Great Jack White Interview With Kennedy

I just watched a great interview with Jack White and Kennedy. Or should I say, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, which is her full name. I never knew that! You learn something new everyday. 

I also learned that I share my Scottish and Eastern European ancestry with both Jack White and Kennedy. Both are Scottish, while Kennedy is Romanian and White is Polish. I'm Scottish, Irish, Polish, possibly Romanian or Hungarian. It's often hard to pin this stuff down. My brother has been researching our family ancestry for years and passes on new tidbits as he discovers them. I find it all perfectly fascinating.

The interview took place at Lollapalooza which in turn took place last weekend in Chicago.

Punch Brothers In October + Chris Thile On NPR

I'm very excited to share that I'll be going to see Punch Brothers live in concert in October! And I have fourth row seats. Crazy. Unbelievable. Amazing. I can't wait!

Chris Thile (second from the right in the photo above) was interviewed recently on NPR's Here and Now and it was a real treat. He was so funny and down to earth. And charming in his enthusiasm for the mandolin.

Oy vey! Funny? Charming? I think I may have a crush on this fellow.

The Colbert Bump + 1000 Blue Helium Balloons

I love watching Stephen Colbert and Jack White together. Colbert is always in perfect form. And it's great to see White play the "straight man" to Colbert's grammy-obsessed-funny-man-host.

And so, when I saw that Jack White had been on The Colbert Report on April 26th, I was one very happy girl. Not only was the "interview" priceless and very funny, but Jack White and his all male band The Buzzards performed "Freedom At 21" , which is one my favorite songs on Blunderbuss.

The two men discuss the famous "Colbert Bump", the Grammys (of course), and the recent Third Man Records release of 1000 blue helium balloons into the sky.

And if you haven't yet watched the Colbert/White 2000 and 1...and 1: A Rock Odyssey and/or "Catholic Throwdown" from last Summer, I tell you. Watch them immediately. They're so, so good. And you'll get to hear Colbert sing his "chart adjacent" 80s synth-pop hit "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)". Also priceless. 

P.S. I was driving around today (a full three days after writing the above portion of this post), running errands, listening to Blunderbuss, when I remembered something that made me burst into a fit of the giggles. During the afore mentioned Colbert/White "interview" on April 26th, Stephen Colbert asks Jack White if there was any way that he could to do some backing vocals on the album (post-release of said album!?!) He then goes on to sing these amazing, hilarious background style vocals. They even show a clip of his singing edited into the "Love Interruption" music video.

Very funny stuff. I'm giggling still, as I write.

Jack Black Will Blow Your Mind

Yes, you read it correctly. I'm writing about a different Jack this time around: the one and only Jack Black. 

As the star of School of Rock, Jack Black charmed my socks off. He was funny and smart, and the rock history chalkboard chart (pictured above) was perfection. 

And so, I was pleasantly surprised/very happy to hear Mr. Black on NPR's Fresh Air last week, and even stayed home to listen to the interview in its entirety (when I otherwise should have been running errands). NPR hasn't had me laughing so hard since the Muppet interviews toward the end of last year and earlier this year. And those were some very funny interviews. 

This interview was primarily about Jack Black's music career, starting with a love of both Van Halen and Bobby McFarrin in high school (which he referred to as the "yin and yang" of his musical tastes). He was also active in musical theater, playing the lead role in his high school production of Pippin, and went on to form Tencaious D and sing in movies like High Fidelity and the afore mentioned School of Rock. He talked a lot about wanting to "blow peoples' minds" with his voice, which he demonstrated for us at one point, calling it "vocal flexing". Half in jest and half in all seriousness, I think. 

I really enjoyed the interview and found Jack Black relatable, down to earth, charming, and sincere.

Jack White + Gary Oldman = Something Fantastic

Jack White's long awaited solo album Blunderbuss has been released. It's a real keeper, but I'll write more on that later. This post is about Jack White's recent American Express Unstaged live show, directed by none other than the great Gary Oldman. The performance was streamed live on Vevo this past Friday. I didn't watch because (as you may know) I'll be seeing Mr. White live for myself later this Spring and I didn't want to ruin the surprise of the whole thing. This shouldn't keep you from giving it a look, though! I've read lots of rave reviews, and from what I can tell from stills, the stage is bathed in a perfect hazy blue. 

Leading up to the Unstaged show, a series of trailers were released, featuring both Mr. White and Mr. Oldman. I'm particularly fond of this trailer-come-inside-look which has footage the two men wrestling, driving around and talking, and of Jack White and his band performing a couple of really great songs in what looks like a music room of sorts at Third Man Records? I recognize the wall mounted elephant head from White's American Pickers episode.

May 26th: As a update, it seems that the entire American Express Unstaged show is no longer available for viewing, but select songs are available on Vevo. My favorite is "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground". 

Bret McKenzie + More Muppet Talk On NPR

I listened to yet another Muppet themed Fresh Air interview this afternoon, this time with Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, who also wrote most of the music for the movie The Muppets.

I adore Flight of Conchords, and as you likely already know from my previous posts on the topic I'm a huge fan of the Muppets. I've loved them since I was a kid and I thought the new movie was just perfect.
McKenzie's song "Man or Muppet" (from the movie The Muppets) has been nominated for "Best Original Song" at the Academy Awards this year. The song is a duet between Jason Segel's character Gary and his Muppet brother, Walter. Both characters are trying to work out who they really are. "I reflect on my reflection and I ask myself the question, what's the right direction to go, I don't know. Am I a man, or am I Muppet?"

Unfortunately for all of us, the nominated songs will not be performed at the Academy Awards this year.

When asked about this during the interview, McKenzie said he didn't know why, but went on to describe what he might have done had he been asked to perform on stage at the Kodak Theater. His description surpassed my every imagining, bringing not only Jason Segel and Jason Segel's Muppet-self on stage, but also a background chorus of all of the Muppets. How awesome would that have been!?!

As for the song "Man or Muppet", Terry Gross (the host) very aptly (and with a surprising amount of seriousness) described the song as a "Muppet power ballad". Well, she asked McKenzie if he saw the song as a "Muppet power ballad", to which he answered in the affirmative. He said he listened to songs like "Without You" and "All By Myself" for inspiration. He even sang bits of them.

He then said something that had me practically choking on my breakfast tea, I was laughing so much. "I think that everyone's had this crisis at some point, trying to figure out whether their a man or a Muppet." I love this stuff!

Thank goodness I decided to listen to NPR this afternoon. It made my day. Or better yet, my week!

P.S. Check out this duet version of "Life's a Happy Song" by Kermit the Frog and Bret McKenzie. It's so adorable.

Evan Peters E! News Interview

I read a pretty great interview with Evan Peters today that was done about a week after the American Horror Story finale aired. As we all know by now, the show is set up to change completely each season. New characters, new location, new house, new ghosts. But, Ryan Murphy has said that some of the cast might return next season, though in entirely new roles, which could be interesting.

In the interview, Peters is asked how he would feel about coming back next season. This is what he had to say: "I think it would be really awesome to get back...If I don't come back, then that's great too. I had an awesome time and I learned a lot. I'm pretty emotionally exhausted, so I'm cool to move on and go do a comedy or something like that. I'm happy either way."

On his character Tate, and the general darkness that came with the character: "At first it was really fun and then it sort of became...I mean it's still fun to get into it, but it just became harder and harder. It's not real, so there's only so much time you can spend going to that place before it starts to take its toll...I was constantly battling that from the beginning and I was just like, ‘Okay, this is cool, it's just a season. Just got a couple more episodes. And then I'll just listen to a lot of Christmas music!' "

I love that Christmas music is Evan Peters' antidote to the darkness that is Tate Langdon.

Jack White + Colbert = A Rock Odyssey

In June of 2011, The Colbert Report aired a three part series called 2000 and 1...and 1: A Rock Odyssey (if you watch, you'll know why I wrote the title in such a long, odd, broken up way). The series follows Stephen Colbert on his quest to record a follow up to his 1980s song "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)". He enlists the help of Jack White, and the deadpan hilarity ensues. I haven't laughed so much since the NPR Muppets interview with Jason Segel.

The best part of this series (though) is the outtake aptly titled "Catholic Throwdown". It features Jack White and Stephen Colbert trying to out-Catholic each other. It's priceless.

Happy New Year + Jenny Lewis

First off, Happy New Year! I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and have started off the New Year with a splash. Or perhaps in a more low key way, like me. I've started my New Year off with a lot of movie/TV show watching. And lots and lots of tea. Too much perhaps. But not to worry...I've switched to decaf Irish breakfast, so I can drink all I want and still get to sleep at night.

As part of my Wintertime hibernation, I checked out an episode of the British/Canadian TV show Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... and was so excited to see one of my favorites, Jenny Lewis, hit the stage. Lewis and her band were joined by M. Ward and Costello himself (both on guitar) for a perfectly bittersweet and lovely performance of "Pretty Bird" from her 2008 album Acid Tongue.

Lewis was also interviewed by Costello, and she was really cool and down to earth. I just love her!

Jason Segel On NPR + the Muppets

On opening day of the new Muppet movie called The Muppets, I was lucky enough to catch Jason Segel and Nick Stoller on NPR's Fresh Air talking about the movie, and let me tell you...I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. This interview was absolutely priceless.

Muppets feature pretty heavily in my life. I refer to people as Muppety all the time (I've done so on this blog!) The Muppets Take Manhattan is one of my favorite movies. I have an "I Heart Kermit" lunchbox. The Muppets version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" is on my Christmas playlist. All of my siblings (I'm the youngest of 7) say "the Muppets always remind me of you" aka, me!

And so, listening to like minded Muppet fans on Fresh Air was a real treat for me. Jason Segel and Nick Stoller (of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, another one of my favorite movies) wrote and produced the movie. James Bobin (who has directed episodes of Flight of the Conchords) directed the movie. And Bret Mackenzie (one of the stars of Flight of the Conchords) wrote many of the songs featured in the movie. When talking about Bret Mackenzie and his song writing style, Jason Segel said "He's by nature very Muppety". I have to whole-heartedly agree.

The general vibe of the interview was light-hearted, humorous, and (like the movie itself) smart and very sweet. On how they went about writing the movie, they said: "we wanted to be Muppet purests". I adore the idea of Muppet purests. I really, really like/admire Jason Segel. His musical sensibilities, his sense of humor, his love of Muppets. On the character of Walter, the wide-eyed, innocent Muppet-mega fan, and star of the movie, Segel said: "he reminds me of what Kermit was, maybe, before he became famous, you know when Kermit was still living in the swamp." This cracks me up! My favorite song from the movie is called "Man or Muppet" and features Segel as Gary, a Muppet version of Gary (which apparently the studios allowed him to keep and now lives at home with Segel and his other puppets), Walter (Gary's Muppet brother), and Jim Parsons as a perfect and very funny human version of Walter. They played the song during the interview. It's awesome.

If I don't stop myself now, I'm just going to ramble on about how much I love these guys and the Muppets, and the songs from the movie, and so on and so forth. And so, I'll end by saying this: I'm so, so happy that the Muppets are back, and thank you Jason Segel and Nick Stoller for writing such a touching, funny, and perfectly wonderful movie, just in time for the holidays.

Ryan Murphy Gives Evan Peters Major Kudos

I just read this week's post-AHS episode interview with Ryan Murphy, and in it he gives Evan Peters some major kudos.

On the topic of Rubber Man and of the truly horrible things that Tate has done so far, Murphy says "I think Evan's done an amazingly difficult job making a monster sympathetic...Tate is the true monster of the show, but because Evan has made him so likable and lovable and complex, I think people are torn."

Totally. I looked back at my first ever post on AHS and this is what I wrote about Tate: "I love this character! I can't wait to see what happens with him this season. He's messed up, disturbed, but charming and articulate."

If I can manage to make it to next Wednesday without writing yet another post about Tate Langdon and/or Evan Peters, it will be a miracle.

Evan Peters Finds Horror Movies Stressful

I read an interview today with Evan Peters of American Horror Story, and I wanted to share a few tidbits.

1. He doesn't like horror movies, but not for the usual reasons, it seems. "I wasn't a huge horror movie fan before [doing the show] because they kinda stress me out." Even though I love a man (or man-boy, in this case) who loves horror movies, I'm charmed by the fact that he admits to finding them stressful.

1 (a). He goes on to explain that "since working on the show I've definitely gotten into it a lot more and I have an appreciation for what's going on behind the scenes." He'll be watching House of Wax in no time! Or better yet, Orphan. It has a few similarities to American Horror Story. The tragedy of losing a baby, the mistrust between husband and wife, the gaslighting, and Taissa Varmiga's big sister Vera Farmiga stars in it.

1 (b). I watched Peters' interview on Young Hollywood today and the topic of horror movies came up. Again, he said that horror movies stress him out. He then said "I have to eat a lot of food before I go in there [to the movie theater], so I kinda relax, you know?" This guy cracks me up!

2. Apparently, the pilot was shot on location at and in the actual Murder House (which of course is not called Murder House in real life...it's just some Victorian house in LA), and Peters talked about how creepy the house is. "We heard some noises and stuff [while] shooting, but that's to be expected in a three story house with an attic. It's just a creepy house, it's so terrifying with that wood everywhere. I would never, ever want to live in that house." This made me think about wood, and how yes, I suppose that amount of dark wood on the floors and walls and molding would be a little intimidating.

3. His father told his mother that she should never watch the episode "Piggy Piggy", for obvious reasons. It must be tough for parents, especially mothers, to watch their children play such complicated, dark, possibly psychotic characters. In real life Peters describes himself as a "total goofball." He also plays piano.

And that's that! I've included a link to the full interview here if you'd like to check it out.

The Muppets Are Back!!!

The Muppets opened today in theaters, and Jason Segel and Nick Stoller were on NPR's Fresh Air to talk about the movie and their love of Muppets. It's been a very good day!

I'll write more about the Fresh Air interview this week (there are so many little tidbits that I have to share!), but I'd like to say for the record that I have not laughed so hard and so consistently over a half-an-hour period in a very long time. Hearing these guys talk about the Muppets was sooooo hilarious. Hearing them talk about the Moopets was equally hilarious.

As you may well know, I love Muppets and have been waiting for this movie for a long time now. One of my very first posts on this blog was about a favorite movie of mine Forgetting Sarah Marshall and about how Jason Segel may or may not be bringing back the Muppets. Well, it's happened. And I am one very happy girl. Can't wait to see it!!!

Jack White + the Slow Build

My appreciation for Jack White has been a slow (albeit steady) build.

As I wrote in my post from a couple of years ago about The Dead Weather, I saw The White Stripes on Charlie Rose a few years ago and I really liked Jack White and the things that he had to say about his music and the creative process.

The White Stripes have been on my radar since their album De Stijl. It was our closing time music at the cafe where I worked during college, and we all loved it so much. It was like a big, noisy present after a long day of making latte after latte after latte. 

I've loved Jack White's other bands, like The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. I was even lucky enough to see The Raconteurs live when they toured with Bob Dylan a few years back. They were amazing, totally killed it (in a good way), and they looked phenomenal. I really love their style.

I even bought The White Stripes' 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan because I loved the cover so much. The apple. The red, white, and black. Jack White's sinister-ish facial hair. Meg's coifed do. I loved it then and I love it now. In fact, it's one of my all time favorite records. It's extremely rare that I love an entire album, and this is one of those rarities.

But somehow (and I don't fully understand it myself), my love of The White Stripes never stretched beyond De Stijl, Get Behind Me Satan, and the occasional song. Until now.

I watched the documentary Under Great White Northern Lights this past week. The film follows Jack and Meg White on their 2007 tour of Canada, which would ultimately be The White Stripes swan song. As I understand it, this tour preceded what was supposed to be a full US and UK tour for their album Icky Thump. Their last show was played in Southhaven, MS. The band stopped recording (with the exception of their cover of "Rated X" for the Loretta Lynn tribute album), and officially disbanded earlier this year.

Under Great White Northern Lights is one of the most sensual, aesthetically pleasing, and entertaining tour documentaries I've ever seen. It was beautifully shot. A lot of black and white (and red, of course). The live music performances are so, so good. Oh my goodness! I felt like I was there, you know? I may even like their live versions of songs more than the studio versions. There's a raw intensity and energy that I love, and White's voice has so many different layers to it that really come out in the live performances.

And not only did they perform the usual big shows, but in the afternoons (before the big shows) they performed a series of "side shows" in unusual or unexpected locations, giving people little to no notice (think local bowling alley, or city bus). Like an impromptu acoustic performance of "Apple Blossom" for (what looked like) one family with an absolutely adorable bouncy baby, at the Wildcat Cafe in Yellowknife. Very sweet.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves Jack White or live music documentaries in general. The duo perform such personal favorites as "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" and their atomically charged/very moving cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene". The movie closes with an extremely touching performance of "White Moon", with Jack at the piano, and Meg at his side fighting back the tears. Eventually those tears win out, and Jack hugs/snuggles Meg in very sweet and tender way. It's an intense and bittersweet ending to what I think might be the best film I'm seen this year.

And I'm happy to say that I now own it as part of my ever growing live-music-documentaries collection. And I'm sure I'll be watching it plenty this holiday season while I get ready for craft fairs galore! More on that later.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop was so awesome! It was funny and smart (it is Conan O'Brien after all). It was also poignant, heartfelt, and quite sweet at times. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Conan O'Brien, or who enjoys "show biz" documentaries in general. There are also some great celebrity appearances: Jack White, Jack Black, Eddie Vedder, Jon Hamm, Jack McBrayer, Stephen Colbert...the list goes on and on. Check out the trailer ♥Here♥, and enjoy!

The Dead Weather

I'm loving The Dead Weather and their debut album Horehound. I had read about the band in the most recent issue of Under the Radar magazine (which I bought because Jarvis Cocker was on the cover), and I immediately purchased the album. It's gritty, noisy, eerie at times. It's so good.

Not that this is surprising in the slightest. Here's the line up: Jack White (The White Stripes/The Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queen of the Stone Age), and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs/The Greenhornes). Good stuff. Really, really good stuff.

Alison Mosshart's vocals are out of control. In the best way possible. I love her voice. And hearing Jack White on the drums is awesome.

My respect/admiration for Jack White has been a slow build, but The White Stripes interview on Charlie Rose a handful of years ago sealed the deal. And Get Behind Me Satan. And the Loretta Lynn album. Great album.

The Dead Weather's debut album is called Horehound and is available in record stores now. 

As many of you might know, I have a craft show tomorrow (SOWA Open Market, Boston, MA) and this album is totally getting me through the sewing non-stop for 5 hours, and the ironing, and ironing, and ironing. Love it!!! And I recommend it highly.