SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Come on Die Young (1999).
Mogwai’s second full length record goes in a slightly different direction than Young Team. Although it is still full of somewhat lengthy instrumentals, for the most part, the loud and quiet dynamic that they’ve been mastering over their EPs and Young Team is dismissed for a more atmospheric quality. There’s also a few vocal aspects that comprise some tracks. One in particular is very puzzling.
The disc opens with “Punk Rock.” The music is actually not punk at all; rather, it’s a pretty melody that plays behind a rant about punk rock spoken by Iggy Pop. It’s followed by “Cody,” a kind of sweet slow song. This one surprises even more because it has gentle vocals which are actually audible. The track is surprisingly soporific for Mogwai.
And then comes the real puzzler, “Helps Both Ways” is another slow track. But this time in the background is a broadcast of an American football game. The announcers begin by telling us about an 89 yard run that was called back due to a penalty, but the game stays on throughout the track. And I have to admit I get more absorbed in the game than the music. After these few quiet tracks,”Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia” is a little louder (with odd effects). It’s also much more angular than songs past.
“Kappa” is the song in which I realized that much of the songs here are more guitar note based rather than the washes of sounds and noise. “Waltz for Aidan” is indeed a waltz, another slow track. It’s followed by “May Nothing” an 8 minute track which, despite its length, never gets heavy or loud or noisy.
“Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up” changes things. It features a distorted piano which creates a very eerie 2 1/2 minutes. And it leads into the 9 minute “Ex Cowboy.” Although the general feeling of “Ex Cowboy” is mellow, there are some squealing guitars and noises as well. By about 6-minutes the song turns really chaotic, its “Chocky” is another 9-minute song (the disc is very backheavy), there’s noise faintly in the background as a simple piano melody is plucked out. It’s probably the prettiest melody on the disc, and the noisy background keep its unexpected. The disc more or less ends with “Christmas steps.” This is a rerecording of the awesome track from the No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) EP. It is shorter but slower and it sounds a little more polished than the EP. I actually prefer the EP version, but this one is very good as well (it’s honestly not that different).
“Punk Rock/Puff Daddy/Antichrist” ends the disc with a fun track sounds like a drunken Chinese western It’s two minutes of backwards sounds and is actually less interesting than its title.
This is definitely their album I listen to least.
[READ: March 15, 2011] Icelander
It’s hard to even know where to begin when talking about this story. So I’ll begin by saying that even though it was confusing for so many reasons, I really enjoyed it (and the confusions were cleared up over time). This story has so many levels of intrigue and obfuscation, that it’s clear that Long thought quite hard about it (and had some wonderful inspirations).
The book opens with a Prefatory note from John Treeburg, Editor (who lives in New Uruk City). The note informs us that the author of Icelander assumes that you, the reader, will be at least a little familiar with Magnus Valison’s series The Memoirs of Emily Bean. As such, he has included notes for clarification. He has also included a Dramatis Personae. The characters in the Dramatis Personae are the characters from Valison’s series (not necessarily Icelander), and are included here for context. He also notes that his afterward will comment on the disputed authorship of this very novel.
The Dramatis Personae lists the fourteen people who Valison wrote about inThe Memoirs of Emily Bean. Except, we learn pretty early on that the The Memoirs were based directly on the actual diaries of the actual woman Emily Bean Ymirson. Emily Bean died in 1985, but before she died she was an extraordinary anthropologist and criminologist. She kept meticulous journals of all of her exploits, and Valison fictionalized it (to some people’s chagrin, but to general acclaim).
Emily Bean was also the mother of Our Heroine. Our Heroine is, indeed, the heroine of Icelander, although her real name is never given. We learn pretty early on is that Our Heroine’s friend Shirley MacGuffin has been killed. MacGuffin was an aspiring author (whose only published work appears on a bathroom wall). Her final text was meant to be a recreation of Hamlet. Not Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but Hamlet as written by Thomas Kyd. And, indeed, Kyd’s Hamlet predated Shakespeare’s.
There’s also a lot of excitement with The Vanatru. The Vanatru lived underground, and had a serious quarrel with surface dwellers who worked hard at keeping them down. The Queen of the Vanatru is Gerd. She controls the Refurserkir, an inhuman race of fox-shirted spirit warriors who appear literally out of nowhere.
Okay, so how confused are you now?
Despite the sci-fi sounding nature of the story, it is actually not too outlandish. The part about the Vanatru is based on Icelandic/Viking mythology. Characters in the book include: Gerd (a Goddess), Surt (her nemesis), and Fenris wolf (a mythological creature–which Long turns into the Fenris Dachshund). Long successfully commingles the two worlds into a kind of fantasy thriller.
As mentioned, Shirley MacGuffin was killed. Everyone assumes that Our Heroine is set on finding the killer. But she was too close to Shirley and honestly doesn’t care. She knows that it won’t bring her back and, no, she doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s (heavily documented by Valison) footsteps.
And yet, she keeps getting drawn back into the search. By Blaise Duplain, Shirley’s widower, who is intent upon finding the killer himself. By Hubert Jorgen, a rogue library scientist who has experimented with the mystical powers of the Vanatru, by Wible & Pacheco, “philosophical investigators” who are searching for clues, although they’re not sure what kind of clues yet, and by Constance (Connie) Lingus [I just got that joke], erstwhile reporter who seeks to find the truth (and who seems jealous of Our Heroine).
Now, the mechanics of the book:
The first part of the book [Prelude] is written in a kind of high mythic style: “Our Heroine woke to the sound of snowflakes, plaughtting against the window, perfect stellar dendrites that shattered as they crashed against the glass” (15).
The second Part [Ludo] is a series of short scenes, each one told from the perspective of the recurring characters. This comprises the bulk of the story and it solidifies the majority of the plot: Connie trying to get to the bottom of what Shirley was up to. There’s also a lot about Nathan, who I haven’t mentioned yet. Nathan is an American actor who, in his preparation for his upcoming role as Hamlet, learned about Kyd’s version. In his research he went to Denmark (!), which led him to New Uruk and the Vanatru. He bumps into Our Heroine and recognizes her immediately. Nathan hangs out with her for a bit, but then gets back to his main goal: going underground and seeing the Vanatru caves (this whole sequence is wonderful). We also follow Wible & Pacheco as they seemingly bumble around trying to find clues (and basically getting into trouble).
The third and final part [Cluedo] is a kind of denouement. It is written as a close third person narrative focusing on Our Heroine as she slowly puts all of the pieces together. I found this section incredible exciting and quite compelling. It was amazing to see all of the pieces fit together. And it was evening more amazing to realize that this story, which seems so crazy and kind of all over the place, is actually a very intricately structured mystery.
The book ends with the promised afterword in which Treeburg undermines the entire book. He dismisses the author’s authority and questions his intentions. But at the same time, he also concludes the story of Our Heroine because Part Three ends somewhat cryptically. Treeburg tells us about what “really” happened to the main parties after the events of Icelander (although even he glosses over some details, assuming we know it all already).
This is a really clever (really clever) book, full of wonderful word play, terrible (wonderful) puns, and a very heavy dose of Vladimir Nabokov-love: (the review from hipsterbookclub notes (which I missed): “(Valison’s books— “Itallo” and “Ripe Leaf” —are anagrams of Lolita and Pale Fire, respectively).” Icelander isn’t as challenging as Nabokov can be, but it takes some patience and some sticktoitness to get through the confusing beginning (there’s so many characters!). But the rewards are many, and the joys are high.
It’s a great, fun story and I look forward to more from Dustin Long.
I listened to CODY a lot while writing Icelander.