Last night, killing time while waiting for "Saturday Night Live" (wanted to see Lily Allen, and she was worth it), I pulled an old promo VHS out of the box to watch while doing other tasks and grabbed "Swing," a British film starring pop thrush Lisa Stanfield in a "wildly hilarious" (not) movie that also featured the E Street Band's Clarence Clemons. It wasn't much of a plot - guy gets out of prison, puts together a swing band, and wins back the girl who married the cop who put him away. Stanfield has a nice voice, and the soundtrack offered some Louis Jordan, too. Must remember to check into some old swing sounds...
Speaking of soundtracks, am on the lookout for the score to "Babel," a wonderful film the hubby and I caught up with on Friday night. Not as depressing as I feared, and full of heart-breaking moments to remind us of our common vulnerability in this fearful modern world. Beauitful music throughout.
Today, I reached back into the video box and found a promotional tape from the Sundance Film Channel with three episodes of the series "Keeping Time," about American roots music. The first episode had a long look at Nickel Creek, including a great live cover of Nirvana. Another band I need to find out more about. Also fun to see a segment on small labels with plenty of shots from SXSW, which I would like to attend some day.
And now, I've got "Extras" on, with Chris Martin taking a fine piss out of himself to promote the new Coldplay greatest hits collection. Since I've been attempting to organize the photo collection this weekend, I have handy two shots of Mr. Martin, taken at a long-ago HFS-tival. One is a stage shot....
The other picture is, for me, testimony to his good guy-ness. I was in the backstage bowels of RFK Stadium when the band came running by, headed for the stage, about to perform in front of a crowd of 50,000, previewing new material from the "X &Y" album, which was still weeks off. One of the young teens I was with took off after the band, running alongside them and trying to say hello. I tried, but couldn't stop her, and was steeling myself for some kind of negative response - which I could see as deserved, given the high anxiety of those last pre-stage moments. Instead, Chris Martin noticed my young friend, stopped in his tracks and asked "would you like a picture?" And she quickly passed the camera off (to me? to my daughter?) to capture a golden Kodak moment. So here's to you, Chris Martin. Maybe I didn't think "X & Y" was a riveting piece of work, but you've still got soul in my book...
Can't talk about this weekend in music without mentioning Prince at the Super Bowl. Points for a trooper who will put it all out there even with in a downpour - which made "Purple Rain" all that more effecting. And while we didn't get the butt-less trousers, that little trick he pulled, playing behind a scrim which made his guitar even more of a phallic symbol, kept alive the tradition of "WTF?!" Super Bowl musical moments.
Another piece of music news I discovered tonight, upon perusal of the James Brown memorial issue of Rolling Stone, is that my hands-down favorite contemporary music writer, Rob Sheffield, has a book out. This guy is laugh-out-loud funny in his regular columns for the magazine, and the one time I met him - at a CMJ conference a few years back - he came across as a genuinely friendly, no-pretense kind o' guy. The book is called "Love is a Mix Tape," an ode to his late wife, the equally charming Renee Crist, whom I had one delightful dinner with ages ago on a visit to LA. I can't wait to read it - going to Barnes and Noble tomorrow. (Flirted with amazon, but want Rob to get every penny he can.) His column ends with what appears to be an emal link, but it actually just takes you to the RS web site, so I couldn't send him a cyber note of congratulations.
Actually, I did take care of a little bizniz this weekend. Updated the closepersonalfriend web site to include the latest music previews for the washington post:
The Guggenheim Grotto at Jammin Java
Lennex, HumanRoom, et al at Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse
I'm way behind on the O/CD tally, but here's a few new ones, with more to follow soon (they're piling up!)
1. SONDRE LERCHE and the FACES DOWN - Phantom Punch (Astralwerks)
Much as I love Lerche, his latest (fourth) full-length album, isn’t doing it for me. He recorded with his Faces Down band, several songs captured live in one take, and he’s clearly going for a more aggressive sound. And that’s the trick. “I didn’t want to be subtle this time around,” he says in the press kit, “I wanted every song to jump out of the speakers.”
Producer Tony Hoffer has worked with Beck, Belle & Sebastian and Marianne Faithful, but here he's more in his Supergrass mode. The problem for me is that Lerche is so charming and distinctive in his classic songbook pop mode, why would he want to trade it for a dime-a-dozen rock sound?
Due February 6th
2. LOST IN THE TREES - Time Haunts Me (Trekky Records)
This is a solo CD from Ari Picker, leader of The Never, who released a storybook album, “Antarctica” (with artwork by Picker), last year. It was quite lovely - as is this one, a compilation of songs, written over the last 7 years, that tends toward the more solemn and personal. A guy who’s spent time at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Picker has a classical flourish to his songwriting and used a 9-piece backing orchestra for this, including violins, viola, cello, upright bass, trombone, melodica and banjo. A nice change of pace. Here’s a link to the track ”Tall Trees”
Due March 20th.
3. The GUGGENHEIM GROTTO - ...Waltxing Alone (UFO)
The afore-mentioned Post preview was one of those I pushed a bit harder for since I really wanted to cover the band. They'll be at Jammin Java this Wednesday and I expect to be there, camera in hand.
YTD Total: 19
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