SOUNDTRACK: RA RA RIOT-The Rhumb Line (2008).
I have a hard time describing this album. It has a lot of ingredients that don’t make sense individually, yet which work very well. I would almost resort to calling them pretentious rock, but that seems so derogatory. Vampire Weekend falls into this category of highly literate pop too, and we know how much I love that album!
Ra Ra Riot play catchy indie pop, but their main instruments are cello and violin. And yet they’re not anything like Rasputina’s string-laden goth music. Rather, they write catchy poppy songs that are punctuated with strings. I even wanted to say they don’t have a guitarist, (they do) but I guess that just shows how well his licks meld with the rest of the music. And, indeed, on some tracks, the guitar is up front and wonderful.
They also get labelled pretentious because one of their songs (and one of their catchiest) has lyrics from e.e.cummings, or rather, they use his poem “dying is fine)but Death” as the lyrics for the song “Dying is Fine.” They also cover Kate Bush. Now the Futureheads covered Kate Bush a few years ago, so perhaps Kate is the next go-to artist for covers.
Ra Ra Riot wins extra points for covering a fairly unknown, and utterly bizarre song, “Suspeneded in Gaffa.” This happens to be one of my favorite Kate songs, so I’m a bit critical. However, they do a very good job of making it a pop song (There’s enough weird stuff in Kate’s version to never give it mainstream acceptance). And the strings work very well for it.
Ra Ra Riot was also featured on that paragon of good taste: the show Chuck [And since I have mentioned the music of Chuck on many occasions, I would be remiss if I didn’t send a shout-out to this site which lists all of the songs in Season One–gotta update Season Two fellas]. Chuck played “Can’t You Tell” in a romantic scene, and it worked quite well.
So, after all that, what can I say about the band. They may be too commercial for some, but I think their combination of strings, intelligent lyrics and good vocals is pretty great. Incidentally, in case you were wondering, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. Following a rhumb line requires turning the vehicle more and more sharply while approaching the poles (thanks Wikipedia).
[READ: May 26, 2009] South of the Pumphouse
So this book is by Les Claypool, lead singer and bassist of Primus.
Claypool’s lyrics are typically stories, full of weird characters in weird situations. Oh, and fishing. Lots of fishing. And that sums up this book pretty well.
The book is set in El Sobrante, California, a redneck haven that has not progressed along with the rest of the state. Earl is a fisherman and meth addict. In that order. Fishing is Earl’s life. His father fished every weekend, and Earl and his brother Ed went with him. Rain or shine. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 