What Could Be More Beautiful Than Truth And Freedom?

Sonic Youth “Do You Believe In Rapture?” – If I hadn’t heard Thurston Moore talk about the somewhat political nature of this song’s lyrics on Marc Maron’s radio show, I’m not sure if it would have been tremendously obvious to me. This is one of, if not the, most gorgeous songs in the Sonic Youth discography, and when I hear it, I’m so caught up in its gently plucked chords, its Velvet Underground-ish tangents, and Thurston’s sweet choirboy vocals that the lyrics seem more romantic or spiritual in the context, as opposed to coming off as critical or judgemental. It’s a searching, questioning sort of song. It’s the sound of a tolerant man interrogating intolerant ideas, and it is one of the most beautiful, humane songs that I’ve heard all year. (Click here for the official Sonic Youth site.)

First Nation “Female Trance” – If the Animal Collective are living in the boys dormitory at Camp Paw Tracks, First Nation are just across the lake in the girls’ quarters. Occasionally, their rhythmic chants and messy folk psychedelia can sound nearly identical to that of Avey Tare et al, but when the music gels into more familiar songforms, the result is a very different sort of folk music. The snakey melodies, pretty harmonies, and bumping rhythms in “Female Trance” make the song’s title seem like an appropriate genre description. If the vocals were not so demure, I would feel more comfortable about comparing it to The Slits, but I wouldn’t want to trade the sweetness of the girls’ voices on this track for anything else. (Click here for more info on the Paw Tracks site.)

Art School Confidential – This film is pretty much guaranteed to become a cult classic for most anyone who has ever been to art school, or has been involved with the art world. Set at a fictionalized version of Pratt, Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff build a thoughtful, highly critical movie about art and artists from the comedic blueprint of the art class scenes in the Ghost World film and the original four-page “Art School Confidential” strip from Eightball. Art school is such a largely untapped comedic oilwell that it never seems like a retread for Clowes, especially when the archetypes of the art world are rendered so accurately that they often inspire cringing recognition along with giggles and guffaws.

The story is about a young artist named Jerome who earnestly wants to become “the greatest artist of the 21st Century,” but enters school with classic ideas about art that are entirely at odds with the (post-)modern sensibilities of his professors and classmates. As with many other Clowes protagonists, Jerome is the only character in the film who fully owns his taste, and as such, he is made to suffer for that. When he calls out bullshit work in class critiques, he alienates his classmates, who respond to his carefully crafted realist drawings with near universal disdain. After his dream girl Audrey poses nude in his drawing and painting class, Jerome manages to attract her attention by drawing the most beautiful portrait of her in the room, though her fickle nature is revealed to him when she becomes involved with a hunky rising star in his class who specializes in faux-naif “outsider” art. Jerome’s disillusionment grows until he finally snaps and gives in to his worst impulses, leading to a spectacular downward spiral that eventually results in a very twisted happy ending that I will not spoil for you. However, I will say that the film ends with a wonderful shot that foregrounds the profound emptiness of Jerome and Audrey’s relationship. She only cares about associating herself with fame and satisfying her vanity, and his interest in her is entirely superficial and symbolic. They belong together.