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Archive for June, 2013

Walter Kirn–“Pedigree” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Bosnian Rainbows, Death, Dogs, Fraud, Law, Mark Rothko, Memoirs, New Yorker, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Piet Mondrian, Teri Gender Bender, True Crime, Violence, Walter Kirn on June 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK:  BOSNIAN RAINBOWS-“Turtle Neck” (2013).

bosnian rainbows_cvr-a5c79faedffc0dc27b9e81b5eb566b7c02c426e9-s1I had listened to most of the preview of this album, and I was mixed about it.  But I have to say that of all the songs “Turtle Neck” is my favorite.  It begins as most of these songs do with a very simple melody.  There’s an easy vocal melody, accompanying guitars and interesting keyboard notes dropped in.  As with most of these songs it has a very 80s feel to it.  The big difference with this song is that it is 6 minutes longs and allows Omar Rodriguez-Lopez some wiggle room to goof off.  Like the weird little noises (effects, guitars what have you) that sprinkle the ends of the verses.

 But it’s at the 3 minute mark that Omar really takes over—the song turns kind of sinister with a  great dark bassline.  And then comes the guitar solo—screaming, noisy, more or less out of control, while wailing notes and off-kilter scales litter the one-minute instrumental section.  Then Teri joins the tone with a wholly new vocal section that compliments what Omar is doing.  The wildness kind of wears itself out until the end of the song recreates the beginning sweetness.

It’s probably the best encapsulation of the combination of pretty and wild that Bosnian Rainbows put together.

[READ: June 18, 2013] “Pedigree”

This is a Personal History, so I assume it is true.  I don’t know Walter Kirn at all, and really I only read this because the main person he talks about is named Clark.  Of course, the Clark in this story, Clark Rockefeller, is an unmitigated fraud.

It turns out that the story of Clark Rockefeller, and his real name Christian Gerhartsreiter, is fairly well-known  in popular culture (there was even a Lifetime movie made about him.  Of course, I don’t watch movies on that network, so this whole story passed me by.  I wonder if this narrative is more or less interesting if you already know the truth.

This narrative begins with Walter explaining how he got to know Clark.  Clark had signed up to take a dog who had been injured and rehabilitated (it was a Gordon setter who had been hit by a car and now used a wheelchair for its back legs).  Clark had been vetted and talked to Walter, who was supposed to transport the animal.  Things were complicated and the trip from Montana to Manhattan was more difficult and costly than Walter imagined.  But Clark was there with an envelope and an offer of a place to stay and fabulous people to meet and a tour of all of Rockefeller Center.  When asked about his source of income, Clark explained his job as “a freelance central banker for Thailand.”  And Walter accepted it all.

Later, the envelope proved to hold a check for $500 (not even half of what Walter spent).  None of the famous people showed and the tour didn’t materialize.  Nevertheless, the ruse was surprisingly complex–like the man who claimed to be from MOMA authenticating the Mondrians and Rothkos that Rockefeller had on his wall.  (more…)

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Gary Shteyngart–“From the Diaries of Pussy-Cake” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Gary Shteyngart, Memoirs, New Yorker, Shigeto, Threats on June 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: SHIGETO-“Ringleader” (2013).

shigeto-0caa8a419820269d8ca02d9c5e6508d195563bba-s1The cover of this album gives you an idea of what lies within–and yet the complexity in this one song alone makes me wonder just how much is hidden by those clouds.

The song opens with delicate bells and a persistent pinging metronome.  Then come a series of complex notes—seemingly rando…but not.  Add to this some watery sounds.  And then some buzzing percussion.  That’s the first minute of this six-minute instrumental.

The song begins with a  very delicate vibe, and yet once the tribal drums come to the fore the song takes on a very different feel.

By the middle of the song that original sound is more or less gone, replaced by a more classic “new age” sound.  But again, things change around 3:45 when the song quiets down a bit, allowing new percussion to enter and giving it a kind of world music feel.

I enjoy how at the end, when the drums stop it actually sounds like real drumsticks clattering together—as if the whole song were played by a drummer and not a machine.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “From the Diaries of Pussy-Cake”

This is labelled as a memoir, so I assume it is true (and I wonder if he is writing his memoirs, or if this is just an amusing story for this issue).  Gary talks about his life a teen when he was in love with a girl named Pamela (not her real name).  She was an urban hermit and an unreformed shoplifter.

She was totally in control of the relationship because he was utterly smitten. He sums up their relationship with a typo that he sent her.  He left out the “at” and wrote: “I am your disposal.” (HA).  And so their relationship was very much like that.

She had an ex-boyfriend whom she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) finish it up with–his parents loved her and she wanted to keep up pretenses, so she would be with him quite often.  Although the rest of the time she was with Gary, and that’s because she was always in charge with when she was with him.  I loved this description: (more…)

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Ed Park–“Slide to Unlock” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in Daft Punk, Ed Park, James Blake, New Yorker, Threats on June 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: JAMES BLAKE-“Retrograde” (2013).

retrogradeI don’t know anything about James Blake.  Indeed, I always assume he is a country singer.  Which he isn’t.

Daft Punk raved about this song as well, so I’m giving it a listen.

There’s not a lot to it, but I love the hummed melody–it’s catchy and distinctive.  The whole production of the song reminds me of Seal’s bigger hits.  Blake has a very beautiful voice as well.

 Even though I probably won’t listen to it again, (although now that it’s over I kind of want to hear it again), I’ll bet I have that hummed melody in my head all day.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “Slide to Unlock”

This was a short story rather than a True Crime, but it was very short, so I’m including it here at the end of the week.  I have complained before about stories that are more or less lists–series of words or phrases that don’t really create a story, just a series of ideas.  This story takes that premise of a series of ideas and actually makes a story out of it and I liked it very much.

As the title suggests. the story is about passwords.  And it begins (in second person) “You cycle through your passwords.  They tell the secret story.  What’s most important to you.”

And he gives some examples: (more…)

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Joyce Carol Oates–“After Black Rock” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in Daft Punk, Frankenstein, History, Joyce Carol Oates, Memoirs, New Yorker, Paul Williams, Phantom of the Paradise, Psycho, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, True Crime on June 27, 2013| 1 Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: PAUL WILLIAMS-“The Hell of It” (1974).

pwI learned of this song because the guys in Daft Punk said it was one of their favorite songs.  I don’t know all that much about Paul Williams except for a few things:

He wrote a bunch of songs that you don’t know he wrote, like: “Rainbow Connection,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” and “An Old Fashioned Love Song.”  And, back in the 80s a random customer at the grocery store that I worked at said I looked like him (which I did not consider a complement).  I have since been told I look like Philip Seymour Hoffman, so I’ve got that going for me.

So this song starts with a rather dark and dramatic guitar riff.  When Williams starts singing, the lyrics are really dark and mean:

Winter comes and the winds blew colder
While some grew wiser, you just grew older
And you never listened anyway,
And that’s the hell of it.

But then the bridge comes in and it’s bright and uplifting (with chipper backing vocals and bouncy pianos). Although the lyrics remain dark dark dark:

Good for nothing, bad in bed
Nobody likes you and you’re better off dead
Goodbye, we’ve all come to say goodbye (goodbye)
Goodbye (goodbye)
Born defeated, died in vain
Super-destructive, you were hooked on pain
Though your music lingers on
All of us are glad you’re gone.

And then there’s another very short section section that is even more musically uplifting.  And yet the lyrics: are the most ruthless:

If I could live my life half as worthlessly as you
I’m convinced that I’d wind up burning too.

The music returns to that sinister guitar riff and the verses continue:

Love yourself as you loved no other
Be no man’s fool and be no man’s brother
We’re all born to die alone, you know, that’s the hell of it.

The last minute of the song  is all instrumental with that dark guitar sound underpinning a bright vaudevillian piano.  And since the song was from a  movie, I wonder if the end if all closing credits?

This song was written for the movie Phantom of the Paradise.  I have never heard of the film.  But I see that it was made by Brian DePalma, is a musical, starred Williams and was a mixture of of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust, with hints of Frankenstein, Psycho and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  Who would have guessed why it flopped (or why it now has a cult following).

Enjoy the strangeness:

[youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuYdFYltUr0&feature=player_embedded#!]

[READ:June 17, 2013] “After Black Rock”

Joyce Carol Oates has the final True Crimes story in this weeks New Yorker.  And her story is quite different from the others.  Indeed, it was quite delightful how varied the topics of this special series were.

This piece concerns JCO’s historical family.  Back in 1917, her mother’s father was killed in a bar fight (he was Hungarian and prone to violence).  This devastated their family because he was the primary source of income.  Her mother’s mother had nine children.  Most of JCO’s siblings already worked (long hours for little pay, because immigrant kids didn’t go to school and there were no labor laws at the time).

And then came the shocking thing:  JCO’s mother’s mother gave JCO’s mother away.  She was none months old, they couldn’t afford to feed her, so they gave her to newlywed relatives who desperately wanted a child.  They were John and Lena Bush (the Americanized version of Bùs).  She was raised by them–given some school and some farm work and basically treated as their own. (more…)

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Roger Angell–“The Crime of Our Life” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in Memoirs, New Yorker, Roger Angell, Tegan and Sara, Threats, True Crime on June 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Closer” (2013).

Tegan and Sara have teganandsarabeen making interesting folkie pop music for years.  While they’ve toiled in indie-land for years, their last album had a couple of songs that fell squarely into the pop world.

Well, “Closer” says, hey pop world, here we are.  It’s got everything that Tegan and Sara do well–catchy melodies and great harmonies–and it adds all manner of treacly delights to it.  There’s little keyboardy sound effects that sprinkle around the song.  There’s a big swirling keyboard chorus, and the song even slows down briefly so that it can build back up.

It’s frankly hard to swallow.  Aalthough I can appreciate just how well written it is.  And I hope they can make some cash off  of it.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “The Crime of Our Life”

Roger Angell’s True Crimes story talks about crime in New York City in the 70s and 80s.  I recall growing up and being afraid of the City (and for all that we complain that it has been Disney-fied and cleaned up, it is nice to not be worried about getting mugged on every dark street).  And Angell, who lived through it, has some less than cheery anecdotes to relate.But he opens with the good news: burglaries and street robberies are down 80% since 1990!  And, as he puts it, “even lifelong Manhattanites like me have almost forgotten the mixture of anxiety and scary anecdote we all shared back in the seventies and eighties.”

He gives some examples: leaving any place at night and immediately walking in the street if you saw someone even remotely suspicious on the sidewalk.  The friend of his who heard “Sorry, Mister, you’re going down” just before he did go down.  The friend who took karate lessons–and then wound up in the E.R.  And the other friend who took to carrying a sword/umbrella and had a chance to use it (with much success it turns out–“Yow–a fuckin’ sword”).  Even the Angells were broken into (their door taken off the hinges and leaned against the wall. (more…)

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David Peace–“The Ripper” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in 'til Tuesday, All Songs Considered, At The Drive-In, David Peace, Death, Le Butcherettes, Memoirs, Missing Persons, Mystery, New Yorker, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Teri Gender Bender, The Mars Volta, Threats, True Crime, Violence on June 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: BOSNIAN RAINBOWS-“Torn Maps” (2013).

bosnianBosnian Rainbows are the collaboration of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive In, Mars Volta) and Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes).  Interestingly, I normally think of Omar as being the dominant force in the music he makes, but for this song, it seems to be all Teri.  Teri is a Latina singer who takes no shit.  In her Tiny Desk concert, she is fierce and intense, and that comes across here as well.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is how synthy this song is.  It has a very retro feel–like a lot of 80’s bands (Missing Persons and ’til Tuesday’s darker moments and of course, there’s an element of Siouxsie in her voice as well).  But there is something especially intense that Teri brings to this song that takes it out of the realm of safe synth pop (perhaps it the dark bridge).  Omar peeks through a bit during the instrumental break which has a pretty wild guitar solo and some intriguing effects that I wish were more prevalent.

I’m fascinated by this song (although I wish I could hear the vocals more).

NPR is streaming this whole album as I write this, although I’m not sure if it will still be available as of this posting.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “The Ripper”

The second in the “True Crimes” series is from David Peace (an interesting name, hmmmm).  In this one, the year is 1977 and young David is obsessed with Sherlock Holmes (and I would assume Encyclopedia Brown, but he doesn’t mention the boy detective).  Peace was ten years old and set up his own detective agency, intent on solving all local small crimes.

And then he learned of the Yorkshire Ripper.  In the piece he says “I was a lonely ten-year-old boy who found the Yorkshire Ripper” which proves to be untrue.  That was a real bummer because that would have made a great story.  As it turns out, he thinks he has found the Yorkshire Ripper, but he hasn’t.

For those of us not following English serial killers, the Yorkshire Ripper was a man who killed dozens of women from 1977 to 1979.  Peace spent his time poring over clues, certain that he could find what the police could not.  And then came the breakthrough—a tape sent in to the local police station stating “I’m Jack.  I see you are still having no luck catching me.”  Peace listened to that tape (which was available at the local police station for the public to see if they could identify the voice) dozens of times.  And his prime suspect became his science teacher “Jock” Carter.  (more…)

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George Pelecanos–“Twisted” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Anna von Hausswolff, Dead Can Dance, George Pelecanos, Memoirs, Neko Case, New Yorker, Shoplifting, Swedish Music, Threats, True Crime, Unlikable main character on June 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF-“Funeral for My Future Child” (2013).

anna-von-hausswolffThis was selected as one of NPR’s favorite songs of the year (so far).

It’s probably hard to like a song with a title like that, but there’s something strangely compelling about the whole proceeding–the great intricate percussion and drums that start the song, the ponderous pipe organ that lays down the melody, and then Anna’s voice which has a country-ish feel (kind of like Neko Case), but also has a kind of Dead Can Dance vocal style.   Or perhaps that’s just because she is Swedish.

By the time the chorus comes around, the ache of the song is apparent.  And the end has more of that amazing percussion.  I rather like the beginning and the end of the song more than the middle, which I guess doesn’t say a lot for it, but it is intriguing.

Evidently this album is primarily full of pipe organ, an interesting choice for a rock album.  I’d be curious to hear more.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “Twisted”

As if anticipating that I would not be able to write posts this week, the New Yorker has supplied me with a series of very short “True Crimes” pieces.  In fact, the whole issue is a fiction issue, which means a half a dozen or so stories as well.   But it’s these “True Crimes” that will keep me posting this week.

The first is from George Pelecanos, and it’s a story of his own crimes.  He explains that when he was younger, he did all manner of illegal things but had never been caught (aside from a few minor infractions).  He broke into houses and stole records from someone he didn’t like.  He rode in a stolen car, stole wallets from strangers at stores (at this point I really don’t like this guy).  But he doesn’t try to make excuses for himself.  He was a boy and he was having fun.

But the crimes continues long past adolescence.  In 1985 he was 28 and got involved in a high-speed chase.  He was drinking and smoking pot at a wedding.  He and his fiancée stopped at a convenience store where he backed  into someone’s car.  A gang of people came out and the threat of violence was imminent.  But he hopped in his car, drove on the sidewalk and sped off with the police in pursuit. (more…)

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H.P. Lovecraft–“The Call of Cthulhu” (1926) and “The Whisperer in Darkness” (1930)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Dogs, Fantasy, Fears, Futurama, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, McSweeney's, Metallica, Michel Houellebecq, Pinkish Black, Short Story, The Birthday Party, The Sisters of Mercy on June 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

hpl;oveSOUNDTRACK: PINKISH BLACK-“Razed to the Ground” (2013).

pinkishblackAfter playing No Age, Lars Gottrich came in to show what real heaviness is with a new song from Pinkish Black.  Unlike most of Lars’ songs, this was neither death- nor speed- metal.  Rather it has a very 80s goth sound.  But it’s more Birthday Party than Sisters of Mercy.

There’s no guitars, just loud drums (with a lot of cymbals), a pulsing bass keyboard riff and some spacey high keyboard notes thrown along the top of the song.  There are elements that I liked about the story.  However, the synths in the solo give it a very cheesy horror movie feel and I have to admit that although I like a lot of bands from the era, this feels like a pale imitation.

[READ: June 20, 2013] “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Whisperer in Darkness”

Both of these stories appeared in Michel Houellebecq’s H.P. Lovecraft book, but I wanted to treat them separately for ease of searching and discovery.

After my long history with Lovecraft and after reading Houellebecq’s book, I anticipated being blown away by these stories.  And so, with my expectations so high, I was naturally disappointed.  I was especially disappointed with how normal these stories seemed.  Houellebecq made me think the stories were practically non-narrative in form—that they eschewed all manner of conventional storytelling.  That his writing was so weird that no one would publish it.  But in these two stories everything seems completely normal.  Psychologically these stories are different, but aside from content, they are fairly conventional stories.

Maybe they aren’t mind blowing because they were written nearly 100 years ago and the entire world has changed drastically since then.  It may also be because I have read all of the derivatives of Lovecraft enough that there’s nothing new in his work.  And it may also be that in the past 80 years, we have thought of things that are much scarier than these, in part because of Lovecraft himself.  Or maybe I would have been into them a lot more had I read them when I was a teenager.

“The Call of Cthulhu.” (more…)

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Michel Houellbecq–H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991) [translated 2005]

Posted in All Songs Considered, Biography, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Dorna Khazeni, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fears, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Metallica, Michel Houellebecq, Morality, No Age, Oddities, Racism on June 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

hpl;oveSOUNDTRACK: NO AGE-“No Ground” (2013).

An ObjectI’ve been hearing a lot about No Age lately, but I don’t really know much about them.  I keep thinking they are a different, older band (although I can’t think of which one for some reason).  Anyhow, this new song from their new album is a simple, propulsive rocker.  It starts out with some echoing guitar notes until the fast, fast bass comes in.

It’s followed by some quickly strummed guitars and low sung, almost chanted vocals.

The song feels like it builds speed throughout, although I don’t think it actually does.  I didn’t realize that there were only two guys in the band—and that explains their limited musical sound.  But unlike a number of other two person bands that I’ve really enjoyed as of late, this song feels a little flat.  There is some appeal to it, but overall I want a little bit more.

[READ: June 16, 2013] H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

I have been “into” H.P. Lovecraft for about thirty years.  Interestingly, I had never read anything by him in that time.  I got into him via Dungeons and Dragons which had a whole selection of monsters from the Cthulhu mythos.  And then Metallica did a song called “The Call of Cthulhu” and even though I bought several of his paperback collections and proudly displayed them, I never read them.  When McSweeney’s imprint Believer Books published this little title by the practically Lovecraftianly named Michel Houellebecq, I was excited to read it, too (because at this time I had assumed that I had actually read some Lovecraft).  But like my Lovecraft books, it languished on the shelf.

Until now.

I decided that it was time to finish off some of those McSweeney’s books that have been sitting on my shelf for years.  And this was on the top of my list. (more…)

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Cormac McCarthy–“Scenes of the Crime” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Canadian Music, Cormac McCarthy, Death, Drugs, Excerpt, Greed, Neko Case, New Yorker, Short Story, The Counselor, Threats, Violence, Yuck! on June 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: NEKO CASE-“Man” (2013).

neko-case-the-worse-things-getIt was Neko Case who got me out of my NPR summer music doldrums. From her new,  wonderfully titled album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, comes this fast, rocking track.

It has everything that Neko does great—fast, clever lyrics over a simple but propulsive beat.  There’s a cool, unexpected guitar squiggle at the end of each verse that just makes the song seem that much faster.  But it is just an uptempo stomper from the great Case.

The song slows down in the middle with just a bass and drums and then as Case starts singing about her manliness, a harpsichord plays over the back giving it a nicely pompous air.  Which is quickly deflated by the buzzy guitar solo.  The song is clever and pointed and very well done.

The only thing missing is a great Neko Case wail, but the song (and the lyrics) are too fast for her to hold any notes for too long.  I’m really excited about this new album from her,.

[READ: June 18, 2013] “Scenes of the Crime”

The New Yorker doesn’t often tell you when something is an excerpt, but this time they tell us right up front.  This is an excerpt from an upcoming Ridley Scott film written by McCarthy called The Counselor.

Although I am told that I would love McCarthy, I have never read him with any seriousness.  And from what I have heard of his writing I don’t think I would like him.  This excerpt is more or less a useless attempt to try and get any sense for McCarthy as a writer.

There is no dialogue.  Rather, it is just a series of scenes–shot after shot, establishing the action of the movie.

I have no idea if there is dialogue in the movie or not.  I would be really impressed if there was no dialogue during these scenes and this whole sequence took twenty some minutes–with no dialogue at all.  That would be pretty cool. (more…)

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