Crazytown

THE KOREANS ARE INVADING!!!

We’ve all been so worried that North Korea would launch an attack against the U.S., that no one seems to notice that we’ve already been invaded… by South Korea.

By David Davila (playwright/songwriter)

 

This week I was almost trampled to death by a bunch of obsessed teenagers who were trying to get a peek at their favorite boy band. No, it wasn’t One Direction. No, it wasn’t The Wanted, or Justin Bieber, or any other rag-tag group of little white twinks. It was someone I had never heard of, and I’ve never felt so old… but I’m getting ahead of myself. This phenomenon starts with Psy.

You all heard the song, you saw the viral video, you did the silly little dance at that Pub the other night. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t, there was proof on Instagram! We all got caught up in Gangnam style. It’s a catchy song with a crazy little video to match. Psy seemed to pop out of nowhere with his unique image, and enthusiasm for sexy Korean women and wild dance moves. It’s infectious, and the infection has spread across the world as Psy’s video for his first U.S. single (18^th K-Pop single), became the most watched video on YouTube, toppling Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in a matter of weeks. It has 1.5 BILLION views! That’s a sixth of the entire world population!

Psy not only sold millions of albums in the U.S., he also did something much more important. He created a viral portal that has been connecting teenagers around the world to Korean pop music, also known as K-Pop, one YouTube click at a time. Now the portal is wide open and Billboard has even started counting down the top K-Pop songs of each week, which brings me back to the mob of screaming teens.

B.A.P. is not like any other boy band you’ve encountered in your life. Well, okay they’re a lot like every other boy band from what I can tell. They’re a group of six hot young twinkish boys who sing really well, and dance even better, but they have a distinct brand that will help them gain more male fans than your standard Backstreet Boys milieu. B.A.P. are all Korean gangsters!

 
(When you watch this video you'll understand why the teens were freaking out. It's pretty effing bad ass!!!! DAMMNNNNN!!!!! B.A.P. - One Shot)

WHAT IS JAMES BLAKE DOING?

Genre-bending is so mainstream right now.
By Melissa Presti (Book Publisher) 

What is James Blake doing? Musically speaking, he's part of a weird experimental territory that cannot be easily defined. Infusing soul into electronic and R&B mash-ups is a one of a kind signature, and one that relies heavily upon his classically-trained piano skills and pitch-shifting vocals.

I had a limited knowledge of the boyish Brit when I agreed to see his show at Terminal 5 last week. What is James Blake doing? The eclectic crowd was feeling the vibe and went to church with this man - swaying, hands-raised praising, and crying throughout the entire set. He was simultaneously channeling Jesus Christ and flipping his hair like some kind of heartthrob hero. The man posts up at a station of keyboards and a laptop, grinds in his seat to the delight of everyone, and makes it all appear effortless and normal.

Blake's sophomore album Overgrown released in April and set the stage with the breakthrough single "Retrograde" exuding the omnipresent ache of solitude, and featuring the soul of his songwriting. From there, the album moves gently through seductive song textures that produce a range of tracks balanced on grit and tranquility. His music mixing isn't for everyone, and for the unfamiliar, "Retrograde" is the proper introduction.  

 

What is James Blake doing? This piano man is clearly in transition from a fixture among indie cult circles and quietly infiltrating mainstream approval, whatever "mainstream" is these days. He's tapped into a void, and an obvious American fanbase.

Among the fans worshipping every note, my experience was a continuous string of reactions to each musical shift in his setlist, to the crowd response, to the vibrations that rose from the floor to the tip of my nose.

I'm still half-confused and half-amazed at the unpredictable nature of Blake's highly conceptualized vision; it's dub without step, it's music without house, robotically repetitive, beautifully anamolous, and emotionally exploitative of all of my senses.

What is James Blake doing? Everything right, apparently.

 

MELISSA PRESTI works in book publishing at Penguin Group (USA). www.us.penguingroup.com
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SOUNDTRACK OF MY SUMMER

The most-anticipated musical theatre albums of the summer.    
By Michael Kras (Actor/Playwright/Director)

I don't know what it is about The Summer of 2013, but I've never been so excited by so many musical theatre album releases at one time (Especially from Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, who are knocking it out of the park with the vast number of highly anticipated releases coming our way). Here's a list of my top albums to keep your eye out, and your bank account full, for this summer.

Dogfight

Okay, I'm cheating a bit with this one, because technically, it has already been released and I already have it. However, it's only out in digital download form and hard copies are still on preorder, so I decided to add this gem to the list. Simply put, Dogfight is one of my new favourite cast albums... like, Top 10 material. There is not a single dud out of the 16 songs. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's contemporary pop-rock score all at once funny, rockin', beautiful, heartbreaking, and toe-tappingly catchy. Not only will the songs be stuck in your head for days (or weeks), but the album also begs to be replayed. It's short at 50 minutes long, and most of the songs aren't more than 4 minutes in length, but I think that adds to just how excellent this score is... none of the songs overstay their welcome and they all leave you wanting more. That's the mark of a terrific new contemporary score. And the vocal talent! All of my favourites: Lindsay Mendez, Nick Blaemire, F. Michael Haynie, Steven Booth, Derek Klena, Annaleigh Ashford, Josh Segarra!?? Come ON! Bravo on turning such an unconventional score into musical theatre gold.

ROLE MODELS, OR WHY JASON COLLINS DESERVES ALL THE HOOPLAH

Jason Collins came out, and yes, it is a B.F.D
By Sam Perwin

As the universe knows well by now, last week, Jason Collins became the first active professional athlete to come out of the closet. The reaction (from the media at least) was overwhelmingly positive and heartwarming. Many other professional athletes and public figures gave him kudos, his family was supportive, Fox News was up in arms - all was right with the world.

I would have thought it would be the guy who hikes the football...

There were a few pundits, though, who seemed to say - with good intention - that it wasn't a big deal, that coming out stories weren't really news-worthy anymore. In the age of Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen, Modern Family, and other Non-Threatening Gay Situations, it's nice to think that we've all come to a place where a public figure coming out isn't a big deal. And perhaps in the entertainment industry, we're at least in the vicinity of that place. But this is professional sports, and again this is the first male, active, professional sports player in history to come out of the closet. It really is a B.F.D. And here's why: kids need role models. All kids. When you feel different for whatever reason: gender, race, sexuality, disabilty, etc., your whole life changes when there's someone like you in the public eye to look up to.

I always say that everything I need to know about being gay I learned at theatre camp. I went to Interlochen Arts Camp, a very intense, rigorous theatre training program in Michigan, and that's where I met my first gay role model: my counselor, Pete. I was 12, and every morning we would clean the cabin with Abba blasting and Pete sashaying around with a broom. He took a bunch of us to an Indigo Girls concert; he quoted the Golden Girls in every situation. I even remember talking about Pete's delightful flamboyancy with my two best camp friends, both of whom are straight, and we all gave a collective shrug. Pete was super-fun. Who cares that he's gay?

HATERS GONNA HATE

In defense of new musical theatre composers.
By Michael Kras (Actor/Playwright/Director)

 

I am a huge supporter and advocate of new musical theatre. It is my firm belief that the future is in more than good hands, as long as said future has the support and back-up it needs. How do I support these new composers? I buy their albums, I pimp their work on my Facebook and Twitter to encourage people to check it all out, and I'm always looking for the latest and greatest. It's a win-win... I get to hear great new music, and I make a small but important contribution to said composers for them to continue doing their thing.

That said, I hate reading reviews on these new works by young up-and-comers. Why? Because, in so many cases, I find them just plain unfair.

So many old, jaded critics out there seem to love preying on fresh meat. They're so set in the golden age of musicals and they seem to approach new works with negative prejudice. Of course, I'm generalizing, but it's something I see enough that I think it's worth discussing. A lot of these critics tend to complain about the same basic things. I'll list a few of them, and then explain why each one is total bullshit.

ONE LESS LONELY GIRL

Never Say Never? How about Never Say Anything?
By Alisha Giampola (Actor) 

You guys. Since the news broke that Justin Bieber was getting his WWII history on in Amsterdam and wrote a slightly awkward entry in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House, I'm sure you've all been wondering sleeplessly if Anne Frank would, in fact, have been a 'belieber' as Justin hoped. If you have somehow missed this amazing moment in American pop culture, and have not yet become alarmed that possibly no one under the age of 20 knows anything about Anne Frank, or you know, World War II, please take a moment to catch yourself up.

(And I really cannot even discuss right now that Justin Bieber was born in 1994, because that just makes me feel HORRIFYINGLY OLD. I need to procure a lawn, so I can start yelling at people to stay off of it.)  

To the credit of pretty much everyone on the planet, most people reacted on a spectrum between outrage and irritated disbelief at Bieber's comment, although 50 Cent had the Beib's back. In all fairness, if we ever hoped to discover what was on the mind of a teenage Jewish girl during the Holocaust, 50 Cent's guess is probably as good as anyone's. Also, it's pretty clear that Bieber's comments were made in fairly profound ignorance, as he doesn't even know who the Germans are, let alone the Nazis.

And then, Anne's own posthumous stepsister, Eva Schloss, steps forward and makes the ultimate defense for Bieber's comment. Eva constructs this very scientific logical syllogism for us: all 15 year old girls love Justin Bieber, Anne Frank was (and will eternally be) a 15 year old girl, therefore Anne Frank would have loved Justin Bieber. 

“Tell me what you like girl, tell me what you don’t.
I could be your Buzz Lightyear, fly across the globe.”

THE COST OF STEALING

If you're going to start stealing, might as well make good art with it
By Joanna Syiek (Director/Producer/Blogger)

The thing no one tells you about being creative? The rules are a lot more malleable than we think. Remember everyday-shakeup-and-creative-initiator Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist?

He argues that everything is stolen. And that every creative knows this fact. Art is remix. 

Last week NPR released a case-study in the remix via the First-Listen of the new Gatsby album. My favorites of the tracks are those that fuse the vintage and contemporary elements. In interviews with Luhrmann, the director of the film releaved that he was loate to have the album be entirely '20s throwback tunes, stating that the book is so entirely steeped in the music of its time, it near to drips the jazz age. To have the movie come out in 2013 without a nod to modern music would have rung false to Gatsby's nature. 

Thus he chose Jay-Z to score the film - ensuring that the film felt just as hip and "of-the-time" as dear Gatsby himself. The result is a fab mix of old and new that help usher the character into this modern era with ease. 

Take a listen to one of the tracks, Bang Bang (will.i.am) which borrows lovingly from old school motifs:

 

JOANNA SYIEK is a Los Angeles-based music junkie with a penchant for long road trips, original theatre work, clean graphic design, and really good Indian food. She directs around the City of Angels and writes about nourishing creativity, Broadway favorites, and talent obsessions over on her blogging home. www.thoughtsontheatre.wordpress.com
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ALEX TIMBERS, YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT

You could call him lucky, but my guess is it's talent
By Joanna Syiek (Director/Producer/Blogger)

Two songs have been on loop in my head for the better part of this week. Both contemporary, unique, and key tunes in projects helmed by Mr. Timbers. Got to have respect for the man who put a president in skinny jeans on Broadway, staged a male-mermaid showstopper, and jetted off to Germany to ensure that new musical Rocky would be as big of a hit as its film counterpart. 

Current project Here Lies Love, the new David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical, just became one of the hottest tickets in NY thanks to immesive 360 staging and the killer tunes from the composing team. The musical follows Phillippine First Lady Imelda Marcos' infamous rise and tumble, complete with disco beats.The title number surprises with its (totally sing-a-longable) hook at 2:00:

 

As for the other tune that's invaded my week, The Public released a teaser track from the upcoming Love's Labour's Lost written by the team behind BBAJ, Timbers and Friedman. Slow clap for the lyrical wordplay in the later part of this one. Few people could make a reference to Revenge of the Nerds and jut it up against Shakespeare-style prose. 

JOANNA SYIEK is a Los Angeles-based music junkie with a penchant for long road trips, original theatre work, clean graphic design, and really good Indian food. She directs around the City of Angels and writes about nourishing creativity, Broadway favorites, and talent obsessions over on her blogging home. www.thoughtsontheatre.wordpress.com
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ANIMATION CEL BLOCK TANGO

Your favorite toe-tappers from an unlikely source...
By Ali Gordon 

Today's post is dedicated to unexpected and, ahem, unsung musical heroes... great music found in animated TV shows! And no, Disney movies and any sort of full-length film don't count. I'm talking 20 minute, animated, made-for-tv episodes with music that nails it. 

Strangely enough, "adult" cartoons like Family Guy have embraced the big-orchestra, full-chorus, pull-out-all-the-stops musical number as a means of humor and entertainment (think not just the Fat Man Anthem but also Shipoopi) but it's just not cutting it with "kids" cartoons anymore. Even the Arthur theme song is somehow superior to say, anything ever on Dora the Explorer. 

Why is that? Everyone loves music, and it's been proven that children learn better when lists and facts are set to music. Yet, somehow, the 90s were a time for killer music in animated shows. And many of them are underrated, still.

This may not count, because the song isn't found "in" the TV show, but Disney's PepperAnn had one of the best theme songs ever.

 

I'm sorry, but if this song didn't introduce all you soon-to-be musical theatre nerds to the notion of "screlting" I don't know what you were doing in your childhood. (P.S. It's freaking me out that this video was found on "retrojunk.com" because if this is 'retro' I'm offically old and going to jump off a bridge.)

And does this song stand the test of time? Let this cover answer that question for you.

 

(Hint: the answer is "yes.")

IT'S ALL IN THE MIX

What does your road trip music say about you?
By Gregory Jacobs-Roseman (Composer- Lyricist) 

St. Francis Vineyards in Sonoma.

Greetings from sunny California! I am writing this post from Sonoma, where I am spending a wine-soaked weekend with my parents at their house in Healdsburg. Though I hate, hate, hate that I am away for opening weekend of the production of Once On This Island I designed in Brooklyn (have you purchased your tickets yet? Click here and do it already!) I left the show in good hands and this was one of those mandatory family obligations. Also, I have no room to complain when this is the view out of the front window: 

As fellow Crazytowner Alisha commented when I posted this photo on Facebook: “That looks terrible.”

My parents flight got into San Francisco about half an hour after mine and we immediately jumped into the rental car and headed north to wine country. While searching for something to listen to during the drive, we discovered that someone had left a mix CD in the CD player. It was labeled simply: “US 101”, which happens to be the highway that connects San Francisco to Healdsburg (it actually runs along the enitre west coast of the United States – I sense those of you in and/or from California thinking “um, DUH” when you read that, but as a New Yorker who hasn’t driven a car since 2006 this was all news to me) so it was clearly someone's road trip music. My father hit play, and was instantly thrilled by the music coming out of the speakers. The track list was as follows (many thanks to the app Shazam for identifying the tracks I did not know):

1. This Must Be The Place – Talking Heads
2. Smells Like Funk – Black Eyed Peas
3. Mannish Boy (live) – Muddy Waters/The Band
4. Got You All In Check – Busta Rhymes
5. My Neck, My Back (Lick It) – Khia
6. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
7. The Night They Drove All Dixie Down – The Band
8. Crazyhorse Mongoose – Galactic
9. A New Arrangement – Bright Eyes
10. Helpless (live) – Neil Young/The Band
11. Hillbilly Deluxe – Brooks & Dunn
12. Dead Wrong – Eminem/The Notorious B.I.G.
13. A live 9-minute Latin jazz/rock improvisational instrumental track that Shazam couldn’t identify.
14. Another live track Shazam didn’t know. Come on, Shazam. You had one job.
15. Long Black Veil – The Band