Can we talk about how fantastic and utterly imaginative Janelle Monae is? Her new single “Tightrope” from her awaited May LP The Archandroid (2010) is a polished, fresh example of Janelle’s funky blend of old-school soul and futuristic robot jams.
Janelle has a penchant for cyborg-themed music and videography, and she’s also got a pretty powerhouse voice. “Tightrope” lets her show off her verbal acrobatics with quick-step verses balanced by a more ballad-worthy chorus that makes Janelle sounds like a sweeter version of Amy Winehouse. She’s captured the jazzy, retro sound of classic funk/soul but infuses it with a contemporary twist — including guest Big Boi of Outkast (who delivers a rap interlude with references ranging from “Macbook” to “NASDAQ” and “ass crack”). The backup brass + turntable blend sounds sometimes like something that could accompany the Jetsons.
No experience of “Tightrope” is complete without the visual accompaniment. In the video, Janelle seems trapped in some sort of asylum inhabited by Michael Jackson’s fleet-footed androids and crackly video-faced hooded figures like the ones from Harry Potter. Janelle is playfully vintage + modern, with a crazy pompadour and saddle shoes. While Big Boi delivers his silly rap, her crew busts out moves worthy of the Matrix movies.
This week I’m listening to “Because It’s Not Love (But It’s Still a Feeling)” off of the album We Are the Pipettes (2006) by (surprise!) The Pipettes. It’s a relative oldie (was released the year I left high school, but I didn’t discover it until maybe last year), but their second album is expected in June of 2010, so it’s as good a time as any to revisit these polka-dot clad popsters.
What’s so great about The Pipettes is that though at first listen they seem like pretty simple, sugary manufactured girl-pop, their lyrics revitalize what might otherwise be a sickeningly sweet, British version of something like Josie and the Pussycats. In songs like “Because It’s Not Love,” the trio chirps about flirtatious games that don’t seem suited to their retro, swingy sound. “I don’t want to be wined and dined/I just want to bump and grind with you here tonight,” they sing.
“Because It’s Not Love” is like having Sandy from “Grease” perform a rap song. For The Pipettes, the juxtaposition works, making for seemingly innocent songs sealed with a pink-lipstick bite.
No, not the song by Ke$ha. This week’s featured track is from Miike Snow, a fun little Swedish group that just produced their self titled album in September of 2009. The track “Animal” opens up what is an impressive debut for the threesome, who have already worked with big names like Passion Pit and Vampire Weekend.
Miike Snow sounds like a more ethereal Animal Collective, and their lyrics have a vagueness and mystique to them: “I change shapes just to hide in this place/But I’m still, I’m still an animal.” Vocals are breathy and a little melancholy, but the synth-pop arrangement balances them out with a bouncy backdrop. “Animal” is definitely the kind of thing you could bring along on gray-sky-day run, while the Mark Ronson remix has more of a Bob-Marley-blasting-from-a-boombox-at-the-beach feel to it. There’s something to be said about this song being both a haunting but catchy arrangement, and I think it’s that Miike Snow might have major potential.
Competing Hollywood studios have the tendency to somehow come up with the same idea at the same time. Who could forget Battle Wisecracking Animated Insects (Antz vs. A Bug’s Life)? What about Battle Mysterious Victorian Magicians Who May Or May Not Use Real Magic (The Illusionist vs. The Prestige)? And don’t forget the upcoming Battle Multiracial Team Of Bad-Ass Ex-Government Muscle Fights Back (The Losers vs. The A-Team vs. The Expendables)!
This summer movie season offers yet another showdown for the ages: Battle Awkward Teens Mumble Their Way Through Hardcore Fight Scenes In A Story Based On A Graphic Novel.
Photo: fandangogroovers.wordpress.com
In this corner, we have Kick-Ass, based on the comic by Mark Millar (who also wrote the source material for Wanted) and John Romita, Jr., which opened this weekend in second place, behind How To Train Your Dragon. Kick-Ass had a lot of marketing oomph behind it, along with a controversial talking point in Hit-Girl, the shockingly skilled 11-year-old mercenary who serves as the true hero of the film. Kick-Ass is flashy and bloody and there sure is a lot of cursing, but ultimately, it’s unsatisfying as a movie. The original comic is weak in the story, too; even though the screenplay makes a few changes and takes out a few of the more meandering points, it’s difficult to care about the titular main character, played by poor-man’s-Michael-Cera Aaron Johnson. The direction, from Matthew Vaughan, is flashy, but it mostly seems like a poor man’s version of Edgar Wright’s excellent work on Shaun of the Dead.
Photo: screencrave.com
Speaking of Mssrs. Cera and Wright: In this corner is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, to be released August 13. Based on the lauded manga-inspired comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, the film stars Cera and all of the practiced awkwardness that implies. However, people who have read the comic tell me that Scott Pilgrim is actually pretty bad-ass – he’d have to be to take down all the characters he’s seen battling in the teaser trailer, played by hipster-nerd-bait actors like Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Mae Whitman. We’ve received precious little information about the production, but it’s hard to imagine Wright, who also helmed Hot Fuzz, not having a ball with this material. Kick-Ass also has comic-inspired visuals, particularly “Meanwhile…” and other caption boxes, but Wright seems to be taking the pastiche to its obvious conclusion with full-blown “POW!” graphics, colorful decoration, and slow-mo punches.
I suppose the fundamental question you have to ask yourself is this: a prepubescent girl avenger shooting a bullet through one guy’s cheek in order to kill another guy, or Michael Cera taking down Jason Schwartzman with a flaming sword? I’m in no way a Cera devotee, but I have implicit trust in Wright’s talent and devotion to the source, so if you were going to ask me – skip Kick-Ass and wait for Pilgrim.
…Until you’ve toyed with this new Cold War Kids video at least fifteen times.
So this is pretty cool. The Cold War Kids, looking to promote their new single “I’ve Seen Enough,” have created a neat, interactive web video that lets YOU pick out the instruments they use to play the song. Each band member gets four different selves — in red, green, blue, and yellow. Adjust them accordingly for a different sound each time. I also really like how the foursome sort of twiddle their thumbs at the end of the set until you press “play” again.
So I finally got around to listening to The Temper Trap’s debut album Conditions (2009) and want to highlight the first track: “Love Lost.”
Typical of most songs from these Aussies, “Love Lost” is grounded on a constant pulsing beat that builds the track into a dramatic, sweeping U2-esque conglomerate of guitar, echoes, and Dougie Mandagi’s fantastic falsetto. I’m a sucker for handclaps, so I love the ones that come in from the beginning and sneak their way into the spaces between verses and chorus.
It’s actually the buildup to the chorus (which consists mostly of some repeated variation on the line “Our love was lost, but now we’ve found it.”) that I like better than the dramatic burst of guitar that follows. Without the pulse and claps, “Love Lost” would be a little too epic and cliched – just like its name sounds. It’s in the quieter segments that Mandagi’s voice can really undulate and wow, and that’s ultimately what might give Temper Trap some staying power.
You love “MMMBop.” Stop whining, it’s an irrefutable fact entwined with the human condition. So I know you’re proud to hear that your favorite band, Hanson, is all grown up and releasing their 7th (!!) studio album, Shout It Out, at the end of the month. Today, they released the video for the album’s first single, “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin,’” and basically, it’s adorable. It’s a take-off/tribute/remake of the Ray Charles sequence of Blues Brothers, the massive choreographed dance looks like a lot of fun, and Weird Al Yankovic is playing tambourine in the background for some reason. Best of all, the song is super catchy, and I know I don’t need to tell you this, but those Hanson fellows are kind of talented! Of course they are, they’re your favorite band!
When I joined the Daily Arts staff, I made a promise to myself that I would never dedicate an entire post to Jim Carrey.
Well, self. I am sorry.
As a little boy, I revered Jim Carrey as one of the funniest comedians out there. He hit the big time in 1994’s “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” which is the landmark film where I shall start and end this post. I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did when I was a young boy watching Ace Ventura, whether he was conversing with his houseful of animals or using chloroform to anesthetize an unwitting Miami Dolphins star, I thought Ace Ventura was hilarious. Carrey used his over-the-top comedy to ham it up as Ventura in two hilarious films, thus sparking his rise to stardom.
In 1994 alone, Carrey also starred in two of his other vintage roles, as Stanley Ipkiss, the bashful bank clerk, in “The Mask” and Lloyd Christmas, the idiotic buddy of Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) in the Farrely Brothers’ “Dumb and Dumber.” In fact, all the way up until 2003, Carrey made comedy classics like “Liar Liar” (1997), “Me, Myself and Irene” (2000) and “Bruce Almighty” (2003).
So, yes, people do give Jim Carrey a lot of flack for being an over-actor. But the truth is, he’s got more awards than can be counted on one hand. Sure, they’re mostly MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards, but Carrey has got two Golden Globes as well. Not bad for a gawky, Canadian goofball.
Yet, 2004 seemingly marked the end of the glory days of Jim Carrey.
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In 2004, Carrey starred in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004). Although this movie was deliciously twisted and critically-acclaimed, it marked the demise of Carrey. Upon taking the role of the unstable Joel Barish, a man who has his memories of his former lover surgically erased, Carrey entered new film territory. He had played somewhat dramatic characters before like Truman Burbank, a man who is shocked to find out that his whole life is a TV series, in “The Truman Show” (1998), yet he always held roles with comedy at their cores. With “Sunshine,” Carrey came to the unfortunate epiphany that there was more to film than comedy as he went on to the dark comedy “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” (2004) and the horror/suspense flick “The Number 23″ (2007).
Though Carrey did indeed stick mainly to the comedy genre, he has not made a good comedy film since “Bruce Almighty.” As a viewer, I am disappointed. I watched a little of the first “Ace Ventura” on TBS this morning and laughed just as hard as I did when I was younger. Of course, I am a sap for stupid humor, but I miss the good ol’ days of Jim Carrey. Hopefully he can pick things up again with some of his upcoming films, like 2011’s “Where’s Waldo?” Carrey will star as the smiling striped protagonist and, if he can’t get back on the funny horse, I can move on to harassing Adam Sandler about his dwindling career. ”The Longest Yard” (2005), Adam? Really?
I’ll readily admit that I’m a bit of a UK TV junkie (ahem), but it’s not just my fondness for British accents that has so endeared me to the newest season of BBC stalwart Doctor Who, which just aired its second episode in its home country.
The original Doctor Who debuted a couple weeks after the Kennedy assassination, but since then, the show has been produced on and off as the Doctor – a benevolent, ageless, time-traveling alien – has “regenerated” into the bodies of 11 different actors. Notably, writer Russell T. Davies revitalized the series in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper (who can now be seen on Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl) as his human companion. Smart writing and slick – but still endearingly cheap – special effects garnered a new, hip audience and eventually earned Davies a spin-off, Torchwood, soon to be Americanized for Syfy. Following Eccleston’s one-season run, the Tenth Doctor was played by charming Scot David Tennant, who successfully drove the series for nearly fifty episodes. After Davies’ fourth season of Who, he and Tennant both stepped down and the show was handed off to Davies’ highly regarded deputy Steven Moffat. In a controversial choice, moppety twentysomething Matt Smith was cast as the Doctor.
Though I’m personally familiar with the history of Who, I had never actually seen an entire episode of the show before last week, when season five bowed with “The Eleventh Doctor.” Since I had followed the internet kerfuffle that followed the announcement that Smith was cast – fans were concerned that he was too young or too pretty or somehow contrary to the spirit of the role – I was interested to see how the actor would assert himself.
And I must say, he did a tremendous job. The Doctor is a peculiar role that requires rapidfire, off-kilter dialogue to be delivered with a cocktail of whimsy and heart. Smith’s Doctor cares deeply for children and the helpless, yet he has the confidence to stand up against seemingly impenetrable forces. More, he’s a guide to the strange and wonderful for Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), his new companion.
In “The Eleventh Hour,” we meet Amy first as a seven-year-old named Amelia when the newly-regenerated Doctor crashes the TARDIS – his spaceship/time machine that takes the form of a phone booth – in her backyard. Amelia is charmed and delighted by the “raggedy doctor” as he adjusts to his new body and helps her decipher the strange voices she hears in her house at night. The Doctor promises her an escape and says he’ll be back in five minutes – but when the TARDIS reappears, 12 years have gone by. Amy is now a spunky and disillusioned young woman, but after the Doctor literally saves the world, she is entranced all over again and eagerly jumps in the TARDIS without mentioning that the next morning should be her wedding.
Smith and Gillan have great chemistry, and more, Smith makes it easy to see what has Amy so starry-eyed. He’s appealingly confident about his observations and knowledge as he guides her through a 29th century version of Britain in “The Beast Below,” the season’s second episode. Like Tennant, Smith seems to be spitting out information so quickly that he can bury the Doctor’s emotional foundation, which has come to the fore since the rest of his race was destroyed. The Doctor acts like he travels through time as a whimsical observer, but as Amy points out, he often chooses to interfere out of the goodness of his heart – because he is “very old and very kind and the very very last.”
Beyond the performances, Moffat has thus far lived up to expectations as the series’ premier writer. The dialogue is full of wit and the dangers are very real. Doctor Who has always been a reliable show for heart as well as frights, and “The Beast Below” delivered both in equal parts. Moffat has wisely used the opportunity of the reboot to tell stories that speak to the heart of the Doctor’s character. In that way, this has been the perfect place for me – or any new viewer – to jump into the show and fall for it anew.
Matt Smith’s Doctor officially comes to BBC America on April 17, but the internet is a wonderful place, if you get what I’m saying.
Singer Sharon Jones and her talented entourage dubbed “The Dap-Kings” delivered another soulful collection this Tuesday with their fourth record – I Learned the Hard Way (2010). Though the whole set is a strong one (especially the title track), I want to highlight a song that I keep going back to, called “Better Things.”
“Better Things” might be one of the simplest songs on the album, but that’s why I love it. Jones’s rich voice gets sassy as she repeats “I’ve got better things to do than remember you.” If she’s learned the hard way, this seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. She just shines here, not only as a powerful vocalist, but through lyrics laden with post-breakup, powerful self-assurance.
What’s so great about Sharon and the Dap-Kings is that their retro sound is a product of retro recording equipment; the group’s label Daptone Records aims to capture the sound of the 60s by forgoing modern digital recording in favor of analog tape.
Sharon is making an appearance at Boston’s House of Blues soon (May 27th), and I hear she’s even better – and more experimental – live. Standing room tickets are a reasonable $20. Just don’t take mine.
Welcome to the Tufts Daily Arts Blog. This is where we, a band of grammar-conscious, pun-producing students, rant and rave about current arts topics. We'll share our favorite music, dish on celebrity news, toss up photos of local food and entertainment finds, and occasionally take you behind the scenes of our regular print content. Check it out (and write for us!).
