Filter Magazine # 38

Page 1

We’re very happy And we’re such a good match We like spending time together There’s nothing romantic in it But we agree on one thing All those bastard Martians can fuck off back to Mars

etnies.com

Nive Nielsen Nive Sings! EP available on iTunes CD available through Rough Trade myspace.com/nivenielsen

The Lighthouse And The Whaler EP out now on iTunes

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Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers

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Dave Eggers and 826LA’s Christina Galante

Kim Gordon

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COVER 54

Every Man for Himself: The Evolution of JULIAN CASABLANCAS

FEATURES

GETTING TO KNOW 22 24 26

MALAKAI

LITTLE DRAGON FINAL FANTASY

44

Worlds of Pure Imagination: WES ANDERSON, Roald Dahl and Fantastic Mr. Fox

48

The Insides of a Monster: Busting the Myth of VAMPIRE WEEKEND

28 30

62

Faust Things Faust: The Not Entirely Tragic History of TERRY GILLIAM

FLICKER

F-STOP 38

ANNIE: Don’t Stop

TRIBUTE 66

MANIC STREET PREACHERS: From Despair to Everywhere

82

Where Did I Go Right? The History of MEL BROOKS: Part 1

YOU SHOULD ALREADY KNOW

32

ATHLETE

MISSION OF BURMA

THE DRIFTER: Flowing in Indo with ROB MACHADO

REVIEWS 90 106

CD REVIEWS DVD DEBRIS

ENDNOTE 108

by MICHAEL SHOWALTER

SOUND ESCAPES 36

Achtung! Don’t Fear the REEPERBAHN ON THE COVER: Julian Casablancas photographed in downtown Los Angeles by Piper Ferguson ABOVE: Herman Leonard, Playboy, NYC, 1956 by Herman Leonard

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TURN ON THE MUSIC.. TUNE OUT THE WORLD. Every chord. Every scream. Every booming bass thump. The SE115 Sound Isolating™ Earphones from Shure deliver it all in rich detail while keeping the noise of the outside world to an absolute minimum. Go to www.shure.com for more.

www.shure.com © 2009 Shure Incorporated

?D1;8B74AB Alan AlanSartirana Sartirana AlanMiller Miller & & Alan

LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN

AMEN

Praise for our Where the Wild Things Are issue, FILTER 37[Fall ‘09]:

If music was my religion, then Filter would be my bible.

I read the Wild Things issue on the bus back from N.Y.C. on Sunday and it was amazing. Honestly the best cover to cover magazine read I’ve had in a long time.

LAYOUT DESIGNER: Melissa Simonian

2>=CA81DC8=6 0AC8BCB ?7>C>6A0?74AB 2>=CA81DC8=6 0AC8BCB Jeff Kleinsmith, Lego, Pascal Monmoine, Michael R. ?7>C>6A0?74AB Williams

Just saw the new mag and I gotta say: Guys, you have to be joking me with this issue. I mean... can’t you at least try and not be so amazing?

Ethan Alley, Piper Ferguson, Kaapo Kamu, Michael Showalter

B2A814B

Just saw the latest cover. It looks insanely amazing. Nice work! The Fall issue arrived in today’s mail. It’s truly outstanding all the way around‌One of the most interesting yet!

TRIOMPHE LE MONDE

Submitted anonymously via Facebook

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LTC Tim Abbott Product Manager U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force

THE

FALL MUSIC/VOODOO EXPERIENCE #'. Š D8ID7:G"CDK:B7:G ¿%.

W ˆ Œ‰D W‹ h{Œ… ˆ i ƒ…„{ Š d{ ‚ \ „„ Kings of Convenience

In the 29th issue of the Good Music Guide, we catch up with MarkÊta Irglovå and Glen Hansard, the musical lovebirds that comprise The Swell Season, to discuss the unexpected intimacy of fame. Also, the women behind Brooklyn electro-pop outfit Au Revoir Simone chat with French group Air about sex, love and suffering; Neil Finn takes us through the vast collaboration process on his new album The Sun Came Out; and the guys from Kings of Convenience let us in on Norway’s best-kept secrets, from great local bands to skinny-dipping spots. Download the Guide and back issues for free at FILTERmagazine.com.

B4=3 0;; ;4CC4AB 2><<4=CB @D4A84B A0=CB BD664BC8>=B 70;5 10:43 8340B C>) info@filter-mag.com or 5908 Barton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038

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Ewan Anderson, Samantha Barnes, Mike Bell, Ewan Anderson, Samantha Barnes, Beth Carmellini, Samantha Feld, Mikela Floyd, Tristen Joy Gacoscos, Mike Bell, Samantha Feld, Penny Hewson, Holly Gray, Megan Healy, Max Hellmann, Wes Martin, Eric “Vizion� Jones, Torr Leonard, Gur Rashal, Jose Vargas Paul Masatani, Luis please Mendoza, William Overby, For marketing inqueries email info@filtermmm. Kyle Rogers, Ryan Rosales, Eli Thomas, Connie Tsang, Jose Vargas com For marketing inqueries please email info@filtermmm.com

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Hello Pat, Saw the magazine in L.A. last week. The feature looks good and reads well. Thank you very much. Vaughan Oliver

Alan, Just wanted to show you what I do to relax before running missions out here in Afghanistan—a great read. Tons of the troops know your magazine and some did not believe me that I know the owner‌ They do now!

B2A814B Eric Almendral, Lesley Bargar, Richard Bienstock, Ethan Alley, A.D. Amorosi, D. Ayers, Lauren Barbato, Brian Bryan Chenault, LitsaMichael Dremousis, Phil Eastman, Benjy Brannon, Jeffrey Brown, Adam Conner-Simons, Kendah El-Ali, Eisen, Kendah El-Ali, David Fear, Daniel Fienberg, Kevin Jonathan Falcone, Marty Friedman, Garner, Vivian Gueler, Lauren Harris, Rebecca Huval, Patrick James, Torrie Jones, KyleJames, Lemmon, Kyle JR Griffin, Timothy Gunatilaka, Patrick Cord Jefferson, MacKinnel, Ryan Marker, Nevin Martell, Breanna Murphy, Lauren NevinDavid Martell, Jeremy Moehlmann, DavidSam C. Obenour, Novik, C. Obenour, Loren Poin, Jon Pruett, Roudman, Jonathan Pruett,Matthew Bernardo Rondeau, Robert Ken Scrudato, Shaer, Scott Thill, CarrieRoss, Tucker,Sam Roudman, Ken Scrudato, TristanPaul Staddon, Tamara Vallejos, Zollo Michael Suter, Carrie Tucker <0A:4C8=6 <0A:4C8=6

Hi Pat, Just got the magazines today‌loved the article [“Welcome to the Subbachultcha: Celebrating Vaughan Oliver’s Aesthetic Legacy with the Pixies and 4AD Records,â€? Filter 37], best one I’ve ever read about our work in 20+ years! Hope you’re pleased, too. Simon Larbalestier Photographer

ALL THAT WE CAN BE

438C>A80;

EDITORS: Chris Martins Pat McGuire EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Pat&McGuire EDITORIAL Colin Stutz MANAGINGASSISTANT: EDITOR: Patrick Strange CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Nevin Martell 0AC EDITORIAL INTERNS: ART DIRECTOR: Eric Almendral Lauren Barbato, Jessica Ford, Lynn Lieu, Valerie Servin PHOTOGRAPHY COORDINATOR: Andrea LaBarge DESIGN ASSISTANT: Christopher Saltzman 0AC

Wendy, Sebastian, MommaC70=: H>D Sartirana, the Ragsdales, UK/SC Sartiranas, the McGuire family,Rey, KY the folk,Paikos Brittany Boyd, Courtney Dolliver, Vliet, Masons, Pete, family, Chelsea, Zach & the Shelby Rifkins,Van Shalyce, Asher Miller, The Fly, Wig/Tamo SF crew, Shappsy,Lauren Phamster, Donna Uncle Mel, Jessica Linker, Mikal and Telle,theJoakim Haugland, Hochberg, @ Goldenvoice, Adrian Martinez,Michael Jennifer Showalter, Knoepfle and the ASCAP crew,Thom, Dana Judy Chang, Ziggy Kozlowski, Barbara Strange, Dynamite, Mike Kosuke Fukudome, Dungca, Shannon, & Stevie, Jenn Joycie Talesfore, VivianRachel Gueler,Weissman, Herman Christian Leonard, Parkes, McGuire Thomas,Lucia, JoanneMomma Torres, Sartirana, KY folk, Bagavagabonds, Geraldine Baum, family, Wendy,EliSebastian, the Ragsdales, JD Arnott, Stephen NedRey, Ryerson, Appel, RyantheSweeney, UK/SC Sartiranas, theTobolowsky, Masons, Pete, the St.Jen Louis Thaws, Paikos Josh ’n’ Saige, Hoobie!, MUDluscious, Astronuts, Tuti, Billy Briggs, Heather family, Chelsea, Zach & the Rifkins, Wig/Tamo and the SF crew, Shappsy, Hennessey, Jollillo, Lio Cerezo, Maggie Wang, Izzy Holden, Sabrina Harwell, Phamster, Donna @ Goldenvoice, Jennifer Knoepfle and the ASCAP crew, Claire Forelle, Michelle Smith, Kurt Birkins, David Iskra, Jason Bradford, Jason Dana Dungca, Asher Miller,Alex Susana Weissman, Barco,Dynamite, Stacy Hass,Joycie Will Felker, John Barundia, Arzt,Loy, JoshRachel Mikkleson, Gina Johannes Guido,Lopez, Darin Rebecca Harmon,Carriero, ChristianWes Parkes, Tuti, Nicole HeatherCairns, Hennessey, DeFalco, & Frances Martin, Amy Ashley Ball, Marco Carrillo, Lionel Leon, Menchie Caliboso, Michelle Lee, Davis, Jerome Crooks, Claire Van Herck, Mike Kaminsky, Victor Montes, Robert Maggie Ben Wang, KurtChristina Birkins, M. Jason Barco, Frances Lopez,Gina Amy Davis, Robert Castro, Smith, Casadonte, Ben Gordon, Thompson, Leila Castro, Gina Thompson, Brittany Tyson Moore, CareyGary Cabla, Ryan Afzali, Denise Miller, KeithMatt Kelly,Neimkin, Anna Williams, Turner, Caudill, Scott, Ergen, Roberts, Turner, Brittany Kenny McGuane, Rema Rahman, Chrystina Ho, Brian Gio Ciaccio, LexiNoiv Maldonado, Moore, Mark Altstiel, Sean Williamson, Lisa Schnaubelt, Nahall Marcial Sadeghi, Rios, Breanna Murphy,Flores, Chris Cogswell, Kevine Baydaline, Isabel Reyes, Eduardo Michael Tristen Gacoscos, Ted Jahng,Ricky Eun Jee Yi, Derek Johanson, Marc Camarillo, Benny Cardenas, Huaynate, Vargas Familia,Ilyse AmyKaplan, Szczepanski, Choquette, AJ Gordon, Chantal Wallen, Rachel Ostwald, Bryan Carrie Henderson, Kerissa Bearce, ChaseNYC/ATL, Jensen, Jin Moon, Jen Murse, Karas, Grace Morgan, Anthony Gonzales, Adam Vieyra, A.J. Gilmore, Jenny Samantha Stein, Kenneth Woo, Jennifer Jenkins, John Adamson, Jay Blakesberg, Miyasaki, Meredith Jack Keller, Jenny Coyle, Szczepanski, Matt Young, Jason Moran, Allen, Christy Havranek, TeresaAmy & Liz Donahue, Jonathan Thomas Wood, Alison Rodriguez, Dustin Gaynor, Jeffery Roach, Christina Zoeller, Bryan Dunlap, Nikki Browner, Space 515, Stephen Mills, Mishu and Sheila, Jaime Broughton, Carrie Henderson, Melinda Palomares, Kerissa Bearce, Ginny Heller, Chris Walter, Jessica Charron, Michael Polydoroff, Tom Bacon, Ryan Hawkins, Alyssa Van Breene, Connie Tsang, Kyle Woods, Peggah Ghoreishi, Scott, Buckstein, Katrina Ong Yiu, Mallory Delaney, Corrie MichaelRyan Doshi, Jin Moon, Jen Murse, Samantha Stein, Kenneth Woo,Rideout, Jennifer Felipe Delia Liu, William Head, LaBarge, Tyler LaFleur, Jay Campbell, Ruben Jenkins,Rubalcaba, John Adamson, Maria and Denny Stephen Mills, Mishu and Davis, Dill, Alex Acosta,Martin John Azerkri, Jared Swetnam, Sheila, Nick Jordan Reisenweber, Hall, Meeshka Bernabe,Nathan HelenSprinkle, Barrass, Andrew Heynen, JonnieHeather Rosen, ElizabethNunnelly, Donahue,Hans TroyMinea, at the Kirk Scene, Jaime Kevin Heller,O’Brien, Chris Walter, The Simonian The Brown, Nichols,Rene Niki Carranza, Hayman, Adam Candice Silva, Charles Natalie Bleemers, Rick Family, Bright, John Drucker, Macias, 2,000 Year Old Man Marc McAlpin, the Oakland Fleming,Allie EricJohnson, Frederic,The Rich & Diana Martins, Bay Area, Baillie Parker, Steve Randall, Yoni Wolf, Garrison Nightly, Motorsport 03E4AC8B8=6 Scooters, Clint Wells, Julie Almendral, Brill Bundy 323.464.4718 advertising@filter-mag.com 03E4AC8B8=6 323.464.4718

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FILTER MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY FILTER MAGAZINE LLC, info@filter-mag.com 5908 BARTON AVE., LOS ANGELES, CA 90038. VOL. 1, NO. 38, HOLIDAY, FILTER MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY FILTER MAGAZINE 2009. FILTER MAGAZINE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FORBY ANYTHING, INCLUDING LLC, 5908 BARTON LOS ANGELES, VOL. 1,ORNO. 24, THE RETURN OR LOSSAVE., OF SUBMISSIONS, OR CA FOR90038. ANY DAMAGE OTHER WINTER, FILTER MAGAZINE IS OR NOTARTWORK. RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYINJURY TO2007. UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS ANY SUBMISSION THING, INCLUDING THE RETURN OR LOSS OF SUBMISSIONS, OR FOR OF A MANUSCRIPT OR ARTWORK SHOULD INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED ANY DAMAGE OR OTHER INJURY TO UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS ENVELOPE OR PACKAGE OF APPROPRIATE SIZE, BEARING ADEQUATE RETURN OR ARTWORK. ANY SUBMISSION OF A MANUSCRIPT OR ARTWORK POSTAGE. ISSN # 1544-2861 SHOULD INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE OR PACKAGE OF APPROPRIATE SIZE, BEARING ADEQUATE RETURN POSTAGE. ISSN Š2009 BY FILTER MAGAZINE LLC. # 1544-2861 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FILTER PRINTED IN THE USA MAGAZINE LLC. Š2007 BYISFILTER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FILTER IS PRINTED IN THE USA

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For more information on The Pablove Foundation and how to help Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ fight against cancer, visit Pablove.org. Illustration by Shepard Fairey

BY JONATHAN FALCONE

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3 albums that inspired Malakai’s Gee to make music THE BEATLES

WILD MAN FISCHER

This one is simply a classic. What else can you say?

I was going to say Planet Rock but then remembered the Wild Man. This one, of course— Wild Man Fischer!

Please Please Me

036>/<

An Evening with Wild Man Fischer

KASABIAN West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

A cracking band—I’ve just seen Sergio score a sweet goal in winkle pickers on YouTube and they’ve obviously got great taste in music as well.

<0A2 14BB0=C

D8C8B8@

3 albums overrun

macys.com

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BY BREANNA MURPHY

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3 albums that inspired Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano to make music KRAFTWERK KRAFTWER The Man-Machine

I’m saying this in representa representation for the guys in the band because every time we’re on tour, they play this over and over again. 036>/<

PRINCE

Sign o’ the Times He’s so unique. He gets away with running around in his under underwear by making great pop songs. I don’t like everything he’s done, but he’s an original.

KATE BUSH

Never for Ever The band might argue about this but I really like her. That’s a wicked album. I get really inspired by her way of singing and lyrics.

BCD38> B44:

C@KKC< ;I8>FE

3 albums overrun

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3 albums that inspired Owen Pallett to make Heartland ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK Dazzle Ships

Any OMD record, really. Dazzle Ships just happens to be my favorite. 036>/<

JOANNA NEWSOM

THE STROKES

More of a negative inspiration than positive. I listened to it as something to aspire to but also as a signpost, so I’d know which way not to go.

I had a Strokes love affair when writing this record. It made me try and adapt electronic music—the basis of ’80s synthpop—into orchestral writing.

Ys

Is This It

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3 albums overrun

BY NEVIN MARTELL

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Joel Pott picks 3 Athlete albums you should already own

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Vehicles and Animals (2003)

Beyond the Neighborhood (2007)

Black Swan (2009)

There’s a lot of childish joy on this album; I’ll always love it.

The breakdown in our relationship with EMI began right after this release, but it’s a beautiful album despite all the drama that surrounded it.

It’s filled with an excitement, like we’re releasing another debut record. It’s really fresh and has a lot of energy.

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BY SAM ROUDMAN

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3 albums that inspired Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller to make music JIMI HENDRIX

RAMONES

WIRE

He made the electric guitar a transcendent instrument‌ and he was just one hip motherfucker.

It was just an astounding album when it came out— devastatingly good.

Taking Hendrix and the Ramones and putting them together— minimalist chord progressions, but fascinating in its sound and texture.

Are You Experienced?

036>/<

Ramones

Chairs Missing

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K?< ;I@=K<I FLOWING IN INDO WITH ROB MACHADO BY BRIAN BRANNON

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8:?KLE> DON’T FEAR THE REEPERBAHN BY ETHAN ALLEY

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036>/<

BY PAT MCGUIRE The literary work of Roald Dahl has long been held as one

incorporate glimpses of Dahl’s life into the film as well: from a tattered

of the world’s most beloved rollicking romps both through

green armchair to a familiarly tall character frame to a fantastically

and for the childhood imagination. Dahl, the exceedingly

mischievous, adventurous and heroic fox.

tall, unconventional Welshman, was both a calculator of the

While the notion of Anderson taking on the work of another may

fantastic and fantastically calculated. He created many of his stories in

have caused some initial shock, the product of this particular pairing

the private writing hut he built behind Gipsy House, his 19th-century

reveals a perfect match. Just as it was Dahl’s imagination that so

farmhouse nestled in the British countryside, by regimentally slipping

captured Anderson in the first place, with Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox,

into his favorite armchair at 10 each morning and writing feverishly

we can only assume that the feeling would be mutual.

until noon. His outrageous plots and unforgettable character-driven tales are a film producer’s dream, and before his death in 1990, Dahl

What first attracted you to Roald Dahl? Did you read him as a kid?

saw several of his 17-something children’s novels made into feature

I did. I’ve always loved Dahl. In fact, Fantastic Mr. Fox was the first book

films (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The BFG; The Witches; Danny,

I ever owned. I know I have an edition of the book from when I was 3 or 4

the Champion of the World); another handful have been made in the

years old, though I don’t really remember first reading it—it was just always

years since. So, it came as no surprise when it was announced several

there. Dahl is also interesting because he wrote his memoirs as two books

years ago that the next Dahl book coming to the silver screen would be

intended for children. If you were interested in his books, then you could

Fantastic Mr. Fox, the underdog tale of a family of foxes who outsmart

learn a lot about him, too, because Boy and Going Solo are about his life

and wreak havoc on a trio of nasty farmers. The cause for heightened

and his experiences; he’s a character in the books and he talks about writing.

celebration, however, may have come when it was declared that the

He always interested me, not just for his stories, but for his personality.

director attached to the project was none other than Wes Anderson, the auteur behind Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and other rollicking

Do you see Dahl as a kindred spirit and as an influence?

romps of new cinema imagination.

Yes. When Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola and I were writing The

With his first five films, Anderson has quickly asserted himself as

Darjeeling Limited, we talked about Dahl quite a bit—we even thought of

a visionary writer and director. But, just as Dahl was more than just a

a couple of his stories along the way; one in particular called “Poison.�

writer of children’s books—he was a fighter pilot, war hero, inventor and

His work is also particularly suited to movies. They adapted a number

resolute family man, not to mention author of numerous screenplays,

of them for The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Dahl even

adult fiction and a vast collection of short stories—Anderson is more

had a television show that adapted some of his stories. He’s definitely

than just a man behind a movie. His personality inhabits each frame

someone who I keep in mind through whatever I’m working.

of his films in a way rarely seen; his eye for detail and levels of artistic dedication create worlds that can only exist in a Wes Anderson picture.

Liccy Dahl, his wife, represents the Dahl estate and is very involved when

and he and co-writer Noah Baumbach explored the wonders of Gipsy

it comes to movies made of Dahl’s work. Liccy and I are good friends and

House as they wrote, enabling them to come away with much more than

she really opened the door to me to allow us to make this film. She allowed

just a film adaptation of a novel.

Noah Baumbach and me to write at Gipsy House, which was Roald Dahl’s

Guided by the goal to make each scene one that Dahl would have 6A46 F8;;80<B

You got to know his family while working on Fantastic Mr. Fox, right?

Fittingly, Anderson was invited, literally, to inhabit Dahl’s actual world,

house and where Liccy lives. That’s where he wrote Fantastic Mr. Fox.

applauded, Anderson honored the original story while expanding its

Because of Liccy we were inspired to incorporate many things from

reach, filming in stop-motion animation with the voice talents of some

Dahl’s life that aren’t necessarily in the published work. We stayed in the

of Hollywood’s finest (George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason

annex of the house and his archives were there at the time. And in fact, the

Schwartzman). Creating new characters, finer details and the peculiar,

ending of our film is not in the book, but is taken from his earlier drafts

wonderful specifics we’ve come to relish in his work, plus a new

of the story. Luke Dahl, Dahl’s grandson, helped us through these archives

ending found in an original Dahl manuscript, Anderson found ways to

and showed us the original manuscripts of Mr. Fox in which Dahl had

036>/<

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done drawings—kind of instructions for the

is a fiction writer but on the side has an idea for a

home and he had his desk there, but for us it

illustrator. It was very helpful.

medical device that saves his son’s life. But that’s

was a place to go on an adventure.

very much the Dahl that we were interested in. Dahl’s definition of a story was “a

You incorporated parts of Gipsy House into Fantastic Mr. Fox’s sets. In what other

He also seemed to dislike some of the

beginning, middle and end, and definite

ways does Dahl inhabit this film? Are

film directors he worked with in his time.

plot which progresses to a climax, leaving

there elements of him in the characters?

Did you feel any pressure to please his

the reader fully satisfied.� Do you think

Other than the fact that he invented the whole

sensibility? By most estimations, he would’ve

your films work that way?

premise and the main characters and the

very much liked the way you work.

Oh, I doubt it. Dahl had a great facility for that

whole idea‌ There are many things taken from

Well, there’s certainly no way to know and there’s

kind of storytelling. In some ways I feel like

the book all through the movie, but Mr. Fox and

no chance of us being wildly disappointed that

Dahl is underrated because he works so strictly

the farmer who does most of the talking, Bean,

he hated the movie, so we’re protected against

in that tradition, but he knew how to do that.

are both partly modeled on Dahl, physically. In

that. But our approach when Noah and I were

I think in many of my films there’s a question

a number of Dahl’s books, there is a character

writing the movie was to try and make a version

mark as to whether or not they even have a

that you sort of imagine is a surrogate for Dahl.

of Dahl’s story that Dahl would’ve loved. That

plot. But, I think it’s a great advantage if you do.

Mr. Fox makes me think of Dahl through his

was always in our minds. And if it felt like Dahl

inventiveness. I connect that character to the

would respond to this, then we went with it.

Have you come across any Dahl stories that didn’t necessarily have a plot?

father in Danny, the Champion of the World and his ideas for poaching pheasants by putting

Dahl had a very regular, measured routine

sleeping powder in raisins and sewing them

each day for settling down and building a

story that’s just reminiscence or a stream of

up—that’s something we interpreted for

nest, as he called it, to write. Do you have

consciousness or a poem; they almost always

Fantastic Mr. Fox; that’s a very Dahl idea. I think

a routine when you write, where it’s the

have twists. And I think that’s why they’re

Willy Wonka is a fantasy version of Dahl.

same every morning?

well suited for being adapted to movies and

I don’t. I like organizing a little adventure during

TV. Personally, I like all different kinds of movies

the writing. Usually I’ve written with other people

and certainly some of my favorites have none

Dahl was also literally an inventor, not just literarily. His son had [hydrocephalus], and

I don’t think so. It’s not like you have a Dahl

Dahl had an idea for a valve that the doctors had

and I like to go somewhere and have some kind

of those ingredients that Dahl describes as

not tried. He worked with a medical equipment

of journey or some special place to go to help

being the things that make a story good. But he

manufacturer to make it and they say it saved

keep us inspired. For The Darjeeling Limited, we

followed those rules so well. I think the thing

his son’s life. It was then marketed and used for

wrote in India and traveled while we wrote—

to really respond to in Dahl’s books is just the

some years and named after Dahl and the guy

that was our own way to keep motivated. It was

sound of his voice and his imagination. That’s

who machined it for him.* It’s a rare person that

nice going to Gipsy House—for Dahl, it was his

why he’s so enormously popular. 5

* [The Wade-Dahl-Till (WDT) valve, 1962]

036>/<

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" 036>/<

BY KYLE MACKINNEL PHOTO BY ALEX BECK

Sometime in the late ’80s, a boy stands in the

butlers and stuff,” Koenig continues. “It’s a private college, but people

imposing shadow of his parents’ bookcase. He

from all different backgrounds go there, and they give out financial aid; I

has not yet learned how to read, but clutches his

received financial aid. The whole idea that you could get so angry about

father’s weathered paperback edition of Laurence

us going to a good school—it’s so close-minded.”

Sterne’s Tristram Shandy anyway, marveling at

Now, please open up. Turn to the first page.

its beaten orange surface with the picture of a peculiar British gentleman. Next, he reaches up

Sometime in 1983, a strikingly pretty, golden-

high to pull his mother’s copy of The Vegetarian Epicure from a shelf,

locked young woman turns in the corner of a

poring over the earthy, ’70s-era design of the classic health food cookbook.

room to face an eager camera lens. She wears a

This boy is still some 20 years away from singing and playing guitar

yellow Polo shirt and an enigmatic expression.

in a band called Vampire Weekend (or, for that matter, knowing who

Her eyes might resemble those of a doe caught

Laurence Sterne even was), and is yet is unable to understand the irony of

in headlights, only cognizant of a much deeper

his youthful fascination with book covers. Today, the 25-year-old version of Ezra Koenig cites such early memories, among them a certain kids’ TV show featuring Paul Reubens, as some of the images he aspires to chase with his creativity. “I’ve never cooked a recipe out of any of those books,” Koenig admits

fate, while her half-smile slides into a shape of indifference, or perhaps, annoyance. It’s all very Da Vinci. Snap. The date of this Polaroid is as far into specific detail that Koenig will go on the cover art of Vampire Weekend’s second album, Contra. “When we saw that picture we were just kind of struck by it, and thought

over the phone from a Canadian airport. “But that was super evocative

it made perfect sense to use as a cover,” he explains. “It’s especially

for me. It’s a weird one, but growing up, my favorite show was Pee-wee’s

ambiguous, which gets your mind working. I think the fact that she

Playhouse, and I’ve always felt that it influenced me somehow. I think

looks like that and she’s wearing a Polo shirt only adds to the layers

that stuff is lodged in the back of your brain when you’re making art,

of meaning. Some people might imagine that she’s a villain in a John

because you know what feels right when you write a song that’s good.

Hughes movie. But if you have any empathy, you might see that image

You know the feeling because of these experiences.”

and wonder, ‘What’s going through this person’s mind?’”

Koenig and his bandmates—multi-instrumentalist/producer

Musically, Contra serves well as a continuation of where Vampire

Rostam Batmanglij, bassist Chris Baio and drummer Christopher

Weekend left off, but hints at a more varied array of influences and is

Tomson—have been chasing this feeling since forming Vampire

even tougher to pin down. According to Batmanglij, an early release

Weekend in 2006 while students at Columbia University. Their first

on the band’s website, the opener, “Horchata,” is a spirited track that

resulting product, 2008’s Vampire Weekend, was a bright, kinetic and

showcases its fascination with Jamaican music.

intricate record that saw wide critical acclaim. Unfortunately, the

“Whereas some of the stuff on the first album was kind of flirting

band’s packaging proved even shinier, and with song titles like “Oxford

with ska, on this album it’s clearly more than flirtation,” he says, wryly.

Comma” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” a photograph of a chandelier

Batmanglij, a Washington, D.C., native, plays a myriad of different

as cover art, and a penchant for polished onstage attire, it became

instruments in Vampire Weekend and has also produced both of the band’s

difficult to read about Vampire Weekend without stumbling over

records. He describes his education in music production as a “slow

trigger-happy mentions of “Ivy league” or “J. Crew.” For some listeners,

obsession,” beginning in high school and escalating through college.

the surface imagery became a distraction from the music, as well as the intentions of the people making it. “I learned pretty early on that we were going to get a lot of criticism

“I was always trying to recreate sounds I was hearing, to the point where I could recreate anything I heard,” Batmanglij explains. “I think Ezra started to trust me as the stuff I was recording started

that other people are immune to,” Koenig admits of Vampire Weekend’s

sounding better and better.” Batmanglij also has a gift for writing music

curious polarizing effect. “There are some people who are looking to be

for strings, which has become a staple of Vampire Weekend’s sound,

outraged. How can you put nuanced music in front of somebody who’s

and continues onto Contra, though in less of a Baroque context (the

already made up their mind about who you are, or how music should be,

harpsichord that “M79” loved so well, though still present here, has also

or how bands should look? If our band really did write songs promoting

been reduced). His general idea for the production of the record was to

upper-class hedonism, I probably wouldn’t like us either, but it’s not

push it in “different directions at the same time.”

the case. People who really get our band realize we can’t be that easily

This notion becomes clearer when listening to the album in its

reduced.” As he speaks, Koenig never breaks from his relaxed, languid

entirety. Weighing in at just 36 minutes, Contra’s 10 tracks each employ

tone, and it seems silly to connect any semblance of pretension to this

a rather unique palette of sounds. From the organic instrumentation

thoughtful voice, Columbia educated or not.

and horns of “Run,” to the single drum machine pattern from which

“From some of the things that people wrote, you’d imagine that Columbia was like Oxford in the ’20s, with children of Dukes having

036>/<

“Taxi Cab” was born, to the collision of Tomson’s big drums with hand percussion as featured on “Giving up the Gun,” this record quickly

036>/<

THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS: PHOTO BY NAPOLEON HABEICA

becomes quite a varied experience. An M.I.A. vocal is sampled on the dubby “Diplomat’s

wouldn’t want people to think of it that way.” Somewhat of a particular outlier on the

accelerate so rapidly, Koenig and Batmanglij are hesitant to cite the music-making process as

Son,” and the frenetic “California English” even

album, the closing ballad, “I Think Ur a Contra,”

a clear example, insisting that their recording

finds Koenig’s vocal run through—you guessed

is a subdued, deeply complex exploration of

procedures from Vampire Weekend to Contra

it—Auto-Tune, if subtly. Despite the general

deception in the downward trajectory of a

were practically identical, despite a former lack

disapproval of Jay-Z and Death Cab for Cutie,

relationship between speaker and subject.

of a record label or any “professional” guidance;

Batmanglij defends the decision to use hip-hop’s

Though Koenig cites no specific experience of

a D.I.Y. aesthetic that this band continues to

most infamous crutch effect in light of keeping

his own as inspiration for the song, it comes

embody—quite a feat when one considers the

each track’s individual components distinct

across as personal and delicate a sentiment

level of Batmanglij’s production. Instead, they

from its counterparts.

as the singer has ever delivered. Please read

point to their own self-awareness as having

closely: “I think you’re a contra/I think that

evolved since becoming full-time musicians.

“With any song, I try to make it from a perspective that sounds unique,” he says. “We

you lied/Don’t call me a contra/’til you’ve tried.”

“You start to think about, ‘Well, if this

were searching for a different color or flavor

All the tension, upon its confrontation, boils into

album sounds this way, or this album tackles

of vocal, and Auto-Tune was how we came

a cathartic resolution and, once again, there is

these topics thematically, then what’s the next

to that. A lot of people have heard it and not

more than meets the ear to Vampire Weekend.

step?’” Batmanglij explains. “And you kind of

immediately recognized the Auto-Tune. I think

The track also happens to bear the album’s title,

start to think about the arc of the band; that’s

in some ways, it transcends Auto-Tune.”

which Koenig suggests is just as multifaceted as

something we’ve talked about a lot.”

Thematically, Koenig has said that Contra is “sadder than the first one; a bit more

the songs it represents, or the picture gracing its surface.

Taking an alternate approach to the question, Koenig reflects quietly on the year following his graduation from Columbia, when

sentimental.” For those of us burdened with the

“Part of the initial appeal with the title was

tendency to take things at face value (and most of

that I felt like it meant a lot of different things,

he worked as an English teacher in a public

us who aren’t), Contra will most likely not evoke

but it also meant something very simple:

middle school. “It was my first time being in a

the despair of an Ian Curtis lyric. But Koenig

against,” Koenig explains. “And we felt even

role where people thought of me as an adult,”

maintains that melancholia and upbeat songs are

more comfortable using that album cover to

he says. “I went from doing something because

not mutually exclusive—unless you’re raving.

have the word Contra emblazoned against it,

I thought it would help other people, to doing

because it makes it even more ambiguous about

something that’s a little more ambiguous. I’m

Koenig says. “Whether it’s a memory of ours

what’s going on. Is she for something? Is she

very lucky to be in my position, and I love it, and

that we’re trying to turn into a song or a

against something? You don’t know. I think

I do think that we’ve made people happy.” He

description of somebody else, we want it to

when people stop thinking of themselves as

pauses for a moment, and continues. “I have a

be realistic. I think part of that is noting the

being totally separate from everybody else—

fear of becoming a hypocrite. I’ve been thinking

complexity of actual emotion. There are songs

even the worst people they come into conflict

about my parents’ generation a lot, and staying

that are super pumped-up ecstasy jams, and if

with—then Contra comes from a very different

true to ideals that you really believe in. It’s

you’re not on ecstasy, maybe you can’t relate to

place in the end.”

something that crosses my mind a lot.”

“I think there’s a duality in everything,”

that feeling of ‘balls-out, giant grin’ happiness. Sure, I want our music to be happy, but I 036>/<

When asked about how their lives have changed since Vampire Weekend began to

Don’t call him a contra, ’til you’ve tried. Turn to the next page. 5

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<M<IP =FI D8E ?@DJ<C= BY LAUREN HARRIS PHOTOS BY PIPER FERGUSON

036>/<

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Casablancas is not bragging; he’s simply stating fact. To imply that

feel normal.” Two years ago, when Casablancas ultimately did start

Phrazes constitutes score-settling or record-setting would be to miss

writing again, he was writing songs he assumed would be for the next

his point completely. To listen to the opening lines Casablancas’

Strokes record. In speaking about The Strokes’ decision to take a break

deadpans on “Is This It” juxtaposed against the emotional cataloging

and pursue solo projects, Casablancas tempers the implication of any

that comprises Phrazes’ first track, “Out of the Blue,” one is struck by

hurt feelings with a hint of sarcasm and a proclamation of the greater

the sheer amount of self-reflection that must have transpired—the

good. “I think by the time there were three solo records [by other

staggering therapy bills it must have entailed. This isn’t to say there

bandmembers], I just thought, ‘Why not?’” But in the next breath he

aren’t many of the emotions present that provided the engine for many

is more optimistic. “I think it’s natural and healthy and probably good

a bad night out that inspired The Strokes’ catalog. To the contrary—his

for The Strokes long-term that everybody’s doing it.” When pressed

new solo record contains all those feelings and much more.

as to how consciously that break was taken, Casablancas falters for

The Strokes’ lead singer is not the petulant, unkempt 23-year-old

a moment, and then says, “There was never any kind of heated how-

the world met eight years ago. Back then, between fawning cover

dare-you’s,” the alliterative phrasing evoking something familiar, a line

stories comparing Casablancas to a fellow initial holder and frothing

he might have howled into the microphone a few years ago. He says he

reports of him stumbling around the Lower East Side, Casablancas

hasn’t yet played the album for his bandmates, and when pressed for his

never seemed comfortable in front of reporters who were all too eager

reasons, he looks surprised. “No—I think I had them in mind,” he says

to portray him as a spoiled-rich-kid-cum-rock savior. Which isn’t to

sweetly. “Hopefully they’ll like it.”

say Casablancas handles interviews with ease and aplomb now: He

After the band resolved to reconvene in the future and after

moves self-consciously through them, but it’s difficult to tell whether

everyone had pursued what they wanted, Casablancas began the more

the discomfort or some self-preserving distrust came first. What is

conscious process of carving out a solo career. “I decided pretty late

an acute self-awareness has in the past been mistaken for antipathy.

that I wanted to do a solo record,” he says. “If I had something vague

What was youthful inexperience was mistaken for snarling cynicism.

and loose, I thought that was for The Strokes. But if I knew exactly—the

To paraphrase the opening lines of Phrazes—hopefulness turned to

drumbeats, bassline, this kind of sound—if I had everything worked

sadness, sadness turned to bitterness, bitterness turned to anger, and

out, it went into the solo category.” Sonically, it couldn’t have been

anger turned to vengeance.

difficult for Casablancas to differentiate between those songs destined

The funny thing about Casablancas’ “future” is that he didn’t even

for The Strokes and those to keep for himself. Where The Strokes are

want it—not consciously anyway, and certainly not initially. After The

guitar-playing, droll insiders, Casablancas the solo artist is all careening

Strokes finished touring behind First Impressions of Earth, Casablancas

synths, dime-stopping drum machines and a good bit more vulnerable

was “a broken shell of a man,” he says, only half-joking. He says he

than The Strokes ever let on.

couldn’t write following that tour, given how psychologically draining

It’s very difficult to discuss Julian Casablancas outside of the context

it’d been. When asked what about that tour made it difficult, it’s the

of his original outfit, and luckily, he doesn’t mind. He fields all questions

only time he will simply state, “No comment.” Joking, he says, “Maybe

about the band affably, divulging the status of the band’s fourth record

I was still hungover. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it took me six months to

within minutes of sitting down. “It doesn’t bother me,” he says, almost

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" 036>/<

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surprised by what he’s saying. “I feel like it should or something. Like I

borrowed hints of his actual identity: son of John Casablancas (the

should say I only want to talk about [the solo album]. I think naturally

founder of Elite Model Management), and attendee of a Swiss boarding

people are going to have questions about [The Strokes]. I would ask

school were the two most seized upon details. This life of privilege only

me about that,” he grins. Here, Casablancas’ self-awareness rears up

made his stand-offish demeanor that much more intolerable for the

again—like he realizes some chasm between what he should and what

press, while the public fell in love with his slightly curled upper lip.

he does feel, the same space that’s created some of his band’s best songs.

There is no one that will be harder on Julian Casablancas than Julian

There appears to be some sense of worry, that people will see this album

Casablancas. Throughout the conversation, he refers to the “dead

as yet another step away from The Strokes. “If anything, I want to

air” that precedes an answer he gives. He will stop speaking abruptly

console people. There’s a portion of people who I think are like, ‘What

and declare his answers boring, and he will trip over himself in his

the hell? When are The Strokes getting back together?’ Nothing I’m

general manner—and it’s helplessly endearing. There is also a profound

doing is slowing that down.”

division between the Julian Casablancas on the record and the one who

Casablancas seems to have a refreshingly realistic perspective on the

converses while the tape recorder is off. He is an interested subject, but

opportunity The Strokes have provided him—a sense of what the band

seemingly more interested in not being a subject. When he is not on the

has done for him, but with a wary attention to the fact that without

record, he’s curious and complimentary, and our conversation runs the

that former success, this project would be viewed differently. In 2001,

gamut from shiitake mushrooms to nail polish. “Put a microphone in

the band set England afire, a relatively easy task to perform, but once

front of me…” he trails off, noting his own discomfort. Ironically, that’s

they were able to replicate in the United States with their debut album,

what got him here in the first place.

Is This It, the heavy-lidded tone of the title perfectly encapsulated the

When asked whether this self-deprecation extends to his work,

band’s affect. Press pictures from the era show the boys (Casablanca,

he rejects the idea that he is his own worst critic (though that may be

Nick Valensi, Fabrizio Moretti, Nikolai Fraiture and Albert Hammond,

a reaction to having had some pretty harsh ones in the past): “I try to

Jr.) all similar but different—Lower East Side action figures with

be really objective. And the only way to fake being objective is to be a

exotic backgrounds and famous parents. Casablancas’ press persona

little harder than you would on your own thing because you have that

036>/<

>ÉK: C:K:G 9G:6BI D; 7:>C< 6C >CHIGJB:CI EA6N:G# BN H:8G:I 9G:6B >H ID 7: 6 BD9:GC 8DBEDH:G# motherly love.� Instrumental to this tempered sense of objectivity were

warm organ-ed “Chords of the Apocalypse�), and clear, upper register

Casablancas’ producer, Jason Lader (Rilo Kiley), and Mike Mogis (Bright

vocals that imply susceptibility in love in one breath and the denial of it

Eyes), who did additional production. Casablancas started Phrazes in

in the next.

his apartment and continued the album in decidedly domestic locations,

It’s noteworthy that the genre that would inform Casablancas’ solo

with a few brief forays into studios. He went to Los Angeles to record in

album most would seem to involve him the least—at least at first blush.

a house with Lader and then to Nebraska with Mogis. “It was definitely

For much of the writing and recording of this record, Casablancas had

not what I expected,� Casablancas says of the latter location. “I basically

a classical music mixtape he would listen to: “There was a Benjamin

imagined the cover of the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska—black

Britten song I was listening to; Beethoven—even though that sounds

and white barren land with clouds. I expected fields of wheat—Omaha’s

ridiculous to say‌Mozart; Bach.�

actually a sprawled out, hip town.� That the born-and-bred New Yorker ventured to points like Omaha

Which isn’t to imply that Phrazes sounds like a classical record at all, only that each song is incredibly complex, the confluence of

(however urban it may be) speaks to the spirit of inventiveness and

multiple elements laid over each other. One can’t help but wonder about

creativity found throughout the album. Casablancas travelled outside

Casablancas’ attraction to the classical genre—for years he was known

of the known sphere and came back with an album more varied than

only for his voice, employed it as another instrument, and by his own

anything on the three Strokes albums combined. The first single, “11th

estimation, tried simply to not mess anything up. It’s strange, then, that

Dimension,� serves as something akin to a mission statement for the

wordless classical music has in turn inspired some of his best vocal

album. “Each song on the album has a theme, and ‘11th Dimension’ is

stylings. “I’ve never dreamt of being an instrument player. My secret

like a summary of all the songs—it has a little bit of everything in it.

dream is to be a modern composer,� he says. “To arrange music on a

It’s about trying to tap into the all-knowing mind and seeing what it

more sophisticated level and in hopefully more exciting ways.� Which

is.� The unrelentingly upbeat synths belie a slightly disturbed state of

is precisely what Casablancas has accomplished, along with some of the

the world (“where cities come together to hate each other in the name

most ornate pop flourishes heard this side of the keytar, as well as some

of sport�), while a disappointing mentor and the need for forgiveness

deep and dark emotional exorcisms.

give way to one of the most uncharacteristic lines on the record: “I’ve

As “Left & Right in the Dark� bounces along, Casablancas easily

got music coming out of my hands and feet and kisses—wooh!� The

keeps pace with a drum machine while synths careen. “River of

line is delivered without guile, with true and unfakeable exuberance,

Brakelights,� a tense, racing song about “the arrogance of getting ahead

and in a way that Casablancas has never appeared before: caring, and

at any cost,� sounds like it might have been built around a discarded

unabashedly so. The song itself might be the best representation of

Strokes riff. When asked later whether the song is autobiographical,

Casablancas yet. “[It’s] a happy song with a dark undertone. This song

Casablancas seems to resist any suggestion that the track parallels

has quick bursts of ominous intensity. So, like the song, I’m mostly

his own life: “It’s not autobiographical, it’s life-biographical‌it’s the

happy but there’s an underlying seriousness that comes out sometimes.�

American way.� “Tourist,� a haunting, slo-mo song in the mold of

There is a dizzying amount of lessons recounted in some way or

Talking Heads’ “The Big Country,� features Eastern flecked strings. It’s

another on Phrazes, a title chosen because it was earned. “Phrazes for

an interesting perspective to hear Casablancas, after years of being the

the Young� had been kicking around Casablancas’ head well before the

ultimate insider, confessing to feelings of displacement and outsider status.

last Strokes record, but it’s a testament to the comfort and confidence

Nowadays, he sounds like a different Julian Casablancas—insecurity

he’s garnered in the past few years that he was able to use it, and back it

isn’t being mistaken for antipathy, and he doesn’t snarl. He sounds

up. “The last record, the lyrics weren’t ready for that title. To be honest,

excited about the album as well as talking about it, something he never

the lyrics were a little secondary to me; I just wanted to make the music

seemed to be able to do with The Strokes. There’s something incredibly

work, which was my focus. Singing was almost like an instrument—I

fitting about his parting words at the end of our interview. When asked

just didn’t want to mess things up.� In the interceding years since that

whether he has any trepidation over releasing this album or worry of

record, Casablancas has stepped up both his lyrical and singing games.

what the reception might be, all traces of the sneering 23-year-old are

He delivers assured lyrics on the corrosive effects of anger (the bluesy,

gone. “Worst case scenario, I’m happy with it.� 5 036>/<

FAUST THINGS FAUST By Patrick James

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B

y now it should be abundantly clear that Terry Gilliam

Faced with the half-finished movie and the death of Ledger, his leading

has never made a deal with the devil. The many obstacles

male and dear friend, Gilliam managed to shoot Ledger’s remaining

the man has famously encountered during his decades of

scenes with performances by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell,

writing and directing films are unparalleled in magnitude,

with bizarre and astonishing cohesion.

and his path has been anything but charmed. Ranging from the

While promoting the film and strolling about the streets of Rome,

absurd—the combination of a lead actor’s herniated disc and a flood

Terry Gilliam was kind enough to answer his mobile phone when Filter

that decimated the set of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 1999—to

came calling. He shared his thoughts on what it meant to complete

the heart-breaking—the shocking and untimely death of 28-year-

Heath Ledger’s final film, what the Greeks got right about God, and

old luminary Heath Ledger during the filming of The Imaginarium of

what’s funny about a deal with the devil.

Dr. Parnassus—his production struggles are the stuff of Hollywood legend. Yet the visionary 69-year-old director has not only endured, but triumphed, having forged a brilliant body of work that pits tragedy

A Conversation with Terry Gilliam

against comedy, modernity against antiquity, and vulgarity against

With the two projects—the 40th anniversary of Monty Python

virtue, sometimes all in the course of a single scene. He describes

and the release of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus—it’s kind of

himself as “mad” and “obsessed,” but comes across as equal parts good-

a banner year for you. Do you feel differently about filmmaking

humored and compassionate, and speaks with a mix

than you did, say, at the beginning of your career?

of baritone confidence and uncalculated humility.

I’m more resigned to the fact that it’s difficult. Getting money is harder

The only American-born founding member of the Monty Python

than ever, so this kind of weariness creeps in. But, as far as the work itself, that

troupe, Gilliam was originally billed as animator but eventually found

doesn’t change. I’m probably more relaxed about things and confident, not

himself acting in skits and directing such uproarious (or as uproarious

as mad and as obsessive as I was before…but I’m still pretty mad and obsessive.

as deadpan absurdist British humor gets) full-length Python films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life, as well as the

When Heath Ledger died and the film was unfinished, you

much beloved non-Python feature, Time Bandits.

certainly could have been forgiven for shutting down production.

In 1985, Gilliam released the mesmerizing (if also polarizing) Brazil,

Why was it important to you to finish this film?

a satire of bureaucracy, authoritarianism, industrialism, militarism and

Well, because it was Heath’s last performance; we’re not going to let that

technophilia set in a futuristic dystopia that follows a man in pursuit of a

get thrown away. He was far too special a person and actor to abandon

woman he knows only in dreams. Gilliam revisits the idea of a man on

it. The fact is, we found a way of making it work, some say brilliantly, as

the run from a vision only he can see in 1991’s The Fisher King, in which

if it was always meant to be that way, but that’s another story.

Robin Williams’ mad and homeless “Parry” is chased and tormented by a flaming red horseman after Parry’s wife is senselessly gunned

It was rather seamless. If I hadn’t known the backstory, I would

down in a Manhattan restaurant. In each of those films—as well as in

have thought it was by design. How did you arrive at the trio of

his viscerally arresting adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and in

Depp, Law and Farrell to play his character’s remaining scenes?

his pre- and post-apocalyptic mind-game 12 Monkeys—Gilliam’s men and

Well, Johnny was one of the first people I called when Heath died, but

women are suffocated at the hands of, rather than enabled by modernity;

it was more about commiserating rather than anything else. I didn’t

it’s only through flirtations with insanity that any of them get by.

have a plan at that point. I didn’t even know if I wanted to finish it.

These are tropes that resurface in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,

I was pretty devastated by Heath’s death. And Johnny said, “Well,

wherein Gilliam’s Faustian titular character—who was once immortal

this is horrible, but whatever you want, I’ll be there.” So, in a sense, it

but has traded his daughter’s soul in exchange for his own mortality—

began with Johnny. I hadn’t worked out the solution yet, but we had

leads a gypsy-like troupe of traveling players around modern day

Johnny there to help, whatever that meant. And once I made the not

London, inviting audience members to step onto their rag-tag stage and

particularly difficult leap that a person’s face could be different on the

into a supernatural mirror. The film is a meditation on both morality

other side of the mirror, [it] meant you could have three different actors.

and mortality, and an astonishing demonstration of Gilliam’s resiliency.

So, I just basically started calling friends of Heath’s—that was very

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?7>C>B 1H ;80< 30=84; 2>DAC4BH >5 B>=H ?82CDA4B 2;0BB82B

important, that they knew him and understood

Python or Life of Brian, the ideas were all

isn’t close to our imagination. What I’m really

him, because it was a family-related affair. Colin

modern ideas in modern situations, but by

talking about is trying to get people to think

and Jude were able to screw their schedules

throwing them into a period, it puts it into this

for themselves and not just accept the world

around to match ours, almost—it was an

more abstract form, which makes it easier to

as described by the media or films of the moment

outrageous dance between their schedules,

have fun and make fun.

or the limited views of the world which are

all three of theirs and ours. It was a very complicated dance, but we certainly got there.

insidious in terms of the way we perceive reality. So you’re saying it’s more fun? Yeah [laughs]. And I’m just not particularly

So you offer a surreal rejoinder to the

In the film, you confront ideas of morality,

interested in doing modern day films.

typical depiction?

fate, good and evil, and it’s all very surreal

Everybody else is doing that and they are

Well, it’s not that I’m actually giving answers.

on one side of the mirror, but all these

better at it. So, if I can take things into a surreal

But hopefully I’ll encourage people to think for

concepts are personified to the point of

or hyper-real world—a mythic world—there’s a

themselves, imagine their version of things. I never

almost being real, physical beings. What

lot more fun to be had.

really want to give answers, but if I can make

was the motivation for dealing with those

a question or two—that’s rather useful, I think.

ideas as literal, physical entities?

In a lot of your films, there’s also this

I’ve always been, I think, mentally a

issue of conflicted imagination (The Fisher

When I was watching Parnassus, I kept

medievalist. And it’s just that demons and

King and Fear and Loathing) but the idea

thinking about Faust, Shakespeare’s

physical creatures look like something. I’ve

of battles or journeys that go on inside

The Tempest and more specifically,

always found that much more interesting than

people’s heads features prominently.

Prospero’s Books, which is a kind of surreal

abstract ideas like the id or the superego.

Parnassus seems like another, and

adaptation of that play on film.

maybe the most literal distillation of a

Which is a film I know but have never

It’s interesting, though, to call yourself a

battle within one’s head or soul. Is that

seen [laughs].

medievalist, because you’re also a master

something that concerns you?

of anachronism, in that you take those old

Oh, all the time. My wife always says I make

So there goes my interpretation‌

tropes and bring them to a modern setting.

the same film, I just change the costumes;

Well Faust and The Tempest aren’t wrong. I

What’s behind that method?

maybe I’ve gotten it right this time. We imagine

know my Shakespeare a little bit. So, there is

That’s the fun part. When we were doing

the world and then the world either is or

The Tempest; there’s King Lear. I was in France

036>/<

the other day and someone said, “Ah, but the

even Faustian god in Dr. Parnassus

could still understand them, see their flaws and

ending is Les Miserables.” I hadn’t thought

(Christopher Plummer) who makes a deal

avoid them. I think Hindus are probably better

of that, though. The way I tend to work is,

with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), in

at this as well.

basically, I read as much as I can. And then,

exchange for immortality. Oddly, that

stuff just sort of stews around in my brain for

devil possesses a sort of moral compass.

The reality of being a writer-director

years. It’s only later when the film’s finished

Is that an idea that you’re drawn to: flawed

is probably similar to being a sort of

and I start talking to people and people

gods battling sympathetic devils?

demi-god—powerful but at the mercy of

mention different references that I say, “Oh, I

Well, an all-powerful god, or the Judeo-

producers and studios. Do you have any

wasn’t actually thinking that but clearly it’s in

Christian-Islam god, I just don’t buy. I don’t

work from, say, the Python days that got

my head somewhere.”

see any proof of that. Yeah, you’ve got two

scrapped and didn’t get made?

demiurges as opposed to full-blown gods, and

There are several scripts floating around that

Has there ever been an interpretation or

the universe is something that has its own

have never seen the light of day. This script

reference that’s struck you as completely

rules and marches on. I guess that goes back

The Defective Detective is just sitting there in

far fetched?

to Time Bandits, how “The Supreme Being”

my drawer. And there’s Good Omens, which is

Yeah, 12 Monkeys. I saw a big piece on the web

has a lot of gaps in his power. Certainly at

based on this Terry Pratchett book. There’s

about “JC,” James Cole, the character that

the human level, I can’t see one great god

Theseus and the Minotaur, a Greek tragedy.

Bruce [Willis] plays: JC being Jesus Christ,

who’s taken any interest in you or me. There’s

There are just pages of notebooks full of ideas

the 12 Monkeys being the 12 disciples, and

probably a lot of Parnassuses and Nicks out there.

that have never coalesced into scripts.

I thought, well that’s kind of interesting…if

And they are facing the same struggles

What happens if, years down the road, it

I’d done that with intention. It was never in

we are…

looks like some of it will never get made?

my wildest thought to do any of that, but

That’s what I liked about the Greeks and their

Will you pass it down to anyone or will it

it certainly triggered somebody’s imagination,

pantheon of gods. They’re much closer to us.

be lost for the ages?

which is great.

They have weaknesses, but they’re not this

Oh, I don’t know. There’s an archive at Boston

monotheistic God that most of the world

University that gets all my stuff, so it’ll be

In Parnassus, you don’t deal with Christ

seems to try to worship. The Greeks were smart;

sitting there for others to steal, which will be

at all, but you do have a sort of flawed,

they kept their gods at a certain level, so you

fine with me.

that it’s all a huge outrageous religious study.

5 036>/<

BY NEVIN MARTELL

036>/<

Provocateurs. Poets. Rock Stars. Radicals. Outcasts. Iconoclasts. Soothsayers. Survivors. The Manic Street Preachers are all of these and more. But one thing the Manics aren’t is “just a band.” Two decades into their career, they are a fractured myth, full of unbelievable triumphs and brutal losses, conflicts and crashes, and so many contradictions that their selfimmolation often seemed imminent. Their constantly contrarian image is epitomized by the wide-ranging quotes they highlight inside the sleeves of their albums and singles (Marx, Burroughs, Chomsky, Picasso, Palahniuk, Marilyn Monroe) and the strange bedfellows they have covered over the years (The Clash, Guns N’ Roses, Rihanna, Nirvana, The Happy Mondays, Burt Bacharach, Camper Van Beethoven). The band refuse to be pinned down, cornered or categorized. They are children of all this brilliance, all this high and low culture, and all these clashing ideas. They are the howl of the counterculture, the scream of the populists and an aching sigh of pain—all in one. The Welsh foursome—singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield,

to work on new material. In early 1995, Edwards gave each of his

drummer Sean Moore, bassist Nicky Wire (born Nicholas Allen Jones)

bandmates a copy of a notebook he had titled Peeled Apples, which were

and guitarist Richey Edwards—forced their way onto the scene in 1989

his lyrics for the next album. Shortly afterwards, he drove his car to the

in a whirl of head-snapping sound bites, gender-bending and glammed-

future site of the Severn Bridge, which arches between England and

up punk riffs. Their early singles were unapologetically anthemic and

Wales, and promptly disappeared. He has not surfaced since and was

unrepentantly provocative. “Motown Junk” found Bradfield boasting,

declared “presumed dead” in 2008.

“I laughed when Lennon got shot,” before declaring, “You love us like a holocaust” on their next single. The Manics’ revolution was always just as much about image as it

The loss of Edwards could very well have been the end of the Manics. It could have snuffed out a hungry young band that had been struggling to find themselves, but had yet to mainline the zeitgeist. Instead, the

was about music. Some detractors believed this was only posturing and

remaining trio shouldered the loss and went on to create their high-water

hubris. But when Edwards was confronted by a journalist in 1992 with

mark, 1996’s Everything Must Go, featuring several songs with Edwards’

such accusations, he promptly pulled out a razor and carved “4 Real”

lyrics. The lead single, “A Design for Life,” became a Britpop classic of

into his arm to prove his sincerity. After receiving 17 stitches, Richey

epic proportions and features a line only the Manics could have turned into

and the band became mythic.

a sing-along: “Libraries gave us power/Then work came and made us free.”

The group wanted their 1992 debut, Generation Terrorists, to sell

Over the next decade-and-a-half and four more LPs, Manic Street

more copies than GNR’s Appetite for Destruction, so the Manics could

Preachers turned into an international stadium act, achieving the kind

have one perfect moment and then call it a day. Though it showcased

of success they had only boasted of attaining as a four-piece. In 2001,

a slew of now-classic singles (“Little Baby Nothing,” “Motorcycle

they became the first Western rock band to perform in Cuba, and

Emptiness” and “Stay Beautiful”) and earned the band a dedicated

though a decade had gone by since a performance in the U.S., they recently

legion of followers in the U.K., Europe and Japan, it wasn’t the multi-

embarked on a club tour of the States. Their 2009 release, Journal for

platinum smash they had hoped for. Gold Against the Soul followed in

Plague Lovers, is a bold new project embracing both halves of their career.

1993, and the year after that they had the gumption to release an album

Anchored by the lyrics Edwards gave them just before he disappeared,

entitled The Holy Bible. Though it sold far fewer copies than the King

the gritty, paired down production courtesy of Steve Albini (Nirvana,

James Version, its murky riffing and lyrical despair—courtesy of the

The Jesus Lizard) and the band’s longtime collaborator Dave Eringa

unstable Edwards—helped the band build their mythical reputation

(Idlewild, Nine Black Alps), the album is a gut-wrenching reminder of the

for brutal self-destruction and unflinching self-analysis. The album

band’s brilliance and endurance. Another chapter in one of the great rock

was really Edwards’ diary, the story of a drug- and alcohol-addicted

and roll myths, it echoes everything the Manics have been and ever will be.

anorexic with a penchant for not-so-secret cutting and depression.

Here, Filter gathers Sean Moore, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire to

After an abortive tour for the album, the band returned home to Wales

reflect on all the noise. 036>/< !

The lyrics for Journal for Plague Lovers

had been around, would it have even sounded

comfortable putting out there. What we did is

were based on a series of journals

like a four-piece? And it did, so that was a big

very much the end and definitive.

that Richey gave you right before he

relief. When you were recording, were there

disappeared. Did you have any idea of the significance of that gesture at that time?

When Richey first disappeared it was

times where you could feel that Richey

Sean Moore: To be honest with you, no. We

clearly a hard topic for you to talk about.

was there with you?

were not taken aback or suspicious. We had

Now you’ve put yourself in a position

Moore: We like to think so, but when we’re

gotten bits and pieces from him all the time. So,

where you have to talk about him. How

recording—especially with Steve Albini—you

when we got them all together in one binder,

hard has that part of the process been?

pretty much get on with it. It wasn’t until

we just thought he was being highly efficient.

Wire: Working with the lyrics and making the

we started the mixing process that we had a

He gave them to us literally the day before he

record wasn’t hard at all; it was actually really

chance to think about it. Then you hope there’s

disappeared, so we didn’t get that much time to

enjoyable for me. It was suspended disbelief

a guiding hand or another person there who

dwell on it; over the years we’ve come to realize

for eight weeks while we were recording it, as

builds the same sort of smile on their face you

its significance. It’s a pity we didn’t realize it

if we were a four-piece, because we felt that

know you had when you were creating it.

earlier on, so that we could have maybe altered

perfect symmetry of 15 years ago. But, as soon

the course of history.

as we finished it and realized we had to go play

What about Steve Albini’s style made you

James Dean Bradfield: I remember looking at

these songs every night, it did become more

want to record the new album with him?

the lyrics and thinking, “I don’t know if this is

emotional and more difficult, because you’re

Wire: We always admired him, and Richey

the direction we want to go in at the moment.”

singing someone else’s words. And it makes

admired him especially. We like the honesty

We had just come off of The Holy Bible and the

you wonder, “Have we made the record he

and the realness of Steve’s style. And I think

lyrics weren’t what I thought we needed. I

would have liked?”

Richey would have enjoyed it.

When Richey gave me the lyrics for The Holy

Did you ever wonder what he meant by

There are clearly two phases to your

Bible, I was mainlining into them; but with

certain lyrics?

history: There’s what came before

these, I wasn’t.

Wire: We talked a lot about “Jackie Collins

Everything Must Go when Richey was still

Nicky Wire: I didn’t want to face his words

Existential Question Time,” because it’s such

with you, and there’s everything that

for a long time. I hadn’t really looked at that

a great mix of high and low culture. “Doors

followed. Now that you’ve lived a fair

journal of lyrics for years, but once I did, I just

Closing Slowly” is the one lyric that really

amount in the second phase, how would

fell in love with Richey as a lyric writer again.

perturbs me, because it’s genuinely sad and

you characterize each one?

I never forgot the beauty of his lyrics; I just

seems to say, “This is it.” There’s a sense in

Moore: The first three albums were about the

remembered how brilliant he was.

that song that something’s going to break.

learning process. We were very young and

Bradfield: When it became obvious Richey

But overall, the thought process is much

very naïve; we didn’t understand ourselves

was not going to turn up anytime soon, we

calmer than The Holy Bible, which is just rage

and we didn’t understand the business. After

looked obsessively into the lyrics to try to find

and heroin. Here the conclusions are bleak,

The Holy Bible there was a steep learning curve

clues as to what might have happened; but,

but they are rational. I think they’re saying,

in terms of survival as a band. Since there was

there were no clues.

“I’ve tried everything and I’ve been through

not much commercial success for The Holy

everything and it just doesn’t do it for me.”

Bible, we were looking at the end of our career.

didn’t have a connection with them at the time.

If the same thing happened today, we would

Were you afraid that you wouldn’t be able to do the lyrics justice?

Is there anything left from Richey’s years

have been dropped after our second album.

Bradfield: Good god, I was scared shitless.

with the band that you would feel comfort-

Bradfield: The two halves, which are charac-

Over the years, I kept looking at these lyrics

able releasing?

terized by the band being a four-piece and a

and putting them away, again and again. But

Bradfield: I’m going to put myself in a position

three-piece, also mark the two phases of our

around late 2006, I started getting some ideas—

to contradict myself in the future by going on

career, which have been analog and digital.

seeing shapes and hearing sounds. The scariest

record and saying no; we’ve done it. That’s it.

When Richey was around, he never down-

moment was the first day we sat in the studio

There are lyrics leftover in those booklets that

loaded anything. He never owned a mobile

in Cardiff doing demos, wondering if we could

just didn’t inspire music for me, and there are

phone. He didn’t really know what the Internet

make it sound like a four-piece again. If Richey

also lyrics in the booklets that I wouldn’t feel

was. But after he went missing, things started

" 036>/<

036>/< #

immediately changing. Peoples’ lifestyles began

the opposite of what we wanted. That’s cool

as a publicity stunt when we were trying to do

to change and the music industry changed

in and of itself because, in the age of ProTools

something deeper. Once we got there, it felt like

beyond all recognition. When Richey was in

and producers shaping bands, it’s good to hear

we were in Forrest Gump—shaking hands with

the band, people were muttering, “Oh God, the

a record that’s so obviously a first record from

Castro while his whole cabinet was standing

record industry is in a terrible state. Everything

a band that’s so ambitious. Some of my favorite

around. The trip ended up costing so much

is fucked.” Now, I realize that the record indus-

first records—such as the first Clash album—

money that it nearly bankrupt us. Ironically,

try actually was in the dying throes of a

it’s quintessentially them, but it absolutely falls

Sony couldn’t even sell records in Cuba

Golden Age.

short of perfection. Or Hatful of Hollow, which

because of the embargo.

We knew after The Holy Bible, when Richey

is essentially the first Smiths record, is a great

was still in the band, that we didn’t want to

record but it’s far from realized.

After the success of Send Away the Tigers,

pursue that tact for the next couple of records.

Wire: In retrospect, I feel a bit guilty

you were feeling uncomfortable about

We knew that we wanted to decipher the hai-

about that line. But we were coming from

writing singles again. Now that you’ve

kus that we’d been writing up until then and

Blackwood, Wales, the middle of nowhere,

done Journal for Plague Lovers, do you feel

we wanted to get a point across with more of a

so we had to be larger-than-life. There was a

like you’re ready to follow-up Tigers?

human face. Up until then, we’d been speaking

cartoon element to us in the beginning; we had

Bradfield: We are immensely fucking con-

in tongues: “Motorcycle Emptiness” starts off,

to be noticed and provocation was a good way

trary about what we do. As soon as we start

“Culture sucks down words/Itemize loathing

to get that attention.

enjoying some success—or lack of success—we want exactly the opposite. And there’s nothing

and feed yourself smiles.” I recognize that line

We are immensely contrary about what we do—as soon as we start enjoying some success, we want exactly the opposite. when I hear it, but when you sing it in a rock

It had been 10 years since the Manics

you can do about that. It might be the wrong

song, it doesn’t immediately transfer to a lot of

toured the States. Where was the love?

way to react as a band, but that’s just the way it

people. We were looking forward to the chal-

Wire: We’ve been a bit naughty. [Laughs]

is; you can’t stop it. We had the No. 2 single in

lenge of writing things that were a bit more

There are really dedicated, hardcore fans [in

Britain with “Your Love Alone is Not Enough”

readily understood, but still saying the same

the states], so playing to them has made us feel

from Send Away the Tigers and I knew we didn’t

things. When Richey was around, there was

pretty humble. It’s also made us feel like we’re

have another one of those in us then. The

a religious fervor to what we were doing, but

in a new country. When you’re 40 and you’ve

worst thing you can do as a band is try and

after that, we really tried to get the same things

been in a band all your life, that does really

force yourself in a direction. We’ve done that

across in a different way.

give you a kick and make you feel like you’re

before, and you end up with a virtual version of

experiencing something new.

yourself, with something that doesn’t quite ring

In the beginning, you said you were only

true. We’ve succumbed to the pressure before,

going to record one album, which would

The trip to Cuba to promote Know Your

and we welcomed it. But, to be brutally honest,

be as big as Appetite for Destruction, and

Enemy was something that got the band a

when you get to be 40 years old, you don’t react

then you were going to retire. What made

lot of press from outlets that had never

to that pressure as well as you used to.

you change your mind?

written about you before—and a lot of it was

Moore: [Laughs] Contractually, we had to

negative. What was that experience like?

The Manics—through both design and

write it. But to this day I think that if we had

Wire: I remember doing a press conference

fate—have become almost mythical. What

come out with a 16-million selling album, we’d

that felt like The White House pressroom

is the legend of the band today?

all have looked at each other and thought,

because there were 60 people there. I was

Wire: At the start, the myth was self-inflicted

“Yeah, we’ve done it.” And we would have

really quite scared because I didn’t want to

but then it became fatalistic and we lost

gotten out.

seem like we were endorsing communism

control of it for a while. Then the myth takes

Bradfield: Didn’t turn out that way. [Laughs]

and the Cuban state. It wasn’t about that; it

you over. Having grown up loving the rock-

We resigned a contract with Sony and our

was much more about the underdog who likes

and-roll myth, I’m glad we’ve got a mythology

boss went, “Yeah, not bad for a band that was

discovering something new. It was also just

and have become part of that lineage of great

only supposed to make one record.” Our first

showing that there are good points to Cuba,

British bands. If we have one more great

album is much more perfect than I can ever

like the education system and the medical

album in us, then we’ll be up there with the

realize, because it’s flawed; it’s dated and it’s

system. My only regret is that it came across

rock gods.

! 036>/<

APPETITE FOR REFLECTION A Manic Street Preachers Discography with commentary from the band

Generation Terrorists 1992

This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 1998

JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD: Some people think it’s a situationist soft-metal classic. I can deal with that; that’s cool.

WIRE: It’s a really clever record because it’s a bit cold and precise. You can tell that it’s the album after the album. There are two lyrics which I’m a bit embarrassed by in “The Everlasting,â€? but there’s a gracefulness to the whole. It’s a band feeling big and conďŹ dent, thinking, “We can take this to the next level!â€?

SEAN MOORE: We wanted to mix our punk roots with an L.A. rock sound. We went in with good intentions, but producer Steve Brown [The Cult, Elton John] stood them on their heads, saying we should look at the Def Leppard model. I admire the innocence of it all, but I would like to redo a lot of it. Gold Against the Soul 1993 BRADFIELD: The lifestyle we were starting to live was definitely alien for us. We were from the working class valleys of Wales and suddenly we’re in a big studio in Surrey that used to be owned by Dave Gilmore. We were looking around at tennis courts and swimming pools wondering, “How the hell did we get here?â€? And there’s a bit of that reflected in the sound. You can hear us trying to deal with the contradiction of the lifestyle we’re living while also trying to be ourselves. NICKY WIRE: A difficult and quintessential classic second album. There’s four great singles on there and some fucking great guitar solos, too. The Holy Bible 1994 MOORE: We thought it was going to be our last album because we spent so much money on the ďŹ rst two that we didn’t have a lot of a budget left for the third. We wanted it to be a fond farewell that was also our two ďŹ ngers up to everybody. BRADFIELD: Gold Against the Soul was a not-so-conscious reaction to dealing with the lifestyle that we were starting to live and The Holy Bible was an intervention. We recorded in a studio in the red light district of Cardiff and that little intervention really did work for the record. I’m also proud of the fact that we put out a record that could have lost us our contract because there were no hit singles on it.

Know Your Enemy 2001 MOORE: It was a huge reaction to the success of the two previous records. It was an artistic statement that we needed for ourselves. We couldn’t have done another album like This is My Truth. We needed to get back to base; we needed to corner ourselves to come out ďŹ ghting again. WIRE: It was originally going to be two albums. One was politicized, called Solidarity, and there was going to be a more West Coast-y album called Door to the River. It will come out as it should’ve been one day because we still have those songs. Lifeblood 2004 MOORE: We had a shaky start with Tony Visconti, but that partnership didn’t go too well. So, we went back to the beginning. We really wanted to get back to writing perfect pop songs again and making an iPod generation album that was very clean and concise. WIRE: It contains three of my favorite Manics songs—“The Cardiff Afterlife,â€? “I Live to Fall Asleepâ€? and “1985â€?—but the coldness of it didn’t transfer to what people expected of us. It’s the sound of the band trying to form a different version but not getting it, really. We wanted to be New Order or Depeche Mode, but it didn’t work. Send Away the Tigers 2007 WIRE: It’s a straightforward rock album. I’m not gonna pretend it’s anything more or less than that. We didn’t push any boundaries. It saved our career and made us feel like a band again. It made us feel like we still have the power of communication.

Everything Must Go 1996

Journal for Plague Lovers 2009

WIRE: I sent James two or three pages of lyrics that included what became “A Design for Life� and he called me to say, “I hear Phil Spector and Ennio Morricone. This is the one.� And that was the catalyst for the whole album.

BRADFIELD: It has a sense of calmness and the lyrics possess a serenity. There is less judgment of the outside world and more evaluation of the self. Some songs, like “William’s Last Words,� have that tranquility. Then again, sometimes it completely goes off its fucking mind and does something else. 5

036>/< !

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, NYC, New York, 1948

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Your images are incredibly striking yet simple in composition. How difficult

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was it to capture these iconic images, particularly in smoky lounges where

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sessions were often improvised and light extremely limited?

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Miles Davis, Malibu, CA, 1989

AMUSEMENT PARKS ON FIRE YOUNG FIGHT

SARA LOV SEASONED EYES WERE BEAMING

CHILDREN COLLIDE THE LONG NOW

AM FUTURE SONS & DAUGHTERS

THE FILMS OH, SCORPIO

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On those rainy Sunday afternoons, in between the roar of football announcers and evangelical pleadings and NASCAR screechings and infomercial sales pitches, suddenly the endless clicks from the channel changer cease and, faintly, from another room, you can hear them start to lose it. It starts softly, with a gasp of surprised elation, and then a giggle, perhaps, or maybe even a quick, one-off snicker. You listen closely, catching a familiar quip from the television speakers: “Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges.” Your mind backflips and you drop your basket of laundry or geometry textbook or can of Coors and race downstairs, bounding into the living room just in time to join your entire family in rolling on the Oriental rug, wiping tears from their eyes, slapping the floor and unapologetically echoing zingers like “Excuse me while I whip this out,” “Candygram for Mongo!” and, of course, “Where the white women at?” You lose your breath. Your dad is breathing into a paper bag. You forget your own name, you’re laughing so hard.

Mel Brooks has struck again.

" 036>/<

036>/< "

A legendary comedian, director, writer, actor, composer, producer,

and Milton Berle. After a stint in the Army and then at television

mogul— whatever you want to call him—Brooks is one of the most

writing, Brooks began work on his first screenplay, what would become

beloved and decorated entertainers in history. One of only 10 people

The Producers. He married twice; his second wife, the actress Anne

to ever receive a competitive Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Emmy

Bancroft, would be his partner for over 40 years, until her death in 2005.

Award; three of his films—Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young

After a slew of spoof films, including High Anxiety, History of the World:

Frankenstein—are ranked in the top 20 of the American Film Institute’s

Part I, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula, Dead and Loving

Top 100 comedy films of all-time. He has created television landmarks

It, Brooks found new acclaim when his musical stage adaptation of that

(Get Smart); recorded comedy record gold (the 2000 Year Old Man series);

aforementioned debut screenplay became one of the biggest smashes in

penned hit musicals as well as hit rap songs (The Producers, Young

the history of Broadway. Add another borscht—er, notch, on the belt.

Frankenstein; “It’s Good to be the King,” “The Hitler Rap”); produced

But no matter the awards, no matter the distinctions, the records,

Academy Award-winning films with his company, Brooksfilms (The

earnings, ace reviews or remarkably sparse company at the top, Mel

Elephant Man, The Fly); written, directed and starred in some of the

Brooks doesn’t need no stinking badges, either. After all these years, he

funniest movies ever made; and, in the process, worked alongside

still seeks only that most genuinely sacred reward: to have ’em rolling

nearly every name in show business from the last 60 years worth

in the aisles with gut-busting, screaming, hyperventilating laughter. As

working alongside—from Welles to Wilder, Reiner to Reiser, Caesar to

Max Bialystock laments at the end of The Producers: “Have you seen the

DeLuise, Kahn to Korman, Feldman to Ferrell, Pryor to Pickens, Boyle

reviews? Have you seen the lines at the box office? It’s a torrent, it’s an

to Broderick, Newman to Leachman, Lane to Lynch, Mostel to Moranis,

avalanche, it’s the biggest hit on Broadway! How could this happen…

Candy to Cronenberg, Hines to Chapelle to, yes, even Cary Elwes.

Where did I go right?” To hear Brooks tell it, his own giant leap into

“Pretty strange for a short Jew from Brooklyn,” as Brooks says.

the comedy black dates back to a fake beard, a puddle of water and a

As we speak on the telephone a few months before he is to receive a

mesmerizing first glint of that precious audible trophy.

2009 Kennedy Center Honor and before he sees a whole new collection of his films to be released on Blu-ray, Brooks, at the age of 83, sings, tells

7 9EDL;HI7J?ED M?J> C;B 8HEEAI

jokes and blasts off into Ludicrous Speed without even the slightest nudge. “Whaddya need, whaddya need?” he asks, without waiting for

Was it always comedy for you?

an answer. “This is a box set of Mel Brooks movies in Blu-ray that is

I think so. Let me tell you the story of how I became a comic: I was 14

sensational—or, anyway, it’s clear.”

and there was a fellow in our neighborhood called Don Appell who was

At the opposite end of this hi-tech benchmark, Brooks got his start

on Broadway in a show called Native Son. Don thought I was talented,

in showbusiness on the Borscht Belt circuit of upstate New York during

that I had quick wit, so he sent me to the Borscht Belt, the Catskills,

the heyday of Catskills comedians like Buddy Hackett, Shelley Berman

to this place called the Butler Lodge in Hurleyville, New York, to be a

" 036>/<

busboy and take care of the row boats and maybe be part of the social

Only a smattering? That must be why you joined the Army.

standing, part of the dramatic stand. They were doing a play called Uncle

Nobody knows this, but I’m going to tell you. I went to only one

Harry, about a killer, and they didn’t have anyone to play the district

college—in Lexington, Virginia—called VMI [Virginia Military

attorney—who was supposed to be in his 70s. This guy, Joe Dolphin, was

Institute]. I was there for close to a year and I got a college credit. I loved

the social director and he put me in it. So, I’m supposed to pour Harry

it there. Pretty strange for a short Jew from Brooklyn to have that in his

a glass of water onstage and say, “There, there, Harry. Tell us all. Tell it

background. They taught me how to ride; they taught me you take care

right from the beginning.” So I said it, and I pour a glass of water and it

of your horse first and then you take care of yourself. They taught me

slips out of my hand and breaks on the table and there’s water all over

marksmanship and how to wield the saber. When I got into the regular

the place. It was a shock; everybody froze. I walked out to the footlights.

Army right after it, I wasn’t just a regular private; I made corporal.

I took off my beard. I took off my wig. I said, “I’m not really an actor. I’m

In the Army I began writing songs; parodies. After four months of

14 years old, folks, what do you want?” And I got the biggest laughs ever

nearly being killed by the Germans, I got out of the combat engineers

heard in the hills of Hurleyville. Joe Dolphin chased me to kill me. I just

and got into what I should have been doing: singing and dancing,

ran. I really spoiled his play. But I knew then that serious drama was

instead of ducking bullets and .88 shells. I had the right material, so I

really not my forte and I should be a comic.

began writing songs, like, [sings] “When we begin to clean the latrine/It brings back a smell…” I would do parodies. But I fell in love with writing

Did you continue to bring down the houses during the summers?

songs. I wrote two for The Producers, and then I did The Twelve Chairs

One night a comic got sick; I knew his stuff, so I got up and started:

and I wrote, [sings] “Hope for the best/Expect the worst…” Pretty sharp

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I met a girl that was so skinny,

lyrics; pretty nice tunes. Then, 50 years later, I finally ended up on

I’m talking about a thin girl, I brought her to a restaurant and the waiter

Broadway writing full scores. But I never gave up jokes, of course.

said, ‘Check your umbrella.’” “You can’t keep Jews in jail, they eat lox.” I did 20 bad jokes in a row. But I was successful and I worked my way

How did you come to make your first movie?

up through the mountains. I was what, 17? That was pretty good. I

I loved making my movies. Gene Wilder had a lot to do with my

began writing my own jokes. I didn’t like that standard stuff. I loved

success. I met Gene in ’63 through Anne Bancroft, my wife. She was in

music. If you were a comic, the only song that you had to write was an

a Broadway production of a Bertolt Brecht play called Mother Courage;

identification song. I wrote, [sings] “Here I am/I’m Melvin Brooks/I’ve come

Gene was in it, playing the chaplain, a character that was somewhat

to stop the show/Just a ham who’s minus looks/But in your hearts I’ll grow/I’ll

serious, but Gene was getting big laughs. I was writing a rough version

tell you gags, I’ll sing you songs/Just happy little snappy songs that roll along/

of a thing that became The Producers; it was then called Springtime for

Out of my mind/Won’t you be kind?/And please love… Melvinnn Brooooooks!”

Hitler. Anne said, “You gotta see this guy. He’s the essence of innocence.

That was my first song. I’d get a smattering of applause.

He’s the naïve, beautiful character that you wrote—he’s Leo Bloom.” I

036>/< "

watched the play and she was right. He was very naïve and powerful at

lady—can I actually do that?” That was one joke I was really afraid of;

the same time. I met him and we had coffee. Gene said, “Why are they

everything in that movie is in such bad taste, but I didn’t know about a

laughing at me? I’m being honest.” I said, “Because you’re a natural. You

bunch of big cowboys beating the shit out of a sweet little old lady. John

were cursed or blessed with the ability to be seriously funny—you can’t

said, “If you’re going to go up to the bell, ring it.” I’ve never forgotten

help it. Your smile, your face; something sets us off.” So, we became

that. Anyway, that was a collaboration, and then I went back to writing

friends. I talked about Springtime for Hitler and he was very excited

with Gene, just the two of us. That writing experience was a little more

about it. I said, “It’s not nearly finished. I don’t know if they’ll ever do

exquisite and superb. That was Young Frankenstein.

it.” Eventually, Joseph E. Levine, the distributor, said, “If you want to make this movie, you’ve got to change the title. We can’t put ‘Hitler’ on

Gene has said Young Frankenstein was the happiest he’s ever been.

the marquee.” I said, “OK.” About a year and a half later, Gene was in

We used to drink Earl Grey tea and eat digestives, these English

Luv, Murray Schisgal’s play, and one day I came backstage and I threw

biscuits, at the Bel Air Hotel and write from 8 to 11 every night. We got it

the script of The Producers on his dressing room table and said, “You are

done. And he was happy. I didn’t want to do “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” I said,

Leo Bloom.” And he burst into tears. That’s basically how it all began.

“Gene, this is kind of exquisite and eloquent and I think if we do ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’ we might be making too much fun of it. It might tear it.”

What kind of work ethic did you have as a young man? Did you write with collaborators?

You said this?

I was used to writing with other guys because I had written the Sid

I said this! He fought for it constantly and I finally said, “OK, if you

Caesar show, Your Show of Shows. I liked collaboration, although every

fought for it that hard, there’s got to be something in it.” And when we

once in a while, like when I wrote The Producers and The Twelve Chairs,

did it, I knew we had gold. I knew it was the jewel in the crown of Young

I didn’t collaborate with anybody. And then I said, “I’m going to have

Frankenstein. He was right. I never doubted him again. Unfortunately, he

more fun.” So, on Blazing Saddles I got the gang together; I hired Richard

became a writer-director and loves to do his own stuff. I haven’t had a

Pryor, Alan Uger, Norman Steinberg—who also wrote My Favorite Year

chance to work with him again.

for Brooksfilms—and Andy Bergman, who came up with the original idea for a black sheriff in the West. It was fun writing that way. We

Did you share in Gene’s happiness while making that film?

attacked each other with bad jokes.

When I directed movies and the A.D. would say “lunch,” I’d run to my

Were you afraid that the world wasn’t ready for Blazing Saddles?

a nap—I never ate with the cast. But on Young Frankenstein, I hungrily

When we were done, I said, “This will never be seen anywhere. They

waited for the great Peter Boyle, Gene, Cloris, Madeline, Marty and Teri

won’t accept this script. There’s too much of the N-word; we’re telling

Garr. I insisted on us all having lunch together. It was the best directed

too many terrible truths here about human behavior. They’d be crazy

movie I’ve ever made because I wasn’t in it; I didn’t have to worry about

to make this movie.” But then sure enough, John Kelly at Warner

myself—“Am I shorter today? Am I handsome? Is my nose bigger?” I

Brothers said, “Yes.” I said, “John, can we punch the shit out of an old

just concentrated on Jerry Hirschfeld doing his incredible camera work.

trailer, grab a piece of pineapple, put a sleep mask over my head and take

" 036>/<

How often have you given up on an idea? Can you recognize a

chasing chairs all over Russia when we could be singing ‘Springtime for

futile writing effort?

Hitler’?” I always got a good review one picture too late. Sometimes they

I’ve shot down many ideas that I didn’t think had a third act. If

get it, like when Brooksfilms did Elephant Man. I picked David Lynch

something has a great beginning and it’s upwardly mobile, but then

and worked on the script with those guys. That was the only thing I’ve

there’s no conclusion…this is no good. I’m not one of those Neoclassicist

ever done that got uniformly good reviews.

writers who says endings are not important. I think endings are critical. In a lot of the sketches on Saturday Night Live, they didn’t care; they just

Were there comedy rules when you started your career, and did

had premises without endings. I don’t start anything unless I can end it.

you make it a point to break them?

I try to start with the end then work back to the beginning. The middle

I’ve always been an anarchist when it comes to comedy rules. There’s

is the toughest part for me. You have to have character or story goals.

only really one rule: Make the audience laugh. Have the audience be hysterical with laughter, whether you think it’s funny or not. That’s the

How did you learn these things? Is there a handbook?

job. If you’re a painter, you can do it for yourself. If you write a book, to

Just by doing it and reading a lot. You read Molière, you’ll learn an

hell with the audience—write whatever you want. But if you’re going

awful lot. Nikolai Gogol is the best comedy writer that ever lived: Dead

to have people pay money to see your stuff, you better do it for the

Souls, The Government Inspector...I named one of my children after him. I

audience. That’s my only rule.

learned from the best. I learned from Mark Twain. I know what a good idea is and how to come to a good conclusion. Writing is really more

Do you feel that comedy tends to date quickly?

re-writing, I think. First, you gotta be transported, exploded by a good

Good comedy, no. Didn’t we just mention Gogol and Molière and Mark

idea. But then you’ve got to find where it goes and search for the ending;

Twain? Good comedy never dates. Just listen to the 2,000 Year Old Man.

you’ve got to diligently make a trail so that the audience isn’t bored

It’s about human behavior. It always gets big laughs to this day.

and is always at the edge of their seats, interested in the characters and their quest. The Twelve Chairs is a perfect example; that’s written by two

Do your accolades—from the Kennedy Center Honors to your

Russians. It’s been called my best movie by a lot of critics.

very unique Oscar/Grammy/Tony/Emmy superfecta—mean something to you or validate you in a way that your life can’t?

Do you think every movie you’ve made at some point has been

Not like you’d think. It’s better to have these awards than not have them.

called your best movie?

They mean a lot to those around me: family, friends, you know.

No, I would say every movie has been called my worst movie—or, the worst movie. I have many critics. But time and audiences always trump

Would you trade in a Tony to get that stubborn, scowling lady in

the critics. The New York Times obliterated The Producers. I thought I’d

the front row to enjoy herself?

have to go back to television. But in the end, audiences loved it. It finally

Yes, any day. Any day. I want my awards, my prizes, from the audience.

got a good review when I did The Twelve Chairs: “Where is the madcap,

I just want to hear unrelenting, boisterous laughter. That’s the real

crazy artist that we’ve come to love in The Producers? Why are we

payment for any comedy artist. 036>/< "!

"" 036>/<

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>7HL;O AEHC7D I shoved Harvey into any picture I could because he was made of steel.

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He could play the funniest stuff so earnestly. Then the minute I said “cut,” he was the first one to hit the ground laughing, and for 10 minutes you couldn’t get him up. He loved to laugh, but he would grin and grit his teeth and do the scene. He invented so much stuff. In Blazing Saddles,

The best scene that Gene ever did was creating the monster in Young

I wrote it very carefully: “Recount why you want this black sheriff, why

Frankenstein. He was very serious. When he was banging on the

you think he would send the townsfolk away in droves—you’ve got to

monster’s chest to bring him to life, he said very quietly and beautifully,

explain it to the audience.” And he did, but at the end of it he looked at

“We must be of equal equanimity and feeling with our failures as well

the camera and ad-libbed, “But why am I telling you this?” He thought

as our successes. We must greet our failures with grace and beauty.”

he was just doing it because the scene was over, but it was so brilliant I

He left the ostensibly dead monster on the table and walked away with

kept it in the picture. He had a scene with Madeline, and at the end of it,

Marty and Teri. A second later he turns around and screams, “You son

for no reason at all, he was looking down at her boobs and said, “Gimme

of a bitch bastard!” and beats the shit out of this monster, cursing him

a little feel.” He reached down and she smacked his hand, but they both

for having failed. In the first part he can bring you to tears; the second

held it together. I’m so proud of them. He was sincerely creative. You

part you’re in the aisles laughing. That’s the genius of Gene Wilder. Also,

could always count on Harvey to deliver an incredibly solid and inspired

as the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles—I had hired the famous Gig Young

performance. Nobody could do a double take like Harvey Korman.

to play that part, but he got sick so I called Gene. He flew right out. That was on Sunday, and on Monday, Gene was fitting his costume and

9BEH?I B;79>C7D

picking out a horse to ride. He stayed up all night learning his lines. He

Cloris is the rock on which I built my church. She’s Saint Peter. She’d

was brilliant. I owe him a lot, I really do.

never fail; she knows exactly what to do. She’s the consumate artist. She

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can be scary, dramatic, or very, very funny. The only trouble with Cloris was that if anybody on the set was smoking, she’d smack them and

There have been very funny female actors and comediennes: Joan Davis,

rip the cigarette out of their mouth, throw it and step on it—she made

Patsy Kelly, Lily Tomlin, Gilda Radner. But, overshadowing all of them,

a lot of trouble for me. Her most memorable moment was the word

the best one by far was Madeline. Madeline Kahn was the most gifted

“Ovaltine” in Young Frankenstein as Frau Blucher [neighs like a horse].

comedienne, or actress, whatever you want to call her, that ever lived.

She said, “Can I get you a brandy? Would the doctor care for some varm

When I met her, I said, “Lift up your skirt,” and she nearly slapped

milk perhaps before retiring?” There was a big pause, then she said,

me. She said, “How dare you. What are you, one of these casting couch

“Ovaltine?” and got the biggest laugh in the picture. What timing. She

guys? I’m leaving.” I said, “No, no. I’m not making a pass. I’m happily

knew exactly how that bass drum bang would land. She was good in

married. I want to see your legs. In Blazing Saddles, you’re going to

everything. She came up with that faint little mustache when she was

be playing Marlene Dietrich; she was all legs, and you’re going to be

Nurse Diesel [in High Anxiety]. I said, “Am I crazy? Are you wearing

straddling a chair. If your legs don’t work, you can’t do it.” And so she

a little, white mustache?” She said, “Yeah, I thought it would help the

raised her skirt, she straddled a chair and she was absolutely perfect. We

character.” I said, “It’s great. And your boobs…they look like pyramids.

became best friends after that. I loved her—I admired her. There weren’t

They’re points.” She said, “Yeah, that’s Nurse Diesel.” She was really

many things she couldn’t do. When she did Dietrich, she did it with that

creative, except for smacking people who smoked.

strange accent and she added things, like leaning on a piece of the set and missing it, then recovering. I had them working past midnight. It

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was one in the morning and I asked her to do that interior number once

Marty was a flat out genius. There was Buster Keaton and then there was

more, and she said, “You got it, Mister.” It was our best take. She was

Marty Feldman. He was very much like Marcel Marceau or Keaton.

just so incredibly creative and good-natured. She was beautiful.

He had the same kind of eloquent simplicity. He did very stupid things

:EC :;BK?I;

that physically made sense. We did a scene in Silent Movie on a hospital set chasing Paul Newman in wheelchairs; Dom was pretty good with the

In The Twelve Chairs, Dom was playing this renegade priest who uses a

wheelchair and I was fairly good, but every once in a while we’d be

dying confession to get information about diamonds in a chair. The crew

chasing Paul Newman and you’d hear a crash. I’d yell “cut” and just

was all Yugoslavian and didn’t understand English, but as soon as Dom

automatically say, “Marty, are you OK?” And you’d hear, “I’m alright,

started working they’d roar with laughter. They killed every take. I told

love! I’m alright!” in that English accent. I kept saying, “Marty, you gotta

the assistant director to go out and buy 100 white handkerchiefs and I

get your eyes fixed.” He’d say, “If I get my eyes fixed, I’m out of show

gave one to everybody in the crew. I said, “When Dom is working, stick

business.” I’d say, “The only way to hide from Marty Feldman is to stand

these handkerchiefs in your mouth. You can watch the scene only like

right in front of him.” He was always fun to be with. He was a pretty good

that.” We did that on other pictures, too. Dom’s best performance was

musician but played a very bad trumpet. He loved a Hoagy Carmichael

in a picture called Fatso that my wife wrote and directed. It was really a

song called “Skylark.” He tried to play it; he got near it once and a while.

terrific, towering performance. Dom was a master of the art of comedy.

I’ve been very lucky, very fortunate to work with all these people. 5 036>/< "#

4GC4=343 ?;0H4AB

AUTUMN D E WILDE

How does the current musical climate compare to the heatseekers and frigid duds of yesteryear? We tossed aside all the longplayers and sidled up to some EP’s, only to confirm once and for all that it’s not the length that counts, but how you use it‌

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

($ Interpol Interpol EP (2002)

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Blackalicious A2G EP (1999)

'" Beck Loser (1994)

&# Pavement Watery, Domestic (1992)

#

Alice in Chains Jar of Flies (1994)

Insane Clown Posse Carnival Christmas (1994)

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CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG IRM BECAUSE/ELEKTRA

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If Charlotte Gainsbourg’s previous choice of Air as producer and music partner was fairly obvious (ethereal, mercurial French actress; mercurial, ethereal French band), her most recent choice of Beck is certainly not. And where the former record, 5:55, was like springtime on the Seine, the mysteriously titled IRM is more like autumn in Alsace. Think about it: Charlotte is an actor singing, and Beck is a singer-songwriter oftentimes playing the chameleon. However, the one album in which Beck did breach the cold steel irony that has built his career, Sea Change, was heavily inspired and influenced by another Gainsbourg—Charlotte’s father, Serge, and his iconic Historie de Melody Nelson. Oh‌the possibilities. And wouldn’t you know it—Beck’s willingness to raid just about any genre works wonders when coupled with Mlle. Gainsbourg’s ability to inject matter-offact sexual energy into just about anything. (For the record, she once simply slid from the couch to the floor in my close proximity and I practically had to call room service for a bucket of ice.) Curiously, IRM doesn’t give the listener a chance to be eased into the unexpected. The opening title track mates a galloping, epileptic beat with detached noise experiments straight out of the Cabaret Voltaire handbook, whilst Charlotte chants Freudian terrors like, “Leave my head demagnetized/Tell me where the trouble liesâ€? in an uncharacteristically robotic fashion. It’s pretty jarring, but you know, in the best possible way. Don’t worry—the sexual frenzy (an unconcerned sexual frenzy, that is) isn’t far behind. “Trick Ponyâ€? is what Led Zep might have sounded like if Robert Plant had grown up a girl in Montparnasse rather than a bloke in West Bromwich. It comes complete with macho, thundering drumming; fat, compressed power chords and the feral, echo-drenched slide guitar, one

which James Page practically trademarked. Those prepped for the record to devolve into some industrialmetal freak fest, though, may be disappointed to discover “Heaven Can Wait�—with its cabaret piano and ’60s horns—is but a thinly veiled homage to The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.� And it’s undoubtedly comforting to steadfast Francophiles that the breathy, wistful-ennui-disposed Charlotte we all fell in love with hasn’t gone missing. She conjectures with that singularly world-weary sensuality: “Heaven can wait/ And Hell’s too far to go/Somewhere between what you need and what you know/And they’re trying to drive that escalator into the ground.� One can safely guess that this is a revelatory observation after a couple of Gauloises and a few rounds of Pastis. Beck, one could hardly disagree, has a magician’s mastery of sound, creating cultivated atmospheres out of a bunch of knobs and wires. And as the weirder moments on IRM reveal the true scope of Gainsbourg’s talent, it’s a relief Beck allowed for some genuinely pretty moments—because Gainsbourg can convey longing as bewitchingly as anyone who has ever walked this Earth. Indeed, both the beautifully intimate “In the End� and the disquieting, disconsolately resplendent “Time of the Assassin� are awash in fervid, enigmatic yearnings. Bravo to Beck for gently lulling her back into that space. Yearnings, indeed. On “Me and Jane Doe�, Gainsbourg promises us that, “If I had my way I’d cross the desert to the sea/Learn to speak in tongues/Something that makes sense to you and to me.� It’s funny and sweet that she thinks such a trifling thing as “sense� matters to our relationship with her. Moi, if I could be stripped bare of all rhyme, reason, logic and especially sense, would still be consummately comforted to know that Mlle. Gainsbourg might yet appear before me to sing me into consolation. Bless. KEN SCRUDATO

MORRISSEY Swords

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POLYDOR

*At the record company meeting‌ That’s how they all start, don’t they? These compilations of B-sides that are (usually) B-sides for a reason. Track listings bogged down by mediocrity, standouts to be devoted to the iTunes playlist titled, “Best Of!â€? The sycophantic slags all say: “I knew him first, and I knew him well‌â€? Some say, “You’re either a Smiths fan or a Morrissey fan.â€? That’s unfair, although a good majority of Smiths fans who grew up in the ’80s and were inspired to vegetarianism by Meat is Murder and listened to “Girlfriend in a Comaâ€? on KROQ stopped buying Morrissey solo albums after Vauxhall and I. Perhaps no one gets it but true fans. Or, true fans did indeed “get it,â€? but didn’t really need this 18-track album of B-sides from 2004’s You Are the Quarry, 2006’s Ringleader of the Tormentors, and early 2009’s Years of Refusal. Maybe all we need is the bonus disc (recorded live in Warsaw this past July), especially when it’s composed of The Smiths’ fabulous “You Just Haven’t Earned it Yet, Babyâ€? (more relevant now than 20 years ago), “Life is a Pigsty,â€? and “I Just Want to See the Boy Happy.â€? All it lacks is a white shirt and a stage strewn with rose petals and thorns. But you could have said, “No,â€? if you’d wanted to‌ According to the publicity, Swords was compiled by Morrissey himself, not record company execs. What’s a bit puzzling is that a number of these songs have quite recently seen the light of day, most notably on the deluxe edition of You are the Quarry and this year’s Years of Refusal. You don’t need us to tell you whether the songs are good; if you liked them previously, you’ll like them here. It’s obvious that great pains were taken with the sequencing—starting with the exuberant “Good Looking Man About Town,â€? winding down with Morrissey’s twist on Bowie’s nostalgic “Drive-In Saturday,â€? and trailing off with the resigned ode “Because of My Poor Education.â€? The artistry alone is worth the purchase. You just haven’t earned it yet, baby‌ Morrissey’s earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants and not give a toss what anyone else thinks. We may say, “His so-called ‘muscular rock’ phase sucked; we don’t need the ‘Teen Spirit’ swagger of songs like ‘Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s Voice.’â€? Or conversely, “‘Christian Dior’ and the maudlin ‘Munich Air Disaster 1958’ are vintage Morrissey with the clever, sorry-for-you-and-myself-but-notreally lyrics that make Sad Bastard compilations the world over.â€? Does he care either way? No. Do you? But they can never taint you in my eyes‌ Most of us would cop to being that fan, the one who threw the roses and shed tears during “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday.â€? In times of sadness, stress and alienation, we may reach for Your Arsenal as opposed to Swords, but no matter. Even if we don’t need it, we’ll buy Swords anyway, because we’re fans, and that’s what fans do. *Lyrics courtesy of “Paint a Vulgar Pictureâ€? (Morrissey/Marr) CARRIE TUCKER

CAD4 2>;>AB 1 2 3 1 2 3

NORAH JONES The Fall

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BLUE NOTE

If you’re looking to find a different side of Norah Jones in The Fall, the album may do just that—fall short of expectations, that is. While opener “Chasing Pirates� is a hopeful, upbeat ballad, and fast-paced “It’s Gonna Be� and the Johnny Cash-esque “Tell Your Mama� display breakaway potential, most of The Fall falls flat. Once again, Jones is all lullaby vocals and scorned-woman lilting. When Jones sang, “I’m just sitting here waiting for you to come home,� in “Turn Me On� seven years ago, who knew that she would still be “waiting for you to come home� in 2009, as shown in The Fall’s “Waiting.� Where Come Away with Me and Feels like Home defined Jones’

Our expert reviewers pick the first three albums they ever bought

JEFFREY BROWN

JONATHAN FALCONE

MATT SHAER

TORRIE JONES

KYLE MACKINNEL

KYLE LEMMON

CARRIE TUCKER

BREANNA MURPHY

MARTY GARNER

KEN SCRUDATO

Various Artists The Transformers: The Movie “Weird Al� Yankovic Dare to Be Stupid Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince Homebase “Weird Al� Yankovic Off the Deep End Alan Silvestri Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Queen Greatest Hits Queen Jazz Queen Hot Space

Def Leppard High ‘n’ Dry Skid Row Skid Row The Cult Love

Vanilla Ice To the Extreme Warrant Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich Paul Simon Graceland

Ace of Base The Bridge Vince Guaraldi Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas Elton John, Tim Rice, & Hans Zimmer

The Lion King

2Pac 2Pacalypse Now Ice Cube Death Certificate The Beatles Past Masters, Vol. 2

311 311 Smashing Pumpkins

Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness

Gary Glitter 20 Greatest Hits

MC Hammer U Can’t Touch This Counting Crows August and Everything After Blues Traveler Four

Oscar the Grouch I Love Trash Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath David Bowie Aladdin Sane

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sound, Not Too Late and The Fall are attempts at altering that sound like a child actress trying to break out of younger roles. But unlike Not Too Late, Jones’ latest decision to ditch her keys for strings is a poor one. In a way, she has indeed found a different beat to groove to, and if anyone can play in a piano bar without a piano, it would certainly be Norah Jones. LYNN LIEU NIRVANA Live at Reading DGC/GEFFEN/UME

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From 1990 to 1994, Nirvana was everything to me. I bought every release: from the cassingle for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to the split 7” with The Jesus Lizard and Cobain’s spoken word collaboration with William S. Burroughs. I remember the day I found out Kurt had committed suicide; I had just come back from a Pearl Jam concert in Rochester, where Eddie Vedder had spent a moment solemnly talking about how precious life was before tearing into a gut-wrenching version of “Indifference.” But there I was, watching a somber, black-clad Kurt Loder on MTV use the phrase “single shot to the head.” Two weeks later, I was piss drunk on Cobains—irreverent shots of tequila delivered by a Supersoaker to the back of the throat—and still torn up. In November of that year, I cried the first time I heard the Unplugged album. And yet, just a year after that, I wasn’t listening to the band anymore, having moved on to the brashness of Britpop. For a long time, Nirvana’s music only existed for me as an encapsulation of another chapter, but this Live at Reading DVD/CD is a roaring reminder of why Nirvana was so fucking brilliant. Their performance is unapologetic, caustic and loud; the set list is impeccable, from the black and blue “Drain You” to the offhand pop of “About a Girl” and the vitriol of “Lithium.” Songs like these are why Nirvana was king and this show proves why the band was peerless. Suddenly, Nirvana is everything to me all over again. NEVIN MARTELL ASOBI SEKSU Rewolf POLYVINYL

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A snatched series of recordings from a spare studio day, Rewolf provides another side to the New York noise balladeers. Though Rewolf proves Asobi’s songs work when they are stripped back acoustic renditions, ultimately, this album creates a stabbing sense of nostalgia for the majestic full-studio recordings. By its very nature, the sonic range is reduced and the vocals sit tightly in the piano and acoustic guitar lines, as in “Blind Little Rain,” where the vocal movement is as playful as it is devastating with Yuki’s ghostly callings. In “Gliss,” with its chimes and xylophones, the tense, haunting excitement of the original is mostly thwarted as the intimacy of a spirit momentarily turning into flesh flashes before losing all its danger. Similarly, “Familiar Light” and “Thursday” are charming, but once you’ve been haunted, an endearing smile fails to excite. JONATHAN FALCONE WAYLON JENNINGS Waylon [reissue] Singer of Sad Songs [reissue] COLLECTOR’S CHOICE

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They don’t make them like Waylon Jennings anymore. Turn on CMT and notice the grizzled cowboys are few and far between, though Toby Keith continues to suffer under the tragically misguided impression that he carries that torch. Instead, male country stars now look more like the kind of guys you see in Details, commercials for Bally’s Total Fitness or dancing in the background of a Lady Gaga video. The only indications that these girly men are in fact cowboys—despite their perfect skin, butt and crotch-hugging jeans and highly stylized hair—are the Stetson hats and the boots, which still seem to be part of the required dress code. Fuck that. Waylon Jennings was a real cowboy who looked more like he had just finished a three-day bender with Willie or Johnny rather than a fashion shoot. And he didn’t need to wear a cowboy hat to prove his credentials. On these two reissues, # 036>/<

1970’s Waylon and Singer of Sad Songs, the grizzled gunslinger mixes originals, like an updated take on his early hit “Yellow Haired Woman,” with deftly delivered covers such as Mickey Newbury’s pothead classic “Thirty-third of August” and the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.” So, fuck Garth. Fuck Tim. Fuck Kenny. Double fuck Toby. Waylon Jennings is the real deal and this is the undeniable proof. NEVIN MARTELL REAL ESTATE Real Estate WOODSIST

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During the summer, the shadows are long, shirts are optional, tan lines read like tiny memoirs and BBQs are the de rigueur social mixers. The season’s hazy ennui is the aesthetic choice for the New Jersey pop quartet, Real Estate. The promising young group—spearheaded by lo-fi mavens Martin Courtney IV (Titus Andronicus) and Matthew Mondanile III (Ducktails)—pinwheel lawn chair-ready tunes on its impressive self-titled debut. Like Desolation Wilderness, the quartet gives the whammy bar a real workout on the sodden echo of “Pool Swimmers” or the jubilant boardwalk jam, “Beach Comber.” Indolent afternoon sun bakes the cracked pavement on the aptly titled “Suburban Beverage” and “Let’s Rock the Beach,” while sweltering vapors coalesce for the haunting “Black Lake.” Real Estate even bends an ear toward roots music on the chiming and loping “Green River.” All of these bittersweet tracks are gloriously faint approximations of everyone’s favorite seasonal affective disorder. KYLE LEMMON LAURA VEIRS July Flame RAVEN MARCHING BAND

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On July Flame, the seventh album from Portland-based Laura Veirs, we find the singer-songwriter in a folkier mood than on recent releases. Gone is the band that previously backed her recordings, and in its place, a greater focus on achieving stripped-down intimacy. Quietly strummed opener “I Can See Your Tracks” accomplishes this immediately, and particularly well. Its lyrics ache of longing, and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James highlights the track with backing vocals reminiscent of a crying train whistle—an image that beautifully complements the song’s overall imagery. But July Flame isn’t entirely about sparsity, and Veirs shows off a relaxed-yet-playful nature toward the album’s latter half via horn sections (“Summer is the Champion”) and string arrangements (“Wide-Eyed, Legless”). It turns out Veirs hasn’t actually abandoned instrumentation; she’s just trying out a new kind. And what she ends up with is her best, most sophisticated record to date. TAMARA VALLEJOS EDITORS In This Light and On This Evening KITCHENWARE

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Great Britain tends to produce the same type of music over and over: dark indie rock with a hint of post-punk, guided by a singer with a hauntingly low voice belting lovelorn lyrics paired with ascending synth lines. Editors and their third studio album, In This Light and On This Evening, is certainly case in point. It’s hard to talk about the Editors without drawing comparisons to their Great Brit predecessors Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen, and on In This Light, these comparisons ring true. Vocalist Tom Smith pulls off an uncanny Ian Curtis impression on synth ballad “The Big Exit” and the more reflective “You Don’t Know Love,” which acts as an anthem to the lonely and jaded (Morrissey, anyone?). Editors finally come into their own in the album with “The Boxer” and “Walk the Fleet Road,” where their sound feels much less processed, predetermined, and iconic British band du jour, and more like themselves—whoever that may be. LAUREN BARBATO 036>/< #

LISSIE Why You Runnin’ FAT POSSUM

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From the Neko Case/Lucinda Williams school comes Lissie, a KCRW-approved, all-American “free spirit” (she was expelled from high school because the teachers were trying to squash her enthusiasm, maaan), veteran of TV placement, film scores and commercials. But don’t let the trappings fool you—the girl can create atmosphere with her music. It’s the kind of atmosphere that, if you close your eyes, takes you to a different time and place. The gospel-tinged “Oh Mississippi” could be the soundtrack to a Flannery O’Connor story, one that takes place down by the river and undoubtedly involves a broken heart and a baptism, while her forlorn cover of Hank Williams’ “Wedding Bells” makes a bottle of Jack look damn good. It doesn’t hurt that Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses produced the five-song EP, and though it clocks in at a brief 20 minutes, it’s worth repeated listenings. CARRIE TUCKER ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN The Fountain OCEAN RAIN

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There’s a fountain in Gubbio, Italy, called the Fontana dei Pazzi, and it’s said that if you run three times around it, you become a lunatic. It might have behooved Echo & the Bunnymen to have taken the pilgrimage before recording The Fountain, as what is missing, above all, is the madness. With the sugar-spinning John McLaughlin at the controls, Echo has, in fact, made the record that Coldplay always thinks it’s making. The Fountain is replete with shimmering, flaw-repellant pop, all glorious melodies and gorgeous atmospherics; and while Will Sargent’s feral guitar hounds are kept tightly leashed, Ian McCulloch rattles off couplets (“I love that sweet sack you’re in/I love that you’re from Turin”) and takes us to dizzying heights of piercing sadness and grown-up romantic longing. McCulloch was once, and yet again, our reliably debauched savior—the Liverpool punk who was nothing less than Jesus Christ newly embodied to his misfit, heathen followers. But it was always McCulloch writhing on his knees. “I’m just counting/The dreams that are lost,” he now sighs wearily on the lavishly melancholy title track. Please, it’s time to bring on the new messiah. KEN SCRUDATO RAY CHARLES The Genius Hits the Road [reissue] CONCORD

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The transitional stage where Ray Charles went from soul-jazz innovator to successful crossover artist is captured on The Genius Hits the Road, a new reissue featuring seven bonus tracks. Originally released in 1960 after his incredible run at Atlantic, this was Charles’ debut for ABC-Paramount. A true concept album in the most unpretentious sense of the term, all the songs are about cities and states or traveling to them. “Georgia on My Mind,” arguably Charles’ best known recording, is joined on the album by tracks that are old-school Vegas cool (“Basin Street Blues,” “New York’s My Home,” “California, Here I Come”) but occasionally give way to some flat-out schmaltz (“Blue Hawaii,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas”). The bonus tracks on The Genius Hits the Road are culled from random geographically-bent recordings Charles made during his time at ABC-Paramount, resulting in a somewhat disjointed listen when compared to the 1960 release. Nevertheless, Charles pulls off another great cover of a Beatles’ ballad with “The Long and Winding Road,” and, along with a stirring rendition of “Rainy Night in Georgia,” the bonus material adds to the overall value of the album. Brother Ray’s best work was either behind him or a few years away, depending on whether you favor the gritty soul music he made on Atlantic, or the country-blues that would define his mid ’60s oeuvre. Whichever camp you’re in, it’s hard to deny that The Genius Hits the Road is an important bridge between the two Rays. TORRIE JONES

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VARIOUS ARTISTS Daptone Gold DAPTONE

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“We’ve got sounds that’ll make you get down” the announcer promises at the start of this double album culled from Daptone Records’ rich and colorful archives. Featuring the shit-hot Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, the regal soul stylings of Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens and the irrepressible funk of the Budos Band, as well as other, lesser-known labelmates, Daptone Gold is intended mostly as an enticing taster for new fans, though it includes just enough rarities to coax a few extra bucks out of long-time veterans. Thankfully, the rarities are so good—especially Sharon Jones’ achy-breaky take on Gladys Knight’s “Giving Up”—that longtime Daptonians shouldn’t feel too manipulated by the current marketing ploy. Though there are plenty of obvious choices from the roster’s bigger artists, it’s the deep cuts from the up-and-comers that are the real standouts. The Motown aping “I Need You to Hold My Hand” from the Gospel Queens featuring Cynthia Langston is a simple slice of sweet soul, while the “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)” from Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band is a slow burning meditation—no pun intended. Daptone Records is the sound of neo-soul America, and Daptone Gold is a gilt-y pleasure that you shouldn’t resist. NEVIN MARTELL GITHEAD Landing SWIM

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In its third installment, U.K. outfit Githead cohesively blends the sounds of each of the foursome’s past experiences: Malka Spigel’s post-punk vibes, Colin Newman of Wire's art rock, Robin Rimbaud’s electronics and Max Franken’s drum beats. At first, the lyrics are a bit confusing as in title track “Landing” (“Clearing clouds/ Want to walk again/Why and how?/Want to understand/Clues and signs/Made me want to cry”) and the sounds are conflicting, but on a whole, Landing takes you out of the psychedelic fog of 2007’s Art Pop to a more abstract, punk-inspired universe of structure, chaos and sometimes paranoia. Alas, Landing teeters on Githead’s trademark pop and rock sound. As with the album cover, Githead has matured beyond just primary colors, utilizing more intricate blends to paint a larger picture. LYNN LIEU OK GO Of the Blue Colour of the Sky CAPITOL

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Maybe the members dress funny and its collective hair’s a mess, but OK Go and its athletic singer/guitarist Damian Kulash should be ready for the big time and a few noticeable changes with having made scads of radio-ready pop-rock hits since the band’s inception. Swinging rhythms continue to thwack, and Kulash still sounds unnerved and sweaty throughout the harried rockist likes of “I Want You So Bad.” That’s par for the OK Go course. The shift, then, is in how their swing moves to a gently grinding brand of Prince-like funk and gets itself raspberry-coated in producer David Fridmann’s sticky layering process. It’s not as obviously oblivious as what Fridmann’s achieved with Flaming Lips and MGMT, but OK’s new found raunchiness is still dreamy, and Kulash manages genuine soul-boy vocal points through the angular groove of “WTF?” and the sweetly-swaying bump of “White Knuckles.” A.D. AMOROSI ROBYN HITCHCOCK I Often Dream of Trains in New York [deluxe edition] YEP ROC

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Live albums are often hit or miss; audience sounds can overpower the music and witty banter between songs can become grating without capturing the energy of a live show. Robyn Hitchcock’s I Often Dream Of Trains In New York skirts these two pitfalls while just managing to not fall in, and the accompanying DVD film of the

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concert—a 2008 performance of Hitchcock’s seminal album I Often Dream Of Trains—is just understated enough, following Hitchcock as he prepares for and comments on his songwriting while telling the stories behind the songs. The performance itself is engaging even if it’s not mindblowing. The songs are played fairly straightforward, but when filtered through 25 years of experience, they seem to take on a certain timelessness. It’s hard to imagine them not having been written by a 50-plus Hitchcock who’s lived through enough to have a bit of perspective on life and knows how to balance his emotions with humor. It’s possible that this album and DVD may not fully resonate with anyone not already a fan of Robyn Hitchcock—especially when it comes to the deluxe packaging that even includes a working phenakistoscope. For anyone looking to get deeper into Hitchcock’s world,the original I Often Dream of Trains is more essential. JEFFREY BROWN PEPI GINSBERG East is East PARK THE VAN

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Seeking true quirkiness in a female singer-songwriter? Skip Regina Spektor and give Pepi Ginsberg a chance. Following 2008’s Red, Ginsberg’s label debut East is East produced by Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken, and mixes offbeat, jittery indie-folk arrangements with flittering vocal trills that recall a slightly unhinged Joni Mitchell. The singer’s throaty theatrics often require repeat listens to locate a melody, even if that’s somewhat beside the point on upbeat compositions like “Shake This.” Her hyper-poetic words about vagabonds and drifters bounce and dip at alluringly unorthodox angles, with an almost Dylan-esque intonation. That said, a tune like the relatively restrained, ukulele-tinged “Coal to Diamonds” proves a welcome respite from the songstress’ near-constant zigzagging. An engaging presence brimming with ideas, Ginsberg just needs to work on focusing her spunk-folk— without, of course, losing her charming idiosyncrasies. ADAM CONNER-SIMONS JAICKO Jaicko CAPITOL

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Getting expelled from school boded well for born-and-bred Barbadian Jaicko. This rebel’s protest against the public’s misconception of “proper” was a fruitful endeavor, and the 17year-old is making a name for himself in the music world. His self-titled debut is 11 tracks of island-infused R&B, with Caribbean-themed tracks that successfully turn your 9-to-5 nonsense into a stay-cation destination. This beachy-keen business appeals to tweens and twenty-somethings searching for a mental hiatus from the expected hit-it-and-quit-it rap stocking shelves everywhere. Though the stated singles are the product of a lack of chronological creativeness, the real gems are found in the form of “Caribbean Girl” and “Name & Number,” both complete with beats that beg for leg movement. All in all, though the lyrical content possesses all the insight of a schoolboy struck with an insatiable lust for puppy love, it’s easily overlooked by focusing on the naiveté only capable of someone so young and in possession of so much potential. LAUREN NOVIK A GRAVE WITH NO NAME Mountain Debris LEFSE

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This debut from London-based lo-fi noisemakers starts with panache; “The Sun Rises” pulls together sea sounds, cymbals and guitar distortion that swells as distant vocals cry in a Slowdive meets Mew meets Pullman mix of effervescence and picked rhythmic steadiness. Then the music starts to unravel wonderfully, the rhythms loosen and the guitars grow in “And We Parted Ways at Mt. Jade.” The next track, “Sofia,” feels like MGMT getting together with the Rolling Stones, taking lots of soporific drugs and trying to write a new “Miss You.” After this brief trilogy of intrigue, it gets silly and never recovers: “Open Waters” repeats a series of “I love you” vocal mantras and plodding guitar thuds, whereas “Lavender” is overt MBV acoustic homage. The dynamics, ideas and energy fly away and Mountain Debris becomes a standard lo-fi album, which is a shame. JONATHAN FALCONE 036>/< #!

TORI AMOS Midwinter Graces UNIVERSAL

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In the ’90s, Tori Amos monopolized nonsense. She once wondered if “25 bucks and a cracker” were enough to get her to heaven, and she was mistress of what she was—or wasn’t—singing. Almost 20 years since Little Earthquakes was released, nonsense got the best of Amos when her producer asked her to compile a Christmas album. Thankfully, Amos barely saved Midwinter Graces from the legion of washed-up rocker carols by judiciously sprinkling the album with her signature quirks. The first song, “What Child, Nowell,” makes you cringe with vicarious embarrassment, but you’ll be glad to hear Amos’ crystalline voice return from its hiatus during her last few albums. Her enunciation is incredibly intimate; you can almost feel her breath on your eardrums. If the maudlin tone of these solstice songs doesn’t kick start your seasonal depression, you could play the album as you brew wassail. Amos orchestrates harpsichords and tubular bells with madrigal simplicity. The record certainly has its hiccups, such as when Amos sexily moans, “from the east—frankincense” in “Star of Wonder,” but overall, she plays it safe, which we must thank her for. Amos said she wanted to reclaim the songs from religious appropriations, but in the end, she just barely saved us all from complete shame. REBECCA HUVAL TAPE DECK MOUNTAIN Ghost LEFSE

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There’s definitely something in the water down in San Diego— and it’s not just the runoff from the Tijuana River. Of late, the sounds of dire apathy and unrelenting distortion infiltrating America’s finest via the pedals and amps of Wavves, Crocodiles, The Soft Pack, Christmas Island and now, Tape Deck Mountain, have been so murky and despondent you’d think they were all trapped in the Pacific Northwest. Even though many of their comrades in clamor have chosen loyalty to S.D.’s tried-and-true continuity in punk, Tape Deck Mountain veers more waywardly toward the lo-fi peaks and valleys, offering a keen, loyal nod to the rosters of K and early Sub Pop. Resonating and radical, Ghost’s evocative and contradictory shades of noisy (“Dead Doctors Don’t Lie”) and dreamy (“Bat Lies”) soundscapes are a welcome and overdue escape from the “oppressiveness” of the Southern California sun. BREANNA MURPHY JAWBOX For Your Own Special Sweetheart [reissue] DISCHORD/DESOTO

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The third full-length from Washington, D.C.-based Jawbox is best known for being a colossal commercial flop. Back in 1994, Atlantic Records was in search of the next Nirvana—an underground post-punk act with crossover appeal. Instead, with Your Own Special Sweetheart, the label managed to piss off diehard fans, who accused Jawbox of selling out, and alienate mainstream audiences, who wanted nothing to do with the slabby, striated mess. Jawbox dutifully cranked out one more disc for Atlantic, but the strain of the national stage tugged the members apart, and in 1997, the band called it quits. Now Sweetheart is getting a long overdue re-release at the hands of Dischord and DeSoto, the label owned by Jawbox member Kim Coletta. The re-master has a newly lustrous low-end snarl—the needling intro to single “Savory” feels even sharper, and “Motorist,” one of the best tunes Jawbox ever wrote, chugs along on a freshly furrowed bass groove. “Remember, you told me, you will go where you’re meant to be,” J. Robbins shouts. “This is my wreck, so let it be.” The re-released Sweetheart comes with a trio of tracks from a 1994 EP, including the buzzsaw racket of “Li’l Shaver,” which builds to a calamitous peak before collapsing amid a wall of fuzz. Officially, Robbins says the band isn’t considering a full reunion tour, so for now, this well-turned re-release is a solid consolation prize. MATTHEW SHAER #" 036>/<

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Campfire Songs [reissue] PAW TRACKS

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Recorded in and underneath a screened porch in the woods of rural Maryland, Campfire Songs was titled in an effort by Animal Collective to capture the aesthetic of just that: songs played around a campfire. And what a strange blaze it was. Sonically, the album does a solid job of achieving this, with nature’s rumblings and the ambient crackle of insects and open air supplanting the manic electro-static passages previously present on Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished/Danse Manatee. Campfire turned out to be a more sparing approach to the sprawling song structures of David Portner and Noah Lennox. The resulting album comes across, for the most part, as a peaceful, relaxing—if extremely weird—trip through a newfound musical slipstream. As on almost every Animal Collective record, there are lapses of pure paranoiac tension, particularly near the end of “Two Corvettes.” “Moo Rah Rah Rain” inverses the previously immense density of the AC aesthetic by embarking on a study in broken silence, which delivers rather effectively. “Doggy” is a pulsating strummer, and one of the more joyful songs of the band’s early canon. Perhaps the crown jewel is the 11-minute-plus closer, “De Soto De Son” (of which a version is also included on the newly released Animal Crack Box). It is an epic acoustic track with a backwoods slant and a cross-eyed banjo, which discovers its darkest point during what sounds like an actual thunderstorm. Then, when you least expect it, “De Soto De Son” re-emerges, as the birds resume their cawing, into a golden crescendo of Portner’s and Lennox’s trademark vocal harmonies. Animal Collective’s very own record label, Paw Tracks, has done justice to return an oft-overlooked early record of this pivotal band to its proper place, once again visible in the newfound sunlight. KYLE MACKINNEL PANTS YELL! Received Pronunciation SLUMBERLAND

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Pants Yell! often gets lumped into the tween category, which strikes this listener as unfair, and possibly even damaging. Yes, the Boston band can channel the whole lilting, major key thing as well as anyone. But most of the Pants Yell! canon chugs along in a slightly grimier mold—the frayed bridge, the fevered yelp, the chord progression that descends into fuzz. On Received Pronunciation, the first Pants disc for indie pop stable Slumberland, lead singer Andrew Churchman lets his voice wander over nine tales of urban ennui, each more sonically distressed than the last. “Couldn’t find the restaurant/couldn’t tie my tie/couldn’t get arrested, even if I tried,” Churchman complains on “Not Wrong.” Meanwhile, the song comes happily apart at the seams, stray notes spilling under the chorus. The best of this bunch is “Cold Hands,” a rumpled lover’s lament that offers a warm, understated solo like gray clouds giving way to the sun. MATTHEW SHAER KEANE Hopes and Fears [deluxe edition] INTERSCOPE

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Released in 2004, Keane’s Hopes and Fears was a bigger success than anyone—especially the East Sussex trio—could have imagined. How did this modest, guitar-less trio manage to tap into the lifeblood of the early 2000s? Namely, on the back of lead-off track “Somewhere Only We Know”—a song that bleeds hope the way a Ken Loach film bleeds misery. Taking off with the piano as lead and Tom Chaplin’s borderline-falsetto, the track zips off into the clouds with a firm enough backbeat so that nobody feels like they’ve gone soft for loving it. The album doesn’t stop there, instead it digs deeper into sincerity and mystical ideas of romance on arms-aloft anthems like “Everybody’s Changing.” Dotted with electronic coloring, the album is a full-length discourse on themes of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” without the Kid A-isms. Now, it’s five years later and deluxe reissue time—rendering this hugely successful album new again with extra love and

an extra disc of live sessions and demos. If you loved it the first go around, you’ll love every high and low warble, every emphatic climax and every unpolished nugget of wistful bliss. But if you’re praying for the death of every band who claims Oasis, Coldplay and Jeff Buckley as influences, then you’re probably well aware that you should stay the hell away from this album. JON PRUETT FUCK BUTTONS Tarot Sport ATP

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Bristol’s Fuck Buttons rode a tsunami of disorienting ambient noise and nearly ubiquitous praise for its 2008 debut Street Horrrsing. But the brainchild of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power is still in growth mode—an upward trajectory helped along by this spaced-out mind wipe. Tarot Sport’s tunes don’t really explode so much as they unfurl into synthetic washes of digital soundtracking that undulate with electricity before evolving into narcotic beat castles. “Surf Solar� is an interstellar overdrive whose Amon Tobin-like jerks collide into the destabilized kinetics of “Rough Steez,� which at nearly five minutes is practically an afterthought. Listeners might have better luck on incandescent epics like “The Lisbon Maru� and “Olympians,� which taken together form one 20-minute exploration. If that doesn’t work, musical tomes like “Flight of the Feathered Serpent� and “Space Mountain,� which oscillate between formless exposition and hypnotic beatcraft, impress with their inherent skill. Enjoy your head-trip. SCOTT THILL ON FILLMORE Extended Vacation DEAD OCEANS

INTERFERENCE Interference THE SOCIAL REGISTRY

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Clicking and lurching in the haze of its existential sonics, Interference is the sort of slouching oddity for which New York City became so famous as one of the coolest musical hubs of the 1980s. New York seems to have an antic effect on musical minds, and perhaps some of today’s local talent can trace this environmental affinity to these clanking denizens. The lost album itself takes up less than half of the reissue’s tracks—tacked on as extras are six remixes and two outtake bonus tracks. Interference has its share of prime cuts: “Excerpt #1, Version 2� starts the album off like a demented trolley car presumably rocketing toward an awesome graveyard filled with stopmotion animation creatures of the night. “Number Four� is a calamitous speed punk flameout accompanied by doomful chimes. Still, the gorgeously odd remixes are tantalizing enough to distract attention from the album itself, and one lays the headphones on the table wondering whether they are the real gems here. Buyers will be rewarded with a varied diet that’s good for you. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself going for the sweets. LOREN POIN

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Wilco’s Glenn Kotche made his name with experimental, polysyllabic drumming and looping, fogging up the atmosphere of tracks with “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.� But Extended Vacation, his fourth album with bassist Darin Grey under the name On Fillmore, nudges its nose into a dream world of animal calls, twinkled vibraphones, stand-up bass and surprisingly little drum work. With Kotche’s vibes as its engine, the instrumental Extended Vacation moves along at a stately pace, never shifting in tempo and rarely in rhythm. Grey and Kotche stretch the found sounds and myriad instruments, pulling each out of their context until car horns sound like trumpets and birdcalls cries for help. The spacious production leaves room for the sounds (cackling laughter, radio fuzz, the ever-present vibes) to be themselves, resulting in dream-like suites that are at once familiar and confusing. And if there’s any narrative, it’s just that—the persistent feeling that something just ain't right. MARTY GARNER BLUNT MECHANIC world record BARSUK

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After ending his 10-year band project Kind of Like Spitting, Ben Barnett began teaching guitar in Seattle while continuing to record and perform, finally settling on the name Blunt Mechanic for his new band. With world record, Barnett moves a little past his Spitting days, opting for a slightly fuller sound that feels less like a couple guys in their basement and more like three guys in a homemade studio—not slick, but confident. The songwriting is more aggressive and uptempo, especially in tracks like “Aluminium & Light� or “Our First Brains,� and the album is a brisk 38 minutes. There’s some head-nodding hooks and clever lyrics, but as enjoyable as the album might be, it also feels like it’s not living up to its potential. The album begins with the throwaway, “Gear Check,� which isn’t a song but an actual gear check—and an unnecessary setting of the stage. Once past that initial misstep, the album moves comfortably along with lo-fi charm and sincerity. Even if it’s not a revelatory work, it’s the kind of album that can end up meaning a lot to someone on a personal level, which has always been Barnett’s specialty. JEFFREY BROWN 036>/< ##

THE SILENT LEAGUE But You’ve Always Been the Caretaker SOMETHING IN CONSTRUCTION

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Justin Russo and gang are back with another chamber-pop record fitting of a soundtrack (perhaps The Shining: see title), and not unlike The Silent League’s previous two albums, The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused and Of Stars and Other Somebodies. This time, it’s a journey through space and time. From robot lovers in “Yours Truly� to the whimsy land of “Here’s a Star� to distant eerie places reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s psychedelic boat trip in “Dayplanner,� But You’ve Always Been the Caretaker is a trek through dreamlike scenes of orchestrated choruses. The Silent League doesn’t fall short of its reputation, bringing new meaning to soft rock. In the end, the closing track instruments climax and plateau to what must be a scene of Russo and friends waving good-bye, signaling the credits to roll. LYNN LIEU THE MARY ONETTES Islands LABRADOR

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In the wake of punk and from, of all places, the bleak, postindustrial desolation of Thatcherite Liverpool, came an odd crop of bands with lit-school names like Lotus Eaters, Wild Swans and Pale Fountains. They wore poncey scarves, quoted Keats and Tennyson, and made music that was equally despondent, exquisite and heroically romantic. Stockholm’s The Mary Onettes could barely be distinguished from said predecessors, which marks out a resplendent day for those for whom staring somberly out of train windows is an exigent part of the music listening experience. But where, say, the similarly grey Editors are all grim and stentorian, The Mary Onettes are wondrously fey, elegantly doomed romantics. Amidst the soaring atmospherics of opener “Puzzles,� with a searing desperation Philip Ekstrom laments, “I know it hasn’t been the best year/So let’s be numb.� Such doleful resignation haunts the entire expanse of the unwaveringly glorious Islands, cosseted by opulent, mournful strings, chiming guitars and utterly flawless melodies. Literally, a more beautifully styled and piercingly, viscerally honest record you’d be at pains to locate. Scarf not included. KEN SCRUDATO RJD2 The Colossus ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS

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Since busting out with Def Jux and Deadringer in 2002, Ramble John Krohn has cut a multitasker’s career out of stellar instro-hop and indie pop-rock chops. Leaving Def Jux after the release of his 2004 sophomore effort Since We Last Spoke, which drew fewer comparisons to DJ Shadow and more to soul star Donny Hathaway, RJD2 joined XL Recordings to become more of a conventional pop-rocker on 2007’s The Third Hand, singing and playing instruments on almost every track. Throw in scoring an award-winning theme for TV’s Mad Men and a video game for Marc Ecko, and the table is set for this varied effort, released on Krohn’s own label, RJ’s Electrical Connections. The Colossus hopscotches across RJD2’s rĂŠsumĂŠ like a giddy kid. The rollicking instrumental funk of “Giant Squidâ€? and “The Stranger,â€? as well as the menacing space-hop of “A Spaceship for Now,â€? are subtle interstellar explorations. The sunny soul and jazz of “Crumbs Off the Tableâ€? (featuring Aaron Livingston) and “The Shining Pathâ€? (featuring Phonte Coleman) shine as bright as Since We Last Spoke’s Hathaway homages, although lyrically dark. Meanwhile, the anti-capitalist satire of “The Glowâ€? and doo-wop hop of “Walk With Meâ€? show off Krohn’s uncanny talent on piano and pipes. Krohn’s the real deal, in a world full of one-dimensional derivatives. SCOTT THILL V.V. BROWN Travelling Like the Light ISLAND

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V.V. Brown sets out to be a garish distiller of pop culture’s last 50 years so it’s no surprise that her loud fusion of crunk, R&B, soul and rock starts with a high-pitched shriek. That’s the first grating sound you hear on “Quick Fix,� the opening A.D.D. genre exercise on her clanging 036>/<

debut, Travelling Like the Light. The London-via-Northampton songwriter runs through her influences (Queen, Ruth Brown, nursery rhymes, blue-eyed soul queens and Super Mario Land) like a flipbook in a vacuum-sealed room. She only really cuts down the sugar intake for the soulful ’80s-like title track and the sentimental torch song, “I Love You.� Sleek singles “Game Over� and “Shark in the Water� are certainly cut for mass radio play, but often sound chintzy upon repeat listens. There’s a promising musician somewhere among the gobs of sheen, but wading through this rowdy flotsam proves tiresome. KYLE LEMMON CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL The Singles Collection FANTASY

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The Singles Collection follows the box set, which itself follows the individual re-release of albums (except for 1972’s Mardi Gras, which has been more or less disowned because John Fogerty is barely on it and it’s also pretty bad). Why the interest? It probably has something to do with contracts, artist visibility and licensing, but nevermind, because Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the greatest bands of the late ’60s. John Fogerty sings like he has his genitalia in one hand and the microphone in the other —technically impossible because he was also playing amazingly raw lead guitar—the point is, this guy could belt. The band was filled with amazing stylists who weren’t dressing up like Little Lord Fauntleroy and dancing in circles at the Avalon Ballroom—they were playing authentic soul music for people who might not otherwise think they liked such a thing. CCR were an R&B band who loved the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Ike & Tina and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. They played American dance music, wrote “Down on the Corner� and “Bad Moon Rising,� wore flannel and had mustaches. The videos on this amazing compilation show people dancing to CCR on a riverboat—what more do you want? JON PRUETT RADIAN Chimeric THRILL JOCKEY

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It’s been four years since Radian has released a new album and almost just as long since the trio of Austrian noise pioneers have performed together live. Taking something of a sabbatical from the band, the three retreated into their own lives and projects (collaborations, soundtracks, running Mosz Records) before returning with a fresh take on their highly rhythmic soundscapes. Having recorded the last two albums in Chicago with label mate John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake), Chimeric was recorded at home in Vienna. Everything about the new record seems to show that fact as well. The instrumentation is much warmer and more acoustically focused than before, although the knob-twitchery is still present, keeping things interesting. Live recording sessions are chopped up but still flow remarkably well together. While many previous efforts have relied heavily on razor sharp rhythm sections (perhaps through McEntire’s behest), the new album is much more subdued yet at the same time, more adventurous in what it accomplishes. DAVID C. OBENOUR GIFT OF GAB Escape 2 Mars QUANNUM

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On Escape 2 Mars, Gift of Gab takes his tongue twisting, syllable-splicing verbal skills into new directions, creating a strong follow-up to 2004’s 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up. As MC of the seminal underground hip-hop duo Blackalicious, Gift of Gab developed a reputation as one of the most eccentric and exciting lyricist of the early 2000s. He keeps the abstract righteousness going on Escape 2 Mars, which alternates between live hip-hop and electroinfluenced beats. “El Gifto Magnifico� will please fans of Gift’s verbal acrobatics, while the MC’s talent for making great message rap comes through on “Richman, Poorman.� The minor key jazziness of “Dreamin’,� featuring on-point verses from Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Brother Ali sounds like a hip-hop funeral march (via New Orleans, not Poland) and is the album’s best track. Gift of Gab is assured and even-keeled on Escape 2 Mars—never reaching the intensity of Blackalicious’ best work, or descending into the mellow lounge-scapes of 4th Dimensional Rocketships. TORRIE JONES

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CLIP’D BEAKS To Realize LOVEPUMP

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SURFER BLOOD Astro Coast

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KANINE

If there was such a thing as an auditory grab bag of seemingly unrelated sounds, Clip’d Beaks’ To Realize would be that bottomless sack. The long-awaited follow-up to the noise-rock group’s 2007 Hoarse Loads EP, To Realize is a rambunctious experiment in dissonance that steadily builds in chaos rather than energy. To Realize starts off with a soaring yet simultaneously ominous cacophony complete with never-ending drone, and remains that way until the more upbeat “Broke Life.� Variation surfaces with the lulling “Desert Highway Music,� creating a new wave of shoegaze with its dreamy reverb and smooth vocals, while the following “Jamn� stokes To Realize’s much-needed flame with its racing, somewhat tribal percussion, albeit too late in the album. Despite the album’s relentless and, at times, irritating drone and distortion, To Realize is not a static listen—just unforgivably moody. LAUREN BARBATO

As incongruous as the outfit’s name might sound, “Surfer Blood� somewhat aptly encompasses a brand of sunny indie-rock frosted with darker experimental flourishes. The Florida foursome’s debut Astro Coast is dominated by distorted three-chord power-pop numbers like “Twin Peaks� and the Weezer-esque “Swim.� Listen closely for unexpected surprises sprinkled throughout, such as the sudden arrival of strangely vocoded harmonies at the end of “Anchorage,� or the delicate transition of “Take It Easy� from hopping African pop to chugging disco-punk. John Paul Pitts’ hazy cracked-falsetto—vaguely reminiscent of The Shins’ James Mercer—inadvertently pushes his dreamy words about beaches and unrequited love into the background. No matter: The star of the show here is ultimately the group’s tuneful popcraft and its subtly gloomy underbelly. ADAM CONNER-SIMONS

BASIA BULAT Heart of My Own

RICKIE LEE JONES Balm in Gilead

SECRET CITY

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If you slept on Bulat’s 2007 debut, Oh, My Darling, don’t fret—lots of folks did. But by doing so, you missed out on one of that year’s most underrated debuts. Bulat showed a knack for simple yet pleasantly sufficient folk-pop songs, where the autoharp and the dulcimer were her primary instruments. But really, it’s Bulat’s vibrato, which returns here in fine form. On Heart of My Own, Bulat expands her range into a richer exploration of folk traditions, adding horn sections as well. “I’m Forgetting Everyone� is as sparse and delicate as she’s been in the past, but on “If Only You,� she delves into more of a country feel, which echoes throughout the album; it’s upbeat even if most of Bulat’s songs dwell on heart-ache and loss. That notion is on par with every singer-songwriter these days but her voice drives these concepts into a feeling that’s genuine. In other words, Bulat can pine with the best of them. MICHAEL D. AYERS

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FANTASY

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This is greatness: an album of beauty and consequence in an age of increasing ugliness and inconsequence. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of it is the vast range of emotion expressed, from deepest sorrow to pure exultation. There’s the astounding “Bonfires,� a poignantly loving heartbreak song in which the singer burns everything she has, yet sings to “the sweetest boy I know,� which makes the truth of her pain so much more palpable. The other extreme is “Wild Girl,� which starts as a song of memory of wildness and morphs into a song of celebration, both for her daughter’s 21st birthday and her own parental triumph, framed by a knowing, haunting melody. Jones’ duet with Ben Harper on “Old Enough� is about genuine joy, the kind that comes from knowing all we’ve lived through to get to this place. And there’s much more. This is one not to be missed, kissed with the promise that beauty and depth in songs still matters. PAUL ZOLLO

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ON SALE NOW! featuring The Flaming Lips Blaqk Audio (Davey & Jade of AFI) Puscifer (Maynard of TOOL) The Dandy Warhols Frank Black Adrian Young of No Doubt A Place To Bury Strangers Cover Art by Shepard Fairey AVAILABLE AT

WWW.LOVEANDROCKETSTRIBUTE.COM WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LOVEANDROCKETSTRIBUTE

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JK8== G@:BJ SINCE NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO RECOMMEND DVDS LIKE THOSE GUYS BEHIND THE COUNTER AT YOUR LOCAL VIDEO STORE, EACH ISSUE FILTER HIGHLIGHTS ONE OF AMERICA’S FINEST INDEPENDENTS AND GIVES THEM RUN OF THE PAGE. THIS ISSUE: RYAN MARKER OF SANTA MONICA’S BELOVED VIDIOTS. ADORATION SONY

Atom Egoyan is a master of examining the way we construct, revise and re-interpret memory. Following his lovely yet devastating adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan returns to his obscure thematic roots with Adoration. An orphaned teenager writes a fictional essay detailing his late father’s failed terrorist act and, encouraged by his teacher as a dramatic exercise, passes it as fact. When the teacher’s motives become part of the “story� and the damaging effect of this “lie� spreads online, Egoyan’s film begins a deep examination of the deterioration of real communication, biased historical revision, and our inherent prejudices. And, like all of Egoyan’s work, the way information is revealed is just as crucial to the film as the information itself. See it twice. FOOD INC. MAGNOLIA

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 10,000,� begins Food Inc., a horrifying documentary exposing the vast corporatism and monopolization of the food industry. Food companies have become more powerful than ever and are unregulated, globalized, and—worst of all—above the law. The sole source of cheap food that is no longer wholesome, nutritious or even good, these conglomerates now make more money than ever as a consequence of cost-saving modifications. Food Inc. shows in great detail how dangerous and misleading the contents of what we’re eating actually are, and teaches us to look deeper into the origins of our nourishment while providing empowering options for better eating. Some sections are downright sickening, but each frame is necessary viewing for all appetites. SAY ANYTHING: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION FOX

“Saw Say Anything tonight. Taught me how to love a girl.� I wrote this at age 14 after seeing this Cameron Crowe classic for the first time. John Cusack is brilliant as Lloyd Dobler, a kid with this simple purpose: to love and be loved by Diane Court (Ione Sky), the beautiful valedictorian with her life completely mapped out. The film’s prevailing image may be Lloyd and his Peter Gabriel-blasting boombox, but what I love most is its familial dark side. Joan Cusack shines as Lloyd’s single-mom sister who’s lost her ability to have fun, while the great John Mahoney plays Diane’s overbearing, possibly crooked father. It is these characters that give the movie a balance of perspective and a sincerity that its genre usually lacks. Owing more to Brief Encounter than to Pretty in Pink, Say Anything says more by saying nothing at all, conveying more emotion in a teardrop or loving glance than any words could. Z CRITERION

The grandfather of political conspiracy thrillers, Costa-Gavras’ epic Z is still the best. Telling the true story of the assassination of a powerful leftist politician and its subsequent cover-up by the government perpetrators, the tale follows an honest judge (played by the great Yves Montand) as he digs into a thicket of

lies and beauracracy to find the deep roots of sedition. The film takes place in Greece—the birthplace of democracy—which lived under a police state following WWII into the 1960s. One of the first films to employ the off-the-cuff, unstable camera work that continues today in the Bourne trilogy, Z’s harsh and journalistic viewpoint distances the audience from the action and allows us to see all points of view instead of one, alluding to that feeling of anger and injustice that so pervaded the turbulent ’60s. THE DEAD LIONSGATE

At the age of 80, on assisted oxygen and from a wheelchair, John Huston directed his final, most personal and perhaps most important film. This adaptation of James Joyce’s short story—the last chapter of Dubliners—stands as Huston’s final testament to life, love and art. The film lovingly illustrates a 1904 Irish Christmas party attended by a group of lost souls—folks rendered through their conversations about times both long gone and not since felt; The Dead is a portrait of people who have either loved and lost or never got the chance to love at all. As we listen to Joyce’s words, we cannot help but long for a more innocent, passionate time in our own lives. Huston translates this faithful adaptation perfectly, employing a leisurely pace and subtle yet transcendent performances (most notably daughter Angelica’s) to delicately contemplate the subtle differences between fully living and simply existing. NORTH BY NORTHWEST: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WARNER

Alfred Hitchcock loved the spy genre, and this “wrong man� thriller-meets-spy flick shows Hitch at his most high-pitched and entertaining. Cary Grant is perfectly innocent as a New York businessman mistaken for a U.S. spy by some evil foreigners who chase him across the country as he searches for the real spy they’re after. Grant was always as funny as he was debonair, and drawing out both sides of his personality is the foxy Eva Marie Saint as the mysterious, sexy blonde who follows Cary, come-Mount Rushmore or crop duster. Their chemistry makes the movie hot even by today’s standards. This three-disc collector’s edition is the perfect Christmas gift to yourself. THE GARDEN OSCILLOSCOPE

This documentary about America’s largest community garden— located in the heart of South Central L.A.—is a brilliant microcosm of society’s current arguments and their painful, manifest effects. Following the ’92 riots, Los Angeles gave 13 acres of land to a neighborhood of mostly poor Latinos and African-Americans. Out of destruction they created a rich paradise; a safe haven and necessary source of good food in the heart of the ghetto. When the farmers receive an eviction notice because the original owner demands his land back, we discover a series of underhanded dealings between city officials, community organizers and land owners (Chinatown, anyone?). Exploring the complicated arguments surrounding the best usages of land for the good of society and the way our government may work against the good of the people, this film examines the reality behind the words “justice for all.�

VIDIOTS HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST MOVIE RESOURCE IN LOS ANGELES FOR OVER 20 YEARS. THE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND FRIENDLY STAFF KNOWS ITS KUBRICK FROM ITS KIESLOWSKI; CARRYING OVER 45,000 TITLES, IT’S A MOVIE LOVER’S PARADISE. VISIT THEM AT VIDIOTSVIDEO.COM. 036>/<

BY MICHAEL SHOWALTER

EXCERPT AND FRONT AND BACK COVER DESIGNS FROM MY UPCOMING BOOK ABOUT FROGS I am almost finished writing a fivevolume work on frogs. The project is tentatively titled Frogs Book. The first volume is slated to be 800pages long and so far I’ve only written the first page (quadr uple spacing, I admit). Here’s an excerpt: CHAPTER ONE: FROGS FUN FACTS Fun Frog Fact #1: Frogs can’t talk. Fun Frog Fact #2: Frogs can jump good. Fun Frog Fact #3: Chicken tastes like them.

The other four volumes I haven’t really started yet. And if I’m being honest, I’m a bit stressed about even getting through the first volume because 800 pages is a lot of pages to write about something you know nothing about. My editor is clamoring for a different title and has suggested simply, Frog Book because he thinks that Frogs Book is grammatically incor rect and that if I’m going to call it Frogs Book then I should at least put an apostrophe in there so that it reads Frog’s Book or even Frogs’ Book but I’m sticking to Frogs Book because it was the first title I thought of and I also already had front and back covers made with blurbs. There’s no going back.

" 036>/<

Michael Showalter is a writer, director and actor. His television show, Michael & Michael Have Issues, is currently on Comedy Central, Wednesday nights at 9:30 pm. He was an original cast member of the sketch troupes “The State� and “Stella,� co-wrote and starred in Wet Hot American Summer, and wrote, starred in and directed The Baxter. Michael is currently teaching screenwriting at NYU Graduate Film School and writing a book of creative non-fiction about humiliation and triumph tentatively titled, Mr. Funnypants. He lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend and their three cats. 036>/< #

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Holiday Issue Digital Sampler INCLUDES SONG BY:

AIR GOSSIP TOM WAITS THE SWELL SEASON CRASH KINGS THE TING TINGS MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON THE STONE FOXES THE TENDER BOX FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE GLACIERS BRIM LISKI ALEC OUNSWORTH THE CLIENTELE SARA LOV AM YO GABBA GABBA! – OF MONTREAL THE CRYSTAL METHOD (NOAH + THE MAN REMIX)

Sampler Holiday 2009-2010

The FILTER Magazine Pssst! sampler has returned in an all new digital format.

By purchasing the issue, you can use the following code to download songs from this month’s featured artists at:

www.FILTERmagazine.com/pssst

ISSUE 38 code: holiday

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