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Archive for the ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ Category

Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover–Bandette: Volume One: Presto! (2014)

Posted in Adventure, Colleen Coover, Graphic Novel, Ongoing, Paul Tobin, Sex, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, YA Books on August 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

bandetteSOUNDTRACK: ERNEST RANGLIN-Tiny Desk Concert #382 (August 16, 2014).

ernestErnest Ranglin is a pioneer in ska, by mixing elements of reggae and jazz.  And at 82, he still plays a great guitar.  The solo at about 3 minutes in is really fun and interesting.  What’s interesting about this concert is that Ranglin is playing with a group of very young (compared to him) people.  The backing band is called Avila  and they hold down the beat and the rhythms for the master, sounding like a perfect fit.

They play three songs in fifteen minutes: “Surfin'” and “Jones Pen” which are longish ska instrumentals (“Jones Pen” features a keyboard solo) and “Avila (Oscar’s Song),” which is a more mellow jazzy instrumental.  Sometimes it’s nice to hear some good musicians jamming out with no vocals to complicate what they’re playing, and this is a good example of that.

It’s a lot of ska in one session, but if you like the genre, it’s hard to beat this concert.

[READ: August 1, 2014] Bandette

Sarah brought this book home and said I would like it and she was very much correct.

Bandette is a young thief living in Paris.  She is adorable and sprightly, wearing a black mask, a red wig and a yellow and black cape.  Even though she is a thief she is a good thief–stealing wonderful things but usually from bad people.  But her charm comes mostly from her fun banter and delightfully light personality.  The story is delightful and the art by Colleen Coover is fantastic–I need to see more from her (and I can, at her website).

As the story opens we see her sneaking into a fancy house where she is accosted by an adorable little doggie whom she asks “Want to come along with me on a robbery?” When the dog bounds off with her, she says “Really! You do you naughty dog! You are as bad as a cat”  She easily finds the target–four small drawings.  But she stumbles upon the owner in bed with a woman (the book just crosses the line out of kid-friendly territory).  He calls for the guards to chase her.  Her acrobatic escape is at once exciting and charming.

As she makes her escape, she calls on her cadre of helpers, assistants and urchins.  These kids love Bandette and help her however they can.  There’s the three ballerinas, there’s the group of street urchins and there’s Daniel, a delivery boy for the awesomely named Rad Thai.  He has a huge crush on Bandette and will help her in any way.

We also see that Bandette is sort of working in league with the police.  Inspector Belgique knows that Bandette is a thief, but he also knows that she can help him with more serious crimes.  Like the one he is currently involved with–a group of men breaking into the bank (real thieving).  The inspector asks Bandette for assistance and she helps in the most unlikely way she can.
(more…)

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Tom Shiegoski and Jeff Smith: Bone: Quest for the Spark, Book One (2011)

Posted in Adventure, Bob Mould, C., Children's Books, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Hüsker Dü, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Shiegoski, Trilogy on August 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

questSOUNDTRACK: BOB MOULD-Tiny Desk Concert #381 (August 11, 2014).

mouldbobMan, I leave the Tiny Desk concert area for a little while and they have loaded up ten shows already!  How will I ever catch up?  But more importantly, one of them is with Bob Mould!  How about that?  Mould has a new album out which I have been enjoying, but it’s really fun to see him in this Tiny Desk setting–just him and his electric guitar, bashing out four songs in 13 minutes and still playing in that low-slung style.

His voice still sounds great (even if it is a little disconcerting to see the bald, gray-bearded man with glasses who replaced the bratty punk Mould of old).

     He plays two new songs from Beauty and Ruin “The War” and “Hey Mr. Grey.”  He also plays an older solo song: “I Don’t Know You Anymore.”  And since he’s playing them all from his fuzzy amp, they sound great together (even if the new stuff isn’t quite as catchy).  After some chatting, he ends the set with a classic Hüsker Dü song, “Makes No Sense At All.”

  It’s great to see him being funny and charming.  And it’s even better to have him back and rocking.

[READ: August 1, 2014] Bone: Quest for the Spark 1

BONE: Quest for the Spark #1

Many years ago I read and loved the Bone series.  I have all of the books and even bought the individual issues (back when I collected comic books…they must be worth half of face value by now!).  C. even started reading the Bone books a while back (we love saying “Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures” to each other).

But I honestly haven’t thought much about the series since then.  So I was shocked to see this “new” book at the library.  And even more shocked to see Shiegoski’s name on it (instead of Jeff Smith’s (which is there, fear not)).  And then triply shocked to see that it is a novel with a few pictures and not a graphic novel at all.  Whoa, consider my mind blown.

So this story takes place years after the events of the Bone series.  Gran’ma Ben is still around and Thorn is queen now.  But as the Prologue states, Queen Thorn is unwell.  She is in a deep sleep and is ice cold.  And Gran’ma Ben has the gitchy feeling that things are not okay.  if none of that makes sense to you it’s because you’ve never read Bone.  So, in a nutshell, most of the characters are people, but the Bone family are small, white, ghost-like creatures, very cartoony in a human world.  They’re adorable and funny. (more…)

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Ross Campbell–Water Baby (2008) [Minx #8]

Posted in All Things Considered, Boredom, Graphic Novel, Greed, LGBTQ, Minx, Morning Edition, Revenge, Ross Campbell, Sex, Sharks, Surfing, Tiny Desk Concert, Tracy Silverman on July 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

waterSOUNDTRACK: TRACY SILVERMAN-Tiny Desk Concert #368 (June 28, 2014).

Ttracyracy Silverman is an electronic violinist. In addition to playing the violin, he uses loops to build his sound (I love how many people are using loops these days).  Not only that, he has created his own violin–a six string with frets on the three low strings.  (It’s also shaped more like a guitar than a violin). He gets an incredible breadth of sound out of it (and he is an amazing violinist as well).

He plays three tracks. The first is “Matisse: La Danse,” which really shows off the breadth of his instrument and the effects that he uses.

The second piece he introduces by saying how much he loves listening to NPR and composer BJ Liederman.  So for the second song, which he calls “Sonata No. 4, Opus 37 “All Notes Considered”” he uses pieces of the themes from All Things Considered and Morning Edition.  It’s at once familiar and new, and it’s quite pretty.  He then takes a video of the studio for his Facebook feed.

The final song “Axis And Orbits/Mojo Perpetuo” opens with a trippy pizzicato section, which sounds echoey and almost underwater.  As that section loops, he plays slow, long bowed notes that seems to bring you into outer space.  By the end, after some interesting scratchy guitar-like sounds, he moves into a much faster solo section which really shows of his chops.

I’d never heard of Silverman before but I was pretty impressed with his technique and technology.  It’s a pretty wild ride of music–such diversity and unexpected sounds our of a simple (or not) violin.

[READ: July 5, 2014] Water Baby

I recognized the art from Ross Campbell immediately.  He writes and draws Wet Moon and I find his style (he draws women who are very powerful and very sexual) arresting and confrontational.  This book almost seems like it doesn’t belong at Minx, which tended to skew a little younger.  Even though these girls prove to be younger than I thought, their dress (or lack of—there’s a lot of underwear and tight shirts) is quite risqué (although it proves to be less explicit that Wet Moon).

The story itself was rather unexpected as well.  Brody is a surfer girl. She has cool punky hair and a rocking bod.  But in the first few pages, she is out on the water when she is attacked by a shark and loses a leg.  When she wakes up her best friend Louisa is there, taking care of her.  Since Brody’s mom is working full time, she asks if she can stay with Louisa —the answer is yes, and Louisa becomes an essential part of Brody’s life.  Many of Campbell’s stories focus on the young people, rather than the parents.

Brody soon learns to use a prosthetic leg (and crutches when necessary), but she can’t stop dreaming about the shark (which gets bigger in her dreams and sometimes has legs or comes through walls—it’s pretty terrifying).

Brody gets a call from Jake, and old boyfriend.  Brody hates Jake now and even says she’s off of boys for good.  But he shows up anyhow—he’s blond and hot and maybe a little stupid.  Stupid or not he is a total mooch and he asks to crash with them for a few days.  Jake is clearly crushing on Brody, but he is also making moves on Louisa (who has bigger boobs and tighter shirts).  He even brings a third girl over to fool around with (which freaks out everyone else in the house). But it’s not until the girls wake up one morning to see that Jake has thrown up all over their house that they evict him—which means an immediate drive to Rochester NY. (more…)

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Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, Marc Hempel–Re-gifters (2007) [Minx #2]

Posted in Conor Oberst, Dawes, Graphic Novel, Hapkido, Marc Hempel, Mike Carey, Minx, Paul Westerberg, Sonny Liew, Tiny Desk Concert on July 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

regifterSOUNDTRACK: CONOR OBERST-Tiny Desk Concert #367 (June 23, 2014).

conoI’ve never been a fan of Conor Oberst (or any of his many bands). I really don’t like his voice, which I admit sounds sometimes like Paul Westerberg, but I’d just rather listen to Paul Westerberg. But one nice thing about watching the Tiny Desk Concerts is that it gets you to focus on a band for fifteen minutes to really see an artist perform.

I still don’t really like Oberst’s voice, but I like his song construction and he seems like a very nice guy. On this current tour, Dawes is his backing band and for the Tiny Desk Concert Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith from Dawes accompany him. And I think they really help the songs grow.

“Time Forget “ is certainly a catchy song and when Dawes kicks in it sounds really good. “Double Life” features a little too much of just Oberst (his voice is really quite wavery at times here—he says it’s early to be singing), but the parts with Dawes are fuller and meatier. “Zigzagging Towards the Light” has very weird backing vocals from the Goldsmiths–I find them unsettling almost like ghosts.   Although Oberst’s voice sounds better here and by the end the song they come together very nicely. “Artifact #1” is a nice collaborative song (I feel like Dawes’ contribution makes the song really shine).

As the show ends, Oberst presents to Bob Boilen an even Tinier Desk which is very funny, and Oberst says he regrets wearing the heavy coat (which does look uncomfortable).

[READ: July 5, 2014] Re-gifters

This was an interesting story about a young girl, Jen Dickson, who has two things going on in her life: lust for a boy and an upcoming Hapkido competition.

Jen (real name Dik Seong Jen, but Koreans put the first name last so it becomes Jen Dickson or Dixie as her friends call her) is excellent at Hapkido—she is intense and channels her anger and energy into her Ki.  At least she was until she fell for classmate Adam.  Now suddenly Adam is all she can think about and her Ki has gone out the window. Sadly for her, not only doesn’t Adam know she exists, she wasn’t even invited to his birthday party—and everyone was invited to his party.  Jen’s best friend Avril helps her out through most of this—they’re in hapkido class together and hang out all the time.   Avril describes Jen’s personality as spiky.

Jens’ family is not rich, but they value Hapkdio as a traditional sport, so they are willing to pay for her lessons, especially since she is so good.  Her mom makes jewelry and sells it at a local market. One day, when delivering the jewelery she is harassed and called all kinds of racist names by some street thugs. Surprisingly, one of them, Dillinger, comes to her rescue, telling his boys not to pick on the little girl. He sends her running (even though she was about ready to fight). While at the store she sees a beautiful Hwarang Warrior figure. It costs $199, and there’s no way she can afford it.

These stories converge in a painfully obvious way. There is an upcoming Hapkido competition. The entry is $100, so her father gives her the money. Then, it turns out that her invitation to Adam’s party was put in the wrong locker at school. She thinks the warrior would make a great present for Adam, so she uses that tournament money and her own money to buy this $200 item (gasp!). (more…)

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Steven Millhauser–“Coming Soon” (New Yorker, December 16, 2013)

Posted in Meta, Moon Hooch, New Yorker, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert on July 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_12_16_13Nelson.inddSOUNDTRACK: MOON HOOCH-Tiny Desk Concert #371 (July 7, 2014).

moonhoochI like to do things in an orderly fashion when I write about them, but when it comes to Moon Hooch, order simply must go out the window.

I’ve been enjoying Moon Hooch a lot lately, cranking their CD, watching them play improv live pieces on the side of the road (on YouTube) and now in this Tiny Desk Concert.

So Moon Hooch is three guys–two sax and a drummer.  And they play loud and fast and furious with crazy tempo changes, incredible stop on a dime pauses and some amazingly noisy solos.  In this Concert, the guys (saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen and drummer James Muschler) play three songs that all sort of meld together: “Tubes,” “Number 9” and “Bari 3.”

“Tubes” opens up as the picture shows with the baritone sax stuffed with some kind of tube.  I have no idea what it does to the sound (their sounds are so unusual anyhow), but it’s a very funny visual to see him waving this massive thing around while it’s attached with a yellow caution tape.  Especially since the song actually starts with the other sax making crazy skronking noises (this ain’t easy listening music, that’s for sure).  Indeed, when the lead sax is not playing a catchy melody he is wailing and skronking around.

“Number 9” was their first single and the song that introduced me to the band.  The extenda-tubes are gone, and the song sounds super tight and in control, with enough jam elements to keep it interesting.  Drummer Muschler also take a brief solo–it’ nothing too flashy (he’s got a very spare kit), but it really shows off his speed and dexterity which can get lost behind the flash of the saxes, especially when the saxes come back in and the solo wails away.

The final song is their new single.  I love their choreographed playing and the amazing stops and stars that the music has.   This song also features some of the quieter sections before launching into that heavy low sax riffage.

It’s definitely more fun to watch these guys, so check it out here.

[READ: June 13, 2014] “Coming Soon”

Stephen Millhauser seems to get a lot of stories published in the New Yorker.  His last one was in May of 2013 (this one was in December).  I’m starting to think there’s some unfairness in their selections sometimes.

But that’s not meant to reflect on this story at all because it was a fun, meta-story and the crazy related picture (echoes of a small house) was surprisingly apt.

In the story, Levinson has moved from the city to an up and coming town.  His friends in the city made fun of him–talking about the burbs and commodification and what not, yet they all went out to visit him to the weekends.  This particular town (not a sprawling suburb) was being developed quickly, and he relished the newness.   In fact he was almost defensive of how much he loved his new town.

Levinson is 42, dating casually until the right girl comes around.  But he is not settling down at all–he still works hard and he enjoys working in his yard and wandering the town.  He knows his neighbors and everyone is friendly.  It’s perfect. (more…)

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Karl Ove Knausgaard [Knausgård]–My Struggle: Book Three [Boyhood] (2009) [translated 2014] (total pages for books 1-3: 1384 [British edition 1100])

Posted in Big Books, Biography, Books about writers, Brass Bed, Culture Shock, Don Bartlett, Food, Foreign Books, Gary Glitter, Jealousy, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgård, Kraftwerk, Led Zeppelin, Marriage Trouble, Mud, Parenting, Queen, Rainbows, Rush, Sex, Sham 69, Slade, Soccer, Stauts Quo, The Aller Værste!, The Beatles, The Boomtown Rats, The Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers, The Sweet, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Unlikable main character, Yuck! on July 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

karl2SOUNDTRACK: BRASS BED-Tiny Desk Concert #339 (February 24, 2014).

brass bedI expected Brass Bed to be a goofy band because of the snapshot image of them singing into toy microphones.  I was initially disappointed by how normal they were, but I was soon won over by their interesting floating sound. They have this overall trippy underwater vibe (which seems to be accomplished by a bowed slide guitar). This is especially notable on “Yellow Bursts of Age” their best song in the set.  Later the guitar solo is echoey and also underwatery. It’s a very wild sound for a fairly simple song.

They tell a funny story about being from Louisiana and encountering Washington DC snow and (of course) not having an ice scraper (although they did have bag of sand).

“Cold Chicory” is an upbeat sounding song musically although it is kind of a bummer lyrically, but again there’s the great sound of the bow on the slide guitar and the echoey lead guitar. “Please Don’t Go” is a slow song—with more interesting effects from singing into that slide guitar.

The plastic mikes do come out in the last song “Have to be Fine” in which they sing into the echoey mikes for the intro (with very nice harmonies).  They sing the intro for about a minute, and then the slide guitar player takes lead vocals on this simple but pretty song (I don’t know any of their names).

At the end, the NPR folks gave them an honorary NPR ice scraper.

[READ: June 24, 2014] My Struggle Book Three

boyhoodI read an excerpt of Book Three just a few weeks ago.  And in the post about it I said I wouldn’t be reading this book for quite some time.  But then the book unexpectedly came across my desk and I couldn’t resist grabbing it while it was here.  So it appears that I will now have to wait well over a year before Book 4 (which is, I think about 1,000 pages–yipes).  I also see that Book Three is fully called “Boyhood Island” in Britain.

At the end of Book Two, Karl Ove was more or less caught up to the present–writing about what he was then up to (with a few years gap, of course).  So it makes sense that this book is about his childhood–showing us how he came to be the man he is.

The book, amusingly enough, starts off with memories that he cannot possibly remember, and he even says as much.  He is using memories of his parents and piecing together pictures from when he was an infant.  In 1970, (Karl Ove was born in 1968) his family moved to the island of Tromøy tromo(and check out the idyllic picture that Wikipedia had).  This is where Karl Ove spent his (rather traumatic) formative years.  Their island is small, so he knows everyone in his school, but there are some amenities around like the Fina station and the B-Max, and there’s lots of soccer to be played and bikes to be ridden.

Things seem normal at first–he runs and plays with his friends, there is ample green space to run around in, and they have boats to sail on.  And we meet two of Karl Ove’s earliest friends: Geir and Trond (so many people are named in the book, I’m very curious to know if any of them remember him).  In an early scene they chase the end of a rainbow looking for a pot of gold (and have a discussion about what happens to it when the rainbow vanishes (the boys even play a prank on Karl Ove that they actually found the pot,a dn while he doesn’t initially fall for it, he is compelled to go back and they tease him).

But the looming figure here and throughout the book is Karl Ove’s father, who, at least according to Karl Ove’s memory, is pretty much a monstrous dick.  He is demanding and exacting, unforgiving and seemingly uncaring.  He is either bipolar or a drunk, jumping from goofy to outright rage in a mater of seconds.  Karl Ove and his brother Yngve fear him unconditionally and, by the end of the book they both seem to hate him.  The scene where their dad tries and fails to teach Karl Ove to swim is heartbreaking, especially when the dad goes home and tells their mom right in front of him “He’s frightened of water.”  There are dozens of instances of fear and intimidation (often accompanied by a wrenching of Karl Ove’s ear).  Like when Karl Ove turns on the TV for his grandparents (he wasn’t allowed to touch the TV but he wanted to do something nice for them).  After a few minutes, the TV fizzed out and, naturally, he was blamed for it and sent to bed without supper (after some minor physical abuse). (more…)

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Fred Chao–Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero (Book 1) (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Asaf Avidan, Billie Holiday, David Byrne, Fishing, Food, Fred Chao, Funny (ha ha), Godzilla, Grand Puba, Graphic Novel, Janis Joplin, L.L. Cool J, Night Court, OutKast, Revenge, Robots, Tiny Desk Concert on July 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hiro1SOUNDTRACK: ASAF AVIDAN-Tiny Desk Concert #340 (March 2, 2014).

asafAsaf Avidan is a 33-year-old, Israeli singer, formerly with a folkish rock band called Asaf Avidan & The Mojos.  He has since gone solo and is touring the States.   His voice is the most notable thing about this performance—it’s feminine, but not in a conventionally feminine way.  It’s got a husky Janis Joplin vibe or maybe that weird Billie Holiday thing that she does.  And yet Asaf Avida is (clearly) a man and when he belts out songs, his voice is incredibly powerful.

And yes indeed, he knows how to use his voice very well.  His voice would be unconventional even if he was a woman—it’s creaky and crackly, it warbles and rises and swoops and yet it is very powerful nonetheless.  And I can see it being very polarizing.  I didn’t like it at first but it really won me over.

“My Latest Sin” is a slow finger plucked song (the guitar is beautiful) and most of the song is pretty quiet, but man can Asaf belt out the lines when he wants to. “Different Pulses” is a more robust song musically (even though it is just him on guitar). When he sing the “oh ho” part, he hits some real falsettos, but is still very powerful.

The way he mixes up his incredibly high pitched voice with the gravelly and growly makes this an incredibly engaging performance.

As he introduces the third song, “Reckoning Song,” he explains that it was remixed as an ambient song–which he hates.  He had asked the remixer to take it down, but the guy refused.  And it has since hit 150 million hits.  He’s grateful for the attention, although he still hates the remix. His version is quiet and powerful with some beautiful catchiness.

I’m very intrigued by this fellow and want to hear more.

[READ: June 20, 2014]  Johnny Hiro Book 1

This book collects the first three Johnny Hiro stories (from 2007-2008).  It was originally published by AdHouse books with the cover that you’ll see below.  This Tor reprint is identical (as far as I was willing to investigate).

I was immediately intrigued by the cover and the title.  I loved the play on Hero and Hiro and when I saw that a Godzilla type monster attacks them on the first page, I was sold.

So Johnny Hiro is an average Japanese American kid living in New York.  He has a bad job as a sushi chef, but he has a beautiful Japanese girlfriend who loves him very much.  Of course, when the first story opens and Mayumi is pulled away by “Gozadilla,” things aren’t looking that good for him.

But here’s some wonderful things that do happen in the story: Johnny rescues her while wearing her Hello Bunny slippers (she’s concerned that he will stretch them out); we learn that Gozadilla is mad at her because her mother stopped him in 1978 from trying to rampage Tokyo (so this is a revenge mission) and, best of all, they are saved because Mayumi calls Mayor Bloomberg for help (she got his number from the phone book because of an article in the New York Times).  Oh and the monster attack has left a huge hole in their exterior wall. (more…)

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Shaun Tan–Eric (2008)

Posted in Children's Books, Culture Shock, Graphic Novel, Jake Bugg, Oddities, Shaun Tan, Short Story, Supernatural, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert on July 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

ericSOUNDTRACK: JAKE BUGG-Tiny Desk Concert #342 (March 10, 2014).

buggJake Bugg is the least charismatic person I’ve ever seen at the Tiny Desk. He doesn’t look up, barely says anything and when he’s not singing, he seems bored out of his mind. It’s amazing he has any energy at all to sing the songs.  But he does, and his voice is deceptively strong and his songs, while simple, are really rather fun.

He plays four songs.  “Slumville Sunrise” is punky and fast–his voice is very British and a little abrasive, perfect for punk folk.  But in the chorus, he can really belt out the lyrics. “Me and You” has a nice melody and is a good change of pace from the first song.  “Storm Passes Away” is a more folkie song, mellower than the others and almost upbeat sounding.  The final song, “Lightning Bolt” is apparently one of his big singles.  It is fast and rollicking and has an unusual and rather catchy deliver style.

I came away from this concert thinking that Bugg was a real jerk, but I was impressed by his voice and his song writing chops.

[READ: July 1, 2014] Eric

Eric is a very simple children’s story done with the great exacting style of Shaun Tan’s best artwork.  The narrator explains that Eric is a foreign exchange student.  Eric is very curious about so many things; however, since Eric is only a few inches high, most of the things he is curious about are tiny incidental things that we take for granted–buttons, the shapes of drains, plastic wrappers, etc.

The narrator’s mum says it is a cultural thing, and it must be, because Eric doesn’t do things that most normal people do (probably because he is only 3 inches tall).  The end of the story is a wonderful surprise. (more…)

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Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki–Skim (2008)

Posted in Canadian Content, Death, Graphic Novel, Jillian Tamaki, LGBTQ, Lowland Hum, Mariko Tamaki, Set at School, Suicide, Tiny Desk Concert, YA Books on July 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

skimSOUNDTRACK: LOWLAND HUM-Tiny Desk Concert #341 (March 6, 2014).

humLowland Hum are the husband and wife duo of Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank from North Carolina.  He plays guitar and she plays (snare) drum and percussion.  They tour with a few homemade wooden platforms that have small metal jingles, so when they stomp on them, they get great percussive sounds.

They play three songs.  The first is “War Is Over,” a sweet folkie song with tambourine. Their voices meld very nicely (interestingly, her voice which I think is doing harmonies sounds stronger here–but that may just be a trick of the microphone).  There’s something interesting and compelling about they way the song starts–the verses are slightly unconventional, but when the “war is over now” chrous kicks in it sounds like a very different song.  It’s a good combination.

Before the second song, “Pocket Knife,” Daniel explains that this is the first song they wrote together.  It’s a funny story about wanting to write together but being afraid that their voices or styles would be incompatible and how would a husband and wife deal with that?  (Fortunately, they felt very compatible). The song is surprisingly short.  The verse is very quiet, especially his voice. Then the song gets loud–but there’s no vocals during the loud part.  She takes a verse and then it’s over.

Then they open it up for questions.  They explain that they are on stage together and in the van together and so with audiences basically staring at them, they decided to  open up a dialogue on stage.  So they often ask people for questions and comments.  Someone asks about the lyrics books.  They have made lyric books and passed them out before the show (something they do at all of their shows).  They like having something tactile or the audience.  The previous song was number 19 (which reminded me of a hymnal).

“Four Sisters, Pt. One” has many parts and is really interesting.  It has dynamic sound changes.  And when they harmonize on the “use your voice” section, they sound great.  I like the duo and would enjoy seeing them opening for someone, although I don’t think I like them enough to get a record.

[READ: June 29, 2014] Skim

In Skim we meet Kimberley Keiko Cameron who is called Skim (because she isn’t).  She is a heavyset Japanese woman into the goth scene and a wannabe witch.  Her best friend is Lisa, already a witch and, despite her blonde hair, also kinda gothy.  The witchcraft is wiccan lite.

As the story opens, we see that Skim has broken her arm tripping over the makeshift wiccan altar in her room.  But trumping that is the news that Katie Matthews, a super popular girl in school was dumped by her boyfriend, John.  She has drawn a broken heart on her hand with a Sharpie.  Lisa hates Katie and Skim does too, sort of (she doesn’t really hate anyone), but it is still super annoying.

The other principal character is Ms Archer.  Ms Archer is a hippie with red hair and flowing dresses who teaches drama and English.  Skim likes her because she feel a kindred freakishness. (more…)

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Mariko Tamaki and Steve Rolston–Emiko Superstar (2008) [Minx #11]

Posted in Acrobats, Anarchy, Art, Canadian Content, Corporate skewering, Dance, Diane Cluck, Graphic Novel, Mariko Tamaki, Marriage Trouble, Minx, Steve Rolston, Theater, Tiny Desk Concert on July 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 emikoSOUNDTRACK: DIANE CLUCK-Tiny Desk Concert #343 (March 17, 2014).

cluckI know of Diane Cluck only from one song that was played on an NPR show.  I really liked it (it’s called “Sara” and she plays it third here). Cluck has an unusual yet very compelling voice and a guitar style that is simple yet also unusual.

“Trophies” has a kind of Joni Mitchell feel to it–the whole thing feels kind of sixties, although not in the way she sings or plays, there’s just something about it that skews sixties–perhaps its the unusual vocal melodies in the verses?

For “Grandma Say,” Cluck switches to the piano and plays a bouncey but dark song with a fantastic vocal delivery and rather funny (but meaningful) lines.  For “Sara,” Diane puts some bells on her boots.  And when asked where she got them she sheepishly admits the truth.  “Sara” sounds as good live as it did on record–Cluck’s voice is just as compelling in this setting.

I really enjoyed this brief set.  And I was really struck by Cluck’s appearance.  She is quiet tall and extremely thin, and she seems even more stretched out by her tall hair and long neck.  And yet she seems to be putting no effort into anything that she’s doing.  She makes for as mysterious a figure as you might expect from these songs.   I was as captivated by watching her as I was listening to her.

[READ: June 26, 2014] Emiko Superstar

As part of this recent influx of graphic novels, I also scored Emiko Superstar.  This title looked familiar from the Minx sampler that I have, so I was excited to read it.

The story is by Mariko Tamaki and is about a young Japanese-American girl named Emily.  We meet her family right away–her father is a big burly American guy and her mom is a demure Japanese woman.  She is named for her grandmother Emiko, who was a vivacious and fun dancer (although Emily’s mother now frowns on dancing and public fun).  As might be expected, Emily is a quiet, nerdy girl, hanging around with the nerdiest kids in school.

She doesn’t really mind being a nerd until before one summer break, when all the other nerds plan to go to a convention that will help them land great jobs.  Emily doesn’t know when nerd meant being a corporate sellout, and she refuses to go.  Rather, she decides to stay around town and get a crummy job at a coffee shop.  But after one regrettable (or not) incident, she realizes she may be unemployed for the rest of the summer.

Her mother will have none of that, and finds her a job babysitting most days during the summer.   The family she babysits for seem pretty perfect.  The husband is an athletic happy, loud guy who is proud of his life, his wife, his kid and his house.  The wife is much quieter and seems a bit embarrassed by her husband, but otherwise seems reasonably content with her son and her life.  And there’s the baby, who is drooly but pretty easy to deal with.

One day at the mall, Emily sees a wild-looking girl dancing around, making a racket and advertizing a place called The Factory, where the freaks all go.  Before being dragged away by security, she throws flyers out into the crowd and Emily grabs one.  And Emily feels an electric shock in her body at the thought of going to this place. (more…)

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