Bur Collection Pulp Fiction: The Golden Age of Sci Fi, Fantasy and Adventure Raffles: The Complete Collection Red Skelton: America’s Clown Prince Collection Red Skelton: America’s Clown Prince Funny Man Reunion Riddler’s Moon/Battle Planet Roommate Sanctuary: The Complete Second Season Secret Life of the American Teenager Vol. 4 Sex Positive Shades of Gray Sherlock Holmes Collection Shock-O-Rama Horror Collection Silent Victory: Submarine Warfare in WWII

Sister’s Keeper Slaughter Island Slipper and the Rose Something Like a Business Spectral Mornings Street Poet Supernatural: The Complete First Season T5ristan & ISolde Terror Inside Trial & Retribution Set 4 Triple Feature Thriller UFC 112: Invincible Unthinkable War Child When in Rome Witchblade: The Complete Series World Cup Soccer in Africa: Who Really Wins X: The Complete Series Yo Gabba Gabba! Clubhouse You Are Here Youngest Godfather/Icon Youth in Revolt Z Rock: Season 2 JUNE 22

70% Club Ah! My Goddess: Season 2 Amanda Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1 – Water: The Complete Collection Bleach Vol. 29 Bluebeard Children’s War Close-Up Credit Crunch: The Real Reason We’re in a Mess Dark Moon Rising Death Race 2000 Dig Dig Doog Vol. 1 Entourage: The Complete Sixth Season Fireball Franklin: Franklin Goes to Camp Fuel Good Guy Gothic Horror Collection Vo1: Nosferatu – Vampyr Hard Four Heroic Age: The Complete Series Hung: The Complete First Season Intangible Asset #82 Invisible Adversaries Jacques the Fatalist & His Master Krik? Krak! Tales of a Nightmare Last Station Let’s Have a Party Lohengrin Lone Wolf and Cub Collection 2 Met Gala Nana National Geographic Explorer: 25 Years Nature: Wild Balkans New World Order: Battle for Your Mind & The Truth to UFOs On the Starting Line Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave Pretpark Nederland Rag Tag Raging Sun Raging Sky Reich Remember Me Riverworld Rock Slyde Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile Rope Ladder to the Moon: Jack Bruce Secret Societies and Spirituality: Templars, Freemasons & Path Sex Drugs Guns Split Ends Stall on Salvador Star Is Born (1954) Thirst Timer TNA Wrestling: Lockdown 2010

JUNE 15 Enter the Dragon

Directed by Robert Clouse Enter the Dragon is the kind of film every action star wants to leave as their epitaph, but of course no one wants to die as young as Bruce Lee to ensure that everyone remembers them at the height of their physical prowess and youthful charisma. Seen from a distance of 37 years, it’s a reminder of how much has been lost in the interim thanks to CGI, over-caffeinated directors who make 300 cuts in a single fight sequence and tough guys who let their stunt men do all the work. The real draw remains the fighting, especially Lee’s final battle, where he combines a dancer’s fluidity with a barroom brawler’s need to just knock the other guy out. Warner Home Video Tom and Jerry: Deluxe Anniversary Edition Un Autre Homme WWE: Over the Limit 2010 JUNE 29

13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo: The Complete Series 88 Minutes 8MM 9 Air Front: The Early Years ‘39-’42 Airline Disaster Alex in Wonderland Alice Neel All That Jazz: From New Orleans to New York Alvin & The Chipmunks Scare-riffic Double Feature America’s Castles: Cotton Kings America’s Castles: Eccentrics America’s Test Kitchen: Season Ten Anacaona: The Buena Vista Sisters’ Club Ancient Ink Ancient Mysteries: The Curse of the Borgias Ancient Mysteries: The Curse of the Goddess Pele Animal Atlas Anna Nicole Smith: Final 24 – Her

Final Hours Anne of Green Gables: Complete Four-Part Collection Arlington Road Art of Violin: Devil’s Instrument Babe Baby Mama Bad Boys Bad Boys II Banned in America Basilisk: The Complete Series Bass Ackwards Beautiful Beethoven’s 2nd Beethoven’s Big Break Ben 10 Alien Force Vol. 7 Beyond the Lighted Stage Big of a Do Bionicle: The Legend Reborn Black Sabbath Paranoid Blood on the Highway Boheme Bonnie’s Kids Bourne Trilogy Bring It On: Fight to the Finish Bring It On: In It to Win It Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be the Same Brotherhood VI: Initiation Burning Paradise Cadillac Records Casino Royale Catch and Release Celts: The Complete Epic Saga Closer: The Complete Fifth Season Coraline Couples Retreat Crazies Crazy Creation Curious George Curious George: Robot Monkey and More Great Gadget Curious George: Sails With the Pirates and Other Curious Capers Curious George: Takes a Vacation and Discovers New Things Curious George: Zoo Night and Other Animal Stories Dancing Boys of Afghanistan David Koresh: Final 24 – His Final Hours Days of Thrills & Laughter Devil Within Devil’s Own Discover China Dive From Clausen’s Pier Don McKay Doors: When You’re Strange Dreamtime of the Aborigines Duska E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Eclipse Egyptian Book of the Dead Eureka: Season 3.5 Evening Primrose Everlasting Moments Fired Up First Love Fist of the North Star: The Series Vol. 1 Flying Pyramids: Soaring Stones Follow Me Frontline: Obama’s Deal Frontline: The Vaccine War Gangland Getting High in the Barrio Giganto: The Real King Kong Gintama Collection 2 Girl, Interrupted Green Zone Greg Osby: Solos – The Jazz Sessions Hal Sparks: Charmageddon Hancock History Sunday: Comanche Warriors Hoarders: The Complete Season One Holiday Homeland House Bunny How the Earth Changed History

How the Earth Was Made: Complete Season 2 I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny Vol. 3 In Search of History: Potions or Poisons Inbred Redneck Vampires Initial D: Fourth Stage Part 2 Inside the Freemasons: The Grand Lodge Uncovered International James Blood Ulmer Solos – The Jazz Sessions Jandek: Portland Thursday Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill John Abercrombie: Solos – The Jazz Sessions John Belushi: Final 24 – His Final Hours Kill Switch Korean War: Fire and Ice Lakeview Terrace Land of the Lost Last Big Thing Leave It to Beaver: The Complete Series Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers Leon the Professional Let’s Grow: Safety First Life Is Magic Living Room Cinema: Films From Home Movie Day Vol. 1 Loose Screws Lords of Depravity Pt. II Lorna the Exorcist Lost Concerts Collection: Soul Classics Lost Concerts Series: Nat King Cole Lost Spirits of Cambodia Lucidite Passagere Mad About You: The Complete Fourth Season Made of Honor Madeline: Madeline’s Great Adventures Maid in Manhattan Married in vegas Mermaid Chair Merry Widow Michael Jackson: A Fan’s Collection Michael Jackson: The Awards Collection Michael Jackson: The Interview Collection Mighty Machines Million Dollar Challenge Modern Marvels: Castles and Dungeons Modern Marvels: Cemetaries Modern Marvels: Hi-Tech Hitler Modern Marvels: Mad Electricity Modern Marvels: Milk Mona Lisa Smile Murder Inside of Me Music of Jimi Hendrix My Best Friend’s Wedding My Chemical Romance: Midnight Curfew My Pony Nanny McPhee Naruto Uncut Box Set Season Three Vol. 1 National Geographic: A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets New York Confidential Newsreel History of the Third Reich 6-10 Next: A Primer on Urban Painting Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist Night Train to Munich Ninja Evolution Nocturne: Night of the Vampire Nova: Mind Over Money Nuclear Hurricane Nunsploitation Convent Collection Once More With Feeling Opponent Other Woman Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz –

june 2010 COWBELL

/movies/new_releases

Diary of a Madman Tour 1982 Pagan Queen Paranormal Cops: Complete Season One Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey Pineapple Express Plain Truth Portrait of the Artist: Hockney at the Tate Prehistoric Monsters Revealed Premonition Pretty Bird Pride Fighting Championship: Pride Fighting Legacy Vol. 6 Puppet Master 1: Remastered Queen & I Red Barry Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles – The Complete Series Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect Return of the One-Armed Swordsman Return to Hansala Roman Vice Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage Samurai Avenger: Blind Wolr Saving Grace: Season Three – The Final Season Say Hello to Yesterday Seuss Celebration Sid Vicious: Final 24 – His Final Hours St. Urbain’s Horseman Steel Magnolias Step Brothers Stolen Straight Stranger Than Fiction String Theory Suicide Girls Must Die Superbad Swan Lake: Adventures in Motion Pictures Tale of Despereaux Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Tannhauser: Wagner – National Theatre of Munich Teenage Hitchhikers Temptation Time Machine: The Hunt for the Lost Squadron Titanic’s Tragic Sister Tortilla Soup Treasures of Long Gone John Truth Injection: More New World Order Exposed Truth or Dare? Ultimate Machine Girl: Collector’s Tin Uncle Vanya Van Der Valk Mysteries: Set 2 Vantage Point Visions of New York City Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory Walk With the Master: The Story and the Sites of the Buddha Warehouse 13: Season One Warlords We Own the Night We Were the Mulvaneys

COWBELL june 2010

Wedding Planner What If God Were the Sun? Where Did It Come From? The Ancient Maya – Power Centers White Ribbon Windman Wolphin Issue 11 Wozzeck WWE: Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat You Don’t Mess With the Zohan Zula Patrol

JULY 6

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Amex: Into the Deep – America Whaling & the World Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust Bakugan: Chapter 2 Battle League Horumo Battlestar Galactica: Seasons 4.0 & 4.5 Bitten Boeing B-52 Stratojet Brooklyn’s Finest Chatterbox Chow Down Clay Pigeons Continental Divide D. Gray-Man: Season One David & Goliath Doc Martin: Series 4 Doctor Who: The Horns of Nimon Doctor Who: The Space Museum/ The Chase Doctor Who: The Time Monster Doctor Who: Underworld Dragnet: Season 2 End of Days ER: The Complete Thirteenth Season Eva Eyeborgs Familiar Film Noir Collection Vol. 2 Game: Third Season Gamera vs. Barugon Girl With the Dragon Tattoo God of Vampires Gold Retrievers Have Gun, Will Travel: The Fourth Season Vol. 2 Huckle Hustle Legal Eagles Life on Mars: The Complete Collection Love for Sale Monk: Seasons Five & Six Monk: Seasons Three & Four Mushishi: Complete Box Set National Geographic: Dinosaurs Decoded One Piece: Season 3 – First Voyage Phoenix Mars Mission: Onto the Ice Precious Girls Club: A Little Bit of Faith Project Precious Paws Project Runway: The Complete Seventh Season Recycled Parts Return to Lonesome Dove Rhoda: Season Three

JUNE 22 Close-Up

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami An experiment in metamoviemaking from the Iranian king of molasses-paced arthouse anti-melodrama, CloseUp is Abbas Kiarostami’s twist on the “ripped from the headlines” school of storytelling. An Iranian man impersonates a well-known director, draws a smalltown family into his game under the pretense that he is going to make a movie about their life and eventually finds himself under arrest for the obvious reasons. Kiarostami’s recreation of the tale deliriously blurs the line between documentary and fictionalization. Instead of interviewing the participants, he hired them as actors and actresses, making them live out their own lives for a second time, and the result is as odd and unforgettable as you’d expect. Criterion

Salvage Science of Healing With Dr. Esther Sternberg Secrets to Love Sense of Wonder Single Man Sixgun Snatched: Curse of the Pink Panties 2 Squidbillies Vol. 3 Steve Byrne: The Byrne Identity Street Boss Touching Evil: The Complete Collection Twins Two Minute Heist Wind Journeys

JULY 13

8: The Mormon Proposition Ally McBeal: The Complete Third Season

America the Beautiful Appointment With Danger Artois the Goat Backyardigans: Operation Elephant Drop Black Angels Black Cat: The Complete Series Body/Antibody Burnt House Caillou’s Fun Outside Call in the Marines Caught in the Crossfire CBC Vol. 1 Come Together Crack in the World Crackie Crush Dark City Diary of a Nymphomaniac Dino Squad: Fire & Ice Don’t You Forget About Me Dove Family Double Feature Feeding the Masses Horror Collection Film Noir Classics Collection Vol. 5 Girl by the Lake God’s Office Goodbye Vietnam Grindstone Redux Hannie Caulder Hansel and Gretel Here & There Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger Holly How to Make Love to a Woman If You Love Me Invincible Pole Fighter Jet Li: 8 Film Set Killer Car Last Adam Last Farm in Lowell Love Chronicles 2 Lucy Show: The Official Second Season Maria Watches Over Us: Season Four Middle of Nowhere My Year Without Sex Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVIII Naked Nerve Endings Naruto: Shippuden Vol. 11 National Geographic: Alaska State Troopers – Season One New Tricks: Season Three Nick Jr. Favorites: The First Day of School Only Son/There Was a Father Outback Parasomnia Passengers Perry Rodney: Nothing But the Truth Peter Ackroyd: Venice Revealed Pornography: A Thriller Psych: The Complete Fourth Season Rent a Car Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story Ride the Wake S.W.A.T. Workout Saint John of Las Vegas Saturday Night Live: The Best of Tracy Morgan Saturday Night Live; The Best of Will Ferrell Saving Marriage Scream Girls Selling Hitler Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting Soldier’s Tale Spongebob Squarepants: Triton’s Revenge Street Hawk: The Complete Series Super Hero Squad Show Vol. 1

JULY 20

June 29 Predator Ultimate Hunter Edition

Directed by John McTiernan Predator is only the thirdbest film the Governator made in the ’80s. The original Terminator has been justly revered since its original release, of course, and one day The Running Man will receive the lavish Criterion multi-disc enshrining it’s deserved for at least a decade now. But it has one thing going for it that none of the others have: the titular, crustacean-faced, dreadlocked antagonist. The Predator remains one of the all-time movie monsters, and not just for its grosser-thangross design. The filmmakers mix the threat of advanced technology—any race that can turn itself invisible is doing better than us—with the single-minded viciousness of the jungle carnivore to create truly the worst of both worlds. Fox

Supranova Terribly Happy Thomas & Friends: Creaky Cranky Tour of Duty UFC 113 Unearthed Union Station Vexville White Collar: The Complete First Season Why Am I Doing This Wiggles; Hot Potatoes – The Best of the Wiggles Wildfire: The Arabian Heart Wishbone Ash: 40th Anniversary Concert – Live in London World War I in Color WWE: Elimination Chamber Anthology Zift

2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams Attack of the Eraser Barking Dogs Never Bite Being Human: Season One Black Narcissus Bleach Vol. 30 Blood Ties: The Complete Series Bong-Joon-Ho Collection Caillou: Caillou’s Fun Outside Circle Collective College Inc. Cookies & Cream Courage the Cowardly Dog Season One Desperate Romantics Elaine Paige Live Elvis & Anabelle Entre Nos Forbidden World Fragility of Seconds Galaxy of Terror Gangland Love Story Ground War Hit Favorites: Music Music Everywhere I Do & I Don’t Jersey Shore: Season One Job Just Another Day Kevin Hart: Seriously Funny La Mission Look Around You Season One Martha Goes to School Matlock: The Fifth Season May 18 Mother Mt. St. Helens: Back From the Dead National Geographic: World’s Toughest Fixes Season Two New Recruits NHL: Stanley Cup 2009-2010 Champions Ninja’s Creed Nollywood Babylon Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School Prodigal Sons Professional Red Shoes Stand-Ins Super Why: Attack of the Eraser Superfriends Season One Vol. 2 Tenderloin The Most Dangerous Man in America Thick as Thieves Town Called Panic UFC Presents WEC: Aldo vs. Faber Ultimate Heist Uptown Vampire Knight Vol. 1 Wounded Platoon WWE: Fatal Four Way 2010 Xs & 0s JULY 27

Acceptance Accidents Happen Agatha Christie Hour set 1 Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Classic Collection Set 4 Altamont Now Appassionata Art of the Steal Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed Atom Age Vampire Atomic Brain Barney: Furry Friends Be Easy Be Nice Best of the Fest Birds of Norfolk: A Bird Watcher’s

Dream Blessed and Cursed British Rail Journeys: Central Highlands – Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye Builder Catherine’s Pain Cheerleader Camp Cholo Comedy Slam Clay Aiken: Tried & True Cliff Richard: Rare and Unseen Cody Black Combat Aircraft Communism Was No Party: The Joke/The Shoe Crash: The Complete Second Season Deadly Shift Death Kappa Don’t Look Up Egypt Exposed: The True Origins of Civilization Eyes of Me G.I. Joe: The Movie Girl in Blue Goodnight Moon… and More Great Bedtime Stories Home Huxley on Huxley I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle I Need That Record: The Death (Or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store Ian Dury: Rare and Unseen Instant Expert: Ben Franklin Instant Expert: Beowulf Instant Expert: Egypt Instant Expert: Oil Instant Expert: The French Revolution Instant Expert: The Mayflower IP Man Jamdown Joan Mitchell: Portrait of an Abstract Painter Jocking around K.Y.E.: Kill Your Enemy Kansas City Royals: 1985 World Series Life After People: The Series – The Complete Season Two Lights Camera Dead Loos Ornamental Lynott’s Last Stand Magic Knight Rayearth 2: TV Series Season 2 Max’s Chocolate Chicken and More Stories Memory of Water Metropolis Missing Lynx Moodafaruka & Friends: The One World Festival Mothers in Law: Complete Series Naked Cities Night of the Living Dead Ninja Assassins 2: 4-Film Collection Noisy Nora Relaunch Operation: Endgame Paquito D’Rivera: Improvise One Peter Pan and J.M. Barrie: The Boys Who Wouldn’t Grow Up Pocket for Corduroy Presenting Sacha Guitry Puppet Master: Axis of Evil Queen Rain Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles – Reconstruction Redemption Reefer Madness Rolling Stones 1969-1974: The Mick Taylor Years Rosemary Wells Collection Salt 2: Angels of Fury Secret of the Grain

JULY 6 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Directed by Niels Arden Opley Trying to boil down the plot of Stieg Larsson’s impossibly popular quasi-political revenge tale into 100 words or less is damn-near impossible. A journalist and a gloomy goth beauty team up to find out who killed the niece of a Swedish businessman. That does just about cover it, but there’s a reason Larsson’s books are all a zillion pages long. He layers subplot upon subplot, and he’s got the same weakness for shocking twists that plagues all writers of paperback thrillers, regardless of their country of origin. It’s the same reason the stylish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo runs to a robust 152 minutes. At its best, though, the film’s a reminder of the kind of bigbudget thrillers Hollywood once did so well, multiple plot holes be damned. Music Box

Shark Week: Jaws of Steel Collection Shout Silver Cinema Series Collection Skateboard Snake South Africa: Impressions Specials: 30th Anniversary Tour Tricks of a Woman U2: Let Them Be – The Second Chapter Uninvited Urban Demographic Vincere Viva Castro Water Wars We Fun: Atlanta, GA Inside/Out Weather Report: Live in Hamburg 1971 Welcome to Earth Youth of Chopin

june 2010 COWBELL

/music /new_releases

JUNE 1

Clay Aiken Tried and True Amad-Jamal Barely Hangin’ On Atlanta Rhythm Sect. Anthology: Greatest and Latest D Betts & Great So. Atlanta’s Burning Down/ Great Southern Born Ruffians Say It Bow Wow Playlist: The Very Best of Bow Wow Cherryholmes Cherryholmes IV.com Tom Cloud A New Day Copperhead Copperhead Corrosion of Conf. Playlist: The Very Best of Corrosion of Conformity Charlie Daniels Band Playlist: The Very Best of the Charlie Daniels Band Matt Darey Nocturnal 2010 Dimitri from …/J Negro Get Down With the Philly Sound Dixie Chicks Playlist: The Very Best of the Dixie Chicks Elk City House of Tongues Jace Everett Red Revelations Firehouse Playlist: The Very Best of Firehouse Fishbone Playlist: The Very Best of Fishbone Forgiven Rival This Is War Dave Formula Satellite Sweetheart Frsaxa Mycorrhizae Realm Funki Porcini On The Futureheads The Chaos Art Garfunkel Playlist: The Very Best of Art Garfunkel Good Old War Good Old War Peter Hammill The Passionkirche Beres Hammond Just a Man Fred Hammond Playlist: The Very Best of Fred Hammond Hard Time Is Waiting for No One Richie Havens Mixed Bag/Something Else Again Hawthorne Heights Skeletons A Hill & True Foundation Breakthrough Christopher Hipgrave Slow With Pages of Fluttering Interference Hooray for Earth Momo Bruce Hornsby Playlist: The Very Best of Bruce Hornsby Steve Howe Trio Travelling Infant Sorrow Get Him to the G Iona & Other Artists Songs for Luca 2 Jack Johnson To the Sea Howard Jones Ordinary Heroes Karnataka The Gathering Light R. Kelly Playlist: The Very Best of R. Kelly Kidd Kidd Kidd of the Streets 2 Steve Kilbey Monsters n Mirages (box set) Kokane Gimme All Mine Lala Lala Land Lamb of God Hourglass Volume I: The Underground Years Lamb of God Hourglass Volume II: The Epic Years Lamb of God Hourglass: The CD Anthology Land Kush’s Egyptian Monogamy Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam Playlist: The Very Best of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam Jeff Lorber Fusion Now Is the Time Lovetrio Feat. U-Roy The Dark Mixes Mas Rapido Dumb Is King Curtis Mayfield Curtis The Melvins Bride Screamed Murder Sergio Mendes Bom Tempo Sergio Mendes Bom Tempo Brasil Rmx Tift Merritt See You on the Moon Moe Smash Hits Volume One Molly Hatchet Justice

needle june 2010

The Jazz Biography Gangsta Classics (box set) Offer the Light Nine to Go Seemingly Solid Reality Erpland CD/DVD Attitude Adjuster 2 Fossils and Other Phantoms Axel Rudi Pell The Crest Anthony Phillips Private Parts and Pieces 1 &2 Phonomik Soul Creeper Pineapple Thief Someone Here Is Missing Iggy Pop California Hitchhike Quitzow Juice Water Gemma Ray It’s a Shame About Gemma Ray Rocola Bacalao Infierno Rondo Brothers The Foreign Globester Scorn Refuse Start Fires Setting Sun Fantasurreal Innes Sibun The Box Set Sleepy Sun Fever Soundtrack Atrevete a Sonar 2 Starfish Enter Sandbox Stick to Your Guns The Hope Division Taio Cruz Rokstarr TDG Live It to the Fullest TV Personalities Memory Is Better Than Nothing Toile … feat Y. N’Dour Once Upon a Time in Senegal Trae Reasonable Drought Bibi Tunga Dunya Unbunny Moon Food Townes Van Zandt Legend: The Very Best Of Various Artists A Song for My Father Various Artists An ‘80s Metal Tribute to Journey Various Artists Ding Dong Presents: Volume 1 Various Artists Disco Fever Various Artists Guitar Masters Vol. 3 & 4 Various Artists Morning Coffee Various Artists Motown for Kids Various Artists Playlist: The Very Best of Gospel Praise Vs. the Earth The Initiative Watermelon Slim Ringers Paul Weller Wake Up the Nation Wendell B In Touch With My Southern Soul Roland White I Wasn’t Born to Rock Who Needs Johnny Who Needs Johnny Webb Wilder Town and Country/Acres of Suede Charles Wilson That Girl Belongs to Me Wintersleep New Inheritors Bill Wyman: Rhythm Kings Just for a Thrill/Live The Yardbirds Roger the Engineer Steve Young Solo Live/Switchblades of Love Yukmouth Free at Last Wes Montgomery Mr. Shadow Noctorum Ole Ask Outrageous Cherry Ozric Tentacles Pastor Troy Peggy Sue

JUNE 8

American Songbook Dad Summer Curses of the Deadly Sin Serve or Suffer Sing Something Simple White Crosses Bionic We Don’t Stand a Chance Sun of All Suns We’re Here Because We’re Here Vicki Anderson Wide Awake in a Dream F. Anderson Quartet Darkday + Live Apoptose Bannwald Apoptose Schattenmdchen Ariel Pink’s Haunted… Before Today Louis Armstrong Original Album Classics ASCII.Disko Stay Gold Forever Gold Greg Ashley Requiem Mass & Other Experiments Atomik Dancetroy Atral Social Club Happy Horse 100 Hits 100 Hits 100 Hits Abomination Absurd Minds Cliff Adams Against Me! Christina Aguilera AM Taxi Amestigon Anathema

Refused

The Shape of Punk to Come (Deluxe Edition) Few album titles have proven as prophetic as The Shape of Punk to Come. When it was originally released in 1998, “emo” was still an underground phenomenon, and “metalcore” had yet to become a buzzword Heard 12 years later, the album’s not quite as revelatory in its genre-mixing, but The Shape of Punk to Come has lost none of its spastic attack. This reissue comes with both a live album and a DVD, so even old fans might want to pick it up. Epitaph

June 8

Attack Attack Babylicious Bewitching Miss Bassey Love and Hurt Demo 96 Non Stop Lonely Nights in London Time Flies When You’re Losing Bellflur Asleep. Asleep Dierks Bentley Up on the Ridge Best Club Paris Black Robot Black Robot Blitzen Trapper Destroyer of the Void Blk Jks Zol Blues Company O’Town Trooves Lee Brice Love Like Crazy Bristles Reflections of the Bourgeois Society David Bromberg Wanted Dead or Alive/ Midnight on the Water Jack Bruce Live 1980-2001 Bucket & Co. Guitars, Beers & Tea Buggirl Dirt in the Skirt Cadillac Sky Letters in the Deep Call to Preserve Life of Defiance Caravan The World Is Yours Cardiac Arrest Haven for the Insane Mariah Carey X2 (Daydream & Mariah Carey) Case Here My Love Casiokids Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar Ceremony Rohnert Park A Certain Ratio Mind Made Up Cervello Elettronico Bipolar Chali 2na Fish Market Part 2 Vita Chambers The Get Go Changes Lament Changes Orphan in the Storm Bill Charlap/R. Rosnes Double Portrait Ray Charles Genius of Ray Charles Ray Charles Simply Ray Charles Cheap Trick Doctor Cheap Trick Found All the Parts/Busted Cheap Trick Standing on the Edge Cheap Trick X2 (Lap of Luxury/Dream Police) Antonio Ciacca Lagos Blues Circle of Dead Children Psalm of the Grand Destroyer Stanley Clarke Rocks, Pebbles & Sand/Let Me Know You Attack Attack Baby Anne Shirley Bassey Darrell Bath Bekhira Andy Bell Eric Bell The Belles

Oval JUNE 15 Oh

When it came to avant-garde electronic music, Oval were gold standard for over a decade. Leader Markus Popp took ugly bursts of noise and fashioned them into something queerly beautiful, music that owed more to the soothing sounds of Brian Eno’s legendary ambient records. Oval went silent in 2001, but Popp and company return with Oh, an album that looks set to reaffirm Oval’s position as the premier sensualists in a scene built on the use (and abuse) of broken down technology. Thrill Jockey

Clefs of Lavender Hill Stop! Get a Ticket Chris Coco Lazy Summer Judy Collins Paradise Samantha Crain You (Understood) Crash City Saints Glow in the Dark Music Alex Cuba Alex Cuba The Cure Disintegration (20th Anniversary Edition) Danko Jones Below the Belt Dante Saturnine Bobby Darin This Is Darin Death in June Burial Deer Tick The Black Dirt Sessions Delorean Subiza Delta Spirit History From Below Demonica Demonstrous Desole Perdus Corps Et Biens Detente Decline Detune-X Purevil Diabolic Excisions of Exorcisms The Dig Electric Toys Dir En Grey Uroboros: With the Proof in the Name of Living Disco Discharge Disco Bogie Disco Discharge European Connection DJ Clay Book of the Wicked DJ E-Z Rock Spittaz Vol. 1 Bonnie Dobson Looking Back P. D’Rivera & S. May Jazzclazz P. D’Rivera & Arturo S. Reunion Due Voci Due Voci Duane Eddy Have Twangy Guitar – Will Travel Edge of Forever Another Paradise Steve Elkins Smoky Mountain Heritage Don Ellis Haiku Toulouse Engelhardt Perpendicular World England Band Playing for England Epic Sunshine State Epitaph for a Legend Epitaph for a Legend S Erener & D Demirkan Painted on Water Exsonvaldes Near the Edge of Something Exsonvaldes There’s No Place Like Homes Eyes Set to Kill Broken Frames Faith Circus Faith Circus The Farewell Drifters Yellow Tag Mondays Fatal Embrace The Empires of Humanity ReneeFleming Dark Hope Fleshgod Apocalypse Mafia Fluwid From Surface to Suffocation

Da Bratz From Da Ville Dance the Devil Fitzcarraldo Vultures at Dawn Returners Stuffed Glee: The Music, Journey Age of the Fifth Sun Goons Great Googly Moo Burn It Down Selections From the Original Broadway Cast Recording Steve Hackett Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth Merle Haggard Amber Waves of Grain/ Kern River Hail the Villain Population Declining Hanson Shout It Out Taylor Haskins American Dream The Haunted Roadkill: On the Road With the Haunted Warren Haynes Presents: The Benefit Concert Heaven Shall Burn Invictus Heavy Load Love Revolution Hed Kandi Twisted Disco Henry Clay People Somewhere on the Golden Coast Here We Go Magic Pigeons Kristin Hersh Cats & Mice HewhocannotbenamedSunday School Massacre High Spirits High Spirits David Holmes The Dogs Are Holyhell Holyhell Lightnin’ Hopkins Lightnin’ Hopkins/His Blues Hot Club of Phila. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams Hot Hot Heat Future Breeds Freddie Hubbard Art of Freddie Hubbard Freddie Hughes Send My Baby Back Plus Hushabye Baby Lullaby Renditions of Taylor Swift I Declare War Malevolence Janis Ian Billie’s Bones/Folk Is the New Black Ideal Bread Transmit Vol. 2 Incantation Blasphemy Limited Edition Indigenous The Acoustic Sessions Insane Wait & Pray Integrity The Blackest Curse Istapp Blekinge Iyaz Replay Jadakiss Kingpin Stevi Jaimz Glam Damnation Billylee Janey Gimme Some Lightnin’ Jewel Sweet and Wild Johnny & The Hurric. Stormsville Syl Johnson Diamond in the Rough Mathew Jonson Agents of Time Journey Look Into the Future/Next Kevin K Deutschland Kaiser Cartel Secret Transit Kansas X2 (Leftoverture & Point of Know Return) Brian Keane Into the Deep Keep of Kalessin Reptilian Salif Keita La Difference Kingdom of Sorrow Behind the Blackest Tears Kitaro Grammy Nominated Music by Kitaro Kutt Calhoun Raw & Un-Kut Labana White Laether Strip Retention No. 3 The La’s Callin’ All (box set) Legend Anthology Leng Tch’e Hypomanic Jerry Lee Lewis Simply Jerry Lee Lewis Life Cocoon Lifeless Beyond the Threshold of Death Light Pollution Apparitions Lil Jon Crunk Rock Lo-Pro The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge Macry Homeland Macry & Orquesta T. Rumba Macry Magni Magni Mama Kin In the City Henry Mancini Complete Peter Gunn Fly Girlz Frames Frames The Funeral Pyre The Ghost Inside Gitar Glee Cast God Is an Astronaut Goons Great Googly Moo Greed Green Day

Thunder in the Sky Marshall Law Dean of Music The Prophet Feeds Mariposa De Oro/Old Crest on a New Wave Master Follow Your Savior Travie McCoy Lazarus Miss. Fred McDowell Shake ‘Em On Down Megaherz 5 Amargo Mel Mecco feat. Ron Carter Glenn Miller In the Mood Mychildren Mybride Lost Boy Nachtmystium Addicts: Black Meddle Part II Nada Surf If I Had a Hi-Fi Nahntier Blindoom Necronomicon The Return of the Witch Networks White Sky Nevermore The Obsidian Conspiracy New Society of Anar. Street Wise No-Man Wild Opera: Special Edition Of Wand & The Moon Sonnenheim Off With Their Heads In Desolation Mike Oldfield Hergest Ridge Mike Oldfield Ommadawn Opus Praying Mantis-Plus Orianthi The Addams Family Orig. Broadway Rec. Fela! Overmaster Madness of War Jose Padilla Bella Musica Vol. 5 Pain Cynic Paradise Pain of Salvation Road Salt One Paname Dandies Le Swing De L’Escargot Pinetop Perkins Joined at the Hip Plies Goon Affiliated Pretty Maids Pandemonium Psy’aviah Eclectric Random Reloaded Ratatat LP4 Rayvon Rayvon Recoil Selected Refused The Shape of Punk to Come: Deluxe Version Debbie Reynolds Debbie Rhymefest El Che Justin Roberts Jungle Gym Paddy Roberts Strictly for Grown Ups Paul Robeson Goin’ Home Rockarma Bring It Sonny Rollins Original Album Classics Rooney Eureka Anna Rose Nomad Savage Grace After the Fall From Grace/ Ride Into the Night Saving Abel Miss America Schwarzblut Das Mausoleum Rhoda Scott Beyond the Sea Zbigniew Seifert Man of the Light Seinking Ships Museum Quality Capture Sid Selvidge I Should be Blue Silverstein Decade (Live at El Mocambo) Since October Life, Scars, Apologies J Sisk & Ramblers C. Heartaches and Dreams Sly & Family Stone X2 (Fresh & Dance to the Music) Snake Eye Ritual Instinct Snakestorm Choose Your Finger Sonne Hagal Jordansfrost Sons of Geronimo Twist Soundtrack Ben Hur Soundtrack Porgy & Bess Soundtrack The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Tessa Souter Obsession Jack Starr’s Burning… Defiance Joe Stump The Essential Shred Guitar Collection Suckers Wild Smile Tarot Gravity of Light Teenage Fanclub Shadows Tender Forever No Snare Thank God Ice/Age Thirty Days Out Miracle Lick Thirty Days Out Thirty Days Out Thor’s Hammer Three Weeds from the Same Root Thulcandra Fallen Angel’s Dominion Tiesto Magikal Journey (The Hits Collection) Tiny Topsy & L Reed Just a Little Bit Manowar Marshall Law Dean Martin Masakari Dave Mason

june 2010 needle

/music /new_releases

Champ Together Eyes & Nines Freed of This Flesh Minor White X2 (Joyful Noise & Soul Serenade) Twice a Man Icicles Bebo Valdes Bebo Rides Again Patato Valdes Masterpiece Various Artists 2010 Warped Tour Compilation Various Artists Beyond Berkely Guitar Various Artists Disney Reggae Club Various Artists Just Dance 3 Various Artists Steppin’ Stone: Sounds of Memphis XL Story Vol. 3 Various Artists Teen Beat Various Artists Twistable, Turnable Man Various Artists Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1 Villagers Becoming a Jackal Violent Divine Release the Hounds Romain Virgo Romain Virgo Vnv Nation Crossing the Divide The Wailing Wall The Low Hanging Fruit Clay Walker She Won’t Be Lonely Long Watain Lawless Darkness We Are the In Crowd Guaranteed to Disagree Webbie Trillest Alive John Wetton Battle Lines What Laura Says Bloom Cheek Whitechapel A New Era of Corruption Marty Wilde Wilde About Marty William Control Noir Hank Williams Simply Hank Williams Steve Winwood Revolutions Wishbone Ash Sometime World Wormrot Abuse Gary Wright Connected O.V. Wright We’re Still Together Wye Oak My Neighbor/My Creator Yo La Tengo Here to Fall Remixes Tokyo Police Club J.P. Torres/C. Valdez Trash Talk Trees Emma Tricca Derek Trucks Band

JUNE 15

From the Bottom 2 the Top Resolution I Am Love Soundtrack Pushing the Envelope Murder at the discotech Theory of My Mind Remembrance Live in London 1975 Good King Bad/Benson & Farrell Big Ball Hotter Than Hell Big Bus Redemption Ketil Bjornstad Remembrance Lewis Black Stark Raving Black Blue Floyd The Adventure Begins Bebe Buell Sugar Paul Butterfield Band Rockpalast: Blues Rock Legends Vol. 2 Christie Front Drive Christie Front Drive Cibelle Las Venus Resort Palace Hotel Stanley Clarke Modern Man/I Wanna Play for You Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke Band Clarke/Duke Project Volumes 1, II & III C-Murder Tomorrow Andrew Collberg On the Wreath Confederate Railroad Confederate Railroad Live Cowboy Junkies Renmin Park Crank Co. Daredevils Crank County Daredevils Crooked I Hood Star Cropper-Cavaliere Midnight Flyer John Cunningham 1998-2002 Devo Something for Everybody Al DiMeola Elegant Gypsy/Casino Ron Dnate Favorites Drake Thank Me Later 8Ball & MJG Accidental Tribe John Adams Gerald Albright Amp Live The Amygdaloids Gabriel Ayala Baker Gurvitz Army George Benson

needle june 2010

Dreams/Imagine My Surprise Fred Eaglesmith Cha Cha Cha Earps Get a Room Eternia & Moss At Last Fabulous Ginn Sisters You Can’t Take a Bad Girl Home Fabuous Girls Fabulous Girls Feast Upon Cactus … Feast Upon Cactus Thorns Foals Total Life Forever Foghat Last Train Home Freedom Call Legend of the Shadowking The Gaslight Anthem American Slang Gunn & The Damage …Bury My Heart Gurrumul Gurrumul Regie Hamm Set It on Fire Ed Harcourt Lustre Heartsounds Until We Surrender In Fear and Faith Imperial Chris Isaak Live at the Fillmore John Jackson Rappahannock Blues Jeezy TM 103 Katherine Jenkins Believe Just Jinjer Just Jinjer King City The Last Siesta Kissin’ Dynamite Addicted to Metal Like Release Me Lil Cuete The One and Only The Loons Red Dissolving Rays of Light Lords … New Church Rockers Lorn Nothing Else Monica Mancini I’ve Loved These Days Arif Mardin All My Friends Are Here Marsmobil (Why Don’t You) Take the Other Side MC5 Purity Accuracy the Album Sarah McLachlan Laws of Illusion John McLaughlin Electric Guitarist/Electric Dreams John Mellencamp On the Rural Route 7 The Steve Miller Band Bingo Mountain Live in NYC Mr. Capone-e The Blue Album Georgia Ann Muldrow The Jyoti-Ocotea Album Nappy Roots Pursuit of Nappy Eric Nordhoff Quietime: Prayer Eric Nordhoff Quietime: Worship Gary P. Nunn Taking Texas to the Country Ashton Nyte The Valley Joell Ortiz Free Agent Ozzy Osbourne Scream Ustad Shahid Parvez Kushal Penetration Live 1978-1979 People Like Us & … Music for the Fire Pernice Brothers Goodbye, Killer Tom Petty & Heart… MOjo John Phillips Many Mamas Many Papas The Pineapple Thief Someone Here Is Missing Play 4 Change Band Play 4 Change Live Iggy Pop California Hitchhike Iggy Pop Where the Faces Shine Vol. 1 Iggy Pop Where the Faces Shine Vol. 2 Punch Brothers Antifogmatic Putumayo Kids Pres. Rock & Roll Playground Rasputina Sister Kinderhook Re: Jazz Electrified Lou Reed American Poet Maggie Reilly Looking Back, Moving Forward Andre Rieu Forever Vienna Robyn Body Talk Pt. 1 Kevin Rudolf To the Sky Markus Schulz Do You Dream Rudy Schwartz Project Remembering a Summertime Rash Sherie Rene Scott Everyday Rapture Dee Dee Sharp Happy Bout the Whole Thing/What Color Is Love Smooth Jazz All Stars Smooth Jazz Tribute to Gospel Hits Sonics Rendezvous Second Chance Soundtrack Toy Story Favorites Spirit Rockpalast: West Coast Legends Vol. 3 The Stooges Extended Play The Stooges Heavy Liquid The Stooges You Don’t Want My Name You Want My Action Dreams

Devo JUNE 15

Something for Everybody A whole generation knew Devo simply as “the guys in the weird hats from the ‘Whip It’ video,” but thankfully the band’s maniacal, mechanical reinvention of rock has been rediscovered by younger listeners over the last few years. Something for Everybody is the first new Devo material in 20 years, and while it lacks the bizarre mix of robotic precision and caveman simplicity that makes the band’s early albums so bracing, but it’s a surprisingly solid addition to the band’s catalog. Warner Brothers Suppression Sylvain Sylvain Gabor Szabo T. Rex Texas in July Steve Tibbetts Mel Torme Tyrannosaurus Rex Uriah Heep Various Artists Various Artists Various Artists Various Artists Various Artists Suzanne Vega Rick Wakeman We Are Scientists Who Needs Johnny Widow James Williamson Edgar Winter Mitch Woods Lucy Woodward Z-Ro

Alliance of Concerned Men New York’s a go Go Jazz Raga Total T. Rex Salt of the Earth Natural Causes Performance A Whole Zinc of Finches Live at Sweden Rock Festival 2009 Now 34 Now U.S.A. Reggae Gold 2010 Sometimes… A Great Notion Songs for Wiggleworms Close Up Vol. 1, Love Songs Always With You Barbara Who Needs Johnny Midnight Strikes Twice With the Careless Hearts Rebel Road Gumbo Blues Hooked Heroin

JUNE 22

22-20s Shake/Shiver/Moan Allstar Weekend Suddenly American Hi-Fi Fight the Frequency Laurie Anderson Homeland (CD/DVD) Authority Zero Stories of Survival Automatic Loveletter Truth or Dare Bob Baldwin Never Can Say Goodbye Baths Cerulean Bearfoot Follow Me Laurie Berkner Band The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band Blaze Ya Dead Homie Gang Rags Norman Brown Sending My Love Call the Cops Call the Cops Canvas Solaris Irradiance Chemical Brothers Further Mark Chesnutt Outlaw Chopp Devize Hip Hop Renaissance Coliseum House With a Curse The Constellations Southern Gothic Crispell/Rothenberg One Night I Left My Silent House Miley Cyrus Can’t Be Tamed Danzig Deth Red Sabaoth

Crime Scene Restored to One Playing God and Other Short Stories Semi Precious Weapon You Love You Sex Pistols Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle Sia We Are Born Sister Sin The Sound of the Underground Slim Dunkin Dunkin the Competitino Aaron Nigel Smith Everyone Loves to Dance Soundtrack 180 South Soundtrack Hung Soundtrack Mama I Want to Sing Stars Five Ghosts Nora Jane Struthers Nora Jane Struthers Sunz of Man Pres: 60… Remarkable Timing Keith Sweat Ridin’ Solo Tender Trap Dansette Dansette Theo Nervous Nitelife: Summer Clubbing 4 This or … Apocalypse Haunt What’s Left Paul Thorn Pimps & Preachers Derek Trucks Band Roadsongs Uffie Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans Steve Vai Western Vacation Vandenplas Seraphic Clockwork Various Artists Bluegrass Pride Various Artists Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows Various Artists This Comp Kills Fascists Various Artists This Is the Blues Versa Emerge Fixed at Zero D. Weiss & Point of D… Snuck In Windsor for the Derby Against Love Glenn Wool Let Your Hands Go Wovenhand The Threshing Floor Yakuza Of Seismic Consequence Ying Yang Twins Gumbo Vol. 1 You Me at Six Hold Me Down Pegi Young Foul Deeds Terje Rypdal Sabbath Assembly Salem

Eminem June 22 Recovery

It’s almost impossible to remember a time when Eminem was a massive pop star, a threat to the youth of America and an excellent rapper. Here’s a preternaturally gifted MC who decided it was easier (and more lucrative) embrace self-parody with shameless gusto. With each new postcomeback release, it’s hard not to hope he’ll return to the kind of hardcore rhymes that made his first two albums classics. Will Recovery be that album? The title’s promising, at least. Interscope Lucidity Pink Pounders En Fin Tid Double Dagger Goner Recovery Caedium Womb of Dreams Goat Part II: The New December Ghosts Among Men The Sellout Metztli Obscura Live in Anaheim The Imagine Project Oh Little Fire Bastard’s Disease Health:: Disco 2 Major Pain to Indee Freedom: The Best Of Fred Hersch Trio Whirl Griffin House The Learner Hrdvision Where Did Yu Just Go I Shalt Become Poison Ital Tek Midnight Colour Samantha James Subconscious Manu Katche Third Round Kele The Boxer Kode 9 DJ Kicks Cyndi Lauper Memphis Blues Chris Lawrence Rush Hour Lynyrd Skynyrd Live From Freedom Hall (CD/DVD) Steve Mason Boys Outside Mayapuris Mridanga Jason Moran Ten Stuart Moxham Personal Best Nina Nastasia Outlaster Negura Bunget From Transilvanian Forest Negura Bunget Zimindu-Sa Vince Neil Tattoos & Tequila Orgone Cali Fever Ozomatli Ultimate Ozo Perfume Genius Learning Pierce the Veil Selfish Machines Robert Pollard Moses on a Snail Primal Fear Live in the USA Procedure Club Doomed Forever Ram Lightbringer R. Randolph & Fam… We Walk This Road The Real McKenzies Shine Not Burn The Rescues Let Loose the Horses Rocko Da Don Wildlife Roscoe Dash Ready Set Go Runaway City Armored Heart Delain Disco Discharge Diskjokke Double Dagger Early Graves Eminem Enemy of the Sun Fan Death Fistula Fol Chen Grave Maker Macy Gray Hacavitz Halford Herbie Hancock Sarah Harmer Hate Your Guts Health Hed P.E.

JUNE 29

Here Waits Thy Doom Streets of Gold Codex Neco, When Fire Proprioception J’ai Deux Amours We’ve All Been There Noesis Howling Trains and Barking Dogs Bun B Trill O.G. Kenny Burrell Be Yourself Cactus Cactus V Candlemas Ashes to Ashes (Live) Peter Case Wig Ceschi The One Man Band Broke Up Charming Hostess The Bowls Project Children 18:3 Rain’s a Comin’ Chingo Bling Chicken Flippa Billy Cobham Palindrome Nat King Cole & Friends Riffin’ Larry Coryell Prime Picks Elvis Costello Pomp & Pout Eric Darius On a Mission Delphic Acolyte Diddy – Dirty Money Last Train to Paris DJ Rap Synthesis D-Maub Inside Out Dru Hill Indrupendence Day Drudkh Blood in Our Wells Drudkh Songs of Grief and Solitude Dwele Wants, World, Women Emarosa Emarosa Alejandro Escovedo Street Songs of Love Fat Joe The Dark Side Fight Fair California Kicks Adam Franklin & Bolts… I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years Future of Forestry Travel III Kenny G Heart and Soul Richard Galliano 3 Original Album Classics Game The R.E.D. Album Glyder Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Gowan Return of the Strange Animal 3 Inches of Blood 3Oh!3 Anaal Nathraka And Hell Followed w/ Josephine Baker Alex Band Blue Six Cindy Bullens

Jackie Greene Till the Light Comes The Grip Weeds Strange Change Machine Steve Grossman 3 Original Album Classics Deitrick Haddon Presents Blessed & Cursed Hall Razah Heaven Razah Ernie Halter Franklin & Vermont Haste the Day Attack of the Wolf King The Herbaliser Herbal Tonic Hey Marseilles To Travels and Trunks Hi-Power Entertainment Presents Hipowermusic.com 2010 Hirax Noise, Chaos, War James Newton Howard The Last Airbender Indigo Girls Staring Down the Brilliant Intervurt Union Iwrestledabearonce It’s All Happening J Hood Sorry I Made You Wait Ahmad Jamal 3 Original Album Classics Elmore James The Best of Elmore James Vol. 2 Juvenile Beast Mode Ketzenjammer Le Pop Knut Wonder Jane Krakowski Live at Feinstein’s Robby Krieger Singularity Bireli Lagrene 3 Original Album Classics Didier Lockwood 3 Original Album Classics Lord Infamous Futuristic Bounty Hunter Sylvain Luc 3 Original Album Classics Austin Lucas Collection The Main Street Gospel Love Will Have Her Revenge Rafi Malkiel Water Maps & Atlases Perch Patchwork Marco Polo The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo The Mission (UK) Dum-Dum Bullets Naturally 7 Vocalplay Julie Neumark Dimestore Halo Harry Nilsson & John Stewart The Early Tower Masters – Willard No-Man Wild Opera Optimo Fabric52 Papa Roach To Be Loved: Best Parkway Drive Deep Blue Michel Petrucciani 3 Original Album Classics Rhapsody of Fire The Frozen Tears of Angels Lee Ritenour 6 String Theory Rick Ross Teflon Don Sabaton Coat of Arms Scissor Sisters Night Work Severe Torture Slaughter Antoine Silverman Gypsy Swing Slim Thug & Boss Hogg Outlawz Welcome 2 Texas Official Mixtape Sons of the Pioneers Stephen Foster Songbook Soundtrack The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – The Score Spose The Audacity Statovarius Polaris Live Steel Train Steel Train Stratovarius Infinite Suicide Silence No Time to Bleed (The Body Bag) Taddy Porter Taddy Porter To Rococo Rot Speculation Vieux Farka Toure Live Randy Travis Top 10 Triosphere The Road Less Travelled Travis Tritt Top 10 Various Artists The Best of Traditional American Bluegrass The Villains Just Another Saturday Night Clay Walker Top 10 Paul Wall The Heart of a Champion Wallflowers Looking Through You We Were Skeletons We Were Skeletons Jimmy Webb Just Across the River Darrell Webb Band Bloodline Max Wild Tamba Wisecracker The Pact Witchery Witchkrieg Wolf Parade Expo 86 Dwight Yoakam Top 10

june 2010 needle

LISTEN LISTENING ING G ENIN LIST

The Derek Trucks Band

Steve Miller Band

Roadsongs

Bingo

Hank Williams III Rebel Within

IN STORES 6/22 FREE LITHO

WITH PURCHASE (while supplies last)

K IN STORES 6/15 K

Jakob Dylan

Women + Country

PART PARTY TYY PAR

IN STORES

JUNE 22 IN STORES JUNE 15

TRANSFORMERS:

War for Cybertron

AVAILABLE FOR AVAILABLE FOR

COWBELL june 2010

Leela James

My Soul

CD $12.99

Stax

THE INCOMPARABLE LEELA JAMES, ONE OF TODAY’S MOST ELECTRIFYING SOUL ARTISTS, PRESENTS HER STAX RECORDS DEBUT RELEASE, MY SOUL.

Jack Johnson To The Sea CD $11.99

Universal Records

Cowbell june 2010