I came in about mid-stream with the Pixies, picking up Surfer Rosa in 1988 (I think that was when it released) and fell in love with them immediately. The raw power of Black Francis, a sweaty Kim Deal pounding the bass line and lyrics that captured my imagination – first as an angst filled teenager and then later as a more reflective adult.
One of my favorite songs to this day is Gigantic; I’m feeling a little bit gigantic myself as I close out this week so I thought I’d like to share what is running through my mind with all of you.
Still the best teen angst album ever conceived. Every time I stumble upon it, I realize that Townsend was way ahead of his time, that dark, twisted soul with a penchant of expressing the dark and the light in every breath.
The girl I love
Is a perfect dresser,
Wears every fashion
Gets it to the tee.
Heavens above,
I got to match her
She knows just how
She wants her man to be
Leave it to me.
Even more amazing: this is all from 1973, about a specific time when the Mods and Rockers fought on the beach. It still feels very much in the now. The film is equally great, BTW.
Not from the movie, but still a good mood piece. Note to kids: don’t do drugs like this Mod does!
Hotel Modern is staging a live action play with a number of sets, a fish tank, and tiny camers in which they act out the story with small army dolls and project it onto an overhead screen. A reader narrates the story and a musician/composer performs the soundtrack live onstage. Sound fx and all. It is impressive… The story is told from the first person point of view of soldiers in the trench–the horror, the confusion, the anguish. So how do you pair that with sets made with dolls and forrests of parsley? They’ve found a way to combine an emotional story with a unique visual in a way that is both artistic and accessible. It’s a challenging experience. Go see it.
Director Nicholaus Goossen has tossed up a couple of interesting pieces onto his Vimeo stream over the past month that I thought were worth sharing.
First up is a video for the song “24 Hour Party” by Beardo. While my days of getting revved up by youth anthems of teenage rebellion may be past (maybe), I am thrilled to see something like this being created today. Substantively it reminds me of “TV Party” by Black Flag or something similar from my misspent youth. From a video standpoint I think it takes a good bit from the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party”. Frankly I was taken back to the days when my Kalamazoo basement held way too many drunk college students banging it out to The Parka Kings or Deconstruction or some other localish punk rock favorite.
Up next on the list is something that musically I’m much less connected to. The band Rad Omen performing their song “Rad Anthem” provides the musical backdrop for all of your favorite fast-food icons wilding in the streets and clubs of Anycity, USA. The reason I’m posting this one up (which is on that border of being NSFW) is because artistically I was really impressed by what the director did. Maybe I’m reading too much into it; but I really like the metaphor of these corporate icons wrecking havoc and acting in complete moral depravity sort of the way I feel the real corporations have acted within the realm of our world’s finances and human rights. Beyond that the lighting, colors and shots that the director chose are really beautiful even in such an ugly context.
Unfortunately embedding was disabled for this video but it is worth the click thru. The Notre Dame Marching Band (sorry, OK Go is a Chicago band so the chance of them asking TBDBITL to participate would’ve been a stretch) provides the backdrop for this fun video and emotional song.
As a Youtube commentor Dezrah stated; “All art should feel like this. Triumphant, exultant and inspiring. Well done!”
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