Archive for March, 2013
Choice Quotes: GIRLS
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on March 29, 2013
“He’s not reading your essay, he’s not reading you.”
–ep. 2
“You know who ends up living their dreams are like sad messes like Charlie and the people who end up flailing behind are the people like me who have their shit together.”
–Marnie, ep. 8
“When you love someone you don’t have to be nice all the time.”
–Adam
“I can’t be surrounded by your negativity while I’m trying to grow into a fully developed human being.”
–Shoshana, ep. 10
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FIDLAR: party band on tour
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on March 27, 2013
a bunch of fast-paced songs about booze, drugs and sex. the kind of music you listen to loud or live. after hearing the new album a few times, I texted my Charlotte, NC friend as it reminded me of him– infusing a love of music and partying. Songs include: “Cheap Beer,” “Stoked,” “Cocaine,” “Blackout Stout,” and “Cheap Cocaine.” Oh, and FIDLAR stands for “fuck it dog, life’s a risk.” Cool huh? Not really. I’m not a fan of acronyms especially ludicrous ones like that. However, this LA punk band probably puts on a frenzied fun live set. Just don’t try to read too deeply into the lyrics.
Oh and for extra fun check out the scary, homemade-looking FIDLAR tattoos on the band’s Facebook.
TOUR DATES:
3/27 – Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO *
3/28 – Waiting Room – Omaha, NE *
3/29 – 7th Street Entry – Minneapolis, MN *
3/30 – Rave Bar – Milwaukee, WI *
4/01 – Subterranean – Chicago, IL *
4/02 – Basement – Columbus, OH *
4/03 – Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH*
4/04 – Magic Stick (Lounge) – Detroit, MI *
4/05 – Horshoe – Toronto, ON *
4/06 – Salla Rosa – Montreal, QC *
4/08 – Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA *
4/09 – Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia, PA *
4/11 – Glasslands – Brooklyn, NY *
4/12 – Shea Stadium – Brooklyn, NY *
4/13 – Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington, DC *
4/15 – Drunken Unicorn – Atlanta, GA *
4/16 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN *
4/18 – Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX *
4/20 – Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ *
4/21 – The Smell – Los Angeles, CA*
* – with Wavves
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This Close: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on March 27, 2013
This Close by Jessica Francis Kane. Publisher: Graywolf Press (2013). Stories. Paperback Original. 192 pages. ISBN 978-1-55597-636-1.
The Report, the debut novel by Jessica Francis Kane, is one of the best novels I’ve read. So well-crafted, I didn’t want it to end. Now Kane has this story collection. Could I get engulfed in these stories as I had in with The Report? Writing stories requires skill and balance. A good story is one that the reader continues to contemplate long after reading it. Unlike a novel, one has to get to the point quickly. One has to develop characters within a limited time frame. Kane is a strong writer who doesn’t use flowery prose. She writes to reveal every aspect of a person, examining them with a fine lens. She writes what many might think but may be afraid to express. These are honest, reflective stories about precarious, stressful situations.
“Double Take” finds college classmates gathering to mourn a friend—a wildly successful attorney– who accidentally drowned while vacationing on Fire Island. They reminisce and then promise to keep in touch with the friend’s mother. Years later, Ben, who’d been roommates with Mike, awkwardly visits Mike’s mother when he’s traveling cross-country.
“He was happy. He was a black-and-white movie made over in Technicolor. He was a years-dormant Christmas cactus suddenly in bloom. He worked long hours, but still had time for a book club. He was reading fiction for the first time, he told friends, after far too much case law.”
“Evidence of Old Repairs” focuses on a woman in denial with her alcoholism.
“Her mother had been an alcoholic, her grandmother one as well. Did this explain Sarah’s problems? Sarah didn’t think so, despite all the rhetoric of the age. She poured another drink. Two hours later the salad was soggy confetti instead of the elegant strips it was meant to be and Sarah, looking deep in the white plastic bowl, knew this was a metaphor for her.”
A woman shares a home with her elderly father but they’re far from confidants in “The Essentials of Acceleration.” She lives a rather solitary life. Did she disappoint him by not following an academic life as he had? Driving functions as a metaphor for her goals and her relationship with her father.
“My mother loved books, my father is a professor, our house is full or bookshelves, but I am not a reader. I read more than the average American, according to the newspaper, but it’s not for me an essential activity.”
“I am the neighbor you don’t know. The neighbor who doesn’t do anything wrong, but for some reason you just don’t like her very much.”
Kane examines grief. The death of a child in “Next in Line.” How does one handle losing a child? What are her relationships like after her daughter’s death?
“To be a woman in the world after the death of a child. How to explain this? It bears some resemblance, perhaps, to being newly married or newly pregnant. You are in a brand-new, all-encompassing state, and yet the rest of the world is oblivious.”
“She always moved to music: She laughed a lot. But wouldn’t it be harder to lose someone you knew better? Is losing a toddler just losing a dream?”
–review by Amy Steele
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Graywolf Press.
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The Dream Syndicate to perform at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival on June 22
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on March 20, 2013
following a European tour, The Dream Syndicate will make its first U.S. appearance in 25 years.
The band’s current lineup features singer/guitarist Steve Wynn and drummer Dennis Duck, the two members who spanned the group’s entire seven-year career as well as bassist Mark Walton, who was in the band for its final two records and nearly all of their US and world tours. Guitarist Jason Victor who has played with Wynn in the Miracle 3 since 2001 rounds out the lineup.
TOUR DATES:
MAY 23 HET DEPOT / LEUVEN, BELGIUM
MAY 24 DINGWALL’S / LONDON, ENGLAND
MAY 25 ROCKEFELLER’S / OSLO, NORWAY
MAY 26 STADTGARDEN / COLOGNE, GERMANY
MAY 28 BEACHES BREW FEST / RAVENNA, ITALY
MAY 29 BLOOM / MEZZAGO (MILAN), ITALY
MAY 30 MYLOS / THESSALONIKI, GREECE
MAY 31 STAGE / LARISSA, GREECE
JUNE 1 GAGARIN / ATHENS, GREECE
JUNE 22 SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL / NORTH ADAMS, MA
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STEELE INTERVIEWS: Patrick Krief
Posted by Amy Steele in Interview, Music on March 19, 2013
The third album from Montreal musician Patrick Krief — Hundred Thousand Pieces—is out today on Rock Ridge. It’s a beautifully crafted alt-folk collection filled with hopeful, poignant, lush arrangements. Krief, guitar player for The Dears, played all the instruments, layering them for the self-produced album. At 10 years old, he got a guitar, playing what he’d hear on the radio. His musical family encouraged his artistic pursuits.
While on his current tour, Patrick and I spoke by cell [Rather unreliable coverage. We rescheduled by a week and then unfortunately I couldn’t hear the last few questions I asked. I’m blaming Texas.] as he drove through Texas en route to Austin and the South by Southwest Music Festival. The tour finishes up at O’Brien’s in Allston this Saturday March 23.
Amy Steele: Do you think you have a different approach and perspective being a self-taught musician?
Patrick Krief: I’ve always only been interested in writing my own music and I’ve never felt the need to actually be able to score it. With the technology these days I just bang out on a keyboard/ piano and the music sheet comes up. Whatever I’ve needed to communicated with musicians that do read I either sing what I want for them to play and they dictate it or I use software to translate what I’m playing on the keyboard onto manuscript paper.
Amy Steele: How has technology changed the writing process?
Patrick Krief: Sometimes you rely on your eyes more than your ears. When I write I try to get all my ideas out in my head on a guitar and arrange it there before I go to the computer to lay it down to execute it.
Amy Steele: What comes first music or lyrics?
Patrick Krief: I just wait. Songwriting hits me at random times. Whatever I happen to have around me, I’ll grab the voice recorder on my iPhone and a guitar or lyrics that come to me I’ll write down in a note pad. But I’ve never succeeded at sitting down and trying to write something. I’ll never be happy with that type of song. Usually a good one hits me like a lightning bolt and I’m rushing to find something to document the idea.
Amy Steele: It’s a beautiful album. Lovely songs. Really gorgeous. Some of the songs linger in my head after I’ve heard them.
Patrick Krief: I appreciate that.
Amy Steele: Why’d you want to do solo projects?
Patrick Krief: The idea of being a guitar for a band was more the why did you want to do that because I’ve always been doing this. The keyboardist and I have been playing music together for 10 years. Before joining The Dears I’d been reluctant to be a guitar player. I got something out of it that I didn’t think I would. It’s a focused, no-stress kind of vibe. I enjoy it. This is always something I’ve wanted to do and what I’ve been working towards. It’s a lot more stress and it’s a lot more rewarding.
Amy Steele: Who are you as a solo artist?
Patrick Krief: I’m just a fucked up guy like everyone else. I just want to be as real as possible and give people something they can relate to.
Amy Steele: What are the greatest challenges as a solo artist?
Patrick Krief: Being as strong as being able to be selfish and not caring what people like. Making art for yourself and it’s self-indulgent. Once it’s done you hope that it connect with people so that you can have a career. In the process you have to divide those worlds of career and artist.
Amy Steele: What’s the best part about being a solo artist?
Patrick Krief: When you feel like you’ve actually connected with anybody. When somebody talks to you and says “I love this song” or they get it, there’s no single greater reward than that.
TOUR DATES:
3/19 – Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
3/21 – Rock Shop, Brooklyn, NY
3/22 – M Room, Philadelphia, PA
3/23 – O’Brien’s Pub, Allston, MA
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TV review: BATES MOTEL
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on March 17, 2013
“My mom’s just a little bit impulsive. She has these ideas about things and then we move and start over.”
Six months after his father’s death, Norman Bates [Freddie Highmore] and his mother Norma [Vera Farmiga] move from Arizona to a valley town with plans to run a motel. Norma Bates bought the motel on foreclosure and wants to start over. Yet what is she starting over from? The death of her husband or something darker than that? In the opening scene when Norman finds his father and runs to get his mother she doesn’t seem at all shocked that her husband’s dead. Creepy moment number one.
Bates Motel serves as a precursor to PSYCHO yet it’s updated. The brilliant aspect to this is that the motel setting remains dated. The music that play, how his mom dresses and acts and treats Norman all seems terribly old-fashioned. When Norman goes to school everything’s fresh with cool music. Interestingly only girls befriend Norman—a popular group headed by Bradley [Nicola Peltz] and the chronically ill, geeky Emma [Olivia Cooke], who tells him “You’re kind weird. Weird good.”
At school in his language arts class (what kind of subject is that by the way?) his teacher asks Norman if he plans to become involved in some extracurricular activities. She suggests he try out for track. When Norman arrives home his mother’s waiting for him like a stereotypical, bitter 60s housewife. Creepy moment number two. The table set, candles lit, wine poured. Immediately she starts attacking Norman and guilt-tripping him [an ongoing thing] about why he’s late and that she’s been working on dinner all day long. He explains he be involved in school. We just bought a motel? How can I do this myself? she demands then exclaims she’s lost her appetite.
The show’s filled with creepy moments, unsettling moments and also touching moments between mother and son. The true bonding moment between mother and son– after Norma bludgeons her rapist and her son helps her clean up the kitchen– she says, “Go wash up a little. Put your bloody clothes in the trash bag.”
A supremely talented actress, Farmiga [Up in the Air, The Departed] convincingly portrays a range of emotions as Norma. Highmore is great at being awkward and insular. See Toast, Finding Netherland.
Norman: “It’s you and me. It’s always been you and me.”
Monday, March 18 at 10 pm. on A&E
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FEVER: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on March 16, 2013
FEVER by Mary Beth Keane. Publisher: Scribner (March 12, 2013) Historical fiction. Hardcover. 352 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4516-9341-6
Opening sentences: “The day began with sour milk and got worse. You were too quick, Mary scolded herself when the milk was returned to the kitchen in its porcelain jug with a message from Mr. Kirkenbauer to take better care. He was tired, Mary knew, from the child crying all night, and moaning, and asking to be rocked. And he was worried.”
It’s 1907 at the beginning of FEVER and Mary Mallon’s dragged off, kicking and screaming, by authorities. They tell her she’s transmitting typhoid through her cooking which she refuses to believe as she’s never been sick herself. Leading the charges is Dr. Soper, a sanitary engineer. Mary’s taken to North Brother Island where tuberculosis patients and others with communicable diseases go to be kept far away from the general population. She must provide blood, urine and stool sample for years.
“At night, she slept with the sheet over her face in case she might breathe in their disease, but after a week she stopped worrying. During the day, she couldn’t stop herself from flaunting her health, walking back and forth by the windows, asking the nurses if she could be of assistance.”
How would it feel to be told you are the first identified carried of typhoid bacilli in America and people are dying because of you? Hello Typhoid Mary! Did Mary Mallon believe she was innocent? Did she ever truly understand the causality between being asymptomatic and transmitting through her cooking? These are questions that author Mary Beth Keane attempts to answer. She writes with empathy and detailed realism about the brutal immigrant experience at the turn of the 20th century. Life for a single working uneducated Irish woman in New York certainly wasn’t easy at this time. Her options were few: cleaning woman, laundress, cook [with experience and references]. Mary Mallon worked extremely hard and managed to secure positions with the wealthiest New York families and to garner excellent wages.
Mallon’s a compelling woman. Independent. Strong. Lives with a man but never marries him. Mary supports Alfred despite his alcoholism and inability to sustain work. He doesn’t exactly stick by her when it seems she might be on the North Brother Island for an extended stay. And on and off Mary Mallon was kept on North Brother Island for 26 years. In FEVER, Mallon often thinks that because she’s a woman Dr. Soper and other doctors treat her differently. This may have been the case. When the Department of Health discovers other asymptomatic typhoid carriers, they aren’t shipped off to North Brother Island. Although unlike Mallon, most agree to the terms: to stop handling food products, for instance.
“Some of the doctors had intimated that she was not right in her mind, that her mental state was part of the reason she could not be trusted, along with her being a woman, and being an immigrant, and being the kind of woman who lived with a man without being married.”
After writing to countless attorneys, one takes her case. Mallon manages to get probation. She’s told not to cook again after she’s released from North Brother Island but she finds a job at a bakery reasoning that baking and cooking can’t be considered the same things. This’ll make you chuckle and wince and shout to Mary. Dr. Soper chases Mary Mallon like Ahab chased Moby Dick. He never gives up. He finds her. She later re-kindles her relationship with Alfred and goes into hiding, taking in laundry for her neighbors. But Mary cannot stop doing what she adores doing. She starts cooking for her neighbors for a fee. Work gets around. Someone offers her work as the cook for a hospital. Soon there’s another typhoid outbreak. The gig is up for good.
FEVER gets into Mallon’s mind and heart featuring some heartbreaking scenes. It’s about justice, fear and how we treat disease. Truly a fascinating and engrossing read.
–review by Amy Steele
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Simon and Schuster.
Mary Beth Keane will be at Brookline Booksmith on Monday, March 18 at 7pm.
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Violeta Vil: music review
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on March 13, 2013
This cool Venezuelan girl group mixes hypnotic beats, dreamy shoe-gazing melodies and stylish 60s-era vocal harmonizing. Funky ebbs and flows like riptides, waves and tide pools. The title track translates to “Headstones and Coconuts” and swirls and churns strikingly with soft, whispery lyrics. Twangy psychedelic guitar propels “Aguamarina.” The broody “Amish” puts you into a trance. “Pericona” makes you feel like you’re floating with its shimmery vibe and its island drum beats. “Toronjil” blends punching guitar, tambourine and island percussion making it sound like the soundtrack to a drug circle for The Beatles circa 1965. While only eight songs and in Spanish, it’s a splendid, eclectic and fun musical trip.
Lapidas y Cocoteros
Young Cubs
release date: March 12, 2013
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ALPHA REV with BEN RECTOR: ON TOUR
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on March 13, 2013
TOUR DATES:
Wednesday, March 20–Common Grounds–Waco TX
Thursday, March 21– Grand Stafford Theater– Bryan TX
Friday, March 22– The Belmont –Austin TX
Saturday, March 23 –House of Blues- – Dallas TX
Sunday, March 24 –Spring Jam Music Fest– Charleston SC
Tuesday, March 26– Granada Theatre– Lawrence KS
Wednesday, March 27 — Thursday, March 28 George’s Majestic Lounge– Fayetteville AR
Friday, March 29– University of Oklahoma Norman
Wednesday, April 3– The Lyric Theatre –Oxford MS
Thursday, April 4 –Bourbon Street Bar –Auburn AL
Saturday, April 6– Amos’ Southend– Charlotte NC
Sunday, April 7– WorkPlay Soundstage –Birmingham AL
Friday, April 12– Cannery Ballroom– Nashville TN
Wednesday, April 17– Bijou Theater– Knoxville TN
Thursday, April 18– The Handlebar– Greenville SC
Friday, April 19– Center Stage –Atlanta GA
Saturday, April 20 –Lincoln Theatre –Raleigh NC
Tuesday, April 23 –Jefferson Theater– Charlottesville VA
Wednesday, April 24– 9:30 Club –Washington D.C.
Thursday, April 25– Bowery Ballroom– New York NY
Friday, April 26 –The Sinclair– Cambridge MA
Saturday, April 27– Monnalisa Bar @ Hotel Sorella– Houston TX
Monday, April 29– Mod Club– Toronto ON
Wednesday, May 1 –The Intersection –Grand Rapids MI
Thursday, May 2– Majestic Live– Madison WI
Friday, May 3 –Varsity Theatre –Minneapolis MN
Saturday, May 4– Park West– Chicago IL
Tuesday, May 7 –Bluebird Theater– Denver
Thursday, May 9 –Cain’s Ballroom– Tulsa OK
Friday, May 10 –Old Rock House –St. Louis
Saturday, May 11– Blue Note– Columbia MO
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Vampires in the Lemon Grove: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on March 12, 2013
Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories by Karen Russell. Publisher: Knopf (2013). Fiction. Hardcover. 243 pages. ISBN: 978-0-307-95723-8.
How can anyone look at the cover of this short-story collection and not be enticed to read the stories? Bright lemon yellow, bleeding red print letters and a long eared bat suspended in flight. One of my favorite covers in recent memory. Then there’s the author pedigree. Her debut novel, the clever and engaging Swamplandia! [2011], was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2012 Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin and a graduate of the Columbia MFA program. Author Karen Russell’s quite a wunderkind. It turns out that she’s witty and remarkable and deserving of the grants and the prize consideration. She’s a superbly talented writer who creates unimaginable worlds that are intensely real.
“When these memories send the fierce regret spiraling through me, I focus on my heartbeat, my throbbing palms. Fibers stiffen inside my fingers. Grow strong, I direct the thread. Go black. Lengthen. Stick. And then, when I return to the vats, what I’ve produced is exactly the necessary denier and darkness . . . Out of the same intuition, I discover that I know how to alter the Machine.” –from “Reeling for the Empire”
This collection of stories transports you to places you never imagined going to. Russell writes stories about variations on monsters. Beautiful, peculiar, unusual and tragic monsters. She creates bizarre, macabre and funny settings. Complete with vivid imagery, creepiness and potent emotions without an excess of verbiage. She writes dark, funny and tender.
In the title story “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” vampires hang out in an Italian lemon grove in an attempt to thwart their blood thirst by sucking on lemons. Russell turns all the myths about vampires upside down in a slyly amusing and sad manner. “Reeling for the Empire” is a creepy story about women who’ve been forced to serve their country by drinking a special tea that turns them into human silk worms. A veteran’s tattoo exudes its karmic energy in “The New Veterans.” There’s the hysterical “Dougbert Shackleton’s Rules for Antarctic Tailgating” with Team Krill versus Team Whale. Youthful cruelty haunts “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis.”
–review by Amy Steele
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Knopf.
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About Me
covering mostly music and books. focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College.
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