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Archive for the ‘Unreliable narrator’ Category

David Foster Wallace–Girl with Curious Hair (1989)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Contests, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Jeopardy!, John Barth, Meta, Nicholson Baker, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Beautiful South, The Smiths, Therapy?, Tindersticks, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Word usage on May 22, 2010| 6 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: BBC Sessions (various).

Many many bands that I like have recorded tracks for the BBC.  And after several sessions, they tend to get released as BBC Live or BBC Sessions discs.  In the last few years, I’ve gotten discs from the Cocteau Twins, Tindersticks, The Beautiful South, Belle and Sebastian and Therapy?  One of the first ones I’d every gotten was The Smiths’ Hatful of Hollow.

I’ve always loved these releases.  The recordings are “live,” even though they’re not in front of an audience.  For the most part they don’t vary greatly from the originals (that’s not always the case, mind you, but most of the time it’s true.)

What makes these releases so great is that by the time the bands do these recordings for the BBC, the original album has been out a while and the band has toured a bit.  So, they know the song backwards at this point, and they usually record a version that’s faithful to the original but a little more playful.  I always thought that the Hatful of Hollow versions of songs were better than the originals.  It was many years before I understood why there were two “official” releases of the same songs.

There are so many BBC recordings out there (this is an incomplete list).  If you like a British band, chances are they recorded some sessions.  And I don’t know if the BBC is hard pressed for money or what, but they seem to be releasing them by the handful lately.  The biggest problem of course is that most of them are not available in the States (at least for a reasonable price).  And that’s a drag.  So find them used and enjoy!

[READ: May 19, 2010] Girl with Curious Hair

This is DFW’s first collection of short stories.  I clearly bought this copy soon after finishing Infinite Jest.  I was delighted to find as a bookmark an old stub from a sub shop that I used to go to all the time when I worked in Cambridge, Ma.  I wonder if that sub shop is still open.  It was in Brighton, was more or less on my way to work, had a predominance of Irish products and had delicious subs that were almost cheaper than buying the stuff yourself.  I had checked off a few stories in the table of contents (most of the shorter ones) but that stub brought back more memories than the stories did.  I didn’t even recognize the ones that I had apparently read.

And the stories are pretty memorable.  So I wonder if I didn’t read them at all.

The first story is “Little Expressionless Animals” (or, the Jeopardy! story).  In fact, if I may back up, the whole collection is really rife with pop culture, especially television references.  In David Lipsky’s book, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself , DFW states matter-of-factly that he has an obsession with TV and pop culture, so this shouldn’t be surprising.  But for me it was disconcerting to have the pop culture not incidental or as a set dressing, but absolutely central to the stories. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–Antwerp (2002) [translated 2010]

Posted in bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, cuppa joe, Death, Foreign Books, Huh?, Infinite Zombies, Natasha Wimmer, Oddities, Poetry, Poets, Punks, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Short Books, The Dead Milkmen, Translation, Unreliable narrator, Violence on April 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Not Richard But Dick (1993).

After the mature Milkmen of Soul Rotation, they followed up with this mini disc (at 28 minutes it’s probably an EP (even the title suggests that maybe it’s an EP) but it’s not considered one).

This album is a bit more twisted that Soul Rotation, although it still offers some of this newer more mature music.

The two most twisted songs are the largely spoken-word “I Dream of Jesus.”  It’s a rant in which the singer (who now goes by the name Arr. Trad.) talks about his mother keeping Jesus in a bottle, and the ramifications that that can have.  (It also features a sung chorus of “Jesus Loves Me”).  “Let’s Get the Baby High” has vocals that are processed so who knows who is singing.  But the title is pretty much spot on for the content of the song.

And you can pretty guess who is singing “The Infant of Prague Customized My Van.”

Butterfly Fairweather once again sings the bulk of the songs.  And most of them are fast rockers. The first song, “Leggo My Ego” could have been a hit (with the cool keboard opening) and “Little Volcano” probably should have been a  hit, it’s very catchy.

He’s also on vocals for some of those mellow songs (that remind me so much of Dromedary Records’ Cuppa Joe.  In fact, “Not Crazy” could have been done by Cuppa Joe.

The final song is a wonderfully hilarious Lou Reed impersonation with simple guitar chords, and a tin whistle!  It’s a very mellow spoken word piece about “The Woman Who was Also a Mongoose”.

Not Richard But Dick is no longer in print (Hollywood Records really gave DM the shaft).  I’m not sure if it’s worth tracking down at this point, but there’s some interesting and fun stuff on this disc.

[READ: April 7, 2010] Antwerp

Continuing with Roberto Bolaño’s fascinating melange of styles, Antwerp (technically the first “novel” he wrote (circa 1980 although he didn’t have it published until 2002) is a series of numbered sections.  I’ve heard it described as a prose poem, and, given his (at the time) recent switch from poetry to prose, that makes sense.

I had read an excerpt from this some time ago, and I found it difficult to read as excerpts.  Unsurprisingly, I also found the entire thing a challenge as well.  And that’s because, wow, there is so much crammed into these 79 pages, and there are so many different points of view and so many unclear events (written in great detail, but trying to piece those events together…phew) that even after reading it twice, I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on. (more…)

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Bill Cotter–Fever Chart (2009)

Posted in Bill Cotter, Constellation Records, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Fears, Funny (strange), Ghosts, Holidays, LGBTQ, McSweeney's, Neurotics, Punks, Sex, Suicide, The Dead Milkmen, Threats, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Yuck! on April 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: VIC CHESNUTT-At the Cut [CST060] (2009).

Vic Chesnutt died in December.  I have limited exposure to him, although I really enjoyed his previous Constellation release North Star Deserter.

This release (his second to last) shows him playing with much the same line up as North Star.  And it is just as harrowing and passionate as the other.

It opens with the fantastic “Coward” in which, stating how courageous it can be to be a coward her proudly sings “I am a Coward!”.  This track is one of the rocking ones on the disc, which is split pretty evenly between cacophonous rockers and slow moody acoustic pieces.  Another great rocker is “Chinaberry Tree.”  The lyrics are simple and the chorus is just the words Chinaberry Tree, but it is fantastic.

My preferences run to faster music, so I enjoy his noisier tracks to the simpler, acoustic ones.  And yet, lyrically, his songs are so moving that I easily get sucked into the narratives.  The most notable song on the disc is “Flirted with You All My Life” which is about death, specifically about his past suicide attempts.  It’s really moving.  And even the seemingly simple “Granny” is a well-written mood piece.

Chesnutt had all kind of physical problems (when he was 18 he was in a car accident and had been mostly paralyzed) and he had been in pain most of life.  It’s a shame he felt compelled to end his life, but we still have his music to enjoy.

[READ: March 27, 2010] Fever Chart

About half way through this first-person book, the narrator has a mental breakdown and tries to bite his hand off.  That should tell you right off the bat whether or not you want to read the book.  (Add to that that the narrator also has terrible bowel problems).

I had received an excerpt from McSweeney’s over the summer, and of all three books in the sampler, I enjoyed this one the most.  Little did I know how utterly surreal the story would get once that excerpt was over!

The cover of the book shows a man walking down the street with blood dripping from his hand.  This seemed like an odd choice to me.  However, for the bulk for the story, the narrator seems to be walking down streets with blood dripping from his hand (the one he eventually tries to bite off) so it perfectly encapsulates the tone of the book.

The story opens in the middle of a series of events from the narrator’s past (the first few sections are written in a wonderfully disjointed way that keeps the reader off balance).  Jerome Coe is currently living in an Apartment in Boston.  It has no heat.  His toilet is frozen solid and he is sleeping between his mattress and box spring to keep warm.  After ages of complaints to his landlord, one day the heat kicks on.  Full blast.  And Jerome cannot turn it off.  Soon, wallpaper is peeling of the walls and steam is flowing from his windows.  He is naked in his apartment and is preparing to run outside into the freezing weather just to escape the heat.

While he is standing outside, half-naked, a car pulls up and the driver, a woman named Tommy, asks him to jump in. (more…)

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David Means–“The Knocking” (New Yorker, March 15, 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, David Means, New Yorker, Short Story, Unreliable narrator on March 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-The Revolution by Night (1987).

After the amazing Fire of Unknown Origin, BOC, returned (retreated?) into keyboard-fueled tracks.  And we know that where BOC is concerned, keyboards=crossover attempts.  Now I don’t know if it’s just my own preferences, but I feel like the lightweight pseudo-metal here is better than their earlier stabs at lightweight pseudo-metal (Mirrors, etc).  I assume it’s because I grew up listening to metal around this time, so even if it’s not terribly original, it’s at least comfortable.

It opens promisingly enough with the keyboard heavy but rocking “Take Me Away”  And the 7 minute “Shooting Shark” is kind of catchy (in that BOC ballady sort of way).  But by the time we get to “Veins” we’re in full-fledged keyboard heavy pop metal (has there ever been a poppier song about veins in my eyeballs and veins in my skull?).

“Shadow of California” has a cool sinister angle on the keyboards which leads to a good riff-heavy track.  It emphasizes the slick metal sound from Fire.  “Feel the Thunder” also sounds like a typical late 80s metal song (but there is something distinctly BOC about it). “Let Go” is definitely a child of the 80s, complete with chantings of B.O.C.!

This CD sold poorly, which explains that Columbia-dominant cover design.  It seemed like BOC’s star had faded.

[READ: March 9, 2010] “The Knocking”

By about the third paragraph of this story, you just know that there’s not going to be any kind of “ending” to this piece.  (It’s not even really a story, per se). (more…)

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Jennifer Egan–“Ask Me If I Care” (New Yorker, March 8, 2010)

Posted in American Music Club, Books about writers, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Egan, New Yorker, Punks, Sex, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator on March 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARK EITZEL-Candy Ass (2005).

I’ve liked Mark Eitzel since my friend Lar played me “Johnny Mathis’ Feet” back in college.  I got some of his solo discs, but by around 2000, I’d more or less given up on him.  Someone donated a copy of this solo album to the library, and since we weren’t keeping it, I brought it home.

So I don’t know what he’s been up to since 2000, and this album came as something of a surprise.  The first song is quintessential Eitzel: downbeat mellow song with clever lyrics.  But after that, it seems like he got his hand on a drum machine and some electronica and just had a field day with it.

The one trend in electronica is to write long songs, and this holds true for Eitzel here.  There are a number of songs here that are predominantly simple drums and sound effects. The second song, in fact, has no words: it’s just a rudimentary drum machine which feels a lot longer than its 4:44 total time.

The few simple guitar songs (with electronic backing) sound good, but the thing is that Eitzel is an awesome songwriter, he’s just not such a great dancey songwriter.  The electronic experiments aren’t bad, they’re just not very inspired.  They may work as an introduction to that type of music for fans of his that never listened to electronica, but beyond that it’s just not that exciting.

Candy Ass is an interesting experiment, but it falls way short of his best work.

[READ: March 8, 2010] “Ask Me If I Care”

No, I really don’t.

I was really rather disappointed in this story.  It never really gripped me in an interesting way.  And even though the band practice stuff all probably happened, it just feel believable at all. (more…)

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Hannah Tennant-Moore–“By Song, Not Album” (The Sun, August 2009)

Posted in A Camp, Belle and Sebastian, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Drugs, Essays, Hannah Tennant-Moore, Memoirs, Photo Essays, PJ Harvey, Shudder to Think, The Cardigans, The Sun, Travel, Unreliable narrator, Van Morrison on March 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: A CAMP-Colonia (2009).

This is the second album from the side project of The Cardigan’s Nina Persson.  This disc was created with her husband Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think.  Their first album had a country flair to it, but this one eschews that entirely for a pop feel that is entirely different from The Cardigans’ two main styles: the “cheesy” happy pop of “Lovefool” and the bitter guitar pop of their later discs.

Although like the Cardigans, Nina uses her beautiful, almost angelic voice to mask the critical, often bitter lyrics that fuel this disc.  The music is kind of sparse, which really allows for Nina’s voice to shine through. “Stronger Than Jesus” is a wonderful song about, of all things, love.  While “Bear on the Beach” opens with a delicate twinkling piano. And “Love Has Left the Room” has soaring vocals and a wonderfully catchy melody line.

The best track is probably “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals” a cool duet with a tongue-twisting chorus.

They also have a bit of fun with genres, so “Here Are Many Wild Animals” opens like a doo-wop song, but swerves into a cool minor key masterpiece.  Even the album closer, the slow, meandering “The Weed Had Got There First” works nicely with Nina’s voice (although I wouldn’t want a whole album like this).

Anyone who misses the Cardigans would do well to track down this disc; or, if you find the Cardigans too treacly, this is a great representation of the true side of Nina’s character.  I just can’t decide if the A in the band name is the indefinite article or the letter A.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “By Song, Not Album”

My friend and coworker Anna loaned me this issue of The Sun saying that she thought I would enjoy it.  I’d never heard of it before, but I’m always up for new things, so I decided to check it out.  I really enjoyed the Photo Essay “With Eyes Shut.”  And I read two of the longer pieces as well.

This first one, is, I believe non-fiction.  And if it is non-fiction, it is the least believable non-fiction piece I may have ever read.  I was interested to read it because of the title, which seemed an interesting conceit for a story.  And while that does come into play, the story is really about a young woman who is studying abroad in France who is suffering from a severe depression.

The only one who can pull her through is her father, who is similarly afflicted with depression.  He flies over to assist her and they wind up spending several days together.

What I found unbelievable, was the way her father behaves.   (more…)

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Craig Ferguson–American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (2009)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Books about writers, Boredom, Corporate skewering, Craig Ferguson, Culture Shock, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Late Late Show, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Political Humor, Politicians, Red Dwarf, Religion, Steppenwolf, Travel, Unreliable narrator, Virginity (Loss of) on February 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT–Blue Öyster Cult (1972).

Craig Ferguson mentions that the only concert he saw as a teen in America was Blue Öyster Cult.  My guess is that it would have been around the Agents of Fortune or Spectres tour (ie, around “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”) so that must have been a killer show.

In honor of his book, I’m going to look at the lesser known early work of BOC.  Their first disc is a fascinating amalgamation of hard rock, blues, boogie and psychedelia.  All of that is coupled with the utterly perplexing lyrics that they came up with. In addition to the huh? factor of titles like “She’s a Beautiful as a Foot” and “Before the Kiss, a Redcap” we also get fascinating title like “Transamaniacon MC” (later on John Shirley would write a book called Transmaniacon as a tribute to this song).

The album isn’t heavy by today’s standards, but at the time, this was some pretty heavy stuff.  The rocking chorus of “Transmaniacon,” the blistering speed of “Stairway to the Stars,” and yes, the undeniably heavy riff of “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” let you know that this is no simple rock album.

And yet, they work so well with the fundamentals: Steppenwolf is clearly an inspiration.  This is classic rock that doesn’t quite fit the classic rock mode (which, frankly, makes it far more interesting).  There’s a lot to like here, and there’s more to come.

[READ: February 26, 2010] American on Purpose

I keep saying I don’t read memoirs but then I keep reading them. Yes, I’m a liar.

Well, in this case, I felt it was justified because a) Craig Ferguson is hilarious and I assumed his book would be too and b) he has already written a novel that I really liked (as well as 3 screenplays which I have not seen). So I figured it would be a well-written, funny book.  And, since it turned out I had two days off because of the “snow” I finished the book in a couple of days.

Right, so Craig Ferguson is the host of The Late Late Show, a show that Sarah and I fell in love with last year and then kind of forgot about it. And then we caught it again recently and have been enjoying some TiVo’d bits every now and then. Ferguson has a wonderfully warped sense of humor and his show veers into the bizarre more often than not.   But he is always enjoyable, and his celebrity interviews are worth watching for how funny and un-promotional they are.
But what about this book? This book basically details his life growing up in Scotland, moving to the States and becoming a “huge star.”

But the crux of the book is about his descent into alcoholism, how it destroyed his first marriage and several other long term relationships, as well as potentially his career. (more…)

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Sarah Palin–Going Rogue (2009) [UNFINISHED. Heck, consider it unstarted]

Posted in Barack Obama, History, Language, Memoirs, Political Humor, Smarty Pants, The Daily Show, Unfinished, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Word usage on November 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

[READ: Yeah, I’m not reading her book, but this parody book looks mighty funny.  Click the cover to order it.]

So, obviously I’m not going to read her book.  But I did want to point out the Webster’s definitions of Rogue.  It was pretty clear on the campaign trail that words didn’t really mean anything.  But when your very own book uses a word as its title and that word is (presumably) used to describe you, wouldn’t it behoove you to find out just what the word means?

1 : vagrant, tramp
2 : a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel
3 : a mischievous person : scamp
4 : a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave
5 : an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

So, which is it?  Vagrant?  Dishonest Person?  Scamp?  Horse?  Inferior individual?  That may not have been the best word choice.

And speaking of failed vice presidential candidates.  Recent events have led me to ponder the life of the failed vice presidential candidate.  It seems that in the 21st century, the failed presidential candidate gets off okay.  He fails and he moves on, but jeez, let’s look at the last few failed VPs: (more…)

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Struan Sinclair–Automatic World (2008)

Posted in Death, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Jarvis Cocker, Postmoderism, Pulp, Sci-fi, Smarty Pants, Struan Sinclair, Suicide, Supernatural, The Walrus, Unreliable narrator on October 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

sinclairSOUNDTRACK: JARVIS COCKER-Further Complications (2009).

cockerI really enjoyed Pulp’s Different Class album when it came out.  In fact, I liked it so much I made sure to get This is Hardcore and even the one before the got big, His n Hers.  I felt like the earlier stuff was just okay.  So either they hit their stride or they got lucky just before they broke up.

Going back now, I don’t like those discs as much as I did then (maybe it was burnout), but I retained a fondness for Jarvis Cocker and his zany exploits. And yet, I wasn’t really all that interested in his solo output.

But there were several excellent reviews of this disc and I figured I’d check it out.  And it was totally worth it.  This disc is a fascinating collection of seemingly every musical style that Cocker has ever heard.  Each song is laden with his (often caustic) wit and clever word play.  And it rocks really hard.  It was produced by Steve Albini (!).

Musically, there’s not a terrible amount of originality, but that almost seems the point.  Cocker is trying on differnt styles, writing archetypical or over-the-top verses for these songs.  “”Further Complications.”” opens the disc in what could be described as a Pulp-style rocker (But, and this is consistent throughout the disc, with much harder guitars).  “Angela” is a dopey hard rocker ala the Stooges, while “Pilchard” is a fantastic near-instrumental with great breaks and stops.

The disc slows down on “Leftovers” which reminds me of a Nick Cave type ballad (although it is much funnier).  “I Never Said I Was Deep” is, as the title suggests, a wonderfully self deprecating ballad.  Funny and catchy with the delightful chorus, “I never said I was deep, but I am profoundly shallow.”

“Homewrecker!” is another great rocker (this one horn-filled).  And “Fuckingsong” is a noise-filled, riff-fired rocker that seems totally out of character for Jarvis and yet works perfectly.

The last two songs take up a lot of time on the disc.  “Slush” is another delicate ballad that kind of overstays its welcome at 6 and a half minutes (lop off a minute or so and it would be very tidy).  But despite being too long, the song itself is really great.

And the final song “You’re in My Eyes (Discosong)” is, indeed a very disco-y tune.  It fits in thematically with the rest of the disc somehow (probably because of how seedy it sounds).  And it works very well as a disc track.  But it also suffers from disco excess, in that at nearly 9 minutes it is too long by half.  Especially since the last three minutes are (my personal pet peeve) just a repeat and fade/final note to the end.  It ‘s the kind of thing that makes me not want to hit play immediately again because it really bugs me when a great album like this slowly fades away for three minutes.  But then I remember that the rest of the disc is pretty fantastic, and I give it another whirl.

Good for you Jarvis, welcome back.

[READ: October 3, 2009] Automatic World

This is one of the first books I’ve read in a long time really just didn’t click for me.  I picked up this book because of this fantastic review at The Walrus.  The book wasn’t (and still isn’t) available in the States (although you can get a used copy from Amazon for $10), so I ordered in from amazon.ca.  And the fact that I actually ordered it from Canada (and paid the shipping) is the major reason why I read through to the end.

But here’s the thing.  Sections of the book are fantastic and totally gripping.  But other sections are nebulous and confounding.  And you get the real sense that the four (or more) stories are related, they really aren’t (as far as I can see).  Now, I am fully willing to admit that I simply didn’t get this book.  I’ve just come off reading (and putting a ton of effort into) Infinite Jest.  I deliberately didn’t read Automatic World at the same time as IJ because I knew it was supposed to be a difficult read.  So, it’s entirely possible that I was simply burnt out to really appreciate what was going on here.

When I just re-read the review at the Walrus, it once again really made me want to read the book (the review suggests that the book lets you know that the four stories are not connected, but I don’t think it does).

But let’s see what the book is about. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #5 [Timothy McSweeney’s Small Trembling Thing That You Hold in Your Hand and Pet Slowly with Your Dirty Fingers/Timothy McSweeney’s Small Box Half-Full of Shiny Gems and Itching/Timothy McSweeney is Staring Like That, Why Does He Keep Staring?/Timothy McSweeney’s Fervent Hope That Things Build from Here and Stay Good for You and Those You Love/Sometimes Not Believing How Great This All Is/Ted Koppel’s Very Very Special Thing] (2000)

Posted in 6500, Alastair Reed, Ann Cummins, Ben Greenman, Ben Marcus, Bible, Bob Mould, Books about writers, Camera Obscura, Chad Willenborg, Colleen Werthmann, Consuetudinary, Consumerism, Courtney Eldridge, Daniel O'Mara, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Donald Barthelme, Dreams, Dystopia, Elizabeth Klemm, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü, J. Robert Lennon, Jason Ockert, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Lawrence Weschler, Lydia Davis, Marcus Aurelius, Marie Curie, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Minnesota, Neurotics, Newsweek, Outer Space, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Rodney Rothman, Sarah Vowell, Sex, Short Story, Steven Barthelme, Susan Minot, Ted Koppel, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This American Life, Uganda, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Wikipedia, Work on July 1, 2009| 3 Comments »

back coverSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Metal Circus EP (1983).

HuskerDuMetalCircusAfter the insane hardcore mess of Land Speed Record, this EP is a bit of a change.  It’s still pretty hardcore, but now you can tell that the noisiness of the guitar is deliberate.  Bob Mould is playing around with multiple layers of feedback and distortion to create a wall of noise that sometimes hides, sometime accentuates the overall sound.

What strikes me as odd in retrospect is that I think of Bob Mould as one of alternative rock’s poppier songwriters.  And yet when you listen to this disc the two poppiest (which is a relative term to be sure) tracks are by Grant Hart.

The first two tracks are fast and furious.  But what separates them from 4 x 4 hardcore is, mostly Greg Norton’s bass.  He’s all over the place.  There’s also some diversity within the songs themselves (a little guitar squeal in “Deadly Skies”).

“It’s Not Funny Anymore” (Hart’s song) is surprisingly upbeat (with guitar harmonics) and is not quite as noisy (although it’s still pretty noisy, and is not going on the radio anytime soon).

The next two track are more of Mould’s screamy hardcore.

The longest song (4 and a half minutes) is also by Hart. “Diane” is a creepy song about abduction and murder (yet with something of a  singalong chorus).  I actually know the Therapy? version better because I had listened to that disc a lot when it came out.  But the Hüsker’s version is even creepier.  Wikipedia says it is about a real incident (which makes it less creepy than if Hart has made it up, I suppose).

It ends with Mould’s least hardcore song, although the guitar solo is pretty insane.

And then it’s over.  7 songs in twenty minutes.  That’s nearly half as many as on Land Speed Record.  You can see the songs changing already.  Just wait till the next disc!

[READ: June 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #5

McSweeney’s #5 plays with cover ideas again.  On this one, frontthe cover idea is actual different covers and slipcovers.  The book is hardcover, with three different cover designs.  It also has 4 different slipcover designs. The colophon explains that if one wanted one could have requested for free) each of the cover designs because they did not intend to make people buy multiple issues.  Click on the covers to see them enlarged on flickr (all images are copyright McSweeney’s).

This is the Koppel front cover.

I will quote from the McSweeney’s site their description of the covers:

As many of you know, the new issue of our print version is out, and by now is in most stores. This issue is a hardcover book, and features four different dust jackets. One dust jacket has on it a man who seems to be suffering from terrible skin lesions. The second cover looks very much like the cover of Issue No. 1, with the addition of a medical drawing of a severed arm. The third cover is blank, with all of its images hiding on the back. Hiding from the bad people. The last cover is just red. Or, if you will, simply red.

In addition, under each dust jacket is a different cover. One features pictures of Ted Koppel. One features new work by Susan Minot. And a third features a variation on the second cover, described above, though this version is legible only with aid of mirror. This inner cover also is featured under the red dust jacket.

I was quite surprised when I took the slipcover off mine, (more…)

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