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Zadie Smith–“Now More Than Ever” (New Yorker, July 23, 2018)

July 23, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: JENNIFER CASTLE-Live at Massey Hall (November 23, 2017).

I didn’t think I knew Jennifer Castle, but I see that she has appeared as a guest singer on a whole bunch of records by artists that I know: Eric Chenaux, Bry Webb, Constantines and Fucked Up.

She has an unusual voice–soaring, delicate and whispery with a slight warble and yet you know she could belt out if she wanted to.

She starts the show saying Toronto has incredible beautiful old buildings and its rare these days to go inside one.  Inside Massey Hall it’s lit up to be another member of the band and to be part of the show.

I found the music to be incredibly spare–too spare in fact.  It is primarily piano and her vocals (with backing singers), but the piano (Jonathan Adjemian) is not a primary instrument, it is simply playing chords for her to sing over.  The sparseness was a little disconcerting.  But the backing vocalists (Victoria Cheeong and Isla Craig) are stellar–they really add a lot to the music and their voices soar in their own right.

But I think that sparseness allows her lyrics to really come through.  “Like a Gun” has the lyric “he was lik e gun [hah, from lovely backing vocalists] he was always going off.”

“Nature” has even better lyrics

Despite all my feelings of life parallel
Nature is happening without my goodwill
I called my friend up and she said it still
Happens to you even when you are ill

and ends with this interesting conceit

I lift my skirt for the economy

“Texas” is played on guitar with a very catchy “hoo hoo hoo hoo” clap-along.

I go down to Texas
To kiss my grandmother goodbye
She forgets things
But when I look her in the eye
I see my father
And he’s been gone so very long
In the name of time travel
Help him to hear to my little song

Jennifer plays electric guitar on “Truth is the Freshest Fruit” which changes the whole dynamic of her songs.  She plays guitar with piano accompaniment on “Sailing Away.”

She is the first person to mention the renovations Massey Hall is currently undergoing:

I know that Massey is going to go through a great big change but it feels good to play while the history is still on the paint.

The final song is absolutely wonderful.  She says she wrote “Please Take Me (I’m Broken)” because she knew they were coming to Massey and it celebrates the school of Greek mythology

The backing vocalists sing a verse by themselves and they sound great.  I love the chorus

Please take me cause something don’t seem right; something don’t compute.  I don’t belong here.
Please take me I’m broken;  I’ve woken up and I should be dreaming.
Please take me back to those other realms they seem much kinder on a dreamer like me.
I’ve always looked up to those ancient Greek stories.
I love the thrill of the scale; I like the the roll of the chorus.

A thoughtful and unique performer.

[READ: July 17, 2018] “Now More Than Ever”

I  feel like Zadie Smith’s recent stories have been exploring a new style for her, a more “in the present” kind of vibe.  This story has meta-elements and is very much an of the moment piece.  It seems to address current hot button issues and her own inability to fully wrap her head around them.

It begins: “There is an urge to be good. To be seen to be good. To be seen.  Also to be.”

This is what she told Mary.  She also told Mary that no one is called Marty these days.  “Could you get the hell out of here?”  So Mary left.  Then Scout came by–a great improvement.

Scout is active and alert on all platforms. She;s usually no later than the 300th person to see something.  The narrator was “the ten million two hundred and sixth person to see that thing.” Continue Reading »

Posted in A Place in the Sun, Bry Webb, Canadian Music, Childish Gambino, Constantines, Elizabeth Taylor, Eric Chenaux, Fucked Up, Jennifer Castle, Live at Massey Hall, Montgomery Clift, New Yorker, Racism, Regrets, Sexism, Shelley Winters, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Universities, Zadie Smith | Leave a Comment »

Dave Eggers–“The Actual Hollister” (New Yorker, July 20, 2015)

July 21, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: VANILLA FUDGE-Vanilla Fudge (1967).

I’m still puzzled by the existence of Vanilla Fudge.  By 1967 I wouldn’t think that a band who existed primarily on covers would be viable.  I also wouldn’t think that an album that is all covers would have been marketable.  But I guess the fascinating sound of Vanilla Fudge–lots of organ, screamed vocals and a heavy rhythm section covering recent hits at a drastically reduced speed was a sensation.

Evidently they influenced everyone (Led Zeppelin opened for them and Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord loved the organ sound and wanted it for Deep Purple) and are considered a link between psychedelia and heavy metal.

The first song is a cover of The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” of all songs. The Beatles released it in 1965 and two years later the Fudge put heir spin on it.  It is pretty much unrecognizable until they get to the lyrics.  Singer Max Stein takes the lyrics smooth and slow until he starts screaming like a heavy metal song (I can hear an Ian Gillan precedent).   After the “Ri-ii-iide,” in the chorus there’s a little guitar riff that stands out amid all of the organ.

“People Get Ready” (also originally from 1965) also starts unrecognizable until 90 seconds in when there’s a nod to the main riff and then a lot of harmony vocals. By nearly 2 minutes, the main melody of the song is played slowly on a church style organ and they sing the chorus in a kind of church choir.  The whole song is pretty much all organ and Stein crooning.

“She’s Not There” (recorded by The Zombies in 1964) is organ heavy with a build up for each line The song feels really psychedelic with Stein’s screamed vocals, and Appice’s drumming.  I really rather like the backing vocals.

“Bang Bang” (1966) was written by Sonny Bono is noisy with crashing drums and intermittent guitar surrounded by the Hammond organ.  About 2 minutes in, he sings in a childlike voice “Ring Around The Rosy” and “A Tisket a Tasket.”  I don;t know the original at all, but can;t imagine how it went.

After an introduction called “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 1” which is basically 20 seconds of keys, they get into their first hit a cool, slow cover of “You Keep Me Hanging On.”  I find that with the Vanilla Fudge, it’s the songs I don’t know as well that I enjoy their treatment of more.

“Take Me for a Little While” is less than 3:30 after the introductory “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 2.”  It ends with a melody of the Farmer in the Dell before the martial beat introduces us to the next song.

After the 25 seconds of “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 3” the official cover of “Eleanor Rigby” begins completely unlike any version of the song.  It’s just keys and such until about 3 minutes when they start singing “oh, look at all the lonely people” in a kind of choir.  When the actual lyrics come in, they are sing quietly or in a group chorale.  They end the song by chanting “they do, they do.”  It’s a complete reinvention of the songs.

The record ends with them singing a denouement of “nothing is real, nothing to get hung about.”

There really is nothing else like this band.  But they seem far more like a novelty than a foundation of a musical style.  And they’re still touring today.

[READ: February 1, 2016] “The Actual Hollister”

I really like Dave Eggers’ writing style. It always seems casual yet dedicated.  Like he might not really care that much about what he’s going to tell you but that he paid a lot of attention while he was getting ready to bring it to you.  That attitude kind of helps especially when reading something that you yourself don’t really have a care about (to start with).

This story is about Hollister, California.  Eggers says he was inspired to go there because he had been seeing those sweatshirts that say Hollister on them.  [At this point I have t confess that I have seen them, but don’t really register them and didn’t know it had anything to do with Abercrombie and Fitch].

And thus the story bifurcates into the story of the brand and the story of the town.  And never shall they meet. Continue Reading »

Posted in Barbershop, Curtis Mayfield, Dave Eggers, Deep Purple, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Hollister, CA, Hospitals, Led Zeppelin, New Yorker, The Beatles, The Zombies, Vanilla Fudge | Leave a Comment »

Weezer (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, July 20, 2018)

July 20, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 20, 2018] Weezer

I saw Weezer a couple of years ago in Bethlehem.  It was my first time seeing them, but I left feeling somewhat underwhelmed. They debuted 2 new songs, which was cool, but the show felt pretty short and I was really irritated by the crowd.

Tall, drunk college kids.  A lot of pushing and shoving (but not dancing) and I could not get close enough to the action.

I enjoyed the set designs and Rivers’ get ups.  But they finished in less than 90 minutes.

True they sounded great, but overall I was just a little blah.

I felt for sure if I could see better I would enjoy them a lot more.  And this proved to be true.

This show was not in support of a new album (I didn’t realize that), it was more of a career retrospective (sort of).  And what this meant was that they played a lot of songs I really like and, amazingly, they played not only more songs than the last time (very odd for a co-headlining show), they wound up playing nine songs that they hadn’t last time. Continue Reading »

Posted in A-ha, Black Sabbath, Green Day, Holmdel, NJ, PNC Bank Center, The Turtles, Toto, Weezer | Leave a Comment »

Pixies (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, July 20, 2018) [WEEZER]

July 20, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 20, 2018] Pixies

I saw Pixies back in September 2017.  It was the first time I’d seen them in almost 30 years.  And they were fantastic.  They played 34 songs, nearly everything I wanted to hear.  I say nearly because they have not been playing any Kim Deal-sung songs.  Which is fair.  New bassist Paz Lenchantin played great (she’s a fantastic bassist) and sang enough like Kim (with her own unique spin of course) that her backing vocals were perfect.

So I assumed I’d never need to see them again.

Then it was announced that in a most improbable double bill, Weezer and Pixies would tour together.   I had seen Weezer a while back but came away disappointed with the show.  Not because of the band, but because of where I was and what I couldn’t see.  I also knew that there was at least one Pixies song that I wanted to hear (“Debaser”).  So I figured if I could get good seats for this show, I would go.

And I did.  Row G!

Pixies came out, the sun had not yet set, and just like last time, they said not a word and just launched into a blistering set of twenty-two songs.  Not bad at all for an opening (and therefore shorter) slot. Continue Reading »

Posted in Black Francis, David Lovering, Frank Black, Holmdel, NJ, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, Paz Lenchantin, Pixies, PNC Bank Center, Weezer | Leave a Comment »

Sleigh Bells (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, July 20, 2018) [WEEZER]

July 20, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 20, 2018] Sleigh Bells

I don’t go to too many shows at the PNC Bank Center.  I usually prefer smaller venues.  But I need to change that for bigger shows.  Here’s why PNC Bank Center is better than say BB&T Pavillion.

Free Parking.

There’s probably more reasons too (the sound was really great, it’s much closer to my house), but wow, that’s awesome.  So the next time an artist I want to see is making the rounds of outdoor arenas, I will make sure to get the PNC date instead of the Camden date.  It’s closer, too.

But I didn’t realize how much closer when I went to this show.  It was on a Friday night and I assumed there would be shore traffic.  So I left very early.  So early that I got there and actually heard the National Anthem.  I didn’t know they even did that.  But it was nice to sit and relax with a book while everyone else milled about.

I don’t know if other venues do this as well, but if a show has not sold well, on the night of the concert you can upgrade your lawn seats for pretty close seats.

I didn’t need to do that because I had amazing seats for this concert.

Sleigh Bells was formed in 2008 by Alexis Krauss and Derek Edward Miller.  They released their first songs in 2010 and I remember thinking that there was nothing else that sounded like them.  I was never entirely sure if I liked them, but they were unique.

They played catchy guitar riffs with poppy verses and choruses but the drums were so maxed out that they always sounded like they were going to break your speakers.  It was a fascinating mix of major pop and abrasive noise.  Some songs, like “Infinity Guitars” seemed to max everything to the red–the guitar riff, the drums even Krauss’ voice made the whole song sound like it was really loud, even if it wasn’t.  But it was really catchy at the same time.

At the time, Alexis had long straight black hair, sharp bangs and kind of a goth look, or at least a very dark look. Continue Reading »

Posted in Holmdel, NJ, PNC Bank Center, Sleigh Bells | Leave a Comment »

William Styron–“Rat Beach” (New Yorker, July 20, 2009)

July 20, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: JAPANDROIDS-Live at Massey Hall (October 4, 2017).

Japandroids are one of the most energetic bands around.  Is that because there are only two of them and they need to do even more?

Well, whatever the case, they rock Massey Hall.

They are playing four nights in a row at Boot & Saddle in Philly in a couple of weeks.  The shows sold out almost instantly, but I got a ticket for the second night.  And this video has gotten me really psyched to see them again.

The show opens with David Prowse, the drummer talking about Massey Hall.  It’s by far the most legendary venue in all of Canada.  There’s a lot of emotion tied up in playing this room–equal parts terrifying and inspiring.  It’s an honor just to be asked to play here.  We couldn’t pass up the opportunity but it’s large boots to fill.

The show opens with Prowse’s very fast snare drums and Brian King eking out feedback from his guitar.

And from there it’s 35 minutes of nonstop energy from both the band and the crowd. The guitars are fast and the drumming in maniacal.   It’s amazing.

What’s so especially interesting to me about this band is that there’s two of them and they don;t rally do guitar solos.  This all seems like a recipe for short songs. But no, most of their songs are about 4 minutes long and live they tend to jam them out a bit, too.

So in this show except you don;t get a lot of songs, but you get a lot of music.

“Near to the wild Heart of Life” plays for nearly five minutes before it is interrupted so Brian can talk about playing Massey Hall and how Toronto has always been good to them.

It’s followed by some great, really exciting versions of these songs: “Fire’s Highway,” “Heart Sweats” and “Younger Us” covering all three of their albums.

Brian thanks then all for coming out and spending a school night with them.

Introducing “North East South West” Brian says, there happens to be a Toronto reference in this song.  Its 10% more fun to play when we play here.  Be sure to sing it out if you know it.  It’s the one glorious moment on tour when we get to hear people in Toronto sing Toronto.

After the song they interview: the participatory nature of our shows makes you feel so connected with a roomful of strangers and we’ve both become quiet addicted to that feeling of connection.  It’s so visceral and it’s a big part of why we tour so much.

Our audience is part of the show.  Their energy is part of the show.  Sometimes it’s just as fun watching the audience as it is watching the band

“No Known Drink or Drug” and “The House Than Heaven Built” end the show in incredible fashion.  There’s even some stage divers (in Massey Hall!) which makes them laugh while singing.

Seeing Brian climb on the bass drum at the end of the set is a great moment.  I’m psyched for next week.

[READ: April 14, 2014] “Rat Beach”

William Styron is a pretty legendary writer, although I have never read him.  I don’t even know what he typically writes about.  This story is about Marines awaiting their next move as they wait on the Shore of Japan in WWII.

The narrator says that if he was a year older he would have been in the Iwo Jima bloodbath. Rather he and his troop were waiting on the island of Saipan.

He says he was “so fucking scared,” but it seemed the others would never let on just how scared they were (he wouldn’t either, of course). Continue Reading »

Posted in Death, Japan, Japandroids, Live at Massey Hall, Military, Short Story, War, William Styron, World War II | Leave a Comment »

Robert Louis Stevenson–“The Clockmaker” (Harper’s, April 2006)

July 19, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: CLOUD NOTHINGS-Live at Massey Hall (October 4, 2017).

Cloud Nothings are, to my knowledge, the first non-Canadian band to be featured on this Live at Massey Hall series.  The band (which was at one time the solo project of Dylan Baldi) is from Cleveland.

Baldi talks about growing up in Cleveland, Rush and cover band and then putting music online and getting found out.

“Pattern Walks” opens with a great rumbling loud bassline from TJ Duke. This is without a doubt the loudest show of the series (so far).  Baldi has a great rock singing voice that falls somewhere between Kurt Cobain and Paul Westerberg..  The music for this song is fast and loud with some great ringing out guitars from one of the guitarist while the other plays some melodic sections.  The backing vocals (from Duke) just help to bring the melody forward.  The nonstop pounding drums (from the utterly remarkable Jauson Gerycz) keep up the relentlessness.  I love that both guitarists (Baldi and Gris Brown) play a squalling feedback solo at the same time but also independent of each other.

The end of the song is kind of feedback jam which Baldi describes (they intercut his interview) as “lots of parts that are sort of free-form…live we can just go off into more self-indulgent occasionally boring things.  And that’s what I like.  Hopefully it’s not too much.  That kind of stuff is more fun for me than playing the same song every night.”

Psychic Trauma is a bit more poppy/Replacements-sounding.  Even when it thumps in double time for the chorus, it’s still petty clean.

“Modern Act” is the catchiest so far.  Midway through the song Brown plays a solo and its fun to watch him manipulate the sound by playing with the dials on his pedals.

Duke says to the crowd that Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971 is one of my favorite records of all time so I’m a little freaked to be here.  Thank you all.

“Fall In” is a thumping pounding track with a whaling guitar solo.  Once again Gerycz is just a flurry of activity.  While “I’m Not Part of Me” is really catchy.  The middle has a fun section that sounds like a great lost Replacements bridge.

“Wasted Days” is the last song.  It opens with both guitarists playing different thing until the drums pounds in.  And once again the drums are amazing throughout.  The song lasts about 3 minutes when it slows down to a slapping drum and Baldi manipulation effects pedals while he continues to solo.  Brown plays with high notes.  The propulsion during this jam seems to be controlled by the drummer who is going fast and slow intermittently until he exhausts himself.  Meanwhile, Duke plays a steady two-note bass over and over.  After two minutes of that the band jumps aback up and starts again.   After nearly ten minutes incredible minutes, the final chorus returns.

It’s an amazing show.

[READ: February 1, 2018] “The Clockmaker”

I had a really hard time following this story at first.  Partially because I didn’t know what an animacula was–and whose fault is that?

A carafe filled with water has been sitting on a table for a week.  The animacula (microbial creatures) “had attained a great antiquity.”

These creatures delighted in astronomy and philosophy.  They based the theory of their world on everything they saw around them–light from the windows and of course the giant clock that sat across from them.  One philosopher thought of a clock maker theory of the world–a giant anilaculum of unheard of bigness who did something to the clock every day.

This version was widely accepted as the truth.  They identified the giant man with the sun and began to think of him as the Clockmaker. Continue Reading »

Posted in Cloud Nothings, Funny (ha ha), Gods, Harper's, Live at Massey Hall, Microbes, Nirvana, Philosophy, Short Story, The Replacements, Word usage | Leave a Comment »

Speedy Ortiz (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018)

July 18, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Speedy Ortiz

I really enjoyed Speedy Ortiz’ Foil Deer.  Sadie Dupuis has a great sense of melody (in a delightful alt-90s rock package) combined with excellent lyrics.  Check out this great blurb about Dupuis’ lyrics:

It’s very strange (“Or not strange at all! Hi!” says feminism) that most of the music we funnel into little girls’ ears——even music written by former little girls——is about how women are petty, pretty garbage whose only valuable function is to hold perfectly still in men’s boudoirs and wait for intercourse. “I wanted to make songs that were the opposite of ‘Genie in A Bottle’ or ‘The Boy Is Mine,’” Sadie Dupuis says of Slugger, her new solo album under the name Sad13. “Songs that put affirmative consent at the heart of the subject matter and emphasize friendship among women and try to deescalate the toxic jealousy and ownership that are often centered in romantic pop songs.” What!? Songs for women that actually champion women’s autonomy, reflect women’s desires, listen to women when they talk, and let women be funny and normal and cool, like women actually are?   – Lindy West

When Speedy Ortiz released their new album, they did a mini tour of…ice cram parlors.

As The Key noted:

It was a little suspicious, previously, that Speedy Ortiz’s only tour appearance in Philly would be at Little Baby’s Ice Cream in West Philly to scoop a new flavor, “Twerp Verse Dessert Burst Sundae,” and not to perform.

Then they announced a proper tour, which included a headlining spot at PhilaMOCA.  Amazingly, four days after our show, they were going to open for Dinosaur Jr and Foo Fighters at Fenway Park!  I don’t know how many people arrived early enough to see them, but I have to assume thy were seen by more than the 150 capacity crowd at PhilaMOCA.  And yet Sadie said she was more excited about our show than that one.  And it seemed like it.

Before the shows even began, Sadie was hanging out at the merch table.  We chatted, she sold me a copy of Twerp Verse and even signed it for me.  She was super nice.   Continue Reading »

Posted in Jessica Lea Mayfield, Mal Blum and the Blums, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Speedy Ortiz | Leave a Comment »

Two Inch Astronaut (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018) [SPEEDY ORTIZ]

July 18, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Two Inch Astronaut

I had heard Two Inch Astronaut on NPR and loved them.  I put them on my list of bands to check out.  So I was really excited that they were opening for Speedy Ortiz.  I got there early and wound up right in front of the stage where I was able to watch Sam Rosenberg play amazing and complicated riffs right in front of me.

Matt Gatwood was also great on drums–he hit really hard but in sophisticated rhythms that really worked with the jagged and noisy guitar that Rosenberg played.  On my right was Andy Chervenak on bass.  He was all over the fretboard, playing low and high notes to complement and contradict everything else that was going on.  It was a terrific package of music.

Until about four songs in when Rosenberg explained that this was their final tour.  They were breaking up after the next show.  It was an amicable breakup, “Nothing dramatic — still get along and love playing, but we’ve been doing some form of this band for almost ten (!?) years and it’s time to shake things up a bit,”

But still. Continue Reading »

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA, Two Inch Astronaut | Leave a Comment »

Old Maybe (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, July 18, 2018) [SPEEDY ORTIZ]

July 18, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 18, 2018] Old Maybe

I had never heard of Old Maybe before this show, although I understand that they have been playing together for a while. (Their earliest demos are from 2014).

The band consists of Jazz Adam (guitar and vocals), Ricardo Balmaseda (bass and vocals) and Nina Ryser (drums).

The only person I knew in the band was Nina Ryser whom I had seen on this very stage when she played with Palberta a year or so ago.

But this band belongs to Jazz Adam on vocals and guitar.  She invited anyone of color or non-cis to the front of the audience before the show began.

I didn’t know much about her, so I have learned that

in 2015 Adam began playing solo shows, performing most songs a capella, creating vocal layers with looping and effects pedals.  Adam attributes her lack of stage fright to her background in theater and stand up comedy. “I am able to be myself onstage,” she says. “And I am aggressive.” [Quote from The Spark).

Adam has been pushing that belief in Philadelphia via All Mutable, a booking collective she started with Nicki Duval and Robin Meeker-Cummings. The mission of the collective is to “diversify lineups sonically and racially,” she says. “Our focus is to book lineups that represent and attract those who are under-represented in this music scene, including (but not limited to) POC, queer identified, trans identified, and those who identify as non-binary. We also hope to sonically diversify lineups, and represent genres that are not often recognized in this culturally homogenized city.”

Continue Reading »

Posted in Old Maybe, Palberta, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA | Leave a Comment »

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