There Was Blood, and It Was on the Wall

Alright, so I finally saw There Will be Blood a couple nights ago, and it was probably the most compelling and thought-provoking film I saw in the past year. I didn't walk out of the theater with my jaw on the floor; I walked out with my jaw resting in the palm of my hand, "Thinker" style. There are so many themes and concepts throughout this picture that I've been piecing it all all together since I saw it. That's not to say that it's some kind of Daron Aronofsky mind-fuck or anything; it's just that the story is so perfectly told and its themes are so shockingly overt that the film can be applied to so many aspects of modern American society. Let's look at it from the basic film perspectives.

Direction: PT Anderson has always shown himself to be a fantastic director, sometimes showing signs of absolute genius. There Will be Blood solidifies that reputation and puts him at the vanguard of modern cinema. In addition to brilliant pacing, tones, and staging, Anderson's film is so filled with shots that make your jaw drop that by around minute 48, the viewer begins to expect sheer brilliance with every angle. The script and concept may not be as original as Boogie Nights or Magnolia, but Blood is the most visually stunning film of the twenty-first century.

Score: Johnny Greenwood officially surpassed Noah Lennox for the role of "Most Badass Year in Music" with the unfair tag-team of In Rainbows and the There Will be Blood soundtrack. With a combination of classical-style compositions and post-rock percussion pieces, Greenwood puts together a crushingly epic score which accompanies the film perfectly. While some of the work may come of as a bit too modern for the the period piece, Anderson and Greenwood come together to make it work.

Acting: Daniel Day Lewis. I feel like I'm not even qualified to try to talk about him as an actor or this performance. Pure genius. Also, Paul Dano is excellent in this breakthrough performance as twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday, the latter of which, rumor has it, Dano only had days to prepare for, making his troubled performance that much greater.

I'd rather not get into plot or themes (cop out?) because I want all of you to see it for yourselves and get from it what you will. Point is, the film is incredible, and it just gets better the more you think about it in the following days.

In other blood-related news, Blood on the Wall just came out with a new album, Liferz. They're an indie-punk band that bites more people from the nineties than Hannibal, but they actually sound pretty fresh in today's uber-hip alternative landscape. The chick bassist sounds pretty much exactly like Kim Gordon, the drumming sounds like Superchunk's Jon Wurster is pounding the skins, and the male vocals and guitar playing are like when Stevie Malkmus forgets to take his Ritalin. The redeeming result of all this carnivorous biting? It fucking rocks. It's one of the only albums I've bought in a while that required a second listening immediately after the last song ended. The only other band I can think of out right now who can capture that great '90's underground sound is the Ponys, but the advantage of Blood on the Wall is that dude can scream and yell as well as anyone, and he's also capable of finding that perfect note of feedback to elevate a song from "decent punk tune" to "public headphone headbanging anthem." If you're a fan of bands like Superchunk, Pavement, Jawbox, and Sonic Youth (which, if you're reading this site, you probably are), then you should check out Liferz to remind yourself that you're not the only one who remembers how people used to rock out before synthesizers and drum machines took over.

Also in blood-related news, former Blood Brothers (RIP) Cody Votolato (guitars) and Johnny Whitney (vocals, keyboards) have finally emerged from the rubble of their brilliant former band to create Jaguar Love, a project with former Pretty Girls Make Graves drummer Jay Clark. From the looks of the two songs on their MySpace, the band is radically different from the hardcore Blood Bros. sound, but still retains Whitney's apocalyptic lyrics and melodies which we've all come to know and love. What's even more exciting is that the two demos on the site (which sound better than most bands' singles) were recorded just two weeks after the band formed, meaning that they essentially have no ceiling. They did a brief tour with Queens of the Stone Age, meaning that they're already playing with bigger boys than the Blood Bros ever did. Excitement.

Les Savy Fav is better than your band, sing it.

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Indie League. I haven't posted in about a month, but I was in Jackson during that stretch, so it's not like there were any big concerts to report on (unless, of course, you're talking about the Politically Correct Holiday Show, which was a massive success). However, I'm back in Austin now, and I've had a couple of fun nights of live entertainment to talk about.

Two nights ago I attended probably the most bizarre show I've seen in Austin. It was at the Mohawk, so it was outside, and it was January, so it was about 28 degrees. Also, the line to get in snaked around the block and took about and hour to get through. This would have been fine if it was a rock and roll show, where there would be dancing to keep everybody warm; however, this was a comedy show with Michaels Ian Black and Showalter, so everybody was standing still and being cold and pissed off. Apparently, it is customary in Austin to go to a comedy show solely for the purpose of being a jackass publicly, because I had never seen so many hecklers at a single performance before. Perhaps due to his lack of experience in the stand-up world, Showalter's actual material was pretty limited because he took the time to address every single heckler's cry. This did, however, produce some pretty entertaining banter, specifically when he was asked to do a little bit of Doug, his most famous character from The State, and he responded by saying things like, "I'm Doug. I have attempted suicide five times by overdosing on pills. I dropped out of college and now have no job. I'm out of here," just so that he could fulfill his obligation while still a smarmy asshole.

Michael Ian Black proved himself to be the true performer, delivering over an hour's worth of top of the line comedy. He relied very little on the material from his recently released comedy album (the excellent I Am a Wonderful Man; Showalter's Sandwiches and Cats is also very good), throwing in a good amount of jokes directed solely at the Texas crowd. He closed his set with a reading from his forthcoming collection of essays, similar to his blog reading at the end of his CD. In spite of the fact that it was way too cold outside to be standing still, it was a show that I was very glad to have been a part of and would recommend to anyone living in a city on their tour.

Les Savy Fav

So, Les Savy Fav is just flat out nasty. There's no other way to describe their brand of dancey-yet-trashy punk rock. I was only able to catch one of the opening acts, Fatal Flying Guilloteens, and they set the mood for the main act by playing some high-energy, high-volume rock and roll that makes you feel just a little bit filthy on the inside, like a mix between The Dismemberment Plan and The Blood Brothers. However, once LSV took the stage, with Tim Harrington dressed as a fat, bald, bearded African poacher and blasted into "The Equestrian," it was as if the Guilloteens had never existed. Let's Stay Friends is so well produced and catchy that you don't even realize how abrasive all the songs are until you see them performed live. "What Would Wolves Do," one of the "quieter" songs on the album, sounded as heavy and intense as anything else in their catalog. PErhaps the reason for this heightened intensity was the fact that Harrington is, plain and simple, a crazy person. His drunken onstage antics, which included humping photographer's face and feigning his own hanging with the microphone cord, were almost wild enough to make you forget how tight the rest of the band was playing. The other members of LSV almost seemed like squares compared to Harrington's insanity, but perhaps that balance is what makes their appeal so great: at some point this guy with his hand in his pants had to sit down with a bunch of very talented musicians and write great rock songs.


The best songs live were probably "Rage in the Plague Age," and "The Year Before the Year 2000," probably because they make you want to pump your fist even while listening to them on headphones, so with a huge crowd of crazed fans the bar was raised a few pegs. For their encore, they played mostly cover songs, with the exception of the ultimate thrasher, "Who Rocks the Party?" off of The Cat and the Cobra. The best of these covers was "Debaser" by the Pixies which seemed to be the only one that everyone knew, and thus sent the entire crowd into a frenzy. The entire time, Harrington kept insisting that everyone in the building was in a band called the Honeybees, which was a confusing and bizarre thing for him to say. However, walking away from the show after giving myself whiplash and sweating on all my new friends, it really did feel like we had all created something great under the leadership of a true madman.