SOUNDTRACK: ARCADE FIRE-“We Used to Wait” (Saturday Night Live, November 13, 2010) (2010).
I know they played two songs that night but I just watched the rerun and they only showed one song.
I’ve always thought that Arcade Fire were pretty cool live. And this set from SNL proves me right. “We Used to Wait” comes from The Suburbs and it’s a pretty mild song on the record. But live, the band plays with really weird sounds and explores different types of cacophony.
This is especially true from guitarist Richard Reed Perry (who plays all kinds of other instruments too). He plays some of the more riff-based notes in the song, but he also plays some really loud, unusual chords as well. Some of them are quite dissonant and they really bring a dramatic noise to the song.
The string section (three violins on this show) in addition to playing the strings also added some really cool dissonance. In fact, the first time the strings came in, the sound was quite surprising.
I also love the percussive nature of the band. By the end of the song it seems like half the band are banging on drums (while playing other things as well, no doubt).
Win Butler is an intimidating frontman–I find his face to be open, almost blank. He’s kind of hard to read. He’s also very tall. When he walks out into the audience in the middle of the song, it’s a little unnerving.
One thing that I have liked about Arcade Fire from the beginning was their intensity, and this song certainly displays it.
[READ: November 7, 2011] “The Stain”
This is another Tessa Hadley story about a woman who cleans up. It’s nothing at all like “Friendly Fire,” but I still think it’s interesting that she has another character who opts to do cleaning work.
In this one, Marina is a mother of a young boy, Liam. To makes extra money she takes on a job as a house cleaner and “companion” to an elderly man. He’s 89 and from South Africa. He has recently come to Britain after his daughter (who has lived here for a long time) moved him here. And the house where he lives is a house not far from where Marina lives. Indeed, it’s one that she grew up looking at and wondering what it looked like inside (it’s a very big house).
The old man is notorious for making cleaning women go away–he is cantankerous and crotchety. But Marina soothes him right away and they form a kind of bond. Marina even brings Liam over a few times and he gets along quite well with the old man. (more…)
OK Computer is one of the best records of the 90s. Every time I listen to it I hear something new and interesting. So, why on earth would anyone want to cover the whole thing? And how could you possibly do justice to this multi-layered masterpiece?
I can’t answer the first question, but the second question is more or less answered by this tribute which was orchestrated by Stereogum.
The answer is by stripping down the music to its bare essentials. When I first listened to the songs I was really puzzled by how you could take a such a complex album and make Doveman’s version of “Airbag,” which is sort of drums and pianos. Or gosh, where would you even begin to tackle “Paranoid Android?” Well Slaraffenland create a bizarre symphonic version that excises many things–in fact half of the lyrics are missing–and yet keeps elements that touch on the original. But it’s an interesting version of the song and shows a bizarre sense of creativity. And that is more or less what this tribute does–it makes new versions of these songs.
Mobius Band make a kind of Police-sounding version of “Subterranean Homesick Alien.” Again, it radically changes the song, making it a fast and driving song (although I don’t care for the repeated “Uptights” and “Outsides” during the verses).
Vampire Weekend, one of the few bands that I actually knew in this collection (and whom I really like) do a very interesting, stripped down version of “Exit Music, for a Film. The “film” they make is a haunted one, with eerie keyboards. Again, it is clearly that song, but it sounds very different (and quite different from what Vampire Weekend usually sound like).
“Let Down” (by David Bazan’s Black Cloud) and “Karma Police” (by John Vanderslice) work on a similar principle: more vocals and less music. The music is very stripped down, but the vocals harmonize interestingly. Perhaps the only track that is more interesting than the original is “Fitter Happier” by Samson Delonga. The original is a processed computer voice, but this version is a real person, intoning the directives in a fun, impassioned way. There’s also good sound effects.
Cold War Kids take the riotous “Electioneering” and simplify it, with drums and vocals only to start. It’s hard to listen to this song without the utter noise of the original. “Climbing Up the Walls” is one of the more manic songs on this collection, with some interesting vocals from The Twilight Sad.
There are two versions of “No Surprises” in this collection. Interestingly, they are both by women-fronted bands, and both treat the song as a very delicate ballad. Both versions are rather successful. Marissa Nadler’s version (the one included in sequence) is a little slower and more yearning, while Northern State’s version (which is listed as a B-Side) is a little fuller and I think better for it. My Brightest Diamond cover “Lucky.” They do an interesting orchestral version–very spooky.
Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble (a side project of Chris Funk from The Decemberists) do a very weird electronic version of the song (with almost no lyrics). It’s very processed and rather creepy (and the accompanying notes make it even more intriguing when you know what’s he doing).
The final B-side is “Polyethylene (Part 1 & 2),” It’s a track from the Airbag single and it’s done by Chris Walla. I don’t know this song very well (since it’s not on OK Computer), but it’s a weird one, that’s for sure. This version is probably the most traditional sounding song of this collection: full guitars, normal sounding drums and only a slightly clipped singing voice (I don’t know what Walla normally sounds like).
So, In many ways this is a successful tribute album. Nobody tries to duplicate the original and really no one tries to out-do it either. These are all new versions taking aspects of the songs and running with them. Obviously, I like the original better, but these are interesting covers.
[READ: November 5, 2011] McSweeney’s #8
I had been reading all of the McSweeney’s issue starting from the beginning, but I had to take a breather. I just resumed (and I have about ten left to go before I’ve read all of them). This issue feels, retroactively like the final issue before McSweeney’s changed–one is tempted to say it has something to do with September 11th, but again, this is all retroactive speculation. Of course, the introduction states that most of the work on this Issue was done between April and June of 2001, so even though the publication date is 2002, it does stand as a pre 9/11 document.
But this issue is a wild creation–full of hoaxes and fakery and discussions of hoaxes and fakery but also with some seriousness thrown in–which makes for a fairly confusing issue and one that is rife with a kind of insider humor.
But there’s also a lot of non-fiction and interviews. (The Believer’s first issue came out in March 2003, so it seems like maybe this was the last time they wanted to really inundate their books with anything other than fiction (Issue #9 has some non-fiction, but it’s by fiction writers).
This issue was also guest edited by Paul Maliszewski. He offers a brief(ish) note to open the book, talking about his editing process and selection and about his black polydactyl cat. Then he mentions finding a coupon in the phonebook for a painting class which advertised “Learn to Paint Like the Old Masters” and he wonders which Old Masters people ask to be able to paint like–and there’s a fun little internal monologue about that.
The introduction then goes on to list the 100 stores that are the best places to find McSweeney’s. There are many stores that I have heard of (I wonder what percentage still exist). Sadly none were in New Jersey.
This issue also features lots of little cartoons from Marcel Dzama, of Canada. (more…)
I’ve been hearing this song in unlikely places–like on a radio station that plays The Foo Fighters and the Butthole Surfers. So I thought I’d actually listen to it and see what the fuss was about. It has been selected as one of 2011’s Best Songs (So Far) on NPR (where you can hear it in full).
It’s a sparse piano song, a pretty, desolate melody . But the real selling point is Adele’s voice. I had heard her described as a kind of Amy Winehouse (who I don’t like) or a sort of R&B siren,(which I wouldn’t like). But she has a kind of husky voice that belies its power. In some ways she reminds me of a more mature Fiona Apple.
On this song at least, it’s just her and her piano–no pretensions to genre or style, just an honest emotionally naked song.
The melody isn’t obvious–it’s not an immediate grab you by the lapels hit. But it is haunting and her voice supplies the bulk of the tune. She can carry the whole thing with ease.
I’m not sure if it fits on that radio station, but it is certainly a wonderful song. I wonder what the rest of the album sounds like.
[READ: October 31, 2011] “One Year: Storyteller-in-Chief”
I am posting this review today because it is Election Day (in New Jersey, anyhow). One can only hope we get some of the awful incumbents out of town, but we’ll see. I’m also posting this now because I feel the need to vent about our current Presidential Candidates. Not the men and woman themselves (who are all barely qualified to be in charge of their own car keys, much less the country). What I’m venting about is the fact that we know these men and women are candidates at all. Or the fact that so many prospective candidates have already dropped out.
The election is a year away. A YEAR. It’s bad enough that the media talks about everything the President does in terms of how it will affect his chances for re-election (again, A YEAR away) but that we have all of these bozos running around talking about what a bad job the President is doing as well is just dreadful. And basically, instead of actually doing something about being President, he must do triage on the damage these loose cannons are causing. True, Obama appears to be somewhat less than concerned with what they say about him, but the fact that everything that happens in Washington is foreshadowing the next election, it sure makes it hard for anything to get done.
Anyhow, in other countries, the citizens have a few months at most to decide who their candidates will be. And a few months in our country would translate to much less expensive candidacies, much more opportunities for fringe candidates to be heard (for better or worse) and less candidate exhaustion (both them and us). Why in the hell does it take eighteen months to run for President? In what way are we served by having all of these people running for office for over a year? And things are only going to get worse now that so many states have moved their primaries up so far (January 3, Iowa? Really? You want to narrow down the presidential choices ten months before the election?).
I know that my opinion won’t even cast a ripple in Washington, but come on. I propose that people aren’t even allowed to declare their candidacy until the May before the election. That gives them six months, which should be ample time to run an election campaign. Have the primaries in August and September and then the general election in November. That gives two months early in the season for primary debates and it gives a month and change after the primaries for general election debates. This way the President isn’t distracted with running a reelection campaign and the populace (and the media) isn’t distracted for 18 months with candidates running or not running. And seriously, if you can’t be organized enough to win an election in 6 months, you don’t deserve to be President. How can I get this policy enacted?
This article from Diaz is a very good one. It criticizes President Obama for not being a good storyteller. He was an excellent storyteller before he became President (both as a campaigner and an author-Diaz cites Dreams from My Father in particular). But since he has taken office his storytelling has lapsed. (more…)
“Batcat” is one of my favorite Mogwai songs. The melody is intense and the drumming is wonderful. I picked up this single for the B sides (which will undoubtedly be collected somewhere one of these days anyhow, but that’s okay.
It was very hard to pass up a song called “Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend” Given that the song has “Chased” in the title, this is a surprisingly slow tune. It builds slowly over a series of keyboard waves. There’s also a slow guitar melody that keeps the piece grounded. It’s one of their more subtle songs, which again, is rather surprising given the title.
“Devil Rides” is quite jarring in that it features vocals by Roky Erickson. I don’t really know anything about Roky. I picture him as a large, unkempt man with crazy hair and a beard. His voice is otherworldly and seems to be maybe just a wee bit off from what the music is playing. It’s a strange track and works very well with Mogwai’s history of slightly off-kilter vocalists.
[READ: November 3, 2011] The Discomfort Zone
After reading The Corrections, I planned to read one of Franzen’s earlier novels. But they were all quite long (even his debut!) and I wasn’t ready to get so immersed yet. Then I found The Discomfort Zone in the biography section of the library. It was less than 200 pages and seemed like just the thing. It turns out, however, that I had read most of it already. Three of the pieces were published in slightly different form in the New Yorker: “The Retreat,” (here as “Then Joy Breaks Through”) “The Comfort Zone,” (here as “Two Ponies”) “Caught” (Here as “Centrally Located”) and one “My Bird Problem” (here as “My Bird Problem”) which appears to be unchanged.
That leaves two essays that were new to me: “House for Sale” and “The Foreign Language.”
The collection works as something of a biography, although really it’s not–it’s a collection of essays about his life, but I don’t think I would go so far as to say biography. The book also doesn’t follow a chronological order. (more…)
Kiss lost me on this one. I had been a faithful fan for several years, even putting up with all of the haters in fifth grade. But once I heard that Kiss was releasing an “opera,” well the heck with that noise.
Now, granted, I had no idea it was a rock opera or that Tommy was a rock opera. I heard the word “opera” (thanks newspaper review that my grandmother showed me) and said, Nope. Of course, I wasn’t the only one who said Nope. This record tanked. It tanked so bad that the band almost went bankrupt.
But the album wasn’t just an album. It was mean to be a film (there’s even film dialogue on the record!) and Chris Makepeace (Woody the Wabbit from Meatballs) was meant to star in it–I love that the film credit info is left on the record packaging). What could this film have been like….if only it were made!
At some point I decided to buy the LP (Who even knows where I found it on vinyl) and I was surprised by how much I liked it. In fact, I find it much more preferable to Dynasty and Unmasked. It’s less pop oriented, and some of the tracks rock harder than anything since Love Gun. True, there’s weird pretensions on it, but even those are just experiments.
This album also features Eric Carr on his first Kiss record (what a strange place for such a heavy rocking drummer to start).
So yes the album does open with horns and fanfare (like an opera perhaps?), but the first song, “Just a Boy” is a gentle ballad sung by Paul. It’s certainly wimpy, but I rather like it (as I’ve said many times, I love Paul and his swelling choruses). And there’s some nice guitar work from Ace here.
“Odyssey” has strings and strings galore. It’s a pompous swelling song that harkens to Destroyer, yet goes in a very very very different direction. As a fan of epic pretentious music, I rather like it, but as a Kiss song it’s a disaster. Of course, I have always enjoyed the jokey “Once upon….not yet” line.
“Only You” is Gene’s first foray on this album. And I will state categorically that this period was not good for gene’s songwriting. His songs are really quite dull and boring (when you think of the crazy, complicated bass lines and things he was throwing on songs just a few years back, dull songs like this are a shock). What’s also a shock is that this song is a kind of gritty guitar song, again, much less wimpy than anything on Unmasked–fickle fans turned on the band without having heard the songs–sure they weren’t good songs, but they weren’t disco either.
“Under the Rose” is the exception to gene’s malaise. It begins softly with Gene’s whispered vocals not unlike “Man of 1,00 Faces” but the chorus is heavy and chanted, foreshadowing what they would do on Creatures of the Night (although Creatures was heavier and faster). The riff is also pretty solid, too.
“Dark Light” is Ace’s contribution to the disc. It has a pretty heavy opening riff as well. And the verse reminds me a lot of the kind of verse Ace has been writing for a while–simple chords with lots of words. The solo is pretty much literally a solo–very little in the way of backing music while Ace wails away. Shame it’s not a very interesting solo.
“A World Without Heroes” is a very gentle ballad by Gene. There’s a great commercial for this album in which you get to watch Gene sing this song.
The crazy thing of course is that he’s in demon make up. If this were Kiss without makeup no one would think it was weird, but I mean, look at him, why is he singing songs like this? It is once again an impressive display of Gene’s range though. Nice guitar solo, too.
“The Oath” is actually one of my favorite Kiss songs, no irony intended. I used to laugh at the lyrics, which yes are silly (but this is Kiss, come on). True, it’s an odd mix of really heavy guitars and pretentious falsettos (along with a bizarre keyboard/swirly third part). But there’s a bitching guitar solo and as I said, the guitars sound great. And Paul manages all of those different parts very well. It’s vastly underrated and worth checking out (especially if you like unexpectedly weird music).
“Mr. Blackwell” feels like a song from a movie. It tells a bit of a story of a bad guy. The music is incredibly minimalist (one note bass bits and very sparse guitars during the bridge and chorus). Lyrically it’s dreadful–“You’re not well/Mr. Blackwell/Why don’t you go to hell”, but at least Gene sounds like a demon delivering it. The solo is an amazing bit of noise though.
“Escape from the Island” is another high point on the record. It’s an instrumental, it’s fast and it’s heavy. And it’s got another great solo from Ace–it’s funny that Ace was dissatisfied with the direction of Kiss at this time because he gets to really show off on this disc.
“I” is another solid anthem from Kiss. It ends the album in an upbeat way and if it weren’t on this dismissed album it would be on any Kiss anthems collection. Paul and Gene both take turns singing and the chorus is chantworthy and fist pumpable. They should release it on a new album. They’re so into it in the recording that Paul even shouts “you feel it too, don’t you?”
There’s an interesting review of this album at Popdose. The bad thing is that the site has links to lots of MP3 demos from the album, but they’re all broken links. I’d like to hear those.
[READ: October 30, 2011] “Homecoming, with Turtle”
This is an amusing piece of non-fiction from Junot Díaz. I’m grouping it with the Oscar Wao stories because it actually bears an impact on them. It’s about a visit that Junot took eleven years ago (from 2004) back to his homeland of the Dominican Republic.
He hadn’t been there in nearly twenty years and he decided to go with his girlfriend. Of course, like Yunior in the novel, Junot cheated on his girlfriend before their trip and one of her friends told her. This put some tension on their trip (and one even wonders why he persuaded her to go along after that).
Their trip began with a week volunteering in the DR for a kind of Doctors without Borders (but for Dentists)–they assisted dentists with extracting thousands of teeth. It’s a strange thing to do and a strange (but generous) way to start a vacation, but the exhaustion and camaraderie at least kept them from killing each other. (more…)
It was hard to like Unmasked, but, being an 11-year-old boy, who loved Kiss, I never doubted its awesomeness. Despite kids in school telling me Kiss sucked and, peculiarly, even the cover of this album telling me they stink (whose idea was that?) I knew in my heart of hearts that Kiss was the best.
In a stroke of marketing genius, this album teased the audience with the idea of finally seeing who was under these “masks” (which is weird since everyone knew they weren’t wearing masks, but whatever). There’s even a poster that came with my vinyl copy! Yahoo.
I just recently found out that “Is That You?” is a cover. I always liked the high-pitched part of the song (“you always get the boys you like”), although in retrospect it’s really not very good–simplistic in a way that Kiss songs weren’t but then became. I always joke about Kiss doing a tour and playing “Shandi.” It’s such a cheesy ballad and yet I think it’s really good (for a cheesy ballad–Paul sings this type of song so well). I constantly have the “there’s another mess I’ve got myself in” line in my head all the time.
I liked “What makes the World Go ‘Round” but even I can acknowledge that the song is pretty poor. “Tomorrow” sounds like another song off of Paul’s solo album and probably should have been a huge hit. In fact, they could have re-released it in the 80s and it would have fit right in with their non-makeup success–Paul’s soaring choruses are always a hit. “Easy as it Seems” is kind of the album encapsulated in one song–very sleek, very soft, lots of choruses vocals and really kind of bland. There’s even a wimpy keyboard solo (gasp!).
Ace was the star of Dynasty, and he gets three more songs on Unmasked. “Talk to Me” is one of his repetitive songs that drives me a bit nutty (never liked that “talk to me-e” part). It’s interesting how much Ace moved into prominence on these albums, especially since he was headed for the door soon. “Two Sides of the Coin,” is a decent rocker, but listen to those crazy synth drums during the instrumental break. “Torpedo Girl” is the most interesting track on the disc. It has the cool opening “man battle stations torpedo,” a really funky (!!) bass line from Gene (who knew he had that in him) and a cool weird riff at the opening. It’s then got a very catchy chorus (although honestly, “c’mon get your feet wet”?).
Gene has a bit more prominence here. “Naked City” has a pretty menacing riff to open with, but Gene turns in one of his more melodic turns (with some pretty high notes in the chorus)! The solo, while not blistering, is pretty great (as with Dynasty, the solos are too short). “She’s So European” aside from being a really stupid title and lyric is the song that really puts this album over the edge–the twinkly keyboards, the “you ought to see her” falsetto, and, basically the same chord structure as “Living in Sin” on the verses. Gene ends the disc with “You’re All That I Want,” a rather uninspired song that reminds me of the songs on side 4 of Alive II.
You’ll notice that Peter doesn’t get a vocal turn on this album. In fact, he didn’t play anything on it at all (Anton Fig on drums again), but he was contractually obligated to appear on the cover (perhaps that’s why they did a cartoon).
No matter how much I listened to it back then, I can still admit that this album isn’t really very good. Although interestingly, some of the songs and sonmg styles foreshadow the kind of music they’d play on Lick It Up: simple songs without a lot of substance, and that album was huge!
[READ: November 2, 2011] “Wildwood”
After reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” in the New Yorker, I saw that they had also published Lola’s “Wildwood” adventure as an excerpt from Oscar Wao the novel.
As you can see, this excerpt came out around the same time as the novel. And as far as I can tell, this excerpt is exactly the same as the novel except for one line that was in the excerpt but not in the novel (the part in italics):
Hija de Liborio she called you after you picked your tia’s winning numbers for her and when you guessed correctly how old to the day she’d been when she left home for the U.S. (a fact she’d never told anyone). You assumed….
The only other noticeable difference is that the first section of this excerpt is not really separated from the rest of it. The first section is told in the second person, while the rest is in the first person. In the novel, the second person section is set off by itself, so it’s a little less jarring when you jump to first person, but I think any reader could cope with that pretty well. (more…)
I was pretty excited to buy this album when it came out–a new Kiss album that wasn’t solo albums! Woo hoo! And the fact that it was disco? Well, even though I said I “hated disco,” I didn’t really know what disco sounded like then (and really, aside from the middle “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” it’s not really a disco record) and plus my other favorite band was the Village People (and really, that makes a lot of sense–tw0 bands in over-the-top costumes talking about sexuality that I totally didn’t understand).
So, this album is hard for me to be critical about because it was such an essential part of my childhood, especially “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” I love it, and yet I can listen critically and appreciate that it’s really not that good.
But I’ll move on to the other songs. “Sure Know Something” and “Magic Touch” really don’t seem that out of place chronologically with, say, the Kiss solo albums–they sound an awful lot like something off of Paul’s album. So, despite the sort of slinky 70’s bass on “Sure Know Something”, they can’t have been that much of a surprise. The guitar solos are short but have some interesting Ace sounds (I like the harmonics on “Magic Touch”). It seems that while the other guys were embracing disco, Paul was keeping the Kiss sound alive.
Then there’s the Ace songs. “2,000 Man” made total sense as an Ace song. I had no idea it was a Rolling Stones cover until fairly recently (and I like Ace’s version much better). “Hard Times” feels like the sequel to “New York Groove.” Not the music so much although maybe a little, but the lyrics–now that he’s in the city here’s what happened–the gritty reality. It’s one of Ace’s great, lost songs. And check it out, Ace sings on three songs here! (Guess having a #1 hit wasn’t lost on the Kiss powers). “Save Your Love” has a cool descending chorus and a nice bass feel to it. Ace certainly wins on this record.
Peter got only one song, “Dirty Livin'”. In fact, this is the only song that Peter had anything to do with (his drums were re-recorded by Anton Fig). It reminds me (in retrospect) of the Rolling Stones disco era even more than “2,000 Man,” the backing vocals remind me of something like “Shattered.” I always liked this guitar solos on this (cool feedback). Although I liked the song (along with the rest of the album), I don’t think it holds up very well.
Gene only gets two songs. It amuses me how little he has to do with these late 70s albums even though he is always the leader of the band. I always liked “Charisma” (I had to look the word up back then) even though it is, admittedly, rather discoey and really not very good. It is fun to ask “What is my…charisma?” But “X-Ray Eyes is the better Gene song on this record. It harkens back to earlier Kiss songs and even has a bit of menace in it.
So, Dynasty was a huge hit for the band. And they even got to mock it in Detroit Rock City the movie. Cynical marketing ploy or genuine fondness for disco? Who would ever know.
[READ: November 1, 2011] “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”
Readers of this blog know that after finding an author I like, I will try to read everything that he or she has written. Close readers will know that if a writer is reasonably young and reasonably unpublished, I will try to read his or her uncollected work as well. Well, I really enjoyed Oscar Wao the novel, so I decided to see what else Díaz had written. There’s really not a lot, to be perfectly frank. There’s his short story collection Drown and a few fiction pieces published here and there (mostly in the New Yorker) and a few non-fiction pieces as well.
So this “short story” from the New Yorker (with the same title as the novel) is in fact an early, mostly the same, version of the Oscar story in the novel. The thing here is to note the date: 2000(!). The novel came out in 2007. So, Junot had been working with this character for easily five years (giving time for the publishing industry to get a book out and all). The remarkable thing the is just how accomplished and polished this piece is and how much of it was used in the novel.
I’m curious to know whether this was written as a short story (it’s quite a long short story) or if it was always intended as a part of a novel. Interestingly, when you read this story by itself and you realize that it is pretty much all of Oscar’s story in the novel, you realize just how little of Oscar is actually in the novel. The novel is about Oscar, obviously, but it is really about his family and the fukú that was placed on them by the Trujillo clan. Oscar is sort of the touchstone for the fukú, and the person whom the narrator knows most intimately but his story is also brief. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: COLIN STETSON-Live at All Tomorrow’s Parties, October 4, 2011 (2011).
In addition to playing SXSW, Colin Stetson also played All Tomorrow’s Parties, and NPR was there. Unlike with SXSW, this set appears to be full length (about 50 minutes–which is a pretty amazing amount of time for him to blow that horn). Like SXSW (and the album) Stetston starts with “Awake on Foreign Shores” and “Judges.” What I love about this recording is that after Stetson finishes “Judges” a guy in the audience shouts (in a voice of total amazement) “That shit was off the hook!” And he is right. It’s not even worth me going into how amazing Steston is once again (check previous posts for that), but man, just look at the size of that horn he’s playing (seriously, click on the link to see it bigger).
Stetson plays a few more songs from New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges like “The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man” (which is outstanding) and “A Dream of Water” (which works without Laurie Anderson, although he does say he’s sorry she’s not there). He also introduces two news songs “Hunted 1” and “Hunted 2” which show new levels and new styles that Stetson employs.
This is a remarkable set, and Steston is clearly in his element (and the crowd is rapt). The only problem I have is the recording level. It must be very difficult to maintain recording levels for Stetson’s brand of noise–his louds are really loud–but you can’t hear him talk at all. And most of the time, the introductions to his songs are worth hearing. I’m sure if they tried to get the speaking level a little louder the music would have sacrificed though, so I think they made the right choice–I only wish there was a transcript available.
[READ: October 31, 2011] The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Apparently it’s pronounced, “Wow”, by the way.
Because of my new job, I don’t have a full hour of lunch-time reading like I used to. And so this book took considerably longer than I intended. However, once I set aside some time to read it, I flew through the book.
I’m going to get this part out of the way because I was thinking about it throughout the book and I want to mention it without having it bog down the post. This story reminded me a lot of Roberto Bolaño. On the surface, sure this is because they are both writers from “Central America” (Diaz is originally from the Dominican Republic but moved to the US, while Bolaño is originally from Chile but moved to Mexico and then Spain). But I’m not really talking about their origins so much as the style of storytelling.
Without going into a lot of Bolaño here, I’ll just say that Bolaño tends to write very detailed character studies–stories that follow one person throughout his whole life on something of a fruitless quest. And the details of that person’s life include information about family members and distant relatives. Further, Bolaño has written about the brutalities of both Chile and Mexico and how a person can survive in such a place. Similarly, Díaz follows the life of Oscar and his extended family and he talks about the brutalities of the Dominican Republic.
This is in no way to suggest that there is any connection between the two writers. I mean, The Savage Detectives came out in the States in 2007 (same years as Oscar Wao) and while he certainly could have read it in Spanish, I have no evidence that he did (and as I recently found out, the first draft of the Oscar story was written in 2000). Again, the parallels are only from my reading and have nothing to do with Díaz himself.
Okay, now that that’s out of my system…
This is the story of Oscar de Leon. But more than that, this is the story of a fukú–a curse that befalls the de Leon family and follows them through several generations. Oscar is the youngest member of the family and the person whom the narrator knows best. So we see this fukú as it impacts Oscar. And although the book is ostensibly about Oscar, it is about much more.
Oscar was born in Paterson, NJ (the town next to where I grew up!) and went to Don Bosco Tech High School (where many of my friends went). Oscar is Dominican (his mother is from the DR, but he and his sister were born in NJ), but unlike every other Dominican male, Oscar is totally uncool, into geeky sci-fi and D&D and is clearly destined to be a virgin because he is fat with terrible hair and no social skills.
And, (no spoiler), as the title states, his life will be short. (more…)
Since I enjoyed the second Lonely Island album, I figured I’d check out the first one as well. I mean it had “Lazy Sunday” on it after all. But in this case my initial instincts we pretty correct. There are a few songs on here that are funny and worth the time–and you’ve heard them all already. The rest are filler–mildly funny songs that are too long by half (even when they are under two minutes).
The opening song, “Who Said We’re Wack” is only a minute and change and it overstays its welcome after about fifteen seconds. Although, as I’m finding with a lot of the tracks, there are little bits that are funny, like the “raise your hands in the air” bit of this song. “Santana DVX” is an amusing little skit about Carlos Santana making his own champagne. Again, kind of funny, but not that funny. And worse yet is that they keep reusing the joke throughout the disc. “I’m on a Boat” is like the demo version of “I Just had Sex.” It’s the same premise, with the same repeated joke, but you can get a lot more mileage out of having sex than about riding a boat. At this point I have to wonder how many of these songs were skits (I don’t watch SNL as a rule) and I wonder if they are funnier with visuals added.
“Jizz in My Pants” is the first really funny thing on the disc. The best part is that it starts out so seriously and then the absurdity gets faster and faster. It’s very clever. Although musically it sounds like The Flight of the Conchords might do it better. “Sax Man” features the mighty Jack Black, and it’s funny, but I have to say that having the sax man play more bad notes (and not synthesized ones) as opposed to all that silence, and maybe having Black get even angrier would have been much funnier.
“Lazy Sunday” is still a highlight, a funny track with, and I think this is the key, new lyrics in every verse, not simple repetitiveness as humor (the old SNL standby). And of course, “Dick in a Box” is still hilarious (oh, Timberlake, I can’t hate you).
However, that repetitiveness is a problem on “Like a Boss” (although parts of it are very funny) or “Boombox” (is boiled goose supposed to be funny?) although at least the chorus is catchy. “We Like Sportz” is amusing but I feel like they aren’t dorky enough.
Then, why does “Dreamgirl” turn into an ad for Chex Mix? I know it is “sponsored by Chex Mix” but why? It seems lazy. And I simply don’t understand “Punch You in the Jeans” or “The Old Saloon” they just seem like stupid filler or in the case of “Jeans,” an attempt at at catchphrase generator or something.
As on their follow-up, the skits are lame: “Normal Guy” is awful and “Shrooms” is boring. But at least there’s only two skits.
Finally “Space Olympics” seems like a funny concept but what happens to the song? It has potential to be a really amusing concept about actual space olympics, but it drifts off into a completely different direction. Where’d the focus go?
“Natalie’s Rap” on the other hand is focused, brutal and unexpected. It is really, really funny.
All in all, this is an excellent place to hear a few good tracks and a whole lot of filler. I’m really happy that the sequel was so much better as it speaks to the possibility of even better stuff in the future.
[READ: October 30, 2011] Chew: Volume Two
As Sarah wrote in her post, I was pretty happy to have Volume Two of Chew in the house after finishing up Volume One (I’m only bummed that I don’t have Volume Three!!).
Volume Two continues the adventures of our favorite cibopath (see the previous entry for the explanations of all of these awesome ideas). As the book opens we see that Tony Chu’s former partner, John Colby is back. We knew he was still alive, but we didn’t know how alive he might be–after all, he had a cleaver in his face last time we saw him. But he has been repaired, with the latest in technology, by the FDA. And now Chu and Colby are back together, bickering as ever with new superpowers (the scene where Colby shows off what he can do is awesome).
Chapter Two (Issue Seven if you’re keeping track), introduces Lin Sae Woo. When I mentioned last time that Guillory draws grotesque characters, I had her in mind. Lin Sae Woo is an aggressive, angry woman and she is drawn to reflect that. But she also has an absurd body shape. Her breasts are preposterous–not even superhero large, stupidly large and the rest of her can barely keep up. I can’t even decide if she’s supposed to be sexy, she is so ridiculous. But she makes a formidable foe (even if she’s on the same side as Chu). (more…)
I liked “Lazy Sunday” quite a lot, but I didn’t feel compelled to get the album. Then, when I heard Samberg on NPR, it made quite a compelling case for this second album. So I decided to check it out.
Most comedy albums are juvenile, so let’s get that out of the way. This is juvenile. And, as with most SNL-derived humor, it’s a one note joke that gets stretched out. The good news is that very few of the songs stretch too long (only one is more than three minutes) and the music itself is quite good–which allows for repeatedly listens.
The opening, “We’re Back!” is really quite funny. It’s all about how the three guys have really tiny penises. Ha ha, but it’s delivered with such great gangsta rap style that it is very, very funny. “Mama” is a wonderful tribute to the singers’ Moms. The song is interrupted by said mother over and over. On this one, the joke might go on too much, but overall, it’s very funny.
The longest song is “Jack Sparrow” and it is one of the best ones on the disc. It features Michael Bolton (!) singing his heart out about his love for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies–which is funny enough, but the guys are rapping behind him about something else entirely. They keep trying to stop Bolton from hijacking the song. It’s very well done (and man, say what you will, Bolton can belt out a song).
“Attracted to Us” goes on a bit too long (and at less than 2 minutes that’s a bad sign) and “Rocky” in which one of the dorky guys talks about fighting Rocky (ala The Fresh Prince) is a super long SNL skit (which is not a compliment).
“Turtleneck & Chain” features Snoop Dog and is just fantastic–I love hearing Snoop Dog rap this geek shit. “Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde” also works very well with Rihanna on vocals. The song itself is catchy and the joke, when it finally comes, is really good.
“Motherlover” is a sequel to “Dick in a Box” (“this is the second best idea we ever had”) and Justin Timberlake continues to impress me in his new role as a funny guy. This is a gross song but it’s really crazy catchy (Timberlake must have written the chorus).
One of my favorite songs on the disc is “Threw It on the Ground.” Musically, I think it’s fantastic and lyrically it is pretty funny. I wish that they had had some better examples of things to throw on the ground (the cell phone joke is lame and they get kind of lazy by the end), but I get this song stuck in my head a lot. Another song guaranteed to stay in your head forever is “I Just Had Sex,” a childish and silly song that is outrageously catchy. And if it’s in your head it won’t leave. (And yes it’s funny).
“Japan” is a crazy and funny look at Japanese culture while “After Party” is a bit one note. “No Homo” on the other hand brings in a full circle hardcore joke that is at once offensive and hilarious.
“The Creep” is pretty unsuccessful even with the help of Nicki Minaj–the video helps a little, but not enough. As with most rap albums, the skits are the weakest link. Without a song behind them the skits are good for one or two listens and some not even that (“Falcor vs Atreyu”? “My Mic”? these wouldn’t even be funny if they were improvised, and yet they seem very deliberately planned–boy I hope there wasn’t more than one take).
Overall, this is a funny rap parody/tribute album. It’s obvious that the guys love rap and they are quite successful in their stylings. None of it works as well as “Weird Al”‘s “White and Nerdy” but honestly whatever could? But “Weird Al” is PG, and Lonely Island fills in as the adult pranksters.
[READ: October 28, 2011] Chew: Volume One
Sarah gave me this book after reading the recommendation on The Hub. She said it was really good but it was really gross. And that’s quite an accurate assessment.
One thing that I liked about this book was that it had not one but two really cool ideas that run through the series. Either one would be a compelling-enough premise, but putting them together makes for an excellent story with lots of possibilities.
The story is about Tony Chu, who is a policeman. He is also cibopathic, which means that when he eats anything (except beets for some reason), he instantly knows the history of that food: eating fruits and vegetables shows him the tree it grew on and how it was harvested; eating meat, well, just let your imagination go on that one. That’s a pretty great premise. But when he gets a murderer’s blood on his lips and he instantly knows the names and locations of all of his victims, well, that ups the intensity (and the grossness).
The second great premise is that the government has outlawed chicken because of the avian flu. Millions of people died from the flu and now only chicken-substitutes are used. There is now a black market for real chicken, including speakeasys, and the FDA is hot on the heels of all traffickers. And yet, there is a small group of rebels who believe that the whole avian flu thing is a sham (including Tony’s brother Chow). They don’t postulate why the sham was created, but they are out to set the record straight.
Put these two ideas together and you get a hell of a story. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: ARCADE FIRE-“We Used to Wait” (Saturday Night Live, November 13, 2010) (2010).
I Just Read About That... 