A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

**Janszoon** · 05-24-2013, 03:56 PM

New invisible man review apparently goes unnoticed. Author drowns in irony.

Engine · 05-24-2013, 04:07 PM

No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab.

Trollheart · 05-24-2013, 05:52 PM

I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update....

Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday!

**Janszoon** · 05-24-2013, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engine

No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab.

Dude's definitely worth your while. The other two albums I have by him are great too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update....

Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday!

Thanks TH!

Powerstars · 05-24-2013, 06:45 PM

Very interesting concept, hombre!

**Janszoon** · 05-24-2013, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerstars

Very interesting concept, hombre!

Gracias, señor!

The Batlord · 05-25-2013, 10:33 AM

Hey, I read it. I even got my hopes up that you had actually updated twice in less than two months. Of course this wasn't so.

**Janszoon** · 05-25-2013, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Hey, I read it. I even got my hopes up that you had actually updated twice in less than two months. Of course this wasn't so.

Hey, you never know, I might update sooner than you expect. These things usually go in streaks for me.

**Janszoon** · 12-21-2013, 08:20 PM

12:00 am
Rocket from the Crypt—The State of the Art is on Fire (1995)

Several blocks south of the last of the city's glass towers, past the Salvation Army and the glowing neon cross of the Gloomy Bible Institute, past the crowd of people camped under the highway onramp with all of their worldly possessions in shopping carts, there is a smallish basement music venue with a peeling sign illuminated by a single red light. It's a place the invisible man has visited many times before, though of course no one there would know him as a regular. Tonight, he slips past the titanic bouncers and down the stairs to find the place packed from wall to wall with a sweaty, rowdy crowd surging with excitement. A band is on the stage—a six-piece blast of guitars and horns known as Rocket from the Crypt—and they're clearly relishing the way they're balancing this crowd on the knife edge between party and riot.

Because of his condition, the invisible man is understandably leery of crowds. So at the earliest opportunity he hops over the bar and starts pouring himself shots as he ducks and dodges the bartenders.

The reality with Rocket from the Crypt is that I could have picked pretty much any of their albums to review here—they're virtually all that consistent and that good—but I decided to go with this little seven song EP (nine if you have the CD) because I feel that it's the strongest, most concise RFTC experience there is. It roars out of the gate with "Light Me"—the first of several compact, high-energy tracks with something of a fire motif. Surf drums pound, horns and guitars blast, and a little vintage organ even weaves it's way in and out for a moment before the churning wall of sound that is "A+ in Arson Class" blasts its way through the wall. "Rid or Ride" follows quickly, allowing the slightest chance to catch your breath amid it's rockabilly vocals while still beating your ass with it's minute and a half of punk rock guitar herky-jerk. Then before you know it, you're being swallowed by the brassy assault of what is probably the album's defining moment, "Human Torch". Epic by this EP's standards, this three minute twelve second track takes you through a gut-wrenching lesson in build and release sonic dynamics before dumping you into the ever-so-slightly slower, bass-heavy spin cycle of "Ratsize". If you're listening on vinyl, the album closes out here with "Human Spine", a five-plus minute encore-evoking opus that most clearly harkens back to the band's 1960s garage rock influences. If you're listening to the CD release here, you're also treated to two more tracks—"Trouble" and "Masculine Intuition"—both covers of songs originally performed by 60s garage rockers The Music Machine. Both are quite good, and not surprisingly, even more 60s-sounding than the rest of the EP.

When the band decide to take a break, the invisible man sneaks his way out from behind the bar and back up the stairs to the the street above. He's had a lot to drink and knows from past experience that too much booze sometimes interacts very strangely with his unique physical condition. He makes his way down the sidewalk, gulping the cool night air, hoping to stave off side effects.

**Janszoon** · 02-15-2014, 11:25 PM

1:00 am
Goran Bregović—Alkohol: Sljivovica & Champagne (2009)

The invisible man stumbles a bit as he walks, the alcohol making him far less aware of his invisible feet than he usually is. After passing under a railroad bridge and a viaduct he notices that the neighborhood has changed subtly. No longer do trash and people pushing shopping carts dominate the streets, instead they have been replaced by a decidedly residential vibe. Brownstones line the streets here, the yellow light of domestic life glowing in their windows. The sweet smell of flowering trees hangs thick in the night air.

Up ahead he hears the sound of brass instruments being played at a frantic pace. On closer inspection he discovers a vacant lot strung with lights and converted into a garden which is filled with tables and chairs and a group of people dancing to beautiful Balkan music. At first he sits at a table and simply watches them, but before long he is overcome by a powerful urge to dance and he rushes out into the middle of the crowd, jumping and spinning and confusing the hell out of everyone he bumps into.

This is the perfect party album. Listening to it you can imagine drunk people grabbing the microphone from each other or grabbing a partner and twirling sloppily around the dancefloor. I'm sure the atmosphere of drunken revelry it evokes is no accident, it is called Alkohol after all. The tempos—with the exception of the slower track "Ruzica" in the middle of the album—are fairly upbeat across the board, bass horns oompah-ing enthusiastically left and right. The higher register horns laugh and weep with gusto in a way that is reminiscent of both klezmer and mariachi music. The vocals change a great deal from track to track as if, as previously mentioned, different people keep grabbing the microphone. The end result is an album that is thoroughly Balkan and utterly global, with noticeable links to everything from mariachi to bhangra to ska to Carnival and Mardi Gras music, all of it partying hard and reeking of booze.

Once he is thoroughly exhausted and sweaty as hell he staggers out of the crowd and swipes a bottle of champaign on his way out of the garden. One utterly blitzed guest, nearly passed out at a table, is surprised to see the bottle go floating away down the street, occasionally tilting upside down to drain its contents into an invisible throat.

05-24-2013, 03:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	New invisible man review apparently goes unnoticed. Author drowns in irony. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

05-24-2013, 04:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	No man. I read it. Your writing is great as usual and, also as usual, I really like the music you featured. I was gonna respond as soon as I could think of something clever to say about 5 fat Texans trying to get into a single cab. __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.

05-24-2013, 05:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	I almost wet myself when I saw this bolded! Yay! A new chapter on the Invisible Man! Love the taxi idea, but I do feel sorry for him traipsing the street in the rain all alone. Excellent, evocative writeups as always Jansz, and if this were updated more regularly I think you'd stand a good chance of winning the award for 2013. So, er, don't be in a rush to update.... Seriously, like many others I'm sure this journal gets a rush of people to read it once there's something new, and you can be sure you'll be getting a mensch on the update thread on Sunday! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

05-24-2013, 06:45 PM	#5 (permalink)
Powerstars Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 450	Very interesting concept, hombre! __________________ Last.Fm My New Journal Favorite Album Of The Moment: They Might Be Giants - Glean

12-21-2013, 08:20 PM	#9 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	12:00 am *Rocket from the Crypt—The State of the Art is on Fire* (1995) Several blocks south of the last of the city's glass towers, past the Salvation Army and the glowing neon cross of the Gloomy Bible Institute, past the crowd of people camped under the highway onramp with all of their worldly possessions in shopping carts, there is a smallish basement music venue with a peeling sign illuminated by a single red light. It's a place the invisible man has visited many times before, though of course no one there would know him as a regular. Tonight, he slips past the titanic bouncers and down the stairs to find the place packed from wall to wall with a sweaty, rowdy crowd surging with excitement. A band is on the stage—a six-piece blast of guitars and horns known as Rocket from the Crypt—and they're clearly relishing the way they're balancing this crowd on the knife edge between party and riot. Because of his condition, the invisible man is understandably leery of crowds. So at the earliest opportunity he hops over the bar and starts pouring himself shots as he ducks and dodges the bartenders. The reality with Rocket from the Crypt is that I could have picked pretty much any of their albums to review here—they're virtually all that consistent and that good—but I decided to go with this little seven song EP (nine if you have the CD) because I feel that it's the strongest, most concise RFTC experience there is. It roars out of the gate with "Light Me"—the first of several compact, high-energy tracks with something of a fire motif. Surf drums pound, horns and guitars blast, and a little vintage organ even weaves it's way in and out for a moment before the churning wall of sound that is "A+ in Arson Class" blasts its way through the wall. "Rid or Ride" follows quickly, allowing the slightest chance to catch your breath amid it's rockabilly vocals while still beating your ass with it's minute and a half of punk rock guitar herky-jerk. Then before you know it, you're being swallowed by the brassy assault of what is probably the album's defining moment, "Human Torch". Epic by this EP's standards, this three minute twelve second track takes you through a gut-wrenching lesson in build and release sonic dynamics before dumping you into the ever-so-slightly slower, bass-heavy spin cycle of "Ratsize". If you're listening on vinyl, the album closes out here with "Human Spine", a five-plus minute encore-evoking opus that most clearly harkens back to the band's 1960s garage rock influences. If you're listening to the CD release here, you're also treated to two more tracks—"Trouble" and "Masculine Intuition"—both covers of songs originally performed by 60s garage rockers The Music Machine. Both are quite good, and not surprisingly, even more 60s-sounding than the rest of the EP. When the band decide to take a break, the invisible man sneaks his way out from behind the bar and back up the stairs to the the street above. He's had a lot to drink and knows from past experience that too much booze sometimes interacts very strangely with his unique physical condition. He makes his way down the sidewalk, gulping the cool night air, hoping to stave off side effects. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die** last.fm

02-15-2014, 11:25 PM	#10 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	1:00 am *Goran Bregović—Alkohol: Sljivovica & Champagne* (2009)** The invisible man stumbles a bit as he walks, the alcohol making him far less aware of his invisible feet than he usually is. After passing under a railroad bridge and a viaduct he notices that the neighborhood has changed subtly. No longer do trash and people pushing shopping carts dominate the streets, instead they have been replaced by a decidedly residential vibe. Brownstones line the streets here, the yellow light of domestic life glowing in their windows. The sweet smell of flowering trees hangs thick in the night air. Up ahead he hears the sound of brass instruments being played at a frantic pace. On closer inspection he discovers a vacant lot strung with lights and converted into a garden which is filled with tables and chairs and a group of people dancing to beautiful Balkan music. At first he sits at a table and simply watches them, but before long he is overcome by a powerful urge to dance and he rushes out into the middle of the crowd, jumping and spinning and confusing the hell out of everyone he bumps into. This is the perfect party album. Listening to it you can imagine drunk people grabbing the microphone from each other or grabbing a partner and twirling sloppily around the dancefloor. I'm sure the atmosphere of drunken revelry it evokes is no accident, it is called Alkohol after all. The tempos—with the exception of the slower track "Ruzica" in the middle of the album—are fairly upbeat across the board, bass horns oompah-ing enthusiastically left and right. The higher register horns laugh and weep with gusto in a way that is reminiscent of both klezmer and mariachi music. The vocals change a great deal from track to track as if, as previously mentioned, different people keep grabbing the microphone. The end result is an album that is thoroughly Balkan and utterly global, with noticeable links to everything from mariachi to bhangra to ska to Carnival and Mardi Gras music, all of it partying hard and reeking of booze. Once he is thoroughly exhausted and sweaty as hell he staggers out of the crowd and swipes a bottle of champaign on his way out of the garden. One utterly blitzed guest, nearly passed out at a table, is surprised to see the bottle go floating away down the street, occasionally tilting upside down to drain its contents into an invisible throat. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm