Hot tramp, I love you so

[koganbot]

Haven't seen Bandslam; am sure there can be a touching movie about teens who care deeply about shitty music. And sometimes when you see bad songs in use - movies can do this - you discover that they're not bad. Sometimes. So anyway, my thoughts on the soundtrack LP, which may have little to do with the music heard in the film, though hoshuteki assures me that "Everything I Own" is as dire on film as on disk.

David Bowie "Rebel Rebel": Yes, I love this song, though I have always questioned the veracity of "she's not sure if you're a boy or a girl." As for this being on a movie soundtrack: Whatevs.

The Velvet Underground "Femme Fatale": Whatevs. There are at least a score of better VU songs that are worse known. Whatevs.

Nick Drake "Road": Had never heard Nick Drake! This song is pleasant!

Wilco "What Light": There are scores of Wilco songs and I think I'd heard three before and this is one of them. I gave it a 5 out of 10 on the Jukebox, unless I gave it a 6. Or a 4. Pretty tune, dumb lyrics, I grade the singing meh-PLUS, would give the track a 6 today. Or a 5. Whatevs.

Bunch of indie and not-quite-as-indie songs by bands I've never heard of: Two are good, the Burning Hotels' "Stuck In The Middle," horror glam that's half-frantic like Franz Ferdinand; and the Daze' "Blizzard Woman Blues," like Jack White fronting the Blues Explosion, fractured jump-the-rails no-wavish funk. Would listen to more by these two.

I Can't Go On, I'll Go On f. Aly Michalka "Amphetamine": Original is by Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 and it is good and so is this; Aly can push across a hard rock song. Slam dunk, yippee! (Steve Wynn is formerly of the Dream Syndicate.) This track is the only possible reason to pay money for the soundtrack.

I Can't Go On, I'll Go On f. Aly Michalka "Someone To Fall Back On": Superb job by Aly on neo-standard show-tune schmaltz. She talks words easily, sings with nuance, raises her voice without blaring, the accompaniment being mid-volume rock that never gets goopy. However, I hate this song no matter who's performing it.

Aly Michalka "I Want You To Want Me": Disparate energy, band clatters around, no impact. I've heard three different versions of this in the last month, and all others are better.

I Can't Go On, I'll Go On f. Vanessa Hudgens "Everything I Own": Yes, Bread fans, that "Everything I Own." Nasal-voiced Vanessa has promise - in fact achievement - as a sub-Cover Girls freestyle-lite emoter. That is not what this track is, however. It's a rock-soul-reggae amalgam, is wrong for her, she is wrong for it, they should never have gotten together in the first place, even counseling won't save this match.

Comments

Attention Mark S.

[koganbot]

From Todd Graff's liner notes:

The Velvets were among the most influential bands who ever existed.

A vote for studio tricks

[koganbot]

From Todd Graff's liner notes:

And anyone who thinks Vanessa Hudgens is just a dance pop diva need only listen to her wail the climactic note at the end of this song. That's all her - no studio tricks.

Yes, we can tell.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

A small part of me wonders what you would think of K-On.

[koganbot]

My first thought on reading the description was that Yui was Sailor Moon, though of course that comparison doesn't work without danger and the need for concealment and for a secret identity. But the thought came because both Yui and Sailor Moon have talents that seem at odds with their day-to-day demeanor, and maybe even have talents they're unaware of.

Seems odd to use a non-audible medium for a strip about music. Is the strip generally humorous? I don't know a thing about manga, so I have no idea if the strips divide into serious and funny in the way that they do in the U.S.

The anime seems too new to have possibly made it to subtitles and the Denver Public Library.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Both Yui and Sailor Moon are instances of a common heroine archetype in anime, personality-wise.

4-panel strips are humourous, much as Western newspaper comics. Manga are serialized graphic novels, though, and have pretty much the same range as live-action TV series. K-On! is the "cute girl" anime sensation of the year, as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was before it (although it's less deep and more sweet-natured than Haruhi). Presumably the credible depiction of the all-girl high school guitar pop band is a factor - insofar as I know, this story has never(!) been told in anime, although there's been anime about all-boy bands, mixed boy-girl bands, and of course 8,234 series that feature female idoru pop singers.

Fans subtitle nearly all anime series for free download months if not years before they're made available in official US release. *g* There are some clips on YTube, although no full episodes I can find on a cursory search.

[jtemperance.livejournal.com]

I love Wilco, but "What Light" is probably my least favorite song of theirs.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What are the better-quality/worse-known Velvet Underground songs? I like "Femme Fatale", but then I only have their album with Nico, and a Nico best of compilation.

[koganbot]

I like "Femme Fatale" too, but it's such an obvious choice. But given the bit of movie script Ewan relates below, it actually makes sense as the choice.

OK, disqualifying "Heroin" and "Sweet Jane" as two that are better known (and disqualifying "Rock & Roll" because not only is it better known but I don't much like it) here are 20:

--"Sister Ray" (which is obviously too long to make it into the soundtrack)
--"Here She Comes Now"
--"I Heard Her Call My Name"
--"I Can't Stand It"
--"I'm Set Free" (the one I would have chosen as an overlooked Velvets song that could use some touting, though as I said, I can see how in the context of the movie "Femme Fatale" is more realistic)
--"White Light/White Heat"
--"I'm Waiting For My Man"
--"Venus In Furs"
--"What Goes On"
--"Temptation Inside Your Heart"
--"Candy Says"
--"Sunday Morning"
--"There She Goes Again"
--"We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together"
--"All Tomorrow's Parties"
--"Some Kinda Love"
--"Black Angel's Death Song"
--"That's The Story Of My Life"
--"Beginning To See The Light"

Er, OK that's only nineteen, and I was about to type in "Pale Blue Eyes" when I realized I'd say the exact same thing about it that I'd said about "Femme Fatale."

You might well hate "Sister Ray" and "I Heard Her Call My Name" owing to their noisiness, but notwithstanding the noise they have a washed-out 4 A.M. feeling that could seep into you in a good way.

[(Anonymous)]

Frank: You might be interested in the movie "Brick," a "teen" noir movie that DOES have "Sister Ray" in the soundtrack...says AKinCLE.

[koganbot]

Does the movie play all 17 minutes?

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

The scrawny lead character and AJ's (older, wiser, rebellious) character have a little dialogue in the film when she puts on "Femme Fatale", waving around the Velvet Underground & Nico CD, where she says the Velvets are great, he should listen to them, and he replies saying he liked the third, self-titled album best, and offers that she may not agree with him depending on whether she thinks they went downhill after John Cale left.

[koganbot]

That's actually terrific true-to-life dialogue.

More terrific actual-life dialogue, which I would put in a film, if I were to make a film, but makes me cringe to think about:

Me (visiting Cambridge MA in 1973, in someone's dorm room): "That's the worst Velvet's album [Velvet Underground & Nico] but it's the best album in your collection." [I had just entered the room so everyone knew I hadn't even had time to look at the person's collection.]

(I guess that's not dialogue, given that only one person is speaking.)(What's embarrassing in retrospect is that I was wrong and of the four Lou-era studio albums, not counting later comps, Loaded is actually the worst.)