[MP3s] David Lynch presents Inland Empire at the Brattle Theatre 2006
Posted on December 10, 2006 at 3:01 pm | No Comments
First, an admission, and I don’t think too many people who aren’t married to me know this: I was a total Twin Peaks geek. I don’t just mean your average “love the show, bummed when it got cancelled” fan… there are no small amount of those. No, in 1991 I wasn’t just a card-carrying member of “C.O.O.P.” (Citizens Opposed to the Offing of Peaks)… I was, in fact, the Vermont chapter president. Seriously. I actually sat in a hallway of UVM’s Billings Student Center and collected signatures, bundling them up to send to David Lynch’s production company, who would send them on to the network. Go ahead, picture it and laugh a little inside, as if you aren’t already.
Now, keep in mind, this was back in the early ‘net days, when fans communed through Usenet and email discussion lists, when we sat in front of monochrome monitors and sent amber-texted messages through what may have been an actual series of tubes. When Twin Peaks was put on hiatus and in danger of disappearing during its second season, C.O.O.P. chapters started popping up all over the country, with members petitioning, spreading the word, organizing fan-events and letter-writing campaigns. I ended up, by default, becoming my state’s lead representative, and I wasn’t alone… my fellow volunteers might even be out there reading this. Don’t worry, I won’t out any of you… you can do that yourself in the comments (I’m looking at you, Mr. Vice President).
Weird thing was, all that effort actually paid off, at least for a little while. ABC listened and brought the show back for six more episodes, just enough to finish off that shaky second season, but no more. The follow-up-that-wasn’t of a film, “Fire Walk With Me“, answered none of the hanging questions from the series, most importantly: “How’s Annie?!“.
Later that year, long after the final episode of Twin Peaks came and went, I received an unexpected envelope in my mailbox from the production company. Inside was a personalized thank-you note, written and signed by David Lynch himself, along with a crisp one dollar bill, as he said, “to buy yourself a damn fine cup of coffee.” As a hardcore Lynch fan, one who started watching Twin Peaks thanks to a love of “Blue Velvet“, and counted the more-recent “Wild at Heart” among his favorite films ever, there couldn’t have been anything cooler. (not cool: watching as that framed letter went up in fast-spreading flames just a few months later. An almost Lynchian image, but that’s another story).
While his output has varied a bit in the years since, I’ve never missed seeing his films as soon as they hit theaters, for Lynch succeeds far more often than he fails. With all his work, even if I think he comes up short creatively, the ideas and images still resonate for days afterwards. It had been five long years since his last theatrical release, the excellent “Mulholland Dr.“, so when I found out that his newest film was coming to Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre, I knew I’d be in line.
What I didn’t know was that tickets for the very first showing last Sunday, December 3rd, which would include a Q&A with the director himself, would sell out before I had a chance to get them. Even Craigslist searches proved fruitless, with far more fans looking for tickets than those with extras to offer. I’d given up long before Ashley dropped me an email a few hours before the screening to say she had two extras. Aces.
It’ll come as no surprise to David Lynch fans that “Inland Empire” is a hypnotic, twistedly confusing time-bender of a film. At three hours, it’s pure, unfiltered Lynch, full of disturbing, dream-like imagery, role-switching, life-sized rabbits (one supposedly played by a masked Naomi Watts), and almost indecipherable symbolism. And as lengthy as it was, there wasn’t a single moment that had my mind wandering, and it was tough deciding when to break for the Brattle bathroom. He mines his dependable stock of previous actors (Harry Dean Stanton, Justin Theroux, Diane Ladd, Grace Zabriskie), and adds some new ones (Jeremy Irons, a William H. Macy cameo), but it’s Laura Dern’s film. We haven’t seen enough of her on screen lately, and she’s just amazing in this. After we left the theater, we were trying to figure out what a marketing team’s plot summary would possibly say, and Lynch’s own tagline of “a woman in trouble” is really the only thing that works. And while Dern is easily the female lead, it’s hard to say she’s actually the woman in question.
Here’s David Lynch’s question & answer session with the Brattle audience after the credits rolled, as well as a pre-film intro that included some improvisational viola and a bit of poetry…
David Lynch @ the Brattle Theatre
for a screening of “Inland Empire”
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
Officially declared “David Lynch Day”
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
[MP3] “Inland Empire” Introduction
[MP3] Audience Q&A Session
Y’know, I still can’t listen to Lynch speak without thinking of Gordon Cole.
In response to a question about the long-awaited DVD release of the second season of Twin Peaks, he answered with a fairly definitive “spring” (update: April 10th! Season 2 set artwork here). Finally, just a few cold months away. And as unoriginal and unanswerable a question it would have been, I was seriously tempted to ask “Sooo… how’s Annie?”…
A few related links…
If I still had that dollar bill that he sent me 15 years ago, it’d be fitting if I spent it on some of “David Lynch Signature Cup” brand coffee. Yes, the director has his own new line of organic brews, including espresso, house roast, and decaf french roast. He made it available for free at our screening, along with “Inland Empire” t-shirts and coasters. The DL coffee line’s motto? “It’s all in the beans… and I’m just full of beans.” Sounds like something one of his characters might say, doesn’t it?…
Mp3s: Touch & Go’s 25th – Day One
Posted on December 7, 2006 at 1:05 pm | No Comments
So I’m not much of a music festival-goer. Lack of spare travel-time, discretionary funds, and mild enochlophobia usually keep me away from any major multi-day events. Sure, I’ve been to some over the years, but the ones that have drawn me are few and very far between: down the coast to D.C. for the Teenbeat Records 20th anniversary fest last year; 3000 miles to London for 4AD’s 13 Year Itch in ’94; a couple block walk in my old hometown of Burlington, VT for Sub Pop’s Vermonstress back in ’92 (fests were such a rarity up there, we were inspired to just do them ourselves).
There’ve been more than enough bloggers (and not enough bands I deeply love) at the Coachellas, the Bonnaroos, the later-day Lollapaloozas. I could semi-experience them all vicariously through the wealth of photos, audio, and video coverage that appeared online shortly after each. But there was one fest, from the moment it was announced last summer, that I knew I had to be at: The Touch & Go Records 25th Anniversary Celebration. Didn’t matter if cash was tight, if vaca-days were scarce, if hotels were either full up or too expensive… free will simply didn’t factor in. Too many beloved bands were playing, some reuniting after years apart, musicians I thought I’d never get to see on a stage together again. I’ve got more Touch & Go discs on my shelves than nearly any other label, and I wanted to be part of the crowd that celebrated their existence. So air travel was booked, couch space was found, and off to Chicago I flew on Friday morning, September 8th, 2006.
32 acts performed over three days, and I was there for every one of ’em, from the warm Friday evening start to chilly Sunday night finish, from the first notes of Shipping News straight through to Calexico‘s overtime encore. It was both exhausting and exhilarating, I ate far too little for the beers I downed, and by the end my feet hurt like holy hell. And how to describe what it was like to see some of my favorite bands in one place, playing so many songs that have made up the soundtrack to my fanboy existence? The hyperbole (or ‘hyper-bowl’ said Mr. Crow) could come easy, but so much of what I’d write was said over and over again from the festival’s two stages, by the musicians themselves.
By the time I flew home, I’d spent almost 30 hours standing in the Chicago municipal parking lot adjacent to the Hideout, the bar that was also celebrating its own anniversary of 10 years by hosting this huge block party. Thanks to the two-stage setup, there was very little between-band downtime, with some acts starting up as others faded out. Even grabbing food or a bathroom break meant you might miss something… the whole event ran that smooth. As an audio archivist, I had to make a few decisions: Check out a band I kinda like, or score a good spot on the other end of the lot for one I really love? Get stuck in the back for Shellac, or miss Man or Astro-man?
In the end, I managed to capture sounds from all but two of the appearing acts, and I’ll be offering up some songs over three posts during this last month of 2006, one for each day of the fest. I’ve given a lot of thought on how exactly to share this stuff, how best to honor the label without stepping on their toes. Asking around at the anniversary, I was told that official audio recordings weren’t being made, but that videographers were recording as much as they could for later (eventually to be posted on T&G’s website?). Since some artists only played for a few minutes, others performed songs I couldn’t identify, and some random technical glitches, I’ve decided to share a couple tracks from each act I saw.
And so here’s the first night of the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Celebration, recorded on September 8th, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. The sound quality of this particular day’s mp3s isn’t as good as the other two, thanks to a faulty mini-disc setting and the general difficulty in capturing outdoor aural action, but it’s still more than worth a listen. Things get much better on day two and three. I’m going to keep my commentary on each band to a minimum, or I’ll never get this post finish. Oh, and head to the bottom for a fest-related giveaway…
Tim Tuten from the Hideout, our endearingly talkative
host for the entire weekend, kicks things off by introducing…
Mp3: “(Morays or) Demon” (live)
Mp3: “Axons and Dendrites” (live)
A perfect start to the whole event, Shipping News had a new limited edition single (“Claws“) specially made for the festival, and gave them out free to attendees. Nice touch.
(T&G band page / Southern site / MySpace fan site)
Supersystem (R.I.P.)
Mp3: “Born Into The World” (live)
Mp3: “The Pinnacle of Experience” (live)
I hadn’t heard much Supersystem before they took the stage, even in their previous incarnation as Dischord band El Guapo. Unfortunately for fans of either band, they’ve just called it quits according to this message on their website…
“Friends,
After 10 years, the members of Supersystem/El Guapo have decided to disband. From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank everyone at Touch and Go, Dischord, Flower, Locusta, and others too numerous to name here for all your help over the years.
Most of all we would like to thank everyone who supported us, saw us play, listened to our music, set up a show, played a show with us, or otherwise participated in making our time as a band really awesome. We appreciate it and will miss you!
Love,
Supersystem
(Official site / T&G band page / Album stream / MySpace)
Mp3: “Rockets Are Red” (live)
Mp3: “Super-Fire” (live)
The first jaw-dropping performance of the fest, GvsB played their entire 1993 T&G album “Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby” from start to finish as the sun went down, then threw a few faves on the end of the set for good measure. Loaned out and lost long ago, I re-bought the album immediately after they left the stage at the Reckless Records tent.
(Official site / T&G band page / MySpace fan page)
Mp3: “Sons of Cain” (live)
Mp3: “Suspect Device” (live Stiff Little Fingers cover)
“Sons of Cain“, which has made the rounds in both demo & live form over the past year, is likely to be one of the highlights of TL/Rx’s upcoming album, “Living With The Living“, the band’s first for Touch & Go. I can’t get enough of the song… not just the killer guitar line, but the way the bass holds off for the first minute or so, the drum accents that last just a little longer than expected, the rising walk into the bass/drum breakdown, and Ted’s unrestrained “Heeeeey!”s near the end. So good. Pray for his voice, kids: We never want to see the “Great Vocal Chord Inflammation of ’03” happen again. Guy’s got a lot more songs to sing for us next year…
(Official site / T&G band page / MySpace / Lookout page)
Mp3: “Must Be The Moon” (live)
Mp3: “All My Heroes Are Weirdos” (live)
The first night ended with a set of self-described “live dance music” from !!! (Chk Chk Chk). Not exactly my thing, but they do what they do very well, and treated a fairly enthusiastic crowd to songs from their upcoming disc “Myth Takes“, which will be out in March on Warp. Studio versions of both songs above will be found the album, along with eight other new tracks.
A whole lot of fest-related links…
Touch & Go founder Corey Rusk, who himself was the target of so much gratitude all weekend, shares his own heartfelt thank you note. Touch & Go’s official festival photo archive. Although I traveled out to the fest solo, I spent lots of time hangin’ with new friend and all around good guy from D.C., Sean K., who wrote up his experience in this Razorcake review. Nice to re-live the whole thing through his words, although I’ll say one thing about the article: he needs to find a better photographer… … take John in Houston’s shots, for example. Great photos to be found in his Flickr set. John was another guy I was glad to run into while I was out there. The fest became not just about the bands, but the tangibly warm vibe, and I met a whole bunch of people who helped make that so. For more visual evidence, check out my own T&G fest Flickr set, the Flickr T&G fest pool, or some shots from newzeroeurope, kirstiecat, and Ryan Gear. Chicago resident Mike, aka mrhonorama, reflected on the fest in words and photos on his MySpace blog here, here, and here. A couple YouTube users shared up some videos: peasinspace has clips, as does leeharvey43. T&G fest coverage (mostly via photos) from two of the usual suspects: BrooklynVegan (day 1/2/3) and Stereogum (1/2/3). On the wall behind me here at work hangs a framed T&G festival poster, one of the two gorgeous prints that sold out over the weekend. I actually waited too long to grab one there (didn’t want to drag it around), but was fortunate enough to order one up at artist Kathleen Judge’s website. Not sure she has any left, but it’s worth dropping her an email through there. I admittedly had a tough time deciding between her print, or the one by Jay Ryan, which you can take a look at here, although it’s unfortunately no longer available.
And lastly, a holiday gift for making it to the end of this post: a copy of the instantly-out-of-print Shipping News single “Claws” that the band had pressed and available for free at the festival’s Reckless Records tent. If you live in North America and want one of your own, send an email (subject: Claws!) with your mailing address to giveaways[-at-]bradleysalmanac[-dot-]com before midnight on Wednesday, December 13th. I’ll pick one random entrant and send it along soon after.
Mp3s from the second day of the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Celebration should be posted next week. Key word: should. Lots to be done between now and then…
« go back — keep looking »