I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: FOO FIGHTERS-In Your Honor Disc Two (2005).

So disc two is an all acoustic collection (and is actually a little longer than the rocking side, bring the total time to about 85 minutes).  Because of the guests, I tend to think of this as a less than exciting collection of songs.  But it is actually quite solid.  And even though I have always preferred Foo Fighters’ louder songs, Grohl’s voice is well suited to acoustic songs and his songwriting withstands stripping away the noise.

“Still” is a mellow acoustic opener.  Grohl’s voice is gentle.  It’s the kind of opening that on later records would lead to a big loud chorus, but this album is all mellow.  I like the way the song unexpectedly shifts chords about half way through.  The song also has keyboards done by Rami Jaffee (I believe a first for a Foo Fighters record).  It’s 5 minutes long and perhaps a little samey.

But the album perks up with “What If I Do?” a brighter song with a catchy chorus.  It is also 5 minutes but doesn’t feel long. It’s followed by “Miracle” a lovely ballad with a great chorus (and John Paul Jones on piano).  I really like the entire composition of “Another Round,” the clear guitars and the bright chorus.  And John Paul Jones plays mandolin on this one!

“Friend of a Friend” is done on just a quiet acoustic guitar. It’s a lovely, dark song.  Although it is always tempting to assume Grohl’s songs are about Kurt Cobain, this one apparently was.  According to Wikipedia, this was the first acoustic song Dave Grohl had ever written.  “The song was written by Grohl in 1990 (and recorded in secret the same year), and it was about his first impressions of new bandmates Kurt Cobain, and Krist Novoselic.”  The way it is so sparsely recorded was a really good choice.

“Over and Out” has a cool and interesting riff and a nice big chorus.  “On the Mend” has some lovely acoustic guitar pairings.

Then comes “Virginia Moon.”  It has a slow jazzy feel, a shuffling drum sound and really delicate vocals.  The biggest surprise of course is that Norah Jones (no relation to John Paul Jones) sings a duet with him.  It’s a pretty song and, while I wouldn’t want a bunch more songs like this, it works well as a one off.  The next song “Cold Day in the Sun” was written by drummer Taylor Hawkins.  Evidently they tried to make a rocking version but it never really came off so they made it acoustic.  Hawkins sings lead vocals (and has a raspy Peter Criss type of voice–is that a drummer thing?) and Grohl plays the drums.  It’s got a super catchy chorus.

“Razor” ends this disc with a neat hammering guitar line.  Josh Homme plays rhythm guitar on this song.   It’s a very pretty song, although I feel like Homme is underutilized.

For an 85 minute album, this is mostly really quite excellent.  I tend to forget about it in the Foo’s discography but there are a number of stand out tracks here.

The band did some acoustic shows following this album, and made a CD and DVD from them.

[READ: January 20, 2015] The Wrenchies

Most of the First Second books I had been reading were either for kids or young adults. This one is squarely in the adult category–and I feel you can tell that by the rather ugly style of drawing on the cover.  (First Second does an admirable job of getting books that are pretty as well as ones that are ugly).

Dalrymple has a broad spectrum of styles in this book.  He has excellent realistic characters (warts and all) but he also has really nice pretty sections as well–where the characters are quite beautiful.  The fact that he chooses to pick the uglier style more is likely a matter of the location–a post apocalyptic hell–than anything else.

This story is (obviously) quite dark.  In fact I can see a lot of readers being turned off right from the get go with how dark and violent it is.  It’s also a little confusing because the post apocalyptic world that we are introduced to is not really explained.  There are also riffs on T.S. Eliot-with lines like “In the room the children a come and go.”

The story begins with Sherwood and Orson entering a cave. It all seems rather idyllic until we see just what kind of creepy thing lives in the cave–and what it does to Sherwood.

The second introduces the Wrenchies, a gang of young kids: Murmur (a dog-like creature), Stoney, Tad, Bance, Jad and Marsi.  They exist in a hellish landscape with Shadowsmen after them all the time.  While out patrolling, the Wrenchies find in the dump a copy of Wrenchies volume 1. What?  They also run into another gang called the Zekes.   While they start fighting over the comic book, a group of Shadowsmen come out and they all begin fighting them instead.

After the fight the Wrenchies bring the comic book down to Olweyez (which I want to be Owleyez).  She lives underground and is familiar with the comic book and the message that it contains.  After a lengthy sequence it is agreed they will all go to see The Scientist.

Chapter 3 is called Hollis and the Ghost.  It involve a boy name Hollis who wears a superhero outfit and who lives in the “normal” world.  His mother is quite religious, and Hollis is often guilty.  He is also reading The Wrenchies comic book.

Hollis is quite different, obviously.  He sticks up for the weak.  And one day he is given a strange amulet by his older neighbor named Sherwood.  Hmm.

Hollis is transported through a time tunnel portal into the Wrenchies (the kids not the comic) world.  He winds up with The Scientist.  And this whole meta things starts to get really cool and interesting.  And the bulk of the next two chapters is the kids (Hollis included) going on a quest to fight the bad guys and reveal the secret of the amulet.

Chpater 6 is where things get weird again (well, weirder).  We see Sherwood in a limboland of bubbles (he floated into this land at the end of chapter 1.  Sherwood seems to be able to pick lives for himself in this world–every bubble is a different reality.  And the one we focus on is him as an older guy–the guy in Hollis’ reality where he is kind of a loser.  But there are significant revelations about Sherwood as the story goes along.

But the thing is that even though I loved how the story got totally meta in the middle, I felt that by the end it got so meta that I was really confused again. In addition to what seemed like alternate realities, there were also several epilogues and it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t.

For a deliberately ugly book this was certainly creative and thoughtful.  I just can’t tell if I didn’t put in enough effort to be able to get the whole thing or if it was deliberately ambiguous.  I would certainly be open to reading tis one again to fin out.