Sinister: soundtracks & duets

[Youn J. Noh]

Hi Sinister,

Yeah, so you might say "indie schmindie" about independent films, too, but
Todd Solondz does a much better job satirizing American suburban family
life in "Happiness" than the director of "American Beauty" does.  That
film was creepy cos, even though it was supposed to be satire, it was more
like Hollywood taking itself seriously as being really superficial but
trying to laugh ironically about it at the same time. So it was no
surprise to see the daughter's girlfriend in the film posing on the cover
of some women's magazine weeks later. 

Did anyone see "Ratcatcher"?  Gosh, it would have been nice if Belle and
Sebastian did the music for that film, esp. since it takes place in  
Glasgow and all.  The boy who drowns in the beginning looks like a younger
version of the male cover star of 3,6,9..., so Stuart I guess.  And when
the film opens with the boy twisting himself 'round in a gauze curtain,
the end of "You Made Me Forget My Dreams" - when the music seems to be
spiraling madly - could be playing.  And the end of "LLPJ" should be
playing when the main character is running through the fields surrounding
the new housing project.  Or maybe the Foxgloves could contribute a 
speeded up version of "Daystar" then, with loud guitars.  But the boy
probably would be too young to relate, so there would have to be another
scene when he's older and is visiting his old neighborhood...  They do
have interesting shoes in the film: the mother of the boy who drowned buys
these sandals for him, which remind me of shoes from Stride Rite when I
was young, and she gives them to the main character - his mother forces
him to take them and say thank you.  I guess they'd be considered sort of
sissy, but they're really nice.

I got the Relict/Clientele split single and another single by the Relict.
Gosh, 7"s are the perfect format for highlighting individual songs.
There's something about having just the amount of space you need.  And the
homemade look of the split single is really pleasing.  On "(i can't seem
to) make you mine", I love Pam Berry's voice when she sings 'GARden' and
Alasdair's when he sings 'aWAY'!  Her voice really reminds me of pines -
something fresh and green - delicate but strong at the same time - there's
a quality that I can only describe as 'reedy' to her voice.  Alasdair's is
more like the heavy perfume of flowers and dew and intoxication.  I was
spying on lacewings again and Joey Sweeney, who's a writer for the
Philadelphia Weekly now I guess, had a metaphor involving the smoothness
of absinthe and crushed velvet sofas for their duet, if I remember
correctly.  (Joey Sweeney's solo album "Heartache Baseball" is really
nice.) 

So with Alasdair and Pam, it's more how differences in their voices are
brought together, but when Joe and Pam collaborate, it really is a perfect
match, as the writer of the tangents article pointed out.  Matching voices
for duets would be fun.  I think Harriet Wheeler would sound nice with
Alasdair, too.

Cheers,
Youn











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