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Clare Sestanovich–“Annunciation” (Harper’s, July 2020)

August 11, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: BECCA MANCARI-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #62 (August 11, 2020)

I saw Becca Mancari open for Joseph a couple of years ago.  She really won us over with her diverse musical sound (even though it was just her and a pedal steel guitar player on stage).

This set, with a full band, sounds very different and even better.

At the show, she was funny and thoughtful.  That attitude continues now.

She postponed this concert when the Black Lives Matter protests began in May: “I wanted to be so careful of respecting an extremely important movement in our country both now and then. So, we decided to all wait, learn, grow, protest, and listen.”

She has a new album The Greatest Part from which these four songs are taken.

The band she has assembled is terrific.  Zac Farro on drums (he is also in Paramore) plays many terrific flourishes and fills.  Bassist Duncan Shea (this is filmed in his woodsy home studio) doesn’t show off, but adds some great accents and lines as needed.  Guitarist Juan Solorzano plays perfectly off of Mancari–whether it’s leads or just interesting sounds.

Mancari’s songs often seek to reveal the unspoken, and you can hear that process in the way Caleb Hickman’s inventive keyboard parts respond to Mancari’s voice and Juan Solorzano’s searching guitar lines. And keyboardist Caleb Hickman fleshes out the sound.

Several of these home concerts have featured a full band, but

It’s a joy, in this time of isolation, to see her band connect and build something beautiful, despite the masks. “The band and I have been in our own little Corona-pod, but we wanted to be extra safe,” Mancari says of the protective gear.

“Hunter” starts with quietly sung vocals and guitars. I love the way the drums kick in about a minute into the song with six slow, powerful thumps followed by Solorzano’s raw, rough guitars.  The surprising pitch shift into the catchy “whoo”-filled chorus really makes the song special.

Introducing “First Time,” she says, “I came out when I was pretty young and it went pretty badly.”  This slower song is written for people like her to feel included.  The song is simple, but once again, the band fleshes it out wonderfully.  I love the cool theremin-like sounds from Solorzano and the super catchy middle part with a guitar solo and fun bass lines that make the chorus sound even catchier.

“Bad Feeling” has a gentle echo on this more down-tempo song.  It has a nifty retro feel.  And so does “Like This” which opens with a slow thumping bass line and some wah wah guitars.  The synths sound like a flute and you could easily see a flute solo floating over the middle of the song.

She introduces the last song, “I’m Sorry,” by saying, “When I wrote this record it was about my own personal journey towards transforming from anger into forgiveness.  It’s about learning to say that you’re sorry to yourself and others around you.”  The song is slow as befits the title.   The middle of the song has surprisingly catchy chorus and a fun dah dah dah dah dah part.  As the song ends it really rocks out again with great drums from Farro.

I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

[READ: August 10, 2020] “Annunciation”

This story is about Iris and it seems to race through her life, focusing on a few moments of significance.

It starts with Iris on a plane.  Her seat mates are a married couple sitting on either side of her.  The wife likes the window, the husband liked the aisle, Iris in the middle.  But they are not fighting–when the woman comes back from the bathroom, she happily shows Iris and her husband a birth control strip–they are pregnant!

On the way home from the airport, Iris tells her mother about this and her mother is appalled. How could they say something so early?  That baby could still die (Iris believes that the baby has died from the way her mother says that).

Years later, when she is about to graduate from college, Iris is dating a virgin, Ben.  She can’t figure out why he is still a virgin–he’s not ugly or weird.  On the night before graduation, she changes that.

A few days later Iris’ friend Charlotte laughs at her: A one-night stand with a virgin and she gets pregnant.  The movie writes itself.  She doesn’t tell Ben.

Iris is staying at Charlotte’s house.  Charlotte’s parents paid for the abortion and she promises she’ll pay them back even though they say she doesn’t have to.

Iris finds a place to live–it’s a room in the apartment of a married couple.  A married couple who sleeps with another married couple.  Iris doesn’t ask anything about this arrangement but Charlotte wants to find out all that she can. So on New Years Eve, instead of going to Charlotte’s family’s house, Charlotte comes to Iris’ weird set up.  By the end of the night Charlotte has had sex with the married couples.

A few days later, Iris is walking down the street and she sees Ben in a restaurant.  He is with an old lady and seems just as surprised to see her as she is to see him,.

The old lady insists that Iris sit with them.

I’ve only read one other story by Sestanovich and I really liked the open ended nature of it.  It felt incomplete in an intriguing way.  This one felt incomplete in a frustrating way.  There was just too much left out and I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

Posted in Abortion, Becca Mancari, Clare Sestanovich, College, Coronavirus, Harper's, Huh?, Joseph, Marriage Trouble, Paramore, Pregnancy, Quarantine, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert | Leave a Comment »

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky–“The Gamblers” (Harper’s, July 2020)

August 10, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: MOSES SUMNEY-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #61 (August 10, 2020).

Moses Somney has an otherworldly voice–it soars to unfathomable heights. He has a couple of albums and EPs out although I haven’t really explored them very closely.

He starts with “Bless Me” which starts with some washes of chords before he starts his amazing singing.  I love the addition of the guitar chords, which add a heavy grounding to this song.  When he loops his voice at the end of the song, it sounds just fantastic.

I am just so taken with his voice.  And in an interview about the album he said:

“With this album, I was like yo, I could die any minute so let me sing all the high notes but also all the low notes and also, also, also.”

His camera work is fascinating for this show.  There’s constant glitches and lines that make it look like it was recorded on a VHS.  Are these effects added afterward top make the footage look older, or is he possibly using old technology?

For the second song, “Me in 20 Years” the camera angle changes back and forth between a left and right view of him sitting at the keyboard.  But it seems to be random and you can’t even see the cameras.

The song is beautiful–more conventional than the soaring of “Bless Me” but focusing on some great songwriting.

Much of Somney’s latest album, græ, foreshadowed current events in ways he couldn’t even imagine, but his sense of humor about it is intact. “I’m performing songs off of my new album which I released in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, so that was fun,” he says, “but all of the songs are about loneliness and isolation so, who’s laughing now?”

“Polly” is played on guitar.  I love that the guitar work is simple and pretty but his voice floats all around the melody, soaring to the ether.  The song is quite long and tends to meander–it no doubt takes a few listens to really latch on to the melody.

For his Tiny Desk (home) concert, he recreates three songs from græ and closes with 2018’s “Rank and File,” yet another song all too relevant in 2020.  He introduces the song by saying that as he records this “The nation is ablaze with anti-police brutality protests.  This song is is dedicated to the protesters and the rioters and to black lives …  which matter”

“Rank and File” is my favorite song by far.  The song has a powerful message and the music is fascination.  In this case the music is created on the fly with looping.

He crates a beat by thumping his microphone.  He adds a “Hey” and some scratchy sounds on the mic.  He makes a melody with a cool vocal sound which he loops and shifts the pitch of.  Snapped fingers add a percussive element and he sets up the later refrain of “Hey 23456.”

He sings the powerful lyrics over all of this–which he judiciously adds and removes as needed.  He occasionally sings some really high notes.  The end of the song allows him to loop his soaring vocals as he improvises with the samples and some scatting.

Fantastic stuff.

[READ: August 10, 2020] “The Gamblers”

Two men, a bookkeeper and a poet are alone in a shack.  From morning until night they plated stuss.  Between them they had one pair of boots and no money.  They would forage for crusts of bread and kindling.

Then the poet had a stretch of good luck.  He won many hands, including winning the pair of boots back.

It was, thus, his turn to go out and forage.

The bookkeeper stayed inside.  Then he heard machine gun fire.  He stayed alone in the room all night long.

The next day the bookkeeper woke to a commotion outside.  Several women were surrounding a dead body.

The end adds a couple of surprising moments.

This is not, apparently, an excerpt.  It feels very Russian.  It was translated Joanne Turnbull.

Posted in Black Lives Matter, Coronavirus, Death, Gambling, Harper's, Joanne Turnbull, Luck, Moses Sumney, Quarantine, Racism, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert | Leave a Comment »

Bit Brigade (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, August 9, 2020) [rescheduled date–POSTPONED]

August 9, 2020 by Paul Debraski

[POSTPONED: August 9, 2020] Bit Brigade [rescheduled from March 29]

indexBit Brigade was one of the first shows to get postponed due to the pandemic.  They were also one of the first bands that I saw post about how the band was their livelihood and how they were going to lose a lot of money from a postponed tour.

I sure hope they managed to make some money on the side and I’m very sorry for them that the show was postponed again.  Bit Brigade has played Johnny Brenda’s before and I’m sure they will be back again.

I saw Bit Brigade play Johnny Brenda’s back in 2018.  The premise behind a Bit Brigade show is that the band plays the soundtrack to a video game while their resident gamer plays the game.  The band is heavy and the sound is amazing.

Last time I saw them, they were playing The Legend of Zelda and it was phenomenal (The music is really good).  They came around last year playing a different game but I couldn’t go.

They were playing Zelda again this time around and although it might be more fun seeing a different game, each show is different depending on how well their gamer plays.

I really want to bring my son to this show, but Johnny Brenda’s doesn’t allow anyone underage to come to the show.

I don’t think that an opening act had been announced at this time.

 

Posted in Bit Brigade, Coronavirus, Johnny Brenda's, Legend of Zelda, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine | Leave a Comment »

Kazuo Ishiguro–“A Village After Dark” (New Yorker, May 21, 2001)

August 9, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: MASTODON-“Fallen Torches” (2020).

Mastodon has a new collection of rarities and B-sides coming out soon.  I’m not sure if this single is a new song or an old one, but man is it good.

It features just about every aspect of Mastodon in one song.  There’s massive drums, heavy guitars, angry vocals, soaring clean vocals and many different parts.

The song opens with a heavy riff and vocals–a classic Mastodon sound.  After 45 second the guitars soar high and the second vocalist sings even higher, soaring the title before returning to the main verse riff.

A third part adds speed before a fourth part slows things down with a lot of sinister echo.  It’s a great breather that slowly rebuilds the song with some more great riffs and intense drums.  The end is suitably heavy.

I can’t wait to hear the rest of the record.

[READ: August 1, 2020] “A Village After Dark”

This story shows the aftermath of something we never learn the details about.

A man, Fletcher, returns to a village in England.  He used to live there many years ago, but he is now older and easily disoriented. He didn’t recognize anything in the village.

But he needed to rest, so he stopped at door at random and knocked very hard on it.

While he was knocking, a young woman called out to him.  She asked if he was “one of that lot with David Maggis and all of them.”  He says he was, but that Maggis was hardly the most important one.

He realizes that he and his friends were all before her time.  Nevertheless, she was excited he was there, saying that all of the people her age looked up to him.  She invited him to her cottage. Continue Reading »

Posted in Huh?, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mastodon, Regrets, Short Story | 3 Comments »

Neil Labute–“Layover” (New Yorker, May 28, 2001)

August 8, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: DEAD KENNEDYS-“Nazi Punks Fuck Off” (ill.Gates x RIP KENNY Remix) (2020).

The Dead Kennedys are one of my favorite punk bands.  Lyrically (thanks Jello Biafra) they were always sharp and on point.  But musically they were also adventurous and interesting–their songs were never simple, easy punk.

This song is one of the few exceptions–it’s really fast (the whole song is a minute long) and the lyrics are kind of inaudible, which is a bit of a shame.  Really all you can hear is the screamed Fuck Off!

So this remix is by ill.gates (hilarious name) and RIP Kenny.  I don’t know anything about them (except that ill.gates is a Canadian EDM artist).

The remix is hardly a remix at all.  The original riff is present, but it’s mostly a lot of interesting trippy EDM beats and distorted vocals shouting “fuck off.”  The breaks in the song are, unexpectedly, the beginning of the original recording where Biafra says, “Uh, ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off,’ take 3.” They then distort this spoken line for each subsequent break.

I don’t think there are any other words.  Which means that ill.gates’ story about the song is more entertaining than the song itself.  But if this remix introduces more people to the Dead Kennedys that’s no bad thing.

RIP Kenny and I made this remix in 2019 and then spent an ENTIRE YEAR trying to track down Dead Kennedys and get permission to release it. Jello Biafra is not a big computer guy, so we had to actually burn a physical CD and mail it in… hilarious. Anyway, Jello eventually listened to it and gave us his blessing for an official release so long as we use the funds to oppose fascism. Sounds good to me.”
Al proceeds from this release go to the ACLU to support civil rights in the USA .

But heck, give to the ACLU, we need it.

[READ: August 1, 2020] “Layover”

This is a short story that is pretty much like a skit from a sketch comedy troupe.  Although without an audience, it’s hard to know if the story is funny.

Essentially, a man in an airport scopes out a woman (“now there’s a nice lay”).  He lets her pass and she flickers a smile at him.  Clearly she wants him.

When she asks him to pass a spork, he knows that she is his. Continue Reading »

Posted in Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, Marriage Trouble, Neil LaBute, New Yorker, Sex, Sexism, Short Story | Leave a Comment »

Porridge Radio (Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, August 7, 2020) [POSTPONED]

August 7, 2020 by Paul Debraski

[POSTPONED: August 7, 2020] Porridge Radio

indexI heard about Porridge Radio from NPR.  They are exactly the kind of weirdo post-punk British band that I love and would never hear anywhere on the radio.

Singer Dana Margolin is more of a talker than a singer.  Her accent is thick and her intensity is palpable.  The band mixes melody and noise in an unexpected way.  And of course there’s “the growing legend of their intense live shows.”

This show promised to be about twenty people (which technically would have been okay for a legal small gathering) and it would have been fantastic.

I hope they can make it back.

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Porridge Radio, Postponed, Quarantine | Leave a Comment »

Anne Enright–“In the Bed Department” (New Yorker, May 14, 2001)

August 7, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: MELANIE FAYE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #60 (August 5, 2020).

Melanie Faye was the impressive guitarist during the Masego Tiny Desk Concert.

She opens her set with an impressive instrumental–the introduction to Jimi Hendrix’ “Little Wing.”  Her fingerwork is fast and clear and really fluid.

Then she starts properly with the first of her three originals, “Super Sad Always.”

The song has some clever complex lyrics:

In a sense, you’re innocent
But your inner sense is fading

I can’t decide if I like her voice or not–I want it to be a bit more substantial, I guess.  Of course, her muted guitar works quite well with her mute singing.  She puts an interesting extra muted effect on her (excellent) guitar solo

“It’s A Moot Point” is slower with some more amazing guitar work in the instrumental middle section of the song.

“Eternally 12” has another fantastic guitar introduction. It’s fantastic how great her guitar playing is–so delicious without being show-offy.  This song has a lot of prerecorded backing vocals which sound very nice and kind of flesh out the voclas in a way that her songs seem to need.

Lyrically this song is interesting but the repetition of the word “eternal” is a bit tiresome.

[READ: August 1, 2020] “In the Bed Department”

This story is about Kitty, a divorced woman who works in a department store–in the bed department.

The big news is that the store has just installed an escalator.  Kitty is suspicious of the escalator–she doesn’t know how it works and she doesn’t like it.  She also didn’t like the workers–men covered in a dirty-looking tan, often adjusting their zip on the way back from the loo.

Kitty recently seduced a man from the local Drama Society.  He was twenty years older than she was.  Tom did set and Kitty had s mall walk on role.  He had been courting her, slowly for a couple of months while they worked together on Johnny Belinda.

He drove her home most nights and one night she invited him in.  Her boys were home, but they were in their own rooms, so she initiated right there.  “It was awkward all the way through and quite satisfying.”

She didn’t tell him that had gotten pregnant.

She wasn’t actually sure she was pregnant, mind you.  It could have been “the change,” but she trusted her body.  What would it be like having a wee baby around the house.

Her life was full of ups and downs like an escalator.

This story felt like it needed more….something.

Posted in Anne Enright, Coronavirus, Irish Writer, Masego, Pregnancy, Quarantine, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Work | Leave a Comment »

Desmond Barry–“Dalton’s Box” (New Yorker, April 23 & 30, 2001)

August 6, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: KATE DAVIS-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #59 (August 4, 2020).

I hadn’t heard of Kate Davis before this Home Concert.

Her songs are simple and straightforward with a real timeless quality.  She reminds me a lot of Kathleen Edwards.  Turns out that she also co-wrote Sharon van Etten’s “Seventeen.”

Like so many artists, Kate Davis was to be on tour during the spring and summer of 2020. She was scheduled to play a concert at my desk in May. Sitting by her desk at home, Kate Davis is marking time by writing new music….  She’s an extraordinary lyricist. Her 2019 album, Trophy, was a sharply worded collection of songs, many about growing up and a powerful tune about her father’s death.

“Cloud” has a great melody throughout, and the chorus is great–with her falsetto moment an unexpected bonus.  The slow middle section is also a really nice surprise.

“Open Heart,” the second song performed for her Tiny Desk (home) concert, is about a broken heart. It’s a subject tackled by many, but her lyrical prowess sets the scene in the hospital, where the doctor cuts her open, sees her critical condition, and takes out her broken heart. She sings, “Put the pieces back together, looks like it’s been shattered by a bad love,” later adding, “You’d rather feel this pain than have a broken heart.”

This song features another great delivery as she sings the lyric high but then adds a lower almost spoken word during the bridge “deep…breath.”  The song builds and builds to the end and I love that the chugging guitar chords ends with a slightly-off-ringing note that adds a cool amount of dissonance to a song about a broken heart.

I guess these songs sound different on the record since the blurb says:

Hearing these songs stripped to their essence–just Kate Davis and her guitar–exposes her charm and wit.

“I Like Myself” is a finger-picked style of playing–sounding quite different from the other songs.  The lyrics are very thoughtful:

I kind of like myself
Cause she likes me
And since I think the world of her
And she of me
Then I’m exactly who and where I want to be
Who and where I want to be

“Ride or Die,” was written before quarantine and its perspective has changed since.  The chord structure and vocal melody is unusual and very cool.    I especially like the way she adds a really slow section in the middle–a picked melody (of more unusual chords). This is my favorite of her songs and I’m looking forward top hearing more.

Davis looks at the camera a lot during this performance–making her seem very confident, which I gather she is.

[READ: August 1, 2020] “Dalton’s Box”

I loved this story.  It was fast and colloquial.  It was funny and dark and I want to read more stories like it.

The story is basically a conversation between two brothers.  The one brother asks if the other remembers Mick Dalton.  He does.

A few months back, Dalton won the Lottery.  Not a huge amount though, about 3,000 quid.  And Dalton, who is usually in trouble for some petty crime or another, says he’s going to invest it.

That means a get rich quick(ish) scheme selling contraband.  But this time Dalton is smart, you see.  He’;s going to sell contraband Marlboro cigarettes (I have no idea how that’s going to work). Continue Reading »

Posted in Cigarettes, Coronavirus, Funny (ha ha), Kate Davis, Kathleen Edwards, Quarantine, Sharon Van Etten, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert | Leave a Comment »

Stick Men (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, August 5, 2020) [POSTPONED]

August 5, 2020 by Paul Debraski

[POSTPONED: August 5, 2020] Stick Men [moved to April 1, 2021]

indexBack in June, as larger shows were getting postponed into August and September, I held out hope that August might allow for some smaller shows like this one.

I had never heard of Stick Men until after a King Crimson show when I heard some fans talking about how amazing Stick Men are.

The band is a trio of Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Markus Reuter.  Levin and Mastelotto play in Crimson (stick and drums respectively) and Markus Reuter plays his eight string touch guitar covering much more ground than a guitar or a bass.  Mastelotto’s drumming encompasses not just the acoustic kit, but a unique electronic setup too, allowing him to add loops, samples, percussion, and more.

To be able to see these musicians up close (without all the distractions of the amazement of a King Crimson concert) would be so cool.  Stick Men play once in awhile, although the last few times they’ve been around I couldn’t make it.

Rescheduled to April is a good thing, although I wish they were somewhere closer than Sellersville.

Posted in Coronavirus, King Crimson, Postponed, Quarantine, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, Stick Men | Leave a Comment »

Louise Erdrich–“The Shawl” (New Yorker, March 5, 2001)

August 5, 2020 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: JOHN LEGEND-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #58 (August 3, 2020).

I don’t know all that much about John legend.  I know he’s released a lot of popular music and that he seems to be famous for being famous at this point.

But wow, this set is great.  Legend has a terrific voice.  I’m not really sure what genre his music is–it’s very soulful–becuase it’s just really great songwriting.

They kick off the set with “Ooh Laa,” a song John calls “doo-wop meets trap” it’s also the lead-off track to his summer album, Bigger Love. 

I don’t know how the “trap” part fits into this song, but the combination is fantastic.  The song opens with a sample of the “shoo bop shoo bop” from The Flamingos’s “I Only Have Eyes for You.  It works as a great foundation for this song of love and romance.  It’s got a great chorus of, yes, “Ooh Laa,” which is a perfect line for this song.  It also has Kaveh Rastegar on upright bass, which adds a great slow jazzy feel.

“Wild” opens with a quiet guitar melody from Ben O’Neill that reminds me of a Beach House song (although it sounds very different with Legend singing).   It’s fascinating how different this song sounds from “Ooh Laa” even though it is very clearly a John Legend song.  It’s also got a fantastic wailing guitar solo, which was completely unexpected.

All of the songs filmed on this day are from Bigger Love, including “Conversations in the Dark,” which John says is “a good song for babies to dance to — you might want to get married to it, too, if you’re so inclined.” Meanwhile, behind the band on a big screen reads, “Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.”

Legend sits at the piano and says you may know this song from This is Us or you may have seen my babies dancing to it.

It also opens with a quiet guitar melody and Legend’s gentle piano which fleshes out this lovely song.  The backing vocalists Keri Lee, Emi Secrest and Alana Linsey really shine on this song.  They sound great on all of them, but they really stand out here.

While introducing his final song, “Bigger Love,”he tells us that “I wrote all the songs before the pandemic, before we saw folks marching in the streets, mourning (the) life of George Floyd, expressing their outrage. But some of these songs feel even more appropriate now, feel like we need them more now then we did even when I wrote them. This song ‘Bigger Love’ is about the power of love to get us through tough times, the idea that when you have love, it makes you more resilient, it makes you more hopeful And we all need a little dance break, too, right?”

“Bigger Love” is catchy and bouncy with some great sounding drums from Jimmy “Rashid” Williams and simple keyboard splashes from Eugene “Man Man” Roberts.

[READ: August 1, 2020] “The Shawl”

This story is compact and written in a well-plotted style.

It begins with a story.  A story that the Anishinaabeg people on her street speak of.

A woman had two children whom she loved: a boy and a girl.  Then she had a baby girl with a different man.  She loved the new man more than her first man and decided to leave her family for the new man.  But she decided to bring her daughters with her.

On the way out of town, their carriage was attacked by wolves and the older girl fell out of the carriage and was killed.  All that was left of her was a torn and bloodied shawl. Continue Reading »

Posted in Anishinaabe, Beach House, Coronavirus, Drinking, First Nations, John Legend, Louise Erdrich, Native Americans, Quarantine, Racism, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Wolves | Leave a Comment »

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