Future daze

The End of Blogging

OK folks, the time has come to wind up operations and focus my written energies elsewhere. I always looked at the Daze as a casual-selective record of artistic items consumed & processed during my stay in Ireland, and now that I’ve left that Land of Errors, I mean to give the Slow Review all the prose-reviewing oomph it deserves. Don’t get me wrong, blogs are a great way of spreading cant and opinions, but in terms of serious writing and prose-smarts, well, the concept of blogging is more of a taint than a marketing boon. Neither am I the kind to adopt marketing postures in effort to get my name across, but by golly, it’d be nice to write for a vehicle that could one day pay out. Opinions are so lonely… they crave the comforting folds and regularity of editorial column-space and printed ink. Above all, in the end, down with the brass tacks, opinions wanna get paid…

So then, below is nearly three years’ worth of reviewing content. I’ve enjoyed the Balzacs and the DFWs and Lisa Burkes and Elvii the best. I’ve also enjoyed the sloppy overlong paragraphs and the minimal typeface {font-family:Verdana;font-size:10;} and white space. I regret not having written more like Sterne. I tip my hat to the few commentating friends who bothered.

I’ll endeavour to keep the blog live on blogspot, but in the meantime direct your attentive energies to www.SlowReview.com.

rino

Neko Case, Black Listed & Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Sometimes I get a thing for a singer purely because of her voice. A long time ago I had a special feeling for The Clouds’ Trish/Tricia Young, who I thought just kinkyplum as backing vocalist and occasional lead singer. Something in the character of her voice had me hallucinatin’ lazy eyes and husky cool and low-slung basses and groove smarts and flannel. Neko Case kicks up the same boyish reaction of Oh I Like You, Will She Like Me? Her timbre is rich and throaty, extremely strong in the high range and confidently ringing in any key. She’s so much more than the generic alt.country tag can hedge and fence her in. The independence and woman’s smarts of country, the poetic naturalness of confident songwriting, a sexy intelligence and sharp, redheaded good looks. Canadian blood. Hard-working tourbus (actually, a tourvan called the Beaver) attitude and self-made woman pith. But above all, that clear-open voice ringing out with full reverb. Sometimes country-sounding (vis early Maria McKee) and sometimes mixed with a radio-friendly 50s bandstand/pop sound and sometimes just cool and smokey, in love with old record players and dusty guitars and smart girls in skirts or overalls and childhood popsicles. It’s a rich timbre to my ears at least. My thanks to the lads at 3hive for pointing me her way. Here’s to clear and bold voices.