Happyness are a trio from London: Benji Compston (guitar), Jonny Allan (bass) and Ash Cooper Drums). They play mellow Britpop with rather clever lyrics.
The first song “Montreal Rock Band Somewhere” opens with a steady bass line and smatterings of guitar chords. And when the guys sing, Benji sings into a normal mic in a kind of deep whisper and the Jonny sings into a processed mic to make his voice sound kind of tinny (in harmony). And the lyrics are great. I like when the second chorus comes in and the processed vocals go up an octave for a really cool harmony effect. And I mentioned the lyrics. Here’s an interesting verse:
I’m wearing Win Butler’s hair / There’s a scalpless singer of a Montreal rock band somewhere / And he’s all right
Before the second song starts, they have a bit of fun while Benji tunes his guitar. Everyone is standing around awkwardly and Benji tells Jonny to tell his whale joke. Jonny says no and that it’s not his whale joke he took it off the internet and would like to put it back.
For the second song, “It’s On You” the guys switch places (it was suave, kind of Bob Fosse-ish). Benji sings into the processed microphone. The song also has some busy basslines but the guitar is more pronounced. Hearing him sing in that processed tinny voice is really interesting. More interesting lyrics: “You said I’m an anarchist, communist, feminist phlebotomist.”
Before the final song, they switch places again. Benji says he’s “not the most flexible boy in this collection of people.” “Who is?” “Definitely [the bassist].” Bob asks, “Who tells the best jokes?” “Unintentionally [the drummer] Jonny says to the drummer: “You could do the whale joke… don’t do the whale joke.”
The final song, “Weird Little Birthday Girl” is nearly 8 minutes long. It opens with a cool bass riff and some lovely overlapping guitars. There’s a nearly three-minute instrumental opening and when Jonny starts singing it has a distinctly Wilco quality (partly because oft he processing on his voice but also his delicate singing). There’s a nice shout out to Prefab Sprout in the lyrics:
Its so easy to replace it / some things hurt more much more than cars and girls / an evening in an iron maiden / a morning in your funny little world.
I really enjoyed this set a lot and I’m intrigued that their album (on bandcamp) has some really short songs too. I wonder if their sound is different on the record. Guess I’ll have to give it a listen.
[READ: July 12, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980
I foolishly thought that this book would play up the idea of moving into a new decade. But as I should have learned from years past, Schulz doesn’t really care about when it is. His strip is mostly timeless. There are of course references to time passing, but they are very minor. So, on New Years when it turns 1980, the strip heading says 1980, but there’s no other mention of it.
It’s also interesting how some things that he’s talked about in the past cycle again–many many years later. In January 1979 Peppermint Patty is on a quest for a library card (we saw Sally get one like 5 years ago). She says that once she gets one she wont leave home without it. Marcie says Karl Malden will be happy to hear it. This is a reference to a an American Express card commercial that I remember hearing all the time when I was a kid (although I had o idea it was Malden doing it). She also get a very funny line about junk food: “Life is more than carrot sticks, Marcie…what is a stomach that’s expecting a chocolate bar going to say when it gets a carrot stick?”
The World War I Flying Ace never really went away, but it seems to be making a resurgence in this year, with Snoopy wandering around speaking French and then later German to all the young ladies. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: LAND LINES-Tiny Desk Concert #494 (December 11, 2015).
Land Lines are a trio from Denver. They have a drummer, a synth player and a cellist/lead singer. Although their music is pretty spare and simple, I find them really compelling.
On “Wreckage,” Martina Grbac plays the cello with her fingers, strumming chords on the neck of the instruments in a way I’ve not seen anyone play before. Grbac sings quietly and her voice–echoing and effects-laden–reminds me of someone from the 1990s, although I can’t exactly pinpoint it (maybe a Cocteau Twins vibe? but not quite). James Han plays really interesting chords and textures on the keyboard. Sometimes he adds melody lines, and other times, like at the end of this song, growing washes of sounds. Ross Harada’s percussion is also fun for the complex and different sounds he adds to the songs.
“Anniversary” has a similar vibe withe that cello chord playing. The opening keys play simple echoing notes which add a nice atmosphere to the acoustic chords and percussion.
For the final song, “Fall or Fall,” Grbac plays a rapidly bowed cello (which has such a different sound than the other songs). The bass is provided by the synth (a good sounding bass). I love the way her voice contrasts the keyboard chords. The chord progressions throughout the song are interesting and I really like the unexpected sounds that close out the song.
I’d never heard of Land Lines, but I liked this show enough to listen to it a bunch of times. I’ll have to check out their other songs as well.
[READ: July 9, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978
I feel like this era is when I would have read Peanuts the most, although I have no recollection of any of these strips.
The covers of the books don’t necessarily depict who will be prominent in the collection, but Peppermint Patty on the front does equal a lot of Patty inside. While Peppermint Patty continues to do very poorly in school, she does get some witty remarks like “What was the author’s purpose in writing this story? Maybe he needed the money.”
We see a return of Truffles in January which also introduces Sally calling Linus her Sweet Babboo for the first time. “I’m not your Sweet Babboo!” Truffles is very excited to see Linus and vice versa but it kind of ends with unanswered questions because, in one of the first times this surreal gag was introduced, Snoopy flies in as a helicopter–a joke used many more times in the future–to sort of interrupt the whole saga.
Snoopy also pretends to be the Cheshire Cat a few times.
It has been a while since Linus has built anything outstanding (something he used to do a lot as a precocious child). Well, in Feb 1977 he builds a snowman of Washington crossing the Delaware (to show up Lucy’s George Washington snowman with a little sword). (more…)
Eskimeaux is Gabrielle Smith, who is the keyboardist in Bellows, a band that played a Tiny Desk Concert just a few months before this one. As far as her stage name,
as an adopted child, Smith discovered that her biological father is Tlingit Eskimo; she describes the -eaux suffix as “just a playful jumble of letters that represents the way I record — a confusing layering of sounds that somehow coalesce into something simple.”.
Smith sings three songs in less than ten minutes. She has a pretty, unaffected voice–just clean and clear vocals. For the first two songs it’s just her and her guitar
“Folly” is a simple song as you might expect from just a strummed electric guitar. But there’s something about the way she sings her lines in a series of rising notes that is really inviting. She also has a nice way with words. Like:
In my dreams you’re a bathtub running / You are warm and tender / And bubbling
“A Hug Too Long” is a faster song with a simple but interesting guitar riff that’s followed by a simple but interesting vocal melody. Again, her clear voice fits perfectly with the music. It features the intriguing chorus: “You went to work, I went to New Brunswick.”
Her final song is “I Admit I’m Scared.” She has her bandmates from Bellows come out to sing with her. There’s no extra instrumentation, but Smith sings in a slightly deeper register and Bellows fleshes out sections of the song (they even do a kind of deadpan synchronized move after each chorus). Another great line of hers is: “And everything I said spewed like sparklers from my mouth. They looked pretty as they flew but now they’re useless and burnt out.” As the song ends, everyone sings louder “If I had a dime for every time I’m freaking out” which leads to a dramatic climax before the final resolution: “We could fly around the world / Or just get out of your parents’ house.”
Bob jokes at the end that they can come back any time with a new band. She says they have five other bands (including Told Slant and Small Wonder). He says “you could come in every Tuesday.”
Bellows isn’t that different from Eskimeaux in style–pretty, quiet songs that are articulate and almost deadpan. But having Smith sing (and presumably write) changes the way the style is created. Which is pretty cool.
[READ: June 8, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976
I really enjoyed this book a lot. In the introduction, Robert Smigel talks about how it seems like in this era, Schulz turned a corner a bit to become more absurd. The jokes are sillier, with new characters and some crazy ideas–like talking buildings, pitching mounds and body parts. He wonders if it was Schulz’ happy marriage or just a desire to take some chances rather than repeating himself. But whatever the case, the book is really fun. I especially love the Peppermint Patty/Marcie strips in which Schulz just seems to be having a great time. I also love all of the jokes with Sally in which she makes herself laugh with some awful puns–I just imagine Schulz cracking himself up and not being able to wait to draw the strips.
But for all of the newness of the strips, Peanuts is always seasonal. So 1975 beings with ice skating and snowmen. Linus has made a snowman reclining and reading a book. Charlie asks if it’s Robert Frost and Linus snarks “You said it, I didn’t.”
Patty has been falling asleep a lot in school–her dad is away–and Snoopy makes as terrible watchdog for her. More funny Patty moments are when she is being so decisive about true false questions. “Irrefutably true, understandably false, intrinsically false, inherently false, charmingly true.” To which Franklin asks “Charmingly?” Patty also becomes the first disciple of the Great Pumpkin–but she blows it by asking for a gift, as if the Great Pumpkin is some kind of Santa Claus. (more…)
I set tiny, manageable goals for this blog. They often change over the course of the year, but I like to see if I can complete them. One such goal was to write about all of the Tiny Desk Concerts from 2014. And here’s the final one. (Another such goal is to write about the remainder of the 2016 shows, which is doable). I also want to write about all of the rest of the First Second Graphic Novels (there’s about 20 of them left). Insignificant goals that I find satisfying to complete.
I’ve never been a fan of Lucinda Williams. Although, while I’d certainly heard of her, I obviously didn’t know any of her music. The blurb talks about her distinctive voice. And it is certainly that. About 20 years ago a sort of friend of mine saw her open for somebody else and she dismissed Williams as trying to sound like a different singer (wish I could remember who it was). The irony that Williams has been around since the late 1970s was not lost on me.
But Williams has changed her style over the years. She originally sang country and has morphed into more of a folk and now a blues style. This Tiny Desk Concert focuses on her bluesy songs. I know she’s something of a legend, but I found her demeanor through the whole show off-putting until the end, when she loosened up a bit.
She sings four songs. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is rocking blues song. And I have to say I was pretty shocked by her voice–rough and raspy and sounding not a little hungover. Her lead guitarist was really the start for me, effortlessly playing some great groovy licks.
For “Cold Day in Hell” (she laughs at saying the title) she straps on an acoustic guitar and then sings like Tom Waits. That seems like a joke, but the structure of the verses is pure Tom Waits–I would have even suggested he wrote the song.
The third song is the more bluesy “Protection.” There seems something so inauthentic about this song. I just don’t believe her rendition of it–I don’t believe that she actually needs protection. It’s really disconcerting.
She finally smiles after this song and says “Now I’m kinda getting used to this … I’m not a wake yet, that’s what the thing is. She straps on her guitar and says this is based on the story of the West Memphis Three. It’ my favorite song of the four–she seems to really get into it.
But all the same, I really don’t like her voice all that much–she’s got a weird drawl and sounds like there are some marbles in her mouth. It’s very strange. I listened to a bit of a song from a live show from 1989 and her voice was quite pretty–deep, yes, but very pretty. By 2007, her voice has changed–it’s deeper, with a pronounced drawl. At a show in 2013, she sounded kind of pretty again. So, I don’t know what to make of it. I’ll have to just go back to not listening to her.
[READ: June 8, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974
I really enjoyed this volume a lot. There were a lot of really funny jokes and the characters are really nicely distributed by now. I don’t want to say that Schulz hit his stride around this time, because he’s been pretty solid right from the start, but this book was easily my favorite so far. Possibly because it contained so much of Marcie and Patty who have easily become my favorites.
The year starts off somewhat inauspiciously with the anticlimactic return of Poochie. She shows up, realizes that Snoopy isn’t a cute puppy anymore and leaves. Never to be seen again.
More interesting is that Linus decides that since Charlie has been their manager for so long and worked so hard that they ought to throw him a commemorative dinner. They plan it for a couple of weeks and when he finally hears about it, his smile is awesome. They even get Joe Schlobotnick to agree to come. Of course, then Marcie starts saying that they’d all be hypocrites if they actually showed up and said nice things about him since he’s a terrible manager. And so they cancel it at the last-minute–while Charlie is there. (more…)
This show has an interesting technical glitch that the owner thankfully fixed. It was a soundboard recording (which is awesome), but evidently there was static in the right channel that rendered it unlistenable. So he simply removed the right channel and mixed it mono. The sound is actually excellent—one of the best early shows they’ve done. But since there is only own channel, you miss a lot of what, I think, is Dave’s guitar. When guest Tyler McPherson plays his solo, I believe you can’t hear it. Yet despite that, it still sounds great.
I feel like the band was a having a lot of fun on this Thursday night in Guelph (every night in Guelph is a weekend). They mention that their Nightlines episode was aired on the night of Lady Diana’s death (so they feel some kind of weird connection to her).
There’s a few firsts in this set as well. It’s the first time they plated “Junction Foil Ball” (from Nightlines). They seem to have finally settled in with “Harmelodia” not “California” in “Easy to Be with You.” They toss in a bit of “Tubthumping” at the beginning of “Horses,” and a bit of the Monkees, song “Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow)” at the beginning of “Queer.”
Of course there are some flubs as well. Martin messes up California Dreamline big time and Dave gets lost in the counting of “Four Little Songs” (and then says he never went to school).
But it’s the banter that is the fun part of this show. They ask the crowd not to shout out requests for a couple of songs. There’s a very funny sequence in which they try to play a Coors lite anthem. And Martin says he’s out of his mind. Dave says he’s a madman and Martin calls him a manatee. And then someone offers Dave an Islanders jersey which he says he can’t accept—it is too generous, but he’ll always remember it (and now so will we).
Before the end of the set, they offer the crowd some of the food they have backstage (if you like olives). But then they say that $18 was a bit steep of a ticket price for the show (can you imagine?). So they’re going to play extra long because the ticket price was so high. Man, how cool is that?
[READ: Summer 2013] Brief Encounters with Che Guevara
Several years ago (long before Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) I read about Ben Fountain…somewhere. I was reading an interview with a writer who talked about some new writers that he liked. Ben Fountain was one of them, and this writer specifically mentioned this collection. A week or so later I was in a dollar store of all places and saw this book on their piles of books. I couldn’t believe the serendipity. So I bought it (for a dollar). And then kind of forgot about it (so much for my theory that if I buy a book I’ll read it). But I did eventually get around to reading it and now sadly not only do I have no idea who originally introduced me to Fountain, I can’t even find it with online searching (and frankly I could have read it anywhere). Also, Fountain has since written Billy Lynn which received all kinds of praise (and which I haven’t read), so trying to find specific praise for Fountain from 7 years ago is a lost cause.
And just as I forgot to read it I forgot to write about it until now. This was his first collection of stories. There are eight in total. Even though it has been awhile, most of the stories were so powerful and well constructed that I remember them quite well. (more…)
After Angel Rat, original bassist Blacky left the band. That’s never a good sign. After the tour for this album, original singer Snake left the band. That’s an even worse sign. I still can’t quite figure out exactly why Snake left (personal problems) but he went on to form the band Union Made. For a very detailed history of the band, check out this very cool timeline at Voivod dot net.
The Outer Limits got a pretty big release. I have an original copy that came with 3D glasses and all of the illustrations in 3D. But I was a little disappointed in Angel Rat and I don’t think I gave The Outer Limits much of a chance. It was no Nothingface. But the band was always morphing. Since Angel Rat went very commercial, this album brought things back into the prog realm (with a 17(!) minute song) but also had a lot of commercial songs.
The album opens with “Fix My Heart” which starts out much heavier than anything on Angel Rat. It’s also got some metal guitar pyrotechnics (squeaks and harmonics). Snake’s voice isn’t quite as pretty as on Angel Rat either—he growls a bit, but maintains his nicer voice overall. Nevertheless, “Fix My Heart” is a pretty commercial enterprise (as the title might even suggest). There’s some good “spacey” guitars sounds which bode will for the sci-fi angle of the album (and there’s some cool effects that reward headphone use). “Moonbeam Rider” starts with a very classic rock sounding riff and then morphs into a kind of pretty, mellow verse. But the interstitial guitar is all speed. It’s a nice mix of fast and slow. This song features some interesting bass work—nothing fancy but for the slow parts it is actually keeping the beat instead of the drums. The bassist was a studio musician for this album. There’s also what sounds like a bong during the pre-guitar solo section (the solo is fairly traditional).
“Le Pont Noir” is a mellow, slow guitar song with a very cool delay effect and Snake’s whispered vocals. The bridge gets heavy with a wonderfully weird Piggy guitar riff. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
Then the band’s second Pink Floyd cover appears. This time it’s the even more obscure “The Nile Song.” They have rather heavied this one up with crunching guitars and Snake’s distance screaming filling in the void (although in fairness the original vocals are also screamed). It’s not as dynamic or exciting as “Astronomy Domine,” but it’s still a cool cover. “The Lost Machine” starts off heavy with Away’s double cymbal work (a noisy splash and a fast ride cymbal). Then Piggy’s guitars have a slight delay on them which makes the opening chords sound especially odd. The bridge is a place for Piggy to show off some more weird spacey chords and some very cool guitar riffs. There’s even a spoken word narrator in the middle of the song that explains the “mission” “Time Warp” opens with a very bright and up beat sounding verse. But it quickly disintegrates into (intentional) musical chaos as the narrator gets lost in space.
This all leads up to the 17 minute “Jack Luminous.” If anyone doubted their prog rock leanings, this should dispel that immediate. 17 minutes, multiple parts, a sci-fi epic, it is prog (but heavy prog) at its finest. There are some incredibly catchy parts as well as some less catchy parts, and sections seem to change every two minutes or so. The slow down at 10 minutes is very cool—different guitar effects and the suspenseful bass line. There’s repeated sections as well, which means if you like some guitar line (the spacey part near the end) it comes back! It’s not quite as dynamic as say 2112, but it’s a very successful sci-fi epic.
“Wrong Way Street” returns to the normal and more conventional. The bass that opens the song sounds great and the chords are fairly conventional–the chorus is even really catchy. “We Are Not Alone” is a break-neck metal song, The drums are super fast, the guitars are relentless and the chorus even has an echoed “Hey!” that gets you to sing along. The song also features a cool slow, almost jazzy bass and drum section that lets Piggy throw some soloing in before returning to the fast paced verses.
There’s lots of theories about what happened to Voivod after this album. The success they had achieved earlier was now gone and the band seemed like they couldn’t decide to be metal or prog or is they should go for more pop music. The problem of course is that they were too weird to get mainstream acceptance anyway.
So Snake left and then there were only two original members. The next step would be a drastic one.
[READ: July 9, 2013] Grantland #7
This issue seemed to come hot on the heels of #6. But I enjoyed it just as much. A few notes: no Jeremy Lin in this issue. Lots of LeBron James, three articles about soccer! And a few pop culture moments that I had forgotten about.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-“The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament JUST. GOT. REAL.
Leonard Cooper didn’t know the final Jeopardy answer but he still won and he made a hilarious joke at the end (in cartoon format);
BILL SIMMONS-“Daring to Ask the PED Question”
Simmons talks a lot about PED’s in this forum. Of course, to me PED is my initials. For him (and sports fans) it is performance enhancing drugs. He asks why sports doesn’t do more about it. There are so many people who do it that every time we see someone who might be doing it or who suddenly has a good season, we assume they are doing them too. It would be a service to the players and the fans to have rigorous testing or none at all.
CHRIS RYAN AND ROBERT MAYS-“The NFL Coaches Family Portrait By the Numbers”
A silly analysis of a photo of NFL coaches.
WESLEY MORRIS-“Jodie Foster’s Big Night”
What exactly did Jodie Foster say at the Golden Globes? (This was in January and everybody talked about it and now it’s September and I’ve completely forgotten about it—funny ephemera of pop culture).
JONATHAN ABRAMS-“Out of Africa”
A serious look at trying to bring basketball to Africa. How the culture and language problems make it very difficult to establish any real cohesion in the diverse country. But there are a few examples of boys coming from Africa and benefiting from host families and then heading back to help those who love basketball back home. The main focus is on a 15-year-old Alexis Wangmene who came to the States (and left his family!) to try to gain an education and basketball skills. It’s a heartfelt story.
MOLLY LAMBERT-“Modern Love”
About the show Catfish which just goes to show we can sink even lower as a culture.
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN-“Mental Health Protocol”
About Royce White again. Last time there was a lengthy look at him. Now we get to hear that he thinks that everyone has some kind of mental health issue.
ANDY GREENWALD-“Eat Bray Love”
How cooking shows have gone from educational to crazy and annoying. He dislikes Top Chef and the new Anthony Bourdain show The Taste (which he says is awful) but he likes a decent show called Chopped.
ZACH LOWE-“The Fragile Science of Basketball Chemistry”
Sure the Heat were great this year, but it’s the way they evolved as a team, creating chemistry, that is so impressive.
RAFE BARTHOLOMEW-“The Pariah”
Timothy Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao in a disputed judges call. Instead of rising to fame, he has been avoided like the plague.
BILL SIMMONS-“The All-Manti Te’o Mailbag
Remember that crazy story about the football guy with the dead girlfriend who turned out to be fake? I never really understood the story and while they spend a lot of time talking and theorizing about it I still don’t get it. Did they ever find out the truth about it?
CHRIS BROWN-“Speak My Language”
When you play for the Patriots, you learn their way of doing things—it is simple and efficient, a streamlined version of what other coaches try to do.
KIRK GOLDSBERRY-“The Evolution of LeBron James”
Using diagrams, we see how much of a different player James is in just the last few years with The Heat. This article has made me want to watch James in a game while he is at his peak. So, Heat vs Bulls at the end of October, you’re on my schedule.
SEAN McINDOE-“The Non-Hater’s Guide to the NHL”
Even people who hate everyone in the NHL (which is everyone) can agree that there are some players who are universally admired: Martin Brodeur, Pavel Satsyuk. Teemu Selanne, Jarome Iginla, Jonathan Toews, Martin St. Louis, Gabriel Landeskog, Patrick Elias (Devils get two!), Ryan Smyth, Steve Sullivan, Saku Koivu, Henrik Lundqvist.
ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“God Needs a Hobby”
A look at Dan Harmon and his podcast Harmontown. Harmon seems like he might be a crazy alcoholic, but he’s also pretty darn funny.
MARK TITUS-“Duke’s Ignominious Son”
Everybody hates Christian Laettner, but that’s only because he’s pretty and he made The Shot
MARK LISANTI-“Three Days in Austin”
Dealing with the craziness of the South by Southwest film festival. Sounds awful.
HUA HSU-“The Alien Has Landed”
Soccer legend Ronaldo returns to Old Trafford
BILL SIMMONS-“The Greatest Action Franchise That Ever Was”
Live blogging the Fast and Furious 6 trailer. I admit I may have to see these films after reading this.
ZACH LOWE-“Lights, Camera, Revolution”
There’s some kind of new technology that will change the NBA forever. I pretty much don’t care.
TESS LYNCH-“Nostalgia Bites”
Watching old Real World episodes shows how much things have changed in reality TV, but also how much certain behaviors are not new.
BRIAN PHILLIPS-“Maradona, Then and Now”
Maradona was an amazing kid—at 15 he was remarkable at his ball control. Now at 52 he’s a crazy loon. What exactly happened in between?
ANDY GREENWALD-“From Big to Small, From Movie to TV”
Why not make Men in Black into a TV show—with some other film recommendations.
AMOS BARSHAD-“How Soccer Explains Israel”
I didn’t expect to enjoy this but I found it very interesting. An Israeli soccer team has signed two Muslim players and it has caused incredible animosity and even arson. How this look at a team is like a microcosm of the whole Israeli situation.
LOUISA THOMS-“Back to School”
Missy Franklin won a ton of medals in the Olympics. And then she went back to high school. What’s it like to be on her team at Regis Jesuit?
WESLEY MORRIS-“Run, Frank, Run”
Frank Ocean apparently wasn’t as huge as I thought he was.
MALCOLM GLADWELL AND CHUCK KLOSTERMAN–“The Lies He Told”
More about Manti Te’o. This discussion was a bit more helpful about what happened and how crazy it is.
CHRIS RYAN AND REMBERT BROWNE-“A List of Possible Reasons for Rob Gronkowski’s Arm Infection”
Hypothetical humor.
JORDAN CONN-“The Invisible Man”
Marc Gasol is extremely respected by scouts and agents, but the fans all think of him as Pau Gasol’s chubby little brother.
REMBERT BROWNE-“French Quarter Lessons”
While in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Browne decided to go to a bunch of used bookstores. This is very funny and enjoyable.
JAY CASPIAN KANG-“Fiercely Disputed”
Mike Tyson’s one man show is weird and strangely affecting.
KATIE BAKER-“Do Svidanya to All That”
Several NHL players went to Russia’s KHL during the lockout. And some don’t want to come back.
CHRIS RYAN-“The All-Star Circus”
NBA All-Star weekend is a crazy circus (and sounds worse than the above SXSW festival).
CHUCK KLOSETRMAN AND ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“The Nobituary”
There was a serious rumor that David Bowie was on death’s door. Klosterman and Pappademas imagine writing his obituary.
DAVID SHOEMAKER-“Glenn Beck vs. WWE”
The WWE has always had racists as part of the act. What happens when some goons start acting like the Tea Party?
DAVID JACOBY-“The Pure Heart Meets The Bachelor”
Jacoby’s grandmother watches The Bachelor and he feels badly for her.
STEVEN HYDEN-“Is This It?”
The Strokes’ fifth album had just come out [really?]. It could be their last, but Hyden thinks their last two have been quite good.
BILL SIMMONS-“The Heat in Hindsight”
The Miami Heat came close to breaking the longest winning streak in the NBA. Simmons looks at the fallout and who “wins” and “loses” in the effort.
CHARLES P. PIERCE-“Bleu, Blanc et Rouge”
I had no idea that Charlie Pierce was a Canadiens fan!
KATIE BAKER-“The Ethics of a Family Plan”
Is it ethical to pretend that you are married to your roommate to get a family discount a ta gym? Hell yes.
EMILY YOSHIDA-“A Dark Force”
J.J. Abrams is going to direct the next Star Wars films. Why, when sci-fi is so multifaceted and so different is everything coming down to J.J. Abrams?
SEAN FENNESSEY-“The Case Against Justin Timberlake”
Timberlakes’s previous album was amazing. Then he took years off to make (bad) film and (good) TV. His star would only continue to rise if he stopped making music and only hinted that he would make another album. But the release of his new album (which isn’t that good) can only hurt him.
BRYAN CURTIS-“Waiting for Bettman”
While many New Yorker’s didn’t care about the NHL strike, Canadian writers camped out waiting for Bettman to announce the strike was over.
WESLEY MORRIS-“30 Rock Landed on Us” 30 Rock was many things, but it dealt with racial issues (at least between blacks and whites) better than any show.
RANY JAZAYERLI-“Fall of the Evil Empire”
The New York Yankees look like they won’t make the playoff this year (this was written in March and as of my writing this they have a slim chance at getting the wild card slot). It will be the firs time in a while, perhaps, just perhaps, it’s the start of a new drought for the Evil Empire.
BILL BARNWELL-“The Master Raven”
Ozzie Davis knows how to pick players for the Baltimore Ravens.
REMBERT BROWNE AND DUSTIN PARKER-The Best Chappelle’s Show Sketches of All Time”
Done as a series of cartoons (by Parker); Browne picks his eight favorites:
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Prince
Wayne Brady’s Show
Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Rick James
Black Bush (especially now that Obama is president)
Clayton Bigsby: Black White Supremacist
Making the Band (P. Diddy)
The Racial Draft (Tiger Woods Now 100% Black)
The Niggar Family (uncomfortable and hilarious no matter how many times you watch it).
Once again, there’s another great issue of Grantland. Once again, I wish they would follow up on some of their speculative stories. But it’s fun to have a time capsule of events that occurred just a few months ago and yet which I have totally forgotten about.
And here’s the cover of The Outer Limits in non 3D style (which I haven’t see before)
As I said, this album’s art looks much better. And you can hear from the first notes that this album is better produced and is going to be a lot more interesting than the previous two. It’s hard to know just how much of a leap this is from Rrröööaaarrr because that album was so muddy–maybe there were gems of guitar chords under all that noise. Like the previous openings, there’s a sort of prologue to the album. But unlike the previous album’s swirls, this one is beeping with a computer voice announcing “we are connected”
The opening chords are heavy, but man they sound clear—like they weren’t recorded underground. You can also hear all of Piggy’s weird higher notes—he’s playing complicated chords, not just solo notes. And when the chorus of “Killing Technology” rolls around, it offers stop and start rhythms and Snake’s voice even goes up an octave at the end. But the first real indication that Piggy is on to something new comes in the bridge. Underneath the robotic voice, Piggy is playing some really strange-sounding chords. The story is that he had been admiring Robert Fripp’s guitar work and so he added some of those King Crimson-y angular weird chords to his repertoire. And he melds them perfectly with the heavy thrash that the band had been playing.
Lyrically also, this album has moved away from killing and headaches. “Killing Technology” while having “killing” in the title is a very different subject:
The star wars have started up
The new invention is coming out
Making a spider web over the atmosphere
To make them sure that we can’t get out of here
Computers controlling your functions
Seems like we got electronic alienation
Trading children for a new kind of robot
Waiting for the old people to disappear
Quite a departure from Rrröööaaarr’s “Fuck Off and Die”
Stand up, right now, kill
No pleasure, the pain comes down here
No return, don’t look back, there’s no tomorrow
And if you’re a fucker and don’t believe it
I’d say fuck off and die, fuck off and die
“Overreaction” leans more towards the heavier side—Snake screams a bit more—but the subject (nuclear disaster) is thoughtful. Then comes their first truly amazing song: “Tornado.” Not only building like a tornado, this song allows them to talk about violent imagery without resorting to bloodshed. It’s even scientific:
Cumulonimbus storms arrive
Lightning flashes a hundred miles around
Electrical collision course
Creates the elephant trunk
But the best part is the chorus—it’s simple enough (just the word Tornado repeated) but it’s completely catchy and sing-alongable with bright major key chords.
“Forgotten in Space” features some great drumming from Away—he’s really quite underrated both in speed and technique—which explands even more on later albums. “Ravenous Medicine” is another highlight—an interesting series of uncomfortable chords opens this track about scientific research. It’s a pretty fast, heavy song. Although not too complicated except for the occasional breaks as the story progresses.
“Order of the Blackguards” is another fast song, but this one has so many parts that if you don’t like one, just wait a few seconds for the next one. “This is Not an Exercise” ends the disc proper. The middle section has a great heavy riff. But it’s the beginning of the ending sequence which is so perfectly sci-fi that really sets the tone of the album and looks towards the next one. It’s cool to think of Piggy playing these spacey chords on his guitar. And when Blacky’s bass rumbles in to resume the song, it’s quintessential Voivod.
By th way, this disc is a concept album as well. There’s a “Killing Side” (the first three songs) and a “Ravenous Side.” The strange thing about the CD though is that they have added two tracks from their Cockroaches EP which is nice. But they put one song at track 4 (the end of side one). How odd to put a bonus track in the middle of a sequenced album.
The EP came out before the album and it has a slightly different feel from the album proper. Although as a step towards Killing Technology it’s perfectly in sync. “Too Scared to Scream” is heavy and has some interesting time changes—I love the way the song feels like it is crashing to a halt around 3:30. “Cockroaches” feels like more traditional metal. It opens with drums and Piggy playing a typical sounding metal solo. Then the riffing starts and it’s very heavy indeed. Even the staggered section near the end sounds like a mosh section more than the prog time changes that Voivod uses on the album proper. The song ends with Snake screaming as the cockroaches are coming. A good ending to the EP and a pretty good ending to the disc.
The whole album has a very mechanical and robotic feel—the chords that Piggy plays just sound like mechanical failure, it’s very well constructed and foreshadows the music of their future.
[READ: July 9, 2013] Grantland #6
Grantland #6 covers from Sept 2012-Dec 2012. Despite the short time frame, this is the largest issue yet. And it maintains all the quality that I’ve come to expect from the book/magazine thing. Which means, I love the writing (especially about people/sports I’m not that interested in). And it also means that the editing is typically crap. In this issue the editing was crap more because they simply forgot to remove mention of hyperlinks. At least I assume that’s why sentences like “See here for ____” are included in any given article. But yes, there are some very simple typos that Word would correct pretty easily.
But beyond that, I really enjoyed this issue. And I’m finding it amusing how much certain people and shows crop up in a given time frame. So this is a four month period and Kobe Bryant still dominates (there will never be an issue without at least one Kobe article). But this time Homeland is the big show (since Breaking Bad has been on hiatus I gather). Basketball remains the favorite sport here (even though they speak of football as being the most popular sport).
Chuck Klosertman and Charlie Pierce continue to write thoughtful (sometimes funny) articles. And I like how there is still talk of Jeremy Lin even if Linsanity has gone away somewhat. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-The Tragically Hip (1987).
It’s not really fair to review a successful, long-lived band’s first album over 30 years after the fact. I mean, Rush’s first album doesn’t show any of the prog tendencies they’d be known for (not to mention a different drummer/lyricist). In fact, virtually no bands come out fully formed, which is good for all fans.
Having said that, from this album, you’d have very little indication that the Hip would become as dynamic as they eventually did.
This is a 7 song EP full of rocking tracks with overlays of acoustic guitars. Unlike later discs, there’s only a minor indication that they’re from Canada (“Last American Exit”) or overly literate. Mostly they seem like a rocking bar band. The songs are good, somewhat generic, but solid. In fact, “Small Town Bringdown” is still played in concert from time to time.
The biggest surprise is Gord Downie’s voice. By now his voice is pretty distinctive, but on this first disc it seems like he’s still trying to figure out what he’s doing. On “Killing Time” he’s unrecognizable from the frontman of today. He seems to be working in a much gruffer range than he would later use. Lyrically, the songs are also tougher than they would eventually become.
The most memorable song is probably the most embarrassing: “I’m a Werewolf, Baby” is as silly as it sounds, but the riff is really great and it has staying power. Shame about the lyrics. This disc is probably not worth getting since “Small Town” is available on their Greatest Hits. Although if you really want to hear “Werewolf” it’s only available here.
[READ: January 26, 2011] “Live Large”
Just as I settle into the idea of reading 25 back issues of The Walrus for all of the fiction contained therein, I get to this 2004 Summer Reading Issue which features seven stories! Three of them are short stories and the other four are flash fiction.
This first story was my favorite of the bunch. It is a fairly simple story about a down-and-out man who longs for one day of joy. Billy Constable has slowly seen his money evaporate. He has had to sell off a lot of his luxuries, including the membership to the Fairview Golf Club. He has also had a recent medical scare (a minor heart attack) which has made him go straight and clean: no booze or smokes.
Except that things have gotten really bad lately, and who can resist the slide back into temptation. When he gets a call to play a round of golf, from the very man he sold his golf membership to, he is about to tell him where to go, until he realizes that the man is calling him because he genuinely wants him to play in their foursome. He decides why the hell not. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: HAPPYNESS-Tiny Desk Concert #468 (September 4, 2015).
Happyness are a trio from London: Benji Compston (guitar), Jonny Allan (bass) and Ash Cooper Drums). They play mellow Britpop with rather clever lyrics.
I Just Read About That... 