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Katie Gately Last Day
‘Katie Gately is an LA computer whizz whose work spans sound design, electronically rendered polyphonic choral music and a nascent form of laptop pop. Pop music that can’t sit still, is exploding with ideas. Sometimes it sounds overloaded with thoughts, which find literal expression in Katie’s dense Disco Inferno-like lattices of words. But then on other tracks her vocals pull back and space out, disassociating from the rhythms and finding unlikely companions in choirs of pitch-shifted and manipulated vocals – her voice made into marching, chirruping armies of munchkins, automatons, Substance D-stretched friend-apparitions.’ — collaged

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Boothroyd Colony
‘Boothroyd is working in a very strange space right now. He’s almost definitely genre-less (assuming you’re not the kind to count “electronic” and “experimental” as real tags), but he’s certainly not peerless. If anything, his association with Tri Angle is actually the most predictable thing about him. Following drops from Fis, SD Laika, and The Haxan Cloak, the harsh specters of Idle Hours feel quite natural. The former’s skeletal D&B; skank casts a long shadow over this release, particularly with respect to the fluttery, abstract percussion, and the whole thing feels like a cross between Evian Christ’s early ambient “Duga-3” tape and his more garish Waterfall EP from this year. However, I think one would be remiss to chalk Boothroyd up to a Frankenstein’s monster of the Tri Angle roster. The twitchy, rainy vibes of “Y5” in particular, replete with cascading sheets of hiss and ghastly moans, feel like they point to entirely new dimensions of darkness.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes

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Blut aus Nord memoria vetusta iii: saturnian poetry: 04 forhist
‘Consider the fact that enigmatic multi-instrumentalist Vindsval made his Blut Aus Nord debut in 1995 – the same year that ushered in the likes of black metal milestones like Immortal’s Battles in the North, Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane, and Behemoth’s debut full-length Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic). There are others of course that bear their own significance to heavy music, but the mention of these black metal releases in particular is significant in the context of the nearly two decades since their release. Of the many things that Blut Aus Nord’s catalogue offers musically, it also provides a striking glimpse of what’s likely to be seen as black metal’s most substantial point of creative evolution since the Second Wave. The climb upward for Blut Aus Nord has included all manner of soundscapes ranging from the most bleak and frayed black metal to the cold and sinister language of electronica. Here at their apex thus far, Saturnian Poetry finds Blut Aus Nord appropriately at their very beginnings, only now the music carries alongside it those shadows and landmarks of experience and expertise, all culminating in a sound that unsurprisingly remains solely in the cosmic grasp of this band.’ — Steel for Brains

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Jason Crumer Wellsley’s Philosophy
‘If you’re listening to Jason Crumer albums without quality headphones, you’re doing it wrong. The Baltimore-based noise artist’s catalog teems with eldritch nuance that rewards close listening. From 2006’s Hum Of An Imagined Environment onward, a strong cinematic streak has characterized Crumer’s solo work; it’s often impossible to experience without succumbing to the whys and wherefores, the mysteries of creation. Disqualifier is no different in that sense. ‘Wellsley’s Philosophy’ is the most striking moment on Disqualifier. It opens inauspiciously with the concussive throttle of machinery, quickly gathering pieces of dander: the clink of pickaxes on steel, the rumble of locomotives, inaudible masculine shouts. The clinks accumulate, the shouts recede, Native American flutes interject, drums thunder through, distortion floods the scene, is chased out by equanimous synthesizers. There’s a strong whiff of blue-collar, all-American mettle in the track, communicated with the evocative, concentrated intensity that characterizes professional advertising. A narrative of some sort clearly unites Disqualifier — why else would the names of characters recur in the titles?—but ‘Wellsley’s Philosophy,’ taken as a single chapter, makes a greater showcase for Crumer’s storytelling potential.’ — City Paper

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Moniek Darge Turkish Square
‘Born in Bruges, Belgium in 1952, Moniek Darge has worked as a composer, violinist, performer and installation artist. She studied music theory and violin at the Music Conservatory of Bruges as well as painting at the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Arthistory, Philosophy and Anthropology. She has published extensively on her musical experiences in Kenya, Rwanda, Japan, China, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, both in ‘Logos-Blad’, the monthly magazine of the Logos Foundation (of which she is editor), and on numerous radio programs.‘ — Discogs

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Objekt One Fell Swoop
‘With these experiments of form and response with so-called “dance” and “experimental” music, Berlin-based TJ Hertz gets at larger issues concerning time and space by surgically slicing, operating, then suturing the operative functions of dance music. The dancefloor is, after all, a speculative space, at once common ground and no-man’s land. Hertz sees this and in turn separates the synaptic nerves of dance music genres to see “how things work.” The genius here is that he puts it all back together with a cold headiness that the legs never notice; the aesthetic here is disconnected from the affected, unaffected.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes

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Ashley Paul I’m In You
‘Ashley Paul is a performer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. She uses an array of instruments including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion, mixing disparate elements to create a colorful palate of sound that works its way into her intuitive songs; free forming, introverted melodies. Heat Source finds Ashley Paul working using her brilliant ears to find a zen like balance between her voice and a sparse arrangement of staccato instrumentation leaving as much open space on one song as most people would create in a lifetime. This open space isn’t empty, however, but it’s up to you to fill in the meaning. Heat Source is an emotionally challenging and fascinatingly personal listening experience that creates a powerful pace.’ — Brainwashed

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Institute Salt
‘Institute are of the here and now; they hail from Austin, TX, and share members with Wiccans, Glue, Blotter, and Recide. The project began as a set of four-track sketches made by singer Moses Brown, and a full-band demo turned into Institute’s six-song, self-titled debut EP, released in February on British Columbia’s Deranged Records. The Salt EP builds upon that foundation in subtle ways. The production is just as tarnished, just as ragged, but the elements have snapped ever so slightly more into focus. The songwriting feels sharper, and the hooks sink deeper. “Salt” opens the record on a high point, setting a bassline that flashes back to “She’s Lost Control” over rolling, skipping, “tribal” drums straight out of Siouxsie’s The Scream. For all their resemblance to deathrock and post-punk greats of yore, there’s nothing mannered or simulacral about Institute. They are as real as the lump in your throat and the salt under your nails, and their sting couldn’t be sweeter.’ — Philip Sherburne

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D/P/I 02  – B.I.D.
‘Upon being asked about organizational processes, Alex Gray described his angle to TMT earlier in the year: “I’ll have eight or 10 or 15 micro-compositions based on a sample, and handle each of those things as an uncompressed piece to the overall puzzle.” This would allow for an almost infinite number of combinations — an indication of Gray’s compositional knack — but whereas samples have sometimes been recognizable on past material (from Roy Orbison on FRESH ROSES to R Kelly on I’m Fuckin You Tonight), they are utterly tangled and transformed here, giving rise to only one comprehensible line of dialogue and the occasional garbled phrase amongst a magnificent dream-induced collage of sound.’ — collaged

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Pig Destroyer Red Tar
‘Unlike the frantic Phantom Limb — or Book Burner, Pig Destroyer’s intervening album—Mass & Volume is slow. As in, glacier-dragging-a-fallen-planetoid slow. In that sense, it draws from the dour, down-tuned slither of doom metal, but it’s a far cry from either the antediluvian groove of Pentagram or the antiheroic songcraft of recent outfits like Lycus and Pallbearer. “Red Tar” is only three times as long as your average Pig Destroyer song, but those six and a half minutes are milked of every conceivable ounce of sludge. Here the EP finally resembles a Pig Destroyer 45 played on 33, plain and simple, with none of the compositional mutation on display in “Mass & Volume”. It’s the perfect complement; tighter and more coherent—inasmuch as Hayes and Hull’s mutual assured deconstruction could ever be called coherent—the song creeps from plateau to plateau, leaving a trail of viscera in its wake. “Grief crawls in the shadow of time/ Try to keep in mind/ It’s all finite,” Hayes grunts in existential agony. Instead of seeming like some noble savage, he’s a trapped animal, snarling and soon to be gutted.’ — Jason Heller

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Terrence Hannum HYSTERESIS
‘Terence Hannum’s works all use magnetic audio tape as art media. This an obsolete technology. As such, the deliberate choice of this material reads as symbolic, chosen for its history as much as the way it looks and functions. Audio tape is ferrous powder bonded to narrow strips of plastic film; audio tape records sounds through the rearrangement of the iron particles into patterns by an electro-magnetic head, which also decodes those patterns back into audio. This encoding, the rearrangement of particles, is invisible to the eye. With a CDR or DVR, one can see a different pattern in how the surface of the disc reflects light. There, the unwritten portion looks different from the encoded. The tape is uniformly grey/brown and shiny. Magnetic tape is similar to a traditional hard drive; the magnetic encoding is the same. And with each, the recording of information and change to the material does not leave a visible mark or pattern.’ — Bmore Art

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Pinkcourtesyphone closer to here than you care to be
‘The aesthetic Richard Chartier has developed as Pinkcourtesyphone may bear little resemblance to the serious, scholarly work that he issues under his own name, but it features the same level of compositional skill and complexity that sounds like no other. The underlying theme of vintage camp and ennui results in an juxtaposition with the dark sexuality and hints of sleaze that permeates, resulting in a genius reality versus fantasy pairing befitting the 1950s housewife sensibility PCP has featured heavily in his albums thus far.’ — Brainwashed

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Mirage Blood of the Return
‘The story of Mirage is an interesting one. He put out his album Blood For The Return on Bandcamp at the beginning of the year and contacted Todd Ledford of (mostly-defunct) independent label Olde English Spelling Bee about it, but his emails got more and more bizarre as time went on: increasingly demanding, more rambling, and generally more psychologically unsound. It turned out that Robin Nydal has been listed as a “19-year-old” musician from Los Angeles for a good few years now, and that “Robin Nydal” is, as name’s go, awfully close to “Bob Dylan”. Whether any of Ledford’s story is true or not is, obviously, completely beside the point, as the drunk and woozy psych pop music speaks for itself.’ — DUMMY

*

p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you, David. Ah, it makes sense that Lordalfreddouglas would tip your scales. Certainly an interesting approach on his part. I imagine his inbox is rather packed with prospectees. ** Bernard Welt, B! Johnny Rapid, I know him. I mean I know him not at all and yet intimately. Now that I’m over my lifelong desire to make a porn, I think you should fill my void. Or you should at least add narration pre-existing porns. I’m not kidding. Awesome that you’re serious about Paris. Yeah, sort stuff out, and let me know before you apply to the Recollets, so I can butter Chrystel up, not that she’ll need much butter, but still. Would totally, totally love to Skype/phone. Let me know when is good. I should be home here for a while ‘cos I’ve got work/deadlines galore. Not too shabby fiction class indeed! When I saw Paul McCarthy when he was here few weeks ago, he said Benjamin is finally finishing up a new book of stories at extremely long last. Great about Trinie. She’s wonderful. I think you should write that NoES essay obviously, clearly. Did you? ** Damien Ark, Damien! Dude, Iceland was insane. Zac took the bulk of the photos, so I’ll see if I can pry enough out of him to make a post. School’s good? What are you studying, etc.? Never read ‘Dhalgren’. It’s great? I always meant to, but long books are so intimidating. I think you could marry the Ukraine guy and have the furry as a pet maybe? ** Sypha, Thanks, James. Welcome back to you too! Congrats on the gold pin. That’s pretty cool. Oh, the new Nadon is out! Awesome! I’ll go get it! Everyone, while the blog was way, the eminent author-slash-many things including composer/ musician Sypha released his new album of music that he records under the moniker Sypha Nadon, and it’s called ‘Canadian Atheist’, and you can hear it, get it, read about it, peruse the lyrics and other related stuff right here, and you so totally should, obviously, if you haven’t got it yet. So do that, won’t you? Thank you. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh! I got your emails, and thank you a ton! I’ll get the post set up and get back to you with the very imminent launch date right away. Great, great! ** Bill, Hi. Thanks about the ribs. Sucks. I’ve broken my ribs twice before, but never the ribs in my back before, and that location is a much bigger drag for some reason. Right, ‘Zeroville’, you like it? I’ve never read it. I read, I think, two Erickson novels, but early ones, I think. I think I liked them. I need to reinvestigate him. A week off, yay! ** Steevee, Thanks, Steve. Yeah, broken ribs are no fun. Watch your step. I read your top ten documentary list last night. Really interesting. I haven’t seen a one of them yet. They all intrigue, I guess especially the first two due to their formal adventuring. Thanks! Everyone, Steevee has made a 2014 top ten best documentary films list for Fandor, and I read it last night, and it’s very interesting and will make you want to watch some obviously very strong films, so I obviously recommend that you click this. Obviously, I’m curious to hear that Azealia Banks LP, and those are cogent points on your part, obviously. It is really bizarre and somehow telling how many gay guys refuse to accept bisexuality as a real thing. ** Mark Gluth, Hey, Mark! The trip was crazed great. If you ever get the chance to go Iceland and travel around, grab it fiercely. The broken ribs are a total drag, but, you know, what can you do but stuffer stoically or whatever. I’ll have to ask Gisele about future theater piece shows. I know that ‘Ktl’ went really well in NYC, and I think she said that has lead to some new possible US gigs, but I’ll try to find out when I see her. Yay, about the videos of you and MANCY! Can’t wait to watch them very shortly. In the meantime, I’ll share, duh. Everyone, Here’s a serious treat. If you watch the two videos that I’ll lead you towards in a moment, you’ll get to see both author Mark Gluth and visual artist/musician MANCY aka Stephen Purtill reading/ performing recently in Bellingham, Washington at the launch gig for Mark’s extraordinary new novel ‘No Other’. Total fun and mindblow awaits on every level should first click this and then click this. Great! ** Kier, K-ster! I am back, yes! Yeah, the ribs thing sucks. I’m in pain right this very moment, though I’m trying not to let it show too much. Three weeks to feel better, but six weeks until I can pick up something heavy or shimmy and shake. Lucifer, ha ha, nice. Oh, I like both your shark and its swoony pose! Based on the photos, I think know what “karding/karing” is, or I mean I’ve seen it. It’s boring? Favorite thing in Iceland, wow. I’ll have to give you a handful, ‘cos I can’t pick one. Mm, riding ATVs wildly over lava fields and black sand beaches and through ponds and hidden valleys; snowmobiling on a glacier in the middle of blizzard; exploring an ice cave formed in/by a glacier; exploring a lava tube cave that was the inspiration for the cave to the center of the earth in ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’; our car getting stuck in the snow by this amazing thermal plant/factory at night and getting scared we would die there or something and then getting accidentally discovered and towed out by this guy we kind of believe was a troll or an elf. There were a lot of great things. My day yesterday was good. Zac and I met up with Kiddiepunk and Oscar B., and we went to the Paul McCarthy Chocolate Factory, which none of them had been to yet, and it was really great, and we had big fun. Then I hurried over to Pere Lachaise to meet up with the brilliant young UK filmmaker James Batley, whose work I’ve showcased here on the blog, to be filmed/interviewed in the pouring rain in front of a tomb for some website, and that was cool but awfully wet. By then my ribs were starting to kill me, so I limped home on the metro, pain-killered up, and tried to do some work. I bought Zac and me tickets to see Iceage. I texted with him and did sone emailing and stuff. Then ate, crashed. It wasn’t a bad at all. How was your Tuesday, buddy? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Well, I would hope that he would have thought the Vines idea is a great idea because it is! I do remember that your favorite Viz character is Terry Fuckwitt, strangely. I’ll check that new strip out. Everyone, here’s _B_A: ‘You may remember that my fave Viz comic character is Terry Fuckwitt. Maybe not, but he is, and there’s a sublime strip been uploaded onto their website today. What I love is how very meta it is: each panel just flips the narrative as it goes along until the whole story collapses in on itself.’ ** Keaton, Hey. I am. It’s true. Oh, but I am a strange landscape myself, ha ha. Family ghost, whoa, like … what did it, like, do or say or whatever? Sweet trip plans. Paris near Xmas time, it doesn’t get no more beautiful here than it is then, seriously. Big hug back. ** Zach, Hi, Zach! it was totally really nice to see you outside the ‘Ktl’ show. Definitely. And that’s so awesome that you not only liked it but liked it in such a sharp, awesome way. Stephen will of course love “the most metal shit i had ever seen”, so I’ll tell him. Thank you really a lot, man. Yeah, man, hang out here, let’s blab about stuff. It would be great! ** Misanthrope, Big M and big G! Broken ribs are most highly not recommended as an injury even to those who seek injuries like some of those fellows yesterday. Really glad you dug ‘Ktl’ again. It sounds like you had a blast in NYC, very cool, and you obviously saw some sweet folks. My pleasure about the yen. Now I’ve got some Icelandic bills if those intrigue him at all. 6 of you, wow. Yikes. Good move on the home teaching. Little dude needs some exercise for his exciting brain, that’s for sure. Great to be back and have you back too, buddy. ** Torn porter, Hi, man! Fim editing is underway, and we’ll see. So far so good. As far as I can tell, the ‘Ktl’ shows went really well. We got nothing but excellent reviews, and that’s unusual. The mood of my Autumn has been superb. It has. Broken ribs being the only fucked aspect, but hey. I have not seen ‘Birdman’. Have you? Thoughts, if so? Much love back, and give my hearty wave to Ratty. Is she there with you? Where is she? ** Kyler, Hi! Oh, horror, ‘Dennis lover’, Jesus. I’m fighting the strong urge to retire that term, if that’s the case. Ugh. Paris has good cemeteries, that’s for sure. Full of exciting former people. Fingers crossed on the awards submissions! ** Okay. Today I give you my latest gig of music that I’ve been liking a whole lot in recent times, and that’s the entire intro and explanation for the post, which is surely enough. See you tomorrow.

‘Despite his own solo successes, Tobin Sprout will probably always be known as the one-time four-track wizard and songwriting side kick to Robert Pollard in Ohio’s lo-fi pop kings Guided By Voices. Though less prolific than his boss, fans of the group were quick to take note of Sprout’s irresistible song craft. Relegated to a handful of appearances on each release, the singer/guitarist penned GBV favorites like “Awful Bliss,” “Atom Eyes,” and “It’s Like Soul Man.” Sprout left the GBV camp in 1997, pursuing the solo career he launched a year earlier with Carnival Boy.

‘Tobin Sprout began playing guitar at age eight, teaching himself on the Silvertone his parents purchased for 25 dollars. In his late twenties, Sprout began making his first appearances on a Dayton, OH, scene dominated by metal acts, cover bands, and the occasional coalition of fiery punk youth, with his band Fig.4. Formed in 1983 with bassist Dan Toohey and drummer Jon Peterson, the group only released one 7″ during its existence, breaking up before completing their full-length debut. After the split, Sprout enlisted the help of Dayton resident Robert Pollard to finish the album.

‘A frequent attendee at Fig.4 shows, Pollard’s early offer to join the group was (rather ironically) rejected. Needing an outlet for his own growing backlog of compositions, Pollard formed Guided By Voices shortly after. The band’s Forever Since Breakfast EP was released in 1986, followed by the full-length Devil Between My Toes a year later. Sprout continued to stay in touch, adding his guitar to a couple of tracks on Devil, but eventually moved to Florida, taking a job as a designer and illustrator for See magazine.

‘Upon returning to Dayton in the early ’90s, Sprout found Guided By Voices hard at work on their fifth album Propeller (1992). Impressed with Pollard’s songwriting talents, Sprout joined the group mid-way through the recording, making his GBV songwriting debut with “14 Cheerleader Coldfront.” The band began using Sprout’s home studio, pleased with the intimacy of four-track fidelity. Eventually a recording reached Scat Records who signed the band for the Propeller follow-up, Vampire on Titus. The group’s home until their 1995 signing to Matador, the Scat-era saw GBV honing their home-studio skills, culminating on Bee Thousand. One of the group’s best-loved releases, the album was cut entirely on Sprout’s four-track.

‘Token Sprout appearances followed on each subsequent album, peaking with his four contributions to 1996’s Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. Shortly after, weary of the band’s increased touring, Sprout moved with his family to Michigan. Though much of his spare time was dedicated to painting, he continued to write, releasing the occasional 7″ and two full-length collections, Moonflower Plastic (1997) and Let’s Welcome the Circus People (1999). He also wrote a number of songs for his Eyesinweasel project, 14 of which were collected on 2000’s Wrinkled Thoughts. Demos and Outtakes appeared in 2001, but Sprout was uncharacteristically quiet after its release, only popping up here and there on hard-to-find 7″ singles. During this time he also cut a full-length studio effort in his Leland, MI home studio. The finished touches were collected as Lost Planets & Phantom Voices, which appeared in February 2003.’ — collaged

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To My Beloved Martha
‘That one was mostly done on an Alesis ADAT and a Studio 32 board so I can go up to 16 tracks, which is what I’d like to do eventually. The stuff that I did on Moonflower Plastic, outside of the studio stuff, was done on an 8-track cassette and a 4-track cassette and there’s a big difference in the sound quality of the ADAT.’ — TS

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Martin’s Mounted Head
‘My ultimate goal is to get a 24-track analog machine, but it’s just expensive. You’ve got to have somebody that can work on it, and you’ve got to find one to begin with. They’re expensive and a problem to maintain and there aren’t really a lot of people up here who could even work on it. So eventually I’d like to do that, but for the time being I’m just going to be using the ADAT because it seems to be working out pretty well and it’s easy to use and there’s not a lot of problems like with a tape machine.’ — TS

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It’s Like Soul Man
‘I’m drawn to the analogue sound mostly just for the saturation point that you can get with tape and you can’t get it on the ADAT. They are getting better to where you can get a nice sound on them but they still don’t have the warmth that you get from tape, I don’t think. A lot of people say they can’t tell the difference, but I can hear the difference in a lot of the stuff.’ — TS

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The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin
‘There’s a couple of microphones that I still use. There’s an Electro-Voice that’s more of a stage mic that I still use just because it has more of a crisp sound to it. And then I’ve got a CAD E-100 vocal mic that I’ve been using – I was using that with the 8-track too. That’s got a nice large diaphragm so it really picks up the vocals really well. Aside from that I still use the Memory Man [analog delay pedal] occasionally on some vocal sounds because that was really the only thing that we had on the 4-track for effects. It was just an echo and a chorus on it.’ — TS

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Get Out of My Throat
‘I studied graphic design and illustration. When I finally got into it I did graphic design. I was painting at night and eventually started showing my work and that just sort of took off. So I was able to get out of graphic design and just paint. It all sort of wrapped around the Guided By Voices stuff that was going on. I was able to do that at the same time.’ — TS

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All Used Up (live)
‘I would say I made a living as an artist before I made a living as a musician. I was always into both. I had a guitar when I was in fifth or sixth grade, and we had bands in the garage and stuff, but nothing ever really took off. Drawing and art were things that just came really easy to me. It always seemed like that’s what I wanted to do and that’s what I ended up doing. It was always easy for me and I couldn’t figure out why other people can’t do that. But you get into other things, and I can barely balance my checkbook.’ — TS

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Curious Things
‘One of the biggest things that I notice is little kids are getting into GBV. We’ve been doing these all-ages shows and there are these five and six-year-old kids that are there with their parents. And they’re right up front and they’re singing. They know all the words. It’s like we’ve got this whole new generation coming up, and that’s pretty exciting. We were in Chicago, and about four or five rows out there was this mother holding her daughter, who was singing every word to every song. It’s incredible. So we have a new generation to write for.’ — TS

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Water on the Boater’s Back
‘Sometimes when writing songs they come out right away if I have the lyrics already written. Other times I’ll spend all day on it. It just depends on the song. It doesn’t matter the length of it, it’s just a matter of how long it takes to get all the pieces together. A lot of times I’ll start with just the instruments and them maybe throw a vocal at it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, the next day I’ll go back in and hopefully you forget about what you did and things will happen. Some days just fly by because you’re just involved with the song, but it varies. It’s usually done within the day.’ — TS

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Liquor Bag
‘The wires, the set up, the machines that don’t work when I need them to.’ — TS

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Indian Ink (live)
‘When I was in Fig.4 we played an arena and were booked to play after the Ohio Players. The place was packed, but as soon as the Ohio Players were finished it emptyed out. We played to about 10 people in the largest venue I had ever played in at that time. It was very intimidating but we just went with it. It looked good on the poster, as if the Ohio Players opened for us.’ — TS

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Courage the Tack
‘I don’t know that it matters, I use to think it did but I think It just comes down to staying excited about writing. And that comes from inside.’ — TS

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Earth Links
‘I just wrote a song on the piano. I like it , it has rolling notes that flow from one chord to the next. Its very beautiful. The words are nice too. I’m thinking of trying it with drums.’ — TS

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As Lovely as You
‘I’ve been hearing some music from the 40s that my Dad has, big band, Frank Sinatra. It really is amazing, the pure sounds of the recordings, just one vocal, no overdubs or effects. The songs are all well written, every note and word means something. It has changed me.’ — TS

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The Crawling Backwards Man
‘Harry Nilsson, I wish I could sing like him. He had a great voice. The Moonbeam song is one of my favorite. “First of May” by the BEE GEE”S It is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It makes me feel good to feel sad.’ — TS

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Sentimental Stations
‘I enjoy reading about American history; right now I’m reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, about the Battle of Gettysburg. The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is a great book—all about the creation of Disney and about the development of the art and the artists behind the scenes.’ — TS

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Popstram
‘I’m sure I picked up the style of the 60s singers because that is what I grew up listening to. My grandmother gave me the first three Byrds albums for Christmas, and I would listen to the radio at night—The Ronnettes, Left Bank, The Bee Gees, The Hollies—and I’d pick out all the parts and add some of my own. So I think it’s a cross between American and British psychedelic.’ — TS

*

p.s. RIP: Claude Ollier. A great loss. And now there’s only one Nouveau Roman writer still alive: Michel Butor. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. It was my great pleasure, thank you! You’re already nearing the end of your trip? Wow, that seems fast for some reason. That hotel: we stayed there the first time because we really liked its profile, and we didn’t really know where it was vis-à-vis central Tokyo. But we kind of fell in love with it, and we ended up enjoying the traveling to and from the center. There’s a subway stop about 10-15 minutes walk from the hotel, which isn’t bad. The rooms there are beautiful. We always stay in a Tatami room, which you can see if you click this and scroll down. The prices aren’t so bad for Tokyo, from what I can tell. And we like Meguro itself, so, yeah, that hotel has become our Tokyo home away from home. Well, naturally I think moving there is a dreamy idea. I love Tokyo so much. I miss it all the time. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. He sure didn’t seem very appealing in bed in the YSL film with his pencil mustache and greasy, smirking, cartoonily grease-ball demeanor. Oh, thank you so much for the post! It’ll go up here on this coming Friday! Thank you, thank you! There are posters for ‘Horns’ all over Paris at the moment, and, man, is it a bad poster. ** Nick, Wow, hi, Nick! How the heck are you? Yeah, ‘300,000,000’ is a really, really amazing novel. Take care. Yeah, what’s up? ** Tomkendall, Hi, Tom! Hi, buddy! How are you? What’s going on, man? ** Marilyn Roxie, Well, it’s very nice to see you, Marilyn, my pal. You good? Please fill me in on your goings on, if you like and don’t mind. ** Kier! It’s righteous: the book. That’s funny because I just watched part of the film of ‘Destroy, She Said’ the other day while I was putting together a post on Duras’ films. ‘Honored Guest’, ooh. Joy Williams is so, so great! I’m reading a bunch of stuff, I guess, yeah. I guess I’ll do a ‘loved books’ post about some of them soon. The sculpture just disappeared early in the morning the next day. I think the janitor did something with it. But it was so spectacular, I’m sure they didn’t throw it away. It’s probably in the dungeon. Cool about the letter from the clinic! My last two days … hm, okay, I guess quickly, err, … The day before yesterday, … oh, I think I mentioned that my friends the artists Scott Treleaven and Paul P are in residency here right now, and I wanted them to meet Zac and vice versa, so we all had a coffee, and that was really nice. Zac and I went to see this concert by the guy who did that phenomenal Hatsune Miku vocaloid opera The End’ last year, but his music was drab and really not very interesting when just played on the piano with lame video projections, so we left at the intermission. And I worked and stuff. Yesterday, my agent was in town so I had a coffee with her and caught her up on my progress on my novel and heard about the biz re: my books. Then I met up with Zac for a coffee and brief hang out near the Pompidou. Then I worked some more. Then in the evening Zac and I went to Gisele’s to see her before she splits for the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ shows Montreal today. So, they were nice, mildly eventful days, I guess. I can’t remember what else happened. I’m doing a long interview for the Spanish version of Esquire Magazine that I need to finish today. I think other than those outings, I was just home trying to catch up on my projects basically. What did Wednesday do to and for you? ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. The new Blake novel is phenomenal, his best I think. Well, when your writing fails you, it’s always the right idea to stop and recharge. The ‘I miss writing’ thing when you abandon it for a while is pretty good fuel, so, yeah, probably a good move, and probably a positive move and not apocalyptic or anything like that. ** Bill, Hi. I was pretty way into Nick Cave from the Birthday Party up through ‘Funeral, Trial’, and then I kind of drifted away. Do they know why this hoarseness thing is so lingery? (Ha ha, Blogger’s spellcheck really, really wanted to change lingery into lingerie. We had a protracted little war over the word there for a minute.) ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul. I think it’s my favorite of Blake’s too. It’s a wowzer. No problem on the slackness. I get a little greedy re: Halloween, I’m sorry. I read about that street thing the other day, and I want to see that one of these years. Looks awesome. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Oh, man, that’s cool. Nice of you to come in. Hope you’re sufficiently de-tired by now. ** Sypha, Yeah, I think that’s where I got the retirement idea. Nice about the horror movies. I should be doing that. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, man. Oh, Ira, yeah, I just saw him the other week. If he’s in a good mood, I’m sure he’ll be happy to regale you with stories. Tell him you’re my pal. That should add some perk to whatever mood he’s in, I think. Thanks about the LHotB line-up. I’m proud of it, yeah. Every book was tops, and I plan to keep it that way when I restart it. Oops about the Matisse show. Did you see the Gober retro and that sculpture group show whatever it’s called? I’m curious to see those. ** Steevee, Hi. That’s funny, Etc etc etc just mentioned seeing that film the other day. I think he wasn’t completely wild about it? How was it? ** Chris Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane! Chris! Hey, hey, man! I’d love to see you too, but all in-person bets are off at the moment until I see how much I’ll actually be in NYC and how busy. We’ll connect through some medium one way or the other for sure. ‘Soused’ is so good! ** Misanthrope, You must have a swanky 7-11. The 7-11’s coffee near my LA pad is misery incarnate. Mm, yeah, that joke, hm, I don’t know, man, ha ha. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. I understand. Well, I’m rotten with emails almost across the board. Also, in that recent one, you showed me something that was not intended for my eyes, and I didn’t read it for that reason, so that’s probably one reason why I didn’t respond, not that the words ’email response’ and I are ever trusty friends under the best of circumstances. I’m sorry, and take care, man. ** Keaton, Man, how do you keep unveiling all these awesome posts at such a high rate? I don’t how you do it. I guess I’m just really slow on the upswing. Well, I know I am. Another great beauty! Everyone, a day without a Halloween themed post is a sad day, but, luckily, today is not a sad day, or it won’t be, if you go over to Keaton’s. Hint, hint. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Oh, I liked ‘King of the Hill’ a lot. That sounds good. Rattling people’s need for pleasantness inspires questions and not necessarily interesting ones. Part and parcel. Goes with the turf. Okay cool, about the taco place. I’ll be game if I’m there. Thanks! I wouldn’t anticipate a friend acceptance from Zac because he only friends real friends and sometimes artists he likes, and I don’t think he knows your stuff, but, hey, you never know with him. I am happy about the S-K reunion, you bet, duh. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli! I’ll let you know. I asked Gisele about that last night, and she said there are gigs in the works but nothing firm at all yet. Have a lovely day! ** End. Tobin Sprout usually gets overlooked due to being the second songwriter in a band beside the genius Robert Pollard, but he’s great, and he’s a maker of many really exquisite songs, and he’s one of my great favorites, so I hope you like the gig. See you tomorrow.