I'm Not There

So the Wang usually does drop album reviews. Specially since the Wang enter the music scene rather late in life and is still sending half of his time catching up on the old rock legends and classics. So seeing stuff about the upcoming movie about Bob Dylan, "I'm Not There", the Wang was naturally happy to see the story of another musical icon via some indie film introduction. Since the late arrival on the English music scene, the Wang had to had most of his musical experiences with the icons like the Beatles via movies like Across the Universe and with Walk the Line for Johnny Cash. And for a new generation, the Wang included, these things may be an insult to some of the older hardcores, but there r a great way to get the new folks a slice of these icon's greatness. Covers songs re surge a interest about the original singers. Though the Wang have this weird theory that the first version of a song u listen to, tends to be the one u like more. But that's just personal opinion. Since "I'm Not There" isn't released in the US till Nov. 21, the Wang has very little to say about it except links to the Wikipedia entry and a Youtube trailer. The movie does have some strong actors/actress portraying Bob Dylan at different personalities. Amongst those are Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger.

So the topic of this post is mainly about the Original Soundtrack of the said movie. Never having much encounter with bob's music cept maybe the closest would be The Wang has heard some Wallflower songs... (yes, I said Wallflowers) Which of course is no where close to Bob Dylan's music, cept being from the same gene pool. So there Wang was, a collector of sound tracks and random music. The "I'm Not There" soundtrack pops out with names like Karen O, Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Jeff Tweedy, Yo La Tango and even the duo from the Swell season, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Amongst many more. U might as well just check out the Wikipedia entry for the full list. Not to mention the super guitar group called the The Million Dollar bashers, which includes the guitarist from Sonic youth and Wilco. Some of the guitar in the songs smack of old school rock classics and brings a modern twang to some of these songs. Not the Wang has much to compare to with the old, original Dylan stuff. But he's definitely going to be on the lookout for some old tracks just to get a mix and feel for things. If one thing he's learned in his old age is that, any experiences is perceived differently, at different ages. So a song u heard when u were 12 probably means something completely different to u at age 30. So the Wang recommend all u old Dylan purist to give the album a try also. Why not, some of it can be good. I mean Karen O, Iron and wine really brings their own flavor to some of these really good songs. Even Mark Lanegan of Queens of the Stone Age brings a Johnney Cash esque cover of The Man in the Long Black Coat.

There r just too many good tracks, so the Wang will post the first one that came up in the random shuffle which caught the Wang's attention:

Sufjan Stevens Covering Ring of Bells (MP3)


P.S. Rabbit! Rabbit!