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Archive for March, 2014

Mathieu Mariolle, Minikim & Pop–Nola’s Worlds 1: Changing Moon (2010)

Posted in Completed Series, Erica Olson Jeffrey, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Huh?, Mathieu Mariolle, Minikim, Pop, Supernatural on March 11, 2014| 2 Comments »

nola1SOUNDTRACK: BECK-“Loser” singles (1994).

loserBeck has a new album out so I decided to listen through his back catalog for some context.  Which meant going back to “Loser” and beyond.  The first few things he put out all came around the same time.  So even though there are dates for when things were recorded, it’s not always clear what really came first.  Since the three full lengths all came out in 1994 and this single came out before Mellow Gold, I have arbitrarily decided to start here.

I own two “Loser” singles.  They both have the same cover, although one was an import.  The first one was the obligatory “this song is huge” single.  The second was because it had the delicious B-side “MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack.”

The US CD features 4 B sides, which really demonstrated the variety of styles that he would bring to the album.  They don’t quite span the gamut of the things he had recorded on his other records, but you hear the catchiness and the weirdness as well as the utter chaos (at the end of “Fume”).

All of the songs are well-produced but not glossy.  “Corvette Bummer” seems like it should have been on the album.  “Soul Sucking Jerk (Reject)” is a different version than the album version.  It’s less interesting musically (it’s quite stripped down) and the chorus is really quite different.  I prefer the album version, but it’s interesting to hear this variant.  “Fume” is a funny song about huffing fumes (I thought Scientologists were anti-drugs).  It’s a silly song that is kind of anti-folk until the screaming noise that takes up the large portion of the end.

My UK single also has “Corvette Bummer” but it includes the mellow folky song “Totally Confused” which really shows the more folky side of him that he demonstrated before releasing Mellow Gold (and later on subsequent albums).  “MTV” is a bizarrely wonderful song. It starts off as a kind of spontaneous (so many of his early lyrics seem spontaneous) dis of MTV.  After a verse, the song stops, the engineer asks, what’s the matter, and then the song morphs into a lounge piano song also called “MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack.”  Beck totally morphs his singing voice into a lounge lizard style and the song just gets goofier and weirder  It’s a wonderful B-side.  And these two singles really show what early Beck would be all about.

[READ: March 9, 2014] Nolas’ Worlds #1

Nola’s World is a three-part graphic novel series. I never would have guessed it was originally French (true, author Mathieu Mariolle’s name should have clued me in, but you never really know).  Anyhow, it was translated very naturally by Erica Olson Jeffrey.

The book is set in Alta Donna, a beautiful peaceful paradise on the water.  Which is utterly boring.  Nola’s parents are divorced and Nola’s mom works so much that Nola barely sees her.  (her parents are peripheral to the story but essential to Nola).  No unrelated, she also tends to be late for school a lot.

There’s a new boy at school named Damiano.  He’s a good-looking and interesting guy.  He also has a sister Ines, who seems to get away with whatever she wants–in school, out of school, everywhere.  And Nola makes it her mission to find out what is going on with them. (more…)

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Zsuzsi Gartner–“We Be Naked” (The Walrus, March 2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Douglas Coupland, Giovanni Boccaccio, Language, Rheostatics, Short Story, The Walrus, Word usage, Zsuzsi Gartner, tagged on March 10, 2014| 1 Comment »

walrusmarchSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Linwood Movie Theatre, Port Dover, ON (December 4, 1999)

portThis is the final concert on of the 20th century on Rheostatics Live (and I’ll be taking a short break from the Rheos concerts after this one).  Even though the site doesn’t list the venue, in the previous show they say they are playing at the Linwood Movie Theater in Port Dover.  As with every other venue, I can’t find any information about this, so I’ll just accept it as true.

The last few shows were recorded from the soundboard, so this one is a little jarring to hear the audience so loudly.  But the sound is good and clean.

They say during the show that they are going to play songs from all 10 of their albums. And they do a pretty good job.  They miss playing something from Greatest Hits (which is kind of a surprise as everyone was shouting for “Wendell Clarke.”  Unsurprisingly they do not play anything off of Group of 7, and, in what I think of as a huge surprise—nothing off of Introducing Happiness—they almost always play something from that album anyway.

The set is comprised mostly of Harmeldia and Melville songs and it’s quite a good one.
“I Fab Thee” even invites audience participation.

This show also has one of the great dialogues between fans and band.  Someone asks if they have CDs available for sale.  Dave says, yes in the lobby.  She asks if they have them anywhere else and he replies “Is the lobby not convenient enough for you, ma’am?” to much laughter.

It’s a good show to end the millennium on. And I look forward to seeing what 2000 brings in their live shows.

[READ: March 6, 2014] “We Be Naked”

I have really enjoyed Gartner’s stories in the past but this one rubbed me the wrong way from the start.  I do not like stories where language is deliberated misused and not explained.  I am fine with dialect and I am fine with uneducated narrators, but when a narrator appears educated enough yet consistently gets something wrong and there is no explanation, that story has a massive strike against it.

So when the story starts

We be naked, not nude. Something to remember as the memory of us moves into the slipstream. Nude is in the eye of the beholder, naked a true enough fact.

I thought the “we be” part was an affectation of that first line.  The rest of the language is quite beautiful.  But no, the word “be” is used as the verb throughout the story.  In more and more irritating ways: “Or demands be modest.  We not be asking…”  Ugh. So what has caused the slip in the most basic verb use that English speakers have?  Especially when two sentences later we get this beautiful piece of prose:

And lay down your arms and pick up your instruments, music being the only true and beautiful man-made thing in this world.

Well, the story begins in April 2014 (which I liked) after the collapse of the Kyoto Protocol after the Pirate Party Bombings.  For almost two years since then they be chill.  Shudder. (more…)

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Tom Watson–Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog: Another Really Good Story with Kind of Bad Drawings (2013)

Posted in Babymetal, C., Children's Books, Dogs, Food, Funny (ha ha), Short Books, Tom Watson on March 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

stickhotSOUNDTRACK: BABYMETAL – いいね！- Iine!

babymetaI had to throw another BABYMETAL song up here, but what else to choose?  The options are astounding–the live version of “Gimme Chocolate!” where you can see them actually sing (and dance) along to the headbanging band?.  Or “ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング – Doki Doki☆Morning” which shows the band actually playing (although they are covered head to toe in skeleton costumes and has a chorus like Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”.  Or even “Death” which opens with some super heavy metal chords and chanting has the cute little girls singing about death.  But I chose this song whose name I don’t even understand-even the English part.

It has fast heavy guitars but the song is primarily taken over by staccato vocals and melodies.  It has one of the girls processed into death metal vocal.

And then comes the chorus which is nothing but pure J-pop–frenetic and treacly.  And then, at 1:35 (yes this has all been in about 90 seconds) the three girls start rapping. Yes.  Then at 2 minutes the whole thing reverts into the heaviest of death metal growls and a wild and catchy guitar solo.  By 2:45 the song has turned into a super fast rave up with pogoing.  And your brain just turns to mush as you want to dance along.  Surrender to the power of BABYMETAL, before they graduate from junior high.

[READ: March 5, 2014] Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog

The second Stick Dog book follows the same basic format as the first one.  And I have to admit that while I laughed, I found it a little bit samey.  I hope the third book can keep the freshness factor).

It lacks the amusing narrator introduction that the first one had (there is some, but it’s much more brief).  And, surprisingly, the book is 40 pages longer.  This time Stick Dog and his friends are after some hot dogs.  The book is lengthened because each time there are possible ideas for the dogs to have, Watson really runs with them (it was a highlight in book one).  This pads out the book quite a lot and even the narrator makes a (quite funny) joke about delayed gratification.

But indeed, there were some very funny sequences and scenarios.  And of course the mocking of the drawings is very funny (the pancake or UFO picture is very good).

This time, instead of getting hamburgers from a family, the dogs are after hot dogs from Peter, the man with the cart that says Peter’s Frankfurters.  (There’ a very funny sequence in which the narrator explains that the dogs, or at least Stick Dog, can read and how they can do so).  How are these hungry dogs going to get the hot dogs from Peter? (more…)

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Tom Watson–Stick Dog: A Really Good Story with Kind of Bad Drawings (2013)

Posted in Babymetal, C., Children's Books, Dogs, Food, Funny (ha ha), Jeff Kinney, Kawaii, Short Books, Tom Watson on March 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

stickdogSOUNDTRACK: BABYMETAL – メギツネ – Megitsune (2013).

baby My friend Lar introduced me to this colossal mash-up known as Babymetal just yesterday, and I am utterly hooked by this completely fabricated band.

The visuals absolutely make this song what it is, because without seeing it you probably can’t imagine what is actually happening.

This song is a super heavy thrash metal song.  Even when a hyperkinetic keyboard riff gets laid over the top of it, it still maintains that thrashy sound.  Then three junior high school aged girls start singing.  In Japanese.  The lead singer has a great voice that fits in very well especially around the 90 second mark when the song gets very catchy and swerves into a pop metal vein.  The other two sing in very high-pitched, only-in-Japan voices.  Some time around 2 minutes she starts screaming (heavily processed) adding a  whole new dimension of noise to the song.  And we all like the break around 3:12 which has a brief spoken word section (man I wish I knew what she was saying).

And so this winds up being a meeting of death metal and J-Pop.  And your mind will explode when you watch it.  The video shows the three girls doing their best kawaii–being adorable, in school girl outfits–while headbanging.  And the musicians behind them are all wearing masks and playing traditional Japanese-looking obi and drums while shredding like maniacs.

Everything about this is so artificial that I just love it.  Looking for any info about them, really all you read about is the three girls, there is no mention of the musicians who play amazingly fast and precise shredding guitars solos and can also switch gears into pop and (on some other songs) dance and rap.  I have no idea what this song is about, but I am totally hooked on it.  I imagine this will be a passing phase, but man, what a fun one to get hooked on.

[READ: March 3, 2014] Stick Dog

C. wanted me to grab him this book at the library and then proceeded to devour it in a few minutes. Then he suggested I should read it too.  So I did, and I devoured it pretty quickly too.  Obviously the precedent of the Wimpy Kid books is at play here–a short funny book that combines paragraphs of text and simple drawings, but this story doesn’t really have anything really in common with the Wimpy series.  Because this is all about a dog.

Stick Dog lives alone in a tunnel (but Watson assures us not to feel badly for him).  He has four friends: Poo-Poo (C. loved that name) who is a poodle; Stripes, a dalmatian; Karen, a dachshund and Mutt, a mutt.  The very simple plot of this story is that Stick Dog and his friends want to steal hamburgers from a family picnicking in the park.  That’s it.

The joy of the book is listening to Stick Dog (the smart ones) and his friends (mm, not so smart) try to figure out how to accomplish this task.  Watson prefaces the story by explaining that he could just write “woof woof” but it’s much easier for everyone if he just translates it into English for us.  The dogs are easily distracted by squirrels and garbage.  But when they put their minds to it, they come up with over-elaborate plans (and are offended when Stick Dog points out their lack of common sense).  And just as they are sure to go on a plan that works, Karen gets lost in the tall grass, and the others spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to best remember her. (more…)

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Tori Amos and Samuel Adamson–The Light Princess: A Musical (2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Dance, Fantasy, Nature, Phish, Play (Drama), Rheostatics, Samuel Adamson, Sex, Short Books, The Light Princess, Tori Amos, Violence, William Shakespeare, tagged on March 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

toriSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Boo Radley’s Guelph ON (December 3 1999).

booLike the previous show, this one is also a shortened set because of technical problems in the recording.  We don’t hear the technical problems–the bad songs were just left out.  There’s some static on the first song, but otherwise the sound quality is very good.

Dave tells everyone that Harmelodia is coming out on Tuesday.  They play a lot of songs from the album and some that are not, like “Used to It” and “Superdifficult” (which would eventually come out on Shooting Stars.

There’s some wonderfully crazy nonsense in “Four Little Songs.”  It’s practically Phish-like with the silliness they throw into it, and it ends with a great dig new wave sequence.  “Stolen Car” has been getting some great renditions in the last few shows, and this ne is no exception. There’s an excellent solo and an interesting ending which is basically a cappella.

This is another great show that nearly closes out 1999.

I have found real evidence that Boo Radley’s existed as a club as late as 2002, but amazingly there are no pictures of the place.  Someone needs to make a book out of small clubs across Canada.

[READ: March 6, 2014] The Light Princess

I had no idea that Tori Amos was involved in a musical.  I saw this book at work and was really intrigued.  Evidently it has been in the works for many years and was even supposed have been finished in 2012, but these things take time.  The book was a little vague about the history of the musical, but after a little searching I discovered that the story is based on a 19th-century Scottish fairytale (see a summary of the Fairy Tale from Wikipedia).  This version has music and lyrics by Tori Amos and a book and lyrics by Samuel Adamson.  They have morphed the story quite a bit but it definitely retains some of the original elements.

As it turns out those original elements were the things I liked best about it–maybe i should just watch the children’s version of the story that i saw on YouTube.  In this version the princess, whose name is now Althea,’ was the only person in her village not to cry when her mother died when she was 6.  This makes her lighter than air and she can only remain on the ground if she is tethered.  I liked this idea a lot and I was hoping for an interesting fantastical world to enter.

There are two countries which are at war, Althea’s country of Lagobel (which is rich in gold, but has no water) and Sealand (which has water, but no gold)–there is a dangerous Wilderness (full of dragons) that separates the two countries.  They are at war for resources (although we know that Lagobel is better because it is Sealand that starts the fight).  Sealand attacks Lagobel effectively destroying its military.  The King of Sealand believes that by killing Althea (the last in line to the throne), he will have all the gold to himself.  So the king sends his son Prince Digby to kill Althea.  (There’s a lot more backstory and deaths of family members which sets up this challenge). (more…)

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Kate Hewlett–The Swearing Jar (2013)

Posted in Kate Hewlett, Marriage Trouble, Play (Drama), Pregnancy, Rheostatics, Short Books, tagged on March 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hewSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Angry Buddaz Kitchener, ON (November 7, 1999).

07Dec1999For reasons I’m unclear about there were only two available shows from 1998 for the Rhesotatics.  Similarly, there are only three from 1999.  Actually, I’m surprised there are so many shows available from so long ago at all, so no complaints, but it’s funny to see the drop off in these final two years.  These late 90s shows are notable for being short, primary because of technical glitches.  Like this one, which sounds great but because of technical snafus the first 8 songs of the show were missed.

It’s a particular shame because the show sounds so good.  They play some Harmelodia songs which is fun.  Beyond that the version of “Stolen Car” is awesome.  “Feed Yourself” has a very lengthy jam including some poetry.  They also have some fun with it being near the new millennium with a funny “outer space” sound.  And they play some “jingles” like a made up one for Snapple and one for Marlboro–the smoke that hurts.

The final song, which comes from Harmelodia has a very country music feel in this version, which is interesting–it’s not something they do much.  So this was another good show, shame about us missing so much of it.  And about the fact that Angry Buddaz does not come up on any searches as a real club.

[READ: March 6, 2014] The Swearing Jar

Once again a flurry of books have come across my desk which I felt compelled to read (even though I have other things waiting impatiently for me).  But how to resist a play called The Swearing Jar.

This play is set up in a nonlinear style which is excellent for the way the story is told.  It is actually a very simple story of love and loss.  And swearing.

As the play opens we see Carey and Owen on a stage (in fact the way the play opens sounds quite ingenious–and involves audience participation).  They are on stage performing for Carey’s husband’s birthday.  She has written many songs including, as the play opens properly, the first one which she actually wrote for him before they met.

Then there are flashbacks.  We see Carey and Simon together (we don’t see them meet)–we see them happy together as she explains that she is pregnant.  We also see that he was going to tell her something but is now holding off because of her news.  Despite their happiness, their relationship is somehow fraught–not really in danger, but there’s a lot of bickering and simple misunderstandings which imply I think more volatility than actually exists. (more…)

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Lucy Knisley–Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (2013)

Posted in Adventure, Big Sugar, Canadian Music, Cook Book, Culture Shock, First Second :01, Food, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Lucy Knisley, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Rheostatics, Travel, tagged on March 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

relishSOUNDTRACK:RHEOSTATICS-World Next Door Festival, Winnipeg, MB (September 5, 1998).

wndI was pretty excited to hear this outdoor festival version of the Rheostatics.  I knew the show would be short (and it is at about 45 minutes), but i imagined the entire feel of the show would be different in this setting.  What surprised me is that the recording is taken from a CBC radio broadcast of the show (which in and of itself is pretty cool).  But the recording is terrible!  The sound is bad and there are dozens of stops in the tape.  Bummer (especially when Aliens gets cut off).

Perhaps the most enjoyable part is when Dave says there’s going to be a double neck guitar war between Martin and Gordie Johnson (he was the front man for Big Sugar, a band I don’t know.  They apparently headlined the festival and he plays a mean double neck guitar).

Strangely enough I can’t find out anything about this festival which apparently doesn’t exist anymore.

[READ: March 5, 2014] Relish

Sarah read and really enjoyed this graphic novel. She said I would like it too and she was right.

This is a collection of memories from Knisley.  She writes about growing up in a family of foodies and how at a very young age she at anything.  She even began to crave unusual foods (in one short piece, she says that as a child she craved sautéed mushrooms).  But what’s cool about the story is that although she was raised in a snobby food way (you she see her father’s reaction to McDonald’s and her mother’s reaction to ketchup) she still appreciated junk food. She says, “Anyone who can fail to rejoice in the enticing squish/crunch of a fast food French fry or the delight of a warmed piece of grocery-store donut, is living half a life.”

At the end of each chapter is a recipe for something from the book.  The recipes are pretty simple, although some of them have extravagant ingredients (like her Chai Tea which sounds amazing, but is frankly too full of expensive ingredients for me to ever make–cardamom pods, star anise? No way.).  However, her recipe for marinated lamb sounds delicious and uses only the most basic ingredients. (more…)

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Yoko Tawada–The Bridegroom Was a Dog (stories) (1994) [translated 1998]

Posted in Advice, Dogs, Dreams, Fables, Margaret Mitsutani, Rheostatics, Sex, Sexism, Short Books, Short Story, Small Books, Surreal, Trains, Translation, Travel, Yoko Tawada, tagged on March 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

dogSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Music Hall, Toronto, Ontario (May 2, 1998).

musichalThis show sounds different from all of their other live shows on Rheostatics Live around this time.  I don’t know much about The Music Hall, but it sounds like a more formal venue–like a bigger, perhaps seated, crowd.

There is also a string section and the ever reliable Kevin Hearn playing along with them.  Well, string section might be stretching it–there are musicians from UofT playing along with them, including beautiful violins on “Self Service Gas Station” and a surprise flute on “Take Me in Your Hand.”  There’s also a bunch of the musicians playing along on “King of the Past” which means I finally get to hear the great end section with a violin–but it gets cut off!  Agh.

With Kevin playing with them, they showcase some tracks from the Group of 7 release (which they explain didn’t have titles but now sort of do).  So they play “Boxcar Song” and “Yellow Days Under a Lemon Sun.”  They also play “Monkeybird” which they say is from Harmelodia (even though it’s not out yet).

There are a lot of glitches and weird things happening with this tape which is kind of a shame as it is a pretty unique concert.  It’s also only 90 minutes, which might just means a lot of the show was cut off.

[READ: January 3, 2014] The Bridegroom was a Dog

I bought this book years ago based on some recommendation or other.  Then I recently received a new version of it from New Directions.  Their version was just the title story.  This original book (which had the same translator, Margaret Mitsutani) contains the title story and two other longish stories.

Because I just read the other book (and its the same translation) I didn’t re-read “Bridegroom.”  But I did read the other two stories “Missing Heels” and “The Gotthard Railway.”

“Bridegroom” was certainly a weird story.  But “Missing Heels” may be even stranger.  I say this because of what may or may not be deliberate ambiguity in the word heel.  As the story begins the protagonist is stared at by people because of her heels.  I assumed she meant the heels of her shoes.  But by the end of the story it seems that she means the heels of her feet, which is even stranger. (more…)

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César Aira—Shantytown (2001) [translated 2013]

Posted in César Aira, Chris Andrews, Death, Drugs, Humiliation, Rheostatics, Short Books, Translation, tagged on March 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

shantySOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Mrs. Robinson’s, Kitchener, Ontario (December 20, 1997).

kitchener

What’s most fascinating about these Rheostatics live shows is coming across venues that have no internet presence.  I can’t find a photo or anything of Mrs Robinson’s in Kitchener.  Did it even exist?  Who knows?

The quality of this show is very good although the overall volume is too low. There are also complaints from Dave about his monitor not working.  It doesn’t impact the sound for us, but I guess he couldn’t hear very well.  The intro of “Michael Jackson” is all messed up, but they play on through it.  Then they actually take a pause for an unspecified length of time to fix it (but still do a show that’s over 2 hours long).

Martin and Dave are very chatty for this show.  The intro is quite long, with some good banter including a discussion of the weird table in front of the stage which people can use for stage diving or go go dancing.  Martin explains the origins of “Junction Foil Ball” (about a guy who makes a ball out of the tin foil in cigarette packs.  They make a joke about Don the drummer being from Kirkwood Lake which is where Alan Thicke is from.  And a joke about Polkaroo.

They also introduce Tim Mech (their guitar tech) whose band PEEP-SHOW was one of the winners of Musician magazine’s “Best Unsigned Band Competition” in 1997.  He takes a long solo in “Claire.”

This was their last show of 1997, so this wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

[READ: March 3, 2014] Shantytown

This has been my favorite Aira book so far (and I’m now caught up to his English language releases).  The plot was simple and interesting, and the fantastical elements really worked with the story instead of overshadowing it (which his stories sometimes allow, but which isn’t really a criticism per se, just a point of fact).

This story begins with Maxi, a kind-hearted, but not terribly smart or sensible young man.  He is unemployed, did not finish any real schooling and doesn’t have a lot to do.  He has been going to the gym daily, so he is very strong. And he has recently begun helping the garbage scavengers.

These scavengers are people who live in the Shantytown nearby.  It is a collection of houses, most very tiny and quickly constructed, where the poorest people live.  And many of these people collect and either sell or use rich people’s garbage.  They come up every night before a garbage pick up and root through the streets for anything they can use.  And Maxi has begun helping them shift their carts  Since he is so strong, he finds that none of the their carts are very heavy.  And although he has never spoken to any of them and they have not spoken to him, he decided to start helping them and now he gets great satisfaction in carrying their stuff.

The shantytown is an unsavory place where drugs are sold and not too long ago a young girl was murdered.  Recently a policeman, Agent Cabezas has been trying to get to the bottom of this whole drug thing.  The drug of choice is proxidine which makes things clearer. Even Cabezas himself takes it (even though it is illegal).  But there has been a lot of suspicious activity with a man dressed as a pastor who might be a dealer.  And then there’s Maxi who is suddenly hanging around the shantytown.  And, quite frankly, Cabezas has decided that he’s tired of being a good cop.  He is ready to take what is his. (more…)

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Ben Fountain–Brief Encounters with Che Guevara (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Africa, Ben Fountain, Chumbawamba, Culture Shock, Death, Environmentalism, Golf, Marriage Trouble, Religion, Rheostatics, Sex, The Monkees, Violence, War, tagged on March 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

briefSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Spiral Club, Guelph Ontario (December 18 1997).

spiral This show has an interesting technical glitch that the owner thankfully fixed. It was a soundboard recording (which is awesome), but evidently there was static in the right channel that rendered it unlistenable.  So he simply removed the right channel and mixed it mono.  The sound is actually excellent—one of the best early shows they’ve done.  But since there is only own channel, you miss a lot of what, I think, is Dave’s guitar.  When guest Tyler McPherson plays his solo, I believe you can’t hear it.  Yet despite that, it still sounds great.

I feel like the band was a having a lot of fun on this Thursday night in Guelph (every night in Guelph is a weekend). They mention that their Nightlines episode was aired on the night of Lady Diana’s death (so they feel some kind of weird connection to her).

There’s a few firsts in this set as well.  It’s the first time they plated “Junction Foil Ball” (from Nightlines).  They seem to have finally settled in with “Harmelodia” not “California” in “Easy to Be with You.”  They toss in a bit of “Tubthumping” at the beginning of “Horses,” and a bit of the Monkees, song “Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow)” at the beginning of “Queer.”

Of course there are some flubs as well.  Martin messes up California Dreamline big time and Dave gets lost in the counting of “Four Little Songs” (and then says he never went to school).

But it’s the banter that is the fun part of this show.  They ask the crowd not to shout out requests for a couple of songs.  There’s a very funny sequence in which they try to play a Coors lite anthem.  And Martin says he’s out of his mind.  Dave says he’s a madman and Martin calls him a manatee.  And then someone offers Dave an Islanders jersey which he says he can’t accept—it is too generous, but he’ll always remember it (and now so will we).

Before the end of the set, they offer the crowd some of the food they have backstage (if you like olives). But then they say that $18 was a bit steep of a ticket price for the show (can you imagine?).  So they’re going to play extra long because the ticket price was so high.  Man, how cool is that?

[READ: Summer 2013] Brief Encounters with Che Guevara

Several years ago (long before Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) I read about Ben Fountain…somewhere.  I was reading an interview with a writer who talked about some new writers that he liked.  Ben Fountain was one of them, and this writer specifically mentioned this collection.  A week or so later I was in a dollar store of all places and saw this book on their piles of books.  I couldn’t believe the serendipity. So I bought it (for a dollar).  And then kind of forgot about it (so much for my theory that if I buy a book I’ll read it).  But I did eventually get around to reading it and now sadly not only do I have no idea who originally introduced me to Fountain, I can’t even find it with online searching (and frankly I could have read it anywhere).  Also, Fountain has since written Billy Lynn which received all kinds of praise (and which I haven’t read), so trying to find specific praise for Fountain from 7 years ago is a lost cause.

And just as I forgot to read it I forgot to write about it until now.  This was his first collection of stories.  There are eight in total.  Even though it has been awhile, most of the stories were so powerful and well constructed that I remember them quite well. (more…)

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