I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Barenaked Ladies Are Me (2006) & Barenaked Ladies Are Men (2007).

Barenaked Ladies decided to forgo a major label altogether and just use Nettwerk as a distributor. They called their own self publishing “label” Desperation Records. [There was a fascinating article in Wired way back when this was happening, which made me want to get their CD, and it’s still online here.] The details are sketchy to me now, but it seemed like they thought they could make it on their own, and Nettwerk seemed pretty innovative as well. So, they released two albums in the span of about five months, and the results are below.

Barenaked Ladies Are Me. As I said, I was excited that BNL were basically doing the whole thing themselves, and wouldn’t have any label pressure to release the next big thing. So, I was a bit disappointed at first that the album stayed in the same “mature” vein as Everything to Everyone. There’s nothing crazily exciting on the CD except for the last song “Wind It Up,” which is the rockingest thing they’ve done in years.

The one song that really stuck out for me though, was “Bank Job” a really catchy Ed Robertson sung song about, of all things, a botched bank job.  It is funny without being silly, and it is so catchy! The song gets stuck in my head for days and days.

As for the rest of the record, once I started listening a few times, and now having listened to it again for the first time in a while, it’s a very solid outing. Again, “Bank Job” and “Wind It Up” are the two tracks that really stand out, but the rest are solid, well-crafted songs. And, here I pay my respects to Kevin Hearn and Jim Creeggan. Usually I don’t enjoy their songs as much, but (and maybe it’s because they don’t sing them themselves) “Sound of Your Voice” is an up tempo singalong, “Everything Had Changed” is a pretty, mellow ballad, and “Peterborough and the Kawarthas” is a pretty, slow song, that really gets into your brain. These are real highlights of the record. Oh and what is Peterborough and the Kawarthas? Why not see for yourself.

So, I give the BNL Are Me a big thumbs up.

Barenaked Ladies Are Men. Five months after Are Me, came this follow up. The packaging and styling of the disc is very similar to the other one (as you can see by the covers). I wasn’t even sure that it was a new record. Well, it turns out that these are more songs from the same recording session. And, rather than releasing a double album, they did a Use Your Illusion I and II type of thing (there, how many reviews of BNL refer to GNR?)

The problem, such as it is, is twofold: there are really too many songs on this record. Are Me had 13, and this one has 16, which may just be 3 too many. The other is that several of the songs sound like other songs, both from Are Me and from Are Men. There are at least two songs that start out with the same vocal melody line as “Bank Job,” and they’re both sung by Ed Robertson. And the very first song, “Serendipity” sounds an awful lot like one of the songs on Are Me. Fortunately, the songs are catchy, and removed from Are Me, Are Men is probably just as strong a collection. But really 29 songs is a bit much.

The allmusic review suggests that this one is a bit more rocking and diverse than Are Me, and that’s true. The first 8 or 9 songs show a nice breadth of style and feeling. I still think the record runs a bit too long, but overall these two records together are a very good sign of future things from BNL.

And good luck to them and their Desperation “label.”

[READ: December 27, 2007] Ella Minnow Pea.

Sarah read this book over the summer, I think. I sounded great, so I put it in my Amazon “order later” cart, and promptly forgot about it. (This was before I used any kind of reasonable system for keeping track of books). Anyhow, I stumbled upon it while placing holiday orders, and decided to check it out. And, hurrah, our library had it!

And, thank goodness I used the tag “epistolary” recently, as here is another one! And, now I must add two more tags: lipogram (I have another book in the category already, I just didn’t know the word!), and pangram. All three of these words are defined on the opening page of the novel:

• epistolary: of or associated with letters or letter writing
• lipogram: a written work composed of word selected so as to avoid the use of one or more letters of the alphabet
• pangram: a phrase, sentence or verse composed of all the letters of the alphabet.

And so, the story is this: Off the coast of South Carolina is the island of Nollop. It was founded by people who revered Nevin Nollop, creator of that most famous pangram: “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” In honor of Nollop, the islanders erected a statue of him. Along the bottom of his statue they affixed the letters of his famous sentence. This island is not part of the United States and follows its own rules: it eschews almost all modern technology, and communicates primarily with the written word.

It seems an idyllic, if somewhat dull existence until the unthinkable happens: the letter Z from “lazy” falls off of the statue. After some deliberation, the Council decides that this is a message from the spirit of Nollop, telling the citizenry to tighten their linguistic belts and refrain from using the letter Z from now on. It seems silly to many until the punishments are revealed: first offense: public humiliation; third offense: banishment from the island.

There are those who reject the notion outright, and resist as best they can. However, the Council holds all of the power. And, as the glue begins to loosen on more tiles, and more letters are banished from the island, life gets harder and harder, and more and more people leave the island (voluntarily or involuntarily).

And this is where the subtitle comes in: The book is written entirely in letter form. (Letter’s mailed to one another, and letters left on tables etc.) However, as the Council starts banishing alphabet letters, the written letters to each other must become ever more lipogrammatic. If the Council sees a banished alphabet letter anywhere, the person in possession of it gets into just as much trouble as the person who wrote it.  What starts out as a mildly annoying if not humorous concept, quickly turns into a real danger. Especially when the more common letters start falling off the statue.

As the tension heats up, the story become more intense as well. Soon, the council sees a grand opportunity for using hearsay to gain monetary advantage. The story morphs from a fun, linguistic exercise, into a darkly political novel, advocating free speech in all of its guises. If you’d like to see more themes in the book, the Wikipedia article is quite comprehensive

And how can the remaining citizens ever hope to overcome the tyranny? Is there any kind of loophole available?  What if they can come up with a pangram that uses even fewer letters than Nollop’s? Will that make Nollop seem less divine?

However, just take a moment yourself to think of a sentence that is that succinct? I tried a few stabs at it, and quickly gave up.

The story is at times funny (in the face of tragedy), moving, and, surprisingly technically challenging (to write it I’m sure, and to read it, when they start writing in homophones to avoid the banned letters). It’s also quite short. It’s about 200 or so pages, and, given the letter writing format, many of the pages are only half-pages. So, Dunn is really able to pack a lot into small space, and we are all the better for it. It was a great read, especially if you enjoy literary fun in your reading entertainment. (Granted the lipograms were no oulipo, but that’s probably for the better).

I also put his next novel Welcome to Higby in my cart, and I’m now, more than ever interested in reading it, too.