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Archive for the ‘Drugs’ Category

Cynthia Weiner–“Aftertaste” (The Sun, August 2009)

Posted in Cynthia Weiner, Drugs, Nirvana, The Sun on March 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NIRVANA-Bleach [Deluxe Edition Reissue] (2009).

I bought Bleach after I fell in love with Nevermind.  I liked it, but I think at the time I felt it was too raw, or maybe just less poppy than Nevermind.  But in listening to this remaster I’m inclined to say it’s better than Nevermind (although, granted I haven’t listened to Nevermind in a while now, either).

The disc is raw, and yet Cobain always had a knack for pop sensibilities (just disguised under noise and feedback).  You can see his love of pop by the choice of covering The Vaseline’s “Molly Lips.” And in a song like “About a Girl” (which they played on their MTV Unplugged show).

What’s amazing to me about this disc is how full the band sounds with just the three of them. Even when Cobain is soloing, it never sounds like the guitars are gone and it’s just a solo over a bassline.  Not bad for $600.

Of course, having said that about the poppiness of the band, there is still some pretty heavy, weird and ugly stuff on here. The heavy thudding intro of “Floyd the Barber,” the screaming cover of “Love Buzz,” the weird noises in “Big Cheese,” the wild bent notes in “Negative Creep” and the absolutely crazy feedback noise of “Paper Cuts.”

And the disc ends with the fantastic wordplay of “Downer.”  It’s really a solid collection of sludgy grunge songs.

So, famously, this disc was originally recorded for like $600.  I don’t know if the “remastering” has done anything.  I didn’t compare it to the original, although it seems like the vocals are a little clearer.  For $600, I’d think the original was all done in one take, and yet there must be overdubbed vocals (Cobain is the only one signing on “Big Cheese,” right?)

The real selling point here is what’s included in the second half of the disc: a concert from 1990 in which the band sounds tight, fast, and quite amazing.  It’s most of the material from Bleach, with a few extra tracks thrown in and it sounds fantastic.

There’s also a 40-some-page booklet which is good for a read, but nothing all that special.  Nirvana only put out 3 proper albums, so I’m not sure if you can say this was really overlooked, but it’s certainly worth looking into again.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “Aftertaste”

This was the second piece that I read in The Sun.  This one was fiction.  And it featured a recovering heroin addict as its protagonist.

Abby lives in Manhattan and goes, for the first time, to Gourmet Fair, the health food store around the corner from her house. As she’s walking out she runs in to Gideon.  Gideon lives nearby and owns the cafe across from her apartment.  They’ve never spoken before but she is aware of him from his cafe (and the elaborately hand drawn menus in the front window).

Oh yeah, and Abby is a former heroin addict. (more…)

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Dan Martin–All Known Metal Bands (2008) [UPDATE]

Posted in Dan Martin, Decline of Western Civilization: Part Two: The Metal Years, Drinking, Drugs, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ozzy Osbourne, Sex, The Dead Milkmen, Virginity (Loss of) on March 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years [movie] (1988).

I feel like this movie aired a lot when I was a kid.  I wish I could remember what I thought about it back then, because watching it the other night I couldn’t believe how dumb everyone looked.  Whether it was Steven Tyler acting profound talking about masturbating or Joe Perry and his sourpuss.  Or Paul Stanley lying in bed with 4 women strewn around during his interview.   Or bless his heart, Chris Holmes’ drunken antics in the pool in front of his mother.   I’m half certain that it was staged, as nobody is that dumb.

Or any of the nameless masses primping for the movie (I’d love to know where the guy with half black/half white hair is now).  Or when any of the people who were sure they were going to become rock stars gave up and got jobs.

The only people who come out looking clever are Lemmy, seeming calm and wise on a mountaintop (?); Poison, for the love of God, who admit to their failings yet seem rather reasonable (and make the best unintentional joke about blowing all your cash on a Le Mans), Dave Mustaine who seems the most intelligent person in the movie, and Ozzy Osbourne.

Ozzy gets the best cut of anyone.  In his bathrobe, he makes a delicious breakfast of eggs, very undercooked bacon (he should have started the bacon first) and spilt orange juice.  At this time in his career, I believe he was being managed by Sharon (who everyone knows from the reality show), but at the time, she was unknown.  And I have to wonder how much of the genius of that scene was her idea.  Not only does it make anyone who called him a Satanist look silly, he gets the biggest and best intentional laughs.

Watching this movie as a married 40 year old, with my wife sitting next to me, I was frankly embarrassed for the way these bozos were carrying on.  And I think I was more embarrassed for them than for me.  Ah, Odin and your buttless chaps.

Of course, I’ve been a metalhead forever so I’ve always been amused by nonsensical antics.  And I’ve always rebelled against people like the woman from whatever anti-metal group was in the movie.  What’s great about her scene is that Penelope Spheeris doesn’t mock her.  She doesn’t do any weird edits or goofy sound effects or anything.  She just lets the lady speak her version of the truth and allows the audience (granted the audience is metal fans, but any reasonable adult could tell) to realize just how weird and silly she is.  The idea that the Secret Devil Worship Sign (as the Dead Milkmen call it) is really three 6’s (even her demonstration pushing reality) and that it is three fingers down to deny the holy trinity (when in fact it’s actually two fingers down and one thumb across) is just inspired lunacy.  Especially when you hear Ronnie James Dio, who ostensibly brought the sign into metal in the first place reveal that it was a something his grandmother did to ward off the evil eye.   Ah, the days of 80’s censorship, which I got ever so het up about.

But it was just those people that encouraged bands to come up with more and more outrageous names and deeds.  So, when Sarah asks me what is wrong with a band for naming themselves (* see below the fold for my newfound favorite band name), I told her it was in response to people like that.  When people go looking for evil in the mundane, well, why not just be evil right in their faces and see what they do.

Sure, it’s childish, but it’s also fun!

I only wish they would show The Decline of Western Civilization Part One once in a while.

[READ: February 28, 2010]  All Known Metal Bands (D-E)

About eight months ago, I posted that I had started reading this book.  Obviously I am not reading it very often as I am only up to the E’s.  But I picked it up again the other day and found my two new favorite band names: (more…)

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Craig Ferguson–American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (2009)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Books about writers, Boredom, Corporate skewering, Craig Ferguson, Culture Shock, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Late Late Show, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Political Humor, Politicians, Red Dwarf, Religion, Steppenwolf, Travel, Unreliable narrator, Virginity (Loss of) on February 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT–Blue Öyster Cult (1972).

Craig Ferguson mentions that the only concert he saw as a teen in America was Blue Öyster Cult.  My guess is that it would have been around the Agents of Fortune or Spectres tour (ie, around “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”) so that must have been a killer show.

In honor of his book, I’m going to look at the lesser known early work of BOC.  Their first disc is a fascinating amalgamation of hard rock, blues, boogie and psychedelia.  All of that is coupled with the utterly perplexing lyrics that they came up with. In addition to the huh? factor of titles like “She’s a Beautiful as a Foot” and “Before the Kiss, a Redcap” we also get fascinating title like “Transamaniacon MC” (later on John Shirley would write a book called Transmaniacon as a tribute to this song).

The album isn’t heavy by today’s standards, but at the time, this was some pretty heavy stuff.  The rocking chorus of “Transmaniacon,” the blistering speed of “Stairway to the Stars,” and yes, the undeniably heavy riff of “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” let you know that this is no simple rock album.

And yet, they work so well with the fundamentals: Steppenwolf is clearly an inspiration.  This is classic rock that doesn’t quite fit the classic rock mode (which, frankly, makes it far more interesting).  There’s a lot to like here, and there’s more to come.

[READ: February 26, 2010] American on Purpose

I keep saying I don’t read memoirs but then I keep reading them. Yes, I’m a liar.

Well, in this case, I felt it was justified because a) Craig Ferguson is hilarious and I assumed his book would be too and b) he has already written a novel that I really liked (as well as 3 screenplays which I have not seen). So I figured it would be a well-written, funny book.  And, since it turned out I had two days off because of the “snow” I finished the book in a couple of days.

Right, so Craig Ferguson is the host of The Late Late Show, a show that Sarah and I fell in love with last year and then kind of forgot about it. And then we caught it again recently and have been enjoying some TiVo’d bits every now and then. Ferguson has a wonderfully warped sense of humor and his show veers into the bizarre more often than not.   But he is always enjoyable, and his celebrity interviews are worth watching for how funny and un-promotional they are.
But what about this book? This book basically details his life growing up in Scotland, moving to the States and becoming a “huge star.”

But the crux of the book is about his descent into alcoholism, how it destroyed his first marriage and several other long term relationships, as well as potentially his career. (more…)

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Daniel Zalewski–“Vagabonds: Roberto Bolaño And His Fractured Masterpiece” (New Yorker, March 26, 2007)

Posted in Adventure, bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, Communists, Dada, Daniel Zalewski, Death, Drugs, Foreign Books, Harper's, History, Marriage (Happy), Military, Nazis, New Yorker, Political Humor, Roberto Bolaño, Smarty Pants, Translation on February 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[READ: February 18, 2010] “Vagabonds”

After reading Infinite Jest, I got totally het up about reading all of David Foster Wallace’s works. Of course, I discovered that he had an awful lot of uncollected works (which were all conveniently gathered in one location by a much bigger DFW fan than I). Since I’m reading 2666 as part of an online group, I wondered if I would be similarly obsessed with Bolaño’s output.

Well first, I’m not loving 2666 as much as I did Infinite Jest (but I’m only 1/3 of the way through, so that may change).  But, on a more literal note, there seems to be very few short stories literred around the place. A very cursory search revealed a couple things in Harper’s and a couple things in the New Yorker, but very little else.  Now, I assume that’s primarily because his stories need to be translated first, so there’s possibly a bunch of uncollected Spanish stories, but as for English ones?  Well, let’s just say that scouring the globe for a complete list of short stories in English that are not part of a previously released collections is something of a dificult task.

In fact, further investigation into the stories from The New Yorker and Harper’s shows that these stories are either already released or soon to be published in translated collections.

One of the things I found in my search was this article which is more or less a review of Bolano’s, The Savage Detectives.  However, in true New Yorker fashion, it is also a detailed overview of Bolaño’s life as well. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Generation A (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Dystopia, Funny (strange), JPod, Kurt Vonnegut, Natural Disasters, Nature, Research, Rheostatics, Technology, The Future, Video Games, Violence, Yuck!, tagged on January 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Box (complete) (2008).

I’ve decided not to review all of the volumes of this fabulous free box set.  Rather, since I have now finished it, I’ll sum up and say that it is a fantastic collection from start to finish.

The final disc has a series of great cover tunes.  And of course, there’s the final songs from the final Massey Hall show which are quite emotional, even all these years later.

There’s one or two songs that I probably would have left off for sound quality reasons (although usually they’re pretty interesting/essential for what they are).  There’s one 8 minute song, “Monkeys Will Come” that has quite poor sound quality.  However, it is a recording of the song that the Canadian government asked them to record for Canada Day in 2000.  And I assume there are no better recordings of it, so it’s nice to have.

The best part of this collection is that it allowed me to see which concerts were worth downloading in their entirety (the site has a ton of concerts for downloading…a ton!).  It also got me to track down the two Violet Archers CDs, which I’m quite excited to be getting soon.

And, while I’m in a Rheos mood.  Martin Tielli’s final CDs in his subscription collection just made their way to my house and they are weird and wonderful.  And, I just learned that Dave Bidini put out a solo record a few months back, so that’s worth tracking down too.  Go Rheos!  You are all very star.

[READ: January 12, 2010] Generation A

I was quite excited when this book finally came out.  I had been dipping into the Douglas Coupland back catalog (including watching JPod the TVseries), so this book is a treat.

Strangely, when I started reading the book I realized I had no idea what it was about.  At all.  So, the first thing to note is that it is not in any way a sequel to Generation X.  None of the characters are the same, the setting is not the same, there’s no connection whatsoever (or if there is I didn’t see it).  The premise of the title comes from a Kurt Vonnegut address.  It is quoted on the book jacket and in the book itself, so I won’t quote it here, but the gist is that young people were dismissed unfairly when labelled “Generation X,” so they should insist that they be called “Generation A,” the beginning of the alphabet, and the start of it all.

But when the book starts, it’s hard to understand what that has to do with anything.  Because, as we learn right away, the book is all about bees (which explains the yellow and black cover design). (more…)

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Mark Barrowcliffe–The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Black Sabbath, Books about writers, Boredom, Collecting, Culture Shock, Demons, Dreams, Drugs, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Freaks & Geeks, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gods, Hawkwind, History, Kiss, Magic, Manuals, Marillion, Mark Barrowcliffe, Memoirs, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Nazis, Oddities, Racism, Religion, Saxon, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Summer, Supernatural, The Young Ones, Violence, Wikipedia on January 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Alive! (1975).

This was the first Kiss live album and was the album that broke Kiss worldwide.  I’m not entirely sure why a live album of songs that didn’t sell very well would do better than the original studio albums, but so it was.

And, yes, the live recording is pretty awesome.  It is clearly a collection of greatest hits off their first three records, and the band sounds on fire: the songs are heavier and faster and largely more consistent than some of the odder tracks on the original records.

There has been considerable controversy about whether the album was overdubbed.  Wikipedia lists a few different possibilities for what originally recorded sounds were kept for the disc.  It never occurred to me that the disc might be overdubbed (and honestly that doesn’t bother me all that much).  But since I had the pleasure of watching Kissology recently, and I could see the state of their vocals live, it would surprise me entirely if the vocals were not overdubbed.  Not because the band didn’t sound good live (they did), but because they were very sloppy with their vocals, consistently leaving off the ends of lines and things like that, and the disc sounds perfect.

Of course this is all nitpicking.  Alive! is a fantastic document because the live versions add a lot of punch to the originals.  But on top of that, you get fun extras like the drum solo and banter of the 12 minute “100,000 Years” as well as Paul’s drinking banter: “I know there’s a lot of you out there that like to drink…vodka and orange juice!” (How can you pass that up?).  It’s hard to pick highlights from such a good record, but “She” is a particular one with Ace’s wild guitar pyrotechnics.  Right on to the end, the disc is a rocking good time.

It’s also funny to hear that “Rock And Roll All Nite” is not the final encore; rather it is the next to last track with “Let Me Go Rock n Roll” being the BIG FINISH.  That’s the last time that THAT would happen!

[READ: December 28, 2009] The Elfish Gene

I happened to pass this book in the New section of my library and I loved the title.  I read the blurb, made a mental note of it, mentioned how much I liked the title to Sarah and then more or less forgot about it (although, actually, I still see it every day, as it’s always facing out, cover forward).

Imagine my surprise to see that Sarah got it for me for Christmas!

So, yes, this is the best parody-titled book that is not a parody or a make-a-buck joke book that modifies a popular title.  Rather, it is a memoir of a British guy who spent his teen years utterly absorbed in Dungeons & Dragons.  But I must disagree with the Christian Science Monitor’s review as “laugh out loud funny.”  I only laughed out loud once in the book (the dog walking scene is hilarious), but that’s because I don’t think it was meant to be funny (at least I hope it wasn’t).

I’ve said before that I’m not a big fan of memoirs in general.  I find them mostly to be a big “so what,” and often without the subtlety required for a good novel.  But the topic here was delicious enough for me to dive right in.  And I think that this book, which I absolutely enjoyed, sort of proves my theory.

Barrowcliffe has done nothing worthy of anyone caring about.  He’s just a guy who played D&D, so when checking out the book, you kind of feel, so what?  Plus, the book is completely unsubtle, with him summarizing his attitude over and over and over.  But nevertheless, I could not put it down. I was hooked from the opening and was totally intrigued all the way to the end.  (I even put down the book I had been reading to speed right through this).

And yet, Barrowcliffe himself is so unlikable.  And not, as he suggests, because of the D&D. (more…)

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Ben Schott–Schott’s Miscellany 2009: An Almanac (2008)

Posted in Aesop Rock, Airlines, Art, Authors, Barack Obama, Ben Schott, Bible, Bill Fox, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Collecting, Comedians, Consumerism, Contests, Death, Dip-in Books, Drinking, Drugs, Explosions in the Sky, Film & TV, Food, Foreign Books, Games (Non Video), Grizzly Bear, History, Holidays, I'm from Barcelona, Language, LGBTQ, Lightning Bolt, Magik Markers, Military, Morality, Nature, Nico, Of Montreal, Oxford Collapse, Poetry, Prison, Racism, Religion, Reykjavik!, Roger Federer, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sports, Sufjan Stevens, Technology, The Future, Travel, TSA, Violence, War, Word usage on December 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June/July 2007 Music Issue Compilation CD: Cue the Bugle Turbulent (2007).

The 2007 Believer disc smashes the mold of folkie songs that they have established with the previous discs in the series.  The theme for this disc is that there’s no theme, although the liner notes give this amusing story:

one decaffeinated copy editor (“the new guy”) made a suggestion: “The Believer CD should be composed of eight a.m. music/breakfast-substitute jams, like that commercial from a while back with the guy who gets out of bed over and over again while ELO plays over his morning routine. You should tell all of the bands to write/contribute songs worth listening to within three minutes of waking up.”

So, without a theme, they just asked artists for some great songs.  There’s one or two tracks written especially for the disc (Sufjan Stevens, Lightning Bolt).  There’s a couple B-sides.  There are some wildly noisy raucous songs: and three of them come from duos!  No Age offers a very noisy blast of feedback.  Magik Markers play a super-fast distortion-fueled rocker, and Lightning Bolt play 5 minutes of noise noise noise.  Oh, and there’s even a rap (Aesop Rock)!

Tracks 3-7 are just about the 5 best songs in a row on any compilation.  Oxford Collapse plays a catchy and wonderfully angular song with “Please Visit Your National Parks.”  It’s followed by a song from Sufjan Stevens that sounds NOTHING like Sufjan Stevens, it’s a noisy distorted guitar blast of indie punk.  I’m from Barcelona follows with a supremely catchy horn driven song that would be huge on any college campus.  Aesop Rock comes next with a fantastic song.  I’d heard a lot about Aesop Rock but had never heard him before, and he raps the kind of rap that I like: cerebral and bouncy.  This is followed by Reykjavik! with a crazy, noisy surf-guitar type of song.  It reminds me of some great college rock from the early 90s.

Of Montreal, a band I’ve been hearing about a lot but who I’ve never heard (and didn’t think sounded like this) plays a wonderfully catchy two minute love song that sounds ironic, but which likely isn’t.  The melody is straight out of the Moody Blues’ “Wildest Dreams,” and yet it is still fun and quirky.

There’s a couple instrumentals as well: The Clogs do a cool, mellow instrumental and Explosions in the Sky do one of their typically fantastic emotional tracks.  Also on the disc, The Blow contribute a delightfully witty song and Bill Fox, a singer I’d never heard of (but who has a great article about him in the magazine), really impressed me with his Bob Dylan meets Nico delivery.  The disc ends with an alternate version of a song by Grizzly Bear.

This is definitely my favorite Believer disc thus far.  See the full track listing here.

[READ: Throughout 2009] Schott’s Miscellany 2008

This year’s edition of Schott’s Miscellany is very much like last year’s edition (see that review here).  I mean, it is an almanac after all.  However, it is a wondrous testament to Schott that even though I read every word of the 2008 edition, I was able to read every word of the 2009 edition and not feel like I was duplicating myself very much.

Obviously the news, facts and events of 2008-09 are different from last year.  And since Schott’s writing style is breezy and fun with a hint of sarcasm and amusement thrown in, you don’t get just a list of facts, you get sentences with subtle commentary on the facts.  And it’s a fun way to re-live the past year.  Plus, the Sci, Tech, Net section discusses science stories that sounded really impressive and important which I can’t believe I didn’t hear about at the time. (more…)

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Albert Innaurato–Gemini (1978) & The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie (1978)

Posted in Albert Innaurato, Death, Demons, Donald Sutherland, Drinking, Drugs, Food, Funny (ha ha), Happy Birthday Gemini, Kate Bush, Marriage Trouble, Morality, Neurotics, Pink Floyd, Play (Drama), Short Books, Suicide, Universities, Unlikable main character on November 22, 2009| 1 Comment »

geminSOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Hounds of Love (1985).

I have a very specific memory of the first time I heard the song  “Hounds of Love.”  I was in high school and the Wilderness Adventure Club was heading towards whatever destination we were going to (funny I can’t remember the destination, but I recall the car trip there).  The head of the club (who was a teacher, but not one I had) was driving a bunch of us in his station wagon and this song came on.  My friend Brad and I howled with laughter at the “barking” that Kate does. “Roo Roo Roo Roo.”

It only occurred to me recently that the driver probably enjoyed the music or else he wouldn’t have had it on, so that wasn’t very nice of us.  It also occurs to me that he must have had the disc (actually the tape, as there were no discs then) because I don’t imagine the song was ever on the radio.  (Although I also think there may have been a DJ talking about the songs, so my memory is shaky).  I just remember laughing and laughing and quite likely Roo Rooing for much of the trip.

So, it’s funny now how much I love this disc (my high school self was a metal head, my college self expanded his musical mind rather a lot).

Kate’s previous two records were a wonderful precursor to this monumental disc.  The big hits come at the top: “Hounds of Love” is indeed an amazing song, as is “Running Up That Hill.”  But they’re familiar enough that I don’t have to say anything.  “The Big Sky” is a rollicking romp of fun.  And “Cloudbusting” is just simply amazing.  (Look for the video with Donald Sutherland!).  It’s five minutes of intense storytelling.

But for me, the second side of the album (starting with track 6 on the disc) is the real selling point.  It’s something of a story called The Ninth Wave.  And what I love about it (in addition to the awesome music) are the amazing effects and sounds and voices that are all over the tracks.

It begins simply with a delicate piece, “And Dream of Sheep,” a beautiful piano ballad.  It’s followed by the mesmerizing “Under Ice.”  The opening string sounds evoke someone skating on an ice (which is what the song is about).  As the tension grows (is someone under the ice?) voices far back in the distance compete with Kate singing “Its me!”

The next track, “Waking the Witch” begins with some awesome headphone voice work.  Voices from various family members implore her to wake up.  Left, right, middle, back.  Then, a voices asks “Can you not see that light over there?”  With a far off voice whispering “over here.”  When the song finally bursts forth, her voice is manipulated in a creepy disjointed way.  Followed by different musical sections with cathedral bells.  All through the track a male authority figure condemns the girl for being a witch.  And as the song ends (with a sample of the helicopter from Pink Floyd’s The Wall she is found guilty.  It’s quite intense.

The intensity slackens somewhat with the mellow “Watching Me Without You.”  But it builds again with the manic intensity of “The Jig of Life” a traditional jig with uilleann pipes in the background and Kate’s vocals over the top.  The song breaks into a very traditional sounding step dance seisiun until Kate starts whispering “I put this moment here” (more of that cool headphone stuff) and the song takes of again.

“Hello Earth” starts as a simple ballad reminiscent of “And Dream of Sheep” but it grows in intensity only to break for a choir passage.  It then returns to the intensity of Kate’s voice which fades and ends with Kate’s whispered:  “Tiefer, tiefer.  Irgendwo in der Tiefe.  Gibt es ein licht.” (Roughly: Deeper Deeper, Somewhere in the depths there is a light.)

The disc ends with “The Morning Fog” a respite from the intensity of the music and the contents.  It’s a light ballad (with amazing fretless bass work) that seems like it could have been used in a John Hughes film.  Especially for the “I tell my mother/father/loved ones/brother how much I love them” lyrics.

The Ninth Wave is one of my favorite suites to listen to.  It not only demands attention, it usually gets it.

Hounds of Love is, simply put, fantastic.

[READ: November 15, 2009] Gemini & The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie

When I was a kid, watching cartoons on Channel 11, WPIX, there was a frequent, (in my memory it was incessant) commercial for a Broadway play.  And the only things I remember about the commercial were two snippets:  In the first, a young boy is gorging himself on food and his mother yells “TAKE HUMAN BITES!”  The second shows a woman who says “I’m  not hungry, I’ll just pick” who then grabs a handful of spaghetti from someone else’s plate.

This commercial was such a part of our culture, that my friends used to shout “TAKE HUMAN BITES” at each other all the time.  And yet, after all these years, I couldn’t remember what the play was.  So, out of curiosity, I did some searching to see if I could find this mysterious play (and, more importantly find the commercial).

So, thank you, internet, for helping me discover the play is Albert Innaurato’s Gemini.  No commercials have been forthcoming, sadly.

Well, I thought it would be fun to read this play and see if it was as funny as the commercial seemed.  Who could have guessed that the play would have turned out like this? (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Souvenir of Canada (2002), Souvenir of Canada 2 (2004) & Souvenir of Canada [the movie] (2006)

Posted in Books about music, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Collecting, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Fishing, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Hockey, Hockey Night in Canada, Memoirs, Nanaimo Bar, Nature, Nostalgia, Oddities, Photo Essays, Poutine, Rush, Souvenir of Canada, The New Pornographers, Tindersticks, War on November 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

socSOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-The Hungry Saw [CST055] (2008).

hungryIt was the releases of this Tindersticks disc (their first in 5 years) on the venerable Constellation Records (in North America) that inspired my trip through their back catalog. I was completely surprised to see them released on Constellation, as the band doesn’t exactly fit with the label’s stereotypical style (although, realistically with the last dozen or so releases, Constellation has really expanded the kind of music they release).

And this is a fantastic Tindersticks release!  There’s not a bad song on the disc. And, even though nothing is as immediately gripping as say “Can We Start Again,” the disc contains some of the band’s strongest songs.  “The Hungry Saw” is simply amazing, both lyrically and in its catchy (yet creepy) chorus.  But the highlight is probably “Boobar, Come Back to Me,” a song that begins slowly and builds gloriously, including a call and response segment that makes this song really swagger.

“Mother Dear” features a strangely comical musical episode.  In an otherwise very mellow piano based track, right in the middle of the song, come slashing, somewhat atonal guitar chords.  It’s as if a more rocking song is trying to overtake the mellow track.  (The coup is rebuffed, though).

The biggest thing to note about the disc is that longtime co-songwriter Dickon has left the band.  And so, some of the co-writing duties have been taken up by David Boulter.  While it is obviously sad that Dickon has left, Staples seems revitalized on this disc, and Boulter’s additions (especially his quirky instrumentals) bring a new point of view to the proceedings.  Also of note is something of a return to the orchestral style (albeit a much more understated version).  However, different songs emphasize different aspects: horns on one, strings on another, but always underscored by the ubiquitous Hammond organ.

It’s not a radical departure or anything like that.  It’s more of a continuation after a well earned vacation.  And it’s certainly their strongest release since their first four.

[READ & WATCHED: October 2009] Souvenir of Canada, Souvenir of Canada 2 & Souvenir of Canada (the movie)

I got the first Souvenir of Canada when it came out.  (I was on a big Coupland kick and may have even bought it in Montreal).  I didn’t get #2 when it came out, probably because I didn’t really invest a lot of effort into the first one.  But after recently reading City of Glass, I wanted to get a little more involved in Coupland’s visual art.  So, I picked up #2 and, while investigating this second book, I discovered that he had made a film of the books, too.

Coupland explains in the introduction that this book is his personal vision of what Canada is like. It is designed for Canadians as something of a nostalgia trip, but it is also something of an introduction to unseen Canada for non-Canadians.  And so, what you don’t get is pictures of mounties and Tim Hortons and other things that fit the stereotypical Canadian bill. Rather, you get things that are significant to Coupland (and maybe the average Canadian born on the West Coast in the 60s). (more…)

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John Uri Lloyd–Etidorhpa; or, The End of Earth: The History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey (1895)

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Hollow Earth, J. Augustus Knapp, John Uri Lloyd, Jules Verne, Oddities, Supernatural, Tindersticks, Unlikable main character on November 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

uriSOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Waiting for the Moon (2003).

moonThis Tindersticks disc shows a bit of a departure for them.  Two of the first three songs are not sung by Stuart Staples (which is nice for diversity, but it is shocking to hear the first sung words on a Tindersticks disc be in the relatively high register of Dickon).  Not to mention, the song opens with lines about killing someone (!), which is a bit more drastic than most of their lovelorn lyrics.

The fourth song “4.48 Psychosis” is the most guitar heavy/rocking song in the band’s catalog, I think.  And the rest of the disc falls into a fairly traditional Tindersticks camp.

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this disc that describe it as a grower.  It’s entirely possible that I haven’t allowed this disc to grow on me enough, but I’m not as enamored of this one as I am with the rest.  The problem for me is that the first batch of discs are so magical that it just feels like this one is simply not as exciting.  Of course, any Tindersticks record is a good one, this one just isn’t quite as good as the rest.

Mayhaps I need to go back and try it a few more times?

[READ: October 31, 2009] Etidorhpa

I found out about this story when a patron requested it.  I’d never heard of it, and when I looked for it, it was very hard to find in our library system.  But when I Googled it, it was available as a Google Book.  They had scanned the entire thing and (since it was old and out of copyright) it was available free online!  Awesome.

I printed out the whole thing (double sided) and figured I would read it fairly quickly.  [Oh, and just to ruin my cool story about Google books, I see now that it is available in paperback for about $10 from Amazon.  Doh!]

Of course, I’m not just going to read something because it’s available as a Google Book.  The patron said that it was like Jule’s Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I had just read “Symmes Hole” in McSweeney’s #4, so Hollow Earthers were already floating around my mind.  It all seemed to work out quite well.

By the time I started reading it, I had forgotten about the Hollow Earth ideas.  Which is fine, since the first 100 pages or so are given up solely to the ideas of occult sciences.  But, let me back up a bit first.

First there is a Preface.  Lloyd claims to have found this manuscript which was hidden by Llewellyn Drury.  Before he gets to the manuscript, though, he gives a little background about himself.   He also relates a lengthy story about the value of libraries and shared knowledge.  He concludes with speculation about Drury, and the revelation that although he is unwilling to specify how he came into possession of the manuscript, he has had it for seven years (as of 1894) and is finally convinced that it’s time to get it published.

My edition also contains a Preface about Daniel Vaughn. Vaughn is mentioned as a character in the story (but he was a real person as well).  In the story, Drury sought Vaughn’s assistance with some scientific matters.  So there’s a brief biography about the man.

AND THEN, there is a section called “A Valuable and Unique Library” which is another preface about the value of libraries.  I’m not even clear about who wrote it, if it’s supposed to be a plug for this book itself or if it’s just an ad for something.

Finally, the story proper begins.  But not without a preface by Drury himself, giving his own life story (his full name is Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury) but he decided to remove those two ugly names. (more…)

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