#It was such a loving ode to beloved books that accompany us through life and make us part of who we are | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

richincolor · 1 year

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New Releases

Five new books coming out this week to add to your growing list. I'm reading Nigeria Jones for this month's review and I'm excited to get started. Keep an eye out for that upcoming review. What books look interesting to you?

Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian Balzer & Bray

2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself.

1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse—he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed.

1939. Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he’s thrust into has a dark side. Bobby is forced to hide his sexuality for fear of losing everything.

Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi HarperCollins US

Warrior Princess.

That’s what Nigeria’s father calls her. He’s raised her as part of the Movement, a Black separatist group based in Philadelphia. Nigeria is homeschooled and vegan and participates in traditional rituals that connect her and other kids from the group to their ancestors. But when her mother—the perfect matriarch to their Movement—disappears, Nigeria’s world is upended. She finds herself taking care of her baby brother and stepping into a role she doesn’t want.

Nigeria’s mother had secrets. She wished for a different life for her children, which includes sending her daughter to a private Quaker school outside of their strict group. Despite her father’s disapproval, Nigeria attends the school with her cousin, Kamau, and Sage, who used to be a friend. There, she slowly begins to blossom and expand her universe.

As Nigeria searches for her mother, she starts to uncover a shocking truth. One that will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about her life and her family.

You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie Feiwel & Friends

Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear.

Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie team’s act together, this second chance—and any hope of playing college soccer—will slip through Vale’s fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer…and maybe each other. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

The Iron Vow: The Iron Fey: Evenfall #3 by Julie Kagawa Inkyard Press

After leaping through the portal to Evenfall, Meghan and her companions find themselves in a terrifying new world where Nightmares roam and glamour is nearly nonexistent. As their magic wanes and the creatures of Evenfall rise against them, the race to find the Nightmare King grows ever more desperate. But what they discover–about Evenfall, about the Nightmare King, about themselves–will shake everything they thought they knew to the core.

The Nightmare King stirs. A world hangs in the balance. And as twilight descends upon all the realms of Faery, Meghan and her allies must make one more impossible choice. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

I’m Not Supposed to Be in the Dark by Riss M. Neilson Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Seventeen-year-old Aria Cayetano dreams of ghosts. She used to see them too, but thanks to a special tea brewed by her grandfather, Aria’s connection to the spirit world has been severed. Until a decades old rosebush suddenly dies across the street, convincing Aria that something supernatural is happening in her neighborhood.

She aches to investigate it, but the rosebush sits on her ex best friend Derek Johnson’s front lawn, and she can’t question him because he hates her now. Aria doesn’t know what drove them apart years ago, but she does know Derek’s been acting strange for weeks, sneaking out in the dead of night to who knows where.

Then, days after the rosebush dies, Derek begins speaking to her again. At least Aria thinks it’s him. Until she discovers there’s a ghost inside of Derek that will take his life if it doesn’t find what it’s searching for. As Aria and Derek race to uncover the mystery, another kind of magic takes them by surprise: love. But Aria has to decide how far she’s willing to go to save Derek, especially when helping the ghost means tapping into whatever the tea has buried inside of her.

Bone-chilling and spellbinding, I’m Not Supposed to Be in the Dark is an alluring ghost story that’s about exorcising the past to find a future to believe in. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

#new releases #weneeddiversebooks

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blogwritetheworld · 7 years

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The Write Place: “Ye soft pipes, play on”

Looking for the right advice on pursuing the writer’s life? You’ve come to the write place!

by Lisa Hiton

There are many art forms in which written word and music are brought together. At first, we think of song lyrics and the beats which accompany them. For more ambitious storytellers, musicals and operas are another space where lyric meets instrumental match. Musical scores accompany many of our favorite moments in film and television. The relationship between music and language is longstanding and undying. And there are many ways to approach joining forces as we move through the world as writers.

LYRIC

Perhaps there is no older example of the relationship between music and language than that of poetry. Let’s take a closer look at that word, lyric—from the Greek for “lura” or “lyre”, and so, the lyric poet is one who writes poems “fit to be sung” or “singing to the lyre”. So from “a short poem expressing personal emotion” to our modern understanding of “words to a popular song”, lyric has always been a word bound up in that poetic expression—that elevated language or combination of language and instrument that expresses what normal speech cannot: our innermost emotions. Words, since ancient times, are meant to be a kind of music unto themselves. And none take this promise more literally than poets.

Poems have to make music and sound out of language alone. Without the other tools of strings, brass, and the like, the poet has to think of the sounds made with language alone—how to arrange words and stanzas to give the reader beats, harmony, and tension. One of the English language’s most beloved poems, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats shows us how poetic form can be as precise in meter and rhyme as songs without even introducing instruments. While this poem’s language seems elevated to us now, hundreds of years later with its “thou”s and “wilt”s, we can still hear its music and study what the speaker says about song itself:

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN by John Keats*

Thou still unravished bride of quietness, Thou foster child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loath? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit dities of no tone. Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal---yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

*Read the full poem here.

The speaker, looking upon the urn, an inanimate object, sees its images and tableaus and makes of it this song, this poem. And like the still image of such pipes, this written text is made musical by our reading it aloud.

YE SOFT PIPES, PLAY ON

Contemporary poets have not lost such hunger for music in their writing practice either. Take, for example, the recent anthology, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. The editors of this anthology (including Write the World guest judge Nate Marshall) collected poems influenced by the world of hip-hop music, showing the world that poetic forms and music forms are being broken and expanded upon in the hands of emerging writers.

Remix culture is another contemporary space for music and language to be in dialogue. Increasingly, remix culture is causing musicians to seek out writers for their work. On Beyonce’s album, Beyonce, she samples award-winning Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech about feminism in the song “Flawless”. After the success of this technique on Beyonce, Beyonce sampled poems from emerging UK poet, Warsan Shire, on her album Lemonade.

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COLLABORATION SENSATION

So, some of you are probably wondering, how do I get my poems into Beyonce’s hands? Believe me, I wonder this most days too. While it might not be as easy to reach out to today’s superstars, we can all benefit from other approaches to collaborating with musicians on our works.

One thing you can do is reach out to musicians you know. Maybe you’ve got a friend who really croons on the cello who would love to do a cento series with you and set it to music. A cento comes from Latin for “patchwork”. This collage poem is traditionally made up of lines from other poets or other texts, but of course, this can be remixed in many ways! If you wanted to use your own original work, you could set a renga to music. A renga is a form of haiku that you could even bring other writers along to write verses for! My favorite renga is “Renga for Obama”, which is an ongoing project at the Harvard Review. You can also approach a musician with work you’ve already written and see if there’s enough inspiration to adapt your words to music.

Reading aloud and performing music are opportunities for all kinds of collaborations, You can take your new works or remixes and make a podcast. You can also arrange a live performance for friends and family in your home or maybe even at a local park.

Theater is another great space to find collaborators. Bringing singers and actors together can often lead to character building—maybe enough to write a short musical or opera. This is an especially good approach to those of you who love team camaraderie. And unlike sports, theater is a collaborative space where everyone achieves transcendence when a successful show is performed.

PORTRAIT OF THE LYRIC POET

There is perhaps no greater champion of the relationship between music and language than Robert Pinsky. His whole life’s work has been to encourage readers to approach poetry as the oral tradition it was born from. A quick study of his collaborations and projects is greatly inspirational to anyone else who heeds the call to the music of poetry and the poetry of music. His poem, “Samurai Song” is a great exemplification of how language can be arranged to make music without needing other instruments:

SAMURAI SONG by Robert Pinsky

When I had no roof I made Audacity my roof. When I had No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened. When I had no ears I thought. When I had no thought I waited. When I had no father I made Care my father. When I had No mother I embraced order. When I had no friend I made Quiet my friend. When I had no Enemy I opposed my body. When I had no temple I made My voice my temple. I have No priest, my tongue is my choir. When I have no means fortune Is my means. When I have Nothing, death will be my fortune. Need is my tactic, detachment Is my strategy. When I had No lover I courted my sleep.

Years since the poem’s publication, Pinsky has read it aloud many times. And in more recent years, this work and many others have even been set to jazz music—a new layer to understanding and experiencing this former poet laureate’s work, indeed. When he reads with jazz musicians, he considers himself part of the jazz set—just another instrument listening and improvising with the likes of an upright bass, a sax, and the like. He and jazz musician, Laurence Hobgood, even made an album together called PoemJazz.

When Pinsky was the US poet laureate, he started America’s Favorite Poem Project where Americans were documented reciting their favorite poems aloud. Pinsky has long championed poetry’s roots as an oral (and aural) tradition. Especially since poetry has a stigma (here in the US where I’m from at least) of being abstract, difficult, and strange, this project was meant to remind people that poetry is another form of recitation, like song, and is meant to be heard.

About Lisa Hiton

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#write the world #lisa hiton #the write place #amwriting #music #poetry #lyrics #beyonce #john keats #Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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bowlsister75-blog · 5 years

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: The 24 Best Songs, Ranked From Great to Spectacular

Even without the songs, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend would still be one of the best comedies on TV: a sharply insightful, wickedly subversive, riotously funny rom-com that is fully aware it’s a rom-com. But the show’s original songs — all 150-some of them! — have elevated it into something wholly unique and unmatched anywhere on TV.

RELATED STORIES

With Crazy Ex taking its final bow with Friday’s series finale (The CW, 8/7c) — no, we’re not anywhere close to being ready to say goodbye yet — we’re honoring four seasons of musical comedy genius by ranking the very best Crazy Ex songs from the entire series. To be clear, there are many, many worthy songs that it pained us to leave off this list. (Sincere apologies to the likes of “Maybe This Dream,” “F—kton of Cats” and, um, “Period Sex.”) But these are the absolute cream of the crop, the essential songs in the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend canon. And what’s great is, even if you’ve never seen the show, you can enjoy these songs as one-off musical comedy sketches. They’re that good!

So grab a Rebetzel’s Pretzel and join us as we waltz, tap and Soul Train our way down West Covina’s memory lane and look back on the very best Crazy Ex-Girlfriend songs from all four seasons. Hey, if we keep singing, the show can’t really end, right?

24. “No One Else Is Singing My Song” (Season 4, Episode 1)

Rebecca started out the final season in prison, and sang this mournful ballad about how alone she felt — not knowing that Nathaniel and Josh were feeling the exact same way. (And singing about it, too.) It’s one of the least overtly comical songs in the Crazy Ex songbook, but it packs a huge emotional punch, especially when the whole cast touches hands in a 12-way split-screen. (Even the creepy grocery guy.)

23. “I Could if I Wanted To” (Season 1, Episode 16)

Whoop-dee-frickin’-doo. Back when Greg was still an alcohol-soaked sourpuss — and looked a lot different than he does now — he delivered this Weezer-y anthem for cynical jerks everywhere, boasting about all the great stuff he could do in life if he actually gave two s—ts about anything. Like it, don’t like it, whatever… not like he cares.

22. “Santa Ana Winds” (Season 2, Episode 11)

This insanely catchy doo-wop ditty is a perfect example of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend finding laughs in a highly specific subject: the gusty Santa Ana winds that plague southern California each year. Here, a Frankie Valli-style vocalist — bravo, Eric Michael Roy — sings of the fierce winds of change blowing through Rebecca’s life, which bring with them “whimsy and forest fires.” Good luck getting this one out of your head.

21. “I’m the Villain in My Own Story” (Season 1, Episode 14)

Here, Rebecca goes the Disney route for a tune where she realizes maybe she’s not the beautiful princess in her love triangle with Josh and Valencia… maybe she’s the cackling witch. The music on this one would slide right into the soundtrack of any Disney cartoon, it has fantastically self-aware lyrics that touch on one of the series’ major themes… and Rachel Bloom’s evil witch voice is just impeccable.

20. “First Penis I Saw” (Season 3, Episode 7)

Donna Lynne Champlin has given us more than a few memorable tunes as Rebecca’s trusty pal Paula, but none can top this upbeat, ABBA-esque tribute to her first real boyfriend… and, well, his distinctive genitalia. (You never forget your first, right?) Bonus points for Paula and her bandmates singing into cucumbers and eggplants in the “Suggestive Vegetables” aisle.

19. “A Boy Band Made Up of Four Joshes” (Season 1, Episode 3)

Along with playing lovable dummy Josh Chan, Vincent Rodriguez III is one hell of a dancer, and he gets to show off all kinds of moves in this charming boy-band number, where he — well, four of him, really — reassure a smitten Rebecca that she can let all of her childhood traumas go. (They are licensed mental health professionals, after all.) It’s sneaky emotional, too; that moment where Rebecca hugs her younger self and dances with her gets us every time.

18. “We Tapped That Ass” (Season 2, Episode 4)

Josh and Greg team up for this snappy tap-dance number where they exchange notes about their, uh, intimate encounters with Rebecca. The lyrics are jam-packed with naughty wordplay (“On the ottoman, you took a lot of men…”) and double-entendres that we’re surprised made it past the CW censors. They even finish on her chest… of drawers, you sickos.

17. “Where’s the Bathroom?” (Season 1, Episode 8)

God bless Tovah Feldshuh. As Rebecca’s supremely judgy mom Naomi, the Broadway veteran unleashes a whirlwind of passive-aggression while visiting her daughter in this rapid-fire tune, demanding to know where the bathroom is while still dishing out backhanded compliments. (“You’re looking healthy/And by healthy, I mean chunky…”) She even judges Rebecca’s bathroom once she gets there! Anyone with a Jewish mother — or any mother, really — can relate.

16. “I Go to the Zoo” (Season 3, Episode 3)

We can’t stop giggling every time we think about this supremely goofy Drake-inspired slow jam about… Nathaniel’s love of going to the zoo? (Hey, it makes him feel better, alright?) The silky smooth beats are a strangely fitting accompaniment for Nathaniel’s ode to his beloved zoo animals. (“My favorite’s probably the cheetahs/But I ain’t f—king with no zebras.”) Just another hyper-specific, hyper-hysterical Crazy Ex tune that we’ll probably hum every time we go to the zoo from now on.

15. “The Sexy Getting Ready Song” (Season 1, Episode 1)

Right away, in the very first episode, Rachel Bloom let us know what to expect from Crazy Ex with this sultry, silly chronicle of all the plucking and scrubbing women do to get ready for a date. (The back-up singers are there to help Rebecca get into her shapewear, at least.) We couldn’t agree more with the rapper Nipsey Hussle (RIP), who has a cameo midway through: This is some “nasty-ass patriarchal bulls—t.”

14. “Let’s Have Intercourse” (Season 2, Episode 11)

Scott Michael Foster joined the Crazy Ex cast late as cocky corporate guy Nathaniel, but he made a great first impression with this Ed Sheeran-esque ballad in which he gets very specific about what he’d like to do with Rebecca. It’s not terribly romantic — he just wants to “see what [her] nipples look like,” really — but the admittedly gross lyrics make for a hilarious contrast with the lilting, sensitive-dude guitar. And the ballroom dancing’s not bad, either!

13. “Settle For Me” (Season 1, Episode 4)

A song for guys and gals everywhere hopelessly stuck in the friend zone, Greg tries to convince Rebecca to forget Josh and give him a shot with an elegant, old-school number complete with tuxedos and gowns. (“Like two percent milk or seitan beef, I almost taste the same!”) As with a lot of Crazy Ex songs, the buoyant music and snappy dancing help to mask the crushing sadness of the lyrics. So twirly!

12. “We’ll Never Have Problems Again” (Season 2, Episode 10)

Who’s ready to disco? This relentlessly peppy dance track is a hilarious examination of the comforting lies young lovers tell themselves about their future — “No more ups and downs/It’s just ups and ups and ups!” — and it also happens to be ridiculously catchy. Besides, any song that gives Heather an excuse to “Soul Train on outta here” is a keeper in our book.

11. “Friendtopia” (Season 2, Episode 6)

Most musical comedies would be happy with a note-perfect Spice Girls parody, but Crazy Ex had to take it several steps further: Rebecca’s cheerfully sinister girl-power jam is actually a full-on military manifesto, with her, Heather and Valencia plotting to take over the world. (“All agriculture will be diverted/Into making us rosé!”) You’ll never hear the term “squad goals” the same way again… and you better like watching Hocus Pocus.

10. “Remember That We Suffered” (Season 2, Episode 10)

In true Jewish mom fashion, this jaunty dirge is eager to remind listeners that the Jewish people have had a rough go of it for, oh, a few centuries now — so don’t enjoy yourself too much! It’s the perfect distillation of morbid Jewish humor, Tovah Feldshuh continues to be this show’s secret weapon — and bonus points for including the legendary Patti LuPone and her even more legendary voice.

9. “A Diagnosis” (Season 3, Episode 6)

One of the least comical Crazy Ex songs, but one of the most emotionally resonant, this triumphant showstopper sees Rebecca celebrating the fact that she’s been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder after years of struggling with her mental health. We’ve been struggling right along with her, so it’s cathartic to see her so full of hope here, and Rachel Bloom’s vocals positively soar. A beautiful tribute to a major turning point in Rebecca’s life.

8. “Love Kernels” (Season 2, Episode 1)

We all know Rebecca could live for days off a single compliment from her beloved Josh Chan, and she puts that poignant desperation into song here with a Lemonade-esque torch song. It’s probably Crazy Ex‘s most sweepingly ambitious music video, with plenty of costume changes — our favorite is a tie between “sexy fashion cactus” and “hamster slurping from a water bottle” — but of course, it openly acknowledges how wildly expensive it must be, too. (Hi, Broom Darryl.)

7. “It Was a S–t Show” (Season 2, Episode 4)

Greg’s farewell lament to Rebecca sheds light on a frustratingly familiar romantic situation: They liked each other a lot, but they knew full well they were just terrible together. (“Chernobyl, next to us, looks like a campfire/Hurricane Katrina was just bad weather…”) Like many great Crazy Ex songs, it’s hilarious and heart-wrenching, all at the same time — and man, Santino Fontana can sing, right?

6. “You Stupid Bitch” (Season 1, Episode 11)

Crazy Ex has had four different theme songs, one for each season (we’re partial to Season 2’s “I’m Just a Girl in Love,” for the record), but this ballad is truly Rebecca Bunch’s theme song. Deeply scathing and cleverly meta all at once, Rebecca harshly chides herself for all of her many mistakes… and not for the first time. (Her audience knows every word!) It’s a stunning depiction of the self-hating voice inside all of us, and probably Rachel Bloom’s best vocal performance of the series to boot.

5. “JAP Battle” (Season 1, Episode 13)

Yes, Rachel Bloom can rap, too: This hilarious hip-hop showdown between Rebecca and her sworn frenemy Audra Levine — a pair of Jewish-American princesses, you see — is a treasure trove of cutting insults (in Yiddish, of course) and references to tony New York hometowns. Guest star Rachel Grate proves herself a very worthy opponent as Audra, and the mean-mug faces that Darryl, Paula and Josh make as Rebecca’s backup crew are just priceless.

4. “Don’t Be a Lawyer” (Season 4, Episode 3)

Burl Moseley’s Jim has been a background player for most of Crazy Ex‘s run, but he hit it out of the park with this spotlight number: a sizzling ’90s R&B throwback jam about the perils of pursuing the legal profession. The vintage fashions and dance moves are perfectly on point, and the lyrics are quite persuasive, actually: “The job is inherently crappy/That’s why you’ve never met a lawyer who’s happy!”

3. “The Math of Love Triangles” (Season 2, Episode 3)

This is probably the pinnacle of the classic Crazy Ex formula: Start with a spot-on recreation of a classic song genre — the ditzy-girl tune, a la Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes — and add a brilliantly meta twist to it. Here, a dolled-up Rebecca wants to understand the elements of her love triangle with Josh and Greg, but keeps getting adorably confused by all the “man math,” and Rachel Bloom’s over-the-top breathy vocals make it all even funnier. Whee, a swing!

2. “Let’s Generalize About Men” (Season 3, Episode 1)

The genius of this Pointer Sisters-inspired toe-tapper is that it’s both a “yas, queen” girl-power anthem and a parody of those anthems, pointing out the flaws in painting all 3.6 billion men on this planet with the same broad brush. (“Let’s take one bad thing about one man/And apply it to all of them!”) It’s catchy enough that you could fool us into thinking it actually made the pop charts in the mid-’80s, and the twist ending, when Paula remembers that her sons are also men, is maybe the most brutally funny punchline of the whole series.

1. “West Covina” (Season 1, Episode 1)

Could Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s very best song also be its very first song? Yes, we believe it could. Rebecca’s dizzingly romantic ode to her new hometown — and the guy who just happens to live there — manages to set the tone for the entire series: delightfully clever (the visual gags at the start still make us giggle) and heartbreakingly earnest all at the same time. There’s a giddy, go-for-broke magic to it, and it all builds to a massive dance number featuring dozens of extras and one giant pretzel, as if to say, “You’ve never seen anything quite like this on TV before.” And they were right: We hadn’t… and we never will again.

Did your favorite Crazy Ex song not make our list? Sing it out in the comments below.

Source: https://tvline.com/2019/04/01/crazy-ex-girlfriend-best-songs-list-music-videos-watch/

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dentsolivier · 7 years

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’77 Fest 2017 @ Jean Drapeau – 28 July, 2017

Rancid

Ever since the Warped Tour started to skip over our fair city a few years ago, there’s been a punk-sized hole in our Montreal summers. Pouzza Fest has carried the torch admirably, but there’s really nothing quite like a day of punkin’ in the park on a nice summers day. Clearly, a group of punk promoters here felt the same way; after booking punk rock shows for over 25 years, they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Enter ’77 Montreal. 13 bands across 2 stages in a small section of Parc Jean Drapeau, blessed with a rare day of dry weather in this bummer of a summer. No bands overlap either – the bane of many a festival. This year’s inaugural event, likely due to the schedules of the headliners, takes place on a Friday, so crowds are a little sparse to begin with, which makes sense. After all, many of the “punks“ towards whom this line-up is aimed are now grown-ups with full-time jobs who can’t get a day off frivolously… or perhaps it��s just me!

Jake Burns

After the bizarre request to surrender the top of my plastic bottle (note to organizers, despite the various admonitions around the site, this makes staying hydrated quite difficult, irrespective of the presence of water filling stations, if I can’t actually store it in my pocket for when I need it), I finally enter the venue midway through Jake Burns (of Stiff Little Fingers fame) set, which is the perfect soundtrack to a relaxed afternoon in the park if ever you heard one. It sounds especially chilled in comparison to what follows next: New York hardcore legends Madball.

Madball

The chilled vibe is obliterated within about 2 seconds of the first song, as the crowd explodes into life in the mid-afternoon sunshine. Frontman Freddy Cricien is an engaging one: he patrols the front fence right off the bat, and, as if the crowd isn’t already involved enough, waves his finger like a lasso, the universal symbol to start a circle pit, to which the hardcore-heads duly oblige. He’s funny too, introducing Madball as “a brand new band working on their first album,” and declaring “we love coming to Canada…but not the border.” An explosive 45 minutes.

Madball

New Jersey’s finest The Bouncing Souls are immediately up next, and draw another huge, excitable crowd. Frontman Greg Attonito skanks his way onto the stage and launches right into the epic Manthem, and they keep up the frenetic pace on Late Bloomer. Greg roams the front fence too, shaking hands and high-fiving as many as possible, and then darts up the aisle that splits the crowd down the middle right to the sound desk on Lean On Sheena, accompanied by a huge sing-along from the rabid crowd.

The Bouncing Souls

Gone sounds epic too, and after wishing everyone “have a great night, have a great everything!!!”, they wrap up a brilliant set with the classic True Believer. The pit picks up once more, and due to a bizarre design on the smaller ‘Scene Ouest’ stage (in which the middle of the floor area is raised a few inches up compared to the left and right sides), those at the edge of the raised area are thrown off the edge during the crowd surge (including myself). Thankfully, no damage is done, save for one punk’s young daughter who leaves the area in tears, but such a floor design is certainly asking for trouble in the form of sprained ankles and tumbles. Another note to the organizers there then…

The Bouncing Souls

Old school So-Cal punks The Vandals follow, and despite being physically older dudes, clearly haven’t gone all ‘grown-up.’ Opening with Its A Fact (complete with comedy guitar solo) and Take It Back, frontman Dave Quackenbush then dedicates People That Are Going To Hell to himself. Seriously, these guys were joking about on stage way before Blink 182 made it mainstream.

After Cafe 405 and Pizza Tran, Dave demands to see himself on the huge screens on the opposite stage during Live Fast Diarrhea, all to no avail. Still, he sparks a huge sing-along to the chorus, and you know that The Vandals are the only band who could get a whole crowd to yell “Diarrhea” and make it sound anthemic. Oi To The World and the brilliant The New You follow before Dave and bassist Joe Escalante once again address the crowd: “you know The Vandals, we like to address political shit; we know your President, he’s fuckin’ good-looking, he could be a Kardashian!!”

The Vandals

On I’ve Got An Ape Drape (their ode to mullets), Dave replaces ‘Queensryche’ with ‘Bouncing Souls’ to declare “I’ve been growing that one braid back there for years / I’ve had it since the first time I saw Bouncing Souls!!!”, much to the amusement of anyone who actually caught the joke. And Now We Dance, Anarchy Burger, My Girlfriend’s Dead are blazed through next, before the set concludes with I Have A Date, and the biggest goofball of all of them, guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, heads into the crowd, onto the sound tent, dancing crazily for the video screens. Anyone who didn’t know The Vandals before today will certainly not forget them in a hurry; 50 minutes of ridiculous genius fun.

Many bands to this point have expressed their excitement at seeing punk legends X at this festival, who in the words of Dave Quackenbush, are “the only band here that really live the spirit of 1977” (after which this very festival is named). Indeed, even Mac DeMarco has turned up for them, watching their set from the side of the stage and singing along to We’re Desperate (at least I think its him…). However, it seems that most of the crowd uses their set as an excuse to grab some food, as the crowd is notably thinner at the front during their set. Not that any of the band seem to notice, or if they do, they don’t seem to care. Oozing cool, frontwoman Exene Cervenka has her hands in the pockets of her X hoodie, and you know how cool you have to be to get away with wearing your own merchandise. Aside from a cover of a 1920s country song (since “the 1920s were way more punk than the 1970s,” according to Exene), the set is unmistakably old-school punk, and sounds as timeless as it did back in the day.

After lining up for 40 minutes for a supper of 2 waffles (and that was the shortest of the line-ups for the 3 food trucks available to service the entire festival; one had sold out already. Note to organizers: more food trucks are needed for an event of this size!), it’s time for the first of the co-headliners in the form of Massachusetts legends Dropkick Murphys. It’s hard to know if it was them or Flogging Molly who first merged the Celtic influence with punk, but it’s a sound they’ve never strayed from across their 9 studio albums, and why would they? It’s clearly beloved by the thousands now assembled for their set. Indeed, it’s traditional celtic music and tin whistles that signal their arrival on stage, and after a melancholy intro, the pit explodes into life with the first bars of The Boys Are Back, and is swiftly followed by Blood and bagpipes.

Dropkick Murphys

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya starts out very traditionally with a mandolin, before again erupting into life, and the energy of the crowd is palpable. Some down-time arrives with a stirring cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone, which is followed by the anthemic Rose Tattoo, which sounds even more fantastic in conjunction with the sun setting over the trees around the venue. The pit erupts back into life with The State Of Massachusetts and I’m Shipping Up to Boston. At this point, various members of the crowd gatecrash the stage and dance and sing with the band, and remain there for Until the Next Time, and in fact are joined by even more of the crowd; the stage is pretty packed by the end. A cannon-blast of confetti into the crowd wraps up the epic set.

Dropkick Murphys

For the first time all day, there’s a lull in proceedings, with no bands playing, as Rancid‘s crew set things up on the same stage Dropkick Murphys just vacated. The tiredness of a busy week at work and an afternoon on my feet in the sun begins to set in, and I wonder if I have one more band left in me. Of course, when that band is Rancid, there’s absolutely no way I’m leaving early, and as soon as Tim Armstrong staggers onto the stage and sings the opening notes of Radio, the tiredness evaporates and euphoria takes over, as they blast through classic after classic, as Roots Radicals, Journey to the End of the East Bay, and the bass-shredding Maxwell Murder follow soon after. Its amazing stuff.

Rancid

During The 11th Hour, Tim tells us how they and Dropkick Murphys participated in a draft as to which band would headline each night, and he chose Montreal! The crowd roars approval at his choice; tonight, there really couldn’t be anyone else headlining. Guitarist Lars Frederiksen rips through Ghost Of A Chance, despite some obvious annoyance at some clowns who intermittently throw junk onto the stage, and when he proclaims “we’re gonna take you back to 1995 to a little record called And Out Come The Wolves,” the ska vibes of Old Friend kick in and get everyone dancing once more.

New song Where I’m Going follows that ska vibe perfectly, despite being over 20 years younger. For It’s Quite Alright, Lars asks for circle pits either side of the central aisle, which the crowd are happy to provide, and they keep this up for Buddy. Fall Back Down is met with a huge clap-along, and ends in a huge sing-along for the last chorus The timeless Time Bomb brings back the ska vibe once more, before Ruby Soho closes out the main set with the biggest sing-along of the set so far. A truly magnificent hour of music, from a truly magnificent band.

Both Rancid and Dropkick Murphys emerge for a combined encore of covers, consisting of Cretin Hop (Ramones), I Fought The Law (The Clash) , Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash) and TNT (AC/DC) , to bring the festival to a carnival sort of conclusion, before leaving the stage and leaving the tired but elated crowd to fight their way onto the Metro and back home.

Setlist Radio Roots Radicals Journey to the End of the East Bay Maxwell Murder The 11th Hour Nihilism East Bay Night Dead Bodies Ghost of a Chance Telegraph Avenue Old Friend Where I’m Going Salvation Bloodclot Black & Blue Olympia WA. It’s Quite Alright Buddy Fall Back Down Time Bomb Ruby Soho

Encore Cretin Hop (Ramones cover) I Fought The Law (The Clash cover) Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover) TNT (AC/DC cover)

Will this Festival be a regular thing, or a one-off? One would hope the former, since the video screens read “see you next year” on the way out. Here’s hoping so – despite a few minor glitches and gripes, the first edition of ’77 Montreal was a resounding success, and here’s hoping for many more years punkin’ in the park!

Pale Lips

This mighty creature was hanging out in the Monster energy tent

This little guy emerged from out of the shadows of the Monster Energy tent to have a quick nibble and was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Its not a common occurrence, to find a rodent that digs the Dropkick Murphys.

Barrasso

Genetic Control

The Kingpins

The Creepshow

Hairdressing in the Monster energy tent

Review – Simon Williams Photos – Kieron Yates