POP

Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Rhodes
ABC/Dunhill 1971

The eponymous debut of Hawthorne, California's Emitt Rhodes is a masterpiece that came out of the curious one-man-band trend of the early 70s. As multi-track recording technology progressed, it dawned upon some artists that they could more fully realize their artistic vision if they played all the instruments on an album themselves. Guitarist, inventor and multi-track recording pioneer Les Paul is believed to have been the first to experiment with one-man-band recordings way back in the 1950s. But it wasn't until Paul McCartney's self-titled post-Beatles debut that the idea really caught on. Soon Sir Paul was joined by the likes of

Todd Rundgren (Something / Anything) and the young Emitt Rhodes, fresh from his stint as the leader of teenyboppers the Merry-Go-Round. Unlike the other one-man-bands, Mr Rhodes was equally proficient at all the instruments he played (Sir Paul, for instance was a poor drummer).

On his debut, Mr Rhodes' songwriting and production was top notch. Every track sounds like a potential hit single. Highlights include the propulsive, piano driven "With My Face on the Floor," the folky "Lullaby" and the Byrds-ian "You Should be Ashamed."

Oddly enough Mr Rhodes' superb singing voice may have been his downfall. Despite hailing from the same Golden State town as Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, his voice bore an uncanny resemblance to the Liverpudlian Sir Paul. This earned him an unfair reputation for artless Beatles mimicry.

He also had to contend with a record contract that took advantage of his naïveté, forcing him to supply ABC Records with a new album every six months. The pressure was too much for the emotionally fragile Mr Rhodes — he retired from music in 1973 after his fourth album A Farewell to Paradise at 23 years of age.

— Abe Konigsberg

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FILM

The Way of the Gun
Dir: Christopher McQuarrie
Artisan Entertainment, 2000

The Way of the Gun is the directorial debut of the Academy Award winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. He nabbed his Oscar in 1995 for the whodunit The Usual Suspects. Five years after that win he gathered a slick cast and set them up with a devastatingly cool script for The Way of the Gun. Stylized, retro and Tarantino-esque, the film is just shy of being hip. The acting is there, the dialogue is witty, the violence is gratuitous — but something is missing. Perhaps the score isn't up to snuff with other retro-cappers (eg Oceans Eleven or Reservoir Dogs)? Perhaps the gunfight scenes are missing the requisite slow motion intensity of a Sergio Leon shootout? Perhaps it's the disjointed pacing? Whatever the case, it takes a while to get over 'it' and concentrate on the film's trove of snappy one-liners like: "A pint of your blood can fetch you fifty bucks. A shot of cum, three grand."

The Way of the Gun takes you into the lives of two hoodlums, Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) who've each got a sweet tooth for dirty money. After crossing the country, hawking their workaday sperm, they decide that kidnapping a pregnant surrogate mother would be more profitable. What they don't realize is the mother (Juliette Lewis) is carrying a shady millionaire's baby. Their demand for ransom is met with guns, car chases and a small-town Mexico shootout.

This film is a good freshman attempt at directing. It's not perfect and Mr McQuarrie could learn a few cues from other hip directors like Mr TarantinoM or Robert Rodriguez.

— Carla Sparks

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