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Archive for the ‘McSweeney’s’ Category

Millard Kaufman–Bowl of Cherries (2007)

Posted in Carla Bozulich, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Diamanda Galas, Egyptology, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Geraldine Fibbers, Godspeed You Black Emperor, McSweeney's, Millard Kaufman, Silver Mt. Zion, WMDs on March 15, 2008| 5 Comments »

bowl.jpgSOUNDTRACK: CARLA BOZULICH-Evangelista [CST041] (2007).

carla.jpgThis record comes from the mighty Constellation label. Don and Ian are super nice guys in Montreal who release some fantastic music. I have been a fan for years, and I have all of their releases. I get them sight unheard, because I know they release good, quality music with great packaging. They came to my attention through Godspeed You Black Emperor, a fantastic instrumental band, and their spinoffs (A Silver Mt. Zion, etc.).

Initially, they released pretty much only bands that had connections to each other (to see who plays on each others’ records, you’d need a spreadsheet about ten pages long). They have since branched out to include some really notable musicians like Vic Chesnutt (!) and Carla Bozulich.

Carla Bozulich was the singer for the great band The Geraldine Fibbers. gfib.jpg She has a very strong voice, and sounds not unlike Diamanda Galas, meaning she can hit the high notes, and the powerful notes, and the screechy notes, and tends to be a bit scary from time to time. In the context of the Geraldine Fibbers, it was really an amazing thing to behold.

They were a sort of country-punk band, and they were really tight. Carla’s vocals could scream or soothe depending on her mood. And working together, they were pretty great.

I mention this band because Carla’s solo album is a little too free-form for her own good. She thanks the producers for letting her get out things that have been inside. And I’m sure that was cathartic. However, I find that her voice needs the stabilizing force of a solid backing band. This solo album has very erratic (and very interesting) music, but when combined with her voice, it’s just a little too much chaos. With the Fibbers, the grounding of the backing band and structured songs really made her voice shine. On this one, there’s just so much going on that it’s all a bit of a mess.

The music itself is actually pretty great. It’s very unusual, with strings, and staccato sounds. Her voice also sounds great. After all, it’s been a few years since the Fibbers broke up, so it’s nice that she can still hit the notes. It’s just that the off-kilter music really competes with her off-kilter voice leading to an overall unsatisfying experience.

She has a new one coming out with a full band called Evangelista. I’ve listened through once, and it sounds much more cohesive. I think the solo record was just something to get out of her system.

[READ: March 10, 2008] Bowl of Cherries

McSweeney’s published this book. And the only story behind this book that you may have heard is that the author is old. Really old, not just old for McSweeney’s old, but like nineties old. It’s something of a shame that this was the first (and pretty much only) thing I heard about this book. And yet it is an interesting background in and of itself. (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem–This Shape We’re In (2001)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Dystopia, Funny (strange), Jonathan Lethem, McSweeney's, Neil Young, Short Books on February 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

lethem.jpgSOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG-Live at the Fillmore East (1970) & Live at Massey Hall (1971).

I came to the Neil Young ballgame much later than lots of fans. I’ve always more or less liked Neil, I really liked his Weld live album, and of course, I knew all of his classic rock, um classics. It was Sarah who really turned me on to Neil’s more mellow side, especially Silver and Gold. And, once you’re into the raucous and the mellow, well, that’s the whole oeuvre, pretty much.

So, I’ve been getting various records by him over the years. And there was so much buzz about these archival releases that I had to check them out. I’m not going to go into whether they were “worth the wait” (some complained about waiting twenty some years for these releases to get only 6 songs on the first one…but I wasn’t waiting terribly long for them, so I don’t care).

fillmore.jpgLive at the Fillmore East. This is a fun, rowdy little disc. I’m confused as to why it’s only 6 songs, as surely they would have played more at the time, but I’m not going to spend any real time figuring that out. The first two songs, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and “Winterlong” are fuzzy, brief versions of these cuts. They’re a good opening in prep for the twelve minute “Down By the River.” Two more short songs, “Wonderin'” and “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” barely prepare you for the 16 minute “Cowgirl in the Sand” conclusion. I didn’t know that “Downtown” was a “Crazy Horse” song and not a Neil song. I’m not even sure where I know it from, but it was as familiar as most of his tracks. And it was interesting to hear one of the other guys sing the song.

This is Neil and Crazy Horse at their 1970s prime. They sound great, the extended tracks aren’t tiresome, and the quality of the recording is fantastic.

massey.jpgLive at Massey Hall. The same quality is evident on this recording as well. But this record is just Neil solo. It’s a more mellow affair, with the songs being pretty evenly split between acoustic guitar and piano. This disc has 17 songs on it and only one runs over 5 minutes (actually the closing “Dance, Dance, Dance” runs pretty long too, but it’s basically 2 and a half minutes of applause which Neil really should have cut).

What is most interesting/fascinating/cool about this recording is that so many of these songs, which at this point are rightly deemed classic, are heard here by this crowd for the first time. It’s really funny to hear a song like “Needle and the Damage Done” that doesn’t immediately generate a huge round of applause on the first note. You can hear the Toronto audience really listening to the songs. It’s pretty intense.

There’s two or three songs that he says something like, “I just wrote this song last week.” There’s also the really fascinating introduction to “A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite.” I’ve never much like “A Man Needs a Maid” but when he explains the context for writing it (that he’s making a musical (and whether that is true I have no idea) and you can hear the orchestral version playing along in your head) it actually WORKS! The only confusing thing is that he busts into “Heart of Gold” in the middle of the song, and no one bats an eyelash because no one has heard it before!

It’s a really cool collection of songs. I’ve not heard Neil banter so much on record before, and he sounds so YOUNG. It makes sense to hear him write and sing “Old Man” since he wasn’t an old man at the time.

It’s hard to pick one or the other because they are so different, but I think for historical value Massey Hall is the winner. Plus, you get the home town crowd cheering every time he mentions Canada.

[Read: January 28, 2007] This Shape We’re In.

This is a strange little book. It’s about 55 pages. I had never read any Jonathan Lethem before, and since this book was cheap from the McSweeney’s store I thought I’d give it a shot. And boy is it strange. The pun of the title is that the characters are indeed in a shape. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #25 (2008)

Posted in Dystopia, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Joyce Carol Oates, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Sigur Rós, Steven Millhauser on February 4, 2008| Leave a Comment »

mc25.jpgSOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-Hvarf-Heim (2007).

hvarf.jpgSigur Rós put on one of the greatest live shows I’ve seen. There was nothing “special” about it , in that there were no real pyrotechnics, there was just a very simple film playing on a screen behind them, but somehow they took over the small theater I saw them in…I can’t remember which one, maybe The Limelight in NYC…and I had a tremendously trippy experience. Normally, I’d chalk this up to the surrounding smoke, but this time it was definitely the music. The high notes, the swirling tunes, the coda to a sing in which the singer snag into the pickup of his guitar (a very weird thing to see), and then used some of his guitar effects on his voice; wow. I actually had to sit down after the show.

If you really let it, a Sigur Rós CD will totally envelop you. There are many layers of lush strings and harmonies, and the Icelandic/nonsensical lyrics push it over the edge into an otherwordly realm.
But what do they really sound like? My blasphemous answer is they sound like Coldplay if you pushed Coldplay to the furthest edges of their sound. If you put acid in the Coldplay CD you’d get Sigur Rós. I have a friend who loves Coldplay and I burned a copy of the second Sigur Rós album; however, I’ve no idea if she liked it…great story huh?

So, anyhow, this collection, Hvarf-Heim, is a two disc set of rarities and an unplugged live performance. The rarities are nothing too different from a typical Sigur Rós collection. Which is not to say that they’re not great–they are–they’re just nothing out of the ordinary for them, more of a boon for collectors. It’s really the love album which is what stands out. I wondered, after seeing them fully plugged in, what an unplugged version of the band could do. What you find out is that the melodies are really strong, and the otherworldlyness comes not from studio trickery or something else, but from the excellent songcraft and the soaring vocals.

They use strings to play the swells that the songs usually contain, and the strings do a great job. The recording definitely sounds unplugged, but it still retains that otherworldly sound. There’s definitely something in the Icelandic waters that produces such wonderful music.

[READ: January 31, 2008] McSweeney’s #25.

This issue of McSweeney’s sees a return to the less audacious format. It is a smallish book with an overlaid cover of two different materials. The only color components of the work are a series of horses painted by. The series is called Horses say What and each story has a cover page of a beautiful horse.

And since this volume is all about the stories, so will this review, then, be.

CONNOR KILPATRICK-“Yuri”
This story of a Russian man who comes to work at a paper plant and befriends a slacker employee is very, very manly. It seems to be full of robust men, like Yuri who are fearless, until that fearlessness catches them off guard. The story is slightly off kilter in that the narrative watches the main action from something of a distance, which makes the story more compelling. The main plotline, such as it is, is pretty simple, so it’s really the oddness of the storytelling that makes you want to finish it.

STEVEN MILLHAUSER-“The Tower”
This is a cool story investigating the reality behind constructing the Tower of Babel (it never explicitly says that, but it is a tower that reaches heaven). It is neither mocking nor reverend, but it looks very much at the logistics that would be involved in creating such a tower. This is not to imply that it is a funny story, for it is not, it is actually a little sad, but it makes for a good look at the human condition.

EMILY ANDERSON-“Love, The Frontier”
A series of diary entries propels this story of a contemporary woman leaving the city (Boston) for the frontier. She buys some oxen and starts roughing it, all in search of love. Some funny anachronistic moments but I felt they were used so sparsely that the jokes were not as strong as they could have been. I the story wasn’t meant to be funny, then it just left me a little flat.

JOYCE CAROL OATES-“Magda Maria”
This is a sad love story. The unnamed narrator is madly in love with a seemingly mythical character named Magad Maria. In the beginning of the story she is a beautiful, mysterious woman who is beholden to a brute of a man named Danto. Through the course of the story Magda’s life grows grimmer and grimmer, yet the narrator continues in his unyielding love. While not the most original of storylines, the storytelling was very compelling and really made you want to see what was up with this mysterious woman.

DAVID HOLLANDER-“The Naming of The Islands”
I didn’t like this story at the beginning. It was a nautical story about sailors being allowed to name the islands that they “discover.” It seemed to be just a simple story of conquest. However, as the story progressed, we learn that the islands are in fact a surreal collection of little islets. Each one proves to be progressively more bizarre and frustrating to the starving, dehydrated sailors. Although in reality this was a depressing story, the inventiveness of the crazy islands made the story very enjoyable to read despite itself.

ALEXANDER MACBRIDE-“The Ape Man”
A funny (strange) short story about a man who is switched at birth with a dead ape’s child. The two, who are in some respects stepbrothers, both grow to be kings in their respective cultures: the man in the ape culture and the dead ape baby in the kingdom of the dead. Like I said, pretty strange.

KENNETH BONERT-“Peacekeepers, 1995”
This was the longest story by far in this collection. It concerns a Canadian journalist named Henry as he is sent to Bosnia to cover the peacekeeping mission. As soon as he arrives, he befriends a soldier called Pigeon. Pigeon’s advice gets Henry in grave trouble with the locals. While trying to figure out what to do, Pigeon “helps” him some more. His entire stay in Bosnia, less than 24 hours turns into a whirlwind of violence, hallucinations and utter mistrust. This would have been a subject I wouldn’t have cared about, but the story was really gripping, with a surprising climax. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t “end” per se, but the story itself was great.

TERRY WRIGHT-“The Butcher, The Baker”
A one page story/poem/ramble. I read it three times and am still not sure what to make of it.

CHLOE HOOPER-“A Death in Custody”
This is a follow up to a story in Mcsweeneys #21. It is yet more depressing information amount racial inequities in Australia. A ray of hope is presented but is ultimately shot down. The realities of this area are staggering.

PADGETT POWELL-“No Empress Eyes”
This was a surreal little story about a girl who loses her horse “No Empress Eyes” and then falls in with a boy who wants to create a new harvester that will spare the lives of the deer who happen to be in the fields. The farm boy’s family takes in the girl, and they live in a cave together. Surreal, indeed. It didn’t leave to much of an impression, although I did enjoy the boy’s discourse on trying to save the deer. In fact, I’ll amend my opinion to say that I enjoyed his half of the story but not so much the horse part. Fortunately it was only 5 or so pages.

[For ease of searching I include: Sigur Ros]

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Stephen Dixon–I. (2002)

Posted in Books about writers, Funny (strange), Gang of Four, McSweeney's, Queen, Short Books, Stephen Dixon, The Futureheads, The Jam, Unreliable narrator on January 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »

i.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE FUTUREHEADS-News and Tributes (2006).

news.jpgI enjoyed the first Futureheads album very much when it came out, but I balked at getting this sophomore release because they were part of that whole new angular-rock wave, and I didn’t want to stay caught up in the hype. Well, I relented because I’d continued to hear good things about this record, and I’m glad I did.

For me, The Futureheads sound like The Jam, mixed with a little Gang of Four edginess in their chords, and most intriguing of all, a bit of Queen in their vocals. This odd mix is totally up front in the second song, “Cope”. A choppy guitar, a voice that sounds like the Paul Weller and then at the end of the first line, all the guys sing the word Go! in a 4 part harmony that sounds partially machine-like; I almost thought it was a ship’s whistle when I first heard it. And, yet on subsequent listens it’s just four guys singing slightly off notes–note screaming at all, I can’t even really imagine how they do it– and it sounds great! I don’t know how they could duplicate that sound–which is so beautiful and unnerving at the same time–live, frankly.

And each song has little idiosyncrasies like that that really make this record fun to listen to. I think the reason I didn’t hear The Jam as an influence right away is because to me The Jam are smoooooth. (more…)

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Lawrence Weschler–Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences (2006)

Posted in Consumerism, Dystopia, Funny (strange), Lawrence Weschler, McSweeney's, New Yorker, Paul Quarrington, Rheostatics, Technology on December 8, 2007| 5 Comments »

everything.jpgSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music [Soundtrack] (1994) & Music Inspired by the Group of 7 (1995).

As I understand it, The Rheostatics read a great book by Paul Quarrington called Whale Music whalebook.jpg and then decided to name their new album Whale Music. (The follow up to Melville…they definitely have a nautical theme in their early records). Their awesome song “Claire,” is co-written by Quarrinton (I think some of the lyrics for the song were in the book). So, a few years go by, and a movie is made of Whale Music (which is basically a fictionalized story of a Brian Wilson-esque musical genius-recluse).

Obviously, “Claire” is going to be in the movie (there’s a character named Clarie, you see), so why not just have the Rheos do the entire soundtrack? Thus, the Rheos now have TWO records called Whale Music. Fascinating, no?

whale.jpgWhale Music [Soundtrack] (1994)
The soundtrack is very soundtracky–largely instrumental mood pieces, and two slightly different takes on ‘Claire’. Overall while it’s really dynamite to listen to, especially while reading, it’s really for Rheos diehards. (more…)

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Dave Eggers & Deb Olin Unferth & Sarah Manguso–One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box (2007)

Posted in Cop Shoot Cop, Dave Eggers, David Ouimet, Deb Olin Unferth, Firewater, Flash Fiction, Foetus, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, Meta, Motherhead Bug, Sarah Manguso, Short Books, Short Story, Swans on November 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »

145.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MOTHERHEAD BUG-Zambodia (1993).

zam.jpgMotherhead Bug is the creation of David Ouimet. David was my boss at Tower Records way back when. He has been in some other influential NYC bands like Swans and Cop Shoot Cop, and he’s worked with Foetus as well. He has since moved on to bigger and better things, including doing wonderfully creepy illustrations for YA books (like Cat in Glass and Double-Dare to Be Scared).

David was a founding member of Cop Shoot Cop, and then left to do other things. What I find most interesting about Zambodia is that it sounds fairly comparable to the band Firewater, a band that was created by Tod A, one of the other founders of Cop Shoot Cop. No idea if there was something in their collective water but it’s interetsing that they both pursued this bizarre hybrid of punk/industrial/klezmer/gypsy/circus rock.

If you know Firewater (and you should, they’re very good), Motherhead Bug would be something like a slightly more indie version of them (if you can imagine that). The unconventional aspects of the songs are more to the fore, and the instrumentataion is a little more peculiar. This is probably due to the fact that Ouimet is a trombonist and samplist (is that what you call a sampler player?). It is clear that his love of the horn section and freedom of samples allowed his creativity to run amock.

Ouimet’s vocals work in a gravelley context similar to Tom Waits, but less drunken-bluesman and more gothic spooky storyteller. The whole shebang sounds something like a Kurt Weillian nightmare. And yet, there is a great deal of humor involved. Having said all that, for all of its unconventiality, the songs are pretty standard verse chorus verse, 4 minutes long. It’s just what he does within those limits is pretty outlandish!

For a genre that has so many tentacles, Motherhead Bug fills a fun niche of industrial carnival music. If you like a chaotic noisy band, and you’re interested in unconventional instrumentation, then check out Motherhead Bug.

Hi David.

[READ: November 20, 2007] One Hundred and Forty-five Stories in a Small Box.

The format of these books is three books in a small box. Each book is a volume of short short stories or flash fiction. The books themselves are also small in size: slightly smaller than a mass paperback. So, when I say that a story is a page long, it is in fact, about a typical paragraph length. One of the tropes of the flash fiction movement is that you try and write a fully realized story in as short a space as possible. It is amazing how complete many of these stories turn out to be. Even though they are devoid of most of the trappings of a conventional story, they often convey a full range of emotion, and even some details. According to the Wikipedia entry, most flash-fiction pieces are between 250 and 1,000 words long. This should all give a sense for what’s in the box. (more…)

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The Pope–How to Dress for Every Occasion [Illustrated by Sarah “Pinkie” Bennett] (2007)

Posted in Big Bad Love, Funny (ha ha), McSweeney's, R.L. Burnside, Sarah "Pinkie" Bennett, Short Books, The Pope on November 12, 2007| Leave a Comment »

pope.jpgSOUNDTRACK: Big Bad Love [Soundtrack] (2002).

bigbad.jpgSomehow, I came upon a free copy of this CD. I hadn’t really listened to it at all, save for the Tom Waits songs (which turned up on Orphans anyhow). But I listened to it the other day and it’s a really good collection of unorthodox/noisy blues. I’m not a huge fan of the blues, but I can get into short bursts of it. The R.L. Burnside songs are lots of fun, as is the Junior Kimbrough piece. And, there’s a great piece by T-Model Ford called “She Asked Me So I Told Her” which seems to consist entirely of the lyrics, “So she asked me, so I told her, why I’m here” over a very raucous blues riff. There’s also some nice instrumentals by Tom Verlaine & Kronos Quartet.

It’s not the kind of thing I’d listen to a lot, and I’ve no idea what the movie is about, but I think it fills a niche in my collection.

[READ: October 22, 2007] How to Dress for Every Occasion by the Pope.

This is a silly book, as you might gather from the title. The illustrations are quite amusing (and seem to be of Pope Benedict, rather that John Paul II–unless they’re actually Dick Cheney–that sneer is pretty hard to decipher.) (more…)

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Lemony Snicket–The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming (2007)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Holidays, Housemartins, Lemony Snicket, Lisa Brown, McSweeney's, Short Books on November 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

latke.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE HOUSEMARTINS-Live at the BBC (2006).

housemartin.jpgI found out about the Housemartins after enjoying the Beautiful South, and since they only released two albums, it was easy to get into them quickly. This is a collection of live tracks from the BBC, some have an audience and some do not. What is most striking about the record are the amount of acapella works that are on here, and the, surprisingly religious aspect of many of the songs (especially for a bunch of guys who on the latest Beautiful South album say “No thanks to God, he did fuck all.”)

They sound great, and can totally pull off the acapella, and when they do break out the instrumentation it sounds even better. I would have resequenced it so that the acapellas were sprinkled throughout but hey, what can you do. My only sad moment was that “Happy Hour” was done acappella, and as I said, the acapellas are great, but that song just screams for full instrumentation. Anyhow, this collection will definitely get me listening to the Housemartins again.

[READ: October 21, 2007]: The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming.

What better way to get back into reading books than with a 20 page book full of illustrations! This is a holiday story of a latke who, because of his inherent religious beliefs, feels left out at Christmastime. As it is written by Lemony Snicket, it is twisted and even more twisted.

(more…)

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McSweeney’s #24 [ “Trouble” and “Come Back, Donald Barthelme”] (2007)

Posted in Batman, Brazil, Corporate skewering, Donald Barthelme, Essays, Flann O'Brien, Funny (strange), Guided By Voices, Jacques Derrida, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Samuel Beckett, Short Story, The Kids in the Hall on October 3, 2007| 1 Comment »

mcs24.jpgSOUNDTRACK: GUIDED BY VOICES-Universal Truths and Cycles (2002).

gbv.jpg

I like Guided By Voices more in theory than in actuality. In theory, Robert Pollard is a songwriting maniac who has released hundreds of songs that are all snappy, catchy and brilliant. In practice, Robert Pollard is a songwriting maniac who has released hundreds of songs that he puts out whether they are finished or not. A vast quantity of GBV output is about a minute long. And for the most part the songs feel like fragments, rather than real songs. Nevertheless, I find that just about everything he writes is catchy and quite good, it’s just that so much of it is so forgettable.

Despite that, they have several songs that are fantastic. I could easily make a greatest hits record of GBV songs that I think are fabulous, and it would probably have 20 songs on it. The only problem is Pollard has released probably a thousand songs, so that’s not such great average.

I received this copy of Universal Truths and Cycles as a promotional copy many years ago. I had really enjoyed Do the Collapse, and so I grabbed this CD, and much like my assessment above, I find that there’s nothing I really dislike about the album although at 4:59, almost three times longer than a typical GBV song, “Storm Vibrations” tends to drag, but overall there’s not that much that’s memorable. Of course, “Everywhere with Helicopters” is fantastic and “Christian Animation Torch Characters” is also pretty wonderful. I could pick maybe 3 of the 19 songs here to go on my hits collection, but overall, the album is typical GBV, a little weird, but very catchy.

[READ: October 2, 2007] McSweeney’s #24.

I just flew through this latest issue of McSweeney’s. It was a real treat to read. The packaging was another one of their fun covers. It is designed in two parts, with a gatefold type of sleeve that reveals a full nighttime scene if you open it all the way. These guys have so much fun with their design, I’m surprised they’re not noted more for that.

Anyhow, the contents: the one side is a selection of six short stories, they all seem to feature guns, and they’re not afraid to use them. The other side is a symposium of reasonably famous authors writing tributes about Donald Barthelme, and two short stories by Barthelme himself. It also comes with an excerpt from Millard Kaufman’s Bowl of Cherries, which I have not yet read, but if it’s good I will get the book and review it later. (more…)

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George Saunders–In Persuasion Nation (2006)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dystopia, Esquire, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Harper's, Luther Wright & The Wrongs, McSweeney's, New Yorker, Pink Floyd, Robson Arms, Sarah Harmer on August 31, 2007| 1 Comment »

persuasion.jpgSOUNDTRACK: LUTHER WRIGHT AND THE WRONGS-Rebuild the Wall (2001).

wright.jpgI first heard Luther Wright on an episode of Robson Arms, a weird, funny show on CTV in Canada. They were playing “Broken Fucking Heart” a fabulous country-punk song. So, I had to find out more about this guy, and it turns out he did a country-punk, but mostly country, version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. It was with much trepidation that I dared into this most unusual of covers, because I don’t really care for country, particularly, shudder, new country. But, wow am I glad I did.

It’s hard to know even where to start, but it is amazing how well the songs translate into a country motif. I’ve loved Pink Floyd’s The Wall ever since it came out. I have very fond memories of reading the lyrics on the record sleeve when I bought it back in 1979, sitting in the back of my mom’s car as she drove myself and my aunt back from the mall. And, I have a fond memory of the resurgence that it had for me in college when evidently every angsty boy in my dorm felt the need to play it ritually.

I was prepared for the worst, but I never had any regrets of this cover version. I’ve even played it to friends who’ve thought it was really good as well. It all sounds like a joke, but the musicianship is top-notch (Sarah Harmer is back with great backing vocals), and the appreciation of the original is evident from the start. I encourage you to track down this album if you like the original. Give Luther some of your cash!

[READ: August 20, 2007] In Persuasion Nation.

This completes my recent spate of books that I read about somewhere, and can’t remember where. I maintain that it was in The Week by a former Simpsons’ writer, but I have to wait about a month before that issue gets online so I can confirm it (boo!). At any rate, I was led to believe that this was going to be a book of funny essays. And, well, it’s not. It skewers contemporary society, and it has moments that are definitely funny in a hmmmm, sort of way, but laugh-out-loud funny this is not. (more…)

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