Friday, March 30, 2007

'virtuosity' . (music notes) fountains of wayne

it’s the end of college and i think the only films my short circuited brain can take right now are hollywood action films. in ‘virtuosity’ denzel washington plays a convict cop release from jail to help capture super-nanotech-cyber/virtual villian russell crowe. its campy nonsense, brainless and ridiculously plotted. evil leers, blonde bimbos and lots of fist fights and blood.

and musically- meandering slightly from my current alt-country obsession- jangly guitars and voices the crack at the end of every sad note; i (re)found the ‘fountains of wayne’. power pop choruses and hooks that kick in and don’t get out of your head. the landscape is the green lawn, picket fences of suburban america, except through a slightly sardonic lens. all the music makes very pretty defined edges like the curb stones and lawns under the perpetually blue sky. the albums are called ‘utopia parkway’ and ‘welcome interstate managers’- and probably are jammed with more fun filled critique of suburbia than all of radioheads beautiful gravity. but at the end of it, who cares? i love the frothy pop choruses and the dry humour.

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