I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: COLONEL LES CLAYPOOL’S FEARLESS FLYING FROG BRIGADE-Live Frogs Set 1 (2001).

With Primus on hiatus, Les Claypool set out to do some solo work with a band that was quite different from Primus’ three man set up.  But staying ever true to his roots, he included former Primus guys Todd Huth (guitar) and Jay Lane (drums) in addition to guitarist Eenor, Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Skerik on saxophone.

The band in this incarnation released two live albums that were recorded in 2000.

This first one is the first set which is a couple of covers and some Les solo work all extended into lengthy jams.

The opening track is a cover of King Crimson’s-“Thela Hin Ginjeet.”  Musically they are great–the get all the complicated sounds perfectly.  Les can’t quite hit all the vocal notes that Belew does, but that’s okay.  There are a few lengthy jamming solos, which are quite different from the original.

Next comes the Sausage song “Riddles Are Abound Tonight.”  It’s the shortest song on the disc even with the sax solo.  Then come’s Les’ solo song “Hendershot.”  I like the album version better because of the dynamic way it is sung, but it’s cool live too.  “Shattering Song” has more energy live than on record.  I enjoyed the segue into “Riders on the Storm.”

“Running the Gauntlet” has a weird opening with that crazy watery bass and a song about a chicken laying a hard-boiled egg.  Then it gets into the song proper. After each section, a musician gets to take a solo.  Skerit goes over his allotted time  and Les gives him a hard time about it.  “Girls for Single Men” sounds much more sinister here and Les sings it very quickly–it’s a weird version.

The set ends with a really good version of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.”  They really nail the music of it and Les sings it quite well, too.  This is a really solid collection of songs, especially if you like prog rock.

[READ: January 20, 2014] “Medical Meals”

This week’s issue of the New Yorker was its semi-annual food issue.  As such there were four food-related essays by writers who I’ve written about before.  The section was called “Rations.”

The first was by Rivka Galchen.  I’ve enjoyed Galchen’s writing quite a bit in the past.  And while I may have known she was a nurse, I never thought about her going to residency school or anything like that.

So this essay is about the kinds of crappy food that medical school students would eat during their rotations.  This is of course kind of funny to think that they are eating badly while they are supposedly taking care of other people.  It seemed especially obnoxious that they were eating this badly while working at a bariatric surgery center.

She refers to her colleague, Mike, who was so full of rage and yet who was so nice to patients and friends, that there must have been some kind of metabolic trade-off.

I usually like these little slice of life essays, but i didn’t really find this one too enjoyable.