I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: FRIENDS, ROMANS, COUNTRYMEN-I am Spartacus (2010).

I’ve been aware of Friends, Romans, Countrymen for a number of years, but I’d never heard them.  The bio on the Dromedary site suggests that they broke up some time around 2003.  So, I’m not entirely sure if this CD was released back then or if this is the first time it’s seeing the light of day.

I’ve been streaming the disc all day (and yes, I will buy it as soon as can find my wallet, which, no is not in El Segundo–ooh, old school!)).  I don’t know if it’s my crappy work headphones but the recording sounds distorted in a way that makes me think it was recorded too loud.  Of course as I say it could be the headphones.

Getting beyond that, the band reminds me a lot of middle era Hüsker Dü.  They don’t sound like them necessarily, but the feel: noisy guitars, kind of sloppy (but cool) solos, smooth vocals (at times there is definitely a resemblance to Bob Mould) and harmonies, and fast, rocking beats.

The Dromedary site calls them “burly pop-core” and that’s a really apt description.  The opening song is a tribute to a fellow New Jersey band: “The Day Footstone Died.”  (Footstone’s releases have been covered here).  It’s got some great catchy guitars and a great bridge.  (And the live version that’s on the site sounds like the band never broke up).

There’s some really interesting guitar sounds on “Lee1Blu” (as well as some cool harmonies).  The rest of the disc is equally infectious, all the way down to the two closing instrumentals, “Warm” and, um, “Instrumental.”

So you get about 40 minutes of pretty fine, pretty loud alt-rock.  You can stream the disc (and buy it) here.

[READ: September 8, 2010] “The Science of Flight”

So this post really missed the point of the story.  If you read the comments below you’ll get more details.  Because of the comment, I have re-posted about the story.  You can read it here.

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Yiyun Li’s is one of the 20 Under 40 from the New Yorker.  This story (which I assume is not an excerpt) is about Zichen.  Zichen (whose name is unpronounceable to Westerners) emigrated from China to live in America with her then new husband.

As the story opens, we see Zichen at work at an animal-care center.  She is talking with her coworkers about her upcoming visit to England (this will be her first-ever vacation that is not to China).  The men are teasing her about the trip (why would she want to go to the ocean in the winter, she doesn’t know anyone there, etc).  The teasing is friendly, because they are friendly, although Zichen is very reserved around them.  Of course, of all the people she has known, she has opened up to them the most–which still isn’t very much.

The story flashes back to her life in China (an unpleasant life, in which her grandmother raised Zichen pretty much to spite Zichen’s mother).  And we learn that her visits to China are more obligatory than recreational.

As the story concludes, there are no grand revelations, no major upheavals, no shocking twists.  The major change that she hopes to affect on her life will be internal only.   This is a quiet story about a quiet woman.  Her life is dull and a little sad, and that’s kind of how this story is.  But “dull” is not a criticism, as the story is well-written and nicely paced between flashbacks and present day.  It’s just “dull” because Zichen was raised that way, and perhaps, maybe, possibly, she’ll be able to change that.

Her Q&A is available here.