I dedicated a week to Postmodern Jukebox back in November, shortly after I discovered them for the first time.
The band is the brainchild of Scott Bradlee, who plays the piano on all of their tracks. They re-imagine modern hits in various classic style, from doo-wop and ragtime to blues and jazz.
I was happy to see Alfonso Cuaron take home the Best Director Oscar for his work on Gravity, even if it’s only his third or fourth best film.
I’ve been a Cuaron fan since 2001’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, and an even bigger one after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the best book and film in the series) and especially Children of Men.
In all of those films, his fondness for long takes deepens the drama and heightens the viewer’s emotional connection with the characters. He did it on the shoestring budget of Y Tu Mama Tambien as effectively as he did with the next-generation VFX tech of Gravity.
This is my 221st Random Weekend post and only the second kids’ song to show up during that span. The first was by Raffi.
When I launched Random Weekends, I feared I’d wind up with a lot of Laura Berkner and Raffi and the like, not because they dominate my music collection but because it’s inevitable that when you want the process to deliver something cool like Miles Davis or Talking Heads, it will instead serve up The Wiggles.
My last obscure newcomer for the week offers up the most interesting song of the bunch.
Angel Olsen is an indie folk rocker from St. Louis who has released an EP and two full-length albums, most recently a record called Burn Your Fire For No Witness. This record is her first with a full band, in contrast to her earlier material which I’ve seen compared to Elliott Smith.
Today’s obscure new band is Real Estate, whose third album (Atlas) is due out this March.
The New Jersey quintet released their self-titled first record in 2009 and started to receive critical attention with their sophomore effort, Days, in 2011.
The first single from Atlas is ‘Talking Backwards.’ This is one of those situations where I wasn’t sure if the song title was the band name or vice versa. We must be running out of good band names if the best people can come up with now is Real Estate and Bleachers.
Meet Me In Montauk 