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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Allegra Goodman–“Apple Cake” (New Yorker, July 7 & 14, 2014)

Posted in Allegra Goodman, Death, Essays, Food, New Yorker, Pink Floyd, Primus, Religion, Short Story, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on February 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 appleSOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY with THE FUNGI ENSEMBLE (2014).

Achoclnd after all of that, we catch up to present day Primus.  And this time Tim Alexander is back with them again!  I was supposed to see Primus at a small theater when they toured for the chocolate Factory.  And because of a planning snafu I didn’t get to go.  I had wanted to see the show live before hearing the album.  Sigh.

I was thinking about Les Claypool and covers.  He does a lot of them.  Even though he is clearly a creative tour de force, he also likes to revisit stuff.  His live albums are full of covers, and the Duo de Twang mostly revisited songs he had already done, not to mention how he has re-recorded almost all the songs from Primus’ debut at one point or another.

So it comes as no surprise to me that they would cover the entire Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack.

The thing to know right off the bat is that Les Claypool is a rather dark and disturbed individual.  And that means that this cover recording is really much more dark and nightmarish than the original (which is quite sweet).  Now true, Wonka is a really dark and creepy figure, and maybe that’s what Les was playing off when he constructed this carnivalesque, dark funhouse mirror version of soundtrack.

And your tolerance for that (and your love of the original) will say whether or not you enjoy this.

This is not fun goofy Primus, this is dark Primus of the “My Name is Mud” and Mushroom Men variety.

“Hello Wonkites” opens this disc with dark and slow bass strings and a slow and menacing melody.  “Candy Man” one of the sweetest songs ever is turned incredibly dark with hypnotic vibes and weird bowed bass sounds.  The way they speed up parts of the song are really disturbing and his vocals are creepy as anything.  This tells you all you need to know about this recording.

“Cheer up, Charlie” is a little bit sweeter as it opens with cellos. But Les’ vocal is weird and a little, yes, disturbing,  Although I don’t really like the original very much so this one works better for me.  “Golden Ticket” is also quite sinister with the mad carnival sounds and the stomping bass.  “Lermaninoff” is a cool 5 second reprise of the Rachmaninoff lock in the movie.

“Pure Imagination” is probably the least creepy of all the songs, although it is still dark and ominous.   It features a lot of percussion, and I read somewhere that Tim doesn’t really play drums on this record, he just hits all kinds of crap that’s around him.  There’s a long instrumental section that is pretty cool.

There are four versions of the Oompa Loompa song, just like in the movie.  Each one is about a minute and a half long.  They’re each quite similar and faithful to the original’s creepy vibe.  They might do better to be spaced out more, but it’s still fun.  The “Semi Wondrous Boat Ride” is actually not nearly as creepy as the original.  “Wonkamobile” is just over a minute long and it is just Les being Les.

“I Want It Now” features lead vocals by Ler!  I don’t know that we’ve ever heard him sing anywhere before.  He doesn’t have a great voice (or he’s trying to be bratty, it’s hard to tell), but it’s such a welcome change to have someone else singing on the disc.

My favorite track is “Goodbye Wonkites” which has a very cool Pink Floyd feel.  The instrumentation is the same as “Hello” but the guitars have this great echo, and the chords that Ler is playing (yes normal chords) sound very much like Pink Floyd to me.  It’s a cool instrumental.

Even though I don’t love this soundtrack, I’d still like to see the stage show that they create for it, which I imagine is just insane.

And that brings an end to the Primus land–a month’s worth of Les and the boys.

That there’s a bad egg.

[READ: January 29, 2015] “Apple Cake”

This story is about a woman who has just entered hospice care.  And yet surprisingly it is not all that sad.

Jeanne was the youngest sister.  Her to older sisters Sylvia and Helen are very different but both were quite upset that it was their baby sister who would die first (even though none of them was actually young).

Since she was in hospice, the family was gathered around pretty much all the time.  The sisters were there constantly and her sons and nieces and nephews all took time off to pay their last respects.  But Jeanne lingered–despite doctors saying that she had only a day or two left, she continued to seem rather strong and coherent.

And really this story turns out to be more about the fighting between the healthy sisters–and their children.  Will they defer to Jeanne’s wishes–like when she asks for a bagel even though she hasn’t eaten solid foods in weeks?  And, most importantly, will they honor Jeanne’s wishes about her death–she wants no funeral, no ceremony, not even a burial.  Or will they follow tradition and have a rabbi preside over her.

And so this fight comes down to Helen and Sylvia.  Even though Jeanne has made her intentions clear to her sons, Helen and Sylvia have always been at odds and will continue to be so: “There was simply the great divide between them: Helen told the truth, while Sylvia tried to paper over everything.”  Helen is insistent that Jeanne see a rabbi and have a proper burial.  But Sylvia and everyone else finds it disrespectful.

And in her grief, Helen begins baking.  After all, she was the baker of the family–Sylvia hadn’t baked in years because her husband was diabetic.  She made apple cake (which was pretty good), almond cookies (which were less so) and a pecan bar which was, well, left uneaten.  And so the food starts piling up, because Helen never threw anything away.

Then one day Sylvia brought in an apple cake, warm and fragrant.  Even Jeanne remarked on how good it smelled.  Which gets Helen indignant.

“It’s my recipe,” Helen said, “I gave that recipe to Sylvia twenty years ago.”
“Yes I remember,” Jeanne said, “she bakes a very good apple cake.”
“I bake the same one!  I brought you apple cake last week.”
“I know, but I like hers better,” Jeanne said.

Eventually Helen convinced the rabbi to see Jeanne.  The rabbi is friendly and accepts that Jeanne is an atheist–Jeanne was looking for a fight but he was very kind.  And she even concedes that she could be buried in her plot.

When Jeane eventually dies, they agree to a simple ceremony.  Helen tries to make it more religious–saying that Jeanne agreed to it–but she is unable to hijack the ceremony.  Sylvia is off course pot off by Helen’s behavior and gets rather sulky.

At the gathering afterward, they agreed it would be catered and no one would bring baked goods.  But as the day dragged on, there suddenly came the smell of fresh-baked apple cake.  The nuclear option had been pulled.

I really enjoyed this story and the inner workings of passive aggressive family troubles.  And the way that Jeanne seemed to supervise the whole thing.

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David Sedaris–“Leviathan” (New Yorker, January 5, 2015)

Posted in David Sedaris, Eugene Hutz, Funny (ha ha), Les Claypool, Mushroom Men, New Yorker, Pig Hunt, Tom Waits, Travel on January 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LES CLAYPOOL-Of Fungi and Foe (2009).

fungiAfter doing the various solo records, Les spent some time making the Elecjan5tric Apricot movie and soundtrack (which I don’t know).  Then he was asked to score music for a video game and a movie.  He did so and then used these templates for the completion of this solo album.  As he explains:

I was commissioned to write soundtrack music for two projects that promised to have quite a bit of very intense and unique imagery. One was for an interactive game about a meteor that hits Earth and brings intelligence to the mushrooms within the crash proximity and the other was about a three thousand pound wild boar that terrorizes the marijuana fields of Northern California. Obviously the makers of the subsequent Mushroom Men game and Pig Hunt film were very aware of my tastes and perspectives because the music oozed from me in such a natural way that I believe it came as much from my pores as it did my mind. This music became the foundation of the songs that fill this collection. With a few added tidbits and a bit of gypsy sauce, I inflict upon you… OF FUNGI AND FOE

As such the album is thematic and consistent. But the musical theme is very dark and very bass heavy (which makes sense given that it is Les).  But it’s quite claustrophobic and hard to listen to all the way through. Some of the later songs are probably pretty good but it’s hard to get to them.

I talked about the album in 2010, and said:

The disc is very percussion heavy, with lots of rather long songs.  And although I love long songs, I love long songs that aren’t the same thing for 6 or so minutes.  I also rather miss Claypool’s voice.  He doesn’t sing a lot of these songs in his typical falsetto.  There’s a lot of very deep voiced, rather processed sounding voices here (it works great on the muh muh muh mushroom men, but not so great elsewhere).  Because when you combine that with the bass and percussion, it’ really hard to hear what he’s on about (and Claypool lyrics are half the fun).

Plus, we know that with Primus’ own brand of weirdness, a little goes a long way.  So, hearing the same bizarro riff for 4 minutes can be trying.

The first 4 tracks are all really solid.  But that 5th track, “What would George Martin Do?” just sucks all the life out of the disc.  The same goofy riff for 6 minutes with completely unintelligible lyrics.  Ouch.   But “You Can’t Tell Errol Anything” picks up the pace somewhat with a wonderful Tom Waits-ian soundtrack.  The addition of Eugene Hutz on insane wailing vocals brings a wonderful new level of dementia to the disc.

Listening again, with context from recent albums I had a similar but more forgiven attitude.  I find the opening song “Mushroom Men” to be fantastic.  It is wonderfully weird—with great use of the whamola to create very strange theme.  It’s one of his best songs.  There is something fun in “Amanitas.”   I love the riff and sentiment of “Red State Girl.”  “Boonville Stomp” is indeed a stomp, although I find it a bit tedious.

Interestingly, I now love “What Would Sir George Martin Do” for the carnivalesque feel to it. But I agree with my old self in that it’s a goofy lark of a song and should be 2 minutes not 6. The disc ender, “Ol’ Roscoe” is a really sad drinking and driving song–one which I don’t like to listen to.

So, it’s a mixed bag of songs, but would be curious to see how they work in the video game and movie (although I don’t think I’ll ever watch the movie).  Huh, turns out you can listen to a number of these songs on YouTube.  Of course I wonder how they were uploaded and how I can get a copy–the instrumentals are really cool.

[READ: January 24, 2014] “Leviathan”

Sedaris begins by explaining how as people get older they become crazy in one of two ways.  Either animal crazy (as in dog crazy: when asked if they have children they are likely to answer :”a black Lab and a sheltie-beagle mix named Tuckahoe…. Then they add–they always add–‘they were rescues.'”

The second way is with their diets.  His brother Paul has all but given up solid food (at 46 he eats much they way he did at 9 months old).

He also teases the people who eat things that supposedly stave off disease which the drug companies don’t want you knowing about.  Hi sister says “Cancer can definitely be cured with a vegan diet…”  His sensible response?  “If a vegan diet truly did cure cancer, don’t you think it would have at least made the front age of the New York Times Science section.”  He says that Paul has been eating apricot seeds for some time (although any more than four can be dangerous since they contain cyanide). (more…)

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Jess Row–“The Empties” (New Yorker, November 3, 2014)

Posted in Dystopia, End of the World, Faith No More, Fears, Fred Durst, Jess Row, Les Claypool, Martina Topley-Bird, Matt Stone, New Yorker, Primus, Rage Against the Machine, Short Story, South Park, Stewart Copeland, Tom Morello, Tom Waits on January 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

nov3SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-Antipop (1999).

This wasantipop the final album that Primus made before going on hiatus (ostensibly breaking up, but they did reunite a few years later).  I have distinct memories of buying this album and listening to it on the way home in the car.  I remember liking the songs but having the very distinct feeling that it didn’t really sound anything like Primus.  And that is still the case.

This album has a whole mess of guest producers and guitarists and critics seem to think that every song feels very different.  But I disagree.  It feels like a very heavy Les Claypool solo project.

About the album Claypool has said: “Antipop was the most difficult record we ever made, because there was a lot of tension between the three of us, and there was some doubt at the label as to whether we knew what the hell we were doing anymore… Primus sort of imploded.”  In the Primus book, Larry says that a few times he wondered why he was even there since there were so many other guitarists.  I noted that even though there were other guitarists, there were no extra bassists or drummers present, which is kind of shitty.

Producers include Fred Durst (!), Jim Martin (from Faith No More), Stewart Copeland (!), Matt Stone (!) and Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine) and Tom Waits.

Tom Morello features quite prominently on the disc, producing and playing on 3 tracks.  And on the songs he’s on, I feel like you can’t even hear Larry (if he’s on them at all).  Morello gets co-writing credit on the songs too, and they feel more like Rage songs than Primus songs–they are very heavy and very metal.  “Electric Uncle Sam” is certainly catchy and rocking.  I rather like it although it feels far more Morello than Claypool.  “Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool” also sounds quite Rage like to me.  There’s certainly Primus elements, but it feels very conventional–it’s again very aggressive with no sign or Ler.  “Power Mad” is Morello’s third song. It’s the least interesting song on the disc.

Matt Stone from South Park produced “Natural Joe.”  It feels quite like Primus–a bit heavier, perhaps tahn usual and with that now ever present slap bass.  The “son of a bitch-a” line seems like it might have had a Matt Stone influence.

Fred Durst produced “Lacquer Head” the album’s only single.  It is really catchy.  Durst says it was his idea for Primus to get more heavy (like in the old days) but this is much heavier than anything they had done.  I have to think that the “Keep on sniffing” section was Durst-influenced as it sounds kind of rap-metally.

“Dirty Drowning Man” was produced by Stewart Copeland and features Martina Topley-Bird on backing vocals.  The opening sounds very Primus, but the chorus is very conventional.  Martina barely registers on backing vocals, which is a shame.

Songs credited to just Primus are “The Antipop” which is also quite heavy and strangely catchy given the sentiments.  Perhaps the most unusual track on the disc is the 8 minute “Eclectic Electric” which has three parts.  The first is slow and quieter with a catchy/creepy verse.  Part 2 is much heavier, while Part 3 revisits part 1.  I do rather like it.  James Hetfield plays on it although I can’t tell where.  “Greet the Sacred Cow” has a funk bass part and a real Primus vibe.  It’s a quite a good song.  “The Ballad of Bodacious” seems like a Primus cover band from music to concept.  The final song they did was “The Final Voyage of the Liquid Sky.”  I love the crazy watery bass that opens the song.  The verses also have a real Primus feel.  And those choruses are unreasonably catchy.

The final song was produced by Tom Waits.  It doesn’t sound like Primus at all. Rather, it sounds like a big ol’ sea shanty  A perfect Tom Waits-ian song.  And it’s a really good song too.  You can definitely feel the Primus vibe though, even if it doesn’t really sound like a Primus song exactly.

There’s a bonus track, which is a cover of their song “The Heckler” from Suck on This.  This version is good (although not quite as good as the original version).  But it shows how far removed the new stuff is from their earliest recordings.  This also means that “Jellikit” is the only song from Suck that has not been played on another record.

So while I can see that many fans of Primus would hate this album, fans of heavy rock from the era should certainly check it out.  Les’ voice is heavier, more metal, and the guitars are pretty conventional.  And I still think there are some good songs here.

[READ: January 16, 2015] “The Empties”

This story is set after the end times (which happened in August 2015).  I enjoyed that in the story two characters argue over whether they are living in dystopian or postapocalyptic time.  The one guy argues that “dystopia means an imaginary place where everything’s exactly wrong and what we’re living in is a postapocalyptic prelapsarian kind of thing.”  Our narrator says they are both wrong because those two words pertain to stories and this is real life.

It has been two years since E.T. (End Times).  Very few people still bother to charge anything on the extant towers.  And most of the weak died in the first winter.  Our survivors are in Vermont which has brutal winters but also have wood burning stoves which she imagines many city folk do not have.

Our narrator has been writing in a journal that she received B.E.T. (Before End Times) and then one day she decides to go to the library (the only building still with a lock) to see if she can use the type writer to write a history of their lives since E.T. began.   The “librarian” is heavily armed and is frisking everyone who leaves–books are valuable commodity.  She says they don’t have any paper but that she is welcome to use the reverse side of her own novel (Shroud of the Hills by Matilda Barnstone copyright 2003) which she sent out to many places but never got a response. (more…)

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Tom Hanks–“Alan Bean Plus Four” (New Yorker, October 27, 2014)

Posted in New Yorker, Outer Space, Primus, Short Story, South Park, Technology, Tom Hanks, Unreliable narrator on January 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-“Mephisto & Kevin” (1998).

chef aid oct27On the South Park Chef Aid album, Primus played this song.  It’s not one of their best, but it’s a fun little number.  The bass is interesting and once the chorus comes along, there are some great guitar sections.

The lyrics are a childish thing about Michael Jackson’s semen–and I don’t think they have anything to do with these two characters directly.

It is of course fun that Isaac Hayes sings the chorus (which has to have been kind of cool).  And the music in the pre-chorus is heavy and interesting.

Apparently, that’s Trey Parker singing at the very end.

[READ: January 16, 2015] “Alan Bean Plus Four”

Yes, THAT Tom Hanks.

Who knows what to expect from an actor, especially one whom you’ve never heard of writing a story before.  And who knows even more what to think when the story is as strangely written as this one.  Well, not strangely written… it’s pretty normally written. But the content is quite unexpected.

The story is about a four people who build a rocket and fly it around the moon and back.

What is strange about the way it is written is that there is never any doubt from anyone that it will work or questions about how it will work.  Even though some of the things they discuss are preposterous, it will still work and does still work. So it seems like the narrator is crazy, and yet we are not given that information.

It begins with the premise that if you could throw a hammer with enough muscle, it would sail around the moon and return to earth like a boomerang.  Of course Anna points out that a hammer would melt upon reentry, so why not just make a shuttle and they could all fly round the moon.  They could succeed where the Russians failed.  And so they set out to build one and sail it on the anniversary of when Apollo 12 landed in the Ocean of Storms (forgotten by 99.999 per cent of the people on Earth). (more…)

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Kristin Valdez Quade–“Ordinary Sins” (New Yorker, October 20, 2014)

Posted in Drinking, Humiliation, Kristin Valdez Quade, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Primus, Religion, Sex, Short Story, South Park on January 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

nyoct20 SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-“South Park” Theme Song (1997).

In 1997, Trey Parker and Matt Stone asked Primus to recsouthparkord a theme song for their new show South Park.  They joked that the show might not even be picked up, but whatevs–it could also be a hit.

Of course, it turns out that this show has probably made Les and the boys more money than anything else they’ve done.

Interestingly, the original song they submitted was 1 minute long (way too long for an intro) and rather slow and creepy.  Rather than have them edit it or re-record it, the South Park team just sped it up (and removed the solos, which they put at the end) and then asked Les to re-sing it.

So here is the original, rather creepy version of the theme song.

And here is the final product

[READ: January 10, 2015] “Ordinary Sins”

This is the story of Crystal.  Crystal works at a local parish as secretary.  She took the job thinking it would be temporary. Then she got pregnant unexpectedly (there’s no father around) and now she is stuck (and grateful that the church is keeping her on).

Her co-worker, Collette, totally disdains her and tries to make things unpleasant for her.  In fairness, Collette tries to make things unpleasant for everyone.

The priest at the Parish, Father Paul, is super nice and quite kind, especially to Crystal.  He seems to give her little bits of encouragement throughout the day.  He is a former alcoholic and from what Crystal can tell, he has more than made up for his sins and (since she knows everything about him, really) he seems pretty devoid of all sin at this point.

He encourages her to go to confession.  Eventually she does.  But during the confession, she confessed a bit more than she meant to, .  And since she knows he knew it was her–how could he not?–she tries to hide from him, believing that things will be weird.  And things do get weird, but they seem to be more weird because of Father Paul not what she said. (more…)

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Kevin Canty–“Story, with Bird” (New Yorker, October 6, 2014)

Posted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bill Laswell, Blade Runner, Bootsy Collins, Boredom, Buckethead, Drinking, Kevin Canty, Limbomaniacs, Maceo Parker, Marriage Trouble, Network, New Yorker, Praxis, Primus, Public Enemy, Sex, Short Story on January 14, 2015| 1 Comment »

 oct6SOUNDTRACK: LIMBOMANIACS-Stinky Grooves (1990).

limboSo this album was a favorite of mine in college (amazingly you can’t find very much about it online–I kind of assumed it was huge, but apparently only in my head).  Why does it fit here?  Because the drummer, Brian “Brain” Mantia is who replaced Tim Alexander on Primus’ next few albums.

The Limbomaniacs album is a big stupid funk rock album that is absolutely college age appropriate (if not terribly sexist).  It’s about sex, butts, porn, poop and getting funky.  You can’t play any of the songs on the radio: “Butt Funkin’,” “Porno” (which has a good riff) “That’s the Way” (which is much more vulgar than I realized) or “The Toilet’s Flooded” (with a great big ….).

The biggest surprise about this album , which is clearly kinda dumb fun, is that it attracted such big names to it. It was produced by Bill Laswell and has vocals from Bootsy Collins and sax from Maceo Parker.  This record must have come out before you had to pay for samples, because they seem to be sampling everything, most of it to good use–2001, Blade Runner, William S. Burroughs and Public Enemy.

Probably the best songs on the disc are the ones that are a bit cleaner (like they emphasized the music over the lyrics) “Maniac” with some good horn samples and quotes from Network, is fun and funky–catchy as anything and still sounds good.  “Free Style” is a fun dancey song (with a sax solo from Parker).  “Shake It” is also a fun song (to me it sounds like a college party–although I guess kids these days don’t listen to funk rock).

“Pavlov’s Frothing Dogs” has extensive samples from a William S. Burroughs story, which works interestingly well.

The little you can find out about them online suggests that the band was well-respected musically (but quickly disbanded after a lot of local success).  I find these songs to be rather simple in structure and performance so it seems hard to imagine them inspiring anyone.  And yet, Laswell is involved and immediately started using Brain on drums in his “supergroup” Praxis.  (The Limbomaniacs also introduced Laswell to Buckethead who was a friend) and Buckethead is in Praxis as well.

I more or less know what happened to everyone in the band.  Mirv, the guitarist went on to form M.I.R.V., but I’m not sure what happened to Butthouse the singer.  This album is a totally time capsule for me.  And the little voice at the end of “The Toilet’s Flooded” made me laugh like I was 20 years old again.

[READ: January 9, 2014] “Story, with Bird”

It’s fun to read a two-page story from time to time.  This story felt quite elliptical–a lot happened, but all in a rather quick way.

As the story begins, we know the couple’s relationship is about to end.  As a last ditch effort at staying together, they decided to give up drinking–but it didn’t really work (obviously).

The bird in the title is a bird which flew into their house.  She tried to attack it to get it out, but he used the more pacifist approach of turning off the lights and leaving the windows opened so the bird could leave on its own.  They fought about who was right, but his way did work. (more…)

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Danielle McLaughlin–“The Dinosaurs on Other Planets” (New Yorker, September 15, 2014)

Posted in Beavis and Butthead, Danielle McLaughlin, Marriage Trouble, Nature, New Yorker, Primus, Sausage, Short Story on January 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

ny915SOUNDTRACK: SAUSAGE-Riddles Are Abound Tonight (1994).

Sausage_riddles_are_abound_tonight_cd After Pork Soda, Primus took a little break and Les reunited with the original members of Primus–Todd Huth and Jay Lane (guitars and drums) to make the Sausage album.  The album contains new songs and what I assume is the original version of “The Toys Go Winding Down” which sounds quite different from the Primus recorded version.

The first two songs sounds the most like conventional (what?) Primus with big smashing choruses. The biggest difference on the whole album is in the guitar, which is not just making shapes and noises, it is laying an interesting riff.  And the single “Riddles Are Abound Tonight” sounds absolutely the most like Primus–with interesting guitar sounds and Les’ popping bass (the “ho hoy yea” in the middle is also very Primus).

Another big difference is that Jay Lane’s drumming is a very different style than Tim Alexander’s.  Alexander is a force to be reckoned with–he’s all over tha place, playing weird time signatures and all manner of drums.  Jay Lane is more of a jazzy drummer–he keeps things fairly simple with a lot of hi-hat work.  So yes, even though Les is the same (and the star) in both bands, Sausage sounds quite different from Primus.

It’s also not to say that Huth doesn’t make crazy noises (he was the original Primus guitarist after all)–“Here’s to the Man” has a scorching noise from Huth over Claypool’s fairly conventional bass line.  But this song, as with most of them on the disc are quite long and don’t offer the wide array of sections that most Primus does, which loses its impact after a time.  So even though Les is talking some silly nonsense over the song (which is very hard to hear), it doesn’t make the song much more compelling.

Sausage has more of jam band feel.  As with “Shattering Song,” a 7 minute piece with a conventional drum bass and guitar structure.  It goes on in the same vein for some 4 minutes before turning into the more enjoyable “Kern Kern the butter churn” section, which I wish was longer.  Because I love the Primus release of “Toys” I find “Toyz 1988 to be unsettling in its slowness. Although I do love the opening bass riff.  “Temporary Phase” also has a good thumping bass riff and some noisy guitars.

“Girls for Single Men” is a fun song with a wild bass line.  It has a repeated chorus and a lot of spoken word.  As with a lot of these Claypool solo pieces, if the spoken stuff was just a bit louder, it would be more enjoyable.

“Recreating” i a short song with a cool opening bass section that is primarily based on Les’ whammy bar.  The final song, the 6 and a half minute “Caution Should Be Used While Driving a Motor Vehicle or Operating Machinery”  has a cool repeating bass line and some noisy guitars but it is most notable for all kinds of street noises–jackhammers, air raid sirens and the like.

I don’t love the Sausage album that much, but there is some good stuff here.  And the video for “Riddles” is pretty outstanding (and was actually the basis for the Beavis and Butthead character of Cornholio!)

[READ: January 8, 2015] “The Dinosaurs on Other Planets”

There’s quite a lot going on in this story and I enjoyed very much even if the ending wasn’t entirely satisfying.

The story is set in the house of Kate and Colman an older married couple (they met when he was 40 and their kids are grown).  We learn that they have not shared a bed for about a year.  He moved his lathe into their son’s room and basically just stays there all the time, and while she seems upset by this she doesn’t talk about it.  The only thing that sparks them moving back into the same room is their daughter’s upcoming return visit.

Emer has been living in England (I assume her parents live in Ireland given character names) and she is planning to come to visit for a few days with her son Oisin.  So Kate gets the house ready–she fixes up Emer’s old room and fixes up their son’s room (he is in Japan) for a  bedroom for Oison.

But when they show up, Emer has a man with her as well.  His name is Pavel, and when Cormac (who is none too pleased to have an extra guest) asks Oisin when Pavel is from, Oision (who is 5) says “Chelsea.” (more…)

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Greg Prato–Primus: Over the Eletric Grapevine: Insight into Primus and the World of Les Claypool (2014)

Posted in 24-7 Spyz, Books about music, Buzz Osborne, Chuck D, Drinking, Drugs, Eugene Hutz, Fishbone, Geddy Lee, Greg Prato, Hank Williams III, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Larry LaLonde, Les Claypool, Limbomaniacs, Matt Stone, Metallica, Mike Watt, Muse, Oysterhead, Possessed, Primus, Sausage, South Park, Stewart Copeland, Tim Alexander, Tom Morello, Tom Waits, Trey Anastasio on January 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

primus bookSOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-Suck on This (1990).

primus suckThis was the disc that introduced me to Primus–it was on a beach vacation with my friends Al, Joe and Rad.  Al made this the soundtrack of the drive and, man, it was weird and crazy and super cool and by the end of that trip I was hooked.

Actually I was immediately hooked when the band opened this live disc with a rough version of Rush’s “YYZ” which then launched into “John the Fisherman.”  What do you make of this band and this weird song?  Stomping bass which is doing all of the lead stuff, with guitars that are just noises and craziness but which really work with what the bass is doing (once you listen a few times, anyway).  The drums are mammoth and very prog rock.  And then there’s Les’ voice–cartoony and unconventional–sometimes deep, sometime really silly, sounds that work perfectly with the storytelling lyrics.

The quality of this recording is pretty poor, although I find that it sounds a bit better on smaller, less “good” stereos, where Ler’s guitars don’t get lost so much in the bass.  Most of these songs have been re-recorded for later albums, so perhaps the newer versions sound cleaner to me.  [Groundhog’s Day, Frizzle Fry, John the Fisherman, Pudding Time and Harold of the Rocks on Frizzle Fry and Tommy the Cat on Sailing the Seas of Cheese].

The best songs on this disc have really catchy parts: “John the Fisherman” (most of it) or the insane fast bass and wild soloing section of “Groundhog’s Day.”  Sometimes it’s just when the noise stops and Les gets a line, like “It’s Just a Matter of Opinion” (in “The Heckler”).  Although the noise there is really catchy too–listen to what Ler is playing during the funky bass section–it’s wild and amazing.

Of course “Tommy the Cat” is a major standout from all three guys.

The only song that doesn’t really work for me is “Pressman” which seems a bit too long without a lot of resolution (although the end is pretty cool).  I often get “Jellikit” (the other song that didn’t make it to a studio album) in my head, whenever I think, Did you like it?  There’s even a drum solo from Herb the Ginseng Drummer in that song

What’s fun is that the audience is totally into it and they know most of the songs–anticipating lyrics and even singing along.  And this is where “We’re Primus and we suck.” comes from.  It was a shocking debut when it came out, and it’s still pretty unusual, although not as unusual as some of their later songs would be.

[READ: January 3, 2015] Primus

As I said above, I’ve been a fan of Primus since near the beginning of their existence.  And yet, for all of my enjoyment of them, I didn’t really know all that much about their origins.  I didn’t know that the original line up was Todd Huth and Jay Lane (guitars and drums), and that the three of them wrote the songs that appear on Suck on This and much of Frizzle Fry.  Ler had to learn these unusual parts (Ler took lessons with Joe Satriani and is much more accomplished than his lack of flashiness indicates) and did so wonderfully. I also didn’t know that Les and Kirk Hammet were in the same class in high school (and that he’s the reason Les picked up a bass in the first place, even though they never formally played together).

The book is constructed as a series of quotes from a vast assortment of people.  The “cast” is two pages long and includes current and former members of the band and management as well as fans like Trey Anastasio, Matthew Bellamy (from Muse), Geddy Lee, Chuck D, Eugene Hutz, Tom Morello, Buzz Osborne, Matt Stone, Mike Watt, Hank Williams III, guys from 24-7 Spyz, Fishbone, Limbomaniacs and even Linda Perry (!).

It opens with Les talking about his high school years.  And what’s amazing is how many people who were involved in Primus are friends from when he was a kid.  If they didn’t play together, they were involved with art or management or something.  We also get the origin story of Bob Cock, which answers many questions.

Les had formed Primate (legal dispute with the band The Primates made them become Primus) with Todd and Jay.  They toured a lot and were gaining a following, but Les was always looking for something more.  He even auditioned for Metallica after Cliff Burton died (Kirk thought it sounded great but I guess James didn’t). (more…)

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The Legend of 1900 (1998)

Posted in Alessandro Baricco, Books about music, Cinema Paradiso, Ennio Morricone, Jelly Roll Morton, The Legend of 1900, Translation, Travel on January 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[WATCHED: December 29, 2014] The Legend of 1900

1900After really enjoying Novocento, I wanted to see what they would do with a film of the book.  I was especially curious how they took the sixty-some page monologue and turned it into a 2 hour film.

The film was written by Giuseppe Tornatore who directed Cinema Paradiso.  It was filmed entirely in Italy (which explains how they got the New York scenes to look so old world) and yet it was written entirely in English (apparently before Novocento was translated).  It starred Tim Roth as Nineteenhundred (not Novocento, like in the book) and a bunch of other people I didn’t know.

The movie was, as I say, written by Tornatore, based on the book. He kept virtually the entire book the same for the movie.  But he added a bookend section to give the narrator someone to talk to.  And this is how the film was stretched out to two hours.

The new parts are certainly interesting.  Max, Nineteenhundred’s only real friend and fellow shipboard musician, is selling his trumpet at a pawn shop.  This part confused me because the pawn shop owner is British, but I thought the ship was docked in New York.  But whatever.  He plays his trumpet one last time and the melody he plays is the same one that the shop keeper then plays on a phonograph. (more…)

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Charles Dickens–The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In (1844)

Posted in 19th Century, Charity, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Album, Death, History, It's a Wonderful Life, My Morning Jacket, Short Story, Supernatural on January 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

books SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Does Xmas Fiasco Style: We Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (2000).

mmjxmasWe heard a song from this on WXPN the other day and Sarah bought it for me for Christmas.  I have really liked My Morning Jacket’s newer music, and I like their earlier stuff, but a little less.  This seems to fall somewhere in between.

This also seems to be about the worst actual Christmas album that I like very much.  There is virtually no Christmas feel to it, even if many of the songs feature the word Christmas somewhere.  Basically My Morning Jacket are doing their own thing, and they sound great–lengthy jams of acoustic alternative rock and Jim James’ soaring vocals.  It’s a lovely piece of music, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas (so it was nice to end the Christmas music posts with it).

There are six songs “Xmas Curtain” would be released on their second album the following year (so they made this after releasing one album!).  It is a cool song although it seems to be more about criminals than Christmas.  There are lovely harmonies and a strange steel drum sound for the melody.  “I Just Wanted to Say” is a slow guitar picked song.  It does reflect holiday sentiment: “wishing you happy holidays.” Once again gorgeous chorus and harmonies.  Although there’s a long instrumental section at the end which kind of makes it lose the Christmas spirit (the song is over 6 minutes long).

“Christmas Time is Here Again” is really the first explicit Christmas song. It’s a lovely song and kinda feel Christmasey.  Of course, if they  wanted a nice simple Christmas song it should end at 3:40.  But rather they tack on a lengthy (very pretty) instrumental section. I love what they play, but it make you lose sight of the earlier part of the song even if the lyrics do repeat again. The bells are nice at the end.

“New Morning” is a Nick Cave song, not exactly Christmasey but very pretty.  The other very Christmasey song is “Santa Claus is Back in Town.”  This is apparently an Elvis song (the backing vocals of “Chris-mussss”) give it a very fifties sound.  This could also easily end at 4 minutes, but they tack on a bunch of guitar nonsense at the end for an extra minute and a half.  These little flourishes aren’t bad, and this is clearly a fun fan record, but you’re not going to get on a Christmas compilation with all that extra business.

The final song is a “hidden track.”  It is the lengthy instrumental from “Christmas Time is Here Again” but played by itself (with the whole band).  As I said, it’s lovely.  Of course it’s fades after 2 minutes, but then gets louder and runs a total of 7 minutes–those jokesters.

[READ: December 10, 2014] The Chimes

I didn’t know this story at all.  It turns out to be more of a New Year’s story than a Christmas story, despite it being in the Christmas Books book.

The story is centered around Toby Veck, known as Trotty because of his usual walk.  Trotty is a messenger.  But his main feature is that he is obsessed with the chimes, the Bells, at the churchtower.  He believes that they speak to him.  It sounds like he sleeps out under the bells, but I gather that he actually just spends most of his time outside so he can be a messenger to others.

It is a cold cold New Year’s Eve night.  His daughter, Meg, brings him a large feast of tripe (she drags out his trying to guess what it is).  He is thrilled at the boon of such a feast.  While he is enjoying the food, she reveals that she is going to get married to her fiancee Richard the next day. Trotty seems concerned by this but before he can say anything, he is interrupted by Alderman Cute and his associate Mr Filer.  The Alderman basically gives them all a hard time.  He criticizes Trotty for eating tripe (which he says is the most wasteful of all foods?!), he criticizes the poor in general (and talks about arresting just about everyone) and he criticizes Meg and Richard for planning to get married.  He says that Richard could do much better and that if they do marry they will just wind up poor with unwanted children.  What a dick. (more…)

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