SOUNDTRACK: MOON HOOCH-“Number 9” (2011).
I don’t love the saxophone in rock music. In fact, I often find the saxophone to be the single source of cheese in a lot of good music. And yet when a saxophone is done right–Colin Stetson, John Zorn, Morphine, it can be an awesome instrument.
What about two saxophones? And only a drummer with them? Well, that’s Moon Hooch. They play a bass saxophone and a squawking tenor (I guess) saxophone. And, more like Morphine of the above bands they play fairly heavy riff rock songs like “Number 9.” But these songs also make you move–dance, tap your foot, whatever it is. After just a few notes, you’ll be hooked.
There’s not too much more to say about this song. With the opening sounds of a subway platform, this song really sounds like a couple of guys busking o the platform, but man, it’s much more than that. There’s some excellent drum work keeping this song grounded, but the stars are the two saxophones played off of each other. There’s no words, just horns. Get moving!
[READ: March 15, 2014] Ballad
This is a beautiful and fascinating book. It is a children’s book but it demands some close reading. And yet there aren’t all that many words in the book. It is the design of the book that is the “selling point.”
The story is a fairly simple one (although I admit I found it a little confusing). There is a preface which explains that the story is about a child who goes home the same way every day. And yet suddenly his whole world balloons around him. [And yet there is no child in the book]. Chapter 1 begins with a paragraph explanation that the school clock has stopped and no one seems to care.
After that first page, each subsequent page has a (nearly) full page image and one or two words underneath it (the script is also charming). And so we see the school, the street, the forest, home. Each new chapter works in the same fashion—a small paragraph explaining the setup and then several pages of pictures—each picture (the school, the forest) is exactly the same (they look silk screened) with the same caption underneath (although in subsequent chapters they are modified somewhat). Chapter 3 introduces us to a stranger and, even more unsettling, bandits and a witch. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: UI-Sidelong (1996).
I mentioned this band in my review of The New Yorker because Sasha Frere-Jones writes the music column for the magazine and he’s also the main guy here.
I Just Read About That... 