SOUNDTRACK: BOREDOMS (various).
Boredoms are an experimental noisy band from Japan. I am completely unqualified to talk about them as I only know snippets of their output. But I have always been intrigued by them. Lead dude Yamataka Eye has been the main impetus behind the band. And it seems like exactly the kind of noise/music one might play if one were horribly bored.
Yoshimi P-We is the longest serving drummer with the Boredoms. She is the “Yoshimi” in the title of The Flaming Lips’ album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
Over the years they have gone from outright nose (listen to the track “Bubblebop Shot” from Soul Discharge or “We Never Sleep” from Onanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols which is mostly screams and drums) to a more ambient (but still noisy) style. They performed a live show with 77 drummers on 7/7/07.
They’ve even changed their name to V∞redoms.
Here’s an interesting clip of the band from All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2012, being a lot less noisy but still pretty weird.
[READ: August 11, 2014] Pale Summer Week 5 (§27-§34)
There were a few things in this week’s reading that seemed to contradict other things in the reading. This is not surprising as Pietsch says that there were things that he knew DFW would eventually change. The notes at the back of the book (yes, I peeked, bit no spoiler here) say that there were different possible plotlines for some of the characters and even a duplication of a weird character trait. But it’s funny to see it evolving in front of you.
In §27, Sylvanshine seems to be able to control his Random Fact Inference somewhat–and he seems to be using it rather than being inflicted by it. This is either a big change or a cool development in Claude’s life.
There is also what I think is an actual mistake: two people have the same number: 907313433 (see §30).
In another “unfinished” issue, the surveillance in §29 is one of those situations that would certainly have been explained in greater detail (or had another scene about it). I initially assumed they were doing surveillance for deadbeat companies (maybe for new vehicles), but there are indications (in later sections) that perhaps something else is going on, maybe to do with the Glendenning/Lehrl issue that Reynolds and Sylvanshine are talking about in §30.
One thing that I hadn’t explicitly noticed earlier, but which comes out in Cusk’s section below is the idea that “more information is not better.” While this seems to be very true for their job, it can certainly be a debilitating world view and I wonder if that is at play as well. (more…)
There are multiple references to Nesbitt’s soda in this book. I am unfamiliar with Nesbitt’s except in this funny little song from Negativland (on their album Escape from Noise). I have always liked this song, perhaps because it is so simple (and is an actual song) amidst the chaos of the album.
I Just Read About That... 