September 27, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: FATHER JOHN MISTY-Fear Fun (2012).
I can’t get over how much I’ve been enjoying this album for the last two years. Father John Misty is J Tillman from Fleet Foxes.
This disc is a gentle folk album with vaguely country leanings. The arrangements are spare and yet the verses and choruses are so great to sing along to. “Funtimes in Babylon” has this infectious chorus: “I would like to abuse my lungs, smoke everything in sight with every girl I’ve ever loved. Ride around the wreckage on a horse knee deep in mud. Look out, Hollywood, here I come.” “Nancy from Now On” has a great propulsive chorus with oohs and tinkling bells and pianos and Misty’s engaging falsetto.
I was introduced to this album by “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” which opens with the super catchy line, “Jeeeeesus Christ, girl.” I love the big crashing drum sound he has here. “I’m Writing a Novel” is a fun romp, with the great line “I’m writing a novel because it’s never been done before.” “O I Long to Feel Your Arms Around Me” introduces a great organ sound. It’s a full song at only 2 and a half minutes.
“Misty’s Nightmares 1 & 2” opens with a slide guitar and turns into a stomping song with more Ooohs and a great chorus. “Only Son of the Ladiesman” has a great chorus with the fun couple: “I’m a steady hand, I’m a Dodgers fan.” “This is Sally Hatchet” has cool guitar blasts and a great bridge.
“Well You Can Do It Without Me” is a countrified 2 minute stomper. “Tee Pees 1-12” is a big stompin’ honkey tonk song with fiddles and slide guitar. The disc ends with “Everyman Needs a Companion” a slow ballad with a great piano melody and a fun to sing along with verse and chorus.
I love the lyrics on this album, especially the song “Now I’m Learning to Love the War” a slow ballad with a great story:
Try not to think so much about
The truly staggering amount of oil that it takes to make a record
All the shipping, the vinyl, the cellophane lining, the high gloss
The tape and the gear
Try not to become too consumed
With what’s a criminal volume of oil that it takes to paint a portrait
The acrylic, the varnish, aluminum tubes filled with latex
The solvents and dye
Lets just call this what it is
The gentler side of mankind’s death wish
When it’s my time to go
Gonna leave behind things that won’t decompose
In addition to all of the great music on here, the CD packaging is fantastic with that great cover, done in a cardboard gatefold sleeve including two huge books full of words and drawings and lyrics and everything. I’m really looking forward to his next release.
[READ: September 14, 2014] Grantland #10
Despite my being in the middle of reading several other things, I was looking for a short article to read the other night and grabbed my Grantland 10. And, of course, once I started, I couldn’t stop. I put everything else on hold and blasted through this issue.
And so all of my loves and hates are the same with this issue. I never know how anything they talk about nearly a year ago turned out, which stinks. And yet I get so wrapped up in the writing that I don’t care. I’m not sure what it is about the writing for Grantland that i enjoy so much. It is casual but knowledgeable. Often funny but not obnoxiously silly. And I suppose that now I feel like I’m in on all of the secret stuff they talk about so I’m part of the club. I fear that if I were to ever go to the website I would get sucked into a black hole and never emerge.
I often wonder how they choose what goes into the book. This issue has some new writers and the surprising absence of some regulars. I wonder what went on there. And as always, the book could use some editing and maybe actually listing the urls of the links that were once in the online version. But I think I’m talking to deaf ears on that one.
This issue covers October-December 2013 (that’s ten-twelve months ago! Some of this stuff feels ancient!)
Continue Reading »
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September 26, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: DESTROY TOMORROW 666-“Distortasaur” (2005?).
Destroy Tomorrow 666 is a DJ project from Sloan’s Patrick Pentland. I had never heard of it until reading about him recently (Sloan has a new album out). It is Pentland’s Alternative / Electro / Punk outlet that he’s been doing since 2005.
Pentland is known for writing gorgeous pop songs with wonderful harmonies. But he grew up listening to hardcore punk, so his musical tastes are all over the place. This track (I love the name) is, like the others here, a distorted fuzzy “dance” song that is all instrumental and not poppy at all.
While I’ll stick with Sloan, I imagine this was a lot of fun to whip together. And yes, I think it’s very good dark dance music. Although surely if he was going to use 666 he could have turned Pentland into Pentagram.
You can check it out at ReverbNation.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “Stories”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” I liked that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.
Colm Tóibín is a prolific writer whom I know very little about.
In this essay, Tóibín flashes back to 1978 when he was 23 and living in Barcelona. He had been there for a few months when he heard about a cheap charter flight back to Ireland. So he packed up and got out of Barcelona and returned to his home.
He often wonders what would have happened had he stayed in Spain. He most likely would have stayed with the guy he was seeing, spending days on the beach and nights in the boy’s apartment in the city. He even thinks he might never have gone home.
After he left, they kept in touch for a time, then inevitably, they lost touch. Continue Reading »
Posted in Colm Tóibín, Destroy Tomorrow 666, Essays, Funny (ha ha), History, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Patrick Pentland, Romance, Sloan | Leave a Comment »
September 25, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: BUDGIE-“Breadfan” (1973).
I am pretty much wholly ignorant of Budgie. I know this song “Breadfan” because Metallica covered it back on one of their covers EPs. I really Metallica’s version, but since that was pre-internet, I was never able to explore Budgie more. And then I forgot about them.
Well, just the other night, WXPN played “Breadfan” (as part of a 70s power trio segment) and I was shocked at how high-pitched Burke Shelley’s voice was (the comparisons to Rush are apt). And I was also surprised at how heavy this song was. While Black Sabbath had certainly been releasing heavy albums up until this time, this song introduced a much faster element. And there were only three members in the band!
What’s also interesting is the prog rock leanings in some of their songs, like the middle of this one. The fact that Roger Dean did this album cover and that they have a 10 minute song on this album seems to lean towards prog rock as well).
Time to dig deep in to the Welsh band’s catalog, I think.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “Beautiful Girl”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” I like that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.
Wolff surprises (me anyhow) by saying that when he was fifteen, he cut off the last joint of his left ring finger. This piece of information just sort of lingers there until the end of the story.
Because he then talks about how he never really had a girlfriend. In sixth grade he and his friend Terry would meet Terry’s cousin Patty and another girl in the movie theater and they would pair up and make out (clearly Terry did not make out with his cousin). But they pairings were never seen in public and never went on a further date.
But later that winter his family moved to the Cascades, where the elementary school had all of four rooms. There were ten kids in his class and nine were boys. The one girl, Nevy, drove them all crazy. She favored one then the other but her real love was horses not boys. Continue Reading »
Posted in Black Sabbath, Budgie, Essays, Funny (ha ha), History, Humiliation, Metallica, New Yorker, Romance, Rush, Sex, Tobias Wolff, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »
September 24, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: BIKINI KILL-Revolution Girl Style Now (1991).
Bikini Kill was one of the most memorable bands from the Riot Grrrl movement. And frankly, twenty years on, these song still sound incendiary–no one has picked up the torch that bands like this lit in the 90s.
Bikini Kill were confrontational–Kathleen Hannah took no shit, and sang however she felt–sometimes screaming, sometime howling, sometimes singing right on key. But the most important thing about Bikini Kill was their lyrics–they addressed women’s issues in ways that few bands dared to before (or even since). As in the title “Suck My Left One.” Or the premise of “Carnival,” a song about 16 year old girls giving carnies head to go on rides.
While it’s not always clear what the lyrics are, occasional lines are crystal clear. “Daddy’s l’il girl don’t wanna be his whore no more.” “As a woman I was taught to always be hungry / Now women are well acquainted with thirst” Or the addressed-to-all-girlfriends, “Double Dare Ya”
Hey girlfriend
I got a proposition goes something like this:
Dare ya to do what you want
Dare ya to be who you will
Dare ya to cry right outloud
Their music, especially on this early self released tape was raw and edgy, abrasive and confrontational. And yet at the same time they didn’t completely shy away from melody, as this album’s “Feels Blind” has a simple but catchy melody.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “TV”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” I liked that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.
Miranda July’s take on My Old Flame is set back when she was living in Portland. While her story isn’t exactly happy (how many stories about old flames ever are?), this particular old flame had a major impact on her life.
July noticed that there were two women who were always walking together and who loved together. She was intrigued by them and their cool house and eventually made friends with them. She was especially interested in the person called TV. “She, if she was a she, was every boy from every childhood book.” July had tried to date boys like that but they often turned out to be assholes. But TV had those boyish qualities and a girl’s point of view. Continue Reading »
Posted in Bikini Kill, Essays, Funny (ha ha), History, Humiliation, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Riot Grrrl, Romance, Sex | Leave a Comment »
September 23, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SLOTHRUST-7:30AM (2011).
This song is the opening theme to the FX show You’re the Worst, which I like very much.
The theme is only a few seconds long although the song (which has been around since at least 2011) is considerably longer (although it doesn’t reach 3 minutes).
Every time we’ve watched the show, I’ve tried to imagine who the guy is singing this song–he sounded strangely familiar. Well, imagine my surprise to find out that the music from the band Slothrust is pretty much written and sung by a woman, Leah Wellbaum. Well who would have guessed (it’s more evident in some of their other songs).
I love the simplicity of this song–repeated lyrics set to a ramshackle guitar which bursts forth into loud wailing in every repeated section. There’s even a guitar solo (equally as uninhibited). The band is a typically more punky than this folk song might hint, but you can feel all their glorious chaos in this one track.
It’s funny and rather catchy. Check out the song on bandcamp.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “Good Legs”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” I liked that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.
Joshia Ferris has written a number of things that I enjoyed. This piece, which found very peculiar, takes a very different approach than Kushner did. Where Kushner focused on different people in her past, Ferris Ferris focuses on one old flame. Or is she?
He says he met her in the hallway of a dorm. There’s this near-opening line that sets the tone: “I didn’t think much of her, but I was sure she had never seen anyone quite so handsome.”
It turns out that she was dating someone else anyhow. And then she graduated, leaving him behind (perhaps unbeknownst to her). He says, “I didn’t miss her,” because he was “in this terrible on-off thing with Sisyphus, who kept dragging me up a pretty blond hill and hurtling me down.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Essays, History, Humiliation, Joshua Ferris, New Yorker, Romance, Sex, Slothrust, You're the Worst | Leave a Comment »
September 22, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: EX-COPS-“Ken” (2014).
In this song, I get a vibe of Prefab Sprout singer over a swirly indie band (at least for the verses). The chorus is bigger–swirling guitars and fast drums, with Ooohs building and building. And yet the song never quite launches the way “Black Soap” did.
Amalie Bruun doesn’t really contribute to this song. And while I wouldn’t say she is crucial to the band, something is definitely lacking without her sharing vocal duties.
I wanted this song to be a bit…more, somehow. I’m not quite sure about Ex-Cops after two songs. We’ll see if I get blown away by something else later on.
The whole reason I checked out this song was for the video, which is a tribute to The Replacements’ “Bastards of Young” video.
[youtbue=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgRil7yidDg]
[READ: June 17, 2014] “The Adolescents”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. In addition to the two graphic stories, we have a series of five personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” I liked that all five writers have slight variations in how they deal with this topic.
Kushner presents a series of past boys that she had crushes on when she was young. Each one is presented with a “random initial.” First there was B who looked like an angel. He asked to carry her books in sixth grade. It is a sweet introduction until the conflict: an eighth grade girl, she was stridently white, says something about his race. And in the span of one paragraph, “many things were new to me that day. B and I never reconnected.”
Next there was D. D was white and proclaimed that he would hurt others (presumably those who were black). The race issue was complicated then.
She once kissed M, who was black, although R would have been a better match. R flirted with her on the playground and treated her like a sexy woman. Continue Reading »
Posted in Essays, Ex-Cops, Funny (ha ha), History, Humiliation, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Prefab Sprout, Rachel Kushner, Romance, Sex, The Replacements | Leave a Comment »
September 21, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: EX-COPS-“Black Soap” (2014).
After listening to Myrkur yesterday I wanted to check out Amalie Bruun’s other band, Ex-Cops.
It’s interesting how many musicians can enjoy playing in so many different styles. Because Ex-Cops sounds absolutely nothing like Myrkur. Indeed, an Ex-Cops fan may be shocked by the sounds of Bruun’s black metal alter ego.
Ex-Cops remind me a lot of Garbage and The Cardigans sort of mixed together. Bruun shares lead on this track with Brian Harding and her voice is pleasant and at times sounds like Aimee Mann’s. The song is simple enough, with an easy melody for the verses and a big powerful chorus (stadia await).
The thing that I do like about this song is that Bruun and Harding exchange lead vocal duties. But they duet with each other with the other in backing vocals. It keeps the song from being very obvious. I have no idea what they’re singing or where the title comes in, but that’s okay.
Depending on what other songs on this record sound like, this band could either be a cool indie band with pop leanings or a blatantly pop band. And I’m curious to hear more.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “Possession”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. And thus, we have a series of personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” There are several short pieces. And this year there are two illustrated stories by two wonderful artists.
The second is by Chris Ware. I love Ware’s style, despite how depressing his stories usually are.
This story is about the narrator’s fixation on a girl named Daisy. When he was a kid, she lived right across the street from them. He says that he knows her, he has all of these memories of her, but he cannot picture her. He can picture the street and a few concrete memories, but little else.
The first odd thing comes when the narrator was a little older. His family had moved across town. But when his mom asked who he wanted to invite to the circus with them, he said Daisy. (I’m trying to imagine what he parents thought of that). However, when they stopped at her house, the girl who emerged looked nothing like Daisy (what?). And they said nothing to each other the whole time they were at the circus. Continue Reading »
Posted in Chris Ware, Circus, Graphic Novel, History, Huh?, Humiliation, New Yorker, Romance | Leave a Comment »
September 20, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: MYRKUR-“Nattens Barn” (2014).
Myrkur is a black metal band whose sole member is a woman–Amalie Bruun, a Danish model who co-leads the Brooklyn indie-pop band Ex-Cops.
This six-minute song has elements of black metal (loud guitars, fast drums) and elements that transcend the genre (the first entire minute of beautiful choral voice). As the song opens, multilayered voices sing (presumably in Danish) about what I imagine is the heavens (I’m curious about a translation, but won’t look for one). After a minute the heavy guitars kick in–loud, but not scary loud (a kind of pleasant black metal, if you will).
Until 1:43 when she creams, the drums kick in, and it becomes black metal as we all know it is meant to be. The song is loud fast and heavy. But unlike most black metal, there are no vocals (at least that I can hear). So the song cycles through a few sections. After returning to the more melodic style, that heaviness keeps pushing its way back in. It all ends rather suddenly after that five minute buildup. Although there is a return to the choral voices of the beginning.
I’m intrigued by this and I love that the choral voices (something black metal has done in the past) are done (I assume) by Bruun herself, rather than a male band tacking on the ethereal voices. Her new release is an EP, and I would like to hear some more of it, just to see what kind of vocals she uses.
[READ: June 17, 2014] “Gradual Impact”
This year’s Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker was subtitled Love Stories. And thus, we have a series of personal essays which fall under the heading of “My Old Flame.” There are several short pieces. And this year there are two illustrated stories by two wonderful artists.
The first is by Alison Bechdel. Although I honestly don’t know if Dykes to Watch Out For is still an ongoing concern (which is a shame since i have so many of the early books), I love that Bechdel’s “self” character looks an awful lot (bit not identical to) DTWOF‘s Mo. It brings a sense of comfort to the story (which I know is not her intention, but still).
In this story, the main character talks about falling for a woman in her karate class. As it opens, the narrator berates herself for breaking off an affair with a woman who was “kind, beautiful, smart, interesting, sane and available.” She asks, “What the fuck was my problem?” Continue Reading »
Posted in Alison Bechdel, Ex-Cops, Graphic Novel, History, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Myrkur, New Yorker, Romance, Sex | Leave a Comment »
September 19, 2014 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 18, 2014] MOMIX Dreamcatcher
Sarah and I have enjoyed Momix twice in the last two years. So when we saw they were coming back with a new show called Dreamcatcher, we were right there at the box office.
As it turns out Dreamcatcher is a “greatest hits’ collection, not unlike Momix Remix, the first one we saw. Since last year we saw the show Botanica, which has a few greatest hits of its own, that means we have seen some of these performances three times now. That was a little disappointing. On the plus side, this is the first time we had seats in the balcony. Our first time we had middle of the floor level, which was very cool. Second time we were very close to the stage which was interesting for different reasons. But from the balcony, you can see the patterns that the dancers make and you can’t see the dancers in the pieces where they are “hidden.” (When we were close I could see the dancers, which was interesting in and of itself, but it did remove some of the magic).
I wish that I had included a “setlist” from the previous shows, to see just how many we have seen multiple times (there were a couple that were similar but definitely different in some aspect or another). So this time I will be placing the setlist at the bottom. Continue Reading »
Posted in Acrobats, Dance, Dead Can Dance, Momix, Moses Pendelton, New Brunswick, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, State Theatre | Leave a Comment »
September 18, 2014 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-If I Had a Hi-Fi (2010).
I have enjoyed Nada Surf more with each album. But for some reason, I never bothered checking out this covers album. Which is my loss. Covers albums fall into all different categories–bands that try to ape the original exactly, bands that mess around with the original, and band who take the songs and make them their own. In this case Nada Surf takes all of these songs and makes them sound just like Nada Surf songs. Sometimes, they make them sound unlike the original and give them specific Nada Surfisms.
I didn’t know all of the songs on this record. In fact, I knew very few of them (which is a pretty unusual way to run a covers record, no? This falls into the “introduce your fans to songs you love category).
I knew “Enjoy the Silence” (Depeche Mode) which is incredibly different. Obviously, the original is synthy, but while Nada Surf keep it dark, they add a bit of jangly chords and change the way some of the verses end (the way they do “and forgettable” is so intriguing). Even the ba bas at the end transform the whole nature of the song. “Love Goes On!” (The Go-Betweens) is a song I knew a little and Nada Surf sounds an awful lot like the original (but I like the way they make the chorus even bigger). “Love and Anger” (Kate Bush) is similar to the original but with that Nada Surf twist. It’s not big and epic and Matthew Caws doesn’t try to hit her notes (he does have a high voice though), but it’s a gorgeous rendition. “Question” (Moody Blues) is probably the most famous song on the disc. Nada Surf rocks the song pretty hard. The pick up the tempo, but slow it down just right for the slow part. It’s quite faithful, without being in any way proggy.
The rest of the songs I didn’t know. And some of the bands I’ve never heard of (!). “Electrocution” (Bill Fox) opens the records and while I don’t know if it’s any different, it could be a great original jangly pop song from Nada Surf. “Janine” (Arthur Russell) is only a minute long. It’s a pretty, delicate acoustic guitar song. “You Were So Warm” (Dwight Twilley). I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a Dwight Twilley song, so I have no idea how this compares, but I like the way the last long of “Janine” is the chorus to this song. I rather assume the original is not as poppy as this (but I don’t know Twilley, so why do I think that?–Turns out I was entirely wrong, the original sounds an awful lot like this version).
“The Agony of Laffitte” (Spoon). I know Spoon, but not this song. I can imagine how Spoon performed it, and I imagine that Nada Surf have smoothed the song out and made it prettier and slightly less dramatic. “Bye Bye Beauté” (Coralie Clément) is sung in French. I’ve never heard of the original performer. I don’t know how the original sounds, but this could easily be a Nada Surf song (they have done songs in French before) and the harmonies are beautiful. Speaking of French, the also do “Evolución” (Mercromina) in French (“ev-oh-loo-see-own” is much more fun to sing than “ev-oh-loo-shun”). This song starts out slow with a cello stating the melody. It then turns into a dark acoustic guitar song, minor key and tension-filled. Vocals don’t come in until a minute and a half in (the song is 5 minutes). I’m not sure what the song is about, but even the catchy chorus is kinda dark.
“Bright Side” (Soft Pack). Soft Pack is another band I’ve never heard of. This song is a fun almost punk track–fast and catchy with simple lyrics a fun chorus (and ahhh backing vocals). The disc ends with “I Remembered What I Was Going to Say” (The Silly Pillows) another band I’ve never heard of. It is played on prepared piano in a waltz style. Perhaps unexpectedly, it has no words. It’s a nice capper to the album
Incidentally, the cover is a wonder line drawing that is fun to stare at and the liner notes (which would be much much easier to read on vinyl) are just jam packed with information about the original artists.
[READ: September 18, 2012] “Madame Lazarus”
Another story with a dog. This one begins in a rather amusing manner. An older gay man has just received a small terrier as a present from his younger lover, James. The narrator is worried about his boyfriend staying around (he is so young and beautiful, while the narrator, who has just retired, is getting older and older). The narrator doesn’t like the dog, but decides it will be one more thing to tie him to the James, so he decides to keep her. He names her Cordelia.
The story is set in Paris, and the older man walks the dog around the city. But mostly he thinks about his age and his past. He says that anyone his age is amazed that he survived the Nazis much less lived to be an old man. He also thinks of his ex-wife, Simone, whom he meets for lunch from time to time.
The story seems like a sweet story of age and love, lost love, but love nonetheless. But then the flashback introduces some darker moments. Continue Reading »
Posted in Arthur Russell, Bill Fox, Coralie Clément, Death, Depeche Mode, Dogs, Dwight Twilley, Kate Bush, Maile Meloy, Marriage Trouble, Mercromina, Moody Blues, Nada Surf, New Yorker, Short Story, Soft Pack, Spoon, The Go-Betweens, The Silly Pillows | Leave a Comment »
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