SOUNDTRACK: BILL CALLAHAN-“Santa Maria” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers(2009).
I don’t often listen to songs that are as simple and straightforward as this one. It’s an acoustic guitar with occasional piano and Callahan’s deep voice. The melody is enjoyable and the vocals are crystal clear. (Callahan is from Smog, a band I know of, but whom I don’t really know).
The original of this song is by Versus on their Afterglow EP. I’ve liked Versus for a long time–their mix of male/female vocals and rockin’ guitars is always exciting. But I didn’t remember this song at all. It turns out that it’s kind of a slow, brooding number, something I probably wouldn’t have paid a ton of attention to back when I was rocking out more.
I prefer the Versus version as there’s more interesting tricks afoot, although Callahan does some cool subtleties by the end of the song that really bring out some interesting twists to the song.
[READ: April 16, 2012] “Our Raccoon Year”
I’ve read a few pieces from Paul Theroux, and I’ll say that this piece really surprised me. While I wouldn’t try to categorize all of Theroux’s writing, I would say that a domestic story about raccoons is one that I would not have expected.
The story opens with the narrator, a young boy, telling us that his Ma decided to go away. Their Pa explained that she was where she wanted to be “with her friend.” Given the circumstances, and the fact that Pa was a well-respected citizen (and attorney), Pa was given custody of the narrator and his brother. He was the first man to be given custody of children after a divorce in their region and it only upped people’s opinions of him.
That’s a neat conceit for a story. So it’s surpising when he says that it also began their “raccoon year” which means it was their year of dealing with raccoons. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE APPLES IN STEREO-King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 3 from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).
The Apples in Stereo have made the first song on this covers disc in which I categorically like the original better. I don’t know that much about the Apples in Stereo, although I know they are tangentially related to Neutral Milk Hotel. But I don’t know if their style is in general like this version–keyboardy and simplistic, or if this is a goof project for them.
Of course, the original of this song, by Neutral Milk Hotel is an indie classic, so you’d be hard pressed to try to do a respectful version and make it sound better. It’s nice they did something different, I just don’t like it as much.
[READ: April 6, 2012] “The Porn Critic”
This is a story that is superficially facile–it confirms the age-old belief that women just do not like porn. And yet there’s some interesting dynamics at work that I found really enjoyable.
The story is about Kromer. Kromer was believed to be a hedonistic satyr–that a life of partying, drugs and sex followed him wherever he went. But that was not exactly true–he was around a lot of it, just never in the middle of it. The debauchery in his life was all thanks to his friend Greta.
Greta has a trust fund that will not mature until she reaches 30. She was so outraged at not having the trust fund that (and I love this phrasing) it “drove her mad with the determination to die squalorously before she became wealthy.” Despite her lack of access to the fund, she did have at her disposal her father’s “man.” He would cater to her every whim at any hour of the day.
And so she lived the hedonistic lifestyle–drugs and drinking, closing out parties and hanging with wild transsexuals (and calling for deliveries from delis across town to the bar she was currently in). And she also hung out with Kromer–who was terrified of her debauched friends, but loved the access to her father’s servant.
Kromer’s reputation was also helped because he worked in a porn shop called Sex Machines. He worked for a local real estate maven who owned all kinds of stores–from coffee to video to adult marital aids. I love the details of Sex Machines, and that its “interior and stock had been painstakingly derived from that of a famous San Francisco shop, founded by a sex-positive lesbian collective. In lieu of such a collective, the owner had installed Kromer,” So instead of Toys in Babeland Manhattan got Sex Machine.
Sex Machine also published a newsletter which included reviews of the latest porn movies. And Kromer was the sole reviewer–he watches dozens of films (the output is tremendous!) and tried to simplify their content for the clientele.
As a result, he had tons of porn movies lying around his house. And as a result of that, very few people, women especially, had visited his apartment. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: REAL ESTATE-Tiny Desk Concert #202 (March 12, 2012).
I enjoyed some Real Estate songs, but i never listened to their whole albums. I thought this Tiny Desk show would give me more sonic information about them.
This three song set is very pleasing. The music is soft and nonabrasive, with a very smooth feel (as you can see they are dressed in sweaters and cardigans, so this is not really a shock). It’s poppy without having any real hooks. They remind me of a less catchy Guster or a less dramatic Smiths (“Green Aisles,” especially for the bass and guitar solo) or gentler Death Cab for Cutie (“Municipality”).
There’s nothing to radically distinguish these three songs (radical is not a word that would apply to Real Estate), although “Green Aisles” has a few more dynamic moments (mostly from the change in drum patterns).
This review sounds like I didn’t like the set, but that’s not true. As I said, it’s very pleasant. And sometimes pleasant is what you want.
First Second continues to publish some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking graphic novels around. This is a republication of a story that first appeared in a collection (and proceeded to win an Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz Award).
The story is about Simon and his close friend Nancy. It opens with them in a Vietnamese Restaurant in Oakland, CA. The first scene of the book is wonderfully drawn–we look in on the characters through a fish tank–fish are practically littering the panels–it’s very cool.
The two of them are with their friend Ian and they are shooting the breeze, talking nonsense. And then Simon sees a woman that he knew from high school. She is sitting at the bus stop and Simon wants to, but can’t, talk to her. Her name is Irene, she seems sad, eyes downcast looking at the ground. And then Simon reveals that she is blind.
In high school, he and Irene were very close. He helped her out, described films to her in class, and “rescued” her from bullies. And then she invited him to a Sadie Hawkins dance. He doesn’t like her that way, so he lied to get out of it. She never found out about the lies, but it has haunted him for the last seven years.
Later, Nancy figured out the truth of the matter, and even though we the readers probably guessed it as well, it still hit hard when it was spoken aloud. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE DIVINE COMEDY-BANG goes the Knighthood (2010).
I’ve really enjoyed The Divine Comedy since their earliest Michael Nymanesque music. I loved the orchestral pop that Neil Hannon seemed to effortlessly create. His last few records have been less exciting to me. He has toned down the orchestration and made his songs more subtle. They’re still beautiful but they’re not always as immediately arresting. I thought that was true of this album as well, although I found that when I sat down and really listen to the music and words together (what a novel idea) the music played so well with the lyrics that the album overall is easily one of his best. Although I still prefer the pomp and full orchestration of the earlier music, this newer stuff is very interesting. An artist has got to grow, right?
The new sound is more Tin Pan Alley. It’s piano with guitars and occasional horns–very limited strings are present at all. And, as any fan knows, Neil writes wonderful songs about love, and the songs on here are some more great love songs. The non-love songs span the gamut of ideas–from emotionally wrenching to downright silly. Neil is definitely a “get to know him” kind of songwriter. And it’s rewarding when you do.
“Down in the Street Below” is a piano based song that morphs into a jaunty little number after some quiet verses. It features yet another of his great melodies. “The Complete Banker” is a jaunty piano song that mercilessly mocks the banking industry. Not terribly original but certainly fun and lyrically it’s quite clever. “Neapolitan Girl” is a faster song (reminds me of a Broadway musical or movie instrumental) which is (as they all are) very fun to sing along to). “Bang Goes the Knighthood” is a musical hall song that is really quite funny despite the somber sound of the music (it’s about a knighted man who indulges in certain proclivities that might cost him what he has).
“The Indie Disco” is the exact opposite, it’s bouncy and shuffly and yet understated as only an indie disco can be (this may be the softest, least excited “yea!” in any song ever. Name checking Morrissey may not be original but it would be a less real picture without him. The songs he mentions are kind of dated, but are probably pretty accurate to what gets played in an indie disco these days. “Have You Ever Been in Love” could be used in any rom-com film montage. Although maybe it’s too obvious? Sweetly filled with strings (yes strings).
“Assume the Perpendicular” is a slightly faster song, as befits lyrics, “I can’t abide a horizontal life while “The Lost Art of Conversation” is another bouncy tune with a whistle for an ending!
“Island Life” is one of the first duets I can think of from the Divine Comedy–it sounds like something out of the movie Brazil. “When a Man Cries” is an emotionally wrenching song. It seems somewhat out of place for Hannon’s usual topic, but it’s quite beautiful. The silly fun of “Can You Stand Up on One Leg” is the perfect antidote. Each verse provides something that’s harder to do than you think. The final verse offers, “can you hold a singing note for a stupidly long time…. Let’s see how long you can hoooooooooo….oooold on to a note.” For the record, Neil’s note is 29 seconds long….stupidly long! Is that really him holding that high note for 29 seconds?
The final song “I Like” is a wonderful poppy ditty, in which the full band rocks out (more or less) to another great melody. It’s a perfect love song (even modernized to include a kind of rhyme with sexy and texting).
Initially I was a little disappointed by this disc, but it really proved to be fantastic. More, Neil, more!
[READ: December 28, 2011] Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Is Mindy Kaling a big enough celebrity to write a book (memoir or otherwise?). To use her own in-book comparison, she’s nowhere near Tina Fey’s level of fame, right? (although I actually think she is funnier). I mean, she’s a minor character on a popular show. True, she’s also a writer and producer, but that’s not going to lead you to fame or anything. The more I read about her in the book, the more I wondered exactly who would know her aside from fans of The Office.
None of that is to say that Kaling isn’t awesome. She is. She’s funny and talented and I am thrilled she wrote a book–sometimes within an ensemble your individual voice will get lost. But I have to wonder how much name recognition she has. And the book doesn’t do a lot to dispel this sense for me. I mean, she tells about everything she’s done, and really all she had done was write Matt & Ben (which sounds awesome and which I remember hearing about back in the day) and work (a lot) for The Office. Not minor accomplishments by any stretch, but not a fame-inducing resume. Nevertheless, good for her that someone was interested in letting her write a book. And good for us who read it. If you are amused by the use of the subtitle of the book (which I am) you will like enjoy the humor here.
I had read some excerpts from the book so I assumed it was all funny essays and whatnot, but it’s not. It’s actually a memoir with funny essays mixed in. Of course, Mindy’s life before Matt & Ben isn’t really very “interesting” (the book is very funny during this time of her life, even if she really didn’t do much more than babysit for rich folks and watch Comedy Central).
In the Introduction, Mindy provides a FAQ about the book. One of the questions is if she is going to offer advice and she says yes. And here’s the thing, Mindy’s advice is outstanding. She offers advice about many topics and I don’t think I disagreed with her about anything (except maybe pea coats). She’s like the voice of reason in a world gone mad and an excellent role model for anyone. (more…)
This EP is a collection of Ulver’s two previous limited edition EPs: Silence Teaches You How to Sing and Silencing the Singing. It was originally released as a limited edition of 1000 copies, but has since been given wide release. The two EPs that it replaced were officially retired (after print runs of 2000 and 3000 respectively).
“Silence Teaches You How to Sing” seems like perhaps Ulver has pulled a fast one. The song starts with static…waves of static. And you think, what, 24 minutes of THIS? But after about four minutes, some quiet guitars layer through the static. By 5 minutes a melody emerges, rather Twin Peaks theme-like. Static resumes and then another wave of music bursts through and then, around 11 minutes, distant voices can be heard. As the track nears the end you can hear a distant choir. And by the end you’re listening so intently that you hear all kinds of things.
That was the only track on the first EP. The second EP had three shorter tracks. They are in a similar style to Silence, although there is more music. “Darling Didn’t We Kill You” has a somber guitar melody and distant choral voices or a buzzing drone.
“Speak Dead Speaker” is more static (it’s easy to see why these two EPs were bundled together). There’s more Twin Peaks style washes over the static. I keep picturing the Pacific Northwest. The last two minutes are a surprise cello version of the themes from the first 7 minutes. It’s lovely and sorrowful.
The final track is a beautiful melody that repeats itself more and more quietly (with a wonderful loud funeral bell keeping time). It repeats its cycle three times before ending.
Ulver continues to confound listeners. Neither one of these EPs is really essential, but they are both interesting and really create a mood.
[READ: November 3, 2011] “Nilda”
This is the final uncollected story (according to Wikipedia anyhow) by Junot Díaz that I was able to access online. There are two more stories “Invierno” (Glimmer Train 1998) and “Flaca” (Story, Autumn 1999) that I can’t seem to access online. The rest of the listed short stories appear in Drown.
This story is about longing and making the wrong choices. Having read a bunch of Junot Díaz stories lately, this feels very much like a story he would write (I probably should have read Drown before I read these stories, but when I get to it, I’ll be able to confirm my suspicions).
In this story, Yunior, who is evidently the constant narrator in his earlier works (and in Oscar Wao) knows Nilda from school. She was a friend of his–a kind of teasable friend–until puberty hit and her chest was to die for. Unfortunately for Yunior, they were already friends, and she was off with other boys.
Indeed, Nilda was trouble more or less from the start–“brown trash,” he calls her. Her mother was an alcoholic and Nilda was defiant. She even spent time in a group home. But she was nice and easy to talk to. Dammit, why did she have to start dating Yunior’s brother Rafa? (more…)
This song was picked as the number one song on Kids’ Corner for 6 years in a row.
It’s a strange song to have won the hearts of so many listeners. It’s simple and pleasant enough with a humorous content (gouda, gouda gouda, the cheese that’s never rude-a).
And yes, it is very easy to sing along to (cheese, cheese, cheese, wonderful cheese). And heck, I love a song about SPAM, so who am I to question this delicious foodstuff. I’m just kind of baffled as to why this song is so very popular.
Having said that, I don’t want to make it seem that I don’t like the song (the gorgonzola bit is rather amusing). It’s silly and catchy and fun and I can imagine 7-year-old boys around the world singing it together. There’s just no accounting for #1 songs. But it’s better than “I Will Always Love You.”
[READ: December 1, 2011] Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon
This may have been my favorite Babymouse yet. Mostly because it’s all about the library. But also because it seemed to be simply packed with ideas and jokes.
It opens with dreams of Babymouse’s fancy estate where she is just about to be served….tater tots from the lunch line? But soon, Babymouse is off to the library, where we get to meet Mrs Bee the librarian. Babymouse loves books and she’s excited that she gets to search for a lost book, Indiana Jones style.
Most daydreams just embarrass Babymouse, but this one proves to be a disaster when Babymouse falls off a high shelf and grabs onto a pipe for safety. The pipe breaks and sends water spilling through the library and into the school (and there’s very little a library hates more than water).
So to raise money to replace the books and fix the damage, the school is going to have a fund-raiser. And not a lame fund-raiser like everybody does (no popcorn or wrapping paper here), they are going to sell cupcakes! And even better, the kid who sells the most gets a grand prize! (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: ULVER-Perdition City: An Interior Soundtrack (2000).
Uver’s previous EP hinted at what would come next–electronic ambient tunes. But it didn’t quite prepare anyone for this–a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist. And yet with a title like Perdition City, you can pretty well anticipate the music that’s coming: think noir.
It is more electronica, and yet it is not just electronica. The opening song “Lost in Moments” has a saxophone (!) solo. And the song sounds like a perfect David Lynch/noir soundtrack to a dark and stormy night.
What’s novel about the approach are the electronic noises and eccentric drum beats that punctuate the track. The second track, “Porn Piece or The Scars of Cold Kisses” is broken into two parts: the first is a low, rumbling section with skittery noises and the second part has soulful singing (Garm, the only consistent member of Ulver (who goes by a different name on just about every record) has a surprising range of voices at his disposal).
“Hallways of Always,” “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “The Future Sound of Music” are sort of ambient tracks. “Hallways” is quiet while “Future” grows in volume and chaos as the song proceeds. “Tomorrow” is the most menacing of the three, projecting a state of noise and tension. The interesting thing about these tracks is that although they seem like pretty conventional electronic instrumentals, they are actually fairly complicated in detail. Some of the electronic pieces go on a bit too long, but as they are meant to be atmospheric rather than narrative, I guess that’s okay.
“We Are the Dead” bring in vocals again. This time, it’s a spoken word narration over distorted radio voices. And “Dead City Centers” also brings back some vocals. Although only after about 4 minutes of noises and tension. This time the vocals are more ominous (as the music grows more intense).
“Catalept” is the most interesting track on the disc–a remix of music from Psycho. While the final song “Nowhere/Catastrophe” is an actual song–verses and vocals! It’s a fairly soft song but it has moments of darkness that are quite cool.
As a soundtrack this works wonders. And if Ulver wanted to get into the soundtrack business, apparently their model of “making up your own soundtrack” worked. Since this release they have recorded the soundtracks for two external films.
As an overall release it’s a bit all over the place–jazzy sax, electronica, spoken word. The mood is pretty consistent though, and although I don’t think I would do what the liner notes recommend: “This is music for the stations before and after sleep. Headphones and darkness recommended,” I still enjoyed it.
[READ: November 5, 2011] “Alma”
This is a very short story that falls pretty squarely into standard Junot Díaz territory (he says, having read like four pieces by him).
I’m fascinated by these stories because Díaz is all about women being super hot and yet they are never objectified. Well, in some ways they are of course–he lingers over their bodies as he describes them, but they are never just a body. They are often smart or interesting, they are strong and powerful, and even when they are victimized (some by cheating boyfriends, others by far worse), they either fight back or get themselves to safety. It’s nice to read about powerful women,even if the point of view is from her boyfriend.
This is the story of a young man falling hard for a hot woman (with a beautiful ass). What fascinates me about Junot Díaz’s stories is that the women that his narrators fall for are Dominican, but they are also alternative to their culture. So in this case, Alma is a “Sonic Youth, comic-book-reading alternatina” which makes me like her already. (more…)
Sufjan Stevens has released a bunch of albums of beautiful orchestral rock. It is multi-layered and complex with classical elements and all kinds of cool instruments.
And this album starts out with a beautiful acoustic guitar melody and Sufjan’s delicate vocals. Although it is a far more stripped down song than usual, “Futile Devices” seems like it is heading in the standard direction. But anyone who heard Sufjan’s Christmas album number VIII knows that he has been having some fun with electronics. And they show up with a vengeance on track two, “Too Much.”
All of the multilayered noise that was once orchestral and (some might say) precious has been replaced by a cacophony of gorgeous electronic noises. The beginning of the song reminds me of the sounds in Skinny Puppy’s “Stairs and Flowers” (how many Sufjan Stevens reviews mention Skinny Puppy?). The song is nothing like Skinny Puppy once the vocals kick in–it’s catchy and delicate–but those electronics underpin the whole thing, bringing his pastoralia into the twenty-first century. When I first reviewed this song I didn’t like it but once you get absorbed by Sufjan’s world, it’s an enticing place to be,
“Age of Adz” takes this electronic nonsense even further with an 8 minute brew of strange sounds and choral voices. But he always manages to throw in some catchy parts, no matter how strange the song gets.
For me one of the highlights of the disc is “I Walked” it features one of my favorite Sufjan things–falsetto vocals in a beautiful but unexpected melody. And this song has them in spades. “Now That I’m Older” has a very disconcerting sound–his voice is slowly warbled and mournful. It’s a beautiful melody that is alienating at the same time.
“Get Real Get Right” returns to his earlier style somewhat (there’s more layers of music, although the electronica is still in place). “Vesuvius” is a beautiful song and “All for Myself” is another of those great falsetto tracks that I like so much.
“I Want to Be Well” eventually turns into a manic electronic workout in which he repeats the chorus “I’m not fucking around.”
But nothing compares to “Impossible Soul” a twenty-five minute (!) multi-part suite of electronic chaos. It’s a fantastic song complete with autotune (used to very cool effect), repeated swelling choruses (it’s like a Polyphonic Spree tribute), electronic freakouts, and acoustic comedowns. All in a positive, happy message. I can’t stop listening to it. “It’s not so impossible!”
Sufjan continues to impress me.
[READ: November 10, 2011] McSweeney’s #9
After the excesses of McSweeney’s #8, I was excited to get to the brevity (and urgency) of McSweeney’s #9. This one is a paperback and looks like the first couple of issues. The cover is mostly text with a hodgepodge of phrases and pleas. You get things like: Thankful, Emboldened, The (Hot-Blooded/Life-Saving) Presumption of (Perpetual/Irrational (or More Likely, Irreducibly Rational) Good Will, Efflorescence, Our motto this time: We Give You Sweaty Hugs,” Alternative motto: ” We Are Out Looking,” GEGENSCHEIN (no more), and the promise: “We will Do Four This Year.”
This is the kind of issue that makes me love McSweeney’s. There are some wonderful short stories, there are some nice essays and there are some dark moments all centered vaguely and tangentially around a theme. There are some great authors here, too.
The back cover image is called Garden Variety by Scott Greene and it’s a fantastic painting. You can see it here (navigate through the 2000-2004 paintings, but I have to say I really like the style of all of his work.
There are no letters and no nonsense in this issue. So let’s get to it. (more…)
“Batcat” is one of my favorite Mogwai songs. The melody is intense and the drumming is wonderful. I picked up this single for the B sides (which will undoubtedly be collected somewhere one of these days anyhow, but that’s okay.
It was very hard to pass up a song called “Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend” Given that the song has “Chased” in the title, this is a surprisingly slow tune. It builds slowly over a series of keyboard waves. There’s also a slow guitar melody that keeps the piece grounded. It’s one of their more subtle songs, which again, is rather surprising given the title.
“Devil Rides” is quite jarring in that it features vocals by Roky Erickson. I don’t really know anything about Roky. I picture him as a large, unkempt man with crazy hair and a beard. His voice is otherworldly and seems to be maybe just a wee bit off from what the music is playing. It’s a strange track and works very well with Mogwai’s history of slightly off-kilter vocalists.
[READ: November 3, 2011] The Discomfort Zone
After reading The Corrections, I planned to read one of Franzen’s earlier novels. But they were all quite long (even his debut!) and I wasn’t ready to get so immersed yet. Then I found The Discomfort Zone in the biography section of the library. It was less than 200 pages and seemed like just the thing. It turns out, however, that I had read most of it already. Three of the pieces were published in slightly different form in the New Yorker: “The Retreat,” (here as “Then Joy Breaks Through”) “The Comfort Zone,” (here as “Two Ponies”) “Caught” (Here as “Centrally Located”) and one “My Bird Problem” (here as “My Bird Problem”) which appears to be unchanged.
That leaves two essays that were new to me: “House for Sale” and “The Foreign Language.”
The collection works as something of a biography, although really it’s not–it’s a collection of essays about his life, but I don’t think I would go so far as to say biography. The book also doesn’t follow a chronological order. (more…)
Kiss lost me on this one. I had been a faithful fan for several years, even putting up with all of the haters in fifth grade. But once I heard that Kiss was releasing an “opera,” well the heck with that noise.
Now, granted, I had no idea it was a rock opera or that Tommy was a rock opera. I heard the word “opera” (thanks newspaper review that my grandmother showed me) and said, Nope. Of course, I wasn’t the only one who said Nope. This record tanked. It tanked so bad that the band almost went bankrupt.
But the album wasn’t just an album. It was mean to be a film (there’s even film dialogue on the record!) and Chris Makepeace (Woody the Wabbit from Meatballs) was meant to star in it–I love that the film credit info is left on the record packaging). What could this film have been like….if only it were made!
At some point I decided to buy the LP (Who even knows where I found it on vinyl) and I was surprised by how much I liked it. In fact, I find it much more preferable to Dynasty and Unmasked. It’s less pop oriented, and some of the tracks rock harder than anything since Love Gun. True, there’s weird pretensions on it, but even those are just experiments.
This album also features Eric Carr on his first Kiss record (what a strange place for such a heavy rocking drummer to start).
So yes the album does open with horns and fanfare (like an opera perhaps?), but the first song, “Just a Boy” is a gentle ballad sung by Paul. It’s certainly wimpy, but I rather like it (as I’ve said many times, I love Paul and his swelling choruses). And there’s some nice guitar work from Ace here.
“Odyssey” has strings and strings galore. It’s a pompous swelling song that harkens to Destroyer, yet goes in a very very very different direction. As a fan of epic pretentious music, I rather like it, but as a Kiss song it’s a disaster. Of course, I have always enjoyed the jokey “Once upon….not yet” line.
“Only You” is Gene’s first foray on this album. And I will state categorically that this period was not good for gene’s songwriting. His songs are really quite dull and boring (when you think of the crazy, complicated bass lines and things he was throwing on songs just a few years back, dull songs like this are a shock). What’s also a shock is that this song is a kind of gritty guitar song, again, much less wimpy than anything on Unmasked–fickle fans turned on the band without having heard the songs–sure they weren’t good songs, but they weren’t disco either.
“Under the Rose” is the exception to gene’s malaise. It begins softly with Gene’s whispered vocals not unlike “Man of 1,00 Faces” but the chorus is heavy and chanted, foreshadowing what they would do on Creatures of the Night (although Creatures was heavier and faster). The riff is also pretty solid, too.
“Dark Light” is Ace’s contribution to the disc. It has a pretty heavy opening riff as well. And the verse reminds me a lot of the kind of verse Ace has been writing for a while–simple chords with lots of words. The solo is pretty much literally a solo–very little in the way of backing music while Ace wails away. Shame it’s not a very interesting solo.
“A World Without Heroes” is a very gentle ballad by Gene. There’s a great commercial for this album in which you get to watch Gene sing this song.
The crazy thing of course is that he’s in demon make up. If this were Kiss without makeup no one would think it was weird, but I mean, look at him, why is he singing songs like this? It is once again an impressive display of Gene’s range though. Nice guitar solo, too.
“The Oath” is actually one of my favorite Kiss songs, no irony intended. I used to laugh at the lyrics, which yes are silly (but this is Kiss, come on). True, it’s an odd mix of really heavy guitars and pretentious falsettos (along with a bizarre keyboard/swirly third part). But there’s a bitching guitar solo and as I said, the guitars sound great. And Paul manages all of those different parts very well. It’s vastly underrated and worth checking out (especially if you like unexpectedly weird music).
“Mr. Blackwell” feels like a song from a movie. It tells a bit of a story of a bad guy. The music is incredibly minimalist (one note bass bits and very sparse guitars during the bridge and chorus). Lyrically it’s dreadful–“You’re not well/Mr. Blackwell/Why don’t you go to hell”, but at least Gene sounds like a demon delivering it. The solo is an amazing bit of noise though.
“Escape from the Island” is another high point on the record. It’s an instrumental, it’s fast and it’s heavy. And it’s got another great solo from Ace–it’s funny that Ace was dissatisfied with the direction of Kiss at this time because he gets to really show off on this disc.
“I” is another solid anthem from Kiss. It ends the album in an upbeat way and if it weren’t on this dismissed album it would be on any Kiss anthems collection. Paul and Gene both take turns singing and the chorus is chantworthy and fist pumpable. They should release it on a new album. They’re so into it in the recording that Paul even shouts “you feel it too, don’t you?”
There’s an interesting review of this album at Popdose. The bad thing is that the site has links to lots of MP3 demos from the album, but they’re all broken links. I’d like to hear those.
[READ: October 30, 2011] “Homecoming, with Turtle”
This is an amusing piece of non-fiction from Junot Díaz. I’m grouping it with the Oscar Wao stories because it actually bears an impact on them. It’s about a visit that Junot took eleven years ago (from 2004) back to his homeland of the Dominican Republic.
He hadn’t been there in nearly twenty years and he decided to go with his girlfriend. Of course, like Yunior in the novel, Junot cheated on his girlfriend before their trip and one of her friends told her. This put some tension on their trip (and one even wonders why he persuaded her to go along after that).
Their trip began with a week volunteering in the DR for a kind of Doctors without Borders (but for Dentists)–they assisted dentists with extracting thousands of teeth. It’s a strange thing to do and a strange (but generous) way to start a vacation, but the exhaustion and camaraderie at least kept them from killing each other. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BILL CALLAHAN-“Santa Maria” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers(2009).
This song was picked as the number one song on Kids’ Corner for 6 years in a row.
I Just Read About That... 