SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music (1992).
The Rheostatics are from Etobicoke Canada. Their second album was called Melville (named after a town in Saskatchewan, but it has a whale on the cover so…). Their third album (this one) is called Whale Music (inspired by the novel by Paul Quarrington). When they made a film of Whale Music, the Rheostatics were asked to make the soundtrack for it, which they released as Whale Music. So, the band have 2 albums called Whale Music and one called Melville. Perfect soundtrack to Moby-Dick.
The album is chock full of all kinds of music: country tracks, folky tracks, metal tracks, and hooks galore. And it’s all wrapped up in the oddity that is the Rheostatics. This album features guest spots by the Barenaked Ladies and Neil Peart as well as horns, strings, spoken word parts, and “power tools”.
“Self Serve Gas Station” is a great opening. It begins with swirling guitars and a beautiful solo (Rheostatics guitar lines sound so elemental as to seem like they’ve always been around). But just as the vocals begin, the song becomes a sort of country track: a folkie song about adolescnece. But it returns to a good rocking (and falsetto fueled) rock track.
“California Dreamline” is a wonderfully weird track, with more gorgeous guitar melodies. It also has a disjointed section with squealing guitars. While “Rain, Rain, Rain” opens with a lengthy percussion section (played by Neil Peart of Rush) with a weird time signature. It’s a fun singalong. “Queer” meanwhile has some great chugga guitars that turn into a rocking tale of an ostracized brother (and features the great line: “But I wish you were there to see it/When I scored a hat-trick on the team/That called you a fucking queer.”
“King of the Past” is another great track, with a wondrous string sound near the end. It’s a gorgeous song with (again) different sections conveying shanties and jigs (and you can dance to it). Like Moby from last week, Rheostatics, also bust out a fast metal track, but this one works well: “RDA (Rock Death America)” has a major hook and name checks everyone from The Beatles to The Replacements.
“Legal Age Life at Variety Store” is a great folky singalong (and features the piercing harmonies of Martin Tielli). “What’s Going On Around Here?” is the most traditional song of the bunch, a poppy little ditty which avoids complacency with a rocking coda.
“Shaved Head” is a moody piece, wonderful for its roller coaster sensibilities, which is followed by the beautiful Tim Vesely sung ballad “Palomar.” This track is followed by the humorous (but serious) shouted-word piece “Guns” which also features Neil Peart.
“Sickening Song” is an accordion based shanty song. Followed by another pretty, poppy-sounding track, “Soul Glue.” Drummer Dave Clark sings “Beerbash,” an upbeat song. And tye final track is the epic, “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.” It opens with a beautiful acoustic intro and a wonderfully catchy wheedling guitar solo. It ends delightfully: “Where the dope fiends laugh And say it’s too soon, They all go home and listen to
The Dark Side of the Moon.”
I had been listening to the band live a lot recently, and they play these songs a lot. So it was quite a treat to go back and hear the original with all its full instrumentation.
[READ: Week of June 14, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 62-86]
I never thought I’d ever say this, but I really enjoyed Moby-Dick this week. So far, these twentysome chapters have been my favorite (even the gruesome whale sections), there weren’t any chapters that I thought really dragged. So, good for me!
This week’s read begins with Ishmael stating that harpooners should not have to paddle and then be expected to harpoon as well. They should save their strength for that last, all important act. And that seems logical to me, although one also expects that the harpooners would feel kind of bad while everyone else is paddling. Continue Reading »
We’d seen ads for this show (who hasn’t?) but we weren’t that interested. It’s on Starz for crying out loud, and it’s a summer fill in show. Then we found out the credentials of the show: The auteur behind the much missed Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas) is a producer/writer/creator. (As is Paul Rudd! And Dan Etheridge (who has worked with Kevin Smith quite a lot).
The show stars a number of great actors: Ken Marino, Jane Lynch!, Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas from Veronica Mars), Martin Starr (playing a major jerk), and two actors who get pretty high billing that I didn’t know: Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan. 
This week’s New Yorker contains a list of the 20 authors under age 40 that they predict we’ll be talking about for years to come. Their criteria:
SOUNDTRACK: STEREOLAB-Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements (1993).
Stereolab are a bizarre band. They make bubbly electronic music, with all sorts of bleeps and whirls and buzzes. They even describe their music as space age pop. Their album cover art is overexposed or simply silk screened. (This is a hi-fi needle getting dropped on an LP). The back cover looks like it’s a hi-fi test record.
SOUNDTRACK: NEVEREST SONGS-“Calculator” (2010).
Opening with a simple, discordant piano, this song quickly morphs into a fast chaotic piano run, all the while the vocal stay slow and calm. Once the bass kicks in, the song feels less like a solo track and more like a band effort. And it’s amazing that this simple bass can add so much to this swelling track.
SOUNDTRACK: THE MAGIC GARDEN (1970s).
When I was growing up in the 1970s one of my favorite shows was The Magic Garden. Even though I enjoyed Sesame Street and The Electric Company, Carole and Paula were my favorites. And it was the songs that were so memorable. Thanks to the Web, here’s four of their original songs, all of which I loved (although I understand the opening credits only ran on a few episodes). So, travel back in time to The Magic Garden: 
SOUNDTRACK: THE PRODIGY-Experience (1993).
Before Prodigy sang “Smack My Bitch Up” and Keith Flint had devil horns and pierced everything, Prodigy were a dancey techno act. This was their first album, and allmusic calls it “One of the few noncompilation rave albums of any worth.” High praise indeed.
SOUNDTRACK: MOBY-Everything is Wrong (1995).
I suppose that everyone knows that Moby (the musician) is Herman Melville’s great- great- great- grandnephew. And that’s why he has the middle name Melville and had the nickname Moby.
I’m very late to this show, I know. But then I have an excuse: I don’t like watching TV/movies/etc on my computer. So, even when I watched the awesome Dr Horrible, and the commentary told me all about Felicia Day’s online show, I didn’t investigate.
Because I needed one more reason to put off reading the huge stack of books on my nightstand (Jasper Fforde, I’m coming, I promise). I have decided to join yet another group read of an inordinately large book.
