Archives : all posts by Dan

Peals - "Tiptoes in the Parlor"

Careful not to scratch the glass. Careful of the ice, it's thin like rice paper, and the edges can be sharp. Careful of people who always look perfect, careful of the wind. Careful not to promise anything to anyone, that will never land the way you think. Careful, watch, there's a candle on.

[Pre-Order]

Thee Oh Sees - "Maze Fancier"

There are many stories from Tennis Ct, and I wish they could all be told today.

This is not, however, the story of the one-eyed dog that everyone called Ray Charles because of the way he wagged his head around.

Nor is it the story of the Philippine nanny who mysteriously took care of a different kid every week, never repeating one ever in her career.

And this is not the story of the actress who lived in 18, the big apartment with the bus shelter out front, which had a huge advertisement with her face on it that made her think thieves and rapists would now know where she lived.

This is the story of Kahn, the tall slender boy whose skin looked like a painting done with a loose wrist. Everything about Kahn looked effortless. He seemed to coast along Tennis Ct as if carried by a cloud. And he lived on that street all his life, and every day of that time, someone was in love with Kahn.

It was either Jennifer the kleptomaniac who had a penchant for pinching undies, or Therèse the bank teller who chewed more gum than anyone in history. For a while it was Benjamin, who would glance at Kahn while pretending to wash his Miata, or little Frederick who never felt anything deeper for anyone else, not even his parents or his toys so it must be love what else could it be. And eventually everyone had their turn to pine: Rita who flossed so much she had to have surgery, Nico Guzman who hated being left-handed, both Michael and Michelle who were fraternal twins and mortal enemies, everyone.

But Kahn loved none of them. Kahn was not of this world, he seemed to be in love with the great beyond, the hereafter, the next life. Perhaps that's what made him so desirable, and not his easy simple floating way, but that he seemed to know the future, and still he smiled.

[Buy from Castle Face]

Beck - "Loser"

No, I work here, you can ask anyone. I've worked here for years. Years. I've come in every day, and I've put in my blood sweat and tears, haha. Years. How long have you been here? Maybe you don't work here. I work here, dude, ask anyone. Well, when they come in in the morning you can ask them then. Don't touch me. I work here, don't I look like I work here? These just happen to be the hours that I work! That's why I have a coffee, hellooo! I've been here every day, dude, serious. No, I mean, I've been here, I don't always go inside. I don't always need to, I can work out here. Yes, I've been coming out here every day and working, so I think I'm a fucking employee, yes. See the bag? See the computer? See the printer cable? Employee. Ask anyone.

--

If you listen to this song nice and loud, you will hear my new favourite part of a thousand favourite parts: at 3:48, just as the song is already fading out, that previously unheard huge guitar that comes in? That's it for me today.

[Buy]

(image from consumeconsume)

Weaves - "Hulahoop"

Please go away. Please go away and never come back. Please fuck right off, and keep fucking right off for the rest of your fucking life. Take your perfect leather boots, and your haphazard hair, and the tiny ankle fold in your jeans and vanish from Earth. Please let your oddly-clumped freckles and your skewed glasses and your gap-toothed grin have never existed. Please let your love notes and your open toothpaste and your breakfast leftovers be long-awaited proof of a parallel universe, inapplicable to this one. Take everything that happened, every second of it, and fold it a million times. From meeting to parting, fold it up, take an awkward dinner and crease it at great sex. When you can't tell a text message from a backrub, we're good. But I never, I mean ever, want to see you again. You are steam now. You are white-on-white, you are a dream that sits on your tongue like "it was something" and then disappears.

--

Weaves is a project involving (at least) the great Jasmyn Burke (of RatTail) and the marvelous Morgan Waters. So excited to hear more, and for live dates. I'll let you know.

Born Ruffians - "Permanent Hesitation"

If there is one thing that this song, its jeans-on-the-floor and text-messages-from-someone-only-named-J, seems to evoke, beyond its let-go-of-the-hand-hold and necklace-casts-a-shadow-on-the-neck, it's a phrase, written on faces, weather, and every tea store sandwich board: Time is running out.
--
Born Ruffians still speak to me. Their new album Birthmarks is really great, I think. You can buy it here.

Eleanor Friedberger - "Stare at the Sun"

The first drive on the day when the last polluting car has been retrofitted. [Pre-Order]

Jay-Z - "Big Pimpin'"

If I give my whole body to one song, it would be worth it, because what else is there to do but spend yourself on something. Pick the one that will shake you like a rag doll, spread you open, dance like lights, and drip you dry. Crack your hands from shadow boxing, spend your knees from Russian bending, and your shoulders, your shoulders will be the first to go. [Buy]

Mincer Ray - "OMM @ 12.3; Fouled Acme"

This song makes me forget how small I am. And I'm like, extremely small. Like, put your fingers together as close as you can without touching them. That space, that little space, that's like the ceiling in the mall for me, when you look up and you're like oh that's all windows up there, that's how much space that is for me. Now press your fingers together, hard hard hard, cram em together, I still fit between there. Like, cut a hair a hundred times, length-wise, I could still sit on that like a sofa. I'm tiny, I'm real tiny. But when I hear this, it's bad for me, cause I forget how small I am, and I start movin around like I'm big, and I could fall off my perch at the top of this picture frame, curled up in the dust. It's bad luck to forget your size, better to always just behave the size you are.

[PWYC]