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Archive for the ‘Punks’ Category

Roberto Bolaño–The Skating Rink (1993) [translated 2009]

Posted in bolanobolano.com, Chris Andrews, Death, Figure Skating, Hüsker Dü, Infinite Zombies, Marriage Trouble, Poets, Punks, Roberto Bolaño, Short Books, The Dead Milkmen, Translation, Translators, Violence on April 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Eat Your Paisley (1986).

Who has angered the volcano gods?

My friend Paula is the only person I know who truly appreciated the Dead Milkmen.  And we spent many a car trip singing/shouting lyrics like “B.F. Skinner has eaten my dinner” (“Where the Tarantula Lives”).  While this may not be great literature or even terribly clever, there’s not too many songs (punk or otherwise) who name check B.F. Skinner.  So there.

Of course, “Beach Party Vietnam” is not quite as clever, although

– Hey Frankie, aren’t you gonna give me your class ring?
– Oh I’m afraid I can’t do that, Annette
– Why not?
– ‘Cause I don’t have any arms!

Never fails to entertain.

This second Milkmen disc jumps light years above the first.  The band sounds more accomplished, the recording is fuller and the lyrics are more bizarre and often funnier.  Rodney Anonymous Melloncamp does wondrous things with his vocal stylings (he’s still very bratty, but he does different “accents” this time).

It even features an interesting instrumental “KKSuck2” which, while under 2 minutes, holds up quite well as a solid song. And there’s some fun being poked at Hüsker Dü on “The Thing That Only Eats Hippies” (“Now it’s got  a sweet tooth for long hair so Bob and Greg and Grant you should beware.”)

Joe Jack Talcum is featured on vocals on “I Hear Your Name.” (a rather tender ballad) and on prominent background vocals on the wonderfully chaotic and super fun to sing along to “Two Feet Off the Ground.”  And “Moron” has the delicious opening verse: “Hanging out on the commode listening to Depeche Mode.”

Only six songs are under two minutes here, and that’s a good thing: their songs seems more fully realized (with actual parts!).  “Earwig” has three  different sections, even.  And while two songs are around 5 minutes long, the bulk are just under 3, the perfect length for a punk pop song (well, not quite pop, but at least pop-skewering.)

This is definitely the album to pick up for early DM fun.  ‘Scuse me while I puke and die (ha ha ha ha).

[READ: March 31, 2010] The Skating Rink

I simply can’t keep away from Bolaño these days.  I don’t even love 2666 and yet I’m very happily tracking down Bolaño’s other books, starting with this one.  (Which I guess technically is his third written novel if this bibliography is true–and why wouldn’t it be?).

This story is written in a fascinating way:  There are three narrators.  Each gets a chapter (from 1 to 10 pages) to tell the next part of the story.  The narrators are: Remo Morán, Gaspar Hereda and Enric Rosquelles.

As the story opens we learn pretty quickly that a murder has taken place.  But we don’t learn any details at all.  We also learn that the titular skating rink is going to play an enormous part in the story.  The story is set in Spain in the city of Z (which is quite close to the cities of X and Y).

In the first story line, we learn that Gaspar has gotten a job from Remo.  He knew Remo a long time ago, and when he returned to town, although he didn’t seek Remo out, it was quite fortuitous that they were acquainted.  And this job is as a night watchman at a local vacation campground.  He hangs out with El Carajillo and learns the ins and outs of the camp.  Eventually he becomes infatuated with two women, an opera singer and her younger charge.  He shares many conversations with the younger woman, and she seems (distantly) fond of him. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“The Pura Principle” (New Yorker, March 22, 2010)

Posted in Boredom, Cancer as plot device, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Drugs, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Punks, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Dead Milkmen, Violence, Word usage on April 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Big Lizard in My Backyard (1985).

My friend Alison said the other day that she had “Bitchin’ Camaro” stuck in her head.  And soon thereafter, so did I.  So Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen are a bratty punk band.  They skewer all kinds of things: pop culture, racists,  right wing pigeons, junkies and, quite possibly, music itself.

This first record showcases quite a breadth of song styles.  Although they stay comfortably within the realm of two-minute punk, they plays “blues,” “jazz,” and even “surf.”  Interestingly, their guitars are quite treble-filled which is a bit unusual for a punk band (typically pretty bass heavy). And yet a song like “Swordfish” (“I believe in swordfish!”) has a pretty wild and creative bass line running through it.

But I think the Milkmen are most well-known for their lyrics.  So Big Lizard starts in right away with lyrics that could easily offend the wrong target: ‘Cause we hate blacks and we hate Jews/And we hate punks but we love the F.U.s.”  Of course, the chorus reveals the truth: This is a tiny town and we don’t want you hanging round.”

“V.F.W.” stands for veterans of a fucked up world.  “Beach Song” opens up like a beach song until you get the bratty, screamed lyrics: I don’t wanna be on the beach NO FUN!.”  Of course, “Violence Rules” tackles a real issue: “violence rules, guns are cool and we’ve got guns in our school.”  And there’s the twisted, “Takin’ Retards to the Zoo.”

We also get one of my favorite catchy lyrics (from “Nutrition”): “I’ve got nowhere to go/Just hang out on the street/My folks say I’ve got no ambition/ At least I give a shit/About the stuff I eat/Yeah! I care about nutrition.”

Only 6 of the 21 songs are over 2 minutes, so musical styles definitely come fast.  Rodney Anonymous’ vocals are snotty and funny (even when the lyrics aren’t especially funny, the delivery is).  We only get one song with Joe JAck Talcum singing (he’s the whiny guy).  It’s so hard to tell if his delivery is serious at all, and yet I find it very endearing (and he’ll get much more prominence on later discs).  So, this disc is fairly simple, but it works very well for what it is: in your fast, bratty music, that is quite often very funny.  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.

And it features “Bitchin’ Camaro.”  I’m going to go to a hardcore show and see F.O.D.

[READ: March 23, 2010] “The Pura Principle”

I have been intending to read Díaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for quite some time.  I just haven’t yet.  So I was pleased to get a chance to read one of his short stories to get a feel for his writing.

One thing I had been told about Oscar Wao was that it mixes English, Spanish, Spanglish and a kind of ghetto slang which makes the book shall we say, more difficult to read if you’re a suburban gringo like myself.  But hey it’s set in New Jersey, so at least I know the towns he’s talking about!

This story is like a short story version of that summary of the book.  The writing is indeed in English, Spanish and Spanglish (and when the second sentence–the crux of the story– is “No way of wrapping it pretty or pretending otherwise: Rada estaba jodido” you know this is not your typical English short story.  I still don’t have an exact translation for that sentence (and it took a while to realize that Rafa was a person’s name) but I got the gist, and I was delighted by how much I followed the story. (more…)

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Bill Cotter–Fever Chart (2009)

Posted in Bill Cotter, Constellation Records, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Fears, Funny (strange), Ghosts, Holidays, LGBTQ, McSweeney's, Neurotics, Punks, Sex, Suicide, The Dead Milkmen, Threats, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Yuck! on April 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: VIC CHESNUTT-At the Cut [CST060] (2009).

Vic Chesnutt died in December.  I have limited exposure to him, although I really enjoyed his previous Constellation release North Star Deserter.

This release (his second to last) shows him playing with much the same line up as North Star.  And it is just as harrowing and passionate as the other.

It opens with the fantastic “Coward” in which, stating how courageous it can be to be a coward her proudly sings “I am a Coward!”.  This track is one of the rocking ones on the disc, which is split pretty evenly between cacophonous rockers and slow moody acoustic pieces.  Another great rocker is “Chinaberry Tree.”  The lyrics are simple and the chorus is just the words Chinaberry Tree, but it is fantastic.

My preferences run to faster music, so I enjoy his noisier tracks to the simpler, acoustic ones.  And yet, lyrically, his songs are so moving that I easily get sucked into the narratives.  The most notable song on the disc is “Flirted with You All My Life” which is about death, specifically about his past suicide attempts.  It’s really moving.  And even the seemingly simple “Granny” is a well-written mood piece.

Chesnutt had all kind of physical problems (when he was 18 he was in a car accident and had been mostly paralyzed) and he had been in pain most of life.  It’s a shame he felt compelled to end his life, but we still have his music to enjoy.

[READ: March 27, 2010] Fever Chart

About half way through this first-person book, the narrator has a mental breakdown and tries to bite his hand off.  That should tell you right off the bat whether or not you want to read the book.  (Add to that that the narrator also has terrible bowel problems).

I had received an excerpt from McSweeney’s over the summer, and of all three books in the sampler, I enjoyed this one the most.  Little did I know how utterly surreal the story would get once that excerpt was over!

The cover of the book shows a man walking down the street with blood dripping from his hand.  This seemed like an odd choice to me.  However, for the bulk for the story, the narrator seems to be walking down streets with blood dripping from his hand (the one he eventually tries to bite off) so it perfectly encapsulates the tone of the book.

The story opens in the middle of a series of events from the narrator’s past (the first few sections are written in a wonderfully disjointed way that keeps the reader off balance).  Jerome Coe is currently living in an Apartment in Boston.  It has no heat.  His toilet is frozen solid and he is sleeping between his mattress and box spring to keep warm.  After ages of complaints to his landlord, one day the heat kicks on.  Full blast.  And Jerome cannot turn it off.  Soon, wallpaper is peeling of the walls and steam is flowing from his windows.  He is naked in his apartment and is preparing to run outside into the freezing weather just to escape the heat.

While he is standing outside, half-naked, a car pulls up and the driver, a woman named Tommy, asks him to jump in. (more…)

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Jennifer Egan–“Ask Me If I Care” (New Yorker, March 8, 2010)

Posted in American Music Club, Books about writers, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Egan, New Yorker, Punks, Sex, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator on March 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARK EITZEL-Candy Ass (2005).

I’ve liked Mark Eitzel since my friend Lar played me “Johnny Mathis’ Feet” back in college.  I got some of his solo discs, but by around 2000, I’d more or less given up on him.  Someone donated a copy of this solo album to the library, and since we weren’t keeping it, I brought it home.

So I don’t know what he’s been up to since 2000, and this album came as something of a surprise.  The first song is quintessential Eitzel: downbeat mellow song with clever lyrics.  But after that, it seems like he got his hand on a drum machine and some electronica and just had a field day with it.

The one trend in electronica is to write long songs, and this holds true for Eitzel here.  There are a number of songs here that are predominantly simple drums and sound effects. The second song, in fact, has no words: it’s just a rudimentary drum machine which feels a lot longer than its 4:44 total time.

The few simple guitar songs (with electronic backing) sound good, but the thing is that Eitzel is an awesome songwriter, he’s just not such a great dancey songwriter.  The electronic experiments aren’t bad, they’re just not very inspired.  They may work as an introduction to that type of music for fans of his that never listened to electronica, but beyond that it’s just not that exciting.

Candy Ass is an interesting experiment, but it falls way short of his best work.

[READ: March 8, 2010] “Ask Me If I Care”

No, I really don’t.

I was really rather disappointed in this story.  It never really gripped me in an interesting way.  And even though the band practice stuff all probably happened, it just feel believable at all. (more…)

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Jan Van Meter, Christine Norrie & Ross Campbell–Too Much Hopeless Savages Part Three

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Christine Norris, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Graphic Novel, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Jan Van Meter, LGBTQ, Mystery, No Forcefield, Oni Press, Primus, Punks, Religion, Ross Campbell, Threats, Travel, Violence, YA Books on January 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NO FORCEFIELD-God is an Excuse (2001).

I was looking up what Larry LaLonde, guitarist for Primus, had been up to while Primus seems to be on hiatus.  I hadn’t heard a word from him, so I was surprised to see that he had released two albums with a band called No Forcefield.

I looked for the discs, and found both of them used for $1.00 each.  So I ordered them without really knowing what they were about, except that they were described as “experimental.”

This is the second disc by the band which consists of Brain and Ler from Primus as well as assorted other fellows (Bob Cock) and guests.  And experimental is an okay word to describe the record.  But a better one is disappointing.

With the lineage that these guys bring to the band, it’s surprising how mundane the disc is. It opens with a phone message about Bin Laden and God which morphs into the hilarious Denis Leary bit about CDs and the silver dog bone thing.  It then becomes a fairly straightforward electronic track.  And this electronic stuff is kind of the purpose of the group, I think.  There are at least 3 long, simple instrumentals that are little more than a few notes repeated over a drum beat.

The other tracks are complete nonsense: a faux TV show with “products” for sale which is a teensey bit funny, but not really.  There’s also Billy Roz, whoever that may be, crooning “You Are My Sunshine” as well as some polkas over a drum machine (he sings like an old doddering man).  And finally a short drum solo.

It’s not even clear to me why Ler is in the band as it seems to be mostly drums and a simple keyboard chord.  The only interesting track on the disc is “How to Purify Street Heroin” which is an awesome scratchy workout which I assume is by DJ Disk from the Invisbl Skratch Piklz.  And that’s pretty much it.

I was really disappointed my first go around, as I was expecting something, anything, more than this.  On subsequent listens, I can appreciate the disc as background/comedy although really neither one is a reason to hunt this down.

[READ: January 21, 2010] Too Much Hopeless Savages

This third collection of the Hopeless Savages saga sees many new revelations.  Turns out that Nikki Savage’s mom has come under the influence of a preacher who is intent on praying at the Hopeless-Savage house trying to get them to react in some way.  (I’m a little unclear exactly what his goal is here).

At the same time, Arsenal and her boyfriend and Twitch and his boyfriend (the  boyfriends are brothers) are off to the boyfriends’ homeland of Hong Kong.  Arsenal is there for a martial arts competition and Twitch heads along so that the H-S siblings can meet their boyfriends’ great grandmother.

Hijinx naturally ensue.  In this case, Arsenal is slipped a very valuable package and she soon has numerous groups of men after her (it’s unclear if any of them are up to any good).  The rest of the family decamps for Hong Kong to escape from all the praying (and they bring grandma along to de-brainwash her).

What is surprising about the story is the emotional depth that comes out of an incident from Arsenal’s past.  (more…)

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Jan Van Meter, Andi Watson, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Christine Norrie & Chynna Clugston-Major–Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero (2003)

Posted in Andi Watson, Books about music, Boredom, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Christine Norris, Chynna Clugston-Major, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jan Van Meter, LGBTQ, Marriage (Happy), Oni Press, Punks, Romance, Set at School, Tom Waits, YA Books on January 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  TOM WAITS-Glitter and Doom Live (2009).

Sarah bought me Tom Waits’s 3 disc collection for Christmas last year and I was sure it would be another Waits Xmas since this was nicely timed for an under the tree gift.  But no!  I had to buy this one myself (she says she forgot, but as punishment I may just make her listen to this one).

It’s a two disc set.  The first is a collection of live tracks from all over the world (well actually Birmingham, Edinburgh, Tulsa, Knoxville, Milan, Jacksonville, Paris, Dublin, Atlanta and Columbus–a strange Western Europe-Southern U.S. Tour, apparently).

I’ve never seen Tom live, although I have seen videos from Big Time.  And this is the first batch of live tracks I’ve heard in these latter days of his career.  And I have to say he sounds great.  The gravel in his throat is thick and gritty, yet he still hits all the notes.   And while his studio tracks are full of all kinds of cool instrumentation and embellishments, the spare live band (who sound fantastic) shows that his songs are great even without the bells and whistles.

The funny thing to me is how “Dirt in the Ground” an older song that I love sounds so very different, even though Tom’s voice isn’t all that different.  Of course, he plays some even older tracks that are totally reworked. And they sound great, too.  This all keeps the tracks fluid and seamless, and while the older tracks wouldn’t sound dated anyhow, it makes them all sound new.

Disc Two is a 35 minute track called “Tom’s Tales.”  It is a spliced together “story” of all the interstitial talking bits that Tom throws into his shows.  There’s jokes, there’s stories, there’s nonsense, and it’s all good fun.  For all his dour music, he;s quite a funny performer.  It’ll probably get one or two plays at most, but it’s certainly fun to listen to.

I just read a review of the disc that complains about the separation of music and talk.  And I see the critic’s point: cutting out the banter removes an essential part of Tom’s shows, while having all the talking bits together kind of dooms that disc to be listened to only once or twice.

While I agree with the sentiment, I’m not sure about the musical disc lacking something without the banter.  While it would be fun to have it in there, there is something nice about having just the music.  (And of course, there is one tale tacked on like an encore break (and one song at the end of the music disc, too).  It keeps the flow very solid and makes for an excellent song collection.

It’s a great place to find out what Tom has been up to on the last half dozen or so albums.

[READ: January 17, 2010] Ground Zero

Trade paperback #2 of Hopeless Savages collects the entire second series, with a few extras thrown in (and a very nice introduction).  And while I enjoyed the first series, Ground Zero is leaps and bounds more sophisticated and satisfying.  Even the title is a pun, what with Zero, the youngest Hopeless-Savage being grounded for most of the story.

The main focus is Zero’s burgeoning romance.  She is mostly off the boys at her school (typical comment: Your name is Skank, you must be easy), until she meets a boy in her science class who totally impresses her.  He’s named Ginger, after Ginger Baker, nice touch there.  And in a flashback we learn that although she hasn’t paid him any attention, he has loved her for years since their first accidental meeting.

I’m going to quote from Andrew Wheeler’s introduction because he sums up exactly what I think of the story: “It tells us that the most courageous thing of all is simply to fall in love.  The bravest thing to do is to place your heart in someone else’s hand.”  And that hits the nail on the head.  Pretty good for a comic book. (more…)

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Jan Van Meter, Christine Norris & Chynna Clugston-Major–Hopeless Savages (2002)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Canadian Music, Christine Norris, Chynna Clugston-Major, Corporate skewering, Dolly Parton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Jan Van Meter, LGBTQ, Luther Wright & The Wrongs, Marriage (Happy), Morality, Oni Press, Punks, Sarah Harmer, Short Books, Threats, Violence, YA Books on January 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SARAH HARMER-I’m a Mountain (2005).

I first heard Sarah Harmer in 2000, with her “Basement Apartment” single (which always made me think of my friend Ailish who, at the time, lived in a basement apartment in Brookline, Mass.)

My wife Sarah has this CD playing in the car and I’d forgotten how much I liked it.  Unlike the You Were Here, I’m a Mountain is much more country music sounding. I’m not much of a fan of country music as a rule, but there is something about country music from Canada that just sounds better to me.  It tends to have more of a crossover sound, and is lyrically more interesting to me.  Maybe it has something to do withe Calgary Stampede.

While two or three tracks on here could easily fit on a country station, the album still got nominated for a Juno for Best Adult Alternative album.

To me, the album really kicks into high gear with the title track, which is funny and catchy (the line about Wal Mart is a good one).  The cover of Dolly Parton’s “Will He Be Waiting for Me?” is beautiful.  And the French song “Salamandre” sounds gorgeous even if I have no idea what she’s on about.”  The disc closes with my favorite song: “Luther’s Got the Blues” a wonderfully funny country song written by Luther Wright.  And in Sarah’s hands, it turns into a yodeling masterpiece.

You might hear Sarah’s voice backing up all kinds of bands.  And her voice really is fantastic.  So, should you tend to shy from country music as I do, this may be an entry way for you.

[READ: January 15, 2010] Hopeless Savages

I read this comic years ago, and loved it quite a lot.  I found it right around when I found Blue Monday. I recently tacked down the third trade paperback, so I figured I’d read all three again.

The premise here is that Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, two old school punk rockers fall in love and settle down.  They have four kids: Rat Bastard, Arsenal Fierce, Twitch Strummer & Skank Zero Hopeless-Savage.  Each kid is a traditional punk: bad assed, fierce and take no shit.  But they are also pacifist by trade (Ronald Reagan took on the world with force, so force is for fascists, too right!).  Self defense is okay, mind you.

In this first story (there’s three trade volumes published so far), there’s not too much punks-in-proper-society comedy, because it’s all action.  The kids’ mum and da have been kidnapped, and its up to the four of them to find them.  Well, actually it’s up to the three of them to find Rat and then find their parents. For you see, Rat Bastard has sold out and gone commercial. (more…)

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