Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Domino

Rating: 5

When I think of some of the greatest albums of all time, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, released in 1998, by Neutral Milk Hotel would be by far the easiest choice. Additionally, just last August, the band announced an exclusive vinyl release of their two albums In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and On Avery Island.

It’s strange to consider a band’s entire body of work consists of less than 40 songs. A music critic once mentioned that no other album seems to closely affect and associate so personally with so many people yet feel still totally under-exposed. It’s hard to articulate why this feels like the perfect album.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea feels dense and heavy but light and airy at the same time. It is an album of contradictions and paradoxes that never is in service of itself. When you listen to the album, you recognize it as single solid and solitary piece. Each time audiences listen to the album, they will be reminded that what they are experiencing is something different, or perhaps they are re-discovering something they had forgotten all over again.

It is an album that always feels like a mystery — something just barely out of reach of understanding, but you can feel it so close to your fingertips.

No other album ever or since has taken on the ambition of trying to encapsulate what it’s like to live, breathe and think. Lead vocalist Jeff Mangum’s rapid-fire singing and lyrics is like someone trying to remember something really important and reminding you about it before the world ends. It’s an album that took to task the idea to remind us how strange it is to be anything at all.

Give these tracks a listen: “In the Aeroplane over the Sea”, “Holland 1945” and “The Fool”
For Fans Of: Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire

The Roots
Undun
The Island Def Jam Music Group

Rating: 5

The Roots 13th album, release in December 2011, doesn’t disappoint. It is a concept album about the fictional character Redford Stevens, from Sufjan Steven’s song “Redmond,” who lives his short life in urban poverty. The album expands on the sound of its 2010 release How I Got Over by utilizing the same snare-driven beats, keyboard, strings and indie influence.

The album has something to offer everyone, whether you listen to it introspectively and catch the tragedy of narrative or just listen casually. Their lyrics have a seriousness to it that makes this album even more appealing. The Roots draw on the world of commercial rap but they understand and address the more far reaching associations on Undun. Instrumental pieces frame the album and the album follows a clear pattern and story.

The Root’s sound seems more muted and somber, such as in “Sleep” and “I Remember”, with some few tracks with more punch to them, such as “Kool On” and “The Otherside”.

Guest spots are also very prevalent in this album. “Make My”, the album’s lead single, “Lighthouse” and “Stomp” are just a few that feature guest singers. There is not one song on the album that is unnecessary. Each is vital and adds to the overall mood and tone.

Undun shows that the Roots are still at the top of their game and are continuing to push boundaries and forge ahead. This is one of their most ambitious and adventurous projects and their flawless execution shows they have succeeded.

Give these tracks a listen: “Make My”, “Lighthouse”, “I Remember”, “The Otherside”

For fans of: Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and John Legend

Sophia Chang is an artist from and living and working in New York City. As a recent graduate from Parson’s Design School, she’s young — very young. Certainly younger than one might expect when looking at the array of impressively high-profile clients accrued, and then shown off with artful style, on her website “esymai.com” — the likes of which include Anthony Bourdain, Talib Kaleb, and, on the corporate plane, Nike and Dr. Pepper, to name just two.

Relatively fresh in the business, as far as distance from school goes, Chang’s skills have clearly elevated her far beyond the generalized post-grad sob story the world has become accustomed to. No moving home to the parents here. No existential crisis-defined decade of finding her feet. Her feet, as all appearances indicate, are planted firmly in the New York earth like one who seems to have grown out of the soil there.

“Being born and raised in Queens has really influenced me as an adult. We were all heavily influenced by hip hop,” Chang said. “I spent most of my free time in high school playing handball at the local parks, watching music videos at my best friend’s house and stuff like that. I always drew, and everyone knew I was a good artist, but I didn’t do it 24/7. Only in class when I didn’t feel like paying attention to the teacher.”

Obviously, Chang has come a long way from casual, in-class doodling. The art that now covers her website is stylish and pulses with a colored vibrancy associated with hip hop and New York street life.

Chang, for example, has a number of portraits of Anthony Bourdain — a cynical, wizened and bemused face most of us are well familiar with from his Travel Channel show “No Reservations” — up on her website. Her depiction of Bourdain swerves far from any attempt at realism, and yet through the colored stylization is, quite clearly, a strong impression of Bourdain’s not unmemorable personality and feature. That is, through the lining and moderate abstraction is a very detectable and potent artistic interpretation of a man, and something about it is distinctly “cool,” to use the word vaguely.

Her creating Bourdain portraits was no exercise in fandom, of course. She produced the pictures as a series of poster illustrations for the summer 2011 season of “No Reservations” (you can check them out on her site).

When asked how it feels to have made it “big” in the industry at so young an age, despite her clear victories Chang politely declined to acknowledge any aggrandized sense of her own accomplishment.

“I have not made it big at all. Look at all the other people who are giants in this industry, such as Jeffstaple, Lanie Alabanza, James Jean,” Chang said, referring to the design and illustration industry. “These are all people who worked hard to be doing what they’re doing. They lost hours of sleep, they did internships and studied under masters to get to where they are.”

Still, Chang’s early success is undeniable. In a world of struggling artists and unemployed graduates, she is one success story among many less cheerful narratives. But naturally her success is no accident. She, too, worked hard. And more importantly, she has talent.

“I started early. I did a lot of internships when I was in school. I commuted daily, I worked a part-time job at Journeys and Puma, did internships and worked on side freelance projects,” Chang said. “It wasn’t easy, but it helped to build a foundation for myself. Each of these internships were self-sought and worth more than any money I can make.”

“Once I graduated,” Chang added, “I was already freelancing with jobs that were passed along by these guys, and I was able to get the ball rolling. So really, I’m not making it big at all. I hope to be on my way to ‘making it.’”

Living in and being from New York has its advantages, but what Chang has achieved, as many aspiring artists and designers should note, she’s done through her own steely agency. As she said, in advice, “If you want to something, go for it.” So far, it’s working out for her.

JAMES O’HARA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

The first and third Thursdays of every month are Poetry Nights at the John Natsoulas Gallery, located at 521 First St. Jan. 19’s poet of the moment was Rae Gouirand, whose first collection of poetry, titled “Open Winter,” was published in fall 2011.

Gouirand has taught writing at UC Davis, UC Davis Extension and many private workshops she herself has founded for poets and writers since 2003. In addition, the Bryn Mawr graduate who received her MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan has been the Writer-in-Residence at Cache Creek Nature Preserve since 2005. She is also the winner of  many fellowships such as the Meijer Fellowship, the Hopwood Award and the Santa Fe Art Institute; a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize; and the recipient of a 2009 award from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation for outstanding work by emerging poets.

By the time the reading started at 8 p.m., all of the chairs were already filled. The ages audience ranged widely; there were college students present as well as older members of the Davis community. All were obviously excited to hear Gouirand read her poems aloud in person.

Melissa Bender, who teaches in the University Writing Program at UC Davis, affectionately introduced Gouirand.

“We’ve known each other since 1994 when she was my instructor at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. We are now incredibly close friends,” said Gouirand of Bender.

And then Gouirand took the stage. Admittedly a bit nervous, she had a wide smile on her face and waved shyly to various audience members that she knew. Gouirand recounted the long process it took in order for “Open Winter” to be published. It was late in her undergraduate career that she began to focus on writing poems. In 2002, she started submitting her poems to journals. In 2008, she began to send her manuscript to potential publishers. Summing it up, Gouirand stated that the manuscript was a finalist for nearly 30 prizes for a first book of poetry before Elane Equi selected it for the 2011 Bellday Prize for Poetry, which eventually culminated in her revised manuscript’s publishing.

After thanking everybody for coming to the reading, Gouirand started off with a passage from Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love. Her selection was much appreciated by the audience; it described how language developed throughout time from gestures to sounds and how miscommunication can happen with the smallest act.

And then it was on to the poems. The first poem she read from her book was dedicated to her grandfather, who believed in her and that she “didn’t always have to be an Architect” when she was questioning what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

“I went to college intending to major in physics and music, and ended up completing an inter-disciplinary urban studies major. Writing has always been a constant thread. It wasn’t until I sat down to try to work out the parameters of my senior thesis that I realized I wanted to apply to MFA programs: my writing workshops had always been my favorite courses,” said Gouirand.

Much of the inspiration for the poems that she writes comes from everyday life, as does her strong musical background. Gouirand is an accomplished musician who played in several orchestras in high school and college.

“Part of what interests me about poetry is how it drives feeling back into its home in the body. I find inspiration wherever people find inspiration: in conversation, in the world, in great art and vitality and shifting light and passing time and connection and perspective and the way language always seems to lead me to the brink of inexpressible things. I discovered my feeling of voice through music,” said Gouirand.

The poetry night featuring Gouirand ended with great success. Everybody in attendance enjoyed the numerous poems and Gouirand received many positive messages over e-mail and Facebook.

“The Natsoulas Gallery is a great home for the Poetry Night series; its open and conducive to listening. I’ve been looking forward to having a book release here in Davis where I live my life and push my work forward. I wanted to share those snowflakes with my community and not have it all be a tremendously fancy big deal. No performance, just contact with real people,” said Gouirand.

MICHELLE RUAN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.