OK friends and faithful readers. This post might get buried come morningtime under the fresh new post by TheChristopherMyers, but that might be OK. There might not be a whole lot of recommending in this post. But come to think of it, there might be eventally. My original idea comes from the Brotherhop list, where he recommended both OK Computer and KID A by Radiohead. I love both of these albums, and would say that both would make it into an all time top 20 albums list. Only one of them would make it into my top 3 albums of all time, and it isn't the one that most people like better. Anyway, the idea was to do a side-by-side of these two albums similar to my Bjork--Vespertine vs. Medulla post sometime ago. If you haven't read that one, it is back from the glory days and might be worth a read. It seems to be the only post in this blog's history that inspired Ricky B to check out something that I wrote about. Whaddayknow. Anyway, that side-by-side is in the works but I wanted to spend some time revisiting both of those albums, even though they may each have been played more than any other album I own. Maybe with the exception of Primus' Pork Soda, which is single-handedly the reason that I play the bass. Whowouldathunkit? Don't weigh in on the OK Computer vs. KID A argument just yet. A time will come for that one.
This paragraph is another CALL FOR HELP for new lists in these parts. Matthayes and Steve Colmus, I'm talking to you guys directly. You both made promises and I expect a follow through. Matthayes, you have been working on this thing since last August, so pull your head out of your a** and get it in. Colmus, I'm coming after you next. After that I'm going after Prevas, but he is currently Mr. Prevas...once high school lets out for the year I'll hold him to that one. But really, we need this guys! There are going to be a lot of commas around here today, I can feel it. Also, word has it that Huff has started list #2 and all of your are encouraged to do the same.
An anti-recommend of my own. The fantasy baseball team co-run by myself and George French. So far, worst fantasy season of all time. I know none of you care. But I'm just sayin.
In other exciting news Brotherhop has made a suggestion for a week-long theme for this blog which will take place all of next week. I don't want to reveal exactly what it is, or what it is at all but I think it's going to be a good time. He has suggested a recommend topic for next week and all of the house recommenders get to weigh in on it for each of their given day. Everyone else seems to know exactly how to approach this except for me. Unfortunately I have to post first and set the bar real low. I am also trying to convince Brotherhop to complete this theme by writing the Friday post of next week and weigh in on his own suggestion. Maybe we can motivate him to do this via the comments section of this blog?
In other news: A month or so ago I completed a recommend from Mike Ward and realized I never mentioned it here. I posted about Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself To Live before I actually read it but have since finished it under the advice of Mike Ward. It did prove to be LOL funny at some parts, as Mike promised. There is a very specific type of person that I would recommend this book to and a lot of you who read this blog are that type of person, that type of person being fans of rock and roll. Not just fans of Rock and Roll, but people who really know a lot about he history of Rock and Roll. I am not necessarily one of those people. I am not a name remembering person and while I knew of all the bands this guy was talking about, they aren't really groups that I ever spent much time listening to for the most part. To the guys who seem to know some rock history like Chris Myers, and George, and Chris Laun, and maybe Brotherhop, and more of you I recommend this book. I think you'd get a lot out of it. Mike Ward is definitely one of these people who is in the know about all eras of the Rock and Roll. As I said I am not one of these people and I still enjoyed the book. It was a quick read, and the guy gets into some pretty funny situations but I definitely would have gotten more out of it if I weren't so stupid when it comes to some things. Heather is in the middle of it now and I don't consider her to be one of these people so I'd be real interested for her to share how this experience is going. HSV? Take this as a hesitant recommend. For some people it would be amont the funniest books they ever read. For some merely a good book. And for some a great bit WTF. OK? OK. Onto Chris. Stay tuned for our very first theme week starting next Monday. Also, George French is going to try his hand at this recommendeering thing. Give him an ear this coming Friday. Certainly worth a listen. You all know it won't be any worse than me. Jessicahop also has one in the wings, but that one might take a little bit longer. No release date just yet.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle--Murakami (More-akami)
OK folks. We are back in business. Back to the basics of this blog, and back to some real honest to goodness recommending. It feels really good. Unfortunately it is something that has already been recommended to you, but I really wanted to drive this one home.
The Windup Bird Chronicle (not Chronicles, like Huff would have you believe (i before e except after c)) comes from the Mike Gittings list, but Murakami in general also comes to us from TJ's list. You will remember this exact book and this exact author being mentioned in TJ's first post as a full-time Thursday recommendeerer in this post. I really enjoyed that post the first time, and enjoyed it just as much this second time just now.
I may be confused about the order of events here, but I'm pretty sure I first heard about little Murakami from TJ's mouth. He had talked this guy up long before I read a book by him. Then HSV bought me The Elephant Vanishes for a Christmas or birthday, which is a collection of Murakami short stories. While I really enjoyed the short stories, I was not in love with them like I expected to be after constantly hearing about the guy via TJ's man-crush. Some time went by and Huff was visiting and we found ourselves in Atomic Books in Hamden. I think this was around Christmastime as well (perhaps the following Christmas) and I decided to give this Murakami guy another chance. On Huff's recommendation I bought South of the Border, West of the Sun. I read this one really quickly, and liked it more than the short stories. You'll see how much I liked it when I rank my Murakami reads at the bottom of this blog. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed those short stories. But I think one thing that I really like about Murakami's writing in novels is how he unfolds a story slowly (almost with nothing really happening) over the course of a longer period of time. There is just no time for that in a short story.
This past Christmas I got Norwegian Wood as a present (I think I asked for it) and finished that quickly as well and liked it. Liked it not completetly loved it. Definitely worth reading, and I definitely recommend it, but I didn't love love it. About a month after finishing Norwegian Wood I got this Gittings recommends list and saw The Windup Bird Chronicle on it. I had been curious about this for a while because it is supposedly Murakimi's most recognized book, but Huff always shyed me away from it, recommended both South of the Border and Norwegian Wood ahead of it. Now, I don't hold this against him, and I actually see why he recommended those to me (the little man's reference to jazz artists like Eric Dolphy are all over those books). But when this showed up on Mike's list I decided to give it a try and order it. It took about three weeks to read (pretty casually...not obsessively because it is long). I must say, The Windup Bird Chronicle is my favorite Murakami to date. I love loved this book, and I think a lot of the readers of this blog would as well. As TJ mentioned it is more of the fantastic side of Murakami's writing. None of his books I had read to this point had that element to them, and I really enjoyed it in Windup Bird. It makes me want to read Kafka on the Shore next. TJ gives you a pretty good description in the blog referenced above. I disagree that it gets slow...at least that never happened for me. Even the historical parts, which I enjoyed less than the rest of the book, kept my attention and remained interesting.
If you have never read Murakami before I recommend maybe not starting with this one. If you end up not liking his style, this is a big commitment. I would maybe start with South of the Border, West of the Sun and if you enjoy it in any way, even if you don't love love it, I recommend you read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I thought it was stand-out fantastic. Good call Mike Gittings. TJ I can't believe you tried to keep me away from this. For shame.
I definitely put this one high up there on my recommends list. I will consider lending it to you if you want to hold me to this. Now, I have only read four Murakami books, so I am no source for the guys writing. I have definitely enjoyed all of them, with Windup Bird being the one that I really really loved. If forced to rank them it would go as follows:
1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
2. South of the Border, West of the Sun
3. Norwegian Wood
4. The Elephant Vanishes (only because I favor the novels to the short stories)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
re(verse)commend
hello friends.
this recommend will be a bit breif. it seems like this whole week is a bit breif.
i want to recommend one thing , and then i want to request a recommend from you the reader.
first to my recommend: there is a band that goes by the name of hoots and hellmouth. you can sample some of their music here http://www.myspace.com/hootshellmouth . their myspace music is ok, but their live show is amazing. real gosh darn great. now i am a bit biased because the one guy is a good friend of mine from growing up. but it really is great. and i know a lot of you like music - so this is a show you will most probably quite enjoy. one word of warning though - one guy in the band is a complete phoney. i dont like him none. i won't tell you which in case you go to the show... in which case i'd like to hear what you think. but the show and music is pretty inspiring and i stand behind it.
as you might've guessed, their show is heading nearby to where you fine folks live on a southeast tour. not in baltimore persay, but close enough for you to go if you are bored.... here's where:
anyways, thats my suggestion. go see the group. i think you'll enjoy their foot stomping qualities. if anyone does go, i'd love to get your thoughts.
and now for the recommend i need from you. today is the last day i have for a big decision. i won't go into all the details as it would be a bit boring. but basically, i got into an MFA program up in brooklyn for woodcutting. i definetely want to go at some point, but right now i think it might be a good time to stay in a good-paying job that i currently am hating-less.... seeing as my girlfriend is accidentally unemployed and this city will squeeze the quarter out of me during these economic woes... some people bounce quarters on butts and i dont really know why. but i am getting my quarter squeezed. so the question is... do i play the safe route? stay in a job that i kind of am ok with currently and allow it to fund me to live... and hopefully go to school in the future without hanging my head to low that i've grown old and velvettedly-hancuffed to the work-a-day world? or do i go to get my MFA now and deal with the life of a poor man. since i haven't heard from eri-chop in a while, and he's gone through this MFAing i believe, perhaps he could share some advice? its a lot to ask i know, but i didnt have much to recommend this week as my brain is stuck on this query.
are we getting a new recommends list to talk about soon adam? i'd love to stop talking about myself so much.
this recommend will be a bit breif. it seems like this whole week is a bit breif.
i want to recommend one thing , and then i want to request a recommend from you the reader.
first to my recommend: there is a band that goes by the name of hoots and hellmouth. you can sample some of their music here http://www.myspace.com/hootshellmouth . their myspace music is ok, but their live show is amazing. real gosh darn great. now i am a bit biased because the one guy is a good friend of mine from growing up. but it really is great. and i know a lot of you like music - so this is a show you will most probably quite enjoy. one word of warning though - one guy in the band is a complete phoney. i dont like him none. i won't tell you which in case you go to the show... in which case i'd like to hear what you think. but the show and music is pretty inspiring and i stand behind it.
as you might've guessed, their show is heading nearby to where you fine folks live on a southeast tour. not in baltimore persay, but close enough for you to go if you are bored.... here's where:
| Coffee East | Easton, Maryland |
| Ram’s Head Tavern w/ The Greencards | Annapolis, Maryland | ||
| Rock N Roll Hotel | DC, Washington DC |
anyways, thats my suggestion. go see the group. i think you'll enjoy their foot stomping qualities. if anyone does go, i'd love to get your thoughts.
and now for the recommend i need from you. today is the last day i have for a big decision. i won't go into all the details as it would be a bit boring. but basically, i got into an MFA program up in brooklyn for woodcutting. i definetely want to go at some point, but right now i think it might be a good time to stay in a good-paying job that i currently am hating-less.... seeing as my girlfriend is accidentally unemployed and this city will squeeze the quarter out of me during these economic woes... some people bounce quarters on butts and i dont really know why. but i am getting my quarter squeezed. so the question is... do i play the safe route? stay in a job that i kind of am ok with currently and allow it to fund me to live... and hopefully go to school in the future without hanging my head to low that i've grown old and velvettedly-hancuffed to the work-a-day world? or do i go to get my MFA now and deal with the life of a poor man. since i haven't heard from eri-chop in a while, and he's gone through this MFAing i believe, perhaps he could share some advice? its a lot to ask i know, but i didnt have much to recommend this week as my brain is stuck on this query.
are we getting a new recommends list to talk about soon adam? i'd love to stop talking about myself so much.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Local News and Reverse Recommending
It's Mike again with another Wednesday.
Before I get started, I thought I'd go on a brief tangent. I'm sure most of you know that a good portion of the Friends Recommend gang were featured on a few different news programs over the past weekend for our Orioles song. Channel 13, Channel 45 and Channel 2. This was a huge thrill for me. Channel 13 (WJZ)'s morning show is something that I grew up watching. Everyday before school, since I was about 10, I would watch Don Scott and Marty Bass in the morning. But it wasn't until years later that I began to appreciate WJZ Channel 13 on a different level. It's seriously like a B-movie that you can't stop watching. One example I sometimes site is a story they did on energy conservation. To illustrate rising energy costs, they actually just filmed an outlet on a wall. Channel 13 also seems to have its own camera style. They'll do lots of quick stationary shots that are really unnecessary to just fill up time. Also, Ron Matz, who interviewed us and is a terrific guy, does these "People Are Talking" segments where he visits Royal Farms and asks people (who are getting coffee) what they are doing. It usually just involves Ron asking where they are off to, and they respond that they are going to work. That's it. So, what I'm getting at is that it was surreal to be in the middle of this, have a story created around our song, with all the unusual camera shots and Ron's voiceover. For me, it was like being in our own B-movie.
So, I'm borrowing one of T.J.'s ideas and thought I would do a reverse recommend. The other day I watched a movie that I absolutely hated. I haven't hated a movie this much in a long time. I'm talking about Rachel Getting Married. Have any of you seen this? If so, why haven't I heard how absolutely terrible this was? The movie is filled with unlikeable people getting into uncomfortable and awkward arguments the whole time. Like watching an unfunny BBC Office episode. But not just that...These people don't act like any people you've ever seen before. There are no group of people like this on Earth. Also, the documentary camera style that is used here is really poorly done. Very shaky, over emphasized, not subtle in anyway.
I actually watched the whole thing just so I could write about it here. I'll quickly boil the story down. Daughter gets out of rehab and goes home for her sister's wedding. Uncomfortable talks. Rehearsal dinner scene that lasts an eternity for no reason at all. Uncomfortable speech from daughter. Afterwards fight between daughter and sister. Dad is a weepy, unlikeable asshole. More scenes that last an eternity filled with people that you hate. Mom and daughter fight. Reception scene that lasts an eternity. Nothing resolved at the end of the movie. Roll credits.
Anyway, part of the reason I hated this so much is because this movie received all kinds of accolades, with reviews calling the movie "brave" and "raw", etc. All this does is encourage more horrible movies made of this ilk that I will be suckered into Netflixing. Those with Netflix, I will do you a favor and tell you to remove this from your queue immediately.
I'll bring the positive back next week.
Before I get started, I thought I'd go on a brief tangent. I'm sure most of you know that a good portion of the Friends Recommend gang were featured on a few different news programs over the past weekend for our Orioles song. Channel 13, Channel 45 and Channel 2. This was a huge thrill for me. Channel 13 (WJZ)'s morning show is something that I grew up watching. Everyday before school, since I was about 10, I would watch Don Scott and Marty Bass in the morning. But it wasn't until years later that I began to appreciate WJZ Channel 13 on a different level. It's seriously like a B-movie that you can't stop watching. One example I sometimes site is a story they did on energy conservation. To illustrate rising energy costs, they actually just filmed an outlet on a wall. Channel 13 also seems to have its own camera style. They'll do lots of quick stationary shots that are really unnecessary to just fill up time. Also, Ron Matz, who interviewed us and is a terrific guy, does these "People Are Talking" segments where he visits Royal Farms and asks people (who are getting coffee) what they are doing. It usually just involves Ron asking where they are off to, and they respond that they are going to work. That's it. So, what I'm getting at is that it was surreal to be in the middle of this, have a story created around our song, with all the unusual camera shots and Ron's voiceover. For me, it was like being in our own B-movie.
So, I'm borrowing one of T.J.'s ideas and thought I would do a reverse recommend. The other day I watched a movie that I absolutely hated. I haven't hated a movie this much in a long time. I'm talking about Rachel Getting Married. Have any of you seen this? If so, why haven't I heard how absolutely terrible this was? The movie is filled with unlikeable people getting into uncomfortable and awkward arguments the whole time. Like watching an unfunny BBC Office episode. But not just that...These people don't act like any people you've ever seen before. There are no group of people like this on Earth. Also, the documentary camera style that is used here is really poorly done. Very shaky, over emphasized, not subtle in anyway.
I actually watched the whole thing just so I could write about it here. I'll quickly boil the story down. Daughter gets out of rehab and goes home for her sister's wedding. Uncomfortable talks. Rehearsal dinner scene that lasts an eternity for no reason at all. Uncomfortable speech from daughter. Afterwards fight between daughter and sister. Dad is a weepy, unlikeable asshole. More scenes that last an eternity filled with people that you hate. Mom and daughter fight. Reception scene that lasts an eternity. Nothing resolved at the end of the movie. Roll credits.
Anyway, part of the reason I hated this so much is because this movie received all kinds of accolades, with reviews calling the movie "brave" and "raw", etc. All this does is encourage more horrible movies made of this ilk that I will be suckered into Netflixing. Those with Netflix, I will do you a favor and tell you to remove this from your queue immediately.
I'll bring the positive back next week.
What's going on around here?
Don't know what happened these past two days. Hopefully Mike Ward gets us back on track tomorrow with our 102nd post. Here's to hoping. Chris, you are one mess-up away from George taking over. He wants it.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Not a Big One (but it is #100!)
OK, friends. Well boy, talk about anti-climactic. I just realized when posting today that this is our 100th entry in the Friends Recommends blog. And what a disappointing one it's going to be! I need a nap...the nap is more important than blogging right now. But I promise a real nice post for our 101st on Monday morning. A couple things I've been enjoying a lot that I got off emusic.com this past week (if you are thinking of joining let me know, there is something in it for both of us!) Two albums that I think are worth a damn:
The Antlers--Hospice: I didn't know anything about these guys. I still don't really know anything about them, but I downloaded this album on a whim because it showed up in my emusic recommends box when I signed in one day. I think it is really nice. Think Okkervil River meets Animal Collective light. Really it is like Okkervil with some very atmospheric electronic-y type stuff...great for driving in a rainy day like today. You can hear some of the tracks from Hospice on their myspace page here. I think it's really nice.
Nels Cline--Ground: I am currently addicted to Nels Cline. He might be most familiar as Wilco's super-guitarist, but for those of you who only know him through Wilco his solo records are really fantastic. He releases albums under different group names, sometimes just Nels Cline, sometimes Nels Cline Singers, but this particular one is Nels Cline Trio. Ground was originally released in 1995, but I just discovered it this past week on emusic. Definitely leans towards the rockier side of Nels' solo records, but man is it good. And he is such a nice guy that he puts a ton of free tracks on nelscline.com for your enjoyment. I'm going to make it really easy on you and link the two tracks from Groud directly. Here is Beer Bottle Collection and Cropped. They aren't actually full clips, but they give you a good idea of what the album sounds like. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like your rock a little weird. OK, great. Happy 100!!!
The Antlers--Hospice: I didn't know anything about these guys. I still don't really know anything about them, but I downloaded this album on a whim because it showed up in my emusic recommends box when I signed in one day. I think it is really nice. Think Okkervil River meets Animal Collective light. Really it is like Okkervil with some very atmospheric electronic-y type stuff...great for driving in a rainy day like today. You can hear some of the tracks from Hospice on their myspace page here. I think it's really nice.
Nels Cline--Ground: I am currently addicted to Nels Cline. He might be most familiar as Wilco's super-guitarist, but for those of you who only know him through Wilco his solo records are really fantastic. He releases albums under different group names, sometimes just Nels Cline, sometimes Nels Cline Singers, but this particular one is Nels Cline Trio. Ground was originally released in 1995, but I just discovered it this past week on emusic. Definitely leans towards the rockier side of Nels' solo records, but man is it good. And he is such a nice guy that he puts a ton of free tracks on nelscline.com for your enjoyment. I'm going to make it really easy on you and link the two tracks from Groud directly. Here is Beer Bottle Collection and Cropped. They aren't actually full clips, but they give you a good idea of what the album sounds like. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like your rock a little weird. OK, great. Happy 100!!!
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