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Archive for the ‘Death’ Category

Brendan Deneen–The Ninth Circle (2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Brendan Deneen, Canadian Music, Circus, Clowns, Constellation Records, Death, Drinking, Elephants, Fire, Freaks, Horses, Lions, Magic, Magicians, Marriage Trouble, Silver Mt. Zion, Thee Silver Mountain Reveries, Threats, Violence, YA Books, Yuck! on May 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

ninthSOUNDTRACK: Thee Silver Mountain Reveries-The “Pretty Little Lightning Paw” E.P. [CST030] (2004).

lightpawAfter three albums, it was time to make an EP under yet another variant of the band’s name.  This is a fun release (which is interesting to say about a band who is typically quite serious).  What made this “fun” is that many of the band members switched instruments for this recording. Violinist Sophie Trudeau plays bass guitar.  Guitarist Ian Ilavsky, usually one of the band’s guitarists, plays drums.

Also when they finished recording, was complete, the EP was played on a boombox and re-recorded from that.  I can’t tell that it was recorded in this way, so who knows if that made any difference.

There are four songs, “More Action! Less Tears!” is the first.  It begins with Aimee shouting “Hello!  Hello!” and then messing up and laughing.  So she begins again, “The name of this song is More Action.  The name of this song is Less Tears.”  It sounds unlike anything that SMtZ have done so far.  The guitar that opens it is distorted and plays a fairly conventional riff while the violins play a suitable melody over the top.  The strings build and the songs oars.

“Microphones in the Trees” opens with a guitar melody that’s quickly joined by the same melody on upright bass.  Efrim begins singing (his voice is distorted and echoed and sounds almost more like an instrument than a voice, although you can hear the lyrics: “microphones in the trees, cameras in the sky.”  The choir starts singing along with him until about three minutes when a wash of noise over takes the song. This lasts for a few minutes and then fades, allowing the words to continue.  About half way into the song a rather shambolic chorus sings “we are the flood.”  The last two minutes or so are simply feedbacky noises wafting around.

“Pretty Little Lightning Paw”is the ten-minute title track.  It opens with bass notes and chimed notes.  The strings follow Efrim’s vocal lines (which sound ragged and quiet).  And then after a minute or so new strings come in, slightly unsettling sounding.  About three minutes in the 4 voice choir begins singing an alternate melody above Efrim’s repeated mantra.  The song continues in this vein for pretty much the rest of the song, only modifying at the end where the sounds and feedback resemble birdsong.

“There’s a River in the Valley Made of Melting Snow” is 5 minutes long and is basically a solo song from Efrim.  He plays guitar, sings and plays “toybox.”  The melody is fairly simple and his voice sounds pretty good–not too shrill.  It may be the most conventional song that SMtZ has recorded.

While this EP doesn’t deviate drastically from the band’s normal sound, it is fun to see them mix things up a bit.   For this recording, the band was

  • Thierry Amar – violin, bass guitar, vocals, pianohandle
  • Ian Ilavsky – drums
  • Efrim Menuck – guitar, piano, organ, vocals, feedback, toybox
  • Jessica Moss – violin, vocals
  • Sophie Trudeau – bass guitar
  • [Beckie Foon is absent]

[READ: May 5, 2016] The Ninth Circle

Brendan and I went to college together.  In fact, I knew Brendan from his submissions to both the newspaper and the literary magazine.  He was a major talent back then (I still remember details from the story he submitted twenty some years ago) and continues to be one now.  He works in comics and has written for Flash Gordon, his own book Scatterbrain and something that I can’t wait to find a copy of: Charlie Sheen: Vatican Assassin Warlock.  Check out his output on Goodreads.

This is his first published novel, I believe. And I was hooked from the first chapter.

The story is about 16-year-old Dan.  His family is a disaster–his brother is obsessively mean to him, his father is an alcoholic, his mother is probably sleeping with someone else, and neither parent gives him the time of day.  For his 16th birthday they take him to the circus, even though he never said he wanted to go to the circus.  His brother promises to get revenge for having to go to this lame spectacle.

Dan’s not even sure that he’s going to like it, but he winds up being mesmerized from the moment he walks in.  The trickster tricks him, the freaks entice him (he finds the bearded lady especially enchanting) and the whole show is truly amazing.  Later that night, while lying in bed thinking about his crappy life, Dan decides to take action. (more…)

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S.T.O.P. [Students Tackling Ordinary Problems] (Somerville High School, Somerville, NJ, May 23, 2016)

Posted in Acting, Angst, Apologies, Babies, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Feminism, Food, Gender, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Pregnancy, Regrets, Revenge, Set at School, Sex, Sexism, Sexting, Somerville High School, Somerville, NJ, Theater, Transgender, Violence, Virginity (Loss of) on May 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 23, 2016] S.T.O.P.

stopIf you have a teen or pre-teen and you are concerned about how they will deal with bullying, sex, body issues or, heaven forbid, heroin, this performance is a must-see both for your child and you.  The performers are all high school students.  They wrote the pieces and they are intended for high school students (and middle school).  If you can’t see them yourself, contact your school or community group to arrange for them to do their show.  It is intense and really effective.

When the fifth grade completed the D.A.R.E. program at school, the ceremony included a piece by this group.  The piece was called “Jack & Jill” and it told the story of how an underage party led to the death of two teens.  There were a couple of moments of humor, but the message was intense and the acting was really good (they “rewound” the story and the actors did a great job of going backwards–including one boy who “fell up” the couch (he fell off it earlier).

After they were done, they said that the troupe would be doing their full hour-long show in May and that was open to anyone in 5th grade and older.  I was amazed that Clark wanted to go as it’s not really his thing.  And so we went.  He was bummed that only a couple of kids he knew showed up.  I was bummed at how few people showed up at all.   And so I wanted to post about the show to get the group some recognition because what they did was really powerful and I think should be seen by just about everyone.

When we arrived, the teacher in charge of the group Miranda DeStefano-Meene told us that the show would be uncensored and pretty intense.  The program says that the words on stage “may embarrass, hurt, offend, scare and anger you.  That is intentional.”  The second paragraph spoke of the heroin epidemic in our society which is bigger than any other drug epidemic in recorded history, which I did not know.

And so we sat back and watched this show.  Now, I happen to think that Clark may not have been exposed to a lot of what was going on in this play (which I’m grateful for).  So this show may have been really intense for him (I know I spent the whole show wondering what he thought).  After the show the only thing he said was that it made hm sad.  And we did talk a little about the messages, but he’s a tight-lipped kid, so I can only hope he’ll come back to me with more questions if they arise.

And what questions he must have.  For this show tackled so many problems facing teens.  (more…)

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Mark Tatulli–Silent But Deadly: Another Liō Collection (2008)

Posted in Aliens, Ben Folds, Birds, Blondie, Bloom County, C., Calvin and Hobbes, Cats, Children's Books, Death, Death Cab For Cutie, Demons, Dennis the Menace, Dogs, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, For Better of For Worse, Foxtrot, Funny (ha ha), Games (Non Video), Hagar the Horrible, Holidays, Hospital Ships, Humiliation, Inventions, Liō, Loch Ness Monster, Mad Scientists, Mark Tatulli, Nancy, Non Sequitur, Parenting, Peanuts, Pigs, Rats, Shearwater, Squids, Supernatural, Surreal, The Far Side, The Lockhorns, The Mountain Goats, The Weakerthans, Tiny Desk Concert, Vampires, Yuck!, Zombies on May 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

silentSOUNDTRACK: HOSPITAL SHIPS-Tiny Desk Concert #177 (November 23, 2011).

hospital shipsHospital Ships is a band created by Jordan Geiger, who was in the band Shearwater, among others. In 2011 he released his second album as Hospital Ships.  The blurb describes the album as “packed with poppy folk songs and brash rockers enhanced with instrumental flourishes and bursts of guitar feedback,” but for this recording, they strip everything down to the basics: a guitar, banjo, ukulele and a drum with a towel over it to muffle the sound.

Geiger has a rather high-pitched, delicate, almost talking-singing voice and his songs are rather pretty.  The band plays 3 songs in just over ten minutes.  The first one, “Phantom Limb,” (once my lover, now my friend, you are my phantom limb) has a recurring motif of them saying/singing “ha ha” which is rather catchy.

“Carry On,” features a four-letter word (technically a seven letter word), which might be one of the first times on a Tiny Desk Concert that such a word is uttered.  It’s especially funny given how sweet the band sounds.  The sentiment of the song is nice though: “To all the women I’ve loved, When I was with you I would say I was better off….  And when I’m gone, carry on, carry on.”  There were harmonies in the first song, but they are more prominent in this one (three part) and are quite nice.  The banjo player also does a whistling solo.

“Let Me In” made me laugh because he uses the word baby a lot (which Ben Folds said in his Tiny Desk that he has never said in real life, so why would he put in it a song?).  But this song is very gentle and sweet–just Geiger on his guitar singing “baby, let me in.”

Geiger’s voice reminds me of a few different people–Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie especially on the final track; perhaps the Mountain Goats or the Weakerthans.  And his songwriting is very good.

[READ: December 26, 2015] Silent But Deadly

I really enjoyed the first Liō collection, and was pretty excited that I could find the second collection so quickly (my library doesn’t have any more collections for some reason, so I’ll have to track the rest down elsewhere).  This book collects the strips from February 25, 2007 – December 2, 2007.

Not much has changed from that book to this one, but I think Tatulli’s comic chops have gotten even better.

The strip won me over immediately with the first one in the book. Lio draws a monster and it comes to life.  He looks at the marker and it says “magic marker” and he gets a big grin and goes back to work.  So simple yet so funny.

It is that big grin–wide open-mouthed just unfettered mischievous delight that occurs in nearly every strip. (more…)

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Mark Tatulli–Liō: Happiness is a Squishy Cephalopod (2007)

Posted in Aliens, Birds, Boondocks, C., Cats, Children's Books, Death, Demons, Dogs, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Games (Non Video), Garfield, Holidays, Humiliation, Inventions, Joe Henry, Liō, Loch Ness Monster, M.C. Escher, Mad Scientists, Mark Tatulli, Mark Trail, Mary Worth, Parenting, Peanuts, Pigs, Rats, Sam Phillips, Squids, Supernatural, Surreal, The Family Circus, Tiny Desk Concert, Vampires, Vic Chesnutt, Woody Guthrie, Yuck!, Zombies on May 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

lio1 SOUNDTRACK: JOE HENRY-Tiny Desk Concert #176 (November 21, 2011).

joe henryI had never heard of Joe Henry, so imagine my surprise to find out that he was releasing his 12th album in 2011.  For this Tiny Desk, it’s just him at a stool playing his guitar.  He has a very easy vibe, telling stories between songs and playing them with very little fuss.

He opens the show by saying this is, “not exactly like Woody Guthrie playing for the union members but you are working people.”

He plays four songs, “Sticks and Stones,” After the War,” “Odetta” and “Piano Furnace.”

Between the first two songs, he says he first became aware of Tiny Desk Concerts when his friend Vic Chesnutt was on the show (amusingly, he was the second person on the show).  He says he has a song on his new record about Chesnutt (Chesnutt had recently died).  He doesn’t play it though.  At first it seems like he might not be allowed to play it, but then it seems like maybe he just doesn’t get to it.

Rather he plays “After the War” where his guitar sounds like it has an incredible echo on it.  That echo is also present on the third song.  After which Bob asks him about his guitar.

Joe says he’s had the guitar for 6 years.  But the guitar dates back to 1932.  He says that he heard things differently with this guitar.  It’s got a smaller body and was actually sold as a budget guitar by Gibson (for $19 in 1932).  He also jokes that it’s black and looks a bit like a World Wrestling Federation belt.

Then someone asks him about Sam Phillips.  Joe says he sold her husband a guitar about 20 years ago.  She and her husband have split and Sam got the guitar and has been playing only that guitar for the last 20 years.  He says that he loves that she doesn’t plug in her guitar.  She plays into a microphone where you can hear the whole guitar and which makes the other players lean in to hear her.

I love the chords he plays in the final song, “Piano Furnace,” even if I don’t know what the song is about.  Henry’s voice is familiar.  I think he sounds a bit like a number of different singers.  And overall, nothing really stands out in his performance, except that everything sounds great and hiss songwriting is really solid.  That’s not a bad thing.

[READ: December 20, 2015] Happiness is a Squishy Cephalopod

Mark Tatulli is the author of the Desmond books.  I liked the stories, but I didn’t love the drawing style so much.  Imagine my surprise to find out that Tatulli has been drawing comics featuring this little boy Liō since 2006 (going forward, I’m leaving off that line over the o, because it’s a real pain).

And even more surprising is that I like the drawing style in the comic quite a bit–it is slightly refined over the Desmond books and is all the better for it.

I am also really surprised to find out that this strip appeared in newspapers across the country.  I’ve certainly never heard of it (but then I don’t read newspapers anymore, either).

So Lio is strip about a boy named Lio.  Lio is a dark, dark kid.  He has a pet squid, he loves monsters and he’s delighted by chaos. (more…)

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Mercè Rodoreda–“The Hanged Man” (Harper’s, November 2015)

Posted in Ben Sollee, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Death, Excerpt, Harper's, John Edgar Wideman, Mercè Rodoreda, Sex, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, William Shakespeare, Yuck! on April 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

harpnovSOUNDTRACK: BEN SOLLEE-Tiny Desk Concert #141 (July 11, 2011).

solleeI’d never heard of Ben Sollee before this Tiny Desk and I’m a little surprised by that–he seems like the kind of musician I’d have run into somewhere.  For this set (I have no idea what his sets are usually like), they are a trio.

Sollee plays cello  and sings (!), Phoebe Hunt plays violin and sings backing vocals and Jordan Ellis plays drums (in this case one of cool those snare drum boxes).

But despite the strings-dominated sound, the songs feel very rock-oriented.  Although as the blurb says, they are kind of genre defying.  Each song has a very different feel.

On “Hurting” Sollee opens with some great big plucked bass notes from the cello.  Then Sollee switches between plucking and bowing the cello.  And that transition really impacts the overall sound, making it sound like more than a trio.  The violin plays some accented notes and then some big long notes (like the cello).  But it’s the drums (brushes on the box) that add a lot of character to this song.  Sollee has a good strong voice and it fits the song well.

“Captivity” is about being in prison (he wrote it after watching a documentary about a maximum security prison) both physical and metaphorical.  For this song he strums (in an interesting, folky way) the cello.  He plays some bass notes while strumming the rest of the instrument–it’s a great sound.  And I love how different this sounds from the first song.  Once again the percussive sounds add so much.

“The Globe” about the Globe Theatre and how it was burnt down twice.  So he wrote a story about a frustrated loverboy burning it down.  The song names checks some of Shakespeare’s characters and while not comical is kind of funny too.  Musically the song is great with builds and sudden stops.  It’s also quite funky at times, with all kinds of different rhythms from the cello and violin as well as the percussion (which in this case is hand claps).  He says that they’ve been having fun playing it live and that really comes through.  I really like the sounds that Sollee makes from the cello at the end of the song.

“Inclusions” is an a capella song.  He says they’d been working on it in the van on the way down.  I expected a simple song, but they have wonderful harmonies as well.  For percussion, Phoebe is rattling a can of cacao nibs. (There was recently a very funny cacao nibs joke on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, otherwise I’d never have heard of them–I like that Sollee beat Brooklyn by five years though).

This was a wonderful find and I definitely want to hear more from Sollee–I’m curious to see what he gets up to in the studio.

[READ: January 10, 2016] “The Hanged Man”

November was a dark month for stories in Harper’s.  This story along with the one I posted a while back from John Edgar Wideman both deal with suicide.  This is an excerpt from War, So Much, War, and it opens with a man cutting down a sack which was hanging in a tree.

The sack contains a body–“his face was white, his tongue black, his lips purple.”  When he cuts down the sack, the body’s head hits a rock and the protagonist is worried because the body is actually alive and he’s afraid it is now damaged.

The body doesn’t speak for a long time. But when it does it is angry that the man has cut him down. (more…)

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Luke Mogelson–“Total Solar” (New Yorker, February 29, 2016)

Posted in Amanda Shires, Culture Shock, Death, Luke Mogelson, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Translators, Violence, War, Yuck! on March 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2292015SOUNDTRACK: AMANDA SHIRES-Tiny Desk Concert #146 (August 3, 2011).

shiresAlthough the blurb suggests that I might know Amanda Shires, in fact I do not.

Shires has a powerful non-vibratoed voice and she plays several different instruments–what looks like a giant ukulele as  well as the fiddle.  She’s accompanied by Rod Picott on the guitar.  He really seems to flesh out her instruments very well.

As to her sound, she explains before the final song, “I do have one happy song, we’re just not going to do it.”

The most remarkable thing about the first song, “Swimmer…” is her excellent whistling of the main melody.  It is piercing and very catchy.  Actually the whole song is quite pretty

Before starting the second song she asks if they are in a fast mood or slow mood.  When the answer is fast, she immediately says they’ll play “Shake the Walls.”  I really liked how the opening notes were plucked and strummed on the violin.  The song is pretty simple and quiet until she plays a noisy violin solo in the middle which really livens things up.

Before the final song she asks if they’d like a song about suicide.  Someone whoops in assent and they laugh.  So she says they’ll play a song about trains. (“when you need a train, it never comes”).  I really like the chord progression in the chorus.

Despite the downer music, the duo clearly had a fin time.  Picott ends by saying “Its hard playing for smart people instead of our usual crowd.”

[READ: March 6, 2015] “Total Solar”

The protagonist of this is a journalist in Afghanistan.  He has been speaking with a researcher from the United Nations Ornithological Department, who keeps introducing conversations with “If you really want something to write about…”

But rather than taking notes, he is drawing pictures of himself committing suicide in various gruesome ways.  This relates to his writing a story about a contractor who’d been executed in a new way–using wire rather than a knife.

Yes the story is pretty brutal. (more…)

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George Saunders–“Mother’s Day” (New Yorker, February 8 & 15, 2016)

Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), George Saunders, Monsieur Periné, New Yorker, Parenting, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on March 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

282016SOUNDTRACK: MONSIEUR PERINÉ-Tiny Desk Concert #512 (March 4, 2016).

perimne I feel like it’s been a while since NPR’s Felix Contreras has had a Tiny Desk for a band playing Latin American music.  And Monsieur Periné (French name and all) plays some really fun Latin American music.  They are from Colombia, which is evidently known for its Afro-Colombian cumbia.

But they don’t play strictly cumbia.  Their long set plays around with tempos and styles.  It is fun, fun, fun with a lot of swing and big horns.  There’s some great electric guitar and electric upright bass and two fantastic drummers. There’s even a 1920s jazz feel to some of their music (the guitars especially)

This is all set behind the lead singer’s beautiful voice (and the guys’ harmonies).  And the great riffs from the saxophone nad trombone.

The first song “Nuestra Canción” (Our Song) opens slowly with several different tempos.  I love that once the singing starts,  the two guitars play very different things that works so well together.  I like watching the drummer and percussionist playing the same rhythms.  And it’s especially interesting when this six-minute, very jazzy-feeling song (albeit it sung in Spanish) takes a turn in the middle of the song to sound very cumbia.

“Sabor A Mi” (Taste of Me) is a bolero–very dancey.  The guitarist has switched to a twelve string instrument with a very small body.  I assume it’s a guitar but who knows. The lead guitar is actually played on an acoustic guitar outfitted with a pick up.  The sax player has switched to clarinet and the clarinet and trombone y play a great melody together.

“La Muerte” is 7 minutes long with a spoken introduction.  This made me very curious because the introduction is in Spanish for a song that she sings in part in French (and in Spanish).  The horns sound great on this song.  And the guitar solo comes in it a has very surf guitar sound while still saying very Latin American.  There’s a long instrumental section that slows things down and then they come blasting out with their great riffs.

This band is a lot of fun and would be great at a party.

[READ: February 4, 2016] “Mother’s Day”

I have really been enjoying the work of Saunders lately.  I particularly enjoy his darker comic pieces, but there’s something about his non funny pieces that is also pretty grand.

It’s never clear if you’re going to get funny Saunders or not when you start a story.

This one even seems like it might be funny as we slowly learn more and more about one of the Mothers featured this Mother’s Day.

The story is told in that strangely detached way that Saunders has where it seems like what seems like a third person may actually be the inner monologue of the narrator.  But told at a distance?  “Paulie had flown in and Pammy had taken her to Mother’s Day lunch and now was holding her hand.  Holding her hand!  Right on Pine.  The girl who once slapped her own mother for attempting to adjust her collar.” (more…)

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Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, Frederic Lemercier–The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders (2003, 2004, 2006) [translation 2009]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alan Cope, Alexis Siegel, Death, Didier Lefèvre, Emmanuel Guibert, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, History, Morality, Religion, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, Violence, War, Wilco, Yuck! on February 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

photoSOUNDTRACK: WILCO-Tiny Desk Concert #509 (February 23, 2016).

wilcoAs far as I can tell, Wilco is the first band to be invited back for a Tiny Desk Concert (there was a stated rule that no one would come back twice, with some people skirting that by coming with another band).  Laura Gibson was invited back since she was the very first attendee, but since Wilco’s newest album has been so successful, it seems somehow fitting that they get invited back.

And perhaps in honor of that, while their last performance was noisy and raucous, this one is decidedly more mellow—with all acoustic instruments.  But that doesn’t mean it’s quiet and calm either.

For the first song “The Joke Explained” from Star Wars, they used banjo, acoustic bass, hollow bodies electric guitar (w/ slide), the ever-present melodica and muted drums (w/shakers).  And it sounded great.

For the second song, the older “Misunderstood” everybody seemed to switch instruments.  Tweedy switched guitars, the acoustic bass became an acoustic guitar, the hollow body became a slide guitar.  Nels Cline’s slide guitar brings so much to the song by doing seemingly so little.  I love how this simple, sweet song has a wild middle section–a crazy breakdown with noisy cymbals and drums–drummer Glenn Kotche is fantastic–and everyone else playing some crazy high-pitched notes until it all settles back down again.

Tweedy has another guitar for the third song “I’m Always In Love” and the melodica is back.  There’s xylophone keeping the melody.  And as with all of these songs, Tweedy sounds great and the backing vocals add wonderful harmonies.  Cline plays a wonderful slide solo, too.

Before the final song and there’s another guitar change for Tweedy, and he says that after this song, “you guys need to get back to work solving this Trump problem. Figure it out! Its weird!”  They play “Shot in the Arm,” another great old song.

The band sounds excellent—a wonderfully full sound even without amplification. I am really excited to see them his summer.

There’s also a nifty video showing “Misunderstood” with two 360 degree cameras so you can see what goes on in the audience during a Tiny Desk Concert.  Check it out.

[READ: February 7, 2016] The Photographer

I loved Guibert’s book Alan’s War, in which he took the words of Alan Cope and put them to an amazing graphic novel.  Well, he is back again doing the same thing with the words of famed photograph Didier Lefèvre.

Didier Lefèvre died in 2008, but before he died he left a legacy of amazing photojournalism.  That includes this trip to Afghanistan which he took with the team from Doctors without Borders.

Alexis Siegel translated this book again, and he offers an excellent introduction which not only explains Lefèvre’s life, it also gives context for everything tat these men and women were up against in that war-torn region.

As mentioned Guibert draws out the story that Lefèvre told him.  But this book is different from Alan’s War in that it also uses the photos that Lefèvre took.  Guibert fills in the gaps where Lefèvre, didn’t or couldn’t, shoot.  And there was a lot he couldn’t shoot. (more…)

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Matt Kindt–Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes (2013)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Art, Canadian Music, Constellation Records, Death, Drinking, First Second :01, Fly Pan Am, Graphic Novel, Le Fly Pan Am, Marriage Trouble, Matt Kindt, Morality, Sex, Sexism, Violence on February 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

redSOUNDTRACK: LE FLY PAN AM-fpamCeux qui inventent n’ont jamais vécu (?) [CST019] (2002).

After their previous EP, Le Fly Pan am (note the addition of the Le) come back with an album that can be described as funky.  True, it’s weird funky that gets dismantled while its going along, but it’s still pretty funky.

They wouldn’t be them if there weren’t some crazy noises.  And so the first song (parenthetical translations are from Wikipedia), “Jeunesse sonique, tu dors (en cage)” (“Sonic Youth, You Sleep (In a Cage)”) is just noise and static for 90 seconds before leading to the first song proper:

“Rompre l’indifférence de l’inexitable avant que l’on vienne rompre le sommeil de l’inanimé” (“Break the Indifference of the Inevitable Before We Come to Break the Sleep of the Inanimate”) which kicks in with a really funky bass guitar and drum section. It’s really catchy and almost danceable. But throughout the song’s ten minutes there are elements of destruction going on. There’s screeches that sound like a dentist’s drill. About a minute in, the guitars just seems to stop playing riffs and just tart going crazy–playing loosened strings and just random notes like a beginner (even though the original rhythm is still there).  That funkiness stays for about 5 minutes until the songs shifts gear into a loping melody with a big bass and simple repetitive guitar lines. And then it kind of falls apart all together with some sounds like broken strings and lots of chatter (in French).  At 7 and a half minute it resumes at breakneck speed with the drums and bass pounding away and all kinds of effects splashing on top. The song ends with low rumbling noise before jumping into….

“Partially sabotaged distraction partiellement sabotée” (“Partially Sabotaged Distraction Partially Sabotaged”) This song opens with a four-note, slightly off-key guitar and then loping bass riff that reminds me of SST Records bass guitar of the 80s. It switches between this and a slightly funkier sounding section. But the destruction is apparent from the get go as early in the song, the sound just completely drops out on a couple occasions, making you think the disc is broken (it isn’t).  The song starts to get more intense as the notes seem to get faster and more insistent (those repetitive notes and ringing guitars just seem to scream tension).

“Univoque/Équivoque” (“Univocal / Equivocal”) opens with static and then a very funky bass line.  There a music box playing over the top and some quiet guitars. About half way through the bass ends but the music box (tiny and distorted) continues.  At 3:30 a new bass line, similar to the previous but with a new section added pops up.  It’s a simple song showcasing their groove and their noise.

“Arcades-Pamelor” starts with low distorted noises.  Like the first “song” this is mostly sound effects and things slowed down. Until a screaming noisy static takes over about half way through.  It’s really quite unpleasant.

“Sound-support surface noises reaching out to you” opens with another funky bass and drums and some simple guitar notes. About a minute in a sound emerges that sounds like a skipping CD (but it’s not your CD).   And then a new, different bass pattern emerges with lots of noisy percussion(sounds like people banging things). The skipping sounds seems to work as a segue between section, with some great funky parts and and then the final section which opens with what sounds like a mildly out of tune guitar ran and more great bass. This really enjoyable section winds up glitching to a halt with the  sound of a skipping record player.

“Erreur, errance: interdits de par leurs nouvelles possibilités” (“Wandering Error: Prohibited by Their Opportunities”) has the sounds of sticks clacking together and silverware dropping and mechanical sounds.  And they all seem to somehow settle into a rhythm of piano notes. Unlike the other tracks this one is pretty consistent—strange noises and a simple piano motif.  It’s also probably the least interesting of the bunch.

The disc ends with “La vie se doit d’être vécue ou commençons a vivre” (“Life Must Be Lived or Begun to Be Lived”) another great, funky bass and piano line, with some interesting guitar sounds round the corners. This song is so catchy, it’s wonderful.  After about 2 minutes there’s another breakdown. The music all stops except for the guitars which sound like they are getting strangled.   The second half of the song has the same funky bass but very different guitars and lots of squeals and feedback. After a couple more glitches at 6 minutes in, the bass takes off playing fast rocking riff as the guitar tries to keep up. It’s such a satisfying ending that it’s hugely disappointing that it only last 45 seconds before the album ends.

While it was always obvious that Fly Pan Am were going to play weird experimental stuff, it wasn’t clear before just how funky and dancey they could be too.  If you can handle some noise in your dance, this is a great album.

[READ:January 10, 2016] Red Handed

I absolutely loved this graphic novel.

I had never heard of Kindt before and I didn’t really know what to expect from the book, but I certainly didn’t expect the complicated and super clever plot and structure that this book had.

It opens with a newspaper story that tells us about Detective Gould’s ten years on the force.  Since his arrival there have been no unsolved murders.  He credits the rise in technology for his success.  (continued on A12) and then it moves into the graphic format.  It is headed Detective Gould (in black and white).  Then it shows some mug shots of suspects in color.  And it turns out that these people’s stories will comprise the bulk of the book.

The next chapter opens with a woman fleeing a diner with a stool.  She worked there and is told the stool is coming out of her paycheck,.   We learn that stealing chairs is kind of her thing.  And then we see what her next acquisition after this stool is.

The next chapter is called the Jigsaw and it involves a man who is an art dealer.  As the story opens he steals a giant painting form a woman he has picked up at a bar. And then we learn what he did with it and how he made his reputation.

After he is caught, the story shifts to a series of dialogue boxes on a black background in which Sgt Gould is speaking to a woman who Sgt Gould assumes is connected to all of the cases in the book.  She is playing innocent and has explanations for everything.

After this there is another black and white section designed to look like newspaper stories of The Detective’s Wife  (in which the two are sweet together) and then Tess’s True Heart in which we learn that Tess (whoever that is) is a very smart girl.

The next chapter is The Ant in which an artist wants to tell a story told from the point of view of an ant.  But since the ant cannot write, it must collect letters from the newspaper.  This turns into an art installation in which the author’s editor begins finding the words all over town and using them to tell the story (it’s much more convoluted than that and really clever).  Then we learn that Tess is the author’s editor–the first connection is built.

And after that short piece, we see more black and white stories from Detective Gould and Tess’ True Heart.

The next chapter is The Forgotten about a sleight of hand magician who has stopped doing magic and has become a pickpocket.

The Repair Man is about an elevator repair man who takes pictures up women’s skirts when they are stuck between floors.  And then he begins selling them to a smut dealer.  The way these pictures connect to the rest of the story is amazing.

The next section is The Performance Artist in which a woman is set up to look like she is cheating on her husband (elaborate ruse once again).

The Escape Artist tells the story of a car thief and how so many thieves think they are going to stop but they are afraid of losing the rush.  Well, this guy retired for real.  Until he ran into Tess.  He knows from long ago.  And she brings him back to the city.

Finally, The Fire Starter is about a guy who gets paid to start fights with the intention of a payout coming somewhere down the line.

The last fifty or so pages show how all these crimes, all these cases solved by Detective Gould, are tied together.  And the way it is told just gets more and more interesting.

This was an outstanding book.  I loved the art and design–the various ways that the medium was used to tell the story.  I loved that it was confusing but not too confusing and that it unraveled in the way it did.   I really can’t say enough about this book.  This was another big win for First Second in their #10yearsof01 celebration.

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Jordan Mechner, LeUyen Pham & Alex Puvilland–Templar (2013)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alex Puvilland, Constellation Records, Death, Drinking, First Second :01, Fly Pan Am, Graphic Novel, Jordan Mechner, Le Fly Pan Am, LeUyen Pham, National Treasure, Religion, Romance, Threats, Umbero Eco, Violence, Yuck! on February 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

flypanam templarSOUNDTRACK: FLY PAN AM-Fly Pan Am [CST008] (1999).

In the Constellation canon, there were four originators: Godspeed You Black Emperor were orchestral, Do Make Say Think were jazzy, and A Silver Mt Zion had vocals.  But Fly Pan Am was the weirdest one—the played with noise, they broke up their songs, they deconstructed their own work and, especially novel to me, everything was in French on the discs.

Roger Tellier-Craig, the main force behind FPA was in GYBE as well.  So he knows post-rock.

Their debut album is a long affair–an hour’s worth of music (in all of 5 songs) taken from two different recording sessions.  (All translated titles are taken from Wikipedia).

“L’espace au sol est redessiné par d’immenses panneaux bleus…” (“The Floorspace Is Redesigned by Huge Blue Signs…”) is a 13 minute song.   There’s ringing noises as a simple melody is plucked out.  The full instrumentation kicks in adding a repetitive guitar line that seems to fall into the background behind the opening notes that are still playing out.  The guitar lines slowly gets longer and longer, almost like a game of Simon.  By around 6 minutes the song has built up a serious head of steam with the bass and drums moving quickly and the guitar getting really complex. By 7 minutes that pretty guitar has turned into a ringing feedback skronking solo which carries on for a minute or so before fading back. At around 9 minutes the song seems to retreat on itself again. The guitars fade away and the bass seems to get a bit louder with the guitars ringing out. The last minute or so resumes a kind of noisy static sound that tells you the song is over.  That’s a heck of an introduction.

“…Et aussi l’éclairage de plastique au centre de tout ces compartiments latéraux” (“…And Also the Lighting of Plastic in the Center of All Its Lateral Compartments”) is a 9 minute song that opens with more scorching guitars and rumbling bass.  The guitar switches back and forth between a two note melody and a chord (dissonant, of course). The other guitar then plays a different three note melody.  About 2:30 in some noisy feedback and samples start taking over the song.  All the music drops away except for the bass.  By 3:15, all the music had dropped out and its just noisy effects and feedback and then outer space sounds.  After about 4 minutes of that (yes, indeed) the bass comes back in playing a kind of discoey rhythm with the guitar supplying a dancey counterpoint which runs to the end of the song.  It’s their first song where something really catchy is utterly dismantled by noise.

“Dans ses cheveux soixante circuits” (“In Her Hair Are Sixty Circuits”) is 17 minutes long (!) and is one of the most abrasive songs I can recall. The song opens with both guitars each playing a two-note melody which rotates through a round. They sound lovely together as the bass and drums play a slow rhythm. The melody changes a few times and then by around 3 and a half minutes the main guitar line grows faster (6 notes instead of 2) and the background feels a bit more tense.   And then at 5:46, the whole song seems to get stuck on repeat. The bass plays a 2 note rhythm, the drums play the same pattern and the two guitars each play one note over and over.  And over.  Evidently it’s “a half-tone interval.”  And this goes on for 12 minutes.  TWELVE!  The only differences through this whole section come from the digitalia of guest electronic musician Alexandre St-Onge, but they are the most unobtrusive electronics I’ve ever heard and just seem to bubble and prickle gently onto the repetition.  It’s maddening and then trance-like and then maddening all over again.  How can they play the same thing for twelve minutes—and their rhythm remains perfect?

“Bibi à nice, 1921” (“Bibi Nice, 1921”) opens with noises and feedback (which is a nice break from the 12 minutes of repetitiveness. But you soon realize that that’s all you’re getting (aside from some distant rumbling noise in the background). It’s a very silent song. For four minutes (out of ten) and then the full band kicks in for a really rocking section—great guitar lines and propulsive bass and drums. But after two minutes, the sound drops out entirely—pure silence (enough to make you assume the disc froze). It slowly returns after 20 seconds–they are messing with us again.  At 7 minutes a new guitar line comes in—slow and pretty with a slow drum beat.  A solo plays over the top—it is primarily electronic, and sounds pretty cool.   The guitars start playing louder and the song feels like it’s going to build up into something huge, but it soon ends and turns into….

“Nice est en feu!” (“Nice Is on Fire!”) seems like it should be connected to the previous song, but it starts off very different with big bass notes playing a very slow riff.  The guitar starts playing a nice accompanying riff. At 3 minutes in, voices come in singing Ahhs in a nice melody. The liner notes say that Kara Lacy and Norsola Johnson do vocals on “Bibi à nice, 1921” and “Nice est en feu!” but I didn’t hear any vocals on “Bibi.”  At 4:30 the guitar line turns to something else and there’s suddenly a whole bunch of noise flooding the track—sounds of water rushing, maybe—but that goes away and a new melody (slightly dissonant) resumes.  With about a minute left the voices resume—angelic and soaring over the rumbling song.  It ends this weird disc on a very pretty note.

I love the crazy stuff that Fly Pan Am creates, even if some of it is hard to listen to.

[READ: February 23, 2016] Templar

I had actually started to read this graphic novel before Prince of Persia.  But when I saw in the introduction that Mechner talks about Prince of Persia, I decided to grab that one and read it first.  The two have nothing to do with each other, but sometimes it’s nice to get things on order.

Who doesn’t love stories about the Templar knights?  The whole premise of the National Treasure is predicated on them after all.  Not to mention, The Da Vinci Code and the book that he says far surpasses all Templar stories: Foucault’s Pendulum [RIP Umberto Eco].

So Jordan Mechner has done a lot of research (there’s a sizable bibliography at the end of the book) to create the story about a couple of Knights Templar.  He says that “much nonsense has been written about the Knights Templar over the years. I’m proud to say that this book has added to that sum.”  He explains that thousands of knights were indeed killed.  Some knights did escape, but the main plot he constructed probably never happened.   One of the histories he read said that “figures of no importance” did escape, and so that was the basis for Martin, Bernard, Isabelle and their gang–inconsequential Templars and their own story.

He also says (in the preface) that all of the movies about the Knights focus on the treasure, but the Knights’ actual story–their rise and shocking downfall– is even more interesting.  He gives a brief backstory.  Formed during the crusades, the Templars gained fame as the noblest and bravest knights in Christendom.  Their legend grew which increased their numbers.   “They were the Jedi of their time.”  They peaked in the 13th century under the protection of the Catholic Church and The Pope.  Then in October 1307 the king of France ordered the mass arrest of All Templars in his kingdom (15,000 of them).  They were brought before the Inquisition and accused of witchcraft, heresy and sodomy.  Guillaume de Nogaret the king’s chef minister staged a huge show trail.  Prisoners who denied the charges were tortured until they confessed, which made everyone who refused to confess seem like a liar. Despite knowing the truth, the Pope bowed to pressure and Templars were destroyed.  Wow. (more…)

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