I MAKE MYSELF ILL
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Shelly Blake - "Home Movies". Open your mouth too wide and cherries fall out. No? Is it just me? Me and Shelly Blake. More cherries fall out of his mouth than mine - and more cherry-pits. He sings sloppy and achey, Daniel Johnston in a wagon with the dude from OMC's "How Bizarre". Eventually he introduces the electric guitar and this is a moment that you know, this is a moment that is familiar. It's when you're at the Scrabble tournament and you've just spelled the word "singersongwriter" and there's a squawking sound, a brief electric buzz. You look up and there's a stork in the corner, long-legged, bearing an electric guitar. He stops playing, he looks at you, he blinks his eyes. "Yeah, what?" he seems to be saying, in stork. And when you look back down the word "singersongwriter" has been changed, either by cheating or by some obscure rule. And your tiles now say: "Elope, elope, elope, elope!"

Am I trying too hard?

[buy/info]


David-Ivar Herman Dune (w. Lisa Li-Lund) - "Burn Burn". My bus was a few hours late to All Tomorrows Parties, a couple weeks ago, so me and all my new friends missed Herman Dune. I did get to see them loitering at the Broken Social Scene show, though. And then I think at Destroyer. I hope so. And then I went down to the merch table and I was easily persuaded to buy "Demented Abduction" - Nova Scotia Runs For Gold, the David-Ivar Herman Dune solo album plus Lisa Li-Lund. This song is from there. It was recorded on tour in Nova Scotia, mixed to mono on a Panasonic tape recorder.

In this song, the narrator does these things: pets a dog, makes coffee, puts a record on, sings, makes a call to NYC, pours drinks, is sick, misses her, gets a gun, practises shooting, goes for a drive, shows her what he can do, drives into the sidewalk, drives into the bridge, drives into the wall, drives into the river, dies, finds god, gets a criminal record, pisses off the police, meets the enemy, gets immolated.

In this song, David-Ivar Herman Dune and Lisa Li-Lund do these things: sing like a hairy morning, sing like chorus girls, play ukelele, make a chorus of sloppy folk-pop a thing of effortless pissed-off grace.

[buy]

Posted by Sean at June 1, 2006 3:00 AM
Comments

you missed them?!! noooo

Posted by Robin at June 1, 2006 4:02 AM

Am I trying too hard?

maybe...depends if the stork has any meaning whatsoever...i'd guess that it's completely random, same as the cherries...which wouldn't be trying too hard, but maybe not trying hard enough ;)

Posted by Anonymous at June 1, 2006 2:16 PM

Where have you been all my life? Probably unborn for most of it. But hamdullah. The last time I was in the states I actually went to a BORDERS to buy a cd. That makes me ill.

Posted by ll kirchner at June 1, 2006 5:59 PM

I am sick. I will download anything that has a ukulele in it. Off to my Ukulele Players Anonymous meeting...

Posted by Sam Lowry at June 1, 2006 9:58 PM

Could someone send me the lyrics, I want to sing burn burn for my neigbourhood...

Posted by yeah at August 3, 2006 3:59 PM

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about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

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about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
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