The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 5A
Pimps of Joytime
to rock Blind Pig
Eclectic band to
mix funk, soul and
rock 'n' roll
By JACKSON HOWARD
Daily Arts Writer
There are few bands out
there that have a magical abil-
ity to walk into a venue in what-
ever part of
the world and The Pimps
simply play of .oytime
music that gets
feet moving. Thursday
The Pimps of at 9 p.m.
Joytime are
one of them. Blind Pig
Since 2005, $10
the group, led
by frontman
Brian J, has grown from playing
basement parties in Brooklyn to
playing over 100 shows per year,
including stops along the fes-
tival circuit at Bonnaroo, High
Sierra, Outside Lands and more.
Despite a grueling, seem-
ingly nonstop tour schedule, the
band - Brian, Chauncey Year-
wood, Mayteana Morales, Clark
Dark and Eric Bolivar - puts on
show after show of high-energy,
danceable and bone-shakingly
funky music.
"Most of the time, because
there's a lot of heavy grooves
going on, it turns into a dance
party," Brian explained in a
Skype interview from Costa
Rica, where the group is playing
a few shows before coming to
Ann Arbor on the 21st.
"I know when I go to see a
band, one of my favorite things
is if you can make me dance and
hit me with some cool melo-
dies and cool songs at the same
time. I just love that," Brian said.
"That's something I strive for -
not just to make it a dance party,
but we're also sneaking bits of
quality in there."
The origins of the band's
distinctive multi-genre sound,
Brian J said he likes to get the crowd on its feet at his shows
which includes elements of funk,
soul, rock and world music, were
part of Brian's childhood. His
father listened to a variety of
blues and soul music as well as
early 1960s and 1970s rock 'n'
roll. He grew and immersed
himself into funk, heavy rock
and, later, a variety of world
music from Latin America and
Africa.
This eclectic musical growth
was only further compounded in
the late 1990s and early 2000s,
when Brian and his future band-
mates were making music in New
York City. "(Brooklyn) just got to
be this ultra-hip place. In 1999 or
2000, it really started to be this
special place where you had kids
of different cultural backgrounds
all sort of mixing together," he
said. "And for me, that was really
cool. I had never experienced
that."
"In most places, the cultures
wouldn't mix together," Brian
added. "But (in Brooklyn) there
were those couple places where
everyone got together and par-
tied and got down to the same
DJ. That was special."
Given the band's frantic tour
schedule, recording can be
drawn out. The group laid down
Janxta Funk - a follow up to the
2008 debut, High Steppin' - on-
and-off over the course of the
year in Brian's own studio and
on the road.
The frequent touring hasn't
stopped Brian from thinking
ahead, however, and a third
record is taking shape.
"I have the feeling it will be
the fall by the time it comes out,
because we're really trying to do
this one right," he explained. "I'm
trying to make it the best album
yet," he added. "Just the most
powerful album we can do."
Ultimately, at a time when art-
ists appear increasingly focused
on commercial success, the
Pimps of Joytime concentrate on
one basic thing: music.
"My philosophy is I want to
make good music. Just the best
music I can make that I love,"
Brian said. "I really want to be
successful, but I'm not going to
sacrifice any integrity musically."
"To be aware of what's hap-
pening around you in the era
that you live in but to make
music that comes from your
heart, that is really a statement,
that is unique to you," he added,
pausing for a moment. "That's
what I'm doing."
Asc
"Maybe this map will lead us down a better career path."
Zero our' fails to take
te pace of 'ost'
. Beyonce's life uncovered in
all-new HBO documentary
By GIBSON JOHNS
OnlineArtsEditor
Between her slaying of the
National Anthem at the Inaugura-
tion, her rebuttal to haters at her
"Any Questions?" press confer-
ence and her bar-raising Super
Bowl halftime show performance,
Beyonce has been delightfully
unavoidable this year, and "Life
Is But A Dream" continues that
trend.
This self-produced HBO doc-
umentary - which combines
footage from at-home camcord-
ers, professional recordings and
Beyonce's intriguingly active
webcam - follows the star start-
ing with her decision to part ways
(professionally) with her father
and become her own manager as
she begins recording her fourth
studio album, 4.
From the film's opening min-
utes, then, Bey proves that for the
next hour and a half,nothing is off-
limits. We get immediate reactions
to her first pregnancy and subse-
quent unpublicized miscarriage.
We see home video footage of her
tearful toast at Jay's birthday cel-
ebration from 2006. And we even
get our first good look at daughter
Blue Ivy (who looks an awful lot
like Jay-Z, by the way).
Interspersed between these
intimate moments are clips from
her comeback concert in Atlan-
tic City, N.J. and an interview in
which she elaborates on all of the
topics above. As a whole, it serves
as a video collage of a two-year
period of her life during which a
myriad of ups and downs forced
her to reevaluate her career, gain
a greater appreciation for her
family and
start down First seen on
a road of .- the filter
indepen-
By RADHIKA MENON
Daily Arts Writer
What do you get when yout
mix magical Christians, a Nazi
conspiracy, an evil, white-eyed
man and tick-
ing clocks?
No, it's not
"The Da Vinci Zero Hour
Code." It'sT
ABC's lowest- Thursdays
rated drama at9p.m.
ever (and for ABC
good reason),
"Zero Hour."
Ever since "Lost" proved
that science fiction, mythology
and conspiracy story-telling
could sell to mass audiences,
the networks have been franti-
cally searching for a show that
excites viewers in the same
way. There was the short-lived
"FlashForward" and the even
shorter "The River," both of
which were canceled within the
first season. "Zero Hour" tries
desperately to fill the void of
the powerhouse "Lost," break-
ing the one rule of television:
Never try to imitate one of the
greats.
To put it frankly, "Zero
Hour" is batshit crazy. Hank
Galliston (Anthony Edwards,
"ER") - the owner of Modern
Skeptic, a suspiciously success-
ful paranormal magazine - is
thrown into a decades-old con-
spiracy when that evil, white-
eyed guy abducts his wife Laila
(Jacinda Barrett, "Poseidon").
THE
OSCARS
ARE
COMING.
WE'RE EXCITED.
JOIN US.
AND CHECK
OUT OUR
PODCAST
LATER THIS
WEEK!
E-mail arts@
michigandaily.
com to request an
application.
What f
chase<
and int
norther
tikas at
etched
a plethl
you yet
The1
in "Zer
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engage:
too muc
cution
low. Nc
charact
the bac
acy or,
much t
the pie
"Zero H
at the e
a monoI
solidify
confuse
them u
again.
AB
CO.
my
Whil
Edward
lacks sp
ter, Ha:
ollows is a wild goose bland. His two minions at the
across New York City newspaper are obviously in place
o the arctic tundra of to bring sexual tension into the
n Canada, with swas- fold, but the pair doesn't have
nd Nazis, treasure maps enough chemistry to pull it off.
into tiny diamonds and Scott Michael Foster of "Greek"
ora of clocks (have I lost fame still boasts the shaggy
?). skater hair and nonchalant atti-
many swirling variables tude, which begs the question of
o Hour" lack clarity, hin- whether Cappie was transplant-
any chance of audience ed straight from Cyprus Rhodes
ment. Simply put, there's to Modern Skeptic.
ch going on, and the exe- The silver lining here is that
makes it difficult to fol- the plot and characters are so
ot enough time is spent terrible that it's mildly enter-
erizing and outlining taining. While the conspiracy
kground of the conspir- involving Nazis, churches and
the characters, and too clocks is confusing at best, the
ime is wasted in forcing hilarity of it all is undeniable.
ces together. The term The big reveals don't pack the
Jour" is defined vaguely punch that the writers might
rnd of the episode - for have hoped for and are instead
logue that is supposed to both predictable and boring.
the premise, it instead Being so awful, "Zero Hour" 's
s the viewers and leaves main downfall is that it doesn't
nmotivated to tune in fully commit to the weird -
the oddities just hang around
cautiously in the background,
instead of being embraced and
C mistakes incorporatedhrouou
"ro Hour" would have fit
infusion for better circa 2006, when "The
Da Vinci Code" 'a type of genre
stery ... once was still big. But today, this type
of conspiracy plot feels outdated
again, and weak. It's high time that net-
works stop trying to fill the hole
that "Lost" has left behind and
begin focusing on more fresh
e the acting is OK, and original premises. Let's
Is's portrayal of Hank reset the clock on "Zero Hour"
rarks. For a main charac- and pretend that we didn't waste
nk is unsympathetic and our time with this.
DROP THE
TWEET.
@MICHDAI LYARTS
Hello, peasants.
dent thinking. the ones that focus on Beyonce:
The film does have its imperfec- The Innovator. Regardless of your
tions: Why does her performance opinion on how genuine this film
of the provocative single "Baby is, you can't ignore the dedication
Boy" featuring Sean Paul lead into Beyonc6 has to her musical craft.
her discussion ofther miscarriage? The amount of work she put into
It just seemed a bit inappropriate. her illusory performance at the
And her claim that people tend to 2011 Billboard Awards - argu-
incorrectly assume that celebrities ably her best performance ever -
live flaw-free lives negates itself by showed first-hand how she strives
playing over footage of her and Jay to make each and every perfor-
on a private helicopter ride. Some mance she gives a complete expe-
of these moments carry a certain rience. She's telling stories and
convenience to them that can empowering women and giving
become suspect, but that seems it everything she's got, really, as a
to be an inevitable quality of this "thank you" to us - her fans.
documentary. After all, up until "Life Is But A Dream," a reveal-
this point, Beyonc6 had never been ing portrait of a rejuvenated Beyon-
truly accessible to us and nowshe's c6 Knowles, humanizes a person
self-producing a film that throws that, almost literally, runs our
all of her at us at once. We're bound world. It might seem like the praise
to wonder why now, aren't we? for Beyonce is at an all-time high
these days, but that's because we're
finally appreciatingher for magnifi-
Behind centabilities as an artist.If yqu're
tired of the Beyonce train, then
Beyonce's reign you'd betterget out of waybecause,
with her impending fifth album
and Mrs. Carter Show World Tour,
this train is justgetting going.
In the end, though, the positives - The original version of this
of "Life Is But A Dream" over- article was published online on
shadow these slightly question- TheFilter, the Daily Arts blogon
able moments. My favorite bits are Feb. 18.
A