This post is a little different.
This week the House Judiciary Committee will vote on the passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill which could result in mandatory jail time for the youtube users whose videos have allowed me to show you some songs worth knowing about.
Now you can make a huge difference by calling your congressmen and letting them know you're opposed to the bill. Follow this link to a handy widget that will give you some talking points and connect you to the correct congressman with whom to share your concerns.
EDIT: The bill will go to a vote in the House Judiciary Committee on 12-15.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Uh-Huh, Man: Even Fake Bands Sing Real Songs
Sometimes songs are written as themes for movies, or to be sung by a character for plot development purposes. Songs written for films can live an interesting sort of half life: writers may pen one verse or chorus to be shown in the film, or they may compose an entire song, even though less than a minute of it may appear on screen.
In Yes Man, a romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey as a depressed loner who learns to open himself up to new experiences, the on-screen band Munchausen by Proxy plays a brief concert montage. Despite the band's brief appearance, four of the 13 songs on the soundtrack are original pieces by the fictional group.
While the song "Yes Man" is played over the movie's end credits, the other three songs barely feature in the film. Nevertheless, they're some delightful synth-rock numbers that tell some interesting stories--including the story of a bad break-up the romantic interest references obliquely in the film.
"Uh-Huh," sung by actress Zooey Deschanel--who in real life forms half of the musical duo She and Him--forms a little appendix to Yes Man. It tells you exactly what happened in Allison's (Deschanel) love-life before Carl (Carrey) showed up.
There isn't enough of a story to justify another movie, but the song's ironic observations about cyber-fighting and stealing the noodles when you're moving out more than justifies the song's existence. It creates a life of its own.
If you came across "Uh-Huh," or any of Munchausen's songs, on the internet, you wouldn't necessarily know they were written for a movie. Let's just hope no one's stuck out there trying to buy tickets to see Munchausen by Proxy.
In Yes Man, a romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey as a depressed loner who learns to open himself up to new experiences, the on-screen band Munchausen by Proxy plays a brief concert montage. Despite the band's brief appearance, four of the 13 songs on the soundtrack are original pieces by the fictional group.
While the song "Yes Man" is played over the movie's end credits, the other three songs barely feature in the film. Nevertheless, they're some delightful synth-rock numbers that tell some interesting stories--including the story of a bad break-up the romantic interest references obliquely in the film.
"Uh-Huh," sung by actress Zooey Deschanel--who in real life forms half of the musical duo She and Him--forms a little appendix to Yes Man. It tells you exactly what happened in Allison's (Deschanel) love-life before Carl (Carrey) showed up.
There isn't enough of a story to justify another movie, but the song's ironic observations about cyber-fighting and stealing the noodles when you're moving out more than justifies the song's existence. It creates a life of its own.
If you came across "Uh-Huh," or any of Munchausen's songs, on the internet, you wouldn't necessarily know they were written for a movie. Let's just hope no one's stuck out there trying to buy tickets to see Munchausen by Proxy.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Hey You: Pink Floyd Rides the Whale
While "Dream a Little Dream of Me" used a sequence of songs to set a mood in the story, The Squid and the Whale uses the repetition of a single song to explore a theme.
The Squid and the Whale deals with the divorce of Bernard and Joan Berkman and its effects on their sons Walt and Frank. Walt, a highschooler starstruck by his author father, decides to assert his own genius by writing a song.
The problem is that the song he wants to write has already been written by Pink Floyd: it's "Hey You."
The song is introduced as Walt practices it in his room, played again when he shows his "composition" to his parents, and takes center stage when he "debuts" it at his school's talent show.
The lyrics--"Hey you, out there in the cold...can you feel me?"--seem to start as Walt's triumphal offer of hope to the people feeling lost around him, but after he is exposed as a fraud the nature of the song changes as he himself becomes lost.
The tonal shift which the movie's circumstances give the songs is dramatic, but what is most interesting is to see how one song can represent both sides of Walt so well. On the one hand, it allows him to present a facade of confidence, but on the other it represents his deepest insecurities--his uncertainty that anyone is listening to him.
The Squid and the Whale deals with the divorce of Bernard and Joan Berkman and its effects on their sons Walt and Frank. Walt, a highschooler starstruck by his author father, decides to assert his own genius by writing a song.
The problem is that the song he wants to write has already been written by Pink Floyd: it's "Hey You."
The song is introduced as Walt practices it in his room, played again when he shows his "composition" to his parents, and takes center stage when he "debuts" it at his school's talent show.
The lyrics--"Hey you, out there in the cold...can you feel me?"--seem to start as Walt's triumphal offer of hope to the people feeling lost around him, but after he is exposed as a fraud the nature of the song changes as he himself becomes lost.
The tonal shift which the movie's circumstances give the songs is dramatic, but what is most interesting is to see how one song can represent both sides of Walt so well. On the one hand, it allows him to present a facade of confidence, but on the other it represents his deepest insecurities--his uncertainty that anyone is listening to him.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Things to do with Music, Part Three: Writing "Spasticus Autisticus"
With big budget musical biopics like Ray and Walk the Line the formula is clear: tell a life story and occasionally break for music. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the story of British singer and seminal punk artist Ian Dury takes a twist and tells you a life-long story about the composition of a specific song.
Ravaged by polio in his childhood, Dury suffered from limited use of visibly weakened left limbs. In 1981 he wrote a song about how that made him feel.
That feeling wasn't sad.
Also based on the scene from the movie Spartacus where all the rebelling slaves claim to be Kirk Douglas, "Spasticus Autisticus" is a song about demanding to be taken seriously. Pop music scholar George McKay calls it "one of the outstanding protest songs about the place of disabled people in what [Ian Dury] called 'normal land.'"
The non-linear structure of the film cleverly gathers together the important experiences of a rock and roll life that resulted in the composition of this song. It's a fascinating journey.
It's a song that made many people uncomfortable, and consequently it was banned from the BBC. It's still an uncomfortable song, but that's what it's meant to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6isXNVdguI8
Ravaged by polio in his childhood, Dury suffered from limited use of visibly weakened left limbs. In 1981 he wrote a song about how that made him feel.
That feeling wasn't sad.
Also based on the scene from the movie Spartacus where all the rebelling slaves claim to be Kirk Douglas, "Spasticus Autisticus" is a song about demanding to be taken seriously. Pop music scholar George McKay calls it "one of the outstanding protest songs about the place of disabled people in what [Ian Dury] called 'normal land.'"
The non-linear structure of the film cleverly gathers together the important experiences of a rock and roll life that resulted in the composition of this song. It's a fascinating journey.
It's a song that made many people uncomfortable, and consequently it was banned from the BBC. It's still an uncomfortable song, but that's what it's meant to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6isXNVdguI8
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