March 28, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: HAZARD TO YA BOOTY-“Movers and Shakers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
Hazard to Your Booty, in addition to having a great name, have the most fun with the Tiny Desk setup. They begin with two members, singer Dr Music and bassist Professor Funk chatting as if it were a talk show. They have a fun intro and once the song starts, the scene behind them lights up and the full band appears-two sax, a trombone, a funky guitarist and a drummer.
Professor Funk plays an awesome bass and it’s clear why he is up front—he really holds the song together. He’s got a great, clear sound (with some amazing low notes) and the whole band plays a cool riff at the end of each section—fast and complicated.
I love how committed they are to the Tiny Desk with Dr Music even using note cards and drinking from a coffee mug.
And what about the song? It rocks, it’s funky, it’s a lot of fun. And I’ve listened to it a bunch of time, risking my booty each time.
[READ: January 4, 2013] “Tremendous Machine”
Scibona continues to surprise me as a writer. His last story was set in Iceland and this one is set in Poland. And just to make things different, the main character is a Danish model name Fjóla Neergaard.
We learn a bit about Fjóla. Her modelling career has more or less abated, although she continues to starve herself. And she has more or less fled to Poland to get away from it all. Why Poland? Because her wealthy parents bought a plot of land there (the house was something of liability) once they saw how cheaply land could be gotten in the once communist country.
The house is basically a box, but Fjóla decides to buy a couch so she has something to lounge on in front of the fire. She drove into town to a warehouse that might sell her a couch.
Her Polish is poor and after talking with a man for several minutes she winds up buying a piano instead. She can’t play the piano–she knows nothing about the instrument in fact. The warehouse man sells her a piano and then gives her the name of an instructor–Mrs Kloc. Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Harper's, Piano lessons, Salvatore Scibona, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest | Leave a Comment »
March 27, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SCOTT MULVAHILL-“Begin Againers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
Mulvahill is a double bassist, and his double bass sounds outstanding. He slides notes, he plays chords, and he keeps up a really fun, jazzy riff.
He also slaps the strings which provides some percussive sounds. One of the nice features of this song is that he keeps playing a low open note so the song never sounds empty. And that’s all there is to the song–just his voice and his bass (and a proper verse/chorus structure of course).
The song s(and his voice) reminds me of a kind of stripped down Paul Simon song. It’s not really my thing, though and I wouldn’t choose to listen to it a lot, but I love his bass sound and I think the song itself is really good.
[READ: February 16, 2016] “Measure for Measure”
This is an excerpt from Moshfegh’s novel Eileen.
This excerpt (and presumably the whole book) is about a woman who I assume is anorexic She doesn’t eat and seems to relish in her boniness.
I took such poor care of myself. I knew I should drink water, eat healthful foods, but I didn’t like to drink water or eat healthful foods. I found fruits and vegetables detestable, like eating a bar of soap or a candle.
She is reflecting back on her younger days when at 24 she was considered a spinster and had indeed had only one kiss from a boy when she was 16. It was a prom date that had gone rather awry–she wound up biting him on the neck (and can’t recall is she drew blood).
She concludes the memory by saying “He’s probably dead..Most people I know are dead.” Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Excerpt, Harper's, Otessa Moshfegh, Paul Simon, Prison, Scott Mulvahill, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest | Leave a Comment »
March 26, 2016 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: March 24, 2016] Peter Pan
Every year, the fifth grade in our town puts on a play. C. volunteered to be in the stage crew, so of course we went to see the production.
It’s funny going to see a play to watch your son who is meant to be invisible in the play. Fortunately, there was enough light between scenes so I could see him moving furniture and carrying bongos. He even got to held the rope to make the pirate ship at the end.
A few weeks ago, T. and I went to see a high school production. I was curious to see how good the quality would be in fifth grade. And I was delighted by how good the show was and how well the creators used their lack of production values to their advantage.
The high school show had been amazing–they had an orchestra pit, the had kids on wires–I was really amazed. This production was much more bare bones. The play was performed in the combination gym, cafeteria, auditorium–so there was no wire work, no orchestra pit, no orchestra, in fact. Just kids who worked hard.
And the way they made the kids fly was awesome.
Continue Reading »
Posted in C., Funny (ha ha), Peter Pan, Set at School, Set in New Jersey!, Stony Brook Elementary School, T. | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: TUTLIE-“The Bison” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
I started out liking this song so much. It opens with a singer singing beautiful notes. And as the camera passes we see a harp (!) then keyboards, drums, bass, trumpet and glockenspiel.
There are many different parts to the song and lots of interesting harmonies. And its starts beautifully. I was surprised by the shift in tone (and the trippy end of the chorus). And their harmonies are truly wonderful.
I also liked that they were all filmed under a staircase.
But the song was a little too drifting and slow for me. It reminds me a lot of a slower song that might appear on a 70s prog rock album. The song that I would tolerate while I waited for the faster heavier song to come along. Of course, after many listens I would grow to appreciate it. And I’m sure I would grow to appreciate this song too.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “Untitled (Triptych)”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I am pretty sure I have read stuff by Ben Lerner but I didn’t expect a poem from him. Especially such a long one. And what can a poem teach us about parenting?
I was daunted by this piece, and the poem even helps address why. It talks about how “poems are great places to make information disappear, dissolve.”
And it also covers pretty much everything that has to do with art. Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Art, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Poetry, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Tutlie | Leave a Comment »
March 24, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: LA MISA NEGRA-“Sancocho” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners-up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
La Misa Negra is a cumbia-loving band from Oakland, Calif. There are eight members in the band. There’s a drummer with a small kit but lots of frenetic drumming, and a bongo player who is also frenetic. The percussion is pretty major in this band.
There’s also a sax, trumpet, clarinet, guitar and upright bass. The guitar player does super fast ska chords, while the horns plays some insanely fast riffs. The singer is full of yips and trills. It’s a non-stop fun rollicking ride.
I have no idea what they’re singing about (it’s all in Spanish) and I just don’t care, (“Sancocho” is named after a hearty stew popular in several Latin American countries).
Their tiny desk is a school seat with the writing top attached to the side. By the end it can’t contain the singer who has to get up and dance around too.
What a fun song.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “In Praise of Boredom”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I don’t know Claire Messud, but I totally related to this essay,
She is about my age and explains that the world she grew up in no longer exists. She says her parents, while wanting for nothing, were always frugal–they saved Ziploc bags and repaired things rather than threw them away.
They didn’t aspire to material wealth or popular culture, but rather they traveled a lot and had the children read. But Claire says that as a child she would rather have her own record player and clothes from the Gap.
So when her mom went to work she grew absorbed in pop culture TV and she felt like she became less serious than her parents.
I agreed with this:
The comparative ease of our upbringing first inspired guilt, then defiance. If, as our parents said, we should be eternally grateful for our comfort, then couldn’t we be grateful without feeling bad about it? Why should we accept that the hard path was always superior? Why shouldn’t we enjoy life’s pleasures? Why believe that reading Beckett or, God forbid, Heidegger, was an innately more worthy activity than watching music videos? Says who?
She knows that reading Beckett is a stimulating hour, but she can spend that hour just as happily watching Scandal. Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Boredom, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, La Misa Negra, Martin Heidegger, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Manguso, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest | Leave a Comment »
March 23, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: GWEN AUSTIN-“Child” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
The production values of this video belie the quality and intensity of the song they play.
The video is set in a dark room with the only light coming from an open window. The vocal is a bit staticy and at times too loud for the mic. But that doesn’t overshadow the fact that this is a beautiful, sad song. And that Gwen Austin has a powerful, somewhat haunting voice in the vein of Sharon Van Etten.
The music is simple Gwen on acoustic guitar and an accompaniment of a very echoey electric guitar Russell Marshall, but she sings with intense aching in her voice. The song comes from Austin’s feminist folk opera about the nativity story, which I’d sure like to hear more about.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “Fever”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I believe that everything I know from Taro Greenfeld I know from Harper’s magazines.
The title of this one had me preparing for something very different. I imagined an article about illnesses and not a basketball team. His daughter played for a team called Fever and he was called upon to be a coach because no one else would (that sounds familiar).
Unlike my own soccer league with many different teams, this basketball league had but two teams, and Fever played Sky every week for 12 weeks. Karl was a first time coach and didn’t know much about how to be a coach. The other coach was pretty good (he had a clipboard) and somehow managed to get all of the tall, talented players compared to Karl’s less experienced ones.
Since the played the same team every week, they lost 12 games in a row. Which is pretty disheartening. Especially when the games were pretty much blowouts. He even lost a few players to disenchantment. Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Basketball, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Gwen Austin, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, Sharon Van Etten, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest | Leave a Comment »
March 22, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: DECLAN McKENNA-“Brazil” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 22, 2016).
Declan McKenna is 17 and recently won the Glastonbury Contest with this song. I’ve never heard the original, although it is described as more rocking than this version.
This is just McKenna and his acoustic guitar. The melody is great and his guitar playing is good too. His singing voice reminds me a lot of the guy from the Arctic Monkeys. Although there’s moments in this version where he really seems to be straining/affecting his voice, which would probably work in a rocking song but which sound kind of rough in this little lullaby version—especially since his normal singing voice is really nice.
I was really surprised when the song switched to the third part (the Brazil part). It switches the tone of the song quite a bit and he does some nice falsettos too. “Playing the beautiful game in Brazil” is quite different from “The guy who lives down the river with six cars and a grizzly bear.”
Okay I just listened to the proper song–it’s much poppier with all kinds of harmonies. The song is much hookier this way. His vocals work better, although I’m not sure I’m sold on them entirely. In fact, when I was watching the video of the song, one of the comments (NEVER READ THE COMMENTS!) says, “Settle down McLovin” and, yes, that’s it, he sounds like Christopher Mintz-Plasse straining, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to unthink that. And now, neither will you.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “On Being a Stepparent”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I don’t know Ellen Rosenbush’s work (she is an editor of Harper’s so I don’t know how much else she has “written.” Rosenbush talks about the pros and cons of being a stepparent. Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Claire Messud, Declan McKenna, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Gwen Austin, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, South X Lullaby, SXSW | Leave a Comment »
March 21, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: TIMMY THOMAS-“Dizzy Dizzy World” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 21, 2016).
Timmy Thomas wrote many many hits in the 1970s and 1980s. His name is on credits that just about everyone has sung at some point.
Of course, I’d never heard of him. Thomas is 71 and was playing at SXSW, so they grabbed him for a Lullaby. And his voice sounds really fantastic–rich and full–you’d never guess he was over 70.
He sang a song from his 1973 album Why Can’t We Live Together called “Dizzy Dizzy World.” What’s so interesting to me about this song is that it sounds like it came from the 1970s. Not because of the instrumentation, which for this is just keyboards, acoustic guitar and upright bass. And it’s not exactly the lyrics (although they are earnest and slightly dated–but also still appropriate). There’s something about the feel of the song–it sounds like an anthem from the 70s for fighting against the craziness of the world.
It’s mellow and quite lovely. They just don’t write songs like this anymore. Well, maybe Thomas does, I don’t know.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “The Donor”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I read Emma Donoghue’s first novel Stir Fry back in 1994. She was an unknown author and I liked the book quite a bit. Since then she has taken off with her book Room, which I have not read.
Donoghue’s essay is about how she tells her children that they were both conceived through a sperm donor. She and her partner chose to go with a donor from a sperm bank rather than a known person. They refused to pay extra for the “premium collection of men with PhDs” since she and her partner both have PhDs “so we know what a feeble guarantee of intelligence they are.” Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Lucius, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, South X Lullaby, SXSW | Leave a Comment »
March 20, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: A-WA-“Ya Shaifin Al Malih” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 20, 2016).
A-WA are three sisters from Yemen. They sing in Yemeni Arabic. And they have a dance single out (see the video shot in their neighborhood where three guys wears tracksuits and baseball hats with tassels).
For this Tiny Desk, they are also in a hotel room. Unlike with Mt. Wolf, this room is dark and then an electric guitar starts playing.
The lead singer begins singing this song (in Arabic). It is a Yemeni folk song about a love that hurts. “There’s an enjoyable love and there’s a love that gives you heartache.” It is a sad aching song.
After a second verse the three sisters start singing in harmony
It’s in the next verse when the three-part harmony becomes really distinctive, and the song feels even more intense.
It’s a far cry from a dance song, but an interesting listen to voices you don’t hear much in song.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “The Grand Shattering”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
I have read only one thing by Michelle Tea. But I really enjoyed her contribution to this forum. She discusses giving birth by Cesarean and losing a lot of blood. She was in the hospital for four days. And although the room itself was ugly, the view (on a hill in San Francisco) was magnificent.
She and her wife spent those four days holding their baby and basically being a in a bubble. Michelle would breastfeed and her wife would do most everything else. People marveled at what a great team they made. Continue Reading »
Posted in A-WA, A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Boats, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, South X Lullaby, SXSW, Vacation | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2016 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: MT. WOLF-“Hex” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 19, 2016).
Mt Wolf breaks with the tradition of the Lullaby by playing their song in a hotel room! This is the band’s single.
It’s a 6-minute beautiful song notable for singer Sebastian’s Fox’s soaring falsetto. His voice is really quite amazing.
The second guitarist plays the quiet melody and then Fox plays a kind of solo over the top of it. After the initial falsetto of the first verse, the second verse shows the range of his voice, as he starts a little lower before soaring the heights once again. The band has a female backing singer who actually sings high notes that are lower than his.
By four and a half minutes the songs starts to rocks out (and no doubt the room next door starts to wonder WTF)
The feel reminds me a bit of Sigur Rós, with that kind of soaring intensity. This is definitely a love it or hate it song, but I think it’s quite beautiful.
[READ: February 10, 2016] “The Grand Shattering”
The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent. Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic. There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea. Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.
Anyone who reads this blog knows I don’t know poets very well. A. Balkan is a poet whom I had never heard of.
Imagine my surprise to find out that his essay was the most dramatic and exciting and went in directions that I never would have guessed.
He says that when his twin daughters were born, he and his wife were exhausted from all the work. So his family and friends invited them t0 a cabin where they could relax and have other take care of the kids for a couple of days.
Sounds ideal. Except that on their second day there, a tornado came through and destroyed the cabin they were staying in (for real!) Fortunately they were not in it. Continue Reading »
Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Boats, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, Mt. Wolf, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, Sigur Rós, South X Lullaby, SXSW, The Big Lebowski, Vacation | Leave a Comment »
« Newer Posts - Older Posts »
SOUNDTRACK: HAZARD TO YA BOOTY-“Movers and Shakers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. I want to draw attention to a couple of them.
I Just Read About That... 