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Archive for the ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ Category

Alice Munro–“The Bear Came Over the Mountain” (New Yorker, October 21, 2013–originally published December 27, 1999)

Posted in Alice Munro, Bon Iver, Canadian Content, Humiliation, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sarah Siskind, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on January 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SARAH SISKIND-Tiny Desk Concert #23 (July 27, 2009).

sarahsI don’t know much about Sarah Siskind.  She is a country-ish singer who seems to have gained some fame once Bon Iver started covering her song “Lovin’s for Fools.”  She tells a pretty interesting story about how he came to learn her song (by looping it–thereby missing out on the words to the second chorus.  And yes she did wonder why he didn’t play that chorus).

She plays three songs in this Concert. I like her guitar work, especially on the first song, “Falling Stars.”  But there’s something about either her voice or her delivery that I just don’t really like. I’ve listened a few times ow and I have grown to appreciate her style, but it’s just a matter of personal taste that I don’t really care for her.

Listen for yourself.

[READ: January 17, 2014] “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”

One thing that I like so much about Alice Munro is that her stories are so timeless.  This story was originally published in 1999 (wonder why they didn’t re-publish that first story which I wrote about yesterday), but there are no real indicators of when it was written.  (There are some clues to the time frame of the story, but it was clearly not set in the late 90s).

This is a straightforward but fairly complex story, with a lot of emotional heft.  A married couple, Grant and Fiona, have been together for a long time.  Fiona had always written notes to herself, but Grant sensed recently that the notes were becoming somewhat alarming.  Instead of books to read or appointments to keep, she was writing “cutlery” on the kitchen drawers. Then she started forgetting normal things–like how to drive home or that something which she thought had happened last year had actually happened 12 years ago. Not major problems, but causes for concern.

And so, Fiona was sent, at first temporarily, to Meadowlake.  And Grant was not to show up for the first month–they found that patients settled in better if they were not reminded of their house and old life.  After a month of wondering about her and thinking about her, Grant goes to Meadowlake, excited to see Fiona.  But when he arrives she is not in her room–the touching reuniting scene will not be enacted as he pictured.  And the nurse seems rather impatient with him when he asks where she is. (more…)

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Nadia Bozak–“Greener Grass” (The Walrus, January/February 2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Dave Douglas Brass Ecstasy, Douglas Coupland, Nadia Bozak, Parenting, Rufus Wainwright, Short Story, The Walrus, Tiny Desk Concert on January 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

2014-01SOUNDTRACK: THE DAVE DOUGLAS BRASS ECSTASY-Tiny Desk Concert #22 (July 20, 2009).

ddThis is the first jazz Tiny Desk Concert.  I imagine it was very loud in there!

So the Brass Ecstasy is a five piece band with trumpet, tuba, french horn and trombone (and drums).  They play three songs: “Spirit Moves” and “Twilight of the Dogs” two compositions by Douglas (who plays trumpet) and “This Love Affair” a Rufus Wainwright song!

The originals are jazzy and fun with a kind of old school feel.  And “Twilight of the Dogs” is even political (and yet instrumental).  I don’t know the Rufus Wainwright song, so i don’t know how well they do it, but i never would have guessed it was one of his.

The blurb says that the trombonist left the contents of his spit valve under Bob’s desk.  Ew.

To see everything (but the spit valve) click here.

[READ: January 18, 2014] “Greener Grass”

This is a story about Canadian hippie parents, which I rather liked.

The daughter of the story is named Shell.  Shell and her parents are house hunting–they currently live in a rental and want to get a proper house–for one where they can have an art studio and a garden.  So when they see an interesting house, they stop the Dodge Dart and decide to investigate the place.

They knock on the door and a boy answers.  He is drinking Mountain Dew and has a harelip.  He calls out “Gare” and a man who Shell calls “Shark Nose” appears. Shark Nose tells them that the house is solid and shows Shell’s dad around.  He talks about all the good things in the house and the sad fact that the basement is always damp (the foster kids all have asthma, so they can’t really stay down there).  [Interestingly, between this and Douglas Coupland’s Eleanor Rigby, that’s two stories that are critical of the Canadian foster system in the 1970s].

Even though the dad is a hippie (big of beard and seeking places to garden), he is no fool.  And he climbs up on the roof.  He also gets all of the dogs (who suddenly start barking) to silence with a shrill whistle.  But the story really focuses on Shell and the little boy. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Eleanor Rigby (2004)

Posted in Babies, Bill Callahan, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Parenting, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Religion, Short Books, Smog, The Beatles, Tiny Desk Concert, Virginity (Loss of), Wax Fang on January 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

eleanorSOUNDTRACK: BILL CALLAHAN-Tiny Desk Concert #21 (July 13, 2009).

billcBill Callahan (formerly known as Smog) plays beautiful slow ballads.  He has a deep, calming, gorgeous voice.  And his songs have a very traditional acoustic feel (even when he plays electric guitar).  He is excellent at what he does.

But I’m afraid I just don’t really like his style all that much.  I can absolutely appreciate why he is so well-regarded, because even as I’m listening to this Tiny Desk set I keep thinking how good everything he is doing is.  Man, his voice is so interesting, and his music is so pretty (the strings add a very nice touch).

But I just can’t imagine myself ever choosing to listen to his album.

In fairness, a song on a mix tape would probably be awesome, and I did enjoy the three songs here: “Jim Cain,” “Rococo Zephyr” (great title, and my favorite of the three) and “Too Many Birds.”  And I can imagine if I was ever on a mellow music kick that this would be where I’d start.  So if you enjoy pretty, mellow music done incredibly well, Bill Callahan is definitely your guy.  I feel like he is not as well-known as he ought to be, so check him out.

[READ: January 23, 2014] Eleanor Rigby

Completing three Douglas Coupland novels in two weeks may seem daunting, and it is especially so when the books are as dark as these have been.  (With Coupland’s follow up book, JPod, he would go in a different direction and kind of break the darkness somewhat.  And the new book which just came out seems like it is more humorous than dark).  This book is perhaps the most insular of his career and perhaps the most insular book I’ve read.  The title is puzzling (and is ultimately revealed), although Coupland says that he was inspired by wondering what happened to Eleanor Rigby after the (Beatles, duh) song was over.

So in this story, the main character is named Liz Dunn.  Liz is a blank.  She claims that she is so dull that if she were an extra in movies, she would be asked to leave the scene because she is too devoid of character to even be an extra.  (Actually, Liz lays the self-pity on a little too thickly throughout the book–we got the point).  Liz has a brother, who is an accomplished world traveller, and a sister who lives nearby and pops in to check on her once in a while.  Both are married and have their lives together, unlike Liz who lives by herself in a room with no personality at all.

Liz’ sister is beautiful and got up to all kinds of trouble in school and William has always been successful, but Liz was…nothing.  She didn’t like to do much.  And she pretty much holds herself up as the antithesis of her sister.  She watches movies all the time in her living room. And then she goes to sleep.  She works at a well paying but dull job and she has saved a ton of money because she never spends it on anything.

As the story starts, she is getting wisdom teeth out. She takes a week off from work, but he boss (the Dwarf Whom I Report To) calls to say that someone will bring some work over to keep her busy.  She has bought a bunch of tear jerker movies in hopes of riding out the painkillers with them.  And then she gets a phone call.  A man named Jeremy has her name on his medic alert bracelet and he is in the hospital.

Liz doesn’t know who he is, but then takes a guess and goes to see him in the hospital.  And it turns out to be…her son. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Hey Nostradamus! (2003)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Julie Doiron, Nostalgia, Parenting, Religion, Sex, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on January 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

heynosSOUNDTRACK: JULIE DOIRON-Tiny Desk Concert #20 (July 6, 2009).

julieI don’t know Julie Doiron exactly–her name sounds familiar, and I know the band Eric’s Trip (she was the bassist), but I don’t really recognize her.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed her Tiny Desk Concert.  Unlike most of the musicians, she busts out an electric guitar, and although it’s quiet, there’s some good buzzy distortion on it, especially in the first song “Heavy Snow.”  And it sounds good with her voice, which is powerful, even if she does seem nervous.

On “Ce Charmant Coeur” she sings in French and then messes up when she admits she’s thinking of other things and is distracted by the intimacy of the setting.  Bob and company calm her by saying that she is sweating less than Tom Jones did (and there’s very funny joke about her breasts popping out (they don’t)).

She plays “Tailor.” It seems like she tried earlier and stopped half way through and is now trying again (the Concert itself starts midway through, so I assume that’s what was cut off).  It’s a pretty, mellow song (very different sounding from “Heavy Snow”).

For the last song she plays “Consolation Prize” which she says is unlike any she’d written before.  There’s a chaotic section in the middle which they agree we can just imagine because shes not going to play it in this setting.  The blurb with the show says that she normally rocks out pretty hard–something that I’d like to see.

In looking up Doiron’s past she was on Kill Rock Stars and Sub Pop, so I must have seen her name a lot back in the day.  I now see she has recorded with all kinds of bands that I like, and I’m curious to hear her more rocking edge (especially since she is so polite and sweet and nervous here).

Check it out here.

[READ: January 11, 2014] Hey Nostradamus!

After finishing the exciting All Families are Psychotic I moved on to his novel with my least favorite title and with a horrendous cover.  You’d think that I would remember these books but I had no memory of this one either, and I’m fairly certain I read it within the last ten years.

Coupland must have been in a very dark place with this book as well.

There are four sections, each from a different person’s point of view.  This technique of having a person tell his or her story is something Coupland does very well in all of his works–he loves to tell stories about telling stories.

But the darkness about the book is that it is set in a school just as three student gunman come in and shoot up the cafeteria, killing dozens of students, including the first narrator, Cheryl.  This was written with the Columbine shootings in mind, although it has nothing specifically to do with Columbine.

In Part 1, Cheryl has already been killed as she is relating this story to us.  She tells us about herself and her decision to join Youth Alive! a religious group in school.  She and her friends in the group are very moral and are quite clique-y (and they are not widely liked).

The latest thing in Cheryl’s life which has her preoccupied and which has her Youth Alive! group very upset is that she has been spending a lot of unchaperoned time with Jason.  Everyone knew they were dating, but it seems to have gone further now.  And Cheryl explains to us (but not them) that she and Jason have started having sex.  But not until after they rushed off to Vegas and were quickie-married (which no one knows, not even their parents). (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–All Families Are Psychotic (2001)

Posted in Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Diff'rent Strokes, Disease, Douglas Coupland, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Maria Taylor, Marriage Trouble, NASA, Nostalgia, Outer Space, Parenting, Religion, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel, Violence on January 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

familiesSOUNDTRACK: MARIA TAYLOR-Tiny Desk Concert #19 (June 29, 2009).

mariaI’d never heard of Maria Taylor before this Tiny Desk Concert.  She was part of the duo Azure Ray (who I also don’t know).  Then she went solo and as of this recording has released three albums.

Taylor has a pleasant voice (she reminds me of a number of different Lilith Fair singers, although I can’t pinpoint who specifically), but it’s not especially remarkable.  The first song “Ladyluck” I found to be nice.  The second song “Time Lapse Lifeline” fared better–the guitar melody was a little stronger, and the harmonies really helped.

The final track, “Clean Getaway” is another pretty gentle ballad (the two guitars really help add texture to all of these songs).  Although even the end seemed to just stop without actually ending.

I didn’t find Maria Taylor to be terribly memorable.  However, the Tiny Desk setting seems to be the best way to hear Taylor as her voice is well suited for an intimate location.

[READ: January 17, 2014] All Families Are Psychotic

I saw recently that Douglas Coupland had a new book coming out in 2014.  And I also knew that I had three of his older novels to re-read, so I decided to make this the Winter of Douglas Coupland and read all three of those books before his new one came out.  Then I got to work and saw his new book on top of a pile of newly delivered titles.  Sigh.

Well, there was still no reason I couldn’t read the other three in a row, possibly even before anyone wanted his new book.  So, off I went.  And indeed, I finished this book on our little vacation.  And even though I’m fairly certain I’ve read it before (it came out just before or after 9/11/01, gasp) I didn’t remember a thing about it.

This book has a title that I’m mixed about.  It’s a great sentence, but I’m not sure it’s a great title.  And although someone speaks the title in the book, it doesn’t really explain the book very well.

In fact it’s pretty hard to explain the book quickly. (more…)

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César Aira–The Hare (1991) [translated 1998]

Posted in César Aira, Funny (ha ha), Nick Caistor, Romance, Short Books, Supernatural, Surreal, The Avett Brothers, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, Violence, Yuck! on January 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hare1SOUNDTRACK: THE AVETT BROTHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #18 (June 22, 2009).

avettI have recently become a fan of The Avett Brothers.  Indeed, my first review of one of their songs was very mixed.  But I have come around.  And this Tiny Desk show is a great example of the power they have in a live setting–especially one as personal as this.

For this set the two brothers (Seth on guitar and Scott on banjo) play a song from their then new album (the beautiful “Laundry Room” complete with amazing harmonies and beautiful cello) I & Love & You.  It builds slowly but after about two minutes, it turns into a big (upright bass is included, too) catchy song.  And in the last minute it becomes a huge stompin’ track (predating those other banjo bands by a few years).

Scott’s voice is really powerful (Bob Boilen asks if he swallowed an amplifier).

The second song is a the time not released yet, “Down With the Shine” (they joke that they’re then going to play a song they haven’t written yet).  It’s full of phenomenal harmonies.  And the commentary afterward about traveling with the brothers is very funny.

The final track goes back to their previous EP and is called “Bella Donna,” a pretty ballad sung by Seth–he seems to do the more mellow tracks.  It’s a pretty ending to this all too short Tiny Desk Concert.

Watch it here.

[READ: January 10, 2014] The Hare

The Hare was the first of Aira’s books to be translated into English (back in 1998 with this simply gawdawful cover).  It has recently been republished by New Directions Press with a far more tasteful cover.  The translator, Nick Caistor, is the same although I noticed in an online excerpt that while the English language is the same, the New Directions version has translated a Spanish newspaper (El Grito) into English (The Crap) when it wasn’t translated in the earlier version.  But aside from that, it all appears to be the same.

I had been putting off reading this book because it is his largest book (most of Aira’s books are barely over 100 pages, while this one is almost 250) and I’d also read some lukewarm reviews of the book, so I saved it for last.  Of course, now he has a newly translated book out, so I decided it was time to read The Hare.

Not the best attitude for a book an it definitely impacted my early reading of the story.  And I’ll sum up that impact as saying I thought that the book itself was strangely flat but that the ending was fantastic.  Had I been more open t0 the absurdity I think I would have enjoyed the whole thing a lot more. (more…)

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Ed Ruscha–“Pure Bleach” (New Yorker, October 14, 2013)

Posted in Ed Ruscha, Essays, Francisco Tarrega, Jason Vieaux, Johann Sebastian Bach, Maximo Diego Pujol, New Yorker, Tiny Desk Concert, Work on January 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_10_14_13McCall.inddSOUNDTRACK: JASON VIEAUX-Tiny Desk Concert #17 (June 15, 2009).

viaeuxJason Vieaux is the first to break the mold of folk singers playing the Tiny Desk.  Vieaux is a classical guitarist.  I don’t know a lot about classical guitar, but when it’s good I know it’s gorgeous.  And man, is this gorgeous.

I don’t know anything about Vieaux, but in the little blurb, they say that in 2002 they invited him to spend a week as a young-artist-in-residence on their classical-music program Performance Today.

I would have been grossed out by his long fingernail if they hadn’t pointed out that he glues a slice of a ping-pong ball to the underside of his right thumbnail as a kind of extended, “press-on nail” guitar pick.

He plays 3 songs and they are all simply stunning.

Bach: Prelude (from Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998)

Maximo Diego Pujol: Candombe en Mi

Francisco Tarrega: Capricho Arabe

You can visit the NPR site to hear about the ping pong ball thing, and you can watch the video below.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Pure Bleach”

This New Yorker has several small essays about work.  They are primarily from people who I wasn’t familiar with–only Amy Poehler saved the five from being unread.  When after reading all of them I enjoyed them enough to include them all here.

The pieces are labelled under “Work for Hire” and each talks about a humiliating job.

This final installment was the shortest.  Ruscha is an artist, whose name sounds familiar to me–he worked in pop art. His lame job was working in a laundromat “mixing bleach and water together in brown glass bottles for the customers to use”  If you didn’t know better you would say, that sounds like an old job, and you’d be right–that job existed in 1951.  Geez.  He made 50 cents an hour. (more…)

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Norman Rush–“Labors” (New Yorker, October 14, 2013)

Posted in Essays, Great Lake Swimmers, New Yorker, Norman Rush, Tiny Desk Concert, Work on January 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_10_14_13McCall.inddSOUNDTRACK: GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS-Tiny Desk Concert #16 (June 8, 2009).

swimmI knew of the Great Lake Swimmers from NPR, but only a song or two.  I found them to be pretty but a little too mellow for my liking.  In this Tiny Desk Concert, Great Lake Swimmer’s vocalist Tony Dekker stops by for a solo acoustic set.  His voice is delicate sounding and yet is powerful in its own way.

He plays three songs, the first two “Everything Is Moving So Fast” and “Pulling on a Line” both come from Great Lake Swimmers’ then recent album, Lost Channels.  Both Bob and Robin compliment his voice, which is really something (he says he grew comfortable with it about a year ago).   And there’s something about the way he sings that really draws you in here.

He is one of the first performers who talks about working in an office in Toronto. (He liked it and says people brought in guitars from time to time).

Then Bob mentions the “yelp machine”–the harmonica stand that Tony pulls out.  Bob says when a guitarist takes it out it makes fans go crazy, but Tony says that he finds it the banjo that makes people go nuts.  The final song, “Various Stages” features the harmonica, which although he says is easy for anyone to play, sure sounds good here.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Labors”

This New Yorker has several small essays about work.  They are primarily from people who I wasn’t familiar with–only Amy Poehler saved the five from being unread.  When after reading all of them I enjoyed them enough to include them all here.

The pieces are labelled under “Work for Hire” and each talks about a humiliating job.

Rush is an author.  He has the longest article in this series (four whole columns!)  Rush talks about a number of jobs that he had over the years.  But mostly he says he chose jobs that would offer him free time enough to write.  Like picking cherries (?). (more…)

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Amy Poehler–“Take Your Licks” (New Yorker, October 14, 2013)

Posted in Amy Poehler, Andrew Bird, Benjy Ferree, Essays, Ice Cream, New Yorker, Summer, Tiny Desk Concert, Work, Yuck! on January 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_10_14_13McCall.inddSOUNDTRACK: BENJY FERREE-Tiny Desk Concert #15 (May 29, 2009).

benjyI had never heard of Benjy Feree before this Tiny Desk Concert, and I have still never heard of him.  I don’t know a thing about him, and I kind of like that.  Where did they find him?  They seem to know him very well.  (He grew up locally to D.C., so I guess that’s it).

He plays four songs and he is very funny.

“I Get No Love” opens with Benjy whistling and playing a guitar in a Spanish style (not fingerpicking but that fast strumming style).  But when the song proper begins, it’s a bouncy acoustic song.  Benjy has a nice voice.  He also encourages everyone to get out their pens a make a beat.  The whistling is truly amazing. It’s strong and powerful and very catchy.

In the second song, “Fear,” Benjy pulls out a great falsetto—it’s a wonderful combination of his regular powerful voice and some cool high notes too.  Then he tells the story of working in an office.  He says his boss looked like Clarence Clemmons.  It’s a very funny story.

Then he starts talking to the “chat room.”  He messes up the tuning of his third song, “When You’re 16.”  But he pulls through with a very solid acoustic song with more good whistling.  After the song he says he’d like to take lessons from Andrew Bird in whistling.  And then he curses which leads to a lengthy and funny story about going to school at a Baptist Church.

“The Grips” is the final song, it’s a slower, very nice song, which really shows his range.

He is a charming and very funny and the end (the David Letterman joke) is especially amusing.  And I have to say that I thought his hair looked totally fake and then I read that it was a wig.  Ha.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Take Your Licks”

This New Yorker has several small essays about work.  They are primarily from people who I wasn’t familiar with–only Amy Poehler saved the five from being unread.  When after reading all of them I enjoyed them enough to include them all here.

The pieces are labelled under “Work for Hire” and each talks about a humiliating job.

So Poehler’s essay is all about working at an ice cream shoppe as a young girl–a typical summer job.  I’ve often seen young girls working in ice cream shoppes for summer jobs and I always imagined that they would get the hugest arm muscles from scooping out in those awkwardly deep freezers.  But Poehler focuses more on the cleaning–every night anything that wasn’t nailed down got cleaned.  Ugh. (more…)

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Nicole Holofcenter–“Caught Napping” (New Yorker, October 14, 2013)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Enough Said, Essays, Horse Feathers, James Gandolfini, Jeremy Denk, New Yorker, Nicole Holofcenter, Tiny Desk Concert, Walking and Talking, Work on January 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_10_14_13McCall.inddSOUNDTRACK: HORSE FEATHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #14 (May 8, 2009).

horseI’d never heard of Horse Feathers before this Tiny Desk Concert.  Justin Ringle is the lead singer and guitarist of the band (which in this incarnation includes a violin and cello).  Ringle’s voice is soft and kind of high-pitched.  They seem very well suited to the Tiny Desk, (and are in stark contrast to Tom Jones!).

They play three songs, “Working Poor,” and “Curs in the Weeds” are beautiful with the wonderful strings accenting his voice and guitar.

In their interview they talk a little about their instruments (all of which are very old!).  Indeed the guitar is old, but the violin (one of only 4 made) is even older and the cello is nearly 100 years old.  Very impressive.

For the final song, “Heathen’s Kiss, ” the violinist busts out singing saw.  It’s awesome.

I really enjoyed this simple and beautiful set.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Caught Napping”

This New Yorker has several small essays about work.  They are primarily from people who I wasn’t familiar with–only Amy Poehler saved the five from being unread.  When after reading all of them I enjoyed them enough to include them all here.

The pieces are labelled under “Work for Hire” and each talks about a humiliating job.

Nicole Holofcenter is a filmmaker.  She has directed a number of films that I have liked (including Walking and Talking) and most recently James Gandolfini’s last movie (which I haven’t seen), Enough Said.

In this essay she talks about a job working for “Mr. Stone” (which I’m not sure if we’re supposed to assume is Oliver Stone or not).  At any rate the job paid a fortune at the time ($500/wk) and all she had to do was answer the phone. (more…)

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