Aimee Mann and Michael Penn - the official thread

Started by filmcritic, July 07, 2003, 11:41:44 AM

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Pubrick

under the paving stones.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

MacGuffin

Quote from: WithnailComing to Xixax saying Jerry Maguire is the movie you connect with Wise Up ain't a good idea  :P But, welcome!

Along with the PTA site, Xixax also has a banner link at Greg's The Uncool site where some of the members you've come to know and love joined us.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

matt35mm

Her cover of "The Scientist" is very good.  It's different enough to work on its own, I think.  I like the lighter piano, but maybe it gets a little heavy with guitars at the end.

I think Coldplay's "The Scientist" is under-rated because it's pretty.  Coldplay can't help making pretty music.  But the ideas brought up in the song matched what I was writing about when I first listened to it over a year ago, so this song impacted me a lot.

"Questions of science, science and progress, do not speak as loud as my heart..." is, although simplified here, a really really powerful idea to me, the idea of what's really important in this "civilized, technological world."  The raw thrusting of the piano is at once dramatic, sexy, very intimate, and brings out the sadness in the lyrics.

The idea of going back to the beginning, and going in circles (he references a spinning coin, and how it can land on heads or tails) is a powerful backbone of the song's structure.

But I could never convince anyone who doesn't like the song that it's good.  Where I see honesty, many see sappiness.  Plus then they made it a single and had all the little girls singing along in the car, etc.  I think that lead to it being dismissed too early by many people.

But I think Aimee Mann herself sees what I see in the song, which is why she's praised that whole album as one of her top ten to get and why she covered the song.  As for which version is better, that's just totally up for grabs because they're both good as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry I wrote so much, I just like the song.

cine

Quote from: WI think he was referring to Jingles.
I'm pretty positive Pubrick's referring to the fact that Jingles made his/her only three posts nearly three months ago. I mean.. if you don't get that... why do you have to-- ah forget it!

Finn

Aimee Mann's New Album - "The Forgotten Arm"

"The Forgotten Arm is the new studio album from the Grammy and Oscar nominated singer/songwriter Aimee Mann. Aimee's songs have a literary quality to them — sharp, spare short stories set to music — so it was probably inevitable that she would one day make a concept album, the musical equivalent of a novella. The Forgotten Arm , her fifth solo release, is exactly that: a dozen songs that tell, rather loosely, the story of John and Caroline as they meet, fall in love and road trip across America."

This should be a really great album. I've heard "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart", "King of the Jailhouse" and "Going Through the Motions". They were all fantastic. You can hear the whole album at aimeemann.com. It'll be released May 3.
Typical US Mother: "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words."

modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Redlum

Also, here's a track from Michael Penn's new album "Mr Hollywood Jr"

\"I wanted to make a film for kids, something that would present them with a kind of elementary morality. Because nowadays nobody bothers to tell those kids, \'Hey, this is right and this is wrong\'.\"
  -  George Lucas

modage

its sort of getting better.  little bombs is my favorite.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

imawombat

for anyone is la, aimee is playing an instore at ameoba on may 3rd at 7pm!

also, she's doing a show at house of blues on may 6th and michael p is playing mccabes on saturday, april 30th.
these things do happen

The Red Vine

Has anybody heard the new Michael Penn album? It's very good (particularly the first 2 tracks). It has a bonus disc on it which I guess is extra stuff that never landed on the album but I'm not sure.
"No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.">

matt35mm

Hmm.  Dang.  Finals week.  I should probably study.

So I'll think about it.

elpablo

http://woxy.lala.com/holiday.php#aimeemann

Recording of an Aimee Mann Christmas Show in San Francisco with John C. Reily and Paul F Tompkins

wilder

Talking Charm with Aimee Mann - January 6, 2012

Talking with Aimee Mann is a little like listening to her music. In the rhythm of her speech, her pursuit for the right word or the answer to the question at hand, you can hear traces of her songs. It's in the pacing, thoughtfulness and timing as she builds on what she has to say. We spoke recently as she was taking a bit of a break from the studio while completing her next album, Charmer.

We covered a lot of ground in talking about the new album, her writing process, laziness, narcissism, super pop music and Twitter. Charmer will be Mann's eighth or ninth album depending on how you count. From her work with Til Tuesday in the '80s to the award-winning Magnolia soundtrack, to acting appearances in The Big Lebowski and Portlandia, it's hard to believe that Mann considers herself sort of lazy.

She's still at work on Charmer, but far enough along to talk about the new songs and the sketches of people she's created with her music.


"I found myself writing a lot of songs that kind of explored different... ideas of charm and people who are charming and what that is and how that can be sometimes really fun, ... but sometimes it's very manipulative and there's a darker side. That's a bit of a theme on the record.

If you think about the most charming people, I mean narcissists are really charming. And they're charming because if you're a person who's concerned about appearances, your talent is knowing how to create a great appearance. So they're really good at it for a while. It takes a while to realize that there's not much going on underneath or it's a fairly selfish pursuit."



I was surprised to hear that her musical influence for this album came from listening to a lot of what Mann called "super pop" from the '70s and '80s. She listed artists and groups like ABBA, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils and The Cars. "Jackie Blue" by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils was a touchstone for the album. I hadn't heard this song in a long time, but listening to it and thinking about Mann's music, I could hear an open, relaxed groove that matches Mann's sensibility. It'll be interesting to hear Charmer and listen for this. Like most artists, Mann wonders about how this all translates for her audience:


"I think the hardest thing for me is to try to describe what my music sounds like. You can have a certain thing as an influence and you can try to do a certain thing and it never really sounds like that to other people. Even saying pop music, what does that mean to people? Is that Justin Beiber? Or is that Neil Diamond?

I think you have to be really in tune with what you're interested in... , but when I was about to make this record I thought -- well, what should I do? And then I started thinking about what stuff I've been listening to that I got a kick out of. I realized it was this really pop, ABBA, Jimmy Webb kind of stuff.

In the studio my goal is to get him [keyboardist Jamie Edwards] to play stuff that is so ridiculous it makes me laugh and then I feel like that's the sound I want on the record because it's almost too much... And it's goofy and I don't know how that translates to anybody else, but to me that's part of making a good sound. Something with enough contrast so that it's almost a little too much. I sort of told everybody that there should be one ridiculous thing on each song."



Aside from the new album, Mann has an upcoming concert on Jan. 13 at the Two River Theater in Redbank, N.J. through Music Works Entertainment. This led us to talking about performing and how that's changed over the years since her days with Til Tuesday.


"I haven't thought about it in terms of stage presence, but I feel totally different. I was wildly uncomfortable with everything when I was 25... We played a lot of club gigs in New England but our first tour we got on this arena tour with Hall and Oates and I just felt like I didn't know what to do with that. I felt like there was this pressure to be really commercial and a performer and that's just not my thing at all. I certainly didn't know what to say on stage, but I didn't know what to say off stage either. Most of my memory of being with Til Tuesday was just wildly scrambling to figure out how to deal with the stuff that was coming my way and I didn't feel equipped for it at all.

It's easier now to have an attitude of you get up and do your best and you can't really worry about the effect you have on people. Some people will like it, some people won't. A lot of that isn't really up to you. If there's a situation in which you're going to be really uncomfortable, then just don't do it."



And finally Twitter. Mann was named one of Buzzword's Top Twitter Accounts for 2011. You can find her self-proclaimed "dumb and random" tweets at @aimeemann.

You'll find more of my conversation with Aimee Mann at www.betweenparents.org.


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Pubrick

under the paving stones.