Weekend Video: Sir Douglas Quintet - "She's About a Mover"

The Sir Douglas Quintet is one of the more underrated bands to come out of the late 60's. They were very influential in their home state of Texas but never really broke through nationally. While a majority of their music would qualify as Tex-Mex, their best known song "She's About a Mover" sounds like Ray Charles (who the song obviously owes a ton to) fronting a British invasion band with a heavy keyboard. That British invasion influence is really noticeable in the visual look the group adopted in the following clip, taken from when they performed on the NBC show Hullabaloo. I love this song and it's a great gateway into the world of the Sir Douglas Quintet and eventually their frontman Doug Sahm's solo work as well.

The Aquabats!: Hi-Five Soup! (2011)

If you've never heard the Aquabats! music before, the cover of their new album, Hi Five Soup!, sums up their sound pretty well. Also consider their habit of adding exclamation points to the end of all their song titles, the fact that their lead singer is the creator of the children's show Yo Gabba Gabba! and that they have always maintained a superhero mythology and you'll get a even clearer picture of what's in store. The Aquabats! started out in the mid-90's as a 3rd wave ska band but over the years they have dropped their horn section and became a synth-based new wave inspired band. Think of a less serious Devo (if that's possible).

The Aquabats! have always walked a fine line between outrageous fun and obnoxiousness and I've generally found them to fall on the latter side of that line. Hi-Five Soup! is no exception. Songs like "B.F.F.!," "My Homies!," "Poppin' a Wheelie!" and "Food Fight on the Moon!" all are high energy tracks with strong melodies that also have the chance to drive a listener crazy if you don't buy in all the way. Rapper Biz Markie makes a appearance on the faux-reggae of "Radio Down!" (that quotes "Dancing With Myself") and although it's my favorite track on the album, I wouldn't want to hear it on a consistent basis. The rest of the songs follow the same blueprint and while I like that they don't take themselves seriously, it's all a bit much to take in at once.

At this point in my life I think it's safe to say I'll never be a big fan of the Aquabats!. I won't say that they're a terrible band. They know how to make "fun" music that will appeal to a select fan base that just doesn't happen to include me. If you're already a fan of the band then Hi-Five Soup!, will probably appeal to you. If not, they're a band best served in small doses.


Rating: 2/5


Track Listing:

1. "The Shark Fighter!" (2:57)
2. "B.F.F.!" (3:20)
3. "The Legend Is True!" (3:21)
4. "Radio Down!" (3:32)
5. "Poppin' a Wheelie!" (2:16)
6. "Hey Homies!" (3:05)
7. "In My Dreams!" (3:05)
8. "Just Can't Lose!" (3:40)
9. "All My Money!" (2:49)
10. "Pink Pants!" (2:41)
11. "Food Fight on the Moon!" (2:39)
12. "Luck Dragon Lady" (3:47)

Smith Westerns: Dye it Blonde (2011)

It's pretty tough to write about Smith Westerns without referring to things the Nuggets Box Set and bands like T. Rex. Their influences are so obvious right from the start that it's easy to go down that path. So that's exactly what I'm going to do. Smith Westerns self titled 2009 debut garnered some pretty favorable reviews but not too many people heard it. The biggest problem with that album is that the production was so bad it was hard to hear what was going on in the music. Still there was a undeniable charm to their ultra hooky brand of garage punk.

Smith Westerns second album, Dye It Blonde, has been recorded by and released on a fairly prominent indie label (Fat Possum), and the sound quality is greatly improved. It manages to retain the bands scruffy charm but you can actually hear the music instead of a mass of noise. Dye it Blonde is less rambunctious than their debut but far more enjoyable. The opening track "Weekend" sets the tone perfectly for the album. It's loaded with T. Rex and Mott the Hoople style fuzz guitar and has a giant hook to draw the listener in. The vocals are mainly delivered with a breathy style of singing that's reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine but with a bit more power. The rest of the album follows suit with a mix of up tempo tracks ("Imagine Pt. 3," "Fallen in Love," "Dance Away") and slower material ("Still New," "Smile," "All Die Young") that are equally effective. The only major downside to Dye it Blonde is that the band doesn't really have it's own voice yet.

Smith Westerns are a band with a ton of promise (they're all around 20 years old) and even if it isn't completely fulfilled on Dye it Blonde, the record is another step forward for the group. I look forward to future releases from them and hopefully they can turn their influences into something with a bit more of a personal stamp. They seem fully capable of doing so but they're not quite there yet.


Rating: 3.5/5


Track Listing:

1. "Weekend" - 3:20
2. "Still New" - 4:10
3. "Imagine Pt. 3" - 3:32
4. "All Die Young" - 3:45
5. "Fallen in Love" - 2:28
6. "End of the Night" - 3:24
7. "Only One" - 3:22
8. "Smile" - 4:09
9. "Dance Away" - 2:44
10. "Dye the World" - 4:11

The Decemberists: The King is Dead (2011)

Editors Note: This post is a guest review from my friend AJ Osterkamp who's blog can be found at http://minnesotawriter.com/

​As a big fan of The Decemberists’ 2009 release, The Hazards Of Love, I was worried by the opening note on their new album, The King Is Dead. The possibility that this album might perhaps be startlingly different than anything previously released by The Decemberists rattled my cage a bit. I was soon relaxed, however, by Meloy’s strong vocals calling forth in his usual operatic style. The King Is Dead is very much different from anything else the band has done to date, and as much as I wanted to see a repeat of their 2009 release, I found myself very much pleased by the sound The Decemberists have created on this album.

The King Is Dead draws heavy influence from the band R.E.M., and even has R.E.M.’s Peter Buck contributing guitar on several tracks. In fact, upon first hearing the new album’s second track, "Calamity Song," I nearly mistook it for a cover of R.E.M.’s "Talk About the Passion." Another one of the albums songs titled "Down By the Water" (which also features Buck contributing), feels a lot like an R.E.M. track as well. If I have one problem with this album it’s that rather than drawing influence from R.E.M. to create something that is wholly their own, The Decemebersits, at times, seem to be simply mimicking R.E.M.’s sound. While I like the new sound on The King Is Dead, I would have rather seen The Decemberists really form the influence R.E.M. gave them into something a bit more unique.

The King Is Dead has a sound that will have a much broader fan base, which is certainly good for the band. I for one am not a believer of good bands staying small so I'm also happy about them appealing to a larger demographic. People should experience all of the greatness they can, and if The King Is Dead helps some more people discover The Hazards Of Love, that will be a great success in itself. Ultimately though, The King Is Dead isn’t starkly brilliant, like it's predecessor. In the end all I found myself doing was dusting off my copy of R.E.M’s Murmur to relive the classic sound from the originators.

Rating 3.5/5

Track Listing:

1. "Don't Carry It All" - 4:17
2. "Calamity Song" - 3:50
3. "Rise to Me" - 4:59
4. "Rox in the Box" - 3:10
5. "January Hymn" - 3:14
6. "Down by the Water" - 3:42
7. "All Arise!" - 3:10
8. "June Hymn" - 3:58
9. "This Is Why We Fight" - 5:31
10. "Dear Avery" - 4:52

Gregg Allman: Old Country Blues (2011)

I think it would be impossible to name a better white male soul singer in history than Gregg Allman. His work with the Allman Brothers Band is legendary and -- after a large period of inactivity in the 80's -- they are still a major recording and (especially) touring draw. It's easy to think of The Allman's as a group that's primarily focused on instrumentation and while that's true, Gregg's voice has been the one constant in their career and a very important piece of the puzzle. While Gregg had some very good solo albums during the bands 70's heyday, his solo career has not been resurrected to the same level of that of the Allman Brothers Band. Old Country Blues isn't going to be a multi-platinum best seller but it is a highly enjoyable collection of songs that fans of the band will love.

Produced by the ever busy T-Bone Burnett (this where I'd usually list a bunch of his work but there's so much recently it's easier to do this), Old Country Blues is consisted primarily of obscure blues covers -- I'm not an old blues expert but I have listened to my fair share and I recognize 3 of these songs -- with one original ("Just Another Rider") holding down the middle. T-Bone's production style is immediately recognizable in the opening seconds of "Floating Bridge." The sparse sound is unmistakably Burnett and fits the material very well. Even though the sound has the sort of empty vibe you'd expect from his production style, there is a lot of stuff going on in almost every song. Horns, multiple organs and guitars as well as female backup singers are prominent throughout the recordings. Gregg's voice is in fine form and he sounds practically rejuvenated at times. On songs like "Little By Little," "Checking on My Baby" and "Please Accept My Love," I'd swear it was the early 70's version of Allman singing, not a 60 year old man.

The only small complaint I have with Old Country Blues is that the songs tend to bleed together a bit. It's a fantastic album from start to finish and it flows amazingly well but distinguishing which track you're listening to while it's playing isn't always easy. I'm not familiar enough with Allman's solo catalog to say exactly where this would rank but I'm pretty confident that it's his best one since at least 1977 and holds up there with the best of not only his solo work but also with the Allman Brothers Band. Any fan of The Allman's, or just roots, blues and soul music in general should greatly enjoy it.


Rating 4.5/5


Track Listing:

1. "Floating Bridge" (4:45)
2. "Little by Little" (2:45)
3. "Devil Got My Woman" (4:52)
4. "I Can't Be Satisfied" (3:31)
5. "Blind Man" (3:46)
6. "Just Another Rider" (5:39)
7. "Please Accept My Love" (3:07)
8. "I Believe I'll Go Back Home" (3:49)
9. "Tears, Tears, Tears" (4:54)
10. "My Love Is Your Love" (4:14)
11. "Checking On My Baby" (4:06)
12. "Rolling Stone" (7:04)

Pearl Jam: Live on Ten Legs (2011)

This one's gonna be short and simple. I love Pearl Jam but does the world really need another live album from them? If you count authorized bootlegs, Live on Ten Legs is roughly the six hundred and forty third live recording the band has released in their career. I suppose they want to get live version of some of the songs off Backspacer out there for the die hard fans (of which there are many), but this just seems unnecessary even by live album standards.

The good news is that the music contained here is excellent. There is a nice mix of radio hits and lesser known album tracks. Pearl Jam are one of the finest live bands in the business today and their concert sound is generally faster and tougher than on their records. That's documented here as every song is very well done and enjoyable. It's also fun to see what covers the band will bust out and here we get versions of Joe Strummer's "Arms Aloft" (which is great) and Public Image Ltd.'s "Public Image" (not as great).

The problem with Live on Ten Legs has nothing to do with the music presented. It verifies that Pearl Jam is still a great live band but I don't think anyone really doubted that. There are few surprises (other than the covers) and the album just feels unnecessary. If you're a die hard Pearl Jam fan who wants to own anything they release by all means pick this up (though you were gonna no matter what I say), but for everyone else there's no shortage of live Pearl Jam material available to choose from so I can't say this a must own.


Rating: 3/5


Track Listing:

1. "Arms Aloft" (3:27)
2. "World Wide Suicide" (3:16)
3. "Animal" (2:41)
4. "Got Some" (2:57)
5. "State of Love and Trust" (3:18)
6. "I Am Mine" (3:23)
7. "Unthought Known" (3:55)
8. "Rearviewmirror" (7:00)
9. "The Fixer" (3;27)
10. "Nothing as it Seems" (5:13)
11. "In Hiding" (4:52)
12. "Just Breathe" (3:53)
13. "Jeremy" (5:19)
14. "Public Image" (2:52)
15. "Spin the Black Circle" (3:05)
16. "Porch" (7:00)
17. "Alive" (6:21)
18. "Yellow Ledbetter" (5:20)

Heaven's Gate (1980)

It's almost impossible to talk about Heaven's Gate the movie without getting into Heavens Gate the fiasco. Michael Cimino's western flop of epic proportions was so bloated and over budget that it derailed Cimino's promising career (just one year earlier he won a slew of Oscars for The Deer Hunter), bankrupted United Artists Studio (who had produced some of the finest films in history, (The Night of the Hunter, Some Like it Hot, Midnight Cowboy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky and Raging Bull to name only a small few), and basically forced studios to take control of a film's production away from it's directors from that point forward. The production of Heaven's Gate is well documented in the book and documentary Final Cut. I haven't read the book but the documentary is available in eight parts on Youtube. It runs about seventy minutes and is a great accompany piece (and actually more interesting than Heaven's Gate) to the film.

But what to make of the film itself. When Heaven's Gate was released the reviews were scathing. Some labeled it as the worst movie in history and to my knowledge there was only one positive review written at the time. A quick plot summary reveals that Heaven's Gate is a fictionalized account of the Johnson County War starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, Isabelle Huppert, John Hurt, Brad Douriff and Sam Waterston with smaller roles played by now familiar faces such as Mickey Rourke and Terry O'Quinn (John Locke!). Kristofferson is the sheriff of Johnson county who gets involved in a love triangle with Walken and Huppert's characters, while at the same time trying to keep a group of wealthy land owners led by Hurt and Waterston from murdering a large group of immigrants (Bridges, Douriff). 

After watching it for the first time, I think it's safe to say that most critics were too caught up in the hype surrounding the troubled production to appreciate some of the many positives Heaven's Gate has to offer. For starters, the film is absolutely beautiful to look at. Even though the version I watched featured some pretty terrible video quality, it was impossible to not marvel at the shots that Cimino and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond put together throughout the entire three and half hour run time. Cimino's attention to detail is quite legendary and for the purpose of the overall visuals, it served the movie very, very well. The musical score by David Mansfield is excellent as well and is a key component is keeping the tone consistent throughout the movie. Almost all the performances are of a high quality with Hurt's supporting role being a highlight. For the most part, when taken on their own, individual scenes are excellent. The violent portions of the movie specifically are very well done and exciting, though at times it's difficult to tell what exactly is happening.

Even with all the positive aspects of Heaven's Gate it's also easy to see why the movie was such a horrible failure. For starters there's the runtime. There's at most two hours worth of story here and it's stretched out for at least an extra hour and a half. I generally hate when people complain about a movie being slow since it usually means that they're not paying attention to other aspects of the film but in this case there's no denying that the movie crawls along at a snail's pace. There's also no one who (at the time) was a bona fide movie star and box office draw. Though Bridges and Walken were both well regarded actors (Bridges was nominated for a couple Oscars and Walken had won one), at that point in their careers, they were not reasons to see a film like some (or a lot of) people would consider them today. Huppert was making her English film debut and it shows. She's a fine actress and does a good job but her French accent is very heavy and can be hard to understand (I suppose this could just be the audio track as well). The fact that the movie is about a violent and negative point in American History could not have possibly helped either. Though I'm sure the script plays loose with the facts, the U.S. Gov't does not come off positive at all and in the early Reagan era that wasn't nearly as accepted in films as it was a few years earlier or would be today.

Overall Heaven's Gate is nowhere near the disaster it's reputation suggests. There are numerous positive aspects to the film. Unfortunately the negatives will still outweigh the positives for most people. If you're interested in film history, this is a movie that you must see at least one time in your life. I would definitely not recommend it to the average moviegoer though. It's just way too bloated and self-indulgent to hold most people's interest for three and a half hours.

Rating: 2.5/5