These Go to 11: interviewing The Hermit Crabs

Here comes another These Go to 11 interview series! This time I'm extremely honoured and happy to have the questionnaire completed by a wonderful musician, Melanie Whittle from the adorable The Hermit Crabs and Baffin Island, two personal favourites that make each of their (too few) releases an indiepop celebration. Enjoy!

Queen of the Indiepop Hermits

Melanie Whittle 
The Hermit Crabs / Baffin Island

After California Snow Story was put on hold, where she played drums, Melanie Whittle formed The Hermit Crabs in 2003. The Glaswegian band (Scottland of course, couldn't be any other way?) have released three flawless EPs to date, all available at the infallible Matinée Records; the debut "Feel Good Factor" (2006), "Correspondence Course" (2008), "Time Relentless" (2012), and one full-length; "Saw You Dancing" (2007). But Mel indiepop talents can also be found on the loveliest transcontinental collaboration ever: Baffin Island, where she joins forces with "our man", Jeremy Jensen, and Jake Hite from The Very Most. Here we go!

1. First record that you bought (be honest
Nena, "99 Red Balloons".

2. First and last concert you have attended (be honest too!)  

First: Madness at the age of 13. Last: Scottish proms in the park, Glasgow green

The "other" Michael

3. Guilty pleasure (song/band you shouldn’t like but you do, yes, it’s the embarrassing question)
Oo, er….Michael Bublé!?

4. Most precious music item you own (collector mode on)
Precious to me: Signed copy of Scottish band Win album. Perhaps precious to other people: Signed "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" B&S CD, promo copy of ‘Jonathan David’ by B&S.

5. Favorite lyrics (not yours) You told me everything by saying nothing (Bloodbuzzed's note: maybe from Tuxedomoon's "In a Manner of Speaking"?, thanks for that Knut!!)

The real "Deal".

6. Musician/s you would like to meet (should be alive, for obvious reasons, but you can choose a dead one too) 
I’ve met Kim Deal but would like to meet her again, the guy from Magnetic Fields (Stephen Merrit), Joey Santiago from The Pixies.

7. Favorite artwork album (not yours)
Dead Kennedys’ album, "Frankenchrist"

8. Books or movies? Depending on your answer recommend us one (trick: you can choose both)
I know it’s perhaps an indie cliche but I love Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar", it’s so good on so many levels. Also Wally Lamb's "She’s come undone" and Salinger's "Franny and Zooey". Film: John Cassavettes, "A woman under the influence".

9. Song (of yours) you are most proud of

"Closet Fan" from "Saw Your Dancing".

10. What’s does it mean indie for you? (yes, the “serious question”)
Oh dear, I don’t know, the eternal question. Alternative, shoe-gazing.

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Musically Speaking? – playing a bit of everything in a covers band – weddings, barmitzvahs etc. Hopefully playing the violin to a decent standard.

Zillion thanks Mel!

"Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You", killing Holden Caulfield

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You- Peter Cameron

Marketing is lying. Advertising is all about cheating. And that does include literature. Yes, I know I sound infuriated. I am. This is not going to be a merciful review.

Critics have saluted "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You", Peter Cameron's latest novel as "one of the all-time great New York books", a "comic gem" and the (here it goes, hear the drums rattling) perfect modern version of "The Catcher in the Rye". Now that's what I call advertising a book, don't you think?

Of course, "Someday..." is not what the ads say. To begin with While reading it, I couldn't help myself but thinking on how soon we were going to see a film adaption of the book, directed by the responsible of Little Miss Sunshine or Cameron Crowe... and while preparing this review I realized the screen version already exists. It’s understandable; the book has all the ingredients to be considered a potential “cool” film (even the indie ticks abound) but without losing any cross-over appealing… meaning without having any substance. Because, being honest, to me, this book is rather pointless, seriously empty.

I’m very sorry to say that “Someday…” is full of cheap tricks and bad writer resources. To avoid a tiring monologue or a book of young adult introspection, Cameron uses a psychiatrist. He also has an oracle character, James’s Grandma. Someone has even pointed out that it’s her own version of Holden Caulfield sister Phoebe. My goodness. Of course parents are divorced and odd, and her sister is dating an older married man. There’s even the shadow of 9/11 there. If Cameron quickly refuses to use that factor for the story, then why do we have that conversation? And then we have the resolution of the book, of course. I won’t spoil the “revelation”, but what gives sense to the erratic behaviour of main character James Sveck, that justifies the whole novel, is really lame as an argument. Comparing that to Holden Caulfield is offensive.

As a character, James Sveck is another main “concern” for me. He is just irritating, not fun (the only funny thing to me was the housing thing). But aside from that, he is completely untrue, like the rest of the characters. James thoughts and words are the ones of the author, not the ones from a heavily confused 18 years old kid. He is supposed to be extremely smart, to the point of being obnoxious. He talks about Denton Welch and architecture, and has really boring obsession for objects and brands, but he doesn’t know what alopecia means (just an example of incoherency).

I do believe “Someday…” is just an attempt to make a little novel (short, that’s another one of the few positive things) that fits ideally under the Young Adult label, of a kid looking to grow-up in a world that is confusing to him. It does aim to have a moral lesson (another “issue”): James will survive and grow stronger. Take life as a constant lesson, some of them are painful, but you will learn anyway. That might be a rather enlightening conclusion (it looks like a bland self improvement book to me) for a teenager to read, but to salute this as one of the best books published lately is ridiculous.

SCORE: 2,5/10

"In Youth Is Pleasure", teen dreams and traumas

In Youth Is Pleasure- Denton Welch

Honestly, it's my fault. One has to be very careful when reads a critic that compares a book with "The Catcher in the Rye", or a review that qualifies Orvil Pym, the starring character, like a "Holden Caulfield written by Oscar Wilde". Because the majority of times, this sort of "great expectations" will only make the disappointment much bigger.

"In Youth Is Pleasure" is not a bad book. Far from it. But is one of these readings that satisfies only a type of readers. The ones that need an exuberant prose to enjoy a book. The ones that find pleasant to describe in detail the smell of the food, or how a dress looks like. In my opinion this is a book for critics, the sort of (some) critic that mention Proust among the comparisons... Well, they are pretty right. And that's the issue. It's not my cup of tea.

This is a book of extreme sensitivity, in which we follow a peculiar British teenager, Orvil Pym, on his summer adventures. But the adventures, pretty trivial on the surface, are more relevant in an introspective way. He is discovering himself in this trip. Probably. And I say probably because it is hard for me to say whether he achieves something or not. Denton Welch, a cult status author completely unknown in Spain, is able to evoke the feelings of melancholia, isolation, loneliness and incomprehension with brilliance, but also makes Orvil a weirdo (these dreams and surreal passages doesn't help), childish character, that makes it hard to connect with.

Being 100% sincere, this book has been, at times, a real torture to read. In my opinion, in "In Youth Is Pleasure" style is more important that content. It might be very well written, but the only exception of the final chapter on the train, it says nothing to me.

SCORE: 3,25/10

"Thirteen Uncollected Stories", the early John Cheever

Thirteen Uncollected Stories- John Cheever

Initially, this book was an unexpected reason to celebrate. More stories from John Cheever! A young Cheever! In my idea of heaven, Cheever and Scott Fitzgerald are very close friends and have regular long walks while they wait for the rest of the boys, a.k.a as Kerouac, Carver, and the newcomers Salinger (who doesn't talk much) and Hunter S.Thompson (there's always an eccentric one on a group, right?). Then they gather on a table, always reserved by Dorothy Parker, who is joined by Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor, for drinks and endless debates. So I guess you have an idea of how excited I was when I realized about when I knew about this publication. In principle.

"Thirteen Uncollected Stories", or "Fall River" (Spanish title) is a collection of stories originally published in the 1930s and 1940s, in different magazines, and compiled for the first time. The collection was intended to be much larger than just thirteen stories, but the opposition of the Cheever family ended on a long litigation. The result is this partial selection of young (barely out of his teens) Cheever's fiction. A revelation of the beginnings of a masterful writer.

The inexperienced Cheever wasn't the "Chekhov of the suburbs" yet, and some of the first stories or the book are focused on lives during the Depression in small, dying towns where social analysis is present, while others, located in Saratoga, are focused on character studies of women in an style that seems to connect with Fitzgerald. But unfortunately, and being 100% objective about the book itself, the "real Cheever" only appears a few times.

For the majority of the collection you have mainly sketches of characters that crumble or are stuck by something. A dialogue or a deep introspection moment shows there's a voice emerging, wanting to be heard.  But "our" Cheever is only present in "The Autobiography of a Drummer", with its painful ending monologue; "In Passing", probably the best tale of the selection, with real strength and bitterness; and "The Opportunity" that despite its ending combines some sort of twisted humour with two excellently crafter characters. Not saying that's all you'll find here ("The Teaser" and "Bayonne" are also remarkable) but we are talking about the man responsible of "The Enormous Radio", "Goodbye, My Brother", "The Swimmer", "The Rural Husband"... There's no bigger enemy for this young Cheever than the old John Cheever.  

"Thirteen Uncollected Stories" is a precious material for fans, just for the sake of its existence. But as a book, only at times is an absorbing reading, being more a mixed bag if we go through the stories one by one. Want to discover Cheever? Couldn't encourage you more to do so. But start by "The Stories of John Cheever" or his novels, and after an exciting trip, you will probably like to end by knowing the young Cheever.

SCORE: 5/10