I expected Brass Bed to be a goofy band because of the snapshot image of them singing into toy microphones. I was initially disappointed by how normal they were, but I was soon won over by their interesting floating sound. They have this overall trippy underwater vibe (which seems to be accomplished by a bowed slide guitar). This is especially notable on “Yellow Bursts of Age” their best song in the set. Later the guitar solo is echoey and also underwatery. It’s a very wild sound for a fairly simple song.
They tell a funny story about being from Louisiana and encountering Washington DC snow and (of course) not having an ice scraper (although they did have bag of sand).
“Cold Chicory” is an upbeat sounding song musically although it is kind of a bummer lyrically, but again there’s the great sound of the bow on the slide guitar and the echoey lead guitar. “Please Don’t Go” is a slow song—with more interesting effects from singing into that slide guitar.
The plastic mikes do come out in the last song “Have to be Fine” in which they sing into the echoey mikes for the intro (with very nice harmonies). They sing the intro for about a minute, and then the slide guitar player takes lead vocals on this simple but pretty song (I don’t know any of their names).
At the end, the NPR folks gave them an honorary NPR ice scraper.
[READ: June 24, 2014] My Struggle Book Three
I read an excerpt of Book Three just a few weeks ago. And in the post about it I said I wouldn’t be reading this book for quite some time. But then the book unexpectedly came across my desk and I couldn’t resist grabbing it while it was here. So it appears that I will now have to wait well over a year before Book 4 (which is, I think about 1,000 pages–yipes). I also see that Book Three is fully called “Boyhood Island” in Britain.
At the end of Book Two, Karl Ove was more or less caught up to the present–writing about what he was then up to (with a few years gap, of course). So it makes sense that this book is about his childhood–showing us how he came to be the man he is.
The book, amusingly enough, starts off with memories that he cannot possibly remember, and he even says as much. He is using memories of his parents and piecing together pictures from when he was an infant. In 1970, (Karl Ove was born in 1968) his family moved to the island of Tromøy (and check out the idyllic picture that Wikipedia had). This is where Karl Ove spent his (rather traumatic) formative years. Their island is small, so he knows everyone in his school, but there are some amenities around like the Fina station and the B-Max, and there’s lots of soccer to be played and bikes to be ridden.
Things seem normal at first–he runs and plays with his friends, there is ample green space to run around in, and they have boats to sail on. And we meet two of Karl Ove’s earliest friends: Geir and Trond (so many people are named in the book, I’m very curious to know if any of them remember him). In an early scene they chase the end of a rainbow looking for a pot of gold (and have a discussion about what happens to it when the rainbow vanishes (the boys even play a prank on Karl Ove that they actually found the pot,a dn while he doesn’t initially fall for it, he is compelled to go back and they tease him).
But the looming figure here and throughout the book is Karl Ove’s father, who, at least according to Karl Ove’s memory, is pretty much a monstrous dick. He is demanding and exacting, unforgiving and seemingly uncaring. He is either bipolar or a drunk, jumping from goofy to outright rage in a mater of seconds. Karl Ove and his brother Yngve fear him unconditionally and, by the end of the book they both seem to hate him. The scene where their dad tries and fails to teach Karl Ove to swim is heartbreaking, especially when the dad goes home and tells their mom right in front of him “He’s frightened of water.” There are dozens of instances of fear and intimidation (often accompanied by a wrenching of Karl Ove’s ear). Like when Karl Ove turns on the TV for his grandparents (he wasn’t allowed to touch the TV but he wanted to do something nice for them). After a few minutes, the TV fizzed out and, naturally, he was blamed for it and sent to bed without supper (after some minor physical abuse). (more…)
Lightning Dust is a side project of heavy psychedelic band Black Mountain. Lightning Dust is a kind of folk version of the band (with Amber Webber on vocals instead of Joshua Wells). Her voice is full of vibrato (she almost sounds nervous at times). The songs are simple, as folk songs tend to be, performed mainly on the acoustic guitar with organ backing tones.
“Antonia Jane” is very pretty, especially the tone of the organ that accompanies the acoustic guitar. “History” has a nice unexpected chord change when the chorus rolls around. For the final song, “I Knew”, Wells switches to 12 string guitar instead of keyboard–something he says he never does. The song is faster and more upbeat, not necessarily because of the extra guitar, but it really broadens the sound a lot and makes it even catchier (even if it does give it a more countryish feeling). And the backing vocals are quite wonderful.
I prefer Black Mountain to Lightning Dust but the songwriting is quite good.
[READ: May 27, 2014] “Camilo”
I don’t know Zambra’s work. This one was translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell and I thought it was terrific.
The story is fairly simple, although it is revealed via a lot of layers which is very interesting. It opens with a young man yelling “I’m Camilo…your daddy’s godson” and the narrator being suspicious of this statement. But it turns out to be true. This boy is his father’s godson.
The narrator’s father had been good friends with Camilo’s father Big Camilo. They were best friends until they had a huge fight and never spoke again. That was (obviously) after Camilo was born. But in addition to this fight and lack of talking, Big Camilo later left the country all together and moved to Paris where he started a new family, leaving Camilo and Camilo’s mother back in Chile.
Soon the narrator and Camilo became almost inseparable. Camilo was a few years older and was something of a protective presence for him. Even the narrator’s older sister was infatuated with him. In fact, even the narrator’s father liked him, although he did remind him a bit too much of Big Camilo. The one difference was that Big Camilo (and the narrator’s family) loved soccer, but Camilo didn’t know a thing about it. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: WHITEHORSE-“Pins and Needles” and Kickstarter campaign (2014).
I really enjoyed seeing Whitehorse live. I would absolutely see them live again. I was delighted then that their album was also fantastic (I didn’t think it could match their live show…and it doesn’t but it is great in a different way). In a very short time I became a big fan of the band.
THey havea new song, “Pins and Needles” and a Kickstarter campaign. The song begins with Melissa McClelland’s voice singing in it beautiful way–there’s guitar in the right ear and bass in the left ear. Then Luke Doucet comes in for verse two. And when their voices fill the bridge it feels so complete. Until they get to the chorus when they push it even further and it sounds amazing.
They sing so well together. Her voice has a slight country twang, and his is a low baritone. Their harmonies are superb as they sing the compelling chorus: “Fake Your Death and I’ll Fake Mine”
Lyrics are certainly interesting for the band. How many times do you hear a woman singing a line like: “I’m the villain in this piece And back when I was a thief, I broke hearts like they were teeth.”
I love this song. And it may or may not end up on the new album for which there is a Kickstarter campaign.
And I’m in. I’m a little unclear about exactly what they aim to do with the money they raise. They say quite plainly that there will be an album regardless of whether they raise the funds. And their label, Six Shooter, is totally behind the band.
Rather seems to be a way to raise some money and some attention for the band. And, apparently it will give fans a glimpse of the album as it is being made–a sort of behind the scenes featurette that comes before the disc itself. The prizes are varied and moderate–from a download, to the CD, to a T shirt, to sheet music (all for reasonable donations), all the way to the grand prize–for $8,000 they will play a private show for you.
I’m in for a CD, and I’m happy to pay regular ticket price when they come around again.
Check out the Kickstarter campaign for more details where you can also hear “Pins and Needles.”
[READ: April 24, 2014] My Struggle Book Two
I read an excerpt of Book Two in Harper’s well over a year ago. So when I got to that section again (it’s the end of the book) I was trying to remember why it sounded so familiar–an accident during a soccer match that leaves Karl Ove with a broken collarbone and an unhappy girlfriend (who will be looking after three kids without him), and then I remembered the excerpt that started it all.
The translation of Book Two by Don Bartlett is fantastic, just as in the first book–I can only assume the original Norwegian is just as compelling. Book one was 430 pages and now book two was 573, so I’m in to Karl Ove’s life for 1003 pages, and there’s four more books due (Book Three comes out next month).
As I mentioned for Book One, this series has caused some controversy because it is given the same title as Hitler’s Mein Kampf (Min Kamp in Norwegian), and also because he says some pretty mean stuff about people who are still alive. Book One was about the death of his father. It was pretty dark. Book Two is about his first daughter and about falling in love with Linda, his children’s mom (although not yet his wife). And it is also pretty dark.
I was trying to figure out why I like this series so much. Not a lot happens, Karl Ove is not a very nice person and he seems to be pissed off most of the time. And I think what I realized is that I share a lot of opinions as him, but he takes everything to the extreme. And he is kind of an asshole. I mean, anyone who writes a six part autobiography called “My Struggle” (okay, really it’s called My Head) is kind of an asshole. But so when I see things that I would only think in my deepest recesses of my mind printed on a page, it’s strangely visceral to me. I realize this means that I’m kind of an asshole too, but the key difference is that I don’t act on the things that I think, nor do I write 4,000 pages about them.
I told Sarah that she might laugh at some of the opinions that he lists but that she would not enjoy reading the books. Indeed, this book, this series, is not for many, I’m sure. But to me there is something strangely engaging about him and his strange life and his writing style. And I really flew through this book, finishing it in about a week.
So this book begins (started in July 2008) with Karl Ove being pissed off. He talks about finishing the first part of the novel (which I have to assume is Book One, given when this was written and how this book ends) just last month (in other words he is really churning this stuff out!). He and Linda have been fighting (as the book opens they have three children, Vanja, Heidi and John–it’s also hard to believe that his children are young enough to not really know much about this series). The tension is high between them–glares, comments, nasty sniping. Karl Ove says that he is afraid to say things around her because he knows how she’ll react. But at the same time, some of things he desires are simply not defensible in a relationship or when you are parent. And the main conflict seems to be that Karl Ove is selfish and Linda is (at least according to him) mildly suicidal and possibly bipolar). And mind you, at the time of his writing this, I think they are still together…. (I could look that up, but it seems kind of fun not exactly knowing). (more…)
I never watch the ads that come before Youtube videos. But this came on as an ad and I was utterly mesmerized by it.
I didn’t even know what it was for. Turns out that Univore is a band and “Vampire” is one of their songs. The 1 minute ad video was actually the whole thing.
It’s got a simple buzzy synthesized riff, backing vocalists singing “Oh yea” when appropriate and an occasional deep voiced man saying “vampire.” The video is of an older gentleman (who a little research suggests is Marco Casale) dressed like a vampire running around a small green space on a campus. The whole video looks like it took 15 minutes to film. It is weird and wonderful.
I still know nothing about Univore, which may be for the better, but I did enjoy this video.
[READ: April 6, 2014] Grantland #9
I’m surprised that there aren’t better cover images online for these books. For #8 i had to use one with a big flash in the middle of it and this one is the illustration from the Grantland website. The books are quite pretty so why uses these pale imitations?
So this issue proved to be a lot better about weird typos and “we just took this from the web and pasted it and never bothered to check to see if there was anything weird” problems. So thanks for at least running it through Spellcheck. The only other thing left is to either remove the lines that talk about attached links/images if they are not there or to include the url or make up a tiny url (but that would be actual work!). Oh, and please make sure all of the footnotes are included.
I have given up on ever finding out how these things turned out several months after the fact–I’ll just happily live in ignorance of reality there.
This issue was taken from during basketball’s downtime which was a nice change (even though the still managed to talk about basketball). There was more pop culture and some wonderful articles about team nicknames and mascots–something I absolutely love. So this is one of my favorite issues overall. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RALPH STANLEY-Tiny Desk Concert #31 (October 13, 2009).
Ralph Stanley is apparently a living bluegrass legend, although I’ve never heard of him. He plays a clawhammer banjo (and apparently has for 63 years).
The concert lasted only 6 minutes, but in that time he sang three a capella songs: “Gloryland,” “Turn Back, Turn Back” and “Amazing Grace.”
It’s hard to assess a legend based on this performance. I’ve no idea how good his voice was back in the day. He sounds fine here, albeit understandably quite old. I’d have liked to hear his banjo.
[READ: January 3, 2014] Grantland #8
It is becoming apparent to me that Grantland loves basketball. Like, a lot more than any other sport. This issue had a ton of basketball in it. And, I have to admit I was a little tired of it by the end–there was a lot less pop culture stuff, too. So, it felt especially basketball heavy. I realize of course that the time frame covered was the playoffs, but still.
BILL SIMMONS-“Searching for a Superman”
A lengthy article about Dwight Howard, discussing the pros and cons of signing him again.
MARK TITUS-“How Did He Get So Good?”
A look at Paul George and Danny Green doing better than expected in the NCAA playoffs.
CHARLES P. PIERCE-“A Dark Day in Boston”
Pierce wonders about Boston after the Boston Marathon bombing–he says the city will come back stronger. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY-LIve on Mountain Stage (April 11, 2013).
I saw Bonnie “Prince” Billy several years ago when he opened for Godspeed You Back Emperor. His set was really good. And yet I have never bought any of his music (his back catalog is just too intimidating to want to jump into). But i still enjoy his music, and this Mountain Stage appearance shows off his songs and his between set humor.
He plays four songs here: “Oh How I Enjoy The Light,” “We Love Our Hole,” “Screaming Issue” and “You Remind Me Of Something (The Glory Goes).”
“We Love Our Hole” is from an Australian movie about surfing (and features some great baking vocals from Emmett Kelly and especially Cheyenne Marie Mize. And “Screaming Issue” is a Loudon Wainwright song (it seems funny to me that he has so many songs but he chose to do a cover) and he does a great job of it. “You Remind Me of Something” may be my favorite song of the set.
One of these days I’ll have to dive into his recorded work. But, oh where to start?
[READ: September 19, 2013] Two Pints
Two Pints is a delightful, short book that shows just how funny Roddy Doyle is. I’m not sure how easy it is to find in the States, but if you’re a fan of Doyle’s humor, this is worth tracking down.
It is a series of conversations between two mates at the pub. Each entry is dated starting with 24-5-11 (May 24, 2011 for us Americans) and ending 4-9-12 (September 9, 2012). At first I thought that they were regular meetings, but they aren’t. Some come weekly some more frequently. But in each visit, the two men meet at their local with a pint to discuss the events of the day (often quite reluctantly).
Of course they also talk about their wives and kids and grand kids (the one crazy piece of nonsense is that one man (neither are named) keeps talking about buying wild animals for his kids (polar bears, hyenas and the lot). It’s so strangely far-fetched for something that is otherwise down to earth, that I’m just not sure if Doyle was making a point or just being goofy.
But otherwise, one man begins talking and the other joins in.
They talk about Gaddafi (one of them thinks he’s the guy at the chipper, the other one is sure he’s spotted him working at the airport—the perfect hiding place). They talk a lot about the Queen (it’s okay to hate the Brits again, phew) and The Pope (the mean German pope, not the nice new pope). They talk about politics and voting. They even talk about Anthony Weiner. (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)
SOUNDTRACK: TYPHOON-“Dreams of Cannibalism” (2013).
NPR was steaming this album for a while. Now they’re giving away this song.
Typhoon is yet another band that has a crazy amount of people in it (between 12 and fourteen) and they have a vast array of instruments in play at any one time (Horns, violins, xylophones, electric guitars and mandolins for example).
At the same time, Singer Kyle Morton’s vocals are distinctive enough and are used like an instrument as well as to deliver lyrics. This gives them quite a unique sound.
The song opens with an array of horns slowly building to a simple guitar melody. The verses are somewhat quiet with occasional punctuations of band (and great backing vocals). But as the song progresses, more instruments kick in (horns adding a melody line). I really like the way the end of the song shifts direction totally, bringing in a complex instrumental section with interesting time shifts and even better backing vocals..
I enjoyed the whole album while it was streaming. And while I can’t say that this song stands out more than the other songs, (I think “Artificial Light” is probably the best,) it represents the sound of the band pretty well.
[READ: September 2013] Lucky Peach Issue 8
I haven’t been reviewing Lucky Peach issues in their entirety because they are mostly about food and cooking and recipes and I don’t really have anything to say about that (I enjoy the articles a lot, but I don’t need to comment on them).
But I wanted to bring special attention to this issue because of the way it is presented. This is the Gender Issue. It has two covers (see the “female” cover tomorrow) and the magazine must be flipped over to read the different genders.
It’s not often that I think of food and gender as being connected, but there are some really interesting articles in here that talk about not only food itself, but about the people who prepare it. Like the fact that most big name chefs are men even though cooking has traditionally been “women’s work.”
The women’s side of the magazine has these interesting articles: (more…)
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: FRANK TURNER-Tiny Desk Concert #287 (July 13, 2013).
NPR introduced me to Frank Turner and I’m pretty delighted that they did. I really enjoyed his set at the Newport Folk Festival. And here’s another live recording (a Tiny Desk Concert).
In this brief set, Frank and mandolin player Matt Nasir (he’s only been playing it for 6 months) blast through 3 of his rockingest folk songs. “Recovery,” “The Way I Tend to Be,” (with a very funny lead story) and a rousing mandolin solo-filled and a (reluctant) NPR audience singalong. of the great “Photosynthesis.” I imagine it was quite loud in their offices that day.
Turner is fantastic live—he’s personable and funny and even more so in this intimate setting. It’s a wonderful set.
This is the final book in the “Barrytown Trilogy” (except for the new one coming out next year). Whereas The Snapper was tied to The Commitments by virtue of it being the same family, The Van is tied to The Snapper because it follows the same guy—Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.
It’s 1990 (a few years after The Snapper because the baby from that book is now talking and mobile) and like many older people in Ireland, Jimmy Sr. has been laid off. The first third of the book looks at life on the dole in Ireland—skimpy Christmas presents and getting handouts from your son. And yet there’s always money for a pint or two—so Jimmy still gets to hang out with his mates at the pub a few nights a week. He also goes out with the baby from time to time and occupies himself in various ways (pitch n putt). There’s a lot of humor and silliness in this section–especially within the family when the twin girls start getting older and even cheekier. And the focal point is the World Cup—because Ireland is actually going to be in it this year—Italia ’90!
And the Jimmy’s mate Bimbo gets laid off. And that’s where the titular van comes in (over 100 pages into the story). Bimbo is crushed to be laid off, but Jimmy is a little pleased. He’s not happy that Bimbo is laid off, but he is happy that he has someone to waste the day with. They go golfing together (and win a prize or two) and they do their best trying to stay happy. But they’ve noticed that the fish and chips van that used to be parked outside of the bar is no longer there. It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re drunk and hungry at midnight and can’t get a fish n chips.
And that’s when their friend Bertie (who can get anything for anyone) comes through on Bimbo’s half serious question–could Bertie get him a chipper van? Bertie finds one—an unholy filthy mess of a thing with no engine. And Bimbo uses his redundancy money, £800, to buy the mess. Jimmy is appalled until Bimbo starts talking about the two of them being partners—working together to makes some money and sell chips to their drunken mates and—even better—to the punters who are enjoying the World Cup! And suddenly it seems like a real idea. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BRASS BED-Tiny Desk Concert #339 (February 24, 2014).
I expected Brass Bed to be a goofy band because of the snapshot image of them singing into toy microphones. I was initially disappointed by how normal they were, but I was soon won over by their interesting floating sound. They have this overall trippy underwater vibe (which seems to be accomplished by a bowed slide guitar). This is especially notable on “Yellow Bursts of Age” their best song in the set. Later the guitar solo is echoey and also underwatery. It’s a very wild sound for a fairly simple song.
I read an excerpt of Book Three just a few weeks ago. And in the post about it I said I wouldn’t be reading this book for quite some time. But then the book unexpectedly came across my desk and I couldn’t resist grabbing it while it was here. So it appears that I will now have to wait well over a year before Book 4 (which is, I think about 1,000 pages–yipes). I also see that Book Three is fully called “Boyhood Island” in Britain.
(and check out the idyllic picture that Wikipedia had). This is where Karl Ove spent his (rather traumatic) formative years. Their island is small, so he knows everyone in his school, but there are some amenities around like the Fina station and the B-Max, and there’s lots of soccer to be played and bikes to be ridden.
I Just Read About That... 