Music & Movies:

Free Fun in the Great Outdoors

by Dwight Hobbes

It may not take all the sting out of losing the Loring Cafe, but Walker Art Center enlivens Monday night-life in Loring Park this summer with “Music and Movies: A Bit Wilder.” 
The annual sound-and-cinema vibefest showcases an eclectic roster of bands as openers for the works of film legend Billy Wilder. “It’s going to be great,” says Doug Bendit, music producer for the affair. “I think for a lot of folks it helps define summer in Minneapolis. There’s a great social exchange that happens. Elaborate picnicking. Kids and canines. And free music.” Dean Otto, curator for the film series is just as pysched, adding, “[The public] really loves it. It’s a big people watching event. They come down with their dinner. The band plays from 7 to about 8 15. A DJ will spin while they’re striking the band’s equipment and setting up the screen. Then, right there, under the stars, you have a drive-in movie without having to drive down. And Loring Park’s raked hill makes for an excellent sight-line for people to see the films without having to peek over each other’s heads.”


A scene from Wilder’s “Some Like it Hot”

If you don’t like what you hear one Monday night, you can just stick around, catch the flick and return the next week to give it another shot. Sooner or later, between the six bands that’ve been booked, something should reasonably suit your tastes. As Bendit puts it, “I always like to have a range of options for folks.” This years options are raw rockers Likehell (7/8), Chicago-style blues trio Black-Eyed Snakes (7/15), West Africa’s famed polyrhythmic, hip-shakers Super Rail Band (7/22), country stylists Freakwater (7/29), hip-hoppers Hairuspecs (8/5) and jazz ensemble Happy Apple (8/12). “Every year,” he goes on to say, “I just try and figure out who’s going to represent Minneapolis music, the whole spectrum. I like to lay it all out there.”
 
Bendit adds, “I always try to get at least one guitar-heavy, scare-the-birds kind of band.” This time around, local rising stars Likehell, recently back from recording in L.A. with producer Matt Sorum (Guns ‘N’ Roses, The Cult), get that honor. Air-tight drummer Tony Oliveri, whose pumping bass-pedal and machine-gun snare anchor the hard-driving quartet nasty as a street curb, quips, “We play booty-shakin’ rock and roll. And all those crows that come down in droves need to be scared away.” Bendit bagged the proverbial elephant in signing Super Rail Band, whose international success ordinarily prices them out of the Twin Cities market. He had help. “This year we worked with First Avenue to bring [them] in. For us its a great opportunity to share the evening with the club, (SRB plays First Avenue later that night) and to make it fiscally possible.”
He put on his thinking cap to pick DJs “They’re local people who I know have been in the scene and are music-heads. I always wonder what kind of music they carry with them in their heads. The interesting part for me is to have non-DJs spinning.” Among those “non-DJs” are Mary Lucia, Pioneer Press music critic Jim Walsh and premiere poet-performance artist e. g. bailey. 
Dean Otto tailored his selection of films toward the satiric side of director-screenwriter Billy Wilder, as wizened a creative mind as ever infiltrated Hollywood with artistic integrity. “He’s got an edge,” Otto brightly states. “He can take social commentary and make it palatable. He can take a film, like he did with “The Apartment” which has adultery, greed, criticism about how business is run, attempted suicide and [have it be] seen as comedy. “Sabrina” is about class. “One, Two, Three” is an anti-capitalistic film. It’s underrated but I think we can look back on this as being one of the best Cold-War comedies.” An exception to the light-hearted sentiment is series opener “Double Indemnity” (7/8). It’s the jaded saga of a scheming wife who teams with an unscrupulous insurance salesman (admittedly a redundancy in terms) to knock off her filthy-rich world-class bastard of a husband. This cinematic staple, in which it’s hard to actually find a “good guy,” was adapted by Wilder and mystery author Raymond Chandler from the James A. Cain novel. It stars Fred McMurray, famous for squeaky-clean roles, giving classically sinister Lee Marvin (whom he remarkably resembles) a strong run for his money. Supporting are ace-seductress Barbara Stanwyck and a marvelously crusty Edward G. Robinson who, at one point, flat-out steals the scene. The schedule follows with “One, Two, Three” (7/15), “Kiss Me Stupid” (7/22), “Sabrina” (7/29), “Some Like It Hot” (8/5) and “The Apartment” (8/12).
Otto chose this homage “because Wilder passed on in March...and since we’ve shown so many of his films in the past and they’ve been so popular. He’s a great man. I wanted to do something that was a tribute to him, mixing some of the most popular with some of those that are lesser known.”
He includes kudos to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board which co-produces the series. “They’ve been an excellent partner in providing the space and making a comfortable home for the event.”

3200 Chicago Ave. S.
Mpls, MN 55407
telephone: (612) 822-4662
fax: (612) 822-0342