Liam Hayes’s Swan Dive

By JONATHAN DONALDSON  |  February 4, 2013

MUSIC_LiamHayes_main
This year brings two revelations from Chicago-born pop/soul/torch-singer Liam Hayes of Plush. Spring will offer Hayes's fourth album, the sweetly sad Korp Sole Roller (produced by Wilco's Pat Sansone). And this week it's the soundtrack to the Roman Coppola–written/directed A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, opening for limited engagements on February 8 (but available on iTunes). The soundtrack includes a mix of Plush songs, gently orchestrated instrumentals, and a pretty-decent Charlie Sheen–sung version of bossa standard "Aguas de Marco" — a must for fans long desperate for Plush on vinyl.

"As far as arranging goes, I'm starting to move in that direction a little more," says Hayes on his first soundtrack (he actually appeared as a lounge pianist in High Fidelity). "I was fortunate to have had [Coppola] ask me to do the score for it."

Swan III is a surreal comedy set in the 1970s starring Sheen as a quixotic womanizer whose twisted ideations come to life, and co-stars Jason Schwartzman as his even-shallower sidekick. Casting smoldering Katheryn Winnick as the scorned lover as well as Bill Murray in another supporting role puts the film in the realm of a glib Warholian celebrity parade.

This makes the choice to spotlight Hayes's music all the more interesting, since his stoic and sanguine material — though decidedly retro — works in counterpoint to the slick characters. Plush fans might find the soundtrack better than the film, but that says more about the music than the movie.

»CRAZYINBOX@YAHOO.COM

Related: Review: Hot Tub Time Machine, Donwill | Don Cusack In High Fidelity, Review: A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , High Fidelity, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY JONATHAN DONALDSON
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE UNIFIED MELODY OF SLOWDIM  |  March 20, 2013
    Slowdim drink wine with pizza. It's true. I was there.
  •   THE MARY ONETTES | HIT THE WAVES  |  March 13, 2013
    Hit the Waves is so heartfelt as a pastiche of '80s alternative music that it almost muscles its way into being brilliant.
  •   THE MODERN RETRO OF JESSE DEE  |  March 05, 2013
    On his new record On My Mind/In My Heart , the question is not if Jesse Dee can step up to the challenge of making authentic soul and R&B music in 2013, but rather how he goes about it.
  •   TAME IMPALA’S NEW SURROUND SOUND  |  March 08, 2013
    Whether it's Bradford Cox with Deerhunter, or Dan Snaith with Caribou, or Kevin Parker with Tame Impala, there must be something with this trend in sonic auteurs with cervine band names.
  •   ANIMAL COLLECTIVE BRACE FOR SUCCESS  |  February 26, 2013
    "It seems like a challenge to make something that you have to pay a lot of attention to," says Josh Dibbs.

 See all articles by: JONATHAN DONALDSON