I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BECK/RECORD CLUB-SKIP SPENCE: Oar (2010).

Of the four Record Club discs, this is the only one I don’t own.  Although I do have a different covers collection called More Oar (which Beck also appears on). I may have never heard any of the original songs on this disc, so I can’t even compare them.

For those who don’t know (as I didn’t), Skip Spence was one of the founders of Moby Grape, a band who was vaguely successful in the late 60s and then sort of fell apart (especially when Spence tried to kill his bandmates and was put in an asylum for a year).

Beck doesn’t have anything special to say about why they picked this album.  But he must have been very excited that Wilco and Feist were around to play on it.  He says

This one took place last June when Wilco was in town for the release of their new eponymous album. They came by after a long day filming a TV appearance and still managed to put down 8 songs with us. Jamie Lidell was in the studio with me working on his new record. Leslie Feist happened to be in town editing her documentary and heard we were all getting together. Recording took place at Sunset Sound Studios in the room where the Stones did a lot of Exile On Main Street (and looking at the records on the walls it appeared that the Doobie Brothers recorded most of their output there too). Sitting in on drums, we had James Gadson, who’s played on most of the Bill Withers records and on songs like ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘I Will Survive.’ Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer played played additional drums. Also, Brian Lebarton, from the last two Record Club sessions is back.

And if you don’t know what Record Club is, see the summary on yesterday’s post.

Wilco plays on 8 tracks (of 12) and they sound great.  Indeed, overall this is the most “professional” sounding recording.  Which is not to say that they don’t have fun. It sure sounds like they do.

Little Hands (2:59).  This has a traditional folk band sound.  It’s a great recording.
Cripple Creek (4:14).  This is not THAT “Cripple Creek,” by the way.  “Jamie takes the lead and Gadson gets behind the kit, while Beck and Brian back them.”  There’s a funky drum breakdown in the middle.
Diana (3:48).  Another good sounding song.
Margaret/Tiger Rug (2:27). This song is a little boppy and slightly silly sounding, but not really that silly.
Weighted Down (The Prison Song) (4:58) “Feist takes the lead this week with Nels Cline arpeggiating some ridiculous 64th notes on a toy guitar.”  Feist adds some beautiful vocals to this song.
War In Peace (5:04).  This begins a little slow and shambolic but it soon builds into a full band that gets even crazier when they start playing “Sunshine of Your Love.”  It was fun to hear them let loose.
Broken Heart (3:39).  This sounds like a traditional song.  A little drunken and fun–a nice duet with Feist.
All Come To Meet Her (2:02).  This is a simply beautiful harmonized a capella rendition.
Books Of Moses (7:21) “Gadson lays down the heaviest RC beat ever, while Jamie loops his voice into a voice army and Brian plays some kind of octagon shaped synth.”  This had a kind of Primus-y weird synth opening.  But as Jamie loops his voice over and over it sounds really good, although it is too long.
Dixie Peach Promenade (Yin For Yang) (3:56).  This is a synthy bouncy song.  It’s a little silly, especially with th Ace of Base coda at the end.  But it sounds good.
Lawrence of Euphoria (5:17).  The lyrics of this song are very silly. This version has a fake cowbell and  funky bass but is otherwise just electronic drums and vocals.
Grey/Afro (7:35).  This has echoed vocals and noisy bass.  It’s hard to figure out what’s going on here, especially at the chaotic ending. But it’s nice to hear them all let loose a bit.

As I said, I don’t know how this compares to the original, but I really enjoyed it.

[READ: March 23, 2014] White Girls

This book was madly hyped and I was pretty excited to read it (even though to be honest I didn’t know if it was fiction or non-fiction–and wasn’t even entirely sure as much as half way through the first piece).  I knew Als’ name from the New Yorker, although I wasn’t really conscious of having read anything by him.  It turns out I read one of these essays in McSweeney’s 35 about four years ago.  The fact that I didn’t remember reading that essay does not speak all that well about it.  But overall I enjoyed most of the essays in the book quite a lot; however, the two longest ones I found, well, way too long.  And I honestly don’t understand the title.

Overall the book is a collection of essays (often told from an interesting perspective, like from the dead person’s first point of view).  The problem with pretty much every essay in the book at least for me was that Als presupposes a base knowledge of these people.  Without that, the essays can be frustratingly vague and unclear.  But again, these people are all famous enough that it seems likely that one would have that base knowledge (even if I don’t).  I do wish there was a small bio or even a photo with these essays (as there was with the Truman Capote one) as I feel that grounded me nicely.

I was a lot more confused by his essays that were more personal.  I didn’t really understand the context for what he was talking about, since i know very little about him.  And as you’ll see from the first essay, he covered a lot in a very un-straight way.

“Tristes Tropiques”
This very long (95 pages) essay sets the tone for the book.  It talks about Als’ upbringing, which was complex and difficult.  Evidently a lot of this topic was covered in his first book The Women, and addresses ethnicity, gender and sexuality, including his Barbadian childhood.  He grew up surrounded by women and was treated like one–to the detriment of men.  He speaks of his love for SL (Sir/Lady) a man who was raised by lesbian separatists.  And I have to say, this entire essay was very very confusing to me  Since I knew nothing about Als, I had no frame of reference for what he was talking about.  I didn’t really enjoy this essay very much, although I found the end to be a bit more interesting than the lengthy beginning.  I feared this would set a tone of the rest of the book, but it doesn’t.  However, it certainly impacted how I read all of the other essays, which was a benefit overall.

“The Women”
This first short essay is about Truman Capote and his very effeminate pose on the back of Other Voices Other Rooms.  It looks at Capote as a gay man and a southerner.  I really enjoyed this essay a lot and it offered insights I’d never considered before.

“This Lonesome Place”
This essay was about Flannery O’Connor and was also excellent.  Als really digs into these writers and gets to their core.  It was really intense and powerful.

“GWTW”
How can one watch Gone with the Wind and not think about the “unfortunate niggers stupid enough to get caught and hanged in America, or am I supposed to say lynched?”  This essay is not really about Gone With the Wind, but is about being black in America (as most of the essays are).

“Philosopher or Dog?”
This essay looks at the role of Louise Little–Malcolm X’s mother–and his relationship with her (and he compares it to his own relationship with his mother).

“White Noise”
This essay is about Eminem, whom Als respects.  This is the first piece that I’ve read about Eminem which made me think that he was more than just a jerky white rapper.

“Michael”
This essay looks at Michael Jackson but also at James Baldwin and the state of black performers in America.  Again, this was a wonderfully written and powerful essay.

“The Only One”
I was fascinated by this essay about André Leon Talley, a person who I only know from America’s Next Top Model.  I had no idea that he was so respected (talk about slumming it).  It’s a fascinating look at being a big, gay black man in America and the world.

“I am the Happiness of This World”
This essay is written in the first person from the point of view of  Louise Brooks, about whom I know very little.  But it is a very good look at her life in and out of film.

“Buddy Ebsen”
I know even less about Buddy Ebsen.  The premise of this essay is that the gays “made him” even though he himself was straight and may have been rather homophobic. This was one of those essays which presumed a knowledge of the subject that I just didn’t have so some basic details eluded me.

“A Pryor Love”
A look at Richard Pryor, whom I did know.  I really enjoyed this essay and learned a lot about him.

“You and Whose Army?”
This was the essay I had read in McSweeney’s which at the time was called: ”His Sister, Her Monologue”
And this is what I wrote then and which I completely and utterly agree with now:

This is a biography of Richard Pryor’s sister: porn movie voice over actress and opinionated woman.  As I read this, some of the details of Pryor’s life that the story mentions I knew to be true, but I have no idea if he has a sister or not. so I don’t know if this story was researched or not.  The piece is very long and very detailed. It is also quite funny (not Richard Pryor funny, mind you, but funny).  But I think it may have been too long.  By the time the piece got to the Cancer Bitch (lots of bitches in the story), I felt like it had gone on a bit long.

“It Will Soon Be Here”
This is a brief essay about being a boy growing up surrounded by women and shame.

So this proved to be a compelling book.  I wished I’d had more context, but what I understood I enjoyed a lot.