The Belgian-born, Australia-based multi-instrumentalist Gotye (“ga-te-yay”) has been releasing music under the radar since his 2003 debut Boardface. Yet with the viral sensation of his video for “Somebody That I Used to Know” (46 million views and counting, plus 30 million views -in two weeks!- for Walk off the Earth’s cover; both videos below) – and the U.S. release of third album Making Mirrors (out digitally now, on CD January 31)– anonymity is a thing of the past. That song, a duet with up-and-coming Aussie songbird Kimbra, is the apotheosis of Gotye’s striking sound: playful electronics, memorable choruses, and the hungering vocals of a young, heartbroken Sting. And what exquisite heartbreak there is! From the jumpy New Wave of “Easy Way Out” to the ghostly loss of ambient closer “Brontë,” Gotye (born Wouter De Backer) reflects his pain and our own back to us. And, my oh my, do we love what we see.
Porn Star Perfume
Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, follows up his fantastic 2010 debut album on February 21 with the release of Put Your Back N 2 It, a collection of haunting, brief gay-centric songs. The first single off the album (see cover after jump, plus free mp3), “Hood,” has a video featuring porn star Arpad Miklos. It’s a quirky mix of tough and tender…and did its job in getting us worked up for the album.
“Smash” Hit
In assembling “Smash,” NBC’s ”‘Glee’ for grown-ups” Broadway musical meta-drama (premieres February 6; download premiere episode for free now at iTunes), the network has taken no chances, peopling its “Marilyn: The Musical” making-of tale with Oscar darlings (Anjelica Huston), beloved Emmy winners (Debra Messing) and genuine movie stars (Uma Thurman comes aboard later this season). Add in executive producer Steven Effing Speilberg, and the pedigree alone should make this a slam dunk. But as the fictitious musical’s director (Jack Davenport, who will inspire hate-sex fantasies for weeks) astutely points out, “Without a Marilyn, you’ve got nothing.” Luckily, “Smash” has two: Ivy (mega-talented Broadway vet Megan Hilty), a long-suffering chorus girl on the verge of a breakthrough; and Karen (Katharine McPhee), a stunning nobody with a gorgeous voice. McPhee’s audition scenes – a formal song at a callback and an informal one at the director’s apartment – are worth the price of admission on their own, providing “star-is-born” moments for the character and the actress, who shakes off a six-year “American Idol” hangover and shames everyone (you know who you are) who ever voted for Taylor Hicks.
[Read more...]
Black Taxi Confessions
Is Brooklyn the center of the world? Manhattan-ites may beg to differ, but there’s been no healthier musical epicenter these last five years than the kids across the Williamsburg Bridge. The National, The Drums, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens and many more alt stars call Brooklyn their home, as do the four members of pop-punk upstarts Black Taxi. With their second album We Don’t Know Any Better (available tomorrow) Ezra Huleatt (vocals/keys/trumpet), Bill Mayo (guitar/vocals/triangle), Krisanan Soponpong (bass), and Jason Holmes (drums/vocals) out-stroke The Strokes on opener “Tightrope,” bring Men at Work to electro on current single “Hand,” and channel ’90s alt-vets Cake on the kicky title track. There are a lot of influences – and a lot of borrowed parts – that keep this Black Taxi, and you, moving.
[Read more...]
Hitchcock on Blu-ray
It’s no secret that we are die-hard Alfred Hitchcock fans (see here, here and here), but we’ve got a great reason for bringing him up again. Three of his early Hollywood-era thrillers are making their Blu-ray debuts on January 24: Rebecca (1940; Oscar-winner for Best Picture; Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson), Spellbound (1945; Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck) Notorious (1946; with Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains). All three black-and-white films remain classics (of their genre, of Hitchcock, and of Hollywood). They’ll make perfect viewing for a gloomy winter weekend afternoon; we are envious of those of you who will experience these films, for the first time, in their full high-def glory.
Gay Porn Revolutionary
Chuck Holmes, the San Francisco-based entrepreneur who created gay porn mecca Falcon Studios, not only changed our lives by bringing porn home (he was among the first to put his films on videocassette — remember those!?), but by directing the fortune he made towards HIV/AIDS outreach as well as various other philanthropic causes; Falcon’s films became the gift that kept on giving. Michael Stabile, the filmmaker who created the docu Smut Capital of America, about San Francisco’s role in the sexual revolution, is raising funds for a new docu about Holmes, brilliantly titled Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story. Stabile has a Kickstarter page to raise funds to finish the film, and has until Monday to get to $25,000 or everything pledged so far is lost. Toss some cash his way let’s ensure that Holmes, who passed away in 2000 from AIDS-related causes, is remembered for what his porn empire allowed him to give back to the gay community.
Saul Bass: Design Legend
Graphic designer Saul Bass‘s film work is widely regarded as the most iconic ever created, from his bold poster and ad designs (above) to his attention-grabbing, mood-setting opening credit sequences (video below). That there has not been a biography of the man until this point is a mystery, but his daughter, designer Jennifer Bass, has seen fit to preserve his legacy in print with the weighty coffee-table book Saul Bass: A Life In Film & Design (out now). The great revelation in this book is that Bass’s design impact was not limited to the world of film, but also included everyday products that we had no idea came from his visionary mind: AT&T, Quaker Oats, Continental and United Airlines, Dixie Cups, Kleenex, United Way, The Girl Scouts of America, and the list goes on (graphic below). Fifteen years after his 1996 passing, many of these logos are still part of our daily lives, and his film work remains unsurpassed (check out the fanboy homages to his work where the opening credits of contemporary films, like Star Wars, get re-imagined as Saul Bass designs). One quibble about the book: for celebrating the work of someone whose designs were so bold, especially in the case of films (where his type and graphics seem billboard-ready), the images presented here are oddly small, and the font size throughout the book is tiny; there’s a lot of unused space in the minimal page layout that could have benefitted from everything being larger. Regardless, this is likely to be the definitive book on Bass’s work for quite a while.
Corman’s World
How did the man behind Teenage Cave Man and Attack of the Giant Leeches win an lifetime-achievement Academy Award? How did a master of exploitation cinema launch the careers of Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Robert DeNiro, Peter Bogdanovich, Pam Grier, and Martin Scorsese? Find out in Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (opens December 16), Alex Stapleton’s deliriously entertaining documentary about the schlockmeister who revolutionized American cinema. Loaded with gloriously grindhouse-y film clips and interviews with dozens of Hollywood legends who got their first jobs working on Corman’s notoriously low-budget movies, Corman’s World explores how creativity and fearlessness can go a long way in the treacherous world of Hollywood.
[Read more...]
December 2011 MPFREE Mixtape
Our final MPFREE player for the year kicks off with the lead track from critic’s darlings School of Seven Bells‘ (pictured above) forthcoming album Ghostory, due late February. Brit band The Good Natured offer up “Video Voyeur,” an advance taste of their debut album due to be released in 2012. Swedish buzz band Icona Pop had their current single “Nights Like This” mashed up with Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” – and the results are pretty stellar. Copenhagen’s The Asteroids Galaxy Tour also have a new album coming next year, and they’ve delivered a dance remix (by CSS) of “Heart Attack.” Among our other tracks this month are the lead single from San Francisco’s Imperial Teen (their fifth studio album is out next year), and a typically wonderful dance track from NYC’s The Juan Maclean.
Modern Tonic December 2011 Mixtape by moderntonic.com
Basic Instincts
One thrilling staple of live theatre is watching civilized people reduced to their base nature; exposing their hypocrisy, humanity or combinations thereof (favorite examples being Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Six Degrees of Separation). Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage – adapted by the playwright and director Roman Polanski for the film Carnage (opens December 16 in NYC and L.A.)– is an awkward summit between Brooklyn parents after a fight occurs between their young sons. As the meeting wears on, the couples – played by John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster, and Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet – let down their masks, exposing the foibles and prejudices underneath. On stage, it’s a rollicking comedy. On film – in a more naturalistic setting – the humor bubbles to the surface while its protagonists turn into emotional road-kill. Yet however you slice it, this Carnage is delicious.
International “Treasures”
Excuse us our insensitivity, but most posthumous releases from recently deceased musicians should remain, for the most part, buried. (Michael Jackson’s Michael, anyone? We thought not.) But for Amy Winehouse’s Lioness: Hidden Treasures (out December 6) we’ll make an exception. Could be her passing’s still fresh for us; could be that this collection of disparate tracks plumbs her love of the retro sound that thrust her into the spotlight. Regardless, we’re happy to hear her soulful croon on chestnuts like “Our Day Will Come” (done reggae-style), “A Song for You” (AM ballad with extra gravity), and even her scuffling take on “The Girl from Ipanema.” And her duet with Tony Bennett on “Body and Soul” is especially numbing – a reminder of what we’ve truly lost now that she’s fully gone back to black.
Videos after jump.
[Read more...]
Ed + Ginger
Since the Brits treat their flame-haired citizens like nature’s scourge, it’s only fitting that ginger-mopped troubadour Ed Sheeran is converting them all into rabid fans. His debut + has been a U.K. hit since September, and in advance of 2012’s U.S. release Elektra’s dropping the teaser EP The A Team next Tuesday. These four tracks show the folksy side of Sheeran – he’s Jason Mraz, Damien Rice, and David Gray rolled into one – but don’t be too fooled. Sure, “Give Me Love” and two previously unreleased tracks, “Firefly” and “Fall,” are soft love songs. But the title cut – which catapulted Sheeran into the spotlight – is a harrowing tale of drug addiction…with more surprises like the beat-boxing “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” and impending fatherhood cut short on “Small Bump” to come when + finally gets here.
Videos after jump.
[Read more...]
Holiday Book Gift Guide
We at Modern Tonic wish you a very fashionable holiday season. With that in mind, here’s a selection of page-turning stocking stuffers that will keep everyone on your list in vogue.
The Pedro Almodovar Archives, Edited by Paul Duncan & Bárbara Peiró (out December TBD)
Remembering Christmas, Tom Mendocino, Frank Anthony Polito & Michael Salvatore (out now)
Harper’s Bazaar: Greatest Hits, Glenda Bailey & Stephen Gan (out now)
Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, Michael Pollan & Maira Kalman (out now)
In a time when we’re stuffing ourselves to the gills with holiday treats, Food Rules takes us back to the simple pleasures of eating – and eating well – through Pollan’s memorable, witty principles and Kalman’s whimsical illustrations.
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, Edited by Thierry-Maxime Loriot (out now)
A Very Ugly Christmas
Like it or not, the holiday season is officially upon us. From the moment the pepper spray got broken out in Black Friday’s wee morning hours, Holidaze 2011 has been moving towards us like a runaway freight train. While there’s lots of things we love about the holidays, there are more than a few things that leave us bewildered, among them the amazingly tacky bedazzled and over-decorated Christmas sweaters that get hauled out of the mothballs to be worn at an office Christmas party or family gathering near you. But three resourceful guys (Brian Miller, Adam Paulson, Kevin Wool) subvert these eyesores into something to actually enjoy, with their celebratory Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book (out now), based on their website of the same name. While partially devoted to ideas about how to create your own party where everyone dons this gay apparel, the bulk of the book is made up of photos of some of the most egregious Yuletide offenders, complete with spot-on descriptions. Props to these guys for finding the appeal and humor in something so unfashionably, well, ugly.
[Read more...]
Michael Fassbender’s penis makes its first appearance three minutes into the NC-17-rated Shame (opening Friday) then reappears liberally throughout its 99-minute running time. Now that that’s out of the way, we can concentrate on the fearless depiction of sex addiction that is Brit director Steve McQueen’s sophomore feature. New Yorker Brandon spends his days in thrall to sex – he pays for hookers, jerks off to online porn, sneaks off at work for quick relief in the men’s room, and effortlessly picks up women during happy hour (for him, every hour is happy hour). When Brandon’s troubled sibling Sissy (Carey Mulligan) crashes at his apartment indefinitely, the delicate balance of his life spirals out of control. Yet Fassbender and McQueen never lose sight of their sensual, melancholy, incomparable film, even when Brandon’s compulsion deposits him in the dingy backrooms of an underground gay sex club. No shame in that, we say.
