Alex Ross has a new post about the centennial of Olivier Messiaen. I had the privelage of seeing pianist Jeff Payne perform Messiaen’s masterpiece, Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus in a (I’m told) rare complete performance.
I found the experience completely disorienting. I found the lack of melody hard to deal with, and reminded me of what a terrible Philistine I am. I also had a huge moment of low self esteem when I was talking over the concert the day after with a friend of mine. He had heard and played many of Messiaen’s organ works, and heard much more harmonically in the piece than I did.
It has become another one of my Moby Dicks… there will be one day when I will hear more than a dense swirling of disjoined chords in that work.
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Uncut and Mojo have their end of the year lists out. I have not fully looked at the lists (I tend to look at them as an index of albums that I need to listen to anyway), but a quick perusal tells me that neither of them have Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals on them, unlike, say, Blender. Another post will have to deal with my problems with Girl Talk, but I don’t understand how even his biggest fans can really think that his album is the best new music that the year has to offer. At best, it is fun dance music, or an index of popular hooks. But the best of the year? Really?
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The review that I wrote yesterday reminded me about another book that I recently finished, The Mission Song, by John LeCarré. By chance, I finished the book a couple of days after watching the perplexingly mediocre new Bond installment, Quantum of Solace.
I was really intrigued by the new directions that these two franchises have taken with this new century. Le Carré was the prototypical Cold War spy novelist. James Bond was the over-the-top secret agent obsessed with his nemesis, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. And yet the Cold War is over. Teenagers today were barely alive during the fall of the Wall, and it will be many years yet before people will begin to read Cold War novels as historical fiction. Where then do writers go when they have built their entire careers on books that are factually and fashionably out of favor?
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As I was browsing books at a Hudson News in the Portland, Oregon airport terminal, I smiled to myself because it was the first time that I had ever bought an “airport book” to read while traveling in an actual airport. Don’t get me wrong, I have read many such books. They are fairly short, easily digestible, and have brisk enough pacing that every cover editor feels the obligation to bandy around the workhorse clichè “page-turner.” There was a particularly fruitful stretch when I was between the ages of 11 to 14 where I must have read upwards of 600 of them; Robin Cook and Michael Crichton (may he rest in peace, that’s a different post altogether) scientific thrillers, Tom Clancy military thrillers, Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler action-adventure novels. Then there were the mysteries. I read all of the current writers, Janet Evanovitch, J.A. Jance, Patricia Cornwell, Lilian Jackson Braun, Carolyn Hart. I read all of the old series: Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe. Then I discovered the magic of British mysteries: G.K. Chesterson, Agatha Christie, P.D. James…
I just drifted completely off track. The point I want to make is that I have read more than a few legal thrillers in my day. I have even read more than a few written by John Grisham. (more…) -
A recorded-in-ten-minutes version of one of my favorite songs, Over And Over (Lost & Found) by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
over-and-over-lost-and-found
Be kind, it was done in 10 minutes with Garage Band and my built in microphone. -
The first metallic, tinkling notes of “Queen Bee” strike the ear as something both completely familiar and completely foreign. And of course that is exactly what the album is. Taj Mahal is the artist who has done the most work to keep the acoustic blues tradition alive. His music can sometimes archetypal, beautiful and great in the flawless execution of that which has been done before. Toumani Diabate is the most famous kora player in the world, son, grandson, great-grandson for many generations, heir to a long tradition of griot musicians.
It is easy to hear why these two musicians decided to work together. In the beginning of “Tunkaranke (The Adventurer),” the guitar and the kora intermingle in a long, slow, loping rhythm, losing each other in the webs of intermingled chords. At times, it is hard to distinguish which instrument is which. The music sways, smoothly, and for a minute, it is like you can feel the revolution and the passing of time and the journey and the spirit that separates and joins the strings together…
Other tracks, like “Mississippi-Mail Blues” start by grounding themselves in familiar folk rhythms and chords, before going on a bewildering cascade of sharp rhythms and pleasant riffs. Really, beyond the symbolism of the Delta Blues combined with the Malian Griot music, this album is special because of the musicianship behind it. The album would not work, as a symbol or otherwise, were it not for the unbelivable chops of Toumani Diabate or the rich texture of Taj Mahal’s guitar and voice. As much as the album is a celebration of great cultures, it is a celebration of great artists. It then is no surprise that the result is great music. -
From the opening notes of “Halfway Home” we know that this is a different TVOTR. All of the same elements are there- Tunde Adebimpe’s voice that manages to wail and be soulful at the same time, David Sitek’s noisy production and Jaleel Bunton and Gerard Smith’s tight and ever interesting rhythem section. But they are different, more restrained, more polished.
Every new record, from Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes to Return to Cookie Mountain has felt like an attempt to keep or increase the intensity of their early songs while editing and polishing. Dear Science has maintained the frenetic restlessness of the other albums while giving them a wonderful cohesion and restraint. On “Dancing Choose,” there is a riff played in the chorus with a completely un-distorted guitar; I never thought that I would hear that on a TVOTR record.
The range on the record is pretty impressive. The sound of Return tended to be fairly dark and morose with the exception of “Wolf Like Me,” but Dear Science has everything from the pensive, confessional moans of “Stork and Owl” and “Family Tree” to the danceable, energetic “Golden Age.”
It surprises me how many truly beautiful moments there are on the record: the chorus to “Dancing Choose,” all of “Cryin’,” “DLZ.”
“Golden Age” was released as a single, but for my money, “Cryin’” is the breakout hit of the record. It is an astonishingly good song, and it, dare I say it, has radio potential. If there is a song which will propel this band into the league of those that I can no longer afford to see live, it will be this song.
In short, this is a great album. All 11 songs of the regular release are top-quality and more than a few of them have sparks of genius. Buy it. If you don’t want to buy it, just buy “Cryin.’”
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Listening to “Dear Science,” review forthcoming. Early impressions: it’s really, really, really good.
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I was really happy this past Monday, because for the first time this year, I was going to be able to blog right after seeing a TV show live, something I have not been able to do since starting school.
I ended up going to bed bitter and disappointed. It was really my own fault; Heroes had been going nowhere fast all last season, but I had heard good things from Comic Con. I really don’t know why it merited a ten minute standing ovation. The group that I watched with stayed in stunned silence for two minutes then shuffled out.
It seems that I was not the only one dissappointed. The premiere attracted 9.8 million viewers, in stark contrast to Dancing With The Star’s 21 million. To repeat: The Heroes season premiere had less than half the viewers than a regular season episode of DWTS. -
I am completely aware that I am the billionth person to say this (and the billionth-and-first person to say so on their blog centered on pop culture and television), but the AMC television show Mad Men is top notch. I am not going to go into too much detail on the show, I’m sure you’ve heard of it -if not, a quick Google search will remedy that- but suffice to say, the writing is top-notch. I am constantly anywhere from a day to a week behind on the show, but every episode that I watch contains at least one line of exceptional power or craftsmanship. If you are into highbrow TV, this is one show that you can’t miss.
Matthew Eilar
This is my personal blog. I’ve been blogging since 2008, and self-hosting this blog on Linode since 2020.
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