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September 2008

The Archives

  • 09.17.08
    The Infinite Jester Uncategorized | (0)
    DFW on Charlie Rose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPWh9yQbU4E
  • 09.16.08
    Album of the Year…So Far Uncategorized | (0)
    Glen Campbell Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) What a genius idea. Take Glen Campbell – an honourable journeyman who’s had his ups and downs sure, but whose rendering of Jimmy Webb’s ‘Wichita Lineman’ remains the holy grail of interpretive singing – and furnish him with a set of tunes forged by modern(ish) rock songwriters, all arranged and played with impeccable taste. The only surprise is Rick Rubin had nothing to do with it (production honours go to Julian Raymond and Howard Willing, and there are cameos by a couple of Cheap Tricksters too). Meet Glen Campbell is a masterclass in how to make a song ...
  • 09.15.08
    David Foster Wallace RIP Uncategorized | (1)
    All of us at the Revelatorium were shocked and saddened to learn that David Foster Wallace took his own life this weekend. We hope he's found some measure of peace on the other side.
  • 09.12.08
    Autumn Songs 3 Uncategorized | (0)
    Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew (IHT) Until now, Lisa Hannigan could have given lessons in how to project Elusive. All we knew of her was the voice, a deceptively spectral instrument that by turns shadowed, contradicted and chided her male leads. Although instantly Google-able as the waifish hippychick in Damien Rice’s romantic period dramas, or the playful counterpoint to Gary Lightbody on the lovely alt-country Cake Sale duet ‘Some Surprise’, she still seemed like that increasingly rare thing: an under-interviewed folk idoru. Now the ghostess is made flesh. Sea Sew is, for want of a better description, an avant-folk suite. In a ...
  • 09.11.08
    Autumn Songs 2 Uncategorized | (0)
    Colm Mac Con Iomaire – The Hare’s Corner (Plateau) Anyone who’s taken note of Frames fiddler Colm Mac Con Iomaire’s contributions to that band’s finer moments – the epic perambulations of ‘Fitzcarraldo’, the simple heart-stabbing strokes of ‘Happy’ – or watched him hunched over various dictaphones, pedals and customised gizmos during their mid-period, will express no surprise at the scope of his debut album. The title refers to the corner of a field left uncut by farmers to offer refuge for hares; this collection provides a similar service for the many orphan pieces he’s composed over the years. Recorded over two weeks ...
  • 09.10.08
    Autumn Songs 1 Uncategorized | (0)
    Jakob Dylan – Seeing Things (Columbia) Dylan the younger has come of age, inheriting the long black coat and moral heft of the old man, but without buckling under the influence. He’s also working for the family business: his first solo album might be co-distributed by Starbucks Entertainment, but it also bears that familiar fire-engine red Columbia logo. If that isn’t enough pedigree, Rick Rubin produced the sessions at his house in the Hollywood Hills. As you might have guessed, Seeing Things is a bare bones acoustic record, and while the sparsity flatters Dylan’s gorgeous baritone, which evokes a bluesier, more robust ...
  • 09.09.08
    Proulx Grit: Annie Gets Her Gun – Again Uncategorized | (2)
    True Grit
  • 09.08.08
    See That My Grave Is Kept Clean Uncategorized | (0)
    Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him
  • 09.07.08
    Middle Age Dread Uncategorized | (0)
    Back in the 14th century, Dante Alighieri wrote perhaps the definitive verse about the onset of male menopause: “Midway in his alloted threescore years and ten, Dante comes to himself with a start and realises that he has strayed from the True Way into the Dark Wood of Error.” The problem with mid-life crisis, usually considered to occur between the ages of 40 and 50, is that it happens way past the halfway mark in a man’s life. Once you hit your late thirties, as Martin Amis observed in The Information, nature’s done with you. Understandably enough, male writers are obsessed ...
  • 09.05.08
    No More Heroes Uncategorized | (0)
    Ballina Arts Centre Event