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Archive for the ‘All Songs Considered’ Category

Five Dials Number 6: The Obscenity Issue (22 May 2009)

Posted in Advice, Alain de Botton, All Songs Considered, Art Spiegelman, Battles, Books about writers, Craig Taylor, Culture Shock, D.H. Lawrence, Essays, Five Dials, Free Speech, Helmet, History, Morality, Paul Maliszewski, Play (Drama), Poetry, Pornography, Religion, Sex, Steve Toltz, Tomahawk, Violence, War on May 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BATTLES-“Ice Cream” (2011).

My friend Lar told me about Battles way back in 2007.  I listened to the concert he sent me, and it was great. But my memory of the band was that they were really heavy (the drummer was in Helmet and Tomahawk for cripessakes).

But they’re not so much heavy as noisy and crazy.  And this track is a head-spinning amalgam of keybaords, unsettling rhythms, processed guitars and singing from Argentinean techno producer Matias Aguayo.  The lyrics sound like they are not English, but they are (with heavy effects on them).

The song is weird, indeed. But after just one listen, I was totally hooked.  It’s catchy and bouncy and very sunny and it’s a real joy to listen to.   I absolutely must go back and check out their debut Mirrored.

Listen at NPR.

[READ: April 28, 2011] Five Dials Number 6

Five Dials Number 5 was an excellent issue that I enjoyed immensely.  They followed it up with Number 6, which deals with a subject that I was very passionate about in the early 90s: censorship/obscenity.  When I was in high school and college, the PMRC was the big bogeyman for advocates of free speech (of which I am one).  I still advocate passionately for freedom of speech (now that I’m in a library, the issue can be part of my daily life), but it seems like there are so many more important issues in the world, that stickers on a record seem kind of silly.

Nevetheless, as this issue reminds us, those who control what is said control what we hear.  And that’s true for music and books, as well as our everyday news.  So, free speech should never be taken lightly.  Although this issue looks largely at obscenity in England, they also pull up some good information from Jello Biafra as well.

CRAIG TAYLOR-A Letter from the Editor: On John Mortimer and Obscenity
John Mortimer appears later in the issue. He was the lawyer who defended Lady Chatterly’s Lover against accusations of obscenity.  And Taylor points out that Mortimer’s attitude was that he “understood the silliness of censorship.”  And with that attitude, he was able to work to convince juries of that silliness.  The rest of the issue looks at important cases of censorship over the years, from The Dead Kennedys to NWA (it’s nice to be reminded about how “dangerous” they were when they came out).  He also laughs at the lame attempts at putting adult content on network TV (Fudge you!). (more…)

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Zadie Smith–2 book reviews (Harper’s, May 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Death, Edouard Levé, Essays, Harper's, Language, Marriage Trouble, Peter Stamm, Pokey LaFarge, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Suicide, Tiny Desk Concert, Zadie Smith on May 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: POKEY LaFARGE-Tiny Desk Concert #122 (April 20, 2011).

I had never heard of Pokey LaFarge before this Tiny Desk concert was sitting in my download folder.  In fact, the notes on the page say that they had never heard of him before they saw him wandering around SXSW.  And then he climbed onstage and played a great set.

LaFarge plays an old-timey style of music.  It’s a kind of Squirrel Nut Zippers retro sound.  As with the Zippers, I love their music in small doses.  And so, this Tiny Desk set is a perfect little sample of LaFarge’s music: happy, bouncy, jazzy.  There’s an upright bass solo, songs about being happy and singing “La La La” and other upbeat stuff.  It’s quite satisfying.

Especially if, as the notes say, you use it as a kind of antidote to the raucous music that you generally listen to.  A Pokey LaFarge song will perk you out of any self-inflicted gloom.  I just don’t need to hear more than three.

[READ: April 15, 2011] 2 book reviews

It looks like Zadie Smith has become a regular fixture at Harper’s.  I’m undecided if I’m going to review all of her book reviews from now on (perhaps I’ll lump some together in one post).  But in the meantime, I’m mentioning this one primarily because she reviews the story that I mentioned in yesterday’s post: Edouard Levé’s Suicide. (more…)

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Marni Jackson–“Bob Dylan Goes Tubing” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Bob Dylan, Broken Bells, Canadian Content, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marni Jackson, Short Story, Summer, The Walrus on May 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BROKEN BELLS Live at SXSW, March 17, 2010 (2010).

The only disappointing thing about this download from NPR’s All Songs Considered is that it consists of only three songs now.  I guess the band (or more likely the label) didn’t want the whole show streaming or downloadable, so they let us have three songs (the original show was ten).

But three is better than nothing.  The excerpt includes “The High Road,” “The Ghost Inside” and “October.”

The band sounds great in this setting.  I’m unclear just who all is playing live, but the page says that the live band is a six piece (with Danger Mouse jumping from drums to keyboards and back again).  They reproduce the songs very well, but at the same time they’re not just mimicking the album.

It’s a nice teaser to want to see them live.

[READ: April 4, 2011] “Bob Dylan Goes Tubing”

Today is Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday.  It’s not often that I get a story that coincides with a day quite so nicely.  Happy birthday, Bob.

This begins as a delightfully weird little story and develops into a strangely profound story about family and celebrity.

A family is renting a vacation home by Lake Sturgeon for the summer.  The mother notices a man on a raft who is floating towards them.  And she says that from a distance the guy looks like Bob Dylan, only older.  (He is older, her husband ponts out).

When the man gets closer, he reveals himself to indeed be Bob Dylan.  Well, he doesn’t reveal himself to be Dylan, he just is Dylan. And he accepts their hospitality and doesn’t make a fuss.  He thinks that he’s on a different lake (Lake Kashagawigamog), but he seems content where he is.

And that’s when their son Ryan, introduces him to the fun of tubing.

There is a lot of humor to the story (it was a National Magazine Award Nominee in the humor category), but it’s not a very funny story.  Obviously the premise of Bob Dylan tubing s quite funny, but as the story continues its proves itself to be not so funny.

For Dylan won’t leave. He stays in their house, and the family is basically paying for his food and cigarettes.  (Okay, that is quite funny).  He’s a good companion for the family (especially Ryan, whom he is teaching to play guitar), but he has never once offered to pay for anything.  (No even a cheque when he leaves?)

As the story and the summer draw to a close, some of Dylan’s loneliness is revealed.  And the story ends on a poignant yet positive note.

It’s really quite a nice story.  I wonder what won the Award that year.

It’s available here.

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Nadia Kalman–“The Counterpart” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Broken Social Scene, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Feist, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Metric, Nadia Kalman, Short Story, The Walrus, World Cafe Live on May 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE-World Cafe March 2, 2006 (2006).

Broken Social Scene played at the World Cafe not long after their release of Broken Social Scene (their 3rd album).  This download is primarily an interview between World Cafe’s David Dye and BSS’s Kevin Drew & Brendan Canning, but there’s also three songs that the band played for the session (it’s impossible to know how many songs they played in total, because the songs were recorded prior to the interview–I’m not even sure how many members played live as they were never introduced.)

The songs sound interesting in this recording.  I haven’t listened to the album in a long time, so I don’t recall if these versions sound like the disc; however, these three tracks are fascinating for how quiet they seem to be, despite the fact that there are so many people in the session.  “Something for the Holidays” has at least one violin, a horn section, guitars and several vocalists, and yet it’s rather quiet.  Not mixed quiet mind you, but like everybody is whispering (even the horns).  It makes for an amazingly intimate session.

“Major Label Debut” is a bit more stripped down, but there are clearly a lot of people playing.  The final track, “Ibi Dreams of Pavement” really sounds like a Pavement song in the beginning.  The slightly out of tune violins work perfectly, and whoever is singing has a Stephen Malkmus thing down quite well.

The interview is fascinating (and quite lengthy).  They discuss the origins of the band, how fifteen people can play and tour together and the amazing success that so many of the individuals of the band have had (Feist, Metric etc).  There’s also an explanation about the origin of the title and the sounds of “Ibi Dreams of Pavement.”

It’s a good session and is certainly going to get me to listen to their discs again.

[READ: April 4, 2011] “The Counterpart”

This bizarre story can certainly be called Kafkaesque, if for no other reason than that the narrator, Aleksey, wakes up from a night of drinking to find out that his nose is gone.  Not torn off, not bloody, not broken, just gone.  His face is now flat with two holes for breathing.

This bizarre incident no doubt stems from his childhood hatred of his large Semitic nose (despite his being a Christian) and the years of abuse he received about it.  First he thinks his lover, Tatiana, is somehow responsible.  But when she comes over she is just as surprised as he.  Nevertheless, she is insistent that he must carry on as normal, for he must improve his lot (and thereby hers).

Because Aleksey is not faring so well (nose aside).  He has not been given tenure, his wife and child have left him and he is stuck translating poor Russian works into English.  Tatiana has set up a job interview for him and the interview is today.  But how can he go with no nose? (more…)

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Five Dials Number 5 (2009)

Posted in Advice, Alain de Botton, Alberto Fusi, All Songs Considered, Anthea Bell, Biography, Books about writers, Charles Baudelaire, Essays, Excerpt, Five Dials, Gail Armstrong, Howard Goldblatt, J.M.G. Le Clézio, James Attlee, Joe Dunthorne, Johannes Vermeer, Kurt Weill, Letters, Paul Wilson, PJ Harvey, Poetry, Roberto Bolaño, Roger Deakin, Samuel Beckett, Short Story, Violence, W.G. Sebald, Yuck! on May 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PJ HARVEY-Live at the Warfield Theater, San Francisco, April 14, 2011 (2011).

NPR was given permission to share this PJ Harvey concert.  However, they were only allowed to share about half of it.  The show is fairly short to begin with (about 75 minutes) but the downloadable portion is barely 40 minutes.  It turns out that NPR was given the rights to all of the songs from the new album, Let England Shake.

Now, I have no idea how things like this work, why they are only given access to these songs as opposed to the other ones, or why an artist (or management) would not let her fans hear the ten or so other songs she played that night.  Legal restrictions are weird and usually stupid. But as I’ve mentioned before, you shouldn’t complain about free stuff.

So, what we get here is a spliced together concert (it sounds seamless, although they have removed all of the banter (if there was any)).  The album is played in its entirety (although we were not given “Written on the Forehead” which happens to be the song they are playing the most on the radio here), but it’s not played in order.  It was also interspersed with older songs “The Devil” and “Silence” from White Chalk, “The Sky Lit Up” and Angeline” from Is This Desire, “Pocket Knife” from Uh Huh Her, “Down by the Water” and “C’mon Billy” from To Bring Her My Love, (I’d like to hear how she handles the older songs, now that’s she’s singing primarily in the higher register).  And, “Big Exit” from Stories from the City.

It’s pretty clear that Harvey is no longer the young woman who made those first couple albums.  And she sounds strong and confident here.  It’s a great set; the autoharp never sounded better.

[READ: April 20, 2011] Five Dials Number 5

I have been enjoying all of the Five Dials, but this issue is easily my favorite so far.  The “theme” of this issue is translation.  Translators are the unheralded workers in literature, and while I have been trying to give them credit in my posts, I don’t always pay them enough attention (except when a translation is awkward or clunky).

But in addition to the theme (and the really cool interviews with some translators, I thought the fiction was outstanding and I loved Alain de Botton’s Advice column.  The whole issue was great. (more…)

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Wayne Grady–“The Man on the Island” (The Walrus, April 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Boredom, Canadian Content, Culture Shock, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Short Story, The Walrus, Unreliable narrator, Vampire Weekend, Wayne Grady on May 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-KEXP performance & interview (2008)

While trolling around NPR’s Favorite Sessions Pages (an amazing place to look for live music!), I found this Vampire Weekend in-studio session from KEXP in Seattle (whose site features some amazing shows that you can listen to (but I don’t think any are downloadable).  This interview and performance was before the band’s debut album had come out (and they had only been playing live for about six months).

So the set has four songs.  All will appear on the debut album, but they sound a little different.  Perhaps it’s the in-studio sound recording or perhaps they play them a tad bit slower, but you can hear the words more clearly (which is cool) and some of the beats are sustained a bit longer.  It’s a wonderful set.

The interview is also fun.  The interviewer is pretty well gushing all over the band.  But he asks interesting questions–it’s amazing to be reminded just how young the guys are.  The DJ also asks about their influences and that’s kind of an interesting discussion, although thy don’t really admit to any specific influences (rats).

It’s a wonderful (if not too brief) session, and well worth a listen.

[READ: March 27, 2011] “The Man on the Island”

I really enjoyed the way this story was constructed. It went through several different teasers before settling down into what the story would ultimately be about.

It opens with a taxi driving through Bridgetown in Barbardos.  The passenger, a reporter from Canada, asks the driver, Calvin Braithwaite, to drive him all over the island on a special commission.  Braithwaite agrees, and they spend the reporter’s few days in Barbados together.  When the reporter leaves, he asks for Calvin’s email address and phone number, for possible follow-up.

This introduction leads us to assume that the story is about the reporter.  And also that Calvin is “the man on the island.” (more…)

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Nicholson Baker–“Why I’m a Pacifist” (Harper’s, May 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Buke and Gass, Death, Harper's, Military, Morality, Nazis, Nicholson Baker, Racism, Religion, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on May 16, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUKE AND GASS-Tiny Desk Concert #95 (December 6, 2010).

Buke and Gass’ album Riposte made the NPR’s 50 Favorites of 2010.  I listened to a track and liked it but I wasn’t blown away by it.  Nevertheless, I wanted to check out this Tiny Desk concert because I was sure it would be interesting.  And so it is.  And it makes me like them infinitely more–enough to check out their whole album.

The initial attraction to Buke and Gass is their homemade instruments (and if you watch the video, you can kind of see how they work, except I want to know more details (there must be foot pedals of all kinds to make these exquisite sounds)).  Arone Dyer sings and plays a modified baritone ukulele (who even knew such a thing existed) and makes incredibly squalling, cool effects come from it.  Aron Sanchez plays a modified guitar/bass hybrid (there’s bass and guitar strings-the bass are filtered through one amp, while the guitar goes through another).  And someone is playing a tambourine and a bass drum (I think it’s Sanchez with his (unseen) feet).

The songs are weird but incredibly catchy.  Dyer’s voice is wonderful, and perhaps the most amazing thing is that she seems to be playing guitar harmonies to complement her voice and it makes it sound like there are two singers.  It’s also amazing how much noise they make with these two instruments.

The whole set is wonderful and if they can do this on live, I can’t wait to see what the can do with studio magic. Now, just what the hell does their name mean?

[READ: April 15, 2011] “Why I’m a Pacifist”

I enjoyed Nicholson Baker’s earlier works quit a bit, but I have missed a lot of his more recent releases.  Nevertheless, Baker is unafraid of controversy and I enjoy reading what he has to say.

In this article he defends his belief in pacifism. What’ surprising to me is that in his biographical introduction he talks  about his earlier life as a red-blooded Young Republican.  I never would have figured that Baker has such a past, but he evidently did. When he grew out of that phase, he opened himself up to the possibilities of pacifism (which his wife thoroughly supported). (more…)

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Yannick Murphy–Here They Come (2006)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Boredom, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, McSweeney's, Sex, The Head and the Heart, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Yannick Murphy, Yuck! on May 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE HEAD AND THE HEART-SXSW, March 18, 2011 (2011).

Just months after their in-studio session, The Head and the Heart played South by Southwest.  This set seems somehow louder than the in-studio (which seems a very common phenomenon–the bands just seems to be quieter in-studio somehow, even if they are playing hard, it still seems subdued, which isn’t bad at all, just odd).  So here, the band really lets loose (or maybe it’s because they’ve been playing no for six extra months?) and they sound like they’re really having fun.

Their sound is loud and (somewhat) chaotic, and it really suits them.  The set list is similar to the in-studio (they also play “Cats and Dogs” which segues into “Coeur d’Alene”).  “Ghosts” and “Lost in My Mind” are also here (“Lost” sounds great in this rambling, somewhat shambolic format).  They also play “Down in the Valley.”  Added to the set are “Winter Song” and “River and Roads.”  These two songs feature vocals by violinist Charity Thielin, and I have to admit I don’t love her voice.  Perhaps it’s in this context or that she is mixed a wee bit to loud (because I didn’t dislike her voice in the in-studio).  As I said, I haven’t heard the studio version yet, so I’ll chalk it up to a very large crowd.

But otherwise the set is outstanding, and I’m becoming a huge fan of the band.

[READ: March 28, 2011] Here They Come

I had been thinking about reading this book for a while (the blurbs on the back are quiet compelling) but I kept putting other McSweeney’s books in front of them (I had hoped to finish an entire stack of McSweeney’s novels before The Pale King came.  But it shipped two weeks early and threw off my plan).

I have read two pieces by Murphy in previous McSweeney’s issues, but looking back they didn’t prepare me for this strange story. And the strangest thing is the point of view of the narrator (but more on that later).

This is actually a simple enough story.  Set in New York over an unspecified time period (there’s a couple of winters and a couple of summers, but I’m not sure if it’s new seasons or flashbacks), the (as far as can tell) unnamed narrator girl leads a pretty crap existence.

Firs there is John, the hot dog vendor.  He’s a married man from a middle eastern country (his family is back there).  And basically the narrator lets him feel her up (for what it’s worth on a flat chested 13-year-old) for free hot dogs and candy bars.  She doesn’t seem to upset by the groping and keeps going back to pass the time with him.

Then there is her brother, an obnoxious boy who walks around in a silk dragon bathrobe all the time. When he is not smashing things with his guitar when he walks past the furniture, he is smashing things in his room or threatening to shoot himself with their old, unloaded gun.

Her mother works all the time but really can’t afford to take care of them or feed them.  And she says “Merde” night and day (she is French).  But worse is her mother’s mother, la mere, who stays with them from time to time.  la Mere seems like she has money but she never gives them any. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 4: I Remember 5 November 2008 (2008)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Craig Taylor, Five Dials, Hari Kunzru, History, J. Robert Lennon, Kevin Brockmeier, Liz Phair, Lydia Millet, Michael Martone, Nina Chakrabarti, Noam Chomsky, Paul Maliszewski, Political Humor, Robin Yassin-Kassab, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Short Story, The Future on May 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LIZ PHAIR-Exile in Guyville Live October 6, 2008 (2008).

Like all indie rock hipsters I loved Exile in Guyville when it came out.  And like all indie rock hipsters, I hated that Liz Phair later made an album that is had the top cover below.  I didn’t even care anymore when she made the album with the second cover below.

The irony of course is that Liz made Guyville because she was sick of the hipster boys who were living in Chicago at the time.  And now it was the same hipster boys (only older) who were dismissing her for selling out.  (At least, that’s what I get from the interview that’s attached to the end of the concert and this separate interview from around the same time).

But regardless of my hipster cred (and subsequent loss of same) I really didn’t like Liz’s new pop style (but good for her for still being hot, right?).  In fact, I hadn’t even really listened to her since 2000 anyhow so when she came out with her pop albums I just kind of shrugged.

So, what’s up with this return to Guyville?  Well, the interviews mention her needing some closure on the rough time in her life when she made the record.  And also feeling that since could actually play her guitar now, it was worth giving fans (and herself) the experience of actually enjoying playing the album live.  So, good vibes and happy feelings all around (and sex and sex and more sex).

The concert is the entire Guyville album, played start to finish, with occasional banter in between.  And she is quite faithful to the original (she even has a special guest sing the “Every time I see your face, I get all wet between my legs” line on “Flower.”  The main flaw with the concert is that the bassist hits a number of flat notes and also on at least two songs is either out of tune or just mixed too loud or something.

The other flaw is directly related to Liz saying how much better she is at performing.  Because as the set opens, her voice sounds really off on the first couple of songs.  In the interview, she says that she still feels uncomfortable on stage until about the fourth song. And maybe that’s what’s happening on 6′ 1″ or, quite possibly, she can’t hit those notes anymore (her voice is considerably higher on her newer songs and 6′ 1″ is a low register, almost flat singing style and she just doesn’t seem comfortable doing it).  Indeed, by the fourth or fifth song, she seems more comfortable and seems to be having more fun and the set moves pretty smoothly from there.

She has a good rapport with the audience.  Humility was never her strong suit, and it shows, which makes me her a little less likable, but she still has good banter.

When the album is over she comes back for a brief encore.  She plays two songs solo (which are okay).  And then the band comes back for two of her other hits: “Supernova” and “Polyester Bride” which both sound fantastic.

Listening to Exile in Guyville again was great, the songs hold up really well.  I’ll have to pull her old CDs out and listen to the originals again (the concert is mixed a little low, but–good on NPR–all of the bad words are left in!).  The NPR page also said that Guyville had gone out of print until it was reissued recently.  Is it really possible that Matador let it go out of print?

[READ: April 22, 2011] Five Dials Number 4

The conceit behind this issue is “Eleven writers tell us Exactly What Happened …Days Before It Happened.”  And the authors tell us in past tense what happened on the fateful night of the election between Obama nad McCain.  (even though they are written some time before it has happened).

This issue is short again (all of 14 pages), but with such a tidy topic, the fourteen pages are packed with information.  There are eleven authors who write about the election.  Most are just a couple of paragraphs, so I’m not going to try to summarize them.  I’m going to say their predictions for what happened and (in one case) the uncanny accuracy.

CRAIG TAYLOR-A Letter from the Editor “On Elections and Chomsky”
He lays out what the point of this speculation fiction is: “We’ve become tired of the uncertainty and of the waiting.  It’s time someone told us exactly how this election ends.”   And also, Chomsky is almost 80, and he’s still vibrant. (more…)

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Tobias Wolff–“Her Dog” (The Walrus, November 2006)

Posted in Adam and the Ants, All Songs Considered, Death, Duran Duran, Short Story, The Walrus, Tobias Wolff, Yeasayer on May 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YEASAYER-Live at SXSW (2008).

I have the latest Yeasayer album (which got huge praise in 2010), but not their first album from which all of these live songs come.  These songs sound so very different from the 2010 songs that I have a hard time believing it’s the same band.

These songs have a rhythm-heavy, almost percussive feel to them (maybe like Adam and the Ants).  And their lead singer sounds a bit like the singer from Duran Duran.  The songs are all electronic sounding and are not easy listening by any means, but at the same time they are not discordant or noisy.

My favorite part of the show, though, was when they thank NPR and David Dye.  One of the guys says that his sister taught David’s daughter and the other band member quickly jumps in to say that that’s a boring story.  It’s quite amusing.

I really like their new album, and I’m a little cool to these earlier songs.  The band sounds good live, but I just couldn’t really get into these songs.  Although after a few more listens, I recognize some catchy bits.

There’s an interview at the end which is quite informative, explaining how the band creates their music (they enjoy the creative process more than the touring process).  In one instance they talk about sampling a rehearsal section and then cutting it up and reworking it into a new song.  So basically, Yeasayer are a bunch of studio geeks playing around.

[READ: March 18, 2011] “Her Dog”

This was a very short (barely two page) story that packed an amazing amount of story into such a short space.

As the story opens we learn that Victor is her dog.  When Grace and Joe bought Victor together, Joe made it clear that the dog was all hers (he didn’t want a dog).  And although she did all of the work (even walking him in the rain when she had a cold), they also walked Victor together at the beach on the weekend.  And then (with no explanation), Grace died and Victor was Joe’s dog.  (All of this in the first paragraph!) (more…)

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