February 8, 2012
Book Notes - Katie Ward - "Girl Reading"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, and many others.
Katie Ward's Girl Reading is an ambitious and cleverly executed debut novel, the stories of seven portraits of women reading through the ages woven into a cohesive narrative.
The Guardian wrote of the novel:
"This debut should appeal to a wide but discerning readership. Not for Katie Ward the coming-of-age first novel starring a barely disguised over-sensitive heroine airing her resentments: Girl Reading reads as though its author is five books down. She has plunged straight into a series of difficult challenges, her handling of time and place accomplished with authority, skill and knowledge. If the basic idea is simple, reminiscent of the classic writing class exercise in which students are made to produce a tale inspired by an art postcard, the result is a complex showcase for Ward’s talents."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.
In her own words, here is Katie Ward's Book Notes music playlist for her novel, Girl Reading:
Girl Reading is a novel in 7 chapters, each chapter with a contained story set in a different historical period. It starts in medieval Italy and it develops through to the present day, and beyond. And each chapter is about a work of art, a painting or a photograph of a woman reading a book.
Chapter 1: 'Suite No.4 in D Minor, HWV 437, Sarabande' by GF Handel
This orchestral interpretation of a piece for harpsichord sets the mood beautifully for the first chapter of Girl Reading. In the medieval city state of Siena, the cathedral commissions a new altarpiece depicting the Virgin Mary. The chosen painter is the bad tempered maestro Simone Martini, and the reluctant sitter is Laura, a foundling child with problems of her own.
Handel compositions are synonymous with grandeur and this chapter is as much about institutional posturing as anything else; and yet Handel was also involved with London's Foundling Hospital and would have felt deep compassion for Laura's dilemma.
Chapter 2: 'Beggin' by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
The groove and lyric in 'Beggin' speaks of male sexual frustration dressed up as romantic feeling. A key character in Chapter 2 of Girl Reading is the Dutch painter, Elinga. He's a contemporary of Rembrandt, and harbours sexual desires for his maidservant – who does not reciprocate. The lyric of the song goes: 'Put your loving hand out, Baby'; in the book she 'hurries away, knocking past his open, insulting hand.'
Chapter 3: 'Angel' by Aretha Franklin
This record isn't only about a broken heart, but also the support and friendship between two women. 'Come by when you can, I've got something that I want to say' is a plea for help. 'Gotta find me an angel' is the repeated wish.
The premise of Chapter 3 is a countess coping with grief, and how an artist, Angelica Kauffman, helps her to overcome it by finishing the portrait of her dead lover.
The 'angel' here could mean several things: the protective spirit of the deceased; the potential for new love to be found within this lifetime; and the friends who come to our aid in times of distress – in this case, a paintress who was nicknamed 'Miss Angel' by Joshua Reynolds.
Chapter 4: 'My Vision' by Jakatta & Seal
'Tonight magical things are going to happen' says a mysterious voice on this record. Is this a promise of genuine magic, or just crowd-pleasing theatrical bunkum?
The middle chapter of Girl Reading is set in Victorian times. Being Victorian must have been terribly confusing, as cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs were inexorably mixed with illusion, parlour tricks and hoaxes. 'Real' and 'artificial' were indistinguishable to most people.
The chapter concerns twin sisters: one twin is a photographer; the other is a spiritualist medium. Both professions would have seemed impossible and marvellous to Victorian eyes, and both professions are about the inexplicable creation of images out of darkness. As Seal sings so persuasively, 'Can you see my vision...?'
Chapter 5: 'Sunday Girl' by Blondie
Chapter 5 takes place during the Great War and is mainly told from the point of view of 15-year-old Gwen. She's well-meaning, awkward and hopelessly in love with Laurence, a post-Impressionist painter and conscientious objector. That Laurence is ten years older than Gwen is surely a barrier she can overcome? The real difficulty is the appearance of a sensuous and glamorous rival.
The song goes: 'Hey, I saw your guy with a different girl, looks like he's in another world, run and hide Sunday Girl'; the book goes: 'Running off to cry in private seems like the appropriate gesture ... so Gwen does.'
Chapter 6: 'Halo' by Beyoncé
This is the chapter of Girl Reading set in the present day. Like Beyoncé, the lead character, Jeannine Okoro, is intelligent, independent, beautiful and ambitious. Unlike Beyoncé however, Jeannine feels isolated and displaced. It begins to dawn on her that she might be in the wrong job, the wrong relationship, that she might never fulfil her potential. How much of this is a result of lingering prejudice in the modern world? And how much of it is down to her own bad judgement?
Jeannine would know the song 'Halo', and hearing it would be a bitter-sweet experience: she'd believe absolutely that walls can come 'tumbling down' but feel cynical about the idea that being with a man can help her to achieve her goals.
Chapter 7: 'Hidden Place' by Björk
The last chapter of Girl Reading is set in the year 2060, and the extraordinary musical landscapes created by Björk on her album Vespertine suit it very well.
In this future, we live our lives with one foot in the physical world and one foot in the virtual world called Mesh. All original paintings and sculpture are hidden away from the public, who now have to make do with digital reproductions. Nearly all books are electronic too. In an age ruled by immersive technology, Sincerity Yabuki has invented something called the Sibil, and her research is coveted by governments around the world.
The lyrics of 'Hidden Place' are about the yearning for physical contact: 'Now I have been slightly shy, and I can smell a pinch of hope / To almost have allowed one's fingers to stroke / The fingers I was given to touch with, but careful, careful / There lies my passion.' Sincerity's existence, though visually miraculous, is almost devoid of the sensation of touch. She lives apart from her partner and daughter, maintaining these relationships via her avatar.
In addition, the backing vocals on 'Hidden Place' have an unearthly siren-like beauty, as though they are calling you into the unknown ... likewise, Sincerity is magnetically drawn towards the Sibil and ever further away from home.
For the reader of the novel, the 6 previous chapters have been pointing to this moment.
Katie Ward and Girl Reading links:
Book Snob review
Booklist review
Cosmopolitan review
The Daily Beast review
Guardian review
Harriet Devine's Blog review
Kirkus Reviews review
Lloyd Shepherd review
Punkadiddle review
Secluded Charm review
East Anglian Daily Times profile of the author
IP1 interview with the author
Writers Read guest post by the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
February 8, 2012
Atomic Books Comics Preview - February 8th, 2012
In the weekly Atomic Books Comics Preview, Benn Ray highlights notable new comics and graphic novels.
Benn Ray is the owner of Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore. The Mobtown Shank is his blog, and his comic Said What? is syndicated weekly in the Baltimore Sun's B-Paper.
Atomic Books has been named one of Bizarre Magazine's 51 geekiest places on the planet, as well as one of Flavorwire's 10 greatest comic and graphic novel stores in America.
Every Man Is My Enemy
by Skinner
This book collects the mural and installation art work of Sacramento artist Skinner. The result is a gorgeous heavy metal, Dungeons & Dragons, psychedelic acid trip.
Galactic Breakdown #4
by Keenan Marshall Keller
The newest installment in the stunning, weirdo underground comic. It reads like a psychedelic '80s video game designed by Gary Panter with a killer punk rock soundtrack.
The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat
by R. Crumb
For the first time in hardcover, the epic saga of one of Robert Crumb's most famous characters - so famous, in fact, that Crumb had to kill him.
We Can't Get Up
by Dina Kelberman
This colorful mini by Dina Kelberman is sort of the comics equivalent of a collection of outtakes and b-sides. Except with Dina, her b-sides are better than most people's a-sides. It includes stories she's done for a couple anthologies I've edited, an overheard conversation for a weekly comic strip I do, and some other excellent work. It's a great introduction to the charm that is Dina Kelberman.
Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's 1940s-50s Romance Comics
by Jack Kirby / Joe Simon / Michel Gagne (editor)
Before they became famous for all those superheroes, these two legends of comics helped define the hugely popular, at the time, romance comic genre. This book brings together some of the best work in an overlooked and under-appreciated genre.
Questions, concerns, comments or gripes – e-mail benn@atomicbooks.com. If there’s a comic I should know about, send it my way at Atomic, c/o Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211.
Atomic Books & Benn Ray links:
Atomic Books website
Atomic Books on Twitter
Atomic Books on Facebook
Benn Ray's blog (The Mobtown Shank)
Benn Ray's comic, Said What?
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Atomic Books Comics Preview lists (weekly new comics & graphic novel highlights)
the list of online "best books of 2011" lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Largehearted WORD Books of the Week - February 8th, 2012
In the Largehearted Word series, the staff of Brooklyn's WORD bookstore highlights several new books released this week.
WORD is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, that will celebrate its fifth anniversary in March 2012. Our primary goal is to be whatever our community needs us to be, which currently means carrying a lot of paperback fiction (especially classics), cookbooks, board books, and absurdly cute cards and stationery. In addition, we're fiends for a good event, from the classic author reading and Q&A to potlucks and a basketball league (and anything set in a bar). We're a small operation, just 1000 square feet and four people, but we read too much, so it all works out. If a weekly dose of WORD here isn't enough for you, follow us on Twitter: @wordbrooklyn.
WORD also hosts the monthly Largehearted Lit reading series, featuring authors who participated in this blog's Book Notes series and musical guests.
Vaclav and Lena
by Haley Tanner
One of Jenn's favorite debut novels of 2011, now in paperback.
A Widow's Story
by Joyce Carol Oates
One of Stephanie's favorite memoirs of 2011, now in paperback.
History of a Pleasure Seeker
by Richard Mason
A brand new novel from the acclaimed author of The Drowning People, sure to bring out your inner hedonist.
The Monster Returns
by Peter McCarty
What to do when a monster comes back? Throw him a surprise party, naturally.
WORD Brooklyn links:
WORD website
WORD blog
WORD on Twitter
WORD's Facebook page
WORD's Flickr photos
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Largehearted Word Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
List of online "best of 2011" book lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks (my yearly reading project)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics & graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Shorties (Philip Glass, Stephen Fry, and more)
Sound of the City interviews Philip Glass about growing up in segregated Baltimore and black music's influence on his compositions.
The Bat Segundo Show interviews author and comedian Stephen Fry.
The A.V. Club interviews Sharon Van Etten about her new album, Tramp.
AVC: You’re known for being an autobiographical songwriter; that was certainly true of your first album. Do you feel like that’s continued on this record? Are you still drawing from your own life, or are you moving away from that?
SVE: I’m slowly moving away from it. There are still songs that are about things I went through, but there are more songs that my friends have gone through, and I’m learning how to separate myself a little more, because I feel like the better I am at separating myself and writing in a way where it’s more general, I feel like more people will be able to relate to the songs. But whether the song is about me or not, the content will probably always be surrounding the idea of love, because it’s I think the most universal thing to write about. I don’t know. I joke about my next record being an album of book reviews. I’m not sure.
PopMatters lists the 10 greatest Shakespeare adaptations of all time.
The A.V. Club lists eight rules for covering Bob Dylan.
Component Parts interviews author Adam Wilson about music and his debut novel Flatscreen.
Willamette Week offers a primer to the music of Dr. Dog.
For fans of: My Morning Jacket's more psychedelic side, Langhorne Slim's more rockin’ side, Fleet Foxes' less artsy side, the Kinks' less British side.
Chatelaine interviews author Erin Morgenstern about her novel The Night Circus.
The Santa Barbara Independent interviews White Denim frontman James Petralli about touring with Wilco.
The Book Bench interviews Michael Chabon about his new short story in the New Yorker, "Citizen Conn."
The Mountain Goats cover Leonard Cohen's "The Smokey Life."
Philip Coggan talks to Morning Edition about his new book, Paper Promises: Debt, Money and the New World Order.
On sale for $3.99 today at Amazon MP3: Johnny Cash's 16 Biggest Hits album.
Fresh Air interviews William Broad about his new book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards.
Drowned in Sound and the Chicago Reader interview Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn about his solo album, Clear Heart Full Eyes.
Katherine Boo talks to Morning Edition about her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.
Win Sharon Van Etten's new album Tramp and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Daily Downloads (Marketa Irglova, Rosie Thomas, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
NoiseTrade has quickly become one of my go to destinations for free and legal music from a variety of genres, here are 10 recently added releases.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Brandi Carlile: free and legal Noisetrade Sampler album [mp3]
search for more Brandi Carlile posts at Largehearted Boy
Cameron McGill: free and legal Cameron McGill Noisetrade Sampler album [mp3]
search for more Cameron McGill posts at Largehearted Boy
Leland Sundries: free and legal The Apothecary EP [mp3]
search for more Leland Sundries posts at Largehearted Boy
Madi Diaz: free and legal Far From The Things That We Know album [mp3]
search for more Madi Diaz posts at Largehearted Boy
Marketa Irglova: free and legal Live from San Francisco album [mp3]
search for more Marketa Irglova posts at Largehearted Boy
Owl City: free and legal Noisetrade Sampler album [mp3]
search for more Owl City posts at Largehearted Boy
Paper Route: free and legal Absence album [mp3]
search for more Paper Route posts at Largehearted Boy
Rosie Thomas: free and legal These Friends of Mine album [mp3]
search for more Rosie Thomas posts at Largehearted Boy
Seryn: free and legal This Is Where We Are album [mp3]
search for more Seryn posts at Largehearted Boy
William Fitzsimmons: free and legal Noisetrade Sampler album [mp3]
search for more William Fitzsimmons posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Larkin Grimm: 2012-02-02, Brooklyn [mp3]
search for more Larkin Grimm posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
February 7, 2012
Book Notes - Dan Chaon - "Stay Awake"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, and many others.
Dan Chaon has proven himself once again a master of the short story with his haunting second collection Stay Awake.
The New York Times wrote of the book:
"The best of his stories arouse a feeling of deep foreboding. Then, with the reader's realization of what’s about to emerge from the shadows, comes a shock of recognition. This is the great guilty pleasure of good horror fiction: the sickening moment when the monstrosity at the heart of the story's darkness suggests itself to the eager imagination, while still withholding its true shape. "Stay Awake" is a superbly disquieting demonstration of that uneasy power."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.
In his own words, here is Dan Chaon's Book Notes music playlist for his short story collection, Stay Awake:
The title of my new book of stories, Stay Awake comes from a lullaby from the musical Disney film Mary Poppins. In 1988, not long after I finished college, Hal Willner put out a compilation of covers of Disney songs on A&M Records called Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. The album contained an incredibly sinister and spooky a cappella version of "Stay Awake" sung by Suzanne Vega, which stuck with me for years and years. Even as a young man, I knew that I wanted to write a story about the feeling that the song had evoked in me.
I thought I was writing stories that were more or less "realistic"—they were about ordinary people and situations, but I also knew that there was something behind the curtain of straightforward realism. It wasn't supernatural exactly. But it was something-- something not natural, watching.
Flash forward 25 years! I was writing the novels You Remind Me of Me and Await Your Reply, and in-between I was occasionally writing stories. I had the idea that I wanted to write a collection of ghost stories. I was thinking about the amazing collections of ghost stories by writers like Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Bowen, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, M.R. James, E. Nesbit, etc. I was also greatly drawn to Joyce Carol Oates' wonderful book Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque.
I knew that I wanted to create a collection that paid tribute to the idea of the "ghost story" while at the same time I wanted to adapt that form to my own purposes, so that not all the stories are necessarily exactly "supernatural." I was very influenced by my friend, the novelist Peter Straub, who once described The Red Badge of Courage as "a ghost story in which the ghost doesn't appear." That idea fired my imagination as I was working on these stories.
"The Bees" appears on Belly's sadly overlooked second album, King, which came out in 2000. The song was the inspiration for the first story in my collection, which is also called "The Bees." I started writing the story with this song on repeat, and fragments of lyrics began to crystallize into scenes and characters: "My blessed son, you have a lot to learn," sings lead singer Tanya Donnelly, and "the bees behind my eyes sing beware," and "I steal a piece of your diary/I don't think that looks like me." From these fragments, and from the melancholy and sinister music, I began to form a picture of a guilty father who had wronged his son in horrible ways, but was in denial about it. I don't actually know what the song is really about—but my story has a powerfully parasitic relationship to it. I felt like I was literally drawing on the life force of that song when I was writing the piece.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, "Bobby Malone Moves Home"
I feel a real affinity with Owen Ashworth, the singer-songwriter who has gone by the name "Casiotone for the Painfully Alone" and, more recently, "Advance Base." He creates vivid characters and situations in a short space, and I think of songs like "Natural Light" and "Toby Take a Bow" as kind of like musical versions of Raymond Carver short stories. Of all of his songs, "Bobby Malone Moves Home" is my favorite. I love the way Owen's morose, ragged voice moves across the jaunty keyboard line, and the way that series of chords becomes increasingly creepy and relentless. I love poor Bobby Malone himself, who is as vivid in my mind as if he had been the main character in a novel. The frightening sense of ennui and entrapment this song gets at is something I was trying to find in my story "Patrick Lane, Flabbergasted" –which is about a similar sort of guy, who finds himself "back home" and stuck there. The situation that we jokingly refer to as "failure to launch" is, to me, actually really scary--kind of psychological ghost story; a maze that slowly ensorcels its victims, from which they can never escape.
Occasionally I'll read the Amazon and Good Reads reviews of my books. A number of people mention that my stuff can be depressing, and I feel a little guilty about it. I don't want to be the downer guy. At the same time, I actually really like sad stories and sad songs and sad movies. The problem of loss is interesting to me, and I appreciate art that helps me think about it.
The video for Modest Mouse's song "Little Motel" is among the most memorable music videos I've ever seen. I think it's smart and wise in the way it explores grief; that clever backtracking narrative line that slowly unfolds and reveals the dream and denial of the young mother, the beautiful use of lonely, late-night urban space, the way ordinary places, like a motel or a diner or gas station can take on a kind of uncanny, haunted quality. And though it's very, very sad, and it makes me cry practically every time I see it, it's a kind of sadness that makes me feel less alone, and so I'm thankful for that. High five, Isaac Brock!
Red House Painters, "Have You Forgotten"
There are some artists that follow you through your life. The singer Mark Kozelek is one of those for me: he's recorded as "Red House Painters," as himself, and as "Sun Kil Moon" and "Desertshore." I frequently listen to Mark Kozelek while I am writing, and his songs speak to me of the healing and hypnotic magical power of sad music. If someone asked me to sit down and write a story, I would first of all make a playlist that included some Mark Kozelek songs, and that would help me get into the zone. It's like having fairy dust sprinkled on me. I love his voice and his music so much that I ended up naming one of the main characters in my novel Await Your Reply after him.
I was sort of hoping that he would notice this and be super excited and then write to me. But he didn't.
Idaho is another of my favorite bands, and like Red House Painters they create a certain kind of drone that is appealing to me. Very often, what I am looking for in music is a kind of hypnotic state, a soundscape that opens up into a dream world, and "Skyscrape" does that to me. It starts with a kind of sleepwalking march, the feeling of moving through a fog toward an uncertain point, which I think is exactly the state that writers find themselves in as they sit down. When Jeff Martin's voice comes in at :26, the fog begins to clear. "You know the harder you try… to be… respected…" he whispers, in his deep, somnolent voice, like a fortune teller in a trance. "It's not difficult to see…why you are…not happy…"
I was listening to this song and out of the fog emerged a drunken lawyer, disheveled, still dressed in a suit but soaking wet, stumbling down a dark, rainy Portland street long after midnight. Not respected. Not happy. Lost. I began to follow him, and that was how I wrote the story called "Take This Brother, May It Serve You Well," which is one of my favorite pieces in Stay Awake.
D.Veloped, "The Childish Games"
I love mashups. I was a DJ through most of my college years, back in the late 1980's days of Chicago "hotmixes" and house music, and I'm very taken with the work of young artists like D.Veloped, Girl Talk, DJ Earworm, and others who take samples and combine them into collage art that re-envisions the original artists and transforms their work into something fresh and new.
The idea of collage is very important to me in my own work. I tend to work with fragments at first—images, characters, details--and sort them and arrange them a little like I would a mix, as I try to find a narrative line. I want the various scenes and moments of a story to combine in the way that a mashup does, not necessarily logical but inevitable. And I want the elements of light and dark to clash in ways that are ultimately pleasing—the way that D.Veloped uses the sample of Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya,"—which, played over a minor key line, uncovers an unnoticed ache in ODB's drunk jackass bravado voice, a yearning that gives us a weirdly melancholy, backward-glance insight into his tragically short life. Or so I'd like to think.
In any case, I find myself "sampling" the work of writers that I love when I'm writing my own stories, trying to remix phrases and moods from stories in the hopes of tapping into something new or discovering some element of my story that I hadn't thought of. Favorite sample beats include Carver, Cheever, Bradbury, Munro, Method Man.
If I were forced to choose my favorite album of the last ten years, it would be Page France's Hello, Dear Wind. The album is an emotional tour-de-force, a song cycle of repeated themes and images that are interwoven and yet stand alone as powerfully beautiful individual singles. I was definitely influenced by the method of this album in the use of recurring tropes, and by the complex web of imagery. It truly feels like an album—each song speaks to the other and they gain depth when listened to as a whole.
This is what I wanted to achieve with the stories in Stay Awake. The stories were written over a period of ten years, and when I sat down to put them together I noticed that that there were a number of images and moments that appeared almost identically in several of the stories. At first, my instinct was to rewrite or edit the stories so that there wasn't any repetition. Then, thinking about it, and remembering the effect of Page France's album, I decided that I really liked the kind of weird "déjà vu" quality that this created.
I hope that some people will like this effect, though it's also a bit worrying. Recently, one of my friends pointed out the echoes he noted in the stories with a concerned look. "Dude, did you notice that you had the same thing in both stories?"
Oh, facepalm, facepalm.
Here's Tom Waits, an artist who, over the years, has probably meant more to me than any other. The stories that Tom Waits tells in his songs are written in English, but ultimately they start to become their own language—"Waitish?" –which is full of a kind of rich, complicated mood that reaches beyond the edges of the "words" or the "music" and becomes a newly invented world that you enter and exist in, a world with its own rules and logic; even its own colors. My ambition is to write stories that are sort of the fictional equivalent of his songs, but that's just wishful thinking. Tom Waits is sui generis. A god-like entity.
This song, "Green Grass," is sung from the perspective of a ghost, and so it seemed particularly appropriate.
PS: My son is friends with a kid who knew Tom Waits' kids, and once my son's friend was at Tom Waits' house and Tom Waits came in and served all the children pizza bagels.
That makes me happy to know. Say: "Hey, kids, who wants some pizza bagels?" in a Tom Waits voice, and it will make you happy too.
OK, I realize that this song has already been on the soundtrack for Where the Wild Things Are, but if I got to have everything I wanted, this song would come at the end of the movie to Stay Awake, just as the Suzanne Vega song would be at the opening credits.
I love the way that this song moves—from dirge to anthem to odd little jig and then to a kind of meditative coda. It's such a strange piece, and it seems like it shouldn't really hold together as a song at all. But it does, and that makes me hopeful.
Dan Chaon and Stay Awake links:
the author's Tumblr
excerpt from the book
Cleveland Plain Dealer review
Goodreads interview with the author
The Millions review
New York Times review
NPR review
Publishers Weekly review
Time Out New York review
Wall Street Journal review
Connecticut Post profile of the author
Fictionaut interview with the author
Interview Magazine interview with the author
Wall Street Journal essay by the author (on writing fiction)
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Try It Before You Buy It - February 7th, 2012 Music Releases
Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from the week's music releases:
Air: Le Voyage Dans La Lune
full album stream
Bahamas: Barchords
full album stream
Ben Kweller: Go Fly a Kite
full album stream
Big Sir: Before Gardens After Gardens
full album stream
Continue reading "Try It Before You Buy It - February 7th, 2012 Music Releases"
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Shorties (The London of Charles Dickens, Liam Finn, and more)
CNN takes a tour of Dickensian London.
PopMatters interviews singer-songwriter Liam Finn.
"It became a philosophy of mine, of trying to capture the music in the same way you might record a demo," he said, explaining, "When you start to write a song and you record it on a little four-track, quite often, you catch an atmosphere and those weird sonic things that make it very hard to recreate in a studio. But those sounds—that's where it becomes unique." He added, "You can write a really nice little pop song, but it’s the way that you color it in and, I guess, subvert it that makes it unique to you. I think what makes people latch onto it in a different way."
The Telegraph recommends new novels that recast Oliver Twist for children.
NPR is streaming the new Field Music album, Plumb (out February 14th).
Robert Harris talks to Morning Edition about his new thriller, The Fear Index.
"I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power," he says. "And now I think that if you want to write about power, go and look at computers, go and look at the financial markets. It seems to me ... that's nearer the cutting edge of what's guiding our lives now than conventional political parties."
The Record explores Madonna's musical legacy.
Madonna, ever the feminizing force in pop, is doing what all queen dowagers do: turning the world's attention to her heirs.
My Name Is Not Bob lists the best blogs for writers to read in 2012.
Drowned in Sound interviews Dylan baldi of the Cloud Nothings about the band's new album, Attack on Memory.
Comic Alliance interviews the former Pizza Island cartoonists (Kate Beaton, Domitille Collardey, Sarah Glidden, Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt, Deana Sobel and Julia Wertz) about their future plans.
On sale for $3.99 at Amazon MP3: Air's new album Le Voyage Dans La Lune.
In the New York Times, authors Donald Antrim, Chad Harbach and Susan Orlean discuss the appeal of sports in our society.
Win Sharon Van Etten's new album Tramp and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Daily Downloads (The Unthanks, Ani DiFranco, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Ani DiFranco: "Which Side Are You On" [mp3] from Which Side Are You On
search for more Ani DiFranco posts at Largehearted Boy
Denison Witmer: "Brooklyn" [mp3] from The Ones Who Wait (out March 6th)
search for more Denison Witmer posts at Largehearted Boy
Diehard: free and legal 4-track Old Habits covers EP [mp3]
search for more Diehard posts at Largehearted Boy
Jay Farrar/Yim Yames/Anders Parker/Will Johnson: "Old LA" [mp3] from New Multitudes: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie (out February 28th)
search for more Jay Farrar/Yim Yames/Anders Parker/Will Johnson posts at Largehearted Boy
Lux: "The Window" [mp3] from We Are Not the Same (out April 3rd)
search for more Lux posts at Largehearted Boy
Orienteers: "Regret (New Order cover)" [mp3]
search for more Orienteers posts at Largehearted Boy
Sourpatch: "Cynthia Ann" [mp3] from Stagger and Fade (out February 28th)
search for more Sourpatch posts at Largehearted Boy
Susurrus Station: "Play the Fool" [mp3] from Antinomie (out April 17th)
Susurrus Station: "Keep Up Your Spirits" [mp3] from Antinomie (out April 17th)
search for more Susurrus Station posts at Largehearted Boy
The Unthanks: "Lullaby for Hamza (Robert Wyatt cover)" [mp3] from The Songs Of Robert Wyatt And Antony & The Johnsons, Live From The Union Chapel (Diversions Vol. 1)
search for more Unthanks posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Grandfather: 2012-02-01, Brooklyn [mp3]
search for more Grandfather posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
February 6, 2012
This Week's Interesting Music Releases - February 7th, 2012
Sharon Van Etten's Tramp has spent more time in my headphones than any other 2012 release so far, and at this point is by far my favorite release of the young year.
Air's soundtrack to the 1902 silent film Le Voyage Dans La Lune, A Place To Bury Strangers' Onwards to the Wall EP, Bahamas' Barchords, The Twilight Sad's No One Can Ever Know, and The Unthanks' The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons: Live at the Union Chapel (Diversions Vol. 1).
The reissue highlights are five Queen albums (Innuendo, A Kind of Magic, em>Made in Heaven, The Miracle, and The Works ) all with additional CDs of bonus material.
What new releases are you picking up this week? What can you recommend? Have I left anything noteworthy off the list?
This week's interesting music releases:
A Place To Bury Strangers: Onwards to the Wall EP
Air: Le Voyage Dans La Lune
Amanda Palmer: Polly
Bahamas: Barchords
Battles: Dross Clop 1 [vinyl]
Ben Kweller: Go Fly a Kite
Blondes: Blondes
Bob Dylan: Another Side of Bob Dylan (reissue) [vinyl]
Bob Dylan: Basement Tapes (reissue) [vinyl]
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (reissue) [vinyl]
Bob Dylan: Bringing It All Back Home (reissue) [vinyl]
Bob Dylan: Freewheelin Bob Dylan (reissue) [vinyl]
Chairlift: Something [vinyl]
Chuck Prophet: Temple Beautiful
Cocteau Twins: Stars And Topsoil-A Collection 1982-1990 (reissue) [vinyl]
The Darlings: The New Escape
Davila 666: Pa Que Vives
Deer Tick: Tim EP
Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist (reissue) [vinyl]
Die Antwoord: TEN$ION
Dr. Dog: Be The Void
The Duke Spirit: Bruiser
The Fray: Scars and Stories
Fredrik: Ornament EP
F**ked Up: Year of the Tiger [vinyl]
Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell (reissue with bonus tracks)
Goldfrapp: The Singles
Grateful Dead: Wake of the Flood (remastered) [vinyl]
Lindstrom: Six Cups of Rebel
Manic Street Preachers: Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) (reissue)
Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral
Mount Eerie: Distorted Cymbals / Anglepoise Cymbals [vinyl]
Mux Mool: Planet High School
of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks
Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom
Peter Hook: 1102/2011 ep
Philip Glass: Essential Philip Glass
The Plimsouls: Beach Town Confidential: Live At The Golden Bear 1983
Pretty Good Dance Moves: LIMO
Queen: Innuendo (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen: A Kind of Magic (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen: Made in Heaven (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen: The Miracle (remastered with bonus CD)
Queen: The Works (remastered with bonus CD)
R.E.M.: Document (reissue) [vinyl]
The Residents: Coochie Brake
Royal Baths: Better Luck Next Life
Sharon Van Etten: Tramp
Silverstein: Short Songs
Sunshone Still: ThewaytheworldDies
Swell Maps: A Trip to Marineville
Trailer Trash Tracys: Ester
TV on the Radio: Nine Types of Light [dvd]
The Twilight Sad: No One Can Ever Know
Umphrey's McGee: Live [dvd]
The Unthanks: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons: Live at the Union Chapel (Diversions Vol. 1)
The Valery Trails: Ghosts & Gravity
Various Artists: Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions Of Depeche Mode
Van Halen: A Different Kind of Truth
Willie Nelson: On The Road Again: Live On Air
Wire: The Black Session: Paris 10 May 2011
Wooden Wand: Briarwood [vinyl]
Zee Avi: Concrete Wall
also at Largehearted Boy:
other weekly CD & DVD release lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 online sources for free and legal music downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (music from this week's CD releases)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
This Week's Interesting DVD Releases - February 7th, 2012
Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 2 (Original U.K. Unedited Edition) is easily the week's DVD highlight for me.
Other television shows include the animated Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I, the historical Shakespeare drama Anonymous and the comedy A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas are the most anticipated theatrical films.
The More Business of Being Born is a documentary that picks up where its predecessor left off examining the childbirth industry in the United States.
Nine Types of Light is a collection of music videos for TV on the Radio's album of the same name.
On Blu-ray this week the Criterion Collection the Chris Marker films La Jetee/Sans Soleil on Blu-ray, and many classic movies like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Love Story are also available.
What new releases are you picking up or adding to your streaming queue this week?
This week's interesting DVD releases:
Anonymous
Bizarre Foods: Collection 5, Part 2
Breaking Man
Brontes of Haworth
Casino Royale (1967) [Blu-ray]
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
Coming & Going
Cyberbully
Dangerous Liaisons [Blu-ray]
Day of the Dead 3D [Blu-ray]
Deadmau5: Meowingtons Hax 2K11
The Elephant in the Living Room
Ethos: A Time for Change
Father Dowling Mysteries: The First Season
Fireflies in the Garden
A Fish Called Wanda [Blu-ray]
Gasaraki Complete Series DVD Collection
Geek Charming
Hell's Kitchen: Season 6 Raw & Uncensored
Holy Smoke!
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World [Blu-ray]
The Jazz Singer (Jerry Lewis) (1959)
K-ON!
Karen Cries On The Bus
Knuckle
La Jetee/Sans Soleil (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Lady and the Tramp (Diamond Edition Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging)
Laramie - The Second Season
Last Man Standing
Lindsey Buckingham with Special Guest Stevie Nicks: Live
Love Story [Blu-ray]
Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 2 (Original U.K. Unedited Edition)
Masterpiece Classic: Far From the Madding Crowd
Metal Shifters
Mobile Suit Gundam Complete Collection 2 (Anime Legends)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: The Complete First Season
More Business of Being Born
New Tricks: Series 6
Nine Types of Light
Northern Lights: The Complete Collection
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
Police Woman: Complete Second Season
Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury
Project Nim
Rebound
The Reunion
Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings The Complete Series (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
The Song of Lunch
A Star is Born (Kino Classics Edition) [Blu-ray]
Steve Coogan Live
Stormhouse
Story of a Love Affair: 2-Disc Special Edition
The Sunset Limited
Super Shark
Time Traveller - The Girl Who Leapt Throught Time
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I
Umphrey's McGee: Live
Vasermil
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
What Happens Next
Xam'd: Lost Memories Complete Collection
Yakuza Weapon
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous weekly music & DVD release lists
Soundtracked (directors and composers discuss their film's soundtrack)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Shorties (Stream the New Shearwater Album, Alan Hollinghurst on The Stranger's Child, and more)
NPR is streaming the new Shearwater album, Animal Joy (out February 14th).
Alan Hollinghurst talks to The Australian about his latest novel, The Stranger's Child.
"I think I always play games with putting bits of myself in different (characters)," Hollinghurst says. "I don't think I've ever . . . well, I know I've never written a character who sort of was me."
TIME recommends the top 10 non-Dickens books for Charles Dickens fans.
Former 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield lists his favorite NYC music venues at the New York Post.
The Millions interviews interviews Ben Marcus about his new novel, The Flame Alphabet.
Ad Hoc, a new music blog collective and community headed by the former editors of Altered Zones, is raising funds via Kickstarter.
The Book Bench offers a primer to the works of author Roberto Bolano.
Drowned in Sound interviews of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes.
An interactive map of Charles Dickens' London.
Win Sharon Van Etten's new album Tramp and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
