SOUNDTRACK: GIRL IN A COMA-Tiny Desk Concert #190 (January 30, 2012).
I was planning on writing only about recent Tiny Desk Concerts for a while, but Nina Diaz’s (Aug 2016) Concert informed me that she was the singer of the band Girl in a Coma who are presently on a hiatus while Nina tours some solo material.
So I went back and watched this Tiny Desk to see the origins of Diaz’s music.
Girl in a Coma is a three-piece with Nina Diaz on guitar and vocals, her sister Phanie Diaz on drums and Jenn Alva on bass. The blurb suggests that the band plays punk–typically loud crunchy guitars (although I listened to the recorded version of “Smart” and it doesn’t really sound very different from this version). So I didn’t get that.
At any rate, the trio sounds great in this setting. The percussion is simply tambourine and a shaker. And Alva’s bass is really melodic and lovely playing more than just the same notes as the guitar.
“Smart” is really catchy (although Diaz does some weird things with her voice late in the song). “Knocking At Your Door” has a fast, almost metal sounding guitar (albeit acoustic here). But it’s the bass (which is not doing anything crazy) that takes center stage with the melodies she plays.
Before the final song Nina says it feels like show and tell or something. And while she’s saying this, the other two switch places, with the drummer coming up front and the bass sitting in the back.
“So” has a pretty traditional folk song structure. The reason for the switch of seats comes in the second verse when Phanie plays the melodica. It’s a pretty song and Diaz’s voice is really nice.
I really can’t imagine them being a punk band at all, frankly.
I’m also going to point out what Diaz looks like here for contrast of what she looks like in her solo show four and a half years later. In 2012, she’s wearing dark jeans and a v neck sweater (stripes in the purple family). Her hair has bangs and a long braid on the side. And she has no obvious makeup on. Keep that in mind for the next post
[READ: November 1, 2008] “Tits-Up in a Ditch”
I read this story back in November 2008 and just couldn’t get into it. I tried several times and could not penetrate the barrier that I felt Proulx was creating. Well, here it is 8 years later and I tried it again, and not only did I finish it, I sort of enjoyed it. Even though it, like everything else I seem to have read from Proulx was incredibly depressing.
The story is about Dakotah. Dakotah’s mother abandoned her when she was a baby and left her own parents to take care of her. They resented their daughter and Dakotah from the start. They were harsh and uncaring towards her (although it could be prairie love, I suppose). The grandparents are named Verl and Bonita Lister (Proulx has fun with names in her stories).
Verl and Bonita are hardscrabble, religious folks who don’t have a lot of joy. Well, Verl had moments of happiness but probably no joy–he rode hard and then injured himself. But he was stuck because during the 1980s in Wyoming oil companies came in and took away all the workers.
Verl gives us the title of the story when he says “Had me some luck today. Goddam cow got herself tits-up in the ditch couple days ago. Dead, time I found her.” See, charming people. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 