Heavy Rotation #13

Here are the albums I've been listening to a lot the past couple of weeks...

Belle & Sebastian/Write About Love - This is another band I was late on. I did pick up The Life Pursuit a few months after it was out and really liked it...but didn't dig back into the catalog. The songs on this album got quickly stuck in my head and that was just fine with me. I owe this one a more in-depth review and I owe it to myself to start grabbing their earlier work.

Bob Dylan/Blonde on Blonde - I pulled this out because there was a section on its making in Bob Dylan in America and kept listening because it's Blonde on Blonde. Don't know that I ever noticed the awesome drumrolls in "Sooner or Later (One of Us Must Know)" before. Gotta love the Robbie Robertson guitar on "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" too.

Ben Kweller/Ben Kweller - I pulled this out to play for the teacher I'm working with this year - she said she was into hearing new music and you don't have to invite me twice. She liked it a lot and I haven't been able to stop listening to it since. This is pure power pop goodness and performed entirely by Kweller. The way he harmonizes with himself on "I Don't Know Why" is awesome and there is not a dud track to be found.

The Long Winters/Putting the Days to Bed - This is another one I tried out on Katie (the teacher), though I'd been listening to it before that. I took it on my trip to Indy to see The National at the beginning of the month but didn't listen to it then. A week or so later I did and was hooked all over again. This is literate power pop at its finest and I can't wait until the new album comes out in early 2011 (I hope).

Old 97s/The Grand Theater Volume One - I spent some time listening to Rhett Miller's recent self-titled album and the band's last one , Blame It On Gravity, in the run-up to the new album's release on Oct. 12. I had to get myself prepared, you see. Anyway, I like the new one. A lot. I'm also excited that the current plan is for The Grand Theater Volume 2 to come out in May. I need to write more in-depth about this as well.

Bob and Jane

My reading has been dominated by two books over the last two weeks or so, both of which I have now finished. One was for pleasure, the other for school. One was fiction, the other non. One was a classic, the other written about a classic songwriter. Have you used all the clues to figure them out yet? That's right - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz.

Bob Dylan in America places him as an American artist and spends a lot of time dealing with his influences and even people who may have influenced him. Early chapters deal not so much with Dylan as with Aaron Copeland and the Beat writers. It also deals with more recent projects and I had no idea people were calling him a plagiarist during that time period. Naturally, the book does talk about the music as well, including a section on Blonde on Blonde. It's a very interesting read, though I suspect someone who doesn't care for Dylan would find much of interest.

I've read a Bronte before but not Charlotte; I read Wuthering Heights multiple times in my teens and really liked the novel (maybe I should reread it now that I'm older and see what has changed). I've also read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, though that didn't really prepare me for Jane Eyre itself (I did flip through the Fforde after finishing the Bronte and it made me laugh now that I know the novel). I did enjoy the book and enjoyed our class discussion just as much. Jane is very headstrong and steely and though her romantic foils weren't the greatest, they still illuminated her resolve.