Movie stars making rock records? Include us out, right? Steven Seagal? Bruce Willis? So you might ignore Billy Bob Thornton's albums, should you stumble across them in the seedy emporia you frequent. File under: vanity projects by would-be rock stars buying studio time. Except that Billy Bob is the real deal.
And just as he nails every moment he's on screen with that beady-eyed drifting psycho focus, shifting between beauty and ugliness, vulnerability and creepiness, his music blurs the heartworn and the sinister in a disoriented Twin Peaks groove. Bar-stool gothic lyrics, drumbeats rolling like tumbleweed, guitars echoing from an empty room.
Astonishing, really. The guy is a deep and dark genius of sorts. Nobody looks like him - from one angle, a matinee idol, from another, a leering retard - and nobody sounds like him.
ReplyDeleteFave Billy Bob screen performance? There's a big choice.
Lorne Malvo
DeleteGood call.
DeleteA predictably obvious choice perhaps, but for me it has to be Ed Crane in the The Man Who Wasn't There.
DeleteThere are many "predictably obvious choices", and that's what makes him a great actor.
DeleteWillie Soke in Bad Santa.
ReplyDeleteI always think of you when I see him in that role.
DeleteI prefer his role as Santa Claus
DeleteHmmm, thanks, I guess?!?
DeleteHmm. Toss up? Hey, I'll cheat and say Lorne Malvo on the small screen and Jacob in "A Simple Plan" for the big screen.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably not his best, but check out "One False Move", back when he was a bit player rather than a featured star. He's a truly chilling psychopath in that one. Lorne Malvo in training.
As for his music? Meh. Picked up the debut album back in the day, which should have been right up my alley, dark Americana and all that. But he's mumbing through a bunch of pretty samey songs, to my delicate ears. It's fine, I guess, but not an album I listened to more than two or three times.
Gee whiz.
Deleteis there a link somewhere or are those days gone?
ReplyDeleteI wait until somebody asks, generally, because most of the 4/5 Guys© have most of the albums. But no, those days haven't gone anywhere, and I'm happy to loadup any of the albums on th IoF© on request.
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tanks'a'million, pal. love what you do here.
DeleteThanks for the postcard, and enjoy your stay. Please leave your towel in the hamper!
DeleteCarl Childers
ReplyDeleteNothing comes close
Liza wit' a Z, Steven wit' a V, an' Karl wit' a K. This would be my vote, too. Intensity.
DeleteI vaguely remember or hallucinate Billy Bob and Warren Zevon having an enlightening discussion about their OCD issues on the Letterman show years ago. Back when network television still accidentally provided occasional entertainment.
ReplyDelete