Weekend Music Roundup

I almost decided against a roundup this week seeing as how the last two posts were also music related, but I thought better of bucking against tradition. So without further delay, here's the crop of musical musings for the week. Most of the past two weeks, I've been spending more time with albums I've acquired over the summer. Ones that have previously appeared on this list and were deserving of more quality time. But that said, there's always time for some new finds.

 

Sea of Trees - Live at the Linda: This is a band from Albany (my general region of residence). They were offering this E.P. as a free download from their website and I decided to give some local music a chance. Glad I did. This is a beautiful set of songs. Swirling vocals, Elephant 6ish constructions, each song sounds a shoegazer interpretation of the NMH's  "Oh, Comely", which is to say...damned good. I hope to see them live soon. (If you guys are reading this, play Woodstock!) 

Cocoon - Back to Panda Mountain: This is a live album from one the best French indie-pop bands around. Their debut album My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash has been one of my favorites for the last year or so. They sing beautiful campfire pop songs that are also incredibly sad. They don't lose anything live and the crowd's interaction almost adds to the nature of the songs. 

Noel Gallagher - The Dreams We Have As Children: A recording of Noel's solo concert at the Royal Albert Hall was a vastly pleasant surprise. A lot of these songs, I've heard Noel sing before, either because he sings them on the albums or they're songs such as "Wonderwall" where Liam has refused to sing over the years. Some, were new to me with Noel's voice and they sound great. I love Liam's voice, but there's also something about hearing the emotion that the songwriter puts into a tune that is pretty unbeatable.

Queenadreena - Djin: The highlight of the second half of my week was when the new album by one of my favorite bands of the decade came in the mail. Rising from the ashes of Daisy Chainsaw, this is Queenadreena's first album since The Butcher and the Butterfly, one of my 10 favorites of the decade, and this is just as brutal and powerful. Self-released, this is only available from the band's website as of now, but worth the buy. Katie Jane Garside's voice is just as brilliant as it was back in 1992 when Daisy Chainsaw burst onto the scene. David Gray's guitar playing is violent and amazing. Highly recommend you get anything and everything by this band.

Bear Hands - Golden EP: This was the opening band for the Manics on Wednesday, so I checked them out before hand. This is the Brooklyn based band's only release thus far, but I understand a full-length is soon on the way. They're in the mold of other recent NYC post-punk outfits producing a fuzzed-out fast paced rock that's also strangely danceable. Reminds me a lot of Death From Above (1979). Good stuff.

The Executioner's Last Song - Volume 1: This compilation is a collection of songs surrounding death, capital punishment, and sadness featuring greats like Neko Case, Johnny Dowd, and many more. Some great death folk music on here with a political message. Great for fans of Murder by Death, Bonnie Prince Billy's I See a Darkness, and other such greats. 

Etta James - Come a Little Closer: I picked this up on vinyl this week and really enjoyed it. Etta's voice is always amazing, but there's an added element of a tortured soul in this collection of soul songs. Recorded while she was in rehab, you can hear the tinge of defeat and sadness even in the upbeat songs, which gives them an added depth. 

Harry Nilsson - A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night: Nilsson had become a rock star prior to recording this album, and rumor is, he didn't like being one. So came this album that must have shocked fans of his previous albums at the time. This is a collection of standards, crooned in Rat Pack glory. But it's a great listen and Nilsson's voice never sounded better. 

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Due to the lack of new material, I've decide to pull out two from my vaults. These 5 star albums date back to my college days in the mid-90's, but they still impress me every time I listen to them. Plus, these bands never get enough attention.

Ghost - Second Time Around: The second album from Japan's psychedelic legends is perhaps my favorite. More folky than some other efforts, this album is like the soundtrack to another place . . a dreamscape of sorts. But it also hits with incredible moments of sonic grooving that get the head spinning and bobbing. 

Groundhogs - Thank Christ for the Bomb: It's a tragedy that this British blues-rock outfit doesn't get more love while many of their contemporaries are revered. Their playing is unmatched and their message and lyrics are on par with the bests of the era. Though I love many of their albums, this is the classic must-have. "Soldier" and "Thank Christ for The Bomb" will make all those fans of Pink Floyd's The Wall want to toss that record on the floor and complete the conversion to the church of Groundhogs.

In the Beginning, When We Were Winning

So here it is, the Manics concert followup, which I meant to post yesterday but was too tired and still digesting. I'm not going to write a song by song review. Mostly because it would read like an adolescent boy's daily lunchtime conversation about video games; Awesome! Awesomer! So Awesome. For me, there's a deeper connection to the Manic Street Preachers' music than just loving the songs and that's what I want to talk about . . that connection that we make as individuals to certain pieces of art.

Though there are many bands that I love with a passion, there are only a handful that I ever felt, at one time or another in my life, as if they were speaking directly to me. Figuratively, of course. I'm not so far crazy yet that I think the television is talking to me (which actually happens to be the premise behind the first children's story I ever wrote when I was 17, but that's a story for another time). 

The Manics are one of those few bands. There's a collective world view presented in their songs that very much aligns with my own. Issues of class, capitalism, society, emotion, and being on the outside of all of those things looking in, I listen to them and just nod my head, thinking right on. And the fact that they choose to express those opinions in literary ways, endears the music to me even more. 

As I was watching the show, I was thinking about this idea of connection. It occurred to me that the way I felt at that moment was probably similar to way many of the readers who have emailed me about my writing, feel about my books. I mean, I knew that before. But I guess I never felt it. It was quite a wonderful feeling. I'm really appreciative of having such dedicated and unique fans. 

I think sometimes people think that the whole notion of praise or "the love of the crowd" is somehow vanity. Though I suppose it could be, I don't think that's true in a lot of cases. For some, myself included, it's about howling into the world and getting a response that tells you you're not alone. I honestly believe that's what the Manics are about too. They are more than a band with fans. They believe in the we that are the fans. They believe in art as revolution, or at least in its power to change minds. I have to say, I do too.

Going Manic

Finally. Tonight, I travel into the city to see the Manic Street Preachers. I won't write too much about it in anticipation except to say that I'm excited. I've chosen to post the lyrics from one of their most famous songs because I think in many ways it reads like a manifesto for the bands' politics. 

"If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next"

The future teaches you to be alone

The present to be afraid and cold

So if I can shoot rabbits

Then I can shoot fascists

Bullets for your brain today

But we'll forget it all again

Monuments put from pen to paper

Turns me into a gutless wonder

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

Will be next

Will be next

Will be next

Gravity keeps my head down

Or is it maybe shame

At being so young and being so vain

Holes in your head today

But I'm a pacifist

I've walked La Ramblas

But not with real intent

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

Will be next

Will be next

Will be next

Will be next

And on the street tonight an old man plays

With newspaper cuttings of his glory days

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

And if you tolerate this

Then your children will be next

Will be next

Will be next

Will be next

It's a Mad World

Today is Mad Hatter Day, so designated because of the 10/6 featured on his hat. The Mad Hatter in the book represents all of those strange social rules that adults inflict on children, who rightly see them as crazy. So, today is a day when we can call out all the craziness that we pretend is sane on every other day of the year. 

For example, the Republican Party. They have a seat at the table and they talk and talk and we respectfully listen, but deep down, let's all face it, they are bat shit crazy. On second thought, add the whole political system to that. Or our silly economic system of buying and selling things nobody needs. In fact, there's no shortage of things to celebrate on this day. So kick off your heels and have fun telling that crazy old lady on line in front of you that it is NOT normal to take a half an hour to buy two things. 

Living in the Imagined World

As I've said before, writers are a weird breed in that we live in imaginary worlds for most of our waking days. But I always say that it's not a bad place to live if one has the mental fortitude to take up residence there. 

Sometimes I think that most people would benefit from taking such a vacation every once in a while. And not simply by reading a book or submersing themselves in a movie...which are also mental vacations, but ones to a completely different local and pace than what I'm talking about. Those are like Caribbean vacations; lots of fun, booze, heat, sand, quick plane rides and then it's done and gone. What I'm talking about is more like one of those two months in the Alaskan wilderness kind of vacations. Unfortunately, most people don't have either the time or commitment to make such a jaunt.

-How mankind loves to remain transfixed at the very doors of the imagination! This prisoner would dearly love to escape, but he hesitates on the threshold of possibilities, dreading that he may find he has stepped on to a rampart walk leading back to its own casemate. He has been taught the mechanism of the logical sequence of ideas, and the poor fellow has assumed that his ideas are connected. So he justifies his reason and his delirium by means of delirious reasoning.-  from Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon

I think the above quote does a good job of summing up some of the fear involved in making the kind of plunge I'm talking about. Imagination has historically been feared just as much as it has been celebrated. A lot people are afraid of traversing it's unfamiliar typography, getting lost, and never making it back.

There's always been a fine line between creative and insane. I've been think about this line a lot in working on my new novel. Is someone over that line really crazy or is the world too rigid in its reality? I think it's fairly obvious which side of the argument I stand on.

Selling Ideas

Since I started ranting yesterday, I figured I'd continue today. After all, anyone who knows me knows I'm good for at least two days of ranting. When I'm in rare form, I can rant with the best of them and spew tirades of madness that seem to never end. But fear not, that's only when whiskey is involved and I promise you I've only been drinking coffee as of yet today.

There are many aspects of the publishing industry that I personally would like to see changed if by some miracle the world decided to place me in charge. One in particular that really bothers me is the selling of ideas, or the publishing of a marketing concept rather than book. There's several categories to this and it's so widespread that I believe it's nearly killing the industry (or more appropriately, killing good fiction.)

Category 1: Books That Were Never Intended to Be Read, Just Sold

In this category you'll find every C-List celebrity's book, sports personality biographies and magazine-esque scrapbooks. These aren't really books, they're just stuff. People buy them without any intention of reading them. They just want to have them. 

Category 2: Books That Are Things

This is geared more toward the children's book market. Any parent will recognize this category. It's those books that are more of toy than a book. And I don't have as big an issue with these, so long as the text that's in there isn't total rubbish. Too often it is. I don't understand what the publisher is thinking in these cases. If the story stinks but the toy is great...aren't you just driving kids further toward toys? Didn't you create this category to achieve the exact opposite?

Category 3: Endless Killing of a Genre

This really needs only one word of explanation...vampire. Something hits and then the publishers plow through and buy every terrible vampire manuscript they can find until the market is so flooded that there's no shelf space for anything else. Nobody seems to care that the quality of Vampire Book #2463 is horrendous because the head of marketing in some office keeps insisting "Doesn't matter...vampires are hot right now."

Category 4: Selling the Story Behind the Story

This one is really on agents because they are the ones who are always searching for a compelling background story for an author in order to hype their manuscript and run up the media machine for the book. The actual book is less important. This has lead to the absurdity that is now known as "memoir" publishing.  It's also what causes the J.T. LeRoy scenario where a fabulous work of fiction like Sarah isn't enough for anyone to take on and try to sell, but attach a fake persona to it and suddenly it's phenomenon. 

What's lacking in all of this is the attempt to sell good books. Instead there's a drive to find books that sell good. It's easier to prey on society's consumerist tendencies than to try to promote a great book. It's easier to find something new and flashy than to build a steady readership (even though many a great publishing houses were built that way). Now I know there's people out there that will me that's just business. Believe me, I understand there is a business element in there, but I still can't help but feel it's gotten out of hand. It wasn't always like this. This isn't business, it's laziness and it's devoid of creativity.

Now, before I let all of the blame fall on the publishers, the book sellers and the agents, there needs to be some blame put on the readers too. After all, it's our buying habits that led to this mess. So here's some helpful hints that we can all follow to make the world a better place.

Hint #1: Don't buy the celebrity book because you like celebrity...only buy it if you plan on READING it. Just because you like so-and-so's acting, doesn't mean you're going to like their writing.  

Hint #2: Don't buy the new Dan Brown book or Twilight simply because everyone is reading it. If it doesn't interest you, find something that really does.

Hint #3: If you liked one book about vampires, don't automatically buy every other one. Ask yourself what you really liked about it....was it the immortal bloodsuckers, or the metaphor behind it. If so, try something in a different genre with that appeal.

Hint #4: Author loyalty! Again, if you liked Vampire Book #187, try another book by that author before blindly moving on to Vampire Book #188. Authors are like bands. If you like the way they sound, you'll probably like more of their stuff. 

That's it for now...my apologies to the vampire writers and readers, I didn't mean to pick on you. It was just the easiest example to use. I could have substituted zombies instead...but didn't for obvious reasons.

Story Telling

There are a handful of common editorial phrases that come in very handy for writers. "Show. Don't Tell." is a particular favorite. An editor will often point at a lifeless bit of prose and ask the writer to "Show. Don't Tell." It's an extremely useful and important tool that means exactly what it says. Instead of a character stating I was angry (that's telling), a manuscript might read I crossed my arms and glared at him (that's showing.) It also refers to action sequences, meaning you want to show the action as it unfolds and not give a journalistic rundown of what happened.

I bring this up because I've been seeing this phrase pop up a lot on the book review blogs over the past year. I don't know who spilled the phrase to reviewers, but people be going crazy with it and I'm not sure they really get the editorial purpose of it. So that has inspired this post, where I beg them all to HOLD THEIR SEAHORSES for just a minute while I rant.

First of all, "Show. Don't Tell." doesn't mean that a character can't relay a bit of information or express a private thought or opinion. It's like in a play when a piece of action takes place off-stage and then gets mentioned later. Sometimes, it's more important or intriguing NOT to show the reader something.

Second of all, I want to remind everyone that telling can be compelling too. If the language and writing is interesting, then a well-told story is fascinating. 

Telling can often allow for a well-shown story to become even bigger by providing episodes that don't take place in the timeline. When used as a memory delivery device, it can very effective in showing the inner workings of how the past influences us in our present. Telling also allows for a character to act one way in a scene, but reveal to the reader that it is an act. 

This obsessive need some reviewers/readers feel to be shown everything is really disturbing to me in a way. I believe it's a product of having lived in the movie age for so long. We're so used to being shown everything that it becomes boring to be told anything. 

A novel shouldn't be a screenplay. Writing is a way of storytelling is first and foremost about language. The visual aspects are a perk. Enjoy the writing.  

If you must be shown everything...I suggest you go watch a movie.