SOUNDTRACK: LAURA GIBSON-Tiny Desk Concert #200 (March 5, 2012).
I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars. But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.
Laura Gibson performed the first Tiny Desk Concert in 2008. The whole enterprise was started because of her. Bob had seen her in a club and her quiet music was overpowered by the audience. So he invited her to play in his quiet office. And now, here it was 200 shows later and Gibson is back–the first person to headline twice.
Things have certainly changed since then. There was one camera on her face and another on her guitar. There was minimal editing and the sound was fine.
Since then they have stepped up the game–multiple cameras, professional lighting and, as Stephen Thomspon writes: Bob’s desk “permanently houses a microphone that’s worth more than my car. (Three hundred dollars!).”
2006 was the release year of her debut album. She had put out her third album in 2012. She was quite back in 2006 and is still quiet in 2012. But for this show she has brought along some help: Brian Perez – Vocals, Percussion; Matthew Berger – Drums; Johanna Kunin – Vocals, Piano, Flute; and Jill Coykendall – Clarinet.
The songs are very quiet. “Feather Lungs” begins with some lovely harmony vocals and then Gibson on keyboard. The flute and clarinet add layers of music which really fleshes out this quiet song. The thumping drum that opens “La Grande” really sets the tone of a much heavier song. This proves to be a romping song with Gibson on guitar and a lot of intensity behind her.
“Milk-Heavy, Pollen-Eyed” slows things down again, with quiet percussion and Gibson’s delicate guitar and vocals. She says that the last time she was there it was a Monday morning and there was not much enthusiasm to sing along with her. But since it’s a Friday afternoon, she invites eveyone to hum a long to “The Rushing Dark.” Of course, she has backing vocalists so it’s unclear if anyone else joins in, but this a capaella song sounds lovely.
[READ: December 6, 2016] “Bestiary”
Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar. Which is what exactly? Well…
The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas. This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.
I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived (a few days late for advent, but that was my fault for ordering so late) I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.
“Bestiary” is an interesting “short story” because it is not exactly a short story. It’s not even exactly fiction. Rather, after an excellent epigram from Robert Kroetsch “We are the animals who talk the fables in which the animals talk. We are talking animals, claiming that animal’s don’t talk.” The piece consists mostly of factual stories about animal behavior.
Each one opens with a title that ties into the piece beneath it. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 