FlickWatch: Exit Through the Gift Shop (or I wanna make me some art)

Streamed via Netflix/Wii, we watched this documentary the other night. It's one of the most exciting and interesting actual documentations I've seen in a while.
See, there's this guy, Thierry, who has OCD. He has a compulsive need to videotape EVERYTHING. But he doesn't label or categorize because he's sort of nuts. Just keeps filming and filming. Then he gets hooked up with some street artists and starts documenting them. Then they connect him to Banksy, the holy grail of mystery street artists. Banksy puts on a show. Banksy then tells Thierry it's time to put the movie you've been filming together. When he does, it's a chaotic mess. So, Banksy decides to take all the raw stock and edit the film himself. And he tells loony to go off and busy himself. Make some art. Do something. And Thierry takes this as a mandate to become an ARTIST. He rebrands himself Mr. Brainwash (MWB) and basically becomes sort of a celebrity in the artworld.
It's fantastic.
Not to be missed.
And it kind of made me want to get some art supplies and draw this little alien character I made when I was 8. It's the only thing I've ever drawn and I think it could be a neat little stencil. On a building. Or you know, something.

Exit Through the Gift Shop
Grade: A+

FlickWatch: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World & the current state of comedy.

I've heard nothing but good things about this movie. That it's a real, geUwine comic book come to life.
It is. But that don't make it good.
It's annoying and difficult. I would stack it next to Kick Ass as the hyperbolic comic book movies of the year. Kick Ass, while violent as hell, is a better companion piece to Watchmen (A movie I truly loved, but in a geek that knows it's not as good as he wishes it was kind of way).
Pilgrim is so self aware, so self conscious and so pretentious that it left us with nothing to hold on to.
This could just be generational. I felt as detached from Napoleon Dynamite earlier this decade and I realize that I am in my mid-40s and movies aren't made for me anymore.
Fine. No problem. I'm happy to go into that good night. There is something more at work in Scott Pilgrim, though.
I grew up in a golden age of comedy. Steve Martin, Bill Murray, David Letterman. These were anti-comics working in the world of ironic detachment. Where they are superior to the characters they are playing and, while not embracing of them, certainly not hateful of them either. This is different from irony, which is the standard bearer of comedy. Ironic Detachment is snootier. And probably why I don't care for Conan O'Brien. He traffics in earnest doofusness. And Sandler, Farrell and early Jim Carrey. They don't love their characters. Those characters are just dumb and they aren't smarter than them, winking with us. They are more callous and indifferent.
Pilgrim traffics in what I am calling Ironic Alienation. The characters are so far removed from reality that they border on meta-people. There's no humanity but the actors playing them play them like the characters themselves are smarter than the people playing them. (I'll give you a second, it's a pretty bad sentence) It is the direct opposite of The Jerk. And there's nothing for me to grasp on to as there no place for me to relate. The audience can't fall in love with Pilgrim or Ramona or Knives because they have no semblance of human-ness. They aren't people, they are aliens in human clothing. At least in Kick Ass the characters bled and felt loss. The teeniest amount, perhaps but it was something.
Scott Pilgrim is the uber-meta-outside observer. And everyone who populates the film is as well. It's a good sign that the film was a flop.
Thoughts?

Grade: C

Reads

I used to love to read. Then I stopped because I didn't have the time, I had kids, there was too much music to listen to and too much tv and movies to watch. And then there was working and writing and, well, life.
Then I got a Kindle.
And I started reading again. Not as much as I'd have liked, but at least I was reading again. Even if a lot of it was crap.

In no particular order.



I'm a politics junkie. And since I spent 225 hours working on the Obama Campaign it's natural that I would have read this the day it came out.

Takeaway: McCain really unleashed a demon on us, didn't he?



Makes sense that I would want to get more inside dirt on this election. And I bought it to read while on business in the reddest state in the union. Too bad that Plouffe writes like a 15 year old girl who's a little to in love with himself and what he does for a living. I never finished it. Seemed redundant after the mid-terms.
Takeaway: The President's advisor is a bore.



The history of my union til 1985, just before I joined. I'm pretty involved now so I have been referencing this book all year.
Exceptional. I had a brief email exchange with the author and discovered that my theories and his coincide for what is happening that he expected to happen.

Takeaway: Politics is cyclical. And logic matters little.


Bourdain's pomposity overpowers the book. Could've been food porn and gossip but it just becomes a meandering memoir.

Takeaway: Brunch is leftovers and Holladaise sauce will kill you.



The best Gladwell since Tipping Point. Redolent with insightful information. Gladwell lays out his premise (that it takes 10000 hours doing something to become proficient) and supports it page after page. All leading up to a final chapter on the KIPP education progam.
Takeaways: The Power Dynamic Index explains why some jobs really suck.




The history of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) described at the end of Outliers. Exceptional enough to make me want to get Zoe on the waiting list.

Takeaway: We need to send our kids to school year round. Summer Vacation is a boondoggle.




Like reading blog entries and news articles. The events are so fresh that it almost seemed like I had read it already. Breezy enough, though.

Takeaway: The networks don't give a shit about quality. They give producers X dollars and expect X return. Whatever they put in there is up to them. They didn't ask for it to be "good". Woah.



Gladwell's collection of articles from the New Yorker. Do you find the New Yorker dry and over written? Then you won't like this book. It's a time passer but not one I'd recommend.

Takeaway: Playwrights plagiarize.



The only fiction I read all year. Starts out really promising and then loses its way about 2/3 in. But, fun, otherwise.

Takeaway: Fiction disappoints.




You know those documentaries that you see on Netflix that look like they were put together over a weekend? Like the B movie of documentaries? This is the published version.

Takeaway: Well, I no longer trust my real estate agent.



Klosterman's entry into the regurgitated essay field. I love him, so he can almost do no wrong. It's no "sex, drugs and cocoa puffs", but so what. The essay on football is amazing. Got me watching again.

Takeaway: The NFL is a progressive organization with a socialist bent and baseball is a backwards thinking arch conservative pastime. Go figure.



The music industry doesn't foresee the mp3 and it's own imminent destruction.

Takeaway: What I've always known: The lack of the need to replace albums with the new vehicle and the lack of foresight to see this happening helped kill the music biz.



My version of Kitchen Confidential was corrupted so Amazon gave me a credit. I really just wanted to read this for the Adam Ant Persuasion article. Which was sublime. The rest was fun piffle that could have been a series of articles for Rolling Stone. I'd buy it for that feature.

Takeaway: David Bowie is an opportunistic poser and Chicago is still around.



I put this one on here to make myself look smart. But I'm only halfway done. It's 1000 pages. And it's realllllly slow. I put it down 3 months ago and haven't been able to get back to it.

Takeaway: Obama spent so much time reading this he lost track of what was actually going on with Health Care. That's the only explanation I can think of.


Okay. In looking at this list I really need to read less about music and politics. Maybe find some fiction that can capture my attention. And stay away from the entertainment biz.
I

Listening Post: Guns N Roses

I think everyone had three albums in their collection in 1991. Nirvana's Nevermind. Pearl Jam's 10. And Appetite for Destruction. If you were like me, you also bought the Illusion twins but if you were reallllly like me, you never listened to any of those albums all the way through. Buying music as a 25 year old was almost a habit. And one that I was shedding and wouldn't return to until a decade later.
But I have them, dammit. So....what to think?




Guns n Roses - Appetite for Destruction - 1987

The tail end of hair metal. One year earlier and GnR are a hair band. Albeit one of the best. Look at Axl's hair in that video. Nirvana would sweep all of GnR's brethren away in one stroke, leaving them at the top of the mainstream maximum rock pile. But in 87, this was the answer to all that Joshua Tree posing.
Does it hold up? Sure. Is it great? Yeah. Could it be trimmed? Couldn't anything from the 80's be?
The surprise to me isn't how great the whole album is, it is, but just how it's an obvious grafting of punk and sleaze to Aerosmith. In fact, if you mixed ____ punk band, with Motley Crue and Aerosmith you get Guns N Roses's first album.
it's great.

Grade: A+
A Side: Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine, Mr. Brownstone, Paradise City
BlindSide: Nighttrain, Rocket Queen, It's So easy.




Guns N Roses - G n' R Lies - 1988

The one with Patience on it. And, if there is any doubt about the slavish adoration for the Toxic Twins, there's a rousing cover of Aerosmith's "Mama Kin". You can get those tracks elsewhere, this is unnecessary now.

Grade: C
A Side: Patience, Used to Love Her
BlindSide: Mama Kin
DownSide: Nice Boys



Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 1 - 1991

For my money, Illusion 1 is a more rewarding spinner than the debut record. But it's also a different record. The band has, for the most part, shed it's punk roots (Right Next Door to Hell notwithstanding) and embraced all sorts of rock themes. It's an aggressive record but, sonically, spectacular. "Perfect Crimes" could be a Motorhead track, then followed by the Stones-esque "You Ain't The First".
Sure, the singles are what we all remember, but there are muscular tracks like "Bad Apples" and "Dead Horse" that keep the record pounding long into it's 60th minute of play. I think Matt Sorum really fits the sound the band was going for and "Back Off Bitch" would never have gotten the same treatment by Steven Adler. The same goes for the energy of Double Talkin Jive, a real centerpiece on an album filled with them.
You get your money's worth with UYI1, it's relentless and devastating. In 1973, Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" came out. By 1991 it was schmaltz. Not only does GNR update it for the times, it STILL, 19 years later, packs a whallop. It's a testament that the rest of the album lives up to that track. I feel like this is the real GnR classic.

Grade: A+
ASide: Don't Cry, November Rain, Right Next Door to Hell, Live and Let Die, Back Off Bitch
BlindSide: Dead Horse, Bad Apples, Dust n Bones, Bad Obsession, Double Talkin' Jive, Don't Damn Me



Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 2 - 1991

Opening with an excerpt from Cool Hand Luke, "Civil War" opens the second set of 1991's GnR offerings like the second act of a big rock show. Bigger, if that's even possible, than the first set, this is the more methodical, anthemic GnR. The one that bridges the connective tissue between Aerosmith and Queen, the band's semi-disparate influences. I say that because while Queen's Brian May could shred with the best of them (Check out Dead on Time from Jazz) it's not May that excites Axl. It's Freddie Mercury. And he's brought the pomp in spades, brilliantly offset by Slash's guitar heroics and the best rhythm section of 80's stadium rock. Evidenced by the jaunty 70s rock of "14 Years", the band hasn't lost it's way, but the bloat of pablum like "Yesterdays" might indicate that they were a little tired and should have waited to put out a B-Side, rarities, thing, thought I do have a soft spot for their version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", so much so that my own band's "1000 Years" could be considered a direct rip. Influence. i meant influence. The song serves as Rose's answer to Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory". But is there anything as awful in the band's collection as "Get in the Ring"? The fact that the music is wasted on terrible lyrics and poorly over processed spoken word/rap is a testament to just how good the band is. But the bloat that follows feels more like filler than joyous rock n roll carnage. Except for the occasional bright spots like the trip-metal of "Locomotive" and the excess but exciting, "Breakdown", the albums lags more than one would hope, considering it's brother. And at least that record didn't have a "So Fine" to drag it to the maws of crap. A song that even latter day Crue would have rejected. The bloated "Estranged" is no real worthy successor to "Don't Cry" and "November Rain", of which it is supposed to be the closer of a trilogy. And the theme to Terminator 2, "You Could Be Mine" felt like rock-by-numbers in 91 and still does today. And it goes without saying that "My World" lays the groundwork for what Chinese Democracy was going to be all about. All you had to do was listen to that.
But don't. It's awful.

Grade: C-
ASide: Civil War, Knockin' On Heaven's Door
BlindSide: Breakdown, Locomotive
DownSide: Yesterdays, Get in the Ring, So Fine, My World

It should go without saying that The Spaghetti Incident? is a covers album and I am loathe to give it any of my time and Chinese Democracy is GnR is brand name only.

The state of the movie industry

Recently I was engaged in a minor conversation/debate regarding the decline in box office this holiday season. It could be looked at from many angles but everyone seems to point to internet thievery, piracy and a comparison to the music industry.
Here's what I think:
Before we lay all the blame at the feet of “pirates” (and I’m no fan) let’s also take into consideration a few other facts.
1. Hollywood makes a LOT less movies than they ever have before.
2. There are no Holiday themed movies which count for a good portion of the Winter box office (Elf, Polar Express to name a couple from the recent past).
3. It’s very expensive to go to the movies. $8 is an average ticket cost nationwide and the internet, XBOX, WII, Netflix have cut deeply into disposable cash availability.
4. If consumers are cutting their cable bills wouldn’t it stand to reason they aren’t going to offset that savings with exorbitant trips to the theater?
5. The music industry is very different from the movie one. Music is a very personal experience that most people enjoy in solitude. Movies are communal storytelling. The more the people involved in the experience the more it’s heightened.
6. While we are no longer in a recession, would you rather take your kids to Yogi Bear for X-Mas or get them the better Buzz Lightyear toy?
7. I am less concerned over box office, which I think is only slightly affected by theft, than I am by theft of television programming.
8. The music industry is suffering, sure. But, then how to explain the 1+ million first week SALES of Taylor Swift and the million plus sales of Kanye West? (Both albums are extraordinary by the way) Even Michael Jackson sold 3 mill of his posthumous release. The trouble the music industry has been having IS the same as the movie, but not what you might think:
It isn’t piracy. It’s noise. These two industries used to be able to pound their fodder into your head through limited ad space. Ad space isn’t limited anymore. It’s diversified. That should be great, right? Except that the attention is split, quartered, vivisected, pulverized. It’s all noise now. Advertising has no “special event” quotient. The Beatles on iTunes? That could have been an event. In 2003. But now it’s just…well, okay, great. What else ya got?
Movies were special. They were events. People talked about them. Now people talk about them…and everything else! Facebook, Twitter, blogs, comments, my god, how could you possibly catch up on what’s out there? How can anything get real traction?
The fight over net neutrality might be the answer. If we take away the freedoms of the net access theft can be choked. But at what cost? And what if, heaven forbid, we create this new world of vertical integration, of total corporate internet consolidation, arrest downloaders, stop rampant theft and the population STILL doesn’t go to the movies? What or who will we blame next?
There are less movies and those that are made are, for much of them, awful programmers. Is the answer to make better movies? Not really. There’s too much competition for those dollars.
In 1980 there were 3 networks and a handful of local stations and a fledgling company called HBO. Atari was barely a home option. Maybe, MAYBE, you had a VTR. And movies cost nothing. And, let’s be honest, by the end of that decade we were still a culture that viewed moviegoing as an artistic experience. The last vestiges of the cultural takeover of the 60s.
It’s 30 years later.
Apple TV. iPad. Hulu. Crackle. Netflix. RedBox. HBO, Starz, Showtime. VOD. Amazon VOD. XBOX. Wii. Playstation. Kinect. VuDu.Blu-Ray.
My goodness, we’ve splintered the entertainment options so many times how could we possibly expect people to go OUT??? We’ve built so many systems to keep them IN! And we want to be in, man. I’ve got a 50″ plasma with 5.1 surround sound and I curl up on my couch with my dog and my daughter and my pregnant wife and I microwave some 100 calorie popcorn and I pour ice cold Diet Pepsi from the $.89 2 liter bottle and I pause when someone needs to go to the bathroom.
Or I pull out the Rock Band set and we all go to town and make a crapload of noise playing together as a family band.
But the internet thieves, they’re the problem.
The studios used the economic downturn and the writer’s strike to kill producer deals and make less product. With less product comes less work availability, so they were able to squeeze performers into taking less since there’s just not as much work out there. But, it has bitten them on the backside, too. Because just like the fact that there was a glut of movies over the past 20 years the cutting back means less for people to see. I’m not going to see The Social Network again. But there aren’t as many options as before. This should be a good thing. Except that less product means there HAS to be less income. The music industry never really got this.
They continue to put out more and more and more in the hopes that something will stick. When the way it used to be was, sign a band, stick with them, cultivate them, sell a few, a few more and then they create their masterpiece and everyone does well. When the industry needed to scale down it couldn’t because the internet and the computer makes it possible for every little shitty band in every town in every city to put out and market their own music.
Think about that: 10 major cities. 20 clubs per city. 4 bands playing per night with no allowance for overlap shorter than 2 weeks (Clubs used to ask for this. They don’t want you wasting your “fan” attraction before you play their club. Band love this for the same reason. They don’t want to burn out.)
4 x 20 x 7 x 2 x 10. 11000 bands. In just 10 cities. So, there’s obviously more. And now ALL of them are recording their “music”.
Holy crap. How to compete with that? How to make it special when there are 3-10 thousand albums being produced a year?
And now movies. We need to not encourage the DIY of YouTube and Google. But we can’t help ourselves. We’re always for the little guy. The David. He’ll eventually slay Goliath, cause Goliath can’t co-opt them all.
And then it’s over.
Pop will eat itself.

Music Twenty-10

I didn't sample nearly the amount of music I have in the past so a "best of" list wouldn't be fair, truly. But there were some extraordinary spins, good listens and disappointments as well as a turkey or two. So here's my 2010.

My favorite spins of the year



Steel Train - Steel Train (Buy It, Dammit)

Without a doubt THIS was our album of the year. I blogged about it here
Just a fun mix of anthemic rock and Indie aesthetic. Self produced and distributed, this was my album of 2010.



Against Me! - White Crosses (Get it here and get it on vinyl with the digital download, you won't be sorry)

One of the best vinyl purchases of the year, White Crosses was more radio friendly and MOR than New Wave but it was big and it was fun and it was explosive and we loved every minute of it. The first half was stronger than the second but the beauty of vinyl is that you KNOW which side is which and that's how it should be. One different than the other. I think....



The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (Get the vinyl here. When I did it came with a DD, dunno about now.)

The other vinyl purchase from SideOne Dummy records arrived on the same day and did not disappoint. Building on the strengths of The '59 Sound but with better production and a beautiful gatefold (How I miss those) this album is one strong track after another and a must for any Bruce Springsteen fan who hated Working on a Dream with as much loathing as I did.



Taylor Swift - Speak Now
My wife threatened to leave me if I bought this on vinyl. She didn't want to walk in to her husband on the couch holding a Taylor Swift record. It was too much. She was afraid our unborn son might curl up and wither in embarrassment. That said, the songs here are just as strong as on Fearless and, in many ways, better. Taylor wrote the songs herself and used her poison pen to great success.



Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

I rejected this album on principle. That being that I am a short sighted and narrow minded person. I was blinded by Kanye's public persona and I haven't given rap a cursory listen since Eminem's The Eminem Show. When I finally gave in it was a revelation. The hit "Runaway" doesn't really work as a radio single, but nestled in the middle of this, that song is epic, tragic, reflective, amazing. As is the rest of this record.




Cee-Lo - The Lady Killer

It's not as great as that single, but holy crap that single. And it's as good as it needs to be.



Devo - Something for Everybody

Devo is back. Again. But they've learned a LOT from the tv scoring and the Dev2.0 crap they were involved with. This is Freedom of Choice part two. A treat. You will love it. The bridge between 1981 and 2010.

Better Than It Deserved to Be



Weezer - Hurley

Every Weezer fan laments every release that are not the second coming of Pinkerton. Get over it. This is a catchy pop-rock band. The epitome of 21st century bubblegum. If you're expecting more, move on.

Disappointments



I hate it when a band I love peaks but I think that might have happened with The Hold Steady. The first 3 records are extraordinary and then they slip and finally fall. Read my full review here:



If you read this blog you know I love me some Jukebox the Ghost. They were the best album of 2008 (written here) and their concert was fantastic as I wrote about here.. So you can imagine my disappointment when I didn't love the follow up. I think I might rate it a little higher now that I've lived with it for a few months. But not much. Here's that review.

The Bad




Meat Loaf - Hang Cool Teddy Bear

Ugh. Talk about nauseating. The review is at the bottom of the Meat Loaf Listening Post Here.Read it if you like. What a bad record.

That's it. That's the music that filled the Lulu house for 2010. Of course there was a lot more, retrospectives and the like. But of the new tunes, this is all we really dealt with.
We'll see what 2011 brings.

Listening Post: Sparks - Propaganda

Sparks - Propaganda - 1974

Like I said before. 1974. Crazy.
Obviously if this and the previous Sparks album were put out 15 years later, on CD, they would have been one offering, as Propaganda plays like Kimono My House part 2. But more of the same is terrific if what was before was as great as Kimono. Loony and more British than an LA band has a right to be. The Maels wear their influences on their sleeve and, while the production is just as keen as the previous record, the highlight is neither that nor the musicianship, its not even Russell's voice, all of which are stellar. It's the songwriting. Catchy as hell ("Reinforcements"), insightful ("At Home, At Work, At Play", "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"), and just plain loopy ("B.C.", "Thanks But No Thanks", "Something for the Girl with Everything"). The Maels have captured the mid-decade confluence of dada-art and commercialism, albeit both are disguised within another. While it could use a little editing here and there ("Achoo" seems to go on forever, but maybe that's the point) Propaganda is another winner from Sparks.

Grade: B+
A Side: At Home At Work At Play, Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth, Something for the Girl With Everything
BlindSide: Reinforcements, B.C., Achoo
DownSide: Don't Leave Me Alone With Her

Listening Post: Sparks - Kimono My House

Sparks- Kimono My House - 1974

Someday I'm going to get around to doing the Listening Post for the year 1974. A watershed year, I think. So much music really came into it's own: Metal, Glam, classic Rock, it was a grand time.
Sparks' 3rd album, the extraordinary merry-go-round of lunacy Kimono My House, which came out that year, is at once an epic of singular fun while at the same time picking up the mantle of Beatle glam and Queen sass and running wild.
Russell has embraced his anglophilia while brother Ron, writing epics of dubious nature (The exquisite epic glam waltz/lullaby "Falling in Love with Myself again" for example) and operatic genius ("This Town....") has truly found his voice.
The first side of Kimono is relentless. "Here in Heaven" is haunting and grandiose, worthy of Broadway. The breathless "Thank God it's not Christmas" calls to mind a 70s movie car chase with a vocal that calls to mind Freddie Mercury at his falsetto best.
The lost traveler opener of the second side, "Hasta Manana, Monsieur" is cute with it's obvious, cheeky, fish out of water lyrics, but it's not up to the par of the rest of the record. But it rights itself quickly with the bouncy Kinks pop of "Talent is an Asset", a terrific 3rd person tale of overindulgent parents and their prodigy. Reminds me of "Making Plans for Nigel" or any of the myriad songs in this idiom from English rock. It's quite brilliant. And on a record of great songs, it's a standout as is the equally jaunty "Complaints".
I could go on, song by song (well I guess I have) but the bottom line is that Kimono My House is one of the best top to bottom records of it's kind, an explosive yet bizarre (Sometimes macabre) glam pop rock relic of the mid-70s. If you think you know the era but you haven't heard this, you are not as educated as you think. It's a must.

Grade: A
ASide: This Town Ain't Big Enough for the both of Us, Amateur Hour, Talent is an Asset
BliindSide: Falling in Love With Myself Again, Here in Heaven, Thank God it's Not Christmas, Complaints, In My Family
Downside: Equator

Listening Post: Sparks - A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing

Sparks - A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing - 1972

Sparks gets much closer to perfecting their brand of glam and goof on their sophomore outing. Once again the record is front loaded as "Girl From Germany" is a splendid way to start but it's at about 3 songs in with the scattershot and epic "Nothing is Sacred" coupled with the string festooned "Here Comes Bob" that the album gets its fun on. "Moon Over Kentucky" completes the first side and shows the pathway to greatness that the forthcoming "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" would exemplify.
Side Two opens with a looney yet earnestly rocking version of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Do-Re-Mi" which would almost kill were it not for Russell's insistence on using that faux french accent which works later on "The Louvre" but is too distracting to ever convert anyone expecting mainstream pop to these guys. A denser and more rewarding record than their first, Sparks makes it clear that they are not for everyone but if you get them, they can be a real treat.

Grade B
A Side: Girl From Germany
BlindSide: Nothing is Sacred, Moon Over Kentucky
DownSide: Angus Desire, Whippings & Apologies

Listening Post: Sparks

Has anyone ever listened to every Sparks record? Well, I'm pretty sure the Mael brothers did but, other than them, I'm skeptical. So I'm about to change that.




Sparks/Halfnelson - Halfnelson - 1971

I bought Angst in my Pants after hearing "I Predict" on some New Wave stations and college radio. So, I assumed Sparks was a cheeky, humor band. When I saw Ron Mael's sardonic, determinedly non-musical presentation and his Chaplin/Hitler moustache I was convinced that this group spoke to my outside the mainstream aesthetic. I was pretty close. And when I would have the time and an extra couple bucks I would wander to a used record store (Most of the time it was Sounds in the East Village) and I would grab me an old Sparks record.
It took me a while to get my hands on the debut record and when I got it to my dorm and popped it on the turntable I was surprised to hear a very stripped down and bare sound, unlike the later glam gigantosaurs.
More surprising was the french accent lead singer Russel Mael adopted for much of the first side of the record. "Wonder Girl", the only single, and the only really memorable track, sounds like a french band trying to sound American. Or worse, an American band trying to sound like a French band trying to sound American.

Grade: C-
A Side: Wonder Girl
BlindSide: No More Mr. Nice Guys
DownSide: The rest.