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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Gene Luen Yang–Dragon Hoops (2020)

Posted in Basketball, Bitch Falcon, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Georgeann Wells, Graphic Novel, Harlem Globetrotters, Joe Naismith, Racism, Senda Berenson, Set at School, Sexism, Superman on February 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BITCH FALCON-Staring at Clocks (2020).

Everyone can agree that Bitch Falcon is a terrible name.  Just awful.

Having said that, this album is pretty great.  Drummer Nigel Kenny was interviewed in the Irish Drummers book, and that book continues to introduce me to bands that I like.

Bitch Falcon is a trio who have been together for five years.  They released their debut album Staring at Clocks in 2020.

Their sound touches on grunge and shoegaze, which I rather like, but they move beyond that and  explore really interesting sounds from Lizzie Fitzpatrick’s voice and guitar.  Her guitar shimmers and wobbles and she is excellent at sculpting feedback into sounds that veer into harshness.  Her voice is strong and powerful, hitting and holding notes that ring out.  But also singing in otherworldly styles like almost wordless sound effects.

The album is held together by bassist Barry O’Sullivan’s prominent position–playing the main lines and basic rhythms of most songs and by Nigel Kenny’s not traditional almost lead drumming.

The album opens with a squealing feedback followed by a rumbling bass and some solid thumping.  And it continues in this vein for some 40 minutes.  There’s diversity in the songs–some are softer and some are dreamy–but the overall sound is consistent.  Throughout the album, there are gorgeous  washes of guitars and wicked feedback.

I love the thumping bass and drum and the ringing guitar and voice in “How Did I Know?”  “Staring at Clocks” opens with guitar sounds that are so unguitarlike, it’s wild.  The fast drums and bass propel the otherwise ethereal song along.  The guitar sounds at the end of the song are like out of a sci-fi movie.

The opening bass sound of “Damp Breath” is great and when they throw in the cool guitar rolls over the top it sounds tremendous. I love the lead bass line of “Martyr” while the guitar lays down intricate passages.  And the final song, “Harvester” is 6 minutes long with the final two allowing the guitars to roar until the album crashes to a conclusion.

This album was a great surprise.  I would love to see them live.

[READ: February 1, 2021] Dragon Hoops

Gene Luen Yang’s books are always fantastic.  He has such an excellent way with storytelling, that no matter what his books are about you know they’re going to pull you in.  Even if they’re about basketball!  Even high school basketball.

Mr Yang opens the book explaining that he never like sports–he was never interested. He got his excitement from comic books, He teaches at Bishop O’Dowd High School (in California) and has been there for seventeen years (Do his kids know that he’s an amazing cartoonist?  I assume so).  In all that time he never thought much about the school’s basketball team, but in this year 2014-2015, there was talk that their team would go all the way.  It was a big story, and Yang loves stories.

In order to see if this would work as a book, it meant talking to Coach Lou Richie.  They have obviously talked over the years, but not very much.  So Yang takes the first step (a wonderful recurring theme in the book) and approaches Lou.  They talk and Yang has an idea for his next book.

We go back through Coach Lou’s life.  He was a young nerd just like Gene.  He was short and skinny.  But when he went to a Bishop O’Dowd game at the Oakland Coliseum, Lou knew he wanted to do that one day.  So he worked out and grew some and by his junior year he was only 5’8″ (like me) but he was  a formidable player.  Lou’s team made it to the Coliseum that year (some kind of State playoffs) and, cliche of all cliches, he scored the game-winning basket.  But, cliche of all other cliches it was called a no basket because of a penalty. It was one of the most controversial calls in a high school game and obviously Lou never forgot it.  (Despite the cliches that’s all true).

Lou became head coach at O’Dowd, and since he came back his teams have been to state five times, but have never won.

But this year he has two secret weapons: Ivan Rabb and Paris Austin.

Imagine being a high school kid, being great at basketball and then having Mr Yang draw you in his book?  Wow. (more…)

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Ben Costa & James Parks–Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Road to Epoli [Book 1] (2017)

Posted in Ben Costa, Children's Books, Graphic Novel, Imagine Dragons, James Parks, Of Monsters and Men, Ogres, Supernatural, Surreal, The Head and the Heart, Unfinished series, Unicorns, Walking on Cars on February 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WALKING ON CARS-Colours (2019).

Walking on Cars drummer Evan Hadnett cited some pretty heavy bands as influences in the Irish Drummers book.  But also noted how important Irish trad music was to Irish drummers.  None of the songs on this album are as heavy or fast as anyone he talked about, but you can hear the anthemic power of those bands.

I hadn’t heard of Walking on Cars and I’m kind of surprised by that because they seems like they could have been really big.  They just called it quits after releasing the 2020 EP Clouds.

But Colours pushes every button for anthemic angst pop.  I’m hearing Imagine Dragons, The Head and the Heart, Of Monsters and Men.  and that’s just in the first song, “Monster.”  A huge chorus and dramatic vocal chops are only the beginning.  “Waiting on the Corner” has some processed “oohs” that could be an immediate hook.

Most of the songs are filled with intense angst–Patrick Sheehy’s voice is gravelly and passionate–“she’s in love with somebody else–someone who won’t let her down” (“Somebody else”) and “I was looking for a friend / And it all came to an end / But I survived, yeah I survived” (“Coldest Water”).  His voice is also prominent in the mix “yeah it as better when we were kids” (“When We Were Kids”), where he also throws in some angsty falsetto.

“Two Straight Lines” plays simple guitar lines off of electronic washes and “Too Emotional” is even poppier than the other songs.  “One Last Dance” features co-lead vocals with pianist Sorcha Durham (I’m surprised there weren’t more prominent female vocals on other songs).  Paul Flannery rounds out the band on bass and vocals.  The final song “Pieces of You” ends the album with a big piano ballad.

The big surprise to me about thee songs is that they’re all pretty short.  The longest tracks on the record are just over three and a half minutes and the whole album is just over half an hour.  It seems like an album full of over the top anthemic bangers might stretch out and maybe overstay its welcome.  But this record is efficient.

It seems like the band is ending their career on a high note. They’d been together for ten years and played around the world (although never the U.S. it seems).  I imagine if they’d gotten this album in the right hands they could have definitely opened for one of those earlier mentioned bands here.

[READ: February 15, 2021] Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo

I saw this series at the library and thought it looked promising–I rather liked the cover art work.

So I was quite surprised to open it and find it in black and white.

A skeleton seems to have come to life and is walking with a mass of other skeletons through the woods.  They all seem to know their destination but our skeleton does not.  Then a song begins and sings of his plight.  It tells of the Road to Epoli.

Then the book switches to color and Rickety Stitch is seen sleeping on a rack. (more…)

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Greg Pak, Valeria Favoccia–Stranger Things: Zombie Boys (2020)

Posted in Graphic Novel, Greg Pak, Horror, Pillow Queens, Set at School, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Valeria Favoccia, Violence, YA Books, Yuck!, Zombies on February 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PILLOW QUEENS-“Liffey” (Live on the Late Late Show, January 13, 2021).

I learned about Pillow Queens from the book about Irish Drummers.  Rachel Lyons, Pillow Queens’ drummer is interviewed for the book and I thought their band sounded interesting.

I had no idea how good this band would be.  They have released a few EPs and a number of one-off songs on bandcamp.  They released their debut album in September.  To celebrate, the band made their American TV debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden performing “Liffey.”

The band has two leads ingers and all four members sing backing vocals.  As this song opens, Pamela Connolly sings an opening verses while everyone else sings harmony and counterpoint until everything comes crashing in–drums, guitars and bass.  (That’s Sarah Corcoran on bass and Cathy McGuinness playing lead guitar).

There are some cool parts in this song.  The bridge has as series of two note punches, while the verses are supported by soaring single guitar notes.  Lyons’ drumming is a real high point.  There’s martial beats and lots of floor tom (in the video you can see that she’s using mallets all the way though).  Noting her sounds expected and yet it all works together really nicely.

The roaring buzzsaw guitar that ends the song is just perfect.

I’m looking forward to listening to the whole album.

[READ: February 10, 2021] Stranger Things: Zombie Boys 

I get to see all kinds of unexpected things at work–books from other countries, books graphic novels in other languages, even popular novels.  One thing I never expected to see was a Stranger Things graphic novel.  In part because I didn’t know there were any.

But here one is.

This book is set right after Will is rescued from the Upside Down.  He’s been drawing pictures of their adventure.

But at school kids are calling him zombie boy.  Which is no fun.

The only bright spot is AV Club.  But even that’s no fun lately because the boys are all behind in school (what with fighting the forces of evil) and their AV advisor is making them do school work.

Until a new kids comes into the picture.  Joey Kim has just moved to town from San Diego.  His mom works for Sony and he has a brand new betamax film camera.

Their AV advisor says that he’ll see if they can make a movie for extra credit.  But what movie will they make?

That’s when Joey pulls out a drawing that Will made (it fell out of his bag).  The boys love the drawing and think it will make for an awesome zombie movie.

Will’s mom isn’t too keen on him drawing scary pictures–she even takes him to the doctor.  (The doctor is affiliated with the bad guys, but that doesn’t have an bearing on this story).  So Will changes the drawings into zombie joke pictures–it’s a pleasure to eat you, etc..  But the guys are having none of it. And Joey Kim says that it’s horror or nothing.

So they play with make up effects (kielbasa for eaten flesh!) and draw on some of their darker moments (of which they have many) to pull out some acting chops.

Lucas has an important demand though–the black guy always dies in horror movies and he wants Joey to know that this black guy is not going to die.

The book is pretty short and aside from a few of the bullies there’s nothing too dramatic in it–except for a moment when Will goes too deep into a dark place.  But the story line is cool and it feels like a setup for more to come.

I have no idea if Joey Kim is coming in the new season or if he is comics only, but he’s a fun addition for this story line.

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Breena Bard–Trespassers (2020)

Posted in Breena Bard, Children's Books, Graphic Novel, Lakes, Murder, Mystery, THUMPER, Vacation on February 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THUMPER-Out of Body Auto-Message (2019).

THUMPER was mentioned in the Irish Drummers book.  They actually have TWO drummers, (Stephen D’arcy is in the book).

I hadn’t heard of them (They are reasonably new).  This EP collects their first few singles and adds a couple of other tracks.

The rest of the band is: oisin leahy furlong – vocals & guitar; alan dooley – guitar & backing vocals; brendan mcglynn – guitar & backing vocals; joey gavin – bass; stevie d’arcy – drums; shane holly – drums.

“(You’re Bringing Me) Down” opens the set with a rocking fast chords.  It’s a catchy melody with a simple but effective guitar riff on top.  Clean vocals lead to a catchy chorus with a rumbling bass and roaring guitars. I love that at 90 seconds the song changes sonically to as a glitchy guitar playing the chords before returning back to the fast rumbling joy of the verse.  The song more or less finishes after 3 and a half minutes, but the full version of the song tacks on a three minute jam to the end.

“AFL” pummels along in a similar vein–fast catchy fuzzy rock with lots of feedback.  Even though the song is pretty much nonstop, they do put in some interesting musical dynamics to mix it up.

“In My Room” is quieter and less fuzzy, although it opens with a squall of noise.  It does still have a fast and bouncy chorus.  “Half Light” is a woozy acoustic song with a woozy filter on the whole thing.  The guitar solo is feedbacky and almost out of tune. And it ends with a wall of noise.

The final song is ten minutes long. “3AM & Restless” takes off right from the get go. It’s relentless song with a lot of sounds going on (spoken conversations, screaming or feedback or something).  But after two and a half minutes the song slows down and stretches out.  Big chords ring out while a spoken conversation or something seems to be going on underneath them.  the end of the song stretches into a slow noisy jam of scratches and synth sounds, kinda like they had the tape rolling and just keep messing around with their gear until it ran out.

The ending is a little uninspired, but the rest o the EP is fantastic and I look forward to more from them.

[READ: February 15, 2021] Trespassers

This is the story of Gabby Woods and her family.  They are headed up to their vacation house on the lake.  It’s an annual trip that they all enjoy very much.

Gabby’s older sister, Morgan, is sort of out of the picture (she’d too old to hang with Gabby and their younger brother Simon), but she’s nice enough.  Gabby’s parents are kind and funny, but they have just learned that Gabby’s dad is going to have to take a new job in a different state.  This might be their last time visiting their lake house.

Gabby is a bookworm which Simon finds very boring.  He hates that Gabby wastes her time reading when there’s so much to do at the lake.  Gabby does put her book down from time to time, but really, a vacation is about resting.

When they arrive they see their neighbor Gene. Gene is an older man who has lived in his house for decades. He is a nice guy and he looks forward to the Woods’ family’s arrival.

As the Woods canoe around the lake, they approach Gabby’s favorite building–a beautiful architectural marvel with a gorgeous view of the lake.  It was built by Walter Goldworth, a Chicago architect who married a model, Angela.  He built this place for her. They were very happy until they both disappeared and have not been seen since.  The house has been vacant for decades. (more…)

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Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Gregory Toner–A History of Ireland in 100 Words (2019)

Posted in Accents, Adventure, Airlines, Animals, Curses, Death, Demons, Dictionary, Dip-in Books, Disease, Drinking, Fables, Fairies, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Farming, Festivals, Food, Gaeilge, Gods, Gregory Toner, History, Hurling, Ireland, Irish Writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joe McLaren, Language, Law, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Monsters, Morality, Myths, Poetry, Poets, Politicians, Pranks, Sharon Arbuthnot, Sports, Superstitions, Taxes, Turkeys, Violence, War on February 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK: THE REDNECK MANIFESTO-The How (2018).

Despite a terrible name that would keep me away from wanting to see them, The Redneck Manifesto are a very interesting and complicated band.  I discovered them through the book of Irish drummers.  TRM drummer Mervyn Craig is in the book.

The How is the band’s fifth album (and first in eight years).  The album is chock full of instrumentals that touch all genres of music.

There are jazzy elements, dancey elements and rock elements.  There are solos (but never long solos) and jamming sections.  Most of the songs are around 4 minutes long with a couple running a little longer.

“Djin Chin” has jangly chords and quiet riffs that switch to a muted melody.  All the while the bass is loping around.  It shifts tempos three times in the first two minutes.  Around three minutes the bass takes over the lead instrument pushing the song along with deep notes.

“The Rainbow Men” has a circular kind of riff with swirling effects that launch the song during the musical pauses.  After a minute and a half it drastically shifts direction and the adds in a cool solo.

“Sip Don’t Gulp” starts with a catchy bouncy guitar riff and bass lines.  At two minutes it too shifts gears to a staggered riff that sounds great.

“Kobo” is the shortest song and seems to tell a melodic story.  The two guitars play short, fast rhythms as call and response while the bass rumbles along.

“Head Full of Gold” is over 6 minutes with a thumping bass, rumbling drums and soft synths.  “No One” is nearly 7 minutes and feels conventionally catchy until you try to keep up with the beats.  After a middle series of washes from various instruments, the back half is a synthy almost dancey rhythm.

“Sweep” is a pretty song until the half-way mark when it just takes off in a fury of fast drumming and complex chords.  The end builds in upward riding notes until it hits a calming ending

“We Pigment” is a poppy staccato dancey number.  The second half turns martial with a series of four beat drum patterns and a soaring guitar solo.  More staccato runs through to the end.  “The Underneath Sun” also has a lot of staccato–fast guitar notes interspersed with bigger chords.  The end of the song is just littered with sweeping guitar slides until the thumping conclusion.

This album is great and I’m looking forward to exploring their other releases.

[READ: January 10, 2021] A History of Ireland in 100 Words

This book looks at old Irish words–how they’ve evolved and how they show the way Irish history came about.  The authors say:

our store of words says something fundamental about us and how we think.  This book is meant to provide insights into moments of life that may be otherwise absent from history books.  The focus is on Gaelic Ireland throughout as Gaelic was the native language of the majority of the inhabitants of the island for the last 2000 years. It yielded its primacy to English only in the last 150 years.

We selected words with the aim of illustrating each of our themes as broadly as possible.  We wanted the words in all their richness to tell their story … like how the word that originally meant noble came to mean cheaper (saor).

Almost all of the entries reference The cattle raid of Cooley (The Ulster Cycle) which features the hero Cú Chulainn.  This story is at the heart of most of historical Ireland and it’s pretty fascinating how many of these Gaelic words either originate with that story or get their foundation from the story.

There’s a general pronunciation guide although I wish each word had a phonetic guide because anyone who speaks English will look at Irish a if it is just a jumble of nonsensical consonants.

The book is broken down into sections, although the authors insist that there is no correct way to read the book.

  • Writing and Literature
  • Technology and Science
  • Food and Feasting
  • The Body
  • Social Circles
  • Other Worlds
  • War and Politics
  • A Sense of Place
  • Coming and Going
  • Health and Happiness
  • Trade and Status
  • Entertainment and Sport
  • The Last Word

There are also delightfully weird wood carving-like drawings from by Joe McLaren scattered throughout the book.

The words are listed below with either a definition or an interesting anecdote included. (more…)

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Matu Santamaria–Caliente (2020)

Posted in Bad Bunny, Bag Gyal, Billie Eilish, Boris, Bunbury, Catalan, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Chita, Coronavirus, Dua Lipa, Feminism, Hayley Kiyoko, LGBTQ, Matu Santamaria, Merzbow, Puerto Rico, Rayden, Residente, Rexler, Rosalia Cazzu, Sex, Sexism, Spain, Uruguay on February 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc One: Boris) (2016).

In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time.  Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).

Disc 1 was all Boris.  Disc 2 was all Merzbow.

When you play them together, you get the drumless Boris with all of the glitching electronica of Merzbow sprinkled around it.  The songs are set up in a very clever way with one of Merzbow’s songs being exactly equal to two or three of the Boris songs.

I played the CD of Boris and the stream of Merzbow on Spotify.  It was cool to be able to raise and lower the volunme of one to change the intensity of Merzbow’s glitches.

Merzbow’s “Planet of the Cows” plays over the first two Boris songs “Farewell” and “Huge.”  Farewell’s quiet drone tacks on Merzbow’s squeals and glitches which fill in the gaps quite nicely.  When “Farewell” ends, the Merzbow continues until the loud gongs heavy chords of “Huge” ring out.  The Merzbow chaos sounds almost like a solo over the slow low heavy drone chords.  Atsuo’s low growling even complements the spare noises.  Both parts ends with squealing feedbacking sounds–analog from Boris and digital from Merzbow.

Merzbow’s “Goloka Pt. 1” plays over three Boris songs “Resonance” “Rainbow” and “Sometimes” (the My Bloody Valentine cover).  “Resonance” is mostly percussion–kind of randomly hit in a slow rhythm.  Merzbow’s noises sound like static in a distance echoing signal from outer space.  “Rainbow” is a piece I don’t know.  This version features Boris playing some quiet guitar and a grooving bass with Wata singing vocals. Merzbow’s electronics sounds restrained here, adding louder noises when the vocals back out  This song has some tasty soloing from Wata with the electronics almost keeping pace.  It segues into “Sometimes,” with its loud thumping echoes and eventual wall of noise.  The vocals are pretty well buried but you can hear the melody of the MBV song.

“Goloka Pt.. 2” plays over “Heavy Rain” and “Akuma No Uta.” “Heavy Rain” starts out with noisy stabs of sound–it’s actually hard to tell who is making what, but then things mellow out as Wata sings.  The guitars drone loudly and the vocals mix in with the electronics.  It ends with the noisy guitar buzzing from Boris while the noises from Merzbow continue between songs–sounds of noise and electronic bleeps.  “Akuma No Uta” starts slowly with washes of guitar build up. The glitching Merzbow adds keeps it from being purely a drone.  The drone gets louder and louder and I like the way Merzbow’s glitches seem to back off as the man riff enters the song.  As it nears the end, glitching sounds to me like a menacing voice coming through the static and heavy riffage.

The final song is Merzbow’ “Prelude to a Broken Arm” which plays over “Akirame Flower” and “Vomitself.”  It starts out with watery sounds before the big chords and vocals kick in.  Merzbow’s noise is like a screaming train underneath the slow crooning.   The main riff from Wata has some electronic percussive sounds tacked onto it.  As the final chord rings out the song segues into the musch noisier “Vomitself.”   It introduces a huge wave of low chords as Merzbow’s noise amps up to correspond with a lot of low growling percussive sounds. As the song rumbles to an end the squealing intensifies like feedback added on top of the roar with the last notes sounding like a person raging.

It’s interesting how I don’t really like the Merzbow tracks, but how they add interesting textures to the Boris songs.

[READ: February 19, 2021] Caliente

Matu Santamaria is an Argentinian illustrator and his work is really stunning.

This book has a big warning: 18+ but it’s not fully explicit.  There are drawing of naked women and sex acts, but there’s only a few things that are NSFW.

Santamaria’s work is full of clean lines and and dramatic colors.  I really enjoy looking at it, regardless of the content.

This book contains a lot of his most recent work.  It seems to be split between positive messages about sexuality, body positivity and appreciation for frontline workers during the Coronavirus.  There’s also some celebrity pictures as well.

After some definitions of the word caliente, the book opens with series of pictures of women exploring the sexuality with each other.  Interracial women kissing and a woman taking her top off with the comment–“and without realizing it, it’s poetry.” (more…)

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Martin Roper–“Our House” (New Yorker, November 26, 2001)

Posted in Book Club, Boris, Cormac McCarthy, Irish Writer, Marriage Trouble, Martin Roper, Merzbow, New Yorker, Short Story, Violence on February 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc Two: Merzbow) (2016).

In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time.  Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).

Disc 1 was all Boris.  Disc 2 was all Merzbow.

Merzbow is a real challenge for me.  I’m not really sure how anyone can listen to his music for pleasure.  It’s harsh, electronic sounds, with high pitched squeals and low staticy distortions.  As an exercise in noise, it’s fairly interesting, but never enjoyable.

This disc includes four songs.

“Planet of the Cows” is over 18 minutes long.  It’s high pitched squealing and a low distortion.  There’s a thumping that works almost like a rhythm.  After ten minutes it sounds like a space alarm is sounding.

“Goloka Pt. 1” is 20 minutes long.  It feels bigger and more metallic.  The noises seem to coalesce into a distant screaming sound.

“Goloka Pt. 2” is 19:30.  It’s got a slightly lower tone, with slower movement among the noises.  Although sirens and pulsing sounds are present.  Then at 12 minutes all the sirens drop out to just a quiet robotic pulsing with thumping that sound like a heartbeat.  The track ends in what sounds like mechanical breathing.

“Prelude to a Broken Arm” is the shortest song at only 16 minutes.  It is quieter with a low crunching and bug-like sounds.  At 6 and half minutes the distortion comes in really loud with a mechanical drum/broken engine sound and then a looping siren with the kind of static noise that sounds like more screaming.

It is an unsettling and challenging listen and not for the squeamish.

[READ: February 10, 2021] “Our House”

Irish writers are often known for their humorous storytelling.  But wow, can Irish writers really hit hard with the tragedy, too.

This is one of the darkest stories I’ve read in a long time.

The story begins with the narrator saying that his father always told him to never buy a house on a  corner.  But the narrator and his wife did anyway.  It was in bad shape and needed a lot of work, but they fell in love with the place and felt they were up to the task.

The story sets up the spouses as opposites in love.  She is a non-practicing Protestant with a Catholic name (Ursula) and he is a non-practicing Catholic with a Protestant name.  She thinks he is funny and he never dares to admit that she rarely gets the jokes.

The previous owner died three years ago and they are the first people to check out the place.  The more they clean the more work they see needs to get done.  Although there are some nice surprises (like the five hundred pounds in cash they find under the carpet).

But it’s the neighborhood that proves to be more hostile to them than they could ever have imagined.  Children began gathering at the corner every day.  They get up to mischief right away–ringing the doorbell and running, bouncing a ball off the house.  But there is an underlying air of menace behind all of this. (more…)

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David Schickler–“Jamaica” (New Yorker, January 7, 2002)

Posted in 9dw, Archery, Blindness, Book Club, Boris, David Schickler, Dogs, Marriage Trouble, Merzbow, Mice, Michio Kurihara, My Bloody Valentine, Parenting, Sonic Youth on February 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc One: Boris) (2016).

In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time.  Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).

Disc 1 was all Boris.  Disc 2 was all Merzbow.

Boris’ album is unusual in that it is re-recordings of some of the bands music as well as a couple of new tracks and a cover.  The unusual part is that there are no drums.  There are percussive elements, especially on one track, but there’s no regular drum beat to any of these tracks.

“Farewell” (from Pink) is a simple two note guitar melody with washes of sound behind it.  New notes expand that repeating motif. After two minutes a roaring chord comes in and holds while the vocals sing an uplifting melody.  The chord progression is very very slow with chords that drone. When the melody shifts to a higher note it feels like the whole song is elevated.  There’s a pretty little guitar solo in the middle and even a gong hit.  It’s one of Boris’ prettier songs and it fades softly into the noise that is “Huge.”

“Huge” (from Amplifier Worship) is two feedbacking guitars introducing distorted chords and lots of gong hits.  They’re followed by a ponderous drone-fueled six chord progression.  At around five minutes the vocals–a growl really–starts up.  At 8 minutes a new pattern emerges.  Two chugging chords and then a roaring low note–practically trademark Boris.

“Resonance” was a new song for Boris.  It is only echoed percussion–randomly and slowly hit.  The title makes sense as these sounds echo and resonate for a long time after they are sounded.  It’s not particularly interesting by itself but it works well with the Merzbow track tacked on.

“Rainbow” comes from the album Rainbow, a collaboration with Michio Kurihara.  I don’t know this record, but if this is any indication of that release, it sounds like a string record.  This is a quiet, pretty song–a sliding bass and a quietly echoing guitar riff as the song whispers along.  Then Wata starts singing quietly as the bass slinks around.  After three minutes a fuzzy guitar solo comes in drawing all attention to itself.  It rips through and ends in a wall of noise before the vocals start again.  This sounds very much like a Sonic Youth song.

Pulsing electronic noses open up “Sometimes” (a My Bloody Valentine cover).  After a minute, feedback and chords come in.  The vocals are nicely buried an you can clearly hear this is Boris’ take on MBV.  It’s a slow drone wall rather than a wall of different sounds.

It segues into “Heavy Rain” (from Noise) which opens as just a series of electronic rumbles and feedback jamming until a pretty echoing chord comes in and Wata sings very quietly.   After a minute and a half big droning chords ring out.  Then its back to the quiet–whispered vocals and gentle echoing notes over a slow meandering bass.   It soars quietly like this until the last 44 seconds which returns to the noise of the opening.

“Akuma No Uta” (from Akuma No Uta) is full of washes of notes, drones and gongs.  Over the course of the 11 and a half minutes of this song, it morphs into loud distorted chords drones ending with a slow heavy two note riff that fades with gongs.

“Akirame Flower” (originally from Golden Dance Classics a split EP with 9dw that I don’t know) opens with watery noises and electronic beat before raw guitar and vocals come in.  This is a softer drone with a pretty guitar solo on top of the fuzz.  The last note rings out and segues into the distorted bent chords of “Vomitself.”

“Vomitself” is the heaviest thing here–heavily distorted chords pummel along while growled vocals creak though.  It’s remarkable how heavy it is with no drums.

[READ: February 5, 2021] “Jamaica”

In this story, a man who is not allowed to go to his wife’s book club, finds a way to be a part of it

Everett is the narrator and he tells us about his family.  His daughter Theresa is dating a man much older than her (of whom Everett disapproves highly); Thomas his son who was born blind.  TJ their dachshund is as much a part of the story as anyone else.  His wife, Jillian, hosts the The Gorgon Book Club.

The attendees are Theresa, Dorry Smith a semi-professional archer–right down to carrying a bow and arrow with her wherever she goes, Luce Winningham who has “a Peter Pan haircut and a perky disdain for wearing a brassiere.”  There’s also Gwen Kirkle who loves animals more than anything (and often brings conversations to a halt when she talks about them).  The final attendee is Abigail Van Roost.

Everett and Abigail dated in high school. Then she had a terrible accident.  Everett (out of cowardice) broke up with her and started dating Jillian.  Amazingly, Abby (who is in a wheelchair) is fine with the arrangement,  She is happily married herself now and treats young Thomas like a prince. (more…)

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Louise Erdrich–“The Butcher’s Wife” (New Yorker, October 15, 2001)

Posted in Alcoholism, Cancer as plot device, Gorilla Biscuits, Louise Erdrich, Rachel Kushner, Short Story, The Buzzcocks on February 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: GORILLA BISCUITS-Start Today (1989).

In a post from a couple of days ago, Rebecca Kushner mentions a bunch of punk bands that she either knew or hung out with.  I was amazed at how many of them I’d heard of but didn’t really know.  So this seemed like a good opportunity to go punk surfing.

Of all of the bands that Kushner mentions, Gorilla Biscuits were the only one that I knew pretty well.  I seem to recall a gimmick of this CD was that here were 99 tracks on it–possibly the first CD to have maxed out the track numbers?

Gorilla Biscuits released an EP and this album and then they broke up–although they do still tour and play a lot of punk festivals.  Start Today is considered one of the great albums from the New York hardcore punk scene.

It’s a pretty classic hardcore record, with almost all of the songs two minutes or less.  That’s fourteen songs in 24 minutes.  And there’s some great lyrics in these songs too.

“Degradation” was a pretty straightforward attack on the Nazi skinheads infiltrating the punk scene.

True, they’re always at our shows
It doesn’t mean we fit in with their hatred and racism shit
They ruin our name, you know what I mean
Racial supremacists, they degrade our scene
You know you can kiss my ass before I read you ‘zine
There’s no good side to this white power scene
Kids beat down for standing up
Your turn will come because we’ve all had enough

But the album also plays around with expectations a bit.  The album opens with a 20 second horn fanfare.  Despite the brevity of the songs, many of them stick in some (short, simple, melodic) guitar solos.

Plus, the title song “Start Today” has a cool heavy breakdown in the middle that tacks on a harmonica solo (!).  “Competition” includes a bit of whistling, too.

The album has two bonus tracks “Sitting around At Home” which is a Buzzcocks cover.  The vocals are very different on this one.  So much that I’d have guessed it was a different singer.

[READ: February 10, 2021] “The Butcher’s Wife”

This story is about the daughter of drunken Polish man who lived on a farm in Minnesota.

Roy Watzka loved his wife with all of his heart.  She died when their daughter Delpine was very young, and Roy fell apart.  He devoted more of his love to photoshop his deceased wife than his daughter.  Despite Prohibition, Roy found ways to drink and he drank a lot.

Delphine tried to get away–she went to secretarial school. But as her father’s health began to fail, she returned home to care for him.

When she went into town to get some food, she entered the meat market and met Eva Waldvogel.

Eva sensed a kindred spirit in Delphine and invited her behind the counter to taste the lard that she had prepared. Eva’s husband had been trained as master butcher in Germany and he had a special process to render his fat.  As they spoke Delphine mentioned her father and Eva knew of him (everyone did).

Soon enough Delphine was working in the shop.

Eva treated her like a sister.  Eva’s husband Fidelis was a tougher person.  He could haul hundred pound slabs of beef.  He was abrupt and barely spoke to Delphine.  She decided she would avoid him as much as she could while working in his shop. (more…)

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John Berger–“Passeur” (New Yorker, December 24 & 31, 2001)

Posted in Chess, Cro-Mags, Death, John Berger, New Yorker, New Zealand, Nostalgia, Old Age, Pigeons, Poland, Rachel Kushner, Short Story on February 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CRO-MAGS-The Age of Quarrel (1986).

In a post from a couple of days ago, Rebecca Kushner mentions a bunch of punk bands that she either knew or hung out with.  I was amazed at how many of them I’d heard of but didn’t really know.  So this seemed like a good opportunity to go punk surfing.

Cro-Mags are another of those classic punk bands that I never really listened to.  I mean, sure I’ve heard of them.  And that album cover is well known to me.  I just never gave them a listen.

This is their debut album.  They are still together but have only released 6 records.  And their later stuff is much more heavy metal oriented.  But this first one is classic punk.

There a whole bunch of really short songs–eight under two minutes.  But there  were hints at the metal direction because there are also some longer songs too.  Opener “We Gotta Know” is over three minutes and even has a wild guitar solo from Parris Mitchell Mayhew.  “Seekers of the Truth” runs to over four minutes and is comparatively rather slow paced.

But the punk elements are there too.  Chanted call and response and a song like “World Peace” has a good moshing break down.

Overall, it sounds a bit like a few of the metal albums form the 80s that I really liked.  There’s no reason I shouldn’t have listened to this back then.  They’ve even got pointed lyrics that as a teen I would have really gotten into

Interestingly, their follow up album, Best Wishes, had a big lineup change.  Their bassist (and the only guy who has been with the band for all of these years) Harley Flanagan took over on vocals.  His singing style was very different.  The short songs are gone and the metal feel really dominates.

In Kushner’s essay she talks about Harley the hare krishna and you can see that spirituality in his lyrics

Days of Confusion which is only 2 minutes long has this lyric

In these days of confusion much illusions try to get you
Try to trick you Every single day
Much aggravation and frustration
Devastation always heading my way
And I know why I’m suffering
Looking for satisfaction my mind keeps leading me astray
And I know and I see spiritually there’s gotta be a better way
It’s nice when bands do the right thing.

[READ: February 2, 2021] “Passeur” 

A man is in Krakow, the only major Polish city to have survived World War II without its buildings being severely demolished.

He is staying in “a pension” (which I’m picturing as a hostel) and asks where the nearest ATM is.  I enjoyed this line:

It’s not far, she said, sighing regretfully, as if she wished she were sending me to the other side of the world.

He says he has never been in this square before, but he knows it by heart.   Or at least he knows the merchants–grandmothers selling vegetables and home-made goods.

Then he looks in a barbershop and he sees a man who looks comfortable there, Ken.

Ken was born in New Zealand and died there. (more…)

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