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Archive for June, 2011

Zadie Smith Introduces The Burned Children of America (2003)

Posted in A.M. Homes, Aimee Bender, Amanda Davis, Arthur Bradford, Consumerism, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Death, Decadence, Fears, George Saunders, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Safran Foer, Judy Budnitz, Julia Slavin, Ken Kalfus, Matthew Klam, Mogwai, Myla Goldberg, Oddities, Rick Moody, Romance, Sam Lipsyte, Sex, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Stacey Richter, Technology, The Future, Threats, Zadie Smith on June 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI: GovernmentCommissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 (2005).

It’s unlikely that Mogwai will ever release a greatest hits (well, someone probably will, but the band themselves don’t seem likely to do so).  As such, this compilation of BBC Recordings will certainly work well as one.

As I’ve mentioned many times, the BBC recordings are universally superb.  The quality of the recordings is unmatched.  And, typically the band takes the sessions very seriously.  The major different between these sessions and the official studio release is that the band is playing these songs live.  They are mixed well and sound great but they are live, so you can catch occasional subtle differences.

Mogwai, despite their seemingly improvised sound (all those noises and such) can recreate everything they do perfectly, and their live shows are tight and deliberate (except for the occasional moments where they really let loose).

The ten songs here span their career and are not played in chronological order.  This allows all of these wonderful songs to play off the tensions of each other.  And it shows that their later songs, which are less intense than their earlier ones, are still quite awesome and in a live setting don’t really lack for intensity after all.

The highlight of this disc is the scorching eighteen minute version of “Like Herod.”  The original is intense and amazing, and this live version allows them to play with the original in small ways, including allowing the quietness to really stretch out before they blow the speakers off the wall with the noise section of the track.

Even though I’m a fan of Mogwai, I don’t hear a radical difference between these versions and the originals.  Or should I say, it’s obvious which song they are playing.  There are some obvious subtleties and differences as befitting a live album, but unlike some live discs you don’t immediately notice that this version is “live.”

And that works well for both fans of the band (because as you listen and you hear the subtleties) and for newcomers–(because you’re not listening to weird, poorly recorded versions or versions that are for fans only).  And so, you get ten great Mogwai tracks.  Just enough to make you want to get some more.

[READ: June 11, 2011] The Burned Children of America

I found this book when I was looking for other publications by Zadie Smith.  This book kept cropping up in searches, but I could never really narrow down exactly what it was.  As best as I can tell, it is a British version of a collection of American authors that was originally published in Italy (!).  Editors Marco Cassini and Martina Testa work for minimum fax, an Italian independent publisher.  In 2001, they somehow managed to collect stories from these young, fresh American authors into an Italian anthology (I can’t tell if the stories were translated into Italian or not).

Then, Hamish Hamilton (publisher of Five Dials) decided to release a British version of the book.  They got Zadie Smith to write the introduction (and apparently appended a story by Jonathan Safran Foer (which was not in the original, but which is in the Italian re-publication).  This led to the new rather unwieldy title.  It was not published in America, (all of the stories have appeared in some form–magazine or anthology–in America), but it’s cool to have them all in one place.

The title must come from the David Foster Wallace story contained within: “Incarnations of Burned Children,” which is one of his most horrific stories, but it sets a kind of tone for the work that’s included within (something which Zadie addresses in her introduction): why are these young successful American writers so sad?  So be prepared, this is not a feel good anthology (although the stories are very good).
Oh, and if you care about this kind of thing, the male to female ratio is actually quite good (for an anthology like this): 11 men and 8 women.

ZADIE SMITH-Introduction
Zadie Smith was a fan of David Foster Wallace (she wrote a  lengthy review of the ten-year anniversary of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men which is republished in her book Changing My Mind), so she is an ideal choice to introduce this book.  Especially when she provides a quote from DFW’s interview in 1995 about how living in America in the late 90s has a kind of “lostness” to it.  With this in mind, she sets out the concerns of this collection of great stories: fear of death and advertising.

Zadie gives some wonderful insight into each of these stories. The introduction was designed to be read after the book, and I’m glad I waited because while she doesn’t exactly spoil anything, she provides a wonderful perspective on each piece and also offers some ideas about the stories that I hadn’t considered.  And it’s funny, too. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“Clever Girl” (New Yorker, June 6, 2011)

Posted in Gods, Marriage (Happy), Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, Tessa Hadley on June 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Happy Songs for Happy People (2003).

Happy Songs for Happy People follows up Rock Action with more sedate music from Mogwai.  In fact, while Rock Action was pretty mellow (with a few bursts of noise) HMFHP is even more mellow.

Although it does open with a rocking track: “Hunted By a Freak.”  “Hunted” is one of Mogwai’s best songs.  It opens the disc with a catchy riff, some cool synthesized vocals and great washes of sounds.  It’s great on record and even better live.  But starting with “Moses I Am’n’t” the album takes a decidedly more mellow approach.  “Moses” is a song of slow washes layered on each other. There’s interesting textural sounds on display, but not a lot of melody.  It leads to “Kids Will Be Skeletons,” another mellow layered song.  It has a simple melody with delicate (!) keyboard washes.

But just when you think Mogwai have gone all soft, “Killing All the Flies” adds some intense sounds to the disc. It is similarly structured to the earlier songs on the disc, although it has some rather happy-sounding guitar lines in it.  It also grows in intensity about two-thirds of the way through.

“Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep” (sic) is a short, quiet song with subdued vocals.  It’s followed by “Ratts of the Capital” the only really long song here (8 and a half minutes).  It opens in this more subdued vein (is that a glockenspiel I hear?), but by 4 and a half minutes all you hear is guitar–growing louder and louder.  There are solos buried in the noise that threaten to explode out of the speakers, but they ultimately seem to hold back a wee bit.

“Golden Porsche” mellows things out again with a very pretty, very simple song (almost 3 minutes of beautiful melody) that reminds me of the interludes in Twin Peaks.  “I Know You Are But What Am I?” opens with a tense kind of piano (with some slightly off chords).  They merge with pretty keyboard notes which counteract the somewhat sinister feel of the main riff.

The disc ends with “Stop Coming to My House” (Mogwai have always excelled at song titles).  It’s a very subdued track (quiet drums propel waves of keyboards) and as the songs continues, more and more waves layer on each other until it just all fades away.

I obviously prefer the louder, more raucous Mogwai tracks, so these two albums are not what I think of when I think Mogwai.  These two albums feel like the work of a more mature, more restrained band–as if they are deliberately trying to put constraints on their music to see what they can achieve.  But even if they are less intense, the songs are wonderfully structured and show a still show a great emotional range.

[READ: June 07, 2011] “Clever Girl”

This was a fascinating story and is yet another story by Tessa Hadley that I really enjoyed.  And it’s another story that I didn’t realize was set in England until the fourth paragraph, which opens “Mum unpacked.”

Anyhow, this story follows Stella, a young girl whose family moves to a small suburb that has recently been developed (trees were cut down and none newly planted).  Stella and her mother used to live alone together for many years, but recently Stella’s mom met Norbert.  They married and moved into this new suburban house.

The story is told in past tense about the events from Stella’s childhood.  But there are occasional moments where the narrator pops in and offers some moments of “grown up Stella” perspective–like maybe she could have been nicer to Norbert.  Grown up Stella realizes that Nortbert was really perfect for her mom (especially since she was an older woman,  with a grown daughter).  At the time, she thought that Norbert seemed okay, but the whole move has upset her sensibilities.  [I also love that Norbert is known as “Nor,” which is wonderfully contradictory.] (more…)

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Simon Rich–“Trade” (New Yorker, May 30, 2011)

Posted in Baseball, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Mogwai, New Yorker, Romance, Simon Rich on June 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-5 Track Tour Single (2001).

I usually am able to track provenance of my discs pretty well, but this one I am only largely certain came from my friend Lar (sorry Lar, the memory is not what it used to be).  But where else would I have gotten a CD from a Mogwai show if I’ve never seen them live?

This promotional bauble is a delightful collection of 5 songs (duh).  The first three are studio recordings that were pretty much unavailable elsewhere (I read some sit that explained where you could’ve gotten them beforehand, but let’s just say unavailable).  And the live tracks were also unreleased.

The three studio tracks, “Close Encounters,” “Drum Machine” and “D to E” are very pretty, rather delicate instrumentals.  I would say that they are uncharacteristic of Mogwai, except that Rock Action was a pretty mellow album.  Nevertheless, even for Mogwai these are especially mellow and pretty.

The final two tracks are live: “You Don’t Know Jesus” is from Rock Action, and this live version is a bit more dramatic than the album release.  The final track is the amazing “New Paths to Helicon (Part II),” a song which never suffers from a lack of drama.

This is a pretty great tour artifact.

[READ: May 30, 2011] “Trade”

I was a little skeptical of this Simon Rich piece because I find that sports metaphors don’t always pan out, especially for a (somewhat) longish comedy piece.  But Rich manages to make the whole thing not only funny but also fit within the confines of the metaphor.

For this is the story of a breakup told as if it were a baseball trade.

Josh is traded by his girlfriend Kate.  He is devastated; he thought he was doing very well on her team.  But when he speaks with his brother Craig (who offers condolences and a trade story of his own), he realizes that his relationship numbers were not up to stuff.   But Josh is really devastated when he finds out who he was traded for (when he meets the man to exchange Kate’s apartment keys). (more…)

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Kate Walbert–“M&M World” (New Yorker, May 30, 2011)

Posted in Consumerism, Kate Walbert, Marriage Trouble, Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, Super Furry Animals on June 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Rock Action (2001).

After all of Mogwai’s releases over the years (and all the various compilations and imports and whatnot, it’s hard to believe that Rock Action was only their third proper full length release.

I just recently learned that the song “Dial: Revenge” has vocals by Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals (the lyrics are in Welsh, apparently so that it would sound like gibberish to most of the English-speaking audience (SFA released a wonderful album sung entirely in Welsh, called Mwng).   This song is a very delicate  piece which reminds me in some ways of later Mercury Rev (Rock Action was produced by Dave Fridmann who produces Mercury Rev).  It’s got a soaring “chorus” and strings.

“Sine Wave” opens the disc with some heavily distorted noises that seem to be fighting with some echoed guitar notes.  The song feels different from other Mogwai songs but it doesn’t really sound different–it’s clearly Mogwai.  “Take Me Somewhere Nice” is perhaps the most conventional song Mogwai have done.  It has a verse/chorus structure and even has whispered vocals–that follow a melody.  The biggest surprise has to be the strings that overlay the top–they’re a bit disconcerting at first, but it quickly shows how well the band can pull this off.  It’s followed by something of a continuation of that song with the 59 second “O I Sleep,” a simple piano track with Stuart’s whispered vocals over the top.

“You Don’t Know Jesus” falls into more typical Mogwai territory.  It’s a 9-minute epic which somehow build and builds even though it feels like it’s all crescendo–until the last few moments trail off into quiet notes.

The one minute “Robot Chant” is more noise, but it leads into the surprisingly upbeat “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong.”  This is a faster track, which builds for over 9 minutes.  The middle part slows down so you can really hear the synthesized voice over the proceeding.  You can eventually hear the banjo as well.

The disc ends with the pretty ballad, “Secret Pint.”  It’s a simple piano based song (with lyrics). The recording is very clear (you can hear all of the dynamics of that opening cymbal).  While it could never be a hit, it easy certainly their most accessible track.

Rock Action is a different kind of Mogwai album: slower, more deliberate, with conventional music structures but which is in no way a commercial record.  It’s also less dramatic than albums (or EPs) past.  If you want soaring epic Mogwai, this is not your album (even the 2 nine-minute songs aren’t as dramatic as previous songs), but it’s a welcome addition to Mogwai’s repertoire.

[READ: May 27, 2011] “M&M World”

I didn’t know that there really is a M&M’s World in Times Square, but apparently there is.  And it sounds like a nightmare!

Anyhow, the story begins with Ginny agreeing to finally take her kids to M&M’s World.  Her girls are Olivia and Maggie and they have been dying to go to M&M’s World forever.  The kids march down the street, looking in all the shop windows until they finally reach the destination.

Walbert describes the store in all of its bustling glory–and given her details I’ve no doubt it’s exactly as she describes: busy, crowded, noisy, overstimulating. (more…)

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Five Dials: Your Valentine’s Day Card (12 February 2010)

Posted in 35 rhums, Claire Denis, Constellation Records, Five Dials, Joe Dunthorne, L'intrus, Nénette et Boni, Romance, Sophia Augusta, Tindersticks, Trouble Every Day, Vendredi Soir, White Material on June 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009 [CST077] (2011).

Constellation Records just released a 5 disc box set of Tindersticks movie scores.  Fans of the band will know the soundtracks for Nenette et Boni and Trouble Every Day which were released years ago.  Those are included here, along with four other soundtracks (on 3 discs).  The entire set includes Nenette et Boni (1996) White Material (2009), 35 rhum (2008), Trouble Every Day (2001) and two solo soundtracks: Stuart Staples’ score for L’intrus (2004) and Dickon Hinchliffe’s score for Vendredi Soir (2002).

As with most Constellation releases, this one is packaged beautifully.  The box is lovely with an opening for the top cover to show though. Each disc gets a cardboard sleeve with a cool still from the film.  And the booklet that accompanies the set is bilingual with lots and lots of still from the films and a cool interview with Denis and members of the band.

I have never seen any of Denis’ films.  So I was confused that some of these scores were only half an hour.  I thought maybe they were short films.  But indeed they are not.  35 Shots of Rum is 100 minutes for instance, even if the soundtrack is a third of that.

I’m going to review each score shortly, but since I’ve already discussed Nenette et Boni and Trouble Every Day, I’ll just put links to them.  In the meantime, the scores are really beautiful and moving.  Tindersticks are a very cinematic band to begin with, so it’s no surprise that they would make good soundtracks.

And the booklet is really interesting, showing how the band was introudced to Denis in the first place.  She loved the music of ‘My Sister’ and asked if she could use it for a film.  They said, well, maybe we can make a soundtrack for you instead.  And they began working together.  The combination proved so successful that they have scored virtually all of her movies since.  I really must get around to watching them some day.

In the meantime, I can just imagine what they are like from the music.

Here’s the opening credits for Trouble Every Day

[READ: June 24, 2011] Five Dials: Your Valentine’s Day Card

This Five Dials special issue doesn’t appear on the Five Dials home page.  I only found it while reading their news feed.  It’s not an issue per se.  Indeed, all that this valentine’s card is is one poem from Joe Dunthorne, and a cool cover illustration from Sophia Augusta. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 10: Celebrating the Life and Work of David Foster Wallace: 1962-2008 (9 December 2010)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Books about writers, David Foster Wallace, Death, Don DeLillo, Five Dials, George Saunders, Gogol Bordello, GQ, Harper's, Jonathan Franzen, Religion, Suicide, Zadie Smith on June 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: GOGOL BORDELLO-East Infection (EP Extra) (2005).

I learned about Gogol Bordello from some live shows available on NPR.  I enjoyed their sets so much I decided to check out their albums as well.  And I love them.  The albums are full of frenetic energy (they give Sarah agita, she says).  But everything that I love about fun, spirited, gypsy music is present here.

The band is essentially a band of gypsies, headed by wonderfully-mustachioed Eugene Hutz.  And their live show (as demonstrated by the included video) is a wild circus of fun (curtains and dancers and fire buckets and bowling pins and musicians jumping out of boxes), it’s like a wild party.  The video is for “Never Young Again” which would appear in full on their next album. It’s a fun song that reverses the age-old lament of wanting to be young again.  But mostly you watch this for the live footage.

This EP is probably not the best place to start as an introduction to Gogol Bordello (but it was really cheap so I bought it first).  Although it does offer many of the different aspects of Gogol’s music.  The EP features 6 songs and the video.  The songs are intense, hyper, crazy and wonderful.  “East Infection” opens with some nonsense lyrics (“Lee lee lee lee lee, la la la la la”) and morphs into what may be more nonsense, although there’s actual lyrics here.  “Ave B.” (which is also on their following album Gypsy Punks) is a more acoustic-based song, but it still has loud parts to it.

“Mala Vida” is a cover of a song by Manu Chao.  This version is a super fast punky track sung in Spanish (despite Eugene Hutz’ origins in the Ukraine, he has lived in Brazil for years and sings many songs in Spanish).  The original is very similar in temperament, although GB version is a bit more frenetic.

“Copycat” is the odd track on the disc, it’s a kind of dub track with big fat bass and a very slinky sound.  It and “Mala” were produced by Steve Albini.

“Strange Uncles from Abroad” is to me a very typical GB song: lots of violin, lots of dah dah dahs and a great melody.  It has a total gypsy feel, and goes through some loud and quiet moments.   The final track, “Madagascar-Roumania (Tu jésty fáta)” is the longest track by far (6 minutes).  It sounds like a demo and lacks the punch of the rest of the disc, but it showcases the softer side of the band (and yes there is one).

So, maybe this EP is a good place to start after all.  It’s certainly not throwaway material.  And the EP cover alone is pretty outstanding.

[READ: June 14, 2011] Five Dials Number 10

This is the issue of Five Dials that introduced me to the publication.  It is a special issue devoted to the memory of David Foster Wallace.  The entire issue is comprised of the eulogies given at the DFW memorial.  [The details are a little sketchy here…I’m not sure if these are all of the eulogies or just the eulogies from well known people.  I’m not even sure who would have been in the audience for this memorial.  The notes say “These tributes were given on 23 October, 2008 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University” and yet the Jonathan Franzen entry says “here at Pomona.”  So… details are sketchy].  Nevertheless, the tributes are heartfelt, informative and very moving.

Of course, I’m not going to ‘critique’ them, I’ll just try to summarize them.  But really, they’re all worth reading if you’re a fan. (more…)

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Ludmilla Petrushevskaya–”Medea” (Harper’s, June 2011)

Posted in Anna Summers, Death, Fables, Harper's, Keith Gessen, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Russia, Short Story, Violence, Weezer on June 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WEEZER-Death to False Metal (2010).

This is a fascinating release.  I assumed it was a quick cash in of unreleased tracks.  And yet it doesn’t sound like a bunch of tracks from different eras thrown together.  A little digging reveals that it is sort of a collection of unreleased tracks.  The ten songs here were written over the band’s career but were either never finished or were finished but never released.  According to various places online, Rivers edited and manipulated the songs (and maybe re-recorded some?) to make them all sound current (and like they’re from the same time).  Thus he considers this to be the follow-up to Hurley.

The album is full of poppy songs (“Turning Up the Radio” has FIFTEEN people listed as composer on Allmusic–the true sign of a pop juggernaut).  There’s a couple of slightly heavier songs, “Blowin My Stack” has a big shouty chorus and “Autopilot” has a very electronic kind of sound.  But perhaps the most notable track is the cover of “Unbreak My Heart.”  That song came out in 1996, so one assumes that this version must be at least ten years old, because why would someone make a cover of an old pop hit from fourteen years ago?  It’s quite good, though, as Weezer covers tend to be.

If you like Weezer, this isn’t a throw away.  The songs are just as good as their other recent records (which means they’re not as good as their early ones, but are still poppy).  If you don’t like Weezer this will do nothing to change your mind.

Although I am amused by the album cover design that they chose for this title (which is a tribute to the band Manowar, obviously), I think a better cover would have been Weezer in loincloths.  Can you imagine Rivers Cuomo brandishing a giant sword?

[READ: May 21, 2011] “Medea”

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya had a story in The New Yorker recently.  The fact that she has one here as well can only mean she has a book coming out (although a quick look at Amazon does not indicate that she does).

The opening line says, “This is an awful story…”  And it’s true (not in the sense of being bad, but in the badness that it contains).  Petrushevskaya tends to write very dark stories (dark fairy tales is how they’re mostly categorized), and while this is not a fairy tale, it is certainly dark (and as with most of her stories, it’s quite short).

It’s a fairly simple story: the narrator hops in a cab and complains about how her seventy-three year old grandmother called for a cab to pick her up at a certain time but it never came–and never even called to say it wasn’t coming.  This meant she missed her plane, and the people waiting for her missed her and basically the whole day (and a lot of money) was lost because of a cab.

The cabbie didn’t have anything to do with that, but he tells her that it could be worse, and proceeds to launch into a story trying to outdo her story.  They jockey for position in terms of terrible stories (a woman whose baby dies on vacation–and that’s only the beginning of her problems) until finally he talks about himself. (more…)

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Jim Garrard–“Big Ticket” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Jim Garrard, Marriage Trouble, Neil Young, Play (Drama), The Walrus on June 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE-Rust Never Sleeps (DVD) (1979).

Back in 1979, Neil Young had a huge hit on his hands with “Hey Hey My My” and the album Rust Never Sleeps.  This is a film of that concert (in the Cow Palace, San Francisco).

The set sounds great and the selection of songs is top notch.  On a technical note, some of the darks don’t hold up well and get terribly pixellated, but what do you expect from (what I assume is a) cheapie film from the 70s.

The weird thing about the film (and the concert as well) is the “extras” that he built into the show.  I’m curious what the audiences thought back then, because now, it’s kind of funny, but also more than a little weird.  Throughout the set he has his roadies (who he calls “road eyes”) “setting up” the stage.  The roadies are wearing robes and look an awful lot like the Jawas from Star Wars (which had just come out, so I assume they are meant to look like them).  The stage is a backdrop of oversized amplifiers and the road eyes are scrambling around carrying an oversized microphone and harmonica and other silly things.  The road eyes are having a great time dropping the mic (they even hit Neil in the head with it accidentally).   Another road eye comes out with an oversized tuning fork while the band is tuning.

There’s also some guys in lab coats and another professorial-looking guy who makes an announcement that everyone should put on their rust-o-vision glasses to see the band rust on stage (no idea what happened/how this worked/if there were even glasses, but during the song, they shine a rust colored light on the band).

These moments in the movie are weird.  They certainly break up the flow of the show.  But at the same time, at most concerts, the roadies setting up the show is dull or put behind a curtain so you don’t have to see it.  I think it was cool of Neil to give the audience something to watch during the transition stages (even of they do go on for a while). During all of the roadeye moments, he plays snippets of audio from Woodstock–we hear Hendrix’ “Star Spangled Banner”–and The Beatles (!) (Did they have to pay rights for things like that in 1979?).  We also hear a lot of the announcements from Woodstock (brown acid, no rain! no rain!–strangely, it appears that he has set up the stage to actually rain on the audience.  It’s not filmed very closely so it’s a little unclear, but it does appear that water is actually coming from the ceiling.

As for the arc of the movie (because it is a movie after all), the fist part of the show stars with Neil solo–he wakes up in a sleeping bag and wanders around in overalls singing and playing.   I gather there are wireless microphones attached to his harmonica (!)–I didn’t know they had wireless mics back in 1979).  After he plays a few songs, the roadeyes set up and Crazy Horse comes out (including what to me is an iconic outfit–Frank “Poncho” Sampedro in his Canadiens jersey (#19, Larry Robinson)).

The band bashes through a number of great songs and they all sound great (there’s a few flubbed notes so you know it’s all live but the harmonies are spot on).  It’s odd to me that the band leaves briefly and Neil does one or two more solo songs (none on piano though) before the band comes back again.

The major weird thing about the set is Neil’s almost total lack of interaction with the crowd.  At the end of the show he even seems a bit angry (although he does have a naturally scowly expression), so he doesn’t engage much with anyone.  This seems especially weird given the lightheartedness of the stage show (they lower an organ from the rafters and it has wings on it).  But then again, not everyone has to be nice, right?

The DVD is comprised mostly of songs that appear on the Young’s Live Rust album (confusingly, not the Rust Never Sleeps album) although the album has recordings from different shows.

It’s a strange artifact, definitely an item of the late 70s.  It doesn’t hold up especially well, but you can always fast forward over the slow bits.

[READ: April 11, 2011] “Big Ticket”

The Walrus has published two Two Act plays over its existence.  This is the second one.  Act one appeared in the magazine but you have to go online to see the end.  Unlike with the previous play, both Acts One and Two are online.

Act One of the play is terribly exciting. It starts out in a weird way with a woman looking to pay a man to abduct and terrify her husband.  The man (a garage mechanic) shows her the “cage” that he’s going to lock her husband in.  And then things start to get all Penthouse-y.  The woman (Annie) starts asking the mechanic (Dave) if he’s ever done anything, you know, naughty, in the cage (she’s obviously an unhappy wife).  Dave does the metaphorical look around the room and then climbs in the cage with her. (more…)

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Michael Healy–“Shock Jock” (The Walrus, December/January 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Ani DiFranco, Ben Folds, Canadian Content, Free Speech, Humiliation, Jane Siberry, Marriage Trouble, Michael Healy, Patti Smith, Play (Drama), Radio, Richard Thompson, Sessions at West 54th, Suzanne Vega, The Walrus, Threats, Yo-Yo Ma on June 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Best of Sessions at West 54th, Volume 1 (DVD) (1997).

Back in the 1990s, PBS ran one of their TV series devoted to contemporary music, Sessions at West 54th.  It was primarily, but not exclusively adult alternative music, with a mixture of jazz and country thrown in as well.  I never watched the show when it was on, but I was intrigued by this DVD because it has a number of artists that I liked quite a bit then. I haven’t watched it in ages, and when I watched it recently I was interested to see that I liked some other artists better than the ones I bought the disc for in the first place.

There was a recent radio show on All Songs Considered called Splitsville: Breaking Up with Your Favorite Band.   This is something that I think about from time to time–bands that I loved and no longer do.  Or bands that I loved and then stopped and maybe now love again.  This show dealt with that very issue.  Most amusingly, Robin Hilton, one of the cohosts had this wonderful quote that applies to me (and this DVD) almost directly.

It’s Not You, It’s Me (Bands We Grew Apart From): “I (dug) out my old CD books and dusted them off. And this recurring theme that came back at me, just haunting, I realized it was the whole Lilith Fair crowd. It was so painful. I had Shawn Colvin, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Paula Cole, Beth Orton. I just listened to that music non-stop. And now, maybe I’m not the sensitive, new-age guy that I used to be.” — Robin Hilton

So, what happened, Robin? The same thing happened to me.  I still love the concept of Lilith, but I really just don’t care about the music anymore.  And much of this DVD caters to the Lilith crowd. But it doesn’t start that way.  It opens with

WYNTON MARSALIS-“Back to Basics” A fantastic jazz number.  Wynton plays some wonderful stuff (I particularly like the “laughing” horns).  It’s a really rousing opener.

SUZANNE VEGA-“Caramel”  Vega is not a Lilith Fair person to me because I learned of her long before then.  This is not my favorite song of hers. 

RICHARD THOMPSON-“I Feel So Good” It’s funny to me that when I bought this I didn’t know who Richard Thompson was.  It’s always great to hear him rock out like this.

SHAWN COLVIN-“Diamond in the Rough” I like Shawn Colvin, although not as much as most of the other Lilith Fairers.  This is one of her songs that I don’t know very well

ANI DIFRANCO-“32 Flavors” I loved Ani and her self publishing empire.  And her songs were good too.  I saw her in concert once or twice and she totally rocked the house.  Then sometime in the early 2000s she went in a new direction and I completely lost touch with her and pretty much stopped listening to her.  It was nice to hear this song again, although it’s a bit slower than the way I know it.

NIL LARA-“How Was I To Know”  I didn’t know who he was then, I’m still not sure who he is or if he’s still around.  This is a pretty serviceable folk rock song

RICKIE LEE JONES-“Road Kill” I did not care for this song at all.

DANIEL LANOIS-“Orange Kay” this was a wild guitar solo and effects song.  It was really quite different from anything else here.

EMMYLOU HARRIS-“Wrecking Ball” This song had cool harmonies although I’m not a fan of Emmylou in general.

BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Smoke” I love Ben Folds, and this song is wonderful (seeing him play the “strings” of the piano is very cool.  And my god he’s so YOUNG!

KEB’ MO-“Just Like You”  I like Keb’ Mo’ quite a bit and this is a good song by him.

SINÉAD O’CONNOR-“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance”  Sinéad was another of those ladies who I loved before Lilith.  I fact The Lion and The Cobra was one of my favorite albums.  Then she got super political (and put out more amazing music) and then she got really weird.  And I stopped listening.  She’s an odd duck in this show as well (this was in her speaking only in falsetto phase, which is pretty odd.  And she has a little grunted /spoken bit in the middle of the song which is pretty odd too).  But for all of that, man is this song awesome. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, and holy cow I forgot how impactful it is. And live, with the electric guitars and the backing vocalists, it is really amazing.  A definite highlight of the disc.

YO-YO MA “Libertango”  Yo-Yo Ma is pretty awesome.  I wouldn’t listen to a lot of his stuff (I like classical, but in small doses) but man, he rocks the cello.  This is a great piece.

PATTI SMITH “People Have the Power” Patti Smith is a legend.  An icon.  Her early music is amazing.  So why do I hate this song so much?  The sentiment is wonderful, but gah, what a dreadful song.

JANE SIBERRY-“Love is Everything” I really like Jane Siberry.  She’s a strange lady with a quirky but wonderful voice.  This is a beautiful song, but a little slow (I find it works well amidst her other songs, but it’s a bit stodgy on its own).

It’s a fun collection of mellow songs (what I think of as the old PBS/NPR audience, since now they have shows that are much louder).  And it’ always fun to see artists perform in an intimate venue.

[READ: April 12, 2011] “Shock Jock”

This is the first play that The Walrus has published.  It is not so much in Acts as it is in Ten Scenes.  Scenes 1-3 are printed in the magazine, while Scenes 4-10 are only available online.  (Sadly 1-3 are not included online).

This is the story of a political shock jock, a Canadian version of Rush Limbaugh (these were the days before Glenn Beck).  The opening scene shows him railing against everything and nothing.  He proves to be very popular with his fans but when they call him up to tell him that, he abuses them too (but they don’t seem to mind–or to notice).  It seems like a pretty straightforward parody of a radio blowhard.

But the next scene shows him at home, where he is not so much meek as completely incapable of making a decision.  His wife seems like something of a harpy, but it’s clear that she has put up with this ineffectual man for nine years and has just had it with his inability to even communicate.  These two scenes play off each other as somewhat obvious counterpoint and yet, they are strangely compelling enough to keep you reading.  And it’s worthwhile to do so. (more…)

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Donald Antrim–“He Knew” (New Yorker, May 9, 2011)

Posted in Decadence, Donald Antrim, Drinking, Drugs, Marriage Trouble, My Morning Jacket, Neurotics, New Yorker, Pink Floyd, Short Story on June 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-It Still Moves (2003).

I discovered My Morning Jacket through their awesome live album Okonokos.  Most of that album comprised songs from their previous disc, Z.  But there were a number of tracks from this record as well.  So I was thrilled to put this in for the first time and recognize a number of these epic tracks (4 songs are over 6 minutes).

It Still Moves is a soaring, gorgeous record of folk rock plus.  Some of their tracks are rooted in Americana, but they have wonderful touches of psychedelia and soaring sounds (choruses, guitars, voices).  It’s a great combination that never settles into one style of sound, and as much as it stays out of the reach of commercialism, it embraces catchiness.

And for an album that seems like it might resist the average listener, there’ some amazing stuff here.  The opening three songs are absolute stunners–catchy and interesting.  “Magheeta” is a slowish opener; “Dancefloors'” has a great riff and ends with a cool boogie of horns and pianos; and “Golden” is a shuffle song with terrific harmonies.

“Masterplan” is the first really slow song, but it has a dramatic buildup that is wonderful.  It’s followed by the first of the soaring guitar songs on the disc.  “One Big Holiday” opens with a cool tight guitar riff which turns into a soaring guitar riff of joy.  The second one is “Run Thru” which is one of my favorite songs of the past few years.  It opens with a slow soaring guitar riff that is totally catchy.  By midway it turns into a dancey discoey song for a few measures and then returns with the great riff.  It’s excellent.

“I Will Sing You Songs” is a 9 minute slow boiler of a track.  It’s very slow, almost lazily paced, but it’s never dull (credit Jim James’  amazing voice for keeping the whole proceeding interesting).  “Rollin’ Back” opens a bit like “Waiting for the Worms” from Pink Floyd the Wall (soaring oooh ooohs), but quickly settles into a slow roots song.

The end of the disc is a bit slow and meandering (the last song especially is practically a sleepytime ballad) but it works for the overall feel of the disc.  The whole enterprise is a bit long–it’s hard to listen all at one setting.  But nevertheless, it’s a great record with some amazing songs ion it.

[READ: May 9, 2011] “He Knew”

I rather enjoyed the last story by Antrim that I read, but I didn’t care for this one at all.  And that was pretty much because I didn’t care about the characters at all.

The story is about an out of work actor, Stephen (who is on antidepressants) and his very tall wife Alice (who is on Valium).  They’re sort of pathetic and it’s not even entirely clear if the like each other (or is that the anxiety speaking?).  She accuses him of wanting to sleep with every woman he talks to, and he looks longingly at most other women he sees. (more…)

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