Eskimo Joe - A Rough Guide

   From Wikipedia:
   "Eskimo Joe is an Australian rock band formed in East Fremantle, Western
    Australia in 1997. The band consists of vocalist and bassist Kavyen
    Temperley, drummer and guitarist Joel Quartermain and guitarist Stuart
    MacLeod."
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_Joe>

   I was a bit late in fully appreciating Eskimo Joe.  "Black Fingernails,
   Red Wine" was the track that initially got me interested.  I listened to
   the band's second and third albums around that time, and while I liked
   the music, it wasn't until recently that it completely resonated with me.
   Funny how things turn out.

   The band's official web site:
     <http://www.eskimojoe.net/>

   The links in the guide below are to YouTube movies.  If the links are
   blocked, you can listen to selected tracks via the band's website, or
   search for tracks on SoundCloud:
     <http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5bfulltext%5d=eskimo+joe>

   The "rough guide" ...

   1. "Black Fingernails, Red Wine"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5nKvwPtY3E>
   This is the title track and first single the band's third studio album
   "Black Fingernails, Red Wine".  I picked this track to start the guide
   because, as mentioned earlier, it's the song that made me first notice
   the band.  It was the band's first top ten hit, was awarded Single of
   the Year in 2006, and came in at number two in the Triple J Hottest 100.
   This clip is apparently the original version, which was replaced by a
   less sinister one for official release.  The concept for the video is
   explained in the comments.

   Eskimo Joe's debut single, "Sweater", was released in 1998.  A self-
   titled EP followed in 1999.

   2. "Head Hurts"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPue3eAWuk>
   This is the opening track from the band's debut album, "Girl", released
   in 2001.  I've chosen this track, rather than the singles "Wake Up" and
   "Who Sold Her Out", because it has a harder edge musically, and the
   lyrics are more interesting.

   3. "Liar"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxb3IrObNTc>
   This is the official video for the fourth single from the debut album.
   The director of the clip, Nash Edgerton, would become a regular
   collaborator in later videos.

   4. "Driver"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwaUfwq7idU>
   This is the closing track from "Girl".  It starts with quiet verses
   which build to wailing choruses.  Not surprisingly, the band members are
   Pixies fans.

   Other highlights on the band's impressive debut include "Take A Rest"
   and "Just Like Me".

   5. "Come Down"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iMkuOVPz4k>
   The band released its second album, "A Song Is A City", in 2004.
   According to the band, the inspiration was drawn from Fremantle.  This
   is another great album opener.

   6. "From The Sea"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzAUyjmedCA>
   This is the official video for the first single from "A Song Is A City".
   It was the band's first top 40 hit in Australia, was nominated for
   Single of the Year, and was number three in Triple J's Hottest 100.

   7. "Older Than You"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwP_peXAtM4>
   This is the third single from "A Song Is a City".  The official video
   was shot over 14 hours using a time-lapse technique.

   Other highlights from the band's second album include "I'm So Tired",
   "Life Is Better With You" and "Smoke".

   8. "Comfort You"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-2U2G3KIu4>
   The band's third album, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", was released in
   2006.  This is the opening track.  The lyrics are almost non-existent,
   just some oohs and a few words repeated.  But I like the haunting piano
   backed by the distorted guitar.  Simple stuff, but very effective.

   9. "London Bombs"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhyTMyyYG5c>
   This is the fifth single from "Black Fingernails, Red Wine".  The
   official video has some neat visual effects, and the use of sepia tones
   gives it a nostalgic touch.

   10. "Breaking Up"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjiAgrF1aWk>
   This is the video for the fourth single from "Black Fingernails".

   Deservedly, the album was the band's first Australian ARIA Albums Chart
   Number 1.  There are many highlights on this solid album, including the
   singles: "New York" and "Sarah", plus "This Is Pressure" and "Beating
   Like A Drum".

   11. "Foreign Land"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9GWamslKU>
   "Inshalla", the fourth studio album by Eskimo Joe, was released in 2009.
   This is the official video for the first single.  As the title suggests,
   there's an exotic feel to the song.  The video features some Whirling
   Dervishes.

   The album debuted at number one in Australia.  It was nominated for the
   ARIA Album of the Year Award in 2009.  This was the first album where the
   band used an outside producer, the renowned Gil Norton, who had produced
   three albums for the Pixies.

   12. "Losing Friends Over Love"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6eO_PbzP2k>
   This is the official video for the second single from "Inshalla".  Catchy
   tune with a nice bit of animation.

   13. "Don't Let Me Down"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFwlbbYxQOY>
   This is the third single from "Inshalla".  Quite a different sound for
   the band.  In fact, I thought it was a cover of an eighties song.  As if
   to emphasis this, the clip starts with a woman carrying a boom-box.  The
   rest of the clip is a touch risque.

   Other highlights on the album include "The Sound of Your Heart", "Losing
   My Mind" and "Morning Light".

   The band has contributed some covers on soundtracks and tribute albums.
   A new album, tentatively titled "Ghost From The Past", is expected to be
   released in July.

   Bonus track:

   "To Look At You" (with INXS)
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ZyMcUwZdM>
   Last year, lead singer Kav Temperley contributed vocals to a remake of an
   INXS classic.

Mini-Reviews of Books Read, March 2011

   Mini-reviews of books I read last month.  Three each of fiction and non-
   fiction this time.  My pick of the novels is "No Country for Old Men" by
   Cormac McCarthy.  Of the non-fiction books, music lovers should consider
   "The Music Instinct".  "Blunder" is also recommended.


   1. "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy
     <http://www.amazon.com/Country-Old-Men/dp/0307387135>

   This novel is set in 1980 in west Texas, near the Mexico border.
   Llewelyn Moss, Vietnam veteran and welder by trade, is out hunting on a
   borderland plain.  He comes across the scene of a drug deal gone wrong:
   shot up trucks and dead bodies are everywhere.  After finding a case
   full of hundred dollar bills, he decides to take the money and run,
   knowing that he's probably putting his life in jeopardy.  Sure enough,
   it doesn't take long before associates of both parties to the failed
   deal come looking for the money.

   Anton Chigurh is one of the guys hunting Moss and the money.  We learn
   early on that he's a ruthless, sociopathic killer, with a collection of
   unusual but effective weapons.  He's a strong believer in fate, driven
   by strict principles leaving no room for mercy.  His only concession is
   to occasionally allow a coin toss to decide the fate of anyone who has
   "inconvenienced" him.

   The story is accompanied by the reflections of an old-school sheriff,
   Ed Tom Bell.  Approaching the end of his career, he is forced to deal
   with murder and mayhem the likes of which he's never seen before in his
   formerly quiet and peaceful county.

   Given the level of violence, this novel is not for the faint-hearted.
   However, the writing and themes make it another great novel by Cormac
   McCarthy.  It was recently made into a solid movie, with a worthy Oscar-
   winning performance by Javier Bardem as Chigurh.


   2. "Pinball, 1973" by Haruki Murakami
     <http://www.amazon.com/Pinball/dp/B003C1DVGE>

   This is Murakami's second novel, which was never intended to be
   translated and released outside of Japan.  Set in the late 1960s to
   early 1970s, it consists of two parallel storylines.  The main narrative
   features Boku, a recent uni graduate whose day job is working in his
   translating business.  He shares an apartment with a pair of quirky twin
   female students, that he can only tell apart by the tops they wear.  His
   life is pretty ordinary, save for his obsession with pinball.  He has a
   favourite machine, the rare Spaceship, on which he managed to get the
   highest score.  Unfortunately, the parlour where the machine was located
   closed down.  Boku decides to find out where the machine ended up in the
   hope of playing with it again.  The search for the pinball machine
   doesn't take up much of the novel - it's just one of several that make
   up the book.

   The parallel storyline is about the Rat and his struggles with finding
   out what he wants to do with his life.  He regularly visits a bar run
   by J, and a friendship forms as they discuss life, the universe and
   everything.  By the end of the novel, the Rat has decided to leave town
   and start fresh somewhere else.  Along with Boku, these three enigmatic
   characters who would feature in the later "Wild Sheep Chase".

   Overall, not a bad book.  It's interesting to see Murakami's style start
   to develop.


   3. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder
     <http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-San-Luis-Rey/dp/0060580615>

   This short novel is set in Peru in the early 18th Century.  A visiting
   Franciscan friar witnesses the collapse of a bridge, causing the deaths
   of five people.  Brother Juniper, who narrowly avoided the same fate,
   sees this event as an opportunity to investigate whether or not the
   deaths of the five people was part of some divine plan, or just a
   random accident.

   The life stories of the five victims are revealed.  They were neither
   saints nor sinners, but ordinary people with the usual human frailties.
   As it happens, their lives do intersect via shared acquaintances and
   events.  It's not clear if Juniper was successful in proving his point,
   but in the telling of the story, perhaps we find out something else.

   This Pulitzer-winning novel is short, and perhaps hasn't aged well given
   the era we live in.  But I found it an interesting idea for a novel.


   4. "The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It"
      by Philip Ball
     <http://www.amazon.com/Music-Instinct/dp/0199754276>

   As its subtitle suggests, this book is largely about what makes music
   tick.  The motivation for the book is to refute the claim by linguist
   and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that music is merely "cheesecake
   for the mind".  Philip Ball argues that music is much more important
   than that.

   The book begins by describing the building blocks of music: notes,
   chords, melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, etc.  Examples ranging from
   nursery rhymes to classical, jazz and rock music are used to illustrate
   the concepts.  The book is best read in conjunction with listening to
   music samples on the book's website:
     <http://www.bodleyhead.co.uk/musicinstinct/>
   (Hover over and click on the notes).  The site also includes links to
   full performances of pieces mentioned, though some have been removed
   from YouTube for copyright reasons.

   The book covers many other aspects of music: how our ears work, how our
   brains respond to the sounds, artistic interpretation and theories on
   what exactly is being communicated by music.  Along the way it describes
   how Western music in particular has evolved over the past few centuries.
   A must-read for anyone who likes music.


   5. "Stuck: Why We Can't (or Won't) Move On" by Anneli Rufus
     <http://www.amazon.com/Stuck/dp/B00403NGI6>

   This somewhat controversial book is about the many ways we get "stuck":
   personal habits, nostalgia, hedonism, doing jobs we don't like, being in
   unhealthy relationships.  Amazon customers seem rather divided about the
   book.  This might be due to the very personal and political views
   presented by the author, some which may be seen as extreme.

   Rufus seems to target Sixties hippies in particular.  She also takes a
   hard line against addicts, especially when they're treated as victims.
   I don't necessarily agree with many of her views, but she does make some
   interesting general points elsewhere in the book.  Regardless of one's
   political or social views, it's always worthwhile taking time-out to
   reassess your personal goals, relationships, work and life in general.


   6. "Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions" by Zachary Shore
     <http://www.amazon.com/Blunder/dp/1596916435>

   The author is a professor of national security affairs.  He's studied a
   fair bit of history, particularly regarding diplomacy and the military.
   He's concluded that despite obvious high levels of intelligence, people
   can still make catastrophic mistakes.

   According to the author, there are several different categories of
   blunders people make: exposure anxiety, causefusion, flatview, cure-
   allism, infomania, mirror imaging and static cling.  Some of these
   labels for the types of cognitive traps are a bit too cute, and would
   make linguists squirm.  But the use of extensive examples from history
   and literature to back up the author's argument make up for that.

   Overall, I found this a very interesting book.  The arguments were
   convincing, and the author offers good suggestions on how to avoid the
   various cognitive traps.  The historical focus of this book makes it a
   good companion to other books I've read that focus on the psychological
   and behavioural aspects of human decision making.