The Tragic Treasury: Songs from a Series of Unfortunate Events

Gothic Archies

Title: The Tragic Treasury
Band: The Gothic Archies (see Stephin Merritt, The Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, Future Bible Heroes)

The story: Daniel Handler, who plays for the Magnetic Fields, is the author of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Stephin Merritt recorded a bunch of original songs under the Gothic Archies brand for the audiobook versions, and this is the compilation.

My take: I haven't read the books, so I have no comment to make on how appropriate the songs are for the story, but i will say this: this is probably the best Magnetic Fields record in years. The arrangements sound much more like the main project than the earlier New Despair EP, so if you like the synthpop MF more than the I MF, you will probably like this. The lyrics are silly, but honestly, it doesn't detract much.

Last thoughts: It is weird to me to think that a Stephin Merritt record might be some little kid's favorite car CD. That kid has a strange life in store. Wait till he finds Holiday or Charm of the Highway Strip.

Bluefinger

Black Francis

This year, former Pixies frontman Charles Thompson put out a solo record–not, as was the case in the past ten years, as Frank Black–as Black Francis. As such was he known in the Pixies, and the claim that was widely circulating was that it was a return to that style that prompted the name change. Fans of the Pixies have been waiting, primed, for a new Pixies record since the reunion was announced a few years ago, and no doubt this got their attention. I come at it from the other side, because I like the Pixies, but I really like the work released as Frank Black (+ and the Catholics, + and Teenage Fanclub). So I was a little wary, but after all, he had been working with Joey Santiago on his recent records, and the reformed Pixies played all of those shows, so perhaps he had recaptured the spirit of the Pixies after all.

But then, of course, the first track on Bluefinger is "Captain Pasty," which, honestly, sounds like a Catholics-era B-side. The lyrics are slightly more nonsensical than regular Frank Black, but the singing is pretty straightforward Show Me Your Tears, not much at all like Trompe Le Monde (the last Pixies release, the last legitimate Black Francis vocals). The second track "Threshold Apprehension" is at least halfway Pixies-esque, and maybe it was the inspiration for the name change, but then there is a track that sounds like a Stray Cats pastiche, and another vaguely Catholics-y song, before "Tight Black Rubber" again half sounds like something that you would be willing to call  Black Francis.  Four songs later, "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It" is almost hard enough to be a Black Francis song, and he tries his best to scream it out. But that's it: 3 songs out of 11 sound anything like what you would expect the record to sound like after the name change.

I'm not sure that's a fair assessment. The man certainly has the right to call himself whatever he wants, and why can't Black Francis in 2007 sound different from Black Francis in 1991? He has aged 16 years, after all. And Fast Man Raider Man, his last Frank Black release, really doesn't sound a damn thing like Teenager of the Year, the iconic Frank Black record. But there you have it. We were expecting a Pixies record.

Is the record terrible? Certainly not. Is it inspiring? I would say no also. Honeycomb is still the best of the recent crop. Dog In The Sand is incredible. Pistolero was strong before it. Teenager of the Year is a classic. Bluefinger is merely good.

An addendum here: if you follow the links over to last.fm, you will see that my profile is reporting this record as being by "Frank Black Francis," an oddity of last.fm's database that awaits correction. I assure you I have my records properly tagged.

The Stage Names

Okkervil River

This year, Okkervil River released a record called The Stage Names. I'm sure everybody has Black Sheep Boy already, and I know a lot of people went out and picked up records from the Okkervil back catalog after BSB came out, so I won't bother saying to much about the band itself here. My experience with them has been principally this: on every album there is a song that makes you say "THIS! Why couldn't the rest of the album have been like this!" So when I think about Okkervil River after the fact, I usually think of them as a band that isn't living up to their potential somehow, but that's not fair. I never complain when I listen to them.

A number of years ago, Jesus, 98 or 99, I guess, Jets to Brazil put out a record called Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which made its way around in my little musical circle, being loaned from person to person, with each person eventually going out and buying their own copy. That album has an incredible first three songs. Sometimes I think that's the best way to get people into a record: stack the best three songs at the top. If someone is amazed for three songs in a row, they will buy the record.

I'm making the comparison here, but I'm not going so far as to say this is another Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which is a kind of top 10 record, but I am pretty sure that if you get to a music store where this is on a listening station, and play the first three tracks, you will walk out with the record. If you have the ability to find songs on the internet to preview, that is "Our Life is Not a Movie Or Maybe," "Unless It's Kicks," and "A Hand To Take Hold of the Scene." For the record, after that is the beautiful but much lower-key "Savannah Smiles," which makes 4 very strong songs to open. My favorite of the record, though, is number 6, "A Girl In Port," although as with many of my favorite songs¹ the lyrics probably don't bear printing out. 

The last three tracks are the weakest in my opinion, though I'm sure there is someone that they appeal to. 8 reminds me of "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" by Elvis Presley, or, for a small minority of you, UB-40. And 9, well, You will figure out what 9 reminds me of soon enough. So 6 good songs out of 9 (I know I didn't mention track 5, but it's good too), and in general, an album that is a worthy successor to Black Sheep Boy.

1. This does not apply to the Weakerthans (see my last review), who usually turn out songs that make absolute sense if you write them as prose. Try it sometime.

Reunion Tour

The Weakerthans

Out September 25th is Reunion Tour by the Weakerthans. In an email to my best friend and old bandmate Rick, I asked him if he was at all familiar with the Weakerthans (the rate at which we pass bands back and forth is unpredictable — I gave him Okkervil River about three months after I got into them, but I couldn't recall a single discussion about the Weakerthans in the six years since I got Fallow as a birthday present from a conscientious girlfriend), to which he responded by sending me a bunch of mp3s from Reconstruction Site, before I timidly admitted that I was asking for his edification, not my own.

After listening to the record half a dozen times (enough, no doubt, to push them past MC Frontalot on my last.fm band roster for the #10 spot), I've come to this decision: it's not Fallow. If you are in the other camp, it's not Left and Leaving. But, like Reconstruction Site, it is a fantastic record. See if you don't like "Tournament of Hearts" and "Sun in an Empty Room." Fans of the last record's "Plea from a cat named Virtute" will be happy to see her return in "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure," and then sad when they get to the end of the title. Fans of hockey, I suppose, will enjoy the "Elegy for Gump Worsley," though I have to admit that it didn't particularly touch me.

I guess every band can be identified with one particular song–one you can put on and say "this is what they sound like"–for me, that song has been "Letter of Resignation" from Fallow. It is the ringtone now of the girl who gave me the record. I forgot to put my phone on vibrate on the way out the door, and it rang in my pocket today at work. To me, that is what the Weakerthans sound like. Chugging, muted barre chords, threatening to break out into pop-punk, but suddenly saved by a thin voice and a sweet melody and clever lyrics. There are a few songs on Reunion Tour that don't quite fit into that mold. The opening song, "Civil Twilight," begins with some rotary speaker effect that doesn't exist elsewhere in the Weakerthans catalog, before settling into a more traditional sound, and "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" (more hospitals and doctors) is pretty far from the "Letter" sound. Others, like "Tournament of Hearts," would fit on an earlier record seamlessly. "Night Windows," for some reason, sounds like Death Cab for Cutie to me.

This one doesn't really require much thought. If you like the Weakerthans, you will like this. If you're not sure, you should at least give it a try. If you don't like the Weakerthans, you may want to try another blog. There are just thousands and thousands of them now, and one of them is bound to be more to your liking.