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David Foster Wallace–[Week 3] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Allstonians, Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, James Joyce, Morrissey, Pearl Jam, Postmoderism, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, Russell Brand, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, The Smiths, WYYY 109 FM: The Largest Whole Prime on the FM Band on July 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

jesySOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).

years ofI’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years.  And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue.  Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc.  The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.

From the start, the disc rocks out. That’s right, Morrissey totally rocks, with a real attitude.  “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” in addition to being quite funny, has one of Moz’s most loudly sung choruses in like, forever.  The martial beat of “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed” showcases Moz’s “political” songwriting without ever losing its catchiness.  “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is a pretty classic Morrissey song, complete with a simple picking guitar riff.

“All You Need Is Me” has some great squeaky guitars and recalls Morrissey’s own “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me”), while “When Last I Spoke to Carol” has a Mexican feel, which is different for him.  And “That’s How People Grow Up,” the single, has one of those classic Morrissey lines in which he subverts expectations with a left-field word choice: “So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.”

The end of the album is full of longer songs which tends to skew the rollicking feel of the disc. (In the first 8 songs only 3 are over 3 minutes while the last 4 songs are each over 4 minutes).  Nevertheless, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is a wonderfully caustic song and the album closer, “I’m OK By Myself” is just fantastic, and I find myself singing “I don’t need you, or your morality” because they way he sings it gets stuck in my head for days.

There’s also a bonus disc which includes an interview with Russel Brand which is very funny indeed.

Welcome back Morrissey.  Well done, sir.

[READ: Week of July 6, 2009]  Infinite Jest (to page 227).

While looking for this cover of Infinite Jest (the one that I most associate with the book even though I never owned a copy with this cover), I noticed that Powell’s Books is selling a first edition hardcover copy of IJ for $450. The copy that I am currently reading is also a first edition hardcover.  If anyone wants to send me like $400 for it, just let me know!

On my Week Two post, I had a comment that criticized me for giving out spoilers.  While I disagree, I will preface this and future posts by saying that I will certainly be discussing what has happened in the week’s read (including footnotes endnotes and future footnotes endnotes if they are referred to in current footnotes endnotes), I will not intentionally reveal any spoilers.

On to Week 3 of Infinite Summer.  And at this point I not only feel good about the book, I feel somewhat refreshed. This whole week’s worth of reading has been fairly easy and often very funny.  We’re past the initial shock that you’re running a marathon, and are into that 3rd or 4th mile where you just start to feel good and enjoy the scenery.  I also hate to admit this, but I really want to peek ahead into the next week’s reading.  But no, I am going to pace myself!

I also have a question for faithful readers who are actually trying to map the location of the book.  I lived in Brighton, MA, very close to Boston College as well as in a location nearer to Allston, MA.  I have a vague sense of exactly where Enfield is supposed to be located, but if anyone has used the details in the book to map out where Enfield would be, do pass it along (someone has probably created a Google Map for it, but I haven’t actually checked).

This week’s reading had a lot of lengthy sections that focused on one person/issue for multiple pages which is either great or terrible depending on how you like this book broken up.  And TA DA!  The Chronology is spelled out very clearly! (more…)

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Paul Debraski–“Miracle Memory” (rejected by The Believer, June 2009)

Posted in Canadian Music, Demons, Empires of Tin, Fugazi, Godspeed You Black Emperor, History, Hockey, Jem Cohen, Miracle, Paul Debraski, Red Dawn, Russia, Short Story, Silver Mt. Zion, The Believer, Threats, Vic Chesnutt, War on July 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Believer occasionally publishes first person narratives.  They’re usually relatively short but are insightful and poignant.  After reading one particular story the events described below converged in my head.  When I wrote this piece I had originally called it “Piece for The Believer” because well, that’s who it was written for.  I’m not upset that they rejected it, but I’m also not going to submit it anywhere else because I can’t think of any place else where it would fit. So, it might as well go somewhere!  [This is a slightly modified version]

[WRITTEN: April 2009] “Miracle Memory”

Recently my work had a staff training day.  It was yet another of those in-house services in which they pay people to create acronyms for success, and to encourage us all to read Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.  This particular training was about Teamwork (always capitalized).  The meeting proceeded apace, finding clever ways to say the same thing for five hours, until she told us that after lunch we would be treated to some clips from a movie that we would find inspiring in its look at teamwork.

When lunch was finished, she unveiled the movie: Miracle.  According to IMDB, Miracle is

The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team’s coach, Herb Brooks, took a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning from a distraction from world events. With the world watching the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels’ now famous question, to the millions viewing at home: Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

And of course, what better display of teamwork could there be than an underdog team winning a gold medal?

I instantly bristled upon hearing that this was our movie.  One of my strongest non-family related memories is of watching the U.S. Olympic team skating to victory over the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 Olympics.  I didn’t watch the whole game (I didn’t become a fan of hockey until the late 1990s), but I tuned in during the third period right around when Mike Eruzione scored the go-ahead goal. (more…)

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Periodical: The Believer

Posted in 18th Century, 19th Century, Amy Sedaris, Anachronisms, Art, Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Bret Easton Ellis, BritLit, Charles Burns, Christian Bok, Consumerism, Daniel Handler, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Geoff Nicholson, Greil Marcus, Haruki Murakami, Jean-Luc Godard, Judd Apatow, Mary Williams, McSweeney's, Music, Nathaniel West, Nick Hornby, Paul Collins, Poetry, Rick Moody, Scientists, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, Technology, The Believer, Tony Millionaire, Wikipedia, Will Self, Zadie Smith on July 8, 2009| 1 Comment »

believerA few years ago I was visiting my friend Roman.  He asked me if I read The Believer.  I told him I hadn’t heard of it.  He silently reproved me, knowing that it would be right up my alley and being quite displeased that I wasn’t keeping up with the hip.  I was very impressed with what I saw.

The Believer is put out through McSweeney’s.  It seems to have filled in for the non-fiction niche that McSweeney’s slowly removed from its pages.

And since then, I have become a devoted follower.  At some point (probably around issue ten or eleven) I decided that I was going to read every word in every issue.  And so, (this was pre-kids) when I went to an ALA conference with Sarah, I spent a lot of the down time reading all of the back issues’ articles that I hadn’t read.

Since then, I have read every issue cover to cover.  The thing that I love about the magazine (in addition to all of the stuff that I would normally like about it) is that every article is so well written that even if I don’t care about the subject, I know I’ll be interested for the duration of the piece.  Whether or not I will go on to read anything else about the person or topic is neither here nor there, but when I’m in the moment I’m really hooked. (more…)

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Adam Curtis–The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004) (Wholphin, Vols 2, 3 and 4)

Posted in Adam Curtis, Airlines, Brent Hoff, Demons, Funky Web Sites, History, Lawrence Weschler, McSweeney's, Political Humor, Politicians, Russia, Technology, The Power of Nightmares, Threats, Violence, War, Wholphin, Wikipedia, WMDs on July 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

powwer[WATCHED: June 2009] The Power of Nightmares

This is a film, not a book.  But I found it so fascinating that I had to say something about it.  I have to say it again, this series was truly amazing, and I encourage everyone to watch it.

The Power of Nightmares is a 3 part documentary, totaling about 3 hours.  It was created by the BBC in 2004.  The underlying theme of the film is that politicians have begun to resort to fear in order to achieve their desired aims.  Where in the distant past, politicians offered hope and future fulfillment, nearly all campaigns now try to scare you into voting for them.  (This was before Obama, and may explain the popularity of Obama’s campaign).

The premise of the series is that the rise of the radical Islamist movement (including al Qaeda) and the rise of the American Neo-Conservatives not only parallels each other but actually supports each other.

This documentary is well researched and, obviously, controversial.  It has, to the best of my knowledge, never aired in the U.S. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 2] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Hawaii Five-0, Hüsker Dü, Hill Street Blues, Infinite Summer, Meta, Postmoderism, Set at School, Suicide, Technology, The Who on July 2, 2009| 7 Comments »

jestSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Zen Arcade (1984).

zen arcadeWhen I was younger and more amused by things like this, it amused me that Hüsker Dü’s first three records were a live album an EP and a double album.  They just couldn’t put out a regular old LP?

It also amused me that they put out a song on this disc that was almost as long as their EP and was even almost as long as their Live record.  Such was the difference of Zen Arcade.

In reading about it lately I have learned that it is sort of a concept album (Someone even called it the Quadrophenia of 80s punk).  I gather I simply never paid enough attention to the lyrics to realize that (although it does explain “Hare Krshna”).  There’s also a lot of talk about how influential this disc was.  That may also be true, although I can’t say for sure.

Perhaps the most notable thing is how the disc is not just straight punk. Up to this point the Hüskers had released fast, straight ahead punk.  Distorted guitar and often screaming vocals.  And indeed, Zen Arcade starts off that way “Something I Learned Today” is a classic Hüsker Dü pop punk song.  It’s got a cool opening bassline and super distorted guitars, and yet its got a sing along chorus.  And “Never Talking to You Again” continues Grant Hart’s streak of great catchy punk.  This one includes acoustic guitar, though, just to break things up a bit.  It’s with Track 5 “Dreams Reoccurring” that you know things are going to be very different this time around.  This 2 minute song is full of reversed guitars sounds and all kinds of weird tape mixing.  It’s quite trippy and unlike anything else that the band had done.

As we near the middle of the disc, “Whats Going on Inside My Head” and “Masochism World” are absolute punk vocal shredders (so you know they’re not really going soft).  As the disc ends, “Turn on the News” plays around with recorded Newscasts, not a new concept, but new for them.  And then, of course, the final track, “Reoccurring Dreams,” a reprise of “Dreams Reoccurring” that goes on for 13 minutes of squalling feedback and demented solos (with a cool, if disconcerting, guitar motif).

One of my favorite facts about the disc is that it was all recorded in one take (except for, as the liner notes point out, 2 tracks that started too fast) and there were no overdubs.  It was mastered just as quickly so that the whole thing to about 85 hours to make.  It’s amazing that anything done that quickly can be that good.  But such is the case of this disc.  There’s a clunker or two in the mix, but how could there not be with all that energy bouncing around?

[READ: Week of June 29, 2009] Infinite Jest (to page 151)

After Reading the Infinite Summer site, I see that I got at least one thing wrong.  Mario is in fact not Hal’s younger brother, but is Hal’s older, but not oldest, brother.

I ordered 2 copies of IJ for our library since we did not have any (!).  I’ve been sneaking peeks in the second copy which has the above cover.  And an intro by Dave Eggers, which I enjoyed.

Also, when I dropped my old copy, a whole bunch of small squares of paper fell out: notes that I took the first time through.  I started to look at them but it revealed too much so I stopped.  I’m going to try and read this as purely as possible.

So, surprisingly (or perhaps un-) new characters are coming fast and furious in week two, (up to page 151). (more…)

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McSweeney’s #5 [Timothy McSweeney’s Small Trembling Thing That You Hold in Your Hand and Pet Slowly with Your Dirty Fingers/Timothy McSweeney’s Small Box Half-Full of Shiny Gems and Itching/Timothy McSweeney is Staring Like That, Why Does He Keep Staring?/Timothy McSweeney’s Fervent Hope That Things Build from Here and Stay Good for You and Those You Love/Sometimes Not Believing How Great This All Is/Ted Koppel’s Very Very Special Thing] (2000)

Posted in 6500, Alastair Reed, Ann Cummins, Ben Greenman, Ben Marcus, Bible, Bob Mould, Books about writers, Camera Obscura, Chad Willenborg, Colleen Werthmann, Consuetudinary, Consumerism, Courtney Eldridge, Daniel O'Mara, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Donald Barthelme, Dreams, Dystopia, Elizabeth Klemm, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü, J. Robert Lennon, Jason Ockert, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Lawrence Weschler, Lydia Davis, Marcus Aurelius, Marie Curie, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Minnesota, Neurotics, Newsweek, Outer Space, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Rodney Rothman, Sarah Vowell, Sex, Short Story, Steven Barthelme, Susan Minot, Ted Koppel, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This American Life, Uganda, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Wikipedia, Work on July 1, 2009| 3 Comments »

back coverSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Metal Circus EP (1983).

HuskerDuMetalCircusAfter the insane hardcore mess of Land Speed Record, this EP is a bit of a change.  It’s still pretty hardcore, but now you can tell that the noisiness of the guitar is deliberate.  Bob Mould is playing around with multiple layers of feedback and distortion to create a wall of noise that sometimes hides, sometime accentuates the overall sound.

What strikes me as odd in retrospect is that I think of Bob Mould as one of alternative rock’s poppier songwriters.  And yet when you listen to this disc the two poppiest (which is a relative term to be sure) tracks are by Grant Hart.

The first two tracks are fast and furious.  But what separates them from 4 x 4 hardcore is, mostly Greg Norton’s bass.  He’s all over the place.  There’s also some diversity within the songs themselves (a little guitar squeal in “Deadly Skies”).

“It’s Not Funny Anymore” (Hart’s song) is surprisingly upbeat (with guitar harmonics) and is not quite as noisy (although it’s still pretty noisy, and is not going on the radio anytime soon).

The next two track are more of Mould’s screamy hardcore.

The longest song (4 and a half minutes) is also by Hart. “Diane” is a creepy song about abduction and murder (yet with something of a  singalong chorus).  I actually know the Therapy? version better because I had listened to that disc a lot when it came out.  But the Hüsker’s version is even creepier.  Wikipedia says it is about a real incident (which makes it less creepy than if Hart has made it up, I suppose).

It ends with Mould’s least hardcore song, although the guitar solo is pretty insane.

And then it’s over.  7 songs in twenty minutes.  That’s nearly half as many as on Land Speed Record.  You can see the songs changing already.  Just wait till the next disc!

[READ: June 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #5

McSweeney’s #5 plays with cover ideas again.  On this one, frontthe cover idea is actual different covers and slipcovers.  The book is hardcover, with three different cover designs.  It also has 4 different slipcover designs. The colophon explains that if one wanted one could have requested for free) each of the cover designs because they did not intend to make people buy multiple issues.  Click on the covers to see them enlarged on flickr (all images are copyright McSweeney’s).

This is the Koppel front cover.

I will quote from the McSweeney’s site their description of the covers:

As many of you know, the new issue of our print version is out, and by now is in most stores. This issue is a hardcover book, and features four different dust jackets. One dust jacket has on it a man who seems to be suffering from terrible skin lesions. The second cover looks very much like the cover of Issue No. 1, with the addition of a medical drawing of a severed arm. The third cover is blank, with all of its images hiding on the back. Hiding from the bad people. The last cover is just red. Or, if you will, simply red.

In addition, under each dust jacket is a different cover. One features pictures of Ted Koppel. One features new work by Susan Minot. And a third features a variation on the second cover, described above, though this version is legible only with aid of mirror. This inner cover also is featured under the red dust jacket.

I was quite surprised when I took the slipcover off mine, (more…)

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Periodical: Rolling Stone

Posted in Books about music, Canadian Music, Comedians, Concept Albums, Consumerism, Essays, Film & TV, Music, Political Humor, Religion, Rolling Stone, Technology, War, WMDs on June 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

rsI began my Rolling Stone subscription a few years ago when I bought something at Best Buy. The subscription was a bonus gift of some sort. The choices were pretty lousy and I didn’t even want Rolling Stone, but I figured what the heck.
I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the magazine.

I suppose no one has to be told what Rolling Stone is like. Or so I thought, because here was me, being surprised by this most mainstream of magazines.  I mean, I’ve seen the covers for years, and I knew they liked sex, drugs and rock and roll, but there’s more under the covers.

I have quickly learned my favorite sections and the ones I don’t even bother looking at.

Skim the letters. Maybe there’s a worthwhile addition.

The first main section is the “news” of the last two weeks…usually a concert or a new album or some such. This one happens to focus on American Idol, so, I skipped right past that nonsense.

The Hot List is 5 things that impress them since last issue. I usually like 1 of the 5.

I never read the Smoking Section, but Breaking is usually about an indie band that I heard about a few months earlier.  RS finally catches up and I can read a bit more about them. The In the Studio section is worth browsing to see who’s due for a new disc.

The Random Notes I feel is meant to be a big deal, with “insider” photos and blah blah. I skim it but little more than that.

And then the issue proper starts. (more…)

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Georgi Gospodinov–Natural Novel (2005)

Posted in Books about music, Dystopia, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Georgi Gospodinov, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Minnesota, Natural Novel, Postmoderism, Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs, Short Books, The Replacements, Toilets, Unreliable narrator on June 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

gospodinovSOUNDTRACK–THE REPLACEMENTS–All Shook Down (1990).

shookAnd here we come to the end of the recorded history of the Replacements.  7 albums (and an EP).  4 and a half hours of recorded music.  And a steady maturation from drunken punks to elder statesmen.  Or really statesman (Paul Westerberg at the ripe old age of 31!).   All of the reviews state that this was originally designed as a Westerberg solo album, and that the band barely played together on it at all. And it shows.

To me, this album just isn’t very good.  It’s not that the songs are bad…I ‘ll always admit that Westerberg is a great songwriter.  I’m just not inspired by them.  The single, “Merry Go Round” is the most (there’s that word again) mature sounding rock tracks that Westerberg has written.  And “Nobody” is a decent acoustic type rocker (although the drums are kind of boring).  “Bent All Out of Shape” shows promise but never lives up to it.

“Sadly Beautiful” is another of Westerberg’s solid ballads.  But it doesn’t stand out because the rest of the album isn’t that radically different.  “Someone Take the Wheel” and “When It Began” are decent rockers, but the rest of the album is just sort of…there (except for the awful duet with Johnette Napolitano (whom I used to like but who i just find annoying all these years later).

Westerberg went on to do about a half dozen solo albums but I haven’t heard any of them.

There’s nothing wrong with a songwriter maturing, especially if you get to mature along with him or her.  It’s just such a surprise to see it happen so quickly.

[READ: June 15, 2009] Natural Novel

My coworker and I were experimenting with our library’s catalog.  We started searching for books in specific languages.  We noticed that Bulgarian was one of the languages, and were surprised that our branch had anything in Bulgarian.  It turned out that there was one book that was originally written in Bulgarian but which had been translated to English.  It was this book. It sounded bizarre and fascinating.  And it was only 136 pages.  How could I pass it up?  And what would it be about?

Well, that’s hard to answer.

The premise of a “natural novel” is that it is meant to be a man’s attempt to deal with the dissolution of his marriage.  He starts to talk about the divorce several times, but he can’t really come to terms with it, and so, rather, he gets involved with other things. (more…)

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Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim–The Eternal Smile (2009)

Posted in Derek Kirk Kim, Fantasy, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel, Minnesota, Scrooge McDuck, Short Books, Short Story, Snappy Cola, The Replacements, Violence, YA Books on June 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

eternalSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Don’t Tell a Soul (1989).

soulWith this disc, the ‘Mats finally scored a hit.  “I’ll Be You” actually made the Billboard charts!  And why not, it’s a delightfully catchy, far more mature version of the ‘Mats now-adult-alternative music.

In my head, this is where the ‘Mats sold out entirely.  But, I listened to the disc the other day and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it.  I was probably still really into Pleased to Meet Me when I first got Don’t Tell, so the trip from point A to B isn’t quite as drastic. I guess maybe grown up me enjoys it more than college-aged me did.

The allmusic review is very harsh about the disc, especially the production.  I can’t say I noticed anything about that.  I was just listening for the songs.  And, in addition to being their longest disc to date, it only features 2 songs shorter than 3 minutes!

What you see is Paul Westerberg maturing as a songwriter, for better or worse.  And, as far as his craft goes, it’s certainly better.  As for indie rock, well, not so much.

The songs still maintain the rocking style of older Replacements, but they have more proper structure  (verses and choruses, repeat).  They also play with the loud/soft dynamic that would really come to the fore with Nirvana…although The ‘mats version was more of a rocking/acoustic juxtaposition. Almost all of the tracks on this disc feature an acoustic guitar somewhere in the mix. In fact, I thought that the disc was a lot less rocking than it actually is.

There’s a couple of clunkers on the disc, “We’ll Inherit the Earth” seems a bit off somehow.  But for the most part, the songs sound like a grown up version of the teenage ‘Mats from just five years ago.

By comparison to general pop music, “I’ll Be You” still maintains some indie cred. And, it’s really hard to resist the catchiness of it (from the break to the slightly off-kilter guitar solo that ends the song).  “Achin’ to Be” is another coulda been a hit, although perhaps more on a folk/country side of things.  And “Talent Show” and “Back to Back” are sort of gentle rockers that speed up at a few points. Only “Anywhere’s Better Than Here” has the really distorted rock sound of yore.

Even though I did enjoy listening to the disc, it suffers from a lack of fun.  As I said, it’s a pretty shocking maturation over the span of eight (or even five) years.

[READ: June 12, 2009] The Eternal Smile

Sarah received a copy of this book, and as soon as I realized it was by the guy who did American Born Chinese, an amazing, amazing graphic novel, I was excited to read it.

This is a collection of three short stories: “Duncan’s Kingdom,” “Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile,” and “Urgent Request”  I’m not sure if Kim and Yang collaborated or if one did one story and not the others.  But regardless, the art is fantastic in each.  I love the effortless style shifts in “Duncan” from the simple lines in the fantasy sequence, to the very very dark style in the nightmares.  “Gran’pa Greenbax” is so cartooney, so “childlike” in its style, that the violent avarice in the middle comes as quite a shock.  And “Urgent Request” is simply beautiful from start to finish.  It’s a great looking collection. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #31

Posted in Anachronisms, Barzum, Biji, Bill Cotter, Books about writers, Charlie Chaplin, Consuetudinary, Corporate skewering, David Thomson, Death, Digression, Douglas Coupland, Duan Chengshi, Dystopia, End of the World, Ernest Hemingway, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Barr McCutcheon, Graustarkian Romance, History, James Hannaham, Jessica Anthony, John Brandon, John Cusack, Joy Williams, Legendary Saga, Mary Miller, McSweeney's, Meta, Miguel de Unamuno, Minnesota, Nicolas Chorier, Nivola, Oddities, Orson Welles, Pantoum, Plato, Poetry, Religion, Say Anything, Senryū, Sex, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Sight & Sound, Smarty Pants, Socratic Dialogue, Supernatural, Susan Sontag, The Replacements, Threats, Violence, Virginia Woolf, Virginity (Loss of), War, Whore Dialogue, Will Sheff on June 12, 2009| 2 Comments »

31SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).

hootThis is the second full length from The Replacements.  For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy.  As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)

However, the rest of the album doesn’t sound like hootenannies at all.  In fact, the rest of the album is all over the place.  I don’t want to read into album covers too much, but the design has all 16 titles in separate boxes in different colors.  It suggests a little bit of stylistic diversity inside.

Just see for yourself:  “Run It” is a one minute blast of some of the punkiest stuff they’ve done. (It’s about running a red light).  Meanwhile, “Color Me Impressed” marks the second great alt-rock anthem (after “Go”) that Westerberg has put on record.  “Willpower” is a sort of spooky ambient meandering piece that, at over 4 minutes is their longest piece yet.  “Take Me to The Hospital” is a punky/sloppy guitar song.  “Mr Whirly” is sort of an update of the Beatles’ “Oh Darlin.'”  “Within Your Reach” is technically the longest Replacements song to date.  It starts with a cool flangy guitar sound that swirls around a fairly mellow vocal track (this song was featured in the end of Say Anything.  John Cusack cranks the song up past the red line).  “Buck Hill” is an (almost) instrumental.  “Lovelines” is a spoken word reading of personals ads over a bluesy backing track.  “You Lose” is the first song that sounds like another one…a sort of hardcore song.  “Hayday” is a fast rocker like their first album.  And it ends with “Treatment Bound” a sloppy acoustic number that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can.

As you can see, this album is all over the place, and almost every song sounds like they may not make it through to the end.  Yet, despite all of the genres represented, the band sounds cohesive.  The disc just sounds like a band playing all the kinds of music that they like, and the fact that there are a couple of really lasting songs on the disc makes it sound like more than just a bar band.

I feel as though not too many people even know of this disc (it was the last one I bought by them, as I couldn’t find it for the longest time).  But in reading reviews, I see that people seem to really love this disc.  I enjoyed it, and, like other ‘Mats discs, it’s certainly fun, but I don’t listen to it all that often.

[READ: June 9, 2009] McSweeney’s #31

The latest issue of McSweeney’s has a totally new concept (for this journal, anyhow):  They resurrect old, defunct writing styles and ask contemporary writers to try their hands at them. I had heard of only two of these defunct styles, so it was interesting to see how many forms of writing there were that had, more or less, disappeared.

Physically, the issue looks like a high school yearbook.  It’s that same shape, with the gilded cover and the name of the (school) on the spine.

Attached to the inside back cover is McSweeney’s Summertime Sampler. As far as I know this is the first time they have included a sampler of multiple upcoming works.  There are three books sampled in the booklet: Bill Cotter’s Fever Chart; Jessica Anthony’s The Convalescent & James Hannaham’s God Says No. I enjoyed all three of the pieces.  Fever Chart has stayed with me the most so far.  I can still feel how cold that apartment was.  The Convalescent begin a little slow, but I was hooked by the end of the excerpt. And God Says No has me very uncomfortable; I’m looking forward to finishing that one.

As for #31 itself:

The Fugitive Genres Recaptured (or Old Forms Unearthed) include: pantoums, biji, whore dialogues, Graustarkian romances, nivolas, senryū, Socratic dialogues, consuetudinaries, and legendary sagas.  Each genre has an excerpt of an original writing in that style.  Following the sample is the modern take on it.  And, in the margins are notes in red giving context for what the author is doing.  I assume these notes are written by the author of the piece, but it doesn’t say.

I’m going to give a brief synopsis of the genre, but I’m not going to critique either the old piece or whether the new piece fits into the genre exactly (suffice it to say that they all do their job very well). (more…)

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