Last month, a tweet sent out by (of all people) Hank Azaria spawned an online conversation that got people flipping through their mental rolodex.
Author: Alexander De Koning
For the past few weeks, we at Era of Good Feeling have been struggling to put into words our thoughts regarding society’s status. To be honest, we’ve never taken any sort of political stance and often times have avoided doing so. It has never been our nature to side with political viewpoints. But the silence from us has lasted far too long, and the public dissolution going right now is only fueled by it. That being said, we stand with our black and LGBTQ friends who have made us better people and the world a better place, and who continue to fight for their lives and what they believe. We are here for you.
In the next wave of Brooklyn bands to break out of the borough, Vern Matz will be neither the ones following, nor leading. By way of Yale University, they’ll be off to the side, observing the patterns and tropes that come with such a scene and turning them inside out. Their music surfs on rhythm supported melodies, where the percussion is merely a vessel to carry such. They do not give philosophical credence between their music, videos or live shows, because they are all one and the same. It’s the content that is king. Everything they output has been imbued inside of them since their formation, thus defining a signature, unified aesthetic.
Last week, we published an article about what the world was missing in the void of live music. Immediately following that, Coachella released their 20 Years in the Desert documentary featuring never before seen footage, thus adding to the stress unalleviated by the only outlet that could relieve such a thing. The twenty-first installment of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival would have taken place these past two weekends, and just earlier this week, it was announced that live music events probably won’t return until Fall 2021 “at the earliest.” Well fuck us then. Sadly, it is not merely a switch that we can flip on and off at our convenience, much to our dismay. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the best concert films ever made to watch from quarantine. Surely this won’t last you until Fall 2021, but it’s a start. Here are our top 10 concert films of all time.
I have never seen a shooting star. I have never been to the Grand Canyon, nor the Great Wall of China. I have never heard a lick of Swahili spoken, nor have I eaten shark. I have, however, seen Nick Cave run across an audience held up by their hands. I’ve seen Jonny Greenwood tear up a violin bow on a guitar Jimmy Page-style, and Kanye abduct an entire audience like a UFO atop of a floating pillar. These are all monolithic markers for which we attribute our universality to. You may not have seen them, but maybe your best friend has, or your teacher, or your parents. They are landmarks and sights we recognize, a single universal point we all focus on in awe.
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Review/Rewind: 2004’s ‘Birth’
Many people slept on Birth upon its release back in 2004, which is a shame because it’s arguably one of the most underrated films of the past 20 years. Jonathan Glazer has only done three features throughout his career (so far) – 2000’s Sexy Beast, 2004’s Birth, and 2013’s Under the Skin. Interestingly enough, Glazer makes his career possible by sustaining himself through music video and commercial productions, putting his cinematic touch on just about every game-changing music video (see Radiohead’s “Karma Police,” “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” and Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity”). Given that it took him ten years to develop Under the Skin due to its numerous rewrites and novelty camera technology, it was Birth that took his career more toward the surreal.
There’s a plethora of artists forging a following through social media, but only a few have become true subjects of fascination by just staying silent.
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So, What Exactly IS Quibi?
During this month’s Super Bowl and Oscar ceremony, Quibi finally unveiled their first advertisements ushering us into a new world of mobile content. The commercials didn’t show too much, only a teaser of what was to come. But even based off the advertisements, I still don’t think the public is aware of what Quibi actually is.
Another year, another post trying to make sense of this bull shit ceremony that more often than not disappoints instead of transcends. There were some surprises upon announcement day (Florence Pugh, The Lighthouse’s cinematography nomination, Rian Johnson’s writing nomination), but at the end of the day, you and I both know none of these has a shot in hell in winning.
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Top 20 Albums of the Decade
The pace at which music has changed this past decade has been almost rapid. Ten years has seen the death of rock as a popular genre, Soundcloud rap as the rising beast, and synthwave as the new punk rock. Many genres have come and gone, styles have melded into each other. So then, what’s next for music in the next decade? Well, the answer is, everything. These past ten years have arguably been the most turbulent ten years in the industry’s history. We’ve now entered an era where a new generation of musicians have not known a world without the internet, where everything is available to everyone. Nothing is off limits, everyone has the same resources (if everyone has super powers, how can anyone truly be super?). But like I say every year, we live in a world where everyone is allowed to like everything. There is no old music or new music, but music we have heard, and music we have not. Here are our top 20 albums from this past decade.