The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, September 22, 2008 -5A
In 'Submarine,'
Pollard forges on
By DAVE WATNICK
Daily Music Editor
It's hard not to write off Brown
Submarine as another installment
in Robert Pollard's seemingly
infinite string
of vanity proj-
ects. As prolific
as he's always
been, Pollard's Boston
output has never Spaceships
approached the
type of eclectic Brown
stylistic diver- Submarne
sity that would Guided By Voices
require him to
assemble a new
"band" to record with multiple
times a year. But that's exactly
what he's done since the waning
days, and eventual retirement, of
Guided By Voices. Luckily, he's
such a genius of creating band
names, song titles and album cov-
ers that his function as (essential-
ly) a half-dozen bands at once has
yet to grow stale.
So now we welcome Boston
Spaceships to Pollard's nonexclu-
sive roster. Their existence isn't
completely superfluous, but it's far
from important.
Don't be fooled. Boston Space-
ships - in both their approach and
music - break no new ground.
The recording process, in which
Pollard sent his demos to his
"band," who then sent full treat-
ment recordings back to Pollard to
receive vocals, is notnovel. Pollard
and Guided By Voices's short ten-
uredbassistChris Slusarenkohave
used this method twice before as
The Takeovers. Now, Slusarenko
is joined by Decemberists drum-
mer John Moen to form the new
"band." So Brown Submarine isn't
special. It's just a collection of 14
new songs.
Fortunately, however, Pollard's
typically energetic spark wasn't
lost in translation in the mail-or-
der make-an-album scheme this
time around. As if anyone's sur-
prised, Brown Submarine squeez-
es disparate characteristics of
power pop, British invasion, prog
and psychedelia into not-so-hi-fi
vignettes that try their damnd-
est to squeeze under the two-
minute barrier. If the record has
any defining attributes, they're
its nearly unchecked affinity for
speedy tempos and guitar-centric
mixes that call to memory the
"Guided By Verde" incarnations
of Guided By Voices. But Sub-
marine is really just more of the
same old Bob.
"Winston's Atomic Bird" jump-
starts the record just like any
classic Pollard opener, teasing
straightforward guitar pop before
veering sideways with predict-
ably unpredictable prog melodies
that give legitimate '70s deca-
dence exercises serious competi-
tion. Dirgy darkness and acoustic
guitars get a quick cameo on title
track "Brown Submarine," but in
less than 90 seconds, they give
way to a serious contender for Pol-
lard's best song this year.
"You Satisfy Me" won't win
any awards for most original love
song (the title sums up its subject
matter succinctly), but it's a bliss-
fully peppy and inviting serenade
presumably directed at Pollard's
new wife. If the fact that he dedi-
cated three whole minutes to the
song isn't a convincing enough
statement that he actually loves
his new catch, use Gogle to find
Pollard's outrageously harrowing
account of the vasectomy reversal
he underwent before the nuptials.
That's love.
Meanwhile,thehypersingalong
"Ready to Pop" ("She's so my size /
She's so my size /She's so my size"
ad nauseum) and riff'n'mantra
"Psych Threat" (more or less a
speed-spiked "Hot Freaks") are
vintage Pollard scoring with his
Robert Pollard
will just not go
away - but it's
not a bad thing.
old tricks again.
Reviewing Pollard has become
a redundant task. Reiterating four
to five times a year that Bob will
be Bob and the resulting album
will be worthwhile is unneces-
sary. And while Boston Space-
ships's debut Brown Submarine
isn't immediately distinguishable
from any other body in the Bob-
o-sphere, apparently the project
piqued something in Pollard; after
afew-year hiatus, Bob has decided
to hit the road again with his new
band. Brown Submarine's legacy
will be that it resurrected Pol-
lard's Miller-Lite-saturated Roger
Daltry touring persona, and that's
cause to celebrate.
with the lovable white robot in this
year's "Wall-E."
Eva is the most interesting
character in the film, as she has
one flaw that threatens Malaria:
She is the ultimate anti-Grinch.
Her evil bone isn't activated, so
she can only do good things -
despite a "Clockwork Orange"-
like brainwash - such as playing
with blind orphans instead of
torturingthem like the rest of the
Malarians do.
Ultimately, "Igor" will be enter-
taining for kids, and the movie does
have some impressively animated
gothic characters. It even has some
good messages that shine through
along the way: Malaria used to be
governed by the motto "Step on
someone to get ahead," but viewers
eventually learn that everyone has
evil bones that we can choose to
use or not to use. Or, as the movie's
bizarre conclusion shows, we can
have blind orphans sing Johnny
Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" to
show us the good in our hearts.
JONATHAN HURWITZ
"Two tickets to the one with blind orphans, please
BBC "Office" star fails to raise lifeless comedy
By Annie Levene I Daily Arts Writer
ot unlike a long-term relationship that
is going nowhere,
the romantic comedy
genre has slipped into a rut. **
There's no real reason to stop
seeing these films, but then, Ghost Town
is there any good reason to At Quality16
continue making them? It's and Showcase
almost as if some bigwig in
Hollywood has passed out Paramount
a "How To" manual regard-
ing the steps to a successful "rom-com." It
has Kate Hudson (or really any sort of bubbly
blonde will do), a goofy, but still attractive,
leading man, a wacky misunderstanding and,
finally, a climatic make-out scene, preferably
while "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"
plays in the background. Every once in a while
a gem slips through - yeah, people are still
hating on "Juno," but no one can deny the end
product was one cute love story - and faith is
somewhat restored in the whole genre. It's too
bad that "Ghost Town" isn't one of those for-
tunate few.
With Ricky Gervais (TV's."Extras") play-
ing the romantic male lead, it's not too outra-
geous to assume the filmmakers intend to tell
an atypical love story. Gervais has a knack for
comedy, and British humor is apparently quite
amusing for us Yankees, but he's not George
Clooney. A little portly, a little short and, for a
dentist, equipped with surprisingly bad teeth,
Gervais' Bertram Pincus is not only unre-
markable in looks, but completely intolerable
in personality. Pincus has a brief brush with
death that results in his gaining ability to see
the ghosts that wander New York City, specifi-
cally the recently deceased Frank (Greg Kin-
near, "Baby Mama"), who enlists Pincus to
save his widow from her fiance.
It has promising actors and a somewhat
interesting concept ("Sixth Sense," now with
100 percent more romance!) but still, the film
fails to impress. "Ghost Town" tries to pro-
mote the use of Gervais as a creative choice for
a romantic lead, but Judd Apatow has already
cornered that niche with his own schlub-falls-
in-love movies. It's no longer that surprising
to find someone other than Dr. McDreamy
winning the girl in the end - we get it Hol-
lywood, ugly people deserve love too. It's not
that Gervais makes an unappealing love inter-
est. He does a fine job depicting Pincus's move
from extreme misanthrope to a somewhat
endearing underdog character. But it's been
done before, and it's been done better.
The film doesn't shy away from borrowing
other trite plot devices and characters. Aasif
Mandvi (TV's "The Daily Show") is the vic-
tim of the always unnecessary "If you're not
white, you're a terrorist" joke and otherwise
is completely underutilized. Billy Campbell
(TV's "The 4400") is another flat character,
existing simply as a tall, good-looking foil to
Pincus. A cameo that fares far better is Kristin
Wiig (TV's Saturday Night Live) as a surgeon.
Her ten or so minutes on screen actually con-
tain as many laughs, if riot more, than the rest
of the film.
Overall, "Ghost Town" isn't a bad film; it's
simply not as good as the film it aspired to be.
Putting aside the "I see dead people" concept,
the film is actually a p 1etty straightforward
depiction of how two people might happen to
fall in love. Perhaps that's what doesn't work.
WANT TO COMPLAIN
ABOUT THE EMMYS?
Write for our television staff.
E-mail passman@michigandaily.com
About Rudolph Steiner's
Insights in Human Life:
What Happens
When You Sleep
by EsnKatz,
emeriusUo M Physics professor
Tuesday, September 23,7:30
1923 Geddes Ave.
Free lecture
Information 734-485-3764
ARTS IN BRIEF
Film
Igor' rides animated
bandwagon
"Igor"
The Weinstein Company/MGM
At Quality 16 & Showcase
Somewhatseparatingitself from
the pack, "Igor" is an unorthodox
story. It's the story of Igor, or the
name given to a race of hunch-
backed assistants. "Igor" takes
place in the Kingdom of Malaria
where an evil scientist community
lurks under the constantly dark
sky. That is, until Igor (voiced by
John Cusack, "Martian Child")
builds a female Frankenstein-like
monster named Eva to enter in the
annual Evil Science Fair.
"Igor" will inevitably be com-
pared to its animated contempo-
raries like "Shrek." The female
main character, voiced by Molly
Shannon ("SNL"), is named Eva,
and coincidentally shares the name
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