SOUNDTRACK: A-Hi-Fi Serious (2002).
Many bands are hard to search for online. A may have topped the roster of most unsearchable bands (they were named in 1993 way before Google was even a thought and when they would be at the front of record store racks). A are also the alphabetically first CD I own. So my collection literally goes from A to Z
A are a band from Suffolk England. They formed in 1993, broke up in 2005 and have been sort of reuniting off and on every since.
Their second album A vs. Monkey Kong was well received and this, their third album had a solid single in “Nothing.” I’m not sure how I heard of them (probably well reviewed in Q magazine back in 2002) so I grabbed this album. This album comes with a Quicktime video! When I learned about this band back in 2002, scads of information were not available about them. So as I was looking them up I learned all kinds of things about them (like that they cite Rush as an influence). And that this album name comes from the name of the hi-fi electronics store Alan Partridge buys a stereo from in the last episode of I’m Alan Partridge series 1.
This album is pretty punky/grungy. Lead singer Jason Perry has a distinctive voice with some good power.
There are all kinds of hit-making elements in here. Big crunching guitars coupled with soaring vocals dominate most of the songs, like “Nothing” and “Pacific Ocean.” “The Distance” also revels in the grunge punk guitar sound with a totally metal guitar solo
Songs like “Something’s Going On” have a distinctly pop-punk bratty sound. So does “Starbucks” with the line: “don’t wanna get a job at Starbucks” The title track also works in this snarky, funny, catchy vein.
“Six O’Clock” mixes some cool electronics in the verses while the chorus is, once again, big and catchy. “Going Down” has a much smoother sound with anything distinctive coming from his vocal delivery.
“Took It Away” does the quiet/loud verse thing very well. Some deliberate glitching is a fun surprise too. While “The Springs” introduces acoustic guitar and lots of oohs–a real flick-your-lighters kind of song. “W.D.Y.C.A.I.” is also catchy with a sing along (woah oh) bridge and a super poppy chorus.
“Shut Yer Face” sounds like the quintessential grunge song–snarky lyrics, big grungy guitars, and a soaring chorus. It even has vulgarish lyrics, record scratching and other samples! And man is it catchy. If this didn’t crack the States for them, nothing would.
[READ: April 15, 2019] “Djinn”
I was shocked to see that Esquire had published a story by Russell Banks in both March and June of 2000. I was also shocked to see that a man gets shot in this one as well (that’s four of the first five stories in Esquire in 2000 in which someone is shot).
This is a story of a man who works in Hopewell, New Jersey. They manufacture and sell women’s and children’s high end rubberized sandals. The sandals were manufactured in Gbandeh, the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of Katonga, a recently desocialized West African nation.
One of his jobs was to travel to Gbandeh and make the acquaintance of the local managers with hopes of facilitating communication. And of course to make sure the Katongans could adapt the the fast paced technology in place.
He felt like a translator–not of languages as every one spoke English, but of economic customs and procedures. The work was engaging and he wished for it to become permanent.
He even found a local place where he could drink two beers, eat good food (as long a he didn’t ask what the meat was–the local delicacy was chimpanzee) and feel welcomed.
The locals were friendly and intelligent and they socialized at night when it was finally cool. The days were hot and a red dust covered everything–inside and out.
One night while he was eating a degenerate man wandered up to him. He was covered in dust and basically wearing a loin cloth. He lurched toward the narrator making eye contact and then eventually stopping in font of him. The narrator reached to his pocket for change–instinctively. But the man shook his head and said, “I know you mistah, I know you long time. You bcak to stay wit’ us mistah!” The restaurant owner came out and yelled at the man, “Hey Djinn, g’wan now.”
The madman hobbled away but it left the narrator quite upset. He wound up spending the rest of his time (another two weeks) only going to work and staying in the hotel for meals.
He was sent back about fifteen months later–during the rainy season. The dust was replaced by a red mud that got on everything. In the year or so that he’d been away he’d forgotten about Djinn. He returned to that same restaurant. The owner remembered him, even his name, and he felt at home once again. The place was very busy and the owner offered him fresh fish that had come down the river from the mountains. He decided to order the vegetable and meat pie instead.
While he was eating Djinn came lumbering up the road again. The other diners ignored him as if he weren’t there. He was worried that perhaps he was seeing things. The man came up to the restaurant but did not look at the narrator. Rather, he just started climbing the building. He hoisted himself onto the roof and shimmied the drainpipe. People watched as he bent over and seemed to flash everyone. Eventually a policeman came by and shouted, Come on down now, Djinn, or I’ll have to shoot you.”
Djinn didn’t come down and the policeman shot him right in front of everyone. And yet no one seemed all that bothered by it. Djinn died from the fall and was carted away for the police to deal with, but everyone continued to eat. When the narrator asked the restaurant owner about Djinn, the owner just said simply, “He broke the rules. He never should have climbed the wall.”
The narrator then suddenly had a strange feeling come over him. Was he drunk or was it something else? He did something very unlike himself–he began climbing the wall in the same manner as Djinn. Sure enough the policeman shouted at him. First he said, “Sir, you cannot climb these walls” and then the narrator was sure he heard the man say, “Come down, Djinn or I’ll shoot.”
The ending of the story is unexpected and I’m not exactly sure what to think of it.
I Just Read About That... 
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