The First Part opens with a guitar riff, very different from the chugga-chugga songs that they’ve played on the other tracks. In fact, at the end of the verses, the bass backs out entirely leaving an interesting and unexpected sound for the song.
The second song, “Connecticut” is similar in that it also has a guitar riff (and a kind of solo) in the introduction. The surprise comes at about a minute thirty-five when the guitar solo kicks in and the song suddenly shifts into an all out rocker. This change is especially surprising since the song is just over 2 minutes long.
“Foolish” plays with a distortion-fueled repetitive riff that keeps the song moving. It’s really quite infectious and something of a departure for the band. This whole EP shows quite a leap forward in terms of Superchunk singles.
[READ: September 30, 2010] “The Toughest Indian in the World”
Sherman Alexie is the third author in the New Yorker’s 1999 20 Under 40 collection.
I have read a few Sherman Alexie pieces, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read. And yet, for some reason, he’s not one of the authors I keep a look out for.
This story is about a newspaper writer. He is Spokane Indian. We learn a little about his past. And one thing–his father only ever picked up hitchhikers if they were also Native–is a tradition he follows today. Even though his girlfriend doesn’t want him to pick up anyone. We also learn a little about his previous girlfriends (like the white woman who only dated non-white men).
Alexie’s writing style is wonderfully fluid and relaxed during this background information. It’s a very easy read, and quite funny too. But things change when he meets the titular toughest Indian. Continue Reading »
While I was looking around for Jonathan Franzen pieces in the New Yorker, I stumbled upon the first 20 Under 40 collection from 1999. Since I had received so much enjoyment from the 2010 version, I decided to read all of the 1999 stories as well. It was interesting to see how many of the authors I knew (and knew well), how many I had heard of but hadn’t read, and how many were completely off my radar.
I initially thought that they had published all 20 authors in this one issue, but there are five stories (including Franzen’s) that were just excerpted rather than published in full. And I will track down and read those five in their entirety. But otherwise, that’s a lot of fiction in one magazine (a few of the stories were quite short). And it features a cover by Chris Ware!
So here’s the list from 1999.
**George Saunders-“I Can Speak™” **David Foster Wallace-“Asset” *Sherman Alexie-“The Toughest Indian in the World”
*Rick Moody-“Hawaiian Night”
*A.M. Homes-“Raft in Water, Floating”
Allegra Goodman-“The Local Production of Cinderella”
*William T. Vollmann-“The Saviors”
Antonya Nelson-“Party of One”
Chang-rae Lee-“The Volunteers”
*Michael Chabon-“The Hofzinser Club” [excerpt]
Ethan Canin-“Vins Fins” [excerpt]
*Donald Antrim-“An Actor Prepares”
Tony Earley-“The Wide Sea”
*Jeffrey Eugenides-“The Oracular Vulva”
*Junot Diaz-“Otra Vida, Otra Vez”
*Jonathan Franzen-“The Failure” [excerpt]
***Edwidge Danticat-“The Book of the Dead”
*Jhumpa Lahiri-“The Third and Final Continent”
*Nathan Englander-“Peep Show” [excerpt]
Matthew Klam-“Issues I Dealt with in Therapy” [excerpt] Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE DUCKWORTH-LEWIS METHOD-The Duckworth Lewis Method (2009).
This is a CD released by the combined forces of Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh of Pugwash. And if that weren’t enough of a sales pitch, the title of the band is a method of calculating cricket scores! And even more…in concordance with that, this CD is largely about cricket. Huzzah! Buncha sellouts.
I don’t know a thing about cricket, but I know about great orchestral pop, and this disc has it in spades. Some of the more obvious cricket songs are even understandable to non cricketers (the themes of “Jiggery Pokery” are familiar to anyone who has failed in a sport–and musically it sounds like a silent film soundtrack).
“The Age of Revolution” begins with an olde-fashioned soundtrack as well (jazz swing, including tap dancing) but quickly jumps into a dancey discoey verse (the two soundtracks blend surprisingly well in the chorus). And the revolution? Well, it has something to do with cricket. Next, “Gentlemen and Players” is a wonderfully Divine Comedy-esque track complete with harpsichords.
“The Sweet Spot” is another discoey dancey track with some funky bass work (and innuendo whispered vocals). And “Rain Stops Play” is a fun musical interlude.
“Mason on the Boundary” is the first track that seems distinctly Pugwash-y. Hannon and Walsh have similar singing styles, and I find it hard to know who is who sometimes. But this track is clearly Walsh’s and it’s very nice indeed. Similarly, “Flatten the Hay” has that distinct Pugwash XTC/Beach Boys vibe and it’s quite good.
“The Nighwatchman” is also a very DC type song (it even sounds a bit like “The Frog Princess” but pulls away before being a repeat of that great single by introducing some very 70s sounding strings). The rest of the disc follows in this same wonderfully orchestrated pop feel. This a great record that, as far as obscure bands that get no statewide attention go, is top notch.
Oh, an it’s even more fun with headphones!
[READ: October 9, 2010] Skippy Dies
Wow, there’s a lot going on in this book. It’s exhausting just trying to think of all the topics covered: boarding school life, failed romance (two big ones), life as a teacher, the appeal of pop singer Bethani, the Catholic priest sex scandal, drugs of all kinds, sneaking into a girls’ school, World War I, institutional cover ups, M-theory–which is pretty much the entire universe, and donuts.
But let’s start at the beginning. Yes. Skippy dies. In the first couple of pages. And what’s fascinating about this is that we don’t care. I mean, in the scene where he dies, he’s not even the major character. But then Skippy turns out to be more or less the glue of the book once the story proper begins.
Skippy resides at Seabrook school in Dublin (the best, most prestigious Christian academy in the country–sorry Gonzaga). His roommate is Ruprecht (perhaps the strangest major character name I’ve read in a long time). Ruprecht is a large boy who is incredibly smart (he will single-handedly raise the school’s average on the year’s final exams). He is a computer geek who is obsessed with aliens and SETI. And he hopes to be able to communicate with the other world by using techniques suggested in M-Theory. The book does an admirable job explaining M-theory and string theory. I’m not going to take up space here, but there’s a fine description at Wikipedia (or, if you don’t like Wikipedia, here’s an academic explanation that is written for the lay person).
Anyhow, Skippy and Ruprecht are two of a few dozen boys who reside full time at the school. (Most of the other kids are day students). And they have a cadre of half a dozen friends that they hang out with who make jokes at each other’s expense. It’s a very realistically written entourage. Mario is Italian and claims to have had sex with many many women (thanks to his lucky condom which he has had for three years). Dennis is the ballbreaker. He’s the abusive one (but by most standards, he’s not a bad guy). And a few other hangers on.
This story of dorm life is a good one. The boys are funny, their stories believable, even if they are all eccentric in their own way. And then, one day, Skippy sees a girl playing frisbee at the girls’ school across the way (Ruprecht has a telescope which he uses for the stars, while eveyrone else uses it for the girls’ school). And Skippy winds up becoming rather obsessed with the unknown “frisbee girl.”
This girls’ school plays a part in the story in another way too. Carl and Barry are the Seabrook’s thugs. When Barry hits upon the idea of selling ADD meds to the locals (as diet pills), it’s the girls’ school that he mostly preys on. For yes, this story is also about drugs. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: PAVEMENT “Stereo” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2010).
Pavement were making the rounds of lat night TV around the time of t their Central Park reunion concert. They showed up on Jimmy Fallon. I don’t really like his show, but he has consistently great musical guests.
Pavement played “Stereo” which is a song I’ve always liked (the Geddy Lee part makes me smile), even though I never bought the album that it’s on. This is one of their weirder songs (which is saying a lot). The opening is all kinds of crazy noises (feedback and keyboard nonsense). When the verse starts it’s all bass and drums, but when the song kicks in it rocks heavily and crazily.
The live version features a crazy cal and response from the keyboardist (which I enjoyed a lot) and some really great guitar work. The video also has the winner of Fallon’s “Play Guitar with Pavement” contest, although I can’t tell how much he adds/subtracts from the performance.
[READ: September 24 & 25] “FC2” & “Books”
These three pieces were short, so I’ve decided to lump them together.
“FC2” is a Shouts & Murmurs piece. I thought that the Shouts & Murmurs were all comic pieces. This one is funny but it’s not as “ha ha” as many of the other pieces I’ve read. It even seems to be autobiographical.
Franzen says he had just recently written a section of “The Fifth Column” for the Village Voice. And on this particular day he received a very suspicious package whose return address was FC2. He speculates that the content of his section of the story may have triggered a psychopath to come after him. (The Unabomber used to use the letters FC as his code, so perhaps FC2 is his protegé).
Obviously it didn’t blow up or anything, and the revelation is anticlimactic, but it’s still a mildly amusing tale. Continue Reading »
It was a robin’s egg and it was blue. Such is the oft-repeated line in the title track. It’s another great single from Superchunk: poppy and cool and fun to bounce around to.
The second song, “On the Mouth” is a much faster, more punk track, apparently about frustrated love.
The final track is a live version of the song “Fishing.” It’s one of the few live Superchunk tracks that I’ve heard (and it lasts over 5 minutes!). It’s full of feedback squalls and lots of noise. When the drums eventually kick in, it’s a fast-paced thundering experience. The squealing guitar (and feedbacking outro) leads me to suspect that their lives shows were even more energetic than their albums.
[READ: October 4, 2010] “The Warm Fuzzies”
I have The Children’s Hospital from Adrian which I’ve been meaning to read for ages, but so many other things get in the way. I have read a few of his short stories in McSweeney’s and the New Yorker. Adrian’s story was the final one of the 20 Under 40 stories in this year’s New Yorker list.
I felt this story was a little clunky at first. I had a hard time keeping the story straight. And yet, once it settled down I found it really engaging and rather fascinating.
The story is about the Carter Family. Not that Carter family, but another singing Carter Family. One day both mother and father Carter woke up and decided to stop being just the Carters; they decided to devote their life to Jesus in song. And so, as it opens, we see The Carter Family practicing another one of their four chord songs.
In this particular practice, a new kid is playing the tambourine. This new kid is, like all of the other new kids, a foster child and black. This new foster child is named Paul, although he tells them all his name is Peabo.
The confusing thing in the beginning was just getting the hang of who all the family members were. But once they were settled in, it was very easy to keep straight, and more importantly, to get hooked into the story. We get a brief look at the family before music enter their lives, and we see how the children treat each other. Each new foster child brings something new to the sound. And Paul/Peabo brings a bit of unexpected flair to their rather tepid music. But the only one who seems to notice is Molly. And really, this is Molly’s story. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE VIOLET ARCHERS-Victoria, BC, October 2005 (2005).
This live bootleg comes from the Rheostatics Live website. If The Violet Archers were to become a huge internationally famous band (which, let’s face it, they’re not), this would be an awesome bootleg to have. It’s from a show before their first album was released, and, if the stage banter is to be believed, before they’d even thought of a name for the band. (There’s a joke that they wanted to call themselves The Gay Apparel, which is awesome).
Indeed, I assume that this show was recorded in 2004, not 2005 as listed online.
So, this show seems like it’s recorded in front of about 20 people. The recording quality isn’t ideal (the drums sound pretty dreadful) but it conveys the spirit of the show very well.
The first two songs are just Tim and his acoustic guitar (“Simple” sounds great in this context although “All the Good” works better as a band number). Then the band comes on. Ida Nilsen is not with them yet, but the band sounds great together and the songs are fully formed (the album is said to be coming out in the next spring).
It’s a great show and Tim Vesely sounds a lot more like he did with the Rheostatics than he does on the regular album. I guess the live setting brings out the old voice from Tim. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the guitarist with the great name: Yawd Sylvester. Outstanding!
[READ: September 28, 2010] “Imperial Bedroom”
This piece is about privacy. It was written 12 years ago, when the fear of the loss of privacy was in its infancy. And Franzen makes a very convincing case that we were (and I assume still are) overreacting in a big way to fears of privacy loss.
He opens by noting that the panic about privacy is all the rage, excepted that the public doesn’t seem to be genuinely alarmed. He sets his argument on the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewisnky Starr Report. And what he bemoans is that this most private of information is coming out of the most public of offices (and the most imperial of bedrooms). [With the valid corollary–who is ever going to run for office if this kind of shit is going to be made public on such a grand scale?]
He gives us a basic history if the “right to privacy” which he says legally is a tough concept. Because whatever you call the various forms of invasion of privacy, legally they often fall into other areas–trespass, defamation or theft. What’s left is emotional distress, which is always a nebulous concept. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-The Question is How Fast (1992).
With a new CD out, and–even more impressive–an appearance on NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, I thought it would be fun to revisit Superchunk’s output (starting with their EPs).
This is the earliest Superchunk EP that I own. The title track is a bracing four minute blast of speedy alt-rock. It has a poppy structure but the guitar is distorted enough to keep the song interesting over repeated listens. Of course, it’s the catchy chorus that sells the song. And it sets the tone for future Superchunk tracks: high pitched vocals sung loud and with unimpeachable pop sensibility.
The second track is “Forged It” a more punk-sounding track that, when the chord changes come in, makes it sound like it’s moving even faster. A blistering guitar solo muscles its way into the song, too. The final track is “100,000 Fireflies” a cover of The Magnetic Fields song (and one that they play quite often, it seems). It’s given suitable bratty treatment from the band.
[READ: October 2, 2010] “Birdsong”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the second to last 20 Under 40 author from the New Yorker. This story has the delightful exoticism of being set in Lagos.
And yet, the basic premise is quite simple: a wealthy married man falls for a woman and they begin an affair. It’s a fairly typical story of illicit love and jealous. However, some details are rather different: he allows her to move into his “work” house (he bought it to turn it into condos, but he liked it so much he kept it as an office). And she lives with him in this way for around 18 months.
Her office mate, a judgmental woman who she would never be friendly with if they didn’t work together is very disapproving of this affair, and always calls him, “your man” knowing fully well that he is actually someone else’s man.
And that, in addition to the love he clearly shows to his wife eats away at her. So, in many ways, this is a fairly conventional story. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE VIOLET ARCHERS-Sunshine at Night (2008).
This is the second Violet Archers CD. It’s a fantastic collection of mellow songs. “You and I” is a delightful acoustic guitar and vocals song (and Vesely’s voice sounds great: soft and delicate without being whiny). “Insecure” features the vocals of Ida Nilsen (a great voice which works wonderfully with Vesely’s songs). It also has a wonderful trumpet solo (!) (which consists of only a few notes repeated but which is totally great). It sounds a bit too similar to Siberry’s “The Speckless Sky” but it wins out with its own identity by the end.
“Transporter” is an electric track (still mellow though). Vesely’s delivery is great on this, with unexpected delays making it just off the beat. Although “Tired” (we can tell by the titles that Vesely is not a “Party On” kind of guy) rocks much harder than you’d expect for the title, it’s still nothing like a hard rock song. “Sunshine at Night” continues in this louder vein, but again, Vesely’s voice is soft, so even a louder song doesn’t rock hard. This has some great harmony vocals.
“Suffocates” returns to the upbeat acoustic style while “Truth” is its cool minor chord downbeat companion. “Themesong” is a cute, more upbeat track that finally mentions a violet archer. “Don’t Talk” is the only song that builds from a standstill (as opposed to just starting) and the drums and power chords make it feel like it’s a bid for commercial viability. And the disc ends with “Listening,” a quiet lullaby of a song that showcases’s Vesely’s falsetto.
The Violet Archers still tour and there are some downloadable shows available on the Rheostatics live website. And, of course, Tim was super nice, so let’s hope for a left field smash hit on their next disc.
[READ: September 29, 2010] “Anti-Climax”
This piece is from The Critic at Large section of the New Yorker and it seems to be a kind of Books redux section.
I enjoyed this piece more than I had a right to enjoy a thirteen year old article about sex books. Strangely enough it begins with a comment about televisions in airports (which I agree with JF that they are the devil and are unavoidable and make it really hard to read). And I cannot even imagine that 89% of air travelers believe that the TVs make “time spent in an airport more worthwhile” (although you know that is one of the more nebulous survey questions)
But this topic segues into the matter at hand: sex books. He notes how he is also at odds with the norm when Men’s Health says that lingerie is the US male’s favorite erotic aid. And I can’t believe how in tune I am with JF Franzen’s comment:
What I feel when I hear that the mainstream actually buys this stuff is the same garden-variety alienation I feel on learning that Hootie & the Blowfish sold 13 million copies of their first record, or that the American male’s dream date is Cindy Crawford. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: VIOLET ARCHERS-End of Part One (2005).
The Violet Archers are the new(ish) band for Tim Vesely from the Rheostatics. I’ve conveniently waited until The Rheos completely broke up before really really getting into them. And it took me some time before deciding that I needed to get The two Violet Arhcers discs. And then I discovered they were pretty much unavailable.
But the nice folks who used to sell their discs got me in touch with Tim himself, and he very nicely sent me the two CDs (for a most reasonable price).
When a band breaks up it’s always interesting to see what the solo members do…if they try to go very different from the original band or if they stay the same. Well, the Rheos were a pretty unusual band, and if these two discs are any indication, it seems like Tim may have been the pop song writer.
“End of Part One” starts with a guitar and cool organ opening before the song kicks into a mellow rocker. “Coordinates” has more interesting keyboard sounds (these sound strange to me because the The Rheos weren’t very keyboardy). Lyrically, it’s a great collection of rhymed verses that lead to a wonderful na na na chorus.
The middle songs are a nice mixture of slightly fast rockers and almost folky ballads. Vesely has a great knack for sing along choruses, but he’s also been alt-enough to know when to throw in an unexpected twist, or an interesting sound (the guitar sound in “Saved Me” is great) and the simple melody of “Simple” makes for a beautiful campfire song.
“Time to Kill” is a delightful gentle rock song with a great chorus and instrumentation. It sounds like an outtake from a fantastic 1960s compilation. It’s followed by “All that’s Good” which sounds like an awesome long-lost Neil Young song. The guitar is spot on and the vocals work wonderfully.
“Fools Gold Rope” is a nice ballad with vocals by Ida Nilsen. And the last four tracks are all shorter pieces. “Life and Then” features keyboards prominently, while the oddly titled “Track Display” has some nice guitar work.
This is overlooked pop gem. Nothing is overly commercial, and yet it’s all fun and an enjoyable listen. I’m glad Vesely is still writing great tunes.
[READ: September 28, 2010] “Sifting the Ashes”
This Dept. of Disputation piece is about cigarettes. I’ve never smoked and I’ve never been much of a fan of cancer sticks. However, I find myself siding with Franzen on a few points ion this article.
Franzen has evidently quit smoking several times (it’s even unclear from the way this is written if he’s actually smoking now (1996) or not). But he never blames Philip Morris or RJ Reynolds for his addiction. He argues correctly that marketing to kids reserves you a place in hell, but that really, parents and pop culture probably got more kids to smoke than Joe Camel ever did.
He makes some funny observations about smoking (getting freaked out about getting lung cancer? Why not light up to calm down). But mostly he notes how all of the attempts in the past to curb smoking have resulted in more hegemony for the big players: The ban on TV advertising saved the industry millions of dollars and froze out new competitors. Even tax increases on smokes in 1982 were a way for the industry to also raise prices (and make more money) all the while blaming the tax. And what we wind up with is that no plaintiff can realistically claim ignorance of tobacco’s hazards, therefore the companies will never be deemed negligent for selling cigarettes.
I found this CD through a connection to The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon plays on a few of their tracks). Pugwash (what a crazy name–it comes from a series of children’s books (and a TV show) called Captain Pugwash) is an Irish band with four CDs (and this collection). And man, it’s hard to find their stuff over here (although their website has a wonderful collection of videos and such).
Giddy is a collection of songs from all of their albums. Their first album is represented by two songs here “The Finer Things in Life” and “Two Wrongs.” These two songs sound, with no disrespect intended, like great Oasis ballads. Say what you will about Oasis’ originality, they wrote some great songs, and these two sound like the best Oasis songs you’ve never heard.
Their other three albums sound far less like Oasis and far more like XTC. In fact, the XTC comparisons are well-founded as Andy Partridge eventually co-wrote a song with them and eventually signed them to Partridge’s Ape House records (which is how this collection was released in the U.S.).
The XTC comparison is unavoidable on a few tracks. The opening of “Song for You” (the “when we die” part) sounds like an uncanny XTC outtake, but when the chorus kicks in it sounds nothing like them and moves into more of the gorgeous orchestral pop that overflows on this disc. And the Partridge co-written “My Genius” is also a wonderful near-XTC outtake, clever, witty, and perfect.
And the song “It’s Nice to Be Nice” is just a wonderful cheery pop ditty. It sounds retro and charming; if the simple lyrics (and gorgeous harmonies) don’t bring a smile to your face you must be made of stone.
Although the album is primarily orchestral pop, there’s a wonderful array of styles on here. “Anyone Who Asks” has chipper keyboard bits in the verses, but the chorus is a wonderful mix of dark minor chords. And then, the absolutely bizarrely wonderful “Monorail” sounds like a fantastic Beck song (with lyrics that are as decidedly unusual as anything Beck himself might write). It even opens and closes with wonderful circa 1920s banjo.
Despite the obvious nod to XTC, Pugwash does something that XTC doesn’t. XTC is a very mannered band. They always seemed very rigid and formal (and were wonderful because of it). Pugwash uses XTC as a springboard, but Thomas Walsh seems like a guy who likes to let loose with unchecked silliness, so he can move past the strictures of XTC (and sound like Beck!)
And the packaging is just wonderful. The carnivalesque appearance of the cardboard case is enhanced by not just a cardboard sleeve but also by a second cardboard half-sleeve that you slide on top. Depending on which way you slide it on, it creates a different set of pictures. It’s a little thing but it’s a nice nod to the fun of non-digital products.
This is certainly one of my favorite albums this year (even if it came out last year).
[READ: September 21, 2010] One False Note
I enjoyed the first book of the series so much, I couldn’t wait to get to Book Two. In particular, I was interested to see if Gordon Korman’s writing style would differ much from Rick Riordan’s. As I said last time, I hadn’t read Riordan before, (although I have read a few by Korman) and while I wasn’t expecting them to write in the same manner, I wondered if they would try to keep the style the same (or if it would be really obvious that they were different writers).
I have to say that I didn’t notice the difference between the two. Korman’s seems a bit faster paced (but he had no exposition to deal with), and it’s possible that he made things seems a bit more scary/dangerous than Riordan, but not much.
The question I have with the series is three-part: Is the basic plot given to each new writer–like the writer is told what the 39 Clues are–or, possibility two, are they told very specifically, the clue is this and it is here and the writer has to figure out how to get the kids there, or possibility number three, they are free to do whatever they want.
Either way, this is an exciting series, and I’m looking forward to Book Three.
So in Book Two, Amy and Dan continue their adventure. This time, they go to Saltzburg and Venice. The Saltzburg trip leads them to the Mozart house. There’s a wonderful sorta subplot about Mozart’s sister, Nannerl (real name Maria Anna), who was also a great pianist and harpsichordist, oftentimes getting top billing when they played together. I’s never heard of her, and didn’t know of her talent, and that’s the point of the subplot–how Nannerl had to put her musical skills to the side because she was a woman. This works nicely with the pairing of Dan and Amy and how they are both good at different things and are both very useful on the quest. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-The First Part (1993).
The First Part opens with a guitar riff, very different from the chugga-chugga songs that they’ve played on the other tracks. In fact, at the end of the verses, the bass backs out entirely leaving an interesting and unexpected sound for the song.
