SOUNDTRACK: PILLOW QUEENS-“Liffey” (Live on the Late Late Show, January 13, 2021).
I learned about Pillow Queens from the book about Irish Drummers. Rachel Lyons, Pillow Queens’ drummer is interviewed for the book and I thought their band sounded interesting.
I had no idea how good this band would be. They have released a few EPs and a number of one-off songs on bandcamp. They released their debut album in September. To celebrate, the band made their American TV debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden performing “Liffey.”
The band has two leads ingers and all four members sing backing vocals. As this song opens, Pamela Connolly sings an opening verses while everyone else sings harmony and counterpoint until everything comes crashing in–drums, guitars and bass. (That’s Sarah Corcoran on bass and Cathy McGuinness playing lead guitar).
There are some cool parts in this song. The bridge has as series of two note punches, while the verses are supported by soaring single guitar notes. Lyons’ drumming is a real high point. There’s martial beats and lots of floor tom (in the video you can see that she’s using mallets all the way though). Noting her sounds expected and yet it all works together really nicely.
The roaring buzzsaw guitar that ends the song is just perfect.
I’m looking forward to listening to the whole album.
[READ: February 10, 2021] Stranger Things: Zombie Boys
I get to see all kinds of unexpected things at work–books from other countries, books graphic novels in other languages, even popular novels. One thing I never expected to see was a Stranger Things graphic novel. In part because I didn’t know there were any.
But here one is.
This book is set right after Will is rescued from the Upside Down. He’s been drawing pictures of their adventure.
But at school kids are calling him zombie boy. Which is no fun.
The only bright spot is AV Club. But even that’s no fun lately because the boys are all behind in school (what with fighting the forces of evil) and their AV advisor is making them do school work.
Until a new kids comes into the picture. Joey Kim has just moved to town from San Diego. His mom works for Sony and he has a brand new betamax film camera.
Their AV advisor says that he’ll see if they can make a movie for extra credit. But what movie will they make?
That’s when Joey pulls out a drawing that Will made (it fell out of his bag). The boys love the drawing and think it will make for an awesome zombie movie.
Will’s mom isn’t too keen on him drawing scary pictures–she even takes him to the doctor. (The doctor is affiliated with the bad guys, but that doesn’t have an bearing on this story). So Will changes the drawings into zombie joke pictures–it’s a pleasure to eat you, etc.. But the guys are having none of it. And Joey Kim says that it’s horror or nothing.
So they play with make up effects (kielbasa for eaten flesh!) and draw on some of their darker moments (of which they have many) to pull out some acting chops.
Lucas has an important demand though–the black guy always dies in horror movies and he wants Joey to know that this black guy is not going to die.
The book is pretty short and aside from a few of the bullies there’s nothing too dramatic in it–except for a moment when Will goes too deep into a dark place. But the story line is cool and it feels like a setup for more to come.
I have no idea if Joey Kim is coming in the new season or if he is comics only, but he’s a fun addition for this story line.
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