Ray Bradbury's Love-Camel

Favorite Albums of 2011 (and Some Stragglers from 2010)

2012-01-21T20:56:00.000-05:00

Was 2011 a great year for music? No...I don't think so. If it's been a great year for music (for me, anyway), I have a hard time picking my top 10 albums. Sometimes I have a hard time picking my top 20. This year, I struggled to fill my top 10. It wasn't that there were that few albums that I liked. There were a lot of good albums. There just weren't a lot of great albums. I want my favorite albums of the year to exceed my expectations, not just meet them (even if I have relatively high expectations). So this year, it's just a top 7, + two 2010 albums that I didn't discover until 2011.

7) Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
When Sam Beam released The Creek Drank the Cradle nearly 10 years ago, he was writing spare wisps of songs. The songs were quiet, but powerful. He could have released a few more albums like that and been remembered as someone who wrote pretty, sad songs--a modern Nick Drake (minus the tragic ending, one would hope). Iron & Wine's second album was actually pretty similar to the first, but then Beam started to evolve. If someone had told me a decade ago that he would release an album like Kiss Each Other Clean, I would have been incredulous. The songs are still powerful, and often still sad, but there's a richness to their sound and production that the early albums lacked. More instruments, more harmonizing, more everything. Sometimes more is less, but it works here. For the record, it did not work for me as well on 2007's The Shephard's Dog. On that album seemed like more of an experiment of styles and came out as a bit of a mess. Kiss Each Other Clean is more cohesive. The opening single, "Walking Far From Home", quickly became one of my favorite Iron & Wine songs, but the whole album is highly listenable.

6) Alexander - Alexander
Alexander Ebert is better known for his work with Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros and he is a damn hippie. I have a top-40-listening co-worker who calls everything I listen to "hippie music", and though she's wrong about 90% of the time, I have to concede that Alexander is indeed hippie music. Slightly weird (but not that weird, trippy, hippie music. For those not familiar with Edward Sharpa nd the Magnetic Zeros--and I highly recommend that you do familiarize yourself with them--the closest musician I could compare Ebert to is perhaps Cat Stevens, and probably Yusuf Islam (AKA, Cat Stevens). It's probably partly the beard, but their voices, their message, and their ability to write a good hook are not dissimilar. A fun album that I listened to way more than I expected to when I picked it up on a whim.

5) Say Hi - Um, Uh Oh
Say Hi is a boy named Eric, and he has also been making music for a decade. Eric Elbogen's music--whether under his original moniker, Say Hi To Your Mom, or the more recent Say Hi--has always been a bit spotty for me. Every album has at least a few songs that I really like, but 2006's Impeccable Blahs came the closest to being and album I really loved. On that album, every song was about vampires. Clever! But Um, Uh Oh achieves greatness without a clever gimmick. Every song--really every song--is a perfect little pop gem. Elbogen's formula hasn't changed much. Many of his songs are pretty much all chorus, but you know what? That's the part of the song everyone sings along to anyway. And that's exactly what I do when I listen to this album. I sing along to every song.
4) Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
I first wrote about Michael Benjamin Lerner's sophomore album back in March, and I kept right on listening to this album all year long. I don't know how many times I have to tell people: listen to this band.

3) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
My first impression of Strange Mercy was a good one, but after the first listen I honestly didn't think this album would creep into my top 3 albums of the year. But it did. Though some of the songs seemed somewhat jarring at first, I got used to it. As I got used to it, it became clear that this is Annie Clark's strongest work yet.
2) Grouplove - Never Trust a Happy Song
Of the top three albums here, Grouplove is probably the least challenging band to listen to for the casual listener. I wrote about my infatuation with this album earlier this year, and that infatuation has since evolved into a full-on crush. Even if Grouplove disappeared tomorrow--and I hope they don't--I can already tell that this album will be joining a relatively small group to fall into my comfort music classification. The music is not particularly innovative...it's just fun as hell.

1) tUnE-yArDs - Whokill
I, like most people, am usually doing something else while I'm listening to music. That's not to say that I'm a passive listener, but I'm a busy guy and I need to multitask. So when a song--or in this case, an entire album--makes me stop doing whatever else I'm doing, that's saying something. The first time I listened to Whokill, I was at work. It was a very unproductive 40 minutes. I'm fairly certain I just sat there with my headphones on, grinning from ear to ear, and probably failing to resist the urge to chair-dance in my cubicle. Merril Garbus manages to defy genre, convey her politics, and be incredibly entertaining, all on a single album--often in individual songs. Impressive. Listening to her music, watching her in her videos...I can't remember the last time I saw an artist throw self-consciousness out the window so completely and make it work. This was the girl in high school who danced like a spaz and didn't care what people thought of her. Yeah, she got teased, but the ones who got her really, really liked her.

and from 2010...
--Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin'
Allo Darlin' is sort of the musical equivalent of watching the movie Juno. Now that will either be a selling point or a deal breaker, depending on who you are. For me, it's a selling point. These songs are clever, cute, and catchy, but never cloying. These are songs about love, watching movies, listening to music, and making chili. If I could write songs, these are the songs I would want to write. I think that's the highest compliment I can pay. I would want to write catchy songs that make me happy, and preferably I would like them to be sung by a woman with a pretty voice. Not a beautiful voice. That's an important distinction for some reason. I like a pretty voice, and Elizabeth Morris supplies that. I don't feel like I'm selling this album enough. It's awesome. Please listen to it.

--Carolina Chocolate Drops - Genuine Negro Jig
I initially bought this album because, having lived in North Carolina for 6 years, I really liked the name of the band. Lucky me that the music turned out to be pretty incredible, too. I have heard a member of the band describe their music as "black minstrel". Not sure what that means exactly, but I generally find that the harder it is to describe a band's sound, the more I like the music. There's certainly an old-timey flavor to these songs, but their mix of old songs from the earlier half of the century, covers of modern tunes (their version of "Hit 'Em Up Style" is amazing), and originals keeps it fresh.

First Impressions: Sep. 13th Albums

2011-09-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I wrote about...anything on here I guess. I'm not quite giving it up, but I'm also exploring new avenues to shove my opinion down people's throats. My friend Sara asked if I could contribute some stuff to her new blog, and my first post went up yesterday. Please check it out! I take a gander at new releases by Mason Jennings, St. Vincent, Blitzen Trapper, Wild Flag, Blind Pilot, Laura Marling, and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes!

Since that was already a long-ass post, here are some videos from a few of the albums...

St. Vincent's "Cruel":

St. Vincent - "Cruel"

Creepy! Awesome!

Blitzen Trapper's "Love The Way You Walk Away":

Do I smell...America?

Wild Flag's "Romance"

Wild Flag - Romance from Merge Records on Vimeo.
A certain famous Merge label mate gets a bit of trouncing here. Watch closely!

Chihuly and a Child

2011-06-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, I went to Boston's Museum of Fine Art for the first time in over 3 years. My wife and I used to be members, but once our son was born, we realized there would be far fewer trips to the MFA for us. But you can't walk around Boston longer than a few minutes these dayswithout seeing ads for the Chihuly exhibition, and I knew I had to go.

I was first introduced to the glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly about 5 years ago, while visiting the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, MO (one of my favorite botanical gardens in the world, and I've been to a lot of them). Chihuly's works were scattered throughout the gardens, and I was mesmerized. It was like walking through Candy Land. The bright, delicious colors and Seussian shapes left an impression on me, and I knew I would have to visit them again now that they were so close.

Yet there was still the issue of the kids. Taking my almost-two-year-old was not an option--the thought of taking her to an exhibition of glass sculptures was nightmare-inducing. But I thought my now 4-year-old son could handle it. So on a cold, rainy Sunday, he and I set off for the museum. We'd see the Chihuly pieces, and depending on how things were going, move on from there and possibly see some of the new Art of the Americas Wing.

It turned out to be one of the best visits to an art museum I've ever had. The Chihuly exhibit itself was as enjoyable as I'd hoped. It didn't quite have the same "oomph" as the Botanical Gardens because it was a very different context, but these are still some of the most accessible sculptures one will come across. By "accessible", I mean I can't imagine a person looking at these sculptures and not thinking they look cool. Maybe "cool" isn't a very fancy word to describe art, but just check out this boat full of stuff (I did not take my camera, regrettably, but this picture is from the actual Boston exhibition):

It's a party. It's an alien invasion. It's a parade. In a boat. And made out of glass. It's cool.

And my son thought so, too. I didn't get to read a lot of the descriptions of the pieces as I normally would have, but instead I got to hear my son's interpretations, which I think may have been an order of magnitude more interesting: "Look at the flowers!" and "It's a giant slug, Daddy!" Exposed to his unchecked imagination, I saw the sculptures in a way I never could have seen on my own. At one point we were walking under the "Persian Ceiling", which is one of the more publicized images from the collection (in the slide show from the link above, it's the first slide). My son--who at my insistence kept his voice at an "indoor" level the whole time--looked up and said, "It's a baby!" As I looked up, a rather grim woman caught my eye and said, "He's talking about the cherub up there."

And that's when it really clicked for me. A lot of these people couldn't see this art the way my son could. They had too many preconceived notions of what everything was supposed to be. Why couldn't it be a baby? Why couldn't that other sculpture be a giant cactus? I thought that was the point of art like this...it can be what you want it to be. But because we adults read the descriptions or listen to the audio tours, we lose the chance to come at these pieces with a blank canvas. My son had a blank canvas...the grown-ups had paint-by-numbers.

The joy of seeing art through my son's eyes extended beyond the Chihuly exhibition and into the galleries. The way he zeroed in on specific aspects of a painting while ignoring the "main event", if you will, was fascinating. Take this painting, The Fog Warning, by Winslow Homer:

I took my son up to this painting thinking he would be impressed by the big fish in the small boat. Instead, he pointed at the tall ship way off in the background, excitedly talking about the "pirate ship" that was coming closer to the man in the boat. I'd barely even noticed the ship in the background. This was a common theme throughout our visit to the museum, which lasted over three hours. He found details I had missed. He would make up a story, explaining to me why the people were doing what they were doing. Occasionally he would ask questions, but usually he was just looking for ways to fill in the gaps in his own stories.

I can't stop thinking about this visit. I've always enjoyed art in nearly any medium, but I've often become hung up on the "how" at the expense of the "what". I'm a scientist...I think it's natural for me to wonder how Dale Chihuly and his team make his amazing sculptures. I'm sure it's an interesting process. But it took my 4-year-old to help me step back and strip the "how" away, from the Chihuly pieces to paintings that were centuries old. He helped me forget the idea that a piece of art isn't supposed to be anything necessarily. A painting or sculpture can be whatever I want it to be: a story, an idea, or sometimes just a picture of somebody's stinky butt. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for reminding why works of art--not to mention kids--are awesome.

O What a Dirty Thing

2011-03-30T22:03:00.002-04:00

When I first saw Michael Benjamin Lerner in the bathroom at the Middle East a few years ago, I had no idea I was about to fall hard for his band. I wrote about that first show here, and his first album made my top 5 of 2009.

And now comes his follow up, 12 Desperate Straight Lines.

There are two types of songs that get stuck in my head. There is the Katy Perry-esque treacle that gets played so frequently that it might as well be a commercial jingle. These are the types of songs that I want desperately to never hear again--they are the musical equivalent of Chinese water torture. You know the song is going to come at you again eventually, so your brain seems to mentally prepare itself. This is not the good way to get a song stuck in your head.

Then there are songs like Lerner's. His songs will have a hook that creates a mental itch, and the only way to scratch that itch is to listen to the song again. And again. Soon you've got the album on the MP3-player equivalent of speed dial. Or, if you're an archaic old fart like me, you carry the CD around with you everywhere.

And that's pretty much what I've been doing with 12 Desperate Straight Lines. I wasn't enthralled after the very first listen, but it pretty much had me by the second. It's definitely an easily digestible album. The longest song is a shade over 3.5 minutes, but most of the songs clock in at 2 and half minutes or less, including the amazing single, "Dirty Thing":

Telekinesis - Dirty Thing from Merge Records on Vimeo.

I challenge you to listen to this song twice and NOT get the "chorus" stuck in your head. I use quotation marks since I don't know if you can call it a chorus if it doesn't have words, but you'll know what I'm talking about when you listen to it.

And this is one of many great songs on the album. Merge has been on a pretty incredible streak as of late, and Telekinesis is probably one of their more underrated bands right now. Whenever a sophomore album equals--or in this case, maybe even surpasses--a strong debut, there's cause to celebrate. Or at the very least, cause to listen.

EJP's Very Late Favorite Albums of 2010

2011-01-27T22:23:00.001-05:00

Well, better late than never, I guess. At least I'm doing this before the end of January.

Was 2010 a great year for music? Probably not. But I did fall in love with a few albums, and there were certainly some that I liked a lot. They weren't always the most critically acclaimed--Arcade Fire's album was pretty amazing, but ultimately I didn't listen to it all that much. Apparently Kanye West's album was pretty amazing, but I haven't heard more than a track of it.

So these are the 10 albums that I listened to the most, which is generally a pretty good indication that I like them. I'm not putting them in any particular order--I'll be a little more low key this year since this list is going up so late.

First, the albums I've already written about...

Sharon Van Etten: Epic (see this post, or just scroll down)

LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening (see this post)

Fang Island: Fang Island (see this post)

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy this album, but they made one of my favorite videos of all time. The video below, for the song "Daisy," looks pretty crudely made at first, but if you think about how it was clearly done all in one go, shot by one of the dancers with no cuts, it's pretty amazing. Plus it just makes me incredibly happy when I watch it.

Cornershop: Judy Sucks A Lemon for Breakfast

The Black Keys: Brothers

Tuung: ... And Then We Saw Land

Vampire Weekend: Contra (this album and previous 3 albums conveniently described all at once in this post)

And now some new stuff...

Janelle Monáe: The ArchAndroid

There are a number of reasons this album shouldn't work for me. It's a concept album. It mixes every genre of music under the sun. It's loaded with guest artists. It's produced and produced and produced.

And yet it does work for me. Any one of the above attributes can usually put me off an album, but I guess when they're combined, something magic happens. Which is not to detract from Monáe's voice, which is incredible. Her voice ties the whole beautiful mess together. I can't remember what compelled me to pick this album up originally, but I'm so glad I did.

Sonny & the Sunsets: Tomorrow Is Alright

There seemed to be kind of a retro thing going on this year, with a lot of new or newish bands exploring old sounds. By old, I'm talking 50s and 60s-style rock. Gimmicky or not, I ate it up. Despite the fact that I'm constantly checking out new music, I grew up listening almost exclusively to oldies stations on the radio. That's where my heart is, and Sonny & the Sunsets--right down to their very name--tapped into my oldies-lovin' heart with this album. Here we have a band that sounds like they're right out of the Happy Days era, only with lyrics that would have made the Fonz blush. It's simple, fun, and exactly what I wanted to listen to many times over the last several months. Check out the song that got me hooked, "Too Young to Burn":

The Goodnight Loving: The Goodnight Loving Supper Club

Like Sonny & the Sunsets, there is an appealing timelessness to The Goodnight Loving's music. I probably listened to this album more than any other this past year. I consistently grabbed for it when I was feeling indecisive. The songs can be...weird. One of my favorites, "The Pan", is sung from the point of view of a fish that ends up in a pan. You can think of it as a metaphor I suppose, but you certainly don't have to.

I'm struggling here...I want people to listen to this album because I honestly think it's really, really good. The songs are incredibly catchy (there's even a track appropriately called "Earworm"). If you can imagine The Beach Boys as a garage band, that might be what The Goodnight Loving sound like. In some ways, this album is the antithesis of Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. Not in terms of quality--both are great. But I think the main reason I couldn't listen to The Suburbs all that much is that it was just a little too much. It was so dense that I felt a little exhausted after listening to it. Whereas Supper Club woke me up. It's a much simpler album, and yes, more fun.

And that's my top 10! But it wouldn't be me if I didn't at least a decent list of honorable mentions. Here are some other stand-out albums to check out:

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way
Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More
Bouncing Souls: Ghosts on the Boardwalk
Drive By Truckers: The Big To-Do
She & Him: Volume Two
Freelance Whales: Weathervanes
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: Brutalist Bricks
Let's Wrestle: In the Court of the Wrestling Let's

If You Don't Leave Me Now, Do You Love Me Back?

2010-12-01T21:54:00.002-05:00

My super duper music crush of the year is Sharon Van Etten. I have to agree completely with the folks over at NPR music (where she did an amazing Tiny Desk Concert)--for any singer-song writer to stand out in this age of a gajillion singer-song writers, she has to be pretty special. If you're going to sit on a stage on your lonesome, strumming your guitar and singing thoughtfully, you better be damn good or I'll wonder why you aren't sitting in a subway station sifting through commuters' quarters.

Van Etten is that good. To be fair, her new album, Epic, has a bit more production that just the voice and the guitar, but that's just gravy on what is easily the most listenable-yet-sad-hearted album I have heard in years. The 17-year-old in me would have put this album on repeat and dreamed about moving to Brooklyn just to be in close proximity to this woman. As it is, the 34-year-old who is me is still playing this album more than anything else I've purchased in the last several months.

But don't take my word for it. Follow the link to the concert above or play the video below, which has her playing "One Day", the song that got me hooked on her in the first place. If you don't like her, you can still be my friend, but not as good a friend.

Wondermark Hits Too Close to Home

2010-10-23T23:27:00.000-04:00

I have not posted much this year. Clearly. There are a few reasons. One, I've just been too busy with work and family. I don't really consider spending time with my family "busy" exactly, but it's super duper important and I want to do that more than I want to do anything else when I'm not working. Another reason is that I found I was listening to music/reading books/watching movies with the express purpose of writing about it on this blog. It was seriously distracting me from actually enjoying stuff. Instead of thinking, "Hey, I love this album! I want to listen to it over and over and totally lose myself in it for a month!", I was thinking, "Hey, I love this album! I'm going to write about it on the internet and then basically be done with it."

And then, I read the following comic strip and it hit way, way too close to home. It's really too small to read here, so just click it to go to the Wondermark website. It'll be worth the ever so slight finger motion required for clickage:

This scenario has basically happened to me. I'm well aware that I've become a bit of a douche bag when it comes to convincing the hoi polloi that I have, like, the best taste ever. I'm sure I've used the term "indie cred" multiple times on this site alone. And no, I don't have a TV, though I do watch DVDs of TV shows sometimes. And I've been told no less than three times that a song I've played for someone is on a car or iPod commercial (no Burger King yet).

I'm not giving up this blog altogether. In fact, I plan on posting more consistently...I'm gonna shoot for once a month. But instead of reading/listening/watching with the blog in mind, I'll sit down at the end of the month and write something about the pop culture nugget that blows my mind the most. Other Love-Camel contributors can do whatever they want...which for the past year or so has been nothing. It's all good. Oh, and I'll still do my favorite music of the year list at some point, because my musical taste is so, so awesome.

And finally, read Wondermark. It's wicked funny. I even bought the books.

Best Music of the First Half of 2010: Pt. III

2010-08-30T23:49:00.000-04:00

Albums That Surpassed My Expecations

Admittedly, many of the albums below fell into this category because I had pretty low expectations for them. Nevertheless, these are all pretty high quality and I would recommend any of them.

Clem Snide - The Meat of Life: Clem Snide's last album, Hungry Bird, was a huge let-down for me. But Eef Barzelay followed up with an album I can totally get behind. It may not be as high quality as some of the earlier Clem Snide albums, but the wry humor is still there in tracks like "Walmart Parking Lot"; and the heartbreak is there in tracks like "Denver". Barzelay also tends to name drop other musicians in his songs, and there's a nice nod to Sufjan Stevens (or at least his fans) in "I Got High."

Tunng - ...And Then We Saw Land: Tunng is, in my opinion, and incredibly underrated band. At least in this country...I don't know if they're any more popular in their native UK. I got this album hoping it would be as good as their last effort, Broken Arrows. It's a very different album, but I like it as much, if not more. The opening single, "Hustle", is the song that got me hooked:

Tunng - Hustle from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

The Bouncing Souls - Ghosts on the Boardwalk: A number of things surprise me about The Bouncing Souls. First and foremost, the fact that they're still around and making new albums. These guys have been kicking around for a good 12 years or so. Their albums may have matured somewhat, but unlike some of their peers (lookin' at Green Day here), they don't aspire to anything too fancy. They just want to make fun music. They also often have a song on each album that borders on novelty, and "Badass" easily fits that bill. It's basically the band reeling off one "badass" thing after another for a few minutes, and it is awesome.

The Black Keys - Brothers : Simply put, the best Black Keys album in ages. I've felt like they were on a bit of a downward spiral the last few years, but this is an amazingly accessible album, but it somehow it still sounds like The Black Keys. I'd be very surprise if this one didn't end up in my top 10 of the year.

The Black Keys "Tighten Up"

The Black Keys | MySpace Music Videos

Black Francis-Nonstoperotik: I don't really care what Charles Thompson wants to call himself these days, but starting with last year's Grand Duchy (a collaboration with his wife), he seems to be in an upward spiral. After several years of stuff that was barely passable, one of my favorite musicians is finally making good albums again.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Brutalist Bricks: I have no idea how these guys started an album with an opener as explosive and energetic as "The Mighty Sparrow" and follow it up with a bunch of songs that are equally as good. Brutalist Bricks is, hands down, my new favorite Ted Leo album.

Vampire Weekend - Contra: I was pretty much convinced that lightning would not strike twice for this band. Their self-titled debut was unfollowuppable, or so I thought. But I'm still playing this album, which came out the second week of the year, on a fairly regular basis, and still finding new things to like about it. Never has a sophomore slump been so utterly and completely avoided.

Cornershop - Judy Sucks A Lemon for Breakfast: It has been 8 years since Cornershop's Handcream for a Generation came out, and I was utterly convinced I would never see another album from Tjinder Singh's band again. And even when I found that they were releasing a new album, I was skeptical. Eight years is a long time...if and when bands come back from a break that long, they...well, they often kind of suck. Cornershop came back with not only a strong album, but one of my favorite albums of the year. Some songs are political, some are nonsensical. There are multiple styles of music, from straight up anthemic rock, to a little calypso, to gospel, to bizarre mixes of many other genres. There are quite a few albums I like this year so far...some that I like a lot. This may be the only one so far that I really love.

Best Music of the First Half of 2010: Pt. II

2010-08-16T21:21:00.008-04:00

OK, the next category does not count as "Best Music", because these are some...

Albums That Failed to Meet My Expectations

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can: I enjoyed Marling's 2008 debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, immensely. Her follow-up is OK, but not great by any means.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand: An underwhelming effort from a usually fun band.

The Magnetic Fields - Realism: Normally I worship at the alter of Stephen Merritt, but this latest effort didn't do much for me. "We Are Having a Hootenanny" is sort of a fun novelty song, but for the most part I expect better from this usually peerless group of musicians.

Spoon - Transference: I heard the the phrase "best Spoon album ever" tossed around by a number of critics, but I was less than impressed. I'll probably listen to Girls Can Tell or Kill the Moonlight 10 times each before I listen to this again.

Didn't Know Enough to Have Expectations

These are albums I've really been enjoying by either new bands or bands I'd never really listened to before. Broken Bells would have been on this list if I hadn't given them their own post yesterday...

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks: This band's been around for a few years, but this was my introduction to them. As I explained when I wrote about We Were Promised Jet Packs last year, I guess I just like Scottish guys singing rock anthems.

Black Prairie - Feast of the Hunter's Moon: Comprised of 3/5 of The Decemberists (Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, and, um, the bassist), and a few other Portland musicians, I expected some high quality musicianship, but I didn't really know what form it would take. If you have ever watched the defunct HBO series Deadwood and enjoyed the background music, that's pretty much Black Prairie's music to a note. It defies genre to some extent, but it's kinda old-timey and very much American.

Freelance Whales - Weathervanes: This band has been getting plenty of support from the blogosphere, and as far as I'm concerned, they're just about worthy of the hype. I've been listening to this album a lot.

Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's: I can't even remember why I bought this album, other than that it was released by Merge, who I generally trust to release great albums. I can't even really explain why I've been listening to it so much. There are plenty of dirty garage rock bands out there that are borderline ridiculous. I think that maybe since Let's Wrestle saunters across that border and revels in their own ridiculousness, I have embraced them. I'm also a sucker for choruses that fall back on "ba ba ba ba ba....":

Drive-By Truckers - Big To-Do: These guys have been around for nigh on a decade, but this is the first album of theirs I've ever heard. I can't remember exactly why I picked it up, but I'm glad I did.

Fang Island - Fang Island: This bizarre band will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I personally think this is a helluva fun album. If you're at all familiar with Ponytail, this is sort of a toned down version of them. There's less screaming, but you're still not listening to Fang Island for insightful lyrics (if a song has lyrics at all). There's just a joyfulness to the music that one doesn't hear much these days. Sadly, it's kind of rare to listen to a group and think "Hey, they sound like they're having a really good time." This band, on the other hand, is having a blast.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM: I initially picked this up because I knew Beck was involved, and I've honestly enjoyed it more than any of Beck's own recent albums. The trippy video below is for my favorite song off IRM, "Heaven Can Wait", but there are plenty of other excellent tracks that make this whole album worth a listen.

Broken Bells and Their Trippy "Video"

2010-08-15T21:43:00.008-04:00

I was going to talk briefly about Broken Bells briefly in Part II of my first half of 2010 music review anyway, but then I stumbled upon this. It's an interactive video for their song "October", and it's pretty damn clever. Clever enough to warrant it's own post, I reckon. Make sure you move your mouse around the screen lots and lots.

The band is comprised of James Mercer (of The Shins) and Danger Mouse. Both great artists, but not necessarily two people I pictured together as a band. They sort of pull it off though. The self-titled album sneaks up on you. I wasn't impressed on the first listen (which was several months ago now), but after a few more spins it really started to grow on me. It's good wind-down music...not so good pump-up music. But winding down is good, too, ya know?

(A Very Late) Best Music of the First Half of 2010: Part I

2010-08-13T22:07:00.009-04:00

After post #300, I took a hiatus from this blog...life got busy. It still is, but I'm feeling like writing about stuff again. I've been listening to a lot of music this year, and my ego compels me to share my opinions with the internets.

The albums mentioned below and in the forthcoming posts all came out before July (I think). There are plenty of good albums that have come out since then, but I'm sticking to the first half of the year for now. Instead of a standard top 10, I've split everything up into 4 categories and things are in no particular order. Category 1 sounds boring, but it includes some great albums:

Albums that Met My Expectations

The National - High Violet: Didn't think it would be as good as Boxer, and it's not. But it's still a great album by nearly any other standard.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach: Expected good, got good.

The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever: The Hold Steady know how to put out an album around the beginning of the summer that begs to be played loud in the car with the windows rolled down. That's what I wanted and that's what I got.

She & Him - Volume Two: I won't claim to like this album as much as Volume One, but that was a hard debut to follow. It was as much as I could have hoped for from a pretty actress with a pretty voice and an indie star who has been, arguably, a little too prolific as of late. I guess that makes it sound like I didn't like this album, but I do. I expected fun, light pop and that's what Zooey and Matt brought.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening: Everything I could have hoped for from a group that's just getting better. Video for my favorite song off the album, "Drunk Girls":

The New Pornographers - Together: This band has set such a high standard for themselves over the years, it's hard not to worry about a dud coming along. But I didn't, and it hasn't. A.C., Neko, Dan, and the rest of the gang can make albums forever as far as I'm concerned.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way: Exactly what I wanted from a band that offers a nice change of pace from pretty much everything else I listen to.

Robyn Hitchcock - Propellor Time
Laura Viers - July Flame
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
These are all artists that I like, but seldom love. They tend to put out albums with several OK songs and a few greats songs, and their latest efforts did just that, no more and no less.

Comfort Music of the Last Decade

2010-03-24T21:41:00.019-04:00

I have a crapload of CDs. My brother-in-law asked me how many I had the other day, and I honestly didn't know. I stopped trying to keep track after 500 or so, and I'm probably closing in on a 1,000 by now.

That means there are a lot of albums I don't listen to all that much. I'm still exploring new music, and there's simply not enough free time in my life to listen to everything. That's why it's kind of remarkable when a handful of albums do pop into my CD player on a relatively frequent basis (and yes, I actually still buy and play CDs...I'm old school like that).

I equate these albums to the musical equivalent of comfort food. My definition of a comfort food is something I can eat that makes me feel good. I can eat it on a regular basis, and I generally won't ever get sick of it. The quality of the food could be great or it could be not-sot-great. Quality isn't necessarily the issue here. The food--or the album--might bring back a certain happy memory or time period in my life. It might be all style and no substance. If it's an album, maybe it just makes shake my ass on a consistent basis. Maybe I know it so well that I don't have to think about it anymore. I can just consume it without worrying about whether it's good for me or makes me look like a dork.

Here are a dozen albums from the last decade that fit this description (the description of each gets shorter as we move through the years since I've written about the latter ones on this blog before). I'm not telling everyone that these are the best albums ever. Many people might hate them. But for whatever reason they have created a little niche for themselves in my music-loving mind. Some of them really are amazing albums that I think everyone should hear. Some I probably latched onto for completely personal reasons. I won't differentiate. I'll just tell you that I love these albums and they make me happy. (I apologize in advance for the font changes and crappy video embed. My grasp of Html is not good enough to figure out what happened.)

Clem Snide - Your Favorite Music (2001)
I consider Eef Barzelay one of the more underrated contemporary song writers in the US. His lyrics are often described as "overly clever", which I think is a ridiculous critique. I always feel that if a critic or reviewer uses expressions like that, they're seriously grasping for something negative to say, or they're jealous. Barzelay is the core of Clem Snide, and essentially the only permanent member as far as I can tell.

The aptly named Your Favorite Music was not Clem Snide's first album, but it was first I heard and it was the one that got me hooked. The opening track, "Dairy Queen," is a surreal, stream-of-consciousness trip of a song. Later we come to "Bread", a love song that makes every other love song you've heard lately sound...moldy. "I Love the Unknown" is one of my favorite songs of all time. It's a gem of a pop song. It's a philosophy. The album continues to amaze right up to its closer, a cover of "Donna" by Ritchie Valens. Barzelay does not have a classically great voice, but this cover is pretty sweet. When I first started listening to this album, a girl named Donna was doing some work in our lab. She was cute and all, but I think the primary reason I developed a crush on her is because I'd been listening to this song.

I would not say I love every track, but I love most of them, and like the rest. Out of all my CDs, this is the only I have actually worn out from over-playing. It was replaced quickly.

Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus (2001)
Stephen Malkmus had a huge chip on his shoulder when this album came out, and that chip was called Pavement. Pavement was huge in the 90s, and if you knew music, you were familiar with them if not downright devoted to them. When they split up, it brought closure to a tumultuous decade of music.

Pavement was a lot of things, but it wasn't pop. So when Malkmus came out with this self-titled debut and we got this, it was a bit jarring to a lot of people. But not to me. I loved it. There are songs about pirates ("The Hook") and Yule Brenner ("Jo Jo's Jacket"), as well as "Jenny & the Ess-Dog" a song that describes the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship between a young girl and her much older, hippie boyfriend. I've listened to it dozens of times and seem to hear something new every time. "Off with those awful toe rings" indeed.

Malkmus would go on to release several more good-but-not-great albums with his new band, the Jicks, and eventually he started sounding more Pavementy (and Pavement has actually reunited this year), but there will always be a place in my CD player for this first breakaway effort.

Dressy Bessy - Dressy Bessy (2003)
To put this band into context, I first heard them on a soundtrack for The Powerpuff Girls. But I didn't really fall in love with them until I saw them live. When I saw Tammy Ealom strutting her stuff in her go-go boots and singing her heart out--visually, a stark contrast to her scraggly-but-talented band of dudes--I became a fan for life. They were touring with this album, which though self-titled, was actually their third or fourth LP.

I wore out Clem Snide, but I've probably actually listened to this CD more than anything else in the past 7 years (I guess this CD was just physically stronger??). I put it in when I need something ridiculously upbeat. When I have a ton of dishes to do and I wanna shake my ass while I do them. It's pure bubblegum pop. I've listened to it so many times at this point and know the songs so well that it's the musical equivalent of sitting down and mindlessly eating a whole bag of M&Ms. It's sugary and probably not good for me, but it makes me feel good.

Will everybody like it? Probably not. Maybe I just heard it at the right place and the right time and it stuck. But did it stick hard. Here's a peek of what you'd be getting yourself into if you check it out:
http://www.mightyfudge.com/webtoons/dressy/mfdbv2.html

Cat Power - You Are Free (2003)
You Are Free is arguably the last Cat Power album Chan Marshall made before she un-crazied herself. And holy crap was she crazy when she toured with this album. I managed to make it through about 45 minutes of her "performing" these songs. She never finished a single song and she harassed the poor sound guy at the Cat's Cradle relentlessly. It was the first and only show I've ever walked out on due to the artist's assholeishness.

Lucky for her, I'd already fallen in love with her album before I went to see her live. "Good Woman", my favorite track from the album and, in my opinion, one of the best break-up songs of all time, felt like it was written just for me and my newly-ex-girlfriend. She was (and is) a good woman, and I am a good man, but we weren't so good for each other. It's a simple message, but between Marshall's smokey delivery and Eddie Vedder's guest vocals, it sounds rich and complex and true.

But an album can't be great based on one song, and there's plenty more quality stuff. I would say that 70% of my favorite Cat Power songs are on this album, including "I Don't Blame You", "Free", "He War", and so on. OK, "Names" is possibly one of the most depressing songs ever, but it's still not necessarily a bad song. Sometimes I can just listen to Chan Marshall's voice and it doesn't matter what she's singing. Now that she's sobered up, her live shows are considerably better as well. But if I could only choose one Cat Power album to keep, I would choose this one in a heartbeat.

The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Not too much to say about this one that hasn't already been said. Natalie Portman blah blah blah it'll change your life blah blah blah. Chutes Too Narrow is quite possibly the best sophomore album ever. Their first album was good, but this one was great. Maybe too great for The Shins. Wincing the Night Away was a huge let-down after the pop perfection of this album. Of all the albums on this list, this one was the most popular among the masses. And that's fine. I'm actually relieved that at least one of my favorite albums was enjoyed by a large number of people.

Jim White - Drill a Hole in the Substrate and Tell Me What You See (2004)
In trying to think of someone with whom to compare Jim White, the closest person I could come to was Harry Chapin. That won't mean much to anyone who isn't either over 40 or didn't have at least one parent into folk music (thanks, Mom!). Like Chapin, most of White's songs are too long to make it to the radio. They range from the playful and fun ("Combing My Hair in a Brand New Style") to the beautifully melancholy ("Bluebird"). Most of the songs on this album fall into the latter category, so I have to be in the right mood when I listen to it. But when I am in the right mood, nothing fits the bill better.

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)
I have written about Andrew Bird extensively on this blog at this point, so if anyone who reads it regularly hasn't checked out his music by now, then it's probably too late to convince you. But I'll try anyway...listen to this album. Please. I'm not going to claim that Bird is the greatest song writer. He's admitted that the meaning behind his lyrics often comes secondary to the way the words sound. The result is beautiful strings of words that are open to interpretation, wrapped in music I can listen to over and over again. This album was my first exposure to his music, and though his earlier and later work is excellent, TMPoE is still my favorite. For some of my earlier raves of both the Jim White album and this one, check out this post.

Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (2006)
The inclusion of this album almost came as a surprise to myself, but when I popped the CD in last week I realized I've actually been listening to this album a lot over the past few years. Maybe it's Lewis's sweet voice backed up by the perfectly harmonizing Watson Twins. Maybe it's the songs that are a little bit country and a little bit rock. Maybe it's the smart songs that are catchy and though provoking, which is not an easy thing to pull off. Maybe it's that perfect cover of "Handle With Care" with M. Ward. I'm sure it's a little bit of all these things.

I can't think of any other album quite like this one. If I'd been writing this blog in 2006, I'm sure it would have tied for my favorite album of the year with...

Forro in the Dark - Bonfires of São João (2006)
Forro in the Dark's most recent album was possibly my favorite album of 2009 (though I have to say there's probably a little wiggle room in the top five), and I liked this album a lot more. I've written about it before, and I will continue to give props to this band as they continue to promote forro in the US. I told myself I wasn't going to embed any video in this already too-long post, but whatever. Here's Asa Branca, featuring David Byrne:

Bishop Allen - The Broken String (2007)
I actually lost this CD for several months, and when I finally found it again, I had to play it instantly. Yes, I realize I had multiple copies of the album on my iPod and various computers. I never said I was a rational person when it came to music.

The street after which this band is named is just a few blocks from where I work. That's not actually pertinent to anything; it's just a random bit of trivia. What's more important is that this is a very fun album. It's an album I can listen to on my own, or with my kids, or even possibly with co-workers. I don't like using phrases like "If you don't like this album, then you have no soul." But if you listened to this album and weren't charmed by at least a few of the tunes, I would seriously have to question whether or not I wanted to hang out with you.

And as long as I've already broken my no video rule, here's "Click, Click, Click, Click":

The National - Boxer (2007)
My favorite album of 2007. The National comes out with a new album in a month or so, and it'll be interesting to see how it measures up. Boxer is not a happy-go-lucky album. It's not really danceable. I wouldn't call the songs particularly catchy (though they're all good). I guess I can't describe why I like this album so much any more now than I could a few years ago when I called it my favorite. It's just something I have to listen to sometimes.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings and All (2008)
My top album of 2008, I wrote about this one extensively here and here. Still fun, still listening to it. Thao's follow-up last year...not as fun. WBBSaA is a bit more whimsical and innocent, and I like it better for that.

Getting to Know OK Go

2010-03-04T22:36:00.002-05:00

I've been aware of OK Go for a while, but I never bothered pick up one of their albums until their latest one, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, which came out in January. I would not say it's a great album, but it is a fun album (you can check it out here). "White Knuckles" is probably my favorite track, but there are plenty of good tunes. I've been playing it more than I thought I would, honestly. I guess it's just carved itself a little niche in my brain for the time being.

Alright, though I do actually like this album, this post is really just an excuse to share their newest video, for "This Too Shall Pass". The song is good. The video is amazing. I challenge you not to watch it a multiple times.

Concert Review: Jonathan Richman

2010-02-19T22:28:00.006-05:00

This past Wednesday, my sister and I went to see Jonathan Richman at the Middle East Upstairs, his second of three consecutive shows there. I'd never been to a show Upstairs, and it was a perfect little venue for JR with a capacity of only 120 or so. Richman tends to stray away from the microphone frequently, but we had no trouble hearing his singing and strumming, even un-miked.

How to describe Jonathan Richman? For anybody reading this who has no idea who Richman is, you probably actually do. He's the guy playing guitar with his drummer (Tommy Larkin, who continues to play with him at every show) through the Farrelly Brothers movie, There's Something About Mary. Richman is now nearly 60, and he has been a quiet presence--both literally and figuratively--in the American music scene for most of his adult life. But I'm not here to write a biography; you can go to Wikipedia for that. I'm here to say what he means to me.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my musical comfort food. I'm hoping to do a post before too long about my comfort food albums of the past decade, but Jonathan Richman is a full-on comfort food artist. He is for many an acquired taste, and some people never understand his appeal. His singing voice is uneven, his guitar playing is quirky. His songs can range form silly to political to romantic to incredibly sad. Sometimes a single song can be a little bit of all those things.

On stage, as my sister says, he can be a bit of a man-child. My sister (who quite frankly, is much better at this type of thing than I am, though I'm the one who continues to barf my opinions onto the internets) compared him to the 8-year-old boy who's parents make him come out to play songs for their adult party. He can waiver between nervousness and showing off in the blink of an eye. At times it looks like he's really enjoying himself; other times he looks antsy to get off the stage.
That's how he's been every time I've seen him--this was my third Jonathan Richman show in the last 10 years. The audience at the Middle East was noticeably older. This was the first show I've been to in ages in which I didn't feel like the oldest person in the crowd. In fact, I felt like one of the youngest. But Richman makes everyone feel young with his energy. Twice during the show he managed to sustain a sing-along. One occurred during his always entertaining rendition of "I Was Dancing at the Lesbian Bar", during which he not only did his special hip-shaking dance, but traded his guitar for a set of jingle bells, then a cowbell. I've seen him play this song at every show, and it's always one of my favorite parts. Years down the road, if someone asks me what my favorite musical memories are, watching Jonathan Richman play this song will almost certainly be in the top 10. He also whipped up a sing-along towards the end with a bizarre little anti-cell phone song. Richman is pretty clearly not a fan of technology (he has no official website), and I believe him when he says he will never own a cell phone. The song was particularly apt for my sister and I, who were just talking before the show about how we rarely use our cell phones. They are a necessary evil for me, so I'm with Mr. Richman on this one.

The bottom line is, I will likely continue to go to his shows as long as keeps touring. Neither his albums nor his live performance are for everybody, but for those of us who "get" Jonathan Richman, they are incredibly rewarding. He may have the saddest eyes I've ever seen, but he still manages to elicit a deep sense of joy in me every time I see him play. I'm generally a pretty happy guy, but though my children can often raise my happiness to the level of joy, it's rare for a musician to do so. To experience that feeling in room full of strangers, listening to music I love...that's really something.

Book Reviews: Magic, Parenting, and Fake Facts

2010-02-09T21:18:00.007-05:00

There are several reasons I have not been blogging as much lately. There are the standard ones like family, work, and the holidays, but I've also been reading a lot. I don't think there's been a point in my life since I was about 7 that I didn't have at least one book going, but lately I've had 2-3 going at a time, and I've just felt more like reading than blogging. But now I'm gonna blog a bit about what I've been reading, so there you go.

Lev Grossman's The Magicians
There is no way to describe the plot of this book without making it sound derivative of at least two famous fantasy series: Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia. Quentin Coldwater, our anti-hero, is recruited into a school of magic, and eventually ends up learning that the fantasy world he's been reading about since he was a child, Fillory (which is basically Narnia), is real. That's not much of a spoiler, trust me.

The twist here is that instead of young, relatively squeaky-clean British kids visiting these magic settings, we have older, far-from-innocent American kids doing so. The novel can in some ways be read as a long thought experiment. Yes, many of us grow up reading about kids who learn to do magic or travel to magical lands, and of course we always wanted to be those kids, right? Grossman takes a step back and asks, really? Would you? If you had magic powers and could do virtually anything you wanted, wouldn't you get bored after a while? And as far as magical lands go, how much fun do you think being in constant mortal danger actually is?

I can't say any of the characters are particularly appealing--they're all pretty much jerks. But that's kind of the point. Nice people apparently don't make particularly good magicians. Characters that don't promote a lot of sympathy aside, the story moves along quickly. It takes Harry Potter 7 books to get through Hogwarts, but it takes Quintin Coldwater 2/3 of a book to get through Brakebills Academy. If anything, the last 1/3 of the novel moves a little too quickly. Grossman could have easily stretched the time in Fillory out for another 100 pages and I wouldn't have minded a bit.

All in all, a very fun book, and I would recommend it to any reader (over the age of 13 or so) who's ever read a fantasy novel and wanted oh-so-much to escape into that book. The Magicians will definitely force you to rethink that notion.

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
Though I have been a parent for nearly 3 years now, I've never been much for parenting books. Many of them seem to work along the lines of "Hey, this worked for me, so it will obviously work for you!", which as most sane parents know is complete shite. You might call it the Jenny McCarthy class of parenting books (speaking of which, hurray for The Lancet for finally retracting the vaccinations-lead-to-autism paper!). This book caught my eye, however, because it's based almost entirely on published literature and interviews with actual scientists. Indeed, the reference section alone accounts for about 10% of the books length. Though the authors share a few personal anecdotes to demonstrate their points, the book is by and large a summary of very real research.

Several topics are discussed: the importance of sleep for kids' development, the actual causes of aggression in young children, sibling rivalries, how to build a child's vocabulary quickly, and perhaps more importantly, how not to. Many parents have learned by now that the Baby Einstein series not only fails to help kids talked sooner, it can actually impede speech development. This book explains why. There's a chapter on lying, and why it's not necessarily a bad thing when kids do it. In perhaps one of the most eye-opening chapters for me, the authors tackle the dogma that thrusting a child into a multi-ethnic environment will help make them "color blind". And in my favorite confirms-my-suspicions chapter, the authors essentially trash the idea that kindergartens for "advanced" kids are worth a damn.

All of this is presented in easy-to-digest prose--it's a quick but informative read. NurtureShock has not become my new parenting bible, but it has changed the way I interpret the behavior of my children, in what I have to believe is a good way. I would even go so far as to recommend this book for non-parents, because chances are you will have to interact with children some day, even if they aren't necessarily your own.

John Hodgman's More Information Than You Require
I can direct you to my earlier review of Hodgman's first book, and that would pretty much cover my bases here. This book is basically a continuation of The Areas of My Expertise--the page numbers even start where the last book's left off. Only this time we have a list of mole man names instead of hobo names, and Hodgman himself was a bit more famous when he wrote this book. Is it essential reading? Absolutely not. Is it still pretty damn funny? Yes. That is all.

EJP's Favorite Albums of 2009

2010-01-23T17:06:00.010-05:00

OK, I've been on a very long hiatus. The last two months have been nuts. Normally I'd stretch my favorite music of the year out over several posts, but since this post is over a month late, I'll just pound out my top 20, with minimal explanation (there are links to everything that has appeared in earlier posts). As usual, the top 20 basically reflect the albums I played the most. I'm not saying everyone should go out and buy these albums, but this is the stuff I gravitated towards in 2009. I won't say it was a great year for music, but it was alright, and there are some definite keepers on here.

20) Phoenix--Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
This album might have scored higher if didn't hear its single played 5 times a day on the radio station at work. Thanks for nearly ruining a perfectly good album for me, radio station!

19) Grand Duchy--Petits Fours
Clyde Squid didn't post much this past year, but this was a great recommendation. Easily the best thing Frank Black has put out for a long time.

18) Lilly Allen--It's Not Me, It's You

17) Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears--Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!
It's retro to the point of being a bit gimmicky, but it's also fantastic and you can shake your ass to it. This one should probably be higher up on the list, but I just recently got it, so it's here. Just give it a listen...

Sugarfoot

Black Joe Lewis | MySpace Music Videos

16) Madeleine Peyroux--Bare Bones

15) Art Brut--Art Brut vs. Satan

14) Neko Case--Middle Cyclone

13) Lightning Dust--Infinite Light
Amber Webber's voice is totally wack, but I like it. Their song "I Knew" will probably go on every mix I make for a while, but the vast majority of songs on this album are excellent.

12) We Were Promised Jetpacks--These Four Walls

11) Yeah Yeah Yeahs--It's Blitz!
Yay! A good Yeah Yeah Yeahs album! It's incredibly different than their debut album (which is still my favorite), but fun nonetheless.

10) Dan Deacon--Bromst

9) The Mumlers--Don't Throw Me Away
This album caught me by surprise. I just kinda liked Thickets & Stitches, this band's debut from 2008, and I was hesitant to even check out their sophomore effort. I'm glad I risked it. This album has received far more play time than I ever anticipated.

8) the boy least likely to--the law of the playground

7) Devendra Banhart--What Will We Be
Pitchfork hated this album, which figures, because I think it's the best album this dirty hippy has put out in years. WWWB is easily his most accessible album ever (which is probably why Pitchfork hates it), and I would consider it a good introduction to this profoundly weird artist.

6) Todd Snider--The Excitement Plan

5) Built to Spill--There Is No Enemy

4) Telekinesis--Telekinesis!

3) Andrew Bird--Noble Beast

2) Ida Maria--Fortress 'Round My Heart

1) Forro in the Dark--Light a Candle
I can't even understand most of the lyrics on this Brazilian-by-way-of-Brooklyn band's album, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying it immensely. I loved their first album a few years ago, and I love this follow-up. If you like the song in the video below, consider that it's probably one of my least favorite songs on the album. Not to say that I don't like it (and it's the only video I could find of theirs from this album), but most of the other songs are even better. Good stuff all around.

Happy Thanksgiving from Lulu Eightball

2009-11-26T07:07:00.003-05:00

Just a little something to kickoff the holiday. Emily Flake's Lulu Eightball is bitterly funny and it's one of the main reasons I pick up Boston's Weekly Dig every week.

I particularly like the one on the upper right. Happy Thanksgiving!

Nerd Rant: Clash of the Titans Remake

2009-11-11T20:58:00.005-05:00

Complaining about the unoriginality of Hollywood is about as useful as complaining about the weather, and using phrases like "raping my childhood" is offensive, cliché, and so cliché it's offensive. But I just watched the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans, and I am stunned once again by Hollywood's unoriginality and I feel like my childhood has been raped. Or at least molested.

The 1981 Clash of the Titans is one of the first movies I remember watching, ever. I was 5, and my parents took me to a drive-in to see The Fox and the Hound. It was a double feature with CotT following the forgettable Disney feature, and I guess my parents stayed assuming the kids would fall asleep.

I didn't fall asleep. The movie should have scared the crap out of a 5-year-old, but I fell in love with it. It was and continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Technically, it was directed by some guy named Desmond Davis, but anyone who knows it (and I know it very, very well) thinks of it as a Ray Harryhausen film, the last real Harryhausen film made. Yeah, the special effects are dated, but they are still amazing for the time period. It's worth watching the movie just for the creepy Medusa scenes, but there's plenty to admire in terms of the other effects. And it's a fun story. And Laurence Olivier is Zeus! Can the remake have that?

I implore anyone who's never seen this film to watch the original and not the remake. And if they decide to remake Jason and the Argonauts, I may be forced to rant again.

Halloween 2009: The Graveyard Book

2009-10-30T23:24:00.002-04:00

Probably the best possible book to have finished reading on the night before Halloween.

I finished The Graveyard Book about 4 minutes ago, so my brain is still whirling a bit. Neil Gaiman is quite a story teller. When I initially read the synopsis of this book--something along the lines of "Nobody Owens is a boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts"--I had my doubts. I also knew it was a children's book, though I must emphasize that it's for older children. The first few pages describe a family being stabbed to death, so please don't read this to your 6-year-old.

But I should have trusted Gaiman to weave an engaging, exciting, and touching tale. Bod (as Nobody is known) and his supernatural guardians represent a fascinating cast of characters. Those first few pages are brutal, but they immediately engage the reader. And honestly, though I enjoyed the Harry Potter series as much as anyone, I think if I were to encourage young readers to read about a young person in a magical setting, I'd go to this book first. It's a bit darker, but also better written and leaves a bit more to the reader's imagination (which is a good thing).

I'm a bit too tried to blather much more, but I will say that as with Gaiman's other children's novel, Coraline, I highly reccomend this book. It's a quick but satisfying read for an adult, and it's a story I'm sure some kids will want to read over and over.

Halloween 2009: Roman Dirge's Lenore

2009-10-29T21:13:00.004-04:00

OK, this one has to be quick, but it's pretty Halloweeny....

I randomly picked up Roman Dirge's Lenore: Noogies the other day basically because it looked pretty Halloweenesque. It's a comic based around a "cute little dead girl" named Lenore. I figured if this guy Dirge names his main character after a Poe poem, it can't be all that bad.

And it isn't. The strip, which is comprised of multiple short stories and a few longer stories (some that don't feature the title character at all) is often quite amusing, though darkly so. Lenore regularly mangles pets, stabs people to death--even babies!--and generally wreaks havoc wherever she goes. But, you know, in a cute and funny way!

Though ultra-violent, the strip is very cartoony, so it can't be taken seriously. The characters are very reminscent of Tim Burton's designs (think Frankenweenie or The Nightmare Before Christmas), which is not a bad thing. This particular collection represents the early days of the character and the strip. New characters are constantly being introduced, some of whom stick around for further adventures, some of whom are one-shot deals.

You can see a little more of Lenore at Dirge's website. I'll eventually pick up the next volume, Wedgies, collecting the next four "chapters" of Lenore's story. Maybe I'll save it for next Halloween...

Halloween 2009: Ghost Mix

2009-10-28T22:28:00.003-04:00

Anyone can make a Halloween Mix. Throw in some "Monster Mash" and "Spooky" and you're off to the races. But how about a mix that's only about ghosts? Here's a list of ghosty songs, arranged according to their relevance to Halloween. Note that I don't really dislike any of these songs, but the ones marked with a "*" are actually pretty good and I would really put them on a mix, Halloween or otherwise:

Songs about literal ghosts (pretty Halloweeny):

"Friendly Ghost"--Eels (from Souljacker)*
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"--Johnny Cash (16 Biggest Hits...sorry, don't know original album)*
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"--Me First and The Gimme Gimmes (from Love Their Country)*
"Little Ghost"--I'm From Barcelona (from Who Killed Harry Houdini?)
"Ghost King Pt. 2"--State Bird (from Mostly Ghostly)
"I Think I'll be a Good Ghost"--Say Hi To Your Mom (from Ferocious Mopes)*
"Ghost of Mae West"--Trailer Bride (from High Seas)
"Skinny White Girl"--Trailer Bride (from Hope Is a Thing With Feathers)*
"Leslie Anne Levine"--The Decemberists (from Castaways and Cutouts)*
"Eli, the Barrow Boy"--The Decemberists (from Picaresque)

Songs about figurative ghosts (only slightly Halloweeny):

"Ghosts"--Laura Marling (from Alas, I Cannot Swim)*
"Walking With a Ghost"--Tegan and Sara (from So Jealous)*
"The Ghost of You Lingers"--Spoon (from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
"My Summer With Ghosts"--Doleful Lions (from Song Cyclops Volume One)
"Ghost-Town of My Brain"--Jim White (from No Such Place)
"Searching for the Ghost"--Heartless Bastards (from All This Time)*
"All My Ghosts"--Frank Black (from Frank Black & The Catholics)*

Honestly, I have no idea what these songs are about, but they have the word "Ghost" in the title (probably not that Halloweeny, but who knows?):

"Paddling Ghost"--Dan Deacon (from Bromst)
"Ghost of a Plastic Bag"--Pee Wee Fist (from Flying)
"Ghostship"--Menomena (from Friend and Foe)
"Ghost"--Neutral Milk Hotel (from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea)*
"Boy Ghost"--Eef Barzelay (from Rocket Science soundtrack)
"Not A Robot, But A Ghost"--Andrew Bird (from Noble Beast)*
"Ghosts of Perdition"--Pepi Ginsberg (from Red)
"Ghost King Pt. 1"--State Bird (from Mostly Ghostly)

Know any other ghosty songs? I probably missed some obvious ones.

Halloween 2009: Sleepy Hollow

2009-10-27T21:21:00.006-04:00

File this one under very, very, very Halloweeny.

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite movies to watch on Halloween. It also happens to be the only "scary" movie my wife will watch with me, but that's besides the point. The film, which came out almost exactly 10 years ago, fell between Burton's two fairly unsuccessful forays into sci-fi territory, Mars Attacks! and Planet of the Apes. Sleepy Hollow is the quintessential Tim Burton film, and I dare say it's my favorite of his movies.

I'll just make life easier for myself and make a list of just a few of reasons why this movie is awesome:

Johnny Depp as a brilliant but scaredy-cat Ichabod Crane.

An actual flaming pumpkin head.

Purposely cheesy dialogue delivered perfectly, including this exchange between Depp and Christina Ricci (in her best role since The Addams Family): Katrina Anne Van Tassel: I have shed my tears for Brom... and yet my heart is not broken. Do you think me wicked?
Ichabod Crane: No... but perhaps there is a little bit of witch in you, Katrina.
Katrina Anne Van Tassel: Why do you say that?
Ichabod Crane: Because you have bewitched me.

It has plenty of humor, but also features multiple graphic beheadings, as well as the off-screen slaughter of a cute child (not my wife's favorite part of the movie).

An amazing supporting case, including Miranda Richardson, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Gambon, and Christopher Lee.

The obligatory cameo by Burton's girlfriend-at-the-time, Lisa Marie (it's like looking for Hitchcock in one of his films).

And of course, perhaps most importantly, Christopher friggin' Walken, as the Hessian Horseman himself:

See? Awesome.

If for some reason you've never seen this movie, this is the time of year to do it. It will bewitch you.

Halloween 2009: The Walking Dead

2009-10-26T22:03:00.003-04:00

This one falls into the category of very Halloweeny...

Zombie stories pretty much fall into two camps: satirical (think the recent Zombieland or Sean of the Dead for movies, or my most recent favorite computer game, Plants vs. Zombies) or scary. Robert Kirkman's long-running The Walking Dead comics series falls very squarely in the latter category.

I picked up the first compendium of The Walking Dead earlier this year--it's comprised of the first 8 trade paper backs, or the first 48 issues, of the series. It starts off almost identically to one of my favorite recent zombie flicks, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. A dude, our "hero", a townie cop, wakes up from a coma to find the hospital empty. He eventually makes it outside to find that the town is a wasteland and the walking dead (only much later are they actually referred to as zombies) are everywhere.

Eventually he finds living people, including his family, which is probably the least likely plot development the story offers up. From there, the tried and true zombie tropes are trotted out. The zombies can only be killed by a head shot (or ax, or hammer, or ninja sword...whatever). People think the government will eventually come to the rescue. And most importantly, the survivors should be more afraid of each other than the actual zombies.

There's not a whole lot of new territory here in terms of the zombie mythology, but since it is an exceptionally long series, we're allowed to observe and get to know the well-written characters far better than one can in a 90 minute movie. As long as you don't actually get attached to any characters. This is very much an anyone-can-die-at-any-moment kind of series. Like the superb Y the Last Man, there's also a lot more thought put into the plot and the circumstances. Besides just murder and mayhem, the series is very much a thought experiment. Kirkman has clearly put some effort into imagining what the world would actually be like if the dead came back to life.

The black and white illustrations, primarily by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, are well paired with this level of story telling. The violence is graphically depicted, but they're not really going for the gross-out factor. Yes, a person's neck is bitten, but we're not seeing veins and gore squirting everywhere. It's gross, but not too gross.

I can really only read this book one chapter at a time, with good breaks in between. It's a compelling story, but relentlessly grim. There's not a word of comic relief, nor should there be here. Kirkman chose his tone early on and he's remained consistent. But really, when nothing every good happens to anyone, ever, it gets more than a little depressing if you read too much at once. Still, zombies are pretty cool, and this whip-smart series is worth the occassional visit to get that zombie fix we all desire.

Halloween 2009: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2009-10-25T21:47:00.004-04:00

In an effort to get a little more content up here, I'm going to try to do a post a night this week in honor of Halloween. I'll try to write about Halloweeny things, but some will be more Halloweeny than others. This first entry is really only vaguely Halloweeny.

My brother-in-law (who's German) recommended Stieg Larrson's novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, ages ago. In hind sight, it was probably before it was even released in this country. It's the first in a trilogy by the late Swedish author who basically wrote the series as a pastime. The series is relatively popular here, but it's huge in Europe. Literally millions of copies have been sold--it's like Harry Potter, but instead of magic for kids, it's sex and murder for adults.

I suppose the book is what one calls a crime thriller. It's not a genre I read often, so it's tough to say. It's the thriller part that gets me. The only difference between "thriller" and "horror" in my mind is that the "horror" usually involves the supernatural in some way. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I guess it's the thriller part that also makes this book vaguely Halloweeny--there are some legitimately creepy parts.

But more importantly, once you get past the first 60 pages or so, the book is pretty much unputdownable. Sure, 60 pages is a lot, but it's worth getting through. Not that the beginning is a complete slog, but it's our first introduction to the main characters of not just the book, but the series. The real meat of the story comes soon after, and it's very tasty meat indeed.

Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist who's recent fall from grace leads him to a dubious new employer. Though he's not the most exciting character, he's thrust into the extraordinary circumstances that form the crux of the novel. Lisbeth Salander, the titular "girl", is a fascinating character and the centerpiece of the series. It takes an agonizingly long time for her to enter the central plot, but she requires a lot more development as a character.

And really, I can't say much more without spoiling it. I haven't stayed up late to read a book in ages, and my wife read it three times faster than I did. She cursed me for encouraging her to read such a riveting book that was also too scary for her.

The novel isn't great literature, and it's not without its flaws, but it was undoubtedly a fun read. If you started it right now, you'll probably have it done by Halloween. As for me, the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, should be arriving on my doorstep any day now.

Highly Anticipated Fall Albums

2009-10-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

I'm so far behind on the albums I've listened to and would like to review, I will likely never catch up--so, sorry about that. But there have been three albums released in the last month that I was really looking forward to, and even though I haven't really absorbed any of them yet, here are some quick early impressions...

The Dodos - Time To Die
So far this album falls squarely in between the previous two Dodos albums in terms of how much I like it. It's not quite as catchy as Beware of the Maniacs, but it's definitely more accessible than last year's somewhat disappointing Visiter. The third album is often a death knell for bands, but I think The Dodos still have some life in them. "Fables", the song in the following video, is pretty representative.

Thao (with the Get Down Stay Down) - Know Better Learn Faster
Of the three albums I'm writing about here, this is the one living up to my expectations the least. That may be because I had the highest expectations for it since Thao's last album, We Brave Bee Stings And All, was my favorite album last year. Where that album was kind of light, silly, and sexy, this album is often dark, dirty, and sexy. It was a big shift in tone (other than the sexy part), and I guess I was a bit jarred. It might grow on me, but I'm pretty sure it won't crack my top 10 or 20 of the year. Still, "Cool Yourself"'s a pretty good song (though not particularly representative of the rest of the album):

Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
Of these three albums, this is the one that surpassed my expectations. It's not that I don't expect a lot from Built to Spill--Doug Martsch and co. are hands down one of my favorite bands. But they've made a lot of albums, and there are some misses along with the hits. Since I really enjoyed their last album, 2006's You in Reverse, I didn't want to get my hopes up too much. I needn't have worried. I would say There Is No Enemy is on par with Keep It Like a Secret in terms of how much I like it, though they are both very different albums. This album is a little more bitter than usual, but the clever lyrics and massive guitar are still there. Whenever I really need to have my ears barraged by guitar, I know Built to Spill is there for me.

The video below is fan-made, but it's the only way I could get this song on here. "Things Fall Apart" is long, kinda depressing, and has some NSFW lyrics...but it's also pretty awesome.

Andrew Bird's "Anonanimal"

2009-10-05T20:26:00.003-04:00

Andrew Bird doesn't make a ton of videos, so when he does, it's kind of event...umm, if you really like Andrew Bird. Which I do.

Check out the freaky-cool video for "Anonanimal", a pretty song from Noble Beast, Bird's most recent album. Unfortunately I can't embed it, but you can see it if click on the pic or go to the following link:

http://www.andrewbird.net/aviary/index.php

Titan Maximum

2009-09-28T21:21:00.004-04:00

Just watched the pilot for Titan Maximum on Adult Swim. Adultswim.com has been hyping this show for a month, so it was clear they felt they had something special here.

And yeah, it was pretty funny. The following clip was easily my favorite two minutes of the show, but there was plenty of comedy gold to be had in the pilot.

The giant robot genre is a big fat juicy target for satire, so I have little doubt that if the writing remains this good, the show will be around for a while. For the full pilot, click here.

Book Reviews: Tesla, Monsters, and Mad Militaries

2009-09-22T06:47:00.001-04:00

In the last few weeks I've managed to finish 3 books. I feel vaguely literate again. Here's a brief rundown...

Samantha Hunt's The Invention of Everything Else
I first heard about this book a year or so ago when I heard an interview with the author on NPR. The premise sounded interesting--a novelization of Nikola Tesla's last few weeks on earth, during which several real events in his fascinating life are recounted. Though I am by no means a Tesla expert, any scientist worth his salt should at least have some awareness of who he is. In a righteous world, anyone who uses alternating current (which would be pretty much everybody who uses electricity) would know who he is. He was and remains, arguably, one of the most under appreciated inventors and engineers of the last few centuries.

So that's why I read the book. Tesla was a interesting dude. Hunt's depiction of him as mad genius is probably not all that far off the mark. Her depiction of Thomas Edison as an business-savvy non-genius is also probably not too far off the mark. The fictional characters with which they interact, however, are a little harder to embrace. They're better than mere caricatures, but I didn't really find myself caring about them all that much.

This book tries to be a lot of things. It's a bit biography and historical fiction, some romance, and even a dash of science fiction. Some readers may find this inability to classify the book frustrating, some may find it endearing. I find myself falling more into the latter camp--the book isn't exactly literature, but it was clever and entertaining. Just as I found the descriptions of whaling the most fascinating aspect of Moby Dick, I found the descriptions of Tesla's rise and fall as one of the world's greatest inventors very gratifying. If the novel had been composed exclusively of Tesla-centric chapters, it would have received a solid A from me. As it was, I found the chapters that didn't involve Tesla reasonably well-written, but a bit distracting. I'll leave it at a B, and recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn a bit more about Tesla but is too lazy to pick up a real biography any time soon (like me!).

Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters
I read Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners a few years ago. Two of my favorite stories from that anthology were "The Faery Handbag" and "Magic for Beginners". I finished Pretty Monsters a week or so ago and two of my favorite stories were "The Faery Handbag" and "Magic for Beginners."

So apparently this anthology was being marketed as a book for "young adults," but I'm really not sure how different these stories were from the previous volume. I'm not complaining about the repeated stories (the only repeated stories, incidentally); it was actually a pleasure to read them again. "Magic for Beginners" is especially good--a twisty tale of metafiction that leaves the reader needing to read it again. Other stories range from fairly light fantasy to borderline horror. Link has a fantastic imagination, an aptitude for throwing curve balls in her story telling, and an excellent ear for dialogue, particularly children's dialogue. Perhaps it's this last gift that makes these stories for young adults. The protagonists (or victims...what have you) are all children or teenagers, so I guess that's why the book was siphoned into the young adult genre.

So I guess I'd recommend you'd give this book to a young adult you know, but read it yourself first. I'd also recommend Link's Magic for Beginners, which I thought I'd blogged about already, but apparently not. I'd give that one a A-, whereas Pretty Monsters is almost as good with a B+.

Jon Ronson's The Men Who Stare at Goats
Clearly, I have my finger on the pulst of America. Or at least Hollywood. Literally the day after I picked this book up, I discovered it has recently been made into a movie starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and other famous actor types. Now I honestly have no idea how TMWSAG could possibly make a good movie, but it was an excellent piece of nonfiction.

The book is Ronson's account of his adventures exploring the scary side of the US military. Not scary dangerous, but scary crazy. The title refers to a secret building in Fort Bragg where men were apparently trained for years to kill (or at least "drop") a goat just by staring at it. Ronson eventually tracks down the one man who apparently did it, a civilian who now practices on hamsters. He also talks to generals who think they can walk through walls, form psychic spies, and the people ultimately behind the Barney song torture.

In THEM: Adventures with Extremists, Ronson relied on his Jewishness to maintain the tension of being an outsider (and potential victim) in the groups he was exploring. Here, though it's seldom mentioned, he uses his Britishness to gain access to people who might not be as open with an American journalist. Ronson follows every lead to discover who the key players have been in the paranormal--or at least pseudoscientific--side of the military over the past 40 years. Much stems from a military document the suggests creating a First Earth Battalion, which suggests that soldiers should essentially be "fighting" their wars with music, hugs, and cute animals. The top brass initially took these ideas to heart, and then that heart was Cheney-fied. The result led to new forms of torture and military tactics that will either make you want to laugh or cry.

That's where Ronson's writing style comes in handy. He's funny--often laugh out loud funny--which is necessary to soften the blow of what we're actually reading here. Some of the stories he describes take place decades ago, so it's easy to say, "Oh, they did some crazy shit back then!" But when he brings his story into the Gulf War and you realize that certain people in the military are as crazy as ever, it made my stomach hurt a little. So kudos to Ronson for writing a book that was entertaining, informative, and more than a little bit sickening. A-

Mmmm....Sky Cake

2009-09-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

I do not have enough time in my life to keep up with stand-up comedy. I'm vaguely aware of who's popular at any given time, but I'm not familiar with any particular jokes or sets. But I make an exception for Patton Oswalt, who's 2007 album Werewolves and Lollipops was pretty damn funny.

He's back with new material on the recently released My Weakness is Strong. Some of the bits fall into what I would consider stand-up cliches, including impending fatherhood and airlines. Even as someone admittedly unfamiliar with stand-up, this seemed like well-traveled territory. Grant you, I still laughed at it, probably because I've had my own impending fatherhood fears, and airlines will always suck.

There are also riffs on things that will undoubtedly date this album, including Oswalt's work on Ratatouille and Barack Obama. Again, pretty funny, but will it still be funny 5 years from now? Not so much.

But plenty of other bits are timeless and funny, including Oswalt's takes on depression, walking in on an orgy while house hunting, and his history of religion. Oswalt is at his best when he's at his most cynical, and he doesn't get much more cynical than this atheist's attempt to compress religous history into one scathing allegory, called Sky Cake.

Overall, not quite as funny as Werewolves and Lollipops, but still one of the funniest dudes out there right now. I suppose I don't really have a basis for comparison, I just know I laughed my way through this album.

Paddling Ghost

2009-09-04T22:23:00.005-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Dan Deacon's album Bromst has been creeping up on my all year. His electronic music isn't for everyone, but for whatever reason, this album hit a sweet spot with me. Of all the excellent songs on the album, the following video is for one of the weirdest (though still pleasingly frenetic in its energy). Who would have thought that the video for a song called "Paddling Ghost" would actually feature a paddling ghost? And apparently a paddling pirate ghost at that...

Mini Music Reviews: August 2009, Pt. II

2009-08-23T13:43:00.000-04:00

Marcy Playground - Leaving Wonderland...In a Fit of Rage
Now here's a band I could get behind. As anyone who knew me grad school can testify, I pushed these purported one-hit-wonders on everyone. I still stand by their first three albums, all of which I feel were completely underrated. I recommend their self-titled debut, their sophomore album Shapeshifter, and their 2004 album MP3 to anyone. Band leader John Wozniak has a gift for catchy hooks and I can almost guarantee that songs from all of these albums will get stuck in your head. But something happened between 2004 and 2009. Apparently Woz found Jesus. The new album starts off in standard Marcy Playground territory with songs about sex and drugs, but then around halfway through, at the track called "Irene", things get pretty Christian-y. The rest of the album is composed of sub-par tunes about (I assume) Wozniak's wife and God. I'm not one to dislike someone because they're Christian by any means--I'm certainly not going to stop listening to Sufjan Stevens because he's Christian--but the last half of this album just isn't that great. I'll still recommend the first 5 tracks though, so by all means check out the first 5 tracks. Despite all this, I'm still going to give'em a B-, just for having the cuts to make another album at all after the last two commercial failures.

Eels - Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire
And speaking of artists who are declining with age, Mark Oliver Everett's latest "effort" is about is about as interesting as his last couple albums, which is not a good thing. Though 2003's Shootenany had some great tracks, I haven't really liked an Eels album in its entirety since 2002's Souljacker. Maybe I just haven't given this new album enough listens, but I can't think of one exceptional track off the top of my head. Maybe E is just too happy...his best work always seems to come from the times in his life when he's most miserable. I don't know why exactly this album doesn't do it for me. I just doesn't, so I'm giving it a C-. Also, the title is stupid.

We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
I mentioned in my last post that I seemed to like French female vocalists. Apparently I also like Scottish dudes yelling. These Four Walls is a remarkable debut album. The music begs to be played loudly, preferably out of a car window at night, but whatever works for you. And just try not to play the air drums on some of these anthems. The whole album is pretty much old school anthemic rock (I just checked, and "anthemic" is not strictly a word, except to describe bands and music like this). Give "Quiet Little Voices" a listen below--if you like it, there's 10 other gems in the same vein on the rest of the album. A-

Discovery - LP
And on the other end of the likability spectrum, we have Discovery. This album was basically being sold as a ThePostal Service-type project by Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij. Hey, I liked The Postal Service and I like Vampire Weekend, so this had to be a winner, right? Uggh, so wrong. I muscled my way through two listens, and that's all it's getting. I have become much more open-minded about electronic music over the past few years and I've found plenty that I've liked. I found this "music" simply grating. F

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
I'm having the hardest time writing this little review, I suppose because this is such a bizarre little album. I like it, but I can't say precisely why I like it. Listening to it feels like I'm being buried in an avalanche of music--it's pop music in a carnival mirror. Of all the albums I've liked this year so far, this one is probably the least accessible, which is why I hesitate to recommend it. My favorite track on the album is called "Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!", so you know this isn't exactly Top-40 fare. If you like weird stuff, give it a shot. It will either strike a chord, as it did with me, or it won't. B+

Todd Snider - The Excitement Plan
I think I may officially be joining The Cult of Todd. Snider has been around for a good while and I've been peripherally aware of him for a while, but this summer I decided to take the plunge. I got his excellent live album (which I'd heard before), Near Truths and Hotel Rooms, and I picked up this album, his most recent release. Todd Snider is a story teller, and his knack for writing songs that are tragic or funny or tragic and funny puts him in the ranks of some other excellent song writers, such as Randy Newman and Warren Zevon. Many of the songs are deeply personal--this is not a man who's had an easy life. But he can look back and laugh at his experiences, and he encourages us to laugh with him. I like this album from beginning to end. The video below gives us the song from the beginning, a little ditty called "Slim Chance". There are no official videos from this new album, so this is live, which apparently is how you're really supposed to experience Snider's music (I'll see him eventually). Evelyn Is Not Real should recognize the venue here.... And by the way, I give this one a solid A.

Mini Music Reviews: August 2009, Pt. I

2009-08-19T22:15:00.000-04:00

I figured I better post again, before I get too rusty. I'm so far behind on album reviews, a lot of these came out a while ago. But at least all of them are 2009 (except for one). Here are a fraction of thing things that have made their way into my CD player over the past few months. I'm splitting this up into two posts since things were getting a little wordy...

John Doe & The Sadies - Country Club
I basically picked this up because I really liked the last album by The Sadies, who I supposed fall into the alt-country category. I wasn't familiar with John Doe. They're all competent musicians, but this album of country standards was pretty meh. If I'm going to listen to covers of country songs (not that I'm going to do that very often), I want a new spin on them, and there wasn't much spinning going on here. C-

Passion Pit - MannersI really wanted to love this album. They've gotten more press than nearly any other Boston-based band since I've moved back to the area. Some of my favorite critics had nothing but high praise. But the first listen was rough. I actually contemplated never listening to it again. The whole children's choir thing was doing nothing for me. The Stones got away with that in "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and the gimmick hasn't worked all that well for me since (I'm looking at you, Decemberists). In any case, I did listen again, and I liked it more. It's different, and I can see the kids wanting to dance to it. But I'll never love it. B-

Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
My relationship to Wilco isn't so much love/hate as like/tolerate. The only Wilco album I really loved was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The only album I really disliked was A Ghost is Born (sorry, EINR). Whether or not I've liked their other albums pretty much depends on my mood any given year when they come out. I guess I was in the mood for a Wilco album this year, because I'm enjoying this one. It's not spectacular by any means, but I'm enjoying it more than the relatively tepid Sky Blue Sky. If you like Wilco, it's certainly worth checking out. If you're unfamiliar with them, this is not the place to start. B+

The Accidental - There Were Wolves
This is the aforementioned 2008 album, and it didn't even come out in late 2008. But since it's one of my favorite albums that I've picked up in the last few months, I thought I should mention it. The Accidental is essentially a "supergroup", composed of British musicians from a variety of bands. The only person with whom I was familiar was Sam Genders of Tunng, a band I really like. I supposed this album could be called folky, but that would be doing it an injustice. Though there are certainly folk elements, there's lots of other genres mixed in there. Whatever you want to call it, I just know that relative to the other 20+ albums I've picked up in the last few months, I've been listening to this one quite a bit. The video below doesn't really do the music justice (this is not the album verison of the song), and if you can listen to the title track, start there. Good stuff. A-

Coralie Clement - Toystore
I find albums lots of different ways, but I very rarely pick one up randomly. That's what I did with Toystore. I tend to like French female vocalists, so I thought I'd give it a shot. What I got can only be called Revenge Of the Blog Post. Back in May, when I rev iewed Star Trek, I said that the movie had a bit too much Spock in it, which was annoying in much the same way that a band would be annoying if it had a bit too much ukulele. Well guess what the primary instrument on this album is? Maybe the album title should have tipped me off, but who would have thought some hot French chick would be jammin' to a uke for an entire album? The plus side is, I still like ladies singing in French, even though I don't understand a word of it. The ukulele, though distracting at first, grew on me. It's not a great album, but it's by no means terrible. I can't think of any reason to recommend it unless you happen to have the same musical fetish that I do, but I'm going to give it a B anyway.

Carbon Leaf - Nothing Rhymes With Woman
Recently, Carrie Brownstein (formerly of Sleater-Kinney) wrote an insightful post about middle-of-the-road bands on her excellent music blog, Monitor Mix. Carbon Leaf is just such a band. They are neither great nor terrible. They just...are. I have one other album by this relatively prolific band that you have probably never heard of, 2001's Echo Echo. It's a slightly better than decent album, which is why I decided to give the band another try. I have nothing bad to say about this album...it just didn't do much for me. If you're really into Celtic rock (created by an American band), you might want to check it out. C

The Movie We Will All Go Out To See

2009-08-04T22:02:00.001-04:00

Not Bad

2009-08-04T21:47:00.001-04:00

Since no one seems to be aware of this:

Frank Black and his wife have an album out under the name Grand Duchy. I like it more as I listen to it. It's The Good Queen of Pop meets the Wicked King of Distortion. The album has a very 80's feel, like the bad dreams of the Thompsan Twins.

How appropriate! You fight like a cow!

2009-07-27T18:38:00.003-04:00

Gamers born before 1990 almost universally cut their teeth on the now-moribund adventure genre. Justly criticized for the often obscure logic of their puzzles and the fundamentally uninspiring click-everywhere-try-everything gameplay, adventure games fell out of favor in the face of more visceral first-person shooters and action-adventures. Those who played them, however, fondly remember the clever writing and charming personality of these games, particularly those produced by LucasArts. In recent years, they have seen a slight resurgence of popularity, thanks in part to the efforts of TellTale games, who revived Sam & Max as an episodic game series. Now they have pulled the same trick with the Monkey Island series, and as part of the launch of the new series, the original Secret of Monkey Island has been released in a new special edition, with spiffed-up graphics and an all-new voice track. Yes, I think you should buy it.

In general, I think the older games that essentially walked 2-D sprites over pseudo-3-D fields have aged better than early polygonal 3-D graphics, but the new coat of paint serves The Secret of Monkey Island very well. The designs faithfully render the overall look of the original, while adding a whimsical flair that meshes perfectly with the game's irreverent tone. The voice acting is somewhat less successful, in part because some lines get repeated quite a bit, and in part because the speaking slows the pace down. Hearing the swordfighting insults in full voice, however, is more than adequate compensation.

The primary weakness of the special edition is that it's still the same game, which means nobody is applying any of the lessons learned from the downfall of the adventure genre. The puzzles are still fairly obscure, you still have to click on everything in sight in order to progress, and you still have to figure out how on earth you can use a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle. Fortunately, there is a light hint system available, one that judiciously directs the player towards the right answer without spelling things out. It's perhaps not as satisfying as figuring out all the answers yourself, but it's more fulfilling than a trip to GameFAQs.

Of course, if you don't find any of this appealing, you can revert to the original game with the touch of a button, on the fly. Underneath the new spit and polish, The Secret of Monkey Island hasn't really changed. For those of us who remember that a man's wit must be as sharp as his blade, that's an ideal kind of update. And for those who never learned what to say when a sword master calls you a pain in the backside, The Secret of Monkey Island is about the best possible introduction to a style of play that once dominated computer gaming.

Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is available on Wii and The Secret of Monkey Island SE can be downloaded on XBox Live Arcade. Both games are available on Steam for PC.

Oh Tron, How Do I Love Thee?

2009-07-24T22:08:00.002-04:00

OK, one more lazy trailer post, and then I promise my next post will be more substantial. Tron has a special place in the hearts of geeks my age. How I would have loved to be at Comic Con when this premiered. For reals, the Tron: Legacy trailer is only for the truly nerdly nerds out there:

http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2010/Tron-Legacy/trailer.php

Trailer for New Jean-Pierre Jeunet Film

2009-07-17T22:21:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts this month. I've actually got plenty to write about, just no time to write about it. Eventually I'll be getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night again and will have a little more energy for blogging. Could be next week, could be next month.

Until then, I stumbled across the trailer for the newest Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. Not speaking a lick of French, I don't even know what the title, Micmacs à tire-larigot, means. Judging from the trailer, I'd say it's a comedy heist film. Whatever it's about, it's sure to be pretty. I don't love every Jeunet movie, but I love many of them, and they're all pretty.

My ‘favorite’ albums of 2009, so far (updated):

2009-07-08T14:34:00.003-04:00

As I commented on EJP’s thread, I have been less than thrilled by music releases this year. For me, while there have been some above average releases (at least using the Pitchfork barometer [PFB]), there has not been a single release that I have got lost in and played over and over again.

Edited (7/15/09): So I've been giving the new Wilco album some more play time. I mean, they are one of my favorite bands, and sometimes an album has to grow on you. I think I'm finally starting to get Wilco (the album). So my updated list:

10. Telekinesis! – S/T (PFB 6.3)

9. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (PFB 7.5)

8. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (PFB 7.9)

7. Mos Def – The Ecstatic. Most recent addition, it could climb higher. Yes, it is true, white people do love Mos Def. I like reading the Sunday Times and eating fancy sandwiches too. Sue me. (PFB 8.0)

6. Wilco - Wilco (the album) (PFB 7.3)

5. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (PFB 8.5)

4. Pains of Being Pure at Heart – S/T (PFB 8.4)

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest. It really helps to see these guys live. I didn’t really get them and have the appreciation that I currently have until after that moment. (PFB 9.0)

2. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (PFB 8.5)

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (PFB 9.6)

Favorite Albums of 2009...So Far

2009-07-06T02:33:00.002-04:00

Now that I'm back at work full time and still getting used to being a father of two, posting here will probably be a little scarce for a while. But I still wanted to mention my favorite albums from the first half of the year. I won't go into a lot of details since I've already reviewed all of these on the site previously. Just a benchmark for myself, really...

10) Dan Deacon - Bromst
Dan Deacon is just happy to be here. This weird little album has gotten much more playtime than I would have initially expected. I can go into a little trance when I listen to it, though I wouldn't call it trance music. I recently discovered that it's great to listen to if you're caught in a traffic jam
9) the boy least likely to - the law of the playground
8) The Thermals - Now We Can See
7) Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan
6) Chairlift - Does You Inspire You
5) Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
4) M. Ward - Hold Time
I think this one will inevitably move down the chart. I like the album, but I don't think it has staying power for the rest of the year.
3) Telekinesis - Telekinesis!
2) Ida Maria - Fortress 'Round My Heart
1) Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

No surprises in my top 3, based on the reviews I gave them. The order of albums below that is somewhat interchangeable. There are a few things that didn't make this list that are a little surprising to myself. No Decemberists, Say Hi, or Beirut. I wouldn't say I'm really disappointed by these albums, but I'm just not listening to them as much as I would have expected based on how much I like the artists. I was disappointed by some other artists, like Camera Obscura, Bishop Allen, and most notably, Clem Snide. But it happens.

So far, 2009 has been pretty dense with releases by artists I know and like. The next couple months are pretty sparce in terms of new albums by artists I know, though I have my eye on releases by YACHT, The Dodos, WHY?, Islands, Thao, and maybe The Flaming Lips (See Pitchfork for list of upcoming releases). And maybe my next favorite album is by someone I've never heard of.

Any albums I didn't mention here or in previous reviews that I've clearly been missing out on?

Paternity Leave Reading

2009-06-24T10:11:00.005-04:00

I'm currently wrapping up my paternity leave. My brand spanking new daughter is awesome, but let's face it, infants are kind of boring. She has about 20 minutes a day that she's awake and not nursing, and I enjoy those minutes. I've used some of the other time to catch up on some reading.

I recently finished Steven Millhauser's short story anthology, Dangerous Laughter. It was my first book by Millhauser, and I wasn't even halfway through the 13 stories presented here before I knew I'd be reading more of him. Millhauser's biggest claim to fame, outside literary circles, is that the relatively recent movie The Illusionist was based on one of his short stories (the story, "Eisenheim the Illusionist," is not in this anthology). It was a pretty decent movie, and Millhauser is a very clever, thought-provoking writer. Many of the stories force the reader to consider some aspect of the world that we take for granted--a Tom and Jerry cartoon, laughter, words, household objects, our sense of touch--from a completely new, slightly skewed perspective.

"History of a Disturbance" made me incredibly self-conscious about the words that came out of my mouth for days. Even as I think of the story now, weeks after I initially read it, it makes my mind feel kind of itchy. In the story "The Other Town", which isn't so much a story as it is a narrative description, we are introduced to a town that has created an exact doppelganger of itself; a copy that is kept updated minute by minute whenever a fork is shifted in a drawer or a leaf falls from a tree. How the town maintains this replica is vaguely interesting; why the town puts forth such an effort is much more intriguing.

Some of the stories feel like sci-fi or fantasy, but none fall easily into either genre. Some are character driven, some don't even have characters. Nearly all the stories were entertaining, and all of them made me think. Dangerous Laughter was easily the best anthology I've read in ages and I would highly recommend it.

On a much, much lighter note, I also finished John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise (or if you prefer the complete title, An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order By Me, John Hodgman, A Professional Writer, In The Areas of My Expertise). Most of the world knows Hodgman as the PC guy in the Mac vs. PC ads. He's also a frequent contributor to This American Life, for you NPR fans out there. I remember hearing an interview with Hodgman a few years ago when this book came out and thinking it sounded cool. I promptly forgot about it, then found the book relatively recently and decided to check it out. I'm glad I did.

A book consisting of entirely made-up facts probably won't appeal to everyone, but I found it highly amusing. Consider one of Hodgman's favorite topics, hoboes. He devotes several pages to a list of 700 Hobo names. And in one of the more amusing passages, he describes part of Hobo history:

At his inauguration in 1933, a new crippled president named Roosevelt addressed the nervous crowd: "The people of the United States have not failed. In their need, they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. An so I will kill all the hoboes, and together we will gnaw on their bones." It was time for a comprehensive Hobo Eradicaiton Plan called "The New Deal."

And so on. He also expounds upon facial hair, how to win a fight, failed palindromes (e.g. Slow speed: deep owls), and eels, among several other things. It's all very absurd, but you have to actually be somewhat well-read and reasonably intelligent to understand just how absurd some of this stuff is. In other words, you might appreciate the book more if listen to NPR (or its Canadian equivalent). It's not something I would recommend reading in one sitting--or even 10 sittings--but it's a fun book to pick up once in a while for a good chuckle.

Mini Music Reviews: June 2009

2009-06-10T23:11:00.007-04:00

Most of these albums came out at least a month or so ago, but I'm playing a little catch-up. Here are some newish things that have been getting some spins...

Laura Gibson - Beasts of Seasons
The last time I listened to this album in its entirety, I was playing chess with my dad. It's that kind of music. To say that it's background music would be a little too damning, because it is good, it's just not something I can throw myself into. For the most part, it's good chill-out music, but "Spirited" is definitely a stand-out track and worth checking out. The album's not going to be one of my favorites of the year, but this track might be. Overall, I'd give it a B-.

the boy least likely to - the law of the playground
When I picked up the second album by The Boy Least Likely To a few months ago, I was more than a little afraid it would disappoint me like I'm From Barcelona's sophomore album, which saw that band becoming a big bummer. TBLLT's debut, The Best Party Ever, was happy scrappy fun, and I wanted more of the same. This time, I got it. The band still manages to deliver some pretty dark lyrics under some of the fizziest, child-like music you'll ever hear, and that's a pretty neat trick. Their music is not for everybody--even I'm often at a loss as to when I can actually play this album out loud. It's not something you want to blast out of your car window, and I'd be laughed out of work if I ever tried to play it there. Maybe it's something my two-year-old would enjoy listening to with me. I think I might revert to about 4-years-old when I listen to it. Whatever. It's kinda cheesy, but it makes me happy, and I'll give it an A-, without (much) embarrassment. Also, it's about time I found a song with the lyric "And I know kung fu...":

Every Goliath Has Its David from The Boy Least Likely To on Vimeo.

Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan
Art Brut is also not for everyone. For one thing, as anyone who's heard the band can testify, Eddie Argos can't and doesn't sing. As those of us familiar with the first track of their first album know, he's not being ironic. That's really just the way he "sings". But their songs are often clever and entertaining, and the songs from this album may be their cleverest and entertainingest so far. It's a morning after kind of album, and Argos bluntly shares the repercussions of an alcoholic lifestyle. Frank Black (aka Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson) produced the album, which is essentially live, in studio. Or "Slap Dash For No Cash" as one of the song titles explains. It's easily the best thing Thompson has had a hand in for years. "DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake" and "Mysterious Bruises" are excellent tracks, but the whole album is surprising listenable--by far Art Brut's strongest effort so far. A-

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
The thing about Camera Obscura is, they're one of those bands that's just much better live. After seeing them live a few years ago, their albums just don't measure up. On top of that, even as far as the albums go, I think My Maudlin Career is a step down from Let's Get Out Of This Country, which is still my favorite Camera Obscura album. That said, I still love Tracyanne Campbell, and "French Navy" is a pretty catchy tune. It's not a bad album, but I have to give them a C+ for failing to capture the energy of their live show.

Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali
Amadou and Mariam make some danceable, yet soulful music. It's as simple as that. I didn't like this album quite as much as 2005's Manu Chao-produced Dimanche a Bamako (which I would get first if you're not familiar with this duo), but it's still a fun listen if you want to bop your head but don't really care whether or not you understand the words. A solid B.

St. Vincent - Actor
I'm still making up my mind about this one. Like many of the albums in this post (apparently) I like one or two songs, but I'm not in love with the whole album. In this case, the single, "Actor Out of Work", is easily one of Annie Clark's best songs, brief though it is. I'm not sure the rest of the album stands up all that well next to it, however. Also like many of the other albums in this post, I liked St. Vincent's previous effort, Marry Me, considerably more. That album was kind of a slow-burner for me, however, so I may have to give this one a little more time. For now, a B-.

Yusuf - Roadsinger (To Warm You Through The Night)
My problem with Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) is that I have a hard time interpreting any of his songs as secular. He still has a unique and pleasant-sounding voice; he still knows how to right a good hook. I just can't help but feel like I'm being preached at sometimes, and I don't care if he's Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, I don't like that feeling. Many of his new songs probably are religious in nature, but certainly not all of them. In any case, I'm starting to get past those feelings and just getting back to enjoying the music of a pretty amazing artist. I grew to like his "comeback" album, An Other Cup, quite a bit, and this follow-up is growing on me, too. B

The Vaselines - Enter The Vaselines
I should confess from the outset that I have yet to listen to the second disc in this two-disc set, a "greatest hits" album for a band that never really had any hits. The second disc is primarily live versions, and since I'm not yet familiar with the studio versions, I figured I'd get used to those first. I have yet to read a review of this album that doesn't mention that Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of The Vaselines, so...there you go. As for the music itself, it could pretty much be its own genre: pop-psychedelic smut. C'mon, are we really supposed to believe that "Rory Rides Me Raw" is about a horse? And it's almost unfortunate that "You Think You're a Man" is so catchy, because it's definitely not a song I want to be singing out loud if the tune pops into my head. That said, I appreciate the frankness of the lyrics, and the music itself is some straight-up rock that doesn't suffer from the overproduction that dilutes similar artists of today. B+

Chairlift - Does You Inspire You
Speaking of sexy and catchy all rolled up into one, check out "Bruises", my favorite song off this album:

I should point out that I quite liked this song before I watched the video with all its skin and whatnot. Technically, I think Does You Inspire You came out in 2008, but it was re-released in 2009 with a few extra tracks. I don't know that the extra tracks make much of a difference, but this odd trio is growing on me quickly. I wouldn't say every song is stellar--some of the tracks are downright weird, even by my standards. But out of the pile of newish CDs I'm currently listening to, I find myself listening to this one a lot. Enough so that I'm going to give it an A-.

A Drifting Life

2009-06-05T21:34:00.004-04:00

I should preface this review by saying that though I read comics and graphic novels, I've never been into manga. I'm not an authority on the style and I'd honestly never heard of Yoshihiro Tatsumi before I read A Drifting Life, his manga-as-memoir. I picked it up because it sounded kind of interesting and received a rave review from a comic critic I've come to respect.

Tatsumi (or Katsumi, as he calls himself in the book) starts his story shortly after World War II, as he and his sickly brother become obsessed with the manga of the time and start drawing it themselves. He's published before he's even a teenager and rises quickly through the ranks of manga artists. We see him grow older and experiment with new types of manga, creating a new genre. We also see him struggle with new publishers, new cities, and various personal issues.

Make no mistake, this one's a talkie. That makes things a little awkward, since this was obviously written in Japanese. The dialogue can be a bit stilted at times, but have you ever seen or read a natural sounding English translation of something that was originally in Japanese? I've always wondered if that's really the way the Japanese talk, or if it's just inevitably how the English translations turn out. Everything is stated so matter-of-factly that it can be slightly jarring at times. And as someone who's much more used to detailed (and often colored) American comics, the Japanese style can seem a bit bare bones at times. Then again, it reportedly took Tatsumi 10 years to write and draw this 800+ page epic, so I was able to quickly get past the simplicity of some of the illustrations.

But I'll cut to the chase. Reasons I liked this autobiography:

I felt I learned a lot about post-war Japan, a subject I knew virtually nothing about. Tatsumi takes great care in describing the state of the country every few years during the narrative, commenting on the culture, politics, and major events that were shaping Japan.
It does a good job getting us inside the head of an artist who is passionate about his medium. His desire to create, and not just to create, but to invent something new within the realm of manga, comes through clearly. Here's a man who learned to make a living doing something he loved. Yeah, it sucked at times, but it's still an encouraging story.
It seems like a pretty honest autobiography. Tatsumi takes credit for some major innovations in manga, but he doesn't shy away from his own failings as an artist or as a person.
Though I'm sure the logistics of producing and publishing manga is different in many ways from the types of comics I usually read, I still feel I learned a lot about a medium that I've come to enjoy more and more.

There are also plenty of reasons the book may not be for everyone. Tatsumi gets into some pretty nitty-gritty details about publishing at times, or even details about seemingly random every day events. Why does he spend two pages showing to people eating noodles together? I actually thought the depictions of "normal" Japanese behavior were kind of cool, but I could see them becoming tiresome for the casual reader. I also found myself having the same issue with this book as I often do with Russian literature: I lost track of names. I confess it's a lame weakness on my part, but after dozens of Japanese names were thrown at me, I started losing track of who was who after a while.

Ultimately, I would never reccomend this book to anyone who's not into comics or graphic novels already. You definitely don't have to be into manga to enjoy it (though you might enjoy it even more than I did if you are), but coming into this with an appreciation for the graphic medium is a requirement I think. If you haven't picked up a comic of any kind for 20 years, this is not the place to start. But for those of us who like their stories in panel form, A Drifting Life is a satisfying and illuminating read.

Beer + Microscopy=Art

2009-05-29T21:40:00.006-04:00

Today at work, I talked to a very interesting scientist. I won't get into why I was talking with him, but I'm glad I did, because it led me to his website, Molecular Expressions: Images From the Microscope. The whole website is interesting, but what especially caught my eye was a subsection called Beershots. Essentially, it's a gallery of pictures take of crystallized beer through a microscope, with each beer giving a unique signature look. Here's a local (for me) favorite, Sam Adams Boston Lager:
Or perhaps you're more of a Guiness man (or woman):
Too high brow for you? The Bud Lite is looking pretty funky:And there are plenty more. What's your favorite beer look like?

As a scientist who is sort of obsessed with art and pop culture, and who also knocks back a brew once in a while, I have to say this was the most fascinating site I've stumbled across in a while. Even if you don't want to hang it on your wall (though you can--poster prints are for sale), you have to appreciate the beauty this man has discovered through his science. Though the more I look at it, the more I want to hang Bud Lite in my living room.

Book Review: Chuck Palahniuk's Rant

2009-05-27T21:07:00.003-04:00

I would not call myself a Chuck Palahniuk fan per se, but I do like the books of his that I've read. The guy's got some clever ideas. He can be, but is not always, a good writer. He can also write the occasional scene that makes me want to vomit. I could never whole heartily recommend his books to everyone, but I certainly know a few people who would and do enjoy his novels. Mostly dudes.

I just finished Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey on my train ride home today, and I think it's become my new favorite Palahniuk book. Just as the subtitle explains, it's written as an oral biography, feature fragments of interviews from dozens of people who knew or interacted with the title character, Buster "Rant" Casey. It's a clever framing device, one that the author uses to his full advantage.

And that, my friends, is about as much as I can really tell you about this book without potentially ruining it. I was constantly surprised as I read this novel. About 90 pages in, it became something completely different than what I expected. About 60 pages from the end, it did another 180 on me. These massive changes in the direction of the narrative were, surprisingly, pretty organic. I didn't feel like I was being cheated by some ridiculous deus ex machina, but it was almost a pleasant jarring sense. Kind of appropriate, considering many of the main characters in this book take pleasure in purposely crashing their cars. This is some of the best metafiction I've read, and I'm sure it'll be knocking around my head for days. It's a must-read for Palahniuk fans, and a maybe-try for newcomers to his work. Though it has some disturbing sequences, it's not as bad as some of the stuff he's written, and I haven't even read some of his more grotesque works (Haunted is supposedly pretty stomach-churning).

The only other thing I'll say is that I hope nobody ever tries to make this book into a movie. I never read Fight Club, but I enjoyed the movie--I sort of have a policy not read a book after seeing the movie. Choke was a pretty decent book, but the movie was pretty not-so-good. I cannot imagine anyone, even David Fincher, doing filmic justice this novel.

Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies

2009-05-24T21:49:00.004-04:00

So here's a little computer game that's kept me up way past my bedtime several nights over the past few weeks. Pop Cap's Plants vs. Zombies is a defend-your-castle style game, which I've played before, but I'd never played one quite as addictive as this one. The premise is simple: defend your house from hordes of zombies with a variety of nearly 50 plants.

When I write it like that, the game sounds kind of lame, but it's remarkably well done. The zombies get steadily more ridiculous (and difficult) as the game progresses, with pole vaulters, Michael Jackson impersonators, Zamboni drivers, and punks on pogo sticks all making appearances. Every level or so, you get a new plant to add to the arsenal, and that's where the addiction came in for me. As soon as I got a new plant, I was compelled to try to use it. And often you have to use the new plant or mushroom to get past the next zombie threat. There's the simple peashooters at the beginning, a hypnotizing mushroom that turns zombies against their zombie brethren, and ears of corn that lob pads of butters at zombies, making them slip up.

Yes, it's all very silly, and at least for me, not especially difficult. Out of the 50 levels in the Adventure Mode, I only lost a few and had to try them over again. But that didn't make the game any less enjoyable. There are also lots of mini-games (which I'm still working on), and you can collect coins and jewels to buy lots of other plants and gadgets for more playing.

Plants vs. Zombies was, quite honestly, the best $20 I've spent in a long time. It's not going to change your life or anything, but it will challenge you just enough to keep playing and entertain you enough that you wish it actually lasted longer.

TV Show Review- Party Down

2009-05-22T16:27:00.004-04:00

There seems to be a new television undercurrent, a good one, of hipper and smarter comedies. These new shows often get better, more thoughtful laughs out of someone like me by not hammering us over the head with a punch line or a laugh track and instead let silence or social awkwardness generate smarter, deeper laughs. These shows also seem to lavish in more intelligent humor, often letting quantity yield to quality jokes. The combination for me is most ofte

n seen in shows like 'Arrested Development,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' '30 Rock,' 'Flight of the Conchords,' 'The Office,'The Life and Times of Tim' and now 'Party Down.'

I'd be surprised if most people have even heard of 'Party Down,' but it's worth checking out particularly if you like any of the shows from above, all of which individually probably deserve their own review- some for continued brilliance, others for being funny once, but have wandered astray. Regardless if you like, or have ever liked any of the above shows, I think 'Party Down' is worth 30 minutes of your time to check out an episode.

Party Down and these shows are the antithesis of most prime time comedies that remain following the beat down brought on Hollywood writers by low risk, high return reality TV shows. They're like Seinfeld residue and i don't find much shame in that. In some ways they have even a bit more room for error and progress. It seems to be so hard to get a non-reality TV show greenlit that the network is more pot-committed to the project and the show has more rope to either run with or hang itself.

'Party Down' is a prototype of this type of creative humor. It's on a pay channel.....kinda. Starz, which most people know not from going out of their way to subscribe to it, but more because it's been piggy-backed on top of their HBO

or Skinemax dues.

The bartenders and waitstaff who make up the cast are all transients with their eye on showbiz who suffer through the requisite high balls and bacon-wrapped scallops as they wait to be discovered. It's very easy for them to work in a guest star as a new or temp waiter also, something they appear to do just about every episode. One of the better ones, in a limited role is Stiffler's Mom, who is the latest person through the revolving door of clever guest spots.

The boss (Randy) is essentially the Michael Scott of the L.A. catering business. The protagonist, played by Adam Scott is a waiter/former actor. Scott's character, Henry, was unfortunate enough to be typecast by a cheesy commercial so much so that he cannot find gainful employment elsewhere, but also did not do well enough to survive on a truckload of residuals. His love interest is not-technically-yet-divorced, struggling waitress/comedienne. Then there's a waiter/actor-musician-model who is trying to break through in the 'handsome business' and a bitter, holier-then-though waiter/writer. Lastly and perhaps best of all, there's the past-her-prime-waitress/way-past-her-prime-actress. They're all stereotypes in the funniest possible way.

I remember reading that part of the success of 'Cheers' was due to it's setting. Story lines could essentially walk in the door. Each customer potentially held not only the requisitie drinking problem, but a potential story line as well. That's how 'Party Down' works. Sometimes they work a high school reunion (Randy, the boss is a member of the graduating class as well as the catering company.......on purpose), Porno awards, Young Conservatives rally, and even a single's mixer for senior citizens.

If you don't have Starz riding on the coattails of your HBO subscription, don't worry. There are still ways to check this show out. You can go to STARZ.com to see a couple of episodes by clicking the 'Original Programming' tab, then 'Full Episodes.' There should be two shows there and of course there are some other less then admirable ways to check them out online (so I heard). If you do have Starz, check it out on On Demand.

Book Review- 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell

2009-05-21T13:00:00.003-04:00

Answer this- What is the formula for the classic American success story? Take a minute and answer. It's probably some variation on the following....poor kid, came from nothing, born so far on the wrong side of the tracks that the right side of the tracks is virtually a mirage. Kid has a dream constantly out of reach but has the drive to keep reaching. He struggles, then struggles some more. Maybe he has a dusting of success, then a setback, que more struggle, struggle, struggle.....and finally through sheer force of will and drive, the dream is realized and success is along for the ride. It's the puritanical work ethic with a splash of over-reaching ambition and dusting of 'Rocky.' Now forget all that garbage, because that's essentially what Gladwell does.

This isn't to say that the above scenario doesn't happen, but Gladwell's thesis is this- far more then we realize, people don't transcend their environment quite like we think. Success across the board in any field, is often cultivated, albeit frequently unintentionally. It is the biproduct of a unique combination of timing and environment with less Balboa then most of us think. Success may be a fortunate accident, but it is not a mysterious coincidence.

I'm assuming anyone who is reading this is about as good at math as I am. Apart from low-balling any readers, this assumes you think the following- That if there are an equal number of children born in Canada in each month, it would stand to reason that each has an equal chance of being a pro hockey player. Barring some weird mathmatical Canuck anomaly, that's has to be right? Right? No. The cut-off for Hockey for our Neighbors to the North is December. That means that the difference in age, maturity, and dexterity isn't a month, or even a week, but almost an entire year in some cases. The January little maple leaf that could then starts with a head start, which produces more positive encouragement, which provides a better coach, which leads to more and more games because the kid is on a better team that plays more puck then the others. Everything snowballs and it doesn't stop it continues on and on until- statistics show that more then half of profession, Canadian hockey players are born within the first three months. January is best, followed by February, then March, and you can probably guess the rest. As a matter of fact, if some poor bastard hoser has the misfortune of being born on the same day many of us were conceived- December 31st, they should put down the stick and gloves 'cause they're not playing hockey. Even if his last name is 'Gretsky' his parents may as well give him the middle name of 'no chance.'. I don't want to paraphrase too many statistics, but the results are staggering.

Bill Gates gives so much money to a Pacific Northwestern college not as so much because he wants more stuff named after him or he wants to further the education of minors or anything, but because there was some sort of beta program in place while his nerd genes were maturing. He was given unlimited use to one of those pre-historic, giant computers that would cost anybody else tens of thousands of dollars, and that's assuming you could even get to one. He had all the time he needed and could hit the thing with a rock from his house.

Gladwell's book is essentially a compilation of stories like the above, which support his thesis. As he typically does, the content and his writing ability make it so entertaining that it has a lot of the enjoyable components of easy-reading found in light or pulp fiction, but leaves you with an aftertaste of stuff you'll be curious about, feel smarter about, and wish to discuss with others.

I'm probably a little too much a fan of Gladwell and look past the other side of the coin a reflexively though. The hockey player example ties in to education and the argument that, 'why wouldn't you want to have your child stay back a year if they're on the border in order to give them the best possible chance at success?' I'm haven't quite alienated all my family yet, but i do have several nieces and nephews and their parents are probably at the tipping point of telling me, 'blast off! we're not holding back my kid because you read a book!!!'

Anyway, i encourage you to check this out, and if his book 'Blink' strikes you more, start there. They're all fantastic, 'Blink' is probably the most entertaining, while 'Tipping Point' is often the most professionally rewarding and 'Outliers' probably most so personally.

Gladwell thinks that oftentimes 'conventional wisdom' is widely accepted not necessairly because it is wise, but because it;s conventional. Gladwell is constantly looking past convention in order to find wisdom. You can argue the extent, but he's surely found it in all three of his books thus far.

Beer Review: Smuttynose Star Island Single

2009-05-20T22:12:00.004-04:00

It's Booze Day at the Love-Camel! Thanks to rino, an old friend of mine and a new contributor to the blog who says he has plenty of ideas to get us through the lean months ahead when I become a dad again and sleeping (and most likely, posting) goes on a temporary hiatus.

I meant to write about this new Smuttynose offering shortly after it came out a few months ago. A coworker told me about it and I went to several liquor stores until I found a six-pack. I had to try it for two reasons: 1) I grew up going to Star Island and it's one of my favorite places on the planet, and 2) Smuttynose is one of my favorite New England breweries, and despite my last review of one of their beers, I think they have a pretty stellar line-up.

Here's the rundown from the Brewery:

Our Star Island Single is an eminently sessionable, abbey-style ale offering a beguiling mix of flavor and refreshment. This medium-bodied golden ale features a slight residual sweetness from Honey Malt and hints of citrus and tropical fruits from the unique Belgian yeast it is fermented with, leaving a crisp dry finish. Enjoy it sociably while you savor good times, tall tales, friendly company & life’s unexpected pleasures.

Color: Pale gold
ABV: 5.2%
Availability: year-round in sixpacks and on draught in 1/2 & 1/6 barrel kegs.

The beer pours a cloudy gold--think Blue Moon. Not as cloudy as a well-poured hefeweizen, but enough to make it look Belgiany, if you will. Not quite as bitter as a pale ale, but the citrus sour enhances what hoppiness there is. Leaves you with a not-unpleasant lemony aftertaste. That's lemony--not lemonadey. Though the brewery's description mentions a "residual sweetness", I'm not getting much of that (I write, as I take another sip).

I am, however, getting the "eminently sessionable." This is a tastey beer. A beer I could--and probably will--be drinking a number of this summer. Smuttynose is dropping their Portsmouth Lager altogether and replacing it with this offering, which is I think is a bold, but wise, move. The Portsmouth Lager wasn't bad, but it was a bit on the boring side, and nearly all of the other styles they offer are more flavorful and, ultimately, more drinkable.

Due to the citrus undertones of the Star Island Single, I can't quite imagine drinking this in cold weather, so I'm slightly surprised this will be available year-around. But it's perfect for warm weather, and you better believe I'll have one of these in my hand during many a grilling session this summer. I bet it would accompany BBQ shrimp pretty perfectly...I think I just decided what I'm having for Memorial Day weekend.

Drink endorsement- 007

2009-05-20T13:07:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you just don't feel like a beer and sometimes you've had so many you can already taste next day's cotton- mouth. You're too young to order a gin and tonic and too old to order a rum and coke,. It's too late to order a screwdriver and your stomach turns too sour when you order a margarita. Thus, a couple words in recognition of the 007- the perfect non-fruity, summer drink.

Most haven't ever heard of it (not sure, but it may be called an 'Arnold Palmer' down South), but those who have actually ordered it tend to become devoted fans. It's a mix of vodka (most commonly Stoli-O, or some other orange-flavored vodka), Sprite (although occasionally ginger ale), and some orange juice. It should look like a very, very strong (good) screwdriver and taste 10X better. A good bartender will serve it in a pint glass rather then in something small or with a stem, even if you're charged extra for the privilege.

It's a perfect mix of those three ingredients and fairly easy to explain if the bartender is a neophyte. It's refreshing and strikes a perfect note nestled comfortably between fruity summer drink and vodka and (tonic)(soda)(carbonated beverage).

While we're talking vodka, I have to mention what seems to be a new trend within the service industry. Somewhere along the line between bad economic times and driving your tab up it's become commonplace to ask, 'any particular type of (vodka)(other booze)?' Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a cheap bastard, but the fact remains when it comes to something that's going to be mixed with two other somethings, my palate doesn't distinguish between alcohols. However, my inclination is towards Grey Goose and away from looking cheap, which has often led to me asking for the Goose, when I could really care less. I'm sure many others have done the same. For those of you who have, I recommend memorizing the phrase, 'nah that's okay- you're well is fine.' This not only hoses the cheap bastard stink off you and saves you a buck, but also sends the subliminal message you were once on the other side of the bar with the person taking your order. That may just get you an extra second or two on the pour.

So raise it up to my favorite 007, including Sean Connery. The next time that thought bubble pops up inquiring, 'what do I feel like?' - order a 007. Feel free to thank me after the first and second, adore me after the third and fourth, worship me after the fifth and sixth, and curse me the following morning. Cheers!

Mmm...Spocky

2009-05-16T00:12:00.006-04:00

So I went to see what will probably be my last movie in a theater for a while since the next little incubus will be arriving soon. There's not a whole lot I can say about Star Trek that hasn't already been said. But I will anyway, because I like to hear myself type:

The Good:

It was fun. It was surprisingly action-heavy and there were lots of fist fights and 'splosions. Sulu even got to whip his sword out (snicker) . Also, that Romulan ship was crazy cool looking.
There were plenty of inside jokes for those of us who actually watched Star Trek. I've never been a Trekkie (and yes, I know they prefer to be called Trekkers...whatever), but I did like the original series. There's also some excellent TWOK references.
The cast, for the most part, was really good. I mean, Simon Pegg elevates pretty much anything he's in. I understand some people were upset that a comic actor was cast to play Scottie and he wouldn't lend much dignity to the role. These people clearly never actually watched Star Trek.

The Bad:

I got a little Spocked out by the end. Not that Spock isn't a cool character, but c'mon. Enough is enough. It's like if a band has someone who plays the ukelele. It's a fun instrument, kind of a novelty. But you certainly don't need two of them, and they don't have to be playing front and center on nearly every song. (I come up with some pretty kick-ass analogies after midnight apparently.)
Eric Bana didn't do much for me as the bad guy. I actually kind of like my Star Trek villians a bit over-the-top, but Bana's Nero was more under-the-bottom. Luckily, for a main antagonist, he's not actually in the movie all that much. And Winona Ryder as Spock's mom? Really?
Plots that involve time travel always annoy me, yet Star Trek is addicted to them. It's a terrible crutch. There's obviously going to be a sequel to this film, possibly several. I'm not asking for anything terribly original plot-wise, just something that does NOT involve paradox-riddled time travel.

The Ugly:

That one nurse with the weird eyes who delivered Kirk at the beginning really freaked me out. OK, I'm grasping here.

All in all, I liked it enough to tell people they should check it out. It's a decent summer movie with plenty of action, a surprising number of laughs, and some scantily clad space ladies. Nerdtastic.

A Few Older Must Listens

2009-05-13T22:25:00.004-04:00

I recently stumbled upon some albums from 2008 and very early 2009 that are too good not to mention and/or force on people. I've been splurging on music for the past few months, so anything that makes it to my CD player more than once a week is notable. Some of the songs on these albums might get played multiple times a day, so yeah, I would call them "must listens".

Coconut Records - Davy
Experience tells us that bands created and/or fronted by actors should suck. Jason Schwartzman's band, Coconut Records, gets a pass for several reasons. First, Schwartzman played Max Fischer in Rushmore and practically gets a free pass for life just for that. Second, Schwartzman was a musician before he was an actor, drumming for Phantom Planet when he was just 14. Third, and most important, this album is actually really good. There's nothing very groundbreaking here, just a lot of catchy songs, many of which I liked upon the very first listen. The first couple tracks, "Microphone" and "Drummer" (I'd start out with "Drummer", the track that got me interested in the first place), are particularly strong, but really the whole album is a good from beginning to end. Go Max Fischer.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Though the name is cumbersome, the music on MBAR's debut album is anything but. If you can listen to the opening track, "Buriedfed", and not be hooked, more power to you. The doubled up vocals are reminiscent of Bon Iver or Elliot Smith, and some of the material is equally as dark, but there's an energy to this music that you don't always get from Bon Iver especially. I'm not disparaging these other artists, both of whom I enjoy (especially Smith), but Robinson's debut is really impressive. The album is growing on me more and more with every listen and I highly recommend it.
Buriedfed

Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim
I wish I'd never found out that Laura Marling was 19. It's depressing for someone my age to think that someone that young could make an album this amazing. The first track, "Ghosts", is undoubtedly one of the best songs I've heard in ages. I never want to put a song on repeat--with 10,000+ songs at my fingertips at any given time, why would I want to? But I can listen to this song over and over again. And though "Ghosts" is my favorite track, the rest of the album holds its own and demands repeat listens. The last time I heard as mature a voice in someone this young was with Fiona Apple, and by "voice" I mean both the actual sound of her voice and the maturity of the lyrics. Marling is a young artist with an old soul, and as I continue to absorb this first LP, I find myself already looking forward to whatever she does next.

Best...Compilation...Ever

2009-05-08T22:40:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but better late than never, I suppose. I'm generally wary of compilation CDs. They often have a lot of filler by bands I've never heard of and maybe a few tracks that are keepers. But when I saw the artists on the Dark Was the Night compilation that came out this past February (I told you I was late), my brain almost melted. Check it out:
THIS DISC

1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC
1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

Not only are many, many of my favorite artists on here, but a lot of them are collaborating with each other. I mean, c'mon, The Books and Jose Gonzalez covering one of Nick Drake's best songs? That track alone should make any musically inclined person salivate.

And here's the thing: none of these songs are throw-aways. There are some covers, but they're really well chosen covers. A lot of these are originals that you won't hear anywhere else, and they're not crap-ass songs that were clearly trimmed off albums. The National, The Decemberists, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, The New Pornographers all contribute some stellar original tracks--some of their best songs.

And here's another thing: it's all for a good cause. Proceeds go to the Red Hot Organization, which raises money and awareness for HIV and AIDS. Remember AIDS? Yeah, it's still around, and the number of new cases is going up again. Since this is a charity album, I encourage you to actually go out and BUY the album. I'm certainly not going to send you any free tracks. And if you find someplace to download it for free, you are stealing from people with AIDS. How does that make you feel, Mr. I-Don't-Pay-For-My-Music?

The bottom line is, if you have don't have this album yet, you should get it. Now. Stop wasting time and buy it on Amazon or download it from iTunes or do whatever you kids do these days (as long as you actually pay for it).

Ice Cream Review: Ben & Jerry's Mission to Marzipan

2009-04-29T21:27:00.003-04:00

Oddly enough, it was almost a year ago today that I did my one other ice cream review on this blog. That flavor was probably a little less polarizing than Mission to Marzipan, because I don't know many people who dislike cheesecake brownies, but I know a lot of people who dislike marzipan. My German wife got me hooked on the stuff (we've even visited Luebeck, where marzipan was supposedly first created), and after chocolate, it's probably one of my favorite dessert flavors.

The marzipan in this new Ben & Jerry's flavor isn't exactly Niederegger quality, but it's still pretty dang good. I initially bought it for my highly pregnant wife, but I confess that I think I've eaten more of it than she has. The sweet cream ice cream would probably be pretty delicious on its own, but the almond cookies and marzipan swirl make it downright addictive. A must-try for anyone who likes marzipan, and it might even win over some marzipan skeptics. The only thing that would have improved it is a little dark chocolate somewhere, but then again, I think chocolate improves pretty much anything.

More Mini Music Reviews: April 2009

2009-04-20T14:53:00.009-04:00

Still listening to a ton of new and newish music; still compelled to write about it. Here's what's been spinning lately...

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
This album has been pretty polarizing among Decemberists fans (of which I am one) and critics in general. Even I'm of two minds about it. Listening to the album from start to finish--which one should certainly do, since it's a concept album/rock opera/what have you--has been a roller coaster ride for me. Sometimes I think it's brilliant and innovative, sometimes it feels like the most pretentious tripe Colin Meloy has pulled from his literary ass. It's certainly beautiful. Tucker Martine's production has never been better. Some of the songs are among The Decemberists' best; "The Rake's Song" is both disturbing and witty, hearkening all the way back to "A Cautionary Song" in its style and quality. Dunno...I'll have to give more time. I know it won't be among my favorite Decemberists albums, but you have to admire their effort, no matter what you think of the actual music. For now, a B.

The Thermals - Now We Can See
Wow, I liked this album waaaay more than I thought I would. I never even heard The Blood, The Body, The Machine, The Thermals' second album, because I was only so-so on their debut, More Parts Per Million. I'm glad I took a chance on this one. The themes are pretty grim for the most part, as one might expect from tracks titled "When I Died", "We Were Sick", "When I Was Afraid", and so on. But the album's still full of jangly tunes that demand some head shakin' and leg slappin'. The title track is definitely a stand-out, but the whole album is highly listenable. Hutch Harris has a voice that you either really dislike, or you tolerate. I can't imagine many people really like it, but that's a small price to pay for songs this catchy. Besides, how many male indie vocalists are really any good? I'm giving this one a B+, though it might even lean towards an A-.

Dan Deacon - Bromst
This was my first foray into the Deacon-zone, and from what I understand, this album is one of his most user-friendly. I have never really immersed myself into electronic music--I listen to some, but not a lot. Deacon takes electronic music well past a thumping beat into something much more complex, and ultimately for me, rewarding. It's hard to believe all this music was made by one dude. There's a lot of texture here, and the album is very versatile in that I can either concentrate on it when I listen and find new things every time, or it could be pleasant background music. Still not something I could listen to tons, but a good intro to this interesting artist. B

Madeleine Peyroux - Bare Bones
Peyroux has a voice I could listen to even if she sang the phone book. Its bluesy warmth wraps around you like a glass of red wine on a cold night. I honestly don't know what most of these songs are about. I just like to listen to her sing. Known for her covers, these songs are originals, many written or co-written by Peyroux herself. This is the type of album you put on during cocktail party to impress your friends and make them think you're cultured. Except for maybe "You Can't Do Me," which is a fun song, but sounds kind of silly when you actually listen to it. B+

Telekinesis - Telekinesis!
I posted about this band recently when I saw them live a few weeks ago. I bought their album at the show and I'm glad I did. Two of the songs in particular, "Coast of Carolina" and "Tokyo" (see video below), are ridiculously infectious. I have to be careful when I listen to the CD because I'm garaunteed to get one of these two songs stuck in my head for hours. Michael Benjamin Lerner knows how write a hook. Really hooky hooks. The whole album is solid, and this band is well on its way to being one of my favorite newcomers of the year. A-

Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles - The Stars Are Out
I enjoyed the first two albums by this group (one made my top 20 a few years ago), but I was a bit let down by this one. Borges and her band are definitely talented, but with the exception of a pretty cool Magnetic Fields cover (of "No One Will Ever Love You"), nothing really grabbed me by the lapels here. I don't know if the producer changed or what happened exactly, but when the best song on an album is a cover--even if it's a great cover--that's never a good sign. The band's previous albums tended to be more country than rock n' roll, but the opposite is true this time around, and that didn't do them any favors. A lot of bands tend to drop off a cliff at the third album, and though I wouldn't call this a cliff exactly, it's definitely a step down. C

Ida Maria - Fortress 'round My Heart
Holy crap. If you're reading this, go out and buy this album right now. I should probably give this album its own post, but I'm kinda lazy, and at least I'm saving the best for last. It's so rare for me to like an entire album upon the very first listen, but that's what happened here. The first track, "Oh My God", is bursting with energy and emotion, and Ida Maria Siversten manages to maintain that raw energy right to the last track, "In The End." The UK has apparently been all about Ida Maria for a while now, and I think it's only a matter of time before she starts hitting US charts. And I mean the real charts, not just indie and college radio. The album's first single, "I Like You So Much Better When Your Naked", is so ridiculously catchy that it'll make your head spin (see video here).

There's nothing hugely ground breaking here. The music is pretty simple. Well done, but simple. The lyrics are also relatively simple--lots of talk about booze, caffeine, cigarettes, and sex. You don't really expect any high falutin' literary shenanigans from a Norwegian anyway. I think the real draw for me is Siversten's voice. She lets it crack and stretch and howl in ways that you just don't hear that often from a female vocalist this day and age. My first thoughts upon hearing her sing were of Janis Joplin, and upon looking at some other reviews, I'm certainly not the first make the comparison. That rawness in her voice lends a sense of urgency and sincerity to all of the songs. And they're not all head bangers; "Stella", "Keep Me Warm", and the aforementioned closing track are all slower, but no less powerful.

Considering how much I've already been listening to it, I can already tell you that this'll end up somewhere in my top 10 for the year. A solid and enthusiastic A.

Weaksabi-Ginger Pop

2009-04-17T22:23:00.005-04:00

I finally tried the Wasabi-Ginger pop from Lollyphile and it was a bit of a let down. Maybe they spilled some of the Maple-Bacon batch in my batch of Wasabi-Ginger, but it wasn't all that gingery and it definitely didn't have much wasabi. It mostly tasted like sugar with a vaguely ginger aftertaste. Of the three flavors I've tried so far, I'd have to say that this one falls in the middle. Absinthe had a strong flavor, but a strong bad flavor. Maple- Bacon was actually pretty tasty. This one was just meh.

Blitzen Trapper in Juan's Basement

2009-04-14T20:51:00.002-04:00

I've never really paid attention to the "Juan's Basement" feature on Pitchfork. Juan apparently invites bands to jam in his basement and then he has an informal interview with them. His latest victims are Blitzen Trapper, a band I'm coming to appreciate more and more.

Having watched this edition of Juan's Basement, I can honestly say that if I saw these guys walking down the sidewalk, it would take some mental effort not to walk to the other side of the road to avoid them. But they're pretty amusing, and their music is highly entertaining. Check it out if you have 15-20 minutes or so to spare. Or, just check out my favorite song from this short set below.

Boyle's "Million" Movies

2009-04-13T21:25:00.004-04:00

The one and only movie I've seen in theaters recently was Slumdog Millionaire, which was playing at the tiny crap theater down the street from where I live. It's pretty much pointless to review of a film that just won best picture and has had tons of publicity. If you've seen it, you know it's good. I have no idea whether or not it deserved best picture since I didn't see anything else that was nominated. If you haven't seen it, you probably should.

Whether or not you think Slumdog Millionaire deserved the accolades it received, it's hard to deny the skills of Danny Boyle as a director. He's joined the ranks of David Fincher, Wes Anderson, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet as one of my favorite directors of the past decade or so. What sets Boyle apart from some of these other directors, however, is the sheer diversity of his movies. There's the underrated Shallow Grave (a remarkable effort for his first feature), Trainspotting, the turn-the-genre-on-its-ear zombie film 28 Days Later (the last movie I saw in theaters twice), and though I haven't seen it yet, his sci-fi film Sunshine is reportedly excellent. And then there's Millions, a DVD I got for free after sending some cereal box tops in.

Millions is dubbed a "family" film, and I'm assuming it is Boyle's only PG-rated movie. Set in Britain, a little boy finds a huge bag of money--British pounds that will be useless in a few weeks when the currency is converted to the Euro. The film follows our protagonist, Damian, and his brother, showing what they do with the money. There are elements of fantasy (Damian is obsessed with saints and talks to them throughout the movie) and crime--the money turns out to be stolen, and the thief wants it back. It's a bit of a hodge podge, actually. Nevertheless, I loved it. I'd even go so far as to say that I liked it better than Slumdog. It has its semi-cheesy tug-at-the-heartstrings moments, but they really did tug at my heartstrings. I'm not gonna lie. I cried at one point. Shut up! A movie hasn't made me do that for a while, and it actually felt pretty good. If you've been avoiding this film because you thought it was just for kids, I urge you to check it out.

The bottom line is, I knew Boyle was a solid director, but his two "Million" movies have confirmed that he'll be a force in film-making for a long while yet. I hope he continues to experiment with genres--a western or straight-up comedy might be nice--and I hope he can maintain the high standard he's set for himself.

Nerd Rant: Terminator Salvation

2009-04-07T20:26:00.002-04:00

I was kinda sorta willing to give Terminator Salvation a chance, but that chance was blown after watching the third trailer here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/terminatorsalvation/

Hmm...robots that look like people and don't know that they're robots, and don't want to be robots. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? BSG has, let's face it, wrung this sci-fi plot line for all it's worth. And though I haven't started watching this last season yet, I'm willing to bet they've done it better than this movie will. Just sayin', is all.

Concert Review: Telekinesis/Blind Pilot/The Broken West/Say Hi

2009-03-31T22:16:00.004-04:00

So I actually went to a show last night--possibly my last one before the next bun comes out of the oven. It needed to be a good one, and when I saw that Blind Pilot and Say Hi were playing a double bill at the Middle East (with two Merge artists I'd never heard of), it was a go. It's rare, for me at least, to see four bands in one night and not have at least one of them suck. There was no suckage last night, so...yay! The breakdown of the sets:

Telekinesis
I nearly bumped into Michael Benjamin Lerner, the man behind Telekinesis, in the bathroom right before his band's set. An apparent Telekinesis fan started chatting him up while he was peeing, and for a guy who's clearly new at this indie rock pseudo-fame thing, he handled the situation well. Lerner is clearly a nerd, but he's a nerd who can rock your socks off, and I can dig that. Though he wrote and performed all the music on his forthcoming debut album, he (wisely) brought along a band for the tour. Lerner himself played drums and sang, which you just don't see all that much. The rest of the band was capable, if slightly bored looking. Lerner pretty much made up for that lack of energy all by himself however, and was the quintessential "I'm just so happy to be here" guy. The songs were punchy little numbers, and almost too short. Just as you were getting into them, they were over and the next song started. All in all, it was a fun set. I put a lot of faith in Merge, arguably one of the best indie labels out there, and I think they've got a potential winner here. Though sadly, the band has thus far failed to move a single object with the power of their collective minds.

Just a side note, I've never seen such a petite bass player. Seriously, her bass guitar was nearly as big as she was. She was also very cute, and I'm pretty sure my single friend didn't stop looking at her for the entire set. But for real, she could have fit inside her own bass case.

Blind Pilot
This was the band I was most looking forward to, and they met and surpassed my expectations. Blind Pilot is or was originally just two dudes, Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski , but the band that got on stage last night was much more than that. When six people get on a stage and start tuning their trumpet, standing bass, vibraphone, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, etc, then one tends to be wary. Too many wacky instruments can lead to a big ol' mess if not done correctly. But this band pulled it off with aplomb, and they enhanced the music from what was already an excellent album. I wish could find out the name of the woman who played the banjo, uke, and dulcimer (and on one song, the drums), because like The Dude's rug, she really tied the room together. The banjo, so often a scorned instrument, meshed remarkably well with the songs. This group had clearly been playing together for a while, and they seemed to be sincerely enjoying what they were doing. Even the banter was good.

They pretty much played most of the songs from their one and only album, as well as a few new ones (sorry I don't keep track of playlists like certain other bloggers, but I'm just too lazy). The new songs were great, and I sincerely hope it means another album is forthcoming. I also hope the album is recorded with this band. If so, I predict Blind Pilot is going to be on the radar of a lot more people in the next couple years.

Here's a video of the closest thing I could find to what I heard last night:

The Broken West
I probably have the least to say about this band. It's not that they were bad, but Blind Pilot was just a tough act to follow. Another Merge band, the music was pretty solid, but I was completely unfamiliar with the songs and I couldn't tell you what a single one of them was about. Stylistically, they reminded me of The Figgs, a band I really enjoy listening to when I hear them, but not a band I actively seek out very often. Good stuff--not great stuff--but good stuff. I kind of had the feeling they were having an off night though...I think they only played about 5 songs, then suddenly they were done with nary a "goodnight and thanks for coming." Kinda weird.

Say Hi
I just blogged about Say Hi's newest album the other day, and that post pretty much summarizes how I feel about the band. I didn't have super high expectations for their set, but I wanted to stick around for a band I'd been listening to off and on for years. Much like Telekinesis, the band that's actually touring with them right now, Say Hi is essentially a one man show, with Eric Elbogen recruiting whoever's handy for his tour band. Elbogen played his new album sequentially from start to finish, which was fine, I guess. I understand The Decemberists are doing that with their new album on the current tour, but that's a concept album, so it's a bit more understandable. As far as I can tell, Oohs & Aahs is not a concept album, so why play it like it is? At least they wrapped up with two of my favorite songs from my favorite album, "These Fangs" and "Sweet Sweet Heartkiller" from Impeccable Blahs.

Two things I found myself thinking about during their set. One, Eric Elbogen looks exactly like how I'd imagine Jay Sherman's son looking like, all grown up. Have no idea who Marty Sherman is? Here:

Yes, I am a pop culture geek. Two, and more importantly, I never really appreciated the odd structure of most of Say Hi's songs: they're all chorus. Whereas most songs are "Blah blah CHORUS blah blah blah CHORUS blah blah blah CHORUS" (wow, you can tell I never had any formal music training), Say Hi's songs are more like "Blah CHORUS CHORUS blah CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS" full stop. In other words, it's like Elbogen stumbles upon two or three lines that sounds really good and just runs with it, generally unconcerned about whether or not they can or should be considered a real song. This is kind of a backhanded complement I suppose--I do genuinely like a lot of his songs. But they're simple. Some of them are REALLY simple. But any good ear worm has to be.

Mini Music Reviews, March 2009 Edition

2009-03-27T21:39:00.001-04:00

So I've actually been listening to a ton of music the past few months. I wish I had time to write at length about every album--not that many people care about my opinion, but because sometimes I'm really not sure how I feel about an album until I put my thoughts into words. I'm going to try to catch up on a few albums of note that I've been listening to...some are old, some are quite new. In the interest of time, both mine and any readers, I'll keep'em short, and even throw a letter grade in there for easy reference.

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
Listening to Erika Wennerstrom's voice is like taking a warm swig of good bourbon. It's smooth, but simultaneously has a bit of an edge to it. The songs here aren't quite as catchy as those on their previous albums, but I keep coming back to this CD even though I've had it a couple of months now. It's been a good winter warmer and it's a decent addition to this underrated band's discography. B+

Unbunny - Sensory Underload
This was a 2008 album, but I picked it up relatively recently, and I'm glad I did. The only band I could really compare Unbunny to is maybe Grandaddy. The songs are short, fairly lo-fi for the most part, and really catchy. I like nearly every song here (though "Water and the Spanish Tongue" and "Mandi" are stand-outs), and I find myself putting this on a lot considering it was an impulse buy. I'm even surprising myself a bit by giving it a solid A.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
I'm always hesitant to get the next Animal Collective album because I think they're consistently overrated by music critics, particularly the Pitchforkians. That said, I think this is one of their more accessible efforts and I'm glad I picked it up. Still not something I could to listen to frequently, but I'll listen to it more than pretty much any other Animal Collective album. B

Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
Kweller kind of blew his load on this one when he released the EP, How Ya Lookin' Southbound? Comein..., last year. Pretty much all my favorite songs from Changing Horses were on that EP, so the full length effort was a bit of a let down. There's nothing wrong with the other songs, but they strike me as a bit more disposable. So why not just dispose of them and go with the EP? C+

A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
This was my first Newman album outside The New Pornographers, and though it doesn't rate as high as any given TNP album, it's still pretty good. It's been a bit of a slow burn for me, and I definitely like the second half of the album better than the first (particularly "The Palace at 4 A.M.", "The Changeling (Get Guilty)", and "All Of My Days And All Of My Days Off"). But man, this guy knows how to write a quick little pop song. B+

Neko Case - Middle Cyclon e
And speaking of New Pornographers. I rarely use the adjective "sexy" to describe anything, but Case's voice is pretty damn sexy. I could almost listen to her sing the phone book. Instead I get to hear her sing some interesting covers and several quirky originals. The oddness of these songs--such as singing from the point of view of a tornado or tiger--is probably what is keeping Case from going more main stream. Oh well. The indie crowd is happy to keep her to ourselves for a while. A-

Clem Snide - Hungry Bird
I confess that I've only listened to this album once, and perhaps my expectations were too high. Clem Snide has put out some of my favorite albums over the past decade, and they were supposedly broken up as of a few years ago with front man Eef Barzelay pursuing a solo career. This album was apparently salvaged from some of their older stuff, and I kind of wish it hadn't been. Barzelay can write songs that are dour or witty (or if we're lucky, both), but the bulk of these songs lean towards the dour alone and it grew tiresome. I'd say better luck next time, but I doubt there will be a next time. I'm bummed that one of my favorite bands wrapped things up on such a sour note. D+ (the "+" is for old times sake)

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
I'm so not the target audience for this album, and I'm honestly surprised that I like it as much as I do. Here are a few possible reasons why. She's profane. Unlike Britney Spears dancing around being naughty with a song on her last album called "If U Seek Amy", Allen just comes out with a song called simply, "Fuck You." Her songs can be funny, like "Never Gonna Happen", and they can be sweet, like "Chinese." Or maybe I just like her accent. Whatever the reason, I'm giving it a B+.

Bishop Allen - Grrr...
Another one I haven't listened to all that much, but a bit of a let down after The Broken String, which I really liked. I definitely need to give this one some more play time, but so far only a few songs have jumped out at me as particularly good, and I can't say anything's great. So far, only a C+

Say Hi - Oohs & Aahs
Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom) is always a little hit or miss. Usually, I like about 1/3 to 1/2 of an album and the rest is just meh. Sometimes I like the whole album, like Impeccable Blahs, but the last album, The Wishes and the Glitch, didn't do much for me at all. Happily, I can say that this latest album falls into the 2/3 very good category. Maybe I just have to be in the right mood for a Say Hi album, but it's undeniable that Eric Elbogen can write a hook like nobody's business. I might also just be getting my own hopes up because I'm seeing the band live for the first time in a few days. Maybe I'll get sick of this album sooner than later, but for now it gets an A-.

Gory Musicals

2009-03-26T10:21:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted in so long, I almost forgot how to ride this pony. As always, I'll keep it short and leave the in depth analysis to EJP. On the recommendations of some friends I have seen two rather brilliant movies lately that I'd like to pass along as suggestions.

Zombie Love
"...Never try to hide Zombie Love...eat flesh." Coming in at about 37 minutes, this musical is worth those minutes of your life (as well as the $15 bucks to purchase the DVD). I find myself wanting to sing these songs at work. Definitely a low budget film. Ha!

Repo! The Genetic Opera
I have a feeling this movie will generate a cult following. I'm sure it already has, and as always, I'm just behind the times. Since you can get this movie via NetFlix, I'm guessing that to be the case. Again, the music from the movie will find it's way into your brain and before you know it, you'll be singing about the Repo man.

Beer Review: Samuel Adams Irish Red

2009-03-20T21:52:00.003-04:00

This review is a little late since St. Patrick's Day was a few days ago, but I thought I'd give a little shout-out to what may be my new favorite beer from Sam Adams, their Irish Red.

I should start by admitting that though I live near Boston and I'm strong supporter of drinking local brews, I'm not a huge fan of Samuel Adams in general. For some Bostonians, this may be akin to saying I'm not a huge fan of the Sox or the Pats, but it's true nonetheless. Their flagship Boston Lager is a fallback in bars if nothing better is available, and their seasonals are often more misses than hits with me. It's not that their beer is bad, per se, I just don't usually find it interesting enough to choose over something from Magic Hat or Red Hook or any number of other New England breweries.

That said, I picked up a six-pack of their Irish Red (from the Brewmaster's Collection) and I'm impressed. I've sort of avoided Irish Reds for a while now because I think I drank one too many Killian's in college and it put me off the style for about a decade. I suspect Sam's Irish Red is way better than Killian's (the BeerAdvocate thinks so, too). It pours a deep ruby brown and smells a bit like brown bread. The Caramel malts are immediately apparent upon the first sip, but it's not a cloying sweetness (like the Cherry Wheat...blah!). It's definitely a malt-heavy beer, but there's just enough hops in there to give it a kick at the end.

A few brew facts for the beer nerds:

Samuel Adams® Irish Red is brewed with two-row Harrington, Metcalfe and Caramel 60 malted barley. The Harrington and Metcalfe malted barley provide most of the body and sweet backbone of the beer, while the Caramel 60 contributes to the deep red color that defines the style. To balance all of that sweetness, we use earthy East Kent Goldings and Spalt-Spalter hops. Their subtle bitterness and aroma provide a delicate complexity to the brew.

The taste is a bit complex, but in a good way. You want to take another sip and ask youself, "What did I taste this time?" All in all, Sam Adams has redeemed itself in my eyes with this brew, and since it's sold year around and could potentially be good both in warm weather and cold, this might the first Sammy to go into my regular rotation.

Sam Raimi: Back to Basics

2009-03-11T22:00:00.004-04:00

Trailer for Drag Me to Hell, directed by Sam Raimi (sorry, no imbedding yet). I think Raimi needs something like this to cleanse his system after Spiderman III. Man, that movie was a disaster. A return to his horror roots is just what the fanboy ordered. And who isn't afraid of crazy old gypsy women?

Flavor Tripping with Miracle Fruit

2009-03-04T21:35:00.003-05:00

So today my work sponsored a "flavor tripping" party with miracle fruit, the crazy-ass berry that makes sour things sweet, and negates heat and bitterness as well. I enjoy cooking and eating, and though I wouldn't really consider myself a "foodie", I enjoy discovering new flavors and trying new foods. I didn't eat anything new today, except the miracle fruit, but I certainly experienced some new flavors.

The berry itself is no big deal. You stick it in your mouth and squish it around for a while. It tastes a little sweet, but that's about it. Then you starting tasting things...lots of things. Here's a list of what I tried, and how I felt about it...

The first thing we all tried was a wedge of lemon. They were delicious. It was like eating lemon drops, only better. I think we all would have eaten an entire lemon if we could have. I wish we'd had limes, too, but we did have...
...grapefruit. Also delicious, though I'm not sure how sweet it was before the miracle fruit, so it's difficult to say how sour it was to begin with.
The dill pickles got a thumbs down from me, basically because because the berry made them taste like bread and butter pickles, which I hate. I like dill pickles just the way they are.
The tomatoes no longer tasted anything at all like tomatoes. They tasted more like cherries, or some other sweet fruit. Very strange, but not unpleasant.
The Tabasco sauce was by far one of the strangest samples. I dumped a full teaspoon or so on my tongue, and it was undeniably sweet. Not a hint of heat at all. Not that Tobasco sauce is that hot, but usually even those of us who have destroyed our palates with hot sauce can pick up a little heat from Tabasco. I also tried some Vietnamese hot sauce (you know the one, with the rooster on it?), with similar results.
Along the same lines, the peperoncinis and jalapenos were also pretty odd. Without the normal heating effects of the caspacin, you could actually taste the vegetabley parts of the pepper.
The wasabi was confusing. I always feel wasabi in my nose first, and that's still what happened here. But I put a big ol' glob of it on my tongue and just had a vaguely horseradishy flavor. At least until I swallowed. The back of my tongue apparently did not get enough miracle juice, so I got a bit of a jolt when I actually swallowed.
Chocolate stout. I tried this one first before the berry because I'd never had the particular brand before (and I forget the brand now). Tasted pretty stouty with a bit of a chocolate after taste. But after the berry: YooHoo.
Roxy Rolles (from Magic Hat)--This usually hoppy beer tasted more like a weakish summer ale after the miracle fruit. The beer lost all its bite, sadly.
Oddly, the fruit did nothing to aleviate the bitterness of black coffee. The coffee just tasted like coffee. Also, the raw onion tasted just like raw onion. Bleh.
I tried a co-worker's homemade kimchi, but since I didn't really know what it tasted like before the miracle fruit, this particular test was kind of wasted on me.
I'm glad I saved the raw garlic clove until last, because that pretty much tainted everything that would come afterwards. The garlic tasted like garlic, without the slight burning sensation raw garlic can sometimes cause. But I can still taste it on my breath 8 hours later, so I don't highly reccomend this one.
And finally, to top things off, I tried my own concoction of coffee, lemon juice, beer, tobasco sauce, pickle juice, and jalepeno juice. Not only did I not throw up, but it actually didn't taste half bad.
OK, I confess that I actually topped things off with a handful of TUMS. It's important to remember that the fruit dampens the taste of acidic foods, but it doesn't actually neutralize the acid.

Final thoughts: I really can't recommend miracle fruiting enough. Today's taste test made what was otherwise a very busy, not-so-fun week into something truly memorable. I think these "parties" would definitely be best with a large group of people--we had about a dozen--and lots of things to try. In hind sight, we wished we'd brought more. Every site that sells them will have recommendations of foods and drinks to taste. Be adventurous. Try something you normally hate. Bring your TUMS.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Zero

2009-03-03T21:36:00.004-05:00

Their first single from the new album is available on iTunes; the album is available for pre-order. I've bought it already.

Anyone in Tennessee want to go to see them at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester June 12? I'm already there.

First Impressions: Psapp, Robyn Hitchcock, Beirut, M. Ward

2009-02-23T05:28:00.002-05:00

Last Tuesday saw the release of a ton of interesting and/or promising albums. I splurged a bit and got a few I'd had my eye on for a while. A single listen is generally not enough to really "get" any album, but once in a while I do these first impression things and write about my initial thoughts on an album after the first listen.

Psapp-The Camel's Back
Psapp's first album, The Only Thing I Ever Wanted, was a nice little surprise a few years ago. It was one of those albums that I thought would be kind of disposable. I'd listen to it for a few months and then it would sort of disappear into my collection. But I've found myself putting it on pretty consistently since I got it, which is why I picked up their second effort. I would say it's more of the same--lots of fun little songs, with some bells and whistles (literally--they use a lot of toy instruments in their music) to make it interesting. Only time will tell if this album will grow on me like their first. I hope it does.
Psapp - The Monster Song

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3-Goodnight Oslo
Pretty much the same story for Robyn Hitchcock, except he's been around a lot longer than Psapp. I really enjoyed his debut with the Venus 3 a few years ago, Ole! Tarantula, but like that album, it looks like Goodnight Oslo will be a slow burn. Hitchcock's songwriting is always solid, if a little perverse at times, and this looks like a strong effort.

Beirut-March of the Zapotec/Realpeople Holland
This album is actually two EPs, as opposed to an LP. The first, March of the Zapotec, is straight up Beirut, loaded with horns and the folksy tones of Eastern Europe, and this time, Mexico. I still haven't heard a song to match "Elephant Gun", but this first EP is a nice listen. Realpeople Holland is apparently a side project of Zach Condon's--it's all electronic, contrasting sharply with the first EP. Though I usually find Condon's voice highly tolerable if not downright pleasant, I found it didn't meld well with this style of music. I will say, I hadn't realized how similar to David Byrne he sounded until I heard this second EP. That said, I was ready to never listen to this EP again until I heard the last track, "No Dice," which is a fun techno beat with no vocals. That one's a keeper.

M. Ward-Hold Time
Easily the album I was looking forward to the most of these four, M. Ward didn't let me down. I was unsurprised and quite pleased that Zooey Deschanel lent her vocals to "Never Had Nobody Like You"; I was more surprised by Lucinda Williams' vocals on "Oh Lonesome Me." Having these two guest vocalists on the same album was an odd choice. Deschanel's voice is as sweet as can be, whereas Williams sounds like she's been smoking three packs a day for a few decades. Ward's voice matches well with both, but for different reasons. The cover of "Rave On" is one of Ward's more interesting choices--I have to say I like the original, faster version better, but maybe I'll get used to this take. I'm really more interested in the originals, and I'd say that even after only one listen, M. Ward's songwriting and production is as strong as ever. A must for any M. Ward fan and a decent introduction for any newbie.

Quote of the Week, by Chuck Klosterman

2009-02-20T06:40:00.002-05:00

Aside from a few interviews and essays, I haven't read much by Chuck Klosterman. Pop culture already sucks up a bit too much of my time, so do I need to read about it even more? That said, he was recently featured in Newsweek's "A Life in Books" feature, in which authors and writers are asked about their favorite books. Nothing very surprising about his 5 "most essential" books, but when asked for A Book You Would Have Parents Read To Their Children, Klosterman responded: "'Gravity's Rainbow.' I don't really understand children."

I laughed out loud on my train. I may have to go out and buy one of this guy's books. Any recommendations from someone who's read him?

For the record, if you simply must read one Pynchon novel before you die, go for The Crying of Lot 49. Gravity's Rainbow has its moments, but it almost kicked my ass.

Andrew Bird's Noble Beast

2009-02-17T22:13:00.005-05:00

This is a review I should have written weeks ago, but better late than never, I guess. I say "should have" because anyone who looks at this blog even occasionally knows that I can't say enough about Andrew Bird. Noble Beast, released last month, is finally getting the Bird Man the attention he deserves. There's been a veritable media blitz--NPR loves him to death, I've been seeing and hearing interviews with him left and right, and I believe he's playing Leno tonight. For a guy who's songs you'll probably never hear on the radio, this might be as good as it gets.

But I digress. The only unfortunate thing about Noble Beast is that it came out so early in 2009 that I'm concerned it won't find a home on people's top 10 lists at the end of the year. I think I can safely say that won't be a problem for me. Bird is easily one of my favorite artists of the last decade, and Noble Beast places a close second behind Mysterious Production of Eggs for his best album to date. From the infectious opening whistle of "Oh No" right on through to the end, there is nary a weak spot.

Maybe I'm a sucker for whistling, or a little violin plucking, or big words, or all of these things put together, but this is definitely good stuff. The melodies that were stuck in Andrew Bird's head for years as he crafted the songs for Noble Beast will get stuck in your head. The words in his lyrics, whether you know what they mean or not, will stick in your head like a poppy seed in your teeth. From Bird's recent NPR interview (there's lots of links to streaming concerts and songs through the NPR site, too): "Bird's lyrics often feature archaic language — words such as radiolarian, plecostomus, dermestids, coprophagia — which he chooses mainly for their sound, but not at the expense of their meaning....'I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive. And sometimes my use of words is a bit reckless. I'm aware of that.'"

Reckless or not, it works. I could probably do a post for every song on this album, but I'll stop here and just encourage anybody reading this to check out Noble Beast. If you're already an Andrew Bird fan, get the Deluxe Edition, which features a bonus instrumental album, Useless Creatures. It's a bit more experimental and weird, but still a great listen.

My Latest Time Sink: Crayon Physics Deluxe

2009-02-15T01:05:00.002-05:00

So I really don't feel qualified to write a game review since I play games so infrequently--I generally leave game reviewing to Sparky. But I stumbled across Crayon Physics Deluxe a month ago or so, and it's an icon I'm wary of clicking on my computer because it usually means an hour of my life is about to disappear (at least).

The premise is simple. On each level, you get a ball, which can move, and a star, which does not. Using only a "crayon" to draw lines, pivots, and other objects that more or less obey the laws of physics, you have to get the ball to touch the star. Occasionally you get a tool, like a rocket, to help you out. It's really easier to show you than to describe it, so check out one of the Kloonigames trailers:

It's often the simple games that are most addicting, and so it is with CPD. Like the only other game I've played relatively recently, World of Goo, it has a lot of what Sparky calls "Aha!" moments. Some solutions are deceptively simple; some have taken me way too long. It's not as pretty World of Goo, and there's no plot to speak of, but you also aren't limited in tools. You can fill the screen with the most elaborate Rube Goldberg device imaginable to get the ball from A to B (see video below). With the full game--as opposed to the free demo you can download from Kloonigames--you also have the challenge to solve each level with an elegant solution (draw only one line or object), an old school solution (no pendulums, can't nudge the ball, etc...), or an awesome solution. I'm still working on getting an awesome solution.

Crayon Physics.... One possible solution from Highway6 on Vimeo.
My biggest fault with the game is that there are only three or four tunes in the background music. The music is actually kind of pretty, but it gets old fast if you end up playing for a while. I'd recommend turning the music down and putting on your iTunes or music player of choice while playing. I would also suggest giving yourself a set play time, as in "I will play Crayon Physics Deluxe for one hour and no more," or you may be in for some late nights.

Comic Review: House of Mystery

2009-02-01T15:57:00.001-05:00

When I saw that Bill Willingham, the writer behind Fables, and Matthew Sturges, who collaborates with Willingham on Jack of Fables, were working together on a new series, I figured it was worth checking out. The first trade paperback in House of Mystery introduces what is essentially a spinoff of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (also a Vertigo property), specifically a chapter in that series called "World's End" in its TPB form.

The House of Mystery, or the Inn at World's End, or whatever you want to call it, is a big ol' mansion that sits at a junction of world's and dimensions. Wanderer's from any and every plane of existence can and do end up there, some just for a visit, and some for longer stays. No money is exchanged in this establishment, only stories. The customers pay their tabs with tales.

It's a convenient framing device for telling a variety of stories. Sturges takes the reigns on the frame, introducing us to Fig, a young architect who can "talk" to buildings and who has been dreaming about the House much of her life. Eventually, she ends up at the House and meets the staff. And since she apparently can't leave the grounds, she's doomed to become one of the staff. Meanwhile, a motley crew of patrons, from a transdimensional process server to a renegade witch, tell their horrific stories, which for the most part are written by Willingham.

That's probably what surprised me most about this book. It's pretty much an old school horror comic, with plenty of guts and gross-outs. There's some dry humor here and there, and it's not a splatterfest by any means, but at its heart it's essentially Tales From the Crypt with an actual story tying together the vignettes, as opposed to a cackling zombie-puppet.

Luca Rossi draws Fig's story, and I can't say I'm in love with the art here. Some of it's just fine, but the only reason I can tell most of the women apart is because their hair color is different. This lackluster illustration is more than compensated for by the various artists who draw the internal stories. Ranging from the cartoony (Steve Rolston) to the photorealistic (Zachary Baldus), nearly all the guest artists outshine Rossi, in my opinion.

Overall, I don't see this becoming one of my favorite series, but it was definitely good enough that I'll keep my eye out for the next TPB. It's success will depend largely on how Fig's story evolves. I think it holds promise, but right now there's a danger that it will grow too convoluted too early. Perhaps things will pick up as we learn the backstories of the rest of the House's occupants.

A Few More Favorite Tracks from 2008

2009-02-01T13:20:00.002-05:00

I actually have plenty posts coming up, but since I wrote down some of my favorite tracks (that weren't on top 20 albums) from 2008, I figured I'd throw them up here. I wouldn't say I disliked the albums these songs came from at all, but if I were to, say, make a mix for someone, these are the only songs from these albums I would consider for inclusion. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to stream songs on here, but for now I'll highly encourage you to find these songs on the internets and give them a listen.

Dr. Dog (Fate)- "The Old Days"
Headlights (Some Racing, Some Stopping)-"Cherry Tulips"
The Mountain Goats (Heretic Pride)-"Autoclave"
Yael Naïm (Yael Naïm)-"New Soul"
Bon Iver (For Emma, Forever Ago)-"Skinny Love"

I realize this was a big year for Bon Iver and this album made a ton of top ten lists, but with the exception of this song I couldn't bring myself to fall in love with the whole album. I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to be receptive to this kind of music, and I wasn't quite sad enough this year to embrace it.

Mumlers (Thickets & Stitches)-"Red River Hustle"
The Magnetic Fields (Distortion)-"Too Drunk to Dream"
The Kills (Midnight Boom)-"U.R.A. Fever"