Thursday, May 17, 2012

No More Summer

RIP Donna...Jonathan Demme directs another Neil Young film...PJ Harvey contributing music to documentary...Rita Wilson's Jimmy Kimmel performance...Fleet Foxes and Thee Oh Sees...

Well, we should all take a moment of silence for the late disco queen, Donna Summer. I'm not too familiar with all of her repertoire of songs, but "Hot Stuff" and "Love To Love You Baby" are staples of Donna Summer's work. Summer died this morning in Florida, and her death was a result of her ongoing battle with cancer. She was only 63. Donna, you will be missed by many...and we'll always have your music to take us back to the days of disco. Safe travels.



Jonathan Demme won me over with Rachel Getting Married. I don't know why, but friends have pointed out that I love "wedding" movies, which is ironic because I hate actual weddings, but to give an example of the type of wedding movies I like, they would include Rachel Getting Married, Margot At The Wedding, and The Wedding Date (don't judge me). Sure, these films surround weddings, but it's also about the deterioration of the people surrounding the actual event, maybe that's why I like them. I'm getting way off topic.

But, Jonathan Demme has made another film about Neil Young (who incidentally is playing right this second!). Apparently, this is the third Neil Young film that Demme has directed, and it's rightly so, considering what a phenomenon Young is. In this film, Demme follows Young around his hometown in Ontario, as he gears up for a concert. You can view the trailer for the film below:



After already talking so much about PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, I will save my breath. But, Harvey is currently set to contribute a couple of new songs to a documentary, titled What Is This Film Called Love?. The film is about soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (yeah, I don't really know who that is, but that's what Harvey specified on her Facebook page). So, be on the lookout for that one, and you can see a performance of one of my favorite PJ Harvey songs ("Goodnight") below:



Rita Wilson...I've always liked her slightly sardonic characters (IE: The Story of Us and It's Complicated), but when I heard that she was coming out with a record, I was highly skeptical, as most people are when actors take a crack at forming a band and singing. Some actually pull it off, *couch*Zooey Deschanel*cough*, but even taking into consideration that the music itself may not be good, one has to remain a critical thinker. But, Rita Wilson has played it safe in that she's released an album of covers, titled AM/FM. I don't know much about the album at this point, but I did catch her performance last night on Jimmy Kimmel, and I was slightly surprised. Her vocals are fair, not great. And, she actually looks like she's having a lot of fun. You can view that below:



LISTENING: While working out this morning, I listened to The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending The Night In, an album by Thee Oh Sees that I've mentioned before. It's good in that it keeps a pretty steady, somewhat upbeat tempo...well, maybe not exactly upbeat. Then, I opted for Pandora while at work, only because it's the easiest transition from playing an album I've actually bought to listening to something halfway decent in the office, and have enjoyed the harmonistic (is that a word?) styling of Fleet Foxes, the soft and chilled voice of Neil Young, and the sinister proto-punk of the Sonics. So yeah, it's been a good afternoon for me. I'll leave you with this little number...



That's all. PEACE.

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