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Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Robyn Hitchcock speaks with Paul Byrne of Movies.ie about making Rachel Getting Married (which sounds like a whole lot of fun) and about Sex, Food, Death, and Insects.
Byrne: During [Sex, Food, Death, and Insects] you said at one point, "At heart I'm a frightened, angry person -- that's why my stuff isn't totally insubstantial, I'm constantly deep down inside in a kind of rage..." And it made me think, well, here you've got people like Gillian Welch and... Jonathan Demme's a fan... you've been playing music for a long time, The Soft Boys and everything, and I was thinking does that make it easier? Because for a lot of artists, to have some kind of recognition, some outlet, you know, eases the soul a bit, I don't know whether, is it still true that you have that rage in you? I guess you only said it last year so maybe it is still true... Hitchcock:
I haven't had enough therapy to get rid of it completely, you know, just enough to find it... Yeah, everybody is at some level of discomfort. Even the people you mention. And some people are in more pain than others, some people know what to do with their discomfort. You know, I mean I could be playing with my hair, I could be, you know, picking on an E♭ or something like that, I could be smoking except it's illegal to smoke now; there's all these manifestations of what to do with your own dis-ease... For me, I turn it into music, and a lot of other people I know; that's how we metabolize. We breathe in life and we breathe out music; it keeps us sane and it seems to be somehow good for the environment, you know, like plants take in CO2 and produce oxygen, we take in the anxiety of life and give out music. And I'm very happy to be able to do that.
posted evening of March 19th, 2009: Respond
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Saturday, January 31st, 2009
YepRoc Records has posted video of Robyn and friends singing "Up to Our Nex", from the November 22nd show at Symphony Space -- presumably this is part of the documentary film they're making of that tour.
On stage with Mr. Hitchcock are (from left to right) Amir El Saffar, Terry Edwards, Gaida Hinnawi, and Tim Keegan. The song will be released on Goodnight Oslo. Thanks for the link, Woj!
posted afternoon of January 31st, 2009: Respond
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Sunday, October 26th, 2008
So the reason I wanted to see Rachel Getting Married, was the music, specifically Robyn Hitchcock. And I think the music was probably the best thing about the movie, in the end. But look: the music was sufficiently great that I can say that without denigrating the rest of the picture; it was a really fine movie.
A review I read (maybe in the Times?) criticized the reception scene as killing the rhythm of the movie and its plot, making the viewer lose track of what's going on. This seems like an absolutely baffling response to the movie (assuming I'm remembering it right); the reception was a totally integral part of what was going on (which was after all a wedding), it intensified and crystallized the characters, particularly of Kim and her mother. But man oh man, the music was so great.
Two previews we saw that looked good: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and A Christmas Tale.
 Hm, just thinking this post needs a little more -- I finished it in a hurry before dinner -- The reason I chose the title I did is that I flashed on that song at one point in the movie when Kim was watching a car pulling in to her father's driveway. Kim's relationship with cars is definitely a focal point of the plot and of her character. The one thing I really didn't buy in the movie was her accident the night before the wedding -- that (a) was totally predictable and (b) didn't do the work it was supposed to. Auto-accident-as-cathartic-release just doesn't cut it in my book. Her not getting in an accident would have been more compelling; and the fight with her mother fills the need for violent release there.
posted evening of October 26th, 2008: Respond
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