The Behrend Beacon
ow to search out and find Indie music
by Erika Jarvis
a&e editor
Indie music, folk rock, underground
bands, college radio; these are things
most often not found at Behrend. Yet,
if you are a fan of this genre of music
you might be finding it hard to find any
good bands to listen to.
Here are some helpful tips to finding
this style of music
I.Check out MTV.com: This Web
Site is home to a ton of different genres
of music. Surprisingly, MTV does have
a section of music exclusively for indie
music. Check out what MTV' has to of
fer and stop by and see what's under
MTV's Buzzworthy catagory.
These are the songs and artists that
MTV has labeled to be the best stuff
out there. Sometimes, an indie artist can
be found under this catagory.
2. Check out CDbaby.com: This is
another Web Site, yet it is solely dedi
cated to indie music. The artists sold
on this Web Site are those who do not
have a record deal. CDbaby sells
records of some pretty good artists.
3. Head over to Target: Target has
an array of CDs to choose from, but shy
away from the mainstream section.
There is a small stand normally in the
middle of all the CDs that is exclusively
With 'Jersey Girl,' Kevin Smith comes of age as a filmmaker
by Phoebe Flowers
KRT Campus
There was a time, surely, when having
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as the stars
of your movie would be considered a
commercial gold mine. That time,
unfortunately, was a year and a half ago,
about two seconds after their relationship
went public. That was before the
approximately 812 US Weekly covers;
before the freakishly large, pink
engagement ring; before the wedding that
wasn't; and before, above all else, "Gigli."
Ah, "Gigli." Last summer's cinematic
punchline became an unexpected cross to
bear for writer-director Kevin Smith,
whose new film "Jersey Girl" features,
albeit briefly, Affleck and Lopez as
husband and wife. It was during the
shooting of the romantic comedy, which
opens March 26, that the pathologically
overexposed celebrity powerhouse known
as Bennifer was hatched.
In the midst of filming, Smith boasted
about the pair's chemistry to Entertainment
Weekly. "There's something wonderful
going on between them," he said in
September 2002. "They can be intimate
onscreen more easily because they are in
i relatiol
for indie music
This is where I bought my John
Mayer CD for $6 a good year before
he became mainstream. If you're will
ing and risky, buy a CD by a band that
you are intriguedby. If you don't like
the CD, you're only out a few dollars.
4. Check out the LEB Coffee House
Series: The Lion Entertainment Board
has the opportunity to bring many dif
ferent musical acts to Behrend. These
musical acts or solo performers are
mainly folk music, with a few different
genres through in the mix.
Grab a few friends and head down to
Bruno's on a Friday or Saturday night
for a free concert. Most often, the art
ists have CDs you can buy after the con
cert.
5. Search for music: Whatever
downloading music source you use, try
typing in generic words for songs. Try
typing in the word " live" and seeing
what you come up with.
Or better yet, try typing in "acous
tic" and you'll get a lot of artists, but
try downloading any bands or artists
you don't recognize. This is one of the
ways I have found such artists as Gra
ham Colton.
6. Check out music chat rooms:
Find a chat room on Yahoo or any type
of chat room and look for a room all
How times do change. To begin with,
that relationship has novr apparently ended
for good. And Lopez, who Smith insists
was never a big part of the movie to begin
with, has only about 12 minutes of screen
time, and is notably absent from
advertisements.
"If 'Gigli' had been a hit, you'd be damn
skippy (the movie poster would) be him
and her," Smith said during a recent visit
to Florida. "So, the fact that 'Gigli' wasn't
a hit forced (backing studio Miramax) to
be more honest with their marketing
campaign, and that worked for me."
Smith claims that, despite reports. there
was never a mandate to hack as much of
Lopez as possible out of the movie after
"Gigli." (Originally, he says. they wanted
him to use her character as much as
possible, as she was paid a cool $4 million
for her small role.) The one thing Smith
did opt to remove was a shot of her
character's wedding to Affleck, because he
says he feared it would yank audiences out
of the movie's fictional world.
"Jersey Girl," ultimately, is one surprise
after another, and that Lopez has such a
tiny part in it isn't even the biggest one.
Affleck, making his fifth film with Smith,
stars as 011ie Trinke, a h: ~veered
Friday, March 26, 2004
about music. Be bold and ask other
people in the room what type of music
they listen to. Find people who like your
genre of music and see who their fa
vorite bands are. Maybe they'll have
some suggestions for you that will work
out for you.
7. Check out message boards:
Got a favorite indie/folk rock band?
Do they have a Web site. If so, check
out the bands Web site and see if they
talk about any other bands that they
know of. If they have a Web site,
most times they have message
boards.
See what other fans of that band
like to listen to. This is a hit-and-miss
approach, but so are a few other
items on this list. See what other
bands people enjoy listening to un
der that genre and go check out that
hand.
From there you can do this again
and check out another message
hoard. This one might take a little
work, but in the end you can find
some really amazing bands.
8. Check out local bands: Look
in your local newspaper, check out
fliers around town and go to a con
cert of a band that you feel might
interest you. Down in Pittsburgh
there are always concerts going on
in the South Side. Going to these
publicist from the Garden State who has
cast off his working-class roots for a
glamorous Manhattan existence. He falls
madly in love with book editor Gertie
(Lopez). They marry. They have a baby.
But fate intervenes, and 011ie becomes a
single father, forced to move back to Jersey
with his dad, Bart (George Carlin), and to
live a dramatically different life.
In other words, Smith, the defiantly
puerile mind behind such dorm-room
classics as "Clerks," "Mallrats" and "Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back," has, at 33,
finally graduated into a grown-up movie.
His first five films -- "Chasing Amy" and
"Dogma" are the other two -- were all
elements of what he calls his "View
Askewniverse," featuring many
overlapping characters. But you will not
find vulgar Jay (Jason Mewes) or
chainsmoking Silent Bob (Smith himself)
anywhere near the gentle "Jersey Girl," and
that is something that is probably not going
to sit well with many longtime Smith fans.
"I think that ... the Jay and Bob fans, are
gonna be like, 'What the hell, Smith
(wussed) out, — the direct 4 says. "That's
unavoidable. But I spent the better part of
the last two years kinda prepping them for
that, on the Web
played ai me
plays folk rock concerts across the country to get known. While he's
put out three CDs so far, he's still considered to be "unknown."
concerts can be pretty fun and you
might come across a band that you
really like.
9. Attend Behrend's Battle of the
Bands: Again, the LEB is putting on
the Battle of the Bands like it did last
year. This is another great way to
check out local bands around the
Erie area. Another bonus? The
Juliana Theory will also be here to
perform. See if you like any of the
bands that battle it out and check
with them after the concert. Do they
(www.viewaskew.com) and stuff like that.
Any time I did a college gig, when I did
comic book shows, I was like, 'Look, the
next one is soft. The next one is not like
Jay and Bob; it's like 180 degrees from
Jay and Bob. —
On the other hand, a relatively family
themed story like "Jersey Girl" could net
Smith a completely new audience. This is
the first movie Smith has made that isn't
R-rated (at least not anymore; after an
appeal to the ratings board, it garnered the
sought-after PG-13). And it's also the first
that may appeal to moviegoers whose eyes
glaze over at the very thought of "Star
Wars," and who have no interest in ever
reading a comic book. (For everyone else,
just be patient: Smith's next project is "The
Green Hornet.")
"Chasing Amy," in which Affleck
played a guy in love with a purported
lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams, Smith's ex
girlfriend), flirted with dramatic heft, but
it also featured plenty of Smith's trademark
crass sloppiness. "Jersey Girl," while still
peppered with foul language (although, the
filmmaker hastens to point out, only a
single f-word), is a whole new animal, a
genuinely sweet, well-crafted tribute to
fatherhood. This is in step with Smith's
own personal growth; he's now married
with a daughter, born in 1999, the year he
began writing "Jersey Girl."
This is also the first movie Smith has
made that doesn't look like it was shot by
inebriated college kids. ("I'm not a real
visual guy," he admits.) With the help of
veteran Oscar-winning cinematographer
Vilmos Zsigmond ("The Deer Hunter,"
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"),
"Jersey Girl" does an excellent
impersonation of a movie by and for
adults.
That's especially interesting considering
that once upon a time, Smith thought he'd
never be capable of such a thing. In John
Pierson's 1995 guide to American
independent films, "Spike, Mike, Slackers
& Dykes," Smith -- whose career as a
filmmaker was spawned when he saw
Richard Linklater's "Slacker" on his 21st
birthday -- claimed he could never make
such a grown-up movie. "Reservoir Dogs'
is an example of a film that I can never
do," he said. "It's glossy, looks great, has
stars. I can never do that."
,behrcolls@aol.com
have a CD? Are they playing any
where else? See where you can go
from there
10. Ask your friends: Last hut not
least is the easiest of them all, ask
your friends what they like. You trust
your friends and their taste and they
won't lead you wrong here.
The best part of asking a friend is
they can lend you their CD at first
so you don't spend a ton of money
on a CD you might not like in the
end.
Almost a decade later. "Jersey Girl" is
outfitted with all those attributes. But it's
the star factor that's the most dodgy. To
understate it, Aftleck has had a really had
year _ "and he knows it:' Smith confirms.
The actor went from being fairly
respectable, despite a few lousy
blockbusters ("Armageddon - ). to an
overgroomed, overtanned joke whose three
2003 films _ "Daredevil," "Gigli" and
"Paycheck" _ were all failures of varying
degrees. The extreme overexposure of his
relationship with Lope/ certainly didn't
help matters ("I would say it was directly
responsible" for "Gigli's" failure, Smith
says).
But the pendulum is showing signs of
swinging back. Since their January split,
both Lopez and Affleck have kept a
refreshingly low profile. And Affleck
managed to be self-effacing and pretty
consistently funny earlier this month as
host of "Saturday Night Live, - where he
mocked everything from the trainkvreck of
"Gigli" to the Bennifer phenomenon. His
"Jersey Girl" performance, which Smith
understandably cannot stop praising, is
without a doubt the best work he has ever
done. If audiences are ready to look past
recent professional and personal missteps.
Affleck may he due for a comeback.
But if "Jersey Girl" had opened last
November, as was planned, it likely would
have had no chance at all. "Two short
months after "Gigli" ... I think we would
have been pegged by the shrapnel, which
was still flying at that point, - Smith says.
"I think now that (Affleck and Lopez have)
broken up, and it seems like the story is at
an end, that people will actually be able to
watch it and judge it for its content. not
the back story."
As for whether he can resuscitate
Affleck's wilting career, Smith is
optimistic and eager.
I would love that, if this was, like, the
redemption picture, or, you know, the
comeback picture," he says, lacing each
sentence with profanity for emphasis.
"Cause how much would that dude owe
me at that point? Like, he owes me a lot
already, but, if I could he like,' Dude, not
only did I put you on the map, hut I saved
your career. I was the comeback movie for
you.' I'd get hirwto work for peanuts for
Page