* (restored)
Post-rock first appeared in inverted commas and it might have been better if it’d stayed there. But it didn’t, and it looks as though we’re stuck with it. Still, never mind:
1. Bark Psychosis, “Scum”
As usually happens with genres, the label has provoked no end of anguish among artists and audiences, all understandably protective of their identities, keen not to be cashed out for the convenience of lazy journalist slags.
2. Slint, “Breadcrumb Trail”
I think post-rock is a label in the same way punk is a label: “Never Mind The Bollocks” sounds nothing like “Horses”, which sounds nothing like “Ramones Leave Home”, which sounds nothing like “The Feeding of the Five Thousand”, which sounds nothing like “Double Nickels On The Dime”, which sounds nothing like “Bad Brains”, which sounds nothing like “The Scream”, which … yet, when we talk about punk, we kind of understand what we mean. We understand that we’re talking about an attitude, a discipline, moreso than about how loud the guitars are and whether you can hear the words.
3. Mogwai, “Rollerball”
What I’m saying, then, is that post-rock was a useful label during a phase in pop music when the fabric of what a band / performance / recording could be was getting playfully tailored into new shapes. Of course, this goes on all the time, often un-apprehended. The cyclic view of history as applied to pop music doesn’t sell any significant number of inky newspapers, which used to be considered an important thing. But more importantly, a label could be a license to create.
4. Disco Inferno, “Footprints In Snow”
It probably isn’t important to point out where this stuff comes from, exactly, its precedents. They’re well documented. More important than any one figure, I think, is access to technology. I’m pretty sure about this: throughout the 80s and into the 90s, a bunch of affordable, viable studio technology emerged, meaning that it was no longer absolutely necessary to be Brian Eno or Trevor Horn before you could spend days playing around with samplers or synthesizers to see what happened. Conventional wisdom has it that this is part of how acid house happened; I think the same forces were at work here, too.
5. Godspeed You Black Emperor!, “Moya”
It’s also tempting to consider a lot of this music as oppositional, or at least pointedly individual. To take one example: for a long time I didn’t care for Godspeed, for exhaustively thought-out reasons I won’t bore you with. But, as I’ve realised, what happens in Godspeed’s music is defiantly their own thing. The reverent, solemn pacing of their music is as purposeful as the presentation of their records and live performances. That I used to bridle at this, then, was my problem.
6. Stereolab, “Super-Electric”
A drone can be a powerful thing. It says things like “I persist,” and “I contain multitudes”. Anyone who’s had the chance to hear Charlemagne Palestine’s “Strumming Music” or Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba” will have heard how a simple group of notes repeated over and over again can reveal animation and interest in a way that seems simultaneously magical, irresistible and defiant. In isolation, like in the Palestine performance, a drone can be beatific. Forced to exist among other musical events, a drone can feel inconvenient, itchy, destabilising. It can be, particularly in Stereolab’s music, the presence of an active resistance.
7. Tortoise, “Glass Museum”
I find it interesting to think about the relations between a lot of this music and vocals. In an earlier draft of this piece, I wrote that if there was any unifying concern of the music considered under this label, it might be that it desires deep reflection in the listener. That’s not quite sufficient, but I think there’s something to it. Somewhere and often, speech seems to have become a problem.
8. Bowery Electric, “Fear Of Flying”
Then again, words might only get in the way. The songs on Slint’s album Spiderland are sinister, elliptical stories set to measured, pacing music that feels disconcertingly like what brooding on deep hurts actually feels like. As the gathering storm of the last song on the record finally breaks, the narration becomes inaudible for a few crucial seconds, and the thread of exactly what awful thing was going on becomes forever lost to the listener. But the scariest song on this frightening record is still the instrumental.
9. Gastr del Sol, “Every Five Miles”
If we want to think about the practice of making music like one or another of these examples, we might start by thinking about manipulating context, as a director and editor manipulate the context of a shot in a film. For Don Caballero and Labradford, song titles become super-verbose, turned against their function, (“In the Absence of Strong Evidence to the Contrary, One May Step Out of the Way of the Charging Bull”) or otherwise disappear altogether (“S”, “Recorded and mixed at Sound of Music, Richmond, VA.”). Meanwhile, GYBE’s records materialise in editions that combine the haphazard and inscrutable with the painstakingly deliberate.
10. Miles Davis, “He Loved Him Madly” (part 1)
“Haphazard and inscrutable and painstakingly deliberate” would also be a fair description of Miles Davis’ “He Loved Him Madly”, a funereal elegy for Duke Ellington that sprawls like a luminescent jellyfish in a deep dark sea. The animation in this limpid music is animation in space, in timbre, and in utterance. Spliced and mixed down from hours of improv, it drifts, seemingly motionless, but under the surface it teems with meaning.
11. Labradford, “Lake Speed”
Portentous brooding isn’t the only permissible mode, even if some people seem to think otherwise. If this practice of music is truly open, after all, that means it must also being open to being upbeat, melodic, even charming. It might be an unlikely prospect that the Jonas Brothers will get together with Jim O’Rourke to do an album of faith-crisis-themed tropicalia with extra VCS3, but it doesn’t feel altogether impossible.
12. Do Make Say Think, “Classic Noodlanding”
There is something that I find particularly satisfying about any sort of music or theatre or cinema that attempts to engage with these concerns of space, context and utterance. I have some fussy, half-formed notion that doing so enables these artforms to access the audience’s imagination in the same way that fiction does, but I don’t have the theory chops to back these sorts of assertions up. Ultimately all I know is that it involves me in ways other music, including some of my favourite music, does not, and I like that.
13. Mono, “Follow The Map”
I know that I respond to recognising that people are trying to achieve something. It doesn’t have to be something brand new. I think there is a unique thrill that comes with witnessing a particular quality – I originally wrote ‘tangible effort’, but I might as well write ‘daring’ – that doesn’t come with anything else.
14. Pluramon, “Time (catharsia mix)”
It’s also a question of faith: willingness on the part of the listener to hear “He Loved Him Madly” as a drifting elegy is pretty much all that keeps it from sounding like a guttering jam session by a band that can’t remember how to play “Mood Indigo”. The listener has to be daring too.
But given the choice between someone who’s precisely in control of his utterance, and someone who might well fuck it up but is absolutely committed nonetheless, I’ll always opt for the latter. When we’re asked to bring something of ourselves to a performance or a film, we’re asked to do work. It’s always easier and more pleasurable to work with people who take care with what they do.
15. Fridge, “Five Four Child Voice”
I think the post-rock label identifies a phase in musical history where this sort of experimental play was something people became excited about. But I think that some of the music from this time remains so rewarding because of its interplay with more familiar forms and aesthetics. I think that experimentation for experimentation’s sake can often be valuable or remarkable, but I don’t think it’s often as daring or rewarding as expression is.
Critical theory or this or that other baggage isn’t necessary to either understand or justify wanting this sort of discovering-experience with music, because when you get ahold of it you feel a sensation that’s completely immediate. It’s a sea of possibilities, as P. Smith puts it, and we can walk into the waves any time we like.
16. Xinlisupreme, “All You Need Is Love Was Not True”
Music credits:
1. “Scum” by Bark Psychosis is on the compilations “Independency” and “Game Over”
2. “Breadcrumb Trail” by Slint is the first track on their album “Spiderland”
3. “Rollerball” by Mogwai is on the compilation “EP + 6”
4. “Footprints In Snow” by Disco Inferno is the last track on “D.I. Go Pop”
5. “Moya” by Godspeed You Black Emperor is on “Slow Riot For New Zerø Kanada”
6. “Super-Electric” by Stereolab is from “Switched On”.
7. “Glass Museum” by Tortoise is from “Millions Now Living Will Never Die”
8. “Fear of Flying” by Bowery Electric is on “Beat”
9. “Every Five Miles” by Gastr del Sol is from “Crookt, Crackt or Fly”.
10. “He Loved Him Madly” by Miles Davis is on “Get Up With It”
11. “Lake Speed” by Labradford is on their 1996 self-titled album.
12. “Classic Noodlanding” by Do Make Say Think is from “& Yet & Yet”
13. “Follow The Map” by Mono is on “Hymn To The Immortal Wind”
14. “Time (catharsia mix)” by Pluramon, featuring Julee Cruise & Keith Rowe, is on “Dreams Top Rock”
15. “Five Four Child Voice” by Fridge is on “Happiness”
16. “All You Need Is Love Was Not True” by Xinlisupreme is from “Tomorrow Never Comes”
*
p.s. Hey. ** Charalampos, Still say, apparently. Instagram seems ok so far. I haven’t looked at your page yet, but I will. I’m still figuring the place out. Meat = yikes at the very least, true. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, we’re writing the new film. I’m waiting for Zac’s feedback on the latest draft right now. I was thinking and hoping you’d say Orbán. Mine? I guess I would have to say Trump, but the bullet would need to then ricochet and pass through the skulls of Vance, Stephen Miller, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, and at least 10 or so other Trump minions. I’m down with love’s directive of yesterday. Love wondering whatever happened to The Dreadful Flying Glove, G. ** James, You remain the ideal post reader and responder. I salute you! And it’s a salty salute to boot. I’m almost cogent enough to begin my initial exploration of your substack. My body is twiddling its fingers. I’m sure your voice is singular and bears no traces of mine. Those are very elegant paper cranes. Nice. I didn’t expect such mastery of the crane anatomy. I don’t know what I expected though. They’re meaty too. Oh, so you’re off to the north today. Gosh, I hope you’re dazzled up there. When are you back? Be yourself. ** Poecilia, Oh, wow, those PGL inspired things are beautiful and poignant and, gosh, so nice. Thank you for doing them and letting me see them. I’m going to click and drag them onto my screen so Zac can see them if that’s okay. Or I guess even if not. Conspiratorially mean … ooh, I’m going to look for that. Anyway, that’s amazing. And I’m not easy to please actually. xo. ** Steeqhen, Always happy to bolster. Nice: the questioning yourself angle. Good prying. Awesome re: the planning. Thanks, pal, and apologies for this hazy-ish response. But I think my mind is starting to break through. ** jay, Hey. Guns aren’t really a powerful symbol for me either, I don’t know why. I’ve never been drawn to ‘the phallic’, but again I don’t know why. I fired a gun once at a shooting range when I was teen. I did not expect firing it to make my shooting arm fly wildly in the air as a result of the firing’s impact, and I did not like that, and I left guns to others ever since. Watching ‘Martyrs’ seems like a solid Easter plan. I didn’t even do that. I planned to go out on Saturday to investigate what fancy, imaginative Easter-themed chocolates that the patisseries might have cooked up, but I didn’t do that either. I just tried to stay awake basically. Anything exciting this week? xo, me. ** _Black_Acrylic, I like staple guns too. Who doesn’t, I would imagine? Yay re: and to your brother Nick. What a good dude. ** Tyler Ookami, Oh, I thought ‘TTA’ was new. I can’t remember what I read. What’s his name plays the Toxic Avenger, I think … I’m spacing on his name. From ‘Game of Thrones’ and all that. Oh, that’s a great painting! Maybe it kind of works with today’s post? I’m happy to have your imgur now available and bookmarked too, surely needless to say. Everyone, Go check out Tyler Ookami’s really swell new large painting at his imgur right here What do you do at the pizza store? It’s a pizza ‘store’ as opposed to ‘restaurant’? I like the idea of a pizza store. ** Nicholas., My body’s less jet lagged, but my brain is still pretty fuzzy. I’m close to being fully returned, I think. I’ve never used ChatGBT. I don’t even know how. I suppose it’s easy to figure out. I guess I’m still a little wary of it, but I don’t really have a reason to feel wary. Strange. That I didn’t realise until now? Hm, I don’t know. I think I realised everything that was great at the time? I ate really, really good vegan Persian food at some newish place on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park whose name I can’t remember and that was fun. Say more about your newly birthed brand. That’s exciting. ** Bill, Hey! It got through. It’s not just you. I don’t know about the Burroughs reference. I’ll have to scroll back up and investigate. So you’re home now. And hopefully you’re not as jet lagged as I have been and remain to some degree, ugh. Hoo Mojong … not off the top of my head. I’ll go look. Solar Return … no, I don’t think I know them, but they’re from Nantes?! Then I should. Off to the races or their race or whatever, cool. Safe and suitably in-flight entertainment-packed flight, I hope. ** Steve, Cool, I need some sonic input badly. Everyone, The new edition of Steve’s radio show is now up and fully listenable here. I’m going to head over there in a short while. How about you? We wanted to submit ‘RT’ to Prismatic Ground, but we missed the deadline, drat. I’ll definitely go use their site to watch stuff. Thanks! ** scunnard, Hi. I’ve resisted doing a crowdfunding thing, even when our film was in desperate need, but I do have colleagues who’ve made that work well for them and their projects. The ‘getting the word out’ part is really the part I don’t feel confident I could do. But it’s probably easier than it seems. Right, that Christ guy I’ve heard so much about. Welcome back to him, I guess? ** rene, Hi! No problem on the timing of the comments. Time is kind of relative around here. Your novel description sounds neither pretentious nor stupid whatsoever. Quite the opposite. So no worries as far as I’m concerned anyway. Keep at it. When I write novels, I always try to do something that would seem to be slightly (at least) out of my talent’s range, and so far I’ve managed to pull it off albeit sometimes not in the way or to the degree that I planned. If that makes sense. Bristol … I think I went to a gig in Bristol, but it was a long time ago, and I don’t remember much of anything about the gig’s context. Next time I’m in the UK, I’ll try to go wander about in Bristol attentively. Thanks! Luck with the novel. Let me know how it’s going, if you like. ** Malik, Hey, hey. I have to say that sounds really fun, the one day only aspect, now that you mention the collaborative nature. I love collaborating. It’s exhilarating when you normally just sit at a computer tapping. Right, getting your feet wet that way makes sense. Awesome! ** catachrestic, Well, I wouldn’t mind, but I kind of hate parties, so no sweat if it’s logistically nonsensical. The FN P90 is pretty attractive. I like guns that aren’t phallic. Revolutions are bad for art because artists make agit prop, political art that both isn’t very persuasive and dates horribly? ‘Napoleon’ will put you right to sleep. Swear to god. Okay, Lamartine makes me curious. Maybe I’ll look into that. Maybe I’ll even make a Lamartine post, who knows, whoa. I … don’t believe I’ve read Tocqueville. Sounds pretty interesting. I’m going to ask my literate and trustworthy French friends what they think about him. My guess is they’ll say they read him in school and don’t remember. Week starting appropriately? ** Misanthrope, Hi. Leeds: that’s where Ben lives, I think? I do remember Rigby grew up in New Zealand. I’m glad you’re connected with Angela. Yeah, that must really help. And I remember that you guys were hoping to come to Paris. I hope you still can. With Alex maybe? Hugs, man. ** Måns BT Hej, Måns! Cool, thank you a lot about contacting Zits about RT! You’ve gotten the GbV bug! Congratulations! They’ll eat you alive if you let them. Hard to pick my fave GbV albums given the volume and constant greatness, but … ‘Under the Bushes, Under the Stars’, ‘Universal Truths and Cycles’, ‘Bee Thousand’ of course, ‘Let’s Go Eat the Factory’ maybe, … actually their new one, ‘Universe Room’ is my favorite among their recent output. Favorite songs is too hard. I’d have to really think, and my brain is still kind of jet lag-clouded. I recently read a book I really liked called ‘Plants Don’t Drink Coffee’ by Unai Elloriaga, who’s a Basque writer. Haven’t seen any films of amazement recently. I watched Ulrich Seidel’s documentary ‘In the Basement’, which was quite interesting but not amazing. xo. ** Uday, I like stapling guns, but not guns themselves so much. I’ve twice had guns pointed at me, once by a kidnapper when I was young and once by a guy who was robbing the 7-11 I was shopping at. No pleasure there for sure. Congrats on the prize/voucher. There’s something by me in The Thing book but I don’t remember what it is. It might be an interview, or I might’ve written something? No idea when ‘RT’ will be streaming. It’ll be a while. We’re still in the phase of showing it at festivals. I’d like a foamy shower. I don’t think my current soap can provide that, but I hope yours does. ** Darbz, Hi! Gosh, I don’t remember which gig I was referring to. Shit, sorry. My mind is really hazy from jet lag. The trip was very good. Mostly I ate bean and cheese burritos. I had them at Poquito Mas, Mixto, Del Taco, El Coyote, and a food truck whose name I can’t remember. I didn’t get your package, no. I will check again with my LA roommate just in case he stored it somewhere and forgot to tell me. Sorry. If it is there, I’ll get it when I go back there in June. Honestly, I think you still communicate very interestingly and complexly and inspiringly. Maybe you just do it differently now, or I know you well enough to read between the lines maybe? Anyway, no worries, you’re being very interesting as ever. Seriously. No question. How did your week start? Afreshly to your mind, I hope? Love, me. ** HaRpEr, Hey. Oh, my email is [email protected]. Huh, I’ve been wanting to watch ‘Megalopolis’, of course, but I keep wondering if I should. Strange. You make it sound doable. 400 pages, so … big enough. I have to prepare for that. I haven’t read a novel over 200-ish pages in a long time. Exciting. Thanks, pal. ** nat, Easter is a holiday that should be fun given the bunnies aspect but kind of isn’t unless you’re under 12 years old? ‘Targets’ is good, right? Bogdanovich was an interesting director when he first started out. I wonder what happened. Once you’ve mentally upended your project to your satisfaction it starts getting exciting again, as I guess you probably know. ** Arno, Hi, Arno. That Frank & Robert work looks cool. I’ll investigate it. Thank you. We’ve only had the premiere screening so far, so we’ll see. The response and critical stuff has been very, very good. That’s interesting: my friend the American writer Jeff Jackson just wrote a trilogy of novels all at the same time too. You’re lucky to have that publisher, and, you know, they’re the really lucky ones. Anyway, thanks! ** Right. Sorry, my lagged brain kind of started dying out partway through the p.s. Let’s see … Today you get a revival of quite old post made by the legendary, long lost commenter and distinguished local The Dreadful Flying Glove that I certainly hope will be of interest to you. See you with hopefully more wakefulness tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Hey Dennis,
Thanks for the encouragement. What you say makes a lot of sense. I can only speak for music but most of the best things happen because i fail to do something else. Funny how that works sometimes. Maybe this will be the same.
If you go to Bristol, again, do it in the / a summer 😉 That’s the only thing i can say. Besides restaurant recommendations.
Love Slint and got kind of obsessed with them about 2 years ago when i got into that whole “noise rock” thing because of them. Recent thing i heard that i adored was “Never Exhale” by this UK band called DITZ. You might enjoy it based on this list.
Have a good week!
Dennis, I think we still can. And yes, I’d bring Alex. Maybe Kayla too. I’d like to bring David, but he’s just too far gone with the fentanyl. It’d be a nightmare. I know I have enough leave, over 200 hours. Alex and I will be going back to NYC in May. Kayla and her friends will be there too.
Hugs back.
Hi!!
If/when you can/feel like sharing more about your new film project, I’d be most curious!
He was a sadly obvious choice, I guess. Maybe it’s a huge gun with a huge chamber, and it has a bullet for each of them!
Maybe The Dreadful Flying Glove will drop in to give a little sign of life? I hope so because it’d be nice to tell them how appreciated this post is – a bunch of totally new music to me!
Love wishing the streets were always as empty as they are on this fine Easter Monday, Od.
Hey Dennis! Lots I haven’t heard of / listened to on this list, so thanks for sharing! Yeah, the kickback from guns is definitely weird, but I really like things making my body move randomly, so it was a pretty interesting experience for me.
Martyrs was amazing Easter viewing, actually – unsurprisingly. Your failed Easter plans sound excellent, but I guess the post-Easter period has the interesting wealth of suddenly valueless chocolate eggs – or at least it does where I am. Oh, and my boyfriend’s away in Japan at the moment for work (!), so I’m getting a very nicely curated set of photos from him.
This week is just work, with maybe a little bit of that BL videogame at the end. Oh actually, the friend I saw Martyrs with gave me this really strange framed photo (that I think she put together herself) of the character I like from the game, so that’s sitting on the top of my desk like a family photo. For whatever reason, it’s made me a lot more productive, but that’s a wrinkle of my psyche that I’m not going to attempt to flatten out until my dissertation’s finished. See ya!
@ The DFG, you are much missed and thank you for an excellent post!
Nick was round here today and we saw Leeds United win against Stoke 6-0 with Harry Gray making his debut. Word is the guy is even better than his brother Archie, so we’re expecting big things from him. Leeds are as good as promoted now.
As the youth say, my commenting could probably be described as having ‘fallen off,’ and as I left my laptop in England – I’m not in England anymore – the next few comments will probably be less comment-y. Or dense. Guy I’ve been talking to for a couple of months says post rock is better than ska. I prefer ska. There are bells ringing right now, coo. Godspeed, Mogwai, Miles Davis, Slint, Stereolab, I know, but all the others are new. My favourite post rock band would probably be Explosions in the Sky. Nice post length, if only for it being more manageable for my phone. This is all stuff I need to listen to and I would be listening to it right now were my phone’s capacity for playing embedded videos at a frame rate any greater than that of an Etch-a-Sketch’s even remotely existent. Like Glove’s username – thanks to them for this, and to your discretion in reviving it. Music – my post rock phase was a while back. Today I’ve been listening to Pavement. Oh, but they’re good.
Dennis, hi. Thanks! I try with my comments. It gives me something to do other than studying or gradually leaking what makes me feel human/alive from a sofa or bed or feeling guilty about not studying more or not writing. I clock your GbV reference, duh. Not the first time I’ve been saluted, weirdly enough. In secondary school a teacher said my initials and saluted – I regret not saying ‘at ease.’ Was listening to GbV on the way to the airport.
No rush with reading my writing, it’ll probably stay up there on the internet for however long, for the foreseeable future, I think. I assure you I’ve no elaborate method of torture or anything planned for those who postpone perusing my prose, ha. Some would probably say reading my stuff is torture in its own way x/ I’m fond of twiddling fingers. I suppose there is some notably me writing in my own work, but the latest story was especially dogged in attempting to give Guide something of my own spin. If my phone weren’t so sluggish I’d start rambling about writers/ing and mimicry but my phone *is* sluggish, so, thanks for even entertaining the idea of reading my writing – ech, grovel. Cheers.
And thank you from my cranes. I made one of toilet paper yesterday, and today, at lunch time, I made one of my sandwich wrapper. My family think I’m addicted. I might be. There’s no paper around me right now I could make a crane with, though, so I’m going through paper crane withdrawal. Ha. They’re botched, prone to rip where they shouldn’t, the heads aren’t perfect, but I’ve definitely improved as far as making paper cranes go.
I loved the art from last post’s comment section – Poe’s, Tyler’s, really cool!
I’m back from Edinburgh Thursday. As for being dazzled?
Oh, Dennis. I think I’m in love. My face hurts from smiling. The city’s put me in this romantic/Romantic mood. We’re staying at this shabby genteel guest house, it’s giving 19th century Gothic novella, I’m just waiting to discover that the door behind the head of my bed will lead to some totally deluded bloody sex dungeon or at least a couple severed limbs in jars. The buildings are old and pretty and grey and stone and imposing and there are several buildings that look like castles not to mention an actual castle and it’s like Oxford but if Oxford actually had character and wasn’t so overwhelmingly fucking beige, the parks are gorgeous, several times this afternoon I have been unable to refrain from smiling and excitedly saying to my family and to myself ‘I think I might have to come here,’ and I have an offer from this university, oh my, I’ve seen several cute guys I kind of got carried away with sneaking stares and fantasising, I think I still have piss on my right shoe from the airport loos but I don’t care, it’s so so pretty, the city not the piss, it matches up with the idea of university life that I’ve had since I was whatever aged tiny pretentious fool, it’s so lovely, I have seen posters for DJ sets and performances of Shostakovitch and museums and theatre shows and one announcing Garth Ennis visiting the Forbidden Planet in May, and I love the accents and I’ve seen enough rainbows and pins and badges to feel like I could be totally transparent about the whole being gay thing and there’s so much more to it than Durham, nowhere in the world has struck me the way this city has and I’ve literally only been here for like a few hours, maybe it’s just my first impression like overwhelming me and I’ll mellow out but wow it is a really really strong first impression, it is just beautiful, I cannot wait to see what it looks like at night. Supper is at a Mexican restaurant tonight. I haven’t felt this excited or happy or awesome in quite some time but admittedly I had a really good dance on my own last night and it felt great, but that aside, this city is really wow worthy so far it is. Just. Aaa. And I have an offer from this university. Oh my. I could study at the University of Edinburgh and I could live in this city and do and see and eat and drink so much and meet so many people. Oh my god. Like maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and just go back to vacillating in uncertainty but right now, wow. No place to my memory has ever made me smile like this so uncontrollably and made me feel so excited and like I like want to burst apart from inside because all the possibilities are just like way too numerous. AAAAAaaaaa. a. AAA. I’m typing all this on my phone flopped on a sofa with a straight face but on the inside I just feel so like, just wow. Wowed. So wowed. Future me will probably regret/be embarrassed by this gushing but it’s rare I feel this much for anything, so, I’m indulging. See you tomorrow, hopefully with you less brain-fuzz-free. I think I might have to choose Edinburgh.
Creeps was Guide inspired? I thought it was closer to Closer.
If you changed the title to The Creeps and that became recommended reading to e-quaintances of mine, then they would have great pun telling me that I gave them The Creeps. Except they would likelier say I gave them the link to the creeps, which would not be as pun. Drats.
The Dreadful Flying Glove, thanks very much for this interesting day! Many of these are bands I’ve listened to and liked a lot but sort of forgotten about as the years have gone on – Bark Psychosis, Slint, Disco Inferno — while others are names I’ve heard for a long time but have inexcusably failed to properly look into — Stereolab, Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, yes, it’s an embarrassing list. I’ll use this day as an opportunity to correct this. Of course, I started with the most unexpected selection, the Miles Davis track, and I have to say, including this one was a masterstroke. I hadn’t heard of “He Loved Him Madly,” but it’s right up my alley, fits right in with the other song here, and is something I’ve hoped existed in his discography without knowing where to look.
Dennis, of course, I’d be very interested if you’re able to make something of Lamartine. Wikipedia tells me he made quite a splash back in 1820 with his Les Méditations Poétiques, and I was able to find an English translation of the most famous poem from there, Le Lac, while I was typing out my comment here yesterday. It seemed like the sort of somber, elegant, nature-imagery-filled affair that is not really your cup of tea, but we’ll see, perhaps.
As far as revolutions and art, my personal theory is that art in general flourishes best in a situation of (relative) political stability. On the one hand, being surrounded by a lot of chaos and upheaval creates practical difficulties, same as in war, on the other hand, everyone else is in the same boat so they’re going to be less interested than normal in setting aside the contemplative time to engage with a painting or a novel, etc. You mention artists getting caught up in the fervor of the times and making didactic works that age badly — I think that is a factor as well. Politics can swallow up art for a time but the results of that are rarely enduring, outside of the historical interest.
I also hope you do follow up with your literate, trustworthy French friends about Tocqueville, and let me know what they have to say. The sense I’ve gathered so far is that he’s had the odd fate of being a French writer who may be better known in the American context, for his first book, the monumental Democracy in America. (Did you know that the title of John Ashbery’s early collection Rivers and Mountains is a reference to that work? I could pull up the particular passage, in a section where Tocqueville ponders the implications of democracy for poetry, if that interests you.)
In any case, I first got into The Ancien Regime and the Revolution via the historian Francois Furet’s influential 1974 text Interpreting the French Revolution, where the portrait of is of a book that’s more often talked about than read, and not yet fully appreciated in terms of its contribution to the historiography. So, I suppose that’s changed since then. I will say that this Tocqueville book got by far the most positive response out of any text I’ve assigned in my classes so far – even students who never like anything mentioned being inspired to pick up a physical copy after spending some time with the pdf I gave out – which I attribute in no small part to the prose style. Overall, I’ve been under the impression that I’m sort of reviving an author who may have a recognizable name in certain circles, but has generally fallen into a state of neglect for a few decades or so. I’d love to hear what you’re able to find out.
As for my week, oh God Dennis, I’m so tired. Today is the end of my one-week spring break at school, which meant just a normal workweek at my restaurant, and now I’m going back to having 10-12 hours of stuff to do every day with no days off. It’s tiring but I’ve been managing it so far, which makes me more confident in my ability to get a better job where I’ll have some more leisure time and not be constantly broke. How’s yours going?
On further reflection, I suspect the translation of Le Lac that I linked above is AI. A lot of odd grammar mistakes that badly detract from the experience, in any case. Here’s a much better recent translation I found, apparently from an MIT professor who played a major role in the development of quantum computing, Peter Shor. While I still doubt it’s going to be your thing, the part where he ran France for a bit could well make him interesting enough for a day, and I’d hate for this to get off on the wrong foot because we started with someone thoughtlessly running his work through auto-translate.
Man I was right I’m back to vacillating like a motherfucker
My main experience with Edinburgh is this Fall song praising the life there – maybe this will help! It certainly makes me feel like at least visiting, and even moving there, if some sort of opportunity arose. A little “post-punk” to leaven our “post-rock” day.
Got nostalgic when I saw that ’Spiderland’ cover, MAN, Slint was 14 year old me’s shit. I remember my parents really hated them for some reason though, at least my mom, and they usually like the stuff I listen to. I think she said they were screechy or something.
Great choices when it comes to GBV albums! ’Under the bushes, under the stars’ is probably my favorite right now! So many beautiful melodies. I actually watched ’The Electrifying Conclusion’ today, all in one sitting without a single break, and I adored it. I was standing in my living room, scream singing with tears in my eyes for all of the four hours hahaha!
Anything to look forward to where you’re at? Here in Sweden we have Valborg coming up, a day where we celebrate…? To be honest I’m not sure what we are celebrating, but we do it on the last of April through watching these huge fires we call ”Maj-brasor” (which means May-fires) and getting really drunk. Exciting! Great day for pyromaniacs.
XO, BT
hey, it’s oliver from new orleans. ive missed the blog for the past month, glad you’re back. do you know yet when room temperature will be screening in the US again, roughly? i am so looking forward to seeing it. i just finished a short film so i can graduate film school and the main character’s name is also andre. i’d love to send you the link to watch it if you’ve got the time, interested to hear your thoughts on it 🙂 hope you’re well
Oh wow, I really really hope your stomach and bowels made survived those very much worth it burritos. I cant remember if I mentioned eating really good Indian food
My monday was great!! because there was no crying no abnormal stress and no suicidal thouhts and I was resilient despite the post Easter Monday rush for people picking up their dogs. Anyways even when Rosies mother came up to pick her up to get euthanized I didn’t cry and thats something so maybe now that im not being stupid and forgetting to take my meds things will be ok.
I just tried my very best to delete all the excess fat and unnecessary wording that I normally use, can you tell from that sentence??
Well im getting comfortable with my coworkers. Trinettes the groomer and she CAN be intense shes got some porta rican in her but she is genuinly nice just under a lot of stress and the only groomer. It doesnt help she has a very slow trainer like me still messing things up.
BUt I think the best thing that can happen has, because at least form what I notice, they recognize how often I forget things and im very clumsy and impossibly bewildering something (How do you get a key sucked in its OWN keyhole ha!) They seem to be more lighthearted and joking about it. But id dont know, I know I will get there. Im so socially awkard on the phone
This is me. No Jokes
:Hey uh er, this Is Darby from uh ANIMAL house (im weird with cadence) Oh er what days are you I mean your dog haha boarding with us-well not us eh well you know what I mea–oh whats that? Oh ok, i’ll let you talk to my coworker im sorry for being so incompetent but I love your dogs! Oh what? I forgot to ask about vaccines? Dammit!
Im kidding except for that first part
MAY 10TH- MAY 14TH im going to NY to see the Morbid Anatomy museum in Brooklyn and this is so happening. The subway isnt to complicated and if I do l get lost it will still be fun. Ive got money saved and there really is no possible way this trip could be a failure because even getting out of the state is a sucessful trip for me and I love being lost.
Im reading a biography book about Tallulah Bankhead called Tallulah Darling by Denis Brian and my grandad’s name is on the front because it was given as a gift by brian which is pretty cool. Remember my grandad being one of the only few interesting people in my family, as he was close friends with a cool guy named Cliff Leyendecker who wrote “The man Who Killed Boys” a book he did research on Gacey for (Another book with my grandads name in it as a gift which I so happen to own, im so trying not to brag I promise). I sometimes feel like I shouldn’t own them, as much as I love books im terribly uncoordinated and no matter how hard I try I cant keep them immaculate. Anyways in the book there is an interview with her on the toliet. Are you a Tallulah fan? I dont know.
Oh thats weird I thought you said your roomate was holding the package? I hope it sent lemme know, its ok. I would hope im not so mindless enough that I cant even send packages properly anymore 🙁
Thats so weird I have no picture avatar anymore
Hey Dennis,
I’ve found myself listening to a lot of post-rock these past few months — that and ambient and electronic music. It’s all good for studying and writing to; in fact I struggle to focus on tasks without having some beat or melody playing in my head. A lot of Bowery Electric, Godspeed, Stereolab. Today, though, I’ve just had Selected Ambient Works on repeat. Ageispolis is probably in my top 10 songs of all time: something about it feels like the answer to the universe itself, like it’s the code or dna that makes up everything translated into sound. I think I discovered it from being sampled in a Die Antwoord song when I was like 11.
I think during this weekend I’ve ended up re-reading all of the Cycle, just from sourcing quotes and trying to formulate ideas. I’ve had a bit of writers block today, which is frustrating as I was hoping to have that final chapter done today; only halfway : /
Writing feels so open right now, in that intimidating way where you can’t even begin to start. When it comes to essays and academic writing I get so type A and feel like i need to say every single thing, which isn’t necessary… Perhaps a stray particle from the sun will rush through my body in the next day or so and fix that part of my brain…
Hey. I do enjoy the occasional post-rock. Slint and Stereolab are my favourites mentioned here probably. I heard Stereolab have a new album coming out. They released a new single but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are obviously amazing. I love the inclusion of Miles Davis’ ‘He Loved Him Madly’. But yes, lots I don’t know that I can explore.
I’ll get the Sparks post to you on Wednesday, hopefully. I’ve been a bit occupied the last few days but I’m trying to make sure that it’s really good and everything. I think you said that you wanted the images on an attachment in the email? I have them copy and pasted into the Google doc at the moment and I have video links and stuff as well. The way I’m formatting it is exactly how I envision it being presented. I might be able to download it all in order to put them in an attachment, I just may need a little more time in that case. Gee sorry, I’ve been kind of stressed today because like the idiot I am, I realised I have an assignment due earlier than I thought it was. Whatever, it’ll work out.
It’s so funny that you mention Jeff Jackson elsewhere in the comments, because I’m fairly sure he judged the aforementioned competition. I’ll let you know what you have in Thing when I get it. As for soap, I use the same soap my grandmother does because it reminds me of her but also because one time I was staying with her and ran out and took a bar from her store room and it’s really really good at scrubbing away sweat. Talking to a friend today and came to this really profound realisation that he feels like a brother. Might actually tell him, which is new. Peaceable, and hope you are too.
Has the jet lag gone away? Maybe “Radio Not Radio” will ease your spirits!
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be participating in the conservatorship hearing for my mother. I was able to speak to the court this afternoon and get permission to do so online. I am dreading this so much!
I like the format/structure of this post, there’s a flow between the enumerations that make perfect sense to do but that I really never find enumerated stuff doing. I’m thinking that post- anything seems to have a similar issue as neo- anything or new [word for something applicable established] in that the term doesn’t have any characteristics except for how maybe those collection of works exists relative to the established indicator. When that’s the case, then, why not expand what the term that it’s relative to would include—or alternatively the taxonomical thing like whoever claims “these collection of works exist relative to that established mode but I’m going to categorize them differently” ought to just put their name on the category that they’re proposing is post/neo and then take whatever criticisms or concurrence from whatever crowd of good-citizens-for-quality-assurance-of-genre-labelling who would care about that.
(I’m honoured and thank you, of course it’s completely okay if either or both of you liked my previous batch of PGL-inspired doodles better. Somebody else that I showed those new ones to said this batch was haptic, which I took as a compliment after looking up what that word meant.)
Wonder how the Glove is doing these days, good to revisit this day.
I’m actually home briefly, off again in a couple days. Too busy so far to be jetlagged, haha. I’m sure it’ll hit in a few hours. The flight was ok. The entertainment lineup seems noticeably improved, with a lot more recent movies/TV. I opted for Kneecap (corny but entertaining), a classic Saturday Night Live with George Carlin (umm, didn’t date so well), and the first half of Blues Brothers. It was great fun observing the hair and outfits and accessories of the last two. Stayed away from the various Chalamet items.
Bill
hey people out there!! D/L this if post-rock floats your boat. great zine from mid 90’s by dave howell from fat cat records. features labradford, stereolab, third eye foundation, ui, tortoise, ganger et al. simon reynolds wrote a couple of articles in this issue (from 1996). from brussels with love. KK
https://archive.org/details/obsessive-eye-vol-2/
Dennis,
Glad to see you’re almost jetlag free!
I’m on my way to the London Centre for Book Arts to be taught how to use a risograph. Very exciting! Yesterday I did the first post on the Ssnake Press instagram account. It was cool to see how supportive people were, including your good self. Anyway, the path from here to the first book is starting to seem very short indeed.
Any thoughts on Douglas Sirk? On Sunday I watched a double bill (at home on DVD) of his “Written On The Wind” followed by John Waters’ “Polyester.” It was a lot of fun and a great pairing. And then we topped it off with an episode of Real Housewives of New York… which was kind of sublime.
Have a good day my friend.
Xo
Me
Hey! Welcome back. I missed you coming back, though, so I assume you’re already settled. I’m doing well, which you asked the other day if you don’t remember. Editing a story for publication… exciting! How are you? How was (is?) LA?