More on Music Videos...
...and why Anton Corbjin isn't as much of a hack as I let on.

I was a little harsh on Mr. Corbijn on my last post. Let me backtrack a bit and say that he is one of the most influential rock photographers/videographers of all time, and that bands like Green Day, U2, Depeche Mode, and Metallica wouldn't be where they are today without him.

...With that said, i'm kind of sick of music videos. i've been watching so many of them for the last week or so (I'm shooting one as my final project in my digital distribution class, so I've been looking for concepts to steal), and I can safely say that there are simply a lot of BAD music videos out there. However, I've run across a few that I had forgotten how good they are:

• Madonna - Express Yourself (dir. David Fincher)
• Madonna - Like a Prayer (dir. Mary Lambert)
• Madonna - I'll Remember (dir. Alek Keshishian) ...she made my list three times? Damn.
  
• Jimmy Eat World - Pain (dir. Paul Fedor)
• Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice (dir. Spike Jonze)
• Foo Fighters - Everlong (dir. Michel Gondry ...the man who invented the "bullet time" from The Matrix...and don't forget it!)
• Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science (dir. unknown)

....and of course...the grandaddy of them all...

• Aha - Take on Me (animated by Michael Patterson)

Youtube for those, as well as the two Depeche Mode videos I mentioned in my last post. It's good watchin's...

Anton Corbjin is a HACK.

Ok, not really. But I can safely say that at least _two_ of the videos he shot for Depeche Mode are not nearly as good as he (or the rest of the world, for that matter) would have you think. Those videos? Enjoy The Silence and Strangelove.

Enjoy The Silence is a hell of a song. In fact, it's one of the best singles Depeche Mode has released, period. But the video? Boring. It features "king" Dave Gahan wandering around mountains and hillsides with a folding chair, so he can "enjoy the silence." Um...ok? And this is visually stimulating...how? (In defense of the video, there are occasional black and white shots of the band and a rose. But they're sparse.)

Strangelove....one of the first videos banned from MTV. Corbijn gets credit for letting his girlfriend dance around the stage in her underwear. And, yes, a video featuring scantily-clad models would seem to fit damn well with a song about sexual fetishes. Except for one thing...the Strangelove '88 video, which is simply much better done. And who cares if it completely rips off Fritz Lang's Metropolis? It wouldn't be the first time.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Depeche Mode. And, most of their videos are excellent. But give me Clive Richardson's Blasphemous Rumours or D.A. Pennebaker's Everything Counts (101) over anything Corbjin's done any day.

Rainy Day Ollie – Killing Two Birds With One Car.
Rough around the edges, yet still showing promise.
Andrew Ryan // 11/20/06

In my eyes, the Ozaukee County punk scene died in 2002 with the breakup of Sand!. The handful of bands left simply weren't talented enough to hold my attention or drive me to come to shows.

Part of me wonders exactly why I was so short-sighted. Maybe my standards were too high from years of being spoiled by bands like I Belong, No Direction, and the like. Or, maybe I let my personal distaste for the people in the bands affect my perception of the bands themselves.

Either way, I was wrong. Apparently, the Ozaukee scene isn't dead…it's just waiting for a savior. Unfortunately, Rainy Day Ollie isn't the savior the scene needs…at least not yet, anyways.

At first listen, Rainy Day Ollie comes off as a second-rate Alkaline Trio or blink-182. On second listen…nothing improves. The band seems to take cues from every pop-punk band in the last 10 years, but can't seem to improve on the formula at all.

That's not to say the band is bad. In fact, the musicianship is fairly solid for the genre, and shows glimpses of what the band could become, with the right producer. (Local musical genius Justin Perkins, who has worked with Molitor, The Starrs, and The Obsoletes comes to mind.) Much of my problem with this album stems from the vocals, which are entirely uneven and shaky. While this may be another example of my standards being a bit high, they just sound too nasal-ly and whiny, and don't seem to fit with the instrumentation well. The mixing could use some work, as well…bringing out the drums and bass a little more might help the music flow better.

There are highlights to this album, though. The band successfully channels mid-life MxPx in the song "Not Tonight," a song that could easily fit into WLUM's local music rotation. (Why the band refuses to send in a copy is beyond me.) "Suck At Life" and "Believe" show off the tremendous talent of guitarist Ben Pitsch, who can shred with the best of them. And "Suffocate," the closing track of the album balances out hardcore and pop influences quite nicely.

Rainy Day Ollie simply needs to find a way to separate themselves form the crowd. Although they can pull off the pop-punk sound convincingly….so can everyone else. I look forward to the day where this group is able to rescue the local scene.

(**.5)

Two and a half out of five stars.

United Artists to be revived...
...by Tom Cruise??

(Cross-posted to my JMC-262 class blog.)

Sometime last week, it was reported that Tom Cruise and MGM had come to an agreement to revive United Artists, the studio originally founded by Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith, and Charles Chaplin.

My original reaction to this? Well, my original comments aren't suitable for print. However, after curling up (or in this case sitting in a rather uncomfortable chair in the basement of the UWM library) with the latest issue of Variety, I've come to a rather odd comclusion for me:

This may actually work. And, it may not suck too badly.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate Tom Cruise with all the loathing I can muster up from the darkest regions of my soul. But, as bad as some of his more recent films have been ("War Of The Worlds," anyone?), as a producer, Cruise does have a somewhat-impressive track record of success. Take for example, a small snippit of his work (as a producer) between 1996 and today:

• Elizabethtown
• The Last Samurai
• Shattered Glass
• Narc
• Vanilla Sky

Not a shabby lineup, by any means.

Also, Variety has brought to my attention a fact that I was previously unaware of. Apparently, Cruise is not contractually obligated to star in any of these films, only to produce them. This lessens my disgust greatly, as I am generally opposed to much of what Cruise has starred in during the past 5-6 years. Not only that, without Cruise starring in these films, they may be more likely to live up to the legacy of United Artists and what the studio stood for so many years ago in Hollywood.

So, I'll wait to reserve judgement. Until I see UA release Battlefield Earth II.

At that point, all bets are off.

Radio Singles Suck.
Labels simply can not pick them anymore.

I've just about had it with record labels.

Now, this isn't one of those generic "OMG THE RECORD LABELS SUCK CUZ THEY RIP OFF ARTIST" rants. No, my reason for hating the labels is much more simple and basic than that.

Labels these days simply can not select "good" radio singles. This summer has definitely proved that.

Let's look at three examples of poorly picked singles, shall we?

• Panic! At The Disco - I Write Sins, Not Tragedies.
• Cobra Starship - Bring It (Snakes On A Plane)
• Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko

First, Panic! At The Disco. Everyone remembers that song, right? The song that you simply could not escape this summer, P!ATD took the radio wave by storm and got stuck in everyone's head. But, many people won't even know that there was a single out before I Write Sins, Not Tragedies. Unfortunately, Decaydance screwed up, and released a video for I Write Sins while at the same time promoting an entirely different single for radio air (that single being The Only Difference Between Suicide and Martyrdom is Press Coverage...by all accounts a much better song to promote the album with.) They then realized their mistake, and...poof. Gone is the current radio single, replaced by I Write Sins overnight.

Cobra Starship...everyone here remembers Snakes On A Plane, right? Well, the single (Bring It (Snakes On A Plane) from the soundtrack album was released to radio at the same time. There's one small issue with this, however:

No one played it and the song was...pretty bad.

Has Decaydance released a followup? No. Should they have? Yes. It's Amateur Night At The Appollo Creed! not only better reflects the sound of the album, but it's much better, as well.

[update-january, 2006: The follow-up single has been released. And, again, it ("The Church of Hot Addiction") is a fairly irritating single. Apparently, Decaydance doesn't learn from its mistakes.]

Shiny Toy Guns. Heard the new single? It's irritating. In fact, it's so irritating that I almost didn't buy the album. But, it was on sale for seven bucks, so I tried it. Know what I found?

It's pretty good. In fact, it's very good. Except for that single.

Hey, Universal: Shut up and release Don't Cry Out. If you have the hottest new-wave band since Devo, why not release a single that actually reflects what they sound like?

Labels: You are terrible at picking singles. Start doing a better job...for your own sake. You'll sell more albums, and anger less radio employees.