ADAM
THEISEN
MUSIC COLUMN
Songs for summer
These aren’t songs that will
directly help you get an internship
or figure out what your true passion
is. Conversely, I hope this list still
has value even if you already know
yourself and what you’re going to
be doing when school takes a break.
But as the end of the semester
comes and shit gets (more) stressful
and the unknown quantity of these
next four months looms large in my
life, I’m just taking stock of some
songs that I really enjoy.
1. “Work From Home” by
Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign
Don’t have a job lined up yet?
There’s more than one way to work.
As Fifth Harmony proves in this
song, you can always go to work
even if you’re not in an office. And
they make putting in hours at home
sound way more appealing.
In all honesty, though, this is the
kind of song that holds me hostage.
Just writing these few sentences
right now has required a Herculean
effort on my part (you’re welcome).
This beat just opens up a vacuum
in my brain and eliminates all
thoughts
(including
how to spell
“vacuum”).
That’s
not
always a bad
feeling, and
“Work From
Home” is a
nice way to
kill
three
minutes.
But really,
I just wanted an excuse to make
you watch the “Work From Home”
video, which serves as undeniable
proof that the next “Magic Mike”
needs a construction site setpiece.
(Also, how the hell was this director
able to sexualize cement?)
2. “The Knock” by Hop Along
I feel like I’ve been drowning in
new music lately. I’ve been chasing
every offhand recommendation on
Twitter, obsessively exploring any
band that gets interviewed by a
writer I like and trying really hard
to actually listen to songs when my
friends tell me “you should listen to
this song.” I have musical FOMO,
and it’s a problem.
But Hop Along has been a
brilliant reward for this slight
insanity.
The
band’s
Painted
Shut, which came out in 2015,
is one of the best rock records
I’ve heard in the last few years
— this really thoughtful brand
of punk punctuated by the gruff
yet breathlessly pretty vocals of
Francis Quinlan. Maybe picking
the opening track as the best feels
like a cop-out, but the lyrics are
hypnotically inscrutable and even
though it doesn’t even have a chorus
there’s a secret catchiness in the
chaos. “The Knock” is a song that
motivates me to keep searching for
more, to look up all the unfamiliar
band names I see each day. Hustle
gets results.
3. “These Days” by Drake
In what’s probably the first ever
intersection of Drake and Wes
Anderson, this Drizzy cover of a
track you probably best know from
“The Royal Tenenbaums” hit the
Internet a couple weeks ago. It’s
weird, and it’s not especially great.
Drake competently handles himself
on the verses, but his straining voice
when he tries to sing the title phrase
feels awkward and out of place. It’s
hard to fault the singer of a Nico
song for having a bad voice, because
Nico herself usually sounded like
she was singing from bed with a
major cold and giant headphones
playing a different song in her ears,
but her ugly German vocals owned
this song.
When the Drake cover came
out, I also made the unfortunate
discovery that Nico was maybe kind
of a Nazi according to Wikipedia.
This sucks for me, if I’m allowed to
make someone’s hardcore racism
about myself for a minute, because
“These Days” was a revelation for
me when I first heard it. Jackson
Browne’s expert guitar picking and
Nico’s terrible, bitter-trying-to-be-
sweet voice somehow combined
to make a stunningly beautiful
track unlike anything I’ve ever
heard since. I listened to it over
and over again when I was like 15,
to the point where I almost became
depressed that I’d never hear
another track that hit me for the
first time in the same way “These
Days” did (I’ve been proven false on
that point multiple times since).
I like, then, that Drake’s version
carries the torch of “These Days”
while also being kind of a middle
finger to an artist who once to
quote
Wikipedia,
“attacked
a
mixed-race woman in a restaurant
with a smashed wineglass, saying
‘I hate black people.’” I like how
unexpected it was, that it was this
risky music that surprised me, and
that it twists the legacy of Nico
and this song into something more
playful and loose. I’d pay good
money to hear him do Bridgette
Bardot.
4. “Come On a Cone” by Nicki
Minaj
I sometimes wonder if I listen
to too much music. I’m almost
never not putting songs in my ears,
whether it’s earbuds when I walk
to class or blasting songs out of the
speakers of The Michigan Daily
Arts computer or even putting
on jazz when I need to read in
concentrate. The amount of silence
in my life is practically zero.
Sometimes, then, I worry that all
the music I listen to just blurs into
one big hulk of noise, like this single
static note that I can’t appreciate
because I’ve forgotten what life is
like without it.
But then I hear something like
the unapologetic mania of Nicki
Minaj’s “Come On a Cone” and I
get so excited because I know that
no matter how many times I hear
it, I will always be equal parts
perplexed and thrilled by how a
world-famous pop star was able to
put this song together.
With a beat set in what sounds
like an ’80s space arcade game,
Minaj roleplays a whole soap
opera’s worth of characters, from
the angry rapper doing the verses
to the hysterical voice repeating
the title phrase to the aspiring
American Idol contestant belting
“dick in your face!” like it’s “God
Bless America.” No matter how
weird and abrasive future music
gets, nobody will ever be able to sit
and listen and just calmly accept
this song, and it makes me crack up
and smile every time.
5. “Please Do Not Go” by
Violent Femmes
I have no idea how the Violent
Femmes happened. Their self-
titled debut is one of the most
underrated records of the ’80s, and
while everybody knows “Blister in
the Sun,” there’s a whole spectrum
of emotion and experience on just
these ten songs.
The most fascinating part of
this record is how “Please Do Not
Go” and “Add It Up” sit right next
to each other on the track list. You
might know “Add It Up” if you’ve
seen “Reality Bites” — it’s the song
Ethan Hawke sings that’s like,
“Why can’t I get just one kiss? Why
can’t I get just one screw,” et cetera.
That song is obviously a lot
over overly aggressive nonsense,
but it works so well because it’s
preceded by its ultimate contrast
in “Please Do Not Go.” One of the
most sensitive and vulnerable
songs you’ll ever hear, “Please Do
Not Go,” is singer Graham Gano
begging at the doorstep of this girl
he loves, sounding way too drunk
with the way his voice warbles and
cracks. Somehow, these folk-punk
malcontents find a way to break
your heart on this track, but “Please
Do Not Go” is especially incredible
because it’s just one part of what
feels like a single record’s attempt
to capture every emotion of the
human experience. It also has a
killer bass solo.
6. “Beauty School Dropout”
by Frankie Avalon
I just love how in “Grease”
they decide to stop the whole
storyline for four minutes and let
this Frankie Avalon hallucination
steal the entire show. And don’t
be misguided: “Beauty School
Dropout” is the best song in
“Grease,” neither overly cheesy nor
rape-y nor lacking actual words
like its most popular numbers.
Hilarious and wonderfully sung,
Avalon is simultaneously fatherly,
cool and heavenly, which is a
combination I think only John
Legend has pulled off since.
Can anyone confirm if pink-
haired Frenchy actually goes back
to high school after hearing this
song? I can’t figure it out. If I was
alone at Hunter House and Aaron
Carter showed up to give me catchy
advice, I’d probably just go home
and never tell a soul what I saw.
But then again, I never flunked
shampoo.
Anyway, this song is a classic, and
it just narrowly beats out Andrew
Rannells doing the ridiculous
conviction of “I Believe” in “The
Book of Mormon” as the musical
song that inexplicably inspires me
in this moment.
Confused about what these
songs have to do with summer?
Look out for part two, same time
next week. In the meantime, email
Theisen at ajtheis@umich.edu.
6A — Monday, April 11, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
How DC Comics TV
outshines DC movies
By ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
When “Batman v. Superman”
opened to $166 million, Warner
Bros. was celebrating. No matter
what the critics said, their movie
was a hit. It was making them boat-
loads of money which would allow
them to call the movie a win, ignor-
ing the B CinemaScore. And then
the next weekend happened. The
film dropped 69 percent from its
first week to its second, the worst
for a superhero movie since “Hulk”
in 2003. While the movie will likely
make a good amount of money,
it might not reach the $1 billion
threshold WB was hoping for.
There’s many lessons DC Films
and Warner Bros. can learn from
the experience, and to learn them
they can turn to the television uni-
verse. DC TV series are outshining
the films in pretty much every way
right now.
One of the most important les-
sons, which might seem simple at
first, is to have your character’s
motivations be clear and meaning-
ful. It sounds like something from
Screenwriting 101, but it makes a
huge impact if it’s not there. “Bat-
man v. Superman” manipulates its
characters into the titular fight and
portrays Lois Lane (Amy Adams,
“Enchanted”) making stupid deci-
sions (remember the spear and
the fountain, anyone?) based on
what the plot needs them to do.
In contrast, “The Flash” based its
entire first season on the inter-
play between a villain and hero,
giving Barry Allen (Grant Gustin,
“Glee”) a reason to fight Harrison
Wells (Tom Cavanagh, “Scrubs”). It
makes the payoff that much stron-
ger when you drive a conflict based
on character instead of plot.
The DC TV universe isn’t afraid
to go to dark places, but that doesn’t
mean there needs to be an over-
bearing feeling of dread overpow-
ering everything else in the movie.
Both “Arrow” and “The Flash” push
their titular heroes into dark places
where they feel the weight of the
world on their shoulders. (“Arrow”
has been especially guilty of this,
but the show tends to recover when
it becomes overbearing.) Yet, they
never let this sense of darkness
overwhelm the overall tone of the
characters. On “The Flash,” there’s
always someone to bring Barry
back, and make him know that he’s
not alone. Jesse L. Martin (“Rent”)
as Barry’s surrogate father, Joe
West, is especially good at bring-
ing pathos to the darkness, some-
thing “Batman v. Superman” sorely
lacked.
Still, “The Flash” ’s crossover
episode with “Supergirl” should be
the model for what’s possible when
you mash up DC characters. While
The Flash is a natural fit in the
light (and slightly cheesy) tone of
“Supergirl,” the hour still integrat-
ed Gustin well. It was genuinely fun
to see the two heroes fight off some
villains and then race at the end.
While I understand the DC Film
universe wants to match the tone of
the “Dark Knight” series, “World’s
Finest” gives them a template for
what they can do if they just lighten
up.
In addition, while the legwork
“The Flash” and “Arrow” did to
introduce new characters for
“Legends of Tomorrow” is not
a perfect template, it was surely
better than anything “Batman v.
Superman” did to set up the DC
cinematic universe. When “The
Flash” and “Arrow” did their
crossover episode this season,
bringing together Hawkman (Falk
Hentschel, “Transcendence”) and
Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee, Broad-
way’s “Pippin”), they layered in
the exposition with the ongo-
ing story by introducing Renee’s
character early and integrating
her into “The Flash” ’s ongoing
arc. Though films don’t have the
advantage of having weekly con-
tent to work with, “Batman v.
Superman” decided to pause the
movie for a few minutes while
Wonder
Woman
(Gal
Gadot,
“Furious 6”) looked at sneak pre-
views of upcoming movies. There
has to be a better way of integrat-
ing these previews by introducing
new characters for the new story.
In the end, “Batman v. Super-
man” serves as a launching pad
for a massive franchise of films,
whether we like it or not. Still,
though, there are lessons director
Zack Snyder (“Sucker Punch”) and
the rest of the drivers of the uni-
verse could learn, and TV is a good
place for them to start.
TV NOTEBOOK