a-me-with-a-you

Well, If you are gonna keep butting heads on the issue, lets just drop it. At least UM makes an effort to cover songs and change it up once in a while for the fans. God only knows if the pretentious Jeff Tweedy would ever play a popular cover more than once a year.

you really don't need to take these discussions too seriously, the cover itself is great. I just think you lost a whole lot of your credibility by attacking Jeff Tweedy without provocation and unjustfully.

When Tweedy performs "Black Eye" solo it can be quite hard to keep tears away sometime, it's truly stirring. Out of the Wilco catalog Radio Cure and Ashes of American Flags take the front runner position. I'm also quietly amazed at how effective Tweedy's Jandek cover turned out, called "Crack a Smile".

Some songs I like have been mentioned already, Pearl Jam's Black, Aimee Mann's Wise Up, Beck's Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime, Dylan's If You See Her Say Hello, but for some reason, it's not even that slow of a melody, Pearl Jam's Last Kiss really stands out as one of the saddest songs ever. Am I weird like that or is it the song that has a weird effect on more people than just lil' old me?

This Sufjan Stevens' song always hits the spot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQzWb_f1oA

I made a saddest songs top ten a couple of months ago for another site, these were the other nine laureates:

Pearl Jam - Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTFwYZ6YJU

Elliott Smith - Twilight

Aimee Mann - Save Me

Jeff Tweedy - Crack a Smile

(no youtube version found)

Elliott Smith - Between The Bars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2PhGbG-WbA

Bob Dylan - If You See Her, Say Hello

Wilco - Radio Cure

Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Wait a minute? Wait a minute!

 

Are you confusing Kubrick with Martin Scorsese? Marty directed all 3 films that you mentioned above. And it was Bringing Out The Dead, btw.

 

Edit: I'm still not sure where you found those Beltmann quotes, since they are listed as 4:55p.m. & it's only 2:27p.m.

Nevermind, I did see The Color Of Money comment.

I think it's quite obvious that I was mixing up the names, but I'd be inclined to point this out as well if I was in your position. I can't help it and neither could you apparently ;-)

I think the Beltmann quotes weren't from today btw.

I should say that in my mind, Travis Bickle does not live to be an old man.

Did you mean that you share my interpretation that the last scenes of Taxi Driver play in Bickle's mind when he's dying?

I did love Badlands. I've never seen Days of Heaven on account of my complete and utter hatred of Richard Gere. If I like The Thin Red Line this time around, I'll soften my stance on Gere and give DoH a chance.

 

I enjoyed the latest Rambo movie. I mean, it sucked, but it was fun.

"Badlands" is sorely overlooked, and comes very close to being a masterpiece. I think it's pretty brilliant the way the standoffish diary that could belong to any random couple falling in love is juxtaposed with the psychotic actions of Martin Sheen's character on screen. Makes the whole deal very disturbing without gory imagery or a score that hits you over the head. Because that's the more common form of evil right: indifference to it's manifestations and clear presence in many around us.

I love "The Thin Red Line" (should've won best picture over "Saving Private Ryan" in '98) but it's been too long since I've seen it to properly respond to the post right above this one. I hope the people praising those two films also have seen and appreciate "The New World", I can look at that film with the sound turned off and still be spellbound, I've never seen anyone capture the beauty and inherent poetic nature of the jungle and it's native tribes so perfectly. It also has an ending that's hard to do justice to in writing.

It's possible lovers of Malick may also get a kick out of Jarmusch's "Dead Man" by the way.

I don't quite get your second point. Are you saying you are lucky because that means you get to see those bands in smaller venues? If so, I agree with you to a certain extent but I feel selfish in doing so. And Wareham talks about this in the movie. He discusses being in two cult bands (Galaxie 500 before Luna) and how that is fine when you are getting going and in your 20s, but when you are in your 40s and married and have a kid and you are playing the same clubs you have been playing for 20 years, it gets old. He also talks about the pressure of feeling like he was responsible for the welfare of the rest of the band and how that was part of the reason he broke up Luna.

 

And now that I think about it, he talks about it in the movie but also in his book Black Postcards, which is a pretty good read.

Well, there's a certain amount of egoism involved of course; I used to really like Kings of Leon until they hit it big and they're not a well kept secret anymore, but the main issue is conforming to commercial norms (such as converting to stadium rock) in order to hit it big or in order to stay big. The KOL example works well here, their least inspired album(OBTN) is also their most succesful by a mile. Cult bands are the only kind of bands left that gain all of their following by word to mouth, and not getting your music video onto mtv. Of course, nowadays(I'm not that old actually) you can be a youtube wonder or get millions of hits on your myspace page and explode.

I think my side in the discussion will have better arguments if I can actually see the movie in the near future.-)

Despite how derivative they are, I really like Luna. I always felt like Dean Wareham and I have the exact same record collection.

 

The clip that Dude linked above is certainly one of the highlights of the movie and of Luna's live set. I liked the movie but it was a little depressing. So many bands that I like achieved about that same level of success - enough to keep going as a band but not enough to really make it.

I've never actually seen an underground band I like split up due to lack of success, usually that happens when they get a radio hit and the unrest begins to stir between band members about whether or not they've sold out(or maybe whether or not to do a VW commercial lol). I guess I'm lucky b/c quite a few bands I like only have a small cult following.

When I first read this thread I thought we we're gonna bid on "The Tonight Show", after all Conan O' Brien did put it up for sale on Craig's list.

The Color of Money was okay.

The key word in this sentence is 'okay'. Or 'was' maybe, in the way that it's long gone thankfully. I felt rather disappointed watching TCOM, maybe Kubrick should have given Cruise a little reminder that grinning like you're high as a kite isn't really acting, or tolerable to look at neither. It's a little insulting for Kubrick's better work when you praise "Bringing Back The Dead", "TCOM" or "After Hours" in my opinion. Kubrick himself must see this even.

One reason a new edition can't compete with old ones is because old ones have the unfair advantage of being seen by the forgiving, wide eyes of childhood--and then forever benefit from the magical, transformative powers of nostalgia. New ones receive no magic; they only face the more discerning, more jaded eyes of adults hoping, in vain, to feel twelve again.

 

I thought Crystal Skull was okay. It certainly has its howlers, but then so does Temple of Doom, which really, really doesn't hold up. (That said, my adult eyes think Raiders and Last Crusade have aged reasonably well.)

True. I think movies after a long gap only work if they have the characters mature a bit in a satisfying way while retaining some of the magic that made the first movie successful. It's not quite a decade, but Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) is about as good of a pair of movies as you can watch filmed over a long gap. I wonder if Linklater and the actors will be up for another chapter in 2015?

Very well put Beltmann, the mind plays some tricks on us, it's not entirely impossible though to step back from your golden-edged memory for a minute and recognize guilty pleasures as such, certainly when a film has aged terribly. I still like insanely cheesy action films such as Lethal Weapon but you won't see me defending it as a good movie.

Crystal Skulls was no worse than Temple of Doom(which contains the immortal "Indy, a lifeboat? We're not sinking...we're craaaaaashing), Die Hard 4 was merely a fraction worse than Die Hard 2, and Disturbia certainly was a reasonably good rehash of Rear Window. Still I saw "Temple of Doom" and "Die Harder" at that impressionable age of 12.

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are equally good, true, but with the danger as coming off as a cultural barbarian, they're both minor accomplishments of the so called "talkie indie". In a way, I love the lesser but more of the radar attempts in the genre more, that way I can complain about "how these kind of great films are never picked up by mainstream audiences". I think the fact that every wannabe cool kid that never came close to seeing an indie before in his life instantly proclaimed his love for it didn't actually help.

Kudos to drtam form the Lonely 1 w.Andrew Bird .. I'm stealing it for my opening song.

 

This was hard, but here goes -- more than 25

 

The Lonely 1 w/JT and Andrew Bird

Misunderstood

Radio Cure

Either Way

Country Disappeared

In a Future Age

Blue Black Nova

Impossible Germany

Always in Love

(Jeff speaks for first time)

You Never Know

Someday Soon

Handshake Drugs

Too Far Apart

Walken

I'm the Man Who Loves You

Got You

 

1st Encore

It's Just That Simple

Less Than You Think

Spiders

Let's Not Get Carried Away

 

2nd Encore

Passenger Side

Magazine Called Sunset

King Pin

I'll Fight

Just A Kid

Monday

Outtasite

 

3rd Encore (after lights come back)

Dreamer in My Dreams w/Andrew Bird -- with three or four endings

Is Blue Black Nova an insanely rare b-track I haven't heard or is it vc slang for Bull Black Nova?

exactly. The reason they played it was because there was a fan poll on the UM website during the days leading up to the Valentines Day show. All of the potential covers all had to do with hearts, love, relationships, jesus, etc. But anyways, the fans chose the Wilco song. So hell yeah.

It's got an innocent enough melody but I'd hardly call IATTBYH a Valentine favorite...

I can't imagine this is serious. Can you name one sequel to a movie that came out more than a decade earlier that was memorable? The Two Jakes? I rest my case. Even more to the point, there are hardly any great sequels to begin with.

I'm wondering aloud what's the point of a cover like this? Sure, it's a well done copy but so was Van Sant's "Psycho" remake and that's arguably the most idiotic idea in film history. Admittedly trying to put a spin on a song and mangling it (like Norah Jones) isn't the way to go either.

Will add this to my queue, I like me some Yo La Tengo, now let's hope I'll find this flick somewhere.

"Let me in," the voice cried softly

From outside the wooden door

Scattered remnants of the ship could be seen in the distance

Blood stained the icy wall of the shore

"I'm the only one left. The storm took them all,"

He managed as he tried to stand

The tears ran down his face

"Please, it's cold."

When he woke, there was no trace of the ship

Only the dawn was left behind by the storm

He felt the creaking of the stairs beneath him

That rose, from the sea, to the door

There was a sound at the window then

The captain started, his breath was still

Slowly, he turned

From behind the edge of the windowsill

There appeared the delicate hand of a child

His face was flush and timid

He stared at the captain through frightened eyes

The captain reached for something to hold on to

"Help me," he whispered, as he rose slowly to his feet

The boy's face went pale

He recognized the sound

Silently, he pulled down the shade against the shadow

Lost in the doorstep of the empty house

"I'm trying to find my way home.

I'm sorry . . .

And I miss you

I miss you

I've grown taller now

I want the police to be notified

I'll make it up to you

I swear, I'll make it up to you

I miss you."

If you look at the "Thirteen" lyrics without imagining the melody accompanying it, I'd understand the nomination, sort of speak. However, together they work great. The frailty of a first love, the delicacy of the arrangement and the shyness of the lyrics are a winning combination.

I think some of the "Sky Blue Sky" lyrics aren't awful but pretty disappointing still. Ease up on the wheather metaphores.

It's not that there's no point to "Impossible Germany", "Either Way" or "Sky Blue Sky", most of the lyrics are pretty observational or describe simple situations and feelings, not the more complex and intruiging ones we've come to love in his AGIB and YHF lyrics.

And as far as more simple lyrics go, "Being There"s are just better, as long as you're aspiring nothing but poetical beauty. Most of the other lyrics on SBS, after reviewing, aren't quite as awful as "Either Way", "Impossible Germany" and "Sky Blue Sky" but those are the three greatest songs on the album; I think it fits right in with the thread title.

Maybe the sun will shine today

The clouds will blow away

Maybe I won't feel so afraid

I will try to understand either way

Maybe you still love me maybe you don't

Either you will or you won't

Maybe you just need some time alone

I will try to understand

Everything has its plan

Either way I'm going to stay right for you

Maybe the sun will shine today

The clouds will roll away

Maybe I won't be so afraid

I will understand

Everything has its plan either way

------------------------------------------

Oh, the band marched on in formation

The brass was phasing tunes I couldn't place

Windows open and raining in

Maroon, yellow, blue, gold, and gray

The drunks were ricocheting

The old buildings downtown empty so long ago

Windows broken and dreaming

So happy to leave what was a home

With the sky blue sky, this rotten time

Wouldn't seem so bad to me now

Oh, if I didn't die I should be satisfied I survived

It's good enough for now

With the sky blue sky, this rotten time

Wouldn't seem so bad to me now

Oh, if I didn't die I should be satisfied I survived

It's good enough for now

---------------------------------------------

Impossible Germany

Unlikely Japan

Wherever you go

Wherever you land

I'll say what this means to me

I'll do what I can

Impossible Germany

Unlikely Japan

Fundamental problem

All need to face

This is important

But I know you're not listening

No I know you're not listening

This was still new to me

I wouldn't understand

Impossible Germany

Unlikely Japan

This is what love is for

To be out of place

Gorgeous and alone

Face to face

With no larger problems

That need to be erased

Nothing more important

Than to know someone's listening

Now I know you'll be listening

After much filtering and elimination my selection still contained 37 songs. God, this is hard work.

01) Via Chicago

02) Kingpin

03) War on War

04) Kamera

05) Sunken Treasure

06) Far, Far Away

07) Thirteen

08) Wishful Thinking

09) Heavy Metal Drummer

10) Side With The Seeds

11) Pot Kettle Black

12) Impossible Germany

13) Company In My Back

14) Jesus, Etc.

15) Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

16) I'm Always in Love

17) Theologians

18) Muzzle Of Bees

19) Handshake Drugs

20) Poor Places

21) Reservations

22) Ashes of American Flags

23) Hell Is Chrome

encore

24) California Stars

25) The Lonely One

Elliott Smith - Between The Bars

Drink up, baby, stay up all night

The things you could do, you won't but you might

The potential you'll be that you'll never see

The promises you'll only make

Drink up with me now and forget all about

The pressure of days, do what I say

And I'll make you okay and drive them away

The images stuck in your head

People you've been before that you don't want around anymore

That push and shove and won't bend to your will

I'll keep them still

Drink up, baby, look at the stars

I'll kiss you again between the bars

Where I'm seeing you there with your hands in the air

Waiting to finally be caught

Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine

Keep you apart, deep in my heart

Separate from the rest, where I like you the best

And keep the things you forgot

The people you've been before that you don't want around anymore

That push and shove and won't bend to your will

I'll keep them still

Grows on you

http://img.nattawat.org/images/y9qn9wno5u8vp015kwpy.jpg

McNaught's Comet

I consistently read his blog, also because he also wittily responds to some of the comments made on the articles. He often succeeds in completely refuting the arguments in a thousand word rant with just one sentence.

I really like most of his reviews though he gets caught up on one negative aspect often times. A recent review of his I really liked was the one of "The Virgin Suicides".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFXwbmuzZFc

Was at this gig, still gives me goosebumps when I watch it. Forgive my ignorance but what's that black thing on his guitar?

pretty funny, looks like Soderbergh's channeling the Coen brothers. Damon's got great comedic timing, who knew?!

If you pointed a gun to my head and made me choose between AGIB or YHF, you'd have to pull the trigger. I do listen to AGIB more. The best of the rest are ranked accordingly:

1)ST

2)BT

3)SBS

4)WTA

5)A.M.

A.M. - Should've Been In Love

Being There - Sunken Treasure

Summerteeth - She's a Jar

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

A Ghost is Born - Theologians

Sky Blue Sky - Impossible Germany

Wilco (The Album) - Everlasting