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Unwound (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2023)

March 17, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: March 16, 2023] Unwound

This Unwound tour was announced with much fanfare.  It had been 20 years since the band had last toured.  And they didn’t think they’d reunite

“When we put Unwound on the shelf in 2002, we never thought we’d return to the project,” drummer Sara Lund said in a statement with today’s announcement. The band held its first reunion practice, secretly, in April 2022.

but

“Starting over again is a rebellious act against our failure,” guitarist/singer Justin Trosper added.

There was a compounded problem in that their bassist Vern Rumsey, died in 2020.  When introducing the last few songs of the night (the only time he spoke) Trosper dedicated the finals songs to Vern saying that he was the soul of the band.  Jared Warren filled in for Rumsey.  Scott Seckington has also joined on guitar–the band was (pretty much) always a three-piece, but I thought Seckington was an excellent addition to the overall sound.

But it turned out that the early 1990s band that I was familiar with was Unrest.  Indeed, I didn’t know Unwound at all.  But I had grabbed a ticket because the hype got the best of me.  I listened to their albums and really liked what I heard.  So I wasn’t disappointed that I got the ticket.

There was the usual pre-band music playing over the speakers, but about five minutes before the band went on, the sound was switched to a live broadcast of NOAA weather–a perfectly weird sounding recitation of ordinary weather information.  It worked perfectly.  The also played the NOAA weather when the band was over. Continue Reading »

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer, Unwound | Leave a Comment »

Versus (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2023) [UNWOUND]

March 16, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: March 16, 2023] Versus

Back in the 90s, I loved a whole bunch of band that I discovered from a compilation called Ear of the Dragon.  I had known some of the bands already (which is why I bought the compilation).  It featured bands like The Dambuilders, aMiniature, Seam and Versus.

I loved everything about Versus.  Their sound was interesting–catchy and dissonant alternately.  And I loved the vocals of Richard Baluyut and Fontaine Toups (who has the best name in music).  They put out a number of albums and EPs in the 1990s and t hen went dormant.

In 2010 they put out a new album that I missed entirely.  Same with their 2019 release (which is on a label I’ve never heard of).  I basically had assumed that they were broken up for good.

So imagine my surprise to see that they were opening for Unwound on the night that I happened to get a ticket.  (TEKE::TEKE from Montreal opened the first night–I hadn’t heard of them but they are a Japanese psych rock band, hmmm).

The band came out on stage and while I recognized Richard and Fontaine, I didn’t know the other two.  They weren’t introduced, but I think they were  the rest of the Baluyut family: James on guitar and Edward on drums.

They opened with Mummified, a track off their newest album that has a really long instrumental opening.  I didn’t know it, but the band sounded great.  And after two minutes when Richard started singing, he sounded great too.  But it was when Fontaine added her vocals that everything came flooding back why I loved this band so much. Continue Reading »

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Sonic Youth, TEKE::TEKE, Union Transfer, Unwound, Versus | Leave a Comment »

Lucy Ellmann–Things are Against Us (2021)

March 15, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[READ: March 10, 2021] Things Are Against Us

I loved Ellmann’s book Ducks, Newburyport so much that I had intended to read all of her books.

So I’ve gone back and read some of her previous novels.  Which I found to be…okay.  They were mildly amusing with some very personal diatribes thrown in to put some passion into these otherwise comic novels.

Then I saw that she had a recent collection of essays, which I thought might be really interesting.

I agree about 95% with everything Ellmann says in this book.  And yet I hated this book more than almost anything I’ve read recently.  And I think I’m not going to bother reading the other novels that I haven’t read yet, since the other two weren’t that great anyhow.

Ellmann’s style in these essays is so unpleasant, so superior and self-righteous, so… (and I hate to use this word because of the anti-feminist implications of it but it is definitionally accurate) strident, that I almost didn’t finish most of the essays (I forced my way through to the end of all of them).  Strident, btw: “presenting a point of view, especially a controversial one, in an excessively and unpleasantly forceful way.  I mean, that is this book to a T.”

In the past, strident women have been very important to many movements.  But hen your arguments are so scattershot, it’s hard for your stridency to be a positive force.

“Things Are Against Us”
In this essay Ellmann all caps the word THINGS every time she writes it.  On the first page (which is half a page not including the title), THINGS appears over 30 times.  The tone is kind of amusing–about how things get in our way and cause us trouble: Things slip out of your hand; things trip you, things break.  Then each following paragraph gets more specific.  Clothes tear, socks don’t stay up.  Matches won’t light, water bottles spill. Then she gets into the body.  In her novel Doctors & Nurses she lists 12 pages of bodily ailments.  So there’s not much new here.  And there’s no real point.  It doesn’t end with any grand idea.  It just stops. Continue Reading »

Posted in Absolutely Fabulous, Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, E.L. Doctorow, Essays, Femicide, Feminism, Greta Thunberg, Guns, Jane Austen, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Ellmann, Mary Ellmann, Murder, Pizza, Raymond Chandler, Sex, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Violence, Virginia Woolf | Leave a Comment »

Maya Hawke / Raaaatscraps / Raffaella (White Eagle Hall, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, March 12 & 13, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

March 12, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 12 & March 13, 2023] Maya Hawke / Raaaatscraps / Raffaella

My daughter loves Maya Hawke.  I’m sure much of this comes from Stranger Things (which she also loves), but there’s more.  She really likes her music.

When Hawke announced a tour, I wanted to get tickets for her pretty badly.  I was shocked that the only close dates were in Brooklyn.  I was willing to take her there because I had taken her brother to Brooklyn for a show.

I tried to get tickets, but they sold out instantly.

My daughter was pretty bummed, but she understood.  And frankly I’d be really surprised if Hawke didn’t do a larger tour too.

There were two dates with a different opening act on each night.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Brooklyn, NY, Maya Hawke, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Raaaatscraps, Raffaella | Leave a Comment »

David Stafford–Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders (2021)

March 11, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[READ: December 20, 2022] Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders

I admit that I thought this book was called Skeleton’s Guide… which I thought as very funny.

But it turns out that Skelton is a barrister (and this is the second book in the Skelton series).  David Stafford is a British writer who has written largely for TV and theatre until he started writing novels.  He has written plays with Alexei Sayle (for fans of The Young Ones).

This mystery is set in 1929.  That setting allows Stafford to avoid any kind of contemporary details that might help speed the case along.  But it’s written in such a way that you’re not frustrated by it–you can simply get into the nearly 100 year old technology (and lack thereof).

In November 1929, a woman’s corpse is discovered in a suitcase.  She is identified and her husband, Doctor Ibrahim Aziz becomes the prime suspect.  They find some evidence and there is a rumor that she was cheating on him.  So clearly he is guilty.  Especially since he’s not from England–he’s Egyptian.

Arthur Skelton is a barrister.  He’s not 100% successful, but he gives his all in hopeless cases.  So he is called in to represent Aziz.

Skelton is concerned for diplomatic matters if Aziz is executed here.  He is related to a wealthy and well-connected family back in Egypt.

The story, despite dealing with a gruesome murder, has some funny moments.  Skelton’s clerk Edgar is trying to lose weight and is quite miserable. Continue Reading »

Posted in Alexei Sayle, David Stafford, Entomology, Funny (ha ha), Guinea Pigs, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Racism | Leave a Comment »

Marco Benevento / Mike Dillon’s Punkadelic ft Nikki Glaspie & Brian Haas (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, March 10 & Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 11, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

March 10, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 10 & March 11, 2023] Marco Benevento / Mike Dillon’s Punkadelic ft Nikki Glaspie & Brian Haas

I saw Marco Benevento at Ardmore Music Hall about a year ago.

His shows are so much fun.  He’s a fantastic performer and his band is terrific.

The fact that he was playing two venues within easy driving distance of me seems like a no-brainer in terms of me going to see him.  And yet, I felt that I needed a week without shows since I have a bunch coming up.

Sorry Marco.  I still love you. Continue Reading »

Posted in Jersey City, NJ, Karina Rykman, Marco Benevento, Mike Dillon's Punkadelic, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts, White Eagle Hall | Leave a Comment »

Dave Housley–The Other Ones (2022)

March 6, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[READ: December 2022] The Other Ones

The premise of this book sounded really interesting and potentially very funny. A story about the people who did NOT participate when the office pool won the lottery.

It sounds funny but as you think of it, you realize just how sad of a story it’s going to be.

The other ones are Yoder, Lawson, Chastain, Craver, Roberson, Russell and Gibbons.  On the first page, these names are listed like a cast of characters–each in a different font that I suppose characterizes each person.

Each subsequent chapter is about that person (in third person).

The book opens with Yoder jumping off of the roof of their building.  He can’t believe al of those horrible people–the people he has zero respect for–could have won millions of dollars. But when his next chapter comes up, we discover  that Yoder is a ghost and he is kind of the overarching narrator of the story because he comments on all of the winners (in his highly disgusted manner): Mowery (Toby Keith shirt, MAGA hat), Cowens (who goes on a Kiss Kruise), Pappas (expensive virtual reality system), Czuba, Fitzgerald and Garner (Garner is the worst because not only doesn’t he splurge, he intends to keep going to work).

Yoder wakes first in that asshole Cowen’s house.  The next day he wakes up in Pappas’ house and tries to plunge a knife into his own heart–it does nothing.  Then it’s that asshole Mowery.  When he wakes up in Mancus’ house he hears the guy playing a terrible song “chew tobacco chew tobacco chew tobacco Spit!” (I had no idea it was a real song).

Next is Lawson.  Lawson has no idea that they won when he pulls into the parking lot.  he decides to go to a writing workshop–to pursue a life he’s actually interested in.

Chastain (her last name) isn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.  She owes almost $30,000 in student loans.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Corporate skewering, Dave Housley, Funny (ha ha), Futility, Gambling, Guns, Lottery, Suicide | Leave a Comment »

Lucy Ellmann–Doctors & Nurses (2006)

March 5, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[READ: January 20, 2023] Doctors & Nurses 

When I requested Sweet Desserts, I also requested Doctors & Nurses. I didn’t know the order of her books, I just picked the two that were the first ones on the list.

Doctors & Nurses is similar to Sweet Desserts in that it is short (although it is actually 50 pages longer) and has short chapters.  But otherwise it is very different.  Desserts was a fairly serious book about two sisters (and a lot of sex).  This book is a farcial romp (with a lot of sex).

Comments online said the cover looked like a chick lit book, but it looks to me more like a cartoon from Playboy from the 1970s.

And it kind of reads like that too.

While Sweet Desserts bounced back and forth between past and present and the focus shifted between the main character and her sister, this story focuses pretty squarely on Jen, a fat nurse who is misanthropic and really seems to hate everyone.

There is one notable and peculiar thing about this book that is never addressed nor explained.  Every pages has SEVERAL words that are written in all capital LETTERS for, and I’m not trying to be obtuse about this, no reason that I can READILY determine.  I admit that I didn’t put a lot of TIME into trying to figure it out, BUT it is very peculiar.

The book opens with a scene of a rock and a gorge and the rock perpetually invading the gorge’s precious space.  It’s remarkably graphic sexually, as far as a rock and a gorge can have sex that is.

But that has nothing to do with the rest of the story (until the every end) which is about a nurse named Jen.  Jen is angry most of the time (the list of thing she hates is extensive).  And the tone is set pretty early. Continue Reading »

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Huh?, Humiliation, Lucy Ellmann, Murder, Sex, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »

Cirque Mechanics: Zephyr: A Whirlwind of Circus (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, March 4, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

March 4, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 4, 2023] Zephyr: A Whirlwind of Circus

I didn’t realize that this cirque was put on by Cirque Mechanics, a group we have seen before.  (I had been calling it Cirque Zephyr).

It has bee a while since we’ve seen a Cirque, and this one looked a lot of fun (and it was so close).  The date was the same day as my mother-in-law’s birthday.  Initially I thought it might be fun to get tickets to this as a fun birthday activity.  But I soon discovered that the family was planning something much bigger.  So I didn’t bother to get tickets.

Here’s the description.  And I hope RVCC gets another Cirque performance soon.

Mechanical wonders, circus gadgetry, and astonishing acrobatics are all part of Cirque Mechanics’ new show Zephyr: A Whirlwind of Circus, inspired by the power of the wind and the human ingenuity that goes into harnessing it. Centered around a giant windmill mounted on a turntable, performers fly, balance, float on air, and defy gravity in an exhilarating whirlwind circus. Fall under the spell of turning gears and whooshing sails in this tale about the unrelenting tug-of-war between man and nature. Experience the artistry and thrill of acrobatic bicycles, foot juggling, hair hanging, and the mysterious wheel of destiny in this all ages show that’ll blow you away.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Branchburg, NJ, Cirque Mechanics, RVCC Arts | Leave a Comment »

The Beths (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 3, 2023)

March 4, 2023 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2023] The Beths

I saw The Beths about a year ago at Underground Arts.  Since then they have now moved up from the 650 person venue to Union Transfer (1500) which they also sold out!  Great new for them!

The Beths are actually suddenly everywhere and had we played our cards right we could have seen them like four times this year (opening for The National and a couple of other places).  But this wound up being the only show we’ll see them at.  And that’s fine because it was great and certainly tides us over for a while.

The Beths are a four piece: Elizabeth Stokes, singer and guitarist.  Jonathan Pearce who plays lead guitar. Benjamin Sinclair on bass and Tristan Deck on drums.  When introducing each other, they told “fex” about each other.  The New Zealand accent is awesome–fex would be Facts.  Like the fact that Benjamin Sinclair has a blog and Instagram account with the awesome name of Breakfast and Travel Updates.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Hans Pucket, New Zealand, Philadelphia, PA, Sidney Gish, The Beths, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »

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