Weekend Music Roundup

In the past week, I probably attempted fewer new listens than any other week in the past year, not counting vacations of course. There are a few reasons for this. Partially because my iTunes was overwhelmed with the massive amounts of music I've stuffed into it of late. Another reason was the fact that I was revisiting a previous writing project which often means revisiting music that inspired the project. I still made some time for a few good listens I will share with you, along with some items that have been sitting in queue for months waiting for a review.

Tweak Bird - Tweak Bird: This L.A. band's 2008 EP Reservations was a favorite of mine two years ago and I was pretty excited for this album, their first full-length. For good reason too! Tweak Bird is 30 minutes of blissed-out heavy stoner rock. Like most L.A. rock, there is a heavy glam influence to their blend of heavy grooves that set them apart from the sludgier bands in the genre. Put it on and turn it up.

Fitz and the Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces: The first single off this album, MoneyGrabber, has been stuck in my head for an entire week. It's a perfect 70's soul style jam and one of the best soul revival tracks of the year. The album is a bit uneven, but certainly there are a bunch solid tracks that sound a little like David Bowie, ala the Thin White Duke era, singing soul music. Not too shabby.

Odawas - Raven and the White Night: Released on vinyl only on one of my favorite labels, Jagjaguwar, in 2007, this is the band's only album and obviously went largely unnoticed. It's really too bad because it's quite beautiful and interesting. Like labelmates, and fellow Bay Area band The Skygreen Leopards, Odawas are an experimental folk outfit but a type of folk that's much harder to place. There are swirling string arrangements, sound snippets and sonic landscapes throughout that all mix well with the fragile folk underneath it all. At times it sounds like 'More' era Pink Floyd meets Plastic Ono Band.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch: The 2007 spin-off album from Animal Collective's Noah Lennox has been much praised over the past few years. Now, anyone who follows my Roundups knows I'm certainly not the biggest Animal Collective fan. However, I was compelled to try this anyway simple because the cover is so fantastic. I do like this album better than recent Animal Collective albums, but I didn't love it. It shares many of the same flaws. It's a similar blend of swirling sunny indie pop trying very had to emulate "Pet Sounds" (an album I also don't like very much) but in the end comes out sounding like a jumbled mess. There are moments in every song that are perfect, yet no perfect songs.

Hayley Mills - Let's Get Together: For those who don't know, Hayley was Disney's IT girl in the early '60s and this album, an oddball mix of sentimental fare and teenybopper pop was released after the success of The Parent Trap. The title track comes from that movie and as a kid, I always dug that song. I still do. It's infectious. The rest of the album is kind of dull however. Still, it's a nice addition to any kitsch collection.

Black Moon - enta da stage: An east coast hip-hop classic from 1993, this album epitomizes the Brooklyn sound from the era. Buckshot's flow is dynamic to be sure, but there is a bit of dating that has accumulated over the past 17 years. In the mid-90s, living in NYC, I was heavily into east coast hip-hop. However, I much preferred the rap coming out of Queens and Staten during the time. Brooklyn hip-hop used much starker beats and flow, dropping most rhymes on the 1-2 instead of the 3-4. Still though, there's a wealth of classics on here.

The Pretty Things - The Pretty Things: This is a band I wrote off a long time ago after buying S.F. Sorrow back in college and hating it. A few months ago, I was talking to an old timer about British Blues and he recommended early albums by The Pretty Things. I told him about my S.F. Sorrow feelings and he said, "Forget that album, it's crap." So I knew we were on the same page and took his advice. This is the band's 1965 debut and it's a solid British Blues album much in the style of early Rolling Stones or The Animals. Solid stuff and recommended for those who've exhausted the standards of the genre and crave more.

Nas - Illmatic: Another mid-90s NYC hip-hop classic, this time from 1994. Now naturally, I knew this album inside and out back in the days but I didn't own it simply because everyone else I knew did, which meant I heard it plenty. But after listening to Black Moon, I was feeling the need for some Queensbridge New York type crime rhymes. Though I certainly prefer Mobb Deep's The Infamous, this album is pretty stellar. A must have for any east coast hip-hop fan.

Television Personalities - Mummy Your Not Watching Me: The London bands' second full length album from 1982 follows the brilliant 1981 debut ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It. Like that album, this one is also very ahead of its time. Part of the Post-Punk era, the band kind of doesn't fit with the others from the era though. There's heavy Syd Barrett influence and it actually resembles a lot of '90s British indie weirdness. They actually remind me of Blur's more whimsical moments. The band has tons of albums that I still need to hear, but so far both of the ones I've heard are brilliant.

Jeff Buckley - Grace: This album was released in 1994 and praised by critics while ignored by mainstream listeners. I admit to being one of them, mostly because the cover set me in the wrong frame of mind. It has since become a classic album especially following the singer's tragic death in 1997. I read that Radiohead wrote "Fake Plastic Trees" after being inspired by a Jeff Buckley show they attended and you can tell. In fact, I can hear a lot Buckley's influence on post-Britpop British bands such as Radiohead, Haven, Travis and others. Perhaps because these soft beautiful songs seem to capture the grey tones of that Isle. It's a fantastic album.

Why the World Needs Picture Books

(from Maggie and the Pirate by Ezra Jack Keats)

There was a disturbing article in the New York Times yesterday about the perilous future of the Picture Book. (You can read article here). The article addresses the dwindling sales of picture books as well as the shrinking number of them being published. It also talks about parents pushing children away from picture books because they wrongly see them as too simple.

Now having worked for years in Children's Publishing as a major buyer of Picture Books for Scholastic's Kindergarten Book Club, I can say with confidence that in the past fifteen years there have been WAY TOO MANY picture books published. When too many titles are published, there are undoubtedly terrible titles making it to the market and the good titles suffer. I see this happening in the YA market currently. It also happens in music. And unless a consumer has the time (and who does except for us fanatics) to devote endless hours to research, it may be hard to weed through the bad to find the quality titles. So more selective publishing isn't a bad thing in my opinion.

What really frightens me is the other aspect of the article. Picture Books are not simple. Not the really good ones anyway. Picture Books are extremely valuable for children. The marriage of text and pictures is how we learn to visualize a written story and how to let our imagination expand the story. Certainly there is also a need to have children read chapter books. I LOVE chapter books. But they serve a completely different place in the learning to read process.

Chapter Books are perfect for encouraging independent reading. But independent reading is only part of the child's learning to read process. Learning to read can't simply be about vocabulary and testable skills. The key to raising a child who loves reading and not just a child who can read, is the magic of storytelling. Picture Books are some of the most perfect examples of storytelling that we have developed as a culture. They are not simply for teaching toddlers the alphabet or to count or that apples are red. There are many complex and rich stories contained in that section of the store, not to mention many of the finest pieces of art produced in the last century.

Next time you're in a bookstore, do yourself a favor and spend some time in the Picture Book section. Pick one up instead of that new James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks novel...I promise you'll get infinitely more from its pages.

Begin at the End and End at the Beginning

A funny thing has happened while working on the edits for my novel Life Is But a Dream. I'm being asked to alter both the opening and ending scenes of the novel. Seeing as these are the only two scenes I need to alter, I'm working on them back-to-back.

In some ways, it's every writer's dream to write the beginning and immediately finish with the end. It's a unique opportunity to link the two. Of course the pessimist within me keeps whispering that it's also a spectacular chance to screw up all the pages stuffed between them...but I'm managing to keep him quietly sedated for the most part with a steady diet of cartoons and video games.

I've started with the beginning, but think I will move to the ending and then go back. As you can see, my main character's schizophrenic thinking has been rubbing off on me. That's good. I may need her misguided influence to pull this off.

The Great Rabbit Wars Pt. 38

Excerpt from General Nippon's Field Guide 001 (access previous Communications)

LOCATION: Sixth Urban Sector (Human Settlement in sight)

Sniffing the body on the ground just before it died, I could tell it was Bianca's work. One of the human girls she raised against me. It curls my ears knowing she did it in plain sight. Raised them up in my Great Warren as if they were our own species. She planned this. Stayed loyal to me long enough to see our Elite Guard engaged with the invaders in the outer regions and then she made her move. Damned Fival! His madness let me down, but victory will still be ours.

What's left of my Rabbit Soldiers tell me the Cadet gave up the defense perimeter of his fellow Scouts before extinguishing. Good. There's no secrets left in the corpse to pass onto the wolves when they pick it clean.

We've surrounded the Human city. Put it to siege. At sundown we invade. No second chances for integration. Bianca and her followers will burn for their betrayal. Without her, I have no need for the stragglers and their primitive new religion. The angel will have to go along with them. By morning, humanity will be extinct in our lands.

Hurry on sundown. Destiny awaits my empire.

- Nippon

(Tune in next Story Time Tuesday for the next installment)

Changing This and Changing That

I'm a firm believer that every writer needs a good editor. Every book needs the careful attention of someone besides the writer. As a writer, I tend to overwrite. I see the story in my head and painstakingly try to transcribe those images into words. In my attempt to get it perfect and to make it as clear to the reader as it is to me, the manuscript suffers from a bad case of repetition and imagery piled on top of imagery. I know this. I can see it. I'm aware that surgical strikes need to be made, however I don't always know where to make the incision. Thankfully, a good editor does.

I think one of the hardest things to get used to as a young writer is the idea of accepting an editor's suggestions. Writers resist. It's a parental instinct to prevent meddling with our children. With my first book, I resisted quite a bit. Less with the next and even less with the next. By now when I get editor's comments, I usually agree with all of them because once I stopped being defensive, I was able to see that nearly every comment I've ever gotten has indeed been accurate and improved the book. This isn't to say I don't occasionally put my foot down. There are some lines in every book that in my mind define the book and it's style that absolutely must stay whether they make sense to anyone else or not.

My high opinion of an editor's input and contribution to a book is one of my strong objections to self-publishing. It's not a snobbish objection that self-published material can't be great writing, because it can. However, in most cases I believe that self-published books probably aren't living up to their full potential because they haven't been fortunate enough to have that expert eye improve their work. This is why I always tell anyone who asks about self-publishing that it should be a last resort. That said, I'm glad it is a resource. Sometimes it's the only way, especially in industry dominated so heavily by trends. However, if you do go that route...do yourself a favor and at least have an educated reader ruthlessly go through your work and make them tell you what isn't making sense and where you've told the same thing over and over.

Weekend Music Roundup

This past week has been one of many hours sitting in front of various projects in various stages and trying to figure out what in the world needs to be done with them. In some cases, I have the lucky guidance of a talented editor and in others that job of editing is being entrusted to me. Naturally this leads to immense amounts of music intake. I listened to enough new music this week to fill a few Weekend Roundups, however, much of it will fit into a planned themed roundup planned for the future. Most of these are new to this week while a few are hold overs from the summer when my tastes were more sunny. They should be easy to pick out.

Clinic - Bubblegum: Just released this week, the new album is the sixth album from the Liverpool band. This album is less frantic and experimental than their previous two, but even with softer instruments and melodies, they still manage to evoke the same sense of a paranoid fairy tale playing out before you. There's definite similarities between Clinic and fellow Liverpool band The Coral. A downright good listen.

The Rosewood Thieves - Lonesome EP: Readers will remember my praise for the band's other two releases a few weeks back. At the same time as those, I got this 2007 EP, the band's second EP before their first full length a year later. The band uses the same blend of Beatles power pop and NYC influenced Britpop to create sing-along indie rock, but for some reason, this EP is less memorable than From the Decker House and Rise & Shine. Still very good though, but should be the last in line to seek out.

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree: Over the past few weeks, I've listened to all of Goldfrapp's catalog. Some of it ranges from decent moody electronic to the more recent horrid Olivia Newton John revival. I'm happy to report that THIS is the album I kept hoping for. By far the best in my opinion, Seventh Tree finds the singer experimenting with folk-pop and creates a beautifully moody album perfect for rainy days.

The Jealous Girlfriends - Comfortably Uncomfortable: After discovering the amazingness that is Holly Miranda, I've started going back to explore her previous band's, The Jealous Girlfriends, catalog. This 2005 EP is where I begin and it's a great piece of soft indie that really happened to fit the death of summer. There's a cover of The Smiths "Please Please Please, Let Me Get What I Want" that is fantastic. I saw Holly Miranda perform that song at a porch concert in my town and is probably what led me to start here instead of the bands full length album (which will certainly be next).

Elvis - 30 #1 Hits: I saw this and realized my gaping lack of Elvis. Minus one greatest hits cassette tape, there was no Elvis in my collection. I figured this was a decent place to start as the King has so many different periods and incarnations, this would be a good place to guide my future interest (most likely on vinyl). Of course, the songs aren't new to me. There isn't a single song here that I haven't heard any number of times. The earliest stuff is awesome and I expected that, but I didn't expect the later stuff to be just as stellar. I still prefer Buddy Holly to the King, but the King certainly earned his title I suppose.

Death in Vegas - Scorpio Rising: The London electronic band's fourth album from 2002 is a very decent piece of melodic dream electronic. Dot Allison's vocal tracks sound great. They remind me of a band called Scala, which in my mind will always be the best electronic band. The title track on this album is sung by Liam Gallagher and basically just rocks. But the great think about Death in Vegas is that it's an band playing electronic music, not samples and synthesizers.

John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death: This is my second venture into the world of John Fahey, a pioneer in American roots folk revival of the '60s and '70s. This is one of his earliest albums and features a handful of short instrumental guitar picking tracks. It a wonderful piece of old time americana music. Later in his career, he moves into longer pieces which really set the course for modern drone folk. Very interesting guy and highly recommended for any fans of roots folk music.

Marillon - Misplaced Childhood: I try not to post too many negative reviews. Most albums that I don't care for, I don't bother to review. However, sometimes I feel compelled and that's case for this 1985 disaster. Marillon is the poster band for '80s prog rock. Now, I'm huge fan of '70s prog but 80's prog is really just another term for horrible soft metal. That said, I'd always wanted to give this band a try because they have a lot of respect in the music listening community and the have intriguing cover art. Plus, I inadvertently named a character in my new book Kayliegh after a girl who then informed me she was named after the Marillon song on this album. All of that seemed like I was fated to give this album a shot. Well, I did and I'm sorry for it. It reminds me of the absolute worst of late Pink Floyd, but seasoned with over the top righteousness. Easily the worst album I've heard in a long, long time.

The Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart: The Flaming Lips early period is extremely uneven in my opinion, but this 1993 album is certainly one of the high points. On here the band does it's best Guided By Voices imitation and does it very successfully. "Plastic Jesus," "Superhumans," and "She Don't Use Jelly" could all be outtakes from GBV's "Bee Thousand" or "Alien Lanes" albums. This is really the band's move into it's more listenable work.

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (30th Anniversary Edition): This isn't a review of the album, which I've loved since my early college days, but rather the bonus disc included in the 2002 re-release which features unreleased tracks and completely different takes on familiar songs. The demos of "Moonage Daydream", "Lady Stardust" and "Hang Onto Yourself" are must listens. Bowie has always been one of those musicians who can make the same song sound completely new every time he plays it. To hear these glam rock classics in a mellowed out tempo is really extraordinary. If you don't have the album, I recommend searching out the one with the bonus disc. It's worth it.

Returning to Ember

It's time once again to give the lowdown on some books I've been reading. For quite some time now, I've been on a huge Middle Grade fiction kick. Perhaps because it's what I've been most inspired to write lately, or perhaps I'm more inspired to write it because I've been reading it. That's not for me to figure out...I'll leave that to the scholars who are sure to study my madness in distant future. And speaking of the distant future, I've decided to share my thoughts on the final two Books of Ember. (I reviewed the first two books already and you can see my review here). This has been one of my favorite collection of books of the last decade, so I encourage everybody to read them if you haven't already. But here are my thoughts on the individual titles.

The Prophet of Yonwood - Jeanne DuPrau

Except for the last few paragraphs, this doesn't really feel like "the third Book Of Ember" as the title suggests. It seems a lot of readers were turned off by that, hoping to read more about Lina and Doon, or even about Ember itself. And though I also would've enjoyed that, it didn't bother me or take away from my appreciation for this story for what it was...at least, it nearly didn't.

Set in the near-modern day, this story carries through the themes of right and wrong that make the first two books so powerful. DuPrau's strength as a writer is her ability to show how influences work on characters and how sometimes small incidents shape a character's actions. This is excellently handled with Nickie, the main character in this book. We see how easily it is for her to get caught up in the strange brand of righteousness brewing in the sleepy town of Yonwood.

Is the message in the book a little heavy-handed? Yes. This is such an obvious metaphor for post 9/11 America. But given that the book is speaking to a generation raised in that era, the story needs to be direct. This idea of making up your own mind about God, sin, and the right thing to do and questioning the dictates of authority, is a very difficult subject and one that the target audience for this book is just beginning to think about. In that way, I think it was handled very effectively. One line spoken by Grover sums it up nicely:

"You should think about what’s the right thing to do. Not just take someone’s word for it.”

This is a well-written story and I felt really attached to the characters. I did feel like it was a stretch trying to tie it in the authors previously successful series. The connection between Yonwood and Ember is very thin. I think I would've loved the book more without any connection because as soon as Ember is mentioned, I immediately wished this had been a story of Nickie wondering through a newly built, un-populated Ember as her dad and the other Builders were constructing it. I know it's a little unfair to grade the book based on this, but in a way, it's asking for it with that somewhat misleading "the third book of Ember" on the cover.

The Diamond of Darkhold - Jeanne DuPrau

After the third book took a big departure from the story and characters in the first two books of Ember, DuPrau returns to the familiar characters Lina and Doon in the fourth installment. I knew while reading the third book that I missed these two, but didn't realize just how much until I encountered them again. Both characters feel very genuine and the interaction within their friendship makes for great reading. The story hearkens back to the first book quite a bit, creating a parallel plot that works well for completing the larger story of the people from the Underground City of Ember.

As with the other stories, The Diamond of Darkhold explores powerful themes for young readers such as fairness, compassion, and the value of intellectual curiosity. I also liked the twist at the end, which helps to further tie in the story of the third book. All in all, a splendid four book series and one I hope is read for many generations.

I also enjoyed how did make an effort (once again in the last few paragraphs) to tie-in Yonwood. This connection, which I won't give away, doesn't necessarily enrich the story but it does add a nice new dimension to the books and leaves the reader with something to think about. It places the series in a larger context and I love endings like that.