8Sided Blog

the scene celebrates itself

Quick Take: Breaking a Monster

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Breaking A Monster, a fine documentary on the signing and marketing of ‘tween metal band Unlocking The Truth, is now streaming on Netflix:



This ‘fly-on-the-wall’ style documentary is filled with behind-the-scenes music industry clichés, but only because unfortunately many of these clichés exist and thrive. The closed door meetings with the record company execs are especially uncomfortable. That said, it is amazing how self-aware these kids are. Kudos to them for realizing they need to take a stand, especially against adults out to intimidate them into caving to the record company’s contrived vision of how a young, African-American rock band should be presented. For example, the band shoots down a music video idea that doesn’t ‘match the song’ (despite heated push-back from management) and belligerently and repeatedly keep their team focused on the band’s priority: actually getting to work on their album in a recording studio. I was also struck by how at ease the band is playing Coachella early on, like they’ve played on stages that size dozens of times before. Though I knew of them, I hadn’t followed Unlocking The Truth so I was expecting a ‘screwed over by record label’ downfall to occur in the third act, but the documentary just ended in the midst of the band’s rise. That third act may be yet to come … or maybe not. Regardless, I think these three smart and talented young rockers will do just fine.

Sound Design: “Everything You Hear On Film Is A Lie”

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Here’s a fun Ted Talk about the role of sound design in media and how the best examples of this dark art intentionally lie to us:

Sound design is built on deception — when you watch a movie or TV show, nearly all of the sounds you hear are fake. In this audio-rich talk, Tasos Frantzolas explores the role of sound in storytelling and demonstrates just how easily our brains are fooled by what we hear.

The Revenant By Tarkovsky

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The Playlist:

To highlight just how incredible the experience of watching “The Revenant” is, The Petrick’s “The Revenant By Tarkovsky” supercut does exactly what the title suggests, putting it side-by-side with the work of the great Andrei Tarkovsky. There’s no question about how indebted Iñárritu’s film is to Tarkovsky’s body of work, both thematically and, more obviously, visually. “The Revenant by Tarkovsky” beautifully captures the homage, helping to peel back another layer of the deceptively complex film that, on the surface, pretends to be nothing more than a tale of revenge, but is really much more.

This is impressive. When I saw The Revenant I caught the Tarkovsky influence, but didn’t realize it was often so explicit.

I also thought the bird scene might have been quoting Jodorowsky.

Related: Here’s a primer on Andrei Tarkovsky, which includes links to where you can watch his films for free.

2015: This Is A Recap

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I admit, I do like end-of-year ‘best of’ lists.

I’ve used my work – and being immersed in client music – as an excuse not to listen to much new music. I’d bashfully tell people “I’m actually a bit out of touch” when a new release or band was mentioned. These past few months I’ve aimed to change this, in part by training myself to listen to music while working (for me, it’s a practiced skill to not get distracted by music). Then, armed with a handful of ‘Best of 2015’ album lists and an Apple Music subscription I made a truncated journey through the year in album releases. And I’ve been loving it. Here are some of the lists I’ve been consulting:

FACT’s 50 Best Albums of 2015
The Quietus Albums Of 2015
Bleep’s Best of 2015 (good re-issues + compilations sections here, too)
NPR Music’s 10 Favorite Electronic Albums Of 2015

There are other lists bookmarked that I’ll be hitting, but this is what I have covered so far. What have I found? That I really like these albums:

Colleen – Captain of None (Thrill Jockey)
– My most exciting discovery. This album is fantastic and otherworldly.
Floating Points – Elaenia (Luaka Bop)
– I think I’m a little late on Floating Points but this album was an impressive introduction. The 10+ minute “Silhouettes (I, II & III)” is a stunner.
Four Tet – Morning/Evening (Text Records)
– Fout Tet has obviously been on my radar, but not much of his output has grabbed me quite like this two song album.
Cliff Martinez – The Knick, Season 2 (Original Series Soundtrack) (Milan Entertainment)
– I actually haven’t seen this on any ‘best of’ lists yet, but Martinez’s work on The Knick (also recommended) is among his most compelling. My current favorite ‘gotta focus on this tedious computer task’ soundtrack.
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express – Junun (Nonesuch Records)
– There’s not a whole lot on this to differentiate it from purely an Indian / world music album, but it’s still a great one. Greenwood’s input isn’t always obvious, but when his influence is apparent – like on the rapturous “Roked” – it’s the kind of fusion that really piques my attention.

As you may have noticed, spacey and somewhat laid-back electronic music is what’s turning me on at the time of making this list. Though, on the grungy shoegaze tip, “Firehead” by Infinity Girl rocked my boat repeatedly since its release a few months back. Their album’s not bad, either, though I’m not sold on the band name.

I’m continuing this adventure of listening to new music and going through ‘best of’ lists so mine above is hardly complete. I’ll continue to practice my ‘listen while working’ skill in 2016 so next year’s list should be more of a corker.

When it comes to movies, it is interesting that my two favorite films of 2015 were not movies per se, but are in fact BBC produced documentaries. Adam Curtis’s Bitter Lake blew my mind in January and continues to do so … I watched it for the fourth or fifth time last week. Its content is eye-opening and incendiary, but Curtis’s use of visuals (the bulk being found footage, mostly discarded, from BBC News’s Afghanistan coverage) and music is revolutionary. And then there’s Atomic – Living In Dread And Promise, commissioned as part of BBC’s Storyville series. With help from a moody soundtrack by Mogwai, Mark Cousins (known for his expansive and essential The Story of Film: An Odyssey) has crafted a sort of meditation on life in the nuclear age. Like Bitter Lake, this film is made up of found footage juxtaposed to give additional meaning and emotion, and is narration-free, at least verbally.

Of the handful of ‘real’ movies I saw in 2015, I loved Paul Thomas Anderson’s divisive Inherent Vice most of all, and I discovered profound meaning where I know many others found complete nonsense. I can dig it. Mad Max: Fury Road is the only other movie I saw multiple times, which puts it in odd company with Bitter Lake. If I’m feeling down I just imagine I’m the guy whose job it was to mash up all those automobiles. Ex Machina was fine stuff, though I wasn’t as nuts about it as others were. Fantastic score by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury, too. The End Of The Tour gave me a lot to think about and used Eno’s “The Big Ship” in a wonderful way. And I believe Mommy is technically a 2014 film, but it opened in the US in January and it’s a definite favorite. 26 year old director Xavier Dolan is responsible for one of the most moving and heartbreaking sequences I’ve ever seen in a narrative film … that one towards the end, and you definitely know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen Mommy.

Unlike music, which I listened to more of this year (though mainly in the past couple months), I usually watch a whole lot of movies. But this year I consumed a lot less – as I worked a whole lot more – so I’m sure there’s a bunch left out, and a bunch of 2015 winners I’ll see later on that would’ve made it up there. But I know that’s everyone’s story.

As for me, 2015 brought on a lot of professional changes that don’t feel confined to this year as they are ongoing. I’m in the middle of planning a new creative project that I’m quite excited about, but it probably won’t see a launch until the middle of 2016. I’m also opening up 8D Industries a bit more to provide ‘virtual assistant for the music industry’ services, helping with things like contract management, music publishing organization, royalty calculation, web site administration, and so on. More news on this soon. 8DPromo continues to develop into an increasingly efficient promotions machine with a fine group of labels on board. 8DSync looks to expand with new catalog and site features added early in the new year. It seems my plate is full.

So, indeed, here’s to 2016. {glass clink} I’m anti-resolution, but making new friends and connections is paramount in this coming year. If there’s a way you think we might be able to work together, or if you just want to reach out with a ‘hello’, question, and/or comment then please do so. Let’s make things happen.

Orson Welles’ F For Fake As Storytelling Masterclass

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A video easy from Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting on the classic ’70s Orson Welles film F for Fake (itself a sort of video essay) and how it can teach the fundamentals of good storytelling:

Vox:

{F for Fake is} ostensibly a documentary about an art forger, but Welles (best known as the director of Citizen Kane) eventually builds out the film into more of a freeform essay on the nature of trickery, the impossibility of objective truth, and art’s role as a sort of truth built atop a foundation of falsehoods.



If you’ve never seen F for Fake then do yourself the favor. It’s presently streaming (alongside many other Criterion Collection titles) on Hulu.

This got me thinking about how this storytelling concept could be applied to songwriting. Is there a musical version of the ‘and then’ that should be avoided?

“We Don’t Need Other Worlds. We Need A Mirror.”

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Here’s an excellent – and somewhat poetic – video essay by Kogonada exploring the themes of one of my favorite films, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris:

Slate:

Solaris was adapted from the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem, but ignores most of Lem’s astrobiological theories to focus on the relationships between characters—deliberately, as Kogonaga clearly outlines. Kogonaga smartly points out that Tarkovsky’s film, unlike Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, is about humanity, not technology.