I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: COLDPLAY-Viva la Vida(2008).

I have a very vivid memory of listening to Coldplay for the first time.  I was driving a very annoying person to her revolting house in upstate New York.  I was delighted to be getting her out of my life, and I was listening to Coldplay’s first album, Parachutes.  I knew “Yellow” from either the radio or from some Britpop fascination of mine.  AT the time, Coldplay were considered the next Travis, whose “Why Does It Always Rain on Me” had just soared up the charts. “Yellow” was described as Travis-like and something of a rip-off (a claim thrown at Coldplay to this day).

As an indie guy, Coldplay should be anathema to me. And yet since “Yellow” I’ve always liked them, despite their ridiculous name.  And I’ve always thought of them as a sort of underdog (that whole Travis thing), even though all the entertainment magazines say they are the biggest band in the world (even bigger than U2!)

And so, here is their latest disc.  Amusingly, we had played it in the house and then suddenly the disc was gone.  Couldn’t find it for a month.  (It eventually turned up in the REM Accelerate case (those cardboard sleeves with two openings tend to hide discs).

And now I’ve given it a listen, and man is it good.  Yes, I know, they’re huge stadium anthem rock, but even though I like lo-fi indie, I also like stadium rock when it’s done right.  It’s also funny about their backlash because they haven’t really changed their style over the course of their career.  It’s not like they’ve suddenly become commercial.  They’ve just been commercial-in-waiting.  And frankly, I’d rather them be on the radio than some other Top 40 bands.

So Viva la Vida is chock full of hits, and chock full of great songs. It opens with a short instrumental “Life in Technicolor,” a string-filled 2 minute intro that sets the tone quite well.  And each of the following 3 minute pop songs are great: swells of orchestra, great punchy choruses and then…done; leaving you wanting more to sing along to.

The amount of strings on this record is really notable.  And surely the breakout single “Viva La Vida” is the most string-heavy rock single since The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.”

The only compliant I have about the record is the three songs that last over 6 minutes.  Despite the bombast of their songs, most of Coldplay’s work fits comfortably under 4 minutes.  These three 6 minute songs are really 3 minute songs with a 3 minute coda tacked on at the end.  And, the problem is that those codas are usually just repeated instrumental moments that slow down the proceedings.  (And since I dig bands like Mogwai who make fantastic instrumental music, I know from instrumentals).  This doesn’t ruin the disc by any means, although it does tend to wreck the flow a little.  Nevertheless, the next song kicks in and you’re back to singing along.

[READ: March 19, 2009]: Mother Night

It was with some trepidation that I started this Vonnegut novel. The reasons being A) I had never even heard of this title. B) Cat’s Cradle, regarded as one of his masterpieces comes next in order, and C) it’s about Nazis…how much fun could that be?

Well, as it turns out, my fears were unfounded.

Mother Night has a few layers to it. So we’ll start with the basics. The book is written by Howard W. Campbell. The book has been edited by Kurt Vonnegut, and Vonnegut’s introduction makes clear that he tried to follow Campbell’s wishes as best he could. (All of this, of course, is pure fiction, but it’s a good one).

Howard W. Campbell is writing this book from a jail in Israel where he is to be tried for crimes against humanity. Because although Campbell is an American citizen, he is also a propagandist for the Nazi party. And during World War II, he was responsible for the most heinous, despicable, horrific anti-Semitic, anti-everything vitriol every communicated. And during all of this. he was also a spy for the U.S.

Okay, what?

As with much of Vonnegut, things are never what they seem, but as he says in his (real) introduction, this story is the only story that he’s written where he knows the moral of the story: We are what we pretend to be.

So let’s summarize Campbell’s life. He was born in New York. His family moved to Germany for his father’s job. As the Germans wee marching across Europe, his parents fled back to t he States, but Howard stayed. He had met a woman, Helga, and wanted to be with her. They married and he became a successful playwright of romantic drama.

One day, he meets a U.S. agent who convincingly suggests that he would be best served by joining the U.S. forces in the upcoming war. And, as a radio announcer and Nazi propagandist, Campbell works as a spy for the U.S. (he is unaware of why kind of signals he is sending or even what he’s talking about).

Although he doesn’t believe what he’s saying, he is a spectacular Nazi propagandist and has fans in the white supremacist movement in the States and abroad. And thus, when the war ends, he is to be tried like the Nazi superstar that he is. Only 3 people know that he is actually a spy for the US. And one of them arranges for his escape from trial and his return to New York, where the bulk of this story takes place.

And even though I’ve said this much, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what happens here. Campbell befriends a local artist (who also happens to be a Russian spy). He is set upon by people determined to kill him for his crimes as well as by those who wish to worship him for his propaganda. And then his wife, long presumed dead, returns. And then several more intriguing twists happen, and that’s all you’ll get out of me.

The book is written some fifteen years after WWII, and yet everyone, Jews especially, seems to have forgotten about the war. Despite his notoriety, he is able to live his life plainly as Howard Campbell with little trouble. The book went incredibly quickly. The chapters are really short, packed with information. And, despite the Nazis and the rampant depression, Vonnegut’s dark humor is ever present.  I really couldn’t put the story down. The twists and turns kept coming, the plot surprises were always intriguing, and the writing was superb.

Even though Vonnegut explicitly mentions that moral (and a couple of others like “when you’re dead, you’re dead”) the book is never preachy. And even though there was a lot of depressing things going on, the story doesn’t entirely lose sight of hope (even the final line maintains a glimmer (maybe)).

Vonnegut himself was in Dresden as a POW when the city was firebombed. That’s a pretty good reason for him to not want anyone to forget the war. And this is a good starting point to remembering it.