SOUNDTRACK: HEY MARSEILLES-Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2013).
For reasons I’m unclear about, the first two songs (at least the first two listed on the NPR web page, (“To Travels & Trunks” and”Gasworks”) ) are not included in the download. But we do get the band’s introduction of themselves. So maybe the NPR list is wrong? Weirder things have happened.
The band drove all the way from Seattle and are pleased to announce that they are the first band to play the Festival (a nice, if insignificant piece of trivia).
Regardless, we get a solid 35 minute set. The band opens with “Heart Beats,” a folky song. Indeed, Hey Marseilles continues the tradition of large bands (6 members at last counting) who play folk music with lots of unexpected(ish) instruments. But the singer sounds quite a bit like Ben Gibbard. Indeed that first song sounds like a less commercial Death Cab for Cutie—you keep expecting a big commercial chorus to come but it doesn’t, and there’s something very satisfying about them not giving it to us.
Although the band does sounds quite a bit like DCFC (both in the voice and the arrangements), their instrumentation brings an unfamiliarity to the songs that makes them so intriguing—like when the accordion pops up put of nowhere in “From a terrace.” Or other songs where strings fill out a song–not in a “look we’re unplugged” sort of way but as natural part of the song. I really enjoyed their songs and may track down their CDs (and their cool scarf).
[READ: July 3, 2013] Mermaid in Chelsea Creek
This was the second YA book that McSweeney’s has released. It is (say it with me) the first book in a trilogy. And I have to say that I really didn’t like the first 100 pages.
There were a number of small things that kept me interested, but for the most part I found the story pretty dreadful. On a personal note I really didn’t like that the Chelsea Creek was not revealed to be in the Boston area until very far into the story. I hated that it was so specific (Chelsea) and yet so generic (which of the dozens of Chelseas was it?). But more importantly I hated that Sophie (the protagonist) and her friend Ella, play the ‘pass-out” game. In the game, one of the girls chokes herself until she passes out. The other girl watches and wakes the first up after about 30 seconds. This is what they do for fun This is their cheap high. And it constitutes a large part of the beginning of the story. So much so that when her mother finds out about it, she tells her doctor. And what made it all the crazier was that her doctor reveals that not only did she play the pass out game as a girl but she is sure her mother did too. And her mother says yes. What the fuck? Oh and her mother is mean and overworked and exhausted and generally always ready to fight with Sophie.
I imagine that if I had another book with me on vacation I would have put this down and read that one instead. But I pressed on, mostly because when Sophie passed out she saw a mermaid in Chelsea Creek, a filthy sewage filled river. (The fact that Ella is a germophobe is quite funny, especially when Sophie falls into the creek when she passes out). That kept me interested as did Dr Chen (the above doctor). Because the Doctor keeps pigeons on her roof and she has tied flutes to some of their tails so that they make beautiful music when they fly. This scene was so good–so briefly magical–that I forgave the rest of the book and gave it a blank slate. I was bummed when the pigeons went away, but was delighted when they came back a little later, once the magic began for real.
And there is magic aplenty. Especially as Sophie learns more and more about her family and neighborhood. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 