‘Sopranos’ creator makes directorial debut with rock ‘n’ roll movie

NEW YORK – The creator of the popular “Sopranos” is back, this time on the big screen with a new saga set in the New Jersey suburbs filled with teenagers and rock ‘n’ roll instead of mobsters and violence.

David Chase’s cinema debut, “Not Fade Away”, which premiered at the New York Film Festival, is a coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s, centered around a group of teens who form a band and taste the entwined allures of rock music and rebellion.

At the core of the story is Douglas, played by John Magaro with the sleepy eyes and curly mop of a young Bob Dylan, who aspires to become a singer and songwriter.

Along the way come friendships and conflicts among the band members and growing tension with Douglas’ traditionally minded family, particularly his father, played by James Gandolfini.

Joining Gandolfini, best known as mobster Tony Soprano, in the making of “Not Fade Away” is another “Sopranos” alumnus, Steve Van Zandt. Van Zandt played mobster Silvio Dante on the hit HBO television series, produced and written by Chase, which ended five years ago.

A guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Van Zandt served as music supervisor for “Not Fade Away” and taught the actors to play hits by Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks in a 3-month musical studio “boot camp,” he said at a press briefing in New York.

“They’re a band now. They could perform at a party tonight,” Van Zandt said. “It took me, like, 10 years to learn what they learned in three months.”

Chase, 67, said the movie is immensely personal, but he stopped short of calling it autobiographical, despite his stint playing drums in a band as a teenager.

“We never got out of the basement,” he said. “No one ever saw us.”

“Not Fade Away” is infused with music, from the songs the band members learn to play to the ones they dream of playing, the ones they listen to and the music in other scenes viewers get to hear.

And the music illustrates freedom, as promised by rock ‘n’ roll as Douglas tries to follow his dream, and the safer choices made by the older generation, poignantly depicted by Gandolfini as he listens to “South Pacific” show tune “Bali Ha’i” in his tiny New Jersey home.

The movie grows out of the conflict between security and freedom, Chase said.

“Human beings are always in that conflict about ‘I want to be part of something, I want to be babied, I want to be taken care of’ and … ‘I’m free and I can do what I want and I’m my own person,’” he said.

Early reviews have ranged from very good to fair. Some critics praised Chase’s sharp dialogue and his ability to capture the era’s social and political changes, and one described Gandolfini’s performance as Oscar-worthy.

But other critics said Chase failed to develop his characters well and called his plot and story-telling formulaic, bringing no fresh insight to its look at an endlessly scrutinized era in U.S. history.

“Not Fade Away” is slated for release in December by Paramount Pictures.

source: interaksyon.com

Afghans rock out at landmark music festival

KABUL - A young woman grabs the microphone and yells: "Listen to the new generation of Afghans!" In the crowd throngs of young men leap about, shaking their fists. On this October night, Kabul awakens to rock 'n' roll.

The timing of a unique rock festival held in Kabul this week is highly symbolic for the war-torn capital -- 11 years ago this month the Taliban was routed by a US-led invasion, having banned music and erased women's rights.

Out in the provinces gripped by an insurgency and ruled by tradition, such a scene is still unheard of, and would face horrific retaliation.

Just five weeks ago, 17 party-goers holding a gathering with music in a southern Afghanistan village were beheaded by Taliban insurgents.

But for three days in the capital, the opportunity to rock out is seized by delighted audiences and performers alike at the Sound Central festival, organised by the French Institute of Afghanistan.

"It's so amazing. It's one of the best things I've seen here in 10 years," Afghan American singer Ariana Delawari told AFP.

"On stage, I felt like Buddy Holly or Elvis Presley," she gushed. "It's like the birth of rock 'n' roll in this country."

Traditional folk music dominates in this conservative nation, although the tinkle of commercial pop can also be heard.

Anything else, like pounding drums and bass lines, or wailing guitar solos, represents an alien culture.

Qais Shahghcy, a guitarist, was taken aback by the unalloyed joy and enthusiasm of the audience at the festival, which closes Thursday.

"I had never seen such a crowd, that craziness. Look everywhere: it's the new Afghanistan. I'm so happy that I think I'm dreaming," he said.

"One of our songs is called "Daydream". I think it's what I'm living now."

Sweating from his full-blooded performance, Shahghcy added: "I don't know what I played. I played so hard that I killed my fingers".

Outside the building a second stage hosted DJs mixing electro music.

People surfacing for air from the dark room contemplated a mural painted by a local modernist artist, and a hip-hop battle saw breakdancers flipping on the floor.

"In Afghanistan, we face a lot of problems," said one performer who gave his name only as Basir, adding that he had been arrested in the past while breakdancing by police who accused him of not being a Muslim.

"Today, we performed in a festival. It was our chance. I'm proud of myself," he said.

Australian photojournalist and rock guitarist Travis Beard, founder of the Australian Sound Central music festival and its latest incarnation in Afghanistan, said a music scene taken for granted in the West is relished here.

"Afghans are really thirsty for music. The foreigners, who have more access to music, are more nonchalant about it," he said.

He said the festival was an opportunity to show Afghans what is out there, beyond the Bollywood and pop music they are exposed to.

"We try to bring an alternative. For us, it's to show that Afghanistan is more than just conflict. That there are new forms of culture."

Some groups from outside Afghanistan were also invited to take part in the festival, including Sri Lankan metalheads "Paranoid Earthling".

Lead singer and guitarist Mirshad Buckman, 28, drew clear parallels between Afghanistan and the history of his own country, emerging from a devastating internal conflict with Tamil rebels that saw thousands killed.

"We had a 30-year war that ended recently. Ten years ago, there were three rock bands. Now, there are more than a hundred," said Buckman, who was not sure what he would find in Kabul.

"We knew the CNN Afghanistan, not this one," he said. "We were surprised to see how hot it was. When you play rock, all the emotions come out."

source: interaksyon.com

Talent thrives among Elvis grandkids: Lisa Marie

MEMPHIS, Tennessee – Elvis Presley’s grandchildren all have show business in their blood, but their mother Lisa Marie Presley said Friday she hoped they would succeed at whatever they chose to pursue.

Presley, 44, discussed her iconic rock ‘n’ roll father, who died 35 years ago this week, alongside her mother Priscilla during a half-hour talk before Elvis fans at the family’s Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

It was the first time the singer-songwriter, whose latest album “Storm and Grace” came out in May, had participated in an open panel discussion at the annual Elvis Week festivities.

“Really, I just want them to be really good at whatever they want to do,” she said when asked about her children Riley Keough, 23, Benjamin Keough, 19, and three-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood.

Riley, who appears in director Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper film “Magic Mike,” is doing “incredibly well” in her acting career, while music-loving Benjamin is “swinging back and forth” between bass and guitar, said Presley.

Of “the little ones,” she said Finley “is definitely going to sing… that child loves music,” while potential thespian Harper can recreate any movie she sees “scene by scene, line by line, exactly as she saw it.”

Asked what the twins make of their iconic grandpop, Presley said: “They are very, very, very proud. ‘That’s my grandfather! I want to see my grandfather!’ They have such a sense of pride. It’s really cute.”

Presley had her older children with her first husband, musician Danny Keough, and the youngest ones with her current spouse, music producer Michael Lockwood. She was also married to the late Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.

source: interaksyon.com

Ted Nugent’s drummer arrested in golf cart drink-drive fracas

Mick Brown, the drummer in Ted Nugent’s band, faces several charges after police in Bangor, Maine, say he was driving drunk in a golf cart stolen from a concert venue. According to reports, there were also two females on board the cart at the time.

Officers working at Nugent’s concert last night at Bangor’s Waterfront Pavilion – also featuring Styx and REO Speedwagon – were told that Brown was intoxicated, had stolen the cart and was driving it recklessly on a foot path.

Police say when officers tried to stop the cart, Brown accelerated past them and shoved a security officer.

Two security officers then managed to extricate Brown from the cart, and he was arrested.

Brown was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving to endanger, theft and assault. He was released on $4,000 bail.

Officially the most rock’n'roll story of the year so far.

source: classicrockmagazine.com

DVD Review: Robert Plant and the Band of Joy

Bands take time to find themselves. At first, they’re strangers in search of a sound — a signature that says more about them together than any individual player’s style could alone. If they don’t find it, they’ll end up as just hired hands, punching the clock for the pushiest player’s vision.

Band of Joy learned that the hard way. In 2010, leader Robert Plant gathered some well-seasoned musicians in Nashville for a project meant to follow up a wildly successful band he’d formed with Alison Krauss. Raising expectations even higher, Plant named his new fivesome after the band he played in with drummer John Bonham, just before the two got tapped for some group named Led Zeppelin.

Unfortunately, the studio CD Band of Joy concocted ended up sounding like a pale and constipated sequel to the Krauss project. Only after they went on tour did the tentative new group find itself as a band — in the most stirring sense of the term, no less.

Proof lies in a new DVD, “Live From the Artists Den,” which captures Band of Joy’s date in Nashville (where they recorded their stodgy studio work). The DVD mirrors my memory of the Beacon show from the same tour in January 2011, a performance which ranks among the most electrifying I’ve seen Plant give. And, yes, that includes the Zeppelin dates I saw in the ’70s.

Only on the road did Band of Joy learn to play in intimate synch. The rhythm section of bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino lay down a deep and warming foundation for the rest to play away on. Giovino sits way back in the beat, leaving lots of room for the high-flying solos of pedal steel player Darrell Scott and ax-man Buddy Miller. Miller emerges as a full-fledged guitar hero in the flamboyant ’60s fashion.

If Miller adds the strongest rock influence, the others bring in tricked-out elements of country, folk and blues.

Zeppelin touchstones like “Black Dog” hew closer to swamp blues, oozing with voodoo beats that come straight from the bayou. Zep’s “Tangerine” exaggerates its original country twang, while “Houses of the Holy” moves from psychedelia to a roots-rock swing.

Besides the six Zeppelin songs, Band of Joy offer cuts from their studio album, but with far more grease, along with a Plant solo song (“In the Mood”) and some gospel and folk pieces. The latter cuts allow the other singers to show their mettle, including the churchy shouts of Patty Griffin on “Move Up,” and the caring moans of Darrell Scott and Miller on their leads.

Plant himself pares down his vocals from his Golden God role to become a credible country raconteur. Perhaps the only letdown is the take on Zep’s “Rock ’n’ Roll,” which returns it to rote rockabilly — exactly what the 1971 original subverted.

Luckily, in the rest, Joy wind up idealizing the very notion of a live band — one that seems both ruthlessly tight and utterly free all at once.

source: nydailynews.com