Away is Michel Langevin, the drummer for metal band Voivod. But on his first solo album he eschews all conventional music. Rather, he has created an exercise in found sound and released it on the small label Utech Records.
The album is described as
Strong field recordings capture more than just the sound of an area, they capture a mood and spirit of the place and people. On Cities, local color and nature recordings clash with riots and discord, capturing the full human experience across the world. Literal and metaphorical “found music” appears: the booming stereo of a passing car or distant church bells, as does the rhythmic engine hum of a bus or the chirping of birds. This tour is a fast paced one, rapidly weaving through the geographic locations building a diverse, yet consistently engaging experience. The audio journey captured here perfectly reinforces the fact that, regardless of one’s location, the presence of music is never far, nor should it be.
What we get is a collection that sounds like a tour through the streets of the respective cities (nothing more specific than Europe is given, sadly). We hear street noise and buskers playing (interestingly just about every type of music I have heard in Boston subways as well).
I only wish more information was given about just what Away was up to. Where he was and, more importantly, how he recorded these sounds. The recording quality is amazing—the panpipes and harmonicas sound crisp and clean with no other ambient noise. Did he ask the performers if he could record? How did he get them so pristine especially since I assume they are in the streets? And for the Europe ones, was there any given order to the way they were edited? Is it the progression of their Voivod tour, or is it just random? The mixing and sequencing is quite good, especially in the shorter pieces which really take you on a journey. Not knowing what’s happening is maddening and part of the fun as you try to picture (especially if you use headphones) exactly what you are hearing.
“Montreal 2010” opens with the sound of travel until we zoom in on panpipes (for a few seconds). This switches to a lurching shanty (sung, I suspect in French—it’s a little hard to hear). Then from the shadows comes the sound of someone playing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on the harmonica.
“Europe 2012” opens with someone playing what I suspect is a hammered dulcimer (exactly the kind of thing that buskers play in subway stations), it shifts to a jazz trio (sax, bass, drums) wailing away with traffic noises in the background. After some busses and an accordion solo, there are delicate chimes. Finally a bagpipe melody leads us away from the delicate chimes until we hear announcements in what sound like Russian and then French. The track ends with fans chanting “Voivod Voivod.”
Montreal 2012 returns Away to near his home city. This time the scene is much nosier—it could be joyous, it could be angry—there are whistles and horns, and by the end it seems like a joyous parade. The noise diminishes as an operatic voice pierces through briefly until the drums return. More street noises, including police sirens, French chanting and a train passing by as we return to yet more street drumming. If this track had more context for the title it would probably be more enjoyable. And yet as the parade (for surely that is what it is ) marches past you feel like you’re there.
“Mexico City 2012” opens with a truck honking and street noise until we hear what sounds like an indigenous band playing, then some more flute music and church bells pealing. Then there are announcements in Spanish (by both a man and woman presumably in the church) and church organ music. Pan pipes and drums bring us back into the street and what sounds like a market scene which ends with some Mexican music playing.
“Europe 2011” opens with some beautiful guitar or perhaps an Indian stringed instrument playing and some traditional Indian singing. There’s some more music playing and cheering and then some peace as birds take us out of this short track.
“Montreal 2011” opens with banjo music (!). And then the more typically French sounding violin moves us along. More pan pipes and traffic noise progress us through the city. Then two very different examples of accordion music meld until the noise of the train wipes them out. The track fades out with a band playing a jaunty accordion inspired track.
“Chicago 2012” ends the disc with a symphony orchestra tuning up (I presume) for a few minutes. It’s a shocking cacophony. Until someone shushes the noises and the birds return, playing us out of this aural tour.
You can stream, download or buy the CD here. Buying the CD gets you some of Away’s cool art (although I wish there was more).
[READ: October 8, 2013] “War Wounds”
Since I’ve been enjoying Tom Bissell’s book reviews, I thought I’d see what else he had written in Harper’s. He seems to have a storied career with the magazine as a traveling journalist. And this article dates back to 2004.
It is a personal article about himself and his father. What I found fascinating about this is that his father was a Vietnam veteran, and I don’t know too much in the way of writing that concerns being the child of a Vietnam veteran. There are a lot of books and films about the Vietnam experience for the soldiers, but not so much about the families that they returned to (as far as I know). So it was interesting to read Bissell’s account of growing up with his father–who was a hard man and who wasn’t afraid to fight with his children (especially when drunk).
The man that Tom grew up with had a temper and didn’t much approve of Tom’s chosen profession. But unlike many people of his generation, Tom didn’t feel that he had a particularly estranged relationship with his father. What on earth possessed him to invite his father on a trip to Vietnam–to visit the sites where he lost friends and was himself wounded, is the stuff of journalism. (more…)
Voivod in the E-Force era released two proper albums. But they also released their first live album and this hybrid collection. So at this point, there were almost more albums with this in retrospect least popular lineup of the band.
Kronik, with the least inspiring album cover of all (the fact that Away doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it even calls into question the “realness” of the release) has eleven songs on it The first three tracks are remixes. It’s fascinating to hear these really really heavy songs remixed in a techno way. I know by this time there was a lot of really heavy techno bands, so this isn’t totally unusual, and Voivod has been experimenting with industrial beats on the last two albums as well. It’s just fun to imagine these as dance remixes and to speculate who these remixes were made for. “Forlorn” sounds a bit like Helmet here. E-Force’s voice is so manipulated as to be almost unrecognizable. The solo section is also manipulated in a weird way, making this song sound, if not very different from at least somewhat different. There also appears to be some throat singing thrown on to the end of the mix. “Nanoman” gets the royal treatment—skittery beats, sounds dropping out and a major techno drum beat placed on top of it. “Mercury” is given a very fast electronic drumbeat but not much else. But in this version it sounds very classic industrial.
The next three songs are outtakes from the E-Force era. “Vortex” has a pummeling guitar riff and some massively screamed vocals. “Drift” opens slowly with some spacey guitars and distant rumbles of drums. After 90 second the screaming noise kicks into high gear. “Erosion” has a some steady heavy sections in between the bludgeoning. They basically all sound like the could have come from Phobos.
The next song “Ion” appeared on the soundtrack to Heavy Metal 2000 the movie and was unreleased until this album. It has some very cool moments in it and is a little less brutal than a lot of their music from this era. I rather like it.
The final four songs are live. “Project X” and “Cosmic Conspiracy” are tracks from the E-Force era, and they sound very close to the studio versions. I actually prefer E-Force’s voice here, as it is more natural sounding. “Nuclear War” comes from the very first album. E-Force’s screams are not too dissimilar to Snake’s, although I miss Snake’s pronunciations. But the music sounds better than on the album. And then there’s “Astonomy Domine.” This is the first live recording of the band (and the only song form the pre-E-Force era that’s on a live record. So it’s exciting to hear them playing this more complex song. The recording quality is not great, sadly. But the problem (once again) is E-Force’s voice. The first verse sounds fine, but as the song moves along he starts screaming a lot more. And this song just doesn’t lend itself to screaming. It’s shame.
So this collection is for die-hards and for people who love the heavier period of Voivod (which is not a majority I would guess).
[READ: September 30, 2013] Room 237
This article looks at The Shining, the film by Stanley Kubrick. It briefly mentions the book by Stephen King, but only briefly. And actually this article doesn’t so much look at the film as it looks at a film about The Shining called Room 237. And, actually, Room 237 is more about the people who have obsessed over The Shining for years and who have come up with very detailed theories about the movie.
Some of the theories that these fans have (and which appear in the movie) include: (more…)
This is the title track to the third installment of instrumental albums by composer Zorn (as opposed to wild sax-player Zorn). The new album is called Dreammachines. Evidently this trilogy is somehow related to William S. Burroughs (sure, why not). The first was called Interzone (and was three 15 minute-plus suites), the second was Nova Express (which was shorter pieces) and now Dreammachines (which is also shorter pieces).
It’s impossible to know what Zorn will throw at us next, but this song proves to be a beautiful jazz piece with the quartet of pianist John Medeski, bassist Trevor Dunn, vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen, and drummer Joey Baron. It opens with a quick but pretty vibraphone melody. The melody shifts keys but stays in the same pattern until the main melody kicks in.
Variations on the theme continue until about 2 minutes in when Medeski gets a big piano solo and this sounds more like traditional jazz than most Zorn pieces. Then there’s a very cool vibes solo. It’s pretty standard jazz and it’s really quite beautiful.
[READ: September 20, 2013] 2 book reviews
Bissell reviews two books this month.
The first is Dante’s Divine Comedy as translated by Clive James. James has decided that since Italian is so easy to rhyme “For an Italian poet it’s not rhyming that’s hard,” rather than following Dante’s linked terza rima rhyme scheme, he chose the rhyming quatrain. Bissell expects that academics and traditionalists will be very suspicious of the book because of that, but he says that for the average person (the average person who wants to read Dante, of course), it will be more fun and enjoyable. Especially, James popularizes the book. I have always resisted The Divine Comedy but this one sounds like it might be a bit more fun, and isn’t that what reading is all about?
The second book is The Magical Stranger by Stephen Rodrick. When Rodrick was 13 his father died in a military plane crash. His carrier was en route home when it was told to reroute to help with the hostage crisis in Tehran. But his plane was destroyed. The hardest part for Stephen was when he read that the accident was deemed “pilot error.”
This book is Stephen’s attempt to learn more about his father. Through the course of the book, he discovers more and more unpleasant facts about his father—from the lies his father told his mother to a pilot who knew his father who calls his an asshole. Bissell finds this part of the book very moving but not quite warranting a novel length treatment.
But there is a secondary story about the man who now commands his father’s squadron James Hunter “Tupper” Ware. Bissell says that this part of the story is far more engaging (Stephen is a journalist and this section is more investigative). Stephen more or less tries to live his father’s life through Ware, a man who finds the same level of difficulties in his job and his life as Rodrick’s father did.
This is definitely not the kind of book I would read, but for those with an interest in the military and pilots its sound like a good warts-and-all investigation.
SOUNDTRACK: LINDA THOMPSON-“Love’s for Babies and Fools” (2013).
After two pop songs, here’s a major bummer from Linda Thompson. Thompson is a fascinating figure. She was married to Richard Thompson and made many albums with him. They split very acrimoniously and them Linda suffered from psychogenic dysphonia, which rendered her incapable of singing. She stopped singing for 11 years. Now with botox injections into her throat she can sing again, but cannot perform live. She released an album n 2002 (Richard played guitar on a track) and another album in 2007. Now’s she’s back and Richard plays on this song as well.
In the grand tradition of folk music, Linda’s lyrics are achingly straightforward and powerful:
My father is a traveler, he has a cuckold’s luck, my mother is a queen but her hands are tied with blood. I’ve a brother in the graveyard, my sister has the blues. I care only for myself. Love’s for babies and fools.
The guitar work is beautiful, the song itself is beautiful and depressing at the same time.
Linda’s voice has always been unique—almost otherworldly and yet ordinary at the same time. It’s strange and mesmerizing. Welcome back Linda.
[READ: October 1, 2013] “A Different Kind of Father”
This is an excerpt from a new book by Franzen. The book itself is fascinating. It is a translation of a “Nestroy and Posterity” a somewhat obscure essay from 1912 by the Austrian satirist Karl Kraus. Franzen’s book is called The Kraus Project and in addition to the translation, Franzen includes a ton of footnotes that are all personal, like this one. The book is 300 some pages and it sounds like the majority of it is footnotes. [For those who like to keep track of Franzen’s connections to David Foster Wallace, of course this collection with footnotes does make one think of DFW. Interestingly, Franzen talks about a book he was writing in 1981 (long before he met DFW which had a main character whose name was Wallace Wallace Wallace].
This footnote (no context is given) is all about the concept of thriving as a man by surpassing your father. Be that literal or figurative (or literary). In the case of Kraus, Franzen says, he is denying false paternity. It was believed that Kraus was the literary son of Heinrich Heine, but Kraus tries to annihilate Heine by dismissing his successes and impugning his character. However, Johann Nestroy was also a precursor to Kraus but Nestroy was a somewhat neglected and undervalued one, and so Kraus seeks to place Nestroy as his surrogate father. (more…)
Most Best of records promise you a selection of popular songs from a band. Voivod never really had any popular songs, so this is an interesting choice to start with. This may also be the only Best of compilation of a band where people who like some of the songs almost assuredly will not like other songs.
As my posts about the band have indicated, Voivod changed drastically over their first six records (which is the period this collection covers). And so in twelve tracks and 50 some minutes you get the very diverse history of this very unusual band. I’m not going to talk about each track (already done that), but I will list the songs
Voivod [War and Pain] classic screaming metal.
Ripping Headaches [Rrröööaaarrr] brutal, but I must say sounds a ton better than the original CD. I wonder if this was remastered for the compilation).
Korgull the Exterminator [Rrröööaaarrr] hard to believe they used two songs from this album.
Tornado [Killing Technology] heavy but quite catchy.
Ravenous Medicine [Killing Technology] signs of complexity enter the heaviness.
Cockroaches [EP] a strange inclusion, almost a rarity.
Tribal Convictions [Dimension Hätross] very complex with some heaviness.
Psychic Vacuum [Dimension Hätross] I’m surprised they didn’t pick other songs though from this album.
Astronomy Domine [Nothingface] their hit.
The Unknown Knows [Nothingface] very hard to choose just two songs from this masterpiece.
Panorama [Angel Rat] Their newest single and quite a departure from everything that has come before.
The Prow [Angel Rat] their prettiest number ever. If you buy this CD for this song you’ll hate the early stuff.
Although Voivod fans (like Dave Grohl)
are diehard, anyone who would buy only a Best of record from the band is sure to be disappointed. There are so many phases of the band and they are so radically different from “Voivod” to “The Prow” that it’s almost not even the same band. I’m very curious as to what sales for this album were like. (Even the cover isn’t that inspired)
[READ: September 2013] The Walrus: Tenth Anniversary Issue
It’s hard for me to believe that The Walrus has been around for ten years (even they seem a bit surprised). I still remember hearing about the magazine on Book TV from some Canadian channel that I just happened upon.
When I heard about it The Walrus seemed interesting–kind of like Harper’s and elements of the New Yorker but all about Canada. I’ve been a Canuckophile for decades now, so it seemed like an interesting prospect. And over the ten years of the magazine, while I haven’t written about every issue, I have read every article. I have written about all of the short stories that they’ve published.
This issue eschews some of my favorite elements (the short articles in the front and the arts section in the back), but they make up for it with an oversized issue (twice as long as usual and the articles are all packed with content) and some fascinating articles.
And while there are none of the short articles from the front, there are “Time Capsules,” one page articles about things that have happened in the last ten years: The iPhone, Sports Concussions, Armed Drones, The Residential School Apology, Justin Bieber, Foodies, Hand Sanitizer and Cyberbullying. It’s interesting to read about these phenomena from a slightly different perspective. We know that Canada and the U.S. share many similarities but there are, at heart some core differences. And it’s these differences that make you rethink a subject. (more…)
After Angel Rat, original bassist Blacky left the band. That’s never a good sign. After the tour for this album, original singer Snake left the band. That’s an even worse sign. I still can’t quite figure out exactly why Snake left (personal problems) but he went on to form the band Union Made. For a very detailed history of the band, check out this very cool timeline at Voivod dot net.
The Outer Limits got a pretty big release. I have an original copy that came with 3D glasses and all of the illustrations in 3D. But I was a little disappointed in Angel Rat and I don’t think I gave The Outer Limits much of a chance. It was no Nothingface. But the band was always morphing. Since Angel Rat went very commercial, this album brought things back into the prog realm (with a 17(!) minute song) but also had a lot of commercial songs.
The album opens with “Fix My Heart” which starts out much heavier than anything on Angel Rat. It’s also got some metal guitar pyrotechnics (squeaks and harmonics). Snake’s voice isn’t quite as pretty as on Angel Rat either—he growls a bit, but maintains his nicer voice overall. Nevertheless, “Fix My Heart” is a pretty commercial enterprise (as the title might even suggest). There’s some good “spacey” guitars sounds which bode will for the sci-fi angle of the album (and there’s some cool effects that reward headphone use). “Moonbeam Rider” starts with a very classic rock sounding riff and then morphs into a kind of pretty, mellow verse. But the interstitial guitar is all speed. It’s a nice mix of fast and slow. This song features some interesting bass work—nothing fancy but for the slow parts it is actually keeping the beat instead of the drums. The bassist was a studio musician for this album. There’s also what sounds like a bong during the pre-guitar solo section (the solo is fairly traditional).
“Le Pont Noir” is a mellow, slow guitar song with a very cool delay effect and Snake’s whispered vocals. The bridge gets heavy with a wonderfully weird Piggy guitar riff. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
Then the band’s second Pink Floyd cover appears. This time it’s the even more obscure “The Nile Song.” They have rather heavied this one up with crunching guitars and Snake’s distance screaming filling in the void (although in fairness the original vocals are also screamed). It’s not as dynamic or exciting as “Astronomy Domine,” but it’s still a cool cover. “The Lost Machine” starts off heavy with Away’s double cymbal work (a noisy splash and a fast ride cymbal). Then Piggy’s guitars have a slight delay on them which makes the opening chords sound especially odd. The bridge is a place for Piggy to show off some more weird spacey chords and some very cool guitar riffs. There’s even a spoken word narrator in the middle of the song that explains the “mission” “Time Warp” opens with a very bright and up beat sounding verse. But it quickly disintegrates into (intentional) musical chaos as the narrator gets lost in space.
This all leads up to the 17 minute “Jack Luminous.” If anyone doubted their prog rock leanings, this should dispel that immediate. 17 minutes, multiple parts, a sci-fi epic, it is prog (but heavy prog) at its finest. There are some incredibly catchy parts as well as some less catchy parts, and sections seem to change every two minutes or so. The slow down at 10 minutes is very cool—different guitar effects and the suspenseful bass line. There’s repeated sections as well, which means if you like some guitar line (the spacey part near the end) it comes back! It’s not quite as dynamic as say 2112, but it’s a very successful sci-fi epic.
“Wrong Way Street” returns to the normal and more conventional. The bass that opens the song sounds great and the chords are fairly conventional–the chorus is even really catchy. “We Are Not Alone” is a break-neck metal song, The drums are super fast, the guitars are relentless and the chorus even has an echoed “Hey!” that gets you to sing along. The song also features a cool slow, almost jazzy bass and drum section that lets Piggy throw some soloing in before returning to the fast paced verses.
There’s lots of theories about what happened to Voivod after this album. The success they had achieved earlier was now gone and the band seemed like they couldn’t decide to be metal or prog or is they should go for more pop music. The problem of course is that they were too weird to get mainstream acceptance anyway.
So Snake left and then there were only two original members. The next step would be a drastic one.
[READ: July 9, 2013] Grantland #7
This issue seemed to come hot on the heels of #6. But I enjoyed it just as much. A few notes: no Jeremy Lin in this issue. Lots of LeBron James, three articles about soccer! And a few pop culture moments that I had forgotten about.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-“The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament JUST. GOT. REAL.
Leonard Cooper didn’t know the final Jeopardy answer but he still won and he made a hilarious joke at the end (in cartoon format);
BILL SIMMONS-“Daring to Ask the PED Question”
Simmons talks a lot about PED’s in this forum. Of course, to me PED is my initials. For him (and sports fans) it is performance enhancing drugs. He asks why sports doesn’t do more about it. There are so many people who do it that every time we see someone who might be doing it or who suddenly has a good season, we assume they are doing them too. It would be a service to the players and the fans to have rigorous testing or none at all.
CHRIS RYAN AND ROBERT MAYS-“The NFL Coaches Family Portrait By the Numbers”
A silly analysis of a photo of NFL coaches.
WESLEY MORRIS-“Jodie Foster’s Big Night”
What exactly did Jodie Foster say at the Golden Globes? (This was in January and everybody talked about it and now it’s September and I’ve completely forgotten about it—funny ephemera of pop culture).
JONATHAN ABRAMS-“Out of Africa”
A serious look at trying to bring basketball to Africa. How the culture and language problems make it very difficult to establish any real cohesion in the diverse country. But there are a few examples of boys coming from Africa and benefiting from host families and then heading back to help those who love basketball back home. The main focus is on a 15-year-old Alexis Wangmene who came to the States (and left his family!) to try to gain an education and basketball skills. It’s a heartfelt story.
MOLLY LAMBERT-“Modern Love”
About the show Catfish which just goes to show we can sink even lower as a culture.
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“Mental Health Protocol”
About Royce White again. Last time there was a lengthy look at him. Now we get to hear that he thinks that everyone has some kind of mental health issue.
ANDY GREENWALD-“Eat Bray Love”
How cooking shows have gone from educational to crazy and annoying. He dislikes Top Chef and the new Anthony Bourdain show The Taste (which he says is awful) but he likes a decent show called Chopped.
ZACH LOWE-“The Fragile Science of Basketball Chemistry”
Sure the Heat were great this year, but it’s the way they evolved as a team, creating chemistry, that is so impressive.
RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“The Pariah”
Timothy Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao in a disputed judges call. Instead of rising to fame, he has been avoided like the plague.
BILL SIMMONS-“The All-Manti Te’o Mailbag
Remember that crazy story about the football guy with the dead girlfriend who turned out to be fake? I never really understood the story and while they spend a lot of time talking and theorizing about it I still don’t get it. Did they ever find out the truth about it?
CHRIS BROWN-“Speak My Language”
When you play for the Patriots, you learn their way of doing things—it is simple and efficient, a streamlined version of what other coaches try to do.
KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“The Evolution of LeBron James”
Using diagrams, we see how much of a different player James is in just the last few years with The Heat. This article has made me want to watch James in a game while he is at his peak. So, Heat vs Bulls at the end of October, you’re on my schedule.
SEAN McINDOE-“The Non-Hater’s Guide to the NHL”
Even people who hate everyone in the NHL (which is everyone) can agree that there are some players who are universally admired: Martin Brodeur, Pavel Satsyuk. Teemu Selanne, Jarome Iginla, Jonathan Toews, Martin St. Louis, Gabriel Landeskog, Patrick Elias (Devils get two!), Ryan Smyth, Steve Sullivan, Saku Koivu, Henrik Lundqvist.
ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“God Needs a Hobby”
A look at Dan Harmon and his podcast Harmontown. Harmon seems like he might be a crazy alcoholic, but he’s also pretty darn funny.
MARK TITUS-“Duke’s Ignominious Son”
Everybody hates Christian Laettner, but that’s only because he’s pretty and he made The Shot
MARK LISANTI-“Three Days in Austin”
Dealing with the craziness of the South by Southwest film festival. Sounds awful.
HUA HSU-“The Alien Has Landed”
Soccer legend Ronaldo returns to Old Trafford
BILL SIMMONS-“The Greatest Action Franchise That Ever Was”
Live blogging the Fast and Furious 6 trailer. I admit I may have to see these films after reading this.
ZACH LOWE-“Lights, Camera, Revolution”
There’s some kind of new technology that will change the NBA forever. I pretty much don’t care.
TESS LYNCH-“Nostalgia Bites”
Watching old Real World episodes shows how much things have changed in reality TV, but also how much certain behaviors are not new.
BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Maradona, Then and Now”
Maradona was an amazing kid—at 15 he was remarkable at his ball control. Now at 52 he’s a crazy loon. What exactly happened in between?
ANDY GREENWALD-“From Big to Small, From Movie to TV”
Why not make Men in Black into a TV show—with some other film recommendations.
AMOS BARSHAD-“How Soccer Explains Israel”
I didn’t expect to enjoy this but I found it very interesting. An Israeli soccer team has signed two Muslim players and it has caused incredible animosity and even arson. How this look at a team is like a microcosm of the whole Israeli situation.
LOUISA THOMS-“Back to School”
Missy Franklin won a ton of medals in the Olympics. And then she went back to high school. What’s it like to be on her team at Regis Jesuit?
WESLEY MORRIS-“Run, Frank, Run”
Frank Ocean apparently wasn’t as huge as I thought he was.
MALCOLM GLADWELL AND CHUCK KLOSTERMAN–“The Lies He Told”
More about Manti Te’o. This discussion was a bit more helpful about what happened and how crazy it is.
CHRIS RYAN AND REMBERT BROWNE-“A List of Possible Reasons for Rob Gronkowski’s Arm Infection”
Hypothetical humor.
JORDAN CONN-“The Invisible Man”
Marc Gasol is extremely respected by scouts and agents, but the fans all think of him as Pau Gasol’s chubby little brother.
REMBERT BROWNE-“French Quarter Lessons”
While in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Browne decided to go to a bunch of used bookstores. This is very funny and enjoyable.
JAY CASPIAN KANG-“Fiercely Disputed”
Mike Tyson’s one man show is weird and strangely affecting.
KATIE BAKER-“Do Svidanya to All That”
Several NHL players went to Russia’s KHL during the lockout. And some don’t want to come back.
CHRIS RYAN-“The All-Star Circus”
NBA All-Star weekend is a crazy circus (and sounds worse than the above SXSW festival).
CHUCK KLOSETRMAN AND ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“The Nobituary”
There was a serious rumor that David Bowie was on death’s door. Klosterman and Pappademas imagine writing his obituary.
DAVID SHOEMAKER-“Glenn Beck vs. WWE”
The WWE has always had racists as part of the act. What happens when some goons start acting like the Tea Party?
DAVID JACOBY-“The Pure Heart Meets The Bachelor”
Jacoby’s grandmother watches The Bachelor and he feels badly for her.
STEVEN HYDEN-“Is This It?”
The Strokes’ fifth album had just come out [really?]. It could be their last, but Hyden thinks their last two have been quite good.
BILL SIMMONS-“The Heat in Hindsight”
The Miami Heat came close to breaking the longest winning streak in the NBA. Simmons looks at the fallout and who “wins” and “loses” in the effort.
CHARLES P. PIERCE-“Bleu, Blanc et Rouge”
I had no idea that Charlie Pierce was a Canadiens fan!
KATIE BAKER-“The Ethics of a Family Plan”
Is it ethical to pretend that you are married to your roommate to get a family discount a ta gym? Hell yes.
EMILY YOSHIDA-“A Dark Force”
J.J. Abrams is going to direct the next Star Wars films. Why, when sci-fi is so multifaceted and so different is everything coming down to J.J. Abrams?
SEAN FENNESSEY-“The Case Against Justin Timberlake”
Timberlakes’s previous album was amazing. Then he took years off to make (bad) film and (good) TV. His star would only continue to rise if he stopped making music and only hinted that he would make another album. But the release of his new album (which isn’t that good) can only hurt him.
BRYAN CURTIS-“Waiting for Bettman”
While many New Yorker’s didn’t care about the NHL strike, Canadian writers camped out waiting for Bettman to announce the strike was over.
WESLEY MORRIS-“30 Rock Landed on Us” 30 Rock was many things, but it dealt with racial issues (at least between blacks and whites) better than any show.
RANY JAZAYERLI-“Fall of the Evil Empire”
The New York Yankees look like they won’t make the playoff this year (this was written in March and as of my writing this they have a slim chance at getting the wild card slot). It will be the firs time in a while, perhaps, just perhaps, it’s the start of a new drought for the Evil Empire.
BILL BARNWELL-“The Master Raven”
Ozzie Davis knows how to pick players for the Baltimore Ravens.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-The Best Chappelle’s Show Sketches of All Time”
Done as a series of cartoons (by Parker); Browne picks his eight favorites:
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Prince
Wayne Brady’s Show
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Rick James
Black Bush (especially now that Obama is president)
Clayton Bigsby: Black White Supremacist
Making the Band (P. Diddy)
The Racial Draft (Tiger Woods Now 100% Black)
The Niggar Family (uncomfortable and hilarious no matter how many times you watch it).
Once again, there’s another great issue of Grantland. Once again, I wish they would follow up on some of their speculative stories. But it’s fun to have a time capsule of events that occurred just a few months ago and yet which I have totally forgotten about.
And here’s the cover of The Outer Limits in non 3D style (which I haven’t see before)
SOUNDTRACK: GWAR-“Carry on My Wayward Son” (A.V. Undercover, October 8, 2012).
If I thought Reggie Watt’s cover of Van Halen’s “Panama” was absurd, imagine my surprise when GWAR’s version of “Carry on My Wayward Son” proves to not only be not absurd but actually rather faithful. Well, I mean Oderus Urungus is certainly not serious, but the band sounds amazingly tight–who knew they could play their instruments so well?
The opening is played very faithfully–solos and all–it’s quite impressive under all that foam. The verses are played at breakneck speed (with Oderus barely singing and improving at times). The chorus is fascinating though as they slow it down quite a lot–with a different singer this might bring an extra gravitas to it, although this version assuredly does not.
I never knew Oderus’ mask fit so poorly before. And I don’t believe I’ve ever really noticed the large green item hanging down between his legs. See for yourself:
[READ: September 6, 2013] “Sleeping Together”
The final article of this forum about sleep is set in Tokyo. Lewis-Kraus has gone to the first co-sleeping cafe. For about $30 for a membership and $30 for 40 minutes you can sleep with a woman. Not sex–indeed, nothing sexual is allowed to happen. You just sleep. Or more specifically, you lie next to a woman (seems unlikely that you could actually sleep). You can also get options like staring into each other’s eyes, being petted on the head, spooning and resting your head on her lap.
There are, of course sexual cafes, as well. The kayabakura is a bit more explicit than the sleeping cafe–the women are all made up and act servile, but this is different.
The woman who the author sleeps with is Yukiko. Yukiko admits that most men don’t sleep, they talk. She says that in their culture shame is very big, so men seek comfort and encouragement from women. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE FRONT BOTTOMS-Tiny Desk Concert #297 (August 19, 2013).
I really enjoyed The Front Bottoms’ “Au Revoir” and was pretty excited to see they had a Tiny Desk Concert. After watching this, I’m very curious to see what they do in a full band setting because their sound works very well in this stripped down fashion–with acoustic guitars, penny whistle and muted trumpet (!).
Lead singer, Brian Sella, reminds me a lot of Mike Doughty in his speaky/singing way (especially on “Swear To God The Devil Made Me Do It”–although less speaky than Doughty or Cake–there’s just something about his delivery that puts me in mind of them.
He’s also always got a smirk on his face, which makes me like them more.
I’m torn between wondering if they’re a novelty band that I wouldn’t listen to more than a few times or a cool alternative band whose idiosyncrasies only get better with each listen. I love the way “Twin Size Mattress” has little elements (like the tambourine moment–and the “no fucking way moment) which elevate it above some of the seemingly sillier songs. Not to mention the lyrics are really good in the song. Indeed, even though the lyrics are funny, they are often very clever, too.
I really enjoyed all four songs in this set and I have listened to it many times now. “Au Revoir (Adios)” sounds great. All four songs comes from their new album Talonof the Hawk. And the more I listen the more I’m convincing myself to jut get the damned album.
[READ: September 6, 2013] “Gaboxadol”
This essay was actually hard for me to read. That’s because the first half was all scientific chemistry talk and I really got lost–I don’t really know what GABA receptors are or do and I didn’t even really understand what he was talking about what Stepan Krasheninnikov did in 1755. And I worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy this at all.
But soon Morris brought it back to an area that dummies like me can enjoy He talks about the history of Gaboxadol a drug created by Dutch chemist Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen in 1977. The first time Povl took it (self-experiment was very common until recently) he said it made him feel like he had just had three beers–a very comfortable feeling.
But Gaboxadol never found its niche. Povl knew it had relaxing qualities but he couldn’t specifically diagnose who would best benefit from it. It was tried on the mentally ill. The desired effects did not really arrive–but the side effects made people feel sleepy. Then it was tried as an analgesic for cancer patients. It relieved some pain but it made everyone sleepy (you see where this is gong, right?). It was then tested on patients with anxiety disorder, but the side effects were more powerful that the anti-anxiety effects.
So then the drug was just shelved (were people just less experimental back then?) It wasn’t until 1996 that Marike Lancel a somnologist in Munich read the research and decided to try it as a sleeping aid. She realized that Gaboxadol assisted sleep and also had none of the side effects that Ambien had (apparently terrible insomnia once you stop taking it–so I’ll not be taking that, thank you very much). Merck bought the rights to Gaboxadol for $270 million. (more…)
If you have the hard copy of the three Green Day CDs, you’ll notice the back cover lists a fourth disc, ¡Quatro!. I wasn’t really sure what¡Quatro! was supposed to be, but I have recently found out that it is a documentary DVD/CD. For those keeping track, Jason White who was a touring guitarist with the band for years and who has recently become a full-fledged member of the band, is on the cover.
According to press releases and such, ¡Quatro! will give a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process that resulted in the trilogy and their various live shows across the U.S.
It seems as though the release date is up in the air (no doubt because of the state of the band), although some of the material premiered as early as last November. And their official site only says “in 2013.” I probably won’t watch it as I find this kind of thing self-indulgent and pointless; however, some of these videos can be entertaining. Indeed, if it had come as a bonus disc to one of the other three discs I probably would have watched it.
At any rate, the official trailer for ¡Quatro! is available on YouTube
And there’s a few other snippets (which were probably shown on VH1.
[READ: September 6, 2013] “Bed-Wetting”
Bed-wetting is fairly common, especially for those who are potty training. Smallwood talks about all of the ways throughout history that people have tried to deal with it. She gives this list (which I have abbreviated here):
Plugging the urethra
Constriction of the penis with bandages, strings, adhesives, or vises, one of which was described as a “formidable rat-rap looking instrument”
Eliminating sugar
Removing the child from school
Injecting the bladder with gaseous carbonic acid
(and I have left out a few of the more crazy ones).
By the late nineteenth century, naturally, Westerners began connecting bed wedding with masturbation (other symptoms of masturbation: flushed cheeks, paleness and paralysis). At this time, victims were subjected to cold baths, hard beds and even whipping (which may have caused sexual fantasies but certainly didn’t help with bed wetting).
A fascinating piece of information—boys are more prone to night time wetting while girls are more prone to day time. (more…)
The third and final album of the trilogy is called ¡Tre! (and yes I enjoyed that they named this one ¡Tre! as opposed to ¡Tre! and put Tre Cool on the cover—not exactly the most clever thing around, but it made me smile and makes me think that they only did three albums so they could have this title/cover combo). And, yes, this is my least favorite of the three discs. It feels like a bonus disc—songs that don’t really belong anywhere else. It’s kind of an album full of ballads (but that would suck) so they made it mostly ballads with other things too.
Like “Brutal Love” a slow ballad (complete with horns) that builds into a standard rocker (it’s got a very “rock and roll” vibe). Many punk songs are really just rock and roll played fast and this is certainly one of those songs. (I don’t care for that kind of punk so much). “Missing You” is a another mid-tempo rocker–the kind they do very well.
“8th Avenue Serenade” has another cool sound (as in different from the rest of the album). “Drama Queen” is an acoustic guitar ballad with creepy creepy lyrics. It’s probably my least favorite Green Day song ever. “X-Kid”seems even more simple than other Green Day songs (does Billie Joe throw anything away?) It sounds like a classic rock song form the mid 80s. “Sex, Drugs & Violence” brings the disc back some with a fun poppy rocker. “A Little Boy Named Train” sounds a lot like “Carpe Diem” from ¡UnoI (same chords, just played slower—although the verses do change it a bit.
“Amanda” a mid tempo rocker and “Walk Away” is another slow song that sounds like classic rock. “Dirty Rotten Bastards” clocks in at over 6 minutes! It’s got several short sections in it though (which makes it more fun). The first part is the melody of The Marines Song. “99 Revolutions” is so catchy it even has a chorus with only drums (that lowest common denominator of songs that is guaranteed to get the crowd to sing along).
So yes, there are a few good songs in this collection, but they could have easily scraped out the good ones and dumped them on the first two discs and just put Tre’s picture on the back of both of them.
[READ: September 6, 2013] “Neighbors”
Unferth, like Julavits, writes a kind of narrative piece about sleeplessness. It’s hard to imagine her living the way she does, but if you’ve read her memoir, she has certainly slept in worse places than a Chicago slum. It turns out that her downstairs neighbor, Maximilian, would turn on his TV late at night and leave it on all night. The odd thing was that he had no electricity in his apartment—he ran an extension cord to the light in the foyer. When Unferth would get fed up with the noise, she would go downstairs and unplug the cord.
But then Maximilian’s girlfriend Dorothy moved back in. The two of them fought nightly—loud screaming fights that were worse than the TV noise (when Unferth unplugged the TV, Dorothy found an electricity source elsewhere, although Unferth couldn’t figure out where).
She makes a very interesting distinction about the type of noise that might wake you up as compared to visceral fighting of your neighbors. From things like jets and trains (or a fire engine, like at my house): “You may lose sleep over them, but you won’t lose sleep over them.” Whereas hearing your neighbors screaming at each other is far more disturbing. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: AWAY-Cities (2013).
Away is Michel Langevin, the drummer for metal band Voivod. But on his first solo album he eschews all conventional music. Rather, he has created an exercise in found sound and released it on the small label Utech Records.
I Just Read About That... 