The Magnetic Fields- Distortion

Distortion marks singer/writer Stephin Merritt’s return to the indie pop goodness that we’ve been craving ever since the Fields’ 2004 I, a charming collection of love songs, ex-love songs and deliberations of craziness. In the meantime, Merritt gave us the score for the film A Series of Unfortunate Events and an awkward appearance on Fox. I don’t know, I just don’t think that brilliant gay songwriters naturally go hand-in-hand with the home of Bill O’Reilly.

I’m always nervous when a band I love comes back from a great album- Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans taught me not to get my hopes up- but Distortion is nothing short of a treasure trove for old Magnetic Fields fans. Like Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Merritt was on the receiving end of some voice training before his most recent release. Fortunately, this didn’t rob the distinctive “humanness” from his voice.

The first track, "Three-Way," is a nearly wordless pop riff that I think really showcases the band’s charm. You can leave it on as background music while you’re cleaning your apartment, or blast it through headphones when you don’t want to pay attention to anything else. "California Girls" exemplifies the group’s penchant for combining guitar-driven, upbeat music with surprisingly angsty lyrics (think OK Go on quaaludes). You think “sure, a Counting Crows-esque tribute to the lyposucked babes of the West” but you really get:

They ain't broke, so they put on airs,
the faux folks sans derrieres.
They breathe coke and have affairs
with each passing rock star.
They come on like squares
then get off like squirrels.
I hate California girls.

Lyrics like these are so refreshing to me, especially as the best-written song I’ve heard in the past several years is Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it). I can’t fairly say that the writing on this album is as literary as some of Merritt’s 69 Love Songs, but it’s still pretty delightful.

"Old Fools" lays a dense backdrop of distorted (how convenient) guitars and lazy percussion before pouring on Merritt’s voice, equal parts Michael Buble-young Tom Waits-Robert Smith. Like many of the group’s more buttery classics, this song leaves one wondering whether to slip into something more comfortable or to slip into a coma.

The band will be on a short tour in February. Sadly, Minneapolis and Milwaukee are both absent from the list so I’ll have to get my kicks from the ensuing YouTube videos. If you have the opportunity, though, you should consider it. And if you can find a way to smuggle me in, you know I’m there.

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OH! I almost forgot. If you're not averse to video podcasts, National Public Radio is embarking on "Project Song," in which songwriters are given two prompts and two days to write a song. Merritt was featured on the first installment and comes up with, in my opinion, a charming little piece about a supervillain with a million faces. Check it out.

Resolved

I don’t usually make New Years Resolutions. I tend to make a bunch of goals at random times during the year and then… not exactly do anything about them. I figured maybe I should take a different approach this year and see how it goes. Besides, maybe recording them here will make me a little bit accountable. So pardon me for being two weeks late. The good news is that there are pretty much exactly 50 weeks left of 2008, which is a nice round number.

1. My first goal for the year is to not suck at my spring semester internship. I’ll be working at a local paper for credit and experience (sadly, I don’t think they’re allowed to pay us for curriculum internships, but oh well). So whether I get stuck making coffee runs for a tyrannical editor or sitting in a closet writing obituaries, I’m really looking forward to some awesome experience and maybe some good connections with the local news media.

2. I’m not sure yet if my schedule for the semester will allow me to be in orchestra or take private violin lessons, so I’m officially resolving now to practice a half-hour every weekday. It’s nothing compared to the hours I used to put in when I was playing really seriously in high school, but it should be enough to keep me in decent form for when I rejoin the musical living. P.S. I taught myself how to play mandolin a couple of days ago and it’s awesome.

3. Going along with number 2, I’d like to get some more paid violin gigs this year. It pays well and it’s a ton of fun, and the people who hire you are usually really ridiculously sweet and give you lots of compliments- best job ever. (Those suckers don’t know I’d happily play violin for them for free, bwahaha.)

4. Maintain a bitchin’ GPA. With all the hot librarian clothes I’ve squandered money on over winter break, this should come pretty naturally. Also, stop buying so many clothes.

5. And lastly (this is the hardest one, I think), I’ve really let myself slip on doing creative things like writing for fun and drawing and painting and all of the stuff I used to be really into when I had more time. So I bought a cheap Moleskine notebook and gathered up a ton of art stuff,
and I’m going to produce two pages a week, of writing or drawing/painting or something else, which should fill up that book in about a year. I actually started last night and, though it looks a tiny little bit like a baby painted it and puked on it, it was a whole lot of fun, which was the whole point.

“Inspiration is for amateurs.”

– Chuck Close, AND Alex Fletcher in Music & Lyrics (see previous entry)

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. so do it."

-Kurt Vonnegut, one of my very favorite American heroes

PoP! Goes My Heart

This doesn’t have much to do with anything, except I saw this clip a few days ago and have since felt the uncontrollable urge to share it with the world. Anyway, the movie Music & Lyrics is a movie about an aging 80s pop star (Hugh Grant) who collaborates with a young, hot, totally awesomely-dressed writer (Drew Barrymore) to write a song for a Shakira-esque superstar. It’s pretty cute but the film’s major strength lies in its catchy songs and Hugh Grant’s one-liners.

And THIS video, the first two and a half minutes of the film. So genius:

I think my favorite part is the blinking heart under the sheet at the hospital. Or when Jason from Friday Night Lights does a slowed-down version of the Molly Ringwald dance. Or maaaybe the picture-in-picture. Oh hell, I can’t decide. My favorite part is the entire 150 seconds of faux-80s goodness. I’m still puzzling over Hugh Grant’s cravat- I refuse to believe that dressing like Austin Powers would have gone over well in 1984.

I’m not really urging you to go out and rent Music & Lyrics- though it is a good bet if you really loved The Wedding Singer and similar chick flicks- unless you feel like watching that clip over and over on a big TV. Which I totally do.

Honest to Blog?

So after looking forward to it for a month or so, I finally saw the movie Juno on Thursday night with my friends Mark and John. The film stars Ellen Page as a babyfaced sixteen-year-old who gets knocked up after sleeping with her best friend, played by Arrested Development’s winningly awkward Michael Cera (also see: Superbad). She decides to give the baby up for adoption to a seemingly perfect wealthy couple, played by Jennifer Garner and another face from Arrested, Jason Bateman.

I actually have this poster because my awesome friend Lewis stole it for me. A million points to Lewis.

In general, I really really enjoyed this movie. It delivers what I call “the Super Troopers effect,” whereby you’re constantly trying to suppress gales of laughter because you don’t want to miss the next funny thing. Every single character has a host of vulnerable/funny moments, especially Cera as an unwitting father. At one point, during a fight with the heroine, he imitates her by saying “Oh no, let’s make out instead, la la la.” It’s way funnier in the movie than in my blog, I promise.

In fact, these constant verbal acrobatics are almost too perfect. My only real problem with the film was the writer’s endless attempt to make the characters sound quick and hilarious. Juno’s whole “seamonkey” line, which you can hear in the trailer, is way too perfect to have been thought up on the spot by any sixteen-year-old, no matter how clever. The end result is pretty harmless, though- the actors just take on a few exaggerated features, like caricatures. They still manage to keep it real, a testament to the strength of the cast. Oh, another tiny flaw was a bit of “nonodon’tgothereJuno” drama that was pretty contrived. But I don’t want to spoil anything.

Another thing I always have to talk about is the soundtrack. I’d probably put it in my top 10 of all time just because it contained not one, but TWO of my all-time favorite love songs. Early in the film we hear the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You,” a really cute waltzy duet and later on we’re gifted with Belle & Sebastian’s “Piazza, New York Catcher.” It’s the sweetest. Song. Ever.

Because the movie is funny and the soundtrack is awesome, Jason (my way-cooler-than-everyone-but-I'm-not-sure-if-he-knows-it boyfriend) has warned me that it’s probably going to be “the next Garden State,” a phrase which sends an icy chill down my pretentious spine. Yeah, Garden State was very sweet and beautifully directed, but I think it’s unfair to call chinless Zach Braff’s assortment of ennui faces a plot. Just saying. If my little brother’s scene friends start putting Belle & Sebastian on their iPods, I might just have to choke a bitch. While wearing running shorts and a yellow sweatband, of course.