“Minors” came out two years ago. But, like, in chillwave years that’s only two weeks.
So, this song is practically brand new. Oh my god, so chilllllll…
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TNGHT – Higher Ground
I know I can’t be the only one that leaves music untouched on their laptops/iPhones for months, only to later discover some slap has just been sitting there instead of being played loudly. TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke & Lunice) is pretty weird, and I’m not even sure how I feel about their EP, but I love the big hip-hop sound this duo produce.
Words in the Fire with Patrick Watson
You might be familiar with this scene: coffee, macbook, headphones. Enter 20 something blogging at a local café. Creative stimulants are in full force, scone has been picked to crumbs.
Although I don’t frequent Chango, the expensive coffeehouse at the end of our block ($9 bagel anyone?), that scene, for the most part, is me. Except I’m at home and scone-less, intermittently reminding myself to take Sallie Anne across the street to shit on Providence Congregational’s lone strip of piss-crisped grass (that’s for singing too loud).
My point is, like a lot of people, I listen to music when I write. Right now I’m listening to the new Jens Lekman album, I Know What Love Isn’t, indie strange-pop at its best (just invented that term). Jens Lekman is a funky dude. But when I’m hunkered down, impassioned, and writing something I feel has purpose, or importance (to me, at least), I crave for that emotionally heavy swell of low key beats and soft, endearing melodies.
In the past it’s been Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Beach House Devotion, Elliott Smith (anything), and many more. Currently though, it’s Patrick Watson, Adventures In Your Own Backyard. AYOB was released in May, however, I didn’t get hold of it until the beginning of August. Since then I’ve put it on loop whenever I sit down to write. I’ve even reverted to it now (Jens was failing me).
All thirteen tracks of AYOB, from “Lighthouse“ to “Things We Do”, exist as the perfect background sound. For me the key is to not get stuck on the lyrics until they burst through my vestibular nerve and demand to act as inspiration. So as “Words on Fire” comes to a close and Watson sings his last lines, ”So what’s been on your mind / Eatin’ you inside / Takin’ all of your time / On this warm summer night / Put those words down in the fire,” I feel this mountainous passion building, a feeling I hope will spill into my sentences. It’s good.
I realize I just described sort of an orgasmic experience. In actuality, I think it’s a bit sad that all these factors need to be in place for me to write impassioned material. Why can’t I just be at the park with a journal watching people buy drugs and little kids getting yanked along on Dora the Explorer backpack leashes? Good Question. Maybe Shakespeare would have found it troubling to type up a script on Final Draft. I don’t know. To each her own.
However, if you’re a coffee+macbook+headphones type of writer like me, or not that at all, check out Adventures In Your Own Backyard. I’ll be doing the same, wishing I had a backyard myself for Sallie Anne to shit in.
Bon Iver – Holocene [The 14th Minute Edit]
Image by NBICKLE.E Photography
No matter where I am in the world, I almost always find myself in the midst of anxious reflection on Friday afternoons. The world slows down, as if urging me to take a step back. To process my thoughts and let the emotions settle in.
In a way it is a somber reminder of the finitude of life. A subtle disclaimer attached to the excitement and promise of the weekend–really, of life.
Closing my eyes, “I could see for miles, miles, miles…”
Dom Mclennon – Patriot
Image NBICKLE.E Photography
Stumbling across this song yesterday on September 11th was merely coincidence. However, the definition of patriotism, September 11th and Mclennon’s words have swirled around in my head for a good 24 hours–as the three are unequivocally related.
In the days and years following September 11th, 2001, many words have taken on new meaning and connotation. Words like hero and patriot became GOP political weaponry to lodge attacks against politicians or fellow Americans and to further divisive agendas. A decorated war veteran was swift-boated because he cared enough to testify to bring troops home. And more than enough Americans hypocritically ate it up. Kind of like Larry Craig at a Chick-fil-a.
To question policy and war meant that you were unpatriotic and hated freedom. If you thought it absurd to dub the Capitol Hill french fries ‘freedom fries’ you obviously don’t support our troops (certainly another over-the-top attack phrase that even diminished capacity can’t explain). If you somehow don’t believe that blind allegiance + Patriot Act = freedom, you are an America-hating, Lucifer-fucking liberal.
With his remarks yesterday, Governor Romney continues to espouse this basic, misguided ideology all the while injecting religious fervor and paranoia into his attacks on Obama. According to assholes like Romney and those who support him, Mclennon is not a patriot, but rather a danger to America and what she stands for. That Mclennon would have the audacity to say, let alone record, the following is unfathomable to these people: “I used to fear God/ but it changed the day I became atheist.”
But it is in the answer of his own question that Mclennon silences any of those who would label him and anyone similar as unpatriotic:
“What does a man without God pledge allegiance to?/
I pledge allegiance, to all my people/
The ones in my life who make me feel like I’m an equal/
In this rat-race, cause while other stumble on steeples/
They had given me the seal, to fly like I was an eagle/
It all started with some stars and stripes/
Wrong and right, through the darkness, I was brought into the light/
So this is for y’all, here I stand, one hand/
On my heart, one man, a patriot of his fam”
Word.
The Weeknd – The Fall (Sango Remix)
Image by NBICKLE.E Photography
So, the Weeknd is old news. Not sure if Sango is, but the point is this: fall is here. It was in the air two weeks ago. But then the outer pushes of Hurricane Isaac brought a wonderful, wet stretch of balmy, humid bliss–aka swamp-butt 24/7.
And then came yesterday. In blew the winds of change. The smell of the first wave of decomposing leaves, accompanied by the brisk warmth of Autumn sun, stormed the senses. The long days of summer began their transition into the long nights of winter. To quote the lozenge crooner from up north, “I ain’t scared of the fall/ I felt the ground before..”
And damn it feels good.
Atlas Genius – Trojans
Image by NBICKLE.E Photography
“Oh, you’re from Oregon. Okay. I’ve never been out there. It’s nice? Right, it’s next to, uh, next to Minnesota, Wisconsin–that area..”
Um, no. Yes Oregon sits at the 45th parallel, but not in the middle of the goddam country. It is the NORTHWEST. You know? You go north then west or west then north.
However, here in NY my brilliant ——— is not unique in his baffling misconception of geography. Countries suddenly belong to new continents; cities find new countries; rivers and mountains sprout up thousands of miles from their headwaters and foothills. Yeah you are right, Nicaragua IS in South America. Yup, it’s right there, where the dense reach of the Amazon ends and the dry sprawl of the Sahara begins. Exactly, right where the Alps reach for the sky and the Suez canal funnels product to and from the Mediterranean. It’s crazy, I never knew all of these places were in Eastern Europe. Wild.
Hashtag Atlas Genius = not a description for the common New Yorker.* But hey NYC is the center of the universe, so who gives a shit about the rest?
*That’s how you Tweet, right?
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