Beavis and Butthead
Above are Kevin Kirkpatrick’s silicone busts of B. and B. and below is a piece I wrote back in November about their relaunch.
While the return of Beavis and Butthead has naysayers dismissing the latest incarnation of ‘90s nostalgia, it signals a renaissance for editorial on music videos.
When Beavis and Butthead aired its first new episode in late October, the chortling duo aimed their trademark sneer at videos by MGMT, Skrillex, and LMFAO. They gnawed on small clips from Jersey Shore and The Bachelor too – all slow-moving targets. A common tweet was, “it’s been years since I’ve seen this much music on TV #BeavisandButthead.”
In 1997, creator Mike Judge laid Beavis and Butthead to rest to work on King of the Hill. Their exeunt came just before major brand overhauls by MTV, MuchMusic and VH1. Large blocks of music programming were switched out for the fashion du jour – reality TV. By 2004, music videos were banished to nearly invisible satellite and digital channels.
Seven years on, MTV still isn’t terribly interested in showing music videos I read about Beyoncé’s “Countdown” choreography scandal on Stereogum.com; I watched Kanye’s 34-minute epic for “Runaway” on Vevo – YouTube’s music video imprint. The Internet has given music videos a loving home.
Even though videos have long fallen from the music television mandate, Beavis and Butthead works because it repackages them with comedy and critique. While the pair get up to all kinds of dopey antics, trying to ‘score with chicks,’ the real crux of the show has always been the two, watching MTV from their couch, telling us what sucks. They have more to chew on now than ever before.
Slate was right to say, “The joy of the show was always its minimalism, its almost autistically limited repertoire….” In an episode last week, Beavis and Butthead sat down to a video by experimental-rock group Battles. In the video, a man tumbles down a mall escalator—the band plays alongside. When Butthead remarks, “whoa, cool,” Beavis responds, “Yeah, I like watching people fall down on TV.” Of course, the whole exchange is punctuated with incomprehensible monosyllables.
Though the quip seems bankrupt on the surface, there’s a barbed critique hidden there—something about the baseness that television audiences are more than happy to consume, maybe a ‘shame on you’ to producers, too. I don’t think I’m granting too much, giving B. and B. the capacity for headier jokes; Mike Judge recruited vet writers from Letterman, The Daily Show, and Colbert for the new season.
Despite moments of brilliance, most critics want to toss the show on the pyre—it’s unwelcome ‘90s nostalgia. Writers at Time and The Atlantic worry that Beavis and Butthead, tokens of Gen X comedy, feel out of place now. The word ‘superfluous’ has graced a bunch of headlines. Nevertheless, Beavis and Butthead has returned to strong ratings. The premiere posted an audience twice MTV’s primetime average—even put head-to-head with game six of the World Series.
While those ratings owe something to nostalgia, they also suggest that, culturally, we still have an appetite for criticism on music television. Even though Beavis and Butthead may not be the most erudite critics, viewers appreciate their curated tour of the MTV library. Sometimes it’s nice to have our assumptions expressed as crudely as only B. and B. can—that LMFAO are famous only because of their Motown-founding birthright, or that Katy Perry shooting fireworks from her breasts fails to drive home the real inspirational thrust of her song.
Critics may contest that Gen X comedy had its time and place, but it’s exactly that—the snark, the apathy, the auto-critique—that makes Beavis and Butthead fresh today. While many won’t identify with the nacho-munching slouches, I take solace knowing that a whole new generation of music videos will rightfully be told they suck.
This Is It
London art collective This Is It just posted a new video: Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. Troping cutesy muppet sing-song shows while undercutting with a pile of subversion, this video has me wishing Wonder Showzen lasted longer than two seasons. It’s a vague slap at the crafting craze, kinda like Portlandia’s Put a Bird on It skit, but with an overarching ‘don’t-do-art,-you-might-find-out-you’re-a-serial-killer’ type sentiment.
If you want more This Is It, check out their vimeo channel; Bad Things That Could Happen is awesome too!
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared from This Is It on Vimeo.
pe lang
Pe Lang is a Swiss artist working with sound installation. His mechanical systems explore the borderlands of hyper-precision and that which is supra-calculable. This one really appeals to the eight year old in me that played Mouse Trap™ just to ‘do the mousetrap’ – but there’s a big helping of Material Science know-how here, too. These aren’t slapdash Rube Goldbergs, but expertly calibrated machines, designed with elegant simplicity, in which minutia, repetition and chance assume meaningful aesthetic roles. Check out Lang’s website or vimeo channel, he’s got a bunch of cool videos. ‘Positioning System I’ is a good start.
positioning systems I – falling objects from pe lang on Vimeo.
James Blake – Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tiny, populated island off England’s Northeastern Coast. At one time, the people of Lindisfarne fished and quarried lime. I’m not certain what James Blake is proposing they’re into nowadays, but this video is worth the watch. Pagan Ritual? Some pact? I’m not quite certain what’s going on, but it’s got me thinking Dogtooth and The Idiots in that ‘marginalized commune’ sort of way.
Rat Life
I hadn’t seen Edvin in a bit, but I caught up with him at a bar about a week back – said all he’s been doing is “drawing, dude.” Half of polity and half genuine interest, I asked him to send me his shit. So the next morning, I get a link to his RAT LIFE tumblr. Geeeze, dude really has been drawing. Rat Life does gnarly skate-brat perfect; it’s the kind of work Shake Junt or RVCA would pay $$$ to put on tees. I see a bunch of my near and dear Neckface in Edvin’s work, Will Sweeney and Tux Dog/ paperrad too. RSS it or follow if your tumblr-inclined. Put me down for a print or shirt or whatever you want to print this thing on:
more rat life:
New Times New Viking New
Times New Viking’s fifth album Dancer Equired! goes on sale at the end of April. This release continues the ascent to high fidelity started on Born Again Revisited, their former squeaky-cleanest record to date. To be sure, the word ‘tinny’ still finds meaning and the vocals wade through as much reverb as ever, but TNV no longer quite sound like they’re playing into toy echo mics amplified – this is a mid-fi release. And though I pine for the brattiness of the older stuff, the cleaner production really foregrounds the songcraft. If it weren’t already apparent, Times New Viking really knows how to write a charming pop song. The whole album is a joy, but “Try Harder” was the instant favourite.
Blinky
My girlfriend sent me this and I had to share. Blinky is a short film by Irish director/ writer Ruairi Robinson; he’s responsible for Fifty Percent Grey, which scored him an oscar nom for best animated short, as well as those caveman Milk Board commercials from a few years back. In Blinky, Alex, the kid from Where the Wild Things Are, gets a robot-helper for Christmas. At first, I thought Blinky was going to be something like Spike Jonze’s I’m Here, a cutesy piece about robots, emotion, and relationships, but S – P – O – I – L – E – R Blinky turns sharply asimovian, looking at some serious violations of the First and Seconds Laws of Robotics. Mmmmmmmmmeatballs.
Early Bloomers – Akron/ Family, The Forms and The Dodos
Although it’s too early to be talking albums-of-the-year, the first few months of 2011 have hosted some terrific releases. Dewy and sunlit, these three offerings are favourites so far – timely spring-ish releases too:
1. Akron/ Family – ST II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
The Snowdrop of the bunch, ST II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT came out in early February on Dead Oceans Records. ST II… sheds the electronic experiments of Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free and shelves the beloved freak-folk of early A/F. Here, the family has two modes: riffy guitar rock and tender, minimal walkabout. At first, I thought ‘Another Sky’ and ‘So It Goes’ were the real gems; however, I caught them in concert and one particular song had me scouring their back-catalogue for the unplaceable tune – turns out it was buried deep on ST II. My oversight here had me relistening to the back half of ST II. I’m particularly fond of the Fuji II-Canopy-Creator run – three lazy, ultra-hazy jams. Buy here, listen here. This is Southern Souls at Christ’s Church Cathedral in Hamilton getting a good capture of ‘Canopy:’
2. The Forms – Derealization
The Forms haven’t released anything since their self-titled sophomore album back in 2007. The interim wait compounded by the all-star guest roster announced in late December had me deep-googling for leaks early on. Now, far from their Sunny Day-heavy Albini era, Derealization deconstructs bits and pieces from The Forms, recast with string arrangements by Dirty Projector’s Nat Baldwin and St. Vincent’s Daniel Hart. A gillion blogs have posted the “Red Gun” redo “Fire to the Ground,” featuring the baritone crooning of the National’s Matt Berninger; same goes for the new “Bones,” now “Steady Hands,” on which, Pattern is Movement’s singer Andrew Thibaldeux fludders about, squirting soul/seed all over the track. Both are memorable, but I prefer track five, “Finally,” which brings Shudder to Think’s Craig Wedren into the vocal booth. I have no idea which Forms song “Finally” was gleaned from, but I’m okay with the disparity. Craig isn’t Pony Express Record saucy here, but the woahs, yeahs, and yelps, the breathiness, the heaven-high range, it’s all distinctly Wedren. He comes out like a bald, impish, sexually ambiguous angel on this one – some unlikely herald of triumph and celebration. Listen / Buy.
3. The Dodos – No Color
A good friend sent me this one about a month ago, shortly after pitchgum hosted “Black Night.” The album officially released in early March. No Color reminds me a bunch of Visiter, the driving momentum throughout, fingernails giving hell to strings – “Black Night” is “Fools,” “Good” is “Jodi.” My favourite is “Going Under,” which at first I thought reeked of sloppy songwriting, but now, couldn’t imagine otherwise. fediamire/ buy it.
Tim Burton at the TIFF Bell Lightbox
Although Tim Burton’s ten good years of filmmaking are now outweighed by fifteen more of redundancy (College Humor takes aim), a career retrospective, opened at MoMa, now at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, had me re-visiting some of the more treasured relics of the Burton universe. Two years back, the New York exhibit hosted some of the heaviest traffic in museum history, bested only by Picasso and Matisse. The response is understandable; Burton has marked indelibly upon modern fairytaling. His early work is iconic: Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, my favourite two Batmans. He’s always managed to make a carnival of the macabre; i think that’s an important part of the Burton pathos, the bit audiences have embraced.
The exhibit is packed with notebook sketches and handwritten outlines, testaments to Burton the visionary; however, I found the props and costumes most resonant. Excuse the shitty cellphone photography, I had to be a bit dodgy with the camera:
The Batman cowls from the Burton-Keaton team-ups in Batman and Batman Returns. And for the particularly astute, the Mystery Door from Ed Wood is visible in the reflection of the glass. Not pictured: Pfeiffer’s Catwoman costume and the Penguin’s pram.
Maquettes of the martians from Mars Attacks!
A hedge sculpture from Edward Scissorhands. Standing ten feet tall, the deer topiary was one of the crown jewels of the exhibit.
The ‘Tim Burton’ exhibition runs until April 17th, though the TIFF Bell Lightbox itself, is a cool place to check out. They regularly show small release films and docs and curate weekly programmes like ‘Back to the 80′s’ and ‘Hollywood Classics’ (here for schedules). For something to do after the show, my girlfriend and I went upstairs to Luma. They’re offering a Burton-inspired menu, Creature Comforts, for the duration of the exhibition. Admittedly, Creature Comforts is more marketing than homage, but I’m glad we visited. Their opera cake comes with a scoop of popcorn ice cream – a buttery ice cream, served over chocolate bread crumbs and pop rocks. Amazing. Totally worth the Burton deceit.
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