June 26, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Closer” (2013).
Tegan and Sara have 
been making interesting folkie pop music for years. While they’ve toiled in indie-land for years, their last album had a couple of songs that fell squarely into the pop world.
Well, “Closer” says, hey pop world, here we are. It’s got everything that Tegan and Sara do well–catchy melodies and great harmonies–and it adds all manner of treacly delights to it. There’s little keyboardy sound effects that sprinkle around the song. There’s a big swirling keyboard chorus, and the song even slows down briefly so that it can build back up.
It’s frankly hard to swallow. Aalthough I can appreciate just how well written it is. And I hope they can make some cash off of it.
[READ: June 17, 2013] “The Crime of Our Life”
Roger Angell’s True Crimes story talks about crime in New York City in the 70s and 80s. I recall growing up and being afraid of the City (and for all that we complain that it has been Disney-fied and cleaned up, it is nice to not be worried about getting mugged on every dark street). And Angell, who lived through it, has some less than cheery anecdotes to relate.But he opens with the good news: burglaries and street robberies are down 80% since 1990! And, as he puts it, “even lifelong Manhattanites like me have almost forgotten the mixture of anxiety and scary anecdote we all shared back in the seventies and eighties.”
He gives some examples: leaving any place at night and immediately walking in the street if you saw someone even remotely suspicious on the sidewalk. The friend of his who heard “Sorry, Mister, you’re going down” just before he did go down. The friend who took karate lessons–and then wound up in the E.R. And the other friend who took to carrying a sword/umbrella and had a chance to use it (with much success it turns out–“Yow–a fuckin’ sword”). Even the Angells were broken into (their door taken off the hinges and leaned against the wall. Continue Reading »
Posted in Memoirs, New Yorker, Roger Angell, Tegan and Sara, Threats, True Crime | Leave a Comment »
June 25, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: BOSNIAN RAINBOWS-“Torn Maps” (2013).
Bosnian Rainbows are the collaboration of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive In, Mars Volta) and Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes). Interestingly, I normally think of Omar as being the dominant force in the music he makes, but for this song, it seems to be all Teri. Teri is a Latina singer who takes no shit. In her Tiny Desk concert, she is fierce and intense, and that comes across here as well.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how synthy this song is. It has a very retro feel–like a lot of 80’s bands (Missing Persons and ’til Tuesday’s darker moments and of course, there’s an element of Siouxsie in her voice as well). But there is something especially intense that Teri brings to this song that takes it out of the realm of safe synth pop (perhaps it the dark bridge). Omar peeks through a bit during the instrumental break which has a pretty wild guitar solo and some intriguing effects that I wish were more prevalent.
I’m fascinated by this song (although I wish I could hear the vocals more).
NPR is streaming this whole album as I write this, although I’m not sure if it will still be available as of this posting.
[READ: June 17, 2013] “The Ripper”
The second in the “True Crimes” series is from David Peace (an interesting name, hmmmm). In this one, the year is 1977 and young David is obsessed with Sherlock Holmes (and I would assume Encyclopedia Brown, but he doesn’t mention the boy detective). Peace was ten years old and set up his own detective agency, intent on solving all local small crimes.
And then he learned of the Yorkshire Ripper. In the piece he says “I was a lonely ten-year-old boy who found the Yorkshire Ripper” which proves to be untrue. That was a real bummer because that would have made a great story. As it turns out, he thinks he has found the Yorkshire Ripper, but he hasn’t.
For those of us not following English serial killers, the Yorkshire Ripper was a man who killed dozens of women from 1977 to 1979. Peace spent his time poring over clues, certain that he could find what the police could not. And then came the breakthrough—a tape sent in to the local police station stating “I’m Jack. I see you are still having no luck catching me.” Peace listened to that tape (which was available at the local police station for the public to see if they could identify the voice) dozens of times. And his prime suspect became his science teacher “Jock” Carter. Continue Reading »
Posted in 'til Tuesday, All Songs Considered, At The Drive-In, David Peace, Death, Le Butcherettes, Memoirs, Missing Persons, Mystery, New Yorker, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Teri Gender Bender, The Mars Volta, Threats, True Crime, Violence | Leave a Comment »
June 24, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF-“Funeral for My Future Child” (2013).
This was selected as one of NPR’s favorite songs of the year (so far).
It’s probably hard to like a song with a title like that, but there’s something strangely compelling about the whole proceeding–the great intricate percussion and drums that start the song, the ponderous pipe organ that lays down the melody, and then Anna’s voice which has a country-ish feel (kind of like Neko Case), but also has a kind of Dead Can Dance vocal style. Or perhaps that’s just because she is Swedish.
By the time the chorus comes around, the ache of the song is apparent. And the end has more of that amazing percussion. I rather like the beginning and the end of the song more than the middle, which I guess doesn’t say a lot for it, but it is intriguing.
Evidently this album is primarily full of pipe organ, an interesting choice for a rock album. I’d be curious to hear more.
[READ: June 17, 2013] “Twisted”
As if anticipating that I would not be able to write posts this week, the New Yorker has supplied me with a series of very short “True Crimes” pieces. In fact, the whole issue is a fiction issue, which means a half a dozen or so stories as well. But it’s these “True Crimes” that will keep me posting this week.
The first is from George Pelecanos, and it’s a story of his own crimes. He explains that when he was younger, he did all manner of illegal things but had never been caught (aside from a few minor infractions). He broke into houses and stole records from someone he didn’t like. He rode in a stolen car, stole wallets from strangers at stores (at this point I really don’t like this guy). But he doesn’t try to make excuses for himself. He was a boy and he was having fun.
But the crimes continues long past adolescence. In 1985 he was 28 and got involved in a high-speed chase. He was drinking and smoking pot at a wedding. He and his fiancée stopped at a convenience store where he backed into someone’s car. A gang of people came out and the threat of violence was imminent. But he hopped in his car, drove on the sidewalk and sped off with the police in pursuit. Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Anna von Hausswolff, Dead Can Dance, George Pelecanos, Memoirs, Neko Case, New Yorker, Shoplifting, Swedish Music, Threats, True Crime, Unlikable main character | Leave a Comment »
June 23, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: PINKISH BLACK-“Razed to the Ground” (2013).
After playing No Age, Lars Gottrich came in to show what real heaviness is with a new song from Pinkish Black. Unlike most of Lars’ songs, this was neither death- nor speed- metal. Rather it has a very 80s goth sound. But it’s more Birthday Party than Sisters of Mercy.
There’s no guitars, just loud drums (with a lot of cymbals), a pulsing bass keyboard riff and some spacey high keyboard notes thrown along the top of the song. There are elements that I liked about the story. However, the synths in the solo give it a very cheesy horror movie feel and I have to admit that although I like a lot of bands from the era, this feels like a pale imitation.
[READ: June 20, 2013] “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Whisperer in Darkness”
Both of these stories appeared in Michel Houellebecq’s H.P. Lovecraft book, but I wanted to treat them separately for ease of searching and discovery.
After my long history with Lovecraft and after reading Houellebecq’s book, I anticipated being blown away by these stories. And so, with my expectations so high, I was naturally disappointed. I was especially disappointed with how normal these stories seemed. Houellebecq made me think the stories were practically non-narrative in form—that they eschewed all manner of conventional storytelling. That his writing was so weird that no one would publish it. But in these two stories everything seems completely normal. Psychologically these stories are different, but aside from content, they are fairly conventional stories.
Maybe they aren’t mind blowing because they were written nearly 100 years ago and the entire world has changed drastically since then. It may also be because I have read all of the derivatives of Lovecraft enough that there’s nothing new in his work. And it may also be that in the past 80 years, we have thought of things that are much scarier than these, in part because of Lovecraft himself. Or maybe I would have been into them a lot more had I read them when I was a teenager.
“The Call of Cthulhu.” Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Dogs, Fantasy, Fears, Futurama, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, McSweeney's, Metallica, Michel Houellebecq, Pinkish Black, Short Story, The Birthday Party, The Sisters of Mercy | Leave a Comment »
June 22, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: NO AGE-“No Ground” (2013).
I’ve been hearing a lot about No Age lately, but I don’t really know much about them. I keep thinking they are a different, older band (although I can’t think of which one for some reason). Anyhow, this new song from their new album is a simple, propulsive rocker. It starts out with some echoing guitar notes until the fast, fast bass comes in.
It’s followed by some quickly strummed guitars and low sung, almost chanted vocals.
The song feels like it builds speed throughout, although I don’t think it actually does. I didn’t realize that there were only two guys in the band—and that explains their limited musical sound. But unlike a number of other two person bands that I’ve really enjoyed as of late, this song feels a little flat. There is some appeal to it, but overall I want a little bit more.
[READ: June 16, 2013] H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
I have been “into” H.P. Lovecraft for about thirty years. Interestingly, I had never read anything by him in that time. I got into him via Dungeons and Dragons which had a whole selection of monsters from the Cthulhu mythos. And then Metallica did a song called “The Call of Cthulhu” and even though I bought several of his paperback collections and proudly displayed them, I never read them. When McSweeney’s imprint Believer Books published this little title by the practically Lovecraftianly named Michel Houellebecq, I was excited to read it, too (because at this time I had assumed that I had actually read some Lovecraft). But like my Lovecraft books, it languished on the shelf.
Until now.
I decided that it was time to finish off some of those McSweeney’s books that have been sitting on my shelf for years. And this was on the top of my list. Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Biography, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Dorna Khazeni, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fears, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Metallica, Michel Houellebecq, Morality, No Age, Oddities, Racism | Leave a Comment »
June 21, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: NEKO CASE-“Man” (2013).
It was Neko Case who got me out of my NPR summer music doldrums. From her new, wonderfully titled album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, comes this fast, rocking track.
It has everything that Neko does great—fast, clever lyrics over a simple but propulsive beat. There’s a cool, unexpected guitar squiggle at the end of each verse that just makes the song seem that much faster. But it is just an uptempo stomper from the great Case.
The song slows down in the middle with just a bass and drums and then as Case starts singing about her manliness, a harpsichord plays over the back giving it a nicely pompous air. Which is quickly deflated by the buzzy guitar solo. The song is clever and pointed and very well done.
The only thing missing is a great Neko Case wail, but the song (and the lyrics) are too fast for her to hold any notes for too long. I’m really excited about this new album from her,.
[READ: June 18, 2013] “Scenes of the Crime”
The New Yorker doesn’t often tell you when something is an excerpt, but this time they tell us right up front. This is an excerpt from an upcoming Ridley Scott film written by McCarthy called The Counselor.
Although I am told that I would love McCarthy, I have never read him with any seriousness. And from what I have heard of his writing I don’t think I would like him. This excerpt is more or less a useless attempt to try and get any sense for McCarthy as a writer.
There is no dialogue. Rather, it is just a series of scenes–shot after shot, establishing the action of the movie.
I have no idea if there is dialogue in the movie or not. I would be really impressed if there was no dialogue during these scenes and this whole sequence took twenty some minutes–with no dialogue at all. That would be pretty cool. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Canadian Music, Cormac McCarthy, Death, Drugs, Excerpt, Greed, Neko Case, New Yorker, Short Story, The Counselor, Threats, Violence, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: GAUNTLET HAIR-“Bad Apples” (2013).
This was the third song that NPR played in their summer preview show and I was a little concerned about the state of summer music because I didn’t love any of the first three songs.
Gauntlet Hair (what a crazy name) plays a kind of early-sounding Depeche Mode music with rather sedate and uninspired vocals. I liked the second half more than the first half, probably because there was more instrumental music.
Indeed, as the song ends and the Depeche Mode-vibe comes to the fore, I rather got into it. Especially the pianos at the end.
Shame about the vocals.
[READ: June 18, 2013] “Happy Trails”
I haven’t read a lot by Sherman Alexie, but I have enjoyed what I’ve read.
This story was quite short and was all about the disappearance and presumed death of his Uncle Hector.
One day Hector said he was going to hitchhike to Spokane. He walked out the door and was never head from again. The narrator says that Hector was his favorite relative (although he later says that he really wasn’t that great of a guy).
As the story picks up, it is four decades later and the narrator has decided to have a funeral for him. His mother says that she doesn’t think he’s actually dead but the narrator says that it has been forty years, he could have come back or written a letter. Or called. Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Death, Depeche Mode, Drinking, Gauntlet Hair, Native Americans, New Yorker, Racism, Sherman Alexie, Short Story | Leave a Comment »
June 19, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: ScHoolboy Q “Collard Greens” (2013).
NPR opened their summer preview show with two rap songs. This was the second. The bass line is very neat—propulsive and continuous and there’s this little keyboard sprinkling across the top. This is West Coast rap style and I like the music quiet a bit.
The rapping is unusual—some amusing voices and nonsense words, but I admit I didn’t really get into it until about half way through when the rapper (ScHoolboy Q or guest Kendrick Lamar I don’t know) comes in with an unusual-sounding voice—sped up and goofy. And he does one of my favorite rap things—singing really fast in a high voice then ending with a low word (Gawd).
The song feels atmospheric, although overall, I’m not a fan. The DJ who introduced the song says that he is part of the “supergroup” Black Hippy, along Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and Kendrick Lamar. She describes ScHoolboy Q as the darkest of the bunch, which makes me think I should check out the rest to see what other kinds of things they do. [I did, and I didn’t like them–lyrically they are remedial at best].
[READ: June 18, 2013] “Rough Deeds”
This story is set in New France, (also known as Canada). Duquet is a timberman, seeking his fortune by amassing the largest area of woods to be exported both to the Americas and back to Europe. He connected with a man named Dred-Peacock (I included him mostly for his name) who set him up with a connection in Scotland.
Duquet wasn’t exactly sure about trading with the enemy, the English, but money is money and they had lots of it and need for lots of wood. And soon a fortune was made.
Then Dred-Peacock encouraged him to head to Maine where thousands of acres were there for the asking. Indeed, Duquet was able to buy twenty thousand acres at 12 cents an acre. But when he and his man Forgerson went to investigate, they found a crew cutting down trees on his property! When he accosted them, they fled. The youngest member of the thieving team had a limp and fell behind–which gave Duquet the opportunity to hurl his tomahawk at him, felling him instantly.
When the boy won’t talk, Duquet cuts off two of his fingers (Duquet does not mess around) and the boy reveals that he works for McBogle. The boy already had an infected leg and Duquet had no intention of healing him, so he allowed the boy to die, ultimately killing him and burning his body in McBogle’s makeshift mill.
While Duquet was doing this, Forgerson was off scouting a new way to get the timber to the mill and finding people to work with them. When he returned, he wondered where the boy had gone, but said nothing.
And there were no consequence for Duquet. Continue Reading »
Posted in All Songs Considered, Annie Proulx, Black Hippy, Canadian Content, Death, Greed, Kendrick Lamar, New Yorker, ScHoolboy Q, Short Story, Threats, Trees, Unlikable main character, Violence, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »
June 18, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: KANYE WEST “Bound 2” (2013).
I dislike Kanye West. He strikes me as a colossal ass. So I was shocked how much I really liked his last album. In addition to great melodies, I liked how audacious it was. And now he has a new album (with no cover apparently) and this new single.
The song samples Brenda Lee (of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” fame) Ponderosa Twins Plus 1 and has no actual beats. And the amazing thing is that Kanye does his own thing—his own particular form of rapping—over the repeated do wop sample “Bound to Fall in Love.” (That’s the Ponderosa Twins). It’s not quite right—his flow doesn’t quite follow the melody that‘s playing. And of course, this old school sweet song has “I wanna fuck you hard in the sink” rapped over it. There are times when it sounds like he is rapping despite the song that is playing along—as if someone was playing it and he had to fight to be heard over it.
I respect how contrary the song is. Especially when a new nicely sung part comes across—it may be a sample (Charlie Wilson), I’m not sure, but it comes out of nowhere and brings in a beautiful melody. And it is interrupted mid flow as well. The whole song feels like pieces thrown on top of each other. And after two or three listens it starts to make sense.
Kanye may be crazy, but he knows music. Ah ha, honey.
[READ: June 18, 2013] “An Inch and a Half of Glory”
When I saw that Hammett was the first author in this Fiction issue of the New Yorker, I automatically assumed that the stories would all be noir (especially since they all have a black and white cover picture). Perhaps that was presumptuous as I have never read Hammett before, (although he is known for his detective stories). But indeed, this story isn’t noir at all. Nor is there any detective work involved. It seems tied to the issue by virtue of his name, not the actual story (which had not been published before).
The story is simple enough, There’s a fire on the second floor of a building,. A crowd has gathered to watch and wait for the firemen. Then someone notices a small child in the third floor window. The child isn’t afraid and there aren’t any flames yet so the people kind of just watch the kid and say that the firemen will be along any second. But when a woman in the crowd chastises the men for not helping the baby, the men as a group (7 or 8 of them) charge into the building.
They hear sirens almost immediately and they all leave. Except for Earl Parish. Parish decides that he is going to do something about this. Even though he knows the other men will be mad at him for continuing on when they all left. Then he changes his mind, but he knows he can’t leave now…now that he has stayed. So he plunges onward, finding the boy and bringing him out to safety.
The next day in an inch and a half column, he is referred to by name as having saved the boy from the fire. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventure, Brenda Lee, Charlie Wilson, Dashiell Hammett, Kanye West, New Yorker, Ponderosa Twins Plus 1, Short Story, Threats | Leave a Comment »
June 17, 2013 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: STONE GOSSARD-“I Need Something Different” (2013).
Stone Gossard is the rhythm guitarist for Pearl jam. He’s also one of their major songwriters. He has one or two songs that he sings with the band. This is a solo effort which indicates that he might be a heavier influence on the band.
Stone Gossard last released a solo album 12 years ago. There’s a new Pearl Jam album in progress and Stone’s other band Brad put out an album not too long ago, so why not release a solo album?
I don’t know how much Gossard does on this song, but I rather imagine he plays everything (the solo is fine but not amazing and the drums are solid but don’t really standout). And while that sounds dismissive, it’s not meant to be. Gossard creates a solid sound of simple rock.
The guitars are loud and bouncy. Stone’s voice is rough and workmanlike—there’s a reason he’s not a lead singer. But his voice works great for this aggressive slice of rock.
The riff is continuous and non stop, while he sings I need something different. And then at the mid way part the keyboards start—perhaps this is the something different. The keys break the propulsion with a poppiness that you wouldn’t expect in the song.
Then the song returns to its original style. It’s not a terribly original song, but it would be a fun bar anthem.
[READ: June 10, 2013] Speak, Commentary
When this book first came out I was pretty delighted. What a funny concept—overblown writers and political pundits do DVD commentary about films they had nothing to do with. It seemed like it would be very funny indeed.
And here’s the thing. It is. For a few pages. But each one of these things feels as long as the actual movie they are commenting on. Alexander and Bissell have done their research—they know what these figures will say. And say. And say.
As I said the premise is awesome, check out these wonderful combinations:
- NOAM CHOMSKY & HOWARD ZINN on The Fellowship of the Ring
ANN COULTER & DINESH D’SOUZA on Aliens
- TERRY DWIBBLE & STEVEN McCRAY on Start Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- JERRY FALWELL & PAT ROBERTSON on Planet of the Apes (1968)
WILLIAM BENNETT & DICK CHENEY on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
[Terry Dwibble & Steven McCray are (presumably) fictional characters—die hard Trekkies who are thrilled to be able to add this commentary and, frankly, this is the best one of these pieces.]
I think part of the problem with the book is the sequencing. The first piece is incredibly dry. I recall reading this when I first got it. I don’t know if I read all the way through Chomsky and Zinn. And I know I didn’t make it through all of the second one (Coulter and D’Souza)—my d0g eared page failure still lingers to this day.
But I finished this time. Continue Reading »
Posted in Aliens, Anachronisms, Brad, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Jeff Alexander, Lord of the Rings, McSweeney's, Pearl Jam, Planet of the Apes, Political Humor, Religion, Short Books, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stone Gossard, Tom Bissell, Violence, War | Leave a Comment »
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SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Closer” (2013).
been making interesting folkie pop music for years. While they’ve toiled in indie-land for years, their last album had a couple of songs that fell squarely into the pop world.
