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Archive for the ‘Language’ Category

Roberto Bolaño–Romantic Dogs (2006) [translated 2008]

Posted in Ben Folds, bolanobolano.com, Consumerism, Death, Demons, Dreams, History, Infinite Zombies, Language, Laura Healy, Military, Poetry, Poets, Pornography, Roberto Bolaño, The Office, Translation, Violence on April 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS-University A Capella (2009).

The story goes that Ben Folds heard some a capella bands and decided to give them some airtime.  So he had them record a bunch of his songs.

I have been surprised at how much I enjoy some kinds of a capella music.  Ed Helms’ stuff on The Office is certain fun, but on a more serious level, it’s amazing what these singers can do with their voices in terms of diversity, range and even sounds.

But at the same time, it’s the lead vocalist on most a capella tracks that sell the song.  And, on this disc there are a lot of lead singers I don’t like. Part of it is because I don’t like R&B vocal stylings, which I find too over the top at times.  Although I do admit that there;s one or two on here that work very well.

Overall, I enjoy this disc.  It’s fun to hear different interpretations of songs that I know and like.  Although I think realistically its the songs that Ben himself sings that I enjoy the most.

[READ: April 25, 2010] Romantic Dogs

This is the final Bolaño book that I’m going to read before finishing 2666 (Savage Detectives you’re next).  And it happens to be a collection of Bolaño’s poetry.

I have a complicated relationship with poetry.  I have written (and had published) a few poems.  I dated a woman who was (and I suppose still is?) an excellent poet (hi, Paula).   When I worked for a literary magazine, I learned how to judge poetry.  And yet, I don’t really read it.  And I think the reason for that is that, in my head, poetry deserves more attention than I’m usually willing to give it.  I feel like a poem should be pored over, read and re-read and, if good enough, memorized.

I have memorized about two poems in my life.  And since I often don’t feel like devoting a ton of time to poems,  I just don’t really read them.  And that’s a shame for me, because while poetry does demand a closer look, it’s not a precious item that should be put on a pedestal and looked at only when company comes over.

And Bolaño is as good a poet as anyone to demonstrate that. (more…)

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The Inbetweeners (2008-2009)

Posted in BBC America, Boredom, Canadian Music, Cars, Drinking, Feist, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, Humiliation, Language, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Romance, Set at School, Sex, Smarty Pants, The Inbetweeners, Toilets, TV 2010, Vampire Weekend, Virginity (Loss of), Wikipedia, Word usage on April 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[WATCHED: 2010]  The Inbetweeners

I don’t often write about one TV show at a time, but I’m on vacation this week, so I’m taking it easy.

One of our favorite new shows is (big surprise) a  British comedy (that is airing in the States on BBC America) called The Inbetweeners.  There’s not much terribly original about the premise of the show: four unpopular blokes in secondary school grouse about being unpopular and hatch ways of scoring with the [insert staggering variety of vulgar words for women here] in their class.  And I’m not exactly sure what it is about the show that is so [bleeping] funny.  Perhaps it is the simply brutally vulgar humor, or the excessively horny attitudes, or maybe it is the self-awareness of the vulgarity (by the not exactly prudish but at the same time creeped-out-by-his-friends narrator (“That sounds a bit rape-y, Jay”)), but the show never stops being stomach-hurtingly funny. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“The Pura Principle” (New Yorker, March 22, 2010)

Posted in Boredom, Cancer as plot device, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Drugs, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Punks, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Dead Milkmen, Violence, Word usage on April 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Big Lizard in My Backyard (1985).

My friend Alison said the other day that she had “Bitchin’ Camaro” stuck in her head.  And soon thereafter, so did I.  So Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen are a bratty punk band.  They skewer all kinds of things: pop culture, racists,  right wing pigeons, junkies and, quite possibly, music itself.

This first record showcases quite a breadth of song styles.  Although they stay comfortably within the realm of two-minute punk, they plays “blues,” “jazz,” and even “surf.”  Interestingly, their guitars are quite treble-filled which is a bit unusual for a punk band (typically pretty bass heavy). And yet a song like “Swordfish” (“I believe in swordfish!”) has a pretty wild and creative bass line running through it.

But I think the Milkmen are most well-known for their lyrics.  So Big Lizard starts in right away with lyrics that could easily offend the wrong target: ‘Cause we hate blacks and we hate Jews/And we hate punks but we love the F.U.s.”  Of course, the chorus reveals the truth: This is a tiny town and we don’t want you hanging round.”

“V.F.W.” stands for veterans of a fucked up world.  “Beach Song” opens up like a beach song until you get the bratty, screamed lyrics: I don’t wanna be on the beach NO FUN!.”  Of course, “Violence Rules” tackles a real issue: “violence rules, guns are cool and we’ve got guns in our school.”  And there’s the twisted, “Takin’ Retards to the Zoo.”

We also get one of my favorite catchy lyrics (from “Nutrition”): “I’ve got nowhere to go/Just hang out on the street/My folks say I’ve got no ambition/ At least I give a shit/About the stuff I eat/Yeah! I care about nutrition.”

Only 6 of the 21 songs are over 2 minutes, so musical styles definitely come fast.  Rodney Anonymous’ vocals are snotty and funny (even when the lyrics aren’t especially funny, the delivery is).  We only get one song with Joe JAck Talcum singing (he’s the whiny guy).  It’s so hard to tell if his delivery is serious at all, and yet I find it very endearing (and he’ll get much more prominence on later discs).  So, this disc is fairly simple, but it works very well for what it is: in your fast, bratty music, that is quite often very funny.  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.

And it features “Bitchin’ Camaro.”  I’m going to go to a hardcore show and see F.O.D.

[READ: March 23, 2010] “The Pura Principle”

I have been intending to read Díaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for quite some time.  I just haven’t yet.  So I was pleased to get a chance to read one of his short stories to get a feel for his writing.

One thing I had been told about Oscar Wao was that it mixes English, Spanish, Spanglish and a kind of ghetto slang which makes the book shall we say, more difficult to read if you’re a suburban gringo like myself.  But hey it’s set in New Jersey, so at least I know the towns he’s talking about!

This story is like a short story version of that summary of the book.  The writing is indeed in English, Spanish and Spanglish (and when the second sentence–the crux of the story– is “No way of wrapping it pretty or pretending otherwise: Rada estaba jodido” you know this is not your typical English short story.  I still don’t have an exact translation for that sentence (and it took a while to realize that Rafa was a person’s name) but I got the gist, and I was delighted by how much I followed the story. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 8] The Part About The Crimes (2 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Adventure, AP Magazine, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Death, Foreign Books, History, Infinite Zombies, Language, Mystery, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Tori Amos, Violence, Yuck! on March 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-“Juarez” (from To Venus and Back) (1999).

This song was the first that I had heard of what was happening in Juarez, Mexico.  In AP Magazine (Oct 99) Tori Amos said:

“I read an article about several hundred women in Juarez, Mexico, who had been taken out to the desert and brutally raped and murdered. When they didn’t come home, their brothers would go and look for them, and many times they’d find nothing. Sometimes they’d find a hair barrette or a sock or something they knew was their sister’s. The authorities haven’t really done anything about it…they get into this serial-killer theory. I mean, how much serial can one man indulge in? So as the song started to develop, I really began taking the voice of the desert, singing in that perspective.”

The song is very abstract, with references to Juarez, but overall the meaning is oblique (in typical Tori Amos fashion).  Sonically it is claustrophobic and creepy, and the repeated line “No angel came” adds to the intensity of it.  It has never been a favorite song, although I think as a commentary on the situation it is delightfully eerie.  It doesn’t really add anything to 2666, but at least it provided me with some context.

[READ: Week of March 8, 2010] 2666 [pg 404-465]

Week 6 picks up much where Week 7 left off.  There are a lot more deaths (Nicole at bolanobolano has the dubious honor of tallying them)in this reading.  And you’ll have to look at bolnobolano for the details, as I’m not up to keeping the records straight.

Juan de Dios Martínez is ordered to stop working on The Pentitent, so that his officers can be freed up for other duties.

And the first dead woman of this section is an American, Lucy Anne Sander.  She and a friend came down from Huntsville, Arizona.  While her friend, Erica, was parking the car, Lucy got out to walk in the wet grass.  She was not seen again for three days when her body turned up, raped and murdered.  This was the first instance in the book where someone aggressively looks for a missing woman.  Erica befriends a local nurse (and they from an intense bond in the short time they know each other) and has an Arizona sheriff come down to investigate on her behalf. (more…)

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Emily Arsenault–The Broken Teaglass (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Music, Cancer as plot device, Constellation Records, Culture Shock, Dictionary, Drinking, Elfin Saddle, Emily Arsenault, Language, Mystery, Research, Silver Mt. Zion, Smarty Pants, Word usage, Work on February 17, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ELFIN SADDLE-Ringing for the Begin Again [CST059] (2009).

This is a fascinating disc from our friends at Constellation Records. It defies ready classification and offers elements of folk music, eastern instrumentation, klezmer and Asian influences.

The most obvious Asian influences come from Emi Honda who sings in Japanese.  In a most misunderstanding, on “The Procession,” which sounds Middle Eastern, I actually thought she was singing in Israeli or something until I realized it was Japanese.

Jordan McKenzie, the other half of the band, sings in English and has a variety of vocal styles. He also plays accordion banjo and xylophone, which complements Emi’s own accordion and singing saw (!).  There is also a feeling of random percussion (or as the Constellation website puts it: junk percussion).

The opening track, “The Bringer” begins quietly, building in a gentle staccato with both members singing until it reaches its full height of intensity.  “Running Sheep” sung in Japanese, actually feels like a running song, while “Hammer Song” is almost, almost, a straightforward folk song (in which Jordan sounds Scottish) except for perhaps the tuba accompaniment.  Yet for all of these disparate elements, the disc holds together amazingly well.  These are not nine individual track  glued together, they all work together to create a very solid composition.

It should also come as no surprise that Jordan and Emi are visual artists.  The cover depicts a sculpture of theirs (and the liner notes are beautifully illustrated).  Lyrics are included and the Japanese is translated for us.

The disc doesn’t feature the dramatic highs and lows of some other Constellation releases, but as a solid, slightly avant garde folk release, it’s quite terrific.

[READ: February 14, 2010] The Broken Teaglass

[UPDATE: Sarah just reviwed the book here.  We don’t often read the same books, so this was fun.]

Sarah’s friend Denise said I would really like this book.  Upon hearing that this book was right up my alley I had to investigate immediately (I always wonder what people think I would like).  And she was totally correct.

So what makes this book perfect for me?  Well, it is set in a dictionary.  Actually, it is set in the editorial department of the offices of the Samuelson Dictionary, one of the premiere dictionaries in the world.  The protagonist is Billy, a recent college graduate (in philosophy) whose first job comes at Samuelson.  The offices are located in the small town of Claxton, Mass.  Billy moves away from home (although it is still driving distance) to a small apartment in this very small town.

I have no idea if the descriptions of working in a dictionary office are in any way accurate, but it certainly is enticing.  Essentially, everyone works in silence all day.  They are assigned several magazines to read to see if there are any new words that are coming into common usage which might wind up in future editions of the dictionary.  Eventually they are assigned words to define as well (for future supplements to the dictionary).

They are also responsible for correspondence with dictionary users.  People write (or call) with questions about word usage, misusage and even suggestions for additions to the dictionary.  How fascinating is that? (Oh and these correspondences were absolutely hilarious!). (more…)

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John Bemelmans Marciano–Anonyponymous (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, CBC Radio 3, Funny (ha ha), History, John Bemelmans Marciano, Language, Research, Scholarship, Short Books, Smarty Pants, The Week, The Zolas, Word usage on February 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE ZOLAS (3 Tracks on CBC 3 Radio) (2009).

I must have heard “The Great Collapse” on CBC 3 a few weeks ago because I heard it today and it was so catchy I was sure that I knew the band.  And yet, when I saw the artist, I’d never heard of them before.

But it was so catchy I had to investigate.

The Zolas are from Vancouver, BC and must be the least self-promoting band ever.  They have a Myspace and a Facebook site, but man it was hard to find anything about their CD. It’s available at Amazon (.ca and .com) but it’s for sale at a much more reasonable price here. (Ah, except that it’s $11 shipping to the States, which is more than the disc itself.)

The band list says there’s only two member and that they were previously (or concurrently) in a band called Lotus Children.  But that this incarnation of their songwriting chops is a bit more dramatic, baroque even.

And these three songs have instantly made me want to get their disc.  They are poppy, with wonderful choruses, and yet there are tempo changes and falsettos and surprise twists and turns.

“You’re Too Cool” has about three completely different songs in it, starting as a rollicking rock song, having a rousing chorus, and then, in the middle rather than a bridge we get almost a completely new, mellow song.  “The Great Collapse” is a piano fueled romper with the real catch being the unexpected minor chord at the end of the verses.  The third song “Marlaina Kamikaze” alters the style from the other two with a magnificent guitar intro.  Although it also shifts at the midpoint to include more piano marching type music.  And another killer chorus.  The bridge then comes from out of nowhere (or perhaps from the circus) with a great piano breakdown section, slowly building up to the chanting chorus once more.

Thanks, CBC, for this band.

[READ: January-February 2010] Anonyponymous

This is the third book that Sarah gave me for Christmas.  I thought I’d read it more quickly, but I got caught up in other books.

So, we’d read a summary of this book in The Week.  This book is a collection of word origins that come from a person’s name (eponymous).  The twist is that for the most part, the people are forgotten or unknown (hence anonymous).  Anon-eponymous, aha!

There are tons of etymological books out there, but this one is very deliberately designed as a casual reader’s book.  In fact, when a book lists itself in the definition of “crapper” then you can tell the tone of th ebook?  What?  Yes:

Crapper: A toilet; also, in phr. “crapper material,” a book or magazine meant to be read in the bathroom, e.g., this one. (more…)

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Shite’s Unoriginal Miscellany by A. Parody (2003)

Posted in Ben Schott, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Colin Meloy, Collecting, Dip-in Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Language, Nature, Oddities, Research, Short Books, The Decemberists on February 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: COLIN MELOY-Sings Sam Cooke (2008).

I ordered this CD from the Decemberists website.  (Sadly Colin singing Morrissey is no longer available).   This is, as the title states, Colin Meloy singing Sam Cooke songs.

I don’t know much about Sam Cooke (although I knew a few tunes from this disc).  And, in my head, Sam Cooke doesn’t have a “catalog” of songs, like, say, Morrissey does. So, this came across as a disc of standards.  And as such it’s very good.

If you like Meloy, you’ll like this.  If you don’t, this isn’t going to covert you.  It’s basically just him and his acoustic guitar (and an occasional backing vocal) singing these songs.

I have always liked “Cupid” so it’s nice to have a rendition of it.  As for “Summertime,” I’m not sure why that’s considered a Sam Cooke song since it comes from Porgy and Bess.  I didn’t know the other three songs, but they’re all quite good, uptempo jazzy numbers.

This EP makes me want to investigate a Sam Cooke Greatest Hits, to see what I’ve been missing.  And maybe that was Meloy’s point all along.

[READ: January-February 2010] Shite’s Unoriginal Miscellany

I had ordered a couple of Schott’s Almanacs from the UK, because I thought it would be fun to see what was different about them from the U.S. versions (quite a lot actually).  And while browsing for them, I found this parody of the series.  So, for a few dollars used, I ordered it too.

Now any book that bills itself as “extensively researched, eccentrically compiled and irresponsibly written” pretty much lets you know what you’re getting.   And it does conclude its summary by saying, “more than 250 pieces of useless, misleading and possibly dangerous information.”  So, what might you expect?

This is a very strange parody of the series because it does three things at the same time:  1) It provides actual lists of actual things (which are, indeed, useless and silly).  2) It provides nonsensical/hypothetical questions (more on that shortly).  And 3) It has stuff that is clearly made up and intended to be funny (but often isn’t) (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–Everything and More: A Compact History of ∞ (2003)

Posted in 18th Century, 19th Century, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Eschaton, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), History, Infinite Summer, Infinity, Language, Math, Nazis, Scholarship, Smarty Pants, The Tragically Hip on February 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-Live from the Vault-Volume 4 (2009).

Faithful reader will recall that this disc got trapped in my car’s CD changer.  When I had it the player replaced, they sent the old one back to mysterious Toyota offices far away.  And, about a month or so after sending it out, I received a package from Toyota with my three lost discs (this one, a Black Sabbath disc and, a promo disc I took from the library to try and wedge into the player to get it to eject the other discs (that doesn’t work, by the way) which was, embarrassingly, Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne doing a duet of something or other).

Thank you random Toyota person for keeping this disc, which is not easily replaced, in good condition.

So this concert is from 1994 and was recorded in Brussels on the Day for Night Tour.  I think many fans feel that this is a high point in The Hip’s recording career, and this concert attests to it.  The band sounds fantastic, energetic and really tight.  And the music from this era is just great: dynamic and dramatic.

This disc also adds to speculation that lead singer Gord Downie is a weird guy.  His between song banter is quite peculiar, to say the least (apropos of nothing: “Do you think of your pet as a pet or a member of the family?”).  Which also leads me to wonder if fans in non-English speaking countries (and yes, I know that many people in Brussels do speak English) think or care or even mind when lead singers babble in English to them.  Just curious.

I don’t have any other Vault discs from The Hip, but this one is certainly great.

[READ: During an ∞ of minutes during December 2009 & January 2010] Everything and More

As part of my pledge to read all of DFW’s works, I skipped the fiction and moved straight to this.  I hadn’t heard all that much about this book, except that it was pretty dense.  And, yup it is.

I’m going to give a comparison for any other DFW fans who are thinking about reading this.  If you have read Infinite Jest (and if you’re interested in DFW you should certainly read that before this book), and if you recall Endnote 123: Pemulis’ high tech math formula for calculating Mean Value w/r/t Eschaton, then you will have a fair idea of what you’re in for with Everything and More.  So, if your eyes glazed when you started to read that endnote, you’ll likely want to skip this book altogether.  However, if you plugged through with that endnote and you didn’t care that you didn’t get it, but you kind of enjoyed it because despite the math, it is very funny, well, then you might enjoy this book too.

If you’re a hard core math dude and you understand what things like: ∃ and ∈ and ∉ and ∏ and ℜ and even ∀ then you’ll have no problem with this book.

But math aside, there’s a lot of funny things in this book.  And DFW is in full conversational tone, with several places where he says things like “not sure if this has been mentioned in the book yet” implying that he never proofread the thing, which we know he did.  There’s even a funny observation as to the placement of a picture (“it’s not entirely clear to me why they put [this pencil sketch] here”).  There’s also tons of footnotes.  And most of them are labeled IYI (meaning If You’re Interested), and he totally lets you off the hook if you don’t feel compelled to read these.  Although as with most things DFW does, the footnotes are always tons of fun.

He also shows his great undying affection for his math professor, Dr. Goris (Dr. G).  He quotes liberally from Dr G’s classes, citing examples, funny quotes and the amusing joke that Irrational Numbers are called ‘surds.  There’s also great joke about schnitt (which I’ll explain later).  It even opens with a hilarious (or maybe not) section about the inability to get out of bed in the morning when you think about infinity.

As in for example in the early morning, especially if you wake up slightly before your alarm goes off, when it can suddenly and for no reason occur to you that you’ve been getting out of bed every morning without the slightest doubt that the floor would support you. Lying there now considering the matter, it appears at least theoretically possible that some flaw in the floor’s construction or its molecular integrity could make it buckle, or that even some aberrant bit of quantum flux or something could cause you to melt right through. Meaning it doesn’t seem logically impossible or anything. It’s not like you’re actually scared that the floor might give way in a moment when you really do get out of bed. It’s just that certain moods and lines of thinking are more abstract, not just focused on whatever needs or obligations you’re going to get out of bed to attend to.

And but so, what is this thing about?

Okay, so it’s about ∞ and the history of ∞.  It begins with a great section about the ancient Greeks (Zeno’s Paradox and all that) and slowly moves up through to Aristotle.  I myself have always been a Platonist (yes, in fact, I have made that distinction in my life, which may say more about me than many people know), and have always been kind of anti-Aristotle.  And, for the purposes of this book, that’s a great position to take.  Aristotle turns out to be like the arch-nemesis of ∞. (more…)

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100 Page Tribute to David Foster Wallace–Sonora Review 55/56 (2009)

Posted in Austin City Limits, Big Books, Books about writers, Bret Easton Ellis, Charles Bock, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Eschaton, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Greg Carlisle, Harper's, History, Infinite Summer, Jonathan Franzen, Karen Green, Ken Kalfus, Language, McSweeney's, Premiere, Research, Rick Moody, Sonora Review, Suicide, Sven Birkerts, The Decemberists, Tom Bissell, Word usage on January 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Austin City Limits (2007).

I’ve recently discovered the awesomeness of Austin City Limits.  And in the two or so years that I’ve been watching, I’ve seen some great live shows (even is most bands are reduced to 30 minutes).  This re-broadcast of The Decemberists, however, just blew me away.

The concert comes from The Crane Wife tour, and it is just a wonderful exploration of this fantastic CD.  I’ve liked the Decemberists for years, and have listened to all of their discs multiple times, but there was something about this recording, in particular the wailing guitar work of Colin Meloy (seeing him lying on the floor making crazed feedback was pretty impressive), and the amazing solo work of Chris Funk that gave me even more respect for this wonderful album and the band.

It is highly recommended. For more info see here.

[READ: January 14, 2010] 100 Page Tribute to David Foster Wallace

I was able to order a copy of this journal directly from The University of Arizona and received it not too long ago.  It is a two part issue (55/56) that is chock full of all kinds of things, including this 100 page tribute to DFW.  I intend to read the whole thing, or at least more than just the DFW stuff, but as I don’t see that happening too soon, I wanted to address this tribute section directly.

DFW received his MFA from UA and he was also an editor at Sonora Review.  He also published “/Solomon Silverfish/” there shortly after getting his MFA.  So the tributes make sense from this publication.  All of the tributes here come from varied people and are all either interesting or moving to the Wallace fan. (more…)

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Ben Schott–Schott’s Miscellany 2009: An Almanac (2008)

Posted in Aesop Rock, Airlines, Art, Authors, Barack Obama, Ben Schott, Bible, Bill Fox, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Collecting, Comedians, Consumerism, Contests, Death, Dip-in Books, Drinking, Drugs, Explosions in the Sky, Film & TV, Food, Foreign Books, Games (Non Video), Grizzly Bear, History, Holidays, I'm from Barcelona, Language, LGBTQ, Lightning Bolt, Magik Markers, Military, Morality, Nature, Nico, Of Montreal, Oxford Collapse, Poetry, Prison, Racism, Religion, Reykjavik!, Roger Federer, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sports, Sufjan Stevens, Technology, The Future, Travel, TSA, Violence, War, Word usage on December 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June/July 2007 Music Issue Compilation CD: Cue the Bugle Turbulent (2007).

The 2007 Believer disc smashes the mold of folkie songs that they have established with the previous discs in the series.  The theme for this disc is that there’s no theme, although the liner notes give this amusing story:

one decaffeinated copy editor (“the new guy”) made a suggestion: “The Believer CD should be composed of eight a.m. music/breakfast-substitute jams, like that commercial from a while back with the guy who gets out of bed over and over again while ELO plays over his morning routine. You should tell all of the bands to write/contribute songs worth listening to within three minutes of waking up.”

So, without a theme, they just asked artists for some great songs.  There’s one or two tracks written especially for the disc (Sufjan Stevens, Lightning Bolt).  There’s a couple B-sides.  There are some wildly noisy raucous songs: and three of them come from duos!  No Age offers a very noisy blast of feedback.  Magik Markers play a super-fast distortion-fueled rocker, and Lightning Bolt play 5 minutes of noise noise noise.  Oh, and there’s even a rap (Aesop Rock)!

Tracks 3-7 are just about the 5 best songs in a row on any compilation.  Oxford Collapse plays a catchy and wonderfully angular song with “Please Visit Your National Parks.”  It’s followed by a song from Sufjan Stevens that sounds NOTHING like Sufjan Stevens, it’s a noisy distorted guitar blast of indie punk.  I’m from Barcelona follows with a supremely catchy horn driven song that would be huge on any college campus.  Aesop Rock comes next with a fantastic song.  I’d heard a lot about Aesop Rock but had never heard him before, and he raps the kind of rap that I like: cerebral and bouncy.  This is followed by Reykjavik! with a crazy, noisy surf-guitar type of song.  It reminds me of some great college rock from the early 90s.

Of Montreal, a band I’ve been hearing about a lot but who I’ve never heard (and didn’t think sounded like this) plays a wonderfully catchy two minute love song that sounds ironic, but which likely isn’t.  The melody is straight out of the Moody Blues’ “Wildest Dreams,” and yet it is still fun and quirky.

There’s a couple instrumentals as well: The Clogs do a cool, mellow instrumental and Explosions in the Sky do one of their typically fantastic emotional tracks.  Also on the disc, The Blow contribute a delightfully witty song and Bill Fox, a singer I’d never heard of (but who has a great article about him in the magazine), really impressed me with his Bob Dylan meets Nico delivery.  The disc ends with an alternate version of a song by Grizzly Bear.

This is definitely my favorite Believer disc thus far.  See the full track listing here.

[READ: Throughout 2009] Schott’s Miscellany 2008

This year’s edition of Schott’s Miscellany is very much like last year’s edition (see that review here).  I mean, it is an almanac after all.  However, it is a wondrous testament to Schott that even though I read every word of the 2008 edition, I was able to read every word of the 2009 edition and not feel like I was duplicating myself very much.

Obviously the news, facts and events of 2008-09 are different from last year.  And since Schott’s writing style is breezy and fun with a hint of sarcasm and amusement thrown in, you don’t get just a list of facts, you get sentences with subtle commentary on the facts.  And it’s a fun way to re-live the past year.  Plus, the Sci, Tech, Net section discusses science stories that sounded really impressive and important which I can’t believe I didn’t hear about at the time. (more…)

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