Listening Post: U2 October

Like most people, I imagine, I am very well versed in the well known songs of U2. How could I not be? During the 80s they were ubiquitous. U2 and R.E.M. (possibly the subject of a later listening post) came out at the same time, have lasted the same amount of time and had roughly the same number of hits.
The difference is that, while Stipe and Co. soldiered on after a key member left (after saying that they wouldn't ever do such a thing) U2 has been comprised of the same 4 Irish lads since 1980.
1980! If Rock and Roll began in 1955, which is the accepted norm, then u2 has been around for more than HALF of the history of Rock.
What really surprised me as I began to research this retrospective is just how young they all are. Three of the members were born in 1961 and the other is even younger. I was born in 1965 which makes Bono and the gang close to being contemporaries.
The thing is, I have never heard the entire albums. I own them, in various forms, but after the big hit songs it just all sounds the same to me, so I would turn the record, CD, mp3, off.
Who among us doesn't own "The Joshua Tree"? And who has really listened beyond the first four tracks? (U2 notoriously front loads their albums with the hit singles starting off with a bang but giving us little reason to keep listening sometimes)
So, an end shall be put to that for me. I have begun the great U2 retrospective of 2008. And here's what I think:


U2 - October - 1981 (Buy it)

Okay. What can be said about October?
Is it Boy II? No, not really?
Is The Edge all over this thing? yes. And how do you talk to him? "Hey, THE Edge, could hand me a soda?" "What did you think of the last epsiode of Lost, The Edge?" Annoying.
Is it Christian Rock? Um....yeah.
But is it good?


No.

In fact, I would hazard a guess that, if a band today, like Jet or The Darkness or Ima Robot, who had moderately successful debuts were to put out a record this bad as their sophomore work they would be dropped by their label? Oh, wait. Hmmmm.....

October opens with the patented U2 fade in only this feels like they wanted it to sound like a continuation of Boy. Gloria is the first track, the only single, the only song you know and, all I can say is, Thank God for MTV, right, boys?
October is pretentious. October is Self-righteous. October is a waste of our time.



Grade D
A Side: Gloria
Blindside: Is That All? (or nothing, there really isn't much to recommend this album.)
Downside: Tomorrow (a great example of an album crushing itself under he weight of it's own importance)

Ratings explained:
A Sides are the hit you should own.
Blindsides are the songs you probably never heard but would enjoy
Downsides are the worst track on the album.

Listening Post: U2 Boy

Like most people, I imagine, I am very well versed in the well known songs of U2. How could I not be? During the 80s they were ubiquitous. U2 and R.E.M. (possibly the subject of a later listening post) came out at the same time, have lasted the same amount of time and had roughly the same number of hits.
The difference is that, while Stipe and Co. soldiered on after a key member left (after saying that they wouldn't ever do such a thing) U2 has been comprised of the same 4 Irish lads since 1980.
1980! If Rock and Roll began in 1955, which is the accepted norm, then u2 has been around for more than HALF of the history of Rock.
What really surprised me as I began to research this retrospective is just how young they all are. Three of the members were born in 1961 and the other is even younger. I was born in 1965 which makes Bono and the gang close to being contemporaries.
The thing is, I have never heard the entire albums. I own them, in various forms, but after the big hit songs it just all sounds the same to me, so I would turn the record, CD, mp3, off.
Who among us doesn't own "The Joshua Tree"? And who has really listened beyond the first four tracks? (U2 notoriously front loads their albums with the hit singles starting off with a bang but giving us little reason to keep listening sometimes)
So, an end shall be put to that for me. I have begun the great U2 retrospective of 2008. And here's what I think:



U2 - Boy - 1980 (buy it)

The debut was exactly what I had expected. Which is not to say it's bad, it's not. It's quite good, and powerful, and, dare I say, redundant. "I WIll Follow" is a perfect example of what this band would be for the rest of their career: beholden to the producer. Lillywhite washes everything through his filters and layers sounds and guitars in a deft balance of cacophony leaving me not to wonder who the band is but, why is everyone so in love with Dave Evans (The Edge)'s guitars.
Edge is all over this album, and it's not necessarily a good thing. It serves the songs well, but after a bit you really get it. He's the sound. Bono's wail (for he had not yet begun to really trust himself beyond eunuched wailer) is present but borders on hair metal.
In fact, I could hear this album playing next to everything from Joy Division to Echo and the Bunnymen. But after 1982 what would you do with it? I, for one, will never listen to it again in it's entirety. Not because it's bad, but because it doesn't offer me much in the way of repeat listen songs.
Still, it's a great debut. And it portends of things to come. Some bad. Some good. Some great.



Grade B+
A Side: I Will Follow
Blindside: The Electric Co. (Energy and power make me wonder why it is so deep into the album)
Downside: Twilight (It sounds like Ratt. I'm not kidding. And the lyrics are poor)

Ratings explained:
A Sides are the hit you should own.
Blindsides are the songs you probably never heard but would enjoy
Downsides are the worst track on the album.

All my friends are virtual.

I Twitter now.
It's stupid, I know.
At first I eschewed it.
Then I wanted to do it.
Then I hated it.
Then i started following the Mars Phoenix. That was weird. And cool.
Now I am following the Cubs.
And it's cool again.
Add me to your follow and I will try to be interesting.

Common People - William Shatner / ST:TAS mashup

I'm not really one for the whole Spock/Kirk gay thing, but this is really pretty funny and it is another excuse to listen to Shatner/Ben Folds/Joe Jackson version of "common people". And laugh.

Snapshot: Palm Springs

Just behind the jack in the Box on the 10 in Palm Springs is a fenced metal works shop.
This SpiderBug caught our eye.

A Cinememe

By way of Cinevistaramascope (best movie review blog ever) comes this meme from somewhere else.
I felt the need to do it. I never do these....but, dammit, anyone who puts Zodiac on par with All the President's Men needs to be schooled.

1) Best transition from movies to TV (actor, actress, producer/director, movie/show)
I gotta go with Mr. Failed Pilot George Clooney. The only person to star in a comedy AND a drama series both called ER. From the Facts of Life (hey, Mr. Haggis!) and Roseanne and a Killer Tomato Movie to international superstar and (deserved) Oscar Winner.
Update Boy did I read THAT wrong.
Okay. Movies TO Tv. Hmmm....Richard Dreyfuss' Max Bickford? No.....David Hartman. He was a movie actor in the early 70s (Island at the top of the world) and then he was a tv actor. For many years the (ugly) face of Good Morning America. He really made his mark on TV.

2) Living film director you most missing seeing on the cultural landscape regularly
Shows what a geek I am but Nicholas Meyer was such an interesting mashup artist. With Sherlock Holmes and Freud and Star trek and Jack the Ripper and HG Wells, he made such interesting choices and provacative popcorn. And then...gone.

3) Eugene Pallette or Charles Coburn
Charles Coburn sounds like james Coburn so i go with that.

4) Fill in the blank: “I pray that no one ever turns _____________ into a movie.”
the tv show Lost

5) Jane Greer or Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake

6) What was the last movie you saw in a theater? On DVD? And why?
There Will Be Blood. (I have a baby)
I am Legend, because I just ran out of popcorn stuff to watch and it was next in the queue.

7) Name an actor you think should be a star
Simon Pegg.

8) Foxy Brown or Coffy
Brown, baby!

9) Favorite TV show still without its own DVD box set
Reasonable Doubts. I'm in it. I want the cash!

10) Jack Elam or Neville Brand
Elam starred in a bad tv series where he played a Frankenstein-like monster.

11) What movies would top your list of movies you need to revisit, for whatever reason?
Blade Runner. Now that my appetite has been whetted by the Final Solution, er, I mean, cut.

12) Zodiac or All the President’s Men
Please. No one will remember Zodiac in 2 years. AtPM is a classic for so many reasons there isn't room here. Watch Robert Redford's one take 6 minute phone scene and you'll get it.

13) Using our best reviewer-speak, what is an “important” film comedy? And what is to you the most important film comedy of the last 35 years? An important film comedy fires on many cylinders but the most important is that it doesn't think it's audience is stupid. Quite the opposite, it is usually smarter than the populace and therefore forces the viewer to think rather than turn off their brain. Most important? Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Might be the smartest comedy ever made.

14) Describe the ideal environment for watching a movie.
In a cool theater. About 3/4 of the way back. In the middle. No one in front of me, so I can lean on the front seat. (Siskel felt the same way.)

15) Michelle Williams or Eva Mendes
Michelle. Her baby lost his dad, you know?

16) What’s the worst movie title of all time?
Bemis wins with Ffolkes. So I will go with....lemme see. Phantom Menace.
Oh, wait! Quantum of Solace? Who of the what? Stupid title.

17) Best movie about teaching and/or learning
Stand and Deliver. Never mind that the title is an Adam Ant song. It's just so watchable. Eddie Olmos is great.

18) Dracula (1931) or Horror of Dracula (1958)
Drac. The original is always the bestest.

19) Why do you blog? Or if you don’t, why do you read blogs? (Thanks, Girish)
Because all of my real friends are virtual.

20) Most memorable/disturbing death scene
The murder of the black kid in American History X. Whoever came up with that boot to the head on the curb had my nightmares in mind.

21) Jason Robards or Robert Shaw
Robards. From Big Hand for a Little Lady, A Boy and His Dog, All the President's Men all the way to Magnolia. One brilliant performance after another.

22) A good candidate for Most Blasphemous Movie Ever
As an atheist I don't understand the question.

23) Rio Bravo or Red River
These are westerns, right?

24) Werner Herzog is remaking Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage—that’s reality. Try to outdo reality by concocting a match-up of director and title for a really strange imaginary remake.
Ivan Reitman's Apocalypse Now.

25) Bulle Ogier or Charlotte Rampling
Rampling was so neurotisexy in Stardust Memories.

26) In the Realm of the Senses— yes or no?
Sure.

27) Name a movie you think of as your own (Thanks, Jim!)
Eraserhead.

28) Winged Migration or Microcosmos
Dammit, hold on, gotta get to my netflix queue.

29) Your favorite football game featured in a movie
MASH.

30) Wendy Hiller or Deborah Kerr
kerr.

31) Dirtiest secret you have that is related to the movies
I was basically a glorified extra in Bruce Almighty but since I (and a few others) had to audition to be officeworkers, as though it was a real part, we got our own (shared) card at the end of the movie.

32) Name a favorite film and describe how it is illuminated and enriched by another favorite film.
There is a little known piece called "Dream Child" about the real Alice in Wonderland. It is by Dennis Potter and, as a companion to the brilliant Pennies From Heaven they complement each other perfectly.

33) It’s a Gift or Horsefeathers
Horsefeathers.

34) Your best story about seeing a movie at a drive-in
Double feature of Take the Money and Run and The Pink Panther in 1972 with my folks and my cousin. She was 6, I was 7 and my brother was 2 and we watched it on the roof of our volkswagen bug.

35) Victor Mature or Tyrone Power
mature.

36) What does film criticism mean to you? Where do you think it’s headed?
It's a dead art. How do I know? Watch "Ebert and Roeper" Ebert's gone for good. The thumbs up is gone. And Roeper is a moron. Do people care about movie crit as a barometer for what to see? No. Is there anything really worth writing about? There's too much shitty stuff out there it makes the 80s look like a heyday.
The future of film criticism is like the future of music reviews. Nil.

Thoughts on Time Travel.

If I had a time machine there are a few things that I would do for certain.
I would go back in time, pick an era, and invest in the stock market. I would play it like a maestro, making just enough mistakes to be perceived as human but I would come out the other side as a genius gazillionaire.
One other thing I would do is never EVER let anyone know that I came from the future and i would probably destroy said time machine, which I probably stole anyway.
That's what I would do.
And I think that explains Warren Buffet.

Synergy? (Or morbidly bad taste?)

My daughter's asleep in the other room. It's naptime. Wife is out at a meeting. It's cold and my back hurts.
DVR has the season finale of Grey's Anatomy and I decide to check it out while I stretch.
Terrifying story about a kid trapped in cement, only his head is visible and the trauma it is causing to him. Basically, he has 4-6 hours to live before a host of terrible things happen to him because of the cement.
The first commercial break is met with a commercial for the new Honda Pilot. It stars a friend of mine so I watch.
My friend drives his Honda up to a cement mixer where, jokey joke, ha ha, a man is trapped....wait for it...in cement.
They are all pals-y as the Pilot tows the cement mixer with the concrete man in the back seat.

My question. Is this just really poor coincidence or was there some grand scheme? Please tell me it's the former. The latter makes me really really sad.

Snapshot: West Adams

The parking lot of Johnnie's Pastrami on Adams.


That's how I feel. The loitering will NOT be tolerated.

New Hold Steady!

The new Hold Steady album is just around the corner. If you don't know, their last, Boys and Girls in America was like a modern day E Street Band album run through the taffy machine of Craig Finn and the boys from New York.
It was a classic. Embraced by the Indie scenesters even though it would sit nicely on any classic rock shelf circa 1977.
The new album, Stay Positive, is on its way and from the sounds of the first single, Sequestered in Memphis, its more of the same. And I can't wait!
Grab it here: http://thetapeisnotsticky.com/2008/05/the-hold-steady-sequestered-in-memphis/
or here:
http://ifitsgood.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/new-hold-steady-song-leaked-mp3-sequestered-in-memphis/