Music Review -- Waiting for Your Letter by Cary Brothers

Cary Brothers is the performer of two great songs on two great Zach Braff produced soundtracks, Blue Eyes on 2004’s Garden State and Ride (one of my favorite songs from the last couple of years) on 2006’s The Last Kiss. Despite the buzz from the soundtracks, Brothers has only two EPs out, so I decided to pick up the latest one. The five-song disc Waiting for Your Letter is from late 2005.

The album starts with the amazingly bittersweet song Ride. Brothers, in the simply written song, croons, “You are everything I wanted/ The scars of all I’ll ever know/ If I told you you were right/ Would you take my hand tonight?/ If I told you the reasons why/ Would you leave your life and ride?” His brit-rock side comes out in the title track which is an insanely catchy song. Really, what Brothers does best is the mellow, stripped down and wistful songs like Loneliest Girl in the World. While a bit mushy, he has a knack for simple yet meaningful lyrics. In Loneliest Girl he writes, “You are the loneliest girl in the world/ And tonight you’d fall for anyone.” On Wasted One, Brothers stretches out again with a rockier song, then finishes with another emotional tune in Forget About You. Other than Ride, the last track is the best. The speaker seems to see a relationship clearly for the first time and says, “Forget about you/ Forget about all this life we have/ We were the unseen…”

This is a solid effort by Brothers, who is a very solid songwriter, though it would be nice to see some deeper, fuller songs. Until he releases a full length album it is hard to tell what to expect from Brothers, though according to his website he is trying to release a new disc in May. I’m expecting a Pete Yorn type CD with modern rock styling melding with a singer-songwriter’s introspective lyrics. Check out his site at carybrothers.com where he streams quite a bit of his music.

2.85 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale

What I'm Reading -- Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen

Last Town on Earth is a novel based on events in the 1918 flu epidemic, when some cities cut themselves from the rest of the world in order to keep out the flu. While told through the eyes of many of the city of Commonwealth’s citizens, Phillip Worthy is essentially the main character. The orphaned teenager has been taken in by the town’s founder. Commonwealth began as a refuge for those looking to run to a lumber mill without the pressures of working under horrible bosses and terrible working conditions. With the outbreak the deadly flu during the First World War, the town closes its doors and prepares to protect their borders from outsiders. When a couple of soldiers approach the town and nearby cities assume there is something wrong going on inside Commonwealth, the townsfolk find themselves in a lot of trouble and doubting their decision to go into quarantine. Phillip is an impressionable teenager, but becomes the center of all of these issues and is trying to figure his way out trouble. Mullen is a bit too transparent in the obvious parallels between his novel's reality and our post-9/11 reality. Nevertheless, this is a powerfully gripping novel as a town and its people wrestles with their place in a broken world.

What I'm Reading -- Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

The author of the very good Fat Kid Rules the World returns with Saint Iggy. Iggy is a 16-year old son of drug addicted parents. He has some problems doing the right thing and this leads to a misunderstanding that gets him kicked out of school. With the hearing with the school board just days away, Iggy decides he needs to do some great things and make the school board and the world realize that he is a good kid. Things get worse when his one respected friend gets involved with the drug dealer that supplies Iggy’s parents. While a bit overdramatic at times, Going keeps the pressure on Iggy, giving the novel a tense vibe the whole way through. Iggy really is a good kid, making him a character that readers will root for the whole way through. The ominous tone makes the ending less surprising than it usually would be. Going has crafted another touching novel that fans of her earlier work will enjoy.

What I'm Reading -- The Long Run by Leo Furey

Furey’s debut novel is the darkly comic The Long Run. The book follows a group of boys in a Newfoundland orphanage that is overseen by some fairly deranged priests. At times, the book is incredibly funny. It is especially humorous when one of the Catholic Brothers decides to introduce Japanese customs into their studies, which leads to some bizarre sumo wrestling tournaments. Furey also creates a disturbing world where the group of boys joins together to avoid extreme punishment, pedophilic priests and depression. Eventually, they decide to enter a marathon and train for it at night when the Brothers are asleep. The character development is incredibly strong and makes the novel feel realistic. This is a touching, well-crafted coming of age story.

Best Album Covers of 2006

Just for fun, here are my favorite album covers of the year. Here is another site that did the same thing and picked a bunch of cool ones. I noted who the artist is if it is not clear from the cover itself. They are roughly in order of best to relatively worst.











































The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New













































































The Crane Wife by The Decemberists

What I'm Reading -- Graphic Novels

Scott Pilgrim (Vols. 1-3) by Bryan Lee O’Malley
23-year old Scott Pilgrim has to fight and defeat each of his new girlfriend Ramona’s boyfriends, so that he can continue dating her. And he still has his 17-year old girlfriend, Knives Chau, to deal with. This series is absolutely hilarious. O’Malley combines manga stylings with a contemporary realistic setting that throws in comic book and video game references into the plot for good measure. Scott goes through one of Ramona’s exes each volume, so there are four more evil boyfriends for him to defeat. These are sarcastic, crazy and great.

Moped Army by Paul Sizer
Sizer is the author of the very good Little Mouse Graphic Novel series. Moped Army is also set in the future but is based on the real Kalamazoo based group. In this tale, the Moped Army lives in the bowels of a city, where its respected citizens live in comfort suspended above the city. Simone becomes trapped between both worlds after her loser of a boyfriend plays a serious joke on some of the Moped Army members. Sizer takes a good look at making tough decisions in life and creates a solid story while doing it.

Banana Sunday by Root Nibot

This GN is about Kirby, who is in possession of the “Hear no evil,” “See no evil,” “Speak no evil,” monkeys. It is a bit goofy for my tastes but is still pretty funny. One of the monkeys is an intellectual, one is always hitting on the ladies and the other likes napping, eating and breaking things. Kirby is new at school and meets a scheming, though well-intentioned newspaper writer and a charming boy she starts to date. This is well done and illustrated by Colleen Coover in a hip, yet clean style.

Off Road by Sean Murphy

Kent, an art student, goes with his jock friend Gregg, to pick up Gregg’s new jeep. On a whim they pick up another friend and go off-roading. Of course, they have never done this before and have no idea what they are doing, which leads to them getting the jeep incredibly stuck in the middle of a stream. Some other great characters enter the scene before it is all said and done. This is a great and funny adventure with an accurate look at how guys communicate with each other. Definitely recommended.

Music Review -- Born in the U.K. by Badly Drawn Boy

Damon Gough, who performs under the Badly Drawn Boy moniker, seems to have two personas. One is the quiet introspective singer-songwriter of The Hour of Bewilderbeast and About a Boy. The other is the heavily arranged and orchestrated sound of Have You Fed the Fish? On Born in the U.K., he fully returns to his glossily produced sound. While I miss the intimate sound of his earlier work, Gough is a good songwriter and makes most of these tunes work. The bulk of the songs are piano based with generous helpings of brass instruments and background vocals. It begins with the experimental sounding Swimming Pool then morphs into the seventies inspired Born in the U.K. Actually, this seems like more of an ode to 70’s pop than it does to Bruce Springsteen’s similarly titled Born in the U.S.A. The standouts here are the sing-along tunes like Journey from A to B and the rockier Nothing’s Gonna Change Your Mind. Promises, a mellower tune, shows off Gough’s ability to also write quality straightforward lyrics as he sings, “Just promise you will remember/ A promise should last forever/ Right up to the dying embers/ Of a fire that burns so slow.” I have always had a soft spot for modern bands that throw in some of the 70s pop touches I grew up with and this is why The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner by The Ben Folds Five is one of my favorite albums. Badly Drawn Boy is definitely as talented as others in the pop songwriter genre like Ben Folds or Grant Lee Buffalo. While this is a quality album, it never reaches its potential with its standard arrangements and production. This is for fans the aforementioned artists, Ben Lee and Rufus Wainwright.

2.50 out of 4.00 on the Vin Swanson Scale.