I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BECK/RECORD CLUB-INXS: Kick (2010).

Of the four Record Club releases, this is actually the album I like least.  And that is mostly because of my college roommate.  He believed that rock music was the devil’s music (or so he told me).  And so he only had a couple of albums.  Most of the Beatles records (amusingly enough) and, totally randomly–INXS’ Kick.  So I got sick of this really fast.  It’s nearly 25 years later, so I’m okay with the album, and I do like some of the songs again, but boy can I pick out flaws.

This recording seems a lot more causal than the other Record Club releases—the original recording bleeds in front of some of the tracks and I believe they play around with the lyrics on a few.  They also really rearrange some of the songs, making them quite different from the original.

Form the Beck/Record Club site:

Record Club No. 4 is here…! Joining in this time we had three of my favorite bands— Liars, Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Sergio Dias from the legendary Brazilian band Os Mutantes, as well as RC veteran Brian Lebarton, just back from the Charlotte Gainsbourg tour. The record covered this time was 1987 blockbuster ‘Kick’ by INXS. The record was chosen by fellow Aussie, Angus from the Liars. It was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3rd, 2010. It was an intense, hilarious, daunting and completely fun undertaking. Thanks to everybody for being there and putting so much into it. Many classic moments, inspired performances and occasional anarchy.

Overall, I enjoyed this release quite a bit and found St. Vincent’s contributions to be quite excellent.  I didn’t know Liars before this, but I really like his voice.

Guns In The Sky (2:21). Loud drums open the song and the synth is buzzy and noisy. Angus’ vocals are very similar to Michael Hutchence’s.
New Sensation (3:40) Begins with a poppy synth rendition (and people rapping over it), but that’s like a teaser version. The real version is quite mellow and interesting—a very slow song sung by St Vincent and Angus from Liars.
Devil Inside (5:16) This sounds very different–it’s slow and menacing with a sax section.
Need You Tonight (3:06) St Vincent on vocals—a rather sexy version.
Mediate (2:32) The intro has them talking about the words they’ll use, like “shake and bake and wake and bake.” With much giggling.  Done as a simple rap over a handclap drum
The Loved One (3:37) This sounds like a sixties song–acoustic but kind of psychedelic.
Wild Life (3:10) Slow and a little creepy.
Never Tear Us Apart (3:06) This one has strings and synths–St Vincent sings this in a very beautiful way.
Mystify (3:18) Sung well by Angus with a slow picked guitar.
Kick (3:14) This is a buzzy punky version with an aggressive feel.
Calling All Nations (3:04) Acoustic guitar played and sung by St Vincent–it sounds very much like a St Vincent song.
Tiny Daggers (3:30) This is a silly electronic ranting song that ends up lasting 12 minutes (which is about 9 minutes too long).

Overall this has a raw feel that I like better than INXS’ more polished version. And anything with Annie Clark participating is a plus.

[READ: March 14, 2014] “The Mission”

This story started out as an interesting personal drama, with a very memorable scene.  A woman is sent to prison.  She will only be there for nine days (which the other inmates hear about and which causes them to grumble).  The drama comes when the try to remove her wedding ring but cannot (they have to cut it off).

The memorable scene is the reason why she was sent to prison in the first place.  She was drunk driving and drove into a cemetary. She crashed through the fence and into several gravestones.  The arresting offer’s opening remark was “You’re lucky you didn’t kill somebody.”  After a few days, she believes she is going to be released, but her lawyer informs her that things are going to be really rough for her out there–the people whose graves she broke are super mad.  So she should just hold tight and be happy to have some freedoms in here.After this drama, we get into the daily routine.  Sunday is Snack–where the inmates get a free soda and cookie.  There’s some trouble with her because she’s the new girl, but she manages to get through it okay.

Early in the story, Franz Kafka is mentioned (Kafka is buried with is mother and father in Prague). And soon the story turns more and more Kafkaesque, with the woman being mistaken for someone else, being denied release and then being called a recidivist.  The ending is quite a surprise and goes in a direction I totally wasn’t expecting.  I was a little bummed by it because I was just getting into the story when it sort of abruptly ended.