Paul Debraski–On Reading Bolaño’s Poetry (2010)

Bolaño’s poems had a pretty powerful effect on me.  Not the content so much, but just how powerful and not precious they could be.  This is not to say that Bolaño is the only one who writes like this at all–I had just locked poetry out of my life for so long, that this was [...]

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Roberto Bolano–Romantic Dogs (2006/translated 2008)

SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS-University A Capella (2009). The story goes that Ben Folds heard some a capella bands and decided to give them some airtime.  So he had them record a bunch of his songs. I have been surprised at how much I enjoy some kinds of a capella music.  Ed Helms’ stuff on The Office [...]

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Roberto Bolaño–Distant Star (1996/translated 2004)

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Chaos Rules: Live at the Trocadero (1994). It wouldn’t be a complete look at the Dead Milkmen without mentioning their one live release. Chaos Rules is a surprisingly good live set (taken from two separate concerts).  They had to leave all of the songs from their Hollywood Records discs off this collection, [...]

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Roberto Bolaño–Monsieur Pain (1999/translated 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Stoney’s Extra Stout (Pig) (1995). Of course, I can’t forget the Milkmen’s final release!  But, in fact, I had forgotten about it, so much so that when I played it again, I was totally surprised to realize that I knew and liked a number of these songs quite a bit. This disc [...]

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 14] The Part About Archimboldi (3 of 4) (2004)

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Joy (2009). This is basically Phish’s reunion disc (after a 5 year hiatus).  It opens with one of their poppiest songs, “Backwards Down the Number Line” a song that picks up where their least disc left off: with a feeling of driving down a country lane with nowhere to go, windows opens, just happy [...]

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Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All (2009)

SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-13 Songs (1990). I was so blown away by that first Fugazi disc that I immediately ran out and got this collection of their first two EPs. The strange thing to me is that even though I enjoy the disc, nothing on it really stands out as all that memorable.  I feel like Repeater [...]

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Michael Chabon–Maps and Legends (2008)

SOUNDTRACK: New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2010). Back in the 90s, it seemed like every week there was a new soundtrack featuring an unreleased song from some great alt rock band.  This meant huge sales for soundtracks, even if for the most part they weren’t solid start to finish.  In fact, mostly you got [...]

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David Lipsky–Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace (2010)

SOUNDTRACK: ALANIS MORISETTE-Jagged Little Pill (1995). In this book, DFW considers himself to be absolutely useless when it comes to music.  He doesn’t know anything at all.  He says he listens to Bloomington country radio stations until he can’t take it anymore and then he switches over to the alt rock station.  He’d never even [...]

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Roberto Bolaño–”Prefiguration of Lalo Curo” (New Yorker, April 19, 2010)

SOUNDTRACK:  THE SPACE NEGROS Do Generic Ethnic Muzak Versions of All Your Favorite Punk/Psychedelic Songs from the Sixties (1987). I stumbled upon this CD again when I was looking for a Sparklehorse disc (alphabetical you see).  I originally discovered this album when I was a DJ in college and the absurdity of the title instantly [...]

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Glen E. Friedman–Keep Your Eyes Open Fugazi (2007)

SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-Repeater + 3 Songs (1990). This was Fugazi’s debut album and my first exposure to them.  They’d put out some singles before this but I missed them.  Listening to it now, it sounds great, but not revolutionary.  And yet, I remember back then, this was a pretty mind-blowing album.  It’s full of heavy chunky [...]

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