Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for September, 2011

Gordon Korman–The Emperor’s Code [The 39 Clues, Book Eight] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Contests, Fears, Gordon Korman, History, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Short Books, Threats, Travel on September 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEST COAST-Crazy for You (2010).

I really enjoyed the Best Coast concert that was downloadable from NPR.  I liked it enough for me to rethink my initial skepticism about this album.  But I have to say that I fall into a minority in that I really don’t like this album all that much.  In concert, the band is loud and raucous–the songs are poppy but they have a kind of growly edge and a punk veneer, and singer Bethany Cosentino has a sneer to her cutesy lyrics that gives them a nice edge.

But all of that is missing from the album.  In fact, to me this album sounds like a long-lost relic of girl groups from the 60s.  And, blasphemy as it may be, I just do not like girl groups from the 60s.  I hate the tinny sound and I hate the “my life sucks without a boy” sentiment that most of those songs project.  (I love a good love song, I hate an insecure love song).  And, for the first few songs at least, this album conveys both of those things. 

Nevertheless, there’s a lot I appreciate about this record.  I like that it’s lo-fi.  I like that it’s just the two of them making all this music.  I even like many of the lyrics (the lyrics that Cosentino describes as “about weed and my cat and being lazy a lot”).  I also like that the songs are super catchy and super short ( no songs are over 3 minutes and that most are only about 2 minutes long). 

So even if I don’t love the record sonically, I can appreciate the simplicity and ease of singing along that the album presents.  And there are a few songs on the disc that I do like.  I especially like “When I’m with You” (the bonus song) for being a stupid pop song but somehow transcending the stupidity. 

As for the lyrics.  They are little more than teen girl diary entries, except when they turn into college girl diary entries (and then they turn funny rather than sad).  From a lyrical standpoint I am much more in tune with “Goodbye” (“I lost my job, I miss my mom, I wish my cat could talk.  Everytime you leave the house, everything falls apart”) than with “Boyfriend” (“There’s nothing worse than sitting all alone at home.  And waiting waiting waiting waiting by the phone.  I hope that he’s at home.  Waiting by his phone”).

I guess, overall, there’s just something about California pop music that I don’t like as much as my East Coast bands.  [NYHC rules!].

[READ: September 14, 2011] The Emperor’s Code

Gordon Korman is back helming the series which is set in China. Now, I have seen pictures and movies of things in China, but the real scale of things has never come across to me until reading this book.  Which is kind of sad for me, but it’s really cool for the book.  I knew that the Great Wall of China was huge, but I never knew that it could stretch from Boston to San Diego with extra room at the end.  I never appreciated the kind of training the Shaolin monks undergo (the description of the statue of  Bodhidharma as being well over 750 steps up and taking over an hour to climb really sunk in for me just how big this place is!).  In short, while I know that parts of the story disregard history, the historical parts are fascinating and informative!

Dan and Amy’s first stop is the Forbidden City, where they sign up for a tour.  Dan sneaks out of the tour to enter an area where they think a clue is.  Much like with Pee Wee Herman looking for the basement of the Alamo, Dan Cahill looks for the attic of the Forbidden City.  And he finds it.  And then he is caught by guards.  But this little preview of Dan and Amy working separately doesn’t quite prepare us for the massive change in the series that Korman is preparing for us.  

Dan and Amy start talking about what the clues means and the fact that they are Madrigals–are they (and their whole family line) really killers?  This leads to much tension which ends with Amy wondering aloud if maybe their parents weren’t good people at all.  Dan and Amy fight and Dan storms off.  And through a series of scary events, he ends up in the clutches of Jonah Wizard (whom we have not seen for a long time).

And thus, for the bulk of the book, Dan is on his own.  Amy, Nellie and Saladin work hard to try to find Dan and maybe even a Clue.  Meanwhile, Dan is with Jonah, thinking that Jonah’s father is trying to contact Amy.  Dan is still pretty angry so he doesn’t really care what Amy is up to (and he believes she is not trying to find him).  But Amy is freaking out thinking of her 11-year-old brother in the most populous, hugest country all alone.  But he’s not alone, he’s got Jonah Wizard, yo.  And for much of the book, Dan lives the high life.  He hangs out with Jonah, plays video games, lives a first class lifestyle and even gets to be backstage to see what it’s like to have tens of thousands of fans screaming at you.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jonathan Franzen–The Corrections (2001)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Big Books, Consumerism, Cosmo Jarvis, David Foster Wallace, Holidays, Jonathan Franzen, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Punks, Threats, Unreliable narrator on September 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: COSMO JARVIS-“My Day” (2011).

I learned about Cosmo Jarvis through NPR.  The DJs called it a love it AND hate it song.  But I find that I mostly love it.  The video is a blast to watch, but even without the video, the song is quite catchy and fun.  It’s a half punk song and half folkie/trad song.

So who the hell is Cosmo Jarvis?  Well, he was born in NJ, but is really from England.  He’s a filmmaker and musician and he’s had a hit with the song “Gay Pirates” that Stephen Fry raved about on his Twitter feed!  “Gay Pirates” is a fun shanty, but “My Day” is a full-on punk blast.

The song laments the state of things today and talks about how things were back in “my day” (which is of course funny since he’s 21).  The verses are a kind of folkie/storytelling style (but with electric guitars) and the end of each verse has a guitar riff that sounds traditional to me.  But when the chorus jumps in, it’s heavy, rocking, screaming punk.

Okay so the song is nearly 8 minutes long, which is probably overkill.  There’s a fairly lengthy instrumental bridge about 5 minutes in which features guitar and tin whistle solos.  And then the final 2 minutes are just fast metal screams of “My Day” with some wild soloing.  Yes, it’s too much (I’ll bet the single mix is awesome), but it’s still an enjoyable song.  Even without the video.

But you should watch the video, if only because it’s what the guys from Jackass would do if they were in a band and lived in the English countryside.

[READ: July 15, 2011] The Corrections

My company recently asked us if we had read any books over the summer.  I was able to pony up this review for our company newsletter.  I’ll be fleshing it out, but it’s pretty apt.

I’d put off reading this for a number of years, and I wish I had read it sooner.  It’s a very detailed look at one family: Elderly parents, thirty-something kids, and a few grandkids.  The depth of character development is amazing (and includes even depth of characters that the main characters interact with).  It’s a long book but it is very rewarding—comic scenes, moving scenes and one or two shocking moments.  It’s also the first time I’ve read a book where I thought, “even though I like this character, I think it would be better for everyone if he died.”  It’s an unnerving thing to think, but Franzen really makes you think about how family members impact one another.

It took me forever to start reading this book, obviously.  I wasn’t really interested in Franzen when all of the Oprah commotion came out, so I blew off this book entirely.  I’ve recently grown more interested in him.  But rather than reading his novels, I had decided to read all of Franzen’s New Yorker pieces.  (And even though I wanted to read Freedom when it came out, I felt that I should read this one first).  I wasn’t hesitant about reading it, I think I just wanted time to devote to it.  Much like I needed time to devote to writing up this post.  It’s been well over two months since I finished the book.

The Corrections is a wonderful, engaging story about three generations of the Lambert family (and many of the people they interact with).  The matriarch and patriarch of the family, Enid and Alfred, live in the midwestern town of St. Jude.  They have three children: Gary, a banker in Philadelphia who is (more or less unhappily) married with three children; Chip, a former school teacher and current playwright who sponges off of his younger sister while he tries to live the high life in New York City; Denise, a very successful chef who also lives in Philadelphia.  She has no children.  Gary’s children play a small but significant part in the story, keeping the three generations aspect working very well.

I found the first chapter a little slow and somewhat off-putting.  I read an excerpt from the novel in the New Yorker, which was a piece about Chip.  So I was surprised that the book opened with an older couple.  The chapter deals with Alfred and Enid.  Alfred’s dementia is hitting their household quite hard but Enid just feels that Alfred isn’t trying very hard.  Because Enid has very little in her life, she wants nothing more than to have her whole family together “one last time” for Christmas.  Enid and Alfred are long-married and this chapter picks up in the middle of a typical day.  So it takes a few pages to get up to speed.  Of course, once I did, I felt that the whole family was completely real and believable. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jonathan Franzen–Commencement Speech, Kenyon College, May 21, 2011 [“Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” (New York Times, May 28, 2011)]

Posted in Audiobooks, Birds, Environmentalism, Essays, Jonathan Franzen, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Scranton, PA, Set at School, Technology, The Flaming Lips, The Huffington Post, The New York Times on September 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JONATHAN FRANZEN-Commencement Speech (audio) (2011).

You can hear the entire speech from the Kenyon College site.

[READ: May 28, 2011] Commencement Speech

On May 21, Jonathan Franzen gave a commencement speech to the students of Kenyon College.  When I think about my commencement speech (from Judy Woodruff of CNN), all I can remember is that I had never heard of her (and when I typed her name just now I got it almost entirely incorrect–the only thing right was the “wood” part).  I don’t recall a single thing that she said.  [It’s also fascinating that I can’t find any record of this speech anywhere online–what a different world it was twenty years ago].  I rather expect that most people feel this way about commencement speakers.  I have to wonder, if Jonathan Franzen had spoken at my college, would I have cared?  Is there even a chance that I would have read any of his novels (had they been published of course) when I was in college?  Would I be treating this any differently than my whatever speech in 1991?

But I like Jonathan Franzen and I wanted to read what he had to say. 

His speech is about love.  Love is kind of an odd topic for a commencement speech, isn’t it?   I mean, aren’t they supposed to talk about the Future and Jobs or something?  Or maybe even sunscreen?  But really, what is more useful for a 21-year-old to think about than Love.  Franzen hits the nail right on the head about Love, how it is a dangerous, risky proposition to put yourself out there, to take off your veneer and reveal all of your flaws–and hope someone will love you.  Not new or novel, but still true.

The way that Franzen gets into this subject is through technology.  It seems weird and artificial at first, but it’s a wonderful way to get into a young audience’s state of mind.  They were probably all looking at their iPhones while he was extolling the virtues of his new Blackberry (the old person’s phone, right?).  And when he segues into Facebook (who even knows if he has an account–but he seems to be well-versed with it, so maybe he does) you can imagine students raising their head in familiarity (maybe even updating their status) and wondering (as he puts it) if this 51-year-old guy is going to dis Facebook. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Peter Lerangis–The Viper’s Nest [The 39 Clues, Book Seven] (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Al Atkins, Black Sabbath, Children's Books, Contests, Fears, Peter Lerangis, Short Books, Threats, Travel, Velvet Cesspool on September 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AL ATKINS–“Victim of Changes” (1998).

Al Atkins wrote “Victim of Changes,” one of Judas Priest’s greatest songs.  And then he left Priest to get a real job.  In 1998, he released the album Victim of Changes which contained a number of early JP songs, primarily ones from Rocka Rolla, but also this title track.

This version is quite faithful to the JP version (which is interesting because the early notes say that “Victim of Changes” was a melding of two songs).  It’s fascinating, in hindsight to wonder if this is how the song really sounded (there are a few differences in it) or he is now covering the JP version.  But the big difference of course if Atkins’ voice.  In the middle, slower section he sounds quite a bit like Rob Halford.  But he just cannot hit any of the notes that Halford brought to the song.  And there’s really just no way to compete with that (even with multitracked and over-processed vocals).

It’s really hard to compare this (and other songs from that album) to the original.  I mean, he wrote them, after all.  But man, the Priest version is just so much better.  Atkins has a strong, gruff voice.  It works well for the style of the songs, but it just isn’t anywhere near as compelling as Halford’s.  The other problem is the music–the guitars are full of cheesy pyrotechnics that overshadow the songs (I like guitar pyrotechnics if that’s what the song is supposed to be about, but not when it’s meant to “embellish” a song).  It sounds like he is trying way too hard here.  Atkins has his own solo career and his own band, he really needs to get past the JP thing, especially since he left of his own accord.

This is the version of “Victim of Changes” from Victim of Changes:

But for heaven’s sake, don’t listen to the more recently recorded version of “Victim of Changes” (yes a second recording–he’s got to let it go) from his 2007 release Demon Deceiver (available on Spotify!)–his voice is lower and gruffer (almost cookie monstery) and guitar solos are just covering all of the song.

Yipes.

[READ: September 12, 2011] The Viper’s Nest

When I finished the fantastic Book Six of the 39 Clues, I put it down and immediately picked up Book Seven.  It opens with a dramatic rescue from an exploding volcano.  When the ash settles, Dan and Amy find themselves on Irina Spasky’s boat.  And in this boat they find Irina’s bag, which contains all kinds of spy stuff (like IDs for every one involved in the 39 Clues search and fake fingerprints and whatnot).

They also find a letter with what looks like lyrics.  I have to credit Peter Lerangis with the wonderful work on this clue.  The clue is a line from a song: “I’m with you and you’re with me and so we are all together.”  Nellie (who is still under suspicion, but seems to have been given a free pass) says that she never guessed Irina would be so cool as to listen to the best song ever by Velvet Cesspool (on the album Amputation for Beginners).  It’s track three, “The Tracks of My Spit” and it goes: “I’m with you and you’re with me and so we are all together….  We are marching to Peoria!”  The kids are all set to go to the exotic locale of Peoria, Illinois when, through a series of events, they realize that the song Irina was referring to was a traditional folk song called “Marching to Pretoria.”  And that they are actually headed for South Africa.  [Incidentally, I just learned that the opening line of “I am the Walrus,” “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” is actually a reference to this folk song].  Check out this video of “Marching to Pretoria” by a guy who has not doubt gotten a lot of hits because of this book.

Anyhow, this book spends most of its time in South Africa.  And Dan, the non-reader of the family, finally finds a book worth reading.  It’s all about Shaka the warrior of the Zulu nation.  Dan reads a lot of information about the man and his military techniques.  Which is a good thing because the kids find themselves in the center of a Tomas family stronghold (the Holt family are the members, so you know their speciality is tough fighting).  The details are quite fascinating.  In the end, they are able to find a clue and to create some wonderful battle scenes in the process.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jude Watson–In Too Deep [The 39 Clues, Book Six] (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Black Sabbath, Children's Books, Contests, Fears, Joan Baez, Patrick Carman, Short Books, The Allman Brothers Band, Threats, Travel on September 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JUDAS PRIEST-Rocka Rolla (1974).

Unlike Sad Wings, Judas Priest’s debut album is more of a curiosity than a cool surprise. I love this original cover–the new release has a crazy drawing on them that doesn’t make any sense with the title.  Admittedly the title is kind of dumb, but the riff on Coke works.  With the new cover, see below, the title just sounds dumb now.

The album is mostly heavy blues songs.  Although the title track has some bizarre disco elements thrown in as well (including the lyrics).  The chugga chugga in the choruses is not the chugga chugga of metal, but the chugga chugga of disco.

The biggest surprise comes with the third track, the oddly titled, “Winter/deep freeze/winter retreat/cheater.”  It’s 9 minutes long and is not so much an epic as multiple weird little pieces thrown together.

“Never Satisfied” is the closest they get to their future metal sound.  But it owes a big debt to Black Sabbath (down to the guitar sound which has the little high note in the chords that Iommi plays on parts of “Paranoid”–a sound I was always confused by but which seems to have inspired K.K. Downing).  Nevertheless is rocks pretty hard.

“Run of the Mill” has the potential to be a good rocker.  But the 8 minutes of it are rather unfocused and there’s a trippy jam in the middle.  (Again with a major Black Sabbath debt underway).  “Dying to Meet You” also has a cool sinister sound.  Both of these tracks would be well served with a better producer. The second half of this nearly 7 minute song is probably  the most metal sounding of the whole disc, although the guitar solo sound has a very Allman Brothers feel to me.

The final track “Caviar and Meths” is a two-minute instrument that is very reminiscent of trippy” Planet Caravan” style Black Sabbath.  It’s rather groovy and I’ve always liked it.  The reissue has  the band’s cover of “Diamonds and Rust.”  Because all metal bands should cover Joan Baez!

Wikipedia explains something about this album which make me feel better about it.  Apparently the band was really unhappy with the production.  Several heavier tracks were left off the album by the producer (they were later recorded for Sad Wings).  And that odd little 2 minute instrumental “Caviar and Meths” was originally a 14 minute epic written by the guy who preceded Rob Halford.  (He evidently recorded a 7 minute version of the song).  Indeed, many of the songs were written by Halford’s predecessor and Downing, so they are lacking Halford’s input. (the page was very helpful for me).

[READ: September 11, 2011] In Too Deep

Since Book Five was so awesome, I couldn’t wait to move on to Book Six.  Book Six is the first book written by an author who has written a book already (Watson wrote Book 4 as well).  At first I feared that Watson was going to squash my enjoyment of the series; it felt like there was a lot of recapping going on (I know that in a series like this a recap is necessary for people who pick up book 6 instead of book one, but it can be frustrating when you know all that backstory already).  However, at the same time, Watson also started the story in the middle of a scene, so everything was brand new, fast paced and a little disorienting.

I’m happy to say that once the story got going Watson really pulled out all the stops and this made Book Six the most exciting book so far.  In this book they travel to Australia.  As anyone who has looked into Australia knows, most of the deadliest animals on the planet live in Australia (woo hoo!) so that makes Dan quite excited.  Australia is also a much looser place to explore than some of the tightly controlled areas they have recently visited–there’s no guards in the outback.  And, when the kids hook up with an old friend of the family, Shep, they have access to tasty waves, tasty barbie, and…most awesomely, a plane.

They also have access to Isabel Kabras.  Isabel is the mother of Ian and Natalie Kabras–two teens who are rich, spoiled and ruthless.  They tried to kill Dan and Amy once, and Ian, who is a hottie, has some kind of sway over Amy–especially when Isabel tells her that Ian secretly likes her.  Isabel tells Amy that she has information about how Dan and Amy’s parents died.  She will tell her all about it if they can meet in private.   And so, for the first time in the series that I can recall, Dan and Amy are separated.  She meets the Kabras, and Isabel is looking for a trade.  Amy is suspicious, of course, and that leads to the first of many deadly animals.  It’s safe to say that Amy survives but I won’t say how–it’s very cool. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Patrick Carman–The Black Circle [The 39 Clues, Book Five] (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Black Sabbath, Children's Books, Elton John, Fears, Judas Priest, Patrick Carman, Short Books, Threats, Travel on September 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JUDAS PRIEST-Sad Wings of Destiny (1976).

Before Judas Priest were the force behind “Breaking the Law,” they were still pioneers of heavy metal.  Except that their metal was tinged with all manner of odd progressive embellishments.  Like “Victim of Changes,” an 8 minute (!) multi-sectioned (!) epic. It’s got a great heavy riff and, damn, if Rob Halford’s vocals aren’t the highest-piched in music (I mean, we know he has a powerful voice, but the notes he hits–good grief man!).  The middle section is a delicate ballad that mellows out with breathy sighing and with very sixties-era backing vocals until Halford bursts out of that with his piercing wail.

It’s followed by “The Ripper” a classic metal song.  The best known version comes from Unleashed in the East, so it’s interesting to hear this earlier version where, for instance, “You’re in for a shock,” is followed by a different person’s scream, not Halford’s wail of the word “shock.”  It sounds a little slower but somehow a little more creepy (especially the quiet middle section).

“Dreamer Deceiver” is a creepy quiet song which seems to herald the vocal acrobatics of King Diamond, but this song has a lot more emotion to it, even if it is pretty trippy (like a cooler version of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan,” perhaps).  The piano at the end is a really nice touch and leads into the confusingly named “Deceiver,” a very chugga chugga metal song with more great high notes. 

“Prelude” opens with more piano (technically this song opened the album when it was on vinyl…the cds all seem to have sides A nd B reversed so now this prelude is in the middle. It’s a dramatic near-orchestral opening (that many bands would imitate much later) to the killer track “Tyrant.”  “Tyrant” sounds just as menacing here as it does on the live album except for the backing vocals that sort of slouch through the word “tyyyyyrant”–in the live version Halford crams it all into one breath.   It’s followed by “Genocide” a brutal song that has withstood all of these years as an awesome metal track.

Unlike “Epitaph,” which is a completely strange ballad about a dying man.  It is all piano, it is quite poetic and is indeed quite sad (especially the final line reveal).  But the middle ‘upbeat” section sounds not unlike an Elton John track.  It’s quite peculiar, especially when it ends and the chugging riff slowly builds out of the ashes that turns into the stunning “Island of Domination.”  This is a disturbing track with really creepy lyrics but with awesome music.  The middle section (again with the middle section–did bands just forget about doing cool middle sections in the 80s?) slows the track down with all kinds of echoed vocals.

Although it sounds dated, it still holds up remarkably well as a precursor to later metal albums.  It’s one of my favorite Priest releases and one that I come back to time and time again.

[READ: September 8, 2011] The Black Circle

I haven’t read a 39 Clues book in a couple of months.  It’s not that I was losing interest, I just had other things that I wanted to read more.  But I will admit that a ten-book series (and now a second series) can be a bit daunting.  I’d also never read anything by Patrick Carman before, so I wasn’t chomping at the bit to get into the story again.  Well, Patrick Carman has completely revived my interest in the series.  The first nice thing was that the book is only 168 pages (sometimes a short book can really pick you up).  But aside from that, Carman brings all kinds of cool elements into the story and has more than enough intrigue to keep you guessing and turning pages.

But I was initially concerned about reading this book because Carman reintroduces my least favorite nemeses in the book: the boring and doltish Holt family.  They are big, tough, meat- heads with ridiculous political first names like Eisenhower, Hamilton and Reagan.  And every time we’ve seen them, they’ve been brutish and mean and not terribly clever (and this series is chock full of cleverness, so these guys really stand out like a sore thumb).  But Carman does a wonderful thing with the Holts: he forms a (temporary) alliance between Dan and Amy and the Holt family.  And although it is an uneasy alliance, about midway through the book, we see Dan and Hamilton (the Holt’s son) bonding over driving big powerful trucks and flying helicopters.  It’s nice to see Dan have a “friend,” however tenuous. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Bonnie Nadzam–“The Losing End” (Harper’s, August 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Bonnie Nazdam, Boredom, Cigarettes, Death, Fleet Foxes, Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Megafaun, Pranks, Short Story on September 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MEGAFAUN-“Find Your Mark” (2008).

After listening to the new Megafaun track, I checked the NPR archives.  They have this one song from their debut available for a listen as well.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same band.  Or perhaps I should say that a band can change a lot in three years.  This song begins as a three-part near-a capella barbershop/bar trio.  It reminds me in many ways of a Fleet Foxes track, except they seems more rowdy.  The song merges into a delicate guitar picking section with all of the voices “ba ba ba” ing.  Then, that guitar melody expands to an electric guitar and full band sound.

The introduction to the track (from the NPR DJ says that the album may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  But I like this track so much (even though it is so very different from their 2011 release), that I need to listen to more from this band.  Spotify, here I come. [Actually the album has some pretty crazy noises on it!].

[READ: August 20, 2011] “The Losing End”

This is a strange story about a man named Lamb.  The reason it is strange is because the middle of the story–the exciting part, the part I most enjoyed–is not really the point of the story, at least if the ending is to be believed.

As the story opens, Lamb has just been to his father’s wake.  He is feeling adrift so he goes to a parking lot to sit and think.  In addition to his father, Lamb is also thinking about his wife and his girlfriend.  I’m a little unclear exactly what is happening with his wife (Cathy) but he definitely trying to get time away from her to spend it with Linnie. While he is sitting there lost in thought, a young girl in an ill-fitting tube top approaches him. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jeffrey Eugenidies–“Asleep in the Lord” (New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, Dinosaur Jr., Jeffrey Eugenides, Lemonheads, Megafaun, My Bloody Valentine, New Yorker, Religion, Short Story, Travel on September 13, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MEGAFAUN-“Get Right” (2011).

I’ve never heard of Megafaun before, but this song is just wonderful.  It’s an 8 minute blast of psychedelia that covers and sometimes obscures a beautiful poppy song.  I hear overtones of Dinosaur Jr (but more for J. Mascis’ seemingly lazy style than for his crazy guitar riffing) and a bit of the Lemonheads in the folky pop feel.  Throw in a dose of My Bloody Valentine for the waves of sound and you get a perfectly lovely track.

The opening is a fairly simple, straightforward melody.  And his voice is so familiar-sounding.  There’s some cool squeaky/feedbacky guitars layered over the top of a hazy distorted sound.  By about four minutes, the song turns into an instrumental, with a guitar solo that comes in an out of the hazy chords.

This is a great song, and although the NPR write-up says this is the longest track, I imagine the rest must be equally as exciting.  Preview it on NPR.

[READ: September 1, 2011] “Asleep in the Lord”

This is a story about Mitchell, a formerly unhelpful person who never changed a diaper or helped a sick friend.  He has decided to change that, so he goes to Calcutta with the intention of joining Mother Teresa’s mission (and just how many stories involve Mother Teresa these days?—she even makes an appearance in the piece!).  He’s reluctant to do anything majorly gross, but he’s happy to hand out medicines (for what good they do).

After a few days, Mitchell is still somewhat surprised by his decision to go to Calcutta at all.  Then he meets Mike and Herb.  Herb is following the Bhagwan, but Mike is less grounded in who he is following here in India .  He came here because the economy tanked back home and he wanted somewhere to hide out for a few years.   As we learn more about Mitchell, we see that his intentions are understandably confused.  For really, like Mike, he also came to India to wait out the recession.   However, unlike Mike, he honestly did come to seek some kind of spiritual guidance.  Mike seems to be here for the easy sex–he has a picture of a young woman from Thailand who wanted “to marry him.”   (more…)

Read Full Post »

George Saunders–“My Chivalric Fiasco” (Harper’s, September 2011)

Posted in Anachronisms, Corporate skewering, Culture Shock, From the Basement, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Harper's, Humiliation, Morrissey, Sex, Sparks, Technology, The Smiths on September 12, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SPARKS-“Good Morning” (From the Basement) (2008).

I’ve enjoyed Sparks for a long time.  But I never got around to getting the album that this song comes from (Exotic Creatures from the Deep–which has two wonderful song titles: “Lighten Up, Morrissey” and “I Can’t Believe That You Would Fall for All The Crap In This Song.” 

“Good Morning” was the first single from the album.  It features a very bouncy keyboard opening which reminds me of Strangeways-era Smiths.  And then Russel Mael’s crazy falsetto comes pounding in on top of the whole thing. 

Visually, Sparks are fascinating because Ron Mael looks exactly the same as he has since day one: slicked back hair, thick glasses and a crazy little moustache.  This band is doubly fascinating because the two guitarists and bassist all have shoulder length hair and are wearing T-shirts with the new album cover on them.  In fact, the bassist and one guitarist look like they could be twins (the other guitarist is wearing a hat, so he messes with the identical-ness).  It’s an amusing scene to see.

This is a strange song, it’s catchy in its repetitiveness, but it’s got a cool bridge that breaks up the song into different parts (and the backing guys hit the high falsetto notes perfectly–I think I would have assumed they were women!).  This seems like a strange choice for a single and I can see wh it wasn’t a big hit.  (Most Sparks songs are kind of strange, so who knows which of their songs will catch on).  Of course, I don’t know the rest of the album so I don’t know if there was a more likely choice.  Nevertheless, I may have to investiagate this disc a bit more.

[READ: August 31, 2011] “My Chivalric Fiasco”

This is the second Saunders piece in a couple of weeks in two different publications (this seems to happen to him a lot–do I smell a new book coming out?).  This is one another of Saunders’ more corporate-mocking pieces.  He plays around with name brands and has a lot of trademarked and capitalized words.

But it starts off very unlike that whole realm. It seems to be set at a Ren Faire or some such thing.  On TorchLightNight the narrator sees Martha running through the woods saying, that guy is my boss.  Don Murray comes out of the woods after her, and it clear that something has gone on between them.  When Ted, the narrator, asks them what’s going on, they admit to a “voluntary” fling.  Then Don tells Ted that he has been promoted out of Janitorial; he is now a Pacing Guard.

The next day, Ted is given some KnightLyfe, a pill that helps him with medieval improv.  Until the pill kicks in, Ted is horrible in his role, but once it does, he (and the story) switch into a  kind of crazy Ren Faire “Olde” English: “Quoth Don Murray with a glassome wink, Ted you know what you and me should do sometime?” (more…)

Read Full Post »

9/11 + 10 (New Yorker, September 12, 2011)

Posted in Airlines, Colum McCann, Culture Shock, Daniyal Mueenuddin, David Remnick, Death, Duran Duran, Edward Conlon, Edwidge Danticat, Elif Batuman, Essays, Explosions in the Sky, Fears, Friday Night Lights, Harry Potter, Hisham Matar, Ian Frazier, Ian Parker, J.K. Rowling, Jonathan Safran Foer, Lorrie Moore, Mogwai, New Yorker, Nick Paumgarten, Play (Drama), Threats, TSA, Zadie Smith on September 11, 2011| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY-Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011).

I found out about Explosions in the Sky because of the events of 9/11.  Back when everyone was looking for albums to point fingers at in some kind of hysteria (that’s also how I found out about I am the World Trade Center who are not as exciting as Explosions…).

EITS make beautiful epic instrumental music (as well as the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights).  They play music in a similar vein to Mogwai, but they take their epic instrumentals in a different direction.  And this album is perhaps their most commercial to date (as commercial as you can be when you write 10 minute instrumentals).  And while “commercial” is not usually an adjective that I give as praise, for this album it is indeed.

Take Care, Take Care Take Care is a terrific album.  It ‘s not as visceral as past releases; rather, it seems like a more experienced band playing with their sound and tweaking it in subtle ways to make it less obviously dramatic but somehow more powerful.

On “Last Known Surroundings,” there are soaring guitars that give way to simple, pretty guitar riffs.  Martial drums propel the songs forward, even if they lead to unexpected places.  It’s soundtrack music that’s not background music.

Perhaps the biggest difference with this album and previous ones is that this album doesn’t quite live up to the band’s name.  There’s no major explosive crescendos.  There are noisy bits but they’re not climactic per se.   “Human Qualities” slows to a quiet drum beat and while you’d expect to come out of that with a cacophonous explosion, it doesn’t.  The explosion does come later, but only after it has worked up to it again.

“Trembling Hands” features “voices.”  Or maybe just one voice.  It’s on a loop that becomes more of a sound than a voice.  The song is only 3 minutes long, but it’s an intense 3 minutes–more great drum work on this one.

“Be Comfortable, Creature” has a beautiful delicate guitar opening that drifts into a kind of solo.  After 3 minutes it settles into the main riff, a winding guitar line that send you on a journey.  “Postcard from 1952” is a great song. It begins as quiet intertwining guitars and slowly builds and builds into a gorgeous rocking conclusion.  7 minutes of steady growth with a nice epilogue at the end.

The final song, “Let Me Back In” also has kind of spooky voices that appears throughout the song (distorted and repeated).  But you know this song is a winner from the get go (even if the opening chord structure is a bit like Duran Duran’s “Come Undone.”)  It’s a slow builder, a cool, moody ten minute piece.  When you get to the beautiful descending guitar riff that shoots out after about 2 minutes, it’s an ecstatic moment–air guitars are mandatory.

And let’s talk packaging.  The album comes in a gate-fold type of cardboard.  If you open it up all the way it can be folded into a little house (with windows and a door and a chimney).  That’s pretty cool, guys.

If I have one compliant about the album it’s that the quiets are really quiet and he louds are really loud.  That makes this a very difficult album to listen to say, at work, or basically anywhere where other people will be blown away by your speakers.  The middle of “Human Qualities” for instance, is really quiet, you feel like you need to turn it up to hear the drum beat–there’s too much volume fiddling (listening in the car by yourself negates any reason for this complaint, of course).

Keep it up, guys.

More “controversy” from the band

[READ: September 10, 2011] New Yorker essays

Ten years ago, The New Yorker published several short essays by famous and (to me anyway) not so famous writers.  They were all written directly in the aftermath of the attacks and they were moving and powerful.  I was going to wait until today to re-read them and post about them, but for various reasons, I decided to do it on May 12.

Now, ten years later, The New Yorker has published several more essays by famous and (to me anyway) not so famous writers.  I note that none of the authors are the same (that might have been interesting) although Zadie Smith does quote from John Updike’s piece of ten years ago.

The strange thing to me about these pieces is that ten years seems to have hindered the writers’ ability to focus on the incident and to talk about What It Means.  In this collection of essays, we have a few that talk about an individual and how his life has changed since 9/11.  These are pretty powerful, although it’s odd that they would talk about another person and not themselves. We have a couple of essays that talk about the writer him or herself, but these seem kind of unfocused.  And then we have ones that talk about the state oft he world; honestly, what can you say about that.

It’s possible that I’m jaded or in a bad mood and that’s why I didn’t appreciate these essays.  Or perhaps I’m just facing the futility of things.

This is not to say that I think that writing about 9/11 is easy (you’ll notice I’m not doing it).  Indeed, I think talking about it in any kind of meaningful, non-strident, non-cliched way is nigh impossible.

But these writers do give it a try.  And I am grateful for that. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »