Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Jane Siberry’ Category

Salman Rushdie–“The Duniazát” (New Yorker, June 1, 2015)

Posted in Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bidiniband, Jane Siberry, Marriage Trouble, Myths, New Yorker, Old Age, Religion, Rheostatics, Salman Rushdie, Short Story, Talking Heads, The Buttless Chaps, The Who, WNYE 91.5--Radio, New York, tagged on August 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

june1SOUNDTRACK:  RHEOSTATICS–The Media Club, Vancouver, BC, (October 21, 2004).

media clubEvery year, the Rheostatics would perform what they called Green Sprouts Week in Toronto.  In 2004 they did a West Coast version. Five nights in a row at The Media Club (with each show being crazier than the last).  There aren’t always recording available for these shows, but on this leg there are recordings from the third, fourth and fifth nights.

This recording is about 90 minutes and I assume is edited (most of their GSMW shows are quite long and there’s no banter).  There’s also crazy static on a certain instrument, which mars the quality somewhat.

The band has added keyboards, although I’m not sure who is playing them.  Morgan from The Buttless Chaps guests on a nice rendition of “Claire.”  They play a great version of “Jesus Was Once a teenager Too” with a folky breakdown in the middle.  “Take Me in Your Hand” is slow but really good.

There’s goofing on “Song of Flight” with them ending the song quickly and booing and yelling “stinky” I wonder what happened).  “Marginalized” is blistering and “Record Body Count” is a little goofy.  Perhaps the highlight of the night is “Horses” which is an amazing rendition and ends with a few lines and acoustic guitars from “When Winter Comes”

The encore starts with “Pornography” a song later recorded by Bidiniband.  Then there’s some great harmonies on “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.”

They do a rocking version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” which is musically spot on, even though no one really knows the words.  The last few songs are more covers.  A very fast version of Jane Siberry’s “One More Colour,” and then a perfect version of “Takin’ Care of Business” (the guitar and vocals sound right on) which segues into a sloppy/fun “My Generation.”

The Green Sprouts shows often allow the band to mess around a bit which is great for fans.

[READ: July 21, 2015] “The Duniazát”

I generally like Rushdie’s work.  This story is told in the style of a 1001 Arabian Nights tale and consequently I didn’t enjoy it that much.  Although I was interested to find out some details about those stories.  There was originally a Persian book called “One Thousand Stories” which had been translated into Arabic.  In the Arabic version there were fewer than a thousand stories but the action was spread over a thousand nights, or, because round numbers are considered ugly, a thousand nights and one night more.  Huh.

The stories featured a beautiful storyteller knows as Sheherazade, who told her tales to a murderous husband in order to keep him from executing her.

Anyone, in this story, Rushdie tells a similar type tale.

Set in the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd (I enjoyed the play on his own name there) was a physician to the Caliph.  But when he started espousing liberal views, he was discredited (sound familiar?).  He wound up living in a village where Jews were forced to convert to Islam and could not speak of Judaism.  So he felt right at home as an outcast. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Stephen King–“A Death” (New Yorker, March 9, 2015)

Posted in Death, Jane Siberry, Murder, New Yorker, Rheostatics, Short Story, Stephen King, Violence, tagged on June 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

march9SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Hillside Festival 20th Anniversary, Guelph ON, July 7, 2003 (2003).

hillUntil recently this was the only Rheostatics show listed on the live website for 2003 (a bunch have recently been added).  And there are none for 2002.  I don’t actually know if they didn’t tour much in 2002 or what.

But this is a fun set (and is just barely over an hour) with lot of guests and an interesting selection of songs.

The start with “Self Serve Gas Station,” and then “Song of the Garden” (since Kevin Hearn is with them and later “Monkeybird” too) and “P.I.N.”  Then they play “Marginalized,” the first time I’ve heard them play it live.  Tim says he wrote it the night George W. Bush was elected.

Since Kevin is therer, they play a Group of 7 medley.  I recognize “Wieners and Beans,” “Blue Hysteria” and “Yellow Days Under a Lemon Sun.”  Lewis Melville guests “on the ocean” for “California Dreamline,”  There’s a nice referential moment when the line “all the naked ladies” makes Dave comment “Steve, Ed, Kev, Tyler.”

More guests come out for”Claire” Chris Brown and Kate Fenner offer backing vocals.  And there’s a mellowish version of “Stolen Car” that is pretty cool.

“Horses” is a fun version since every guest gets to take a solo.  And at the end, Dave asks Martin to “ride the wild donkey” so instead of making horse sounds from his guitar he makes donkey sounds. How??

The set ends with a rollicking encore of Jane Siberry’s “One More Colour,” a rare treat.  This is a great show.

[READ: April 10, 2015] “A Death”

I loved this story.  King sets it in the past (the location they are in is soon to become a state: “although we are not one of the United States just yet, we soon will be”), in a place which I assumed was Maine since he writes so much about Maine, but which I see mentions Fort Pierre which is in South Dakota, so which makes more sense.

It is a deceptively simple story.  A girl has been killed.  The sheriff has a suspect.  The townsfolk assume the suspect did it.  So what’s the problem?

As the story opens, Jim Trusdale is working in his yard when the sheriff comes up to his house and  arrests him. Jim says he ain’t never heard of the girl who was killed.  The sheriff asks where his hat is and Jim can’t account for it.  That’s enough for the sheriff.

Turns out it was the girl’s birthday.  She was given a silver dollar.  Later that day she was found dead and Jim’s hat was found on her person. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Alice Munro–“Leaving Maverly” (New Yorker, November 28, 2011)

Posted in Alice Munro, Barenaked Ladies, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Elvis Costello, Jane Siberry, Leonard Cohen, Magnetic Fields, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Radiohead, Religion, Rufus Wainwright, Short Story, Steven Page, The Divine Comedy, The Mountain Goats, The Weakerthans on December 2, 2011| 4 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: ART OF TIME ENSEMBLE WITH STEVEN PAGE-A Singer Must Die (2009).

According to their website, “Art of Time Ensemble is one of Canada’s most innovative and artistically accomplished music ensembles. Their mandate is to give classical music the contemporary relevance and context it needs to maintain a broader audience to survive.”

So what you get is a modern orchestra playing contemporary music.  It’s not a unique idea, but in this case, it works very effectively.  And what you also get is Steven Page, former singer of the Barenaked Ladies as the vocalist.  Page has an awesome voice.  I’ve often said I could listen to him sing anything.  And here’s a good example of him singing anything.

The great thing is that the song choices are unusual and wonderful–not immediate pop hits or classic standards–it’s a cool menagerie of songs with great lyrics and equally great compositions.  This is no heavy metal with strings, this is majestic songs with orchestral scoring.  The orchestra includes: piano, sax/clarinet, cello, violin, guitar and bass.

And the song choices are fascinating.  And with Page’s amazing theatrical voice, the songs sound quite different, mostly because the original singers don’t have powerful voices.  They all have interesting and distinctive voices, but not operatic ones.  So this brings a new aspect to these songs (I knew about half of them before hand).

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS-Lion’s Teeth.
This is a very dramatic reading of this dramatic song.  It pushes the boundaries of the original song.

ELVIS COSTELLO-I Want You.
I had never heard this Costello song.  With Costello you never know what the original will sound like–punk pop, orchestral, honky tonk?  It’s a fascinating song, though and Page hits some really striking and I would say uncomfortable notes.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT-Foolish Love
I don’t know Rufus’ work very well, although I immediately recognized this as one of his songs.  Page plays with Wainwright’s wonderful theatrics and makes this song his own.

BARENAKED LADIES-Running Out of Ink
Covering one of his own songs, this is fascinating change.  The original is a fast, almost punky song, and it seems very upbeat.  This string version brings out the angst that the lyrics really talk about (Page is definitely a drama queen).

LEONARD COHEN-A Singer Must Die
This is one of the great self-pitying songs and the lyrics are tremendous.  Page takes Cohen’s usual gruff delivery and fills it with theater. It’s a great version.

JANE SIBERRY-The Taxi Ride
Coming from her early album The Speckless Sky, this is a wonderfully angsty song with the premise that is summarized: “it’s a long, long, lonely ride to find the perfect lover for your lover.”  Page hits one of the highest notes I’ve heard from him here.  Very dramatic.

THE DIVINE COMEDY-Tonight We Fly
This is one of my favorite Divine Comedy songs.  Of course it is already string filled, so this version isn’t very different.  But its wonderful to hear it in another context.

THE WEAKERTHANS-Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure
I love this song.  This is a guitar filled pop punk song, so the strings add a new edge to it.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS-For We Are the King of the Boudoir
I know the Magnetic Fields but not this song.  It’s quite clever and funny (as the Fields tend to be) and Page makes some very dramatic moments.

RADIOHEAD-Paranoid Android
I recently reviewed a covers album of OK Computer, wondering how someone could cover the record.  The same applies to this song.  A string orchestra is a good choice for it, as there is so much swirling and crescendo.  And while nothing could compare to the original (and they don’t try to duplicate it), this is an interetsing choice.  As is Page’s voice.  He has a much better voice than Thom Yorke, but that actually hinders the song somewhat when he gets a little too operatic in parts.  Nevertheless, it is an interetsing and enjoyable cover.

The whole record is full of over the top drama.   It’s perfectly suited for Page and it’s a side of him that has peeked out on various releases but which he really gets to show off here.  As an album, the compositions all work very well–they are, after all, trying to make classical pieces out of them–not just covering them.  And the choices of songs are really inspired.  Dramatic and interesting and when the music slows down, the lyrics lend to a wonderfully over the top performance.

If you like Page or orchestral rock, this is worth tracking down.

[READ: November 28, 2011] “Leaving Maverly”

For some reason I was under the impression that Alice Munro was no longer writing.  I’m glad that’s not true, and really, what else would she do with herself–she has so many more stories to tell.

I think of Munro’s stories as being straightforward, but this one was slightly convoluted and actually had two things going on at once.  It opens by discussing the old town of Maverly.  Like many towns it once had a movie theatre.  The protectionist and owner was a grumpy man who didn’t deal well with the public, and that’s why he hired a young girl to take the tickets and be the face of the theatre.  When she got in the family way, he was annoyed, but immediately set out to hire someone else.  Which he did.  The new girl, Leah, came from a very religious family.  She was permitted to work there under the stipulation that she never see or hear a movie or even know anything about them.  And that she get a ride home.  The owner balked at this second idea–he surely wasn’t going to drive her home.  So instead, he asked the local policeman Ray, to walk her home.  Which he agreed to do.

The next section of the story looks at Ray.  And although the story is ostensibly about Leah, we get a lot more history of Ray.   He was a night policeman only because his wife, Isabel, needed help at home during the day.  We learn about the scandalous way he met his wife and how they managed through the years until she became ill.

Ray talks with Leah on their walks home, something he found terribly awkward because of how cloistered she was.  Then he would get home and talk with Isabel about Leah. This young girl who meant nothing to him was suddenly a significant part of his life.

And then one day the theater owner came to report that Leah was missing.  They went to see her father at the mill, but she wasn’t there.  And there was really no other place where Leah went, so they were at a loss.  It was winter and they feared the worst. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Michael Healy–“Shock Jock” (The Walrus, December/January 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Ani DiFranco, Ben Folds, Canadian Content, Free Speech, Humiliation, Jane Siberry, Marriage Trouble, Michael Healy, Patti Smith, Play (Drama), Radio, Richard Thompson, Sessions at West 54th, Suzanne Vega, The Walrus, Threats, Yo-Yo Ma on June 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Best of Sessions at West 54th, Volume 1 (DVD) (1997).

Back in the 1990s, PBS ran one of their TV series devoted to contemporary music, Sessions at West 54th.  It was primarily, but not exclusively adult alternative music, with a mixture of jazz and country thrown in as well.  I never watched the show when it was on, but I was intrigued by this DVD because it has a number of artists that I liked quite a bit then. I haven’t watched it in ages, and when I watched it recently I was interested to see that I liked some other artists better than the ones I bought the disc for in the first place.

There was a recent radio show on All Songs Considered called Splitsville: Breaking Up with Your Favorite Band.   This is something that I think about from time to time–bands that I loved and no longer do.  Or bands that I loved and then stopped and maybe now love again.  This show dealt with that very issue.  Most amusingly, Robin Hilton, one of the cohosts had this wonderful quote that applies to me (and this DVD) almost directly.

It’s Not You, It’s Me (Bands We Grew Apart From): “I (dug) out my old CD books and dusted them off. And this recurring theme that came back at me, just haunting, I realized it was the whole Lilith Fair crowd. It was so painful. I had Shawn Colvin, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Paula Cole, Beth Orton. I just listened to that music non-stop. And now, maybe I’m not the sensitive, new-age guy that I used to be.” — Robin Hilton

So, what happened, Robin? The same thing happened to me.  I still love the concept of Lilith, but I really just don’t care about the music anymore.  And much of this DVD caters to the Lilith crowd. But it doesn’t start that way.  It opens with

WYNTON MARSALIS-“Back to Basics” A fantastic jazz number.  Wynton plays some wonderful stuff (I particularly like the “laughing” horns).  It’s a really rousing opener.

SUZANNE VEGA-“Caramel”  Vega is not a Lilith Fair person to me because I learned of her long before then.  This is not my favorite song of hers. 

RICHARD THOMPSON-“I Feel So Good” It’s funny to me that when I bought this I didn’t know who Richard Thompson was.  It’s always great to hear him rock out like this.

SHAWN COLVIN-“Diamond in the Rough” I like Shawn Colvin, although not as much as most of the other Lilith Fairers.  This is one of her songs that I don’t know very well

ANI DIFRANCO-“32 Flavors” I loved Ani and her self publishing empire.  And her songs were good too.  I saw her in concert once or twice and she totally rocked the house.  Then sometime in the early 2000s she went in a new direction and I completely lost touch with her and pretty much stopped listening to her.  It was nice to hear this song again, although it’s a bit slower than the way I know it.

NIL LARA-“How Was I To Know”  I didn’t know who he was then, I’m still not sure who he is or if he’s still around.  This is a pretty serviceable folk rock song

RICKIE LEE JONES-“Road Kill” I did not care for this song at all.

DANIEL LANOIS-“Orange Kay” this was a wild guitar solo and effects song.  It was really quite different from anything else here.

EMMYLOU HARRIS-“Wrecking Ball” This song had cool harmonies although I’m not a fan of Emmylou in general.

BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Smoke” I love Ben Folds, and this song is wonderful (seeing him play the “strings” of the piano is very cool.  And my god he’s so YOUNG!

KEB’ MO-“Just Like You”  I like Keb’ Mo’ quite a bit and this is a good song by him.

SINÉAD O’CONNOR-“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance”  Sinéad was another of those ladies who I loved before Lilith.  I fact The Lion and The Cobra was one of my favorite albums.  Then she got super political (and put out more amazing music) and then she got really weird.  And I stopped listening.  She’s an odd duck in this show as well (this was in her speaking only in falsetto phase, which is pretty odd.  And she has a little grunted /spoken bit in the middle of the song which is pretty odd too).  But for all of that, man is this song awesome. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, and holy cow I forgot how impactful it is. And live, with the electric guitars and the backing vocalists, it is really amazing.  A definite highlight of the disc.

YO-YO MA “Libertango”  Yo-Yo Ma is pretty awesome.  I wouldn’t listen to a lot of his stuff (I like classical, but in small doses) but man, he rocks the cello.  This is a great piece.

PATTI SMITH “People Have the Power” Patti Smith is a legend.  An icon.  Her early music is amazing.  So why do I hate this song so much?  The sentiment is wonderful, but gah, what a dreadful song.

JANE SIBERRY-“Love is Everything” I really like Jane Siberry.  She’s a strange lady with a quirky but wonderful voice.  This is a beautiful song, but a little slow (I find it works well amidst her other songs, but it’s a bit stodgy on its own).

It’s a fun collection of mellow songs (what I think of as the old PBS/NPR audience, since now they have shows that are much louder).  And it’ always fun to see artists perform in an intimate venue.

[READ: April 12, 2011] “Shock Jock”

This is the first play that The Walrus has published.  It is not so much in Acts as it is in Ten Scenes.  Scenes 1-3 are printed in the magazine, while Scenes 4-10 are only available online.  (Sadly 1-3 are not included online).

This is the story of a political shock jock, a Canadian version of Rush Limbaugh (these were the days before Glenn Beck).  The opening scene shows him railing against everything and nothing.  He proves to be very popular with his fans but when they call him up to tell him that, he abuses them too (but they don’t seem to mind–or to notice).  It seems like a pretty straightforward parody of a radio blowhard.

But the next scene shows him at home, where he is not so much meek as completely incapable of making a decision.  His wife seems like something of a harpy, but it’s clear that she has put up with this ineffectual man for nine years and has just had it with his inability to even communicate.  These two scenes play off each other as somewhat obvious counterpoint and yet, they are strangely compelling enough to keep you reading.  And it’s worthwhile to do so. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Randy Boyagoda–“Water Spider” (The Walrus, March 2006)

Posted in Africa, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Fears, Jane Siberry, Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Boyagoda, Rheostatics, Short Story, Squarepusher, The Walrus, Violence, War on April 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-2067 (2004).

This was the Rheostatics’ final release.  I’m not sure if they knew this would be their last disc, but it kind of feels like they are throwing everything they can into it.

It opens with a delicate song from Martin which reminds me of Jane Siberry (the “row upon row” section).  Although at about 4 minutes it starts rocking out.  It’s a kind of meandering song, which is odd to open an album with.

It’s followed by “Little Bird Little Bird” a great folky song form Bidini.  But the disc really come alive with “Marginalized” a song that reminds me in some ways of “Horses,” as it is rocking and a little twisted (it seems surprising that it came from Tim Vesely).  It’s got some great guitar and an impressive keyboard solo (!) from new member Michael Phillip Wojewoda.

“The Tarleks” follows (with some fun frog noises). It opens slowly (as Martin songs tend to do) but once it really takes off, its got a great riff with his wonderful dramatic pauses and really funky sound from the bass/keyboards.  Then we get the wonderfully odd “Power Ballad for Ozzy Osbourne.”  It’s a kind of joke (but not really) about rock performers aging gracefully.  Bidini gets a bunch of songs on this disc, and here he gets two in a row, with the bizarrely wonderful “I Dig Music.”  The subtitle is “The Jazz Animal” and it tells you a lot about the song…it is indeed a kind of high-octane jazz.  But it has many different segments (and a lyric that references Squarepusher).

“Here Comes the Image” is a 6 minute track from Vesely which sounds very much like his more mellow tracks.  I’m not sure his tracks belong in the middle o f a disc because they tend to really bring the momentum to a halt.  Although it is a pretty song, it’s quite mellow (the organ solo at the end is pretty sweetly retro).  It’s followed by the five-minute slow instrumental “Who is This Man and Why is He Laughing?”  It really feels like an album ender.

So when “The Latest Attempt on Your Life” comes in, it revitalizes the sleepiness that those two songs imbue.  This track has the wonderful repeated chant “Everyone hates you, you sing like a woman”).  “Polar Bears and Trees” follows and it’s another kind of crazy song from Bidini.  It has such simple verses but the chanted “hey hey ho ho” rocks hard and is wonderfully fun.  (The lyrics are clever too).

Vesely returns with the beautiful, wonderfully catchy “Making Progress” which has another great retro keyboard solo at the end. The final track “Praise This Mutilated World” is one of the most beautiful songs in their output.  It starts as a fairly simple acoustic track (Bidini knows a good melody).  At about two minutes in, the band joins in with amazing harmonies.  The quiet parts keep coming back only to be overwhelmed by the harmonies once again.  The last two minutes are a spoken section.  It goes on a bit long, but is redeemed by another gorgeous chorus.

There’s a bonus track which is a very electronic version of  “Record Body Count.”  So this disc is definitely overly long in some places.  There are some great parts to the disc, but it feels like it could have used a good editor.  Nevertheless, since it’s the band’s final release, respect is due.

[READ: March 15, 2011] “Water Spider”

This very short (three-pages) story turned very dark rather quickly.

It opens with an African man, Bokarie, settling into his life as a convenience store clerk in Ottawa.  We learn that he was granted asylum, and that he has the scars to prove it.  He was quite nervous about leaving his country, and he still puts cinder blocks behind his door, to discourage uninvited guests.

At the same time, the action of the story concerns the accidental drowning of Caitlin, a young girl who presumably got too close to the creek when it overflowed.  The town is obviously distraught that one of their youngest and most innocent kids was killed, and they are planning a memorial service.  They are encouraging everyone to wear pink to the service and are even hoping to get a wreath put on the town’s crest.

Bokarie looks on this entire scene with a kind of bemusement.  His life in Africa was full of death.  Most of it horrifying.  So he seems somewhat unsure of what to make of the town’s outpouring for one lost child.  And then the story slowly reveals a shocking truth.

The truth is NOT that he killed Caitlin.  That’d not how the story is going (I didn’t really think it would go there, but it was a possibility).  Rather, the truth comes out about Bokarie himself, and his life back in Africa.  And it’s frankly horrible.

As the story draws to a close, Bokarie makes a decision that is going to impact the community.  It’s a little unclear what his motivation is, but it opens so many possibilities, that it really brings out a whole new realm to the story,

In some ways this story reminded me of Damon Galgut’s “An African Sermon (from The Walrus July/Aug 2004)  which also had an African character whose past has a hidden element and which turns out to be much darker than originally laid out.

Read Full Post »

Jonathan Franzen–”Anti Climax” (New Yorker, April 21, 1997)

Posted in Airlines, Books about writers, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Jane Siberry, Jonathan Franzen, Masturbation, New Yorker, Nick Hornby, Rheostatics, Sex, The Violet Archers on October 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE VIOLET ARCHERS-Sunshine at Night (2008).

This is the second Violet Archers CD.  It’s a fantastic collection of mellow songs.   “You and I” is a delightful acoustic guitar and vocals song (and Vesely’s voice sounds great: soft and delicate without being whiny).  “Insecure” features the vocals of Ida Nilsen (a great voice which works wonderfully with Vesely’s songs).  It also has a wonderful trumpet solo (!) (which consists of only a few notes repeated but which is totally great).  It sounds a bit too similar to Siberry’s “The Speckless Sky” but it wins out with its own identity by the end.

“Transporter” is an electric track (still mellow though).  Vesely’s delivery is great on this, with unexpected delays making it just off the beat.  Although “Tired” (we can tell by the titles that Vesely is not a “Party On” kind of guy) rocks much harder than you’d expect for the title, it’s still nothing like a hard rock song.  “Sunshine at Night” continues in this louder vein, but again, Vesely’s voice is soft, so even a louder song doesn’t rock hard.  This has some great harmony vocals.

“Suffocates” returns to the upbeat acoustic style while “Truth” is its cool minor chord downbeat companion.  “Themesong” is a cute, more upbeat track that finally mentions a violet archer.  “Don’t Talk” is the only song that builds from a standstill (as opposed to just starting) and the drums and power chords make it feel like it’s a bid for commercial viability.  And the disc ends with “Listening,” a quiet lullaby of a song that showcases’s Vesely’s falsetto.

The Violet Archers still tour and there are some downloadable shows available on the Rheostatics live website.  And, of course, Tim was super nice, so let’s hope for a left field smash hit on their next disc.

[READ: September 29, 2010] “Anti-Climax”

This piece is from The Critic at Large section of the New Yorker and it seems to be a kind of Books redux section.

I enjoyed this piece more than I had a right to enjoy a thirteen year old article about sex books.  Strangely enough it begins with a comment about televisions in airports (which I agree with JF that they are the devil and are unavoidable and make it really hard to read).  And I cannot even imagine that 89% of air travelers believe that the TVs make “time spent in an airport more worthwhile” (although you know that is one of the more nebulous survey questions)

But this topic segues into the matter at hand: sex books.  He notes how he is also at odds with the norm when Men’s Health says that lingerie is the US male’s favorite erotic aid.  And I can’t believe how in tune I am with JF Franzen’s comment:

What I feel when I hear that the mainstream actually buys this stuff is the same garden-variety alienation I feel on learning that Hootie & the Blowfish sold 13 million copies of their first record, or that the American male’s dream date is Cindy Crawford. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 7] The Part About The Crimes (1 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Death, Eurhythmics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Infinite Zombies, Jane Siberry, Laura Esquivel, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Natasha Wimmer, Neurotics, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd, Religion, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Threats, Torture Porn, Translation, Violence, Yuck! on March 8, 2010| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT-I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2008).

I’ve been a fan of Loudon for years.  I also rather enjoy Rufus.  So why not check out Rufus’ sister Martha and see how she stacks up in the family canon.  Actually, it’s not fair to compare because she is an entity all to herself.  And indeed, I feel that she sounds nothing like her family (maybe a weeeeee bit like Rufus, but not really).

In fact, I find that Martha’s voice rests comfortably between Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jane Siberry and, somewhat surprisingly, Patti Smith.

Lyrically, the title of the album pretty well tells you where she’s coming from: smart-assed and a little pissed off.  But the real question is what kind of songs does she actually write?  Well, the second song on this disc “You Cheated Me” is so strong and so catchy I was convinced it was a cover.

The rest of the disc is an exciting collection of styles: baroque arrangements, pop folk, and even straight ahead rock.  There are times when the songs are not so much difficult as cantankerous: with her vocals reaching extraordinary heights.  But it’s not just Martha showing off her range, the vocals work very well with the lyrics.

She also adds two covers on the disc: Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” which she takes some of the weirdness out of but which adds a bit of her own eccentricities to it.  (It’s a great cover).  The other cover is the Euryhthmics’ “Love is a Stranger” which doesn’t sound like a cover until the chorus kicks in.

I feel like the disc is a little long (somehow it feels like it should end after “See Emily Play”) but that’s not really that big of a complaint.  Even though Martha sounds like others, she is still quite a unique presence, and this is a worthy CD for anyone who likes quirky singer songwriters.

[READ: Week of March 1, 2010] 2666 [pg 353-404]

I was bracing myself for a horrific section here.  The Part About the Crimes is 280 pages of women being killed in graphic detail. Well, that turned out to be not exactly true.  At least so far.

Nevertheless, the Part is largely filled with crime scene details about the many many women who died in the Santa Teresa region between 1993 and the beginning of 1994.

For my sanity I’m not going to detail all of the young women who were killed in this Part.  I know someone on bolanobolano is detailing all of the deaths in the book, so I’ll assume that that is dealt with there. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts