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Jessica Grant–“Brute” (The Walrus, July/August 2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Dogs, Jessica Grant, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus, Violence on October 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

2014-07SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-Commonwealth [Shamrock Side–Patrick Pentland] (2014).

commonFor Sloan’s 11th album, the four members of the band each wrote the songs of a side.  I originally thought that they recorded all of the music alone, but that seems to be wrong–and would hardly be a Sloan album).  In conjunction with the album, each guy was given a suit of cards (and an actual deck was made as well).  While this doesn’t necessarily mean the album is very different from their others (it still sounds very Sloan), it seems to have given the guys a bit more room to experiment.

I’ve always had trouble telling whose songs are whose in Sloan, primarily because they all write such different songs all the time.  But also because their voices aren’t radically distinct.

According to the CBC website, Patrick Pentland is responsible for some of the band’s biggest hit songs, including “The Good in Everyone,” “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” and “Money City Maniacs.”

Pentland only wrote four songs for his side.  And none of them are especially long.  Overall his songs are heavier fuzzier and rockier.

“13 (Under a Bad Sign)” is a heavy rocker at only two minutes.  Even though it’s the same length as Murphy’s also heavy “Get Out” it just rocks a lot harder.  It also opens with a bass–one of the few songs on the album that does so.  It’s a big loud rocking riff.  “Take It Easy” is even noisier.  The guitars feedback as the bass propels along.  It’s a simple song, with a simple heavy chord structure, and it has a simple catchy chorus.  Good rocking Sloan.

“What’s Inside” slows things down a bit—it has a familiar bass line and swirling guitars.  There’s lots of echo on this song, especially in the chorus which seems almost shoegazey.  It’s probably my least favorite song on the album because of the way it kind of meanders–it rather slows the momentum of the disc.  But his final song, “Keep Swinging (Downtown)” totally redeems it, with a super catchy classic rock sound classic.  It has a great got sing along chorus.  This could easily be a huge single and a live concert favorite.  It’s 3 and a half minutes, but nearly the last minute is an extended outro with a great pretty acoustic guitar riff.

For only four songs, Pentland makes a huge statement.

[READ: October 11, 2014] “Brute”

The Walrus’ summer reading issue presents three stories and two poems in which: “The Walrus presents fresh takes on old crimes.”  Each story is about a crime of some kind, but seemed from an unexpected way.  I rather enjoyed the way the writers played around with the crime genre to make them something very different.  This story is about murder.

Of the three stories I liked this story the least.  Not because it from the point of view of a dog–that part I liked.  In fact I enjoyed a lot of details in the story–like that there was a character named Grassy Noel, that the narrator believes all golden labs have a Scottish accent and that the narrator speaks as if he is not a dog.

First we learn about Big Cy’s (the narrator) history.  He used to hang around the bus station grubbing for food.

Then he witnessed a Lab rescue a baby and saw that dog praised and held high.  He wants to know:

Who is better. The dog who is … naturally good or the one who struggles to be good. (more…)

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Stephen R. Palumbi & Anthony R. Palumbi–The Extreme Life of the Sea (2014)

Posted in Anthony R. Palumbi, Death, Disease, Doctor Who, Finding Nemo, Lobster, Morrissey, Narwhal, Ocean, Queens of the Stone Age, Scholarship, Sharks, Stephen R. Palumbi, The Princess Bride, Threats, Whales on October 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

extremeSOUNDTRACK: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE-…Like Clockwork (2013).

qotsa I have loved the earlier QOTSA albums, but I just couldn’t get into this one when it came out.  Perhaps it was too…subtle?  I put it aside, heard everyone rave about it and kind of forgot about it.  Well, I recently rediscovered it and now I get it.  It is just as good and complex as everyone said–I think I was just missing the subtleties, yes.

It’s still very QOTSA–Josh Homme is Josh Homme after all, but there are added elements–pianos, strings (!) and slower sections that add depth and bring really interesting sonic textures to their sound that make this album far more complex but no less sleazy fun.

The roaring sounds that are the guitars of “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” (accompanied by that bottom heavy bass are just fantastic.  “I Sat By the Ocean” has a chorus that goes from good to great when it builds to a second set of chords–it’s really irresistible.  I recall being surprised by the ballad “The Vampyre of Time and Memory.” Okay not a ballad exactly but a piano intro that turns into a classic rocker (complete with lengthy guitar solo).

“If I Had a Tail” is a wonderfully sleazy track with a great riff and a great sound.  It’s also got some of the more unusual lyrics I’ve heard–“If I had a tail, I’d own the place.  If I had a tail I’d swat the flies.”  It’s followed by “My God is the Sun” another great riff-based song where Homme’s falsetto is just another catchy element of the song.  It also has another great chorus (why didn’t I like this album last year?).

“Kalopsia” slows the disc down quite a lot–it’s a pretty, gentle song.  Until you get used to it being a mellow song and then it turns into a real rocker (and back again).  “Fairweather Friends” has another great riff and a funny ending with Homme cutting off his chorus and saying “I don’t give a shit about them anyway.”  “Smooth Sailing” reintroduces that sleazy falsetto.  It has a (another) great chorus and an amazing guitar riff that is slowly manipulated into sounding really alien.  It’s very cool.

Most of the songs are pretty standard length, but the final two songs really stretch out.  “I Appear Missing” pushes 6 minutes and has some slower elements, and a great guitar section that connects them all.  The five and a half-minute “Like Clockwork” also starts with a lengthy piano intro and then morphs into another classic rock soloing type song.

It’s one of the best albums of 2013 that I didn’t realize until 2014.  I do wish they lyrics sheet was included as I’m not really sure what he’s saying half the time, and I’m not sure if my guesses make any more or less sense than the actual words.

[READ: September 2014] The Extreme Life of the Sea

I saw this book when I took a tour of the Princeton University Press building.  I loved the cover and thought it seemed like a really interesting topic.  I was later pretty delighted to see it on display in my local library, where I grabbed this copy.

The book is small, but I was a little daunted by the tiny print size (old age or laziness?).  Nevertheless, I was quite interested in the subject, so I pressed on.

Interestingly, a lot of the information that I read in the book, my nine-year old son also knew about–he loves this kind of scary undersea information.  The difference here is that the Palumbis (a father and son team–Stephen is a Professor of Biology, Anthony is a science writer and novelist) write for adults and include a lot of the scientific information to support and explain all the stuff that my son knows–although he knew a surprising amount of detail as well.

And the writing was really enjoyable too.  Anthony knows how to tell a story.  The Prologue itself–about the battle between sperm whale and giant squid–is quite compellingly told.  And whenever an actual creature is involved–he engages us with the creature’s life cycle. (more…)

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Mary Roach–Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013).

Posted in Canadian Content, Dogs, Etiquette, Food, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Mary Roach, Narwhal, Nature, Oddities, Pet Shop Boys, Poo, Research, Toilets, Yuck! on October 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gulpSOUNDTRACK: PET SHOP BOYS-Elysium (2012).

220px-PSB_ElysiumPet Shop Boys are known for big dancey singles.  And so perhaps it’s something of a surprise to get this album which is pretty but certainly low key.   It’s not like they haven’t written low key songs before, but there’s very little to get up and sing about here.

Which is not to say the album is bad.  It’s actually very good once you accept the lack of big songs.

Of course, having said that, there are one or two anthemic tracks, but the album overall is more introspective (unlike their album Introspective).  The title, Elysium refers to the afterlife where those chosen by the gods would live a happy (after)life, indulging in whatever they had enjoyed in life.  Yes, mortality is on Tennant’s mind.

“Leaving” opens the disc with a great chorus, which leads to this somber opening verse: “Our love is dead but the dead don’t go away.”  And that certainly sets the tone–nice synth rock, but nothing to loud and frenetic.  “Invisible” is a similarly low key song.   This is one of their quiet ballads, with just touches of synth melody: “I’m here but you can’t see me, I’m invisible.”  It’s a definite downer of a song but it’s very pretty.

Of course all that I said about mellow low key albums is belied by the third track: “Winner.”  This was written in time for the 2012 Olympics in London and it is very much an anthem about, well, winning.  It’s kind of obvious (although lyrically it is more in depth than many similar songs), but the melody is just simple and uplifting–(just what you’d want for Olympic documentaries).

“Your Early Stuff” is a much darker song–it is a song written to a “washed up” performer: “you’ve been around but you don’t look too rough and I still quite like some of your early stuff.”  It’s funny but also tender.  “A Face Like That” is the closest thing to a dance single on the album–it’s fast and synthy and the vocals are echoed and repeated.  But even the verses are more low-key than you might expect from the chorus.  “Breathing Space” is another pretty ballad.

“Ego Music” is another faster song, with a very funny premise: “ego music–it’s all about me.”  It’s a slight song but good for a laugh.

“Hold On” also aspires to anthemicness, but it is slower than a typical PSB anthem.  It also has a synth line that is vaguely classical.  Although of all the songs, this one is lyrically the most tautological:  “Hold on, there’s got to be a future or the world will end today.”  “Give it a Go” is a slower, simpler track. Not too memorable, although the chorus is bouncy and catchy h.

“Memory of the Future” has a great synth line and Tennant’s cool accompanying vocals–it’s a classic PSB song and one of my favorites on the disc.  Although I don’t love “Everything Means Something,” the final song, “Requiem in Denim and Leopardskin” is a great ending–slow but very catchy and rather wry and funny.

So this album overall is certainly more, dare I say it, “mature” for the Pet Shop Boys, but they haven’t lost any lustre in songwriting.

[READ: Summer 2013] Gulp

Yes, that date is correct, I read this book over a year and a half ago.  I meant to write about it then, but I loaned it out to someone and I like to have the book nearby when I write about it.  So I put it off and put it off and now that I have the book back, I will do my best to remember whatever I can about it.

But the thing about this book is that it was so memorable, I won’t have much trouble writing about it anyhow.

Mary Roach investigates the physical properties of eating from pre-digestion through to the end.  And she does it with thorough research and a boatload of humor (sometimes gross out humor, although she warns that that is not her intent–“I want you to say, ‘I thought this would be gross, but it’s really interesting.’  Okay, and maybe a little gross.” (19).

She begins with the nose.  Most people know that the nose contributes tremendously to your sense of taste.  But Roach really explicates how much.  She speaks to a woman, Langstaff, who is a professional sniffer and who is currently staffing the Olive Oil taste Panel at the Olive Center.  She is training novices to be be better at tasting flavors.  But Langstaff herself for instance rarely drinks beer for pleasure even though she is an expert at tasting it.

The most amusing (or not, depending) information here is that there are people who were paid to taste cat food.  Yes.  And that humans prefer cat food with a tuna or herbal flavor over those that taste “rancid,” “offaly,” “cereal” or “burnt.”

Fortunately, the second chapter shows that it is actually dogs who test the dog food.  It turns out that dogs and cats really shouldn’t enjoy dry dog food (cats and dogs are not grain eaters by choice).  Dry dog food was created as a means of convenience for people (and as a way to stop tinning food during the war).  As for your pets, “pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that’s what we humans like, and we assume our pets like what we like.  We have that wrong.  ‘For cats especially…change is often more difficult than monotony.'” (43).  Some other pet observations: cat’s can’t taste sweet (although dogs can and rodents are slaves to it).   (more…)

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Maile Meloy–“Madame Lazarus” (New Yorker, June 23, 2014)

Posted in Arthur Russell, Bill Fox, Coralie Clément, Death, Depeche Mode, Dogs, Dwight Twilley, Kate Bush, Maile Meloy, Marriage Trouble, Mercromina, Moody Blues, Nada Surf, New Yorker, Short Story, Soft Pack, Spoon, The Go-Betweens, The Silly Pillows on September 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_23_14Booth.inddSOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-If I Had a Hi-Fi (2010).

nadaI have enjoyed Nada Surf more with each album.  But for some reason, I never bothered checking out this covers album.  Which is my loss.  Covers albums fall into all different categories–bands that try to ape the original exactly, bands that mess around with the original, and band who take the songs and make them their own.  In this case Nada Surf takes all of these songs and makes them sound just like Nada Surf songs.  Sometimes, they make them sound unlike the original and give them specific Nada Surfisms.

I didn’t know all of the songs on this record.  In fact, I knew very few of them (which is a pretty unusual way to run a  covers record, no?  This falls into the “introduce your fans to songs you love category).

I knew “Enjoy the Silence” (Depeche Mode) which is incredibly different.  Obviously, the original is synthy, but while Nada Surf keep it dark, they add a bit of jangly chords and change the way some of the verses end (the way they do “and forgettable” is so intriguing).  Even the ba bas at the end transform the whole nature of the song.  “Love Goes On!” (The Go-Betweens) is a song I knew a little and Nada Surf sounds an awful lot like the original (but I like the way they make the chorus even bigger).   “Love and Anger” (Kate Bush) is similar to the original but with that Nada Surf twist.  It’s not big and epic and Matthew Caws doesn’t try to hit her notes (he does have a high voice though), but it’s a gorgeous rendition.  “Question” (Moody Blues) is probably the most famous song on the disc.  Nada Surf rocks the song pretty hard.  The pick up the tempo, but slow it down just right for the slow part.  It’s quite faithful, without being in any way proggy.

The rest of the songs I didn’t know.  And some of the bands I’ve never heard of (!).  “Electrocution” (Bill Fox) opens the records and while I don’t know if it’s any different, it could be a great original jangly pop song from Nada Surf.   “Janine” (Arthur Russell) is only a minute long. It’s a pretty, delicate acoustic guitar song.  “You Were So Warm” (Dwight Twilley).  I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a Dwight Twilley song, so I have no idea how this compares, but I like the way the last long of “Janine” is the chorus to this song.  I rather assume the original is not as poppy as this (but I don’t know Twilley, so why do I think that?–Turns out I was entirely wrong, the original sounds an awful lot like this version).

“The Agony of Laffitte” (Spoon).  I know Spoon, but not this song.  I can imagine how Spoon performed it, and I imagine that Nada Surf have smoothed the song out and made it prettier and slightly less dramatic.  “Bye Bye Beauté” (Coralie Clément) is sung in French. I’ve never heard of the original performer.  I don’t know how the original sounds, but this could easily be a Nada Surf song (they have done songs in French before) and the harmonies are beautiful.  Speaking of French, the also do “Evolución” (Mercromina) in French (“ev-oh-loo-see-own” is much more fun to sing than “ev-oh-loo-shun”).  This song starts out slow with a cello stating the melody.  It then turns into a dark acoustic guitar song, minor key and tension-filled.  Vocals don’t come in until a minute and a half in (the song is 5 minutes).  I’m not sure what the song is about, but even the catchy chorus is kinda dark.

“Bright Side” (Soft Pack).  Soft Pack is another band I’ve never heard of.  This song is a fun almost punk track–fast and catchy with simple lyrics a fun chorus (and ahhh backing vocals).  The disc ends with “I Remembered What I Was Going to Say” (The Silly Pillows) another band I’ve never heard of.  It is played on prepared piano in a waltz style.  Perhaps unexpectedly, it has no words.  It’s a nice capper to the album

Incidentally, the cover is a wonder line drawing that is fun to stare at and the liner notes (which would be much much easier to read on vinyl) are just jam packed with information about the original artists.

[READ: September 18, 2012] “Madame Lazarus”

Another story with a dog.  This one begins in a rather amusing manner.  An older gay man has just received a small terrier as a present from his younger lover, James.  The narrator is worried about his boyfriend staying around (he is so young and beautiful, while the narrator, who has just retired, is getting older and older).  The narrator doesn’t like the dog, but decides it will be one more thing to tie him to the James, so he decides to keep her.  He names her Cordelia.

The story is set in Paris, and the older man walks the dog around the city.  But mostly he thinks about his age and his past.  He says that anyone his age is amazed that he survived the Nazis much less lived to be an old man. He also thinks of his ex-wife, Simone, whom he meets for lunch from time to time.

The story seems like a sweet story of age and love, lost love, but love nonetheless.  But then the flashback introduces some darker moments. (more…)

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Karen Green–Bough Down (2013)

Posted in Art, Books about writers, Death, Dogs, Karen Green, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Parick Hamilton, Poetry, Poets, Protomartyr, Punks, Suicide on September 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

boughSOUNDTRACK: PROTOMARTYR-Under Cover of Official Right (2014).

martyrMy favorite description of Protomartyr is that the three younger guys ran into their old high school math teacher at a bar and asked if he wanted to sing with their band.  Protomartyr are a heavy band from Detroit (and none of the above is true about them, but check out the picture below for how true that seems).

The lyrics are dark, literary and sometime quite funny.  The music is a sort of post punk.  The drums are amazing with all manner of complex patterns.  The guitar is angular and precise, eking out notes and then blasting away on gorgeous ringing chords.  The bass plays patterns–not simple notes.  His is a great counterpoint to the guitar.  And then there’s the voice.  Gruff, worldly, knowledgeable and occasionally angry.  But mostly he sings in a kind of spoken word style, telling of his distrust with…well, whaddya got?

My CD did not come with a lyrics sheet (although I believe the LP does), so I don’t exactly know the words to these songs.  I can certainly guess though.

The disc opens with a sinister chord that slowly rises, only to be replaced by a jangly open guitar chord and then a very lengthy riff.  And then the deadpan vocals comes in.   “Shade goes up shade goes down, one of my dead moves.” And that sets the tone (that song along with many other is a reference to a novel: in this case Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square). I love the way the second song “Ain’t So Simple” opens with an interesting drum rhythm and these great lyrics, “Hello there, you are all witnesses to a kind of confrontation between me and these three men.”  The lyrics are basically an attack on the other guys in the band: “this thing that sits behind me: jumped up homunculus, and yet he sings so sweetly.”  The guitar is quiet and complex with an interesting riff.  Then the bridge bursts forth with all kinds of chaos and noise and a faster riff.  The song ends somewhat positively, “guess I will keep him around, until the next song.”  And it ends with the same drums that opened the song.

Most of the songs are just over 2 minutes.  “Want Remover” is pummeling rock, heavy and distorted.  “Trust Me Billy” reintroduces a spiralling riff but with a heavier drum.  “Pagans” is only 1:11, with a very sparse sound.  “What the Wall Said” slows things down (it clocks in at 3:11).  It has a slow intro that is mostly bass.  When the chiming guitars come in, the drums follow and the songs picks up speed.  It has one of my favorite lyrics: “What will you miss? Alice in Chains played on repeat–not feeling great, you’re 20%.”  Followed by morning ringing guitars.

“Tarpeian Rock” is set to a cool bass line.  It’s basically a list of people who should be “thrown from the rock” “greedy bastards, emotional cripples, gluten fascists” etc.  “Bad Advice” opens with a smacking drum sequence and ringing guitars.  It’s angular and prickly until about half way through when it suddenly slows down with the simple “bad advice” chorus.  “Son of Dis” is a blistering punk song.  Barely over a minute, it is a relentless blast.

There’s something about the guitar sound on “Scum, Rise” that is so unguitar-like, I’m totally intrigued by it.  And the repeated simple chorus of “scum…rise” is pretty hard not to sing/speak along to.  “I Stare at Floors” is another fast rocker.  “Come and See” has more great weird chords (with a vibrato put on them for extra weirdness.”  It’s another fantastic song, with the chorus introducing a brand new drum sequence and a super catchy but dark chorus: “And I’ll try to live defeated, come and see the good in everything.”  I can’t decide which section of the song I like better.  Well, maybe it’s the repeated third part where the drums come bashing alive to really emphasize that section.

“Violent” is another slower song, with a lonesome riff and sparse drums.  The vocals are so almost-flat that it makes the lyrics “if it’s violent…good” seem even more dark than they might otherwise.  “I’ll Take That Applause” opens with a sample of someone singing something, maybe?  Garbled, rather creepy sounding voices introduce a big ringing chord.  The song introduces a piano buried under the chorus of “nothing ever after.”  And then you press play again and listen to the whole thing again.

I simply can’t stop listening to this album.

proto

[READ: September 15, 2014] Bough Down

Karen Green is a visual artist and poet.  She was married to a man who hung himself, and this collection address that horrific incident almost exclusively.

Green’s poems aren’t structured like poems (meaning that they are blocks of text and have no concern for line breaks or rhyme scheme).  Nevertheless the words she has used are quite powerful and evocative and do everything that good poetry should do.

Interspersed within the poems are small images.  Most of the images are cut up pieces of text arranged but also obfuscated by what looks like a gauzy white paint (in the same way that the book has a gauzy white slip cover (nicely done)).  I don’t know what the actual size of her prints is, but I wish they were bigger in the book.  It’s really hard to see the details that are clearly there.  And I know that hiding is part of the point, but if it were bigger it would certainly be easier to understand.  I’m fascinated by her use of dollar bills as well as other tiny objects (fingerprints? stamps? boxes?).

Most of her poems are untitled; those which are titled have “jazz standards” as titles.  Like “summertime and the living” or “let’s call the whole thing off.”  This jibes nicely with one of the “characters” in the poems, a woman called “the jazz lady.”  For indeed, although I’m reading this as a series of poem, there is so much continuity between poems, that it almost reads like a novel as well.  If nothing else, there seems to be time passing between the poems.  And while the story itself is unfinished, it does imply that things will be moving forward.

The pieces about the jazz lady are interspersed with the stories about “you.”  The jazz lady “is in first or third person.  She is keeping secrets and everyone who loves her is tired of them.”  In “Black and blue and” it begins “No one knows how the jazz lady ended up in the hospital again.”  I took the jazz lady to be Green, or perhaps just someone else Green knew. (more…)

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Patrick Jennings–Guinea Dog 2 (2013)

Posted in C., Children's Books, Dogs, Gloria Balsam, KNRK 94.7--Portland, OR, Patrick Jennings, Short Books, Supernatural, T., Unlikable main character on August 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gd2SOUNDTRACK: GLORIA BALSAM-“Fluffy” (1983).

wwrThis song is also on Greasy Kid Stuff 3 (I was disappointed to realize that I couldn’t find all that many of the other songs online).  But when I found the video for it, it had also been gathered on a compilation called The Rhino Brothers Presents The World’s Worst Records.

The song is about the narrator trying to find her missing dog, Fluffy.  In all honesty I don’t know if she ever found the dog because her voice is so (intentionally, I hope) off-key and distracting that it’s hard to pay attention to what she is saying  The music is a big sweet ballad, which is completely undermined by her voice.

I suppose this is funny, but I’m honestly not sure what to make of it and I don’t intend to listen to it again to find out.  Maybe that Greasy Kid Stuff album isn’t as desirable as I thought.

[READ: August 3, 2014] Guinea Dog 2

When I picked up Guinea Dog, I also grabbed Guinea Dog 2.  Since the kids enjoyed the first one so much that we started #2 right away.

This book picks up right where the first one left off. It may even be the next day.  Everyone has learned about Fido and her amazing tricks (thanks mostly to Dmitri taking a video and threatening to show it on YouTube).  And Lurena is so totally in love with her (she has offered to take her home many many times, but Rufus keeps refusing).  Heck even his dad seems to like her now.  Rufus has had it with the attention.

So he decides to stop playing with her like a dog.  He doesn’t let her out of the cage as much.  He stops treating her like a dog too–he wants to untrain her, to make her a proper guinea pig.

Now, like in the first book where I didn’t understand the motivations behind Rufus’ actions, here again I don’t get it.  No matter how much he hates the attention, how can he not think that having a guinea dog is awesomely cool.  (We have guinea pigs and they are certainly cute but they are not awesomely cool).  So the more he protests and tries to hide how cool she is the more weird it seems to me (and to his friends).

Murphy of course wants to get a guinea dog just like Fido, even the wicked Dmitri wants to buy her from him.  And rodent loving Lurena would do anything to own her.  But Rufus doesn’t want to give her away, he just wants her to be normal.  Which I guess is motivation enough, I suppose. (more…)

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Patrick Jennings–Guinea Dog (2010)

Posted in C., Children's Books, Dogs, Kids Corner, KNRK 94.7--Portland, OR, Patrick Jennings, Short Books, Supernatural, T., Unlikable main character on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gdSOUNDTRACK: KEY WILD & MR. CLARKE-“Favorite Names” (2012).

wild This is a simple song (as kids songs should be).  But what appealed immediately was the big fuzzy guitar that introduces the song.  Lyrically it’s very simple: a list of the singer’s favorite names (all of which start with the letter J).  After repeating them twice, a voice asks about girls names, and we get a few J fronted  girls names.

The twist comes with the next verse when it is sung “en Espanol” and a new collection of Spanish names crop up (with the rest of the words in Spanish, too).  And then they switch the en Francais.  It’s multilingual!

greasyI found out about Key Wild & Mr Clarke from WXPN, but I see that this song comes from an album that sounds awesome: Greasy Kids Stuff 3, a collection of songs from KNRK in Portland.  The collection sounds great and I’ll mention more songs from it this week.

[READ: July 31, 2014] Guinea Dog

I was unfamiliar with Patrick Jennings when I grabbed this book.  The title sounded intriguing, especially since we own guinea pigs.  Interestingly, after reading this book we read several other Patrick Jennings books, so this will be like Patrick Jennings week here at I Just Read About That.  I enjoyed reading this book to the kids, and they found it rather funny as well.

Guinea Dog is about a boy named Rufus. All he wants is a dog.  He would like a big, friendly, fast, funny dog.  Like the one his best friend has.  In fact, he would love his best friend’s dog.  The problem is that his father hates dogs. He hates them big time.  He has a list of reasons why he hates dogs and that list goes on for two pages (and it was fun to read aloud).

Rufus’ father is an anal retentive, stay at home annoyance (a little over the top frankly, but it works for dramatic comeuppance, right?) who needs everything to be perfectly clean and who doesn’t want to be bothered while he is working.  And there is no way he will cave on the dog thing.

Rufus’ mom looks for a way to make things better, so she buys Rufus a pet.  The pet is…  a guinea pig.  Rufus is devastated.  He decides to mock the guinea pig by naming her Fido.  Rufus and his dad finally agree on one thing–they want the guinea pig taken back to the store.  But when they go look for Petopia, the store is gone, without a trace.  They are stuck with Fido.

But very soon, Fido starts acting like a dog.  She makes little barking sounds, she plays, she catches Frisbees (sort of), she runs with him, she fetches things.  She does everything a dog can do.  Frankly, she is amazing (I certainly looked askance at my guinea pigs after reading this).

And yet, Rufus doesn’t want anyone to see this creature.  He doesn’t like having attention drawn to himself (unlike his best friend who is a major attention hound). So he doesn’t want anyone to know about Fido’s skills.  But of course Fido is a playful, outgoing creature (who follows hm to school one day).  And soon, more and more people are aware of Fido. (more…)

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Maribeth Boels–The PS Brothers (2010)

Posted in Accept, All Songs Considered, Children's Books, Dogs, Edward Greig, King's X, Maribeth Boels, Marriage Trouble, Poo, TT Quick, Violence, YA Books, Yuck! on August 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

psbrosSOUNDTRACK: ACCEPT-“Final Journey” (2014).

blindI normally do kids music for kids books, but this book was so un-kid friendly that I decided to tack on a metal song for it.  This song was previewed on Viking’s Choice at NPR.

I loved Accept back in the 80s, but once lead singer Udo left I haven’t really followed them all that much.  New lead singer, Mark Tornillo formed TT Quick way back in the day and since I saw them not too long ago opening for King’s X, I thought I’d see what he sounded like with Accept now.

He doesn’t quite have the weird Teutonic sound that Udo had (how could he, being from New Jersey and all?), but his guttural voice is quite appropriate to the music.  But there’s something missing here with this music.  It sounds a little too generic, compared to the abrasive yet melodic sound that Accept brought to the scene way back when.  I think maybe if it wasn’t Accept I’d be inclined to like it more, because I have high expectations.

You should never read comments on public posts (you can read the few that I get here, of course, as they are usually pretty thoughtful), but one person commented on this song that the chorus sounds like Europe’s “The Final Countdown” which ruined the song for me, and now I have ruined it for you.  Sorry.  Of course the most noteworthy (get it?) thing is the guitar solo which is an extensive working Edward Greig’s “Morning Mood” (and not just a line or two, but the whole thing, pretty much–it actually sounds awesome).

So, this song isn’t going to bring me back to Accept, although I did like it more with each listen.  Nevertheless, it’s nice to know that they’re still rocking Germany.  I also love that they still have the same logo.

[READ: July 27, 2014] The PS Brothers

The cliché is that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  And that proves to be hugely true here.  Indeed, you can’t judge this book by its size (books of this size tend to be for younger readers), or even by its blurb.  The blurb ends with “but what they aren’t counting on is uncovering a crime that can bust apart a dream faster than a dog can sniff out a bone.”  Bear that in mind as I talk about this story (and yes give a spoiler or two by the end).

So this story (judging by the cover and the title) seems pretty darn funny.  Shawn and Russell really want a dog.  Russell has read every book in the library about dogs and Shawn bought a pooper scooper at a garage sale.  There’s a few logistical problems–they don’t live together, they don’t have any money, Shawn’s house is too small for a dog and Russell’s uncle hates dogs.  So what are they going to do?

Then one day they see that a guy is selling Rottweiler puppies for $200 a piece.  They want a big mean dog with a spiked collar who will protect them from bullies (I should have realized that this story might be darker than I expected, but who could have known?).  Shawn and Russell decide to become the PS Brothers, with the PS standing for Pooper Scooper.  They are going to use Shawn’s scooper to pick up neighborhood poop for 10 or 25 cents a poop.  And soon enough they will have the cash. (more…)

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Ross Campbell–Water Baby (2008) [Minx #8]

Posted in All Things Considered, Boredom, Graphic Novel, Greed, LGBTQ, Minx, Morning Edition, Revenge, Ross Campbell, Sex, Sharks, Surfing, Tiny Desk Concert, Tracy Silverman on July 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

waterSOUNDTRACK: TRACY SILVERMAN-Tiny Desk Concert #368 (June 28, 2014).

Ttracyracy Silverman is an electronic violinist. In addition to playing the violin, he uses loops to build his sound (I love how many people are using loops these days).  Not only that, he has created his own violin–a six string with frets on the three low strings.  (It’s also shaped more like a guitar than a violin). He gets an incredible breadth of sound out of it (and he is an amazing violinist as well).

He plays three tracks. The first is “Matisse: La Danse,” which really shows off the breadth of his instrument and the effects that he uses.

The second piece he introduces by saying how much he loves listening to NPR and composer BJ Liederman.  So for the second song, which he calls “Sonata No. 4, Opus 37 “All Notes Considered”” he uses pieces of the themes from All Things Considered and Morning Edition.  It’s at once familiar and new, and it’s quite pretty.  He then takes a video of the studio for his Facebook feed.

The final song “Axis And Orbits/Mojo Perpetuo” opens with a trippy pizzicato section, which sounds echoey and almost underwater.  As that section loops, he plays slow, long bowed notes that seems to bring you into outer space.  By the end, after some interesting scratchy guitar-like sounds, he moves into a much faster solo section which really shows of his chops.

I’d never heard of Silverman before but I was pretty impressed with his technique and technology.  It’s a pretty wild ride of music–such diversity and unexpected sounds our of a simple (or not) violin.

[READ: July 5, 2014] Water Baby

I recognized the art from Ross Campbell immediately.  He writes and draws Wet Moon and I find his style (he draws women who are very powerful and very sexual) arresting and confrontational.  This book almost seems like it doesn’t belong at Minx, which tended to skew a little younger.  Even though these girls prove to be younger than I thought, their dress (or lack of—there’s a lot of underwear and tight shirts) is quite risqué (although it proves to be less explicit that Wet Moon).

The story itself was rather unexpected as well.  Brody is a surfer girl. She has cool punky hair and a rocking bod.  But in the first few pages, she is out on the water when she is attacked by a shark and loses a leg.  When she wakes up her best friend Louisa is there, taking care of her.  Since Brody’s mom is working full time, she asks if she can stay with Louisa —the answer is yes, and Louisa becomes an essential part of Brody’s life.  Many of Campbell’s stories focus on the young people, rather than the parents.

Brody soon learns to use a prosthetic leg (and crutches when necessary), but she can’t stop dreaming about the shark (which gets bigger in her dreams and sometimes has legs or comes through walls—it’s pretty terrifying).

Brody gets a call from Jake, and old boyfriend.  Brody hates Jake now and even says she’s off of boys for good.  But he shows up anyhow—he’s blond and hot and maybe a little stupid.  Stupid or not he is a total mooch and he asks to crash with them for a few days.  Jake is clearly crushing on Brody, but he is also making moves on Louisa (who has bigger boobs and tighter shirts).  He even brings a third girl over to fool around with (which freaks out everyone else in the house). But it’s not until the girls wake up one morning to see that Jake has thrown up all over their house that they evict him—which means an immediate drive to Rochester NY. (more…)

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Rebecca Curtis–“The Christmas Miracle” (New Yorker, December 23 & 30, 2013)

Posted in Cats, Christmas, Death, Funny (strange), K'naan, Mali Music, New Yorker, Parenting, Rebecca Curtis, Short Story, Surreal, Yuck! on July 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_12_23_13Blitt.inddSOUNDTRACK: MALI MUSIC-Tiny Desk Concert #366 (June 21, 2014).

maliMali Music is one man, born in Savannah, GA, but with a somewhat Jamaican vibe.  He plays three songs in this Tiny Desk Concert and each one is quite different.

In the first track, “Fight for You,” he raps over a beat and sample mix played by his DJ (DJ Slow Motion, who is behind the desk with him).  It’s interesting in that he raps with himself (his voice is played by the DJ as well, not looped).  His singing voice in this song tends towards the whiny which I don’t care for, especially since his main voice is so powerful.

The second track, “Make It In” he plays on an acoustic guitar.  The song is clever with lots of amusing asides and slight laughs in the lyrics too.  he more or less raps the verses but sings the chorus.

For the final song, he switches to keyboard (he says he learned piano at a very young age) and he plays a simple, uplifting ballad called “Beautiful.”  There’s a funny moment when he asks the crowd to sing along and then the DJ plays a sample of a crowd singing a long, which makes Mali laugh.

Mali is a pretty positive guy–he talks about things getting better and about himself really making a difference through his music.  It sounds like prideful boasting (and it will be interesting to see if he really does take off), but he also seems sincere in his desire for happiness.  The set reminds me a little of K’naan, at least in spirit.

[READ: June 19, 2014] “The Christmas Miracle”

After really enjoying “The Toast” a few months ago, I was delighted to get another story from Rebecca Curtis and her bristly narrator.

The story opens with the comment that cats were dying, “This happens, of course.”  But in this case they were dying in gory ways not to mention the cats belonged to her nieces.  The girls had seen the dead cats.  The narrator also points out that it is now Christmas, “The most magical, horrible, spiritual, dark, and stressful time of the year.”

Like with another Curtis story, this one is being told to someone, in this case, someone named K, a Russian Communist and “Jewish person who doesn’t believe Jesus was the son of God.”

The narrator explains her situation–she was teaching creative writing but hadn’t written anything herself in years  She had contracted Lyme disease (does this all sound familiar from her other stories?). The disease causes inflammations and bouts of madness and “frank or rude speech, usually set off by eating carbohydrates.”

I love the way that Curtis writes although I’m unclear what Curtis herself believes because her narrator is just so contrary.  Like this awesome sentence:

“If cake was nearby I wasn’t always able to prevent myself from having one bite, then the sugar fed the Bartonella bacteria, which commanded me to eat more, and I would, and then I’d go insane.”  So she asked her sister not to have any sugar filled treats at Christmas.  Which her sister ignored, of course. (more…)

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