fiona hanly

The lack of attention on this blog to Lana Del Rey‘s music is not an oversight as much as it is an overwhelming inability to put into words what stirs so strongly everything that I love, have loved, and will always love about art.[1] But with yesterday’s release of her latest video, “Born to Die,”one of the smartest and most emotive works I have witnessed this year, her value as an art-ist, that rare operator able to move between mediums and messages to edge closer and closer to the god-honest truth – and to the edge itself – becomes crystal clear.

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Hey, it’s finals time! Stay calm, y’all, this second installment of Between the Lines (a column that looks at songs inspired by various types of literature) is easy AND enjoyable, no matter how little you feel like reading anything at all ever again.

First, read this quote from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!‘” Read More »

When the four ladies of Dum Dum Girls walked out onto the Black Cat mainstage on Sunday night, what first struck me was their presence—and by that I mean the fact that they had such a strong presence in the first place. I won’t make sweeping generalizations, but many musicians I’ve seen at the same venue tend to look like they were run through a dryer filled with dirt and then put down for a nap right before their show, so they walk out onto stage looking disheveled, rubbing the dust and sleep out of their eyes with what looks like actual surprise—“What are YOU guys all doing here? For me? Really?” Not Dum Dum Girls. Dum Dum Girls own their stage. They dress up for their shows—they actually look GOOD for their shows. Four tiny, serious girls with single stage names and killer matching tights walk out onto the stage and immediately fill the room with an unexpected wall of attitude and sound. Lead singer Dee Dee did not engage the audience with much friendly chatter beyond a hello after strapping her guitar on and got straight to business—which could have made the band seem disengaged and disinterested, but instead played completely into their earnest, minimalist aesthetic: what else were they here for then to play for us? And play for us they did. Read More »

[INTRODUCTION TO BETWEEN THE LINES: OK, books, right? Music, right? Musicians writing songs about books, right? Those songs are the best kind because they pander to those of us who like both. This may be the hands-down nerdiest thing I will ever have to say, but: I’m always so, so satisfied with myself when I pick up on a literary allusion in a song. I’ll always remember finally getting the Nathaniel Hawthorne Scarlet Letter reference in the Music Man soundtrack’s “The Sadder But Wiser Girl” on yet another never-ending family roadtrip. I excitedly announced my epiphany to the entire car, especially exalted because I had finally beaten my English professor father to understanding some reference of literary merit for the first (and, for all I knew, last) time in my long 15 years of life. I have since managed to make a few more such song-to-book connections, and have come to see literary allusions by musicians as secret high-fives between artist and listener—it’s like we have our own inside joke, isn’t it? And just like everybody loves puppies and winning, everybody loves inside jokes—there’s an eternal satisfaction, even a vindication in being able to pick apart a song and trace it back to the pages of your favorite books. So I thought I’d write a column about these songs. And no, not about this song, though it does fit the category, even a little too well.] Read More »

The word “telekinesis” is defined as the power to move something without touching it. Isn’t that exactly what good music is supposed to do? Move us (in a good way) without touching us (because, well, it can’t)? Precisely. Good one, Michael Lerner. Very punny.

Lerner’s latest release under said band name, Telekinesis, is 12 Desperate Straight Lines. I’m of the conviction that good albums can teach us something. 12 Desperate Straight Lines teaches us that breaking up sucks (and of course we knoooow), but breaking up doesn’t have to sound like it does. Read More »

You had a big brother once, right? Cool. I never did.

I always imagined what he would be like, though, because that’s what the normal cool kids do. He would have been kind of dorky, smart, totally hilarious, have bad vision, a beard and be really into music. He and his friends would hang out in his room for days on end, writing music and talking about boy things like dragons and girls and Pink Floyd’s Animals, just geeking out playing bass riffs.

Essentially, my imaginary big brother and his friends would probably have been Akron/Family, so S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT would probably have been their fifth (and coincidentally also their best) album.

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