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Friday, January 09, 2009 ( 1/09/2009 07:09:00 AM ) Bill S. YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE IN YOUR DREAMS. Recently had my blog review schedule disrupted, but it was for good cause. Back in November, I received a review copy of an upcoming CD, The Maxes Sing Al Hoffman, which was scheduled to come out on the rockabilly/cabaret duo's own self-distributed label. Hoffman, a prolific Tin Pan Alley tunesmith, had his hand in such standards as "Takes Two to Tango," "Heartaches," "Fit As A Fiddle" and "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked A Cake." He was also Josh Max's great-uncle, which is how the singer/songwriter originally discovered the man's fecund catalog. I enjoyed Josh and Julie's orchestrated take on Hoffman standards and obscurities, and I was ready to write a positive review of their upcoming release, when I received a note from Josh indicating that the couple has made a deal with Warner Music Group, which wants to release the disc in summer of '09 with a little sonic polishing and a few more songs on the disc. I'm happy for the twosome (reviewed their earlier eponymous disc here) and looking forward to the spiffed up version of this disc next summer . . . # | Thursday, January 08, 2009 ( 1/08/2009 06:24:00 PM ) Bill S.  "IT'S HARD TO RIDE AT NIGHT ON YOUR BICYCLE WITH NO LIGHTS TO GUIDE." Fourteen years after Mark Olson departed the Jayhawks to strum alongside Ms. Williams' Guitar, the singer/songwriter has reunited with his fellow Minnesotan Gary Louris for a new set of largely acoustic alt-country. Ready for the Flood (New West Records) contains the twosome's appealing blend of raggedy Louvin Bros.-style harmonies and hometown angst. If, at times, the results sound a little too muted in the manner of "grown-up" Nick Lowe ("Kick the Wood" and "My Gospel Song for You" even have the same church-y organ backing that the onetime Jesus of Cool currently overuses), there's still plenty here for old Jayhawks fans to admire.Those 'hawks loyalists who prefer the group when Louris started steering the band toward a poppier direction may find this two man reunion a little too dour for their tastes, though the twosome do find the space on Flood for some jauntier tracks. "Chamberlain SD" is the disc's big rocker, and it's a damn fine one: a sinister description of dragging the Missouri River that makes its chorus exhortation -- "Chamberlain wants you" -- sound like an insistent invitation to Hell. "Bloody Hands" is a mandolin-sweetened jeremiad capped by a hooky cautionary refrain ("What the mind forgets, the soul retains"), while "Doves and Stones" makes particularly strong use of Louris' Wilbury-esque inclinations. It's arguably the closest Flood comes to the later Jayhawks sound. More typically, though, the duo works a slower, folksy tempo on their moody tales of loss and cruelly irreligious times. At their best -- the quietly urgent "When the Wind Comes Up" or the wistfully positive "Life's Warm Sheets," say -- these two sons of the Midwest temper their sermonizing proclivities with neatly detailed lyrics, strongly harmonic melodies and thoughtful strumming. At their weakest (as in the release's over-serious spoken word conclusion "The Trap's Been Set"), Olson & Louris get you missing the band who once thought it was a cool idea to include Grand Funk Railroad's "Bad Time" on a disc. Still, Flood's strong tracks outnumber its snoozers. "Where are the voices that cheer your days?" the two ask in their chorus to "Wood." Right on this disc, guys . . . Labels: folk-pop # |Wednesday, January 07, 2009 ( 1/07/2009 06:14:00 AM ) Bill S. MID-WEEK MUSIC VID: Here's a no-frills video of Cheap Trick (Rick Nielsen makes funny faces!) doing "Voices." Man, I still love this band: # | Tuesday, January 06, 2009 ( 1/06/2009 06:34:00 AM ) Bill S. GOOD FENCES: Spent much of my weekend outside, away from the computer, tearing down and putting up bamboo fencing. Our backyard is walled in with a faux adobe edifice for two-thirds of the way; the west side, however, is blocked off with six-foot bamboo fence. It works to shield the back from the sometimes punishing winds that come down off Mt. Graham and also provides a break from the desert sun for our small vegetable garden. The previous fencing had been put up two years earlier by the couple who lived here before us –- and it was looking pretty weather-beaten. Even a medium-sized wind would get parts of it flapping, and there were breaks in it that our younger dog Kyan very quickly discovered. I decided to try reinforcing our new fence by sandwiching the top between strips of chicken wire: the more flexible wiring, I hoped, would suit the curve of the yard and yet be sturdy enough to withstand the wind. Wound up pricking the tips of my fingers a lot with the wire -- making it difficult to keyboard Sunday night -- but we'll see if it was worth it. Last summer during monsoon season we watched a dust devil drop into our yard and lift the lawn furniture in a mad swirl. The Arizona desert cares little for property values. But for now, at least, our good fencing looks really spiffy . . . # | Sunday, January 04, 2009 ( 1/04/2009 06:30:00 PM ) Bill S.  "DAD, I'M COMIN' TO SEE YOU!" To begin with the "x" in Hunter x Hunter does not appear to be spoken aloud -- as either "ex" or as "times," which is how I first read it. But from the way, the voice artist playing Gon reads each "x"-strewn chapter ("Encounter x Hesitation x Departure," for instance) on the first boxed set of HxH's anime series, the letter in the title of Yoshihiro Togashi's manga-turned-anime series is just a place marker between the two "Hunters."So now that we've gotten that important matter out of the way, let's take a look at the boxed set collecting the first fifteen episodes of the ten-year-old anime series based on Toshihiro Togashi's still-ongoing manga series. Released by Viz Media, the three-disc set is primarily devoted to introducing the quartet of characters who take up the opening credits. The central figure, the one peering out at us through the die-cut "x" on the front of the box set, is a young village boy named Gon Freecss. A skillful fisherman with a pole and line capable of supporting his own body weight, Gon also possesses a preternatural affinity with the creatures of the woods, particularly the large hybrid creatures called fox/bears. Gon lives with his sad-eyed Aunt Mita and believes he is an orphan, but, none-too-surprisingly, it turns out that his father Ging really is alive. Gon's old man is a Hunter, perhaps the "greatest Hunter in the entire world;" true to his profession, he travels the world in pursuit of "mysteries and hidden treasures." Once Gon learns that his father is out in the world plying his dangerous trade, he vows to find him. Best way to do that, he figures, is to himself become a Hunter. The primary story path of the first fifteen eps, then, is of young Gon making his way from his isolated village to Dulle Island, where the Hunter Exam is conducted, and beginning the grueling series of tests designed to weed out unworthy applicants. Along the way, he hooks up with three other would-be Hunters, each with his own reason for wanting to pass the exam: Leorio, the oldest, claims to only be in it for the money, though this mercenary claim later proves to be untrue; blond Kurapika wishes to become a Hunter so he can avenge the death of his family at the hands of bandits called the Phantom Troupe; while lavender-haired skater-boi Killua is striving to make up for the misdeeds of his own family of professional assassins. Of the four, the most dynamic character proves to be hot-tempered Leorio, who frequently is used as comic relief in the series. Both Kurapika and Killua come across as equally grim, though the former does get off an occasional wisecrack at Leorio's expense. Our hero Gon is open and altruistic, if more than a bit boyishly reckless: his ability to commune with "magical beasts" is a sign that he has it in him to become prime Hunter. "More than anything," we're told, "a good Hunter is loved by animals." The quartet's examination begins before they even reach Dulle Island, but, once there, they meet many of the competing applicants. Foremost among these are Hisoka the magician, a kill-crazy Joker type who wields a deadly deck of playing cards, and Tonpa, a perpetual candidate who delights in undermining his fellow contestants. The candidates are subjected to a series of grueling and mind-taxing tests (in the most lighthearted one, they're told to make sushi, a dish only one of them has even seen). The first boxed set concludes with our heroes still in the midst of Phase Three of the exam, matching wits with a group of hardened criminals who've been charged with preventing them from climbing down a tower within a prescribed time limit. At some point, presumably, our foursome will be complete their exams, though since we're never told how many phases there are, the testing could continue through a whole other set. Hunter X Hunter's animation -- as is typical for teleseries anime -- is limited, though some of the imagery can be quite evocative. Though its characters are rendered fairly seriously, in a few instances you can see manga visual conventions sneaking into the work -- as when Leoria gets a softball-sized lump on his head or angry Kurapika temporarily becomes more cartoonish. As with most Western dubs of Japanese 'toons, the young boys in the series are primarily dubbed by actresses (Gon, for instance, is done by Elinor Holt), though blustery Leorio is amusingly vocalized by Jonathan Love. As a series lead, Gon is a mite bland, particularly when placed against his more colorful peers. If he's meant to be a gateway for younger viewers, the Viz set rates the series as suitable for "Older Teens," though I've gotta admit that nothing in the first fifteen episodes struck me as too intense for a PG-13 viewership. Viz's boxed set doesn't offer much in the way of extras: a few promos for their upcoming DVD sets, an ad for Shonen Jump magazine and their line of paperbacks, plus a series of storyboards that didn't show up all that well on my twentieth century 26-inch teevee screen. No explanation anywhere on how that "x" got in the title, though. I guess if you have to ask, you don't deserve knowing . . . # | |
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