I’ve heard the name Raphael Saadiq for years. I’ve seen his name in print in many places. And I always assumed he was a word music artist. I had no idea that he was an R&B artist who was in Tony! Toni! Tone! (a band about which I know nothing except their name).
I’m not a fan of R&B, so I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this Concert very much. But man, it is a great session.
I have to assume that it’s the acoustic guitars (with the amazing guitar work by Rob Bacon) that rein in some of the trappings of R&B which I tend to dislike. But I was also really impressed with how great his voice sounded. Especially knowing that he was in a dance artist (with implied studio trickery), his voice sounds amazing stripped down this way. He plays three songs, “Love That Girl,” “100 Yard Dash,” “Sure Hope You Mean It” and each one is great. I love the way he gets the office to sing along on “Sure Hope You mean It” (even though they’re not ready).
I’m tempted to listen to him in another setting to see what he sounds like outside of a Tiny Desk, but I’m afraid to spoil how much I enjoyed him here.
[READ: January 5, 2014] “Deliverance”
I don’t really know much about Lena Dunham. I know she writes Girls, and is the new It-Girl, but I’ve never seen the show and I’ve read very little else about her. So I didn’t really have any expectations upon reading this.
I learned a bit about her past and her family, but primarily I learned that she and her sister (like so many of us) loved take out food. (more…)
I had been planning on going in reasonable order with the Tiny Desk reviews, but when The Pixies come in, you throw order to the wind and move on.
The Pixies! Holy cow. I saw them many many years ago opening for The Cure (a great show). And I’ve loved everything they’ve done. I was a little less than excited with the reunion (2013 was a little too mcuh with the reunions) and I didn’t love “Bagboy” their first single (but that may have been because Kim Deal wasn’t in the reunion). But I really like the two new songs they play here.
And, as it turns out Paz Lenchantin fills in for Kim Deal’s role quite capably (she plays violin and sings vocals here).
So, yes there are three songs. “Greens and Blues” appears on the new EP2 (I haven’t heard the EPs). It’s a mellow acoustic song (at least in this version) and sound like classic slow Pixies. “Silver Snail” is so new it hasn’t appeared on an album yet. It’s another slow song, but it has that kind of sinister slowness that the Pixies do so well. And then they bust out “Monkey Gone to Heaven” in a mellow acoustic version that is ever so much fun.
It’s pretty great to see them reunited, and I may just have to check out those EPs too.
[READ: January 5, 2014] “Family Meal”
I didn’t realize until reading this essay (one of five on a food related topic), that the “theme” of these essays is “Take Out” (it says it right there at the top of them).
And this may be the most unusual version of food take out I’ve heard of (as the poor delivery boy confirms at the end of the essay).
But, as most good food stories do, this one starts talking about something else entirely. Turns out that Baby T showed up on time for work at the restaurant, but she was bloodied and confused. So Gabrielle took her to the hospital. (more…)
I know of Telekinesis only from NPR. They have a couple of albums out, but I think I only know one song of theirs. And I don’t know it that well. This Tiny Desk features only two members of the band, singer-songwriter Michael Benjamin Lerner and guitarist Chris Staples.
They play four songs in 11 minutes (they are quite brief). The songs all features pretty melodies, and the singer’s gentle voice. The electric guitar is used sparingly and only to play delicate riffs. This works especially well on the first song, “Plankton.” Meanwhile the second song, “Coast of Carolina” has catchy bouncy guitars right from the beginning.
The other two songs are “I Saw Lightning” (which is very sweet) and “Rust” (which is very short). I didn’t love any of the songs and I honestly couldn’t remember them long after listening, but I found myself listening to this show a lot. And I enjoyed the songs each time. I’m curious what the songs sound like not in a Tiny Desk setting.
During the brief interview with them, Lerner says he daydreams about better places when he writes songs and that when he wrote the songs from this album, the studio smelled like Grunge never went away.
[READ: January 5, 2014] “Butter”
I wasn’t expecting another issue with five of this brief essays from writers I know (The October 14 issue had the last batch). I’m not sure how many more issues will have these type of things, and I’m not sure if will review them all. However, there were a few authors I liked in this group. Plus I’m intrigued by the food writing in these essays.
And this first one proved to be such an unexpected topic.
Akhil Sharma grew up in the United States. His older brother had been brain damaged in a swimming accident and his family took on the full responsibility of his recovery . It was pure family loyalty and that loyalty made them all pretend that taking care of him was not an awful task (even though it was). Akhil’s lunch from home often came in the bags that his brother’s medicine came in. And while he was ashamed of this, he also felt it was his duty of loyalty to not be ashamed by this. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto, ON (October 7, 1994).
This show was broadcast on the radio, and indeed, this is an encore broadcast that you can download from Rheostatics Live.
Anyhow, it begins with people raving about the Rheos on the radio. And then the band kicks in. The set is 45 minutes, although I assume the original must have been longer. Why? most of their shows are longer and this feels like it might have some cuts for commercials and whatnot.
They play ten songs, and it’s alike a highlight reel of their earlier music: “Take Me in Your Hand,” “King of the Past,” “Queer,” “California Dreamline,” “Soul Glue,” “Claire,” “Northern Wish.” But it’s also got its far share of goofiness: some improvs and the resolutely silly “Full Moon Over Russia” and “Alomar” (which sounds really tight here). It’s a great set and a great introduction to early Rheos live music.
[READ: January 29, 2014] “My Man Jeremy”
Everyone mostly knows Cera as an actor (who I’ll see in anything). But he’s also a writer. His previous piece in McSweeney’s was very funny. And so is this one. Although now the two published things I’ve read by him were both about being an actor, so maybe its time to broaden the range a bit.
Anyhow, this is basically a set up about text messaging. He opens by explaining that people ask him is he has any funny stories about texting (this part is in italics). Then he tells us this tale about Jeremy. The text messages are written straightforward, with interjected comments by Cera as he “studies” the exchange.
It begins with a text from an unknown number “Sup you coming to this thing?”
Michael writes back. “Hi oops I don’t know this number. I’m Michael, who is this?”
Now, this isn’t especially funny, but it did make me smile to think that anyone would respond to a wrong number this way. At any rate…. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Kingston, ON (July 7, 1991).
Yesterday I wrote a letter to the Rheostatics. In part this was inspired because I just found out that the Rheostatics Live site has added some new concerts for download (and a really fancy one for purchase, which I’m pretty excited about). I thought I had posted about a bunch of the free downloads from Rheostatics Live, but evidently I had only done one or two. And since I’m on an inspired Rheostatics kick, it was time to revisit some of these oldies.
This is the earliest show they have on the site. And it was, until recently, the only one with Dave Clark on drums. (A new set of shows that I haven’t heard yet is from that era as well). I have to admit that I find Dave Clark to be a terribly distracting/borderline really annoying member of the band.
While the Rheostatics songs aren’t “serious,” they are certainly powerful (some of them anyhow). And Dave seems to put all kinds of silly nonsense in them. I don’t mind (and it was probably fun to see live) the goofing between the songs. Like when they begin doing the improv that they call “Jerkin’ Around.” But to interject nonsense during the songs, especially something as intense as “Horses” (which is not great in this rendition anyhow), it’s a major distraction.
This is an otherwise interesting show, as they introduce some “new” songs (ie. ones that would come out on Whale Music). And there are some funny things. Like in the “Green Sprouts” song they throw in some Rush lines (and lines from “Tom Sawyer” in “Jerkin’ Around too). But otherwise this feels like the Dave Clark show. We even get “Dave’s Poetry Moment,” about which, whatever.
The sound quality is good, except for some interruptions in the last two songs and a fade out once Dave asks if someone else can sing “When Winter Comes” because his voice is shot. Overall, this is an interesting historical recording, especially given the era, but it’s not my favorite show to listen to.
[READ: January 29, 2014] “Guy Walks into a Bar”
Simon Rich always makes me laugh. And he often surprises me by making me laugh about things that seem like they couldn’t be funny.
Many years ago in a writing class I wrote a serious story and I ended it with “and then he turned into a bar.” I don’t really know why I threw the lame joke at the end of the story, I think I wanted to see if I could get away with it. (I didn’t). Well this story/joke is based on the old, old joke about a bartender who has a genie and a twelve-inch pianist. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: An open letter to the Rheostatics (2014).
To Dave, Martin, Tim and assorted drummers:
I’ve been a fan of the Rheostatics for a long time. I recall traveling to Toronto from New Jersey back in the 90s and tracking down Introducing Happiness at Sam the Record Man. And then later driving around the Niagara Falls region listening to the strange and wonderful album. I’ve enjoyed all of the subsequent albums.
You were a unique band with a unique sound. I was sad when you split up, even if that meant that now there were three solo projects to enjoy. Of course, there’s been a lot of bands that have broken up, it’s just part of being a fan. But the thing about the Rheostatics breakup is that you three (or four or five or six) have remained friendly. You’ve done a few reunion shows since the breakup, which I think that’s super cool. It’s especially cool because RheostaticsLive tends to post them after a while so that those of us who don’t make the shows can hear them.
I’ve never seen you guys live, and I imagine I never will. And I’m okay with that. What I’m mostly bummed about is that there will be no more new music from you. You put out approximately ten albums (there’s a few miscellaneous things that are hard to qualify). Those records include soundtracks and live albums and all manner of things, so there’s really seven proper albums (the others are great, don’t get me wrong). Anyhow, my gut feeling is that there needs to be some new Rheostatics music. I know you’ve all been doing solo stuff (and I have it), but sometimes the sum is greater, etc.
Clearly I’m getting at that it’s time for a new album from the Rheostatics. Before you scoff, I’m not talking reuniting for a grand tour, or even any tour, I’m not even talking a live show. Heck, I’m not even talking about you guys hanging out for more than a couple weeks. Just an album of new songs. A decade ago it would have been unthinkable that you would get together for the expense of an album without major label support. But now, the cost is so much lower and with your fan base expanding, I assume it would be easy to recoup the expenses.
So what do you say? Since it seems like everyone is still friendly and creative, maybe you can throw some ideas around in the email, see if there’s anything magical happening. Obviously, if there’s nothing there or you just can’t work together, then don’t continue. No one wants to hear a crappy Rheostatics album. But if there’s even a chance that you guys can throw some ideas together and pull out another “Horses,” or “Northern Wish” or “CCYPA,” or holy cow, “King of the Past,” or, hell, anything you’ve done, then it’s absolutely worth it.
I don’t imagine any of you will read this, but maybe if you google yourselves, Tim Vesely, Dave Bidini, Martin Tielli, you’ll see this and think that, yes, dammit, seven records of Rheostatics music is not enough.
Thanks for the music, Paul Debraski.
[READ: January 26, 2014] Worst. Person. Ever.
I told myself that I wanted to read this book before anyone requested it. And I did. In fact, I wanted to finish it before the weekend was up, which I did as well. It’s nice to meet a minor goal.
The last few Coupland books that I read (see last week) were very dark. Since those books, he has broadened his palette somewhat, including writing a children’s book and some more non-fiction. And then we get this. A vulgar, very funny sendup of modern culture. The introduction to the book says that it was based on a short story that he wrote for McSweeney’s #31 called “Survivior.” That story was written in the style known a biji which they described as
Biji is sort of a notebook, which contains legends, anecdotes, scientific notes and local wisdom. Accounts of everyday life mix with travel narratives as well as lists. It is meant to represent a picture of the culture at the time of writing.
I thought that this style was well suited to Coupland, because he includes all of that stuff anyway. And so he has taken that story and fleshed it out into this full novel.
The worst person ever is named Raymond Gunt. He thinks he’s Jason Bourne, but he’s really just a metaphorical extra in a Bourne movie (one who probably gets killed). Gunt is a cameraman working in England. He is divorced. His wife is a raging harpy (at least from his point of view, which is all we see). Since their divorce, she has become wildly successful in television production. He calls in on her at work and she tells him about a job working as a B cameraman on a show called Survival. He knows that the job must suck or she wouldn’t give it to him, but he needs to work. Of course, he is most upset at the thought of having to work with Americans (Americans are majorly abused in this story). Although by its very nature a B cameraman position is not as good as an A cameraman, Ray needs the work, so he agrees to fly to some godforsaken tropical island to watch beautiful people starve and try to have sex with each other.
On his way out of the building he sees a homeless guy. And since Ray is the worst person ever, he kicks him. But the homeless guy is no pushover and he chases after Ray. He catches Ray in an alley and pummels him, ultimately pushing his face into some garbage. The man is Neal and although he acts crazy, he’s actually quite sharp (why he is homeless is not addressed). After forcing Ray to sing the female verses of “Don’t You Want Me,” Neal gives him this sage advice:
“Stop being a cunt to the world and the world will stop being a cunt to you.”
Advice which Ray simply cannot follow.
When ray learns that he needs a personal assistant, um, slave, he immediately thinks of Neal. So he tracks him down, cleans him up and gives him a job. And off they jet to make some TV.
In the course of the book, a series of crazy things–the kind of things only Coupland thinks of–sidetrack them from Ray’s goal. (His real goal is to get laid, naturally). First, it turns out that Neal, despite being homeless, is a total babe magnet. And throughout the story, as he gets cleaner and fresher, he becomes irresistible This, of course, ruins Ray’s plans of bedding hot women. And as Neal gets cleaner, he becomes less and less Rays assistant and more and more Ray’s equal.
They jet to L.A., (he was supposed to be in first class, but was bumped and is super angry). He also gets in trouble with the airport bartender, Lacey, who comes back to haunt him in ways one could never predict. He gets first class seats on the way to Hawaii and he abuses the privilege. Then, because of unforeseen circumstances, they have to stay in Honolulu (with lots of Spam jokes). And because of those unforseen circumstances, they need to recast the show, which means Ray’s wife has to jet down and be around them. And Ray’s wife, Fiona, is delighted to make Ray’s life miserable. Eventually, they head to their intended island and prepare to set up for the show.
In the meantime, the U.S. has decided to destroy the Great Pacific Garbage Patch–in a very imaginative way. And ray is on hand to witness the destruction. This plan causes all manner of trouble with shipping and airplane traffic. Which has the effect of isolating everyone on the Survivor island–causing a literal survival situation.
Raymond Gunt may not be the worst person ever, but he is pretty darn close. He tries to sleep with anyone. He tries to screw over everyone else (but never seems to get anywhere). And he genuinely likes to torment others. And all the while he repeats his mantra, “I consider myself a reasonable enough citizen.” Despite Gunt’s personality, he (or at least the story) is funny enough that you want to keep reading (and maybe even to succeed in some of his designs). And that made this story a major page turner. And it was very funny as well.
Coupland really gets the feel for writing a British story. It doesn’t read like any of his other books and while it’s not full of crazy accents or overt Britishisms, his main character is defiantly not American. As I said, all Americans are fat, sweaty, stupid and prudish in Ray’s mind.
This is also the worst person that Coupland has ever written. He is such an abominable person with an incredibly filthy mouth. The above quote is just one of just many curses in the book. In fact there’s a whole subplot about how prudish Americans are about people saying “fuck” despite their cavalier acceptance of violence and other things (we say friggin, when everyone knows we mean fucking).
I have to assume Coupland had a ton of fun writing this. And it really comes through. I’m also going to guess that a lot of people’ won’t like this book because Gunt is so reprehensible. But if you can get past that, the story is funny, and makes some pointedly humorous observations about a lot of contemporary life. Like “Survival [sic] is a popular reality TV show… You’re either into this show or you’re not. It’s binary.” or “‘Come on Eileen’ was a single in 1982…What’s weird about this song is that it was so huge at the time and now you listen to it and wonder, what the hell was everyone thinking? Well, that’s pop culture for you.” It even has what seem like Wikipedia entries of things throughout in the book (and a YouTube link which is bizarre to see in print).
I really enjoyed this, and I’m thrilled that Coupland has unleashed his inner black humorist.
Watch him talk about the book with Jian Ghomeshi, a great interviewer
SOUNDTRACK: TALLEST MAN ON EARTH-Tiny Desk Concert #26 (September 14, 2009).
I was not aware of The Tallest Man on Earth before hearing him on All Songs Considered. And then WXPN started playing one of his songs, so he became somewhat familiar to me. I have since listened to some of his concerts and this Tiny Desk Concert and I really like him a lot.
So the Tallest Man on Earth is Kristian Matsson, a Swedish folksinger with a great guitar picking style and a deep powerful gritty voice. He plays three songs in this set. “I Won’t Be Found” has wonderful fast guitar picking that contrasts wonderfully with his simple singing melody. It’s a great song. As is “The Gardener” which sounds very different. This one is largely strummed–a bouncy, jaunty strum. It seems to contain the origin of his unusual stage name (or perhaps it just a fun allusion to it).
“Pistol Dreams” has more great finger picking (and reminds me a little of Richard Thompson). It’s a sweet song, and his gruff voice once again provides excellent contrast.
I hope to hear more from The Tallest Man on Earth. Check it out.
[READ: January 30, 2014] “Find the Bad Guy”
This story was surprisingly dark (I don’t think of Eugenides as quite so dark). It starts out with the narrator talking about the house that he and his wife have owned for 12 years. And yet they still haven’t gotten the smell of the previous owners completely out of it. (There’s a nice payoff to this idea later in the story).
But that’s not the point. The point is that he has recently been kicked out of his house—given a restraining order, in fact. But since he knows the plans of his house he knows that he can stand right where he is—just inside the front fence—and know that he’s not too close.
The story has trappings of being current—he plays Words with Friends with his daughter (her name is mrsbieber), which I found to be just slightly out of touch. But that’s irrelevant.
The narrator is Charlie Daniels (not that one—he goes by Charlie D to avoid confusion, especially since he works in music). He met his wife at a radio station. She worked at a country station, although she didn’t like country music. Johanna was from Germany (her name was Lübeck, but everyone pronounced it Lubbock). But the thing about her was that she was very tall (not that tall in Germany, she said). And Charlie D was suave, so he asked her clever things like how the weather was up there and if she ever played basketball. She didn’t fall for this, of course, but then one day she asked if they could get married so she could get a green card. He said sure. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: DARK MEAT-Tiny Desk Concert #25 (August 31, 2009).
For those keeping track, I wrote about Tiny Desk Concert #24 (The Swell Season) quite some time ago.
Dark Meat is a ramshackle band which I had not heard of before this Tiny Desk Concert. The blurb says that they have had as many as 20 people in their band and often play loud rambunctious music. In this Tiny Desk Concert, there are only 8 of them (they have reduced for this tour), but they’re still a huge band for a Tiny Desk.
This concert is an acoustic jam –mandolin, guitars, trombone and piccolo—and is apparently quite different from their usual show. As such, I can’t really imagine what they typically sound like, because they sound like a pretty solid folk band.
Initially I wasn’t all that impressed, but after a couple listens I found myself getting into their sloppy fun folk rock. I enjoyed their first song, “The Faint Smell of Moss” a little more than the others because of the great backing vocals, and the possibly slightly off sounding trombone. The second song, “Dead Man” is long, but it has a fun middle second in which the singer invites the office to sing along (and howl like dogs). “When the Shelter Came’ is a rambling track which I think actually suffers from the trombone at the end.
I don’t know anything else about the band, but I imagine them playing folk festivals. I’ll be they’re fun to see live, although I can admit that i didn’t find their songs all that memorable.
[READ: January 22, 2014] “Benji”
“Benji” is the story of wealth and idleness. As the story opens, we learn that Benji, now 40 years old, is the last remaining male in the family. His mother, Mrs Anyaogu is telling her guest that Benji must choose someone to marry because anyone who remains unmarried, even a man, is suspect at that age.
Then we meet the guest who Benji’s mother is speaking to—a woman named Alare. Alare also got married pretty late—in her thirties–to a man who was about 40. Her husband was not wealthy—he was a gardener. And this was something of a sore subject in their marriage, Of course, he must have also felt the embarrassment of his employment, but that was his lot in life.
Alare and Mrs Anyaogu became friends when Alare’s congregation had disintegrated because of a scandal with the pastor and she joined Mrs Anyaogu’s Deep Life church.
Alare was aware of the wealth that the Anyaogus possessed, but she hadn’t witnessed it until today. While the house was beautiful, she felt that the furnishing were tacky—not entirely, but enough. Nevertheless, the lunch was nice and the food was delicious. The groundskeeper, Godwin, kept the garden beautiful and Benji complimented the man on his loyalty and hard work. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SARAH SISKIND-Tiny Desk Concert #23 (July 27, 2009).
I don’t know much about Sarah Siskind. She is a country-ish singer who seems to have gained some fame once Bon Iver started covering her song “Lovin’s for Fools.” She tells a pretty interesting story about how he came to learn her song (by looping it–thereby missing out on the words to the second chorus. And yes she did wonder why he didn’t play that chorus).
She plays three songs in this Concert. I like her guitar work, especially on the first song, “Falling Stars.” But there’s something about either her voice or her delivery that I just don’t really like. I’ve listened a few times ow and I have grown to appreciate her style, but it’s just a matter of personal taste that I don’t really care for her.
[READ: January 17, 2014] “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”
One thing that I like so much about Alice Munro is that her stories are so timeless. This story was originally published in 1999 (wonder why they didn’t re-publish that first story which I wrote about yesterday), but there are no real indicators of when it was written. (There are some clues to the time frame of the story, but it was clearly not set in the late 90s).
This is a straightforward but fairly complex story, with a lot of emotional heft. A married couple, Grant and Fiona, have been together for a long time. Fiona had always written notes to herself, but Grant sensed recently that the notes were becoming somewhat alarming. Instead of books to read or appointments to keep, she was writing “cutlery” on the kitchen drawers. Then she started forgetting normal things–like how to drive home or that something which she thought had happened last year had actually happened 12 years ago. Not major problems, but causes for concern.
And so, Fiona was sent, at first temporarily, to Meadowlake. And Grant was not to show up for the first month–they found that patients settled in better if they were not reminded of their house and old life. After a month of wondering about her and thinking about her, Grant goes to Meadowlake, excited to see Fiona. But when he arrives she is not in her room–the touching reuniting scene will not be enacted as he pictured. And the nurse seems rather impatient with him when he asks where she is. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: NOBEL PRIZE PLAYLIST-CBC Radio 3 (2013).
In honor of Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize, CBC radio has a playlist of “Literary Music.” Now, I have made many literary playlists over they years myself (including “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors” by Moxy Fruvous which is not included here), but this one consists of a few bands that I don’t know (and two that I do).
Library Voices–“Generation Handclap”
The Darcys–“Pretty Girls”
Kathryn Calder–“Right Book”
AroarA–“#6”
Arkells–“Book Club”
Dan Mangan–“Road Regrets”
John K. Samson–“When I Write My Master’s Thesis”
Samson is the only artist I know well, although I know Dan Mangan a little. It’s a good listen and I’m sure if you scrutinize the lyrics you’ll find their literary worth.
I’ve been a fan of Alice Munro for a while, and I’m always happy to see her in the New Yorker. Strangely, I have never read any of her collected short stories. Maybe some day….
When Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I imagined she’d get a lot more press. And then I realized that it’s a literature prize. And she’s Canadian. So, perhaps a few columns in Canada’s The Walrus is all she’ll get.
But this article, which is really entirely this below letter and a brief introduction, explains that on November 18, 1976, Charles McGrath, a fiction editor at The New Yorker, sent Alice Munro her first acceptance letter from the magazine for her story “Royal Beatings.” Soon after this, she signed a first-reading agreement with the magazine, which I gather means that they will see any of her short stories before she can send them anywhere else.
I am including this letter in its entirety because I assume that most people, like me, have never actually seen an acceptance letter from a magazine for a piece of fiction (I have several rejections). But even if you have seen an acceptance letter, I can’t imagine that it will every be as thoughtful and considerate as this one. i also love that as recent as 1976 The NEw Yorker was kind of prudish about their fiction. I mean, now, the cursing is rampant, but back then the fiction was a more genteel breed.
I have not read “Royal Beatings,” but you can bet I’ve added it to my short list. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RAPHAEL SAADIQ-Tiny Desk Concert #28 (September 28, 2009).
I’ve heard the name Raphael Saadiq for years. I’ve seen his name in print in many places. And I always assumed he was a word music artist. I had no idea that he was an R&B artist who was in Tony! Toni! Tone! (a band about which I know nothing except their name).
I Just Read About That... 