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Archive for 2012

Amy Parker–“Rainy Season” (Narrative Magazine, Winter 2012)

Posted in Adventure, Amy Parker, Boredom, Drinking, Drugs, Kiss, Narrative, Sex, Short Story, Van Halen on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Crazy Nights (1987).

I’m going to make a bold statement here—Crazy Nights is worse than The Elder.  Whereas The Elder was a mistake–weird songs, a bizarre concept, it showed some pretty ballsy moves.  Crazy Nights on the other hand is just a pandering mess.  There’s keyboards.  Keyboards!  The band has always been money makers (Gene Simmons’ face could be on the $100), but at least usually their music would find its own version of poppiness.  But this album sounds like any generic metal album from the late 80s.

“Crazy Crazy Nights” is an obnoxiously poppy sell-out of a song (although it is at least catchy, but man…).  “Fight Hell to Hold You” is the exception to the disc, a solid song from Paul with a good chorus.  But “Bang Bang You” is as dumb as it sounds.  It has cheesy keyboards, a lame riff and even has the audacity to reference “Love Gun.”  It’s hard to fault Bruce Kulick for his wild playing, but it seems so out of place on this disc–as if his crazy solos will make the album heavier.  Much like on Asylum, he gets a song to wail on the opening: “No No No” which is sort of winning by virtue of its non-stop propulsion (like say, “Hot for Teacher”).  But it’s not really a song so much as a series of connected sounds.

  “Come Hell or High Water” is pretty close to being a good song, perhaps the rest of the album taints this one too.  What’s especially crazy about the keyboards on “My Way” is that they sounds straight out of Van Halen’s 1984. [None of this is to imply I don’t like Van Halen, I just don’t want Kiss sounding like them].  “When Your Walls Come Down” feels heavy in comparison to the rest of the disc, especially when followed by the super-ballad “Reason to Live” (which despite myself I kind of like).  “Good Girl Gone Bad” is generic lyrically and musically.  “Turn on the Night” brings more cheese and more keyboards.   And “Thief in the Night” ends the disc on a reasonably high note.  But the problem is that the music is such generic pop metal that it’s hard to be inspired by any of it.

I’m kind of surprised Kulick stuck around during this–two albums in a row!.  Although he did get to show off his squealing chops, so maybe he was happy.

[READ: August 10, 2012] “Rainy Season”

This story came in second place in the Narrative Magazine Fall contest.  I had been putting off reading it because it was quite long and I didn’t really have enough time to devote to it.  When that time finally arrived, I was glad I waited.

This is a story about Jill and Maizie.  Their father works at the Thailand consulate (something to do with drugs).  And so the girls have been living in a gated compound for three months in Chaing Mai, Thailand. They are bored out of their minds.  They are not permitted to leave the compound, they are the only Americans around and all they can really do is watch Gone with the Wind (which they have memorized).  The girls have been trying to make the best of things, although it’s not always easy.  Especially given the way their father is.

Their parents got divorced some time ago and the girls have never lived in the same place for more than two years.  What’s worse is that their father is working all the time.  So when he is around, he’s not really around for them.  He is very strict about arbitrary things but is completely blind to others: “Maizie and Jill aren’t allowed to pierce their ears until they’re sixteen, he says. But he goes on trips to the Golden Triangle and leaves them alone in the house.”

Maizie is younger and she is super cute with comment-worthy blonde hair.  She gets away with a lot.  Jill is older.  She is no longer cute and she is resentful of both her father and her sister.  Of course, they only have each other, which Jill resents a bit too. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #40 (2012)

Posted in Adam Levin, Amy Fusselman, Calvin Godfrey, Culture Shock, David Vann, Death, Essays, Etgar Keret, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, History, Humiliation, Jack Pendarvis, Kevin Moffett, Kiss, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Nathan C. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Short Story, Tom O'Donnell, Translation, Van Halen, Violence on August 15, 2012| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Asylum (1985).

This series of mid-80s Kiss CDs is regarded pretty poorly.  In fact, I believe that Gene and Paul have distanced themselves from Asylum.  And yet, despite its pop metal vine and really dayglo appearance, there’s some good stuff on it.  The solos are really notable on this disc.  Bruce Kulick has taken over lead guitar duties and he is wailing maniac.  He has speed and flash and he, frankly, really stand out (not always in a good way) in these songs.  His solos seem to signal a shift to a more pop heavy metal sound.

The disc opens with a pounding drum salvo and aggressive guitars!  “King of the Mountain” is a classic Kiss song—loud, with a great sing a long chorus from Paul.  “Anyway You Slice It” also rocks pretty hard, one of Gene’s fast, sex songs.  But man I hate songs that break down to just vocals and drums. “Who Wants to Be Lonely” seems like a ballad—lyrically and all—but it’s actually a pretty heavy song, again, perfectly suited for Paul’s voice.  “Trial By Fire” is the first song that really falters.  A generic anthem with the really lame chugga chugga guitars that Kiss would really push in this era.  “I’m Alive” opens with more crazy drumming and wild soloing and for all the world sounds like mid 80s Van Halen.  Until Paul belts out a fast vocal line.  This is a fast, aggressive song with a great chorus.

“Love’s a Dirty Weapon” almost turns into a great song—the chorus is just a little lacking.  And there’s that other part with just drums and a guitar solo—again, very Van Halen, which is good for Van Halen, but sounds really weird for Kiss.  I should hate “Tears Are Falling,” it’s got the chug chug chug guitars, and very little else, but I love a good Paul ballad—when he starts wailing at the end, it’s pretty great.  I am aware that the lyrics suck, yes.  But the solo is more like old school Kiss.  “Secretly Cruel” is cheesy, but delightfully so, and actually sounds like Kiss of old as well.  “Radar for Love” is an awkward song that never quite flows the way it wants.  It’s a good song that shows them branching out, though.  “UH! All Night” is a, well, look at the title.  It’s the kind of throwaway song that is so over-the-top ridiculous that it comes back around to be kind of fun.  And I imagine that some fans are still singing that chorus to themselves.  “When you work all day you gotta Uh all night.”  No one ever said Kiss was classy.  Note:  I listened to this song a week ago and that frikkin chorus is STILL in my head.

[READ: August 11, 2012] McSweeney’s #40

This issue came in a double pack–with a paperback issue of the magazine and a hardback edition of In My Home There Is No More Sorrow by Rick Bass.  I have not yet read Bass’ book [UPDATE: read it at the end of July 2013], because it sounds really depressing [UPDATE: It was].  But I do hope to get to it before the end of the year.  This issue has a few short stories and  a non-fiction at the beginning.  The entire back half of the journal is devoted to the January 25 uprising in Egypt.  It is full of testament and testimony about the event from all kinds of people–bloggers, poets, musicians.  It’s pretty profound–and almost seems like having a silly story in the journal is inappropriate.

As has been the trend lately, the journal also opens up with a series of letters. (more…)

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Paula Fox–Desperate Characters (1970)

Posted in Boredom, Cats, David Foster Wallace, Fears, Jonathan Franzen, Kiss, Marriage Trouble, Paula Fox, Short Books, Tom Bissell, William Gaddis, Zadie Smith on August 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Animalize (1984).

This year, 1984, was the first time that I saw Kiss live.  Sadly I remember more about the opening band (Loudness) asking if New York was having a good time (and the fans screaming that we were in New Jersey). But I still have my booklet from the show and I do remember a few things from the show (again, sadly they were not in makeup).  So this album holds a special place for me, even though in retrospect it’s not as good as Lick It Up.

“I’ve Had Enough (Into the Fire)” starts the album off with a bang—blistering solos from new guitarist Mark St. John.  But, as with Lick It Up, the album for me is overshadowed by the (massive) single.  “Heaven’s On Fire.”  It’s such a lame little sing-along (and yes I do remember that song from 1984 show—Paul really milked it).  But man it’s such a bad song.  Musically, “Burn Bitch Burn” is interesting, but what were they thinking with those lyrics “I want to put my log in your fire place…burn bitch burn?”  That’s a far cry from “I am the doctor of love.”  “Get All You Can Take” is, to my knowledge, the first time Kiss has said the word fuck in a song (“What fucking difference does it make?” Is sung by the deeper response voices in the chorus.  It’s a catchy song with an interesting riff.  “Lonely is the Hunter” has a kind of 70s southern rock feel.  It also seems to be calling back to some earlier songs in the style of singing—which only reminds you how much better the earlier song was.   The band is relying a lot on call and response vocals on this album.  And they’re okay but seem like a something of a crutch..

“Under the Gun” continues as another sort of generic fast rocker from this era.  “Thrills in the Night” is one of my favorite songs on the disc–it sounds so much like Kiss of the 70s.  And with Paul’s vocals and the guitars, this could have come off of his solo album.  “While the City Sleeps”  is a fairly uninspired Gene song.   None of these songs are bad, really, they’re just not as exciting as they might be.  “Murder in High Heels” has more of that 70s rock swagger that Gene likes to pull off.  It’s just not always clear that the 70s swagger rock works well with the heaviness of other songs on the record, like the band wasn’t sure which direction to go in.  So even though this disc is the one that brought me back to Kiss, it has some good songs, but it doesn’t really hold up all that well.

[READ: August 1, 2012] Desperate Characters

David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and Tom Bissell have all championed this book.  Bissell was instrumental in getting it republished once it went out of print.  Franzen wrote the introduction to the newly published version.  David Foster Wallace blurbed the book: “A towering landmark of postwar Realism….A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved.”  It was also on his syllabus.  Zadie Smith has also written favorably about Fox’s fiction.

So why did it take me so long to read this book?  (I read the original version, which is what the library had.  I’m curious about Franzen’s introduction and will get to it eventually).

S. knows Paula Fox as a children’s author, which surprised me even more when I read the grittiness of this book.

It is submerged in downtrodden New York City of the late 60s, where people throw garbage out their windows, where racial tensions run high and where everything feels dirty.  This powerful description late in the book sums up the attitude about the City:

They drove through miles of Queens, where factories, warehouses, and gas stations squeezed up against two-story, two-family houses so mean and shabby that, by contrast, the ranks of uniform and tidy tombstones rising from cemetery islets that thrust up among the dwellings seemed to offer a more humane future. Sidewalks, brutal slabs of cracked cement, ran for a block or two, then inexplicably petered out, and along the center of the tarmac streets, short lengths of old trolley tracks occasionally gleamed among the potholes. Here and there, the skeletons of a vast new apartment complex sat on the rent ground; tree roots and rocks and earth rolled up around its foundation. Cries of boredom and rage were scrawled across the walls of factories, and among these threats and imprecations, invitations and anatomy lessons, the face of an Alabama presidential candidate stared with sooty dead eyes from his campaign posters, claiming this territory as his own. His country, warned the poster – vote for him – pathology calling tenderly to pathology. [For those ignorant of history like me, that candidate was George Wallace.  This was his third time running, this time as part of the American Independent Party].

But that’s just the descriptions.  What is this story about?  Simply, it is about Otto and Sophie Bentwood, a successful childless couple living in Brooklyn.  Otto is a lawyer, and, Sophie is a successful translator (I liked that Sophie was employed and not “just” a housewife).  But Sophie hasn’t felt up to translating lately and Otto’s successful practice hits a bump when long time partner Charley decides to leave to work on more important causes.

Otto is rather cut off emotionally–Charley has been his friend and partner for decades yet he can barely muster a proper goodbye when he steps out the door.  And while Otto and Sophie are mostly happy, he has more or less pushed her into the arms of another man.  She looks back on this brief affair with fondness.  However, the fact that the affair is never suspected and the fact that it ended the way it did are just more indignities that Sophie has to suffer.

But what sets off the action in the story is an act of kindness.  Sophie sees a cat that is hanging around the alley behind their brownstone.  Amid the people throwing garbage out the window and hanging up sheets to act as curtains, Sophie decides to do a nice deed for this cat.  She brings it some milk. It hungrily laps up the milk and when Sophie goes to pet it, it bites her really hard on the hand.  And literally the rest of the story follows the swelling of her hand. (more…)

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William Gaddis–[Week 8] JR [#OccupyGaddis pages 535-610] (1975)

Posted in #OccupyGaddis, Anton Bruckner, Aristotle, Big Books, Books about music, Books about writers, Death, Edmund Spencer, Environmentalism, Huh?, Jack London, Mark Twain, Marriage Trouble, Native Americans, Politicians, Radio, Religion, Research, Scholarship, Sex, Talking Heads, The Beautiful South, Ween on August 13, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH-“Dumb” (1988).

About five years ago I mentioned all of The Beautiful South records in one post.  But I didn’t really talk about them all that much.

This comes from one of my favorite Beautiful South records–I like all the songs equally, but I often have this song in my head.  And the reason I picked it right now is because Paul Heaton sings about a bunch of things each one ending with “either you are simply beautiful or I am simply dumb.”

And these are: “It doesn’t take a mathematician to add a simple sum”; “It doesn’t take a labrador to show a blind man sun”; and this one: “It doesn’t take Robert The Bruce to see the web you’ve spun.”

I had no idea who Robert the Bruce was and I never bothered to look it up.  And yet, as you will see below in the post, Robert the Bruce is mentioned in JR!  I was flabbergasted.  And this song immediately popped into my head.

And that’s not a bad thing.  It’s a pretty piano ballad with a seemingly negative chorus (dumb, dumb, dumb) despite its positive message.  There’s also a beautiful ending: “The sun, the sky, the moon, the stars/Jupiter, Neptune and Mars/All these things I clearly see/It don’t take a telescope for you to love me.”  The songs ends with Jacqui Abbot’s lovely echo of this stanza.

The Beautiful South were a great band, they broke up a few years ago.  Paul Heaton has a number of solo albums out but they’re not available in the states, so…

[READ: Week of August 6, 2012] JR Week 8

This week’s read finds us primarily in the apartment.  We see bast return home and fool around with Rhoda before he goes off on his trip to the funeral.  We see Gibbs come in and try (in vain) to get work done.  We actually get to see Gibbs’ magnum opus (or parts of it), and we see him fall off the high that he felt with Emily.

There’s a lot of funny stuff in this week’s read.  It seems like the darker the story gets, the more childish jokes Gaddis throws in there.  Seeing Gibbs unable to work on his manuscript because of all of the (real and fake) distractions is simultaneously hilarious and spot on.  And also, the plotlines are really revving up now.  JR Corp is starting to see some pushback on their deals, and a number of outsiders are starting to get angry.  There’s bound to be a collapse of some sort soon.  I’m also starting to think that with all of the ellipses in the book that it will end with a dot dot dot.

As we resume, Davidoff and Bast are still talking.  Davidoff tells Bast “Don’t worry about” something [Thanks to Simon for pointing out this expression–I recognized that Davidoff always says “brush fires,” but not the don’t worry about it].  He is concerned that Bast’s hearing aid isn’t turned up (ha), but that the Boss [JR] wants Bast’s signature on any expenditures over $2,000 (It was originally $200, but Davidoff said Bast would get writer’s cramp).  He explains the title change in the magazine from Her to She–passive to active readership–will cost $14,000.  There’s also $27,000 for a new logo.  And the logos are awesomely cheesy–hard to believe they paid $27,000 for them.  They revolve around the dollar sign, with the least offensive one making a J and R out of the top and bottom of the S–the others have a snake, or breasts or thumbing your nose or even someone behind bars.  They pick the least offensive one that says Just Rite in a dollar sign (“something patriotic about the dollar sign”).  They’re going to put them on half a million matchbooks. (more…)

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Sam Lipsyte–“Get a Head of Steam for Your Self-Esteem” (This Land, April 2011)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Comedy Bang Bang!, Funny (ha ha), Reggie Makes Music, Reggie Watts, Sam Lipsyte, Tenacious D, This Land on August 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC and REGGIE WATTS-Reggie makes Music on IFC (2012).

“Weird Al” is going to be on Comedy Bang Bang this week.  And to tie in with his appearance, Al (and Tenacious D, who are in the video but don’t really do anything) performed a song with Reggie.  Specifically, Reggie does some beatboxing while Al wails on the accordion.

There’s nothing funny about it (well, actually there is, although there are no words), but Al shows how an accordion should be played!

If you like your polka fast and furious, check it out.

[READ: August 6, 2012] “Get a Head of Steam for Your Self-Esteem”

I’ve enjoyed Sam Lipsyte’s humor quite a lot.  This is a very short jokey piece in This Land.  This is the second piece I’ve read in This Land, not bad for a publication I’d never heard of before the first one.

So this is a “letter of affirmation.”  As Lipsyte’s introduction explains:

Write a note of affirmation with a good fountain pen and thick creamy paper and put it in your purse, wallet or lunch, or else simply text the message. The example below is one I use for myself, but you may use it as a model, substituting details as needed. (more…)

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David Rakoff (November 27, 1964 – August 9, 2012)

Posted in Canadian Content, David Rakoff, David Sedaris, Essays, Eulogy, Funny (ha ha), LGBTQ, This American Life on August 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

David Rakoff (1964-2012)

David Rakoff died Thursday from a resurgence of cancer.  For those unfamiliar with his work, think of darker, more cynical David Sedaris (did you think that was possible?).  The biggest difference between Rakoff and Sedaris is that Rakoff is Canadian.  And he is more of a world traveler.  I say this not really knowing anything about how much they actually traveled.  I mean, sure, Sedaris travels the world for book tours and such, but Rakoff actually lived in foreign lands.  Wait, you say, Sedaris lives in France.  Yes, but Rakoff lived in Tokyo (which automatically makes him more exotic).  And he actually knew Japanese (kind of) whereas Sedaris seems to have not learned any French in the years he has lived there–if his essays are to be believed.

All of this is by way of introduction to using Rakoff’s description of himself as a “New York writer” who also happened to be a “Canadian writer”, a “Jewish writer”, a “gay writer'” and an “East Asian Studies major who has forgotten most of his Japanese” writer.

I’ve only read one of Rakoff’s three books, Fraud.  And about that I said: (more…)

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Tony Abbott–The Secrets of Droon: Special Edition 8: The Final Quest (2010)

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Demons, End of the World, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Magic, Minecraft, Mystery, Supernatural, Taio Cruz, Threats, Time Travel, Tony Abbott, Violence on August 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: “TNT” – A Minecraft Parody of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” (2011).

How do you top Clark’s favorite song?  By making a parody of it in the style of his favorite game!  This song and video are based on the game Minecraft, Clark’s most recent obsession.  The song is funny, mostly.  It’s got to be hard to think up a full songs worth of parody material–one verse is easy, Sarah and I do that all the time.  But the chorus is a good one: “I shoot my arrows in the air sometimes/saying ay-oh, creeper’s KO’d.”

The music is pretty good (although the vocals aren’t quite as strong as the original).  But the video is really quite funny, and well crafted.

So, enjoy the video:

By the way, Clark hasn’t seen this yet…I’m kind of afraid he’ll never leave the computer if he does.

[READ: mid-June 2012] The Secrets of Droon: SE8

After 44 books the saga has ended.

Will the kids rescue Eric?  Will the kids stop Gethwing?  Will the kids stop Ko?  And what will happen to the kids if they do save Droon?  Does this mean their quest, and their adventures in Droon, are at an end?

As this book opens we are reminded of the ancient prophecy that Gethwing is immortal.  Gethwing has even told of the prophecy himself:

Five shall pass away, four shall wear the crown, three shall fall, two shall rise together and one…

What about the one?

What can this prophecy mean?  Gethwing knows: The five are the cycles of Droon’s millennial calendar.  The four are  the Crown of Wizards–Sparr, Neffu, Ungast and Gethwing; The three include Ko (who has fallen to his death) and Zara (long dead).  And the two are Eric (as Ungast) and Gethwing, rising together.  But the funny thing about prophecies is that they can be read different ways (and there’s a wonderful payoff to the prophecy at the end of the book). (more…)

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Zadie Smith–“Permission to Enter” (New Yorker, July 30, 2012)

Posted in Boredom, Food, Kiss, Masturbation, Monie Love, New Yorker, Set at School, Short Story, Sonic Youth, Zadie Smith on August 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Lick It Up (1983).

Kiss takes off their makeup!  And they look…like normal guys with lots of hair (How has Paul’s hair stayed so spectacular for so long?).

Lick It Up was a transformative album for Kiss, in which they suddenly gained new respect and new fans.  And yet somehow, that impressive amazing tongue really looks kind of dumb without all the makeup on, sorry Gene.  They also added (officially) Vinnie Vincent to the band (see he’s right there on the cover!). I tend to hate the song “Lick It Up” with a real passion.  In part because it was overplayed and in part because it’s terrible.  Vinnie Vincent was supposed to be this amazing guitarist and that’s what he came up with?  Blah.  Maybe he felt hampered by Kiss and that’s why he made the wank-fest that was Vinnie Vincent Invasion.

As a result I tend to overlook this album, but “Exciter” is a great, rocking track.  It’s fast and heavy and is really propulsive.  “Not for the Innocent” is one Gene’s great songs—heavy and dark with a cool chorus (Much better than some of his recent affairs).  “Young and Wasted” starts out kind of tripping over itself but man the chorus is great.

“Give Me More” is a straight out fast rocker.  The song never stops and there’s a great old-school Kiss Chorus  too.  “All Hell’s Breaking Loose” also has an old school sound—a kind of “Hotter Than Hell” feel.  And of course, who doesn’t love when Paul rambles nonsensically, “Hey man, I am cool, I am the breeze.”  “A Million to One” is kind of a generic Kiss song—not bad (certainly not as bad as some of their songs) but nothing terribly exciting.

“Fits Like a Glove” is one of Gene’s dirty songs, it has a good bridge/chorus structure.  Kiss may have set a record for the most similes when it comes to sex.  “Dance All Over Your Face” is pretty silly, probably the worst song on the disc.  The lyrics are, well, Gene, and it even has a break where it’s just drums (a terrible way to force a song to be an anthem).  At least the album ends on a high note with “And on the 8th Day.”  True it’s yet another attempt for the band to have an anthem about rock, and it starts out a little anemic, but this is what they do best, and even a middling Kiss anthem is a good one.   Somehow I think about Eric Carr singing along to this and it makes the song seem better.

Whereas Creatures of the Night was overlooked by most people, Lick It Up is overlooked by me.  It needs a higher ranking in my Kiss lists.

[READ: July 30, 2012] “Permission to Enter”

I’m very happy to see a new Zadie Smith story in The New Yorker.  I know she left her gig at Harper’s to work more on writing.  And here’s some of the fruits.  It’s funny to me that this one is done in a series of numbered sections–a strange microtrend that I have been experiencing lately.  It’s strange for Zadie because I find that her transitions and narrative structure are always very strong, so to eschew that for these little chapter breaks is surprising.  Of course, if she spelled everything out it would have been much longer and–given the content, potentially less effective.

So this is the story of Keisha Blake and Leah Hanwell.  When they first met they were four years old.  They were “swimming” in a shallow trough in a park in Hampstead when (and no one saw it happen) Keisha rescued Leah from drowning.  Leah’s mother was so grateful that she invited Keisha over and Keisha and Leah became best friends (even though there are so may differences between their families and they clearly would have never been friends otherwise, really under any circumstances).

And so each titled section reveals something new about their young friendship.  For example, “6. Some Answers” gives just the answers to a series of questions which economically show the difference and similarities between these two girls).  The girls grow up together.  They grow apart a little as friends will.  While Leah and her other friends liked Sonic Youth, Keisha (and no other friends) liked Monie Love. But they stayed close friends anyhow (never really questioning why they were friends–a wonderful detail). (more…)

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Hanna Pylväinen–“Jonas Chan” (Harper’s, August 2012)

Posted in Boredom, Cars, Decadence, Hanna Pylväinen, Harper's, Kiss, Religion, Sex, Shoplifting, Short Story on August 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Creatures of the Night (1982).

In true fair-weather fashion, Music from The Elder ended my Kiss love–and I was a HUGE Kiss fan!  Which is a shame because their follow up album–Creatures of the Night, which I wouldn’t get for many many years is one of their heaviest and strongest albums.  Although there may be just as much fun/controversy about the cover than there is talk about the music.  Ace Frehley was contractually obligated to appear on their album covers, so his face is on the (original) cover even though he didn’t play a note on the record.

The album was re-issued in 1985 in a non-makeup version.  And this album features Bruce Kulick’s photo on the cover because he was then the guitarist in the band.  However, it was actually Vinnie Vincent who played all the guitar on the record and while he is credited, he doesn’t appear on the cover of either version.

This album also features Eric Carr on drums and he pounds the hell out of them.  Carr was on The Elder, but, well, we won’t talk about that.  Peter Criss had a kind of jazzy impact on the drums, but Carr was a heavy metal drummer and it really changes the sound of the album.

“Creatures of the Night” opens with a really heavy title track sung by Paul–he’s got his aggressive vocals down very well here (a song that might normally gone to Gene but which works better with Paul).  The only problem is the little poppy section just before the guitar solo–it’s almost dancey and doesn’t really fit.  “Saint and Sinner” starts off kind of unpromising–an almost poppy song by Gene, but the chorus redeems it.  “Keep Me Comin'” has a pretty typical-by-now Kiss chorus and a fast riff.  “Rock and Roll Hell” opens with almost all bass notes (and Gene’s voice).  It’s a pretty standard rocker for the time, but it still sounded fresh coming from Kiss (and it’s about Ace Frehley who wanted out of the band so badly).

“Danger” has some unexpected chord changes and features some of Paul’s excellent vocals.  It’s also got some genuinely fast guitar work (something that most Kiss song don’t have aside from the solos).  “I Love It Loud” is the anthem that should have been huge.  Slow, ponderous and catchy, this song should be played at every sports event.  It’s followed by the impressive 6-minute sorta ballad “I Still Love You,” the kind of song that Paul shines in–he gets a place to show off his impressive range and his ability to hold long notes (especially live).  Between this and “I Want You” Paul could keep an audience entertained for 20 minutes.  What’s best about the song is that although it opens as a ballad, it gets really heavy with some great drum fills from Carr.

“Killer” opens with a guitar sound like “Makin’ Love” of old.  Simmons’ songs about women are usually pretty uninspired and lyrically this is poor, but the music more than makes up for it.  An album this good can’t possibly end strong though, can it?  Why yes, it can.  “War Machine” is another awesome heavy track.  A great riff and a fantastic chorus.  It’s a shame that this record was lost in the shuffle, it really stands tall as a great heavy metal album.

[READ: August 8, 2012] “Jonas Chan”

I loved looking at the author name and the title of this story and having literally no idea what to expect.  I couldn’t even imagine what nationality the name Pylväinen was.  The first character introduced was named Uppu Rovaniemi (nor could I fathom what nationality that was).  And then the main character is Chinese and is named Jonas.  Woah.

Well, it turns out the story is about Finnish people.  I assume that means that Pylväinen is Finnish, although her website only says she is from suburban Detroit.

I have never read anything about Finnish people, I don’t believe.  So this was a wonderfully unique story for me.  And then to narrow the focus even more, Uppu and her family practice Laestadianism, a kind of Lutheranism that I had never heard of (Wikipedia is pretty informative about its convoluted history).  Her family is pretty lax about her (they have nine kids and she gets lost in the shuffle), but they are very strict about her religious upbringing (her father is a preacher).  And Uppu hates that.

Uppu is the ninth child of the fabled Rovaniems, the well-known family in the community, full of intelligent people, all of whom Uppu intended to show up.  She was confident and smart and seemed immune to everyone.  She flies through her exams.  She even recognizes that Jonas was a violin player who switched to viola (she could tell by the amount of weight he put on his bow).  Cool.

Jonas Chan was new to the school, but of course he knew who Uppu was as well.  He couldn’t imagine ever talking to her.  I love this description of him: “He wasn’t nerdy enough for the nerds, no one cared that he came from California, and there were exactly enough Asians for him to be different without being interesting.”  And yet one day Uppu linked arms with him and said “Let’s be friends.”  And so it was. (more…)

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F. Scott Fitzgerald–“Thank You for the Light” (New Yorker, August 6, 2012)

Posted in Canadian Music, Cigarettes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Religion, Short Story, The Pursuit of Happiness on August 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS-“Cigarette Dangles” (1993).

TPOH’s “I’m an Adult Now,” (especially the first version) was a favorite song of mine back in the late 1980s.  It was raw and funny and fun to listen to.  TPOH has had a hard time of it over the years, getting bumped from labels and whatnot, but they’ve consistently released decent hits.

By 1993, Moe Berg’s voice is remarkably conventional.  Indeed, there’s not all much that’s alternative about this song at all.  It’s not that it’s a bad song, it’s just kind of blah, the roughness has been smoothed off and despite words like: “Cigarette dangles, makes me hard,” the backing vocals and such make it sound like a poppy B-52s.

Huh, given what I just wrote, why wasn’t this song massive?  Cool guitar sound too.

[READ: August 2, 2012] “Thank You for the Light”

I always like when the New Yorker throws in a “classic” story, although I do wonder if contemporary artists are pissed by their famous elders coming back. In all fairness though I would think this story was chosen for its length (it’s only one page).

This is a straightforward and simple story.  Mrs Hanson is a pretty, forty-year-old divorcee.  She’s a saleswoman and has been given a new contract closer to her home state of Ohio.  When she gets to her new territories, she learns that people frown on smoking: “It’s not that I mind, but it has a bad influence on the employees.”   But man, she really wants a smoke, especially after a long day: “Smoking meant a lot to her sometimes.”  And so, she tries to find a place to light up without anyone seeing her.  And that’s pretty much it.  (more…)

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