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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Chris McDonald–Rush, Rock Music and the Middle Class (2009)

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Ayn Rand, Black Sabbath, Books about music, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Chris McDonald, Dreams, Essays, Fables, Fantasy, Geddy Lee, History, Kiss, Neil Peart, Research, Rush, The Walrus, Universities on March 23, 2010| 6 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Caress of Steel (1975).

Despite the fact that this album is largely considered a failure, it’s one of my favorite Rush albums.  There’s so much weirdness about it that I can see why it isn’t terribly popular but there’s so much goodness that it makes me a bit bummed that some glorious tracks are overlooked.

It opens with the one track people know from the disc: “Bastille Day,” a rough raw rocker that is heavy and really sets the tone for the first side of the disc. The heavy heavy riff is reminiscent of Black Sabbath and other early metal pioneers.  I also learned that they were touring with Kiss around this time, so maybe that’s where they got some of their heavy riff ideas from. I of course cannot imagine Rush and Kiss touring together.  That must have been a real trip.

The second song, the amusing “I Think I’m Going Bald” is rather obvious, especially the way he delivers the title line, but man the guitar solo just rocks and rocks and rocks.  “Lakeside Park,” a real location outside of Toronto is a gentle tribute to youth.   This quote amuses me no end, and is something I just read about.

The first real highlight for me is “The Necromancer,” a wacked out 12-minute mini epic.  It opens with a spoken word introduction, setting the tale of three travelers fording a river. The first part is pure psychedelia, with screaming guitars going from ear to ear.  The second part is heavy with a slow pounding riff and Geddy’s screamed vocals  It features a long headphone-happy guitar solo.  And just when you think it’s over, there’s some crazy sound effects and, yes more guitar soloing.

The third and final movement sees the return of By-Tor from “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.”  By-Tor is now a good guy and he scares off the Necromancer.  I always enjoyed playing this part on the guitar as the chord progression is really pretty.

Side Two is one song, a full side, their first proper epic. Called “The Fountain of Lamneth” it focuses on a man’s quest for this elusive Fountain.  It has six parts.  The first, “In the Valley” is a pretty, acoustic ballad that expands into a loud rocker.  It introduces our anonymous narrator, and by the end its sets the tone with a loud/quiet explanation of his satisfaction and dissatisfaction with his life.

It’s followed by the insane “Didacts and Narpets” (Teachers and Parents (anagram on Narpets).  It’s just drums and shouting.  Evidently it’s designed to show a young man fighting with teachers and parents, and sure why not.  It’s pretty out there, but it’s only 90 seconds long.  (I’ve always enjoyed it).

The middle sections are really quite mellow.  More of that beautiful classical guitar that Alex does so well.  The songs don’t remain mellow the whole time, with “No One at The Bridge” adding some loud aggressive bits.  But “Panacea” stays quite mellow, with some beautiful guitar harmonics.  The next bit, “Bacchus Plateau” is a really pretty song despite its ultimately downer message, and probably could have been a hit if tit weren’t part of  20 minute song..

The song ends with him finding the fountain.  And yet rather than rejoice, he’s exhausted.  But I’ve always enjoyed the “message” of the song: “Life is just a candle but the dream must give it flame.”  It’s inspirational and depressing at the same time.  It ends with a reprise of the opening acoustic bit. It’s a tidy song and a wonderful first attempt at an epic track.

The only reason I’m surprised this didn’t sell well is that it works so well as a trippy 70s disc, ideal for sitting around with headphones on in one of those round chairs.  I assume its the heaviness that turned away fans of Pink Floyd and the like.  And, well, probably the downer message and really weird title of the disc (what does Caress of Steel mean anyhow?) might have had something to do with it.

[READ: March 10, 2010] Rush, Rock Music and the Middle Class

I read about this book in an article from The Walrus. And I thought to myself, it’s geeky enough to love Rush, but how about reading an academic treatise about Rush? I’m so there.

Well, I haven’t really read a truly academic (as in published by a University Press) book in a while, but it didn’t take too long to get back in the swing of things.  Plus, if I may be so bold, ethnomusicology seems like a lot more fun than philosophy.

As the subtitle implies, this book looks at Rush as music for the middle class.  The only thing I had a hard time with the book was the definition of middle class.  It is specifically aimed at a U.S./Canadian middle class (although the UK does enter into it too), and with all of the definitions thrown around, middle class seems very broad.  The easiest breakdown to see was based on employment and the most prominent type of employment among Rush fans was “professional” (including librarians and IT people).  So, evidently I am middle class.  I only say this because for the most part classes are hidden in the US (they aren’t, of course, but there are many attempts to try to keep them hidden).

This concept of class obviously pervades the entire book.  But before we get too hung up on that, we must not forget that the real focus of the book: the music of Rush. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 9] The Part About The Crimes (3 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Big Books, Blue Öyster Cult, bolanobolano.com, Death, Foreign Books, Infinite Zombies, Joe Satriani, Natasha Wimmer, Prison, Raising Arizona, Record Labels, Roberto Bolaño, The Doors, Toilets, Translation, Translators, Violence, Yuck! on March 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Imaginos (1988).

I think of this as the last BOC album (although they have released two since this one) because it was the last one that I was really aware of when it came out.  My roommate Glen was super excited about it and we listened to it all the time.  And even though I’ve said that Fire of Unknown Origin is my favorite BOC disc, I think this one may be better.

The story behind this disc is convoluted and strange.  It was apparently written by Albert Bouchard as a concept album that was designed to be 2 or 3 discs long.  He had started writing it as long ago as 1972.  Two tracks appeared in 1974 (“Astronomy” and “Subhuman” (which became “Blue Öyster Cult” on Imaginos).

Because record labels suck, the disc never got released as intended.  I’m not sure if it was ever even recorded in total.  When Imaginos was finally released in 1988, it no longer resembled the original and the liner notes are not exactly accurate about who plays what.

The concept behind the disc (and the original liner notes do explain the “concept”) is pretty confusing (for a summary, the Wikipedia entry is pretty helpful).

But if the released tracks are any indication, the whole package would have been amazing.  The songs retain the feel of the early 70s tracks, but they also feel updated to a more 80’s metal sound.  “I am the One You Warned Me Of” is a great rocking opener with wonderful use of keyboards.  What really sells the disc is the choral vocals, chanting/chorusing/adding incredible depth.  The “your master is a monster” part of “In the Presence of Another World” is fantastic.

But the centerpiece is undoubtedly, “The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein’s Castle at Weisseria.”  The lyrics, the tension, the call and response are all fantastic.  It is one of the most unheralded hard rock songs ever.  And it deserves a wider audience.

We get a 14 year reprise of the classic “Astronomy,” this one is basically the same song but played differently, more epic.  I’m always torn as to which version I like better.  “Magna of Illusion” has a fun spoken part, “Grandaughter!”  and continues the excellence of side two.

“Blue Oyster Cult” the remake of “Subhuman,” keeps the strangeness of the song (“Ladies, Fish and Gentlemen”), but sounds quite a bit different.  It’s almost meandering on the original disc, a slow guitar solo and a Doors-sounding keyboard fill the track.  On the Imaginos version, it’s much heavier, and the keyboard is a staccato piano.  It’s also three minutes longer with the chanted “We understand. Blue Oyster Cult.”  It’s almost unrecognizable, and yet those lyrics are unmistakable.  The title track ends the disc with a catchy and cool riff and chorus.

There’s also a whole bunch of guests listed in the notes, including Robby Krieger, Also Nova (!) and Joe Satriani.

Imaginos was reissued recently but I’m not sure if it’s worth getting as it has no bonus anything on it (except corrected liner notes).  The original recording sounds pretty poor (at least compared to other contemporary discs) but I’m holding off for the proper reissue (will we ever see the whole project?) that this disc deserves.

[READ: Week of March 15, 2010]  2666 [pg 466-513]

This week’s reading is the shortest amount for the entire book.  It offers some new ideas and lots more deaths.

As the reading opens, Epifanio is continuing his investigation into the murder of Estrella Ruiz Sandoval.  He tracks down two of her friends, both named Rosa (although neither is a Rosa that we have met before).  After hanging around with Rosa for some time (and even going to her house) he learns that Estrella had been frequenting a computer shop owned by a blond blond man.  Lately, he had grown angry with her.

The Santa Teresa police decide that there is one man behind the grisly unsolved murders (they focus specifically on the three women who have been brutalized in the same manner (don’t make me write it). And they discuss whether or not he is a serial killer.  One argues that the serial killer is responsible just for the three recent deaths (that the others were done by someone else, but because they didn’t match the pattern, it can’t be the same guy).  Another proposal is that the same man is responsible for all of the killings.  But now, he is upping his gruesomeness because he feels cocky. (more…)

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Kim Dong Hwa–The Color of Water (2009)

Posted in 19th Century, Blue Öyster Cult, First Second :01, Foreign Books, Graphic Novel, Kim Dong Hwa, Manhwa, Nature, Romance, Trilogy, YA Books on March 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE OYSTER CULT-Club Ninja (1986).

My roommate Glen is the only person that I know who not only owned this record but also played it a lot.  No doubt it was his relentless playing of this disc that now leads me to think of it rather fondly, even if it is pretty poorly regarded as far as BOC discs go.

It has a very poppy/80’s metal feel to it, there’s no denying.  Some of the songs are beautiful keyboard-rich tracks (“Perfect Water” which is close to cheesey but I don’t think ever crosses the line), some of them are pummeling 80s metal with chanted choruses “Make Rock Not War” (boom), and “Beat ‘Em Up” (which is as delightfully silly as it sounds).

It also featured a song that could have been a hit called “Dancing in the Ruins.”  The less bombastic metal songs are also quite catchy, like “Shadow Warrior.”  And the final song, “Madness to the Method” reminds me of one of their 70s songs, “The Marshall Plan” as it’s complete with spoken word sections and seems to be about rocking out.

I suppose compared to their 70s heyday, this falls a little short, but as an 80s metal album it’s quite solid.

[READ: March 12, 2010] The Color of Water

This is the second part of Kim Dong Hwa’s trilogy of the maturation of Ehwa (a character loosely based on his mother).  It is beautiful, engaging and very very real.

Ehwa is growing up in rural Korea. Her father died many years ago, so it is just her and her mother living together.  Her mother owns the local tavern, and for much of the day Ehwa is free to roam around and learn things from her friends.

This second part of the trilogy focuses on Ehwa’s budding sexual maturity.  She learns  more and more about what her mother and the “picture man” are feeling when he arrives at their house.  She learns, through her friend Bongsoon, what it feels like to experience individual pleasure.  She also learns what it feels like to fall heavily for someone when she meets the handsome and strong Duksam. (more…)

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David Means–“The Knocking” (New Yorker, March 15, 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, David Means, New Yorker, Short Story, Unreliable narrator on March 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-The Revolution by Night (1987).

After the amazing Fire of Unknown Origin, BOC, returned (retreated?) into keyboard-fueled tracks.  And we know that where BOC is concerned, keyboards=crossover attempts.  Now I don’t know if it’s just my own preferences, but I feel like the lightweight pseudo-metal here is better than their earlier stabs at lightweight pseudo-metal (Mirrors, etc).  I assume it’s because I grew up listening to metal around this time, so even if it’s not terribly original, it’s at least comfortable.

It opens promisingly enough with the keyboard heavy but rocking “Take Me Away”  And the 7 minute “Shooting Shark” is kind of catchy (in that BOC ballady sort of way).  But by the time we get to “Veins” we’re in full-fledged keyboard heavy pop metal (has there ever been a poppier song about veins in my eyeballs and veins in my skull?).

“Shadow of California” has a cool sinister angle on the keyboards which leads to a good riff-heavy track.  It emphasizes the slick metal sound from Fire.  “Feel the Thunder” also sounds like a typical late 80s metal song (but there is something distinctly BOC about it). “Let Go” is definitely a child of the 80s, complete with chantings of B.O.C.!

This CD sold poorly, which explains that Columbia-dominant cover design.  It seemed like BOC’s star had faded.

[READ: March 9, 2010] “The Knocking”

By about the third paragraph of this story, you just know that there’s not going to be any kind of “ending” to this piece.  (It’s not even really a story, per se). (more…)

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State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (2008)

Posted in Alexander Payne, Alison Bechdel, Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Doerr, Big Books, Blue Öyster Cult, Books about writers, Carrie Brownstein, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Culture Shock, Dagoberto Gilb, Dave Eggers, Death, Demons, Dip-in Books, Dreams, Drinking, Election, Essays, Fishing, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Greed, Heidi Julavits, History, Holidays, Jacki Lyden, Jhumpa Lahiri, John Hodgman, Jonathan Franzen, Joshua Ferris, LGBTQ, Louise Erdrich, Lydia Millet, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Minnesota, Myla Goldberg, Natural Disasters, Nature, Newspapers, Nostalgia, NPR/PRI/PBS, Oddities, Racism, Religion, Rick Moody, Rush, S.E. Hinton, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Sarah Vowell, Set in New Jersey!, Sex, Sleater-Kinney, South, Supernatural, The X Files, Travel, Violence, War, Wayne's World, William T. Vollmann, WPA on March 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

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.

Starting in 1987 we got Career of Evil: The Metal Years (1987), Don’t Fear the Reaper (1989), On Flame with Rock n’ Roll (1990), Cult Classic (which is actually the band re-recording their old tracks (!)) (1994), and the two cd collection Workshop of the Telescopes (1995).  There’s even Singles Collection, (2005) which is a collection of their European singles & Bsides.

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.

I don’t know that any of these collections are any better than the others.

The 2 CD one is for completists, but for the most part you’re going to get the same basic tracks on all of them.

And, although none of them have “Monsters” for the average person looking for some BOC, any disc is a good one.

Regardless of the number of hits they had, BOC was tremendous live.  And, as a result, there have also been a ton of live records released.  Initially the band (like Rush) released a live album after every three studio albums. On Your Feet or On Your Knees (1975) Some Enchanted Evening (1978) and Extraterrestrial Live (1982) were the “real releases.”

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.

[READ: October 2009-February 2010] State By State

This is a big book. And, since it’s a collection essays, it’s not really the kind of big book that you read straight through.  It’s a perfect dip in book.  And that’s why it took me so long to get through.

I would love to spend a huge amount of time devoting a post to each essay in the book.  But, well, there’s 51 (including D.C.) and quite a few of them I read so long ago I couldn’t say anything meaningful about.  But I will summarize or at least give a sentence about each essay, because they’re all so different.

I’ll also say that I read the Introduction and Preface last (which may have been a mistake, but whatever).  The Preface reveals that what I took to be a flaw in the book was actually intentional.  But let me back up and set up the book better.

The catalyst for the book is the WPA American Guide Series and sort of Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley.  The WPA Guides were written in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration.  48 guide books were written, one for each state.  Some famous writers wrote the books, but they were ultimately edited (and many say watered down) by a committee.  I haven’t read any of them, but am quite interested in them (and am looking to get the New Jersey one).  Each guide was multiple hundreds of pages (the New Jersey one is over 800).

State By State is written in the spirit of that series, except the whole book is 500 pages (which is about 10 pages per state, give or take).  And, once again, famous writers were asked to contribute (no committee edited this book, though).  I’ve included the entire list of authors at the end of the post, for quick access.

So I started the book with New Jersey, of course.  I didn’t realize who Anthony Bourdain was until I looked him up in the contributor’s list (I’m sure he is thrilled to hear that).  And his contribution was simultaneously exciting and disappointing,.  Exciting because he and I had quite similar upbringings: he grew up in North Jersey (although in the wealitheir county next to mine) and had similar (although, again, more wealthy) experiences. The disappointing thing for me was that Bourdain fled the state  for New York City (and, as I now know, untold wealth and fame (except by me))  I felt that his fleeing the state, while something many people aspire to, is not really representative of the residents of the state as a whole.

And that dissatisfaction is what I thought of as the flaw of the book (until I read the Preface).  In the Preface, Matt Weiland explains that they asked all different authors to write about states.  They asked some natives, they asked some moved-ins, they asked some temporary residents and they asked a couple of people to go to a state for the first time.  In reality, this decision makes for a very diverse and highly entertaining reading.  In my idealized world, I feel like it’s disingenuous to have people who just stop in to give their impression of an area.  But hey, that’s not the kind of book they wanted to compile, and I did enjoy what they gave us, so idealism be damned.

For most of the book, whenever I read an essay by someone who wasn’t a native or a resident of a state, I assumed that there weren’t any famous writers from that state.  I’ve no idea if that played into anything or not.  From what I gather, they had a list of authors, and a list of states (I was delighted to read that three people wanted to write about New Jersey-if the other two writers ever decided to put 1,000 words  to paper, I’d love to read them (hey editors, how about State by State Bonus Features online, including any extra essays that people may have wanted to write).

From New Jersey, I proceeded alphabetically.  And, I have to say that I’m a little glad I did.  I say this because the first few states in the book come across as rather negative and kind of unpleasant.  Alabama (written by George Packer) comes across as downtrodden, like a place you’d really have to love to live there.  Even Alaska, which ended up being a very cool story, felt like a veil of oppression resided over the state (or at  least the part of the state that Paul Greenberg wrote bout.)  But what I liked about this essay and the book in general was that the authors often focused on unexpected or little known aspects of each state.  So the Alaska essay focused on Native fisherman and the salmon industry.  Obviously it doesn’t do justice to the rest of that enormous state,  but that’s not what the book is about.

The book is meant to be a personal account of the author’s experiences in the state. (more…)

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Jennifer Egan–“Ask Me If I Care” (New Yorker, March 8, 2010)

Posted in American Music Club, Books about writers, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Egan, New Yorker, Punks, Sex, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator on March 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARK EITZEL-Candy Ass (2005).

I’ve liked Mark Eitzel since my friend Lar played me “Johnny Mathis’ Feet” back in college.  I got some of his solo discs, but by around 2000, I’d more or less given up on him.  Someone donated a copy of this solo album to the library, and since we weren’t keeping it, I brought it home.

So I don’t know what he’s been up to since 2000, and this album came as something of a surprise.  The first song is quintessential Eitzel: downbeat mellow song with clever lyrics.  But after that, it seems like he got his hand on a drum machine and some electronica and just had a field day with it.

The one trend in electronica is to write long songs, and this holds true for Eitzel here.  There are a number of songs here that are predominantly simple drums and sound effects. The second song, in fact, has no words: it’s just a rudimentary drum machine which feels a lot longer than its 4:44 total time.

The few simple guitar songs (with electronic backing) sound good, but the thing is that Eitzel is an awesome songwriter, he’s just not such a great dancey songwriter.  The electronic experiments aren’t bad, they’re just not very inspired.  They may work as an introduction to that type of music for fans of his that never listened to electronica, but beyond that it’s just not that exciting.

Candy Ass is an interesting experiment, but it falls way short of his best work.

[READ: March 8, 2010] “Ask Me If I Care”

No, I really don’t.

I was really rather disappointed in this story.  It never really gripped me in an interesting way.  And even though the band practice stuff all probably happened, it just feel believable at all. (more…)

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Sarah Selecky–“Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale” (The Walrus, March 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Sarah Selecky, Sex, Short Story, The Walrus on March 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Cultösaurus Erectus (1980).

BOC came back with a vengeance on this disc.  From the cool title (c’mon that’s a cool title) to the futuristic fossil on the cover, this album is all heavy.

The opener, “Black Blade” puts us firmly back in the heavy sci-fi world of BOC.  There’s cool time changes, there’s a wild end section with weirdo distorted vocals.  And the lyrics are by Michael Moorcock.  It’s followed by my favorite BOC track of all time: “Monsters.”  This is a fairly straightforward metal song.  It’s starts with a fast riff and big power chords but after the second verse it bursts into a full on jazz section: walking bass, wailing sax solo (!)  for several measures, until it jumps right back into the song as if nothing happened.  Thre’s even a third, even heavie part that comes later.  It a terribly underrated song.

The next two songs flirt back with their more recent gentle releases.  “Deadline” is keyboard fueled little ditty (and the general BOC rule is, the more keyboards, the less metal.)  Yet, in small doses, Allen Lanier’s keyboards really define BOC’s sound.  “Hungry Boys” and “Fallen Angel” show the band really trying to find its sound (and not being terribly successful there).

“The Marshall Plan” gets the band back on heavier terms, with that classic theme of metal songs: playing in a metal band.  (There’s a humorous musical quote from “Smoke on the Water” AND a spoken line from Don Kirshner).  Finally, the wonderfully weirdly titled “Lips in the Hills” gets the band back on familiar rocking territory.

While this isn’t their best disc, it is certainly better than the previous one, and ranks up pretty high in their catalog.

[READ: March 7, 2010] “Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale”

This was a cool story with a bunch of twists.  The simple premise is that the story is set at a yard sale.  The sale is being held by the wife (and new boyfriend) of Paul Farenbacher, a recently deceased man.  The narrator was the family’s neighbor (and on one occasion kissed their son).

In the intervening years she has become closer to the family.  She helped sell some products that Farenbacher was selling, and also sold new (home made organic cleaning products) to Farenbacher’s wife (and the rest of the community).

The story is a way for secrets to get revealed and truths to be told. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 8] The Part About The Crimes (2 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Adventure, AP Magazine, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Death, Foreign Books, History, Infinite Zombies, Language, Mystery, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Tori Amos, Violence, Yuck! on March 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-“Juarez” (from To Venus and Back) (1999).

This song was the first that I had heard of what was happening in Juarez, Mexico.  In AP Magazine (Oct 99) Tori Amos said:

“I read an article about several hundred women in Juarez, Mexico, who had been taken out to the desert and brutally raped and murdered. When they didn’t come home, their brothers would go and look for them, and many times they’d find nothing. Sometimes they’d find a hair barrette or a sock or something they knew was their sister’s. The authorities haven’t really done anything about it…they get into this serial-killer theory. I mean, how much serial can one man indulge in? So as the song started to develop, I really began taking the voice of the desert, singing in that perspective.”

The song is very abstract, with references to Juarez, but overall the meaning is oblique (in typical Tori Amos fashion).  Sonically it is claustrophobic and creepy, and the repeated line “No angel came” adds to the intensity of it.  It has never been a favorite song, although I think as a commentary on the situation it is delightfully eerie.  It doesn’t really add anything to 2666, but at least it provided me with some context.

[READ: Week of March 8, 2010] 2666 [pg 404-465]

Week 6 picks up much where Week 7 left off.  There are a lot more deaths (Nicole at bolanobolano has the dubious honor of tallying them)in this reading.  And you’ll have to look at bolnobolano for the details, as I’m not up to keeping the records straight.

Juan de Dios Martínez is ordered to stop working on The Pentitent, so that his officers can be freed up for other duties.

And the first dead woman of this section is an American, Lucy Anne Sander.  She and a friend came down from Huntsville, Arizona.  While her friend, Erica, was parking the car, Lucy got out to walk in the wet grass.  She was not seen again for three days when her body turned up, raped and murdered.  This was the first instance in the book where someone aggressively looks for a missing woman.  Erica befriends a local nurse (and they from an intense bond in the short time they know each other) and has an Arizona sheriff come down to investigate on her behalf. (more…)

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Seth Grahame-Smith–Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010) [prepub]

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Blue Öyster Cult, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Death, Demons, Edgar Allan Poe, Entertainment Weekly, History, Meta, Michael Moorcock, Seth Grahame-Smith, Violence, Yuck! on March 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Fire of Unknown Origin (1981).

This was the first BOC album that I bought.  The video for “Burnin’ for You” was all over MTV (although I don’t remember it at all, now).  And I was an instant convert to BOC.  I listened to this disc constantly.

It took going to college and meeting my roommate before I got any other BOC discs (he was a diehard fan).  And while I like most of their releases, this one still ranks as number one for me.  BOC had been getting poppier and lighter over the years, there’s no question.  But this album perfected this mix, making for a supremely catchy recording that still exhibited all of their metal trademarks: wild guitar solos, bizarro futuristic lyrics (although there’s no weirdo titles on this one) and heavy heavy chords.

The opener, “Fire of Unknown Origin” is a wonderful rocking song.  It sets the tone for the disc: keyboards, yes, but of the atmospheric/spooky variety, not the poppy/hit single variety.  “Burnin’ for You” seems like an obvious single, and so it was. It also screams early 80s to me, which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But the album’s wonderful weirdness kicks in with “Veteran of the psychic Wars” written by Michael Moorcock. It was featured in the movie Heavy Metal, and is weird and creepy, propelled by thunderous drums and a great guitar riff: a sci-fi masterpiece.  “Sole Survivor” is in the same vein, Eric Blooms ragged voice and the awesome bass line really sell the song.

The middle track is “Heavy Metal (Black and Silver)”  It is heavy heavy heavy and it rocks like all get out with a screaming feedback solo.  It’s an awesome song that seems more than a little out of place on this rather light sounding disc (although even on their later discs, they have included an occasional heavy track).

“Vengeance (The Pact)” is a keyboard-fueled track.  But the greatness is that it’s Lanier’s spooky keyboards.  It also features an awesome middle section with heavy heavy guitars and dark lyrics.  “After Dark” is another wonderfully creepy keyboard song.  The underlying riff is sinister and cool, and the lyrics (and harmonies) meld the “band vocals” on some of their more “hit single” songs, with the oddness that keeps BOC interesting.

But by far the creepiest, most sinister and flat out weird song is “Joan Crawford.”  When I first heard this song back in 1982, I had no idea who Joan Crawford was.  Finding out later that she was a real person has messed with my head for my entire life.  I have never seen a film with her in it and am just convinced that she’s a scary, scary woman (the whispered “Christina…mother’s home” really did me in).  Interestingly, I don’t find the song spooky (although I do get chills if I’m paying attention), but I still find her spooky.  It opens with a pseudo-classical piano riff and then bursts out with menacing metal chords.  The chorus “Joan Crawford has risen from the grave!” complete with squeaky violins proceeds until and the break with sound effects that imply Crawford’s life, I assume: car crashes, race tracks, telephones, babies crying and the whispered “No.”   And it’s all catchy as hell.

“Don’t Turn You Back” ends the disc as something of a mellowing out after Joan Crawford.  It features a great solo and rather soothing choruses (despite the warning that you shouldn’t turn your back).  And it features the ever confusing line: “You use that special option in your car”  (what could that BE?).

Why on earth hasn’t this disc gotten a deluxe reissue from Columbia>?

[READ: March 3, 2010] Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I received this book as a prepub Advanced Readers Copy and hoped to have it finished before the book actually came out, but I was shy of it by a couple of days (rats).

So Grahame-Smith wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  His was pretty much the first in what has become an ever increasing series of literary mash-ups: using “classic” texts as a basis and inserting a seemingly random (usually horror) element.  The genre is already close to jumping the shark, although realistically, you never know when a combination is going to work wonders.

I wasn’t really that interested in the follow up to P&P&Z: Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters.  When I first heard of it I was intrigued, but watching the promotional video for the book actually turned me off of it.  I’m intrigued that a new title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is written by a different author, but I have to assume that it will be all original as there’s no prequel to P&P itself.  And I have to admit I like the title of the upcoming Jane Slayre (for Jane Eyre).

But the things about P&P&Z were that it kept the original text (mostly) intact, and there were a number of things in the original that actually led to inserting zombies into the text.

Plus, Grahame-Smith matched the tone of the original perfectly.  The forthcoming mashups will have a lot to prove but I think some cream will definitely rise to the top.

So, Grahame-Smith’s new book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is sort of a mashup.  Unlike P&P&Z, there is no source text to blend.  Rather, Seth Grahame-Smith, who is a character in the introduction of the book is given the “secret” diary of Abraham Lincoln, under provision that he write up the real story of our 16th president.  The secret diary reveals not only that our country was plagued by vampires but that Lincoln himself was personally impacted by them. (more…)

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Hannah Tennant-Moore–“By Song, Not Album” (The Sun, August 2009)

Posted in A Camp, Belle and Sebastian, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Drugs, Essays, Hannah Tennant-Moore, Memoirs, Photo Essays, PJ Harvey, Shudder to Think, The Cardigans, The Sun, Travel, Unreliable narrator, Van Morrison on March 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: A CAMP-Colonia (2009).

This is the second album from the side project of The Cardigan’s Nina Persson.  This disc was created with her husband Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think.  Their first album had a country flair to it, but this one eschews that entirely for a pop feel that is entirely different from The Cardigans’ two main styles: the “cheesy” happy pop of “Lovefool” and the bitter guitar pop of their later discs.

Although like the Cardigans, Nina uses her beautiful, almost angelic voice to mask the critical, often bitter lyrics that fuel this disc.  The music is kind of sparse, which really allows for Nina’s voice to shine through. “Stronger Than Jesus” is a wonderful song about, of all things, love.  While “Bear on the Beach” opens with a delicate twinkling piano. And “Love Has Left the Room” has soaring vocals and a wonderfully catchy melody line.

The best track is probably “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals” a cool duet with a tongue-twisting chorus.

They also have a bit of fun with genres, so “Here Are Many Wild Animals” opens like a doo-wop song, but swerves into a cool minor key masterpiece.  Even the album closer, the slow, meandering “The Weed Had Got There First” works nicely with Nina’s voice (although I wouldn’t want a whole album like this).

Anyone who misses the Cardigans would do well to track down this disc; or, if you find the Cardigans too treacly, this is a great representation of the true side of Nina’s character.  I just can’t decide if the A in the band name is the indefinite article or the letter A.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “By Song, Not Album”

My friend and coworker Anna loaned me this issue of The Sun saying that she thought I would enjoy it.  I’d never heard of it before, but I’m always up for new things, so I decided to check it out.  I really enjoyed the Photo Essay “With Eyes Shut.”  And I read two of the longer pieces as well.

This first one, is, I believe non-fiction.  And if it is non-fiction, it is the least believable non-fiction piece I may have ever read.  I was interested to read it because of the title, which seemed an interesting conceit for a story.  And while that does come into play, the story is really about a young woman who is studying abroad in France who is suffering from a severe depression.

The only one who can pull her through is her father, who is similarly afflicted with depression.  He flies over to assist her and they wind up spending several days together.

What I found unbelievable, was the way her father behaves.   (more…)

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