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Sarah Selecky–“Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale” (The Walrus, March 2010)

March 16, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Cultösaurus Erectus (1980).

BOC came back with a vengeance on this disc.  From the cool title (c’mon that’s a cool title) to the futuristic fossil on the cover, this album is all heavy.

The opener, “Black Blade” puts us firmly back in the heavy sci-fi world of BOC.  There’s cool time changes, there’s a wild end section with weirdo distorted vocals.  And the lyrics are by Michael Moorcock.  It’s followed by my favorite BOC track of all time: “Monsters.”  This is a fairly straightforward metal song.  It’s starts with a fast riff and big power chords but after the second verse it bursts into a full on jazz section: walking bass, wailing sax solo (!)  for several measures, until it jumps right back into the song as if nothing happened.  Thre’s even a third, even heavie part that comes later.  It a terribly underrated song.

The next two songs flirt back with their more recent gentle releases.  “Deadline” is keyboard fueled little ditty (and the general BOC rule is, the more keyboards, the less metal.)  Yet, in small doses, Allen Lanier’s keyboards really define BOC’s sound.  “Hungry Boys” and “Fallen Angel” show the band really trying to find its sound (and not being terribly successful there).

“The Marshall Plan” gets the band back on heavier terms, with that classic theme of metal songs: playing in a metal band.  (There’s a humorous musical quote from “Smoke on the Water” AND a spoken line from Don Kirshner).  Finally, the wonderfully weirdly titled “Lips in the Hills” gets the band back on familiar rocking territory.

While this isn’t their best disc, it is certainly better than the previous one, and ranks up pretty high in their catalog.

[READ: March 7, 2010] “Paul Farenbacher’s Yard Sale”

This was a cool story with a bunch of twists.  The simple premise is that the story is set at a yard sale.  The sale is being held by the wife (and new boyfriend) of Paul Farenbacher, a recently deceased man.  The narrator was the family’s neighbor (and on one occasion kissed their son).

In the intervening years she has become closer to the family.  She helped sell some products that Farenbacher was selling, and also sold new (home made organic cleaning products) to Farenbacher’s wife (and the rest of the community).

The story is a way for secrets to get revealed and truths to be told. Continue Reading »

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Sarah Selecky, Sex, Short Story, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 8] The Part About The Crimes (2 of 5) (2004)

March 15, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-“Juarez” (from To Venus and Back) (1999).

This song was the first that I had heard of what was happening in Juarez, Mexico.  In AP Magazine (Oct 99) Tori Amos said:

“I read an article about several hundred women in Juarez, Mexico, who had been taken out to the desert and brutally raped and murdered. When they didn’t come home, their brothers would go and look for them, and many times they’d find nothing. Sometimes they’d find a hair barrette or a sock or something they knew was their sister’s. The authorities haven’t really done anything about it…they get into this serial-killer theory. I mean, how much serial can one man indulge in? So as the song started to develop, I really began taking the voice of the desert, singing in that perspective.”

The song is very abstract, with references to Juarez, but overall the meaning is oblique (in typical Tori Amos fashion).  Sonically it is claustrophobic and creepy, and the repeated line “No angel came” adds to the intensity of it.  It has never been a favorite song, although I think as a commentary on the situation it is delightfully eerie.  It doesn’t really add anything to 2666, but at least it provided me with some context.

[READ: Week of March 8, 2010] 2666 [pg 404-465]

Week 6 picks up much where Week 7 left off.  There are a lot more deaths (Nicole at bolanobolano has the dubious honor of tallying them)in this reading.  And you’ll have to look at bolnobolano for the details, as I’m not up to keeping the records straight.

Juan de Dios Martínez is ordered to stop working on The Pentitent, so that his officers can be freed up for other duties.

And the first dead woman of this section is an American, Lucy Anne Sander.  She and a friend came down from Huntsville, Arizona.  While her friend, Erica, was parking the car, Lucy got out to walk in the wet grass.  She was not seen again for three days when her body turned up, raped and murdered.  This was the first instance in the book where someone aggressively looks for a missing woman.  Erica befriends a local nurse (and they from an intense bond in the short time they know each other) and has an Arizona sheriff come down to investigate on her behalf. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, AP Magazine, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Death, Foreign Books, History, Infinite Zombies, Language, Mystery, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Tori Amos, Violence, Yuck! | 1 Comment »

TV 2007

March 14, 2010 by Paul Debraski

This is my final TV recap post.  It was the first entry on my TV page (except for TV I have killed, which will come shortly.  2010 comments are in brackets.

Down below Soon, you’ll see the TV shows that I have killed. It was a sad day when two of my favorite shows were canceled for good last year. However, we move on. And so, this is our current [circa 2007] household lineup: Continue Reading »

Posted in 30 Rock, Aliens in America, Carpoolers, Chuck, Corner Gas, How I Met Your Mother, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Mercer Report, Project Runway, Reaper, Robson Arms, Scrubs, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, TV 2007 | 2 Comments »

Seth Grahame-Smith–Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010) [prepub]

March 13, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Fire of Unknown Origin (1981).

This was the first BOC album that I bought.  The video for “Burnin’ for You” was all over MTV (although I don’t remember it at all, now).  And I was an instant convert to BOC.  I listened to this disc constantly.

It took going to college and meeting my roommate before I got any other BOC discs (he was a diehard fan).  And while I like most of their releases, this one still ranks as number one for me.  BOC had been getting poppier and lighter over the years, there’s no question.  But this album perfected this mix, making for a supremely catchy recording that still exhibited all of their metal trademarks: wild guitar solos, bizarro futuristic lyrics (although there’s no weirdo titles on this one) and heavy heavy chords.

The opener, “Fire of Unknown Origin” is a wonderful rocking song.  It sets the tone for the disc: keyboards, yes, but of the atmospheric/spooky variety, not the poppy/hit single variety.  “Burnin’ for You” seems like an obvious single, and so it was. It also screams early 80s to me, which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But the album’s wonderful weirdness kicks in with “Veteran of the psychic Wars” written by Michael Moorcock. It was featured in the movie Heavy Metal, and is weird and creepy, propelled by thunderous drums and a great guitar riff: a sci-fi masterpiece.  “Sole Survivor” is in the same vein, Eric Blooms ragged voice and the awesome bass line really sell the song.

The middle track is “Heavy Metal (Black and Silver)”  It is heavy heavy heavy and it rocks like all get out with a screaming feedback solo.  It’s an awesome song that seems more than a little out of place on this rather light sounding disc (although even on their later discs, they have included an occasional heavy track).

“Vengeance (The Pact)” is a keyboard-fueled track.  But the greatness is that it’s Lanier’s spooky keyboards.  It also features an awesome middle section with heavy heavy guitars and dark lyrics.  “After Dark” is another wonderfully creepy keyboard song.  The underlying riff is sinister and cool, and the lyrics (and harmonies) meld the “band vocals” on some of their more “hit single” songs, with the oddness that keeps BOC interesting.

But by far the creepiest, most sinister and flat out weird song is “Joan Crawford.”  When I first heard this song back in 1982, I had no idea who Joan Crawford was.  Finding out later that she was a real person has messed with my head for my entire life.  I have never seen a film with her in it and am just convinced that she’s a scary, scary woman (the whispered “Christina…mother’s home” really did me in).  Interestingly, I don’t find the song spooky (although I do get chills if I’m paying attention), but I still find her spooky.  It opens with a pseudo-classical piano riff and then bursts out with menacing metal chords.  The chorus “Joan Crawford has risen from the grave!” complete with squeaky violins proceeds until and the break with sound effects that imply Crawford’s life, I assume: car crashes, race tracks, telephones, babies crying and the whispered “No.”   And it’s all catchy as hell.

“Don’t Turn You Back” ends the disc as something of a mellowing out after Joan Crawford.  It features a great solo and rather soothing choruses (despite the warning that you shouldn’t turn your back).  And it features the ever confusing line: “You use that special option in your car”  (what could that BE?).

Why on earth hasn’t this disc gotten a deluxe reissue from Columbia>?

[READ: March 3, 2010] Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I received this book as a prepub Advanced Readers Copy and hoped to have it finished before the book actually came out, but I was shy of it by a couple of days (rats).

So Grahame-Smith wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  His was pretty much the first in what has become an ever increasing series of literary mash-ups: using “classic” texts as a basis and inserting a seemingly random (usually horror) element.  The genre is already close to jumping the shark, although realistically, you never know when a combination is going to work wonders.

I wasn’t really that interested in the follow up to P&P&Z: Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters.  When I first heard of it I was intrigued, but watching the promotional video for the book actually turned me off of it.  I’m intrigued that a new title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is written by a different author, but I have to assume that it will be all original as there’s no prequel to P&P itself.  And I have to admit I like the title of the upcoming Jane Slayre (for Jane Eyre).

But the things about P&P&Z were that it kept the original text (mostly) intact, and there were a number of things in the original that actually led to inserting zombies into the text.

Plus, Grahame-Smith matched the tone of the original perfectly.  The forthcoming mashups will have a lot to prove but I think some cream will definitely rise to the top.

So, Grahame-Smith’s new book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is sort of a mashup.  Unlike P&P&Z, there is no source text to blend.  Rather, Seth Grahame-Smith, who is a character in the introduction of the book is given the “secret” diary of Abraham Lincoln, under provision that he write up the real story of our 16th president.  The secret diary reveals not only that our country was plagued by vampires but that Lincoln himself was personally impacted by them. Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Blue Öyster Cult, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Death, Demons, Edgar Allan Poe, Entertainment Weekly, History, Meta, Michael Moorcock, Seth Grahame-Smith, Violence, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »

Hannah Tennant-Moore–“By Song, Not Album” (The Sun, August 2009)

March 12, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: A CAMP-Colonia (2009).

This is the second album from the side project of The Cardigan’s Nina Persson.  This disc was created with her husband Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think.  Their first album had a country flair to it, but this one eschews that entirely for a pop feel that is entirely different from The Cardigans’ two main styles: the “cheesy” happy pop of “Lovefool” and the bitter guitar pop of their later discs.

Although like the Cardigans, Nina uses her beautiful, almost angelic voice to mask the critical, often bitter lyrics that fuel this disc.  The music is kind of sparse, which really allows for Nina’s voice to shine through. “Stronger Than Jesus” is a wonderful song about, of all things, love.  While “Bear on the Beach” opens with a delicate twinkling piano. And “Love Has Left the Room” has soaring vocals and a wonderfully catchy melody line.

The best track is probably “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals” a cool duet with a tongue-twisting chorus.

They also have a bit of fun with genres, so “Here Are Many Wild Animals” opens like a doo-wop song, but swerves into a cool minor key masterpiece.  Even the album closer, the slow, meandering “The Weed Had Got There First” works nicely with Nina’s voice (although I wouldn’t want a whole album like this).

Anyone who misses the Cardigans would do well to track down this disc; or, if you find the Cardigans too treacly, this is a great representation of the true side of Nina’s character.  I just can’t decide if the A in the band name is the indefinite article or the letter A.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “By Song, Not Album”

My friend and coworker Anna loaned me this issue of The Sun saying that she thought I would enjoy it.  I’d never heard of it before, but I’m always up for new things, so I decided to check it out.  I really enjoyed the Photo Essay “With Eyes Shut.”  And I read two of the longer pieces as well.

This first one, is, I believe non-fiction.  And if it is non-fiction, it is the least believable non-fiction piece I may have ever read.  I was interested to read it because of the title, which seemed an interesting conceit for a story.  And while that does come into play, the story is really about a young woman who is studying abroad in France who is suffering from a severe depression.

The only one who can pull her through is her father, who is similarly afflicted with depression.  He flies over to assist her and they wind up spending several days together.

What I found unbelievable, was the way her father behaves.   Continue Reading »

Posted in A Camp, Belle and Sebastian, Bob Dylan, Books about music, Drugs, Essays, Hannah Tennant-Moore, Memoirs, Photo Essays, PJ Harvey, Shudder to Think, The Cardigans, The Sun, Travel, Unreliable narrator, Van Morrison | Leave a Comment »

Cynthia Weiner–“Aftertaste” (The Sun, August 2009)

March 11, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: NIRVANA-Bleach [Deluxe Edition Reissue] (2009).

I bought Bleach after I fell in love with Nevermind.  I liked it, but I think at the time I felt it was too raw, or maybe just less poppy than Nevermind.  But in listening to this remaster I’m inclined to say it’s better than Nevermind (although, granted I haven’t listened to Nevermind in a while now, either).

The disc is raw, and yet Cobain always had a knack for pop sensibilities (just disguised under noise and feedback).  You can see his love of pop by the choice of covering The Vaseline’s “Molly Lips.” And in a song like “About a Girl” (which they played on their MTV Unplugged show).

What’s amazing to me about this disc is how full the band sounds with just the three of them. Even when Cobain is soloing, it never sounds like the guitars are gone and it’s just a solo over a bassline.  Not bad for $600.

Of course, having said that about the poppiness of the band, there is still some pretty heavy, weird and ugly stuff on here. The heavy thudding intro of “Floyd the Barber,” the screaming cover of “Love Buzz,” the weird noises in “Big Cheese,” the wild bent notes in “Negative Creep” and the absolutely crazy feedback noise of “Paper Cuts.”

And the disc ends with the fantastic wordplay of “Downer.”  It’s really a solid collection of sludgy grunge songs.

So, famously, this disc was originally recorded for like $600.  I don’t know if the “remastering” has done anything.  I didn’t compare it to the original, although it seems like the vocals are a little clearer.  For $600, I’d think the original was all done in one take, and yet there must be overdubbed vocals (Cobain is the only one signing on “Big Cheese,” right?)

The real selling point here is what’s included in the second half of the disc: a concert from 1990 in which the band sounds tight, fast, and quite amazing.  It’s most of the material from Bleach, with a few extra tracks thrown in and it sounds fantastic.

There’s also a 40-some-page booklet which is good for a read, but nothing all that special.  Nirvana only put out 3 proper albums, so I’m not sure if you can say this was really overlooked, but it’s certainly worth looking into again.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “Aftertaste”

This was the second piece that I read in The Sun.  This one was fiction.  And it featured a recovering heroin addict as its protagonist.

Abby lives in Manhattan and goes, for the first time, to Gourmet Fair, the health food store around the corner from her house. As she’s walking out she runs in to Gideon.  Gideon lives nearby and owns the cafe across from her apartment.  They’ve never spoken before but she is aware of him from his cafe (and the elaborately hand drawn menus in the front window).

Oh yeah, and Abby is a former heroin addict. Continue Reading »

Posted in Cynthia Weiner, Drugs, Nirvana, The Sun | Leave a Comment »

Jason Anderson–“Living on a Lighted Stage: Are We Finally Ready to Take Rush Seriously?” (The Walrus, March 2010)

March 10, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH, obviously (1974-present).

I’ve loved Rush since seventh grade.  They introduced me to prog rock, Canadian accents, Lakeside Park and Ayn Rand.  They taught me how to play killer bass lines, wild guitar solos and to ponder the existence of washing machines on stage.

[READ: March 5, 2010] “Living on a Lighted Stage”

I don’t often write about non-fiction pieces in magazines, but because this one is about Rush, it seemed necessary to bring it up.

The rather humorous subtitle of the piece sets the tone here. Rush has been together since 1974.  They’ve been taken seriously by musicians and die-hard fans, but aside from that, the average person likes “Tom Sawyer” and that’s about it.

This article notes that Rush is appearing more and more in unexpectedly public places (to both the delight and consternation of fans).  From the Colbert Report (their first time on American TV in 30-some years), to appearances is movies, including appearing as themselves playing live in I Love You, Man.

In addition to all of this there are two new works that are designed to really delve into the history of Rush. One is a new book, an academic treatise that I am sure I never would have heard about if it weren’t for this article, called Rush, Rock Music and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown by Chris McDonald (which I just received and hope to start reading shortly).  And, there’s also a new documentary coming out (possibly in the Spring) tentatively called: Rush A Documentary.

And finally, a new film coming out has Alex Lifeson (as well as about 100 other musicians) in a cameo (he plays a border guard). It’s called Suck, and you can see the trailer (which has Lifeson in it) at Rushisaband.com.

I can’t possibly explain the recent influx of Rush (“Tom Sawyer” even played a major plot point on Chuck not too long ago) except to suggest that maybe all the die-hard Rush fans have grown up and gotten jobs in some kind of prominence.

Some Rush fans bristle at the idea of the guys selling out (yeah, right) or, heaven forbid, having fun.  They’ve always had a silly side (read the liner notes, look at Geddy wearing a Devo pin in the late 80s), and it’s nice to see them showing that side off a bit.  And the thing is, none of this attention is going to make “Cygnus X-1” any more popular than it is.  But if it gets some new people into prog rock, well, where’s the harm in that?

I won’t be first in line when the documentary comes out, but I’ll certainly watch it!

This article is available here.

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Ayn Rand, Books about music, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Chris McDonald, Essays, Funny (ha ha), I Love You Man, Jason Anderson, Rush, Suck, The Walrus, Vampires | 3 Comments »

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh–“Appetite” (New Yorker, March 1, 2010)

March 9, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Mirrors (1979).

Lord only knows what happened to BOC on this disc.  It’s almost as if the mirror on the cover was indicating a weird backwards image of the band.  They had been flirting with pop tracks for a few albums now, but this one goes far over the edge.  Backing female vocalists!  Poppy ballads!  No weirdo titles!  And yet still no hits.

The title track is hopeless radio rock (but not even good radio rock). It’s hard to image them touring this album and incorporating these tracks with “Dominace and Submission” (or even imagining Eric Bloom decked out in his leather suit singing these songs).  And the less said about “Lonely Teardrops” the better.

That’s not to say that the album is a total wash.  The super sugary ballad “In Thee” is actually quite good, as ballads go (Allen Lanier has a knack for piano pop).  And “Moon Crazy” has an 80s rock feel mixed with some weird jazzy bits.  “The Vigil” and “I am the Storm” are also pretty good, but they may just stand out among the rest of the tracks.

It may be telling that when Columbia remastered and re-released all of their CDs, they didn’t bother with this one.  Hence, the rather embarrassing cover image above which is more about  Columbia music than Blue Öyster Cult.

[READ: March 1, 2010] “Appetite”

This is a strange little story about work frustration, grilled cheeses, and rain.

The main character is a cook.  He is planning to ask his boss for a raise, but when he goes into the boss’ office, the boss is distressed about the state of the restaurant, specifically the fact that several items were returned that evening.  How hard is it to make  grilled cheese after all?

When the story pulls back a bit the narrator muses about his graduation, where he was simply one of 500 being told about his future by the valedictorian (who clearly cribbed his speech from a book of speeches).   Some of you will go to college; some of you will go to the army; some of you will go straight to the workforce.  He was the latter.  And now, at 25, he can’t quite belive he’s still in the same place. Continue Reading »

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Funny (strange), New Yorker, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Short Story, Work | Leave a Comment »

Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 7] The Part About The Crimes (1 of 5) (2004)

March 8, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT-I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2008).

I’ve been a fan of Loudon for years.  I also rather enjoy Rufus.  So why not check out Rufus’ sister Martha and see how she stacks up in the family canon.  Actually, it’s not fair to compare because she is an entity all to herself.  And indeed, I feel that she sounds nothing like her family (maybe a weeeeee bit like Rufus, but not really).

In fact, I find that Martha’s voice rests comfortably between Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jane Siberry and, somewhat surprisingly, Patti Smith.

Lyrically, the title of the album pretty well tells you where she’s coming from: smart-assed and a little pissed off.  But the real question is what kind of songs does she actually write?  Well, the second song on this disc “You Cheated Me” is so strong and so catchy I was convinced it was a cover.

The rest of the disc is an exciting collection of styles: baroque arrangements, pop folk, and even straight ahead rock.  There are times when the songs are not so much difficult as cantankerous: with her vocals reaching extraordinary heights.  But it’s not just Martha showing off her range, the vocals work very well with the lyrics.

She also adds two covers on the disc: Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” which she takes some of the weirdness out of but which adds a bit of her own eccentricities to it.  (It’s a great cover).  The other cover is the Euryhthmics’ “Love is a Stranger” which doesn’t sound like a cover until the chorus kicks in.

I feel like the disc is a little long (somehow it feels like it should end after “See Emily Play”) but that’s not really that big of a complaint.  Even though Martha sounds like others, she is still quite a unique presence, and this is a worthy CD for anyone who likes quirky singer songwriters.

[READ: Week of March 1, 2010] 2666 [pg 353-404]

I was bracing myself for a horrific section here.  The Part About the Crimes is 280 pages of women being killed in graphic detail. Well, that turned out to be not exactly true.  At least so far.

Nevertheless, the Part is largely filled with crime scene details about the many many women who died in the Santa Teresa region between 1993 and the beginning of 1994.

For my sanity I’m not going to detail all of the young women who were killed in this Part.  I know someone on bolanobolano is detailing all of the deaths in the book, so I’ll assume that that is dealt with there. Continue Reading »

Posted in Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Death, Eurhythmics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Infinite Zombies, Jane Siberry, Laura Esquivel, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Natasha Wimmer, Neurotics, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd, Religion, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Threats, Torture Porn, Translation, Violence, Yuck! | 5 Comments »

TV 2008

March 7, 2010 by Paul Debraski

I’m continuing to move all of the old TV Posts from my TV Tab to individual posts. So here’s some thoughts from the 2008 TV season.  There were some updates midway through on this one, but I’ll add some updated thoughts as necessary.

With the Fall 2008 Lineup mostly underway, I’m listing the shows that we are giving a chance this year.  There are some new ones, but mostly its a continuation of last year: Continue Reading »

Posted in 30 Rock, Beverly Hills 90210, Chuck, Corner Gas, Fringe, How I Met Your Mother, Life on Mars, Mercer Report, New Adventures of Old Christine, Project Runway, Pushing Daisies, Robot Chicken, Robson Arms, Rush, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, The Office, The Simpsons, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, TV 2008 | 2 Comments »

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