I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-The Brown Album (1997).

This is the first Primus album to not feature Tim Alexander on drums.  Brain has taken over.  And while the difference isn’t that substantial, the overall feel of the band has shifted, to a less progressive, more heavy, loud band.  Brain evidently brought super-sized, very tall bass drums which added a big whomping sound.  And while for the most part his is a simpler style, he doesn’t shy away from fills and noise when necessary.

I haven’t listened to this album as much as many of their others but after revisiting it lately I’ve decided that it has a lot more really good songs than I remembered.

“The Return of Sathington Willoughby” is a great introduction–a far richer and more complex song than I remembered.  It begins with some ominous drum and bass with Les’ spoken word proclamations from Willoughby.  But I love the way the fast part of the song jumps in and features a really fast funky bass and some great squeaking guitars–which absolutely make the song.  “Fisticuffs” is a really deep heavy song (the drums are really loud).  It’s a classic story song from Les, with great stomping bass and cool guitars from Ler.

The riff from “Golden Boy” is quite good–complex and interesting.  One of the nice things about most of these songs is that they are largely shorter.  This song for instance would have suffered if it were 5 or 6 minutes, but at 3 minutes, it’s a tidy little fast number.  “Over the Falls” is one of their slower singles, a story song that’s under three minutes.  Not super catchy, but interesting.  “Shake Hands with Beef” was the first single–it’s a big stomping song with a group chorus–something unusual for Primus.  It’s no less weird than some of their other singles, but I feel like it’s missing something–maybe guitars?

The next few songs are kind of muddy and not terribly memorable.  “Camelback Cinema” is a sludgy kind of song without a lot of interesting components.  On the other side of the spectrum is “Hats Off,” a short honky-stomping song that feels like a country number.  It’s not terribly interesting but it does break up the album nicely.  “Puddin’ Taine” has a kind of classic Primus stomp, although it’s a little muddier.

After those middle songs, I love “Bob’s Party Time Lounge” which switches between slow verses and a super chorus that has a great bass riff and some nice big guitars.  It’s a simple song, but really effective and fun.  It’s one of may favorite late period Primus songs.  I also like “Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread” for the fun riff and style of the song.

“Restin’ Bones” actually has a lead guitar riff (!)  It’s nice to hear a lead guitar but the song is only so so and a little too long.

But I do love “Coddington” which is another of my favorite later period songs.  It features the (really fast) bowed bass and a thumping drum.  This song whips by and is amazingly catchy.  I also really like “Kalazmaoo” both for the great guitar riff and because he references “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” with the same alphabetical introduction.

I like “The Chastising of Renegade” for the nice big drum openings.  The guitar and bass riffs are also really cool and the switch to the reggae guitar strumming is quite a surprise.  It feels a tad long, but it’s overall a good one.  The final song, “Arnie” opens with big loud distorted drums.  It has a groovy bass and simple but cool guitars.  I feel like this should have been an instrumental, as the lyrics aren’t that interesting.

So overall this one is a bit of a mixed bag.  There are definitely some great songs that I would absolutely have out on a greatest hits record.

[READ: January 10, 2015] “Scheherazade”  Ted Goossen

I really enjoyed this story.  As with a lot of Murakami, I feel like he has an interesting perspective and tells stories that are unlike anyone else’s.

This story is interesting for the layers that he puts into it.  It opens “Each time they has sex, she told Habara a strange and gripping story afterward.”  Okay, simple set up.  He thinks of her as Queen Scheherazade from A Thousand and One Nights (although he had no plans to chop off her head).

Habara keeps a journal and he keeps track of her visits, using a secret code–her name and a one word summary of whatever she talked about that day.  He didn’t know if her stories were true or not and he didn’t care–he just enjoyed them, usually more than the sex.

Then details of their relationship emerge–she is a housewife with two children and he is a housebound man–he never leaves.  She was sent to him as part of his situation (which is never explained–is this a common thing in Japan?).  She brings him food and books and DVDs two or three times a week, although he cooks for himself. He simply never leaves the house.  She also has sex with him–he’s unclear if this is supposed to be part of the deal or if it is her own impetus.  The sex is not passionate, but it is enjoyable.  And yet as the story shows, it is the stories that she tells afterwards that he enjoys more.

She says that she was once a lamprey eel drifting at the bottom of the ocean.  She asks if he knows what he was in the past, but he says no.  But the main focus of our story is her story about breaking into people’s houses.  She asks if he had ever done such a thing and he admits that he has not.   She tells how she had a huge crush on a boy from her school although he didn’t know she existed.  One day she skipped school and went to his house.  She knew he wouldn’t be home, and his mother worked during the day.  So she found a key under the mat and went into his room.

She stayed there for a time, took a pencil, left a tampon (in the far back of his drawer–it seemed a far exchange) and left.  She had gotten such a rush from it that she kept going back.  Until one time she found the lock had changed.  And this shut her down completely.  She says once the temptation was gone the desire was too.

What is even more interesting about our story is that she begins telling the next episode of her story but our story ends, with Habara hoping that she never stops coming to see him.

What an unusual construct for a story and one that was fully engaging.  It was translated by Ted Goossen.