SOUNDTRACK: LES SAVY FAV-“Precision Auto” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).
This is a cover of a Superchunk song. The Superchunk song is fast and furious with screamed vocals. The Les Savy Fav version is faster and more furious with screamed vocals. It doesn’t sound very different from the original except that they use a high guitar playing a repeating motif which seems to increase the pace and intensity of the song. They even keep it up through the moody instrumental break
Usually I don’t like a cover that sounds so much like the original, but it’s a great cover. It basically just intensifies the song, and that’s a good thing.
I don’t know much about Les Savy Fav, so I don’t know if this is why they normally sound like, but it’s pretty darn good.
[READ: April 3, 2012] “P.E.”
Sometimes a title can impact ones desire to read a story. This title is, well, it’s not bad, it’s just…uninspired. I can’t see myself saying, “I really want to read, “P.E.” What’s surprising is that the title is so blah, when the story is so interesting.
I like my short stories to be light and fluffy (even if I read heavy duty novels). So this one was kind of fun. In the beginning. It starts with Freddy waiting for his dad at the airport.
Freddy is fat. I have to admit right off the start that whenever a character is described as really fat (like really fat, as Freddy is), it irks me. First off, I always assume that writers are not fat (not really a fair assumption but author photos are often glamorous, right?) so they aren’t writing from a location of truth. Second, whenever a character is really fat, it always signals that something bad has or will happen to him. And so it is with this story.
But before we get to that point, we have some more amusing scenarios.
Or, well, really not amusing so much as disturbing (but funny). Freddy’s mother hanged herself when he was seven. And his father took it badly (not unusual). He even took to wearing the noose around his neck like an article of clothing (unusual!). (more…)
I Just Read About That... 