Brian James's Blog, page 14

Fiction Friday (104)

As you may already know if you follow my posts, I've currently been reading a selection of YA books for a regional Battle of the Books contest that pits teens from area libraries against each other in a trivia challenge. I've read three of the books and have two left. This one was the third and has been my favorite so far. It's basically realistic fiction, with one overarching twist that drives the plot.
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
(Quill Tree, 2017)

If you get a call from Death-Cast just after midnight, you are assured of one thing...you are going to die at some time during the next day. That is the premise that sets this wonderful narrative that is more about life than it is about death. Mateo and Rufus are two teenage boys living in NYC. When they get the calls from Death-Cast, they are strangers. Through a series of events, they end up spending the remainder of their lives together, discovering who they truly are and becoming who they've always wished to be.

Now it's Dark...

My latest streaming obsession is Dark, the German language Netflix original series which aired it's first season in the winter of '17/'18 and the second season last year. This is one of those shows with clear influences, namely Stranger Things, and Lost. But like all good storytelling, it is more than a collection of influences and develops something new.
It should be known that I'm a sucker for anything involving time travel, and this is a virtual time loop mind twisting adventure. It's very carefully paced, very well acted, and visually stunning. It's certainly a story that keeps you thinking, engaged and guessing at what might happen next. I'm looking forward to discovering how it resolves.

Weekend Music Roundup

 
Well, another weekend slipped past me as I'm caught up in this endless cycle of day after day being the same. But on the bright side, I suppose everyday is kind of like a weekend...but more like everyday is like Monday. Also, minus any drive time, I'm falling behind on my new digital music and have to resort mainly to recent vinyl purchases which are likely to dry up pretty soon. You'd think working from home would allow me to explore my digital library, but that's not really possible when you have to keep one ear open for the kid's never-ending needs.  But I digress...here are some choice albums to explore during your shelter in place days. Enjoy.
Hanoi Rocks - Back to Mystery City: The third album from the Finnish glam band was released in 1983 and is one of their best. This album put them on the verge of stardom in the U.S., but unfortunately, tragedy would strike the following year when drummer Razzle was killed in a car accident (car driven by Vince Neil), essentially ending the band's career. This band would never reach the heights they were destined to reach when glam metal peaked, which is too bad, because they were one of the best of those bands, with a punk / new wave influence to their glam sound. 
The Amazons - Future Dust: The second album from the British indie rock band came out last year. I wasn't familiar with them going into this, but figured it was worth a shot. It's definitely rock, and definitely British, a combination that is usually appealing to me. It's built for the stadium, has influences in the rock that came out of that country in the 00's and is pretty enjoyable. Nothing groundbreaking, but a decent rock album nonetheless. "Mother," "Doubt It," and "25 (Reprise)" are my personal favorites. 
Michael Nesmith - Tantamount to Treason: Released in '72, this is the former Monkee's fifth solo album. I only recently became aware of his solo work, despite being a big fan of the Monkees. His solo records fall into the L.A. style of country rock that was going on at the time, think Gram Parsons. Always the most talented of the band, he proves it on this fantastic solo records. An amazing vibe, with slight nods to pysch folk, I was glad to find this on my first trip out after putting him on my search list. "Lazy Lady," "You Are My One," "Talking to the Wall," and the truly brilliant "In the Afternoon" are standouts. 
Grade 2 - Graveyard Island: The third album from the Isle of Wright Oi! punk band is my first introduction to them, and one of the 2019 albums that I didn't get to review before the year ran out on me. Like many, my early teen years were dominated by punk music, and like most, I kind of grew out of it. But I still like to delve into the genre every now and then and see what it's producing. Oi! is sort of the British equivalent to hardcore bands in the U.S. It's aggressive, clouded by fascist bands from the past, and quite straightforward and bare. It's angry and political and doesn't aspire to be anything different. This is a solid enough effort and brought back a lot of memories of my angry youth. 
Happy Mondays - The Early EP's: Back in the days when it was still possible to be an innovator of a new genre of music, ie. the mid-80s, the Happy Mondays turned the club scene in Manchester on its heels. These are the pioneering tracks that developed the Baggy Madchester scene, paving the waves for bands like Stone Roses. Though, in my opinion, they didn't reach their full potential until Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches in 1990, these are the songs that built that foundation. Definitely only for fans and music history aficionados.

Sam Cooke - My Kind of Blues: Released in '61, this is part of the soul singer's rapid output before his death in '64. Though the soul singer had a string of hits in his career, he never really had a hit album, partially because this was before the album era. This record is a collection of covers that are not typical blues songs. In fact, it's an upbeat album, a soul interpretation of the blues and because of that, it has a very unique sound. Definitely a good score for $2.


 

The Man on the Moon

Searching for a movie to watch in the world of streaming is a bit like looking for an album to listen to among someone else's collection. You never want to commit to anything, thinking maybe something better is sitting on the next shelf and then you end up spending all your time looking instead of watching. While scanning the various streaming outlets the other night, after nearly half an hour, the Missus and I finally settled on Moon, the 2009 movie starring Sam Rockwell as a contracted worker spending three years alone on the moon.
Any time a movie features only one character, it runs the risk of moving too slowly or being too internal. This movie managed to avoid those traps and deliver a compelling story about the human condition. 
The movie also avoids sci-fi cliches involving robots and space. Instead it creates interesting questions about self, memory, and what makes each of us human. 
Given the current state of isolation in the world, this was an interesting choice of movies to watch. It will certainly make you feel better about being stuck in your house, because it sure beats three years alone on the moon.

Mandalorian

It's hard to imagine a television show with more pressure on it to be brilliant than Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars television show and one of the first original shows to air on Disney's new streaming service. Wisely, they decided to stay away from established characters.
Set in the time after Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens, this show follows a Mandalorian bounty hunter as he gets caught up in Imperial intrigue as remnants of the fallen Empire eye a mysterious prize. The show benefits from having a tight plot that runs throughout, rather than simply using a frame tale to showcase a bunch of loosely related stories. It also benefits from the fact that the main character is pretty badass. 
I admit that it was a few episodes before I really got caught up in this show, but I certainly did. I liked how they dealt with stories that departed from the central Star Wars tale. Definitely a great start to what I hope becomes the next best saga.

The Get Down

Like most people in the civilized world, those of us lucky enough to pass this lockdown in the relative comfort of a home equipped with high speed internet, I've been catching up on some television these past few weeks. One show that I completely missed when it aired a few years back was the Netflix original, The Get Down.
Set in the summer of 1977 in the Bronx, this show is documents that dramatic time in NYC through the eyes of a Bronx teen as he navigates his crumbling borough, searching for a ticket out. While the Bronx literally burns, from the ashes, a new genre of music is being born. 
This show chronicles the birth of hip hop, the emergence of graffiti art, the decadence of disco, and rise of capitalist greed that would dominate the city in the coming decade. Sure, it's quite fictionalized and heavily stylized, but somehow it works. It never veers into parody and manages to stay above being corny. I think this is mostly do to the tightrope the actors seem to walk, convincing us that these could be real people, even if they are tv versions of real people.

Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend is here, and the Roundup returns. I have been a little preoccupied lately trying to work from home and watch the squirt, so I apologize for missing the last few weeks. I also have not been listening to too much new stuff as I've taken this "stay at home" time to go digging through my own collection and listen to things that I haven't heard in a bit. These are some albums that I discovered over the past few months, a little bit of everything. Enjoy.

Bang - Death of a Country: This was a shelved LP from the Philly heavy psych band of the early '70s that released archivally in 2011 by the great Rise Above label. This is one of those bands that never got the credit they deserved, probably because they were ahead of their time. I'm so glad I came across this at the local shop, it's been on my list. Definitely one of the founding albums of the genre. 
The Wood Brothers - Kingdom in my Mind: The newest album from the Nashville via Boulder americana folk band is their eighth album. I was first introduced to this band with their second album, twelve years ago. While I really enjoyed that album, I somehow missed everything in between then and now. This has that Nashville country influenced sound blended in and reminds me a bit of Langhorne Slim, if only a little less energetic. A solid record, one fans of the genre will really enjoy.
Jaki Byard - There'll Be Some Changes Made: Released in '73, this is near the end of the jazz pianist's most active period of his career. A post-bop / hard-bop musician, he maintains that style at a time when others were experimenting beyond that. Being a huge fan of that jazz era, and of his work, I'm glad he didn't abandon it. Over the past few years, he's become one of my favorites and I always look for his stuff in all the shops I drop into. I was lucky to find an original copy of this on sale for a few dollars and of course snatched it up. "Lonely Town," "Blues Au Gratin," "Besame Mucho," and "Journey  / Night of Departure" are my personal favorites.

Kilo Kish - Redux: Released at the end of last year, this is the newest EP from the Brooklyn based electropop artist, who has been steadily releasing EPs since her her only full length album in 2016. These songs mix pretty solid electronic music with her R&B style vocals, but they have enough punch to transcend dance music and veer slightly into trip-hop. It reminds me a bit of Santigold, if not slightly more poppy. 
Eddie Money - Life For the Taking: Released in '78, one year after his break-out debut, this the second album from the NYC rocker. His sound was always very solidly FM rock radio, but he was a master of the genre. I was a fan of his during childhood and rediscovered his music about ten years ago. With his passing fresh on my mind, I picked up this album recently. It was missing from my collection and is another solid rock record. He's one of those artists who know what he was and didn't try to be anything other than that, and that's where his true cool comes from. 

The Tea Set - Back in Time for Tea: A newly released compilation of work from the short-lived UK post punk band from 78-80. A super curious album that seems to take as much from proto-punk bands like Deviants and Bonzo Dog Band, as they do from the contemporary sound that was emerging after punk's first big splash, Gang of Four comes to mind, though these guys are bit more psyche than that. "On Them," "Tri X Plan," and "South Pacific" are personal favorites on this quirk of an album. 

Fiction Friday (103)

I hope in these times of staying at home you are all having plenty of time to read. That has not been the case for me. I've been working from home, and taking care of my daughter, I've actually had a lot less free time than I did before I was staying home...which is also why there have not been any posts on here for a few weeks. But I'm back, and here is one book a I read.
Timekeeper by Tara Sim
(Sky Pony Press, 2016)

In this re-imagined, steampunk version of Victorian England, time is something that can be broken, but luckily it can also be fixed. Time is regulated by the various clock towers around the world, and these towers are maintained by a union of mechanics who are trained to feel the threads of time and make sure the machines are working properly.
Danny is one of the youngest mechanics, but youth hasn't spared him from tragedy. It seems as though time is working against him. His father, also a mechanic, has been stuck for three years in a town where time has STOPPED. And to make things worse, it seems there is someone out there trying to destroy more towers and freeze more towns in time. And if all of that wasn't stressful enough, Danny is also falling in love.
This is one of those books that has an interesting premise, some very cool ideas, but for me they never came together in a complete way. The characters felt very flat to me, and any scene that was meant to be emotional just didn't ring true. Having the main character simply repeat his feelings over and over and over again isn't a compelling tool for effectively conveying emotion. 

Weekend Music Roundup

I'm guessing it's the weekend, but the days are all running together these days. It's been like a week long weekend, with some 'work-from-home' time thrown in. To say the least, this has been one of the oddest weeks in a long time. Needless to say, music has been a great escape to unknown places in this time of staying at home. It also means you have no excuse not to explore music you don't know. So get busy, and as always, enjoy.
Joe Cardamone - Holy War: Released online-only back in 2018, this is the first solo album from the mastermind behind Icarus Line, one of my favorite bands of all time. Always a seemingly doomed band, the ride ended officially when guitarist Alvin DeGuzman passed away in 2017. This solo album maintains the sense of disillusion that was always present in Cardomone's songs, but the aggression of their early recordings has evolved into something more sinister that lies under the surface. A fantastic record that captures the underbelly of L.A., a record that I can't believe I didn't hear until recently.
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush: This is the fourth album from the Perth neo-psych band, released a decade after their debut. I was initially very into this band, and enjoyed their first two albums. Their third album Currents, which came out in 2015, was the kind of album that soured me to the whole band. After a five year hiatus, they returned. I was not at all intrigued until I heard the lead single on the radio. This is definitely better than Currents, and sees the band moving their synth sound forward in interesting ways. What's interesting is that this is a sound that other bands were developing a decade ago, and when a band with a following does it, it becomes revolutionary. I'm not knocking them, they do it well, and this is probably going to be a pretty popular album this summer. It has that great sunny car ride feel to it.
Red House Painters - Red House Painters: Released in May '93, this is the first of two self-titled albums the San Fran based slowcore band released that year. Often referred to as the "rollercoaster" album to distinguish it from the "bridge" album, this is typically considered their best album, and is the album that made them a name on the indie scene. Mark Kozelek's voice is still pure here and though despairing as ever, there was still a sense of hopefulness in his youthful despair that has since seemed to fade. Having had the "bridge" for some time, it was nice to complete this set on vinyl, even though a lot of the songs are the "Retrospective" compilation CD that I've had since the '90s.  
Johnossi - Torch // Flame: The newest album from the Swedish indie guitar and drum duo comes 15 years after their debut and is the band's sixth album. This is one of those bands who debut was so great that I was bound to listen to everything they ever did. I've kept the self-promise and have seen this band stay consistent, never deviating too far from the indie rock sound they created years ago. This is a solid album, probably their best in years. Nothing earth-shattering, just good indie rock. 
The J.J. Johnson Quintet - J.J. In Person: Released in '58, toward the beginning of the Indianapolis trombonists career, this is one the best live jazz albums I've heard. Having played with Miles and Thelonious, J.J. was a top musician in the hard bob scene. Typically, it's the trumpeters who get all the attention, and for good reason, but the other instruments shouldn't be overlooked. At times upbeat, at times melancholic, J.J. can capture the mood flawlessly.

The Jam - All Mod Cons: The third album from Paul Weller's iconic mod new wave band was recent pick-up. Though I'm deeply obsessed with bands inspired by The Jam, and have enjoyed them in the past, my collection was severely lacking in their music. By this time, they've firmly established their sound, which is unique working class post-punk. "Mr. Clean," "English Rose," and "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" are standouts for me.

Fiction Friday (102)

As I've mentioned in a Fiction Friday a few weeks ago, one of the great treats about working in a library is wandering the shelves and spotting a book that you didn't know existed. So, something only librarians might appreciate is that poetry is not shelved in the fiction section, or some poetry section (which doesn't exist in libraries), but is shelved in Non-Fiction in the 811's. And that is where I cam across this book, by an author I love, and was unaware she wrote poetry.
morning in the burned house by Margaret Atwood
(Mariner Books, 1996)

The strength of any poetry is the word. It is the choice of words, the choice of omission, and the order in which they come together. In this collection of poetry, most centered around the theme of aging, Atwood displays a mastery of all of those choices.  Her ability to take ordinary scenes and imbue them with a quality of imaginative beauty is the real treasure of this book. Her imagery is stunning. Her rhythm nearly impeccable. There wasn't any single poem that rose above the others, rather it was the entirety of the collection that gives it power.
I don't read poetry to the extent that I once did. In collect, I was a devoted reader of poetry, but sort moved away from it. However, every now and then I enjoy the form and relish the moments I spend absorbed in a collection. This was one of those books.