SOUNDTRACK: STEVE KIMOCK-Tiny Desk Concert #532 (May 16, 2016).
I’d never heard of Steve Kimock before. He is a guitar player, evidently known for his improvisational playing.
Based on that, I was doubly surprised that the first song not only had vocals, but that they were by someone else in the band (the unnamed female pianist). “Careless Love” sounds incredibly familiar. Even on the first listen, it sounded like I’d heard it before–the vocal melody and her voice, the bass riff, everything seemed familiar, although I’m still not sure if I actually know it.
Kimock’s guitar is metal (or aluminum). It’s quite unusual looking–all shiny and silver. It’s a hollow body but it sounds unlike an acoustic guitar. He’s joined by Bobby Vega on bass–and his bass is so smooth (even on this acoustic).
For the second song, he switches to a hollow bodied electric guitar. He says that “Tongue N’ Groove” is an oldie for himself and Vega (for whom it is also very early in the morning). The singer switches to piano for this instrumental that has a light jazzy feel. It’s quite a lovely song.
For the final song, “Surely This Day,” he switches to an acoustic guitar which he plays across his lap (and uses a slide). This is beautiful solo song with some wonderful moments.
[READ: February 15, 2016] Exquisite Corpse
I really enjoyed this First Second comic. It was translated by Alexis Siegel and it doesn’t feel translated at all.
This is the first book by Bagieu that I have read and I immediately loved her style which has simple lines but also subtle shading. It feels at time realistic and at times cartoony.
The story focuses on Zoe. She is working as a kind of model–a pretty girl who stands near things like cars or boats or whatever. She doesn’t love the job (who would) and on the second day we see a guy honks her ass. The other models are doing the work part-time to put their way through school, but Zoe is the only one with no other options. They tell her she should change jobs or stop complaining. (more…)
Monika is a superstar in her native Greece (her full name is Monika Christodoulou). She is a charming woman with a big voice and a bigger stage presence. She incorporates theatrical notions in her performance too (the fact that she has a shirt that looks like a mime’s kind of encourages that idea): “throwing” stars, flying, sleeping.
It is hard to believe that the blurb says used to sing sad songs, as she is so fun and bouncy. But there’s this biographical note:
her recent transition from singer of sad songs to purveyor of upbeat jubilance came after she nearly lost her life in a boat fire; she had to swim eight hours in the dark to safety without food or drinkable water. These days, it’s all about a great band grooving, her joyful voice, and that infectious smile.
Wow.
She sings four songs. The first, “Yes I Do,” opens with what I assume is a lyric about the then current moment: “24th of March has arrived and I think it’s Thursday? Washington is beautiful out there but we don’t really care.” It has a kind of circus opera feel. And Monika’s voice is a marvel–powerful and beautiful with a good range.
For the second song, “Shake Your Hands” she asks if everyone is ready to dance a little. She climbs up on the desk and as she sings the slow opening, when she gets to the “I love you” moment, she sings without the mike and is as loud as when she uses it. Once the song kicks in, it has a big disco beat: wah wah’d guitars and a funky bass line. She encourages everyone to sing along: “Even if you don’t understand, just repeat, okay.” The song ends with a very fun extended ending of staccato chords.
“Hand in Hand” has a kind of gospel quality (a big group sing along of the opening lines), although it is a brief, transitional song before “Secret in the Dark” begins. She straps on a guitar for this final song which has a discoey riff and a fuzzy keyboard sound. It’s really fun.
I’d never heard of Monika, but she seems like the kind of pop/dance star that would be really fun to see live.
[READ: April 1, 2016] Mike’s Place
Somehow I missed that word in the subtitle: True. I didn’t realize that this was a true story until the very end. The story was really good before I knew that and it makes it even more amazing after I found the truth.
In Tel Aviv, Israel, John Baxter (Jack), a filmmaker has come to cover a story. He goes into a local bar called Mike’s Place for a meal. He is greeted warmly and is told that there is live music every night of the week. They proudly state that Mike’s is a place where people of all stripes comes to congregate and do anything but talk about politics.
It turns out that there are already people making a documentary about the subject who John came to cover (Marwan Barghouti) so Jack decides to give up. (more…)
Mothers is an unusual band. There are four members (which isn’t that unusual) but their music has a number of elements that makes them hard to classify. Their songs are slow and somewhat meandering, with a lot of ethereal qualities. There’s no drums and the bass is spare.
On “Too Small For Eyes,” lead singer and guitarist Kristine Leschper sings in a very high, delicate voice and she plays vibratoed guitar lines high on the neck of her guitar (she even holds the guitar very high on her body). There’s another guitarist who plays similarly high notes and a keyboardist who is playing single notes that sound almost like a steel drum—in the most nontropical way ever. The music is pretty and feel like it could float away at any second. But Leschper’s voice veers towards the harsh from time to time which comes as a surprise. And as the song nears the end (it’s unclear just how long this song is going to be since there’s no conventional structure—the song could go for 20 minutes longer), the guitars start playing a slightly more dissonant sound.
“Burden Of Proof” is similarly slow with washes of spooky keyboards growing louder. If they didn’t pause between songs I would have thought it was the same song. The second guitarist is on the floor playing with effects pedals.
As the song ends, the music continues as the bass player thumbs some notes to keep the sound going. The second guitarist and keyboardist switch places. When I first listened to the show without watching I thought they only played two songs.
The third song sounds a little different from the other two (it is a newer song not on their debut album). The guitar line is a little deeper. Like the first song, this one turns a little unsettling in the middle with notes that don’t quite seem t go with the music. It feels like things are slightly awry as they play. The song returns to normal and then as it reaches the end there is that slightly seasick-sounding wave of keyboards that bring the song to its conclusion.
The blurb says that, kind of like with Ane Brun, the band chose to play their most mellow songs for this show. In some ways that makes sense, but it also lost me as an audience member because I felt like their music was too samey.
[READ: April 6, 2016] “My Purple Scented Novel”
I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve read from McEwan, but this is by far my favorite story from him.
It is about two writers–Jocelyn Tarbet and the narrator, Parker Sparrow. Forty years ago, they went to school together and were the best of friends. They took holidays together, made love to each others’ girlfriends and even tried a homosexual relationship. That last attempt didn’t work–they were repelled by each other’s penises.
But that was fine, because they were each successful in their own way. Parker had his story published first. But soon after Jocelyn had his story published. And things were great.
Until Jocelyn wrote a TV play and made a fortune. (more…)
PWR BTTM are the most fun Tiny Desk concert to come along in a long time. They are a two person—drums and guitar only–queercore band. The two guys are Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce. They are punky and brash and a lot of fun.
Ben plays guitar for the first three songs and they switch off lead vocals.
“Ugly Cherries” opens with an excellent, complex guitar riff played on a very distorted acoustic guitar. I love that that complicated riff runs through the song and ends with an awesome harmonic’d note. It’s two minutes of pop punk fun. And the opening lyrics sets the tone for the song (and the band): “My girl gets scared, can’t take him anywhere.”
Between songs Ben and Liv are full of jokes and chatter. Liv says “This is my favorite show that we’ve ever done…its cool to be someone’s lunch break.”
For “Dairy Queen,” Ben switches guitars. He has an electric guitar this time and Liv sings lead. Interestingly, this guitar is less distorted than the acoustic. This is a funny song with the refrain of “right now I’m in the shower.” There are lots of ideas about things they could do if he wasn’t in the shower like “We can go to Disneyworld and fuck shit up,” At the end of the song Liv moans that he had planned to change Disneyworld to NPR because it is the same syllables, but he forgot.
“Nu 1” returns Ben to lead vocals. It is a slower song with a simpler guitar riff. Although once the chorus comes in it’s loud and brash with backing vocals from Liv. The opening line “God damn everyone’s dumb” is pretty great. The end of the song has a guitar riff that is similar to the first song, but played in a very different style.
For the final song “C U Around” they switch places with Liv moving to guitar and lead vocals. As Ben heads to the drums Bob comments on his nail polish and Ben looks over and says “Bob… up here” pointing to his eyes. While everyone is laughing and Liv is tuning, Ben says
When I was 15 and didn’t think a queer person could ever be in a band…. I never thought I’d get to throw shade at Bob Boilen. This is my biggest dream come true.
Then Ben asks how is Liv doing up there and Liv shouts “Guitars are hard!” His guitar playing is very different–more strumming than Ben’s manic style. The song is slow with a plucked guitar riff and I like the way near the end he starts strumming really hard and gets a cool fuzzed out bass guitar tone while retaining the regular sound of the guitar’s high end.
As you can see from the photo, PWR BTTM dress outlandishly. Ben is in a bright red dress with sparkly nail polish and really garish facial makeup (with his beard showing through) and swim goggles on his forehead. Liv is a bit more subdued although when he steps to the front mic you can see that his lipstick is really quite striking. A few months back Bob said they put on his favorite live show. If I loved the fifteen minutes of this one I can only imagine how great a 90 minute extravaganza of PWR BTTM would be like.
[READ: March 25, 2016] “A Resolute Man”
Since I’ve read a few pieces by Proulx recently I felt like I knew her M.O.: bad things happen to people who seem innocent, but might not be–usually by strangely named people. And all set a long time ago.
This one is not far from that description, although it does change things somewhat. And I enjoyed it a lot more.
I found the beginning to be a little slow going (but that may be because I was anticipating a long slog). We learn about Captain James Duke. And this time I marveled at Proulx’s descriptive sentences; “Duke, at fifty, was complicated, dark-haired, and somewhat handsome”. That’s a lot of things in a few words. We learn about Duke’s history and then we learn that he has inherited a parcel of land in Boston (he currently lives in England). (more…)
If you have a teen or pre-teen and you are concerned about how they will deal with bullying, sex, body issues or, heaven forbid, heroin, this performance is a must-see both for your child and you. The performers are all high school students. They wrote the pieces and they are intended for high school students (and middle school). If you can’t see them yourself, contact your school or community group to arrange for them to do their show. It is intense and really effective.
When the fifth grade completed the D.A.R.E. program at school, the ceremony included a piece by this group. The piece was called “Jack & Jill” and it told the story of how an underage party led to the death of two teens. There were a couple of moments of humor, but the message was intense and the acting was really good (they “rewound” the story and the actors did a great job of going backwards–including one boy who “fell up” the couch (he fell off it earlier).
After they were done, they said that the troupe would be doing their full hour-long show in May and that was open to anyone in 5th grade and older. I was amazed that Clark wanted to go as it’s not really his thing. And so we went. He was bummed that only a couple of kids he knew showed up. I was bummed at how few people showed up at all. And so I wanted to post about the show to get the group some recognition because what they did was really powerful and I think should be seen by just about everyone.
When we arrived, the teacher in charge of the group Miranda DeStefano-Meene told us that the show would be uncensored and pretty intense. The program says that the words on stage “may embarrass, hurt, offend, scare and anger you. That is intentional.” The second paragraph spoke of the heroin epidemic in our society which is bigger than any other drug epidemic in recorded history, which I did not know.
And so we sat back and watched this show. Now, I happen to think that Clark may not have been exposed to a lot of what was going on in this play (which I’m grateful for). So this show may have been really intense for him (I know I spent the whole show wondering what he thought). After the show the only thing he said was that it made hm sad. And we did talk a little about the messages, but he’s a tight-lipped kid, so I can only hope he’ll come back to me with more questions if they arise.
And what questions he must have. For this show tackled so many problems facing teens. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR!-“lift yr. skinny fists like antennas to heaven!” [CST012] (2000).
So far GYBE had released an album and an EP, so why not follow up with a double album/double CD. This collection has either 4 songs with multiple parts or many many songs. (The CD release suggests 4 songs–two per disc each over 20 minutes).
Although on the accompanying sheet, there’s a diagram in which Efrim has mapped out each of the four tracks and indicated where each part (with its own title) begins.
The first song “Storm” opens slowly. Part one “Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven…” has strings and simple, quiet guitar riff which build for about three minutes. Then the guitars kick in and the song soars to majestic heights. The guitar riff continues through this section and then horns add to the music to make it feel even bigger. It’s an amazing start to a disc.
“Gathering Storm/Il Pleut à Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry]” slows things down as the last cymbal crashes fade and a violin remains the sole sound. Then a new guitar riff begins, slow and sweet, once again with a kind of nod to “Amazing Grace” in the melody. Then the strings swell and take over. When the bass line begins, it heralds the arrival of the drums and the song rocks along. After a few minutes, the strings bring in the real tension of the storm. The drums really come to the fore with lots of pounding and cymbal crashes. The intensity begins to slow down until it thuds to silence.
“‘Welcome to Barco AM/PM…’ [ L.A.X.; 5/14/00]” opens with a staticky voice welcoming you to Barco and then lets you know not to associate with people washing windows or soliciting. This track is about a minute before the piano begins indicating the start of the final part “Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way.” Behind the piano are simple mournful chords, although the staticky voices continue until the end of the song.
Track two “Static” opens with “Terrible Canyons of Static.” There are truck horns and train noises followed by ominous chords. The noise and static continues through “Atomic Clock,” and the recording “at the tone 3 hours, 21 minutes according to universal time.” This merges into “Chart #3” which contains a clear speaking preacher (who says ‘penetrate’ a lot) with a very sad violin melody. A guitar starts playing a different melody which indicates the beginning of “World Police and Friendly Fire.” A bass line takes over and is accompanied by a violin and guitar. There’s tension in the music as it builds and builds. But the drum beat means the start of a new violin melody complete with glockenspiel. This staccato rhythms keep up for a time until it is replaced by a loud feedbacking guitar solo. It’s followed by a fairly conventional section of drums and bass complimented with strings. This section feels like it is building to something and it all coalesces in the cathartic crashing of the start of “[…+The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now]” (this particular release is outstanding as they really drag out the climax). The riff for this is fast and heavy with more screaming guitar. It only lasts for a minute or so, but it’s fantastic. The rest of this section is primarily feedback and silence. There’s some percussive sounds and moments of louder noises, but at over 5 minutes this section is a little too long.
Disc Two, track 3 “Sleep” has only three parts. “Murray Ostril: ‘…They Don’t Sleep Anymore on the Beach…'” is a one-minute opening with a man (Murray?) talking about how Coney Island used to be so amazing. “Monheim” opens with some slow guitar and mournful strings playing over the top. When the violin fades, a new guitar melody, more upbeat, begins. The song stays pretty quiet until about 7 minutes in when the drums enter and an interesting guitar section continues to build in waves, but stays fairly mellow and upbeat. Around 8 minutes the same motif grows to supersize. And the wavery guitar? violin? that runs through this whole section grows louder and louder as the music swells and swells until a martial beat takes over and the melody is repeated (albeit much faster) which acts as an unexpected and satisfying conclusion to all that tension. This section starts to deconstruct, leaving only a siren like guitar and lots of static which indicates the beginning of the third part, “Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III.” Out of the noise comes a simple two note pattern. The song grows more complex with as the rhythm is kept by a single chime. When the drums kick in (all of a sudden) the song gains momentum. And the cool bass line that propels the rest oft he song (complete with horns) is great. At about 18 minutes the song quiets down with just the guitar and drums keeping things afloat for a bit until it settles down into a very pretty string melody. Soon enough, the rest of the band kicks in and the song starts to build again. But rather than reaching a huge crescendo, it begins to fade out, leaving just a hi-hat and some feedback to fill out the last minute.
“Antennas to Heaven” is the shortest piece at only 18 minutes. It opens with “Moya Sings ‘Baby-O’…” which is (I assume) Mike Moya (who is not credited on the record, I don’t think) singing “Baby-O” and playing the acoustic guitar. As that fades, waves of noise swell as the 58 seconds of “Edgyswingsetacid” rumbles through. It is then replaced by the 47 seconds of “[Glockenspiel Duet Recorded on a Campsite In Rhinebeck, N.Y.]” which sounds otherworldly. The final short section is “‘Attention…Mon Ami…Fa-Lala-Lala-La-La…’ [55-St. Laurent]” which is one minute long and consists primarily of children chatting ion French.
The main body of this track is the nearly ten minute “She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field.” It begins with gentle waves of music pulsing in and out. After about 90 seconds of this, the song bursts into a rocking section–drums and electric guitar playing a propulsive beat. This doesn’t last long though as the sound of wind howling takes over the song and an ominous almost metallic ticking sound rings out. This resolves into a two note motif with strings. It turns onto more of a song proper with all of the instruments supporting a pretty guitar solo. As the song fades to just violins, “Deathkamp Drone” picks up with various unsettling washes of sounds. The final section “[Antennas to Heaven…]” is a strange screechy-sounding guitar solo that echoes through to the end.
This disc is very big and very long, but aside from a few moments where the noise or drones lingers a bit too long, there’s just so much going on that the music never gets dull. It’s quite an achievement.
Godspeed You Black Emperor has had a few lineup changes over the years. For this double LP, they added a new guitarist (and a lot of supporting musicians), they changed violinists and lost the french horn.
Thierry Amar – bass guitar
David Bryant – electric guitar
Bruce Cawdron – drums
Aidan Girt – drums
Norsola Johnson – cello
Efrim Menuck – guitar
Mauro Pezzente – bass guitar
Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar [replaced Mike Moya]
Sophie Trudeau – violin
[READ: January 26, 2016] “The Shomer and the Boreal Owl”
I find that Stephen Marche likes to really push boundaries. And I find that some of his stories I like and others I simply do not.
And this one I did not.
The whole premise is weirdly unsettling. Ephraim wakes up one day and finds that he gets really turned on by wild animals. He gets an erection when he sees a deer running through the woods. What the fuck?
We meet this man who has had many troubled events in his life–the death of his daughter, his divorce soon after, the loss of his job and livelihood. And now this. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: MARIA VOLONTE-Tiny Desk Concert #183 (December 27, 2011).
One of my plans for this calendar year was to write about all of the Tiny Desk concerts from 2016 and from 2011 (to play some catch up). This is the final tiny Desk from 2011! Huzzah.
Maria Volonte is an Argentine singer who interprets tango music in her own way. She also plays folk, Latin blues as well as more traditional music. She plays three songs here and is accompanied by the fantastic harmonica player, Kevin Carrel Footer.
“El Beso Azul” (The Blue Kiss) is a pop-folk ballad expressing menacing sadness. Volonte’s voice is beautiful–full of longing and desire, heartache and sorrow. She plays a very rich and full sounding acoustic guitar and is accompanied by a wonderful bluesy harmonica which plays some amazing lines and riffs.
“Oh Viejo Tren” (Oh, Old Train) is based on a long train ride from the outskirts into the city proper of Buenos Aires. She says, “This is about people chasing their dreams in the city and then falling into reality.” This song is slower and sadder and her voice changes appropriately, even if there is still an air of sultriness about it. The harmonica in addition to playing great “train” sounds, keeps a perfect bluesy accompaniment.
“SF Tango” is an ode to San Francisco and to tango. The song is in English. I like the way she picks her guitar at the beginning and the cool strumming rhythm that the rest of the song has.
Typically, when there’s an interesting quote from the blurb, I post it here, but Jasmine Garsd’s write up is quite lengthy, and it tells an interesting history of the tango as well as some details about Volonte. It also says she can barely listen to “SF Tango” as she finds it so moving. I didn’t find it so, but I did enjoy what she wrote. Read it here.
[READ: January 2, 2016] Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
I also wanted to make sure I finished all of the posts I started in 2015. This is the last one (although maybe I finished the book in 2016?). So it’s nice to have that burden lifted as well!
I read Warner’s The Sopranos in 1998. I loved it. It was very funny, very raunchy and a delightful way to see girls having wild fun.
Of course, it’s nearly 20 years later and I have a daughter of my own and I can’t help but think that the girls’ behavior is so unsafe, so unwise, so irresponsible!
This play also seems (if memory is any guide) to take the wildness of the girls and condense it. Since there is no narrator to slow things down they are just wild from the get go.
So this play is about six girls. The girls are the only ones in the play–they wind up doing different characters (including men) which sounds like it would be very funny to see). All of the girls are in the choir of Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour Catholic school. And they are all heading to a competition in Edinburgh
The six girls are:
Fionnula (lives in a council house bought with the money from her grandad)
Manda (Mum fucked off, lives with her da, never shuts up about her sister)
Chell (lives up the complex, has had a lot of tragedy in her family)
Orla (diagnosed with cancer but recently returned from Lourdes)
Kylah (parents own their house and she sings in a band)
Kay (stuck-up goody-two shoes, off to university)
The girls are hardened and cynical–they say there have been several pregnancies this year already in their class and they call their headmistress Sister Condom. They are excited to go to the city for this competition not to sing but to get shitfaced and hook up with guys.
Their language is fairly shocking from the starts. It’s one of the girls who says Manda’s mum “fucked off.” And this being Scotland, the word “cunt” is thrown around all over the place.
The girls plan to separate when the get to the city. But first they get started by going to the bar (the girls are afraid to bend over to pick up their cigarettes for fear of flashing the entire bar). They drink. A lot. Even though they are underage. And they get hit on by all sorts of men. One even has the pick up line “Do you know you have 206 bones in your body? Would you like another one in ya?”
And then the girls separate.
Two go home with a guy who is divorced and very sad about it (which leads to a very wild scene–including a moment in which one of the girls portrays a man with an erection–wonder how they did that).
By the end of the night at least one girls has thrown up, at least one girl has hooked up and it sure looks like they have no chance of winning their competition.
Unlike a Hollywood production though, this story is not destined to end with them winning everything (this is no Pitch Perfect). The girls are going back to their hum drum lives after this and they will also have to deal with the realities that a night of debauchery can reveal.
So despite the fact that this play is laugh out loud funny, by the end, it’s not really a comedy. Thanks, Scotland.
Gem Club is a quiet band. During this set there are three members: Christopher Barnes on keyboards and lead vocals, cellist Kristen Drymala and vocalist Ieva Berberian (who is eerily silent and still for much of the performance).
The first song, “Animal” features Barnes on keyboards, playing a simple melody and Drymala, playing a low and loud cello to accompany (when her first note comes in, it’s really striking). She also sings a wonderful harmony vocal. Barnes’ voice is almost a whisper, but between his voice and the vibrato on the keys, it sounds really big (but still quiet). I really enjoyed the way the only “melody” she played on cello was at the very end of the song–a brief riff to signal the end.
“Breakers” opens with some rough cello playing and then a gentle echoed keyboard. Ieva Berberian didn’t do anything in the first song, she just hovered mysteriously in the background. But for the second song she hits occasional tambourine notes (which sound practically like explosions amid the delicate echoing keyboards). Perhaps the most interesting part of the song is watching Drymala tap on some colorful bells with her foot to create a lovely melody.
For the final song, “252” Barnes says it is kind of a beast, (although it doesn’t sound any more complex than the previous two to me). The piano is echoed and Ieva Berberian finally sings backing vocals. Her voice is a little haunting and it works very nicely with Barnes’ voice. The melody is beautiful.
Incidentally, the blurb says that this is the first time they’ve amplified a singer’s voice (they ran his voice through a chorus pedal to give it that otherworldly echo). I have been listening to a lot of loud music lately, and this was a perfect counterpoint.
[READ: December 20, 2015] History’s Naughty Bits
This is the kind of book that promises to be very funny. And then it turns out to be mostly funny but also rather scholarly. Which is not bad thing, it’s just not as raucous as one might have imagined.
Dolby begins by dismissing the idea that “naughty” things are a recent invention and then proceeds to go through the history of human culture to show examples of things that would certainly be considered naughty today (some are quite shocking).
She starts with Classical Greece where women were expected to remain chaste, except for hetairai, high-class courtesans, who were well-educated and respected. That’s some choice. Adultery was considered less of a sin if was committed with a prostitute. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RAGA ROCKERS-“Slakt” [“Slaughter”] (1988), “Hun er Fri” [“She is Free”] (1988) and “Noen å hate” [“Someone to hate”] (1990).
Karl Ove mentions many bands in his books. Raga Rockers appeared twice in this one. I can’t find a ton about them online, because they never really made it beyond Norway, but the Google translated version of their website says:
Raga Rockers is an ingenious rock ‘n roll band that has existed since 1982.
Today the band consists of: Michael Krohn (vocals, lyrics), Hugo Alvar Stein (keyboards / guitar), Eivind Staxrud (guitar), Arne Sæther (keys), Livio Aiello (bass) and Jan Kristiansen (drums).
The band came out of the punk community in the early eighties, but became such a “poppy” large parts of the Norwegian people have founded acquaintance with them. Songs like “She is free” and “Someone to hate” is almost singalong classics! Their greatest triumph came perhaps in 1999 when they played for thousands of ecstatic Norwegians at the yellow stage at Roskilde Festival. (Reviews of the show by Dagbladet (which Karl Ove wrote for) and Dagsavisen–both are in English.
Despite their punk roots and the rather violent song titles, the songs are almost poppy–heavy guitars but simple chords and a singer who doesn’t sound angry at all. In fact, if I didn’t read about their punk roots, I’d swear these songs are kinda goofy.
“Slakt” is a simple song, opening with a 4/4 drum and splashes of guitar. The middle is a bluesy riff with a chorus of “ah ha ha” The lead singer’s voice is mostly kind of deep–not quite what I expected from the heavy guitars.
“Hun Er Fri” is quite different from the others songs. It’s only 90 seconds long and features a piano. The chords are still simple the piano may be playing single notes in fact). The lyrics are pretty much nonstop and kind of fast. It seems like a silly pop trifle and I can see why it’s popular among their fans. The first time I listened to it, I was surprised it ended when it did. This bootleg live version is certainly fun.
These two songs came from their 1988 album Forbudte følelser [Prohibited feelings]
“Noen å hate” has a bit more of a metal sound, but is essentially the same kind of heavy rock with simple chord progressions. There’s a good solo at the end. A black metal band called Vreid has done a cover of this song (which really only sounds different because the Vreid singer is more growly).
This song comes from their 1990 album Rock n’ Roll Party.
And yes, they are still around. They took a hiatus in the 2000s but came back with three albums 2007’s Übermensch, 2010’s Shit Happens and 2013’s Faktor X.
[READ: May 1, 2016] My Struggle Book Five
I realized as I read this fifth book that I should have been keeping a vague sense of the timeline of these books. Specifically, because he opens this book with this: “The fourteen years I lived in Bergen from 1988 to 2002 are long gone.” So if he was born in 1968, this book covers roughly ages 19-33.
So my general outline for the other volumes:
Book Five: 1988-2002 (19-33)
Book Four: 1987 (18)
Book Three: 1968-1981 (1-13)
Book Two: 2008 (40) (with flashbacks to meeting his second wife in 2003 or so)
Book One: 2008 (40) (with flashbacks to his father’s death in 1998 or so)
What era could Book Six possibly be about?
We’ll find out next year in what is said to be the 1,200 page final volume.
So as I mentioned above, Karl Ove talks about the fourteen years he lived in Bergen. And it made me laugh that he says:
The fourteen years I lived in Bergen, from 1988 to 2002, are long gone, no traces of them are left, other than as incidents a few people might remember, a flash of recollection here, a flash of recollection there, and of course whatever exists in my own memory of that time. But there is surprisingly little.
And then he proceeds to write 600+ pages about that time. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BEN WILLIAMS & SOUND EFFECT-Tiny Desk Concert #170 (October 24, 2011).
Ben Williams is a jazz upright bass player (I didn’t realize bass players made band leaders, but clearly they do). In 2009, he won the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. And is an up and coming star.
He plays two original songs from his album State of Art.
It’s not often that the blurb describes a song, but it does a better job than I could have so for the first song, “Home”
the guitar (Gilad Hekselman) and drums (John Davis) lay down an aggressive, snappy foundation. The bass and electric keyboard (Christian Sands) fill out the polyrhythms. That groove, with its snappy hip-hop flavor, feels at home cruising down Georgia Avenue, then turning right on U Street NW, the historic African-American commercial district of Washington [D.C. where Williams is from]. Then the saxophone (Marcus Strickland) enters, and it’s game on.
That saxophone really runs the show on this song. There’s an interesting keyboard solo (I like the sound he chose, very Stevie Wonder-ish, but it’s a little quiet).
The sax switches to a smaller sax for the second song, “Dawn of a New Day.” The song is much slower and is more than twice as long as “Home.”
There’s a pretty lengthy bass solo (which sounds very old-school to me). It’s followed by an electric guitar solo that has an interesting effect on it which made me think at first that it was a horn. The horn comes next with a lengthy sax solo. The final solo comes from the keyboard (which now sounds like a piano). And then the song returns to that interesting main riff.
[READ: April 20, 2016] The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Sarah brought this book home and told me the premise–imagine what the stories of the other kids in the Buffy Universe would be like–wondering about all of those weird kids fighting vampires or whatnot.
At first I thought she meant that the other kids didn’t know what was going on, which would have been funny. But in this story, the kids know that there are vampires and other mystical things, they just aren’t any part of the action–they are not the Chosen Ones.
It’s a very funny premise for a book, and I looked forward to how Ness would create a story around people who aren’t “doing” anything.
But that’s not the only thing that the story is about. Ness makes the lives of the other kids so compelling and so, human (even if one of them is a quarter god). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: STEVE KIMOCK-Tiny Desk Concert #532 (May 16, 2016).
I’d never heard of Steve Kimock before. He is a guitar player, evidently known for his improvisational playing.
I Just Read About That... 