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Charles Burns–Black Hole (2005)

November 10, 2008 by Paul Debraski

black-holeSOUNDTRACK: BLACK MOUNTAIN–In the Future (2008).

black-mountainAn ironically titled disc, surely.  Black Mountain is a Vancouver-based band that specializes in 70’s era psychedelia with a heavy dose of Black Sabbath.  Yet, like Dungen or other bands that tread this “revivalist” style, they don’t mimic the sound..they definitely sound contemporary, but the vibes of the 70s are constant.

Black Mountain features two singers: Stephen McBean and Amanda Webber.  Webber’s voice in particular harkens back to an amalgamation of Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Nancy Wilson and the collective voice of Fleetwood Mac. McBean sounds like several singers of the era too.

“Stormy High” opens the album with the best Black Sabbath riff that Sabbath never wrote.  It sounds like something straight out of Sabotage.  “Angels” slows things down into a kind of Bad Company vibe, complete with trippy 70s keyboards in the middle of the song.  “Wucan” sounds more contemporary (the vocals in particular remind me of something, but I can’t place it) and “Stay Free” is a nice acoustic ballad.  “Queens Will Play” gives Webber the spotlight and the song in particular sounds like a wonderfully creepy take on Fleetwood Mac.

Although some of the songs are longish (6-8 minute), most of them are fairly brief.  Except, of course, for the 16 minute “Bright Lights”.  I think it’s fair to say that 8 minutes could be cut off of this song and it would still be great.  The middle riff-tastic part is really fantastic, but the opening and the noodley keyboard solo could easily be lopped off.

The disc also came with a bonus disc of 3 songs.  Each one adds to the mythos of this fascinating band.  I’m curious about their debut release as well.

[READ: November 8, 2008] Black Hole

My friend Andrew loaned me this book.  I had recently read an interview with Charles Burns in The Believer (and more abou that in a moment), which excerpted this book.  It looked really good, but then I promptly forgot about it.  And Andrew filled in the gap for me.

Charles Burns’ work appears in astonishingly diverse places.  I know him mostly because he is the cover heavy-metalartist for The Believer, (his interview in that magazine is pretty great) and his been since its inception. But I also know him from the early 80s when he was an artist with Heavy Metal magazine–when I did a search for this magazine, this was one of the results, and I distinctly remember it being in my magazine collection (gosh, some 25 years ago?). Continue Reading »

Posted in Altoids, Bad Company, Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Canadian Music, Charles Burns, Dungen, Fleetwood Mac, Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Heavy Metal, Jefferson Airplane, Set at School, The Believer, YA Books, Yuck! | 1 Comment »

Janice Galloway–“Opera” (The Walrus, April 2008)

November 6, 2008 by Paul Debraski

walrus-aprilSOUNDTRACK: ALEXISONFIRE/MONEEN Split EP (2005).

alexisThis is a disc in which the Alexisonfire guys play 2 Moneen songs and the Moneen guys play 2 Alexionfire songs. (Plus two originals from each band).  I picked this up when I ordered AOF’s Crisis, because according to MapleMusic, they couldn’t ship it outside of Canada.  I figured it must be some kind of rare thing, until I saw it on Amazon, so I just ordered it there.

The “selling point” of the disc is, of course, hearing these guys play each others’ songs.  However, I don’t know the originals, so it’s hard for me to comment on the covers.  Regardless, this is a fun collection of two bands respectfully playing each others songs (albeit in a fun way).

Knowing what I do about the two bands, it’s interesting to see the different styles that they bring to the songs.  AOF’s growl-y singer brings a hardcore edge to Moneen’s more emo tracks, and conversely, Moneen soften up AOF’s songs with their math rock leanings.  Plus, there are a few surprises as well: “Passing Out in America” (done by AOF) has a great a capella section where the guys sing what I assume is a musical passage in Moneen’s original.

The Maplemusic listing and cover suggests that this is called “The Switcheroo” although my copy doesn’t state that on it.  Maybe that’s what couldn’t leave the Canadian border.

[READ: November 1, 2008] “Opera”

This story feels like an excerpt, although I’m not sure that it is.  There seems to be some things missing, which are only noticeable because of the things that are not missing.  For instance, Michaela is off the boat from Ireland, but it doesn’t say where she presently is or where the story is set. The other character, Lola has no characteristics that mark her as being Irish (it doesn’t say she is, for instance) yet she uses the most general Irish slang when talking to Michaela: calling her “hen,” saying “in wee pieces” and “on you go.”  None of these phrases are as Irish as say “caid mille failte” but they do give a bit of lilt to the character.  But Lola’s background is basically left out, she may be Irish, she may not. Continue Reading »

Posted in Alexisonfire, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Janice Galloway, Moneen, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

YES WE CAN!

November 5, 2008 by Paul Debraski

hope1Congratulations, President Barack Obama!

Posted in Barack Obama, History, Magic, Shepard Fairey | 1 Comment »

Ali Riley–“Hag” [excerpt] (The Walrus, May 2008)

November 3, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-Parallel Play (2008).

I’ve enjoyed Sloan since my friend Al played me their first single “Underwhelmed” back in the 1990s.  Unlike Al, however, I have enjoyed them ever since.  In fact, a few of their discs rank up as my favorites of all time (Between the Bridges, in particular).

The one thing I have never been able to do, however, is keep track of who is who in the band and who writes/sings which songs.  I think if I were younger and had more free time I’d be all over keeping these things straight.  However, at this point, it’s not worth the effort.  Which is fine, as I can’t decide who is my favorite songwriter anyway.  Just when I’m sure that “Witches Wand” is my favorite track on the record, I remember “All I Am is All I’m Not” or “I’m Not a Kid Anymore” and I give up trying to decide which guy makes me happiest.

What’s interesting about this album is that (at least according to one interview) the four guys wrote and played each one of their songs by themselves.  There are 13 tracks which means they each got 3 songs and someone got a bonus track.  The joke of the title is that, much like 2 year-olds who play next to each other but don’t interact, this album was played by 4 friends who never interacted with each other.

So, you get 4 songwriters, playing the full spectrum of their ideas, but who are all still Sloan, and you get a wildly divergent album that retains the overall sound of the band.  It’s really tremendous.   This album is also under 40 minutes, so you get great hook-filled songs that come in, rock your world, and then leave.  It’s also hard for me to pick a favorite Sloan album at this point, because each one has so many good songs.  Their last album, Never Hear the End of It was a little too long at 70 minutes, but it was still full of fantastic songs (and I guess if you have 4 songwriters each contributing something you’d be hard pressed to create crap).

Sloan are back, and still producing great stuff.  Now, if anyone wants to tell me who is who, that would be terrific.

[READ: October 29, 2008] “Hag”

I didn’t realize this was an excerpt until the very end where it states that you can read an expanded version of the story here.  I thought the story seemed unfinished, so that makes sense.  Anyhow, this story won the 2007 Summer Literary Seminar.

This two page excerpt shows Lance and the narrator hitching a ride to Calgary.  The time is the mid 70s, as noted by Creem Magazine (I used to love that mag!), Joni Mitchell’s Hejira record and vinyl albums lovingly stored in plastic sleeves.  Continue Reading »

Posted in Ali Riley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Creem, Funny (strange), Joni Mitchell, LGBTQ, Sloan, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »

Annie Proulx–-“Tits-Up in a Ditch” (New Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2008) [UNFINISHED]

November 3, 2008 by Paul Debraski

[READ: November 1, 2008] “Tits-Up in a Ditch”

When Accordion Crimes came out, the hype was fairly large, and I made a mental note to read it.  I never did, though.  So, this is my first exposure to Annie Proulx, and I’m not sure if it is representative of how or what she writes about. But with a title like this, how could I pass it up?

The story follows the life of Dakotah, whose mother left her shortly after she was born.  Dakotah’s grandparents were stuck with her.  The story notes that they were “in their late thirties” which is crazy that they are grandparents, but hey, I’m in my late thirties with two kids of my own, so no sympathy here.

The second arc of the story concerns Wyatt March and his rise to prominence in this Wyoming town.  He married well, moved up in society, started the March Ranch, and

Well, that’s as far as  I got.  I tried to resume the story on 3 occasions and just didn’t care.  There’s like ten pages left in the story, and, well, I have things that I’m more interested in.

Sorry, Annie Proulx, maybe someday I’ll get to Accordion Crimes and see what the hype was about.

Posted in Annie Proulx, Unfinished | 3 Comments »

Harper Lee–To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

October 31, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK—NADA SURF-Lucky (2008).

Just as I was thinking that Nada Surf had dropped off the face of the earth, I discovered that they were releasing Lucky.  Lucky continues Nada Surf’s fantastic output of beautiful melodies and poppy, almost folky songs.  I hate to make it sound like Nada Surf have mellowed, but they certainly have.  Nevertheless, their song craft has risen to even newer heights.  The first three songs are some of the best singles you’ll hear (and you may have heard “Whose Authority” which got some airplay…. If you liked that then you’ll love the rest of the album.)

There are obvious precedents for who Nada Surf now sound like, but it’s not an aping of sounds where you say, oh they sound just like Matthew Sweet or Semisonic or something, but they have that kind of vibe.  If the jangly alternapop of the late nineties were still popular, Nada Surf would be leading the pack.  As it is, they don’t sound retro in any way, the songs just exist, almost timelessly.

The middle songs culminate with “I Like What You Say.”  There’s no reason this song shouldn’t be a huge hit.  The lyrics are slightly hard to sing along to (which usually makes for the kind of song that people like to learn) “You say, I like what you say, I like what you say, you say,” but the chorus of “Baby, I only want to make you happy” lifts your spirits.  All eleven tracks are solid, and there’s enough diversity, even within the limited palette to keep you interested.  There’s even a short oom-pah-pah at the end of “Ice on the Wing.”  I’m not sure why it’s there, but it adds a nice bit of texture to the album.

This disc came with a bonus EP (something Nada Surf seems to like doing) which comes with acoustic versions of two of the songs from the album, and two new songs.  The last one, “Everyone’s on Tour” shows a rare glimpse of Nada Surf really rocking out.  It’s something of a throwaway song, but it shows off an interesting side of the band, just in case you were afraid they were getting too mellow.

[READ: Fall 2007] To Kill a Mockingbird.

There was some impetus that made me want to read this book and watch the movie.  I think it’s because Sarah likes to repeat her favorite line from the movie (see below) and I wanted to see it myself.  I wasn’t entirely sure what it was even about.  I think it was simply that I knew so many cultural references to this book without knowing the original.  It made me say, okay, time to read this thing.  (Similarly, if you’ve never actually seen 2001, A Space Odyssey, you are missing hundreds of cultural reference points every day).

And I am so glad I did.  Now, obviously, its a Pulitzer Prize winning story, and everyone is supposed to read it in school (why didn’t I?), so I’m not the only one to think it’s good.  But in addition to being Substantial and Substantive, it was also a really enjoyable read.  I admit that some of the classics are difficult to get through, but this one was so great I practically rushed through to the end.

So, of course, this is where Boo Radley comes from.  It’s also where Atticus Finch comes from.  It’s also a story about race, rape and a lawyer who is willing to stand up for what’s right even in the face of violence. That’s a lot to pack into a small book. Continue Reading »

Posted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Harper Lee, Matthew Sweet, Nada Surf, Racism, Semisonic, Sex, South, To Kill a Mockingird, Violence, YA Books | 2 Comments »

Greg Hollingshead–“Whyte Avenue Blue,” David Bergen–“Just the Thing,” Charlotte Gill–“Terminal City,” Donna Morrissey–“Red Carpet Caper,” Michael Winter–“Beyond the Overpass,” Heather O’Neill–“The End of Pinky” (The Walrus, January/February 2008)

October 29, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Ogre Tones (2005).

No one should be made to feel ALONE! And with that Kings X are back.  It’s the most aggressive scream I’ve heard from King’s X (and it comes from Ty, not Doug no less).

After what seemed like something of a hiatus with Black Like Sunday and Live All Over the Place, King’s X seem rejuvenated and excited to be rocking out.  Despite the hardcore opening scream of “Alone,” the song is their catchiest single yet.  Lyrically the song is about tolerance and compassion.  Its also pretty short (just under 3 minutes), as are the next 4 songs.  It’s as if they had these great ideas and just had to get them out.  “Stay”  returns to the style of old King’s X, with a minor change: it’s the vocal harmonies that are dissonant not the guitars.  “Hurricane” also tinkers with the formula where part of the chorus revels in their harmonies of old and the other part plays with a new aspect: gang vocals, bringing power rather than subtlety.  “Fly” is yet another great shoulda-been a single.  And “If”is yet another Stellar ballad, where Doug sings verses and harmonies bring in the chorus.

A controversial song (for fans anyway) is “Bebop.”  This is one of their experimental tracks, and it kind of hearkens back to some of the tracks off of Bulbous with very staccato guitars, unusual bass lines and the nonsense lyrics of “Bebop be alive ya’ll. Awhop boba lo bop a wop bam boom!.”  While it’s not their best work, it’s certainly catchy as anything, and I give them credit for throwing in some experimentation.  And frankly, it’s pretty fun if you loosen up a bit.

The next few tracks play with the basic formula of the album, until you get to “Sooner or Later” which, lets Ty noodle around on the guitar for 5 or 6 minutes, like an extended jam off of Faith Hope Love.  “Mudd” ends the album proper with a really touching, sweet song.  It could easily fit on Gretchen.

The last two songs I don’t really count.  “Goldilox (Reprise)” is, as you might guess a remake of “Goldilox.” I don’t know why they’d remake one of their most beloved songs.  Aside from the fact that they’ve been playing it since 1987, and the band has changed their style somewhat, they could show everyone what it would sound like if they made it now.  Otherwise, why bother.  It does sound good, mind you, but the original sounds better.  The last track, “Bam” is a historical recording of Thomas Edison’s phonograph.  It’s a weird way to end a record.  But nothing can take away from the fact that King’s X are back in form and they still sound great.

[READ: October 24, 2008] “Whyte Avenue Blue,” “Just the Thing,” “Terminal City,” “Red Carpet Caper,” “Beyond the Overpass,” “The End of Pinky”

I had put off reading these stories because I was in the middle of a couple of other things at the time.  When I finally got around to reading them (and they’re all very short…about a page or two each) I had forgotten that the “theme” behind the stories was noir.  When I started reading them, I kept thinking…none of these stories is even remotely believable.  It’s like the authors are trying really hard to craft stories that are transgressive, almost beyond belief in some way.  Well, when I re-read the sub-heading for the stories, I realized: “The Walrus asked Canadian novelists to sketch their cities as grittier, sexier, and darker than you might ever have imagined…”  So that explained it. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Content, Charlotte Gill, David Bergen, Donna Morrissey, Gangsters, Greg Hollingshead, Heather O'Neill, King's X, LGBTQ, Michael Winter, Noir, Sex, Short Story, The Walrus, Threats, Violence | Leave a Comment »

Terry Pratchett–Nation (2008)

October 28, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Black Like Sunday (2003).

This is a collection of old and rare tracks that King’s X decided to record anew, rather than releasing older versions.  This makes for an unusual scenario of a band recording songs that the wrote some twenty years earlier.  It’s a weird collection of songs to me, as some of them, the ones that I assume are early songs, really sound like they’re early songs: without all of the interesting aspects that later King’s X became known for (musical complexity, meaningful lyrics).  I can’t help but wonder if they thought about “updating” the songs more than just by re-recording them.

And, I have mixed reactions to this disc.  It’s not King’s X as I like them, yet there are moments that are really great.  And, there are even a couple of songs that I don’t think are very good, yet which I can’t get out of my head (“Danger Zone” comes to mind…it sounds like an 80s metal ballad, and yet it’s been in my head for 3 days).  Some other tracks are really good, and must be B-sides, rather than old songs: “Black Like Sunday” is great and “Screamer” is a wonderfully dark song, even if the chorus is pretty much just Doug screaming.  There’s also a good chance for Ty to get a soloing workout on “Johnny,” an 11 minute song that is mostly guitar noodling.

Overall this disc feels like something of a stopgap.  And, when you combine it with the live album Live All Over the Place (2004) which came next, it really seemed like King’s X were winding down their career.

[READ: October 22, 2008] Nation

Terry Pratchett has a new book out and — NEWSFLASH — it’s NOT set on Discworld.  There’s no mention of Discworld, and Pratchett’s character-in-every-book Death does not show up (although there is a Death-like character, and there are voices in the main character’s head that are in all caps, just like Death).

I’ve not read anything about why he set this book on earth (or, as the epilogue notes…a parallel universe earth), so I’m not sure if there’s something more to it than just wanting a change.

And so, no speculating from me, just a review of the book. Continue Reading »

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), King's X, Magic, Religion, Terry Pratchett, Threats, YA Books | 2 Comments »

Barack Obama–The Audacity of Hope (2006)

October 22, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: FEU THÉRÈSE-Ca Va Cogner [CST049] (2007).

I struggled ever so much over what disc to attach to this book review, thinking that any disc would be seen to have some correlation to Obama.  So, why not just go all out: a Canadian indie band that sings in French!

This is Feu Thérèse’s second disc.  It comes from Constellation records, home of noisy, lengthy, downbeat records.  In fact, Feu Thérèse is chock full of some of the big names in the Montreal underground: Alexandre St-Onge plays with noisy bands like Shalibi Effect and Jonathan Parant comes from noisy bands like Le Fly Pan Am.  So, how did all of these factors possibly unite to make this disc?

Ca Va Cogner sounds like a analog synth party from 1980!  The whole ensemble would be completely and utterly cheesy if the secret ingredient (which I cannot identify) did not make the whole thing work so well.  The whole disc seems to be washed over with these groovy synths. I want to make comparisons to Kraftwerk, but that seems a little too cold.  All of these songs are warm and soft, there’s even a children’s chorus on one of them.  Other songs are instrumental, or have minimal singing.  And “Le Bruit Du Pollen La Nuit” has a wonderfully smutty sounding spoken word track that recalls, of course, Serge Gainsbourg at his naughtiest (although I have no idea what this song is actually about).

I think what saves the disc from just being an 80’s French Europop band is the guitar and bass interplay.  Those two guys take a lot of the sounds that they’ve mastered in their respective bands, and play them beneath all of the synths.  It undercuts the intentional cheesiness of the keyboards with some awesome textures, and really brings everything to a remarkable whole.  This probably won’t be anybody’s favorite disc, but it is very enjoyable, and worth tracking down, especially if you’re a Francophile.

[READ: October 15, 2008] The Audacity of Hope

Since I’ve been for Obama since the beginning, I figured I ought to read his book.  It seemed especially apt now, since the McCain campaign is saying that we don’t “know anything about” Obama. Well, if you read this book, or, I suspect his OTHER autobiography, you could learn quite a bit about him.  Unlike some other people who don’t grant interviews, hmmm.  Okay, I had thought I would be able to review this book without referencing the current campiagn or the upcoming election, but it is simply impossible.  Please deal with my Partisan Review. Continue Reading »

Posted in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Digression, Feu Therese, History, Kraftwerk, Le Fly Pan Am, Memoirs, Political Humor, Politicians, Shalibi Effect, Smarty Pants, The Walrus | 2 Comments »

Ben Schott–Schott’s Miscellany 2008: An Almanac (2007)

October 20, 2008 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Manic Moonlight (2001).

This disc is not terribly popular among the King’s X fans.  A big complaint is that they dared to use drum loops.  It’s kind of a funny complaint because aside from adding a bit of texture (and for some reason, having each song start out with the drum machine), it’s not like they’ve suddenly gone all techno.  In fact, overall the album has a feeling of insular claustrophobia.  It feels like the songs are just densely packed with little room to breathe.

To me, the loops aren’t that odd for a band that’s big into experimentation (although you’ll note they were not used again).  What’s unusual is the addition of funk elements in “Believe,” and some really funky elements in “Vegetable”  There’s also some noisy/crunchy guitar workouts in “Yeah.” This song is also kind of odd as the verses are practically inaudible, but the choruses (which consist of the word “Yeah”) are just so great! Perhaps the most unusual track on the disc is “Skeptical Wind” which comes across as a rhymed/spoken-word piece that references Mia Farrow among other things.

But the title track sounds most like the King’s X we know and love.  In addition, “False Alarm” and “Jenna” are pretty close to the earlier Ty ballads (even though Ty doesn’t sing them).  They contain the harmonies we’re used to, but really they are sort of smothered in all of the surrounding noise.

The album is still full of great songs…the guys never lost their songwriting chops.  It’s just the way the songs are presented that makes them sound so different. It’s an interesting experiment, for which I give them credit, but it really doesn’t showcase the best aspects of the band.

[READ: Throughout 2008] Schott’s Miscellany 2008

In the best case of “but I thought you liked him” ever, Sarah bought me this book for Christmas, certain that I had read and enjoyed other books by him.  Interestingly, I had never heard of him or his books.  But I was very intrigued by the concept of it.

As you might imagine, I enjoy trivia and I like facts.  And for a person like me, this collection is fantastic.  As the subtitle says, it is an almanac; however, unlike the standard almanacs (Information Please, etc.) which are just lists of information.  Ben Schott (could he be the only one who works on this book?) gathers all of the interesting things that happened from September 2006 through August 2007 into interesting, subjective groups, with interesting, subjective names, and then writes about them. Continue Reading »

Posted in Airlines, Ben Schott, Books about music, Canadian Content, Collecting, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dip-in Books, Ian Hollingshead, King's X, Military, Radio, Religion, Sex, Sports, Technology, Threats, Universities, Violence, War, Wikipedia | 1 Comment »

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