2006-12 Vital Source Mag – December 2006
Born Yesterday
By Russ Bickerstaff Over the years, Milwaukee Rep resident acting company member Deborah Staples has played sparkling intelligence in a variety of different packages. In Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday she’s playing a bright, hidden intelligence that makes for a fascinating centerpiece to the mid-century political comedy. Staples plays former chorus girl Billie Dawn, a beautiful, young woman following around millionaire blowhard Harry Brock (Steve Pickering). Billie joins Harry and the rest of his entourage in Washington DC, where he is looking to bribe the government into passing laws that will make his hugely profitable business even more profitable overseas. Harry’s lawyer (Tony DeBruno) has suggested that he be as pleasant and sociable as possible in his meeting with the well-greased Senator Hedges and his wife (Jim Baker and Rose Pickering). In an effort to seem more human than animal, Harry includes Billie on the social meeting. The problem is that, whenever Billie speaks she seems unsophisticated. This prompts Harry to hire a journalist (John Phillips) to educate Billie so that she can be more presentable to the congressmen he’s trying to bribe. Things, of course, get complicated and before long, Billie is falling for the journalist who is clearly falling for her as well. Billie begins to realize what kind of a sociopathic jerk Harry really is. Steve Pickering manages an impressively pleasant performance as Harry. There’s almost on operatic quality in the gravity of his slightly gravelly, percussive voice. He shouts quite a bit, but it comes across more as the music of drama than actual anger. This keeps the heavy bits of drama from ever completely weighing down the comedy while, at the same time, somehow managing a very credible, convincing performance. Staples’ performance as Billie has a great deal of texture and nuance. Even delivering the comedy early in the play as a vacuous, young woman we see that there’s more to her character than the script will allow. In subtle movements and glances, Staples foreshadows deeper elements that will come to the surface later on. When the journalist starts educating Billie, Staples performance goes beyond the “dumb-girl-becomes-smart” cliché to render a character who seems like a complete person. Staples has a great chemistry with Pickering that plays out its most fascinating elements when they aren’t even sharing dialogue. The play features the two alone onstage almost completely silent as they play out a few hands of Gin Rummy. Though it occurs at a relatively natural point in Kanin’s script, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to stop everything onstage while the two principle characters play cards and Pickering and Staples make it work spectacularly. Even if you are completely unfamiliar with the rules, you know exactly what’s going on without them ever having to explain it. It’s amazing execution. Kanin’s script doesn’t settle easily into one specific genre. The comedy here can be very light and lowbrow while in the midst of a plot that is very deep and serious. It’s a light character comedy […]
Dec 4th, 2006 by Vital Archives
Dickens In America
By Russ Bickerstaff As respected as authors are onstage, they are rarely thrown directly into the spotlight. When they are given the stage, the results can be disastrous. It may be a bit extreme and overly dramatic to say that lead actor James Ridge has to achieve the single best performance of the 2005 – 2006 Milwaukee theatre season in order for Dickens In America to be any good at all, but I just did. (And he does.) Seeing as how Ridge is the only actor performing in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s mid-season show, he has to be entertaining enough to carry an entire production. The fact that he’s playing Charles Dickens means that Ridge also has to live-up to the stature of a literary legend without looking exceedingly foolish. Ridge manages both of these feats, almost single-handedly providing a substantially hipper holiday alternative (or supplement, if you will) to the Milwaukee Rep’s annual mega-production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Written by accomplished actor/playwright James DeVita, Dickens In America is a touching bit of historical drama surmising a public performance by the famous author in Milwaukee on his last tour of America. Nathan Stuber’s set is a lush, mid-19th century theatre setting. Red curtains and glass chandeliers reminiscent of the Pabst Theater adorn the stage. Footlights provide a striking effect as thick curtains draw back to reveal Ridge, buried somewhere beneath the distinctive hair and beard. Hovering visually somewhere between himself and his character, Ridge resembles a somewhat gaunt, hauntingly intense image of Dickens – the kind you’d see after reading a tattered copy of A Tale of Two Cities all night for a high school literature class. Ridge’s personal charisma as an actor fuels the performance. His eyes dart around the audience, drawing deep and disparate attentions to him with a gentleman’s charm. He recites Dickens’ work with an authors’ passion for and pride of his own work. He pauses at nearly perfect moments to affect intensity. Ridge delivers Dickens’ love of storytelling and theatrics in with infectious passion. There really isn’t anything that fans of Dickens aren’t already familiar with, but it’s a great pleasure to sit back, tilt the head, squint the eyes and picture that Ridge really is Dickens giving one last performance before he retires from the stage. Ridge brings a panoramic range of different British accents to the stage as he plays the theatrically inclined Dickens performing scenes from Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and more. Ridge plays Dickens performing a rather large cast of distinctly different characters, as well. There may not be enough plot development in any given scene to provide Ridge the opportunity to portray much depth in any individual character, but the real accomplishment here is that none of them blur together. As with any show, however, some characters are more memorable than others. When Ridge performs bits from A Christmas Carol, clever ears may hear something familiar in Ridge’s portrayal of Scrooge. It may be coincidence or fanciful hearing […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Four years and a new day
By Dear Readers, This issue of VITAL marks the beginning of my fifth year as Editor. That, for the record, is longer than I’ve held any post-college job. I’ve mentioned before how I ended up here by accident at a time when I needed a new start, an opportunity to see what I was really made of. One’s perception of time is a funny, stretchy, contorted and contracted thing. On the one hand we’ve been barreling down the road at 90 miles per hour. On the other, I look at pictures of myself at my original “desk” in the storage room in the back of Bremen Café and can barely recall who I was then. I looked different (long hair, heavier, less gray), felt different (scared, excited, supremely daring) and had a different set of concerns than the woman who now resides at the big desk with the comfy chair in our groovy storefront office suite on Bremen Street. In late 2002 I was on a mission from God (to quote Elwood Blues) to bring VITAL to the people, the overwhelming majority of whom remained blissfully unconcerned with the efforts of our ragtag staff of interns and volunteers. In a way, times were simple then. And the statistical impossibility of our quest was almost comforting – who would ever blame us if we failed? Things are different now, and that’s an understatement. In four years, we have more than tripled our circulation, flipped from a tabloid to a magazine, created a truly good website that attracts readers from all over the world (check it out if you haven’t), developed partnerships in the community, gained a loyal (and, in a measure of our long-term potential, also a casual) readership and have seen many of our writers and photographers move on to tremendous opportunities that wouldn’t have been as available to them if not for their work at VITAL. I am gratefully the president of the Milwaukee Press Club, the oldest continuously operating press club in the Americas, and one of the nation’s finest. My parents are proud of me, not just for my potential, but because I’ve done something. In a way, it’s like living a dream. But with a measure of success comes exponential pressure and responsibility. There are more constituencies to satisfy, from the employees who need to get paid on time to the readers and city leaders who now expect that we actually produce something worthwhile. I even have a dress code for meetings and Press Club functions. Sometimes I bring a suit and change out of my cowboy boots in the bathroom for business functions. Who would have thought? On a very microcosmic level, my situation reflects that of the Democrats. (Bear with me; I know this is a gross oversimplification.) They needed a new start. They worked their plan amidst skepticism and even derision (sometimes from me) and they succeeded in taking the Congress. Heady stuff. But what comes next is much more important. Now they […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
A Christmas Carol
By Russ Bickerstaff The Milwaukee Rep returns to another Christmas season with yet another production of Charles Dickens’ popular classic A Christmas Carol. With a cast of over 20 and enough scenery and props to comfortably furnish a rather large home, A Christmas Carol is an annual theatrical event attended by far more people than any other single show in Milwaukee. This is the Rep’s fourth outing with the shiny, new million dollar production that first graced the Pabst in 2003 and things are looking every bit as sharp as they did three years ago with a pacing that feels just a bit more streamlined than it was last year, even if they didn’t drop a single thing from the script adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and Edward Morgan. In her third year of directing the show, Judy Berdan is at the head of a fine tuned theatrical holiday behemoth. Everything seems just a bit more polished this year than it was in 2005. Even Marjorie Bradley Kellogg’s dark, moody set for Christmas Future with its dramatically forced perspective seems to have lost some graffiti since the last time it was lowered. Milwaukee Rep Resident Actor Lee Ernst resumes the role of the tight-fisted, old Ebenezer Scrooge whose cold emotional detachment was brought about by psychologically damaging formative events he experienced as a young man when he looked a lot more like Gerard Neugent. It’s probably all in my head, but the difference between Neugent as young Scrooge and Ernst as old Scrooge seemed particularly drastic this time around. Neugent comes across with energetic, youthful hard work being tempered into cold ambition. Ernst comes across as miserly old age come overcome by its own comedy. The years between youth and old age have clearly not been very kind to old Eb. Mark Corkins resumes his role as Jacob Marley, the ambitious, brutally efficient businessman who draws Scrooge into an addiction for wealth so strong that a host of spirits are forced to stage a spectral intervention in order for him to regain the slightest shred of human generosity. Corkins’ stage presence is every bit as powerful as Marley’s ghost, aided by Barry G. Funderburg’s haunting sound design. As far as individual characters and performances go, this year’s production isn’t substantially different than any other in recent memory. Those who can’t make it this year are only missing out on yet another performance of an old holiday classic. The cast hasn’t changed much in the past three years, but there are always a few differences each December. For the first time, Melinda Pfundstein joins husband Brian Vaughn this year to play husband and wife Fred and Catherine. Eva Balistrieri returns for her ninth consecutive year with the show but this year’s performance as Martha Cratchit will be her last, as she is going off to college next year. Rep interns Donte Fitzgerald and DeRante Parker pick up small parts around the edges this season’s production. Laura Gordon returns to play Mrs. Cratchit […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
A Winter Harvest
By Evan Solochek During the dreadfully short-lived Milwaukee summer, nestled between the bustling intersection of North Avenue and Kenilworth Place, local artists set up shop in the Beans & Barley parking lot. For many, it’s their only source of income and therefore their livelihoods depend on a strong summer return to get them through the lean, and exhaustive, winter. It was this reality that inspired Laura Richard to launch East Side Artist’s Boutique – Shop to Stop Holiday Hunger. “The idea initially came to me at the end of the East Side Open Market season as some of the artists discussed how difficult it is in the winter when there are few opportunities to show their work,” Richard says. “I wanted to do something to help them.” However, local artists are not the only group that this 32-year-old Riverwesterner has spent much of her life helping. She currently works part-time at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council, a nonprofit that promotes fair housing practices in Wisconsin. She has also recently started her own business, Laura Richard Consulting, which does event planning, fund raising, marketing and promotions for nonprofits and local businesses. The East Side Artist’s Boutique will feature around 30 regional artists. In addition to offering these artists a winter market for their work, each will donate one piece for a silent auction with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee; same goes for the $5 cover. Friday evening, Beans & Barley, Twisted Fork, Trocadero, Café Hollander, Balzac, Hi Hat Lounge and Ichiban will be donating appetizers while Beans & Barley will also offer wine for sale, a portion of the proceeds of which will also go to the Hunger Task Force. For the last 30 years, the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee has been a voice for the hungry, promoting socially sound policies with the aim of ending hunger in our community. In Wisconsin, according to the Task Force, 9 percent of households are “food insecure,” which means that they are “uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food for all family members because they had insufficient money or other resources.” Additionally, in Milwaukee, according to the 2004 U.S. Census, 26 percent of Milwaukeeans live in poverty, which ranks seventh in large U.S. cities. For Richard, supporting them was an easy decision. “Beyond the obvious that they help feed Milwaukeeans who are hungry and sometimes have to choose between rent and food, the Hunger Task Force is active in advocacy work to achieve positive and far-reaching changes in our community,” she says. “My husband and I have taken to giving to the Hunger Task Force for the holidays in lieu of exchanging gifts since they need the money more than we need the ‘stuff.’ I knew if I did a fundraiser for them, I could give them so much more this year. That‘s how I mixed it together.” Richard strives to live her life selflessly, driven by the immortal words of Gandhi: […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
The Decemberists
By Nikki Butgereit Those still afraid that The Decemberists’ move to Capitol Records from Kill Rock Stars indicates a possible sell-out need listen no further than the second track. For 12 glorious minutes, “The Island – Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning” moves through musical styles and moods ranging from 70s blues to classic Decemberists shanties to close with the melancholy repetition of “Go to sleep now, little ugly / Go to sleep now, you little fool / Forty winking in the belfry / You’ll not feel the drowning.” As is common in the loosely braided indie-rock genre, The Crane Wife is organized under a concept, recreating the Japanese folk tale of the same name. Punctuated by themes of love, trust, greed and loss, the music dramatically weaves calming vocals with hammered dulcimer and hurdy-gurdy. Amidst the antiquity, modernity pops up occasionally with a catchy la-la, na-na chorus. The occasional appearance of the electric guitar stands out. “The Perfect Crime #2” sounds like a Talking Heads outtake, and though quiet enough to maintain the tone of the record, it still manages to rock. The Decemberists create such layered music that second and third listens are required to feel the full effect. And while the music might seem outmoded on the surface, deeper listening reveals a body of work that is taking indie-rock to a new level, one composition at a time. VS
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Many Times, Many Ways
By Amy Elliott Let’s face it: the holidays can be tough. It takes stamina to make it through the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s with one’s sensibilities intact. But even with all of the off-the-rocker relatives, the shrill children, the sugars and saturated fats and the pushy crowds everywhere from Macy’s to Ace Hardware – there’s something genuinely nice about the holidays. Something warm, peaceful and pretty. Here, then, is VITAL’s holiday events guide, your roadmap through the evergreen forest of Milwaukee’s winter festivities. From champagne brunches to basketball games to the finest of the fine arts, everyone from the preternaturally merry to the utterly contrary will find some way to greet the season. Turn your frost-bitten sneer into some holiday cheer. Kick back with some hot chocolate, put on some slippers and enjoy the time of year with us. Slice of Ice Red Arrow Park Beginning Dec. 1, weather permitting 414-257-6100 www.countyparks.com Free skating, plus skate rentals and warm refreshments. 99.1 WMYX Santa’s Mailbox Presented by East Town Association Cathedral Square Park Through Dec. 15 www.99wmyx.com www.easttown.com Drop off a letter to Santa and receive a personalized letter from the jolly old elf himself! Concord and Choirs at the Basilica for Christmas Basilica of St. Josaphat Dec. 16, 8 pm 414-628-6018 www.concordorchestra.org Te second installment of the Concord Chamber Orchestra’s concert series entitled “Les Beaux Arts,” a tribute to musical repertoire related to other art forms. Dickens in America Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Through Dec. 17 414-291-7800 www.chamber-theatre.com An evening with Charles Dickens in the Milwaukee premiere of this new play by Wisconsin playwright James DeVita. Cedarburg Festive Friday Eves Cedar Creek Settlement, Downtown Cedarburg Through Dec. 22, 5-9 pm Live holiday music, luminarias, wine tasting, a winter cookout, and free cider & cookies. A different theme each Friday! Breakfast with Santa The Pfister Hotel Saturdays through Dec. 23, 10 am 414-390-3804 www.thepfisterhotel.com A holiday breakfast with jolly old St. Nick himself. A Fireside Christmas Fireside Dinner Theatre, Fort Atkinson Through Dec. 23 1-800-477-9505 www.firesidetheatre.com Fireside Theatre’s 14th annual Christmas spectacle promises to entertain with singing, dancing and holiday stories. A Christmas Story First Stage Children’s Theater Through Dec. 24 414-273-7206 www.firststage.org The classic holiday treat tells the story of the young Ralphie Parker, whose dreams of getting an air rifle for Christmas are repeatedly deferred. Candy Cane Lane West Allis Through Dec. 28 www.maccfund.org The West Allis neighborhood bounded by Oklahoma and Montana Avenues and 92nd to 96th Street is transformed into a winter wonderland with proceeds going to the MACC Fund. Honky Tonk Holiday Revue Apple Holler, Sturtevant Through Dec. 30 1-800-238-3629 www.appleholler.com Songs by country legends like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, and Loretta Lynn in a holiday dinner theater musical revue. A Cudahy Caroler Christmas In Tandem Theatre Through Dec. 31 414-273-7206 www.intandemtheatre.com This wildly popular holiday show returns with a hilarious tale of beer, bowling, friendship and forgiveness and the quest to reunite the beloved Cudahy choir. 11th Annual Christmas in the Country Grand […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Amy Elliott
Radio Birdman
By Blaine Schultz In the mid-1970s, Michigan native Deniz Tek moved to Australia to attend medical school. There he met Rob Younger, an Aussie who shared Tek’s attraction to the high-energy music of bands like the Stooges and MC5. Tek and Younger formed Radio Birdman, a group that pulled into the New Wave tsunami and released their influential cult classic debut Radios Appear in 1977. Never quite part of any scene, they recorded a follow-up in England (Living Eyes eventually came out in 1981) and imploded while touring in a vehicle dubbed “Van of Hate.” Two decades down the pike and the members have buried the hatchet somewhere other than each other’s heads. September saw Radio Birdman playing Chicago’s Double Door as part of their first ever U.S. tour. The sweaty, shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of faithful had no reason to believe they would ever witness this show. The energy between audience and band was only magnified by years of rock & roll mythology. The sextet of 50-somethings went through amplifiers the way other bands break strings. Which brings us to Zeno Beach, the album the band was touring to promote. You’d expect something heady from a band whose members’ day jobs include trauma surgeon and U.S. Navy jet pilot, and “The Brotherhood of Al Wazah” and “Heyday” recall the open-minded smarts that once got Radio Birdman compared to vintage Blue Oyster Cult. The opening track, “We’ve Come So Far (To Be Here Today),” could serve as the manifesto as well as feature for Tek and Klondike Masuak’s two guitar inter-lock. While vocalist Rob Younger’s presence may not be as manic as 20-plus years ago, his intensity is trained like a laser. Zeno Beach is a welcome chapter in the Radio Birdman legacy. Let’s hope the next installment happens sooner. VS
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Too close to call
By Matt Wild When our country’s top film scholars inevitably get together at the neighborhood Olive Garden to discuss cinema’s greatest artistic breakthroughs, a certain achievement that’s continually – and criminally – overlooked is contained within 1977’s masterpiece, Smokey and the Bandit. Starring Jackie Gleason, Sally Field and the irrepressible moustache of Burt Reynolds, Bandit features a landmark innovation that still manages to stir the hearts and souls of audiences today: a theme song, written and performed by co-star Jerry Reed, which helpfully explains the plot. Confused as to what’s going on in this Byzantine tale of Coors bootleggers and bumbling, boorish cops? No problem; just listen to the lyrics of Reed’s feel-good ditty, “East Bound and Down,” a song that’s featured at least 178 times throughout this 96-minute movie: “The boys are thirsty in Atlanta / and there’s beer in Texarkana / We’ll bring it back no matter what it takes.” What about Smokey, you ask? Does he have his ears on, and is he indeed hot on Bandit’s trail? “Old Smokey’s got them ears on / He’s hot on your trail / and he ain’t gonna rest ‘til you’re in jail.” Therefore, to both honor this cinematic achievement as well as guide readers through the following music and poetry-filled column (sadly, there’s little-to-no bootlegging involved), a few helpful lyrics will be provided before each major section. Well these kids made a call / to good ol’ Darling Hall / to see a rock show scheduled there for 9… Decked out in Romper Room / thrift store-chic, Darling Hall (601 S. 6th St.) is one of those small and homely spaces that only seem to grow larger and warmer the more packed with bodies it becomes. It’s during the first bitterly cold night of the year that I find myself crammed inside its walls. South Side barber by day, Darling Hall regular by night, Jose the Barber (natch) starts the evening out on a classy note, singing in a strong, confident tenor (Hank Williams’ “Cold Cold Heart” is a particular standout). Milwaukee’s The Flying Party is up next, a group that harkens back to when you were 19 and every band you loved seemed to feature an adorable Asian girl playing a Moog. Though derivative to an incalculable degree, their set is pleasant enough. Plus their drummer is the goofball that posted that phony terrorist plot to bomb football stadiums online a few months back. Summing up the next two acts quickly: I’ve covered The Trusty Knife in these pages before (VITAL April 06, August 06), so I’ll only say that – once again – they’re by far one of the best rock & roll acts in town. Seriously. As for Kansas City’s Davan, I can only warn future house-party and basement-show attendees throughout the Midwest to stay far, far away from this band. Again, seriously. Flash forward now to Circa / like a whisky drinkin’ ghost / Yes, we’re gonna’ git uncomfortably close… A few days later I […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Matt Wild
Built to last
By Jon M. Gilbertson Any reasonably intelligent rock fan who lived through the 1990s can take a few seconds and remember an indie band that emerged from the underground and seemed this close to mainstream success. Pavement. Chavez. Sleater-Kinney. The Afghan Whigs. Guided By Voices. Not since the heyday of punk rock in the 1970s did so much promise turn into so much history. All of the above bands – and several more besides – dissolved, leaving behind a small shelf of work, a wall of interesting concert posters and a handful of memories. In this context, the continued existence of Built to Spill, more than a decade after their formation, is a minor-key miracle. From the listener’s perspective, it has been half a decade between Ancient Melodies of the Future and You In Reverse; from frontman Doug Martsch’s perspective, it’s also been half a decade, but not a silent time. “We toured for about a year, and then I took about a year off and I did some other musical things,” Martsch explains, obliquely referring to his 2002 solo album, Now You Know, and other projects. “Then we got back together and started touring and writing songs for a couple years, and then spent about a year making the record, and another year waiting for the record to come out. So there was really only a short break in there.” So if You In Reverse gives the impression of a creative revitalization brought about by an extended rest period, the premise is a false one. But the revitalization is there nevertheless. Even on the first track “Goin’ Against Your Mind,” which opens with a long passage of guitars running through a spectrum of interactions, Built to Spill sounds urgent yet relaxed. Martsch attributes this interesting quality to what he reluctantly calls “jam sessions.” “When I say ‘jam,’ I mean improvise with the attempt to make up parts,” he says. “We did the most jamming that we’d ever done to make the record. We’re not all just noodling around, but of course a little of that happens; we’re consciously trying to come up with patterns and chords that fit together. We’re trying to write songs as a band.” The rotating membership of Built to Spill has, in the past, made such open collaboration somewhat difficult, even though the ever-changing roster has usually involved one friend leaving and another returning. Even so, over time a kind of solidification has occurred. Besides the familiar rhythm section of bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf, the lineup currently includes guitarist Jim Roth, previously an accompanist on tour, and Brett Netson, an intermittent member who rejoined Built to Spill just in time to play on a few tracks and throw down a fantastic guitar solo on “Just a Habit.” “Netson is my favorite musician and I happen to know him, so I recruit him whenever I need someone,” Martsch says. “Caustic Resin, his band, wasn’t really doing anything, so I called him in again. […]
Dec 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Beck
No artist is ever completely unpredictable: patterns form and grooves are worn. Some have no need to pull themselves away from the paths they’ve already beaten. Sometimes, like Björk or Beck, they simply realign, rearrange, rethink. At its most functional, The Information is a rethink of Beck’s creative relationship with producer Nigel Godrich (now highly acclaimed for his work with Radiohead and Paul McCartney). Here, Godrich usually finds – or at least allows Beck to enter – a reflective mode, as heard on Mutations and Sea Change. Started before and completed after last year’s Guero, The Information naturally features some refraction of Guero’s compilation-like tendencies. The easygoing hip-hop of “Elevator Music” segues into the (deliberately?) “I Feel Fine”-like treble of “Think I’m In Love,” which falls into the street-corner robot dance and muffled beatbox that activate “Cellphone’s Dead.” The Information also maintains Beck’s dedication to craftsmanship, which tightens the art without restricting it. Godrich, for his part, keeps getting better at adapting his own considerable sensibilities to the artist at hand. On Thom Yorke’s solo album, The Eraser, he shrink-wrapped Yorke’s paranoia; here, he’s like a near-telepathically responsive DJ, slapping down the right sounds to match Beck’s multitudinous moods. The overall vibe on The Information is pleasure. It’s not encoded in the lyrics; keep in mind that Beck can write entire albums, like Midnite Vultures, of near-total absurdity. Nor is it right up front in the tunes, but rather a pleasure that Beck and Godrich take in making music, a satellite orbiting each track, receiving and transmitting information. VS
Dec 1st, 2006 by Jon Gilbertson
