The Music Court

Say what you will about Dee Snider and 80s Glam Rock band Twisted Sister, but the band took advantage of the ephemeral schtick and created some catchy tunes. Perhaps most famous in the band’s discography is the angsty track “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” which, when released in 1984, quickly reached 21 on the Billboard Top 100 charts. The song has become a staple of angry, sometimes vituperative outbursts, which is probably why the Trump campaign has adopted it as the theme song of their traveling tirade show; hey, the hair kind of fits. The intention of this post, though, is to not get into politics; instead, I plan to use this song to engender a different spate of obloquy.

It has been nine long years so my beloved New York Mets made the playoffs, and tonight’s game was a paragon of what is wrong in baseball. The sport creates measures to assure safety to catchers in the off-season. Safety is rather important, though, for all players. In tonight’s game, Chase Utley, who is despised by all Mets fans, became a linebacker and propelled himself into a high slide that ultimately fractured the leg of the Mets starting shortstop. Best of all, because of some ridiculous MLB rule, he was safe. I don’t care about the specifics. I’m a frustrated Mets fan. The inglorious, ignominious, improbable turn of events was ridiculous and worthy of my derisive sneering. I’m tired, and I’m not gonna take it.

Neither is Dee Snider! Born in Astoria, Queens, a Mets fan by location, Snider has every right to turn his own song up to 11 and belt it in his frustrated croon. I plan on blasting it now as well. Every Mets fan should do so, and the players should too on their way back to Citi Field for Game 3.

My contempt aside, I apologize from my long absence from the Music Court. As many loyal readers know, this is a labor of love for me, and it has been since it started. We do have some new writers on the horizon, which will help establish even more solid content, and, hopefully, I will get to some posts soon as well. The beginning of the school year saps a lot of time! Hope all is well in all of your lives! I’ll write to you again soon; I promise!

Music Court contributor Beth Kelly is back with a great review of “Amy,” the Amy Winehouse Documentary

Even in death, UK singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse remains an iconic figure in pop culture. Her neo-soul triumph Back to Black won her international fame and fortune – but only part of her renown can really be attributed to her raw talent and vocal skill. Winehouse struggled with addiction, alcoholism, and bulimia for years, and withered under the harsh glare of the spotlight. In the years preceding her death, the young star’s face was often splashed across the cover of tabloids all too eager to document her affinity for drinking and drugging. When she succumbed to alcohol poisoning at the age of 27, few could admit surprise. But who was Winehouse, really? Underneath the beehive and the cat eye makeup, outside the haze of heroin and cocaine, how did the world let such a talented young woman sabotage herself? A new documentary hopes to find out.

As years pass, Winehouse’s devoted fans have seen that she will never truly disappear from the pantheon of musical greats. She’s earned her place among other special musicians we have lost too soon, such as Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, all of whom died at the young age of 27. Like these stars, a large part of Amy’s downfall was attributed to her inability to “handle” her personal problems while simultaneously churning out successful singles. Documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia – who’d previously directed a feature on Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna – became attached to the idea of a film which would use unseen footage of Winehouse and focus on her life before she made it big.

The documentary, titled Amy, is a welcome addition to the cache of “Rockumentary” films on similarly tortured stars. It’s received positive comparisons to the acclaimed Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck, which also attempted to show its subject as he “really” was – behind the music and mayhem. Rather than focus on the parts of Winehouse’s life that gave her the most grief (her addiction, her tumultuous marriage), audiences get to see Winehouse’s childhood and early successes. Though her life did end tragically and her death is discussed, in the film we come to understand her passing from the point of view of lifelong friends and beloved family members, not swarms of paparazzi and gossip bloggers.

Since Amy‘s release earlier this summer, the film was met with almost instantaneous acclaim. Critics have praised the way in which this movie humanizes its star – we sympathize with her and relate to the tragedy of a life taken too soon. However, certain members of Winehouse’s family, especially her father Mitch, have criticized the accuracy of the film. Mitch claims he’s been represented as a villain and would like to produce a future documentary about his daughter that more accurately portrays her life. The family does concede that the film includes beautiful videos and photographs of Winehouse, celebrating the parts they loved most about her.

Mere weeks after its release, Amy already sits comfortably in the canon of classic rock music documentaries. It is one of the highest-grossing documentaries ever at the U.K. box office, surpassed only by Fahrenheit 9/11, and has become Britain’s highest-grossing documentary of all time. Amy is widely distributed thanks to a collaborated effort between A24 and DirecTV and is widely available on streaming platforms. It is slated for DVD release in October 2015.

Before we get to the profile of The Fine Art Society, let me introduce Conor Davies, the Music Court’s newest contributor. Davies will cover a diverse assortment of music, and, tonight, he has for you a band out of Derby, England. Please help me welcome Conor to the blog!

The East Midlands is a pretty fruitful region in terms of music nowadays. Leicester has Kasabian, Nottingham Jake Bugg, Indiana and Sleaford Mods, but Derby? Not a lot comes from Derby. That’s not to say there isn’t a thriving music culture in the city, one of 2015’s biggest breakthrough act Slaves put part of their success down to touring cities like Derby extensively. Aiming to add to the esteemed list of acts preceeding them are The Fine Art Society, an indie-rock trio from the city.

The trio as it is right now consists of guitarist and vocalist Matt Turner, bassist and vocals Ben Marshall and Max Chambers on the drums. TFAS specialise in shouty vocals and catchy chords which when following some intriguing drumming beats, creates some fulsome slices of rock and roll. The band have been active since 2011, gaining pace and accruing members, but Turner and Marshall have been there since the beginning, and 2015 has seen the two fully focus on pushing the name of their band. They’ve played countless venues and festivals around the region over the years, sometimes playing to a man and his dog, other times filling dancefloors and creating raucous atmospheres.

Two of their most important shows as a band came just this past month. The first saw them make their debut at Y Not festival, Derbyshire, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Primal Scream, Nottingham’s very own Saint Raymond and California rapper extraordinaire Snoop Dogg…well they didn’t get close to Snoop but they were on the same bill! Just a few weeks later, the lads played their home city, at Bar One in Derby city centre, and I was there…

Kicking off with your lead single is generally a ballsy move, but ‘Omegle’ has recently been given a glossy, comedic music video (see below), and it seemed only right for it to be the opener. The song pretty much sums up what the band are about, with frank lyrics, that cut directly to the point, and some extremely catchy guitar riffs backed up by tight drumming. One of the things I admire with the band is their ability to tell a story within 3-minute tunes. They’re often comedic in nature, and you wonder what adventures they’ve been on to influence the song-writing experience!

With the night being the launch of their EP, ‘For Old Times Sake’, ‘Omegle’, ‘Plaything’ and ‘Sadie’ were all strong high points of the night. Most importantly they offer enough of a musical variety in terms of the music compositions for newcomers to the band, ‘Plaything’ is probably a song most young people can relate to, with tales of ‘borrowing a couple of quid from a mate’. Another point of note is the band’s decision to delay the release by three months to allow them to master the recording process perfectly, and you can really see the fruits of the labour that must have gone into the process. ‘Sadie’ is a bit seedier, keeping in tone with the subject matter of the song, but the rawness of the drums and the catchy ‘woah’ vocalisation fit perfectly for the song. Turner’s vocals are strong and guiding as usual, with his throaty rasping quality Frank Turner-esque in its qualities.

The band decided to throw in some covers, most notable among them were their renditions of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ and the unique mash-up of Taylor Swift and Stereophonics ‘Shakota’. The last one in particular is an ingenious combination of ‘Shake It Off’ by Swift, and ‘Dakota’ by Wales’ famous sons, which is insanely catchy, proving to even the most ardent Swift hater, that she can write some damn good pop tunes.

But aside from showcasing other artists work, TFAS also showed off some of their ‘oldies’, as much as a band with a 4-year history can have ‘oldies’ anyway! ‘Long Walk Home’ stands apart in the live environment for many reasons. A) it is one of the fewer slower tunes, with an ability to get a crowd swaying and bobbing their heads B) it’s melodically terrific and shows the lads are musically talented in more ways than their louder songs, such flexibility hints at a bright future. It may be about partying, yet again, but is a much tender tune and does all the well for it. ‘School Days’ and ‘Ticking Clock’ round off the list of original tunes, and take us back to more familiar territory, with yet more humourous, catchy compositions.

By their own admission, The Fine Art Society aren’t at their most complete yet. They’re a band halfway through a big year, their biggest to date, but they have much more promising milestones to come and achieve before they can raise a light to their East Midlands counterparts. But you just get the sense, if they keep working three gigs a weekend, and keep plugging away, they’ll certainly be able to achieve a certain level of success in the not too distant future.

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