I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: LES CLAYPOOL-Of Whales and Woe (2006).

Although I was a little disappointed with Of Fungi and Foe, I enjoyed it enough to want to track down Of Whales and Woe, since it seemed to be generally better received.  What’s interesting about this disc is that it sounds a lot like Primus, except that rather than guitar, other various instruments have been substituted to accompany Les’ bass.  And since one of the instruments is the saxophone, (and there’s no guitar) this album sounds (at times) like beloved Morphine (with a much funkier bass and completely un-sexy vocals).

On the first few listens, when I wasn’t listening very carefully, I really enjoyed the disc.  It reminded me a lot of Primus, although it had a lot of Les’ solo quirks.

However, once I started scrutinizing it a bit more, I found I didn’t enjoy it as much.  The first track, “Back Off Turkey” reminds me of some of the tracks on Fungi: wild and crazy sounding music but the vocals are so muddy it’s impossible to tell what’s up with the song.

On the opposite end from the Fungi-like bass heavy tracks, we have “Iowan Gal” a light -sounding and light-hearted romp about, well, an Iowan Gal. (There’s a lot of fun little quirks in there–Bow ditty bow bow).

And yet there’s some really great tracks on here: “One Better” is an amazing track, highlighting just how great Claypool is as a songwriter and arranger.  This song lasts pretty long but because there’s a lot of different things going on, it never overstays its welcome.

Most of the songs are stories about various bizarro characters.  And although I love Les’ characters, this turns into one of the downfalls of the disc.  In the great tradition of storytelling songs, the songs tend to be verses only with nary a chorus.  And that’s fine because most storytellers use the music as a background to accompany the story.  Les’ music is far too aggressive/innovative/interesting to be  background.  So when you get a great wild bassline, you’re attracted to it.  But when it lasts for 5 minutes with no changes, it’s exhausting.  And trying to listen to lyrics along with it is, well, I think your brain just shuts down (especially when they are recorded low in the mix and are hard to hear).  And so, the album feels a lot longer than it is.

Maybe I miss Ler’s amazing guitars.  I’m still unclear about why Primus has split, especially if Les is writing songs that are not unlike Primus.  Of course, having said all that, there is no denying the awesomeness of Les Claypool.  The funny thing is that even a reigned-in Claypool is still pretty out there.  I think maybe sometime he just goes too far out there.

[READ: February 7, 2010] Crogan’s Vengeance

When Sarah and I went to BEA, we spoke to the Oni Press guy who was praising this book, The Crogan Adventures, as a fantastic series aimed at teens, but really readable for the whole family. The premise is that the Crogan family (and there’s an extensive family tree on the back cover), all led exciting lives.  The stories about these men are being told to the youngest Crogan boy Eric, in present day.

This first book is about Catfoot Crogan, an honest sailor who was more or less forced into a life of piracy in the 1700s.  And the story is fantastic.  There is sailor talk, there is swashbuckling, a terrible storm, even a shark!The ship that Catfoot was on is comandeered by pirates.  The captain of the pirate ship is a fair man–he writes up a contract for all of his pirates to sign and he lives by a code of honor.  The first mate, D’or is just out for the adventure, honor be damned. And of course, our Crogan, a man of honor, falls afoul of D’or.

I expected the story to be a long one (it’s hardcover after all) so I had put off reading until I had a lot of time.  However, I read it surprisingly quickly–I was totally hooked.

And, what I liked about it especially is that it is aimed at teens, but the language and even the violence is stylizaed enough that it is easily readable by young teens and possibly tweens.  There is no vulgarity at all, and although some characters die, it is not graphic.

And that’s just one positive thing about the art.  Looking at the family tree, Schweizer does an amazing job of creating 16 characters who are clearly related but who are distinguishable.  This has been something of a thorn in my side in some recent graphic novels–trying to tell characters apart.  But even in the battle scenes it was easy to tell what was going on.  And, most importantly, Catfoot Crogan stands out quite easily from the other pirates (mostly due to his eyes, but his whole body design and make up shows him off as a distinct character.

For yes, the book is definitely cartooney.  The lines are rather broad and some of the characters are preposterously oversized or delightfully grotesque.  But it all works wonderfully.  Oversized goons, scurvy dawgs, even highfalutin islanders (when they each Tortuga!).

I can’t say enough about the book (and, I hope, the series): the dialogue, the clever plot twists (Crogan himself is a thinking man and always tries to find ways out of a situation that aren’t just plunder or kill).  Even if they are attacking others, he thinks of clever ways to do it.

It’s a really smart book. Perfect for anyone who loves adventure, but especially for those who like their adventure covered with brains.
The second volume in the series, Crogan’s March, was just released, and I’m very excited to read it too.