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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Grady Klein–The Lost Colony: Book No. 2 The Red Menace (2007)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Drugs, First Second :01, Grady Klein, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Justin Townes Earle, Racism, Religion, Slavery, Steve Earle, Tiny Desk Concert, Townes Van Zandt, Trampled By Turtles, Unfinished series, Violence on August 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

colony2SOUNDTRACK: JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE-Tiny Desk Concert #389 (September 8, 2014).

 jteI had an idea that Justin Townes Earle was a country singer.  Although I’m sure I’m conflating him with Steve Earle (his father) and Townes Van Zant (whom he’s named after).  But I realized I’d never heard him.  He’s more of a folk singer and he’s very charming.  He implies that he flew from Nashville just to play the show (“a quick trip just for y’all”) which gets an awww from the crowd) and like Trampled by Turtles and Jessica Lea Mayfield, he’s heading back home right after he’s done.  He also had his guitar maker send his guitar to him in DC so he didn’t have to travel with it.

He has an interesting percussive strumming style (he doesn’t use a pick) and he sings about love and loss.  The first song, “Burning Pictures” has a great line about how he doubts you even remember your love’s name since it’s another girl in the picture frame.

“When The One You Love Loses Faith In You” is a bit more bluesy sounding.  He picks some melodic notes between full-fingered strums.

Amazingly, he seems like he might quit after just two songs.  Bob asks him to do one more–doesn’t have to be new–it can be one he loves.  His favorite so that he ever wrote was “White Gardenias” (for Billie Holiday).  He says it feels like he’s about to miss the beat as he’s starts singing–which scares the shit out of a rhythm section.

Before beginning, while tuning, he says he has to learn a lot of his old songs for the upcoming tour.  Bob asks if he listens to the records, and he laughs and says he Googles the songs, which is just so ridiculous.  Bob asks if he illegally downloads them but he says no he just streams them.

“White Gardenias” is a lovely song with beautiful lyrics although I don’t really get that Billie Holiday vibe from it.

[READ: July 22, 2016] The Lost Colony 2

The inside cover of book 2 gives a little summary of book 1 (which is helpful). It also give s little recap of all of the main characters (which all series should do, frankly).

I loved that book 2 also starts with someone asking “where the %#!* are we,” it’s a man and a very large woman.  They also convinced Fud’na (the screeching violin playing guardian of the ferry) to ferry them to the island.  The large woman reveals that she is wearing a  stars and stripes dress which is very tacky.  But more importantly, she is a singer herself (almost as bad as Fud’na perhaps).

As the bok opens, Louis the slave boy is being set upon by the rocks bugs (although we dont know why).  He is recused by Jo’Pa an Indian who lives on the island (it is rumored that he used to be a real savage Injun).  And there’s Birdy, she is dressed as Squinto, compete with feather and bow and arrow.

Then we meet the Snodgrass family and Birdy’s heretofore unmentioned Gramdy, a cantankerous old man (who is her mother’s father). Turns out that Grandy hates the Injuns and is very mad that Birdy is dressed like one. “We’re at war with the Indian, dont you know they’re evil.” (more…)

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Grady Klein–The Lost Colony: Book No. 1 The Snodgrass Conspiracy (2006)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Drugs, First Second :01, Grady Klein, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Racism, Religion, Slavery, Tiny Desk Concert, Trampled By Turtles, Unfinished series, Violence on August 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

colonySOUNDTRACK: JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD-Tiny Desk Concert #388 (September 6, 2014).

jlmI had an idea about who Jessica Lea Mayfield was.  I thought she was sort of a folkie/country singer who I had heard of but had no real exposure to.  So I was quite surprised to see this performer with pink hair, short shorts, no eyebrows and a ton of pink glitter under her eyes.

Turns out that her earlier records are kind of folkie but that for her 2014 album she was inspired by her grunge roots to make a noisy album.  This Tiny Desk concert has her playing three guitars–one for each song.  Each guitar is covered with glitter and one has stickers all over it.  For “Standing in the Dark” she plays her pink glitter 12 string guitar with lots of reverb.  It’s a fairly upbeat song.  The melody is simple and she sounds happy while singing it (this is notable).  The middle section has a solo which sounds really alien by itself (that 12 string with vibrato), but which works really well for the song.

She says she brought all of her guitars because she wanted to show them off.  Her speaking voice is cute and adorable.  And she seems almost childlike asking if “you have any cats” are you allowed to bring them to work.  Bob says that bands have brought their dogs and she says she wishes she’d brought hers.

“Party Drugs” is a slow song with more echo on the guitar.  It’s a slower , darker song “party drugs just make my head sing…  I won’t die in this hotel room, I’ll be here when you return.”  It ends with a dark chord and mildly distorted whammy bar and is rather creepy.

The final guitar is a hollow bodies white guitar.  The stickers on the knobs are ponies.  She says the direction of the ponies tells her how the knobs should go.  There’s a pony, an alien cat and a unicorn “system I got going on.”

“Seein* Starz” is slow chords (with more echo).  Her twangy accent peeks its way in a few times in this song.  I like the way the picking notes are vibrated enough to sound unpredictable.

There’s something really captivating and almost vulnerable (but not really) about her performance.   She says she could stay here and do this all day and show you how loud it usually is.   Bob mentions something about six hours implying that she traveled six hours just to play for them (like Trampled by Turtles did the previous show).

[READ: July 22, 2016] The Lost Colony 1

I read this book last year.  But since I wanted to  read the other two books in the series, I wanted to re-read this before moving on to Books 2 and 3.

My recollection is that I didn’t really like the first book all that much, so I wasn’t prepared to enjoy it this time around either.

But, as it turns out, I really did enjoy it (and I’m not reading wheat I wrote the first time, just to see how this reading compares).  I think perhaps I didn’t really know what I was getting into the first time.  And now with hindsight, and understanding how and when some of the things are supernatural, it made more sense. (more…)

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Jack Vance (adapted by Humayoun Ibrahim)–The Moon Moth (1961–adaptation 2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Carlo Rotella, Etiquette, First Second :01, Fraud, Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Huh?, Humayoun Ibrahim, Jack Vance, Sci-fi, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Trampled By Turtles, Violence on August 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

moonmoth SOUNDTRACK: TRAMPLED BY TURTLES-Tiny Desk Concert #387 (September 3, 2014).

trampleI love the name Trampled by Turtles and it conjures up something very specific in my head.  And a bluegrass folk band is not it.

Although their first song on this set, the super fast “Come Back Home” does rather convey what their name does.  Bluegrass can be fast (often is, in fact) but, man, this song scorches and the violin solos that flow through the song are totally intense.

So I was a little bummed that the next two songs are really mellow ballads.  For “Winners” the band’s harmonies are spot on and I do like the sliding bass line.  In fact all of the instrumentation (mandolin, violin, guitars, bass) is really nice.  And I think if this didn’t follow that first song, I might like it more.  Perhaps they should have ended the set with “Come Back Home.”

Before beginning “Lucy,” they ask if they are doing one more.  Bob says yes unless they want to stay longer.  The singer asks if they’ve got beer and Bob says they can work something out.  The band is not ready to head back to New York yet–they came from New York just to play the Tiny Desk (which elicit’ awww’s from the audience).

“Lucy” opens with some cool staccato strumming.  It too is a pretty song that makes great use of all of their instruments9espeicoally the mandolin).

I have recently begun to enjoy bluegrass a lot more and I could see Trampled by Turtles being a gateway into more bluegrass.  But I need more fast songs like the first one.

[READ: May 10, 2016] The Moon Moth

This First Second graphic novel opens with a lengthy essay called “The Genre Artist” by Carlo Rotella.  In this essay Rotella sings the praises of unheralded genre master Jack Vance (whom I’ve never heard of–which is the point of the essay).  Rotella says that Vance has been described by his peers as “the greatest living writer of science fiction and fantasy.”  He has been writing for six decades and has won many awards.  But this success has mostly kept him in the genre ghetto.  Other writers have suggested that if he was born South of the border he’d be up for a Nobel prize [which is a strange thing to say, in my opinion].

The essay talks about how so many other writers love Vance (and the list of writers who contributed to a tribute volume is impressive). So after all of this hagiography, I expected to be blown away by this story.  And I wasn’t.  Although that might have been because of the illustrations.  The illustrations aren’t bad–they’re not my style, but they’re not bad.  However, the story is fairly complex, or shall I say it may not lend itself to visuals because so much of the beginning is about sound.

Although while I was confused by the beginning of the story (and maybe I’d have been confused if I read it too), by the end, Vance totally sold me on what was happening. (more…)

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Leland Myrick–Missouri Boy (2006)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Drugs, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Leland Myrick, Nostalgia, Romance, Sturgill Simpson, Tiny Desk Concert on August 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

missouriSOUNDTRACK: STURGILL SIMPSON-Tiny Desk Concert #386 (August 30, 2014).

sturgSturgill Simpson is a (relatively) new country singer that everyone seems to want me to like.  I like some of the musical aspects of his new album, but his voice is just too twangy for me. So even if he’s singing about drugs or whatever, it all just sounds country to me.

Simpson is a funny guy though, he says that “Turtles All the Way Down” is a song that everyone is talking about bit no one gets what it is about.  “It’s about drugs.  And other stiff.”  When the song is over he says he was siting on a porch and a friend said,  “Hey man, you ever heard of DMT?” He said “Nope.”  I hadn’t either but evidently that was the inspiration for that song.

“Time After All” is a pretty song with some wicked guitar playing.

“Life of Sin” is a fast song with what I consider a pretty typical country music riff.  Simpson also has a big powerful voice which he uses to good effect here.

He introduces “Water in a Well” by saying he’s gonna do one for the ladies “I’m just bullshitting, they’re all for the ladies.”  It is a nice ballad that goes on pretty long.

I’d like to enjoy Simpson more as he has been experimenting with interesting ideas, but really, I just can’t get past his voice.

[READ: June 5, 2016] Missouri Boy

I genuinely had no idea what this graphic novel would be about.  I was vaguely familiar with Myrick’s work but wouldn’t have been able to pick it our. Although after reading this I see that his artistic style is quite distinct and his drawings of himself and his father from back in the 1980s are really affecting and powerful.

The overall story of this book is quite simple (and brief) and is done in short episodes.

It begins with the narrator’s birth in 1961.  On the day that he and his twin were born, his grandmother died. (more…)

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Langhorne Slim (Live at Musikfest, Sands Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, Bethlehem, PA, August 14, 2016) [THE AVETT BROTHERS]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, James Cavanaugh, Kississippi, Langhorne Slim, Musikfest, The Avett Brothers on August 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 14, 2016] Langhorne Slim

2016-08-14 19.00.02 I had planned to go to Musikfest early on Sunday to catch Kississippi who I missed at XPNFest.  But as soon as our child care plans fell through, I knew that that early show was out the window–missed them yet again.  I wasn’t even sure if I’d get there in time to see Langhorne Slim, but he went on a few minutes later than scheduled, which worked out perfectly for me.

I didn’t know Langhorne at all.  I thought he was a country singer but he’s more folkie, which I liked.  And he’s from New Hope, PA which makes us practically neighbors.

Musikfest had been plagued by thunderstorms this year.  Earlier shows had been cancelled or cut short because of them.  And like the other nights’ forecasts were mixed–from 0% to 100% chance of thunderstorms during the show.  I arrived just as Langhorne was coming out on stage and he introduced The Avett Brothers.  Scott and Seth sang a fun and spirited rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” to try to keep the rain away and it pretty much worked.

Langhorne joked that that was the last we’d see of The Avett Brothers that night.  And then he proceeded to play a number of songs just him and his guitar. (more…)

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T. Coraghessan Boyle–“Thirteen Hundred Rats” (New Yorker, July 7 & 14, 2008)

Posted in Chris Thile, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Nickel Creek, Rats, Sara Watkins, Snakes, T. Coraghessan Boyle, T.C. Boyle, Tiny Desk Concert, Yuck! on August 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

july7 SOUNDTRACK: NICKEL CREEK-Tiny Desk Concert #385 (August 26, 2014).

nickelI have listened to this Tiny Desk Concert so many times I can’t believe I never posted about it. This was my first exposure to Chris Thile, and in the two years since I watched this I have become a huge fan of his (and of singer Sara Watkins).

“Destination” was probably my favorite song from 2014 and is still amazingly catchy.  Nickel Creek’s harmonies are superb-lead by Sara and accompaniment by the other three, this song speeds along at a great clip with all kinds of fun instrumentation.

In addition to Thile on mandolin and Sara on violin, there’s Sean Watkins on guitar and Mark Schatz on upright bass.

I liked the way the players shifted positions to let Chris sing lead on “Rest of My Life.”  He introduced this song by saying, “this is the first day that I will be singing with my new braces.  I am 12 years old.”  With his new singing impediment he says this song is “Sung not as a its hungover protagonist but by its be-brace-ed protagonist.”   The melody is done on guitar and upright bass with Thile’s mandolin playing most of the higher notes and occasional grace notes from Watkins’ violin.  There’s also a delightful “lullaby” sounding  section in the middle.

“21s of May” is sung by Sean.  He introduces this jaunty song with “Remember when the rapture almost happened three years ago?”  May 21st was supposed to be judgement day so he thought he should write one more song and so he did.  He plays a great lead guitar melody on this song with great harmonies.

At the end of the song Thile bangs the gong and then asks if they want one more short song.  Then he admits that its longer than the other three.  It’s an instrumental song called “Elephant in the Corn.”  When the crowd cheers, Sean says it’s “Huge in Washington DC.”

I love that Chris and Sean get some fast solo and then Sara take as really slow violin leads that leads to a cool bass slide.  The song picks up again with Thile playing some amazingly fast mandolin licks.  And just when you think it’s all over, there’s a coda tacked on as well–and not just a “this is the end coda” either.

Nickel Creek has been around forever, and I’m only bummed that it took me until 2014 to actually hear them.

[READ: February 26, 2016] “Thirteen Hundred Rats”

Somehow I didn’t expect the title of this story to be taken literally.  And yet, it most certainly was.

I really enjoyed the way this story was constructed.  It is told by a man who is somewhat proud of himself.  He talks about the small village that they live in–a small village of 50 or so houses created by industrialist B.P. Newhouse (who hoped it would be a model of utopian living).  The narrator and his wife live there although they tend to travel the world now that they are older.

He tells the story of a village resident named Gerard.  He and Gerard had been friends and had congratulated themselves on not having any children.  Gerard’s wife had recently died and Gerard took it hard.  He wasn’t eating, wasn’t going out.  And people began to worry about him.

Villagers suggested that he should get a pet.  Even the narrator’s wife suggested it.  So the narrator trudged down to Gerard’s house, with his two dogs in tow to talk to Gerard. (more…)

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Karen Russell–“The Prospectors” (New Yorker, June 8 & 15, 2015

Posted in Death, Depression, Karen Russell, New Yorker, Rodrigo Amarante, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, WPA on August 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

june9SOUNDTRACK: RODRIGO AMARANTE-Tiny Desk Concert #384 (August 23, 2014).

rodrigoI hadn’t heard of Rodrigo Amarante before this Tiny Desk Concert.  The photo of him–heavily bearded with a tiny guitar, simply didn’t prepare me for the beautiful rich voice this singer has.

Amarante is from Rio de Janeiro but now lives in Los Angeles (and has no discernible accent).  That tiny guitar is a ‘Harmony parlor guitar from the ’30s, known lovingly as “Butter.”‘

He plays four simply gorgeous songs (only marred slightly by the fact that he has to clear his throat a bunch of times).  Two songs are in English, one is in French and the fourth is in Portuguese.

The opening humming notes of “The Ribbon” are just beautiful and sound so lovely with “Butter” playing along.  When he starts singing, you simply get sucked into his warm enveloping voice.

“Mon Nom” is sung in French and the soft sound of the French sounds even better as he sings.  (Coincidentally, this song contains the word Aubergine, and a woman named Aubergine is the main character of today’s story).

Before the third song, he says he’s not used to these songwriter stools but declines a change.  “I’m Ready” sounds rather different from the other song in English.  He doesn’t sing radically different, but there’s something in his phrasing that changes the tone of the song.  I believe the end of the song is sung in Portuguese.

The final song, “Nada Em Vão” is sung entirely in Portuguese.  Before the song Bob asks if this is the most unusual place he’s played in, and he says he would “like to say yes….”  This song is much more quiet and subtle.  It’s also quite lovely.  And the way it ends is kind of a surprise too.

Amarante is a real find and seems like a super nice guy too. At the end of the show he stretches and says that it’s a nice way to start my day.

[READ: February 15, 2016] “The Prospectors”

I haven’t read much from Russell before so I was really surprised by a lot of things in this story.

It opens with a woman, Aubergine, on a chairlift riding up the side of a mountain.  The woman and her friend Clara were expecting to go to a party at the peak.  The two women had met a man calling himself Eugene de la Rochefoucauld.  They had waited for Eugene at the bottom of the chairlift for an hour, then (after dubbing him Mr No-Show) they set up the chairlift by themselves.

Imagine my surprise to find out a few paragraphs in that they are heading up Mt. Joy, the miracle of the New Deal.  This story is set in WPA times, and they are going up the mountain to see the beautiful new hotel. (more…)

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John Updike–“The Full Glass” (New Yorker, May 26, 2008)

Posted in Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, John Updike, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pacifica Quartet, Psycho, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on August 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

tny 5.26.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: PACIFICA QUARTET-Tiny Desk Concert #383 (August 18, 2014).

pacificaIn this Tiny Desk Concert, the Pacifica Quartet explore the world of a single composer, Dmitri Shostakovich.  They will play three movements from different Shostakovich quartets

The quartet consists of Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson on violins, Masumi Per Rostad on viola and Brandon Vamos on cello.

I’m going to quote a ton from the NPR blurb because they know from what they speak.  But I’m going to chime in that these pieces are really cool.  I like Shostakovich, but haven’t really devoted a lot of time to him. His music seems at times playful and at other times very dark.

In the first piece I love how that three note motif recurs in different places and then the piece turns into a delicate pizzicato section.

The second piece is so light-hearted as it starts–pastoral and lovely.  But there hangs a slightly menacing version of that pastoral riff.  I especially enjoyed watching the cellist bow aggressively.  It goes a little crazy towards the end but somehow remains upbeat.

The final piece plays off of the notes of Shostakovich’s initials (they explain all about this in the intro and what the S and H are in terms of musical notes).  It’s amazing to think that these different parts play with those four notes in a different way.  It’s an intense piece and reminds me a bit of Psycho.

From the blurb [with my comments in brackets]:

With the arguable exception of Béla Bartók’s six string quartets, it’s generally accepted that the 15 by Dmitri Shostakovich are the strongest body of quartets since Beethoven….  The Shostakovich quartets are intense, like page-turning thrillers, as they pull you into his world. They are dark and introspective, witty and sarcastic, and stained with the Soviet-era violence and hardship the composer lived through.

Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108 (1960) Allegretto
Eerie pizzicato and piercing stabs in the violins help color the twitchy, even sinister, opening movement of the Seventh Quartet. Stalin might have been dead since 1953, but hard-line Soviet politics (including the violent suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising) were still in place. The music’s lightness and transparency create a crepuscular feel.

Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73 (1946) Allegretto
The Third Quartet’s first movement looks back to a slightly more pleasant time before World War II. At one point Shostakovich considered a subtitle: “Calm unawareness of the future cataclysm.” The jaunty opening theme, like Haydn after a few beers [now that is a hilarious line], is among the most lighthearted in the 15 quartets. But the mood sobers with an intense double fugue before returning to the opening music and a flashy final page.

Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 (1960) Allegro molto
The Eighth Quartet is Shostakovich’s most popular — and one of his most hair-raising. He dedicated it to victims of fascism and war while at the same time creating his own epitaph. The entire quartet is built on a foundation of four notes that spell out his first initial and the first three letters of his last name [watch in the beginning of the piece as they demonstrate these notes]. The second movement juxtaposes violent energy with a tweaked version of a Jewish folk theme from an earlier work.

[READ: February 27, 2016] “The Full Glass”

I never understand how the New Yorker selects what it will publish each week.  Sometimes authors can go for years without a piece and sometimes they can go just a couple of months.  Such is the case with 2008 where there have been many duplicate authors in the span of a few months.  Updike’s last story in the magazine was in January of 2008–that’s barely five months.

Anyway, this story is written from the point of view of a man turning eighty.

He talks about retiring from his job as a wood floor re finisher in Connecticut.  He’s admitting he is his age and is taking a ton of pills every day and what not.

And he reflects on a many things in his life.  Like the bliss of a cold glass of water.  He hates the thought of drinking 8 glasses a day, but a cold glass at night is wonderful [I concur]. (more…)

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Julian Barnes–“East Wind” (New Yorker, May 19, 2008)

Posted in Irene Diaz, Julian Barnes, Natalie Merchant, New Yorker, Romance, Sex, Short Story, Swimming, Tiny Desk Concert on August 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

jean-jacques-sempe-the-new-yorker-cover-may-19-2008 SOUNDTRACK: IRENE DIAZ-Tiny Desk Concert #380 (August 9, 2014).

iremeVirtually no infomation is given about Diaz in the blurb for her Tiny Desk Concert.

“My Sweetest Sin” opens as a one minute acapella song before she sits down at the piano and is accompanied by Carolyn Cardoza strumming away intently on ukulele for “Crazy Love.”  Her voice sounds lovely by itself but it sounds even richer when accompanied by the spare instrumentation.

“Lover’s Sway” goes through several genres.  It opens with a jaunty showtune vibe and then slows down for the verses.  And then indeed it gets jaunty once again, in a very different way.

For the final song, “I Love You Madly” she switches to guitar.  She says it was her first love song because she used to write a lot of depressing songs.  This is a pretty, mellow song and she at times sounds a bit like a country singer and a bit like Natalie Merchant.  It’s a little too slow and long for my tastes, but it is very pretty.

Diaz is quite a talent with a nice range of styles.

[READ: February 24, 2016] “East Wind”

This is the story of Vernon, who had moved to an unspecified busy waterfront town just a few months earlier.  A recent spate of vandalism had caused some beach huts to be burned down.  The town was horrified, but he didn’t mind so much because it improved his view to the sea.

He is sitting in a restaurant, and when the waitress asks if he’s done he replies with the cryptic, “All the way from the Urals.” When the waitress is understandably confused he says that’s where the wind comes from.

The waitress, a strong-looking woman, pronounces it Oorals.  He assumes she is Eastern European, perhaps Polish.  He jokes with her that they should o for a swim.  She replies, no swim, although he hadn’t actually meant it.

He became a regular there.  And on another occasion he said to her that they should run away and live in a beach hut.  “I do not think,” she replied.  But then he asked her out and she said yes. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Letting Go” (New Yorker, May 5, 2008)

Posted in Cigarettes, Consumerism, David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Neurotics, New Yorker, The Family Crest, Tiny Desk Concert on August 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may5SOUNDTRACK: THE FAMILY CREST-Tiny Desk Concert #379 (August 4, 2014).

familycerstI first heard The Family Crest on this Tiny Desk Concert back in 2014 and I immediately fell in love with them.  I received their album for Christmas, and it’s quite fantastic.

The band plays a wonderful mix of over the top chamber prog rock mixed with healthy doses of jazz.

There are seven people in the band, which is centered around guitarist and (amazing) vocalist Liam McCormick.  Their instruments include violin, cello, upright bass, flute, trombone, drums, and guitar but this band rocks hard (and McCormick can wail like the best of them).

The set begins with the jaw dropping “Beneath The Brine” which opens with a great cello riff and is quickly accompanied by violin and flute.  When the full band kicks in, grace notes are added to the riffs to really fill out he song (from the flute and the drums) and it builds until Liam starts singing.  His voice is powerful and strong with a great sense of melody.  The drums, by the way are playing wonderful jazzy patterns and accents.  But it’s around 2:30 that Liam shows just what he can do with his voice as he hits some amazingly powerful high notes.  As the song romps to an end, you can hear all of the instruments adding to the music before the final quite coda.  It’s fantastic.

“Howl” is inspired by jazz.  Liam was trained in opera (which explains a lot) and the band is full of classical fans, so he was excited to add Charlie the jazz drummer “hey man wanna listen to Miles David and drink whiskey?”  The song opens with a big trombone riff before settling into a snappy jazz song.  This song has a number of loud and quiet moments that work well together.  It’s even got a great “ba ba ba ba ba ba” section that is fun to sing along with.

 They ask “one more?”  And Bob says “or stay all day.”  So they play the final song, “Make Me a Boat.”  If you can forgive the little GoPro ad, it’s neat that this relatively unknown band has been embraced by the camera company.  “Make Me a Boat” doesn’t seem like the most obvious choice for a video since the beginning is kind of slow, bit the middle section is really pretty and has a great flowing feel that would work well with a video.  And in this live version Liam does some great improv singing of powerful high notes that really flesh out the melody which the rest of the is playing (no wonder he’s so sweaty by the end).

The album fleshes out the orchestral sense of the band with a 30 piece orchestra which makes these songs even more grand.  The Family Crest was a great find.

[READ: February 22, 2016] “Letting Go”

Sedaris is one of the funniest writers when the topic is smoking.  He is (or was, I suppose) and inveterate smoker.

And I love that he starts the essay with this paragraph:

When I was in fourth grade, my class took a field trip to the American Tobacco plant in nearby Durham, NC.  There we witnessed the making of cigarettes and were given free packs to take home to our parents. I tell people this and they ask me how old I am, thinking, I guess, that I went to the world’s first elementary school.

He starts this essay talking about how much he hated smoking when he was a kid.  His mother smoked all her life and he just hated it.  Not the smoke so much but the smell–he found it depressing “the scent of neglect.”

Of course then he started smoking himself.  He talks about trying to decide which brand to use–the brand you chose was a statement back then.  He chose Viceroy.  And he started smoking them when he was in Vancouver. (more…)

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