Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

Analyzing the use of music in the novels: American Psycho, Another Country, Jazz Moon, The Dead Do Not Improve, and A Visit from the Goon Squad.

I finally recorded a new episode of my podcast 'Strange Currencies!' It has been almost a year. And the Podcasting side of my brain just hasn't been the same since I concussed myself head-banging at a Father John Misty concert. Har har. But seriously! This new episode is about the use of music in a few of my favorite novels. I start with an overly long preamble about the Yankees and a strange interaction I had with "The Thing" while rollerblading. Because I'm also doing this podcast to entertain myself. (my most loyal listener!) Then I get into the real shit shit (as Mobb Deep would singggg) The books and scenes I cover are

American Psycho: Bateman and company go to see U2 at "somewhere called the Meadowlands." The scene is fascinating for its mixture of humorous satire with an impressionistic passage of Bateman actually experiencing human emotion. Ellis alters his tone and writing style as easily as someone turning a dial on the radio: and has the book been seen enough as an ultra modern experiment in craft?

Another Country: Ida has her first gig in Greenwich Village. James Baldwin describes the transient intimacy between performer and audience through Ida's limitations as a singer: how in a paradoxical way a sincere failure is better than a thoughtless success on stage.

Jazz Moon: Trumpet player Baby Back Johnston came to Paris to be a star. And like 'Another Country,' we are the audience for his first gig, through the eyes of his boyfriend, Harlem expatriate Ben Charles. There's a lot to absorb in this moment: the frenetic scene at the Chez Le Roi, Ben's conversation with hip Parisians romantic about Harlem and actually wanting a performance from him, and his commentary on the debut as it happens: animated by the collaboration between Baby Back and the club's star singer Glo. A total trip into a moment in another time.

The Dead Do Not Improve: Jay Caspian Kang's determination to make violence his primary thematic concern with his debut novel results in a stylistic brew attempting to articulate confusion: a confusion which is entirely our own in modern life. The confusion is about our inability to even begin understanding what violence is : along with the mystery of where the deepest rage in people actually arises. There are possible explanations almost taboo to discuss: is it ethnic? Are we crazy because of our blood? Or is it alienation engendering an emptiness inside that popular culture could never fill? This book has stuck with me since I first read it when I was starting to get invested in novels & prose writing seven years ago. The scene discussed, toward the end of the book and utilizing Bone Thugs N Harmony's song "Tha Crossroads," hits me as a description of our communal angst in a time of broadcast violence.

A Visit from the Goon Squad: This episode is concluded by analyzing a scene which doesn't include music: but involves a conversation between two musicians. They were in the same punk band growing up. Now one is the President of a record label. And the other is walking into his office with a fish rolled up in paper: caught from the East River. A lucky fish. This scene is about power: the power of tangibility versus the power of contentment. How one is never actually winning over the other: there's a dance happening in this scene as one person needs validation from the other -- and then the reverse. Ultimately it explains how we even hear music to begin with: an artist making the decision to sign a contract and become part of the corporate world. Something we take for granted as a given: but in this scene we understand why: there's no personal philosophy like a skyscraper window with a perfect view of Manhattan. There's nothing like owning that view. And there's no escape from this collaboration. How someone's soul becomes a part of our playlists.

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There's a whole lot of people suffering tonight from the disease of conceit

Whole lot of people struggling tonight from the disease of conceit

Comes right down the highway straight down the line

Rips into your senses through your body and your mind

Nothing about it that's sweet

The disease of conceit

There's a whole lot of hearts breaking tonight from the disease of conceit

Whole lot of hearts shaking tonight from the disease of conceit

Steps into your room eats into your soul

Over your senses you have no control

Ain't nothing too discreet about the disease of conceit

There's a whole lot of people dying tonight from the disease of conceit

Whole lot of people crying tonight from the disease of conceit

Comes right out of nowhere and you're down for the count

From the outside world the pressure will mount

Turn you into a piece of meat

The disease of conceit

Conceit is the disease that the doctors got no cure

They've done a lot of research on it but what it is they're still not sure

There's a whole lot of people in trouble tonight from the disease of conceit

Whole lot of people seeing trouble tonight from the disease of conceit

Give you delusions of grandeur and an evil eye

Give you the idea that you're too good to die

The they bury you from head to your feet

From the disease of conceit

Strange Currencies Episode 7

I ruminate on Bruce Springsteen as an artist. How the image from his most commercially successful time-period can become a generalization to those unfamiliar with the depth of his work. Along with my deep admiration for his song 'American Skin.' I discuss his memoir 'Born to Run' and discuss concert experiences in the context of his electrifying performing style.

'Oh Mercy' was praised as a return to form for Bob Dylan at the end of the 80s. He wrote about the process of recording the album in his beguiling memoir 'Chronicles.'

I discuss the album using passages from 'Chronicles' as a conduit toward my own fascination with the material. I wonder whether Dylan was articulating his sense of internal and external morality in the same way he captured chaos in his earlier work. Why would that have been important to him in 1989, considering where he'd been, and where he wanted to go?

With detailed considerations of classic songs like 'Man in the Long Black Coat,' this episode is a must-listen for fellow Dylan obsessives!

Brittany Anjou is an accomplished jazz composer who has taught music all over the world. But when I interviewed her for Strange Currencies, we primarily discussed the debut album for her punk rock project 'Bi-Tyrant.' The discussion took place at Two Boots Pizzeria in downtown Manhattan. We talked about the appeal of making punk rock, and the realities of being a professional female musician in the city.

In this episode, I delve into the powerful 2016 album by Conor Oberst called 'Ruminations.' A minimalistic effort from the lead singer of 'Bright Eyes,' 'Ruminations' saw Oberst compose an unsparing cycle of music gazing intently at consumerism, depression, love, obsession, and loneliness. It was an album that tilted my axis as a listener -- and although I was outright wrong about a few of thoughts concerning the songs -- this exercise in reflection was still a memorable one!

Samantha Echo is a New York City songwriter with a rare skill set: she has an operatic voice, clever songwriting pen, and a fully developed visual aesthetic as both a performer and promoter of her work. Samantha and I talked about her debut EP at Tavern 29 a few blocks from Madison Square Garden.

https://samanthaechomusic.com

When I interviewed Zach Henry, the Baltimore songwriter had just finished performing a set at LIC Bar in Queens, New York. I recorded a couple of his songs and then enjoyed a conversation with him and another songwriter named RedHawk. The three of us talked about movies, music, and being artists in the Big Apple.

https://zachhenrymusic.bandcamp.com/releases

In the first episode of my podcast, I read from an essay I had published in Guernica called 'A Moment of Honesty,' which ponders the fascinating and terrifying aspects of undertaking live musical performances as a solo songwriter in New York City. In between passages from the essay I reflect on my life, and how I ended up pursuing music in my early 20s after having been only interested in writing fiction previously.