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Archive for the ‘Barry Hannah’ Category

Barry Hannah–“Sick Soldier at Your Door” (Harper’s, June 2009)

Posted in Barry Hannah, Canadian Music, Funny (strange), Harper's, Huh?, Live at Massey Hall, Sex, Short Story, The Weather Station, War on June 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE WEATHER STATION-Live at Massey Hall (February 5, 2016).

I know of The Weather Station from All Songs Considered.  The Weather Station is Tamara Lindeman and she has been making music under this name for many years.

But as her profile rises, she says that she has been moving from small clubs to bigger venues:

“So many things I’ve learned, like how to perform on a big stage and make sure people pay attention to you and hear your words.”

The larger venues are odd because her songs are “thoughtful and philosophical not full of showmanship” but you don’t really have a choice you’re in that situation–step up and be confident

The set opens with “Tapes” which is very quiet and soft with lovely backing vocal oohs and a pedal steel guitar.

“Floodplain” is a bit more upbeat but there’s some  interesting guitar work and a nice juxtaposition with the bass.

I love the titles of “Almost Carless” and “Shy Women.”  About “Shy Women” she says it’s about a particularity conversation but it could apply to 1,000 conversations.  It’s my favorite song with some great moments of backing vocals and chord changes

On “All of It was Me” she sounds a bit like Aimee Mann. She says “Loyalty” is also about a conversation.

She talks about evolving as a performer, playing electric guitar on “Personal Eclipse.”  She talks about how on a big stage you have to expand to fit the space you are given and so “Know It To See It,” finally rocks out–the drums and bass really adding something to her music.  The show ends with “Way It Is, Way It Could Be.”

She was joined by Ben Whiteley, Ian Kehoe,  Adrian Cook, Ivy Mairi and Misha Bower.

[READ: February 4, 2018] “Sick Soldier at Your Door”

Reading all of these excerpts in Harper’s has really brought to my attention just how much fiction is written about war.  It’s not a genre I like, so I had no idea it was so popular. This is an excerpt from a then forthcoming novel.

Anse Burden is apparently the main character. He says he has found six soldiers from the ’91 desert war with Iraq.

He talks about how he was on Percordan and Dexedrine when he was shot down.  Others believe he shot himself down (is that even possible?  I guess so.) He was found babbling incoherently.  There’s a great description of him being in the surf with his parachute attached looking like a dirty white whale rising up and down. (more…)

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Barry Hannah–“Rangoon Green” (Harper’s, November 2010)

Posted in Barry Hannah, Esquivel, Funny (strange), Harper's, Huh?, Short Story, Stereolab on December 17, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: STEREOLAB: “So is Cardboard Clouds” (2010).

I’ve been listening to Stereolab for something like 15 years now.  They are definitely a “have to been in the mood” kind of band.  Their music is a blend of electronica, especially krautrock, but with an Esquivel/bachelor pad twist.  And, of course half of the songs are sung in French (and are often about politics).

Aside from a few stylistic decisions over the years, the band hasn’t changed very much in style (or substance).  And yet, each new disc is a cause for curiosity.  Will it be long and meandering electronic booping music or short and catchy electronic booping music.

NPR had a preview of their new CD Not Music until basically the day before I clicked on the link (I must subscribe to these new release streams).  But I was able to listen to a couple of songs.  The first I chose was “So is Cardboard Clouds”.

It’s almost four minutes and opens simply and quietly with a repeated motif under Laetitia Sadier’s vocals.  (One of the fun things about Stereolab is never knowing if Laetitia is singing in French or English.  Her enunciation of English words is so peculiar that it’s not always evident that she’s actually speaking/singing English until you read the liner notes.

At about the two-minute mark, the song jumps into a far more rocking style.  It sounds like horn blasts repeated over and over at a fairly fast clip.  And this sets the tone for the speedier second half of the song.  Then the rocking part and the bubbly beats merge until the end which is all instrumental.

Musically, there’s nothing as much fun as a song that catches you off guard, and the tone shift one certainly does.  Even after a couple of listens, that switch to the faster section comes as a surprise.  Each parts of the song highlights the different aspects of  Stereolab’s styles and they’re throwing in enough newness to keep it interesting.

[READ: November 14, 2010] “Rangoon Green”

I’ve never heard of Barry Hannah before; he evidently died in March.  This story will come from his final collection of stories.  And I wanted to like it.  I really did.

The epigram was quite enticing: “Rangoon Green, trophy holder third place in the national storyteller telloff.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee 2011”

The story then begins with Rangoon himself telling how pissed he is that he came in third.  Again.  Obviously, he explains, the first place winner slept with a judge and the second place winner was a local so of course there was cheating there.

I was really getting into this idea of a storyteller telling a story about losing a storytelling contest.  But then it want pear- shaped, with talk of arson and fireworks and all kinds of things and man it went on for a long time. (more…)

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