The Electric Soft Parade
Holes in the Wall
***
While the line between accessibility and innovation is often fleeting, it is a line that Bristol, England’s Electric Soft Parade handles skillfully and consistently. Band principals, 18 and 20-year-old brothers Tom and Alex White, elaborately weave opaque moods and complex textures throughout their debut album Holes in the Wall. Simultaneously catchy Britpop and quirky experimental sounds, The Electric Soft Parade showcases a high quality medley of UK artistic bravado and indie rock.
Contrasting dynamics and intelligent hooks fill the album, which opens with “Start Again,” a track that models the White brothers’ songwriting and production prowess. Alternating between sections of robust, crunching guitars and of warm, subtle melodies, the song catches the listener’s attention to the inviting melody soaring overtop of the unusual rhythms. UK Top 40 hit “Empty at the End” – a retro/Britpop work – and “There’s a Silence” – a feedback-swimming rocker – immediately reinforce the sonic impression.
“This Given Line” shows the band willing to stretch toward an unusual blues/pop combination, while “Why Do You Try So Hard to Hate Me” and “Biting the Soles of My Feet” display the band’s taste for extended psychedelic sections. And just to confirm their confidence and style, they contribute strong, straightforward guitar-based songs reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, Starflyer 59 or early Radiohead in “Something’s Got to Give” and “Sleep Alone.”
The Electric Soft Parade went to No. 19 on the UK charts with “Silent to the Dark,” which features a memorable, distinctive melody, and a lush sound full of harmonic transformation. As the electronic symphony of “Silent to the Dark” develops into analog avant-garde – only to return dramatically to the final chorus – the listener is again convinced that this band realizes the proper balance of thought and feeling in expression – and will listen a little bit louder next time around.

Majesticons
Beauty Party
**
The new release from the hip hop collective Majesticons is musically diverse and poignant, yet ultimately unfulfilling in its satirical journey through mundane topics. Ringleader Mike Ladd dreamed up the hip hop war trilogy, which began with the Infesticons’ Gun Hill Road, continued by the Majesticons, and completed by the Trusticons. Majesticons’ Beauty Party is intended to be the money-crazed commercial sellout of the project, a concept which is strongly conveyed throughout the album, as rappers spin poetic tales about suburban life, achieved education, transportation by Volvo, and incomprehensible amounts of wealth and sex. And to act like wealthy hip hop sellouts, Beauty Party is complete with classic street beats and cheesy computer effects (the ’80’s are back, right?).
However, the hip hop collaborative has an undersized, over-used vocabulary – after a while, the words in both style and content become repetitive and obnoxious. Following a number of listens, one has to wonder if these words are contrived to sound ridiculous within the Majesticons’ greater role as sellouts, or if they simply are ridiculous by nature.
Many songs convey a strong impression of restlessness and campiness, both of which work well with the ironic nature of the album. After a monotonous spoken intro, the first full-length track, “Piranha Party,” is at once bold and abrasive; brisk freestyles and beats create an outrageous clamor that brims of relentless confidence. Eventually the music settles down a bit into a mellow R&B mood (such as in “Luv Thief Party” and “Helicopter Party”) while still offering the basic elements projected earlier in the album – especially the ever-present and often tacky beat.
Each song has its own personality that contributes to the album as a whole – still, there is nothing on this record that most ears have not heard before. In creating an intentionally stereotypical album, Mike Ladd and the rest of Majesticons have, of course, not broken any rules or done anything innovative. Thus, they have created a vital part of their project, but have not provided any way for listeners to join in on the fun – which leaves the songs lackluster and the album on the shelf.

Allan Douglas can be reached at adouglas101@hotmail.com.

At first, Rudy seemed to have a lot going for it. The film’s timely story, about the controversial life of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, stood out in Hollywood like a smoke signal indicating money, ratings and tremendous interest. And who better to scribe it than writer Stanley Weiser, a frequent Oliver Stone collaborator? The possibilities for the title role extended to the top tier of the acting world. Wait. This was a television movie for the USA Network, home of “Renegade” and “Silk Stockings.” Enter James Woods, one of the nuttier actors in show business, as Giuliani, thereby lending the project his star wattage and a whole lot of sleeze potential. After splashing their promotional campaign across the screens of TVs and a few movie theatres, USA premiered the film at the end of March, and (surprise) it’s a painful turd.

The biggest complaint about Rudy is the most obvious one – it’s a TV movie (that’s not on HBO). This means a bad script, overly dramatic acting, lame music and an overall cheapness that permeates from the film’s carcass.

Rudy gets off on techniques like having its characters talk to themselves in empty rooms. Entire conversations seem to have no dramatic purpose – they exist only to shovel chunks of recent history into the television wasteland. In films of quality, expository dialogue is avoided at all costs, mainly because humans, well, most humans, don’t talk like robots.

Rudy Giuliani spent 20 years working in New York politics, keeping a focused mien during a roller coaster ride of race relations, conservatism, infidelity, health problems and a certain unthinkable disaster. Unsurprisingly, Woods has a shameless field day depicting his life as a gigantic Space Mountain of self-determination.

Generally credited with cleaning up the city of New York and facing the 9/11 aftermath with admirable calm and empathy, during his time in office Giuliani also abandoned his wife and battled critics, who were unhappy with his handling of police shootings and interpretations of the First Amendment.

This is a person that could have brought out a palette of emotions in any consummate actor, which Woods certainly qualified as, before he started accepting every role offered to him. He plays the character with little feeling and wastes significant time on little nuances like stuttering, head nodding, and random gesturing. These attributes might define the real Giuliani, but it’s also certain that the real Giuliani lived his life with much more emotion than Woods channels here.

One of the most disturbing details about the film is the limited funds allocated to produce it. The story of a man who dedicated his life to serving New York was filmed in Montreal. This is an alarming trend in Hollywood, with many films heading across the border in search of cheaper filming locations, but how the hell can you shoot Rudy in Canada? Sure, the film execs save some cash…as New York film crews struggle to find work and a network called USA backs the life story of an important American figure. Whoever said 9/11 was the death of irony just turned into a maid ironing a shirt with a “Y” on it.

To make matters worse, the impulsive splicing and dicing of real 9/11 footage and staged scenes with Woods is poorly done. During the staged scenes, the lighting is so off, Woods might as well have been filmed on the sun. Also, did Giuliani’s hair and makeup really stay that perfect throughout the worst day in the history of New York?

Anyone looking for an adequate depiction of Giuliani should check out the book that inspired this film. It’s safe to say that any book with a publishing deal probably triumphs this weak attempt at telling Giuliani’s story. Fortunately, a talented director like Oliver Stone or Milos Forman might still consider making Giuliani the subject of a future film, since no one will remember this waste of a combover.

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

While their Saturday night events at Piccadilly Gardens are scenester history, POPLIFE returned last Tuesday to sponsor a show featuring Cursive (near right, bottom right), Engine Down (far right), and Minus the Bear at the Polish American Club. Ted Stevens of Cursive performed a few heart-on-sleeve numbers from their new album, The Ugly Organ, on Saddle Creek records. LIFE is throwing a slew of upcoming events. www.epoplife.com.

lotta booty in the pant(ies): We sent our photographer to go scope out these luscious bodies at Oxygen Lounge’s 50 Cent Mondays bikini show and he got so many ill shots, we couldn’t stop salivating. Needless to say, we had a hard time choosing which ones to run, but we know our dear readers will be quite happy with these ones nonetheless.

Dan Klores is anything but a typical first time filmmaker. Now in his 50s, he has a wife and two young children, with a third expected mere days after this interview. As an auspicious player in the public relations field for roughly two decades, Klores now has a firm with 100 employees.

In essence, he has all the security a middle-aged New Yorker could want, but looming tales of a few childhood friends were too colorful to ignore.

Growing up near Coney Island, Klores spent much of his adolescence playing basketball with these same friends at the 2nd Street Park. As life went on, he lost contact with most of them, but occasionally he’d hear about the surreal directions their lives had taken. One guy was homeless, another a lottery winner. One went to Harvard, while others suffered debilitating drug addictions.

Stirred by curiosity and the need to become reacquainted with childhood memories, Klores recorded his friends’ stories for a documentary called The Boys of 2nd Street Park. It may sound boring or self-absorbed, but the movie hits you like a real life version of Stand By Me, harking back to mythical Brooklyn during the Flower Child generation. Screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the film will premiere at the Palm Beach International Film Festival on Saturday.

“I knew it would be interesting enough,” says Klores on the phone from his New York office. “Did you grow up with a bunch of guys? Visualize this – now it’s 35 years later. You’ll have some of the same friends, but guys will go different ways. Things will happen in peoples’ lives.”

This casual approach to making the film resulted in a very honest, but more importantly, very real collection of interviews with the “boys,” now all in their 50s, enriched with an assortment of photo collections and videos, similar in presentation to Stacy Peralta’s Dogtown and Z-Boys.
It’s one of those movies that will reach almost everyone on an emotional level. There are slight flaws in the timing and the intertwining of multiple story lines gets a little muddled, but no viewer will deny that these people and their lives are intriguing.

Before Park, Klores’s claim to fame was developing the idea for last year’s City by the Sea, which earned him a credit as an executive producer. The Boys of 2nd Street Park is his first directing attempt, a duty he shared with another childhood friend, advertising exec Ron Berger.

“Storytelling is something I do,” Klores said. “Film is new to me, but I loved this experience and I learned a lot, so I’m definitely going to do it again.”

In fact, last week Klores signed a deal to direct a documentary about a boxer in the 1960s who killed an opponent in the ring. He begins filming in June. As for The Boys of 2nd Street Park, it will continue a lengthy tour of festival circuits, showing at five fests in April alone. Showtime has purchased the rights and plans to air the film in late September.

As usual in Hollywood, it pays to have friends in high places. Two guys named Paul Simon and Bob Dylan lent their songs to Klores’ film for free, and actors Peter Boyle (Monster’s Ball) and Linda Fiorentino (Men in Black) offered pointers during the editing process. But Klores suggests the biggest support came from his no-name friends.

“I had the confidence that I could get the truth out of people. I hadn’t seen these guys in 25 or 30 years. But people were willing to talk, because you could see that they loved the experience of growing up in the park.”

Yet, getting people, friends or not, to speak candidly about their drug experiences, (from pot to cocaine to worse) the loss of loved ones, Vietnam conflicts, and struggles with adulthood probably took a lot more than Klores admits. As these men trace how their days of playing basketball in the park until dusk faded into nights of adultery and drug dealing, you never forget that these are people, just like anyone else, and that’s what makes the film memorable.

“The park is a euphemism for a generation,” Klores says. “That’s what this film is about. A generation.”

The Boys of 2nd Street Park can be seen at the Palm Beach International Film Festival on April 5-7. For more info and screening times, visit www.pbifilmfest.org.

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

If art is strictly a matter of “experience” and what really counts is quality, then there’s a debate to be had about UM Alum Tom Virgin’s Reflections and Dreams at the Leonard Tachmes Gallery.

The world Virgin creates with his woodcuts and illustrations is one of controlled movement, humanity, and warmth – in “The Straits of Mackinac,” for instance, the figure stares out at you with inviting and welcoming eyes, and the only anachronisms within the showing are the two pieces that use a commercial sign printing technique and the one work with color.

Experience successfully serves Virgin’s work as his woodcuts and linoleum cuts are excellently done. A word about woodcut and linoleum cut printing: this process begins with a solid block of wood/linoleum and the artist chips away from the surface leaving behind the image they want printed. The block is then inked on the surface and printed on paper, thus allowing for a series of the same image to be made.

The quality of subject matter in this series of woodcuts is left to personal taste, but skill speaks louder than anything else in this show. He masterfully handles this very difficult medium with ease. Also, capturing the likeness of a figure in addition to dealing with the wood is something to be proud of. He admits, “The evidence of my struggle to find [my models] in the wood is evident.” And his struggle is clearly palpable. In this case, the result is that the female portraits generally seem to look alike.

Even so, Virgin’s craftsmanship and mood speak through the work. The series of portraits are unified by similarities in their facial features and their composition. The viewer clearly perceives the connections between the subjects and a pattern is created: a single figure accompanied by a landscape.

Although very proficiently done, Tom Virgin’s work feels like it could be pushed further. The showing is almost a tease, or a mere glimpse of his full potential. One is taunted by “Skateboy with Attitude,” which is the only work with color in it. All of the other pieces are done purely in black, white, and gray. Unfortunately, “Skateboy” is only an okay print. The registration of the colors is a bit off, and the relevance and connection with the rest of the works is unclear. If this collection is “evidence of a dream world,” then that piece is out of its element. The mood is much too raw to fit in.

The works done in the vinyl printing technique are slick and graphic, removing the human touch that the other work has. They are a unique set of images and would fare nicely in a show of their own, but not quite in Reflections and Dreams. Those visions are much too cold to belong with the rest. Virgin’s illustrations are a treat because, through them, you are allowed into his preliminary processes. The graphite illustrations of faces express the character of the models more visibly than the woodcuts do, but their relationship is more manifest than that of the vinyl to the woodcuts.

If you want to see a show with some experienced, quality alternative art-making techniques, then this is for you. Printmaking here is well represented.

Reflections and Dreams is on view at the Leonard Tachmes Gallery, 817 NE 125th St., North Miami, through May 15. Call 305-895-1030 for more info.

Adriana Hernandez can be reached at azureum@hotmail.com.

Tonight
Spirited ska/punk veterans Fishbone wreck the stage at BillboardLive, 1500 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach, with Hashbrown, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Superunloader and King Bee, starting at 9:30 p.m. $30. 305-358-5885.

Get your groove on with Al Green at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. $39-$65. 954-462-0222.

Saturday, April 5
The Used, Coheed and Cambria and the START get busy at The Factory, 2674 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. $13. 954-564-ROCK.

We like to get pissed at Churchill’s, 5501 NE 2nd Ave., Miami, with Volumen Cero and Tereso. Starts at 9 p.m. Cover isn’t more than $10. 305-757-1807.

“Music does the body good” at Poplife (now going down at Power Studios, 3701 NE 2nd. Ave.) with Humbert on stage. $7. 11 p.m. 305-634-3907.

Latin Funk Music Festival at Cielo, 66 SW 6th St., Miami, with DJ Le Spam & The Spam All Stars, Lee Williams and the Square Egg, Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca, The Latin Monk of Soul Chango and others, as well as visual art by LEBO, Dustin Orlando and Francesco Locastro. 10 p.m. $20. 305-866-5653.

Monday, April 7
50 Cent Mondays at Oxygen Lounge, 2911 Grand Ave., Coconut Grove: Free dinner 9-11 p.m. for ladies, open bar 10-11 p.m. for everyone, 50 cent drafts and shots ’till midnight. Bring your ‘cane card, they’ll show you love. 305-476-0202.

Wednesday, April 9
Zwan performs at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre, 1806 NE 6th St., Pompano Beach.