Category: Pop

Musical Revolutions: How the Sounds of the Western World Changed, by Stuart Isacoff

Musical Revolutions: How the Sounds of the Western World Changed, by Stuart Isacoff (Deckle Edge, 320 pages)

In modern parlance, we’re most likely to use the word “revolution” to describe a political uprising. But in Musical Revolutions, pianist Stuart Isacoff uses it like Copernicus did when describing the movement of the planets. There is still “a disruptive shock of the new” in this sort of revolution, he says, but there is symmetry, growth and expansion.

Isacoff, the longtime editor of “Piano Today” and the author of three other books about music, explores the disruptive shocks of music history in his latest book, which will appeal most to readers with a comprehensive music education. He also offers a general audience an overlook of things they have probably not thought of before: how and why, for example, “do re mi fa so la ti do” became a thing long before The Sound of Music and how the first music notations emerged.

The book also provides a fascinating thread on how music has been used — one might say exploited — to harness emotions and manipulate listeners, and the reason that certain forms of music (including opera) have been denounced as demonic throughout their history.

Early Christian leaders, for example, realized that meditative chants, used broadly and uniformly, could be a way of unifying a far-flung church. But they had to be taught, which was no easy task without sheet music. Enter an Italian monk named Guido, a singing instructor who would develop a form of musical notation using a staff of four lines with color coding that showed the singer what to sing. Guido’s system is the basis of the music we read today, although the four lines became five and the colors were replaced with clefs.

The development of uniform notation, however, also led to increasing complexity in music, as singers began weaving disparate melodies in songs that were harmonious but complex. While archeologists have found instruments dating back to the most primitive cultures (in Germany, they found a rudimentary flute made from a vulture bone is thought to be 35,000 years old), early Christians struggled with music’s ability to both enhance and distract from morality. St. Augustine, for example, was beset by guilt when he allowed a soaring melody to distract him from sober contemplation. And the “busy textures” of the complex harmonies known as polyphony was denounced by Pope John XXII, who said in 1324 that these cutting-edge medieval composers were “ceaselessly intoxicating the ear without quieting it, and disturbing devotion instead of evoking it.”

Things got worse with the invention of opera in the late 1500s. The first opera has been lost to time, so the first surviving one, called Euridice, was commissioned for the wedding of King Henry IV of France. It was, Isacoff writes, “music for a select audience, more to be admired than felt,” but it became all the rage, and “New theaters became staging areas for the hedonists and rabble-rousers” of the time, with box seats becoming venues not only for the enjoyment of music, but for engaging in “notoriously indecent behavior.”

Isacoff turns his attention to Johann Sebastian Bach in a chapter called “Out of the Bachs,” in which he chronicles the rise of the Bach family as multigenerational “musical royalty.” Amusingly, Isacoff reveals that the composer who is a giant of Western music was all too human and once had a knife fight with another music student after calling him “a nanny goat bassoonist,” which is as good an insult as any that Shakespeare composed.

He moves on to French composer Claude Debussy and synthesizer developer Robert Moog, before taking on jazz, which arose in late 19th-century America with an appeal that was “instantaneous and widespread.”

“It moved feet all over the country,” Isacoff writes, before exploding in Europe in the 1920s, helping to enable the celebrity of Josephine Baker. But then came Prohibition, George Gershwin, Paul Whiteman and the advent of what was known as symphonic or orchestral jazz, and the swing era in the 1930s and ‘40s. Isacoff examines how the music and musicians (like Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis) intersect with political and social events of the day.

He concludes by reflecting on how music and musicians are often targeted during cultural revolutions, as in China in the 1960s when musicians “began burying their instruments, destroying music books, and melting down their vinyl records” as artists and intellectuals lived under threat of imprisonment and death. Much has changed since then; New York’s renowned Juilliard School now has a campus in China.

Musical Revolutions ends somewhat abruptly, with Isacoff declining to take on the most prevalent popular forms of music in America today, rock and its derivative, rap. He addresses this omission early on, saying his expertise is the Western canon of music, and “If rock is to be written about, it deserves a more knowledgeable observer than myself.”

Rock’s story, of course, is ongoing; incredibly, the Rolling Stones are touring this summer, led by a 78-year-old Mick Jagger. A much-heralded Elvis movie is about to come out. Rock’s history and impact is everywhere these days; for everything preceding it, Musical Revolutions is a fine, if selective, primer. B+

Book Notes

This is a hot take, but I’ve never understood the appeal of murder mysteries. There are too many murders in real life, and murder as entertainment, as in the start of the new Mary Kay Andrews novel, The Homewreckers, feels sort of icky. And last month came the news that a self-published Portland author who wrote a treatise called “How To Murder Your Husband” was convicted of … murdering her husband. Let’s hope there’s no cause for authorities to start a post-mortem investigation of Agatha Christie.

All that said, I’m in the minority here. The reading public loves murder mysteries. Here are some recent ones you might want to consider:

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray (Vintage, 400 pages) takes a Jane Austen character and has him murdered in the midst of a house party at a country estate, leaving the guests to figure out who did it.

Sulari Gentill’s The Woman in the Library(Poisoned Pen Press, 288 pages) offs a patron at the Boston Public Library and the suspects are four strangers sitting quietly around a table in the reading room.

A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons (Crooked Lane Books, 304 pages) is by Kate Khavari and involves a university research assistant’s search for the killer of a professor’s wife who dropped dead of apparent poisoning at a dinner party.

Then there’s Last Call at the Nightingale (Minotaur, 320 pages) by Katharine Schellman, which deposits a body outside a nightclub in New York during Prohibition, embroiling a young fun-seeking seamstress in a dangerous underworld of crime.

And coming at the end of the month is Hatchet Island (also Minotaur, also 320 pages) by Paul Doiron, a double-murder mystery set on an island off Maine that is a sanctuary for endangered seabirds.

If you like the book and also like fishing, there’s an added benefit: You can go fly fishing with the author, who is a registered Maine fly fishing guide who lives on a trout stream. Also, if you’re wondering, you pronounce his name “Dwarren,” according to Doiron’s website.

Book Events

Author events

• ANDREA PAQUETTE Author presents Loveable: How Women Can Heal Their Sensitive Hearts and Live and Love as Their True Selves. Sat., June 18, 6 p.m. Toadstool Bookstore, Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Nashua. Visit toadbooks.com.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Hatchet Island. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Wed., June 29, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL BROGAN Author presents A Sprinkling of Stardust Over the Outhouse. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Thurs., June 30, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Writers groups

• MERRIMACK VALLEY WRITERS’ GROUP All published and unpublished local writers who are interested in sharing their work with other writers and giving and receiving constructive feedback are invited to join. The group meets regularly Email pembrokenhtownlibrary@gmail.com.

Writer submissions

• UNDER THE MADNESS Magazine designed and managed by an editorial board of New Hampshire teens under the mentorship of New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary. features creative writing by teens ages 13 to 19 from all over the world, including poetry and short fiction and creative nonfiction. Published monthly. Submissions must be written in or translated into English and must be previously unpublished. Visit underthemadnessmagazine.com for full submission guidelines.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. 844 Elm St., Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

Album Reviews 22/06/09

Keith Hall, Made In Kalamazoo (Trios And Duos) (Zoom Out Records)

Sparsity, thy name is Made In Kalamazoo, and it has my endorsement for a few reasons. First, it’s nice that a jazz micro-combo led by a drummer starts its debut LP with an extended drum clinic; paradiddles and all sorts of other tricks simply rain from the speakers as something of a warm-up for the rest of what you’ll hear. Second, it’s a cozy, rather endearing statement of homecoming on Hall’s part; he played the New York jazz scene for nearly 10 years before coming back to his Michigan home base, which leads to a third positive here: Sax player Andrew Rathbun is outstanding, as is bassist Robert Hurst III. The recording is clear and pristine, but of course it has to be; this is as analog and stripped down as it gets, and these guys make great hay out of it. “Kzoo Brew” offers an extended bass/drums exercise that has a wonderful throwback feel, and the post-bop found in such pieces as “Douglass King Obama” remind me of Sonny Rollins’s Prestige Records-era output. Intimate and terrifically done. A+

Ianai, Sunir (Svart Records)

You know, every once in a while, we music journos trip over something that’s truly magical and have to chalk it up to fate, or the power of probability. This is one of those ultra-rare happenstances, an astonishing world music-tinged mega-release that will certainly please anyone who likes electronic New Age music, Enya more specifically. The whole thing is amazingly beautiful, evoking wind-swept deserts where a sexless mirage person is beckoning from atop a dune, singing and humming of hope and all that happy stuff. Influences include the native music of Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, Middle East and South America. Not much is known in the wider public about the performers but they’re apparently well-known throughout the music community, as he receives help from members of such bands as Massive Attack, Sisters of Mer-cy and Souvenir Season. Absolutely essential if New Age/yoga class chill is your thing. A+

Playlist

• Friday, June 10, will be the latest in an endless string of all-purpose summertime CD release Fridays, when albums come at us hot and heavy and, on very rare occasions, some are from actual artists who offer the world art rather than irritating nonsense. Speaking of that, have you ever noticed that it’s only country music stars who get married to each other and then get divorced for our entertainment? Just today I was reading a news story about Miranda Lambert dealing with her divorce from glorified used car salesman Blake Shelton last year or whenever it was, and it helped her write new songs for her new album, Palomino, which we talked about in this space a little while back. There are a bunch of those sad divorce stories in the country music world, but I’d like to see some regular non-country stars get married for the heck of it, like Eminem tyin’ the knot with Celine Dion, you know? Marriage stuff makes for great gossip in the country world, but you know who’s having none of that? Carrie Underwood, who’s still married to pro hockey player Mike Fisher! The moral is that love does last, people, even if you’re rich and constantly happy (as long as the nannies show up for work every day). Anyhow, that’s about all the wisdom I can impart on that subject, except to say that Underwood has a new album, Denim & Rhinestones, coming out on June 10, and it will feature a title track that’s pretty good if you like slightly Auto-Tuned female pop vocals and old Mr. Mister beats from 1985. A pleasant enough listen, not that there’s any real point to it.

• Vance Joy is an Australian indie-pop heartthrob whose 2018 full-length Nation Of Two was summarily dismissed by a Guardian writer as “an album of songs about relationships written, seemingly, from the perspective of someone who has learned about them from watching the romcoms Matthew McConaughey was starring in during his dark ages.” It’s hard for me to top that level of snark at the moment, only because I don’t really care about tuneage that’s only going to make it into the overhead speakers at Red Lobster and no farther than that, but I do have to deal with Joy’s new LP, In Our Own Sweet Time, so let’s get this out of the way before I just bag it and write about someone else. OK, so the single “Clarity” is the same sort of dishwasher-safe gruel described above, sounding more or less like Zero 7’s Jose Gonzalez trying to write a particularly pointless Ben Kweller song. There’s a Spanish horn part here that makes it almost bearable, and before that we have a rather animated rockout bit, so maybe it’ll be used as dance floor fodder in virtual bars when Mark Zuckerberg turns Facebook into “the Meta experience,” i.e. a glorified version of Second Life that will assuredly make social media more unbearable than it ever was.

• Uh-oh, guys, take cover, it’s a new album from Billy Howerdel, called What Normal Was. No, seriously, take cover, because this could be dangerously rockin’, as Howerdel is the guitarist from crazily overrated alt-rock outfit A Perfect Circle, the side project of Riff Raff look-alike Maynard James Keenan, of Tool! Yikes, let’s tread carefully, because this might be so awesome I’ll be zapped into dust. OK, I’m going in, guys. Right, the single, “Poison Flowers,” is a more goth version of any random Nine Inch Nails sort-of-ballad, which is fitting, because Howerdel’s band logo rips off Nine Inch Nails’. Awkward. Let’s move along.

• Lastly and leastly, it’s Cali pop-punk zeroes Joyce Manor, with their sixth album, 40 oz. to Fresno! The single, “Gotta Let It Go,” is such a Weezer ripoff that they should just change their band name to Wish We Were Weezer. Good lord, holy crow.

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara

The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara (W.W. Norton & Co., 384 pages)

Commercially successful fiction usually doesn’t make the reader work too hard. The story typically flows in a fast-running river, propelled by familiarity and forum. No brows need furrowing, no paragraphs or sentences re-read.

Vauhini Vara could have gone that route with her debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, for at its simplest, the plot has all the markers of prime Hollywood fare: A brilliant and eccentric tech titan creates technology to essentially offload one’s consciousness into another person, as a climate-ravaged planet transforms society into a socialist dystopia.

Instead, Vara added layers of complexity, making her titular character an immigrant who was born into the lowest caste in India and then moved to the United States to get a graduate degree. Naming a child born of rape “King” is an act of defiance and hope performed by the aunt who raises the child after his mother died in childbirth. Yet King Rao himself is dead as the novel begins. His effect on the world is largely told by his daughter, who is in jail, accused of killing her father.

As a father, King was “uncommonly old” and raised his daughter largely on his own, after he had been forced out, not only from Coconut, the massively influential tech company that he founded, but also from society in general. At the peak of his power, King was something like a combination of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, with a sprinkling of Karl Marx. He just happened to be all this, and also a Dalit, an “untouchable” in India’s caste society.

In America, however, he rose to the potential of his name.

King Rao had, Vara writes, “rescued the planet from nation-state rule, which was bringing society to ruin, and engineered a calm and peaceful transition to Shareholder Government, under which the world’s citizens collectively owned its corporations.”

Worldwide, societies were run not by human leaders but by the “Master Algorithm” that Coconut developed. Rather than money, people traded in Social Capital, “based on the Algo’s prediction of the actual value they had produced.” The Master Algorithm also decided what schoolchildren would be taught (the curriculum was the same worldwide) and what punishment would be given to criminals.

This large-scale transformation had been enabled, in part, by the myriad breakdowns occurring on “Hothouse Earth.” But not surprisingly, not everyone signed on to this system, resulting in deadly rioting. Instead of punishing the objectors, the Master Algorithm ruled that they could live on islands that came to be known as “the Blanklands.” These people came to be known as “exes” and leaving society was called “exing.”

And King Rao and his daughter became exes, too, as a requirement of the algorithm’s judgment.

Living in almost total isolation on an island in Puget Sound, Athena has a largely blissful life as a child with her doting father. But when she turns 7, she starts to experience something akin to visions. When, for example, her father calls her “Puffin,” one of her nicknames, she suddenly can see images of the birds, “their potbellied stomachs thrust forward as if they were businessmen at a conference.”

She also suddenly has knowledge of puffins that she has not been taught — such as the fact that prior to their extinction, people in Iceland used to trap puffins for food in a net on a pole, and this was called “sky fishing.”

Athena’s brain, in effect, had absorbed the internet through a product her father’s company had invented called “The Harmonica.” It was to be King’s crowning achievement, yet the technology had failed — not because it was a moral problem, but because of an engineering fail that resulted in the deaths of test subjects.

But King had managed to have the genetic code implanted in a frozen embryo that would eventually be Athena. “His decision to leave the mainland, to take up residence on Blake Island instead of one of the established islands — all of it was meant to keep the world from discovering the project of my existence,” Athena says.

King experimented on himself, too, and Athena can experience his memories. So she is able to explore his early years, his relationship with her mother and how she came to be, in the comfort and safety of her own mind, even as her physical safety becomes increasingly uncertain.

Like King, the author — who has been a reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker — hails from a Dalit family. She has said it took 12 years to write the novel, and it shows. It is a finely layered story with a beginning that is difficult to get through, not only because of the subject matter (the sexual assault of a child and a marital rape occur in the first chapter), but also because it’s challenging to keep up with various Rao family backstories that seem not to matter. The novel quickly picks up speed, but even so, readers may find little to emotionally connect them with the characters. The ending is jarring, but elicits little more than a pained “oh.”

The Immortal King Rao is clearly a cautionary tale about something; it’s just not entirely clear what. Still, it manages to be inventive and often lyrical in the telling and was 12 years well spent. B

Book Notes

Little, Brown & Co. is billing James Patterson’s latest book as “the most anticipated memoir of 2022,” and the publisher is probably not wrong, given that its competition right now includes memoirs by political strategist Kellyanne Conway (Here’s the Deal, Threshold, 512 pages) and actress Melissa Gilbert (Back to the Prairie, Gallery, 282 pages).

Patterson has written or co-written more than 200 books, and The Washington Post has said of him, “In book publishing, there is James Patterson — and basically everyone else.”

Still, there’s something that smacks of hubris in the title of the book, which is James Patterson, The Stories of My Life. Which means the listings of the book say James Patterson by James Patterson. You can get away with that when you’re James Patterson. The memoir is 400 pages and comes out on Monday.

While we’re on the subject of writers writing about writers, we may as well move on to books about books and readers, which is suddenly a thing.

The Woman in the Library (Poisoned Pen Press, 288 pages), also out next week, is by Sulari Gentill and is billed as an “unexpectedly twisty literary adventure” set in the reading room of the Boston Public Library.

Emily Henry’s Book Lovers (Berkley, 384 pages) is a romance novel about a literary agent and a book editor who keep encountering each other while vacationing in North Carolina. (Definitely a beach read from an author whose previous titles include 2020’s Beach Read.)

And in August comes Bookish People (Harper Muse, 336 pages), a comedic novel by Susan Coll that is set in the world of an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C., and will appeal to anyone who might name a cat Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Book Events

Author events

• JAMIE RASKIN Author and congressman presents Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Fri., June 3, 11 a.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• AMOS J LANDON Author presents debut novel The Girl, The Pig, and the Accidental Demon. Sat., June 4, 2 p.m. Toadstool Bookstore, Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Nashua. Visit toadbooks.com.

• ANDREA PAQUETTE Author presents Loveable: How Women Can Heal Their Sensitive Hearts and Live and Love as Their True Selves. Sat., June 18, 6 p.m. Toadstool Bookstore, Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Nashua. Visit toadbooks.com.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Hatchet Island. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Wed., June 29, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL BROGAN Author presents A Sprinkling of Stardust Over the Outhouse. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Thurs., June 30, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Writers groups

• MERRIMACK VALLEY WRITERS’ GROUP All published and unpublished local writers who are interested in sharing their work with other writers and giving and receiving constructive feedback are invited to join. The group meets regularly Email pembrokenhtownlibrary@gmail.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. 844 Elm St., Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Language

• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week session with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.

Album Reviews 22/06/02

Nicki Bluhm, Avondale Drive (Compass Records)

Today I learned that even Idris Elba had to get his start somewhere, because I’m like 100 percent sure he’s the bartender in the video for Tracy Chapman’s 1995 hit “Give Me One Reason.” I was looking for RIYL-type comparisons for the subject at hand, the latest LP from a blues-soul lady who’s from Nashville by way of San Francisco of all places, and Chapman definitely is a similar artist, so, voila. So is Linda Ronstadt, while I’m at it, not that anyone will ever have Ronstadt’s unmatchable voice, but Bluhn does try in her way. Avondale Drive is Bluhm’s second album, a milestone that usually comes with a pocketful of bad luck, but in this case it’s steady-as-she-goes, especially for listeners who are looking for a more interesting singer than Sheryl Crow (email me for the full 100-page list). Her breezy, mildly boozy and catchy little tunes address such subjects as middle-aged dating (“Love to Spare”) and failed marriage (the waltz-timed “Juniper Woodsmoke”). Bonnie Raitt fans would probably be into this also. A

Kisskadee, Black Hole Era (Anxiety Blanket Records)

Hope Sandoval on fen-phen pretty much captures what this stuff is, a dreamy, quirky but fairly artistic LP from the Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist. This album is said to be redolent of a “maximalist” approach, which makes literally no sense to me; when she’s lilting in her helium-wombat voice whilst playing bare-bones acoustic guitar underneath, it’s more like some sort of lost soundtrack to a made-on-the-cheap independent film or a particularly disjointed scene from Euphoria, not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but come on, that’s minimalist, I don’t care how long such shibboleths are supposed to live these days. So it’s a coming-of-age record, then, obviously aimed at Zoomers who are beginning to realize they won’t be able to play Elden Ring as their full-time job, but that terrible news is delivered by this lady as gently as possible, despite its fetish for bizarre time signatures. It’s OK. A

Playlist

• Can you believe it, we’re basically into summer, folks, as the next general-release date for all the hot new rock ’n’ roll record albums is Friday, June 3. Bring on the beach, baby, I am 110 percent ready, and let’s just get right into it with Auto-Tuned cultural appropriator Post Malone, whose latest full-length, Twelve Carat Toothache, is shipping right now! OK, back up a few syllables, it’s not cool to accuse “Post” of cultural appropriation, just because he sounds like some sort of trap-hop also-ran or because rapper Lil B said he expects ole Posty to go full-on country music in a few years (which is probably going to happen for sure, if, as one Redditor put it, he doesn’t have to quit the rap game because he can barely even sing anymore), I mean let’s just be nice. But whatever, at least the guy is an expert on U.S. political history, like hey, man, he has a tattoo of U.S. president John F. Kennedy on his arm, which he got because Kennedy was “the only President to speak out against the crazy corruption stuff that’s going on in our government nowadays,” a non sequitur that totally ignores Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex (that really happened, homies, look it up!). But OK, fine, he’s a rock star, not some pundit who’s going to go on Meet The Press pushing a book about Millard Fillmore, so let’s pretend he isn’t some sort of disposable bubblegum-rap charlatan and discuss his new single “Red Line.” It’s basically “Rockstar” wearing a glued-on beard and flirting with reggaeton (hey, that stuff still sells, I’m telling you!), all in all another step toward his launching a Vegas act in 2035 or whenever he gets tired of tatting himself silly.

• Since 1996, Athens, Georgia, country-rock band Drive-By Truckers has been wild about touring to any venue that’ll have them, including shows right here in New Hampshire at Meadowbrook in Gilford, New Hampshire (2018) and Club Casino in Hampton (2014). The band peaked in 2014 with their English Oceans album, which is generally considered a southern rock record that was marred only by some boring songwriting that was Patterson Hood’s fault. But we’re all friends here, right, so let’s have a look at their upcoming 14th LP, Welcome 2 Club XIII, and see if the new single will do well enough to allow these guys to just sit and chill and count their royalty checks instead of having to visit every mid-sized rock club from here to Copenhagen once again. Yeah, about that, the title track is kind of a joke song, like Barenaked Ladies meets Neil Young, the sort of bar-band oatmeal that’s been irrelevant since 1984 or whatnot. Have fun at the Ace of Spades bar in Sacramento again, guys!

• First there was KISS, the band that dressed up like sort-of-monsters, and then came Richmond, Virginia’s GWAR, a.k.a. “KISS For Idiots,” who dress up like actual monsters to detract from their mediocre metal nonsense! Their 15th album, The New Dark Ages, is only their second since the death of their singer “Oderus Urungus,” and it includes a tune called — well, never mind, I can’t repeat the title here, but it has the word “Liar” in it. It sounds like Rob Zombie around the time he had completely run out of ideas (I know, I know). Hey, did you know this band has its own brand of barbecue sauce? It’s true, and I’ll bet it’s totally awesome!

• We’ll end this week’s rundown with Outta Sight, the new LP from Canadian southern/blues rock band The Sheepdogs! Their trip aims to “land in the sweet spot in between Led Zeppelin and Crosby Stills & Nash,” but the single, “Find The Truth,” is more like a B-Side from 38 Special. Ah, you have no idea who that is, that’s OK, never mind.

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Kingdom of Bones, by James Rollins

Kingdom of Bones, by James Rollins (William Morrow, 435 pages)

Jim Czajkowski — you might know him by his pen name, James Rollins — writes about viruses with such authority you might think he has a secret medical degree. That’s almost right.

He was a veterinarian in California before his side gig as a novelist became so successful that he couldn’t do both anymore. He told a veterinary trade publication that at one point he was working 15 hours a day at his veterinary practice while writing a novel a year in between appointments.

Now he’s written 23 novels by himself and co-authored five others. His latest is Kingdom of Bones, the 16th in what is known as his “Sigma Force” series, named for the covert team of highly trained specialists — Rollins has called them “scientists with guns” — called in to save the world from various perils. (Think the Avengers, without the otherworldliness, and with a military war dog.)

The story involves a mysterious malady that emerges in Africa and threatens the human race, which Rollins is somewhat apologetic about, given the ongoing pandemic. He writes in an author’s note that he pitched the book before Covid-19 and had reservations about going forward with the project, saying “it felt insensitive to tackle such a subject at this moment, to seek to entertain with ‘plague fiction’ when the world was suffering.”

He worried needlessly; the book never once feels exploitative, and in fact is at its most interesting when Rollins expounds on topics with relevance to Covid, such as the fact that “Each hour, some thirty-three million viral particles cascade onto every square meter of this planet.” And the fact that some scientists believe that “ancient viral invasions” may comprise up to 80 percent of the human genome. (I could have done without this knowledge; it is far better to think we are made of stardust than viral mutations.)

This is the sort of information that Rollins scatters throughout the story, making Kingdom of Bones a thriller that is deeply intelligent.

It begins in the Congo, where a cadre of large, angry winged ants are floating in floodwater and making their way onto land, where they are attacking humans in a refugee camp with unusual ferocity. While some people who are bitten appear unaffected, others fall into a catatonic state. Before all of the people can be evacuated, the camp is also overrun by a band of aggressive baboons, creatures that had previously been shy around humans but suddenly seemed set on destroying them.

As if this isn’t chaos enough, a band of militants bursts onto the scene and abducts the handful of people that they don’t kill, including a mother and her now catatonic baby, who had been bitten by the ants. All this sets up the bat signal to flash for the Sigma Force and Commander Gray Pierce to step in and try to figure out why animals are suddenly becoming more bloodthirsty and cunning — even moths are turning deadly. As one young doctor says, “It’s as if all of Nature is about to turn against us.”

As the team tries to discover what is infecting the animals, they encounter killer bats, jackals, aardwolves (an animal that looks like a striped hyena and eats insects), and even hippopotamuses that seem to have been weaponized. This leads to snappy dialogue like “We’re about to play the worst game of Hungry Hungry Hippos,” but fortunately, that sort of banter is limited, as is the side story about a sinister mining executive who may or may not have a hand in what’s going on.

Rollins’ prose is generally sophisticated, certainly for the genre, although I confess there came a point where I started rolling my eyes every time a character’s eyes or face “shone.” But that’s more a problem of the editors, not the writer.

I should note that while many of the Sigma Force characters were featured in previous books, Kingdom of Bones works as a stand-alone novel; you don’t have to know the history of the force (I didn’t) although Rollins says the characters evolve throughout the series. I also suspect the book would be easier to digest knowing some backstories. Although the plot is easy enough to follow, the characters are many and complex.

Although the book is somewhat moralistic (ye climate deniers, stay away), and wanders slightly into The Overstory territory toward the end, it doesn’t feel preachy. It’s a solid summer read that raises interesting questions about whether the world at some point will rear back and retaliate for the damage we’ve done to it. (And here I’m not talking about climate but pesticides and exposed power lines.)

Also, it has an opening line that dares us not to read more: “The Reverend William Sheppard silently recited the Lord’s prayer as he waited for the cannibal to finish filing his teeth.” Five stars for that opener, four for the rest of the book. B

Book Notes

Endurance athlete Cameron Hanes is probably the opposite of what we think of when we hear the word “bookish.”

His passion is bowhunting in Alaska and to be prepared for it he runs ultramarathons (200-plus miles) in the mountains. According to his publisher, his goal is to become the “ultimate predator.” In the zombie apocalypse, you want to be on this guy’s team. Somehow, however, he found time to sit down and type things, resulting in a book, Endure: How to Work Hard, Outlast and Keep Hammering (St. Martin’s Press, 336 pages), that’s selling well this month.

If you like to be outside in ways that are a little less extreme, check out Outdoor Kids in an Inside World (Random House, 208 pages) by Steven Rinella.

That’s not to say that Rinella isn’t a man of extremes; he is also the author of 2020’s The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival (Random House, 464 pages) and host of a Netflix show called MeatEater. But his new book encourages families to get “radically engaged with nature.” I’m not a big fan of hunting, but the opening pages, wherein he describes butchering a deer his 10-year-old had shot, and then feeding the fat to the birds, was rather riveting.

Also out this month to help us channel our inner woodsman, there’s The Rugged Life: The Modern Guide to Self-Reliance (Rodale, 272 pages) by Clint Emerson, a retired Navy SEAL who reminds us of another Emerson (Ralph Waldo) and his call for a “greater self-reliance.”

Got to confess, the title of The Rugged Life is not nearly as compelling as that of Emerson’s first book, 2015’s 100 Deadly Skills. But he promises to teach three essential skills: how to build, how to farm and how to hunt. Pretty good for 272 pages.

And if you’re not too tired after all that, check out The Workout Bucket List (Running Press, 400 pages), Greg Pesto’s compilation of more than 300 “life-changing races, epic challenges and incredible hikes, bikes, lifts and runs” to do before you die. And yes, some are in New Hampshire: he recommends various Pinkham Notch hikes and a climb up Mount Washington.

If you haven’t already figured this out yet, one of these titles might make an excellent Father’s Day gift. Not that women won’t enjoy them, too.

Book Events

Author events

• TAMMY SOLLENBERGER Author presents The One Inside: 30 Days to Your Authentic Self. Bookery, 844 Elm St., Manchester. Wed., June 1, 6 p.m. Visit bookerymht.com or call 836-6600.

• JAMIE RASKIN Author and congressman presents Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Fri., June 3, 11 a.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Hatchet Island. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Wed., June 29, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL BROGAN Author presents A Sprinkling of Stardust Over the Outhouse. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Thurs., June 30, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• SARAH MCCRAW CROW Author presents The Wrong Kind of Woman. Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord. Tues., July 19, 6:30 p.m. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• CASEY SHERMAN Author presents Helltown. Bookery, 844 Elm St., Manchester. Sun., Aug. 14, 1:30 p.m. Visit bookerymht.com or call 836-6600.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Writers groups

• MERRIMACK VALLEY WRITERS’ GROUP All published and unpublished local writers who are interested in sharing their work with other writers and giving and receiving constructive feedback are invited to join. The group meets regularly Email pembrokenhtownlibrary@gmail.com.

Writer submissions

• UNDER THE MADNESS Magazine designed and managed by an editorial board of New Hampshire teens under the mentorship of New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary. features creative writing by teens ages 13 to 19 from all over the world, including poetry and short fiction and creative nonfiction. Published monthly. Submissions must be written in or translated into English and must be previously unpublished. Visit underthemadnessmagazine.com for full submission guidelines.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. 844 Elm St., Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Album Reviews 22/05/26

Ghostkeeper, Multidimensional Culture (Victory Pool Records)

I suppose I wasn’t prepared for how much a band said to combine “elements of ‘60s girl-group melodies, country music, ‘90s indie rock, African pop, and traditional Aboriginal pow wow music” would come off like the soundtrack band from a late 1970s no-budget hippie-horror film, but there it is. I mean, I like this record overall (which means nothing, really; it won’t be getting into my summer mix CD rotation, to be sure); it’s probably good for one’s soul to hear a dude singer pontificating over a retro soul beat that’s decorated in Mellotron keyboards right out of Donovan during his peak acid-trip era. This quartet is from Calgary, Canada, but it’s not like anything you might be imagining; in fact the scene there does seem to be heavy into psychedelica and such. To cut to the chase, this is like Woodstock vibe retrofitted for Generation iPhone. It’s not annoying at all, which is all that’s needed in this zeitgeist as far as I’m concerned. A

Devil Master, Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night (Relapse Records)

By now you know how much I enjoy bragging about the endless promo releases that land on this desk. It doesn’t take much to get my full attention (and while I’m at it, if you’re in a local band that has an official release and wants a review in this space, really, send a message to my Facebook, it’s the only reliable method), but, as you’ve seen, I do tend to go for albums that have some sort of horror angle, like this one. That said, normally I ignore albums that are just schlocky, but in this case the title and concept (real devil worship) just hit me with a Stupid Stick, and here we are. The title track opens up this one with ’60s surf guitar more or less, and then comes the Raging Speedhorn-style doom-thrashing and all the other stuff that’s made Relapse my by-far-favorite indie metal label. The balance forward is prototypical death metal with an early Mastodon edge, with un-ironic titles like “Golgotha’s Cruel Song.” Beelzebub music done right. A

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

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