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Archive for the ‘WXPN 88.5 FM–Philadelphia, PA’ Category

King’s X (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, June 28, 2015)

Posted in King's X, Living Colour, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on June 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 28, 2015] King’s X

2015-06-28 20.57.00This was a special concert for many reasons.  The first was that it was a chance to see my college friend Sean for the first time in probably 20 years.  We’d chatted online, but this is the first time we actually got together–thanks King’s X!

The second reason is because it was my first concert at the Sellersville Theater, a venue I’ve heard a lot about on XPN, but never been to.  When I walked into the venue I genuinely thought it was an optical illusion.  It’s an old movie theater, with about 300 seats.  Talk about intimate!  King’s X and dUg Pinnick (with Corey Glover of Living Colour) frequent the place, and I can see why.  The fans are right there and they (we) are all into it.

So hanging out with Sean and with great seats, I was totally in the mood for a great show. And King’s X delivered. (more…)

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Christina Nichol–“Democracy in Batumi” (Harper’s, July 2014)

Posted in Africa, Cat Stevens, Chadwick Stokes, Dispatch, Excerpt, Harper's, Hillary Clinton, State Radio, Tiny Desk Concert, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on May 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

julySOUNDTRACK: CHADWICK STOKES-Tiny Desk Concert #432 (April 13, 2015).

chadI had recently been hearing about Chadwick Stokes on WXPN.  But I didn’t really know anything about him.  I just looked him up and found that he has been making music for almost twenty years, with the bands Dispatch and State Radio (under the name Chad Urmston) and now as a solo artist.  He apparently is a big time activist as well, and his accolades ring high.

The three songs he plays her are wonderful.  He has a great voice that reminds me in some ways of Cat Stevens (even though Stokes is from Boston and certainly rocks harder than the Cat).  Although he even mentions Stevens in the third song.

I love the way the first song, “Pine Needle Tea” starts out slowly (with Stokes on the guitar) and a delicate xylophone playing along.  Then half way through, both accompanists start playing floor toms–one with stuff on it to deaden the sound and one (Will’s) with no deadening to really pound away.

I love the faster parts in the second song “Horse Comanche” and also how in the slower parts both guys sing lovely high harmonies.  It makes me laugh that the fellow who plays the melodica solo stands almost ramrod still while waiting for his time.  (He is actually Stoke’s brother, Will).  I have grown to really enjoy the melodica lately.  I love how the end of the song has the repeated refrain with great harmonies and the melodica all playing together.

Chad jokes after the song that “Comanche” has a dropped D E string and he always forgets to retune it live (and his brother says he forgets to remind him to re tune it) so half way through the next song “it goes Wah.”

The final song is called “I Want You Like a Seatbelt” which gets a laugh.  It is a funny title but it proves to be a great simile.  I love the vocal melody of this song.  And when it really gets going it is infectious.  It’s just way too short.

I need to dig into his back catalog.  And here’s a link to this great Tiny Desk.

[READ: April 10, 2015] “Democracy in Batumi”

Sometimes an excerpt from a novel (Waiting for the Electricity) piques my interest. In this case, however, it really didn’t.

In this excerpt, Slims Achmed Makasvili is from Batumi on the Black Sea.  He is writing to Hillary Clinton (we’re not told why to her specifically).  He says that Batumi is not very well-known.  The local dictator is tearing down old buildings, but Slims wants Clinton to know that Batumi is a natural port for petroleum deliveries.  He says that there are great business opportunities available for America here. Then he asks if she knows the movie Jesus Christ Superstar.

The next letter (they are undated so it is unclear how far apart they were written) talks about how Clinton’s version of democracy and his are quite different.  The Batumi Center for Democracy has expanded and even has an air conditioning unit. (more…)

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Randall Munroe–What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (2014)

Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), NASA, Randall Munroe, Science, Scientists, Smarty Pants, Son Little, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on February 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

whatifSOUNDTRACK: SON LITTLE-“The River” (2014).

sonlittleI don’t like the blues.  I find it dull and repetitive.  I also don’t really like singers who are described as “soulful.”  And yet here is Son Little with a soulful blues stomper that I really like a lot.  WXPN has been playing this song pretty often, and I like it more with each play.

It’s a fairly simple set up with handclapping and a two note guitar riff.  Even Son Little’s voice doesn’t seem all that special at first.  But there’s some way that all of the elements combine that makes it so much more than the sum of its parts.

And with each verse, more elements are added, a synth sound, some guitar lines, even some bass riffs, building the song’s intensity.

But it’s that chorus–so catchy and ominous at the same time with interesting harmonies that just sound like he is echoing himself.  I really can’t get enough of it.

[READ: January 31, 2015] What if?

This book was just entirely too much fun.  Well, actually I thought it would be a bit more fun, but Munroe is so scientific that at times (when he got really factually scientific) I just felt dumb.  Which lessens the fun.  In fact, the first couple of pieces are really heavily sciencey, unlike some of the later ones which are really funny.

But what am I talking about?  This book is a collection of the “what if’ section of the website xkcd. There’s no real guidelines on the site for what kind of question you can ask, and many of them are quite strange (and often hilarious). They are hypothetical (what if?) questions and, depending on the arcane rules that Munroe follows he will answer them to the best of his scientific scrutiny.  And he will take the questions very very seriously–no matter how stupid your question may seem, he will try to answer it scientifically.  It’s fun!

But it’s also serious, and seriously scientific–Munroe is a former NASA roboticist.

So the first one “What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity” almost seems to be put in the front to scare off those who might not want to be too scientific.  And the second question comes more down to Earth (but also destroys the Earth): “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light?” (more…)

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Daniel Mason–“The Second Doctor Service” (Harper’s, June 2014)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Daniel Mason, Descendents, Harper's, History, King Tuff, Mikal Cronin, Short Story, Surreal, Ty Segall, Unreliable narrator, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

harpjuneSOUNDTRACK: KING TUFF-“Black Moon Spell” and “Eyes of the Muse” (2014).

tuffI first heard King Tuff on WXPN.  A few weeks later I heard two of his songs on NPR Music.  I’m including both of these because they’re from the same album and yet they are so very different.

“Black Moon Spell” has a stupid, great, heavy riff–it’s all distortion and garage rock.  And when the first verse starts, Tuff’s voice sounds very 60’s–whispered and trippy.  It’s a great contrast to the rocking riff that repeats in the chorus.  The second verse and the chorus sound pretty much the same, but they are so catchy it’s hard not to rock out to it all.  There’s a cool guitar solo and, perhaps most unexpected, female backing vocals as the chorus repeats in the outro.

It has a real classic rock sensibility but with modern elements.

“Eyes of the Muse” is also full of classic rock sensibilities but in a very different way.  This song is anything but heavy–it has jangly chords, and a pretty guitar riff.  The vocals are also higher pitched with a very sixties folky style.  And when the Boston-style guitars burst forth about half way through, you’d swear you’d heard it all before, and yet it is still different enough to be really enjoyable.

Ty Segall plays drums of “Black Moon Spell” and I can compare this record to him or to Mikal Cronin–simple familiar elements done in a novel and exciting way.  I’d definitely like to hear more from this record.

[READ: November 17, 2014] “The Second Doctor Service”

I didn’t think I’d read anything by Mason before, but I had.  I didn’t really like his previous story in Harper’s,(which was sort of a parody of Herodotus).  This one was written in an old style as well (although not a parody this time–if indeed the first one was supposed to be one).

Anyhow, this one opens like an old story (with county names given in this format: K— and S—).  At first I thought we didn’t really need a story pretending to be old like this, but Mason really mastered the style.  Not to mention a story with this content works much better as an old one (before “modern” science).

Essentially, the author is writing a letter to the Journal, in response to Dr Slayer’s study “On the So-called Cumberland Were-wolf.”  He has not encountered a were-wolf but he hopes that anyone reading the Journal might be familiar with his own unusual plight.  (more…)

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Alessandro Baricco–Mr. Gwyn (2014) [translated 2014]

Posted in A Tribe Called Red, Alessandro Baricco, Ann Goldstein, Art, Books about writers, McSweeney's, Morality, Short Books, Stars, Translation, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gwynSOUNDTRACK: STARS-No One is Lost Tour EP (2014).

stars epStars are back with a new album and this downloadable 5 song EP.  There’s something about Stars’ aggressive pop sensibilities that I just love.  It’s the dual vocals, the big choruses and I’m sure to a certain degree it’s the darkness in the lyrics that compliment the poppy music so much.

The EP has five songs, “No One is Lost” and “From The Night” are from their new album.  “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It” is from their previous album The North.  There’s also two exclusive tracks: “Blue Is The Colour” and “From The Night” (A Tribe Called Red Remix).

“From the Night” has simple, keyboard note-driven verses which are obliterated by the dancey and even discoey chorus.  Surprisingly at the 4 minute point, it adds a third fast part which segues back into the catchy chorus.  “No One is Lost” opens with Amy Milan speaking French before the keyboards wash in.  It has a slightly faster pace than their usual fare.  But despite the bouncy music in the chorus, we get the twisted lyric: “put your hands up coz everybody dies” (that’s Stars in a nutshell).

“Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It” is less dancey (perhaps less discoey sounding is more accurate).  It’s got a real Stars feel to it (when Milan comes in at the chorus it is really angelic), and showcases Stars’ previous album very well.

The two new songs include the Tribe Called Red remix of “From the Night.”  I’m not that big a fan of remixes, but this one is pretty good.  I like the way they stripped the big chorus of the music and left it spare–which makes their catchy vocals seem kind of sinister.  I actually expected a bit more of Tribe’s signature sound put into the song, but that’s not really what remixes are all about, so I guess it’s no real surprise they didn’t.

“Blue is the Colour” is a dark sounding song as well, until the chorus comes in with some poppy keyboards and slinky guitars.  It’s very electronic sounding which I love in contrast to Torquil’s mellow vocals.  But at 6 minutes long, this song has many sections up its sleeve, and the twist at 4 minutes really turns the song into something else, with an almost epic feel.

It’s a great sample of Stars more recent work.  This link takes you to WXPN from which you can download the EP from NoiseTrade.

[READ: November 5, 2014] Mr. Gwyn

I loved this book.  It has been one of my absolute favorite books in years.

The premise is fairly simple.  A successful writer (Mr. Gwyn) has had three books published to much acclaim and financial success.  But one day he wakes up and decides that he is done writing. He crafts a list of 50 things he will never do again, and one of them is write a book which he publishes in the newspaper.  His agent thinks it is a great marketing scheme, but Gwyn is quite serious.

Gwyn then disappears from society for a while.  Only his agent is able to fin him (Gwyn and the agent are very close).

After a series of small incidents, Gwyn’s agent tracks him down at the laundromat.  He has sent his new employee, a young woman named Rebecca, to give him a phone through which they can talk.  Rebecca is respectful and Gwyn is fascinated by her.  Over the next few months, he and his agent only communicate via Rebecca.

One day, in order to avoid a rain storm, Gwyn ducks into an art gallery.  He has never really understood art.  But he becomes fascinated with the portraits there.  And he decides that his new “job” is that he is going to create portraits with words.  He calls his new occupation, “copyist.”  Obviously his agent freaks out about his–no one even knows what “copyist” means.  But Gwyn is determined.

He spends the next few months getting ready–he rents a studio, buys furniture and specially ordered light bulbs.  And then he is ready to work.  But who will he his first portrait be? He finally settles on Rebecca–someone he knows a little and feels comfortable enough to ask to pose for him.  And this is where the story became fantastic. (more…)

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Tobias Wolff–“Beautiful Girl” (New Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2014)

Posted in Black Sabbath, Budgie, Essays, Funny (ha ha), History, Humiliation, Metallica, New Yorker, Romance, Rush, Sex, Tobias Wolff, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on September 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

jun9SOUNDTRACK: BUDGIE-“Breadfan” (1973).

budgieI am pretty much wholly ignorant of Budgie. I know this song “Breadfan” because Metallica covered it back on one of their covers EPs. I really Metallica’s version, but since that was pre-internet, I was never able to explore Budgie more.  And then I forgot about them.

Well, just the other night, WXPN played “Breadfan” (as part of a 70s power trio segment) and I was shocked at how high-pitched Burke Shelley’s voice was (the comparisons to Rush are apt).  And I was also surprised at how heavy this song was.  While Black Sabbath had certainly been releasing heavy albums up until this time, this song introduced a much faster element.  And there were only three members in the band!

What’s also interesting is the prog rock leanings in some of their songs, like the middle of this one.  The fact that Roger Dean did this album cover and that they have a 10 minute song on this album seems to lean towards prog rock as well).

Time to dig deep in to the Welsh band’s catalog, I think.

[READ: June 17, 2014] “Beautiful Girl”

This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories.  In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.”  I like that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.

Wolff surprises (me anyhow) by saying that when he was fifteen, he cut off the last joint of his left ring finger.  This piece of information just sort of lingers there until the end of the story.

Because he then talks about how he never really had a girlfriend.  In sixth grade he and his friend Terry would meet Terry’s cousin Patty and another girl in the movie theater and they would pair up and make out (clearly Terry did not make out with his cousin).   But they pairings were never seen in public and never went on a further date.

But later that winter his family moved to the Cascades, where the elementary school had all of four rooms.  There were ten kids in his class and nine were boys.  The one girl, Nevy, drove them all crazy. She favored one then the other but her real love was horses not boys. (more…)

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Kate DiCamillo–The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Bagram Ibatoulline, Barry Louis Polishar, Children's Books, Death, Ham and Burger, Hobo, Kate DiCamillo, Kids Corner, Revenge, Short Books, South, Trains on September 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

edwardSOUNDTRACK: HAM AND BURGER-“Don’t Put Your Finger in Your Nose” (2010).

tributeCoverA very serious and sad book needs a very silly song to accompany it.

I heard this on Kids Corner last night and it led me to this tribute album to Barry Louis Polishar, an artist whom I’ve never heard of (and am not sure why he has a tribute album to him, but whatever).

The title of the song tells you all you need to know.  But I enjoyed the way it went beyond the nose, into other body parts where you shouldn’t put your finger–eyes, ears, throat.  As with most kid’s songs, this one is short.  And when it starts to fade out at around a minute fifty seconds, you think it’s over.

But they add an extra chorus and then a final punchline which is really funny.  Check it out at this link to the Tribute to Barry Louis Polisar record.

[READ: September 8, 2014] The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The students entering fourth grade in our town were supposed to read this book over the summer. Clark’s teacher actually read the book to them last year, and he was disinclined to read it again.  So I offered to read the book to everyone in the family.  I figured if it was important enough for all the kids to read, maybe I should read it, too.  He said he really didn’t like it, but I persisted and read it to everyone anyway.

And I totally understand why he didn’t like it.

Although the cover looks kind of haunting (the illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline are awesome), I didn’t realize just how dark this book could get–all in the name of love.

I’ve never read anything else by Kate DiCamillo so I don’t know if this is typical of her work.  But man, is it a tear-jerker.

The book itself is rather short.  It’s 200 pages, but there’s a lot of pictures and the type was very large.  And it read fairly quickly, perhaps because it was so episodic.  Before I get on to the story, I want to say how beautiful the illustrations are.  The chapter headings are wonderful grayscale drawings, and the occasional full color plates are stunning.  Very dark and foreboding and at times a little creepy, but very evocative of an older time.

The strange thing is that the book is summarized pretty well on the jacket, as well as in the book’s coda.  So, if you prepare yourself in any way, you might expect just how low Edward has to go before the miracle happens. (more…)

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Patrick Jennings–Guinea Dog (2010)

Posted in C., Children's Books, Dogs, Kids Corner, KNRK 94.7--Portland, OR, Patrick Jennings, Short Books, Supernatural, T., Unlikable main character on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gdSOUNDTRACK: KEY WILD & MR. CLARKE-“Favorite Names” (2012).

wild This is a simple song (as kids songs should be).  But what appealed immediately was the big fuzzy guitar that introduces the song.  Lyrically it’s very simple: a list of the singer’s favorite names (all of which start with the letter J).  After repeating them twice, a voice asks about girls names, and we get a few J fronted  girls names.

The twist comes with the next verse when it is sung “en Espanol” and a new collection of Spanish names crop up (with the rest of the words in Spanish, too).  And then they switch the en Francais.  It’s multilingual!

greasyI found out about Key Wild & Mr Clarke from WXPN, but I see that this song comes from an album that sounds awesome: Greasy Kids Stuff 3, a collection of songs from KNRK in Portland.  The collection sounds great and I’ll mention more songs from it this week.

[READ: July 31, 2014] Guinea Dog

I was unfamiliar with Patrick Jennings when I grabbed this book.  The title sounded intriguing, especially since we own guinea pigs.  Interestingly, after reading this book we read several other Patrick Jennings books, so this will be like Patrick Jennings week here at I Just Read About That.  I enjoyed reading this book to the kids, and they found it rather funny as well.

Guinea Dog is about a boy named Rufus. All he wants is a dog.  He would like a big, friendly, fast, funny dog.  Like the one his best friend has.  In fact, he would love his best friend’s dog.  The problem is that his father hates dogs. He hates them big time.  He has a list of reasons why he hates dogs and that list goes on for two pages (and it was fun to read aloud).

Rufus’ father is an anal retentive, stay at home annoyance (a little over the top frankly, but it works for dramatic comeuppance, right?) who needs everything to be perfectly clean and who doesn’t want to be bothered while he is working.  And there is no way he will cave on the dog thing.

Rufus’ mom looks for a way to make things better, so she buys Rufus a pet.  The pet is…  a guinea pig.  Rufus is devastated.  He decides to mock the guinea pig by naming her Fido.  Rufus and his dad finally agree on one thing–they want the guinea pig taken back to the store.  But when they go look for Petopia, the store is gone, without a trace.  They are stuck with Fido.

But very soon, Fido starts acting like a dog.  She makes little barking sounds, she plays, she catches Frisbees (sort of), she runs with him, she fetches things.  She does everything a dog can do.  Frankly, she is amazing (I certainly looked askance at my guinea pigs after reading this).

And yet, Rufus doesn’t want anyone to see this creature.  He doesn’t like having attention drawn to himself (unlike his best friend who is a major attention hound). So he doesn’t want anyone to know about Fido’s skills.  But of course Fido is a playful, outgoing creature (who follows hm to school one day).  And soon, more and more people are aware of Fido. (more…)

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Christopher Ford–Stickman Odyssey, Book 2: The Wrath of Zozimos (2012)

Posted in Adventure, Alternate Reality, C., Children's Books, Christopher Ford, Fables, Funny (ha ha), Golems, Graphic Novel, Homer, Justin Roberts, Kids Corner, Phineas and Ferb, YA Books on April 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: stickman2JUSTIN ROBERTS-“Pop Fly” (2008).

popflyThis is a wonderful pop song from Justin Roberts.  Roberts is regarded as a top-notch children’s song writer.  I hadn’t heard him before, but i was totally sold by this one.

It’s a poppy almost dancey song–it certainly makes you want to move around, anyway.  There’s a catchy acoustic guitar and a fast beat and Roberts’ voice is really solid and warm.  Interestingly I didn’t even realize this song was about baseball when I heard it on the radio (I missed the song title).  I was totally hooked by the pa pa pa pa pa pa chorus.

And there’s a great third section of the song that changes the mood but not the tempo.  This reminds me a bit of Ralph’s World, but a bit…more full, perhaps?  Or maybe like something from Phineas and Ferb.  I’m going to have to check out more from him.

Oh, and the video, while cheaply made, is quite funny when the chorus kicks in.

[READ: April 8, 2014] Stickman Odyssey, Book 2

I enjoyed Book 2 of this series more than Book 1. It felt like it had a little more plot and was a little less slavish to the original myths.  or maybe I just like quests.

The story starts in the middle, with Nestor having captured Zozimos and having tied him up for failing to avenge Sticatha (which was Nestor’s plan all along).  He says that Zozimos has been doing nothing all this time. But Zozimos says no, he has been on an epic adventure.

Which brings us to where book one left off.

Praxis (the strongest man in the world) Atrukos (a guy who looks like a frog) and Zozimos set off to find a piece of the sky.  In book one, Praxis had knocked a piece of the sky out when he hurled a cyclops at it.  He wanted to retrieve it to prove to his love that he was actually a worthwhile person.  This story is left all of a sudden (in a very funny way) so they can help Atrukos with the witch who cursed him before Book 1 even started.  That’s when Nestor captured Zozimos, as he was on his way to help Atrukos. (more…)

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Christopher Ford–Stickman Odyssey, Book 1: An Epic Doodle (2011)

Posted in Adventure, Alternate Reality, C., Children's Books, Christopher Ford, Danny Weinkauf, Davy Jones, Fables, Funny (ha ha), Golems, Graphic Novel, Homer, Kids Corner, They Might Be Giants, YA Books on April 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

stickman1SOUNDTRACK: DANNY WEINKAUF-“Archaeology” (2014).

noschoolDanny Weinkauf is one of the Band of Dans that plays with They Might Be Giants.  In 2014 he successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to create his solo album, No School Today.  (I knew nothing about the Kickstarter campaign).

The album comes out this month and I have to say I really like what I’ve heard so far.  This song has been played on Kids Corner a lot.  It’s very catchy and reminds me of good indie pop music.  There’s even a feel of 70s British pop (or like Davy Jones singing).  It’s super catchy.  The chorus and the oft-repeated “arc” “arc” “arc” before “archaeology” can be a bit much at the end of the song, but for the most part this is a real winner.

Danny also wrote “I am a Paleontologist” from They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science album, so his bona fides are good.  And the lyrics are clever and smart, too:

Archaeology It’s human evolution From the Caveman to you and me analyzing their solutions (yeah now)
/Archaeology the secrets they left for us We can study activities Of those who came before us

[READ: April 7, 2014] Stickman Odyssey, Book 1

While I was looking for Stickdog books for C., I came across Stickman.  There are two books in this series (with book two being set up for a third, but no sign of it yet).

This book is a kind of spoof of Homer’s Odyssey, but not really. It is set in the time of the ancient Greek gods and some of those gods make appearances.  Even the style is done in a generically Homeric epic storytelling style.  But none of the characters from Homer appear.  This is an alternate reality of sorts.  The Great Whirlpool exists (shades of Scylla and Charybdis), but so does Candy Island and a place called Odonoros and Stickman’s home world of Sticatha (which made me laugh once I pronounced it correctly).  So, you don’t need familiarity with Homer to appreciate this, indeed, it kind of confused me at first because I wasn’t sure if I should be looking for parallels.

Stickman’s name is the awkward Zozimos (which I want to be significant but can’t figure out any reason why it would be).

The gods do play with the humans, though.  On the second page we see that Athena wields a giant pen and makes Zozimos a raft while he is struggling in the ocean.  Days later he lands on what he thinks is Sticatha, but no, he lands on an island with fair maidens.  He tries to charm one of them, Asteria, but is immediately grabbed by a golem and dragged to jail.  The evil King Marnox imprisons every castaway who lands on the island–he has his reasons.

But Asteria is mad that her father is locking up all of these eligible men, so he brings Zozimos out of the jail for him to tell his story.  And it is…epic! (more…)

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