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Archive for the ‘Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert’ Category

Sarah Selecky–“Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale” (The Walrus, March 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Sarah Selecky, Sex, Short Story, The Walrus on March 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Cultösaurus Erectus (1980).

BOC came back with a vengeance on this disc.  From the cool title (c’mon that’s a cool title) to the futuristic fossil on the cover, this album is all heavy.

The opener, “Black Blade” puts us firmly back in the heavy sci-fi world of BOC.  There’s cool time changes, there’s a wild end section with weirdo distorted vocals.  And the lyrics are by Michael Moorcock.  It’s followed by my favorite BOC track of all time: “Monsters.”  This is a fairly straightforward metal song.  It’s starts with a fast riff and big power chords but after the second verse it bursts into a full on jazz section: walking bass, wailing sax solo (!)  for several measures, until it jumps right back into the song as if nothing happened.  Thre’s even a third, even heavie part that comes later.  It a terribly underrated song.

The next two songs flirt back with their more recent gentle releases.  “Deadline” is keyboard fueled little ditty (and the general BOC rule is, the more keyboards, the less metal.)  Yet, in small doses, Allen Lanier’s keyboards really define BOC’s sound.  “Hungry Boys” and “Fallen Angel” show the band really trying to find its sound (and not being terribly successful there).

“The Marshall Plan” gets the band back on heavier terms, with that classic theme of metal songs: playing in a metal band.  (There’s a humorous musical quote from “Smoke on the Water” AND a spoken line from Don Kirshner).  Finally, the wonderfully weirdly titled “Lips in the Hills” gets the band back on familiar rocking territory.

While this isn’t their best disc, it is certainly better than the previous one, and ranks up pretty high in their catalog.

[READ: March 7, 2010] “Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale”

This was a cool story with a bunch of twists.  The simple premise is that the story is set at a yard sale.  The sale is being held by the wife (and new boyfriend) of Paul Farenbacher, a recently deceased man.  The narrator was the family’s neighbor (and on one occasion kissed their son).

In the intervening years she has become closer to the family.  She helped sell some products that Farenbacher was selling, and also sold new (home made organic cleaning products) to Farenbacher’s wife (and the rest of the community).

The story is a way for secrets to get revealed and truths to be told. (more…)

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George Saunders–“Heavy Artillery” (New Yorker, January 25, 2010)

Posted in Culture Shock, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, George Saunders, Kiss, Military, New Yorker, Paul Lynde on January 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-KISSology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 1: 1974-1977 DVD (2006).

I finally got to watch all of disc two of this DVD and it was quite a treat.  Disc two covers Kiss while they are pretty much the hottest band in the world.  And the fun begins right off with an appearance on The Paul Lynde Show!  They don’t make camp like they used to!  I only wish they showed all of the footage, as I think they left out something (or at least they talk about Peter Criss playing a piece of wood painted to look like a piano).

This is followed by two full concerts.  The first is from the Destroyer tour in Tokyo.  The sound is not great (Gene’s bass sounds really bottom heavy and muddy).  But it’s fun to see the Japanese audiences go wild and then politely sit down as soon as Paul starts speaking.

I also had to wonder if the sight of a room full of Japanese fans was a culture shock for 4 boys from New York.  In college one of my teachers made a joke about how when she was living in Germany it was weird because  everyone around you was German.  And we laughed because, duh.  But that’s got to be weird to be immersed in a mono-culture unlike here where diversity is pretty prevalent.  So seeing an audience of all one nationality must be pretty unusual (at least of me anyhow).

The second show sounds and looks better.   It comes from the Love Gun Tour and was filmed in Houston.  By this time the band is completely over the top with their stage show: Gene still breaths fire and spits blood.  But now Ace’s guitar smokes and he shoots a laser beam at it from a new guitar.  Peter’s drum riser goes about 12 feet in the air.  The other three guys also have risers so that at one point they’re all 12 feet in the air.  I mean, for 1977, this is pretty massive.  No wonder their live shows were such a success.

And they have nothing but energy.  It’s really impressive.  Although I still laugh imagining them practicing walking in those 7 inch platforms.  The fact that Paul Stanley can do leaping splits and not break an ankle is tremendous.

There’s another short segment from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.  I wish I knew if that is what my cousin called me up to tell me was on TV that night.  I would have been 8 years old and a new Kiss fan.  He called me past my bedtime and I heard my mom saying something about Kiss on TV.  I turned it on but when my mom came in I quickly turned it off.  I secretly hope that’s what it was, so now I finally got to see it.  Although realistically I’ll never know for sure.

I have to say though that it seemed lip synched to me.

The bands sounds great during all of these shows.  The only real problem once again is the backing vocals.  They just sound wrong somehow.  Either mixed too high or like they just aren’t trying to find the right notes.  Or something.  It just feels off (Except in Black Diamond, where the ooooh oooohs are always right on).  Oh, and for God’s sake. Ace’s “singing” of “Shock Me” sounds like he’s never opened his mouth before. He barely speaks the words much less tries to find the tune.  Wow.

But despite those foibles (and the fact that Gene Simmons comes off as a total dick in the liner notes (and, let’s be honest, in every interview I’ve ever heard him do)) it’s been a fun nostalgic trip watching these old concerts.  I can’t imagine how much I their show would have blown my mind if I had been allowed to see them back when I was 10 years old.

[READ: January 19, 2010] “Heavy Artillery”

I’ve said before that I find George Saunders to be really hit or miss.  I mean I absolutely loved his short story in the recent McSweeny’s Issue.  But then we get a piece like this.  I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t something about the Shouts & Murmurs section of The New Yorker that brings out the lame in good writers.

This piece had so much potential. The opening quote (which the story is based on) says that young people today (ie. future soldiers) are too fat for fighting and that “a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education.”

The possibilities are devilishly clever: spending money on kids to prep them to get killed in battle.  Teaching them head start programs so they can kill people later on.  Oh, ripe pickings all.

But Saunders basically makes a two page fat joke. (more…)

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