September 16, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: REGINA SPEKTOR-Far (2009).
Regina Spektor has reaffirmed my faith in female singers. Back in the 1990s, during the height of Lilith Fair craze, there was an embarrassment of cool, hip, interesting women singers releasing discs. Since then some have sold out (Liz Phair), some have gone away (Shirley Manson), and some have just, well, matured (Tori Amos). Maturation is a fine thing, but when you are known for doing interesting things, by the time you get to doing standard piano ballads, well, yes, we all mature, but we don’t all lose our quirkiness, right?
And Regina Spektor has quirkiness in spades. Her songs are primarily piano based, and yet rather than sounding like the grown up piano of many of her contemporaries, she rocks the piano like Ben Folds (with whom she did a duet on his last single). Each of the first half dozen songs or so have an interesting or unusual part that totals sells the song for me.
The disc opens with the bouncey “The Calculation” with a lyrical melody line that betrays the boppy piano. “Eet” had another of her fascinating vocal lines in which she sounds ethereal and mechanical at the same time. “Blue Lips” has fantastic bass piano to accentuate the cool guitar effects. “Folding Chair” is one of the quirkier songs on the disc what with her singing dolphin sounds at one point, and yet it still remains irresistably catchy.
“Hooked Into Machine” channels Laurie Anderson vocally, although once again, the melody is fantastic. “Laughing With” I actually heard on NPR this morning, used very nicely as a segue instrumental about people fearing getting swine flu in church. It also features one of the few times a singer sings/says Ha Ha and it doesn’t sound affected. “Two Birds” has an awesome tuba (!) run.
“Dance Anthem of the ’80s” is as weird as one might think from the title. It’s all mechanical sounds and strange trilling voices (Spektor somehow sounds mechanical and angelic simultaneously). “One More Time with Feeling” which I like to think of as a shout out to Buffy, although I doubt it really is, is, as the title suggests, almost musicalhall in its tempo and yet again, she pulls it off amazingly.
The disc ends with “Man of a Tousand Faces” one of the most normal songs on the disc. It immeiately lends itself to hitting start once again.
Reviews of this disc has said they found it lacking compared to her previous releases. I haven’t heard any of her other recordings so I can’t say. But if her other discs are even better than this one, then I’m going to be pretty happy getting her back catalog.
Oh, and in another nod to synchronicity, Regina has the final song that plays over the credits of Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian which I know is over a year old, but we just watched it the other night.
[READ: September 15, 2009] “Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open”
Since I’m nearly finished Infinite Jest, I am trolling around for spoiler-free things to read by and about DFW (gee, imagine that I’d get hooked again to DFW’s ouvre). I thought I had read just about all of DFWs nonfiction, but I was reading The Joy of Sox blog, and he pointed out this article that I had not yet read, and I couldn’t wait to print it.
The folks at Tennis.com are presently running the article in all of its color glory here.
And so this piece covers DFW’s press day at the 1995 US Open. He spends the beginning of the article talking about tennis (Pete Sampras especially), and the rest of the article wandering the grounds, musing about commerce, concessions and New Yorkers. It’s actually surprising how little space he spends on tennis (especially since it was written for Tennis magazine). But rather, you get a complete awareness of the sights, smells, rip-offs and crowd that are present at a US Open event. It’s fantastic! Continue Reading »
Posted in Chronicles of Narnia, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Infinite Summer, NPR/PRI/PBS, Sports, Tennis, Tennis Magazine | 4 Comments »
September 15, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS-Stems and Seeds (2009).
I enjoyed Way to Normal, although not as much as previous Ben Folds CDs. I was listening to Pandora Radio at work and I heard a version of one of the songs from Way to Normal, but it listed it as coming from Stems and Seeds, which I hadn’t heard of.
Stems and Seeds is a sort of fan club release of Way to Normal. That whole album is remixed, remastered and in a different track order. It also features B-sides and the “original leaked versions” (ie. not real versions at all) of several of these tracks.
The second disc (actually the first disc) is a collection of audio files that you can upload to the GarageBand program where you can manipulate the files yourself. I have not even popped the disc in the computer to look at this yet, and I don’t foresee myself doing it any time soon.
But onto the music.
The differences are not vast in the remixes and yet I like them better. Some excessive bits are lopped off (the “Japanese doctor” voice before “The Bitch Went Nuts” is thankfully gone) as well as a few bits that dragged out “Free Coffee”). I don’t think of myself as a massive audiophile, but in a side by side comparison the new songs (which are apparently uncompressed like radio-ready songs are) sound cleaner, brighter and just better. (Which again, is weird since Way to Normal was released just months before this. Why bother releasing that version at all, I have to wonder.)
There’s also something about the new track order that I like better. It just flows more smoothly somehow.
And the bonus tracks are also fun. There’s a live version of “You Don’t Know Me” from a pre-show at Conan. They practice it without the curse in the lyrics, but they all get a hearty curse-laden shout out at the end. The “leaked” tracks are also fascinating. Even though they are lyrically not quite up to snuff, they’re not that far removed from Ben’s sillier songs. But it’s the idea that he wrote these entire songs just to jam the leakers is fascinating to me. He wrote new melodies and recorded entirely new songs that aren’t real. And yet now he’s officially released them and they are real. Trippy.
So, if you haven’t yet, skip Way to Normal and get Stems and Seeds. If you already have Way to Normal and didn’t like it, try a track or two from this one, it may turn you around.
[READ: September 13, 2009] Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It
In his Infinite Summer post Colin Meloy plugged the new book that his sister had just written. I wasn’t aware of the book coming out so I was pretty excited to hear about it. I picked up a copy and finished it in like 2 days.
This is Meloy’s 2nd collection of short stories.
The characters in almost all of the stories are failures. Not losers, mind you, but failures. They have failed at jobs or love or with their family, and the storylines show them coping with the aftermath of their failures. And note that the failures are never because of inaction, they are because the characters are stuck between two impossible choices or literally insurmountable problems. Continue Reading »
Posted in Ben Folds, Demons, Drinking, Infinite Summer, Maile Meloy, Marriage Trouble, Missoula, MT, Pregnancy, Sex, Short Story, Threats, Work, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »
September 14, 2009 by Paul Debraski
I’m not sure how I first learned about The Week. I think I received a trial issue in the mail. But after just one or two issues we were hooked. The Week is a comprehensive newsweekly, although it offers virtually no original reporting. It collates news stories and offers opinions from a variety of sources: newspapers, online magazines, political journals etc. And it provides opinions from across the political spectrum.
Each issue has the same set up (although they recently had an image makeover: a new cover design and some unexpected font changes in a few sections, which I suppose does lend to an easier read).
Each issue starts with The main stories… …and how they were covered. The first article is a look at whatever major story captivated the editorials that week. (The growing gloom in Afghanistan). And in a general sense of what you get for long articles (the long articles are about 3/4 of a page) You get WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT THE EDITORIALS SAID, and WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAID. The What Happened section is a paragraph or two summary of the story. The editorials offer a one or two sentence summary from sources like USA Today, L.A. Times and The Financial Times, while The Columnists are from The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Time.com, for example. Continue Reading »
Posted in Airlines, Art, Authors, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Books about music, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Children's Books, Comedians, Comic Strips, Consumerism, Contests, Death, Esquire, Essays, Film & TV, Free Speech, History, LGBTQ, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Military, Morality, Music, Natural Disasters, Neurotics, New Yorker, Oddities, Outer Space, Political Humor, Prison, Racism, Radar, Religion, Research, Robots, Russia, Salon.com, Sex, Sports Illustrated, Suicide, Technology, The Week, Violence, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, War, WMDs | Leave a Comment »
September 12, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES-Don’t Know How to Party (1993).
I’ve always had a thing for ska (although even I got sick of it when No Doubt took over the airwaves, thanks Gwen). When ska gets added to blistering metal, well, it’s hard to resist. And so we get Boston’s own Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
This was the first Bosstones’ record I’d heard and I fell for it immediately. I also really appreciated the aggressively green plaid that the band sported at the time (although they have since denounced the look).
A horn section can be a tricky thing in a rock band, with many using it to very poor effect. But the Bosstones used it wonderfully, complementing the heaviness and adding a cool skanking sound to the metal chops. And the songs are fantastic and fun. “Someday I Suppose” is just one of the great rocking anthems from the 90s. “Illegal Left” is wonderfully catchy and funny. And “Issachar” is just blistering punk. These three songs show the rocking and skanking range on the disc. All of this is wrapped around Dicky Barrett’s rough, growling, heavily-smoker-sounding voice.
The Bosstones would go on to write some hugely popular tunes after this disc (with each disc getting progressively more recognition and sales) but for me, this is what ska is all about.
[READ: Week of September 7, 2009] Infinite Jest (to page 876)
Infinite Tasks drew my attention to a new comment regarding the Joelle timeline that we’ve been concerned about. Greg Carlisle responded to it at Infinite Summer. And so Infinite Tasks updated an older post here. I’m willing to accept Carlisle’s word as he did write Elegant Complexity after all.
And yet there’s another interesting time line issue that I bring up below about a chapter heading and an electronic calendar that Hal looks at.
I’ve also decided that, since the story is steamrolling to an end, and since so many of the end days are coming along, I’m going to update my own calendar (but just the November info). I’m putting it at the end of the post to include this week’s information.
In general, I’m a little bummed to see so many people have completed the book early, tempting as it is to do so (although obviously that’s better than not finishing at all, right?). I’m nevertheless enjoying my routine and I think I’ll actually miss it when it’s over.
This week’s reading is almost entirely focused on Gately in St Elizabeth’s Trauma Wing. He is stuck staring at the ceiling which is breathing at him. It reminds him of a holiday in Beverly, Ma in which the beach house that they rented had a hole in the roof. The hole was covered by a plastic sheet which flapped and pulsed with the wind. His crib was placed under the hole and it freaked him out (although what is a 4 year old doing in a crib? Well, Gately’s mom is clearly not the best parent.) Continue Reading »
Posted in Bewitched, Big Books, Boredom, Canadian Content, Cheers!, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, M*A*S*H, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Ren & Stimpy, Seinfeld, Set at School, Short Films, Suicide, Supernatural, Technology, Tennis, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Violence | Leave a Comment »
September 11, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: GREAT NORTHERN-Trading Twilight for Daylight (2007).
A patron donated this disc to our library. I had never heard of Great Northern, but I gave it a listen, in part because I hoped that the band name came from Twin Peaks (no idea if it does). And wow, I was blown away by this disc.
This is like the great unheralded indie rocker band (although having looked them up apparently the are quite heralded). Their songs sound like an inviting combination of The Anniversary (the GN song “The Middle” always puts me in mind of The Anniversary’s “The Siren Sings”), Veruca Salt, Nada Surf and any number of supremely catchy bands. The vocals are split between a make and female voice which makes the diversity even more appealing.
There’s not a bad song on the disc, and I find myself playing it quite often. The music is first rate, with great textural setups and drop offs, and the choruses, oh the choruses. It’s hard to even pick a favorite song.
I’m somewhat surprised I’d never heard of this band before (they have a new album out this year that I haven’t heard), but then they are on a label I’ve never heard of either (Eenie Meenie). I will totally get their new disc, as well as their Sleepy Eepie EP. I’m really that impressed.
[READ: January 2007] Sacco & Vanzetti Must Die
I read this book over two years ago (I’m cleaning up the final books that I haven’t posted about), and I’m afraid I’m a little shaky on the details. But I just remembered that I read about it in The Believer.
The premise of the book is that Sacco & Vanzetti are actually a comedy team, not anarchists. Well, they are anarchic, but in the realm of comedy, not bombs. They are a sort of Laurel & Hardy with Sacco as the fat troublemaker (and yes the name fits) and Vanzetti as the straight man, the ideologue. As they progress from slapstick routines to film, their comedy gets more specific, and their schtick concerns “knife grinders/throwers.” The knife angle is explained as a family trademark or maybe it’s a stolen gimmick.
Inevitably, their careers begin to wain, and their lives take a turn for the worst. And when things get bad, they get really bad, leading them to trial, with possible execution. Continue Reading »
Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Great Northern, History, Mark Binelli, Meta, Nada Surf, Racism, The Anniversary, The Believer, Threats, Twin Peaks, Veruca Salt, Violence | Leave a Comment »
September 10, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 6 Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (2005).
This CD sees Sonic Youth playing an instrumental background to three silent films from Stan Brakhage. It reminds me of the Jem Cohen DVD in which A Silver Mt Zion play the music for the silent Cohen film.
Now obviously, we don’t see the films on the CD. In fact, as far as I can tell it doesn’t even say which films they are (the credits are in Lithuanian). So, it’s impossible to tell if the pieces are contextually good.
As for the songs themselves, there are three short pieces. The first is about 25 minutes, the second about 14 and the last about 27 (even though the disc itself lists one piece at about 65 minutes). The pieces are leisurely and very abstract. There’s very little in the way of Sonic Youth in evidence: minimal distorted guitars (or much of any guitars). Rather, there are effects, percussion and occasional vocals from Kim. There are no hooks of any kind. But then what would you expect from soundtrack work?
Unlike the other SYR discs which were all about improvisation, this one feels more like a composition: abstract, strange and a little disorienting, but a composition nonetheless. I imagine that the films are dark and mysterious.
This disc falls in line with the style of SYR 4 Goodbye 20th Century. If you’re not really sure about SY, but you like abstract soundscapes, this is a good disc to check out.
[READ: August 30, 2009] The Convalescent
I had read a sample of the book about a month ago and was very intrigued. When the book came in the mail I was pretty excited to read it all.
But how to explain this peculiar book? Rovar Pfliegman is a mute, crippled man who lives in a broken down bus on the side of the road–out of which he sells meat. His meat is the cheapest and freshest in town so even though he sells it out of a bus on the side of the road, he has many clients.
Pfliegman is Hungarian, specifically, he comes from one of the eleven tribes who migrated over the Ural Mountains. (History records only ten tribes, and the word Hungarian stems from the word onogur, which means ten arrows.) This eleventh tribe, the Pliegmans tripped over their own feet, growled at strangers, stole other peoples food and were generally outcasts even amongst outcasts. As an example of the sort of tribe the Pfliegmans are, Rovar’s father after receiving a VCR in 1984 spent four minutes examining the buttons and one minute examining the manual before bashing it in the face. Continue Reading »
Posted in Anachronisms, History, Jem Cohen, Jessica Anthony, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Neurotics, Short Films, Silver Mt. Zion, Sonic Youth, Threats, Violence, Wikipedia | Leave a Comment »
September 9, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth (2008).
This final (so far) SYR release is another live recording and it sees the bands joined by saxophonist Mats Gustaffson and electronic wunderkind Merzbow. This EP comes from the 2005 Roskilde Festival in Denmark (and the language is all written in Danish). According to the SY website, the day before this, they had performed a set in support of Sonic Nurse. However, this set, “The Other Side of Sonic Youth” is an hour or so improvisation. It is basically broken down into 5 minute intervals:
1 min. Kim (guitar) & Steve (drums) start
5 min. Thurston (guitar) joins
10 min. Lee (more guitar) joins
15 min. Jim O’ Rourke (bass/synth?) joins
20 min. Mats Gustaffson (saxophone) joins
25 min. Merzbow (laptop) joins
30 min. Kim & Steve leave
35 min. Thurston leaves
40 min. Lee leaves
45 min. Mats leaves
50 min. Merzbow finishes
All times are approximate, and even listening to the disc it’s not entirely clear when the new players come on (or when they leave). For the most part, the set is varying levels of noise and dissonance. But it’s not just a wall of chaos. It starts fairly simply with the guitar and drums (although when Kim and Steve play it’s never really simple). By the time Jim comes out, the band has morphed into all manner of sound scapes.
When Mats comes in and that saxophone starts squealing, it’s a whole new ballgame. I don’t find Merzbow’s entrance to be all that noteworthy, but by the end, when it’s just him and Mats (or him by himself) he’s doing some pretty amazing stuff.
It’s hard to imagine what the Roskilde people thought of this (although crowd noise seems to be positive). This set was followed by Black Sabbath, which in and of itself is pretty funny. Especially since the SY set seems far more dissonant.
[READ: September 6, 2009] Samuel Johnson is Indignant
This collection of Davis’ work contains fifty-six of stories. The stories range from one sentence (!) to some twenty pages.
The book is disconcerting in that it opens with several of the one to two page stories, leading you to suspect that they will all be that length. Then, when you actually get to the longer pieces it kind of throws you.
Those first stories are I guess what you’d call flash fiction. Except that for the most part, it’s hard to tell whether the pieces are even meant to be fiction. They are aphoristic, often. Talking about neighbors and friends, uncomfortable moments, and mostly, lots of thinking about everyday activities. Some of them are funny. Some of them are thought-provoking. Some of them are just weird. And some of them make you wonder why they were written at all, or more to the point, why she would name this collection Samuel Johnson is Indignant, when this story,consists of this:
“Samuel Johnson is Indignant: that Scotland has so few trees.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Black Sabbath, Death, Demons, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funny (strange), History, Lydia Davis, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Merzbow, Research, Short Books, Short Story, Sonic Youth | 1 Comment »
September 4, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000).
In the midst of all of the experimentation with the SYR discs. Sonic Youth released this “proper” release.
At the time, it was actually the impetus for me to stop buying Sonic Youth records. Between the experimental discs and the expanding palate of 1,000 Leaves, it felt like Sonic Youth were sort of drifting away from rock altogether. It was certainly a way to alienate fans of Goo and Dirty.
You get two two songs over seven minutes and three over five (there are two short blasts in the middle which add some heaviness to the proceedings). But for the most part, this is a very spare, almost atmospheric affair.
Prior to recording the disc, the bands custom gear was stolen. So they started from scratch for this recording. And that may have something to do with the ambient, almost spatial sound. It is quite mellow, (although still angular and dissonant) with a number of spoken word/beat poetry vocals.
Whether it’s pretentious or artsy depends on your take for recited lyrics (and SY’s lyrics are inscrutable anyhow). Although Lee’s piece “NYC Ghosts and Flowers” seems to fit the style best (he has done a number of spoken vocal pieces in the past). And “Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)” has a sort of commercial appeal. The closing tack “Lightnin'” even features a trumpet, which I assume is played by Kim. It’s the most noisy piece on the disc, with all kinds of fun sound effects showing up.
I’ve been listening to this disc a lot lately. I think because I’ve revisited the experimental discs, this one makes more sense. It’s not what I’d call a typical Sonic Youth album, or even the best Sonic Youth album. It is certainly their most jazzy/mellow experiment (especially compared to the noise of says the SYR discs) and is about as far from their commercial peak as they could get.
The strangest thing to me though is that, despite all of the experimentation and slow-building songs, the whole disc is under 45 minutes. So, they aren’t just making noise to fill space.
[READ: Week of August 31] Infinite Jest (to page 808)
In all of the talk about DFW’s “psychic” abilities with regard to technologies, one thing no one has mentioned–that I’ve seen–is his love of Venus Williams. Her name keeps popping up (I’d say at least a half dozen references so far). And in many ways one doesn’t think too much of it (she is the #3 player right now, bested by her sister Serena who is #2). But the amazing thing about his embrace of Venus is that as 
of 1996, when the book was published, she had barely played any pro tournaments.
Look a these tidbits from Sports Illustrated:
October 31, 1994: Venus wins her first pro match, defeating Shaun Stafford at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland. … Venus faces Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the No. 2 player in the world, in her next match. Venus races out to a 6-3, 3-1 lead but then folds as Sanchez Vicario wins 11 consecutive games. In an interview after the match, Venus is asked how the loss compares with previous defeats. She answers bemusedly that she has never before lost a match.
May 22, 1995: Reebok announces it has signed Venus to a five-year, $12 million deal. Thus far, Venus has played in one pro tournament.
Although much has been speculated (by me and others) about when he was actually writing this book (and when he was able to send in last minute changes), she would not break into the Top 20 until 1998. He clearly saw something in her.
I write these posts as I go along. So, I read the day’s pages take notes and then type them up. This is why I get moments of speculation in the posts. But mostly it means that when I start writing I don’t know how much there will be in total. This is now the second week in a row where the early reading started off, if not slowly, then certainly without all too much happening. The notes I took were very simple, along the lines of: Marathe in Ennet House or Kate & Marathe talk. I knew I could remember what they were talking about, but there wasn’t a lot of notable moments.
And then, we get the trifecta of Endnotes and Tine’s interview. Holy cow, a torrent of information flooding out at once. It doubled my word count almost immediately. Phew.
As this week’s reading starts out we see Marathe trying to check into Ennet House. Okay, actually he’s there as the final part of his recon looking for the veiled girl who was in the Entertainment and is now in rehab.
His new-eyes-looking-at-the-place is rather enlightening as I hadn’t realized just how dreary and drab the House is (nor just how weird most of the residents would be). The supporting cast is in good form: some of them sleeping, some of them talking loudly, others just staring. And Marathe takes it all in. Continue Reading »
Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Colin Meloy, Consumerism, Contests, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, David Lynch, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Eschaton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Neurotics, Noir, Postmoderism, Set at School, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, Sports, Sports Illustrated, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, Violence, Wikipedia, Work, Yuck! | 5 Comments »
September 4, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: UI-Sidelong (1996).
I mentioned this band in my review of The New Yorker because Sasha Frere-Jones writes the music column for the magazine and he’s also the main guy here.
This disc is challenging to describe but certainly not to listen to. It is a gorgeous smooth/funky/instrumental set. The band plays with sound effects and time changes, but they are grounded by a fantastic double bass-guitar rhythm. In some ways they remind me of the bass style from Morphine (that fluid and ultra-cool sound).
There’s a couple of songs with words, although they’re not really anything special (mostly sort of chanting/free verse style). Stick with the instrumentals which don’t get bogged down with concepts.
This album came out the same year as Tortoise’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Tortoise seems to be a frame of reference for reviewers (like me), although they don’t sound anything alike. I guess its the whole instrumentals-can-be-cool aesthetic.
If you like your music funky and bass heavy without being dance music (although you can certain groove to Ui) or straight up funk, this is a disc worth seeking out.
[READ: August 24, 2009] Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama (Issue 1)
I had a couple of reasons for reviewing this comic before the series was finished. One, it’s Army of Darkness. Two, Ash saves President Obama. Three, It’s Army of Darkness!! And four it’s on a small press, so they can use the publicity.
You need to know some back story to understand just what the hell is going on here. And if you haven’t seen any of the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell films (Evil Dead/Army of Darkness) then this probably doesn’t mean much to you. Continue Reading »
Posted in Ariel Padilla, Army of Darkness, Barack Obama, Elliot Serrano, Evil Dead, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Morphine, Supernatural, Tortoise, Ui, Violence, Zombies | Leave a Comment »
September 3, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 7: J’accuse Ted Hughes/Agnès B Musique (2008).
The first side of the disc (for it was only released on vinyl) is a ballsy blast of music. Ballsy because it was the opening track of their live set at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in 2000. And who opens up their set at a festival that features bands like Super Furry Animals, Sigur Rós, and Stereolab (basically a who’s who in awesome Brit-rock) with this 22 minute shriek of noise?
The set was so derisively received that the cover of the NME (hilariously reproduced on the cover of the LP) stated “Goodbye 20th Century, Goodbye Talent.”
The noise is palpable: squeals and squalls and all manner of feedback. Kim even gets a strange little spoken word section in the middle. I would think fans might have enjoyed it for 5, maybe even 10 minutes, but by 23 it’s pretty numbing. The rest of the set included instrumentals from the not yet released NYC Ghosts and Flowers. It almost seems like the set was payback for the invitation.
The B-side is an 18 minute “soundtrack” of sorts. Agnes B. is a French clothing designer and yet somehow the music feels like it could be for some scary kids’ movie. It has a number of creepy elements to it. I kept picturing people sneaking around a little cottage.
The liner notes are written in Arpitan, a steadily-declining-in-use language spoken mostly in Italy and Switzerland.
Not for the faint of heart (or the vinylphobic).
[READ: August 31, 2009] Four Letter Word
I read about this book in The Walrus and then I ordered it from Amazon.ca as it doesn’t seem to be available in the US.
The book is a collection of “love letters.” What is so very interesting about the collection is the varied nature of the letters themselves. It’s not just: “I love you XOXO” (of course). There are letters to mothers, stepmothers, mountains, and the Earth itself. There are letters of love, lust, anger and respect.
I was most attracted to the book by the great list of authors, some of whom I read religiously and many others whom I just really like (and of course a bunch who I’ve never heard of).
It’s hard to review a collection of short stories that is as varied as this, especially when the pieces are this short (as most of them are). And, I guess technically, they aren’t even short stories. They are just letters. I would never base my opinion of these authors from this work. Although some of the authors that I know well definitely retain their signature style. There were only one or two letters that I didn’t enjoy, but for the most part the entire collection is very good. And if you like any of these authors, it’s worth checking out.
I’m going to list all of the authors, mention who the letter is to, and any other salient features (without trying to give anything away–several letters have a surprise in them)! Continue Reading »
Posted in A.L. Kennedy, Anachronisms, Audrey Niffenegger, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Chris Bachelder, David Bezmozgis, Death, Demons, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Fantasy, Francine Prose, Gautam Malkani, Geoff Dyer, Gods, Hari Kunzru, Harper's, Humiliation, Illusion, Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Lethem, Juli Zeh, Leonard Cohen, LGBTQ, Lionel Shriver, Margaret Atwood, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Nick Laird, Peter Behrens, Phil LaMarche, Religion, Romance, Sam Lipsyte, Sex, Short Story, Sigur Rós, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Super Furry Animals, Supernatural, Technology, Tessa Brown, The Walrus, Ursula K. Le Guin | 1 Comment »
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