scene but not herd

This was my KILL BILL weekend. Friday night I ordered a pizza and sat down and watched volume one of this movie in preparation of my Saturday afternoon viewing of volume two. I'm not going to bother doing a review of the first film other than to say that I really enjoyed it and that it is fast paced, loud and action packed. Volume two is a much different movie. The pace is much slower and most of the action has been replaced with talking. I guess I was expecting a movie similar to volume one so it took me a little while to forget about that and simply accept volume two as it is. In the end I found it to be a satisfying conclusion to the story. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that the the last third of the movie was particularly pleasing to me. Quentin Tarantino has a way with words. In watching his films I've noticed that the dialogue he writes often has the same impact as an action sequence because it is often exciting, interesting, and witty on top of all that. In volume two the dialogue comes before the action and in the end the action doesn't have the impact that it normally would have in a different movie by a different director. Here the action is like "icing on the cake," which allow these action sequences to go in not quite expected directions. In particular the scene involving the Michael Madsen, Darryl Hannah, and Uma Thurman characters comes to mind. Tarantino is also the saviour of the forgotten actor. Hollywood really seems to have a short attention span. There are so many actors who do quality work, but are forgotten because they are no longer or never were a box-office draw. Tarantino made people remember John Travolta after he was considered somewhat of a has been and he has featured people like Lawrence Tierney, Robert Forster, Pam Grier, David Carradine, and Asian and European actors that American studios would never give the time of day to. David Carradine is great in volume two, but I'm quite sure that no one had considered him for any substantial roles in recent years. My final comment on the movie leads to my continued recent fixation with Serge Gainsbourg. I don't think I'm giving anything away by stating that the Uma Thurman character has a daughter. I'm not sure how they spell her name in the movie, but it is pronounced BB. I like to think that that is the correct spelling because it would reference Brigitte Bardot who did some albums with Mr. Gainsbourg. They sang a duet on an incredible song called "Bonnie and Clyde." I know it is a stretch, but like I said, I'm a little obsessed right now.

The other night I saw a band called TV On The Radio play live on the Carson Daly show. I really like their EP and album, but seeing them live on the show has really made me look forward to seeing them at the Echo next week. Musically they have a simplicity of sound that kind of reminds me of Suicide, but they also remind me of an English band from the late eighties/early nineties called AR Kane. Maybe it is partly because both bands feature(d) two people of African descent in a somewhat noisy/indie rock setting. TV On The Radio bring a certain level of "soul" into that Suicide sound. I use the word "soul" only in the sense of the vocal sound. If you want to know what I mean specifically listen to their doo-wop cover of the Pixies' "Mr. Grieves" which is a bonus track on their EP. I guess it is similar to what Mick Collins brings to all the bands he has been in. Would the Gories, Blacktop, or Dirtbombs be quite the same without his great voice on top of that garage-rock sound?

Friday I'm going to see All Night Radio at Spaceland. They have a somewhat psychedelic, fuzzed-out Byrds sound with great melodies. Their album is good, but it really doesn't do them justice because their live sound is so much better.