Monthly Archives: September 2012

“Beautiful” – Moby

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While I think this is one of Moby’s best songs (though much of it musically is very reminiscent of “Southside”), the video is something else entirely. A crucial scene from Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm” is re-imagined, but ends in a far sadder, grimmer way. While the concept may strike you at first as quirky in a bad way, stay with it. Yes, the storyline is predictable and has played out many times in all kinds of films, novels, and TV shows, but the use of people in animal costumes actually makes the climax more shattering and horrific for some reason I can’t put my finger on. One of the best music videos I have ever seen.

“Hard Working Man” – Captain Beefheart / Ry Cooder / Jack Nitzche, from the film “Blue Collar” (1978) dir. Paul Schrader

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The theme song from Paul Schrader’s mentally brutal 1978 working class thriller “Blue Collar.” One of the great forgotten films of the 1970s, with Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto. As Kotto’s Smokey character famously asserts: “They pit the lifers against the new boys; the young against the old; the black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.”

 

“Creep” – Scala and Kolacny Brothers

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A transcendent cover of my favorite Radiohead song, done by a Belgian girls choir. Beautiful, depressing, and hilarious. I don’t know about you, but there’s something very cool about hearing the F-bomb dropped by an angelic choir. Used VERY VERY effectively in the trailer for David Fincher’s “The Social Network.”

“Heavy Metal Parking Lot” (1986) dir. Jeff Krulik and John Heyn

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A special dedication to anyone who grew up in either Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware during the 1980s.  This is the infamous (and hilarious) documentary about Judas Priest fans in 1986 waiting to go to see the band when they played the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, directed by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn. Favorite line: “Mah name’s Graham … like the dope. Huh-huh-huh-huh!!!!”  If you grew up in Virginia or Maryland, you must check this out for the Delmarva accents alone.

“Ski Bunny” – Boss Hog

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I can not even begin to describe how refreshing it was to discover The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion back in the mid-1990s. During the height of painfully earnest grunge and alt-rock, the Blues Explosion only sang about how great they were and how they kicked ass on stage (and they did). They were like some weird cross between the Butthole Surfers and the Rolling Stones and they were beyond awesome.

However, Spencer’s other project at the time with his wife Christina Martinez, Boss Hog, may have even been better. I dare you not to frug violently while listening to this. There’s lots of F-bombs on this one, so not safe for work or little ones.

 

“The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts 1-3” – Neutral Milk Hotel

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From the classic album “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” I discovered this album/song in 2010 and if anything defined that crazy year for me, this is it. This five minute-plus three-part rock opera is one of the strongest openings to an album ever. The opening starts off as an acoustic ballad, transitions into an a religious declaration, and then transitions into a loud, transcendent lo-fi thrash song around 3:36 in that sounds like a downpour in a windtunnel. Do not listen to part 3 under the influence of anything. You will never walk again.

“Abolicao” – Ennio Morricone, from the 1968 film “Burn (Queimada)” dir. Gillo Pontecorvo

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Many people say that Ennio Morricone’s best score is “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” “Once Upon a Time in the West,” or “The Mission.” All of those are great, but his score for “Burn!” (“Queimada”) is magnificent, especially this majestic piece that played over the opening credits.  Director Gillo Pontecorvo’s underrated follow-up to “The Battle of Algiers,” starring Marlon Brando.