SOUNDTRACK: RALPH’S WORLD-Peggy’s Pie Parlor (2003).
When my son Clark was born, Sarah and I made a conscious effort to find music for him (really for us) that wasn’t, well, Raffi. Not that there’s anything wrong with Raffi per se, but well, he’s kind of annoying.
In the 4 years since he was born, there’s been an awful lot of cool bands making kids records. And I’m all for that (sometimes it’s nice being in tune with zeitgeist). Although it is nice to hear one of the guys who started the whole movement. Ralph himself was a member of Bad Examples a fairly forgettable band, nowhere near as fun/clever as Ralph’s World.
This was the first Ralph’s World disc we bought. And it’s still in pretty heavy rotation (although, now, really, the kids just listen to what we listen to…maybe when they’re a little older and actually understand Decemberists lyrics, we’ll be playing more Ralph).
Ralph’s songs rock, they’re amped up and excitable, like a toddler. They’re simple, easy rock songs in a multitude of genres. He also mixes his own originals with covers and even a public domain track (“Yon Yonson”).
And so overall you get a disc that sounds like a children’s disc from They Might Be Giants, before They actually made children’s discs. (TMBG’s children’s discs aim a little younger). Ralph’s songs are whimsical and catchy, in the way of TMBG’s adult songs, although the lyrics skew more towards about 6 or 7.
If you don’t have kids you probably won’t enjoy these discs, although really all is takes is a silly streak to enjoy them when the kids aren’t around.
[READ: July 24, 2009] Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now
My son has just started watching Charlie and Lola, a delightful show based on the books by Lauren Child. [And it has one of the single coolest theme songs of any show ever. Seriously. It’s fantastic. Here, listen.] When I mentioned that Clark was watching this, my friend Eugenie said, Oh, Lauren Child, of Clarice Bean!
I wasn’t familiar with Clarice Bean. And then, as coincidence will have it, I was showing a patron some books in the Ch section, and there was a Clarice Bean book. I grabbed it and only found out later that it is the last (or at least that latest) book in the Clarice series. Well, it’s a kids book, I thought, I’m sure I can join the series late and not miss anything. And I was right.
I was also surprised by how into this book I got.
Oh, and also how eerily appropriate it was that I selected this particular book while I’m in the midst of Infinite Summer. I figured Clarice Bean would be a nice relaxing thing to read in my Infinite Jest Downtime. But Clarice Bean starts out: Part One: Where does infinity end?
Seriously. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Retrospective 3 (2009).
This disc filled a hole that the public had been really clamoring for: a collection of the most popular songs by Rush from the 1990s until today. [cue crickets chirping]. Okay so this period isn’t exactly the best selling Rush era, and many people probably didn’t even know that they were still around (they weren’t for a while, but then they came back with an amazing vengeance).
I’m a fan of David Foster Wallace. I read Infinite Jest when it came out (1996) and loved it. I still vividly recall scenes from the book even 13 years later. However, I’m a very different person and a very different reader now. And I wondered if I would get more out of the book reading it as an older, hopefully [DFW would hate that usage] wiser person (and certainly a second read could only help with this incredibly dense book).
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Stink EP (1982).
The Replacements followed their shambolic Sorry Ma, with this little EP. 8 songs in 14 minutes. If you were going to check out one of these two releases, this is the one to get. If for no other reason than at 14 minutes it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.
This is a periodical I haven’t mentioned before. Wholphin is a “DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films.” So yes, the reason I hadn’t mentioned it is because it is a DVD and not a book. However, as I have been watching Vols 1-8 over the last few months, I have noticed that a few writerly names keep cropping up in the credits. Plus, it’s got that whole McSweeney’s connection.
film possibly ever by Scott Prendergast called “The Delicious” which you can watch, and I encourage you to, 
SOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Vitalogy (1994).
I always think of this as the “weird” Pearl Jam disc. Mostly that’s because the contents are certainly weird (in that it’s made up like an old book, including excerpts from the book in the liner notes). But also because it has some of Pearl Jam’s strangest songs on it, especially “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me,” easily one of the weirdest songs in their canon, and possibly the weirdest song on a major label. It’s 7 minutes of samples and scratchy guitars. And it’s more than a little creepy. The disc also contains “Bugs” an accordion-based rant about, well, bugs. and “Aye Davanita” a sort of Eastern chanting type piece.
SOUNDTRACK: THE SMITHS-The Queen Is Dead (1986).
Years ago, when I was a young metal head, my friend Garry expanded my musical palette by introducing me to a lot of college rock (or whatever it was called back then). The album that had the most impact on me back then was this one, The Queen Is Dead.
SOUNDTRACK: WOLF PARADE-At Mount Zoomer (2008).
This album made many best of lists of 2008. It is considered a side project of both Spencer Krug (of Sunset Rubdown) and Dan Boeckner (of Handsome Furs). I’d not heard of either band, but I was very intrigued by this disc and I’m so glad I got it.
Sigur Rós are nothing if not ethereal. Their music is constantly floating up in outer space somewhere. So imagine the surprise when the first song of this disc opens with some thudding drums. And, there are acoustic instruments aplenty this time around. Their previous disc Hvarf/Heim had them playing a number of acoustic pieces in various unexpected settings. And clearly the experience must have been a good one.
I Just Read About That... 