—-

Big K.R.I.T.: ‘Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T. is a sort of Southern Rap traditionalist. Where his colleague and buddy Jay Electronica looks to Nas, Rakim and other New York formalists, Big K.R.I.T. revives the seminal 1990s Southern hip-hop of Pimp C and 8Ball, casually intricate rappers more invested in mood than density. Where these throwback styles thrive is on the Internet, where dedicated if modest fan bases can champion all sorts of outsiders, even traditionalists. He’s unconflicted about his heritage. “Mississippi, what? He don’t sound Southern,” he rapped at the end of “Children of the World,” parroting what others have said to dismiss him. But that’s not true: he’s unmistakably of the region, legato with the syllables, clipped in tone and with an intoxicating melancholy streak.’ — Jon Caramancia

“Children of the World (Live)”:

“Return of 4Eva/R4 Theme Song (live)”:

“R4 Theme Song”:

“Hometown Hero”:

Hail Mary Mallon: ‘After years of performing live together and appearing on each other’s solo albums, critically acclaimed mc’s/producers Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic, along with DJ Big Wiz, come together as Hail Mary Mallon. The name is inspired by Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary, the first person in the U.S. identified as a healthy carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. Mary Mallon was presumed to have infected 53 people, three of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook. She spent three years in quarantine, which is where she died.’ — Rhymesayers

Hail Mary Mallon-“D-Up”:

Lil B: ‘Is Lil B, as the New York Times claims, “a folk hero of the rap counterculture”? Is he, as Vice Magazine put it, “the most revolutionary MC of the last 15 years”? Or is he, as one YouTube commentator reckons, “a grotesque testament not only to the current state of rap music but also to the steady, inevitable decline of western society”? If splitting an audience can be a by-product of creative risk-taking, Lil B is out there on the edge. Born Brandon McCartney, he debuted as part of teenage San Franciscan crew The Pack, who scored a 2006 US hit with their sneaker anthem “Vans”. But it’s as a solo artist that McCartney found his niche. Over the past 18 months, he’s marked himself out as an inexhaustible online presence, releasing a never-ending stream of songs and homemade videos, collaborating with ringtone rap merchant Soulja Boy and comedian Andy Milonakis, all the while extolling his hippyish, think-positive “Based” philosophy.’ — Basedworld

“Justin Bieber” video (this says official but looks fan-made):

“Wonton Soup” video:

“Base For Your Face” (just audio, but it might be his single best song, out of the sample I’ve heard):

“Pretty Boy” video:

G-Side: ‘G-Side, the rap duo of Yung Clova and ST 2 Lettaz, come from Huntsville, Alabama, a mid-sized city that has produced more than its share of great and buzzed-about rappers lately, including Paper Route Gangstaz, Jackie Chain, 6 Tre G, and Kristmas. The Block Beataz production crew has given the city’s rap scene its own sound: a woozy, synth-based, bottom-heavy crawl that treats big-room trance the way OutKast and UGK records used to treat 70s soul. G-Side might be the perfect complement to Block Beataz’ glimmering funk. Both ST and Clova are warm, conversational rappers who talk about drug-dealing histories and future ambitions with grace and perspective.’ — Pitchfork

“Money In The Sky” video:

“Run Things” video:

“Inner Circle” video:

Das Racist: ‘Das Racist, based in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, is composed of Queens-born Himanshu Suri (aka Heems), and San Francisco-born Victor Vazquez (aka Kool A.D.), joined by hype man Ashok Kondabolu, known as Dap, for live performances and in music videos. Das Racist’s unique style has a strong polarizing tendency; their set at the Pop Montreal festival was described as “the most divisive show seen at the festival.” They describe their approach to music as “‘deconstructionalist’: sawing the legs out from under hip-hop as they celebrate it.” The New York Times wrote “Das Racist’s lack of piety has become an aesthetic of its own, with songs that are as much commentary on hip-hop as rigorous practice of it.” The Root said Das Racist could speak for both “the ‘hood or the nearest gated community.” Playboy called the duo “equal parts hip-hop and Cheech & Chong.”‘ — Wiki

“Who’s That? Brooown” video:

live in Amsterdam:

“chicken and Meat” video:

“Rainbow in the Dark” video:

Angel Haze: ‘There’s a self-described Native American bi-sexual girl called Angel Haze in California. She’s got a massive crush on both Tupac and Andrea Gibson and she’s already the master of not giving a fuck and telling her gospel. Talking about broken love on her YouTube channel, she advises that if it’s not working out with your lover and you are feeling burned by them you should probably just feel set free and take some pride in that. If we didn’t say so, she’s also a pretty sick rapper, has two mixtapes (one is Twilight themed!) of practice behind her.’ — The Fader

Angel Haze’s “The Show Goes On” (She’s posted a bunch of freestyles, recorded over other artists’ instrumentals, on YouTube, illustrated by stills – as far as I can tell, she’s never made an actual video. I think this is actually a big improvement over Lupe Fiasco’s original.):

Odd Future: ‘A rap group made up of ten or so skateboard rats from L.A., ages 16 through 19(ish). “Odd Future” is short for “Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All,” which usually gets abbreviated as “OFWGKTA.” The leader of the group is a 19 year-old named Tyler, or Tyler The Creator. The second-most prominent of the group is a rapper named Hodgy Beats. The rest of the group splinter off into sub-groups. The youngest member is Earl Sweatshirt, who was recently sent away to boarding school by his parents. Imagine the most belligerent, psychotic, damaged, and mischievous teenagers you’ve never wanted to meet. Pair them with ounces of charisma, an SAT-ready vocabulary, and rap records. You end up with their mixtapes, which have involved raps about drugs, sex, rape, anarchy, Freudian damage, epic self-consciousness, and a purview of the world mostly involving nihilism, anarchy, and obscenities as vocally nutritious content.’ — Esquire

Mellow Hype-“64”:

The concept version of Tyler the Creator featuring Frank Ocean-“She”:

Here’s a live clip of Odd Future performing “Sandwiches” in New York, with somewhat distorted sound:

Here’s a TV clip of Mellow Hype (featuring Bass Drum of Death) performing “64”:

A fan-made video for Mellow Hype’s “Loco”:

Tyler the Creator’s “Yonkers”:

And the infamous drug smoothie clip for Earl Sweatshirt’s “Earl”:

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*

p.s. Hey. The honorable writer, filmmaker, and d.l. Steevee mans this latest of the blog’s gigs, parsing and selecting high points from a genre too rarely tracked and celebrated around here, and, not surprisingly, there’s a wealth of great stuff up there, so imbibe and get your feedback back to your host du jour, please. Thanks, and supercharged thanks to you, Steve. So, this afternoon I’m setting off to the Loire Valley for a mini-vacation with the intention of trespassing on and in as many chateaux and castles as time allows. I’ll be re-hooked to the internet — and the blog will go live again — on Saturday, and, in the meantime, you’ll be getting golden, not-that-oldie posts every day, some requested by d.l.s and some cherry picked by me, and I’ll catch up with any comments you leave today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday when Saturday rolls around, so don’t go anywhere, etc. ** Todd Colby, Greetings, sir! Always a great pleasure and honor to have you here, maestro! ** Jax, You’re back from Alaska! The bears and Republicans didn’t get you! Dude, jetlag, hugs. Yeah, it’s definitely good to do those things, right? And awesome about the London agent possibility. Toes crossed. And you closing in on the closing of the Lord Rigby saga sets my anticipation a’flutter. Nice! Pompidou festival should be something, budget bosses allowing. You should come over for it. Other than that and the fanzine? Mm, I’m trying to finally get the expanded mss. of ‘The Weaklings’ finished. Getting back to work on this graphic novel kind of thing that Oscar B. and I are collaborating on. Making notes re: the big Gisele maze piece. Starting to do some press re: ‘TMS’. That’s enough, I guess. Great to see you, Jack! Let me know about the agent and about how the final chapters are treating you. ** David, You’re live. Well, you’re always live, but DS is. Everyone, remember how I told you, uh, yesterday about the imminent dawning of d.l. David’s new site/blog Dirty Story? Well, it has dawned with a short piece on Hal Hartley’s film ‘Henry’s Fool’ and go read/welcome it, yes? Here. ** Bollo, Hi, Jonathan! I’m good, packing my backpack. Excellent about the show acceptance! Really heartening to think that the Five Years show might have made a difference. Oh, Limerick pix, cool. Everyone, the awesome artist Jonathan Mayhew sometimes known as Bollo had some of his work in a show in Limerick, Ireland, and since the bulk of us aren’t in Ireland, as much as we would wish to be, please join me in seeing said work/show in the only way we are allowed, i.e. by clicking this. Only had a quick glance so far, but the work looks terrific. Love that ghost. ** David Ehrenstein, Acid in graveyards was my cup of tea. Those were good times, those were bad times. ** MANCY, Hey. I slipped over and watched your new video once. I’ll view it more thoroughly asap. Really like it. Really charismatic. Great rhythm. The ‘bang, bang, … ‘ thing is great. Yeah, beautiful. If you don’t mind, I’m going to embed it at the bottom of the p.s. as a way of encouraging people here to check it out. Everyone, artist Steven Purtill aka d.l. MANCY has made a terrific, spooky new video collage work. He’d love your thoughts and feedback. It’s on one of his blogs, but I’m also going to embed it down below to make access to it even easier. Thanks! ** Oscar B, ‘Twas indeed! See you before I go, right? ** Paul Curran, Tricks are … not half-bad. Yours? ** Kiddiepunk, No, thank you! All I did was clear the table. ** Pisycaca, Let’s just say the weather will feel … very familiar. Thanks for the trip well wishes. I’m hoping that, what with the focus being castles and the like, I’ll end up with a heck of a blog slideshow for you guys, but we will see. Lots of love from me. ** Thomas Moronic, Ah, the man. I now have my own personal copy of ‘GRAVES’, and it’s my designated train fare for this afternoon. Excited! Really happy to see all the love and purchases from the gang. Super nice about the NYC trip! It should be starting to cool down around then, if NYC still has the summers that it used to when I was imbedded there. And nice for your bro too. Yeah, great, T! ** Steevee, Hey. Really, thanks so much for curating and assembling the gig. I love it. It taught me stuff. I’ve bought some of it. Really liking your idea for the film, needless to say. The hung jury seems like a pretty good solution to that problem, and I can’t recall a film that has ended on that exact note. So, will you get started on the screenplay right away? ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The weekend sounds perfect. Yeah, a post-reading Skype chat sounds really great. Being able to talk about it would be much better than just jotting down my thoughts. Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll try to read it asap. Enjoy the mountains if I don’t check in with you before you leave. ** Jheorgge, Hey, man! Really good to see you! And I’m really happy to hear about your breakthrough on the writing front. ‘A living, breathing text that despises the reader’: fascinating. I’d love to hear how you’re doing that and about the process and stuff when you’re surer about how it’s going and comfortable with revealing stuff. Yes, I saw the ghost tattoo on … Facebook? Must have been. Super trippy to see my handiwork on you. It’s an honor, man, for sure. It also looks really cool, I must admit. If we’re talking about the same new Prurient album, and I guess we must be, yeah, I’m really loving it too. I just downloaded it a couple of days ago. I’m good, busy, you know. It’s awfully nice to see the excitement in your voice, G. Can’t wait to see the things you’re up to! ** Stephen Tully Dierks, Thank you, Stephen. As a fan of yours, it’s really nice to make your acquaintance. Big respect to you! ** Chris Cochrane, Hi, C. Oh, Bastille Day? Mm, big parade, partly military, down the Champs Elysee to Concorde where it ends/passes by a grandtand full of dignitaries who, I guess, wave at it and nod approvingly or something. Big fireworks display near/over the Eiffel Tower. Sometimes a giant free concert at the same locale. I saw Johnny Hallyday do one a few years back. Drinking, etc. Not so very different than the US thang really. No need for bugging ‘cos you’ll know as soon as I know. ** Postitbreakup, Howdy, J. Those are gorgeous photos. Thanks! Everyone, courtesy of Postitbreakup, here are some cool, eerie photos of the New Orleans Six Flags theme park post-Katrina. You’ll like them. ** Jesse Hudson, Hi, Jesse! It really was an excellent set of questions you posed to Mr. M there. You good? I’m good except for the obvious current deprivation. ** Frank Jaffe, Hey, Frank! Sight for sore eyes, you are. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Jeez, about that apartment key snafu. Wait, can’t his roommate just make you a copy of the key? It’s probably not that simple, right? Nice about the food, home, and parental love. And meeting Mr. Hannum! I have yet to have that honor. Tell him hi for me, if it’s easy. Pride Student Union is a non-profit agency? Well, I guess that makes sense. I’m a total know-nothing when it comes to anything business-related or money making. I hope they pick you, obviously. Do you get a fancy office with a sexy, sassy secretary? I had me some yummo Hard Rock Nachos last week, and I’m almost ready for another round. ** Oliver, Hey. Some publishers require agent intervention? I never realized that. I suppose it’s just a hassle-relieving move, but it seems awfully elitist. Is getting an agent an unlikely prospect? It’s sadly true about the novella problem, I think. In some cases, at least. There’s always the idea of combining it with some short fiction pieces as a way to thicken the mss. Or, yeah, trying to expand the novella, but, obviously, only if you find a way that isn’t just adding padding. Maybe keep trying with the novella as is for at least a while and see what happens. You might well find a publisher that’s completely cool with short books or that likes the novella enough to suggest that it be lengthened or combined with other works. Let me know what happens, and, yeah, I’m at your disposal. ** Misanthrope, Bushy tails inside, okay, but bushy tails outside? Uh-uh. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. You may know this, but Rupert Grint’s stated dream is to act in a David Lynch film. I can imagine Lynch thinking that was an okay idea. And, if that happened, Grint could be the new Jack Nance, which isn’t a bad fate except for the getting beaten to death in a donut shop part. We’ll get to the Loire Valley at, like, 7:30 pm or something, so I think we’ll just eat, crash, and start touring tomorrow morning. Your dream sounds scarily paranormal. You’re a good friend to leave the house without showering first. I find that really hard to do. Your friend was nice to treat you to In ‘n’ Out. Yeah, I was reading about In ‘n’ Out opening in Texas and how wildly popular it is there. I haven’t eaten an In ‘n’ Out burger since I went vegetarian at 16, but I do remember that their burgers were about as good as burgers get. Watching fireworks while sitting on a car hood sounds so nice, sigh. I’m going to try that on Bastille Day. Marti Noxon wrote the ‘Fright Night’ remake? Wow, now I actually want to see it. The song of the day was nice. It didn’t sound scary like I thought it would. It sounds like it would play over the end credits maybe? My day: First, I worked on the chapbook/zine until I thought, okay, this is finished, but I decided to let it sit for a few hours to be sure. During that time, I ran a few errands, and then d.l. Bill Hsu arrived for his happy 3 1/2 week stay at the Recollets! We did the hugs hello and stuff, and then we went to the cafe here and had coffees — or I did; he had a Perrier — and caught up and talked about Paris stuff that we want to do together. Kiddiepunk and Oscar happened by. Kp had an armload of copies of freshly ordered ‘GRAVES’ and was headed to the post office to send them to their buyers. Also, his visiting brother from Australia was there, so I met him. Then the cafe thing continued until K&O; returned and joined us for a communal blab fest. Then I walked Bill around the ‘hood a little bit to show him where the supermarket and health food store and newsstand and farmers market are, and then he went back to his room to settle in, and I came back here. I opened the doc of the chapbook text, went through it, did a last fiddle and polish then sent it off to Kiddiepunk hoping he will like it enough to turn it into one of his beautiful zines. I’m awaiting his decision. I ate, made a list of things I need to early today to be ready for the trip, watched a bit of the old TV, blah blah, and hit the sack. So, now you have … what is it … four days, I guess, to live to the fullest and then report on, and so do I. Let’s make the best of our respective times and promise to remember the best parts to hand over to each other in text form come Saturday. You down for that? I’ll take your inability to answer my question as a yes! Have a great most of the week! ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. Yes, I’ve heard of Karlsruhe, and I think because of that very reason you mention. Well, I’m hoping you’re okay with the move. You seem like you might be. Yeah, I’m going to go overdose on French castles for a couple of days. Could be worse, right? ** Tender prey, Hi, Marc! How are you? When do you guys arrive in Paris again? ** Right, so hang out with Steevee and crew today and please watch and say something about MANCY’s video (see: below). Tomorrow and the following two days, you’ll get blog post reruns with quick hellos and intros from me, and then I will be your greeter and fresh content provider again on Saturday. Stay gold, and see you then.

New video work/collage by the artist Steven Purtill aka d.l. MANCY. Please watch and share your thoughts with him in the comments arena. Thanks!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFhsFqS5OUI]
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‘Led by former Generation X member Tony James, the new wave group Sigue Sigue Sputnik raised selling out to an art form. The concept behind Sigue Sigue Sputnik was simple: the band adopted a postmodern, ironic style and sound, and marketed it to the hilt, saturating the media with slogans and interviews. James didn’t even intend the band to be musical; he recruited Martin Degville, Neal X, Chris Cavanagh, and Ray Mayhew partially because they lacked extensive musical experience. After a publicity campaign designed to solicit a record contract, the band signed with EMI; they released their first single, “Love Missile F1-11,” in early 1986, and it hit number three on the U.K. charts. Sigue Sigue Sputnik sold the space between tracks to advertisers on their debut album, Flaunt It. Despite the massive marketing campaign, the album fell on deaf ears, as did the more serious follow-up, Dress for Excess (1988), which featured the slogan “This time it’s music” on the album cover. The group split soon after.’ — sputnikworld.com

Sigue Sigue Sputnik ‘Love Missile F1-11’ (live)

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‘We’ve sent some turkeys to the Eurovision Song Contest in the past, but the smiley, sparkly, high-haired twins Jedward might just have what it takes to win next Saturday night. It’s a relentless charm offensive that has involved answering such incisive questions as: “Do you ever breathe?” The pair have also been extremely busy jumping around, doing cartwheels, wearing sparkly jackets and stage gear inspired by Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson while explaining the philosophical aesthetic behind their trademark blond quiffs: “It’s like angelic halos and like a flame.” In their debut rehearsal this week, Jedward’s performance was as visually arresting, enthusiastic and madcap as some of the more successful entries in recent years. And at their first press conference, when asked to sing an a cappella version of the song, Jedward appeared to be singing in tune without the aid of special effects.’ — Irish Times

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‘Specimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically. The band formed in Bristol, England during 1980. Their first show was at a street party celebrating the wedding of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. In 1982, the band relocated to Soho, London, where they would play many shows at the infamous club known as the Batcave. Specimen’s vocalist Olli Wisdom founded and ran the club during 1982-1983. Unusual for a keyboardist, Jonny Slut became the face of the band and its most famous member, due largely to his striking image and fashion sense. While the band were together, they never released a full album, only singles and a mini album. However, in 1997 two full-length compilations were released featuring various Specimen songs.’ — Wiki

Specimen ‘The Beauty of Poison’

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‘Originally intended to be the second coming of Jesus, The GazettE is the result of a tumultuous set of aglaphotis-related accidents that completely botched the original concept. At the end of all the mess, it turned out that the resulting being was not our lord and savior, but a pagan deity inspired by four basic doctrines; Red, Yellow, Purple and Blue. What religion this deity is pagan to, exactly, remains a mystery. While the fractions of the god themselves have existed since forever, the band was only recently begun in the late 20th century due to the recent invention of cross-dressing. The group has now become popular in the underground of Japan, America and The Czech Republic, mostly among 12 year old girls. They are currently featured in countless examples of Yaoi fanfiction, which they will deny reading or supporting if asked. After appearing on numerous magazines and engaging in plenty of fanservice, their fame finally had absorbed enough of the fangirls’ life energy to achieve ‘super sayan’ mode, thusly becoming super fame.’ — uncyclopedia

The GazettE ‘Akai One Piece’ (live)

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‘In mid-December 1972, Jerry Brandt, Carly Simon’s former manager, overheard a demo tape being played by Clive Davis at CBS Records. Davis rejected the tape as “mad, unstructured and destructive to melody”, but Brandt was quick to step in. Jobriath later remarked “that coming from a man who discovered both Patti Smith and Barry Manilow…so much for sanity and structure!”. Brandt located Jobriath in California, where he was living in an unfurnished apartment and working as a prostitute. Brandt became smitten with Jobriath, not only as an artist but romantically, and made no secret of it. Brandt signed Jobriath to Elektra Records for a reported $500,000; allegedly the most lucrative recording contract of its time. The label’s president, Jac Holzman, later remarked “I only made two mistakes when I was at Elektra and one of them was Jobriath. It was just so over the top and crazy.” A huge marketing campaign and media blitz ensued, including full-page advertisements in Vogue, Penthouse and Rolling Stone magazines, full-length posters on over 250 New York City buses and a huge, 41’ by 43’ billboard in Times Square. All featured the forthcoming debut album sleeve design by noted photographer Shig Ikeda, which featured a nude Jobriath, made to resemble an ancient Roman statue. Plans were announced for a lavish three night live debut at the Paris Opera that December, at a cost of $200,000 and a subsequent tour of European opera houses. Jobriath informed the press that the show would feature him dressed as “King Kong being projected upwards on a mini Empire State Building. This will turn into a giant spurting penis and I will have transformed into Marlene Dietrich.” Elektra, concerned about spiraling production costs, postponed the Paris Opera shows until February, later canceling them due to expense.’ — championstudios.com

Jobriath ‘I’maman’

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‘After Bill’s parents divorced at his age of 7, Bill and Tom were raised by his mother. Gradually influenced by his mother-s new boyfriend who is a guitarist, Bill got interested in music (later on his mother married Gordon). When Bill was 10 years old, he founded a band with the help of his stepfather. He began to play the song that he wrote by himself in a club. During his teenage days, he was considered as a fancy dressing boy among his classmates in his hometown, because he wore the suits and clotheses that he made manually. Soon after, Gustav and Georg joined in their band and they worked very hard under the name of Devilish. However, there were rarely good performances. Fortunately, Bill participated in a show program called Star Search. In the show, he sang “It’s Raining Men”, and he lost in the quarter-final, which drew the attention of a famous producer. He grasped the opportunity to be a super star and finally the band signed a contract with Universal Music Company in 2005. Then after they made their debuts, Tokio Hotel created a big sensation not only in Germany but also all over the world.’ — ultimatetokiohotel.com

Tokio Hotel ‘Darkside of the Sun’

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‘Il est des gens que vous pensez / savez / imaginez inabordables, pour plusieurs raisons : à cause de leur notoriété, à cause du poids économique qu’ils représentent (genre là, 300 000 exemplaires pour Mister Mystère, le 5e album du bonhomme en question, si l’on compte Labo M), à cause de leurs collaborations si nombreuses que leur agenda se rapproche davantage de celui d’un ministre de la période De Gaulle (à l’époque où les élus bossaient pour la nation, et non pour raconter des conneries à la télé). -M- (Matthieu Chédid) fait partie de ces intouchables. Enfin … faisait partie.’ — le-hiboo.com

-M- ‘Chedid’ (live)

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‘Meet the strangest known band from the pre-punk dayze of glam. Formed in LA in 1973, Zolar X made a name for themselves by playing pulsating rock that both forecasted punk as well as saluted glam… and also by claiming they were from outer space. A sound like no other and a story as out there as The Monks. We’re talking commitment here – spacesuits, Spock ears, even antennae feelers – onstage, on the street, and wherever they made the scene. ZOLAR-X spoke their own language, and insisted they really were from outer space to anyone who could get past their unique hairdos long enough to listen. A teenage Jello Biafra rolled his eyes when he saw Zolar X featured in Lenny Kaye’s Rock Scene, but never forgot the band. Years later a semi-official bootleg appeared, and everyone Jello played it for was floored – the missing link between Chrome and The Stooges?’ — Punknews.org

Zolar X

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‘Seremedy is a fresh, young Visual Rock band from Sweden that aims to shock the one-sided, monotone western music-market with their extravagant, androgynous looks. Combined with a modern metal/pop sound, they’ve developed a two-sided view on the world. One side is heavy and dark, aggressive yet melodic. The other is more colorful, cheerful and happy. Starting for real with a complete line-up in January 2010, they’ve been gaining an ever growing number of fans from all around the world. Only 6 months after their formation they played their first show abroad in Moscow, Russia. In Sweden they are already an established, popular act among the various Japanese Pop-culture Conventions such as UppCon, MeuwCon, WhateverCon and ConFusion.’ — ninetonenation.com

Seremedy (live)

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of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes: ‘The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70’s created an impossible code in which no one can actually live by. It’s such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sell out is completely out of touch with reality. The punk rock manifesto is one of anarchy and intolerance. The punk rockers polluted our minds. People who wanna be artists have the hardest time of it ’cause we are held up to these impossible standards. We’re expected to die penniless and insane so that the people we have moved and entertained over the years can keep us to themselves. So that they can feel a personal and untarnished connection with our art. The second we try to earn a living wage or, god forbid, promote our art in the mainstream, we are placed under the knives of the sanctimonious indie fascists. Unfortunately, there isn’t some grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially and enables us to exist outside of the trappings of capitalism….Selling out, in an artistic sense, is to change one’s creative output to fit in with the commercial world. To create phony and insincere art in the hopes of becoming commercially successful. I’ve never done this and I can’t imagine I ever will.’ — Stereogum

of Montreal ‘Beware Our Nubile Miscreants’ (live)
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*

p.s. Hey. ** Pilgarlic, Hey. Is it just me, or does Donald Ray Pollock sound like a serial killer name? I think I’ve decided I’m going to wait and read his novel first since it comes out soon and I’m in a novel mood. By the time 6 pm Paris time rolled around, I was so deadset on survival that it was already after 7 pm before I noticed. ** David Ehrenstein, Indeed it does. ** Dan Callahan, Hey. Oh, fantastic, I can’t wait to read your piece. That’ll happen the moment I’ve launched this parade here. Everyone, the very fine writer and d.l. Dan Callahan has written a piece on Terrence Malick’s sublime ‘Tree of Life’ over at Slant Magazine, and given the totally ‘can’t lose’ combo of Callahan and Malick, I urge you with all the strength and logic in my remaining body to go read it. Thank you a lot, Dan. Oh, and I’m very happy to see that your Barbara Stanwyck book has a set February 2012 launch date. All respect to you. ** Empty Frame, Hey. I’m good, thanks. I would have rushed to see ‘The Ladyboys of Bangkok’. Generalizing is for the birds, but I like Thailand-based ladyboys, at least in theory, and I hope to meet one or more of them someday. That Festival sounds pretty cool. I want to hear everything or lots at least about that ‘Haunted Houses of Brighton’ event please, pretty please? ** Chaitd, Hello there. This is a ‘welcome to the blog’ situation, am I wrong? Oh wait, iced tea … hm, having popped over to my FB news wall briefly this morning, maybe you’re not such a newbie after all. In any case, iced tea is my favorite oral lubricant, and milk for breakfast cereal only. ** Sypha, I’m with you on the going back to nature thing. A nice hike once in a while is okay. Hawaii is pretty. But that’s about it. Sure, the term blind faith works too and just as well, absolutely. Good luck with the Lady Gaga. ** Jebus, Hi, Jebus. Nice to see you. Always very happy to find someone talking with great positivity about Robert Pollard. For whatever reason, I was in love and obsessed from the first listen. A friend said he thought I would really like GbV back in the early 90s, and I bought the newest thing of theirs at the time, which was the ‘Japanese Spin Cycle’ EP, and it was like discovering part of myself or something. I guess Pollard’s genius and what he’s doing with it is so connected to the way I think about making art, and what I most want art to do, that the familiarity or something there allowed me to get the whole complex nature of his music from the start. But, ultimately, I don’t really know why it came to me so quickly. It was just like I was hearing both the perfect music and being shown that a form of greatness that I recognized and wanted to achieve within my work was possible and just far enough out of my talent’s reach to make me want to try really hard. Strange, but amazing. Thanks for asking me that. ** Robert-nyc, Hey, Robert! You’re the veritable sight for sore eyes, man. Awesome that you got to go to the Tim Dlugos reading. What I would give to have been there. I’m really hoping it was recorded and that the recording will wind up in some accessible place. Yeah, I’ll be in NYC for the book lunch stuff, and it would be great to see you! How are you doing? Tell me what’s going on if you have the time and don’t mind. ** Jeff, Hey, man. That was a beautiful and very wise comment and thought. Thanks a lot for imbedding it here. ** Steevee, The anti-piracy thing makes sense, yeah. ** Allesfliesst, Ha ha, yeah, that’s me in a nutshell, ha ha. I think when my horniness acts up, I give it a puzzle to solve and, given that it’s hard to solve a puzzle when you’re horny, I just end up monitoring its efforts, and that’s sex to me. Sometimes, mind you. ** Tender prey, Howdy, Marc. Yeah, I first saw it on somebody’s Facebook wall, maybe Oscar’s, and then I grabbed it. Oh, I think it’s fine. I don’t have any problem with it at all. I don’t find it difficult to look at really, and, even if it were, difficulty is cool. No, I like it. ** Alan, The Mike Young is terrific. It has always seemed from his poetry that he’d have this special, awesome knack for fiction, and sure enough. It’s a real honor that Christopher Higgs let me be in the second group of interviewees. I’m not so sure how interesting my answers are. One of the reasons I’m excited is that I’m in the same group with Dodie Bellamy and Eileen Myles who are my peers, age-wise, and both of whom I consider to be writer comrades of mine, and yet I suspect their answers to the questions will be really different from mine, and I can’t wait to find out. Yeah, I’m definitely good with the apocalypse not having happened. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! ** Andrew, Hey. But, see, that’s what I was trying to say. You’re talking about people having faith and trundling through life routines in a general way. I think that as soon as you start seeing people in groups, you’re losing sight of them. Each person has a specific reason for doing what he or she does, and their participation in societal routines and their adherence to organized religious beliefs is window dressing. You simply can’t know why those individuals fall into those things unless you know them well if even then. To even try to understand people in that way is a losing proposition, to my mind. I find it better to embrace the confusion and inaccessibility of their reasoning and then find that unknowability interesting. Yeah, the trouble you have finding a way to communicate must be really hard. Why don’t you try to be specific with the therapists? That’s what they’re there for and what interests them. Unless they’re creeps, they’re not going to judge you for that difficulty. Yeah, Flit has a good point, I imagine. Growing up so physically isolated from people whose interests are like yours would seem to naturally cause you to develop your social skills to suit internet communication, for instance. I don’t know. If you could get yourself into a less isolated situation and be around people who like, well, us on this blog, say, you might be surprised by how unstrange you really are. No, you didn’t come off as selfish in the slightest. There’s tons of room here for everyone to say whatever they want. ** Postitbreakup, Oh, man, I’m so sorry to hear about the lay-off. Shit. What’s your game plan now? ** MANCY, Hey. Thanks a lot for getting your work off to Five Years. I really wish you could be there, man. I’ll take lots of photos and stuff, at least. Great to read about your experiences with Pollard’s stuff. Thanks for that. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. iCycle, yikes, but of course. Yeah, you do see people pissing on the street — well, in the bushes and on somewhat discrete portions of walls — rather often here. I mean, not every day or anything. And they don’t seem drunk in many cases. Maybe it’s because everyone drinks so much coffee in cafes here or something. That walk you took was such a beauty. Another novel-worthy paragraph. Dasani bottle, ha ha. Even though that was true, making it a Dasani bottle is such a good touch, I don’t know why. I guess because I think of Dasani as one of the also-ran bottled waters. Is Dasani a place? I guess so, right? Even with your quibbles, you made me really want to see ‘Tourist Trap’. I mean … house of mannequins, how promising is that? Your neck was a hit. Is, I mean. Maybe you can use its power to get you things. Not that I’m suggesting you become manipulative. You started feeling sick again? Oh, shit. Maybe you should ask a doctor what’s up or something? I hope you’re feeling better now. My day: I finished answering those questions for the HTMLGIANT thing and sent them off. Mr. Higgs wrote back to say that they were fine, so I was glad about that. Then I walked down to this prearranged cafe to meet with Gisele before our meeting with the Pompidou higher ups. We sort of decided what we were vaguely going to propose for that festival, and then she caught me up on the stuff I missed by not being on the recent mini-‘Kindertotenlieder’ tour or being in Geneva for the ‘LS,AP’ opening. Everything was/is a hit and all that, which is great. Gisele almost got punched by some drunk, obnoxious German guy after the most recent ‘Ktl’ show, and that guy subsequently almost got punched by Stephen O’Malley, but Gisele broke up their fight. There are some new gigs for our theater pieces. Other stuff. Then we met up with the Pompidou guy and his, I think, assistant at this other cafe to talk about the Festival thing. He explained more clearly what the guidelines are re: what we can do, and that helped, and some of our proposals turned out to be too ambitious and some didn’t. Anyway, nothing is decided yet, but, so far, the idea is that we’ll show ‘Last Spring, a Prequel’ and Gisele’s 40 or so photographic portraits of the dolls in our work, and do a handful of performances of ‘Jerk’, and there will be a big Mego Records night where a bunch of the artists on Peter Rehberg’s label will perform, and hopefully there’ll be two performances of ‘Them’ if the funding for that comes through, and then we’ll curate a series of daily events/ lectures/ performances/ screenings, maybe 18 in all, and so now we’re working on figuring that part out. So, blah blah, it went well. We all parted ways, and I came back here and worked on the zine thing for while, but that went kind of badly and discouragingly. My HP editor sent me this fantastic blurb that Gary Lutz wrote for ‘The Marbled Swarm’, and that made me really happy because he’s as amazing a writer as America makes, so his high praise is really an honor. And I think otherwise I just did some blog stuff, ate, watched a little TV, and not much else ’til bedtime. How did Tuesday treat you, man? ** Killer Luka, So, so happy about the show being solo and about the gallery representation. Fuckin’ A! Such great news! You are very kind, but you are 100% responsible for all of that good, my dear. ** Misanthrope, Hey. Yeah, McClanahan is awesome, and ‘V’ is his best yet. I guess I was glad mostly because I like that Little Show’s big investment in the WWE is emotional as well. That seems important for some reason. That is part of it, yeah. The excuses. I guess it’s guilt. I guess you’re supposed to absolve them. I bet you did because you’re a nice guy. ** That’s that. I wanted to do a kind of flamboyant blog gig, but not just any flamboyancy-themed gig, this one. Why this one, you ask? Even if I fully understood my motivations, I’m not sure I would tell you. Or would I? See you tomorrow at the latest.