SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Centennial Square, Victoria, BC (July 18 2001).
This concert was a free outdoor show outside of City Hall in Victoria. It was in the afternoon and the band also played a paid show later that night. How interesting. They even joke at the end wondering if anyone will be coming to their show that night. Someone asks if it will be the same songs and Dave says yes, and same sweat too. They have a good rapport with the audience (the fact that it is outside makes the crowd sound really tiny although I imagine it wasn’t).
It’s also the first show (online anyhow) to feature Michael Phillip Wojewoda on drums.
The sound is a little odd here, even though it is a soundboard recording. Maybe it’s because of the outdoor atmosphere of the location–perhaps they mixed it differently? I have no idea.
They play most of the songs from, NotSS, but there’s also a few classics like “Stolen Car” and “Saskatchewan.” They even play a great rendition of “Junction Foil Ball” which Dave says reveals was on their Nightlines record but that they re-recorded for the new one (which was not out yet). Martin explains that the origin of the story is about a guy who collects the tin foil from cigarette wrappers and makes a ball out of them.
In “CCYPA” there’s along part with no singing—it seems as if something went wrong. The volume also rises and falls a bit which is weird. There’s a similar pause in “I Fab Thee” where Martin resumes singing ooh ooh ooh. He explains that “P.I.N.” is played on a tenor guitar. And then later they joke that they were going to name their album Kid, Eh?
This may be the first time they’ve played “In It Now” at least that I know of. I love when they play “Satan is the Whistler” but they never seem to get the end right—this one is no exception.
The end, “Saskatchewan” is amazing—a very slow dramatic rendition. It’s a nice show and as Lucky says in the notes, “Always a treat to see the Rheos twice in one day!”
[READ: April 15, 2015] “The House on Bony Lake”
Boswell crams a novel’s worth of information into this long short story. It begins as Paul wakes in his Airstream. He is next to Melinda and they are talking about old TV. She is naked and asks if he wants to have sex again. He says he’s too sleepy.
Then we get some back story. Paul’s marriage is over and since that happened he has slept with several women in the area–none of them resemble his wife.
And then we go further back–“In the whole of the twentieth century, the Iris clan floated just two offspring to the shores of adulthood.” And floated is a good choice of words, because the family, all those generations had lived near Bony Lake the whole time.
His grandfather was Colman Sheelin Iris (there’s an amusing story about their last name). He built the house that Paul grew up in but he refused any changes to it–no electricity, no upgrades–during his life time. And during his lifetime his wife bore four children. Only one, Sean, survived to adulthood. (more…)
Karl Ove mentions many bands in this book, but the deLillos are the only Norwegian band that he plays. They sing in Norwegian and play sprightly, jangly guitar pop–they would fit in very well with some of the lighter alt bands from the late 80s and early 90s.
I have no idea what they’re singing about (well, the title translates to “love” so I guess I know what they are singing about.
The singer has a high, delicate voice and there’s some interesting harmonies. I really like the way the song transitions from verse to chorus with the picked guitar notes–very catchy.
It comes from their second album, Før var det morsomt med sne (Beforeit was funin the snow), which along with their first was quite popular and was reissued with a bonus disc in the 90s. Having said that I see that Amazon has one copy of the disc and no album cover listed. Worse yet, I can’t find many other songs online (Spotify lists the album, but I can’t get it to play).
Sorry, deLillos (even searching for you gives us more Don DeLillo than you guys).
[READ: June 24, 2014] My Struggle Book Four
I started including the British edition page numbers because at my work we received both editions of the book, and I received the British one first so I grabbed it and started reading. I noticed the page numbers were quite different (the British book is taller and the print is quite bigger, although this doesn’t explain why the previous books have fewer pages).
I had been interested in the differences between editions from the get go. I had enjoyed the American editions, but I enjoyed reading this British edition more (bigger print?). But when I noticed on one of the pages that the word “realise” was spelled as I typed it, it made me wonder if the American edition changed that to the American spelling. [Actually, I see that Don Bartlett lives in Virginia, so perhaps he translates it into American first]. While I wasn’t about to go into a deep inspection of the topic, when I saw the American edition on a shelf at work, I had to do a little comparison.
And what I found out was that even though Don Bartlett is the (amazing) translator for both editions, someone (perhaps Bartlett himself?) is translating the American into British (or vice versa). I looked at a couple of pages and noticed these changes from British to American:
BRITISH EDITION = AMERICAN EDITION
Pack it in, now = Give it up, now
roll-up = rollie [about hand rolled cigarettes]
looked daggers at = gave her a dirty look
a complete prat = completely useless
is that possible? = really?
to cook and wash up = cooking and doing the dishes
I had got = I’d gotten
had penned = had written
and yes, realised = realized.
Other than select phrases, every word is exactly the same. So somebody goes through the books and changes them to British english idioms and spellings. That’s fascinating.
I also see that this is the first book I had not read an excerpt from first. Not that it would have made any difference as to whether I read the fourth one. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
So book four is set in Håfjord, a town in Northern Norway near Finnsnes (a five hour flight away–okay I had no idea Norway was so big!). Karl Ove is 18 and has decided to become a grade school teacher there for one year. The tax breaks are great if you teach, and he plans to teach and write his masterpieces and then get out. He has no interest in teaching, but the town is small (most grades are 3-7 students), so he figures it can’t be too hard.
As in most of Karl Ove’s books, the stories jump around and flash back and do not stay all in this one time, but it is largely set in this locale.
My first thought was that I have never read a story with as much semen (both nocturnal emission and premature ejaculation) in my life. It is a strange take away from the book, but there it is. Karl Ove is 18 and really wants to have sex for the first time. About 3/4 of the way through the book he reveals that he never masturbated (it just never occurred to him, apparently, and at 18 he’s too old to start–what!?). As such, he seems to have wet dreams every night. And every time he gets near a woman, he has an orgasm too soon. He is horny all the time–it’s a bit disconcerting.
And since I mentioned that, I don’t know if Karl Ove’s life is typical of Norway, but I am shocked by the number of women who take their clothes off around him (he may have never had sex, but he was about to on at least a half-dozen occasions). And he says that all through school (from around age 13 and up) it was common place for the boys to lift up the girls’ shirts and kiss and or fondle their breasts. It is mind-boggling to me. And the 16 year olds all seem to be having sex all the time–this may be skewed from Karl Ove’s perspective, but that’s what I now believe happens in Norway.
But while sex is the main theme of the book–sex, sex sex, there is more to it.
Karl Ove’s parents have split up and his father has started drinking in earnest. The dad has remarried and has just had a baby. Incidentally, I was also shocked to read that Karl Ove’s father, who is an abusive stodgy old man who is cranky and mean and abusive and all the stuff that we read about in the other volumes was only 43 at the time that Karl Ove was 18. So the old man who I pictured as a gray-haired curmudgeon in this book is actually younger than me. Great.
In Håfjord, Karl Ove is teaching kids who range from age 13 to 16. It’s disconcerting to read about him thinking lustful thoughts about his students, until he reminds us that for most of the students, he is only 2 years older than them. I am pleased to say that he behaves himself (except in his mind) with all of the students. There’s even a really interesting flash forward to eleven years later when he runs into two of them again.
He proves to be a pretty decent teacher it seems. The kids mostly like him (the girls all think he is hot) and he is young and tries to make it fun (he himself hated school and everything about it). He even seems to help out an awkward boy (although that is never resolved). We see him teaching, trying to interact with the kids and generally being a pretty good guy.
Until the booze comes out.
For in addition to semen, this book is chock full of alcohol. Before graduating from gymnas (high school), Karl Ove basically stopped caring about anything. He spent most of his time drunk. It is astonishing the amount of drinking he does–it’s practically like an Amish Rumspringa how crazy he goes. But even in this retrospective look, he talks about how much he likes it, how it loosens him up and makes him less nervous.
But really he just spends most of his time drunk, hungover or sick. He even got into the hash scene for a while. He was living with his mom at the time and she was appalled at the way he acted–especially when he threw a party which trashed their house. She even kicked him out for a time.
He seemed to be over the drink in Håfjord, but it turns out that there’s precious little else to do except drink up there, especially when it grows dark for most of the day. So there is much drinking–he only misses class once or twice because of it but he comes very close a lot.
The irony that he is appalled at his father’s drinking, while drinking so much himself, is apparently lost on him.
The other main preoccupation with Karl Ove is music. He talks a lot about his great taste in music (he reminds me of me–a little insufferable). Back when he was in gymnas, he spent a lot of time discussing his favorite bands and favorite songs. He got a job (at 16) writing reviews for a local paper (holy crap, jealous!) and then later gets a job writing a column for another paper. For the previous book I listed a lot of the bands he mentioned, and I wish I had written them down for this one. U2 features prominently (this is 1987, so I’m guessing Joshua Tree), but also Talking Heads, a Scottish post-punk/new wave band The Associates and their album Sulk which he describes as “an utterly insane LP.” he and his brother really like The Church and Simple Minds (before they got so commercial). He also has a whole thread in which he makes connections with albums:
Briano Eno, for example, started in Roxy Music, released solo records, produced U2 and worked with Jon Hassell, David Byrne, David Bowie, and Robert Fripp; Robert Fripp played on Bowie’s Scary Monsters; Bowie produced Lou Reed, who came from Velvet Underground, and Iggy Pop, who came from the Stooges, while David Byrne was in Talking Heads, who on their best record, Remain in Light, used the guitarist Adrian Belew, who in turn played on several of Bowie’s records and was his favorite live guitarist for years. (64).
He also specifically raves about “The Great Curve” from the Talking Heads album, and of course, he raves about the first Led Zeppelin album as well.
Music is a huge part of his life (and he dresses accordingly too). It’s unclear whether the kids think this is awesome or not, but he may be a bit too much for some of the locals. The locals are mostly fishermen (which makes sense), and Karl Ove is a bit intimidated that he is so wimpy compared to them–one of the women even teases him about his tiny arms.
But his main focus is writing. He writes a few shorts stories (to my knowledge he has never published any of them). We see some excerpts and they seem fine–he fancies himself Hemingway. But he also mentions a bunch of Norwegian authors (I love when he does that). Sadly again, not too many of them have been translated into English. [I really hope that some mega fan creates a database of all of the bands and authors he mentions]. He also talks briefly about his first novel which alludes to his time teaching here. I happened to read a small summary of said novel (Out of the World) and feared that it spoiled what was going to happen. But, in fact there does appear to be a difference between his fiction and non-fiction.
The book moves very quickly–from party to party, from failed sexual attempt to the next, even from his staying up all night long trying to write. And most of the time he comes off as kind of a dick–he is also very self-critical, which somehow tempers that dickishness.
As with the other books I cannot figure out exactly why I am so addicted to his writing. I brought the book home on Thursday night and finished it (all 548 pages of it) Monday night. This really completes the picture of himself as he moved from childhood to adulthood and really lays the foundation for whatever is to come next. Early in the book he talks about the books that he loved at that age, books that talk about the move from childhood to adulthood. And thus, this book becomes something of a bildungsroman as well. Although whether or not Karl Ove actually grew up at the end of this book will have to wait until volume 5 (which I have to assume is still another year away as there is no information about it online at all!).
For ease of searching, I include: Hafjord, For var det morsomt med sne.
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Hamilton ON (February 24 2001).
This is a show that there is no real information about. In fact, I have to wonder if it is actually from the date that it says because during the set someone (very casually, I think) mentions that their album came out today (it was released on October 23, 2001). It is also really short (just over an hour) and is clearly not the entire show. I assume the first half was lost, but it’s hard to know.
Despite the brevity, there is a great sound on the disc. The first two songs sound amazing. And “Stolen Car” is scorchingly good.
There’s a funny discussion about the washroom, which turns into a joke that the “washroom rocks.” And there’s some wonderfully funny “ads” for Snapple, Marlboro “the smoke that hurts,” and even a Gibson “the guitar for depressed musicians.” “Feed Yourself” is particularly long with lots of chatter in the middle and they joke about Martin playing with “millennium technology,” some gadget that makes his guitar sound different.
“Four Little Songs” has a very funny refrain about Martin’s “device” which they now call the robot dog–there’s even a silly riff at the end.
It’s a great show, even if it is brief and it’s a good collection of older songs (which is weird if their new album came out that day).
[READ: April 21, 2015] “Major Maybe”
This was the second short and breezy story I read this week, which was kind of fun.
This story is so simple, it’s even told quickly, as if the narrator just had to get it out.
“Major Maybe” is the name of a dog in her neighborhood. She and her roommate Eagle Soars (his real name) are living in Chelsea in New York. He is a wanna be actor and she helps him with his lines.
One day they were rehearsing in their usual spot in front of their building. Their building was quite nice, the first floor resident was a therapist and he decked out the front stoop very nicely with flowers and chairs. As they were rehearsing the red-haried homeless lady came by. She was known to have good days and bad days Today was a bad day. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: MISSY MAZZOLI-Vespers For A New Dark Age (2015).
Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for a New Dark Age, is a 30-minute suite for singers, chamber ensemble and electronics. The piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival.
It’s a fascinating mix of traditional and contemporary instruments. And there’s a surprise musician as well: Martha Cluver and Virginia Warnken Kelsey from Roomful of Teeth, provide operatic soprano voices. Mazzoli’s own ensemble Victoire, provides the music while Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche adds percussion and thunderous pounding.
As the suite opens, electronic chimes sound before the beautifully soaring voices come in (I don’t know who is who). The instrumentation is complex and the vocals are often in English (but operatic and not always obvious to hear). There’s some great rising and falling notes from various instruments.
The first piece is called “Wayward Free Radical Dreams” and I like the surprise of the simple English phrase “Come on, come on come on” A bell ringing is the segue into part 2, “Hello Lord.” Over a lonely flute and some synths, the vocalist sings a poem by Matthew Zapruder for lines like: “hello lord / sorry I woke you / because my plans / are important to me / and I need things / no one can buy / and don’t even know / what they are / I know I belong / in this new dark age.”
I love the rising and falling notes of “Interlude 1″ over the fast violin moments. “Come On All You” opens with some ticking hi-hats and squeaky violins. There’s a lot of drums in this song—some punctuate the melody until the soprano voice takes over and then around 4 minutes into the section, the drums burst to life. “New Dark Age” has some moody synths under the soaring voices and “Interlude 2” opens with the sound of big deep bells.
“Machine” has a mechanical staccato feel in both strings and voices. When it returns to “Come on Come on” refrain (this time with two voices), it’s very cool. The “Postlude” ends the piece with moody strings and distorted mechanical sounds that overwhelm the voices at times. The piece ends on an up note but not in an overwhelmingly happy feeling.
The final piece on the disc is not part of the suite, although it fits in sonically. It is called “A Thousand Tongues (Lorna Dune Remix)” and it has echoing pianos and overlapping synths. While this piece is pretty it is probably the least interesting of the disc. Perhaps because there are fewer voices and more synth melodies. Perhaps because it is a remix. The song feels fine, but not as compelling as the suite.
I was happy to discover his disc, which really explores different classical motifs.
[READ: March 15, 2015] All My Puny Sorrows
As with many books, but especially those published by McSweeney’s, which I always read, I didn’t really know what this was about. I can pretty much guarantee it would not have been high on my list had anyone told me it was about dealing with a suicidal sibling.
But what’s great about the McSweeney’s imprint is that they gather such a wide variety of books and most of them are of such good quality that I know I won’t be disappointed. And this book not only didn’t disappoint, I found it really fantastic.
The story is fairly simple, although from my perspective it was also fairly exotic. The main action of the book takes place in present day Winnipeg. But there are flashbacks to the main characters’ childhood in 1979. And the way it opens–with the family watching as the house that their father built is put on the back of a truck and driven away is one of the more memorable opening passages of a book that I’ve read.
The family consists of the narrator Yolandi, her older sister Elfrieda and their parents. And, perhaps most exotic to me they are Mennonites. Their family is not entirely pious in the tradition in their town–they are seen as somewhat less than observant. Things were made even worse by the deliberately provocative nature of Elf. She was creative, she loved to read and she had a real sense of outrage. The church pastor once accused her of “luxuriating in the afflictions of he own wanton emotions.” She embraced poetry, particularly the line “all my puny sorrows” and decided it would be her slogan. So she began spray paining AMPS all over the town. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: LAURA MARLING-“Walk Alone” NPR Lullaby SXSW (March 19, 2015).
From March 17-March 21, the SXSW festival raged on. And my friends at NPR Music were there so I didn’t have to be. In past years they have had a nightly recap of their favorite shows of the day. This year they upped the ante by inviting a musician to sing a lullaby. Most of these lullabies occurred in some unexpected outdoor location at 2 or so A.M. after a long day of music.
This late night lullaby was actually recorded much earlier than most (around 9:30P.M) because one of the gang had to leave early.
Marling has become one of my favorite new (to me) voices. I love the way she sings. It feels unconventional or unexpected somehow. The way she doesn’t follow the melodies of her guitar playing is really cool and exiting. And when she drops into a nearly spoken word it’s quite arresting.
This song is from her soon to be released new album Short Movie, and it is as enchanting as anything she’s done. You can check it out here.
[READ: March 23, 2015] “Nina”
This issue of Harper’s featured five essays (well four essays and one short story) about “Growing Up: five coming of age stories.” Since I knew a few of these authors already, it seemed like a good time to devote an entire week to growing up. There are two introductions, one by Christine Smallwood (who talks about Bob Seger) and one by Joshua Cohen who talks about the coming of age narrative.
This is a story of meeting a bad person and getting sucked into her life. There’s nothing terribly original about this. However, the characters (her name has been changed) are not your typically teenage angsty college students. Set in 1981 at NYU, the narrator is Indian and the girl sitting next to him is Latina. It’s cool to have a familiar story told with slight differences like this one does.
The girl asks him for help with her computer. He fixes her problem and she asks to get his number so they can keep in touch. She is very pretty. He couldn’t resist calling her, so he invited her to a play and she agreed. (more…)
I discovered We Arrive Alive from the Girl Band bandcamp site (it says the bands are friends). They are from County Wicklow and play very cool post rock instrumentals. They have three EPs, all of which are available for free on their bandcamp site.
Their first is called Walls. The opening song “Walls” has fast guitar with a slinky Sleater-Kinney kind of guitar progression. Unlike S-K, there is bass and no vocals. The middle section feels like any number of post-rock instrumentalists like Explosions in the Sky. But it’s not derivative–it’s expansive and beautiful. “Save Me from the Morning” is a much faster song with a more intricate bassline underneath the guitar riffs. The structure of the song makes it seem more like a conventional song (ie one with words). But there are no words, and the guitars fill in very nicely for where vocals might appear. But 90 seconds in, the songs switches gears and becomes a bit more jazzy. Then around 3 minutes the bass takes over with big loud notes—it’s a great transition. There’s yet another part, a quiet section, that ends the song. That’s a lot of music packed into 6 and a half minutes.
“This is a City” is the final song. A seven minute slow building instrumental. It starts quietly and the intertwining guitars get louder as they echo more. I love the way at around 5 minutes the song shifts gears entirely to a sort of electronic feel with pinging notes. It ends with a fantastic closing riff.
I’m glad to have discovered these guys, I love a good collection of instrumentals.
[READ: March 17, 2015] A Little Lumpen Novelita
This may be the final extant untranslated book by Roberto Bolaño. Although I have yet to read The Secret of Evil (that fell right off my radar), as far as I can tell, the only things left untranslated are:
Diorama (this book is unpublished at all, so it’s unlikely to be translated anytime soon) AND
Consejos de un discípulo de Morrisona un fanático de Joyce, 1984 [Advice from a Morrison Disciple to a Joyce Fanatic] which has yet to be translated and I don’t know why, so I assume it never will be.
I don’t fully understand the use of the word “Lumpen” in the title, but don’t let that odd word (which is in the Spanish title, so we can’t blame excellent translator Natasha Wimmer) keep you from reading this breezy and entertaining (if not a bit dark) book.
As with many books by Bolaño, there’s not a lot of plot, per se. In this book, a young woman (Bianca) and her brother have been orphaned at a young age. Their parents died in a car crash in Italy (which is where they live). They try to cope as best they can, but they ultimately decide to drop out of school and do nothing except watch a movie a day. Bianca tells her brother that they can’t afford that lifestyle (especially since he just seems to get X-Rated films), but he continues to do so anyway.
They realize that they will need money of course, so Bianca gets a job as a hair washer at a salon. Her brother gets a job cleaning floors at a gym. It seems to be enough for the time being. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-Live at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik (November 8, 2014)
This brief concert finally allows us to see just how Girl Band make their unholy noise. And yes, it is just four guys–guitar (and a whole lot of pedals) bass drums and a vocalist.
“Sexy Wife” has staccato guitars until the real noise kicks in for the chorus (oh, so that’s how he does it). It’s also fun watching the bassist remain largely calm while still playing some unsuaul high notes on his instrument. The drummer doesn’t have any fancy gizmos, but he keeps a steady loud beat. And I love that the singer is quite a pretty fellow in his Oxford shirt and parted hair (but he can scream like the best of them).
“De Bom Bom (their newest single) is just full of noise and more noise (how can you have chords if it’s just staicky noise?) as the bass rumbles along. This song is intense.
“Heckle The Frames” is a noisy chaotic pile of hardcore (and is about 90 seconds long). It’s followed by “I Love You” a cover of the Beat Happening song. For this one, it’s pretty much all bass and drums while the guitarist fiddles with his pedals making a larger wall of noise until he begins playing a ringing open note. I don’t know the original, but I imagine it’s nothing like this.
“Lawman” shows off just how noisy the bassist can be in the opening moments. And his riff, coupled with the noisy riff of the guitar, make for such an enjoyable combination. I love how the song which you assume is over–at about the length of their other songs–suddenly turns into something else altogether–a sort of guitar solo, if you will.
The final song is “The Cha Cha Cha” which is all of 25 seconds. It’s a pretty great set if you like your music noisy.
[READ: March 19, 2015] Blacksad
This book collects the first three Blacksad volumes: Somewhere within the Shadows (2000), Arctic Nation (2002) and Red Soul (2005). I’m only bummed that it took me so long between books to read them. They were translated by Anthya Flores and Patricia Rivera
It’s amazing to see that it takes two or three years between books, but when you look at the visuals, it is completely understandable. The drawings/paintings in these volumes are simply incredibly. They are incredibly realistic with exquisite attention paid to detail. The fact that he can make people with animal heads seem sexy is really a testament to his drawing skills.
Okay so Blacksad is a noirish detective series with a slight twist. John Blacksad is a cat. Well, he is a human shaped person with a cat head. But otherwise he is very much a detective–he is hunky, has smoldering eyes and is a really hard dude. And that first story opens with his former lover dead in her bead. She is so pretty (and colored in pale fleshtones), that one might be hard pressed to see her as a car (except for the ears).
This mystery is personal and John sets out to find out who wanted his former lover dead. (more…)
I enjoyed “Why They Hide They Bodies Under My Garage?” so much that I immediately went to Girl Band’s bandcamp site to check out their other releases.
They have a bunch of EPs and singles out. This was their first one. It’s hard to believe that the band who is so experimental with noise and feedback sounds so different just two short years ago.
I like this single (which is only two songs and which you can get for free from their site), even though it has none of the more noisy elements that would come on later songs). Having said that it’s not like these are sweet ballads. They are plenty noisy, just in a more conventional indie rock vein.
They actually sound a bit like a Steve Albini project–sharp guitars and feedback (and both songs total 5 minutes)–and an aggressive feel like Therapy? perhaps.
“In My Head” has a pretty conventional rhythm section (which unusual guitars) and a rocking chorus that is pretty catchy. By the time the singer starts screaming the chorus the second time around, a lot has been packed into 2 minutes. “Conductor” has a thumping bass line that propels the song while the guitars alternate between ringing dissonant chords and a squealy guitar line. The vocals are almost spoken and sound like someone but i can’t quite place it). And once again, the chorus is strangely catchy under the noise.
But make no mistake this is still an abrasive bunch.
[READ: December 29, 2014] Blacksad: Amarillo
So I see now that this is actually the fifth book in the series, not the third. I’m glad I found the fourth volume before reading this one. I hope to get the first 3 volume set soon. There’s a wonderful introduction by Neal Adams who puts some context and admiration for these guys’ work.
I enjoyed this story a bit more than A Silent Hell (which was really, really dark). The fact that this one is so bright on the cover (and while I thought amarillo meant yellow (which it does) it is also set in Amarillo, Texas.
It opens with two lions–both writers–sitting by a pool. The one writer (who is bigger in general) throws his poetry into the pool out of artistic honesty, while the other sits, aghast. The poet then tries to throw the other writer’s scroll of a novel into the pool as well, but when the novelist talks about his work he did the poet scoffs and says he should think of it not as work but as poetry. They depart with hard feelings between them. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: GIRL BAND-“Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?” (2014).
I first heard about Girl Band from the NPR Austin 100 list. This song blew me away. It is a noisy and unrelenting 8 minutes. It builds and builds into a chaotic tumult. And, amazingly, it is a cover of a dance song.
Girl Band is from Dublin and they make some of the noisiest rock I’ve heard in a long time. Not heavy rumbling death metal noise, but ear-piercing feedback and squalls and sqwaks of sound that are heard to imagine originating with a guitar or bass.
It open with controlled chaos, and clearly some kind of pedal manipulation from the sounds generated by… a guitar?
The lyrics are minimal–a simple repeat of “Why they hide they bodies under my garage?” These lyrics are repeated, more frenetically with the “music” just squeals of feedback and noise. The song doesn’t seem to change much, but there are subtle (if that’s the right word) changes in noise and intensity for four minutes until the song sorta stops and then resumes with even more intensity. It drops out again, but by 6 minutes the song has built to epic intensity, with interesting sounds in between “chants.”
There is pretty much nothing to this song and yet it is amazingly intense. And not for the faint of heart.
This song is from an earlier compilation release but is getting reissued on their soon to be released EP. (You can get a lot of their early stuff from their bandcamp site).
The video is creepy as anything too:
You can also hear the original by Blawan, which is similar without the building intensity, I tend to think that Girl Band has done this song a real service.
[READ: December 20, 2014] Blacksad: A Silent Hell
I had gotten the latest Blacksad book at work, so I looked to see if I could find the earlier editions. I couldn’t find the first book right away so I decided to dive in with this book. It is the second collection, but is apparently the fourth book. The first collection, simply titled Blacksad collects the first three books together. The books were originally written in French and were translated by Katie LaBarbera.
I don’t know how much if any introduction there is in that first book, so there’s no context for why these animals are people or people are animals. And I rather hope there isn’t one. It’s just a great world where everyone looks human except that their heads are a (very realistic) animal shape. In fact speaking of realistic, the artwork by Guarnido is amazing–perfectly noir with incredible realism and gorgeous colors (all done with watercolors, I believe).
This book opens with Blacksad, a private investigator, and Weekly, a reporter, at a strip club. (It is disconcerting that the stripper is a leopard woman and that she is really hot (thankfully, it’s only shown from the back because that would get weird). Weekly is super psyched but Blacksad has other things on his mind. They are supposed to be meeting Junior Harper but he ain’t showing.
The pull back shows that we are in New Orleans. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-CBC Studios (1999, 2000 or 2001).
This is a hard event to document. According to the Rheostatics Live website, this show was broadcast on Sonic 102.9 in 2000, but it appears to be a rebroadcast of a live show that the band recorded at CBC2 Studios in 1999 or, possibly, even in 2001 (according to the link to the video below which states Rheostatics CBC In Session October 26 2001 Just Concerts. Vancouver BC Studio 2, although that may just be a cut up version of the audio–so confusing!).
Whatever the case, the sound of this in-studio live show is tremendous. It is one of the few instances where you can totally hear Dave’s acoustic guitar in the mix.
Kevin Hearn is there too, so they play a number of songs that they might not be able to without him. And Michael Philip Wojewoda is on drums. (This complicates my understanding of the recording too, since Don left in 2001, but MPW often played with them anyway).
The audio version contains eight songs and two interview segments. The interviews are funny (of course) and informative (although Tim sounds totally high), but it’s the music which is the highlight.
They play “Wieners and Beans,” “Martin’s Waltz (Blue Hysteria)” and “Kevin’s Waltz” form Music Inspired by the Group of 7. They play “Easy to Be with You” “Monkeybird” and “Song of the Garden” from Harmelodia and then “Stolen Car” and “P.I.N.” as “new” songs.
The video below (which is the best video version of these recordings I’ve seen) has “Song Of The Garden” “Easy To Be With You” “Martin’s Waltz (Blue Hysteria)” “Stolen Car” and “Wieners and Beans.” No word where the other three songs went. But I love watching the video to see the way Martin makes the crazy sounds out of that little Steinberger guitar.
This is the last Rheostatics show I have for 2000. I’ll be resuming with some shows from 2001, including Don Kerr’s final shows in a few months.
[READ: March 9, 2015]: “Two Parts”
I have only read two things by Dixon–the two McSweeney’s-released books I and End of I.
This story is a reflective look at regrets and decisions. It is told, as you might guess, in two parts. He asks if he should start with his father or with Lotte. He decides to start with his father. He says he was thinking about something and he decided to talk at Abby about it. This framing device is used throughout the story.
The story about his father is from back when he was about ten and his father was about 51. His father had always been in good health, but he had a temper. Especially when it came to the narrator. And while the father never hit the narrator with his hand, he did whack him with a rolled up newspaper. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Centennial Square, Victoria, BC (July 18 2001).
This concert was a free outdoor show outside of City Hall in Victoria. It was in the afternoon and the band also played a paid show later that night. How interesting. They even joke at the end wondering if anyone will be coming to their show that night. Someone asks if it will be the same songs and Dave says yes, and same sweat too. They have a good rapport with the audience (the fact that it is outside makes the crowd sound really tiny although I imagine it wasn’t).
I Just Read About That... 