joi, 11 mai 2023

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (& the Awesome Mix too;)

Finally Volume 3 is here! 

Saw it in 3D and it was a pretty good conversion and a pretty bright one.


For a running time of 2h30 I was afraid it will bore the hell out of me but i was uber pleasantly surprised. It is much more emotional than the first two volumes and more ambitious narratively (no spoilers here but follow the teaser poster;), and it makes me put James Gunn as the best director/creator of universes in the MCU (and DC?), and glad he was back at the helm as Disney fired him back in 2019 for some bullshit remarks and the whole cast of the GotG supported him, especially Dave Bautista. Also as Gunn went into being the boss of DC now and not only because of that a fourth GotG volume will not happen, at least with this original members (& cast). So, I can only say that for me it is the best series (trilogy) in the Marvel Universe, the warmest, funniest and surely oddest! And it Rocks;)

I am Groot! 

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Now the soundtrack, which was the one of the best things about the series, and the innovative way to get it on the incidental side with Quill's walkman and then its improvements. Wrote about them at the time. The first one was the cheesiest, but made it on my top soundtracks of 2014!

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2014/08/guardians-of-galaxy-soundtrack-awesome.html

the second one rocked more for me, and was way more inventive to fill in the film and the narrative -the titles on Mr. Blue Sky (ELO), the analysis of Brandi (Looking Glass), the use of Fleetwood Mac's The Chain and especially Cat Stevens' Father and Son, so yep it went into the top soundtracks of 2017!

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2017/05/guardians-of-galaxy-awesome-mix-vol-2.html

Vol. 3 Awesome Mix is:  way more darker than Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, actually for me with the best selections of songs yet. Very ecclectic but more interesting bands and less cheasier songs.

Creep (acoustic version) - Radiohead

Crazy on You - Heart

Since You Been Gone - Rainbow (grand Rainbow song from 1979's Down to Earth, on a par with Led Zep and Deep Purple's greatest, and a cover ! of an 1976 song by Russ Ballard, as far as I know this is the first appearance of the song in a film!)

In the Meantime - Spacehog (from 1994, I knwe the song but didn't know the band!, the vocal sounds a bit like GnR)

Reasons - Earth, Wind & Fire

Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips

We Care A Lot - Faith No More (yes!!!)

Koinu No Carnival - EHAMIC

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows - Alice Cooper  ( I looove the inclusion of the Coop in the soundtrack, with a song from Alice Cooper Goes to Hell-1976, and as coincidences happen, just before going to see the movie I was listening to the Coop From the Inside 1978 album, which I haven't heard since 2019 to be precise !!!) And I'm Always Chasing Rainbows is one of my faved AC songs!

San Francisco - The Mowgli's

Poor Girl - X

This Is the Day - The The

No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys

Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

Badlands - Bruce Springsteen  (1978, this one I don't get, it plays over the closing credits, nice but a bit pointless, and also it's sort of a dark song, would've loved the Boss doing a new tune for this, yes the idea of the soundtracks of GotG was to be old ones, but on the credits of Vol.2 we got a Hasselhoff and cast remix, so new one)

I Will Dare - The Replacements  (from 1984's Let it Be)

Come and Get Your Love - Redbone (reprise from the 1st GotG movie)

James Gunn says

“I snuck my friends The Replacements (‘I Will Dare’) in there. I snuck Alice Cooper (‘I’m Always Chasing Rainbows’), my hero in there, (and it) actually has a pretty big sequence in the movie.”

The music comes with the words with the script, I write it in, but sometimes I change it − some things on this, it was very difficult choosing the music for this movie because in the first two movies, they were all AM, ’70s pop hits.”


Technology introduced at the end of “Vol. 2,” courtesy of Yondu’s gift of a Microsoft Zune digital music player to Quill, expanded that character’s music knowledge and, thus, the song possibilities.

“It's music from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, and I could choose from anything,” he said. “It's at the end of ‘Hurt Locker’ with him looking at all the stuff on the shelves and not knowing how to make this choice, so it was very difficult because of that.

Gunn keeps a list of hundreds of songs that could potentially go in one of his films (see the Peacemaker series which made me discover the excellent and irresistible cheesy  Wig Wam-Do You Wanna Taste it?, which put the Norwegian band back on the map) .

 Needless to say, with something that extensive, not every tune will make the cut because it’s a matter of how the song fits into a scene.

“‘Cruel To Be Kind’ by Nick Lowe has been on every list that I've had for the movies, and I've just never found a place to work it in,” he said.

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a43782322/guardians-galaxy-3-songs-soundtrack/


joi, 4 mai 2023

Tangerine Dream la TIFF 22!!

I-am vazut la Spandau Zitadelle im Berlin acum 14 ani...intre timp Edgard Froese is no more, also Klaus Schultze cu care au inceput...

Acum insa: 

Communique: 

Pionierii muzicii electronice Tangerine Dream vor susține un concert pe 15 iunie la Casa de Cultură a Studenților. Înființată în 1967 de Edgar Froese în vestul Berlinului, Tangerine Dream este o trupă formatoare pentru muzica electronică. Albumul lor revoluționar Phaedra, lansat în 1974, a atins statutul de cult în Marea Britanie și a devenit un reper al genului. Tangerine Dream a compus piese lungi, cu structuri unice, deschizând noi dimensiuni în sunet, stilul lor fiind catalogat drept Kosmische Musik. În ultimii 50 de ani, trupa a lansat peste 100 de albume de studio și a fost nominalizată de șapte ori la premiile GrammyTangerine Dream a creat peste 60 de coloane sonore de film, inclusiv pentru Legend (1985) al lui Ridley Scott, pentru thrillerul Sorcerer (1977) al lui William Friedkin și pentru filmul neo-noir Thief (1981) al lui Michael Mann. Din discografia lor face parte și The Night In Romania, piesă care ar fi trebuit să se afle pe coloana sonoră a filmului The Keep (r. Michael Mann, 1983), dar care a fost lansată doar în 2020, pe un album special. În 2013, Tangerine Dream a compus muzica pentru jocul video Grand Theft Auto V, care a devenit unul dintre cele mai de succes jocuri din istorie. Muzica lor apare și în serialul Netflix Stranger Things.



marți, 25 aprilie 2023

Steve Vai the 6th

 My 6th Steve Vai gig after 23 years since I first saw him when he came in Romania for the 1st time!

 And the 1st show in Romania/Bucharest after 10 years!

The INVIOLATE tour (why not InvAiolate?)

I kinda made it in the nick of time (thx, So;), fan-tastic gig, fabulous new band, young prodigy Dante Frisiello on second guitar and keys. Brilliant bass player  Philip Bynoe and superhuman drummer, "the Animal" Jeremy Colson. Big attraction, his triple guitar HYDRA which he played a song with it (i gotta say  I am not a fan tho)

Setlist from Buch gig missing but here's for the next one in Bulgaria and the previous one in Greece

He played BAD HORSIE, from the 1986 Crossroads film by Walter Hill, complete with video excerpts from the movie. I asked him about that when we met him at the press conference in 2010!

I stayed by myself in front and caught the end of the gig on my phone, here' s the video!!!


For my previous Steve Vai experience(s) click the Steve Vai tag or here

2013 with the Evolution Tempo Orchestra -Arenele Romane

2012-1 noiembrie, Sala Palatului

2010-8 decembrie, Sala Polivalenta  with Evolution Tempo Orchestra

2009-6 septembrie Brasov, Cerbul de Aur -he played just 2 songs without band  

2000- aprilie Sala Palatului, I was shattered, met Eric Sardinas (who opened for him and walked the Hall playing guitar in the audience) in the lobby, drinking Jack Daniel's. Got his autograph and told him the story when we met in Sardinia 25 odd years later ;)


Steve's own site here... or https://www.vai.com



miercuri, 19 aprilie 2023

Cannes 76-Le Poster

 Côte d’Azur, June 1, 1968.

Actress Catherine Deneuve is standing on Pampelonne beach, near Saint-Tropez, for the shooting of La Chamade by Alain Cavalier, adapted from the novel by Françoise Sagan. She plays Lucile, who leads a worldly and superficial life, tinged with ease and a taste for luxury. Her heart beats frantically, hurriedly, passionately. Like the heart of cinema that the Festival de Cannes celebrates every year: its lively and embodied pulse can be heard everywhere. The heart of the 7th Art - of its artists, professionals, amateurs, press - beats like a drum, to the rhythm of the urgency that its eternal nature imposes.