Band Profile: Sleigh Bells

Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells

A couple months after I graduated from college, I was trying to make a few bucks working an indie music festival called FYF fest. All day, I served overpriced bottle water and bacon-cheese fries to wannabe hipsters who dressed as if they would have gone to Coachella if their parents had given them $200 more allowance. Combined with the 100+ degree weather, the day was approaching on unbearable.

Then the sun set and the crowds started pouring in. The lines became so busy that it was impossible for supply to keep up with demand. Consciousness faded into automatic movements. Scoop Fries. Drizzle cheese. Layer bacon. It was impossible to think over the upset customers. That's when an unfamiliar voice exploding from the main stage and cut through the unbearable atmosphere. Everyone in line stopped arguing and turned to hear Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells yell "Are you ready?! Let's go!!" Along with composer and guitarist Derek Miller, Alexis went on to sing the most deafening, obnoxious, and entrancing set I have ever heard in my young life. It made me want to dance and mosh at the same time.


After the gig was over, I went home to hear more tracks from the FYF artists. Sleigh Bells stuck out in my mind. Both of their albums, Treats and Reign of Terror, boast outstanding guitar riffs and vocalizations (although Reign of Terror has higher production value).  Their entire discography is diversified and can only be described as chainsawing a troop of preppy cheerleaders in half and having tigers ravage the remains. I looked for something deeper in their songs and found small elements of meaning until I saw the following interview:

 

I quickly realized that, while their songs were inspired by honest emotions, the lyrics and and artists themselves were producing songs practically devoid of meaning. They're just having fun and being their quirky, nihilistic selves. At first I was worried that I had fallen in love with such a band, but there's something undeniably alluring about the formula. Maybe it's the catchy rhythms, reckless abandon, or Krauss' sex appeal, but ever since Sleigh Bells' sound graced my ears, I've been a serious fan.

Check them out and let me know what you think.

List: Inspiring Films of the 2010s

The Hollywood machine churns out thousands of films a year. Most of these films are simply designed for entertainment, some are just plain terrible, and some make you think. Once in a while, a film is produced which, if seen, will change your whole perspective on film-making and force you to confront the harsh reality of our own existence. This is a list of films that I have come across which have driven me to feel emotions I never knew film could inspire:

1. Like Crazy (2011): Director Drake Doremus throws the rom-com cliches out the window and requires the outstanding actors (Felicity Jones + Anton Yelchin) to improvise many of their lines. The result is the most sobering story of real-life romance I have ever experienced. You feel the emotions along with the characters and can't help but relate at every turn.

2. Winter's Bone (2010): Jennifer Lawrence shines as her character, Ree, strives against sexism and social inertia to protect her family from losing their home. The Ozarks are unforgiving, the acting is outstanding, and the story is guaranteed to make you feel your own humanity.

3. Spring Breakers (2013): Korine lures us in by exploiting our sexual desires, then pulls the floor out from under us. The result is a descent into a non-linear, non-sensical hallucination which keeps you hooked and your jaw dropped. You finish the movie disgusted, yet pensive. Great acting from Franco and former Disney starlets Gomez/Hudgens keeps the roller-coaster moving while frequent flashbacks and dialogue repetitions build a film that can't help but make you think.


I'll add to the list as I discover more. Also, feel free to make recommendations!

Film Rant: Spring Breakers (Contains Spoilers)

With scantily clad (and often topless) college girls, endless amounts of booze/drugs, and the sunny Florida beaches, Spring Breakers was advertised as fitting smugly into the male pornographic fantasy. Korine lures us in with images of sex, violence, and money, then immediately pulls the floor out from underneath our feet, sending us on a downward spiral into a feverish madness which leaves us in utter shock and disgust. This is the magic of Spring Breakers.

The opening scene sets the tone for the entire film. There's a party on the beach, awesome. Everyone's drunk and having a great time, fantastic. Or so one would think. This short 2-minute intro contains all the elements society has prodded us to pursue: wealth, attractiveness, sexual virility; but the images presented fill us with disgust and invite us only to laugh awkwardly as a random set of breasts shake in our faces and women get drenched in alcohol. It is utterly shocking and incomprehensible in our current state of mind. Korine systematically brings us into his world.

The themes become more apparent when we're introduced to the main characters of the film: Candy, Cotti, Brit, and Faith. These hyper-sexualized college girls have no interest in education, but care only for partying, sex, and men. Countless minutes of the screen-time are used to watch the girls caress and kiss eachother while they're more-or-less completely exposed; a concept which on paper would seem arousing, but gives its viewers an uneasy feeling that something is just wrong. This feeling continues as we watch the girls rob a restaurant and laugh as they count the money on a bathroom floor only wearing bras and panties. The casting of former Disney starlets serves to build on the sense of absolute moral perversion.

The film continues on with the girls arriving in Florida, participating in debaucherous acts, and the getting bailed out of jail when they are arrested in the act of said debauchery. Throughout, the girls wear nothing more than neon bikinis and repress fear by "just pretending it's a videogame". Korine invites us to question frequent alternative realities and the unlimited transcendental quality of forgetting ourselves in the moment. Not to mention the entire film is edited with constant flashbacks, overly repeated dialogue, and the the constant mantra, "Spring break forever, Bitches." By the time the credits arrive, the words of these characters have faded into banality and emphasis the insanity of their overly sexed and overly violent debauchery. It's unsettling how characters fade in and out of the film without much significance or meaning to their existence at all.

Hedonism brought them to the beach and it's hedonism which keeps them there with the appearance of Alien. He offers them all the cars, drugs, and money they could ever want, but at the cost of being in the spring break mindset forever. Perhaps Alien is the full realization of a spring break which lasts longer than just a week. He's embroiled in a constant, violent struggle for money by any means necessary; suggesting that the spring break lifestyle is a brief reprieve, but is ultimately unsustainable. As girls disappear from the narrative one-by-one, the relationship between Alien and his new found "loves" thickens in a haze of Brittney Spears, guns, and My Little Pony hoods. Korine suspends all sense of reality by taking the initially alluring aspects of spring break to an extreme. He turns nihilistic, fun-loving females into gunslinging sex mongers. The transition is so subtle that we're not sure if Alien inspired the behavior or if it existed inside the girls the entire time. Moral depravity abounds, but in the most gruesome and disturbing ways possible.

I feel like an entire tome could be written about this film without reaching any precise conclusion. There's an air of mystery, emphasized by repeated dialogue and flashbacks, which makes time and space difficult to comprehend and leaves the entire film shrouded in moral and political ambiguity. By focusing on the ritualized spring break, Korine criticizes our shallow  and over-sexed society, while taking us for a ride through the insanity of a full-blown hallucination. Confusion and irrationality are praised. Korine could be making any number of arguments about youth culture, hedonism, and morality in the 21st century, but I dare not to begin naming them for fear the list would never end.

While this film is definitely pornography, it's anything but a fantasy. It's deep, disturbing, socially-significant, and, ultimately, artistic. We leave the theaters sickened with ourselves, our alcohol-drenched rights of passage, and the exploited human body in a way that only Korine could instill in us.

Muse: The 2nd Law

Album Review: The 2nd Law (Muse)
My Rating: 4/5

Muse strikes again with their sixth studio album, and the band's music style is as diverse as ever. While the outstanding, effect-laden guitar and bass remain intact in "Supremacy" and "Panic Station", we also see integral use of back-up choir singers in "Survival" and "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" as well as the use of club beats and dubstep in "Madness", "Follow Me", and "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable". Needless to say, the addition of classic instruments, music concrete, and Bellamy's Queen-style vocals to the mix make this album the most theatrical and cross-genre Muse work to date.

What I've always admired about Muse is their ability to generate an entire album around a single concept and nail it down with both lyrics and instrumentation. The 2nd Law is no exception. The "second law" refers to the thermodynamic concept that all systems tend towards chaos. The album touches on two general types of chaos: chaos by expansionist capitalism and chaos in love. "Animals" examines (by masterfully using music concrete from the NYSE) the tendency for humans in a capitalist system to inherently create chaos while "Explores" laments the loss of nature to this expansionist tendancy with "A world lush in bloom/ with rivers running wild/ they'll be rerouted South / with none left for you and me". Finally, "Unsustainable" nails down the theme with a robotic woman stating, "a species set on endless growth is unsustainable". They might be preaching, but the're preaching to the choir.

On the more emotional side of things, "Madness", "Follow Me", and "Big Freeze" walk us through the chaotic nature of human relationships, how love is the only force able to subdue the entropy, and the tendency for love to slowly slip out of our grasp as the chaos builds. Above and beyond the lyrics, the entire album is done with an epic, yet overwhelmingly chaotic, plethora of instruments and effects. In this way, Muse caters to the trend towards dance music, advances its unique style, and hammers home a timeless message of the human condition.

Final Rating: 4/5

Posture, Pressure, Possibilities

Swept again, I ended flat on my back. Two points to my opponent for executing a flawless scissor sweep and taking me out of the dominant position as quickly as I got into it for the thousandth time. I felt helpless to prevent it. What was I doing wrong? With a quick Google search I realized I was setting myself up to be swept the entire time without realizing it.

In my frustration, I came across a jiu jistu philosophy that fundamentally changed the way I approach the martial art. That is the three P's: posture, pressure, and possibilities. "Posture" is maintaining a proper stance in an position to maximize your leverage and minimize the opponent's chances of attack. "Pressure" is knowing where to place your body weight and strength to advance your position around your opponent. Finally, "possibilities" is executing the proper move to submit or pass the opponent.

Each concept is more important than the next, with posture being the first consideration. Without proper posture, pressure is difficult to apply, and without proper pressure, knowing a dozen guard passes (possibilities) isn't going to get you anywhere but off balance and at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, most BJJ dojos are focused on teaching their students tons of moves, but overlook the fundamental importance of basics like posture and pressure, leaving it to the student to intuitively figure it out (which rarely happens quickly).

After learning the three P's, I quickly worked them into my BJJ game and discovered their effectiveness. I could hold down and submit the blue belts while avoiding submission (for a little longer) from the purple belts. I felt my prowess jump twofold overnight, which led me to ponder: could the three P's be applied to daily life?  

There are tons of possibilities in front of us, but if we aren't sufficiently prepared with the right posture to pursue them or equipped with the right knowledge of how to apply precise pressure, of what use are the opportunities? We'll flail out trying to grab them only to be continually thrown flat on our backs wondering why we can't move forward. Posture and pressure preceded possibilities.