John Edgar Wideman–”Always Raining, Somewhere, Said Jim Johnson” (Harper’s, December 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: PORTLANDIA: “Dream of the 90′s” (2011). This is song that I think of as the theme song for the show Portlandia. (I’ve only seen the one episode so far so I don’t know if it is or not, but if it isn’t, it should be!).  This song is so indicative of the show that, [...]

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Mark Slouka–”The Hare’s Mask” (Harper’s, January 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-”The King is Dead Live from Portland” on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) (2011). NPR loves The Decemberists, and so do I.  Not only did NPR stream their new album before it came out, they are also showing the audio and the video of this hour-long concert of the band playing The King is [...]

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Felicia Day & Jeff Lewis–The Guild: Vork (2010)

SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Backspacer(2009). In 2009, Pearl Jam came out with Backspacer, a 36 minute album of short songs (most are under 3:30, with three approaching the 4 minute mark). It’s tempting to call this a return to form, but the songs have a lot more bite and punch than the tracks on Ten (which were fast, but [...]

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Amos Oz–”The King of Norway” (New Yorker, January 17, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: FROU FROU-Details (2002). Many years ago I bought Imogen Heap’s debut album because it was described as being similar to Tori Amos’ work.  I think that it’s really closer to someone like Heather Nova, but regardless, it was enjoyable, with her cool voice that had an unexpected falsetto thing that I rather liked. I [...]

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Javier Marías–Voyage Along the Horizon (1972/trans 2006)

SOUNDTRACK: LOS CAMPESINOS! Live in studio at WEXP, July 31, 2008 (2008). For this brief in studio performance Los Campesinos! play four songs from their debut album Hold on Now, Youngster.  The band sounds great in this setting.  I don’t have this album, so I don’t know if they deviate at all from the originals, but [...]

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Louise Erdrich–”The Years of My Birth” (New Yorker, January 10, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: RAFTER: “No Fucking Around” (2010). This song made one of The Onion’s AV Club voter’s Top Ten lists this year. The  description was interesting enough that I had to go check it out. Rafter is on Asthmatic Kitty, home of Sufjan Stevens, so I assumed the disc would be intriguing, if nothing else.  The [...]

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Paul La Farge–The Facts of Winter (2005)

SOUNDTRACK: LOS CAMPESINOS! Live in studio at KEXP, July 31, 2008 (2008). For this brief in-studio performance Los Campesinos! play four songs from their debut album Hold on Now, Youngster.  The band sounds great in this setting.  I don’t have this album, so I don’t know if they deviate at all from the originals, but [...]

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Deb Olin Unferth–”Radical Will” [excerpt from Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War] (Harper’s, January 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: LUDICRA-”A Larger Silence” (2010). Ludicra’s The Tenant came in at #9 on Viking’s Top Ten.  Ludicra was the first band they played in the (downloadable) show and I knew that this was going to be a different Top Ten list as soon as it started.  Ludicra plays pounding black metal but they have a [...]

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Steven Millhauser–”Getting Closer” (New Yorker, January 3, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA-”Stained Glass Body” (2010). This album, Love is a Stream, came in at #8 on Viking’s Top Ten albums.  Viking references My Bloody Valentine in his description of this song, and it is an excellent frame of reference. This song sounds like My Bloody Valentine if you removed the songs.  Take away the [...]

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Jim Gavin–”Costello” (New Yorker, December 6, 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: Ô PAON-”Courses” (2010). This album, Sainte Patronne De Rien Pantoutemade ranked #7 on Viking’s Top Ten list and it is very different from the other albums on the list. This is a simple song with a gentle guitar motif repeated over and over.  There also appears to be some looped vocals.  The singer, Geneviéve [...]

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