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Archive for the ‘Consumerism’ Category

William H. Gass–The Tunnel (1995)

Posted in Big Books, Books about writers, Consumerism, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marriage Trouble, Pixies, Starlight Mints, William H. Gass on August 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STARLIGHT MINTS-Built on Squares (2003).

The Pixies were a weird band….  They wrote fantastically catchy alterna-rock, and yet, deep down, they were pretty weird, with shouty parts and quiet parts and bizarro lyrics about slicing up eyeballs and monkeys going to heaven.  Well, imagine if their music was REALLY weird, going beyond guitar/bass/drums to incorporate cellos, triangles and samples.  That approximates the Starlight Mints.  I first heard them on a sampler.  Their track “Submarine #3” blew me away.  It was under 2 minutes long and was weird and wonderful.  I can’t recommend that song highly enough.  Their debut album was solidly weird too.

This is the follow up, several years in the making.  And, all the parts are in place. The orchestration is a bit bigger, and yet it is still a somewhat unsettling listen.  Just as you think you get the pace of a song, they’ll throw in an unusual cello riff, or some unexpected sample.  This is not to say that the songs aren’t catchy, you just have to listen carefully for the catchiness.  And, since the songs are all under 3 minutes or so, you have to listen quickly.

I mentioned the Pixies because the second half of the album (and most of their first one) really sounds like a Pixies record.  In fact, there are parts of the songs (surf guitar, sparse solos, and Alan Vest’s voice which at times is an uncanny match for Black Francis’) might make you think you found a long lost Pixies track.  Then, of course, they throw in a trumpet, and you say, nope, not the Pixies.  So, if you like the Pixies, but wish they were just a bit more odd, definitely check out the CDs by these guys.

They released one other album after this one.  I’ve no idea what they’re up to now.  They have a MySpace page, but there’s not much on it except for a couple of songs.

[READ: June 2008] The Tunnel

I bought this book when it came out way back in 1995.  (more…)

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Julie Hecht–Do the Windows Open? (1998)

Posted in Consumerism, Frank Zappa, Funny (ha ha), John Zorn, Julie Hecht, Neurotics, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Ornette Coleman, Short Story, The Mars Volta, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator on August 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARS VOLTA-The Bedlam in Goliath (2008).

I’ve liked Mars Volta more in theory than in actuality for their first few albums. I enjoyed them, but they didn’t make me want to listen all the time. I had heard good things about this new one, so I gave it a shot and WOW. The Bedlam in Goliath is off the charts in its craziness and its masterfulness.

Bedlam has most of the same components of a Mars Volta disc: chaos, noise, fantastic instrumentation, bizarre lyrics, jazz-like elements and metal, sweet metal. But for some reason, Bedlam seems to cohere into a masterful project. I haven’t listened to the first two discs in a while (but I’m sure going to check them out again), and I never got the third one, so I can’t really compare them. This one just seems to have something special to it.

The overall sound makes me think of someone tuning in a radio. Some parts are (deliberately) fuzzy, some are crystal clear. As the sound of one segment fades out a new, entirely different section blares in. Anyone who channel surfs can appreciate the sound of this.

All of the literature about this record talks about their use of a Ouija board during their tour and while recording. They bought it in Jerusalem and they say it had a horrible impact on the recording process. (Check out this NPR story…yeah, that’s right, I said NPR.) And, in many respects, rather than a radio, you could think of the album as the voices and sounds from the Ouija board coming through. Some are crystal clear and other are mechanized and ghostly. Spooky, eh?

But what of the music? It is fast, fast, fast. Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s voice is a powerhouse of high-pitched, operatic notes. And the music keeps pace. And yet, despite the speed the album isn’t thrash metal or speed metal necessarily. It doesn’t all have that heaviness, it just has a lot of speed. It lets up once in a while, but for the most part in every song something is going fast: drums, bass, voice, something.

One of the perplexing things about the record is how each song seems to have multiple parts that are unrelated to each other…some songs even have longer breaks within the track than between them. For instance, tracks one and two, the nearly 6 minute “Abernikula” and the over 8 minute “Metatron” blend seamlessly into one long track. However, midway through “Metatron” the song stops for a good second or two and then begins with a brand new, wonderfully catchy riff, which runs through the rest of the song. Truly masterful, and yet impossible to know what track you’re on, half the time.

The album is about an hour long, and it’s such a roller coaster of rocking guitars and high speed chases.  And yet it doesn’t wear out it’s welcome, because the catchy bits are so incredibly catchy. I was amused to see that there is a “single” on the record called “Wax Simulacra.”  It’s the shortest song, possibly that MV has ever done at under 3 minutes, which makes it an ideal single.  Except that the last twenty or thirty seconds are taken up with a mind blowing saxophone solo that could be lifted from Ornette Coleman or John Zorn (and this is a single?).  In fact, the horns come into play a lot on the record.  There’s one or two motifs that sound like they could be taken from a Zappa piece (the Zappa song “Sofa” kept popping into my head during this record. And you can’t ask more from a record than to make you enjoy it while it makes you think of other great music too.

[READ: July 20, 2008] Do the Windows Open?

I read an interview with Julie Hecht in The Believer (some of which is available here). And boy did she come across as an unlikable person. (more…)

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Steven Millhauser–“The Next Thing” (Harper’s, May 2008)

Posted in Black Sabbath, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Harper's, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, The Sword on July 25, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SWORD-Gods of the Earth (2008).

So I used to be really into heavy metal. I’m not so much anymore, although I do enjoy the occasional bout of heaviness. However, I had been listening to some Black Sabbath recently, and I guess I was in the mood, because when I read some descriptions of The Sword, I was intrigued. Black Sabbath kept coming up as an obvious precurosr. So with that and the reviews saying they use silly middle earth swords and sorcery lyrics and they have screaming guitar solos, I had to get it. It sounded great.

And the first track, a fantastic instrumental, lived up to the hype. It’s fast, it’s furious, the guitars are totally something that I would have HAD to learn how to play back in high school. It was amazing. And then the second song kicked in, and it was great too. Finally I got to hear the singer, and when he started singing, the lead guitar played the vocal line in tandem and it was awesome. And then the lead guitar stopped and the voice was….where? It was mixed way way way in the background, sounding like he was in the next room. What was the point of all the weird fantasy lyrics is you couldn’t hear them?

And so it is with the bulk of the album. The music is first rate: excellent riffs, great harmonized guitar solos, Middle Eastern (by way of Led Zeppelin) atmospheres. The acoustic guitar even pops up in a couple of places too, showing a nice range of diversity. All kinds of things that make metal so wonderful. And yet, it’s so hard to get into the voice. It sounds kind of reedy and thin. If you crank it up really loud, it kind of works. His voice does creak through on occasion. And yet, with bombast like this, you expect the voice to be out there in front, leading the way like Bruce Dickinson or Rob Halford. I guess if you grew up listening to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, you have a certain, if not standard, then expectation. Maybe if you grew up listening to some of the great stoner bands of the 90s, the muted voice is just par for the course, which is fine, but the guitar riffs don’t jibe with that. And, frankly, I just don’t hear Black Sabbath at all.

The album ends with two strong instrumentals. The 5 minute, powerful, chugging along, rifftastic “The White Sea” and then an untitled acoustic-jam-type ballad that is totally incongruous with the rest of the disc and yet seems to put a mellow calm over the whole proceedings.

Reviews of their first album suggest that the overall mix isn’t like this one. It has more Black Sabbathy. I can’t decide if it would be worth getting. I may have to just pull out We Sold Our Souls for Rock n Roll instead.

[READ: June 30, 2008] “The Next Thing”

This was a wonderfully subversive story. It is actually quite simple in scope: on the edge of a small community, a new shopping center called “The Next Thing” is being built and causing rumors to fly. (more…)

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Faith Erin Hicks–Zombies Calling (2007)

Posted in 28 Days Later, Art Spiegelman, Canadian Content, Cherry Garcia, Consumerism, End of the World, Faith Erin Hicks, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Grateful Dead, McSweeney's, Oni Press, Phish, Scream, Set at School, Sirius Radio, Supernatural, Technology, Universities, YA Books, Zombies on June 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Sirius Radio-The Grateful Dead Channel

I’ve never been a big fan of the Dead (even though I like Phish quite a bit). I never really got into the subculture, and really the music seemed peripheral to their fanbase. I recall being very disappointed when I bought What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been back when I was a metal head and couldn’t believe that a band with that name and with skeletons all over the place was that wimpy.

Well, it turns out that Sarah was something of a fan, and, after all these years of listening to Phish, I’ve grown an appreciation for the Dead as well (and Cherry Garcia, of course).

So, as we have Sirius radio, we put on the Grateful Dead channel one night. It’s a fascinating channel, as it sounds like it’s some guy playing all of his Dead bootlegs. It was funny to not hear any LP tracks. I found the whole experience rather pleasant. It worked great as background music, and was utterly inoffensive (not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know but). I enjoyed the experience and would definitely do it again. Probably not anytime too soon, after all, that was a lot of Dead to ingest. But someday, I’m sure…

[READ: June 10, 2008] Zombies Calling

Aside from Oni Press, my favorite comics publisher is SLG, Slave Labor Graphics. They’re generally a little darker and weirder than the Oni stuff, so it suits my dark side when needed. (more…)

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Lewis Black–Nothing’s Sacred (2006)

Posted in Books about writers, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Lewis Black, Memoirs, Political Humor, Rush, Short Books, Smarty Pants, Sparks, The Daily Show, War, WMDs on June 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Sparks-Sparks (1972).

I first got into Sparks when I was working at Tower Records in Paramus, NJ. My coworker Tommy used to play Sparks’ then current album Plagiarism (an album of covers of their own songs!) and it was so weird and intriguing, that I bought it for myself. Since then I have been collecting their back catalog, which isn’t easy as many haven’t been released here.

So what do they sound like? Well, the singer Russel Mael has an astonishing falsetto. Making Rush’s Geddy Lee seem quite butch. Mael leads the band to crazy vocal extremes, making even a normal sounding song seem quite bizarre (This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, for instance). Russel’s brother Ron (known for his Chaplin/Hitler mustache is quite an accomplished pianist, and his sense of songwriting is, while unusual, certainly great. They were quite popular in the UK and Europe, so most people assume they are a Euro band but they hail from UCLA and thereabouts.

So, this album is their debut (when they were called Halfnelson). It was produced by Todd Rundgren (!) and is a bit more rock than their later new wave/disco hits. (And judging from the album cover photos, you can see that at the very least they’re trying to look like rock and rollers (all long hair and open shirts–even if Ron looks like Zappa). And so, this album pretty well lays the ground work for the Sparks of the future: weird, operatic and unexpected.

There are two songs that still make it onto “Greatest Hits” compilations: “(No More) Mr. Mice Guys” (in no way related to the Alice Cooper song, and “Wonder Girl.” Each one displays the signature style of future Sparks classics, but it still has a weird 1970s rock feel to it. It’s a pretty wacky beginning, but really it only hints at the fun to come.

[READ: Winter 2006] Nothing’s Sacred.

Like with Kate Clinton’s book, I found Lewis Black’s book while I was weeding the essay section of our library. I had no idea that Black had written a book, and since I love his rants on The Daily Show, I figured I’d give it a read.

My first surprise was that this was a memoir, not a collection of jokes. (more…)

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Kate Clinton–What the L (2005)

Posted in Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Kate Clinton, Olu Dara, The Progressive on June 7, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: OLU DARA-In the World: From Natchez to New York (1998)

A friend of mine (Hi Jon!) made me a copy of this CD several years ago, and I just found it again and popped it in. I was delighted with how much I enjoyed it. I’d never heard of Olu Dara before, and I was quite pleased with the results. It’s a fun carribbean-esque/New Orleans jazz feeling CD. “Okra” and “Your Lips” are particularly fun. The only downside is “Jungle Jay” a rather uninspired rap. I just found that the rap is done by Nas, who is Dara’s son. I don’t know of Nas’s raps, but I assume they must be better than this one.

Overall, this record gives a nice upbeat feel of the heat in the summer time. Even though it has some raw sounding moments (his voice sounds quite vulnerable at times) it still maintains a good, solid sound. Knowing my tastes, I wouldn’t get more by Dara, and I wouldn’t listen to this all that often, but when the mood strikes, this will really hit the spot.

[READ: Winter 2006] What the L

I got tangled up in life, so I forgot that there were a number of books from a while back that I wanted to add to this blog listing. I’m going to intersperse them throughout here, but as you’ll see, some were read nearly two years ago, so I may not have all of my thoughts straight about them. (more…)

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Min Jin Lee–Free Food for Millionaires (2007)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Digression, Foreign Books, Marriage Trouble, Min Jin Lee, Pearl Jam, Religion, Rush, Set in New Jersey!, Smarty Pants, Twin Peaks, Universities on May 28, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Snakes and Arrows Live (2008).

Rush puts out a lot of live CDs. They started out back in the 70s by doing a live record after every four studio records. Then at some point they broke the pattern and just went nuts with the releases. The pro and con of a Rush live CD is that it sounds pretty much exactly the way the studio record does (because they are perfectionists, they duplicate the studio solos exactly). So, why get a live record? because it’s fun to hear them duplicate these sounds live! If that means nothing to you, then you’re probably not a musician. Anyway, their recent live shows have been a lot of fun because they have been really experimenting with their set list, playing some of their more obscure tracks that they haven’t played live in years.

This CD is no exception, and in fact, it may be my favorite live Rush release for three reasons: 1) They play “Entre Nous,” a wonderful song that I’ve never heard live. 2) They play “Natural Science” and “Witch Hunt” back to back…two of my favorite Rush songs ever. 3) They do NOT play “Working Man” or the first album medley that they have been playing for far too long to end their sets. Some other highlights: Neil changed his drum solo! I always thought that the whole point of the “solo,” aside from showing off how much you kick ass at your instrument, was to improvise something fun. Well, Neil Peart has been doing the same drum solo for something like five years. It was a song unto itself at this point. It was the only place I could think of where you’d see people air drumming to a solo, and actually doing it right. So, thankfully, that piece of percussive mayhem has been updated.

Two observations thought: 1) I feel that the sound of the album isn’t very good. It seems rather muddy to me. I’m not sure why exactly, but I expect better production from them. 2) And this is the most shocking observation: the songs are SLOWER than on the record, or on any other live instance. Some songs aren’t that noticeable, but there are several where the tempo is clearly not as speedy. I suppose this makes sense since the fellows aren’t young any more, and I suppose it also allows Geddy to keep his voice from having to reach the super high notes of years ago (his voice sounds great by the way), but for a band that never changes anything, it’s quite a shock!

Incidentally, I also just listened to the Pearl Jam Live at the Gorge CD right after the Rush one and it is amazing how different two bands could be live. There’s not a missed note or a flub or, really, anything unscripted on the Rush set. I don’t think there are any overdubs, but it’s pretty much perfect. Whereas on the Pearl Jam set, they are so casual, so mellow, and clearly having so much fun (not that Rush isn’t having fun, it’s just a different kind of fun). And, of course, there are major screw ups on the Pearl Jam set. The third song is completely flubbed. On “Betterman,” a song they must have played hundreds if not thousands of times, someone, I assume Eddie Vedder hits a terribly wrong note at the end of the soft introduction. And then he mocks himself for not practicing. Very funny, very good natured.

Of the two, I don’t really have a preference, but it’s nice to have the two styles to choose from.

[READ: May 22, 2008] Free Food for Millionaires.

I found out about this book when a patron asked me to put it on hold. It was totally a case of judging a book by its title. And I didn’t know if it was fiction or non-fiction, but I wanted to see what it was about. So, I read the blurb, and it is a novel which follows the life of a young Korean woman as she struggles to make her way in New York City. (more…)

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Andi Watson & Josh Howard–Clubbing (2007) [Minx #3]

Posted in Andi Watson, Books about music, BritLit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Consumerism, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Hex, Josh Howard, Marriage Trouble, Minx, Short Books, Supernatural, YA Books on May 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: X-More Fun in the New World (1983).

This is one of the first CDs I ever bought. When CDs first starting coming out, I was a freshman in college. There was a woman in a nearby dorm, Anita, who was super cool and had great taste in music. I, of course, had a major crush on her, but never said or did anything about it. Oh well…we’re each happily married now, so all is well. Before college I was big into…the metal. High school was all about getting into as many metal bands as I could. When I got to college, my eyes were opened to all kinds of interesting music. And, even though I liked punk as well as metal, I had never heard X before. Anita had some older brothers and they taught her well, and she, in turn, passed on the joys of X (and, interestingly, Cat Stevens). So, when I got my first CD player, I rushed out and bought a Rush CD and More Fun in the New World. Part of the reason I bought this was because I didn’t want to get something I already had on vinyl. And, over the years it has become a hugely favorite CD for me.

More Fun in the New World is a great bit of Reagan-era punk. I mean how great an opening line is: “Honest to goodness, the bars weren’t open this morning. They must’ve been voting for the president or something.” Or, an even better chorus: “It was better before before they voted for whatshisname. This was supposed to be the new world.” The saddest bit is how relevant the lyrics still are today. This song was recently reintroduced to me on the Pearl Jam Live from Easy Street EP, when John Doe duets with Eddie Vedder and they ad lib “It was better before before they voted for whatshisname (and his dad).”

Some interesting things about X are their country roots (they created a side project called The Knitters, that was much more countryesque than X) and the great duets of John Doe and Exene Cervenka. They brought great off-kilter harmonies to their songs of despair and longing.

Despite the “punk” label, the songs are only punk in attitude, not music. (more…)

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McSweeneys #26 [“New Stories from Overseas”, “New Stories from Our Shores”, and “Where to Invade Next”] (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Contests, Daredevils, Discworld, Gangsters, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Political Humor, Short Story, The Riches, War, WMDs on April 8, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSE GONZALEZ-In Our Nature (2007).

I first heard Jose Gonzalez, as pretty much everyone did, in the Sony commercial. The one where thousands of superballs are dropped down a San Francisco street to the accompaniment of Gonzalez’ “Heartbeats”. It was a beautiful piece of video. And the song was really perfectly suited. A mellow ballad, which happened to be a cover of a song by a band called The Knife.

The rest of the album was similar: soft, beautifully played acoustic songs, hushed vocals, just very pretty.

Gonzales’ follow up doesn’t mess with the formula too much. He adds another player or two, to include some harmonies, and he does another cover (Cocteau Twins’ “Teardrops”) but overall the feeling is much the same. The Cocteau Twins cover is interesting for me because I have mentioned another Cocteau Twins cover in a review (by the Deftones) and this is yet another take on what I always assumed was an uncoverable band. This version strips the song down to its bare essentials but keeps the gorgeous melody intact. It’s quite striking.

There’s nothing especially fancy about Gonzalez’ guitar playing…he’s not trying to wow anyone with his virtuosity, which is nice. However, he is a very accomplished classical guitarist. He uses the classical techniques in his pop songs, and he tends to play certain notes harder than others bringing a natural percussion to his otherwise mellow fingerpicking. So, while I say there’s nothing fancy about his playing, it is still quite beautiful. His voice hasn’t changed either, it still retains that peaceful, serene feeling.

It’s funny then to read the words to his songs many of which come across as protest songs. Not about anything in particular but about human nature, and the animals that we can often be. The record is a really string collection of songs. It’s also quite short, about 35 minutes, which also seems fitting somehow: get in, say what you want, and get out.

Of the two records, I prefer the first one, possibly because I know it better, but I think it’s because in the follow up, the extra players detract somewhat from Gonzalez’ singular nature. Not that they do great harm, and surely he needs to evolve his sound, but I feel like with the addition of others, something is lost. Despite that, this one easily gets a 4.5 out of 5 where as Veneer got a 5 out of 5.

[READ: March 2008]: McSweeney’s #26

This was a great “issue.” I enjoyed all three parts of it. (more…)

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Gordon Korman–Born to Rock (2006)

Posted in Books about music, Consumerism, Digression, Gordon Korman, Holidays, Knocked Up, LGBTQ, Loudon Wainwright III, Set at School, Short Books, Undeclared, YA Books on April 8, 2008| 2 Comments »

born.jpgSOUNDTRACK: LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III-Career Moves (1993).

I first discovered Loudon Wainwright III through the great short-lived TV series Undeclared. Wainwright was the main character’s dad, an unlikable lout who, over the course of the show, became a really funny, interesting character.

Wainwright has become something of a staple in the Judd Apatow world, and he did the soundtrack for Apatow and Seth Rogen’s film, Knocked Up. And, as synchronicty happens, I thought I’d check out his music as well. I’ve gotten some records from various points in his career. This live collection, Career Moves, is a definite highlight. Wainwright writes poignant songs that are often, inexplicably, funny. He’s not a “funny” songwriter or a “novelty” singer (although his first big hit “Dead Skunk” is pretty close) but he writes in a wry tone that often brings a really funny couplet into a moving song.

(more…)

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