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Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Barenaked Ladies (Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 18, 2016)

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Howard Jones, Humus, Led Zeppelin, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Star Wars, The Big Bang Theory, Violent Femmes, Zahav on June 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2016] Barenaked Ladies

2016-06-18 22.36.35Why have we seen Barenaked Ladies so many times?  Because they unerringly put on a super fun show.  Whether it is headlining their summer extravaganzas or even playing at our lowly Balloon Festival [*I was taken to task for calling this festival lowly, please see the end of the post for an update], their sets are fun and they always give their all.

Their set seemed really short this time–although it was the same number of songs as previous summer sets.  Sometimes it feels like they are stuck playing the same songs a lot.  They absolutely have to play a few songs–“$1,000,000,” “Brian Wilson,” “Big Bang Theory” and of course “One Week” and at least one or two new ones.  And yet they do a good job of pulling out some unexpected songs.

And they really mixed up the stage show this year.  In the past, they have started big and ended with some acoustic songs.  But this year they started with a small acoustic set. (more…)

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S.T.O.P. [Students Tackling Ordinary Problems] (Somerville High School, Somerville, NJ, May 23, 2016)

Posted in Acting, Angst, Apologies, Babies, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Feminism, Food, Gender, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Pregnancy, Regrets, Revenge, Set at School, Sex, Sexism, Sexting, Somerville High School, Somerville, NJ, Theater, Transgender, Violence, Virginity (Loss of) on May 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 23, 2016] S.T.O.P.

stopIf you have a teen or pre-teen and you are concerned about how they will deal with bullying, sex, body issues or, heaven forbid, heroin, this performance is a must-see both for your child and you.  The performers are all high school students.  They wrote the pieces and they are intended for high school students (and middle school).  If you can’t see them yourself, contact your school or community group to arrange for them to do their show.  It is intense and really effective.

When the fifth grade completed the D.A.R.E. program at school, the ceremony included a piece by this group.  The piece was called “Jack & Jill” and it told the story of how an underage party led to the death of two teens.  There were a couple of moments of humor, but the message was intense and the acting was really good (they “rewound” the story and the actors did a great job of going backwards–including one boy who “fell up” the couch (he fell off it earlier).

After they were done, they said that the troupe would be doing their full hour-long show in May and that was open to anyone in 5th grade and older.  I was amazed that Clark wanted to go as it’s not really his thing.  And so we went.  He was bummed that only a couple of kids he knew showed up.  I was bummed at how few people showed up at all.   And so I wanted to post about the show to get the group some recognition because what they did was really powerful and I think should be seen by just about everyone.

When we arrived, the teacher in charge of the group Miranda DeStefano-Meene told us that the show would be uncensored and pretty intense.  The program says that the words on stage “may embarrass, hurt, offend, scare and anger you.  That is intentional.”  The second paragraph spoke of the heroin epidemic in our society which is bigger than any other drug epidemic in recorded history, which I did not know.

And so we sat back and watched this show.  Now, I happen to think that Clark may not have been exposed to a lot of what was going on in this play (which I’m grateful for).  So this show may have been really intense for him (I know I spent the whole show wondering what he thought).  After the show the only thing he said was that it made hm sad.  And we did talk a little about the messages, but he’s a tight-lipped kid, so I can only hope he’ll come back to me with more questions if they arise.

And what questions he must have.  For this show tackled so many problems facing teens.  (more…)

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Karl Ove Knausgaard [Knausgård]–My Struggle: Book Five [Some Rain Must Fall] (2010) [translated 2015] (total pages for books 1-5: 2493 [British edition 2320])

Posted in 808 State, Agnar Mykle, Alle Vaerste!, Anne Bøe, Arid Nyquist, Barry Gifford, Big Books, Bildungsroman, Biography, Bjork, Books about writers, Bret Easton Ellis, Culture Shock, Dagsavisen, David Sylvian, Don Bartlett, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eldrid Lunden, Ellen Einan, Else Karin Else Karin Bukkøy, Erling Gjerlsvik, Espen Stueland, Finn Øglœnd, Food, Foreign Books, Genesis, Georg Johannesen, Guadalcanal Diary, Hans Herbjørnsrud, Jan Kjærstad, Jay McInerney, Jayne Anne Phillips, Jealousy, Jon Fosse, Julio Cortázar, Kafkatrakterne, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgård, Katarina Frostenson, Kjartan Fløgstad, Klassekampen, Knut Hamsun, Kong Klang, Liv Lundberg, M. Ageyev, Merete Morken Andersen, Michael Strunge, Neneh Cherry, Ole Robert Sunde, Paal-Helge Haugen, Parenting, Paul Auster, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Prefab Sprout, Raga Rockers, Ragnar Hovland, Rush, Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Sex, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Steinar Løding, Stig Larsson, Stig Sæterbakken, Studvest, Svein Jarvoll, Sverre Knudsen, Terje Dragseth, The Alarm, The Cramps, The Golden Palominos, The Sugarcubes, The Waterboys, Thomas Mann, Tor Ulven, Tore Renberg, Tortoise, Translation, Unlikable main character, Vinduet, Vreid, Yuck! on May 9, 2016| 2 Comments »

  karlove5SOUNDTRACK: RAGA ROCKERS-“Slakt” [“Slaughter”] (1988), “Hun er Fri” [“She is Free”] (1988) and “Noen å hate” [“Someone to hate”] (1990).

ragaKarl Ove mentions many bands in his books.  Raga Rockers appeared twice in this one.  I can’t find a ton about them online, because they never really made it beyond Norway, but the Google translated version of their website says:

Raga Rockers is an ingenious rock ‘n roll band that has existed since 1982.

Today the band consists of: Michael Krohn (vocals, lyrics), Hugo Alvar Stein (keyboards / guitar), Eivind Staxrud (guitar), Arne Sæther (keys), Livio Aiello (bass) and Jan Kristiansen (drums).

The band came out of the punk community in the early eighties, but became such a “poppy” large parts of the Norwegian people have founded acquaintance with them.  Songs like “She is free” and “Someone to hate” is almost singalong classics! Their greatest triumph came perhaps in 1999 when they played for thousands of ecstatic Norwegians at the yellow stage at Roskilde Festival. (Reviews of the show by Dagbladet (which Karl Ove wrote for) and Dagsavisen–both are in English.

Despite their punk roots and the rather violent song titles, the songs are almost poppy–heavy guitars but simple chords and a singer who doesn’t sound angry at all.  In fact, if I didn’t read about their punk roots, I’d swear these songs are kinda goofy.

“Slakt” is a simple song, opening with a 4/4 drum and splashes of guitar.  The middle is a bluesy riff with a chorus of “ah ha ha”  The lead singer’s voice is mostly kind of deep–not quite what I expected from the heavy guitars.

“Hun Er Fri” is quite different from the others songs.  It’s only 90 seconds long and features a piano.  The chords are still simple the piano may be playing single notes in fact).  The lyrics are pretty much nonstop and kind of fast.  It seems like a silly pop trifle and I can see why it’s popular among their fans.  The first time I listened to it, I was surprised it ended when it did.  This bootleg live version is certainly fun.

rocknrollThese two songs came from their 1988 album Forbudte følelser [Prohibited feelings]

“Noen å hate” has a bit more of a metal sound, but is essentially the same kind of heavy rock with simple chord progressions.  There’s a good solo at the end.  A black metal band called Vreid has done a cover of this song (which really only sounds different because the Vreid singer is more growly).

This song comes from their 1990 album Rock n’ Roll Party.

And yes, they are still around.  They took a hiatus in the 2000s but came back with three albums 2007’s Übermensch, 2010’s Shit Happens and 2013’s Faktor X.

[READ: May 1, 2016] My Struggle Book Five

karlove 5ukI realized as I read this fifth book that I should have been keeping a vague sense of the timeline of these books.  Specifically, because he opens this book with this: “The fourteen years I lived in Bergen from 1988 to 2002 are long gone.”  So if he was born in 1968, this book covers roughly ages 19-33.

So my general outline for the other volumes:
Book Five: 1988-2002 (19-33)
Book Four: 1987 (18)
Book Three: 1968-1981  (1-13)
Book Two: 2008 (40) (with flashbacks to meeting his second wife in 2003 or so)
Book One: 2008 (40) (with flashbacks to his father’s death in 1998 or so)

What era could Book Six possibly be about?

We’ll find out next year in what is said to be the 1,200 page final volume.

So as I mentioned above, Karl Ove talks about the fourteen years he lived in Bergen.  And it made me laugh that he says:

The fourteen years I lived in Bergen, from 1988 to 2002, are long gone, no traces of them are left, other than as incidents a few people might remember, a flash of recollection here, a flash of recollection there, and of course whatever exists in my own memory of that time.  But there is surprisingly little.

And then he proceeds to write 600+ pages about that time. (more…)

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Gabriel Kahane–“Learning to Look at L.A.” (New Yorker, June 10, 2014)

Posted in Cigarettes, David Byrne, Die Hard, Essays, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gabriel Kahane, Gabriel Kahane, Hamburgers, New Yorker, Patti Smith, Punch Brothers, Reyner Banham, Shake Shack, Tiny Desk Concert on May 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

june10SOUNDTRACK: GABRIEL KAHANE-Tiny Desk Concert #178 (November 26, 2011).

kahaneWhen I saw Kahane a few months ago, he looked very different from the fellow here.  (More hair and a beard will do that).

I found Kahane’s music to be really enjoyable even if it was never really that catchy.  His songs are complex and thought-inducing, with many layers.  Although I found that after listening to his songs a number of times, I could really find the hooks in there.

His voice has a kind of soft quality to it–not quiet, but very much not harsh, which allows his enunciations to be heard quite easily.

For “Charming Disease,” Kahane plays keyboards.  He’s accompanied by strings and a guitar (I love the coloration of the guitar).  Since he also writes classical music, his pop songs have a distinctly classical feel (even without the string quartet to back him up). So the piano lines that he plays are simple chords, they are full lines.  And there are times when the guitar plays beautiful counterpoint to his chords.  This song is about an alcoholic (“I took you home and took away your keys”), but you’d never know the darkness of the lyrics from the melody which is bright and cheerful.  I love the middle section of the song–the chord progressions during the “Wine Dark Sea” are, in my mind anyway, very Kahane, and they’re what I love about his music.

For “Where Are the Arms” he switches to acoustic guitar.  You know the song isn’t going to be simple when he counts of “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6”  I love that he plays a continuing picked section while the guitar and strings play chords behind him, really fleshing out the song.

As they prepare for the final song, one of the violinists knocks over her music stand and he jokes, how did you fit an 11 piece band back her but we can’t get a string quartet.  Someone shouts that it’s the strings–the bows.  Kahane says, yes, “One string is two humans–ego and otherwise.”  To groans from the band.

For “Last Dance” I love that he sings his vocal melody along with the guitar melody (something Frank Zappa used to do–it’s complex and interesting).   And while there is certainly a melody there, he really complicates it with all of the single notes.  The strings come in and the song modifies somewhat until his voice seems to resume the complex singing style.  But then in the middle of the song (“she begins to sing”) it switches to a very catchy section with a refrain of “sex and cigarettes.”  It’s the most immediate thing in the show and shows how poppy Kahane can be.  even if the ending is quite abrupt.

He really deserves repeated and close listening.

[READ: February 5, 2016] “Learning to Look at L.A.”

I know Gabriel Kahane from when he opened for Punch Brothers this past summer.  I really enjoyed his set and found his album charming and eccentric but very literary.

Turns out that at the time of the release of The Ambassador he wrote this piece for the New Yorker as well.  It explores the themes that he delved into for his album, especially architecture in L.A.   He even opens with a discussion of Die Hard.  Like his song “Villains (4616 Dundee Dr.)” which contains the lyric:

I’ve been thinking a lot
About action movies of the 1980’s
Particularly Die Hard,
Which seems to illustrate
So many of the anxieties
Central to a time + place:
Japanese capital
The waning of the cold war
Pride in a downtown
What did they build it for?

He says that his “affection for this film is one hundred-percent unironic.” (more…)

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James Kochalka–The Glorkian Warrior Eats Adventure Pie (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, C., First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, James Kochalka, Other Lives, Outer Space, Pie, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert, Yuck! on April 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

glorkpieSOUNDTRACK: OTHER LIVES Tiny Desk Concert #150 (August 18, 2011).

otherlivesI didn’t know Other Lives before this Tiny Desk, but I really liked this one a lot.  It’s a little hard to get past the lead singers incredible facial hair, but his voice is great and the backing vcoals are excellent too.  I loved the combination of instruments and, yeah, pretty much every thing else about this set.

I enjoyed that at the beginning of the first song, “For 12,” the drummer is playing his lap.  The female backing vocalist (whose voice is great) is playing the cello.  The chorus–when everyone sings high notes—is wonderful.  And I love that the drums, once they kick in, are predominately floor tom and rims.

After the song and the polite applause the singer comments, “It’s so somber in here, we need a dance party after this.  And a bunch of caffeine.”

For “Old Statues” the cellist switches to autoharp, which makes a wonderful harp-like sound.  Again the backing vocals are lovely.  I love that she does a series off perfect oooohs as a backing note for his singing on the first verse.  There’s also a harmonium on this track (I can’t believe how many bands use the harmonium).    I love the intensity of the middle section too.

It’s amusing to see them use an iPhone tuner before the final song

“Dust Bowl III” has a cool picked guitar riff (reminds me a little of Neil Young).  There’s more harmonium on this track.  The cellist plays the autoharp upright instead of flat for this song—I wonder why.  The rumbling floor toms are great for this song as well.  And when the full band does the haunting ooohs at the end, it’s really great.

I definitely need to check out more by them.

[READ: January 26, 2016] The Glorkian Warrior Eats Adventure Pie

This Glorkian Warrior story is similar to the previous one in that it is pretty crazy.  As it opens, the Glorkian Warrior and his backpack are riding a giant worm.  They are trying to destroy the worm, but while they are riding it, the tail pieces start popping–they are being shot by Buster Glark (who looks like the Glorkian Warrior but has only one eye).  He also a has a talking backpack (who says “they’re stupid, right boss”) to which the Glorkian Warrior’s backpack says “Don’t say stupid, it’s a swear”.

The head of the worm flies off to destroy another pie factory.

When the Glorkian Warrior gets home, baby alien (from the previous book) lands on his head and starts sucking his brains.  Backpack is concerned about this, but Glorkian Warrior says that all of his intelligence comes from his elbow anyhow.  And there is much fighting by the elbow. (more…)

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James Kochalka–The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza (2014)

Posted in #10yearsof01, C., First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, James Kochalka, Nellie McKay, Outer Space, Pizza, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert, Yuck! on April 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

glorkpizza SOUNDTRACK: NELLIE McKAY-Tiny Desk Concert #117 (April 4, 2011).

nellieNellie McKay is a singer I’d never heard of.  She is a blonde woman in a kind of yellow kimono and looks like she might be a funny folk singer as she plays a ukulele which is cut to look like an electric guitar.  But rather unexpectedly, she and her band burst into a reggae song.

McKay is, according to the blurb, an audacious artist who once devoted an entire album to Doris Day songs.  And now she writes a pretty authentic sounding Caribbean jam.  “Caribbean Time” has all the trappings of an island song–reggae guitars, bongos, and heavily wah-wahed guitars.

Between the songs, she makes some unexpected comments.  Like she says that she decided that a good sketch would be people sitting around a table asking for things and confessing at the same time, “Pass the syrup my father beat e as a child.”

When they start “Beneath the Underdog” the guitarist doesn’t start on time.  He says “Sorry, I forgot where we were for a second.”  She replies, “We’re in Washington D.C. fighting the man.”

“Beneath the Underdog” is a little less reggae influenced but still has a very tropical, light sound.  And her lyrics are wry and amusing, “beneath the underdog, that’s where I’m comfortable.”  It’s poppy and fun.  She even plays a keyboard solo with notes that sound kind of like steel drums.

“The Portal” is a ballad.  It’s much more traditional sounding, although with the same inflections that McKay has used on the other songs.  Her voice is quite distinctive without being unusual.  This is a somber song, but even while singing it she looks like she’s about to laugh.

And she caps off the set with an other weird  moment where she introduces her band and mispronounces her guitarists last name and seems to have a really hard time saying it.  She apologizes, “I was stoned when I met him.”  As the camera dims she says, “Thank you for fighting the good fight.  We are the silent majority but not so silent, we’re just quiet and tasteful.”

I found her to be quite engaging and charming.  I wonder if she’s still making music.

[READ: January 17, 2016] The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza

I have enjoyed everything I’ve read from John Kochalka.  His drawings are deceptively simple and his books are stupid but ultimately clever (and funny, either way).  His adult books are pretty over the top vulgar (don’t let your kids see them), but his kids books are very funny and perfectly juvenile.

This is his first book for First Second, and the first in a trilogy about the Glorkian Warrior.

Our copy also has an autograph for C.–our Vermont cousins sent it for his birthday (Kochalka is the artist laureate of Vermont, you know).

The premise of this book is painfully simple.  We meet the Glorkian Warrior who is, well, dumb.  His backpack talks to him and tries to get him to be less dumb.  And to be more heroic. (more…)

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Steven Millhauser-“Late” (Harper’s, October 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Enormodome, Food, Harper's, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Waiting on March 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

octSOUNDTRACK: ENORMODOME-“The Way We Burn” (Tiny Desk Contest Fan Favorite 2016).

enormo Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  Last year, Enormodome made it to the top ten runner ups, but sadly, they did not this year.

However they did make a fan favorite vote and I like the song, so there.  Last year their concept was awesome—they played in the office of the mayor of Flagstaff (where they are based).  This year, they took their desk outside and set it on fire.

Enormodome is just two guys, a guitarist and drummer and they get a big rocking sound out of their tiny set up.  They’ve got a fuzzy guitar and lots of high hats to keep the song from ever sounding spare.  And both guys sing–often in harmony–so the songs stay interesting.

The song is a kind of heavy classic rock—a big catchy riff, and a wonderful chorus.

Beyond the flaming desk, the video is fun to watch–there’s circus performers everywhere and lots and lot so fire!   Which makes sense given the title of the song.

Check it out:

[READ: February 21, 2016] “Late”

I really enjoyed this story.  I thought I’d read a lot more by Millhauser, but I see that I’ve only ever read a few short pieces by him.  Well, after this I’ll have to read more.

Because Valeria is always later, the narrator tells her to arrive at a restaurant an hour earlier than he wants to eat.  He figures, if she’s 35 minutes late for a 6 o’clock dinner, she will actually be 25 minutes early for a 7PM dinner, which is when he wants to eat anyhow.

However, he doesn’t want her to arrive on time and wonder where he is, so he arrives at the restaurant a little before 6 to secure a window table with a view of the front door.

He orders a coffee and tells the waiter that he is awaiting somebody. (more…)

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Tatyana Tolstaya–“Aspice” (New Yorker, January 25, 2016)

Posted in Anya Migdal, Aspic, New Yorker, Short Story, Tatyana Tolstaya, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on March 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1252016SOUNDTRACK: BRUSHY ONE STRING-Tiny Desk Concert #510 (February 27, 2016).

brushyAlthough I don’t know where the “Brushy” part comes from, the “One String” part of Brushy One String’s name comes from the fact that he plays a guitar with one string.  A low E string.

Obviously, then, the songs are pretty simple.  Most of them are just one or two notes.  They are more or less bluesy and the main selling point of his music is his voice.

“Destiny” is the first song. I really like the middle of it where he scats in a cool accented…something.  The song begins as a fairly simple blues riff with Brushy’s vocals.  But when he gets to the chorus, he does some great things with his voice to make it really powerful.

“Chicken in the Corn” is a YouTube sensation with nearly 9 million views.  It’s fast and wild.  This song has a bit more of percussive quality as he keeps a beat on the guitar while playing his one string.  This song also has a cool scat section and multiple single styles.  It’s pretty fun.

“No Man Stop Me” is a slow song.  It’s a spiritual song and it’s way too long.  There’s a lengthy recitation and a lot of repetition, and or a song this much, it’s just too much.

[READ: January 19, 2016] “Aspice”

This is a very short story (one page translated by Anya Migdal) that is all about making Aspic.

The narrator is a woman who dreads making the annual aspic for the holiday dinner. “It’s a special kind of religion, making the aspic.  It’s a yearly sacrifice though we don’t know to whom or for what.  For some reason it must be done.”

And then in first person present she talks about the steps involved. (more…)

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Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert and George O’Connor–Journey into Mohawk Country (2006)

Posted in #10yearsof01, 17th Century, Charles T. Gehring, Clesea Wolfe, Explorers, Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, History, Native Americans, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, Venison, William A. Starna on February 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: mohawk CHELSEA WOLFE-Tiny Desk Concert #507(February 12, 2016).

chelseaI know Chelsea Wolfe from my fiends Liz and Eleanor who are fans of her. I have her album Pain is Beauty, which is atmospheric and gothic and reminds me of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

For this Tiny Desk, she strips away all of the band and noise and plays just her electric guitar (with some major fuzz) and sings (with some looping as necessary). I’m especially intrigued that one of her strings seems to be ever so slightly out of tune, which brings a really interesting tone to her echoed guitar playing.

Her voice is really pretty.  On the record I’d been trying to think who she reminded me of.  I hears Some Siouxsie Sioux, but in this set it’s someone else and I just can’t quite place it.

“Maw” really showcases her voice as she sings a lot of lines that soar, ever so briefly, and her voice sounds really powerful.  There’s a whole goth kind of tone going on with her low guitar and her echoed voice.  I especially like the end of the song where she wordlessly sings as her guitar echoes to a close.

She doesn’t talk between songs.  And immediately she begins “Crazy Love.”  This song has a beautiful melody and great singing but with a  very dark overarching feel.  I saw that her music was described as “doom folk” which certainly makes sense.

I like “Iron Moon” best.  The slow riff in the beginning and the way her voice seems to want to crack but never does, it’s really powerful.  And the way she always sounds great while she hits those big notes.  It’s a great set and a rather unique sound for her.

It’s also nice to hear her talk at the end, just to know that she actually spoke to the people there.

[READ: February 27, 2016] Journey into Mohawk Country

Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert was only twenty-three in 1634 when he ventured into Mohawk territory in search of the answers to a pressing question: where were all the beaver skins that the Indians should have been shipping down the river?  And he wrote a journal of his experience of traveling into the future-New York State in the dead of winter accompanied by the delegates from the Mohawk tribe.

George O’Connor has taken van den Bogaert‘s diary and used it word for word (after being translated by Charles T. Gehring and William A. Starna in 1988) to create a visual representation of this journey.  I know O’Connor mostly because he is the editor of First Second’s Fables and Fairy Tales collections.  I gather he is also an illustrator, although this is my first exposure to him. (more…)

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Seth Price—“Nice Insane” (Harper’s, July 2015)

Posted in Art, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Excerpt, Food, Harper's, Sean Lennon, Seth Price, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Tiny Desk Concert on January 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

july2015 SOUNDTRACK: THE GHOST OF A SABER TOOTH TIGER-Tiny Desk Concert #92 (November 17, 2010).

goastt  The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is a band created by Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl.  I really liked their most recent album so I was pretty interested to hear this much earlier Tiny Desk Concert.

I love this acoustic pairing.  Lennon plays the acoustic guitar (and sings and sounds a bit like his father’s more delicate side.  Meanwhile, Charlotte plays a ton of instruments and sings as well.

The show starts with them talking about tambourines and how they are unavoidably loud (so Sean’s is on the floor).

“Jardin du Luxembourg” has some great chord changes and Charlotte’s lovely accordion (with a kind of French flair).  As with all of these songs, there’s interesting lyrics like, “people say your brain is like cream cheese it takes the shape of anything you please.”  At the end of the song, Charlotte comments that she tried to play the accordion quietly but if she does it sounds like it has emphysema.  Sean says that she just learned to play it ten days earlier.

For “Schroedinger’s Cat” she switches from accordion to melodica and xylophone.  Charlotte sings harmony along with Sean.  There are more interesting lyrics here too (trippy ones, of course).  It references Socrates, Aristotle, Dorian Gray and many more cultural touchstones.

On “Dark Matter, White Noise,” Charlotte plays bass (and sings lead on alternating verses).  The chorus is gorgeous again, with a sort of minor key tone.

“The World Was Made For Men”  is the first song they ever wrote together.  Again, they sing together and sound fantastic.

At the end of the show, he threatens to do a 2 hour tambourine solo.

GOASTT is really something.  I am bummed that they opened for a band I wanted to see this summer but was unable to attend.  I hope the two bands tour again together this year.

[READ: January 6, 2015] “Nice Insane”

This was the second short piece in this issue of Harper’s.  I don’t know Seth Price.  This is an excerpt from his novel Fuck Seth Price.

Generally, I dislike reading excerpts, although sometimes they make you want to read the full novel.  That did not happen in this case, though.

This excerpt focuses on the “moment of inspiration that had rejuvenated his [presumably Seth’s] painting career, making him rich but ultimately leading him to reject contemporary art.” (more…)

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