Interview: Mike Gordon’s Balancing Act

This archival interview marked the first time I ever got a chance to interview a member of Phish. I’ve since interviewed Mike Gordon a couple other times and it’s always a pleasure. You really don’t have to do much when it comes to interviewing Mike. He goes deep on anything and everything, so the trick isn’t as much about getting comfortable speaking with one another as much as it is trying to stay on track and hit the topics you want to discuss.

By Ryan Dembinsky (Ryan Demler)

When considering what the Mike Gordon Band sets out to be, it’s critical to note that this is not just Mike Gordon and a backing group of session musicians or hired guns. It’s meant to be a cohesive, equitable group – a proper band if you will. For somebody who has played in a band like Phish, where the collaboration makes the magic happen, you know there’s going to be an emphasis on the other musicians playing important roles, but it’s all about finding the balance between bandleader and collaborator, player versus coach.

“There are all kinds of balancing acts in being a bandleader,” Gordon articulates. “I definitely wanted a ‘real band’ sense, not just a bunch of sidemen. For me, it’s a deeper experience. Sometimes, I see some musician play with a bunch of backup people who aren’t supposed to express themselves, and I don’t like those concerts much. In my case, the question becomes, ‘How many songs should other people sing, or other people write besides me, or maybe we write together?’ There really are all these balancing acts, but I’m feeling really good about it. The biggest challenge for any bandleader is to bring out the talents of the people they are leading, and I think that’s definitely happening.

On Moss

Coming from a band that is not particularly well-known for its prolific studio output in Phish, Mike Gordon’s new album, Moss, truly succeeds as a standalone work, despite being tagged with the quasi-derogatory “side project” label.

The album brims with an aura of experimentation on tunes like Spiral and The Void, while capturing some of the most vibrant, danceable singles in material like Can’t Stand Still, Fire From a Stick and Idea. It’s easy to hear the flexing of creative muscles on this project, where old tidbits become songs; found instruments play as much a role as the traditional; and ultimately, the members do what Phish often struggles so mightily to do on their own albums, jam.

“If you surrender to the muse, then she will take over,” Mike quips. “I keep relearning that lesson over and over again. So, we tried to just let the album sort of become what it wanted and let it fall into place. It’s really rewarding to do that.”

Another notable element on Moss comes in the quality of Mike Gordon’s lead vocals. This should come as no surprise though, as Mike has been working hard with vocal coach Shyla Nelson, an opera singer and founder of the Good Earth Singers.

“I enjoy dabbling in different instruments and seeing what the potential is, and since the voice is the instrument that’s always there, whether you’re climbing a tree or driving down the road, why not work on that instrument? And Shyla is pretty cool, because she’s an opera singer, but she’s also very spiritual,” Mike remarks. “Actually, what she’s doing now is working with Pete Seeger and a couple other people in this group she calls the Good Earth Singers, and they are trying to get 15 million people to sing at the same time on that day the world is supposed to end. There’s a chant she’s working on with tons of choirs and choruses lined up all around the world.”

Continuing on the subject of vocal training, Mike explains how Shyla has helped him develop a more holistic approach to singing that follows a similar philosophy to Pilates.

“She is very into combining the human experience and different elements of it,” he says. “So, she’s metaphysical in mixing the body and spirit all through the human voice, which is pretty cool for me. It’s a very meditative and cathartic experience in the rolling hills of Vermont with the views of the lake. It’s centered on her philosophy of singing, which is all about core muscles. The idea is that the top part of your body relaxes, because the core is engaged with constantly renewed energy. In the experience of singing, the note actually resonates. In other words, it kind of vibrates on the top of your head and then resonates several feet away from you, so it’s this whole arc starting from your core and through your relaxed body, and through the forehead and beyond. Everyone has a different way of thinking about it. That’s just one way.”

Interestingly, Mike discussed how for a long time he focused his vocal training around two things: bluegrass harmonies and female vocals. When he moved to New York City several years back, he went through a big bluegrass phase and worked on “intense, high-pitched” harmonies. Then, during another more recent period, he focused his singing on female vocalists like Joni Mitchell and Maria Muldaur, but the game changed with the Little Feat album.

“After learning the Little Feat album, now I really want to explore my masculine side. I got to sing four of the Little Feat songs. So, you know, getting into the Lowell George vocals has been so great. I’ve always loved his singing. And now, I’ve been checking out people like J.J. Grey, who also have a more masculine approach. Maybe that’s why I’m sort of growing a beard, but not really,” he laughs.

On Choosing His Covers

If you’ve been following along with the Mike Gordon Band tour at all, you’ve surely noticed the diverse array of cover selections. The band has unleashed everything from Alanis Morissette, to Tower of Power, to C&C Music Factory, to the Lemonheads. Clearly, Mike is having fun with this band and they not afraid to take a lighthearted approach, poking a little fun at themselves along the way.

“It has to be something that at some point resonated with me,” Mike points out. “Sometimes, I’ve had a favorite song growing up, and I’ve never wanted to learn that song, because dissecting it and knowing all the parts and doing it over and over, would probably make it no longer a favorite song. There are very few songs I can listen to hundreds of times but still like: maybe Here Comes the Sun, but that’s about it.”

So how do these quirky choices make it from idea mode to the stage?

The Lemonheads – The Outdoor Type

“With the Lemonheads’ song, I was talking to somebody who was real outdoorsy, and I was thinking about how I’m not. I mean, I love going into the woods, and living near the woods, but in terms of mountain biking and the whole thing, it’s just not me. So, I was reminded of the song.”

“And then,” Mike explains in a state of surprise, “Somebody told me that Evan Dando had died! But, it was just a rumor. We all used to hang out with Evan Dando back in 1995, when we were recording in Woodstock. We would all hang out every night at 3 am when we were done recording and then go back in to the studio at 5 am and finish the night. So anyway, I Googled it and got thinking about it more.”

Alanis Morissette – One Hand in my Pocket

“With Alanis, I heard the song and I was thinking something about the groove and the sentiment. I like the song and something resonated, but I was also kind of making fun of it. I make fun of my own songs a lot too. Anyway, I mentioned it to Scott [Murawski] and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve covered that song before. Maybe we should do it sometime.’”

“With that one, we started doing our own thing with it immediately,” he continues. “It’s a very simple rhythm, so it’s a ‘more is less’ kind of song. A lot of our music is kind of funky and syncopated, so to play some songs that have straighter rhythms has been a real joy. That allows us to find ourselves in it more because it’s less prescribed.”

C&C Music Factory – Things that Make You Go Hmmm

“With C&C Music Factory, what resonated with that one was Phish was in Barcelona having lunch on the beach at a bar once when it came on the radio,” Mike remembers. “I was really digging the bass line, and then, when we played the song You Enjoy Myself in the funky part once it got to the guitar solo and the jam, I would always play that bass line from the song. Then I thought, ‘well, I’m never going to play anything like YEM with this band, but why not take the bass line and the original song?’”

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Swamp Music

“We’ve done this a few times where we’ll essentially just take something and use it. In Phish, when we were learning the song Possum, which is a Jeff Holdsworth song, we wanted to give it sort of a bluesy, peppy groove and we ended up basically copying the groove from Swamp Music by Lynyrd Skynyrd. So, I thought ‘I get to do Possum enough with Phish, but why not do the original Lynyrd Skynyrd song?’”

“In general, it’s almost post-modern in that I’m drawing on some inspirations, but it’s usually also just making fun of myself.”

On the Potential for Other Projects

Never one to stand still for long, you can generally assume something is brewing in that noggin of Mike’s. As a longtime fan of creative writing and of film-making, he touched on the possibility of projects coming down the pike outside of music.

“I do want to write a screenplay,” he explains. “My other films didn’t actually have one; so I would think having one would unleash my film-making in certain ways where I’d actually be freer by having one. I don’t want to make anymore documentary films, but I’d like to make a narrative film. I’ve sort of been waiting for the right time, because there’s certainly enough to do within music – having two bands – to keep me busy for the rest of my life, especially since my solo career and band are in its first stages. But, now that they are starting to grow roots, I’m starting to think about it a little bit. Not quite yet, but maybe soon.”

Interestingly, while on the topic, Mike cites Leo Kottke as an inspiration for maintaining focus and not getting too swept up in too many different directions.

“Some people seem to do a good job in dabbling in many things and some people excel by really sticking to one thing,” he adds. “Like Leo Kottke – who I just got to hang out with a lot in Minneapolis – I always admire him, because he really has two things: reading and playing guitar. With playing guitar, he does it hours and hours every day, which is why he’s the best acoustic guitar player there is because he’s done away with all the distractions. He could have had a book writing career or perhaps have worked on some other instruments like pedal steel, which he dabbled in, but he realized that those things would have been distractions from this one main thing. So for me, I’m trying to find the line to draw. To some extent, different creative pursuits inform each other, but you just have to figure out the balance.” He jokes, “even decorating your home can be a full-time job if you get caught up in it.”

On Finding this Balance

With such a demanding schedule, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and staying sane can prove no easy feat. It takes a conscious effort to stay rested, well-fed and generally happy. While on the road, Mike carves out time everyday to go running outdoors and let his mind clear. He maintains a vegetarian diet and tries to eat nutritious meals, mostly low-carb if possible, and he’s dabbled in meditation and the morning pages exercises from the book, The Artist’s Way.

“Having some downtime is really important. I guess my thing is really going to a café with my laptop. Scott Murawski or Julia from the Phish office will usually go with me. So that’s my thing: I go running; I try to sleep enough; eat light; sit in cafes; regroup.”

Mike also makes a point to soak up the culture of each city he visits for shows. It’s easy on the road to get that, “What town are we in today” feeling, but Mike generally tries to drop by local cafes with local artwork on the walls, and guide his runs through colorful parts of town to get a flavor for the community.

“I really just like checking out these American cities. I’d probably like doing more in Europe too if it wasn’t so expensive to go over there. So, hopefully, I’ll get to do that too, but really I just like going from one random American town to the next and soaking up the vibe. All that keeps me sane… I think.”

By keeping his days open, allowing himself to eat well and get exercise on the road, not stretching himself too thin between projects, and of course, making time for family; after almost 30 years playing live music, Mike Gordon has found his balance in perpetual motion. Hence, it’s a good thing he Can’t Stand Still.

Avett Brothers Perform Secret Show to Celebrate New Album

The Avett Brothers :: 09.29.09 :: Envoy Enterprises :: New York, NY

Words: Ryan Dembinsky (Ryan Demler)

An interesting phenomenon occurs when a band breaks through and outgrows its loyal fan base. The rare opportunity arises where they try their damndest to play an intimate show that mimics their early days, yet pre-show conversations tend towards a comparison of who caught the band at the smallest venue, which fans are there for the first time, and how much better it would be if the crowd was all true fans.

On Tuesday night, when The Avett Brothers performed a largely unknown New York City release party for their latest effort, I and Love and You (released September 29 on American Recordings – stream it here), to maybe 150-200 diehard fans and friends at the tiny basement bar called Envoy Enterprises, the evening predictably began like the above scenario. Yet oddly enough, once the music began peoples’ guards dropped. What previously felt like a crowded floor verging on a traffic jam opened up into a friendly chatterbox of new pals with a purpose, i.e. getting to know each other’s connections to the band, talking about what they wanted to hear and cheering like Premier League hooligans.

Praises for the new album were sung, yet not as boomingly as by the music press. While being hailed as a ‘Best of the Year’ candidate by the rags (not ridiculous by any stretch), many folks frankly seemed to say, “It’s pretty and all but I like it when they rock out.” Well, that was just before the show. As much as this sentiment rings true for some of the newer material in the album format – where no shortage of love themes and a smattering of piano-driven ballads take the place of raging banjo strums – even the heartfelt pieces emanate bursting energy in the live setting, particularly when Scott Avett gets behind the drums. Moreover, they did rock out, particularly on the harrowing imagery-laden rager “Slight Figure Of Speech,” hollering the line, “I cut my chest wide open.”

The locale should have come as no surprise to Avett fans as Scott showed his artwork at the bar back in 2008 – as was the case on this evening – in the upstairs floors of the space, which function as an art gallery, while the basement played host to the bar and stage where the Avetts performed. After the show, the band retreated upstairs to chat and sign posters.

A small show like this invites interplay with the crowd, and despite the obvious need by the band to play a hefty dose of new tunes from the new album – this being a release party and all – the crowd did not hesitate to request their favorite songs. The highlight of this interplay came after a “Chesterfield” shout out, which I believe is just a town and not an actual song. Confused, the Avetts took the banter in stride, commenting about the time they spent in Chesterfield recording A Carolina Jubilee, which led to the fan favorite “Pretty Girl from Annapolis,” which then segued into “Mary,” by the Avett’s old touring friend Langhorne Slim.

“Kick Drum Heart,” the standout catchy tune from the new album, came early in the set and earned a warm reception. This song sounds a lot like Matt Costa’s “Mr. Pitiful” and will indeed become a mass appeal staple, but may perhaps be less well received by longtime fans. Frankly, the Avetts possess heavy-duty followers, so this may become more a symbol of the major label changeover than a fan favorite. Nonetheless, the song sounds whimsical and uplifting.

Other standouts included the I and Love and You track “Ten Thousand Words,” which highlighted some honest to goodness guitar soloing and the newer-than-the-new-album tearjerker “Skin and Bones,” with gorgeous cello work by Joe Kwon and Scott Avett rocking on drums.

“I wanna fit into the perfect space; feel natural and safe in a volatile place.”

The Avett Brothers know how to work a crowd. After stomping through a smattering of old and new tunes and joking that they were excited to have finally played Madison Square Garden, the band silenced the crowd with a heartfelt “Perfect Space” that said everything about performing at an unquestionably populous yet not-quite-irritatingly small venue. The crowd packed the place. My neighbors and I joked about this being the first time New York City brought out all the tall people to a show. While most fans probably saw little more than the ornate neck of Bob Crawford‘s stand-up bass peaking out over the tops of heads, the room felt overwhelmingly cheerful.

Despite the New York locale, The Avett Brothers took a pass on the title track off the new record with its Brooklyn hearty nod, but performed a much longer, more passionate than expected, free private show. Guess the New York crew will have to wait until Terminal 5 on October 17 to hear “I and Love and You,” but The Avett Brothers proclaimed their love of the crowd and the crowd gave it back. With Rick Rubin‘s producing credit and an undeniably catchy overall feel, their major label debut will likely grow the Avetts out of their small town britches. However, with this intimate fan “thank you,” they proved that they could never grow out of their skin.

The Avett Brothers :: 09.29.09 :: Envoy Enterprises :: New York, NY
Laundry Room, January Wedding, Paranoia In Bb Major, Kick Drum Heart, And It Spread, Slight Figure Of Speech, Skin and Bone, Pretty Girl from Annapolis (with Mary), Ten Thousand Words, Perfect Space

Interview: Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison

By Ryan Dembinsky (Ryan Demler)

Back in October of 2008, huddled together closely in a cluttered green room upstairs at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg, the members of a band from Selkirk, Scotland called Frightened Rabbit – most of whom wielded Apple computers as they killed time before their set supporting Delaware’s Spinto Band – chatted amiably about their friendships with one another, the critical success of their latest album, The Midnight Organ Fight, and its acoustic offshoot Liver, Lung, FR, as well as their current U.S. tour.

What they didn’t know at the time was that they were actually responsible for my own personal Almost Famous moment so-to-speak. That was my first real backstage interview. Everybody always tells a newbie or an underdog to “act like you’ve been here before.” So, that’s what I did. Being a tad nervous, I polished off about eight beers beforehand at a bar across the street, only to find out Frightened Rabbit consists entirely of down-to-earth, thoughtful gents who are happy to share their insights on any number of subjects. What resulted were a lot of laughs and subsequently, one of the finest indie rock shows I’ve seen – and that’s not just because of all the beers.

Fast forward about 18 months and Frightened Rabbit no longer play the role of underdog either. On the contrary, having just released their third full-length album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks (released March 1 on Fat Cat Records), produced by indie wunderkind Peter Katis (The National, Swell Season), fans and critics alike have been teeming with anticipation for this release ever since The Midnight Organ Fight went on to populate so many 2008 “Best Of” lists and the band itself emerged as leaders of a burgeoning Glasgow music scene – one of the most compelling locales in music today.

On the day before the big release of The Winter of Mixed Drinks, JamBase caught up with the busy rockers to check in on all things Scottish, working with Peter Katis, and the unwritten rules of being a Frightened Rabbit.

JamBase: List 3-5 things that influenced this record, such as people, books, movies, other musicians, events in your life, or feelings at the time.

Scott Hutchison: Ted Hughes’ book Songs of the Crow was a massive influence lyrically. It’s an amazingly powerful set of poems, and there is a wonderful thread running through the series. It’s terrifying in places. The North Sea had a huge effect on the record. There are clear nautical references throughout, and they would not have been there were it not for my coastal location at the time of writing. Walking was a major factor in the way I finished the writing process. There is something about the rhythm of striding across the land that gets the mind ticking over. A brusque walk always sparks an idea for me.

JamBase: Could you give some background on your relationship with Peter Katis, both from a working and friendship perspective?

Scott Hutchison: We were incredibly lucky to work with Peter on The Midnight Organ Fight. He is an old friend of Adam Pierce’s [the head of Fat Cat, USA] and as such we probably got a good deal. At first, everyone was unsure about what we were trying to do; I think he wondered what the hell we were doing in his studio. But slowly we gained an understanding of each other and it started a great working relationship. I love what he does with records. His style is a little different from my own, perhaps he works a lot more subtly, but that is something that adds a great deal to the records. He creates space, whereas I have a tendency to fill it up with all sorts of shit.

Last time we spoke, we joked around about your childhood growing up with Grant [Hutchison, his sibling and FR’s drummer] and how when you first started playing music it wasn’t so cool to have your little brother in the band, but as you guys grew up you came to become close friends. How would you characterize your relationship these days?

It’s still a totally solid friendship. We have fairly distinct roles within the band, and we tend not to step on each other’s toes. Grant deals with much of the day-to-day running of the band, something I am fairly inept at. It’s great that he has a knack for organization, because it allows me to go forward with the creative side. We still argue, but it’s always constructive. And I am always right [laughs].

Along those same lines, how would you describe the camaraderie of the band?

The best way to sum things up is through the unwritten, and usually unspoken, rules within the band. You don’t finish Grant’s cider. You don’t fuck with Billy [Kennedy, bass] when he’s hungry. You let me sit in the front seat for most of the journey. If Andy [Monaghan, guitar] has gone missing, he will be “on a wander.” Don’t try to find him; he always comes back on time. Gordon [Skene, keyboards] doesn’t like shit food. If you suggest a Chinese buffet, he won’t be joining you.

Could you talk about some of the interesting elements from working in the studio that came across on the new album, such as cool overdubs, effects, interesting things you used for sound effects, etc.?

The most important item of equipment became the SP-404 sampler that I bought when I was writing the record. We just took some of the loops and sounds straight off there. They were pretty lo-fi, but I think it stopped the record from becoming too “over-produced,” although some may argue otherwise.

I gather in listening to the album that it’s meant to be emblematic of escaping one’s life or running away, so to speak, which seems somewhat consistent with Midnight Organ Fight. Could you give a little background on how you got to this concept?

Quite simply, I was alone for a certain amount of time, which gave me the space to assess what was and was not important in life. I’m not saying I’ve got it figured out, but the simplicity of things out in Crail [Scotland, where the bulk of the record was written] made everything seem so fucking easy. My brain just worked the way it ought to out there. The city can be stifling.

On the flip side, there’s some unbridled optimism toward the end of the record on “Living in Colour” and “Not Miserable.” Are you happy these days?

Yep! I was never terribly unhappy for long periods of time before, but I suppose listening to the last record you could be forgiven for thinking that I was permanently miserable. I’m pleased to say life is pretty good right now. Long may it continue!

So, you guys are getting closer to full-on fame nowadays. How do you feel about fame? Do you welcome it or is it a little scary to think about it?

I can’t say I’m aware of being on the brink of full-on fame. There are different levels I suppose. It’s nice when people come up to you in the supermarket to tell you that they like your music. I won’t ever get tired of that. When they start telling me I’m a dick and my music sucks, I will begin to worry.

How much influence did Peter Katis have on the sound and the material? Did he help write with you at all?

He didn’t have a role in the writing, but he has an absolutely magic touch on all of the records he works on. The albums quite simply would not sound as they do without Peter’s input. As I said before, he mixes very subtly, and especially in the new record, has helped to create some space in a rather busy, layered record.

With Midnight Organ Fight you spent about two weeks in the studio. How did the process this time around compare?

We had about twice as much time. On Organ Fight we essentially recreated the demos note-for-note in the studio. This time, we saved a lot of the arranging and creativity for the studio itself, so it was a lot more involved. Perhaps the luxury of time led to certain portions of the album getting a tad overblown, musically, but it’s something we were aware of, and it’s definitely the way I wanted this one to sound. It’s not something I wish to repeat next time.

There’s quite an indie music revolution occurring in Scotland these days, particularly on Fat Cat, with you guys, James Graham and We Were Promised Jetpacks. What would you say makes Glasgow and Scotland in general so special for music?

Scotland is an indoor nation. Making music, or any kind of art, is perfect for us. We are pale and pasty-faced, hate the sun and love a dark room. There’s a very specific dark and self-deprecating nature in lots of Scots that filters through to the creative output of the nation. Glasgow is the center for most of this activity. It’s a city built for the arts. There are so many spaces to play and work in. It just breeds good stuff.

What are your two favorite songs on the album, one from the perspective of the music and one from the perspective of the lyrics?

“Things” is the most succinct song I’ve ever written, lyrically speaking. There’s not much wasted language in there, which I like. I think parts of “Skip the Youth” are our most musically ambitious to date; I’m especially fond of the two minute intro. I’m aware that it could be incredibly annoying for some people, but that only makes me love it more.

Finally, when last time we spoke, you had some pretty funny comments about the Enemy [aka, NME]. It seems as though they have since taken quite a liking to Frightened Rabbit. Are you still skeptical about them? What are your feelings toward the music media in general these days?

I have no beef with anyone in the music media. I don’t expect to be universally loved. I don’t want to be. It’s healthy to read articles by people who clearly hate my band. The NME has been kind in recent months, which is great, though it’s not incredibly important to me. It’s best not to take any of that stuff too seriously. Reviews are relatively ephemeral in comparison to the actual content of the record.

New Interviews Elsewhere

I’ll try to use this site in part to share some of my other projects.

First, I got the chance to interview the inestimable John Oates – otherwise known as one half of the best selling duo in the history of music – over at Jambase.

Second, I started contributing to one of my favorite off the beaten path blogs Post Trash run by Dan Goldin (founder/cult hero of Exploding in Sound records). My first feature was an interview with the powerful rising stars from Boston, Kal Marks. Huge thanks to Carl Shane who spent multiple hours chatting with me. I managed to lose the entire recording the first time we spoke, so he was kind enough to do the entire thing twice.

Hollywood’s Sordid Past in Casting Sports Movie Lead Roles

Did you ever notice that, in aggregate, sports movies cast some of the least believable stars possible in the lead roles? We all laugh at the thought of Keanu’s Shane Falco as a quarterback with NFL potential before his career got derailed by a houseboat fascination or Anthony Michael Hall as a star recruit star out of high school in Johnny Be Goode, but the list goes on ever longer with head-scratcher after head-scratcher.

Brendan Fraser as David Greene in “School Ties”

The old Jew at a prep school makes friends, stars on the football team, hides religion, gets caught, gets exiled, and overcomes adversity plot. It’s a formula as old as time itself. But you can only shake off so many Bedazzleds and George of the Jungles before a sports role is a bad idea. Plus, he he’s not even Jewish. He looks big enough and physical enough, but he’s done one too many “scared overachiever who lost his thesis paper” to believe in him as a gridiron hero.

Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Walker in Johnny Be Good

Fresh off the role as neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie in The Breakfast Club, Anthony Michael Hall took a complete 180 degree reversal into the BMOC in Johnny Be Good. Anthony Michael Hall actually plays this role well and makes us all wish we were getting recruited to play college ball, but talk about not being typecast. He covered the polar opposite ends f the cool spectrum in the span of just two films. Plus, never before have movie audiences been awed by the hang time of punt. I always felt punt hang time was the real measure of a man.

Tom Cruise as Stefen Djordjevic in All the Right Moves

Tom Cruise in football pads? He looks like Harry the Hunter from Beetlejuice with that tiny head poking out of those things. At 5’1” Cruise played a brash bad mofo, but we think he should probably stick to dancing to Seger in his undies?

On a side note, who named a football player Stefen Djordjevic? He must have come up through the NFL’s short-lived Nordic development league.

Robin Williams as Jack Dundee in Best of Times

We miss Robin Williams, so like Michael Bolton, we celebrate his entire catalog.

Still, you’re telling me that thick-framed version of Robin was supposed to make the game winning play and become the local gridiron celebrity? You can’t even fit glasses like that under a football helmet.

It goes to show you though, take a couple of good actors and you can turn even the dumbest of plots into a pretty enjoyable movie? It’s the classic “underdog wins” plot with a twist. Dundee (Williams) lures his high school buddy and quarterback hero Reno Hightower (Kurt Russell) into playing a re-match of high school football game they lost 13 years ago. Dundee pulls out ever trick in the book to lure Reno into the concept. Finally they play, and Dundee, after getting banged around the entire game breaks free for a miracle bobble and catch 80 yard TD for the win. Good times.

James Van Der Beek as Mox in Varsity Blues

There is no way that during the Dawson years prime, we can suspend reality and envision Van Der Beek as a legitimate quarterback.

Mox gets the call to start for the varsity team, when the BMOC, goes down with an injury and he isn’t sure he can handle the pressure or all the Cool Whip that comes with it, but he pulled through for the team and this wound up becoming one of the better modern football movies. Amy Smart and Ali Larter? Hmmm.

Keanu Reeves as Shane Falco in the Replacements and/or Johnny Utah in Point Break

Hold still, you’ll just feel a little prick. This won’t hurt a bit. “Pain heals, Chicks dig scars. Glory… lasts forever.”

Somewhere a casting director loves the idea of Keanu Reeves as a washed up ex-college football star as it’s happened twice: in Point Break and the Replacements. Maybe it was that inspired role in Parenthood where he drives the funny-car into a wall. I can’t really say for sure, but somewhere somebody says to themself, “Keanu Reeves – burnt out quarterback extraordinaire. Yep. Solid.” Of this whole list, this is the one role that is actually entirely unbelievable.

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Rod Tidwell in Jerry McGuire

I suppose at the time, this was a decent choice, since we had no idea what Cuba had in store for us, but fast forward ten years and this is the guy who gave us Boat Trip and Snow Dogs.

Scott Bakula as Paul Blake in Necessary Roughness

I kinda hate to include Bakula, but he’s Bakula and Bakula is a one role man. This would be like Barry Sanders playing one final season with the Vikings. In all seriousness, he was great in this role and I was convinced lead a team of outcasts back to relevance at age 34. Necessary Roughness might be the funniest sports movie ever made, so while it would have been tempting to cast someone physically big and more well-known like a Bill Paxton, this turned out to be the perfect choice. Speaking of Paxton, bet you didn’t know he wore a size 14 shoe.

Craig Sheffer as Joe Kane in The Program

This dude kind of fell off the map after starring as the confused borderline alcoholic Joe Kane in The Program, and to be fair, he probably wasn’t the most awkward looking guy to don football pads and a helmet. Still , he’s irritating in that thinks he’s cool, but can’t remove that over-serious look off his face and most likely has a hot temper kind of way.

Honorable mentions: Omar Epps as Darnell Jefferson “The Program” and Corey Haim as Lucas in, well “Lucas”

Dunkirk and Darkest Hour: How a Happy Accident Became the Best Thing to Happen to Hollywood in 2017

Crippled by a perfect storm of new channels for film distribution, secular headwinds dissuading people away from the movie theater experience, a television renaissance, and conservative creative Hollywood decision-making where comic book movies and comic book movie sequels are about as exciting as it gets: it’s fair to generalize that Hollywood has been playing it overly safe as of late. Adventurous high-risk projects that employ unestablished plot formulas or untested screenwriters and/or directors are a rarity.

Yet a strange coincidence in 2017 may have offered up just the evidence we need to see that taking chances can pay off – even if it was a complete accident. Two movies about the exact same World War II battle told from completely different vantage points may have reinvigorated the stale as a crouton state of Hollywood film-making.

Earlier this year, Christopher Nolan released a time-skipping, all-too-real front-lines look at the Battle of Dunkirk, a critical early World War II battle, whereby the British forces backed themselves into a proverbial corner* whereby had the Germans proceeded as aggressors, the Axis forces could have won the war back in 1940. Nolan’s film, Dunkirk, focuses almost entirely on the action on the French beaches of Dunkirk via three vantage points: land, air, and sea with varying speeds and freneticism depending on the mode of transport.

The film grossed $545 million dollars, which in and of itself is a big win for movie fans desperately hoping for more risks or at the very least some headier thematic content – yes, a war movie is considered daring in today’s movie industry – but the real optimism is in the seemingly coincidental accident that later in the year, as the very same battle is told from the Halls of the British Parliament from the perspective of the British politicians making the decisions behind the scenes, via Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour.

Darkest Hour feels like a well-placed collaborative sister film that rolled out in theaters just as Dunkirk hit Cable On-Demand and Streaming sites. It’s almost like watching a different character’s interpretation of the very same events not unlike an episode of The Affair on Showtime. You’re watching the exact same time-period unfold with all the fear and intensity, but from entirely different character viewpoints.

While Dunkirk has the action of the war and Christopher Nolan’s trademark mind-bending of time and space which makes for a more accessible war film – in a brief exchange with the lead Film Editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle, he said he thought Dunkirk was the more likely of the two to take home the Oscar for Best Picture – yet Darkest Hour was his favorite. Darkest Hour is gripping in its own right despite nary a sign of a gunshot. It’s entirely focused on Winston Churchill’s blind-drunk big-hearted approach to navigating a seemingly lose-lose scenario, but by following his nationalistic gut instincts to fight for their country., the extraction of over 300,000 British soldiers from Dunkirk succeeds.

In researching the timing of the two films, there exists to my knowledge no evidence that suggests that the movies were rolled out as an intentional collaboration, but it’s this type of creative riffing that could bring a new level of excitement back to film. This was the first time I felt a complete surprise and instantly wanted more of the story upon leaving the the theater in longer than I can remember.

Mick LaSalle, the aforementioned Film Editor for the SF Chronicle offered this on the potential of an intentional collaboration, “I don’t think they were coordinated, though they may have been intentionally released in a way as to avoid each other.”

In other words, the two films were hardly an intentional cross-promotion, but rather they stayed out of each other’s way at best. Ironically, I view this as a potentially new mechanism for the safety-first Hollywood enterprise – one that clutches on to its formulas like Shake Weights – to embark on more adventurous material in within a potentially lower risk financial framework. For instance, following the success of Dunkirk and Darkest Hour, we could theoretically now have the stage set for additional deep dives into why the US held out so long in entering the war; how did Britain rally back after Dunkirk; or dare I say, a do-over of a Pearl Harbor picture. The new formula becomes the all-in onslaught on a topic of deep cultural relevance or historic significance but told through the eye various auteurs and in a variety of styles – some accessible, some challenging – from year to year.

NPR wrote an article highlighting the strange coincidence of the two films, albeit in the context of the accident being potentially threatening to the two films. I don’t see it this way at all. They are both better because the other one exists. In fact, Dunkirk might win the Oscar for Best Picture while Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill is a lock for best actor. This coincidence feels like a truly unique experience to be savored. Go see these movies back to back, or in consecutive days. You’ll have fun at the movie theater again.

Oldman’s Speech

Churchill’s Speech

*I figure if I’m going to lazily use the saying “backed into a proverbial corner,” I should at least pick a proverb to go with it. So, I picked two: “ Failing to plan is planning to fail” and “Eat breakfast as a king, lunch as a merchant and supper as a beggar.”