SOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-Fully Completely (1993).
Even thought Road Apples was good, Fully Completely is amazing. The band has traded in some rawness for textural complexity and yet they haven’t lost the rocking groove of their earlier sound.
This album has some of my favorite Hip songs: “Courage” (the Sarah Polley cover in The Sweet Hereafter is also beautiful in a very different way). “At the Hundredth Meridian” (a title which should tell you that the lyrics of the song aren’t going to be typical rock fodder), and “Fifty Mission Cap.” “Fifty Mission Cap” is about the fascinating story of Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko, another atypical lyrical concept and an amazing song from start to finish (although, honestly the opening chords make it sound like it’s going to be a lame 80′ metal anthem…
maturation as a band made this song brilliant instead).
The duel guitar opening of “Pigeon Camera” is also gorgeous, as are the wonderful vocal harmonies on the bridge. And the rawness isn’t all gone either. “Locked in the Trunk of a Car” rocks as hard as anything on Road Apples. There’s also a mellow folk song in “Wheat Kings.” It slows the disc down a bit after the intensity of the amazing “Fully Completely,” and “Fifty Mission Cap,” but the last two songs are a string ending to an already great disc.
Even though I think that Fully is an amazing record, I think that mostly it’s preparation for the even more amazing Day for Night which came out two years later.
[READ: January 26, 2011] “Platanus”
Anyone playing along might have noticed that February is Canada month here. All of the authors this month have been from the Great White North. This story breaks with that, but I feel that it still counts because it came in a Canadian magazine. But Banana Yoshimoto is Japanese (no, really!). With a name like “Banana” (which is a pseudonym), it’s hard to forget this author. I even bought Kitchen (her first translated book) when it came out (although I haven’t read it yet).
This story is translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich. It is set in Mexico, specifically in the village of Mendoza. The narrator (aged 35) and her husband (aged 60) enjoy escaping Tokyo and spending time in this sleepy village.
The story provides some interesting familial background of the two characters (both of their families disapprove of the marriage) and the kinds of things that they get up to in Mendoza. And really that’s all there is to the story. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 