SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X: Dogman (1994).
Dogman follows up King’s X with, to my mind, a much more satisfying collection. It starts of with the fantastic “Dogman,” a great chance for Doug to show off his vocal range. “Shoes” has some great gospelish harmonies that lead to a wonderfully chunky riff. And “Pretend” sounds about as close to early King’s X as this newish King’s X gets: soaring harmonies and a great guitar line. “Black the Sky” brings back some of those dissonant chords that Ty does so well and it all wraps up in a gorgeous, heavy chorus. And a song like “Sunshine Rain” has the effect of sounding like the older King’s X harmonies with a difference: it’s more of a minor key harmony. It’s really beautiful.
The rest of the album is a diverse selection of heavy, heavy rockers (“Complain” and “Human Behavior” which is just heavy and brutal and yet still catchy) and complex, more mellow tunes “Flies and Blue Skies” and “Cigarettes”). The seriously heavy “Go to Hell” is possibly the most psycho (as opposed to psychedelic) thing the band has done, but it only lasts for 51 seconds.
This is a fantastic album, and it may be why I like King’s X a little bit less.
[READ: September 8, 2008] “Yurt”
Every time I see this author’s name I think to myself, her name gets harder to say as you go along. That’s not really relevant but it makes me smile.
Anyhow, this story intrigued me because it was about middle school teachers. We see all of the events through the eyes of Ms. Hempel, even though it is told from the 3rd person–a neat trick which is disconcerting in the beginning. Ms Hempel details all of the various and sundry things that go on between the teachers (and having known some, I can say that the story is not far from the truth…it’s even funny that the after school events take place in an Irish bar, which is where the events I know of took place too).
One teacher, Ms Duffy, returns from a trip to Yemen quite pregnant. Ms Duffy and Ms Hempel had been friends, part of the group that went to the Irish bar as soon as the bell rang on Fridays. Before they have a chance to talk, Ms Duffy is swamped by everyone in the school. And she delves into what a happy life she now has. When Ms Hempel and Ms Duffy finally get a chance to reconnect, Ms Hempel realizes immediately that Ms Duffy is changed for good: the trip and the pregnancy are not the same as summer tans or anything else ephemeral. However, when Ms Duffy rages about the work that her replacement is doing in”her” classroom, that Ms Hempel realizes that Ms Duffy may not be the happy mom-to-be that she is showing. Some details are forthcoming and make for a satisfying story.
I enjoyed the this, but then I always enjoy gossip about teachers.
What an interesting title to an album. What inspired that do you think?
I have to assume this is spam, and yet it comes from a Yurt blogsite, so what the heck.