Indie rock for indie movies
By MATT ASHARE | December 4, 2006
Woody Guthrie |
The bridge between independent film and indie rock has been getting easier and easier to cross with the rise of a new generation of directors weaned on music videos and the multimedia underground. Not that there haven’t always been maverick directors determined to draw on obscure music — it’s just that with music festivals like South by Southwest and CMJ expanding to include film, the ties have never been stronger. Hell, Henry Rollins, once the raging frontman of the feared Black Flag, now has his own Independent Film Channel talk show. So the IFC has hooked up with eMusic to present “eMusic Dozens: The IFC Soundtrack,” a rotating list with a broad range of downloads as well as a short film about each band/artist. Here’s a sample from the first batch at www.emusic.com/ifc.html.The Hold Steady, “Stuck Between Stations”
With its big, bold guitars and a desperation that brings to mind a street-level answer to Springsteen, piano refrains and all (à la Philly’s Marah), “Stuck Between Stations” is one of those wordy epics that follows the warm rush of falling in love while pondering one’s own mortality. Yet even after Craig Finn is done littering this coulda-been-single from the 2006 release Boys and Girls in America with tossed-off, deep-sounding proclamations, it’s the simple lines — like “She was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend” — that stick with you.
The Walkmen, “Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone”
The title track from this Brooklyn band’s 2002 Star Time International release isn’t the most forceful introduction to these artsy post-punk rockers. The drums pound away in the background as out-of-tune softly sung falsettos search for harmony over ambient keyboard tones. But it does all lift the tune up to an emotional peak as guitars coalesce and the lyric “I made the best of it” floats to the surface
RJD2, “Smoke and Mirrors”
Columbus-by-way-of-Oregon DJ RJD2 has garnered favorable comparisons to everyone from DJ Shadow to the Moby of the soul-sampling Play ever since Definitive Jux released the disc with this tune on it, Deadringer, in 2002. The male vocal here is indeed a dead ringer for Hendrix, and the vibe is pure retro-futurist ’60s even without any real guitar and the occasional busy breakbeat. A pure triumph of mood over matter, and it’s got a beat you can dance to.
Woody Guthrie, “Two Good Men (Sacco and Vanzetti)”
“Two good men a long time gone/Sacco and Vanzetti are gone/And left me here to sing this song.” Yep, that’s what the guy who wrote “This land is our land . . . ” had to say about one of the more controversial episodes in American history. And though he includes all kinds of other details — the judge’s name, “the streets of Braintree” — it’s Guthrie’s talent for bringing a case as loaded with broad socio-political issues as the Sacco and Vanzetti trial down to such a simple level that made him the great poet that he was.
Related:
Woody Guthrie | My Dusty Road, Experiment illness, Identity crisis, More 
- Woody Guthrie | My Dusty Road
The agit-pop songwriter of "This Land Is Your Land," "Going Down the Road," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Philadelphia Lawyer," and a passel of other bedrock American folk classics carried a business card that identified him as "Woody, Th' Dustiest of the Dustbowlers."
- Experiment illness
The good news is that it doesn’t appear RJ’s insistence on artistic challenge will be his undoing.
- Identity crisis
Black Kids lead singer Reggie Youngblood is relaxed and focused, articulate and unpretentious, polite with a sharp sense of humor.
- Flirting with danger
Mike Furey wants to play Bubba’s Sulky Lounge. Dangerous Muse, "The Rejection" (QuickTime)
- Funny business
“Ashlee Simpson’s new album sold so poorly,” snorted the headline on Yahoo! this past week, that “it was beaten by a comedy album.”
- Star teamz
Mark it, dude: another banner year for the Boston music scene.
- Guitar heroes
It's hard to keep three people, much less 20, on the same page. Bang Camaro, "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" (mp3) Bang Camaro, "Rock of Mages" (mp3)
- Gratis expectations
Now is the winter of our discontent. That last heating bill nearly caused a coronary, and this month’s will only be worse.
- +/-
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- The Format
This Arizona-based power-pop combo had a terrific alt-rock radio hit a few years ago called “The First Single,” a self-consciously exuberant mini-anthem that proved they had a sense of humor to go along with their sense of hook. "The Compromise," (MP3 via Myspace)
- Singles scene
It’s old news: this series of tubes they call the Internet has revolutionized the way music is distributed.
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