I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WAX FANGS-The Astronaut” (2014).

This is a 17 minute song that they played on All Songs Considered the other day.  And it is quite an epic.

It begins with a heavy guitar riff that pretty much proclaims that the song will be epic.  But it quickly morphs into a kind of Ok Computer-era Radiohead song for a few minutes.  At 4:30, the guitar solo kicks in and it seems possible that the song will be about 6 minutes in total.  Until the new bassline enters at 5:30.

Now the song takes on an epic space-rock feel.  The guitar sounds get very spacey and 70s Pink Floyd, there’s soloing and crazy effects.  And no more words.  The steady propulsive bass keeps the song moving along, slowly building and building.  Until the huge freakout at 11 minutes, when the drums crash in and the guitar gets noisy and then there’s a… saxophone solo?  I like the way the sax adds a new level of unexpected noise, but I don’t really think it “fits” very well in the song.  Luckily it’s not very long.

The song continues in this vein until it reaches the end where we get a big heavy metal crescendoed ending.  It is epic, indeed.

I simply can’t imagine what else would be on this record.

[READ: January 8, 2014] Fortunately, The Milk

I was delighted to see this book in the new section at the library.  I hadn’t realized that Gaiman was working on a new book, and this is a fun and light trifle of a tale.

It is a simple story about a how a carton of milk can save of the universe.

As the story opens, the kids’ mum has gone away to a conference.  And their dad is to be watching them.  She has given him a whole list of things to do while she is gone, like making sure they get to their appointed locations on time and that he reheats the food she has prepared.  And, lastly, to make sure he gets some milk as they are almost out.

Their dad was reading the paper, but he nodded and said okay.  But the next morning…there was no milk!  Their dad is not too sympathetic about the lack of milk for cereal until he realizes there is no milk for his tea.  So he volunteers to go to the shop and get some.

And he is gone for ages.

When he finally shows up with the milk, the kids ask him what took so long and wonder if he ran into someone he knew and lost track of time.  But he says no. And thus begins a tale of aliens and ocean pirates and piranhas (but wait, piranhas are freshwater, oh that’s right, they were later).  There’s a dinosaur in a hot air balloon, the Eye of Splod and even some ponies.

The kids, of course, doubt their father’s story, especially when events near the end of the story come to light.  And yet the punchline comes not with the text but with a final illustration.

The illustrations by Skottie Young are wonderful throughout the book.  He has a wonderful way with squiggly lines and odd shapes that make the fantastical story really fantastic.  I also liked this drawing of Gaiman holding milk which I am fairly certain is not by Skottie Young, but which I think is funny anyway.

This book was a lot of fun and I think would be a great deal of fun to read aloud to kids.