Some recent Tiny Desk Concerts have been running long, but Mitski Miyawaki plays 3 songs in 8 minutes.
Her songs are simple—three chords at most. And she is unaccompanied here (her recorded versions are much more fleshed out)–just her voice and her electric guitar. But it’s the intensity of her lyrics and her delivery that really dominate the show.
“Townie” is the most rocking song The way her voice rises and almost breaks as she sings “I’ve tried sharing and I’ve tried caring and I’ve tried putting out” is really heartbreaking. And the follow-up “but the boys keep coming on for more, more, more.” It’s all of 2 minute long but it packs a punch.
“Class of 2013” is almost a capella. She plays a chord and lets it fade away while she sings.
Mom, am I still young? / Can I dream for a few months more? / Mom is it alright if I stay for a year or two…and I’ll leave once I can figure out how to pay for my own life too.
Interestingly, se plays an open-stringed guitar (it must be a special tuning). One loud chord that rings and fades. Even in the most unsettling moment, when she plays a chord and then screams the lyrics into the pick-up of her guitar–giving it a far-away and tinny quality as the chord echoes to a close.
The final song “Last Words Of A Shooting Star” has some simple opens string finger picking (again, must be an alternate tuning). As she sings quietly she seems to be exposing every ounce of herself.
One would be concerned for her psyche and yet she seems pretty happy and smiling when the show is over.
[READ: October 19, 2016] Understanding the Sky
This book is a long-format version of a short article/essay/something-else-entirely that was published in Afar in 2015.
This book reminds me of the publication of David Foster Wallace’s This is Water in that it is a brief essay/story spread out over hundreds of pages. Most often with one line per page. The difference between this and Water is that Water felt like a weird cash grab and this feels like a chance to show off more of Egger’s photos (there are not many in the article).
There is a photo on each page–most often with text–but sometimes without. And it works rather well.
The narrative is structured as a dialogue–each “person” is on a facing page, so the right page answers the left page. And it is done in a kind of removed third person. Thus it begins: “Who is this man?” “He wants to fly.” In this opening section the pictures are presented very thin–less than an inch wide in total but stretching from top to bottom of page in the center of the spread. (more…)
Martin Tielli has been prolific both as a solo artist and with his “side project” Nick Buzz (named after his love of smokes).
Nick Buzz’ first album came out in 1996 (during a time when the Rheos had just wrapped up their album The Blue Hysteria) and was ignored. It was reissued in 2002 to a bit more fanfare. I reviewed it once before and while I thought I was more dismissive of it then, it turns out that I wasn’t. That I enjoyed it and felt mostly the same as I do now.
“Spilling The Wonderful” starting out with a mellow piano intro, the song jars into a noisy/drunken waltz melody and a violin solo before returning to the cabaret/waltz style that opened the song. It is deliriously catchy. The song ends with some tape manipulation before seguing into “That’s What You Get For Having Fun.” This song opens with some slapped and scratchy guitar sounds with a refrain of “there’s a monkey in my underwear.” There’s a super catchy guitar riff that is sung along to—this song really shines live.
“Just Because” mellows things down a lot, with a jazzy sounding guitar and Martin’s delicate vocals. The music for his one was written by pianist Jon Goldsmith which might explain the mellowness. It’s a sweet ballad. Although the segue after this song is some clips from the radio (possibly sung by Tielli?) which are distant and crackling. There’s a saxophone playing as well. This merges into an announcer introducing the band for their (live) cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River.” It’s a beautiful, delicate version with Hugh Marsh’s electric violin solo swirling around.
Some dissonant sax segues into Sane So Sane which is actually a pretty gentle piano song. They play with the recording sound as the drums get muffled and dense and there’s more backing vocals thrown over the top. But it remains largely conventional. “Hymn to the Situation” is a creaky somewhat creepy song that Martin described as being about a self-centered jerk. who says things like “I’d suicide for you.” There’s a canned crowd cheering at a particularly funny line and even a cow mooing as the song ends
“Fornica Tango” is a wild weird song. It is tango (Tielli speaks Italian), but the rhythm is kept by a squeaky sound (which is likely Marsh’s violin). The song is interrupted throughout by a crying baby or, even stranger, a screeching chimpanzee (fornica translates as ant). The song ends with some crazy sounds from Marsh’s electronic violin. The highlight of the record is “Love Streams’ a beautiful ballad based largely around a piano melody and Marsh’ keening violin. It’s followed by “Aliens break a heat” which is more tape manipulation and all kinds of weird effects (backward vocals I believe) for 2 minutes. Until it’s replaced by sounds of traffic (European) and horns honking.
The final song is the amusing “The Italian Singer/Just Because I’m Nick The Buzz” It starts slowly with some plucked strings and Tielli’s voice. There’s some spoken sections and lots of staccato music until the gentle ending which resumes the melody from “Just Because.”
It’s a peculiar album but one that gets better with each listen (and hearing him play some of these songs live has really introduced new aspects of them to me.
[READ: October 10, 2015] The Circle
I put this book off for a while but with no real reason for doing so. And I’m sorry I waited so long because the book is really good–it’s thought-provoking and questions a lot of established ideas but is also really kind of fun and utopian.
What’s most impressive to me about the way the book is written is that the story itself is really quite simple. It is a gradual building up of intensity. At the end of which the main character has to make a decision which proves to be very important both for her and everyone else.
The story is about Mae. Mae had been working at a dull and dispiriting job in civil service at her home town. The job was dull, the people were dull, there was zero energy in the place and even her boss was depressing. It sucked. She had been there for 18 months and when her boss joked about her getting a promotion, she’d about had it.
She contacted her friend Annie. Annie was her college roommate and boon companion for a few years. And Annie worked at The Circle, the coolest most awesome place in the country to work at–think google, but better). Was there any way that Annie could help out Mae? Indeed there was. Annie got Mae a job at The Circle, just like that. Annie was one of the Top 40, the influential crowd at The Circle and Mae was in (her first day is hilarious, because Annie plays a wonderful prank on her). (more…)
I had never heard of Beach Slang before watching this Tiny Desk Concert. Evidently they are a new band with only a couple EPs out. The write up says they are a punk band. But in this Tiny Desk show, it’s just lead dude James Snyder and his guitar.
He plays four songs. They are all sort of jaunty acoustic songs. They are almost anthemic, but not quite. The strangest thing is Snyder’s super-raspy singing voice, especially since his speaking voice is gentle and his laugh is kind of high-pitched. He is very funny and nervous when he talks, which I enjoyed quite a bit.
Exploring a little their bandcamp site, I see that they do a cover of the Psychedelic Furs’ Love My Way, and that sound is pretty apt.
Their recorded versions are heavier and actually sound a bit like the Goo Goo Dolls.
This is a brief but enjoyable set. I find him so charming that I like it more than I might normally.
[READ: April 1, 2015] Five Dials 31
It has been quite a while since I’ve read a Five Dials. And that’s no fault of the magazine–its all on me. I always think, I’ll just put it off till I have time, and then I realize that I can always find something to read…so I just need to actually make time for Five Dials because it is totally worth it.
So this issue came out about a year ago. Maybe that’s not too bad?
It begins with the contributors page and is followed by the Unable to Contribute page which lists five journalists who are currently in prison (find out more at the Committee to Protect Journalists). Page 5 is a Table of Contents which I feel they haven’t done before. It has a cool drawing on the bottom. All drawings from this issue came from The Public Domain Collection of the British Library.
Then there’s a Frequently Asked Questions page. Many pertain to corresponding with Five Dials, but others, well: (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE LES CLAYPOOL FROG BRIGADE-Purple Onion (2002).
This is the first and so far only studio album from the Les Claypool Frog Brigade (line up slightly different from the live albums). I think it’s one of his best solo releases in terms of overall musical complexity. The addition of Skerik on sax makes a world of difference to Les’ songs and even better is percussionist Mike “Tree Frog” Dillon on vibraphone–which adds a new level of depth to these songs. Also having a backing vocalist seems to add even more to them.
Psychotic circus music opens the saga of “David Makalster.” It’s a riff on the news (where everything’s exactly as it seems). The chorus is a fun vibraphone filled section–cheerful and fake. It’s a decent song. In true Les fashion, he follows it up with a Part II later in the disc in which the truth of the unhappiness is revealed. Between the two songs it’s 11 minutes long which is too much for this one conceit, although I do like the way the part II revisits the first song in a different way.
But there’s so much else that’s so good on the record. Like “The Buzzards of Green Hill” which opens with a jaw harp and some cool bass. It’s a simple up and down riff that is incredibly catchy. Later it’s got some great guitar and horn solos. “Long in the Tooth” sounds like a Primus song, but the crazy sax noises turn this into something else entirely. “Whamola” is a cool song that features Les’ work with the whamola, a one string instrument that features prominently on the song–it’s like a viola that you can do bends on. It’s a great jam with Fish from Fishbone on drums and Skerik’s crazy sax as well.
“Ding Dang” sounds like it would be a silly song but it actually attacks all forms of prejudice–racist, homophobic ignorance all gets taken to task and then put to a rather cheerful-sounding chorus. There’s some wild solos on this in song too. Tolerance is a good thing.
“Barrington Hall” is an interesting creeping sounding song with vibes and bowed bass. It feels like a kind of silly horror movie song.
“D’s Diner” opens with some backward percussion. It has a creepy sinister bass line and some crazy vocal all about a yummy dinner. It features Gabby La La on sitar and Norwood Fisher from Fishbone on bass. “Lights in the Sky is an atmospheric song which is a bit too long. “Up on the Roof” has a great slapping bass thing going on and the vibes solo is wonderful.
“Cosmic Highway” ends the disc with a pretty lengthy jam. It has some great solos from the various instruments–I actually would have preferred this as an instrumental–I think it would have removed the slower parts. But it’s a fun, trippy album closer.
And after this, Primus would (briefly) reunite.
[READ: January 19, 2015] “The Alaska of Giants and Gods”
In this story (which I imagine is the beginning of a new novel from Eggers), Josie has packed her kids into a (cheap rented) R.V. and has taken them to Alaska.
Josie used to be a dentist. She was sued by a woman who claimed that Josie should have seen the cancer in her mouth. Josie was so disgusted, she threw up her hands and said to take everything. Which the woman did. She felt the lower forty-eight states were full of cowards and thieves so it was time to get out.
And yet when they crossed the border, the Alaska she imagined was nowhere to be seen–no magic, no pure air, just a regular old city. (more…)
After Guero, Beck released Guerolito, a remix album. I’ve basically given up on remix albums, so I don’t know anything about that one.
His next proper album was The Information which I have recently read was recorded at the same time as Guero. I remember when it came out that it had a whole bunch of stickers that you could put all over the cover (which was made like graph paper) so that each cover could be personalized. Sadly I remembered that more than the music. I hadn’t listened to the album in a long time either. So when I played it the other day, after the first song I was afraid I didn’t remember any of it.
And even after a few listens, that first song, “Elevator Music” just never grabbed me. Then came “Think I’m in Love” which was a reasonably big hit (surprisingly, not the first single from the album). It’s what you expect from Beck–a cool bassline, catchy vocals and a great melody. This one is a mid-paced song, but the chorus has a lot of bounce. The next song, “Cellphone’s Dead” sounds a bit like “Hell Yes” with that watery staccato funky bass. It’s definitely a fun song, and there’s a “sample” that I have to wonder if it’s not a sample at all–a neat idea to have something that sounds like sample but actually not be one).
“Strange Apparition” is a folkie song. And this is the first song which made me realize what’s wrong with the album. The sound quality of the whole disc is really flat. It’s very sleek and smooth, so even though there’s some great guitars on this track, it’s the same loudness as the vocals. And the drums are kind of lost in the mix too, it renders it really bland. Which is shocking coming from Beck. It’s also a shame because with a better mix this would be a great song. Same with “Soldier Jane.” The bass line is really fun, but it just gets lost in the muddle of everything else–which is not to say it sounds muddied, it’s just all the same. “Nausea” was the first single from the album and I can see why–it’s funky and bouncy and has a catchy chorus an a cool bass. But then it slowly dawns that this is basically a slightly less successful version of “Black Tambourine.”
“New Round” sounds pretty different for a Beck song–there’s layered waves of vocals and a lot of different sounds going on, including an interesting piano. And I want to like it more, but it also seems to get lost in the washes of sound. “Dark Star” rises above the washes with its slow and sultry sound. It’s got a very cool 70s bass sound. I wish there were a few more peaks on the song, but then it probably wouldn’t be so spacey. “We Dance Alone” has some great sounds as well–again, that bass is very cool, but it just feels too smooth.
“No Complaints” brings back Beck’s old slightly out of tune guitar sound. It stands out in this muddy middle of the album and is definitely a highlight. “1000 BPM” is one of Beck’s weird skittery songs. There’s wild sounds and a seemingly improvised rap. This would have probably sounded great on Odelay, but it feels odd to me here. “Motorcade” has more acoustic guitar but by the time the chorus comes in, the only melody is on Beck’s vocals, while the strange music is almost a distraction from the melody. There’s some cool sounds in “The Information” which is certainly an enjoyable song (and a lengthy end section of weird trippy vocals that foreshadows the very long bonus track). “Movie Theme” opens with keyboards. It’s nice, but just sort of meandering.
Which leads to the 10 minute final track “The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton.” This is sort of a recap of the whole album, with samples from different songs, long drawn out instrumental passages and dialogue. There’s some interesting riffs, especially in the middle section (about 3 minutes in). The third section of the song is dialogue between Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, talking about space and other things. One wonders where Beck got this or if he just asked them to talk for the record. It’s a weird ending and feels like a bonus track but actually isn’t.
There’s a bonus version of the disc which I do not have. It has some more songs and a DVD.
So overall this is the first Beck CD that I just didn’t love, especially coming on the heels of the excellent Guero. There’s definitely some good songs here, I just want it to be crisper.
[READ: March 14, 2014] Nolas’ Worlds #3
Nola’s World concludes with this book, which was also translated by Erica Olson Jeffrey and Carol Klio Burrell.
I loved the first two books of this series quiet a lot, but felt like the third one fell a little flat. The ending felt like it was solved too quickly especially after the hugely lengthy set up.
The first nearly 50 pages are all a way to lead up to the ferrets finally meeting Damiano and Ines (with the inevitable we-can’t-tell-you-everything delays. Then we finally get the explanation that Alta Donna is a town between the Human World and the Land of Stories. Since Damiano and Ines escaped from the Land of Stories, they have messed everything up. We learn all about how the ferrets control Alta Donna (the details of this are quite neat).
But the big thing missing from all of this is Pumpkin. And Nola knows it, too. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BOB & DOUG McKENZIE-“The 12 Days of Christmas” (1981).
This is my preferred old school version of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” It was one of the first parodies of the song that I had heard (and I was big in parodies back in 1981).
I loved how stupid they were (on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a beer). I loved trying to figure out what a two-four was, and it cracked me up that they skipped a whole bunch of days.
I also enjoyed how they continued to snipe at each other throughout the song. Not comedy gold perhaps (that would be “Take Off” recorded with Geddy Lee, but a nice way to start, or end, the season on these “mystery days.”
Evidently, decades after SCTV went off the air, Bob & Doug got an animated TV show (without Rick Moranis). And they made a video of the song. Hosers.
Five Dials Number 29 was the first issue I had read in a while. (I read this before going back to 26-28). And it really reminded me of how great Five Dials is. I don’t know why this isn’t Part 2 after Number 28’s Part 1 (there was no 28b either), but that’s irrelevant. This is an independent collection of great writing. I was instantly surprised and delighted to see that César Aria was included in this issue (I didn’t even know he had made inroads in England).
CRAIG TAYLOR-Letter from the Editor: In Swedes and Open Letters
Taylor’s usually chipper introduction is saddened by the contents of this one. The discussion centers on Sweden and the city of Malmo, where integration is proving to be tougher than they’d hoped. Black skinned people are profiled pretty explicitly. Taylor talks about meeting the writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri (who they subsequently published in issue 21) who deals with issues of race. In March of 2013, Khemiri wrote an open letter to Swedish Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask after she brushed off concerns about racial profiling. The letter went viral including getting translated into 15 languages. So I guess there is some positivity after all. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-() (2003). After a staggeringly successful tour, Sigur Rós took some time off. They returned about four years after their successful album with (). I like to think they were trying to make it easier for English speakers to not have to pronounce their Icelandic words, but perhaps they were just being more difficult. For they have made an album title that is hard to search for and hard to say. To make it worse, there are no song titles on the record either. (Although the band did have I guess unofficial titles for them):
1.”-” (“Vaka”) 6:38
2.”-” (“Fyrsta”) 7:33
3.”-” (“Samskeyti”) 6:33
4.”-” (“Njósnavélin”) 6:57
5. “-” (“Álafoss”) 9:57
6. “-” (“E-Bow”) 8:48
7. “-” (“Dauðalagið”) 12:52
8. “-” (“Popplagið”) 11:43
While looking for these song tracks, I learned that a lot of people think this album is mopey and depressing. And I couldn’t disagree more. I find the songs to be wonderful builders of drama. Track 1 opens with lovely piano and vocals. It’s a pretty melody that is punctuated with odd, squeaky voices. Track 2 is slower, with a nice guitar melody instead of pianos. Track 3 opens with organs and more lovely pianos. The pianos are slow which I usually don’t like, but there’s something about the simplicity and solitariness of their pianos that I find really captivating. I love that it is repetitive and building, edging towards a dramatic conclusion. Track 4 has low drumming that propels the echoing song.
Each of these 4 songs is around 7 minutes long. And while they are not vastly different from Ágætis byrjun, they show the band experimenting within the form. Also, Ágætis byrjun contained several different styles mixed between their epics, whereas this album is all epic.
After the 4th song there is 30 seconds of silence. Which signifies something of a change for the second half of the album.
Track 5 is the slowest, saddest music on the album. But it builds slowly, growing out of that sadness with a cathartic explosion at the end. Track 6 opens with very loud drums (the percussion is spectacular on this album) and drones. It builds and builds with more catharsis at the end. Track 7 is the 12 minute epic that opens with organs and washes of guitars. The opening is slow but you get the sense that it is building towards something–there is tension in the music, especially when it shifts to a minor key around 3:30. It takes over 4 minutes to get to the chorus. And then the song repeats and builds again. The end is an unholy racket until Jonsi is left singing by himself. It’s incredibly satisfying. The final track is 11 minutes long and opens with an upbeat guitar sound. It’s a good song and then the drums kick in around 6:20 and the song gets even better.
So yes, this is a long album full of long songs. And none of it is in English. Not exactly a pop seller, and yet there is something magical about the music on it.
[READ: October 10, 2013] A Hologram for the King
I had been putting off reading this book because I didn’t really like or get the title. Sarah laughed at me when I said this, because the title is very explicit, but I honestly didn’t know what it was supposed to mean. My mind reeled with the metaphorical possibilities. So imagine my surprise when the title is indeed very literal.
The book is about a man named Alan Clay who is an IT sales person. He will be doing a presentation–which will include an interactive hologram–to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. So, a hologram for the king. Simple.
And indeed, the story is quite simple. I had read an excerpt from it in McSweeney’s 38 and enjoyed it quite a bit–not realizing that it was from this book, of course. The excerpt has been changed since then but most of the elements have been incorporated. About the excerpt I said:
a man named Alan is on a flight to Saudi Arabia for business. We learn through the course of the chapter that he has very little money left, that he is divorced and that his daughter is now fighting with her mother (his ex-wife). He composes letters in his head to her trying to figure out the best way to placate the scenario. But he also knows how important this deal is, both for him and for his daughter who needs money for school. So he tries to put everything out of his mind so he can sleep. There’s a lot of wonderful details in this chapter.
None of those details have changed, except we don’t really see as much of the flight.
Alan has landed in Saudi Arabia after not sleeping for 60 hours. He misses the shuttle bust to KAEC (pronounce cake) the King Abdullah Economic Center. So he calls for a taxi. Instead, he gets a young man name Yousef who drives him the 60 or so miles to KAEC. Along the way, Alan and Yousef talk a lot and they hit it off. Yousef has been to America (he studied for a year there) so he understands Americans. He also has no hope for the future of the KAEC. Alan likes Yousef and is dismayed by his attitude about KAEC, but finds him to be enjoyable company (Yousef enjoys jokes and, as a salesman, Alan is full of them). (more…)
This was the final song that NPR played in their summer new music collection. It was a band that Bob didn’t know, but he liked the song and then saw them live and put the song here.
It opens very simply, quietly with beautiful harmonies over a simple synth. After about 45 seconds, the drums and horns (!) kick in and the backing harmony vocals take on more of a choral sound (AHHHH!) that punctuates rather than accompanies the vocals.
The main riff stems from that horn—a bass saxophone? And yet during the verses, everything resorts to that pretty, mellow sound.
It’s a very interesting mix of musics, and it reminds me of some of the more experimental bands of the 1990s. I’ll bet they would be fun to see live. And I’d like to hear more from this album.
[READ: June 20, 2013] McSweeney’s #38
And with this book, I have now read all of the McSweeney’s issues (except that Mammoth Treasury which I will get to, probably by the end of the year). This one was a great collection of fiction and non-fiction, it also had an inserted comic. The book itself was paperback, with a nice, textured cover and a cool design for the numbers. In looking for a picture I learned that it came in two colors (the yellow that I received and a black cover with white lines).
It continues with the later issues’ less frivolous style (in that there’s nothing weird about the book) and throughout, the quality of the work is great. I really enjoyed this book. It opens with letters and contains color pictures, too.
Steve Harris was on That Metal Show recently. Harris is the bassist and primary songwriter for Iron Maiden and has been since their first album in 1980. When I was in high school Iron Maiden was my favorite band hands down. I had all their albums, I had all their singles, all their hard to find British vinyl 12 inch singles, even a few pictures discs. Wonder if they’re valuable?
Every album was an epic event for me–I even played “Rime of the Ancient Mariner “off of Powerslave to my English class (not telling anyone it was 13 minutes long).
And then, after Somewhere in Time, I just stopped listening to them. Almost full stop. I did manage to get the first four albums on CD, but the break was pretty striking. I actually didn’t know that they’d had personnel changes in the ensuing years. I’d vaguely heard that Bruce Dickinson left, and that others followed, but I don’t think I quite realized that they were back to their big lineup these days.
Anyhow, Harris was so earnest and cool that I had to go check out some of their new stuff. Which was okay. I’d need more time to digest, but then I had to listen to the first albums again.
And wow I had forgotten how much the first Iron Maiden album melds punk and prog rock into a wild metal hybrid. There’s so much rawness in the sound and Paul Di’Anno’s vocals, not to mention the speed of some of the tracks. And yet there’s also some epic time changes and starts and stops and the elaborate multipart Phantom of the Opera…. Wow.
The opening chords of “Prowler” are brutal. But what’s surprising is how the second song “Remember Tomorrow” is a lengthy song that has many ballad-like qualities, some very slow moody sections–although of course each chorus rages with a great heavy riff and a blistering solo. On the first two albums Paul Di’Anno was the singer. He had a fine voice (it was no Bruce Dickinson, but it was fine). What’s funny is that Bruce does the screams in “Remember Tomorrow” so much better in the live version that I forgot Paul’s vocals were a little anemic here.
However, Paul sounds perfect for the rawness of “Running Free” a wonderfully propulsive song with classic Harris bass and very simple metal chugga chugga riffs. And this has one of the first real dual guitar solos–with both players doing almost the same riff (and later Harris joining in on bass).
“Phantom of the Opera” is the band’s first attempt at an epic multi-secton kinda-prog song. It opens with a memorable, if slightly idiosyncratic riff and some wonderfully fast guitars/bass. There’s a great slow bit that morphs into an awesome instrumental soloing section with bass and twin guitars playing a wonderful melody.
“Transylvania” is an instrumental that is challenging but probably not one of the best metal instrumentals out there, although again when Dennis Stratton and Dave Murray play in synch solos it’s awesome. This track segues into “Strange World” a surprisingly trippy song (with effects that seem like keyboards but which aren’t). It’s slow in a “War Pigs” kind of way, but it doesn’t entirely break up the album, because there are other slow bits on the disc. It is a little out of place though.
Especially when “Sanctuary” blasts forth. True, it wasn’t originally on the album (in the UK), but man, blistering punk or what! “Charlotte the Harlot” was always one of my favorite songs (it taught me what a harlot was after all), it’s quite proggy, with a lot of stuttered guitar work and a middle section that features some loud and complex bass. The disc ends with the by now almost immortal “Iron Maiden.” A great raw riff opens the song, a harmony guitar partners it and the band blasts forth. Who even knows what the lyrics area about, the song just moves and moves–There’s even a great chaotic bass/drum break in the middle. And listening to the guitar noises in the solos at the end. Amazing. It’s quite the debut.
[READ: June 7, 2013] McSweeney’s #42
I have made it a point of (possibly misguided) pride that I have read every word in every McSweeney’s issue. But this issue has brought that to an end. As the title states, there are twelve stories in the book. But there are also sixty-one authors writing in eighteen languages. And there’s the rub. One of my greatest (possibly misguided) shames is that I don’t speak any other languages. Well, I studied Spanish and German, I know a few dozen words in French and I can read the Greek alphabet, but none of these would help me read any of these stories. So, at least half of this book I didn’t read.
But that’s kind of the point. The purpose of this book is to make a “telephone” type game out of these stories. Stories are translated from one language to another and then re-translated back into English. The translators were mostly writers rather than translators and while some of them knew the second language, many of them resorted to Google Translate or other resources to “read” the story. Some people read the story once and then rewrote it entirely, other people tried to be as faithful as possible to the original. And so what you get are twelve stories, some told three times in English. Some versions are very similar and others are wildly divergent.
I normally write about the stories in the issues, but that seems sort of beside the point as the original stories were already published and were selected for various reasons (and we don’t even see any of the original stories). The point here is the translation(s). So, in a far less thorough than usual way, I’ll list the contents below. (more…)
I learned about Trabant from the magazine pictured to the left. It came with McSweeney’s issue #15 and is completely in Icelandic. Trabant are apparently a pretty huge band in Iceland, and they have a lot of songs on YouTube. And many of their songs are very different sounding so I’m not entirely sure what kind of band they actually are.
This song begins with strange clicks and sound effects and then a big throbbing bass. There’s kind of a funky keyboard background and then a slightly off kilter riff.
Then the big guitars kick in and the vocals (which are “if you want a love song”) don’t start until about two minutes in. There’s a break in the middle where the band starts changing Ma Mo Ma Mo Maria and then the singer starts free associating over some wild guitar riffing and more sound effects. It’s a really weird song and I have no idea if this is representative of the band (they did make a video for it so it can’t just be a throwaway, right?).
I’m really intrigued by these guys, and I’m going to have to look for more.
[READ: May 18, 2013] McSweeeny’s bits.
Over the course of my reading the McSweeney’s issues, there were bits and pieces that I missed for one reason or another. I tried to be complete, but sometimes it wasn’t easy. So, with the publication of The Art of McSweeney’s I have now been able to read two things that I missed earlier. And the third is something I didn’t exactly read, although I tried.
Just as issue 1 had a short story by Dave Eggers on its spine! issue #4 (the box of books) had a brief piece by Ben Greenman ringing the contents list of said box. I never noticed it before (indeed I may not have ever read the back of the box before, shame on me). But anyhow, in very tiny print is “More Notes on Revising Last Night’s Dream” by Ben Greenman. And in this brief piece (which is several bullet pointed items–although arranged as a line rather than bullets) there are several ideas about last night’s dream which include “Egg on breakfast plate need not bloom into flowers” and “Cut out part in which Leslie Nielsen meets Trotsky–silly.” And, of course, “More Invisibility.” This is the kind of short silly thing that the first issues published which have more or less been relegated to the McSweeney’s website now. And while I feel the website is a better place for it (and I need to go read the website more), these silly things are certainly missed.
The second missed item is also found thanks to The Art of McSweeney’s. I mentioned in my review of Issue #20 that the story on the cover was completely covered by art. And I wondered why and I wondered if you could find the whole text anywhere. Well, in The Art of McSweeney’s they print the original cover!
I was delighted by this because it did two things–it explained how the cover was made (the 3D art was not “added on,” rather the white section under the art was “Compressed” which is how it came out 3D. Very cool. There’s also a brief breakdown of costs of the issue. But the bulk of the cover story is about how the author (Eggers, I assume) broke up a fight in New York City. A man and his family are walking down the street when a lady bumped into their little girl. The man freaks out because she didn’t apologize and he gets right up in the lady’s face (really, dude?). Eggers is on the phone arranging to meet someone when he says he has to get involved. So he tells the guy to chill out. Things quiet down a bit, but then the woman starts screaming “You got knocked up!” And that’s when Eggers takes a look at her and realizes that she is homeless and crazy and not ever going to apologize. But the screaming gets the mother involved in the fight which starts up again. Things finally settle down with the family acknowledging that the lady doesn’t understand anything. And they all depart. It’s probably the most exciting editor’s note of them all, and yet it was covered up.
My guess is, from what I know about Eggers, that story may have seemed too self-serving to include Or maybe it was just fun to cover up words with a picture.
The final item comes from Issue #15. It is a small magazine called Séð og Heyrt (Seen and Heard). It is a real weekly magazine, although I’m not sure if our version is complete (I assume it’s not since it’s only 16 pages, but who knows how much tabloid you can fill each week in Iceland). It is a pretty typical scandal magazine For some insight into this magazine, check out this post on I love Icelandic Music.
I can’t even begin to guess what half of the articles are about as the pictures are mostly crazy. There seems to be something about an Idol show, there’s a female body builder, something about some wholesome looking people who may be called Icelandic Pearls. And then the centerfold is called Rokkorgia, which should be easily translated. It features half naked pictures of the guys from Trabant. The next page has Love Guru in strange positions with his lady friend and a big headline Bingo I Beinni. The back page has an ad for Krit Paradis Eyjahafsins which appears to be a nice resort. What a fun, odd addition to the Icelandic Issue of McSweeney’s.
Then as I was glancing through I caught something that said That 70s Show. And sure enough, it was a preview of a new episode tonight (is it dubbed into Icelandic??). So even though I played around with translating bits and pieces of the magazine, this was the only one I did fully. So in Icelandic (excluding some accents)
I kvold hefjast syningar a nyrri syrpu um unglingana i Wisconsin. Jackie þarf ad velja a milli Hyde of Kelso. Red er að ba ser eftir hjartaafall og Eric er með samviskubit yfir þvi að vera að fara i burtu i haskola. þokkadísin Estella Warren leikur gestahlutverk i þaettinum
Which Google tells me means:
Tonight begins exhibiting a new series about a teenager in Wisconsin. Jackie has to choose between Hyde of Kelso. Red is ba after a heart function and Eric is guilty not be going away to college. charm diesel Estella Warren plays a role in the show.
Cool huh? What a strange thing to find in a magazine that was not meant for me. But I’m glad I read it because now I know all about Trabant!
For ease of searching, I include, well, I’m only including the magazine, because there’s way too much otherwise: Sed og Heyrt.
SOUNDTRACK: MITSKI-Tiny Desk Concert #467 (August 31, 2015).
Some recent Tiny Desk Concerts have been running long, but Mitski Miyawaki plays 3 songs in 8 minutes.
My guess is, from what I know about Eggers, that story may have seemed too self-serving to include Or maybe it was just fun to cover up words with a picture.
I Just Read About That... 