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Archive for the ‘Paul Pope’ Category

Paul Pope, JT Petty & David Rubin–Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Bill Frisell, David Rubin, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, JT Petty, Murder, Paul Pope, Revenge, Sam Amidon, Superheroes, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on September 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

west SOUNDTRACK: SAM AMIDON & BILL FRISELL-Tiny Desk Concert #408 (December 1, 2014).

amidonThe first time I listened to this Tiny Desk Concert, I didn’t like Sam Amidon’s voice at all–he sings with a strangely flat delivery–almost monotone–but never actually off pitch.  It’s rather unusual sounding.

But the second time I listened I found it kind of interesting–compelling in an unexpected way.  I was also able to really hear what Bill Frisell was adding to the songs.

“Blue Mountains” is a folk story-song.  It is played with a very simple acoustic guitar piece and then, of course, Frisell’s interesting leads and chords that dd more and more texture as the song progresses.  The whole things is grounded by Shahzad Ismaily’s delicate drumming.

After the song, Amidon says, “Good morning, welcome to Washington DC.”  For “Pat Do This, Pat Do That,” a song about he banjo, Amidon switches to banjo.  This was my favorite of the three songs.  He plays the banjo very high on his chest (without a strap) and he plays quite fast.  It’s hard to decide to listen to Frisell’s interesting chords or to Amidon’s great banjo playing  For this song Ismaily switches to bass, which gives it lovely low end.

For the final song, Amidon gives a very long introduction about falling asleep on a pillow but dreaming that it is a little fuzzy donkey.  It’s a very strange introduction that doesn’t really end satisfactorily.  The final song is him on guitar, Frissell on electric and Ismaily on bass for a time and the switching over to drums.  Midway through Amidon switches to violin and plays a wild solo that he accentuates with a screeching voice.

It’s a most unusual and somewhat unsettling Tiny Desk Concert.  And I know I won’t be seeking out any more music by Amidon.

[READ: March 26, 2015] The Fall of  the House of West

This book follows The Rise of Aurora West with that cast involved.  I really enjoyed the resolution of the mystery of Aurora’s mom’s death, but otherwise I was kind of unimpressed by this book.

As with the previous book, I hate the way Rubin draws faces, especially Aurora’s–there’s too much face and not enough expression (conversely, his profiles are lovely).

Much of this story is fairly simple.  Aurora believes that she knows who killed her mother and she intends to get revenge.  But her father, the superhero Haggard West doesn’t want her to investigate on her own.  And her bodyguard/teacher is not going to let her do the work on her own, either. (more…)

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Paul Pope, JT Petty & David Rubin–Battling Boy: The Rise of Aurora West (2014)

Posted in Bob Mould, Cheap Trick, David Rubin, First Second :01, Foo Fighters, Graphic Novel, JT Petty, Kaki King, Pat Smear, Paul Pope, Superheroes on June 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

auroraSOUNDTRACK: FOO FIGHTERS-Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007).

330px-Foos-ESPGIt would seem that after recording the split acoustic and rocking In Your Honor and then touring a lot of acoustic music that the Foos were ready to make an album that combined both of these dynamics into one disc.  For many of the songs it means acoustic openings and super heavy end sections.  But some, particularity at the end of the album are completely acoustic.

Of course having said that, the album opens with a great heavy classic Grohl song, “The Pretender.”  A fantastic opener with the great chorus of “what if I say you’re not like the others.”  The next song, “Let It Die” opens with a real acoustic opening–not just mellow electric guitars but full on acoustic guitars (which Grohl has clearly become quite proficient at).  The switch to the really heavy chorus (not until almost 3 minutes into the song) is pretty intense–they pack everything into one song.

“Erase/Replace” is another great song–there’s an interesting twisting riff and an awesome chorus.  There’s some very nice contrasting with the smoother sections and even a cool guitar solo (there’s not too many solos in early Foos songs).  “Long Road to Ruin” is one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs–the chorus pushes all my yes buttons with the way it speeds up and has and the staccato stops in the middle of the chorus.  Fantastic.

“Come Alive” is another song with a slow mellow acoustic opening.  It builds slowly over 5 minutes to a noisy end.  “Stranger Things Have Happened” is the first fully acoustic song on the album that stays acoustic–there’s nothing heavy in it.  It’s got a classic Unplugged type of feel with two acoustic guitars playing off of each other, and a soloing section that has several pause click click resume moments.

“Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)” has a great riff and very poppy verses. It sounds like earlier Foo Fighters songs and reminds me of Cheap Trick with the “stop, stop” backing vocals.  There’s also several different sections which hearkens back to earlier songs.

And from this point on the album mellows out but in different ways.  “Summer’s End” has a folky jam band feel (even though it’s not acoustic.  It’s got a such a wonderful chorus.  It’s the first of three songs to feature Grohl on piano!  Taylor Hawkins plays piano on it too.  “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners” is a 2 minute instrumental written by Grohl.  There’s some lovely finger picking in the song and you can hear that Grohl has really developed his guitar playing.  Kaki King plays rhythm guitar on this song which is surprising as she is such a much better guitarist than he is.

“Statues” is a piano ballad (played by Grohl).  It feels totally classic rock, with the sound of the opening guitar solo and the chord progression.  “But, Honestly” is fast acoustic song.  The melody and backing vocals remind me a lot of Bob Mould’s style of song writing.  The song feels like it’s just going to stay in a mellow vein, but this song really ramps up at around 3 minutes with some simple but cool riffing and a big growling end.

The final song, Home,” is a pretty piano ballad (Grohl on piano and vocals) with strings.  It’s almost cheesy but avoid that trap.  It doesn’t have a  big chorus, and is rather understated.  It also provides the album with its title.

This is a really complex album that works to all of the band’s strengths and even lets them explore different styles a bit. Guests on the album include Rami Jaffee and Drew Hester from the live shows as well as Pat Smear (who is a sometimes member of the band, but only plays on one song here).

[READ: January 26, 2015] The Rise of Aurora West

I really enjoyed Paul Pope’s Battling Boy, but I didn’t really like the art work. So here’s the second book in the series with a different artist (and no color)–perfect!

I enjoy this David Rubin’s art a lot more because of his much cleaner page–it’s far easier to understand what’s happening here.  But at the same time I don’t really like the way he renders faces.  For instance, on the very first page, the bottom right image of Aurora–it’s really hard to tell what she is thinking in that image–is she angry or what (and her face seems kind of oddly misshapen).  And that is fairly consistent throughout–the eyes are too big or something?  I found it distracting but it didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of this story.

This story looks at the early life of Aurora West, the daughter of Acropolis superhero Haggard West (so Battling Boy does not appear in it at all). (more…)

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Paul Pope–Battling Boy (2013)

Posted in Dave Grohl, First Second :01, Foo Fighters, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Paul Pope, Petra Haden, Superheroes, Violence on June 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

battlingSOUNDTRACK: FOO FIGHTERS-Skin and Bones (2006).

330px-FFSkinBonesI totally missed this album when it came out.  Although since I prefer the heavier Foo Fighters songs, it’s not like I was queuing up to buy an acoustic show from them anyhow.

Nevertheless, someone had uploaded the first half of the DVD (part 2 never made it online) so that was my first exposure to this collection.  Comparing the DVD to the CD, I imagine I prefer the DVD because I really enjoy the silliness and banter (I do love banter) that Grohl brings in the live show (which seems like it may have been edited out of the CD).

The songs do sound good in the acoustic format.  Unlike many shows, these song are not stripped down.  In fact they are build up with eight people in the band, including Petra Haden on violin and Drew Hester on percussion.

I really enjoyed Grohl’s banter with the audience.  And I really enjoyed the end of “See You” (about where the first part cuts off) where everyone plays solos.  Grohl laughs at his inability to solo and then encourages Hester to do a percussion solo.  I really laughed how silly Grohl is (reminding me a lot of Jack Black) yelling at Hester for the various things he tries–no, I don’t like that do something else.  And even asking if he paid money for one of his little blocks.

Maybe one of these days I’ll see if the edited CD version is as enjoyable.

[READ: January 15, 2015] Battling Boy

Paul Pope is a famous graphic novel artist.  I’d heard of him and seen some of his work although I never knew exactly which stuff was his.

And as it turns out I really don’t care for his artistic style all that much.  It is quite distinctive, but it is very dark and kind of “sloppy/ugly” and I find it very unsettling to look at.  This book also has a very “superhero” look, which I have recently discovered I don’t like in general.

Which is quite a shame because this story is really interesting.

Set in the city of Acropolis, there are monsters everywhere (these monsters wander around with purple hoods on).  They seem to be after young children especially, so the kids are naturally afraid to even go get their soccer ball when it rolls into dark alley.  But when the monsters strike, Harggard West is there to save them. (more…)

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Paul Pope–Escapo (1999/2014)

Posted in Circus, Girl Band, Graphic Novel, Paul Pope on March 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

escapoSOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-France 98 (2012).

france98France 98 is the final piece of music available on Girl Band’s bandcamp site (every thing else is sold out and not streaming).  I assume the other songs will be on their properly released EP later this year.  (And from what I hear, their sets at SXSW were killer).

While their debut single was a noisy alternative rock and roll song, France 98 really ups the ante of buzzsaw guitar noise (that they seem to do even more on more recent tracks).

“You’re A Dog” has a dizzying riff that opens the song and only lets up for occasional forays into a more piercing noise.  The bridge (it’s not the chorus I don’t think because that seems to be at the end), is similarly dizzying with the vocals blending into the swirling guitars.  “Busy at Maths” actually slows things down with some fairly pretty guitar notes before the more conventional alt rock kicks in.  After the chaos of the first song it’s nice to bring it down ta bit with this sound.  “That Snake Conor Cusack” is one of my favorite songs by Girl Band, the bass is interesting and the riff is really full and kind of catchy.  I do find the part in the middle where he repeats “I finish dead last” over and over to be unsettling, but it’s still a cool song.  It ends with some scorching noise

And “side two” picks up with more noise.  The title song is a 75 second blast of 4/4 hardcore.  When all the instruments kick in it’s even noisier.  “Second One” brings a more reasonable beat to the proceedings.  It also has one of the more complex bass patterns.  It’s has a cool opening and is a fairly conventional song with lots of scratchy guitar noises.  And at nearly 6 minutes it’s really quite long for them.  “Handswaps” is a slow, menacing song that plays with feedback and effects over a slow bass line.  The blasts of guitar noise are pretty shocking when the rip out from the noise.

I’m really curious to hear what Girl band does next.  I’d like to see them live, but I fear more my ears.

[READ: March 19, 2015] Escapo

As far as I can tell this story was originally published in 1999.  This volume has the story in color and adds some new material as well.

I’ve been a little iffy on Paul Pope.  His visual  style is unsettling to me.  This is not a bad thing, it’s just not something I would go out of my way to seek out.  But I saw this book at work, and I pretty much always grab new graphic novels at work, and with Pope’s name on it, I figured it was worth a look.

And it is.  It’s an interesting book filled with Pope’s dark and slightly askew visuals.  It tells the story of Escapo, the circus’ master escape artist.  And as such, Pope’s visual work quite well in this circus setting.

There are a couple of short stories in the book.  In the first, Escapo is in love with the Magnificent Aerobella, the tightrope walker.  She is very pretty (Pope does draw pretty, but to my eye there is still something odd about the pretty woman–the scratches or the shadows or something.  Escapo is distracted by her–which can be deadly in his line of work. (more…)

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