SOUNDTRACK: THE CAPSTAN SHAFTS-Revelation Skirts (2010).
I’d never heard of the Capstan Shafts when Sarah bought this disc for me for Christmas a few years ago. (It was in the NPR recommended discs for 2010). Turns out the band has been around for nearly 20 years but have been making home recordings with little publicity for much of that time. They (he, really, as it has always been one guy) finally decided to release a proper album with a second guy in the band. I wouldn’t have known any of that if I hadn’t looked it up just now–because even with the accolades, this is still a low selling record. I also wouldn’t have known that for some fans this album is the commercial sellout for this band who usually makes weird personal songs. And yet I like this album a lot–and it is plenty weird. Or perhaps a little weird-sounding–like the buzzing noisy guitars (which I guess are from the “new guy”).
The songs are pretty straightforward folkie indie rocky. They are bouncy and poppy, and the buzzy guitar solos adds a nice contrast to that bounciness There’s an air of Guided by Voices (“Let Your Head Get Wrong”, with the singer’s slightly faux British accent (he sounds like about half a dozen different singers throughout the disc). There’s definitely a feel of 90s rock here–maybe Sebadoh (“Little Burst of Sunshine”) or even Dino Jr (“Versus the Sad Cold Eventually”). The album has 14 songs in 30 minutes–and it feels like a full record–there’s not a lot of shilly-shallying with solos or extended verses, and yet the song are not fast punk tracks either–the pace is leisurely.
I really enjoyed this record and I like popping it in from tome to time for a good album that will never be overexposed.
[READ: February 5, 2013] “The Bloodline of the Alkanas”
I found this story to be quite challenging. The prose was awkward and not very fluid. I found it slow going until the end, but even that seemed a mite slower than necessary.
This story has three informal parts. The first shows the narrator’s parents–her father is Cyrus Alkana, a poet who believes in older, more formal rules of poetry. He is passionate, but far more passionate about his dislike for more modern writers, especially Alexander Alcott to whom he writes nasty letters. Or actually his wife writes them–she does everything for him believing unquestioningly in his genius. She works a full time job then comes home and takes care of the house and also types his correspondence.
The parents have no respect for the narrator because she did not receive The Bestowal–what they call the poetic gift. The narrator doesn’t care about any of that–she explicitly states that she doesn’t know half of the poets that her father admires. Consequently, her parents show her no respect.
Cyrus can’t seem to get published anywhere. His wife unfailingly sends out his poems but they receive nothing. Finally, she decides to bundle up his work and to include a cover letter expressing how wonderful the work inside is. We later learn that the name she put on the letter was Alexander Alcott. Obviously, this would show an instant sign of respect and it would be a rather shocking development in the land of poetry. Especially when the publisher agrees to publish the book only if Alcott’s accolades are included.
The narrator is understandably freaked out about this–her mother is publicly defrauding another (far more famous) writer–surely there will be hell to pay. But her mother is not concerned in the least. She says that Alcott will be happy for the publicity. After its publication critics do talk about it–most wondering what happened to Alcott to endorse such a poet, but there is never any formal repercussion. And no word from Alcott at all. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 