We ordered tickets for Belle and Sebastian months and months ago (probably back in April before Sarah’s birthday). We had no idea a) they would be playing in Philly as well and b) who the opening act would be.
In Philly the opener was Lucius, a band I like a bit, and who are quite dancey. But at Radio City, the opener was Real Estate, a jangly pop band who I like better.
Real Estate’s previous album was selected on many 2011 best of lists. Their new album I think may not be quite as catchy, but it has the same summery vibe. (And the cover of the new album, Atlas, features Stefan Knapp’s mural that was on Alexander’s department store in Paramus–Real Estate are from Ridgewood, New Jersey, you see). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE-Tiny Desk Concert #430 (April 6, 2015).
It’s hard for me to believe that Death Cab for Cutie had not been on a Tiny Desk Concert before. But they are here at last. Well, three of them anyhow. It’s simply Ben Gibbard (of course) on vocals, Nick Harmer on bass, and Zac Rae on piano (now that Chris Walla has left). And what makes this concert so special is that all 4 songs are played on piano–there’s no guitar at all. It gives all of these songs (familiar and new) a much starker feel. Not better, but very different.
There are two new song from Kintsugi, “Black Sun,” and “No Room In Frame” which sound so much like Death Cab for Cutie (probably because of Gibbard’s voice), that they fit in perfectly with the other two songs. “Your Heart Is An Empty Room” from Plans and “Passenger Seat” from Transatlanticism.
It’s a little uncomfortable watching Gibbard sing close ups with his eyes closed, but he sounds right on. He says some nice words about NPR (a station they actually listen to for news) and he gets a nice round of applause when they say they’ll do a fourth song. And Gibbard can even hit those high notes in this quiet setting. This is a must hear for any fan of the band.
[READ: April 2, 2015] Five Dials 32
Issue Number 32 is a thematic one–based around the Australia & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts. And so many of the writers and artists are from New Zealand. There are dozens of paintings by Francis Upritchard: colorful watercolors of monkeys, monocolor paintings of people and colorful masks. They all look incredibly simple–like first drafts–yet are quite effective in their displays.
A Letter from the Editor: On New Zealand Issues
Craig Taylor didn’t have a letter last issue. This time he talks about the issue and about issues in New Zealand. He talks a bit sadly about how the New Zealand writer most often find a home in London even if the writers mostly think about national (New Zealand) issues. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Magical Mystery Tour (1967).
I have never really thought of Magical Mystery Tour as a real album. And it turns out I had good reason to feel that way. It was originally released as a double EP in Britain (with the first six songs). The rest of the tracks only ever appeared on the American release. Those five songs were released as singles before this album In Britain and the U.S.), which means that this was the only place you could get these songs unless you bought the singles (eventually they were put out on the “blue album”).
So the first six songs are from the soundtrack to the TV movie Magical Mystery Tour (which was a flop as a film, but a hit as a soundtrack). And the last five songs were released in different ways.
I’ve always liked “Magical Mystery Tour” it’s bouncy and fun with good harmonies. I never much cared for “The Fool on the Hill” I tend to not like Paul’s piano ballads that much (they remind me too much of his solo and Wings material), although I do enjoy the way he wails the vocals later in the song. The slide whistle solo is quite a treat and I also like the bass harmonica (my new favorite weird instrument).
This album also features two songs that I don’t know well at all (and I assumed I knew every Beatles song). “Flying” is a weird fun little instrumental with “La La Las” at the end I really like it, and if I still made mix tapes I would often find a place for it on them. And “Blue Jay Way” a song I don’t know at all. It’s another George Harrison vaguely Indian song, although this one has more guitars than his other songs. I find I can’t really get into it. “Your Mother Should Know” is one of those songs that I like but I don’t love and don’t really think about too much.
But then there’s”I am the Walrus (“No you’re not, “said Little Nicola).” It’s a cliché to really like this song but I really do. It’s weird and goofy and the music is just fantastic. I love all the elements (and didn’t realize that the spoken section at the end is King Lear). I feel like The Beatles must have been huge to make a such a weird song become such a big hit.
And then came a bunch of singles: “Hello Goodbye” which I think hearkens back to the earlier Beatles, songs but which has a bit of the psychedelic elements form later Beatles thrown on top (including Paul’s shouting vocals in the background).
“Strawberry Fields Forever” was intended to be included on Sgt Peppers‘ but they needed a single to release during in the lengthy amount of time it was taking them to record the album (a whole nine months!). This song holds up really well, with some really interesting chord progressions and mild dissonance. And the middle of the song is fascinatingly split in the stereo version so that it’s all drums and sound effects in the left ear. It was released as a double A side with “Penny Lane.” Although I said I don’t really like Paul’ piano songs, I do like “Penny Lane” quite a lot, I find it very satisfying.
“Baby You’re A Rich Man” was the B-side to “All You Need is Love.” I always felt the song was kind of weird and it turns out that the two parts were two different songs (Lennon: verses; McCartney: chorus) that they just stuck together. It’s a weird mic of fun sing along rocking chorus and peculiar Eastern melody in the verses. “All You Need is Love” was first performed on Our World, the first live global television link watched by over 400 million in 25 countries. The BBC had commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the United Kingdom’s contribution. They apparently wrote a song that was simple enough for it to be universal, and man, were they right.
So, there’s all of these fabulous songs sort of tacked on to the end of this soundtrack. Beatles releases were sure weird.
Incidentally, the film also used “Death Cab for Cutie” performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in its soundtrack which you can see here. Obviously, this is where Death Cab for Cutie got their band name, but also, Neil from thee Bonzos was involved in The Rutles, who did such great parodies of Beatles songs.
[READ: January 15, 2015] “The Red Dog”
This was a sad holiday story about an eight year old girl with learning disabilities. She evidently lives away from her family for most of the year but is allowed to come home for Christmas and the summer vacation. It’s clear that Katie is a handful. She tends to lash out easily, but she also seems to be able to control herself as well.
There’s some weird aspects of the story that I didn’t fully understand. Like the fact that while her family ii shopping they tell her to stay outside because they’re afraid she will damage things in the store. But her family leaves her outside for at least a half an hour, just standing in front of the store (“don’t move an inch”). And she behaves, even though it is rather difficult. But really, they leave her standing outside of a store for over half an hour? (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: LUCKY DIAZ AND THE FAMILY JAM BAND-“Thingamajig” (2013).
This song made the XPN Kid’s Corner Top ten. When the played it on the radio, I was surprised at how ..quiet it was. Even now listening to it, it just seems like all of the sounds are at the same level, it all kind of blends together, which is a shame because the song is really kind of fun.
Now that I’ve listened a few times I like it more. It actually has a kind of Death Cab for Cutie feel. The bass is particularly nice, but of course the fun part is the lyrics (a thingamajig, a whatchamacallit, who what where why).
So a couple of listens and I’m won over by the song. I wish it was a bit more dynamic in the production, but it’s a catchy little number. And I’m curious to hear what the rest of the album sounds like.
[READ: December 27, 2013] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck
Clark was so excited for this book! This is the first one that he knew about before I did. We decided to save it for a Christmas present, and man was he chomping at the bit. He even borrowed it from a friend (because there were 100 people on the waiting list a the library). And yet, even though he had already read it, when it arrived on Christmas, he was still really excited. And has already read it four times.
And what was sweeter was that he really wanted me to read it. He thought it was the best one yet.
I was surprised by this as the whole first section is about how lost Greg feels now that Rowley has a girlfriend, Abigail. I can’t really imagine how he related to that as it’s not an issue for an 8-year-old (in fact the whole series is skewed a little old for an 8-year-old, but he still loves it). Mostly Greg isn’t so much jealous that Rowley has a girlfriend so much as he is jealous that she is keeping Rowley from being Greg’s slave, I mean, friend. Normally, Rowley walks in front of Greg to look out for the (newly added, I think) Mingo kids who threaten anyone who comes close to their wood (which is on their way to school) or for dog land mines–the scene where the dog figures out how the electric fence works is so funny. And speaking of dogs, Clark absolutely cracked up about the joke with the little dog Sweetie who sniffs herself if you make a raspberry sound near her. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: HEY MARSEILLES-Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2013).
For reasons I’m unclear about, the first two songs (at least the first two listed on the NPR web page, (“To Travels & Trunks” and”Gasworks”) ) are not included in the download. But we do get the band’s introduction of themselves. So maybe the NPR list is wrong? Weirder things have happened.
The band drove all the way from Seattle and are pleased to announce that they are the first band to play the Festival (a nice, if insignificant piece of trivia).
Regardless, we get a solid 35 minute set. The band opens with “Heart Beats,” a folky song. Indeed, Hey Marseilles continues the tradition of large bands (6 members at last counting) who play folk music with lots of unexpected(ish) instruments. But the singer sounds quite a bit like Ben Gibbard. Indeed that first song sounds like a less commercial Death Cab for Cutie—you keep expecting a big commercial chorus to come but it doesn’t, and there’s something very satisfying about them not giving it to us.
Although the band does sounds quite a bit like DCFC (both in the voice and the arrangements), their instrumentation brings an unfamiliarity to the songs that makes them so intriguing—like when the accordion pops up put of nowhere in “From a terrace.” Or other songs where strings fill out a song–not in a “look we’re unplugged” sort of way but as natural part of the song. I really enjoyed their songs and may track down their CDs (and their cool scarf).
[READ: July 3, 2013] Mermaid in Chelsea Creek
This was the second YA book that McSweeney’s has released. It is (say it with me) the first book in a trilogy. And I have to say that I really didn’t like the first 100 pages.
There were a number of small things that kept me interested, but for the most part I found the story pretty dreadful. On a personal note I really didn’t like that the Chelsea Creek was not revealed to be in the Boston area until very far into the story. I hated that it was so specific (Chelsea) and yet so generic (which of the dozens of Chelseas was it?). But more importantly I hated that Sophie (the protagonist) and her friend Ella, play the ‘pass-out” game. In the game, one of the girls chokes herself until she passes out. The other girl watches and wakes the first up after about 30 seconds. This is what they do for fun This is their cheap high. And it constitutes a large part of the beginning of the story. So much so that when her mother finds out about it, she tells her doctor. And what made it all the crazier was that her doctor reveals that not only did she play the pass out game as a girl but she is sure her mother did too. And her mother says yes. What the fuck? Oh and her mother is mean and overworked and exhausted and generally always ready to fight with Sophie.
I imagine that if I had another book with me on vacation I would have put this down and read that one instead. But I pressed on, mostly because when Sophie passed out she saw a mermaid in Chelsea Creek, a filthy sewage filled river. (The fact that Ella is a germophobe is quite funny, especially when Sophie falls into the creek when she passes out). That kept me interested as did Dr Chen (the above doctor). Because the Doctor keeps pigeons on her roof and she has tied flutes to some of their tails so that they make beautiful music when they fly. This scene was so good–so briefly magical–that I forgave the rest of the book and gave it a blank slate. I was bummed when the pigeons went away, but was delighted when they came back a little later, once the magic began for real.
And there is magic aplenty. Especially as Sophie learns more and more about her family and neighborhood. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE POSTAL SERVICE-“A Tattered Line of String” (2013).
I enjoyed The Postal Service record but I wasn’t as big of a Death Cab for Cutie fan at the time. Now, having enjoyed DCFC so much in the last couple of years, this song sounds much more like a DCFC song but with keyboards (Ben’s voice is so distinctive).
This song has been released with the reissue of the Postal Service album. It’s not on the original but it also sounds like it might be a remix (the skittery backing vocals make me think remix).
Either way this is a supremely catchy song (Gibbard knows from melody) and when you throw the keyboards and dancey beats on it, it’s even more poppy than DCFC’s stuff. I wonder why the album wasn’t bigger when it came out.
[READ: April 21, 2013] “Valentine”
Tessa Hadley has written another story that I enjoyed–with that same quaint feeling of love in 1970s England.
The story opens with the narrator Stella and her friend Madeleine waiting at the bus stop. They are fifteen, have never kissed boys, and think about nothing else (especially since they go to an all girls school). Madeleine is willowy with long curls a “kitten face” and “luscious breasts” while Stella is small, plump and shapeless.
As they wait for the bus, Valentine approaches (yes I though the title was about the day not a person). He is in school as well but he is new to them. Valentine has just moved to the area from Malaya. And, as he sizes them up, offering them each a smoke, when it comes down to it, amazingly, he chooses Stella.
She likes him because he is different as she is different–they are clearly soulmates. While her parents (well, Gerry is her stepdad) don’t ‘t approve of him (his hair, his dress, his attitude). He barely talks to her parents when they interrogate him and then he imitates their voices when they are alone. Regardless of what others thought or really, because if it, they are soon hanging out all the time. And soon he is her boyfriend. And soon enough she had lost weight (because all they did was talk and smoke), they died their hair black (a proto-goth in the hippie 70s) and they basically began to look alike. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-“Carry the Zero” (1999).
For a time, before the bands each took off, I lumped Built to Spill, Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse into a pile of bands I really liked but wasn’t always sure who was who. They each have melodic sections, noisy sections and high pitched singers. (It also turns out that both Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie cite Built to Spill as a big influence). The big difference between the three is that Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch is a guitar god—he does amazing solos which is why his songs are so long (their Live album features a 20 minute version of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”
I have no real idea what this song is about, but I love it. It’s catchy and fun with a great melody. And, in this case it kind of ties in to JR, because JR is all about making money but his basic math is shaky. In the same way, carrying the zero won’t do anything in basic math. Although “you have become a fraction of the sum” is a nice refrain.
This was the song and album that introduced me to Built to Spill and I love it. Great 90s alt rock.
[READ: Week of June 25, 2012] JR Week 2
And since there are no paragraph breaks, week two picks up mid-flow. However, this proved to be a good breaking point because almost the entire read for this week is about Mrs Joubert and her class on their field trip to the New York Stock Exchange. And Edward Bast is steamrollered into doing (and paying for) everything. Gaddis’ style completely allows for the miscommunication and ease with which Bast is overtaken by Joubert and Gibbs. While it certainly calls into question Bast’s ability to stand up for himself, it also shows how easily one can be pushed into doing things (although in real life I suspect you’d just say “wait a minute, I can’t,” at some point). It’s still very funny and the action moves along so quickly that it works perfectly with the flow.
The scene begins with Mrs Joubert herding the kids onto a car and then talking to Mr Bast. He apologizes for what happened yesterday, Of course, he is talking about his disastrous TV meltdown but she thinks he means the loss of the bag of money and its turning up 3 pennies short. Through a series of unsubtle hints from Mrs Joubert, Mr Bast winds up joining their trip to the city. He had business to conduct in Manhattan so he was going in anyway, but now he’s roped in with the kids. There’s a lot of sexual tension on this trip–the boys are watching women bend over and Mr Bast keeps pressing his body again “her unyielding thigh.”
Then we get our first really big scene with JR. In this scene he and a friend (unnamed as far as I can tell) are going through all of their free mail publications and doing trades. Everything the boys try to trade is a load of crap (a word count on “crap” would be very high indeed). So the kids start looking through their brochures: K’ung-p’a, piano lessons, rare coins, scientific method builds powerful muscles,government surplus (a Tank that turns out to be an airplane gas tank (ha)), How to Make Big Profits Overseas, selling shoes, etc. There’s some very funny back and forth as smart-assed kids will do (he really has young kids’ dialogue down very well), like :What are you gonna do where it says “married” or what are you gonna do when it says shoe size and you put yours? (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE-“Kicked In” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).
Death Cab for Cutie are immediately recognizable here. And they take this Superchunk song and make it sound like a Death Cab for Cutie song.
This cover is the rare cover in which the band takes a song and makes it clearly their own, and yet they don’t alter it all that much from the original. The Superchunk version is slow (for Superchunk), with buzzing, distorted guitars and Mac’s vocals riding over the top. The DCFC version features Ben Gibbard’s voice riding over the top as well. But DCFC make the song a bit cleaner. Rather than distorted guitars, we get chiming guitars and simple notes. Instead of being a kind of grungy anthem, it feels somewhat uplifting. And in true DCFC style, the uplifting sounding song really disguises something darker.
Even though the DCFC version feels slower, it’s not any longer than the original, and I think the pacing is pretty much the same. It’s a neat trick. I like both versions equally.
[READ: May, 2, 2012] “Men Against Violence”
This story came in third place in the Narrative Magazine Fall 2011 short story content. It had a very different feel from second place winner. It is set in college. It feels contemporary and it reads young. This, of course, means that I liked the style immediately. I admit I was a little confused by the opening—I felt the exposition was little convoluted and relationships were not established effectively. But once it got moving, the story was really engrossing.
This is a reasonably simple story. Kyle has a Hennessey scholarship—he received hundreds of thousands of dollars over his four years of college. As the story opens he is attending the dinner which announces the newest scholarship grant, and introduces Kyle to the latest scholarship winner, whose name is (in all lower case letters) madison pepper.
The guest speaker at the banquet is Brooke Hennessey. She is the granddaughter of Dorothy Hennessey and is currently is Kyle’s class at the college. She speaks eloquently about her family’s donation (of the Hennessey Art Museum). What she doesn’t say is that she ran away at 15, spent two years living in a car in Portland and that she accepts no money from her family (and has a mountain of debt). She also doesn’t say that she is currently dating Kyle.
Kyle has problems of his own. He recently got into a fight with a Trevor, a fairly important person on campus and he is now on a kind of probation—if he fights again, he loses the scholarship and has to back all the money. This is why he joined Men Against Violence. There’s a funny (but not really) insight into the existence of MAV on the campus, which leads to many unanswered questions about gender relations. And the subject of gender relations is all over this story. That delicate subject is handled very well. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: REAL ESTATE-Tiny Desk Concert #202 (March 12, 2012).
I enjoyed some Real Estate songs, but i never listened to their whole albums. I thought this Tiny Desk show would give me more sonic information about them.
This three song set is very pleasing. The music is soft and nonabrasive, with a very smooth feel (as you can see they are dressed in sweaters and cardigans, so this is not really a shock). It’s poppy without having any real hooks. They remind me of a less catchy Guster or a less dramatic Smiths (“Green Aisles,” especially for the bass and guitar solo) or gentler Death Cab for Cutie (“Municipality”).
There’s nothing to radically distinguish these three songs (radical is not a word that would apply to Real Estate), although “Green Aisles” has a few more dynamic moments (mostly from the change in drum patterns).
This review sounds like I didn’t like the set, but that’s not true. As I said, it’s very pleasant. And sometimes pleasant is what you want.
First Second continues to publish some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking graphic novels around. This is a republication of a story that first appeared in a collection (and proceeded to win an Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz Award).
The story is about Simon and his close friend Nancy. It opens with them in a Vietnamese Restaurant in Oakland, CA. The first scene of the book is wonderfully drawn–we look in on the characters through a fish tank–fish are practically littering the panels–it’s very cool.
The two of them are with their friend Ian and they are shooting the breeze, talking nonsense. And then Simon sees a woman that he knew from high school. She is sitting at the bus stop and Simon wants to, but can’t, talk to her. Her name is Irene, she seems sad, eyes downcast looking at the ground. And then Simon reveals that she is blind.
In high school, he and Irene were very close. He helped her out, described films to her in class, and “rescued” her from bullies. And then she invited him to a Sadie Hawkins dance. He doesn’t like her that way, so he lied to get out of it. She never found out about the lies, but it has haunted him for the last seven years.
Later, Nancy figured out the truth of the matter, and even though we the readers probably guessed it as well, it still hit hard when it was spoken aloud. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: STARS-Live at the 9:30 Club, Washington DC, October 20, 2007 (2007).
Thanks NPR for this unexpected concert. Unexpected because Stars is a wonderful band but I think they’re largely unknown (I could be wrong about that, but it’s not like you hear them on the radio or anything).
This show was during a tour for In Our Bedrooms After the War, which was one of the best albums of the year as far as I’m concerned.
It’s an intimate album, with all kinds of styles in it: whispered confessions, dancey pop songs, synthy tracks and also some solid alternative rock. The unifying theme for Stars is beautiful, often super catchy songs that are filled with melancholy and sadness (and occasionally, hope: “at least…the war is over”). But the key to their beauty is the wonderful harmonies that the singers give us.
Musically the things that surprised me most during this show were the singers’ speaking voices. Torquil Campbell’s speaking voice is quite a high register and yet his singing voice is low and soothing. The opposite is true for the other singer, Amy Millan who has a kind of gruff peaking voice but whose singing voice soars to the heavens. It’s fascinating. Torquil is also a gushing frontman, thanking the audience so much for coming and even asking “Don’t your friends have bands that are playing whose shows you should be at right now?” He also thanks Ben and the rest of Death Cab for Cutie for being so very nice to them. A very nice chap it seems.
The bands sounds quite good live, but my only problem with the show is that as i mentioned, Stars’ music is very intimate, sometime whisper-quiet, and it doesn’t always translate very well in a live setting (even a relatively small club like the 9:30 Club). Sometimes it feels like they’re singing too loudly to match the music. Now, it’s entirely possibly that this doesn’t come across when you see them live, that this soundboard recording picks up every flaw.
Despite that, there’s undeniable energy here and some really great moments where the bands switches direction at the drop of a hat. And, overall, this is an excellent introduction to the wonder that is Stars’ music (or a big treat for established fans).
[READ: July 25, 2011] Five Dials 18
Five Dials 18 is unique in the history of the journal. This entire issue is given over to the memory of SYBILLE BEDFORD. It is written by ALIETTE MARTIN (there’s not even a Letter for the Editor).
Martin writes about Bedford’s love of wine and fine food. It was pretty funny to read about her detailed love of meat after reading all of the vegetarianism promoted in the Five Dials news pages (Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals was just published by Hamish Hamilton). (more…)
We ordered tickets for Belle and Sebastian months and months ago (probably back in April before Sarah’s birthday). We had no idea a) they would be playing in Philly as well and b) who the opening act would be.
I Just Read About That... 