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Archive for the ‘Mark Lanegan’ Category

Simon Rich–“Unprotected” (New Yorker, July 30, 2012)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Cocteau Twins, Funny (ha ha), Mark Lanegan, New Yorker, Ormonde, Sex, Short Story, Simon Rich, Virginity (Loss of) on August 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ORMONDE-“Cherry Blossom” (2012).

This song was also mentioned in the July 31 All Songs Considered Post.  The album had been singled out because the cover is so awful. It had even made their repository of awful covers.  And then they actually listened  to it.

It opens with some female vocals, but they are quickly replaced by a kind of whispered/sung male vocal.  Behind the vocals are some simple guitar melodies and a straightforward drum.  But there’s something otherworldly about the whole proceedings–not least of which comes when the whole thing shifts to a minor key.  The keyboard solo (which sounds like it’s a $5 Casio) brings more ethereal female vocals (maybe Cocteau Twins-y) and introduces a kind of Middle Eastern mysticism to the whole thing.

The track is so strange and so pretty (the vocals are not unlike Mark Lanegan or a mellower Josh Homme) and the pieces fit together very well.  I’m very interested in hearing more from this album, regardless of the cover.  Bob and Robin admitted that although they can usually judge an album by its cover, they had no idea that the music inside would be this interesting.

[READ: July 30, 2012] “Unprotected”

I love Simon Rich’s comedy.  Simple as that.

But there are some things of his that I like more than others.  I like his really short (like one paragraph) absurdist jokes quite a lot.  I have liked less his longer story-jokes.  So I was a little bummed that this was the latter.

Especially since it seemed kind of obvious at first (and  I really don’t care for this type of “uneducated” narration: “I born in factory.  They put me in wrapper.  They seal me in box.  Three of us in box.”  It seemed like it was going to be obvious.  And I guess it was kind of, except that Rich found a new angle on the life of a condom.

A boy steals the box and puts him in his wallet.  But where that could have gone in a very bad direction, it doesn’t.  Rich is clever and funny and introduces us to all of the other things in the wallet (Blockbuster Card (when was this set?), Learners Permit etc).   And we see that as the condom goes unused, the makeup of the wallet changes–in comes a Metrocard (who is all hilariously knowledgeable) and a creepy lady named Visa.

By the end of the story, the narrator has been taken out twice–both results are funny.  And the end of the story is surprisingly touching.

It’s a more mature outing from Rich, even if it is about a condom.

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Max Barry–“I Should Buy Some Cement” (maxbarry.com, September 2008)

Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan, Max Barry, Screaming Trees, Violence on February 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE MARK LANEGAN BAND-“The Gravedigger’s Song” (2012).

Sometimes a song works perfectly with a story.  Titles alone, these two pieces work wonders together.  And then musically–sweet perfection.

I liked The Screaming Trees just fine.  Although they were always a third tier band for me–someone I enjoyed a song or two, but not much more.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell together.  And now, here’s a “solo” Lanegan song.  For this song (and with Isobel Campbell), his voice sounds more mature, more robust–almost as if since he doesn’t have to rock out, he can make his voice more sinister.

In spirit it reminds me of Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads, but it’s got a very different sound.  It’s less claustrophobic–no doubt because of the grungy guitars.  In fact, sound-wise, it sounds more like Queens of the Stone Age (less trippy and more dark, but that may be more because of  the vocals).

The guitars are spare but have a  great sound (and cool solos).  And while the relentless drums are never in your face, they keep the song moving nonstop.

It’s a really gorgeous song (although obviously very dark) and makes me want to re-inspect more of his work to see what I’ve been missing.

[READ: February 17, 2012] “I Should Buy Some Cement”

This is the final piece from the maxbarry website that I’ll be talking about here. Thanks, Max for getting me through the dry spell.

The thing that made me laugh the most about this story was that at the very end he has a large box with these words:

Author’s Note: This was a Work of Fiction.

Yay fiction!  But it’s a good thing he includes that, this story is dark.  Very dark.

As you may guess from the title, Max is thinking he should really have some cement on hand.  Now, I also think that quite often.  I was delighted to have a couple of bags of cement in our shed on the afternoon that I erected our birdhouse.  But Barry has something else in mind. (more…)

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Caroline Preston–The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures (2012)

Posted in AC/DC, Belle and Sebastian, Biography, Caroline Preston, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ernest Hemingway, Graphic Novel, Isobel Campbell, James Joyce, Mark Lanegan, Romance, Short Books, The Transatlantic Review, The Velvet Underground, Travel on February 10, 2012| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN-Sunday at Devil Dirt (2010).

Sarah bought this disc for me for my birthday a few years ago.  I had a hard time getting into it even thought it was supposed to be amazing.  It turns out that it is amazing, but only when I’m in the right mood.

The is a disc of slow, moody songs.  The closest comparison I can think of is Leonard Cohen (even though all of the songs are actually written by Isolbel Campbell)–this disc is at times more and at times less ponderous than Cohen.

The main reason I couldn’t get into it is because the first two songs are really really slow.  “The Seafaring Song” is almost comically slow–as slow as Lanegan’s voice is deep.  And yet there is a very nice melody (and beautiful accompaniment from Campbell).  “The Raven” sounds like an old Western movie.  Indeed, a lot of the disc sounds like an old Western.

“Salvation” introduces the first real up-front melody. “Back Burner” has a very old school chanting chorus which is quite a change for this album (although at 7 minutes, it does drag a bit).

“Who Built the Road” is very much like a Leonard Cohen duet (especially the La la part) while “Come On Over (Turn Me On)” is like a sexy Serge Gainsbourg duet (the album really picks up around here).  “Shotgun Blues” is a big sexy blues (surprising for Campbell who sings lead) while “Keep Me in Mind, Sweetheart” is a country-style ballad.

By the time that “Sally, Don’t You Cry” comes on, I find that I have more or less had enough of the disc.  But that is the last official song.  My copy has five bonus tracks after two minutes of silence. But the bonus songs mix things up a bit more.  “Fight Fire with Fire” is a jaunty piano based song (although it’s still pretty slow-paced).  It’s funny to hear them talking about AC/DC albums in this slow piano song.

“Violin Tango” is just what the title says while “Rambling Rose, Clinging Vine” is probably the most upbeat song on the disc. Finally “Hang On” feels the most like a song from her old band Belle and Sebastian (by way of The Velvet Underground).  It’s also the only one she sings solo.

So yes, I do like this album quite a lot. Lanegan is a perfect foil for Campbell’s sweet voice and songwriting. They made another disc together, maybe I’ll get that in another couple of years, too.

[READ: February 5, 2012] The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

This was a wonderful book that Sarah brought home and told me I had to read.  And I’m so glad I did.

The Scrapbook is a very simple story–it’s a biography of a lady named Frankie Pratt from the ten or so years after she gets out of high school.  She went to high school in Cornish, New Hampshire in the early 1920s; that’s when this scrapbook starts.  Over the decade, Frankie goes to college, gets a job in New York City, travels to Paris and then returns home.  That is the basic plot, but that simple summary does a grave, grave injustice to this book.

For Preston has created a wondrous scrapbook.  Each page has several images of vintage cutouts which not only accentuate the scene, they often move the action along.  It feels like a genuine scrapbook of a young romantic girl in the 1920s.

Check out the picture on the right.  Every page is like that–full of old photographs or ticket stubs, candy wrappers or advertisements.  And a few words here and there that Frankie has typed to move the story along.  It is a wondrous trip down vintage lane.

Now, as I said, the story is pretty simple (but it is befitting a scrapbook).  It showcases the highlights of Frankie Pratt’s life.  How she meets a man who wines her and dines her and treats her fine, until he reveals a shocking secret.  How she got out of Cornish, New Hampshire and went to Vassar (I admit I found this first section a little slow, but I was so absorbed in the look of the book that I didn’t really mind).

Once she gets to Vassar though, things are much more interesting because Frankie, small town girl with no money, is introduced to the rich sophisticates who attend Vassar–New York and Boston socialites.  She even rooms with one woman (who sends her down a path of debauchery and potential loss of scholarship).

Frankie longs  to be a writer, and she heads to New York to work on a magazine.  There she meets a man who wines her and dines her and treats her fine, until he reveals a shocking secret. (more…)

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