Best Music Movies II

2. That Thing You Do! (dir Tom Hanks, 1996)
Four kids from Erie, Pennsylvania (not Eerie, Indiana) write a hit song in the 1950s and embark on a whirlwind tour with other acts on their record label. In between times, the drummer falls in love and the guitarist falls in lust.

I really think every drummer in the world must love that movie. The drummer adds the part that makes the song a hit. The drummer impresses everyone on tour. The drummer gets the girl. What's not to like? The cool thing about this film is that they hired actors to play all the parts and then trained them to play their instruments...which they all do very, very well. I couldn't see through any of their performances and their characters are even evident in the way they play their instruments: Guy's jazz/rock hybrid drumming, Lenny's cocky lead guitar moves, Jimmy's stay-at-home brooding rhythm guitar.

Best Song: "That Thing You Do" (The Wonders)

Best Dialogue: PHOTOGRAPHER: Hey, you in the Linettes [sunglasses]. Are those prescription or are you just trying to look cool?

GUY: Uh, well, I am the drummer.

Star Spotting: Where to begin? Lots of actors I love in this movie. Liv Tyler and Ethan Embry of Empire Records fame are reunited here. Tyler plays the smart yet somewhat naive Faye in a departure from Empire's smart yet somewhat naive Rory. Embry does a total 180 from Mark's goofy stoner vibe as the nameless and quiet bass player. Tom Hanks is fantastic in his role as the Wonders' manager. I have a serious man-crush on Steve Zahn, mostly because of this movie. I would never watch him in a lead role but he never disappoints in a supporting role. A pre-Monster Charlize Theron plays Guy's soon-to-be ex girlfriend, while Giovanni Ribisi has a small role as the Wonders' ex-drummer. The only other major cameos of note are Tom Hanks' wife as a cocktail waitress who flirts with Guy, and his son Colin in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it apppearance escorting Faye into the television studio.

1. Once (dir. John Carney, 2007)

I have yet to find anyone who didn't love this film, but since I hang out with mostly musicians and this is definitely a musician's film that isn't surprising. Once details the creative synergy and budding romance between two unlikely and unremarkable people -- a busker in Dublin, Ireland and an eastern European expatriate who plays piano. The audience never finds out their names, but we do get to watch them write and record some fantastic songs.

What's really interesting about this film for me is how the movie was shot. The two leads ar eeplayed by Glen Hansard (remember The Commitments?) and Marketa Irglova, neither of whom are actors (if you saw The Commitments, you know of what I speak). In order to create as natural a space as possible for them to feel comfortable, Carney uses mostly long shots (like, across the street long shots) and it gives the film an odd voyeuristic quality.

The songs are fantstic. After seeing this movie on a Thursday, my fiancee and I went to the mall early Friday to pick up the soundtrack for our road trip the net day, even though it made us late for our soundcheck (sorry Jon!).

Best Song: "When Your Mind's Made Up" (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova)

Best Dialogue: Actually, it's hard to remember any. Lyrics maybe? "The little cracks, they escalated/And before we knew it was too late/For making circles and telling lies".

Star Spotting: None. None whatsoever.

And that's it! Honourable mention has to go to A Mighty Wind.

If you feel I missed one, let me know.

News of the Week

Tokyo Police Club Heart Housewives
From the “who said who to what?” file, Tokyo Police Club will be appearing on an episode of Desperate Housewives in November. Huh? Where’s the connect here? Do people who like TPC like that show? Does anyone like that show (besides Mr. Eva Longoria)?
I understand market synergy. Veronica Mars and the Dandy Warhols made sense, since the show and the band have similar audiences and would cross-promote well. Feist on Sesame Street is a bit more of a stretch, until you consider that she appeals to 25-40 year olds, many of whom have small children. Imagine what this cross-promotion can do! I can’t wait until my next TPC show so I can rub shoulders with velour-tracksuit-havin’, large-jewelry-wearin’, faux-martini-drinkin’ moms. IT WILL HAPPEN. THE TELEVISION WILL MAKE IT SO.

Noel Gallagher Hearts Bono, Hypocrisy

Noel Gallagher probably talks trash in his sleep. The most recent victim of the mouthy Briton is Keane, whom he branded “shit” in a recent interview.

Know who he does like? Bono. "People will not accept that Bono is sincere - in this cynical age, they think he's really just a cunt. But he's not."

You damn skippy, Noel! Screw cynicism! Screw people who say stuff about Radiohead like “Thom Yorke sat at a piano singing ‘this is fucked up’ for half an hour. We all know that, Mr. Yorke. Who wants to sing the news? No matter how much you sit there twiddling, going, ‘we’re all doomed’, at the end of the day people will always want to hear you play “Creep”. Get over it”. Or people who say stuff about Bono himself like “play “One”, shut the fuck up about Africa.” Or people who are all cynical about stuff like Live 8:

“‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but are they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing “Sweet Dreams” and thinks, “Fuck me, she might have a point there, you know?” And Keane doing “Somewhere Only We Know” and some Japanese businessman going, ‘aw, look at him…we should really fucking drop that debt, you know.’ It’s not going to happen, is it?”

Wait, who was that cynical bastard? Oh, right, it was Noel Gallagher. Oh yes it was. Hey Noel, how many faces do you have again?

Tom DeLonge Hearts Not Talking (Finally)

Tom DeLonge, currently of Angels and Airwaves and formerly of Blink 182, has made a rare trip on the logic train. On the subject of Barker’s horrific plane crash and subsequent burns, DeLonge said: “Everyone wants to know what I think and it’s not about me. It’s not about Tom at all. It’s not about Blink at all. It’s about Travis and his family, you know, so stop worrying about what I feel or what I think or what I say because at this point it doesn’t matter.”

I once read a great interview with Mark Hoppus on Blink’s breakup that made DeLonge come off like a total space cadet. I then read a rebuttal interview with DeLonge, where he STILL came off like a total space cadet. This quote is one step towards restoring my opinion. Which I’m sure is important to him.

News of the Week

Item 1: Chris Martin Hearts Nickelback, But Not Coldplay
You read that right. I’ve been hating on Coldplay for years, a stance which I’ve softened a bit over the last little while due partially to my cheerful, sunny disposition and due to the fact that my fiancée loves them. Fortunately, Chris Martin has done me a solid by admitting in an interview that his band is “less shit” than they used to be, proving that there is a shit-to-not-shit ratio in effect in Coldplay currently, and it used to be higher. I’ll guess somewhere around the 200:1 mark, but that’s just hypothetical.

In the same interview Martin admits to liking Nickelback, giving me further proof that he knows very little about music. It’s too bad it’s to late it’s too bad it’s too WHOOOAAAA-OOOOOHHHHH.

Oh, AND he proved that he’s a bit of a jerk by saying that people who don’t like Nickleback have done “fuck-all” with their lives. We can’t all be in the Nappies, Chris.

Truthfully, Chris Martin seems to be a nice enough guy and I'm sure he was just standing up for a band who get trashed by everyone. Saying that Nickelback haters haven't done "fuck all" with their lives, however, is pretty nasty. I like to think I've done a lot: I started this blog, I once saw'r a blimp, and I started this blog. But even I cannot lay claim to travelling backwards in time to the mid 90s to buy my wardrobe and get my hair cut:

I bow to your superiority, Chad and co.

Item 2: Thieves Don’t Heart Elton John
According the the CBC, a bunch of cars were broken into during an Elton John concert in Newfoundland. Two men were arrested for theft and “malicious damage”, which leads me to believe that there was some serious hate-on for Sir Elton that went beyond simple "let's see if we can get a copy of Candle In The Wind 2001 for free" thievery. I’m guilty of Elton John hating as well, but I didn’t break into any cars when he was in Kitchener.

Music confounds me sometime. I find Sir Elton’s songs to be banal at best, annoying at worst, but to read the comments of concertgoers as they left the venue you’d think that God hisownself had stepped down from the clouds to play “Rocketman”. I guess it takes different strokes to move the world.

Item 3: People I Kind Of Know Heart The Polaris Prize
The Polaris Prize was decided this week, and two artists I have very slight connections to were nominated. Shad, who I opened for last November, was up for The Old Prince. Caribou, who is friends with my ex, was up for Andorra. Ultimately Caribou won, proving that the closer you are to knowing me the more likely you are to win Canadian music awards. Or something.

Item 4: New Kids Heart Meaningless Words
The New Kids On The Block (yes, THOSE New Kids On The Block) have released a new album called The Block. Is it the same Block that they are on? Or is it a different Block altogether? No one’s quite sure.

It’s getting diced up in reviews, and having listened to some of the tracks I can see why. At the end of their run in the 90s they tried te be more sexually explicit to appeal to the most desperate members of their fan base mature, which got them laughed out of the industry for a decade. Have they learned? Noooooooo. The Block is rife with sexual innuendo, imagery and out-and-out audio foreplay. My favourite track (read: track I laughed at the most) is “Sexify My Love”. Sexify? I may hate myself later for asking, but what does it mean to sexify something? Can anything be sexified? Sandwiches? Lawn rakes? Stress balls? (OK, maybe that one…)

Not content with putting a ridiculous non-word in the title and chorus, in the first verse the Kids reveal that they want to “conversate“ before getting’ it on. You know, instead of conversing.

Man, those hats are so....sexified.

The RIAA Took My Baby Away II

Part one was last Friday (just below) talking about why the RIAA's continued legal action against private citizens is ridiculous. According to a semi-succesful drummer who's never worked full-time in the industry but cares about it, here's what they should do.



CD prices need to PLUMMET. CDs are now an outdated medium and their price needs to reflect that. No one should EVER have to pay more than $15 for a CD, and if it's one disc with a two-page insert it shouldn't be over $10. CDs started their rise to popularity in 1985, and by 1993 they had overtaken tapes; this with everyone having to buy new equipement to play them! If MP3s move that much quicker, why hasn't the price of CDs dropped more? Because the industry is holding on to their money card instead of trying to develop a new one.

After CD prices go down, hopefully CD sales will stabilize and even climb a bit. Sure, the industry will still lose money, but at least people will be buying from the industry again instead of just file sharing. The assumption here is that people would rather buy in physical form rather than online, which isn't always the case; but even as a show of respect for the MP3 and a sign of deference to the customer, it helps.

Next, understand that "copyright" is not the same as "ownership". Copyright is meant to encourage the creation of new, original works while simultaniously affording some protection for the creators of said works. It is NOT meant to give you unending rights to everything you make forever. Once I bought my car from Ford, it's MINE. Once I bought my shirt from Old Navy, it's MINE. RIAA, please stop trying to tell me what I can do with something once it's mine.

OK, I am now off my high horse. Something funny about musicians or something on Friday, promise.

The RIAA Took My Baby Away

Yup, a Ramones reference. I'm sure old!

Found this blog today. It provides updates on current file-sharing lawsuits the Recording Industry Associaton of America (RIAA) has launched against private citizens who uploaded music onto peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, allegedlly infringing on the copyrights of the RIAA. As you might have guessed from the title, Recording Industry vs The People (RITP) is very anti RIAA.

Most people who know me know that I'm not a big fan of P2P downloading. Yes, I make CDs for friends, and I receive CDs from friends too. Word of mouth has always been a necessary component of the industry, one that the record companies can't eveer seem to get their heads around (remember the attempted levy on blank cassettes in the mid-90s?).

Now, had somebody gone ahead and created 4,000 tapes and distributed them to anyone he or she could find, I would have had a problem with that. And we all know that there are at least a couple of more than 4,000 people downloading not only entire albums but entire discographies every day, with not a whit of money going to the companies that, as much as it sucks to say it, deserve the money.

Believe it or not, that's not what I wanted to discuss today. I'm actually pretty tired of arguing the ethics of downloading (SUPER SECRET HIDDEN MESSAGE: NOT INTERESTED IN THAT TODAY, SO LET'S MOVE FORWARD, MMMMMMMMMKAY?). What I WANT to talk about, and have hopefully provided adequete background for, is what I think of the RIAA's lawsuits.

Would you believe me if I said I thought they were a bad idea?

Please note that I didn't say I thought they were unjustified or even illegal (although some of their tactics are pretty frightening, according to RITP). What the lawsuits are, however, is a bellow and a swipe from a dinosaur going down into a tar pit: a scary and potentially damaging threat, but one you know can't last too long. (Oh, and the dinosaur part shows that the RIAA is behind the times. Wanted to make sure that's obvious.)

For one, let's look at general perception. Even before the lawsuits, record execs were considered to be evil parasites digging their claws into the backs of the artists, altering records to attract more sales and signing and dropping artists on a whim. You never, EVER heard someone outside speak well of execs: opinions from the general public were either neutral or negative. And it wasn't even the public they were screwing (much; when average CD prices climbed above the $20 mark in the early 2000's, the protest was so great that one company marked all their new product back to $15, and the rest followed suit. Only know that 'cause I was working at a record store at the time).

So now, already holding (at best) a -25% rating with the people, the RIAA is going after the people. Yep, that's going to encourage a LOT of people to stay on their side and keep paying them for music. My favourite was this case , where the RIAA accused a private citizens of file sharing a few songs. Not many, just a couple. Turns out the person was a disabled single mother who, through the untraceable wonder that is an IP Address, was registered as downloading/uploading such family friendly tunes as "Hoes In My Room" despite the fact that nothing was on her PC indicated she had EVER shared ANYTHING. So of course, the RIAA pressed forward, of course, the case got thrown out, and OF COURSE, the mother is countersuing and the RIAA looks like a demon. An incompetent, foolish, somewhat amusing demon. The RIAA looks like a demon played by Curly of the Three Stooges.

Wow, maybe I should get back to the dinosaur simile from before before going to a demon metaphor. OK, so why a dinosaur? The RIAA is acting just like the recording industry always does when faced with something it can't control immediately; grinding its heels an calling foul. It did it in the 90s with blank tapes, too. And as long as it keeps this up, it's going to be behind the 8-ball.

Think about it: the first MP3 encoding program came out in 1994, creating a fourth media family for audio (vinyl, tape, disc and digital). Difference is, the industry does not control the device needed to play the medium: everyone already has a computer. Seven years later came a file sharing program, Napster, that took control of the MP3s right out of the industry's hands. Where was the industry in those seven years? Why were they not the ones developing and testing this BRAND NEW MEDIUM, making it work for them, creating a SALES system that they could control? Searched the interwebs, couldn't find an answer. I guess they were boosting CD prices, signing boy bands and girl singers, and thinking that everyone was going to have CDs forever.

What I would really like the RIAA to do is stop trying to scare us. RIAA, you can't get it back. You just can't. It's like holding sand: yes, some is going to slide through your fingers, but the harder you squeeze, the more you lose. So what do you do?

I'll tell you on Tuesday.

Why I Love: Five Iron Frenzy

Welcome to another edition of Why I Love. Today we’re going back deep into the recesses of my musical mind and unearthing one of the first bands I was totally geeked on: Five Iron Frenzy .

I’m still kind of puzzled as to how I got into FIF in the first place. Here are the facts: When I was 18 I started going to Waterloo MB church. I was from a Catholic family and didn’t know much about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), but had gotten into a little bit thanks to some of the people I was hanging around. I remember early favourites being Audio Adrenaline and Johnny Q. Public (who, according to the best searches the Interweb can offer, disappeared sometime in 2000). Sometime during winter of 1998 I was in the Carpenter Shop (now the Gospel Lighthouse) in Waterloo and I saw this CD:



Before I knew it I walked out with the disc. I have no idea how I knew who they were, or what they sounded like, or why I thought I would like them: I just bought it and stuck it in my discman (ten years ago, gimme a break).

At the time I had just started listening to ska, so it was the right time for me to jump on board. FIF started as a “pure” ska band, all upstrokes and quickness and horns. But over the course of their career they branched away from ska, rooting themselves in rock sensibilities with an edge.

FIF is among the few bands to successfully swing between manic, silly humour and serious introspection and anger. They wrote an entire rock opera based around losing their pants (this is on the tail end of Quantity is Job #1 ) but also explored the nature of grace, personal failure before God, and more. Most importantly, they were attuned to many social issues, most notably native rights (“Banner Year” from Our Newest Album Ever is still one of my favourite songs).

Quantity is Job #1 was, is and continues to be my favourite FIF recording. I especially love “Dandelions”. It’s written around a metaphor that’s simple to the point of childishness: God sees us the way little kids see Dandelions. That is, He sees flowers where everyone else sees weeds.

I was lucky enough to see FIF twice, both times in Michigan. Their live shows were phenomenal, and their two live albums (Proof That The Youth Are Revolting and disc 2 of The End Is Here) are testament to that. Nobody could walk away from an FIF show in a funk – they were too much fun. It’s interesting to see how the Christian youth music scene is dominated mostly by screamo bands these days. There’s not the same sense of joy fused with reckless abandon there that there used to be, and I think FIF were one of (if not the last of) the generation of bands that embraced that side of culture.

FIF broke up in 2003, which still feels like it was yesterday for me.

I’ll admit that by the end of their run I was buying albums more out of completism than I was out of love for the band. There were a lot of tracks I liked on The End Is Near/The End is Here , but none that I abjectly loved. If you want to look up what I think reflects the best of FIF, here’s my top ten list:

1. Dandelions -- Quantity is Job #1
2. Handbook For The Sellout (live) -- The End Is Here (Disc 2)
3. World Without End -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
4. Every New Day -- Our Newest Album Ever
5. On Distant Shores -- The End Is Here (Disc 1)
6. Pre-Ex Girlfriend -- Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
7. Banner Year -- Our Newest Album Ever
8. All That Is Good -- Quantity is Job #1
9. Oh, Canada -- Our Newest Album Ever
10. Giants -- All The Hype Money Can Buy

A$hley MacI$$ac

Saw this article on chartattack and thought it was very interesting. Ashley MacIsaac posted an ebay auction for half of his own musical income over the rest of his life. The auction has since been removed due to an eBay terms of use violation, but I thought it was interesting to think about.

As I hope has been made clear throughout the course of this blog, most artists spend 50% of their professional time making music and the other 50% trying to figure out how to make money from doing it. Since most record deals screw the artist horrible in terms of CD sales (more on that in a later blog) merch is traditionally the way to do it. I’ve seen bands sell everything from the more traditional T-shirt and hoodie to bracelets, necklaces, shoelaces, shoes, and so on. I once even saw a band selling email addresses based on their domain name.

MacIsaac is definitely thinking outside the merch box, but it seems a little fishy to me. Either he’s in dire financial straits and he needs some cash fast or he just really wants others to share in his grand wealth.

My guess is the former.

Let’s not forget, this is the same Ashley MacIsaac that declared bankruptcy back in 2000, so you can be reasonably sure that he’s not super solvent to being with. And what does the fine print say on the eBay sale? Nothing is guaranteed. Not his $5,000-$15,000 per gig, not his royalties, not even the principle you put in. That is to say, whoever wins this bid wins the right to give Ashley MacIsaac their money and hope that they break even on the proposition. Doesn’t this sound like a record company’s job?

What Macisaac is really looking for here is someone to act as his record company without having a record company, which I can understand. It’s the lack of responsibility to the investor that turns me off. Record companies are set up as checks and balances, meaning that one artist can fail while another succeeds, so the company on a whole breaks even. Please don’t misconstrue that as saying record companies are fair or even helpful to the artists; that’s just how they are set up. MacIsaac wants some no-strings-attached cash that he doesn’t have to worry about paying back, and I think it’s ridiculous.

With MacIsaac’s history of “ironic statements” (accusing Asian women in his audience of spreading SARS, etc., etc.) there’s a chance that this is a goof and I’m playing into it. I’d say there’s a better chance of it NOT being a goof and MacIsaac labeling it as such when it fails, but that’s just my opinion (which is immunity from being told I’m wrong, or so Relient K says).

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IN OTHER NEWS!

Nope, nothing. My stupid palm pilot broke so now I have no idea when I’m playing shows in the next little while. I’ll let you know when I know.

Hommephobia

Some random stuff happening in music. For example, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age was caught on tape calling a show-throwing concert attendee the f-word (the homophobic f-word) and of course later had to post a statement about how he's not homophobic (whilst making sure everyone knows that he didn't say anything wrong, everyone else interpreted him wrong). You can read about it here.

I'm consistently shocked when I hear about this kind of stuff because I always expect artists to be more progressive in their thinking. If Homme had come out and said he made a mistake that would be one thing, but check out part of his response: "see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do!"

I'd like to know what Homme intended the f-word to mean there. Because what it seemed like he intended to do is infer that since this person was cowardly assaulting him, that person must therefore be a homosexual. I'm sure in Homme's mind his use of the f-word is different than a gay-hater's use, but is that really helping the cause? No, it's reinforcing stereotypes and creating excuses for using words that reinforce them.

What also surprised me was that no one seemed too upset by Homme's use of the p-word as an insult as well.

OK, honestly, I don't think Homme had thought through his comments that much before he made them. He'd just taken a shoe to the face (which sucks) and was understandably more than a little pissed off about it it. But what he did do was resort to childish name calling and reveal what is ultimately a grade school mentality.

IN OTHER NEWS!

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So that really wasn't music related. I'll also add that I'm currently at a bit of a crossroads. I've been pursuing music for around 10 years right now and it's gotten to the point of either needing to poop or get off the pot, so to speak. I'm on the verge of doing something I think could be great, but I'm not sure I can do it with my current schedule. So I'm thinking and planning and planning and thinking and wondering if I can be happy being a full time something else and doing music as a permanent side thing, or if I need to go into this full blast so that I'll never wonder what might have been.

Stay classy!