Sparks: classic or dud?

Wonder how well Ron's mid-70s look went down with the German audiences of the time...

tbf Hitler never had a perm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62a5TkohK0

Those kids are really determined to dance.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVzQVZNX0AA3IU4.jpg

You have what in your pants!

From memory, German journalists have always described Ron's moustache as Chaplinesque, rather than being modelled on Hitler. As the German magazine Spex put it in 2008:

»Hitler's playing piano on Top Of The Pops!« This is what many Brits felt when they saw Sparks on the popular BBC music show in 1974. Ron Mael played his keyboard with a stoical Buster Keaton gaze above his Chaplin moustache.

I seem to remember that the moustache once got them banned by a French TV station though.

why don't you PLEEEEEEEEEASE
go with me underground

relistening to all my Sparks stuff. I'm kind of amused how they wound up aping Devo as Devo themselves were sliding into irrelevancy. you can definitely draw a line between Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat and Shout & Interior Design and Total Devo

surprised to find there are actually a few tunes on those albums I do like. "The Toughest Girl in Town" from Interior Design is actually quite good. and "Madonna" does make me laugh, I kinda love Sparks in "trying to be boring" mode

Other than the singles, I've never heard anything in between Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat and Balls. I've owned a copy of Interior Design for probably at least 10 years by now, but that little picture of Ron without a mustache on the back cover scares me too much to play it.

not missing much though Gratuitous Sax is pretty solid if you wanna hear them do the Pet Shop Boys in a non-literal sense

surprised to find there are actually a few tunes on those albums I do like. "The Toughest Girl in Town" from Interior Design is actually quite good. and "Madonna" does make me laugh, I kinda love Sparks in "trying to be boring" mode

With Interior Design I feel like they were just a little too successful at "trying to be boring." At least their personality still shines through on Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat (and if nothing else it's got "A Song That Sing Itself"), but except for "Madonna," that's largely not the case on Interior Design.

(I love that "I Thought I Told You to Wait in the Car" from Gratuitous Sax is essentially a sequel to "Madonna"...six years later.)

ah yeah "A Song That Sings Itself"! what was frustrating about those 80s albums is that I'd randomly get tunes from them stuck in my head but not remember what they were. that was definitely one of them

poster child though is "I Wish I Looked a Little Better". hearing it again it's got some of the funniest lyrics they've ever written..."went to high school and majored in lookin' real bad/got a real ugly mom and a real ugly dad"

anyway every year or two I listen to all their albums in order and I'm always astounded by how fucking great Li'l Beethoven is compared to every record they made since No. 1 in Heaven to that point

It's a real treasure. Very glad I caught the LA show for that in particular.

only photo I've ever seen Ron actually smiling in

https://www.facebook.com/sparksofficial/photos/a.161269161864/10158241452116865

https://sonicmoremusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tumblr_m03ajh2zms1qjthhuo1_1280.jpg

Haha amazing.

He did "Get in the swing" on TOTP back in the day, smiling. In blackface. Footage lost.

https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/118827022_10158241452121865_7114825431684141571_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=rYsRCjxUaVUAX-l8gZD&_nc_ht=scontent-bru2-1.xx&oh=89e64f56fe156489a4ac40d11f5b8d07&oe=5F826A73

Sparks talk through ten different ways into their ouevre: https://thequietus.com/articles/28269-sparks-interview-3

First of all, we never thought of that album as a disco album. We thought it was just something in its own area, a lot more beat-driven, but we never thought in terms of disco or not disco.

Disco or not disco? That could catch on.

damn that movie was stinky

would like to hear complaints about it (I saw it too)

Wow. I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but I've heard nothing but fawning review of it so far. The main complaint I've heard is just that it (necessarily, perhaps, given the scope) skips over some eras/albums a little too quickly.

Can it be rented on the internet somewhere yet?

I think it’s theatrical now for the time being

OK so I’m dictating this into my phone but the movie was so goddamn long, had so many unnecessary talking heads that no one had to hear from, only showed live footage for a fraction of a song, went in an exhausting chronological order that made you want to slit your wrist by the end of the movie, and had a bunch of unnecessary interstitial animations that were also exhausting. It was claymation, comic book style, collage style, what the hell? Anyway I think and you’re right screwed the pooch on this one.

And you’re right = Edgar Wright lol

Agree with all of those criticisms.

And also it keeps using that dumb visual punctuation gimmick where, for example, one of the Sparks guys says they had high expectations for their album but then it tanked commercially and then you see film footage of an old timey experimental flying machine getting a few feet in the air before crashing.

This trend for needless animation in music docs is tiresome.

Complaints complaints. I didn't mind any of this! (Basically this is the first set of negative takes I've seen anywhere, so, sampling bias on my part perhaps.)

I am very much looking forward to Annette.

And also it keeps using that dumb visual punctuation gimmick where, for example, one of the Sparks guys says they had high expectations for their album but then it tanked commercially and then you see film footage of an old timey experimental flying machine getting a few feet in the air before crashing.

OMG, why would any film maker do this in 2021?

Edgar Wright, folks! (Then again, the Maels are utter film nerds...)

In terms of the exhaustiveness, I kinda get it but at the same time it was intentionally central as a point of argument about their existence/persistence; it was meant to be a implied rebuke to 'whatever happened to' attitudes as much as addressing general 'who even are they?' responses: they're still busy, doing work, playing out, etc. This is its own tangle since you've got any number of acts or musicians who steadily release albums that are regularly overshadowed by their pasts -- there was a great subthread on Neil Young on Twitter talking about how pretty much the last twenty years plus is nothing but albums nobody remembers or cares about -- but it also aimed to make the case about how certain albums and phases found them being actual hitmakers again through the decades, and where.

Yeah, on the other Sparks thread we were complaining that it's too short :)

the former drummer breaking into tears was...something

That whole period of the band remains a bit sad and mysterious. Clips of their songs from the Mai project were played on a BBC radio documentary on them from the late 2000s IIRC, and I keep wondering what if anything will resurface. There is a small elision, though; they released the standalone "National Crime Awareness Week" single in 1993, Simon Price interviewed them for Melody Maker that fall, I've still got the issue somewhere, etc.

I saw it last night and liked it! A lot of the archive footage they used in the film you can find on YouTube pretty easily.

i didn't mind the stylistic stuff despite it being kind of corny, and i had fun watching the movie. but it really was too long. every rockumentary struggles with how to strike the balance between explaining stuff to noobs and satisfying the nerds. sparks brothers failed at this but in a way that most movies don't. the focus on almost every single album felt like it was for the "real fans" but you didn't really get much info about each one; and like kurt said you still don't really get much live footage or even significant clips of songs. overall it was way too exhaustive for neophytes or even casual fans, and while it's nice to have something for the obsessive fans for a change, they aren't truly going to be satisfied unless they get like a 12-hour miniseries.

god bless russell but he comes across as oddly personality-less in this.

they aren't truly going to be satisfied unless they get like a 12-hour miniseries.

What a fine idea!

45 minutes of Ron discussing how he chose the slap-bass samples on Interior Design.

OMG, why would any film maker do this in 2021?

As also discussed on the other thread, the film uses the Maels' lifelong interest in film as a throughline: born and growing up in Los Angeles, I think there's fleeting 8mm footage of Hollywood High School?, their interest in visual staging right back to Halfnelson auditioning for Rundgren by putting on a private show with props and sets, attending film school and including snippets of Russell's mock French art film starring another Halfnelson member, the disappointment of their Tati collaboration not getting up in the '70s, wasting six years working seven days a week on the Mai musical (the condensed/rushed nature of the film means that Burton is the only director attached - Hark doesn't even get mentioned for the song they did with him) instead of Sparks, a tiny glimpse of a semi-staged reading of The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman at the LA Film Festival, up to (the last footage shot for the film) on-set glimpses of the Maels, Driver, Cotillard and Carax making Annette. The odd second-and-a-half of old film footage is used as punctuation and to maintain that theme, not as CUT TO with sound or descriptive voiceover.

Yeah, on the other Sparks thread we were complaining that it's too short :)

seems Chaki agrees with this too tbh:

only showed live footage for a fraction of a song

What sic said

I would argue that going in chronological order through every album to the point of exhaustion “and then this album happened, and then this album happened.” and having Patton Oswald or someone I don’t care about say “this is a good album” then moving on to the next one is completely counter to what the Mael’s body of work is about. Remember when Ron talked about how he would walk into the middle of a movie and imagine the beginning and how that spoke to his artist narrative? Yah this movie is the opposite of that.

No, the struggle-struggle-HIT!-flop-struggle-struggle-HIT!!-flop-struggle never-give-up "artist narrative" is crucial to the film. Only focussing on their high points would have misrepresented the individualism of the brothers as a unit and the variety of their career as creators.

then moving on to the next one

Good to see you agreeing that this happens too quickly and the film should be longer :)

I’m not saying only hit the high points just do ANYTHING other than chronological order, 30% farmed out inconsistent animation filler, cheap stock footage, then a ton of pointless talking heads saying the same thing over and over. (Scott Auckerman? Really?) it’s the same bullshit every music doc succumbs to. It’s lazy and boring and exudes none of the joy or creativity that Sparks’ music creates.

There’s literally a scene of Neil Gaiman holding up an album saying “here’s me holding up the album so you can pan to a celeb holding up an album.” Which is so pointless ugh kill me.

There’s literally a scene of Neil Gaiman holding up an album saying “here’s me holding up the album so you can pan to a celeb holding up an album.” Which is so pointless ugh kill me.

Clearly Carax should have directed this and Wright directed Annette uh wait

I'll see this sooner or later, but these descriptions sound terrible.

I'm excited for Annette! It probably wont be terrible!

This movie rocked, sorry

I actually liked the scope that took all of their albums into consideration because, well, that's how nerds look at albums. Like, yeah, it could have been a tight 90 minute story, and probably would need to be if it was some Netflix crap or whatever, but it told the story **and** gave all 25 or whatever albums a watchful eye. However, yes, the last 20 minutes of "In conclusion, Sparks is good" was p unecessary.

And yeah, Scott Aukerman and Neil Gaiman and that rando podcast woman are all super cringe, but idk, Sparks attracts a lot of cringe Onion A/V TMBG people so dealwithit.gif

idk, man, after like 10 years of every marginal band getting a shitty crowdfunded Kickstarter documentary it was nice to see something that worked on that nerd level with some style and professionalism