Better Late Than Never on the Film "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

I recently watched the most recent Coen Brothers movie, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", and I have to say, I really loved this movie. I knew of it because I watched a few trailers, and as I feel with every Coen Brothers movie, I was intrigued. I like their take on Westerns, and they are 2 of the best directors that are out there right now. Also, the cast that was announced was pretty dynamite. I am a big Tim Blake Nelson fan. I adore Tyne Daly. I like James Franco. Tom Waits is weird, but he is a perfect fit in Coen Brothers movies. Zoe Kazan was a revelation in "The Big Sick". And that is just a few of the very big names that were in this movie. I also enjoy movies that go the vignette rout, and the Coen Brothers did this perfectly.

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is split into 6 different stories that may, or may not, be connected. I tend to believe that they are each their own story, and each one is very well told. The movie starts off with Tim Blake Nelson, as the titular Buster Scruggs, and his story is fast and funny and violent and great. Nelson is funny and breaks the fourth wall all the time. He is constantly talking to the viewing audience, telling us his backstory, and I loved every second of it. He also sings some catchy songs, and brutally kills people that have wronged him. His demise was unexpected, but very well played. I liked this segment a ton.

The second segment featured James Franco and Stephen Root. Franco is a bank robber and Root is the teller. This story was a bit more dramatic, but when Root runs outside covered in pots and pans, I found myself chuckling. Also, the stuff with the Native Americans was tremendous. Franco is about to be hanged, and they come and save the day. I was blown away at how cool this whole scene was in the movie. While this segment was a bit slower, it still kept my interest to the very end.

We move from there to the Liam Neeson and Harry Melling segment, which was as dour as it gets in this movie, and I loved it. Neeson plays the care taker to Melling, who is armless and legless, and he does dramatic readings of plays and speeches in towns that they travel to. The speeches are great. Neeson's portrayal of the care taker was solid. But, Melling was the star of this vignette. He was tremendous and I could not take my eyes off him. His readings were dynamite, and when he wasn't doing the readings, he spoke not a word, but we saw his reactions to Neeson's life. It was incredible. This segment proved that the Coen Brothers are just as adept at drama as they are at everything else.

The Tom Waits segment came next, and he was pretty much the only person involved. He was a gold miner, and watching him go through the days, just panning and panning until his big payday was truly wonderful. Waits was so good. Even when he finds his fortune, he gets shot in the back, which made me sad, but he was still alive, and he still got his payday. That made me happy, and to see Waits gallop away on his horse was moving. This was one of the few segments that had a "happy" ending.

The Zoe Kazan vignette was next, and this one kind of had it all. It was classic Coen Brothers at the start. The scene around the dinner table was so good. They have the comedy from that, and then goes to dramedy, when Kazan's brother suddenly dies. I say dramedy because his character was an odd dude, and the crew taking them to Oregon didn't seem to sad when he died. We then got a love story between Kazan and one of the main ranch hands leading the trip. This quickly turned sour when Native Americans found her and her dog watching prairie dogs, and the main ranch hand came to help her fight. He told her that if things got bad, to shoot herself in the head. He told her this would be a much easier death than anything else that may happen. When things seemed to be okay, with the main ranch hand holding the fighters off, it turned sad because Kazan shot herself, thinking things had gotten as bad as they could. I was absolutely stunned by this ending, and it made me very sad.

The final segment was probably my second favorite, behind the Buster Scruggs one, and it was filmed and acted perfectly. There were 5 people in a horse carriage, and they all kind of tell their own story. There is 2 guys on one side, and 2 other guys and a lady on the other side. The 3 people each have very strong opinions about their lives, and how each other lives. It is, at times, funny, sad and interesting. I was hanging on every word from all three actors. Then they pan back to the other 2 guys, one of which is Brendon Gleeson, who breaks into song, and everyone stops to listen. It was touching and moving. They then pan to the gentleman he was with, and he reveals that they are bounty hunters, and the other 3 passengers may be their next victims. It was another stunning turn,, and I loved the way they revealed it. This was such a well told story. It was so well acted. It was near perfection, and the way it ended made it even better.

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is one of the better movies to come out in 2018. I wished I had watched it sooner, but that is the good thing about Netflix. It is still on there to watch, and I am glad that I did. I highly recommend this movie, and I give it as many thumbs up as I possibly can. What a great, great movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The movie was great, but could have been better with one more vignette. Imagine a story where Ty is watching the film and then writing about it. That would be epic.

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The Greatest American Band Debate: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

For the greatest American band debate I'm going to nominate Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band.

I fell in love with this band right after I discovered the Black Keys. I read an article where Dan Auerbach called Captain Beefeheart one of his biggest influences in music and I had to hear this guy immediately. It was awesome. The first record I bought was "Safe As Milk", and let me tell you, this thing is the earliest form of garage rock that I ever heard and it was totally awesome. The sound that his band made with their instruments, the distortion and reverb from guitars, the fuzzy bass, the weird drum lines and fills, and Beefheart's voice, it was incredible. I had heard stuff like this before, but not this good. I like garage music. Bands like the Black Keys, the White Stripes, the Hives, Bloc Party and the Heavy are all in my normal rotation, except for the White Stripes now, and it is all great, but it is not Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band.

Look at some of the songs on "Safe As Milk". You have stuff like "I'm Glad", "Abba Zabba", "Zig Zag Wanderer", "Grown So Ugly" and "Sure 'Nuff n Yes I Do". All classic and all very different from each other. That's the sign of a great songwriter and a great band. When you can change genres in the course of one album, that takes a boat load of talent and ingenuity. "I'm Glad" is a slower, almost love song, but with the funky instruments playing very fuzzy riffs makes it awesome. "I'm Glad" also has some beautifully written lyrics that come off as legit poetry. Beefheart opining for the good days, saying stuff like, "when we met I was sad, at times I felt really bad, but now I'm glad, I'm glad about the good times, oh, that we had". Wonderful. His backing band, almost sounding like doo wop, is such a great added bonus. "Abba Zabba" is a classic throwback rock song with Beefheart gruffly singing the words to perfection. When he needs to hit higher notes on "Abba Zabba", he knocks that out of the park as well.

Beefheart, his real name is Van Vilet, is one of the greatest writers and musicians of all time. "Zig Zag Wanderer" is your typical 60's rock and roll song made that much cooler by the Magic Band. The guitar and bass are distorted perfection and I could listen to this song over and over again. "Grown So Ugly" has some of the most unique and interesting time changes I've ever heard in one 2 and a half minute song. They start out fast with a heavy guitar riff and Beefheart screaming the lyrics, then just stop completely, come back slow for the verse, then do that over and over again for the glorious duration of the song. I love the Black Keys version of this song,  but the original is so much better and so phenomenal considering when it was recorded.

The opening track to "Safe As Milk", "Sure 'Nuff n Yes I Do" was the perfect gateway to their music for me. It starts out with a fuzzy slide guitar riff, so I'm immediately on board, and it just gets better from there, growing louder and faster and ending with a boom. This song opened my mind to true, original garage rock. Captain Beefeheart and his Magic Band have put out a ton of albums, 9 to be exact, but "Safe As Milk" is the cream of the crop for me. Don't get wrong, their other stuff is very, very good, I just really love "Safe As Milk".

What I really want to touch on for the rest of the blog is the many, many bands that they have influenced and Captain Beefheart's relationship with Frank Zappa. Let's look at the people they have influenced first, There's the afformentioned Black Keys and White Stripes, but they also made a mark with bands and musicians like PJ Harvey, Beck, Franz Ferdinand, LCD Soundsystem, Kurt Cobain, Black Francis of the Pixies, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and my brother Seth's favorite, Tom Waits. That is a murderer's row of very famous singers, bands, songwriters and musicians. I mean, a guy like Beck, who bends all genres of music, calling Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band is a huge feather in their cap and shows how great of a band they truly were. Even a band like LCD Soundsysytem, that mainly dabbles in the electronica notes how influential they were and covers some of their songs on their records. They may be one of the underrated American bands as well as one of the greatest American bands. That list of people they influenced could go on and on.

Beefheart's friendship and relationship with Frank Zappa helped explain a lot of things abut his musical stylings and just the flat out bizarre stuff he did as a musician. They met each other when they were teenagers and bonded over their love for blues and R&B, according to Wikipedia. They also recorded very early, like when they both broke into the industry, and Zappa helped cultivate the Captain Beefheart persona. Before Beefeheart, Van Vilet was just your everyday studio musician and he performed live with Zappa's band, the Mothers of Invention, who I will definitely write about at another date. As they got older and grew in the industry, sometimes their friendship would turn into a rivalry, like when two brothers fight. They fought because they couldn't tour independently due to contract obligations, thanks again Wikipedia. They fought so much at this time, they wouldn't speak to each other, much like when two brothers fight. They went their separate ways for awhile, but when Zappa was diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually take his life, they reconnected. They went back to recording together in the studio and put out some great songs. Stuff like "Muffin Man" and "Willie the Pimp". They remained friends through Zappa's untimely death and I'm positive they were happy they buried the hatchet and became friends again. Anyone that can work with and be almost as musically accomplished as Frank Zappa is a genius in my book and Van Vilet AKA Captain Beefheart is just that.

I suggest, for the young kids out there, if you like the Black Keys and other similar bands, go back and check out Captain Beefeheart and his Magic Band. That was where they all got their influence.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His early musical influences included Rockapella, The Zack Attack, and The B Sharps. Be influenced by Ty and follow him on twitter @tykulik.