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Archive for the ‘Lemony Snicket’ Category

Lemony Snicket–The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming (2007)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Holidays, Housemartins, Lemony Snicket, Lisa Brown, McSweeney's, Short Books on November 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

latke.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE HOUSEMARTINS-Live at the BBC (2006).

housemartin.jpgI found out about the Housemartins after enjoying the Beautiful South, and since they only released two albums, it was easy to get into them quickly. This is a collection of live tracks from the BBC, some have an audience and some do not. What is most striking about the record are the amount of acapella works that are on here, and the, surprisingly religious aspect of many of the songs (especially for a bunch of guys who on the latest Beautiful South album say “No thanks to God, he did fuck all.”)

They sound great, and can totally pull off the acapella, and when they do break out the instrumentation it sounds even better. I would have resequenced it so that the acapellas were sprinkled throughout but hey, what can you do. My only sad moment was that “Happy Hour” was done acappella, and as I said, the acapellas are great, but that song just screams for full instrumentation. Anyhow, this collection will definitely get me listening to the Housemartins again.

[READ: October 21, 2007]: The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming.

What better way to get back into reading books than with a 20 page book full of illustrations! This is a holiday story of a latke who, because of his inherent religious beliefs, feels left out at Christmastime. As it is written by Lemony Snicket, it is twisted and even more twisted.

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Lemony Snicket-The End (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Blur, Children's Books, Damon Albarn, Gorillaz, Gothic Archies, Lemony Snicket, Ravenous, Tank Girl, The Good The Bad and The Queen on August 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

end.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN-The Good, The Bad & The Queen (2007).

goodbad.jpgOnce upon a time, Damon Albarn was just the singer from Blur. This was long before he became a multi-band, genre-hopping, composing man about town. Blur were a fun, poppy band who wrote fun poppy hits and sort of bubbled under in the U.S. until they hit it big with “Song 2” or the Whoo Hoo Song, if you will. I think that “Boys and Girls” or is it “Girls and Boys” from one of their earlier albums was a minor hit here. At least that’s how I first heard of them.

During the nonsensical Blur vs Oasis war that raged all across the world (or at least the UK Music Press), I liked both bands, but was clearly more in the Blur camp. And then one day Damon met up with Jamie Hewlitt who made the great comic Tank Girl, and they formed a great comic band Gorillaz. And boy was it big; even if you don’t count that they were cartoons, they were still huge! (more…)

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Lemony Snicket–Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid (2007)

Posted in Concept Albums, Essays, Funny (strange), Lemony Snicket, The Kids Are Alright on July 31, 2007| 4 Comments »

horseradish.jpg SOUNDTRACK: THE WHO-A Quick One (1966) & Sell Out (1967) & Tommy (1969) & The Kids Are Alright (1979) & Quadrophenia (1973).

When I was in grammar school I loved The Who. I’d say Rush and The Who were the two cornerstones that I built my music appreciation on. Then as I got into more alternative music, I turned my back on classic rock. And, really that was a good thing. Moving away from it allowed my to gain an appreciation for it again now that it is classic to me as well.

Not too long ago, Petra Hayden recorded an all acappella version of The Who Sell Out. It was a pretty outrageous album to make, and I haven’t heard all of it. But I heard some when I was in a store way back when, and it was pretty cool. But what it did was make me want to buy the original Who Sell Out again. And so I did. And then recently, my wife was asking about some Who songs and I realized we only had the big hits on vinyl. So, rather than getting one of their 4,000 greatest hits packages, I invested in the entire reissued back catalog. And I felt like I was 12 all over again. It was amazing to see that I knew these records backwards and forwards, and I hadn’t listened to some of them in nearly 25 years! (more…)

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