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Archive for the ‘20 Under 40’ Category

Jonathan Franzen–”The Failure” (New Yorker, July 5, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Blue Öyster Cult, Books about writers, Butthole Surfers, David Foster Wallace, fIREHOSE, Funny (ha ha), Jonathan Franzen, Language, New Yorker, Public Enemy, Punks, Short Story, Superchunk, Wire on November 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: fIREHOSE-Live Totem Pole EP (1992).

Listening to Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker” reminded me that I knew a live version from somewhere else.  And, with a little help from the web, I remembered it was here.

fIREHOSE is Mike Watt’s post-Minutemen band, and they are a lot of fun (and even managed to get a major label deal before breaking up.  This (apparently really hard to find) EP is a great, weird collection of covers: Blue Oyster Cult’s “The Red and the Black”; Public Enemy’s “Sophisticated Bitch” (yes you read that right); The Butthole Surfer’s “Revolution (Part 2)” (with the repeated coda of “Garry Shandling, Garry Shandling”; Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker” and Wire’s “Mannequin”.  There’s two Watt-written songs, “What Gets Heard” (from fROMOHIO) and “Makin’ the Freeway” (from if’n).

The covers are universally solid.  The band sounds punky and kind of sloppy and fun (not so terribly virtuosic on the solos), and they bring an amazing vitality to these songs.  The Public Enemy song is probably the biggest surprise as it sounds fantastic in this rocking band set up (although the original rocks pretty hard too, frankly).  And “Slack” is possibly even faster and punkier than the original (it sounds awesome here).  Interestingly to me, “Mannequin” sounds completely like an SST track (which if you know the label will make sense and if you don’t, it won’t) even though it’s a Wire song (and not released on SST).

I’d always known that Watt was a mean bassist, but man, he is wild on this disc.  The runs and fills he puts in all over the disc are great.  “What Gets Heard” has some great slap bass and “Freeway” is one of Watt’s weird and delightful spoken rants with fantastic bass fills.

fIREHOSE may not have always been brilliant, but they had moments of awesomeness.

[READ: October 16, 2010] “The Failure”

This story is part of the 1999 New Yorkers‘ 20 Under 40 collection (it’s the first story that was not included in that issue).  Its also the first story by Franzen that I have read.

It’s tempting, since I’m in a David Foster Wallace mood, to think that DFW was some kind of inspiration for Franzen (they were friends, after all).  The opening of the story talks a bit about cruise ships.  And Wallace’s “Shipping Out” was published in Harper’s just a couple of years before this.  Having said that, aside from the fact that the protagonist’s parents are taking a cruise (and there’s some cruise-mocking), the story doesn’t have much else in common with the piece, so we’ll get past that.

The story was excerpted in the main 20 Under 40 issue (the first few paragraphs), and I was intrigued, although the excerpt didn’t really indicate where the story would go at all.

Chip is a midwestern guy who has moved to New York City. He has lost a teaching job (for a very bad reason) and is now trying to survive as a writer.  His parents are in town briefly because they are taking a cruise out of New York.  And as he updates his mother and father on what he’s been up to, the list of minor failures (the ones he admits to and doesn’t) grows and grows.  And it’s clear from his mother’s talk that she’s more than a little disappointed in his reality. (more…)

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Jhumpa Lahiri–”The Third and Final Continent” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, David Foster Wallace, Death, Jhumpa Lahiri, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Outsourced, Short Story, Tracy Bonham, Travel, Universities on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TRACY BONHAM-Live on Mountain Stage, September 29, 2010 (2010).

I loved Tracy Bonham when she first came out.  Her EP and first LP were amazing explorations of controlled anger with great bursts of violin.

As with many angry songwriters from the 90s, Bonham seems to have become, shall we say, happier.  She has a new album out this year called Masts of Manhatta.

I haven’t heard the album, so I don’t know if this Mountain Stage performance represents it well or not.  I’m guessing that the Mountain Stage setting has made it somewhat more mellow than the original (steel guitars and fiddle solos?), but that may not be the case.

Regardless of the tone of the album, the songwriting tricks that Bonham has always employed are still in evidence here.  In fact, even though I’d never heard these songs before, the chord progressions (and of course, her voice) make these songs sound distinctly hers.  And lyrically she’s still clever as anything–witness most of the lyrics to “We Moved Our City to the Country”  which also features a very conventional fiddle (no, not violin) solo.

It seems like Bonham has grown as an artist and is exploring lots of different styles. And although I really love her early rocking stuff, and I was a little concerned that she had gone soft, it’s clear she’s just channeled her hardness in a different direction.  She’s also got great stage presence.

Manhatta here I come.  The show is available here.

[READ: October 12, 2010] “The Third and Final Continent”

Jhumpa Lahiri was the final writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I have heard such wonderful things about Jhumpa Lahiri, and I have been intending to read her novels and short story collections for quite some time.  I’m a bit saddened that this is the first fiction by her that I’ve read.  But it was an excellent place to start.

The story is a masterful telling of what, even the main character admits, is “quite ordinary.”  And yet it is touching and moving and a wholly realized experience.  [DIGRESSION: I have been listening to old interviews with David Foster Wallace and in most of his interviews he argues that good writing should be “real” as opposed to ironic and sarcastic.  He worries that hipster irony has eroded people’s ability to tell real stories.]  Well, this is a very real story.  It is simple and honest and wholly believable–just what the doctor ordered].

The story opens with an Indian man leaving India for London in 1964.  In 1969 he gets a job offer to work in the library at M.I.T.  Before leaving though, he confirms his arranged marriage, meets his bride and officially weds.  But days later he has left for America with the intention of her following in about six weeks.  He lands in Massachusetts on the day of the moon landing.

After staying at the YMCA, and adjusting to American life, he finds an apartment at an old woman’s house.  He tells the old woman that he is married bit she is insistent  that he has no female visitors.  The old lady is strict and a little crazy (she makes him marvel about the moon landing on a nightly basis).  And yet, despite herself, it is clear that she approves of this polite man. (I was a little surprised that she would be so approving of a foreigner, but maybe she was more progressive than I give her credit).

And the bulk of the story is made up of his life in this small apartment with this ever-present landlady who he feels somewhat indebted to, even though all he really owes her is $8 a week. (more…)

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Edwidge Danticat–”The Book of the Dead” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Brad, Edwidge Danticat, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pearl Jam, Short Story, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRAD-Live from WXPN’s World Cafe (2010).

Brad are most known, if they are known at all, for being the side project of Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.

I remember getting their first album and thinking it was okay.  But since then I have re-listened, and bought their other discs and found them to be an interesting side project from one of hard rock’s most enduring bands.  It’s also funny that Stone Gossard, by no means the most visible member of the band (surely Eddie Vedder wins for that and even lead guitarist Mike McCready gets more notoriety) should create a side band in which he is, again, not the main figure.  Lead singer Shawn Smith steals the show with his impressive voice.

This live set is brief (six songs in half an hour) and features four tracks from their recently released Best Firends? CD (which I haven’t heard).  The other two tracks “Buttercup” and “Screen” come from that first album.

The tracks from the new album seem like good classic rock (with “Low” being much harder than the other three and “Believe in Yourself” being a delicate piano ballad).  “Buttercup” still sounds good here as a sort of mellow jazzy number.  I’m not sure if Smith’s voice is as strong as it was, but he still sounds good.

It’s not a great show, but it’s a good collection of mellow rock songs.  You can listen to the set here.

[READ: October 11, 2010] “The Book of the Dead”

Edwidge Danticat is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 issue.

I love the name Edwidge Danticat, although I’ve never heard of her before and (therefore obviously) never read her stuff.  Actually I take that back, I had heard of her book Krik? Krak! but didn’t recognize her as the author.

This story is about a young sculptor.  Her subject is almost exclusively her father.  He was a prisoner in Haiti and had a chance meeting, on the day he was released, with the woman who would later become his wife (and the artists’ mother).  They escaped to America and have lived happily ever since.

The first sculpture that the young artist made is one that she has fondness for but one that she never thought was very “strong” as a piece.  But one day she is told that a celebrity, a Haitian beauty who now appears on an American television show, wants to buy this sculpture as a gift to her own father.  The sculptor is so excited, that she personally travels across the country to deliver the sculpture to the celebrity.  She invites her father along since he was the inspiration. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–”Otravida, Otravez” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, All Songs Considered, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, The Decemberists on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Live at the Newport Folk Festival [excerpts] (downloaded from NPR) (2010).

The Decemberists played at the Newport Folk Festival this year. NPR audio has an excerpt for free listen/download on their audio site.

They say that they were not going to play the entire Hazards of Love album at this show, as had been their wont on this tour.  I’m not sure what their entire set consisted of, but the three excerpts here include: “The Crane Wife Pt 3,” “Yankee Bayonet” and a very extended “Sons and Daughters.”

It surprises me how well The Decemberists work in a live setting.  I think of their music as  complex and convoluted with strange instrumentation, and yet, perhaps because of the theatricality of it all, it all sounds great in a live setting.

I can’t really imagine them releasing a proper live album, so for those of us who don’t get to concerts much, this is the next best thing (the recording quality is excellent–I only wish it was their whole set).

[READ: October 12, 2010] “Otravida, Otravez”

Junot Díaz is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I didn’t like this story in the beginning because I couldn’t tell for quite some time the gender of the narrator.  Normally this doesn’t make a difference, but when the narrator climbs into bed with the man in the room, I had a hard time deciding if this was a subversive act or just a straight act of romance.  [I admit that since the author was male, I assumed the narrator was male, too].

It turns out the narrator is a woman (there is a clue when he says “Yasmin,” but in the first read I was unclear if he was saying her name or just a name in general).

In fact, to me, the entire beginning was very strangely set up and it took a few paragraphs (when she describes her job) before I felt the flow really took off.  However, once it did I found this story fascinating and convoluted in a very good and clever way. (more…)

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Jeffrey Eugenides–”The Oracular Vulva” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jeffrey Eugenides, LGBTQ, Nature, New Yorker, Research, Rush, Scholarship, Sex, Short Story on November 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“BU2B” (2010).

I’m a little freaked out that Rush has a song that is just initials (it’s so text message-y).  And, listening to the lyrics tells me that the 2 is for “to.”  That is no way for 50-some year-old men to behave!

Of course, neither is the pounding heavy song that is “Bu2B.”  Like “Caravan,” the song opens with a dark and dirty riff.  The song is not as complex as “Caravan” although it also features a quieter section.  After the verse, the quiet bridge comes as a more natural progression (and it, too has some strong bass stuff going on).

What’s fascinating about the song is that despite its heaviness, it is layered with some really delicate keyboards that plink along the top of the sections.  It showcases both sides of Rush in one track.  And lyrically it’s quite dark as well.

These two early release songs have me really excited for the new album, Clockwork Angels, due out in 2011.

[READ: October 11, 2010] “The Oracular Vulva”

Jeffrey Eugenides was the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I really enjoyed Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, and I regard him highly as a writer (even though I haven’t read very much else by him).  About midway through reading this story I realized it must be an excerpt from Middlesex (which I haven’t read, but hope to one of these days).   The bad thing about realizing this is that it impacted my reading of the end, making it kind of hard to assess the story as a story (which, I realize it isn’t, so maybe it’s moot anyhow).

This excerpt focuses on Dr. Peter Luce (the famous sexologist).  The title of the story certainly implies a degree of sexology, right?  I was surprised however, that the story opens with the doctor in a jungle, studying the Dawat tribe.  Luce, a very comfortable middle class sexologist is miserable out in the jungle, with crazy animal sounds, oppressive heat and, worst of all, little children trying to pull down his pants.

The doctor is studying this tribe because they have very specific gender roles–so specific, that the men and women are not permitted to interact with each other at all, except for once a month for three minutes, for procreation.  So, for sexual outlet, the men engage in oral sex with each other (semen being a very important thing for the young men to consume).  Yet no matter how progressive Dr Luce is, he simply can’t deal with the thought of this young boy, who is trying to do his culture’s most honorable thing.  (more…)

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Tony Earley–”The Wide Sea” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, New Yorker, Rush, Short Story, South, Tony Earley on November 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“Caravan” (2010).

I was watching a great, lengthy interview with Rush on CNN.  At the end of the interview they mentioned that Rush had released two new songs (somewhat unheard of for the band to release a “single”).  I had some extra download cash from Amazon, and was even able to get the “booklet” yeeha.  The song is also available on YouTube, if you want to check it out.

When a song throws you a curve, it’s really only a curve the first time you listen to it.  And boy, “Caravan” has crazy curves in it.  In fact, musically, “Caravan” is easily my favorite Rush song in years.

It opens with some faint chords and sound effects and then kicks in with a loud riff, the likes of which Rush has specialized in lately–heavy, heavy, nasty guitars.  The bass is insane throughout with some breakneck stuff, and then at the 1:30 mark, the bass slides and the song drops out into a delicate, gorgeous guitar piece; it surprised the heck out of me.  It’s brief and effective and sets the stage for the next heavy riff.

The beautiful quiet bit returns and is then followed by another twist: a mildly funky bass solo (which hasn’t featured prominently on the last few albums) which leads into a really cool instrumental mid section, that’s almost like a self-contained song.  All of this leads to one of Alex’s insane solos.  It’s noisy and crazy and wonderful.

I’m very excited about this new album.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “The Wide Sea”

Tony Earley is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

After several funny, clever and witty stories this rather simple story came as a bit of a welcomed respite.

This is a very straightforward story about Jim and his Uncle Al. They live in Aliceville (which, I had to look up, is in Alabama).  Jim takes many trips with Uncle Al “to see a man about a dog.”

This particular trip is Uncle Al’s chance to buy Belgian horses (Uncle Al and Uncle Zeno currently use mules on their farm).  They travel to South Carolina (which, looking on the map is quite far–over 550 miles!). (more…)

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Donald Antrim–”An Actor Prepares” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Donald Antrim, Drugs, New Yorker, Play (Drama), Set at School, Sex, Superchunk, William Shakespeare on November 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-Late Century Dream (2001).

A Superchunk song that opens with keyboards, “Late-Century Dream” is one of the most mellow singles that they’ve recorded (even more mellow than some of the acoustic songs they’ve done).

It’s followed by “The Length of Las Ramblas” an even more mellow track.  This one is also full of keyboards (sort of tinny, high pitched keyboards) and acoustic guitars.

Rocking guitars return on “Becoming a Speck” which reminds me of “1,000 Pounds.”  It’s a fast-paced, punchy song with a guitar solo that sounds like it might collapse on itself any minute.

“Florida’s on Fire” is an acoustic rendition of the song from Here’s to Shutting Up. Initially, when Superchunk was a punky bratty band, these acoustic numbers were kind of a novelty.  Now they showcase the extent of musicianship that the band possesses, and this one is no exception.

It’s a good EP, and the last one that I bought prior to their return this year.  They have a couple other ones that I’m going to try to track down.  But in the meantime, it’s all Majesty Shredding.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “An Actor Prepares”

Donald Antrim is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 issue.

This story is a funny look at college theater.  The subject is not terribly new, and yet there are so many wonderful details and the theater teacher is so over the top that this story was completely enjoyable.

The narrator is Reginald Barry, Dean of Student Life and Wm. T. Barry Professor of Speech and Drama at Barry College (ha!) and this semester his students will be performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream.   I had to look up some of the quotes in the story to make sure they were actually from the play (I didn’t know the line “Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me” was in Shakespeare), but they are, and Antrim takes lines like this and runs with them.

Barry has wonderful plans for this production which he envisions outside on the grounds of the campus, with a culminating orgy occurring just as the fireflies come out. (more…)

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Chang-rae Lee-”The Volunteers” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Chang-Rae Lee, David Bowie, Death, History, Military, New Yorker, Pornography, Sex, Short Story, Superchunk, Violence, War on November 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-1,000 Pounds (2000).

This EP has four tracks: an acoustic version of the title song and, for the first time that I’m aware of, a cover track.

“1,000 pounds” is another great Superchunk single.  It’s boppy and catchy and there’s more and more instrumentation thrown into the mix–acoustic guitars, more strings, a crazy sounding guitar solo with effects I don’t recognize.  It’s also another song where the title is sort of thrown into the chorus without making it sound like the focus of the chorus–another fun Superchunk trick.

The acoustic version subverts the original somewhat with a strange swing vibe.  And speaking of vibes, there are actual vibes in the song.  It almost sounds like a different song entirely.

The second song, “White Noise” is a no longer novel twist to a Superchunk song (they’ve been throwing in so many twist to their sound that it’s impossible to pin them down to anything).  There’s a cool guitar and bass line that sound, somehow, unlike anything else they’ve done.  The soloing is also pervasive, running throughout the verses.  It’s a very cool song.

The big surprise comes in their cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters.”  Their version is noisy and feedback-filled with crazy guitar solos throughout some of the choruses.  It’s full of reckless abandon and is one of their craziest track in some time.  And really it sounds almost nothing like the original.

It’s a great EP and worth tracking down.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “The Volunteers”

Chang-rae Lee is the next writer in the New Yorker’s 1999 20 Under 40 collection.

This story is set during World War II.  However, unlike most WWII stories that I have read, this one is told from the point of view of Japanese soldiers (specifically, it is narrated by a Korean-born, Japanese-raised medic).

The narrator, Lieutenant Kurohata, is friendly with an inferior soldier, Corporal Endo.  He and Endo are from the same town so they have a friendship which, when they are alone, supersedes their ranking differences (although Kurohata is a little uncomfortable about that).  Endo, like many soldiers, is somewhat obsessed with a series of photos of naked women.  He is constantly trading for new ones and then showing them (surreptitiously) to Kurohata.  Kurohata is not terribly impressed with the behavior–he seems more mature in general–although he also implies that he is not very sexual–and he finds the whole proceedings somewhat beneath him. (more…)

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Antonya Nelson–”Party of One” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Antonya Nelson, Funny (ha ha), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Suicide, Superchunk on October 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK Hello Hawk (1999).

Hello Hawk is another of my favorite Superchunk songs (and it’s vastly different from “Hyper Enough”).  It opens with some really interesting guitar noodling.  And then after a bridge that promises a noisy chorus, the chorus backs down into another gentle section (followed by the loud and heavy post chorus…a neat trick).  This song is also laden with strings (!).  And it’s catchy as heck.

The second song, “Sexy Ankles” sounds (recording style-wise) like early 60s rock and roll.  It’s quite odd for Superchunk, although it rocks nicely at the end.

The final three tracks are acoustic version of songs from the Come Pick Me Up album.  The paradox: as the original songs grow less heavy and rocking, these acoustic versions become less dramatic as interpretations of them.  And yet, since the originals are growing more complex, these acoustic versions sound even better than previous acoustic versions of their older songs.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “Party of One”

Antonya Nelson is another of the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 writers.  I’d never heard of her before seeing this story, but I enjoyed it enough to want to check out more of her stuff.  This is the story of a broken love affair.  And yet it has so many different angles, and so many wonderful observations (and disarming frankness), that it struck me as a wonderfully original and enjoyable story.  Even the way she used the title was clever.

First the breakup.  It is not the main character who is breaking up, but rather her sister.  The main character is meeting her sister’s lover, who is married.   He is getting cold feet and her sister is despondent.  What is wonderfully twisted about the story is that the sister has a had a previous affair with a married man and when that affair ended, she tried to kill herself.  I hate to reveal this tasty piece of information, but it really highlights the interesting angles of this story–the affair was with her the narrator’s husband.  [Woah]. (more…)

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William T. Vollmann–”The Saviors” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Anarchy, Big Books, Communists, Death, New Yorker, Russia, Short Story, Superchunk, Threats, Violence on October 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-“watery hands” (1997).

Even though I enjoy the manic energy of early Superchunk, I find myself really enjoying the later, more “sophisticated” songs.

“Watery Hands” continues this more “sweet” sound that Superchunk has been exploring.  It also includes a cool break that offers a little bass solo as well as even more keyboards (so it seems that the keyboard experiment pleased them).

Meanwhile, the final song, the “watery wurlitzer mix” of water hands is a goofy track, probably the first throwaway track on a Superchunk EP.  And yet, having said that it’s a catchy and silly little ditty, heavy on the wurlitzer and oddball keyboard sounds, which all but eliminates the original, except for faint traces of guitar that pop up here and there.

The middle track “With Bells On” is a decent mid-tempo song.  Nothing terribly exciting but even unexciting Superchunk is usually pretty good.

[READ: October 9, 2010] “The Saviors”

William T. Vollmann was the next writer in the New Yorker’s 1999 20 Under 40 collection.

I have heard a lot about Vollmann.  And I have read a few articles by him.  But I’m sort of daunted by his output.  And this is the first piece of his fiction of that I’ve read.

I don’t know if this is representative of his work, although from what I understand it kind of is.  This is historical fiction loaded down with details (some details which I have to assume he’s made up).  This story compares the lives of Fanya Kaplan and Nadezhda Konstantinova Krupskaya.  (As with so many Russian based stories, those names are hard to keep straight as the story goes along).

In the first paragraph we learn that Fanya Kaplan tried to assassinate Lenin on August 30, 1918.  She was captured and later executed on September 3.  In the second paragraph, we learn that Nadezhda Konstantinova Krupskaya was Lenin’s wife. (more…)

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