Pete Yorn has been surprisingly prolific of late. Consider that it was three years between his sophomore outing, 2003’s Day I Forgot, and 2006’s bracingly eclectic Nightcrawler, the latter largely restoring the potential of his brazenly accomplished out-of-nowhere debut, 2001’s Musicforthemorningafter. Another three years between releases, and Montville, N.J.’s favorite boho chick magnet suddenly had a lot more to say. Last year saw the release of Back & Fourth, followed by Break Up, a wispy collaboration with Scarlett Johansson inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s duets with Brigitte Bardot. Now Yorn has ditched his smokin’-hot muse for Frank Black, who encouraged the confessed perfectionist and overdub junky to strip away the studio varnish and rawk out for the new Pete Yorn (Vagrant). Yorn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Yorn: Anvil: The Story Of Anvil is a must-see documentary, but I think especially for musicians. It’s about Canadian heavy-metal band Anvil, who were big for a moment in the early ’80s and have soldiered on through ups and downs. It follows them on a nightmare European tour and through the recording of an album. Things are constantly going wrong, like they play a show somewhere and they’re late and the promoter makes them soup, but won’t pay them. When they’re recording the album, they get in a huge fight. These guys, they’re just these aging Jewish guys from Canada, and they’ve been best friends forever and they’re just so passionate about their music, even if life keeps dealing them a shitty hand, you know? This movie is so funny and inspiring. It’s about these tenacious people who live to do what they do. So good.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF4H8lB2Y_o
