SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-“Carry the Zero” (1999).
I loved “Carry the Zero” so much that I immediately bought the CD single (that’s what you did back in the 90s).
The Ep contains 6 songs. There’s two tracks from Keep It Like a Secret (“Carry the Zero” & “Sidewalk” which is good in itself), 2 new songs (“Forget Remember When” and “Now & Then”) and 2 live songs “Kicked it in the Sun” and “Big Dipper.”
The two unreleased songs are good, but neither one is quite as immediate as anything on the album. Of course, if you’re looking for extra BtS tracks, these are just waiting for you.
The real gems are the two live songs. Both of them are solo acoustic guitar recordings recorded in a tiny setting. They are quite different from the album. I feel that “Big Dipper” fares a little better since the song is simpler. There are some complex chord changes in “Kicked It in the Sun” which lose a little of their immediacy in the stripped down version. Which is not to say that it’s bad–the first half of the song sounds great–it’s when it gets to the middle that it feels a little cumbersome.
So this is certainly a die-hards only release, but if you’re looking for some unusual BtS recordings, this is a great place to start.
[READ:October 2, 2015] Amerika
This is a graphic novel version of Franz Kafka’s Amerika. And it is really well done. The artwork is fantastic–clean lines, distinctive characters and wonderfully detailed background scenes.
I don’t know the original story at all, so I assume that Godbout was faithful to it (the back of the book says he was). Actually, this graphic novel was translated by Helge Dascher, so I wonder if she translated Godbout of Kafka?
Unlike so much of Kafka, this story isn’t really “Kafkaesque.” There is some darkness to it and there are machinations of trouble for the main character, but it is not a perpetual state of nightmarish life.
Karl Rossmann is a young immigrant to America. (Kafka had never been to America, but he gets quite a lot right). He was sent to America because of an embarrassing sexual incident (which is rendered rather humorously). When he arrives in New York harbor, he disembarks from the ship but forgets his umbrella. So he races back on the ship. But instead of finding it, he runs into the ship’s engine stoker. The hulking man is suspicious if him, but after they talk for a few minutes Karl convinces the stoker to air his grievances about his supervisor to the ship’s captain. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 