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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Maurice Sendak–Where the Wild Things Are/Dave Eggers–“Max at Sea” (New Yorker, August 24, 2009)

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Dave Eggers, Faith No More, Fantasy, Fantômas, Maurice Sendak, Mr. Bungle, New Yorker, Oddities, Short Books, Short Story, Slayer, Supernatural, The Melvins, Threats, Where the Wild Things Are on August 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

wild thingsSOUNDTRACK: FANTÔMAS-Suspended Animation (2005).

fantomasIf you know Fantômas, then you know what you’re in for.  If you don’t, well, it’s a surprise!

Fantômas are the brain child of Mike Patton (Mr Bungle-era more than Faith No More with help from Buzz Osborne from The Melvins and Dave Lombardo from Slayer).  Suspended Animation is designed as a soundtrack to April, 2005.  There are thirty tracks, and each one corresponds to a calendar page.  The limited edition (which is apparently still in print as I got one last month) is a calendar with art by Yoshitomo Nara.  Nara’s work combines cuteness and menace, just like the CD.

A piece by Nara

A piece by Nara

Although, really the CD is more menace than cute.

This disc seems to combine Patton’s favorite things: cartoon music (many ‘toons are sampled here), death metal, short sharp blasts of noise and his fascinating vocal deliveries.

This write-up makes the disc sound very intriguing, but before you rush out to check it out, do know what you’re in for: short, noisy blasts of utter chaos.  It is not for the weak of heart or the queasy of stomach (or for the lover of melody).  It’s not even a case of , oh the songs are short, the next one will come along soon.  While there is diversity, it’s diverse within it’s own little world.  Of noise!

Be afraid.  But if you’re still interested after that caveat, then by all means check it out, if only for the calendar!

[READ: August 23, 2009] Where the Wild Things Are/”Max at Sea”

Because of Dave Egger’s story “Max at Sea” (which is basically a retelling of Where the Wild Things Are I felt I needed to re-read the original.  So thank you Dave Eggers for that.

The original is a fun story which seems to be more visually based than word based.  The drawings are sublime and indeed there are several pgaes with no words at all.  And, so, the filmmakers’ question remains: how to you make a film out of a 48-page book, many of which don’t even have words?  Stills from the movie do look pretty awesome.

And thus, Dave Eggers’ story was born.

I’m not actually going to reveiw Where the Wild Things Are, because, well, it’s a classic, and it’s  awesome.  What more can I say about it?  But I did want to reevaluate Egger’s piece having re-read Sendak’s.

It is quite clear that Eggers is in no way trying to re-write the story.  He has fleshed out a lot of details that are absent from the original (which the original in now way needs, but again, if you’re going to make a film, you need some kind of backstory). (more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (vol. 2)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

scott2SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom (1997).

syr2The second SYR release is like the other side of the coin from SYR1.  The premise is the same, the players are the same, but the result is rather different.

The first track is nearly as long as the previous disc (17 + minutes) and it seems to run through a variety of song styles (including noise experiments) before settling down into a noisy improv.  The third track features the first “vocals” on these discs–rather unsettling sounds that Kim spits out.  (Online lyrics pages say that there are actual words here so I’ll take their word for it; I just like to think of them as vocal stylings).

While SYR1 was a smoother listen, this one is more jagged.  Not quite the noisefest they are capable of but not exactly easy listening either.

For this disc all of the titles, liner notes etc. are in Dutch.  (SYR1 was in French).  Each volume in the series is in a different language.

[READ: August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

The second volume of the series, (and the one the film is named after) continues the exciting saga of Scott Pilgrim and his band Sex Bob-omb.

This second volume introduces us to The Clash at Demonhead, the band that Scott’s ex-girlfriend took to stardom, after they kicked Scott out of the band, of course.

But before we get to the Knives Chu’s new favorite band,we learn about the origins of her former favorite band: Sex Bob-omb.  We see how Scott and Kim first met and why she acts so strangely around him.

But more importantly, plotwise, we get to meet Ramona’s second evil ex-boyfriend, Lucas Lee.  He is a broody actor who also just happens to be in Toronto filming a new picture.  And fight they do.

But they’re not the only ones who do battle in this volume.  There’s a rip-roaring battle scene between Knives and Ramona that takes place in the beautiful Toronto Reference Library.

But the book is more than fighting and music: there’s a cooking lesson for making vegan shepherd’s pie.  Veganism will loom large in Vol 3!   And there’s even more fun asides (with captions and comments about various characters) in this volume.  I especially enjoyed the ones that give the characters’ states of mind.

While the first volume was certainly fun, it feels like he is having even more fun with volume two.  It’s a very fun series, and the books are very fast reads (for better or worse…often worse.)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (vol. 1)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex Bob-omb, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

pilgrimSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH -SYR 1 Anagrama (1997).

syr1

After Washing Machine, Sonic Youth began recording a series of EPs (that gradually grew into longer discs) in which they explored their improvisation/longer piece needs.

And so SYR1 was released.

It contains for tracks and runs about 25 minute.  It’s not simply guitar feedback or waves of distortion.  Rather it is songs built around themes which are followed to their logical ends.

Thee EPs aren’t for everyone. There’s no lyrics, there’s no choruses.  It’s sort of like how the end of “The Diamond Sea” was a chance for SY to let loose and see what happened. I can’t even say that the songs and motifs are necessarily memorable (although I’m led to believe that some have cropped up on the proper albums).  I don’t listen to these a lot, but they are fun to put on from time to time, if you’re in an avant garde mood.

[READ August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

I had read this book a few years ago.  But I had read it in bits and pieces over several weeks, and so I didn’t feel like I had a real grasp of the story.  This is especially true because the story begins simply enough and then turns into a wild hallucinogenic story that is very funny, very very funny, in fact, but also incredibly surreal.

When I was at BEA in New York this year I ran into the guy from Oni Press who told me that they are making a film of Scott Pilgrim, which is pretty fantastic.  I’m rather looking forward to seeing it.  But because there are so many interesting visual things going on in th graphic novel, I can’t help but wonder how they will transform them.  And also, Book 6 of this series may be written with a different ending from the film, so that should be fun, too.

But speaking of the visuals….

O’Malley’s style is utterly fascinating.  When I first started reading, I felt like the artwork was “sloppy” in that sort of stylized sloppiness that people take some time to achieve.  (I think mostly this is because of the character’s eyes.  They are a refined sort of manga but the pupils are so large that i found it disconcerting.)  But when reading it through this time, I realized not only is it not sloppy, it is meticulously designed in a very cool way.  Take Scott’s hair, which is commented about through the series.  I’m not going to go and spout on about how long he must have spent getting his hair just right, but clearly there was effort and planning in the length and style, even if it is primarily drawn with a  few broad triangles. (more…)

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Dave Eggers–“Max at Sea” (New Yorker, August 24, 2009)

Posted in Boredom, Children's Books, Dave Eggers, Dischord Records, Funny (strange), McSweeney's, Meta, New Yorker, Oddities, Short Story, Sonic Youth, Spike Jonze, Threats, Violence on August 19, 2009| 2 Comments »

nyorkerSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-TV Shit (1993).

tvshitThis is a funny little addition to the SY catalog. It is essentially four covers of a song by Youth Brigade called “No Song II” (which is from Dischord records, Possible EP here).

The original song is one second long, with the band shouting “No”

So, covers of it are obviously absurd.  There are 4 tracks in total on the disc, the last two are each over three minutes long (!)

The band is in full noise/freak out ensemble, complete with maniacal screamer/lunatic  Yamatsuka Eye from the Boredoms (and elsewhere).

Obviously it’s a bit of fun, and little more. It’s only for super-die-hard fans or anyone who might like the Boredoms-style of noise rock.

[READ, August 18, 2009] “Max at Sea”

Since I just finished Eggers’ How We Are Hungry, I was delighted to find a new story by him in the New Yorker. The picture next to it looks like a still from the upcoming film of Where the Wild Things Are (Eggers cowrote the screenplay). So, when the story started and Max put on a bear costume, I thought, huh, that seems very familiar.

As the story progressed, well, it seemed really really familiar. Now, I admit I don’t know Where the Wild Things Are by heart, but I sure recognized a lot of it. And then I confirmed with Sarah that indeed, this short story IS the story of Where the Wild Things Are. Eggers has fleshed it out (presumably for the screenplay) and added some details and things, but the whole plot of the story is Maurice Sendak’s.

And I’m not sure how I feel about releasing it as a short story. It is acknowledged in the Eggers bio in the front of the magazine that it does come from Sendak’s work, but somehow it seems wrong to take up a fiction spot in the New Yorker (that most venerable of fiction locations) with a story that is a retelling of someone else’s story. (more…)

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Periodical: Entertainment Weekly

Posted in Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Britney Spears, Children's Books, Entertainment Weekly, Film & TV, Graphic Novel, Music, Stephen King on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

ew2I’ve been reading Entertainment Weekly for years and years.  I think I subscribed back in like 1993 or so.  And I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with it.  I’ve canceled my subscription on a number of occasions, mostly because I believed that it didn’t cover enough of the indie stuff I enjoyed (which is still largely true).  But then I’d see an issue and realize that it is a fun magazine to flip through, so I’d re-subscribe.

Over the years, EW has morphed more and more.  And each change to the magazine makes me like it less.  And now in its current iteration, which happened about a year ago, I feel that they have removed all pretense to being a “smart” publication.  Although, at least they stopped including the bold line of text which presumably highlighted the best line of a review.  Evidently they thought we couldn’t ewread the entire half-a-column-length of an article.  But they removed that, and it’s back to simple reviews.

I’ve always been sort of iffy about their rating system (A through F).  It’s a simple guide, so it’s easy to see quickly whether they liked it or not, but as in school, it seems hard to pinpoint exactly what the difference is between say an A- and a B+.  But hey, that’s their thing, so it’s okay.

And as a sort of all-purpose guide to entertainment, it’s pretty useful.

The new design has largely changed the order of things in the magazine.  And so The Must List which used to be a small thing in the middle now opens the magazine as a full page extravaganza (highlighting in a nutshell what is wrong with this latest incarnation of the magazine–something that used to fill up a page at most is now a two page spread with bigger pictures!) (more…)

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Clash of the Gods (The History Channel, 2009)

Posted in Adventure, Bible, Clash of the Gods, Death, Demons, End of the World, Fables, Gods, History, Homer, Marillion, Natural Disasters, NPR/PRI/PBS, Religion, Sex, Supernatural, Universities, Violence, War, Wikipedia on August 12, 2009| 21 Comments »

[WATCHED: August-October 2009] Clash of the Gods

clash

[UPDATE: October 26, 2009]

I have now finished the entire series.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned from it.  (Not that I considered myself an expert, but you never know what you’ll get from TV series). The biggest surprise was how much this series filled in the gaps of things I half knew, or things that I didn’t know were missing from my knowledge.  Can’t ask for more than that!

I’m still a little confused by the inclusion of Tolkien, but that’s okay, it was a good episode nonetheless.

General negatives: I never did get used to the egregiously repetitive imagery (if I never see Zeus pulling off his hood again, I’ll be thrilled).  I also got rather tired of that crazy howling wind/scream noise that they used as some kind of dramatic effect.  But hey, that’s okay.

The actors and the CGI and all that was fine.  They had to include some kind of footage or else it would just be people talking to us, right?  I wonder where they got the actors?  The women were all quite beautiful. The men were less handsome than I would have expected (but then the male gods were all old, right?).  How did they cast these episodes, I wonder?  Okay Zeus: can you sit in that throne?  Good.  Can you remove your hood? Good. Athena: Can you stare smoldering at the camera?  Good.  I wonder how people tried out for the part of “soul writhing in hell” or whatever it was.

I’m not sure if the “that was the myth, but how does it relate to reality” part was supposed to be the real draw of the show.  Some of it was interesting, some of it was weird, and some of it was just stretching plausibility.  There’s been a lot if discussions below in the comments about the emphasis on Christianity throughout the series.  From a historical point of view I thought it was interesting.  Although there were time when I wasn’t entirely convinced.

It was the professors who really impressed me.  They were consistently informative, and clearly enjoyed what they were talking about.  There were one or two who I would NEVER have wanted in class (their voices were rather sharp) but there were also a few that I would have signed up for multiple times, no question. So thanks to them for doing the show (I know, it was a real drag for them to get out of the classroom and do TV, right).

I’m still trying to find more information about the people involved, but it is cleverly hidden (as is everything else about the show).  What is it with The History Channel’s website?  This is the only professor who I’ve found with a blog: Wormtalk and Slugspeak.  And he tells some interesting details about doing the show.  As for the rest, well, you’ll have to watch the episode and write down their names, apparently.

I’ll give a special shout out to the professor at Rutgers, since she’s just down the street, but i don’t remember her name.

[UPDATE: October 26, 2009]

See bottom for comments on final two episodes that i watched: Thor and Medusa (which I missed the first time around).

[UPDATE: October 15, 2009]

See bottom for comments about Beowulf and Tolkien.  (I haven’t watched Thor yet).

[UPDATE: September 28, 2009]

See bottom for comments about the Odyssey episodes.

[UPDATE: September 21, 2009]

I’ve been getting a number of hits here with people looking for the Clash of the Gods narrator.  So, his name is Stan Bernard.  He was also the narrator for Zero Hour and MonsterQuest as well as a few other things.  I’ve not seen anything else he’s done.

[UPDATE: September 2, 2009]

See bottom for reviews of 2 more episodes]

[WATCHED: August-October 2009]

I don’t normally review TV shows.  There’s just too much to keep up with.  But I’m making an exception in this case.

I had heard about this show on a public radio program.  The host was talking to some of the guys who were involved in making it, and it sounded fantastic. (I regret that I don’t know which host or even which radio station, I was driving a rental car and just happened upon the program, I think his name was John, which, frankly doesn’t help at all).

I love Greek mythology, and so did the host of the radio show.  When he said that the series was designed not only for people who are new to the mythology but that it would also give deeper information for those who were familiar with the stories, I has to check it out.

Two episodes have aired so far, Zeus and Hercules.  And the radio announcer was right.  The episodes are good.  They give the general story of the myth and then throw in some uncommon details.  But, perhaps most interestingly, they also include ways in which recent archaeological digs have uncovered information that shows the reality behind the stories.  And, even more interestingly, they discuss how some of the myths not only correspond very well to actual historical events, but also correspond to events from the Bible and other cultures’ mythologies.  So, Noah’s flood, is recounted in Greek mythology as a Zeus destroying the world.  And both are based on what is believed to be a real event in which a volcano erupted and flooded most of the Middle East.  The parallels are uncanny.

The stories (narrated by a frankly uninspired narrator) are interspersed with my favorite part: faculty from various universities (and Scientific American magazine) give their historical insight into the myths.  And they’re all pretty excited about what they’re talking about (and each has his or her own quirky mannerism which is fun to look for–and they were all apparently told to wear black, otherwise it is an amazing sartorial coincidence).

The absolute worst part of the series (and I fear it will continue through all  of the shows since it was in Zeus and Hercules) is the absolutely horrid “reenactment” footage.  It’s bad enough that the footage is kind of lame (even if the blue contacts do “pop” on screen as they said they would in the radio interview).  But they reuse the same footage over and over again in the same episode–heck in the same segments of the same episode.  It is maddening.  Are they really telling us that they couldn’t have had Zeus do something other than sit down heavily on his rocky throne?  (I think they showed that particular scene 6, maybe 7 times).  I realize that if the actor isn’t actually going to speak, there’s not a lot he can do, but come on, show us something else! (more…)

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Neal Pollack–The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature (2000)

Posted in Adventure, Airlines, Books about writers, Death, Demons, Dip-in Books, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Eyes Wide Shut, Funny (ha ha), Henry Louis Gates, James Joyce, LGBTQ, McSweeney's, Neal Pollack, Oprah, Racism, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, Threats, Toni Morrison, Violence on August 3, 2009| 1 Comment »

nealSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Made in USA (1986 released in 1995).

usaThe liner notes explain a lot of what was behind this disc.  The then largely unknown Sonic Youth was asked to score a cool indie film, which later became a less cool more mainstream film and ultimately went straight to video.

The CD is mostly background music, but it is notable for how mainstream it sounds (for Sonic Youth in the mid-80s) and for how bad it sounds–like it was recorded in a can.

It’s mostly completely listenable soundtrack mood music.  It’s nothing to rush out and buy, especially if you like the noisier SY stuff, but, and this is something of a shock, its sounds quite nice, almost ambient at times.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, it’s worth noting that “Secret Girl” from EVOL appears in a slightly different form (twice actually).

[READ: July 29, 2009] The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature

This is the first book published by McSweeney’s Books.  And it is indeed handsome, with a nice yellow ribbon for marking your page.

And so, who is Neal Pollack?  Well, as you all know, Neal Pollack is the greatest living writer today.  He has been writing for decades and has written some of the most important books, and the most important articles that anyone has ever read. His book on life as an African America has not only impressed Oprah, but it has inspired Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates.

And, as you can see from the back of the book, everyone from Hunter S. Thompson to Normal Mailer sings his praises. (more…)

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Periodical: Wired

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Consumerism, Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul, David Lynch, Esquire, Funky Web Sites, Guillermo del Toro, Hive, Oddities, Outer Space, Sci-fi, Slaughterhouse Five, Sparklehorse, Stephen Colbert, Technology, The Future, The Hobbit, Tiny Masters of Today, Video Games, Wired on July 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

wiredMany many years ago (1995), while I was in Boston, I bought my first copy of Wired magazine (how could I forget the absurd cover to the right (yes, there IS a picture there) [And I’m very impressed that you can easily link to all of their back issues, just as I did with the link above].  I’m not sure how long it had been in print , but I think it was still young and buzzworthy. [Research shows that this was its 3rd year].  I remember thinking the magazine was very difficult to read.  Literally.  Text ran across pages, the colors were all wild.  The ads blurred completely with the content (by design).  And it was very “techie.”  I don’t remember if I subscribed exactly then, but I did subscribe eventually.  And then I stopped (sometime in 1999).

Recently I got an offer to re-subscribe, for a dollar an issue.  (This is where my idea that I will cancel a magazine once I stop getting a dollar’s worth from it).  I wasn’t sure if I should subscribe, but I figured what the hell.

Not a resounding chorus of cheers for this publication, huh?

Well, since I’ve subscribed I have been pleasantly surprised by the magazine.  And interestingly, the cover story almost never interests me.  In fact, and my brother in law Tim first pointed this out: the cover stories and the big articles take themselves very seriously.  Everything is always The Future Of This.  The New That.  Don’t Be Left Behind!  It’s over the top in its wanting you to take them seriously. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 5] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corner Gas, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Eschaton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Rick Mercer, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Kids in the Hall, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Toilets, Violence, Work, Yuck! on July 24, 2009| 6 Comments »

in hereSOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-We Are the Same (2009).

Itragically hip first heard of The Hip when I saw their video for “Nautical Disaster.” This is back in the day when I first got Canada’s MuchMusic on my Brighton, MA cable system, and when I actually watched Music channels. Anyhow, the song was intense and very cool and it built to a great climax, and I was totally hooked.

I got their back catalog and continued to get their new releases.  Since then they’ve released some really good songs, and some pretty good discs.  It almost feels like since their live disc they decided to switch from intense songwriting to more simple, straightforward rock. This is a little disappointing to fans of their intense stuff, and yet if you accept the change in style, the music is quite solid.

So this disc seems to be shooting for an even broader, more commercial appeal.  And, in the first half, at least, they emphasize a more folksy/country feel.  All of this should make me flee from the disc, and I think longtime fans are pretty disappointed by it.  And yet, I can’t get over how much I like it. There’s something slightly off about the Tragically Hip that keeps them from being overtly commercial.  So that even when they release a disc like this, which is quite mellow in places, it still sounds alternative.  Maybe it’s Gord Downie’s voice, maybe it’s something in the melodies; whatever it is, it keeps this disc from being blah.

The final track, Country Day” seems to sum up the overall feel of the disc: meandering country roads.  And “Queen of the Furrows” is about farming.  The opening few songs have a Neil Young folkish feel, since “Morning Moon” and “Honey Please” have big catchy choruses with folky verses

“Coffee Girl” actually reminds me of a serious Barenaked Ladies type song, which is disconcerting coming from the Hip, but could possibly become a hit (it’s probably their most overtly commercial song I can think of since “My Music at Work”).  Actually, I take that back, one of the final tracks on the disc, “Love is  a Curse” sounds like it’s their last ditch attempt to have a big hit in the States.  And if they were a more well known (or on a bigger label) it would be a huge hit.  It rocks pretty hard and screams radio friendly.

The Hip of old do surface on two songs though: “Now the Struggle Has a Name” is one of those great sounding Hip songs:  as you’re singing along to the swelling chorus you wonder why they aren’t huge down here, and then you realize the song is 6 minutes long and will never get on the radio.   There’s also a 9 minute song, and the good news is that it doesn’t get boring (no mean feat).

The second half of the disc has more loud guitars.  The cool riff of “The Exact Feeling” is pretty great.  While “Frozen in My Tracks” is probably the weirdest track on the disc, with a very cool, off-sounding chorus.

So yeah, the disc has horns and strings and is maybe a little too polished and produced.  But the songwriting is still stellar.  I’m sure that if I had heard these songs now without knowing the Hip, I wouldn’t be all that impressed.  Maybe as I get older I’m less critical, or maybe I’m just happy to mellow out a bit more.

[READ: Week of July 20] Infinite Jest (to page 367)

Even though last week I said I would keep to the Spoiler Line Page, I am breaking the promise already.  I just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving a passage unfinished, so I just continued to the section break of Gately’s A.A. meeting.

When I first read IJ way back in 1996 I, like most Americans, didn’t really think too much about Canada.  I liked a lot of Canadian music and The Kids in the Hall were awesome, but beyond that I was pretty oblivious to our neighbors to the north.  Since then, I have become something of a Canuckophile.  I did Curling for two years and have visited up North a number of times.  We even had a Canadian satellite dish where we watched most of our TV (like Corner Gas and The Rick Mercer Report) until that moderately legal company was sued out of business.  Now I subscribe to The Walrus which keeps me well informed. Anyhow, this is all to say that I have a greater understanding of Quebec separatists and the state of US border relations.  This makes this whole Marathe-Steeply section more interesting to me this time around.  I sort of went from Hal (apolitical) to a quarter of the way to Avril in my understanding.

But before we get to that, lets get into the book and learn about Orin. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Slaughterhouse Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death (1969)

Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Kurt Vonnegut, Marriage (Happy), Military, Nazis, Prison, Record Labels, Sex, Slaughterhouse Five, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, War on July 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

s5SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Bad Moon Rising (1985).

Abadmoonnother Sonic Youth record, another record label.  Bad Moon Rising is a pretty big leap from Confusion is Sex, in that there are actual songs.  Well, that’s not fair, what I mean is that the songs have structure like proper songs do. In fact, “Death Valley ’69” (with vocals by Lydia Lunch) is quite catchy!

Indeed, the band doesn’t shy away from catchy at all.  The opening track, “Intro” is a pretty one-minute guitar piece.  And it’s followed by “Brave Men Run (In My Family)” a catchy (!) song sung by Kim.  The third track “Society is a Hole” returns to the stark tracks of yore, with Thurston’s despairing vocals, but it introduces guitar harmonics, a key SY staple in songs to come.

And if you like ” I Love Her All the Time,” and who doesn’t, check out this footage from a 1991 concert (complete with Thurston using drumsticks on his guitar).

Despite these signs of lightening up, there are some pretty heavy sounds on this disc.  “I’m Insane” and “Justice is Might” sounds kind of like you might think they would based on their titles.

The band has definitely gotten control over the noise they want to make; it doesn’t seem to be enveloping them, (like it envelopes the listener), it’s more at their beck and call.  We’re not quite to the levels that prime SY will sound, but it’s pretty darn close.

And songs from the attached Flower EP are okay, but “Flower” is especially good. It has a cool “Love the power of women” spoken piece from Kim that foreshadows some of her really fantastic songs to come.

And just to be difficult, they end the disc with the one-minute “Echo Canyon” which is just as it sounds,an echoic noisefest.

[READ: July 16, 2009] Slaughterhouse Five.

What is worse?  Reading a book and not remembering a single thing about it, or not reading a book but convincing yourself that you have?  I am stuck with this dilemma as I realize that one of the two options applies to me and Slaughterhouse Five.

I was certain that I read Slaughterhouse Five.  In fact, I was certain that I knew exactly when I read it (my junior year of college on Super Bowl Sunday, when I blew off the Super Bowl party to read the book).  I realize now that it must have been some other book (but what could it have been?) as I had no recollection of Slaughterhouse Five.  At all.  Even though the cover of my mass market paperback  (which I can’t find online anywhere) was completely familiar and there’s even a dog eared page or two.  Huh.

The first thing I want to say about the book is, having read all of the novels that Vonnegut wrote before S5 was a real boon to reading it because so many of the characters from the other books appear in this one!  More on that in a moment.

The book is also about the air attack that obliterated Dresden, Germany.

Amazingly, and this is common knowledge after you read the book, Vonnegut was in Dresden at the time of the air attack.  (more…)

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