I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: VOIVOD-Killing Technology (1987).

As I said, this album’s art looks much better.  And you can hear from the first notes that this album is better produced and is going to be a lot more interesting than the previous two.  It’s hard to know just how much of a leap this is from Rrröööaaarrr because that album was so muddy–maybe there were gems of guitar chords under all that noise.  Like the previous openings, there’s a sort of prologue to the album.  But unlike the previous album’s swirls, this one is beeping with a computer voice announcing “we are connected”

The opening chords are heavy, but man they sound clear—like they weren’t recorded underground.  You can also hear all of Piggy’s weird higher notes—he’s playing complicated chords, not just solo notes.  And when the chorus of “Killing Technology” rolls around, it offers stop and start rhythms and Snake’s voice even goes up an octave at the end.  But the first real indication that Piggy is on to something new comes in the bridge. Underneath the robotic voice, Piggy is playing some really strange-sounding chords.  The story is that he had been admiring Robert Fripp’s guitar work and so he added some of those King Crimson-y angular weird chords to his repertoire.  And he melds them perfectly with the heavy thrash that the band had been playing.

Lyrically also, this album has moved away from killing and headaches.  “Killing Technology” while having “killing” in the title is a very different subject:

The star wars have started up
The new invention is coming out
Making a spider web over the atmosphere
To make them sure that we can’t get out of here

Computers controlling your functions
Seems like we got electronic alienation
Trading children for a new kind of robot
Waiting for the old people to disappear

Quite a departure from Rrröööaaarr’s “Fuck Off and Die”

Stand up, right now, kill

No pleasure, the pain comes down here
No return, don’t look back, there’s no tomorrow
And if you’re a fucker and don’t believe it
I’d say fuck off and die, fuck off and die

“Overreaction” leans more towards the heavier side—Snake screams a bit more—but the subject (nuclear disaster) is thoughtful.  Then comes their first truly amazing song: “Tornado.”  Not only building like a tornado, this song allows them to talk about violent imagery without resorting to bloodshed. It’s even scientific:

Cumulonimbus storms arrive
Lightning flashes a hundred miles around
Electrical collision course
Creates the elephant trunk

But the best part is the chorus—it’s simple enough (just the word Tornado repeated) but it’s completely catchy and sing-alongable with bright major key chords.

“Forgotten in Space” features some great drumming from Away—he’s really quite underrated both in speed and technique—which explands even more on later albums.  “Ravenous Medicine” is another highlight—an interesting series of uncomfortable chords opens this track about scientific research.  It’s a pretty fast, heavy song.  Although not too complicated except for the occasional breaks as the story progresses.

“Order of the Blackguards” is another fast song, but this one has so many parts that if you don’t like one, just wait a few seconds for the next one.  “This is Not an Exercise” ends the disc proper.  The middle section has a great heavy riff.  But it’s the beginning of the ending sequence which is so perfectly sci-fi that really sets the tone of the album and looks towards the next one.  It’s cool to think of Piggy playing these spacey chords on his guitar.  And when Blacky’s bass rumbles in to resume the song, it’s quintessential Voivod.

By th way, this disc is a concept album as well.  There’s a “Killing Side” (the first three songs) and a “Ravenous Side.”  The strange thing about the CD though is that they have added two tracks from their Cockroaches EP which is nice.  But they put one song at track 4 (the end of side one).  How odd to put a bonus track in the middle of a sequenced album.

The EP came out before the album and it has a slightly different feel from the album proper.  Although as a step towards Killing Technology it’s perfectly in sync.  “Too Scared to Scream” is heavy and has some interesting time changes—I love the way the song feels like it is crashing to a halt around 3:30.   “Cockroaches” feels like more traditional metal.  It opens with drums and Piggy playing a typical sounding metal solo.  Then the riffing starts and it’s very heavy indeed. Even the staggered section near the end sounds like a mosh section more than the prog time changes that Voivod uses on the album proper.  The song ends with Snake screaming as the cockroaches are coming.  A good ending to the EP and a pretty good ending to the disc.

The whole album has a very mechanical and robotic feel—the chords that Piggy plays just sound like mechanical failure, it’s very well constructed and foreshadows the music of their future.

[READ: July 9, 2013] Grantland #6

Grantland #6 covers from Sept 2012-Dec 2012.  Despite the short time frame, this is the largest issue yet.  And it maintains all the quality that I’ve come to expect from the book/magazine thing.  Which means, I love the writing (especially about people/sports I’m not that interested in).  And it also means that the editing is typically crap.  In this issue the editing was crap more because they simply forgot to remove mention of hyperlinks.  At least I assume that’s why sentences like “See here for ____” are included in any given article.  But yes, there are some very simple typos that Word would correct pretty easily.

But beyond that, I really enjoyed this issue.  And I’m finding it amusing how much certain people and shows crop up in a given time frame.  So this is a four month period and Kobe Bryant still dominates (there will never be an issue without at least one Kobe article).  But this time Homeland is the big show (since Breaking Bad has been on hiatus I gather).  Basketball remains the favorite sport here (even though they speak of football as being the most popular sport).

Chuck Klosertman and Charlie Pierce continue to write thoughtful (sometimes funny) articles.  And I like how there is still talk of Jeremy Lin even if Linsanity has gone away somewhat.

WESLEY MORRIS-“The Year of Superteams and Overdogs”
We seem to instinctively root for the underdog and yet this year The Miami Heat and The Avengers were hyped out of proportion–and they both succeeded.

BILL SIMMONS-“Lessons in NBA Leadership”
A very lengthy story about Bill Russell.  I didn’t know anything about him before, but i am impressed by him (and so is Kobe).

LOUISA THOMAS-“Up and Running”
After Hurricane Sandy it seemed irresponsible to run the New York Marathon.  But maybe if it had been handled better everyone could have gotten something out of it.

BILL BARNWELL-“Most Valuable Person”
Jim Harbaugh is a great NFL coach and he can be had for a song.

BILL SIMMONS-“Replacement Refs Mailbag”
Humorous jokes about those gawdawful substitute refs.

ANDY GREENWALD-“At the Crisis Center”
The first of two articles about Homeland in this issue.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“I Lived a CIA Conspiracy”
I did not know that Chuck Klosterman was now the New York Times’ Ethicist columnist.  How about that.  Anyhow, before General Petraeus’ scandal, Klosterman received a letter that sounds very similar to the Petraeus scandal.  Did he inadvertently out the General?

MOLLY LAMBERT-“Taylor Swift is Growing Up”
Taylor Swift is everywhere–even my kids’ friends are going to see her.  And yet this article makes it seem like maybe kids shouldn’t be seeing her anymore–she’s growing up!  I still don’t really like her.

RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“Me and Smush (and Kobe)”
Kobe stills picks on Smush (for reasons no one understands). Rafe was friends with Smush when they were little.  He once had a brush with semi greatness.

BEN AUSTEN-“The Plight of the Buffalo Bills”
A very lengthy piece about the Buffalo Bills and their fans and just what might happen to the city if the Bills are sold out of the city. A very enjoyable piece.

STEVEN HYDEN-“Warrior Princess”
All about Ke$ha

BRYAN CURTIS-“Marv Albert’s Homecoming”
A fascinating history of Marv Albert (real last name Aufrichtig) and his brothers, Al and Steve all of whom went on to be great announcers.  Incidentally, his father changed their name to Albert when they were young.

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“I Suck at Football”
Pappademas pledges to learn football.  And by the end of the season he’s scared at how into it he is.

REMBERT BROWNE-“The R&B Renaissance”
Miguel might just be the next Prince.

JONATHAN ABRAMS-“The Reinvention of Zach Randolph”
All about Zach Randolph and how he was a rowdy youth but is offering sage advice to his son.

EMILY YOSHIDA-“The Ballad of Taylor Armstrong” “Kim Richards Goes to Prom” “Not Actually a Housewife”
Stuff about Real Housewives (ick).

HUA HSU-“Golden State Superiority”
The Bay area dominated sports in 2012.

STEVE MARSH-“Eight Yards Short”
Adrian Peterson had an incredible season and came just 8 yards shorts of breaking the rushing record.

RANY JAZAVERLI-“The Knuckle Man”
An article about knuckleballers and R.A. Dickey in particular.  Dickey reinvented himself as a knuckleballer and yet despite his age he is pitching better than ever–Turns out that knuckleballers tend to improve with age unlike most pitchers.

REMBERT BROWNE-“Who Won 2012?”
A Top 16 brackets contest of who dominated 2012.  Spoiler: It was Jay Z’s posse the Knowles-Thronedashians.

CHARLES P. PIERCE-“The Hoosier Reawakening”
A revival comes to Bloomington Indiana basketball.

JONATHAN ABRAMS-“INSERT: The Greatest Team That Never Was”
A fascinating look at the Houston Rockets’ Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, known as the Twin Towers.  It revisits their historic season and Sampson’s last second winning basket against the Lakers.

CHRIS RYAN-“Nick Young is Trying to Kill Me”
A live blog of how bad Nick Young plays.  Very funny.

ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“Tony Scott, In Memorium”
Tony Scott made some good films before he killed himself.

JONAH KERI-“Giants Reign”
For me, an East Coaster, the Giants are of course the New York Giants, but this article is about the San Francisco baseball Giants (who?) and how they won by developing their team properly (oh, them)..

KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“The Kobe Assist”
Grantland (and all of basketball) loves Kobe.  And after all these articles I do too.  This one is how even when Kobe misses it’s most often just like a pass.  His teammates rebound and score percentage is incredible on his missed shots.

JAY CASPIAN KANG-“The Next Jeremy Lin”
Chris Tang is 16 years old and a top prospect, and because of Jeremy Lin, he will be in the spotlight as an Asian American player.

KATIE BAKER-“A Visit to Eden”
How Wisconsin and Minnesota love hockey regardless of what happens to the NHL and the lockout.

MICHAEL WEINRIB-“Legend of Johnny Football”
The success of Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M.

DAVID JACOBY-“The Failure Clinic”
A hilarious look at three crappy quarterbacks in one game–The Jets’ Sanchize and McElroy and Cardinals’ Lindley.  Hearing that even the announcers admitted how awful the game was during the game is very funny.

STEVEN HYDEN-“Extraordinary Machines”
The doomed celebrity couple that was Fiona Apple and Paul Thomas Anderson and how they have both thrived in the 2010s.

ROBERT MAYS-“All Hail J.J. Watt”
Sack title man, J.J. Watt.

DANIEL KELLISON-“Dinner with Denzel Washington”
An interview with Denzel.  It’s funny and a little weird.

AMOS BARSHAD-“The Sisyphean Adventures of Judd Apatow”
The long history of Apatow and how his failures made his successes possible.

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“Steve Sabol: 1942-2012”
Sabol’s father founded NFL films.

DAVID SHOEMAKER-“Vince Ex Machina”
Vince McMahon may be crazy but he’s smart crazy.

DAVID JACOBY-“Wanna Get Street, Bitch?”
About The Challenge, which I don’t know anything about.

RAFE BARTHOLOMEW and JAY CASPIAN KANG-“!Pacquiao, No Mas!”
The obligatory boxing match where Pacquaio was looking good until he just conked out.

BRIAN PHILLIPS, MARK LISANTI and TESS LYNCH-“The Great TV Faceoff”
This was an excerpt and it seemed like it, I didn’t feel the real faceoff here.

BRYAN CURTIS-“Indiana Jones and the Break Up”
Why is Temple of Doom so dark? Lucas was going through a divorce and was in a very dark place (that explains the screaming harpy that is Kate Capshaw).

BILL SIMMONS-“A Hierarchy of Hypocrites”
The commissioners of all the sports leagues suck.  Simply… they suck.  All of them.

BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Fallen Hero”
Lance Armstrong was more of an interesting story than a compelling athlete.  Most people who watched his Tour de France didn’t even know anyone else in the sport.  And his downfall is just a part of that narrative now.

MICHAEL WEINRIB-“Bo and Joe”
Joe Dudek appeared on a cover of Sports Illustrated with Bo Jackson.  He has more or less dropped out of sports, but he will always be linked (for some) with that famous Bo.  An interesting look at someone who did not succeed in sports but did succeed in life.

HARRIS WITTELS-“Humblebrag Power Rankings”
The Humblebrags of Tyler the Creator

WESLEY MORRIS-“Bad Hair Day”
What is up with Andrew Bynum’s hair?

SHANE RYAN-“The European Enemy”
Ian Poulter is a British golfer.  And Americans hate him and like to see him fail.  Which is exactly what he did not do at the Ryder Cup.

HUA HSU-“Linsanity Returns”
The first time Jeremy Lin played in MSG after no longer being a Knick.

ZACH LOWE-“The Five Percent”
This is a hypothetical article wondering if teams should anticipate a few more good years out of LeBron James and so defer their playoff plans–maybe not select the best players until a few years down the road?

AMOS BARSHAD-“In the Heights”
Junot Diaz returns to his old neighborhood.  And just why is he so slow of a writer?

NATE SILVER and BILL SIMMONS-“In Conversation”
You can’t admit failure in politics.

Name DAVE McKENNA-“Rooked”
How technology lets people cheat in chess tournaments.  This was fascinating and a totally unexpected topic.

MARK LISANTI-“The Six Most Mind-Bogglingly Expressive Claire Danes Faces”
Drawings of Danes in her Homeland anguish.

These articles are perfect for someone who used to follow sports but never cared enough about certain people.  Some of the articles are way too metric heavy (such is the nature of sports fans), but for the most part I can learn retroactively why someone was great or respected without actually having to do any kind of research–it’s like a casual friend telling you about something you missed.  Which I rather like.

This issue had three postcards included with it.  They are drawings of actresses, but the artist was not given and, I wasn’t always sure who the actresses were.