6A - Wednesday, February 19, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
6A - Wednesday, February 19, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
AMAZON
"What's become of my banana stand?"
Amazon's pilots
can't touch Netf lix
We doo't oee any jumpsuits..
Cult band stitches a
charismatic 'Jumpsuit'
Streaming empire
hopefuls need
quality programs
ByALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
Last year, the online giant
Amazon sent shockwaves
through the industry by releas-
ing its television pilots to the
public and allowing feedback
and streaming count to be a
part of its decision process for
ordering new series. Earlier this
month, the company released
this year's batch. There are
three comedies and two dra-
mas up for consideration. Out of
those, at least one from each cat-
egory should get a pickup. This
year's group contains series
from several high profile writ-
ers, including the return to TV
for Chris Carter ("The X Files")
and a potential series from "The
Wire"'s Eric Overmyer.
What separates this year's
bundle from the last one is the
inclusion of the two dramas:
"The After," a post-apocalyptic
drama and "Bosch," a cop drama
starring Titus Welliver ("Lost").
After viewing therm, it's clear
that neither drama is perfect. In
"The After" 's 55-minute run-
ning time, only the last twenty
advance the story; it takes a long
time to introduce the conflict,
which makes the rest almost
useless to the overall arc.
"Bosch" doesn't have the
same pacing issues, but it's
yet another show with a male
antihero. Welliver is a bril-
liant actor doing a great job,
but that's not enough to make
"Bosch" a series. The show has
two ongoing stories, one follow-
ing a civil suit involving Bosch
killing a man and another in
which he solves the murder of
a child. Unfortunately, neither
is particularly interesting. Even
with Overmyer's name on the
show, it fails to live up to expec-
tations.
Amazon's breakout show is
not a drama, but a "comedy."
"Transparent" stars Jeffrey
Tambor ("Arrested Develop-
ment") as Mort, a transgen-
der father who gets his kids
together in order to come out
to them. Despite some flaws,
especially in its portrayal of
Mort's adult children as whiny
brats, "Transparent" is the best
in the bunch. Tonally, it's more
of a dramedy, following in the
footsteps of shows like "Girls."
There are jokes, but the best
moment is when Mort gives
a monologue discussing his
inability to come out to his kids.
Once the kids are figured out,
this show could build a lot of
buzz for the streaming service.
The other two comedies are
not as strong. "The Rebels" is
much more of a generic sitcom,
with punchlines galore and a
cocaine-snorting, gun-shooting
monkey. Unfortunately, all the
gags not involving the monkey
fall flat, even though they are
presented by actors such as Nat-
alie Zea ("Justified") and Josh
Peck ("Drake and Josh").
The third comedy, "Mozart
in the Jungle," suffers from a
collection of bland characters,
even though they are drug-
using musicians who play great-
classical music. The series is
helped by its setting in the
world of classical music in NYC,
providing a backdrop that the
show can build upon.
Clearly, "Transparent" is an
easy pickup. It has an interest-
ing premise and fixable flaws.
As for the rest, it's going to
come down to whether Ama-
zon thinks the shows' issues are
fixable. "The After" 's pilot had
pacing issues, but Carter's name
gives one hope that they can be
solved. On the other hand, "The
Rebels" is generic and bland,
and Amazon really shouldn't
bother with it. "Mozart" shows
more potential than "Bosch" to
develop as it expands its world
and adds layers to its charac-
ters.
Amazon has some tough
decisions ahead as it tries to
build a streaming empire that
can compete with Netflix. With
"Transparent," the service has
what could be its first break-
out hit. With the other four, it's
going to take some work to bring
them up to par with shows like
"House of Cards" and "Orange
is the New Black."
By ADAM THEISEN
Daily Arts Writer
Few bands in the indie rock
world are as idiosyncratic as
Guided by Voices. Motiva-
tional Jump-
suit marks the
band's 20th
record and, Motvational
startlingly,
their fifth Jumpsui
since reunit- Guided by
ing only two Voices
years ago.
In its many Guided by
years of exis- Voices,Inc.
tence, Guided
by Voices has
built up a cult following and
created some left-of-the-dial
classics, and this new record
contains much more of the
same. It's not the best introduc-
tion point for people unfamiliar
with the band, but it continues
the sound that made it success-
ful.
Those who don't know
Guided by Voices will find that
most of their albums sound
like Green Day getting wasted
before a show in some dive bar
in the South. The recording
quality skews lo-fi, but if you
don't get scared off by the dirty
sound, you'll find some surpris-
ingly catchy melodies, such as
on the upbeat singing of the
opening track, "Littlest League
Possible."
Obviously, when a band
releases five albums in two
years, with each album contain-
ing about 20 songs each, not
every track is going to be great.
Motivational Jumpsuit averages
out at less than two minutes
per song, which means that any
song you don't like will prob-
ably be quickly overtaken by
one you do. Everything on the
album flies by, with the tracks
often feeling more like sketches
than fully-developed tracks.
By the time you get a feel for a
song, it's already over.
As expected, the album con-
tains some great tracks and a
decent number of throwaways.
Singer Robert Pollard has
never given a fuck about qual-
ity control (this is a man who
once released a live album that
consisted solely of his between-
song banter with the audience),
but as with any GBV album, his
expert songwriting is on dis-
play here, particularly with the
unusually fully-developed clos-
er "Alex and the Omegas" and
the funny, catchy "Vote For Me
Dummy."
Today, GBV might sound a
little older, but very little seems
to have changed in its style
since the '90s. They're still the
cult heroes of the nearly for-
gotten era before indie rock
went mainstream, playing the
same music now for older fans
and younger ones who have
discovered them thanks to the
Internet. Motivational Jump-
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
suit, like its predecessors, is pop
rock with enough grunge sen-
sibility and all-around weird-
ness to keep it from being more
than a niche success. However,
that doesn't mean it's not great
music: Instead, it's riffy and
groovy, even unexpectedly
pretty in spots. Stuck in that
strange chasm between main-
stream and avant-garde, Guided
by Voices simply choose to give
fans the charismatic rock they
want.
The group stumbles most
when they try to stray from
the straight-forward. Tracks
like "A Bird With No Name"
and "Go Without Packing"
are way outside of the band's
comfort zone, taking on an
acoustic, vaguely English, folk
sound, with miserably failing
results. The mistaken experi-
ments are, however, par for the
course and to be expected of
any GBV record. The beauty of
a band releasing such a ridicu-
lous amount of material is that
every fan will have completely
different favorites. Guided by
Voices mixes it up enough on
Motivational Jumpsuit that
nothing gets too old, and even
Fame and
fortune aren't
what GBV
aspires to.
the bad stuff is pretty easily
digested.
The more you listen to its
songs, new and old, the more it
becomes clear that Guided by
Voices could've easily chosen
to become much more famous
as working-class-style rock-
ers. A bigger label, higher-
quality recording techniques
and a focus on longer songs
(and, by extension, longer cho-
ruses) could've made them a
Kings of Leon-type millionaire
rock band. Fame and fortune,
though, are not in their cards.
Pollard and the band prefer to
write songs on their own terms:
releasing everything they can
without any second thoughts
or rewrites. They want fans,
but only fans who will accept
them for exactly who they are
- and anyone who listens to an
album as strong as Motivational
Jumpsuit will have no problem
accepting them.
SO YOU'RE
A WRITER,
HUH?
PROVE IT.
E-mail John Lynch at
jplyn@umich.edu to
request an application
for Daily Arts.
I I
RELEASE DATE- Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Ci
Edited by Rich Norris and JoyceI
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