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Archive for April, 2009

Terry Moore & Craig Rousseau–Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 1-5 (2008)

Posted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Craig Rousseau, Graphic Novel, Kevin Smith, Spider-Man, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, YA Books on April 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

spidermanSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-The Fearless Freaks 1986-2006 (2006).

freakThis is an assemblage of ten recordings from twenty years of The Flaming Lips.  It’s something of a soundtrack to the movie of the same name, but it’s more of a collection of rare and unavailable tracks.  Most of the tracks are live, and, since I’m not a big collector of unreleased works, they were all new to me.

Except of course that track 2 is “Free Radicals” which is from the then-soon-to-be-released At War with the Mystics.  The opening track, “Wayne’s Intro…Smoking a J with the Fearless Freaks” is a pretty instrumental with an introduction to the album by Wayne himself.  I’ve since found the instrumental online and it’s a really good listen (with the intro, it’s not something you’d want to listen to all that often, frankly).

The next track is “Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear.”  According to Wayne’s intro it’s a very rare track and it fits quite nicely into the time period of its recording (2005).  It’s a bit more acoustic sounding than most of their work at this time, but it’s still really good.

The rest of the disc is live tracks from various shows throughout their career.  And the thing that is somewhat amazing is how noisy/sloppy/untechnical the band sounds compared to their post Zaireeka explorations of sonic landscapes. “With You…” dates back to 1986, when the Lips were a noisy bunch of punks.  “Whole Lotta Love/You Can’t Stop the Spring” comes from 1988 and is a ramshackle mess–well the Led Zep cover is a mess– intentionally so. In fact all of the songs from this era have a feeling of what Wayne desribeds as “Our playing is on the verge of overtaking itself.”  It’s sloppy, noisy, fast and pretty wonderful.

The disc also contains a cover of “Space Age Love Song” by A Flock of Seagulls.  It’s from that same time period and is hard to determine if it’s reverent or not.

“When You Smile” clocks in at 12 minutes, although really the song itself is about 5, with a 7 minute noise-fest afterward.  Meanwhile, “Sleeping on the Roof” comes from the Parking Lot Experiment in which about 50 people all play a tape from simultaneously.  This version is considerably longer than the version from The Soft Bulletin and it is far more profane.  The last several minutes consist of several people telling each other to Fuck Off.  It’s not really worth repeated listenings but it’s interesting for curiosity seekers.

The last track, from 2003, is “The Observer” also from Bulletin.  It’s quite a change from the rest of the disc, as the playing is crisp and the recording is quite clean.

The disc is meant for diehard fans of the band.  Casual listeners probably won’t enjoy this as much, and should just seek out the original albums.

[READ: April 8, 2009] Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane

Even though I’m a fan of comics, I’ve never really enjoyed the superhero vein of them.  But every once in a while a writer I like will jump into the fray and I will follow.

Kevin Smith did Green Arrow, a superhero I’d not even heard of, but I read his run of that one.  And now Terry Moore has done a limited run of the series Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.  I didn’t know anything about this series when I first heard he would be writing it.  I have since learned that there were 20 issues published in 2004-2005.  And this 5 issue mini-series may or may not have anything to do with the previous series (I’ll probably never investigate that).

But after that big super-hero welcome, this series has very little to do with suprheroes.  It’s more of a love story, or at least a frustrated love story. (more…)

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A.M. Homes–This Book Will Save Your Life (2006)

Posted in A.M. Homes, Books about writers, Canadian Music, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Donuts, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Lullabye Arkestra, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Sun Ra, The White Stripes, Unreliable narrator on April 8, 2009| 1 Comment »

homesSOUNDTRACK: LULLABYE ARKESTRA-Ampgrave [CST044] (2006).

ampgraveI’m not sure what’s up with the spelling of Arkestra (Sun Ra tribute, perhaps?), but “Lullabye” is certainly a misnomer.  “Ampgrave” on the other hand is a pretty good summary of the music on this record.

The band is basically a drum and bass duo.  And yet, they are so much more.  The bass runs the show, with the bass lines being loud and furious.  There are also several guests who provide horns, organ, violin and my favorite addition: “screaming.”  This complete package makes for a loud, bruising, soulful unholy mess.  And it’s really fun.

The disc won’t appeal to everyone. The opening track “Unite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” is where the “screaming” really comes to the fore, and will certainly scare off the weak-hearted.  Which is a shame, as track 2 mellows out with some good soulful tunes (albeit utterly distorted, let’s not forget). There’s some other weird and wonderful tracks.  “Y’Make Me Shake” is a great rocking track with excellent horns to provide nice moments of melody.

The disc ends with a great one-two punch of “Bulldozer of Love” and the wonderfully titled “Ass Worship” two noisy, chaotic tracks that find a killer melody under all that distortion.

I hate to use the White Stripes as a frame of reference because it’s kind of lazy, but they are a two-piece playing soulful, distorted rock.  But the White Stripes are practically bubblegum pop when it compares to the racket these guys make.  It’s a lot of fun, if you like your fun noisy.

[READ: March 31, 2009] This Book Will Save Your Life

While it didn’t save my life, I enjoyed this book very very much.

This book follows the life of Richard Novak.  As the book starts, Richard seems like a type A workaholic who is too consumed with his work and routine to really enjoy anything.  When he gets an inexplicable yet frightening pain, he calls 911 and is taken to the hospital.   And this rather mundane opening leads to a hugely complicated back-story and a hugely complicated fore-story (?) in which all aspects of Richard’s life meet in a house in Malibu.

For, you see, Richard was something of an asshole.  Richard’s ex-wife, is another Type A personality who is as absorbed in her work as he is in his.  When he is offered a job in California, requiring him to leave New York, his wife said, go if you want to.  And he did, leaving his wife and his son Ben (seven at the time) with minimal contact and, eventually, little participation in his son’s life. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“She’s the One” (New Yorker, March 23, 2009)

Posted in 21 Jump Street, Bon Jovi, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Dear Mr President, New Yorker, Pearl Jam, Ratt, Robbie Robertson, Short Story, Suicide, Tessa Hadley on April 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_3_23_09_09.inddSOUNDTRACK: DEAR MR. PRESIDENT-Dear Mr President (1988).

dearSo, I mentioned these guys in a previous post about The Airborne Toxic Event.  I said maybe I’d listen to the disc again (it’s been at least ten, maybe fifteen years since I listened to it).  Sarah walked in and said it sounded like Bon Jovi, which may or may not be true.

The band is a weird amalgam of things.  They look like Ratt, almost exactly like Ratt, in fact.  And yet musically they are all over the place.  The opening, rather cool, track is “Hey Daddy Have You Ever Been Arrested?”  It starts slow with the singer’s weird, sort of whiney, but almost bitterly angry voice reciting some lines over bass.  A distorted guitar comes in and the chorus rocks out.  There”s some heavier stuff as the song ends, including a rocking solo.

What’s most notable about the song, and the disc though is the lyrics.  Certainly not the first or even the most “political” band, but for the supposed genre they are in, lyrically they are thoughtful if not thought provoking.  And, even with doses of humor, they’re a lot more than a sex drugs and rock n roll band.

But after that first track the album diversifies.  “Fate” is a ballad, with the singer’s hesitant voice opening the track.  “Love and Violence” sounds like a late 80s metal song, but with a twist: the singer’s voice is just off-kilter enough to keep it interesting.  Meanwhile “Where is the Love?” is positively funk-filled, with a slapping bass line and big horns.  And then there’s “Flesh & Blood” which has something of a smooth jazz trumpet solo as it winds down.  It also seems to get more mellow as the track progresses.  Keep a mental note about this song title.

As the disc continues, things get really weird: horns start featuring in the songs with more and more frequency.  And at one point there’s something of a disco vibe.  There’s even a song about wanting to dance like Fred Astaire. (full of sizzling keyboard blasts!).

“Reality” is  slow ballad with era-appropriate keyboard splashes in the chorus.  And “Fatal Desire” sounds not unlike a Pearl Jam track (except for the vocals of course). The last three tracks on the disc have their track number in red (the others are in white) which leads me to think that maybe they were bonus tracks?  They include an 8 minute song “Get It Together” that sounds like it could be a background soundtrack to a 80s show like 21 Jump Street, especially the atmospheric guitar washes.  This disc ends with a weird little 1 and a half minute thing called “Who Killed Santa Claus?”

Whats amazing is that even with the internet’s omnipotence, there is virtually no information about this album, or even the band, anywhere.  Nor what happened to them (I discovered that two of the members played on other bands’ records).  You can’t even find anything about their other band name.  For some reason, the powers that be didn’t like the name Dear Mr President, and they had to change the band’s name to Flesh & Blood.  They released the album as Dead White and Blue.  I’ve never actually seen that disc though.

But after some searching around, I found one article about the band.  It answers some questions, like about their name change.  And evidently I have one of the few copies of the original disc.  Huh.  And to think that I bought it on a whim back in college when I bought bands without knowing anything about them.

So, for all of your Dear Mr. President needs, check out this article.  There’s even two downloads, too!

[READ: March 27, 2009] “She’s the One”

This story is one of the few stories I’ve read that is about writing and writers in which the main character isn’t a writer.  Ally works at a writer’s workshop as the secretary.  She encounters all kinds of writers, but in this particular term, she encounters a Canadian woman with short, white hair named Hilda.  Hilda is in her late fifties, has lived a pretty full life, and since most of her faimily is in England, she has settled down there too.

Ally runs into Hilda at the supermarket and casually asks how her novel is going. Hilda is very guarded and quite rude, until a few minutes later when she apologizes and takes a keen interest in Ally and her life.  Ally, caught off guard, reveals a family secret that she never feels comfortable talking about.  And, she soon finds comfort in this off-putting stranger’s cozy cottage.

Ally also learns more details about Hilda’s novel, and her fascinating family story about a Canadian folk singer’s impact on all of their lives.

I really enjoyed this story both for its unconventional look at writers, and for its interesting dealing with family crises.  A very strong story.  Although I have a quibble.  Ally and her coworkers can only think of one Canadian folksinger: Robbie Robertson.  Now, I realize that I’m a Canuckophile and all but, come on.  At least include Neil Young in the list.

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Woody Allen–“Tails of Manhattan” (New Yorker, March 30, 2009)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), New Yorker, Short Story, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Church, Woody Allen, WRFF 104.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on April 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

newyorker3SOUNDTRACK: AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT-“Sometime Around Midnight” (2009).

ateI’ve been hearing this song on the radio a lot lately (WRFF especially seems to play it a lot).  But they never said who it was!  I liked it, but I was sure it sounded like an old song.  Ack, but what was it?  I kept coming up with a band called Dear Mr. President.  And then I heard the truth.  It was the Airborne Toxic Event.

I’m still not sure that Dear Mr President is who I’m thinking of, but their song “Fate” has a similar vocal style at the beginning…it morphs into a different song altogether, but maybe that is what  was thinking of.

As for this ATE song, I really like it.  It’s got this weird quality that I find appealing.  It’s  a slow builder, but the vocals are what’s so intriguing about it…very understated with a whispered feel, until the big stadium chorus comes in.  And yet, there’s no chorus.  The song builds and builds to a chorus that never arrives.  Nice trick, guys.

Heh, I was just looking back over my previous post about Airborne Toxic Event, and I see that I do know this song from when I first listened to it on MySpace back in June 2008.  At that time I compared them to the Church.  I guess I can’t let them be their own band.

I’m certainly going to have to check out their CD

[READ: March 26, 2009] “Tails of Manhattan”

I don’t always include the one page pieces from the New Yorker, but since I like Woody Allen, I figured I’d include this one.  It also gets a special mention because in Allen’s collected essays he often has jokey pieces that are topical, and it’s rather rare that I am completely aware of the topical reference.

This piece is about two old Jewish men who are reincarnated as lobsters (funny in itself), but it also concerns Bernie Madoff.  And since it’s unavoidable, I know who Madoff is an what he did.  I assume this piece would be funny in even you didn’t know who that was (or in 5 years when we forget), because the idea of lobster revenge is always funny.

Allen’s New Yorker pieces aren’t always funny, so it’s nice to see that he can still do a concise little piece like this that really hits the mark.

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Mark Twain–“The Quarrel in the Strong-Box” (Harper’s, April 2009)

Posted in Billy Idol, Fables, Harper's, Mark Twain, Political Humor, Smarty Pants, TiVo, WRFF 104.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA, WRXP 101.9 FM--New York on April 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpersaprilSOUNDTRACK: BILLY IDOL

spikeBilly Idol plagues my existence.  Ever since he popped up on the scene (my first exposure was “White Wedding”) I thought he was kind of goofy. He has some kind of claim to cred and fame from being in Generation X, and yet I have never heard a song by Generation X and I never hear them mentioned anywhere except as being the band that spawned Billy Idol.

And yet, through the 80s he proliferated with a series of increasingly stupid singles: “White Wedding” (Everyone mocked the lip thing.  And that scream at the end–come on!).  Then came “Dancing with Myself” (This guy is a punk legend? And that “sweat sweat sweat sweat” chant–come on!).  Then we get “Eyes Without a Face,” (A ballad that is apparently be profound, but really?  “Eyes without a face got no human grace”–come on!).

So, basically I can’t stand Billy Idol.  Which would be fine.  I don’t have to hear him right?  I mean it’s been 27 years since these songs came out.  But no!  I was working in the garden, which means listening to the radio.  Between 101.9 WRXP (my new favorite station) and Radio 104.5 WRFF (my even newer favorite station) I heard TWO Billy Idol songs in three hours.  And this was in the midst of an otherwise awesome collection of tunes.  And then, just to add insult to injury, TiVo had recorded a VH1 morning music block, and as I was fast forwarding through it “Eyes Without a Face” came on.

Three Billy Idols in the span of a day.  Good grief.

I can only hope that by writing this, I can purge my Idol dismay and break the curse.  And I had to include a picture of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to take away the stigma of a Billy Idol photo on one of my posts.

[READ: March 25, 2009] “The Quarrel in the Strong-Box”

I’m surprised at how much Mark Twain has been coming up lately. This piece is a fable, (written in 1897), about two pages long, and is very Twain-ian.

The basic gist is that all of the money in a strongbox is vying for most important coin or bill. It begins with a simple argument between a nickle and a penny. The nickle argues (in a not-so-subtly racist manner) that the copper coin is second class, since the nickle is worth so much more. Then various denominations chime in, all arguing that they are more valuable.

It is taken to a court, where the penny argues that all coins are created equal. The judge determines that all of the coins get the same amount of interest (at the time 5%) regardless of their actual value. And in that regard they are all created equal. What happens after that is up to them to determine.

A good and pertinent fable, even if it is 112 years old.

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Robert Coover-“White-Bread Jesus” (Harper’s, December 2008)

Posted in Black Sabbath, Demons, Eric Clapton, Harper's, Jethro Tull, John Lennon, Marianne Faithfull, Marriage Trouble, Religion, Robert Coover, Short Story, Taj Mahal, The Beatles, The Dirty Mac, The Kids Are Alright, The Rolling Stones, Tony Iommi, Unreliable narrator, Wikipedia on April 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

harpersdecSOUNDTRACK:  ROLLING STONES-Rock and Roll Circus [DVD] (1968).

stonesProbably the most interesting thing about this DVD was seeing Tony Iommi, future guitarist for Black Sabbath playing guitar for Jethro Tull!  Let me repeat: the guy who played “Iron Man” was playing on a song with a flute solo!

Okay, with that out of the way, I’ll talk about the DVD.

The idea behind this event was to promote music in a new way, and the idea of a circus makes sense, so why not.  Wikipedia gives a pretty lengthy explanation of the whole thing, so I won’t bother with all of the details.

Anyhow, I had heard about this DVD in context of The Who.  I had read that The Who totally blew away the Stones at this event (apparently Mick Jagger agreed, which is why this was not available until 1996). Much of the Who’s performance is available in The Kids Are Alright movie.

But now with this DVD available, we get to see all of the acts in the circus:

Jethro Tull-“Song for Jeffrey.” Evidently they mimed their performance, but it’s still Tony Iommi.

The Who-“A Quick One While He’s Away.” Just amazing.  Fantastic rollicking, amazing.  It’s a crazy song, and it’s so full of energy.  Yes, they blow everyone else off the stage.

Taj Mahal, a band I’m not familiar with, plays “Ain’t That a Lot of Love.”

Marianne Faithfull sings a surprisingly quiet rendition of “Something Better.”  Her trademark voice hasn’t quite developed yet.

The Dirty Mac, who are John Lennon (vocals & rhythm guitar), Keith Richards (bass),  Eric Clapton (lead guitar) & Mitch Mitchell (drums).  They perform the Beatles song “Yer Blues” and then a jam called “Whole Lotta Yoko” which features Yoko Ono doing what she does best…caterwauling for what seems like much longer than 4 and a half minutes).

Then the Rolling Stones come out.  The story is that they had been up playing for hours, and their set was finally recorded at 5AM.  Whether or not that’s true, the set is really lackluster.  I’m not a huge Stones fan, but I do love many of their songs.  In fact, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Sympathy for the Devil” are two of my all time favorite songs.  Sadly, the versions on this DVD are totally substandard, especially compared to the originals.  Even “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” a song that I don’t particularly love but which has a great opening riff sounds tired.  I don’t know if it’s the amps, the sound board, or if they’re just really tired, but the set just doesn’t have it.

So, yeah, there’s not much to see with this disc.  You do get Brian Jones jamming with the Stones.  And of course, “A Quick One” is great.  It’s also cool to see Tony Iommi, but since he’s not actually playing, it’s not that exciting.  And, in fairness, Mick Jagger is a very good host, and he keeps his spirits and excitement level up pretty high throughout the show, especially when goofing around with John Lennon and the fans.

As a curiosity, this DVD was okay…I actually enjoyed the talking bits in between songs rather than the songs themselves.

[READ: March 25, 2009] “White-Bread Jesus”

It has taken me a very long time to read this story.  I had been putting it off because it was kind of long.  Then I started it and put it aside, and then finally I read most of it but didn’t have a chance to finish it.  I found it again today under a pile of magazines and decided it was time to finish it up.  None of that reflects on the story, though, honestly.

I was very intrigued by the story right from the get-go.  In it, a preacher (Reverend Wesley Edwards) who is losing his faith, and really his mind, has something of a breakdown in church.  He begins a dialogue with Jesus in which Jesus admits that the Bible is nonsense, and that he, Wesley, is really a prophet. (more…)

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Periodical: Geek Monthly

Posted in Arcade Fire, Artists, Authors, Book Reviews, Corporate skewering, Fantasy, Film & TV, Food, Foreign Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Geek Monthly, Graphic Novel, Magazines, Magic, Music, Smarty Pants, Technology, TiVo, Video Games, Work, Yuck! on April 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

geek1I have a Periodicals page already, but I rarely look at it or update it.  So, over the next few months I’m going to mention a magazine that I subscribe to.  When I’m all caught up, I’ll remove that page.

I was inspired to do this when I got the latest Geek Monthly. I stumbled upon Geek magazine last year when I was gathering magazines for the library’s annual magazine survey.  I really enjoyed it and when I saw the next issue it was a Futurama feature, so naturally I had to subscribe right then and there.

And since then I have not been disappointed.

They have fun geek quotes from famous and non-famous people.  Some short articles about tech gadgets and new products. And an Ask Alienware category for high tech and gaming questions.

geek2They’ve also started a Green section (this latest one has a computer built into a cardboard CPU unit…very cool).

They also have a music section (six album reviews and an interview with a cool geeky person).  This latest issue has a great interview with Will Oldham & The Arcade Fire.

There’s obviously the interview with the cover person (Zach Braff & Nathan Fillion are recent cover stars).  Plus, there’s other film-related articles.  (An interview with Wallace Shawn and an inevitable piece on Battlestar Galactica).  There also usually an opinion piece about a film or TV topic, and sometimes a debate on a subject (Film Adaptations of Books).  There’s also a regular Rant from Mark Altman, and Secrets of a Lady Geek.

As you get near the back, you get film reviews (mostly sci fi & horror, but there’s also some comedies and documentaries), and DVD reviews.   And, of course book reviews (comics and otherwise).

And then you get one of my favorite sections: product reviews.  The Office Arsenal shows awesome gadgets that you can bring to work (sadly I don’t work in an environment where Nerf rockets and Super Soakers would be appreciated.)  But the best part has to be random reviews at the back of the magazine.  Things like: MyGlowKeys, or Van Dorn Gourmets Onion Dip and Bath Bomb, or the thing that’s been making me laugh for days: FX Neo: Hard Minty Eyedrops, which has the hilarious review: “Hard. Minty. Eyedrops.  I can’t think of two more terrible adjectives for something I’m supposed to stick in my eye.  Hot stabby eyedrops?  Grating infectious eyedrops?  Nope, can’t do it.” (more…)

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