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Archive for the ‘Brett Netson’ Category

Robert Massey–Chancers (2013)

Posted in Brett Netson, Built to Spill, Dublin, Ireland, Funny (ha ha), Irish Writer, Lottery, Neil Young, Play (Drama), Robert Massey on October 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

chancers SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-You in Reverse (2006).

reverseI love the audacity of coming back from a five-year hiatus and opening your disc with an 8 minute song that has lots and lots of instrumentals and solo sections.  And man is “Goin’ Against Your Mind” a good song (the band opened with this when I saw them and it awesome).  At around 5 minutes the songs slows down for a quieter section and then it builds back up again. I particularly love the roaring guitars in the back of the song (which I think are from Brett Netson—it is confusing that the band has a Brett Nelson and a Brett Netson in its line up).

“Traces” slows things down.  It has a simple but really catchy riff.  “Liar” is a bouncy, rather fun song with some pretty guitar work (two guitars in the middle) and a super catchy vocal melody. “Saturday” is a slowish ballad that is only 2:24.

“Wherever You Go” has a kid of Neil Young stomp to it, but it’s “Conventional Wisdom” that really opens up the beginning of the second half with a great riff and a fun chorus. The dual guitar solo that starts around 3 minutes in is fantastic.

I also love the guitar riffs in “Gone” and how at 3 minutes it turns into something else entirely with a big organ sound.  “Mess with Time,” which they played live, has a great staccato riff and a really interesting (to my ear Middle Easternish) guitar riff.   I also like the way it sounds like perhaps a circular saw blade is being used as percussion.  And how at 3:15 it turns into an entirely new song—an almost ska song riff with great bass lines.  “Just a Habit” is a mellow song with soaring electric guitar lines.   The disc ends with “The Wait,” a slower song that I don’t usually love.  But they played it live and in the live setting it took on a new vitality was really enjoyable.

This is an album I can put on an enjoy from start to finish.

[READ: August 7, 2015] Chancers

Chancers is a short three-act play set in Dublin after the collapse of the Irish economy.

There are four characters: Aiden and Dee who own a small shoppe; Gertie, an older lady who comes in regularly and never has a nice word for anyone and JP, Aiden’s mate.

In the first scene, we see that Dee is getting dressed up for a job interview.  She doesn’t imagine she’ll get the job, but they desperately need the money.  Aiden reveals that they have stopped offering certain services because they weren’t profitable enough.  When Gertie comes in, she mocks the two of them for trying, and for overreaching.  Gertie is nasty, undermining everything that Dee or Aiden says.

In the second scene, JP and Aiden are talking about a lottery ticket.  It seems that Gertie has bought a ticket that has won a huge windfall.  But when she brought the ticket in for him to check, Aiden instinctively told her it was a loser.  JP says that the first step has been taken now all they need to do is get that ticket for themselves so they can cash it in. (more…)

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Jen Calonita–Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School #1) (2015)

Posted in Brett Netson, Built to Spill, Children's Books, Fairy Tales, Funny (ha ha), Jen Calonita, Sam Coombs, Supernatural, Unfinished series on October 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

flunkedSOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Ancient Melodies of the Future (2001).

ancientAfter their live album, Built to Spill returned with Ancient Melodies of the Future.  For many fans, this album concluded their first trilogy of great records.  The album is similar in style to Keep It Like a Secret, but there are some new elements added.  Sam Coombs, who supplied keyboards on one song on the previous album is back on this one with prominent keyboards on three tracks (which adds a rather different vibe to the Built to Spill sound).

“Strange” is yet another stellar leadoff track.  It’s got an interesting riff with some great lyrics and what evolves into a stupendously catchy chorus.  It features Sam Coombs on Rocksichord, which has a rather unique sound.

“The Host” has strings, which is quite a departure.  The song is mellow with a simply great vocal line for the verse. “In Your Mind” has an interesting acoustic guitar line with some wild backwards guitar effects over the top. I really like the way the vocal line gets loud and high when he gets to the “in your mind” part.

“Alarmed” slows things down with bigger, louder strings. There’s a lengthy crazy keyboard solo from Sam Coombs

“Trimmed and Burning” gets a little heavier sounding   “Happiness” has a slide guitar—a very unusual sound for BTS. The song picks up pretty quickly and rumbles along.  “Dont Try” comes in with a much louder fuller guitar sound (Brett Netson contributes guitars to this and 3 other songs).

“You Are” is probably my least favorite BtS song, it doesn’t really do anything.  But it’s followed by the up beat and wonderful “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” which has really fun guitar solo and is just so catchy.

The disc ends with the acoustic guitar ballad “The Weather.”  It builds to a slightly bigger sound by the end of the song, with interesting effects on the guitars.

I tend to overlook this disc somewhat when I think back to my favorite BtS music, but there are some real gems here.  It might be a little more mellow and introspective than some of the other discs, but it’s still great.

[READ:June 1, 2015] Flunked

I brought this book home because I thought Sarah would like it.  She never got around to reading it, but I decided it might be fun so I read it pretty quickly.  Calonita has written a number of YA books but this is her first series for younger readers (so says the blurb at the back, under her strangely unflattering author photo.  This is a new series (unclear how many books, but the next one is due out next year).

It’s another book that twists around the ideas of fairy tales (which I like).  The premise behind this series is that Cinderella’s stepmother Flora is really, really sorry for what she did to Cinderella (now Princess Ella).  And in order to make it up to the land of Enchantasia (nice) she decided to convert her old castle into Fairy Tale Reform School.  The school is designed to teach bad kids, villains and delinquents the ways of righteousness.  Some teachers include the Big Bad Wolf (Xavier Wolfington), the Sea Witch (Madame Cleo) and the Evil Queen (Professor Harlow).  More than five hundred gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, elves, mer-folks and other fairly tale students have been admitted in the past five years and there is much praise for the school. (more…)

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Julie Birmant & Clement Oubrerie–Pablo (2012-2014) [translated 2015]

Posted in Alice Toklas, Art, Biography, Brett Netson, Built to Spill, Clément Oubrerie, Edward Gauvin, Fernande Olivier, Georges Braque, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, Julie Birmant, Love as Laughter, Max Jacob, Neil Young, Pablo Picasso, Sex, The Halo Benders, Vincent van Gogh, Violence on October 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

pablo SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-Live (2000).

btsliveSoon after releasing “Carry the Zero,” Built to Spill released this, their first (and so far only) live disc.

This disc shows a jamming side of the band that their records up to now hadn’t really displayed (sure there was some evidence of the jam band within, but who would have guessed 2 songs on this disc would stretch to 20 minutes?).

The live set also shows a rather contrarian spirit in that there are only 9 songs in 70 some minutes and only 5 of the songs are actual Built to Spill songs.

The disc opens with “The Plan,” a great version of their most recent disc’s opener.  Then they jump right into Perfect from Now On’s  opening track “Randy Described Eternity.”  That song has a lot of parts and sections, and they do them perfectly.  They follow it with another song from Perfect, “Stop the Show” which also has multiple parts and again, they nail it.  These three songs were recorded in New York.  Brett Netson joined them for “Randy,” and “Stop” which really helps to flesh out those songs.

The next song is a cover of The Halo Benders’ “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain.”  And if it sounds very fitting for Doug, he was in The Halo Benders with Calvin Johnson before he started Built to Spill.  Then comes the centerpiece of the record–a 20 minute version of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”  And it is amazing.  He sounds enough like Neil to be totally respectful, without just being a rip off.  It’s probably the best version of this song I’ve heard (until I saw Neil do it this summer).

They switch gears to their first single, “Car,” a delightful 3 minute song.   And then, to fill out this almost all covers section, they play “Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords” a song originally done by Love as Laughter.  I don’t know the original, but it fits in with Doug’s style.  These four songs were record in Seattle.

There’s one song that was recorded in Denver, “I Would Hurt a Fly,” which is yet another song from Perfect, and is one of my favorite songs of theirs.  It does not disappoint.

The final song on the disc is a nineteen minute version of the song “Broken Chairs” (which is 8 minutes long on Secret).  They do the whistling section and a ton of solos.  Indeed, the way they stretch out the song out with guitar solos and noise (and the way the song ends with feedback) is really cool.  Netson joined them for “Fly” and “Broken Chairs” (which is why that ending solo is so intense.

It’ s a great live collection of songs and the sound is outstanding.  You’d never know it was recorded in different venues, either.

[READ: October 4, 2015] Pablo

Judging this book by its cover you would be correct in assuming that it is about Pablo Picasso.  But rather than being a simple history of the Art Master (the title of the series), this is a thorough recounting of Picasso’s life.  And what’s even more interesting is that the story is told from the point of view of Picasso’s lover and model Fernande Olivier.

And Fernande’s diary entries make up the bulk of the story and allow for a very personal look into the man and the stylistic choices that Picasso made over the years.  As the book says on the back, the authors show “how Picasso’s style developed in response to his friendships and rivalries.”  And of his rivals none was greater than Henri Matisse.  (The book also covers Picasso’s life before she met him too, of course).

The original work was published (in French) in four volumes.   This edition was translated by Edward Gauvin.

I especially like the way the book begins from the point of view of Fernande as an old woman, still alive and reminiscing about her life. (And yes, it’s amazing to realize that Picasso died in 1973…in my lifetime!).  (more…)

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