Sonic Parthenon's The Year In Music 2008: Part 6

Pela
A spectacular live show at the Music Hall in February and the continued strength of "Waiting on the Stairs" really brought home the notion that Pela is one of the seriously good bands out there.

Jack Peñate
"Second, Minute, or Hour" and "Spit at Stars" were just two of the reasons that Jack Peñate was one of the good surprises of 2008 but they were all he needed. Insatiably catchy, Mr. Peñate's music should be a hit not just in his native England but here in the States as well. He ought to be bigger.

Ra Ra Riot
Without question one of the best albums of the year, The Rhumb Line showcased that the only thing more dramatic than Ra Ra Riot's story is their music. Picking up where Arcade Fire left off, these Syracuse cohorts may be even better than that generally considered Indie Pop Band of the Decade. So far, they've established a perfect record, nailing each and every one of their songs with the right texture, density, and pacing. Being one of the few genuine highlights of the Siren Festival this year certainly helped make their case.

Ray LaMontagne
"Meg White" was more creepy than good, but the soul-drenched "You Are The Best Thing" was one of the great stand-outs of the year.

R.E.M.
"Supernatural Super Serious" was evidence that R.E.M. was coming back in a solid way and their show at Madison Square Garden proved it. One of the all time great live bands and one of the few who can tame big, bad, hollow, MSG.

Raphael Saadiq
His 2008 record, The Way I See It, is a wonderful romp through vintage 60's soul and R&B. "Love That Girl" is not just the standout, it's the best Soul song of the year and frankly, of the decade. Vintage and retro sounds may be growing tired to some, but no one can deny the power, spirit, and execution exerted by Saadiq.

She & Him
Few had a year quite like Zooey Deschanel, and by extension Matt Ward. Actually, it's a safe bet that no one else did. Their meeting on the set of The Go-Getter led to the birth of She & Him and the exceptional Volume One LP. Crass cynicism dictated Zooey would be weak and Matt would suffer for it. It turned out that Zooey has a tasteful devotion to quality American music, and a knack for how to write it and sing it herself, aided by the surefire hand of Mr. Ward. They put on a couple of more-than-decent live shows to boot, at Webster Hall and Terminal 5 respectively.
If that wasn't enough, The Go-Getter is still the best movie I've seen all year, fueled in part by filmmaker Martin Hymes' excellent soundtrack (that included artists like the Black Keys in addition to Ward), to say nothing of Zooey's sharp performance (arguably her best work). Hell, she even made Jim Carrey's weak-looking Yes Man movie appear halfway decent with the jokey 80's pop novelties that were released in advance of the film. Now if only she hadn't also starred in the Worst Movie Ever Made that also happened to come out this year (The Happening) and her 2008 would have been perfect.
Late breaking gossip news: Apparently, Zooey is now to be hitched to Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie who this year put out their first batch of music that did not put me instantly to sleep. It does seem now that with the exception of M. Night Shyamalan, Zooey indeed has the Midas touch.

Sons & Daughters
The great Scots came to NYC with some excellent shows in support of This Gift, and while "Rebel With the Ghost" was enough to keep people interested, it was "Gilt Complex" that cemented Sons & Daughters in our minds.

Submarines
"You & Me & The Bourgeois" from Honeysuckle Weeks was a track to remember and their live show at the Merc was one of the sweeter nights of a roller coaster year. Seriously, what a single though.

Refuge From A Maddening World: She & Him @ Terminal 5

She & Him; The Rosebuds
@ Terminal 5
New York, NY - July 26, 2008

It has been a disturbing 24 hours in Gotham. Following the anticipated oddity of the Brian Jonestown show, my long ride home from Terminal 5 accompanied by a very nice new gal pal (who had earlier told me she was "full of brisket", a line I shan't be forgetting for some time) was interrupted by a gang of teens randomly targeting and assaulting an innocent young man on the Q train. Then on the way into the Q train stop to head back to Terminal 5 for tonight's show, I witnessed a man suddenly punch a woman right in the side of her head and take off for the subway. Then on the train, some woman screamed and ran from the end of the car for no explicable reason and then several minutes later, a fight nearly broke out but was thankfully squashed. And so by that point, I considered skipping the gig and finally going to see The Dark Knight for tips on how to be a better vigilante. But then I figured that some of the very same dregs of society would be present at the theater to ruin the show so I chose instead to see another form of Batman and Robin: She & Him.

Interestingly, allusions to Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel being a corrective to the world's troubles were made the last time I saw them. So once again, M and Z stepped into those shoes and they filled it as impeccably as they can. Zooey's singing has continued to sharpen up and she's now a vocal embrace, a swirl of warmth and passion, simplicity and solidity. She still sounds best as a Jazz chanteuse, but she's channeling more and more of the Greats, most notably Carole King, both in the spirit of that woman's early songwriting chops and later recording success. There was even a new cover of a Joni song thrown in tonight, more proof that Zooey's tastes are expansive and yet consistently classy. And clearly when the Most Beloved New Gal In Indie Rock is channeling a Brooklyn girl and a Toronto girl, she knows what she's doing (I wonder if she's read this book).

Matt, who has never looked more relaxed in his relatively short but wonderfully perfect career, enjoyed playing mostly back-up man to what's pretty much the Zooey show (with the addition of a song led by back-up singer Becky). He did his usual collaborations throughout the set, only taking off on a guitar solo on the penultimate "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" and again on his own "One Magic Trick". And as if to balance things out, the show ended with a lead by opening act Freakwater that actually brought the country side of things to fruition, something that had been lacking that first go-round in April (Note: I would have seen Freakwater open tonight if the Bowery Presents hadn't erroneously posted their start times an hour late on the web).

Zooey is having an Indie Rock equivalent of the year that Jennifer Lopez had in the mainstream some years ago, what with The Go-Getter, the She & Him record, and the subsequent tour. Her only real problem is that she's disturbingly too skinny. Despite shimmering and shining in her old time sequined dress and flowery headband, this candidate for Most Beautiful Face in the World is showing a bit too many bones on the sides. What she needs is a good couple of nights at a New York Deli, that is if we can avoid getting assaulted on the way. Someone fire up the Bat signal.

The Rosebuds, by the way, were just about equally stupendous. A mix of disco-pop and plain ol' rock n' roll, this Raleigh group recalled recent faves the Submarines and Sons & Daughters, and More Fun-era X. They are a solid good time and they made a new fan out of me and I'll be seeing them again for sure.

New Video From She & Him: "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"

The concept of the video appears to be a juxtaposition between Zooey being adorable and bloody murder happening everywhere. But even the murder comes off adorable.

Highlight: M. Ward's expression when he first comes across Z's body. It's like "What? What is this?"

The Go-Getter: The Pennypacker Perspective

So all biases for She & Him aside, The Go-Getter is not just a decent Indie film that avoids the pitfalls of pretension, it is actually a near-perfect picture. The screenplay of this compelling road trip dramedy is essentially poetry and it is delivered with stirring warmth and sincereity from the entire company, notably the surprising lead Lou Taylor Pucci. Rather than be a overgrown pretty boy, Pucci is an authentic, lovable portrayal of a good kid who does one stupid thing. Considering the series of events that follow his one stupid thing, he handles it all with a mix of bewilderment and existential acceptance. Zooey gives her strongest performance yet in a role that she absolutely excels in (the ultimate good girl), and if it wasn't June, she could have (and should have) some Oscar buzz. Bill Duke shows up for a monologue that is the highlight of the picture (along with the small ode to the French New Wave), Judy Greer makes a cameo doing her best Judy Greer-ish performance, and Maura Tierney makes you remember why she was a discovery on Newsradio before she was stranded on E.R. for so many years. Jena Malone is maybe the one hiccup in the affair but not so much for her performance as for the brazen and bold way she sheds her childhood acting past for the role of the sexpot. It is too-far-off-the-scale from her past work. But she does pull it off, as disturbing as it is.

The soundtrack is, as was to be expected, exceptionally good. Besides being the birthplace of She & Him, it is a repository of prime M. Ward material, most notably "To Go Home" and "Sweethearts on Parade". The Black Keys also show up a couple times, including with their career best "10 A.M. Automatic".

This film is writer-director Martin Hynes' debut. This has to be one of the most impressive debuts of the decade. What could have so easily been a ham-handed waste of talent in a muck of pretentious drivel is instead a meditation on not just the classic road story, but on the fundemental concepts of family, friends, and relationships. There have been few if any pictures that have done so much about the complicated process of being distant siblings by doing so little. A very simple, sparse story about two brothers is made complex and whole by a wedge of assorted characters who run the spectrum of good to bad to good again and it is all set against a loving backdrop of the North American west, from Eugene to south of the border. Comparisons to road trip films and novels of the past are inevitable, but The Go-Getter makes a very strong stab at carving out a niche all its own.

In New York, the film is playing at the Quad Cinema on E 13th St between 5th and 6th but you only have a couple more days to see it. Its run ends Thursday night.

Jena Malone is in That Zooey/M Movie...She Also Invents Instruments

Jena Malone - another young actress turned Indie singer - is in The Go-Getter, the movie starring Zooey Deschanel and featuring M. Ward's acting debut.

The Go-Getter - Trailer


Meanwhile, Pitchfork reports that Malone has actually built her own instrument.

Da Gum has photos and related clips from the set of She & Him's first video.

She and Him and NPR and Nick Cave And Cormac McCarthy and Michael Chabon and Coens and Movies

Zooey and Matt were interviewed last week on Day to Day, while Zooey was interviewed on Fresh Air a little over a month ago.

By coincidence, I caught The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford this weekend, and it's a film that has, as part of its thoroughly sharp cast, Zooey and Nick Cave (also recently on Fresh Air). Nick - along with Warren Ellis - scored the film's music.

Here's the IMDB page of The Go-Getter, the upcoming film which stars Zooey and includes Matt in his acting debut. And for good measure, here's the IMDB page of Nick's upcoming scripted project, to be directed by John Hillcoat, who directed Nick's previous scripts, notably The Proposition. Hillcoat is currently working on the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which - based on its own merit as a novel and on the strength of No Country For Old Men - promises to be the movie event of the year. Nick is indeed scoring the music for that adaptation.

Speaking of No Country For Old Men, that adaptation was of course directed by the Coen Brothers, who are putting the finishing touches on Burn After Reading, which stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom I just watched this weekend in The Assassination of Jesse James. The internet campfires state that after the Coens work on their next film, the rumored about A Serious Man, they will get to work on an adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which I happen to be reading right now.

Nick Cave was in The Assassination of Jesse James with Zooey Deschanel who was in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Sam Rockwell (who was also in Jesse James) who was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with George Clooney who was in Ocean's 11 with Brad Pitt (also in Jesse James) and Julia Roberts the latter of whom was in Flatliners with...you guessed it...Kevin Bacon.

She & Him @ Webster Hall

She & Him; Ola Podrida
@ Webster Hall
New York, NY - April 22, 2008

Where there is chaos there is opportunity and so despite selling out two shows in seconds at the tiny Hiro Ballroom, the apparent laryngitis plauging the lead singer resulted in a one night stand at Webster instead with extra tickets to sell.
Our Man Ward and His Gal Friday Zooey Deschannel offer us She & Him, a sweet-as-home-baked-chocolate-chip-cookies revue of 60's-flavored Country, Soul, and R&B. Though she could not speak, Zooey sang delicately and nimbly, and her charm was infectious. She was doe-eyed and smiling, and sporting signs to thank the crowd and all that jazz. Matt sang back up on all but his own song, the superb "One Magic Trick" from Post-War, and he was having a good time, relieved it seemed from being the sole center of attention.
The Country side of things proved to be a little dull and fractured, but the Soul and R&B components were ace perfect (the big exception in the country realm is the excellent "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"). Zooey's voice, despite this night belonging to a dolly dressed up like a pre-fame Loretta Lynn, is more attuned to classic elements of Jazz and Blues, than that style of country. In other words, she's more Memphis than Nashville. The cover of "You Really Got A Hold On Me" brought that Smokey Robinson classic to the very stripped down goose-bump-giving core of that song, a song that best exemplified that mix of Northern orchestral Pop and Southern Soul. "Bring It On Home To Me", their other cover of note for the night, was just a few minutes of bliss in an otherwise crazy world. And to bring it back to that theme of chaos and opportunity, that's really what She & Him are all about - a chance to take a breath in an increasingly maddening and loud society.

Ola Podrida were absolutely boring Country-Folk Pop.

The Strange Goings On With She & Him

So at first if you had a ticket for last night's scratched show at the Hiro, you had to await announcement of a future date. Then suddenly, late in the night, it was announced that tonight's second show has been moved to Webster Hall and that this show would also be the rescheduled date for night 1. It seems generous at first but also it really plays with people's calendars (the Bowery Presents guys know it so they are providing refunds).

What stinks is that last night's opener was supposed to be the A-Bones with Ira Kaplan helping out. They won't be able to open tonight.

She & Him Sells Out Quickly

Nuts - an hour after the tickets went on sale proved an hour too long. Z & M will be at the Hiro on April 21st.

Zooey was on Fresh Air yesterday.

A Big Weekend for Sam Cooke

Arcade Fire covered "A Change Is Gonna Come" at the Obama Rally in Ohio and She & Him covered "Bring It Back Home" at the Noise Pop show in San Francisco.