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Wells Tower–“Own Goal” (Harper’s, June 2010)

July 3, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE WARPED 45’s-“It Takes a Toll” (2010)

The Warped 45’s were being interviewed when I turned on CBC Radio 3.  I couldn’t tell much about them from the interview, so when the DJ played the song, I was somewhat surprised to hear the banjo and alt-country sound.  When coupled with the vocals, they bore an unmistakable resemblance to Cracker.

I’m not a big fan of the alt-country genre.  I like some bands but overall it’s not my preference.  This song was absolutely representative of the genre (as far as I’m concerned).  It did pretty much exactly what I thought it would do.  And for all of  that, it was a good song.  I can’t imagine I’d ever listen to it again, however.

This song comes from the album 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan, which I mention because I like writing Saskatchewan.

[READ: June 22, 2010] “Own Goal”

The fine folks at the David Foster Wallace listserv were chatting about this piece.  I had started to read it (because I like Wells Tower’s fiction) but I gave up after a paragraph or two.  It just didn’t seem that interesting as a nonfiction story.

And yet, after the discussion, I decided to give it a try.  It is a fascinating story about the Homeless World Cup (in soccer).   The strange thing about the story is that all of the players are homeless and, by their own admissions, pretty much desperate characters. In other words there’s not really any likable characters in this piece.

Even the one guy who makes it to the finals in Melbourne Australia (!) is pretty much of a jerk.  (He, who has gotten kicked out of his house, has the temerity to dis Melbourne as “not being Sydney”). Continue Reading »

Posted in CBC Radio 3, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Harper's, Soccer, The Warped 45's, Wells Tower | Leave a Comment »

Fredy Perlman–[Week 4] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

July 2, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: BILLY BRAGG-Talking to the Taxman About Poetry (1986).

I’ve liked Billy for ages now.  I’ve seen him live a few times, and I’ve always loved that his accent is so prominent when he sings.  Over the years he has become somewhat less overtly political, but he is still a man of issues and causes.

This is Billy Bragg’s second full length.  He was still primarily a man with a voice and a guitar at this stage.  His melodies are strong, and since there’s no other instrumentation, all that’s left to talk about is the lyrics.

“Greetings to the New Brunette” is an adorable love song, followed closely by the anti-marriage “The Marriage”: “If I share my bed with you Must I also share my life Love is just a moment of giving And marriage is when we admit our parents were right.” (which doesn’t quite jibe with Sophia, but it’s close.

But really what you come to Billy Bragg for is the politics.  LIke in “Ideology”:  The voices of the people Are falling on deaf ears Our politicians all become careerists They must declare their interests  But not their company cars  Is there more to a seat in parliament  Then sitting on your arse.”

He also covers a public domain song which I wondered how well it would fit here.  “There is Power in a Union” seems like it’s saying the right thing, but some of the characters here would disagree about the end: There is power in a factory, power in the land Power in the hands of a worker But it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand There is power in a Union.”

This album also features the great track, “Help Save the Youth of America.”

Over the years Billy would expand his sound (he even worked with Wilco on two discs), but he always sings for the people.

[READ: Week of July 2, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Fourth Letters]

As I’ve been going along in the story, I began to wonder if the two letter writers were going to be rehashing the same arguments in each letter.  I had confidence in Perlman that the story would be interesting (it sure had been so far), but I couldn’t imagine how he would keep it original, especially since Yarostan was in jail for so long–he has no information except secondhand.

This week’s reading gave two examples of how he’d do it:  Jasna comes to visit Yarostan and she updates everyone about what had happened to all of their fellow workers, and Sophia reveals a horrible situation in which she hits rock bottom–a real physical bottom, not a philosophical one. Continue Reading »

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Billy Bragg, Communists, Culture Shock, Death, Drinking, Fears, Fredy Perlman, Free Speech, Insurgent Summer, Language, Military, Newspapers, Politicians, Unreliable narrator, Wilco, Work | 3 Comments »

[Week 4] Letters of Insurgents Placeholder

July 2, 2010 by Paul Debraski

Hello Insurgents,

I’m on vacation this week and have yet to finalize my post.  But I fully intend to get it here shortly.  Thanks

Posted in Insurgent Summer | Leave a Comment »

Party Down cancelled

July 1, 2010 by Paul Debraski

I have personally caused the demise of many awesome shows.  But never has the turnover been so immediate.  I learned about and watched on TiVo the first two seasons of Party Down approximately 17 days ago.  And today I learned that the show’s third season (which just finished and which I have not yet seen) is to be its last. My powers have increased manifold!

Here’s the (more or less) official link. Continue Reading »

Posted in Party Down | Leave a Comment »

Miguel Syjuco–”Stet” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 30, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: ROB SZABO-“If I Could Do It All Again” (2003).

Rob Szabo is a singer-songwriter.  And this song is a pretty traditional singer-songwriter song.  It’s got some humor, it’s got some cliches.  In some ways he reminds me of Jill Sobule (lyrically, not vocally, obviously) or maybe Loudon Wainwright III.

Szabo has a number of albums out already.  I listened to a few others songs on his radio station and I enjoyed them.  He strikes me as the kind of musician that the more you listen, and the more carefully you listen, the more rewarding his music is.

I wasn’t all that impressed by “If I Could Do It All Again,” but the other tracks were certainly good.  And I could easily enjoy listening to his stuff when the mood was right.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Stet”

This was probably my favorite story of the bunch.  It’s funny, it’s dark and its very Canadian.  I suppose that if you want to write a “Canadian story” it’s easy to set it where he does (so you can mention a LOT of Canadiana) but this story works beyond the surface.

And the surface is that this story is set in a Canadian newspaper.  Mansour, Fabien and Matt are trying to meet a deadline.  They bemoan their late hours, their hard work, their horrible bosses and the inevitable decline of newspapers. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Funny (ha ha), Jill Sobule, Loudon Wainwright III, Miguel Syjuco, Newspapers, Rob Szabo, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Madeleine Thien–”Su Na, Bird” (The Walrus, July/Aug 2010)

June 29, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: HURON-“Corktown” (2010).

Huron‘s “Corktown” opens with a guitar riff that sounds like classic 70s rock (hello Thin Lizzy!).  But when the song kicks in for good, the verses are a light, jangly pop.  It makes for a really interesting mix of styles and it works really well.

Some of the other tracks include the screaming rock of “Big Dig” (which has chord progressions of Neil Young but sounds nothing like Neil Young).  It also features some wonderfully stupid fat bass sounds as the song nears its conclusion.  “Bloodfire” has another great guitar solo.  And the vocalist sounds an awful lot like one of the guys from Sloan (who knew Sloan could be so influential?)

Thanks CBC Radio 3 for introducing me to this great band.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Sun Na, Bird”

This final piece is at the same time the bleakest and yet most hopeful story of the group.

It is the near future and in this suburban Canadian town, all the humans have fled, with no intention of returning (the TV is still on in the house where the story takes place). Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, End of the World, Huron, Madeleine Thien, Nature, Neil Young, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus, Thin Lizzy | Leave a Comment »

Herman Melville–Moby-Dick [Week 6 (End)] (1851)

June 28, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: MASTODON-Leviathan (2004).

This is the CD that started it all.  Well, for me and Moby Dick- related music, anyhow. My friend Andrew asked if I would be reviewing it along with Moby Dick.  And, yes I am.

Leviathan is sort of a concept album about Moby Dick. I say sort of because it’s not entirely about Moby Dick.  The opener, “Blood and Thunder” features the chorus: “White Whale.  Holy Grail.  And it also features lyrics that seem to come straight from the book: “break your backs and crack your oars, men.”  There’s also the tracks “I am Ahab” and “Seabeast,” the latter features the lyrics: “Dear Mr Queequeg you have been informed your life’s been saved”

And yet, not everything is about Melville’s saga: “Island” bears no resemblance that I can see and the final track, a slow instrumental is called Joseph Merrick (who was the elephant man).

Musically the disc runs from bludgeoning metal (“Island”) to complex and intricate bludgeoning metal (“Iron Tusk,” which features a stereophonic drum solo opening).  “Blood and Thunder” has some great catchy riffs with some vocals that demand a lyric sheet for clarity.  “I am Ahab” features some extended vocal notes!  But there’s more to it than that.  “Seabeast” has a great slow intro guitar solo and features a two different vocalists to very good effect.

And the whole disc is chock full of time changes, crazy drum fills (how can he play so many different drums so quickly?).  “Megalodon” has a great odd guitar riff in the middle break section (and has nothing to do with Moby Dick at all).

As you near the middle of the album you get a couple of amazingly complex tracks.  “Naked Burn” features a great melodic middle section (coupled with really catchy vocals, too).  And the highlight is the thirteen plus minute “Hearts Alive.”  It begins as a very pretty acoustic guitar piece.  After about two minutes the heavy guitars kick in and there’s several different middle sections with varying degrees of melody.  By the midway point we’ve heard a few more very beautiful picked guitar sections, until it ends with some strong heavy guitar chords that slowly fade away.

So it’s a super heavy progressive rock/speed metal concept album for people who don’t like real concept albums (but who like their metal literate).  Who would have guessed it would have made so many best of the year lists?

[READ: Week of June 28, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 111-End]

The end is here and BOY did I not see that coming.  I honestly had no idea how the book ended (how is it I knew the basics of the story but didn’t know the ending?  Talk about everyone agreeing to the spoiler alert!).  The other thing that surprised me was how damned exciting those last 70 pages were.  Now it could be a simple build up from the slowly paced early chapters–we were all lulled by the waves and the diversions–but man, when Melville wanted to, he produced the goods.  If you want young people to read this book, just assign them the last 70 pages.  I realize that all the art and such will be lost, but if they read just the end parts, they’ll come away with a much better perception of the book, and maybe they’ll want to read the rest later.  [I’m not a fan of abridged things of course, so I’d want them to read the original full text, just the end of it].

And I absolutely cannot believe [spoiler alert–okay the whole post is a spoiler, even if I didn’t know, the book is over 150 years old, so chances are you may have heard…] Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Big Books, Concept Albums, Death, Herman Melville, Infinite Zombies, Mastodon, Supernatural, Whales, Wikipedia, Word usage | 2 Comments »

Michael Winter–”Billy Bennett” (The Walrus, July /August 2010)

June 27, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: SAID THE WHALE-“Gentleman” (2009).

This song starts out simply enough, a folky bouncey song.  It’s an almost harmless song, almost easily forgotten.  And yet there’s something about it that raises it above songs that typically sound like this.  Enough, that is to make me want to listen to it again.

When I investigated the Said the Whale page on CBC Radio 3, I learned that they’re from Vancouver.  But more importantly I learned that they have a number of songs with great titles.

Delightfully, “Wanting like Varuna” lives up to its title.  It’s evidently on their 2009 Christmas EP.  It’s a wild rollicking song with an awesomely catchy chorus, “everybody wants: they want, they want, they want, they waaant.”  And about half way through, the song switches directions completely: a new time signature, from a slow pop song to a wild syncopated jazzy motif.

That song appears to be an anomaly as the third song I chose was their most popular on the station: “This City’s a Mess.”  It starts again as a slow folky number.  But it gradually gets louder and more chaotic.  It’s very catchy, and also more interesting than “Gentleman.”

I’m not sure I’d set out to listen to them, but I enjoyed hearing the songs.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Billy Bennett”

These stories continue to get darker and darker.  What does this say about Canadian writers, or people’s opinions of their homeland?

Billy Bennett is a ne’er do well.  He has a criminal record, several smashed cars in his recent past and a drinking problem. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Demons, Drinking, Drugs, Michael Winter, Said the Whale, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Geek Monthly Magazine has folded

June 26, 2010 by Paul Debraski

This magazine will self destruct

I recently realized that I had not received an issue of Geek Monthly for a while.  I assumed my subscription had lapsed (it does that).  But when I went to their web site,well, let’s just say don’t bother.

The folding has been confirmed by Blog Magazine.  And I’m embarrassed to see that they folded in January.  Really?  It took me 6 months to notice?  Well, even though I adored the magazine, I always took it to be more sporadic than its monthly title suggested. Continue Reading »

Posted in Geek Monthly, Kick-Ass, The Big Bang Theory | 4 Comments »

Fredy Perlman–[Week 3] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

June 25, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: CHUMBAWAMBA-Anarchy (1994).

Long before Chumbawamba were Tubthumping up the charts, they were a bunch of squatting anarchists.  In fact their history as a collective is fascinating  in and of itself (they had even started a record label called Agit-Prop).

This album was their sixth, and the cover was not the only controversial thing about it.  It opens with the supremely catchy “Give the Anarchist a Cigarette” which features the delightfully sing a long: “Nothing ever burns down by itself/ Ever fire needs a little bit of help.”

From this disc on (their previous albums were a mish mash of samples and dance beats) they set about writing catchy electronic rock songs.  Simple beats that you could dance to, but with subversive lyrics up the wazoo.  They tackled Homophobia: “homophobia the worst disease you can’t love who you want to love in times like these.”  It’s an a capella track with an arr. trad. melody and (like “Tubthumping”) it was also set in a pub:  “In the pubs and clubs and burger bars, breeding pens for pigs Alcohol, testosterone, and ignorance and fists.”

I’ve enjoyed this disc for as long as I’ve had it.  It’s a catchy mix of different styles with a surprisingly strong sounding multi-voiced chorus.  (For all of Chumbawamba’s ups and downs, their harmonies have always been spot on).

The disc also features a number of 30 second snippets of TV (one is called “D’oh”) and commercials.  Songs also reference The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, as well as local politics and general awareness: “open your eyes, time to wake up, enough is enough is enough is enough” (from the song “Enough is Enough,” which is decidedly not a cover of the disco hit).

Because I have the sense of humor of a five-year old, I have always loved the lyrics of the wholly danceable “Mouthful of Shit” “Can’t hear you ’cause your mouth’s full of shit, do something about it. ” Also like “Tubthumping,” it features a solo female vocal coming out of the din, delicately singing, “You think you’re Gods gift, you’re a liar.  I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.”  It’s fun to sing along to, just be mindful of where you are when yo do it!

[READ: Week of June 25, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Third Letters]

The hardest thing about writing up posts about this book is trying to limit my quotes!  There are so many good ones, and ones that so encapsulate what I want to say that it just seems easier to use his words.  So, Insurgent Summer readers, I apologize for all of the blocks.  Fredy writes too well not  to share it.

And so begins the third letters: Continue Reading »

Posted in Fredy Perlman, Insurgent Summer, Politicians, Record Labels | 2 Comments »

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