Milos Forman’s Taking Off is one of the very few American movies that dealt with the 1960s’ “generation gap” with a clear-eyed lack of hysteria and hype. Forman’s sympathetic direction and screenplay (co-written by John Guare) is witty, wise and passes no judgement on its characters - everyone is going through messy changes in Taking Off and ultimately everybody in the movie has something to learn from everybody else.

When it was released in 1971, I remember thinking how refreshing it was to see a movie about hippies and drugs that wasn’t moralistic or pumped up with melodrama. In Taking Off, the kids really are alright. Even though there really aren’t a lot of hippies or drugs in the film, Forman condenses the spirit of the era in just a few well-constructed set pieces that capture the changes taking place at the time. The audition scenes where we encounter dozens of young faces of women who are flowering, transitioning from repression into freedom, hints at a revolution brewing. Forman’s empathy for the spirit of rebellion was further put to good use in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and Hair.    

Taking Off has many memorable scenes. Among my favorites is Vincent Schiavelli schooling a room full of squares on how to smoke pot. It is particularly hilarious with a really sweet vibe and I get a contact high every time I watch it. Other notable moments are Bobo (Kathy) Bates singing her song “And Even The Horses Had Wings” and an all-too-brief performance by Ike and Tina Turner tearing it up on the stage of a Catskills resort. Also, keep an eye out for Carly Simon (she’s not hard to spot) and check out how “Air” by The Incredible String Band is used to lovely effect.

Taking Off is an unpretentious little masterpiece that is inexplicably unavailable on VHS or DVD in the USA. I purchased my Blu-ray copy from France. How is it that it’s available in France (on Blu-ray!) and unavailable in the States? Makes no sense. Fortunately, I found the movie in full on Youtube in a fine quality upload. Enjoy.
 

 
The next three installments (Nocturama; Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus; Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!) in Mute’s superbly remastered Nick Cave catalog are out and they are every bit as good as the eleven other reissues in the series, which is to say, they are very, very good indeed. I can think of few major artists who have had their catalog so lovingly and exhaustively buffed and polished as Cave’s. Then again, so few artists have such extensive back catalogs so richly deserving of this treatment…

Mute’s Nick Cave re-issues, like their fantastic Depeche Mode remasters from a few years back, simply set the standard for wondrefully realized archival releases and they are a terrific value for the money. Each 2-disc set contains a CD and DVD featuring crazy good 5.1 surround mixes (choice of DTS or Dolby Surround), b-sides (in 5.1 also) music videos and an installment of “Do You Love Me (Like I Love You)” the multi-part documentary by longtime Cave collaborators Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard that now spans across all fourteen albums.

I am loath to really try to “review” anything by an artist the caliber of Nick Cave, because after such a long and legendary career, fuck it, everyone’s made up their minds about him and his music. Like many of you reading this, I’m a huge Nick Cave fan. I’ve got all of his albums, the soundtracks. his books, etc, etc. I’ve seen him read twice and I’ve seen him play live more times that I can remember. Nearly every single time, I’ve been in the front row. (I even had an odd encounter with him when I was a teenager that I recount here).

I’m such a big Nick Cave fan that when his Kicking Against the Pricks covers album came out on CD, that was the decisive factor when I decided to actually buy a CD player in the first place (back when they were still really expensive) my logic being “Wow, if this sounds so good on my Walkman, it must sound amazing on one of those new CD things.” The whole concept of “high fidelity” opened up to me via that album (and Marc Almond’s Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters, which also sounds great).

I mention all this, because my standards are high as far as Nick Cave’s music goes, I know it especially well, and because I’m more concerned to answer this consumer-type question for you: “Is this worth buying again if I already own it?” than I am boring you with my opinion on the music.

The answer to that question is “yes,” they are definitely worth buying, especially if you have a 5.1 surround/home theater audio set-up. And yes, I realize that we’re talking about three albums that came out not all that long ago. Should you really re-purchase a CD that you bought within the last 4 years?

I still say yes. For a few reasons, but mainly because of the 5.1 surround mixes. If that prospect doesn’t really excite you, you won’t care about the rest of this, but if you are intrigued, read on…

The most recent of the trio, 2008’s incendiary Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is, for me, not only one of the best albums Nick Cave has put out in years, but one of the best Bad Seeds albums period. It’s a fucking amazing album, but it already sounded great in 2008. In fact, all of the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ records sound amazing. They’re a group well-known for having especially good sounding albums in audio geek circles. Is it that much better than the version from just four years ago?

I think it is. The 5.1 surround mix of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is so rowdy and unkempt and assaults you with such a force. that if you love that album like I love that album, it will positively knock your socks off. Don’t get me wrong, the stereo CD sounds just fine, too, the album is a great, hairy, roaring BEAST… but when you hear it in the spatially enhanced surround mix, that great beast jumps out of your speakers and grabs you right by the fucking throat. The guitars sear your flesh like a cattle brand. The drums crack your skull against the wall and the bass stomps all over your face. It draws blood.

If you love that album like I love that album, don’t hesitate to buy it again. It really is that much better. It’s fucking great. Seriously, it’s fucking great.

The reasons why I’d buy the other two, Nocturama and the twinned Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus. are, well, less enthusiastically stated—neither album is something I’d grab when I want to listen to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds—but I still would buy them. The first reason would simply be to have the whole set, ‘cos I’m like that, and secondarily because I had the occasion to revisit two albums that I didn’t really give all that much attention to when they first came out.

As a result of spending more time with Nocturama and the attendant installment of Forsyth and Pollard’s documentary, I now see it as the album when Cave’s lyrics begin to shift a bit towards the more self-consciously “modern” wordplay of the decidedly 21st century work on display in the Grinderman albums and Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! Musically, it’s not a bad album, but it’s treading water. I came away from listening to the new version still thinking that the fiery 15-minute-long “Babe, I’m On Fire” was the best track.

Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus, too, I am able to appreciate much more now than when it came out. Due to the entire immersive multimedia package that Mute put together (two CDs and a DVD), it does feel like perhaps I was the one missing out on this one. It’s a really good album, but it still feels a bit overlong. After spending more time with it, it’s definitely gone up in my estimation (I felt the same about Henry’s Dream) although like I said, still not an album that I’d grab if I wanted to hear a recent Nick Cave & The Bad Seed album. It’s just not one of their very best, like Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is.

Which brings up the obvious question: When are the re-vamped Grinderman albums in 5.1 surround sound coming out?

Below, the music video for “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Incidentally, something about the title track that I already suspected was confirmed by the documentary on the DVD, that the Lazarus/“Larry” of the lyrics had something to do with New York-based author Larry “Ratso” Sloman who authored a book on Houdini (discussed in the lyrics also) and who is friends with Cave. If you know Ratso, a legendary New York character and man about town, the song is even better when you imagine that Cave is singing about him as the Biblical Lazarus reborn again in New York City:
 

 
You’d have to be a complete numbskull to make Gram Parsons’ life anything less than compelling. Fortunately, Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, directed with empathy and intelligence by Gandulf Hennig, creates a well-rounded and fascinating portrait of Parsons’ brief stint on planet Earth using not much more than a bunch of talking heads. Hennig deserves credit for getting the right heads to do the talking.

Emmylou Harris, Chris Hillman, Dwight Yokum, Peter Buck, Keith Richards, Phil Kaufman, Bernie Leadon, Gretchen Parsons Carpenter, Diane Parsons, Polly Parsons, James Burton and others share their stories and insights about one of the pioneers of country-rock. The Grievous Angel didn’t live long but his presence looms large in the lives of generations of musicians seeking the real, true, twang in the heart of American music.

This is a very fine documentary.
 

 
For over a decade now, All Tomorrow’s Parties have been responsible for some of the best line-ups you’ll see at any rock festival. Their events in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US have featured artists like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Mike Patton, My Bloody Valentine, Portishead, Sonic Youth, Slint, and Tortoise (Simpsons creator Matt Groening even curated one of their festivals). Now ATP is doing a new series of artist-curated music festivals called “I’ll Be Your Mirror” (the flipside to “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” geddit?) in various cities around the world. (ATP is famous for staging festivals at holiday camps, the “I’ll Be Your Mirror” shows are sans accommodation.)

The third week of September, in New York City, Greg Dulli, of the newly reformed Afghan Whigs (said to be absolutely ferocious in their recent shows) will be doing the selection with ATP. The three nights of the Dulli/ATP co-curated “I’ll Be Your Mirror” shows will take place at Pier 36, a newly renovated $13 million dollar indoor concert venue near the East River in Lower Manhattan. I haven’t been there yet, but frankly, the notion of an indoor music festival seems way more attractive than an outdoor one, I gotta say (Give me air-conditioning or give me death).

And speaking of heat, last week, ATP announced that hot as a pistol R&B performer/songwriter Frank Ocean was joining the line-up as the headliner of the opening Friday night show, via Dulli’s invitation.

It’s a hell of a line-up, I think you’ll agree…

Friday 21st:
FRANK OCEAN
PHILIP GLASS & TYONDAI BRAXTON
JANEANE GAROFALO
LIGHTNING BOLT
LEE RANALDO’S ‘HANGING GUITAR’
HANNIBAL BURESS
EDAN THE DEEJAY
KURT BRAUNOHLER

Saturday 22nd:
THE AFGHAN WHIGS
THE ROOTS
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
MARK LANEGAN BAND
DIRTY THREE
THE ANTLERS
CHAVEZ
THE DIRTBOMBS
SCRAWL
EMERALDS
JOSEPH ARTHUR
VETIVER
CHARLES BRADLEY AND THE EXTRAORDINAIRES
AFTERHOURS
DJ QUESTLOVE

Sunday 23rd:
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
THE MAKE-UP
HOT SNAKES
THE MAGIC BAND
AUTOLUX
THEE OH SEES
THE ALBUM LEAF
LEE RANALDO (Full Band Show)
BRAIDS
THE PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT
QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT
TALL FIRS
BLANCK MASS
ENDLESS BOOGIE
DEMDIKE STARE
DJ JONATHAN TOUBIN

Tickets on sale now, priced at $199 for the entire weekend. A limited amount of day passes are also available priced at $60 for Friday & $75 for Saturday/Sunday. (Friday runs from 5pm-midnight; Saturday and Sunday run from noon-midnight)

The Afghan Whigs have released a powerful new cover version of Frank Ocean’s “Lovecrimes” which can be downloaded at the ATP website.
 

 
A feature length documentary about the festivals, All Tomorrow’s Parties, is out now on DVD from Warp Films:
 

 
Happy Birthday Joe Strummer, who would have been sixty-years-of-age today. Strummer was one of Rock’s figures, the link between The Beatles, The Stones, The Stooges, Bolan, Bowie and Nirvana. He was a contrarian, a free-thinking radical, who didn’t speak for a generation, but encouraged that generation to speak for itself.

To celebrate Strummer’s 60th, here is the documentary Viva Joe Stummer, which “tells the story of the man and not his myth”, which is described on Vimeo:

The Sudden Death in December 2002 of Joe Strummer, frontman of the legendary seventies punk band The Clash, robbed the world of rock and roll music of one of its unique talents.

This year marks the 60th birthday anniversary of Joe Strummer. Viva Joe Strummer is the definitive story of one of the world’s greatest rock frontmen, and includes performance footage together with revealing and exclusive interviews with fellow clash members Mick Jones and Topper Headon, Tymon Dogg of the Mescaleros, and ex Sex Pistol Glen Mattock, along with close friends, fans and those who worked with The Clash on the road.

Packed with electrifying hits like London Calling, White Riot and Capital Radio One, the programme follows Joe’s career from his early beginnings as a member of London squat band the 101ers, through the triumphant years of The Clash, and latterly with his own nineties band, The Mescaleros.

Viva Joe Strummer is an authoritative and overdue tribute to one of British rock music’s greatest performers and songwriters who earned his own unique place in the pantheon of popular music history.

Please Note: If you have problems viewing this, check this link for the whole documentary on Vimeo.

Happy 60th Joe!
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

 
With thanks to Tara McGinley
 

 
GULP. I remember this like it was yesterday: DEVO guest-starring on the short-lived high school TV comedy Square Pegs in 1983.

Below, DEVO appear as themselves at “Muffy’s Bat Mitzvah.”
 

 
Eric Burdon and War perform soulful versions of “Spirit” and “Love Is All Around” on Danish TV on January 22, 1971.

This was one of Burdon’s last performances with War. A week after this footage was shot, Burdon collapsed on stage from pneumonia and was forced to drop out of the band’s European tour. War continued the tour without him and Burdon never returned to performing with the group until a re-union gig in 2008.

Thomas Sylvester “Papa Dee” Allen—percussion
Harold (Ray) Brown—drums
Morris “B.B.” Dickerson—bass
Leroy “Lonnie” Jordan—keyboards
Charles Miller—saxophone
Lee Oskar—harmonica
Howard E. Scott—guitar

While clips from this TV performance have popped up on Youtube, this a particularly high quality one. I think it’s stellar.
 

 
Retronaut posted this Circus magazine cover of famous rockers dated February, 1970 with the headline “These People are Approaching 30 - Will They Survive the 70’s?”

Circus called itself the “toughest, timeliest, gutsiest magazine around.”

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Circus Magazine commercial from 1978

Below, The Who rip through “My Generation” at Tanglewood in 1970:
 

 
Here’s a little slice of rock history I did not know about: Joe Strummer’s letter of recommendation for Bruce Springsteen. Strummer faxed this letter to documentary producer Mark Hagen in 1994 when asked about his opinion of Springsteen for British TV film Bruce Springsteen: A Secret History.

ATTN: MARK HAGEN

(Signed, ‘Joe Strummer’)

Via Letters of Note

 
Over the weekend John Vantine snapped this photo of his girlfriend’s daughter writing the the Slayer logo in chalk on a sidewalk.

You can read the adorable backstory at Vantine’s blog. 
 

 
Via Nerdcore