Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘TV on the Radio’ Category

John Layman & Rob Guillory–Chew: Volume Four: “Flambé” (2010)

Posted in Food, Graphic Novel, John Layman, Marriage Trouble, NASA, Rob Guillory, Sex, TV on the Radio, Violence, Yuck! on February 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TV ON THE RADIO-New Health Rock (2004).

I was not aware that this EP existed (I guess technically it’s a single).  It came out after their original EP but before their first full-length.

The title track is a rocking number with all kinds of cool keyboard noises strewn about.  This is clearly early template TV on the Radio.  “The Wrong Way” will appear on Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and it shows a new noisy sound for the band–lots of horns and a reluctance to allow silence appear, there’s sound filling up every space.  The final song, “Modern Romance” feels like a B-side.  It is kind of slow and meandering.  There are a few interesting sonic bits but mostly they are overshadowed by a kind of monotony.

Not essential listening for the TV on the Radio fan.

[READ: December 29, 2011] Chew: Volume Four

It was delightful to get volume four of this series so quickly after finishing volume three!

As with previous issues, this one starts out with a quirky opening.  A series of shots of a chicken restaurant (Mother Clucker’s) thirty-five years ago, then twenty-five, then fifteen and then five (nice clientele drawings over the years).  And then finally we see it today, after the ban on chicken–a wasteland.

But this story introduces an entirely new element (which goes through the arc of the book.  Lights from (presumably) an alien life form fill the skies.  They spell out words in a language that absolutely no one can understand.  And it is so vexing that money is taken away from the FDA (the people who are fighting the chicken war) and put into NASA.

This first chapter also introduces a new kind of character: a man who is voresophic–if he is eating he is unbelievably intelligent. Of course, if this was your gift, how long would you be able to stay slim?

Chapter Two jumps us right into a NASA space station.  Just as it explodes.  A quick cut to a school (where Tony Chu’s estranged daughter goes) reveals a more down to earth problem.  Since the letters have appeared in the sky people have been acting weird.  And one technologically savvy boy, who has been picked on most of his school life is looking for revenge.  But is he responsible for the space station explosion as well?

Chapter three is wonderful for a couple of reasons.  First, Chu and John Colby are getting assigned increasingly dangerous missions (because their boss wants them dead).  It culminates in a hilarious scene at the USDA (a furious female army). Chu and Colby are the last resort.  If everyone else fails, they have a fall back so dangerous that it is classified.

Chapter four is amazing for opening with a series of scenes that are gruesome and awful and, as the narrator boxes keep repeating, never actually happen.  And that is because Tony Chu has been assigned to work with his twin sister Toni Chu–NASA bigwig and (unknown to anyone else, fellow Cibopath–she doesn’t tell anyone so she’s not treated like a freak like her brother).  It’s great to see the two of them work their magic.  And while I wouldn’t want it to replace the Chu/Colby team, it would be fun to see future pairings of these two.

Chapter five (this is the first book with five chapters!) opens with a wonderfully long sequence of Agent Mason Savoy (he never went away, he’s always in the background) sampling something amazing.  And we get several wordless pages of him processing what he has just ingested.

But the more amazing thing is that suddenly the letters in the sky simply disappear.  And there seems to be a cult leader who predicted this, right down to the minute.  The cult leader ingested scads and scads of gallsaberries when she was adrift at sea and it led her to the Truth.  And she has lots of followers who are willing to drink her Kool-Aid.

The book ends with two wonderful cliffhangers.  The first one is (mild spoiler, but not really since it will be dealt with in the next book) that their actions lead Chu and Colby to get fired.  The second one is that Mason Savoy has learned a special secret about one of Tony Chu’s relatives (remember we saw them all in that cool scene from the last book?).  And he takes advantage of that knowledge.

The series isn’t over by a long shot.  Awesome.

A couple other things, first off–welcome back Poyo!  I loved the faux story they created about his background and then the negation of said story.  Also, this books reintroduces the vampires that were mentioned early in the story and then kind of hidden.  I love when stories pick up threads like this.  And a final quick nod to all of the excellent little jokes in the margins of the pictures.  I read them all and I love them…keep them up!

For ease of searching I include: flambe

Read Full Post »

Shaun Tan–Tales from Outer Suburbia (2012)

Posted in Culture Shock, Death, Dogs, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Marriage Trouble, Oddities, Pets, Shaun Tan, Short Story, Supernatural, Surreal, Toys, TV on the Radio, YA Books on February 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TV ON THE RADIO-Nine Types of Light (2011).

I loved most of TV on the Radio’s releases.  On this one they scaled back some of their sound and they really highlight their assets, namely the vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone.  This album feels like something of a continuation of the style from Dear Science.

Indeed, some of the songs are downright simple. “Second Song” is completely straightforward; I really enjoy the falsetto vocals on it.  “Keep Your Heart” is so straightforward it has almost no music in the verses.  It’s very much back to basics. “Killer Crane” is also very simple, with a gorgeous melody.

But don’t count uberdude Dave Sitek out of the game, he throws in some very interesting sounds and textures on a number of tracks.  “No Future Shock”  introduces all kinds of wonderful sounds and repeated lyrics which work as a mantra.  One of my favorite songs is the weird and wonderful “New Cannonball Blues” great synth sounds, cool harmonies  (that falsetto is on fire here!) and a nice staccato chorus.  “Repetition” has some cool repetitions (it’s in the title after all) that really becomes a mantra, with some great musical accompaniment.  And the drums sound amazing.  And “Caffeinated Consciousness” has some more cool sounds: orchestral hits and the like followed by a very mellow bridge.

And then there’s “Will Do” a perfect blend of the two styles–rich melodies, cool effects and great vocals (which is why it was the single).

The simple songs are a good introduction to the kind of stuff TV on the Radio is capable of, but it’s clear they have a love for the unexpected and that’s why I enjoy them so much.

[READ: February 5, 2012] Tales from Outer Suburbia

Shaun Tan is an Australian author/artist who drew the amazing wordless The Arrival (it is stunning!).

This book is a collection of fifteen (very) short stories that come chock full of drawings.  Some drawings add to the story, some drawings tell the story and some drawings tell a kind of parallel story.  As with The Arrival, his artwork is weird and wonderful.

The library filed this book under YA Graphic Novels.  I’m not sure it’s either of those (The Arrival was filed under kids picture books).  While there are pictures, it is certainly not a conventional graphic novel.  And while the themes and idea aren’t risqué or anything, I feel like the ideas are more adult than teen oriented.  Of course, having said that, most of the protagonists are young, so maybe teens do enjoy stories about existential confusion! (more…)

Read Full Post »

Speaking with the Angel (2000)

Posted in Alice Cooper, BLK JCK, Boredom, Carole King, Colin Firth, Dave Eggers, Death, Dreams, Fables, Fantasy, Fears, Fishbone, Frank Zappa, Gil Scot-Heron, Giles Smith, Glee, Helen Fielding, Humiliation, Irvine Welsh, John O'Farrell, Melissa Bank, Nick Hornby, Nina Simone, Of Montreal, OutKast, Patrick Marber, Pete Shelley, Politicians, Prince, Prison, Punks, Rob Roy, Robert Harris, Roddy Doyle, Set at School, Short Story, The Buzzcocks, TV on the Radio, Zadie Smith on October 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer July/August 2010 Music Issue Compilation CD: “We Bumped Our Heads Against the Clouds” (2010).

Of all the Believer music compilations, this is by far my least favorite.  It would be oversimplifying things to say that the music is not for me, but in many respects it is not.  Chuck Lightning, the curator of the project states that this compilation is more or less a look into the state of the union for black artists.  And that invariably means a lot of R&B and songs that might be heard on Glee (I like the show, but I never know any of the music).

Deep Cotton’s “Self!” reminds me of novelty dance hit from the late 80s.  Of Montreal, who I thought sounded totally different from this, offer “Hydra Fancies” which is as catchy a disco anthem as any disco anthem can be.  Roman GianArthur’s “Depraved Valet” is an amazingly falsettoed Prince knock off.  Cody Chestnutt’s “”Come Back Like Spring” is a simple almost acapella ode to spring.  Saul Williams’ oddly titled “B.S. in a Tampon” is a spoken word with acoustic guitar that reminds me of Gil Scot-Heron.  Janelle Monáe’s “Cold War” is the first really catchy song (the la las remind me of Carole King), although  I could do without the overstated “Calinda” part and the extended fade.

The first song I really liked was BLK JCKs “Iietys” which sounded enough like TV on the Radio to be really interesting.  Spree Wilson’s “Chaos” also sounds like TV on the Radio (the more R&B side of the band, although the guitar solo is a dead ringer for “Hotel California.”  Scar’s “Rewind” is the song that should be on Glee.  I want to hate it but it is so damned catchy, I can’t.  Again, those Oh Oh Ohs are too perfect (and the auto0tune of course is unassailable).

Rob Roy’s “Velvet Rope Blues” is my favorite song on the disc by a large distance. It’s a weird rap that reminds me of The Streets, with an awesome sung chorus ala OutKast.  Hollyweed’s “Have You Ever Made Love to a Weirdo” is a trippy, juvenile space rap that is really silly.  Sarah hates it but I kind of like it, as it’s in the spirit of Frank Zappa, (although I hate the sax solo).  Fear & Fancy’ s “Off the Grid” sounds also not unlike OutKast.  And George 2.0′ s “Turn Off the TV” is a anti-TV rap rant (with the somewhat ironic conclusion that you yourself might end up ON the TV).

M.I.A. is probably the biggest name on the disc. “Born Free” is a weird little track of highly distorted vocals over a punk guitar buzzsaw sound.  But her vocals are mixed so loud in the mix that they sound unrelated.  It sounds not unlike a Go! Team track.  This track makes me wonder how she became such a sensation.

Hot Heavy & Bad’s “One” returns to that disco sound in the vocals with some contemporary bass sounds.  It wears out its welcome pretty quickly.  Tendaberry’s “Cold Boy” sounds like a less horn-y Fishbone.  Mother Novella offers one of the few all guitar songs, “Closer 9 1/2” and it’s an okay mid tempo rocker.

The final song is pretty awesome in theory: Nina Simone covering Alice Cooper.  That’s right, Nina Simone covering Alice Cooper.  Sadly I don’t know the Alice Cooper song, so it’s a bit lost on me.

[READ: September 16, 2010] Speaking with the Angel

I bought this volume when it came out (and apparently donated $1 to TreeHouse at the same time).  It’s a collection edited by Nick Hornby (and the cover is designed similarly to the way High Fidelity and even About a Boy were at the time (“the Hornby look,” I suppose).

I didn’t buy it for Hornby alone, although he does have a story in it, but because it looked like a really promising collection of stories from authors I liked.  And for some reason I didn’t read it until now.  It includes 12 stories, and as the introduction notes, $1 was donated to TreeHouse.org.uk (in the US $1 goes to TreeHouse and another $1 goes to New York Child Learning Institute).  I don’t know if the money still goes there, but you can donate with a form at the back of the book.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

J. Torres & Eric Kim–Love as a Foreign Language Volume 2 (2007)

Posted in Arcade Fire, Beirut, Belle and Sebastian, Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, Conor Oberst, Culture Shock, Eric Kim, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, J. Torres, My Morning Jacket, Oni Press, Paul Westerberg, Riceboy Sleeps, Romance, Set at School, Sigur Rós, Spoon, Stuart Murdoch, The New Pornographers, The Replacements, TV on the Radio on January 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DARK WAS THE NIGHT-That Disc (2009).

The second disc in this set is a somewhat more raucous affair than the first (which was pretty much all acoustic performances).  On the surface, this seemed like the better disc of the two.  I like so many bands on this disc: Spoon, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, The New Pornographers, Stuart Murdoch, Blonde Redhead.

And the disc starts out really great. The Spoon track, “Well Alright” may just be my favorite song on the whole compilation.  The Arcade Fire are typically great.  Beirut, whom I’d not heard before have a great track and My Morning Jacket’s song is very good, in a mellow sort of way.

From there, though, the disc kind of goes downhill. The Sharon Jones track is okay.  Dave Sitek’s (of TV on the Radio whom I love) track is fine.  It’s very basic, especially for him.  It has grown on me somewhat, but it’s nothing too exciting.  The New Pornographers track is catchy but nothing amazing.  Even the Stuart Murdoch (who has never done a bad track) song is mild at best.

But Riceboy Sleeps, which is a side project from the amazing Sigur Rós just kills the disc in its tracks.  The thing about Sigur Rós is that if you’re not in the mood for them, they are too ponderous by half.  So, in the midst of these kind of rocking songs, this 9 minutes ambient instrumental is just death.  And, it’s followed by a dreadful version of “amazing Grace” by the usually delightful Cat Power.

And then comes the Conor Oberst song.  This is the second song by him that I’ve listened to in a short period of time (the other was on Future Soundtrack of America).  And I just don’t get this guy’s appeal.  I feel like I must be a crotchety old man thinking this but I’ll say it: he sounds like a total knockoff of Paul Westerberg.  And the weird thing is, he sounds like a 19 year old P.W. singing the songs of the middle-aged P.W.  “Lua,” the track on here has some clever wordplay, but the melody of the song is pretty much note for note of The Replacements “Sadly Beautiful.”

And at this point in the disc I never even give Blonde Redhead and Kevin Drew a fair chance.

Track sequence means a lot, and I fear they do a disservice to the disc on this one.  I’m still a fan of Disc One and there’s a number of great tracks on Disc Two, but I was rather disappointed by this one.

[READ: December 22, 2009] Love as a Foreign Language Vol. 2

This volume concludes this engaging romance from Oni Press.

I was a little concerned as the volume opened because the Joel-Hana budding romance is derailed by a couple of silly misunderstandings.  (I was afraid we were heading towards TV-slapstick territory).  But, they proved to be just a few moments of comic relief in what was heading into a pretty emotional conclusion.

There’s also the sudden realization/crisis that his fellow teacher, the fun and flirty British woman also has a thing for Joel (what’s a guy to do with two women into him?  And realistically a British romance seems more feasible than a Korean one). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Ian McEwan–“The Use of Poetry” (New Yorker, December 7, 2009)

Posted in Colin Meloy, Constantines, Death Cab For Cutie, Ian McEwan, New Yorker, Romance, Sex, Short Story, Ted Leo + Pharmacists, The Believer, The Mountain Goats, The Walkmen, TV on the Radio, Universities, War on December 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June 2004 Music Issue CD (2004).

Every year since 2004, The Believer magazine has published a Music Issue which comes with a CD.

I recently received the 2009 CD, but I thought it might be fun to go back through the previous ones and see what kind of music they put on them since the beginning.  I was delighted to see how many bands I like now that I was either introduced to or SHOULD have been introduced to by these discs.

The inaugural issue was a fantastic collection of then-underground alt-rock (the issue also featured interviews with a few of the artists–you can see the Colin Meloy interview here).

The collection contains all previously released songs (I think).  But for me it was a great introduction to a number of bands that I didn’t know: The Walkmen, The Mountain Goats, Ted Leo + Pharmacists.  It also contained a new release by a band I did know, The Constantines.   And, this was my introduction to a band that turned out to be one of my new favorites: Death Cab for Cutie.

There’s a lot of great songs on here, and it would make a great hanging-out-at-a-party-with-friends soundtrack.  There’s not a lot of diversity on the disc which is a bit of  a bummer (although it’s good for a mellow party).  However, the 19 second blast of “You Got the Right” by the Tiny Hawks does break things up a bit.

But with a great collection of songs it would be wrong to complain.  For a complete listing (and another review) check out this page.

[READ: December 9, 2009] “The Use of Poetry”

Ian McEwan writes fantastically engaging stories about relatively simple things, oftentimes relationships.  And he has these relationships so well sussed out that a simple six-page story like this can pack in a ton of humanity.

In a post some time ago I wrote about how World War II affected Britain much more than it affected the U.S.  And, how artists of a certain age have found great drama from the war.  This story is no exception.  Except that the war veteran is not the main character.  But I loved this summary of the main character’s dad, the typical “stoic British man.”

Like many men of his generation, he did not speak of his experiences and he relished the ordinariness of postwar life, its tranquil routines, its tidiness and rising material well-being, and above all, its lack of danger–everything that would later appear stifling to those born in the first years of the peace.

That’s an amazing encapsulation of a generation of men.  And it rings very true to me.  But what’s more amazing is that that description is not even about the main character Michael, it’s about his dad, Henry. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays

Posted in Bill Clinton, Books about music, Books about writers, Boredom, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Dip-in Books, Donnell Alexander, Drinking, Drugs, Eddie Vedder, Essays, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Glasgow Phillips, Gods, History, Jess Mowry, M. Doughty, Marc Herman, Martha McParlin, McSweeney's, Michael Moore, Might, Missoula, MT, Oddities, Paula Kamen, Political Humor, Politicians, Racism, Religion, Research, Sex, Smarty Pants, Soul Coughing, Supernatural, Technology, Ted Rall, The Future, Travel, Tripp Hartigan, TV on the Radio, Violence, Wikipedia, Zev Borow on October 1, 2009| 1 Comment »

adidasSOUNDTRACK: TV ON THE RADIO-Dear Science, (2008).

sciencThe problem with TV on the Radio for me is that their first EP is so damned good that anything else they do pales in comparison.  Having said that, Dear Science, comes really close to topping that EP.  I liked Cookie Mountain (their previous disc) but I felt like they put so many elements into the mix that it detracted from the best part of the band: Tunde Adepimbe & Kyp Malone’s vocals.

And so, on Dear Science, the vocals are back up front where they belong.  This disc is a lot less busy, which may seem a little like selling out, but instead, it just heightens the complexity and originality of the band’s work.  The disc rocks hard but it also heightens some really cool jazz and dance elements.    But it all comes back to the melodies and vocals for me.  And on Dear Science, they pretty much outdo themselves.

And you can dance to it!

[READ: September 30, 2009] Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays

After reading David Foster Wallace’s essay in this book, I looked at the other articles here and decided to read the whole thing.  And I’m really glad I did.  It’s an interesting book full of, funny and often thought-provoking pop culture articles circa 1996.  As with some of the other pop culture/political books that I’ve read several years after they were relevant, it’s often weird to look back and see what things fully occupied the popular landscape at the time.  And, when a piece is completed dated, it’s pretty obvious, and sometimes unintentionally funny.  But there are many pieces here that are timeless (or at least hold up for a decade), and those are still really good reads.

This book also does a good job of summarizing the tenor of the defunct Might magazine.  A dose of irony, a splash of humor and a lot of criticism of what’s trendy.

The strange thing to me about this book, though is the targets that they chose to go after sometimes.  Rather than critiquing right-wing attitudes or corporate shenanigans (which they do touch on), they really seem to be after pop and rock celebrity.  For instance, there are two separate articles which take a potshot at Eddie Vedder (this was around the time of the Ticketmaster fiasco which didn’t put him in the best light but which could hardly be seen as only self-serving).  This seems rather unfair, unless his sincerity could really be called into question by a bunch of ironic jokesters.  Magazines like Radar and Spy used to do snarky articles like this. I’d always thought that Might was a little better than that.  But indeed, there’s one or two pieces here that have a holier- (or perhaps indier)-than-thou attitude.   Which may have been fine in the 90s but which seem petulant now.

But aside from those, the irony-free pieces are very enjoyable.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts