SOUNDTRACK: PROTOMARTYR-Tiny Desk Concert #492 (December 4, 2015).
Promtomartyr’s Under Color of Official Right has been one of my favorite albums of the last few years. Joe Casey’s vocals are more or less spoken (and angry) while the music is propulsive and rocking. Sometimes punk, sometimes something else entirely. It’s a weird pairing but it worked wonderfully.
I hadn’t heard their new album yet–I am a little afraid that they’re going to mess with the perfection of their second album–but as soon as I saw they did a Tiny Desk Concert I had to check it out.
“Singer” Joe Casey stands at the front. He wears a suit and sunglasses (evidently he has some stage fright issues) and he barely moves. And then there’s the rest of the guys–each wearing all black, looking like the backing band for someone else entirely (the bassist has super long blond hair). And yet, man, do they play great together.
The band plays three songs. The first two are from their new album. “Why Does It Shake?” has a cool interesting bass line and sharp, occasional guitar chords along with drums that are mostly played along the rim. The song unexpectedly slows down for a middle section. And all along, Casey asks his tough, threatening lyrics. The song is over 4 and a half minutes, perhaps one of their longest tracks.
The second song, “”Devil In His Youth” is a fast propulsive song with a great catchy riff that leads to the simple spoken chorus of “the devil in his youth.” This song is much more familiar in terms of Protomartyr songs and is only two and a half minutes long.
The final song comes from their debut album, No Passion All Technique (which is hard to get and which I’ve never heard). The song doesn’t sound drastically different from the others, but you can hear a different tone, perhaps a little less abrasive?
Naturally for a curmudgeonly band, they don’t play anything from the album I love, but this set is really good nonetheless. And yes, it may be time to investigate the new album.
[READ: October 28, 2015] Super Mutant Magic Academy
I saw this book when we were visiting Toronto and I wrote down the title to check it out. I didn’t know anything about it, and didn’t realize that I knew the work of Jillian Tamaki from several great graphic novels
I also had no idea that this was actually a long in progress webcomic that Tamaki has put into book form.
And finally, I didn’t expect it to be a series of one page funny strips that tell an overarching story.
There are nine major characters in the book: Gemma, who has a very large head. Wendy, who is part fox. Marsha, who is very shy and has a huge crush on Wendy. Cheddar, a studly dude. Trixie, a lizard-headed woman. Frances, an aggressive artist. Trevor, a nasty boy who can shoot lasers, and Everlasting Boy whose sole purpose seems to be to die and resurrect. There’s also one semi regular faculty member: Ms. Grimdorff, school principal.
The first few pages are quite rough–more like sketches than a finished product. Then the lettering becomes more formal, actually typed rather than written which makes quite a difference.
When the series gets going solidly, we see the introduction of a new character–a cat wearing the school’s uniform. But he says noting and seems to be upsetting everyone.
The first truly funny ones come in on page 12 & 13–the smoking strip and the very funny one about egg yolks (when Wendy and Marsh seem to get really solidified as characters).
Most of the story concerns the angst and discontent of high school students, but with superpowers and mutant characteristics. Thus, a petition to reinstate animal dissection in science class takes on new twist when the petition signers are part animal. I really got a kick out of the strip where they change the grading system from letters to colors (“this report card is racist”).
There’s a whole thread of the guys playing D&D with homoerotic overtones (the football scenes has the same overtones). And when Marsha joins them she causes unholy havoc.
Frances’ art projects crop up throughout the book and are often very funny and subversive. I especially enjoy the one where viewers criticize everything about a piece and then Trixie hands them a piece of paper that says “all your reactions are correct.”
On several occasions, Cheddar (the jock) tries to talk to Marsha, but she is totally dismissive (she is also totally hot for Wendy and really can’t even see anyone else–in fact she looks up Wendy’s skirt as they are flying on brooms–but at least she feels guilty about it).
Trevor sums himself up succinctly: “No one’s BAD, okay, I just like doing bad things.”
And there’s some very funny jokes about vegetarians “what you think you’re better than me?” and smoking “It brings me pleasure, I’m afraid.”
In addition to typical school stuff, there’s also some really funny strips like the one where Marsha, Wendy and Trixie are using a Ouija board and the spirit whom they talk to starts hitting on them. I laughed out loud at a two page spread called The Annoying Tree.
As the school year gets close to the end, prom looms. And while Wendy dresses up, Marsha is terribly upset that Wendy is going. She complains. “It’s like you’re trying to look ‘pretty’ or whatever.” Exasperated, Wendy replies, “That’s EXACTLY how I’m trying to look.” The prom theme is “Welcome to the Jungle” with Frances commenting “How is this not going to be racist.”
As the book comes to a close, the last couple dozen pages follow Marsha as she hides out from the prom. She is in a cave when Cheddar comes to talk to her. And just as they are starting to bond, a characters comes in and begins to spout a prophecy. Cheddar sums up “We’re going to get suckered into fulfilling it because we were sitting in this cave on a full moon or whatever? I’m not letting that happen.”
Then we see that Wendy hasn’t been having such a good time at prom.
The conclusion of the prophecy is hilarious. And I was really bummed when the book and series was over, because I wanted more!
I Just Read About That... 
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