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Archive for the ‘Otessa Moshfegh’ Category

Otessa Moshfegh–“Brooklyn” (New Yorker, June 8 & 15, 2020)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Books about writers, Drinking, Essays, Kawabata Makoto, New Yorker, Otessa Moshfegh, 河端一 on June 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

june8SOUNDTRACK: KAWABATA MAKOTO [河端一]–Gesseki No Sho [月跡の焦] (1998).

a2609153540_16Recently, Kawabata Makoto [河端一], mastermind behind Acid Mothers Temple, revealed a new bandcamp site for some newer solo recordings.

This is Kawabata Makoto’s 1st Sarangi solo album.  The sarangi is  a bowed Indian instrument.

Esoteric acoustic works that conceal a sense of magic and chaos akin to that of Toho Sara.

1.Kimi Ga Chi O Mote 君が血を持て (21:06)  is a lengthy improv piece of high bowed notes– a lot of scratchy sounds or as my daughter put it, is that someone screaming?

2.Kusa Shinobu 草しのぶ (18:21) is more percussive, with him apparently banging on the sarangi to produce chords.  It’s a cool effect.  After about 3 minutes, he starts plucking the strings and then the bowing begins.  There’s moments of scratching and scraping as he explores all aspects of this instrument.

[READ: June 9, 2020] “Brooklyn”

This issue of the New Yorker has four one-page essays called “Close Encounters.”  Since I like all of the authors, I was looking forward to reading them all.

I have really enjoyed Moshfegh’s stories.  But there is very little that is less interesting than reading about somebody drinking a lot.

In 2006, evidently Moshfegh was a chronic alcoholic.  She went out with friends and drank.  She found their company lacking (as I am sure they felt about her as well) so she went out and drank some more. (more…)

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Otessa Moshfegh–“An Honest Woman” (New Yorker, October 24, 2016)

Posted in Cayucas, Drinking, Feminism, Field Recordings, NPR/PRI/PBS, Otessa Moshfegh, Sexism, The Beach Boys, Weezer, Yuck! on October 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CAYUCAS-“High School Lover” (Field Recordings, May 9, 2013).

Five clean-cut California dudes, wearing sunglasses, sitting buy the pool.

This image calls a certain band to mind, but this is not that band.  This is Cayucas (whom I have never heard of).  For this Field Recording [Cayucas: Sunlight In Song Form], the five piece was filmed at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs.

Rather than super catchy melodies and lovely harmonies, Cayucas sings “laconic pop-rock.”

Sitting poolside on a picnic table, the band performed its bittersweet single “High School Lover” with only an acoustic guitar and light percussion for accompaniment. In any form, the song isn’t all sunshine — its youthful nostalgia gets filtered carefully through the prism of regret — but this performance is plenty bright, as Cayucas’ members locate their best-known song’s laid-back heartbeat. “High School Lover” provides a perfect soundtrack to the shimmery leisure that surrounds the band on all sides here. But it also leaves room on the agenda for hints of sadness and sunburn.

I don’t know what their recordings sound like, but this stripped down version is certainly low-key, bordering on uninspired–particularly the “heys” at the end.  It sounds like a Weezer outtake.

Although the guy dancing is certainly an enjoyable visual component.

[READ: January 4, 2017] “An Honest Woman”

I found this story to be more irritating than anything else.

I think that’s maybe the point?  But I was sort of annoyed by it the whole time.

Simply put, this is the story of an old man hitting on a young woman who has moved in next door to him.  It’s told from the point of view of the old man.  And yet he is shown as pretty much the predator right from the start.  I had no sympathy for him at all.  And again, I assume that’s the point, right?  If there was meant to be any empathy for the guy, it did not come through at all.

Having said that, this story was just frustrating.  Jeb is an old man (he used to be a redhead but is now white-haired).  He lies in a small house with a dirt backyard.

Next door a young woman moves in.  She had a guy living with her, but he hasn’t been around for a while.  So Jeb makes his move. (more…)

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Otessa Moshfegh–“The Beach Boy” (New Yorker, January 4, 2016)

Posted in Death, Joy Division, Marriage (Happy), Nada Surf, New Yorker, Otessa Moshfegh, Regrets, Revenge, Short Story, Travel, Vacation on January 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-Live in Brussels (2010).

This album was recorded while Nada Surf was touring their Let Go album.  This particular show was recorded at the AB Club in Brussels 31st March 2003.

This is a great live recording–the band Matthew Caws on guitar/vocals, Daniel Lorca on bass and Ira Elliot on drums–sounds terrific and the recording quality is excellent.  They added a keyboard for “Blonde and Blonde” but otherwise it’s just the trio.

They play nine songs from Let Go (not in sequence).  Those are mixed with four from Proximity Effect and three (including “Popular”) from their debut.

There’s some mild distortion on the guitars but the bass and drums are very clean.  Caws’ voice might be a tad loud in the mix, but since his voice sounds great, it’s fine.  They don’t deviate too much from the recorded versions–a few drums fills here and there near the ends of songs.

The most notable differences are on the songs from high/low which sounded a bit different from their “newer” sound.  “Stalemate, for instance, is far more up tempo, but less heavy.  The biggest surprise comes during this song when they seamlessly shift into a verse and chorus of (a very mellow) “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”

*from Let Go, **from Proximity Effect % from high/low

*”Blizzard of ’77”       *”Killian’s Red”              **”Bacardi”
*”Treading Water”     *”Hi-Speed Soul”         %”Stalemate”
%”Icebox”                   *”Happy Kid”               **”Robot”
**”Amateur”           *”Fruit Fly”      *”Blonde on Blonde”
*”Inside of Love”         **”80 Windows”         %”Popular”
.                                                                  *”The Way You
Wear Your Head”

Caws speaks rather good French (I guess) and does all of his announcements in French.  I enjoyed that before “Popular” he says the song is “tres, tres, tres sarcastique.”  I’m only mildly surprised they didn’t play “Là Pour Ça.”

I was amused at how “rushed” or “weird” “Popular” sounded.  Then I saw in the liner notes (the advantage to mp3s) that Caws says, during a previous performance in Brussels, “on a lark, we invited whoever wanted to get up onstage and join us at the end of the show.  Apparently, some members of that audience were a this AB show and decided to do it again during ‘Popular.’  We apologize for our slightly abstract performance of that song and the one after it.”

I have tickets to see them in March and I’m really excited about it.

[READ: March 25, 2016] “The Beach Boy”

I found this story to be very engaging and somewhat surprising.

It begins with friends meeting for dinner.  They are in Manhattan and there are three couples.  One of the couples–the protagonists–have just come back from a vacation celebrating their twenty-ninth anniversary.  They were at an (unspecified) island and everyone is asking them all about it.  Was it safe?  Was it worth it?

Marcia says the beaches were beautiful and the sunsets were better than any painting.  But then she speaks of the political situation and the beggars.  And there were the prostitutes–male prostitutes, called Beach Boys.  The women wanted to know about the beach boys–what they looked like and what they said.

Then they talked about the feral monkeys (and the one who stole John’s pen). (more…)

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Otessa Moshfegh–“Measure for Measure” (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Excerpt, Harper's, Otessa Moshfegh, Paul Simon, Prison, Scott Mulvahill, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: SCOTT MULVAHILL-“Begin Againers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

beginLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Mulvahill is a double bassist, and his double bass sounds outstanding.  He slides notes, he plays chords, and he keeps up a really fun, jazzy riff.

He also slaps the strings which provides some percussive sounds.  One of the nice features of this song is that he keeps playing a low open note so the song never sounds empty.   And that’s all there is to the song–just his voice and his bass (and a proper verse/chorus structure of course).

The song s(and his voice) reminds me of a kind of stripped down Paul Simon song. It’s not really my thing, though and I wouldn’t choose to listen to it a lot, but I love his bass sound and I think the song itself is really good.

[READ: February 16, 2016] “Measure for Measure”

This is an excerpt from Moshfegh’s novel Eileen.

This excerpt (and presumably the whole book) is about a woman who I assume is anorexic  She doesn’t eat and seems to relish in her boniness.

I took such poor care of myself. I knew I should drink water, eat healthful foods, but I didn’t like to drink water or eat healthful foods. I found fruits and vegetables detestable, like eating a bar of soap or a candle.

She is reflecting back on her younger days when at 24 she was considered a spinster and had indeed had only one kiss from a boy when she was 16.  It was a prom date that had gone rather awry–she wound up biting him on the neck (and can’t recall is she drew blood).

She concludes the memory by saying “He’s probably dead..Most people I know are dead.” (more…)

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