The Shins and Radiohead

A week ago I bought The Shins recent release Wincing The Night Away (2007), the long awaited follow up to Chutes Too Narrow (2003). Chutes won me over with its lo-fi indie approach, pursuasive melodies and bouyant rhythms. At times a grab bag of styles, The Shins have an infectous sense of adventure in their recordings. After the success of Chutes and a big boost from the Garden State soundtrack (2004) there was a sense of anticipation for their next album.

After hearing the new disc, my first reaction to the CD was...it's The Shins in 3D! Fuller, brighter production adds to the feeling of professionalism on Wincing but does reduce some of their initial indie charm. The songwriting is still effective but not quite as memorable as past tunes, though to be fair it took a month for Chutes Too Narrow to really sink in for me. The single "Phantom Limb" is the song that stands out the most for me, a midtempo pop number with shimmering guitars and rumbling drums. There is a slight feeling of self consciousness to the album, as if it is trying a little to hard to sound like The Shins. This is probably due to the amount of hype preceding it, as the recording process was closely tracked by the media every chance it got. Overall, Wincing The Night Away isn't bad and is enjoyable to listen to but not as memorable as their past work.

An older disc that shows the heights modern rock bands can scale is Radiohead's The Bends (1995). The Bends has emotive vocals, clanging guitars and industrialized beats creating rock music that is both noisy and structured. Like most Radiohead songs, the theme seem to be alienation in the modern world whether it's dealing with "My Iron Lung" or "Fake Plastic Trees". Evocative, emotional and artistically daring, The Bends is every bit as good as their classic OK Computer (1997). A rare album that lives up to and surpasses it's hype.

Number 52 and random bits

Continuing my favorite CD countdown at Number 52 is...

The Doors - The Best of the Doors (1985)

The Doors, the band that lives in a singular mystique of druggy poetry and enigmatic charisma thanks to lead singer Jim Morrison. I used to really hate this band. Whenever they would come on MTV in the '80's, my friends and I would complain through the whole song. No specific critique, we would just talk about how they suck and could not see what the big deal was. A bad Oliver Stone movie in the early '90's didn't help, watching a great director begin his slide into self indulgence wasn't much fun either.

It wasn't until I heard my wife's cassette of their Best of that I became interested in the Doors. In the mid '90's, the sign post where most good rock music stopped, I started to listen to more classic rock. In that context, the Doors started to stand out and the Lizard King schtick fronting a stomping blues / psychedelic band sounded good. The epic navel gazing ("Break On Through", "Waiting For The Sun", "Riders On The Storm") the I'm Too Sexy come ons ("Light My Fire", "Touch Me", "Hello I Love You") and drugged detachment ("People Are Strange", "The Crystal Ship") came together to form a magnetic portrait of a guy who is pretty cool when he's high.

And in the 1960's, who wouldn't want to be that guy? Now that I'm used to the Doors, I find his I've-walked-the-earth-and-now-sound-like-a-booming-subwolfer voice backed by a pounding electric organ to be entertaining. And like another 1960's artifact, 2001: a Space Odyssey (1967) he seemed driven to take modern society to a more primal end. While I may never find the depth in his music that rock critics claim to be there (maybe because I've never done drugs) I now enjoy listening to their ominous tone. And it's got a good beat you can dance to!

In other news, Sanjaya has been booted off American Idol! After a dull performance of "Something To Talk About" during country week he went from a top vote getter to last place. While I would never say this guy is incredibly talented, he was entertaining and motivated Simon Cowell to his best critiques this week. Cowell was so enraged after seeing Sanjaya's limp performance that he went on a rampage on every contestant that followed. Even front runner Melinda Doolittle wasn't safe as he carped on her "I'm shocked I'm receiving praise" reactions. I hope Simon continues with this now that Sanjaya's gone, it inspired him to his sharpest criticisms in a while.

And now the Father of the Year award goes to...Alec Baldwin! His venomous, profanity laced phone message for his 12 year old daughter is now all over the internet. Gotta love the bit where he tells his daughter he's going to come to California to "Straighten...You...Out!!!!" Yeah, it takes a real man to threaten your 12 year old daughter. To think all those years Baldwin won accolades for playing jerks was considered acting. He was just being himself!

Baldwin could take a lesson from Jim Morrison and Sanjaya Malakar. Chill out dude.

Blades of Glory

This afternoon I saw Blades of Glory (2007), an ice skating comedy starring Will Farrell and Jon Heder. Two skaters of opposing styles fight and become banned from the sport until they find a loophole that allows them to skate...as a pair! Will Farrell tends to be hit or miss, his style is a go-for-the-throat mix of cartoon buffoon and smarmy egomaniac. When it works, such as his performance as Frank "the Tank" in Old School (2003) , it's laugh out loud funny. When it doesn't, such as in Anchorman (2005), it's annoyingly desperate. I'm happy to say Farrell's performance as sex addicted rebel skater Chazz Michael Michaels falls in the former. His take on figure skating as a preening macho sex god with long black hair is really good. And Farrell's found a good foil in Jon Heder as Jimmy, the Dorthy Hammil of male figure skating. Heder retains some of the cluelessness of Napoleon Dynamite in his performance as the over sheltered skating prodigy.

The two have good comedic chemestry, Farrell's barrelling energetic approach versus Heder's semi ironic caricaturization (is that a word? it is now!) match the fire and ice relationship of the characters. Blades of Glory does an excellent job of poking holes in the skating establishment, mocking the overblown theatrics of the media hype and skating routines themselves. These skaters showboat while shooting fire or releasing live doves while on the ice. The best part for me was the spot on copies of the skater profiles, with the whiplash floating camera moves and quick cuts while a sports announcer narrates the athelete's life stories with bad puns and heavy drama.

Watching the pairs teams stretch their sexuality to the limit provides much of the humor in the form of two straight skaters holding each other in male/female positions and a brother / sister team that live in their own world and are hot for each other. The brother/sister team are formidable villians played with spoiled warped evil flair by Will Arnett and Saturday Night Live's Amy Poeler. Blades also benefits from strong support by the pro skater community as Scott Hamilton, Nancy Kerrigan, Brian Boitano and others all make guest appearances.

Like most comedies, the funniest bits are in the commercials and it runs out of steam about half way through. Numerous digital effects are used to paste the actor's faces on the bodies of their body doubles/skaters but it is a forgiveable nuisance. The only true misstep in the film is an on screen decapitation that is supposed to be funny but actually comes across as horrific. Still, there are plenty of chuckles throughout the movie and a great chase scene that starts on ice but proceeds to go over streets, floors and escalators while wearing ice skates throughout.

Blades of Glory is a movie that delivers exactly on what it promises. Everything you see in the commercials it is, nothing more and nothing less. I had a good time but don't care if I see it again, all I can say is nice doing business with you Blades of Glory!