SOUNDTRACK: EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK-Plays “High Gospel” [CST078] (2011).
Efrim Manuel Menuck was a co-founder of Godspeed Your Black Emperor and the main force behind A Silver Mt. Zion. In some ways it seems odd that he would release a solo album, but I guess Silver Mt Zion is enough of a collective for him to want to do his own thing. Efrim has been singing a lot more on Silver Mt Zion records, and I find his voice to walk a fine line between interesting and annoying–well, not so much annoying as inappropriate to the music he makes. For this solo disc, though, there’s something different about the music that works well with his voice. There’s eight songs on the disc. Some of them are pretty much unlistenable, but others are really enjoyable. The opener “our lady of parc extension and her munificent sorrows” is 7 minutes long and has the kind of epic feel of his previous bands, but there’s a lot more keyboard (making cool space sounds). Meanwhile, “a 12-pt. program for keep on keepin’ on” is described as a “hauntingly processed field recordings and ominous tape-delayed sound-sculpture.” That’s true for the first minute or so, but after that it’s mostly just an unpleasant cacophony…that lasts nine minutes! And while it’s great that it was all done with analogue equipment, that doesn’t make it any more listenable.
“august four, year-of-our-lord blues” is a much more enjoyable instrumental, slow vibrated notes, a real western sound. Efrim sings again on “heavy calls & hospital blues” and his angsty, hesitant voice works very well on this piano ballad. “heaven’s engine is a dusty ol’ bellows ” is a 2 minute instrumental/introduction that sounds a lot like the guitar opening from Radiohead’s “Electioneering.” “kaddish for chesnutt” is a slow, mournful dirge. It’s quite moving. It’s 7 minutes long, and the length is saved by the second half where the chanted vocals bring the song back from the edge.
“chickadees’ roar pt. 2” is mostly feedback noises and squeaks. It’s less unpleasant than other instrumentals, but it’s not something you’d seek out. Although it does work as an introduction to the closer: “i am no longer a motherless child.” After about 2 minutes of dissonant introduction, the group begins singing an uplifting ending hymn.
So this boils down to a self-indulgent solo project, with a few tracks that are among his best. You can stream it here.
[READ: May 22, 2012] “Mrs Blue”
I really enjoyed Joshua Ferris’ first novel. So I thought I’d see what else he had written. He has a number stories published but most of them are unavailable for free reading at this time. Thanks to my JSTOR account I was able to read this one from The Iowa Review.
This was pretty confusing story–and since its one of his first, I don’t really know what else to compare it to in his work. There’s all kinds of disturbing images and as you delve more deeply into the story, the images turn more disturbing but in different ways.
It opens with a youngish boy being seduced by Mrs Blue, a teacher in his school. He warns her about the dangers of unprotected sex and she says that she’s the one who convinced the PTA to hire the guy who gave the lecture, so she knows all about it. He’s 13 and he keeps telling her he doesn’t want to (her locations of choice include under a railroad car and in a burned out building). Each paragraph or so is set off by a star, indicating a new section. So section 2 has the narrator and Gus (friend? brother?) go to the track where Mrs Blue runs laps. Gus walks his dog, Mr Yackley, while the narrator (whose name is Woodrow Williams) talk about Cole Porter and how she’s looking for a new “daddy.” (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SELF-“Trunk Fulla Amps” (2000). 
I bought an album by Self many years ago. They had since released several other discs, but I hadn’t heard any of them. Then, they came out with this fantastic and very vulgar song. It reeks of one-hit wonder status and yet it is super catchy (and rather funny).
This week’s New Yorker contains a list of the 20 authors under age 40 that they predict we’ll be talking about for years to come. Their criteria:
SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-compilations and live releases (1978-2010).
For a band that had basically two hits (“Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Burnin’ for You”) and maybe a half a dozen other songs that people might have heard of, BOC has an astonishing number of “greatest hits” collections.
This doesn’t include any of the “budget price” collections: E.T.I. Revisited, Tattoo Vampire, Super Hits, Then and Now, The Essential, Are You Ready To Rock?, Shooting Shark, Best of, and the 2010 release: Playlist: The Very Best of).
The lesson is that you evidently won’t lose money making a BOC collection.
And, although none of them have “Monsters” for the average person looking for some BOC, any disc is a good one.
Then, in 1994 we got Live 1976 as both CD and DVD (which spares us nothing, including Eric Bloom’s lengthy harangue about the unfairness of…the speed limit). It’s the most raw and unpolished on live sets. 2002 saw the release of A Long Day’s Night, a recording of a 2002 concert (also on DVD) which had Eric Bloom, Buck Dharma an Allan Lanier reunited.
They also have a number of might-be real live releases (fans debate the legitimacy of many of these). Picking a concert disc is tough if only because it depends on the era you like. ETLive is regarded as the best “real” live disc, although the reissued double disc set of Some Enchanted Evening is hard to pass up. Likewise, the 2002 recording is a good overview of their career, and includes some of their more recent work.
If you consider live albums best of’s (which many people do) I think it’s far to say that BOC has more best of’s than original discs. Fascinating. Many BOC fans believe that if they buy all the best of discs, it will convince Columbia to finally reissue the rest of the original discs (and there are a number of worthy contenders!) in deluxe packages. I don’t know if it will work, but I applaud the effort.
It took me going to Seattle to learn about 
ten. For reasons known only to my head, I was convinced that Sasha was a black woman. Little did I realize that he is not. And that he was in a band that I have a CD of called Ui. He is an excellent resource for all things music, whether I like the artist he’s talking about or not. Some entries are 
SOUNDTRACK: Living with Music: A Playlist by Joshua Ferris (New York Times September 19 2007).
While searching for Joshua Ferris (see below) I came across this playlist from The New York Times. While I don’t agree with everything on the list, indeed, I haven’t heard of about half of the songs, I was delighted by several of his selections: Neutral Milk Hotel, Pearl Jam, and of course, Godspeed! You Black Emperor. I also really enjoy the unusual Pink Floyd selection, too (Meddle being a favorite album of mine).
SOUNDTRACK: THE DIVINE COMEDY-Liberation (1993).
This is considered by many to be the “first” Divine Comedy album, even though Neil Hannon released a previous album under the name Divine Comedy (Fanfare for the Comic Muse). He disowned that album, but, as you do, he reissued it several years later after much demand.
I Just Read About That... 