AUDIO SHAKEDOWN: Volume 7

Rock and roll history has a logical flow to it, and I find that once I get into the groove of a certain era, after a while my brain just naturally starts to crave what came next. You may remember that the last Shakedown found me delving into the psychedelic music of the late 1960's and the later bands that went back to explore the sound, but now lately I find my brain sliding toward the sounds of the early Seventies. Rock and roll was moving away from psychedelia toward straight-up bluesy hard rock. So as you might expect, I've been neck deep in great music from bands of the early Seventies as well as the more modern artists who are still mining those same rich veins of wild, mustachioed rock and roll glory, and I've also been taking a look backwards at some of the artists who helped create the sound.

Graveyard - Hisingen Blues - Not many people know this, but a few years back, a time rift opened up over Sweden, and now the temporally afflicted country is a hotbed of 70's retro-rock revivalism. The Gothenburg based band Graveyard have emerged as one of the more artistically successful bands of the scene. Everything you'd expect is here, heavy blues-based rock, touches of metallic riffing, vintage recording techniques... but the way they put it all together is something special. The guitars have the kind of crunch that comes from high-gain amps instead of boutique guitar effects, and Joakim Nilsson's voice, with its slight Swedish accent on the English lyrics, is expressive and forceful. Revivalism is an odd thing, as it short-circuits any debate about originality. It sounds like it does because they want it to, so don't try to place it in any sort of context. Just put it on and let the music speak for itself, because inasmuch as this album does exactly what it sets out to do, it is very nearly perfect.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust - It strikes me that "dark side of the psychedelic era" is a very narrow space, historically speaking, to draw inspiration from. I mean, you're really just pulling from the vibe of the last half 1969, when the drugs have gone sideways on everyone, the Hell's Angels are stabbing people at Altamont, and the Manson family is stalking the streets of Los Angeles. But Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have crafted two albums with this very concept at the heart of the music, and it seems to be working out well for them. The stronger of the two releases is 2011's Blood Lust, where a garage rock blast carries with it the tattered, sickly shreds of psychedelia. This record has a druggy nihilism woven into it that mashes LSD-exploitation film and Hammer horror film imagery together, making it sound like a party where the guests are all just trying to make it through the night alive.

Lightnin' Hopkins - Lightnin' and the Blues - When you think of slow, smoky electric blues, chances are you're channeling the sound of Lightnin' Hopkins, and this collection is one of his best. Unlike many early electric blues collections, the sound quality is impeccable on this disc, allowing the listener to hear every little bend and vibrato on Hopkins' guitar, and his worn-leather voice settles right over top of the mix. Hopkins was a master of blues economy, and could do more with three or four notes than most players can do with an entire scale. He was a major figure in the definition of the vocabulary of electric blues, and these songs are the bricks that later rock and rollers would build their empires from. It's gratifying to hear that they've lost none of their charm in the intervening years.

Dust - Dust - In the early Seventies, heavy metal (or what would classify as such at the time) was dominated by British bands: Black Sabbbath, Led Zeppelin, etc., but there were a few American groups beginning to throw their hat into the ring. One of the more interesting, if not the most well-remembered, was Dust. Their self-titled debut is chock full of heavy, riff-laden blues rock, and it's played with authority. The guitar work rivals the heavy-hitters of the time, and there's some pretty agile drumming by Marc Bell, who would later in the Seventies take on the name Marky Ramone, and be known for much simpler drumming. It's fascinating to hear him putting so much more detail into his music here, especially the busy cymbal work.

Free - Fire and Water - I really enjoy that even though Free's sound is undoubtedly of a piece with other Seventies hard rock staples, their focus is not the electric guitar. It may be present in their songs, but it's not necessarily what's in the spotlight. Most of the time, that honor belongs to Paul Rodger's soulful vocals, and with good reason. The songs seem built on a framework of drums and vocals, with the other instruments adding color and texture to the sound. Because the guitars aren't cranked, Fire and Water has a more mellow groove to it than many of their contemporaries. Great for driving around aimlessly on a sunny day, or at least imagining you live in a parallel world where that activity didn't become prohibitively expensive.

Tinariwen - Tassili -  It seems like every Shakedown has a general theme, but there's always one outlier record that I've been listening to lately for whatever reason. This time out, it's Tinariwen, a band with an unmatchable biography (it's too long to do it justice here, but to read their bizarre and incredible story, check here). Tinariwen are a group of nomadic Tuareg musicians from the Saharan desert who play a wholly unique kind of music. The sounds of their native North Africa are certainly present, as well as certain American rock sensibilities, but most fascinatingly, you can hear the influence of the blues, or more accurately, the African music that serves as an ancestor to the blues. Whatever specific sounds inspire them, the quality and passion of the music is indisputable. So carefully are their lives woven into their music that you can hear the sand and heat in their songs even without being told where they hail from, especially on this album, where they switch from their usual electric guitars to acoustic, providing a sound that's as dry as Saharan dust. Considering the struggles and tragedies they've had to endure in their career as a band, it's all but certain that you don't know anyone who loves music as much as Tinariwen.

ALBUM REVIEW: Keaton Henson - Birthdays

Ladies and gentlemen, gather close and listen to a harrowing tale of a pallid Englishman with a knack for making you cry! No, it’s not because his music is bad; it’s because he writes songs that are so fragile, it feels like you could crack them by simply listening too hard. As I’m wont to do, I will start this review with a semi-long winded story, fasten your seatbelts and grab your complimentary onboard vomit receptacle. HERE WE GO!

Long ago, in my heartbroken days of squalor and alcohol (specifically, early last year), I was recovering from a long-term and emotionally invested relationship. The fallout was terrible and could probably be compared to the Oppenheimer nuclear test experiments. My apartment was a wasteland and the only solace and comfort I possessed was a newly found passion for finding new music. I discovered a young British musician by the name of Keaton Henson through an affiliated (but in no way similar) act. The first song I heard was a live performance of the track “Lying To You”, which can be heard on the album Birthdays. I was astounded by the performance. It wasn’t anything dazzling really, just a dude sitting out in his garden playing a song of discomfort and heartbreak. The tune was lovely, but I was particularly moved by his manner of conveyance in his emotions. You could hear his mental state in his voice more than his lyrics.

I immediately went in search of any albums he may have released. Unfortunately, at that point, all he had was a dinky winky EP (I’m not a huge fan of EPs, if you couldn’t tell) and my thirst for a full-length installment of material went unquenched. I was thirsty for Keaton, I tell you! Nothing could get in the way of me acquiring music at that point, except if said material didn’t exist. So for a little while my operation was derailed and the dragon that was my ravenous acquisition remained safely sedated.

Then came the magical day, April 2nd, 2012! Keaton Henson unleashed a sweeping saga of sadness that was sure to overwhelm you with emotion and beauty. It was somewhat difficult for me to procure this album since it was not, and is still not available in the US. Now, let me digress further and tell you how much disdain I hold for importing music. If importing music were like coaxing a fat man to give you his burrito (which I have had to do on occasion, for his safety), it would be like him charging you 50 dollars for a 5 dollar burrito treat. ‘Nuff Said. All of that aside, my desire for the album outweighed my desire to keep money in my coin purse and I paid handsomely and waited…

Two weeks later, I received a parcel from the United States Postal Service of Give Me My CD. Upon opening the parcel, I greedily ripped open the plastic wrapper and annoying security seal and stuffed my very own, brand new copy of Dear into my decrepit, archaic CD playing device. What I received was a personal message from Keaton Henson, in this correspondence, he told me of heartbreak, depression and frustration. I listened to every word that came out of his mouth with awe and enthusiasm. I wanted to make music like this.

Alrighty then, still reading? Good, because I’m getting to the point. Early in January of this year, I was made aware of a new Keaton Henson album. A new album? HOT DOG!!! It seems like he just released Dear and he is releasing another full length album already! My excitement was explosive.

I ordered his new record, cheerfully entitled Birthdays through Amazon import, as I had with his first album. Little did I know, they would release his album here in the states not two months later. I kind of knew what to expect, to think that he would change his style drastically in just one year was asinine. So I waited patiently for another personal message to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean by Mr. Henson and lo and behold, a day came when the United States Postal Service of Give Me My CD dropped off a parcel on my doorstep. I almost felt nostalgia or a sense of déjà vu; a package with a personal message, a decrepit old CD player, and me sitting on the floor on the verge of crying like a little baby. Now, without further ado, Birthdays.

Birthdays. Birthdays… A beautifully arranged set of sad songs presented in a minimalistic, personal style. It almost seems like he performed each of the solo songs in one take right after hearing that his cat died. His voice fragile, not weak; tells of times passed when he actively sought love but was unfairly damaged by rejection. Some critics have characterized Keaton’s music as “sad bastard tunes”, we call those people “assholes”.

The structure of the album is different from Dear, though it starts off very similar. Quiet tunes, just guitar and vocals with some sparse accompaniment and minimal backup vocals. Then, out of nowhere, Keaton punches you in the face with two very loud, full blown electric songs. Then it calms down again. My interpretation of these songs being placed in this specific structure is that Keaton is expressing an emotion he didn’t really touch on in Dear, anger. He also hints that people have come to him and asked him why he writes such nasty songs about them. It’s all very scandalous if you ask me and makes for an interesting listen.

If there were a rating system that I could stand behind and believe in, I would give Birthdays the Bob Saget award for excellence in capturing raw emotion and making my soul weep openly. This is in the running for my favorite album of 2013 and now that it has been released in the states, you have no excuse not to get it. So why don’t you go and get it right now! I’ll wait.


Written by IV Freelancer Tobias Gaia.

PS: Here's the original video mentioned earlier in the article:

MUSICAL TOURISM: with LuckytheTourist

NOTCHES IN THE SPINE OF TIME

     Impossible as it may be to alter your place in time by force of will, truth is we are all threads in a four-dimensional tapestry stretching backwards and forward for as far as memorabilia becomes memory. And motion through, though not directly affected by our will, will submit to our senses if only to be noticed. My evidence of this is as follows:

1. I Wanna Be Around (Tony Bennett- The Essential Tony Bennett, Track 17)

One of pop culture's more perfect examples of "right place, right time," Tony Bennett has routinely peeked his suave bedroom eyes around time's door post just as the market was ready for him. To say he has a genre-defining voice is redundant in the extreme for anyone who's seen movies or TV in the last handful of decades. There only so many options to perfectly evoke both sophistication and carnal desire. In the fifties and early sixties he was one of a field of great songbook professionals that included Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and the whole Rat Pack roster besides. By the eighties he was a comfortable fit for the semi-annual nostalgia waves one could nearly set a clock by, and now he's the last of a breed. The Harry Connick Jr.'s and Michael Buble's of this world will only ever be shadows of their heroes, of which Tony Bennett is the last great example. Starting off with a smooth jazz piano stating the melody in an enticingly roundabout fashion, this sad eyed (and deceptively barbed) ballad stays nimble over its entire length and never sinks into the sort of orchestral blandishment that can sometimes turn this kind of pop to twaddle--

2. A Shot In The Arm ( Wilco- Summerteeth, Track 3)

Wilco, though adventurous and perpetually name dropped by the musical literati, can often come off as sodden and excessively downcast. But every now and again they turn that corner toward daylight, as they do here with jingling percussive bells, a strong snare beat, bright piano and occasional fogs of sound effects, "A Shot In the Arm" is easily one of the most bombastically theatrical selections Wilco's ever worked up. The first self-encouraging mantra-like refrain hands off to a more surreal repeated statement before the first verse repeats and finally hands off to a third over-and-over assertion all of which lend the illusion of narrative arc, but really just amounts to a piece of fully realized if slightly opaque chamber pop--

3. Dear Darkness ( PJ Harvey- White Chalk, Track 2)

Trying to keep up with Polly Jean Harvey's album by album code-switching can become a bit tiring. From urban sophisticate on 2000's Stories from the City Stories From the Sea to lo-fi indie rocker grrrl on 2004's Uh Huh Her, and all the ones before that that I didn't really keep up with. With White Chalk she stands atop the stairs in a pale night gown, like a haunted child in an Edwardian ghost story, and tells of her visions and darkness. This is one of those songs that, if you like it, tells you that you should immediately buy the whole album. It's of an inseparable narrative and stylistic piece with the entire work. Harvey is said to have learned piano just before this recording. And the childlike clarity and simplicity of the piano parts, surrounded as they are by a nearly audible emptiness and Harvey's purposely pianissimo vocals, will nearly spook your socks off--

4. Ceremony (New Order- Substance, Track 1)

This song marks the moment that Joy Division ceased to be Joy Division. But neither was it yet New Order. Lead singer Ian Curtis had died and the remaining band members were attempting to carry on. To a very real extent it still sounds like a Joy Division track. Specifically the thin guitar tone guitars and syncopated bass line. But the content and mood are on an ascension, looking up. You can hear what was and also hear what would happen next. An anomalous song, there are people who disliked both Joy Division and New Order who might like "Ceremony"--

5. Loose Nuts on The Valendrome (Liars- They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, Track 3)

You know that venomous mood that accompanies city driving on a hot day? The traffic jams, noise, rude drivers and cavalcade of idiots? Well, on their first album, Liars bottled that, stuffed it in their garage and made a rock band out of it. No surprise they hail from NYC and less surprising still that they are most easily described as prog-punk. But there is always a loss of substance in the transfer to a category; "Punk" doesn't quite say it. This music is loud and dense but also catchy and semi-melodic. It counts as angry/mad and just plain insane/mad, like mercury poisoning. I would welcome any viable explanation as to what this song is about. The lyrics seem to be notes from an extended free associative therapy session and the music reminds me of The Minutemen, The Pixies and Bone Machine-era Tom Waits--

6. Parachute Woman (The Rolling Stones- Beggar's Banquet, Track 4)

The cover photo of Beggar's Banquet, along with being nearly iconic in it's own right, is possibly the most appropriate in subject and texture ever to its respective band and album. At their most potent the Rolling Stones play music that makes you feel as though you've stumbled upon a haggard musician doing lines in a stall with an ugly prostitute and slurring exclamation about privacy. "Parachute Woman" is a brief album track, not their best but among the middling crop of the Stones' strongest material, an example of a band in stride. Short and ragged with a good hook and hollow sound that suggests the band singing and playing are just too high to remember--

7. Summertime [organica remix] (Billie Holliday {Remix by Scott Schlacter}- Billie Holliday Remixed and Reimagined, Track 7)

A nearly unimaginable nexus of time and style... this is what music has the potential to be. Piece one in this puzzle is George Gershwin. His soulful-unto-spiritual American opera Porgy and Bess will be subject to revision and study for years to come. And "Summertime," the drama's opening scene-setter aria contains wistful sorrow and chiaroscuro flourishes of a tainted nostalgia that absolutely cry for the expressive range of a Billie Holliday. Which brings me to piece number two, Billie Holliday is an American Icon as only the twentieth century could've produced, a hybrid of jazz and blues with a romanticizing dark side that sits quietly beside the cultural tensions her position in history imbued. And in Gershwin's nuanced and loaded composition she finds a piece fully the equal of her assets. The current generation of musicians may have done little to rival Gershwin or Holliday but they have become master re-interpreters. It seems to be our historical task to forever reassess and gain new perspective, and this track is a masterful example of the re-mixer's art, collaging elements to enhance or re-evaluate or simply re-discover. It's a game of repetitions and for all of their talent these re-mixers can only be as good as their source material. This track delivers on the promise of its constituent parts. There is a fragmented adventurousness that fans of DJ culture will immediately recognize but there's also a strong imprint of the history contained. The result, on the surface, is a beautifully languid piece of trip-hop jazz soul. But with even a cursory sense of the history, it blooms into a rich montage of American song-craft and historical pathos--

8. I Will Dare (The Replacements- Let it Be, Track 1)

Youth and young manhood are eternal subjects of both rock music and the rock and roll mythos (self-aware post-millennial rockers Kings of Leon even named an album that very phrase). Few better examples of that fact exist than The Replacements. To listen to their albums is to stare into the hollow, laughing eyes of a slightly tweaked teenager with a guitar and knack for tune. To observe their reputation is to see in detail the less-than-superstar allure of living your youth on tour, in the studio, and drinking with friends you didn't even know the night before. A bopping, countrified rocker, "I Will Dare" rides its bass up and down through the verses, hitching occasional chorus and bridge work from lead guitar. The thin production absolutely screams, "80's indie band!" and Paul Westerberg's John Lennon-meets-Johnny Rotten vocal makes you wonder if Billy Idol used to secretly listen to Replacements records at night and cry...into a pile of money--

9. This House is a Circus (Arctic Monkeys- Favourite Worst Nightmare, Track 8)

Of a thematic piece with The Replacements, The Arctic Monkeys had the good fortune of coming up in a market that had an ever-burgeoning demand for "snarky lads." They played the same cards but two decades later and a full ocean away. So they till the same fields of youth and noise as The Replacements but boast the massive sales their elders never managed, as well as the critical acclaim they both share. Sounding more than a little bit like The Jam but with a tad of their contemporaries The Libertines mixed in, The Arctic Monkeys may have come into the decade barely teenagers but after two albums they were apparently the numero uno baby-Strokes legacy holders (it came down to them and Franz Ferdinand as the decade closed but neither band could manage a respectable third album and the question seemed largely moot as the only long lasting legacy of the 2000's garage rock boom was Jack White's career as an indie-rock tycoon)--

10. Comfort Eagle (Cake- Comfort Eagle, Track 7)

The Nineties have come roaring back of late but, lest we forget, quintessentially Nineties irony rockers Cake never actually went away. They survived the intervening decade by realizing a very important piece of industry wisdom; niches die slowly, and will likely return. As long as you can still deliver, chances are your audience is still out there somewhere. Songs like "Frank Sinatra," "The Distance," "I Will Survive," and "Never There" may have passed into nostalgia-night jukebox immortality but there's still more to be had. From their 2001 album Comfort Eagle, this song of the same name is one of the strongest tracks Cake's ever recorded. A spirited call down the corridors of power, the dryly spoken lyrics lampoon politics, religion, and the businesses of both as the strong melodic lines, handled by a growling guitar and occasional trumpet, turn it into an effective head-bobbing anthem--

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy author who published his first book, Elantris, in 2005. Since then he has released several more successful books, including the Mistborn Trilogy, and The Way of Kings, the first part of an estimated ten-book series. In 2007 he was given the honor of completing the Wheel of Time series after the original author, Robert Jordan, passed away before its completion. Mr. Sanderson co-hosts a podcast at the website Writing Excuses, and teaches a creative writing class on fantasy and science fiction at Brigham Young University. Even with all that on his plate, he was gracious enough to set some time aside to answer a few questions for us regarding what psychs him out as a writer, how he plans to avoid “epic sprawl” and sagely advice for new writers trying to squeeze their way into the epic fantasy market.

INVISIBLE VANGUARD: I am curious if professional writers ever get psyched out by their own works. When you are working on an epic series, such as The Stormlight Archive, do you ever have moments of doubt in your ability to see it through to completion? Does it ever feel overwhelming that you have so many volumes ahead of you to write?

BRANDON SANDERSON: That's not the part that psychs me out. Length doesn't do that to me, particularly when I have a series well planned and I have a feel for how each book is going to be distinctive. This really helped me with the Mistborn series, for instance—when I planned it out, I planned each book to have its own identity. That kept me interested in them.

No, what psychs me out is that sometimes something just turns out really well, like The Way of Kings, and then I immediately start thinking, "I have to do that again, and I don't know how I did it in the first place." Writing becomes a very instinctive thing.

Most of the time when I talk about the process of writing, I'm analyzing what I've done after the fact. The truth of it is that right in the moment, right when you're sitting there working on a book, a lot of that stuff isn't going through your head. You're just running on instinct at that point. So it's easy to get psyched out when you're not sure if you can ever do it again.

IV: Do you feel that each new book you release should be better than the last? Is that something you think about while writing, or do you just do the best job that you can and hope that your works improve naturally over time with your skill?

BS: It really depends on the project. Yes, I want every book to improve, but that's a bit of a platitude. It's an easy thing to say. It gets a bit different when you sit down to think about it.

I followed The Way of Kings with The Alloy of Law. Is The Alloy of Law a better book than The Way of Kings? No, it is not. The Way of Kings I spent somewhere around ten years working on; with The Alloy of Law I had a couple of months. In the case of a book like that, I sit down and say, okay, there are things I want to learn in this process. Different books are going to have a different feel. Now, there are people out there who like The Alloy of Law better than The Way of Kings—it's not a better book, but there are people who will enjoy it more.

When I sat down to write Warbreaker, I said I wanted to get better at a certain type of humor. And I think I did get much better at that, in that book. Is the book itself better than The Hero of Ages that came before it? I do some things better, but it's hard to compare a standalone volume to the third book in an epic trilogy. They're going to do very different things.

So it's hard to say "better book"/"not better book." I think "always learning and growing" is a better way to put it than getting better with each book.

IV: Writing an epic series over many years will surely gather you many fans and many haters. In the case of Robert Jordan, it seems like bad reviews and fan backlash mounted up with each new volume as the series went on. Is that something you are concerned about? Do you try to figure out why people responded that way to that series and work to avoid a similar situation with your own, or do you just disregard the naysayers in general?

BS: Of these things that you've asked me questions on, this is the one that I've spent the most time thinking about. It is an interesting phenomenon. Each Wheel of Time book sold more copies than the one before it, yet each one up through book ten got more and more negative reviews. They start out strong, then a few of the books have balanced numbers of reviews, and then they start to take a nosedive—even as the sales of the books go up and up.

The same thing has happened with my own books—as they have grown more popular, they've gotten worse and worse reviews. It's very interesting. You can watch a book like Elantris, which when it came out had more or less universal acclaim, partially I think based on expectations. People read it thinking, hey, there's this brand new author, it probably isn't that good—hey, this book isn't half bad! And then they go and write reviews on Amazon. There are a number of early reviews there that say, wow, this wasn't half bad! This new guy is someone to watch!

As you gain a reputation, more and more people pick you up by reputation—simply hearing "This is a great book" and picking it up, rather than looking into the book and deciding it's a book they will like. That's going to lead to more people picking up the book who it's just not a good match for. I think that certainly is part of it.

I do also think that there is epic series sprawl; there's a legitimate complaint against these series like the Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. I think the fans still like the books, but they have complaints about how they're happening. George R. R. Martin and Robert Jordan are really doing some new and unique things. Robert Jordan didn't get to read any ten-book epic fantasy series of that nature; he had to do it on his own without a model to follow. I think that as we go forward in the genre, hopefully we're picking up on things—we're standing on the shoulders of giants, and hopefully we will figure out how we can do this without necessarily sprawling quite so much, which I think is part of the problem. There's this push and pull in epic fantasy where we read epic fantasy because we love the depth of characterization and world building, and yet if the author does too much of that in every book, then we lose the ability to move forward in a central plot. That can be very frustrating.

I will say that when I was able to read the Wheel of Time from start to finish, having the complete story, that feeling that it wasn't going anywhere in places just wasn't there. That feeling came because you would wait two years for a book, and then when you finished it you'd have to wait two more years for the next book, and because of the nature of the epic series you're just getting a little tiny sliver of the story. So that part of it is just the nature of the beast, but I think we can do things to mitigate that, and I will certainly try.

IV: Lastly, what advice can you give to new and unknown authors with limitless ambition who want to write epic fantasy and/or sci-fi books? From my own personal research, it appears that agents and publishers do not want long word counts from new authors. Is it best to start simple with shorter stories and work your way up to your true love: the epic, or should you just go for it and write as much as you deem necessary and pitch your grand masterwork as a whole?

BS: There are so many questions in there that are going to be very situationally dependent. If you have not already written a few novels, I would say absolutely do not write your grand epic yet. You won't have the skill to do it, and it will disappoint you. I've run across a lot of new writers who this has happened to. They want to do their own Wheel of Time, but they don't yet have the skill to achieve it. I tried this myself and learned this the hard way.

That's not to say that it's impossible to do, but I strongly recommend to most writers to try a few other books first. Standalones or something, to really get your head around the idea of characterization and plotting and narrative arcs before you say, okay, I'm going to tell a story across ten books instead.

If you are confident of your skill, and find that you are just incapable of writing anything else? Writing is the most important thing. If something makes you not write, then it's usually going to be bad advice no matter who it comes from. So then I suggest just writing and loving what you're writing. If you can somehow style your book as "a standalone with sequel potential," then that's probably a better way to go.

This is not just for publishers and agents. New readers have a built-in skepticism toward a new author who is trying something that massive. I've found that a lot of readers like to try the standalone to find out what kind of writer you are, before they then read your big series. Having a couple of standalones has been very useful for me for that reason.

At the end of the day, just write what you love. Yes, editors and agents say they want shorter books. This is because historically it has been proven to them that authors trying to write books that are too long for them bite off more than they can chew and the book spirals out of control. But the draft of Elantris that was the first thing I sold was 250,000 words. That's a full 100,000 words longer than what everyone was telling me agents won't even look at. So by empirical proof: They will look at a longer book if it works for them. So write what you love—if you can get into your head that you're going to do this professionally, and that you have years to learn how to do this, then that's going to help you. Taking the time to practice with shorter works will help you get ready to write your epic. But if you just can't do that, then go for it.

IV: Thank you, Mr. Sanderson, for your time and insightful responses, we really appreciate it and wish you well in your forthcoming endeavors!

For more information and the latest Brandon Sanderson news, check out his website /http://www.brandonsanderson.com/.

AUDIO SHAKEDOWN: Volume 6

     Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream with this edition of the Audio Shakedown, because the warmer weather has finally thawed my freezer-burned brain and made me want sunshiny psychedelic music by the bucketful. I've been making my way through psychedelia from the mid-60's, of course, but also wandering around the neo-psych movement from ten/fifteen years ago as well. So pull up a beanbag chair, light some incense, and get in on the swirling orange groove I have cooking here.

Lamp of the Universe - Acid Mantra - Lamp of the Universe is a one-man spacy psychedelic folk project from New Zealand. Multi-instrumentalist Craig Williamson uses guitars, sitars, hand drums, a single gentle voice, and other assorted noisemakers to create long cosmic odysseys that meander and drift with a pleasant breeziness. Brevity is not really a concern here, nor is song structure. This will not get the party started, but if you need a record for long afternoons spent drifting in and out of sleep, this has exactly what you need.

Earthless - Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky - Heavy instrumental psychedelia band Earthless does their best to turn your brain to goo, and comes very close to succeeding. The album consists of three long tracks of winding, molten guitar freakouts, but what's surprising is how listenable they make it, which you can credit to the rhythm section, really. Without their consistent groove, the guitar would be just so much noodling. Technically, I suppose most people will still find this to be so much noodling, but for those in the market for a mind-bending guitar workout, this is really quite brilliant.

The Spacious Mind - The Mind of a Brother - The Spacious Mind have gone through a lot of stylistic changes in their decade-plus career, from druggy folk to ambient instrumental, but this record finds them working firmly in a heavy psychedelic vein. They've got the tricks and treats of 1967 down, but they've put their own millennial spin on it. The trouble with modern psych acts is that they're playing with a style nearly forty years old now, so there can be a feeling of having heard it all before, but The Spacious Mind really pay attention to the way they manage the build and release of their songs. They're quite long, but never seem to overstay their welcome.

The Doors - L.A. Woman - This one is tied up there with The Doors' debut as their most consistent release. From the sleazy rock and roll of "The Changeling" to the low blues shuffle of "Cars Hiss By My Window" to the steamy menace of "Riders on the Storm," every track on this album is a winner. It shows their keen awareness of their musical roots while letting them display the stylistic eccentricities that made them so original. The band is in top form, and Morrison's voice has taken on a huskier tone that fits the music well, even though that was probably acquired from the hard living that occurred over the tumultuous years of their career. An absolute classic.

Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum - Before I ever heard the Grateful Dead's actual material, I knew of them by reputation only. Unhinged LSD parties with wild, trippy music playing at top volume to blow your mind out of your head, that sort of thing... but when I actually heard the Dead I was disappointed. I was told to expect hallucinogenic rock euphoria, and instead I got slightly tipsy bluegrass. The point of all this is that Blue Cheer's first album sounds like what I wanted the Grateful Dead to sound like. For its time, this album was an overwhelming sonic titan, as it eschewed the acoustic folk business for cranked up amplifiers. Blown-out distortion and sludgy blues riffs given the San Francisco acid treatment, dirty bass, and pummeling drums...this is the sensory overload I was expecting.

Counting Crows - Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings - This is a departure from the psychedelic theme, I admit, but I have spent some quality time with this record lately, and for good reason. This album is comprised of two parts, "Saturday Nights," where the band delves into tension and sin, and "Sunday Mornings," the subsequent exploration of memory and redemption. The first half of the record is what I'm mostly concerned with here, because the Saturday night side boasts some of the strongest songs that the band has yet produced, and after that, the gentler Sunday morning half seems to lag a little by comparison. But "Saturday Nights" is more than worth your time, as Duritz and company push their way through six tracks whose stories range between hard-edged, lonely New York and the deserts of the west, brimming with violence and anxiety. It's a miniature travelogue of the astral America, the one we all live in, but frequently forget to see.

BOOK REVIEW: Underworld - Don DeLillo

“Masterpieces teach you how to read them, and Underworld is no exception…”    -Greg Burkman for The Seattle Times

    Rarely does a back-cover blurb make you stop and think, but as I was reaching the halfway point of Don DeLillo's masterpiece (one of several) Underworld, this one caught my attention. It's a very true sentiment. A masterpiece should make you a better reader, and probably a better human, by pulling you up to its expectation of what its reader should be. And in this, Underworld is truly no exception, as my own history with it shows. I've enjoyed DeLillo's writings for a long time. I began with his novel of postmodern disaffection White Noise and moved on to the emotional experimentation of The Body Artist and I was hooked. But as I started Underworld ten years ago, I was still young, and I did not yet possess what the book needed me to possess. I lasted all of a hundred pages before realizing I wasn't sufficiently entrenched to prevent being pulled away by other things. Years later I bought a hardback copy of the 800+ page book, certain that what was inside it was going to be important to me, but after another half-hearted attempt at a time when I was between other interests, I drifted away again.

I started the book again recently, and by page two it was a completely different experience. Something connected, and as I reached the halfway point and saw the blurb about how to read a masterpiece, the difference between now and then became clear. In the intervening years, my focused interests in various periods and cultures of the past hundred years had become a full-blown intellectual obsession with the 20th century in general, and the American 20th century in particular. For my relationship to this book, that fact made all the difference, as Underworld is an odyssey into the heart of that very idea, an investigation of what DeLillo refers to in the book as "the curious neuron web of lonely-chrome America."

The story begins in 1951 as the Dodgers and the Giants (both still New York teams at the time) are playing for the pennant. Baseball fans may remember this game as the origin of the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" as Bobby Thomson sent a home run into the stands in the ninth inning to seal the pennant for the Giants. The book follows the home run ball as it ends up in the hands of a young boy who skipped school to see the game and then proceeds to change owners throughout the last half of the 20th century as various owner's fortunes rise and fall. As one might expect, the story is not really about the ball, it is about the people. The ball exists as its own part of the story, but the conceit of the ball is that it provides access to dozens of different narratives and perspectives on America from 1951 to the mid-1990's.

Another significant strand of the story begins on the very same day as the game-winning swing, as the Russians successfully detonate an atomic bomb, which sets in motion the nuclear tension that runs through the rest of the century as well as the rest of the novel. It's that atomic fear that acts as a poetic parallel to the various stresses and the sense of unease that permeate the story, which is broken up into several large sections, each of which could probably have functioned as admirable novellas in its own right. As the cast of characters that ripple out from that home run take their places in the narrative sweep, one begins to see how each perspective is masterfully placed to fill in a piece of the story as well as a piece of the history. Waste management engineer Nick Shay, with his murky past and strange connection to artist Klara Sax, shows us how the guilts and fears that we try to bury never stay that way for long. Chess teacher Albert Bronzini, elderly nun Sister Edgar, and 16-year-old graffiti artist Moonman157 are all pushed and pulled in various directions as the century tosses them about like a rock polisher. Historical figures show up in the book as often as DeLillo's own creations. It's a risky endeavor, but he pulls it off, and his versions of personalities like Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra, Lenny Bruce, and J. Edgar Hoover never seem obtrusive or distracting. He plays them as they are, just more bits of the story of America.

The idea of the Great American Novel is that of a piece of literature that excels in its craft while simultaneously providing an accurate representation of the zeitgeist with which it is concerned. With those parameters in mind, I see no reason not to at least consider Underworld as a candidate for the label. The writing is outstanding, with the author's signature dialogue fragments and hitches in character speech firmly in place, but it's the way that the story knits together from the macro to the micro into a panoramic view of forty-some years of American life that really shows DeLillo's mastery of the form. The novel reads true, even as fiction, as it portrays Cold War America as both consistent and invisibly dangerous, just like uranium-235, or for that matter, Coca-Cola.    

ALBUM REVIEW: The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum

Brainchild of vocal virtuoso Casey Crescenzo, The Dear Hunter is a brilliant rock band with progressive leanings. Their first three albums each comprise a single act in a planned six act story arc.  The second album, Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading clocked in at seventy-seven minutes (whittled down from one hundred and twenty minutes of material). A sprawling masterpiece, this album was the true beginning of their unique, old-time, burlesque influenced progressive style.

On the third album, Act III: Life and Death, the band continued to polish their original style and managed to streamline the work into a much more manageable fifty-seven minutes. Out of the first three albums, this one is their most accessible. Every song on it is solid and compact, without the careless meandering heard on the last record that those with low attention spans may not be able to handle.

After completing Act III, Casey decided that he needed to take a break from the original concept and work on a new project. He announced “The Color Spectrum”, nine, four track EPs, one for each color: Black, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and White. The sheer ambition of this project was enough to raise an eyebrow from adoring fans. Who would want to buy nine separate EPs, each based on how a color sounds? Oh, me of little faith.

In lesser hands, this would have been an epic, career ending failure, but now I as kneel  humbled and shamed by my earlier doubt before the great alter of Crescenzo, I am thrilled to say that “The Color Spectrum” is yet another amazing masterpiece. This album (and it is an album, all thirty-six tracks comprise its whole) evokes in me a kind of synesthesia. Each four track section sounds like its representative color looks. I don’t know how he did it. But he did, and it is good.

Black hits like you’re lost in a vacuum, being pummeled by extra worldly debris. Red flares with the dirty anger that the lyrics define (“I am cynical,” he says, “It’s a curse”). Orange drops the anger for a pure, grooving, ‘grab life by the tits’ attitude. Yellow is reliably sunny and jaunty, like listening to a Shins album on vinyl. Green is a bit more melancholy than expected. It feels like accepting life on life’s terms, it is bittersweet. Blue is sparse and contemplative. Indigo is all electronic, a sort of psychedelic dream. Violet is a triumphant return to their original style, conjuring up burlesque houses, fur coats, and fedoras, particularly on the track “Mr. Malum”. White is a spiritual and necessary end, the end of a journey or the end of life. There is talk of returning home, that everything is okay and it makes you feel that way.

I cannot emphasize enough how awesome this album is. If you buy it, get “The Color Spectrum Complete Collection”. There is another “Color Spectrum” album out there that only has twelve or so tracks, just a couple from each EP. You want the whole thing, and you want to listen to it from start to finish. Not to mention, The Complete Collection comes with a full color book with an explanation for each EP and a DVD with some interesting behind the scenes footage.  

ALBUM REVIEW: Big Boi - Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors

I should let you know this up front: this review is biased.  Anyone who knows me will definitely know one thing about me – that dude is an OutKast fan.  I have been down with the ATL duo long before I could vote, buy cigarettes, or drink alcohol.  In high school and college, I was their biggest promoter, letting people know well in advance when an OutKast album would be released.  The easiest way to piss me off is to say, “OutKast is wack!”  I had no problem getting in your face to let you know the absolute falsity of your statement, and I will not let up until you are defeated.  Well, not really.  Most friends usually said just to rile me up because it was funny to them.  Nevertheless, no one who knows can deny OutKast’s impact on my life, and I am not alone.  Since their debut, OutKast has released six albums selling at least a million copies, released a handful of hit singles, and won multiple awards.  Critics often praised their work for their originality, lyrical substance, and song writing abilities.  In fact, OutKast is also one of two hip-hop artists to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.  It was a proud moment as a fan, even though I did not watch the Grammys that year (still think that they are full of shit).

Despite OutKast’s commercial and critical success, the group has struggled to get respect from their contemporaries.  Since their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in 1994, many hip-hop enthusiasts dismissed OutKast as not being “real hip-hop.”  Big names in the industry (Def Jam founder Russell Simmons initially comes to mind) did not look at them as being part of the culture.  At the time, OutKast seem to have a lot going against them.  First, they used mostly live instruments as opposed to jazz and funk samples to craft their music.  Second, many of their choruses had more of an R&B influence, which ended up being largely ahead of its time.  Third, they were on LaFace Records, a predominately R&B record label based in Atlanta, Georgia.  In addition, OutKast was not from either New York or Los Angeles, two of the major media hubs of the country.  They were straight Southern-fried and did not hesitate to embrace their Southern roots. 

However, because they sounded like nothing else on the radio, OutKast lived up to their name and became “outcasts” of the industry.  It was never more apparent after the infamous 1995 Source Awards where OutKast was booed when accepting an award and Andre made an ominous prediction of the South’s eventual rise to prominence.  Even though, Andre’s prediction came true in the late 1990s, no one gave OutKast props for opening the door for the Southern hip-hop.  Critics paid more attention to the gimmick groups like Master P/No Limit, Cash Money, Pastor Troy, Miracle, Drama, and other forgettable artists that came out.  Instead, many critics tried to separate them from their Southern roots due to their tendency to experiment with different sounds on each album and their dedication to lyricism.  In other words, people did not consider them “southern.”  Luckily, the lack of respect just motivated them to make better music.  Even now, the media does not acknowledge the group’s accomplishment, at least compared to other rappers.  Why?  I blame the bias New York and Los Angeles media that always prop up their hometown heroes, whether good or bad.  I also blame OutKast themselves, for they have remained humble throughout their career and have not made narcissistic pleas to the media to consider them the greatest rappers in the world (unlike Jay-Z, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, among others).  As time marches on, more new artists are citing them as influences, but with so many forces against them in the beginning, the chip on their shoulder still remains visible.

TELEVISION REVIEW: House of Cards

Goodbye cable, I always hated ye!

For those uninformed, House of Cards is a thirteen episode television series funded by and exclusively on Netflix. It is produced by David Fincher and stars Kevin Spacey and by golly is it sure fantastic.

The story revolves around four characters, but centers on Francis Underwood, a congressman played by Spacey, who tricks, sneaks, and manipulates his way into further positions of power. The other players include his equally devious wife, a young female reporter with dubious ethics and another congressman dealing with issues of drugs, drinking and prostitution. These three characters are all interesting and have their own story arcs, but the main focus is on Underwood and how he uses them all for his own benefit.

Spacey’s Underwood pretty much amounts to a political super-villain. He’s an anti-hero that the viewer can’t help but root for even when his actions cross the line into true villainy. Outwardly, he displays a demeanor of humble, southern charm, but on the inside, he is smug and confident, cold and heartless, and only out for himself. We learn this through frequent breaks in the fourth wall where Underwood addresses the audience directly, usually mid scene. This technique adds a kind of theatrical feel to the production and it works perfectly in the melodramatic proceedings that pack each episode.

There’s not much I can really go into without spoiling the fun, but rest assured that you will like the show if you watch it. Even if you have no interest in politics, the show will appeal. The characters are so strong that their setting barely matters. The writing and acting are superb and the production is equivalent to (or better than) anything you might find on other more prestigious television networks.

I read an interview online wherein one of the Netflix higher-ups said that Netflix is working to become HBO before HBO can become Netflix, and I think that House of Cards gives them a huge boost towards achieving that goal.

ALBUM REVIEW: Killer Mike - Pl3dge

The journey of Michael Render aka Killer Mike has been an interesting and incredible one.  First of all, he had the unbelievable fortune of starting off under the wings of hip hop legends OutKast.  He made his debut on OutKast’s Stankonia in 2000 on the track “Snappin’ and Trappin’” and went on to make a memorable appearance on Dungeon Family’s Even in Darkness as well as OutKast’s Grammy Award winning single “The Whole World.”  With the increased mainstream exposure and underground following that he had already fostered, many people, including Killer Mike, expected big things from his debut album Monster, which was released in 2003 on OutKast’s Aquemini Records.

However, things did not work as planned.  While Monster received critical acclaim and had a radio hit single in “A.D.D.I.D.A.S.,” the album failed to sell up to everyone’s expectations.  It’s funny because the album sold over $500k, which is a sales figure that a lot of artists would kill for nowadays.  With artists like Eminem, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Nelly selling at least 2 million albums at the time, an artist selling only 500K was looked at as a flop.  Let Killer Mike tell it, he failed to recoup any royalties from his album because the sales were below expectations (he is okay with it, though).  To add insult to injury, Aquemini Records folded after Monster was released and after Andre 3000 decided that he did not want to be part of running the record label.  Big Boi went on to form his own label Purple Ribbon, and he brought Killer Mike with him.  However, Killer Mike’s Ghetto Extraordinaire album was never released due to multiple delays and was eventually shelved.   The frustration in getting his album out prompted Killer Mike to take matters into his own hands and form his own imprint, GrindTime, accompanied by the catchy phrase “GRIND TIME RAP GANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!”  Mike’s move created tension between him and Big Boi and even led to a public feud between them (fortunately, they later squashed the beef). 

Free from the majors, Killer Mike embarked on a solo career where he controlled his own destiny.  In fact, he adopted the mantra of “firing your boss” and following your dreams, and he preaches this in many of his interviews and lectures.  It is Killer Mike’s insight and inspirational interviews that increased his appeal and made me pay more attention to his music.  Based on his work with OutKast, we knew Mike had talent, but we were not aware of his depth and intelligence until he went out on his own.  I am not sure whether he developed these ideas after leaving Big Boi or had suppressed them while under OutKast’s wing.  Either way, the world is better for it much in same way that the world is better for having Immortal Technique releasing his own music (like I said in the Tech review, I feel that he somewhat laid the foundation for Killer Mike to do what he wanted to do with his career). 

GAME REVIEW: Terraria

In the way that steampunk envisions a future where technology progresses while remaining focused on the mechanisms of steam power, so does Terraria envision a future where game consoles are state of the art, but the games stay firmly rooted in the 16-bit days of yore.

Terraria is an open world sandbox that blends games like Minecraft with Zelda II and Super Nintendo RPGs. Its graphics may fool you at first glance into believing there is little more behind the charming pixel art than the simplicity of SNES games past, but Terraria uses the power of modern consoles to generate huge worlds, tons of items, and a fully fledged game that will eat away as much of your time as any glossy AAA title would.

After creating a cute 16-bit character, you are dropped into a randomly generated world with only a few tools at your disposal. Your first assignment is to build a shelter by nightfall to protect you from certain enemies that only arise after dark. With axe in hand you get to chopping down trees. You whip up a workbench from your crafting menu and make doors, chairs, tables, and wood paneling for your new abode. Toss a couple of torches on the walls and you’ve got yourself a secure domicile to call home base. Now is when the fun starts.

There is really very little in the way of direction or linearity. The idea is to just start exploring the world, collect materials, build new tools, then explore some more. There are several big boss fights, and you can “beat” the game in a way, but that isn’t really the focus. The focus is on exploration and building your world. With the right structures built, you can attract in NPCs that will help you in various way, like selling you weapons and crafting material. You can roam the lands and underground caverns slaying monsters, or you can plant a garden with the many different seeds you’ve gathered during your travels. It is all up to you how you want to play.

Despite its overall awesomeness, there are a few things that are irritating about the game. The lack of direction can be frustrating at times, especially when trying to build suitable structures for living. If you are missing a required item or combine two materials that don’t like each other, monsters can spawn inside your house. Also, the crafting menu is awful and clunky, and even though you eventually get used to it, it never feels as fluid and intuitive as it should. These seem like pretty minor nitpicks, but a lot of the game is spent crafting items and building your houses. These irritants don’t ruin the game, but they can be really annoying from time to time.

I’m loving the new indie friendly revolution in gaming because we get amazing games like Terraria. It may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy open world freedom and pixel art nostalgia, download it and enjoy. Beware, though! This game is a devious time sink. Before you know what has happened you’ll have given many hours of your life over to its charm and incredible fun. Still, it's time well sacrificed.

ALBUM REVIEW: Immortal Technique - The Martyr

This album was released over a year ago, so yeah, I am late again.  However, this does not make the artist or the album any less relevant.  Immortal Technique is an artist that people should know and hear, even if you are coming late to the game.   Born in Lima, Peru and relocating to Harlem, New York in 1980, Tech turned to rap to escape a troubled youth marred by multiple arrests and even a year in jail.  He was released from jail on parole after honing his battle rapping skills and a sense of purpose in his message.  After making a name for himself as a ferocious battle rapper in New York, he released his first album Revolutionary Vol. 1 in 2001.

From listening to his first album, it was clear that Immortal Technique was about more than just rapping over hip hop beats.   He truly desired to be a revolutionary, touching on many political and social-economic issues such as poverty, the effects of European and U.S. colonialism in third world countries, corruption, and even vegans.  Throughout the album, Tech maintains the same wit and aggressiveness as he did in his rap battles, making the impact of his rhymes even more effective.  Tracks like the underground classic “Dance With The Devil” showed Tech’s ability to maintain his passion while His flow was so engaging that it outshined the subpar production of the album, which could have been Tech’s intention from the beginning.  However, upon hearing the album, you cannot help to wonder how Tech would sound over carefully crafted beats that compliment his style.

At the time this was released, I had just started college, and the release of his first album fell under my radar.  When he dropped his 2nd album, Revolutionary Vol. 2, in 2003, I raised an eyebrow but did not sit down and listen fully.  It was not until he dropped the single “Bin Laden” with Mos Def along with the remix with Chuck D, KRS-One, and DJ Green Lantern when I really started paying attention:

MOVIE REVIEW: The Central Park Five

"Tonight alive, let's describe the inscrutable
The indisputable, we New York the narcotic
Strength in metal and fiber optics
Where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tips
For profits, thirsty criminals take pockets
Hard knuckles on the second hands of working class watches
Skyscrapers is colossus, the cost of living is preposterous
We stay alive, you play or die, no options
No Batman and Robin, can't tell between the cops and the robbers
They both partners, they all heartless
With no conscience, back streets stay darkened
Where unbeliever hearts stay hardened
My eagle talons STAY sharpened, like city lights stay throbbing
You either make a way or stay sobbing
The Shiny Apple is bruised but sweet and if you choose to eat
You could lose your teeth, many crews retreat
Nightly news repeat, who got shot down and locked down
Spotlight to savages, NASDAQ averages
My narrative, rose to explain this existence
Amidst the harbor lights which remain in the distance"

The above quote comes from rapper Mos Def off the song “Respiration.”  Released in 1998 on the album Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar, many hip-hop enthusiasts consider this verse as one of Mos Def’s best.  The appeal of his words comes from his illustration of life in New York City in the late 1990s.  Specifically, Mos Def presented listeners with his images of crime, corruption, greed, fear, and apathy created by the media, increased police presence, and growing gap between the have’s and have-not’s during an alleged economic boom.  Credit for this New York environment is given to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and his administration.  His premise in handling crime in New York was to crackdown on the minor crimes and increase police presence throughout the city.  This strategy would serve to deter all crime and decrease the crime rate in the city.

According to statistics collected during his administration, the crime rate in New York did decrease.  However, critics claimed that since the police were the ones responsible for providing the statistics, police officers often underreported the crime stats.  Furthermore, there were multiple high-profile cases of police brutality during the Giuliani era, which many rappers from New York often referenced in their music even though the stories did not get national coverage.  Many people forget that before the September 11 attacks, Giuliani’s popularity was plummeting due to his policies as well as controversy involving his personal life.  September 11 allowed him to save face and legitimized his policies on police presence throughout the city.   Depending on whom you talk to about him, Giuliani’s New York City was either a blessing or a curse.  When I moved to New York, I would talk to one person and he or she would complain about how fun New York used to be before Giuliani came in.  I would then talk to another person, and they would say how bad the city was before Giuliani came in.  In fact, on my first job, a co-worker explained to me Giuliani’s plan.  After he was finished, the first statement that I made was, “Sounds like a police state to me.”  In response, the co-worker emphasized that in order to feel safe, such measures are necessary.

BOOK REVIEW: Moments Captured - Robert J. Seidman

Eadweard Muybridge was the late 19th century photographer who pioneered the methods of imaging that would eventually lead to the modern motion picture. He was also a volatile personality with a complicated history, one which novelist Robert J. Seidman speculates and expands upon for the purposes of his novel Moments Captured.

Seidman’s account begins in the remote American west in the late 1860’s. Muybridge is an ambitious photographer taking his bulky mobile photo studio over the vast American wilderness. He meets and begins a torrid relationship with feminist dancer Holly Hughes, a sexual dynamo who revolutionizes Eadweard’s life and world view. They fall in love and head west together to San Francisco. There Holly scandalizes polite society while Eadweard becomes ensconced with railroad tycoon and technology enthusiast Leland Stanford. Stanford, as well as being Eadweard’s chief patron, is Holly’s main antagonist and target of her righteous fury.

The story follows a course of cultural crusades, hard won victories of invention and romantic jealousies that all lead to a shocking murder. Seidman’s plot is fascinating and the liberties he takes with history compress the culture of post-civil war America into a blur of artistic invention and adventurous discovery. Yet the book suffers from the author’s obsessive and redundant detail in his characters’ sexual encounters.

When one has a fulsome and rambunctious story, so clearly bridling to be told, slowing to focus on the sensate details of sex, seemingly every few pages, for a dominant portion of the book, though it might be intended to deepen sympathy and heighten visceral involvement, slows the story to a clumsy undisciplined crawl. I found myself rolling my eyes every time the story seemed on the verge of yet another torrid encounter and the prose could be seen gathering its energy to plunge again into descriptions of breasts, penis, thighs and pungent juices. I do not object in the slightest to prominent sexuality in fiction but this novel lingers until the passionate becomes lurid, and the titillating, turgid. At the expense of what is otherwise a fascinating subject and a terrific yarn of Guilded Age Americana.

TELEVISION OPINION: An Ode To Young Justice and the Comic Book Animated Universe

The two comic book juggernauts, Marvel and DC, have put a lot of their attention in putting their characters on the big screen. As businesses, you cannot blame them.  They have the opportunity to reach so many more people in movies with their characters (or intellectual property if you want to look at it that way), and the revenue gained from DVD/Blu-Ray sales, Pay-Per-View, and syndication is pretty hefty. The problem is that these movies can take a long time to make.  Also, when using real actors, a producer or director’s vision is limited to what technology and the studio’s bank account can spare. For awhile, no one thought comic book movies were marketable.  Now, you don’t stand a chance to break even unless the movie IS based on a comic book. It is crazy how far the adaptation of comic books for other media has gone. 

However, I have always felt that the television-animated universe from both companies has largely been underappreciated. The cartoons about these heroes are what kept them relevant throughout the years. They also kept our appetites satisfied between the blockbuster movies. I wish more people would support these shows because they generally have a hard time lasting more than a couple seasons, with a few exceptions. Both Marvel and DC have released high quality animated series with great writing, character development, plot development, and voice acting. Many of these shows deserve as much critical acclaim as the best primetime dramas on ABC or HBO. They will always have a soft spot in my heart; these shows were a big part of my youth and still garner my attention more than any other popular television program that exists. That isn’t saying much since most television programs have become reality TV garbage. But even compared to the best current programs, a lot of these animated shows are just as good, if not better.

That’s not to say that both Marvel and DC have made some controversial decisions along the way.  Back in 2009, the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment LLC for some ridiculous amount of money.  At the time, many looked at it as a mistake, but nowadays whoever came up with the idea is considered a genius. However, after acquiring Marvel, the powers-that-be made two decisions regarding animated shows that left many fans scratching their heads.

BAND INTERVIEW: Murder By Death

     It's tempting to say that if this were a fair universe, Bloomington, Indiana's Murder By Death would be a household name in American music, but anyone who knows their distinct brand of dark and eclectic music knows that, like Tom Waits' oeuvre, it's probably just a little too weird for broad public consumption. Like many artists of their stripe though, they have developed a strong following in rock and roll's murky underworld, and those who know the talents of Murder By Death tend to know them very well indeed. Their musical ability is unassailable, and in their decade as a band they've shown themselves more than capable of capturing any mood or atmosphere they choose, it's just that what they choose seems to be on the stranger side of things.

Past albums have allowed listeners to meet zombie children, doomed sailors, dangerous women, wanted men, all manner of thieves, brigands, outlaws, and even the devil himself. All the wild things that roam the deserts, mountains, and plains of the American subconscious are there populating their country-tinged rock and roll.

September 25th will mark the release of their sixth LP, entitled Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, and bassist Matt Armstrong graciously took some time out to talk to Invisible Vanguard about their new album, new band member, and the new approach to marketing that Kickstarter has provided....


INVISIBLE VANGUARD: Murder By Death has built their reputation on delivering consistently strong albums that each have a distinct flavor. How will Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon stand apart from your previous efforts? Are there any particular themes that went into this release?

MATT ARMSTRONG: Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon will certainly stand out sonically from all of our other releases. I think that's going to be the first thing people will notice when they hear the album. Thematically it isn't really a concept album, but there are some recurring ideas. A lot of it involves the idea of thinking you're in a nice, quiet town, but it turns out there's a seedy underbelly. Think "Twin Peaks" or "Blue Velvet" without the backwards talking and gas-huffing.

IV: It appears that the Kickstarter campaign has been a great success. Does it feel different to have fans give directly to you, rather than through standard sales? Has it changed the way the new album was produced or marketed?

MA: In certain ways it feels the same because so little of our income really comes from labels and things like that. We've always relied heavily on selling merchandise directly to fans either on tour or online. That being said, the Kickstarter campaign was a bit of a different animal. I like that it allowed people to choose their level of involvement. On one hand, a fan could come to our show and buy a record from us for twenty bucks, or that same fan could check out the Kickstarter and decide to spend X amount of dollars and get a really cool, unique prize. We've always tried to be accessible to people who support us, but with this campaign it's like "Do I want to buy a shirt and do shots with the band at the show or do I want to save up and have the band send me postcards once a tour?" So I guess maybe it's not that the marketing is super-different so much as it's way more involved and extensive.

IV: Will the new album have a standard release as well as the Kickstarter?

MA: The album will still have a standard release. The Kickstarter was primarily for the vinyl editions and as a means to dish out the cool prizes and adventures.

IV: You've offered some fairly crazy treats for backers on your campaign, how did you all decide on those? More to the point, how did you convince Dagan to get a fan-chosen tattoo?

MA: Some of the ideas had been around a long time, such as the house shows/playing a wedding/etc. We've always wanted to do those kinds of things but it has always been tricky to schedule because of tours or finances or whatever. We figured this way we could let it be known to anyone that cared that we are open to these ideas. As far as the tattoo goes, Dagan just has a thing for funny tattoos, so that one was a no-brainer. We're going to have to record 15 or so covers because of the Kickstarter, too. People often ask us why we don't cover certain songs, and this gave us the chance to say, "Well, what do you want to hear? Let's do it!"

IV: How has the addition of Scott Brackett (previously of Okkervil River) to the lineup changed the way songs are written and/or performed? Does it alter the band dynamic to a substantial degree?

MA: Adding a new person to a band always changes things to some degree. A new person means a new set of skills, a new social dynamic, and another opinion. We're really lucky to have Scott because he's really talented at a lot of different instruments and he fits right in with the existing group dynamic. Having a really talented person who's a jerk can really screw things up for a band. He adds cool touches to old songs and has lots of great ideas for new songs. It definitely adds to the live show and recording.

IV: This will be your sixth LP and first for Bloodshot records. When you're writing for a new album now, do you guys approach it differently than you did ten years ago?

MA: In a sense, yes. If you do this kind of thing long enough you're able to look back and see what has and hasn't worked for you. Hopefully you learn from your missteps in the past and hopefully you've grown as a player. One major difference that comes to mind is that in the past everyone was trying to play all the time. Sometimes it takes you a while to know your place. That old saying about never missing a chance to shut up is very pertinent to writing music. After a while you learn how to lay back when you need to, so when you do play something it matters.

IV: What's next for MBD? What goals do you have in sight for the band?

MA: There will obviously be touring. We love to travel and still have a lot of the world to see, so we're very much looking forward to getting to some new places. We'd absolutely love to do soundtrack work as well. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get into some of that soon.

IV: Anything else you want people to know?

MA: We are so lucky to have such great fans. Thank you all for making our shows amazing and for all the support for the Kickstarter. We really couldn't do this without you.

Thanks to Matt Armstrong and all of Murder By Death! Check out their website for tour dates and make sure to preorder Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon.

ALBUM REVIEW: Aesop Rock - Skelethon

It's been five years since Aesop Rock last released an album, but in the time since 2007's amazing None Shall Pass, Aesop has been busy. Unfortunately, he's been busy dealing with everything life could throw at him: a friends' passing, the dissolution of his marriage, and the indefinite suspension of activity by Def Jux Records. Like any artist, Aesop put all of that into his work, and with his newest release, Skelethon, he has spun life's dross into gold.

The thing about Aesop Rock albums is that you either get it or you don't. There are no tales of guns, drugs, or ghetto violence on his records. Aesop's rhymes come more from the encyclopedia than from inner city streets, though the topics he broaches are universal. His lyrics are more abstract and verbose than most hip-hop artists, and he fills in his stories with sensory information, comparisons, and references far beyond the norm for the genre. It's virtually cut-up rap, and William Burroughs would be proud. Skelethon is no exception to these tendencies, and it's an album that is information dense, with phrases and lines that reveal multiple meanings on their own, and still more when considered in context.

Any listeners to Aesop's older albums will notice that his relationship to his beats is still evolving. He was never one to trot out an old tired breakbeat, but on Skelethon, not only are the beats and accompanying music a cut above, but the way he sets up his vocal flow on top of those beats seems more advanced. Album opener "Leisureforce" has a groove to it, but with the skittery beat and Aes's off-kilter wordsmithing, it's hard to know where that groove comes from. The album's first single "Zero Dark Thirty," with its crisp drums and murky electronics, brings the dark urgency that Aesop has become known for, and "Fryerstarter" drills into your head with its downtempo science-fiction bleep-and-grind.

There are odd surprises around every corner on this release, like the tale of a faithful beagle rescuing a drowning toddler from the family swimming pool in "Ruby '81," or the wry humor of "Racing Stripes," with lyrics that start at crazy hairstyles and get stranger from there. Rob Sonic makes an appearance and Kimya Dawson offers a childlike vocal melody on "Crows 1," but overall, Skelethon feels solitary, like it was made during late nights spent in rooms with just the man himself working the knobs. Considering the past five years, he may indeed have wanted to be alone to create this release, but if nothing else, at least he can be satisfied in knowing that he's made something great. Skelethon is a rewarding listen that will cause words and images to drift back into your head long after the last track ends.

ALBUM REVIEW: Rick Ross - God Forgives, I Don't

In no other music genre, credibility matters in rap music just as much if not more than the ability to make good music.  Much of this attitude comes hip-hop culture's obsession with authenticity or "being real."  It could also stem from the media's obsession of exposing public figures of their true characters ever since the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. Reporters realized that finding dirt on famous people is big business, and the media has never been the same since.  As quick as they are to put stars on a pedestal, the media is quick to take them down. Naturally, hip hop culture reflects this mentality, for many hip hop enthusiasts criticized anyone who did not live the life that they talk about in their music.  Neither hardcore gangsta rappers nor politically driven emcees are safe.  If you start gaining notoriety, then expect the dirt to come out.  Expect any action, quote, or opinion to be overly scrutinized. The microscope is on you, so you better have yourself prepared for the storm.

Hip-hop is strange, though.  Despite this attitude, some rappers escape the mega criticism others face.  The media will attack them.  Other emcees will spend verse upon verse disparaging their reputation, usually to gain more notoriety themselves.  However, these rappers march on to super stardom.  The best example is Ice Cube.  As a founding member of NWA and as a solo artist, he was one of the icons of gangsta rap in the early 1990s.  Funny thing is he had no criminal record before he started rapping.  In fact, he completed a year of college in Arizona before joining NWA.  His family was middle class, and he lived a life far from the dope stories that he told. It did not matter that much because the music was dope and also had some substance.  He also had some respect for the culture, which is something Vanilla Ice lacked, leading to his tragic yet hilarious downfall.  Ice Cube's music began to reflect his real life going into the 2000s, but surprisingly, fans clamored for him to return to his gangsta form.  He eventually did with 2006's Laugh Now, Cry Later, and it received positive reviews and some commercial success.  As much as a rapper deals with the critics about his or her background, the bottom line is that if the music is banging, then the public does not care about their lives outside of it.