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Archive for the ‘Adventure’ Category

Craig Thompson–Space Dumplins (2015)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Aoife O'Donovan, Babies, Children's Books, Chris Thile, Craig Thompson, Edgar Meyer, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Marriage (Happy), Muppets, Outer Space, Poo, Sesame Street, Stuart Duncan, Supernatural, Surreal, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Yo-Yo Ma, Yuck! on May 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

spacedump SOUNDTRACK: YO-YO MA, EDGAR MEYER, CHRIS THILE AND STUART DUNCAN-Tiny Desk Concert #175 (November 17, 2011).

yoyoYo-Yo Ma might be the most well-known cellist in the world.  I suspect that everyone has heard of him.  But it’s likely that people don’t know just how diverse his musical range is.  As the NPR blurb says:

He’s reached out to a broad range of musicians (and Muppets) to play not just Bach and Beethoven, but also Brazilian samba, Argentine tango, jazz, songs from Sesame Street and a smorgasbord of Asian music with his Silk Road Ensemble. American roots music also figures into Ma’s melting pot: He teamed up with double-bass master Edgar Meyer and fiddler Mark O’Connor 15 years ago for the gentle new-grass album Appalachian Waltz.

For this 2011 venture called The Goat Rodeo Sessions, he has created another Americana album, this time with mandolin master (and multiple Tiny Desk Concert player) Chris Thile.  Meyer is back on double bass and they have added Stuart Duncan on fiddle.

I can honestly say I never expected to see Yo-Yo Ma on a song called “Quarter Chicken Dark” but there he is, playing along as Thile begins the song on the mandolin.  The cello, fiddle and bass are all bowed so, despite the mandolin, the song feels a bit more classical (Thile has also made classical music on the mandolin, so the pairing actually makes a lot of sense).  I think Thile comes off as the star of this song with a wild solo in the middle.

For “Attaboy,” the mandolin starts the song again, but pretty quickly the strings dominate.  There’s a beautiful opening by Ma and a great fiddle interplay in which Duncan hints at the big Irish section he’s going to play.  There’s some wonderful fast mini solos from all of the instruments, including the bass, and then the whole song switches to a jig with Duncan playing a very Irish riff while Duncan and Ma keep the low notes coming.   Incidentally, I believe that Thile and Duncan are playing the exact same solo by the end, which sounds great.  But it’s watching Yo-Yo Ma’s fingers and bow move so fast that is really amazing.

For the final song “Here and Heaven” Aoife O’Donovan joins them on vocals.  And for a chance of pace Duncan switches from fiddle to banjo.  (Although mid way through the song he switches back to fiddle).  Donovan and Thile sing the song together.  On the first verse they are a little too quiet.  But once they start belting out they are fine.  This song is catchy and fun and the vocals really do change the feel of their music.

It’s clear that these accomplished musician are having a lot of fun together.  Meyer and Ma actually wave to each other during the second song, and Thile makes lots of little jokes.  And when he introduces Aoife, it’s funny to hear Yo-Yo Ma cheer like a little kid.

While Yo-Yo Ma if probably the most famous musician here, I like them all, and I’ll honestly listen to Thile do anything.

[READ: August 29, 2012] Space Dumplins

Craig Thompson has created a pretty diverse collection of books.  From the serious and beautiful Habibi, to the weird-looking and sad Goodbye Chunky Rice to this trippy sci-fi story.

The story is about Violet Marlocke, a young girl who lives out in a space trailer park.  Her father is a space lumberjack (whatever that means) and her mom is a seamstress.  They are poor but pretty happy, and that’s okay by Violet, since family is everything to her.

But as the book opens we learn that space whales (okay, I’ll stop putting “space” before everything, because he doesn’t) have just eaten her school.  The whales have been rampaging all of the planets in the area. At first Violet is happy to have no school but her parents have to do something with her.  So her mom brings her to work at Shell-tar where they try to see if she can enroll in the state of the art school there.  She can’t because her dad has a criminal record (and he’s opposed to the fancy school anyway).

While Violet is looking around, she meets Elliot Marcel Ophennorth, a small chicken who is incredibly smart (and has visions of the future).  We also meet Zacchaeus, the last Lumpkin in the world. He works at the dump.  Violet quickly befriends them both, although they don’t all get along very well at first.

Two things then happen pretty quickly back home.  Violet and her dad buy an old piece of junk space bike to fix up and Violet’s dad takes on a dangerous job to make some more money. (more…)

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Joe Harris & Adam Pollina–Wars in Toyland (2013)

Posted in Adam Pollina, Adventure, Graphic Novel, Joe Harris, Juanes, Oni Press, Revenge, Tiny Desk Concert, Toys, YA Books on May 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

witoy SOUNDTRACK: JUANES-Tiny Desk Concert #172 (November 3, 2011).

Juanes is a Colombian superstar (he’s really juanesquite hunky).  This performance consists of Juanes singing and playing electric guitar (mostly solos) and his accompanist playing acoustic guitar.

The blurb says that he usually plays arenas and large venues, so it’s a treat to see him up close like this.  He was in town to receive an award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

His voice is great and powerful and while he is singing in Spanish, his phrasings don’t sound Spanish at all.  Perhaps its the blend of Colombian roots-folk and rock ‘n’ roll.

“Hoy Me Voy” begins with some acoustic guitar playing and Juanes singing.  It’s a bouncy and upbeat folk song.  And while I don’t understand the words, I feel like I can make sense of the song.

For “Yerbatero” he opens the song with a guitar riff while the other guy plays percussive chords.  The “yeaaaaaaaaaaaah” section is catchy in any language.  And the solo he plays is pretty fun.  There’s also a fairly wild guitar solo near the end of the song.

“La Camisa Negra” was requested by someone in the audience–it was one of his bigger hits.  Juanes plays a cool intro riff (and some complex chords) before launching into the song proper.  I love the middle section with the warm guitars and catchy vocals that counter the staccato verses.

[READ: September 24, 2015] Wars in Toyland

There have been many books about toys coming to life, but I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this before.

And the artwork is so good that it made the whole story even more compelling.

This book is geared towards YA readers and I can see why… although there’s no bad words (one “bastard”), the subject is very dark.  As it opens we see that young Matthew’s brother Adam is missing.  There’s even Missing posters on the fridge (it’s pretty dark).  Matthew and Adam used to play war with their toys all the time (I love the way the toy soldiers are drawn).

But now that Adam is missing Matthew doesn’t feel like playing war anymore.  And that’s when the toys drag Adam into the toy box and into Toyland, where things are very bad indeed. (more…)

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Patrick Ness–The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Ben Williams and Sound Effect, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cats, Drinking, Marriage Trouble, Patrick Ness, Set at School, Sex, Stevie Wonder, Supernatural, Tiny Desk Concert, Vampires, Violence, YA Books on April 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

nessSOUNDTRACK: BEN WILLIAMS & SOUND EFFECT-Tiny Desk Concert #170 (October 24, 2011).

ben williasmBen Williams is a jazz upright bass player (I didn’t realize bass players made band leaders, but clearly they do).  In 2009, he won the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition.  And is an up and coming star.

He plays two original songs from his album State of Art.

It’s not often that the blurb describes a song, but it does a better job than I could have so for the first song, “Home”

the guitar (Gilad Hekselman) and drums (John Davis) lay down an aggressive, snappy foundation. The bass and electric keyboard (Christian Sands) fill out the polyrhythms. That groove, with its snappy hip-hop flavor, feels at home cruising down Georgia Avenue, then turning right on U Street NW, the historic African-American commercial district of Washington [D.C. where Williams is from]. Then the saxophone (Marcus Strickland) enters, and it’s game on.

That saxophone really runs the show on this song.  There’s an interesting keyboard solo (I like the sound he chose, very Stevie Wonder-ish, but it’s a little quiet).

The sax switches to a smaller sax for the second song, “Dawn of a New Day.”  The song is much slower and is more than twice as long as “Home.”

There’s a pretty lengthy bass solo (which sounds very old-school to me).  It’s followed by an electric guitar solo that has an interesting effect on it which made me think at first that it was a horn.  The horn comes next with a lengthy sax solo.  The final solo comes from the keyboard (which now sounds like a piano).  And then the song returns to that interesting main riff.

[READ: April 20, 2016] The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Sarah brought this book home and told me the premise–imagine what the stories of the other kids in the Buffy Universe would be like–wondering about all of those weird kids fighting vampires or whatnot.

At first I thought she meant that the other kids didn’t know what was going on, which would have been funny.  But in this story, the kids know that there are vampires and other mystical things, they just aren’t any part of the action–they are not the Chosen Ones.

It’s a very funny premise for a book, and I looked forward to how Ness would create a story around people who aren’t “doing” anything.

But that’s not the only thing that the story is about.  Ness makes the lives of the other kids so compelling and so, human (even if one of them is a quarter god). (more…)

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Rafael Rosado & Jorge Aguirre–Dragons Beware! [The Chronicles of Claudette Book 2] (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Children's Books, Dragons, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Givers, Graphic Novel, Magic, Myths, Tiny Desk Concert, Trees on April 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dragonsbewareSOUNDTRACK: GIVERS-Tiny Desk Concert #144 (June 22, 2011).

giversGivers play a light on poppy tropical kind of music.  Their music feels summery and light.  Between the sorta reggae guitar and the tons of percussion, the songs are fun and danceable.

As “Meantime” opened the show, I was really struck by the bass.  The bass plays a lot of high notes and some seamless riffs.  It’s really the lead instrument.  And there’s also percussion all over the place.  The sound the great is really full for so few instruments.  Of course, it really comes as no surprise to hear there’s a flute solo, even though it wasn’t apparent that anyone had a flute–it’s as if a wandering flute minstrel happened by just at the right time.

The band has two singers, Taylor Guarisco and Tiffany Lamson.  On “Up Up Up” the two duet in the beginning and then switch off vocal lines.  Taylor’s voice is higher, while Tiffany’s is deeper, raspy and interesting (although I’m not quite sure it works with their sweet music, or perhaps she’s just not loud enough).  There’s more fun bass lines in this song (I’m intrigued that he switches from a pick to pickless playing).  This song features some xylophone which also sounds perfect with their music.  Perhaps it’s the way he sings the “up up up” part but it definitely gives the song a reggae feel (especially with that afropop bass).  I really like this song, especially the surprise ending of one, two, three, four-xylophone slide-five.

For the final song, “Atlantic” there’s much switching around.  Tyler and the bassist switch instruments and Tiffany picks up a large ukulele.  She sings lead and you can really hear her raspy voice (again, not loud enough).  This song is mellow and as such the bass isn’t quite as fun (although Tyler does have a similar bass sensibility).  I’m curious to hear what they sound like when they are not unplugged.

Although frankly, I can do without Tyler’s crazy faces.

[READ: March 27, 2016] Dragons Beware

After the successes of Claudette in Giants Beware, everyone is back (with a new problem created by Claudette) in Dragons Beware.

As the book opens, Claudette is telling the story of a great sword made by the great blacksmith Augustine (her father).  The sword was called Breaker and no magic could defeat it.  One day Augustine went to fight the fearsome dragon Azra the Atrocious.  Sadly for him, the dragon is the one who did the damage that we saw in the first book (missing an arm and a leg..and the dragon swallowed the sword too).

When she finishes the story, she says that she can go fight Azra herself, with her own little wooden sword.

In the next scene we see that the evil Grombach is amassing an army–he has been magically converting ravens into giant walking gargoyles.  So although Claudette has invented a problem to solve, the village has a real problem coming their way. (more…)

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Rafael Rosado & Jorge Aguirre–Giants Beware! [The Chronicles of Claudette Book 1] (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Children's Books, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Giants, Graphic Novel, Jorge Aguirre, Magic, Myths, Rafael Rosado, Tiny Desk Concert, Trees, Yacht on April 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

bewareSOUNDTRACK: YACHT-Tiny Desk Concert #136 (June 22, 2011).

yachtYacht is a synthy band with a dramatic and charismatic lead singer–Claire Evans.

There are tons of synth and funky synth sounds on “Dystopia (The Earth is On Fire)”.  But what really sound great are the excellent harmony vocals.  There is some guitar but it’s pretty overshadowed by the synth (and synth drums).  I don’t love the line “The earth is on fire.  We don’t have no daughter.  Let the mother father burn.”  But I’m willing to accept it because the synth solo is pretty cool.

The keyboardist and programmer switch places for “Psychic City (Voodoo City).”  The guitar is more prominent in this song primarily because the song is practically a capella–the chorus is principally Aye Yi Yah Yah HOOH, Aye Yi Yah Yah HO HO, which would probably be a lot of fun to sing along to live, but feels a little tedious here.

After this song it is revealed–horrors–that there was gum under Bob’s desk and Jona Bechtolt gets some on his nice pants.  There is talking of sending them the dry cleaning bill, but Claire grimaces and says “too soon.”

“Shangri-La” opens with an interesting synth riff (and the guys in back switch places).  The chorus “If I can’t get to heaven let me go to L.A.” is pretty funny.

I’m not sure what the band sounds like when it is not stripped down (the blurb talks about how long it took them to get settled), but I feel like their lyrics don’t support the stripped down sound.

[READ: February 17, 2015] Giants Beware

This is a First Second children’s graphic novel.  It is quite long for a children’s book (200 pages) but it’s a lot of fun and the design is fantastic.

The story opens with an old storyteller telling a story to a bunch of kids.  It’s the story of the Baby Feet Eating Giant.  The giant liked to eat the feet of all the babies in the village.  No one was safe until the brave leadership of the great Marquis Pierre the XXXII. He chased the giant into the mountains and built a wall around the village to keep it secure.

The end.

Except, as the young girl on the cover of the book says…  Well?  How did he kill the giant?  Did they “tell the evil giant a pointless story and he died of boredom?”  This is Claudette; she wants to hear action.  She wants to hear about giant slaying.  She thinks that leaving the giant outside and simply building a wall around the city is irresponsible.

As the story teller walks away he mumbles that she is just like her father and look where that got him. (more…)

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Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, Frederic Lemercier–The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders (2003, 2004, 2006) [translation 2009]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alan Cope, Alexis Siegel, Death, Didier Lefèvre, Emmanuel Guibert, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, History, Morality, Religion, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, Violence, War, Wilco, Yuck! on February 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

photoSOUNDTRACK: WILCO-Tiny Desk Concert #509 (February 23, 2016).

wilcoAs far as I can tell, Wilco is the first band to be invited back for a Tiny Desk Concert (there was a stated rule that no one would come back twice, with some people skirting that by coming with another band).  Laura Gibson was invited back since she was the very first attendee, but since Wilco’s newest album has been so successful, it seems somehow fitting that they get invited back.

And perhaps in honor of that, while their last performance was noisy and raucous, this one is decidedly more mellow—with all acoustic instruments.  But that doesn’t mean it’s quiet and calm either.

For the first song “The Joke Explained” from Star Wars, they used banjo, acoustic bass, hollow bodies electric guitar (w/ slide), the ever-present melodica and muted drums (w/shakers).  And it sounded great.

For the second song, the older “Misunderstood” everybody seemed to switch instruments.  Tweedy switched guitars, the acoustic bass became an acoustic guitar, the hollow body became a slide guitar.  Nels Cline’s slide guitar brings so much to the song by doing seemingly so little.  I love how this simple, sweet song has a wild middle section–a crazy breakdown with noisy cymbals and drums–drummer Glenn Kotche is fantastic–and everyone else playing some crazy high-pitched notes until it all settles back down again.

Tweedy has another guitar for the third song “I’m Always In Love” and the melodica is back.  There’s xylophone keeping the melody.  And as with all of these songs, Tweedy sounds great and the backing vocals add wonderful harmonies.  Cline plays a wonderful slide solo, too.

Before the final song and there’s another guitar change for Tweedy, and he says that after this song, “you guys need to get back to work solving this Trump problem. Figure it out! Its weird!”  They play “Shot in the Arm,” another great old song.

The band sounds excellent—a wonderfully full sound even without amplification. I am really excited to see them his summer.

There’s also a nifty video showing “Misunderstood” with two 360 degree cameras so you can see what goes on in the audience during a Tiny Desk Concert.  Check it out.

[READ: February 7, 2016] The Photographer

I loved Guibert’s book Alan’s War, in which he took the words of Alan Cope and put them to an amazing graphic novel.  Well, he is back again doing the same thing with the words of famed photograph Didier Lefèvre.

Didier Lefèvre died in 2008, but before he died he left a legacy of amazing photojournalism.  That includes this trip to Afghanistan which he took with the team from Doctors without Borders.

Alexis Siegel translated this book again, and he offers an excellent introduction which not only explains Lefèvre’s life, it also gives context for everything tat these men and women were up against in that war-torn region.

As mentioned Guibert draws out the story that Lefèvre told him.  But this book is different from Alan’s War in that it also uses the photos that Lefèvre took.  Guibert fills in the gaps where Lefèvre, didn’t or couldn’t, shoot.  And there was a lot he couldn’t shoot. (more…)

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Tony Cliff–Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant (2013)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Canadian Music, Constellation Records, Culture Shock, Esmerine, Fantasy, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Sexism, Supernatural, Tony Cliff, Violence on February 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dirkSOUNDTRACK: ESMERINE-Lost Voices [CST116] (2015).

esmerine 2Esmerine’s previous album was recorded in Istanbul and featured a lot of Middle Eastern instruments.  This album was recorded in France and has an incredibly different tone than the previous one.   It doesn’t really have any unusual instruments.  Well, except for the darbuka (a drum) and the riq (a kind of tambouine), both of which appear on the track “Funambule.”  And these interesting items: the ekonting (a West African lute) and the sarod (an Indian lute).

This album has moments that rock a lot harder and louder than anything they’ve done before, but it also has some lengthy mellow moments too.

“The Neighbourhoods Rise” opens the disc with staccato strings and bass.  Then the cello and violin come in.  The song builds and grows more dynamic as drums enter the song, but at 3:30 the song bursts forth with big chords and loud drums.  There’s a great violin melody running through the exuberance.  Then the music all falls away leaving a lovely, sad cello and violin melody to take the song out.

“A River Runs Through This Town” opens with the most conventional sound of an Esmerine record–simple (loud) drumming and an acoustic guitar melody.  More instruments come in, adding complexity. I love that each instrument that comes in–marimba, cello–adds a new layer of notes to the mix until about 3 minutes in when it switches over to big chords.   The song works back and forth between these two styles and rocks much harder than any of their other songs.

“Pas Trop Pas Tropes” is a song of quiet marimba and lots of strings–the cello and violin are once again rather mournful, but very cinematic.  It doesn’t travel very far in its four minutes but it’s beautiful while its there.

“19/14” (can that be a reference to the time signature?) opens with marimba and drums and a deep upright bass (and I believe plucked cello).  When the staccato guitar (or is that the cello?) starts picking out notes the song gets even more interesting.  And then at 3 minutes an electric guitar solo bursts through the melody.  It’s probably the loudest thing the band has recorded yet.  Until the end of the song which gets even louder with pounding drums.  It’s fantastic.

After that, the album mellows out somewhat.

“A Trick of the Light” is but 2 and a half minutes.  It’s washes of keyboards and quiet cello/violin parts.  And then comes–a first for Esmerine, I believe–piano (played by Becky Foon).  The piano is simple but it stands out so dramatically on this track that it sounds amazing.

“My Mamma Pinned a Rose on Me” opens with a cool marimba melody and some ominous keyboard chords.  Some of the middle eastern instruments mentioned come out on this song.  It plays with variations on that simple marimba pattern with different instruments taking turns playing simple chords the top of it.  Somewhere round 5 minutes the song gets so mesmerizing that it nearly puts me in a trance.

“Funambule (Deux Pas de Serein)” opens with some thumping bass and rocks drums along with the Middle Eastern drum playing some cool accompaniment.   And then the nearly 8 minute song is off.   This song revisits the Middle Eastern sounds of the previous record, but with a difference–the drums make the song feel bigger and more intense until about 2 minutes in when the song shifts to a kind of screeching solo.  And then the song resumes with a much faster rhythm.  By 4 minutes the whole song is thudding away, powerful drums and a wall of sound.  When the wall wears itself out, the song’s denouement is more layers of cello and violin–beautiful intertwining melodies.

The final two songs are short.  “Our Love We Sing” is 3 and half minutes of synths and slow cello.  This song also features Becky Foon’s voice, singing wordless passages.  It builds and builds but has no grand climax.   The disc ends with “Lullaby for Nola” a simple piano twinkling and then strings accompany the lovely voice to create this slow, beautiful lullaby.

This album is not as cohesive as the previous one, but it really lets the band explore lots of different avenues.  I’m certainly looking forward to whatever they come up with next.

[READ: February 2, 2016] Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant

I enjoyed this story quite a lot.  Cliff’s animation which was peculiar but ultimately very satisfying.  And more importantly, he tells a great story.

It opens in Constantinople in 1807.  The King has just begun a game in which the strongest men fight for as much gold and riches as they can grab

Then Chapter 1 shows us Delilah Dirk in prison.  And the guard Selim is reading off the extravagant list of charges against her.  These include–marksman, acrobat, swordsman, world traveler (alone!) and a woman with the ability to fly.  As we flashback to her meeting Selim in prison, we see her being quite cross at getting caught and just about to tell him.  Until she tastes his tea.  Then she reappraises him.

Turns out that Selim’s quite the man with a pot of spices.

As he relates Delilah’s exploits to the king, the king bursts out laughing–primarily because Delilah is a woman.  He doesn’t even think twice that she might try to escape until (and wee see this behind the scenes) she bursts through the wall to her rescue.  And takes Selim with her. (more…)

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Lars Jansson–Moomin: Volume Seven (The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip) (2012)

Posted in Adventure, Animals, Boredom, Children's Books, Circus, Constellation Records, Cute, Drawn & Quarterly, Evening News London, Funny (ha ha), Lars Jansson, Magic, Moomin, Supernatural, Surreal, The Dead Science, Tove Jansson on February 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

cst053webmoomin7SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD SCIENCE-“Throne of Blood (The Jump Off) 7” single [CST053] (2008).

This was a tour only 7″ that Constellation picked up before releasing The Dead Science’s Villianaire album.  There are two songs, “Throne of Blood (The Jump Off),” which is the lead song from the Villainaire and “The Duel of Iron Mike” which is unavailable elsewhere.

“Throne of Blood (The Jump Off)” opens with some lovely harp playing before the eccentric vocal styles of The Dead Science take over.  Everything about this song is unexpected–the weird staccato guitars, the crazy falsetto, wavery vocals.  The song seems totally random until you hear all of the intention in it all where it all gels at the chorus. I love the part where the backing vocal comes in and sings “Villainiare Ice Grillianiare” (or whatever the heck it says).

“The Duel Of Iron Mike” (not to be confused with the Wu Tang Clan track which is what you’ll find if you look up the song n YouTube), opens with an interesting riff.  There’s that low bass and that falsetto vocal that you either love or hate.

The chorus is almost catchy–it’s a little too minor key to be catchy but it’s very intriguing because it’s not quite what you expect and after one or two listens, you can’t stop playing it.  The end section with the two layers of falsetto vocals is weird and very cool, too.  The Dead Science are a unique band.  I wish they’d put out more music.

[READ: February 12, 2015] Moomin Volume 7

Moomin Book 7 and every subsequent book is made entirely of strips written and drawn by Lars Jansson.  These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1960-1975.

These four stories continue with the themes that Tove wrote about.  And Lars’ drawings look very much like Tove’s as well.  I have noticed a few things that look different–sometimes he does the eyes differently, and certain angles don’t look quite right.  But otherwise, it’s a pretty seamless transition.  Oh I aslo noticed that in this book, he has begun signing his name much bigger in each strip.

The chapters are “Moomin the Colonist” “Moomin and the Scouts” “Moomin and the Farm” “Moomin and the Goldfields”

(more…)

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Lars Jansson–Moomin: Volume Six (The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip) (2011)

Posted in Adventure, Animals, Boredom, Children's Books, Circus, Constellation Records, Cute, Do Make Say Think, Drawn & Quarterly, Evening News London, Funny (ha ha), Lars Jansson, Magic, Moomin, Supernatural, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Tove Jansson on February 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

6SOUNDTRACK: DO MAKE SAY THINK-Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord Is Dead [CST010] (2000).

330px-DmstgoodbyeenemyAfter their debut album, Do Make Say Think made this second album which sonically fits together perfectly and really explores instrumental post-rock.  Most of the songs were recorded in a barn giving it a very big sound (complete with insects chirping).  While there were horns in the debut, they seem to be punched up a bit more on this record, and they really seem to help the record rock more.

“When Day Chokes the Night” song is 6 minutes long and I love the way the opening is a simple guitar melody slowly picked and strummed for 3 or so minutes. Then at 3:30 there’s a noisy “drum solo” that sets you up for the second half of the song which introduces wailing saxophone and it all really rocks out.

“Minmin” is 8 minutes long.  It opens slower but adds a steadily propulsive bass and drum pattern. Around 5 minutes the drums become martial and a new rhythm and bass pattern enters as the song gets bigger.  The riff is a solid rock riff and there’s some interesting feedback behind it.  It’s some of a classic construct of a slow building song that shifts gears midway through.

“The Landlord is Dead” (at a brief 5 and a half minutes). opens with a similar echoing riff, this one is more catchy than the others. Some horns fill out the background.  The song builds properly to a screaming guitar soloing wild ending.  It’s easily my favorite song on the record.

“The Apartment Song” is slower, with echoing guitars and a more trippy feel.  I love the way the really noisy guitars blast out for 8 notes and then recede again.  It’s the first of two songs under four minutes

“All of This is True” starts out with a noisy drum beat, open chords and a distant horn.   This song slowly builds for about two minutes before pausing entirely and then resuming as something else—more slow horns layering on each other the horns drift away and guitars take over again.  There’s something of a dancey beat on the drums all along.  The song ends with crowd noises and someone shouting “Merry Christmas Everybody” before seguing into “Bruce E Kinesis.”  “Kinesis” opens with a heavy bass line and insistent drum beat before the interesting guitar counterpoint plays over the riff.  For the first time, really, a keyboard riff takes over  It feels slightly sinister.  This song has a kind of claustrophobic feel, but with a kind of funky drum all the way through.  At only 3:40 this song feels compact and efficient, and as something of a lead in to the 12 minute album closer “Goodbye Enemy Airship”

The final takes a while to get where it’s going.  After some introductory drumming there’s plenty of one-note guitar and horns which keep growing louder and more insistent for the first 4 minutes.  It turns into a very bright guitar melody–bouncy and fun.  (This is one of the two songs not recorded in the barn).  It develops a distinctly jazzy feel.   The song gets bigger with some great bass chords alongside the repeating riff on the guitar.  At around 9 minutes the song morphs into the third part of this exploration of similar riffs and textures. This one is a bit trippier. The disc ends with some mildly dissonant keyboard notes as the guitar echoes to halt.

While I do enjoy their debut, this album feel like a giant stride forward in terms of composition and cohesion.

[READ: February 3, 2015] Moomin Volume 6

Moomin Book 6 is composed entirely of strips written and drawn by Lars Jansson.  Lars was 12 years younger than Tove.  He was a writer, translator and gold-miner (!).  He wrote his first novel at fifteen and then proceeded to write 8 more.  Lars translated the earlier strips into English as Tove wrote them in Swedish.  Tove’s contract was to expire in 1959, so he began teaching himself how to draw Moomins (Tove didn’t know).  Tove’s creative fatigue set in and so Lars wrote his first comic in 1956 and by 1960, he was ready to take over.  The newspaper syndicate approved the switch and so these final strips all belong to him.  He created Moomin for fifteen years–twice as long as Tove worked on it.  These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1960-1975.

I love that they must have agreed that each strip would open with a big Moomin behind as well.

The chapters are “Moomin’s Lamp” “Moomin and the Railway and “Moominpappa and the Spies” “Moomin and the Circus”

(more…)

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Richard Sala–Cat Burglar Black (2009)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, First Second :01, Gangsters, Graphic Novel, Richard Sala, The National, Tiny Desk Concert, YA Books on February 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

catblackSOUNDTRACK: EL VY-Tiny Desk Concert #505 (January 29, 2016).

el vyMatt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf from Menomena joined together to form EL VY.  I’m not sure what the band sounds like on record, but for this tiny desk, it’s just piano and voice.

It’s always interesting to see a singer with nothing else to do.  Berninger doesn’t really do a lot when he’s singing with the National, so here, he just stands with his hands in his pockets, singing his intensely personal lyrics.

In “No Time To Crank The Sun” Berninger’s voice is higher than usual.  It’s quite nice.  I especially like the piano melody and the way he created some really unexpected notes in the transition from verse to bridge (or whatever parts they technically are).  This song feels a little long at 5 minutes but there are a lot of parts to it.

Berninger’s speaking voice is quite deep, and that’s the way it sounds on the second song, “Careless.”  he introduces it as “another sad love song.”  Lyrically it’s a little obvious, especially given that there’s not much music to hide behind.  But it is a nice ballad.

My favorite of the three songs is the third one, “Need a Friend.”  Berninger is a fun performer, commenting, “Happy New Year and thanks for having us.”  Then looking at the audience and saying “Could you keep it down back there?”  This song is a bit more bouncy in the piano.  A little more upbeat, which is nice.

After most shows, the audience claps, and maybe you hear people chatting.  At the end of this one, people clap and there’s some silence and you hear Berninger joke, “Awkward,” before the show cuts off.

[READ: December 10, 2015] Cat Burglar Black

I’ve been reading so many graphic novels recently, that I haven’t had time to post about some of the ones I read a while back.  But since this is First Second’s #10yearsof01 month, now’s the time.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the title of this book until it was used in context–the girls are wearing “cat burglar black” to sneak around.

K. is a teenager.  She is an orphan and had been living in an orphanage until her Aunt learned about her and invited her to the Bellsong Academy.  She doesn’t know this Aunt and is a little apprehensive.

When she shows up there, things are mighty weird.  There are only four girls in attendance, the headmistress is scary (I hate the drawing style of her, although the other characters are pretty interesting), and there’s a ton of unusual things going on.  The most notable thing is that whenever anyone speaks their speech balloons are filled with ellipses, making it seem like they are hiding something….which they are. (more…)

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