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Archive for October, 2015

Tadao Tsuge–Trash Market (2015)

Posted in And Flowers and Storms, Drawn & Quarterly, Garo, Graphic Novel, Jefferson Airplane, Manga, Ryan Holmberg, Tadao Tsuge, The Animals, The Doors, The Mops, Translation, Vincent van Gogh, Violence, Yago, Yoshiharu Tsuge on October 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

tsugeSOUNDTRACK: MOPS-“White Rabbit” (1968).

mopsAfter totally grooving on The Mops’ songs in yesterday’s post I decided I had to check out their cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”

And, boy do I love it.  It came from their debut album Psychedelic Sound in Japan which was released in 1968 (“White Rabbit” came out in 1967).   The album also includes covers of “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, “Light My Fire” by The Doors and two songs by The Animals.  They received much press for being the “first psychedelic band” in Japan, and performed with elaborate light shows.

Lead singer Hiromitsu Suzuki really nails all the notes (even if he doesn’t quite nail all the words), but I especially enjoy the instrumentation they employ–the violin is an interesting addition.  And the way the instruments are separated in headphones (all drums in the right ear?) is really psychedelic.

It is really a trippy version (“Somebody to Love” is pretty fine too, especially when the really buzzy guitar kicks in about half way through).

Trash Market

Tadao Tsuge is a Japanese cartoonist considered “one of alternative manga’s cult stars.”  He has been making cartoons since 1959 and has contributed to all manner of Japanese publications.

What seems to set him apart from other cartoonists (according to the interviews and such that fill out the book) is that Tadao grew up in the slums of Tokyo and is willing to write about them.  He also worked for many many years at a blood bank (one that paid people for their blood).  It was there, amid the terrible conditions, that he believes he contracted hepatitis.

The amazing thing to me while reading these six cartoons (which I assume are only a tiny fraction Tadao’s total output, but I’m not sure) is that I had no idea when they were written–they have a timelessness that is really amazing.  So when I finally flipped back to the front and saw that the first story was written in 1968, I was blown away. (more…)

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Jack Hunter–Tokyo Grindhouse: volume one: pinky violence bad girl cinema (2012)

Posted in Bad Angel, Delinquent Boss, Delinquent Girl Boss, Female Gambler, Female Prison Scorpion, Gambling, Girl's Junior High School, Jack Hunter, Kill Bill, Meiko Kaji, Quentin Tarantino, Reiko Oshida, Sex, Sexism, Stray Cat Rock, The Doors, The Mops, The Red Peony, Violence, Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs on October 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

tokyoSOUNDTRACK: THE MOPS-“Goiken Muyo (Ilja Naika)” (1971)

mopsThe Mops were a Japanese psychedelic band who were inspired by American psychedelia.  They appear in one of the films below (Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo from 1971) in a really weird scene in which the band is playing on the back of a flatbed truck (in the middle of another scene that has nothing to do with them).  They play their song and then drive away.  Weird.

Anyway, the song is pretty great.  There’s all kinds of interesting percussion (the film clip shows them playing stuff which most likely is not what they are playing).  But the studio version (linked to below) has great audio quality and a lot of depth in the bass and cool screaming guitars.

The band released possibly 9 albums (it’s a little hard to tell from their Wikipedia page).  With their first album being pretty psychedelic and this one (I assume their third) being much heavier and fuller sounding.

I had found a clip of the band from the movie.  Then I lost it and cannot find it anywhere.  But here’s the studio version dubbed over the movie clip

But really, check out the whole album, it’s pretty great.

[READ: October 10, 2015] Tokyo Grindhouse

The life cycle of a book at my work is pretty straightforward.  If I see it at all, I usually catalog it or send it on its way to someone else.  But for some reason this book came back to my desk three times.

I didn’t know a thing about Tokyo Grindhouse, I’d never heard of pinky movies, but if something keeps coming back you gotta check it out.  So it turns out that this book has about ten pages of text and the rest is pictures.

And the book is about “classic” exploitation films made in Tokyo from 1960-1970 (or so).  The text by Jack Hunter explains that women and violence have been in Japanese exploitation films since the 1950s.  Evidently there were some landmark films in the mid-fifties about topless pearl divers that set off a craze for topless women in films.  This morphed into movies where women were the victims of violence with translated titles such as Nude Actress Murder Case: Five Criminals. (more…)

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Jen Calonita–Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School #1) (2015)

Posted in Brett Netson, Built to Spill, Children's Books, Fairy Tales, Funny (ha ha), Jen Calonita, Sam Coombs, Supernatural, Unfinished series on October 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

flunkedSOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Ancient Melodies of the Future (2001).

ancientAfter their live album, Built to Spill returned with Ancient Melodies of the Future.  For many fans, this album concluded their first trilogy of great records.  The album is similar in style to Keep It Like a Secret, but there are some new elements added.  Sam Coombs, who supplied keyboards on one song on the previous album is back on this one with prominent keyboards on three tracks (which adds a rather different vibe to the Built to Spill sound).

“Strange” is yet another stellar leadoff track.  It’s got an interesting riff with some great lyrics and what evolves into a stupendously catchy chorus.  It features Sam Coombs on Rocksichord, which has a rather unique sound.

“The Host” has strings, which is quite a departure.  The song is mellow with a simply great vocal line for the verse. “In Your Mind” has an interesting acoustic guitar line with some wild backwards guitar effects over the top. I really like the way the vocal line gets loud and high when he gets to the “in your mind” part.

“Alarmed” slows things down with bigger, louder strings. There’s a lengthy crazy keyboard solo from Sam Coombs

“Trimmed and Burning” gets a little heavier sounding   “Happiness” has a slide guitar—a very unusual sound for BTS. The song picks up pretty quickly and rumbles along.  “Dont Try” comes in with a much louder fuller guitar sound (Brett Netson contributes guitars to this and 3 other songs).

“You Are” is probably my least favorite BtS song, it doesn’t really do anything.  But it’s followed by the up beat and wonderful “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” which has really fun guitar solo and is just so catchy.

The disc ends with the acoustic guitar ballad “The Weather.”  It builds to a slightly bigger sound by the end of the song, with interesting effects on the guitars.

I tend to overlook this disc somewhat when I think back to my favorite BtS music, but there are some real gems here.  It might be a little more mellow and introspective than some of the other discs, but it’s still great.

[READ:June 1, 2015] Flunked

I brought this book home because I thought Sarah would like it.  She never got around to reading it, but I decided it might be fun so I read it pretty quickly.  Calonita has written a number of YA books but this is her first series for younger readers (so says the blurb at the back, under her strangely unflattering author photo.  This is a new series (unclear how many books, but the next one is due out next year).

It’s another book that twists around the ideas of fairy tales (which I like).  The premise behind this series is that Cinderella’s stepmother Flora is really, really sorry for what she did to Cinderella (now Princess Ella).  And in order to make it up to the land of Enchantasia (nice) she decided to convert her old castle into Fairy Tale Reform School.  The school is designed to teach bad kids, villains and delinquents the ways of righteousness.  Some teachers include the Big Bad Wolf (Xavier Wolfington), the Sea Witch (Madame Cleo) and the Evil Queen (Professor Harlow).  More than five hundred gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, elves, mer-folks and other fairly tale students have been admitted in the past five years and there is much praise for the school. (more…)

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Julie Birmant & Clement Oubrerie–Pablo (2012-2014) [translated 2015]

Posted in Alice Toklas, Art, Biography, Brett Netson, Built to Spill, Clément Oubrerie, Edward Gauvin, Fernande Olivier, Georges Braque, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, Julie Birmant, Love as Laughter, Max Jacob, Neil Young, Pablo Picasso, Sex, The Halo Benders, Vincent van Gogh, Violence on October 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

pablo SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Live (2000).

btsliveSoon after releasing “Carry the Zero,” Built to Spill released this, their first (and so far only) live disc.

This disc shows a jamming side of the band that their records up to now hadn’t really displayed (sure there was some evidence of the jam band within, but who would have guessed 2 songs on this disc would stretch to 20 minutes?).

The live set also shows a rather contrarian spirit in that there are only 9 songs in 70 some minutes and only 5 of the songs are actual Built to Spill songs.

The disc opens with “The Plan,” a great version of their most recent disc’s opener.  Then they jump right into Perfect from Now On’s  opening track “Randy Described Eternity.”  That song has a lot of parts and sections, and they do them perfectly.  They follow it with another song from Perfect, “Stop the Show” which also has multiple parts and again, they nail it.  These three songs were recorded in New York.  Brett Netson joined them for “Randy,” and “Stop” which really helps to flesh out those songs.

The next song is a cover of The Halo Benders’ “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain.”  And if it sounds very fitting for Doug, he was in The Halo Benders with Calvin Johnson before he started Built to Spill.  Then comes the centerpiece of the record–a 20 minute version of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”  And it is amazing.  He sounds enough like Neil to be totally respectful, without just being a rip off.  It’s probably the best version of this song I’ve heard (until I saw Neil do it this summer).

They switch gears to their first single, “Car,” a delightful 3 minute song.   And then, to fill out this almost all covers section, they play “Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords” a song originally done by Love as Laughter.  I don’t know the original, but it fits in with Doug’s style.  These four songs were record in Seattle.

There’s one song that was recorded in Denver, “I Would Hurt a Fly,” which is yet another song from Perfect, and is one of my favorite songs of theirs.  It does not disappoint.

The final song on the disc is a nineteen minute version of the song “Broken Chairs” (which is 8 minutes long on Secret).  They do the whistling section and a ton of solos.  Indeed, the way they stretch out the song out with guitar solos and noise (and the way the song ends with feedback) is really cool.  Netson joined them for “Fly” and “Broken Chairs” (which is why that ending solo is so intense.

It’ s a great live collection of songs and the sound is outstanding.  You’d never know it was recorded in different venues, either.

[READ: October 4, 2015] Pablo

Judging this book by its cover you would be correct in assuming that it is about Pablo Picasso.  But rather than being a simple history of the Art Master (the title of the series), this is a thorough recounting of Picasso’s life.  And what’s even more interesting is that the story is told from the point of view of Picasso’s lover and model Fernande Olivier.

And Fernande’s diary entries make up the bulk of the story and allow for a very personal look into the man and the stylistic choices that Picasso made over the years.  As the book says on the back, the authors show “how Picasso’s style developed in response to his friendships and rivalries.”  And of his rivals none was greater than Henri Matisse.  (The book also covers Picasso’s life before she met him too, of course).

The original work was published (in French) in four volumes.   This edition was translated by Edward Gauvin.

I especially like the way the book begins from the point of view of Fernande as an old woman, still alive and reminiscing about her life. (And yes, it’s amazing to realize that Picasso died in 1973…in my lifetime!).  (more…)

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Réal Godbout–Amerika: Based on the Novel by Franz Kafka (2014) [translated 2014]

Posted in Built to Spill, Franz Kafka, Graphic Novel, Helge Dascher, Luck, Réal Godbout, Sex, Translation on October 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

godboutSOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-“Carry the Zero” (1999).

zeroI loved “Carry the Zero” so much that I immediately bought the CD single (that’s what you did back in the 90s).

The Ep contains 6 songs.  There’s two tracks from Keep It Like a Secret (“Carry the Zero” & “Sidewalk” which is good in itself), 2 new songs (“Forget Remember When” and “Now & Then”) and 2 live songs “Kicked it in the Sun” and “Big Dipper.”

The two unreleased songs are good, but neither one is quite as immediate as anything on the album.  Of course, if you’re looking for extra BtS tracks, these are just waiting for you.

The real gems are the two live songs.  Both of them are solo acoustic guitar recordings recorded in a tiny setting.  They are quite different from the album.  I feel that “Big Dipper” fares a little better since the song is simpler.  There are some complex chord changes in “Kicked It in the Sun” which lose a little of their immediacy in the stripped down version.  Which is not to say that it’s bad–the first half of the song sounds great–it’s when it gets to the middle that it feels a little cumbersome.

So this is certainly a die-hards only release, but if you’re looking for some unusual BtS recordings, this is a great place to start.

[READ:October 2, 2015] Amerika

This is a graphic novel version of Franz Kafka’s Amerika.  And it is really well done.  The artwork is fantastic–clean lines, distinctive characters and wonderfully detailed background scenes.

I don’t know the original story at all, so I assume that Godbout was faithful to it (the back of the book says he was). Actually, this graphic novel was translated by Helge Dascher, so I wonder if she translated Godbout of Kafka?

Unlike so much of Kafka, this story isn’t really “Kafkaesque.”  There is some darkness to it and there are machinations of trouble for the main character, but it is not a perpetual state of nightmarish life.

Karl Rossmann is a young immigrant to America.  (Kafka had never been to America, but he gets quite a lot right).  He was sent to America because of an embarrassing sexual incident (which is rendered rather humorously).  When he arrives in New York harbor, he disembarks from the ship but forgets his umbrella.  So he races back on the ship.  But instead of finding it, he runs into the ship’s engine stoker.  The hulking man is suspicious if him, but after they talk for a few minutes Karl convinces the stoker to air his grievances about his supervisor to the ship’s captain. (more…)

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Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen–Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Boom! Box, Built to Spill, Funny (ha ha), Grace Ellis, Graphic Novel, Noelle Stevenson, Unfinished series on October 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

lumberSOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Keep It Like a Secret (1999).

keepitThis was the first Built to Spill album I ever bought and from the opening notes of the “The Plan” I was immediately hooked on the song, the album and the band. Doug’s voice is high and strong and it has a great ringing guitar riff and big chords to open the song.  Then comes the excellent third section that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the song but which sounds great. And then it’s capped off with the crazy guitar solo that is wild noises and seemingly out of tune notes that all gels together.

Like many Built to Spill albums, the whole disc works like this. The sound is a bit more open and ringing, dare I say orchestral than the previous album (which always felt a bit claustrophobic sounding to me). And most of the songs have multiple distinct parts.  But also unlike the previous record, the songs are mostly much shorter (with “Center of the Universe”) turning in at under 3 minutes even.

“Carry the Zero” was the first song I heard by them, and it was the real impetus for me becoming a huge fan (I have put this song on so many mix tapes/CDs).  “Sidewalk” continues with another fantastic, surprisingly catchy song.

“Time Trap” stars off with wild and crazy guitars and then mellows out for the verses.  And I love that the super catchy chorus comes more than 3 minutes into the 5 minute song.  I have about 6 or 7 favorite songs on this record, although “You Were Wrong” tops them all, with its lyrics of clichés from other songs: “You were right when you said all that glitters isn’t gold; you were right when you said all we are is dust in the wind.”  Hilarious, but also right on (and amazing musically too)

“Broken Chairs” is the only long song on the disc running almost 9 minutes long. It even includes a section with a whistle solo.  It’s cool that on a relatively poppy album full of super catchy songs, Doug wasn’t afraid to jam out a little bit (the song is amazing live).

[READ: October 1, 2015] Lumberjanes

I love the premise behind Lumberjanes.  The Lumberjanes are a kind of Girl Scout/Wilderness Adventure group.  They have been around for a long time and the Janes must follow the manual to achieve their various badges.  I love the way the book is set up around an “actual” field manual from 1984 (tenth edition) which has been

Prepared for the Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for [written in] HARDCORE LADY-TYPES.

This graphic novel has received glowing reviews so I was pretty excited to read it.  And for the most part I really enjoyed it.  The story was funny and adventurous.  And, of course it’s cool that all the lead characters are girls.  My daughter (age 7) loved the book and couldn’t wait to show me the last page and wondered when the next book was out.  Since she loved it I guess my opinion is irrelevant, but I didn’t love it as much as that. There were some quibbles I had with the book, but that’s mostly because I wanted it to be awesome!

The first one came on the first page.  The book feels like you’ve missed a whole bunch of pages.  I know all about starting in medias res and all that but it never really catches us up to the action. There’s not really a fair introduction to the story.  And while you don’t really need an introduction necessarily, I feel like a great opportunity was lost in not having one. (more…)

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Built to Spill (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, October 2, 2015)

Posted in Built to Spill, David Bowie, Helvetia, Philadelphia, PA, The Smiths, Union Transfer on October 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 2, 2015] Built to Spill

2015-10-02 23.54.05 As I mentioned, I was supposed to see Built to Spill back in 2001 (11 days after 9/11).  I didn’t feel like going into the city or listening to live music so I didn’t go.  I recently learned that they did play that night.  And I’ve seen their set list.  And I think I’m probably happy I didn’t go.  I preferred going to this show with only the preconceived notion that my friend Jay has seen them about a dozen times (and met Doug Martsch) after a show) since I introduced him to them just a couple of years ago.  So I was pretty psyched.

But I was not as psyched as the two guys who run up next to me (I could touch the stage) just giddy with excitement that “the legend” was going to be just five feet away from them.  It sounded like they might have had a present for him (but who knows what that meant).  They talked about the set list they were sure he would play.  And they nearly melted when he came out on stage.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite that much adoration at a show.  It seemed almost teeny bopperish to me, which I find especially amusing since Martsch is an old balding guy with a big beard who barely looks like he ever smiles.

But then there he was, indeed just a few feet from me. And that was pretty awesome. (more…)

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Helvetia (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, October 2, 2015) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Built to Spill, Clarke and the Himselfs, Fleetwood Mac, Helvetia, Judas Priest, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 2, 2015] Helvetia

2015-10-02 21.51.07After Clarke finished his set, he removed his tambourine from the hi hat and took his guitar.  And then Helvetia came out and used the same tiny drum set.  It turns out that there is all kinds of connectivity between Clarke, Helvetia and Built to Spill.  Clarke’s record was released by Brett Netson’s label.  Brett Netson is the second guitarist for Built to Spill.  And, as it turns out, the bassist and third guitarist for Built to Spill (Jason Albertini and Jim Roth) are the two guitarists for Helvetia.

I had never heard of Helvetia.  So imagine my surprise that they released their 8th (!) album that night.

As the band was setting up, Zeke Howard, the drummer, projected a cool swirling pattern on his drum head.  Which I can assume only we in the front could see since his kit was so small (see the swirl here).  About mid way through the set, the projector had moved a bit and I think a helpful fan straightened it out for him. (more…)

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Clarke and the Himselfs (Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, October 2, 2015) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Built to Spill, Clarke and the Himselfs, David Bowie, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 2, 2015] Clarke and the Himselfs

2015-10-02 20.45.59Friday night was going to be my first time seeing Built to Spill and my first time going to Union Transfer, the fabled Philly venue.  I couldn’t believe the show started at 8:30 and there would be 2 opening acts.  I estimated getting home at 2AM which proved to be accurate.

I’d never heard of either opening act so I didn’t mind if I got there a little late.  But as it turned out, there was no traffic and I wound getting there about 20 minutes early.  Which was cool since there was hardly anyone there.  In fact, there was a row of people leaning against the stage and that was it (and a lot more in the bar and balcony) .  So I staked my claim near the stage and waited for Clarke. (more…)

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Charles M. Schulz–The Complete Peanuts: 1955-1956: The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip masterpiece: Dailies & Sundays (2005)

Posted in A Charlie Brown Christmas, Baseball, Built to Spill, Charles Schulz, Comic Strips, Ding Dong School, Fantagraphics, Figure Skating, Football, Funny (ha ha), Matt Groening, Peanuts, Walter Cronkite on October 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

1955SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Perfect from Now On (1997).

330px-Perfect_From_Now_OnBuilt to Spill moved to the major labels and everything changed. No that’s not true. The band (well, Doug mostly) just sounds more serious about their music. What’s impressive is that there are no obvious  singles since each song is over 5 minutes long (except for one).

This is considered a classic 90s album but fans of the band and others.  And while I like it, it’s not my favorite.  A few of the songs are a little too drifty and anticlimactic.  But at he same time there’s some really amazing stuff here.

It opens with “Randy Describing Eternity” a cool song with a great riff and an interesting lyrics.  My favorite song (most days) on this record is “I would Hurt a Fly.” It has a fairly quiet intro with more intriguing lyrics: “I can’t get that sound you make out of my head/ I can’t even figure out what’s making it.”  The song waxes and wanes and even adds some cello. And then at 4 minutes, the song shifts gears entirely, stopping to add a brand new fast section with some great guitar work and wild noisy soloing.

“Stop the Show” is another favorite.  It opens with a slow meandering guitar section and then jumps to a great, frenetic set of verses. After about 5 and a half minutes the song turns into a crazy noisy fest and then switches to an amazingly catchy guitar instrumental solo outro, which could frankly go for five more hours. “Made Up Dreams” has several different elements in it. And even though it’s only 4:52, it still packs in a lot of music.

“Velvet Waltz” is over 8 minutes long. It has slow parts, and a lengthy middle section with strings (in waltz time of course). It builds slowly adding some cool guitar sections and a great long solo at the end. “Out of Site” is one of the shorter songs on the disc.  It has an immediate, fast section that is very catchy. It then mellows out to a slow cello-filled section. “Kicked it in the Sun” is kind of trippy.  At four and a half minutes a noisy section overtakes the music, but behind the noise is a beautiful, pretty guitar/keyboard melody.  Then it shifts out of the noise into a more rocking catchy section.

The final song is the nearly 9 minute “Untrustable/Part 2.”  It begins loud with great lyrics “You can’t trust anyone because you’re untrustable.”  Like the other songs it has several parts.  Around 4 minutes it turns into another song altogether. This continues for a bit and then at 7 minutes it shifts gears entirely into a keyboard dominated romp.

There’s so many interesting melodies and changes in this album, and it clear that it was completely influential on late 90s indie rock.  But I think what’s even more impressive is that each album get a little bit better.

[READ: September 29, 2015] The Complete Peanuts 1955-1956

Moving on to volume 3 of the Complete Peanuts.  Stylistically things are advancing towards the Peanuts characters we know now.  Yet they haven’t quite gotten there.  I think the kids’ faces (not their heads, just features) are still much smaller.  And Snoopy still looks like a real dog, although his nose grows year by year.

In the beginning of the year, there’s a funny line from Lucy, attacking commericalism. Charlie is reading her a book.  He says “Once upon a time they lived happily ever after.  The end”  And Lucy says “What’s on the rest of these pages, Advertising?”  Much later there a joke in which Lucy asks Schroeder how much a musician makes, and he relies “Money?  Who cares about money?  This is art. You Blockhead.”  It is ironic of course that Schulz went on to become so staggeringly wealthy–but maybe that just shows what good art can achieve.

Another one of my favorite sophisticated jokes comes when Lucy is flying a kite.  The joke is all about perspective. It’s hilarious. (more…)

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