Scarlett Johansson has come to our planet seeking soccer hooligans. She will seduce them, drive them to her alien lair. ???. Profit. That’s (I guess) the premise of Jonathan Glazer’s (Sexy Beast) new film that seems to be sharply dividing audiences and critics, even among the Unusual Suspects.
Brian, Richard, JC and Chris all take a turn trying to discern meaning from Glazer’s arty, seventies-sci-fi-ish film that will create both devotees and disparagers, probably in equal measure.
Jared Harris is a para-psychologist trying to get to the truth behind hauntings. He believes that ghosts and their related powers are actually created and controlled by the human mind and he’s ready to double down to prove it. Along with three university students, he’s set up an experiment to closely monitor (and more or less torture, Guantanamo style) a young girl who at least appears to be connected with a malevolent spirit named ‘Evie”.
And nothing goes wrong and Jared Harris becomes the most celebrated scientist of all time for proving that ghosts aren’t real, psychic powers are just, like, ridiculously strong, and evil doesn’t start to get pissed when you keep poking at it.
*ahem*
Yes, well, maybe that last bit, much like this film’s claim to be ‘inspired by a true story’, isn’t all that accurate. Put your trust in Brian, Chris, JC and Richard to give you the real, unexpurgated, frightening truth.
As you’re most certainly aware, largely due to the massive influx of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone relationship news over the past few weeks, it’s almost time for some more Spidey!
People seem to have very strong (often negative) opinions about Spider-Man, and more specifically about the imminent release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I’m already preparing for the fact that I’m probably going to have to talk one friend of mine off a ledge after she reads this. (Then again, she thinks any superhero who isn’t Batman is a complete waste of space.) So while I may be in the minority and I may regret going public with this, I confess to being truly excited to go see Peter Parker swinging from buildings next weekend.
This isn’t because Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. Far from it actually. For about 18 different reasons my favorite on the page has always been Wolverine, but that’s a post for another day. And for one very simple and embarrassing (and obvious) reason my favorite onscreen in recent years has been Thor.
In fact, when I would read comic books as a kid I generally didn’t even bother with Spider-Man. He just never piqued my interest the way others did. His backstory wasn’t that interesting to me, and my phobia of eight-legged creatures couldn’t really handle the added terror of the possibility of a radioactive option. Even so, I’ll admit to spending a fair amount of time running around in my yard shooting silly string out of my hands and pretending to swing from the trees. And there was that one failed attempt at building a web…
Despite his unfortunate fatal flaw of not being Wolverine, Spider-Man will always have a special place in my heart. I was a junior in high school (and still deeply hidden in the geek witness protection program) when Spider-Man came out. I freely admit the movie itself didn’t do much for me. I found Tobey Maguire’s version to be excessively mopey and pathetic, basically the same problems I had with the comic books. And frankly I’ve liked it less and less with repeat viewings over the years.
Though I will be eternally grateful to him for this gif.
But for some unknown and still unexplainable reason, my classmates were hooked. They hadn’t ever cared about the strange ride that had been the 90’s era Batman movies, so this was new. Never before had I walked through the halls at school and heard people talking about a comic book character. (Admittedly I’m not sure many of them knew Spider-Man had existed before the movie, but hey, details.) My friends were actually excited to go see the movie. There was an eventful shopping trip to Toys R Us where we searched in vain for costumes to wear to the theater. We even camped out in line for a midnight screening on a school night and wore the circles under our eyes with pride the next morning.
It was a glorious moment for me. For the first time I felt like my friends understood why I loved superheroes. Turns out they were just really excited about the movie and would move on distressingly quickly, but for a few weeks my random knowledge of the Marvel Universe was an asset and not a carefully guarded secret.
Ok maybe the Spider-Man release didn’t actually start the permanent revolution I was hoping for. (And unfortunately I can’t go back in time and tell high school Fern that she only has to wait about a decade for The Avengers to change everything.) But it still marked a big change for me. Maybe these weren’t the friends that would ultimately share my passion, but I now believed that there were going to be people out there that would get it. And obviously I was right.
So next Friday night I will buy an overpriced ticket, some stale popcorn and a bucket of soda and sit with a few hundred wonderful strangers and remember that this is why I love Spidey. I can’t wait!
Back to their old tricks again, the sports nerds of Inside the Locker give their completely whacked take on some of the biggest and most bizarre sports stories of the week. They also take a few moments to answer questions from listeners in the resurrected Cheers from the Cheap Seats segment.
If you like sports, or just geeky pontifications seasoned with entirely inappropriate jokes, we hazard you’ll enjoy this episode.
Show Breakdown…
Scores and Stories (2:32)
Topics Discussed: Yankees get caught cheating again, Stone Cold stuns the world with his adamant pro-gay-marriage stance, The Knicks fire their coach thinking it will stop the bleeding, Blake Griffin accidentally creates new meme, Carmelo Anthony wants to be wined and dined, Amazon sells people?, Raiders make yet another spectacular personal flub, and The Legend of the Bolivian Soccer Ghost.
Cheers from the Cheap Seats (38:53)
The guys answer your queries on everything from why the Browns are terrible to who would win in a giant robot three-way tag team match. Yup, we’re just that cool.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter. Please don’t make us send the Bolivian soccer ghost after you. I mean honestly, how could you ever hope to outrun him?
Paul Walker’s last film is sadly this lackluster, and staggeringly unnecessary, remake of 2004’s District B13. Much of the same content is ported over from the original, but the script changes and editing free-run this update into the ground. But hey, at least RZA gets to drop a few unearned Wu-Tang references. That’s at least gotta be fun to watch, right? Guys?
The Unusual Suspects gather for this Highly Suspect Review of Brick Mansions, letting no collection of obstacles stand in their way. Brian, Chris, J.C., and Will Goss bounce off the walls in dazzling disdain for this spectacularly shoddy flick. Will they be able to leap, spin, and flip their way to the end of the review?
I’ve always been jealous of remix artists. They live in a world where they hear melodies and harmonies everywhere. Whether it’s the dialogue in a movie or the nuanced sounds heard in every day life, their ability to take those sounds and arrange them into a cohesive piece of music is astonishing. I can’t even fathom what it would be like to hear the world through their ears. The best kind of remix artists are those who have the ability to capture the very essence of what they are remixing and add influences of their own sensibilities and complexion of sound to the track. In a way, it’s like they are singing about their passion for the source material in their own voice and telling us why it’s so amazing. Essentially, they are geeks just like Us. So as a tribute to the love of geekery and music, I would like to share a couple of tracks that will transport you through different dimensions of sound.
1. Batbomb
Remix artist Dainumo brings us a track that is dominated by the use of percussion (it’s titled Batbomb after all, and bombs are quite percussive if I’m not mistaken). It moves through the acts of the film like stanzas in poetry. It perfectly captures the grittiness and brutality of The Dark Knight, and is done very much in the tone of Hans Zimmer. Big loud brass, hard-hitting-in-your-face beats and syncopation, and a sound that illustrates an industrialized orchestra. The atmosphere it creates feels very metallic, and filled with machinery. Just like Gotham City itself, as well as the gadgets that the famed caped crusader uses.
2. Human Music
It’s no surprise that some of us here are in love with Rick and Morty. Their zany and far out adventures are such a joy to see, and this song perfectly captures it. Chetreo drops a track that may not be as complex and layered as the previous one, but it is much more energetic and playful; it gives off a very fun vibe at a fast pace. In a way, it feels very free and hedonistic (mostly due to the dialogue used in the song), which are some of the prevalent themes of the show. The piece flows in a kind of stutter, in a way to capture the spirit of the banter between Rick and Morty. Appropriately titled Human Music, getting wrecked and shakin’ that booty is how humanity celebrates.
3. Black Mambo
Whether you like Quentin Tarantino or not, there are two things that you cannot deny about the guy. (1). He loves film and (2). He loves coolness and bad-assery (he also has a fondness for the N-word, but that is neither here nor there). Dainumo gives us another piece that definitely captures those vibes in the film. The fusing and layering of a hip-hop rhythm using drums and the clashing of katanas, a rock bass line played by an electric guitar, and a wooden flute lightly dancing on top of all of it, just SCREAMS Japanese bad-assery and revenge. If the 5-point exploding heart technique didn’t kill Bill, this sharp track would have definitely done the trick.
4. Wishery
You’ve heard remnants of it before, but now we are going to be delving into the realm of what some would call trip-hop. This genre of remixing is generally characterized by very dreamy and surreal instrumentation of vocals that floats across a hip-hop beat. My favorite remix artist of all time, Nick Bertke (pseudonym DJ Pogo), is a person who has definitely perfected this technique. In his track, Wishery, he doesn’t even take full words or sentences, but rather he takes the intonation of their voices, and implements them in to his music like notes on a piano. This guy seriously has an ear for sounds, and can hear moments of melodic harmony in virtually anything. I can go in to the different aspects of this song, but I would really like to talk about my favorite two tracks by him.
5. Kadinchey
DJ Pogo isn’t just the perfect example of how to pay tribute to the stuff you love while implementing your own style to it (Tarantino take some notes), but he also embodies the philosophy of music. Music is a universal language that is understood. You don’t have to understand the literal meaning of the melodies, but no matter what language it’s in, you know it’s music when you hear it. In this track entitled Kadinchey (which means thank you in Bhutanese), you can really hear the culture of Bhutan sing. It really has an organic Asian flare with its use of certain percussion instruments (which I don’t know the names of), and simply using the natural intonations and sounds that are built into their language. It has a real sense of spirituality. To be able to hear those nuances in language, and to bring them to the forefront to perfectly paint a melodic portrait of their culture, all while adding his own spin on it, is seriously a work of art.
6. Joburg Jam
I know this has evolved in to a DJ Pogo article, but I just can’t help myself! He’s my favorite remix artist, and by listening to the differences between these two tracks, perhaps you can see why. The man understands how culture and melody are intertwined. They have two completely different sounds, but you just know that it’s done by Pogo. This track revolves around the culture in Johannesburg, South Africa. Right when it opens up with the guitar riff, it has a much more laid back and playful feel than Kadinchey. Even the percussion has a different sound, and the bass line keeps such an even mellow tempo that I could just listen to it for days. The entirety of this piece, from beginning to end, is just full of surprises. Like I’ve mentioned before (and admittedly probably having diminishing returns at this point), his ability hear the culture through the natural sounds of their language is as beautiful as it is impeccable.
Alrighty Ussians! Are there any remixes I missed? What’s your favorite genres of music? Whatever your thoughts, comment below and discuss with the Us!
On the good ship DigiNoise, it’s a sweet trip through the week’s best and worst Blu-ray and DVD releases. Captains Brian and Chris navigate around The Nut Job and Ride Along to arrive at the sweet shores of Double Indemnity and Philomena; all while getting the sugary wonder of that award-winning shanty from Once stuck in their heads.
Then it’s a short jaunt into the darker timeline/parallel universe where the evil twin version of Brian and Chris discuss, what else, Touch of Evil.
Cap it all off with a delicious Zero Charisma giveaway and you’ve got yourself one decadent episode of Digital Noise. Is anyone else super hungry now?
Please do consider using our links below to make all your Amazon purchases! Much appreciated!
Welcome back to “I’m All Out Of Love”, in which I take a pop culture subject (film series, director, actor, television show, etc) and dissect how my ‘love’ of them from early on slowly dwindled and what my current stance on them is.
Saturday Night Live breeds and fosters many talents. In its near 40 year history, the NBC variety show has helped start the careers of many a comedic talent, no matter how short lived or spotty that career would end up being by the time they left 30 Rockerfeller Plaza. One of the more successful of those alumni is Adam Sandler, graduating from the same early 90s era that brought the likes of Norm Macdonald, Mike Myers and Chris Rock. Sandler’s days of sketch comedy eventually resulted in a film career that elevated him to superstardom, with a series of cartoonish yet surprisingly mainstream comedies that have entertained millions for nearly 20 years. He’s even managed to make the breakthrough into more dramatic works, working with the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson and James L. Brooks.
Yet, while Adam Sandler’s works have been big box office successes more times than not, not all have been the most accepted critically. Especially as of late, Sandler’s comedies have been panned as mindless drivel, crowded with bodily function jokes, sexist imagery and a slew of cameos from the more unsuccessful of SNL‘s alumni. And those who say such things are pretty spot on. Why, look no further than OneOfUs’ ownGrown Ups 2 commentary (hooray for shameless synergistic website plug!) for a feature-length exploration of what Adam Sandler’s career has become. But if you want a lengthier analysis of one man’s personal journey with Sandler’s efforts, look no further than this article.
The Spark
“You see, you’re an inspiration, to all of us who… who weren’t born handsome, and charming and cool, and… and…” *breaks down in tears*
I was far too young to enjoy Mr. Sandler’s initial rise to fame on SNL when it originally aired, so my first exposure to America’s 90s man child came from the first decade or so of his film career. As a child, Sandler’s antics were entertaining, melding together the more absurdist aspects of cartoons with the guilty charms of what a young boy would perceive as hysterically raunchy, like jokes about bodily functions. But upon reflection, there was also a heart that kept me watching. Sandler’s initial protagonists were the socially inept underdogs that people could sympathize with and root for throughout the film. Sure, he may have been playing a man child that was prone to violent outbursts, but he always stood up for the losers and fought against the uptight assholes who tried to persecute him for being different. It wasn’t the most grey or contemplative examination of morality, but those films served as enjoyable escapism and that’s what drove the young me to them.
In terms of specific films, the biggest ones of this era to highlight are Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy. This initial trilogy of 90s comedies firmly established the tenants that many Sandler comedies would follow: an innocent child-like protagonist with little to no social skills and/or a speech impediment, a scenario where he must help save something precious to him (his father’s company, his childhood home, his first real friends on the lamest college football team in the state) from being beaten, taken over or demolished by an unapologetic prick of a villain, a love interest who’s inexplicably attracted to Sandler’s crass charms and a cast of fellow weirdo friends who were typically played by Sandler’s then up-and-coming SNL buddies… and Steve Buscemi. This formula continued well into the mid-2000s and the young me just couldn’t get enough of it, whether it be in the form of Big Daddy, The Wedding Singer or even Little Nicky. And while most of them haven’t remained that beloved to me upon re-watching (especially Little Nicky), I could at least still find some nuggets of charm in them, which is more than I can say for some of his more recent efforts. But we’ll get to that…
The Love Affair
“I don’t know if there is anything wrong because I don’t know how other people are.”
As I grew older, I gained more exposure to Adam Sandler’s work outside of film, including his SNL stuff, his comedy albums, and his early stand up performances. Each showcased something essential about Sandler’s comedic style: his commitment. No matter how thin or one dimensional the joke was, Sandler always committed to it. That may not be something to usually praise the man for, but it’s that kind of dedication that helped make Sandler’s occasional stretches into more dramatic fair all the more believable and engrossing. In his review for Punch Drunk Love, the late Roger Ebert stated that “Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor. Watching this film, you can imagine him in Dennis Hopper roles. He has darkness, obsession and power.” I really couldn’t have said it better myself… but I’m going to try to.
Punch Drunk Love is my favorite Adam Sandler film. It’s also my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson film. And I discovered it completely by accident on television. Initially expecting another Sandler rom-com vehicle, I was shocked by how enthralled I was by it. He wasn’t just playing a buffoon who tries to do good. He was playing a grounded three dimensional character, one who had some of the recognizable quirks of a typical Sandler protagonist, but with an intensity that showed the quirks came from a very deep seeded case of loneliness. Paul Thomas Anderson once described Punch Drunk Love as an “arthouse Adam Sandler film,” and that’s astonishingly accurate. The film takes the conventional constraints of the films that made Sandler famous and deconstructs them, from the outcast loner protagonist archetype to the violent outbursts. Yet, Anderson adds these shades of depth and emotional honesty that give this romantic comedy something more. Ideas of loneliness, regret and isolation that give the relationship between Sandler and Emily Watson something oddly beautiful. Unlike Adam Sandler’s other more serious productions, this is the one that really was made to showcase his capabilities as a performer and will forever be, for me at least, the shining example of his career.
Nothing Lasts Forever
“I don’t know. Personally, I think you should have just let yourself die. Honestly man, what are – what are gonna do now? Make another bullshit movie?”
Adam Sandler’s best decision as a Hollywood mogul and worst decision as an artistic talent was founding of his production company Happy Madison. The worst of Sandler’s tendencies as a comedic star started to come to light around the time Happy Madison Productions’ output became quite successful. The first one where it really hit me was Click. In many ways a terribly awful Adam Sandler comedy, the film tacks on this half-assed message about family and what it means to nearly lose it during the ending. The whole movie is spent showing you how awful Sandler is as a person, but we support him because he makes a last minute change of heart that doesn’t feel earned. This would prove to continue further as time went on. Films like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Bedtime Stories, and Jack and Jill rang in a new era for Adam Sandler: his true “I don’t give a shit” phase of filmmaking. Even with the worst of his pre-mid 2000s work (*cough*Eight Crazy Nights*cough*) there still seemed to have some sort of effort put into them, even if it wasn’t directly from Sandler.
Once this new era started, noticeable changes to the typical Sandler formula started taking place; Sandler himself is now the ultra-successful higher functioning schlub, his far weirder and more pathetic friends (played by Sandler’s now failed SNL buddies, far worse comedic presences like Kevin James, Nick Swardson or Shaq, a random sports figure or the occasional still talented person who is struggling to find work… and Steve Buscemi), a wife who’s even more out of Sandler’s league than any of the ones in his earlier films (which includes the likes of Salma Hayek, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Keri Russell and Katie Holmes), copious amounts of lazily displayed product placement and a location of some sort to shoot at that also doubles as a vacation spot. The “let’s save this thing I love” plot isn’t even a factor anymore. Hell, any sort of semblance of a real plot isn’t even a factor anymore, especially with the two Grown Ups films. It feels like Adam Sandler just slumped into creative bankruptcy, largely aiming to entertain his less successful friends with a vacation for each production rather than actually shoot a film. All of this really came to a head for me with Grown Ups 2, which may be a new low in terms of how transparent the laziness of Happy Madison really is at this point.
The problem with these Happy Madison Productions isn’t that they have immature humor or that they stretch the laws of reality. It’s that the lovable loser type character that had made Adam Sandler famous was gone, instead being replaced by this judgmental douchebag who made fun of others for being different, but still wanted to be perceived as another one of the lovable losers. Or, even worse, sometimes he was replaced by one of Sandler’s co-horts getting their own movie. *shivers* Basically, Adam Sandler had become the villain he spent the latter half of the 90s trying to fight against. The cartoon anarchist we knew and loved had become a part of the system he raged against, now using his crass humor and pension for friendship to scam good people out of money with the same exact garbage every time.
Final Thoughts
“What are you doing Happy? Riding a bull? You’re acting like a damn fool!”
Adam Sandler as an artist is largely a hack. I don’t have any ill will towards Sandler himself when I say that. Based on what I’ve heard from him or seen of him in interviews, he seems like a very chill, laid back individual that treats his friends right and respects others. As an artist, however, he’s brought very little of worth to the table in the last decade or so of his career. The few things that I felt were of value (Spanglish, Reign Over Me, Funny People, Hotel Transylvania and, yes, even the Happy Madison Production You Don’t Mess With the Zohan)have usually been projects crafted by other filmmakers who might not have completely succeeded at their goal, but were at least striving to make an honest effort. The three comedies listed above should especially be noted, as they involved Adam Sandler collaborating with former writer buddies like Judd Apatow & Robert Smigel, who seemed to bring out the Adam Sandler we missed for so long. It seems that Sandler, true to his professionalism, actually puts his all into the visions of those who he surrounds himself with. But when those people are Happy Madison’s common dirge of uncreative directors like Dennis Dugan or Frank Coraci, it seems like they bring out the worst in Sandler.
There was a certain point where I thought Adam Sandler was just plain dumb, that he really did find the films he was making funny. Then I saw how willing he was to be self aware in Funny People and it hit me: he wasn’t dumb… he just didn’t care. It became clear that Sandler was fully aware of how awful 90% of his current career put out was and the fact that he went right back to doing the exact same type of failed comedies after decrying the entirety of them with fake posters and movie clips in Funny People instead of changing his style really did hurt my image of him substantially. Until Adam Sandler somehow changes up his style, I’ll still largely see him as a hack.
That all being said, the next time the man decides to stretch himself as an actor, I’ll gladly go see it. In fact, it looks like Sandler will be returning to his more respectable style of work, with two of his upcoming films being Jason Reitman’s Men, Women and Children and Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler. I honestly hope those films are successful enough for Adam Sandler to finally get out of his groove and have the sort of career renaissance he should have had post-Punch Drunk Love. Until then, I’ll have to deal with the next Happy Madison Production he’s starring in. How bad could it be?
April, 2004 – The NFL Draft just ended and my phone rang. It was the Cincinnati Bengals. They were offering me a free agent contract and an invitation to mini camp.
Needless to say I was pumped as I headed for the Ohio Kentucky border. It was my goal to make it to the NFL since I was 12 years old, and here I was putting on the coolest helmet in the league and playing catch with Ocho Cinco. I did it, I made it to the NFL. Three day into camp my throwing shoulder (the same one that gave me trouble my senior season) started to hurt. Jogging off the field that day I asked then starting QB John Kitna if his arm ever hurt. He said, “no, why does yours?” I nodded and he replied, “Don’t tell anyone.”
I didn’t.
Instead I popped anti-inflammatories like the Wolf of Wall Street popped ludes and applied the horse liniment DMSO on my shoulder. DMSO is some nasty business and works by penetrating the skin and calming the inflamed joint. Sure it works, but it announces its presence through rancid breath and infection if not applied carefully.
The next day jogging out to practice I knew I was in trouble. Despite my anti-inflammatory ice party the night before I could barely lift my arm. I tried to suck it up in warmups but it was starting to be obvious. Our first drill was throwing deep outs. Of course. After I ballooned a few in there, QB coach Ken Zampese encouraged me to “go ahead and let it rip Ryan!” That next throw felt like I was stabbed in the back of the shoulder with a machete.That was it. Despite Kitna’s seasoned advice I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to say something. The next thing I knew I was in the office of player personnel signing my release papers.
They threw me into some interns cigarette stained 88 Buick to drop me off at the airport. The dream was over. I remember the red velvety seats and looking out the window taking in the sweeping emotions as this stranger drove me through the grey streets of Cincinnati. There was immense sadness, but strangely there was this equal feeling of relief. Relief that I didn’t have to worry about my shoulder holding up because it definitely wasn’t going to, and an unexpected relief that it was over.
I of course bottled up that last feeling and never told anyone how I really felt because that is how a quitter would have reacted. That, and I wasn’t prepared to destroy the dream for everyone that had supported me up to that point.
Back home I kept the dream alive and had surgery to repair the problem. I rehabbed and started training to prepare for a workout I had lined up with the 49ers. A week before my trip up to San Francisco my arm was feeling good, and after a throwing the ball around with a buddy of mine I came to the truth that my heart was no longer in it. I was done. I didn’t want to play football anymore. It was always my goal to make it to the NFL and that box had now been checked. Looking back I should have been more specific, like I want to sign a multi million dollar contact in the NFL. Either way I was now on to plan B. And if you ask anyone who has a shot to play in the NFL, you don’t have a plan B.
After many years of trying different things plan B finally announced itself and turned into plan A: to make great art. Wait, what? “You are a jock, you can’t be an artist.” Is what I heard in the subtext of those around me. The truth was I was always passionate about art but never fully perused it because of football. My mother was an avid photographer and my father was an actor and they encouraged my creativity, and I wanted to be creative. Any free time I had while working different jobs was spent in my makeshift art studio or in acting class. I had now found something that I loved to do and I wanted to do it well. Exploring this creativity never felt like work. It felt right, and my work improved. My exploration in the studio led to creating a technique where I use various blowtorches to burn images into wood.
The work got noticed and I had my first solo show at the Black Square Gallery in Miami in April, 2013, and was subsequently featured on the cover of Artvoices Magazine soon after. The acting got better too. I continued to study, got an agent, and started booking commercials and guest spots on shows like NCIS and Justified. I even teamed back up with my good friend and filmmaker from UCLA Jared Drake. Jared showed me a script he and his brother were working on titled Visioneers. They were fired up to make it and after I read it and loved it, I came on to produce. The script was well received and after attaching Judy Greer and Zach Galifanakis we were off to Seattle to shoot.
This is where I became an 80s action hero. Jared cast me as MACK LUSTER in the film, an action-hero transplant from the 1980s modeled after Rambo and Commando. Knowing I had to beef up, I hit the gym. Football was gone, but the work ethic learned on my way to the NFL was still there.
It was during this time that I realized I don’t have to abandon my identity as a jock in order to be an artist. I can just be me. All the pieces fell into place as I dove into my new Plan A. This proved successful as my character in Visioneers went on to develop a bit of a cult following.
So much so that Jared and I have teamed up again to give Mack Luster his own feature film. We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for production. If we succeed, shooting this feature will be as great as any Superbowl I ever could have dreamed of.
If you would like to see more and support this project, click the image below!
Sometimes I feel like I’m constantly listening to the same music. I have a fairly substantial music library but I’ve only ever listened to a small percentage of it. I’d consider myself a music lover, but I often become overwhelmed with the idea of trying to find something new and exciting to listen to. After becoming stressed-out over the music that’s supposed to bring joy to my life, I either settle on NPR or mindlessly flipping through the Top 40 stations trying to find something I don’t hate.
For some reason I didn’t used to have this problem, but recently, finding new bands and music has become a lot of work. When I was in college, I was a DJ at the college radio station (shout out to WXJM!), and this proved to be a great asset for discovering new music. I had the entire radio station library at my disposal to search through and find things I enjoyed. And more importantly, I had other like-minded DJs that were eager to share new music with me.
Ah, precious memories.
After graduation, though, it became increasingly difficult to sate my musical appetite. I was approached by my good friend, and One of Us editor, Dimitry to write a post about how to find new music. My reaction was, “I have no idea how to find new music,” to which Dimitry replied, “That sounds like a pretty good place to start.” At first I got pretty bummed, being the music-lover that I am, that I didn’t know where to turn for new tunes. It was easy when I was in school, but actively working at it was something that I felt was unnatural and scary. But there’s no better time to figure it out than now, and as Dimitry was implying, there’s no better place to start than at the top.
I should probably preface this by saying that these are just suggestions. Obviously, there are other ways to discover new music; I’ve just compiled a short list.
Independent/College Radio – As I said earlier, having my own college radio show helped me build my library and discover some really great music. Maybe there’s a college near you with a killer radio station (second shout out to WXJM), but if not, many college radio stations have online streaming service available for those who are outside of the broadcasting range. In addition, the station’s website may keep a running list of recently played tracks, so if you hear something you like, you can head there and find out what it’s called. Other places might have an independent radio station that isn’t affiliated with any university that plays some great stuff. Be warned though: not all college radio is created equal. Some radio stations will be better than others.
It takes a special station to be this cool.
Festivals – I’m not much of a festival-goer. If I’m going to camp, then I’m going to go camping. If I’m going to go to a show, then I’m going to go to a show. They’re mutually exclusive. After a full day of standing around in the sun/mud do you really want to stand in line for a shower? My personal aversion to festivals aside, they are a great place to scope some new bands. Your favorite band isn’t playing until later? You might as well head over to another stage and see what everyone else has to offer. Don’t be like me and just look up the festival lineups and then YouTube the bands you’ve never heard of. That’s just lazy.
This is either a crowd waiting for a band or the bathroom. It’s impossible to tell.
The Support Act for Your Favorite Band – Check out to see who is opening up for your favorite band on their most recent tour. A lot of times these bands are touring together for a reason, whether it’s because they are stylistically similar or because they share the same agent. Most of the time we suffer through the openers and clap politely, but we’re secretly glad when they leave the stage. Why don’t we just give them a chance? We’ve already paid for the ticket. Sure, sometimes the opener is actually really bad, but I’ve often been surprised with how much I actually enjoyed some of the supporting acts I’ve seen. And if you’re really digging the opener, go over to their merch table and pick up a CD.
TV Shows/Movies – Anyone remember the show called The OC? I guess it was a show about the struggles affluent white kids face growing up in Newport Beach. The show, however, had a really killer soundtrack. Wanna get a glimpse into what indie-music was up to between 2003 and 2007? Pick up The OC soundtracks. I’m not afraid to admit that a lot of those songs are really good. Anyway, the point is that some TV shows are really good about picking decent music. I know that How I Met Your Mother (last episode aside) would occasionally have a decent song in the background. Figuring these songs out can be a little tricky because sometimes they won’t be in the credits. I’ll let you get creative. Also, I know that movie soundtracks can often times be pretty lame, but sometimes they can be really awesome. You’ll notice, though, that some songs will show up in a trailer for a movie but it’s not actually in the soundtrack. I distinctively remember hearing “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap on about 8 different movie trailers but never actually seeing it in the movie. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open.
What Are They Playing in Your Favorite Bars/Restaurants/Retail Store? – Have you ever been sitting at a bar or restaurant and thought “Hey this kinda sounds like a cool song” or “I’ve heard this song before I wonder who it is”? That’s the perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper. This is probably a situation where one of those “what-am-I-hearing-right-now?” apps comes in handy. You’re going to want to channel your inner Clint Eastwood and quick draw the Shazam app (or whichever music-matching app you use) like you’ve just taken your tenth step at a duel. For best results, have the app on the home screen of your phone in a place where you can tap it quickly. Nothing’s worse than fumbling around your phone’s application menus looking for Shazam, only to find it as the song ends.
You’re either my best friend or my worst enemy.
Sometimes, you can opt to ditch the app and employ a personal touch. I specifically remember standing in some department store, holding my girlfriend’s purse (because that’s your duty as a boyfriend) and thinking “this store is playing some really awesome tunes. I need to talk to whoever made this playlist.” I accept that most restaurants/bars/retail stores are probably just playing Pandora (which isn’t really a bad suggestion to find new music. It just felt a little obvious for this list), but you should at least make friends with whoever picked the station.
Radio Shows & Podcasts – Have you ever heard Marketplace on NPR? You might think that a show that’s all about dissecting the financial news of the day would have a pretty dull soundtrack, but you’d be absolutely wrong. Whoever picks the tracks that play between that show’s segments has incredible taste. On one episode of Marketplace, you can hear Dr. Dre, Chromeo, Count Basie, The Mountain Goats, Pete Rock, The Roots, and other fantastic recording artists of the past and present. Marketplace also compiles the songs played on the show and links you to sites where you can listen to and purchase them. Another public radio show, Snap Judgment (which is basically This American Life with better music), features some great tunes from smaller, independent artists. The people who create the radio shows and podcasts we love are surrounded by audio all day, so of course they’re more likely to develop good taste. If you like the music on a show, do some digging to find out what they’re playing.
NPR: The only place where you can learn about the economy and find great music.
Dig Deep Into a Discography – Is there a band that you enjoy but you only have one of their albums? Go ahead and listen to the rest of them. A few years ago I decided I needed to listen to Wilco. The Wilco bandwagon had completely passed me over, but I felt like they were a band I needed to be familiar with, and I thought I would enjoy their music. What was holding me back, though, was how daunting their discography was. I had no idea where to start, which albums “represented” them the most, etc. The only thing I could do was jump straight in. I just sat down and listened to as many of their albums as I could get my hands on.
It’s pretty easy to fall into a musical rut and, like me, just flip radio stations all day. It’s also pretty easy to get discouraged with the amount of music that’s being offered to you currently. Sometimes it feels like being a music-lover is like being in a relationship: it can be a lot of work, but if you’re willing to do it, you’ll be rewarded handsomely. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open, and be willing to take a few chances. Sure, not everything is going to work out, and you’ll end up listening to a few things you might not like. The only thing you have to lose is your time, and if it’s time spent listening to music, it’s not really time lost.
How often do you find yourself fatigued with your music library? What are some methods you use to find new music? Share your ideas in the comments!
