SOUNDTRACK: RA RA RIOT-Live at the Black Cat, Washington DC, October 12, 2008 (2008).
I really like Ra Ra Riot’s album The Rhumb Line, and this concert is basically a showcase for that album. There’ s an interview at the end of the show (all downloadable from NPR), in which the band says that critics raved about their live show as much as their album.
I don’t really hear that the show is more energetic than the album (maybe visually they are wild), but it did sound fantastic. It’s amazing to hear a rock band that is dominated by strings–the cello and violin are often louder than the guitar (but not in a competing/drown you out kind of way, more of a strings do the melodies and the guitar adds bulk to the sound).
I always enjoy hearing a band that is grateful to their audience for showing up (this is most evident in young bands, who seem so much more genuine about their love of the audience) and Ra Ra Riot are certainly that . They seem genuinely surprised at the turn out, and they play a great set accordingly.
There are two songs that aren’t on the album here “A Manner to Act” and the encore “Everest.” They both feel like they came off the album, which bodes well for their second album, Orchard, which just came out in May. Ra Ra Riot also do a great cover of the obscure Kate Bush song “Suspended in Gaffa.” At the end of the show they tack on a cover of “Hounds of Love.” Lead singer Wesley Miles has a wonderfully strong voice and he can reach some pretty high notes–not soprano or anything like that, just strong enough to be able to pull off a Kate Bush cover.
This is a great show. And when you read about the tragedy they suffered just as they were starting to take off, their obsession with death may not be so surprising. I’m looking forward to Orchard.
[READ: 1995 and August 18, 2011] Microserfs
After reading Life After God and thinking about Microserfs, I looked up Coupland’s bibliography and saw that indeed Microserfs came next. And I was really excited to read it. I have recently watched the JPod TV show and I knew that JPod was a kind of follow-up to Microserfs, so I wanted to see how much of it rang true. And I’ve got to say that I really rather enjoyed this book.
While I was reading this, I started taking notes about what was happening in the book. Not the plot, which is fairly straightforward, but about the zeitgeisty elements in the book. And, since I’m a big fan of David Foster Wallace, I was also noting how many zeitgeisty things this book had in common with Infinite Jest. I’m thinking of tying it all together in a separate post, maybe next week. But I’ll mention a few things here.
My son also loved the cover of this book because it has a Lego dude on it and he has been really getting into Lego lately.
So Microserfs is the story of a bunch of underpaid, overworked coders who work for Microsoft. The book is written as the journal of Daniel Underwood (Coupland still hadn’t really branched out of the first person narrative style, but the journal does allow for some interesting insights). The story begins in Fall 1993. I felt compelled to look up some ancient history to see what was happening in the computer world circa 1993 just for context. In 1991, Apple released System 7. In 1993, Windows introduced Windows NT, Intel released the first Pentium chip, Myst was released and Wired magazine launched. In 1994, Al Gore coined the term Information Superhighway. Yahoo is created. The Netscape browser is introduced. So we’re still in computer infancy here. It’s pretty far-seeing of DC to write about this.
Daniel works at Microsoft with several friends. Daniel is a bug tester, Michael (who has an office, not a cube) is a coder, Todd (a bodybuilder) is a bug tester. There’s also Susan (smart and independent), Abe (secret millionaire) and Bug Barbecue (an old man–he’s like 35). The five of them live in a house on “campus.” There’s also Karla (a type A bossyboots who doesn’t like seeing time wasted) who works with them but lives up the street.
As the story opens, Michael has just received a flame email from Bill Gates himself and has locked himself in his office. This leads to a very funny scene and ongoing joke in which the office mates feed slide two-dimensional food under his door and he vows to eat only things that are flat. (more…)
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When Letters to Cleo first put out Aurora Gory Alice back in 1993 I was really excited about them. They were punky and fast but they were poppy and intriguing. The chorus of “Here & Now” is somehow really catchy and impossible to sing. I lived in Boston, they were based in Boston. They were getting much buzz in the Boston Phoenix and on WFNX (“Here & Now” was inescapable–it was even used on Melrose Place). And their name was weird and mentioned my childhood dog (Cleo). I also thought their album title was funny so I bought a copy on Cherry Disc records (one of dozens of CDs I bought on an indie label only to later find out the major label pressing aided like five more songs and a gold chain or something).
I Just Read About That... 