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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Samantha Irby–Wow, No Thank You.: essays (2020)

Posted in Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco, Beck, Bjork, Broad City, Dave Matthews Band, Drugs, Erykah Badu, Everything Sucks, Fiona Apple, Ginuwine, Hole, Indigo Girls, Jill Scott, Juliana Hatfield, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, LGBTQ, Lisa Loeb, Liz Phair, Mariah Carey, Marriage (Happy), Memoirs, Menstruation, Michigan, Parenting, Pearl Jam, PJ Harvey, Poo, Portishead, Poverty, Queer, Racism, Radiohead, Reality Bites, Restrooms, Samantha Irby, Sarah McLachlan, Sex, Sexism, Shrill, Smashing Pumpkins, Taxes, Technology, Teeth, The Breeders, The Cranberries, The Roots, Toilets, Tori Amos on November 11, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE ROOTS feat. JILL SCOTT-“You Got Me” (1999).

I’ve wanted to listen to more from The Roots ever since I was exposed to them on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  But as typically happens, I’m listening to other things instead.  So this seemed like a good opportunity to check them out (based on Samantha Irby’s rave below).

One of the best things about this recording (and The Roots in general) is Questlove’s drumming.  In addition to his being a terrific drummer, his drums sound amazing in this live setting.

Erykah Badu sings on the album but Jill Scott (Jilly from Philly) who wrote the part, sings here.

It starts out quietly with just a twinkling keyboard and Scott’s rough but pretty voice.  Then comes the main rapping verses from Black Thought.  I love the way Scott sings backing vocals on the verses and Black Thought adds backing vocals to the chorus.

Midway through the song, it shifts gears and gets a little more funky.  Around five minutes, the band does some serious jamming.  Jill Scott does some vocal bits, the turntablist goes a little wild with the scratching and Questlove is on fire.

Then things slow down for Scott to show off her amazing voice in a quiet solo-ish section.  This song shows off how great both The Roots and Jill Scott are.  Time to dig deeper.

[READ: November 1, 2020] Wow, no thank you.

This book kept popping up on various recommended lists.  The bunny on the cover was pretty adorable, so I thought I’d check it out. I’d never heard of Samantha Irby before this, but the title and the blurbs made this sound really funny.

And some of it is really funny. Irby is self-deprecating and seems to be full of self-loathing, but she puts a humorous spin on it all.  She also has Crohn’s disease and terribly irritable bowels–there’s lots of talk about poo in this book.

Irby had a pretty miserable upbringing.  Many of the essays detail this upbringing.  She also has low self-esteem and many of the essays detail that.  She also doesn’t take care of herself at all and she writes about that.  She also doesn’t really want much to do with children or dogs.  And yet somehow she is married to a woman with children.

From what some of these essays say, it sounds like she is married to this woman yet somehow lives an entirely separate life from the rest of the house.  It’s all rather puzzling, although I suppose if you are already a fan, you may know many of the details already. (more…)

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William Trevor–“Sitting with the Dead” (New Yorker, July 30, 2001)

Posted in Boris, Death, Horses, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Religion, Short Story, William Trevor on November 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-“warpath” (2015).

Back in 2015, Boris released three albums on the same day all under the “new noise literacy” banner: “urban dance” “warpath” and “asia” [according to their label numbers, this is the order they go in].

All three records are experiments in abrasive noise.  Despite the adorable child on the covers, these records will scare children.

This album has four songs, all of which are variations on drone.

“Midgard Schlange” is 11 minutes of heavy distorted chords played slowly, as they ring out and rumble.  Its a a sort of seven-note melody but stretched out impossibly long.  At around 5 and a half minutes the electronics start to fade in from far away.  The first time I listened to the song I thought an airplane was flying overhead as these sounds came in.  These sounds eventually resolve into chords that acts as a kind of counterpoint to the guitar drones. It’s relatively fast tempoed for a drone song, but it still long and stretched out.

“Behind the Owl” continues the drone, but in a different way. There aren’t pummeling guitar chords that ring out.  Rather, they are just quietly building distortion waves, pulsing in and out.  It’s rather understated, a low menace that seems to cycle slowly between two notes.

The wonderfully named “Dreamy Eyed Panjandrum”starts with a kind of staticky electronic pulsing with occasional glitchy percussion sounds.  It sounds like somebody doing light construction for about 8 minutes.

The guitars come back on “Voo-vah,” and ominous ten and a half minutes of dark rumbling.  This time, the guitars are low and ringing, with waves of pulsing bass and stretched out chords. Around 8 minutes some higher-pitched notes come in, almost sounding like ghosts in the night.  Closing credits to a nightmare.

The album is credited to: takeshi: guitar, bass / wata: guitar & echo / atsuo: electronics.

[READ: November 5, 2020] “Sitting with the Dead”

I really enjoyed the way this story revealed its details.

It begins with an old, sickly man asking to go out to his barn. It was winter and he wore only his pajamas and a winter coat.  A week later, the doctor assured his wife Emily that that’s not what killed him–it didn’t even hasten the inevitable.

At half past seven on the day he died, the Geraghty sisters knocked on her door.  They were two middle-aged women who sat with the dying.  They were known in the area although Emily didn’t know them personally.  They had heard that her husband was dying and they came to sit with him, but they were too late.

Emily laughed to herself at how much he would not have wanted these two there to sit wit him.  He was not religious and he would have said that their sitting with him had an ulterior motive. (more…)

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Rebecca Curtis–“Hungry Self” (New Yorker, July 2, 2001)

Posted in Boris, Drugs, Food, Huh?, New Yorker, Psychiatry, Rebecca Curtis on November 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-“urban dance” (2015).

Back in 2015, Boris released three albums on the same day all under the “new noise literacy” banner: “urban dance” “warpath” and “asia” [according to their label numbers, this is the order they go in].

All three records are experiments in abrasive noise.  Despite the adorable child on the covers, these records will scare children.

This album has five songs, two of which actually take a break from the relentless noise that’s present on “asia.”

“Un, deux, trois” (French for “One, Two, Three”) starts out with a series of distortion bursts, a beat of distortion coupled with a wall of noise that follows up.  It’s harsh and unwelcoming.  But at just over 4 minutes it’s one of the shorter noise compositions on these three discs.  Around three minutes it sounds like distorted electronic balloons being manipulated and then the air let out.  The noise drops of for the last seven seconds before the next song starts.

“Surrender” is pretty much the only thing resembling a proper song on these discs.  It’s got bass, drums, guitar and vocals.  It’s also got a melody.  The overall feeling is one of shoegaze and the melodies, both guitar and vocal are really pretty.  Although this being an album of noise, it couldn’t help but add a hugely noisy field of distortion to the middle of the song almost as an instrumental break.  There’s a second distortion interruption in the song that lasts long enough to make it seem like maybe there’s no more music.  But the song returns, keeping that melody until the end.

“Choreographer” is nearly nine minutes long.  It starts with a rumble and electronic feedbacking.  There’s some soaring sounds buried in the rumble–some lead guitar notes (feedbacking) that add a little structure to the noise; at times it sounds like a guitar trying to fight its way out of a pile of noise.

“Endless” is a little different than the other songs.  It has a bit more of a drone feel than a noise and distortion feel.  It’s still a wall of sound, but rather than a low rumble of noise, it’s more like high notes feeding of of each other.  After three minutes it feels like a distant dreamy melody is soaring in from afar.  A couple minutes later some drums come in, a militant beat putting some tempo to the rest of the sounds.  With about four minutes left, a series of four drum hits with a cymbal add a nice regular pattern to the song–making the drums an almost catchy element because of its consistency.  The end of the song has a bit more notable percussion until it drops out and the song fades on its own.

“Game of Death” is even longer at over 11 minutes.  It starts with sharp feedback and low pulsing space sounds full of distortion and noise.  But after a minute it turns into a full on raging distortion fest.  It feels like maybe two or more different sources of distortion rumbling in and playing atop the other ones.  About midway through, a higher-pitched distortion comes in and swirls around.  But for the most part it’s a relentless barrage of noise, with some interesting new (but still noisy) sounds in the last minute.

The album is credited to: takeshi: guitar, bass & vocals / wata: guitar & echo / atsuo: drums & electronics.

[READ: November 1, 2020] “Hungry Self”

I’ve noted that I rather enjoyed Rebecca Curtis’ more recent stories, so I was disappointed by how much I didn’t really like this one.

As I think about it there was nothing bad about it, it just felt a little flat and mean-spirited without much more.

The narrator is working at a Vietnamese restaurant.  She is a waitress.  She likes the boss’s son; he thinks she is disgusting.  One of the chefs likes her.  He has no teeth and sells cocaine in the basement.  She snorts with him but nothing else.

She noticed that a customer who sat down was her former therapist. The woman gave “the smile you give a waitress if you’re the kind of person who is nice to a waitress.”

Her ex-psychiatrist was overweight and this issue had caused them all trouble.  Initially, the waitress’ whole family was seeing the psychiatrist together and the waitress’ father commented about her weight.  He asked the waitress how much she thought the psychiatrist weighed and the waitress replied 260.  The psychiatrist insisted that they be seen individually from then on.

The next time, when the waitress was alone, the psychiatrist told the waitress about Harry’s Diet Pretzels which she now ate all the time.

The psychiatrist was very nice, but the waitress didn’t want that.

I wante a shirtty tip so I could have a reason for hating the fat ugly lesbian, a reason other than that she had once seen me cry.

The psychiatrist and her lover ordered lo mein (noodles in oil–food that the fat woman definitely did not need) and egg drop soup (the soup most likely to have a roach at the bottom).

When the psychiatrist left, the tip was good, “so as to say ‘We like you’ but not too good so as to say, ‘We feel bad for you obviously.'”

I wanted more to happen here.  Oddly enough I couldn’t tell where the story was set.  I initially thought Vietnam, but that doesn’t make sense.

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Jonathan Safran Foer–“The Very Rigid Search” (New Yorker, June 18 & 25 2001)

Posted in Adventure, Blindness, Boris, Death, Dogs, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Israel, Jealousy, Jonathan Safran Foer, Meta, Nazis, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Racism, Religion, Travel, Ukraine, Vegetarian on November 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-“asia” (2015).

Back in 2015, Boris released three albums on the same day all under the “new noise literacy” banner: “urban dance” “warpath” and “asia” [according to their label numbers, this is the order they go in, but I’m posting them out of sequence].

All three records are experiments in abrasive noise.  Despite the adorable child on the covers, these records will scare children.

This album has three songs.

“Terracotta Warrior” Runs for 20:38.  It opens with quiet, slow rumbling–almost inaudible for the first 30 seconds or so.  Then the pulsing sounds start bubbling up under a hissing, mechanical sound.  Around seven minutes the rumble stays pretty steady, but the higher noises–hissing, clanging, horror movie sounds, start to grow more intense.  At 8 minutes, some discernible guitar chords ring out (heavily distorted, but clearly guitars).  It turns into a lengthy drone with squeaky feedback noises throughout.  At 17 and a half minutes the feedback gets louder and louder until it abruptly cuts off and after moment of silence distance guitars start ringing out again.  There’s even the first sign of drums (a gentle hi-hat).

“Ant Hill” is half as long, but similar is tone.  It is primarily pulsing electronics and high pitched squealing electronic manipulation.  There’s also some digital glitching sounds. After 8 minutes the song fades to a pause only to resume a few seconds later with some more digital glitching and manipulation.  With 30 seconds to go, a drum beat comes in and the distortion takes on a more melodic sound including what sounds like someone sawing in the distance.

“Talkative Lord vs Silent Master” is also ten minutes long and it is the most unpleasant of the three songs.  It is full on static and noise with what sounds like a monstrous voice growling in the distance.  By the end of the song it sounds like being in the middle of a howling winter storm.  And as it closes up there is some serious digital glitching.  Not for the sensitive of hearing.

The album is credited to: takeshi: guitar & bass / wata: guitar & echo / atsuo: drums & electronics.

[READ: January 19, 2017] “The Very Rigid Search”

Jonathan Safran Foer has become something of a more serious writer over the last few years, so I’m alway happy to read one of his earlier funnier works (himm, that sounds familiar).

This story is written from the point of view of a Ukrainian tour guide named Alexander Perchov.  He is writing this tale in English, although his English is slightly off (as the title hints at).  He speaks very good English, but his word choices often eschew idioms for literal translation (and much hilarity ensues).

Alex’s family own a Ukrainian branch of an international travel agency and it is his job to pick up and translator for an American traveller.

Alex refers to the traveler as the “hero” of the story.  And the hero’s name is Jonathan Safran Foer.

Jonathan Safran Foer is not having shit between his brains  He is an ingenious Jew.

JSF was travelling from New York to Lutsk. (more…)

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Nell Freudenberger–“Lucky Girls” (New Yorker, June 18 & 25, 2001)

Posted in Amy Winehouse, Death, India, Marco Benevento, Marriage Trouble, Nell Freudenberger, New Yorker, Racism, Short Story, Travel on November 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARCO BENEVENTO-Between the Needles and Nightfall (2010).

This is the third album by Marco Benevento and his trio: Reed Mathis on bass and Andrew Barr on drums.

It’s hard to put this release into any genre because of how fluid Benevento is.  He has some poppy songs, some jazzy bits and some experimentation.

Most of the songs are pretty long (over 6 minutes) and none of the songs have words (well, one has a aspoken section).

“Greenpoint” flows around a very simple bass line as Marco plays a poppy piano throughout the song.  There’s also some synthy blasts that move the song beyond a simple piano motif.  Around the four minute mark, the song shifts gears, growing a little faster and little more intense as the drums crash through.

“Between the Needles” is a slower song with a pretty bass line and slow piano chords.  After a minute and a half it takes off a bit with bigger piano chords and a more dramatic tone.  But then it all slows down to just piano before building up again, this time with even more evocative lead bass.  “Two of You” is quieter, with a waverly keyboard line that lays under the lead piano  The main piano line acts like a lead vocal line and is really pretty and quite catchy as well.  It builds into a nice bouncy song by the end.

“Numbers” is a slow song with a lead bouncing bass and simple keyboard intro chords.  The song builds in layers until it is a loud, almost-crashing sound with some jazzy piano soloing on top.  “It came from You” is a super catchy piano melody with some complicated electronic drumming. It turns into a bouncy and fun romp by the end.

“Ila Frost” is one of the catchiest things on the album–a lively piano melody both in the repeated background and the main lead line.  It’s followed by the even catchier “RISD.”  In addition to the fun pulsing bass, the main echoing keyboard melody is simple but instantly catchy.

“You Know I’m No Good” is the shortest song on the disc.  It’s a slinky torch song that is actually written by Amy Winehouse. Knowing that, you can hear it in the delivery.  There’s a sort of crashing drum section in the middle.  This song also has the only vocals–worldless “da da daing” toward the end.

“Music Is still secret” is a lovely, slow jazzy ballad. While “Wolf Trap” is the opposite.  There’s some loud clangy drums and a big fuzzed up bass that matches perfectly with the really noisy piano melody.  Once the song starts going, there is some ferocious soloing from Marco as the rest of the band jams behind him.

The disc ends with “Snow Lake” an electronic kind of processed sounding track that mixes some interesting synths and some low ringing bass.  It ends with a wild cacophony of sounds–electric and otherwise–and then abruptly ends.

There’s not a lot of earworms on this disc.  But everything sounds great.  The musicianship is top notch and the songs are all pretty fun.

[READ: September 14, 2010] “Lucky Girls”

In this story, the narrator is an American woman living in India.

As the story opens she says she always imagined what it would be like meeting Arun’s mother for the first time.  She pictured a fancy restaurant with herself looking stunning.

But in reality, Mrs Chawla showed up at the apartment one day, unannounced.  The narrator had been living there for five years and had yet to meet the mother of the man who owned the place.

The narrator was in her painting clothes when Mrs Chawla showed up.  The narrator considered changing, but decided against it.  Mrs Chalwa was shorter than expected; she looked at the narrator as if she too were not what was expected. (more…)

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Brenda Jones & Krishan Trotman–Queens of Resistance: Elizabeth Warren: The Life, Times, and Rise of Warren, aka The Boss (2020)

Posted in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ani DiFranco, Brenda Jones, Dogs, donald tRUMP, Feminism, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Krishan Trotman, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Parenting, Ronald Reagan, Sexism, Tegan and Sara on November 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Proud” (1999).

Each chapter in this book is headed by a quote from a different song. I chose this Tegan and Sara song because it sounds so remarkably different from their current stuff (things do change in 20 years, how about that).

This song sounds a lot like it was made by Ani Difranco (early in her career).  It opens with a shuffling acoustic guitar.  A chunky melody with scratching between chords.  Then an interesting and off-kilter drum beat kicks in.

The singer (I never know which one is singing) has a kind of snarling power to her voice

Freedom’s rough
So we take our stand and fight for tomorrow
Finally we got something something we can
Bring down the house with

The second verse gets much bigger with a fat bass

The middle section has a super catchy repeating of “no no no” in a kind of scatting style and then soaring vocals.

The song quietens down again for the verses until the bass comes back for the raucous ending.

The quote that the book uses is

Freedom and blood
I make my mark and fight for tomorrow

Sounds like Elizabeth Warren to me.

[READ: November 4, 2020] Elizabeth Warren

This is one of four books in the Queens of Resistance series.  The series celebrates a different woman fighting oppression and making waves in the United States government.  [The other books are about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters].

The books are written by Brenda Jones who was communications director for Rep. John Lewis, and Krishan Trotman, an editor at Hachette who specializes in multicultural voices and social justice.

This series is aimed at younger readers, young women mostly, and is meant to be an inspirational account of women who are fighting for justice throughout their lives and especially during the present administration.

This book acts as a biography as well as an up to the minute account (as of May 2020) of what this powerful women is doing.

I wanted Elizabeth Warren to be President.  She was my first choice (with Kamala Harris being a very close second).  So this book was like candy to me.  I knew a lot about Warren, but I really didn’t know much about her backstory.  This book fills all that in. (more…)

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Diet Cig / Sad13 / Thin Lips (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, November 4, 2020) [rescheduled date–POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Diet Cig, First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, Philly Music Fest, Postponed, Quarantine, Sad13, Speedy Ortiz, Thin Lips, Union Transfer on November 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: November 4, 2020] Diet Cig / Sad13 / Thin Lips [rescheduled from May 14 Union Transfer]

indexI was really bummed when this show was postponed.  I was even more bummed when it was moved to the Church. I really liked the venue when we first arrived, but by the end, I was hot and sweaty and crowded and worn out.

Then back in September, the venue sent out this message

We that brief note of optimism, now for the bad news: The rescheduled show w/ Diet Cig has now been officially “canceled”. When we rescheduled this show a few months back, we thought we would be in a much different place than where we are currently.

Exactly NOT what I wanted to experience in a club.  So this postponed makes sense to me.  Maybe next time they’ll move them back to a bigger venue.

I have wanted to see Diet Cig ever since I saw them on a Tiny Desk Concert–they are a bundle of energy and the duo play super catchy pop punk.  I wanted to see them before they lost their energy.

I missed them the first time they came around and last time around they played at the First Unitarian Church, a venue I dislike.  So when they announced this show at Union Transfer I was so excited.  This cancellation was a major bummer for me.

Especially since now that they rescheduled it is apparently being moved to the Church again (does this mean sales are really poor?)

Sad13 is the solo moniker of Sadie Dupuis the singer of Speedy Ortiz.  They were wonderful live (and I was right in front of Sadie to watch her terrific guitar work).  I don’t really know much about the Sad13 songs but I assume they will be great if she is behind them.

I saw Thin Lips at the Philly Music Fest and they were absolutely fantastic.  I loved them and was looking forward to seeing them again.  They play catchy pop punk with pointed lyrics.  Outstanding.

So, I sure hope all three can come around for the postponed date (and I hope it sells better and has to get moved out of the Church into a bigger venue).

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Mark Tatulli–The Big Break (2020)

Posted in Children's Books, Festus Clamrod and The El Sobrante Twangers, Film & TV, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jealousy, Library Related, Mark Tatulli, Short Books, Short Films, The Blair Witch Project, The Charlie Daniels Band, The Jersey Devil on November 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

  SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1996).

I’m not sure who the first band to cover this fantastic  Charlie Daniels Band song was, but Primus probably had the largest profile when they released it–even if they credited themselves as Festus Clamrod and The El Sobrante Twangers.

The song came with an excellent animated video.  Unfortunately, it was only ever available with the video.  It was eventually released on the vinyl reissue of Rhinoplasty, but you still can’t stream it on Spotify.

Which is a shame because it’s a real hoot.

Les Claypool excels at the story-song, so him narrating the story works perfectly (it’s just him and the drums for the verses).  Mark “Merv” haggard does a perfect young Johnny voice and Brian Kehoe is the great growly devil.

There’s some excellent fiddle work throughout the song (nothing deviating too much from the original,but played perfectly).  The violin is credited to Violina Mysteriosa (um thanks?).

It’s got some slide guitar (from Merv), but when the middle bridge come in it’s got lots of Primus-oddball guitar but the melody is spot on and Les’ voice has a delightful country twang to it.

When the band of demons joins in, the song goes bonkers with some weirdo guitar twanging from Ler and some noisy distorted bass from Les.  It sounds great, although I do miss the actual band of demons song which I’ve always thought totally kicked butt.

When Johnny starts playing, it’s all violin and Les stompin’ until the band joins in compete with a one-two bass and some slightly improv violin (in addition to the actual melody).

It’s a fun version of the song–not deviating too much from the original, but clearly Primus’ own.

[READ: November 3, 2020] The Big Break

I have really enjoyed everything that Mark Tatulli has written.  He’s a bit off my radar though, so I wasn’t aware of this full length graphic novel (or his previous one Short & Skinny).

This book is about two seventh grade boys, Andrew and Russ.  They have been friends for years and have done everything together.  Right now their project is to make a short film for The New Jersey Middle Grade Movie Viral Video Contest.

They have the perfect concept: The Jersey Devil!

Now, being from New Jersey, I found this concept to be wonderful.  I grew up hearing rumors about the Jersey Devil (even though I am hours from its haunting grounds).  Tatulli grew up in NJ as well, and he was obsessed with the devil (he lived closer to the PIne Barrens, I believe).

Their movie is a half-true / half-fictionalized account of their attempts to find the Jersey Devil.  It’s a kind of Blair Witch Project for middle schoolers.  Of course, they don’t have a Jersey Devil to film and their Play Doh monster is pretty lame.  But the rest of the film is really good.  They just need a good ending and they are on their way to becoming filmmakers–this will be their big break! (more…)

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A worldwide embarrassment (2016-2020)

Posted in Anal Trump, Cattle Decapitation, donald tRUMP, Goblin Cock, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Pinback, Politicians on November 3, 2020| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ANAL TRUMP-The First 100 Songs (2018).

On Election Day 2020, what better music to listen to than Anal Trump? 

Anal Trump are a grindcore act made up of Rob and Travis Trump.

The true identities of Rob and Travis Trump remain shrouded in mystery. Are they the unwanted bastard children of the Philanderer-in-Chief? Regular citizens transformed into angry mutants by the deluge of toxic waste spewing from the 45th President’s mouth? Or simply two dudes from high-profile San Diego musical acts who decided to pay tribute to grindcore pioneers Anal Cunt through the words of a man who embodies that band’s name?

Indeed, the band is made up of Rob Crow (from Pinback, Goblin Cock and a dozen other bands) and Travis Ryan, vocalist for Cattle Decapitation.  They write classic grindcore songs.  The longest song on this collection is 29 seconds and it feels like an epic compared to the rest, most of which are around 3 seconds.

Most of the songs have a sample of tRUMP speaking (which is certainly a turnoff) that’s usually followed by a blast of noise and inaudible growling.

The First 100 Songs produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Rob Trump, boasts a hundred songs in eleven minutes — their entire recorded output to date. From 2016’s pre-election That Makes Me Smart! EP all the way through the newer material contained in Thoughts, Prayers, and The Golden Age of Willful Ignorance, this truly exhaustive overview covers all the bases. With songs based on actual quotes by the man (“I Like The Soldiers Who DON’T Get Captured”) to creative interpretations (“My Cabinet Is Nuanced As Shit”) to Putnam-esque bon mots (“Renewable Resources Are Gay”), there’s a smorgasbord of Trumpiliciousness! According to Rob, their material has a universal appeal: “One of the things about this stuff is that, since most of it is taken right from his mouth or ideology, a Trumpster should be fine with it as much as a Bernie person would enjoy laughing at it. It’s just a mirror and that, in itself, is terrifying.”

This album can be purchased on CD (all 12 minutes of it).  There’s a couple of songs where I thought I could hear lyrics,  There’s a couple of songs where there was actually a melody (and one song where you could actually hear a bass line).  But mostly this is just a lot of short noisy songs.

Rob and Travis Trump aren’t gonna fill your ears with talk of universal healthcare or equal voting rights or any of that socialist stuff — although they donated 100% of the proceeds from their EPs to non-profit organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. They just want to point out that the most powerful man in the world is a hate-mongering clown, using shrieks and micro-riffs as their chosen vehicle. Anal Trump will soon take this show on the road with help from Justin Trump on bass and John Putin on drums, but as for their future plans? “I just want this ugly chapter of human history to finally be over.”

The best part of the album are the song titles.   Because there are 100, I have put them after the body.  

[WROTE: November 2, 2020] A worldwide embarrassment

Absolutely no story feels appropriate to post on Election Day, this global travesty.

When Barack Obama won all those eons ago, the world felt brighter.  I recall going to the grocery store and seeing another person and we smiled at each other and acknowledged what a good day it was.  

Four years ago, when tRUMP lost the election but became president because of an antiquated system that explicitly denies a democratic election, it was as if a dark cloud spewed bile all over the country.  We were supposed to have our first female president.  She was the most politically qualified person to run for office in my lifetime.  Like her or not, she served our country admirably and was poised to break the glass ceiling that has now grown several layers thicker. (more…)

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Magic Sword: Volume 2, Chapter 3 (2020)

Posted in Death, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Magic Sword, Shay Plummer, Supernatural, Swords, Tangerine Dream, Unfinished series, Violence, Waveshaper, Yuck! on November 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MAGIC SWORD-Endless (2020).

Not long after the release of the Awakening EP, Magic Sword is back to conclude the story arc that the previous albums have created.

The Keeper (red, keyboard, audio-visual), The Seer (blue, guitar), and The Weaver (yellow, drums) are Immortal and they have seen a story like this one unfold many times.  So they are not surprised by the direction it goes in.

“Depths of Power” opens this chapter with a slow pulsing matched with occasional power chords.  “Invincible” adds a new sound palette to the band’s music.  This song sounds a bit more like Tangerine Dream but with some more contemporary techno type sounds.

“Aftermath” adds some swirling uneasy sounds to the album.  It contains curlicues of sound that wiggle around and segue into “Empress” which has a low rumble underneath the propulsive synths.

“Shores of Oblivion” is a more eerie soundscape of wind and slow pulsing waves of emptiness. When the fast melody comes from out of the waves it feels like something sinister heading right for you.

“rophecy” adds some light to the proceedings with an uplifting melody which is eventually corrupted by “Corruption” and turns into a more threatening tone.

“Ritual” introduces a fairly heavy bassline and some more modern sounding synths.  Then “A New Quest” returns to the pulsing sound of old.  “Hope” starts quietly but brings am uplifting melody that continues throughout the song.

“Endless” ends the disc with strings–ominous at first but which move into a more stately melody that fades out slowly over a long time–continuing endlessly

The band also released a single of “Invincible” with a remix by Waveshaper.  I don’t typically like remixes, because mostly they just dump a new drum beat over an old melody, but this one plays around with the song in interesting ways.  It turns it into something different without losing the original.  I rather like the new bass line they add to the song.

In the comic book, Magic Sword says that this ends the cycle.  Does that mean the end of Magic Sword … or the beginning of a new cycle?

[READ: October 29, 2020] Magic Sword Volume 2, Chapter 3

Chapter 3 concludes this cycle somewhat unexpectedly for me (although it makes perfect sense once it is explained).

When Chapter 2 ended, Nayia came face to face (or more like face to big toe) with The Colossus.  It was the size of a mountain and seemed to be covered in bark.  It quickly grabbed hold of her with its tendrils, trying to burrow into her orifices.

But the power of the Magic Sword was still within her and it fought back where she couldn’t.  With its help she was easily able to best this beast.

But the story doesn’t end there. (more…)

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