Austin: A Retrospective, Or Lasering the Grackles

As most of you know, this last weekend Tin Tin Can played the Spencer Bell Legacy Show in Austin, TX. For all of us in the band, it was our first time in Austin - and the 80 degree whether was a welcome change from the biting cold in Chicago. We played the Mohawk on Saturday, sharing the stage with some of our favorite musicians and friends. I'd like to give a particular shout-out to Claudia Garate and Brittany Wolfe for putting the Legacy Show together in Austin and for being all around awesome people.  Everyone that came out, braving the heat for a good cause, thank you too. It was a blast!

Pierce, Mike, and I were lucky enough to stay an extra couple of days in Austin. We checked out the city on Sunday with a little tour guidance from Mike's friend, Sarah, and joined by Jake Miller from The Kissing Club and Stevedores. Our first stop was Torchy's Tacos, recommended to us by several concert-goers the previous night. Unfortunately, I have no pics of the food we ate because we were all of us very hungry and scarfed it down without much adieu. I ordered The Republican - jalapeno sausage and cheese and sauces on a tortilla - and The Brushfire - mangos, spicy sauces, chicken, and sour cream all wrapped in a tortilla.

The most interesting item we ordered at Torchy's, though, was the deep-fried cookie dough, called, ahem, "nookies." It was very rich and greasy, to say the least. How about this: after eating one round, deep-fried ball I think the dough stuck to my ribs and it was a long time before I could breathe deep again without sharp pains shooting up and down my sides. Do I regret eating two of them then? Only a little.

Sarah, Mike's friend and our tour guide, took us to Trudy's, a bar where the first  three beers on Sunday are only a buck. We stood around outside, chatting in the cool breeze, and a homeless man asked us where the synagogue was. Unfortunately, none of us knew.

We wandered around a little outdoor venue called the Spider House (see the pic above) and stopped in at a toy store. Mike bought a dancing robot of some sort at the store. I nearly purchased a B-movie victim figurine but opted out at the last minute. There was an awesome squid shirt at the toy store that Jake almost bought, but it was too damn expensive.

You can't come to Austin and not visit the Daniel Johnston Mural. I snapped a couple pics of Mike playing the ukelele in front of it. A shame that some other ruffians mangled it up with a cigarette and whatnot. Still, it was pretty cool.

Afterward, we went downtown to the bridge overlooking Lake Austin or Town Lake or Ladybird Lake, depending on who you talk to. The bridge is famous for its bats. That is, the bats living underneath the bridge that take wing in swarms just after the sun sets. We waited in the chilly dusk along with 80+ others and it seemed as though the bats weren't coming out after all. They finally did, though it wasn't the massive black-winged swarm that I imagined. Instead, the bats circled around the bridge above the dark waters. It was neat but after about five minutes it was dark enough that I could no longer distinguish the bats from the darkness with my color blind eyes, alas, alas.

Sarah took us along the main drag of downtown Austin. It was a little like Nashville: bands of all genres playing in seedy-looking bars, the windows open, music bursting into the street. It smelled like tacos, garbage, and perfume: pretty great. We stopped at Hoboken Pie for a quick slice before heading back to our place.

The next day we ate at Magnolia's with Claudia and Brittany and stopped in at Half Price Books where I picked up Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon and The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce. Mike, Pierce, and I flew back to Chicago Monday evening; albeit with one delay: our plane had a cracked windshield or some such and we had to board another a couple hours later. Chicago greeted us blustery and cold. I remarked to Pierce, "When are we going back to Austin again?"

Mike Offers His Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese Recipe on the Plane to Austin

Austin is GO!

Here's a little treat for you as Tin Tin Can heads to Austin. I'm hoping to do daily updates of our misadventures in Texas here, with video, but no promises. Anyway, this video was made as we drove to Dallas last year. Enjoy.

!C2E2!: A Love Story

Yeseterday I went to C2E2, the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo at the McCormick Place. This was my first comic convention since Comic-Con in San Diego during Clarion. C2E2 certainly didn't compare in size, scope, or organization, but it was still a hell of a lot of fun. There was much cosplaying: a lot of Final Fantasy characters, more stormtroopers than you can shake a stick at, several steampunk kids, a seven-foot Chewbacca.

Our first panel was with China Mieville. He's been classified as a writer of the "New Weird," whatever that means, and some of his most famous books are Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and The City & the City. Mieville read from his latest, Embassytown, that'll be released in May, but was most interesting was the Q&A. In particular, someone asked a question about what drives Mieville to finish a novel; how does he work past the inevitable, "Gasp! I'm writing a novel and there's so much happening! Gasp!" phase. Mieville's response was that he "compartmentalizes scenes." In other words, he does is best not to think about what he's writing as a novel but as a series of scenes that will function that as a novel once completed. He also talked a lot about worldbuilding.

After the panel with China Mieville, we walked the Show Room. Vertigo, Dark Horse, Avatar, Archaia, Marvel, DC, and so many more. This was after lunch and C2E2 was jampacked. Eventually, I ended up purchasing two graphic novels from Archaia, Tumor and Robotix. It was a 2-for-1 deal I couldn't pass up. I also purchased a Thundercats t-shirt and my girlfriend bought a Cookie Monster t-shirt. Mandy, my sister, ended up with an uglydoll. Justin paid for the taxi to our car because the shuttle to and from the parking lot was nonexistent, several C2e2ers complaining they'd been standing outside, waiting for the shuttle for over an hour.

Whatever. It was still fun. Perhaps the greatest moment came when a fella dressed as Pikachu took the Rock Band stage to sing "Don't Stop Believin'" (quite shyly) while grasping an uglydolly tightly to his chest. Sent us home with a bang.

Boba Fett and I think that's Trinity from The Matrix. I'm not sure who the other girls are supposed to be, but if they are Little Bo Peep, one of them has a decapitated alien head on the end of her spike.

I think this one speaks for itself.

When I went to stand beside R2, it moved, man. Of its own accord!

And the best costume of the night goes to:



1/4: Music Highlights and Lowlights in 2011

We're nearly a fourth of the way through 2011, folks, so I thought I'd catch you up on what I'm listening to and not listening to, as well as what records I'm looking forward to. I will say this: so far, this year has been filled with, in my opinion, more lackluster records than awesome ones and I'm hoping this isn't a trend for the rest of the year.

Let's start off with the awesome records first.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

A lot of reviewers called Radiohead's latest "divisive" and a "re-hash of Kid A/Amnesiac material." Well, I must've missed out on the drums and bass record Radiohead secretly put out in 2002, titled DRMZNBYS, although it was supposedly majestic. No, The King of Limbs isn't as emotionally immediate as its predecessor, In Rainbows - what TKOL does is expand upon Radiohead's sound, still letting the songs breathe and sound fresh. It's not so much a re-hash of previous material as Radiohead being influenced by their own ouevre. Which is totally weird and exciting. Highlights: "Codex," "Separator," "Give Up the Ghost," "Little by Little."

Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

These ten wondrous pop gems are really making this year fly. Smith Westerns' songs are light and airy, for the most part, and about girls and getting drunk and having fun. Despite lead singer Cullen Omori's voice being under the influence of heavy reverb, the vocal melodies come through clean and strong. The guitar work is some of the best I've heard in a while: kind of like T. Rex and George Harrison. Highlights: "Weekend," "All Die Young, "Dye the World."

James Blake - James Blake

Nobody uses silence and repetition to greater emotional effect than James Blake. Sometimes it gets uncomfortable. Really. Uncomfortable. ......Which is also what makes this record particularly wonderful when you're feeling it. What this record isn't is a record to put on any old time; this one is saved for rainy drives at night or walking snow-covered streets. The final track is the first post-modern spiritual I've ever heard and it is truly great. Highlights: "The Wilhelm Scream," "To Care Like You," "Limit to Your Love," "Measurements."

The Hit Back - Who Are These Weird Old Kids?

Full disclosure: Jesse Hanabarger, lead singer of The Hit Back, and I have played in several bands together and I was once a member of this, his current outfit, albeit under a different a moniker: Legs Like Straw. The first time I heard the songs that would appear on The Hit Back's full-length debut, it was at a friend's house party. I didn't know what to expect. Needless to say, I was impressed with the change in format, the integration of more electronic sounds, mixing with the acoustic, almost folksy atmosphere. Their full-length doesn't disappoint from those earlier versions of the songs. In fact, the songs have gotten stronger and have fully grown into some of the best electro-acousti-pop I've heard recently. Highlights: "Tagalong," "Me and the Kid," "Too Fat to Crawl," "And You're the Night."



And now for the disappointments of 2011. Most of these bands are bands I had been expecting great things from but failed my catch my ear for whatever reason.

Bright Eyes - The People's Key

Once upon a time I was a fanboy of Bright Eyes. My early twenties are filled with latenight drunken singalongs to songs off I'm Wide Awake. Unfortunately, Conor Oberst continues his mediocre performances and songwriting that began in 2007.

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo

I was and still am positively addicted to Vile's previous LP, Childish Prodigy. The problem with his latest isn't his lyrics, which I've found to be quite engaging, perhaps more so than on CP; what Smoke Ring lacks is an immediacy, a fire beneath its structures. There is a time for relaxing by the pool - as Vile mostly seems content to do here - but sometimes it just gets boring.

The Strokes - Angles

This sucks. For every reason you can think of.

TV on the Radio

Their record, Nine Types of Light, isn't out yet but I've already been severely let down by the two songs they've released. I expect a bit of chaos from TV on the Radio, as if at any moment the song might fall apart; I expect off-kilter vocal performances (and sometimes a little off-key) from singers Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. I expect frothy, stressful chord and tempo changes. What I don't expect is happy. What don't I expect is Fred Durst-style rapping. I only hope the rest of the record makes up for these two songs.


Okay, let's end on a lighter note. I'm looking forward to these three records:

Panda Bear - Tomboy
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

From what I've heard of the new Panda Bear it's going to be a darker affair, more electric guitars, less samples. Should be a nice movement. I don't expect big changes from Fleet Foxes, but I don't really need it either. "Helplessness Blues" is a fantastic song in its own right. The same goes for Bill Callahan. He's one of the last great underrated songwriters and I expect this record to be about as good as anything else he's done and tinged with that unique bass voice.

Review: The Ouroboros Wave by Jyouji Hayashi

The Ouroboros Wave by Jyouji Hayashi is one of those "hard sf" novels packed with ideas. Technically speaking (that's not really a pun, but it kind of is), Ouroboros is not a novel: it's a series of interlinked short stories detailing humankind's accidental stumble into the stars; though every discovery pushes us closer to an understanding of our place in the universe. Indeed, Hayashi's motif throughout is "happensance is necessity in disguise."

The first of these interlinked stories concerns a black hole discovered by, you guessed it, happenstance. What's particularly interesting about the black hole, dubbed Kali - the Hindu goddess of destruction - is that it's on a collision course with the sun, our sun. Unfortunately, scientists are unable to determine if that collision will be in a few hundred years or in a few thousand. Rather than wasting time debating, an artificial accretion disk is built around Kali to not only change its course toward Uranus, but also, once in orbit around the gas giant, to harness the black hole's "boundless energy." However, in these early development stages, an AI nicknamed Shiva begins exhibting signs of awareness outside of cyberspace - that is, human-like intelligence - and endangering the scientists living on the artificial accretion disk.

In fact, what Hayashi is most concerned with throughout these stories besides proving that happenstance is masked necessity is determining what is and is not intelligent. In another of the stories, a submarine is encapsulated in the mouth of a giant jellyfish-like creature in the icy oceans beneath the surface of Europa; this creature may or may not be the first signs of intelligent life outside of Earth. In another, an assassin must out-think a complex system of identification modules to make her target. Is Hayashi also asking the question: is intelligence formed from happenstance?

We haven't even discussed the surplus of cool sf ideas rampant throughout Ouroboros. For instance: Amphisbaena, the needle-like station in orbit around the artificial accretion disk that houses the scientists; the web system of data transfer; the AI Salmon; the different political structures between Earthborn and Spaceborn peoples; etc.

If there is one detriment to Hayashi's Wave, it's the prose. The prose is so dry at times it's like reading sandpaper. I don't know if Hayashi's voice is this dry in the original Japanese or if something was lost in Jim Hubbert's translation; either way, it can make for tedious reading. There is also a lot of "telling, not showing," in the text, which is one of my pet peeves. The redeeming quality (other than the wealth of ideas and an interesting backstory) is that because Ouroboros is hard sf - I mean, extreme hard sf - the reader can get easily lost in those large, scientific words, but Hayashi is a master of making big concepts (like exactly how an artificial accretion disk might harness the energy of a black hole) easily understood.

The Ouroboros Wave is worth the read; however, if you're not a deep lover of hard sf (and, typically, I am not) you're going to have to get through some pretty serious slog to enjoy the story.

Robert Walser's The Microscripts

I stumbled across The Microscripts by Robert Walser in Unabridged Books in Chicago a few weeks ago. The Microscripts are several short stories (actually several hundred, culled and translated from the German tomes Das Gesamtwerk in 12 Banden and Aus dem Bleistiftgebiet) written by Walser in a tiny "secretive" script on the backs envelopes, movie tickets, torn-out pages of magazines and calendars. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money to buy the book at Unabridged, but, after perusing its pages there in the store, I knew I had to have it.

Walser was the kind of writer who could sit down at his desk and write a novel in a matter of weeks or days; famously noted as not ever having revised a word as he wrote. He was constantly seeking a way to write quicker, leaner prose and in this way he began writing, as Susan Bernofsky - Walser's biographer and translator - says, in a "miniaturized Kurrent script, the form of handwriting favored in German-speaking countries...an e is represented by a simple pair of vertical ticks like a quotation mark, an s by a mere slash..."

Walser was only moderately successful in his lifetime and, as a deeply troubled person, spent most of his later years in a sanitarium, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was also said to be a huge influence on Franz Kafka.

Uusally preceeding the microscripts are the slips of envelopes or book covers or torn-off triangles of drawing paper Walser used to write his stories on. These reproductions are a colorful texture to the book, giving the reader a glimpse of Walser's handwriting and, in a larger sense, his attempts to write smaller and smaller stories (Walser wrote his final novel, The Robbers, first in microscript format). The back of the book also contains the untranslated stories.

The stories contained in The Microscripts concern all sorts of things: alcohol abuse, marriage, pigs, jealousy, love and lust. What struck me was the juxtaposition of Walser's tiny script and the "big" ideas contained therein. I think he wanted to say as much as possible with as little as possible. In this way, Walser was a Romantic, perhaps hopelessly so. As he writes in the microscript New Year, "The story keeps on going, and the beauty of a context is revealed."