I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: YUCK-Yuck (2011).

If you’re like me, you love alt-rock from the 90s, however that may be described.  Typically, we’re talking loud guitars, but we’re also talking shoegazer music and alt folk and basically anything that might have appeared at Lollapalooza.

Yuck is like comfort food for anyone starved for new music from that ear.  There’s hardly anything new or original in it, but it sounds great.  It’s fun to play spot the influences (Dinosaur Jr. Nirvana, melodic Sonic Youth), but it’s more fun to just sit back and listen.

When the first song, “Get Away” opens up with that phased, distorted guitar I’m instantly transported back to the 90s.  And then when the solo begins (before the verse) it’s like adding screaming punk to shoegaze.  Blissful.

“The Wall” sounds like yet another style of 90s alt rock, with some more screaming guitars.  Then comes “Shook Down” in which the band slows down with acoustic guitars (think Teenage Fanclub).  It’s a little slow, but there’s a surprise third part which adds some wonderful distorted guitars to the song.

“Holing Out” brings a more punk edged guitar sound to the album (still distorted just edgier).  “Suicide Policeman” is a pretty straightforward folk rock song: acoustic guitars and whatnot and it never really rocks out.  The nice part is when the second, electric guitar plays slow wobbly chords over the top (think The Smiths).

“Georgia” rips right into a My Bloody Valentine song (female harmonies over washes of guitars).  This is the first song that I don’t love.  It’s got something to do with the chrous.  The verses are great, but the chorus is just a little too…blah.  But I love the sound of the song.

“Suck” is probably my least favorite song on the disc.  It’s really really slow and drags a bit.  Although, amusingly this song stays in my head the longest, especially the line “did you see the fire briagde.”  Maybe I secretly like it best

“Stutter” continues this slow mood–I think I like these songs individually, but they drag down this section of the album when played together like this.

Because when “Operation” bursts back, the album picks up (more great use of little guitar solos-think Smashing Pumpkins).  “Sunday” does the My Bloody Valentine thing much better–great chorus on this one.  Amusingly the verses are not very MBV-sounding at all, but it’s a nice blend.

“Rose Gives a Lilly” is an instrumental and, although it’s nothing amazing, it’s still nice.  The disc ends with “Rubber” a 7 minute retro blast.  It’s a slow builder, with big distorted guitars (the vocals are almost inaudible).  Just add more and more layers of guitar over the melody and you’ve got a great album ender.

It’s nice to see a band absorb influences rather than just aping them.

[READ: January 27, 2012] “Underbrush Man”

Once I saw Mohsid’s story in The Guardian, it was just a quick look to see that Margaret Atwood had a story there too!

I really enjoy Atwood’s stories, and this one is no exception.  But this one was rather unexpected for me because it begins with the point of view of a dog.  There are actually four points of view in this story.  I was delighted that the first two were more or less the same, that the third one was unexpectedly unrelated to the action and then the final one cleared everything up.

But we start with a dog.

Molly is an excitable little dog.  We see her wake up, get excited to eat and go out.  We get her perspective on her human (She-who-ought-to-be-a-dog) and how long it takes her to get Molly and Bailey out for their walks.

On their walk, Molly observes humanity, does her business and then discovers legs under a bush.  As her section ends, Molly’s human notices there is blood on the legs.  I love that Molly’s bark goes Hark! Hark!

Part two is from the point of view of Carol Plumridge Dodd, Molly’s human.  We relive the morning from Carol’s point of view.  We learn a lot more about her (and why she is single with two dogs).  We also learn a lot more about her neighborhood.  There’s some very funny observations about her ex-husband and about men in general.  When her dogs happen upon the legs, we end at exactly the same spot as before, with Carol noticing the blood.

The next section comes from Miriam Rosenberg-Lee.  We quickly learn that Miriam is watching the park from her window with binoculars.  She knows Carol as the woman who never cleans up her dog’s business.  We don’t learn a ton about her, although her story is quite funny.  But what we do learn at the end of her section is that there is more to the “leg story” than Molly or Carol know: the legs are attached to a live human being who gets up and begins yelling about the dogs.

The final section is about John A Schweitzer.  He is the legs. And he brings a whole new perspective to the story.

I’m not going to give away anything about his section because he wraps everything up with lots of details and a few surprises.  Suffice it to say that it went in a totally unexpected direction for me.

I love stories with multiple points of view.  Adding the dog was a nice touch.  The story is generally funny although it gets more serious by the end.  I enjoyed this tremendously.  It was a light story but it wasn’t predictable.

You can read it here.