SOUNDTRACK: SURFER BLOOD-“Demon Dance” (Live at SXSW, March 27, 2013).
I’ve liked Surfer Blood since I first heard them. They write catchy, mostly short, poppy songs. And usually after a few listens, the hooks really grab you. The strange thing about the band is that the hooks aren’t always readily apparent, which makes their songs sound kind of samey sometimes.
Of course, samey isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. Surfer Blood is quite distinctive and I tend to enjoy everything they do. This new song sounds like their other stuff, which is fine. But the most distinctive thing about the band of probably their singer who sounds like a less-affected Morrissey.
Having also listened to the song from the album I can say that the singer is far harder to understand live, so maybe live is not the best way to hear a new song from them, but for an old favorite, Surfer Blood has a great energy live.
Watch the show here and hear the studio version here.
[READ: March 27, 2013] The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Melville House has published a number of these “Last Interview” books, and as a completist I feel compelled to read them. I have read criticisms of the series primarily because what the books are are collections of interviews including the last interview that the writer gave. They don’t have anything new or proprietary. The last interview just happens to be the last one he gave. So it seems a little disingenuous, but is not technically wrong.
There’s so far five books in the series, and I figured I’d read at least three (Vonnegut, David Foster Wallace and Roberto Bolaño–the other two turned out to be Jorge Luis Borges–who I would be interested in reading about and Jacques Derrida (!) who I have always loved–I guess this series was tailor made for me).
At any rate, these interviews are from various times and locations in Vonnegut’s career. There are six in total. I don’t know if the titles they give here were the titles in the original publications but here’s what’s inside:
“Kurt Vonnegut: The Art of Fiction” from The Paris Review, Spring 1977 (by David Hayman, David Michaelis, George Plimpton, Richard Rhodes)
“There Must be More to Love Than Death” from The Nation, August 1980 (by Robert K. Musil)
“The Joe & Kurt Show” from Playboy, May 1982 (by Joseph Heller and Carole Mallory)
“The Melancholia of Everything Completed” from Stop Smiling, August 2006 (by J.C. Gabel)
“God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut” from U.S. Airways Magazine (!!!), June 2007 (by J. Rentilly)
“The Last Interview” from In These Times May 9, 2007 (by Heather Augustyn) Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: METZ-“Wet Blanket” (Live at SXSW, March 20, 2013).
It’s amazing how much different two bands can sound (comparing Haim from yesterday to Metz from today). Obviously, they play very different styles of music, but Metz is just three guys and they are loud and bass heavy and raucous. Whereas Haim, with their four members, have practically no low end at all. It’s an amazing look at how different bands can be while playing basically the same instruments.
Anyhow, Metz are a noise rock trio from Canada. I’d never heard of them before this song. There’s a lot of noise as the song opens, but once the groove starts, it’s fast and heavy with pounding drums and a persistent, fast bass. The band, who are dressed nicely (the singer guitarist has a button down shirt open over his T-shirt), are really abrasive and punky. And the singer/screamer is a wild man–climbing on the bass drum to wail his solo, feedbacking the guitar from the amps and not even playing the guitar as he screams into the microphone (but there is noise, so I wonder if he has an echo effect on). At one point someone in the audience even holds the microphone closer to him while he screams as he seems to be having trouble with it.
It’s an intense set and I’d like to hear more from them. Their debut came out last year (on Sub Pop).
Another story from Doyle, this one is a dark story about being an old and near-retirement teacher (Doyle was himself a teacher).
The story opens with a girl saying that he, the teacher, knew her mother. This has been happening more and more now that the students he taught when he was young have had children who are now as old as they were. The girl says her mom fancied him and he makes a poor joke wondering if the girl can believe it, but he’s just made uncomfortable by the exchange.
In fact, he mostly just seems to want to try to get through the day. It’s only September and he has a whole school year ahead of him. He never drinks at school, that is a rule he will always abide by, but that doesn’t mean he won’t drink after school. Which he does. Although to describe him as an alcoholic (which I guess he is) kind of takes something away from the thrust of the story. The alcohol is a part of who he is but it doesn’t impact the story, exactly. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: HAIM-“Falling” (Live at SXSW, March 17, 2013).
Haim are three sisters and a drummer. The sisters play guitar and sing, play bass and percussion and play keyboards. And yes, they look a lot alike (an a lot like Alanis Morrissette). But they sound very classic rock–kind of like Heart, with a more modern, noisy twist.
I didn’t really care much for the sound of this song–it seems kind of anemic to me. The sisters are all quite talented and when the lead singer/guitarist started wailing they were really good. But the overall feel of the song seemed more high school than rock show–like they couldn’t get the mix right, like the keyboards (which were little bopping notes, rather than waves of music) were the main force behind the song–which I don’t think is true.
Maybe they’d sound better on record, or if they had a better mix on stage.
[READ: March 26, 2013] Like Shaking Hands with God
I had been reading a lot of Vonnegut, but I got a little burnt out by him. However, when I was checking his bibliography all those months ago, I found that Princeton University had a book that I couldn’t find anywhere else. Well, given my new employment situation, it was time to take advantage of that connection. So I went to the Firestone library and grabbed this book (and a few others that I didn’t see elsewhere).
It’s a lot of fuss over an 80 page book, but I’m glad I read it and it did get me back in the mood to read more Vonnegut (I have five books of his left to read, although I believe more posthumous stuff seems to come out all the time).
This book is essentially a transcription of two conversations that Vonnegut had (one public and one private) with the author Lee Stringer and the moderator Ross Klavan. The first conversation occurred on October 1, 1998 at a bookstore in Manhattan. The second was a private affair in January 1999 (which was of course, recorded), in which they followed up on some of the same ideas.
Stringer had written one book (Grand Central Winter) when the first conversation took place (he has written two more since). Stringer says he always admired Vonnegut and Vonnegut talks about how much he liked Grand Central Winter (which Vonnegut wrote a forward to). GCW is nothing like Vonnegut’s books, it is a serious book about being homeless (Stringer himself was homeless for a long time) and it is real and gritty. It sounds good, although maybe a little too gritty and real for me. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: GASHCAT-“Morning Sun” (live at SXSW, March 28 2013).
When I first heard that the Grateful Dead had two drummers, I thought, “Wow these guys must rock hard.” Which is not true at all. Gashcat have two drummers and while the band is not heavy, they rock hard. “Morning Sun” is a non-stop frenetic blast of bouncy folk pop.
They lead singer/screamer uses an acoustic guitar, and there are two old- school keyboards (for both backing music and spacey effects). They main drummer drums and the secondary percussionist pounds along with him, using a big drum and an occasional tambourine.
This is the first I’ve heard of them and while the song doesn’t make me want to run out and buy more, they’d be a great opening act to see live. They remind me of the Waterboys on speed.
When I started reading Roddy Doyle books again recently, I decided to see what else he had written. And Wikipedia listed several “uncollected” stories (several of which have by now been collected). The final story on the list was this one, “Brilliant” which was written for St. Patrick’s Festival Parade 2011 & Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. I don’t know exactly what that means although I understand that the Cities of Literature “promote the social, economic and cultural development of cities in both the developed and the developing world.” So clearly Doyle was writing on behalf of a cause.
It starts out very oddly:
Poor oul’ Dublin.
Dublin was a city on the west coast of – East.
Dublin was a city on the east coast of Ireland.
That interrupting East is never explained, although it does go on through the story, correcting the narrator who can’t tell east from west. The story proves to be more in the vein of Doyle’s children’s stories. There’s no poo but there is a flying dog. In this case the dog is “The Black Dog of Depression,” an expression of Winston Churchill’s that I was unfamiliar with, although I also just read it again in an issue of The Walrus (weird serendipity, that). Continue Reading »
Pronounced “shlahnsk” according the announcer, Śląsk is the national Polish folk song and dance troupe. They are named after the Silesia (“Śląsk”) region. Śląsk originally focused on the folk traditions of Upper Silesia and has since expanded to include all Polish regions.
When I saw the listing at McCarter I was really curious. I had literally no idea what to expect from the show. In theory I was celebrating my heritage, but it was completely alien to me and could have easily just been a bunch of guys on stage with accordions. Thankfully that proved to not be the case.
The ensemble consists of 80 members, including a choir and dancers dressed in stunning and intricately decorated traditional costumes. And boy, were the costumes spectacular. Pictures could never do justice to the beauty of these clothes. I can honestly say I have never seen blues as rich as these or violets as powerful as these. And the intricacy of the design work (all hand-made) was stunning. Most of the dancing consisted of the women spinning (a lot). And their dresses were designed in such a way that the final six inches or so would face down while the rest billowed out. Even Sarah, no slouch in the seamstress department, couldn’t understand how it worked.
We had cheap seats (really cheap–$20–and these two were the only $20 seats to be had I don’t quite understand why). We were on the left side of the stage, practically below the stage and right in front of the minimal orchestra (about six people on stage, although I couldn’t see them all). The crazy thing is that people just one row ahead or even two seats over paid a much higher price, so I guess our seats couldn’t have been that bad. The major downside to sitting where we did is that you couldn’t see the overall patterns of ten or twelve women spinning around as well as you could from the balcony. Indeed, center balcony seats would be amazing. The advantage to our seats was that we were very close to the stage (six rows away) and could see the clothes very closely, and I believe the colors may have even been more vibrant. Continue Reading »
As part of our theater-going experience, I bought Sarah and I tickets to C!rca’s Wonderkammer show. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect (but we’ve has such good luck with shows that we didn’t know anything about that I wasn’t worried). The blurb about C!rca reads:
In this exquisite cabaret of the senses, a diva melts into a rope, balloons and bubble wrap discover their artistic souls while bodies twist and fly. Seven performers of unbelievable ability bend the very fabric of reality. Sexy, funny and explosive, Circa presents a breathless cocktail of new circus, cabaret and vaudeville. Control and abandon, skill and humour, lyricism and anarchy all meld into a sinuous fugue of profound beauty.
So, you sort of think you know what you’re going to get, but in many ways that descriptions is kind of meaningless. It may help to say that C!rca are from Australia (meaning it’s unconventional). But really nothing prepared me for what we saw. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: DUCKTAILS-“Letter of Intent” (SXSW, March 22, 2013).
Ducktails is a side project from the guy from the band Real Estate. I liked some Real Estate songs, but this is the first I’ve heard of Ducktails. The write up on NPR talks about them being an experimental live band, so I was anticipating something wild.
But this proves to be a very sedate, kind of dull synth heavy track–the guitars are kind of tossed on there in a very 80s new wave fashion, and there’s very little beyond the washes of synths. There’s really nothing here I’d want to hear again.
I’m always mixed about Lydia Davis’ stuff. She writes very very short pieces and most of them seem to be not so much stories as observations, ideas or even things that just seem to pass through her mind. Some of them are amazing–insightful or funny–which convey a lot in a concise piece of writing. And others seem just kind of flat. This is one that I am utterly ambivalent about (which is maybe the point?).
It’s not often that you read something that starts, “I’m simply not interested in reading this book.” Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE AFGHAN WHIGS-“I’m Her Slave” (Live at the Bowery Ballroom 2012).
I really liked some of The Afghan Whigs’s songs back in the 90s. There was other stuff I didn’t love by them–when they were on, they were amazing. Of course, I feel like the Whigs were pretty much all the work of Greg Dulli–charismatic frontman with the intriguing voice.
When they disbanded or broke up or whatever, I didn’t mind so much. But they have reunited recently and my friend Joe posted this video from last year’s tour. I don’t really know this song that well (although I do have the Congregation album i was more of a Gentlemen fan), but it sounds great. And apparently this is one of the songs they were trotting out (they played it on Fallon, but the video has been taken down).
Dulli’s voice still has that wonderful quality and the band sounds tight and loud here. Seems like a good reunion.
[READ: March 19, 2013] “Limhansfältet”
This excerpt comes from Knausgaard’s (also spelled Knausgård’s) second volume of his six-volume autobiographical novel (wow!). I have no idea who the guy is or why we’d want to read it. Evidently Knausgård is quite famous in his native Norway. Don Bartlett translated this from the Norwegian.
So this excerpt shows a very short time in the writer’s life (knowing it’ autobiographical makes it different somehow). The writer is married, a father of four three (although evidently now, he is divorced and his first wife is mad to her portrayal in the books). The first few paragraphs just kind of talk about what’s going on around him (but it is more compelling than that sounds somehow). I liked the scene where he is sitting so still in the garden that a hedgehog crept past him (but then I like hedgehogs). But the crux of the action occurs at Limhansfältet, a grassy area outside of town where men gather every Sunday to play football. They have gathered since the 60s and the men range from 18 to 80.
On this one occasion his family came with him. They watched for a bit but then wandered off. And they missed him get injured. Injured so badly that he had to go to the hospital. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: SINKANE-“Jeeper Creeper” (SXSW, March 21, 2013).
I’ve never heard of Sinkane either (was there anyone at this SXSW that I knew?). NPR is streaming on song from this band. It’s about 7 minutes of low-key funk with reggae-like guitars, some great bass jams and simple lyrics. I really like the vibe that the song gives off. They would be a great band to see live.
Sinkane later played with Usher and The Afghan Whigs, which shows a very cool range. And evidently Sinkane leader Ahmed Gallab has collaborated with the likes of Yeasayer and Of Montreal.
I had just finished John LeCarré’s excerpt in Harper’s when I read this short story (or possibly excerpt—it ended rather oddly). So here was another spying operation, although this one was American and military-based. I know very little about military operations, so this was all new to me. And there were some things I liked about this story quite a bit. The story is set in Afghanistan where the army has just brought in a new howitzer-liaison (good job title, that) named Levi. Levi is Dutch and yet somehow still in the US Army–and he is a good soldier. His wife lives in Texas and is about to have a baby.
Levi gets Dutch care packages a lot. In addition to stroopawaffles (yum!) are Kattekoppen which are cat-shaped licorice-like objects. Levi loved them as a kid bit now he puts them on the shelf of things that people don’t want (until they desperately want them). Eventually the narrator tries one and immediately spits it out because it tastes like ammonia. He’s not even able to get the taste out with snow… or dirt. It’s that bad. I found this part of the story quite interesting.
The rest of the story was more specific to military operations. He talks about how Levi targeted the howitzer and how he made target rings which offered an area of projection for where the shell would strike. And that he was very good at it. The minor problem was that Levi wanted to be home for his son’s birth. Not a big problem except that thy Generals wouldn’t give them a new howitzer liaison in the meantime. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: CHVRCHES-“The Mother We Share” (SXSW, March 23, 2013).
This year NPR doesn’t seem to be offering many full shows from SXSW for download. But they do have a number of streaming songs. And since I have recently reduced the amount of time I can dedicate to posts, I’m going to talk about a few songs rather than albums for a bit.
I’ve never heard of Chvrches although NPR leads me to believe they have a buzz around them. They’re from Glasgow (I like the Glasgow scene), but this song is really way too poppy for me. At least in this live incarnation, it’s so spare and keyboardy. The lead singer has a great voice but it is firmly placed in the pop realm (especially with the Oh Oh Ohs).
The band is good though, and I enjoyed the synth guy making most of the sounds of the song. I’d be curious to hear more (especially t hat cover of “Purple Rain.” Watch it here.
[READ: March 18, 2013] “A Delicate Truth”
I have never read John Le Carré before. Indeed, I don’t typically read any kind of spy/thriller type books. I realized recently that I like mysteries but I don’t have a lot of time for hard spy novels (if I may use the language of sci-fi to describe a spy novel–perhaps spy-fi?).
We recently watched some of Skyfall (the Redbox had to go back so we didn’t finish it–I think I’m not down with the Redbox, it’s just as inconvenient as a video store), so this British spy-fi story seemed nicely timed.
This was an excerpt from Le Carré’s forthcoming book. And regardless of the story itself, I’m delighted that it was a self-contained excerpt. It is a mission and the mission ends by the end of the chapter Obviously there is a lot more to the book, but I was pleased that the excerpt didn’t having any kind of cliffhanger. And now I don’t feel like I have to read anymore of the story.
So this is the story of Paul Anderson or, “Paul Anderson,” a “middle-ranking British civil servant hauled from his desk in one of the more prosaic departments of Her Majesty’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office to be dispatched on a top-secret mission of acute sensitivity.” That pretty much sums up the story and you can tell from that sentence whether or not you’ll like the book. I have no idea if this sort of thing happens in real life at all. And maybe that’s not the point. In the Afterword, Le Carré talks about The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, his first novel, which everyone assumed was all true (he says you know it’s not true because they printed it). And he;s always been annoyed that people think of his as a spy who started writing rather than an author who did some spy work.
SOUNDTRACK: SURFER BLOOD-“Demon Dance” (Live at SXSW, March 27, 2013).
