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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Thomas Pynchon–[Week 5] Gravity’s Rainbow [Sections 3.1-3.5] (1973)

Posted in Africa, Big Books, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Frank Zappa, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), James Joyce, Language, Mark Twain, Military, Political Humor, Pranks, Racism, Research, Russia, Sex, Supernatural, Surreal, Technology, Thomas Pynchon, Threats, Travel, War on March 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION-Over-nite Sensation (1973).

When I saw Marvy’s Mothers, it was hard not to pass up the connection to Zappa and his band.  But oh, what album to pick?  (He released like 40). I chose the one released in the same year as Gravity’s Rainbow.

It also happens to be full of all kinds of sex (imagine that).

It opens with “Camarillo Brillo” the kind of simple, catchy song that Zappa seems to whip out very easily.  I assumed that the title was some kind of sexual slang (not a bad assumption), but Wikipedia suggests it has something to do with an insane asylum (Camarillo) and the crazy hair they often had, which makes sense given the crazy lyrics.  It starts kind of trippy with inscrutable lyrics.  And then the bridge, “she was breeding a dwarf” is pretty insane.  It also features a very funny sequence that was oft-quoted in MST3K–“Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho.”

“I Am the Slime” is a funky (a great Zappa riff) diatribe against TV (because it makes you buy crap you don’t need and makes you listen to the government).  “Dirty Love” is a perverse song with lots of guitar solos.  There’s some kind of bestiality in this song (which also ties in with parts of this section).

“Fifty-Fifty” features the vocals of Ricky Lancelotti (in a screaming style that would later be used a lot by Terry Bozzio).  It’s about an ugly guy who is crazy enough to sing to us.  The songs seem to be more about solos though, as there’s a keyboard solo an electric violin solo (from Jean-Luc Ponty) and some crazy guitar solos.

I don’t know what “Zomby Woof” is about, but it has some wicked guitar soloing and horns playing Zappa’s staccato riffs up and down the scale.

“Dinah-Moe Humm” is a song perfectly suited to this book–it’s a song in which a woman bets the narrator that he can’t make her have an orgasm.  The melody is twinkly and silly.  It’s shockingly explicit. But it’s even funnier to know that the backing vocals are supplied by The Ikettes (Ike and Tina were recording in the next room).  They got paid almost nothing and when Ike heard the song he called it “shit” and asked that their name be removed from the credits.

It also plays around with hippy slang.  “Kiss my aura Dora/It’s real angora/Would you all like some more-a/right here on the floor-a/and how about you fauna/You wanna?”

He also starts talking about Zircon encrusted tweezers, which come back in “Montana.”  “Montana” is about moving to Montana to raise dental floss (really).  It features some wonderful fast pizzicato notes that are more or less Zappa’s signature.  The middle section is  hugely difficult and very impressive for the backing vocalists (Tina apparently was really impressed that one of her girls could do it).

Zappa packs a lot of music into 35 minutes, and this album seems to be a turning point in his desire to cram sex and craziness into his commercial music.  Just about every song on this disc was played a lot live and this album has become something of a classic.

[READ: Week of March 19] Gravity’s Rainbow [3.1-3.5]

This week’s read has been the most challenging for me so far.  I enjoyed Section 2 very much.  The Slothrop scenes were funny and wild and even advanced the plot.  I never expected that Section 3 would introduce a ton of new characters, more or less ignore the old charterers and stay with these new characters so that by not paying close attention to them in the beginning I was just confused by the end.

I do admit that while skimming again for this post, I was able to focus on the new characters more and found it far less confusing.  It’s just that on a first read, suddenly there’s this whole new sequence of people and their histories to deal with!  Wow.

It was especially surprising because Section 3 begins with Slothrop (so it’s not like in 2666 where a new section means a new cast).  But he meets new characters and then we flash all the way back through each person’s life.  And yes, it was quite interesting once I actually paid attention, and the connections were pretty awesome.  But it was still pretty surprising on the first read through.

Section 3 is called In the Zone.  And the Zone is mentioned quite a lot, although I never figured out where it is meant to be exactly. (more…)

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Yiyun Li–“The Science of Flight” (New Yorker, August 30, 2010) [RECONSIDERED]

Posted in 20 Under 40, cuppa joe, Dromedary Records, New Yorker, Short Story, Travel, Yiyun Li on February 26, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: cuppa joe-“Better in Your Head” (2012).

After an eternity (okay, 18 years), Cuppa Joe is back with another release on Dromedary Records.  Things have changed over the years in cuppa joe’s world.  Their previous release, nurture was a delightful twee pop confection.  This track (you can see the video here) adds an unexpected depth to their catalog.

The first change comes from the minor chord guitar strums; the second comes from the bass, which is following its own cool riff–although it melds nicely with the verse, it’s unexpected from cuppa joe.  The pace of the song is much slower than the frantic songs on nurture.  Even the vocals, while noticably cuppa joe, seem less so–call it a more mature version of the vocals. Indeed, the whole sounds seems to have relinquished their more childlike qualities  and embraced a more mature outlook.

This could be a death knell for a band, but not in this case.  All of their songwriting sensibilities remain intact.  Indeed, they have added a wonderful new component: terrific harmonies in the chorus (which may have been there before, but which really stand out here).

It would almost seem like an entirely new band (18 years will do that to you).  But rather than a new band it’s like an old band coming out of a coocoon like a butterfly.  (That’s too treacly, sorry guys–maybe we’ll just stick with them being older and wiser.  Welcome back guys.

The new cuppa joe album Tunnel Trees is available here.

[READ: September 8, 2010] “The Science of Flight”

I read this story in September of 2010.  I liked it but I wasn’t that impressed by it.  Well, it turns out I either skipped or missed an important section of the story.  So I’m trying again.  here’s the start of my original post

Yiyun Li’s is one of the 20 Under 40 from the New Yorker.  This story (which I assume is not an excerpt) is about Zichen.  Zichen (whose name is unpronounceable to Westerners) emigrated from China to live in America with her then new husband.

As the story opens, we see Zichen at work at an animal-care center.  She is talking with her coworkers about her upcoming visit to England (this will be her first-ever vacation that is not to China).  The men are teasing her about the trip (why would she want to go to the ocean in the winter, she doesn’t know anyone there, etc).  The teasing is friendly, because they are friendly, although Zichen is very reserved around them.  Of course, of all the people she has known, she has opened up to them the most–which still isn’t very much.

That much is accurate.  However, the rest of my post about this story is completely (and rather ineptly, I must admit) incorrect.  Recently, Carol Schoen commented on my original post and informed me that I was a bonehead (although she said it much more politely than that).  I had completely missed the point of this story the first time around.  And indeed, re-reading it this time, I can’t help but wonder what happened last time.

Zichen is a bastard, literally.  She was born our of wedlock to a man who ran away.  In China, this was like compounding one sin atop another one.  Her grandmother agreed to raise her (after a failed adoption) more or less to spite Zichen’s mother, provided Zichen’s mother had nothing to so with her.  And so, Zichen’s grandmother worked in her shop extra long hours to care for a child who was a visible symbol of the family’s disgrace.  (I seem to have gotten the point about her grandmother raising her, but seem to have missed the important part about her parents not being in her life at all). (more…)

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Jess Walter–“Thief” (Harper’s, March 2012)

Posted in Fears, Gipsy Kings, Harper's, Jess Walter, Rush, Short Story, Steven Katz, The Eagles, Travel on February 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STEVEN KATZ-In the Garden of Earthly Delights (2009).

Since I mentioned an album my Aunt Marg gave me, I’m also going to mention this one, that she gave me the following Christmas.  She told me that Steven Katz is a classical guitarist in St Croix.  They saw him play when they were on vacation and they were amazed that he this amazing guitarist who was just sort of hanging around in St Croix (that’s the life, eh?)

I enjoy classical guitar, although I suspect if I was able to play it I’d enjoy listening to it even more.  As it stands, I can appreciate the fast trills (and Katz is masterful at them) and the general feel for the form.  On the other hand, I’m a terrible critic of this kind of music.  It all sounds kind of samey to me.   This is not a criticism of the genre or of Katz, it’s simply an admission that I like the stuff, but I couldn’t tell you a grand master from a regular master.  The one big difference I can say is that unlike the Gipsy Kings (of whom I am quite a fan) there are no extended clapping sections (well, a small clapping section in “Moroccan Roll”).

All of Katz’ composition are beautiful (all the songs are original except for one cover).  They often feature slow sections that are very moody as well as virtuosi parts (that I’ll bet are amazing to watch).  Katz is an amazing guitarist (of course I think anyone who can play this style is amazing).  He plays a Flamenco acoustic guitar over some simply keys and percussion on most of the tracks.  If I had any song to quibble with it would be “Parting at the Ganges” which has a cheesey keyboard in the background and chimes that are clearly sampled–that isn’t a bad thing necessary, except when they stop abruptly and start again.  But I only noticed that on my third listen.  But most songs have simple arrangements (bongos and whatnot).

On the plus side there’s some really unexpected guitar lines at the end of “Gypsy Caravan” and the whole feel of “Moroccan Roll” is very cool.  “Shake It Up” diverges from style on the rest of the disc with some interesting and familiar south of the border musical setups (before returning to some amazing fretwork).  I also really liked the opening of “Desert Rain Cry” because it sounds (I’m sure completely unintentionally) like the opening of Rush’ “Xanadu” (without the wooden blocks).  (The rest sounds NOTHING like the Rush song).

I mentioned the Gipsy Kings above and the comparison is apt because like the Gipsy Kings, Katz also does  cover of Hotel California. Unlike the Kings’ version, there are no vocals. Also unlike their version, this version is quite subtle.  He uses his guitar to play the vocal line, but he does it in a flamenco style–incorporating the melody into the fingerwork–it’s very cool.  He also incorporates the famous guitar solo into his playing–you hear it but he’s not “just” playing the solo.  It becomes and entirely different song than the original.

I went to Katz website and he is funny and self-deprecating, but he also tells us that he has played with all kinds of people including Dr. John, Mavis Staples, Edgar Winter and Mountain (this last one shows that he’s not a young man).   But I’m also quite certain he is not this Steve Katz who was in Blood Sweat and Tears.

[READ: February 21, 2012] “Thief”

I have read two other things from Walter, both of them via McSweeney’s journals.  It’s interesting to read him outside of that context as this piece is different from those two (I’m also amazed that he is releasing his sixth novel!).

I didn’t like the way this story started out, but once we got past the awkward introduction, I thought it was extremely compelling.  And then when it ended, I had some weird feelings about the conclusion.  But more on that later.  (I’m learning that when I say things like “I didn’t like the beginning, it’s usually like the first paragraph or two, which isn’t really fair, but which can often make or break someone’s interest in a story).

So the story starts out with observations about the Girl from her dad (capitalized because all three kids are apparently referred to as Little, Middle and Girl).  Wayne is watching his daughter sleep.  He had her when he was just 19 and she changed his world.  Now she’s 14 and he doesn’t like that Girl hangs album covers on the wall and wears her hair like Peter Frampton (I did enjoy the very simple pop culture references that set the time of this story perfectly).  Then he looks in on the sleeping Middle (who is so unlike Wayne that he thinks of him as the Milkman’s kid) and Little.  Any of the three could be the thief.  Little is a greedy sumbitch (I love the detail about his first words).  Middle is a pretty unlikely candidate (he’s bookish and timid).  And then there’s Girl.  She walks to the bus stop but sneaks a ride with the guy in the Nova; she’s probably smoking pot.

One of them is definitely the thief.

Wayne has a giant jug in which he dumps his change.  It is the family vacation jug.  After two years of change, it will be full enough for a vacation.  And this year’s is Kelowna, BC and the Bedrock City there (yes a Flintstone’s Theme Park–which was real, but is now sadly closed).  Wayne suspects that the Girl doesn’t want to go to Flintstones land and is stealing money to sabotage the trip.  His wife thinks he’s crazy, but he has set little traps and he knows the vacation jug is moving and emptying. (more…)

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Caroline Preston–The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures (2012)

Posted in AC/DC, Belle and Sebastian, Biography, Caroline Preston, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ernest Hemingway, Graphic Novel, Isobel Campbell, James Joyce, Mark Lanegan, Romance, Short Books, The Transatlantic Review, The Velvet Underground, Travel on February 10, 2012| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN-Sunday at Devil Dirt (2010).

Sarah bought this disc for me for my birthday a few years ago.  I had a hard time getting into it even thought it was supposed to be amazing.  It turns out that it is amazing, but only when I’m in the right mood.

The is a disc of slow, moody songs.  The closest comparison I can think of is Leonard Cohen (even though all of the songs are actually written by Isolbel Campbell)–this disc is at times more and at times less ponderous than Cohen.

The main reason I couldn’t get into it is because the first two songs are really really slow.  “The Seafaring Song” is almost comically slow–as slow as Lanegan’s voice is deep.  And yet there is a very nice melody (and beautiful accompaniment from Campbell).  “The Raven” sounds like an old Western movie.  Indeed, a lot of the disc sounds like an old Western.

“Salvation” introduces the first real up-front melody. “Back Burner” has a very old school chanting chorus which is quite a change for this album (although at 7 minutes, it does drag a bit).

“Who Built the Road” is very much like a Leonard Cohen duet (especially the La la part) while “Come On Over (Turn Me On)” is like a sexy Serge Gainsbourg duet (the album really picks up around here).  “Shotgun Blues” is a big sexy blues (surprising for Campbell who sings lead) while “Keep Me in Mind, Sweetheart” is a country-style ballad.

By the time that “Sally, Don’t You Cry” comes on, I find that I have more or less had enough of the disc.  But that is the last official song.  My copy has five bonus tracks after two minutes of silence. But the bonus songs mix things up a bit more.  “Fight Fire with Fire” is a jaunty piano based song (although it’s still pretty slow-paced).  It’s funny to hear them talking about AC/DC albums in this slow piano song.

“Violin Tango” is just what the title says while “Rambling Rose, Clinging Vine” is probably the most upbeat song on the disc. Finally “Hang On” feels the most like a song from her old band Belle and Sebastian (by way of The Velvet Underground).  It’s also the only one she sings solo.

So yes, I do like this album quite a lot. Lanegan is a perfect foil for Campbell’s sweet voice and songwriting. They made another disc together, maybe I’ll get that in another couple of years, too.

[READ: February 5, 2012] The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

This was a wonderful book that Sarah brought home and told me I had to read.  And I’m so glad I did.

The Scrapbook is a very simple story–it’s a biography of a lady named Frankie Pratt from the ten or so years after she gets out of high school.  She went to high school in Cornish, New Hampshire in the early 1920s; that’s when this scrapbook starts.  Over the decade, Frankie goes to college, gets a job in New York City, travels to Paris and then returns home.  That is the basic plot, but that simple summary does a grave, grave injustice to this book.

For Preston has created a wondrous scrapbook.  Each page has several images of vintage cutouts which not only accentuate the scene, they often move the action along.  It feels like a genuine scrapbook of a young romantic girl in the 1920s.

Check out the picture on the right.  Every page is like that–full of old photographs or ticket stubs, candy wrappers or advertisements.  And a few words here and there that Frankie has typed to move the story along.  It is a wondrous trip down vintage lane.

Now, as I said, the story is pretty simple (but it is befitting a scrapbook).  It showcases the highlights of Frankie Pratt’s life.  How she meets a man who wines her and dines her and treats her fine, until he reveals a shocking secret.  How she got out of Cornish, New Hampshire and went to Vassar (I admit I found this first section a little slow, but I was so absorbed in the look of the book that I didn’t really mind).

Once she gets to Vassar though, things are much more interesting because Frankie, small town girl with no money, is introduced to the rich sophisticates who attend Vassar–New York and Boston socialites.  She even rooms with one woman (who sends her down a path of debauchery and potential loss of scholarship).

Frankie longs  to be a writer, and she heads to New York to work on a magazine.  There she meets a man who wines her and dines her and treats her fine, until he reveals a shocking secret. (more…)

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Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm–Babymouse: Beach Babe [#3] (2006)

Posted in Cats, Children's Books, Cupcakes, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, Mice, Muppets, My Morning Jacket, Set at School, Set in New Jersey!, Short Books, Summer, Surfing, Travel, Yuck! on December 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-“Our World” (2011).

This song comes from the The Green Album, the grown- up-bands-cover-the-Muppets album.  I can’t remember if I knew this song to begin with or if I have just listened to this record enough that it sounds so familiar.

Although MMJ have been getting into some crazy electronic and heavy music as of late, this is a very mellow song.  It opens with a banjo!  And while more instruments come in, it stays pretty true to what you’d think the Muppets would sing.

(Aha, thanks internet.  It appeared in Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas).   It’s a really pretty song (Paul Williams knew his way around a ballad, huh?) and this is a very nice cover.

[READ: April 16, 2011] Babymouse: Beach Babe

This the third Babymouse book opens with Babymouse dreaming (of course).  But this time she’s dreaming of surfing!  And she can hang ten (and other surfing lingo) with the best of them.  Until a card says “Too Terrible to See.”  But when she wakes up she has wonderful news…it’s the last day of school!

We also see, to my understanding, the first real encounter with Squeak, Babymouse’s little brother.  When Babymouse runs for the bus, Squeak follows her calling out her name.  She tells him to go home and we see poor Squeak by the side of the road, looking dejected.

But we’re soon back at school, and during the film strip, Babymouse imagines she is the Little Mermaid.  But when she wakes up, the bell rings and school’s out for the summer!

When her parents tell them they’re going on vacation, she has an instant flashback to their terrible vacation last year (and the lack of “facilities” at the camp ground).  But this vacation is going to be different–they’re going to the beach!  And she is super excited…until the drive takes for-

ev-

er.

There’s even a surprising dream sequence about all the trees that she sees on the way down.

When they finally arrive, there’s all the usual beach fun and danger (sunburn!) and Babymouse gets to try her hand at surfing like in her dreams.

It was right around this time that I guessed that the beach that Matthew Holm was drawing was at the Jersey Shore.  And indeed, it is.  The end credits say that the Holms used to vacation at the Jersey Shore.

The book ends with that other classic childhood trauma–having a younger sibling and getting tired of playing with him or her on vacation.  When Babymouse complains about Squeak once too often, he takes it very personally.  And suddenly the story becomes a little frightening and quite touching.

For a snarky series, this one is surprisingly moving.  I wonder if having this book third helped establish that sensitive side of Babymouse (which seems to be missing in later books).  Good for you Babymouse!

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Junot Díaz–The Sun The Moon, The Stars” (New Yorker, Februray 2, 1998)

Posted in Culture Shock, Dominican Republic, Funny (ha ha), Junot Díaz, Metallica, New Yorker, Short Story, The Prodigy, Travel, Ulver on November 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ULVER-Metamorphosis EP (1999).

After Ulver’s first CD, they jumped around in genres (their second was a kind of folk CD and their third CD was more black metal–I have not heard either one).  Their 4th CD was the William Blake CD of crazed experimental music.  And then they released this EP.  And I can’t think of too many bands who keep their fans guessing as much as these guys do.  This EP is full on electronica.  Dark electronica, yes, but still, it’s all electronic.

There are four songs.  The first one, “Of Wolves and Vibrancy” is like  rocking dance song from the 90s (like The Prodigy).  The drums are quite intense.  While the second song, “Gnosis” is a slower, more ambient track. There are still loud drums, but the pace is slower and less manic. At around the 6 minutes mark vocals come in.  They sound like some of Metallica’s chanting voices on later albums.

Track three, “Limbo Central (Theme from Perdition City)” is less than 4 minutes long.  It’ s another dark electronic soundtrack with more great drums. 

The final song, “Of Wolves and Withdrawal” is almost 9 minutes of very quiet noises that grow louder in pulses. It seems to be three sections of different pulsing sounds.  The first time I listened to it, the opening was so quiet that I thought it was just all silence so I fast forwarded through the whole thing.  But because the pulses are so mechanically timed it didn’t even register as noises while as fast forwarded.  I finally had to turn it up pretty loud before I heard all of it. 

I was tempted to say that going from that first Ulver album to this one is a massive change.  But it seems that every Ulver record is a whiplash of stylistic changes.  Nevertheless, this is about as far from black metal as you can get and still be dark and scary.

[READ: November 4, 2011] “The Sun, The Moon, The Stars”

This is one of Díaz’s short stories that does not appear in Drown (it came out about two years after Drown).  It has been frequently anthologized, however, which makes it a pretty important story.

There’s a reason why I like to read author’s works in chronological order, and reading this story now confirms that for me.  The story, written in 1998, is the fictionalization of the essay, “Homecoming with Turtle” that I reviewed a few weeks ago (the one that I said pertained to Oscar Wao because of the turtle).  Well, there’s no turtle in this story, and there’s no dentists, but the rest of the story is pretty much the same as his nonfiction account.

After saying all of that though, what’s fun about reading this out of order is that since I know what the “truth” is about this situation, it’s fun to see what he has massaged into fiction.

So in this story, Yunior has been dating Magdalena for some time.  Magda is a good girl: wouldn’t sleep with him until they had been dating awhile, took him to church, introduced him to her parents, the whole bit.  And he really loves her.  The problem is that they only see each other once a week.

So, when a hot girl starts working at his office and she tells him that her man doesn’t treat her well and Yunior confides that the sex with Magda isn’t very good, well, things happen.  But they didn’t happen very often or for very long and Yunior tried to forget it.  Until the girl sent Magda a letter.  A very detailed letter. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #9 (Late Summer Early Fall 2002) [We Feel This One is More Urgent]

Posted in A.M. Homes, Adventure, Culture Shock, Death, Denis Johnson, Doug Dorst, Ellen Moore, Essays, Eugene O'Neill, Fears, Funny (strange), Gabe Hudson, Gods, Harper's, History, Humiliation, Isaac Babel, Jeff Greenwald, K. Kvashay-Boyle, Liudmilla Petrushevskaya, Masturbation, McSweeney's, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Military, Nathaniel Minton, Nikolai Leskov, Play (Drama), Political Humor, Racism, Religion, Roy Kesey, Scott Greene, Sex, Short Story, Skaz, Sufjan Stevens, Threats, Translation, Travel, Val Vinokurov, Violence, War, William T. Vollmann, Yuck! on November 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS-The Age of Adz (2010).

Sufjan Stevens has released a bunch of albums of beautiful orchestral rock.  It is multi-layered and complex with classical elements and all kinds of cool instruments.

And this album starts out with a beautiful acoustic guitar melody and Sufjan’s delicate vocals.  Although it is a far more stripped down song than usual, “Futile Devices” seems like it is heading in the standard direction.  But anyone who heard Sufjan’s Christmas album number VIII knows that he has been having some fun with electronics.  And they show up with a vengeance on track two, “Too Much.”

All of the multilayered noise that was once orchestral and (some might say) precious has been replaced by a cacophony of gorgeous electronic noises.  The beginning of the song reminds me of the sounds in Skinny Puppy’s “Stairs and Flowers” (how many Sufjan Stevens reviews mention Skinny Puppy?).  The song is nothing like Skinny Puppy once the vocals kick in–it’s catchy and delicate–but those electronics underpin the whole thing, bringing his pastoralia into the twenty-first century.  When I first reviewed this song I didn’t like it but once you get absorbed by Sufjan’s world, it’s an enticing place to be,

“Age of Adz” takes this electronic nonsense even further with an 8 minute brew of strange sounds and choral voices.  But he always manages to throw in some catchy parts, no matter how strange the song gets.

For me one of the highlights of the disc is “I Walked” it features one of my favorite Sufjan things–falsetto vocals in a beautiful but unexpected melody.  And this song has them in spades.  “Now That I’m Older” has a very disconcerting sound–his voice is slowly warbled and mournful.  It’s a beautiful melody that is alienating at the same time.

“Get Real Get Right” returns to his earlier style somewhat (there’s more layers of music, although the electronica is still in place).   “Vesuvius” is a beautiful song and “All for Myself” is another of those great falsetto tracks that I like so much.

“I Want to Be Well” eventually turns into a manic electronic workout in which he repeats the chorus “I’m not fucking around.”

But nothing compares  to “Impossible Soul” a twenty-five minute (!) multi-part suite of electronic chaos.  It’s a fantastic song complete with autotune (used to very cool effect), repeated swelling choruses (it’s like a Polyphonic Spree tribute), electronic freakouts, and acoustic comedowns.  All in a positive, happy message.  I can’t stop listening to it.  “It’s not so impossible!”

Sufjan continues to impress me.

[READ: November 10, 2011] McSweeney’s #9

After the excesses of McSweeney’s #8, I was excited to get to the brevity (and urgency) of McSweeney’s #9.  This one is a paperback and looks like the first couple of issues.  The cover is mostly text with a hodgepodge of phrases and pleas.  You get things like: Thankful, Emboldened, The (Hot-Blooded/Life-Saving) Presumption of (Perpetual/Irrational (or More Likely, Irreducibly Rational) Good Will, Efflorescence, Our motto this time: We Give You Sweaty Hugs,” Alternative motto: ” We Are Out Looking,” GEGENSCHEIN (no more), and the promise: “We will Do Four This Year.”

This is the kind of issue that makes me love McSweeney’s.  There are some wonderful short stories, there are some nice essays and there are some dark moments all centered vaguely and tangentially around a theme.  There are some great authors here, too.

The back cover image is called Garden Variety by Scott Greene and it’s a fantastic painting.  You can see it here (navigate through the 2000-2004 paintings, but I have to say I really like the style of all of his work.

There are no letters and no nonsense in this issue.  So let’s get to it. (more…)

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Caitlin Horrocks–“Sun City” (New Yorker, October 24, 2011)

Posted in Baseball, Caitlin Horrocks, Death, Fears, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Semisonic, Short Story, Travel on November 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SEMISONIC-The Great Divide (1996).

Before Semisonic took over the world (and irritated everyone) with “Closing Time,” they were a band that formed out of the ashes of Trip Shakespeare.  Dan Wilson created Semisonic evidently because he wanted to be more poppy (which he perfected in “Closing Time,” obviously).

This album came out two years before “Closing Time” and it is a wonderful collection of alternapop.  There’s nothing terribly aggressive or weird in this collection, but neither is there anything so commercial that you want to scream.

The highlight for me is “Down in Flames.”  It goes in a few unexpected directions (especially with that screechy solo).  It’s a little dark, but it’s really catchy without ever pandering to Top 40 sensibilities.  It’s a really great song.

Some other highlights are the first three songs on the disc: “F.N.T.” is a poppy delight, “If I Run” has some great hooks and “Delicious” is a slinky sexy song with some unexpected moments.

Even a song like “Across the Great Divide” which isn’t the best on the disc has some nice surprises-when the vocals suddenly go falsetto.

There’s a couple of clunkers in the middle.  “Temptation” is a little too pop ballady for my liking and “No One Else” is a little bland.  I think their more uptempo songs are their strongest.

But “The Prize” is a satisfying pop rocker.  And “Brand New Baby” has some surprising pop vocals and a wonderful third part that is worth getting to the end of the album for.  While “Falling” is a surprisingly dark but catchy number (a Semisonic trait it seems).

The end of the album is rather unremarkable, but it’s still a solid collection of songs with nothing overplayable.  Sometimes one hit wonders are unfairly labelled as such.

[READ: November 8, 2011] “Sun City”

This was a fascinating story because it went in directions that I never anticipated.

I found the opening a little confusing as there were several women mentioned and no real relationship is given among them.  But it turns out that Vera and Bev are “roommates” and Rose is Vera’s granddaughter.  Vera just died (unexpectedly at 87) and Rose has travelled out to Arizona to go through her things.  Rose’s mom (Vera’s daughter) had a falling out with Vera years ago and won’t be going to the house.

Vera loved Rose but was somewhat disappointed in her–she was single and a bartender.  But Vera was not disappointed that Rose is a lesbian.  And Vera’s acceptance of that led Rose to believe that Vera and Bev were more than “roommates” as well. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“Homecoming, with Turtle” (New Yorker, June 14, 2004)

Posted in Concept Albums, Culture Shock, Dominican Republic, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Junot Díaz, Kiss, Memoirs, New Yorker, Travel on November 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Music from The Elder (1981).

Kiss lost me on this one.  I had been a faithful fan for several years, even putting up with all of the haters in fifth grade.  But once I heard that Kiss was releasing an “opera,” well the heck with that noise.

Now, granted, I had no idea it was a rock opera or that Tommy was a rock opera.  I heard the word “opera” (thanks newspaper review that my grandmother showed me) and said, Nope.  Of course, I wasn’t the only one who said Nope.  This record tanked.  It tanked so bad that the band almost went bankrupt.

But the album wasn’t just an album.  It was mean to be a film (there’s even film dialogue on the record!) and Chris Makepeace (Woody the Wabbit from Meatballs) was meant to star in it–I love that the film credit info is left on the record packaging).  What could this film have been like….if only it were made!

At some point I decided to buy the LP (Who even knows where I found it on vinyl) and I was surprised by how much I liked it.  In fact, I find it much more preferable to Dynasty and Unmasked.  It’s less pop oriented, and some of the tracks rock harder than anything since Love Gun.  True, there’s weird pretensions on it, but even those are just experiments.

This album also features Eric Carr on his first Kiss record (what a strange place for such a heavy rocking drummer to start).

So yes the album does open with horns and fanfare (like an opera perhaps?), but the first song, “Just a Boy” is a gentle ballad sung by Paul.  It’s certainly wimpy, but I rather like it (as I’ve said many times, I love Paul and his swelling choruses).  And there’s some nice guitar work from Ace here.

“Odyssey” has strings and strings galore.  It’s a pompous swelling song that harkens to Destroyer, yet goes in a very very very different direction.  As a fan of epic pretentious music, I rather like it, but as a Kiss song it’s a disaster.  Of course, I have always enjoyed the jokey “Once upon….not yet” line.

“Only You” is Gene’s first foray on this album.  And I will state categorically that this period was not good for gene’s songwriting.  His songs are really quite dull and boring (when you think of the crazy, complicated bass lines and things he was throwing on songs just a few years back, dull songs like this are a shock).  What’s also a shock is that this song is a kind of gritty guitar song, again, much less wimpy than anything on Unmasked–fickle fans turned on the band without having heard the songs–sure they weren’t good songs, but they weren’t disco either.

“Under the Rose” is the exception to gene’s malaise.  It begins softly with Gene’s whispered vocals not unlike “Man of 1,00 Faces” but the chorus is heavy and chanted, foreshadowing what they would do on Creatures of the Night (although Creatures was heavier and faster).  The riff is also pretty solid, too.

“Dark Light” is Ace’s contribution to the disc.  It has a pretty heavy opening riff as well.  And the verse reminds me a lot of the kind of verse Ace has been writing for a while–simple chords with lots of words.  The solo is pretty much literally a solo–very little in the way of backing music while Ace wails away. Shame it’s not a very interesting solo.

“A World Without Heroes” is a very gentle ballad by Gene.  There’s a great commercial for this album in which you get to watch Gene sing this song.

The crazy thing of course is that he’s in demon make up.  If this were Kiss without makeup no one would think it was weird, but I mean, look at him, why is he singing songs like this?  It is once again an impressive display of Gene’s range though.  Nice guitar solo, too.

“The Oath” is actually one of my favorite Kiss songs, no irony intended.  I used to laugh at the lyrics, which yes are silly (but this is Kiss, come on).  True, it’s an odd mix of really heavy guitars and pretentious falsettos (along with a bizarre keyboard/swirly third part).  But there’s a bitching guitar solo and as I said, the guitars sound great.  And Paul manages all of those different parts very well.  It’s vastly underrated and worth checking out (especially if you like unexpectedly weird music).

“Mr. Blackwell” feels like a song from a movie.  It tells a bit of a story of a bad guy.  The music is incredibly minimalist (one note bass bits and very sparse guitars during the bridge and chorus).  Lyrically it’s dreadful–“You’re not well/Mr. Blackwell/Why don’t you go to hell”, but at least Gene sounds like a demon delivering it.  The solo is an amazing bit of noise though.

“Escape from the Island” is another high point on the record.  It’s an instrumental, it’s fast and it’s heavy.  And it’s got another great solo from Ace–it’s funny that Ace was dissatisfied with the direction of Kiss at this time because he gets to really show off on this disc.

“I” is another solid anthem from Kiss.  It ends the album in an upbeat way and if it weren’t on this dismissed album it would be on any Kiss anthems collection.  Paul and Gene both take turns singing and the chorus is chantworthy and fist pumpable.  They should release it on a new album.  They’re so into it in the recording that Paul even shouts “you feel it too, don’t you?”

There’s an interesting review of this album at Popdose.  The bad thing is that the site has links to lots of MP3 demos from the album, but they’re all broken links.  I’d like to hear those.

[READ: October 30, 2011] “Homecoming, with Turtle”

This is an amusing piece of non-fiction from Junot Díaz.  I’m grouping it with the Oscar Wao stories because it actually bears an impact on them.  It’s about a visit that Junot took eleven years ago (from 2004) back to his homeland of the Dominican Republic.

He hadn’t been there  in nearly twenty years and he decided to go with his girlfriend.  Of course, like Yunior in the novel, Junot cheated on his girlfriend before their trip and one of her friends told her.  This put some tension on their trip (and one even wonders why he persuaded her to go along after that).

Their trip began with a week volunteering in the DR for a kind of Doctors without Borders (but for Dentists)–they assisted dentists with extracting thousands of teeth.  It’s a strange thing to do and a strange (but generous) way to start a vacation, but the exhaustion and camaraderie at least kept them from killing each other. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“Wildwood” (New Yorker, June 11 & 18, 2007)

Posted in Ace Frehley, Cancer as plot device, Culture Shock, Excerpt, Gene Simmons, Goths, Junot Díaz, Kiss, New Yorker, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Punks, Racism, Travel, Violence, Virginity (Loss of) on November 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Unmasked (1980).

It was hard to like Unmasked, but, being an 11-year-old boy, who loved Kiss, I never doubted its awesomeness.  Despite kids in school telling me Kiss sucked and, peculiarly, even the cover of this album telling me they stink (whose idea was that?) I knew in my heart of hearts that Kiss was the best.

In a stroke of marketing genius, this album teased the audience with the idea of finally seeing who was under these “masks” (which is weird since everyone knew they weren’t wearing masks, but whatever).  There’s even a poster that came with my vinyl copy!  Yahoo.

I just recently found out that “Is That You?” is a cover.  I always liked the high-pitched part of the song (“you always get the boys you like”), although in retrospect it’s really not very good–simplistic in a way that Kiss songs weren’t but then became.   I always joke about Kiss doing a tour and playing “Shandi.”  It’s such a cheesy ballad and yet I think it’s really good (for a cheesy ballad–Paul sings this type of song so well).  I constantly have the “there’s another mess I’ve got myself in” line in my head all the time.

I liked “What makes the World Go ‘Round” but even I can acknowledge that the song is pretty poor.  “Tomorrow” sounds like another song off of Paul’s solo album and probably should have been a huge hit.  In fact, they could have re-released it in the 80s and it would have fit right in with their non-makeup success–Paul’s soaring choruses are always a hit.  “Easy as it Seems” is kind of the album encapsulated in one song–very sleek, very soft, lots of choruses vocals and really kind of bland.   There’s even a wimpy keyboard solo (gasp!).

Ace was the star of Dynasty, and he gets three more songs on Unmasked.  “Talk to Me” is one of his repetitive songs that drives me a bit nutty (never liked that “talk to me-e” part).  It’s interesting how much Ace moved into prominence on these albums, especially since he was headed for the door soon.  “Two Sides of the Coin,” is a decent rocker, but listen to those crazy synth drums during the instrumental break.  “Torpedo Girl” is the most interesting track on the disc.  It has the cool opening “man battle stations torpedo,” a really funky (!!) bass line from Gene (who knew he had that in him) and a cool weird riff at the opening.  It’s then got a very catchy chorus (although honestly, “c’mon get your feet wet”?).

Gene has a bit more prominence here.  “Naked City” has a pretty menacing riff to open with, but Gene turns in one of his more melodic turns (with some pretty high notes in the chorus)!  The solo, while not blistering, is pretty great (as with Dynasty, the solos are too short).  “She’s So European” aside from being a really stupid title and lyric is the song that really puts this album over the edge–the twinkly keyboards, the “you ought to see her” falsetto, and, basically the same chord structure as “Living in Sin” on the verses.  Gene ends the disc with “You’re All That I Want,” a rather uninspired song that reminds me of the songs on side 4 of Alive II.

You’ll notice that Peter doesn’t get a vocal turn on this album.  In fact, he didn’t play anything on it at all (Anton Fig on drums again), but he was contractually obligated to appear on the cover (perhaps that’s why they did a cartoon).

No matter how much I listened to it back then, I can still admit that this album isn’t really very good.  Although interestingly, some of the songs and sonmg styles foreshadow the kind of music they’d play on Lick It Up: simple songs without a lot of substance, and that album was huge!

[READ: November 2, 2011] “Wildwood”

After reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” in the New Yorker, I saw that they had also published Lola’s “Wildwood” adventure as an excerpt from Oscar Wao the novel.

As you can see, this excerpt came out around the same time as the novel.  And as far as I can tell, this excerpt is exactly the same as the novel except for one line that was in the excerpt but not in the novel (the part in italics):

Hija de Liborio she called you after you picked your tia’s winning numbers for her and when you guessed correctly how old to the day she’d been when she left home for the U.S. (a fact she’d never told anyone).  You assumed….

The only other noticeable difference is that the first section of this excerpt is not really separated from the rest of it.  The first section is told in the second person, while the rest is in the first person.  In the novel, the second person section is set off by itself, so it’s a little less jarring when you jump to first person, but I think any reader could cope with that pretty well. (more…)

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