Sunday, November 29, 2009

Celluloid Bachelor #9: Hurricane Bells "This Year"

This post is one that, in a weird way, bums me out. More than that, it leaves me conflicted. The song you'll hear in the video below - "This Year" by Hurricane Bells - is a really good and smart one. You can hear a tiny bit of The National in Steve Schiltz's approach, but only a touch - the rest is the man's original approach.

The film itself is probably the best I've seen this year, perhaps because it features toys I had when I was a little one and probably haven't thought about in 25 years. (God it makes me feel old to say that!) I can't remember what the real name of the toys were - my family called them "people" toys.

Anyway, the film grows increasingly beautiful, particularly at the 3:30 mark, before you realize the horribly tragic aspect of it. Watch it. Twice.

And then get bummed out alongside me when you think about how the reason we know this dude's name is because another single from his recently released debut album, Tonight is Ghost, became a deep cut on the recent Twilight soundtrack.

Honestly, I'm less bothered by a relative no-name "selling out" than I am someone who is already making a decent living as an "indie" musician, but it still makes me reluctant to support the artist's work in the future. Dude's already on the soundtrack for a mega-blockbuster film. My work here is done - long before I even did it.

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