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Stephen Marche–”A Few Acres of Snow” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 24, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: GALAXIE 500-“Big Bang” (2006).

When I saw this band come up on CBC Radio 3, I thought, I didn’t know that Galaxie 500 were Canadian.  Well, they’re not.  At least the early 90’s band Galaxie 500 aren’t.  But THIS Galaxie 500 are from Montreal.

Now, I understand that there are a lot of bands with the same name.  It’s prettyinevitable as there’s only so many permutations of common words.  But “Galaxie 500?”  How could they not know there was another band with that name, especially as seminal an act as Galaxie 500 was?  So, what is their name?  A tribute?  I just don’t get it.

And so I was prepared to hate this band on principle. But then I heard the song.  It’s noisy, crazy, brash and ballsy.  It’s not exactly punk, it’s sort of a garage band with sound effects (in many places it sounds like the more raucous Sloan songs).

They also sing in French (which means they have more right to the spelling of Galaxie than the previous incarnation of the band).  Even though “Big Bang” comes from the top album Le Temps au Point Mort, I really enjoy this lower album cover more (and the songs from it (which you can hear on the band’s website) are also great.  As is the video (available there, too).

[READ: June 15, 2010] “A Few Acres of Snow”

This story starts out in reality and slowly shifts into a  more fanciful realm.  As it opens, a man arrives at a cabin. His intention is to write a book called One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Paintings To See Before You Die (I love the conceit of this, a sort of lazy man’s guide to touring the world).

He is isolated (which is what he wants), with no phone or contact with the outside word (or his family).  And then it starts snowing.  It snows harder and harder and plies up to his windows.  And then it goes higher still. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Galaxie 500 (Canadian band), Short Story, Sloan, Stephen Marche, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Heather O Neill–“Riff-Raff” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 23, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE SLEW “100%” (2009).

The Slew is the latest band created by DJ Kid Koala. Koala is a fantastic turntablist, and this group uses his scratching and sampling to excellent effect.  The lineup includes drums, bass, keyboards and six turntables!

It’s an insane hodge-podge of music.  And it’s very fun.  I’ve no idea how many samples are in here (James Brown seems to be all over the song) or even if any of the “riffs” in the song are original or from other records, but I enjoyed this very much.

I’ve enjoyed just about everything Kid Koala has done, and this is no exception.  I’m glad to see he’s still being so creative.

There are three five tracks available on CBC Radio 3.  And they’re all fun.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Riff-Raff”

The protagonist of this story is a nineteen year old girl from Montreal.  She is in a horrible relationship with a boy named Leroy.  But near the end of her first year at McGill, she meets an American boy.  They hang out pretty steadily for a few weeks and, when school ends, he invites her to visit him in New Mexico.

There’s so many places this story could have gone.  I guessed a number of them, but I never would have guessed the direction it went. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Heather O'Neill, James Brown, Kid Koala, The Slew, The Walrus, Travel, Violence | Leave a Comment »

Zsuzsi Gartner–”Say the Names (after Al Purdy)” (The Walrus July/August 2010)

June 22, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: YOUNG RIVAL-“Got What You Need” (2009).

I was only able to hear this song once.  It’s surprisingly on available on the Young Rival playlist on CBC Radio 3).  Young Rival play a kind of fast, noisy punk and yet the melodies underneath the noise are very poppy.

I also played the track “Authentic” which is similar in style.  I found both songs very catchy, but have to admit that even a few minutes later I couldn’t recall them at all.  I’d say it’s perfect  for radio airplay.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Say the Names”

This, indeed, is the quintessential Canadian story.  Every line in the piece is taken from a Canadian song, book or movie.  (I only learned that from the introduction to all of the stories. There’s nothing in the story to reveal that.  Although given its fractured nature and the very obviousness of some of the titles, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out.]

It’s kind of fun to play “spot the lyrics” or what have you.  I knew some, but far fewer than I would have guessed.

As for the story itself, well, it’s a little disjointed. Continue Reading »

Posted in Books about music, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Funny (strange), Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Young Rival, Zsuzsi Gartner | Leave a Comment »

Herman Melville–Moby-Dick [Week 5] (1851)

June 21, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-“The Mariner’s Revenge Song” (2005).

This was the hardest week for music tied to Moby-Dick. (I’m saving Mastodon for the grand finale).  I don’t really have anything that relates directly to the book.   I have a number of nautical-themed songs, but very little in the way of albums.  And, it’s true that this song doesn’t have anything to do with Moby-Dick directly.

However, it’s a 9 minute song about a mariner getting swallowed by a whale just for revenge.  So, it’s sort of related.

The Decemberists are one of your more nautical bands (and I’ve reviewed all of the albums here somewhere).  Their first album, Castaways and Cutouts featured an album cover with a ship with ghosts drifting from it.

This song has an accordion fueled shanty feel as we follow the tale of a young lad who seeks revenge on the rake who used and abused his mother and left her a poor consumptive wretch.  After fifteen years, he finally hears tale of the rake–he’s now a captain at sea.

So the lad hires on with a privateer and hunts down the captain’s ship.  As he is about to fire muskets upon him, a giant whale crashes on their ships, swallowing the two men whole (tell me, Ishmael, what kind of whale might do that?).

And it’s from inside the whale the we hear this tale.  The lad’s mother’s dying words echoing among the ribs of the beast:

“Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave
*sigh*”

And it’s catchy as all heck, too!

[READ: Week of June 21, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 87-110 ]

Pirates!  I didn’t expect pirates in the book.  Week 5 opens with Ishmael discussing pirates in the low shaded coves of Sumatra.  Ahab intends to sail right through those piratical waters to get to Java because sperm whales are known to frequent the area.  And indeed they do.  A whole fleet of sperm whales is seen but at about the same time, the pirates come out and give chase.  My notes in the margins are a little diagram of a fleet of whales with an arrow and then a tiny Pequod and another arrow and then a jolly roger.

The Pequod easily outruns the pirates and still manages to keep the whales in sight.  So, they jump into the fray and start harpooning away.  However, as the saying goes, “The more whales the less fish” (389). Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Big Books, Demons, Fears, Herman Melville, Huh?, Humiliation, Infinite Zombies, Mastodon, Play (Drama), The Decemberists, Unreliable narrator, Whales | 1 Comment »

The Brothers Moon & Grounds for Sculpture

June 20, 2010 by Paul Debraski

I very rarely deviate from my usual topics of books, music and TV.  But today, Father’s Day, the family and I went to a local(ish) restaurant that was so good (and so local(ish)) that I wanted to shout about it.

It’s called The Brothers Moon.  It’s in Hopewell, NJ.  It seems pretty clear that they don’t need the business, as they were pretty hopping today, but it’s pretty far off the beaten path, so I think they can use the publicity.

I had first heard of them when I was looking up local sustainable food places.  While I was searching for a local CSA, I discovered The Brothers Moon because, as their site states, “Support Local, Go Local! The Brothers Moon proudly supports sustainable farming and local businesses.”  Which gets my vote on principle alone. Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Art, Chakaia Booker, Edouard Manet, Grounds for Sculpture, Keith Haring, Set in New Jersey!, Seward Johnson, Sonic Youth, The Brothers Moon | 4 Comments »

Rawi Hage–“Waiting for God” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 19, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: TEENAGE HEAD-“Picture My Face” (1979).

Teenage Head is a punk band in the vein of The Ramones.  If I were younger I probably would have enjoyed this song more.  Not because it’s a punk song (and I’m old) but because it’s so derivative of just about every Ramones-inspired punk song I can think of.

There’s nothing wrong with being derivative per se.  Some of the best bands started out as derivative of something else.  And, frankly when you’re playing three chord punk it’s hard to reinvent the wheel.  But I think these kinds of bands are more for people who don’t have a history of music that is just like this, only better.

Heh, I just looked up this band and found out that this song is from 1979.  Whoops.  So it doesn’t have 30 years of punk holding it up, it still has a whole bunch of Ramones tracks to compare it to.  And, I stand by the suggestion that it’s fun punk, just not terribly original (although perhaps in 1979 it was more original).

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Waiting for God”

This story is set (sort of) at the Vancouver Olympics.  The narrator overhears two men speaking.  One of them is described as “Man in rags” the other is “Man with turnip.”  I understood that much.

I assume this is an homage to Waiting for Godot, an absurd story if ever there was.  And so, this story is also absurd.  Man in rags is discoursing with Man with turnip, but Man with turnip seems to be discoursing with someone else entirely. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Huh?, Olympics, Ramones, Rawi Hage, Religion, Teenage Head, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Fredy Perlman–[Week 2] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

June 18, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: GREEN DAY-21st Century Breakdown (2009).

Like most people who like Green Day, I’ve been a fan since Dookie.  They were incredibly poppy (although they wrote great punk riffs) and they sang about weird, kind of subversive things.  And they got huge really fast.  Of course since then they have become one of the most commercially successful bands in America (including having their song picked for the ending scene of the Seinfeld montage–jeez).

And yet….

And yet, American Idiot, their previous album was one of  the most anti-establishment records of the last twenty years. (True it’s not hard to be Anti-Bush if you’re a punk band, but wow.)  And yet, it was a concept album and even a rock opera of sorts.  And it still sold millions.

And now American Idiot has been made into a freaking Broadway Musical.  And yet, how many Broadway shows (or top twenty albums for that matter) have lyrics like “The insurgency will rise when the blood’s been sacrificed.  Don’t be blinded by the lies in your eyes”

And so Green Day confounds me.  And yet, if I were younger and cared more about “keeping it real” I think they’d confuse me even more because although musically they have sold out (if you want to call it that), lyrically Billie Joe is still pretty true to his punk roots.  And, of course, even the punkest bands seem to go commercial eventually (Combat Rock anyone?)

Of all the Green Day CD’s I think I like this least.  And yet I really applaud them for writing an album that so easily translates to Broadway (not an easy feat in itself) (this disc would make better Broadway than American Idiot).  I think I dislike this disc not because it’s so unpunk, but because I think musically it’s really obvious (and although I like musicals, I prefer classic musicals to contemporary ones).  And yet, most of Green Day’s music is pretty obvious.  I guess I prefer my obvious music to have a harder egde.

And yet Act III is full of some really great aggressive punk songs: “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” is just fantastic.  And in Act II, “Peacemaker has a great construction, all spaghetti Western and whatnot.  And in the first act, the title song has multiple parts that all work well together.  It’s a pretty sophisticated song.  And who can fault Billie Joe for expanding his songwriting skills?  Like the Tin Pan Alleyesque opening of “¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl).”

In interviews, Billie Joe comes across as a maturing artist who is influenced by more diverse styles of music.  I always wonder what the other two guys think.  Should your name still be Tre Cool if you’re no longer writing songs about getting high and masturbating?

And yet…and yet…ad astra.

[READ: Week of June 18, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Second Letters]

There’s been a lot of discussion over at Insurgent Summer (and here) about the first week’s reading.  Very exciting!  And with so much revealed and so many accusations flying this week, no doubt more will continue.

Many people have been wondering exactly what Yarostan could have meant in first letter when he said he barely remembered Sophia.  When he replies in this letter, he claims that “I now remember you as if I had been with you only yesterday” (29).  There are two ways to take this: first, as a positive; however, it can also be read as the way I take it: Oh, RIGHT, you’re THAT person, still.  And this is pretty well confirmed by the second paragraph: “I admit that I once shared the illusion your letter celebrates” (29). Continue Reading »

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Communists, Corporate skewering, Death, Dystopia, Epistolary Novel, Fredy Perlman, Green Day, Insurgent Summer, Military, Politicians, The Clash, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Western | 5 Comments »

Linden MacIntyre–“The Kit Bag” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 17, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS -“Paul Simon” (2010).

Continuing my march through CBC Radio 3: I love the name of this band, but I’m sadly underwhelmed by this track.

This is a horn (synth) heavy track which has a somewhat lo-fi quality in the verses.  I have to assume that the horns are a nod to Paul Simon, but I can’t be sure of that.  It has an orchestral feel and it’s kind of fun.  But while I wouldn’t turn it off if I heard it again, even after two listens I didn’t think of it so much as a song as a catchy horn blast repeated over and over.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “The Kit Bag”

Now this seems like a quintessential Canadian story to me.

This is the story of a young boy, soon to be a man, saying goodbye to his father as he heads off for the mines of Flin Flon. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Linden MacIntyre, The Russian Futurists, Work | Leave a Comment »

Lisa Moore–“Mask” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 16, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: ZEUS-“Kindergarten” (2010).

Continuing my march through CBC Radio 3: The radio announcer dude said that this album might make the long list for the Polaris Prize.

Zeus is a Toronto based band that has worked as a backup band for one of the guys from Broken Social Scene.  This is an acoustic guitar/quietly distorted electric guitar track that’s poppy and fairly commercial.

I wasn’t all that inspired by it, until near the end where these wild backing vocals come in (and it gets something of an Arcade Fire vibe).  The second song on Zeus’ page, “Marching Through Your Head” is much more promising.  A catchy bouncy pop track with enough weirdness to keep it interesting.

They do a cover of Genesis’ “That’s All” which is described as “raucous.”  And if you click on the link you’d be hard pressed to disagree with that assessment.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Mask”

Hot on the heels of the New Yorker Summer Fiction Issue, I received this issue of The Walrus with their own Summer Fiction section called “Canadian Studies.”  This issue features nine authors.  They were all asked to write “the most Canadian story they could think of.”  Now, I’ll start out by saying I’m not Canadian, and I don’t want to suggest that I know what the most Canadian story should be like. At the same time, I read The Walrus, I watch a lot of Canadian TV, so I have a slight grasp of the culture.  So while I know a Canadian story isn’t going to be about igloos and elk, I’m certain that some more subtle stories will be lost on me.

Lisa Moore’s story is first in the collection.  It is quite short.   And I didn’t think it was especially Canadian, although perhaps, given one of my Vancouver friends’ proclivities, it is. Continue Reading »

Posted in Arcade Fire, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Lisa Moore, Neil Young, New Yorker, Summer, The Walrus, Zeus | Leave a Comment »

Seth–(The Walrus, July/August 2010)

June 15, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: RAH RAH-“Arrows” (2010).

This issue of The Walrus features the Summer Reading Issue, which nine short fictions about Canada.  In concert with that I decided to listen to CBC Radio 3 online and review the first songs that I hear in their entirety.

The first band up is Rah Rah.  I’d never heard of them before.  This track arrows is from their just released 2nd CD.  They sound kind of like they are Regina, Sask’s answer to the Arcade Fire.  Rah Rah have 7 members in the band, and they play a sort of energetic poppy punk with lots of backing vocals. (Some of them are screamed, but from a long way away…a very cool effect). The song is catchy and is only punk in the tempo of the track (and the somewhat shambolic nature of the vocals–which is meant as a complement).

I liked the song enough that I had to listen to it again. The riff is super catchy, and the vocals complement it nicely. I liked it enough to check out more of their stuff.  “Fuck NAFTA” is a wonderful song that is surprisingly delicate and catchy for such a belligerent sentiment. Great stuff.

I suspect that I’ll be picking up their album, if I can find it for sale anywhere.

[READ: June 14, 2010] Walrus Summer Reading, featuring Seth

The Walrus’ July/August issue features a summer reading collection.  Nine authors all answering the call “to write the most Canadian story they could think of.”  Over the next week or so I’ll review them all.  But as an introduction, I wanted to mention the artwork of Seth.

Seth is rapidly becoming my favorite artist whom I know very little about.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Graphic Novel, Rah Rah, Seth, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

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