4 CDs - 4 Reviews

I saw Lost in Translation in the theatre, absolutely loved it and was skeptical as to whether the collection of music forming the "soundtrack" would be just as good an audio experience as the movie was a visual and audio experience. The soundtrack has been massively hyped up because of the presence of Kevin Shields from the early 90s group My Bloody Valentine, but its not him that makes me like this CD, but rather the consistency of good down tempo, low key, misty-eyed introspective electronic compositions going on here, some of which were WAY too short, like Squarepusher's "Tommib" and Air's "Lost in Kyoto". I was reminded, at the tail end of the movie, of a song I had been nuts over back in high school when I bought The Jesus & Mary Chain's critically acclaimed album (I bought it on tape cassette) "Psycho Candy"... The song "Just Like Honey" had the perfect feel for the end of this movie...

...but just because a movie uses one good song that revives an interest in a long-not-thought-of band from one's past does NOT mean that buying that band's Greatest Hits album is justified OR appropriate. I picked up J&MC's "21 Singles" collection and was reminded of how the band's first album was VERY tinny and noisy. And then after the first 5 or so tracks, they delved into country-ish / Velvet Underground-like numbers that I never knew were even singles, but I knew I'd made a mistake purchase...

I saw the movie CQ on the Independent Film Channel one night and thought it was brilliantly weird. It was set in the late 60s in Paris. A new American wanna-be film director was brought in to help concoct an ending to a sci-fi film called "Firefly" and that's all I'm telling you plot-wise. It was directed by Roman Coppola, brother (?) to Sofia Coppola (director of Lost in Translation) and on the inside of the soundtrack to Lost was an advert for the sountracks to both Sofia's Virgin Suicides & Roman's CQ soundtracks. So... having made THAT connection... I bought the CQ soundtrack and have listened to most of it ONCE and liked it for the most part... campy, dated, swingin' 60s-sounding French pop music... It's almost like I'm looking for MORE of a sound that isn't done by a whole lot of people... Tipsy, Thievery Corporation, Nicola Conte, old Seksu Roba, etc... and this CD has SOME of that feel, but sometimes feels too silly and not enough melancholy... I'll listen to it again...

Complete waste of a purchase goes to My Morning Jacket. I bought this because I'd read great things about this band in the magazines Time Out New York and Rolling Stone, but in my opinion, the band basically sucks. I like the music and can put up with it in that I like neo-country-sounding music like Lloyd Cole & The Commotions from the 80s, but the lead singer ruins it. I can't even describe how much I don't like this "It Still Moves" CD. The only part of it that I DO like is the growling bear on the cover. Bad purchase...

Sparks

Sparks is a band that I initially bought years ago on the reccomendation of the record store manger where I was working many years ago. (No, not you, Tom.) The Mael brothers have been around since the 70s and have produced some of the best weird album covers and twisted song titles and garnered all kinds of "witty", "clever" and "unique" reviews, but in Sparks' case, it really IS a double edged sword.

I bought Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins first and was immediately confronted with Russell Mael's amazingly versatile and unique voice doing a short little almost acapella ditty that sounded like a cross between Bobby McFerrin and parts of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". A truly great pop song is "When Will I Get To Sing My Way", but everyone I've forced to listen to this number also reminds me, under their chuckling, that "Doug, this song is way over the top gay sounding." And it only goes downhill in this regard from here on out. Operatic pop acapella with synths, strings and spiralling, shimmering vocals doing lyrics that make almost no sense and TOO much sense at the same time. I mean, the long, long, long "Frankly Scarlett...I Don't Give A Damn" is the perfect flaming pop representation of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara from "Gone With the Wind", but as well as it may have been executed, who cares? Who gives a damn? It's both brilliant and utterly unlistenable without laughing your head off. The only other song on this album worth its weight in pop is the gleefully sad and poignant "Let's Go Surfing". Hopefully you didn't plod your way through the bizarre operatic pop tracks with manic drum tracks sandwiched in between... Especially weird is "I Thought I Told You To Wait in the Car"... weird, I tell you.

Fast forward about 7 years to 2003 and I was bored, looking for new music and I found Plagiarism in the used bin. It was one of the biggest $8 mistakes I've ever made. The cover should have scared me away, what with Ron & Russell in muscle bod skimpy skimpies. I had been under the impression that it was a sort of Greatest Hits Collection, but no, it was Sparks re-interpreting their own songs in even more over the top classical/pop-opera style. Very bad.

And a mere month later, I did it again... I bought Lil' Beethoven, the latest release from the Mael Brothers thinking that maybe something had gotten better. This album REALLY proves the point that Sparks is a band that tries to wear you down with long, repetitive lyrics like the lead-off track "The Rhythm Thief": "I..am the Rhythm Thief... Say goodbye to the beat..." over and over, with "Oh no, where did the groove go? Where did the groove go?" all done in a classical style sort of. I guess the song is sort of a "Ibiza you suck" song or something, but man, it goes ON and ON... Brilliant in its uniqueness in the world of pop music, but that doesn't mean ANYONE should really do what Sparks has done.

One song I actually DO like on Lil' Beethoven is the awfully titled "Ride 'Em Cowboy" song where its a bitter diatribe against the press or the recording industry or someone in reference to you like us, then you hate us, you say it's not our day, week, month, year... Brilliantly bitter... Morrissey could do something with these lyrics, but I think even HE is distancing himself from the defiantly different Sparks.

But here's what even scares me... for as much as I'm railing against Sparks, I actually like alot of their lyrics and concepts, but then step back and see them as being simultaneous space aliens and pop geniuses. Confused? So am I... Hell, go to Amazon.com and read the rave reviews, but THEN listen to the samples. It's crazy, I tellya...

Sparks' website

The Gorn from
No Kill I, the Star Trek-
themed Punk Band
Strikes Back!

I got a random e-mail the
other day from Dave who is
the Gorn and the Mugatu.
He had just found out that
No Kill I had gotten some
coverage in Geekspeak and
he thought he'd tell us MORE
interesting facts distinguishing
No Kill I from rival ST-
themed band Warp 11.

Definitely expect to see
MORE of The No Kill I in
the pages of Action Geek.

The official website

The No Kill I Next Generation site

Soundbite explaining band name

(June 11, 2003)