Go see Sirât. It’s not widely screening in L.A. right now, but it is playing at Alamo Drafthouse, which is where I saw the film, through next Wednesday. The  movie is about a Spanish man, his son and their dog travel to Morocco to find his daughter, who has disappeared into the desert rave scene some months earlier. A war breaks out, the ravers decamp to the south of the country and the father and son follow them deeper into the desert. 

There’s a lot going on in Sirât, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so the one thing that I will mention is that the sound design is exceptional. The score is frequently diegetic, meaning that it’s the music the characters in the film hear, and the way the music interacts with their surroundings is both clever and realistic. For example, you can hear the crackle of techno pouring through busted speakers and the way a song fades into the wind when you’re driving in the middle of nowhere with the windows open. 

Sirât is a beautiful, and heavy, film that will stick with you after you leave the theater. See it with someone else so that you can talk about it afterwards. Like I said, it looks like Alamo is the only place in L.A. showing Sirât this weekend and next week, but it’s right in the middle of downtown, literally above a Metro station where four trains converge, so it’s a fairly convenient location for most people. Plus, they have half-priced screenings on Tuesday and bottomless popcorn, which is a plus even if you have to order from your phone now. In Orange County, Sirât is playing at The Frida, which is also an excellent theater and is walking distance from the Metrolink stop in Santa Ana. Plus, Metrolink has $10 day passes on the weekends, a good option if gas prices have you reconsidering plans right now. 

For a few more of my L.A. club, concert and movie recommendations, head over to Beatique. 

Depeche Mode, Fontaines D.C. and War Child: The Wars Change, But the Protest Songs Remain the Same

As the Santa Ana winds whipped through Los Angeles, downtown protestors clung to signs that read, “Invest in peace not the Pentagon” and “War crimes don’t hide sex crimes.” A string of activists spoke on the steps of City Hall. They led us in a run of chants all of which could be summarized in one point: end the wars. 

Before walking to the Saturday afternoon protest, I listened to Help (2), the War Child compilation album that came out on Friday, for the second or third time. On it, Depeche Mode covers “Universal Soldier,” written by Buffy Sainte-Marie in the early 1960s. It’s a striking condemnation of war made all the more ominous when performed as a dark, synthpop song. Listen closely and you might swear you hear jets in the background. Even if you’re only playing the song in the background, you can’t miss the resignation in Dave Gahan’s voice when he delivers the closing line, “this is not the way we put the end to war.” 

“Universal Soldier” is a Vietnam War-era folk song that’s been covered many times, and in multiple languages, over the year. It’s easy to understand why the lyrics remain relevant as battlegrounds change. This cycle of war endless. “I feel like I’m living in a loop,” I mention to a friend who I ran into at Saturday’s protest.

The crowd at City Hall spilled out into the middle of Spring Street. It would not surprise me if some of the protestors have been marching since the 1960s. Some looked to be around my own age, i.e. people whose young adulthood coincided with the start of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A good chunk of the crowd appeared much younger. College kids. Probably some high schoolers. People whose future rides on what happens in this moment. Then I notice the youngest of the protesters and wondered if, a decade or so from now, they’ll be protesting yet another war.

Read more

Interview: Human Potential

On Eel Sparkles, Becker taps into XTC-style art pop with atmospheric synth flourishes, while flirting with minimalism on “Trepanation” and ‘60s pop on “Practice Songs for the Unloved.” Throughout the album, though, you can hear traces of Becker’s Dischord Records past in his drumming. 

“Brendan Canty, the drummer [of Fugazi], he was one of the most influential musicians in my life,” says Becker. “Especially growing up and listening to Fugazi records and playing along to them with my headphones on and stuff like that. He has a particular way of playing that, I just think he’s a really unique drummer. There’s a groove to his playing and, also, the instrumentation- just talking about the way he plays a set- is really cool too. I’m sure that’s just in my DNA. I’ve listened to those records so many times. I had the good fortune of Brendan producing one of my old band’s records, so I got to work with him and that was like meeting one of your heroes.”

Read: Andrew Becker on Human Potential and Eel Sparkles

That’s it for this week. I’m not DJing this weekend, but if you need some tunes, head over to my Mixcloud for this month’s edition of Beatique with new tunes from Peaches and Grrrl Gang, classics from the Style Council and XTC, a couple northern soul bangers and lots more. 

Liz O.