scene but not herd

Last night I had planned on going to see a midnight showing of SIXTEEN CANDLES at the Nuart, but things fell through with the people who had shown interest in going. I just stayed home, drank beer, and watched the Laker game. I ended up having lunch with some of those same people today in Long Beach and a funny thing happened while we were waiting for a table. I went up to the little bar area to get a beer while I waited and the girl working there asked me about the Dirtbombs shirt I was wearing. She asked if I had gone to the show where they played with the Detroit Cobras. I said that I had and then she told me how much she loves the Detroit Cobras. I told her that they would be playing in July at the Troubadour and she got really excited. I told her about another cool show around that same time and the next thing I know she was giving me a free beer. Needless to say I had a nice little buzz going before my meal. My only other strange t-shirt experience involved a pizza delivery from Pizza Hut. I hear a knock at the door so I go to get my pizza and when I open the door the guy asks me if I like Stereolab. I was wearing my "Cliff" shirt which is a character taken from a Situationist comic that Stereolab used quite a bit on some of the covers of their early record releases. That was just one of those shirts that no one knew anything about, especially since the name Stereolab wasn't even on the shirt, so it was funny that of all people the pizza delivery guy would know what it was.

"Why do you want to dance?"

"Why do you want to live?"

"I don't know exactly why... I must."

"That's my answer too."

Just quoting a conversation I had with a friend the other day. If there is one thing in this world that I'm "about" it is dance. Just kidding. Nor is it dialogue from the Jessica Alba movie HONEY. These words come from an amazing movie called THE RED SHOES, which I finally watched last night, and I thought them perfect to begin a brief discussion of some films I happened to watch, oddly enough all about dance, in the same week. I love those quoted words. There is such a passion to them whereby life IS dancing. I can relate being that watching films and listening to music are life to me. Along with THE RED SHOES I watched THE BANDWAGON and a documentary about experimental filmmaker Maya Deren.

I first saw the work of Maya Deren when I was a film student at UC Santa Barbara. It must have been in my experimental film class that I saw her first film, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. It was made in the forties and it is literally like watching a dream on film. This documentary was interesting to me because I was able to see clips from her other films that I only had read about as a student. Many of her later films focus on dance and she was able to truly use film to elaborate on her views of the dance medium. She investigates movement and ritual through space and time by her editing and camera movements. I can't do her films justice through my words; you really just need to see them.

THE BANDWAGON and THE RED SHOES both fall into a category I would refer to as "hey, let's put on a show" type musicals. I actually didn't watch all of THE BANDWAGON, just the ending, but I have seen the whole thing before. It stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse and towards the end of the film there is a great film noir type dance number. In the film this sequence is taking place during a show on a stage with an audience watching. What I love, and THE RED SHOES also does this, is that the sequence is purely filmic. What you see couldn't possibly be happening on a live stage. It is as if Maya Deren's film techniques have now taken over. Time and space become manipulated as Fred and Cyd dance. The set design is amazing as is the color in the film. Cyd Charisse is amazing as well. How beautiful can someone look? In this dance sequence she plays a femme fatale and she is simply stunning.

THE RED SHOES was directed by Michael Powell. I have seen three other films by him, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!, BLACK NARCISSUS, and PEEPING TOM. I recommend that you see any of his films. BLACK NARCISSUS and The RED SHOES have some of the most amazing examples of cinematography that I have ever seen. The color in THE RED SHOES is mind blowing and there is a shot of someone running down a circular flight of stairs that I found to be really impressive. Much of THE RED SHOES deals with a ballet troupe putting on a ballet of the same name and the plot of the film mirrors that of the ballet and the words I quoted at the beginning also bear relevance. As in THE BANDWAGON there is a dance sequence which explodes with all the possibilities of film technique. As I said before, the use of color is quite stunning. It is color which you do not see in films anymore. I have to believe that the recent MOULIN ROUGE was very much influenced by this film. I'm happy that I finally got around to seeing it. Another thing that makes me happy is knowing that there are still more great things out in the world to see and hear that I am yet unaware of.

My friend has a record label called In The Red. He has put out out a lot of good music in the last thirteen years or so and I ordered some stuff the other day and received it in the mail this week. I got the new albums by the Mystery Girls, Reigning Sound, and the Ponys. I have to listen to the Mystery Girls' record again. It's straight up garage rock and it was good, but it didn't really hit me on the first listen. I'll have to give it another chance. The Reigning Sound record is a whole different story. Now this is great garage rock. Greg Cartwright really can make some good music and the Reigning Sound has been a relatively eclectic sounding band. The first album was basically a country album, the second album was more of a Rolling Stones kind of sounding record, and this one is a mix of that and straight ahead garage rock. My favorite of the albums I received was the one by the Ponys. It's weird because there was a little blurb about them in the last Rolling Stone magazine that I saw. I wonder if that will translate to record sales and popularity? Rolling Stone described them as post-punk with a hint of a girl group sound to them. I can agree with that and I would add new wave, garage rock, Richard Hell vocals, and oddly enough the thing they really reminded me of were bands on the Creation and Subway records rosters of the eighties. I think it is because of the sort of jangly, fuzzed-out punk guitar sound that they have. They are playing in June with the Hunches, which is another In The Red band, and I'm really looking forward to this show. I've never seen the Ponys live, but I know the Hunches are going to blow people's minds. Live, my friend described them as a combination of the Birthday Party and the Germs. I totally agree with that. They are loud and truly out of control and I know I'll be smiling the whole time.

Do you ever wish you had never set foot out of the house? I'm just getting back from the Smell in downtown LA. A few days ago a friend recommended that I check out some of the bands playing Friday at this club. He has pretty good taste so I made plans to go down there. I got home from work and I was pretty dead tired, but I still headed down to the club. I saw the A Frames, which was the band he really recommended, and they were really good. Really primal drumming, low end bass, and guitar that sounded like sheets of noise. There was also an original sixties band called Golden Dawn playing. I guess they were contemporaries of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, but I had never heard of them. I watched a few songs, but I wasn't feeling it and I left to head home. I get to my truck and someone had broken one of my side windows. I guess I should be thankful that nothing was stolen, but it still really bummed me out. I guess it was just done for the hell of it. Thank you, you motherfucking asshole. I was so close to not going to the show and now I kind of wish I hadn't. Oh well, at least I saw a cool band and I also found out the Ponys and the Hunches are going to be playing together in June, so that is something to be happy about. Oh, and I don't think that I will be returning to the Smell any time soon.

Last night I went to see the Vue and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Echo. I've wanted to see the Vue for awhile and I finally made it out to one of their shows. I had heard some songs from their albums that I liked so I was looking forward to seeing them. They were just OK. For whatever reason they just didn't impress me that much. It was good, but I don't know if I would make a strong effort to see them again. On the other hand, I was really impressed with BRMC. I don't know why it has taken me so long to give them a chance being that they are always compared to bands I loved listening to in high school like the Jesus and Mary Chain. They don't remind me that much of that band, but last night I finally figured out what they remind me of. Oddly enough it is the song "Motorcycle" by Love and Rockets. BRMC have what I would call, and I don't think it a contradiction in terms, an aggressive "shoegazer" sound. They also remind me of Loop in that their songs seem to lock into a groove or repetition of sounds which I love. I really enjoyed them last night which was quite a difference from when I saw them at the Henry Fonda Theater a while back. That night I came away much more impressed by the Warlocks and I didn't really see the big deal about BRMC. I guess now I am a bit of a convert and I'll have to go out and buy their albums.

Yesterday was May Day so it is appropriate that I start here by discussing a documentary I saw on PBS a few days ago. "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." They took their name from a Bob Dylan lyric and the Weathermen started as students in the group Students for a Democratic Society, but became more and more radicalized until, as the Weathermen, they were blowing up buildings in protest of the Vietnam war and other government/state policies. I don't quite know how it started, but I am fascinated by leftist guerrilla groups. Right wing groups are squaresville, but I can't read enough about the Red Brigades, Red Army Faction, Baader Meinhof, and Sendero Luminoso. I guess my politics lean slightly to the left, but I am by no means a bleeding heart. I was born in May of 1968 when the Western world really looked like it was headed towards revolution so maybe that has a little to do with my interest in these groups. The probable reason for my fascination is the fervor in which these groups hold their beliefs. It's like a psychological case study of people who have lost their minds, in a way, in believing that what they are doing is absolutely right. I really can't relate because I'm too much of a pragmatist. The closest I come to "fervor" is the reason I write in this blog and that is music and movies. When something strikes me in either of those fields I feel like fucking wings are going to burst out of my back, but in general it would take a lot for me to take up arms. I hold some beliefs pretty passionately, but I'm also pretty reasonable when dealing with those beliefs with other people. I think the documentary is called WEATHER UNDERGROUND and it is worth checking out.

Friday night I went to see TV on the Radio at the Echo. I liked them, but I wasn't really blown away. Maybe it just wasn't loud enough. It usually helps when you almost feel overpowered by the sound and I didn't feel that except on some of the more up tempo songs like "Satellite," The Wrong Way," and "Staring At The Sun." If I wasn't so self-conscious I would have been shaking up a storm on the dancefloor during those numbers. I guess I like them because, in part, they drone. It's that wash of guitar sound that I love. The "shoegazer" sound with some soulful vocals on top. I'll have to give them another shot next time they come through town

Saturday was day one of the Coachella Music Festival. Where to begin...

I went to the first year of the festival and had a pretty good time. I heard a lot of cool music and I based my attendance this year on that experience. That first year I basically cruised into the parking area from the freeway off ramp. This year was a very different story. Once I got off the freeway the street to the venue was basically a parking lot. It was taking so long that people started parking their vehicles and walking to the site even though it was about two and a half miles away. After a few more minutes of basically not moving I became one of those people. That was a long walk and the hot sun didn't help any either.

When I finally got onto the sight I had missed two bands that I wanted to see: Dios and Erase Errata.

I can't deal with crowds anymore. There are just too many people for my taste. On the other hand, beautiful women everywhere showing plenty of wonderful flesh.

I decide to kill time in some shade and watch a movie I had heard about called DIG!. It's a documentary about seven(?) years in the musical lives of the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre. I don't own any records by either of these bands; I have only heard a few songs by each, but this was a really great documentary. Basically it shows the ups and downs of being in a band and I am simplifying things immensely here. It shows the friendship between the bands and the rivalry and competition that evolves between them as well. There is a lot of drama here especially when the Brian Jonestown Massacre is involved. It is a funny and sad portrayal and it is very entertaining. I can't believe how many good documentaries I've seen recently.

Believe it or not, the highlight of my day was seeing Junior Senior doing "Move Your Feet." Everyone was dancing and smiling and in that hot tent that song was truly a blast of cool air. What can I say, but I love that song.

The rest of my experience...

The Black Keys were good. I wasn't all that impressed with them by what I had heard on their records. For some reason I found them a little too close to that "white boy blues" thing that I'm not fond of , but live they changed my mind. Pretty nice, raw guitar and drum sound.

The Pixies were on the main stage and from where I was standing they looked really tiny. The video screens helped and they sounded really good. This seems to be a worthwhile reunion. Kim sang "Gigantic" and her voice sounded great. For some reason I thought it would be really gravelly, but she still had that sexy, girly thing going on.

Saw Stereolab for the umpteenth time. Good as always, but I was really impressed at how good of a response they got. People were really cheering them on after each song and it was really nice to see them be so appreciated. Laetitia seemed to be really pleasantly surprised by this.

I really wanted to see Kraftwerk, but they weren't going on till almost two hours later and by this time I had had it. I was never all that fond of festivals even in my youth, but nowadays I am really over it. It would take a ridiculously great line-up to get me out here again. Not a negative experience, but I can't say it was all that positive either.

Then I walked two and a half miles back to my truck.