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Archive for the ‘McSweeney’s’ Category

Dan Martin–All Known Metal Bands (2008)

Posted in Bathory, Books about music, Canadian Music, Cirith Ungol, Dan Martin, Dip-in Books, Funny (strange), Kerrang, Manowar, McSweeney's, Slayer, Venom on July 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Metal Shop (radio program 1980’s).

Back in high school, my friend Al and I listened to this syndicated radio show, which always came back from commercials with “MumumumumumuMetal Shop.” The more I listened to the show, the more into metal I got. And, in high school I rebelled against pop music by delving deeply into the metal scene. I had one of those denim covered 3 ring binders with nearly 100 bands inked on it. Whenever I saw a logo in Kerrang or some other place, I added it, even if I never heard the band. It was good fun.

I also liked to find weird heavy bands to shock anyone who cared to listen (which was no one, actually). So, I have some albums from Bathory, and Venom, Cirith Ungol, and Manowar, sweet, ridiculous, Manowar. These bands all predated the really crazy death and black metal scenes. Somehow, even though Venom were “satan worshippers” they were still pretty goofy. I have a great VHS of Slayer and Venom live at Studio 54. It has some interviews with them afterwards, and they’re just a bunch of silly dudes.

My musical tastes have expanded greatly since those days, but after reading the book below, I may have to dust off my Bathory vinyl and see what it sounds like.

[READ: June 30, 2008] All Known Metal Bands.

This is one of those strange books that surfaces from time to time. What you get is a list of some 50,000 names of heavy metal bands. And that’s it. (Well, there’s an epigram and a concluding remarks pages, but otherwise just an alphabetical list of every metal band that Marin could find while surfig the web.)

Probably not worth the $20some but I joined the McSweeney’s 10 for $100 program, so I got this for $10, so I got that going for me.

It is certainly fun to see the names that have been used over the years. He mentions that some names were used by many different bands, and I do rather wish he had put parenthetical notes for how many of each band, or perhaps a country of origin, but what can you do.

UPDATE:  Why you should never post before reading the book: Even better than parentheses, he lists all of the times that a name was used.  So, you get a list that inlcudes Paranoia eight times!  It is actually quite funny, especially when you see some of the really obscure names that have been used multiple times.  So, thank you, Dan Martin, for doing that.  (Country of origin would have been very interesting but would have ruined the flow, admittedly.)

The seling point, such as it is, is the design. The cover is a beautiful dark blue and silver cloth, and the interior pages are all black with silver writing on it (of course). That probably goes some way to explaining the cost.

My interesting side note is that I started to read it last night (and, yes, I’m actually writing about this without having finished it, but COME ON, it’s 50,000 names), and just as I read the first three names, we had a power failure and I was cast into utter darkness. There was none more black.

[Secret devil worship sign].

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Faith Erin Hicks–Zombies Calling (2007)

Posted in 28 Days Later, Art Spiegelman, Canadian Content, Cherry Garcia, Consumerism, End of the World, Faith Erin Hicks, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Grateful Dead, McSweeney's, Oni Press, Phish, Scream, Set at School, Sirius Radio, Supernatural, Technology, Universities, YA Books, Zombies on June 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Sirius Radio-The Grateful Dead Channel

I’ve never been a big fan of the Dead (even though I like Phish quite a bit). I never really got into the subculture, and really the music seemed peripheral to their fanbase. I recall being very disappointed when I bought What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been back when I was a metal head and couldn’t believe that a band with that name and with skeletons all over the place was that wimpy.

Well, it turns out that Sarah was something of a fan, and, after all these years of listening to Phish, I’ve grown an appreciation for the Dead as well (and Cherry Garcia, of course).

So, as we have Sirius radio, we put on the Grateful Dead channel one night. It’s a fascinating channel, as it sounds like it’s some guy playing all of his Dead bootlegs. It was funny to not hear any LP tracks. I found the whole experience rather pleasant. It worked great as background music, and was utterly inoffensive (not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know but). I enjoyed the experience and would definitely do it again. Probably not anytime too soon, after all, that was a lot of Dead to ingest. But someday, I’m sure…

[READ: June 10, 2008] Zombies Calling

Aside from Oni Press, my favorite comics publisher is SLG, Slave Labor Graphics. They’re generally a little darker and weirder than the Oni stuff, so it suits my dark side when needed. (more…)

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Ben Greenman–Superworse (2004)

Posted in Ben Greenman, Books about writers, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, New Yorker, Short Books, Tanakh, The Wizard of Oz on June 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TANAKH-Tanakh (2004) [UPDATE]

I re-listened to this CD and actually changed my mind about my preference.  I prefer the 58 minute song to the 28 minute one.  And, even though I appreciate the duct-tape-as-musical-instrument aspect of “28,” it lacks a cohesion and a song structure.  “58” even though it is rambling and could have easily been 20 minutes shorter at least has the feeling of a song.  “28” feels just like a bunch of people improvising on whatever is at hand.  And while organized improv is great, sometimes noisy improv can just be noisy.

Incidentally, I notice don this listen that at the 54 minute mark of “58” the bassist hits a wrong note.  How much would that suck if the had to redo the whole song after 54 minutes!  I was amused by this quite a bit.  I guess that proves there were no overdubs.

[READ: May 29, 2008] Superworse

After finishing Superbad, I learned that there was a book called Superworse. It is a “remix” of Superbad. The premise is that for the softcover edition, Laurence Onge, the editor of the first book (and completely fictitious I am now certain), decided to reorganize Superbad and to include a Foreward, an Afterward and a Midward.

For the most part the rest of the book is the same. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #27 (2008)

Posted in Art, Art Spiegelman, Cancer as plot device, Ernest Goes to Camp, Gangsters, Graphic Novel, McSweeney's, Midnight Oil, Mikel Jollett, New Yorker, Stephen King, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Alarm, The Church, Torture Porn, Unlikable main character, Yuck! on June 1, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT-4 songs from My Space (2008).

Since the author of one of the stories below is the singer in this band, I thought I’d listen to them and see what they were all about. With a name like that I was expecting some kind of hardcore band. And that is NOT this band! They don’t have a record out yet, but they have some songs on MySpace here. The first song “Sometime Around Midnight” made me think of a couple of bands from the 90s: The Church and Midnight Oil, and possibly The Alarm. The vocals are mixed loudly in the mix, and there is an earnestness about the vocals which made me think of those bands. The second one, “Papillion” has a keyboard solo (!) over some fairly raucous simple melodies. The third song “This is Nowhere” is a fun indie rocker with a good staccato riff and a cool/spooky chorus harmony. And the fourth song “Innocence” was rocking and bouncy. I can’t get over the use of keyboards on songs where you wouldn’t expect them. I enjoyed these songs quite a bit, and will certainly check out the CD when it’s released.

[READ: May 30, 2008]: McSweeneys #27

This volume contains three books in a slipcase. Even though each is a small paperback, the overall package is quite nice. The slipcase has many tiny holes in it to look like skyscraper windows (or Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti). (more…)

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Ben Greenman–Superbad (2001)

Posted in Ben Greenman, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, New Yorker, Political Humor, Short Books, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Superbad, The Beautiful South on May 16, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEAUTIFUL SOUTH-Superbi (2007).

I reviewed all of the Beautiful South records a few posts back. This one had not been released in the US at the time, and as far as I can tell has yet to be. But I ordered the import and here it is. Reviewing this is somewhat irrelevant as the Beautiful South have officially disbanded. It’s quite a pity as this album shows no sign of creative drop off. In fact, this album is one of their best.

The variety of styles in songs is really impressive. And each song contains the trademarks of The Beautiful South: incredibly poppy/happy sounding songs with good verses and catchy choruses combined with acerbic lyrics about relationships breaking up, and, interestingly, inanimate objects.

Some songs: “Manchester” is such a wonderfully winning song, with the great line, “if rain made England great it made Manchester yet greater.” All along, with such a great catchy chorus…. Even a bleak song like “When Romance is Dead” comes out beautifully in a striking duet. And speaking of duets, there’s a new female voice added to TBS on this record. Alison Wheeler is number three. I guess the bitterness of Heaton’s lyrics are hard to take sometimes. Wheeler does a great job. She has a strong voice and maintains a continuation of style to the previous women:

Paul Heaton, the singer and de facto leader, released a solo album a few years back under the name Biscuit Boy, and it was much the same, if slightly more dancey. Story is that he’s got a new solo album coming out in July, and I’ll bet its pretty great too.

[READ: April 2008] Superbad.

I ordered this book from McSweeney’s and, as you’ve heard before, I didn’t know much about it. I did know it was not related to the movie of the same name, however. In fact, here’s a pretty funny letter from Greenman to Seth Rogen about the name Superbad. (more…)

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Robert Coover–Stepmother (2004)

Posted in Boston, MA, Fantasy, Lemonheads, McSweeney's, Paul Debraski, Robert Coover, Short Books on May 15, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The LEMONHEADS-The Lemonheads (2006).

I was a big fan of The Lemonheads back when they were riding the wave of indie pop fame back in the 1990s. Evan Dando was a poster boy of hunkiness, and he was paired with alt-pop-queen Juliana Hatfield. (Immortalized in the Barenaked Ladies song “Jane” in the line “no Juliana next to my Evan.”) I even lived near them in beautiful Allston, MA (although I never saw them). Sarah and I even used “Into My Arms” as the entrance song at our wedding reception.

Having a favorite band disband when they are doing pretty well is always a mixed blessing; obviously you don’t want them to break up, but you also don’t want to see them descend into badness.

But even weirder is what appears to be the inevitable reunion. So many 90s bands are reuniting for better or worse: Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets (although they never really went away), The PIxies (with no album…yet) and even the grandfathers: The Police. I’m not big into the “reunion” thing, as it mostly seems to be just a cash in, and I have yet to get the Dinosaur Jr. record–even though I loved them back then, and I hear it’s very good (and I still may get it)–but I had to go for the Lemonheads.

And I’m really glad I did. I regret not getting the solo Evan Dando records that came out (and are now out of print) because it’s clear that he hasn’t lost a thing. The songs on this record (even though they are not all written by Dando) sound like classic Lemonheads. The main difference is that the guitars are a bit louder, having something of a grunge feel that the Lemonheads never had even during the height of grunge (even though they were punkier on their early releases). The melodies and vocals feel like the Lemonheads, but something about it says “it’s been a while and we’ve learned some new tricks”

Right from the start though, it’s like welcoming back an old friend. Dando’s voice sounds great. The supremely catchy verse/chorus structure falls right into place, and the lyrics go from funny to vulgar and back. There’s not a bad song on the collection. They’re mostly short (about 3 minutes) and range from fun rollickers like “Black Gown” and “Poughkeepsie” to darkly countryish “Baby’s Home.” There’s even a few solos by head Dinosaur Jr man J Masics (which of course makes me want to get the new Dino Jr record). (more…)

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Stephen Dixon–End of I. (2006)

Posted in Books about writers, Funny (strange), Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Public Enemy, Short Books, Stephen Dixon, The Go! Team on May 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE GO! TEAM-Proof of Youth (2007).

I reviewed the first Go! Team record a few months ago. I really enjoyed it but I wondered what they could do for a follow up. And, indeed, I was right to wonder. This album follows very similarly to their first record. They use a similar style of cheerleader/chanting over fuzzed out dance songs. About half the songs are just as catchy as on the first record, but overall, the whole album just doesn’t live up to the first one.

Part of the problem is the guest rappers they add, and there are quite a few. On the first song. “Grip Like a Vice,” Lisa Lee does a rap that I’m still not convinced isnt’ lifted wholly from a 1980s rap album. The chorus ends: “Party people in the place, get ready for this To you! So what you wanna do? So do you wanna rock the house and turn this mutha out?” Really? That’s the best you can do in 2008? How many times have we heard this couplet before? I mean, heck, I understand the whole sound is retro but COME ON!

The second strike against the record is the use of Chuck D. Now, Chuck D is, simply, the greatest voice in rap. Or speaking, or anything. He has a commanding presence, he has great rhythm, and he really made Public Enemy a force to be reckoned with. So, how could I complain about his use on this record? Well, because his voice is completely lost in the cacophony. You can barely hear him. What a waste of talent! I’ve listened to the song about 6 times and I’m still not sure what he’s saying. Public Enemy told us to Bring the Noise, but you could always hear Chuck telling us to bring it. Gah!

So, anyhow, the rest of the album contains this cacophonous mindset; however, because the cheerleader singers are high pitched girls, you can hear them over the static, the bass and the general sense of noise. You can’t help but hear that everything sounds kind of staticky. I know it’s done on purpose, but it just sounds like there’s a white noise machine on in the background.

(more…)

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Eric Hoffman & Gary Rudoren–Comedy By the Numbers (2007)

Posted in Dip-in Books, Eric Hoffman, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gary Rudoren, Lush, McSweeney's, Mr Show, Pretty Girls Make Graves, X-Ray Spex on May 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES-Elan Vital (2006).

Every time I listen to this record I think I’m not going to like it, and that is because I really don’t like the first song. I’ve never had a record that rubbed me so badly off the bat and then turned out to be such a fulfilling record overall.

I first heard PGMG when they first came out. I knew their band name from the Smiths’ song, so I had to see what they were about. But I was surprised to hear how unSmithsy they were. Their first two albums were great and then they seemed to go away for a while. When Elan Vital came out I’d read a few mixed reviews of it and it took me ages to pick it up. And, then, as I said, that first song…. I’m not sure what it is about the song that rubs me the wrong way. In and of itself it’s a very generic sounding song, but after listening to the rest of the album I think I figured out what i don’t like about song one.

The rest of the album is very sparse, almost angular, and yet they maintain an incredibly catchy aspect. There’s always at least one interesting part of every song. “Pyrite Pedestal” reminds one of later Lush, but only in the vocals, because Lush has always been kind of smooth and, well, lush. This song keeps the attitude of Lush, but sticks in a very simple melody line and instruments. The simplicity really highlights all of the aspects of the song…nothing is lost. And this is true for the rest of the songs as well. Each instrument, each vocal line, everything is so crisp, it really stands out.

As I’m reliving the record I’m realizing why it’s so hard to describe. It’s because although every song sounds like PGMG, the vocals are very strong and consistent and there’s a punk edge to everything, the styles of the songs vary greatly within the record. “Domino” is practically disco (but angry disco). And yet overall they remind me of X-Ray Spex. Andrea Zollo’s voice is less shrieky and much prettier than Poly Styrene’s and they are clearly post-grunge in their sensibilities, but they hearken back to the 1970s punk scene quite clearly.

Two other things that have changed in the band since their first two great albums: they’d added a keyboardist, who contributes really nice touches, and even carries one of the songs…but the keyboards never “soften” the songs. And, they use horns from time to time. I don’t recall if they did before but it does stand out in the mix now. (They are used to their detriment on the last song however. The main body of the song is quite good, but then it degenerates into a weird 4 minute keyboard and horn jam session. It’s as lame as it sounds. I don’t know what they were thinking ending their album like that.)

Oh, and so why don’t I like the first song? The whole album is clear sounding and immediate. Each song, with its differing styles and sounds is so unique. However, the first song sounds like they threw all of these elements together. There’s so much going on that it turns the whole song into mush. It sounds like a generic 90’s alternative song with layers of noise. But, don’t let that fool you. Skip track one and enjoy the awesome songs of Elan Vital

[READ: February 2008] Comedy By the Numbers.

A sample chapter of this book came with McSweeney’s 23. It was pretty funny so I bought the book. This is one of those strange books that McSweeney’s excels at: It seems like a joke and yet it is quite serious, except when it’s funny. So the premise is that this is a list of 169 comedy tropes that, once you master, will make you funny.

(more…)

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J. Storer Clouston–The Lunatic at Large (1899) [THE COLLINS LIBRARY No. 5 (2007)]

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), J. Storer Clouston, McSweeney's, Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, Paul Collins, Paul Simon, Smarty Pants, Star Trek, The Collins Library, Vampire Weekend on April 26, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-Vampire Weekend (2008).

There’s some hype surrounding this record. And of course, I wouldn’t have heard about it without the hype. But I have to say this is my favorite record in a long, long time. It has everything! It’s got really tight, fun catchy songs…some as short as 2 minutes. It has wonderfully pretentious lyrics, and outrageous instruments, like the mellotron and harpsichord. And yet somehow, it manages to avoid all manner of pretension. Rather, it’s just catchy as all get out.

I can’t even pick a favorite song, as they are all great in their own way. I’ve heard that this album is compared to Paul Simon and that it’s being described as AfroPop. I only see the Simon comparison on one song, and I’m not sure what AfroPop is exactly, so I can’t address that. But I will say that it reminds me of many different genres as the record speeds by. There’s even a retro ska feel to a couple of songs, and I do loves me some ska! No song overstays its welcome, and it all seems so effortless and joyful. I finally got to listen to it in the car on a warm night and it was absolutely perfect.

Yet despite all the simplicity and brevity, the album has a lot going on underneath it. The rhythms are fairly complex, the basslines are fantastic–not show offy, just busy–and yet they perfectly propel the songs along. And, since I love smart lyrics, I love these guys for their great couplets. The songs are smart, without being cute and even though they do boil down to basic love/lost love themes, the words within are original and wonderful.

I absolutely love this album.

[READ: April 10, 2008] The Lunatic at Large

This book is from 1899 and was reissued by McSweeney’s in 2007. I bought this book without knowing…anything about it. I’d certainly never heard of it before. I had put it aside with low expectations.

The introduction indicated that this book is a missing link between the humor of Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse. That was a promising idea, and I’m delighted to say that it is quite true.

(more…)

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McSweeneys #26 [“New Stories from Overseas”, “New Stories from Our Shores”, and “Where to Invade Next”] (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Contests, Daredevils, Discworld, Gangsters, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Political Humor, Short Story, The Riches, War, WMDs on April 8, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSE GONZALEZ-In Our Nature (2007).

I first heard Jose Gonzalez, as pretty much everyone did, in the Sony commercial. The one where thousands of superballs are dropped down a San Francisco street to the accompaniment of Gonzalez’ “Heartbeats”. It was a beautiful piece of video. And the song was really perfectly suited. A mellow ballad, which happened to be a cover of a song by a band called The Knife.

The rest of the album was similar: soft, beautifully played acoustic songs, hushed vocals, just very pretty.

Gonzales’ follow up doesn’t mess with the formula too much. He adds another player or two, to include some harmonies, and he does another cover (Cocteau Twins’ “Teardrops”) but overall the feeling is much the same. The Cocteau Twins cover is interesting for me because I have mentioned another Cocteau Twins cover in a review (by the Deftones) and this is yet another take on what I always assumed was an uncoverable band. This version strips the song down to its bare essentials but keeps the gorgeous melody intact. It’s quite striking.

There’s nothing especially fancy about Gonzalez’ guitar playing…he’s not trying to wow anyone with his virtuosity, which is nice. However, he is a very accomplished classical guitarist. He uses the classical techniques in his pop songs, and he tends to play certain notes harder than others bringing a natural percussion to his otherwise mellow fingerpicking. So, while I say there’s nothing fancy about his playing, it is still quite beautiful. His voice hasn’t changed either, it still retains that peaceful, serene feeling.

It’s funny then to read the words to his songs many of which come across as protest songs. Not about anything in particular but about human nature, and the animals that we can often be. The record is a really string collection of songs. It’s also quite short, about 35 minutes, which also seems fitting somehow: get in, say what you want, and get out.

Of the two records, I prefer the first one, possibly because I know it better, but I think it’s because in the follow up, the extra players detract somewhat from Gonzalez’ singular nature. Not that they do great harm, and surely he needs to evolve his sound, but I feel like with the addition of others, something is lost. Despite that, this one easily gets a 4.5 out of 5 where as Veneer got a 5 out of 5.

[READ: March 2008]: McSweeney’s #26

This was a great “issue.” I enjoyed all three parts of it. (more…)

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