SOUNDTRACK: CONSTANTINES-Kensington Heights (2008).
The Constantines hail from Guelph, Ontario. And I’m mostly pointing that out because I wanted to write the word Guelph. While I know there are funny sounding or fun to say towns in America, I’m quite fond of many of the Canadian ones: Guelph, Moose Jaw, Regina.
Anyhow, the Constantines play a kind of classic rock with a punk edge that puts them just outside of the mainstream. Their first three albums are fast and loud and quite sparse. And the first track off this album, “Hard Feelings” sounds a lot like those first three discs. But the Constantines have expanded their sound somewhat on this album. They’ve added keyboards, and where they used to have stark guitars and bass, they have filled in the sound more. They basically sound a bit more mainstream in places. In fact, their mellower pieces seem almost commercially viable. And the second half of the disc has a number of mellower tracks.
These mellow tracks remind me a lot of the Replacements’ mid-period songs. Not their ballads, but not their heavier speedy songs either. Their singer, Bryan Webb, sounds a lot like Paul Westerberg in fact (although not the later balladeer Westerberg).
I don’t know if this was an intentional attempt at commercial success, or if the band is just maturing somewhat. The record is still better than a lot of hard rock stuff out there–somehow Canadian indie bands keep it real even when they’re close to hitting it big–but if you want to experience full Constantines, go for their earlier discs.
[READ: June 2, 2009] “The Egg”
I read Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (or most of it, anyhow) a few years ago for a creative writing class. Anderson’s stories are “small” in that nothing overly dramatic happens; there is no sensationalism. They cover ordinary people in small town America. This is not to say that they are dull, because his writing is wonderful and he immediately sucks you int the characters’ lives. But you’re more liked to be moved, rather than blown away by his stories.
I only read this story because in McSweeney’s #4 Rick Moody does a “cover” of it and I wanted to see how close Moody’s story was to the original. Interestingly enough, the stories are almost identical. Moody turns the eggs from chicken into ostrich, but the major plot points remain the same. It’s as if Moody was making a movie version of it: every thing’s bigger, better, louder, funnier.
Anyhow, in this original version, the narrator lives in Ohio. His father was a farmer and content in his life. Until he got married. After his son the narrator was born, his wife grew ambitious. Not for herself, but for the men in her life. And so, rather than just farming, it was decided that they would raise chickens.
There follows a lengthy screed about the unviable life of a chicken and of anyone trying to raise chickens. Since Sarah and I just bought six more chickens and have been getting eggs from our other 3 hens for about a year, this section was hard to read, although it was quite funny.
When the chicken business doesn’t pan out, the family moves to a nearby town and opens a restaurant. It also does very poorly. The father decides to “entertain” his customers as a major draw for his guests. One fateful night, he tries too hard. And, with an egg as a prop, and as the cause of all of his problems, his entertainment turns aggressive.
Since this is a Sherwood Anderson story and not a Stephen King story, the conclusion is very mild indeed, but the story is quite affecting nonetheless.
It is available here.
Leave a Reply