More Found Sounds

Afternoon, all.

How's the weekend finding you?

Instead of driveling on about another album I loved when I was a teenager I thought I'd spend today's post writing about an artist whose work deserves more widespread appreciation. I write of the musician Kenna. I discovered the joy that is Kenna's first album, 'New Sacred Cow', while watching MTV2 one night in 2002 or 2003, the specifics are a bit fuzzy. What I do recall vividly (aside from the instant dating of this piece by referring to MTV2 playing actual videos) is the nature of the video for the song 'Hell Bent'. The video is essentially a mash up of Kenna's excellent single with the heart-breaking short film 'More' by Marc Osborne that incorporates stop motion elements to tell a tale of devotion and aspiration. The result is a video of hope and sorrow, about a young...person...who finds himself lost in a miserable world of endless toil. By putting the essence of his passion and person into a project he innovates and changes the world, only to lose that special spark inside forever. It's a little Twilight Zone-ish and more than a bit heavy on message but it still broke my heart as an idealistic young person. To this day I still find it moving, and the original short 'More' is considered to be one of the best shorts ever created, ranking in the top ten shorts on IMDB. 

All of this served as an amazing introduction to Kenna's awesome album New Sacred Cow. Released in 2003, the album was critically adored but didn't see massive sales. It's really a shame that the album never took off in a big way because it really is a gorgeous, nuanced piece of work that shows just how talented and expressive Kenna can be. Due to label and management conflicts, the New Sacred Cow was delayed over two years before it was finally released, to which some have attributed the lackluster reception. Who could argue that artists can lose steam or buzz when going through two solid years of indeterminate delays? Regardless, the album was finally released in its complete form, to open arms in the right circles. The wider public, not so much, unfortunately. 

Personally, I love the album. I had it in the back of my mind for the intervening years of hearing 'Hell Bent' and actually being able to buy it. It was the winter of my sophomore year in college, the ever present night fall of St. Paul's winters weighing heavily on my psyche. This was just before the internet exploded with massive amounts of blogging and free-exchange of ideas (p2p, torrents) so I never was able to download it. I was at a Cheapo Records with my friend Jimmy (yeah, this was right as iTunes took off, too) and he held up a copy and said "You ever heard of...Kenna?" with hesitation. My head snapped up from the used racks. "Oh my God, are you kidding?" I asked with excitement. It was the only copy in the store. I wouldn't let Jimmy buy it - I insisted I had to have it and would rip him a copy when I got home (sorry Kenna!). We listened to it in his car on the way back to my apartment, engrossed in what we heard.

The album is a wonderful mix of electro, synth-heavy new wave and piano-and-drum beats. Some tracks, like the single 'Freetime', are quite dance-able and up beat. The new wave tones of 'Redman' are strange and haunting, but nonetheless catchy and hypnotic. The verses have a great stuttering, off kilter back beat the hooks your ear with its unusual rhythm. 'Hell Bent' is all somber keyboards and electro loops, with Kenna's soothing voice over the arrangements. Kenna's voice is really the driving force here, but it never gets too in-your-face or upfront about the presentation. The entire sound scape is what Kenna is really creating on this album instead of a musician simply trying to show off their chops. His voice is smooth, but has great range. The beautiful and brooding 'Man Fading' is a great example of the textures and layering Kenna creates, with his voice complimenting the music instead of leading it. 

New Sacred Cow is an album I not only listened to obsessively when I first bought it, but one that I keep coming back to in the following years. Some of the other posts and reviews I've written for this blog can give insight into my tastes - it should be no surprise this album fits so snugly into my wheelhouse. It's at different times smooth, funky, sorrowful and hopeful. The tones vary but the voice and mode stay the same. Kenna came right out of the gate with a phenomenal album that deserves much more love than it received. His follow up efforts, Make Sure They See My Face and his recent EPs Land 2 Air Chronicles and Songs for Flight, have brought more acclaim and steady buzz. Over the years his clout has grown, but near fast as it should have. Give him a listen and see what so many have been missing out on.

Deux Foo

Happy Friday evening, people.

I wrote about the Foo Fighter's fantastic first album last week. While it is indeed a great piece of rock and roll history, I realize now that I wrote that post solely to facilitate arriving at today's post, which is all about the follow to that album, The Colour And The Shape. It's an amazing album that spawned hit singles and earned the group a Grammy nod. To this day it stands as their highest-selling album with over 2 million copies sold. Another in a series of my favorite albums that come from the 90s, huh? Let's dig in.

The one problem with being in a band with Dave Grohl is that your drumming better be good. The guy is, no exaggeration, one of the best drummers of the last twenty years. You could play any drum track from Nirvana's album Nevermind and stand a good chance at picking it out - he displayed a real musicality to his approach, even if it is ultra-powerful and heavy. He hits hard and fast, accurate with deftness, unlike so many out there. So naturally there would be tensions when William Goldsmith wasn't performing up to Grohl's expectations. Having toured in support of their debut and tracking several new songs in preparation for their next record, Grohl decided he had had enough and moved the sessions to LA from Seattle and re-tracked almost every drum part with his own playing. Understandably Goldsmith was hurt and soon left the band. In his place Dave recruited touring drummer for Alanis Morrisette Taylor Hawkins to fill in on the road work and he proved to be an excellent match; he is still with the band to this day. The finished album was mixed by Grohl and Gil Norton, whose British background is responsible for the spelling of 'Colour' in the title. What they ended up creating is (in my humble opinion) the best work of their career. 

Rumored to be a concept album about the life of a relationship (Grohl's marriage to Jennifer Youngblood during the writing and recording of the album, fittingly), the album is a classic piece of energetic rock songs with strong pop sensibilities. The opening track shows the band was heading in a more nuanced direction, 'Doll' being a jangly, strummed piece of angst that clocks in at just under a minute and a half. It sets the precedent for the album both in its tone and brevity - they waste no time on filler and sing of being scared of commitment yet the contrasting need to change to please someone. The first single for the album, the up-tempo 'Monkey Wrench', is fast and poppy, which put it at odds with other things on rock and alt radio at the time. While there were plenty of angsty grunge clones on the radio, here among them was a furious melody that was both upbeat and energetic. Grohl admitted to feeling nervous about the squirrely guitar lick over the main riff of the song, but realized its positive tone made it stand out in the best way possible. The next track, 'Hey Johnny Park!', has a powerful riff that gets its steam from the single notes played through the gaps over heavy, contrasting chords. The verses on this song again show the newfound sensibility of the band, feeling light and chilly, almost like their take on a surf band, before they gear up for the grinding chorus filled with killer harmonies. It's a diverse mix of styles in one song, but it holds together really well. Other songs show this same sense of balance, like the dual-moded 'Up In Arms'. The song's first half is all garage-rock clean chords from the mid-to-late 60s. The second half of the song flips the first on its head, taking the same chord and melody but cranks up the distortion and tempo. It's a credit to the song writing that you can take the same structure and melody and make it work so well in different ways.

That's really the secret of the album (and Grohl's career). You can dress it up in distortion and screaming all you want, but the truth of the matter is that Grohl is a phenomenal writer. His innate sense of hooks and structure make for music that is both engaging and memorable. For example, while there are balls-to-the-wall rockers on the album, one of the best songs on here is the light and breezy 'See You', a stomping acoustic number that has a bright and fun melody, totally at odds with some of the more aggressive tracks. Note, though, that I said one of the tracks. The two real stand outs on the album, and two of my favorite songs in my life, are both on this album. 'Everlong' is one of them. The song is both moving and rocking, a track that builds from drop-d tuned chords that don't quite resolve, creating tensions that rise and rise, until they finally get satisfaction in the immensely powerful chorus. The choices Grohl made in constructing the song really speak for themselves - it's a gorgeous piece of romantic alt-rock that grows and ebbs and grows, getting better with each chorus. I can't really say more than that about it, just listen to it and hear for yourself. 

The other song that moves me really breaks my heart each time. 'My Hero' was written not about Kurt Cobain, as many have suspected, but about normal, everyday people in Grohl's life when he was young. It's about looking up to people you can depend on and wanting them to get the recognition they deserve. It's also a phenomenal example of space in a sound scape. The driving force of the song is the drum and bass combo, Grohl's insanely heavy drumming giving gravitas and momentum, while the bass sets the tone for the whole song. The bass notes, repeating E and C#, have served as the basis for countless songs that equally rock and move people. I would guess its from the depth of their range and the affect they have on the ear - its amazing how just two notes on a bass can conjure a feeling of nostalgia or saudade. The guitar lick that is played on top of it just adds to its beauty, the light and airy notes creating a tension that keeps rising and falling. It stays in the foreground when the rhythm guitars finally kick in, and it's here that the sense of space really shines - all the elements compliment each other amazingly well and nothing feels crowded or overlapping. The low, middle and high ends are all playing in wonderful relation to each other, with Grohl's voice fitting in the pocket wonderfully. The fresh, rising riff in the chorus shifts the whole song into new gear, from E to A. The octave chords the guitars play stagger along with the drums, creating a sound that moves the air in an astounding way. In line with what I said earlier about song craft, acoustic versions have shown that it works just as well when stripped down. 'My Hero' is really just a phenomenal song, through and through. 

'The Colour And The Shape' is a fantastic album that shows just what these musicians are capable of. The Foo Fighter's first album was them getting their feet wet - here we have them jumping right into the deep end and swimming laps. Grohl's fantastic songwriting drives them to create amazing songs that still sound fresh and vibrant almost fifteen years later. 

Totally Unrelated

Welcome back!


I figure if you're reading this you probably watched the Oscars. The Venn Diagram was most likely pretty close together on that. Maybe I'm being presumptuous, but who knows? Regardless, I'm in a movie mood. Makes sense, right? Either way it bears repeating: Moon is a fantastic movie. It deserved accolades in 2009 and absolutely warrants repeated viewing today. I mentioned it the other day when posting about Max Tannone's awesome soundtrack mash-up based on the idea.

Directed by Duncan Jones (or Zowie Bowie, if that helps) and starring the always-interesting Sam Rockwell, Moon is, as I have previously written, a sad and quiet film, full of poignant and melancholy moments. It's the lonely, heart-rending tale of Sam Bell, the sole Helium-3 miner on the surface of the moon, accompanied only by computer A.I. GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey. GERTY, by the way, is a wonderful companion piece to Sam, in a delicious homage to Kubrick's 2001. Sam is responsible for overseeing the operation on his lonely outpost in our near-future, manning the station all alone. 


Mostly alone.  


During a seemingly routine day, Sam ventures out into the lunar landscape to check on potential problems and stumbles across a wrecked vehicle. Like any sane person, Sam brings this mysterious stranger back to the station, where he makes a disturbing and disorienting discovery - it's him. Sam is faced with Sam. No answers, immediately. I was quite perplexed on my initial viewing of the movie - Sam is faced with himself and hardly seems to question the situation. What happens from there, though, is both wonderful and tragic. Working through the context with GERTY's assistance, Sam begins to piece together just what strange business is afoot on the lunar surface. I won't go any farther into the details, to save your own discovery of an amazingly intelligent piece of honest-to-goodness Science Fiction, more Bradbury than Transformers. These days it seems if you hear the term Sci-Fi it inevitably means huge robots fighting each other or some terrible, bottom of the barrel guilty-pleasure schlock. Moon, in contrast, is a breath of fresh air. It's so smart and subtle. You really have to see it in action to appreciate the understated beauty of the film. It received it's share of accolades upon its initial release and currently holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, if that's any help.

Moon is fantastic in every sense of the word. It's touching and human, grounded and out of this world. It had a small theatrical release in 2009 with high praise, yet little wide-spread appeal. Since then it's gained steam and reputation from its excellent production and heart. I really do love this movie and feel that if you have any patience for science in your movies you really should give it a fair shake. Netflix, Redbox, Itunes - however you can, dig up this hidden gem and see what can happen on the surface of the moon that can move you. It's wonderful.

This Bird Is Fly

Morning!


Still sick, throat's raw as I write this so I take great satisfaction in being able to communicate without wincing. But enough complaining from me, let's get on to it.


Having written for several days about movies and music, I want to switch it up. However, as I have tried to explain before, books are hard for me to write about beyond a surface level. I think part of the problem is the personal nature of the mental process involved in interpreting the material and constructing a world in your head as you go. At times I find myself asking "Am I reading into this incorrectly, or missing the point?" while just moving ahead in doubt. This is not always the case, though. In particular today's subject is an author and book that I felt an instant and easy connection with as I read it. I speak of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood.

Murakami is an author whose work I was introduced to by a friend, who basically tossed me one of his books, saying "Try it, I think you'll like it." He was absolutely right. That book, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, is a post for another day, as it is such a dense and unusual text I would need greater preparation to do a proper column on it. Regardless, I loved Murakami's style and choices, despite some of the cultural disconnect or what might literally be lost in translation.


He had not always been a writer. Having been a student and working at a record store, he opened a coffee house/bar establishment with his wife, which they ran for several years. Despite no major career or experience of which to speak, Murakami simply started writing one day, one word in front of the other. Turns out he was incredibly talented. Who knew? Almost immediately he was met with critical success and decent sales. Through the years he kept writing, penning more than his share of fantastic and engaging novels. Eventually he created what has been descried as the Japanese equivalent of Catcher In The Rye, his book Norwegian Wood. Based loosely on his own experiences at university in Japan, the story is of a young man named Toru Watanabe and the love and loss he experiences in the 60s, during his time as a student.

It would feel too divulging or expository to simply tell you the plot of the book in any great detail. To do so would be an act of pointlessly revealing developments I feel would benefit the story by unfolding naturally and organically, which they absolutely do throughout the course of the book. Instead I would like to impart some of the feeling I connected with while reading it. It's a sad and nostalgic book, one where Murakami goes to great length to not only construct the scene through time and space but through the feel of the moment - that indescribable, intangible sense of longing and loss that you feel when you know something is important. Those moments in life where you can feel it in your chest, a feeling that something you want to hold on to is happening. Norwegian Wood is basically filled with that quality. I recall reading just the first few passages of the book and thinking "Okay, I get this." I had read other books of his and considered whether or not I was comprehending the intent or meaning of the material, but this I got. This book I understood. Absolutely I can see why this book made Murakami a legend overnight. To further explain this idea, take a look at this page about the concept saudade, which has no English equivalent. I think it hits the nail on the head.


Of course, what would a successful and popular book be without the requisite movie adaptation? According to press releases the book has been translated into film and completed and screened, to the horror of purists everywhere. Not having had a chance to see it, I don't think it would be the worst thing. Par example, take a look at a poster for the adaptation:

I would wager that it represents some of the feeling of the book. It certainly looks wistful and emotional, full of heavy emotion. Good lord, I write that and wonder about my own tastes. But I digress.


This book is wonderful, a real piece of literary gold that moved me. Through the growth of the characters and the reality of the scenery and setting I really got attached to the plot and all that unfolded. I would highly recommend you take a look. Kindle, Nook, whatever, pick up some version of this awesome novel and give it a chance. You will not be disappointed.

Ducking Out

In the lieu of a proper column today (and the fact that they tend to be long winded, rambling diatribes as of late) I want to give notice that for the next few days posting will be on an erratic and most likely reduced schedule. Due to familial obligations I will be travelling to California until the middle of next week and as a matter of course I won't have regular access to a proper computer. While I would love to be able to sit down and bang out a proper post every day, even if just for the mental exercise, it simply may not fit into my schedule. Hopefully I can sneak in a break or two while I'm abroad, but at the present I have no expectations for down time to write. Ideally I would have had a backlog of material, but what little there is, isn't fit for posting at the moment.

However, this is not to say there will be a complete dearth of material. I will have my phone with me, as well as a trick or two up my sleeve, so I plan on doing a few impromptu posts on what strikes me at the time. Additionally if you haven't noticed the twitter feed to the right, you can follow me @jdtoycen for updates, observations and whatever the world throws at me. I'll be in San Francisco attending some events, so if things get weird and wacky I'll just start shooting from the hip. Or maybe if I get a stream of consciousness thing going I'll just post whatever happens throughout the day. I'm already rambling the the thought, mentally chomping at the bit to get going, so whatever happens, happens. Stay tuned and see what unfolds!

Until next week.

Let's see what happens! 

Red Rover

Evening!


Today has been a jam packed day and as a result I haven't been able to sort out a proper write up on a couple different things I've been working on. They'll be posted eventually but in the mean time I wanted to share something that has been boggling my brain as of late.


One of the fantastic and literary gifts I received this Christmas came from my younger brother. Said gift is a great read which I'm just finishing up and will do a proper run down when it's officially finished. The book in question is How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown, a hilarious and fascinating analysis of one of the most controversial scientific decisions of the decade. Personally, I get it so far. Tiny little planet, on the verge of the Kuiper Belt, other things Brown is breaking down in a clear and concise manner, with a solid dose of humor, to boot.

What I've been struggling with while reading, however, is the scale of the universe we live in. I find myself completely distracted from thinking about the literally astronomical distance between our celestial bodies. I know this will come across as a nothing post, people will read it and think "oh that's nice" and move on, but that just bums me out.

Please, in our cluttered and manic lives, try to take a moment and attempt to picture the absolutely massive scale of the  Solar System and the void between planets. Think of Mars and how far away it is. Think of the fact that simply because you're alive to read this you most likely will not live to see a person touch Mars. After the budget cuts NASA has seen as of late, such a monumental event won't be accomplished by us, that's certain. But! We have put a robot up there. That little guy has taken pictures. Please, let that sink in. It works almost as the opposite as WALL-E. Check out this amazingly moving XKCD comic to get a little better perspective.

In lieu of a proper write up, I'll leave you a few pictures of an alien landscape we'll almost never set foot on, yet is still within our grasp.

Peace out.

Buzzkill

It is with a heavy heart that I write this.

Yesterday evening, after another excellent trip to Fuji Ya for dinner, I was walking home on Lake Street. As I passed Bryant Lake Bowl and wondering why I never bowl, I saw this sign hanging on the door of my favorite comics store.

That's right. Double Danger Comics, the impeccably up-kept comic store of my neighborhood, is closing. 

What a tragedy! Here we had a nice, freshly done and locally owned comic store and it's going out of business. I remember being so excited, walking from my condo to their grand opening on National Comic Book Day, eager to see what the place looked like and what their selection was. It was a double bonus - not only was a great, new shop opening right down the street from where I lay my head at night, but it was Free Comic Book Day! I picked up the best of the freebies and (of course) did some legitimate business as well, managing to tack down some issues I had not been able to find for quite a while. They had a fantastic store and I made sure to be a consistent patron whenever I could, instead of shopping at one of the bigger book stores. Super cool prints for sale, an excellent asetethic, figurines, good selection and variety and above all a friendly and patient staff. It was a great place to have, right in the neighborhood. You would think Uptown, of all places, would be able to support the need for such a place, especially with the gap left in the community ever since mainstay Shinders closed down earlier in the decade.

Granted this is only the physical location closing its doors. According to the staff they plan on maintaining their online presence and selections while shuttering the shop on Lake Street. It really is a bummer, even if they ring you up with a smile and recommendation for things you might like, based on your purchase. Such an awesome store, going the way of the buffalo. The one, small silver lining, a minor positive to this situation, is the massive liquidation happening as a result, but even that makes me feel guilty for taking any pleasure in it. Considering the awesome back log of stuff still available, I picked up a few trade paperbacks and recent issues, as well as a Futurama figurine for my desk. Get in while you can and the selection lasts, there were some amazing things available for a whopping 50% off. Again, I got some great deals but at the cost of losing my favorite store in the area. A sad trade, if you ask me. 

Quelle domage. Here's their site, check 'em out if you can, or if at all possible, help them out by reducing inventory. I know I plan on making a trip back before the end of February, their last day of open doors. It was an excellent shop, worthy of your business and mine. I just wish I could have helped more.