the other day, i went to the branford public library to scope their dvd collection out. i was pleased to find that it was much better than i was expecting. i walked out with martin scorsese's RAGING BULL and david lynch's INLAND EMPIRE. today, i am going to comment on the former (i'll probably do the latter tomorow). RAGING BULL came out in 1980 and is pretty highly regarded as far as films go, though i guess most scorsese stuff is. lately, i've sort of fallen in love with robert de niro and, as a result, i've watched a ton of scorsese films (taxi driver and casino are my favorites). this was the next logical step and didn't really dissapoint, though i've never really been a fan of boxing or boxing films.
here, de niro plays a middleweight boxer, jake lamotta, who is something of a loose cannon, ferocious both in the ring and out. as he gets more acclaim as a boxer, lamotta's myriad psychological problems begin to spill out. in stereotypical form, he takes his anger and jealousy out on those closest to him. he is difficult (maybe impossible) to sympathize with, but his rise and fall is nonetheless enthralling, though sometimes quite painful, to watch. de niro and his co-stars give pretty great performances, and all of the film's technical aspects of are in line; however, i'm not in any real rush to watch it again.
MUSIC:
not unlike robert de niro's character in the aforementioned film, ANTIOCH ARROW are ferocious, chaotic, and super interesting. emerging from the same early 1990's san diego punk scene as HEROIN, SWING KIDS, and, to a lesser extent, DRIVE LIKE JEHU, ANTIOCH ARROW put out three full length records, two of which came out on seminal screamo label gravity records. "in love with jetts" is the second of those records. the music here is about as fast-paced as it is strange, peppered with all kinds of synthesizers and weird sounds. the band's singer is really theatrical and expressive and kind of sassy; the vocals are rarely screamed and aren't really sung either, they're sort of spoken, shouted, and whined, all at the same time. the lyrics are pretty abstract and weird too.
i like this band a lot, more so than HEROIN and SWING KIDS, though all three bear some definite similarities. for me, "in love with jetts" is an extremely listenable and solid record, especially considering how obtuse the band's style is. i don't know a ton about gravity records, or west coast screamo in general, but what i do know, i guess i tend to get pretty into. apologies if the tracklist for this record is messed up.
http://www.mediafire.com/?2c6mxd9irdd96wk
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