Songs I can’t get out of my head: Vol. 4

MIA takes her best shot

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

If there’s one reason this Jacksonville, FL group is raising industry eyebrows it’s this song off their 4-song EP (which you can snag for free from http://www.blackkidsmusic.com/). If there’s a second reason, it is of course the band’s name, for obvious reasons of political correctness.

Pitchfork cited the Go Team! and Arcade Fire as points of comparison in their record review – and that’s a dead-on assessment – perhaps with a little bit of Of Montreal-style lyricism thrown in for good measure (particularly on the track “I’ve Underestimated My Charm Again”).

MIA – Paper Planes

A bonus track on MIA’s new disc “Kala,” this seems like a laid-back psychedelic groove – until the faux gunshots and clinking cash register chime in. It’s a track you want to chill out to, but to which you can’t relax.

Sea Wolf – The Cold, The Dark & The Silence

A mellow ode to a lonely evening, the verbal imagery in this track is strong enough to feel. Don’t be surprised if you think a lot about water rushing through your lungs afterward.

White Williams – New Violence

After an intense (and sweaty) tour with Girl Talk and Dan Deacon, White Williams is headlining a tour of his own – brining his unique brand of electro-dance-pop and scraggly-drawn Demetri Martin-ish visuals. This track showcases his Beck-like tendencies.

Lions For Lambs Treads Too-Familiar Waters

In the opening minutes of “Lions For Lambs,” the playing field is blatantly laid out for us – a Senator looks at charts of declining approval levels, a journalist references her notebook, and a professor looks over his grade and attendance sheets. These are your characters. They like to write things down.

Over the next hour and a half, moving between story lines, “Lions For Lambs” weaves in the story of two buddy-soldiers and former students of Professor Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) who may not survive their tenure in Iraq. Their story is the background to Malley’s new quest – convincing ace student slacker Todd Hayes (Andrew Garfield) to apply himself so that history does not repeat itself.

Meanwhile, on Capital Hill, Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) has called a meeting with seasoned journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) to convince her he a) has a new plan for Iraq, b) is not creepy. Sadly, he doesn’t quite succeed at either.

While I cannot begrudge Mr. Redford for wanting to put together a piece commenting on the current state of international affairs – what with “Rendition,” “Redacted,” “In the Valley of Elah,” “The Kingdom,” and probably “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” (though I haven’t seen it) it’s the in vogue thing to do – but it seems that there is nothing truly daring offered by this film.

While we may be anticipating the new decisions to be made by the characters, it seems that they should have realized the need for new decisions long ago. While the ever-amazing Streep delivers a charming breakdown, one can’t help but feel her character should have experienced this decades before.

The statement Redford seems to want to make is that unless we act with a conscience, we will never escape this struggle.

But considering the methodologies this film chooses to employ, there are too many other films that make greater use of these methods. We’ve seen the story of a young hot-shot slacker getting schooled by a Vietnam-vet professor (“Good Will Hunting”), we’ve seen career-driven characters facing crises of conscience (“Jerry Maguire,” “Broadcast News”), and of course we’ve seen countless send-ups of the TV news business (put “Wag the Dog” back in your NetFlix queue).

While the message is indeed heartfelt, perhaps the film is like Redford himself – best looked at through a very soft-focused lens.

Vol. 3

Songs I can’t get out of my head: Vol. 3

Kate Nash – Foundations
This talky track from UK songstress Kate Nash has Lily Allen comparisons being drawn from every outlet that hears it. Perhaps a bit edgier in lyrics and more paranoid (but really, only a bit), and with an instrumentation borrowed from Regina Spektor, it’s worth a listen, if for nothing else than the line “you said I must eat so many lemons, because I am so bitter.”

VHS or Beta – Can’t Believe A Single Word
From their “Bring On The Comets” EP, this is a perfectly constructed rock song – allowing just a little bit of time for a guitar and drum interlude, a rousing chorus, and plenty of time to get on the dance floor.

The Go Team! – Grip Like A Vice
Two years ago at Coachella, The Go Team! was the band to buzz about, and as their genre-busting “Proof Of Youth” disc tears up the college charts, it’s nice to see them succeed. A mix of rock, soul, rap (and more!), the album defies categorization, but its unbridled enthusiasm hurls it toward a more daring audience. Part party anthem, part band introduction, “Grip Like A Vice” showcases the group’s range of sounds.

The Wombats – Let’s Dance To Joy Division
This super-uptempo track from UK band The Wombats is as danceable and jolting as a fine Franz Ferdinand song, with the boys banging on their guitars and shouting, “everything is going wrong, but we’re so happy!” Let’s dance.

Everything that’s old is new again
Songs you already own, worth playing once more

50 Cent - P.I.M.P.
Before the 50/Kanye battle came into its contrived full glory, 50 was just a thug from New York who was trying to “get rich or die tryin’.” (Note: He did the former, investing in VitaminWater before its buyout by Coca-Cola.) The steel drum in this cut from the album in quotations makes it a standout in a hip-hop landscape where every song has come to sound like every other song. (Seriously, does Timbaland have to touch every new song that comes out?) While 50’s themes (and word choices) are objectionable, musically this track is highly interesting. Listen to it again – but maybe don’t listen to the lyrics.

Bloc Party – Two More Years
With the new single “Flux” meeting with mixed reviews, I’m reminded of the band’s other between-albums offering – “Two More Years.” Before their brooding and introspective sophomore album “A Weekend In The City,” Bloc Party let loose this single to help determine the direction of their new disc. From a marketing perspective, it’s a wise way to test audience opinion – and then go back to the lab and concoct something brilliant.

'Lars' Keeps it Real

If the story of a grown man who falls in love with an anatomically correct sex doll purchased on the Internet sounds like fodder for a low-brow comedy, or perhaps a high-brow “adult” film, the new indie feature “Lars and the Real Girl” might come as quite a surprise.

In his mid-30s, Lars (Ryan Gosling) lives in a small rural town in a garage across from his brother and pregnant sister-in-law. He works in a cubicle and doesn’t seem particularly unhappy, but when a full size adult female doll is delivered to him and he announces it’s his girlfriend, Bianca, we start to see how troubled Lars is.

At the urging of his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer), Biana is taken to see the doctor (Patricia Clarkson) who slowly coaxes Lars to understand his feelings.

While all that sounds like the stuff of melodrama, you won’t find that here. Rich in subtlety and its presentation of complex messages and emotions, “Lars and the Real Girl” emerges surprisingly as a tender and heartfelt meditation on loneliness. But what keeps the film moving is its gentle humor, even while tackling the ideas of painful childhood memories and the things we do to cope.

The film’s rural setting is necessary to sustain the action of the plot, as neighbors and friends bend to the acceptance of Bianca as a contributing society member – a circumstance that accounts for most of the movie’s laughs.

Much of the film’s success is owed to Gosling, who presents Lars as a fully functional, emotionally repressed younger brother who is struggling with some very deep issues. While critics may scoff at the absurdity or divisiveness of the premise, once its novelty has worn off, there’s a film with real characters and a real heart.