The Filtered Excellence: November 8, 2018
Bob Geldof once asked us, “Where is the filtered excellence!?” It’s right here. Once a week we take a break from comedy to bring you this week’s picks of the best things to watch, the most interesting things to do, great things to try, the best picks to read, our favorite things to listen to and more.
WATCH THIS
The Price Of Everything. Nathaniel Kahn directs this new documentary examining how the role of art and artistic passion plays out in a money-driven world. He talks current stars Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby and one-time art star Larry Poons, along with collectors, dealers and auctioneers to show how the ongoing battle between art and commerce plays out in pricing – and how it affects the work. It also displays how what is happening in the contemporary art world is directly mirroring what is happening with the world at large. Seeing the artists being fueled by the creative muse justapoxed with the intensity of those seeking to acquire it, makes this fascinating and thought-provoking. The Price Of Everything premieres November 12th on HBO. You can also go to www.hbo.com for more information.
LISTEN TO THIS
The Long Way by Tiny Hazard. In the fall of 2017, Tiny Hazard spent a week recording tracks in a barn in Vermont. Now the follow up to 2017’s critically acclaimed album Greyland is out and it marks an exiting new direction for the Brooklyn-based group. Led by vocalist Alena Spanger and guitarist Ryan Weiner (who also mixed the EP), Tiny Hazard shift away from Greyland’s start and stop art pop and move more into atmospheric dream pop than dominated the late 80s and early 90s. It’s a seamless transition as Spanger’s vocal acrobatics soar over the haunting melodies laid down by Weiner, bassist Derek Leslie, Ron Stockwell on drums and sound alchemist Anthony Jillions. A bold and exciting new chapter for a band that truly cut out their own place in today’s musical landscape. The Long Way by Tiny Hazard is available now through Bandcamp (www.badabingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-way), Itunes and Spotify.
Negative Capability by Marianne Faithfull. Very few artists have had a career arc as Marianne Faithfull. She has gone from pop chanteuse to post punk/goth pioneer to a world-weary intrepreter of songs by artists ranging from Kurt Weill to Blur. For her latest album, Faithfull revisits two songs from her back catalog: Her first hit, ‘As Tears Go By’, is given a new treatment that gives the Jagger-Richards compostion much more introspection, experience and depth than when she recorded back in 1964. ‘Witches Song’, from her 1979 comeback album Broken English, is transformed into an uplifting folk song. Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’, which she recorded back in 1971, becomes a slow grinding, almost trance setting even though the lyrics have lost none of their bite. The rest of the album – which she co-wrote with long time collaborators Nick Cave and Ed Harcourt, are deep meditations on loneliness, death, aging, and love. Her most striking song is ‘They Come At Night’, which angrily deals with the senselessness behind the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Faithfull has called this album ‘the most honest record she’s ever made’. It also continues a string of an exceptional albums she’s made over the last two decades. Negative Capability by Marianne Faithfull is available now through Amazon, Itunes and all major streaming services.
Electric Ladyland – 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in the fall of 1968, Electric Ladyland captures Hendrix at the peak of creative and cultural powers. He had complete control over the sprawling double album, which reached #1 on the U.S. Album Charts for two weeks and made him the most sought after live act in rock. It also contained Hendrix’s only Top 40 hit, a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’. To coincide with the 50th Anniversary of its release, this new 4-CD deluxe edition features the original 16-track album, a surround-sound mix on Blu-Ray, alternate takes, previously unreleased demos, a documentary about the making of the album, and a blistering concert CD recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl one month before the album’s release. It’s the most comprehensive look at the guitar great’s biggest artistic statement. Electric Ladyland: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by The Jimi Hendrix Experience is available now through Amazon. .
READ THIS
Just Kids: Illustrated Edition by Patti Smith. Patti Smith’s best-selling 2010 memoir about her formative years in New York City with Robert Mapplethorpe is getting reissued with several cool extras: Iconic photos by Judy Linn, Kate Simon, and Harry Smith, along with a new introduction from Smith. It perfectly compliments Smith’s exquisite and heartfelf story of two outsiders falling in love and into an a creative arts scene that was on the cusp of turning the pop culture landscape inside out – even as the city is on the brink of financial ruin and moral decay. A love story that becomes and elegy, this is Patti Smith at her most introspective, and heartfelt. The illustrated edition of Just Kids is avaialble now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all major book retailers.
DO THIS
New York City. DOC NYC. Since 2010, DOC NYC has been the premier festival to showcase documentaries that run the gamut from history and memoir, to reportage and humor. This year’s lineup is more eclectic and encompassing than ever. Among the films being featured: Amazing Grace, Sydney Pollack’s 1972 Aretha Franklin concert film that captures the recording of the live album of the same name; Jonathan Alter’s Breslin And Hamill: Deadline Artists, which profiles long time New York City journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill; It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story, an endearing look back at the legendary jazz label; the world premiere of My Perfect World, the eagerly awaited look at the life of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez; and The Ghost Of Peter Sellers, documenting an aborted film project starring – and sabotaged – by the late comedic great. If you love documentaries in all of their incarnations, this fesival is a must see. DOC NYC will take place at IFC Center, The SVA Theatre and Cinepoilis Cinema through November 15th. You can also go to www.docnyc.net for tickets, a complete run of events and additional information.
New York City. Andy Warhol – From A To B And Back Again. Over 30 years after his death, Andy Warhol’s presence is still being felt through the cultural landscape. Now The Whitney Museum is going all in with to the first major American Warhol retrospective since 1988. With over 300 works spanning his entire career taking up all of the entire 5th floor (and parts of the 6th), it will cover everything from Warhol’s works as an in-demand Madison Avenue illustrator; hand pained pop pieces, mechanical reproductions, silver screens, installations, portraits, films, collaborations and much more. An essential exhibit for the hardcore fan and newbie alike. Andy Warhol – From A To B And Back Again will be at The Whitney Museum through March 31, 2019. You can also go to www.whitney.org for tickets and additional information.
Want more excellence? Read last week’s the filtered excellence.
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