SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Wood (1995).
Moxy Früvous is a band that can totally be judged by their covers. Their first album had a cartoon animal dog thingy, and the disc was whimsical and fun. Wood, their second disc shows the quartet in an autumnal scene covered in sweaters. And the content is autumnal and snug. There’s very little whimsy on the disc. It’s as if they fully matured in two short years.
I would say that this is my least favorite of the MF discs. However, it also contains my all-time favorite MF song: “Fly” so I can’t dismiss it entirely.
In fact, the first 5 or so songs are all really enjoyable. I find myself singing “horseshoes have got to be tossed” (from “Horsehoes”) all the time for some reason. And then we get “Fly.” It starts out simply enough with an acoustic guitar, but as it builds and the harmonies come in, “we’ll take a last flight you and I….Hold on tight” it’s amazing every time.
“Present Tense Tureen” is similar to the Bargainville style of wit, although it is banjo infused folk rather than pop. And “Poor Mary Lane” has a Beatlesque stomp going on.
From there the album sort of drifts into pretty, fairly undistinguished folk songs. “Nuits in Rêve” is a 6 minute folk ballad in French. It’s very pretty, although I don’t know what it’s about. Finally, the last song “Sad Today” wakes the disc up somewhat, as it feels likes something of a drunken shanty. There’s also a bonus track called “Organ Grinder” (I suppose) that is the funnest, craziest thing on the disc and feels like pure insanity compared to the rest. It’s a big shit-stompin’ song.
So as I say, the disc is quite different from the first. It even feels a little claustrophobic in the production which is something I don’t really notice. I’m not sure why the band left out their fun songs, maybe so they wouldn’t be pegged a novelty act, but they are sorely missed.
(It’s also likely why they release b shortly afterward).
[READ: June 24, 2009] “The Nerve”
This is the second short story in The Walrus‘ Short Story issue. This one is labeled as Romance genre, and yet it also transcends the genre and is more about a man falling in love than any of the other romance tropes. (more…)
I began my 
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Pleased to Meet Me (1987).
My friend Al introduced me to the Replacements with this disc way back in 1987. He was so in love with the song “Alex Chilton” that he must have played it all summer. And for me, this album is the soundtrack to our summer house at LBI (along with the Surf Punks’ My Beach). As such, this is my favorite Replacements album. Whether or not I would feel that way objectively, I can’t say. But to me this disc is perfect, even without Bob Stinson (blasphemy I know!)
This is a periodical I haven’t mentioned before. Wholphin is a “DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films.” So yes, the reason I hadn’t mentioned it is because it is a DVD and not a book. However, as I have been watching Vols 1-8 over the last few months, I have noticed that a few writerly names keep cropping up in the credits. Plus, it’s got that whole McSweeney’s connection.
film possibly ever by Scott Prendergast called “The Delicious” which you can watch, and I encourage you to, 
SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-The Hazards of Love (2009).
I first played this disc a few times without really listening to it, just to get a feel for it. And I was surprised by how heavy it sounded. The harshest moments of the disc really stood out to me, and I was quite surprised, as I think of the Decemberists as more folky than this.
I first heard about this magazine from my friend Ailish’s then-boyfriend, Dave (this was sometime in 1993, I would guess). Dave fancied himself an artiste: he typed his novel on a portable Underwood, loved Henry Miller and read 
SOUNDTRACK: WRSU 89.7 FM.
Coming straight out of Rutgers University in New Brunswick (my grad school alma mater), this was the first station that I happened upon while I was scanning the lower numbers on the radio station.
I hadn’t heard of this book, although actually I’m sure I had–but I ignored it. Roy Blount Jr is on 
This album seems to get overshadowed by the anti-George Bush track “Bu$hleaguer.” Evidently many people were turned off by this track, and that may have had an impact on sales. Of course, I’m sure many other people were introduced to the band by this song, too. Regardless, the rest of the album shouldn’t be judged by this track, as it is rather unusual.
SOUNDTRACK: BILLY IDOL
Billy Idol plagues my existence. Ever since he popped up on the scene (my first exposure was “White Wedding”) I thought he was kind of goofy. He has some kind of claim to cred and fame from being in Generation X, and yet I have never heard a song by Generation X and I never hear them mentioned anywhere except as being the band that spawned Billy Idol.
I Just Read About That... 