Music Matters

Concert Picks of the Week: The Fiery Furnaces, Del Castillo, Timbaland

The Fiery Furnances at Walter's on Washington on Friday
Del Castillo at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar on Saturday
Timbaland at House of Blues on Tuesday, Feb. 2

It's "Bring Your Sibling to Work Week" as these live music picks feature a brother-sister act, a brother-brother act and a hip-hip impresario who has called just about every hit-making artist working in rock and rap his "brother" or "sister" at one time or another. It's always good to surround yourself with family, especially at these can't-miss shows.

Friday

The Fiery Furnaces, 9 p.m. at Walter’s on Washington

The comparisons to The White Stripes, the prolific output by siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger and the street cred amassed by touring with bands like Deerhoof are not what make The Fiery Furnaces the current toast of the underground.

It is the very public tongue lashing that Brother Friedberger aimed at Radiohead late last year that has music critics and sounds snobs everywhere wondering how this art-rock standoff is going to end.

The fracas started following the release of “Harry Patch (In Memory of,)" Radiohead's tribute to the last surviving British veteran of World War I, who passed away last summer. Friedberger, however, thought the song was an homage to avant garde composer Henry Partch and labeled the effort as yet another one of Radiohead’s efforts to latch themselves to something cool and edgy.

Friedberger was later told of his mistaken identity error, but his follow-up statement (issued through his media representatives) was hardly a mea culpa: "Matt has not heard the Radiohead song about Harry Patch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn't like it. No doubt Radiohead and their fans can ignore his opinion of this matter and continue with their triumphant artistic interventions. Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists."

Whoa!

Now imagine when he puts that defiant tongue to music as he and his sister have for the band’s recently released eighth album, I’m Going Away. Ironically—and not unlike Radiohead—the album cuts quite an original dramatic sonic swath of its own. Its high-end writing is contrasted by a “lo-fi” recording process courtesy of Sebadoh’s Jason Lowenstein.

It should sound even better on stage.

Tickets $13.65

Saturday

Del Castillo, 9:30 p.m. at Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar

Like many young kids who grow up around Austin, brothers Mark and Rick Del Castillo didn’t realize they had made a career decision when they picked up guitars and started work on their first CD, Brother of the Castle, back in 2001.

Then again, they probably never thought Rolling Stone magazine would suggest their mix of traditional flamenco, rock and blues rhythm was the sound of “Eddie Van Halen fronting early Santana.”

Since then the Del Castillo brothers have made many in-state fans including director Richard Rodriguez, who has added their music to the soundtracks of many of his films including Sin City and Spy Kids 3. Willie Nelson is also a fan and invited the band to record a version of “I Never Cared For You,” with him that the Red Headed Stranger now calls his favorite.

Outside of Texas, Del Castillo tours large venues with Los Lonely Boys, Los Lobos and Don Henley. This is a chance to see them up-close-and-personal on a local club stage.

Tuesday

Timbaland, 8 p.m. at House of Blues

The name Timbaland probably sounds familiar, but you just can’t quite place what hits songs he sings. Right?

That’s probably because this Grammy-award winner has spent the better part of the last 20 years producing the songs and laying down the beats that have made others famous. Beginning with Jodeci back in 1993, Timbaland helped to put the “swing” in the long-gone New Jack Swing era of hip-hop.

Since then he has produced, remixed or added a personal touch to songs by everyone from Chris Cornell to No Doubt to Rihanna. Rarely, however, does he take time to focus on his personal artistic endeavors.

See Timbaland rock the hot end of the microphone in support of his third solo album, Shock Value II. The hypnotic beats and intoxicating loops on singles like “Morning After Dark,” and “Carry Out” will make it clear why so many artists turn to him when a song needs sizzle.

Tickets $25-$45

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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