Sunday Screening

You're probably familiar with Glen Campbell, one of the most prominent producers of execrable 1970s countrypolitan music. You know his terrible signature song--

--and you know the one good song he recorded (so good, in fact, that many people rightly count it among the all-time great American songs)--

(pause to let "Wichita Lineman" sink in; listen to it again if you want)

--BUT. You probably don't know, as I didn't before I consulted Wikipedia, that in the early- and mid-1960s Glen Campbell was a highly regarded session musician who played guitar on everything from, this is true*, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" to the Monkees' "I'm a Believer". Mull that one over.

AND you probably didn't know that Glen Campbell is still recording albums. Yes! Just this year he released an album called Meet Glen Campbell, because apparently both he and his producers are aging and don't grasp unidirectional time anymore; it contains covers of, among others, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, U2, and -- wait for it -- Green Day. Glen Campbell did a great thing by covering Green Day, because he took "Time of Your Life," already a song that makes sensible people gouge their eyes out, and managed to make it worse. Steel yourself:

I wanted you to hear this -- because now, for the rest of your life, every song you hear will sound that much better. Congratulations: you've been Glenoculated.

(NOTE: Another thing I learned, in the process of researching this garbage, is that "Time of Your Life" is actually called "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)". This surprised me, considering that at my high school, this was the song they'd play over the P.A. after a student had died. I understand that small class sizes were a priority in Ontario public schools, but geez...)

And now I'm off to weep for the world. Enjoy the rest of your weekends; this is an open thread.

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*N.B. I would be completely unsurprised if this isn't true.
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UNRELATED: Go over to Legion tonight, when you have a minute. I'm sitting next to Garrett and Mel, in our sad little self-hating Harvard version of the Flophouse, and they are brewing something interesting.

Sunday Screening

Everybody, this is Corb Lund. Corb, this is everybody. Now that we're all acquainted, let's hear some music.

CORB LUND is Canadian -- I know, me writing about Canadian music, you're shocked -- from Alberta, to be specific, and he plays country music (variously, along "the Corb Lund Band" or, lately, the wonderfully named "Hurtin' Albertans"). But it's not really country like most people understand it. Yes, there's yodeling in this song (which is part of a long tradition, actually, going back to Jimmie Rodgers who is arguably the founder of country music); but more than that, Corb Lund's music is just weird. Dense, inscrutable, sometimes deliberately stupid and sometimes deadly serious; you won't hear much else like it. Here's another example:

Now, I'm no fan of that video -- can't quite tell if it's a deliberate throwback to grunge, or just cheap and ADD-addled, but either way I'll pass -- but the song is just great. (That line: "This is grape juice and cheap vodka, man! This isn't even wine!" kills me every time. Not to mention it's an excuse to bring up the recent ridiculousness involving PZ Myers and a Communion wafer, which you should look at if you need more proof that this country's religious right is completely unhinged). You can hear the obvious Dylan influence in this one, but it's got that rootsy twist to it that adds a new dimension. Here's another, much more serious (and political) song -- follow the lyrics now:

Corb Lund's music, like a lot of Canadian rock, is an acquired taste. (I'm thinking here specifically of the Tragically Hip, whose songs are so dense both lyrically and musically that it often takes dozens of listenings before you can unravel them -- and that's not counting the YEARS of radio acclimation you need before you can get past Gord Downie's weird-ass voice.) But once you acquire it, man, do you ever acquire it; I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to tease out "Expectation and the Blues," under the logic that any country song which rhymes "over-intellectualize" with "self-actualize" must be worth understanding. (Here's a little low-quality snippet, if you're hardy enough to try it for yourself).

And it's not like he doesn't have a sense of humor. Here's "The Truck Got Stuck," one of Corb's most irresistibly dumb and catchy songs -- I warn you now, this is a talking blues about trucks getting stuck in mud, and if you hear it you WILL have it playing in your head for days. Listen:

(Agriculture Canada is our equivalent of the USDA, incidentally. Many Canadian federal agencies are just the name of what they do with the word "Canada" tacked on -- "Health Canada", ""Environment Canada", "Sport Canada", "Western Economic Diversification Canada", etc. You get used to it.)

Anyway; if you want to hear more Corb Lund, his albums are in all the usual places. I recommend eMusic, which sells real DRM-free MP3s at sensible prices ($10 for 30), and has a catalog of everything you need (they just don't carry the major labels, which is fine, because all that mainstream shit is on the filesharing networks anyway). Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your weekends; this is an open thread.

Sunday Screening: Primary-Appropriate Edition

So I gather there were some primaries yesterday -- awfully poorly promoted, if you ask me -- in Nebraska, Louisiana, and Washington State. Leaving aside the outcomes of those contests (which I gather favored some crazy youngster named "Omaba" or whatever), I'd like to take you all on a video tour through the cultural artifacts that I, however unfairly, associate with these particular places.

LOUISIANA is a vast and complex state with its own unique heritage and culture; it's one of the most fascinating parts of America. In keeping with that spirit, here is a completely arficial, possibly offensive, stereotype-laden country song about a one-armed Cajun:

That of course is "Amos Moses" by the inimitable Jerry Reed, who for the record is not from anywhere close to Louisiana. This song was a hit in 1971, and you can still hear it on the radio today, as well as on the flawless soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004.

Jerry Reed is probably best-remembered for his straight-country contributions to the Smokey and the Bandit movies, but he also had a number of novelty hits like this one -- the best example is his famous "She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)", which everyone ought to hear once. (I also urge you to check LimeWire for his theme from the 1976 Burt Reynolds film "Gator", if only to hear the immortal line "Everything's okie-dokie in the Okeefenokee.") Alongside Tony Joe White, Jerry Reed is probably one of country's most purely entertaining figures, and he deserves a bit more attention. Anyway.

WASHINGTON STATE is of course the home of grunge rock, Starbucks, and Microsoft, among others; but for me, I will never think of the Pacific Northwest as anything other than the land of BILL NYE:

Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993-1997) is possibly the greatest accomplishment of educational television, or at least right up there with Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Not since the age of Watch Mr. Wizard had there been so direct and earnest an attempt to bring science to young people by TV; but Bill Nye fused it with a manic, self-conscious, postmodern comedic fury that could only have come out of the 90s Pacific Northwest (the people behind this, including Nye himself, had previously run a local Seattle sketch-comedy show called Almost Live). The result: perfection.

If you feel like wasting an entire afternoon, or possibly day, one kind soul on YouTube has posted a bunch of full-length Bill Nye episodes (get 'em while they're hot, since Disney's probably on the copyright warpath). One thing I urge you to do is go through an clip you've just watched, and listen carefully to the sound effects -- this show was lavished with witty sound production. (I'll never forget the day in seventh grade geography, Elora P.S., our class sitting unsupervised watching a Bill Nye video, when the crazed shop teacher Mr. Rupnow came wandering in and rewound the tape so we could "listen to the sound effects without distraction." It was a magical experience) Also, be sure to sign the petition to Disney to either put the show back on the air, or release it on DVD for the non-educational market; this decade's young people should not be deprived of such genius.

Finally, NEBRASKA for me will always be the land of Alexander Payne movies. Granted, I am only thinking of two -- 1999's Election and 2002's About Schmidt (I will never forgive him for going mainstream and setting Sideways in California), but they're both so impressive and so scrupulous to their Omaha setting. Here's a heartbreaking clip from About Schmidt, with Jack Nicholson playing against type in what should have been a Best Actor performance:

It makes sense to set these movies, which are about the banality and meaninglessness of life, in a place like Nebraska. Flat, empty, generic. And Payne tends to it with such care; think of the Omaha skyline montage at the beginning of About Schmidt, or the constant reappearance of those skeletal electric towers throughout Election. I can't think of many other present-day filmmakers who use manmade landscape like that. If you haven't seen these movies, they're worth your time. (Election, to boot, is hilarious.)

Anyway, to top it off, here's a fun (if rather unfair) mashup of Reese Witherspoon's character from Election with Hillary Clinton:

...I feel kind of bad posting that -- and yet it's so perfect...

I'm going to go take a shower. Enjoy what's left of the weekend, everybody!

Sunday Screening: Super Bowl Edition

Well, normally football-blogging here falls under the purview of the estimable Eva Lam; but I understand she's still mourning her Packers (my position, for the record, is that any enemy of the Patriots is a friend of mine), so I figure I should step in. Are you ready for some football?

That video will have been like nails on a chalkboard for many of you; it's Hank Williams Jr. performing his famed Monday Night Football intro, in a particularly tasteless 1995 cut. (There's no video of the 1989 original, which is probably just as well.) By any objective measure this is an AWFUL piece of music, especially in contrast to the great production Monday Night Football had in the 70s; the L.A. Times when this theme debuted called it "grating". But it stuck. And I can see why; for all its ostentatious stupidity, this song and its history capture so much of the gaudy, senseless exuberance that underlies American culture. Football has that effect; it brings out our wild side.

...Hank Williams Jr. actually had a number of other hits in the 1970s and 80s, though he never came close to his father's enormous impact. The most interesting thing he recorded was the 1981 single "A Country Boy Can Survive", a rather creepy survivalist anthem:

There was a mini-boom of this sort of stripped-down, angry country music in the 1980s; another good example is Charlie Daniels (of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" fame), whose proto-fascist ode to vigilantism "Simple Man" still sends chills down my spine whenever I hear it:

I should note that "Simple Man" went certified-platinum in 1989; it prompted a small storm of consternation among the usual suspects (talk shows, etc). But this strain of country-xenophobia (which came back with a vengeance after 9/11, most obviously in the form of Toby Keith) doesn't amount to anything real; it's a fantasy, just gangsta rap for farmboys. There are very few actual survivalists or vigilantes out there. At most it taps into a bit of cultural anxiety around political radicalism -- which brings me to a video I've wanted to use for some time.

This is Red Rider, the Canadian band which spawned Tom "Life Is A Highway" Cochrane; 1981's "Lunatic Fringe" was their biggest hit. Cochrane wrote it as an angry response to anti-Semitism, and you can hear that it has those same subtly gothic elements that underly the extremism of Williams and Daniels. (It also, from a pure music perspective, demonstrates in both its sound and video the precarious position of serious rock in the early 80s -- this is half prog and half new-wave, which is a hell of an awkward combination. Consequently the band just looks like they're afraid of their own song.) Watch:

...I seem to have drifted away from the football topic. Hell. Let me close, then, with the ultimate football video -- this is a 1994 high school match from Texas, and it's the kind of ridiculous phenomenon you only see in video games. (Plus, the announcers, who really deserve a gig on ESPN. "I done wet my britches!") You absolutely MUST watch this:

That's all. Enjoy the game, everybody -- and to the Giants, well, if you're not going to beat the Patriots, then at least try to beat the spread, eh? For me...