COVER STORY - The Devil Wears Prada

Mosh Pits, Metalcore, and the Messiah

The Devil Wears Prada Screams For The Lord

By Cole Dabney w/ live photos by Jay West
Four years ago, metalcore was an obscure underground offshoot that combined the genres of metal and hardcore punk, primarily aimed at hardcore kids and emo tweens. Today, The Devil Wears Prada rules the landscape of the now mainstream subgenre they helped craft. Still, many people don’t know about, much less appreciate, what has become the music industry’s latest up-and-coming niche market.

The vocals, which typically mix in a combination of a screaming lead and melodic, typically high-pitched singing (commonly referred to in the industry as “clean vocals”), are often performed back-and-forth, or even on top of, one another during the bridge or chorus of the song. The style of guitar can be described as extreme metal fused with melodic hardcore, dropped a few octaves lower than your normal electric guitar and filled with “breakdowns,” slow, intense passages conducive to moshing that often replaces the chorus. Last, but definitely not least are the double-bass kick fueled drums that maintain the high pace of most tracks. Many of the drum parts are so intense that infamous drummers such as Ringo Starr and Don Henley couldn’t duplicate them on their best day. All of these elements have allowed this fairly new style of rock to be adored by a slew of new fans from a multitude of backgrounds.

Interestingly, some of the more popular metalcore bands (including The Devil Wears Prada) happen to be self-described as Christian, a concept that many people—Christian and non-religious alike—have a hard time grasping. “We understand that some people simply are not going to like our music, and that’s okay,” lead vocalist Mike Hranica said from his home in Ohio. “We get that the screaming will turn some people off, or come across as ‘not-Christian,’ but that’s not our audience. A lot of the people that really like this style of music don’t know God, and I love to go into a show with a huge secular audience and perform.” But Hranica, who notably puts in a few words for JC in between songs during each set no matter the audience or environment, makes it clear that he’s not out there to preach. “A lot of people who don’t believe in God, or follow different religions, really just enjoy the ‘poetic-ness’ of our lyrics and the music we make. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about God or not to them.”

When asked about his writing style and how he works with clean-vocalist/guitarist Jeremy DePoyster when writing the two very different vocal parts to the song, Hranica said that as recently as the last record he’d actually started writing some of the clean lyrics for him. And unlike when he first began writing his first lyrics when he was 17—when he would just write the songs in the weeks leading into going into the studio—he now constantly carries around a pad to jot down ideas he has, and eventually sits down with all of them to piece together what will eventually become the newest TDWP track.

What’s in a Name?
Sure, most people associate the words “Devil Wears Prada” with the popular book and 2006 feature film, but the band has nothing to do with that. Rather, they mean for it to refer to Satan and how if he were on earth he would be wearing designer brands like Prada and Gucci, while his opposite, Jesus Christ, walked around in loin clothes and rags. (Gucci Mane most likely had a different reason as to why he has a designer clothes brand in his name.)

While you may think that a Christian band that talks about God at every show would try to include their beliefs into each song, Hranica told me, “I know that (embedded Christian meanings) shouldn’t be in the songs at all times. Some of our songs are completely secular, and some of the other ones, such as ‘Big Wiggly Style,’ were written with a purpose to show fans who maybe say we’ve taken too much of God out of our lyrics that yes, we really do still put Him into what we do.”

Funny enough, what the group of early twenty-somethings may have to thank for their success very early on may have nothing to do with their lyric writing at all. After covering the hit rap song “Still Fly” by the Big Tymers, The Devil Wears Prada became an Internet sensation, garnering over 5 million views on YouTube alone in just a matter of months. When I asked about their progression of lyrics and music over the past few records, Hranica quipped, “it’s pretty easy for us to make good music now, or what people think is good, because our first stuff was so bad. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve just matured and started to focus more on making better stuff overall. We used to just let it all come to us, but we’re now fully concentrated on putting out the best (material) that we can.”

Recently though, maybe their most buzzed about song didn’t have Hranica on it at all—the first, and only, Prada track to do this. “Louder than Thunder,” the second to last track on their critically acclaimed third LP “With Branches Above and Roots Below,” is so extremely different from almost every one of their other songs, it might be hard to believe it’s them if you weren’t familiar with the sound of DePoyster’s voice. Hranica notes, “Our album ‘Plagues’ was just so fast, the whole way through, and most metalcore bands make their last song really slow to change it up, so this was our attempt at a Devil Wears Prada ballad.” But will we see more of this in the future? “I don’t know, I think it’s something that definitely could happen if we get the right song to work again.”

Changing it Up
Now more than a year after releasing their latest album, which debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200, (while also topping the chart’s for Christian, Independent and Hard Rock Albums and coming in as the 35th best-selling Independent Album of 2009), The Devil Wears Prada are embarking on what may be their most daunting task of a tour to date. Amazingly, this is after playing the Main Stage on two separate “Warped Tours”, “Rockstar Taste of Chaos” and “Sounds of the Underground” festivals, co-headlining last fall’s “Napalm and Noise Tour” with All That Remains, and supporting Killswitch Engage on their sold-out nationwide tour—and that was all in the last year or two. What makes this set of summer shows so intriguing is that the band, which regularly sells out every venue with a capacity of up to 2,500, has decided to bypass their normal path and go “back to their roots”. Encompassing 55 shows in the matter of 80 days, the 40+ headlining dates will be played at smaller venues around the country while the remaining performances will take place at music festivals across the globe. (To see the extreme differences in some of these crowds, think about how they will be playing in front of more than 60,000 screaming fans in Tokyo on August 8, and about 300 in Tampa on the 11th.)

Hranica, who is currently prepping for the tour, said it was evident that playing these smaller venues was something the band really wanted to do. “We’ve played Warped Tour the past two summers, and honestly you can only do Warped so many times. So we were sitting down with our agent Dave (Shapiro of The Agency Group) going over ideas (for the summer tour), and he came up with this idea to go back to when we were riding around in vans, booking our own shows at these smaller venues and doing a bunch of festivals. Especially some of the Christian festivals we haven’t been able to play in a while,” he explained. “And I hate to be all unoriginal to say we didn’t come up with the idea, but we were just all about it. I mean a lot of bands, when they get up to the level of being able to play the House of Blues size venues (approximate capacities of 1,000 people) they just kind of do that over and over again for a few years and eventually just fade out. We didn’t want to do that, and we wanted to be able to give the fans the opportunity to experience our music in that more intimate setting again with just a few hundred people, like we used to do. That’s why were playing most of the cities two nights.”

Shapiro, considered by many in the industry to be the top agent for independent bands in the genre, has been with the group since the beginning and recognized the need for the change in a tour strategy. “These guys have the potential to be a career band like a Killswitch Engage 10, 20, 30 years from now. And most of these bands that get big real quick lose touch with their fans just as quickly as they blow up,” Shapiro noted. “So even though (the band) can sell out the bigger venues now, the fans that get the opportunity to see these smaller shows will become even bigger fans, and the ones that don’t end up making it in (the show) will be dying to see them the next time they come around. I mean if you’re in the back row at any of these shows, you’re still no more than just a few dozen feet from the stage.”

Another idea that sprung from the theme of the tour was to play more songs than they have in years from their 2006 debut album “Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord”, and in a way let them retire along with the tour. “We want to go back to our roots, play little hole-in-the-wall places where fans can be right there in front of the stage, where we can hand someone a mic and really have the fans be an active part of the show, not behind a barrier ten feet away," Hranica declared. “We have not built the precise set list yet, and I know it will not entirely be composed of older “Dear Love” songs, but there will definitely be more in there than what we usually do, and we probably won’t play these again or (at least) anytime soon.”

So You Wanna Be a Rock-n-Roll Star?
To leave all you young aspirants of Hranica’s profession with a tip, the humble and somewhat reserved 21 year-old off stage—who I consider to be the most passionate, hardcore performer I’ve ever seen on a stage—told me that to maintain his throat’s health and vocal chord’s fierce and vigorous intensity, he keeps it calm on the bus when the rest of the band is starting to get rowdy before the show and doesn’t get too loud in between shows. “Vitamin C is also key, and helps keep away some of the throat infections I used to get early on,” he confesses. Vocal and throat training is also important, but you may not be able to afford (just yet at least) world-renowned “screaming coach” Melissa Cross in New York City, who the front man gives much credit to. (But, you can order an instructional DVD from the “Zen of Screaming” from her website melissacross.com.)

If you know Austin’s music venues well, then you can definitely understand that Emo’s Indoor—where Prada is scheduled to perform 2 shows in early August—is quite an intimate setting. To make things better, the band has played at Emo’s a half a dozen times over the last few years—only it was on the main stage in front of more than 1,000 people, sold out each and every time well before the show actually began. Needless to say, Austinites should be in for quite a treat when next month rolls around, with an experience that they may not be able to have ever again. So get your tickets while you can, before the band gets any bigger after their next album—which you can expect in 2011. Until then, enjoy the music for what it is, and remember: they’ll have you as fans whether or not you believe in what they believe in or not.

(Tickets are just $16, less expensive than previous TDWP tours that have come through the Capital City, and can be purchased online at either emosaustin.com or tdwpband.com, or in-store at Waterloo Records.)

Movies

Cole And Bobby

Movies on the TV

By Cole Dabney and Bobby McCurdy

We don't usually review television as a matter of policy. To be honest, I don't think we've ever reviewed TV for this publication. But since Hollywood has consistently been flooding multiplexes week-after-week with nothing but garbage, we think it's almost unfair to simply ignore the commercial-free premium cable network that is HBO. (I'll catch an earful from television guru John Pierson if I didn't note the industry term is "pay cable", though I'd argue that all cable is essentially pay cable.) Month after month, year after year they provide quality programming, and even as theatrical releases get worse and worse, they continue to seek perfection. So hopefully you don't mind us as we cover 3 of the best pieces of filmed entertainment to be released in any form this year, big or small screen: one film, one miniseries, and one episodic series. (And Bobby also reviews one of the only theatrical releases worth seeing through the first third of the year.) Enjoy!

Cole Dabney

You Don’t Know Jack

It’s hard to believe that an actor such as Al Pacino—once known for his fine acting skills, method ways of preparation, and Academy Award nominated performances—has become a shell of his former self as of late, continuing to drag what’s left of his career along with him in order to add more to the bank account whilst paying no attention whatsoever to the kind of role he’s ending up in. And though one could argue that this trend started almost immediately after the wonderful 1995 film “Heat”, there’s no arguing against the statement that he hit an all-time low in 2008, when Pacino starred in two of the consensus worst movies of that year.

It was at that point I think we all figured that we should just leave the man’s career for dead and never again give one of his dull, cookie-cutter films a chance ever again.

Boy, were we wrong.

In a return to a form we haven’t witnessed him in since he began screen acting in the 1970s, Pacino takes on the role of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide crusader who is considered to be one of the most controversial figures of the 20^th Century. With what is sure to go down as one of the most important roles of his career, Pacino comes through by delivering a true tour de force performance that Kevorkian himself said was so spot-on that Pacino looked more like him than he ever did.

The story begins in 1987 when Kevorkian, a medical doctor with over 35 years of experience, begins offering terminally ill patients in the Detroit area the option of euthanasia. By choosing to flip the switch on the euthanasia machine he’s created, the patient then receives a lethal dose of potassium chloride, thus ending his or her own life. With no law on the books to put him away and an outraged pu

blic, the state legislature goes to work to make sure “Dr. Death” doesn’t strike again. But despite any new laws, the impassioned pathologist pays no mind and continues administering euthanasia to terminally ill patients, causing his arrest and subsequent day in court.

Victorious and set free to pursue his life mission of stopping people’s endless suffering, we are taken through a number of real life interviews with Kevorkian’s patients, and each time is as hard as the last to watch as they choose to die. Here is where each viewer must confront his or her own beliefs and find out how they feel on the issue, and doing so isn’t easy—especially with a film that seems to be pretty clear on where it stands on the subject—but I think director Barry Levinson does a good job of staying honest with the viewer.

After conducting assisted suicide to well over 100 patients, Kevorkian makes what would become his crucial mistake: playing the videotape of the only euthanasia he performed where he pushed the button on “60 Minutes” during his interview with Mike Wallace. But in what may be the most innovative technique in the film, we see Pacino, not Kevorkian, in that seat being interviewe

d, just as we do in all of the interviews shown in his home videos of pre-euthanasia confessions.

Featuring a supporting cast that features grizzled veterans like Susan Surandon and John Goodman on their A-game and lesser knowns such as Danny Huston and Brenda Vaccaro delivering some of the best work of their career, it’ll be interesting to see who will shine the brightest to Emmy voters.

With Pacino’s 70th birthday coming the day after the film’s premiere, it’s a funny time for the actor to start peaking again. Now whether or not this is a path that he will remain on still remains to be seen, but the least fans can hope for is that he will continue to challenge himself by taking more sophisticated roles and working with talented, more experienced directors like Levinson that will help push him to reach his potential. (Both of these bits of advise would have saved all of us the grueling task of watching those 2008 disasters “88 Minutes” and “Righteous Kill”.) At the very least, I am glad to say that I’m actually looking forward to see the next Al Pacino movie. - Cole Dabney; 4 ½ stars

Kick-Ass

The superhero/comic book film genre has evolved over the past decade from box office bust to boom. Some of the highest grossing films of all time have been comic book adaptations, and critics have even given high praise to a few. Unfortunately though, for every “Iron Man” there have been at least two “Ghost Riders”. The success has studios forcing out ill-advised combinations of wrong story, director, and cast, resulting in more bad movies than good ones. In essence, the genre has grown stale. Out of the staleness “Kick-Ass” was created, more a critique and a parody of the superhero template than anything. The idea works wonderfully, and in parodying the genre Kick-Ass manages to create one of the most entertaining comic book movies around.

Created by Mark Millar, who also created the very fun Wanted a few years back, Kick-Ass aims to take place in the real world. In this world the heroes do not have fantastic powers and are simply normal people looking to make a difference. One of these is the titular hero (Aaron Johnson), a high school student of unremarkable character who takes up the costume after witnessing repeated injustices. A fight with muggers leaves him an Internet superstar and “Kick-Ass” fever sweeps the city. This popularity also leads to encounters with two heroes with stronger powers, Big Daddy (Nic Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz). Reluctant to join real heroes at first, events spiral out of control and he must join them to down the local mob boss.

More than any other superhero film in recent memory, Kick-Ass effectively combines equal parts comedy and action, becoming a new breed of comic book movie. Even with lots of laughs, it still manages create action sequences, a testament to Matthew Vaughn’s direction. The casting is spot-on, with a good mix of unknowns mingling with established veterans. As with other movies of its kind, expect a lot of imitators over the next few years. Few will be able to match the uniqueness of this film, and will become just another “regular” comic book movie. - Bobby McCurdy; 4 stars

Treme

The number of television critics convinced HBO’s “The Wire” is the best series of all time (not to mention the decade) would be hard to count considering the widespread amount of people that feel that way. As David Simon’s first venture in the world of creating a TV series, I can’t begin to imagine the huge amount of pressure he felt to deliver with his second show. The good news for him, “Wire” fans, and anyone else that likes high quality programming is that he avoided the infamous curse of the sophomore slump and has delivered what could be the newest HBO hit series for years to come.

Set in New Orleans just 3 months after that fateful hurricane tore the city up in 2005, “Treme” follows a diverse group of characters in New Orleans as they struggle to try and rebuild their houses, their lives, and their city. The key word there is ‘struggle’, because that’s what it is every day. Whether it’s the white woman trying to fix her restaurant back up before she loses it or the black woman that can’t find her brother who was stuck in prison when the hurricane hit, we see that everyone is struggling here regardless of race, background or upbringing.

Much of the show is focused around the music the city is best known for, including that special New Orleans style jazz and the second line brass band. It’s that never-ending Nola sound is a constant reminder of where we are and what’s going on, regardless of how many local artists are living hand to mouth each and every day.

What the show has done best through the first half of season one is highlight the affinity that all citizens of New Orleans—black, white or Creole—share with each other, and that without them all lending a hand and pitching in, nothing will ever get done. Yes it makes you cheer for the success of the cast of characters we’ve met, but most importantly it provides you with a reality check on how bad off one of our nation’s formerly great cities is and makes you want it to be like it always was. Now that’s something worth cheering for both on and off the silver screen.

“Treme” airs Sunday nights at 9 PM on HBO. - Cole Dabney; 4 stars

The Pacific

In most depictions of World War II on film in the last twenty-five years, the emphasis has mostly been on the war in Europe against Nazi Germany. The landmark 2001 HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” showed this side of the war and did so with incredible accuracy and production values. Almost an entire decade later, the same production team behind that miniseries (Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks notably) is back with a similar miniseries exploring the efforts of the Americans who fought against Imperial Japan in the Pacific. The series, appropriately titled “The Pacific”, focuses on three Marines in brutal combat, harsh environments, and fighting a passionate enemy. And while different from “Band of Brothers” in some ways, the miniseries is every bit as good and in some ways passes its predecessor.

Unlike “Band of Brothers” in which the narrative features a single company that we see go from training to war together, “The Pacific” has three disparate characters who we only meet as they’re suddenly thrust into battle. It’s a much different approach, but one that works well. Everyone knows of the origins of the Pacific War and there’s no need to waste time again showing the training process. While basic background information is provided, we mostly learn about the characters and their fellow Marines while they’re already in the thick of war. As the war progresses, we see the characters take much different paths from each other and learn of different stages of the war. We witness jungle warfare, long stretches of no activity at all, R&R in a welcoming Australia, the war bonds recruitment circuit, and the final push to the Japanese mainland. The characters provide an emotional base to this story, but the central focus remains the war itself.

One of the main goals of the series seems to be to show the audience just how different the Pacific war was from the more well-known European theater. An island war which relied almost entirely on Navy support and transport, there are numerous times when the Marines receive either inferior supplies or no supplies at all. This failure of supply reinforces the already difficult war experience and displays what a tremendous sacrifice those Marines provided. It’s scenes like these that make this miniseries special. As simply a study of the Pacific war it’s an important work all to itself, but it’s also a testament to all those involved in that it can compete with the big Hollywood films to tell a compelling, significant story and more often than not, come out victorious.

“The Pacific” airs Sunday nights at 8 PM on HBO. - Bobby McCurdy; 3 ½ stars