By wpengine
By Yujin Chung Red Letter Daze contributor It’s not surprising that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks decided to collaborate with Steven Spielberg on Catch Me If You Can. Between 1964 and 1966, Frank Abagnale Jr. lived the life of three different men: pilot, pediatrician, and lawyer — all before his 21st birthday. Shortly after his parents’ divorce, Abagnale ran away from home. Wandering the streets of Manhattan, Abagnale caught a glimpse of the Pan American World Airways Building. He became fascinated with the respect people gave airline pilots. Abagnale purchased a pilot’s uniform and began posing as a commercial airline pilot for Pan Am. He started forging Pan Am paychecks, a get-rich scheme becoming a habitual practice worth $2.5 million. An infamous scammer, Abagnale quickly landed a spot on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List at the age of 19. Catch Me If You Can had been a project long in development, ever since the novel was published in 1980. But it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s interest in the project that allowed production to begin in 2001. As soon as he joined the project, DiCaprio sought out the real Frank Abagnale Jr. “What I really wanted to know is how he operated, how he had this magnetism. How he was so convincing and how he engaged people. He seems as innocent as a schoolteacher almost. But it’s his eye contact, the way he is physically
By wpengine
Too often bands substitute volume for intensity on their recordings but The Good North seem to have overcome this common stumbling block on their debut album, An Explanation. Not bad for a band that’s barely a year and a half old. An Explanation sounds, despite some obvious studio polishing, like a live performance. The guitars wail, the drums wail, singer Luke O’Neil wails, the bass pounds, but at the same time, everything fits together in a way that keeps the focus on melody rather than noise. This attention to careful balance and clarity of melody, often times neglected or unattainable by new bands, allows The Good North to showcase their obvious talent for catchy, but still dynamic songwriting. On the downside, An Explanation doesn’t leave the listener humming any choruses on the way to work. It seems like The Good North just haven’t developed their own sound yet. Base level, this is pretty standard, verse-chorus-verse, rock music with some noticeable, and well implemented, pop and indie sensibilities. It’s not going to blow your mind. Songs like “The Center Cannot Hold” and “Saved from the Crash” are powerful enough, but feature some early-nineties style guitar soloing that veers perilously close to anachronism. “Think You Can Stop Me” is more interesting melodically and structurally, as O’Neil’s voice shows amazing restraint against the swelling guitar that breaks behind him. All in all, The Good North put out a good performance on An Explanation, one that makes the band worth keeping an eye on for the future.Archived article by Thea Brown