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Clifford Chase–Winkie (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Clifford Chase, Dystopia, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Meta, Nirvana, Political Humor, Pregnancy, Prison, Racism, Religion, Short Books, Soiled Underpants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, The Replacements, Threats, War, WMDs on January 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

winkieSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Oh My Gawd!!!..The Flaming Lips (1987).

gawd1The cover of this disc makes a statement.  And it should tell you everything you need to know about the music inside.  It’s got skulls and psychedelic colors and Oh My Gawd!!!  And yet, it doesn’t, exactly.  It’s not quite as out there as the cover might make you think.

Because it’s funny how much this disc’s first song sounds like the Replacements (except where he starts singing about his brains falling out and everything exploding…not quite ‘Mats material).  But Wayne sounds like early, sloppy Paul Westerberg, and the riffs are not too far off from some of the early ‘Mats records.

Even the wonderfully titled 9 minute epic  “One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Afternoon” isn’t quite as much of a freak out as you might expect.  In fact, the early instrumental part is one of the prettiest melodies they’ve done.  It is particularly interesting given its sparse instrumentation.   The song does eventually drift back into earlier Pink Floyd territory (“Astronomy Domine” etc). But it’s “The Ceiling is Bendin'” that is the freak out you’re looking for, with a fun drum fading and the chaos.  “Maximum Dream for Evil Kenevil” on the other hand is a noisy mess (a fun noisy mess, but a noisy mess nonetheless).

It’s clear that they’re doing some good experimentation with audio effects.  And yet “Can’t Exist” is a delicate little song with just a light touch of feedback.

The first half of “Prescription: Love” is a rocking instrumental that would not sound out of place as a Nirvana B-side (but since it came before Nirvana, let’s say maybe on an SST Records track.  The second half returns to the garage rocking sound (with some funky deep vocals dubbed on…the first of many experiments with voice on future albums).

“Ode to C.C., Pt. 2” feels like it’s going to take of in an explosion but never does. But it has the excellent line “Hell’s got all the good bands anyway.”  “Can’t Stop the Spring” is another fantastic riff rocking song, and it starts and end with a classical music sample.  [Which I can’t place right now, sadly].

The disc ends with “Love Your Brain,” a 7 minute piano workout –which ultimately ends in the destruction of the room.  It sounds like every instrument in the place is destroyed.

So this disc expands the sonic weirdness of the Flaming Lips’ first disc, and it also showcases their growth as musicians.  It’s not a brilliant album by any means although it is quite good.  The most interesting thing is seeing how much they are experimenting with sounds now, and how it will pay off for them later on.

[READ: Late 2006 & December 2008] Winkie

I read this book two years ago, and my memory of it is not that great.  I’m only including it because I really enjoyed it at the time, and would like to make some record of having read it.

UPDATE: I have decided to re-read this book while on P breaks at work.  I am now utterly unsure whether or not I read the book fully last time.  I have just finished it again, and I was totally surprised by so many things (although one or two things did trigger my memory) that I really had to wonder if I finished it.

So, the story is about a stuffed bear named Winkie.  Winkie was a beloved toy of the Chase family and most recently of Clifford Chase [see author’s name now].  As the story opens, Winkie, the stuffed bear, is being tackled by the FBI as they arrest him for terrorist activities.  [You can re-read that sentence to see if your brain digested it.] (more…)

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Joshua Ferris–Then We Came to the End

Posted in Books about writers, Cancer as plot device, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Marriage Trouble, Michael Nyman, Pregnancy, Q, Sex, Smarty Pants, Technology, The Beach Boys, The Divine Comedy, Threats, Violence on December 12, 2008| Leave a Comment »

thenwecameSOUNDTRACK: THE DIVINE COMEDY-Liberation (1993).

libeartiuonThis is considered by many to be the “first” Divine Comedy album, even though Neil Hannon released a previous album under the name Divine Comedy (Fanfare for the Comic Muse).  He disowned that album, but, as you do, he reissued it several years later after much demand.

This is the second Divine Comedy album that I bought (after Promenade). And so, because I just reviewed Promenade, this review works as something of a comparison, which is of course, unfair, as Promenade should be compared to this, but so be it.

What I was most struck with, when listening to this disc after Promenade is how, even though the album covers are designed similarly, and everything about the discs suggests they should be similar, just how dissimilar the music is.  Not in a global “who is this band?” sense, but just in the particulars of the orchestration.

With Liberation, there’s no Michael Nyman influence.  Rather, you get some beautifully written orchestral pop music.  Although the orchestra is not terribly conventional: with harpsichord and organ being among the top instruments heard.

In a comparison to Promenade, Liberation is less thematically consistent but has more singles to offer.  “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (the title of an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, so the literate songwriting is clearly in evidence) is a wonderful pop song.  As is “The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count,” (“Even when I get hay fever I find, I may sneeze, but I don’t really mind… I’m in love with the summertime!”) the catchiest ode to summer this side of the Beach Boys.  “Your Daddy’s Car” speeds along on plucky strings and is just so happy, even when they crash the car into a tree.  “Europop” is a fantastic dressing down of Europop songs while still being hugely catchy.

Because I really enjoy Promenade (and Casanova) I tend to overlook this disc, but really it is just as good, and in some cases better than those two.  An air of pastoral glee pervades the record making it a real joy to listen to.  Especially in the summer.

[READ: December 8, 2008] Then We Came to the End

This book has the great distinction of being written in the first person plural (the narrator is “we,” for those of you who don’t remember eighth grade grammar).  This, of course, brings the reader into the story almost against his or her will.   Really, though, as you read it, you don’t think of yourself as being in the book, but rather, that the company that the unnamed narrators work for is something of a collective mentality.  And so it is.

The narrators work at an unnamed advertising agency in Chicago.  The time frame is the late 1990’s to early 2001 and there are lots and lots of layoffs.  Any time someone is laid off, “we” say they are “walking Spanish down the hall” (from a Tom Waits song).  And slowly they watch as one by one, staff are let go. (more…)

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Mary Gaitskill–“Don’t Cry” (New Yorker, June 9 & June 16, 2008)

Posted in Canadian Music, Chuck, Mary Gaitskill, Missile Command, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Rush, Short Story on November 12, 2008| 4 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Moving Pictures (1980).

movingpicturesThe other night on the show Chuck, Rush was described as “the music of the universe” (which enabled our hero to defeat Missile Command and get secret codes–thereby saving the lives of millions.  I have taken this as a sign that geeks have totally taken over the world.  They played “Tom Sawyer” 3 times during the show.  It was pretty awesome.  And my 13 year-old self would have been so excited, it might have been too much for me.

Since about 8th grade, I’ve been a huge Rush fan. And, yes, I do play bass guitar, thank you for asking.  I’m still a fan, although not nearly as rabid as I was back in the day.  Nevertheless, it’s pretty exciting to see these guys making inroads into pop culture, and it has only taken some thirty-four years after their first record.

Having said that, everyone knows Side A of this record (“Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta”, “YYZ” and “Limelight”).  So, I’m not even going to mention it.  Rather, I’ll focus on Side B (how quaint am I with this terminology?).  I think the overexposure of Side A led me to really investigate Side B.  And, for my money, Side B is the more enjoyable side.

“The Camera Eye” starts it out with a wondrous eleven-minute epic.  It has different sections, it has repeating motifs, and it’s probably the most overlooked song in their catalog (their other epic tracks were usually A sides which meant more notice).  It doesn’t have a lot of the drama of Rush’ other ten-minute-plus songs, rather, it’s a meditative look at life in the city.  And yet, all of the parts are essential, with a few minutes of little bits and pieces throughout the track.  And then suddenly you’re eight or so minutes in and totally hooked.  I’ve always has a soft spot for this song.

“Witch Hunt” has such a fantastic drum opening.  My friend Joe was the drummer with whom I jammed to Rush back in the day.  Now, no kidding, Neil Peart is an amazing drummer, but sometimes you have to really listen to a song through the ears of a drummer to hear how amazing he is.  The opening drum motif is so complex, it’s amazing that one man could play it.  And then he throws in a cowbell to boot!  It also has some fantastic lyrics that I find myself singing a lot lately when I think of rabid right-wingers: “Confident their ways are best. The righteous rise with burning eyes, of hatred and ill-will….”  “Those who know what’s best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves….””Ignorance & prejudice and fear walk hand in hand….”

As “Witch Hunt” has a crazy opening drum motif, “Vital Signs” has a great guitar intro.  The guitar chords aren’t terribly complex, but Alex Lifeson plays the chords in a different pattern during alternate lines.  Boy is that fun to play.  This also features one of the great early keyboard workouts for Geddy Lee.  The keyboard riff in “Tom Sawyer” is pretty memorable, but in “Vital Signs” it’s intense.  The two main sections of the song don’t seem like they should fit together, but they segue nicely with drum fills and a smooth and fun bass solo.

It was in listening to the the Snakes and Arrows live CD recently that I was reminded how much I love “Witch Hunt” and what a great song it is.  My only regret is that I never got to see that one live.

[READ: October 31, 2008] “Don’t Cry”

I was introduced to Mary Gaitskill’s writing about a decade ago.  I really liked her short stories.  It’s been a while since I’ve read her work, and I basically forgot what her main themes were.  So it surprised me to find that this story was set in Ethiopia. (more…)

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Sarah Shun-Lein Bynum–“Yurt” (New Yorker, July 21, 2008)

Posted in Funny (strange), King's X, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Sarah Shun-lein Bynum, Set at School on September 22, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X: Dogman (1994).

Dogman follows up King’s X with, to my mind, a much more satisfying collection.  It starts of with the fantastic “Dogman,” a great chance for Doug to show off his vocal range.  “Shoes” has some great gospelish harmonies that lead to a wonderfully chunky riff.  And “Pretend” sounds about as close to early King’s X as this newish King’s X gets: soaring harmonies and a great guitar line.  “Black the Sky” brings back some of those dissonant chords that Ty does so well and it all wraps up in a gorgeous, heavy chorus.  And a song like “Sunshine Rain” has the effect of sounding like the older King’s X harmonies with a difference: it’s more of a minor key harmony.  It’s really beautiful.

The rest of the album is a diverse selection of heavy, heavy rockers (“Complain” and “Human Behavior” which is just heavy and brutal and yet still catchy) and complex, more mellow tunes “Flies and Blue Skies” and “Cigarettes”).  The seriously heavy “Go to Hell” is possibly the most psycho (as opposed to psychedelic)  thing the band has done, but it only lasts for 51 seconds.

This is a fantastic album, and it may be why I like King’s X a little bit less.

[READ: September 8, 2008] “Yurt”

Every time I see this author’s name I think to myself, her name gets harder to say as you go along.  That’s not really relevant but it makes me smile.

Anyhow, this story intrigued me because it was about middle school teachers. (more…)

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Joshua Ferris–“The Dinner Party” (New Yorker, August 11 & 18, 2008)

Posted in Edward Albee, Eyes Wide Shut, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, King's X, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Religion, Short Story on September 13, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KINGS’S X: Faith Hope Love (1990).

When Faith Hope Love came out, I was once again blown away by King’s X.  This album actually diverts quite a bit from the heaviness of the previous two albums.  This is their most prog rock sounding release, introducing all kinds of new instrumentation, including Doug’s by now standard 12 string bass guitar (I got to try one of these at Sam Ash a few years back and it sounds amazing).

Overall this album plays with the softer side of King’s X (although this is contrasted by “Moanjam” a six- minute, guitar-wailing freakout, and the great shouting sing along “We Are Finding Who We Are” showing that the band hasn’t lost their hard edge even if they ware willing to play with different textures).  But the diversity of sounds on the record is what really impresses.  You get a song like “The Fine Art of Friendship” which has so many layers of things going on, it’s hard to absorb on the first listen.

I’ve been reading some different reviews of this album, and it’s amazing how people single out songs as being particularly religious.  “Six Broken Soldiers” is mentioned as being Christian.  Now here’s the lyrics, I personally don’t even know what they mean, much less whether they are Christian

i don’t care if you’re sick
what can i possibly do with an American library
and a contract on you
I’ve got six broken soldiers in the trunk of my car
two of them speak; four go to bars
rods in the closet a six shooter in hand
a caged up gorilla and three local bands
fluently the parrot speaks
six languages not known to men
a sixpence and a quarter
as the audience he scan.

But aside from that, the album isn’t preachy about its beliefs, and frankly, it’s easy enough to forget what the songs are about, since the melodies are so infectious.  And, I didn’t even mention one of the greatest alt-rock singles of the 1990s: “It’s Love.”  It’s an amazingly catchy and infectiously happy song.  The harmonies are just stellar.

This is the last King’s X album to dabble in these prog-stylings.  The next bunch are really heavy affairs, quite a departure from this one.

[READ: September 07, 2008] “The Dinner Party”

I enjoyed this story very much.  It felt like a contemporary update of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with a twist. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–Slam (2007)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Marriage Trouble, Nick Hornby, Pregnancy, R.E.M., Set at School, Skateboarding, The Believer, Tony Hawk, U2, YA Books on August 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: REM-Accelerate (2008).

I was thinking about the parallel careers of R.E.M. and U2 the other day.  The both started at around the same time: R.E.M. on an indie label and U2 on a major.  R.E.M. was a college band loved by critics but not really a big seller.  U2 had some huge hits in their early days and slowly grew to be college darlings too.  Then in 1987, they both hit it big time: R.E.M.’s Document had “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and “One I Love” and of course, U2’s The Joshua Tree was the hugest album in the world.

R.E.M. and U2 became the hugest bands of the 1990s, selling millions of copies of records, becoming the biggest most famous people in the world (well, the singers did anyhow).  And then in the 2000’s, something happened.  U2 became even bigger and R.E.M. sort of drifted.  And their records got critically panned.  Even if they had a hit or two, overall the records received very bad reviews.

I didn’t even bother picking up R.E.M.’s previous record (and I guess no one else did either…its their ONLY record not to go at least gold (and that includes their early IRS label stuff).  So, who held out any hope for a new R.E.M. album?

Well, the good news came when I put on Accelerate.  After the initial guitar lick, the bass kicked in and Sarah said “Is that R.E.M.?” Now THAT’s a good sign.  And it is.  This album is the closest they’ve come to classic R.E.M. in a long time.  I’ve concluded that the defining characteristic of R.E.M. is not Michael Stipe, it is Mike Mills.  It’s his basslines and his glorious backing vocals that make a song stand up and say R.E.M.  And, they’re usually the most interesting parts of the songs.  (His “It’s time I had some time alone” is such a great counterpoint to “It’s the End of the World…” that the song wouldn’t be half as good without it.)  This is not to say that Mike Mills should be the lead singer or be placed more prominently, (he shouldn’t, he’s like a great supporting actor who would be too much if he was the lead), but his contributions make them even better.

And Accelerate is full of Mills, in ways that I feel have been absent in recent years.  His high bass notes, his great backing vocals, it’s like the R.E.M. of old.  Except that it isn’t.  The difference here is that Peter Buck has not returned to the reverby, picked-guitar of old.  He’s got more of the aggressive style of playing that he’s used on Monster and New Adventures… so what you get is a classic R.E.M. updated for the 21st century.

Another thing that is great about this record is its length.  At just over 30 minutes, it’s one of R.E.M.’s shortest releases.  And, after some of the bloated discs they put out lately, it’s a great change of pace–because really nothing overstays its welcome like too much R.E.M.  I mean Reveal has some good songs on it, but after six or seven tracks you can’t believe there are still six more to go.  But on Accelerate, none of the songs overstay its welcome; many of them could go on even longer (always the sign of a good song)–5 of them are under three minutes long!

But enough bashing R.E.M.  Accelerate is a short blast of rocking pop.  In fact, the first 3 songs are the best songs I’ve heard from R.E.M. in years. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Echo [Issues 1-5] (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Knocked Up, Loudon Wainwright III, Marriage Trouble, Military, Pregnancy, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Technology, Terry Moore, Threats, War on August 21, 2008| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III-Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up (2008).

I can’t say I really noticed Loudon’s music during the movie.  Of course, when I read about it later, it turned out that the versions in the movie were instrumental.  Ahhh.  So, this “soundtrack” contains the instrumental tracks from the movie with words added (which is how they were originally recorded, so all is right once again).

This collection of songs is, to my ears, Loudon’s least funny collection.  Which is fine.  There are a few turns of phrase that raise a smile, but mostly the songs are thoughtful and thought-provoking.  They work very well with the theme of the movie: parenthood, children, relationships, love.  (Even though the movie is funny, these songs aren’t).

The collection is certainly one of Loudon’s strongest.   Many of Loudon’s musical partners in crime are here: Richard Thompson, Patrick Warren, Van Dyke Parks and, special guest Joe Henry (who I don’t know too much about, but who plays a lovely guitar).  The first three songs, “Grey in L.A.” “You Can’t Fail Me Now” and “Daughter” are possibly three of Loudon’s strongest songs in years (He didn’t write “Daughter” but he sings it wonderfully…and I think better than the original, which is a bit too jazzy for my tastes.)  The rest of the album continues in that vein: mellow folk music but with enough of an edge to keep it from sounding monotonous.  Loudon is releasing another new album this month, and I hope he keeps up this high quality!

[READ: August 14, 2008] Echo

When Strangers in Paradise ended, I was quite sad.  One of my favorite comics by one of my favorite artists was now out of my life.  And slowly, I forgot about Terry Moore, and moved on to other things (like the Buffy Season 8 comic).  Well, while I was at ALA this year, Michele Gorman, the wisest person in the graphic novelverse, asked me how I liked Terry’s new book.  Wha?? I said.  She said, it’s called Echo, and it’s fantastic.  And, so I got home, looked it up online and immediately subscribed and got the back issues.  1-4 came right away and #5 just arrived.  And I’m all caught up. (more…)

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