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The Sparks Brothers is a 2021 British-American documentary film about Ron and Russell Mael, members of the pop and rock duo Sparks. The film, directed by Edgar Wright, and produced by Wright, Nira Park, George Hencken and Laura Richardson, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released the following summer.
The enigmatic duo Ron and Russell Mael have gone from cult stardom to sustained success. Beverly D'Silva talks to the brothers about fame, failure and the highs and lows of their career. At the...
Sparks is an American pop and rock duo formed by brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals) in Los Angeles.
- Sparks Found Some Early Fame in The UK, But Were Formed in California.
- Ron and Russell Mael Found Pre-Sparks Success as Part of A Quintet.
- Sparks' Appearance on Top of The Pops Was A Pre-Internet Viral Video.
- Sparks Change Their Sound as Often as Other Artists Change Their Clothes.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic Thought Sparks Were "The Biggest Band in The world."
- For Sparks, Collaborations Do work.
- Sparks Have Released 25 Albums—And counting.
- The Mael Brothers Have Had Bad Luck in Hollywood.
- Sparks' Luck in The Movies Is About to Change.
Sparks first became popular in England; they would later record a string of dance and new wave albums in Germany, and singer Russell Mael would sometimes sing in a French accent. Casual fans might think they’re from Europe, but Ron and Russell are proud Los Angeles natives. In an early scene in The Sparks Brothers, Ron spoke of how his father’s art...
Ron and Russell enrolled at UCLA in the mid-1960s, with Russell in the theater department and Ron in film. (In The Sparks Brothers, Ron recalls running Fritz Lang’s film M upside down “so then it would be called W”—an early example of the band’s trademark absurdist sense of humor.) After school, the brothers fronted the bands Farmers’ Market and th...
After landing a contract with Island Records, the Maels relocated to London in the summer of 1973 and assembled a backing band of British session musicians. They promoted their breakthrough album Kimono My House with a truly bizarre performance of the single "This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us" on the BBC’s Top of the Pops. With his blac...
The four classic albums Sparks would record for Island Records took a Trojan-horse approach to glam rock: The clean production, catchy riffs, and androgynous vocals drew in fans of David Bowie, Queen, and T Rex, but the band’s love of pre-rock and roll styles like swing, chamber music, and light opera would shine through on songs like "Looks Looks ...
By the early 1980s, Los Angeles musicians who came of age listening to Sparks on Rodney Bingenheimer’s KROQ radio show or dancing to them at his English Disco had started forming their own bands, who were playing the same clubs the Maels played in their proto-Sparks incarnations. Sparks were greeted like returning heroes with the release of their 1...
Jane Wiedlin, Giorgio Moroder, and Halfnelson producer Todd Rundgren aren’t the only boldface names to have appeared on a Sparks album. In 1999, the band released Plagiarism, a best of/tribute album that featured new versions of their most popular songs as well as collaborations with Erasure, Jimmy Somerville, and Faith No More. More recently, a ch...
Sparks have averaged an album release about every two years over a 50-year period. When they were preparing the release of their 2008 album Exotic Creatures of the Deep, they asked themselves, “How do we best unveil our new album, Sparks’ as-yet untitled 21st? How about playing in concert every single song off of every album that preceded it, all 2...
Hollywood has cast a huge shadow over Sparks’ music. The band photo on the back of their album Indiscreetlooks like a raging kegger at Pickfair, and songs like “Gone with the Wind,” "Academy Award Performance," and "The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'" use cinematic imagery to tell larger stories about subjects like troubled relationships and gender pe...
When Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright attended a Sparks concert in 2017, he made an observation that led to his first documentary. "I said ‘I think the only thing stopping this band from being as big as they should be is a documentary, because if you had an overview of the band, for people who find their discography daunting, it would really...
- Chelsea Spear
Mar 30, 2015 · The core duo of brothers Ron and Russell Mael have been at it since the late '60s, making music that has always been out of step with the conventional idea of rock and roll.
- Dave Swanson
Jun 20, 2023 · The Sparks Brothers (2021) was a heartwarming portrait of the peaks and plains, triumphs and failures, of two of rock’s good guys. An admiring army of talking heads were at hand too, their sheer diversity giving an indication of Sparks’ extraordinary influence: New Order, Steve Jones, Beck, Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers , Björk.
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The Sparks Brothers: Directed by Edgar Wright. With Ron Mael, Russell Mael, Beck, Jane Wiedlin. A musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with Ron and Russell Mael celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks.
