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January 21, 2009 by Paul Debraski

inauguration

Posted in Barack Obama | Leave a Comment »

Clifford Chase–Winkie (2006)

January 14, 2009 by Paul Debraski

winkieSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Oh My Gawd!!!..The Flaming Lips (1987).

gawd1The cover of this disc makes a statement.  And it should tell you everything you need to know about the music inside.  It’s got skulls and psychedelic colors and Oh My Gawd!!!  And yet, it doesn’t, exactly.  It’s not quite as out there as the cover might make you think.

Because it’s funny how much this disc’s first song sounds like the Replacements (except where he starts singing about his brains falling out and everything exploding…not quite ‘Mats material).  But Wayne sounds like early, sloppy Paul Westerberg, and the riffs are not too far off from some of the early ‘Mats records.

Even the wonderfully titled 9 minute epic  “One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Afternoon” isn’t quite as much of a freak out as you might expect.  In fact, the early instrumental part is one of the prettiest melodies they’ve done.  It is particularly interesting given its sparse instrumentation.   The song does eventually drift back into earlier Pink Floyd territory (“Astronomy Domine” etc). But it’s “The Ceiling is Bendin'” that is the freak out you’re looking for, with a fun drum fading and the chaos.  “Maximum Dream for Evil Kenevil” on the other hand is a noisy mess (a fun noisy mess, but a noisy mess nonetheless).

It’s clear that they’re doing some good experimentation with audio effects.  And yet “Can’t Exist” is a delicate little song with just a light touch of feedback.

The first half of “Prescription: Love” is a rocking instrumental that would not sound out of place as a Nirvana B-side (but since it came before Nirvana, let’s say maybe on an SST Records track.  The second half returns to the garage rocking sound (with some funky deep vocals dubbed on…the first of many experiments with voice on future albums).

“Ode to C.C., Pt. 2” feels like it’s going to take of in an explosion but never does. But it has the excellent line “Hell’s got all the good bands anyway.”  “Can’t Stop the Spring” is another fantastic riff rocking song, and it starts and end with a classical music sample.  [Which I can’t place right now, sadly].

The disc ends with “Love Your Brain,” a 7 minute piano workout –which ultimately ends in the destruction of the room.  It sounds like every instrument in the place is destroyed.

So this disc expands the sonic weirdness of the Flaming Lips’ first disc, and it also showcases their growth as musicians.  It’s not a brilliant album by any means although it is quite good.  The most interesting thing is seeing how much they are experimenting with sounds now, and how it will pay off for them later on.

[READ: Late 2006 & December 2008] Winkie

I read this book two years ago, and my memory of it is not that great.  I’m only including it because I really enjoyed it at the time, and would like to make some record of having read it.

UPDATE: I have decided to re-read this book while on P breaks at work.  I am now utterly unsure whether or not I read the book fully last time.  I have just finished it again, and I was totally surprised by so many things (although one or two things did trigger my memory) that I really had to wonder if I finished it.

So, the story is about a stuffed bear named Winkie.  Winkie was a beloved toy of the Chase family and most recently of Clifford Chase [see author’s name now].  As the story opens, Winkie, the stuffed bear, is being tackled by the FBI as they arrest him for terrorist activities.  [You can re-read that sentence to see if your brain digested it.] Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Clifford Chase, Dystopia, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Meta, Nirvana, Political Humor, Pregnancy, Prison, Racism, Religion, Short Books, Soiled Underpants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, The Replacements, Threats, War, WMDs | 2 Comments »

McSweeney’s#1 [Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (or “Gegenshein”) Autumn 1998 “The Ski Instructor”]

January 13, 2009 by Paul Debraski

mcsweeneys1SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Hear It Is (1986).

hear-it-isI’ve claimed that I love the Lips, but then I was very harsh about their cover of “White Christmas,” and I noted that I wouldn’t listen to the soundtrack of  Christmas on Mars very much.  So, I felt I owed them some love.  But my recollection of their early stuff was that it was pretty weird and hard to listen to.

And yet, I proved myself wrong.  Hear It Is is not the Flaming lips of the early 2000’s.  It’s almost like the bratty younger brother of that band.  Only Wayne and Michael Ivins are present, and the band is pretty much just guitar, bass and drums.  The guitar is distorted and noisy (except when it’s acousticy and mellow).  The album doesn’t sound too far out of place for a college radio record in the late 80s.

Except of course that Wayne and the boys are pretty out there. The music is psychedelic, acid inspired and quite punk.  So you get songs like “Jesus Shootin’ Heroin” a seven minute epic of heavy riffs and screaming, but also of background “Ahhhh’s”.  You also get “With You” a song that starts out like a pretty, acoustic ballad. “Godzilla Flick” is a ballad like no other.  And yet despite all of the freakouts and noise, really at this stage what you get is a Led Zeppelin inspired heavy garage band having a lot of fun.  To say that this is going to blow your mind would be unfair, but to anyone who says the early stuff is unlistenable, they are totally wrong.   Hear It Is is sloppy, punky and a little ridiculous, the ideal incubator for what will become the Lips of 2000.

This CD comes with a cover of “Summertime Blues.”  This disc was reissued along with their initial EP and some bonus tracks on the disc Finally the Punk Rockers are Taking Acid.

[READ: 1998 and January 10, 2009] McSweeney’s #1

I have been reading McSweeney’s since its inception.  (My copy of this issue even has the two page typed letter that explains the failure of Might magazine and the origins of this one. However, it’s been over ten years since I read the first issues.  Given my new perspective on McSweeney’s, and how I read just about everything they release, I thought it was about time to go back to the beginning and proceed through the issues until I meet up where I first started reviewing them.

Issue #1 has many features that are absent in later issues:

First is the cover.  This cover is simply filled with words; practically littered with them.  There are subtitles, there are jokes, there’s all sorts of things (I mean, just look at the full title of this issue).

Second is the letters column.  The difference with this letters column compared to most publications is that they are all (or mostly) nonsense.  One comes from an author whose piece is accepted into the issue (Morgan Phillips).  Another is a funny/silly letter from Sarah Vowell.  And there’s a letter to his cousin from John Hodgman (whose comic potential may not have been tapped at this point?). Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Bill Clinton, Books about writers, Christmas on Mars, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Egyptology, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Glasgow Phillips, John Hodgman, Komar and Melamid, Led Zeppelin, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Neal Pollack, Racism, Rick Moody, Roberto Bolaño, Sarah Vowell, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Flaming Lips, War, Zev Borow | 3 Comments »

McSweeney’s #29 (2008)

January 11, 2009 by Paul Debraski

mc29SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993).

monkeyI had actually forgotten about this album, because it was so overshadowed by Truth and Soul and Reality….. When I put it on I wasn’t expecting much (Fishbone had something of a precipitous decline around this time).  So, I was amazingly delighted with how much I remembered this album and how much I enjoyed it (which shows to me that I must have listened to it a lot back in college).

This album is much much heavier than anything they’ve done up to this point (I can’t speak for the releases that came after it).  It does have some variety of songs, but not nearly as much as their previous releases.  The other notable thing is that there’s no short songs on it.  There’s none of the one minute songs that they’ve put throughout their discs.

“Swim” was the single from the album and it is heavy and moshy.  The video, I seem to recall, was a lot of people crowd surfing.  “Black Flowers” slows things down a bit, but unlike previous ballads, this one is still pretty loud.  It’s got a great catchy melody, but it’s still  quite dark. “Servitude” reminds me of some of King’s X’s s darker moments, with their riffs and dark harmonies.  (This just shows how Fishbone is much more metal on this release).  Their first “lighter” song is the return to ska with “Unyielding Condition.”  It’s a nice let up from the heaviness, and is still catchy. “Lemon Meringue” is the other lighter moment, with a nice bass riff included.

Funk returns with “Properties of Propaganda” and the repeated chants of “Fuk This Shit on Up.”  “The Warmth of Your Breath” is hardcore insanity, the type of song that would have been about 2 minutes on another disc sort of overstays its welcome, although the often repeated line “may your dog’s colon be familiar with the warmth of your breath” while barely audible can’t help but raise a smile.  And even though “Drunk Skitzo” features Branford Marsalis, it’s still too long for such silliness.

So, it’s really the first half of the disc that I liked a lot…I guess some discs run too long.

I never got a Fishbone CD after this one.   The reviews were pretty lousy by then.  But of course, the reviews of this one were lousy too, so maybe I’m, selling their later output short.

[READ: January 3, 2009] McSweeney’s # 29

My cover for this book happens to be red.  Huh.

This issue comes as a hardcover book.  There are planets on the cover, including a die cut hole that shows the moon of the next page.

On the bottom of every page of the book are matchbox labels.  Most of them are Eastern European in origin.  They were collected by Jane McDevitt, a web designer in the UK.  Some of the images are available on her Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/maraid.  They are a pretty cool collection of images.  And, they brighten up all the work . Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Fishbone, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joyce Carol Oates, King's X, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Military, Outer Space, Roddy Doyle, Sex, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Threats, Unlikable main character, Violence, War, Yannick Murphy | Leave a Comment »

Colson Whitehead–“The Gangsters” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 9, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage-Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII (2008).

sufjan-viiiI downloaded this disc from an online source.  And no I don’t feel bad about it because it wasn’t officially released, so no one is losing money.  If it ever gets released I’ll surely buy it.

Volumes VI and VII are unavailable anywhere, so maybe when he finishes vol X, Asthmatic Kitty will release another box set of his Christmas EPs.

So this disc is a radical departure from the five volumes in the box set (who knows what he got up to from 2006-2007).  It is so different that I had to wonder if it is actually his release or just an internet prank. I mean, the cover is crazily different, the title is outrageous, and the music is…well, I’ll get to that.  On the other hand, Sufjan’s voice is so distinctive, that it’s hard to see how anyone could have pulled that off.

The title certainly implies space-age keyboardy stuff and that is exactly what you get.  There are virtually no acoustic instruments at all (except for “Christmas in the Room,” which is done mostly on piano.)

The traditional songs include: “Angels We Have Heard on High”  which has a fully electronic sound, but which works very well with the ethereal nature of the song.  “Do You See What I See” on the other hand is very mechanized.  It has vocals processed through a robot voice for some of the song.  And the backing vocals seem to be deliberately dissonant. The chorus, on the other hand is still quite cool.  “Good King Wenceslas” has the same electronic robot type voice, but that voice performs the entire song.  It’s disconcerting at best.  “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is a keyboardy instrumental, with space effects thrown in for good measure.  “Joy to the World” is next to last.  It runs over seven minutes and is very mellow.  As with his previous recording of the song, I don’t care for the pacing of this version.  It’s very slow and meandering for what I often think of as a, well, joyous song.

“Christmas in the Room” is an original that is sung by someone other than Sufjan (no liner notes for the download).  It’s the only song that is not electronic, being done on a piano (although there are some keyboard flourishes in the background). “The Child with the Star on His Head” is a 13 minute (!)  song that is primarily instrumental. The first half of the song is very mellow (with gentle horns and a mellotron, I think).  The last 7 minutes are a cycle of the same refrain (with la la las) and a gorgeous trumpet solo (!).  The final three minutes are sort of a keyboard winding down, almost like a space ship lullaby.  It’s a beautiful piece even if it is wholly unexpected on a Christmas EP!

[READ: January 6, 2009] “The Gangsters”

I enjoyed this story immensely.

This line sort of sets up the basis of the story: “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses.” Continue Reading »

Posted in Boredom, Christmas Album, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Holidays, New Yorker, Sufjan Stevens | Leave a Comment »

Zadie Smith–“Dead Man Laughing” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 8, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Peace! Songs for Christmas Vol. V (2006).

peaceThis EP comes very close to being my favorite; it may even beat vol 3.  In part because the disc is 35 minutes long (still short for Sufjan Stevens but longer than some bands’ full lengths).

Four songs are sort of repeated from other discs.  “Once in Royal David’s City,” “Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming,” (a pretty piano version) “Jingle Bells” (a bouncy piano version) and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (a slow piano version) are short instrumental reprises and act as nice segues between the more meaty songs.

“Get Behind Me, Santa!” is something of a Santa bashing song, but it’s still pretty fun (with some great prog rock synth sounds).  But it is nowhere near as delightful as “Christmas in July,” another original that is totally Sufjan, from start to finish.  It’s a great song regardless of the season.  The pair of “Jupiter Winter” and “Sister Winter” are two originals: one mellow, the other less so.  While I don’t love “Jupiter,” “Sister” is fantastic.

“Star of Wonder” is not the part from “We three Kings” but an original song full of Sufjan’s orchestration.  It is mesmerizing. “Holy, Holy, Holy” is another beautiful rendition of a classic Christmas song (the delicate harmonies are really affecting).  And finally, “The Winter Solstice” sounds just like its title: chilly and spare.

And that completes the box set, one of my favorite Christmas collections.

[READ: January 4, 2009] “Dead Man Laughing”

I have only read On Beauty (and a piece in The Believer to be reviewed later) by Zadie Smith and yet I feel that she has rapidly eclipsed many of my favorite writers.  There is something about her style that is just beautiful to me.  She writes deliberately and powerfully without overembellishing or resorting to anything beneath her.  People often say that they could listen to so and so sing or recite the phone book, their voice is so good (I feel that way about Patrick Stewart).  Well whatever the equivalent for a writer is, that hows I feel about Zadie Smith. Continue Reading »

Posted in Andy Zaltzman, Christmas Album, Comedy Album, Edward Aczel, Essays, Fawlty Towers, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, John Oliver, Monty Python's Flying Circus, New Yorker, Political Humor, Smarty Pants, Sufjan Stevens, The Daily Show, Zadie Smith | 1 Comment »

Roberto Bolaño–“Meeting with Enrique Lihn” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 7, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Joy! Songs for Christmas Vol. IV (2006).

joyThis disc has only one guest on it: Bridgit DeCook.  And she adds some very nice harmonies to some of the songs.  It also contains only one short (less than a minute) instrumental: “The First Noel” (which is a lot of la las and is really nice)The rest of the disc stays around the 3-4 minute mark, with no long songs.

There are two full-length traditional Christmas songs: “Away in a Manger” in a a beautiful simple folk rendition.  And there’s also the best rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” I’ve ever heard: it’s understated and moving with beautiful harmonies (and virtually no drums).

There are three Sufjan originals on this EP.  “Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time” has that distinctive Sufjan original sound.  Even though the instrumentation is simple guitar (really fuzzy out in the opening notes), it is clearly an original and a good one.  “Did I Make You Cry on Christmas? (Well, You Deserved It!)” is one of those songs that is stark and negative and yet it is so catchy.  It’s something that Sufjan does very well.  The third original is “The Incarnation.”  It’s a brief instrumental, which sounds rather mournful.

The final song, “Joy to the World” is a bit more subdued than I prefer this song to be, but it’s still pleasant, and the unexpected guitar riff between verses is unusual but very cool.

[READ: January 5, 2009] “Meeting with Enrique Lihn”

I had been hearing a lot about how Bolaño had died while finishing up his latest and last novel 2666.  And since the book was just released here, I had it in my head that he had just recently died.  However, as most anyone knows, this U.S. edition is a translation; the book was actually published a few years ago.  And Bolaño died in 2003.  This doesn’t really make a big difference to anything, it just somehow means I didn’t “just miss” reading him while he was alive.  But regardless, that has little impact on this story.

I just had to look up to see if Enrique Lihn was a real person (which shows my unsurprising dearth of knowledge about Chilean poets).  Continue Reading »

Posted in Books about writers, Chris Andrews, Christmas Album, Dreams, New Yorker, Roberto Bolaño, Sufjan Stevens, Supernatural, Translation, Unreliable narrator | 1 Comment »

Alice Munro–“Some Women” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 7, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Ding! Dong! Songs for Christmas Vol. III (2006).

dingdong1Disc Three of the Sufjan Christmas collection is my favorite.  It returns to the more mellow, folksy style of the first disc (and is replete with banjo!).  It opens with some thing of a reprise of “O Come, O Come Emanuel” (only a minute long).  It’s piano and vocals and very pretty.  It proceeds to his boppingest, Christmas song on the whole set: “Come on, Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance” with multiple singers and lots of instruments (and a fugue pattern of voices, too).   It continues with two traditional songs: “We Three Kings” (possibly the best version I heard all season) and “O Holy Night.”  I’ve mentioned that “O Holy Night is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and this version is quite good, with lovely harmonies (from different people listed although, no one credited specifically for the track) and the way it builds to such a full song by the end.

Despite the title, “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” sounds beautifully reminiscent of Sufjan’s catchiest banjo-infused songs on Illinois (the mellow ones without orchestration).  “Ding! Dong!” is a short instrumental.  “All the Kings Horns,” is an original.  And the disc ends with “The Friendly Beasts,” which some will note is Sarah’s favorite Christmas song.  I like this version more than most others, although the doubling vocals make it a little hard to understand.

So, hooray for Vol. III!

[READ: January 5, 2009] “Some Women”

Alice Munro continues to be shockingly prolific.  At this rate I’ll have read her entire forthcoming short story collection before it even comes out. Continue Reading »

Posted in Alice Munro, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Christmas Album, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Short Story, Sufjan Stevens | 3 Comments »

Donald Antrim–“Another Manhattan” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 7, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Hark! Songs for Christmas Vol. II (2006).

harkIf we imagine that Sufjan had fun with vol. 1 one, then he must have had twice as much fun with vol. 2.  It’s nearly twice as long and full of a lot of short ditties.  “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” are short (less than a minute) instrumental versions (on keyboards which almost sound like a music box) of those songs (something that will become prominent throughout the series).  I love his version of “I Saw Three Ships,” the instrumentation is exotic and wonderful.

“Put the Lights on the Tree” is an original that sounds the most like Sufjan’s Illinois record.  It has those Michael Nymanesque fugue-like keyboard/orchestra bits and lots of backing vocals.  It’s only a shame it’s so short.  “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing” is a another mellow banjo folkie song that dates from the 18th century.  And “Only at Christmas Time” is another original, delicate and mellow.  I love that he can do such mellow songs even though he is known for his full orchestration.

“Once in Royal David’s City” (with lead banjo) and “We Three Kings” are sung by a guest vocalist: Vito Aiuto.  His voice is quite similar to Sufjans’s but is a bit more powerful.  “What Child is This Anyway” is a 6 minute keyboard-infused epic of the traditional song.  It’s very cool, with some interesting fuzztones on the keybaords.  And finally, “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella”  is a subdued ending to the disc, sounding like it was recorded on an old phonograph.

It’s a nice progression from the first EP.

[READ: January 5, 2009] “Another Manhattan”

Some stories move along at a very brisk pace.  This is one of those stories.  Admittedly, in the beginning it was a little tough keeping the characters straight, but after a few paragraphs, it all falls into place.

The story is about two couples: Jim and Kate and and Elliot and Susan.  Jim & Kate are married, and Elliot & Susan are married.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Christmas Album, Donald Antrim, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Sufjan Stevens, Suicide | Leave a Comment »

Mark Twain–“The Privilege of the Grave” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

January 7, 2009 by Paul Debraski

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS-Noel: Songs for Christmas Vol. I (2006).

noelI haven’t been reviewing the individual  Christmas CDs that I listened to.  However, since there were  a whole bunch of stories in this one New Yorker magazine, (easily  the most I’ve read in one issue) and since there are 5 Sufjan Stevens EPs in this collection, it seemed like a good fit.

Vol 1 is the shortest disc of the five in the box set.  It was recorded in his basement in 2001.  But lest you think that this is a lo-fi affair like the kids are so into these days, you’d be mistaken.  Sufjan’s basement must be ENORMOUS!  This disc is multitracked, with harmonies, and all manner of esoteric folk instruments.

It has four familiar traditional songs, “Silent Night” (a beautiful brief guitar instrumental) “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” (a lovely acoustic number done slightly differently than normal) “Amazing Grace,” (a mellow banjo version) and what he titled, “Holy Holy, etc.” (a pretty, short instrumental). Two originals, “We’re Goin’ to the Country!” (a fun folky song with sleighbells) and “It’s Christmas, Let’s Be Glad” (rollicking an fun) and one traditional song that I’ve never heard of (and this is a trend on each disc) “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” (a 15th century German carol).

The disc is mostly sung by Sufjan, with his delicate voice and earnest falsetto.  And, as I said, the music is folkie, but with unexpected instruments.  In fact, his version of “Amazing Grace” is really delightful.  It’s cool to hear it in a more subdued version than some of the overblown carols out there.  It’s a promising start to what would become an annual tradition.

[READ: January 4, 2009] “The Privilege of the Grave”

This was a banner issue of The New Yorker.  Usually I read a few things, but this one was chock full of great stuff.  It started with this unpublished piece from Mark Twain that was written in 1905. Continue Reading »

Posted in Christmas Album, Free Speech, Mark Twain, New Yorker, Smarty Pants, Sufjan Stevens | Leave a Comment »

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