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Archive for the ‘Wells Tower’ Category

Wells Tower–”Vogalooooonga” (Outside, April 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Canoeing, David Sedaris, Drinking, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Odds, Outside, Phish, Travel, Wells Tower on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ODDS-Neopolitan (1991).

This was the first Odds album.  For such a quirky name, Odds played some pretty standard music. I’m not even sure if the first song qualifies as “alternative” as it sounds not unlike an early Phish song, only less quirky (and much shorter).

The disc offers a pretty nice range of poppy tracks, from acoustic based songs like “Are You Listening?” to louder guitar rockers liked “Evolution Time” (probably the most interesting track here).

Another notable song is “Wendy Under the Stars” a surprisingly explicit song about the day Elvis died.  The other track that stands out is “Love is the Subject” which has a harder more abrupt sound that is actually a bit premature for that style and sounds quite funky for this album.

Lyrically, the cleverest song (and one that seems to foreshadow their future songs is “Domesticated Blind” “Making babies, buying houses.  A French guy’s name is on our trousers.  We used to be such rabble rousers.  Before the world revolved around us; I’ve been domesticated blind”

I like this album, but I admit that it’s not the kind of disc that makes people go, “Ooh, who is this?  I want to get it!”

[READ: September 12, 2010] “Vogalooooonga”

This is the last of the Outside pieces that Tower wrote (not chronologically, just for my reading schedule).  And I’m really pleased that I saved it for last.

It does what Tower does best: tell a story while relating an event.  In fact, if he just changed a few details, this would make a great short story.

Wells and his brother have apparently been on many “assignments” together, and it transpires that when they travel together they often end up at each others throats.  So the piece opens with them agreeing to never do another story together again.  Then they get a call to go to Venice together to ride in the Vogalonga, “a 19-mile noncompetitive rowing regatta, held in late May, that promises a breathtaking tour of the old republic’s lagoon and outer islands” and that is traversed only in vehicles that can be paddled.  Wells’ brother says that they can’t pass up a trip to Venice, so he agrees to go along.

Based on the other stories that Wells has written, he is an athletic guy (and his brother is evidently bigger and stronger than he is).  Nevertheless, a 19 mile canoe trip in the canals of Venice can only lead to trouble.

And so this piece reads a bit like a David Sedaris story of familial in-fighting (although it’s a lot more manly than any of Sedaris’ pieces).  They fight from the get go (including his brother’s suggestion that they assemble their 17-foot canoe in their 10-foot hotel room.  And aggressive hilarity ensues. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”Love in the Ruins” (Outside, March 2007)

Posted in Alexisonfire, Biking, Canadian Music, City and Colour, Corporate skewering, Death, Natural Disasters, Nazis, Outside, Wells Tower on September 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR-Live @ The Orange Lounge EP (2010).

City and Colour is Dallas Green from Alexisonfire (he’s the one with the good singing voice as opposed to the screamy guy).

This EP contains 6 songs, 4 from his last album Bring me Your Love and the 2 hits from his first album Sometimes.

As with his previous live release [Live CD/DVD], he sings these songs solo.  Each song is done on acoustic guitar.  But unlike that Live album, this disc does not appear to have been recorded in front of an audience.  There is no cheering, no banter, just him and his guitar.

If you’re a fan of Green (and you really like his voice) this is a great release.  There are several spots where he sings in if not acapella, then with very quiet musical accompaniment so his voice is pretty naked.  This is a limited edition EP (apparently) but it’s a really good introduction to the man and his music.

I must say though that I never noticed just how obsessed with death he is!  This recording style really highlights all the times he says death or dead.  Huh.

[READ: September 12, 2010] “Love in the Ruins”

This was the darkest of all of Wells Tower’s Outside magazine pieces.  And although it has some humor, for the most part it was a sad lost-love letter to a city that he once knew.

One year after Hurricane Katrina, Tower went back to New Orlenas to ride his bike.  He had lived in New Orleans for a short time before Katrina hit and he used to ride his bike for long stretches across the Mississippi River levee.  He decided to revisit it to see what it was like after the disaster. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”My Kushy New Job” (GQ, August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Music, Corner Gas, Craig Northey, Drugs, Essays, Fears, GQ, Odds, The Kids in the Hall, Travel, Wells Tower on September 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Odds-nest (1996).

My friend Amber from Vancouver copied this disc onto cassette for me sometime around when it came out.   I had heard “Heterosexual Man” when it was a minor novelty hit in the early 90s, but Amber wanted me to hear more from this Vancouver band.

Since the Odds dissolved, Craig Northey has become a proficient soundtrack man (Corner Gas, Kids in the Hall, and much more). But back in the 90s, Northey was simply put, a great pop songwriter (his bandmate Steven Drake was no slouch either).

“Someone Who’s Cool” is a fantastic song that should have been huge: powerful pop with a hint of 90’s rock added to keep it from being treacly.  And, of course, Northey’s voice is great.  There’s nothing particularly notable about it: it’s not whiny or deep or twangy or anything, it’s just a good singing voice (which is kind of unusual these days).

“Make You Mad” and “Hurt Me” have really catchy opening guitar riffs (and are a bit heavier than “Cool,” and yet they feature choruses that are full of harmonies and sing alongs.

“Tears & Laughter” has a jagged, wild guitar sound that, while not overtly heavy or anything, really rocks on this disc. “Nothing Beautiful” should have been a huge indie rock hit, but maybe it was too polished for indie cred.  It’s a great minor key song with, yes, a very catchy chorus.

This was the final Odds record.  It’s a solid collection of songs.  Of course, the band has recently sort of reunited as the New Odds, so we’ve not heard the last from them.

[READ: September 11, 2010] “My Kushy New Job”

This article sees Wells Tower heading off to Amsterdam for a crash course in learning to sell drugs.  He is assigned a two-week job as a dealer in a Dutch coffeeshop.

I’ve been to Amsterdam and I checked out a coffeeshop while I was there, but this article provides more information than I ever knew about them (and suggests that they are trying to spruce up their image since then). It seems that the selling of pot in Amsterdam is still a nebulous area, legally.

Shops can only have a certain amount of supply on hand (which means that most stores have offsite premises where they keep their extra stash; they house more than the legal amount and are therefore illegal.  And, technically, the people who transport the stash from offsite to onsite can be arrested up until the moment they enter the shop.  Customers can only by a small amount at time and, strangely enough, coffeshops cannot advertise (more on this later).

Tower finds the whole experience to be far less “woah, cool man” than everyone who hears about the job thinks it will be.  First, he finds that the buyers are really intense (and don’t appreciate how long it takes him to measure a gram of hash).  But by the end, he finds most of them to be simply rude and a little dead inside. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”The Tuber” (Oustide, April 2009)

Posted in Dromedary Records, Essays, Futility, John Cheever, Nature, Outside, The Mommyheads, Travel, Van Halen, Wells Tower on September 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE MOMMYHEADS-“Needmore, PA” (2010).

This is the first single from The Mommyheads’ new Dromedary release Finest Specimens.  The album (which is sort of a greatest hits, but not) comes out next month, but until then you can hear th is new track at a number of places, including the blog largehearted boy (which has all kinds of cool free listens on it).

This is a 7 minute (live) track.  It opens with some cool keyboards.  They feature what I’ve come to think of as Mommyheads style, in which the bass and guitars (or in this case keyboards) play different things that seem unrelated but which work together.  A great chorus pulls it all together.

This live song has about 3 minutes of instrumental jamminess at the end.  It doesn’t really help the memorableness of the song (as you’ve long forgotten the catchy “That’s right” hook by the end of it), but man they sound great jamming together like that: a tight, psychedelic freakout that just builds in coolness.  It’s almost like two songs in one.

[READ: September 11, 2010] “The Tuber”

This essay is about Wells Tower riding the rivers of Southern Florida in a tube.  It’s also about John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.”

One of the things that I like about Wells Tower is that even in his non-fiction, he ties things together with literary substance.  And so, he sets up this adventure as a twisted take on Cheever’s Neddy Merrill swimming the 8 miles of swimming pools in suburban New York: Tower wants to try to tube the rivers of Florida all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”The Thing with Feathers” (Outside, March 2006)

Posted in Dromedary Records, Essays, Gene Sparling, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Nature, NPR/PRI/PBS, Outside, The Mommyheads, Wells Tower on September 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE MOMMYHEADS-“Day Job” (2010).

This is the final bonus track on Dromedary‘s recently reissued Mommyheads album Flying Suit.

This is probably the most conventional Mommyheads song that I know of.  It reminds me a lot of the music from Late Night with David Letterman.  It swings, it’s jaunty, it’s kind of funny and it has some almost zany guitar work on it.

It is probably the ideal “bonus track” for a band that usually writes quirky, off -kilter songs as it doesn’t sound like it should be on the album, but it is still in the spirit of the rest of the songs.  The jazziness if reminiscent of their other work, but there’s something oddly rocking about this track.  It’s a real treat.

Check the songs out (and buy them) here.

[READ: September 10, 2010] “The Thing with Feathers”

Wells Tower week continues with this article about the thought to be extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.  He mentions humorously in the article that NPR went crazy about the woodpecker when one was seen in Arkansas, and I remember that very well.  There were several pieces about the woodpecker and I was really excited about it.

Hairy Woodpecker

I’m not a serious birdwatcher, but ever since I saw my first hairy woodpecker at my apartment in Boston, I’ve been a huge fan of having birds around. The hairy woodpecker is tiny (and very cute).  Since we moved to a wooded area of New Jersey, I’ve been lucky enough to see a red-bellied woodpecker and, I believe, the even more elusive pileated woodpecker.  We’ve even had flickers in our yard.

So this article sees Wells Tower heading down to Arkansas to talk to the man who claims to have seen the first Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Gene Sparling.  The man who caused all the fuss to begin with back in 2005.

And this is a great piece of non-fiction.  Tower brings his excellent storytelling skills and describes a trip into the Arkansas woods looking for this possibly extinct bird. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”Cannery Woe” (Outside, November 2005)

Posted in Dromedary Records, Essays, Nature, New Yorker, Outside, The Mommyheads, Travel, Wells Tower, Yuck! on September 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOMMYHEADS-“Over” (2010).

Dromedary has recently reissued The Mommyheads’ Flying Suit CD.  And there are three bonus tracks available on it now.

I mentioned Flying Suit a little while ago.  What I really liked about that disc was that it was all over the place and yet remained comfortably within its genre of jangle pop-rock.

This first of three new tracks is just under 2 minutes long.  It has a watery guitar and a propulsive bass, and yet it is still a sort of delicate song.  The vocals, as with the rest of the disc, are soft, with nice harmonies.  It’s hard to get overly excited about the song (as it’s not like a sonic blast of 2 minutes), but it’s nice to have even more Mommyheads.

Bonus track number 2 tomorrow.  Check the songs out (and buy them) here.

[READ: September 9, 2010] “Cannery Woe”

Since I recently read the Wells Tower story in the New Yorker, I remembered that I was going to read his other travel stories from Outside.  I started with this one because it is shortest (1 page).

Tower has a wonderful grasp of storytelling. So even a fairly simple story like this (where really nothing terrible happens) is made quite exciting. And the twist, such as it was, is totally unexpected. (more…)

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Wells Tower–“Best Towns 2008: New Orleans, LA”(Outside, August 2008); “Extract a Tick from Your Junk” (Outside, July 2007) and “7 Questions with Wells Tower” (Outside, March 2010)

Posted in Adventure, David Foster Wallace, Dromedary Records, Essays, Outside, The Mommyheads, Travel, Wells Tower, Yuck! on September 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE MOMMYHEADS-“Box” (2010).

After the two minute bonus track of “Over” comes the lengthy (very lengthy for The Mommyheads) “Box”.

I’m not sure what the song is about, but it’s got some great licks within it.  It opens with a twisted guitar opening, one that never sems to settle.  In fact, the entire first verse seems like the song doesn’t quite know where it’s going (which is deliberate, of course).

Because by the end of the second verse we get a very lengthy instrumental break that is ferocious in its coolness.  It begins softly and then morphs into a psychedelic workout: harmonized guitar notes, funky drumming, and yet all within a mellow styling.  It’s very clever.

Its a strange song and it may be my favorite Mommyheads song of all.  It’s an excellent bonus track.  Check the songs out (and buy them) here.

[READ: September 9, 2008] “New Orleans, LA”

This is probably the most straightforward “reporting” piece that I’ve read by Tower.  As such, it doesn’t have a lot of flair to it.

It’s an interesting look at the rebuilding of New Orleans, into what appears to be a greener, stronger and better city than ever before.  It almost seems like you need a terrible catastrophe and the goodwill of citizens to make a place even better than it was before.

He mentions a few individuals who were (and maybe still are) doing extra work to rebuild the city, and they are quite inspirational.

It’s available here.

Because it was so brief, I’m pairing it with another brief but much more entertaining article: “Extract a Tick from Your Junk” from the “How to Do Everything (Well Almost)” piece from the July 2007 issue.  (more…)

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Wells Tower–“The Landlord”(New Yorker, September 13, 2010)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Art, Consumerism, Dromedary Records, Footstone, Friends Romans Countrymen, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, New Yorker, Outside, Short Story, Wells Tower on September 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STUYVESANT-Jihad Me at Hello (2010).

Stuyvesant (one of the hardest band names to spell) is an amalgam of the defunct New Jersey bands Footstone and Friends, Romans, Countrymen.  And so, as you might expect if you know these other bands, they play noisy rock with a healthy dose of pop.

The opener, “Bi-Polar Bears” is a great example of their punky pop (complete with an unexpected horn section).  The second track, “Tape Hiss” sounds like Footstone (Ralphie’s voice is very distinct here) although the “do-do-do” harmonies are something new to the sound.

There’s more surprise from a major break in “Ode to Bish” which features a “waka jawacka” guitar and a horn solo.  “Liars Poker” also features some cool bass vocal harmonies (something of a rare treat in rock music).

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the slow opening of “Broken Red Wing.”  I was pleasantly surprised that after the slow opening, it did not jump quickly into a song that sounded like the rest on the disc.  Guitars kick in but they are not the same crunchy style.  The track shows an unexpected diversity on the disc.

While I have enjoyed both the Footstone and FRC releases, I think this conflation of the two makes for the best overall package.  It’s a great EP, and I’m looking forward to the full length.  This EP is available for free.  That’s right, for free.  So even if you hate it, you can still download it for free.  In any format, and then you can burn it to a CD, in the format that music is meant to be enjoyed.

[READ: September 8, 2010] “The Landlord”

Wells Tower is another 20 Under 40.  I’ve enjoyed the few short stories(although I haven’t read his collection yet) and the non-fiction he’s written for Outside magazine.

This story feels like an excerpt from a longer piece because there are a lot of different characters who seem like there’s more to them.

The main character is the landlord, Mr Pruitt.  He owns a lot of properties, but in the current market he has had to sell a number of them.  And, of course, his tenants are paying him less and less frequently.  As the story opens we meet one of those tenants, Armando Colón, who is three months overdue.  Armando has a solution to his problem which he presents to Mr Pruitt.  When Armando leaves, Mr Pruitt’s worker, Todd Toole mocks him for letting people fuck him over. (more…)

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Wells Tower–“Meltdown” (Outside Magazine, April 2008)

Posted in Adventure, CBC Radio 3, Essays, Sloan, The Guthries, Travel, Wells Tower on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE GUTHRIES-“Coax Me” (2009).

I don’t know The Guthries, but I’m a huge Sloan fan.  This cover of “Coax Me” comes from a Sloan tribute album that I didn’t know existed called Take It In: A Tribute To Sloan. It turns out The Guthries released two albums in 1999/2000 and then broke up.  They reunited for this tribute.

It’s tough when a band that you’ve never heard of releases a cover of a song you particularly like.  Now, I love cover versions of songs, but I like a band to add something interesting to the cover.  I haven’t listened to any other Guthries songs, but this cover sounds enough like the original that I wouldn’t have really known it was a cover but for a few slight differences   Browsing through The Guthries CBC Radio 3 playlist, lets me know that they are a very country band.  It’s surprising how untwangy their cover is, then.  Even though I don’t like real country, I might have enjoyed the cover more if it had some more twang to it (just to make it interesting).

After listening to samples of other songs, I won’t bother with anything else by The Guthries.  The tribute album is made up of a bunch of up and coming bands so I don’t think I’ll bother with that one either.

[READ: June 25, 2010] “Meltdown”

Before I even begin this review, I have to say that Outdoor Magazine has one of the worst websites for reading articles.  Each “page” is a few inches long, which is fine. However, there is no “view all” page, so you can’t see the whole thing in one long swoop.  Okay that’s not the end of the world, but when you click their printer friendly version, not only does it not print the entire article, it prints the one page–the text is very small and the page includes all the other website ephemera with it.  Then when you click the next page, it opens up the previous main window, where you then have to reclick the Print icon to get it to print just that page.  If you return to the same print window that you already have open, even if it says it has moved to page three, you’re still printing page two. Dreadful!

Hot on the heels of “Own Goal” someone had recommended this Wells Tower piece as a better nonfiction essay.  And I have to agree.  I assume it is because the subject is a) personal to him and b) interesting to me. (more…)

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Wells Tower–“Own Goal” (Harper’s, June 2010)

Posted in CBC Radio 3, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Harper's, Soccer, The Warped 45's, Wells Tower on July 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE WARPED 45’s-“It Takes a Toll” (2010)

The Warped 45’s were being interviewed when I turned on CBC Radio 3.  I couldn’t tell much about them from the interview, so when the DJ played the song, I was somewhat surprised to hear the banjo and alt-country sound.  When coupled with the vocals, they bore an unmistakable resemblance to Cracker.

I’m not a big fan of the alt-country genre.  I like some bands but overall it’s not my preference.  This song was absolutely representative of the genre (as far as I’m concerned).  It did pretty much exactly what I thought it would do.  And for all of  that, it was a good song.  I can’t imagine I’d ever listen to it again, however.

This song comes from the album 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan, which I mention because I like writing Saskatchewan.

[READ: June 22, 2010] “Own Goal”

The fine folks at the David Foster Wallace listserv were chatting about this piece.  I had started to read it (because I like Wells Tower’s fiction) but I gave up after a paragraph or two.  It just didn’t seem that interesting as a nonfiction story.

And yet, after the discussion, I decided to give it a try.  It is a fascinating story about the Homeless World Cup (in soccer).   The strange thing about the story is that all of the players are homeless and, by their own admissions, pretty much desperate characters. In other words there’s not really any likable characters in this piece.

Even the one guy who makes it to the finals in Melbourne Australia (!) is pretty much of a jerk.  (He, who has gotten kicked out of his house, has the temerity to dis Melbourne as “not being Sydney”). (more…)

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