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Archive for the ‘Yuck!’ Category

César Aira–The Hare (1991) [translated 1998]

Posted in César Aira, Funny (ha ha), Nick Caistor, Romance, Short Books, Supernatural, Surreal, The Avett Brothers, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Travel, Violence, Yuck! on January 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hare1SOUNDTRACK: THE AVETT BROTHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #18 (June 22, 2009).

avettI have recently become a fan of The Avett Brothers.  Indeed, my first review of one of their songs was very mixed.  But I have come around.  And this Tiny Desk show is a great example of the power they have in a live setting–especially one as personal as this.

For this set the two brothers (Seth on guitar and Scott on banjo) play a song from their then new album (the beautiful “Laundry Room” complete with amazing harmonies and beautiful cello) I & Love & You.  It builds slowly but after about two minutes, it turns into a big (upright bass is included, too) catchy song.  And in the last minute it becomes a huge stompin’ track (predating those other banjo bands by a few years).

Scott’s voice is really powerful (Bob Boilen asks if he swallowed an amplifier).

The second song is a the time not released yet, “Down With the Shine” (they joke that they’re then going to play a song they haven’t written yet).  It’s full of phenomenal harmonies.  And the commentary afterward about traveling with the brothers is very funny.

The final track goes back to their previous EP and is called “Bella Donna,” a pretty ballad sung by Seth–he seems to do the more mellow tracks.  It’s a pretty ending to this all too short Tiny Desk Concert.

Watch it here.

[READ: January 10, 2014] The Hare

The Hare was the first of Aira’s books to be translated into English (back in 1998 with this simply gawdawful cover).  It has recently been republished by New Directions Press with a far more tasteful cover.  The translator, Nick Caistor, is the same although I noticed in an online excerpt that while the English language is the same, the New Directions version has translated a Spanish newspaper (El Grito) into English (The Crap) when it wasn’t translated in the earlier version.  But aside from that, it all appears to be the same.

I had been putting off reading this book because it is his largest book (most of Aira’s books are barely over 100 pages, while this one is almost 250) and I’d also read some lukewarm reviews of the book, so I saved it for last.  Of course, now he has a newly translated book out, so I decided it was time to read The Hare.

Not the best attitude for a book an it definitely impacted my early reading of the story.  And I’ll sum up that impact as saying I thought that the book itself was strangely flat but that the ending was fantastic.  Had I been more open t0 the absurdity I think I would have enjoyed the whole thing a lot more. (more…)

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Amy Poehler–“Take Your Licks” (New Yorker, October 14, 2013)

Posted in Amy Poehler, Andrew Bird, Benjy Ferree, Essays, Ice Cream, New Yorker, Summer, Tiny Desk Concert, Work, Yuck! on January 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_10_14_13McCall.inddSOUNDTRACK: BENJY FERREE-Tiny Desk Concert #15 (May 29, 2009).

benjyI had never heard of Benjy Feree before this Tiny Desk Concert, and I have still never heard of him.  I don’t know a thing about him, and I kind of like that.  Where did they find him?  They seem to know him very well.  (He grew up locally to D.C., so I guess that’s it).

He plays four songs and he is very funny.

“I Get No Love” opens with Benjy whistling and playing a guitar in a Spanish style (not fingerpicking but that fast strumming style).  But when the song proper begins, it’s a bouncy acoustic song.  Benjy has a nice voice.  He also encourages everyone to get out their pens a make a beat.  The whistling is truly amazing. It’s strong and powerful and very catchy.

In the second song, “Fear,” Benjy pulls out a great falsetto—it’s a wonderful combination of his regular powerful voice and some cool high notes too.  Then he tells the story of working in an office.  He says his boss looked like Clarence Clemmons.  It’s a very funny story.

Then he starts talking to the “chat room.”  He messes up the tuning of his third song, “When You’re 16.”  But he pulls through with a very solid acoustic song with more good whistling.  After the song he says he’d like to take lessons from Andrew Bird in whistling.  And then he curses which leads to a lengthy and funny story about going to school at a Baptist Church.

“The Grips” is the final song, it’s a slower, very nice song, which really shows his range.

He is a charming and very funny and the end (the David Letterman joke) is especially amusing.  And I have to say that I thought his hair looked totally fake and then I read that it was a wig.  Ha.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Take Your Licks”

This New Yorker has several small essays about work.  They are primarily from people who I wasn’t familiar with–only Amy Poehler saved the five from being unread.  When after reading all of them I enjoyed them enough to include them all here.

The pieces are labelled under “Work for Hire” and each talks about a humiliating job.

So Poehler’s essay is all about working at an ice cream shoppe as a young girl–a typical summer job.  I’ve often seen young girls working in ice cream shoppes for summer jobs and I always imagined that they would get the hugest arm muscles from scooping out in those awkwardly deep freezers.  But Poehler focuses more on the cleaning–every night anything that wasn’t nailed down got cleaned.  Ugh. (more…)

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Thomas McGuane–“Weight Watchers” (New Yorker, November 4, 2013″)

Posted in Chulo, Food, Gripe, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Sex, Short Story, Thomas McGuane, Yuck! on January 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_11_04_13Brunetti.inddSOUNDTRACK: GRIPE-“Man vs Cop” CHULO-“Hombre vs Tombo” Split Single (2012).

chuloI downloaded the Gripe album yesterday and then saw this split single.  It has two songs which total 59 seconds.

Gripe has like a typical grindcore sound–pummeling and tinny.  All 32 seconds of “Man vs Cop” contain a pummeling riff, screamed vocals and even a ride cymbal at some point.

I was more intrigued by Chulo because I was surprised at how different a band could sound within the same limited soundscape of grindcore.  The big difference for me was the real presence of a bass guitar.  As “Hombre vs Tombo” opens, there’s a few seconds of pummeling sound (although their snare drum sounds more like a bongo) and then the sound drops out and there’s a cool heavy bass sound (for two notes).  Then the pummeling resumes, although again, much more bass heavy.  The other big difference is that they sing in Spanish.  I’m curious to know if that slightly different sound is a Latin American sound for grindcore or if it is just their own.

If you have a minute you can listen (or download for free) the single here.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Weight Watchers”

This story began in a very weird way.  In it, an adult’s father has been kicked out of his house because his wife is mad that he now weighs more than 250 pounds.  Something that she has done on multiple occasions.  I find this reason/excuse so incomprehensible that it really impacted the rest of my reading this story.  This “problem” did put things in motion but was more or less ignored through the story and it seems that there were other more pressing issues that they needed to worry about.

When we meet the father, he has come to stay with his son. He believed that anything “done for pleasure was escapism.”  So we learn he has no tolerance for pleasure, except “when it came to seducing his secretaries and most of my mother’s friends.” Then we learn that his mother got pregnant as soon as she could when his father got back from the war because she figured that would get him to settle down.  his father basically resented him for his whole life.  So I guess the whole family is screwed up.

Especially when we find out that the son has witnessed all manner of “disturbances,” meaning his parents’ infidelities, in their house.  One of them was a very weird scene of food and eroticism.  Ew. (more…)

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Jeff Kinney–Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck [#8] (2013)

Posted in Babies, Children's Books, Death Cab For Cutie, Dogs, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Jeff Kinney, Kids Corner, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, Parenting, Poo, Set at School, Short Books, Yuck! on January 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hardluckSOUNDTRACK: LUCKY DIAZ AND THE FAMILY JAM BAND-“Thingamajig” (2013).

luckyThis song made the XPN Kid’s Corner Top ten.   When the played it on the radio, I was surprised at how ..quiet it was.  Even now listening to it, it just seems like all of the sounds are at the same level, it all kind of blends together, which is a shame because the song is really kind of fun.

Now that I’ve listened a few times I like it more.  It actually has a kind of Death Cab for Cutie feel.  The bass is particularly nice, but of course the fun part is the lyrics (a thingamajig, a whatchamacallit, who what where why).

So a couple of listens and I’m won over by the song.  I wish it was a bit more dynamic in the production, but it’s a catchy little number.  And I’m curious to hear what the rest of the album sounds like.

[READ: December 27, 2013] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck

Clark was so excited for this book!  This is the first one that he knew about before I did.  We decided to save it for a Christmas present, and man was he chomping at the bit.  He even borrowed it from a friend (because there were 100 people on the waiting list a the library).  And yet, even though he had already read it, when it arrived on Christmas, he was still really excited.  And has already read it four times.

And what was sweeter was that he really wanted me to read it.  He thought it was the best one yet.

I was surprised by this as the whole first section is about how lost Greg feels now that Rowley has a girlfriend, Abigail.  I can’t really imagine how he related to that as it’s not an issue for an 8-year-old (in fact the whole series is skewed a little old for an 8-year-old, but he still loves it).  Mostly Greg isn’t so much jealous that Rowley has a girlfriend so much as he is jealous that she is keeping Rowley from being Greg’s slave, I mean, friend.  Normally, Rowley walks in front of Greg to look out for the (newly added, I think) Mingo kids who threaten anyone who comes close to their wood (which is on their way to school) or for dog land mines–the scene where the dog figures out how the electric fence works is so funny.  And speaking of dogs, Clark absolutely cracked up about the joke with the little dog Sweetie who sniffs herself if you make a raspberry sound near her. (more…)

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Nathan Rabin–You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music’s Most Maligned Tribes (2013)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Anarchy, Books about music, Brian Posehn, Culture Shock, Death, Decadence, Drugs, Fantasy, Fears, Hannibal Buress, Ice Cube, Insane Clown Posse, Nathan Rabin, Phish, Sex, Vanilla Ice, Violence, Workaholics, Wrestling, Yuck! on January 3, 2014| 1 Comment »

youdont SOUNDTRACK: INSANE CLOWN POSSE-“Bang! Pow! Boom!” (2009).

icopSince I have posted about Phish already, it seemed like time to listen to an ICP song.  I admit that when their first album came out, they seemed goofy enough to check out their album.  I love a cartoony band that is going to “ruin America.”  But I had heard that their music was just too awful to enjoy ironically, so I never bothered with them (if I had been a few years younger, I probably would have embraced them wholly).  In the book below, Rabin says that their newer stuff is not only a ton better than their early stuff (which he admits is raw and pretty terrible) he says that it is quite poppy.

So I listened to a few of the songs that he mentions (and there are some funny lines), but I decided to focus on this one which Rabin describes as “a groovy throwback number that finds ecstasy in a bleak moral reckoning…finding the joy in the macabre and the celebration in the gothic.  Also, it’s catchy as fuck.”

That’s a highfalutin way of saying that they sing about blowing shit up.  Lyrically the song seems to be about ICP talking to their fans (in the harshest terms possible, which I guess is affection: “Cuz you’re the evilest pedophiles, rapists and abusers/All together we’ve got fifty thousand of you losers”).  It’s an insider tract and if you don’t like it or get it, well, you’re not supposed to.

But aside from the lyrics about rapists and all the cursing, this song could easily be a big hit.  It is, yes, catchy as fuck.

But I won’t be listening to more from them.

[READ: January 2, 2013] You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me

Every year my brother-in-law gets me cool and unusual books, most of which I’ve never heard of.  This year, he got me this book which I’d never heard of.  I was confused by the title (which is confusing).  The author’s name sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure—until I saw the A.V. Club connection.  So, at first I thought this was going to be about going to interesting shows or basically having something to do with the A.V. Club.  But, as the subtitle says, this book is exclusively about Rabin’s travels following Phish for a summer and also going to some ICP Gatherings of the Juggalos.

The theme of the book is how most people have never heard the music of either band, but they have formed opinions not only of the bands, but their followers.  Rabin points out plenty of exceptions to the stereotypes, but you won’t be leaving this book thinking much more of the preexisting stereotypes than you already do.  Sure, some Phish heads are doctors, and some Juggalos are employable, but the majority are (despite his best efforts) what you think they are.  But one of the main messages that he seems to promote in the book is that each of these groups have created tribes around them.  And those who aren’t part of the tribe may scoff, but they secretly wish they could be having as much fun as the members of the tribes.  And that may in fact be true.

I’ve enjoyed Phish’s music for years, although I’ve never seen them live.  And as for ICP, I didn’t even realize they were still around—although that Workaholics episode should have clued me in.  Naturally these two bands could not be more polar opposite in terms of music and fanbase (although Rabin did encounter some crossover). So he sets out to show how he can enjoy both groups. (more…)

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Alix Hawley–“Daniel Boone, By Himself” (The Walrus, November 2013)

Posted in Alix Hawley, Death, Short Story, Sigur Rós, The Walrus, Violence, Yuck! on December 2, 2013| 1 Comment »

cover-10-9_largeSOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-“Svefn-g-englar” (1999).

220px-SvernCoverAThis was the first I heard of Sigur Rós.  I suspect my friend Lar told me about them and I was just blown away by the first track on this single–a 9 minute swelling, string-filled, otherworldly enterprise.

The first song on the single is “Svefn-g-englar.”  It opens with overlaying chords and the beat is kept by an echoing keyboard note.  It’s very spacey and mellow.  And the vocals are unlike anything i had heard before–not just falsetto, but practically alien falsetto.  There are noisy guitars but they work into the background washes of sound and don’t really register as guitars exactly.  Gorgeous soaring vocals on the chorus, which I’ve always heard as “its you” but is apparently “tjú.”  It’s otherworldly and beautiful  Then at 6:30 the drums kick in and the song gets grounded, taking on more gravitas as the chords grow louder.  This lasts for one minute as the song then slows itself back into its original style.

The second track is “Viðrar vel til loftárása.”  It has a louder bass and great chords.  This slow airy song is grounded by the acoustic piano–a very pretty melody with the strings behind it.  Jonsi’s vocal line is beautiful but mixed very low as if he is so far away.  The song ends with a great string section until the abrupt end.  It clocks in at 10 minutes.

Two live songs “Nýja lagið” and “Syndir Guðs” (live at the Icelandic Opera House, June 12, 1999) show that the band can work this magic live.  The guitar is more intense bring a bit more drama to the sound.  But Jonsi’s voice is still amazing in the live setting.  The first one is funny because you don’t really realize it’s live until the end when people start clapping.  And at 9 minutes it’s an amazing listen.  When it goes into a minor chord at around 5 minutes, it’s really something.

The final song “Syndir Guðs” comes from their debut album Von.  It is only 5 minutes, but it’s really quite good here.  It’s nice to see them translate their style to this older song.  The song is quite a short one for this EP, which totals nearly 35 minutes.  This is a great EP for fans of the band.  Hearing those live recordings is totally worth it.

[READ: December 2, 2013] “Daniel Boone, By Himself”

I don’t know a lot about Daniel Boone, truth be told.  So this story may be very accurate or maybe it’s based-on-actual-research about Boone’s possible mental state at the time of his death.  Or maybe he just made it all up.  Whatever the case, I did not enjoy it.

From the beginning, in which we learn the proper way to scalp someone, to the death of Boone’s son, the story was explicitly violent.  And while I’m no shrinking violet when it comes to violence, there just wasn’t much more to it. I’m sure that Boone’s life was nonstop violence, and that this story is not inaccurate in that way (I don’t even know if he had a son).

And perhaps it was that nonstop violence that prevented me from learning much about him in the first place. (more…)

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Lucy Worsley–If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home (2011)

Posted in 18th Century, 19th Century, Architecture, Babies, Death, Disease, Drinking, Environmentalism, Essays, Fears, Food, Funny (ha ha), Gideon Lewis-Kraus, History, If Walls Could Talk, Lucy Worsley, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Masturbation, Morality, Phish, Plague, Poo, Pregnancy, Privacy, Religion, Research, Santana, Sex, Technology, Toilets, Yuck! on November 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

wallsSOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Round Room (2002).

round After Farmhouse, Phish went on a hiatus.  No one knew it would be quite so brief, but there was really a feeling that they were done.

And then they quietly released Round Room in 2002.  And it bursts forth with an 11 minute song.

“Pebbles and Marbles” has an interesting riff—complex and pretty.  And when I listened to it again recently I didn’t really quite recognize it.  But that’s because it’s nearly 12 minutes long and the really catchy part comes later in the song.  At around 5 minutes, the catchy chorus of “pebbles and marbles and things on my mind” announces itself.  And it is a good one.

“Anything but Me” is a pretty, mature song that is slow and piano heavy.  “Round Room” is a boppy little ditty (clearly a song written by Mike).  It is sweet and a little weird.  “Mexican Cousin” sounds a lot like a cover (maybe an old song by The Band) except for the solo which is very Trey.  It’s a funny, silly ode to Tequila.  “Friday” is a slow six minute song with two sections.  The verses are spaced out a bit, delicate riffs that are mostly piano once again.  The middle section is sung by Mike (which makes it more mellow somehow).

“Seven Below” is an 8 minute song.  It has another great riff (and the intro music is cool and bouncey).  When the vocals come in, it’s got gentle harmonies as they croon the sweet song).  Most of the 8 minutes are taking up with a guitar solo.  “Mock Song” is another of Mike’s songs.  This one seems to be a random selection of items sung to a nice melody.  Then when the chorus comes it’s quite nice, how this is a “just a mock song.”  The first verse is sung by Mike, then Trey does a kind of fugue vocal with different words in verse two.

“46 Days” opens with funky cowbells and turns into what seems like a classic rocking folk song—few words but a great classic rock melody (complete with 70s era keyboards).  “All of These Dreams” is a mellow piano piece, another mature song.  “Walls of the Cave” has an interesting piano melody that opens the song. The song is nearly ten minutes long and the middle part has a nice flowing feel to it.  There’s also a few sections that are separated be drum breaks—something that doesn’t often happen in Phish songs.  When the third part opens (to almost exclusively percussion, their vocals all work in a very nice harmony.  It’s a long song but with so many parts it always stays interesting.  “Thunderhead” is another piano-based song with some guitar riffs thrown on top. But it is largely a slow, mellow piece.

“Waves” is an 11 minute song with long instrumental passages.  It also begins with a kind of Santana feel to it, but it is a largely meandering song, with a simple melody that they stretch out for much of the song.  So this album proves to be an interesting mix of long jams and mellow ballady type songs.  It seems like Phish had a big mix of things to let loose.

[READ: November 1, 2013] If Walls Could Talk

This book reminds me of the work of Mary Roach—exploring a topic in great detail and including lots of amusing insights.  The two big differences here are that Worsley is British and that she goes back very far in British history to give us this fascinating information about the development of certain rooms of the house.

Worsley begins with the bedroom.  She looks at the furniture—the history of the bed from lumps with straw to fantastically ornate full poster beds that were made for kings who might never actually use them.

Then she moves on to more personal matters—sex (including deviant sex and venereal disease); breast feeding (for centuries mothers felt they were not equipped to take care of and nurse their own children, hence wet-nurses) and knickers (royalty had an entourage designed specifically to assist with underthings).  Indeed, privacy was an unknown thing in olden times.  Even royalty was expected to receive people in all of the rooms in the house.  Initially the bed chamber was for their most intimate friends, not just for sleeping.

The section on old medicine was also fascinating, they believed that it was vaporous miasma that did you more harm than say, excrement-filled water.

The section on Sleep discusses what was also in a recent article by Gideon Lewis-Kraus—that there were two sleep times at night.  With no electricity there was no artificial light to keep people up late so they would go to sleep early, wake up in the middle of the night (the best time for conception of children) and then sleep again. (more…)

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George Saunders–“Puppy” (New Yorker, May 28, 2007)

Posted in Bra Stuffer, Dogs, George Saunders, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Noble Baker, Phish, Poo, Short Story, The Simpsons, Yuck! on October 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live Bait 04 (2011).

bait04This Live Bait free sampler is compiled of songs from some of their summer tours (all songs are from June-August).  And it’s a fun collection of mostly long jams.

“Scent of a Mule” dates from 1996 and has a very “old” quality, like the band doesn’t sound as full as normal (the vocals also have an unexpected country feel). There’s a bit of “Sunshine of Your Love” from the guitars while Page is doing an elaborate solo.  Indeed there’s a lot of piano on this track—much more than usual (and some of it is crazy).  There’s a Jewish music section done on both guitar and voice which abruptly ends when the song returns to “Scent”.

“You Enjoy Myself” is one of my favorite Phish songs.  This version clocks in at almost 25 minutes.  At around 21 minutes the song devolves into them making a bunch of silly rhythmic noises, which must be very fun to see.  The next track is “The Landlady” (from 1993), a wonderful instrumental that morphs into “Tweezer” which has a pretty wild and raucous jam component.  There’s also a repeated guitar motif (which I don’t recognize) that seems to be a cue for the band to do things (play loud and fast or really slow—including their impossibly slow rendition of The Simpsons theme song.  It’s a neat trip.

The next track is “Mike’s Song.”  It opens a 36 minute jam that devolves at around 18 minutes into real silliness with spacey effects and controlled laughter.  At about 20 minutes, it morphs into the simple song “Contact” and eventually into “Weekapaug Groove.” Which starts in an unusual way—instead of Mike only playing the bass, the band joins the song in progress.

“Split Open and Melt” has some loud bass—I hadn’t really noticed the bass so much before, and in this version in particular Mike seems like maybe he’s mixed a little louder and he’s playing some really funky stuff (and making quite a few errors, it must be said).  Next comes the silly “NO2” (from 1999), which duplicates the effects of the record pretty well, and the guitar solo at the end of very pretty.  “My Friend My Friend” is a pretty dark song but it starts with the very pretty guitar work until the minor keys take over.  It slowly morphs into “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters,” a lyrically insane but musically great song.  Page gets a lot of solo time in this song, too.

The next song is “Twist” always a fun and energetic live track.  There’s a very slow jam in the middle of the song (which in total is 29 minutes) before it turns into a very echoey “Slave to the Traffic Light.”

The next song is a nearly 20 minute, joyous “Free”.  It morphs into a beautiful “What’s the Use” yet another or f Trey’s gorgeous rising melodies.  “Axilla” is a fast almost punky version as is the near barbershop quartet riot of ”My Sweet One” which is the fastest I’ve heard it done.  And “Run Like an Antelope” is as frenetic as I’ve heard it—the pace of this segment (from 1993!) is insane.

“David Bowie” begins but then pauses as Trey sings “Catapult” a short piece that I don’t think I’ve ever heard played before.  Then “David Bowie” resumes for the remaining 10 or so minutes and it is a fast and furious cut as well.  This great free set ends with a 15 minute “Divided Sky,” which sounds as good as ever.

Phish releases a lot of concerts, so it’s nice that they throw these free compilations to us once in a while.

[READ: October 15, 2012] “Puppy”

This story is included in George Saunders’ new collection Tenth of December.  But since I was able to find it at the New Yorker, I figured I’d read it now (this means that of all of the stories in the collection I have only not read two).

This story is dark.  Although it doesn’t seem so at first.

The story begins by looking at a married woman who has their two kids in the car with her.  She is trying to get them interested in the beautiful autumnal day but they have heard it all before.  And besides, her son is deeply engrossed in his video game Noble Baker “Not now, Mom, I’m Leavening my Loaves” (ha).  Which is better than the game he wanted, Bra Stuffer.  We go into the woman’s head and (at least in my case) pity her a little bit for trying so hard with kids who clearly aren’t interested.  Like when she read the instructions to her son’s video game so she could offer him tips while he played (and he swats her away, but at least it is “affectionately”).

She keeps her spirits up.  But every example seems more sad than nice.  When she thinks about her husband who says “Ho HO!” to anything that comes up.  Like all of the animals that they own, and how few of them are actually played with by the children.

The other day she spoke of their dog as a puppy and her daughter cried because she didn’t remember it.  So of course she had to get them a new puppy.  She saw an ad for a puppy and decided to go check it out. (more…)

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Lucky Peach, No. 8: The Gender Issue (Summer 2013)

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Alice Waters, Amelia Gray, Angie Wang, Anthony Bourdain, Art, Ben Shewry, Calvin Godfrey, Chateaubriand, Chicken Divan, Chris Ying, Cook Book, Coq au vin, Crème brûlée, Crêpe Suzette, Cream Puffs, Culture Shock, Derek Ballard, Edie Fake, Fuchsia Dunlop, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, John Birdsall, John Ritter, Johnny Negron, Jonathan Franzen, Joshua Neuman, Kevin Pang, Lucky Peach, Mark Ibold, McSweeney's, Mei Chin, Michael Deforge, Mickey Zacchilli, Mimi Lok, Naomi Duguid, Nhân VĂn, Parenting, Peter Meehan, Pizzle Soup, Quiche Lorraine, Scampi alla Calabrese, Sex, Sexism, Soccer, Three's Company, Typhoon, Vinny Dotolo, Youngmi Mayer, Yuck! on September 17, 2013| 2 Comments »

lp8.1SOUNDTRACK: TYPHOON-“Dreams of Cannibalism” (2013).

typhoonNPR 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…)

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Douglas Coupland–Miss Wyoming (1999)

Posted in Acting, Babies, Canadian Content, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Hospitals, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Sex, Supernatural, Swedish Music, Technology, The Tallest Man on Earth, Violence, Virginity (Loss of), Yuck! on August 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

misswyomingSOUNDTRACK: THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH-Live at KEXP (September 8, 2012).

tmoeThe Tallest Man on Earth is Kristian Matsson a Swedish singer songwriter.  His albums have a very full sound, but when he plays live, it’s just him and his guitar.  And man, is he a compelling performer.  His guitar playing (primarily classical-sounding but often heavy and mostly rocking) is gorgeous–fast and pretty.  And his voice is gravelly and powerful.  I’ve enjoyed the studio songs I’ve heard, but he is transcendent live.

This set opens with a buzzy guitar that sounds like the show is not recorded well.  But that quickly goes away and the songs shine.  Matsson is a charming and self depreciating performer and when he has a malfunction as in “Love is All”and at the end he says “that was kind of embarrassing.”  But he not bothered by it and plays on with a great, short set.

The set includes some (then) new songs and a few older ones as well: “A Field of Birds,” “King of Spain”, “Tangle in This Trampled Wheat,” “Thrown Right at Me,” “The Gardener” and “Like a Wheel.”  It’s a great introduction to the guy and his amazing voice. which you can enjoy at KEXP.

 [READ: August 20, 2013] Miss Wyoming

I first read the book during my trip to Vancouver on the eve of Y2K (the best flight I’ve ever had—mostly empty and we were given champagne).  I started reading it on the plane and then in the second chapter the heroine is in a plane crash.  So I stopped reading.  I’m sure I finished it later, although I didn’t remember much of anything about it.

I read it again now and I was a little disappointed when I started reading it.  The first few chapters are so full of similes it is insane.  The word “like” is tossed around at an incredulous pace.  Like:

  • John’s teeth were big and white, like pearls of baby corn
  • …his skin like brown leather.
  • His eyes looked like those of somebody who’s lost big.
  • They crossed San Vicente Blvd, passing buildings and roads that once held stories for each of them, but which now seemed transient and disconnected from their lives, like window displays.
  • Susan was wrapped in a pale light fabric, cool and comfortable, like a pageant winner’s sash.
  • John was sweating like a lemonade pitcher,
  • …his jeans, gingham shirt and black hair soaking up heat like desert stones.
  • John felt as close to Susan as paint is to a wall.
  • Staring at the pavement, like Prince William behind his mother’s coffin.
  • This man with sad pale yes, like snowy TV sets

That’s all in the first chapter!

Now, I have come to see that the story is cyclical and it’s about people looking for their real selves.  So it’s possible that the simile heavy beginning is meant to reflect the fact that the protagonists are looking for themselves—they have no substance so they can only be compared to other things.  But man, it is hard going with that many comparisons.

The other major problem I had with the story was the really aggressive use of coincidence.  Susan and John both end up eating out of fast food dumpsters; just as Susan’s mother wants to sell their house, a pile of garbage from an airplane falls on it.  Right after we learn of a guy hoarding gasoline, the house explodes.  Again there are arguments for why these things might happen in this story (numerology is an important aspect of the book), but it seems too…easy.

But once the story starts moving the actual plot is really interesting and compelling. (more…)

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