SOUNDTRACK: ELISAPIE-Tiny Desk Concert #948 (February 20, 2020).
Elisapie (I have no idea how to pronounce that) is a First Nations singer from Salluit, on the Northern tip of Quebec.
She sings in Inuktitut (as well as in English and French). And her voice is absolutely intense.
Her songs are very personal–she sings of
her life as an adopted child and of meeting her biological mother. Now, as a mother herself, she sings about what it must have meant to her own mother to give up her child.
Elisapie left her birth-village, Salluit, as a teenager and headed to Montreal, leaving her community and her sick mom. The songs she sings, here all come from her album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl and deal with the consequences of her leaving.
These songs are definitely rock, but with a different overall sound. Jason Sharp’s bass saxophone is fantastic–creating deep low rumbles and otherworldly squawks.
“Arnaq” opens with some chugging guitar riffs (I can’t tell if the guitar is acoustic or electric) from Joe Grass and after a verse or so, some great noisy electric guitars from Josh Toal, who punctuates the song with little solos. There’s no bass guitar because the bass saxophone covers all of the low ends.
The song, even though it is in Inuktitut is rally catchy with a chorus of “ahhhhhh, I, yi, I” (or something).
The middle section is full of great noises as both guitars and the sax all play some wild solos.
All of this is held together by “the tasteful drumming of Evan Tighe.”
She says the second song, “Una” is the most painful yet the most freeing song. It is written to her biological mother. In Inuktitut the word for mother means “our little bag” because they carried us.
It opens with slow staccato guitar chords and a near a capella vocal before the quiet electric guitar from Josh Toal joins in. The spareness of the beginning of this song is a great counterpoint to the end of the song when everyone joins in–vocals, guitars, sax and some complex drumming.
Before the final song, she looks around and smiles and says Lizzo was here! My daughter is very excited.
The final song “Darkness Bring The Light” opens with some great weird sounds from everyone. Tighe makes scraping metallic sounds as he slides his drum sticks around the cymbals. Toal plays a synth intro as Grass bows his guitar and Sharp makes waves of gentle sounds to underpin the melody
This one is in English. She sings a melody that rides over the sounds. After 2 minutes the drums kick in and after a run through of the chorus, the guitarists join in
Bob Boilen concludes
This is an extraordinary Tiny Desk from an artist with something meaningful to say.
He is absolutely correct. This set is fantastic.
[READ: March 10, 2020] Gunnerkrigg Court 4 [32-41]
I really enjoyed the first three books of this series and then promptly forgot about it. I happened to see this book at the library and was excited to see that I hadn’t read it. Can it really have been three years since I last read about these characters?
Being away for so long made some of this a little confusing. I will have to read the whole story again some time.
Chapter 32 shows Antimony returning from the forest and there is a warm welcome with Renard. But Katarina’s welcome is cool–“you kinda make it hard to be your friend.” Antimony tries very hard to make Kat like her again…too hard. She creates scary situations in which she can “save” Kat, It doesn’t exactly work, although Kat isn’t really mad anymore, just annoyed. But then a gigantic creepy monster thing comes out of the water. Kat is impressed by Annie’s conjuring until Annie says she didn’t do it. They run out.
Only to learn that this is Lindsey–the creature who helped design most of everything at the court–a giant crablike creature.
All this time Kat has been working on the idea of growing a robot. Well, not exactly, but kind of. She imagines using a muscular frame to build a robot body around. Or something. She is able to use the smarts of one of the existing robots to give her a hand. The code they provide is actually a small white cube with no writing on it. Amazingly Kat is able to read parts of it.
Chapter 34 is a detour in which the kids use the robots to sneak off campus for an evening of fun. It proves to be something of a hook up event with the boys and girls paring off. And a couple who do not pair up.
Annie and Jack talk and she finally admits that she doesn’t think she likes him that much. Which he is relieved to hear because he isn’t sure if he likes her either. He actually likes creepy zombie girl Zimmy.
The funniest part though comes when William and the girl whose name I forget try to make up origin stories for their ‘relationship”–utterly far fetched and hilarious.
Chapter 35 has the excellent title Parley and Smitty Are In This One. And they are. Parley is a girl who is older than Smitty and her older friends tease her about dating a younger boy. Over and over we see that he doesn’t mind one bit.
Parley does some sword training with Robbie the Robot and they both do very well. Then Annie gives Parley one of Coyote’s teeth. It is so sharp she accidentally cuts Robbie in half and separates Shadow from his body. We love Shadow and hope he’ll be okay.
There’s is concern for both of them, but they both survive–except Shadow is now his own entity. And he is going to enroll in classes.
Zimmy gets an excellent chapter all to her self (and she learns of Jack’s feelings but doesn’t know what to do with that information.
Then there are some wonderful backstories filled in. Antimony’s father used to be friends with Kat’s father (when they were in school together) and we learn a lot about him and his behavior and how he is now on a moon in space (or something). There’s also the awesome backstory of Jones (and what happens when she smiles).
Coyote summons Annie out to the forest again because he is bored. We learn a secret about Coyote which makes Ysengrim turns wild and wicked and very scary. He almost hurts Annie in the process. Just whose side is Coyote on?
The end of the book concerns those robots again, with them having a “discussion”with Kat.
But the final chapter holds the future of Antimony and the Court. Everyone assumes that Annie will become the next medium, but the headmaster has been unhappy with Annie as of late and he gives it to Smitty instead. This means that Annie has to make a choice–be a normal girl at the Court or become an honorary citizen of the forest–with no protection from the Court.
The good news is that whatever she chooses she and Kat will be rooming together for the foreseeable future–I love the picture of Kat reclining with her legs draped over Annie’s–pure comfortable friendship.
The final pages include some cartoons about City Face the pigeon.
Antimony draws one (cute). Kat draws one (inspired by Angry Birds).
Renard draws one (very nice looking). Shadow and robot do one together (also cute).
Mort does one (with bad puns).
Then City Face makes some art, too.
I loved that Chapter 23 started with a totally different style–looking like a kind of sci-fi epic (and called Terror Castle of the Jupiter Moon Martians). But we quickly learn that this new look is a simulation–a kind of test for the main kids. But it’s very poorly made and they solve the mystery almost instantly. This plot leads to a couple of interesting revelations. That Parley has a thing for Smitty (everyone can tell but the two of them), and that Jones is becoming a fascinating and enigmatic important character. Reynard is also even funnier with his comeback “I think you detect a hint of shut your face” which Anni responds to with “Hah, Katerina must be helping you with your comebacks.”
The simulation room also allows for us to learn more about the origins of Reynard and Coyote.
The kids are meant to go on a camping trip (on school grounds). It’s mostly a comic chapter (particularly the robot cows who say things like “auditory response: moo.” We also learn that the kids are more or less afraid of Anni, although they appreciate her gifts.
The next chapter is devoted to the robots and Kat. This chapter also shows the truth behind Marco, the robot maker and his believed Jeanne. He did not fail to save her from dying, he actually condemned her to death. Kat takes this very hard and suddenly finds fault with all of Marco’s creations. A few chapters later she is forced to address this when she is able to find herself saving a life rather than being callous to it (she also cuts her hair, which suits her well).
The mythology continues as Coyote explains to Annie about Reynard (and even shows her his real body (since his spirit is trapped in a stuffed animal). The colors and styles are magnificent.
There is a diversion brought about by Jack, who has suddenly become obsessed with Zimmy. A few chapters later we see what Jack has been up to–he is trying to use the energy of the island to do…something in an alternate reality.
As the book draws to a close we see an origins story–Jeanne with an alter ego of Coyote. And then Reynard pleading his love for Annie’s mother Surma, who was just toying with him all along (no wonder he was mad). She uses this information to attack Reynard when he gets sassy and he throws a bombshell of his own–that she may have been responsible for her mother’s death.
The book ends with Annie staying with Coyote in the woods, perhaps for the summer.
There are some interstitial one-page cartoons. The ones features the deadpan jokes are my favorite (I live the one where “suddenly I am wearing a party hat”).
The end of the book includes some sketches and more of the strip City Face (about the pigeons).
In this one the pigeon sees a round thing on the ground “Oh super wow! That looks like a tasty thing for me to eat with my excellent beak.” “What this is totally the BEST whatever this is.” Then magpie comes over and yells at pigeon (in hilarious one syllable style). The city fairy reveals that anyone who eats a bagel (for that is the round thing) becomes “A human businessman.” The fairy shows the pigeon how to act like a human businessman. It’s weird and hilarious and even involves Jones in one of the strips. Things get pretty out of hand until a crow comes to set them straight.
City Face has his own book, although I haven’t seen it in person.
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