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Archive for the ‘Blawan’ Category

Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido–Blacksad (2010) [originally written 2000, 2002, 2005]

Posted in Animals, Anthya Flores, Bart Beatty, Beat Happening, Blawan, Girl Band, Graphic Novel, Guns, Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido, Katie LaBarbera, Mystery, Neal Adams, Noir, Patricia Rivera, Racism, Sex, Therapy?, Translation, Violence on March 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

blacksad1SOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-Live at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik (November 8, 2014)

girlbandlive This brief concert finally allows us to see just how Girl Band make their unholy noise.  And yes, it is just four guys–guitar (and a whole lot of pedals) bass drums and a vocalist.

“Sexy Wife” has staccato guitars until the real noise kicks in for the chorus (oh, so that’s how he does it).  It’s also fun watching the bassist remain largely calm while still playing some unsuaul high notes on his instrument.  The drummer doesn’t have any fancy gizmos, but he keeps a steady loud beat.  And I love that the singer is quite a pretty fellow in his Oxford shirt and parted hair (but he can scream like the best of them).

“De Bom Bom (their newest single) is just full of noise and more noise (how can you have chords if it’s just staicky noise?) as the bass rumbles along.  This song is intense.

“Heckle The Frames” is a noisy chaotic pile of hardcore (and is about 90 seconds long).  It’s followed by “I Love You” a cover of the Beat Happening song.  For this one, it’s pretty much all bass and drums while the guitarist fiddles with his pedals making a larger wall of noise until he begins playing a ringing open note.  I don’t know the original, but I imagine it’s nothing like this.

“Lawman” shows off just how noisy the bassist can be in the opening moments.  And his riff, coupled with the noisy riff of the guitar, make for such an enjoyable combination.  I love how the song which you assume is over–at about the length of their other songs–suddenly turns into something else altogether–a sort of guitar solo, if you will.

The final song is “The Cha Cha Cha” which is all of 25 seconds.  It’s a pretty great set if you like your music noisy.

[READ: March 19, 2015] Blacksad

This book collects the first three Blacksad volumes: Somewhere within the Shadows (2000), Arctic Nation (2002) and Red Soul (2005).  I’m only bummed that it took me so long between books to read them.  They were translated by Anthya Flores and Patricia Rivera

It’s amazing to see that it takes two or three years between books, but when you look at the visuals, it is completely understandable.  The drawings/paintings in these volumes are simply incredibly.  They are incredibly realistic with exquisite attention paid to detail.  The fact that he can make people with animal heads seem sexy is really a testament to his drawing skills.

Okay so Blacksad is a noirish detective series with a slight twist.  John Blacksad is a cat.  Well, he is a human shaped person with a cat head.  But otherwise he is very much a detective–he is hunky, has smoldering eyes and is a really hard dude. And that first story opens with his former lover dead in her bead.  She is so pretty (and colored in pale fleshtones), that one might be hard pressed to see her as a car (except for the ears).

This mystery is personal and John sets out to find out who wanted his former lover dead. (more…)

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Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido–Blacksad: Amarillo (2014) [translated 2014]

Posted in Bart Beatty, Blawan, Girl Band, Graphic Novel, Guns, Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido, Katie LaBarbera, Mystery, Neal Adams, Noir, Sex, Therapy?, Translation, Violence on March 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

amarilloSOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-In My Head (2012).

inmyheadI enjoyed “Why They Hide They Bodies Under My Garage?” so much that I immediately went to Girl Band’s bandcamp site to check out their other releases.

They have a bunch of EPs and singles out.  This was their first one.  It’s hard to believe that the band who is so experimental with noise and feedback sounds so different just two short years ago.

I like this single (which is only two songs and which you can get for free from their site), even though it has none of the more noisy elements that would come on later songs). Having said that it’s not like these are sweet ballads.  They are plenty noisy, just in a more conventional indie rock vein.

They actually sound a bit like a Steve Albini project–sharp guitars and feedback (and both songs total 5 minutes)–and an aggressive feel like Therapy? perhaps.

“In My Head” has a pretty conventional rhythm section (which unusual guitars) and a rocking chorus that is pretty catchy.  By the time the singer starts screaming the chorus the second time around, a lot has  been packed into 2 minutes.  “Conductor” has a thumping bass line that propels the song while the guitars alternate between ringing dissonant chords and a squealy guitar line.  The vocals are almost spoken and sound like someone but i can’t quite place it).  And once again, the chorus is strangely catchy under the noise.

But make no mistake this is still an abrasive bunch.

[READ: December 29, 2014] Blacksad: Amarillo

So I see now that this is actually the fifth book in the series, not the third.  I’m glad I found the fourth volume before reading this one.  I hope to get the first 3 volume set soon.  There’s a wonderful introduction by Neal Adams who puts some context and admiration for these guys’ work.

I enjoyed this story a bit more than A Silent Hell (which was really, really dark).  The fact that this one is so bright on the cover (and while I thought amarillo meant yellow (which it does) it is also set in Amarillo, Texas.

It opens with two lions–both writers–sitting by a pool.  The one writer (who is bigger in general) throws his poetry into the pool out of artistic honesty, while the other sits, aghast.  The poet then tries to throw the other writer’s scroll of a novel into the pool as well, but when the novelist talks about his work he did the poet scoffs and says he should think of it not as work but as poetry.  They depart with hard feelings between them. (more…)

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Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido–Blacksad: A Silent Hell (2010) [translated 2012]

Posted in Animals, Bart Beatty, Blawan, Girl Band, Graphic Novel, Guns, Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido, Katie LaBarbera, Mystery, Noir, Record Labels, Sex, Translation, Violence on March 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

blacksad4SOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-“Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?” (2014).

girl band I first heard about Girl Band from the NPR Austin 100 list.  This song blew me away.  It is a noisy and unrelenting 8 minutes.  It builds and builds into a chaotic tumult.  And, amazingly, it is a cover of a dance song.

Girl Band is from Dublin and they make some of the noisiest rock I’ve heard in a long time.  Not heavy rumbling death metal noise, but ear-piercing feedback and squalls and sqwaks of sound that are heard to imagine originating with a guitar or bass.

It open with controlled chaos, and clearly some kind of pedal manipulation from the sounds generated by… a guitar?

The lyrics are minimal–a simple repeat of “Why they hide they bodies under my garage?”  These lyrics are repeated, more frenetically with the “music” just squeals of feedback and noise.  The song doesn’t seem to change much, but there are subtle (if that’s the right word) changes in noise and intensity for four minutes until the song sorta stops and then resumes with even more intensity.  It drops out again, but by 6 minutes the song has built to epic intensity, with interesting sounds in between “chants.”

There is pretty much nothing to this song and yet it is amazingly intense.  And not for the faint of heart.

This song is from an earlier compilation release but is getting reissued on their soon to be released EP.  (You can get a lot of their early stuff from their bandcamp site).

The video is creepy as anything too:

You can also hear the original by Blawan, which is similar without the building intensity, I tend to think that Girl Band has done this song a real service.

[READ: December 20, 2014] Blacksad: A Silent Hell

I had gotten the latest Blacksad book at work, so I looked to see if I could find the earlier editions. I couldn’t find the first book right away so I decided to dive in with this book.  It is the second collection, but is apparently the fourth book.  The first collection, simply titled Blacksad collects the first three books together.  The books were originally written in French and were translated by Katie LaBarbera.

I don’t know how much if any introduction there is in that first book, so there’s no context for why these animals are people or people are animals.  And I rather hope there isn’t one.  It’s just a great world where everyone looks human except that their heads are a (very realistic) animal shape.  In fact speaking of realistic, the artwork by Guarnido is amazing–perfectly noir with incredible realism and gorgeous colors (all done with watercolors, I believe).

This book opens with Blacksad, a private investigator, and Weekly, a reporter, at a strip club.  (It is disconcerting that the stripper is a leopard woman and that she is really hot (thankfully, it’s only shown from the back because that would get weird).  Weekly is super psyched but Blacksad has other things on his mind.  They are supposed to be meeting Junior Harper but he ain’t showing.

The pull back shows that we are in New Orleans. (more…)

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