I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before (2011).

This is a “rarities” collection that was originally to be released as part of their released at the same time greatest hits.  I put rarities in quotes because the collection is actually rather disappointing–there are a lot of unreleased tracks, but they are primarily demos of more recent songs which don’t sound all that different from the actual recorded versions.  There are a few live tracks (the best thing on here) and one or two otherwise unreleased tracks–but not the unreleased tracks that came on that greatest hits record (Disc One).

“I Don’t Get It Anymore” is the only track on the disc that didn’t get a more formal release elsewhere (except for one obvious exception).  It is a slow ballad type song—the kind that BNL had been heading more towards as they matured. It’s a good, solid song and the combination of Page and Robertson makes this song always enjoyable.

“Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!” was released as a B-side (although this is said to be a “Stereo Mix” whatever that means).  “Half a Heart” was re-recorded for Are Men.

That leaves some demos and here’s where most of my complaints lie, for two different reasons.  “The Old Apartment” is nice to hear but it is an acoustic guitar version done solely by Page.  It’s also clearly an early version, because it lacks all of the oomph that makes the final product so good.  I know it’s a demo, but some demos are better than other.  The other bummer demo parts are actually too close to the final product.  “Second Best” eventually appeared on Everything to Everyone, this is a demo version  “I Can I Will I Do” is a demo that appeared on Are Me.  “Adrift” is a pretty, string-filled version of the song from Are Men.  The sad thing is I can’t tell what’s different about them.  The final demo “Long While” is a song that never appeared elsewhere (but would likely have appeared on Everything.  It sounds finalized and not like a demo and it, along with the first song are nice new tracks for fans.

There’s a remix of “One Week” which has been released already and which is frankly pretty boring.  It’s got a few extra lines sampled and a few extra sounds, but otherwise not all that different from the original.

That leaves the lives songs, which, as I said, are a treat.  “The Same Thing” is a very enjoyable live version.  The strange thing about that live song is that the crowd seems absolutely wild—full of screaming young girls.  It sounds a little phony given the BNL shows I’ve been to (were they that huge in 1992/93).  But those same cheers are on “Teenage Wasteland” a song which has not been elsewhere.  The intro to the song is very funny and the song itself is really good.  Shame it didn’t get an official recording.

The final track is the huge highlight though.  It’s a faithful cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Shake Your Rump.”  It is fun and surprisingly right on.  This recording comes from Santa Maria Hilton on 10/13/1994–they played this song a lot during that tour.

Those few highlights aside, this collection a pretty big disappointment.  BNL has some great stuff in their archives (including all of their earlier tapes that deserve a proper release).  Are the Ladies to mature to release this old stuff?  Let’s hope not.  It’s been 20 years after all.

[READ: August 7, 2013] “Now Where Did I Leave that Oxygen Tank”

I have been disappointed with a lot of Shouts and Murmurs lately—many feel like a one note joke that goes on and on.  And so I’ve gotten to the point where I read the first paragraph, determine if it’s going to be funny and more of ten than not, just skip it.  Short, humorous pieces take many shapes, and many people can do wonders in this format (Simon Rich springs to mind because her brings in a dozen different ideas in one piece).  Woody Allen is another for very different reasons.  He knows how to write short comic pieces that are a story unto themselves and which end up being very satisfying.

And this is a very good one, despite the somewhat unpromising title (and illustration which gives a bit away).

And yet, how’s this for a great opening that is ultimately full of misdirection:  “How my wife was able to transmute the ingredients of an award-winning recipe for chocolate brownies into twelve perfect squares of granite was a feat that only medieval alchemists could appreciate.”  The man ate the brownie and is in the dentist’s office.  Where he reads about patients getting things stitched up in them after surgery (6000 a year the USA Today says).

A lot of writers like to throw in absurdities, but to my ear absurdity either works great or falls flat.   Allen’s works great.  His protagonist is a playwright.  And his complaint is that a critic compared his recent play “to typhus.”  Outstanding joke.  The playwright has suffered from writer’s block, but now he seizes upon the lost items tidbit and works though a new play.

And what I loved was that the play is not about a person getting something stitched inside him (that is an element, but it’s no the basic plot). Rather, he creates a crazy story triangle involving a doctor, a woman named Palestrina and her old world Hungarian rug trader father named Mr Tatterdemalian.  Allen has so much fun with names, especially borderline offensive ones like the other Hungarian named Larry Fallopian.  And the plain silly Murray Vegetarian.

Recounting the saga of this presumed play would be too elaborate (after much unpacking) so, suffice it to say that there is a concern about finances, until Dr Postpistle (another great name) realizes that he has won the Powerball.  And although he still has a surgery to perform, his mind is elsewhere.

You can see how this ties back to the original idea of the play, but I was delighted not only by what got left inside the patient, but also by what might have been inserted instead.  Not to mention that the patient ultimately becomes involved with the story.  The way the story is resolved is very funny as well.

Oh and the name Nurse Waxtrap is going to make me laugh every time I think of it.

Woody Allen may write dramatic films these days, but his short funny pieces are still fantastic.