Book Review: The Orange Eats Creeps & Nova Express

It has been a while since I posted. A lot of things have been going on with school opening up ,and all, and me getting a stomach virus. So here is my belated reviews of both The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich and Nova Express by William S. Burroughs.

Starting off with The Orange Eats Creeps, I think that it is best to explain what the overall story of the book is. The book is about a roaming "Slutty Hobo Junkie Vampire" that wanders through America having sex for money in 7-11s and going to a lot of underground punk concerts (which may or may not feature the infamous G.G Allin). The style of the novel is reminiscent of the cut-up method and even Thomas Pynchon's long and beautiful sentences.

The book seems to wander from subject to subject not being able to find a place to stay still in which matches the overall "Hobo" idea of the novel. The main character continues to shift through her memories and sometimes through the influence of drugs, the memories of others.  (She has this ability where she could see the thoughts and the past of someone through touching them.) The character seems to be looking for her sister who she was separated from in a foster home. She continues to have these wandering thoughts of her laying down on the side of the road dead; being murdered by some serial killer that resembles the character Bob from Twin Peaks.

The meat of the novel is surrounded by the theme of immortality. What do you do with immortality? The novel feels like an extended account of some existential crisis where the person's life doesn't end. The main character struggles with this in her sexual experiences with men, taking to the road, thinking back to the past, and going to explosive rock concerts that contain vomit and blood.

For me this book got a bit taxing towards the end. Not because of the experimental prose, but because it is a very repetitive book (which totally makes sense within the context of the novel but still...) that recycles phrases a bit too much. Overall it was a very well thought out novel that has very beautiful and vivid language that I find unique in literature today. It is a very exciting debut from a talented writer that I hope to see more of.

Nova Express by William S. Burroughs is the conclusion to the Nova Trilogy which Burroughs claimed to be the "mythology for the Space Age" and to some respect he is right. The book is filled with this quest to take over the omniscient and omnipotent powers at be that are constantly referred to as being part of a board room filled with people that are part of the Nova Mob.

The "main character" William Lee is an agent that is part of the Nova Police that is supposed to take down the Nova Mob and the wicked boardroom that is controlling the actions and thoughts of people through words and addiction with a special weapon: the cut-up.

The book that preceded Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, set up what is going to happen this novel greatly. Showing the creation of an uprising coming up against the boardroom and even giving a step by step way of using the cut-up and further explaining the power of a tape recorder (a section that is also recycled for Nova Express) for destroying whole governments.

Burroughs ideas behind the cut-ups are nothing less than genius; Burroughs has found a way to overrule all metanarratives that transfixes the general public in its clutches. In a section concerning the power of tape recorders, Burroughs explains that sound creates an image and that image is therefore a part of language due to association (all of language is relating to image). For example, by using a recording of a political demonstration in say... Japan during the 1960s. Playing it back on three different recorders will insight a political demonstration. The sound of a political demonstration creates an image of a political demonstration, which in turn causes a political demonstration due to the infectious nature of language ( a thing that Burroughs straight out calls a virus).

To me, Nova Express is the weakest of the Nova Trilogy, while The Ticket That Exploded is the best for its amazing cut-ups and ideas. Nova Express to me is just trying to wrap up, but to me not in a completely new way. It feels like it is a reiteration of The Ticket That Exploded with a good handful of good cut-ups, but it was still a fun read.

Song of the Day: The Angels Light - Praise Your Name

 Right now I am reading The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich and Nova Express by William S. Burroughs which I hope to finish before school starts. I will be posting reviews of both right when I am finished.

Now right now this was the song of the day for me: Angels of Light's "Praise Your Name."

Praise Your Name is probably my favorite song due to the dissonant violin coming in and out reach with the icy xylophone and mournful piano. The lyrics are dark and drenched in apocalyptic imagery concerning the worship of some lover. The chorus' choir behind the yelping of Michael Gira sounds all so glorious.

I gained an emotional attachment to this song after listening it everyday, for three weeks last year after feeling trapped in my small dorm room. In fact, Gira was pretty hot on Bryan's and mine playlist for majority of our first year at CSUN.

Where are you wounded girls
With bruised faces and blackened eyes
Break open your glass doors
Welcome the whirling debris
Carve your name there
In the marble and concrete

New Release: How Scandinavian - Philistine Empathy EP

The latest and most delayed-est release by How Scandinavian ever. I put a good deal of work on these and I hope I didn't overcook the songs as a result. Much darker and 'lush' than Pity Won and it reeks of some sort of dreadful nostalgic call-back to Dolorous along with some new influences I've found through nightmares, dreams, and harsh cynicism. Probably the least messy and 'mid-fi' release I've been able to muster at this point in time as well. Now that this is out I'll be working on the sophomore LP and have some peace in not following personal deadlines. How Scandinavian will probably tour this little EP locally for a month and then I'll concentrate on both school and finishing the work I've already begun for the next LP. I hope any fans that still abide by this blog and HS will enjoy this. I'm sorry I took so long.

Track list:
1. Eucalyptus Burning
2. We Exist
3. New Romantic Ideas
4. A Brighter Hell
5. Life Is Saccharine

Song of the Day: Aesop Rock - Oxygen

Taking a deep-dive back into Aesop Rock's discography since taking a break after Skelethon came out. Float had some really great beats provided by Blockhead and Aesop's lyrics seemed a bit more "raw" and visceral in a good way. I gotta say though, his flow really hasn't evolved too much over the years, which isn't a bad thing to me but it is easy to understand why some people would find his work hit or miss.

Either way, some nice nostalgia is to be found here (the album art is very turn of the century) with the accompanying strings and esoteric samples provided by the aforementioned Blockhead. A new (old) age of hip-hop primitivism seems to seep out of the arrangement, and is something that is hardly heard of much today. Aesop seems to both evoke intelligence and desperation in his delivery for this track, and while it's hard to tell exactly what he's explicitly talking about, it's clear something is amiss. "Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into..." An underrated classic.

Track Review: David Bowie - Where Are We Now?

David Bowie surprised everyone with the month's best kept secret that he was returning with a new album titled The Next Day. He also decided to drop this song "Where Are We Now?" as the first taste of what is to come from the album. I personally find it hard to really have any expectations of Bowie since I've really never explored much beyond Scary Monsters because drum and bass 90's Bowie doesn't really sound that interesting to me and the 2000-onward releases didn't really indicate as if I was missing out on much.

While "Where Are We Now?" isn't game-changing or revolutionary in any way, it does lend itself some charm with it's sad vocal performance, lush production, and depressing chord progression. It's a pretty tune and it does catch your ear with the subtle hook in the chorus: "Where are we now? Where are we now? The moment you know, you know, you know."

It's a nice, melancholy, and polished song, it doesn't seem like it sets itself to be more than just that and I think most people who are pissed off that this isn't a return to the experimenting Bowie we heard during the 1970's were really asking for more than they deserve. But then again, this is the first single, so perhaps we'll be surprised when the entire album drops. Who knows what awaits? I guess we don't really know where we are exactly...

Wandering thought: It'd be interesting if David Bowie did an entire album in slowcore style with songs that went in 10+ minute lengths that became slow burning epics with amazing production and instrumentation. I'm thinking a tamer The Seer meets Rollercoaster meets Station to Station meets Frigid Stars meets Low. Only in dreams!

Song of the day: Pulp - Mis-Shapes

"Oh we don't look the same as you and we don't do the things you do, but we live 'round here too. Oh really?"

Very funny and witty song from the ever lovable Pulp. I'm not usually a fan of this sort of lyrical content, but Jarvis Cocker just has something about his delivery that makes me feel as though I'm being told a personal account from a close friend. This opener rivals "Joyriders" from His n' Hers I think.

Song of the Day: Idaho - Fuel

"Yeah I wish I could leave; start a life that would be one."
Very underrated band, one of the few gems I've found since following the Red House Painters route (July 2010-death) of musical influence.