Old Man Markley: Guts 'N' Teeth (2011)

Old Man Markley is a fairly unique band. They play a style of music that's basically a mixture of punk and bluegrass. The only other band I know of playing a style of music close to this is Trampled By Turtles from Duluth, MN (side note: I avoided TBT for years thinking they were some crappy jam band only to be blown away when I first actually heard them but that's better saved for a different post). I'm sure there are other fine bands rocking out with fiddles, banjo's, autoharps and washboards (that right, washboards!) around the country but I'm not aware of them.

If you're having a hard time envisioning what bluegrass-punk sounds like, at least in the case of Old Man Markley, it sounds a lot like if Flogging Molly focused on traditional American bluegrass instead of Irish folk. There's a healthy mix of fast punk influenced songs ("For Better, For Worse," "Killing Time," In a Circle Going Round") and slower songs that lean toward the bluegrass side ("Guts 'N' Teeth," "Lowdown Blues"). Guitarist/singer John Carey has a nasally everyman voice that's easy to sing along to. That's important because every song is obviously meant to be heard with a few drinks and a group of friends singing in unison. Gang backup vocals and male/female harmonies are all over the album and the music is a party waiting to happen (which is what I expect an Old Man Markley concert likely is).

Guts 'N' Teeth is a really fun album that I've been listening to pretty heavily for the last week. The songs will get stuck in your head for days in a good way. While I'm pretty sure they just tweaked the Flogging Molly formula a little bit, there's nothing wrong with another party band that's fueled by moonshine instead of whiskey.

Rating: 4/5

Track Listing:

1. "For Better, For Worse" (2:56)
2. "At the Bottom" (2:50)
3. "Running Weight" (2:36)
4. "Guts 'N' Teeth" (2:56)
5. "Do Me Like You Do" (2:19)
6. "Killing Time" (2:41)
7. "Song Songs" (2:17)
8. "In a Circle Going Round" (2:23)
9. "Letterman" (3:05)
10. "Lowdown Blues" (4:18)
11. "Living and Learning" (2:51)
12. "Struggling" (3:13)

Red: Blu-ray (2009)

When previews for Red first started appearing on TV in October I wanted nothing to do with it. It looked like a straight, gimmicky, paycheck for the numerous stars (Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker). Once the original reviews started coming in (and were generally positive) my stance softened enough to add it to my Netflix que and forget about it. I almost removed it on more than one occasion to make room for other "films" but ultimately it stayed on and I got to be pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Frank Moses (Willis) is a retired CIA agent who's life gets thrown into disarray when a hit squad attempts to take him out. He then goes on the run to figure out who is trying to kill him and why. Along for the ride are his potential love interest (Parker) and a bunch of his former CIA cohorts (Malkocich, Freeman, Mirren) and a couple surprise guests.

The plot is the stuff of a pretty generic action comedy but the cast elevates it above the level of standard fare. Now there is by no means a part that's overly challenging for actors of this caliber but they all appear to be having a blast while making it. There's definitely a Ocean's 11 type vibe emitting from the whole movie. Willis is playing a guy he's played numerous times before and Freeman doesn't get all that much to do but they're welcome screen presences nonetheless. I've never seen Mirren in this type of role before -- not a lot of movies call for a 60+ year old women to be somewhat sexy -- but she acquits herself very well. Malkovich plays his part a little too jokey but it's hardly detrimental to either the role or the movie. The rest of the cast is rounded out by some good character actors and a couple more familiar faces that I wasn't expecting and it paid off.

The technical aspects of the blu-ray are very strong. Visually, Red is a very colorful movie but still retains it's realism. It looks great and the transfer is pristine. The audio is as impressive as the video. The action scenes come alive with surround and low end usage. The dialogue is well mixed and understandable even when it's surrounded by chaos. There's not much more to say, this is a reference quality disc.

Red isn't a great film but it is fun. You can tell everyone was having a ball making it and that sense of enjoyment can't help but rub off on the viewer. I doubt it's a movie that someone would need to own but a rental is well worth your time.

Ratings:

Movie: 3.5/5
Blu-ray: 5/5

Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)

Is there a more famous soul music label than Motown? Between The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Miracles, The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight and the Pips, (as well as numerous others) the label produced 139 number 1 hits between 1961 and 1972. The main thing all these songs had in common is generally referred to as "the Motown Sound." While everyone is familiar with the billed artists, the people who were most responsible for the Motown sound were Motown's house band, the Funk Brothers. The Funk Brothers toiled in relative obscurity until the 2002 documentary Sanding in the Shadows of Motown was released (and brought them to slightly less than relative obscurity).

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a mix of live concert footage -- featuring the living members of the Funk Brothers playing famous songs with singers that include, Ben Harper, Joan Osborne, Bootsy Collins, and Gerald Levert -- interviews with band members and Unsolved Mystery style reenactments.

The concert footage is absolutely outstanding. There are no weak moments, the band (even though a number are elderly) is in top form, especially considering this is the first time they played together in about 30 years. The various singers really put their heart into their performances and it's very obvious the love they have for the songs and the respect they have for the band. The interviews are very informative and reveal numerous entertaining and touching anecdotes of the label and bands glory years. If there's a weak link in the film, it's the reenactments. They're pretty cheesy and feel too much like a low budget cable show. The film would have been better off just letting the band members tell the stories without attempting to show them (though I understand why the filmmakers did this).

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is my favorite music documentary of the last decade or so. It definitely helps to love 60's soul music but even a viewer with only a general knowledge should get great enjoyment from it.

Rating: 4.5/5

127 Hours (2010)

The Oscar nominations were released yesterday and 127 Hours was the only Best Picture nominee I had yet to see. I'd had a screener at my house for quite some time but never got around to watching it. A couple friends of mine had seen it and really liked it but I had no idea how great the movie was until yesterday.

127 Hours is the biographical story of Aron Ralston (James Franco) who's arm was trapped underneath a boulder while mountain climbing. He had to go through some very extreme measures in order to free himself and be rescued. I'll leave the plot summary at that for anyone who doesn't know the specifics.

First off, I loved the movie but it is not an easy film to sit through. There are plenty of scenes (and one in particular) that will cause a viewer to be very uncomfortable. There are even reports of people fainting when the film was making it's rounds on the festival circuit. There just isn't any way to watch 127 Hours and not get a strong reaction from it.

The movie rests almost entirely on two people. Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire ) and star James Franco. It's easy to see why Franco got a best actor nomination. He runs through such a wide range of emotions and reactions all while being stuck in one place for over 3/4 of the film. He's shown a lot of acting skills in his previous career but really nothing that would prepare a viewer for what he does in 127 Hours.

Boyle's contributions are a little less obvious (no Best Director nomination for him) but are no less important. The sense of tension that runs throughout the movie is amazing for a film that doesn't leave one area. Using multiple camera's and in his choice of shots, you can really feel the sense of claustrophobia that Ralston went through as well as the vastness of the mountain's right outside the canyon he's trapped in. It sounds cliche but Boyle really does more with less in 127 Hours. With his past films, Boyle has proven to be one of the best directors making movie's today and this might be his best work yet.

127 Hours is both very challenging and very rewarding. It really shows the great sense of human resolve that we all have underneath if put in an extraordinary position of despair. I hadn't yet seen it when I made my favorite movies of the year list and it's only been a day but 127 Hours would surely have made the back half of the top ten. It's a fantastic showcase for Boyle and Franco and is required viewing when it's released on video March 1st.


Rating: 4.5/5

Mid-Week Video: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

I watched an episode of Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... Smokey Robinson last night (it's a great show for music fans and the first season is on Netflix streaming). At one point Elvis and Smokey both mentioned how neither one can dance. For proof of that fact Elvis showed clips of this 1980 video for Elvis and the Attractions cover of Sam and Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" taken from the album Get Happy!! (great album and the song is vastly different from the Sam and Dave version). I've heard the album many times but had never seen the video. After watching it I know why. I'm not exactly a great dancer but the level of dancing ineptitude on display here is amazing. I'm sure it was done at least partly tongue-in-cheek and the results are fantastic. Pure awesomeness.

Stone: Blu-ray (2010)

Almost every thing you will read about Stone will have something to do with the teaming of Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton. Though they're two of the finest dramatic actors of the last 50 years, neither one is immune to making a stinker (Hide and Seek, Righteous Kill for DeNiro,  Pride and Glory for Norton). I wouldn't go so far as to call Stone a bad movie but it's certainly not going to be a crowning achievement for either actor.

Norton plays the title character, Gerald "Stone" Creeseon, who is serving time for arson and has recently converted to a unnamed religion. His attempts to get an early parole involve him playing a set of mind games on correctional officer Jack Mabry (DeNiro) while using his wife (Mila Jovovich) as a form of enticement. Choices are made, consequences unfold and that's about it.

Stone is a pretty small scale film. There are no giant set pieces and even the performances are understated. All three leads play their parts very well. I was a little thrown by Norton's prison accent right away but ultimately it worked very well. DeNiro plays his role in a much more subdued manner than a majority of his most recent performances and it's a welcome sight. Jovovich holds her own against the two in a femme fatale role. Unfortunately director James Curren really wants Stone to be a major philosophical thought piece and jams numerous religious themes down the viewers throat. This type of thing can be very effective when done well but here it seems to lack focus. It's obvious that Curren does not wish to tell you what to think and I applaud him for that but those themes never click enough to successfully allow the viewer to make those decisions. Stone just doesn't achieve the sort of lofty goals that I'm sure everyone making the film had in mind. 

The blu-ray is perfectly acceptable but nothing that will blow you away. The picture quality is solid and clean while the audio is almost entirely dialogue based and always understandable. Stone just isn't the type of movie that's going to be a demo for anyone's home theater.

How much enjoyment a person takes away from Stone is going to be entirely up to them. The acting is great but the characters, story, religious themes and the lack of a definitive purpose won't appeal to everyone. The blu-ray is solid as well but I'd hardly call it a must own film.

Ratings:

Movie - 3/5

Blu-ray - 3/5

Monday Video: Genesis - "Land of Confusion"

Last night I joined on a twitter argument dealing with Minnesota vs Wisconsin sports. I try to stay away from this stuff as it's usually just a pissing match filled with name calling and last night was no exception. The conversation consisted of five MN fans ganging up on one WI fan (follow him on twitter for one of the greatest NSFW feeds on the internet), with the WI fan generally coming out on top (sucks but it's true). The only place said WI fan doesn't know his stuff is college football history (this is a large problem with many Badger fans as they conveniently "forget" about life before Barry Alvarez). Long story short, WI fan is a sports trivia master except for the one area where he lives in a "Land of Confusion." He also happens to love this song so it works on that level too.