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Archive for the ‘New Yorker’ Category

Junot Díaz–“The Money” (New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

Posted in AV Club, Billy Idol, Canadian Music, Essays, Gary Numan, Junot Díaz, Memoirs, New Yorker, Sloan on July 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-“Cars” (2011).

When Sloan went to the A.V. Club to record their cover, they were disappointed by the selection.  Of course, that’s the game, so suck it up Sloan.  But they decided to do Gary Numan’s “Cars.”

Now, I feel compelled  to say that Gary Numan’s “Cars” may be my least favorite song of all time (it’s very close to Billy Idol’s “Eyes without a Face”).  I understand that “Cars” was “groundbreaking” or whatever.  But gah, it is boring and monotonous and just awful (and I say that while admitting that I like Phillip Glass, so i know from monotonous).  While I will admit that the riff is pretty great, everything about the song, from the performance to its endlessness (it’s like 8 minutes long, right?) drives me nuts.

And that may be why I love this cover so much.  It keeps the riff but it adds music to it.  All of that horrible “one guy with a cheap keyboard” sound is taken away.  It’s replaced by a great full-sounding band bringing live joy to the song.  I love that the whiny keyboard is replaced by a guitar and that the drummer rocks the hell out of the ending.  I mean really rocks the hell out of it.  Well done, Sloan.  You’ve been a favorite for years, and you’ve now redeemed my most hated song.  I think Billy Idol just peaked on my list.

You can watch it here.

[READ: July 20, 2011] “The Money”

Junot Díaz’ story in the New Yorker’s Fiction Issue is also a Starting Out piece.  This story is about how his mother always sent money home to her family.  No matter how little money they had, she would always scrimp and save and stash away until she had a few hundred dollars to send every six moths or so.

From Diaz’ other work, we assume that he was not a model citizen as a youth, but even he knew not to tamper with his mother’s money.  (Stealing from her purse was one thing, but the wrath of stealing from the “to be sent money” was unfathomable).

Then one week when they go on vacation they return to see that their house has been robbed!  Some of Junot’s things were taken as well as the money.  The Money!   (more…)

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Jennifer Egan–“Archeology” (New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

Posted in AV Club, Biography, Essays, Jennifer Egan, Josh Caterer, New Yorker, Nostalgia, Smoking Popes, The Onion, Travel on July 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSH CATERER-“Ask” (2011).

Josh Caterer is the main guy behind The Smoking Popes, whose first album, Born to Quit, Morrissey has said was his favorite –and which is also not only no longer in print, it’s not available on Spotify! (the first album that I have looked for which was not available).

Anyhow, this cover comes from The Onion’s A.V. Club’s Undercover series.  (The current series offers a list of 25 songs from which the bands can choose to cover–but each time a song is chosen, it is removed from the list.  Soon, bands will cover songs they may not even like!)

Anyhow again, this cover is delightful.  I was going  to say that “Ask” is one of my favorite Smiths songs, but I think they’re all my favorite songs.  Nevertheless, this one is pretty high on my list.  And this version is, indeed delightful.  Caterer is accompanied by a guitar, a violin and a viola.  The strings cover most of those catchy melodies, while the guitars keep the song propulsive (you don’t even miss a rhythm section).  Caterer’s voice, while not as distinctive as Morrissey’s is perfect for the song.

Overall, an excellent cover.  Watch it here.

[READ: July 20, 2011] “Archeology”

This was the first of five “Starting Out” pieces in the New Yorker’s fiction issue.  The Starting Out pieces are one page (or less) and are a look into the author’s childhood/adolescence.

Egan, who wrote  A Visit from The Goon Squad, talks about what she wanted to be as a child.  First, she wanted to be a surgeon.  She saw blood and that was the end of that.  Then she thought that maybe she could be an archaeologist.  She desperately wanted to become one, even sending her resume (which was: high school and a desire to dig) to every place she could think of (only one even bothered to write back). (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“Married Love” (New Yorker, October 8, 2007)

Posted in Judy Blume, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Surf Punks, Tessa Hadley, Wavves on July 24, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WAVVES-King of the Beach (2010).

I feel like I shouldn’t like Wavves.  There’s os much to dislike about them (or him,  I should say, since it’s almost entirely the product of one guy). He’s bratty, fans seem to dislike him (do a search for Wavves live), and in the first live show that I downloaded, he seemed a bit disdainful of the audience.

And yet, I really like this album. It’s fast and punky and reminds me of some of the best summer punk music from my high school days (Surf Punks anyone?).

So Williams plays all the instruments (with a few exceptions), and the sound is consistent through: a trebly guitar (the perfect sound for surf music, although he doesn’t play surf music at all).  Fast punky drums and William’s voice which is not so much whiny as bratty–the lyrics play out this bratty idea too:

bet you laugh right behind my back/I won’t ever die/I’ll go surfing in my mind/I’m not supposed to be a kid/but I’m an idiot/I’d say I’m sorry/but it wouldn’t mean shit

or

My, my own friends/Hate my guts/So what? Who gives a fuck?

(from “Green Eyes,” which sounds like a ballad but soon rocks out).

Of course, it’s not all just punky tracks, “When Will You Come” has the drums of a 50’s doo wop song (no one would mistake it for a doo-wop song, though) including his falsetto’d voice.  And “Baseball Cards” has a similar inspiration–although again, sounding nothing really like that style of music.  Even “Mickey Mouse” opens with what sounds like the music from “Da Doo Ron Ron” (indeed it is a sample from the song, but manipulated slightly).

“Convertible Balloon” sounds like a quirky Japanese pop confection.  And, “Post Acid” which is a punky bratty song has a wonderful part where the song stops and they make crazy grunting sounds which I like very much.

It’s not smooth summer music by any means, but it is fun and energizing.  Perfect punk beach soundtrack.

[READ: July 11, 2011] “Married Love”

This story had me fooled from the outset.

Recently we listened to Judy Blume’s Fudge-a-mania.  In that story Fudge, who is 5, says that he is going to marry Sheila Tubman, his big brother’s arch nemesis.  Everyone laughs, and we ultimately learn why he wants to marry her (I won’t spoil it).  In this Tessa Hadley story, Lottie, a nineteen year old girl (who looks about thirteen) announces that she is going to get married.  As in Fudge-a-mania, the family is bemused by the idea and laughs about it, until Lottie reveals that she is quite serious.

Things get even “funnier” when the family learns who she is planning to marry: Edgar Lennox, a former teacher who is forty-five years older than her and who is currently married.  Ha Ha Ha, says her family until, Oh, she is serious.

The story surprises even further when they go through with the wedding (about half way through the story). (more…)

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Julian Barnes–“Homage to Hemingway” (New Yorker, July 4, 2011)

Posted in Bjork, Bon Iver, Books about writers, Ernest Hemingway, Humiliation, Julian Barnes, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, S. Carey, Short Story, Twin Peaks on July 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: S. CAREY-Live at Sasquatch Music Festival, May 29, 2011 (2011).

I learned about S. Carey through NPR.  S. Carey is the drummer for Bon Iver and he set out on his own playing these cool, atmospheric songs.  What I like best about them is that they feature the vibes.

The whole set has a cool, chilled out sound.  The vocals are slow and dream-like (I’m sure there are lyrics, but I don’t know them) and at times he sounds not unlike Dallas Green from City and Colour.

When Sean (he is the S.) Carey banters with the crowd, he’s very friendly and relaxed.  I especially like the anecdote about going to the Twin Peaks Cafe and hearing Audrey’s music from the show (which the band then plays).  The Twin Peaks sounds melds perfectly with their own sound, which should give you an idea of what the band sounds like.

The songs are about 4 or five minutes except for “Mothers” which tops out at over 8 minutes and actually gets pretty raucous by the end.  For this band it’s a wild song ending.  It’s a good set.  And the surprise cover of Björk’s “Unravel,” which melds perfectly with “All We Grow” is a nice treat.

I don’t know if I’d want to see them live (I like my shows a bit more uptempo) but it’s a great relaxing set.  Of course, having said that, the final track, “Leave” is the most conventional-sounding with a really catchy chorus and a somewhat faster pace.  It’s my favorite song of theirs.

[READ: July 13, 2011] “Homage to Hemingway”

Like the students in this story, I was initially put off by the title of this book because I have grown to dislike Hemingway (probably unfairly, more of a decades-long, knee-jerk reaction to him). But I’m glad I read it because of a couple of things.  One: it was a good story.  Two: it is actually an homage to one of Hemingway’s stories (called “Homage to Switzerland”) so it’s doubly meta-.

In “Homage to Switzerland,” there are three brief stories.  In each one an American man waits for a train in a Swiss station.  Each man follows the same basic trajectory in the story, meeting a waitress but having no real resolution.  Perhaps the men, even though they had different names, were maybe the same person.

Barnes’ story also has three parts, although it is pretty clear that the man is the same in each part, despite their different section titles.  In 1. The Novelist in the Countryside he helps students with their fiction (I rather like reading stories about fiction writing classes, as odd as that sounds). (more…)

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Alice Munro–“Gravel” (New Yorker, June 27, 2011)

Posted in Alice Munro, Boredom, Canadian Content, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Noël, Pleszyński, Maćkowiaka, Potty Umbrella, Short Story on July 21, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: POTTY UMBRELLA-4 Tracks on MySpace (2007).

The internet is a fascinating thing.  While looking up Basia Bulat, I stumbled upon a Polish music website.  That site featured a review of an album by Noël, Pleszyńskiego, Maćkowiaka.  It turns out that Artur Maćkowiak was also in a band called Potty Umbrella.  And Potty Umbrella have a MySpace page with 4 songs on it from their 2007 album Forte Furioso.  

Potty Umbrella is a (mostly) instrumental band that plays pretty great alternative/psychedelic/ jazzy rock.  I suppose they’re a jam band, although the Polish language SavageSaints blog (technically called … którędy pójdą dzicy święci) describes them as “New wave of Polish post-jazz.”

The songs are wonderful.  “Gone” opens with the waving guitar and delicate riffs of an Explosions in the Sky song.  But it soon shifts with the propulsive bass of a jazz song.  It’s a wonderful medley of the two styles.  And when the keyboards come over the top, it adds yet another layer of musical stew to this mix.

“Jet Lag” continues the manic fun with a 6 minute  (actually most  of the songs are 6 minute) blast of energy.  Crashing drums open a sinister spy-movie theme (with wicked-sounding guitar lines).  By the middle of the song, wah wah guitars and super fast keyboards have converted this into a cool jam.

The track “Dr. Pizdur” is wonderfully wild, with some great keyboard sounds over the top of the funky guitar/bass lineup.  And the live track “Nymph’s Song” (sung in rather forced English) rocks really hard.

Potty Umbrella will never have a big following in the States (although there are YouTube videos of them playing in Canada), but the underground fanclub can start right here.

[READ: June 24, 2011] “Gravel”

Readers here know that I love Alice Munro.  I think that she is one of the best short stories writers around.   Of course, if you know what other kinds of writers I like you might be surprised by this declaration–because I love florid prose.  But Alice Munro is the antithesis of that.  She writes succinct stories, with very little in the way of flourishes.  Sometimes they have action, but usual there’s very little and, like in this story, the action is not the point of the story.  And yet for all of that, the stories are quite powerful.

This is the story of a young girl (written from the point of view of the girl when she is an adult).  When her parents separated she, her mother and her older sister Caro moved to a trailer park (with their dog Blitzee).  The reason her parents separated is because her mother became pregnant.  And she told everyone that the baby was Neal’s.  Neal was an actor in the town’s summer theater troupe (he drifted from job to job but always had enough to get by).

Caro was a headstrong girl, but since this is her sister’s story we see Caro’s actions from her sister’s perspective.  On two occasions, Caro sneakily brought Blitzee to their old house (where their father still lived)–pretending that he had run back to the house.  The parents were amazed and perplexed at first, but caught on when it happened again so soon. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“The Swan” (New Yorker, February 19, 2007)

Posted in Basia Bulat, Drugs, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Noël, Pleszyński, Maćkowiaka, Short Story, Suicide, Tessa Hadley on July 20, 2011| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: NOËL, PLESZYŃSKI, MAĆKOWIAK-“Salty Air” (2011).

While looking for videos of Basia Bulat, I stumbled upon a Polish music site.  The site featured a review of this album and a free stream of this song.

The album is a collaboration of artists Ann Noël, Grzegorza Pleszyńskiego and Artura Maćkowiaka (Ann Noël, Grzegorz Pleszynski and Artur Maćkowiak).  Their website explains the collaboration (in translated English obviously):

It is for the first time that Fluxus artist Ann Noël and a visual artist Grzegorz Pleszynski engage in a music venture. For Maćkowiak, a musician from Potty Umbrella and Something Like Elvis, this project has become an unprecedented way to go beyond rock band routines known for years.

Potty Umbrella?  Love it.

Anyhow, this is experimental improv music of the most fascinating kind. Especially since, “Ann and Grzegorz have never played music or any instrument.”  The site allows you to listen to all of the tracks.  “In Emmet’s Bag” is a spoken word piece in the spirit of Laurie Anderson (the spoken part is in English).  And “Hey Man!” is a pretty conventional guitar with spoken word piece.

But it’s this track, “Salty Air” that I keep coming back to.  It opens with some guitar waves. Then a simple repeated riff entrs the mix.  And after a minute or so, distorted, echoed vocals speak underneath the music.  I think it’s in English but that’s irrelevant because the repeating and echoing makes it almost incomprehensible.

It doesn’t evoke a mood so much as a kind of helplessness.  But it’s a beautiful helplessness.  Especially when the second voice comes in, sounding almost inhuman as it moans over the top of everything else.  It’s quite a track.

 You can hear this song (and others, and download the CD for $.50) at their site.

[READ: July 10, 2011] “The Swan”

“The Swan” was a wonderfully dark and confusing story.  I loved everything about it.  It opens with the very simple scene of David coming home from work and knowing something was wrong.  His wife Suzie is acting very strange, and where the hell is the car?  Suzie tells him that she was hit by a car and that her car was totalled.  Why didn’t she call him at work?  She didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

He doesn’t know what to think so he turns his anger towards his seventeen year old son (from his first marriage).  Jamie is upstairs in his room, smoking pot and more or less ignoring everything around him (a trait he has perfected).  When David finally breaks through to Jamie, he learns the truth–Suzie was hit by a swan.

The story unfolds a little more: Suzie imagined that the swan was David’s first wife, coming to give her a message.  David is more freaked out by this than Suzie seems to be.  He can’t understand why suddenly all these years later, she is so upset about his first wife (who died, before David met Suzie, by the way).  Suzie wants to know why David never talked about her (she didn’t want to know back then).  And then finally she winds up spending most of her time with a sketchy woman across town. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“A Mouthful of Cut Glass” (New Yorker, June 6, 2005)

Posted in Culture Shock, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Romance, Short Story, Stars, Tessa Hadley, The Kopecky Family Band, Tiny Desk Concert on July 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KOPECKY FAMILY BAND-Embraces EP (2008).

I learned about Kopecky Family Band from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.  When I investigated further, I found that I could download this EP for free. I compared their Tiny Desk show favorably to The Head and the Heart.  This earlier EP has a bit more punky edge to it (as their other stuff may as well–Tiny Desk doesn’t really lend towards punk).

And so this EP leads me to compare them more towards Stars.  But perhaps we’ll call them a more acoustic version of Stars.  There is some wonderfully intense musical construction on this EP, and the dynamic of the duel vocalists really bring great tensions.

This is a wonderful EP.  The strings belie the rather heavy chords  (especially on “Trainwreck”) and the harmonies throughout are really infectious.

[READ: June 30, 2011] “A Mouthful of Cut Glass”

I’ve really enjoyed Tessa Hadley’s recent stories in The New Yorker.  So I decided to go back through their archives and read the other stories of hers that they have published.  It turns out that she has been published in the New Yorker since 2002.  But many of the earlier stories were collected in her previous collection which I’ll read one of these days.  But rather, I started with the first ones that have yet to be collected.

“A Mouthful of Cut Glass” is a conflation of two expressions, neither of which I was familiar with: “talking through a mouth full of plums” and “an accent like cut glass.”  The malaprop came from the protagonist’s boyfriends’ mother.  And yet, I say protagonist as if Shiela is the real protagonist.  The story quite clearly opens with Neil.

In 1952 Neil was born into a very poor household.  But over the years, he was able to rise above his sattion and become a successful University student.  It was at University that Neil met Sheila.  Sheila grew up in a vicar’s house with a gaggle of brothers and sisters.  The two of them hit it off very well and began a serious relationship. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“Clever Girl” (New Yorker, June 6, 2011)

Posted in Gods, Marriage (Happy), Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, Tessa Hadley on June 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Happy Songs for Happy People (2003).

Happy Songs for Happy People follows up Rock Action with more sedate music from Mogwai.  In fact, while Rock Action was pretty mellow (with a few bursts of noise) HMFHP is even more mellow.

Although it does open with a rocking track: “Hunted By a Freak.”  “Hunted” is one of Mogwai’s best songs.  It opens the disc with a catchy riff, some cool synthesized vocals and great washes of sounds.  It’s great on record and even better live.  But starting with “Moses I Am’n’t” the album takes a decidedly more mellow approach.  “Moses” is a song of slow washes layered on each other. There’s interesting textural sounds on display, but not a lot of melody.  It leads to “Kids Will Be Skeletons,” another mellow layered song.  It has a simple melody with delicate (!) keyboard washes.

But just when you think Mogwai have gone all soft, “Killing All the Flies” adds some intense sounds to the disc. It is similarly structured to the earlier songs on the disc, although it has some rather happy-sounding guitar lines in it.  It also grows in intensity about two-thirds of the way through.

“Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep” (sic) is a short, quiet song with subdued vocals.  It’s followed by “Ratts of the Capital” the only really long song here (8 and a half minutes).  It opens in this more subdued vein (is that a glockenspiel I hear?), but by 4 and a half minutes all you hear is guitar–growing louder and louder.  There are solos buried in the noise that threaten to explode out of the speakers, but they ultimately seem to hold back a wee bit.

“Golden Porsche” mellows things out again with a very pretty, very simple song (almost 3 minutes of beautiful melody) that reminds me of the interludes in Twin Peaks.  “I Know You Are But What Am I?” opens with a tense kind of piano (with some slightly off chords).  They merge with pretty keyboard notes which counteract the somewhat sinister feel of the main riff.

The disc ends with “Stop Coming to My House” (Mogwai have always excelled at song titles).  It’s a very subdued track (quiet drums propel waves of keyboards) and as the songs continues, more and more waves layer on each other until it just all fades away.

I obviously prefer the louder, more raucous Mogwai tracks, so these two albums are not what I think of when I think Mogwai.  These two albums feel like the work of a more mature, more restrained band–as if they are deliberately trying to put constraints on their music to see what they can achieve.  But even if they are less intense, the songs are wonderfully structured and show a still show a great emotional range.

[READ: June 07, 2011] “Clever Girl”

This was a fascinating story and is yet another story by Tessa Hadley that I really enjoyed.  And it’s another story that I didn’t realize was set in England until the fourth paragraph, which opens “Mum unpacked.”

Anyhow, this story follows Stella, a young girl whose family moves to a small suburb that has recently been developed (trees were cut down and none newly planted).  Stella and her mother used to live alone together for many years, but recently Stella’s mom met Norbert.  They married and moved into this new suburban house.

The story is told in past tense about the events from Stella’s childhood.  But there are occasional moments where the narrator pops in and offers some moments of “grown up Stella” perspective–like maybe she could have been nicer to Norbert.  Grown up Stella realizes that Nortbert was really perfect for her mom (especially since she was an older woman,  with a grown daughter).  At the time, she thought that Norbert seemed okay, but the whole move has upset her sensibilities.  [I also love that Norbert is known as “Nor,” which is wonderfully contradictory.] (more…)

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Simon Rich–“Trade” (New Yorker, May 30, 2011)

Posted in Baseball, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Mogwai, New Yorker, Romance, Simon Rich on June 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-5 Track Tour Single (2001).

I usually am able to track provenance of my discs pretty well, but this one I am only largely certain came from my friend Lar (sorry Lar, the memory is not what it used to be).  But where else would I have gotten a CD from a Mogwai show if I’ve never seen them live?

This promotional bauble is a delightful collection of 5 songs (duh).  The first three are studio recordings that were pretty much unavailable elsewhere (I read some sit that explained where you could’ve gotten them beforehand, but let’s just say unavailable).  And the live tracks were also unreleased.

The three studio tracks, “Close Encounters,” “Drum Machine” and “D to E” are very pretty, rather delicate instrumentals.  I would say that they are uncharacteristic of Mogwai, except that Rock Action was a pretty mellow album.  Nevertheless, even for Mogwai these are especially mellow and pretty.

The final two tracks are live: “You Don’t Know Jesus” is from Rock Action, and this live version is a bit more dramatic than the album release.  The final track is the amazing “New Paths to Helicon (Part II),” a song which never suffers from a lack of drama.

This is a pretty great tour artifact.

[READ: May 30, 2011] “Trade”

I was a little skeptical of this Simon Rich piece because I find that sports metaphors don’t always pan out, especially for a (somewhat) longish comedy piece.  But Rich manages to make the whole thing not only funny but also fit within the confines of the metaphor.

For this is the story of a breakup told as if it were a baseball trade.

Josh is traded by his girlfriend Kate.  He is devastated; he thought he was doing very well on her team.  But when he speaks with his brother Craig (who offers condolences and a trade story of his own), he realizes that his relationship numbers were not up to stuff.   But Josh is really devastated when he finds out who he was traded for (when he meets the man to exchange Kate’s apartment keys). (more…)

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Kate Walbert–“M&M World” (New Yorker, May 30, 2011)

Posted in Consumerism, Kate Walbert, Marriage Trouble, Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, Super Furry Animals on June 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Rock Action (2001).

After all of Mogwai’s releases over the years (and all the various compilations and imports and whatnot, it’s hard to believe that Rock Action was only their third proper full length release.

I just recently learned that the song “Dial: Revenge” has vocals by Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals (the lyrics are in Welsh, apparently so that it would sound like gibberish to most of the English-speaking audience (SFA released a wonderful album sung entirely in Welsh, called Mwng).   This song is a very delicate  piece which reminds me in some ways of later Mercury Rev (Rock Action was produced by Dave Fridmann who produces Mercury Rev).  It’s got a soaring “chorus” and strings.

“Sine Wave” opens the disc with some heavily distorted noises that seem to be fighting with some echoed guitar notes.  The song feels different from other Mogwai songs but it doesn’t really sound different–it’s clearly Mogwai.  “Take Me Somewhere Nice” is perhaps the most conventional song Mogwai have done.  It has a verse/chorus structure and even has whispered vocals–that follow a melody.  The biggest surprise has to be the strings that overlay the top–they’re a bit disconcerting at first, but it quickly shows how well the band can pull this off.  It’s followed by something of a continuation of that song with the 59 second “O I Sleep,” a simple piano track with Stuart’s whispered vocals over the top.

“You Don’t Know Jesus” falls into more typical Mogwai territory.  It’s a 9-minute epic which somehow build and builds even though it feels like it’s all crescendo–until the last few moments trail off into quiet notes.

The one minute “Robot Chant” is more noise, but it leads into the surprisingly upbeat “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong.”  This is a faster track, which builds for over 9 minutes.  The middle part slows down so you can really hear the synthesized voice over the proceeding.  You can eventually hear the banjo as well.

The disc ends with the pretty ballad, “Secret Pint.”  It’s a simple piano based song (with lyrics). The recording is very clear (you can hear all of the dynamics of that opening cymbal).  While it could never be a hit, it easy certainly their most accessible track.

Rock Action is a different kind of Mogwai album: slower, more deliberate, with conventional music structures but which is in no way a commercial record.  It’s also less dramatic than albums (or EPs) past.  If you want soaring epic Mogwai, this is not your album (even the 2 nine-minute songs aren’t as dramatic as previous songs), but it’s a welcome addition to Mogwai’s repertoire.

[READ: May 27, 2011] “M&M World”

I didn’t know that there really is a M&M’s World in Times Square, but apparently there is.  And it sounds like a nightmare!

Anyhow, the story begins with Ginny agreeing to finally take her kids to M&M’s World.  Her girls are Olivia and Maggie and they have been dying to go to M&M’s World forever.  The kids march down the street, looking in all the shop windows until they finally reach the destination.

Walbert describes the store in all of its bustling glory–and given her details I’ve no doubt it’s exactly as she describes: busy, crowded, noisy, overstimulating. (more…)

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