SOUNDTRACK: THE DOUBLECLICKS-Pirates! The PPDXYAR EP (2012).
I wanted to explore more of The Doubleclicks’ music, and their site showed off this EP. It was made for Talk Like a Pirate Day (you’re already sold, right?) and EP is a tribute to the Portland Pirate crew of PDXYAR (whatever that is). The first song is “The Pirates of PDXYAR highlights what I’ve come to understand is the real Doubleclicks sound: ukulele and cello. But this one also has a host of backing vocals (make and female). The song is all about the pirates of PDXYAR and how they came to be and how the represent Portland.
The second song “How Not to Touch a Pirate” is a simpler song which insists that, tempting as it may seem, you should NOT be touching any of the pirates (this seems like a real inside joke). Its amusing and would probably be funnier if I knew more about PDXYAR. And oops, this song even has an F-bomb at the end–watch out!
The final track is a remix of “The Pirates of PDXYAR, ” And mostly it allows more funny backing vocals. It’s a better, funnier track because of it.
I’m not sold on The Doubleclicks yet. I like them, but I think more in small doses.
So it turns out that PDXYAR is a Portland-based pirate crew, which you can read about on their website. The lyrics to the song seem to explain the origins of the pirates (kickstarter). Frankly, I don’t know why the pirates (and the Doubleclicks) haven’t appeared on Portlandia yet.
[READ: February 7, 2013] Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures 2
Volume 2 of Alison Dare is just as fun as Volume 1. Although I admit the first story was a little confusing (I was never really sure exactly how these books were published originally, so it wasn’t clear that the first few stories were connected. Although in retrospect it seems obvious enough.
In the first story, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” it’s obvious that Alison doesn’t have much in the way of the excitement that girls expect from her. So she makes up an elaborate story which all of the girls (except her two close friends) find wonderful In “The Unbelievable Truth” we see what really happened (and we see that Alison’s story wasn’t far off, but that details make all the difference).
In “The Perfect Gift” the Blue Scarab (aka Alison’s dad) searches for the perfect gift for his daughter. But that proves harder than he thought, especially when she accidentally takes a precious jewel that he has recovered in a mission. In “A Day at the Museum” the girls open something they shouldn’t and unleash a plague. This ties to the previous story in an unexpected way. And in “The Gift Exchange” the previous two stories come together for a satisfying conclusion. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: GARBAGE-Not Your Kind of People (2012).
After Bleed, I had basically given up on Garbage. And they had given up as well, so it made the breakup easier. For seven years they stayed away, but in 2012 the band reunited and released Not Your Kind of People. I wasn’t planning to get it–two great albums and two very mediocre albums l leave a listener with a tough decision But I heard good things–a return to form, less dance more rock and I gave in.
And it was a good choice. The slickness is still there, which makes sense given who we are dealing with, but it feels more powerful than recent albums and, even better, Manson seems angrier which always makes her vocals better.
“Big Bright World” could have been a hit (for a new band) although it’s a little generic. “Blood for Poppies” returns to that good grungy guitar sound and yet with its “Wo Ho Ohs” it also has pop song trappings. “Control” is big and loud with some interesting sounds thrown on top. It’s probably the closest to 2.0 Even the chorus is very old school Garbage, something they seemed to shy away from on the last two albums.
“Not Your Kind of People is a slow ballady type song but it stands above their recent ballads–the song is cleaner and darker, much more interesting. And given how sweet the backing vocals of the chorus sound, I’m surprised I like it as much I do. “Felt” has a real “Stupid Girl” feel to it, except for the poppy bridge. I don’t like the end where she repeats the Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh bit, but that’s just something I dislike about pop music in general. “I Hate Love” brings in all of the glitches and electronics that the band uses so effectively, and despite the retro-90s feel of that, it really adds to the music. “Sugar” is a beautiful slow song. The kind that, when they do it well, sounds great.
“Battle in Me” is almost a great song. The guitar builds and then stops short–it worked so well on “Supervixen” but sounds just too sterile here–the technology too crisp or something But “Man on a Wire” does everything right–the guitars, Shirley’s screaming/singing, the rough guitars–it’s a shame this is buried so far down on the album. “Beloved Freak” is a nice closer although as I complained from “Special” quoting someone else’s song in your song is cool once, but dong it again sounds lazy. So here we get her ending the song with a line from “This Little light of Mine” which doesn’t work and rather than making you smile like it did on Special it makes you go, “Huh?” Plus as anyone who ever wrote a paper knows, never end with someone else’s words!
Still, this is a nice return to creative excitement from the band. And while it never reaches the majesty of their first two albums it comes close to some of their past glories.
[READ: February 1, 2013] The ElseWhere Chronicles Book Four and Five
After a hiatus, Bannister & Nykko return with what feels like a new version of The Elsewhere Chronicles. The look of the art is slightly different. It’s clearly the same artist but the lines and angles look a little different on the characters–just a wee bit harsher. It’s odd. But it shows that things are a little different now.
The setting is nine moths after the end of book three. Max has not spoken to any of the others since the lat book when his mother slapped him. Indeed, he’s been hanging around with his brother and his brother’s friends who are no good (especially to Max). But Theo and Noah had rescued a bunch of things from Grandpa Gabe’s house. They stored them safely somewhere before the house was demolished. Meanwhile, Rebecca has been ill and hasn’t seen any of them. She believes that the illness was caused in the other world and knows she needs to return there to get better.
Max is having a hard time with his new gang They don’t respect him at all and he actually hates hanging around with them all. In fact they just kicked him out of their gang and he is sulking when he believes he sees Rebecca. Could she really have returned? He follows her as she goes to her grandpa’s house. She starts to break down when she sees that it was demolished. She’s about to despair when and old friend sees her and gives her comfort.
Noah and Theo show her that they have Gabe’s possessions. And they show her that the have figured out how to use the machine. So they reactivate the passageway and the three of them return to the other world. Before we can really see what happens over there, Max heads off to the hiding place. He also passes through the passageway where he runs into Gabe who (after threatening to kill Max) offers to drive him to where Rebecca and the boys must be.
They arrive just as Rebecca and friends sneak into a cave. Gabe says that the cave leads to nothing but danger. And as the book ends, we see that that is true…. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE AMOEBA PEOPLE-“The Geologists Are Coming” (2012).
This is, “a special audio poem from The Amoeba People in honor of those hard-working scientists who carry tiny hammers and chip at the crust.” It’s a very simple rap and drum song about Geologists (of course). The middle section gives a nice alphabetic breakdown of the letters of the word.
But the best part of the song is clearly the chorus which is very very catchy.
The problems (such as they are) with the song are these: it’s very very short (under two minutes) and it could use some extra kind of musical sound to it–maybe a five minute version with guitars is in order. But, even without the guitars, the song is fun to sing along to:
[READ: January 21, 2013] The ElseWhere Chronicles Book Three
Had I known that the series would come to a major halt with book three (and then resume a year later) I would have included Book Three with 1 & 2. As it stands, Book Three gives what would be a decent but unsatisfying conclusion to the story, although since it ends with The End…? readers may have been not too upset by the conclusion.
The book opens with Rebecca, Max, Noah, and Theo are reunited and taking pictures of themselves in their elsewhere location (although the one just shows them on a beach–not really proof of anything otherworldly (other photos do show otherworldly scenes). They find a boat and sail across the sea. But in the process their mynah bird (the one who alerts them to t he presence of danger) is killed by a seagull.
They land in a village where thy are given gifts (we later see a statue that looks a lot like Rebecca o their grounds). They find their way to a cave where Grandpa Gabe had a lot of his supplies (and which was currently inhabited by a very large and scary creature. They find a map and instructions about how to jump between worlds. But that night they are attacked by the Shadow Creatures and even see the Master of Shadows himself. During the confrontation Doleann returns to assist but Ilvanna, recognizing someone in the shadow spirit, embraces it, which kills her instantly. Doleann says that Minervale the dragon is about to give birth to two dragons, which will help in their fight against the Master of Shadows. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: FIONA APPLE-The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do [bonus DVD] (2012).
The deluxe package of The Idler Wheel comes with a bonus DVD. It also comes with a ton of idle scratchings from Fiona–lyrics, artwork (which is weird but good), postcards and all manner of things. I wasn’t particularly interested in that stuff, although I am pleasantly surprised by her drawing skills. Mostly I wanted to check out the DVD.
So the DVD is actually a five song concert excerpt from SXSW filmed by NPR. I have to assume that the show was more than these five songs (because there are breaks in the video and because there’s no way she would do just five songs). Also, the NPR page for the show says she played a few different songs from Idler Wheel. There’s audio for the show on the site (three of the five songs) which kind of makes the DVD extraneous, except that you get to watch her perform.
When Fiona was younger there was much talk of her videos being too sexualized. And I suppose “Criminal” fit that bill. As such, she has become something of a visual artist by virtue of her body. I’d always thought that she was too skinny, but she seems even more so now. And yet for all the waifiness of her (are you still a waif when you’re 35?), her voice is till strong and powerful and she can belt the hell out of a song (perhaps with a little too much forced vibrato at times).
She seems a little at a loss when she’s in that awkward frontwoman space (my guitarist is playing a rocking solo–what do I do?). She dances somewhat (which NPR describes as confidently but I read as awkwardly, huh).
In this live setting the songs take on a new, looser feel. As I mentioned, the guitarist really lets loose (and he sounds great–there’s even one moment when Fiona walks over to the piano and leans on it to watch the guitarist jam). The band sounds great together and yes Fiona sounds great too.
I actually saw Fiona live in Boston on the tour for her debut album. Unfortunately, the place was mobbed with tweeny girls (was that her target market?) who screamed and shrieked through the whole set. It was one of the worst shows I’d ever seen, through no fault of the performer, who I honestly don’t remember at all. I’ll bet without the devoted screamers the show would have been as interesting as this one seems like it was.
Tracks on the DVD include “Fast As You Can,” “A Mistake,” “Anything We Want,” “Sleep To Dream” and “Every Single Night.” On the NPR page you can hear “Fast As You Can,” “A Mistake,” and “Every Single Night” as well as “Extraordinary Machine” (on which she hits some amazing high notes!). There’s no “Sleep to Dream” (which has a very different style than on the record–I almost didn’t recognize it) or “Anything We Want” which sounds great live, especially since she (presumably) plays the introductory percussion (which I assume is looped?) on some strange object. This was the first time most of us had heard “Every Single Night” and I remember thinking it sounded good but so uncomplicated that I was worried that the album would be a little…flat. Boy was I wrong. And now hearing it again, I can hear just how subtle and complex the song is.
[READ: January 28, 2013] Her Mother’s Face
This was Roddy Doyle’s first picture book (you can see that once I found out that he had written children’s books I had to get them all from the library). I read this after Greyhound of Girl, and assumed that it was a slimmed down version of Greyhound. But now that I see that this came first I’m inclined to believe that this book was the inspiration for Greyhound.
Many of the basic details are the same as Greyhound–a girl whose mother died when she was three years old; a ghost visits her and gives her solace. That may not seem like a lot of similarity but in terms of plot that’s really all both books have (it’s the details that really make both stories).
But they are very different books meant for different audiences. Face is a picture book and the illustrations by Freya Blackwood are simply gorgeous. Really they are quite mesmerizing in their beauty. I read it to myself and decided that it’s not really meant for my kids. Neither of them are really old enough to get it (and the death of the mom at age three might lead to more questions than I need to answer at the moment).
It’s wordy for a picture book and it doesn’t have much of Doyle’s humor in it. This is serious book. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: SCRUBS-“Everything Comes Down to Poo” (2007).
In season 7 of Scrubs, they created a musical episode (trendy yes, but pretty much always funny) called “My Musical.” One of the highlights was the song “Everything Comes Down to Poo” in which Turk and JD sing to a patient that they need a stool sample. The song is full of a ton of different terms for poo and where it comes out (and it’s all rated PG).
It’s very funny and quite clever, given the subject. Who doesn’t love seeing a chorus of doctors and nurses high kicking down a hospital corridor singing “Everything comes down to poo.”
Enjoy:
[READ: January 30, 2013] The Giggler Treatment
Who knew that Roddy Doyle, humorist of Barrytown and very serious chronicler of women’s pain would write an outrageously silly children’s book about dog poo? I don’t know what prompted him to write this book (he has written several children’s books since), but he manages the chapter book format with aplomb and a slight (hilarious) disrespect for the genre.
So The Giggler Treatment is structured in a manner not unlike Nicholson Baker’s early novels in that pretty much all of the action takes place over the span of about a minute. Mister Mack is about to step in a huge pile of dog poo. And the story flashes around to different pieces of information as we watch with bated breath for his shoe to inch its way closer to fate.
Mister Mack is a decent bloke, a good father, a hardworking biscuit taster (a different biscuit every day from the factory where he works). [Incidentally, I assume that these details are extra for the American edition, but Doyle includes a warning that explains that biscuits are what they call cookies in Ireland. There’s also a hilarious glossary which translate rudies, bums, knickers and other things for young U.S readers.] Mister Mack is on his way to work, but is distracted by a talking seagull (who hates fish) and while his head is turned his foot is headed right Rover’s poo. (more…)
This song is a loving tribute to crunchy, loving hippie moms (“granola making yoga taking,” “I love to watch her twirl and sing. She loves me more than anything.”) While the song definitely teases some of the clichés of a hippie mom, it is a sweet, happy song.
It’s got a kind of rockabilly sound that makes you want to tap your feet and sing along. I’d not hear of Big Bang Boom before, but I need to hear more from them.
[READ: January 28, 2013] A Greyhound of a Girl
After reading Doyle’s story in McSweeney’s recently I checked out to see what he had been up to. I had no idea he had written a series of children’s books. And this one was the most recent (and the library had it!), so I had to see what Mr Doyle could do for kids.
Well, this is an extremely heartwarming and sad story about four generations of Irish women. It’s delightfully simple with very few characters. And for that, it packs a wallop.
Mary is a twelve-year-old girl living in Dublin. She has two brothers, who don’t really enter the story but I mention them since their names are Killer and Dommo. Mary’s best friend, Ava, has just moved away and she is devastated. On the way home from school–the way she usually walks with Ava, an old woman–well, she’s actually young, like a young adult, but she is dressed old and talks like her granny–asks about her gran. Her gran, Emer, is in the hospital. She’s very old and is clearly not long for the world.
Mary tells her mother, Scarlett, about the old woman and how the old woman seemed to know her gran. She’d said her name was Tansey. Scarlett is taken aback. She explains that Emer’s mother was named Tansey, and isn’t that a weird coincidence. Then, we flashback and learn the history of this family. Tansey died when Emer was but three years old. Tansey’s mother helped to raise Emer and her baby brother with their father. Later, Emer gave birth to Scarlett, and 12 years ago Scarlett had Mary. We learn about the farm that Emer grew up on and how she hated the greyhounds that her father raised for racing–they were too skinny and pointy. (more…)
For a band named Fucked Up, they make music that is surprisingly catchy. Of course, as befits their name, they also have a pretty aggressive punk sound with lots of drums and loud guitars. But many of the guitar lines and choruses are surprisingly melodic. And then comes singer Pink Eyes. He screams in a gravelly, rough, cookie-monster type voice (although he is mixed lowish in the mix so he doesn’t often overpower the music). Despite the fact that most of the words are indecipherable, he also have a good sense of melody.
So how does a band that plays distorted hardcore punk with a barely comprehensible singer decide to make a 78 minute concept album? Beats me. But guitarist 10,000 Marbles has written a pretty solid collection of songs. Of course, it also beats me exactly what the concept is. According to allmusic the plot is: In the fictional town of Byrdesdale Spa UK, David has a humdrum life working at a light bulb factory, and finds an escape by falling in love with a communist rebel rouser, only to find out later that she has died in a terrorist bombing and that he has a lot of emotional turmoil to face.
I’ve listened to the disc a dozen or so times and never got that plot. I even followed along with the lyric sheet and never got that plot. Part of the reason may be that Pink Eyes sings all of the parts in the same way, so it’s really hard to notice that there are different characters (like Veronica) in the story. While it is fascinating to hear a really catchy choruses sung by someone who is kind of scary, it doesn’t do a lot for the story. The other odd thing is when Mustard Gas provides female backing vocals–they are sweet and pretty–a drastic counterpoint to the noise that Pink Eyes makes. But she only comes in on a few songs. I wish she did more.
There are some really great songs on this disc. Song two, “Queen of Hearts” has some incredibly catchy sections. And the “dying on the inside” harmony in “The Other Shoe” compliments the grizzly “It can’t be comfortable when you know the whole thing is about to fall” very nicely. The b vox are also great in “Turn the Season.” I find myself singing the “Hello my name is David, your name is Veronica. Let’s be together. Let’s fall in love” section over and over. It’s surprisingly sweet when sung by such a voice.
Since this is a concept album (or rock opera I suppose), there’s things like the nearly two-minute instrumental intro to “Remember My Name” which doesn’t fit with the rest of the song but is really catchy. There’s also a kind of introductory “theme” that crops up in the album. Fucked Up confound you at ever turn with beautiful melodies that morph into noisy punk.
By the middle of the disc (where I gather David is a low point), there’s some really loud heavy songs. Amid the pummeling noise, there’s some nice acoustic guitar in “A Slanted Tone” and some very cool rumbling drums and bass that propel “Serve Me Right.” These songs help to break up the flow nicely. “Life in Paper” which is near the half way point opens with the same staccato notes as the disc itself, and it proves to be a very catchy song in which David asks “Who can I trust?”
The second half of the disc continues with the more catchy style with “Ship of Fools.” But as the story nears the end, it starts to feel very samey. There’s a few breaks, but it’s a hard row to hoe. There is redemption in the end, but you still feel exhausted. Perhaps 78 minutes of Fucked Up is too much. For some listeners even 5 minutes will be too much. Despite the accolades (and they received a lot), you won’t be hearing this one the radio (and not because the DJs couldn’t say their name).
And yet amid all of the noise, there are some really shiny gems. They have even released four music videos for the album! The first one, “Queen of Hearts” is especially cool as the video is set in a classroom and the kids sing all the parts (after a nearly two-minute spoken intro of the song. I admit to not having any idea what’s actually happening in the video, but it’s still cool.
[READ: January 26, 2013] An Extraordinary Theory of Objects
This is a strange little book. It was another one that I saw while waiting online at the library. I was attracted to the cover (I know, don’t judge… but honestly, you can tell a little bit about a book by the way it is marketed. And this was marketed at me.) It’s a small book with a stark cover and interesting drawings on it. And then there’s the unusual title.
The book was only 180 pages (plus notes and a bibliography) and it was chock full of pictures. I mean, this thing can be polished off in an afternoon.
And here’s what it’s about. Well, let me modify that. Here’s what’s in the book. Stephanie is a young girl when her family moves to France (for her father’s work). She has always felt like an outsider and now feels even more so in France. She is introverted and spends a lot of her time in books. Then she moves back to America and reflects on her childhood.
Yeah, that’s about it. For here’s the thing, Lacava isn’t famous and she hasn’t done anything that you might have heard of. She’s just a person who went to France as a kid. The introduction kind of gives you some reason as to why you should read the book. Lacava was a sad and miserable child and she took refuge in objects–not as a collector so much as an admirer. On her windowsill she has collected various geegaws that she treasured (and which she brought from America in her carry on, they were so precious). And she has this interesting relationship with objects. Although, as with many things in the book, that relationship is not really delved into very much. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE BOARD OF EDUCATION-“Know Your Inventors, Part I” (2008).
I enjoyed yesterday’s Board of Education song so much I wanted to listen to more. So I went back to their first album for this song whose title intrigued me. To my surprise, the song is very slow, a languid kid’s song? Of course, this being a kid’s song, it does run through a series of styles. The song picks up the pace some, then throws in a waltz, a little disco and a mildly catchy chorus (all in three minutes).
The song is about the inventor of pavement (“nobody knows his name”): William W. Averell, and it’s informative and kind of funny.
It’s not nearly as catchy as yesterday’s song, but it has moments of joy. I now wonder if this is a different sound for the band on their first album or if all of their songs sound different.
[READ: January 21, 2013] The ElseWhere Chronicles Books One & Two
I found this series at the library–Book One was prominently displayed and it looked really interesting. The artwork on the cover (and inside, it turns out) was really compelling–simple lines (little white circles for eyes for some of the characters) and a bunch of kids looking scared–what more could you want?
So it turns out that Book One is cool, but Book Two is amazing.
In Book One, Max Theo and Noah are watching a funeral (well, they are sitting in a graveyard) for Old Man Gabe, a local eccentric who lives in a haunted house. Meanwhile, a young girl, Rebecca, is with her family watching them bury her Grandpa Gabe. (I don’t know if this is significant, but Rebecca is black and her parents/guardians are white with two white children, but nothing is made of this in book one except that someone points out that she is black. She says she was adopted, and that’s that). She never met Gabe (and neither did her father–who has a hip soul patch).
Rebecca wants to explore Gabe’s house–she is not afraid of it being haunted (there’s wonderful surprises as they tread through the building). But all of the rooms are strangely empty. Except the library which is full of books, including some written by Gabe. There is talk of demolishing the house, and Rebecca is now determined to save the books. But the kids also discover a kind of movie projector. And when they turn it on it opens a kind of portal. And Rebecca gets sucked into it.
The boys eventually get her out–she says it was locked from her side and she looks awful. But before they can lock it again, she is grabbed by something from the other world and dragged back in. Max jumps through the portal to save her and they are both trapped in this new world. The reason I said book 1 wasn’t as good as 2 is because the world they go into is dark with lots of shadows and hard to see things. It’s scary (but not really) but not very easy to figure out what’s happening.
Then they run into an old man (who speaks English and a young girl (who doesn’t) . They assume he is Grandpa Gabe, but he later claims he is not, he is Norgavol and he explains this world to them. A little. (more…)
Matisyahu was something of a novelty when he appeared in 2004–a Hasid who performed dancehall reggae. And yes, it does look very strange. But he is quite adept at the style. And lyrically it works really well. Reggae is (often) a very spiritual music so Matisyahu’s own spiritualism works with the beats he lays down. Instead of Jah, we hear about Egypt and Pharaoahs. And the “scatting” that he does is like the scatting found in more typical reggae but it has a more Middle Eastern feel. It’s a neat concept and well executed.
This is not a style of music that I like a lot (one song is usually enough for me), but I really like the sound he has conjured. It’s clear that he transcends the novelty and is a genuine fan of the music. It’s an interesting way to expand people’s horizons (on both sides).
Interestingly, in 2011, Matisyahu shaved off his beard and dropped his Orthodoxy. He is still spiritual, but without the trappings of his faith. Fascinating. Here’s a before and after photo.
[READ: January 18, 2012] Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
I enjoyed the second book in this series quite a lot. So I found the first one to read too. Who can pass up a book subtitled: Yet another troll-fighting 11 year-old Orthodox Jewish girl. I had said that you didn’t need the first one to enjoy the second one. And that’s true, although I now know that the first one would have laid down a foundation for me to enjoy the second one even more.
What is neat about this story is that there isn’t a lot of exposition up front. We learn that Mirka is an 11-year-old Orthodox Jew living with her family (which contains many siblings). She is a little wild and not interested in being “good.” She’s not bad at all, just spirited–she really wants to fight a dragon. It’s not until later in the story that we learn that she has a stepmother (unless that is obvious to Orthodox readers from the way Mirka addresses her) and that there may actually be dragons in this world.
The book presents Orthodox life and its day to day realities. It doesn’t explain or justify the details, it just shows them (with occasional translations of Yiddish terms). Although it must be admitted that Hereville, where the family lives, is a bit unlike other communities. Everyone who lives there is Orthodox and non-Orthodox reading materials are not permitted. And indeed, when a pig shows up, the children don’t know what it is. (more…)
Elfin Saddle continues their streak of oddly juxtaposed music that works very well. The band specializes in a kind of Middle Eastern folk music (there’s a lot of Jewish-style singing), but with Emi Honda singing Japanese-style vocals it really alters the overall sound. They also use a lot of raw sounding “instruments” many of which are found or quite simply, junk. Check out the instrumentation list: Jordan McKenzie: voice, guitar, half-accordion, drums, varied percussion, membrane pipes, organs, piano, pvc processing, tapes, phonographs, speakers, etc. Emi Honda: voice, ukulele, drums, half-accordion, musical saw, extra percussion. It’s that extra percussion and etc. that you hear a lot, rattling around in the background of these songs.
They play complex rhythms (with lots of low end drumming) underneath ethereal noises (music boxes and the like). And all the while, Honda and McKenzie trade off their unusual vocals. It’s mesmerizing. When the band really starts rocking, like in “The Changing Wind” you hear how well it all works together, and how well the two play off each other. The slower pieces, like “Boats” are very cinematic, probably because everything sounds so real–you can see the items that are making these odd sounds.
The music is definitely not pop, but with just a listen or two, you can really appreciate what they’re doing. If you like your folk a little noisy or your rock a little experimental, this is a great record to check out.
[READ: January 13, 2013] The Seamstress and the Wind
Things that I have said about every book of Aira’s that I have read: they are all short, he writes a lot of books (according to Wikipedia he has written at least 45 books since this one came out about twenty years ago), and they are all nonlinear.
And so it is with this 130 page book.
As the book opens, a young boy named César Aira is playing with his friend in the back of their neighbor Chiquito’s truck. They are playing a game of ghosts when suddenly, César finds himself walking in a trance back to his house. Turns out his friend Omar couldn’t find him for hours (and when César snaps out of it, indeed hours have passed). And yet, despite this story, it turns out that really Omar is missing (what? who knows?). Omar is the son of the local seamstress, Delia Siffoni. She is sewing a wedding dress for the art teacher, Silvia, who is (scandalously) pregnant. When she hears that her son is missing, she freaks out and calls out a search party.
She concludes that Omar was hiding in Chiquito’s truck when he left for Patagonia. So she takes a taxi to chase after Chiquito. Since the dress is due to be finished right away, she takes it and her supplies with her in hopes of finishing it on the road. When Ramón, Delia’s husband realizes what she has done, he chases after her. And when Silvia realizes that her dress is driving away in a taxi she follows Ramón. And so it becomes a road novel in which none of the characters are together.
By the end of the story there has been a terrible accident with a taxi crashing into a truck. There has been a poker game where one of the two women has been lost in a bet (unbeknownst to her) and we have met The Wind (Sir Ventarrón) who helps the seamstress with her problems. Indeed, Sir Ventarrón becomes an integral part of the story, including a flashback when Sir Ventarrón assisted a snowman in his quest for eternal life (yes). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE DOUBLECLICKS-Pirates! The PPDXYAR EP (2012).
I wanted to explore more of The Doubleclicks’ music, and their site showed off this EP. It was made for Talk Like a Pirate Day (you’re already sold, right?) and EP is a tribute to the Portland Pirate crew of PDXYAR (whatever that is). The first song is “The Pirates of PDXYAR highlights what I’ve come to understand is the real Doubleclicks sound: ukulele and cello. But this one also has a host of backing vocals (make and female). The song is all about the pirates of PDXYAR and how they came to be and how the represent Portland.
I Just Read About That... 