Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Show Me the Meaning! (Podcast Review)

The podcast Show Me the Meaning! does a wonderful job of delving into philosophical questions behind some of our favorite films. The podcast’s enjoyable focus and the hosts’ humor help Show Me the Meaning! stand out in a crowded podcast field.

A group of comedians, academics, and filmmakers at Wisecrack come together for each episode. They include Jared Bauer, Austin Hayden Smidt, Claire Pickard, Helen Floersh, and Ryan Hailey.

Bauer helps keep things moving while allowing for the right balance of friendly banter and focused discussion. Like other most enjoyable group podcasts, the hosts make you feel a part of the discussion, not like you are an outsider listening to other people’s inside jokes. And the conversations welcome and inform you without talking down to you.

Each episode focuses on a recent or classic movie, delving into the story and the meaning and philosophical questions raised in the film. But it is not a dry academic exercise. The hosts take you on a fun journey, full of humor and insight. It is one of the rare movie podcasts where you finish actually knowing more than when you started.

Show Me the Meaning is available at Wisecrack’s website or wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play (which I use). If you watched the recent Netflix Black Mirror movie Bandersnatch and wonder if you worked through all of the endings and what the interactive movie meant, there’s a good episode about the movie on Show Me the Meaning. Some other episodes I have especially enjoyed including their examination of The Dark Knight, Starship Troopers, Idiocracy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and each of the Matrix films.

Wisecrack has video recorded some of the episodes and posted them on YouTube. Below is their take on the Coen Brothers film Fargo.

Make sure to check out all their Show Me the Meaning! podcasts. Start out with the movies that most interest you and go from there.

What is your favorite movie podcast? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Marcus King Band: “Goodbye Carolina”

    Marcus King Carolina

    Marcus King has one of those soulful voices that make you feel the person was born to sing southern music. Add in this young artist’s guitar playing, his songwriting skills, and combine with some additional music talent, and one has the recipe for one of the best bands you may never have heard until today.

    In late 2018, The Marcus King Band released its third full-length album, Carolina Confessions. And all songs on the album were written or co-written by the 22-year-old King. The singer, who comes from a line of musicians, was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina.

    The music ranges from slow soul, to hard-driving southern rock, to sweet country. I feel a little Black Crowes, Otis Redding, and Allman Brothers running through the music.

    One of my favorite tracks from the album is “Goodbye Carolina.” It is a song about leaving something behind. But it also is about searching for something more. King sings, “So, Goodbye Carolina, searched my whole life to find you / I hate to leave you but I hope you’ll know /Where I’m going I’ll be seeing you.”

    Below, The Marcus King Band performs the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Check it out.

    What do you think of The Marcus King Band? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Buy from Amazon

    Marty Brown’s New Single From Upcoming Album: “Umbrella Lovers”

    Marty Brown is releasing his first new official album from a label since 1996 with American Highway. As regular readers know, since we first lamented Brown’s disappearance from recording and then followed his musical resurgence after performances on America’s got Talent, we have been hoping and anticipating a new album. Now our dreams are coming true with a taste from the new Marty Brown album, the catchy song “Umbrella Lovers.”

    Plowboy Records is releasing American Highway, which features ten songs Brown co-wrote with Jon Tiven (including one with Marty Brown Jr.). Tiven also co-produced the album. According to promotional materials, the new album’s sound embraces a range of country music — “Gospel to Blues to traditional Country, Rockabilly and beyond.”

    Beyond his own music, Tiven has worked with a number of great artists, including Wilson Pickett. And he produced and played instruments on Frank Black’s 2006 album, Fast Man, Raider Man. That album featured a wonderful duet between Black and Marty Brown on “Dirty Old Town.”

    The first song release, “Umbrella Lovers,” features Brown with an electric guitar groove in the background. The song grows on you with repeated listenings, and Brown’s voice is in fine form and out front where it should be. Check it out.

    I cannot wait to hear the other songs on the album. They feature titles like
    “I’m On A Roll (Better Than It’s Ever Been),” “Casino Winnebago,”
    “Mona Lisa Smiles,” “Kentucky Blues,” and “Shaking All Over The World.” Perhaps what I am most excited about is that Tiven and the producers seem to understand that Brown is a great country singer who should not be pigeonholed into one narrow genre. American Highway is scheduled to be released on May 17, 2019.

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    When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings

    Buster Scruggs Song

    During repeated viewings of the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), I began to fall in love with the duet at the end of the first segment of the Netflix movie. This first chapter that provides the title for the film ends with a funny duet on the song, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” which I later discovered was written by two artists I admire.

    Well, it is funny on first viewing, but in subsequent viewings I found the song to be deeper and sadder, even as the tune is presented with humorous visuals. [Spoilers ahead.] In the tale, we meet Buster Scruggs (wonderfully played by Tim Blake Nelson), a quirky, funny, singing, and deadly cowboy. As in old Westerns, the character is the fastest gun until someone else comes along and kills him. Then, The Kid (played by Old Crow Medicine Show‘s Willie Watson) and Buster’s spirit engage in a duet about dying.

    Let me tell you, buddy,
    And it win’t be long,
    Till you find yourself singing
    Your last cowboy song.

    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    When the roundup ends;
    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    And the campfire dims.

    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    He shalt be saved,
    When a cowboy trades
    His spurs for wings.

    The wonderful musicians Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings.” Once I found out who wrote the song, it did not surprise me that I would fall in love with the song. It also did not surprise me that the song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

    Welch and Rawlings recorded their own version of the song. Their version takes a sweeter, more mournful approach than the humorous visuals in the Coen Brothers movie. Without Buster Scruggs, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” becomes a more realistic dying cowboy’s lament. Check it out.

    What is your favorite cowboy movie song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

    Buy from Amazon

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    New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”

    Son Volt Union

    Son Volt has released a video and new song, “Devil May Care.” The song appears on the band’s upcoming new album Union.

    Reports indicate that Union will largely be a political album. But the song “Devil May Care” seems to be recounting images from a barroom band. So, like the song’s name, it seems to be one of the lighter themed songs on the album.

    Son Volt’s Jay Farrar has explained that “Devil May Care” is a respite from some of the heavier themes on the album, such as another song’s take on income inequality. For “Devil May Care,” Farrar noted,
    “Wait a minute, music is supposed to make you throw your burdens to the wind,’ so I tried to include that approach as well.” Check out the new song from Son Volt.

    Harmonic fidelity boost;
    High pass filter on a balanced line;
    Or a cigarette on a headstock;
    All the same, just make it rhyme.

    Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers will release Son Volt’s ninth studio album Union on March 29, 2019.

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