I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Don’t Tell a Soul (1989).

With this disc, the ‘Mats finally scored a hit.  “I’ll Be You” actually made the Billboard charts!  And why not, it’s a delightfully catchy, far more mature version of the ‘Mats now-adult-alternative music.

In my head, this is where the ‘Mats sold out entirely.  But, I listened to the disc the other day and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it.  I was probably still really into Pleased to Meet Me when I first got Don’t Tell, so the trip from point A to B isn’t quite as drastic. I guess maybe grown up me enjoys it more than college-aged me did.

The allmusic review is very harsh about the disc, especially the production.  I can’t say I noticed anything about that.  I was just listening for the songs.  And, in addition to being their longest disc to date, it only features 2 songs shorter than 3 minutes!

What you see is Paul Westerberg maturing as a songwriter, for better or worse.  And, as far as his craft goes, it’s certainly better.  As for indie rock, well, not so much.

The songs still maintain the rocking style of older Replacements, but they have more proper structure  (verses and choruses, repeat).  They also play with the loud/soft dynamic that would really come to the fore with Nirvana…although The ‘mats version was more of a rocking/acoustic juxtaposition. Almost all of the tracks on this disc feature an acoustic guitar somewhere in the mix. In fact, I thought that the disc was a lot less rocking than it actually is.

There’s a couple of clunkers on the disc, “We’ll Inherit the Earth” seems a bit off somehow.  But for the most part, the songs sound like a grown up version of the teenage ‘Mats from just five years ago.

By comparison to general pop music, “I’ll Be You” still maintains some indie cred. And, it’s really hard to resist the catchiness of it (from the break to the slightly off-kilter guitar solo that ends the song).  “Achin’ to Be” is another coulda been a hit, although perhaps more on a folk/country side of things.  And “Talent Show” and “Back to Back” are sort of gentle rockers that speed up at a few points. Only “Anywhere’s Better Than Here” has the really distorted rock sound of yore.

Even though I did enjoy listening to the disc, it suffers from a lack of fun.  As I said, it’s a pretty shocking maturation over the span of eight (or even five) years.

[READ: June 12, 2009] The Eternal Smile

Sarah received a copy of this book, and as soon as I realized it was by the guy who did American Born Chinese, an amazing, amazing graphic novel, I was excited to read it.

This is a collection of three short stories: “Duncan’s Kingdom,” “Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile,” and “Urgent Request”  I’m not sure if Kim and Yang collaborated or if one did one story and not the others.  But regardless, the art is fantastic in each.  I love the effortless style shifts in “Duncan” from the simple lines in the fantasy sequence, to the very very dark style in the nightmares.  “Gran’pa Greenbax” is so cartooney, so “childlike” in its style, that the violent avarice in the middle comes as quite a shock.  And “Urgent Request” is simply beautiful from start to finish.  It’s a great looking collection.

As for the stories themselves:

“Duncan’s Kingdom” follows young Duncan in his quest to defeat the evil Frog King who slayed the princess’ father.  His confidant, Brother Patchwork, provides him with a sword that is all-powerful and virtually assures his success.  And he is successful, until that is, he peeks behind a newly unearthed door.  Behind that door is a bottle of Snappy Cola.  He soon craves that bottle more than anything else.  And that bottle leads to the entire unraveling of his existence. The story turns from light fantasy into dark reality.  It is a powerful story about how our dreams can affect us.

“Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile” is something of a take off on Scrooge McDuck (although having never actually watched that cartoon, I don’t know if that is true, exactly).  Anyhow, it is about Gran’pa Greenbax a greedy frog who desires nothing but to own a giant pool filled with gold coins.  Which he has.  But the problem is that he wishes to dive into the coins without breaking his nose, so there needs to be more and more coins to keep him from hitting bottom.

His lackey, Filbert, brings him to see the Eternal Smile, a bright smile glowing in a golden sky.  Although initially annoyed that this smile isn’t lucrative, Gran’pa sees the potential money to be made if he puts up a church.
As with the first story a wholly unexpected twist comes which explains the origins of Grandpa Greenbax as both a story and, it turns out, a reality show.  But the final twist comes in the last panel.  The cameo of Duncan is a nice touch.

“Urgent Request” is quite different from the other two.  First, the pages are colored a sort of manila (as opposed to white) and the drawing is black and white.  It also feels somewhat muted compared to the other two.

Janet is a drone working in a cubicle at Commtech.  Her attempts to get a raise are easily rebuffed by her boss.  He calls her “insignificant.”   She receives an email in her Inbox.   It is the familiar spam that a Nigerian fortune will be wired to her bank account if she can assist the royal family financially in the short term.  Janet is so depressed that she agrees to the Nigerian Spam.  She wires Prince Henry her bank account number and begins a correspondence with him.

Of course, her bank account is immediately depleted, but Janet keeps writing back.  Each request from Prince Henry furthers their “friendship,” but also costs her $500.  Finally, Prince Henry reveals that he is coming to the States and he will meet her for lunch, where she will be greatly rewarded. Of course he doesn’t show.

Janet, however, isn’t so dumb.  She may have been depressed, but now she’s just mad. And she intends to make Prince Henry pay up.   The rest of the story proves cathartic and strikingly beautiful.

These three stories were really fantastic.

This is now the second publication from First Second Books that I thought was great.  And when I look at the other titles in the back of the book, I think that I’ve got a new favorite graphic novel publisher.  I mean, just look at their catalog , every single title, even the ones for kids, look wonderfully drawn. And the story lines look completely engrossing.  I can’t even decide which one to try next.