The Wichitan - Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls Texas

MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY | September, 29, 2004

ENTERTAINTMENT

Rockers offer Catchy Beats on new Albums
Richard Carter | For the Wichitan

A little bit of joy is a good thing.
With the economy turning grimmer, and the elections becoming more and more negative with each passing attack ad, I’m forgoing all my CDs of musical sadness and despair for a little bit of fun, at least this week.
The rain’s got to stop some time, according to countless songs, movies (like “The Crow”) and all sorts of cultural philosophers.Just go with it.
Which leads us to one of the odder pairings of CD’s you’re going to see in any music review.
The Brooklyn-based quartet, Interpol, and the former WichitaFalls-grown Bowling for Soup. Okay, so I come from Brooklyn and live in Fallztown, so maybe it’s not that big of a stretch.
The first Interpol record,“Turn on the Bright Lights,” came out two years ago to massive kudos from everyone in the mainstream press to the Wichitan.Hey, we were there.
Somewhat Joy Division-ish, the album was dark, intense and memorable with its meticulously crafted atmospheric guitar melodies and impassioned vocals.
The new CD, “Antics” maintains the intensity and gorgeousness of the band’s first record, but adds an intangible to the band’s sound. Maybe it was all those highly acclaimed shows that Interpol played over the last couple of years, or maybe it was time away from Brooklyn, but they’re starting to sound happier.
Now there’s nothing worse than a band starting to do well and suddenly becoming more joyful. But I don’t suspect that’s the case with either Interpol or
Bowling for Soup. They strike me as having too much integrity.
Interpol doesn’t literally sound happier, but rather the production on the CD makes the sound brighter. The drums or the guitars frequently sound more open air, and less sonically produced or processed. It’s amazing what the effect of a natural-sounding drum set or an electric guitar can do to the feel of an album.
There’s a certain new light in these Interpol songs that breaks through the tasteful grimness like the dawning of a new day. It’s probably not going to be a better world or anything, but at least they can bring a certain something better to it.
If the mixed feel of “Antics” isn’t as immediately accessible as the first Interpol album, it should grow on listeners with more listens.
There’s not a better bunch of guys, or a more deserving band, than Bowling for Soup. Like or dislike their ironic and sometimes sophomoric humor, their
albums are full-blown sing-a-long or hum-a-long affairs. And live, no one enjoys themselves as much these guys or their fans.
Bowling for Soup shows in Dallas and England, or pretty much anywhere for that matter, are legion. Fans completely buy into these four hardworking average guys (with a lot of talent, by the way) living their Cheap Trick dreams. A lot of bands, listeners and even critics have forgotten that that’s what rock is supposed to be about.
Gratuitous musicianship gets tossed in BFS music for what the songs need. Loads of people can shred guitars, but few can write good pop songs. The Soupers know what’s important, and it’s the song, the hot girl and a good time.
Following their Grammy nomination for their last album (which I think is the best of the seven), BFS’s new CD, “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve,” features 80 minutes of new tunes. It’s fun, it rocks and even when it misses, it misses with lots of panash.
Self-deprecating as hell, lead singer Jaret Reddick never left behind his “fat marching-band geek” past, and we like him all the more for that. The lyrics are saturated with him getting over it, in the best of all humorous ways.
If in the past, he wanted the cool hottie who always ended up with the cro-mag guy wearing the wife beater shirt, now we hear about the poor girl who married the suit and tie-wearing CPA and lost her dream of being on the hood in
Whitesnake videos.
Everyone ages and perspective changes, especially with success. It sounds like the band is able to enjoy a bit more of their achievements, post Grammies.And that’s great for them and for the people who enjoy their good timing songs.
Get some joy into your life.

Psychological Thriller keeps you on Edge
Jason Kimbro | Staff Reporter

America loves a good psychological thriller. Most of them seem pretty straight forward with easy twists and turns that a chimp (not chump) could follow.
Julianne Moore’s new vehicle, “The Forgotten” is definitely not the typical, easy to follow thriller we lazy minds of the good ‘ol US of A are used to.
“Money Train” and “Sleeping with the Enemy” director, Joseph Ruben, does a great job bringing us a flinch-filled flick with a genre crossover from the typical psychological thriller to something obviously different. I cannot divulge what genre that may be without spoiling too much.
With missing children and loony concepts bountiful, here’s the gist:
Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is living a distraught life, having trouble coping with the loss of her nine year old son Sam to an airplane crash just over a year ago.
She keeps making up memories, creating a fantasy world. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Munce, (played coldly by Gary Sinise) tells her that she has Para-amnesia and that she makes up memories to alleviate a traumatic event in her life.
Things really start to go bonkers when suddenly it is disclosed that her son Sam never existed and that it was all part of the delusional mental disease. Dr. Munce says that she had a miscarriage several years ago and that this is what triggered her fantasy world.
Telly will not accept this as truth. She vehemently denies having any kind of mental disorder and knows that she definitely had a son named Sam.
Telly meets up with Ash (Domenic West), the supposed father of a supposed girl that supposedly died with Telly’s supposed son. I suppose we will all be wacky before this is cleared up, supposedly.
Ash doesn’t remember anything about having a daughter, so initially he thinks she is crazy as well. Through the ripping of wallpaper and the saying of names, he becomes just as batty as Telly and starts claiming that he had a child as well that died in the same airplane accident.
So they decide to be crazy together throughout the remainder of the film.
I am going to stop there with this week’s “the gist.” I could tell more but it would give too much away and I want you to jump as high as I did during the surprising scenes.
Only other thing I can tell you is that it gets more bizarre as the movie goes and before it is all done, you’ll be asking yourself, “What the (naughty euphemism for sex)?”
There isn’t necessarily a lot of fun, other than the scenes that made me jump, which is quite an accomplishment. One particular moment had me leaping out of my seat more than any movie has done before.
My roommate’s girlfriend almost ended up in his lap. Of course she jumped when Scar pounced on Simba. Wait. So did I. Nevermind.
The point is that the entertainment value is above par.
The artistic style was fairly well, but somewhat ruined with bad editing. Scenes were pasted together poorly. Other than that, the James Horner’s score was eerie and creepy and seemed to play continuously throughout the film, helping the chills seem even chillier.
Performances were not too shabby for this film. Not too shabby at all. Julianne Moore does a great job and Alfre Woodard, who plays an investigating police detective, gives an excellent portrayal, though her character wasn’t exploited enough.
The story was very complex. Almost too complex. Too complex for the average movie-goer anyway. It isn’t a mind-blow like “Pink Floyd: The Wall” or “Jacob’s Ladder,” but it is one of the films that some are going to have to rent several times in order to figure out what’s going on.
If they would just shut up and watch the damn movie we would all understand the celluloid weave much better.
So for a good drain on the brain juices that we don’t particularly use, go see “The Forgotten.” It definitely will not be forgotten in your mind anytime soon. Sorry, was just too easy so I had to go there.
Now I shall go enjoy some leftovers from Johnny Carino’s. MMM MMM good! (I never get perks from these little comments. Maybe someday I will get my free canoli!)

Report Card:
Entertainment Value:         B
Performances:                    A
Artistic Style:                      C
Story/Plot:                          B
Overall GPA:                      3.0