Who is Harry Nilsson?

The title of this documentary might imply that the name Harry Nilsson is one that pops up a lot in popular culture but is not widely known. This was exactly my experience with Nilsson prior to watching this documentary. Fun Fact: The only reason I knew the name was because I once googled "The Puppy Song" after watching You've Got Mail. I only became aware of this film when my dad asked me "find it" for him. It's available for free streaming if you've got a Netflix account.

I had no intention of actually watching it too, but I couldn't stop. This isn't a puff piece about some genius musician that was under-appreciated. While it is true Harry Nilsson wrote many hits from the 70s you've heard of and like, this is a vivid portrait of a very complex man with a documented history of alcoholism and self-destructive behavior which is contrasted with his being a loving father, husband, and activist. In other words, my favorite kind of documentary.

Good Will Hunting

One of the many reasons Good Will Hunting is among my favorite films of all time is the brilliant performance by the otherwise off-the-wall Robin Williams, also known for such films as RV, Old Dogs, and Flubber.

But even Matt Damon and Ben Affleck couldn't fully contain Robin's over-the-top twitch. THIS SCENE starts off innocently enough, but watch Williams as he briefly abandons just about everything we know about his character up until this point and replaces it with his animated schtick.

Beyond the Lighted Stage

If the mark of a good documentary is its ability to hold one's attention despite a lack of interest in the subject matter, then the Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage deserves a spot in documentary pantheon of any music enthusiast, especially anti-Rush music enthusiasts.

I was never the biggest Rush fan. I've consumed less than a quarter of their entire collection and mostly stick with the hits. I had never been exposed to the geek culture associated with the band and I'd never really done any thoughtful analysis of their literary lyrical content. From afar I've simply admired the sound they can produce with just 3 members. To be honest, I have always assumed that their talent must be accompanied by an obscene amount of Canadian pretentiousness. And yet, every time Palladia runs this film I watch it. I can't help it, these guys are cool.

The truth, as this documentary points out, is far from my assumption and yours. Specifically worthy of your attention is the career arch and mind of Neil Peart, arguably the world's greatest drummer. The guy is absolutely fascinating. Despite his fame he is a fiercely guarded and infinitely neurotic person scared to death of the spotlight and social interactions, a true anti-hero of the rock and roll world you might be used to hearing about.

Mystery Team

For my final rental from Blockbuster, I'm enjoying Mystery Team, Derrick's Comedy's 2009 movie about 3 high school seniors who've never outgrown their childhood hobby of solving kiddie mysteries. In attempting to regain their lost favor, they take on a murder case. Hilarity, I assume, ensues. I'm about a quarter of the way through, but so far, so good.

In my opinion, Derrick Comedy is the new Lonely Island, Donald Glover is the new Andy Samberg, and Mystery Team is their Hot Rod.

Also, did you know there was a Betty-White-SNL-esque facebook (and other social network) campaign to get Donald Glover an audition to be the next Spider Man? Well, there is. And I approve. And so does Stan Lee.

End of the Century

In last week's post about It Might Get Loud, I mentioned it was my second favorite documentary. The first is one I've blogged about before, and that is End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. I love it simply because it seems surreal. People who hate the band's music would be interested in their story simply because of the multiple personalities involved and the length of their careers. And now I can prove it because it's available in parts on Youtube.

Start with Part 1, here.

It Might Get Loud

If I could just start slow with a simple film recommendation, I'd have to say that It Might Get Loud is the second best documentary about music I've ever seen (I haven't seen a lot of music documentaries), and one of the better films I've watched in the last few months for sure.

The basic premise is "what would happen if Jack White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge (U2's guitarist)were hanging out together in a room full of guitars and amplifier equipment?" And even if you aren't a fan of or two of these guys, the answer to that question is "some really incredible guitar sounds, stories, and insight." My personal favorite overall musician is Jack White, so his presence would have been enough for me, but Jimmy Page is fantastic in this too, and outside of allowing himself to be called "The Edge," the dude from U2 does plenty to remove himself from Bono's shadow and portray himself as a pretty cool guy, even if a lesser musician than the other two.

Stick around to watch the "Deleted Scenes," a couple of which show the three learning each others songs. Not surprisingly, these deleted scenes are probably the only scenes of the film that can't seem to stay up on YouTube for very long. But I did find THIS CLIP of Jimmy Page showing the guys how "Kashmir" was born. Pretty cool stuff.

Grade: B

By the way..

Doesn't Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter look just like Elijah Wood?

Almost Alice

Saw Alice in Wonderland over the weekend. It was okay, not great. I think it helped that I had completely erased from my mind any preemptive notion of the story left behind from childhood. No expectations for a Tim Burton movie might be the best way to attack one. Visuals are fantastic, though I think I'm completely done with this 3D novelty at this point. It's just not a great value for the money.

Anyway, though the film is worth seeing, when it's all said and done the real triumph for me is the soundtrack. Not the Danny Elfman one (though I'm sure that's great too), but the "alternative music" accompanying soundtrack called Almost Alice, which has some surprisingly great tracks from Robert Smith (the Cure), Wolfmother, Franz Ferdinand, Mark Hoppus (blink 182), Motion City Soundtrack, Shinedown, and most suprisingly Avril Lavigne whose "Alice" I think I might like best of all.

Ghoti Hook - My Bike

Movie Samples as Song Intros 6

And lastly, my favorite. I'm not sure what kind of marketing Tooth & Nail were doing in the mid 1990s, but Ghoti Hook was another Christian Punk band I found myself listening to back then, discovered entirely via the internet. It's possible that it wasn't the marketing at all, but the film samples like the one in "My Bike" in which we're greeted by one of the hero's famous lines from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Ghoti Hook was the one Tooth & Nail band using humor along with the punk and christian themes.

Ghoti Hook - My Bike (1997)
Film - Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Slick Shoes - Another Day

Movie Samples as Song Intros 5

Slick Shoes rounded out an impressive lineup of Christian-inspired punk bands that seemed to find themselves on the Tooth & Nail Label in the mid to late 90s. It wasn't that the label was trying to portray themselves that way, it's just there were a lot of bands like that in the northwest back then. Most of Slick Shoes' songs about Jesus could just as easily have been about a girl. Take for example today's song, "Another Day," with lyrics like In all the time that has gone by,Only you have stayed the same. Could be an ode to a loyal girlfriend. Nope. About Jesus. Fair enough. The song also has a 14 second intro from Young Frankenstein.

Slick Shoes - Another Day (2000)
Film - Young Frankenstein (1974)

Saves the Day - Hot Time in Delaware

Movie Samples as Song Intros 4
Before Saves the Day found their identity they were just a couple of kids in New Jersey ripping off Lifetime**, trying to figure it all out. Songs all clocked in at under 2 minutes, lyrics were god awful, and musicianship was questionable. But it's what we liked. It wasn't much of a surprise, then, that just like similar artists they went the movie scene intro route on the track "Hot Time in Delaware" which appeared on the 1998 album Can't Slow Down. And even though Saves the Day's lineup has changed significantly over the years and now sound more like the Beatles-meet-grunge than the Ramones (or Lifetime**), it's still nice to hear something from Can't Slow Down at their concerts, which they were nice enough to do last Friday.

I should mention that my girlfriend and I haven't missed an opportunity to see Saves the Day on any of their tours since about 2006, so this one is near and dear to me.

Saves the Day - Hot Time in Delaware (1998)
Movie Sampled - A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)


And for comparison's sake, here's what Saves the Day sounds more like now:

**Both Lifetime links lead to a song called "Turnpike Gates" which also used a film sample intro.

New Found Glory - Hit or Miss

Movie Samples as Song Intros 3
I mentioned last Friday I'd be seeing pop-punk stalwarts New Found Glory in Atlantic City with Saves the Day supporting. It occurs to me now both bands have gone the movie scene intro route in their past.

"Hit or Miss" is by far the most popular song New Found Glory have written in their 13 year career. I doubt they've ever gone an entire set without playing it. In fact, it appears on each of their first two LPs. The first album, Nothing Gold Can Stay which contains the film sample (and others) came out in early 1999 on Eulogy but was re-released later that year on Drive-Thru Records. When the band released their self-titled album the following year on Drive-Thru (but this time with some money from MCA) producers had the band record a more cleaned up version of the song (and remove the 'A' from their name).

A New Found Glory - Hit or Miss (1999)
Movie Sampled - The Outsiders (1983)

Movie Samples

In the late 90s and early 00s it became common for punk bands that I like to intro some tracks with clips of movie scenes. I was never quite sure why, but I've always found it interesting and enjoyable. I'm trying to research who may have started the practice, but so far the earliest example I've found (I'm sure there are earlier examples) was this:

Guns 'N Roses - Civil War (1991)
Movie:Cool Hand Luke


I'll be posting some of favorite examples as I research this. Feel free to chime in.

Apple Pie Cowboy Toothpaste

If you listen closely to "Apple Pie Cowboy Toothpaste" (starting at 2:38) from Fenix TX's self-titled album, the otherwise standard pop-punk song becomes a tribute to this scene from the 1984 smash hit Revenge of the Nerds.

Glengarry Glen Ross

I've not seen the film Glengarry Glen Ross, but I've seen this scene about a dozen times since it was spoofed as "Glengarry Glen Elf" on SNL a few Christmases ago (and every Christmas thereafter in my house). I figure there's really not much else to see after watching the greatest scene in the history of cinema.

Daybreakers

Score a point for the good guys in the battle for a decent vampire movie. Daybreakers is fantastic. If you liked the first two Blade movies, you'll like this.

See the trailer, HERE.

The Only Rhyme That Bites

The Green Day documentary The Only Rhyme That Bites, which sat in my Blockbuster queue for over a year as "unavailable," was finally delivered about a week before Christmas. Up until that point I had no idea what it was. I had no idea what the title was alluding to because it's not a lyric or a Green Day song title, but the dvd was described the same way at a bunch of trusted websites:

Green Day: The Only Rhyme That Bites documents the history of the rock band. Charting their progress from one of the many bands that were part of the San Francisco punk scene of the early nineties, to their breakthrough album Dookie, to their worldwide success with the punk opera American Idiot, the movie offers never before seen footage of the band.

As a fan of Green Day, I thought "hey, why not? It's got never before seen footage." So as I fired up the dvd you can imagine my concern when the first image was that of words saying "This documentary is unauthorized. No licensed Green Day music is contained herein." Fantastic. A Green Day documentary without any Green Day in it. I gave it a chance anyway, for about 15 minutes. At one point the focus shifted to a hard hitting interview with the drummer's mailman, and one of the more lengthy interviews involves a kid in the back seat of a cab who is billed as "US Green Day fan."

Next time I'll do a little more homework. Now I know why it took so long to come. It's probably Blockbuster's only copy.

Inglorious Bastards

You can bet that at least one person in the world will be getting the wrong dvd this Christmas.

Old Dogs

Perhaps the best part of my Thanksgiving Eve so far has been reading all of the many scathing reviews of Old Dogs over at Rotten Tomatoes. What an awful movie idea! And although Robin Williams doesn't make very many good films, I think it's fair to say that Seth Green may be an even more potent source of movie ruining acting. Great idea, Hollywood.

So far Old Dogs is rated at a whopping 8%.

USFL Documentary

I happened to catch part of ESPN's new documentary, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL when it aired last week, and I was impressed.

It's not that it's necessarily great film making, though it was produced by the guy who made The Bronx is Burning. It's just that the film manages to make interesting this football league, the USFL, that I never knew existed despite some of the big names associates with it and despite how relative recent it all took place (early to mid 80s). For the first twenty minutes I swore I was watching a mockumentary with really good CGI for historical footage. But no, it's all real. So real, in fact, that Steve Young, Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and other future NFL stars all glowingly reminisce about their time spent in the league. Burt Reynolds owned a team!

Anyway, it's worth checking out. Quick spoiler alert, though, the answer is apparently Donald Trump.