Grouplove, whose hits include “Tongue Tied” and “Ways to Go,” is back with “Let Me In,” a song written for “The Fault In Our Stars.” The tune features both Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi trading off on vocals, which fits the movie’s story line since each voice represents the two protagonists, Hazel and Augustus. The video intersperses band performance footage with movie snippets, and, if you’ve read the book, the combo is enough to make you (ok, me) tear up. Yes,the book is technically for young adults, but this not-so-ya loved every page. Lyrically, the song perfectly tells the story of the love story between Hazel, played by Shailene Woodley, and Augustus, played by Ansel Elgort, and the closeness they experience as they both battle cancer. Instead of going with a treacly ballad, the movie went with a song that has a little bit of a bite,...
- 5/8/2014
- Hitfix
MTV News' Rya Backer reunites with band members, who say, 'We haven't even hit our stride.'
By Rya Backer
Grouplove
Photo: MTV News
To spend time with Grouplove is to spend time with great friends you didn't even know you had — or, in my case, two friends I had and lost touch with, only to link back up and see them unchanged (grown and happier, even) in their shared next chapter. See, I went to college with the band's guitarist, Andrew Wessen, and therefore also spent time with his best friend, drummer Ryan Rabin. Reuniting with the pair alongside their new friends did not feel strained or, well, like work.
The five members of Grouplove (also including Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi and the very bearded Sean Gadd) met at an artists' retreat Wessen's brother co-founded in Crete, Greece. Immediately uniting over their love of creating music, the five separated...
By Rya Backer
Grouplove
Photo: MTV News
To spend time with Grouplove is to spend time with great friends you didn't even know you had — or, in my case, two friends I had and lost touch with, only to link back up and see them unchanged (grown and happier, even) in their shared next chapter. See, I went to college with the band's guitarist, Andrew Wessen, and therefore also spent time with his best friend, drummer Ryan Rabin. Reuniting with the pair alongside their new friends did not feel strained or, well, like work.
The five members of Grouplove (also including Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi and the very bearded Sean Gadd) met at an artists' retreat Wessen's brother co-founded in Crete, Greece. Immediately uniting over their love of creating music, the five separated...
- 3/21/2012
- MTV Music News
We've been following the story of Grouplove as told through the lens of director Jordan Bahat's "Bloom" for a couple weeks now. To review, the band formed on the isle of Crete during a romantic voyage undertaken by guitarist Christian Zucconi and keyboardist Hannah Hooper who'd just recently met at a show in New York. There they met two Californian travelers, Andrew Wessen and Ryan Rabin, son of Hollywood mainstay Trevor Rabin. And along with British expat Sean Gadd, they all formed Grouplove.
Here's the third and final part of "Bloom" and a peek into the making of their album, "Never Trust A Happy Song."
Watch parts one and two! And let us know what you think in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook!
Here's the third and final part of "Bloom" and a peek into the making of their album, "Never Trust A Happy Song."
Watch parts one and two! And let us know what you think in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook!
- 10/31/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
When we left off with Grouplove last week in "Bloom part 1," their interviewer was accusing their backstory of sounding like the set up to a bad sitcom. There's no denying it is an awfully strange tale. What brought these strangers together on the island of Crete in 2009, who then started a band?
Guitarist Christian Zucconi and keyboardist Hannah Hooper came from New York just after a meeting and having a whirlwind romance. Drummer/producer Ryan Rabin (son of film composer Trevor Rabin) and his childhood friend, guitarist Andrew Wessen came from California for their own reasons. And they all collided with the loner Brit, bassist Sean Gadd there in the middle of the Mediterranean. As they reminisce in this second part, they reflect on how lucky they are to be carrying on what they have. How will it hold together? The answer seems to be spelled out by a wizard quoting the King James bible.
Guitarist Christian Zucconi and keyboardist Hannah Hooper came from New York just after a meeting and having a whirlwind romance. Drummer/producer Ryan Rabin (son of film composer Trevor Rabin) and his childhood friend, guitarist Andrew Wessen came from California for their own reasons. And they all collided with the loner Brit, bassist Sean Gadd there in the middle of the Mediterranean. As they reminisce in this second part, they reflect on how lucky they are to be carrying on what they have. How will it hold together? The answer seems to be spelled out by a wizard quoting the King James bible.
- 10/20/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
Grouplove's much beloved debut full length, "Never Trust A Happy Song," is just a few weeks old and despite the cautionary title, it's songs thrive on the seemingly unbridled joy the band exudes everywhere they go.
Director Jordan Bahat created a mini documentary called "Bloom," about the making of the album, which we'll be premiering in three parts. In this first part, the band talks about their beginnings, rooted in the night that Hannah Hooper met Christian Zucconi at a show in New York.
What ensued was a love-at-first-sight story about a boy who takes a girl to his car, parked in a secret spot under the Williamsburg bridge, where they while away the hours talking and listening to music. It was an intimate session which the boy admits to recording for posterity on a tape recorder, but not in a creepy way. Hooper was clearly flattered and promptly invited...
Director Jordan Bahat created a mini documentary called "Bloom," about the making of the album, which we'll be premiering in three parts. In this first part, the band talks about their beginnings, rooted in the night that Hannah Hooper met Christian Zucconi at a show in New York.
What ensued was a love-at-first-sight story about a boy who takes a girl to his car, parked in a secret spot under the Williamsburg bridge, where they while away the hours talking and listening to music. It was an intimate session which the boy admits to recording for posterity on a tape recorder, but not in a creepy way. Hooper was clearly flattered and promptly invited...
- 10/12/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
Los Angeles Film Festival
Many memorable dramatic films about adolescence have been made over the decades, but few of them can match the impact of "Billy the Kid", a striking, heartfelt documentary that deserves to have a long shelf life. Director Jennifer Venditti is a casting director who was interviewing high school kids in Maine for a short film. She came upon a young teenage boy, Billy Price-Baker, who didn't seem to fit with the other kids at his school, and she became intrigued by him and decided to see if she might gain entry into his world. Billy and his mother agreed to talk with her and share some of their secrets.
What emerged is a portrait quite unprecedented in its candor and poignancy. Billy reveals the emotional problems that have plagued him since childhood. At one point, school administrators recommended that he be placed in a special school. His mother refused to accept their diagnosis, and it becomes clear that she was right. Billy's problems are not so different from typical adolescent alienation, and he clearly is a perceptive and bright boy who deserves a supportive environment where he might have a chance to flourish.
Venditti followed Billy around and made him comfortable enough so that he opens up about the dark thoughts that he harbors, partly attributable to his history with an abusive father. Even more remarkable, while filming is under way Billy begins a tentative romance with Heather, a girl he courts at the local diner. The flush of first love rarely has been caught with such tenderness, and when the flirtation comes to a sudden end we're affected by the desolation that Billy feels.
The film doesn't force a conclusion on us. It allows us to see that Billy has the potential to become dangerously antisocial, but he has a rock-solid ally in his mother, who proves to be far more generous and complicated than first impressions suggest. Like the best docus, "Billy the Kid" introduces us to some unique characters. Technically it's fairly simple but just accomplished enough to keep us riveted. Cinematographer Donald Cumming captures the small-town New England ambience. The movie's main virtue is its intimacy; it takes us astonishingly close to its characters, and this is a tribute to the trust and empathy that Venditti and her unobtrusive crew achieved. One hopes that the film finds a life in theaters, then on television and DVD, where it will last as an indelible record of adolescent turmoil.
BILLY THE KID
Eight Films and Isotope Films in association with IndiePix
Credits:
Director: Jennifer Venditti
Producers: Jennifer Venditti, Chiemi Karasawa
Executive producers: Barnet Liberman, Bob Alexander, Lubov Azria
Director of photography: Donald Cumming
Music: Christian Zucconi, Guy Blakeslee
Editors: Michael Levine, Enat Sidi
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Many memorable dramatic films about adolescence have been made over the decades, but few of them can match the impact of "Billy the Kid", a striking, heartfelt documentary that deserves to have a long shelf life. Director Jennifer Venditti is a casting director who was interviewing high school kids in Maine for a short film. She came upon a young teenage boy, Billy Price-Baker, who didn't seem to fit with the other kids at his school, and she became intrigued by him and decided to see if she might gain entry into his world. Billy and his mother agreed to talk with her and share some of their secrets.
What emerged is a portrait quite unprecedented in its candor and poignancy. Billy reveals the emotional problems that have plagued him since childhood. At one point, school administrators recommended that he be placed in a special school. His mother refused to accept their diagnosis, and it becomes clear that she was right. Billy's problems are not so different from typical adolescent alienation, and he clearly is a perceptive and bright boy who deserves a supportive environment where he might have a chance to flourish.
Venditti followed Billy around and made him comfortable enough so that he opens up about the dark thoughts that he harbors, partly attributable to his history with an abusive father. Even more remarkable, while filming is under way Billy begins a tentative romance with Heather, a girl he courts at the local diner. The flush of first love rarely has been caught with such tenderness, and when the flirtation comes to a sudden end we're affected by the desolation that Billy feels.
The film doesn't force a conclusion on us. It allows us to see that Billy has the potential to become dangerously antisocial, but he has a rock-solid ally in his mother, who proves to be far more generous and complicated than first impressions suggest. Like the best docus, "Billy the Kid" introduces us to some unique characters. Technically it's fairly simple but just accomplished enough to keep us riveted. Cinematographer Donald Cumming captures the small-town New England ambience. The movie's main virtue is its intimacy; it takes us astonishingly close to its characters, and this is a tribute to the trust and empathy that Venditti and her unobtrusive crew achieved. One hopes that the film finds a life in theaters, then on television and DVD, where it will last as an indelible record of adolescent turmoil.
BILLY THE KID
Eight Films and Isotope Films in association with IndiePix
Credits:
Director: Jennifer Venditti
Producers: Jennifer Venditti, Chiemi Karasawa
Executive producers: Barnet Liberman, Bob Alexander, Lubov Azria
Director of photography: Donald Cumming
Music: Christian Zucconi, Guy Blakeslee
Editors: Michael Levine, Enat Sidi
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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