Music Monday: Ryan Adams

My usual weekend recap never got written yesterday, because I was enjoying snuggling by the fire, reading and listening to Ryan Adams, too much to fetch my laptop.  I have become obsessed with his music lately, particularly 2001's Gold and recent release Ashes & Fire, and am listening to one or the other every day, so last week I was very excited to get tickets (albeit rubbish seats) for his tour in April.

I was quite torn as to which song to choose for music Monday.  Come Pick Me Up from the Heartbreaker album and Answering Bell and When The Stars Go Blue, both from Gold, are favourites, but this track, Come Home (from his new album)  just won out, partly for the beautiful slide guitar effects and partly for the lovely backing vocals sung by his wife, Mandy Moore.  I'm a sucker for a bit of romance in a song, and when they sing "Nobody has to hide/The way that they feel...I will be here for you/Standing by your side" in harmony, I defy the hardest of hearts not to feel moved.  Up top is the original album version, and below is a lovely video of Adams singing the song acoustically.  I'm not sure which I prefer.

Books: Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre

I'm a big fan of Brookmyre's writing, particularly his Jack Parlabane series, which walks the line between political satire and crime thriller.  This, his thirteenth novel, is a standalone title which ventures into the realm of fantasy while still keeping the laughs coming. 

The novel switches between two settings and groups of characters.  Firstly, an American military base deep under a mountain in the Scottish Highlands, which, for reasons that quickly become horribly clear, is home not just to the soldiers but also to a famous physicist, an MoD biologist and a Cardinal from the Vatican.  Not far away, a group of sixth formers, their teachers and school chaplain, are at an outward bound centre for a retreat, the pupils having witnessed the murder of one their friends by another student.  An 'accident' at the base on the same night as the school disco soon proves to have far-reaching consequences for all on the trip.

One of my favourite things about the novel was the extent to which the teenage characters feel realistic: sometimes sympathetic, sometimes sweet, sometimes irrational, sometimes foul.  However the reader would be well served to not get too close to any one character, as this is a book where no-one is safe.  There is plenty of gore in Pandaemonium but it's of the cartoonish variety, where a horrific death often comes accompanied by a belly laugh.

It's also genuinely thought-provoking stuff, posing questions about the nature of civilisation and of evil, along with Brookmyre's familiarly skeptical take on religion.  Any novel which namechecks scientist Michio Kaku and devotes a fair amount of page space to discussions of various physics theories (the 'Many Worlds' interpretation[1]  being particularly important to the plot) is ok with me, as I'm somewhat of a physics geek.  In fact, this is a book designed for geeks: the music fans catered to by mention of the playlist at the school disco which culminates in Mogwai Fear Satan; gamers having plenty to enjoy in the frequent references to multi-player shoot 'em ups and quest games.

Pandaemonium is vintage Brookmyre: clever, funny, chaotic, bloody, bloody-minded and irreverant.  I heartily recommend you take a look.

[1] First formulated by Hugh Everett, who was Mark Everett off of Eels’ dad, fact fans.

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Music Monday: Vampire Weekend

Most of my music Monday posts are about songs that I love passionately, but Vampire Weekend are, I find, hard to feel passionate about.  Their music is nice, fine, pleasant even, but I don't think those are adjectives any musician would fancy having attached to their work.  I do like the video for this song, Oxford Comma, which is directed by Richard Ayoade of The I.T Crowd fame, but what I really feel passionately about is the Oxford comma itself...

Having spent today languishing in bed with a migraine I was feeling utterly bereft of inspiration for today's post.  And then, lo!  An email appeared (with the cartoon below attached) that, were I and the sender not avowed athiests, I would attribute to divine intervention.  Suddenly the question of what to write about was solved.  Because actually, Vampire Weekend, I give a fuck about the Oxford comma.

I've done my best to find out where this comes from so I can credit the artist, but no luck.  Whoever it is, I think I might love and hate them in equal measure.  Oxford comma: good.  Lower case proper nouns: bad.

Music Monday: Karima Francis

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to a spectacular gig by Karima Francis on Friday evening and this song, Glory Days, was a highlight of her set.  She is a singer who inspires passion and devotion: this is the third gig we've been to in as many months, driving to Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham for the opportunity to hear her.  Most of this devotion is down to her incredible voice but a lot is also down to her very funny but self-effacing stage presence.  Karima is playing Nottingham Glee Club on 21st January and Camden Jazz Cafe on 10th February.  I would urge you to go and see her.

Music Monday: Tura Satana

In my late teens, after years of listening to winsome indie, my music tastes underwent an huge change.  Beginning work in an alternative club which played mostly rock and metal, my cutesy plastic hairslides were exchanged for black lipstick, and Belle & Sebastian were supplanted by Marilyn Manson and Korn.  Not that I ever stopped loving indie music, but for a good few years I was more interested in rock. 

Tura Satana were my biggest passion, mainly because of the raw power of lead vocalist Tarrie B's anguished lyrics and delivery.  Throwing the word "whore" around like it was going out of fashion (this was, of course, the era of riot grrrl, where writing "slut" on your arm in eyeliner was a feminist statement); singing lines like "got a right to dress sexy when and where I want/ without being harrassed for it/ or being told that I asked for this" (Victim); displaying a lyrical obsession with blood, pain, sickness, love, sex and Catholic iconography, all to a backdrop of thrashing guitars and heavy basslines, Tarrie B was my nineteen year old-self's version of the perfect woman, someone I aspired to be like.  My ambition in life was to be as glamorously fucked up and as articulately angry as Tarrie and it was through reading her interviews in Kerrang and poring over Tura Satana's lyrics that I started to build an idea of how a feminist woman in rock might look and sound.  She taught me how to protect myself in a mosh pit, how to have a pithy comeback ready for the men who leered at me over the bar I worked in, or felt it was their right to cop a feel on the dance floor. 

I was walking into Leicester last week, feeling full of pent-up energy and frustration, when this Tura Satana track shuffled onto my iPod and reminded me of their brilliance.  It's incredibly different to anything else I've ever posted for Music Monday, and no doubt won't be to a lot of people's tastes.  But oh, the nineteen year old deep inside me - who wonders is she will ever grow up, who thinks saying "fuck" in a song makes it way rock and roll - still glories in the screamed lines at the end of Relapse: "Don't tell me that I can't be myself, that I can't be...".

The best eleven of '11: books

First of all, it's important to note that only a few of these books were actually published in 2011.  I almost never read recent releases (unless it's trashy crime fiction: I'm always first in the library reservation queue when a new Tess Gerritsen or Ian Rankin is released), tending to buy most of my books from secondhand bookshops or charity shops.  But they are all books that I read, and loved, for the first time this year (in no particular order)...

Non-Fiction

Caitlin Moran How To Be A Woman
One book that actually was published this year and has won all sorts of well-deserved plaudits.  When I was a teenager I wanted to be Moran, who was a writer for Melody Maker by the age of 16 and presented Channel 4 yoof show, Naked City in all her Doc Martened-, red hair dyed-, size sixteen-glory.  I loved her book - which is part memoir, part feminist polemic - and still can't quite get over the fact that it won the Galaxy prize for best book of 2011 earlier this week.  Even if this book was rubbish (which it's not: it's funny and moving and incredibly clever), I'm excited that a book about feminism is at the front of WH Smiths.

Tom Hodgkinson How To Be Free
How often can one say of a book, truthfully, 'it changed my life'?  But this really did, in a hundred tiny ways: subverting certain long-held ideas about work and life, and altering my shopping habits to name just two changes.

Anne Fadiman Ex Libris: Confessions Of A Common Reader
I bought this in a dusty secondhand bookshop on a sweltering summer's day in Seattle and read it in one sitting on a freezing night in Iceland, driving my travelling companion mad as I whooped with laughter at the essays about books and reading.  There is nothing quite like coming across someone who is as barmy about books as you are; who makes your weirder habits (stroking my books every so often being one of many) seem acceptable. 

Susan Hill Howards End Is On The Landing
I read this on a very book-themed week in Wales this May, visiting the Hay Festival with my mum and brother.  Subtitled A Year Of Reading From Home, this book is a wonderful journey through literature in the company of award-winning novelist Hill.

Claire Tomalin Jane Austen: A Life
Clearly, there is a link developing here in my non-fiction reading.  Books about books; books about reading; books about authors.  This biography of Austen was incredibly readable, tempting me to tackle Tomalin's 560+ page life of Dickens next year.

Dave Eggers Zeitoun
Eggers tells the story of Zeitoun - an immigrant, a businessman, a husband and father, a Muslim - in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  After Zeitoun risked his own safety to help people during the floods, he was mistakenly arrested and held as a terrorist.  Reading it this summer in New Orleans was a raw and painful experience.

Fiction
I devour fiction, racing through two or three paperbacks a week, on average.  However, few of these have any lasting impact; perhaps because I consume them so quickly, perhaps because they tend towards the trashy.  If it features a vampire detective, a werewolf looking for love, or a time-travelling witch, I've probably read it.  However these are a few novels I've enjoyed this year, with nary a supernatural crime-fighter between them.

Stephen Chbosky The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Deservedly compared to The Catcher In The Rye, this novel follows the wallflower of the title, Charlie, through his years of high school and is brilliant, funny, wise and true.  I recognised the teenage me in the main characters as they struggle to find their places in the world, helped only by Rocky Horror, The Smiths and each other.  The final twist in the plot hits like a slug to the guts.  Heartily recommended.

Armistead Maupin Mary Ann In Autumn
I adore all of the Tales of the City series, and enjoyed this latest episode all the more for having been in San Francisco this summer.

Steve Kluger My Most Excellent Year
I have a whole shelf dedicated to 'gay themed YA novels'.  This is a well-written but essentially fluffy novel about two best friends - one gay, one straight - and their quest for love over the course of a year. 

Jennifer Egan A Visit From The Goon Squad
Deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize this year.

Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog
The latest title in Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series, strictly speaking this is genre fiction; a detective novel, yet it's so much more than the sum of it's parts.  Superbly plotted, fantastic characterisation, and with an ending that will leave you hungry for answers.

The best eleven of '11: music

I do love a good end of year list.  I played around with various permutations this year (having done seperate top fives for album, single and live music last year) and in the end decided to stick them all in together, which led to an interesting One Direction vs. Two Door Cinema Club face off. 

1. Sufjan Stevens live at The Apollo, Manchester, 19th May
It was interesting to see Sufjan Stevens' concert at the Southbank centre (together with this Manchester date one of few he played in the UK this year) on many end of year 'best of' lists, often from theatre or art critics rather than rock music writers.  Not just the best live experience of 2011, but the best of my life I reckon.  You can read my detailed review here.

2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
I was so excited about this release after loving Fleet Foxes' debut album and experiencing their incredible live show in 2009.  I rarely buy CDs as soon as they come out, but I had Helplessness Blues on pre-order, so desperate was I to hear it.  On first listen I was every so slightly underwhelmed, but it really is a record that rewards repeated listening.  It was my constant companion as I travelled in the Pacific Northwest this summer, sounding at home amongst the towering pine trees.  The whole album is close to perfection (Sim Sala Bim striking the only false note for me), but album closer Grown Ocean is my choice for favourite track. 

3. Beirut - The Rip Tide
My love of this album has been documented here before, so I won't harp on again about it's brilliance.  Suffice it to say that three months after it's release I still play it constantly, and it's increased my appreciation of the previous albums too.

4. Metronomy - The English Riviera
Reminiscent, as the band intended, of an English seaside resort, I've played this less as the seasons have changed.  Just as I listen to Midlake a lot during winter, Metronomy's second album belongs to the summer months and I predict it will make a return to my stereo come April.

5. Karima Francis live at The Glee Club, Birmingham, 30th September
Reviewed here.

6. Two Door Cinema Club - What You Know (single)
This gloriously jangly guitar-pop single (from the 2010 album Tourist History) makes me grin like a loon and dance around the kitchen whenever I hear it.  It was a tough choice between this and One Direction for the top single spot, but the fact that I'm not embarrassed to like Two Door Cinema Club edged it for them.

7. One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful (single)
Time hasn't blunted my love for this slice of cheesy pop heaven.  I still squeal when it comes on the radio, we had a little singalong to it at my last craft club, and when it was played at the year 7 Christmas party I chaperoned, I think I might have been more excited than the kids.  Wrong, I know.

8. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
Hailed by music critics as being a return to his Gold-era form, this would be in my top ten for the title track alone. 

9. Feist - How Come You Never Go There (single)
I loved this lead single from Feist's new record, Metals, but have been a little disappointed by the album.

10. Jeffrey Lewis live at Lock 42, Leicester, 29th OctoberIf only because we got to stand next to the man himself during the support act.

11. Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix
Single Lights Out Words Gone is one of the best things they've done.  I can't wait to see them in 2012.

To come later this week: books.  In the meantime, let me know what your top gigs and records were in 2011.

Music Monday: The Smiths

When I first left home for university it was a conceit of mine to listen to this song when I returned home, as the coach pulled into the bus station.  Bradford, a northern town as grim and bleak as any Morrissey ever sang about; were it not for my family I would certainly have felt that "I would rather not go/Back to the old house". 

Driving past the house I grew up in  - my mum having long moved - on Christmas Eve, I began singing this again.  A masterpiece of longing, as so many of The Smiths' songs are, Back To The Old House conjures that precise mixture of regret and jubilation one feels on returning to a place you have previously escaped.  

Music Monday: the saddest Christmas song ever

I love this melancholy, beautiful song from the 1940s musical Meet Me In St Louis.  And ok, so it might not be the saddest but it's certainly one of the most bittersweet in the Christmas canon.  If I knew lots about music I could probably point out that it sounds sad because of a descending minor chord progression in the chorus or something, but I don't so I won't.  For me, it's all about Garland's delivery; the way she makes the line "let your heart be light" sound anything but light and cheerful.  Today I'm feeling exhausted, headachey, sick of children and horrified that we still have another three days of school to get through, so melancholy suits me down to the ground.

Music Monday: Sufjan Stevens

One Christmas a few years ago I decided that what my Sufjan Stevens-loving (but Christmas-hating) brother needed to give him some festive cheer was the five CD box set Songs For Christmas.  The fact that I could listen to this gift in the run-up to Christmas, before wrapping it and putting it under the tree, was entirely a lucky coincidence.

So Christmas Day dawned and we gathered around the tree to open our gifts.  A few presents in, I came to one which was a very familiar size and shape, but addressed to me from Richard.  Having a hunch what it might be, I handed him his gift and, at pretty much the same time, we opened our identical copies of Songs For Christmas.  Mine had also been 'previewed' by the giver.

There is so much to love on those five EPs, from original compositions such as Sister Winter (which to my mind is as good a song as Stevens has ever written) to new arrangements of classic carols like Oh Holy Night and Amazing Grace.  I've chosen Joy To The World to share today because it takes a carol that is somewhat rambunctious and over the top and turns it into a gentle and reflective hymn.  Plus it has sleigh bells, as all good Christmas tunes should.