SOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-Diamond Eyes (2010).
Before releasing Diamond Eyes, Deftones had two band crises. The first was that they didn’t really seem to like each other anymore. The previous album was fraught with tension and they barely toured. After deciding that they wanted to remain as a band, they were invigorated and made an album called Eros. But during the recording, bassist Chi Cheng was in a car accident and was in a coma. As of yet he has not fully recovered. So they shelved Eros, hired a temporary bass player Sergio Vega and set about recording Diamond Eyes. And for whatever reason, it proved to be one of their best releases so far.
“Diamond Eyes” opens with a heavy down-tuned guitar–very abrasive–until the chorus come in and it’s their most beautiful ones yet–with soaring keyboards and harmonies. And then the heavy guitars come back–it’s what Deftones do so well–beauty and ugly together. Stephen Carpenter really shines, as always. “Royal” is a fast song with a great harmonizing chorus. “Cmnd/Ctrl” has a shocking low riff that explodes into a bright chorus. “You’ve Seen the Butcher” has guitars that seem almost untuned as the song starts. But it morphs into a kind of sexy butt-shaking chorus. And Abe Cunningham’s drums are, of course, fantastic.
“Beauty School” is the first that doesn’t really start out heavy, it’s a got a gentle guitar intro and the first song where Vega’s bass is really prominent as a separate instrument and it creates a beautiful alternative song–great vocals throughout. “Prince” brings in a lot of new textures to the album, including a clanging guitar sound and a great screamed chorus. “Rocket Skates” is one of my favorite songs on the record, it has a classic metal riff and the great screamed-beyond-comprehension chorus of Guns, Razors Knives and a weird little whoooo that ends the chorus.
“Sextape” is a surprisingly gentle song, opening with an echoed guitar riff and one of Chino’s most gentle choruses. “976-Evil” has an echoey guitar and voices not unlike the Cocteau Twins. “This Place is Death” has another great alt rock feel–a big song with bright guitars and dark lyrics. I haven’t really mentioned Frank Delgado on keyboards and samples. He’s been with the band since White Pony, and I feel like his presence was made notable on a few songs here and there. But it seems like on this disc he really comes to the fore, adding new textures and sounds to the album which really fill it out.
[READ: March 12, 2013] McSweeney’s #14
After the colorful extravaganza of the Comics Issue of McSweeney’s #13, this book settles down into something more somber The book is softcover and all white. The cover depicts a cartoon of George Bush with both legs blown off and the caption, “I Am So, So Sorry.” On the spine in small print: “We’re praying as fast as we can.” It is the most context-full cover they’ve done yet and, nearly a decade away it seems like a rather mean cover, but if I remember correctly at the time it seemed apt and delicious, especially in light of the upcoming election.
Yet despite the overtly political cover, the content inside is not political or even thematic (although it is pretty dark stuff). Nevertheless, the table of contents gives us a small joke when it says “To help you know which stories to read first, we have indicated with either a * or a † those that deserve special consideration from you, the reader. If you see either a * or a †, do not miss that story.” Of course every story has either a * or a † but they cleverly did not put any kind of pattern to the symbols.
The colophon explains that when they were in Ireland, they met an actual Timothy McSweeney. He had been given a copy of Issue #3 and then promptly forgot about the magazine. But when McSweeney’s was in Galway to do a reading at the Galway Arts Festival, Timothy (Ted) McSweeney traveled from Dublin to check it out (not a short trip). This also resulted in a letter from Mr McSweeney which is actually quite funny.
There are also illustrations in the book, although they are small illustrations and are placed on the title of each piece in the book. All of the illustrations are old, mostly coming from the 1800s, although one dates back to 1670. They illustrations are all technical scientific ones and don’t have anything to do with the stories. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 