SOUNDTRACK: LOS CAMPESINOS! Live in studio at WEXP, July 31, 2008 (2008).
For this brief in studio performance Los Campesinos! play four songs from their debut album Hold on Now, Youngster. The band sounds great in this setting. I don’t have this album, so I don’t know if they deviate at all from the originals, but the live versions are tight and very effective.
The interviews are informative and rather gushing (I’ve never heard a DJ kiss the ass of a performer in such a nice way before…and the band seems really flattered by it…it’s all very sweet). The DJ also has a funny conversation about their tendency to scream in their songs. (It’s cathartic).
What I didn’t notice so much on Romance is Boring was how many different lead singers the band has. With these four songs, there are enough lead vocalists to show a lot of diversity (and a lot of screaming, too–“don’t read Jane Eyre!”). And, as one might expect if you know their later disc, the lyrics are smart, funny and wicked.
The difference between Romance and Hold On, seems to be that the band were much punkier on this early disc, and that all comes out in these live tracks. And the songs are all short: 3 minutes and under. They really pack a lot in here.
[READ: January 13, 2011] Voyage Along the Horizon
Most of Javier Marías’ books are translated and released through New Directions. But for reasons I’m unclear about, this book, Marías’ 2nd novel, was published by Believer Books (an imprint of McSweeney’s). I haven’t read any of Marías’ other novels, so I have no idea if this is similar to any of the others (there’s a Q&A at the back of the book which suggests that this is typical of his earlier novels), but it absolutely makes me want to read more by him.
What I loved about this story first off was the sense of distance we received from the main story itself. (Marías is Spanish, but this is a technique employed by Roberto Bolaño (Chilean) extensively…. Obviously, others do this as well).
The set up of the story is this: 1) An unnamed narrator has a party at his house. At this party, two individuals, Miss Bunnage and Mr Branshaw (or is it Bragshawe?–he never learns) discuss author Victor Arledge. Miss Bunnage is a scholar of Arledge and Mr Branshaw has in his house an unpublished novel that investigates the disappearance of Arledge and why he stopped writing. And so, Branshaw invites Bunnage and the narrator to his house the next day to have the novel (called Voyage Along the Horizon) read to them.
2) So, the next morning, the two go to Branshaw’s house where he does not let them see the book, preferring rather to read the novel aloud (which gives us essentially 3 levels of remove from the action of the story). That’s a long way to go before you even get to the meat of the book. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 