SOUNDTRACK: SARAH HARMER-I’m a Mountain (2005).
I first heard Sarah Harmer in 2000, with her “Basement Apartment” single (which always made me think of my friend Ailish who, at the time, lived in a basement apartment in Brookline, Mass.)
My wife Sarah has this CD playing in the car and I’d forgotten how much I liked it. Unlike the You Were Here, I’m a Mountain is much more country music sounding. I’m not much of a fan of country music as a rule, but there is something about country music from Canada that just sounds better to me. It tends to have more of a crossover sound, and is lyrically more interesting to me. Maybe it has something to do withe Calgary Stampede.
While two or three tracks on here could easily fit on a country station, the album still got nominated for a Juno for Best Adult Alternative album.
To me, the album really kicks into high gear with the title track, which is funny and catchy (the line about Wal Mart is a good one). The cover of Dolly Parton’s “Will He Be Waiting for Me?” is beautiful. And the French song “Salamandre” sounds gorgeous even if I have no idea what she’s on about.” The disc closes with my favorite song: “Luther’s Got the Blues” a wonderfully funny country song written by Luther Wright. And in Sarah’s hands, it turns into a yodeling masterpiece.
You might hear Sarah’s voice backing up all kinds of bands. And her voice really is fantastic. So, should you tend to shy from country music as I do, this may be an entry way for you.
[READ: January 15, 2010] Hopeless Savages
I read this comic years ago, and loved it quite a lot. I found it right around when I found Blue Monday. I recently tacked down the third trade paperback, so I figured I’d read all three again.
The premise here is that Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, two old school punk rockers fall in love and settle down. They have four kids: Rat Bastard, Arsenal Fierce, Twitch Strummer & Skank Zero Hopeless-Savage. Each kid is a traditional punk: bad assed, fierce and take no shit. But they are also pacifist by trade (Ronald Reagan took on the world with force, so force is for fascists, too right!). Self defense is okay, mind you.
In this first story (there’s three trade volumes published so far), there’s not too much punks-in-proper-society comedy, because it’s all action. The kids’ mum and da have been kidnapped, and its up to the four of them to find them. Well, actually it’s up to the three of them to find Rat and then find their parents. For you see, Rat Bastard has sold out and gone commercial. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: LUTHER WRIGHT AND THE WRONGS-Rebuild the Wall (2001).
I first heard Luther Wright on an episode of 
I Just Read About That... 