SOUNDTRACK: DEFIANCE OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC SEA ANIMALS-“Untitled” (2013).
It’s hard to review a band that you only saw once. It’s also surprising that said band, which appeared on Portlandia has virtually no web presence–not a video to be found!
In a previous episode, two parents at Shooting Star Preschool are distraught that the music in their children’s classroom includes the likes of Mike + The Mechanics (a gateway band) and are “getting very stressed out that the head of our school does not know about Neu!” (and doesn’t know that there’s Clash songs before “Rock the Casbah”). The parents stand up for indie rock: “Who’s to say a kid can’t appreciate a guitar solo in a Dinosaur Jr. song?” And then Modest Mouse’s Issac Brock brings in a crate of LPs (from the likes of Talk Talk and Temple of the Dog) and is more or less drummed out.
Well in the continuation of this skit, the four parents decide to form a band. It is atonal and noisy and utterly devoid of melody and at one point Carrie Brownstein screams out “Everyone leaves me!” (all of this to a room full of stunned children). I would love to get a link to the video, but there are none as of yet (nor of the amazing Squiggleman who headline the concert).
But just remember, kids prefer repetition like Philip Glass rather than Top 40 pop.
[READ: February 3, 2013] “Dear Mountain Room Parents”
Sarah and I have just finished a book by Maria Semple called Where’d You Go Bernadette. Semple’s bio said that she had written for the New Yorker (and Arrested Development which is all the cred I need). Interestingly she has only written one thing for the New Yorker (but it still counts) and it’s this Shouts and Murmurs piece (which I read and enjoyed when it came out).
In light of Bernadette, it seems like perhaps Semple has had some hands-on experiences with private school buffoonery. In this story the teacher of The Mountain Room sends an email to the parents about their upcoming Day of the Dead celebration. Immediately she has to reply that there’s nothing wrong with Halloween and that the parents signed up “for Little Learners because of our emphasis on global awareness.” But of course, it doesn’t get any better for her. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SCRUBS-“Everything Comes Down to Poo” (2007).
In season 7 of Scrubs, they created a musical episode (trendy yes, but pretty much always funny) called “My Musical.” One of the highlights was the song “Everything Comes Down to Poo” in which Turk and JD sing to a patient that they need a stool sample. The song is full of a ton of different terms for poo and where it comes out (and it’s all rated PG).
It’s very funny and quite clever, given the subject. Who doesn’t love seeing a chorus of doctors and nurses high kicking down a hospital corridor singing “Everything comes down to poo.”
Enjoy:
[READ: January 30, 2013] The Giggler Treatment
Who knew that Roddy Doyle, humorist of Barrytown and very serious chronicler of women’s pain would write an outrageously silly children’s book about dog poo? I don’t know what prompted him to write this book (he has written several children’s books since), but he manages the chapter book format with aplomb and a slight (hilarious) disrespect for the genre.
So The Giggler Treatment is structured in a manner not unlike Nicholson Baker’s early novels in that pretty much all of the action takes place over the span of about a minute. Mister Mack is about to step in a huge pile of dog poo. And the story flashes around to different pieces of information as we watch with bated breath for his shoe to inch its way closer to fate.
Mister Mack is a decent bloke, a good father, a hardworking biscuit taster (a different biscuit every day from the factory where he works). [Incidentally, I assume that these details are extra for the American edition, but Doyle includes a warning that explains that biscuits are what they call cookies in Ireland. There’s also a hilarious glossary which translate rudies, bums, knickers and other things for young U.S readers.] Mister Mack is on his way to work, but is distracted by a talking seagull (who hates fish) and while his head is turned his foot is headed right Rover’s poo. (more…)
For a band named Fucked Up, they make music that is surprisingly catchy. Of course, as befits their name, they also have a pretty aggressive punk sound with lots of drums and loud guitars. But many of the guitar lines and choruses are surprisingly melodic. And then comes singer Pink Eyes. He screams in a gravelly, rough, cookie-monster type voice (although he is mixed lowish in the mix so he doesn’t often overpower the music). Despite the fact that most of the words are indecipherable, he also have a good sense of melody.
So how does a band that plays distorted hardcore punk with a barely comprehensible singer decide to make a 78 minute concept album? Beats me. But guitarist 10,000 Marbles has written a pretty solid collection of songs. Of course, it also beats me exactly what the concept is. According to allmusic the plot is: In the fictional town of Byrdesdale Spa UK, David has a humdrum life working at a light bulb factory, and finds an escape by falling in love with a communist rebel rouser, only to find out later that she has died in a terrorist bombing and that he has a lot of emotional turmoil to face.
I’ve listened to the disc a dozen or so times and never got that plot. I even followed along with the lyric sheet and never got that plot. Part of the reason may be that Pink Eyes sings all of the parts in the same way, so it’s really hard to notice that there are different characters (like Veronica) in the story. While it is fascinating to hear a really catchy choruses sung by someone who is kind of scary, it doesn’t do a lot for the story. The other odd thing is when Mustard Gas provides female backing vocals–they are sweet and pretty–a drastic counterpoint to the noise that Pink Eyes makes. But she only comes in on a few songs. I wish she did more.
There are some really great songs on this disc. Song two, “Queen of Hearts” has some incredibly catchy sections. And the “dying on the inside” harmony in “The Other Shoe” compliments the grizzly “It can’t be comfortable when you know the whole thing is about to fall” very nicely. The b vox are also great in “Turn the Season.” I find myself singing the “Hello my name is David, your name is Veronica. Let’s be together. Let’s fall in love” section over and over. It’s surprisingly sweet when sung by such a voice.
Since this is a concept album (or rock opera I suppose), there’s things like the nearly two-minute instrumental intro to “Remember My Name” which doesn’t fit with the rest of the song but is really catchy. There’s also a kind of introductory “theme” that crops up in the album. Fucked Up confound you at ever turn with beautiful melodies that morph into noisy punk.
By the middle of the disc (where I gather David is a low point), there’s some really loud heavy songs. Amid the pummeling noise, there’s some nice acoustic guitar in “A Slanted Tone” and some very cool rumbling drums and bass that propel “Serve Me Right.” These songs help to break up the flow nicely. “Life in Paper” which is near the half way point opens with the same staccato notes as the disc itself, and it proves to be a very catchy song in which David asks “Who can I trust?”
The second half of the disc continues with the more catchy style with “Ship of Fools.” But as the story nears the end, it starts to feel very samey. There’s a few breaks, but it’s a hard row to hoe. There is redemption in the end, but you still feel exhausted. Perhaps 78 minutes of Fucked Up is too much. For some listeners even 5 minutes will be too much. Despite the accolades (and they received a lot), you won’t be hearing this one the radio (and not because the DJs couldn’t say their name).
And yet amid all of the noise, there are some really shiny gems. They have even released four music videos for the album! The first one, “Queen of Hearts” is especially cool as the video is set in a classroom and the kids sing all the parts (after a nearly two-minute spoken intro of the song. I admit to not having any idea what’s actually happening in the video, but it’s still cool.
[READ: January 26, 2013] An Extraordinary Theory of Objects
This is a strange little book. It was another one that I saw while waiting online at the library. I was attracted to the cover (I know, don’t judge… but honestly, you can tell a little bit about a book by the way it is marketed. And this was marketed at me.) It’s a small book with a stark cover and interesting drawings on it. And then there’s the unusual title.
The book was only 180 pages (plus notes and a bibliography) and it was chock full of pictures. I mean, this thing can be polished off in an afternoon.
And here’s what it’s about. Well, let me modify that. Here’s what’s in the book. Stephanie is a young girl when her family moves to France (for her father’s work). She has always felt like an outsider and now feels even more so in France. She is introverted and spends a lot of her time in books. Then she moves back to America and reflects on her childhood.
Yeah, that’s about it. For here’s the thing, Lacava isn’t famous and she hasn’t done anything that you might have heard of. She’s just a person who went to France as a kid. The introduction kind of gives you some reason as to why you should read the book. Lacava was a sad and miserable child and she took refuge in objects–not as a collector so much as an admirer. On her windowsill she has collected various geegaws that she treasured (and which she brought from America in her carry on, they were so precious). And she has this interesting relationship with objects. Although, as with many things in the book, that relationship is not really delved into very much. (more…)
This single comes from the first Ben Folds Five album in over a decade. I have been listening to the album recently and I can’t get over how much I love this single (which has long come and gone and made nary a dent on any chart). When I first watched this video a few months ago, I was so busy watching it (with the gang from Fraggle Rock and other guests) that I didn’t really digest the song. But man, it’s got everything, and I’m sad that it didn’t barnstorm the charts.
It’s one of Ben’s loud songs–where he bangs on the piano (a lot) and it’s got that awesome distorted bass that is so Ben Folds Five (the solo at around 4 minutes is great!–I mean, it’s no John Entwistle but it’s still great). And to hear Ben get really excited singing “Okaaaaaaay” by the third time around is infectious.
I don’t really understand why Fraggle Rock are in the video. It’s cute though (and Ben and the guests do a quick cover of the Fraggle Rock theme at the end). I imagine that having Fraggle Rock in your video might just limit its appeal to a young hip crowd, as well. But whatever, the song is fantastic.
[READ: January 20, 2013] “Shirley Temple Three”
I tried to imagine what this title would mean–what could this possibly be about? My logical conclusion was that it had something to do with an indie rock band. Well, the accompanying drawing is off a small elephant-like creature. And, indeed, the story is about a miniature mammoth named Shirley Temple III.
Here’s the thing though. The story is ultimately about a relationship between a mother and her son. The son is a distant, jerky guy who doesn’t show up to a family wedding and who makes his living on an Atlanta-based reality show. The mother is a forgiving and loving woman who is God-fearing and hoping for the best for her boy–despite the choices he makes.
And yet, there’s the whole mammoth thing. The reality show that the son is the host of is a show that brings extinct animals back to life. There’s no science given to it but they usually resurrect two of the creatures (for TV) and destroy one of them…keeping the other in their extinction zoo. Totally weird premise, right? But again the story is more about the family than science fiction or even reality TV.
The plot transpires that the technician who created the mammoth couldn’t euthanize the second one, so the son brought it to his mother’s house (several states away) to avoid suspicion since what they are doing is against the law. She asks her to watch it for him until the heat is off. It’s a dwarf mammoth (no idea if such a thing existed) so it’s not going to get big. Then he goes away for a couple of months. She keeps it in the pen that used to house their dog Shirley Temple.
SOUNDTRACK: THE BOARD OF EDUCATION-“Why is Dad So Mad?” (2012).
I heard this song on Kids Corner and I am frankly shocked that it didn’t make the top ten songs of the year (kids have no taste). Why is dad so mad? Because of what George Lucas has done to the Star Wars movies! “Why does dad get so mad about Star Wars. Mr Lucas what have you done?”
The lyrics are so good I didn’t even really notice the music at first (check out: “and I wonder why it’s so bad that Greedo shoots first at Han.” “He’s always excited when those yellow words come on, but by the end he’s mad about that new Ewok song.”
But the music is great too. It has a kind of Ben Folds vibe (in the slow piano section) mixed with a little Ralph’s World, but the whole package is a wee bit heavier–the guitars are a little distorted (but not very) and the pace is brisk and fun.
The song is also full of cool spacey sound effects (and a nice nod to the soundtrack). The chorus is catchy and poppy. A wonderful song. I’m going to investigate The Board of Education a bit more. In the meantime, check out Why is Dad So Mad?.
[READ: January 19, 2013] Cigars of the Pharoah
This second (technically fourth) Tintin book was a lot more focused than In America, which, although excellent, tended to ramble all over the country.
This book sees Tintin in the Mediterranean Sea on a cruise. The action starts right away when a bumbling man named Dr Sarcophagus, an Egyptologist, crashes into Tintin saying that he lost his valuable papyrus. The papyrus blows out to sea, but the Dr says, that indeed it wasn’t the valuable papyrus at all, which is safely in his coat. It’s a weird moment, but we slowly learn that the Dr is more than a little absent minded. Nevertheless, the papyrus has a map on it that he believes will lead to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh (nice joke there).
I said that the last Tintin book wasn’t quite for kids and the same is true here. Two men, Thompson and Thompson (more on them) accuse Tintin of smuggling opium and cocaine (again, did kids read this in the 30s?). Thompson and Thompson are funny in that they look alike and when one says something the other twists the words slightly to radically alter their meaning while using most of the same words. Anyhow, they “arrest” Tintin, but as in America, he escapes in an unlikely way and meets up with Dr Sarcophagus.
Tintin, Snowy and Sr Sarcophagus escape some violent deaths in a number of funny ways (like when the sheik who hates Westerners recognizes Tintin from his adventures (he even has a book–although in this later edition it is actually a book that came out after this one.
In another scene, Tintin rescues a woman who is being beaten, only to find out that he is actually on a film set. Later, he winds up on a ship of smugglers, is forced to enlist in the Arabian army and is eventually made to face a firing squad. (more…)
For the first Captain Underpants book I used “The Puking Song” as a soundtrack. Turns out that would have been better suited for this book as the are a lot of puking toilets in this story.
Captain Bogg & Salty scored the number 4 slot in this year’s WXPN/Kid’s Corner vote for best song of the year. I’m always confused when a song makes their Ton Ten list and I had never heard it (we listen a lot, but not all the time; however there are some songs that we hear constantly .
The song is thirteen years old and comes from their debut album. But before I get into the song I need to copy this line from Wikipedia: Captain Bogg and Salty is a pirate-themed rock band from Portland, Oregon, and a representative member of the subgenre of pirate rock.
Subgenre of pirate rock. I love it.
So “Scurvy” is a fast-paced shanty with the sensible lyrical precaution: “when there is scurvy on your pirate ship…eat a lime. EAT A LIME!” What else is on the pirate ship? Cannonballs, peglegs, rum and er…rabbits? This song is fun and rocking and very silly. I really hope to hear it on the radio some night.
So the band performs for both children and adults. And, amusingly they perform the same songs (in full costume) for both audiences
Turns out members of this band also write music for Jake and the Never Land Pirates, which my daughter loves. A nice circle. Now I’m off to uncover this pirate rock subgenre.
[READ: January 22, 2013] The Adventures of Captain Underpants
I enjoyed the first Captain Underpants book and Clark has been digesting them very quickly. So I thought I’d check out the sequel. And it does not disappoint.
The book opens with a recap of the first book, in hilarious comic book form (drawn by the kids). The short book ends with the warning from George and Harold (who deny responsibility) not to snap your fingers around Principal Krupp because it will make him turn back into Captain Underpants (which was in the instructions for the HypnoRing that they discarded).
But before we even see the Captain, we see George and Harold in school. They are very excited to read that the upcoming Invention Convention features a grand prize of being Principal for a Day. They immediately decide to win it. Then we get a flashback to last year’s convention where not only did they not wind, they put glue on everyone’s seat and got in huge trouble. But this year, Krupp is ready for them and has not only banned then from submitting, he has banned them from even attending.
This doesn’t stop them of course, in fact, it just makes them sneak into the auditorium the night before to play tricks on everyone’s projects. I have great respect for Pilkey for a) the crazy inventions he has the kids make and b) the clever way he pranks them. But before they can do any damage they see that Melvin Sneedly has created the PATSY 2000 from a photocopier. The boys mock the name until he explains that it’s an acronym for Photo-Atomic Trans-Somgobulating Yectofantriplutoniczanziptomiser. Which is an absurd way of saying that it photocopies pictures and makes them come to life. (more…)
It’s no secret that Gilmore Girls was one of my favorite shows. It was well-written and funny, often sweet but sometimes not and with a liberal dose of quirk. The show was Amy Sherman-Palladino’s baby and over the seven years it developed an awesome cast and was easily one of the most consistently enjoyable shows on TV.
But all good things must come to an end–and as in the case of Gilmore, often times it must come to an end before its natural arc has finished. This led to a rather forced and frankly unsatisfying conclusion to the show.
But ASP is back on TV on, of all places, ABC Family (which has some astonishingly mature shows for a “family” network). Her new show (which began last year) is called Bunheads. It’s a terrible name for a TV show. Even if it is an actual slang term used for ballet dancers (which the show features), it’s still a terrible, unappealing name. There’s also the opening credits–also terrible. The Gilmore credits were fun–a new version of Carole King’s “If You Lead” playing behind scenes from the show. The Bunheads opening is a black and white scene of ballet dancers (again, it’s what the show is about, but blah), with a color ribbon swirling around them until it lands on Sutton Foster, the lead actress, who explodes in a frame of color looking a little stunned.
Neither of these two things (title and credit sequence) should impact your decision to watch the show, which is delightful–heartfelt, funny and with a healthy dose of quirk. And like Gilmore, the show is very women-centric, rather a rarity on TV. I feel it’s very subtly done as well–in this case, the show is about ballet dancers who are predominantly girls, so it makes sense. And since ASP writes mother-daughter situations very well, it’s also a natural fit.
So yes, the show feels a lot like Gilmore Girls. The amazing Kelly Bishop is back as the matriarch (she’s much the same character although she is a bit more fun in Bunheads). Sutton Foster plays her daughter in law. Foster looks so much lie Lauren Graham that she may as well be her. What’s cool here and what makes it not just Gilmore redux is that the dynamic is not mother-daughter-daughter, it’s widowed mother-in-law–daughter-in-law–four teenagers so while the roles are almost the same, ASP is not simply rewriting what has happened before. As for the young characters, we have four teenagers–the bunheads. From the get go they formed a believable foursome–sometimes annoying, and over the top, but never unreal. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: iMOGEN HEAP-Speak for Yourself (2005).
I really liked Heap’s first album i Megaphone, but I didn’t really think to much about her after that. Sometime last year I heard a track she was in with Frou Frou, which I liked. So I thought I’d get this album which was highly regarded.
The problem with it is that I have listened to it a bunch of times, often several times in a row and it really just never sticks with me. I keep relistening to see if it ever does but it’s just a kind of nebulous dancey pop. Heap has an interesting voice–she can hit major highs, but she can also do a raspy voice that is unusual and intriguing. But I suppose the problem is that there’s so much going on that she is effectively lost in the sound.
The standout track is “Hide and Seek” but that’s because her voice is manipulated by a vocoder, making her sound like a machine. It’s a very cool effect, especially when she hits a very high note, but it can’t really be a good sign that the most memorable track on the album is the one where you sound like a machine.
This is not to say that the album is bad–there are a number of interesting moments on it, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of great songs. When I was looking this disc up to see other comments about it, I see that it was very highly regarded in the dance genre. And maybe given those parameters I should revise somewhat as well. As dance music this is more interesting than your average four on the floor stuff. I can see how it led to the duet of Frou Frou. And yet, compared to i Megaphone, I fear that it’s a lot less exciting.
[READ: January 12, 2013] The Dangerous Animals Club
I don’t often read autobiographies or memoirs. I really never even look for them. But I was waiting online at the library and this book jumped out at me. I don’t really know why. The title is kind of interesting and catchy. And the author’s named seemed, if not familiar, then at least compelling in a very-long-and-Polish-or-Russian way. So I started flipping through it. And it sounded interesting.
But who the hell is Stephen Tobolowsky? Well, if you have seen just about any movie or TV show, you have seen him. He has been in a ton of things. He was in GroundhogDay, he was in Heroes, he is in Glee, he was in The Mindy Project briefly. Community? yup. The New Adventures of Old Christine? you bet. Deadwood for a lot of the show. That 70’s Show for one episode. He was in the unaired pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was even in a 1976 movie called Keep My Grave Open!
SOUNDTRACK: PAT JORDACHE-“Radio Generation”/”Radar” [CST074] (2010).
“Radio Generation” appeared on Jordache’s album Future Songs in 2011. This 7″ single has an otherwise unreleased B-side called “Radar” as well.
I think of “Radio Generation” as an unusual “single from the album because, as I wrote of the CD: It opens with “Radio Generation,” which has a really cool bouncy guitar riff and bassline. It doesn’t quite display the signature sound that I think of this album as having but it certainly points to it.
“Radar” has even less of the Future Songs feel. It is very sparse, with guitars that sound almost like a Western. The vocals are slow and drawn out and then the spoken word section begins–continuing the meandering nature of the song. The melody is pretty, but this is justifiably a B-side.
[READ: January 7, 2012] “Why I Live at the P.O.”
I read about this story in the D.T. Max David Foster Wallace biography. I’d never read anything by Welty before, and I have no idea if this story is representative of her work.
There’s not a lot of plot to the story, which is probably why it is so successful. Welty constructs a very funny home scenario (one that I actually had a hard time understanding at first because the names of the characters are rather odd–although perhaps not odd to Southerners?) I had to read the first sentence a few times before I could really parse it. It’s not complicated but the names and the dialect are…odd.
I WAS GETTING ALONG FINE with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again. Mr. Whitaker!
The narrator is Sister, the older and much aggrieved sister of Stella-Rondo. As the opening says, Stella-Rondo has moved back home. And she has arrived with a baby (which she swears is not hers). Sister is put out by the intrusion because she says that Stella-Rondo has always gotten everything she wanted (unlike Sister). We have no direct proof of that although, if Sister’s telling of this story is to be believed, Stella-Rondo is a major instigator trying to get Sister in trouble as soon as she returns. Of course, Sister also tries to get Stella-Rondo in trouble, but her parents don’t seems swayed by her complaints. (more…)
[WATCHED: November-December 2012] Sherlock & Elementary
This has been the year of Sherlock Holmes for us. We loved the first Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes movie. Sarah loved the second one (I fell asleep, but I don’t blame the film). And then U.S. TV began airing Elementary this year. It’s a contemporary version of Sherlock Holmes in which Watson is played by Lucy Liu–she is his “sober companion” trying to keep him off drugs and alcohol. I kind of like this conceit–it’s a fun twist on Watson, and yet it loses some of the interplay that is fabulous between Watson and Holmes, especially since Holmes (played by Johnny Lee Miller) seems to be trying to get away from Watson. Nonetheless, the show is quite enjoyable and is quintessentially Holmesian.
A back story note: Sarah and I do not like police procedurals. We don’t watch anything with any of the initials: SVUL&ONCISCSIER5-o, none of it. Even if t he show is supposed to be awesome, as soon as I hear “police” I refuse to watch it. And yet here we are hooked on Holmes. So what is it about these shows? Well, they focus on little clues (impossible clues, frankly). They rely on being really smart. And, this may be the key, they don’t rely on guns, police, judges, or any other tropes of police shows. They’re like puzzles…puzzles that you don’t mind not being able to figure out yourself because Holmes is so damned smart. I guess these are technically mysteries rather than cop shows, and that’s pretty cool. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: DEFIANCE OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC SEA ANIMALS-“Untitled” (2013).
It’s hard to review a band that you only saw once. It’s also surprising that said band, which appeared on Portlandia has virtually no web presence–not a video to be found!
I Just Read About That... 