I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAWG YAWP-Tiny Desk Concert #655 (September 29, 2017).

I first heard a Dawg Yawp song on All Songs Considered.  Since then I’ve heard the band’s name mentioned around but I’d kind of forgotten what they sounded like.  I certainly forgot that they played with a sitar.  In fact, it is just a duo: Tyler Randall (sitar, vocals, guitar, synthesizers, drums) and Robert Keenan (guitar, vocals, synthesizers).

I love watching unconventional (Western) instruments.  And I love watching them played unconventionally–in this case

A man in a black cape holds a sitar like a guitar all while singing a dreamy tale about wanting to be a dog. Well actually a “dawg.”  [The band is] a vessel for humor, experimentation and foot-stomping fun, whether that stomping is to an original techno beat or a classic bluegrass tune.  Listening to their debut, self-titled album is like listening to kids music made for grownups. It’s both clever and wonderfully weird.

“I Wanna Be A Dawg” is a gentle ballad–a pretty, rather complex melody on the acoustic guitar with the lead and vocal melody played on the sitar.  I love the middle section where the guitar is playing a finger-picked section and the sitar is soloing.  It sounds terrific.  I love that he is employing the sitar with some traditional sounds but also with an electric guitar sensibility.

“Can’t Think” opens with some rowdy sampled guitars and a neat drony singing style while Tyler plays the sitar.  There’s even a sample of someone scratching the strings of an electric guitar.  It is repetitive but with enough variation to make it incredibly infectious.  And it rocks, too.

Before the third song, Tyler mentions talks “the first sitar capo.”  He says they weren’t supposed to talk but the silence is intense.  “East Virginia Blues,” is a song made famous by the Stanley Brothers “that first won my heart when I heard them replace the more traditional banjo with a sitar”.  You can tell that this song was probably played on a banjo but he sitar give its such an interesting twang (as their vocals twang a bit, too).  I’m not sure if the drums are done by foot pedal or sequencer.

Before the final song, “Lost At Sea” Robert says, “we’ve played a lot of outdoor summer festivals and I don’t think I’ve sweat as much.”  This song is incredibly catchy.  The melody is familiar but with a new spin.  There’s interesting plucked guitar and a nice sitar solo.  There some other kinds of sounds in the sequencer, too.  It’s fun to watch them push the squares to get a whole new set of drums and such.

This band seems like a must-see attraction.

[READ: July 26, 2016] Amulet: Escape from Lucien

As the book opens, Max addresses the Elf king and asks for one more chance to destroy the stonekeepers.  The king is not in the habit of clemency, but Max’s thirst for vengeance impresses the king, so Max is given another chance.

Meanwhile back at “school” (I seem to have missed this transition), Emily and Navin are flying some aircraft and wind up being late for class.  Navin takes the blame to spare them Emily getting in trouble.  But his teacher put a governor bracelet on him which prevents him from flying anything on site.

Back in Emily’s camp, they are watching helplessly as Lucien is destroyed.  But the team has to activate the communications beacon and possibly save whoever is left.  Six pilots will be chosen to perform the duty.   And when the time comes, it is the teacher who is mad at Navin who decides.  And the “honor” of this dangerous mission  goes to Robert Joseph (a bratty kid who proves to be a coward), Trisha Spring, a real bad ass, and Alyson Hunter. Alyson thinks it’s a mistake and that Navin should have been called.  But he says he will help out as soon as he gets the governor off his arm.

Even Alyson’s father is mad that Navin isn’t out there.

But before they can even begin their mission, they are sabotaged by the elf ship.  During the crisis, Navin is freed from the governor and is able to fly again

There’s an awesomely exciting sequence in which the four kids (including Navin) make a safe landing on the ground.  But they are only safe for a short time.

Meanwhile, Max has called Emily, Vigo and Alyson’s dad to a meeting  They know he could have killed them so he must want something.  He brings them to a room in which the stone’s voice can’t hear them.  And he asks them to help him hunt down the voice that has cursed them all.  Reluctantly, they agree.

Back on the ground, the four are followed by creepy mists with big eyes.  They are deadly and hard to stop.  But our heroes are rescued by an elf girl who claims to be mayor of the area where they are.  Her name is Riva.  The people of Lucien all went underground into a thriving city.  The city was built by her father (which is why she is mayor) because “he was just crazy.  He didn’t like being told what to do or where to go.”

Most of the people in the underground are human, but there are elves and the animal/human hybrids so Navin and his friends are given a warm welcome.

Riva reveals a prophecy that she heard some time ago but never believed, but before anyone cat act, some shadows get into their safe haven and they must all evacuate.  This has another very exciting passage and we learn that some people are indeed expendable.

Back to Emily, through some kind of transportation mushroom they are in Vigo’s dream realm where we see Vigo and Max as youngsters–they were actually close back then.  And Max takes them to Valcor the kingdom of the elves.  The voice knows that they are there however, and it has been waiting for them. And that’s when we learn a lot of secrets about Max.  Including that the Elf people didn’t know that Trellis is the rightful heir

I really like that Kibuishi changes the background colors to let us know we are in a different place.  Like when he switches to Luger and Trellis playing Othello the colors are blue.  Emily’s realms is tinged with red and Lucien and Max’s scenes are purple.

There is some good humor in the book too (despite the scariness) as Navin keeps getting downgraded from awesome fighting machine to street cleaning robot to delivery robot.   And yet he still carries on.

As the book ends, we see the giant house, which has been in hiding for several books, lumber to life.