This is our second month of doing the Book Club. We’re doing 3 books of the same theme over 3 months. Our Book Club theme is crazy people, that aren’t that crazy. Last month we read Veronika Decides to Die.
Our Book Club choice for November is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.
Please feel free to share your thoughts. We’ll be putting up reviews shortly.
Enjoy.
Johnny Cash is set to be immortalized on Broadway. According to NME…
The late legend’s life will be the focus of ‘Ring Of Fire’, directed by Richard Maltby Jr, reports Variety.
The show, which will feature Johnny Cash’s faith, love and life experiences, will feature over 49 songs by him and his late wife June Carter Cash.
The title track, ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘A Boy Named Sue’ all feature in the play, which producer Bill Meade and Phoenix Prods will preview in select cities next autumn.
But I bet Quinton already knew this.
I just saw a commercial for that new Johnny Cash movie “I Walk the Line“. Its coming out on November 18th. Joaquin Phoenix will be playing Johnny and Reese Witherspoon will be June. I’m curious if this movie will be any good. I’ve been a fan of Joaquin since he was in Spacecamp. I wonder if they’ll use his original songs for the movie. Wouldn’t that be totally awful, if they had Joaquin really sing them?
-Goodbye That’s All She Wrote
Calexico did a nice cover of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart. You can check it out here (via Gorilla vs. Bear).
Jose Gonzalez also did a cover of the same song while performing in Stockholm. You can listen to it here (via Stereogum).
Which version do you like better? I still think Joy Division does the best job.
Yes there is something wrong with the audience. Did you know that if you score an IQ of 70 you are considered mentally retarded? Let’s compare it to that of the most powerful man in the world whose IQ is 91. Yes, I believe it’s safe to say that there is something definitely wrong with the audience. I’m surprised more people don’t die on an everyday basis from “freak” accidents involving toasters and vacuum cleaners. This kind of cancerous stupidity has affected everything, sadly enough it has extended its reach to music.
I’ve been thinking of writing this post for a while but hadn’t found the right way to go about it. I’m still not sure I have a good grasp on it but one of Quinton’s post lit a fire under me. The idea first came to me when speaking to a very close friend of mine currently in the band Geisha Girls, a local Southern California band. I’ve mentioned him before the notorious Johnny Roller. The core of the conversation was whether or not it was good thing to adopt the sound of your heroes. Being that he feels that his band sounds just like The Gun Club he of course decided it was a good thing. I on the other hand am not so sure. Don’t get me wrong I believe in influences no one is an island blah blah blah. However, you look back at things so that you can learn from their mistakes and avoid them not so that you can replicate them. So in my own subtle way I say, music your current state fills me with bile.
Obviously there are current exceptions but it seems that the riches are reserved for all of the copycats. Take for instance The Libertines, why is everyone in such an uproar about them? They craft well written catchy pop songs built on foundations put there by others, like The Clash for example. Now I’m pretty sure Jesus accopmlished much harder tasks before reaching his well deserved fame, I guess we just dont scrutinize like we use to. Everything short of bitting ones own finger nails seems to be amazing now adays. I’ll admit it’s so awesome when there is a band that you know to be amazing who don’t get credit they deserve and all of the sudden you hear something on the radio that sounds like a comeback single. Once you realize it isn’t the band you though it was the excitement settles away but you feel happy that someone shares your respect and admiration for them. You go out and buy their album and listen to it insensibly for about a week. Then you realize that the reason you like it so much is that it reminds of someone whose album you already own. What happens next? You say thanks for the remainder I’m going to go back and listen to the original.
If you’re reading this and either have a band or are thinking of forming one do not take this offensively. It isn’t an insult it’s more of a plea. It’s great to go in and record something that resembles music you love, if that’s the way it sounds then that’s the way it sounds, but don’t go in with the contrived notion of making it sound like it. For two major reasons; first you won’t be as good and second you’re not even trying. I’ll plea once more keep music vibrant because it’s beginning to feel stagnant, moldy even.
If your reading this and are an avid music lover. Shame on you, shame on us all we’ve all been guilty of it. We fall in love with a band and the sound they’ve created but when they steer away from their signature sound we get upset and boycott. Thus we discourage experimentation and growth. Let’s start flexing our big muscle. In summary don’t buy Libertine albums. HAHAHAHA…just kidding I’m Sure they’re great kids.
-A Boy in Bigger Pants
According to BBC News a UK auction house has denied claims by The Beach Boys that memorabilia they have up for sale has been stolen from the band. Cooper Owen, who is currently handling the auction, says the vendor bought the items legitimately. As of yet there has been no evidence provided to show otherwise. Some of the articles include early contracts, lyrics and hand written sheet music.
It always bothers me when something like this happens. The items in question obviously belong to the band that’s why they hold so much monetary value. Yet someone else has the feeling of ownership. Yes I understand your wrote this music, and the fact that you spent your own money to buy the sheets of paper you wrote them on, still there mine and you can’t have them back. I don’t understand that kind of brazenness. To read the entire article click here.
-A boy in Bigger Pants
Rufus Wainwright is set to release a special edition album on November 28th. The double album titled Want is a combination of Want One & Want Two. Although I usually loathe repackaged material I have no issues with this double LP. Rufus is one of the best songwriters of our generation and if he can’t get his deserved dividends by mass record sales by all means, re-issue, re-package and re-sale.
Want will include two new tracks. The first is a live cover of Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel No. 2. The second In With the Ladies was actually recorded during the Want One & Two sessions. When played back to back these two albums are seamlessly cohesive and demonstrate both his genius songwriting and his elastic musical range. A personal highlight of mine is the ballad Memphis Skyline written as an ode to Jeff Buckley. It sits flawlessly that he would tribute his music counterpart.
-A boy in bigger pants
I just read on Brooklyn Vegan…
“To celebrate the completion of The Tain (Super 8 version with Decemberists soundtrack slated to appear on the upcoming date), I thought I might let my hair down and let you peek at a few stills. Thanks to Corporal Bradley for hooking this up. The DVD release date is still TBA.” [Decemberists Message Board]
On a side note, I just came across the Decemberists’ music video for “Sixteen Military Wives”. You can watch it here. I stumbled across this music video last week. Although, I believe its been floating around the internet since March. Does anyone know where there are more Decemberists music videos? Have they made any other ones?
I went to Lou’s Records this weekend and finally used a credit that had been burning a whole in my pocket. I picked up Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine.
After giving it a good listen, I have to say that this is a solid album. Fiona’s voice seems stronger than ever. She seems comfortable and confident. Sometimes, I could swear I was listening to a singer from the 20’s or the 30’s. I just love this album.
There’s a pretty nice interview in Nylon magazine this month with Fiona Apple, who just turned 28. The interviewer said, that she found Fiona to be silly, funny, intelligent, and not at all crazy. Fiona does have a penchant for running her mouth. She’s gotten a lot of flack for her waify look in the “Criminal” video and for her acceptance speech at the MTV Music Awards. She looks healthy now.
She’s playing at House of Blues San Diego on November 28th. That should be pretty sweet, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Friday night Maureen and I attempted to go to the Okkervil River show at the Casbah. We made the drive down and were informed that the singer had strepthroat.
From their site:
It’s true, folks, I have strep throat. I’m really sorry that we had to cancel San Diego; there was pretty much no sound coming out of my mouth, and what did come out hurt like hell. We canceled just a handful of hours before the gig – that’s why there was no advance warning. I went to a doctor and she gave me a gigantic bottle of antibiotics and some vocal steroids which are supposed to strengthen my voice (and are also supposed to make me angry and make my face look “puffy,� so if you see me looking angry and puffy-faced, that’s why).
Also, a new mp3 from Black Sheep Boy Appendix, “No Key, No Plan,” is up on Jagjaguwar.
I could no longer be bummed about the concert, once I saw this picture on Boing Boing.
Also, the song that Jarvis Cocker and the guys from Radiohead made for the new Harry Potter movie was leaked this weekend, but then was quickly taken down. Fluxblog put it up here. If you go quick you might be able to check it out. It’s kind of silly.
Here’s a Conversation between Bjork and Diddy. I found this on Prefix. This has been around for awhile, and its kind of retarded, but also kinda funny.
Our book club choice for the month of October was Paulo Coehlo’s Veronika Decides to Die. Our book club theme for these 3 months are crazy people, that aren’t that crazy.
As the book starts, we’re introduced to Veronika. She’s young, beautiful, and seems to have everything going for her. Yet, she has decided that she wants to kill herself. Not because she’s depressed just because she’s bored. She feels that the world is messed up and she feels powerless. She is unsuccessful and lands herself in a mental hospital. Veronika is told she only has a week to live, because of the damage she’s done to her heart.
Veronika develops friendships with some of the other patients at the hospital. She hears their stories of how they ended up there. This book gives us an interesting perspective on asylum life. Faced with death, Veronika starts feeling a deep desire to live. She starts playing the piano late at night, passionately and unrestrained. She pours her heart and soul into it. She plays like she never had before.
Coehlo threw in his usual mix of philosophy/spirituality into the story. But despite that, I really liked it. I like his writing style. I liked how Paulo Coehlo dropped into the book, and then quickly dropped out again. Its very interesting to me that Paulo Coehlo spent time in an insane asylum, when he was young. His parents put him there, not because he was crazy, but because he wanted to be an artist. That wasn’t socially acceptable to his parents. So Coehlo has an intimate knowledge of asylums, treatments, the relationships between doctor and patients, and the comforts and harrows of living in a place like that.
I liked how Veronika was comforted by the fact that when you’re in a mental hospital you can do whatever you want. Nobody thinks anything of it, because you’re crazy. Like when Veronika, walks up to the member of the Fraternity and smacks him across the face. On hearing the news that she is soon to be released from Vilette, Zedka reflects, “Once in a mental hospital, a person grows used to the freedom that exists in the world of madness and becomes addicted to it. You no longer have to take on responsibilities, to struggle to earn your daily bread, to be bothered with repetitive, mundane tasks.” What do you think about that quote?
I really liked this book. What about you? What do you think of Dr. Igor’s theory about Vitriol, the name he gives to a “disease of the soul” that affects people who have grown embittered? How do you feel about Dr. Igor’s experiment on Veronika?
