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Archive for April, 2021

Todd Rykaczewski–Joan & The Man (2020)

Posted in Airplanes, Art, Artists, Babies, Books about writers, Coronavirus, Death, Drinking, Huh?, Meta, Quarantine, Short Books, Steady Holiday, SXSW, The Dog Dies, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Todd Rykaczewski on April 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STEADY HOLIDAY-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert Meets SXSW: #187 (April 5, 2021).

Every year, NPR Music participates in the SXSW music festival, whether it’s curating a stage or simply attending hundreds of shows at the annual event in Austin, Texas. Last year, the festival was canceled due to the pandemic, but it returned this March as an online festival. We programmed a ‘stage’ of Tiny Desk (home) concerts and presented them on the final day of the festival. Now, we present to you Tiny Desk Meets SXSW: four videos filmed in various locations, all of them full of surprises.

Steady Holiday is the music of Dre Babinski. This video, filmed for our virtual SXSW showcase, finds her by the fireplace, a dog at her feet, an acoustic guitar in her arms. Steady Holiday is singing “Living Life,” a tune about a favorite topic of mine: the everyday, the mundane, and living in the moment. All the songs in this Tiny Desk (home) concert are from Steady Holiday’s 2021 album Take The Corners Gently, a top record of mine this year.

As “Living Life” opens, Dre Babinski sings the first verse solo, then you can hear other musicians join in and she reveals their secret location (with some very loud shutters).  Derek Howa plays a pretty solo on the keys and by the end of the song drummer Brijesh Pandya is “da da daing” along to really flesh out the song.

Surprise guests aren’t the only surprise.  After the first song, her printer (with googly eyes and an arm) prints out the next song on the setlist.

“Tangerine” is a bouncy song with some heavier ends and an interesting chord progression.  Howa’s keys sound almost like a toy piano (but louder) and add a chiming quality.  It’s wonderfully catchy.  I’m curious how much bigger the proper version of this song sounds. Howa adds some creepy spacey effects in the middle, so I imagine the recorded songs have more going on.

The printer spits out a piece of paper: Your band is overdressed.  Then she tells us why the guys are outside (it’s pretty funny).

Laughing while her dog grabs a chew toy, she performs the album’s opening track, “White Walls,” a song about self-reflection and how doing the same thing over and over (“painting white walls white”) won’t make life better.

This is a slow bouncy song with a really catchy chorus: “painting white walls white just to kill the time.”

Then she shutters out her band and

As her printer cues the last song, (oops, small spoiler), Steady Holiday takes us out on a lovely tune, “Love Me When I Go To Sleep”:

It’s just Bea and her guitar as she delicately sings

“Fragile aren’t we, who would guess / Here today, tomorrow’s taking bets.” Her refrain amplifies that fragility with a reminder to appreciate the gift of life. “Love me when I go to sleep / Love me with no certainty / Love me when I go to sleep.”

Her voice is clear and lovely and the final song feels like a lullaby.

[READ: April 20, 2021] Joan & The Man

This book came in at work and something about it made me want to read it (the shortness helped).

So this is a self-published book (I think–it could use some editing) that we received as a gift (from the author?).  It is Rykaczewski’s fourth novel and it is a wonderfully weird mix of reality and nonsense.

Chapter One focuses on Joan as she tried on some clothes in a mall–she is buying bralettes–imposed propaganda to younger hip girls.  Then it pushes back as she and The Man head to their place–the World Revolt Art Gallery.  But more on that place after a brief excursion to the Riverbend Arts Market.

Joan & The Man are artists living in Florida.  She works in paint and he works in words.  They spend time at the RAM hoping to sell some works, but really it’s a sucker’s market.  They often head down with their dog Duke,  Duke is a nasty dog to everyone but The Man. Then there’s a weird moment where Duke winds up trading places with a movie star dog (to the terminal end of the movie star dog).  But losing Duke frees them. (more…)

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Purity Ring (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, April 21, 2021) [rescheduled date, postponed]

Posted in Canadian Music, Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Purity Ring, Quarantine, Union Transfer on April 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: April 21, 2021] Purity Ring [postponed from May 13, 2020; moved to November 12, 2021] 

indexWhen Purity Ring cancelled their March 2020 dates due to COVID, they cleverly pushed their show back over a year.  It wasn’t far enough. The duo has had to push their show to the fall now.

~~~~

Purity Ring is a duo from Edmonton–multi-instrumentalist/producer Corin Roddick and vocalist Megan James.

They put out a couple of albums and then disappeared.

I rather enjoy the way Wikipedia describes their sound

a combination of pop and hip-hop styles and James’ “childlike” vocals and “macabre”, “gory” lyrics, that she takes from “books and books full of things she’s written” in the past.  Their music utilizes down-pitched, distorted vocals and percussive and vocal loops. A creative key to their sound is a sometimes aggressive use of a volume regulating technique called “sidechaining,” in which the rhythm of one instrument affects the volume of another.

After a five year hiatus, they returned in 2020 with a new album WOMB, just in time to have their tour postponed.

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Stuart Gibbs–Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation [Charlie Thorne #1] (2019)

Posted in Adventure, Albert Einstein, Coronavirus, Death, Dominican Republic, Evolution, Guns, History, Library Related, Palotré, Princeton, NJ, Quarantine, Robbery, Scientists, Snowboarding, SXSW, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Trees, Violence, Weather, Yasser Tejeda on April 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YASSER TEJEDA & PALOTRÉ-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert Meets SXSW #188 (April 6, 2021).

Every year, NPR Music participates in the SXSW music festival, whether it’s curating a stage or simply attending hundreds of shows at the annual event in Austin, Texas. Last year, the festival was canceled due to the pandemic, but it returned this March as an online festival. We programmed a ‘stage’ of Tiny Desk (home) concerts and presented them on the final day of the festival. Now, we present to you Tiny Desk Meets SXSW: four videos filmed in various locations, all of them full of surprises.

Yasser Tejeda, a New York-based guitarist from the Dominican Republic, started his musical career on the Dominican cuatro (a folkloric guitar-like instrument) and has incorporated guitar stylings that have made him a “go-to guy” for Dominican artists looking for passionate elegance in their sound.

They play three songs in fifteen minutes.  And as with much music from this part of the world, the drums (Victor Otoniel Vargas) and percussion (Jonathan “Jblak” Troncoso) are unstoppable.

Yasser Tejeda and his band Palotré begin their set behind a home desk with “Amor Arrayano,” weaving a vaguely Caribbean feel with a killer R&B hook.

“Amor Arrayano” is a smooth love song gently echoing guitars and a smooth grooving bass.

After a brief introduction of his bandmates Tejeda launches into “La Culebra,” the track that caught my attention from their album Kijombo. Palotré is a powerful groove machine behind Tejeda’s virtuosic guitar playing and his playful dance moves.

“La Culebra” (The Snake) opens with percussive rattlesnake sounds from “Jblak.”   Kyle Miles plays a bouncy bass while Tejeda plays a cool virtuosic lead.  This (mostly) instrumental rocks on in various tempos for the duration of the song.

Tejeda has stated one of the goals of this project is to explore the crossroads between Afro-Dominican musical traditions with anything else that pops onto their radar. Their final song here,”Nuestras Raices,” [Our Roots] has become one of my favorites because I hear the essence of Africa mixed with jazz and maybe a hint of heavy metal, as Tejeda steps on his distortion pedal to kick the band into overdrive with guest tenor saxophonist Mario Castro in tow.

“Nuestras Raices,” opens with a ton of drums and Castro playing the intro melody on the sax.  The songs shifts gears to a quiet verse and then Tejeda stomps the distortion pedal for a brief foray into ripping guitar before pulling back for another quiet verse.  After some faster sections, the song slows down to a kind of moshing feel with all kinds of wild time changes, jazzy sax and heavy metal chords.

It’s pretty fantastic.

[READ: March 30, 2021] Charlie Thorne and the Lost Island

This is the first book in the Charlie Thorne series. I read the second one last month.  I don’t like to read things out of sequence, but it didn’t really impact this story all that much.  The only thing that I “knew” was that Charlie escaped at the end of the story.  But that’s pretty obvious since there was a second book.

This book was also good for some of the background information I was seeking.  Although, it turns out that Gibbs didn’t include a ton of background info on Charlie.  We learn just enough to understand how she is the way she is without getting bogged own in details.

The story starts with a Prologue set in Princeton, NJ in 1955.  It’s the evening of Einstein’s death and after being given some (unwanted) painkillers, he starts muttering something.  By the end of the night the secret service are all over his small house trying to uncover whatever it was he muttered (in German) about.

The book properly starts at CIA Headquarters as Dante Garcia is heading a team.  He is insisting that they call in the help of Charlie Thorne, a super-smart 12-year old girl with a potential criminal past.  His boss is skeptical but trusts Dante, so she agrees.  he also says he wants to work with Milana Moon, one of the best agents in the force.

Cut to a ski slope in Colorado where we are introduced to Charlie and her amazing mathematical mind.  She is able to picture the angles and speed she needs to conquer Deadman’s Drop.

The way she does it is pretty cool and it also sets up the first exciting chase.  She recognizes Dante and his partner as agents.  She doesn’t know why they are here but she knows she needs to evade them.  This leads to the first of many exciting chase scenes. (more…)

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Diane Williams–“Feel and Hold” (Harper’s, January 2021)

Posted in Canadian Music, Coronavirus, Diane Williams, Flash Fiction, Harper's, Huh?, Kacy & Clayton, New Zealand, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on April 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KACY & CLAYTON-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #186 (March 29, 2021).

Kacy & Clayton had been generating some buzz around here just as the pandemic hit.  I hadn’t heard any of their songs, but their names kept cropping up.  And the one constant note was that they were cousins.

I don’t know who Marlon Williams is, or if he sings with them much (you’d think their name would be different) but he features prominently in these songs.

Across hemispheres, despite a nearly 8,000-mile separation, the Saskatoon, Canada duo of cousins Kacy & Clayton and New Zealand’s Marlon Williams manage to create harmony and intimacy. The Tiny Desk (home) concert, on the surface, is joyful and playful with animated illustrations by Daniel Syrnick.

They start with “I Wonder Why.”  Marlon sings lead and plays backing guitar on this one. Then Clayton play a quite electric lead guitar before Kacy kicks in with some really nice backing harmonies.  She sings in a striking country style although this song has a kind of old school country rock and roll feel.

Marlon’s Roy Orbison-like voice conjure a 1950s rock and roll sound that’s a surprisingly perfect match for Kacy’s serene voice.

A careful listen to “Plastic Bouquet,” the title track to the 2020 collaboration between Kacy Lee Anderson, Clayton Linthicum, and Marlon Williams, reveals a depth of storytelling more familiar in murder ballads than the trio’s upbeat Americana sound.

Kacy sings,

When a small four-door car was severed in two
Three girls were killed by a boy they all knew
Out for a party, they’d never attend
Pockets with money they never would spend

The devastatingly sad tale is met with smiles across hemispheres while an animated teacup pops on screen for Kacy to sip.

Kacy’s banter between songs seems really stiff for some reason.  But Marlon seems to be enjoying himself.

The “Arahura” has an old West/Americana feel despite the fact that the river is in New Zealand.  The yodeling vocals do work well together along with Clayton’s guitar licks.

Kacy stiffly says, “Wow that is a fun one.  It’s fun but it’s sad.”

“Isn’t It” has a very cool guitar riff and is a bit more uptempo.

It’s a magic collaboration of the very far north meeting the very deep south. The wizardry of technology reminds me of the wondrous world we often share these days, from a distance.

Before the final song, “Devil’s Daughter” comes the most awkward banter I have ever seen.

Marlon: It’s nice to be able to play these songs.
Kacy: It IS nice.  It’s nice because we know them.  [WTF?]
Marlon: I know, imagine if we didn’t
Kacy: Yes it’s be hard.  {WTF]

“Devil’s Daughter” is a pretty song with some nice guitar work from Clayton.

[READ: April 30, 2020] “Feel and Hold”

I’ve said before and this confirms my opinion that Diane Williams writes amazing sentences.  But cockamamie stories.

The Rotches went out for food in the morning.  But the meat didn’t look appetizing so they didn’t buy any.

This despite or because of the fact that the butchers hands were more expressive than their own–“those vendor’s hands could hold and feel at the same time.  When we hold a thing–I am not so sure we feel it.”

After a few paragraphs the story interrupts itself

Rotsch was–did I tell you this?–my friend Rotsch became quite a problem in the end and he fled to some remote part of the country.  I enjoy weird interruptions like that, but this story seems to be all interruption. (more…)

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Octavia E. Butler–Parable of the Talents [week 2: 2033] (1998)

Posted in Coronavirus, Death, Dystopia, Guns, Hyperempathy, Infinite Zombies, Liam Bailey, Politicians, Quarantine, Racism, Rain, Rape, Religion, Sci-fi, Sexism, Sexual Assault, Suicide, The Future, Thieves, Threats, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on April 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LIAM BAILEY-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #184 (March 23, 2021).

I had heard of Liam bailey but I didn’t really know anything about him.  I’m fascinated by his voice because his British accent comes through as he sings (in the way that Billy Bragg’s accent is quite audible).

For this performance, Bailey teeters between belting and crooning, with emotions that ignite the screen from the top of “Fight” to the closing notes of “Paper Tiger.”

“Fight” is a short song that is primarily made of percussive chords and slaps on the guitar.  For most of the songs, he is playing the chords and you can hear them change but there’s no ringing notes, just muted chords.  Until the very last lines when the music resumes and he sings powerfully.

So it’s all about his voice.

Wiping the sweat from his brow between songs, he exclaims, “We don’t normally have these glaring lights in my living room.  This is my front room by the way welcome. We’re not doing no studio productions. We’re keeping it real. Keeping it raw.”

I don’t know what “Vixit” means.  He says he wrote this and the next song in upstate New York.  The music is a little darker. Trying to figure out he lyrics:

I still have my memories I still hear your song. They were always so vindictive, you always got me wrong. I cherish every day now I’m happy to be alone.  I get every thing I want and I still get stoned.  I’m out of love, I’m out of love never seemed to make sense.

If only I had realized the other side was fine.  If only I had realized.

“Paper Tiger” is another powerful song and once again, the guitar is the vehicle for his voice and lyrics.  Which is not to say the song isn’t good, just that the melody is not as important as the words.

Perched atop an amplifier in front the peeling walls of his living room, he presents three selections from his latest album, Ekundayo, accompanied by one acoustic guitar. Ekundayo, which means “sorrows become joy” in Yoruba, fittingly describes the Nottingham, England, native’s music industry journey thus far. After various projects and record deals, he found it impossible to operate under the confines of a major label. He finally found the liberation he yearned for on Leon Michels’s Big Crown Records, which released Ekundayo last November.

This set is not even ten minutes long, but it’s really solid.

[READ: April 12, 2021] Parable of the Talents [2033]

2033 is a brutal year for Acorn and Earthseed.  The end of the section was really hard to read.

As the year opens, our narrator, who we later learn is named Larkin Beryl Ife Olamina Bankole says that her mother should have left Acorn and gone to Halstead like Bankole asked.  It makes it seem as though perhaps Bankole went without her, but he did not.

“Larkin” is a derivative of Lauren and from the Greek Laurel ,  “Beryl” was his mother–emerald is type of beryl.  “Ife” is the Yoruba word for “Love”

Olamina dna Bankole had actually stayed in Halstead for a short time.  A family was moving from Halstead to Siberia (!) for a better life.  The election of Jarret was the last straw for them.  Bankole is amazed:

If [when I was a boy] anyone had said that Americans would be giving up thier homes and their citizenship and going to make new lives in Siberia, the rest of us would have looked around for a straightjacket for him (130).

Olamina and Bankole stayed in the family’s house while Bankole was trying to decide if he should move there.  Well, he knew he should, he was trying to convince his wife.  She doesn’t want to move but says it was a good trip for her.  Living in a modern house with plumbing.  Being so close to the Ocean.  She could see the appeal.

Bankole had told people that they were leaving.  Or, more specifically, Marc was telling people they were leaving and the faithful were understandably freaked out.  But she convinced them, and herself, that she wasn’t leaving.

When I started this year I was taking notes on things that interested me, but after having finished it and reading all the horrors, it seems bizarre to include little observations about things that made me smile.  But I get to throw this one in because I am a cataloger for a library.

Olimani and Channa have been sorting and cataloging books for their library and Olamina hated to be interrupted, but not too much: “Still, cataloging is tedious” (137).

The first bad news comes from Marc.  After he had been rescued by Olimani and taken in by  Acorn, he decided that he wanted to preach his own Christian beliefs to the people.  He was going to do it without asking his suiter, but Olamina found out and told him to preach at their next Gatehring.  She warned him that he would be questioned about what he said and he was cocksure enough to go on with it. (more…)

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Nada Surf / S.G. Goodman (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, April 18, 2021) [rescheduled, rescheduled again]

Posted in Coronavirus, Jersey City, NJ, Nada Surf, Postponed, Quarantine, S.G. Goodman, White Eagle Hall on April 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: April 18, 2021] Nada Surf / S.G. Goodman [rescheduled from May 28, 2020; moved to November 19, 2021]

indexIt is crazy to think that this show was postponed for almost a year and then had to get postponed again.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel though a vaccines are making the rounds.   November seems like a reasonable time to plan for a show.  So I bought tickets for S. and myself.

~~~

I saw Nada Surf a few months ago and  the show was great.  They are such a tight band and their songs are super catchy. Matthew Caws is a wonderful front man (and super nice guy).

Because I had just seen them I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go.  Well, I wanted to go, but I didn’t know if I should since I was going to so many other shows.  But since it was so close, I wanted to take S. to experience the joy.

I don’t know if this is the kind of thing that would get rescheduled, but I sure hope so.

S.G. Goodman is a singer-songwriter from Western Kentucky known for her rootsy sound and raw, honest lyricism. Her debut album came out in March.

I’ve listened to “The Way I Talk” and wow, what a cool song.  A simple repetitive beat with Goodman’s raw voice.  She doesn’t sing like a country singer (so that’s good), she tells a song story that ends with some amazing guitar feedback.  I’d love to see her live.

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Ben Rice–Pobby and Dingan (2000)

Posted in Australia, Ben Rice, Big Thief, Buck Meek, Coronavirus, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Imaginary Friends, New Yorker, Opal Dream, Quarantine, Racism, Short Books, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on April 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUCK MEEK-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #185 (March 25, 2021).

Buck Meek is the guitarist for Big Thief.  I loved the first Big Thief album, but have found the newer ones to be a little too soft for my liking.

Initially I would have thought that Buck Meek would be a harder guitarist.  But I don’t really know that much about his contributions to the band, so it should probably come as no surprise that he writes folky songs.  Although even Bob Boilen seems a bit surprised.

The back of a van on a sunny day holding an acoustic guitar is a far cry from the usual setting where I’d see Buck Meek. More likely, I’d be in a dark club; Buck’s intense electric guitar and backing vocals are a part of what makes up my favorite rock band these days, Big Thief. But here, home is Buck’s Toyota Land Cruiser in Topanga Canyon, Calif.

Buck plays a pretty acoustic guitar and his voice is soft and gentle.  He reminds me a lot of Nick Drake.  He plays three songs from his 2021 album, Two Saviors.

“Pareidolia” is, as Buck Meek explains, “this human instinct to put symbol to stimulus.” He says, “I’ve been spending this time of solitude in the canyon here spending a lot of time observing the clouds and things” — in other words, finding shapes and objects in clouds and objects where none intended to exist and perhaps turning them into stories or songs or just letting your mind wander.

He follows that with the title track “Two Saviors” and “Halo Light,” two more songs that continue the soft and gentle style.

The Texas native has a tender voice with a bit of a yodel and a resplendent way with words. After three songs from Two Saviors, Buck treats us to a new song written in quarantine titled “The Undae Dunes,” once again drawing pictures in the sky, this time of rockets and perhaps an astronaut and a love, all from the back of a Cruiser.

He says that “The Undae Dunes,” is dedicated to the woman he loves who may be an astronaut.  She’s applying to the space program.  That’s pretty fascinating in and of itself.

I enjoyed this chill Tiny Desk/Van set.

[READ: April 10, 2021] Pobby and Dingan

I had never heard of Ben Rice or this story until one of his other stories was in a New Yorker issue from 2001.  I enjoyed that story and when I looked him up, I saw that he had written this story. And nothing else!

Which is weird because this story

was joint winner of the 2001 Somerset Maugham Award and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. It has been made into the 2006 film Opal Dream, a 2010 play for children by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company and a 2012 play The Mysterious Vanishment Of Pobby & Dingan for Bristol theatre company Travelling Light.

Perhaps he decided to leave on a high note.

The book is a novella (about 90 easy-to-read pages) set in the opal mining community of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales.  That’s over 400 miles from the nearest big city (Brisbane).  So while I don’t know if it’s in “the bush,” it’s certainly not suburban.

Lightning Ridge is apparently the opal capital of Australia.  Much like during the American gold rush, prospectors flocked to Lighting Ridge to try to get rich.  This story is about one such family.  The dad, Rex, is the prospector, the mom has followed him here from England.  She clearly misses her old life (they refer to her as Pom and her mother as Granny Pom).

The narrator is Ashmol Williamson, a ten or so year old boy.  But the story is about his sister Kellyanne.

He thinks that his sister is a fruit loop.  Because she is old enough to be going to school but she refuses to admit that her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan are imaginary.  She talks to them constantly.  It drives Ashmol mental. (more…)

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Ministry / KMFDM / Front Line Assembly (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, April 17, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again] [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Depeche Mode, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Front Line Assembly, Igorrr, KMFDM, Ministry, Montclair, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rammstein, Wax Trax!, Wellmont Theater on April 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: April 17, 2021] Ministry / KMFDM / Front Line Assembly [rescheduled from July 18, 2020; moved to October 17, 2021]

indexThis show was moved to April which seemed reasonable at the time.  I see now that it has been pushed back to October which actually seems optimistic.  I am very bummed to see that KMFDM is no longer on the tour, as They would have been a great opener.  I like Helmet, but I think KMFDM would have been more fun.  If I’m going to one of these two shows (Montclair being the other one) it would certainly Montclair.

I’ve been a fan of Ministry for decades.  I even liked the first album With Sympathy (and listen to it now more than their hardercore stuff).  But when Land of Rape and Honey came out, it was the most intense thing in the world. It was incredible.

They put out a series of great heavy albums, although by 1999’s Filth Pig either I stopped enjoying it or they just weren’t as good.

So I guess it has been two decades since I cared about Ministry.  However, Al Jourgensen and his band keep touring and, since I’ve seen Slayer now, I thought I should see what a ministry experience is like.

I wanted to go to their show in 2018, (I was really interested in seeing opening band Igorr) but the date just didn’t work for me.

Although I hadn’t yet gotten tickets for this show, I was looking forward to this retro bill.

I liked KMFDM more in theory than actually listening to them–I have one album I think). But I always appreciated them (especially the joke that their initials stand for Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode–actually it is Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, “no pity for the majority”).  Only one guy is still in the band, but I’d be curious to see what their proto-Rammstein show would be like.

Front Line Assembly was one of the few bands on the industrial label Waxtrax that I never really got into.  I liked many bands on the label, but really never had much exposure to FLA (in the days before you could listen to things online).   I’m curious what 1980s industrial music sounds like in 2020.

Now that I see that the show is also going to be at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, I will definitely try to get to that one instead.

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Steve Martin–“Seventy-Two Virgins: Virgins in Paradise” (New Yorker, January 21, 2007)

Posted in Coronavirus, Deafness, Funny (ha ha), Justin Beiber, Muslims, New Yorker, Quarantine, Religion, Sex, Sexism, Steve Martin, Taylor Swift, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on April 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JUSTIN BEIBER-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #182 (March 17, 2021).

When Taylor Swift did a Tiny Desk Concert it was HUGE news–the biggest pop star in the world at the Tiny Desk?

I assume at one point Justin Beiber would have made a similar big deal (even if this one is a home show and just a stream like any other). I didn’t even know he was still making music.  So imagine my surprise to hear that the album that these songs come from went to number 1 and that he is the youngest artist to have 8 number one records.  Who is buying Justin Beiber records?   I have no idea.

Especially now that he’s all tattooed up and sleazy looking.

Of course, it’s very likely that I don’t know anything he has done, because I really didn’t know what he sounded like.  He plays four songs here.

“Holy,” another song from Justice, opens this set without the presence of guest Chance the Rapper.

“Holy” is a slow acoustic song (the acoustic guitar from Julian McGuire sounds great).  His musicians are from We the Band.  This is a catchy pop song for sure–the holy holy holy, hold me hold me hold me part is a nice touch.  I like the addition of the record scotching from DJ Tay James in the middle.

But why is he always grabbing his crotch?  Especially the way he grabs it, like he has to pee.  It’s really disconcerting and seems like an unconscious reflex at his point.  It looks particularly weird with his big baggy clothes on.

For “Peaches” he heads over to the keyboard.  Julian McGuire picks up the electric guitar and shows how good he is.  The opening piano melody is slow and pretty.  I really like this song except that the lyrics are so unnecessarily crass.  Why have such a pretty song and yet have your call and response lyrics be so rude

I got my peaches out in Georgia (oh, yeah, shit)
I get my weed from California (that’s that shit)
I took my chick up to the North, yeah (badass bitch)
I get my light right from the source, yeah (yeah, that’s it)

And good lord he repeats the chorus so many times.

Bieber plays the slow piano solo as the scotching begins and then keyboardists O’Neil “Doctor O” Palmer takes over and plays a really groovy melody as the outro to the song.

“Peaches” will exist in a significantly different form when Bieber drops his new album, Justice, on Friday — the track will feature guest vocals from GIVEŌN and Daniel Caesar

For “Hold On” he moves away from the keys.  I prefer him standing in front of the keys because he looks so awkward when he’s just standing there, hunched over and crouching.

The song has pretty echoing electric guitar (Mcguire again).  This song starts out quietly but when it kicks in, what a super catchy song!   It’s got a killer bass sound from Harv and is just  full on bouncer.  This should be huge.   In the middle of the song the band take a verse or two to totally rock out with crashing drums from Robert Taylor as well as ripping guitars and bass.

“Anyone” ends the set as a big old ballad with satisfyingly quiet synths and backing vocals.  This is a really pretty song, but it would work so much better if he didn’t look so scuzzy.  But once again the band totally rocks the end–a big jam that is really awesome once JB stops singing,  McGuire get a ripping solo and the band turns the song into a funk jam with some cool bass and drums and the samples kicking in.

[READ: March 31, 2021] “Seventy-Two Virgins”

Comedy pieces are often funny when they are timely.  I’m not sure what was going on in 2007 that Steve Martin wanted to make a joke about Muslim martyrs enjoying 72 Virgins.  I do recall hearing about that closer to 9/11, but maybe something else new had happened?

I’m not willing to look this up.  How does one even searching for 72 virgins?  But the context is that it was widely believed that Muslim ‘martyrs’ enjoyed rich sensual rewards on reaching paradise.

So without having 72 virgins in the zeitgeist, what’s it like to read this?

Well, this is basically a kind of play with every virgin getting a line.

(more…)

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Ministry / KMFDM / Front Line Assembly (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, April 16, 2021) [rescheduled, rescheduled again] [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Depeche Mode, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Front Line Assembly, Igorrr, KMFDM, Ministry, Montclair, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Rammstein, Wax Trax!, Wellmont Theater on April 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: April 16, 2021] Ministry / KMFDM / Helmet / Front Line Assembly [rescheduled from July 18, 2020; moved to October 16, 2021]

indexThis show was moved to April which seemed reasonable at the time.  I see now that it has been pushed back to October which actually seems optimistic.  I am very bummed to see that KMFDM is no longer on the tour, as They would have been a great opener.  I like Helmet, but I think KMFDM would have been more fun.  If I’m going to one of these two shows (Philly the other one) it would certainly be this one.

I’ve been a fan of Ministry for decades.  I even liked the first album With Sympathy (and listen to it now more than their hardercore stuff).  But when Land of Rape and Honey came out, it was the most intense thing in the world. It was incredible.

They put out a series of great heavy albums, although by 1999’s Filth Pig either I stopped enjoying it or they just weren’t as good.

So I guess it has been two decades since I cared about Ministry.  However, Al Jourgensen and his band keep touring and, since I’ve seen Slayer now, I thought I should see what a ministry experience is like.

I wanted to go to their show in 2018, (I was really interested in seeing opening band Igorr) but the date just didn’t work for me.

Although I hadn’t yet gotten tickets for this show, I was looking forward to this retro bill.

I liked KMFDM more in theory than actually listening to them–I have one album I think). But I always appreciated them (especially the joke that their initials stand for Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode–actually it is Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, “no pity for the majority”).  Only one guy is still in the band, but I’d be curious to see what their proto-Rammstein show would be like.

Front Line Assembly was one of the few bands on the industrial label Waxtrax that I never really got into.  I liked many bands on the label, but really never had much exposure to FLA (in the days before you could listen to things online).   I’m curious what 1980s industrial music sounds like in 2020.

Now that I see that the show is also going to be at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, I will definitely try to get to that one instead.

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