SOUNDTRACK: JAPANESE BREAKFAST-Tiny Desk Concert #663 (October 25, 2017).
I had it in my head that Japanese Breakfast was a weird band–psychedelic or wacky indie or something. And maybe they are. But certainly not here.
For this concert, the band is all acoustic (except for the electric bass). For the first two songs there is a sting section. Interestingly, the string section is Rogue Collective who also performed with Landlady on a recent Tiny Desk. [Landlady’s Adam Schatz told Zauner that the Rogue Collective make pretty great Tiny Desk partners].
So the blurb corrects me about the band, describing their music as having “gauzy, astral synths.” Those are clearly not present here.
As Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner writes sparkling, opulent dream pop about grief and love (and, occasionally, robots). After releasing its debut album, Psychopomp last year, the band returned with this year’s stunning Soft Sounds From Another Planet. Where Psychopomp, written in the immediate aftermath of the death of Zauner’s mother, zeroed in on the experience of Zauner’s grief, Soft Sounds widens her aperture, featuring paeans to her coping mechanisms, ruminations on crooked relationship dynamics and said sci-fi robot fantasy.
“Boyish” aches with sadness (“your boyish reassurance is not reassuring”). The melody (her guitar and Deven Craige’s bass to start) is lovely and heartbreaking. Then the strings really punctuate the sentiment of these great lines. And there’s some great backing vocals from drummer Craig Hendrix.
If you go to her don’t expect to come home to me.
I can’t get you off my mind /I can’t get you off in general
I want you and you want something more beautiful
I can’t get you off my mind / you can’t get yours off the hostess
I love the opening lines to ‘Till Death,’ which really sums up the end of 2016:
all our celebrities keep dying / while the cruel men continue to win.
She says the song is about marriage (and then chuckles). The blurb says she sings “as she often does, in a way that strains her voice to the crackling, taut edge of heartbreak.” This song is really lovely–the melody is a knockout. The piano and bass start the song. After the first verse the strings come in and Hendrix adds more backing vocals.
I love a song that ends with this final line:
PTSD, anxiety, genetic disease, thanataphobia
Everybody leaves for the final song, “This House.” Except Hendrix moves from drums to piano.
Another great lyric opens the song:
This house is full of women
playing guitar cooking breakfast
sharing trauma doing dishes
and where are you
The song describes moments in love that are more fearful labor than bliss, the hazy space where commitment, confusion and longing intersect. Like much of Japanese Breakfast’s music, the performance shows Zauner looking unblinkingly at fear and pain, daring us to do the same.
Interestingly, for this concert, Rogue Collective has a different lineup. They are a trio: Alexa Cantalupo (violin) and Natalie Spehar (cello) are back but Kaitlin Moreno (violin) is there while Livia Amoruso (violin) and Deanna Said (viola) are not.
In a cool footnote, the blurb says “The Collective practiced with Japanese Breakfast the day before the Tiny Desk, and was a featured guest later that night at the band’s D.C. show.”
I enjoyed this Concert a lot and will have to give a closer listen to their new album.
[READ: March 1, 2017] El Dia Mas Largo del Futur
This book came across my desk at work and I loved the look of it right away. I can stumble through some Spanish books, but imagine my delight to see that this one had no words at all! It is a wordless graphic novel (novela gráfica).
I especially liked the look of it because it reminded me in some ways of Chris Ware–very detailed, incredibly crisp lines, and really pleasing shapes. It is also very dark, like Ware’s work.
But the comparison ends there. This story is set in a dystopian future where violence is the norm, where robots can be easily programmed to kill and where love seems an unlikely prospect.
And NOW, after having read it, I have just learned the total history of this book. It was originally written in French as Le Jour Le Plus Long du Futur. Varela is from Argentina. It has also been published in English as The Longest Day Of The Future by Fantagraphics books. So even though I felt proud about “reading” the book in Spanish, I could have just found it in English too. Well, I’m keeping with my original post, so….
You can see more details of the book from the publisher website.
But here’s what the site says (in Google-translated English, no the irony is not lost on me):
The future is an alienating and hyper-technified society. A time when it is difficult to differentiate robots from humans. A daily life in permanent police surveillance. And two mega-corporate states struggling unscrupulously to win the favor of their citizens / consumers. In the future there is no place for hope. The illusion is a fly that escapes from our hands, a dream locked in a postcard. However, something is about to change. A strange case has fallen from outer space. Take a minute to go to the machine and order an instant coffee: everything indicates that this is going to be a very long day.
I also found this blurb which gives a bit more detail about the plot:
In a futuristic city, a robot and a bureaucratic employee with no background, they will see their lives get their feet up with the arrival of a strange visitor, carrying a mysterious case. This suitcase offers the possibility of accessing the materialization of unconscious desires, desires that may be tender, absurd or monstrous. Something that will forever change the existence of the city and its inhabitants.
So yes, we have unnamed, but very similar-looking characters, all in futuristic jumpsuits. There are robots who are humanoid and humans who wear robotic masks. And there are two competing corporations whose logos are a blue circle with a kind of light-colored monkey and a pink circle with a kind of dark-colored pig.
In the prologue, we see an old man (in the blue jumpsuit) about to kill himself while looking at a postcard of Paraiso (Paradise). He is brought to a room (he is full of dark thoughts). He is given an apple, but it is full of worms and that graphic of wriggling pink worms runs through the book.
In chapter 1 (set in the blue company) an alien spaceship crashes to the ground. The alien is immediately captured and put in jail. The sequence where he surrenders his weapon is darkly funny. The alien also has a suitcase. When one of the scientists looks into it, he gets a teddy bear that he loved as a child. When the old man from the prologue looks into it, he is given a face full of worms.
Throughout the book on video screens are shots of propaganda against the other corporation.
Chapter 2 is set in the pink company. We see an old scientist seemingly disgusted by the people as they fight over which corporate food and drink to buy. When he gets home, his house is fully mechanized. He has just created a robot to help clean the house. It catches a fly and is so delighted that it brings the fly to the man who instantly kills it.
Chapter 3 returns us to the blue company and the man on the cover of the book. He is spying on a woman in the apartment across the way (who has human flesh but a scary face/mask). While he is sort of drowsy about the whole thing, he purchases a coffee from the pink company and brings it to work. He is punished and the mug destroyed. Then he is called to the woman’s office. She is his supervisor. When he comes out of her office he is now wearing the black and pink colors. He is now going to be a spy and bring the worm-eating case to the other company where it will devour them.
In Chapter 4 he goes to the pink corporation (and we see a similar but opposite propaganda video on the screens). In the center of the building the scientist from above has his giant robot fighting other robots in a battle. His wins and he is given a credit. And now the robot is told to go to the blue company and smash them. And both spies are able to start their destruction.
But more surprises await. The alien makes a return. There are even more spies. And someone finally gets to see what Paraiso is really like.
I had to read this twice to get the whole conflict between corporations, but once I did, I found the story riveting and fascinating. And again, the artwork was fantastic.
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