‘The oscillations between listening and hearing, thus, describe a movement between foreground and background, between an object of attention and its context, between one and many. Given that sound is a movement of air pressure, in a continual state of flux, listening must, in a way, negotiate the sheer intrusiveness of sound – its restless and itinerant behavior. If we were to listen fully, at all times, we would most likely find ourselves unable to do much else. In this regard, the ear is a natural filter, open at all times yet continually pushing back against sound, to defend the body against such oscillations and energies. Listening may register where we are, precisely by shifting focus, locating presence as a backdrop that comes forward at times, certainly, but which we might also force back or resist: we hear also so as not to listen. Listening, in this regard, is an act by giving attention to events and people around us, and by also spatializing ourselves, drawing us out and away from the greater field of sound.
‘We are immersed in sound, as waves and oscillations of energy that envelope us, to touch a deep nerve. Sound, therefore, carries deep emotional force, often linking us to more ephemeral, ambient and embodied experiences. The self defined by listening is prone to a particular vulnerability, where the uncontrollable force of sound may invade the body, to haunt our environment with ambiguous and uncertain stirrings. Sound is, therefore, often a ghostly matter, linking to the spirit-world, to the dead, and other seemingly inorganic stuff. Sound, in other words, proposes that what lies underneath, or still and silent, may also at times, come to life.
‘The self as membrane, where sounds and musics may pass, lends to harmonious mingling as well as forceful rupture, a tearing apart that also «pluralizes» and multiplies: noise might be the very force that ruptures all forms of representation, that splinters each space into additions, that causes every communication to fragment into an array of possible trajectories, in support of multiple narratives. Listening moves between foreground and background, focus and distraction, to link life and death, organic and inorganic, and provide a voluptuous route for the imagination as it weaves together fantasy and the real.’. — Brandon LaBelle
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Grumbling Fur ‘Under Fur Moon’
‘Daniel O’Sullivan and Alexander Tucker are long time friends and collaborators. Both artists are veterans of the UK experimental underground: O’Sullivan as a member of Guapo, Ulver, and Aethenor (with Stephen O’Malley), and Tucker with imbogodom and as an eclectic (read: Yeti) solo artist. They have craft avant-pop assembled as one would a collage. This structural foundation is built up via an eclectic array of instruments, both acoustic and modified, to pulsating electronic sounds. Add to this mix the pair’s entirely modern shamanistic meta-narratives, and the result is a contemporary psychedelic pop delight. Yes, as their history attests, this is a group unbound from the restrictions of traditionalism and unafraid to shed the pretence of pure abstraction.’ — Thrill Jockey
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Baths ‘You’re My Excuse To Travel’, live in Tokyo
‘For mercurial L.A. music-maker Will Wiesenfeld, Baths has been a long time coming. The 21-year-old has spent the better part of his days living amidst “pleasant” and “unremarkable” in the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, so perhaps it’s due to a general lack of local inspiration that Wiesenfeld’s own work has never fit into a prefab box of its own. Over the last six years, under the handle of [Post-Foetus], Wiesenfeld has gainfully explored the intersections and outer reaches of both electronic and acoustic music. With Baths, his eclecticism finds its greatest focus yet, in a hail of lush melodies, ghostly choirs, playful instrumentation and stuttering beats.’ — anticon
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Daniel Menche ‘Marriage of Metals 1’
‘In its history throughout millennia it is fair to say the Gamelan has never had an encounter quite like this. Marriage of Metals is a devastating extension of the harmonic properties found in the instruments of Indonesia. Menche was granted access to a remarkable Gamelan studio where he was given full privilege to record any and all of these rare and ancient gongs. Most notably the gigantic “Gong Ageng” that’s contains the deepest of deep of acoustic bass. Daniel Menche took the raw source material from this Gamelan gong session and launches into a heavily processed yet surprisingly sympathetic 21st Century take on this unique instrument. Marriage of Metals comprises two side long works where the purity of the sound source exists amongst the entire din. Metallic rhythms bounce alongside synthetic pops swaying from reality to fantasy, from pure acoustic tonality to fuzzed out distorted clatter. A distant feedback squall is teased amongst the foreground creating a clamorous din.’ — Editions Mego
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Teenage Guitar ‘Atlantic Cod’
‘A press release notes that despite the Teenage Guitar record being delivered under a new moniker, “this is pure high-potency solo Pollard,” and finds the Ohio rocker laying down vocals, guitars and pianos. Guided By Voices bassist Greg Demos, however, contributed drums to the set, while Joe Patterson occasionally takes up bass duties. The LP was recorded by Pollard at home on “a historic mid-’90s Tascam 488 cassette recorder,” and apparently the sessions bring to mind mid-’90s-era GBV releases like the Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer EP. While lyrics were reportedly composed before Pollard hit the record button, “the music flowed spontaneously while the tape ran.”‘ — Exclaim
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Young Echo ‘Jupiter Rise’
‘Young Echo is a loose collective of Bristol producers that includes Vessel and Kahn, with an emphasis on the “loose” part. The group’s members have a common hunger for borderless experimentalism, but that, and their unruly radio show, is the only thing they share—though they’ve existed for years, Nexus is their first actual release as Young Echo. Considering their individual personalities, from Kahn’s fundamentalist dubstep to Zhou’s meditative drones, it’s hard to picture how they could all come together for a full-length. As its name implies, Nexus is where the group meets, but it’s not a simple convergence. Instead, it’s the uneasy centre of their already porous identities and projects, and ends up every bit the glorious mess it should be.’ — Resident Advisor
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Paul Metzger ‘Of the Passing’
‘The idea to have 23 strings on a banjo was not a single “light bulb moment.” Some banjos have a fifth string, a higher string on the top end of it. Instead of just having a single accent string there, I added initially just one, another one and then a third one, just to see what would come of those sounds. Things that would become available to me by having some extra strings to use as an accent would then further inspire me to add something else to the instrument, or then play it in a different way than is expected. When I first heard the instrument and was interested in music, as far as a banjo goes, I liked the sound of the instrument more than the type of music that was being played on it. So I was listening to instruments from India and Iran and Afghanistan that have certain sounds that are really quite similar to what you get out of a banjo or a guitar, if it’s played a certain way.’ — Paul Metzger
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Kaffe Matthews ‘Mount Magnet’
‘Kaffe Matthews has been making and performing new electro-acoustic music since 1990. She is acknowledged as a leading figure and pioneer in the field of electronic improvisation and live composition making on average 50 performances a year worldwide. Kaffe has become known for making site-specific sound works live, playing in the dark in the middle of the space, the audience surrounding her, the sounds moving around them. She uses self-designed software matrices through which she pulls, pushes and reprocesses sounds live, using microphones, a theremin, and feedback within the space; the site then becoming her instrument.’ — The Jogwheel
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Julia Holter ‘World’
‘Classical and not-so-classical-at-all: Julia Holter’s music lies at a crossroads similar to the one where artists like Arthur Russell or Laurie Anderson reside. It’s the sound of an artist who has clearly been trained—in this case at Cal Arts with Michael Pisaro and in India singing with harmonium under guru Pashupati nath Mishra—and one that has no problem forgetting everything previously learned, if needed. Holter’s songwriting stems from a mythological reverence of that which is incomprehensibly beautiful.’ — Red Bull Music Academy
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Innode ‘Gridshifter 05’
‘Innode enters the world with an audacious debut of rhythm and sound, space and silence and an astonishing blend of the acoustic and the electronic. Spearheaded by Stefan Németh (co-founder of Radian, Lokai) in close collaboration with Steven Hess (Locrian, Pan.American, Cleared) and Bernhard Breuer (Elektro Guzzi, Tumido), Gridshifter is an intense, astonishing sonic experience which navigates the line between formal structures and experimental interplay. Conceived as a series of crossbred experiments where, on one side, a human rhythm triggers electronic signals whilst on the other electronic textures sculpt a platform for physical human engagement. The stark dynamics and Human/Non Human interaction manifests itself as a thrilling expose of 21st Century rhythm and noise.’ — Editions Mego
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Vår ‘The World Fell’
‘Vår is the project of four best friends from Copenhagen. Each member of the band is involved in several other Danish bands and all four members are also accomplished visual artists. What began as the extremely lo-fi two-piece of Elias Rønnenfelt and Loke Rahbek recording on 4-track has evolved into an experimental noise/industrial/techno pop quartet. Exploring themes of love, loss, vanity, hope, fear, sexuality and friendship and drawing more on literary influences than musical ones (Bataille and Shaffer, specifically), the band craft music which cannot be confined by any singular sub-genre. Words like “industrial” and “electronic” fall short here; they barely begin to scratch the surface of this work. This is soundtrack music for a play that has only begun to be imagined and is light years away from being consummated.’ — Sacred Bones Records
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The Durian Brothers ‘Planete Sauvage’
‘German trio The Durian Brothers are Stefan Schwander, Mark Matter and Florian Meyer. They play two pairs of Technics 1210s, prepared with elastic bands, sticky tape and Post-it notes, with Schwander on a sequencer and delay pedal, looping and layering sounds to create polyrhythmic patterns. The trio live in Brussels, Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, and meet for a day at a time to record music. Previous to their current split release with Ekoplekz’s turntablist moniker on FatCat, they have also released a series of EPs under their own label, Diskant.’ — The Wire
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Idea Fire Company ‘live in Brooklyn’ (excerpt)
‘Idea Fire Company was formed in 1988 by Karla Borecky and Scott Foust and continues to this day, despite the odds. IFCO’s goal has always been to create experimental atmospheres to open up a more aesthetic approach to both the world and one’s own life. We strive to evoke possible alternative worlds as a direct opposition to the paucity of life under The Spectacle. IFCO has always been an open concept. As such, besides core members Karla and me, IFCO has included Matt Krefting, Graham Lambkin, Meara O’Reilly, Mike Popovich, Dr. Timothy Shortell, Jessi Swenson, and Frans de Waard, all friends, like-minded thinkers, and fine artists. IFCO’s relatively small catalog is partly due to Karla’s and my participation in other aesthetic endeavor, but it also reflects our ever increasing determination to craft each release into a diamond. And we don’t like to make the same diamond twice.’ — Scott Foust
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Midday Veil ‘Great Cold of the Night’
‘Seattle multimedia ensemble Midday Veil began in 2008 as a collaboration between vocalist and visual artist Emily Pothast and analog synth head David Golightly (whose studies in composition and electronic music included courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen), however the broad palette of Midday Veil’s characteristic sound owes much of its shapeshifting audacity to the addition in early 2009 of Timm Mason—a multi-instrumentalist obsessed with modular synthesis, musique concrète and Middle Eastern melodies—on baritone guitar. In 2011, the band added Jayson Kochan on bass and Sam Yoder on percussion. In 2012, original drummer Chris Pollina left the band and was replaced by Garrett Moore (Brain Fruit, Particle Being Trio).’ — The Stranger
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p.s. Hey. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Acid reflux sucked, for sure. The post-AR eternal maintenance routine is easy but annoying. I miss onion rings like you can’t even believe. Uh, I did this and that this weekend. Got stuff done, which is something of note considering that these sleep problems just will not get bored with me and bugger off. Any job moves or ideas or leads or whatever? Oh, I saw your second comment. Glad that things are sorted and/or getting there. The heatwave broke, yes. It’s not chilly, by any means, but the outdoors is a lot more doable. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. No, the Manif pour tous guys are not far-right violent thugs. They’re mainstream conservative religious young guys who know their shirtless antics will get their thing media attention and who think it’s an interesting and amusing strategy to try to turn on gay guys while simultaneously decrying them. Over here, people mostly just think they’re funny jerks. Social media users and bloggers Stateside seem to be conclusion jumping and confusing France for Russia or something. Yury thinks what’s going in Russia is horrendous, of course. Like a lot of Russians, he’s mostly cynical and resigned about how little can be done about it barring some kind of revolution. Yeah, I read that about Ben Wishaw. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! Thanks, man, re: the sleep thing. It’s totally weird. Never had this happen before where I can fall asleep with no problem but then wake up for good no matter what I do at about 4:30 am every day. I’m just waiting for my body clock’s current pattern to erode or give out. Not much else I can think of to do. I would completely love a goofy blog post from you, if you don’t mind. First, your sensibility is always god, and, second, these sleep issues are not so conducive to making blog posts, and I’m way behind again. Did you see Frozen Cloak, lucky you? Really great to see you, my pal. ** Steevee, Hi. Like I said to David, the US gay blogs and Facebook people can’t seem to distinguish the Russian situation from the situation here or something. Yeah, in a nutshell, that’s the basic idea: ‘akin to young, attractive women going topless to protest porn.’ It’s not exactly like that, but it’s near enough the comparison is useful when interpreting them. Never heard of Dreamwater, hm. Like I said, though, I can fall asleep just fine, it’s the fascistic body alarm clock thing that’s the problem, and I don’t know what can be added to me to fix that, and I don’t want to take sleeping pills in the mornings, if I can help it. Thank you a lot for the tip, though. I will look into Dreamwater, just in case. ** MANCY, Yeah, it’s so easy to take the ability to sleep for granted. Ouch, man, on the tooth thing. I broke two teeth while eating nothing especially challenging — tortilla chips in one case — a couple of years ago. Weird, no? I hope your gig last night went splendidly. ** Misanthrope, There’s just been a Dewaere bio published over here, and I would imagine it presents some kind of theory, solid or not, about why he killed himself, but I haven’t read it. I think every suicide is eternally inexplicable whether one leaves a note or has some contemporaneous real world problem or not. Okay, understood about story not-vs. novel. That’s curious because I can’t think of a single smoker friend of mine who happens to Black, past or present, who smoked/smokes menthol cigarettes. I wonder what it means. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. He’s a really good actor, if you ever get the chance to see pretty much any movie he’s in. Cool about the completion of profiling. Ooh, form decision time. I love that. Yeah, obviously, hook us up when the results are are visible. ** Statictick, Hi, N. Thanks about the post. Thank you eternally for being you in all your myriad ways, man. That’s sweet about your mom. Give her the best of all possible bests from me. Someone told me something vague about your ‘in jail’ thing. I didn’t fully understand, but, Jesus, man. I hope the outcome of that is as close to circumstantial perfection as possible. Love to you too, bud. ** œ, Hi. I’m glad you like conversation with me. The feeling is mutual. I only don’t wear bracelets because I don’t have bracelets to wear, I think. I don’t know. I’m so sorry about your health failings. I mean, how so, if you want to say? Oh, a post on ‘Snapshots’ would be great! I love that book, and it’s among the least noted and discussed of R-G’s books, I think. From what I see. I’m so pleased to hear that you’re enjoying working. That state is one of emotion’s greatest rulers. You have a great week too! ** Okay. Gig posts featuring music that I’m newly listening to, liking, and recommending tend to be the most skipped over posts among the constituency around here, but, hey, I seem to like making them, and this one is out of my hands, and the power is now in yours, and the rest is mystery. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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You are posting early. Gimme a day to let everything sink in. I'm backing up on two months here, in no real order.
Dennis: Your kind words were just awesome, exactly what I needed, etc… I showed them to Dusty, my mom, and it completely made her day. Her days are getting more difficult. I'm figuring out what I need to do.
Dusty and I seem to be 'cut from the same cloth' as the maternal side of her family, in terms of the will to stay on this particular earth. Her mom cared for me. Her father taught me everything, and I mean everything. That sounds wrong. It wasn't. It was a man telling his teenaged grandson that I should be careful and wary because I liked guys, but go and fuck as many as you can because you don't need to get married.
Just thanking you for being so kind. That extends to all the friends who gave Dusty some props. It means more to her than I can say. More than it would seem a blog by a 'controversial' artist could do. The well-wishing got her out of bed, into a vehicle, and back home. Home.
We take it from there.
Best to all.
Njr
Hi Dennis
some awesomeness here! and some new to check out, grumbling fur seems like a must. Ben Frost is my go to at the moment, also really liking Le1f.
been reading simon critchley, leo bersani & adam philips and some perec. lots of interesting bits floating in my brain sparking off each other.
sadly a bit frustrated in the studio, so need to change my head space a bit and maybe put a lot of crap away and start fresh.
i good news im back watching buffy and its still awesome.
gonna go have a look at some of these unknown bands before i have to go to work.
hope all is great with you?!
The Patrick Dewaere Day was cool, but extremely sad. I can't remember if I knew of his work or not. I knew of his suicide without knowing who he was.
I hope your sleep troubles lessen. Don't know what to say. I've always had insomnia. I've tried everything from Seconal to Quaaludes to whatever other pharmaceutical downers… then just plain benzos… There's a ceiling I can't get off of. That thing is there the more I rack up some years.
Meditate when you can't sleep, D. If you don't pray, then don't waste that time. But if you can just feel a smidge of what the people are sending out to you – they don't know it – try to relax knowing that so many care about you and everything that goes along with that.
I keep remembering that, and I find no fault in that, uh, train, but it just makes me want to have a cigarette that I'm not allowing.
xoNjr
hi dennis, today, i like teenage guitar 'atlantic cod.' it's cool. what is this band? very cool. i listened to other mysterious songs too. i like them too//speaking of r-g snapshots, it's my favorite r-g book. maybe, its short-cut arrangement of minimally adorned, object-language & its consistent, neutral tone in it. i like it. a reversed power of language, i suppose. i like it most. many r-g fans don't seem to like it much though.//my health. thanks for asking, adorably. that's nice of you. i believe that health is supposed to be failing for most, for some periods, under the attack of some triggers. that's it. speaking of michelet, he's got so ill, in his 30 something, but he felt revived later in his 50? something, and got happily remarried, etc.//your weirdness is yours. i won't ask about it. but the bracelet, why you don't have one? why not? many like to wear it…got a ring. but really nice to chat with you.
Hi Dennis. Huseyin from Edinburgh here, long time lurker and first time contributor. I just wanted to comment on something you said earlier, about your music posts being ignored. They are, without a doubt, the parts of the blog I most look forward to. Music is my passion and I have discovered so many of my favourite bands/artists through your books and through DC's. It's also good to see another Julia Holter fan outside the pages of The Wire. Please,keep posting!
Yummy Sound Garden.
So now in France you have to separate the merely stupid homophobic jerks from the dangerous fascist homophobic jerks.
Some fun.
You're right about suicide. That's why Kenneth Anger calls it "The Magic of Self-Murder." Not exactly reassuring, but accurate.
Dennis! Great gig. A lot of stuff I'm unfamiliar with, good to dive into.
In re; questions from last week, studying with Florian was great. He's brilliant, and his deep wealth of knowledge of electronic music and digital audio production was absolutely essential and enriching. Ended up doing an installation for the final project, documented in part here;
https://vimeo.com/66334605
I have many stories and memories of the two weeks with Haino-san. I think we went to every single record store in each city we visited, and went through every single CD/LP in each one. In New York, he gave my younger brother a copy of 'Trout Mask Replica' on LP for his birthday… in Cleveland, we visited Albert Ayler's grave together… it was a unique experience that I cherish. Whole thing happened because of the wonderful Aki Onda, who I knew through work in Portland.
Here's a pic from the first day of tour…
http://i.imgur.com/SkmwYip.jpg
I'll send the vinyl along promptly! I also presented a paper at Harvard two months ago about Bresson and Heidegger, specifically The Devil, Probably, an essay that would've never existed without you. It's still in 'conference presentation' form, and I'm preparing it for publication now. If you'd like to read it, I can send a copy along to you via email.
x
Matt
Latest FaBlog: Fait Diver – Pride and Prejudice and Rape
DC
Checking in again. Wanted to make sure those books got your way again — if not we'd be happy to resend in the near future. Just bought a house a month ago, and was thinking of you as we prepare to install this strange black-glass chandelier in the room with all of our books. As an object, it seems to have some weird literary weight. Or some sculptural presence. Not sure which. Maybe it's just the French word that had you crossing my mind. Do you know of Tom Spanbauer? I joined his workshop here in Portland a few months ago and have been enjoying the influence it's had over my writing. Doing well?
Borges
Here's the website for Dream Water. I've used it as an alternative to taking more Klonopin. I'm already taking 2 mg. of Klonopin daily to treat anxiety – my dosage went up after hurricane Sandy, which sent my anxiety skyrocketing, and I haven't been able to cut down – and I don't want to go any higher on it.
Great day. I own the Young Echo album but I hadn't even heard of most of these artists.
One of the strangest albums I've heard this year is HARAFINSO, a collection of music from recent Nigerian films. (Nigeria has one of the world's largest film industries.) Heavy on Autotune and cheap synthesizers and drum machines, it reminds me of Syrian singer Omar Souleyman and Autotune-crazed rapper Future, although the liner notes claim Bollywood soundtracks as the artists' biggest influence.
I fucked up the link again. Anyway, it's http://www.drinkdreamwater.com.
I like that Vår tune a lot.
My new music fixation: I've just discovered the raw lo-fi acid of Helena Hauff this past week. Her recent Resident Advisor podcast is the best mix I've heard in ages, and there's a great interview with her here at Vice.
Oh yeah the latest Yuck 'n Yum AGK teaser promo is out, and it contains some extreme Rachel Maclean!
paul metzger 'of the passing' is incredibly good, too! thanks, dennis. it's really good. i am kind of traumatized in conversing about my illness. i loved & dated with one person who is a lit professor, some known, maybe, due to his being smart, i guess. he is of course very busy but at times, his desire goes wild, very forceful and loud. his monologues of making me a slut is pretty insane, using all kind of his lit knowledge that would work only for match.com i am intelligent bait. anyhow, i did not feel connected to his expression of canal desire one day because i was just so ill. and he loudly shouted to me, "you are faking your illness to taunt & drive me crazy" and kept ranting at me, "prove that you are so ill, prove it." i answered, the pain of illness is not provable, even with a doctor document. there is a pain detector but it also can't catch the way it aches all nerves. it breaks all dreams and relations & images, even the image of myself, etc. anyhow, that is the incident where i felt talking of my illness with someone i trusted gets worse. it has repeated later on with other dates as well, & with my employers and colleauges, too. i only wanted them to leave me alone at the moment, when the pain peaks, but they just keep wanting me to be reliable and then get angry when i am unable to be next to them, pleasantly. people keep talking about the details of their hospital visits, i am just listening to their stories. i listen and listen. i stopped talking of mine. i often wish that my pain is dispersing in listening to multiple stories of their pain and hospital incidents, not saying mine, which is undeliverable, in any ways. that wish is the most beautiful side of listening to the other. i am working on a random day for you in relation to my work. to be honest, as some academics (my colleagues) are round here, so i am a little cautious to expose my blundle of quotes & thoughts. but i know how to hide the gist of my work, so it would work. will let you know by surprise later on. all best to your sleeping problem. (i eat cooked onions when i can't sleep while wanting to. but not sure you like the smell of onions. cooked ones, milder though!)
Hey, Dennis!
I usually don't get a chance to comment here but I saw Paul Metzger and realized that you had just recognized one of our country's national treasures on your blog and wanted to show my approval.. I also wanted to rave about the previous Patrick Dewaere Day post. Love that man! And…I had asked Gene Gregorits to email you so he could send his book to you. He did, but he never heard back. I remembered that the best way to contact you was through your blog, so I'm asking if you could check for this? (It was about three weeks ago, I think.) Hope you are well. I'll have an audio surprise for you in the upcoming month.
Regards,
Alan
statictick-
that's good that yr mom got a good day out of us. i missed the chance to well-wish, which i would like to do now. best of luck to you guys. the community here is pretty awesome and it's funny cuz when i'm stressing about shit, usually one sentence from d or any of the DLs chiming in with advice is enough to make me feel great.
d-
some interesting stuff today. you're so much more experimental than me. like, i used to be all about soundscape stuff. especially when i was doing a lot of acid. now, i'm at this point where i'm interested in hooks and choruses and lyrics and having fun with those, so my discovery of uncle bobby and his wide world of sound is pretty perfectly timed. i wish gbv were at fyf this year, but i might be able to tag along with my drummer to chicago next month for riot fest. i hope so. also. new pollard! i'm still wrapping my head around bee thousand (while we're on the subject, the run of tracks from 'echos myron' thru 'queen of cans and jars' is one of the more bonertastic strings of song i've heard in a good while), but i will put this one on my (now really long) list of things i've had recommended to me here that i need to check out. the other stuff today was pretty rad, or what little i could check out in my limited amount of computer time. i should be back to having internet access by tonight/tomorrow.
today was a busy day. tomorrow will be a busy day, and the day after will be as well. got just about everything moved. i have to pick my mom up from work and then get together with my roommate and move my bed over to my dad's place. and then get settled in at my aunt's. i'll only be staying with her for a couple weeks, so i don't need to unpack much besides my daily toiletries and a few t-shirts.
nice that you got some stuff accomplished. i'm still thinking the trick to it might be that if you find yrself getting up early and not being able to get back to sleep, the best bet is to just excuse yrself from the room quietly, so as not to wake yury, and go write or something. but that's just cuz that's what i do when the insomnia hits (usually three or four nights a week now, but my schedule's all sorts of wonky since i'm not working at the moment).
i did actually dig the var stuff quite a bit. will investigate them further. after i check out iceage, perhaps. maybe before. who knows, right?
started working on some new songs. they sound pretty potentialful, but i guess the true test will be once i get them into the band room and start arranging them. i'm finally starting to feel like i am navigating the writing process correctly and getting a good balance between the noisy/psych/experimental side of things and the pop structure/chords and melodies side. i just want to make music that i want to listen to. at this point, that's all i give a shit about.
re: true widow, to backtrack a few days. i know their sound isn't anything new or groundbreaking but i find they mine a particular vein of music that i've been smitten with for most of my life. heavy, sorta minor-key guitar-based pop/rock songs. i can totally see how they don't blow other people's minds, but on first hearing them, i remember like, sirens going off in my head of 'this is what i've been looking for in a new band for so long and is finally delivered.'
also, i was looking at the words to a buncha gbv trax to see what i recognized from yr stuff, which led me to 'i am a scientist,' which led me to the conclusion that, if you were to look for a song that you could use as a mission statement for the things you do with words, it would be that song. love it.
ok, gotta go grab my mom from work. have much awesomeness with yr day and get some more writing done. i will look for jobs and listen to bee thousand a million times on repeat. talk soon.
-me.
Latest FaBlog: Propaganda Means Never having To Say You’re Guilty
Hey Dennis,
Just wanted to say what’s up and see how you’re doing, how are you? Sorry to hear about you sleep schedule being fucked up, that’s aggravating. That Julia Holter song is so beautiful…I’ve heard her music before, but I want to listen to more. I also really liked that Var song and the Midday Veil song, I’m gonna check out those bands later. It was sweet to see Baths perform too—thanks for sharing these songs, this gives me a good crop of new things to listen to.
I’m doing well, I’m just writing a lot…I’m revising a bunch right now, I feel positive about everything. I saw Lil B do a show in Houston over the weekend! So that was awesome, he’s one of my heroes. He did like a 2 hour set of him just alone on stage, and then after the show he let every single person in the building take a picture with him and say hello for a minute—I didn’t get in line for it because it would have taken forever, but I think it’s really cool that he does that for most shows.
I watched ‘Only God Forgives’ over the weekend too, have you seen that yet? I liked it a lot…I’m on a heavy Refn kick now because I had only seen Drive before – last night I watched Bronson, and tonight I’ll probably watch Valhalla Rising.
He’s such an incredible director…I keep thinking about his movies in relation to Noh theater, like how the performers are playing gods in disguise, and their feet are not supposed to be lifted from the stage floor…it like builds up suspense that way, so when an actor playing God lifts his foot and stomps on the stage, it’s a big deal. Like symbolizing God striking down from Heaven…that probably doesn’t make any sense, it just makes me think about how he builds up suspense for these really sudden, shocking acts of violence…and something about the build-up or the atmosphere makes his characters seem almost inhuman, like they’re just these primal forces cloaked in human bodies. I really like that idea, I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately.
Tao Lin deleted his twitter and tumblr and blog last night while tripping balls…I was awake when the whole thing was happening (it was like 4 in the morning) and I was worried about him for awhile, but it seems like he’s not having a legit breakdown and was more just tripping balls. Anyway, that caused a big stir this morning. I feel like ‘alt lit’ has changed a lot though, like the group of people has split into various groups of friends…people aren’t talking to each other like they used to. There aren’t new lit mags coming out every week, like last summer. Some people have let the attention go to their heads and basically shit-talked themselves into alienation, some people have stopped writing…I think most people are just hunkered down right now and working on books…idk, I could talk about it for pages but ‘alt lit’ feels like it’s sort of in a slight hibernation right now, or at least things have slowed down a lot. I read your recent interview where you talked about alt lit, and basically what you said would probably happen is happening…some people are way more invested in the NYC book/art world now, and see alt lit as this slightly embarrassing bunch of amateurs…and some people are more invested in boosting and hyping each other up, and have taken this more severe stance against all the hierarchy involved in breaking into a larger stage. I keep seeing that tension coming up again and again.
Damn, this message is long. I’ll end it there, I just wanted to say hello. Talk to you later, take care…
Hey Dennis, that sounds horrible, the waking thing, but you seem to be dealing with it or resigned to the fact of it? I ended up not going to see Frozen Cloak. I was feeling weirdly stressed out and overwhelemed and not up to leaving the house. I ended up watching Top Of The Lake, the Jane Campion miniseries..kinda meh
You will have the post soonish.
Cheers!
Mark
Dennis, sorry to hear about your fucked-up sleeping patterns. I can relate. Until recently I've been sleeping pretty well, but these last few days… last night I had a bad stomach flare-up that prevented me from falling asleep until 4, but then I woke up at 5, and didn't fall back asleep until maybe 9 or 10. Then I had to drag myself off to work, even though I felt like a corpse. Ugh. But I didn't want to call into work sick again, seeing as I took a sick day last week for my pink eye.
I'll try to see if I can whip up a day for you that won't be too taxing on my currently fragile state of health. One of these days I want to do a day about my brother Tom's 1000 page book that he wrote a decade ago, but I need to finish re-reading it first.