The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 — 5A

Carlton on work, future

A thousand miles later, the singer-songwriter is all grown up

After 16 years, six major 

releases 
and 
a 
nod 
from 

Billboard, the Grammys and 
the AMAs, Vanessa Carlton 
refuses to slow down. She’s 
only getting better, really. The 
singer-songwriter known for 
“A Thousand Miles” may have 
made a purposeful exit from 
the mainstream 
stage, 
but 

Carlton has never 
ceased to gain 
ground; she has 
found her sound 
and 
navigates 

the 
stage 
and 

studio 
with 

surefootedness.

“There 
are 
people 
who 

know 
‘A 
Thousand 
Miles’ 

cause everyone seems to know 
that song, of course … but it’s 
16 years old, so if you were to 
hear a record of mine now, you 
can tell I’m that pianist but it’s 
a different sound,” said singer-
songwriter Vanessa Carlton.

In 
a 
phone 
interview, 

Carlton mused on the makings 
of her latest releases, Earlier 
Things Live and Liberman 
(Live), while touching on the 
arc of her prolific career and 
upcoming tour.

“It was probably the easiest 

way of doing a record I had 
ever 
experienced,” 
Carlton 

said, when asked about the 
process behind her first live 
record. “It was the last show 
on tour in Nashville one night, 
and it was a good night and 
we captured it. People who 
don’t know much about me or 
my life or what I’m doing now 
who haven’t seen a live show, 
(Liberman [Live]) is a good 
record to get.” 

Nodding to her now-veteran 

singer-songwriter 
status, 

Carlton confessed it took time 
for her to build up the self-
assurance to do a live album.

“Over the years I really have 

been able to evoke more of a 
vocal confidence and sound, 
and I’m glad I waited so long,” 
Carlton said.

Coming hot off of Liberman 

(Live), Carlton also released 
an EP, Earlier Things Live. The 
short record is a compilation 
of older songs from that same 
magical Nashville night that 
bore Liberman (Live). When 
asked to explain her drive to 
compile a separate EP, Carlton 
expelled the virtues of vinyl 
and the power of choice and 
authenticity it brings to the 
digital streaming age.

“Either you’re streaming 

all 
the 
time 

or 
you’re 
into 

buying 
actual 

vinyl 
records 

which is higher 
sound 
quality 

it 
is 
better,” 

Carlton 
said. 

“I think people 

understand that medium no 
matter how old you are. It is 
a superior sound, so I wanted 
there to be different products 
for my followers and fans.”

But now that Carlton has 

done due justice to Liberman 
and its beautiful moments, she 
is ready to put on a tour that 
more encapsulating — one 
that reflects her breadth as an 
artist.

“I’m going to do some 

older songs and some songs 
peppered 
from 
different 

records to create a little bit 
more of variety in the show 
than 
the 
Liberman 
tour,” 

Carlton said. “(We will play) 
songs that we like, songs that 
we want to rearrange, songs 
that haven’t been played in a 
while.”

Though the upcoming tour 

aims to more fully encompass 
Carlton’s 
decade-and-a-half 

long career, her work is not 
impervious to the stressors 
of the present day. Touching 
on the tense socio-political 
climate, Carlton spoke of the 
essential role that art plays in 
bringing people together. 

“Right now, I’m so disturbed 

by what’s happening to civil 
rights in this country and as 
a woman reproductive rights 
are really under fire and so 
I feel very protective of my 
daughter and I feel protective 
of the earth and of human 
beings,” Carlton said. “I think 

more than anything ... an 
artist during this time, the 
most valuable place is making 
art and making something 
beautiful 
or 
something 

that can connect people, or 
something that is telling the 
truth about the present day.”

Despite 
her 
personal 

feelings concerning the state 
of the nation, Carlton does 
not plan to make her show a 
political spectacle. Instead, 

embarks on her tour with 
a hope for partnership and 
trust between her and her 
audiences.

“There is a trust that you 

are going to be taken care of 
by the audience and that the 
audience is going to be taken 
care of by the artists, you 
gotta be there for each other,” 
Carlton said. “With every 
tour there’s usually a handful 
of really great feeling shows 
that transcend the typical 
performance 
and 
you 
go 

someplace else.”

It is these moments — these 

instances 
of 
transcendence 

— 
that 
make 
the 
grind 

worthwhile for Carlton, that 
have driven her to break from 
the mechanized pop mold and 
break into her own voice.

“(‘A Thousand Miles’) is 16 

years old, so if you were to hear 
a record of mine now, you can 
tell I’m that pianist but it’s a 
different sound,” Carlton said. 
“I’m still privileged that I’m 
able to have a vibrant career 
doing music and making albums 
in a way that I want to make 
them. I’m not a part of the huge 
machine anymore, I left that … 
and never looked back.”

DINE ALONE RECORDS

CONNOR GRADY

Daily Arts Writer

In the land of women

In 
many 
ways 
“Julieta” 

noticeably 
lacks 
the 
stylistic 

ticks of its writer/director Pedro 
Almodovar. It’s tame, as far 
as 
Almodovar 
is 

concerned, sticking to 
a simple plot, down-
to-earth 
characters 

and not even a hint of 
singing.

What it does retain is 

Almodovar’s signature 
feature — women. And, 
not just any women, 
real women, some of 
the 
realest 
women 

created 
by 
a 
man 

possibly ever. It’s easy 
— so easy it’s almost boring — to 
find what’s wrong with onscreen 
portrayals of women. What’s much 
more interesting, and cosmically 
reassuring, is looking at all the ways 
Almodovar gets it right.

Almodovar rose to international 

acclaim following his 1988 film 
“Mujeres al borde de un ataque 
de nervios” The film’s title is 
poorly translated into English as 
“Women on the Verge of a Nervous 
Breakdown.” That film, screened in 
my high school Spanish class, was 
my first introduction to Almodovar.

In the film, a web of people 

become 
increasingly 
tangled 

in each other. In classic, almost 
Shakespearian comedy, Pepa loves 
Iván whose son Carlos and his 
fiancé Marisa want to buy Pepa’s 
apartment where she’s trying 
to console Candela, etc. etc. It’s 
hilarious and impossibly confusing. 
In the middle of it all is Pepa, a 
hurricane in the best sense of the 
word. She’s manic and destructive 
and most of all a force.

His latest, “Julieta,” joins a 

portfolio of films that demonstrate 
Almodovar’s keen observation of 
and empathy for the daily suffering 

of the modern woman. The 
central figure, Julieta, is a woman 
defined by loss, first by the death 
of her husband and next by the 

abandonment of her 
daughter. 
Almodovar 

gets 
increasingly 

close to her over the 
course of the film, 
sifting 
through 
the 

nuances of her psyche. 
He understands her 
deeply enough that he 
can visually form her 
with very little spoken 
dialogue 
(the 
film 

was originally called 
“Silence” but the name 

was changed to avoid confusion 
with Scorses’s film of the same 
name).

To Almodovar, it seems, women 

are the fabric that hold the universe 
together. His film “Talk to Her” is 
a perfect example of this. Despite 
being comatose, the two women 
at the center of this film hold it 
together. The other characters 
are reliant to some extent on their 
presence.

Some criticize what they call 

Almodovar’s stylization or even 
fetishization of female suffering, 
something the director seems to 
address in his 1999 Oscar-winning 
film “All About My Mother.” This is 
a common criticism pointed at gay 
men who make art about women.

And yet, empathy and beauty 

are 
not 
mutually 
exclusive. 

Almodovar’s film do not need to be 
come any less beautiful to be real 
and deeply true. His picture of the 
experience of women, painted in 
striking colors and perfectly laid 
out shots, is one steeped in a deep 
understanding of what it means to 
suffer mundanely. It is very easy to 
show Day 1 of grief, Almodovar has 
mastered the art of Day 1001. 

Raised by a strong community 

of women, Almodovar is clearly 
attuned to the ways women 
interact with each other. Themes of 
maternity and sisterhood dominate 
his family dramas.

Part of what sets Almodovar’s 

women 
apart 
from 
other 

cinematic representations is his 
deep understanding of female 
friendship. Contrary to what gal 
pal rom-coms might lead you to 
believe, the backbone of female 
friendship is not two women telling 
each other how much they like each 
other and swapping relationship 
advice in a trendy bar. So much 
of female friendship is unspoken. 
Its essence is in moments like the 
one in which Beatrice helps Antia 
lift her depressed mother from 
the bath. Or when Julieta returns 
to the park where her daughter 
and Beatrice used to play, only to 
discover Beatrice has done the 
same.

Some 
American 
filmmakers 

like Noah Baumbach and Mike 
Mills have captured the parts of 
womanhood that elude so many 
others. 
Baumach’s 
2015 
film 

“Mistress America” examines the 
overlapping nature of sisterhood 
and friendship and Mills’s “20th 
Century Women” examines the 
role three women play in the 
development of a teenage boy. Both 
films capture the empathy and 
tenderness that Almodovar’s films 
exude. 

So it’s not impossible. Male 

filmmakers can put real women 
on the screen. What is takes it 
seems is a simultaneous look 
inward and outward, a close 
examination 
of 
the 
women 

around 
the 
director 
and 
a 

reflection on how they shaped 
the director himself. Almodovar 
is a standout, but he’s not alone.

MADELEINE

 GAUDIN 

FILM COLUMN

CONCERT PREVIEW

Vanessa Carlton

Feb. 23rd, 8:00 p.m.

The Ark

$30, $37

ARE YOU INTERESTED 

IN WRITING FOR 

ARTS?

Email anay@michigandaily.com or 

npzak@michigandaily.com for an application. 

Questions/concerns? Don’t hesitate to reach out.

PEDRO ALMODOVAR

Right now, I’m 
so disturbed by 
what’s happening 
to civil rights in 

this country

CONCERT REVIEW
Young the Giant steps up

In 
all 
honesty, 
when 
my 

roommate asked me if I wanted to 
see Young the Giant in concert with 
her, I wasn’t too stoked. I love going 
to alternative concerts, especially 
bands that are not as popular as they 
once were. But I’ve never listened to 
Young the Giant beyond their hits, 
and based on those I didn’t think 
this was going to be anything to 
rave about. Boy, was I wrong.

20 Monroe Live, a new venue 

in Grand Rapids, MI, consisted of 
a general admission pit and a high 
mezzanine. The stage’s backdrop 
was a simple black and grey 
mountain, the same outline of the 
mountain that appears on Young 
the Giant’s Home of the Strange 
album cover. The small flags 
printed on the album cover also 
came to life where six of them hung 
on either side of the stage.

After much waiting, and with 

absolutely no warning, Kanye’s 
“Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 
1” blasted through the venue as 
opener Lewis Del Mar strutted out 
on stage to a roaring welcome. I was 
lost, because I never even heard of 
these guys, but they walked out to 
fucking Kanye, so I had faith.

The moment Danny Miller, lead 

singer and guitarist of the band, 
sang the lyrics, “Can you please 
/ Sit the fuck down,” the crowd, 
including myself, went crazy. And 
with the rest of the set, the audience 
seemed to sing along.

The experimental alternative 

band chose to perform most of 

their album in a screamo style. As 
someone who knows nothing about 
screamo nor Lewis Del Mar, I was 
still highly impressed. Although 
I was later told the group is not 
screamo at all, I was interested in 
listening to their original album.

Cross-pollinating 
acoustic 

instruments, 
like 
the 
guitar, 

woodblocks and sleigh bells, with 
an electric sound, like heavy bass, 
keyboard and electric guitar, Lewis 
Del Mar provided a new sound 
for the audience. They were the 
definition of “a great opener,” and 
immediately took the the spotlight 
for the night.

With 
that, 
I 
had 
high 

expectations for Young the Giant.

The band walked out to fog 

machines 
and 
bright 
lights, 

reflected from the stage and the 
audience. Opening with “Jungle 
Youth,” one of the less popular songs 
off Home of the Strange, the energy 
held at the top, like a rollercoaster 
— but it never dropped. In other 
words, it was uneventful.

Still, the band picked it up with 

crowd favorites “Something To 
Believe In” and “Titus Was Born,” 
which involved a lot of sweet 
harmonies from the band members.

And yes, right in the middle of 

their set, they played the song that 
made them famous: “Cough Syrup.” 
I almost wish they didn’t play it, 
hoping the band would move on 
from the trite hit. But they did, and 
although it might have bugged me, I 
still sang along.

They kept going with some 

older material, including “Mind 
over Matter” and “Apartment,” 
and the crowd raved over these 

hits, feeding into a comradery for 
audience members.

With a mix of high falsetto riffs 

from lead singer Sameer in “Mr. 
Know-It-All” and a deep, ’80s 
groove bass in “Elsewhere,” the 
band began to pick up the intensity, 
or at least kept it varied.

One of the highlights of the entire 

show was when Sameer whipped 
out 
the 
ukulele, 
introducing 

the nostalgic and mystical “Art 
Exhibit.”

With a single spotlight on him, 

Sameer said: “This song is about 
how memories warp and change.” 
It allowed the crowd to relate to 
his nostalgia, especially as the set 
background turned into a simple 
starry night sky.

The 
band 
returned 
with 

the second half of their upbeat 
set, 
including 
“Amerika” 
and 

“Silvertounge,” 
which 
were 

accompanied by intense technicolor 
lighting.

And of course, the band couldn’t 

leave their concert without their 
hit “My Body,” which I will admit, 
I was less moody about. There 
was a type of refreshing freedom 
and adolescence that came with 
it, allowing me to wrap my arms 
around my roommates as we belted 
the lyrics to the song of our early 
teens.

There 
were 
elements 
to 

Young the Giant’s concert that 
were lackluster. But their sound, 
their combination of different 
instruments and their diverse set 
list proved my pre-notioned ideas 
wrong. They are unique, and they 
are truly embedded within their 
own category of music.

ERIKA SHEVCHEK

Daily Community Culture Editor