Posted in Art d'Ecco, Death, Electricity, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Futility, Gambling, Outer Space, Red Dwarf, Rob Grant, Sparks, Threats, Time Travel, Violence, Yuck! on June 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: ART D’ECCO “Angst in My Pants” (2021).
I saw Art D’ecco open a show a few years ago and I’ve become mildly obsessed with hi. I’m delighted to see that he’s getting some promotion and success.
His new album In Standard Definition is a great synth pop retro dance infusion. But in addition to that he has released two standalone covers.
Art D’ecco covering Sparks is a pretty natural decision. as his label puts it.
Posted in Adventure, Advice, Allison Crutchfield, Alternate Reality, Anachronisms, Babies, Bible, Boredom, Crowdfunding, Daredevils, Death, Demons, Electricity, End of the World, Environmentalism, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Feminism, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Gender, Giants, Graphic Novel, Hoax, Humiliation, Idiots, Jealousy, Katie Crutchfield, Natural Disasters, Paleontologists, Politicians, Religion, Science, Sexism, Supernatural, Superstitions, Swearin', Technology, The Bible, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert, War, Waxahatchee, Yuck!, Zombies on May 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: WAXAHATCHEE-Tiny Desk Concert #321 (November 23, 2013).
Waxahatchee is pretty much Katie Crutchfield. The band recently played a show near me and I wondered if it was a band or just her.
This might be as intimate as hearing Katie Crutchfield sing in her basement. That’s where she and her sister would play guitar, write and sing songs 10 years ago, when she was 14. Katie and Allison Crutchfield had a band back in Birmingham together, The Ackleys; these days, Katie performs as Waxahatchee, while Allison’s band is called Swearin’.
The songs Waxahatchee brought to the NPR Music offices aren’t just stripped down for this Tiny Desk Concert, this is Katie Crutchfield as Waxahatchee, spare and exposed; this is what she does. Sometimes there’s a drummer (her sister’s boyfriend Kyle Gilbride) and at other times another guitarist, her boyfriend Keith Spencer (both play in Swearin’), but even on Waxahatchee’s second album, Cerulean Salt, there are plenty of bare-boned songs. This is intimate music for an intimate setting, as we got to stand in careful silence, listening intently and capturing this frail and powerful performance.
And all of that is true. These are pretty, quiet folk songs. They are so quiet it almost seems like she doesn’t have her amp on—you can hear her pick striking against the strings.
To me the power of these songs is in the lyrics, and yet the music isn’t boring or simple either. Her chords are always, if not interesting, then certainly spot on. But I keep coming back to the lyrics. Like the end of “I Think I Love You”
I want you so bad it’s devouring me / and I think I love you but you’ll never find out.
Her speaking voice is quiet too, and after the first song she admits, “This is one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to do.”
“Bathtub” has this wonderfully intense line:
And I tell you not to love me
But I still kiss you when I want to
And I lament, you’re innocent
But somehow the object of my discontent
And it’s fucked up, I let you in
Even though I’ve seen what can happenThe entire Tiny Desk Concert is only 9 minutes–which is simply too short. I know that the Tiny Desk Concerts usually have bands play 3 songs, but when they are mostly short ones like “Tangled Envisioning” (not even 3 minutes), they could tack on an extra one or two.
[READ: August 30, 2016] Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543
Zach Weinersmith writes the daily webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I supported the Kickstarter project for this book because it looked frankly hilarious. The one thing I have to say off the bat is that I don’t love his drawing style. There’s something about it that I simply can’t get into. Even after two full books of these drawings, it just never gels for me. But that’s fine. because I’m here for the jokes. And they are awesome.
The book is comprised of the best religion-themes comic from the 13 years that SMBC has been around. There’s also a whole slew of comics that are exclusive to this book.
We are greeted with this: “For these drawings, the part of God is played by a giant yellow disc.” (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Advice, Alternate Reality, Anachronisms, Babies, Bible, Boredom, Carl Sagan, Crowdfunding, Daredevils, Daughter, Death, Demons, Dinosaurs, Electricity, End of the World, Environmentalism, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Feminism, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Gender, Giants, Graphic Novel, Hoax, Humiliation, Idiots, Jealousy, NASA, Natural Disasters, Paleontologists, Politicians, Religion, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Science, Scientists, Sexism, Supernatural, Superstitions, Technology, The Bible, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert, Unicorns, War, Yuck!, Zach Weinersmith, Zombies on May 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: DAUGHTER-Tiny Desk Concert #313 (October 21, 2013).
Daughter is a quiet folk band (at least in this Tiny Desk Concert) in which two acoustic guitars (Elena Tonra and Igor Haefeli) and one drum (Remi Aguilella) play behind Tonra’s gorgeous, angsty vocals.
For all three of these songs, she sings delicate whispered vocals that are quite lovely, but also quite dark.
Like this line from “Youth” “Most of us are bitter over someone / setting fire to our insides for fun.” I love the way Haefeli’s guitar harmonics sound like keyboards and how powerful the martial drumming sounds when it comes in.
“Landfill” opens with thudding drums (Mallets instead of sticks) which are louder and bigger and yet still feel gentle. And yet, as the blurb says: The song is “achingly pretty and melancholy, the track builds to an absolute gut-punch of a line — “I want you so much, but I hate your guts” — that conjures a pitch-perfect mix of gloom, desire and hostility.”
They put out an EP and in 2013 released an album:
the lovely If You Leave, but Daughter was kind enough to resuscitate “Landfill” for this stripped-down performance at the Tiny Desk. As you’ll see and hear, that aforementioned gut-punch is a recurring specialty for the band: In all three of these sad, searing songs, singer Elena Tonra showcases a remarkable gift for coolly but approachably dishing out weary words that resonate and devastate.
Between these two songs, Bob asks if this is an awkward place to play, and she responds, “No, we’re just awkward people.”
For “Tomorrow” there is a beautiful ascending guitar melody and loud drums. I really like the way the guitars play off of each other–even though they are both acoustic, they sound very different and complement each other nicely. Like in the wonderful melody at the end. Despite how pretty the song was, apparently she was unhappy with it saying “a bit ropey, that one.” I hadn’t heard that before, but evidently it means “unwell…usually alcohol related” so that’s pretty funny.
[READ: August 30, 2016] Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543
Zach Weinersmith writes the daily webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I supported the Kickstarter project for his book Religion: Ruining Everything Since 4004 BC and this book was part of my funding level.
I was more interested in the religious comics, but I am tickled by how funny the Science comics are. Weinersmith knows a lot of science (or at least scientists) and make some really funny jokes about the subject.
The one thing I have to say off the bat is that I don’t love his drawing style. There’s something about it that I simply can’t get into. Even after two full books of these drawings, it just never gels for me. But that’s fine. because I’m here for the jokes. And they are awesome. (more…)
Posted in #10yearsof01, Children's Books, Electricity, End of the World, Environmentalism, Explorers, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Nature, Non-fiction, Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi, Research, Science, Scientists, The Future, Tiny Desk Concert, Volcanoes on March 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: OLIVER ‘TUKU’ MTUKUDZI-Tiny Desk Concert #307 (September 30, 2017).
The blurb says that this guitarist is a legend, which makes me feel bad that I’ve never heard of him.
He seemed so casual — sitting on a bar stool behind the Tiny Desk, acoustic guitar in hand — but when you hear that husky voice, you’ll know why he’s a legend. Oliver Mtukudzi, or “Tuku” as his fans lovingly call him, plays spirited music, born from the soul of Zimbabwe. He’s been recording since the late 1970s, with about as many albums as his age: 60.
But Mtukudzi’s new record reveals a heavier heart than before: Sarawoga is his first recording since the loss of his son Sam. He and Sam — also a guitar player, as well as a saxophonist — had a special relationship touring together. But in March 2010, Sam Mtukudzi was killed in a car crash at the age of 21. Oliver Mtukudzi recently told NPR’s Tell Me More that “the only way to console myself is to carry on doing what we loved doing most. Sitting down [to] cry and mourn — I think it would have killed me.”
All three songs, “Todii,” “Huroi” and “Haidyoreke” are all gentle, with Tuku’s guitar playing mellow meandering melodies and his gravelly voice being soothing at the same time. It’s interesting that for “Todii,” a more upbeat song he is clearly singing not in English, but the chorus (sung by the backing musicians) is “What Shall We Do.” The backing musicians are there for percussion–congas, and maracas–and backing vocals. And their vocals are done in a traditional way.
[READ: January 2, 2017] Volcanoes
This Science Comics book was very different from the previous two. It was designed as a fictional story full of with factual information.
At first I found this really weird and off-putting, but by the end, I thought the story was pretty compelling and that the factual information was presented in an interesting and informative way. And what I realized afterward was not that I didn’t like the fictional aspect but that I really didn’t like the illustrations.
For some reason, Chad chose to have the main characters with very distinctive and unusual features. Aurora, the main character had a line of black hair down her forehead. Her sister, Luna, has really really big eyes and their guardian, Pallas, has a block of gray hair. I found all of these choices to be unsettling and unpleasing to look at (although it does allow us to tell them apart quite easily). However the volcano and other nature images were really fantastic. (more…)
Posted in Albert Einstein, Branchburg, NJ, C., Doktor Kaboom, Electricity, Funny (ha ha), RVCC Arts, Santa Claus, Science, Scientists, T. on December 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: December 10, 2016] Doktor Kaboom! The Science of Santa
We loved Doktor Kaboom! when we saw him last (which I didn’t even realize was less than a year ago). His last show, Live Wire, mixed comedy, science and a hearty dose of believing in yourself.
And so did this one. Indeed, this show wasn’t radically different from the previous one except that it was all about the magic of Santa Claus. For as Doktor Kaboom! states: magic is simply science we can’t explain yet. And in case you are worried about any Santa spoilers, the tagline reads: No iconic Holiday figures were harmed in the making of this show.
For background, the K in Doktor isn’t a zany spelling (thank goodness), it is because the good Doktor is German! And when he asks you if you understand, you must shout JA!, not yeah or yuh or okay, but JA!
And he likes things to go Kaboom! Ja? JA! (more…)
Posted in Branchburg, NJ, C., Doktor Kaboom, Electricity, Funny (ha ha), Nikolai Tesla, RVCC Arts, Science, T. on March 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »
[ATTENDED: March 11, 2016] Doktor Kaboom!
Anyone named Doktor Kaboom sounds like a performer I want to see. Especially if his thing is that he mixes science and comedy.
I knew nothing about the man when we bought tickets at RVCC Friday night, but boy was I excited. And so were the kids, who both love science and things that go Kaboom!
So Doktor Kaboom came out on stage and…lo and behold…the K in Doktor wasn’t a zany spelling (thank goodness), it is because the good Doktor is German! And when he asks you if you understand, you must shout Ja!, not yeah or yuh or okay, JA!
And he likes things to go Kaboom! Ja? JA! (more…)
I Just Read About That... 