William Gibson is one of my favorite writers.
Parker lies in the darkness, recalling the thousand fragments of the hologram rose. A hologram has this quality: Recovered and illuminated, each fragment will reveal the whole image of the rose. Falling toward delta, he sees himself the rose, each of his scattered fragments revealing a whole he’ll never know — stolen credit cards — a burned-out suburb — planetary conjunctions of a stranger — a tank burning on a highway — a flat packet of drugs — a switchblade honed on concrete, thin as pain.
— from “Fragments of a Hologram Rose” (1977), collected in Burning Chrome (1986)
I love how, in the course of a paragraph, Gibson simultaneously invents a completely fictional technology and then employs it poetically to convey real, subtly creeping emotion. Blew me away when I first read it in high school, and blows me away now.
I’m deeply bummed I’m gonna miss his interview at CUNY this weekend, but I’m off to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, where I’ll be on the hunt for real holographic roses.
I can’t seem to find it on the web to link to it, but my friend Josh points me towards a bit of Radiohead news via tipster newssheet TripWire:
On a more surprising note, O’Brien revealed that uber-producer and longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich will not be involved with the new record. Rather, they have decided to go with Mark “Spike” Stent, who has worked in the past with U2, Madonna and Bjork. Oh yeah, and the Spice Girls.
O’Brien added: “It’s not an end of an era, (but) part of what your realise as a band is that all those records you made with Nigel, apart from Hail To The Thief we were a little bit in the comfort zone. That’s why you make records like Kid A after OK Computer, that’s why you make OK Computer after The Bends, you’ve got to do stuff that you’re scared of doing. With Nigel, we’ve been working together for 10 years, and we all love one another too much.”
At any rate, I’m sure Pitchfork’ll be all up in that shit soon, especially ’cause it also mentions that they’ll be playing some shows and offering some new tunes for download come spring.
The Godrich news is certainly surprising, and could be really cool.
(Huh, the band’s recording blog seems to no longer exist.)
“Young Ones” – Icy Demons
from Icy Demons (2004)
released by Cloud Recordings (buy)
(File expires January 10th.)
After thrilling out repeatedly to their self-titled 2004 debut, I finally caught Icy Demons last month at the Bowery Ballroom, opening for Prefuse 73. Their music was as weird and otherworldly as it is on Icy Demons, at once atmospheric and way outside, while still being performed by a fluid, churning band. It is the type of music, filled with Martian grace, that I can’t really fathom being performed by humans, yet there they were. A rare contemporary album worth spending 44 consecutive minutes with.
My mind is on the blink. One more night in Hoboken kept 2005 in suspended animation, so the New Year doesn’t really begin ’til I wake up tomorrow. So it goes. One more night, a few more bust-outs (finally got “Tiny Birds”), one more version of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’Aime.” Happy Hanukah. Thanks, YLT.
Yo La Tengo at Maxwell’s
1 January 2006
*(Hanukah, night 8)*
Lois and FruitBoots opened.
Mix disc by Cornelius.
Holiday (Madonna)
Eight Day Weekend (Gary Lewis)
Cherry Chapstick
Decora
Season of the Shark
The Summer
Autumn Sweater
Satellite
Tiny Birds
Nowhere Near
Sudden Organ
Styles of the Times
Tom Courtenay
Blue Line Swinger
Eight Days A Week (The Beatles)
*(encore)*
Matter of Trust (Billy Joel, with, ahem, Matter of Trust, featuring Jons Benjamin & Glaser, Todd Barry, etc.)
Rocks Off (The Rolling Stones)
Don’t Make My Baby Blue (Cynthia Weill/Barry Mann, with Lois on vocals and Bruce Bennett on guitar)
Je T’Aime (Serge Gainsbourg, with Lois and Gaylord Fields)
Dream A Little Dream of Me (W. Schwant/F. Andre/ G. Kahn, with Lois on vocals)
Never thought I’d be so glad to spend New Year’s in Jersey. Probably some holes below, but so it goes. Lotta strands in ol’ Duder’s head. Fun stuff — falsetto overdrive after midnight (“1999”); costumes; thin, wild mercury music (“I Wanna Be Your Lover”); Georgia balladry (“Gee, the Moon is Shining Bright”); New Year’s resolutions (“Sugarcube”), and the infinitely charming Wreckless Eric eating an apple while crooning Serge Gainsbourg (“Je T’Aime,” untranslatable to tape). Happy New Year’s.
Yo La Tengo at Maxwell’s
31 December 2005
*(Hanukah, night 7)*
The Scene is Now and Fred Armisen opened.
Mix discs by James and RJD2.
(much of set with various members of The Scene is Now and/or Fred Armisen on drums.)
1999 (Prince, Fred Armisen as Prince.)
When U Were Mine (Prince, with Armisen)
Stockholm Syndrome
Upside Down
Tears Are In Your Eyes
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Bob Dylan)
As the Hour Grows Late
Center of Gravity
Xmas Trip (Run-On)
Gee, The Moon is Shining Bright (The Dixie Cups)
Little Eyes
Sugarcube
The Story of Jazz
Big Day Coming (fast version)
Deeper Into Movies
Mushroom Cloud of Hiss
instrumental (Georgia on guitar)
Our Way to Fall
*(encore)*
False Alarm tease >
Let’s Compromise (Information, with everybody)
Red Rubber Ball (Paul Simon, with Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby)
Je T’Aime (Serge Gainsbourg, with Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby)
Yellow Sarong
An utterly surprising set, featuring former Rolling Thunder Revue multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield on violin (“the boy with the Botticelli face” — Allen Ginsberg) and all the quiet folkiness and obscure covers that’ve been conspicously scarce for much of the run. Nearly every selection felt like a forgotten (or newly remembered) treat, from the Camp Yo La Tengo “Tom Courtenay” to a random-ass T-Bone Burrnett cover to Georgia’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful take on the Blonde on Blonde outtake “I’ll Keep It With Mine.”
Yo La Tengo at Maxwell’s
30 December 2005
*(Hanukah, night 6)*
The Volcano Suns and Raisin opened.
Mix disc by Ira.
(entire set with David Mansfield on violin)
Night Falls on Hoboken
Tom Courtenay (quiet version)
Did I Tell You?
Griselda (Peter Stampfel)
Pablo and Andrea
Black Hole (The Urinals)
Something To Do
We’re An American Band
I’m Coming Home (T-Bone Burnett)
Alyda
From Black to Blue
How Much I’ve Lied (Gram Parsons)
Little Eyes
For Shame of Doing Wrong (Richard Thompson)
Sugarcube
I Heard You Looking
I’ll Keep It With Mine (Bob Dylan)
*(encore)*
Autumn Sweater
Can’t Make It On Time (The Ramones, with Volcano Suns guitarist)
Definitely Clean (Steve Wynn, with Volcano Suns guitarist and Peter Prescott on vocals)
I wasn’t there, but thanks to the help of Christopher, Neil, OneLouderNYC, and Ira’s diary, I think I’ve reconstructed the setlist for last night’s show. Looks like fun, with a nice seasonal clump in the middle. (No “I Live in the Springtime,” though.) All corrections welcome, of course.
Also, yesterday, the New York Times featured Laura Sinagra’s very nice review of night 3. (Registration logins here.)
Yo La Tengo at Maxwell’s
29 December 2005
*(Hanukah, night 5)*
Half-Japanese and Louis C.K. opened.
Mix disc by Pee-Wee’s Playhouse designer Gary Panter
Beautiful World (Devo)
From A Motel 6
Today Is The Day
Detouring America With Horns
Season of the Shark
Winter A Go Go
Autumn Sweater
The Summer
Car Gears Stick in Reverse, Daring Driver Crosses Town Backwards (with Jad Fair)
Principal Punishes Students with Bad Impressions and Tired Jokes (with Jad Fair)
Little Eyes
Five-Cornered Drone (Crispy Duck)
Tom Courtenay
Heroin (Velvet Underground, Roky Erickson arrangement)
*(encore)* with David Johansen on vocals
After the Fox (Burt Bacharach)
Out in the Streets (Jeff Berry and Ellie Greenwich)
Doin’ All Right (The Fugs, with Bruce Bennett on guitar)
Chinese Rocks (Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers)
Who Are the Mystery Girls? (New York Dolls).
BoingBoing points to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s announcement of a settlement with Sony over their heinous digital rights management systems. I’m sure DRM isn’t dead, but it’s a step in the right direction. According to the BBC, the anti-privacy lawsuit filed by Texas is still pending.
(No Yo La Tengo for me last night. I stayed home and cleaned my room. True story. Scroll down for reports from the first four nights, or click on the new YLT link over thar on the right, and watch this space for reports on the Friday and Saturday shows. And email me if you have a Thursday setlist.)
I imagine twilight landings are sublime pretty much anywhere, but I especially enjoy coming down over sprawl. I love how literally one can see civilization’s grid wired across the landscape.
The following photos weren’t taken with my cell camera, though there’s a similar limitation. Since I was shooting through the plane window, I couldn’t use a flash. Given the speed of the plane, and the bending of the lights, the results are nothing like the magisterial order of semi-urban suburbia (what I was hoping to get), but are nifty nonetheless.
(Thanks to Ariella for the posting title…)
It’s just a wonder to me that I can see Tortoise and the Sun Ra Arkestra on consecutive nights, on a tiny-ass stage, playing both by themselves and with Yo La Tengo. The Arkestra was in fine form, digging deep and weird, and coming up with “I am Gonna Unmask The Batman,” a cut from the cosmos-spanning Singles anthology that YLT has drawn from repeatedly.
Like the Arkestra, YLT’s set was, by turns, sloppy, inspired, and joyous. Highlights included a gorgeous “Beach Party Tonight” opener, a half-dozen impromptu Stax-on-Saturn horn arrangements, an overdriven “Big Day Coming” (with trombone blowing a mutated Dixieland counterpoint to the two-note riff), and a full-charge segue into an even-more-overdriven “Little Honda.”
I’m, er, skipping tomorrow. So, if anybody goes and wants to pass a aetlist along, I’d be happy to post it.
Yo La Tengo at Maxwell’s
28 December 2005
*(Hanukah, night 4)*
The Sun Ra Arkestra and Jon Glaser and Jon Benjamin opened.
Mix disc by WFMU‘s Small Change.
(“Beach Party” through “Double Dare,” and “Clumsy Grandmother” through “Nuclear War” with members of the Arkestra.)
Beach Party Tonight
Georgia vs. Yo La Tengo
Don’t Have To Be So Sad
Out the Window
Double Dare
Tears Are In Your Eyes
Stockholm Syndrome
Walking Away From You
Can’t Forget
Clumsy Grandmother Serves Delicious Dessert by Mistake
Deeper Into Movies
Big Day Coming (fast) >
Little Honda (Beach Boys)
Nuclear War (Sun Ra)
*(encore)*
I Dream of Jeannie (Hypnolovewheel, with Stephen Hunking on guitar and vocals)
(I Live For) Cars and Girls (The Dictators, with Todd Abramson of Maxwell’s on vocals)
Dreaming (Sun Ra)
