I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE BLACK CROWES-Tiny Desk Concert #963 (March 23, 2020).

I didn’t really like The Black Crowes when they dominated the airwaves in the 90s.  They weren’t really my cup of tea.  In hindsight I like them more.  Although I am very puzzled that the Robinsons are part of the jam band scene as their music seems a little too straightforward for jamming.  But then I haven’t heard any of his jam stuff.

This show is just the two Robinsons, Chris singing and Rich playing some beautiful acoustic guitar –lovely riffs and fills and harmonics.  (Rich’s beard looks better).

It’s somehow been 30 years since the singles “Jealous Again” and “Hard To Handle” (their Otis Redding cover) received constant radio play, and the brothers have reunited for the 30th anniversary of The Black Crowes’ debut platinum album, Shake Your Money Maker.

The newly reunited Brothers Of A Feather decided to open their Tiny Desk concert with “She Talks To Angels.”

This song is stripped down so much, that its sounds really quite different (I like the acoustic playing more than the original).  But I guess it is more of a jam band song since it stretches out to nearly 6 minutes.

The second song is another big hit in a very different format.  Although I feel like “Jealous Again” doesn’t quite work as well as an acoustic song.

It’s no secret that the brothers haven’t always gotten along, and Chris and Rich Robinson have had musical successes outside their collaboration as The Black Crowes. But the combination of Chris’ instantly recognizable raspy belt and Rich’s catchy guitar riffs was always going to be the duo’s legacy.

Chris’ voice does sound recognizable, although perhaps a little worse for wear.

“Wiser Time” (from 1994’s Amorica) is about constantly being in motion.  Rich plays a beautiful 12 string guitar (it sounds so full!)  They both sing in harmony for much of the song and their voices sound wonderful together.

[READ: April 1, 2020] Hilo: Book 4

In Book 4 we get to see just how awesome Hilo’s sister Izzy is.  Hilo is from another world and Izzy is his “sister.”  He rescued her at the end of Book 3 an now that she’s on Earth, she is just the cutest thing.  They are on earth hanging out with DJ and his best friend Gina.

Izzy makes things from parts and scraps and she is constantly making things (and hilariously, nonchalantly mentioning what they do).

The first thing Izzy makes is a chicken out of the broken toaster.  The chicken speaks Portuguese (what else is she going to speak?) and when she gets mad, her butt falls off.  The chicken shouts estar frio aqui alguem me dar um casaco and indeed it does fall off.

In the last book they went to Oshun, the planet of Polly the warrior cat.  Gina learned magic there and she is learning to control it.

But their first real Earth test is going to DJs house and seeing if they can fool everyone.  At the beginning of Book 3, everyone’s memory was wiped so no one knows about Hilo’ true identity.  Although, like last time, DJs sister Lisa is very suspicious (I like her, she’s got spunk).

DJ confides to Hilo that he thinks Izzy is sorta off.  And Hilo says “She’s totally weird–she can look at a pile of junk and see something that she can make–she sees all the parts and pieces and the million ways they can fit together.   She’s outstanding.”  And she is.

This story has a bit of real world problems for Gina, though.  Her mom really wants Gina to be a cheerleader.  She was one, and Gina’s sisters (twins) are cheerleaders.  Although Gina keeps insisting she doesn’t want to be one, her mom insists she does.  Being a cheerleader would mean missing out on the stuff she wants to do (and saving the world).

Back to the supernatural, it turns out that Izzy remembers all of the stuff that Hilo doesn’t.  And, as the sun goes down each night she dances (although her dancing has a purpose we cant see).

The enemies in this book are giant robotic animals that climb up out of the ground.  Izzy gives Hilo a metallic fireproof outfit to wear as he flies around saving the world.  He quickly become a television superhero which the news names The Comet.

But he doesn’t want to destroy anything–just shut everything down.  So Izzy takes the toe of each animal to try to find out more about it.

When things get hard for Hilo–yes even he can only do so much, the kids figure something else out–what if Gina can use her magic….  So Izzy makes her a suit and she helps Hilo to save the day and soon she has a superhero name too: Star Blast.

DJ feels bad that Hilo cant remember everything, and he wants Izzy to reveal all she knows, but Izzy feels that Hilo isn’t ready  She can see the big picture and knows when he will be ready.

Btu while Izzy was studying the toes, the army was taking the rest of the creatures and trying to figure out how to weaponize them.  So now Hilo must get them back as well–but this will require serious teamwork.

As the book ends we see Razorwark’s origin story. He was created to be emphatic.. to save human lives, to do whatever he could for humanity.  But once the nation’s enemies started sending robot armies against them, he was told to kill the robots.  But he could feel that killing the robots was bad so he turned on the people who were forcing him to do it.

The end of the book reveals what Izzy’s dancing has been all about–a huge reveal about whats to come in book 5.