4 posts tagged “music”

The musical biopic has enjoyed such success as a genre only because the filmmaker autobiopic isn't yet a marketable option. So much ego and artistic masturbation is poured into the genre's masterworks, whether it's Taylor Hackford's Ray or last year's love letter to layered appreciation, I'm Not There (Todd Haynes).

OK, to be fair, I haven't seen I'm Not There yet. Maybe it's good.

Anton Corbijn's Control is the story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. And for a film about a band that's as consequential as they were, Control is surprisingly tolerable.

Sam Riley is Ian, the unknowable and ultimately doomed genius, while Samantha Morton is his wife Deborah. And that's key. Because while most musical biopics relegate the bedraggled first wife to a supporting role in the first twenty minutes (a trope that Kristin Wiig worked magic with in Walk Hard), Deborah Curtis looms large in Control, larger than Ian at times.

Most of what I know about Joy Division comes from listening to their progeny (Interpol, et al.) and from Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, so I don't come to this with the baggage that some might. But neither does Corbijn, I'd argue, and that's a hell of a feat considering the fact that he directed videos for them. While Joy Division's music is central, of course, it never steals the spotlight from character. In Walk The Line, we get to watch the supposedly history-of-musical-expression-altering moment that Johnny Cash momentously farted out the title song. There's much less of that bullshit here. The music exists, and it is great, but no sequences are built around explicating it, and the film is more concerned with the relationship between Ian and Deborah. The black and white photography is gorgeous, and the film fails to indulge in the "wages of fame" self-pity that's so prevalent these days that it's invisible. Control would almost work if it were complete fiction, a litmus test that should be applied to prevent the next fake memoir debacle.

I say "almost" because there's still that whole romantic doomed artist thing. But when Control veers too close to that brink, Samantha Morton pulls us back. Cause she's just the shit, and her work gives Deborah Curtis the weight that she, and many other put-upon first wives of asshole musicians, richly deserve.

iPod, shuffle songs. First five songs that come up:

1) "Can't Make A Sound" by Elliott Smith. From Figure 8.
From A Basement on a Hill is supposed to be his last album, but that was posthumous, and I kind of classify it with this year's New Moon as more of an unauthorized collection of unfinished or unreleased material. Figure 8 was released in 2000, while I was trying to decide where to go to college, and it holds enough of a place in my musical development to be pretty unlistenable now. It's like "Ode to Joy" or something. I guess it's music, but it sounds like it came with my brain.

2) "Jesusland" by Ben Folds. From Songs For Silverman.
I've tried so hard with Ben Folds. I even convinced myself for a while that Rockin' The Suburbs was an alright album. But let's face it, since the days of Ben Folds Five, it just hasn't been there. This song is about as subtle as a frying pan to the skull. Songs For Silverman has one good song on it, and this ain't it.

3) "Same Old Drag" by The Apples In Stereo. From New Magnetic Wonder.
This album has an obscene amount of fun psuedo-throwback pop music on it. You go, Apples In Stereo.

4) "Poppies" by Marcy Playground. From Marcy Playground.
This album is great. Their hit, "Sex and Candy", is on it, and so the album suffered from a critical negligence at the time of its release. But "Poppies", track one, tries to rock out to the story of English opium trade in the Far East, and is indicative of the literate, catchy, and sometimes really goofy folk-rock that Marcy Playground was so good at.

5) "Orgasm Addict" by Buzzcocks. From Singles Going Steady.
Pretty straightforward. The dangers of constant masturbation. Good times.

Thanks to everyone for awesome L.A. song suggestions in response my last post. You are all champions of life. Writing on the internet is like screaming into a well, so it's nice to hear people screaming back. In terror, of course.

Quick music recommendation, for what it's worth:

Like The Hold Steady's Seperation Sunday, this new Thermals album is angry and loud, and deals pretty exclusively with religious faith. I think.

I love these furious records by bands who seem so mired in American faith, so terrified of a world without that structure (I forgot I needed God like a big brother), and yet are deeply aware of the absurd evil of the whole institution (I might need you to kill). Was that Pitchfork enough?

I don't know. It seems perfect for Christmas.