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Archive for the ‘Sarah Manguso’ Category

Sarah Manguso–“The Grand Shattering” [Forum: How to Be a Parent] (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Lucius, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, SXSW on March 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: LUCIUS-“Dusty Trails” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 15, 2016).

luciusI’m kind of mixed on Lucius. I love the vocals of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, they are genuinely amazing.  But their music is often a little too poppy, too dancey for me.  So this stripped down version is just perfect.  It’s probably my favorite song of theirs now, (I haven’t even heard the original, yet).

The visuals of this lullaby are pretty awesome too.  The guitar players in the background, Jess and Holly stand on a bridge in electric blue body suits and shocks of red hair.  The image of party and dance is so contrary to the lovely music that they play.

The song starts as a kind of folkie, almost country song. The two guitars play nicely together.  And the women sing kind of gently, but with those harmonies intact.  Once they get to the chorus, though, Jess and Holly start belting out their song with their power and harmony.

And when they get to the middle section of “We’ll be alright,” the vocals are just amazing–powerful and loud and right on key.

The guitars drop out for a near a capella section–just a low drum keeping time–and they keep it up beautifully.  This song is a little too loud and intense to be a lullaby, but it’s great nevertheless.

[READ: February 10, 2016] “The Grand Shattering”

The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent.  Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic.  There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea.  Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.

I especially appreciated that the introduction which says “This forum…is not prescriptive but descriptive: not ‘how you should’ but ‘how we have.'”  Which is probably the best kind of advice a mother or father could give.”

I have enjoyed Sarah Manguso’s works.  Her last book talked a lot about her becoming a parent so this essay seemed right up her alley.

She begins by saying she never wanted to be a mother.  To her “mother” was a giving up of your self.  You couldn’t be a writer and a mother. And those writers who were mothers, she was sure that they gave up more of their writer-hood to have more motherhood. She says her fantasy at 23 when her friends were getting married was that she’d move upstate with them and seduce their neighbor’s children. (more…)

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Sarah Manguso–Ongoingness (2015)

Posted in Diary, Essays, Harper's, Mucca Pazza, Nostalgia, Sarah Manguso, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert on April 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

onfgoingSOUNDTRACK: MUCCA PAZZA-Tiny Desk Concert #419 (February 10, 2015).

Evmucca2en though I said that the Dan Deacon Tiny Desk was the most fun to watch, it is a close tie with this one from Mucca Pazza.  Mucca Pazza are a 23 piece band comprised of a huge horn section, violins, guitars, percussion, an accordion and even cheerleaders.  The group dress like a marching band (but everyone with a different colored (often ill-fitting) outfit).  The cheerleaders use caution tape as pompoms and do prompts between songs.  They tip their hats when songs are done.

They have been around for ten years (and have four albums out).  For this cramped Tiny Desk, they play four instrumental tracks (23 people and no vocalist!): “Subtle Frenzy” “J’accuse” “Dirty Chompers” and “Holiday on Ice.”

The songs are fast and fun and while there is an obvious marching band feel, they aren’t really marching band songs.  The electric guitar and strings tends to undermine the machine band tendencies (even if the xylophone adds it back).   Indeed, the electric guitars add a cool and sometimes disconcerting sound, like the guitar solo on “J’accuse” which is done on a teeny tiny guitar with a slide.

I love the melody of “Dirty Chompers”–such a fun song.  And “Holiday on Ice” is chock of full of the mayhem you might expect from the description of this band. The middle section slows down somewhat and sounds a little demented (in a good way) It also really highlights the different components of the group–with different horns playing different scales and the trombones keeping the main somewhat menacing riff consistent.

mucca 1So there’s a kind of Balkan Brass band element underpinning all of this–but there’s also discord and rock and psychedelia.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many people having so much fun before.  Their full stage show must be a riot.

You can watch the Tiny Desk here and listen to a full show (with a video of one song) here.

[READ: April 10, 2015] Ongoingness.

This book was excepted in Harper’s in December. I read the excerpt just a few weeks ago.  And then when I saw someone request it at work I found our copy and, since the book was short, decided to read it at lunch before sending it off to the requester (such power I wield!).

In my post about the excerpt, I said that I couldn’t imagine how there could be much more than the excerpt and that I wouldn’t want to read a lot more of the book.  Well, it turns out that the book itself is a brief 96 pages and the bulk of those pages are only a few lines.  So a rough count would suggest about 36 pages altogether–an easy to read at lunch request.  And that’s good, because if this book were 400 pages it would be either obnoxious or really tedious.

But at this length, it’s an interesting and enjoyable look at memory and life and how much we should be concerned about remembering. (more…)

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Sarah Manguso–“Keeping Time” (Harper’s, December 2014)

Posted in Aurelio, Diary, Excerpt, Harper's, McSweeney's, Sarah Manguso, Tiny Desk Concert on April 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

dec2014SOUNDTRACK: AURELIO-Tiny Desk Concert #424 (March 7, 2015).

aurelioAurelio is from West Africa.  He plays a nylon stringed guitar (finger picking and chords) and is accompanied by traditional Garifuna musicians and an electric guitar.  The Tiny Desk blurb says he “weaves together intricate layers of acoustic guitar to capture the polyrhythms of West African and the Caribbean.”

He sings in what I assume is Garifuna.  He is not young and his voice sounds like it.  From his chat, I believe he may also have been mayor once.

They play three songs: “Lándini,” “Funa Tugudirugu,” and “Nari Golu”  The guitar solos are (surprisingly to me) provided by the electric guitar while the acoustic keeps the rhythms.  The maracas and drum (box) keep the beat.  This is my introduction Garifuna music, which doesn’t sound too different from any other music (except the vocals of course).

[READ: March 22, 2015] “Keeping Time”

I’ve read somethings from Manguso before, in particular her McSweeney’s book of flash fiction.

This is an excerpt from a book called Ongoingness: The End of a Diary.  At first I found the entry a little annoying.  “I started keeping a diary twenty-five years ago.  It’s 800,000 words long.”  Manguso basically got into a frame of mind where she felt like she had to record everything–the perpetual loop of recording things as they happen and then recording how you feel about when you are recording them.

She says “I couldn’t face the end of a day without a record of everything that had ever happened.”  The fact that this was 25 years ago certainly predates the live bloggers and the daily diarists who tape everything. And it is interesting to see that her rather unhealthy obsession has been around longer than the technology allowed for it.

Manguso says she didn’t want to miss anything and by writing it down it was proof that she hadn’t.  She says that “the trouble was that there was so much I failed to record.” (more…)

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Sarah Manguso–“Motherhood” [Are You Sleeping? In search of a good night’s rest ] (Harper’s, August 2013]

Posted in Comedy Bang Bang!, Harper's, Parenting, Reggie Watts, Sarah Manguso, Sleep, Tiny Desk Concert, Van Halen on September 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

aug2013SOUNDTRACK: REGGIE WATTS-Tiny Desk Concert #227 (July 12, 2012).

reggieI know Reggie Watts from Comedy Bang Bang, but his name sounds familiar, like he’s been around for a long time.  And he has, although not in ways that I am familiar.  He’s been in a million bands (none of which I’ve heard of) and done a number of short films and concerts (prominently as of 2004).  Interestingly he was born in Germany to French and American parents.  And, yes, he lived his early life in Montana.

In his early bands, Reggie sang (he has a beautiful voice).  In recent years he has become sillier, doing improv and a lot of looped vocals.  he also has a lot of funny comedic lyrics.  But not all of them.  In this Tiny Desk concert, Reggie does three songs (with funny intros).  The first one “Song #4” is a “proper” song.

The other two are improved.  The middle one, about NPR is very funny (if you know your NPR).  In all of the songs he samples his voice creating bass lines and whatnot (he does amazing beat box work).  The set is really impressive that one guy can make so much beautiful music.

Although normally I enjoy just listening to the Tiny Desk shows, this is one that demands watching, just to see how he does it all.

[READ: September 6, 2013] “Motherhood”

Manguso writes about being a mother and how sleep deprivation as a new mom is actually somewhat enjoyable (I suppose she means in retrospect).  She doesn’t say anything all that new about being a mom and the experiences of waking up at the slightest sound (or lack of sound) from your children.  Although of course it’s original to everyone when it is their child.

And she does make some interesting observations about how when the baby is first-born you rush to help him or her at the first cry but as they get older you feel even more protective of them.   I also enjoyed the idea that maternal love is in no way a softening or weakening force but is actually a courageous act–sacrificing yourself for someone else. (more…)

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McSweeeny’s #42 “Multiples” or Twelve Stories Apperaing in Up to Six Versions Each (2012)

Posted in A.L. Snijders, A.S. Byatt, Aaron Grunberg, Adam Foulds, Adam Thirwell, Alan Pauls, Alejandro Zambra, Aleksandar Hemon, Alexis Romay, Andrew Sean Greer, Álvaro Enrigue, Camille de Toledo, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Cees Nooteboom, Chloe Hooper, Clancy Martin, Colm Tóibín, Daniel Kehlmann, Daniel Kharms, Danilo Kiš, Dave Eggers, David Mitchell, Death, Drinking, Enrique Vila-Matas, Etgar Keret, Fables, Fantasy, Florence Zeller, Francesco Pacifico, Francisco Goldman, Franz Kafka, Frédéric Beigbeder, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gary Shteyngart, Ghosts, Giuseppe Pontiggia, Heidi Julavits, Iron Maiden, Ivan Vladislavić, J. M. Coetzee, Javier Marias, Jean-Christophe Valtat, Jeffrey Eugenides, Joe Dunthorne, John Wray, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Jonathan Lethem, José Luís Peixoto, Julia Franck, Julie Orringer, Kenji Miyazawa, Laurent Binet, Lawrence Norfolk, László Krasznahorkai, Lydia Davis, Ma Jian, Marriage Trouble, Mary Faye Lethem, McSweeney's, Nadeem Aslam, Nathan Englander, Orly Castel-Bloom, Péter Esterházy, Peter Stamm, Poetry, Rawi Hage, Rodrigo Fresán, Sarah Manguso, Sheila Heti, Short Story, Sjón, Soren Kierkegaard, Tash Aw, Tom McCarthy, Translation, Tristan Garcia, Valeria Luiselli, Vendela Vida, Wyatt Mason, Yannick Haenel, Youssef Habchi El-Achkar, Zadie Smith on June 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

42SOUNDTRACK: IRON MAIDEN-Iron Maiden (1980).

Steve Harris was on That Metal Show recently.  Harris is the baimssist and primary songwriter for Iron Maiden and has been since their first album in 1980.  When I was in high school Iron Maiden was my favorite band hands down.  I had all their albums, I had all their singles, all their hard to find British vinyl 12 inch singles, even a few pictures discs.  Wonder if they’re valuable?

Every album was an epic event for me–I even played “Rime of the Ancient Mariner “off of Powerslave to my English class (not telling anyone it was 13 minutes long).

And then, after Somewhere in Time, I just stopped listening to them. Almost full stop.  I did manage to get the first four albums on CD, but the break was pretty striking.  I actually didn’t know that they’d had personnel changes in the ensuing years.  I’d vaguely heard that Bruce Dickinson  left, and that others followed, but I don’t think I quite realized that they were back to their big lineup these days.

Anyhow, Harris was so earnest and cool that I had to go check out some of their new stuff. Which was okay.  I’d need more time to digest, but then I had to listen to the first albums again.

And wow I had forgotten how much the first Iron Maiden album melds punk and prog rock into a wild metal hybrid.  There’s so much rawness in the sound and Paul Di’Anno’s vocals, not to mention the speed of some of the tracks.  And yet there’s also some epic time changes and starts and stops and the elaborate multipart Phantom of the Opera….  Wow.

The opening chords of “Prowler” are brutal.  But what’s surprising is how the second song “Remember Tomorrow” is a lengthy song that has many ballad-like qualities, some very slow moody sections–although of course each chorus rages with a great heavy riff and a blistering solo.  On the first two albums Paul Di’Anno was the singer.  He had a fine voice (it was no Bruce Dickinson, but it was fine).  What’s funny is that Bruce does the screams in “Remember Tomorrow” so much better in the live version that I forgot Paul’s vocals were a little anemic here.

However, Paul sounds perfect for the rawness of “Running Free” a wonderfully propulsive song with classic Harris bass and very simple metal chugga chugga riffs.  And this has one of the first real dual guitar solos–with both players doing almost the same riff (and later Harris joining in on bass).

“Phantom of the Opera” is the band’s first attempt at an epic multi-secton kinda-prog song.  It opens with a memorable, if slightly idiosyncratic riff and some wonderfully fast guitars/bass.  There’s a great slow bit that morphs into an awesome instrumental soloing section with bass and twin guitars playing a wonderful melody.

“Transylvania” is an instrumental that is challenging but probably not one of the best metal instrumentals out there, although again when Dennis Stratton and Dave Murray play in synch solos it’s awesome.  This track segues into “Strange World” a surprisingly trippy song (with effects that seem like keyboards but which aren’t).  It’s slow in a “War Pigs” kind of way, but it doesn’t entirely break up the album, because there are other slow bits on the disc.  It is a little out of place though.

Especially when “Sanctuary” blasts forth.  True, it wasn’t originally on the album (in the UK), but man, blistering punk or what!  “Charlotte the Harlot” was always one of my favorite songs (it taught me what a harlot was after all), it’s quite proggy, with a lot of stuttered guitar work and a middle section that features some loud and complex bass.  The disc ends with the by now almost immortal “Iron Maiden.”   A great raw riff opens the song, a harmony guitar partners it and the band blasts forth.  Who even knows what the lyrics area about, the song just moves and moves–There’s even a great chaotic bass/drum break in the middle.  And listening to the guitar noises in the solos at the end.  Amazing.  It’s quite the debut.

[READ: June 7, 2013] McSweeney’s #42

I have made it a point of (possibly misguided) pride that I have read every word in every McSweeney’s issue.  But this issue has brought that to an end.  As the title states, there are twelve stories in the book.  But there are also sixty-one authors writing in eighteen languages.  And there’s the rub.  One of my greatest (possibly misguided) shames is that I don’t speak any other languages.  Well, I studied Spanish and German, I know a few dozen words in French and I can read the Greek alphabet, but none of these would help me read any of these stories.  So, at least half of this book I didn’t read.

But that’s kind of the point.  The purpose of this book is to make a “telephone” type game out of these stories.  Stories are translated from one language to another and then re-translated back into English.  The translators were mostly writers rather than translators and while some of them knew the second language, many of them resorted to Google Translate or other resources to “read” the story.  Some people read the story once and then rewrote it entirely, other people tried to be as faithful as possible to the original.  And so what you get are twelve stories, some told three times in English.  Some versions are very similar and others are wildly divergent.

I normally write about the stories in the issues, but that seems sort of beside the point as the original stories were already published and were selected for various reasons (and we don’t even see any of the original stories).  The point here is the translation(s).  So, in a far less thorough than usual way, I’ll list the contents below. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #28 (2008)

Posted in Art, Austin City Limits, Children's Books, Consumerism, Fables, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, My Morning Jacket, NPR/PRI/PBS, Sarah Manguso on August 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Evil Urges (2008).

Looking back, I see that My Morning Jacket is the first band that I talked about.  And I also see that I didn’t say anything about the CD.  Which was not a criticism, it was just something I hadn’t realized I’d be doing yet.  Well, now let’s make up for it with the review of their latest album, Evil Urges.

Their live album Okonokos was my first introduction to MMJ (after seeing them live on the PBS show Austin City Limits, which blew me away).  This is my first listen to a studio record from them and I can’t say enough about it.  I’ve been listening to it in the house all the time.  What’s so impressive about Evil Urges is the utter diversity it contains, yet it also sounds unmistakably MMJ.  I’m sure this is mostly due to Jim James’ voice, but I think it goes beyond that.

Quite a large majority of the album feels like, as Sarah said, songs her parents used to listen to back in the 1970s.  And I can’t help but agree. The middle songs “Thank You, Too!” “Sec Walkin'” and “Two Halves” sound very much like treacly 70s AM radio, and yet, none of these songs sounds treacly, and…they all maintain enough of a contemporary feel that they don’t seem retro at all.  How do you make a retro song without it sounding retro?

But really, the whole album is fantastic.  “Evil Urges” is a funky opening, which segues into the almost unbelievably smooth sounding “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt 1.”  This is followed by the most controversial song of the collection: “Highly Suspicious.”   I’ve read a lot of reviews in which they deplore this song.  It’s unlike anything else on the record: a heavy, fuzzed out, staccato guitar riff with the chant of “Highly Suspicious” and Jim James singing some lines in an insanely high falsetto.  It seems to devolve into just shrieks of laughter by the end.  When I first heard it, I found it somewhat unsettling, and it really doesn’t fit the album at all; however, it is the song I find myself singing the most from the album. It’s a truly unforgettable song.  And, of course, I like it.

“Librarian” is a lovely, if somewhat outdated and cliched look at librarians (hey, I have to say it, I’m a librarian) but it’s ultimately a sweet, beautiful song about libraries and their employees.  And “Look at You” finishes up the “soft” portion of the record.  There’s about 6 of these soft/mellow songs and if “Look at You” wasn’t such a great singalong of a song, it would be one song too many, because of the anticipation of the rocking follow up: “Aluminum Park.”  I have no idea what its about, but the guitar riff is spectacular, and it brings a great change of pace to the record.  We finish up with two more heavier songs, and the penultimate song “Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream, Pt 2.”  This doesn’t reprise the opening song, but rather adds a new dimension to it.  It winds up being about 8 minutes long because the end just… keeps… getting…… slower……… and……… slow………. er……… AHHHHHHH!

Overall, a great album.  I always assumed I’d get Z someday, but since almost the whole record was recorded live for Okonokos, I never did.  I’m glad that Evil Urges has rekindled my MMJ fix. And Z will be coming soon.

[READ: August 23, 2008] McSweeney’s #28

McSweeney’s #28 is a beautiful creation to behold.  It is designed as 8 separate small volumes.  Two sets of four volumes are placed in a cardboard box (with no top).  They are held in with an elastic ribbon.  When all four are placed in correctly (with their backs face out) they create a beautiful painting.  The next four are held in with the same ribbon to create two paintings on top of each other…suitable for mounting! (well, not really, but it would look very nice face out on the shelf.)

Danica Novgorodoff painted the two beautiful puzzle pieces that make up the back covers of the books.  One (comprised of the books marked with *) is a predominantly yellow painting of a girl huddled in the woods.  The second is of coal miners working in the dark.  Both are evocative in very different ways.

There’s an introductory essay in the bottom of the “box.”  The essay was written by Jess Benjamin, a one-time intern at McSweeney’s, whose idea it was to create this volume.  Her idea was to showcase fables because:

Once upon a time, there was a simple, straightforward way of telling a story.  It was known as a fable.  All you needed were some talking animals, a human or two, a moral take-away, and a pithy delivery.  Space out the text, include some colorful illustrations, and you were in business….

The power of the fable lies in its ability to say what it means and mean what it says.  Its messages are compelling because they are not hidden, elegant because they are uncluttered, timeless because they are honest.  A fable does not discriminate; a fable loves everyone equally….

And, so, what we have is 8 volumes of fables.  Each volume is written by a different author.  And, each volume has illustrations (by different artists) on just about every other page.   As with all fables, each one is short and teaches a moral.  These are by contemporary authors and have a more contemporary, yet still globally applicable message.

Overall, this issue is light on words, but it more than makes up for it in illustrations and morals. (more…)

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Dave Eggers & Deb Olin Unferth & Sarah Manguso–One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box (2007)

Posted in Cop Shoot Cop, Dave Eggers, David Ouimet, Deb Olin Unferth, Firewater, Flash Fiction, Foetus, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, Meta, Motherhead Bug, Sarah Manguso, Short Books, Short Story, Swans on November 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »

145.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MOTHERHEAD BUG-Zambodia (1993).

zam.jpgMotherhead Bug is the creation of David Ouimet. David was my boss at Tower Records way back when. He has been in some other influential NYC bands like Swans and Cop Shoot Cop, and he’s worked with Foetus as well. He has since moved on to bigger and better things, including doing wonderfully creepy illustrations for YA books (like Cat in Glass and Double-Dare to Be Scared).

David was a founding member of Cop Shoot Cop, and then left to do other things. What I find most interesting about Zambodia is that it sounds fairly comparable to the band Firewater, a band that was created by Tod A, one of the other founders of Cop Shoot Cop. No idea if there was something in their collective water but it’s interetsing that they both pursued this bizarre hybrid of punk/industrial/klezmer/gypsy/circus rock.

If you know Firewater (and you should, they’re very good), Motherhead Bug would be something like a slightly more indie version of them (if you can imagine that). The unconventional aspects of the songs are more to the fore, and the instrumentataion is a little more peculiar. This is probably due to the fact that Ouimet is a trombonist and samplist (is that what you call a sampler player?). It is clear that his love of the horn section and freedom of samples allowed his creativity to run amock.

Ouimet’s vocals work in a gravelley context similar to Tom Waits, but less drunken-bluesman and more gothic spooky storyteller. The whole shebang sounds something like a Kurt Weillian nightmare. And yet, there is a great deal of humor involved. Having said all that, for all of its unconventiality, the songs are pretty standard verse chorus verse, 4 minutes long. It’s just what he does within those limits is pretty outlandish!

For a genre that has so many tentacles, Motherhead Bug fills a fun niche of industrial carnival music. If you like a chaotic noisy band, and you’re interested in unconventional instrumentation, then check out Motherhead Bug.

Hi David.

[READ: November 20, 2007] One Hundred and Forty-five Stories in a Small Box.

The format of these books is three books in a small box. Each book is a volume of short short stories or flash fiction. The books themselves are also small in size: slightly smaller than a mass paperback. So, when I say that a story is a page long, it is in fact, about a typical paragraph length. One of the tropes of the flash fiction movement is that you try and write a fully realized story in as short a space as possible. It is amazing how complete many of these stories turn out to be. Even though they are devoid of most of the trappings of a conventional story, they often convey a full range of emotion, and even some details. According to the Wikipedia entry, most flash-fiction pieces are between 250 and 1,000 words long. This should all give a sense for what’s in the box. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #17 [Made to Look Like It Came in Your Mailbox] (2005)

Posted in Dystopia, McSweeney's, Neil Young, Richard Thompson, Sarah Manguso on July 5, 2007| 1 Comment »

mcsweeneys17.jpg SOUNDTRACK: RICHARD THOMPSON-Sweet Talker (1992), Mirror Blue (1994), You? Me? Us? (1996).

Even though I’ve been raving about the “bootlegs” from RT’s collection, I’m not reviewing them here, because what’s the point. I’ll just rave. Go to his site, pick some songs you like on a disc, and get it. Simple. Although if you really like his guitar workouts then I totally recommend More Guitar, great solos on this one! The funny thing about RT’s work and the man himself is that he is a very funny, genial guy both in concert and in person, and yet his songs are (mostly) so bitter and angry (and yet also catchy). It is simply hard to believe that on one record you could have “Beeswing” and “Mascara Tears” (Mirror Blue, below). What an exceptional writer.

sweettalker.jpgSweet Talker. I found this used. It’s a mostly instrumental soundtrack to a film no one (including me) has seen. There are a couple of “real” songs on it, but mostly this is notable for the origin of “Persuasion” a tremendous instrumental song that RT has reintroduced in recent times with lyrics. I think as a duet with Tim Finn. I’ve also heard it as a duet with his son Teddy, and it is truly a great song. This album can easily be overlooked though (even though, blah blah blah the songs are solid and well played, they are mostly just designed as background music).

mirror.jpgMirror Blue. Allmusic.com is pretty harsh (as harsh as they get with RT that is) about the production of this record. I didn’t notice anything bad about it on this listen (they claim it is very keyboardy and washed out, but I didn’t hear it). The one thing I did notice though is how the first song on this record is not a hit (almost every other one has a song that leads off and you go YEAH!) and, oddly it sounds an awful lot like a Neil Young song (“Cinnamon Girl,” anyone?) But after that the album really picks up and anything resembling being derivative is gone. In fact: “I Can’t Wake Up to Save My Life,” “MGB-GT,” “Easy There Steady Now,” all superb. Allmusic also says that “Mascara Tears” is just a mean song, but I disagree. Plus, I’m still singing the chorus several days later!

youmeus1.jpgYou? Me? Us? As I mentioned before, this is the first RT album I ever bought. Weird place to start I guess. It is designed as a double CD with a Voltage Enhanced and a Nude disc. As you can tell the one disc is electric rockers, the other is acoustic (somewhat solo). My only gripe with the record is that usually the balance of soft and hard songs really compliments the record nicely. So, with this one, you don’t really have that. I also realized that since I was more of a rocker when I bought this, I listed to the Voltage disc a lot more than the Nude side. And why not? “Razor Dance,” which appears on both, and is strong in both incarnations, is really just sublime in the Voltage version. Such rage and such a great choppy electric guitar. This song really sold me on RT. Some other great tracks are “Dark Hand Over My Heart,” “Put It There Pal” (most of the lines of this song are always running through my head), and “The Ghost of You Walks.” A beautiful ballad is “She Cut Off Her Long Silken Hair.” I don’t have as much to say about the Nude side, even though I did listen to it twice today and it was all pretty familiar and good. I guess I think they did two versions of “Razor Dance” and “Hide It Away” and figured they’d make it two discs instead of one long one. Which is fine. I would have liked the two discs intermingled is all.

[READ: June 30, 2007 ] McSweeney’s #17.

This has got to be the strangest McSweeney’s package ever. It comes to you in a big clear bag “Made to Look Like It Came in Your Mailbox.” All of the items are addressed to “Maria Vasquez 4416 N 16th St Arlington, VA 22207.” (more…)

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