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Archive for the ‘Meta’ Category

The Book of Other People [edited by Zadie Smith] (2007)

Posted in A.L. Kennedy, A.M. Homes, Adam Thirwell, Aleksandar Hemon, Andrew O'Hagan, Andrew Sean Greer, Chris Ware, Colm Tóibín, Consumerism, Daniel Clowes, Dave Eggers, David Mitchell, Drinking, Edwidge Danticat, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Hari Kunzru, Heidi Julavits, Irish Writer, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Safran Foer, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Nick Hornby, Pearl Jam, Posy Simmonds, Pregnancy, Racism, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, Toby Litt, Unreliable narrator, Vendela Vida, Violence, Zadie Smith, ZZ Packer on April 21, 2009| 1 Comment »

bookpeopleSOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Vs. (1993).

vsTen was a solid record, and although it had diversity within it, overall the sound was pretty consistent.  On Vs., Pearl Jam mixed it up sonically and otherwise.

It opens with “Go,” a track that rocks harder than anything on Ten but which retains a great Pearl Jam chorus.  “Animal” is also loud, with Eddie’s voice sounding incredibly rough and raw.

It’s on the 3rd track that PJ begin to really mix it up with their first ballad: “Daughter,” their first acoustic track.  It’s catchy, and really works with Eddie’s voice.  I can never listen to the next track “Glorified G” without thinking of my college roommate who spoiled it for me.  And I’ll spoil it for you because every time you hear the chorus you will now think “glorified version of a pelican.”  It’s not my favorite song anyway, as the chorus is kind of weird, but the verses are really strong and do redeem this track.

“Dissident” and “Blood” continue the great rocking vein.  Although they are quite different from each other, (“Blood” being much harder) they both showcase Pearl Jam’s excellent rock aesthetic.

The track between them, “W.M.A.” is the other track on the disc that shows Pearl Jam’s experimental side.  It’s percussion heavy and seems like a rambling track…it works much better live, actually.

“Rearviewmirror” on the other hand is PJ at their best, a fantastic rocking (but not too heavy) song with a great chorus, and excellent vocals by Eddie.   Its complement is “Elderly Woman…” which highlights the other end of PJ’s spectrum: a sort of ballad that rocks more than you might think.

“Rats” and “Leash” are two rough, almost punk songs that continue to mix up the tempo and tenor of the disc.  “Rats” seems to get ignored a lot even though its chorus is a good one, and “Leash” is another angry song that’s, again, enjoyable live.

“Indifference” ends the disc and it’s a song that I wasn’t all that excited about initially.  However, again, after hearing the live versions, I gained a much better appreciation for the song and now I really enjoy it.   All in all Vs, is a great step forward for Pearl Jam, strangely enough pulling them away from arena anthems and into more intimate areas.

[READ: April 16, 2009] The Book of Other People

I discovered this book by searching for A.M. Homes in our catalog.  I was surprised I had never heard of it.  The premise of this collection, put out by McSweeneys and benefiting 826 is that each author was asked to make up a character.  The requirement was that the story would be named after the character.  There were no other rules.  And as such, you get a wide variety of stories about all different characters: people and otherwise.  In fact, it’s surprising what a diverse collection of stories have arisen from this rather simple concept.

bookpeople2Zadie Smith is the editor and she wrote the introduction.  I like to cover all of the written pieces in the book, but there’s not much to say about the introduction except that it fills you in on the details of the collection.  She thanks Sarah Vowell for the idea but I gather that the rest of the work was done by her.

I’m not grousing about the different covers this time, I’m just showing the UK one.  It has the same basic set up, including pictures by Daniel Clowes, but as you can see, it’s slightly different.

And check out this roster of talent that has written (or drawn) a story: it’s like a who’s who of contemporary young writers. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Mother Night (1961)

Posted in Coldplay, Funny (ha ha), Kurt Vonnegut, Meta, Mogwai, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, The Verve, Threats, Travis, U2, War on March 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

mothernightSOUNDTRACK: COLDPLAY-Viva la Vida(2008).
viva-la-vidaI have a very vivid memory of listening to Coldplay for the first time.  I was driving a very annoying person to her revolting house in upstate New York.  I was delighted to be getting her out of my life, and I was listening to Coldplay’s first album, Parachutes.  I knew “Yellow” from either the radio or from some Britpop fascination of mine.  AT the time, Coldplay were considered the next Travis, whose “Why Does It Always Rain on Me” had just soared up the charts. “Yellow” was described as Travis-like and something of a rip-off (a claim thrown at Coldplay to this day).

As an indie guy, Coldplay should be anathema to me. And yet since “Yellow” I’ve always liked them, despite their ridiculous name.  And I’ve always thought of them as a sort of underdog (that whole Travis thing), even though all the entertainment magazines say they are the biggest band in the world (even bigger than U2!)

And so, here is their latest disc.  Amusingly, we had played it in the house and then suddenly the disc was gone.  Couldn’t find it for a month.  (It eventually turned up in the REM Accelerate case (those cardboard sleeves with two openings tend to hide discs).

And now I’ve given it a listen, and man is it good.  Yes, I know, they’re huge stadium anthem rock, but even though I like lo-fi indie, I also like stadium rock when it’s done right.  It’s also funny about their backlash because they haven’t really changed their style over the course of their career.  It’s not like they’ve suddenly become commercial.  They’ve just been commercial-in-waiting.  And frankly, I’d rather them be on the radio than some other Top 40 bands.

So Viva la Vida is chock full of hits, and chock full of great songs. It opens with a short instrumental “Life in Technicolor,” a string-filled 2 minute intro that sets the tone quite well.  And each of the following 3 minute pop songs are great: swells of orchestra, great punchy choruses and then…done; leaving you wanting more to sing along to.

The amount of strings on this record is really notable.  And surely the breakout single “Viva La Vida” is the most string-heavy rock single since The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.”

The only compliant I have about the record is the three songs that last over 6 minutes.  Despite the bombast of their songs, most of Coldplay’s work fits comfortably under 4 minutes.  These three 6 minute songs are really 3 minute songs with a 3 minute coda tacked on at the end.  And, the problem is that those codas are usually just repeated instrumental moments that slow down the proceedings.  (And since I dig bands like Mogwai who make fantastic instrumental music, I know from instrumentals).  This doesn’t ruin the disc by any means, although it does tend to wreck the flow a little.  Nevertheless, the next song kicks in and you’re back to singing along.

[READ: March 19, 2009]: Mother Night

It was with some trepidation that I started this Vonnegut novel. The reasons being A) I had never even heard of this title. B) Cat’s Cradle, regarded as one of his masterpieces comes next in order, and C) it’s about Nazis…how much fun could that be?

Well, as it turns out, my fears were unfounded.

Mother Night has a few layers to it. So we’ll start with the basics. The book is written by Howard W. Campbell. The book has been edited by Kurt Vonnegut, and Vonnegut’s introduction makes clear that he tried to follow Campbell’s wishes as best he could. (All of this, of course, is pure fiction, but it’s a good one). (more…)

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McSweeney’s #2 [Blues/Jazz Odyssey? “Pollyanna’s Bootless Errand.”] (Late Winter/Early Spring 1999)

Posted in Adventure, Amanda Davis, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Ana Marie Cox, Bill Clinton, Brent Hoff, Colleen Werthmann, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Glasgow Phillips, GQ, Graphic Novel, Heidi Julavits, John Hodgman, Jonathan Lethem, McSweeney's, Mekons, Meta, Neal Pollack, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Politicians, Sarah Vowell, Short Story, Sigur Rós, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, The Baffler, The Believer, Zev Borow on March 17, 2009| 3 Comments »

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SOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (2008).

sigurSigur Rós are nothing if not ethereal.  Their music is constantly floating up in outer space somewhere.  So imagine the surprise when the first song of this disc opens with some thudding drums.  And, there are acoustic instruments aplenty this time around.  Their previous disc Hvarf/Heim had them playing a number of acoustic pieces in various unexpected settings.  And clearly the experience must have been a good one.

“Illgresi” is largely played on an acoustic guitar and “Ára Bátur” opens with a very pretty piano melody.  But lest you think this is Sigur Rós unplugged, “Ára Bátur” turns into a nearly 9 minute epic complete with orchestra, choir and as much ethereal sounds that you can cram into one song.  Indeed, a few songs before that is “Festival” another nine minute epic.  Although like in the beginning, there is a lot of bass, and a lot of drum.

But despite all of the musical changes, the band is still clearly Sigur Rós.  Jon Thor Birgisson’s voice is still unmistakable, and his lyrics are still inscrutable.  In fact, the final song, “All Alright” is sung almost entirely in English(!) and I didn’t realize until I just read about it recently.

In some ways this disc is not as satisfying as previous Sigur Rós releases as it doesn’t take you to quite the same planes of existence as past discs have.  And yet, in other ways it is more satisfying as it shows an earthbound side of them, allowing us to see their craft in action.

Despite any criticisms, Sigur Rós is still an amazing band, and this is an amazing record, too.

[READ: March 14, 2009] McSweeney’s #2

McSweeney’s 2nd issue retains some of the features from the first, and yet, some things have changed.

Similarities:

First: The cover retains that very wordy style that the first issue had.  There are more jokes (a good pun about Big Name authors).

Second: The letters column is still there.  What’s different is that in addition to some unusual letters (including the complete address of a letter writer), there are conversational letters between Gary Pike and Mr. McSweeney.  There’s also several small entries from Brent Hoff.  We are also treated to a letter from Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sarah Vowell, and a piece from Jonathan Lethem (the last of which was put in the letters column because they didn’t know what else to do with it). (more…)

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Neal Pollack–Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel (2003)

Posted in Beck, Black Flag, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Books about writers, Creem, David Bowie, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Iggy Pop, Joan Baez, Judas Priest, Lou Reed, Magicians, Mark Leyner, Meta, Neal Pollack, Ramones, Rolling Stone, Sex, Sex Pistols, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Unlikable main character, Violence, X on February 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

nevermindSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2003).

yoshimiHow do you follow up the fantastic Soft Bulletin?  If you’re The Flaming Lips, you simultaneously pull back and push forward.  I often thing of Yoshimi as Bulletin part 2 but that’s really not right or fair.  Yoshimi has a more Pink Floyd vibe: it’s quite mellow and folky.  But nothing the Lips do can be completely commercial, so you get things in every song that add immensely to the sound, yet prevent it from complete accessibility.

The opening song “Fight Test” begins with an ominous voice saying “The test begins…  NOW!!” with loud distorted crashes, and yet it quickly turns into one of their most delicate and catchy songs.  The only nod to peculiarity is the watery bass lines that fill the song.  It’s a mystery why this song wasn’t huge.

The next track, “One More Robot” is a delicate song reminiscent of Radiohead with the walking bassline and soft vocals.  This leads to the fabulous title track “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Ropbots Pt 1.”  In which yes, Yoshimi disciplines her body to take on the evil machines.  It’s another shoulda-been single, with strumming acoustic guitar and more of that fabulous fat bass. ” Pt 2,” on the other hand is a noisy cacophonous march depicting the fight.  It includes Yoshimi P-We from the Boredoms and OOIOO adding appropriate shrieks and screams.

Two more delicate songs follow: “In the Morning of the Magicians” is one of their longer songs and is quite mellow.  It also features a very lengthy instrumental section with more of that awesome bass.  “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” is the most techno sounding song I can think of by the Lips.  It seems like maybe that touring work with Beck influenced them a bit.

“Are You a Hypnotist??” is a little louder and plays with the ascending chord progressions that Wayne does so well.   An uplifting track, with fun, interesting notes thrown in.  “It’s Summertime” has some great rubbery bouncing bass noises in the beginning, and it slowly morphs into a heavenly chorus.

The real highlight is “Do You Realize??”  It’ a song that goes from happy to sad to happy all in the space of a few lines.  But musically it is uplifting, with choruses and swelling orchestration.  I gather this was used for some ads, but I’m just surprised it wasn’t everywhere!

“All We Have is Now” is another delicate song, with gentle verses sung in an impossibly high falsetto.  The chorus is the most interesting part, with great bass notes interrupting the reverie.  The album ends with a gorgeous instrumental “Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)” which is an apt title (Pavonis Mons being a volcano of Mars) and it sounds quite interstellar.

What’s most notable about this album is that there’s nothing that stands out as peculiar from the rest of the record (except “Yoshimi Pt 2”). It’s a very  constant record, mellow and comforting.  And yet I’m not going to call it safe, because it’s not.  I don’t know if it made as many critical lists as Bulletin, but I know it sold better, and it seems like a really good place to start for latter days Lips.

[READ: February 18, 2009] Never Mind the Pollacks

After reading several Pollack stories in McSweeney’s I discovered that he had written a novel. This novel.

With an awesome title! Most of the awesomeness is purely luck that his name is Pollack (Never Mind the Debraskis doesn’t have the same ring). (more…)

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Ara 13–Drawers & Booths (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Ara 13, Christmas on Mars, Clifford Chase, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joseph Heller, Meta, Military, Religion, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, Threats, Unreliable narrator, War on February 6, 2009| 1 Comment »

drawersSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Zaireeka (1997).

zaireekaOkay, get ready.  Zaireeka comes as a 4 CD set.  With a twist.  Each CD is meant to be played simultaneously.  So, you get yourself 4 boomboxes hit play at the same time and enjoy!

Each CD has some aspects of each song.  So, on one disc you may get some vocals, maybe another has some guitars and sound effects.  It all varies per disc.  In fact, on one disc, track 6 is given a warning, perhaps my favorite warning ever on a CD: “This recording also contains frequencies not normally heard on commercial recordings and on rare occasion has caused the listener to become disoriented.”

And if you do a search for Zaireeka you will read the gamut of opinions about the disc and its ridiculousness or its social coolness.  So I won’t go into that.  I will say that one fine day many years ago I tried the experiment.  I got 4 radios and synched up all the songs and it worked and it was a lot of fun.  I also listened to the set in many different ways:  Discs 1-4 individually.  Discs 1& 2, discs 1&3, discs 1& 4, discs 2& 3, discs 2&4, discs 3&4 and then discs 1,2 & 3, discs 1, 2 & 4, discs 1, 3 & 4,  and discs 2, 3 & 4.  Phew.  (I had a lot more free time on my hands back then).  And since then, I haven’t really listened to the discs at all.  Because, well, how often do you get a chance to listen to 4 discs at once?

So, online I found a stereo mixdown version of the disc.  I know purists argue that that is simply not the way to listen to the disc, and they have a point….  Many of the effects are certainly lost, and since part of the point of the experiment is that the tracks are going to wobble and go out of synch, the mixdown does ruin the effect.  However, if you actually want to hear the songs as songs, not as experiments, the stereo mixdown mix is the way to go (at least until they release the disc in a 5.0 DVD version (which evidently they might…maybe?  in 2000, or maybe 2007, or who knows.))

But what about the songs?  It’s hard to say that the songs are typical Flaming Lips songs, because that’s not really very meaningful.  (Lips songs being off the wall at the best of times).  However, the songs are designed to allow the different discs to go out of synch somewhat, creating echoes or even stranger sounds.  As such, they are rather meandering pieces, somewhat lengthy, without a lot of heavy beats (that said, there are sections with very loud chaotic drums, they just don’t have other parts to synch up to).  But this experiment allows the songwriting to shine through in th emost minute details.  And it pays off on their next album in big time.

A track by track rundown goes:

“Okay I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand” opens with a big drum splash and a fantastic bassline. Intermittent piano chords let you know that this song  isn’t going to be typical.  Fun effects and a swelling chorus add to the ambience.  It’s a short song, but it sets the tone for the rest of the disc.

“Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)” starts off in a chaotic jumble, but once it settles down it has yet has another fantastic bassline  to start.  The middle choral part is really beautiful, although that scream section is pretty jarring/creepy.

As the title, “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair” suggests, it’s a sad song about a depressed pilot.  The effects include a plane taking off.  The song is propelled by a heartbeat-like drum, and the echoing voices suit the experiment very well.  There’s a “sane” vocal track and an “insane” vocal track.

“A Machine in India” is 10 minutes long.  It’s got a long meandering middle section, but the slow keyboard melody remains constant.  It’s also the first real occurrence of Wayne’s apparent obsession with vaginas (see Christmas on Mars).  It begins sweetly as a nice acoustic song but it explores many sonic areas (according to theliner notes, Wayne and his wife were discussing her menstrual cycle, and that was the jumping off point of this song).

“The Train Runs over the Camel but Is Derailed by the Gnat” begins with a fascinating cacophony of drums and ends in a very sweet “na na na” chorus.  In between you get yet another splendid trippy pop song.

“How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)” contains a shockingly high pitched sound (as warned) and yet the main body of the song is another of Wayne’s folky and very catchy melodies.

“March of the Rotten Vegetables” is probably my favorite track on the disc, despite the fact that it’s an instrumental.  It starts with some really interesting squeaky sounds and a cool guitar riff.  It morphs into yet another bombastic drum “solo” over a nice piano melody.  The liner notes indicates there are bats involved, but I’m not quite sure I hear it.

“The Big Ol’ Bug Is the New Baby Now” is a spoken word piece in which Wayne relates a story about how his dogs treat a stuffed toy like a baby, until they get a “Big Ol’ Bug” which becomes, as you may guess, the new baby.  Each disc has different ambient effects.  As the song ends, a swelling chorus sings the title until the loudly barking dogs bring an end to the song and the experiment as a whole.

As I mentioned, the stereo mixdown version is one way to enjoy the music.  But I must say that even listening one disc at at time can be fun (although really, that comes down to much more of an experimental music experience than anything else).  The social aspect of the performance certainly appeals, but I’m pretty antisocial and can’t imagine that I’d ever do it.

If you like the Lips at all but have been afraid of this CD because of how ridiculous it is, it’s probably worth the outlay of funds to buy the set or download a track or two.  It’s a fun disc that rewards patience, and, really, the songs are all very good.  You could also look for the stereo mixdown, but really, you’d only be getting half the story.

[READ: February 3, 3009] Drawers & Booths

Full disclosure: Ara 13 asked if I’d like to read his book and write about it. I looked up the book on Amazon, and it sounded cool, so I agreed.

Drawers & Booths is a work of metafiction.  A simple definition of metafiction, in case you don’t know, is: “a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction;  metafiction does not let the reader forget that he or she is reading a fictional work” (for the full Wikipedia explanation click here.)

SPOILER ALERT:  Generally I try not to give anything away when I review a book.  Some things are unavoidable of course, but any major plot twists or surprises I try to leave for the reader to discover by him or herself.  However, because this book is metafictional, and there are twists, surprises, and massive plot alterations throughout the book, the only way I can review it at all is to give some of these things away.  I don’t think I ruin anything for anyone, but tread lightly if you want nothing revealed. (more…)

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Clifford Chase–Winkie (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Clifford Chase, Dystopia, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Meta, Nirvana, Political Humor, Pregnancy, Prison, Racism, Religion, Short Books, Soiled Underpants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, The Replacements, Threats, War, WMDs on January 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

winkieSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Oh My Gawd!!!..The Flaming Lips (1987).

gawd1The cover of this disc makes a statement.  And it should tell you everything you need to know about the music inside.  It’s got skulls and psychedelic colors and Oh My Gawd!!!  And yet, it doesn’t, exactly.  It’s not quite as out there as the cover might make you think.

Because it’s funny how much this disc’s first song sounds like the Replacements (except where he starts singing about his brains falling out and everything exploding…not quite ‘Mats material).  But Wayne sounds like early, sloppy Paul Westerberg, and the riffs are not too far off from some of the early ‘Mats records.

Even the wonderfully titled 9 minute epic  “One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Afternoon” isn’t quite as much of a freak out as you might expect.  In fact, the early instrumental part is one of the prettiest melodies they’ve done.  It is particularly interesting given its sparse instrumentation.   The song does eventually drift back into earlier Pink Floyd territory (“Astronomy Domine” etc). But it’s “The Ceiling is Bendin'” that is the freak out you’re looking for, with a fun drum fading and the chaos.  “Maximum Dream for Evil Kenevil” on the other hand is a noisy mess (a fun noisy mess, but a noisy mess nonetheless).

It’s clear that they’re doing some good experimentation with audio effects.  And yet “Can’t Exist” is a delicate little song with just a light touch of feedback.

The first half of “Prescription: Love” is a rocking instrumental that would not sound out of place as a Nirvana B-side (but since it came before Nirvana, let’s say maybe on an SST Records track.  The second half returns to the garage rocking sound (with some funky deep vocals dubbed on…the first of many experiments with voice on future albums).

“Ode to C.C., Pt. 2” feels like it’s going to take of in an explosion but never does. But it has the excellent line “Hell’s got all the good bands anyway.”  “Can’t Stop the Spring” is another fantastic riff rocking song, and it starts and end with a classical music sample.  [Which I can’t place right now, sadly].

The disc ends with “Love Your Brain,” a 7 minute piano workout –which ultimately ends in the destruction of the room.  It sounds like every instrument in the place is destroyed.

So this disc expands the sonic weirdness of the Flaming Lips’ first disc, and it also showcases their growth as musicians.  It’s not a brilliant album by any means although it is quite good.  The most interesting thing is seeing how much they are experimenting with sounds now, and how it will pay off for them later on.

[READ: Late 2006 & December 2008] Winkie

I read this book two years ago, and my memory of it is not that great.  I’m only including it because I really enjoyed it at the time, and would like to make some record of having read it.

UPDATE: I have decided to re-read this book while on P breaks at work.  I am now utterly unsure whether or not I read the book fully last time.  I have just finished it again, and I was totally surprised by so many things (although one or two things did trigger my memory) that I really had to wonder if I finished it.

So, the story is about a stuffed bear named Winkie.  Winkie was a beloved toy of the Chase family and most recently of Clifford Chase [see author’s name now].  As the story opens, Winkie, the stuffed bear, is being tackled by the FBI as they arrest him for terrorist activities.  [You can re-read that sentence to see if your brain digested it.] (more…)

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McSweeney’s#1 [Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (or “Gegenshein”) Autumn 1998 “The Ski Instructor”]

Posted in 19th Century, Bill Clinton, Books about writers, Christmas on Mars, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Egyptology, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Glasgow Phillips, John Hodgman, Komar and Melamid, Led Zeppelin, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Neal Pollack, Racism, Rick Moody, Roberto Bolaño, Sarah Vowell, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Flaming Lips, War, Zev Borow on January 13, 2009| 3 Comments »

mcsweeneys1SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Hear It Is (1986).

hear-it-isI’ve claimed that I love the Lips, but then I was very harsh about their cover of “White Christmas,” and I noted that I wouldn’t listen to the soundtrack of  Christmas on Mars very much.  So, I felt I owed them some love.  But my recollection of their early stuff was that it was pretty weird and hard to listen to.

And yet, I proved myself wrong.  Hear It Is is not the Flaming lips of the early 2000’s.  It’s almost like the bratty younger brother of that band.  Only Wayne and Michael Ivins are present, and the band is pretty much just guitar, bass and drums.  The guitar is distorted and noisy (except when it’s acousticy and mellow).  The album doesn’t sound too far out of place for a college radio record in the late 80s.

Except of course that Wayne and the boys are pretty out there. The music is psychedelic, acid inspired and quite punk.  So you get songs like “Jesus Shootin’ Heroin” a seven minute epic of heavy riffs and screaming, but also of background “Ahhhh’s”.  You also get “With You” a song that starts out like a pretty, acoustic ballad. “Godzilla Flick” is a ballad like no other.  And yet despite all of the freakouts and noise, really at this stage what you get is a Led Zeppelin inspired heavy garage band having a lot of fun.  To say that this is going to blow your mind would be unfair, but to anyone who says the early stuff is unlistenable, they are totally wrong.   Hear It Is is sloppy, punky and a little ridiculous, the ideal incubator for what will become the Lips of 2000.

This CD comes with a cover of “Summertime Blues.”  This disc was reissued along with their initial EP and some bonus tracks on the disc Finally the Punk Rockers are Taking Acid.

[READ: 1998 and January 10, 2009] McSweeney’s #1

I have been reading McSweeney’s since its inception.  (My copy of this issue even has the two page typed letter that explains the failure of Might magazine and the origins of this one. However, it’s been over ten years since I read the first issues.  Given my new perspective on McSweeney’s, and how I read just about everything they release, I thought it was about time to go back to the beginning and proceed through the issues until I meet up where I first started reviewing them.

Issue #1 has many features that are absent in later issues:

First is the cover.  This cover is simply filled with words; practically littered with them.  There are subtitles, there are jokes, there’s all sorts of things (I mean, just look at the full title of this issue).

Second is the letters column.  The difference with this letters column compared to most publications is that they are all (or mostly) nonsense.  One comes from an author whose piece is accepted into the issue (Morgan Phillips).  Another is a funny/silly letter from Sarah Vowell.  And there’s a letter to his cousin from John Hodgman (whose comic potential may not have been tapped at this point?). (more…)

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McSweeney’s #29 (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Fishbone, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joyce Carol Oates, King's X, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Military, Outer Space, Roddy Doyle, Sex, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Threats, Unlikable main character, Violence, War, Yannick Murphy on January 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

mc29SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993).

monkeyI had actually forgotten about this album, because it was so overshadowed by Truth and Soul and Reality….. When I put it on I wasn’t expecting much (Fishbone had something of a precipitous decline around this time).  So, I was amazingly delighted with how much I remembered this album and how much I enjoyed it (which shows to me that I must have listened to it a lot back in college).

This album is much much heavier than anything they’ve done up to this point (I can’t speak for the releases that came after it).  It does have some variety of songs, but not nearly as much as their previous releases.  The other notable thing is that there’s no short songs on it.  There’s none of the one minute songs that they’ve put throughout their discs.

“Swim” was the single from the album and it is heavy and moshy.  The video, I seem to recall, was a lot of people crowd surfing.  “Black Flowers” slows things down a bit, but unlike previous ballads, this one is still pretty loud.  It’s got a great catchy melody, but it’s still  quite dark. “Servitude” reminds me of some of King’s X’s s darker moments, with their riffs and dark harmonies.  (This just shows how Fishbone is much more metal on this release).  Their first “lighter” song is the return to ska with “Unyielding Condition.”  It’s a nice let up from the heaviness, and is still catchy. “Lemon Meringue” is the other lighter moment, with a nice bass riff included.

Funk returns with “Properties of Propaganda” and the repeated chants of “Fuk This Shit on Up.”  “The Warmth of Your Breath” is hardcore insanity, the type of song that would have been about 2 minutes on another disc sort of overstays its welcome, although the often repeated line “may your dog’s colon be familiar with the warmth of your breath” while barely audible can’t help but raise a smile.  And even though “Drunk Skitzo” features Branford Marsalis, it’s still too long for such silliness.

So, it’s really the first half of the disc that I liked a lot…I guess some discs run too long.

I never got a Fishbone CD after this one.   The reviews were pretty lousy by then.  But of course, the reviews of this one were lousy too, so maybe I’m, selling their later output short.

[READ: January 3, 2009] McSweeney’s # 29

My cover for this book happens to be red.  Huh.

This issue comes as a hardcover book.  There are planets on the cover, including a die cut hole that shows the moon of the next page.

On the bottom of every page of the book are matchbox labels.  Most of them are Eastern European in origin.  They were collected by Jane McDevitt, a web designer in the UK.  Some of the images are available on her Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/maraid.  They are a pretty cool collection of images.  And, they brighten up all the work . (more…)

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J.K. Rowling–The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)

Posted in Canadian Music, Children's Books, City and Colour, Entertainment Weekly, Fables, Fantasy, Harry Potter, Illusion, J.K. Rowling, Magic, Meta, Short Books, Supernatural, Technology on December 26, 2008| Leave a Comment »

beedleSOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR-Live (2007).

ccliveCity and Colour is the solo project of Alexisonfire singer Dallas Green (get it?).  I was really impressed by Dallas’ voice within the noisy metalcore of AOF.  And I wondered what his solo stuff would sound like without the dissonance of the rest of the band.  I saw this disc was available from Maplemusic and it was considerably cheaper than on Amazon.  A live record isn’t always the best venue to check out an artist but in this case, I figured his solo stuff probably translated fine live as well.  (Still haven’t actually heard a solo record so I can’t say).  The set is also not entirely solo, as he calls out an accompanist for a few tracks (the DVD gives more information about who he is).

In AOF, Dallas’s voice is strong and powerful and yet totally catchy.  His voice is the reason that I like AOF so much.  So I was a  little disappointed in the live release because he seems to be holding back.  As I said, I haven’t heard the original discs, so I don’t know how it compares.  But on some of the songs, he seems too restrained.

The songs are all very catchy, and the between-song banter is fun (it was excised from the CD but is available on the DVD) .  But as I said for some of the songs it’s almost as if he’s inhaling rather than exhaling when he sings.  I guess I find it weird for a punk rocker to be so restrained.  Despite that, several songs do stand out as excellent.  “Comin’ Home” (there are two versions on the disc), “Save Your Scissors” (the second version on the disc is especially fun because the crowd sings along).  And lyrically Green is very interesting.  “Comin’ Home” has some nice name-checking of cities around North America (poor fans in Lincoln, Nebraska, though).

Despite my reservations about his singing, his voice still sounds great.  I’m interested in checking out a studio release to see how it compares.

[READ: December 18, 2008] The Tales of Beedle the Bard

There’s two funny stories about this book:

1) At my library, we received a notice from Scholastic Books that this book COULD NOT be put out before the release date of December 4.  We had to sign a release form promising it would not go out any sooner.  We all laughed about that because, while we knew that Book 7 of the Harry Potter series was going to be HUGE (and we had the same release form to sign for that book) we also knew that this was, at best, an esoteric addendum to the series for die-hard fans only.  (As of this writing our copies haven’t even arrived yet, and there are only eleven holds in our entire system). (more…)

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Gary Shteyngart–Absurdistan (2006)

Posted in Anya Ulinich, Black Sabbath, C.S. Lewis, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dystopia, Funny (ha ha), Gary Shteyngart, King's X, Meta, Military, Religion, Russia, Sex, The Beatles, Violence, War on September 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X: Out of the Silent Planet (1988).

I just got the newest King’s X CD XV a little while ago, and I really liked it.  I figured I’d go back to the beginning and see how much they’ve changed over the last twenty (!) years.

When I first heard Out of the Silent Planet, I was blown away.  I had never heard anything quite like it.  It had heavy heavy bass (I always said it was like Black Sabbath, but that’s not really accurate), but they also had beautiful harmonies like late-period Beatles.  Add to that Doug Pinnick’s amazing gospel/soulful voice.  And top it off with some great acoustic guitar playing and unusual instruments.  Amazing. The heaviness is more of a dissonant sound that has become more popular in the last few years: complex chords that are played very heavily.   I wouldn’t say that King’s X had anything to do with that popularity, but I heard it from them before I heard others do it.

The one thing that really struck me about the album was just how dissonant some of those chords are. I always think back on the album, which I’ve listened to hundreds of times, as being sweetly harmonic, and yet really the chords are quite aggressive.  And the riffs are in a dark, minor key.  Which is why those beautiful harmonies make such an impression.

The other thing that really struck me was how religious the record is.  Now, when it first came out I didn’t really think of the religious aspects of the disc.  There really weren’t any Christian metal bands back then, (except for Stryper) at least not on the cultural radar, and they didn’t proclaim their religiosity overtly, so I just didn’t see it.

But starting from the title: Out of the Silent Planet is a book by C.S. Lewis (of Narnia fame).  And much as Narnia is a thinly veiled Christian allegory, so is Out of the Silent Planet.  You can read Narnia and not see the Christianity in it, but once you know its there, it’s unavoidable.  Same with this album.  The lyrics are not overtly Christian, but there’s enough symbolism to tell that when he sings about You, it’s not romance, but God he’s singing about.  A verse like “Sometimes my cup is empty; I wish that it stay full; cause I am always thirsty; I can’t get enough of you” can be secular or religious depending on your point of view, and I think that makes the album great.

Plus, it’s got the fantastic “Goldilox” a beautiful song, no qualifications needed.  It’s a gorgeous ballad.  but lest you think that it’s all sweetness, the album closer “Visions” ends with an unqualified thrash out…which comes after the song should end properly.  Ty Tabor’s guitar work is pretty amazing.

Wow, it’s a great album.

[READ: maybe December 2006/January 2007] Absurdistan.

I read this book a couple years ago, certainly before I started keeping this blog, but while I was working at the library.  My memory of it was fuzzy.  But when I referenced it in the Petropolis write up I was sorry that I hadn’t written about it.  As I’m reading the details of the book in a book review, much of it is flooding back, so I feel comfortable saying a few words about it.  Plus, I just did a fascinating thing: I skimmed the book for details.  It was fun to “read” this entire book in about two hours.  I got lots of great details, remembered parts of it, and enjoyed re-reading some of the funnier parts. (more…)

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