SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-Archive Volume One “Live 96-98” (2005/2020)
In early August, Boris digitally released six archival releases. Volume One is called “Live 96-98” and that’s what it contains. There’s eight songs all recorded in the same place Koenji 20000V, once a year or so.
Originally released in 2005 from the US label “aRCHIVE”, limited to 600 copies which sold out immediately. Compiled from live recordings during Boris’s “Power Violence” period 1996 – 1998, including songs from the 1998 studio album “Amplifier Worship” and Archive Volume Zero “Early Demo”. (Reissued as part of Archive 1 on March 5, 2014. Limited to 1,000 copies).
The first two songs were recorded in December 1996. They are not for the faint of heart.
“Huge” is a ten minute drone. It’s full of feedback and slow chord progressions that repeat until after five minutes, when Wata hits a high note and Atsuo starts screaming along with the thumping drums. It segues into “Hush” which is 53 seconds of thrash: pounding guitar and drums, including something of a drum solo by the end while someone sings to it.
The next chunk of songs were recorded six months earlier. “Soul Search You Sleep” is nearly 9 minutes of crashing chords with lots of screamed vocals. There’s a brief fast section before the slow drones return. Wata takes a guitar solo near the end which segues into “Vacuuum” which is a minute and a half long. It starts with that wailing guitar solo until the pummeling drums and screamed vocals take over. It ends with feedback that segues into “Mosquito” a slower song that has chanted vocals from both Atsuo and Takeshi.
“Mass Mercury” was recorded almost a year later. Things aren’t radically different, but they allow some of the noise to drop away a bit more. It opens with feedback and fast riffing guitars. After a minute and a half everything drops out but some pulsing bass and guitar effects from Wata. The pulsing runs through to the end after a middle section of growls and drums. It segues into “Scar Box,” which is a big slow riff. Unexpectedly, mid song it briefly turns into a crushing hardcore song with shouted growly vocals until it slows back to crashing heavy chords.
The final track is the newest of the bunch. It’s 8 minutes long and starts as a fast hardcore song. Then a bass and drum rumble takes over and things slow down while Wata makes some airplane-like sounds it her guitar. The solo loops and phases through to the end until about a minute left when both singers start shouting through to the crashing end.
I’m not sure if they are singing in Japanese or just growling, but it’s a pretty intense 45 minutes of live music.
[READ: August 12, 2020] A Very Punchable Face
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about Colin Jost. I like him on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update and yet as the title of his book says, he has a very punchable face. And, as I say every time I read a memoir–I don’t really care about memoirs all that much. And yet here’s another one I’ve read. And it’s yet another one from a cast member of Saturday Night Live–a show that I don’t think is all that great (but the memoirs are usually quite good).
There was an excerpt form this book in the New Yorker and it made me laugh at loud, so I looked forward to reading the rest of the book.
The beginning is interesting in that he says he had a hard time learning to speak–an odd thing for a TV news presenter. But really the most fun part starts when he tells us about the astonishing amount of bad fortune he has had–his delivery about it all is hilarious.
The chapter “You’re Gonna Need Stitches” lists the six times (throughout his life) that he has had to get stitches–one was from getting a surfboard to the face! Indeed there are two stories of surfing –not something I expected from a guy from Staten Island. The second one involves being saved by Jimmy Buffet (and how much Jost enjoys eating at Margaritaville restaurants–I can’t get over how much alcohol must be consumed at a this franchise). There’s also a crazy story about him visiting Google and getting injured by the VR machine. He even somehow managed to possibly have insect eggs laid under his skin. Ew!
He also has an astonishing (in)tolerance for alcohol. There’s even a chapter called “The Chapter About Alcohol and Drugs.” Most of these incidents lead to trouble for him, although his drinking with the Chicago Blackhawks is a pretty funny memory.
The chapter “Oops, I Fell asleep in a Graveyard” is a hilarious story of travelling to Copenhagen, Helsinki, Estonia and Amsterdam with Andy Samberg, Seth Meyers and a few other friends. When Colin tries to show off by doing a bike jump–well, there’s no stitches but there’s a lot of blood.
There’s a chapter which he warns you against reading called “Okay, So Maybe I’ve Shit My Pants a Couple of Times.” Its amazing someone is still willing to marry him. He does mention Scarlett Johansson a few times–like how they first met and the first sketch her wrote that she performed. But there’s also a hilarious bit about them in Paris when Colin was pelted with tomatoes by some teens on the street and how his revenge is not very well thought out.
The excerpt I read in the New Yorker was about his commute to school as a kid. It is fleshed out a bit more here and includes pictures which which make the article even funnier. It’s all about how he had a two hour commute to a prestigious Catholic school in Manhattan by subway and ferry and bus. His academics continue–did you know he went to Harvard? This might be the first book by someone who went to Harvard hat doesn’t joke that everyone who went to Harvard says they went to Harvard. Although of course he does say her went there. He also gives an interesting insight into the workings of Harvard–a strange place most of us now nothing about.
He was in Harvard when Zuckerberg created Facebook and was an original friend of the guy. But he was not a “real” friend, because while Zuckerberg was changing the world,. Jost was studying The History of Literature of Russia and Britain. His essay about living in St. Petersberg is pretty hilarious. Plus, Jost was trying to get into the Harvard Lampoon.
He wanted to wrote for TV. But first he tried to write for other places–his Reader’s Digest submissions are hilarious.
Jost wrote for a show I’ve never heard of called Kappa Mikey. Then after submitting sketches over and over, he was interviewed for SNL. He talks about what it’s like to write for the show and what its like to be head writer.
He devotes a few chapters to SNL. He talks about some of his favorite sketches that he wrote. He talks bout how hard it was to take over Weekend Update and how much people hated him when he first stared. He answers some SNL FAQ’s. Like who is your least favorite host and least favorite cats member–the hilarious vitriol he spews at Aidy Bryant makes me really look forward to how much she will mess with him if she ever writes a book.
Hey Aidy, the garbage truck called . It wants your sketches back.
What’s that? You need like two years to write a comeback book? Yeah, I thought so.
And if he and Michael Che are really friends:
“Yes.” “Sure we are.” I “love” him. What a “great” guy.
There’s also the very funny list of notes form the censors about what they can’t show on TV: “Lets try to film a network-friendly ‘orgy’ scene.”
There’s also a shocking amount of book real estate devoted to donald trump. Mostly because trump hosted SNL in 2015 and people are still angry about it. Jost had to write sketches for the guy. Jost was impressed with how much time trump dedicated to the show and that he arrived alone nearly all the time. When he left people thought he wasn’t that much of a monster (and they never believed he’d turn into such a monster). But as Michael Che said, “trump on a TV show makes total sense. It’s donald trump as an elected official that’s bonkers.”
He sums up by saying it was a really really bad episode and has not aged well politically or comedically.
Speaking of really bad. Jost and Che hosted the Emmys and everyone hated it (I didn’t see it). But he does give a reasonable explanation for why it was so bad–it’s the nature of award shows in general to not really allow for any time for good jokes–plus 75% of the audience are going to lose–they are not happy..
Did you know that Colin Jost was in a Wrestlemania? I sure didn’t and even after reading the chapter I still can’t imagine why he was or how he didn’t get killed.
There’s not a lot about his personal life in the book. But there is one chapter about his mom. And she is an amazing woman. A medical officer for the New York City Fire Department,s he gave of herself so much during 9/11. This peek into one person’s experience of the tragedy is an amazing account of what happened on the ground at ground zero.
That chapter is very sweet and moving. But overall, this book is very funny (and kinda gross). It made me like him even more and made me feel a little sad that he might be retriing from SNL this year–of course he wrote the book before the pandemic, so he might not be in such a hurry to leave just yet.
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