A little heads-up for any Singaporean readers who’re into graphic novels: if you borrow 4 books from the Orchard library, you can use your loan receipt to enter their contest to win a collector’s edition box set of Persepolis 1 and 2. Just look for the box in front of the main counter. (I don’t remember how much longer the contest is on though, so if you’re keen, drop by soon.) And if you win, please email me so I can curse at you.
Archive for September, 2006
I haven’t been enjoying Matthew Herbert’s Scale anywhere as much as I liked Plat Du Jour, which was one of my top albums of 2005. Scale’s nice and catchy for when you’re riding in a convertible and drinking cocktails with paper umbrellas in them but I don’t find it as musically interesting as Plat Du Jour, and after a while all the breezy flirtiness of the music feels a bit vapid to me.
Since it appears (from the Metacritic stats, anyway) that the bulk of music writers don’t agree with me, I thought I’d dig up my old unpublished, unpolished review of Plat Du Jour and give it the props I should have last year:
Plat Du Jour took 2 years to research and 6 months to record. It was born out of Matthew Herbert’s growing distaste for the workings of the international food chain and the songs themselves are crafted using, amongst other sounds, eggs as percussion, melodies made from blowing over the top of a Pepsi Max bottle, and field recordings of slimfast breakfast drinks tied to a bike and ridden round the yard.
So there’s a fair amount of gimmickry on Plat Du Jour and a couple of ways to react to it. One, you can explore the site as you listen to the album, marvel at the lengths he went to in making this, and actually learn something about what we should all perhaps think harder about before ingesting. Two, you can dismiss it as wank and simply see if the album holds up on its own musical merits first without having to bother about The Message.
I chose option two, plus a large order of fries to go. But thankfully, the music impressed me enough to make me want to find out more about The Message, which I think is quite possibly the best outcome a musician could hope for.
Plat Du Jour makes you bop ya head considerably more often than you would expect from an album which bases one of its songs (The Final Meal Of Stacey Lawton) on the jar of pickles a condemned man ate for his last meal. The song featuring various field recordings of chickens (The Truncated Life Of A Modern Industrialised Chicken) is, well, quite funky. These Branded Waters gets great wind instrument tones from the mouths of San Pellegrino bottles and segues halfway into a jazzy bit where I somehow keep feeling they’re going to break into the Super Mario theme. I can’t exactly pinpoint the amazing bass on An Empire Of Coffee from the recording details on the site but I think it’s probably 2 Sara Lee instant croissant tins tied together with a piece of garden string and plucked. Celebrity has Dani Siciliano on vocals, is made entirely from food endorsed by celebrities and features a chorus of “Go Gordon! Go Ramsay! Go Beyonce! Go Beyonce!” Hidden Sugars backfires a bit insofar as it gives me yet another reason to love cans of Coke - which all its melodies, chords and basslines are made from.
Making a concept album is often a sure-fire way to garner criticism from people who just don’t buy into it, but I do think you can enjoy this album purely for its music regardless of whether you buy its message. My only criticism, and it’s tongue-in-cheek at that, is that the great music Matthew Herbert’s made from junk food only validates my abiding love of it. I bet this album wouldn’t be half as fun if it were only made from organic produce.
Possibly the most awesome Ask Metafilter question ever: How many camels is my girlfriend worth?
Over here, we’re still trying to figure this whole wedding thing out, or at least figure out what the usual conventions are before we decide whether to follow them or not - who pays for what, who gives what to who, etc. Now although I understand there is a Chinese tradition that the bride’s family gives a dowry to the groom’s (to thank him for taking their worthless daughter off their hands, no doubt), this Middle Eastern custom definitely seems much better. Adapted for the Irish context, I believe I am worth at least ten sheep but will settle for five if they’re extra fluffy.
Yish tagged me to do this. In other news, go buy Yish’s book, y’all! If you can get your hands on a copy, that is - I understand the bookstores carrying it are sold out.
1. One book you have read more than once
Which one to choose, anyone who loves reading and procrastination has read multiple books multiple times. I guess I’d single out Jane Eyre, which I first read at 8 and reread at 23. On second reading I suddenly realized that the first reading seemed to have moulded so much of my attitudes and personality, without me even knowing it.
2. One book you would want on a desert island
The Bible. Sorry, not the coolest of choices but it’s hella thick so I’d have lots to read, and if I can think of one good time to reconnect with my faith, being stuck on a desert island would be it.
3. One book that made you laugh
Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn is funny most of the way through, but there’s a scene near the beginning which is just spectacular. The enjoyment’s all in the reading so I won’t bother summarizing it, but for those of you who have read the book I’m talking about the scene in the ER when Lionel’s Tourette’s syndrome is making him erupt with fragments of the lame joke he was telling his dying mentor in the car.
4. One book that made you cry
No book has ever made me cry, but Dan Rhodes’ Timoleon Vieta Come Home once came close. If I’d been reading it in a different context I’d probably have been fine, but I was in a train on the way to see a friend whose mother had suddenly passed away, so I guess I was feeling emotional to begin with.
5. One book you wish you had written
The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene). It showcases everything I love about Graham Greene, who showcases everything I love in a writer. If I could only write with such frugal elegance, such precise insight, and such deep compassion, I might come a little closer to displaying those traits as a human being. Oh, and it actually has a plot. I’d never write a book with no freaking plot.
6. One book you wish had never been written
Can I have a series, please? All ten million volumes of Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time saga (I quit around volume 6 and am stupefied as to why I stuck around that long). Ye gods, there are more likable characters in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich than in these books.
7. One book you are currently reading
Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves is probably the one most worth mentioning since Kafka On The Beach is an utter pile of poo so far. It’s a damn hard book to explain though - go read the Amazon synopses.
8. One book you have been meaning to read
A hilarious cab ride with Olive, Erik and their incompatible reading tastes reminded me that despite meaning to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest for the past eight years and borrowing it from my local library about five separate times, I’ve never started on it. Olive’s view: Lucky escape, hon. Erik’s view: READ IT! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! Which brings us neatly to…
9. One book that changed your life
I’m sorry but in all honesty I can’t come up with one. I mean, it’s like asking me to name one food that changed my life. No one food changes my life but obviously I can’t imagine life without food. (Man, I’m deep this evening.)
10. Now tag five people:
Remarkable Things [done!]
Shoopscoop [done!]
Solitary Fish [done!]
Atarashi [done!]
London Calling [done!]
