Photo Courtesy: Derek Matias

(From left to right: Ryan Kinghorn, Tyler Newton (’08), Sean Gregoire, Derek Heidemann (’09))

Two weekends ago at Homecoming, the band Forging Reverie opened for the once mighty 90’s rock band Eve 6. Forging Reverie, an alternative rock band consists of two Plymouth State graduates, Derek Heidemann (Class of ’09) and Tyler Newton (Class of ’08) and one current Plymouth State student, Ryan Kinghorn and new band member, drummer Sean Gregoire. They played a mix of old and new songs in front of a sold out home crowd. For the last three years I’ve slowly become friends with Derek Heidemann, he was one of the only other Literature and Film major’s that I knew of and he was one of my orientation leaders. We both loved music and played guitar and from there I’ve been able to build a relationship with him and then the rest of the band. When thinking about my first major thing to write for the blog, I realized that these guys were prime candidates to talk to.

“Starting a band is hard no matter where you are,” Derek commented to me, I had asked both of them how hard it was to start the band at school and keep it going. “However, there is at least one major pro (at least in our case): Being a student band, we were able to get things started all living in the same town surrounded by a culture of young, music-loving students, and were given multiple opportunities to share our music at various FREE shows, especially the Spring Fling Battles each spring, allowing us to expose our music more easily, and quickly (at least on campus) than we might have otherwise,” stated Tyler Newton. Starting the band was something that had just sort of happened for them, Tyler recounted that he had tried to start a band earlier when he got to school with the same name but it just didn’t take off. Soon though in the fall of ’05 Tyler met Bethany Myers (Class of ’09), who had a class with Derek and was friends with him, invited Derek to sit on the couches in Prospect Dining Hall. “I was always on the lookout for musicians, and Derek definitely already looked like the guitar-playing type,” soon they started chatting about music and both realized they were fans of the band Incubus, which was enough to interest both of them and started the seeds of the future band. They continued to look for other members and Ryan came up, he had been playing guitar, but also had a bass. Winter break hit and there would be no opportunity to get together to play until the spring ’06 semester. Once they did get together, they were joined by a drummer that Tyler knew, Mike Kim and they jammed for a while, recorded a four song demo and then played the battle of the bands as their first show. During the summer Mike quit and then a new drummer, Ben came along and for a while that was the core of the band.

Now that the band is in different locations it’s harder for them to get together to practice but in the case of the Eve 6 show, they knew they had to and they wanted to make it a great show and they worked and worked to make it great. Derek lives in Connecticut, Tyler lives here in NH and Ryan still goes to school here at Plymouth, and is without a car to get back and forth to practice. So Tyler picks up Ryan and Derek drives the four hours one way to practice, as Derek said: “We all knew that it needed to be done, and we set the same times every weekend – so we all knew the schedule.” Recently the band had gone through one of the more common hassles of being in a band and Ben, their drummer, left. As luck would have it though they found a new drummer in time of the big show, Sean Gregoire, when I asked how he was working out, both Derek and Tyler said the same thing “He’s working out great!”

As fairly recent graduates of the school playing here is still exciting for them, “Playing at PSU is always fun. We have the strongest fan base there, and we always get a really warm welcome. It’s also nice to just be on campus,” Derek commented. “Plymouth is still our home crowd,” Tyler also stated. Their last show here on campus was when they played for the band Gym Class Heroes for spring fling back in May: “It was really great to come back for homecoming,” Derek told me. When I asked who, if any, teachers on campus influenced them or supported them through out their time here in the way of teachers or anyone, Derek mentioned Paul Rogalus, one of our English teachers, as a major supporter of the band “He cared to know what was going on and was always happy to see us succeed.” Derek also mentioned former teacher, Chehalis Hegner “was always supportive of us creating music.” When I asked Tyler this question I got a multitude of answers ranging from his brother, Justin (who played in the band The Speed of Film), his father, and Derek in influencing his own guitar playing. Also he mentioned, Emily, a singer her entire life, whom he has known for many years. She helped him in a lot of ways, overcoming insecurities and giving him vocal tips on technique and care.

Lastly I asked them what it was like to be back as an alumni, they both mentioned they had fun coming back up to play. Derek had this to say, “Lots of our friends were excited to see us there playing with just a reputable band.” I think Tyler summed it up quite nicely though with, “Supremely awesome.” It was great to have a home grown band play here on campus especially with a band like Eve 6, who was once a big name in the late 90’s and early 00’s. Forging Reverie is a band to keep up with, they’ve come a long way and continue to grow and they get better. Tyler commented to a friend of mine “I’m just enjoying creating and sharing art with those who’ll receive it,” and I think that’s why they look like they’re having fun, unlike some bands it doesn’t seem like a job for them and that is why they’re such a great band to watch.

You can listen to or read more about Forging Reverie at the following locations:

Myspace

Pure Volume

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I have a screen writing class this semester at school, so there's a new link to access the exercise scripts we have to write. The first one is now up!!

So I have now seen Wanted and Hancock, I still have Wall-E on my list and I bought my tickets to see The Dark Knight in IMAX next Friday, I will have a larger post on that when I see it, currently I have the Blu-ray rip of the first 6 minutes of the movie which is amazing, great setup to introduce the Joker.

Wanted was a movie that I didn't want to see because it looked lame and I am not at all a fan of Angelina Jolie, but all my roommates were going, so guys night out to see a violent movie. I was impressed it wasn't the greatest plot but it was well done, the violence is pretty much the best thing about the movie. The acting is good considering what they were given, and the story is based on a comic book by Mark Millar who is one of my favorite comic writers (more on that later). Overall I would recommend it just don't expect anything intellectual.

Hancock, I was looking forward to this one and while it was OK, all the best parts in the movie were in the trailer. I had already figured out the plot from the trailer, more importantly who he would be fighting the most in the movie (hint, she's really cute). The movie really could've used some length, at ninety minutes it was too short to be really effective, "comic book" movies (this wasn't one technically, but it might as well have been) need to have some space to breath, to allow the character to really become loved by the audience, which is why Batman Begins and Iron Man worked so well, two hours really would've suited this movie. Will Smith is in fact good as Hancock, Jason Bateman is the man, no matter what he's in, he's always fun to watch, and Charlize Theron is still really beautiful and pulls off what she does well, the directing was what bothered me the most. Peter Berg just seems to be a really cheap Michael Bay, a lot of the same spinning camera movements, there was a good solid minute of the camera spinning around Hancock in one shot and I was starting to get a little motion sickness. The thing is that Michael Bay for being a popcorn blockbuster director, does it really well, there is something about his grand style that benefits what he does, there is a reason why Transformers, Bad Boys, and The Rock look as good as they do. Peter Berg just doesn't quite cut it at action, though he did a decent job with Friday Night Lights. Overall its one that can wait for DVD/Blu-Ray.

The comic book part...

There are a few "summer" series that are out right now that are totally worth getting, some not so much.

Marvel's Secret Invasion is amazing, Brian Michael Bendis is my second favorite comic book writer (after Brian K Vaughan) and he's doing a great job handling this series that he's apparently had working now since he restarted New Avengers a few years ago. I haven't read much of the spin-off comics that bleed out into Avengers, and so forth, just the main Secret Invasion line but his writing is great and the artwork by Leinil Francis Yu is always breathtaking. I highly recommend this series as I think it will bring about great change to the Marvel Universe, maybe finding a way to bring back Steve Rogers as Captain America, I know he's dead, but was it really Steve Rogers or was it a Skrull?

DC's Final Crisis, written by one of my least favorite writers Grant Morrison is a mess in the first issue, I had no idea what was going on, superheroes that I haven't heard of popped up and while that's OK, they didn't quite seem to work into the story, I understand this is supposed to fix everything that the last Crisis was supposed to fix which was supposed to fix everything that Zero Hour was supposed to fix which was supposed to fix everything that Crisis on Infinite Earth's was supposed to fix. DC needs to just reboot everything via an Ultimate's line I think, let the writers do what they're doing in the main DC universe but restart Superman and Batman and such, Ultimate Superman would be an interesting read. Final Crisis is DC's way of competing with Marvel and they need to stop, there's no competition, even though I'm a lifelong Superman/DC Comics fan, Marvel is really the one telling the best stories right now.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan - written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, just an awesome idea, Wolverine in 50 years. The art is really cool in the first issue, basically the world is now run by the villains and Logan has settled down and started a family and has swore no more violence. He is hassled by the inbred descendants of The Hulk/Bruce Banner. While Logan looks a bit older and worse for wear he's still Logan. I really recommend this read, the first issue hooked me just by the cover alone and the story is great, I think it's running for something like six or eight issues.

Batman - R.I.P. is also written by Grant Morrison, but this is actually a really good read, far better than the Final Crisis story. Basically someone named the Black Glove is manipulating Batman, he's not sure of what's going on, there's a theory that his parents were bad people and that's why the were gunned down, and that Alfred is really Bruce's dad and that Bruce's dad isn't really dead, it's very confusing the whole way through, but it's a good story, one that I've been psyched to read, especially with The Dark Knight coming out.

This is the summer blockbuster period. Tons of big budget movies are now coming out, some after years of waiting and some are unknown.

Get Smart - It was good, it takes a bit to get into, but it's still funny, if slightly predictable. Steve Carrell is Steve Carrell, he's a good actor and pulls off the character of Maxwell Smart well. Anne Hathaway is a good actress, she's very pretty and does a good job working off from Steve. Out of five stars, I'd give it a 3.5.

The Incredible Hulk - far better than the first one, this isn't emo Hulk, this is beat the crap out of you, and angry at just about anything that moves Hulk. Edward Norton is awesome as Bruce Banner, much like everyone thought he would be. Despite all the behind the scenes politics and crap, the movie is well made, I hope we get a sequel and I hope that he shows up again in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers Movie.

Upcoming movies that I want to see -

It's not hard to be sucked in by Wall-E, he's a cuter, mechanical ET. Andrew Stanton, the genius behind Finding Nemo is behind this film as well, I have high hopes, and Pixar never disappoints, even the not so great movies are still better than 90% of the animated films out there.

I love Will Smith, I love comic book movies, so this one is a must see for me, plus what better way to spend the fourth of July celebrating not only our countries freedom, but seeing a huge blockbuster movie with Jason Bateman.

The Dark Knight is probably my most anticipated movie of the year, even before the death of Heath Ledger I was looking forward to this, Batman Begins is the best comic book movie ever, as realistic as a movie can be about a man that dresses up like a human bat. This one looks to be better, not as much time setting up the characters, backstory and stuff, just jump right in. Plus it'll be in IMAX.

Those are the big three right off the bat, there's a bunch more movies coming out that I'm interested in, X-Files 2, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Quantum of Solace (James Bond 22) are just to name a few over the next six months or so.

I’ve been trying to think about something to write for this, for the first blog. What did I come up with, well I came up with a future article to write about, but it’s not something that should be the first entry. What should be the first entry? I don’t know, I want it to be something legendary (yeah I know the “wait for it” isn’t there), but it will never live up to my own expectations. So what do you write about? I’m a music geek, I love music, and I’m always willing to write about music. I love movies, I’m always willing to talk about movies, and actually I’m even more of a fan of TV, my goal one day to have my own TV show. So what can I write about, how about music in television? Sure why not.

First off television in of itself has come a long way, ask any actor from the 1950’s to the late 1990’s and television was the place where struggling actors, washed up actors, and those who just had no option left went. The writing wasn’t all that great, shows were mostly laughable, sure there was the exception here and there, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, and Quantum Leap, but television was not cinematic, not like movies, there wasn’t a budget, at least not like movies. The music was usually cheesy, never really utilizing music of the day or even of the time period or even good score based music. Then somewhere along the line in the late 1990’s television changed, networks started giving more money to good television shows. Maybe this started with The X-Files, probably one of televisions first shows that were made to look like a movie on a weekly basis, the theme music was great, and the score was great. Then along comes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, thank you Joss Whedon, we all know the story, a high school cheerleader is chosen to be the Vampire Slayer, she moves to Sunnydale where there is a Hellmouth, a literal gateway to our world for demons and such and she becomes a badass superhero. The theme song was awesome, the show as it evolved started to include a number of indie bands that were good and they could get for cheap to play on the show for “functions”. Then comes along Dawson’s Creek, who utilized the current mainstream pop acts to help tell the story of an awkward film geek in his attempts at attaining a Spielberian life, and love. A lot of shows there after followed the Dawson’s Creek formula, new top forty songs to play in the show, especially once it was made clear to the network and record company executives that this sold albums.

By now, in 2008, we have shows that look like they could be movies, Lost, Supernatural, Heroes, and more. Music drives all three shows, lets start with Lost, for a show about people stuck on an island that’s both mysterious and hidden there’s a lot of popular music, not current popular all the time but popular at some point. Pasty Cline, a huge female country artist in the Fifties is featured on the show a lot, Pasty died in a plane crash in 1963, had a huge hit with Willie Nelson’s song “Crazy” and many other hits. Petula Clark has been featured on the show, she’s mostly known for her song Downtown. Along with several popular songs the show is given an enhanced status with Michael Giacchino’s score. Unique in many ways, sometimes sparse with light piano in very heavily dramatic sequences to a lot of brass and fast paced orchestration when it comes to the fight sequences or something, the music, especially the score for the show is more than just background, it helps tell the story of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

Heroes is show that is driven primarily through its incidental music (score) and features almost no pop culture songs, there are exceptions but the show’s music is composed by two people, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman and the score features a lot of vocals by Shenkar who is a vocalist/compose from India. Each main character from the show has their own theme, their own set of instruments and more. Again now that television shows have become more like movies the music isn’t just background, it’s like a separate character, telling the story in its own way, Heroes music does just that, it helps flesh out characters, helps us arrive to what their thinking and more.

Lastly, the music of Supernatural, while the show does have its own incidental music it’s one of the few shows that isn’t reliant on instead the show is heavily influenced by classic rock, mostly classic metal from the 70’s and 80’s. With the show being on The CW, which is generally geared towards a younger, teen crowd, bands that might not be popular anymore are now finding themselves hugely popular again. Songs like “Carry on my Wayward Son” and “Back in Black” have made the show, much like the orchestral music that is featured on Lost and Heroes the music for this show helps tell the stories of the characters, the main character Dean is more of the Metal guy, while Sam doesn’t generally have a preference one way or another.

These three shows are the scale: orchestral – pop/orchestral – pop/rock.

While they all overlap to some degree they all are within that scale. Music isn’t just there anymore, it helps tell the story, much like John Williams scores have become iconic for telling the stories of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Superman and many more, various composers are now becoming famous for their music for television shows, like Mark Snow and the theme song for The X-Files and many more. Shows like Scrubs and The OC have helped launch a lot of bands and give them national promotion; Death Cab for Cutie (The OC) and Joshua Radin (Scrubs) are just two music acts who have benefited from this increasing trend. Is it a good thing for television and music? Why not, in an age where record labels are complaining that music isn’t selling, why not focus more on promoting the good acts you have in some way shape or form.

That’s it for now, this is long it wasn’t supposed to be, but it is, if you’ve made it this far, you’re impressive.