Bruce Conner has been an original influence and innovator for thousands of film makers since 1958. Antonia Christina Basilotta (aka Tony Basil) made her film debut in Dennis Hoppers' Easy Rider before scoring a gold album and #1 hit with 1982's "Mickey." So what do the two have in common with Mates of State? Actually, quite a lot. The video for "Ha Ha" draws it's inspiration from Conner's 1966 "Breakaway" video which many consider to be the first music video. Basilotta starred as the breakaway dancing vixen who by video's end is fully nude. And despite paying homage to such an important video in the medium's history and despite keeping most of their clothes on, MTV still rejected the Mates video, deeming it "too arty." They have however been gracious enough to host it on MTV.com.
Making Mamet blush! This kind of sounds like a Christmas'd up The Big Lebowski. I hope Wally Sobchak makes an appearance and does some riffs on the perils of bowling during Chanukkah ("Dude, I don't roll during the festival of lights.") Much like the trailer for Intolerable Cruelty, the Bad Santa clip is broad (the old standby - punches and kicks to the groin!), and seemingly somewhat at odds with its creators past efforts, but positive buzz is starting to come in.
Maintain your image. Prune those show tunes.
posted by Linus |
1:19 PM
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Beautiful melodies over very, very heavy riffs.
Melissa auf der Maur's solo album (too bad she couldn't line up any guest players!) is coming out early next year. A few quotes here. This thing should rock quite nicely.
posted by Linus |
7:47 PM
I Like These Shows, Do You Like These Shows?, first in a series. #001:
Night After Night with Allan Havey (The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central, 1989-1992).
Allan Havey used to put on a really good late-night comedy show. The early, 3-hour, clip-heavy shows were free-form fun. You'd get John Cleese and Michael Palin arguing in a pet boutique mixed in with Susie Essman in front of a brick wall talking about a bridal shower gone awry, or a Bill Hicks rant on smoking. You might even catch a glimpse of a Higgins boy or Gruber from the adjacent set. When guests stopped by, it retained a loose, public access-y charm (one episode featured The Kids in the Hall just hanging out for a couple of hours, sort of promoting the arrival of their reruns on the network). It eventually transformed into a wonderfully intimate, sotto voce version of Letterman (sure, there was a Carson influence, too). The strength of the show was the interplay between Havey and sidekick/announcer Nick Bakay, a sharp wordsmith who could offer hearty guffaws without lapsing into McMahonomania, and also provide some nice character work. In other words, a non-musical Paul to Havey's Dave.
NAN was remarkably quiet and relaxed, which is interesting for the genre. The show was also never that dependent on guests, so there were a lot of segments where Havey had room to riff or tell a story that meandered a bit before the punchline got a wave of chuckles. Most episodes ended with Havey looking into the camera and addressing a single viewer, offering a whispery parting shot.
