One boy’s guide to the classics

Required reading from Indicator Indicator’s Sandy Taronno

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After releasing five EPs, one LP and touring extensively with his pop-rock band Quinzy, local singer-songwriter Sandy Taronno required a diversion.

Enter Indicator Indicator, his solo project with brother/Quinzy bandmate James Taronno and musical brother Matthew Harder (House of Doc).

The six songs that make up the trio’s debut EP are surreal, lush and refreshing. From the pop perfection of January First to the effortless grandiosity of the wistful Back Into the Fire, Taronno takes his love of artists such as Ben Folds, The Flaming Lips and Spoon and sprinkles these tunes with blips and layers, coating it all with one of pop/rock’s finest voices.

Before taking off on an Ontario tour this October, Indicator Indicator will give the EP a proper release show at the Park Theatre on Sunday, Sept. 30 at 8 p.m. with special guests Federal Lights.

To tide you over until then, the well-read Taronno was gracious enough to share his thoughts on his five favourite novels.

Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
by Tom Robbins

“I’ve heard that whichever of his novels you read first will always remain your quintessential Robbins. This seems true, and so despite whole-heartedly loving his entire oeuvre (particularly Skinny Legs and All and Jitterbug Perfume), I’ll go with the big, silly, messy, beautiful ode to contradictions that is his seventh novel - if only for Switters’s soliloquy about pumpkins.”

Galapagos/Bluebeard
by Kurt Vonnegut

“The mighty Vonnegut. The man’s style - so perfectly clear and childishly simple - is the perfect delivery system for a devastatingly dark and cynical world-view. But as with any pessimistic voice, he can’t hide the fact that he’s just a thoughtful optimist who’s seen some shit.”

Red Mars Trilogy
by Kim Stanley Robinson

“I cannot even explain how rich and awesome these books are. Robinson is a scientific polymath, a shrewd psychologist and gifted novelist all at once. Deep science, deep fiction.”

Tao Te Ching translated
by Stephen Mitchell

“The little collection of parables and platitudes that is tough, wise, lovely and pragmatic. Damn good medicine.”

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
by Stephen King

“It’s the fourth novel of his bad-ass and borderline insane epic series The Dark Tower, but it’s also an entirely self-contained story-within-a-story. And despite literally spraying the entire world with more prose than maybe any other author, King’s quality control is surprisingly strong, so when he’s at the top of his game, as he is here, he’s an underrated master.”

Published in Volume 67, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 26, 2012)

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