#would you come to my concerts (me singing the entire hamilton soundtrack in one go)

[creatlysse]

Hi I am ur biggest fan - biggest fan

will you write me sonnets of your adoration for me

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Can we TALK about the Spongebob Squarepants Musical?

Just got done watching the Nickelodeon Filmed version, and...

I HAVE THOUGHTS

(SPOILERS FOR THE MUSICAL AHEAD)

Things that my tiny brain can’t get past:

Karen: Sheldon, you couldn’t rap to save your life. Plankton: OH YEAH (Proceeds to be a rap god for an entire song, INCLUDING a section literally BASED ON THE SONG “RAP GOD”.).

Pearl: Come ON daddy, I know we aren’t the same species... which is, like, REALLY weird when you come to think about it...

Speaking of Pearl, she is HANDS DOWN the best singer in the entire show, and it’s not just a random fact, it’s a legitimate PLOT POINT

Show Producers: We’re not going to make the characters inhuman. They will be real people who just look like the characters. Meanwhile, Ethan Slater: *is an actual invertebrate sponge (I don’t think the man has bones, I really don’t)

Nickelodeon: This is a kids musical for children Also Nickelodeon: We’re including an entire subplot about RACISM!

Nickelodeon: Spongebob is a family show about family values Also Nickelodeon: Well, Patrick is Jesus and Christianity is stupid, sooo...

Spongebob: “Is that a jellyfish on a stick?!”

Mrs. Puff is a damn ALCOHOLIC. They don’t even try to HIDE it.

Everyone: Let’s have a concert!! Patrick: Is mayonnaise an instrument? (Yes, that made it into the show)

THEY DID THE TIME LAPSE BIT

Every damn time Ethan Slater switched voices (as in dropped the Spongebob voice for a line or two) I WAS SHOOK.

HE CAN DO THE LAUGH

Despite being humans you can tell who everyone is supposed to be, and that is FN AWESOME

SQUIDWARD GETS THE SHOWSTOPPER

Speaking of which, I have two different sponge tutorials of this show, one Broadway, one Previews, and HANDS DOWN I feel the Nick one is better than both because you can see the minute details in facial expressions. I don’t even know how this show worked on stage because I have BEEN on broadway, and you can’t read emotions from the balcony. So I know little things like Spongebob’s eyes going haywire would NEVER translate to a theater audience. 

Person (I forget who): I NEED A DRUM KIT UP HERE! *realizes there is literally a percussionist on stage* Person: Oh. Percussionist: *waves*

*DOLPHIN NOISES*

Plankton/Karen is the true love story of the show, and I love that they REMOVED the line about “We don’t need to punish them, they have each other, that’s punishment enough.” NO FUCK THAT. Plankton/Karen is a true, loving marital relationship, and I am so grateful they drove that point home, rather than make it seem like Marriage = Hell.

PATCHY THE MUTHAFUCKIN PIRATE

“I Guess I Miss You” Is still way too close to a love song for my tastes but YMMV

I wish to know exactly what sort of training/preparation is required to be the sound effects guy because HOLY SHIT HE’S GOOD

The touching scene where Spongebob says goodbye to Gary? Wonderful.

Ok, so that part where Spongebob is climbing through the ladder setup. I didn’t SEE them attach the cable to him, and I’m fairly certain it would be impossible to USE a cable there, so PROPS TO ETHAN FOR DOING THAT SHIT WITHOUT ANY SAFETY EQUIPMENT!

The Panic! at the Disco song is really strong, and is the one moment where you find yourself realizing “Oh shit, Spongebob can SING!”

(during “Hero is my Middle Name”) Sandy: That’s nice boys, but mine’s Jennifer.

Not even counting the fact that “No Control” and “Best Day Ever” were already established songs, if someone handed me the soundtrack recording, along with a list of songwriters who contributed, I’m fairly certain I could match up most of them without any additional information. For example, “Just a Simple Sponge” is very CLEARLY Panic! and “Hero is my Middle Name” screams 80′s pop (Cyndi Lauper did that one). “Bikini Bottom Day” is right up there on JoCo’s style chart, I didn’t need to be told that the rock song was by Steven Tyler, and HOT SHIT, could it be possible that T.I. wrote the RAP SONG??? (and so on)

I’m somewhat sad that they removed the line about “Bikini bottom for fish only” because it made it absolutely impossible to miss the racism/white nationalist subplot. Perhaps they thought it made it a bit TOO obvious though and left it out because “This IS a family musical, and we don’t need to beat our audience over the head with that shit”.

On a related note, The Mayor is straight up a political statement on the inefficiency and corruption of the Government, and I’m here for that. I JUST REALIZED THAT IN THE TV VERSION PATCHY IS ACTUALLY TOM KENNY OMG!!!! Loving the diversity of the cast, TBH. However, it’s not colorblind casting like Hamilton. You can tell there was very careful planning in who played what, such as Sandy being a black woman with natural hair, Pearl being a woman of color while Mr. Crabs is white, The mayor is white, and so on. The only deliberate casting I have any issue with is Karen being Asian (and again, this was deliberate, not just colorblind casting), but I suppose you can handwave that less as “Asians are geeky/nerdy” and more as “She’s literally MADE IN JAPAN”, which makes it a bit more palatable.  This is all I have time for right now, as I am due elsewhere in 20 minutes, but yeah. There is so much awesome with this show/performance, and I recommend it to anyone, not just people who watched Spongebob as a kid. Yes, the millennial crowd will likely get the most out of it (even more than current kids), but it’s a good show for everyone. 

[thefederalistfreestyle]

[. . .] My beau, Patrick, and I flew to Chicago to see the hot hip-hop musical last year and still didn’t get to enjoy it. And we were seated in the audience. Turns out there’s a thing now: People who love the show’s masterful music so much that they sing along. For the entire show. [. . .]  After my Chi-town letdown, I decided to join a support group for other people who almost saw “Hamilton.” I found one quickly, thanks to a community thread on Reddit. “A Broadway show isn’t a concert,” posted one theater aficionado. “Never sing or clap along.” “Anyone who does this is extremely selfish,” agreed another. “I don’t want to pay all that money to hear some random person sing along. I came to hear the very talented actors.” And this: “Perhaps with this show bringing so many new people into the theater, there should be some sort of sign saying, ‘Do not sing along,’ so young theatergoers who’ve learned the soundtrack by heart won’t find out by being escorted out of the theater.” (I’m going to clarify here that my backup singer was not a young theatergoer.) Even Miranda seems perplexed about the phenom. Reddit shared one of his tweets regarding two young women seated in the front row of one of his performances, singing every song: “You and your fellow in front row were SO GREAT today,��� Miranda tweeted, sounding what many of us read as a clear note of sarcasm. Singing aloud is just one of many theatergoing challenges, said Jim Sheeley, president of the Historic Theatre Group, which manages the Orpheum, State and Pantages theaters. Talking. Cellphones. Coming in late. The list is long, and certainly not limited to “Hamilton,” he said. But let’s talk singing. “It’s sort of a phenomenon for people that are excited to be at whatever show they love,” he said. “Think back to ‘Mamma Mia,’ ‘Jersey Boys.’ There are always going to be people who, maybe, don’t go to the theater that often. Maybe they really don’t know what theater etiquette might be and that they might be disturbing people around them.” That doesn’t mean you have to take this sitting down, he said. But humor is better than punitive shushing. “When I go to the theater, including in New York, if people are talking around me, I actually laugh, turn around and say, ‘These people are getting paid for talking.’ That usually works.” If it doesn’t, he suggests you seek out a member of the house staff, all of whom have been trained to deal with such issues. “People around you would be just as happy that you did that,” Sheeley said. “You don’t want to shut down anyone’s exuberance, but it would be nice if they were aware that there are 2,000 other people in the room.” And while you’re at it, consider brushing up on a few more theater skills. A Broadway etiquette website (nytix.com/Links/Broadway/Articles/etiquette.html) addresses all sorts of things you should and should not do when you have the opportunity to witness a show. • Do turn off your cellphone. • Don’t send texts. • Do unwrap cough drops in advance. • Don’t talk during the show. • Go easy on standing ovations, which have become almost obligatory, making them meaningless. • Do stay awake. • And please don’t sing along. “If you want to sing on Broadway,” the site suggested, “you’re going to have to audition like those people onstage did. Save your sweet singing for post-show karaoke.”

Going to see 'Hamilton'? Don't be 'Hamil-tone deaf' and sing along (StarTribune)

[thingscometogether]

‘ The Thing Itself ’

In college I was obsessed with the British rock band Arctic Monkeys. When I first saw them perform on Saturday Night Live in 2006 I was enchanted. My enchantment was, of course, fueled by a magnificent crush on the lead singer, Alex Turner. He was a cute, shaggy-haired boy my age with a British accent playing spikey rock music, clearly too cool to give an F about the audience he was playing to. Cupid’s arrow never struck a young heart so hard.

I listened to the band’s first album by downloading bootlegged versions of each song on Kazaa and burning my own CD. I found an EP unreleased in the US and burned that one too. I kept burning CDs until I got an iPod and then I burned out the battery in my iPod every week listening to their songs in endless loops on shuffle. Too many of my AIM ‘away’ messages were simply Turner’s cheeky lyrics copied and pasted as subtle middle fingers to a mainstream youth culture I never wanted to be a part of. I wasted lots of free time avoiding school work by reading every interview and watching every music video I could find. I went apeshit when the video for “Fluorescent Adolescent” came out and it featured a picture of Alex Turner as a boy. If he was cute at 20 years old, he was fucking adorable as a little kid.

My very first rock concert was my first Arctic Monkeys show. I stood ten feet from the stage in a now defunct rock club in Baltimore called Sonar and dreamily watched the boys course through an album’s worth of songs. To this day I swear Alex Turner made eye contact with me for about ten seconds and lost his train of thought while singing. I returned to my cousin’s apartment that night riding high on an energy and intensity I had never quite felt before.

The next morning as I drove home from Baltimore I got caught in a traffic jam, but I didn’t care. I had Arctic Monkeys blaring on the speakers of my mom’s Ford Windstar. The music was so loud the people next to me could hear it even though I had the windows rolled up. I was dancing and banging my head and singing at the top of my lungs -- I was having my own rock concert in the driver’s seat in the middle of I-70. But by the time the traffic jam loosened and I was on my way again, I was exhausted. I wanted to lie down and sleep. My brain was a rapid-firing mess of overcharged signals, and I needed to shut it off. I drove the rest of the way home in silence trying with effort to stay focused on the road.

It wasn’t until I was 28, well beyond my puppy crush years on Alex Turner and obsession with Arctic Monkeys, that I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. Until that point I only thought I had Depression. My depressive symptoms were unmissable. I’d spend days at a time in bed, inert and dysfunctional, conspicuously absent from most of my life. Anybody, even those who didn’t know me well, could tell something was wrong.

Until a hospital psychiatrist explained it to me, bipolar had never been a consideration because I never knew what mania looked like. Even after I was given the diagnosis, it took me a long time to identify and recognize my particular manic symptoms. Most of them are disguised within expressions of creative things I already like: writing, visual art, fashion, music. 

I like to say mania isn’t ‘the thing itself.’ Mania is the roller coaster that comes along, sweeps up the ‘thing’ and whirls it about at full speed in loop-de-loops of high energy and intensity. I already like to write, but when mania comes along, instead of writing a blog post I think I’m going to write a Pulitzer-prize winning novel overnight. I like fashion and style, but when mania comes along I don’t pay attention to the fact that I’m spending most of my paycheck on a shopping spree with the money I need to use to pay my bills at the end of the week.

I’ve always loved music. It’s been a foundation of my life since I sang songs with Sesame Street as a toddler. I listen to all genres and in different languages. I’m constantly searching for new bands to love. But if I’m listening to music and mania hits, I’m rocketed into an echelon of intense bliss. My brain speeds up, my euphoria is visceral, I’m so in the moment the music feels as if it’s my entire being. I fly high on a wind of pure excitement and elation and good feeling ...and then I crash. I’m drained of all my energy. I feel physically tired, I can’t think, I usually have a headache. My brain can’t take anymore input and I need to sit in silence.

This doesn’t just happen at rock concerts. I’ve become manic listening to a Tchaikovsky symphony before. To Hamilton. To the Remember the Titans’ soundtrack. To Rufus Wainwright’s “Beautiful Child.” Even listening to a Doobie Brothers’ record in my room on low volume can jump start a turbine in my brain that I can’t slow down on my own. 

Now that I understand what my mania feels like, I know I have to pay attention to a few things in order to manage it. My physical environment is a big one, along with my mood, the time of day, what activity I’m doing. My gym playlist is full of loud horn sections, sassy Girl Power anthems, anything with a four-on-the-floor beat, and I let it all blare to full intensity. But if I’m planning on going to bed in the next few hours I stay away from high energy acts like St. Paul and the Broken Bones and put on some quiet Harry Nilsson or Tom Waits instead.

I refuse to allow my mania to take away my genuine joy in ‘the thing itself’ however. Mania didn’t create my love of music, and I won’t give it the power to erase that. I saw Arctic Monkeys live five times during my college years. (I entirely plan on being that old lady in the vintage band t-shirt at concerts when they’re still touring in their 70s à la Mick Jagger.) Even though I know I experienced mania at each concert, my mania isn’t the reason I had fun. I had fun because I was able to let loose, to liberate myself from the pressures of burgeoning adulthood by dancing and singing to loud rock songs for a few hours. I had fun because I connected to the part of genuine joy that lives within me, a part I can’t always reach when I’m mired in the sludge of depression.

I still daydream that one day Alex Turner and I will just happen to run into each other at the grocery store and we’ll lock eyes and he’ll remember me from that concert space in Baltimore all those years ago and from that moment on we will be bonded soulmates forever. You have to hold on to the dreams of your youth.

And if I could share some wise words with my 20-year-old self in an AIM away message, it would be these.

Don’t take it so personally You’re not the only one That time has got it in for, honey That’s where you’re wrong.

[birdiethebibliophile]

Rules are to complete the questions and tag a bunch o’ suckers (8+)

I was tagged by: @squaddreamcourt yo I’m doing this NOW in between tutoring sessions cuz otherwise I’m going to forget

I am Tagging: ummm... if any of y’all wanna do it go for it but I’m blanking partly because I don’t think I’m following a whole ton of ACOTAR/TOG blogs anymore lmao

The Tag Itself

1. Current favorite artist?

HmmmmmMMMMMM I’d say Lily & Madeline. Technically two artists but also not a band SO. They’re great. Really good fic-writing stuff, especially for angst. Their album Fumes is my current favorite, I would say.

2. Current Favorite Band?

 FIRST of all Company of Thieves is absolutely the bomb dot com, especially the lead singer, Genevieve. (I am in. love. with Genevieve. Y’all have no idea.) I also am enjoying the Spongebob Musical soundtrack but idk if that counts, lol. Also, The Decembrists are fan-fucking-tastic.

3. Favorite artist/band you used to listen to but dont any more?

Oh lord. Um, I still listen to a lot of stuff I used to? I go through phases, and then I don’t listen to stuff for a while, and then I listen to it again. Right now I’m going through a dry phrase with Peter Mayer and The Chenille Sisters, I suppose. Among many. But like, I was literally the day before yesterday listening to Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street. So.

4. Can you sing/play any instruments?

Heck yeah. I was in choir in high school for three years, in college for two years, and still sing in my church choir. I also played piano for like... 13 years? And can still play, though I don’t take lessons anymore. And I still love singing. Everywhere. All the time.

5. Favorite instrument to listen to?

I’m a huge fan of cello. Zoe Keating is my favorite cello artist, as well as having an awesome hairdo. I’m also a particular fan of the clarinet, and of course I always like piano. There’s also just nothing that can compare to a choir singing full voice. It makes me want to cry, like, every time.

6. What type of music do you listen to?

Like, everything? I love musical soundtracks, pop, alt indie rock stuff, folk, classical... I don’t like country, though.

7.  What is your current favorite album?

I’m going to go ahead and say Fumes by Lily & Madeline again, since that’s what I’m listening to right now, as well as The King is Dead by The Decembrists.

8. What would you recommend your followers listen to?

LISTEN TO COMPANY OF THIEVES. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. (Also, check out any and all NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. That’s where I get like half of my music recs.)

9. State your opinion on the following music genres:

Country: Nope nope nope. I don’t like that twangy sound. There is the occasional song I’ll enjoy but for the most part no.

Pop: Yaaaaaaaas. I have an entire pop playlist on Spotify. I’m always like 3 years behind the times, though.

Rap: I don’t have a ton of experience in it outside of Hamilton and Watsky, but I find it fascinating!

Alternative rock: YESSSSSSSSS I LOVE ALT ROCK ESPECIALLY INDIE ALT ROCK (see:  Company of Thieves, Mother Falcon, The Raven and the Writing Desk, The Decembrists)

Alternative pop: All for it!

Rock: Not as experienced in strict rock but I have liked what I’ve listened to, and I like classic rock!

Metal: Nah. Not a huge fan.

Techno: I enjoy it once in a while, especially when combined with other stuff (like Eric Whitacre’s Fly to Paradise. I’m in there somewhere!!!)

Classical: My jam. Your girl played classical piano for 13 years, I know a lot of stuff. My faves are Beethoven (haha so mainstream), Haydn, I like Rachmaninoff, Debussy... Lotsa people.

10. Finally, list your top 5 tog/acotar characters and put a lovely song that reminds you of them:

NOTE:  pretty much all fanon versions of the characters. *shrugs*

Lucien: @squaddreamcourt WELL FIRST OF ALL I MADE AN ENTIRE RHYCIEN PLAYLIST ONE TIME AND IT IS RIGHT HERE IF YOU WANNA LISTEN TO IT. It technically goes with my fic In Passing, which can be found here. If I had to pick one song, though, I would say... let’s go with Good Girl by Carrie Underwood. [Don’t judge me.]

Elide:  I’ll choose a Sad Song here - Come On Come On by Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Tarquin: Don’t Carry It All by The Decembrists

Amren: Fly to Paradise by Eric Whitacre, Viva la Vida by Coldplay, Take Me to Church by Hozier, Disturbia by Rihanna... I gotta make an Amren playlist.

Cassian: The Wound is Where the Light Gets In by Jason Gray. Yes, I know it’s a Christian song. Do I care? Nope.

[fuchashok]

ACOUSTIC SIGNALS

FS: Can you tell me some of your influences?

VO: Oh gosh. I’m always bad at answering this question. I don’t even know where to start because I listen to such a broad range of music. Ani DiFranco and Bjork were big influences on me when I was growing up. Sylvan Esso may be my biggest influence right now. I just saw them in concert. They’re a duo, producer and singer, and she’s an incredible songwriter. It’s somewhat dance music but really quality songwriting. Also the rhythms of Tune-Yards. A lot of trip-hop like Portishead. I just got to see Hamilton, so I’m listening to the soundtrack nonstop and I listen to all the artists on the Hamilton mixtape, I definitely have some hip hop influences.

I don’t have a top 3 in terms of influences right now. Kimbra is big influence on me so it was cool to see her speak at Loop. My friends are very influential on me, especially when they’re pushing hard and putting music out, producing. I’m part of 2 groups -Women Beatmakers & Female Frequency- both challenging yet inspiring.

Female Frequency creates albums that are made entirely by women. All the songwriters, the instrumentalists, engineers and singers. Even the studio owners are women. I’m going to work on remixing one of Female Frequency’s recent releases. I’m trying to get involved more with actual releases that women are involved with. I’ll be on the next Female Frequency album, producing a track by myself - maybe my first official solo production?

When it comes to production, I usually co-produce. I’ve produced things for placements or to pitch but I haven’t released anything official under my name that I produced by myself, yet.

FS: At what point did you feel you wanted to become a singer?

VO: Well, I’ve been singing since I was like 4 so I don’t think there was any kind of light bulb that went on where I was like “Oh I should be a singer.” As a toddler, I distinctly remember singing to the painter who was painting my mom’s bathroom. I was on stage by 5, doing plays, then later musicals in high school and college. I did stop music for a while because I worked on grassroots campaigns for environmental and social justice. I missed music, so once I started learning songwriting and guitar I felt like I had come back into my own. I wrote about justice in my songs too in different ways and try to have an impact that way.

FS: What kind of singer do you consider yourself? Folk?

VO: Definitely not anymore. My style as I call it is Electro-alt-pop. That pretty much covers the range of things that I do. I don’t write “shiny” Pop, like Katy Perry. But it’s a pop structure: there’s verses, choruses, usually a bridge. To me that’s Pop. When I go to these electronic shows like in Berlin, it’s different. I wouldn’t call myself “electronic” exactly, even though I use electronic elements and I work in Ableton. When I heard some of the women from Female Pressure perform, I was like ok, I don’t do that kind of electronic music. That’s often way more experimental, too.

After Berlin was when I defined myself as a Pop writer. Took me a while to call myself that - for one, people have this thing about pop. But it’s really such a broad genre and I’m proud to be able to write a concise, catchy song.

I wouldn’t call my music folk, though some of it may be political, and some of my influences are folk, but I rarely play acoustic guitar live, for example. I sometimes write on acoustic guitar but I always go back to my electric guitar and I now always go back to some kind of electronic production.

FS: So you made a transition at some point?

VO: Yes, just within the last couple of years… With my old band, I was doing alternative rock but then I started exploring more electronic production. Sometimes I miss all live instruments for sure, but I think this is the genre that’ll I’ll stick to for a while. “Electro Alt-Pop” covers the Alternative side of me with electronic influences and the Pop song structures with catchy melodies.

FS: What about another musician would make you want to collab?

VO: Thinking about the musicians that I collaborate with now, I have to feel super comfortable around them. So I tend to work with close friends. But the last album I released I didn’t really know the co-producers well, initially. Working with them over the course of a year, I of course got to know them. Now, if I’m starting on a production myself I’ll probably give it to somebody else to work on back and fourth, I’m usually going to pick somebody I’m already comfortable with.

The most important thing for me is that I don’t feel stupid bringing up an idea or doing something that doesn’t sound good. When you’re working on music, its ok if it’s bad at first, so I have to feel comfortable brainstorming or working on stuff that won’t be perfect at first. So I collab with this producer Audible Doctor, who’s more established than I am but I feel comfortable working with him. I know that he’ll appreciate my ideas and where I’m coming from, even if he’s got more production experience.

So, that’s one thing: feeling comfortable. Then there’s their talent and skill. I have to like their beats. And they need to be hard workers because I work really hard and anyone who I work with is most likely going to be working really hard along-side me, so…

FS: How do you come up with most of your song titles?

VO: Most of the songwriters I know come up with their song titles first. That’s a very natural way of writing Pop and Folk. I think it’s a really strong way to write. Still, I tend to do it the other way around. The idea is to keep a journal with you all the time, where you write song titles whenever you think of them - and draw from that list when you have a chance to write a song. Sia, who top lines a lot, does that. It’s a really good way to do it. But right now for the most part I come up with the song titles from the choruses.

“Wake You,” my EP title, and most of my album titles, come from a lyric in the song. My last album was called “Fires and Overturned Cars,” which is a lyric from my song “Incite Riot.”

FS: What instrument do you feel compliments your voice the best?

VO: I would love to have a keyboard player in my band, again. In terms of songwriting, genre and style along with the sounds that I want, they come more from the synth world than the guitar. But, I love guitar and I’m never going to stop playing it. I’ve taken a break from it, though, to work more on my production, but I still play guitar at all my shows. I also really like writing to drum beats. And to other vocals, writing more layers than record over that.

It’s hard to say that any one instrument makes my voice sound better. I think it’s more of the sound or rhythm that I’m writing to. I write to tracks for film and tv, and learned I pretty much can write to anything.

FS: Lets get into performing. How has performing helped your songwriting?

VO: That’s a great question. I tend to be more inspired to write when I’m performing more. I practice more before the performance to get ready and get in the head space of a songwriter and artist. It keeps me in that space so I’m more excited about writing.

I’m in a bit of a transition now because of my new EP, “Wake You.” Translating that to a live performance has been really different than anything else I’ve done in the past. Now, when I’m writing I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to perform those songs - probably too early in the process to be thinking about that- but I don’t like to use tracks live. So that’s holding me back from writing new material a little bit. It’s going to take time and experience producing more tracks.

The main thing about my music is that I want to keep the live instrumentation in there. I want to sure make my guitar is there. My songs often come from me sitting with my guitar and writing. But when I produce a beat and write over that, I take a really different angle to play it live. I don’t know how much I can translate my fully produced non-guitar based songs onto guitar. Sometimes it just doesn’t sound as good. My song “Call You My Own” was written on guitar and then we manipulated it so much you can’t really tell- but that one I still play the whole song on guitar live.

FS: How has New York influenced your music?

VO: Oh my god, it’s probably the number one influence on my music right now because of the people that I’ve met here. When I first moved here in November 2012, I went to shows every night to meet people. Compared to San Francisco where I lived before, it seemed that the music was edgier, harder-hitting which was what I was going for. Also I got involved in Women Beatmakers and Female Frequency. I met so many different producers and felt really empowered to be able to produce myself because I saw all these other women doing it. That’s a huge part of why I make the music that I do now.

And all my collaborators are here now. The reason I have a side gig now writing for T.V. and film is because of someone I met here who runs a music library. There’s just so much opportunity for musicians. It’s hard to live here, it’s really expensive but the quantity of the music here and the quality of musicians has pushed me to be a better musician. It’s a constant hustle here but that’s my personality anyways. It’s inspiring to see so many other people hustling so hard, too.

FS: What are some other places you want to perform at?

VO: I’m dying to perform in Tokyo, not for any good reason but wanting to go there, and play in a really different place than here. I have a friend there who says I should just come and play. But mostly, I want to have longer and bigger tours around the US. Of course, I would love to perform in Europe. I want to perform everywhere but I think the next steps are getting my show together - so I can put on the best show possible and represent my music in the best light, and so I can also play everything from a house concert to a large venue. That goes for gear, too - What’s the most minimal I can bring and what they can provide in order to put on a really good concert in someone’s house, for example.

I always want my show to be really great.

FS: How was it performing in Europe?

VO: Berlin was awesome. I was definitely still working out the kinks playing Ableton PUSH Live. But it was really cool. I pulled together a night with Female Pressure and Female Frequency. Female Pressure is an international group of female-identified producers. I met them through a friend that lived in Berlin for a while. I put on a showcase of about six producers. I performed with my bass player. I back her up for her songs and she backed me up for my songs. That was a really awesome night.

Then we played another show that was only for headphones. The entire audience only had headphones on. Have you ever heard of this? It’s like a silent disco. But everybody was sitting, watching and listening through headphones only, while we had headphones on too. It was really a great opportunity for sound designers and mix engineers that have a perfect mix. I don’t know its not as great for live instrumentation, but it was a cool experience and it was fun to take your headphones off and just watch. I definitely want to get back to Europe and play more of Berlin, too.

FS: You want to speak on Loop?

VO: Loop was amazing. Last year was the first year that I went. It was incredible to meet so many other producers. Its not really a scene that I’ve been in. So it was inspiring being with producers from all around the world. There was some really cool workshops, especially the one where we all got to work on each other’s beats. We would listen to someone’s beat and then work on it in Ableton. It was called “Production Carousel.” So we got to work on five different producer’s beats and five different people worked on my beats. Then at the end we could hear entirely different version of our own beat. Super cool. Also at Loop, I got to meet a bunch of people from Female Pressure. Obviously the shows and the big panels were really inspiring.

Of course it was really weird to be in Germany during the US presidential election, that kind of put a damper on the whole trip. But the Loop Summit was incredible I hope to go again this year.

FS: How has your work as an activist influenced and helped?

VO: Well, in terms of songwriting, especially at the beginning, it influenced my songs a lot. I wrote a lot of political folk songs. At this point I don’t write a lot of political stuff but there’s definitely a theme of empowerment that runs throughout all of my songs and I think that comes from doing social justice work. I was trained as a grassroots organizer. Every independent artist has to promote themselves now, and all my marketing skills come from being trained as an organizer and running political campaigns.

FS: What’s a personal song you wrote describing your life? It could be off the recent EP or the album before that?

VO: “Call You My Own,” the first track off the “Wake You” EP, I wrote when I was doing a couple shows in Cape Cod. I was single living in New York not feeling the dating scene there. I was alone in a room where I finally had some quiet then started thinking about somebody that I reconnected with from high school. Before I didn’t feel much, but after reconnecting, I thought maybe it’s my second chance accepting this person into my life. The line “Did I wait too long?” is wondering if he’ll give me that chance. The verses are rooted in me being on the road thinking about him. Then the second verse is about seeing him in high-school then seeing him recently. There’s this weird (musically) bridge at the end, running through some memories of him. So that’s the personal story behind that song.

FS: I noticed on one of your early albums you got to work with Mystic?

VO: I was a big fan of Mystic and living in San Francisco while she was in LA. I reached out to her about I song I had called “Black and White” which was about white privilege and racism. After she read the lyrics she wrote back “This is a really important song, I would love to be a part of it.” I was friends with Ice Cube’s engineer and ended meeting her at Ice Cube’s studio to record her rapping. It was a really cool experience to meet her and talk to her. It’s still one my favorite songs that I have because of her verse and just the vibe of the whole song, the back and fourth we have at the end. It’s all live instrumentation except for a couple of loops. The producer I was working with at the time was Jon Evans, an incredible bass player.

I don’t perform it much live anymore because it’s different from what I do now. I would love to collaborate with her again. She said at the time that most people ask her to sing and rap. But I always thought of her as a rapper.

FS: What are you listening to right now?

VO: Like I said, Sylvan Esso. Also Empress Of, who producers a lot of her own stuff. Alice Smith who’s R&B and Pop, some of Phantogram. Bishop Briggs is a great artist. Feist, who’s more on the folk side of things now but used to be in a punk band. FKA Twigs. Anna Wise. Frank Ocean. Laura Mvula. Francis and the Lights. Glass Animals…

Live Setup

VO: I’m on Electric guitar with live pedals, and controlling Ableton with the Push 2 and a Softstep. My bass player plays electric bass and she has a midi controller which I think is a MPK small keyboard. She runs Ableton into the synth bass. My drummer as an acoustic drum set then he has SPD FX, which is a drum pad that he has sounds stored in so he doesn’t need Ableton. And then I have 2 to 3 soul back-up singers.

FS: Do you have anything to say to your fans?

VO: Thanks for interviewing me. It helps to talk about my process because it makes me stop and think about it. To my fans: more music will be coming! And I always love to hear from new so I want to know what you think of the new songs. If you want me to come to your town, just let me know!

VALERIEORTH.COM

TWITTER: @VLOMUSIC

INSTAGRAM: VALERIEORTH

PURCHASE/STREAM  WAKE YOU EP | FIRES AND OVERTURNED CARS |

FARAWAY CITY

[cambriomusic]

Mike Small Interview

Mike Small is a musician from Toronto, Canada. He was a founding member of the Meligrove Band, and now plays bass for a number of bands. CamBrioMusic.com is delighted to present the following interview. It has been condensed for length considerations.

Cam Brio (CB) = Thanks so much for making the time to be here. How did the documentary about the Meligrove Band come about?

Mike Small (MS) = We were playing a show and a group of students wanted to interview us for a video project. We had a lot of fun with them, and not long after they contacted us again and wanted to make a full-length documentary about a band. They ended up capturing a year of some bad stuff that happened with us. We had our bus break down in Florida and we were stuck in Orlando for a week. They weren’t able to come down and shoot that part. We had two bus breakdowns during the overall time of filming, and I think they composited them both into one story for the sake of continuity. It was December 2010 when we were stuck in Orlando, and we didn’t know when we’d be able to leave. The bus breakdown shown in the movie was in Reno, Nevada. In Montreal we had a belt snap on it. Eventually, we sold it to a soccer team. (laughs)

CB = In the documentary, a lot of Toronto-area bands cite the Meligrove Band as an influence, how did it feel to hear that?

MS = It’s weird, but some if it we already knew because bands tell each other that kind of stuff. I remember at the Montreal festival where we met the guys from Tokyo Police Club, their keyboardist Graham came and sat at our picnic table in the band area and told us what an influence we were on them. The very first comment on our band’s Myspace page, when we had that about a million years ago, was teenaged Graham saying, “I’m going to have a band and get huge, and we will let you open for us.” (laughs) It came true.

CB = Who are some of your musical influences?

MS = A lot of my early bass playing life comes from Paul Simonon from The Clash. Around that time too, I would say Klaus Flouride from the Dead Kennedys. Mike O'Neill from The Inbreds was an influence, but it wasn’t until recently that I started to figure out his fun chords. At some point I got really interested in the Neil Young album “Harvest.” The bassist plays grooves only on the kick drum, and was otherwise staying out completely. The bass becomes a physical presence that controls the volume of the song. Before listening to “Harvest” I would just play constantly on our songs, but when bass players do that songs have no dynamics. But now I find that with bass, not playing is a part of playing. You’re deciding what the dynamics of the songs are. A lot of bassline ideas come from me walking around with the new song I had to play on, in my head. I’d go home and try to figure out what I was hearing in my head. Then I’d go and record and change it around again, that’s generally the process. Two other guys who influenced my playing are Robert Sledge, who played in the Ben Folds Five, and Derek Tokar, who led the Toronto band Radioblaster. Both of them played a Gibson bass with a Russian big muff distortion pedal. They got me into really fuzzy bass you could play on high strings and sound almost synthy, and I definitely put that to use on almost every Meligrove album and anywhere else I could get away it with. (laughs)

CB = Funny connection here, I went to the same high school as you. Did you play a lot of school events?

MS = Yeah, in a sense. Before the Meligove Band formed, I didn’t know Jay or Darcy at all; they had their own band. Meligrove started because the band backing the school choir had all graduated, and the teacher who ran the choir knew that the three of us played instruments, so she approached us to take over. Then the three of us became the school liturgical band, before we were the Meligrove Band. When grade 12 ended, their bass player was leaving so they asked if I would start playing with them. Are you familiar with Sandy from the band Fu*ked Up?

CB = Yeah, for sure.

MS = She went to the same high school and had her own punk band called SNI. If I said no to Jay and Darcy, they were going to ask Sandy to play in the band next. In a sense, Sandy has me to thank for being in Fu*ked Up. (laughs) So when high school ended, that’s how I joined the band. I remember that the three of us went to a Treble Charger concert at the Opera House and that was the first time we all hung out. Side note: I’ve become a freelance bass player for hire. Do you know Rich Aucoin the East Coast singer?

CB = Don’t think I know him.

MS = Well, he sent me a message asking if I would play a bunch of shows with him starting in Ottawa in two weeks. I said yes, and my first show with him was at the Ottawa CityFolk Festival. We were in this arena and there was an outdoor stage next to it. Bush, Live and maybe Our Lady Peace were playing, and I don’t really like Live but they were a lot of fun. (laughs)

CB = Did you ever play with The Cybertronic Spree?

MS = No, but I did make their website. For a while they were getting a different friend to appear on stage as “Weird Al” Yankovic with them. At their very first show I was their first “Weird Al.” They play the ‘80s Transformers soundtrack and there’s a “Weird Al” song on it, that’s why they get someone to play him. Did you see that Kickstarter they did that got over $100,000?

CB = I missed that one.

MS = They asked for something like $15,000 to make an album and they raised way more. They planned to roll all that money into their live production, and were going to go on a huge tour this summer but obviously now can’t. Right before this Kickstarter they were going to play the Gathering of the Juggalos and asked me go to and be their tour manager and merch person. It didn’t work out, but right after that discussion they did this massive Kickstarter. If they ever ask me again, I know they can afford me. (laughs)

CB = In the Meligrove Band you guys always seemed to do your own thing and not try and find into a particular “music scene.” Did you actively try and stick to your own style?

MS = Yeah, I would say that’s accurate.

CB = Do you think that sticking to your own style helped the band’s longevity?

MS = In a sense, yeah. Often in a band your longevity is decided by the public. If in the popular imagination you are an example of a certain style and then that style falls out of favour, you kind of get dragged down with it. I think a lot of music scenes can emerge in an organic social way. A scene may center around an arts school, for example. Where we grew up there was an arts high school and the teenage music scene there was amazing. When we started trying to play in Toronto, we didn’t know anyone and had to exist outside of those social connections. We also always took a while to write songs and record albums, so if we followed trends then the trend would be long gone by the time we put something out. We may have been influenced by things that were current in an organic way, but we never sat down and said, “this is what’s hot right now, so let’s do it.”

CB = Are the other guys in the Meligrove Band playing in other groups now?

MS = Brian and Darcy have a band together. They recently put their album on Spotify. The band is called Quite Nice. Jay has been writing music. He’s been mixing a band’s record and it sounds awesome. He actually mixed the last Meligrove album all by himself. It’s my favourite sounding record we made. I was playing in a live karaoke band for a little over two years. That was really busy, around 3 – 5 gigs a week and a 4-hour set on stage. I have a garage rock band called MAX that’s with Dave Monks and Nick McKinlay. We’re just finishing up an album right now. I have this band called Bankruptcy and we had finished an album and were sitting on it for a while, unsure of how to put it out. We put it online, and then one day later a record label contacted us and wanted to put it out on vinyl. We deleted it to give it time to get pressed. We were supposed to get out and play this summer, but it’s too bad that now we can’t now.

CB = Who are some of the bands you’re listening to right now?

MS = It’s rough because I was playing live karaoke until last fall and it messed with my taste in music. I had to keep track of over 400 songs because we didn’t know what people would choose to sing. So I was constantly listening to a playlist of our repertoire, keeping all 400+ songs fresh in my mind, hardly ever listening to anything else. Lately I’ve been more into The Inbreds. I got this fun ‘70s synth record called “Plantasia.” It was sold in some plant shop in the ‘70s in LA and was reissued last year. The idea is that it’s scientifically engineered to make your plants happier. It’s really just some synth nerd getting stoned and having fun with his synths. It’s hilarious and really fun to listen to. I really like that Neil Young is dipping into his archival stuff and releasing really nice records of shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Two months ago I listened to “Enter the Wu-tang” for the first time and I couldn’t stop listening to that for three days. (laughs)

CB = Do you have any favourite concert films or music documentaries?

MS = I liked one called “Last Days Here.” It’s about the guy from Pentagram. They were this young, promising, Sabbath sounding band in the early ‘70s. Now, he’s in his 60s living with his parents and he’s got a lot of problems. If you think of some people you know who’ve kept trying music for too long and then extend it over an entire lifetime into old age, that’s what this movie shows. There is a concert film I love, it’s Canadian, and called “This is What 110% Smells Like.” It’s about B.A. Johnston. He’s pretty much lived on tour in Canada almost constantly since around 2004. There’s a great Globe and Mail article calling him “the new Stompin’ Tom Connors.” We took a pay cut to play a show with him in Sudbury. We drove him to Toronto from Sudbury so that he could take the bus to Hamilton. More recently, B.A. made a TV show about Hamilton as a tour guide. I know it’s fictional, but I recently watched “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and I loved it. I remember when “Walk the Line” the Johnny Cash movie came out I hated it, and felt lonely about it. I feel like “Walk Hard” makes fun of all the stuff that I hated about “Walk the Line” when it came out, and I thought, “wow, I’m not alone.” (laughs)

CB = Did the Meligrove Band play last year?

MS = Yeah, we played two songs at a Sloan tribute show. The band The Golden Dogs organized it. I asked if I could join them on bass for a couple of songs, and they came back and asked if the Meligroves would get back together to play. To my surprise everyone was immediately into it. We were just one small part of the show, but it felt really good.

[sidestorystudios]

La La Land

Why the Backlash? and The Cipher of the Musical Film

By Colby Herchel

Originally posted here. 

       La La Land is a movie that is doing exceptionally well across the board, and deservedly so. It’s getting people from all walks of life into the theatre, and this reviewer has been dazzled by the work of both director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz, from both this outing and 2014’s Whiplash. So some are rightfully confused with the “Oscar backlash” it’s getting from both film critics as well as lovers of musicals. Why, if something is reaching out to everyone as a fun dose of optimism, is it worth the trouble nitpicking? There are certain moments that the film goer should relax and take it in, and not linger on inconsistencies. Tom Hanks said of it, “if the audience doesn’t go and embrace something as wonderful as this then we are all doomed.” I guess we’re not doomed.

       But there comes a moment, namely tying the record number of Oscar nominations, that gives these critics a pause for thought. This is no longer a fun distraction— this has become the representation for the musical film. And to answer the question, should it be? No, it should not.

       I’m certainly not making any friends here, but I urge you to see it this way: this article is not a put down of the movie in any way, but more importantly, a context provider, a reaching hand into another understanding. What were choices, what were mistakes, and, most importantly, where do we go next?

Musical on Film on Musical

       First and foremost, I would like to make one thing clear: a medium is a means of expression, like a book, a painting, a play, or yes, a film. They do different things and have their strengths in different areas. None are superior; they are different at the basest level. A genre is a trend or style of storytelling, like science fiction, horror, or comedy. As you may have noticed, the world at large lists the musical as a genre. This is understandable, as there are certainly tropes in classic Hollywood musicals that are consistent. But when you really think about it, the musical doesn’t have to have a romantic or cheesy slant in order to be a musical. It simply has to be a story told with the characters singing. In fact, musicals have their own genres, think of Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair as rock musicals, and Hamilton and Bring in ‘da noise, Bring in ‘da Funk as hip-hop musicals. So you can find it problematic that in the same genre are smushed Sweeney Todd and Hairspray. They tell completely different stories with completely different music, but both happen to have characters who sing. Isn’t the musical beginning to sound like a medium to you?

       Now, when you throw in the musical film, you have a whole new set of issues. For some reason or other, when people see a musical live, they are more forgiving of the singing. Whether people used to treat showtunes as pop songs or that hearing music live adds a concert feel to the event, it seems to work. But when you film a character singing, it is an entirely different moment. Film is constantly trying to create the most realistic scenario, and Theatre always requires a bit more imagination (which is why puppetry is especially jarring at first). When a character in close up belts that she is telling you she’s not going, there is no realism. The illusion is immediately shattered, and many film goers can no longer stomach it.

       This issue is usually explained away by this (which Damien Chazelle has discussed in interviews): the character has reached an emotional point in which they can do nothing but sing their feelings. I am not fully subscribed to this, as have you ever met anyone who has been so emotional that they have to sing? With backup orchestra and all? Chazelle, for that matter, does not subscribe to this either, as there is probably one instant in La La Land that the character sings a song out of desperate emoting. Oddly, we have some modern entries in this category, Les Miserables and Into the Woods, which I think both work pretty well, but lack a certain reasoning which is inherently off-putting. Adapting a stage musical to film is always an issue, to be sure.

       So alright, the Gene Kelly and Vincent Minelli explanation falls flat. And it physically did, in 1969, when the Hello, Dolly! film was an inordinate flop (which is a shame, that movie is comic GOLD). The stories that had characters just sing for no reason other than singing were no longer working.

       The musical film could never be the same. Bob Fosse, that rascal, was the first to really challenge back. With Cabaret in 1972, Fosse made a film where every number took place diegetically in a music bar, which offered commentary on the scenes. This device was so well received Fosse beat Francis Ford Coppola for Best Director at the Oscars the year The Godfather was up to bat. We all forgot about this device until Rob Marshall brought it back for Chicago in 2002 to similar praise. Every song occurs in Renee Zellweger’s booze addled brain. I personally like this idea, but unfortunately, it doesn’t allow for the freedom other solutions bring.

       So along came a little picture, a humble, indie darling you’ve never heard of. Moulin Rouge! I think it’s called. This was the first to sell the idea that sometimes, in a musical, everything is ridiculous and you can get it or get out. This is fun, but not very challenging. This embrace of the ridiculousness of the medium also bleeds into La La Land, but to a lesser extent. Obviously people in the real world don’t sing, but forget it, it’s fun! “What if they don’t like it?” “Fuck ‘em.” I usually find myself crinkling my nose at these outings, mostly because they do really well, and stigmatize musicals even more than they are by everyday moviegoers. To put it in perspective, I also classify Mamma Mia! in this subset. The post-Seinfeld cynical self awareness can go so far, but meta humor is a kind of well that all too quickly runs dry.

What is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for Christ-sakes?

       What is this reviewer’s favorite, you may ask? Well, let’s rewind back to 1964, before Hello, Dolly! and even The Sound of Music. And while we’re taking the time tour, let’s pop over the Atlantic Ocean. Jacques Demy’s les parpluies de Cherbourg, or, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, is a film entirely told through a jazz soundtrack about two ill-fated young lovers (Michel Legrand the more than competent composer this time around). Sound familiar? The differences, then, are twofold. The characters only sing in this film, which makes Les Miserables critics moan. Don’t worry, the songs never take their time to withhold information, but rather press on at the rate any movie would (its run time is a blessed 90 minutes). It actually has more in common with opera than you would expect, but that’s a thesis for another day. The other difference between this and La La Land is in the fact that the characters are decidedly not dreamers. They are a poor daughter of a single mother, and an orphan who works at a petrol station. The dramatic kick comes at the end, at the pan out from a gas station. These emotional highs and lows came from the most mundane of locations, and the reason for singing is a beautiful one: your difficult life is worthy of music. How does this translate as a format, then? Simple: give a thematic reason. It doesn’t have to be revealed the minute the movie starts, but as long as it plays into the major themes of the film, it fits. These characters constantly talk about the opera, and about the melodrama in their lives. Genevieve and Guy are much more self aware, and both get full, emotional arcs. I’ll say no more, everyone who likes musicals should see this film.

       “Aha!” you may cry, “Chazelle has cited that very film as his major influence! Isn’t La La Land just as thematic?” Well, you certainly have a point, but please don’t interrupt me until I’m finished. Certainly, the choice of color palette, the cinematography, and many portions of that ending are swiped right from les parapluies de Cherbourg. The name of Mia’s character in the one act? Genevieve. That circle wipe that stops, then keeps going? Demy. The use of a jazz score? Gershwin, but Michel Legrand really was the one to perfect it on film. There are full scenes swiped from it in La La Land, and Chazelle seems to be kind of embarrassed about it. From a personal friend who broached these similarities with him, this is one of his favorite movies (as well as Casablanca). That’s not to say it’s a bad film— no, steal away! What else do we make art for but to be a reference? And to answer the question on whether the music comes in thematically, well, yes and no.

The Themes of La La Land

       Alright, so before we go any further, you should probably have watched La La Land if you don’t want to be spoiled. Below, I will discuss the thematic push behind the film.

       First, of course, is dreams. This is made apparent from the opening number— the difficulty of living life for one’s dreams. And this is essentially what’s at stake throughout: will Mia achieve her dreams, and to a lesser extent for some reason, will Seb do the same? This concept is brought forth in Whiplash, Chazelle and Hurwitz’s earlier venture, which makes this reviewer ponder if they are meant to be companion pieces. Whiplash is a much more cynical outing, exploring the selfishness of dreams in a high paced thriller. La La Land, is, essentially, the optimistic fluff. The stakes are never that big, and that’s ok. It is interesting that Mia is not punished for cutting off her connections to other people as much as Miles Teller’s character. She gets her dream, and leaves Seb (I really, really hate this name) behind. He’s sad about it, but all in all more than supportive.

       The second theme is less inherent— the death of art. Namely jazz, and Hollywood sensibilities. Seb explains that jazz is lost on young ears. You have to listen to it for the dialogue, which gives a cue for the rest of the film, particularly concerning their relationship. Mia, who claims she hates jazz, once taught how to hear it, finds a way to appreciate it. But other than these two, everyone else seems to be just fine with its fade from popular ears.

       Of course, there’s love, but isn’t there always?

Song to Theme

       I’ve heard some silly critiques that say Hurwitz’s score is not “hummable.” That is an absolutely useless critique unless you are trying to make popular songs. When you are writing songs for characters, all that matters is you honor the character and the story. Hurwitz’s score is deeply lyrical and rich and his orchestrations for that matter are quintessential. I give him every credit— but thematically, I have a few issues.

       Let’s begin with that opening number, Another Day of Sun. I personally really like what this song is saying. It’s an excellent way to delve into the struggle of all these everyday dreamers. As important to the song in a musical film is the way it’s shot. And Chazelle has done his homework, because we begin with Fellini’s opening scene from 8 1/2: a person in bumper to bumper traffic who, through some bout of magic realism, finds a beautiful escape (Guido Anselmi flies up and out, the cast of La La Land break into a musical number). This is a great way to indicate to the audience that their watching an old-style musical, right?

       But how does Chazelle shoot it? After celebrating the width of the aspect ratio (dear God, throw a parade why don’t you), we pan along different cars listening to all different kinds of music, some pop, some hip-hop, some classical. Oh! What an excellent way to launch into the death of jazz! Ah, but hold on. We keep panning, and begin to have that sure feeling that, oh no, he’s going to try his hand at the long take. And suddenly everyone, all these different people who from the first minute were shown to have separate tastes in music, are jumping out of their cars and belting jazz music! Is jazz truly dying in the world of this movie? No! It seems to be the heartsong of an entire traffic jam! The idea here is that since we’ve decided this is an old Hollywood musical, you can suspend your belief. Which is all well and good, but largely why I find this more akin to Moulin Rouge! than les parapluies de Cherbourg. “What if they don’t like it?” “Fuck ‘em.” Why on earth not use the music that the people were listening to in that same take? Make a fusion of styles to accurately represent the modern world, and, therein, one of the major struggles for our main characters? What could, and should have been an introduction into the major theme of the movie ended up being sacrificed for nostalgia.

A note on the long take: I think it’s absolutely fun, but unless there’s a good reason behind it, it is only a gimmick, an ‘Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better’ between directors. Alphonso Cuaron has made it his trademark, but you’ll notice he always has a thematic and filmographic reason to use the device. The Spielberg “Oner,” like the ferry scene in Jaws, is always trying to hide in plain sight, without convincing the audience that he is clever, but rather exploring the dialogue with proper attention and depth. Hitchcock, who explored it to its fullest extent in Rope, found it to be cheap and unfulfilling for the rest of his career, and very much regretted using it in the first place. Reel it in, Chazelle, Mendes, and Iñarritu.

       As you imagine these problems bleed throughout, at least concerning the other large group number, Someone in the Crowd. The song doesn’t seem to decide whether it’s critical of this ambitious world or not. Is it a joyful celebration of the struggling actor, or a condemnation of the shallow world? The prevailing image is the yet another long take of spinning in the pool, watching the chorus dance around like zombies. But in the following scene, we have an 80’s cover band featuring Seb at one of these parties. Good Lord, what is the real world of this picture? Is it in Mia’s Turner Classic Movie Mind? That could work for the party number, even A Lovely Night (sweet as a song, but clearly the talents the number is given can’t make it spin), but not the opening.

       Moreover, John Legend gets a song too, We Could Start a Fire, which clearly delineates popular music from jazz. Why, since the production was openly aware of their choices and the world around them, would they not remain consistent with this theme?

       Now, I do give a lot of credit to the cinematography, even in its gimmicky moments. It’s very difficult to shoot chorus numbers in a non stagnant way. Famously Tim Burton cut the wonderful chorus parts from his adaptation of Sweeney Todd, but this in effect made his film work that much better. Chazelle crafts a deft and complete world.

       Mia and Seb’s love theme is gorgeous, and a rival to many love themes throughout cinema history. The dance scene in the planetarium is just wonderful. But after a while (and as a composer I absolutely have suffered from this) it’s repeated a little too often. Hurwitz’s jazz arrangements are lovely, particularly Herman’s Habit. Here’s to the Ones who Dream is the only number to really come from a character’s emotions, as stated before, and largely it is the best song in the movie, if preachy. A few lyrical flubs, but we’ll certainly get to that.

       That dream ballet at the end is basically a medley of all the songs to come before it, which orchestrally, it’s lovely, but thematically, it’s weird. When we get into sequences of the film repeated we have all the right beats, their love theme and the audition song most prominent. But at the beginning, there are musical mentions of Another Day of Sun and Someone in the Crowd whichonly serve as musical filler. When a musical theme is assigned to a scene, whenever it is played again, it should have a direct correlation between them.

       You’ll notice I left out a rather popular song.

City of Stars is Terrible

       The big question that always comes up for a songwriting team is “What is written first, the music or the lyrics?” Friends, we don’t have to ask this question about Hurwitz and his lyricists. We know. It is the music first.

       The lyricists of the film are actually fairly well versed in the musical genre, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. They are both composers and lyricists, known for Rent of the year Dear Evan Hansen as well as Dogfight and the Christmas Story musical. This reviewer thinks they are more than competent and have a deservedly rich career ahead of them.

       Therefore, it is troubling how many awkward lines sneak into the final film. Theatre can always be changed and edited, but a film is forever. We have some slant rhymes in many songs:

“When they let you down/you get up off the ground”

Another Day of Sun

“Then everybody knows your name/we’re in the fast lane”

Someone in the Crowd

       In City of Stars, we have issues of prosody (how syllables and poetry are naturally spoken) and the difference between masculine and feminine rhymes. To illustrate the culprit of prosody, I have put the strong syllables in bold:

City of stars/Are you shining just for me/

City of stars/There’s so much that I can’t see

City of Stars

       Repeat those lines back in the as if you’re speaking them, then in the rhythm of the song. Do you feel how they don’t fit together? Rhyme goes beyond words, it’s in the meter as well. An example of how it should be done:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens/

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

My Favorite Things, The Sound of Music

       Feel how they’re different? And now the culprit at the end of the song, the recipient of the masculine/feminine rhyme debacle. A masculine rhyme has the center of the rhyme based on an emphasized last syllable, i.e. Men/Den or Forgot/A Lot. A feminine rhyme puts emphasis on the second to last syllable, i.e. Belly/Smelly. You would never force a masculine and feminine rhyme together, like Foreplay/Today, simply because you never say Today or Foreplay. For each rhyme, the emphasized syllable must fall on an emphasized beat of music, be that at a downbeat or at least on a kind of beat. Not off. That’s when you feel that weirdness. So our culprit in question:

City of stars/Are you shining just for me/

City of stars/You Never shined so brightly

City of Stars

       Other than “Me” rhyming with “-ly,” there is really nothing in common with the final couplet. You never say “brightly,” you say “brightly.” These flaws show that the text was smushed in to fit the music, and not composed hand in hand. This juxtaposition ruins the intent of the song.

       “What a nitpick!” you must be screaming. “People don’t need to rhyme correctly for it to be good!” And I would say you’re correct if we were talking about popular music, and stuff you can listen to day in and day out, without needing to pick up everything on first listen. But what, I ask you, is the function of rhyming? Clarity. And what, then, is the great function of film language? Clarity. So, in a film, if you’re not doing your due diligence to perfect every facet of being clear to an audience, then, you are doing a disservice the audience and diluting your craft. But don’t take my word from it— living legend Stephen Sondheim quoted lyricist/composer Craig Carnelia in his book Finishing the Hat:

       “True rhyming is a necessity in the theater, as a guide for the ear to know what it has just heard. Our language is so complex and difficult, and there are so many words and sounds that mean different things, that it’s confusing enough without using near rhymes that only acquaint the ear with a vowel… [a near rhyme is] not useful to the primary purpose of a lyric, which is to be heard, and it teaches the ear to not trust or to disregard a lyric, to not listen, to simply let the music wash over you.”

       Moreover, City of Stars stops the movie still to sing a Falling Slowly wannabe, which never really comes back into play. It could be there love theme but we already have a clear theme in their waltz. The lyrics, on the whole, try and double as generalizations about love and what the characters Mia and Seb are feeling. The song, at least in terms of the movie, is largely a lie. Everyone in Los Angeles is looking for their dreams to come true as dictated in the opening number, but now we also say that everyone is just looking for love. Dreams win, poor Seb.

       So, other than a hit love song, it doesn’t really service the movie. We already gleaned they were happy in love from the waltz, and maybe this articulates their thoughts with less subtext, and maybe (though it’s never clear) this is Seb’s love song that he’s testing out with her. Either way, we’re not learning anything.

       And then there’s the fact that-

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are… Okay

       Alright, alright, they’re absolutely cute together on screen. But in a film that tries so desperately to soar with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, it feels like your college’s club musical. I’m the first in line to claim that it is better to see an actor who can sing over a singer who can act, but goodness. If we’re buckled in for a nostalgia trip, why cast people who cannot tap in a tap number? What a Lovely Night made me long for the actual Singin’ in the Rain. And though this reviewer respects both of their acting abilities in a great way, and loves their work, Emma Stone’s singing voice is rather breathy, and Ryan Gosling is, frankly, flat. Whilst Russel Crowe felt the brunt of the masses for Les Miserables, ol’ Gos gets a pass.

       There is the rebuttal that this amateurishness was entirely the point, which is absolutely fair. Most dreamers are amateurish, and only the lucky few make it. But ask yourself seriously, in a world where they casted some of the myriad of amazing singer/dancer/actors who might not have the name recognition of Emma and Ryan, would you have been upset that they gave good performances? Not really.

Conclusion

       Is La La Land a musical? Yes, it has songs, but you’ll notice that after the first 20 minutes, there are barely any tunes until the end. This is more of a romance/drama than a complete musical. And that’s wonderful for it. It seems to keep the music as a reference to happy times, and the spiraling out of Mia and Seb’s relationship is done in silence. But when a musical is plotted, that’s when the songs really mean the most. They say Broadway composer Jerry Herman makes his name on production numbers, namely Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and The Best of Times. But go to one of his shows, and you find yourself enraptured in the sad moments, the I’ll be Wearing Ribbons Down My Backs, the If He Walked into My Lifes. The musical has not been explored to its fullest extent, and La La Land has ignited a spotlight. It is dangerous to be represented by a mere pastiche of the past, albeit lovingly and warmly. We must understand that this movie is not the example— rather a doorway. I really enjoy this film, even plan on buying it when it’s available, which is why I’ve thought so deeply about it. Through this lens, we can clarify much about where we are to go. Focus on telling a story with music, telling it surely, honestly, and clearly. There are a myriad of possibilities, and perhaps it’s time to move on from nostalgia and pastiche, and into the forays of tomorrow. Medium, not genre.