SOUNDTRACK: ASAF AVIDAN-“One Day/Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)” (2012).
Yesterday I talked about Asaf Avidan and his song “Reckoning Song (One Day).” His (live) version has 15 million views on YouTube. But the remix by Wankelmut (which Avidan had asked Wankelmut to take down, but he refused) has almost 150 million hits.
The first song is a slow keening lament. The remix adds a dancey beat and speeds up the vocals (mostly removing pauses, not really speeding up his voice at all–it’s high enough as it is). And now that I’ve listened to both versions a few times, I’m totally hooked).
I think I like the verses better in the remix (the drum beat helps), but I like the chorus of the original better–the power comes through a lot more in the chorus of the original. I’m glad the remix left in the yodelly aspect of his voice in the chorus, though.
I imagine that this remix has introduced a lot of people to Avidan, and that’s a good thing too.
You can see both below, first the original,
then the remix:
[READ: June 20, 2014] Johnny Hiro Book 2
This book continues the exploits of Johnny Hiro and his beautiful girlfriend Mayumi. There’s no listing of “originally published” so I don’t know if these came out as individual books, like the first collection of story did. So I’ll just assume that these were first published in this book.
The first story gives us a peek into Johnny’s past when Mayumi is having lunch with a coworker (and Johnny is hauling ass to get to the lunch date on time). When he skids up to the table, he realizes that he knows the other woman–in fact, he almost moved in with her. But just as things get really uncomfortable (Johnny never told Mayumi about her), King Kong reaches across the patio and pulls her away. And, just as Johnny had to save a woman from Gozadilla in book one, he has to save woman from King Kong.
Which means more chases through New York City, a fascinating (if not sad) backstory about King Kong and another hilarious save via Mayor Bloomberg (wonderful to see him again). The connection to L.A. about King Kong is fantastic.
In the second story, the owner of the house that Johnny and Mayumi are staying in comes back for a few weeks, this introduces a new person to play off of, with new concerns–it;s a nice addition. The only bad thing is that Alex curses like a storm–I don’t recall there being any curses in the first book–so that puts this book squarely into the older teen area (which isn’t really a bad thing, since there is talk about romantic relationships and some behind closed door scenes that kids might have to many questions about–but I feel like the big monsters might entice kids into reading it). Continue Reading »
Asaf Avidan is a 33-year-old, Israeli singer, formerly with a folkish rock band called Asaf Avidan & The Mojos. He has since gone solo and is touring the States. His voice is the most notable thing about this performance—it’s feminine, but not in a conventionally feminine way. It’s got a husky Janis Joplin vibe or maybe that weird Billie Holiday thing that she does. And yet Asaf Avida is (clearly) a man and when he belts out songs, his voice is incredibly powerful.
And yes indeed, he knows how to use his voice very well. His voice would be unconventional even if he was a woman—it’s creaky and crackly, it warbles and rises and swoops and yet it is very powerful nonetheless. And I can see it being very polarizing. I didn’t like it at first but it really won me over.
“My Latest Sin” is a slow finger plucked song (the guitar is beautiful) and most of the song is pretty quiet, but man can Asaf belt out the lines when he wants to. “Different Pulses” is a more robust song musically (even though it is just him on guitar). When he sing the “oh ho” part, he hits some real falsettos, but is still very powerful.
The way he mixes up his incredibly high pitched voice with the gravelly and growly makes this an incredibly engaging performance.
As he introduces the third song, “Reckoning Song,” he explains that it was remixed as an ambient song–which he hates. He had asked the remixer to take it down, but the guy refused. And it has since hit 150 million hits. He’s grateful for the attention, although he still hates the remix. His version is quiet and powerful with some beautiful catchiness.
I’m very intrigued by this fellow and want to hear more.
[READ: June 20, 2014] Johnny Hiro Book 1
This book collects the first three Johnny Hiro stories (from 2007-2008). It was originally published by AdHouse books with the cover that you’ll see below. This Tor reprint is identical (as far as I was willing to investigate).
I was immediately intrigued by the cover and the title. I loved the play on Hero and Hiro and when I saw that a Godzilla type monster attacks them on the first page, I was sold.
So Johnny Hiro is an average Japanese American kid living in New York. He has a bad job as a sushi chef, but he has a beautiful Japanese girlfriend who loves him very much. Of course, when the first story opens and Mayumi is pulled away by “Gozadilla,” things aren’t looking that good for him.
But here’s some wonderful things that do happen in the story: Johnny rescues her while wearing her Hello Bunny slippers (she’s concerned that he will stretch them out); we learn that Gozadilla is mad at her because her mother stopped him in 1978 from trying to rampage Tokyo (so this is a revenge mission) and, best of all, they are saved because Mayumi calls Mayor Bloomberg for help (she got his number from the phone book because of an article in the New York Times). Oh and the monster attack has left a huge hole in their exterior wall. Continue Reading »
Jake Bugg is the least charismatic person I’ve ever seen at the Tiny Desk. He doesn’t look up, barely says anything and when he’s not singing, he seems bored out of his mind. It’s amazing he has any energy at all to sing the songs. But he does, and his voice is deceptively strong and his songs, while simple, are really rather fun.
He plays four songs. “Slumville Sunrise” is punky and fast–his voice is very British and a little abrasive, perfect for punk folk. But in the chorus, he can really belt out the lyrics. “Me and You” has a nice melody and is a good change of pace from the first song. “Storm Passes Away” is a more folkie song, mellower than the others and almost upbeat sounding. The final song, “Lightning Bolt” is apparently one of his big singles. It is fast and rollicking and has an unusual and rather catchy deliver style.
I came away from this concert thinking that Bugg was a real jerk, but I was impressed by his voice and his song writing chops.
[READ: July 1, 2014] Eric
Eric is a very simple children’s story done with the great exacting style of Shaun Tan’s best artwork. The narrator explains that Eric is a foreign exchange student. Eric is very curious about so many things; however, since Eric is only a few inches high, most of the things he is curious about are tiny incidental things that we take for granted–buttons, the shapes of drains, plastic wrappers, etc.
The narrator’s mum says it is a cultural thing, and it must be, because Eric doesn’t do things that most normal people do (probably because he is only 3 inches tall). The end of the story is a wonderful surprise. Continue Reading »
Lowland Hum are the husband and wife duo of Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank from North Carolina. He plays guitar and she plays (snare) drum and percussion. They tour with a few homemade wooden platforms that have small metal jingles, so when they stomp on them, they get great percussive sounds.
They play three songs. The first is “War Is Over,” a sweet folkie song with tambourine. Their voices meld very nicely (interestingly, her voice which I think is doing harmonies sounds stronger here–but that may just be a trick of the microphone). There’s something interesting and compelling about they way the song starts–the verses are slightly unconventional, but when the “war is over now” chrous kicks in it sounds like a very different song. It’s a good combination.
Before the second song, “Pocket Knife,” Daniel explains that this is the first song they wrote together. It’s a funny story about wanting to write together but being afraid that their voices or styles would be incompatible and how would a husband and wife deal with that? (Fortunately, they felt very compatible). The song is surprisingly short. The verse is very quiet, especially his voice. Then the song gets loud–but there’s no vocals during the loud part. She takes a verse and then it’s over.
Then they open it up for questions. They explain that they are on stage together and in the van together and so with audiences basically staring at them, they decided to open up a dialogue on stage. So they often ask people for questions and comments. Someone asks about the lyrics books. They have made lyric books and passed them out before the show (something they do at all of their shows). They like having something tactile or the audience. The previous song was number 19 (which reminded me of a hymnal).
“Four Sisters, Pt. One” has many parts and is really interesting. It has dynamic sound changes. And when they harmonize on the “use your voice” section, they sound great. I like the duo and would enjoy seeing them opening for someone, although I don’t think I like them enough to get a record.
[READ: June 29, 2014] Skim
In Skim we meet Kimberley Keiko Cameron who is called Skim (because she isn’t). She is a heavyset Japanese woman into the goth scene and a wannabe witch. Her best friend is Lisa, already a witch and, despite her blonde hair, also kinda gothy. The witchcraft is wiccan lite.
As the story opens, we see that Skim has broken her arm tripping over the makeshift wiccan altar in her room. But trumping that is the news that Katie Matthews, a super popular girl in school was dumped by her boyfriend, John. She has drawn a broken heart on her hand with a Sharpie. Lisa hates Katie and Skim does too, sort of (she doesn’t really hate anyone), but it is still super annoying.
The other principal character is Ms Archer. Ms Archer is a hippie with red hair and flowing dresses who teaches drama and English. Skim likes her because she feel a kindred freakishness. Continue Reading »
I know of Diane Cluck only from one song that was played on an NPR show. I really liked it (it’s called “Sara” and she plays it third here). Cluck has an unusual yet very compelling voice and a guitar style that is simple yet also unusual.
“Trophies” has a kind of Joni Mitchell feel to it–the whole thing feels kind of sixties, although not in the way she sings or plays, there’s just something about it that skews sixties–perhaps its the unusual vocal melodies in the verses?
For “Grandma Say,” Cluck switches to the piano and plays a bouncey but dark song with a fantastic vocal delivery and rather funny (but meaningful) lines. For “Sara,” Diane puts some bells on her boots. And when asked where she got them she sheepishly admits the truth. “Sara” sounds as good live as it did on record–Cluck’s voice is just as compelling in this setting.
I really enjoyed this brief set. And I was really struck by Cluck’s appearance. She is quiet tall and extremely thin, and she seems even more stretched out by her tall hair and long neck. And yet she seems to be putting no effort into anything that she’s doing. She makes for as mysterious a figure as you might expect from these songs. I was as captivated by watching her as I was listening to her.
[READ: June 26, 2014] Emiko Superstar
As part of this recent influx of graphic novels, I also scored Emiko Superstar. This title looked familiar from the Minx sampler that I have, so I was excited to read it.
The story is by Mariko Tamaki and is about a young Japanese-American girl named Emily. We meet her family right away–her father is a big burly American guy and her mom is a demure Japanese woman. She is named for her grandmother Emiko, who was a vivacious and fun dancer (although Emily’s mother now frowns on dancing and public fun). As might be expected, Emily is a quiet, nerdy girl, hanging around with the nerdiest kids in school.
She doesn’t really mind being a nerd until before one summer break, when all the other nerds plan to go to a convention that will help them land great jobs. Emily doesn’t know when nerd meant being a corporate sellout, and she refuses to go. Rather, she decides to stay around town and get a crummy job at a coffee shop. But after one regrettable (or not) incident, she realizes she may be unemployed for the rest of the summer.
Her mother will have none of that, and finds her a job babysitting most days during the summer. The family she babysits for seem pretty perfect. The husband is an athletic happy, loud guy who is proud of his life, his wife, his kid and his house. The wife is much quieter and seems a bit embarrassed by her husband, but otherwise seems reasonably content with her son and her life. And there’s the baby, who is drooly but pretty easy to deal with.
One day at the mall, Emily sees a wild-looking girl dancing around, making a racket and advertizing a place called The Factory, where the freaks all go. Before being dragged away by security, she throws flyers out into the crowd and Emily grabs one. And Emily feels an electric shock in her body at the thought of going to this place. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE BOTH-Tiny Desk Concert #346 (April 7, 2014).
The Both is a mini-supergroup of sorts featuring Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. I don’t know too much about Ted Leo, but I do know a lot about Aimee Mann. I was curious to hear what these two sounded like together (this Tiny Desk was recorded before their album was released and was one of their first public performances together).
They play four songs, and I feel like they sound very much like Aimee Mann songs. I never thought of Aimee Mann as having a terribly distinctive voice, but I guess she does. And her voice and melody lines over these simple songs sounds very much like her own. Since I don’t know much about Ted Leo, I don’t know exactly what he adds to the songwriting. His voice is good (he can hit some high notes) and his guitar playing is minimal but very effective.
“You Can’t Help Me Now” sounds a lot like an Aimee Mann song, so it’s nice to hear Ted come in on the second verse, to change it up a bit. “Milwaukee” sounds a lot like a Beautiful South song to me–the way the verses are sung and the way the chorus comes in, there’s just something that sounds very much like the way Paul Heaton writes songs (this is a good thing). “No Sir” is a rather different song from the others. It features some great echoey guitars to open and has a loud ringing guitar solo. The verses still sound like Aimee Man (that has to be unavoidable), but the choruses change things up.
“The Gambler” sounds like a jointly written song. It’s a bit more raucous and highlights both of their strengths. Overall, the music isn’t the most exciting but I’m not really sure what else would have come out of this pairing. Obviously, if you like Aimee Mann, you’ll like The Both.
What’s most interesting to me is seeing Aimee Mann play–she is so causal (she barely changes expression and hardly opens her mouth when she sings) and she stands up so straight and calm. Check it out here.
[READ: June 26, 2014] Animal Crackers
I’ve mentioned Gene Luen Yang’s books before–I’m very fond of him. So I was thrilled to see a new book by him. Except that this isn’t new, my library just happened to get it now. This book was published by Slave Labor Graphics in 2010, but these stories are much older than that. In fact, the back of the book has a note from Gene in which he explains that the first chapter of this book was actually the first story he ever created.
And what a story it is.
The book is actually three interlocking stories. Two longer stories: “Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks” and “Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order.” And a brief interlude called “Sammy the Baker and the M.A.C.” You know they are interlocking because Gordon appears in the Loyola story (and because they both stick cable TV cables up their nose at some point), and because Sammy appears in the Gordon story.
In the first story Gordon is a bully. He and his buddy Devon find the King of the Geeks each year in school and “crown” him (with super glue and old underpants). They think this is very funny and plan to do some more devious things to him later that day. Of course, when Miles, King of the Geeks gets home, his mother is very upset (naturally) and plans to call the police. But the only thing that he cares about is his father. Whose only comment is to wonder how he wound up with such a sissy son.
Gordon wakes up in the middle of the night with a pain in his nose. It turns out to be a space alien (the aliens learned that humans use so little of their brains that they can store data in our brains for use later). The only way that Gordon can help with this problem is by sticking the coaxial cable in his nose. Which he does. And the little alien dude explains what he has to do. Which is, of course to go to the King of the Geeks (whose brain they are also using) to find the instructions for how to evict the spaceship. But as they try to exchange the proper information, Gordon gets all of the Geek King’s memories. And suddenly he feels really bad about what happened. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: JOSEPH CALLEJA-Tiny Desk Concert #344 (March 24, 2014).
Joseph Calleja is an opera singer. This puts me at a huge disadvantage in that I have nothing really to say about him. I like some operas and have even been to one, but I have no real experience with the tenor voice. And his is quite amazing.
So I’ll just include what NPR does. Calleja is from Malta (although his English is perfect). He is 36 and is one of opera’s biggest stars. Evidently you can hear that his voice has matured since his early recordings.
The one thing I can include is that he makes a very funny joke in which he says that instead of playing the third song, they are going to do two hours of Dutch and Flemish operas.
What he really sings is : Tchaikovsky: “None But The Lonely Heart” ; Tosti: Ideale ; Puccini: E lucevan le stelle (from Tosca).
[READ: June 25, 2014] Double Happiness
I read this book several hours after reading Fleep and didn’t realize it was the same artist (I hadn’t noticed the name on Fleep).
There are some similarities in style between the two (Fleep looks a little more “professional.”). But Double Happiness had a lot more characters and a much more complicated plot. Nevertheless, the main character bears a passing resemblance to the guy from Fleep (his head is a circle and his hair is much the same).
The main character is Tom, a Chinese American living in Boston. He takes the bus to San Francisco (ugh that sounds awful) where he meets his “cousin” Jackson. Jackson lives in San Francisco (they’re not really sure how they are related) in a rent-free establishment. So Jackson tells Tom to absolutely stay with them while he’s in S.F. (it’s something to do with a business trip, but those details aren’t too important).
When they arrive at he flat, Tom meets Jenny, Jackson’s girlfriend, and her sister Ji Lian. Everyone is super nice to him. But soon they start laughing at his Chinese failings–he can’t use chopsticks very well and he doesn’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin or whatever they are speaking. (It turns out to be Hokkien). Tom has a minor breakdown as he explains that he has never fit in anywhere. In Boston he was the only Chinese person in tiny suburb and now he can’t even fit in in a Chinese community. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE HADEN TRIPLETS-Tiny Desk Concert #345 (March 31, 2014).
The Haden Triplets are the daughters of Charlie Haden. Individually, they are Petra (from That Dog and a cool solo reproduction of The Who Sell Out), Rachel (from The Rentals and other projects) and Tanya Haden (from Let’s Go Sailing).
Here they eschew all of their alt leaning and focus on straightforward old-school country. Their harmonies are gorgeous, and when accompanied by the upright bass and simple drums and Rachel’s (I think) violin, they create an impressively full sound.
I don’t have too much more to say about it. It’s just very solid old school female harmonized country songs. I didn’t know any of the songs, but they do four: “Single Girl, Married Girl,” “Voice From On High,” “Slowly,” and “Tiny Broken Heart.” And they seem genuinely delighted to be playing there. I imagine that Sarah would like this very much.
I only wish they had told us who was who. And that this wasn’t edited so much. I don’t know how long these performances are in total, but sometimes it feels like they edit too much out of these shows (do they have bandwidth problems?).
[READ: June 25, 2014] Fleep
A pile of interesting graphic novels came to my desk this week. And the first one I felt compelled to read was Fleep.
As you can see by the cover, it promised to be a pretty stark book. And indeed it was.
The story opens with a young man entering a phone book. The drawing style very simple–some subtle shadings that belie the simplicity of the over all look (the main guy has a round head and round eyes, but doesn’t look “childish” and almost all of the book takes place in the same location from the same angle).
The next page is all dark but for his eyeballs as the guy (unnamed for much of the story), tries to figure out what happened to him. He soon realizes that he is in the phone booth and the phone booth is surrounded by concrete on all sides. He picks up the phone and there is a dial tone, but he can’t seem to call anyone. The phone book is in gibberish and the phone booth now says FLEEP where it once said PHONE. He rifles through his pockets and finds some strange coins, a Russian phrasebook, a pen and a piece of paper with Russian writing (that he can’t read) on one side and numbers on the other. Continue Reading »
Last year when Orphan Black came out, we taped a bunch of episodes, but it aired at an awkward time in our viewing schedule. We watched the first episode but we picked a bad night (for me) to watch it because I dozed off and didn’t get absorbed in it. Then the Tivo deleted an episode or two and that was the end of that.
As Season 2 was amping up, the press about the show was a little ridiculous, but everything made the show sound so good that we decided to give it a try again. Of course, it started before the Fall season shows ended, but SyFy kindly aired a marathon of Season 1. By the time we had time to watch it, we had 17 episodes in our queue. And that was an awesome way to watch this show–no delays between episodes, just one show a night until we were totally hooked.
Sure, some of the details of the show are confusing and sure there’s some weird sciencey mumbo-jumbo, but when the characters are this intriguing, and the actual story grows more compelling, you can forgive confusion (especially since a surprising number of those questions were answered in the Season 2 finale). The acting is superb and each clone’s storyline is detailed and rich. Even the characters that were despicable have become enjoyable (how many murderers are we going to root for on this show?). Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: HAUSCHKA-“Improvisation,” “Random Gifts” and “Mt. Hood” in the NPR studios (2010).
Hauschka is German composer Volker Bertelmann and he plays the prepared piano. What that means is that he places things on and in the piano to alter the sound of it. (Nothing he does creates any permanent damage).
Mostly he creates percussive sounds with things like bottle caps,Tic Tac boxes and skewers. And while it sounds simple, it is really quite ingenious.
This Vimeo link shows him talking to Guy Raz at NPR about the random materials that Raz has given him and then demonstrating how they change the sound of things. Then he plays the “Random Gifts.”
The Youtube Video below shows another improv piece from the same day using different items.
This Vimeo link to him playing “Mt. Hood” shows off his use of ping pong balls.
All of his songs are fairly simple and fairly slow, primarily because the preparations add resonances and percussion that would overwhelm if he played faster. Thus his pieces are often moody and reflective
Hauschka has a new album out as of this month called Abandoned City. Every track on the new CD is named after a city that has been abandoned, that is vacant. And his spare oftentimes eerie music goes very well with that theme.
There’s lots more videos of him on YouTube which are worth checking out.
[READ: June 23, 2014] Flinch
I was grabbed by the cover of this graphic novel. The book is so short that I was really surprised to see that it was actually a collection of short stories. As you can tell from the subtitle, this work is going to be dark and more than a little creepy. And it is. And while there are some similar visual styles, it’s interesting to see just how different these 13 stories can be. Most of the stories use very few words, relying instead on the power of the visuals. And it works pretty well.
I didn’t think any of them were especially creepy or dark, although the first one is kinda gross. I enjoyed them for what they were, short stories that revel in the darker side of life. I hadn’t heard of most of the artists. The only one I knew was Shaun Tan. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: ASAF AVIDAN-“One Day/Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)” (2012).
Yesterday I talked about Asaf Avidan and his song “Reckoning Song (One Day).” His (live) version has 15 million views on YouTube. But the remix by Wankelmut (which Avidan had asked Wankelmut to take down, but he refused) has almost 150 million hits.
