I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-B-Sides & Rarities (2005).

The Deftones are fascinating. They play some really really heavy metal, and yet they have a softer side, like Sears. One of the all-time great metal songs is the Deftones’ “My Own Summer (Shove It)”, it has a dynamic loud-soft interplay and an excruciating chorus. Sheer madness. And then, you get their B-Sides collection and find out that they do an awesome cover of the Cocteau Twins’ “Wax and Wane.”

And not a thrashy cover, but an eerily prescient cover, not what you might think a metal band would do when presented with Elizabeth Fraser’s odd vocals. And somehow Chino Moreno does a really solid Elizabeth approximation. And, a solid Beyonce one too. How is it possible he can sound like cookie monster on some of the bands’ louder tracks?

I first met a Deftones’ cover when they did Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur.” Not only did I find the track mindblowing, but it gave me a greater respect for Duran Duran. All in all, this is what you’d expect from a B-Sides collection. A few great tracks, and a few less than great ones (does anyone really need a 7 minute cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man”?). But overall, I’m left with the feeling that I miss the noisier Deftones’ songs. Which is funny because I’m so enamored of their more atmospheric turns…the way Chino can practically lilt over some really heavy riffing is sublime; however, a couple of acoustic versions of their songs really takes the bottom out of this collection. ‘Wax and Wane’ is still amazing though.

More thoughts on Tom Waits, while I’m here. The Bastards disc on Orphans is such a great menagerie of things. Some bizarre spoken word pieces (by Bukowski and Kerouac as well as by Waits himself) with creepy noise music behind them. And his voice is just so great for speaking. His “bonus” track of the story of his “mom” is worth hunting down, even if you only listen once. Go Tom Go!

[READ: Summer 2006] Duchess of Nothing.

Wow. I honestly couldn’t even remember what this book was about. I remember initially reading a review of it, in, I’m fairly certain, The Believer (cf. Periodicals), and then recalling that I read the author’s Schooling many years ago. So, I checked out Duchess of Nothing.

A memory jog down Amazon lane has the book flooding back to me. Although, I disagree with the Publisher Weekly comment “Weeks after finishing this singular, pointedly frustrating novel, readers will find that nameless woman’s mind still moving restlessly within them.” I recall, however, that the narrator did stay with me for a few days, just not a year. At any rate, this book, as I was reminded, is set in Rome, and is about a woman who winds up looking after and “educating” her ex-boyfriend’s younger brother. The story is told from her point of view, and she is at best eccentric and at worst delusional. McGowan focuses a lot on details, and now thinking back about the book, I remember great details about the rooms she lived in, and great detail about singular places in Rome. There are some very funny moments to the book; but really what sticks out is how perversely this woman sees the world. She refuses to let her new “charge” attend formal education, believing that everything he needs to know about life he can learn from her. I have a vague memory of some interactions in a pastry shop. So, I guess in some respects, this book didn’t do anything for me if I can’t recall that much of it; however, as it comes flowing back to me, the parts I remember, I remember fondly, and that’s got to say something, right?