Michael Patrick Brady

My review of Hidden by These New Puritans ran today in the Boston Phoenix.

This is an interesting record to compare to Sisterworld; both immerse in grim, dark horror but from very different perspectives. Despite the similarity in tone, Hidden presents a very polished, structured attitude, in stark contrast with wild anarchy Liars unleashes on their album. If you find the unbridled, at times sloppy, exclamations of Liars to be overwhelming, These New Puritans might be your cup of English tea. Musically, Hidden is quite daring, an unusually harmonious blend of severe, industrial rhythms and resonant brass and woodwinds that is spooky and foreboding. The album is truly impressive at times, although the militaristic lyrical motifs can wear thin. “Hologram” is the standout, the brightest, most hopeful track, that cops from Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

Buy These New Puritans – Hidden at Amazon

My review of the new Clogs album, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, ran today in the Boston Phoenix.

Don’t let the twee album title put you off. This is a beautiful record of well composed, classically-inspired music that is evocative and compelling. The band has generally kept things instrumental in the past, but for Creatures they’ve imported the amazing Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond to lead six tracks. Her powerful, operatic vocals dominate the record, and Clogs would be wise not to let her go. She elevates the music to a whole new level, and tracks like “The Owl of Love” are brought to life thanks to her remarkable gifts.

Creatures is on Brassland, label of Nico Muhly, and they share a modern classical outlook with Nico, albeit one that relies more on chamber music and Renaissance ballads than Philip Glass. Padma Newsome’s work on the album reminded me at times of another modern classical composer, Eyvind Kang, particularly the track “Mistress Mine” from The Yelm Sessions, or the eerie, pastoral folk of Fern Knight. I was happy to discover that Clogs’ drummer is none other than Thomas Kozumplik of percussion duo Loop 2.4.3, who I profiled in the most recent issue of ALARM Magazine. Creatures is a marvelously designed piece of work, one that serves as a welcome reminder of what talent, skill, and inspiration can accomplish when harnessed by a willing group of capable performers.

Buy Clogs’ The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton at Amazon.

My Review of The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester ran today at PopMatters.

Though the subtitle says this book is about the map that gave America its name, it’s about much more than that. Lester uses that map (really, the entire history of cartography up to the creation of the 1507 Waldseemuller Map) to tell the story of the Age of Exploration and all it entails. It’s an excellent book. I always love reading about a time when there were still undiscovered countries and unknown lands on the Earth, and Lester helps the reader see the world as it was in those times, vague, hazy, and fantastical.

He also manages to show that a lot of what we think we know about what they knew about their world is wrong.

Continue reading…

My review of Pit Er Pat’s The Flexible Entertainer ran today in the Boston Phoenix.

Butchy Fuego, we meet again. Just over six years ago, I reviewed Fuego’s self-titled album and was not very impressed. It was an album of filler mostly, a clattering garbage heap of poorly thought out pieces that was infuriating in its aimlessness. Interestingly, I find Fuego to be the best part of The Flexible Entertainer, and reserve most of my scorn for his partner, Fay Davis-Jeffers. Her flat, disinterested vocals make this album a chore to listen to, and the band’s miserably stiff guitar melodies are truly dreadful. Fuego’s percussion, however, is actually pretty interesting, particularly on the track “Emperor of Charms.” That said, it’s not enough to save The Flexible Entertainer from getting the lowest possible score I’m capable of assigning.

My review of The Complete Stories of Lydia Davis ran today at PopMatters.

I had been introduced to Lydia Davis’ writing in a college writer’s workshop and her writing piqued my interest. For whatever reason, though, instead of tracking down more of her short fiction, I went straight for her only novel, The End of the Story. It’s likely I assumed that short stories were really just a midpoint in a writer’s evolution, which invariably culminated in a novel.

Lydia Davis is not a novelist, however, she’s a short story writer. I appreciated The End of the Story. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but I didn’t hate it either. The point-of-view, within the mind of a neurotic, obsessive woman fixated on a romantic entanglement, felt stifling and claustrophobic. I felt the same anxiety in the opening piece of this collection, “Story,” which I’m pretty certain served as the seed for that novel. Thankfully, those feelings were short lived; the rest of The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis was entertaining and enlightening.

I’d strongly recommend this collection to anyone interested in a massive book full of brief stories, essays, and prose poems that manage to be engaging without overstaying their welcome. Davis has a relatively dry voice and style but somehow coaxes a significant amount of emotion from those matter-of-fact lines. It’s a great book to pick up on a whim, flip to random page in, and spend a few short minutes getting acquainted with one of Davis’ many well-crafted characters.

Buy The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis at Amazon.com

My review of The Colossus, the latest album from RJD2, ran today in the Boston Phoenix.

I really did not enjoy this record at all. There’s not a whole lot to say beyond that. RJD2 started his career as a very capable, innovative sample-based musician, and his first album, Deadringer made a strong case for the viability of pastiche as an artform. It appears as though he no longer agrees. His last album, The Third Hand, found him playing instruments and singing, and he does this on The Colossus too. He also loads this album with a lot of guest vocals. Basically, it seems like he’s lost interest in what made him relevant, which would be fine if he were any good at his new style, but he’s not. “The Glow” is essentially a Jason Mraz b-side.

My review of The Roman Forum by David Watkin ran today at PopMatters.

This book is a nice contrast to another offering from Harvard University Press that I reviewed back in May, Paris From The Ground Up. That book attempted to tell the complete story of the history of Paris, but was full of half-started threads and distracting tangents. It took on too much and diluted its power. The Roman Forum narrows its scope and succeeds in bringing this rich, historical location to life.

It also introduces an intriguing conflict that many readers might not have thought of, a conflict between art, architecture, and archaeology that is evident in the controversial excavations, restorations, and preservation attempts in the Forum. Watkin deftly explores this conflict, though he’s not unbiased. He explicitly decries the damage archaeology has done to the Forum’s true historical and artistic character, however well-meaning those efforts were. This slim, attractive book is a very entertaining and enlightening read, well written and impressively researched.

Buy The Romun Forum by David Watkin at Amazon.com

Pre-order < ?php lineAmazon('B0030F7Y2Y','Sisterworld'); ?> at Amazon.com. Release Date: March 9th, 2010, on Mute.

I’m currently working on a feature on Liars that’s slated to appear in a forthcoming issue of ALARM Magazine, and have had the chance to acquire a promo of their latest album, Sisterworld, set to be released in March of 2010. I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to speak with frontman Angus Andrew, to discuss the new album. We had a very cool conversation about the concept behind it, an audio exerpt of which is presented below. I’m a tremendous fan of Liars, and have happily followed each and every curveball they’ve thrown along the way. I was able to review They Were Wrong So We Drowned and their 2007 self-titled release, and look forward to being able to write about Sisterworld as well.

Sisterworld is inspired by experiences the band had while living in Los Angeles, and sheds light on what Andrew considers to be the unseen parts of the city. He talks about the concept being inspired by the characters he would meet at an after-hours club near his apartment, people who he saw as not quite fitting into the agreed-upon narrative of Los Angeles as a place of opportunity and optimism.

Continue reading…

My review of Trans Am’s new live album, What Day Is It Tonight? ran today in the Boston Phoenix. It’s a nice introduction to the band, and a lot of fun, though I’m still a little suspect of their intentions. I reviewed Sex Change for ALARM and I’m honestly having a hard time remembering much of it, though I know I enjoyed it. Trans Am’s music is an irony-laden pastiche of various bits of popular music, hitting all the right buttons but in many ways lacking the unique spark that makes music really stick with you. I really enjoyed this disc, don’t get me wrong, especially the vocoder-heavy cuts from Futureworld.

Buy Trans Am’s What Day Is It Tonight at Amazon.com

My review of Boston Noir ran today at PopMatters.

The book is a collection of short stories from area authors all roughly in the crime/noir genre. My reaction is mixed, understandably. Some of the stories, like Dana Cameron’s “Femme Sole” or Brendan DuBois’ “The Dark Island” were excellent. Others, like Lynne Heitman’s “Exit Interview” were disappointing: a sterile plot allegedly set in the Financial District, but with very little local color to be seen.

What really interested me, however, was editor Dennis Lehane’s introduction. Lehane and I are both from Dorchester, and we both attended Boston College High School (Classes of ‘83 and ‘01, respectively. He graduated the year I was born.) so our backgrounds are roughly similar, though I came of age in a much safer, much more sedate city than he did.

Continue reading…

My review of Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce’s Masterpiece ran today at PopMatters.

This is a book intended for those who have already read Ulysses, as it relies on a relative familiarity with the plot and events. So beginners may not find Ulysses and Us very welcoming. Nevertheless, it’s an excellent exploration of the novel and of Joyce’s original intentions: that his epic of the common man be enjoyed by all, not just by stuffy intellectuals. Kiberd argues that the focus on hidden clues and trivia have obscured the richness of the story and intimidated the average reader from taking up what is, admittedly, a very difficult book. He wants to make Ulysses comprehensible, and combat the difficult reputation it has gained over the years. He wishes to make Ulysses approachable.

Continue reading…

I have to say that my proudest moment as a music critic this year has been the quotation of my review in the Wikipedia entry for Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion. Though I did not dislike the album entirely, my less-than-ebullient review was pegged as the “negative” example amidst a sea of nearly universal praise. That album did not make my 2009 favorites list, obviously. The 15 that did are presented below without pretension. I do not claim that they are the best, nor do I claim any kind of comprehensiveness. I definitely did not hear everything that came out this year. These are just the albums that brought me the most pleasure in 2009, and hopefully, if you haven’t already checked them out, you will now. If you want a deeper insight into my thoughts on each, please visit the links to the specific reviews and blog posts for those albums that have them.

Continue reading…

This year, the books I read and reviewed covered a variety of topics, from the ancient world and the bounds of the universe to the origins of religious thought and the potential of scientific reason. I managed to get through a lot of compelling work, but several books stood out as particularly impressive. This list is comprised of my favorite books that came out this year, all of which I had the pleasure of reviewing. Links to my full reviews may be found with their entries below.

Thankfully, I was also able to fit in a lot of reading even beyond what I reviewed this year. I tore through Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet, following the poetic unraveling of his pre-war characters to their satisfying (and disillusioning) conclusions. Jean Edward Smith’s FDR was a powerful portrait of what I believe is our country’s greatest president. On a trip to Paris, I picked up a copy of Umberto Eco’s Baudolino at Shakespeare & Co. and, unsurprisingly, was bowled over by the author’s sense of humor, style, and command of history. The War For All The Oceans brought the naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars to life, each page home to an astonishing tale of derring-do. I mention all of these books in the hopes that others may take interest in them, though they are not from the current year.

Continue reading…