This Live Bait free sampler is compiled of songs from some of their summer tours (all songs are from June-August). And it’s a fun collection of mostly long jams.
“Scent of a Mule” dates from 1996 and has a very “old” quality, like the band doesn’t sound as full as normal (the vocals also have an unexpected country feel). There’s a bit of “Sunshine of Your Love” from the guitars while Page is doing an elaborate solo. Indeed there’s a lot of piano on this track—much more than usual (and some of it is crazy). There’s a Jewish music section done on both guitar and voice which abruptly ends when the song returns to “Scent”.
“You Enjoy Myself” is one of my favorite Phish songs. This version clocks in at almost 25 minutes. At around 21 minutes the song devolves into them making a bunch of silly rhythmic noises, which must be very fun to see. The next track is “The Landlady” (from 1993), a wonderful instrumental that morphs into “Tweezer” which has a pretty wild and raucous jam component. There’s also a repeated guitar motif (which I don’t recognize) that seems to be a cue for the band to do things (play loud and fast or really slow—including their impossibly slow rendition of The Simpsons theme song. It’s a neat trip.
The next track is “Mike’s Song.” It opens a 36 minute jam that devolves at around 18 minutes into real silliness with spacey effects and controlled laughter. At about 20 minutes, it morphs into the simple song “Contact” and eventually into “Weekapaug Groove.” Which starts in an unusual way—instead of Mike only playing the bass, the band joins the song in progress.
“Split Open and Melt” has some loud bass—I hadn’t really noticed the bass so much before, and in this version in particular Mike seems like maybe he’s mixed a little louder and he’s playing some really funky stuff (and making quite a few errors, it must be said). Next comes the silly “NO2” (from 1999), which duplicates the effects of the record pretty well, and the guitar solo at the end of very pretty. “My Friend My Friend” is a pretty dark song but it starts with the very pretty guitar work until the minor keys take over. It slowly morphs into “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters,” a lyrically insane but musically great song. Page gets a lot of solo time in this song, too.
The next song is “Twist” always a fun and energetic live track. There’s a very slow jam in the middle of the song (which in total is 29 minutes) before it turns into a very echoey “Slave to the Traffic Light.”
The next song is a nearly 20 minute, joyous “Free”. It morphs into a beautiful “What’s the Use” yet another or f Trey’s gorgeous rising melodies. “Axilla” is a fast almost punky version as is the near barbershop quartet riot of ”My Sweet One” which is the fastest I’ve heard it done. And “Run Like an Antelope” is as frenetic as I’ve heard it—the pace of this segment (from 1993!) is insane.
“David Bowie” begins but then pauses as Trey sings “Catapult” a short piece that I don’t think I’ve ever heard played before. Then “David Bowie” resumes for the remaining 10 or so minutes and it is a fast and furious cut as well. This great free set ends with a 15 minute “Divided Sky,” which sounds as good as ever.
Phish releases a lot of concerts, so it’s nice that they throw these free compilations to us once in a while.
[READ: October 15, 2012] “Puppy”
This story is included in George Saunders’ new collection Tenth of December. But since I was able to find it at the New Yorker, I figured I’d read it now (this means that of all of the stories in the collection I have only not read two).
This story is dark. Although it doesn’t seem so at first.
The story begins by looking at a married woman who has their two kids in the car with her. She is trying to get them interested in the beautiful autumnal day but they have heard it all before. And besides, her son is deeply engrossed in his video game Noble Baker “Not now, Mom, I’m Leavening my Loaves” (ha). Which is better than the game he wanted, Bra Stuffer. We go into the woman’s head and (at least in my case) pity her a little bit for trying so hard with kids who clearly aren’t interested. Like when she read the instructions to her son’s video game so she could offer him tips while he played (and he swats her away, but at least it is “affectionately”).
She keeps her spirits up. But every example seems more sad than nice. When she thinks about her husband who says “Ho HO!” to anything that comes up. Like all of the animals that they own, and how few of them are actually played with by the children.
The other day she spoke of their dog as a puppy and her daughter cried because she didn’t remember it. So of course she had to get them a new puppy. She saw an ad for a puppy and decided to go check it out. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS FIVE-The Sound of the Life of the Mind (2013).
The first Ben Folds Five album in over a decade opens with a big noisy sound and then quickly shows the diversity of the band by pulling back and showing a mellow verse with Ben’s piano and occasional bass. But then the chorus comes in and Robert Sledge’s bass is once again masterful. While Ben is clearly the leader of the band, there is something about the BFF’s bass that is so notable. And this album rocks in BFF’s unique way–rollicking piano, and noisy buzzy bass.
“Michael Praytor, Five Years Later” has some great harmonies (the kind that BFF do so well). “Sky High” is the kind of social commentary ballad that Ben excels at. And the title track is a fast moving rocker that has more great harmonies.
“On Being Frank” is a Sinatra inspired song with strings. While “Draw a Crowd” continues Ben’s humorous vulgarity in a very unexpected way: “if you’re feeling small, and you can’t draw a crowd…draw dicks on a wall.” “Do It Anyway” the single, which inexplicably wasn’t huge, gets more and more fun with each listen–to scream along with “OKAY!” is very cathartic.
“Hold That Thought” is one of those mellow but speedy numbers that I love from Ben. And when then bass plays that high solo bit near the end (oh that bass), the song kicks into new levels of excellence. “Away When You were Down” is another string-filled mellow song. The final track “Thank You for Breaking My Heart” reminds me of “Boxing”, a mellow piano ballad which is, obviously, heartbreaking.
This is a great return to form. There’s some heavy rockers and some pretty ballads. It’s nice to hear the Five back together again.
[READ: October 5, 2013] 3 book reviews
This month Bissell reviewed three books.
The first book is a biography of Flavius Jospehus called A Jew Among Romans by Frederic Raphael (who also wrote the screen play for Eyes Wide Shut). I had never heard of Flavius Jospehus but evidently without him we would have no historical accounts of time from around the beginning of the Common Era. His writings are pretty much the only works that have survived.
And his story itself is interesting too. In 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. This attack has had more impact on current life than can be explained. Judaism lost the Second temple, Jewish Christianity soon disappeared beneath the waves of Gentile Christianity, even Islam was shaped by this because a Mosque now stands where the Second Temple was. And nearly all modern forms of anti-Semitism can be traced back to this attack in some way. Flavius Jospehus chronicled this time as a Jew in a reasonably impartial way (which led many to call him a traitor). His books Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War are the sources for almost all of our knowledge of that era, including about Pontius Pilate. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN-“No One’s Saying Nothing” (2013).
I thought I knew The Dismemberment Plan, but I must have them confused with someone else, because this song doesn’t sound anything like what a band called The Dismemberment Plan ought to sound like (which is noisy and chaotic and probably death metal). This song has big vocals, organ and piano. Nevertheless, it is rather raucous and is quite fun (and has what sounds like a drill sound effect in the beginning and middle).
Lyrically, the song is odd–“If you press the space bar enough, cocaine comes out. I really like this computer.”
But it has a very fun devil-may-care, throw in everything attitude that I really like it. The entire album was streaming on NPR, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from them–including their back catalog work, to see if they ever sounded like what I thought they sounded like.
[READ: October 1, 2013] One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses
I was excited to get this book because I thought the title was quite intriguing (and the crazy way the cover is cut out was also interesting).
There are four “stories” in the book. The first three are about twenty pages each while the fourth is over 100 and is comprised of the titular 100 apocalypses (I didn’t count them).
“Eyes of Dogs”
This story contained marginalia (which is sort of like footnotes but not attached to anything specific). In this story a solider meets a witch and she tells him how to get money—climb down a hole and encounter three dogs. He must wink at the first, blink at the second and hold his eyes closed for the third. The story seems to be going along sensibly like a fairy tale but then it grows introspective and stops. I was disappointed in this one.
“Madmen”
This story was utterly bizarre and yet by the middle of the story the bizarreness was explained and by the end I enjoyed it very much. The premise of this story is that when children grow old they are given a madman to take care of (it is told matter of factly which makes you have to wonder if madman is code for something else. When boys reach a certain age and when girl;s have their first period (which is an unfair division of genders) they get to go to the asylum and pick which madman (or woman) they want to bring home and care for. The bulk of the story is at the asylum with the girl “interviewing” the candidates and her mother being mad at her choices. Ultimately the story turns onto a nice moment between the girl and her dad, who may or may not have married his own madman. As I said very weird, but satisfying.
“Godzilla versus the Smog Monster”
This was the most “real” of the four stories and it was my favorite. A fourteen year old boy is watching “Godzilla vs the Smog Monster.” He found the unlabelled video of it in his father’s sweatshirt drawer and assumed it was porn. He’s bummed that it turns out to be this Godzilla movie. In a parallel story, when the boy goes to school his class is watching live footage of California burning—and this burning is uncontainable. The whole state is slowly engulfed in flames. This fire, which seems to be some kind of attack obviously changes the minds of everyone in the story, including Sara, a girl who Peter thinks is pretty but who never talks to him. But when she crashes her car in front of his house, he helps her and they go for a ride to a cave. Images of the smog monster crop up in interesting ways. Things get weird and less tangible, but because the beginning was so real it made the ending okay.
“A Hundred Apocalypses”
So this selection disappointed me because it proved to be 100 (I assume) flash fiction pieces. And I have more or less come down against flash fiction these days. Especially the kinds of stories that make an interesting “sketch” but aren’t really stories The other problem is that all 100 seemed to be about “apocalypses” which is a useless words when tossed around so much and which loses all meaning when there are 100 that seem to be about actual apocalypses. Or something. I also just learned that apocalypse means un-covering or revelation, not really the end of the world, but whatever.
There were probably 6 out of the hundred that I really enjoyed. Sadly, I didn’t mark them and I don’t remember which ones they were. The rest were okay or worse.
I am ready for flash fiction to go away. And I fear that my beloved McSweeney’s is one of the prime generators of the genre, so perhaps they could knock it off for a bit.
Today is the release date for Pearl jam’s new album, Lightning Bolt. I have heard two songs from it (the fast and furious “Mind Your Manners” and the gorgeous “Sirens”) and I’m quite excited to hear the whole thing. For the release of the album, Pearl Jam has decided to do some interviews. But not with the usual suspects. Rather, they have done four exclusive interviews with surfer Mark Richards, NFL player Steve Gleason, all around awesome lady Carrie Brownstein and director Judd Apatow.
The Mark Richards interview is available in excerpted form here. I’m not sure how long the whole interview is. But from the edited down video, we see that he interviewed all five of them for a bit (and then Stone, Jeff and Mike) and then Eddie. A surfer seems like a reasonable person t ask them about their music and they clearly feel very comfortable with him. (The video above is about 5 minutes). (more…)
Voivod in the E-Force era released two proper albums. But they also released their first live album and this hybrid collection. So at this point, there were almost more albums with this in retrospect least popular lineup of the band.
Kronik, with the least inspiring album cover of all (the fact that Away doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it even calls into question the “realness” of the release) has eleven songs on it The first three tracks are remixes. It’s fascinating to hear these really really heavy songs remixed in a techno way. I know by this time there was a lot of really heavy techno bands, so this isn’t totally unusual, and Voivod has been experimenting with industrial beats on the last two albums as well. It’s just fun to imagine these as dance remixes and to speculate who these remixes were made for. “Forlorn” sounds a bit like Helmet here. E-Force’s voice is so manipulated as to be almost unrecognizable. The solo section is also manipulated in a weird way, making this song sound, if not very different from at least somewhat different. There also appears to be some throat singing thrown on to the end of the mix. “Nanoman” gets the royal treatment—skittery beats, sounds dropping out and a major techno drum beat placed on top of it. “Mercury” is given a very fast electronic drumbeat but not much else. But in this version it sounds very classic industrial.
The next three songs are outtakes from the E-Force era. “Vortex” has a pummeling guitar riff and some massively screamed vocals. “Drift” opens slowly with some spacey guitars and distant rumbles of drums. After 90 second the screaming noise kicks into high gear. “Erosion” has a some steady heavy sections in between the bludgeoning. They basically all sound like the could have come from Phobos.
The next song “Ion” appeared on the soundtrack to Heavy Metal 2000 the movie and was unreleased until this album. It has some very cool moments in it and is a little less brutal than a lot of their music from this era. I rather like it.
The final four songs are live. “Project X” and “Cosmic Conspiracy” are tracks from the E-Force era, and they sound very close to the studio versions. I actually prefer E-Force’s voice here, as it is more natural sounding. “Nuclear War” comes from the very first album. E-Force’s screams are not too dissimilar to Snake’s, although I miss Snake’s pronunciations. But the music sounds better than on the album. And then there’s “Astonomy Domine.” This is the first live recording of the band (and the only song form the pre-E-Force era that’s on a live record. So it’s exciting to hear them playing this more complex song. The recording quality is not great, sadly. But the problem (once again) is E-Force’s voice. The first verse sounds fine, but as the song moves along he starts screaming a lot more. And this song just doesn’t lend itself to screaming. It’s shame.
So this collection is for die-hards and for people who love the heavier period of Voivod (which is not a majority I would guess).
[READ: September 30, 2013] Room 237
This article looks at The Shining, the film by Stanley Kubrick. It briefly mentions the book by Stephen King, but only briefly. And actually this article doesn’t so much look at the film as it looks at a film about The Shining called Room 237. And, actually, Room 237 is more about the people who have obsessed over The Shining for years and who have come up with very detailed theories about the movie.
Some of the theories that these fans have (and which appear in the movie) include: (more…)
My friend Jay just introduced me to this band. I’m surprised I didn’t know them since they have been on Touch & Go Records and now Temporary Residence, two labels that I like.
He didn’t suggest any particular songs to start with, but this was the first one that came up with a search.
Over a simple guitar line a quiet voice sings near-whispered lines. The bridge moves up an octave or so, but keeps the gentle sway of the song. The chorus adds an angular dimension to the vocals but doesn’t change the gentle guitar melody–it’s an interesting example of contrasts working well together.
It’s a very pretty song and what I like about it is that based on just this one song, their other songs could go in any direction from here–more angular, more mellow, even heavier. I’m looking forward to hearing more from them.
[READ: September 29, 2013] The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Clark brought home the second book in this series (Darth Paper Strikes Back) and seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t really know anything about the series so I decided to check it out, especially since we enjoyed Angleberger’s other books so very much.
This is a fairly simple story of some kids in 6th grade. Tommy is a sort of uncool kid. He’s shy and has no luck with girls. He’s not picked on (I liked that this story never got really nasty), but he’s certainly not a cool kid or a jock. He’s the perfect underdog character. For this book, he is assembling a case file about Origami Yoda.
Origami Yoda was created by Dwight. Dwight is a weird kid. We hear from his neighbor that she used to see him digging holes in his back yard and then sitting in them for hours. Dwight doesn’t seem to care about much–he wears crazy clothes, doesn’t do great in school and, weirdest of all, he wears an origami Yoda puppet on his finger. Seemingly all the time (possibly even in the bathroom).
But the thing is that people have been asking Yoda questions and he (well Dwight, with the worst imitation of Yoda ever) answers them. And, weirder still, the advice seems to be very good. Which is especially weird because Dwight is not very smart and doesn’t seem to follow any of the advice that Yoda gives to others. So what gives? (more…)
After thirteen years, alternative rap supergroup Deltron 3030 is back. If you’ve forgotten, Deltron 3030 is comprised of Dan the Automator, Del the Funky Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala. Evidently the album is chock full of guest stars (which I usually dislike, but the guest stars are a weirdly unexpected bunch–David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, chef David Chang?–so I’m curious to hear what they are going to add to the sound.
Okay even I admit I don’t really remember what the first Deltron album sounded like, but if memory serves this seems to be picking up in that same spacey vibe that made Deltron so weird and fun.
There’s a story going on here, told in Del’s awesome rapping style–mellow and trippy with big words and convoluted phrasings. Of course, this is only track 2 on the record so I don’t know exactly what the story is about. But I know that Deltron 0 is back and I’m pretty excited to hear the whole thing.
You can hear this track on NPR and you can watch the intro track (featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt) here:
[READ: September 20, 2013] Almost Silent
This book collects four of Jason’s previous books “Meow, Baby,” “Tell Me Something,” “You Can’t Get There from Here” and “The Living and the Dead.”
“Meow, Baby” (2006) is a collection of “short stories” from Jason. They feature the same (looking) cast of characters as most of the other Jason books I’ve read (anthropomorphic animals), but there’s a few additions: a mummy, a zombie,a skeleton and a vampire. None of the pieces are titled and the only way to know when each is done is when you see his signature. This is just to note that if there is a mummy in two stories, it’s good to know he’s not necessarily the same mummy.
The stories are quite funny with variations on mummy stories (wrapping your head in a bandage after you are hurt, getting an erection(!)), and vampire stories (the same looking guy is always following him with a stake) and some very amusing domestic scenes with skeletons. I enjoyed the one where the mummy comes out of the sarcophagus, looks at a newspaper and then walks back into the sarcophagus with a look of despair on his face (his face is still covered in bandages—Jason has an amazing way of expression even with people who have no faces). There’s also a whole series of skeletons who climb out of their graves and go about mundane tasks . There’s even a guy dressed like the Terminator who has some funny moments where he misses the opportunity to say his trademark lines.
The last few pages are three panel strips—like daily cartoons . Were they ever shown in newspapers? These show that Jason is also very funny at punchlines, not just dark stories and black humor. True, all of these three panel comic are black humor (with the same cast of zombies, vampires, mummies and skeletons), but he really makes some funny and unexpected strips here. (more…)
After Angel Rat, original bassist Blacky left the band. That’s never a good sign. After the tour for this album, original singer Snake left the band. That’s an even worse sign. I still can’t quite figure out exactly why Snake left (personal problems) but he went on to form the band Union Made. For a very detailed history of the band, check out this very cool timeline at Voivod dot net.
The Outer Limits got a pretty big release. I have an original copy that came with 3D glasses and all of the illustrations in 3D. But I was a little disappointed in Angel Rat and I don’t think I gave The Outer Limits much of a chance. It was no Nothingface. But the band was always morphing. Since Angel Rat went very commercial, this album brought things back into the prog realm (with a 17(!) minute song) but also had a lot of commercial songs.
The album opens with “Fix My Heart” which starts out much heavier than anything on Angel Rat. It’s also got some metal guitar pyrotechnics (squeaks and harmonics). Snake’s voice isn’t quite as pretty as on Angel Rat either—he growls a bit, but maintains his nicer voice overall. Nevertheless, “Fix My Heart” is a pretty commercial enterprise (as the title might even suggest). There’s some good “spacey” guitars sounds which bode will for the sci-fi angle of the album (and there’s some cool effects that reward headphone use). “Moonbeam Rider” starts with a very classic rock sounding riff and then morphs into a kind of pretty, mellow verse. But the interstitial guitar is all speed. It’s a nice mix of fast and slow. This song features some interesting bass work—nothing fancy but for the slow parts it is actually keeping the beat instead of the drums. The bassist was a studio musician for this album. There’s also what sounds like a bong during the pre-guitar solo section (the solo is fairly traditional).
“Le Pont Noir” is a mellow, slow guitar song with a very cool delay effect and Snake’s whispered vocals. The bridge gets heavy with a wonderfully weird Piggy guitar riff. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
Then the band’s second Pink Floyd cover appears. This time it’s the even more obscure “The Nile Song.” They have rather heavied this one up with crunching guitars and Snake’s distance screaming filling in the void (although in fairness the original vocals are also screamed). It’s not as dynamic or exciting as “Astronomy Domine,” but it’s still a cool cover. “The Lost Machine” starts off heavy with Away’s double cymbal work (a noisy splash and a fast ride cymbal). Then Piggy’s guitars have a slight delay on them which makes the opening chords sound especially odd. The bridge is a place for Piggy to show off some more weird spacey chords and some very cool guitar riffs. There’s even a spoken word narrator in the middle of the song that explains the “mission” “Time Warp” opens with a very bright and up beat sounding verse. But it quickly disintegrates into (intentional) musical chaos as the narrator gets lost in space.
This all leads up to the 17 minute “Jack Luminous.” If anyone doubted their prog rock leanings, this should dispel that immediate. 17 minutes, multiple parts, a sci-fi epic, it is prog (but heavy prog) at its finest. There are some incredibly catchy parts as well as some less catchy parts, and sections seem to change every two minutes or so. The slow down at 10 minutes is very cool—different guitar effects and the suspenseful bass line. There’s repeated sections as well, which means if you like some guitar line (the spacey part near the end) it comes back! It’s not quite as dynamic as say 2112, but it’s a very successful sci-fi epic.
“Wrong Way Street” returns to the normal and more conventional. The bass that opens the song sounds great and the chords are fairly conventional–the chorus is even really catchy. “We Are Not Alone” is a break-neck metal song, The drums are super fast, the guitars are relentless and the chorus even has an echoed “Hey!” that gets you to sing along. The song also features a cool slow, almost jazzy bass and drum section that lets Piggy throw some soloing in before returning to the fast paced verses.
There’s lots of theories about what happened to Voivod after this album. The success they had achieved earlier was now gone and the band seemed like they couldn’t decide to be metal or prog or is they should go for more pop music. The problem of course is that they were too weird to get mainstream acceptance anyway.
So Snake left and then there were only two original members. The next step would be a drastic one.
[READ: July 9, 2013] Grantland #7
This issue seemed to come hot on the heels of #6. But I enjoyed it just as much. A few notes: no Jeremy Lin in this issue. Lots of LeBron James, three articles about soccer! And a few pop culture moments that I had forgotten about.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-“The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament JUST. GOT. REAL.
Leonard Cooper didn’t know the final Jeopardy answer but he still won and he made a hilarious joke at the end (in cartoon format);
BILL SIMMONS-“Daring to Ask the PED Question”
Simmons talks a lot about PED’s in this forum. Of course, to me PED is my initials. For him (and sports fans) it is performance enhancing drugs. He asks why sports doesn’t do more about it. There are so many people who do it that every time we see someone who might be doing it or who suddenly has a good season, we assume they are doing them too. It would be a service to the players and the fans to have rigorous testing or none at all.
CHRIS RYAN AND ROBERT MAYS-“The NFL Coaches Family Portrait By the Numbers”
A silly analysis of a photo of NFL coaches.
WESLEY MORRIS-“Jodie Foster’s Big Night”
What exactly did Jodie Foster say at the Golden Globes? (This was in January and everybody talked about it and now it’s September and I’ve completely forgotten about it—funny ephemera of pop culture).
JONATHAN ABRAMS-“Out of Africa”
A serious look at trying to bring basketball to Africa. How the culture and language problems make it very difficult to establish any real cohesion in the diverse country. But there are a few examples of boys coming from Africa and benefiting from host families and then heading back to help those who love basketball back home. The main focus is on a 15-year-old Alexis Wangmene who came to the States (and left his family!) to try to gain an education and basketball skills. It’s a heartfelt story.
MOLLY LAMBERT-“Modern Love”
About the show Catfish which just goes to show we can sink even lower as a culture.
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“Mental Health Protocol”
About Royce White again. Last time there was a lengthy look at him. Now we get to hear that he thinks that everyone has some kind of mental health issue.
ANDY GREENWALD-“Eat Bray Love”
How cooking shows have gone from educational to crazy and annoying. He dislikes Top Chef and the new Anthony Bourdain show The Taste (which he says is awful) but he likes a decent show called Chopped.
ZACH LOWE-“The Fragile Science of Basketball Chemistry”
Sure the Heat were great this year, but it’s the way they evolved as a team, creating chemistry, that is so impressive.
RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“The Pariah”
Timothy Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao in a disputed judges call. Instead of rising to fame, he has been avoided like the plague.
BILL SIMMONS-“The All-Manti Te’o Mailbag
Remember that crazy story about the football guy with the dead girlfriend who turned out to be fake? I never really understood the story and while they spend a lot of time talking and theorizing about it I still don’t get it. Did they ever find out the truth about it?
CHRIS BROWN-“Speak My Language”
When you play for the Patriots, you learn their way of doing things—it is simple and efficient, a streamlined version of what other coaches try to do.
KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“The Evolution of LeBron James”
Using diagrams, we see how much of a different player James is in just the last few years with The Heat. This article has made me want to watch James in a game while he is at his peak. So, Heat vs Bulls at the end of October, you’re on my schedule.
SEAN McINDOE-“The Non-Hater’s Guide to the NHL”
Even people who hate everyone in the NHL (which is everyone) can agree that there are some players who are universally admired: Martin Brodeur, Pavel Satsyuk. Teemu Selanne, Jarome Iginla, Jonathan Toews, Martin St. Louis, Gabriel Landeskog, Patrick Elias (Devils get two!), Ryan Smyth, Steve Sullivan, Saku Koivu, Henrik Lundqvist.
ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“God Needs a Hobby”
A look at Dan Harmon and his podcast Harmontown. Harmon seems like he might be a crazy alcoholic, but he’s also pretty darn funny.
MARK TITUS-“Duke’s Ignominious Son”
Everybody hates Christian Laettner, but that’s only because he’s pretty and he made The Shot
MARK LISANTI-“Three Days in Austin”
Dealing with the craziness of the South by Southwest film festival. Sounds awful.
HUA HSU-“The Alien Has Landed”
Soccer legend Ronaldo returns to Old Trafford
BILL SIMMONS-“The Greatest Action Franchise That Ever Was”
Live blogging the Fast and Furious 6 trailer. I admit I may have to see these films after reading this.
ZACH LOWE-“Lights, Camera, Revolution”
There’s some kind of new technology that will change the NBA forever. I pretty much don’t care.
TESS LYNCH-“Nostalgia Bites”
Watching old Real World episodes shows how much things have changed in reality TV, but also how much certain behaviors are not new.
BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Maradona, Then and Now”
Maradona was an amazing kid—at 15 he was remarkable at his ball control. Now at 52 he’s a crazy loon. What exactly happened in between?
ANDY GREENWALD-“From Big to Small, From Movie to TV”
Why not make Men in Black into a TV show—with some other film recommendations.
AMOS BARSHAD-“How Soccer Explains Israel”
I didn’t expect to enjoy this but I found it very interesting. An Israeli soccer team has signed two Muslim players and it has caused incredible animosity and even arson. How this look at a team is like a microcosm of the whole Israeli situation.
LOUISA THOMS-“Back to School”
Missy Franklin won a ton of medals in the Olympics. And then she went back to high school. What’s it like to be on her team at Regis Jesuit?
WESLEY MORRIS-“Run, Frank, Run”
Frank Ocean apparently wasn’t as huge as I thought he was.
MALCOLM GLADWELL AND CHUCK KLOSTERMAN–“The Lies He Told”
More about Manti Te’o. This discussion was a bit more helpful about what happened and how crazy it is.
CHRIS RYAN AND REMBERT BROWNE-“A List of Possible Reasons for Rob Gronkowski’s Arm Infection”
Hypothetical humor.
JORDAN CONN-“The Invisible Man”
Marc Gasol is extremely respected by scouts and agents, but the fans all think of him as Pau Gasol’s chubby little brother.
REMBERT BROWNE-“French Quarter Lessons”
While in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Browne decided to go to a bunch of used bookstores. This is very funny and enjoyable.
JAY CASPIAN KANG-“Fiercely Disputed”
Mike Tyson’s one man show is weird and strangely affecting.
KATIE BAKER-“Do Svidanya to All That”
Several NHL players went to Russia’s KHL during the lockout. And some don’t want to come back.
CHRIS RYAN-“The All-Star Circus”
NBA All-Star weekend is a crazy circus (and sounds worse than the above SXSW festival).
CHUCK KLOSETRMAN AND ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“The Nobituary”
There was a serious rumor that David Bowie was on death’s door. Klosterman and Pappademas imagine writing his obituary.
DAVID SHOEMAKER-“Glenn Beck vs. WWE”
The WWE has always had racists as part of the act. What happens when some goons start acting like the Tea Party?
DAVID JACOBY-“The Pure Heart Meets The Bachelor”
Jacoby’s grandmother watches The Bachelor and he feels badly for her.
STEVEN HYDEN-“Is This It?”
The Strokes’ fifth album had just come out [really?]. It could be their last, but Hyden thinks their last two have been quite good.
BILL SIMMONS-“The Heat in Hindsight”
The Miami Heat came close to breaking the longest winning streak in the NBA. Simmons looks at the fallout and who “wins” and “loses” in the effort.
CHARLES P. PIERCE-“Bleu, Blanc et Rouge”
I had no idea that Charlie Pierce was a Canadiens fan!
KATIE BAKER-“The Ethics of a Family Plan”
Is it ethical to pretend that you are married to your roommate to get a family discount a ta gym? Hell yes.
EMILY YOSHIDA-“A Dark Force”
J.J. Abrams is going to direct the next Star Wars films. Why, when sci-fi is so multifaceted and so different is everything coming down to J.J. Abrams?
SEAN FENNESSEY-“The Case Against Justin Timberlake”
Timberlakes’s previous album was amazing. Then he took years off to make (bad) film and (good) TV. His star would only continue to rise if he stopped making music and only hinted that he would make another album. But the release of his new album (which isn’t that good) can only hurt him.
BRYAN CURTIS-“Waiting for Bettman”
While many New Yorker’s didn’t care about the NHL strike, Canadian writers camped out waiting for Bettman to announce the strike was over.
WESLEY MORRIS-“30 Rock Landed on Us” 30 Rock was many things, but it dealt with racial issues (at least between blacks and whites) better than any show.
RANY JAZAYERLI-“Fall of the Evil Empire”
The New York Yankees look like they won’t make the playoff this year (this was written in March and as of my writing this they have a slim chance at getting the wild card slot). It will be the firs time in a while, perhaps, just perhaps, it’s the start of a new drought for the Evil Empire.
BILL BARNWELL-“The Master Raven”
Ozzie Davis knows how to pick players for the Baltimore Ravens.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-The Best Chappelle’s Show Sketches of All Time”
Done as a series of cartoons (by Parker); Browne picks his eight favorites:
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Prince
Wayne Brady’s Show
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Rick James
Black Bush (especially now that Obama is president)
Clayton Bigsby: Black White Supremacist
Making the Band (P. Diddy)
The Racial Draft (Tiger Woods Now 100% Black)
The Niggar Family (uncomfortable and hilarious no matter how many times you watch it).
Once again, there’s another great issue of Grantland. Once again, I wish they would follow up on some of their speculative stories. But it’s fun to have a time capsule of events that occurred just a few months ago and yet which I have totally forgotten about.
And here’s the cover of The Outer Limits in non 3D style (which I haven’t see before)
SOUNDTRACK: DAVID LYNCH-“Crazy Clown Time” (2012).
It’s hard for me to divorce this song from the video, because the video is so…David Lynch. Even though it pictures the lyrics literally, there’s so many weird little Lynchisms that it’s an art unto itself. Imagine David Lynch directing a rocking music video, but of a song he wrote. Wow. But I’m not going to talk about the video.
Musically, his song is a fairly simple construction–it’s primarily drums with some echoing guitars (with no real melody) and other crazy noises. Over the rhythmic cacophony, we get David Lynch’s bizarre falsetto/spoken words. Lyrically the song seems to be describing a party that gets pretty out of hand (and the video certainly shows that).
Lyrics include: Paulie he had a red shirt; Suzy, she ripped her shirt off completely; Petey set his hair on fire. And then the chorus: It was crazy clown time. It was real fun.
Lynch’s voice sounds like an excited child (or demonic clown) as he talks about certain details of this party. This is definitely a song that people will ask you “what are you listening to?” There’s very few who will want to listen to this, although I’ve found that after three listens, it makes a kind of twisted sense.
If you dare, watch the NSFW video
[READ: September 10, 2013] Animal Instincts
I very rarely talk about reviews of TV shows–that’s a slipper slope if ever there was. But I like Lorrie Moore and I like Jane Campion and I hadn’t heard about Campion’s show called Top of the Lake Moore suggests is the best show on TV. It aired on the Sundance Channel but was originally a BBC production. Like Campions’ other works, it is set in New Zealand and the location and cinematography are part Deliverance, Road Warrior, Winter’s Bone and Hobbit.
The show sound very dark, but as soon as Moore started describing it I couldn’t help but think of Twin Peaks. And indeed, there is a David Lynch nod within the show (girls say they are reading Blue Velvet for their book club). (more…)
Since I mentioned “Artificial Light” the other day, I thought I’d link to it today.
The song opens with a pretty guitar melody punctuated by horns. The singer’s vocal style is dramatic and often unexpected–especially the way he gets louder mid sentence and then drops to a whisper at other times (reminds me a bit of Wolf Parade or perhaps even Modest Mouse).
There are very pretty moments in the song (especially when the orchestration fills in). But the horns also give it a kind of Spanish feel, which rides on top of the heavier guitars in the verses.
At about two and a half minutes, the song drops out completely. It is picked up by some gentle guitar and horns as it builds back up. By the end the chorus of voices builds the song to new heights and widths.
It’s interesting what you can do with so many band members in five and a half minutes. This song really runs a breadth of ideas but remains quite pretty throughout.
[READ: September 12, 2013] “The Colonel’s Daughter”
The Kids in the Hall once made a sketch in which there was no beginning or ending, just a middle.
In the sketch, a man in a tutu slaps a man in a scuba diving suit saying. “Stop it. stop it. I’ve got to stop you and your revolutionaries from taking over this country.”
This story is like the inverse of that sketch. It has a beginning and an end but no middle. Interestingly, since it is also about revolutionaries taking over a country, I now just insert that sketch into the story (I’m sure that makes Coover very happy. I wonder if anyone else mentions this sketch in the review of this story).
I have mixed feeling about Coover’s work in general. It often feels more style over substance. And I fear that this one may have been playing with that somewhat. Interestingly as well, there is a lot of substance, but it is played in such as way as to make it almost seem meaningless—unless you are willing to really unpack it (which I wasn’t).
So, the Colonel is intent on overthrowing the President (the country is unnamed). He has chosen the group of men sitting in the room with him. Some of them know each other but not all do. They look around and size each other up. Indeed, 5/6 of the story is the men sizing each other up. To me, the men are interchangeable. I don’t know if that is lazy reading on my part or if it is indeed on purpose.
Each man gets a brief biography—the Deputy Minister, the Police Chief, the biplane pilot, the business man, the professor, the doctor and possibly someone else.
We learn a little about each man and why the Colonel would have chosen him. We learn about his fears about the mission and who he mistrusts the most. We also learn that one of the men is a double agent, working for the President. Like a game of Clue, pieces of information are given that would let you know who the man is, but again, I didn’t feel like doing the work to figure it out. I am curious to know if you can tell who it is from the story, but not curious enough to do the work (so I should not be rewarded). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live Bait 04 (2011). 
This Live Bait free sampler is compiled of songs from some of their summer tours (all songs are from June-August). And it’s a fun collection of mostly long jams.
I Just Read About That... 