SOUNDTRACK: THE 1975-Tiny Desk Concert #302 (September 10, 2013).
I sort of know The 1975 but I can’t decide if I like them or not. It seems like every song sounds different. But I did really like this stripped down Tiny Desk Concert.
The blurb notes the distinction:
The 1975 knows its way around bigness, [with songs of full of brash-but-winsome, electronics-tinged pop-rock]. But, when asked to strip his band’s sound down to fit the intimate confines of the Tiny Desk, Healy didn’t hesitate to transform both his songs and himself. Performing solo with a guitar — he even goes fully acoustic for his two hits — he’s reborn as an earnest troubadour, while his songs now register as melancholy musings. They’re remarkably sturdy in any form, as this bit of left-field sweetness amply demonstrates.
This performance is just Matthew Healy singing and playing guitar. And he turns these songs into little folkie ballads, with Healy’s cracking and accented voice (you can really hear his accent when he sings) making the songs sound more earning and aching.
The original of “Sex” is pretty rocking, with a middle section that strums pretty hard. This version slows it down dramatically, making it much more poignant.
“Chocolate” is a bouncy electronic song with an angular sound, radically different from this stripped down acoustic ballad (I much prefer this version). He introduces this song by saying “I’ve only done this twice so I apologize if I mess it up.” I’m not sure what he means by that. Surely he has played this song more than twice. Anyhow, it too has a yearning quality and his whispered vocals work perfectly with his gentle playing.
He finishes that by saying “Those two songs are like our singles. I didn’t know what else to play so this song is called “Woman.” It’s about that prostitute… but she was lovely [chuckles from the audience] and I was far too young–so nothing happened.
He switches to a gently echoed electric guitar. It doesn’t vary too much from the original–a plaintive yearning song about sex.
[READ: July 31, 2016] Sex Criminals Volume 3
Book three of the series seems to have polarized some readers. There’s not a lot of plot advancement,which upsets many, and there’s a lot of meta-jokes which also upsets many. Of course, I really like that sort of thing and happen to think that this book was outstanding. So pffft.
The book opens with someone we’ve never seen before. He takes care of his mom, he works in an old folks home. He’s a pretty decent guy. But he has a secret. It’s related to the whole time-stoppage thing (although it proves to be a bit different).
And there’s a few amusing panels. Like when Matt states that Chip would being drawing all kinds of funny Pan-Asian jokes in the Pan-Asian supermarket. The panels would be full of double entendre puns. But rather than making him do all of that hard work, we’ll jut have to imagine them.
Then the story switches to two different couples in bed. One is Jon’s doctor–who has a very ulterior motive. The other is Suzie’s friend Rachelle and her new guy the OB/GYN Robert Rainbow. Rainbow despite his job, is pretty inexperienced with the ladies. Rachelle’s adventurous life is a bit of a freakout for him–he feels inadequate (and she’s pissed at hm for feeling that way). There’s very many vanilla jokes thrown in there.
As the book ends Jon and Suzie find the man from the beginning of the book, Doug D. Douglas as he is unleashing his “creation.”
The second chapter in the book begins as a lecture about sexuality with very angry professor talking about gender inequality and sexuality inequality. It’s boundary pushing and I wonder how many readers were turned off by it (not many, I hope).
Meanwhile, back at Douglas’ house, the fruit of his loins (which reminds me of Kreiger on Archer) decides to attack Jon and Suzie (in delightfully odd English–it is translated for us but none of the characters can understand it). But one such example is “my kitty wishes to engulf you within her darkened delta of destruction.”
For a book entitled Sex Criminals there’s not always a lot of sex in it, but this chapter is pretty graphic, mostly because of Rainbow’s fears of Rachelle’s escapades–his fantasies are pretty explicit.
In the next chapter, we meet a girl named Alix. She is asexual and we see that during most of her childhood she was teased and pressured about her lack of interest. But she has found a way to get into the Quiet Space without having sex. And she is pissed to learn that others have found a way in as well
It’s in Chapter 14 that things get really meta. The writers create a confrontation between two women and then we see a phone conversation between Chip and Matt, in which Matt confesses that he doesn’t know how to write the next scene without being dumb or offensive. This leads to a lengthy discussion about sexuality and gender (in which Chip is often nodding off–at one point he holds up a sign that says “More like Matt YAKtion am I right?”
Meanwhile, Myrtle Spurge has returned to the doctor’s office for more information about Jon. And, of course, she gets what she wants.
Chapter 15 unites all of the players finally–the doctor and Kincaid meet (he’s a fan of her work)–and they all learn about Myrtle taking the information). And once again we get some black boxes with text in which we have to imagine everyone meeting “and so we skip the mandatory reading (and writing) of such a scene and get right into things.” After a panel, a new box appears: “Also it’s now the year 3588. Is that weird?” And the book ends with Alix showing up to confront all of them. An excellent cliffhanger and a promising lead (even if it’s all a little confusing ) to the next book.
The end pages contain an interview with Tiffy Thompson and Alex Hoffman, the models on whom Chip has based Jon and Suzie. It’s a very funny interview (and who knows how much is true) but the picture of them sure do look like the characters–does he really have them pose so he can draw them? I assumed he created out of his imagination. Whether true or not I love the addition of it.
I’ve had to wait far too long for Volume 4 and it is still months away.
I Just Read About That... 
It’s true!