I haven’t yet listened to the new album, Boys and Girls in America. I plan to rectify this solecism soon. What I can tell you is that I saw them Tuesday night and I can tell you, with very little doubts, that these guys kick ass live. Like Tito, who was there with me, I’m still percolating upon this fantastic live experience. But I hope to offer substantive thoughts soon. But I would advise all San Francisco music fans to avoid the band Black Fur, if at all possible. Without a doubt, Black Fur was one of the most ridiculous and self-pitying bands I have seen on stage in the past two years. The reasons and the report, I hope, will come later.
In the meantime, check out the Hold Steady’s new video, which I suspect owes an inspiration to the infamous Whicker’s World parody from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. (Yes, Alan Whicker is a real person.)
[UPDATE: I've now listened to the new album twice and, while I'm still letting my impressions kick in, overall, I think I like it more than Tito did -- at least in the early rounds. More to come later.]
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
But there is a flip side to that coin. What if Black Fur opens for The Hold Steady again? Cause no matter what they will not get in my way.
We’ve been face-to-face.
Yeah.
But I will not hesitate in going to that concert. Not for a second.
I thought black fur was awesome. I talked to them and found out that it was only their second show as a band , and their other guitar player threw a fit and quit the band after the very first show, so they were compensating for that as well (which i think they did fantastically). bands get drunk. they say and do stupid shit, especially in the early stages of being a band i’d imagine (no excuse, but it happens) and then they learn from it (hopefully), and get better. get over it. i think they’re going to be amazing.