Monday, January 21, 2019

Solid As a Rock

It happens to all my favorite shows and I'm not sure why. Penny Dreadful: cancelled. Vikings: cancelled: Daredevil: cancelled. The Following: cancelled. Quarry: cancelled. Quarry is not an overly popular show across the spectrum of TV land, which is probably why it was so short-lived as a Cinemax series, based on the novels of crime writer Alex Collins. TV shows set in the '70s probably don't get a very long shelf life, but I coursed my way through this series the same due to its phenomenal acting, its compelling story lines, and its noirish, gritty crime element.

Quarry follows Mac "Quarry" Conway, played by Logan Marshall-Green (The Invitation, Prometheus). He is a Vietnam vet returning home to a Memphis, TN who, along with his friend, Arthur, is regarded  as a butcher. It's 1972, a time rife with social upheaval, making for a less than stellar homecoming for Mac. The only friendly face in an entire town is his wife, Joni, whom he surprises by returning home a day early to see. Mac knows he has to readjust to a society who despises his existence, and the only comfort zones he can return to are Joni and the outdoor swimming pool he installed himself before his deployment. The only thing missing, besides a stable job, is his prized possession Otis Redding album, which is strangely absent from his record collection.

Mac gets turned down left and right at one job interview after another, and is even shunned by his well-to-do father, embarrassed to be associated with a Marine son so embedded in such an unpopular war. Joni encourages him to keep plugging away, and he is soon approached by a cryptic figure called the Broker, played by Scottish actor Peter Mullan (Ozark, Braveheart). The Broker is essentially a hitman contractor, out to recruit the biggest and the baddest disenfranchised military veterans he can for his grisly work.

The Broker has already recruited Arthur, a circumstance that pulls Mac into the gritty netherworld of organized crime. With a noble intent to stay on the straight and narrow, but an unbending allegiance to Arthur, Mac agrees to watch his friend's back on his first hit. As one might expect, things quickly turn south, Arthur is killed, and Mac is left to pay off the debt that Arthur accrued by failing to get the job done. As they meet at a quarry, the Broker refers to Mac as "Quarry" for his stone-cold persona and his rock-hard exterior. There are several hits the Broker wants Mac to complete, starting with one more near and dear to him that he ever thought imaginable. He is given the name and address of the man who has been having an affair with Joni while he's been fighting abroad. After he witnesses the heart-wrenching act of their betrayal firsthand, Mac confronts the man at his home, sprawled out underneath his car. To the sounds of the Otis Redding record that was stolen by the cheating slimeball, Mac kicks the jack from underneath the car, crushing the man to death

The first two episodes of the series are strong, tangled in the conundrum of crime and heartbroken love Mac feels for the unfaithful Joni. Finding their way back to one another emotionally is a slow and organic process, which makes for some melodramatic television. He resents her for her infidelity, and she blames his  return to Vietnam for a second tour despite his initial promise to her. This dynamic between Mac and Joni is the backbone of the show. The one person he felt like he had in the world has betrayed him, and the process it takes for them to find common ground again is grueling, filled with resentment, heartache, and volatility.

Through the course of the 8 episodes, we're introduced to hitmen and petty crooks, seedy gangsters and crooked officers, and live bands, who belt out their soul and rock 'n' roll choruses in the dive bars frequented by the show's criminal element. There are enough Vietnam flashbacks throughout the season to provide Mac with character depth, with plenty of social tension, political change, and PTSD to tie the early 1970s into a tight, blood-caked bow.

Another reason I really liked Quarry was because of Mac's extreme sense of duality. "Mac" is generally a ill-reputed Marine vet who society has cast away, struggling to make ends meet and reconcile with his wife. The minute he murders Joni's proxy lover, he shifts into the persona of "Quarry." Mac wants desperately to be the man he's always been, but the Memphis underworld embeds it talons deeply, forcing Mac to daily fight against himself. The show is a southern, 1970s adaptation of the duplicitous Jekyll and Hyde, where  leather jackets and handguns replace walking canes and top hats.

I slowly made my way through the 8 episodes mainly because there were only 8 episodes. It was extremely difficult, but I try to make such a limited experience last as long as possible. The series conjures images of the Dixie Mafia, though the southern criminal organization is never directly called out on the show. The lowlife deviants make their money from hit contracts, fencing stolen goods, and using games and carnivals as fronts for their illegal activities. Mac concentrates on the former, following his Broker-appointed partner, Buddy, into a hail of gunfire. Buddy is a fast-talking, ballad-singing, underwear-flashing mama's boy who frequents such a heavy fog of deviant, illicit activity that he hardly knows which way is up. He's an interesting character, as is Broker right hand man, Karl, who looks like Jimmy Fallon disguised as a ruthless '70s gangster.

There is a lot to like about Quarry. It's tight on its social tensions and dark on its neo-noir. Mac and Joni's rollercoaster romance in both fun and difficult to watch, which makes for an overall enjoyable dynamic. Mac's duplicity is another interesting aspect. While he's already served as judge, jury, and executioner in the war, he proves good at it on the home front as well. The music sets the tone for the dark narrative, especially in the first few episodes with Otis Redding and Van Morrison crooning their way through the bittersweet scenes.





Monday, January 7, 2019

Top 5 Albums of 2018

5. Frontierer - "Unloved" 
(song - "Unloved and Oxidized")
Frontierer is one of the more interesting hardcore bands out there. They dedicate their music to the mathcore subgenre. A couple of their members live in Scotland, while one lives in Missouri. They sound like a cross between Dillinger Escape Plan and Will Haven, like a bumper car free-for-all mixed with an industrial complex. At times, screamer Chad Kapper sounds similar to Every Time I Die torchbearer, Keith Buckley. "Unloved" is Frontierer's sophomore efforta, and while it sticks to the same glue that made their debut, "Orange Mathematics," such a frenzied, brutal assault, it also seeks some nastier riffs melded alongside the occasional hypnotic drum and bass beat. The most distinguishing feature of the band is the mathcore finger-dancing across the fret board of the lead guitar. Frontierer is one of the best hardcore bands I've heard in a long time, and alongside ETID and Spitfire, they are still one of the few heavy bands I still follow. There is barely time to breathe throughout this chaotic record, one I find comparable to a medieval battlefield where you have to keep your eyes and ears on a swivel to avoid missing out on a single moment of hardcore brilliance.





4. Mint Field - "Pasar de las Luces"
(song - "Cambios del Pasar")
Mint Field appeared randomly on one of my daily mixes on Spotify and I've been a fan ever since. Their track "Cambios del Pasar" sounded like late-nineties shoegaze mixed well with an all-girl garage band. Twenty-one year-olds Estrella del Sol Sanchez and Amor Amezcua rock a simple enough dreamy sound with haunting vocals and minimal but effective drum beats. It's all about the reverb-heavy strums of the guitar on this one, and about getting lost in the soaring, haunting chimes of the vocals. Most of the album is this way, though we don't get much of that from them on this track in particular that reminds me more of old Hole or Babes in Toyland crossed with My Bloody Valentine.





3. Fog Lake - "Captain"
(song - "Dinosaur")
I can't seem to stop listening to this album. It has a perfect mix of optimism and melancholy, like most of Fog Lake's other albums. When I was in heavy bands back in the day, I had a side project called Plumeria. Fog Lake is the closest thing I've heard to it, composed of one-man phenom, Aaron Powell, straight from the hinterlands of Newfoundland. He's an unsigned act, but puts out a release per year in a wispy, lo-fi sound that certainly reminds me of the cassette tapes I used to record on. Fog Lake's newest effort, alongside with an EP that harkens back to the music of Otis Redding, is called "Captain." I've included the best track on the album, "Dinosaur" to give the fullest view of what the lo-fi wonder brings to the table.







2. Beach House - "7"
(song - "Pay No Mind")
Beach House is easily becoming my favorite band to listen to. I got to see themthe the summer of '17, and am seeing them again next month. They, along with Fog Lake and Exitmusic, get something so right about the melodies they produce, something that creates goosebumps on my skin most times that I'm listening to them. "7" isn't their best album (that would be "Depression Cherry"), but it is certainly up there, and is certainly one of the best releases of the year. The track to the left, "Pay No Mind" is simple enough through the verses, but the choruses usher in a whimsical, beautiful soundscape that comes off like an ethereal dream sequence. Beach House does it again in this one, proving that you don't need more than 2 to make things go right.








1. Exitmusic - "The Recognitions"
(song - "Trumpet's Fade"
Boy, is this one an epic, complicated release. Like Beach House, Exitmusic features 2 core members, singer/actress Aleksa Palladino and her husband, or ex-husband, Devon Church. The two divorced in 2012 following the release of one of my favorite albums of all time, "Passage." They returned in early 2018 with the follow-up, "The Recognitions," but how they managed to do so, I'm not sure. Old wounds had healed enough for them to move on, but that's not the impression I get when listening to the lyrics over the span of the 9 track album. This is likely the last release we get from Exitmusic, and while I'm sure disheartened by that, I'm even more so that the two are no longer together. The track on the left is favorite from the new album, and it offers much insight into the break-up of the 2 musical geniuses.