The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

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BOB1
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The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by BOB1 »

Who knows if this is until the end of the show but so far, save for Part 1, each episode ends (or almost ends) with a Roadhouse performance and every week it's a different artist. Sometimes we get a scene around it, sometimes we don't... Personally I much, much prefer the former. In general I like the idea of closing episodes like this. Not crazy about it and I'm pretty sure I'd choose a good cliffhanger over it but as it is, I enjoy it.

And because I enjoy reviewing, rating and listing, too, why not give it a go? :-)
I'll use stars, from * to * * * * *

(I don't think I've ever heard about any of the bands performing so far so I'm just listening to what comes in the scene.)

end of Part 2 - James/ Shelly - the band is called: Chromatics * * * * 1/2

Perhaps my favourite moment of the opening two hours, which generally disappointed me. A great scene which showed that yes, Twin Peaks is still alive! Brilliantly placed, too, at the end of the episode - at that point we hadn't suspected that would be the pattern of every episode. The band & song in itself pretty cool, a bit in the Julee Cruisse mood, yet different, fresh.

end of Part 3 - The Cactus Blossoms * * *

Nice to come back to Roadhouse once more. I like the singing guys a lot, sooo old school, like the Everly Brothers came back live! There's a good mood in that scene, too, the people dancing, waiters carrying food around... just I wish there was an actual scene accompanying it...

end of Part 4 - Au revoir Simone * * *

I have no idea why but I really like this song! I mean, three gals standing behind some keyboards, the music plays even though they hardly do anything with the instruments, I really should hate it and instead I enjoy this song a lot. Funny. But no scene again and this time not even any proper glimpse at what's happening at the roadhouse. If there were any owls, we'd miss them.

end of Part 5 - no smoking - Trouble * * * * * !

That's easily one of the best scenes of the show so far. Introduction of a new baaad character done in a very convincing way and when he rapes the girl through her ear, brrrrr. Really nasty.
And the best performance! Now those are guys who DO things with their instruments and in the way I like it best. I'd go to their concert!

end of Part 6 - Sharon van Etten * *

The song is pretty but after the previous episode my expectations got really up and a plain performance without any scene just didn't work for me. Especially that the final parts of this episode didn't work much, either.

I'll keep it going and if there's another freak out there who likes playing with stars and such like, I'll enjoy a comparison!
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

I'd give Trouble and the Chromatics five stars each. Obviously both benefit from having actual scenes playing out, but I also think they're by far the best performances, which maybe is why DKL was inspired to intersperse them with actual scenes. (Interesting question: were the bands shot with the intention of slotting them into these specific scenes, or was it an editorial decision?) I give Trouble the edge on performance (have they released anything else?), but I like the Part 2 scene overall more for the amazing "catching-up-with-the-townies" feel, which I hope we get more of. The way DKL shoots Ruth Radelet is absolutely gorgeous, especially her eyes. "It doesn't get any bluer."

Cactus Blossoms four stars. Great mood, great song. Not much more to say.

I found Au Revoir Simone and Ven Etten pretty generic (which is disappointing since I like a lot of Van Etten's songs that I've heard here and there...this song/performance felt kind of lifeless, not quite sure why it didn't work for me). I guess I'd give 'em both three stars. Fine, but forgettable.

Oh, and it's probably useful for the thread to chronicle how familiar we were with the bands going into the show. I have several tracks by the Cactus Blossoms and Sharon Van Etten in my iTunes rotation and have liked both performers for years. Was totally unfamiliar with the rest (although I of course know Dean Hurley's work with Lynch the elder).
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Metamorphia »

Trouble is by far the best song. Closest to the Pink Room style from FWWM and fits brilliantly with the scene at hand (obviously this one works a little differently than the others since it's not actually an episode closer).

Also loved the Cactus Blossoms song. Not too keen on any of the others.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Hercousin »

Trouble and Cactus Blossoms ftw. Two sides of the same coin for me; dirty jazz rockabilly showing that underbelly of Twin Peaks, sweet harmonies for the wistful Americana. I love both tracks. They fit the vibe so well.

I like Chromatics but preferred Johnny Jewel's Windswept album more than "Shadow", which took awhile to grow on me. Ruth looks angelic, another beautiful cipher onstage like Julee.

Sharon Van Etten and Au Revoir Simone, though...might be the only feelings of intense dislike I've ever experienced watching anything Lynch. Generic, twee Brooklyn hipsters and an ersatz Patti Smith. Feel free to school me but that's everything about music I hate. To paraphrase Louise Belcher, if they were a spice they'd be flour.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by alreadygoneplaces »

I loved Trouble and Sharon von Etten. Looking forward to the soundtrack coming out, since I listened to the recorded version of her song 'tarifa' and didn't like it as much as the more stripped down twin peaks version.

Cactus Blossoms... hmm. I hate how shamelessly they ape the Everly Brothers, but simultaneously enjoy how good they are at aping the Everly Brothers.

The other two I didn't think worked at all, especially the Chromatics. I thought the song was pretty insipid anyway, but since it was either just mimed to the recorded version or recorded and produced in such a way that it made the scene really jarring- it didn't feel like we were hearing a band in the roadhouse at all, just hearing a hypercompressed recording superimposed over the scene.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by BOB1 »

Hmm, so now it was... different. And yet we had a band playing at the Roadhouse - just wasn't a performance but practising. And we didn't see them... cause we saw the sweeping ;-)

I liked it! They sounded like The Doors caught in a garage. The sweeping was absurd but as it was the only scene in this episode with that kind of pacing, I felt it worked very neatly.
And then this brief but meaningful phone conversation of this Jean-Michel Jarre, whoever he is. That was strong, too. Good scene!

end of Part 7 - floor sweeping - name of band...??? * * * 1/2
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

BOB1 wrote:Hmm, so now it was... different. And yet we had a band playing at the Roadhouse - just wasn't a performance but practising. And we didn't see them... cause we saw the sweeping ;-)

I liked it! They sounded like The Doors caught in a garage. The sweeping was absurd but as it was the only scene in this episode with that kind of pacing, I felt it worked very neatly.
And then this brief but meaningful phone conversation of this Jean-Michel Jarre, whoever he is. That was strong, too. Good scene!

end of Part 7 - floor sweeping - name of band...??? * * * 1/2
That was a vintage 1962 recording by Booker T. No Roadhouse band this week!
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Gabriel »

So far, it's been Johnny Jewel, Chromatics and Au Revoir Simone's tracks that I've liked and purchased. Digging into the albums on iTunes and videos on YouTube, I've only really been interested in purchasing more music by Johnny Jewel. That said, I'm not going to complete the album on iTunes yet, because there are rumours of more music being used in season three and music is a very 'visual' medium for me – music makes me visualise very specific images and my expectations might be crushed if I see the tracks used in ways I don't like. One of my most crushing disappointments was Killing Zoe, because I loved the soundtrack album long before seeing the film and hated the film; same goes for the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider album too.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by IcedOver »

I sort of like the loose feeling this band-of-the-week technique has given the show, but haven't overly enjoyed the performances or songs themselves. The beat and synth work of the Chromatics (even though no synth was on stage) was good, but the vocalist less so. I liked the synths of the Au Revoir Simone song as well, but other than that, the songs have been pretty bad. If Reznor performs, that should be a shot in the arm.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Panapaok »

Reznor is definitely going to perform since his wife Mariqueen and his guitarist Robin Finck are in the cast as well.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

Have the performers been performing live, or lip syncing to the studio recordings (a la Julee Cruise)? To me, it looks like the former, but I'm not overly familiar with most of the original studio versions.

Btw, a quick glimpse at the artists' discographies indicates that almost all of these tracks were brand-new compositions by the respective artists at the time of shooting. The only ones that were older were Au Revoir Simone's (from a 2007 album) and Van Etten's (from 2014 -- so only a year or two old when filmed, but still older than the others'). Wonder how many were written specifically at DKL's behest (for instance, the Chromatics haven't released an album in several years, and "Shadow"'was released as a single with a DKL-inspired music video, so that one appears to have been written specificaly for the show; whereas in the case of NIN, my guess is Reznor played DKL some of their new material and they picked the one that fit best in the show).
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by IcedOver »

Mr. Reindeer wrote:Have the performers been performing live, or lip syncing to the studio recordings (a la Julee Cruise)? To me, it looks like the former, but I'm not overly familiar with most of the original studio versions.

Btw, a quick glimpse at the artists' discographies indicates that almost all of these tracks were brand-new compositions by the respective artists at the time of shooting. The only ones that were older were Au Revoir Simone's (from a 2007 album) and Van Etten's (from 2014 -- so only a year or two old when filmed, but still older than the others'). Wonder how many were written specifically at DKL's behest (for instance, the Chromatics haven't released an album in several years, and "Shadow"'was released as a single with a DKL-inspired music video, so that one appears to have been written specificaly for the show; whereas in the case of NIN, my guess is Reznor played DKL some of their new material and they picked the one that fit best in the show).
They're all lip-synced, and that's clear to me despite not having heard any of the songs before. The NIN lip-syncing was pretty bad. Trent's mouth was away from the mic when he was still saying something, and his wife forgot to chime in right on cue at one point. The Chromatics song was mainly synths, but no synth was on stage. Of course I'm sure people are saying that's fine because of the "it's all an illusion" moment in "MD".

The only one of these artists I've even heard of prior to the show is NIN; I'm a fan, but not as much as I used to be. That track was on their EP from last year or the year before called "Not the Actual Events". I doubt that any of the songs so far were actually written for this show, although Julee's likely will be (unless she just does an older one, which wouldn't be surprising).
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by laughingpinecone »

(repost in the right thread, sorry for the earlier awkwardness)

A friend pointed out that the NiN song is part of an EP that was announced and released in December 2016. Their performance was presumably filmed in a Roadhouse set no later than April of the same year. Do you think Lynch got to hear the song well in advance because of their past collaborations and wanted it in the show or...? What's the possible timeline here?
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by Azurite404 »

IcedOver wrote:
Mr. Reindeer wrote:Have the performers been performing live, or lip syncing to the studio recordings (a la Julee Cruise)? To me, it looks like the former, but I'm not overly familiar with most of the original studio versions.

Btw, a quick glimpse at the artists' discographies indicates that almost all of these tracks were brand-new compositions by the respective artists at the time of shooting. The only ones that were older were Au Revoir Simone's (from a 2007 album) and Van Etten's (from 2014 -- so only a year or two old when filmed, but still older than the others'). Wonder how many were written specifically at DKL's behest (for instance, the Chromatics haven't released an album in several years, and "Shadow"'was released as a single with a DKL-inspired music video, so that one appears to have been written specificaly for the show; whereas in the case of NIN, my guess is Reznor played DKL some of their new material and they picked the one that fit best in the show).
They're all lip-synced, and that's clear to me despite not having heard any of the songs before. The NIN lip-syncing was pretty bad. Trent's mouth was away from the mic when he was still saying something, and his wife forgot to chime in right on cue at one point. The Chromatics song was mainly synths, but no synth was on stage. Of course I'm sure people are saying that's fine because of the "it's all an illusion" moment in "MD".

The only one of these artists I've even heard of prior to the show is NIN; I'm a fan, but not as much as I used to be. That track was on their EP from last year or the year before called "Not the Actual Events". I doubt that any of the songs so far were actually written for this show, although Julee's likely will be (unless she just does an older one, which wouldn't be surprising).
The Sharon Van Etton song was a different version to any studio version I've found on YouTube though (it has no horn part, for instance). Might still be lip-synced, but I thought this was worth mentioning.
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Re: The Roadhouse scenes performances (SPOILERS)

Post by pinballmars »

My favorites are the ones that strike the most powerful chords with what's happening in the series.

The Chromatics song is not only lovely, but it comes off to me as Lynch's signpost that this is his final work in the world of TWIN PEAKS (the chorus: "for the last time, for the last time").

The Sharon Van Etten song I find moving because, though I know it's a few years old, it almost seems to be from Cooper's point of view ("I can't remember, I can't recall, no, I can't recall anything at all").

And the Nine Inch Nails performance feels like something evil rising, which makes it a perfect complement to an hour that's mostly about that very thing.
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