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Archive for the ‘JEFF The Brotherhood’ Category

Amelia Gray–“Labyrinth” (New Yorker, February 16, 2015)

Posted in Amelia Gray, Humiliation, Ian Anderson, JEFF The Brotherhood, Jethro Tull, Myths, New Yorker, Short Story on February 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

ny216SOUNDTRACK: JEFF The Brotherhood–“Black Cherry Pie” (2015).

jeffJEFF the Brotherhood is back with a new album.  The first song I’ve heard from it is called “Black Cherry Pie.”  It is a slow, heavy, nihilistic track with slightly more instrumentation than the usual duo set up.

And then at 40 seconds, there’s a FLUTE SOLO!

The lyrics are crazy–glass in my teeth, driving vans off cliffs, knives in eyes, with the simple chorus of “black cherry pie.”

And then just as you sorta forget that here was a flute solo (although it is hard to forget), a second one comes up at around 3 minutes.  And since you can’t help but think it sounds like Jethro Tull, I’ll tell you that that flute solo is by Mr Jethro Tull himself–Ian Anderson!  Huzzah!

As you can see by the photo, the Brotherhood has always been fans of Jeffro Tull, so this is a nice flourish.

[READ: February 15, 2015] “Labyrinth”

This is the first story I’ve read by Amelia Gray.  Now, any story that is called Labyrinth pretty much invokes the idea of a maze and a minotaur.  In this short work (only two pages) Gray takes these basic ideas and twists them in an interesting way.

Dale is a local farmer who holds and annual Pumpkin Jamboree to raise money for the fire department.  It features a hayride, face painting and a corn maze.  The narrator, Jim, tells us that Dale had recently been reading about Hellenic myths, and that this year he wanted to do something different with his maze. So he’s made a labyrinth.  The difference?  In a labyrinth, there’s only one road and it leads to only one place.

The folk are disappointed saying that there’s no point if you can’t get lost.  And they’re even more upset when he says that each person must go in alone–there’s no way folks are letting their kids go in alone.  Even when Dale says that people believe the center of the labyrinth possesses magic, allowing you to discover the thing you most desire, the folk start to wander off.  But Jim, feeling bad that Dale went to so much trouble, volunteers. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“The Ruin of Amalfitano” (Harper’s, October 2012)

Posted in Harper's, JEFF The Brotherhood, LGBTQ, Meat Puppets, Natasha Wimmer, New Yorker, Roberto Bolaño, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Universities, Violence on November 14, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD-Tiny Desk Concert #165 (October 8, 2011).

This was my first exposure to JEFF the Brotherhood, a rollicking duo who blast out the walls of the NPR studios.  The guitarist and drummer play simple, power punk (quite well) and they sound like a whole band, not just two guys.

“Diamond Way” reminds me of the Meat Puppets–echoey lazy-sounding punk.  ANd the oh oh oh oh oh is very catchy.  And then, after describing an NPR host as sounding like Ira Glass–if he were an old woman (and then apologizing if he offended anyone), they play “Bummer”–shirtless—presumably a first for the NPR offices.

“Bummer” is a mellower song and their sound doesn’t sound less full for the mellowess–especially when he kicks on the distortion pedal.  “Bone Jam” is one of my favorites–more ooh’s and the simple but wonderful lyrics “Gonna grind your bones to make my bread.”  It’ s amazing that two guys can sound this good.

[READ: August 17, 2010] “The Ruin of Amalfitano”

Natasha Wimmer has translated yet another posthumous work from Roberto Bolaño, this one called Woes of the True Policeman, due out this month.

This may already exist, but I hope someone is compiling a family tree of all of the Bolaño characters who have appeared in different locations.  For instance, the Amalfitano in this story appeared in 2666, indeed he has a whole chapter about himself.  And we know it’s the same Amalfitano because they both have a daughter named Rosa.  This story is set before 2666 and these fascinating events would shed some light on the state of Amalfitano when we do meet him in the novel.  Of course, Bolaño’s writings don’t seem to follow a conventional strategy so who knows if he intended any of this to be part of the “missing” Part 6 of 2666.

Anyhow, this story is about Amalfitano, but it opens with Padilla who decided to become an artist at the age of 13.  After dabbling in theater and film, he settled on poetry.  By 17, he was a sarcastic angry kid who could be easily provoked to violence (he claims that when fighting Nazis, anything is permitted).

At 18, he published his first book of poetry and when he was 21 he showed the poems to Amalfitano.  Amalfitano was a teacher of Latin America writers at the University.  He liked Padilla’s poetry, although he didn’t much like Padilla who didn’t come to class very much.  But once Amalfitano gave him praise for the poems, Padilla never missed another class. He even invited Amalfitanoto his house for parties.  After many such parties, the two became lovers.

Once the University learned of this, Amalfitano was fired.  (more…)

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John Lanchester–“Expectations” (New Yorker, January 9, 2012)

Posted in Consumerism, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, JEFF The Brotherhood, John Lanchester, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story on January 12, 2012| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: JEFF The Brotherhood-“Bone Jam” (2009).

My friend Andrew pointed me to this song after reading my write up about JEFF’s other song a few days ago.  I’m still not sure just who JEFF the Brotherhood is, but this is easily the most catchy song I’ve heard in ages.  I mean, the whole song is practically one long “oooh”.  And the parts that aren’t “oohs” are simply: “I’m gonna grind your bones to make my bread” and “How much money can we spend?”  This latter lyric is hilariously appropriate when paired with the cheap cheap cheap video that they’ve made. 

The song is simple, fuzzy guitars, three chords and a steady beat.  It’s free of pretension and complexity.  And it will stay with you all day and you’ll wonder why you’re just walking around going “oooooh.   oooohh.  ooooh”

Speaking of the video, I don’t think there’s anyone who looks less like a rock front man than the lead singer and guitarist of JEFF.  I don’t even know what his name is, but look at him.  His mustache makes Prince look hirsute.  Somehow it’s even more charming.  As is the fact that there’s only two of them (not including the guy playing the leaf blower). 

The JEFF package just gets better and better with each exposure.

[READ: January 6, 2012] “Expectations”

Following hot on the heels of a broke family in the Ozarks who I didn’t think I’d care about, I get this story about a rich son a bitch London banker who I didn’t think I’d care about.

The story starts with Roger Yount trying to figure out if he’ll be getting £1,000,000 for his bonus this year.  “Oh, fuck you,” was my first thought.  The story seems to try to give us perspective on this guy and how he needs the million pound bonus because their huge house with £600,000 of additions and their £1,000,000 summer house simply cost a lot of money to keep up.  Especially since the million pound summer house is a bit too dowdy to go for the summer, so they still need a vacation spot. 

Why did I still keep reading this?

There was something about the prose.  It didn’t give sympathy for the man, but it also didn’t vilify him.  It just made him seem human.  Not a bad thing at all.  Plus at this point I figured the story had to end with a massive comeuppance.  I figured the comeuppance would be obvious and predictable and I was bound to be disappointed when it happened.  But I was still curious to see what the comeuppance would be–a poor person who makes him see the goodness of people at Christmas (bleah)?  OWS protestors (too topical)?  A bomb in the building (unexpected by possible)? What? (more…)

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Max Barry–“Attack of the Supermodels” (maxbarry.com, 2001)

Posted in Dinosaur Jr., Funny (ha ha), JEFF The Brotherhood, Jesus and Mary Chain, Max Barry, Models, Short Story on January 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JEFF The Brotherhood “Bummer” (2011).

This song made NPR’s list of 100 Top Songs of the Year.  JEFF The Brotherhood even played a Tiny Desk Concert.  And all the while I had never heard of them.  I’m still not even sure what their story is or what their name means, but that’s okay. 

This is a very simple song (and only 2 and a half minutes long).  It features fuzzy guitars, simple chords and a catchy woah-oo-woah-oo-woah at the end of each line.  The song has a very 90s alt rock feel (Dino Jr guitar sounds, but with no solo).  And the vocals sound kind of like Jesus and Mary Chain.  Indeed, this song might have come off of any number of fuzzy guitar rock albums from the 90s.  Except that there is something thoroughly modern about the track–maybe the infusion of keyboards as effects?

What’s most surprising about the song is that although it seems fast and heavy it’s actually got kind of a slow pace, especially for a song with fuzzy guitars.  My guess is that this song stands out because there’s not a lot of bands who sound like this now.  So good for them.  I could put this song on a mx tape very easily.

[READ: December 30, 2011] “Attack of the Supermodels”

Barry admits on his site that he doesn’t write much short stuff: “I like writing novels, so I don’t write much short stuff. But I’ve done a little.”  This is one of his short stories–the earliest one listed on his site which came out about a year after Syrup, his first novel.

The amusing thing about this story is that it starts out kind of like an essay, like Barry simply describing supermodels: “they were six feet tall and when they walked, their hips transcribed perfect arcs in the air.”  However, you know something is up when the introduction posits, “They got on TV a lot, and that’s how we got used to them….  And then it was too late.”

For all of Barry’s themes of government and corporate repression and such, at heart Barry is really a sci-fi author (a humorous sci-fi author).  And he likes to have fun within the genre. So after that introduction, we get a fairly short story about, well, the attack of the supermodels. (more…)

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