There are times in life when you discover something you like purely by accident. I happened upon Drink Up Buttercup when they opened for Bishop Allen last night. About 30 seconds into their set I thought to myself, “What the hell is going on? And why do I like it?”.
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Bishop Allen’s The Broken String is a great album, but a lot of its greatness comes from subtlety. I went into last night’s show at The Black Cat in DC with some worries about how the songs would translate to a live show. On top of those worries, the band had announced that they would be playing a lot of material from their upcoming album on this tour. So not only was I worried about how the old material would translate, but on top of that I was worried about how good the new songs would be. Turns out I shouldn’t worry so much. The old songs were great, and the new songs were as good or better. Check out “Middle Management”, the last song before the encore:
The premise is familiar: A man and a woman have been friends forever, but just friends. Neither has any interest in complicating their relationship with any sort of physical activity. Then, through a complicated set of circumstances, their relationship is changed forever. It’s a classic Hollywood storyline, mostly used in a one particular type of film: the chick flick.
What does this have to do with raunchmeister Kevin Smith’s latest movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno? Despite it’s foul language, adult themes, and graphic nudity, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a pretty conventional chick flick. A dirty, nasty, and incredibly funny chick flick.
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Ray LaMontagne literally eschews the spotlight. He seems to have it trained on other members of the band whenever possible. Failing that he spends a lot of time standing at its edges. He doesn’t talk much, opening up only to introduce the band, thank the crowd, and occasionally respond to shouts from the audience. He’s relatively still, preferring to stand in front of the microphone rather than wander around the stage. These traits point to an artist that is shy, perhaps filled with self doubt, or at very least a lack of confidence. However, with a quiet “One-Two-Three-Four” the band begins to play and those labels seem ridiculous.
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Tell me, how great of a name for a band is Miniature Tigers? It’s awesome, right? It would take a lot for the music to actually live up the name. For the LA indie band that chose that name, making the music live up to the name is the easy part. Finding and outlet for all of the songs rattling around songwriter Charlie Brand’s head is far more difficult.
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If you’ve been reading PCWEI for a while you know we’re big fans of The Rosebuds. The band was one of the first Sunday Music Spotlights. Their song “Leaves Do Fall” was one of our best songs of 2006. So it was with great expectation that I listened to their upcoming album, Life Like. Would it live up to Birds Make Good Neighbors and The Rosebuds Make Out? Or would it be vaguely disappointing like last year’s Night of the Furies?
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Ben Folds is the sort of musician who isn’t afraid to challenge his audience. Last night at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, Folds kicked off his Way to Normal tour with a gutsy move: he came out and played 16 songs from his upcoming album Way to Normal, and the accompanying “fake” album he leaked to prevent the actual album from leaking.
In case you haven’t heard the story, Folds realized his upcoming album was probably going to leak before it’s September 30th release date. So he took a preventative measure. He booked a day of studio time for him and his band, and they recorded “fake” versions of many of the songs on the album. They wrote new lyrics and music to go with the titles of the real songs and laid down the tracks in just a few hours. Then they leaked that as the real album. Genius.
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Over the past few days Tropic Thunder has stirred up a fair amount of controversy. It’s offended a lot of people with its handling of race, mental handicaps, and obesity. Setting aside whether the criticisms are valid or the critics are missing the satire, the basic question for me is not how bad this movie is, but rather is it any good? Can Ben Stiller really play a parody of an action star? Can Robert Downey Jr. really pull off playing an Australian playing a black Army sergeant? And most of all, can it live up to the laughs and action that fill the trailers?
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I’m a sucker for buddy movies. Especially buddy movies with lowbrow humor as their main focus. Two of my favorite comedies of all time are Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy, which both do a great job making you believe the relationship between the characters while simultaneously making you shoot the beverage of your choice out your nose. With that in mind, Pineapple Express should be right up my alley. Could the everyman heroics of Seth Rogan pair with the stoner antics of James Franco to elevate Pineapple Express beyond the typical limitations of stoner movie genre? Or would it sink into drug cliches and tired bong humor?
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What is the true test of a comedy? Should it be well-crafted, have a tight script, and smart humor? Or should it just make you shoot your soda out of your nose? I suppose there’s really no answer to this question, and there are certainly merits to both sorts of comedies. Being a Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly collaboration you’d probably expect more from Column B, and not much of Column A from Step Brothers, and you’d be right. It’s not fine art, and it’s not going to win any awards for Best Screenplay. But it has moments that are ludicrously funny. I walked into the theater in a bad mood and left in a good on. And that’s good enough for me.
One note though: I’d wait to see it on DVD. Not because it’s not worthy of seeing in the theater. Just because I bet there will be a ton of deleted scenes. There was stuff in the trailers that didn’t make the final cut, and almost all of the scenes from the job interview clip aren’t there. Plus for the much of the second half of the movie Ferrell and Reilly wear what look like walkie-talkie watches, but there’s no explanation. I bet it’s a deleted scene, and I’d bet it’s funny.
Rating: 
