Archives : all posts by Dan

Daniel Johnston - "Mind Movies"

The creation of an island, an island made of candy and marshmallows, is a futile idea to pursue. An island made of candy and marshmallows, where the laws are written purely off the top of your head, and the family unit is expressed only through the accumulation of objects like snowglobes, scratched CDs, and clacker toys, is a pretty crazy idea to try. An island made of candy and marshmallows, where the laws are written off the top of your head, and the mayor says "call me Greg!" and waves even when no one is watching, where slipping in the mud is like taking a shower, where hospitals are Howard Johnson's, and that thing about the family unit, is an idea that will probably never happen. An island with all those characteristics, where cheating is as impossible as hovering off the ground, where the economy is charity, where "sex" is the only thing that means sex, where movies are shown inside your mind, is a pretty dumb idea, i know.

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The Bitter End
Episode 2: Second Chances

Bernard sees a chance to get close to Eden at her slam poetry night.
Les gets a shot at his dream job.
(featuring music from long-time StG favourite, Julie Doiron)

Digital Leather - "Photo Lie"

I came into school one day tired and dragging my feet. Wet toast and water and tylenol and there I was. My bag was half-open and people buzzed around me, all more awake and enjoying the morning like they knew just how. I limped up to my locker, or what I thought was my locker, and started opening the lock. I didn't even realise; I was in the senior's hall, on the whole wrong side of the building. I had come in a different entrance 'cause I caught the city bus that morning and I was all turned around. Anyway, not only did I get the wrong locker, I got THE wrong locker, I got Jamus Gart's locker. The super-popular, had-sex-at-thirteen, senior that everyone loved and wanted to be. And even more amazing than that, in my tired stupor, I got my lock combination way wrong, and somehow guessed his correct combination. The locker clicked open and I was preparing myself for the smell of a flat apple and the look of a Batman Forever poster, my usual daily routine of disappointment. Instead I was greeted to a fine musk, a rich smell similar to animal fur or, like, a sweaty prince. The locker was tidy, books stacked on a middle shelf he had installed himself, a pair of sailing shoes sat neatly at the bottom, thin planks of cedar in the top compartment to neutralize possibly aromatic locker neighbours. Soft music seemed to play, like a thin veil of Curtis Mayfield and the Ave Maria, and a small mirror sat humbly and easy at eye level. A little photobooth photo stuck out from under the corner. A vision of beauty, a strong defiant bone-structure with a high collar; Jamus' college-aged girlfriend. I knew the whole time, at some level, I had made a mistake, but for a second I remember clearly thinking, "Woah, I really do have my shit together."

Digital Leather - "Kisses"

A love letter, probably the best love letter ever written, mailed in its original form from address to address, in an attempt to visit every home at least once. By the time I receive it, the words are smudged completely, the words are totally unreadable, fingerprints and coffee stains and locks of hair. But I think I still get it. 'Cause what's to get, right?

[Buy the brilliant Warm Brother]

[Digital Leather previously on StG]

Valleys - "Killer Legs"

Patterned wallpaper as moving sidewalk. Harmony as armoury. Kisses as capture.

[Valleys are playing tonight as part of Said the Gramophone's POP Montreal show at Le Milieu, 6545 Durocher #200. Set times: 10pm - Hannah Georgas, 11pm - Daredevil Christopher Wright, 12am - Mittenstrings, 1am - Valleys]

Lee Fields - "Ladies"

This song could be a new energy source. I think this song could power a sailboat on a still day, spin a blender in a desert, start your calculator in a dark room. Contrary to the song's message, it doesn't need anything else. Like a plant, it can reproduce with itself. "You need to find somebody, like I've found me."

[Lee Fields & The Expressions are playing tonight as part of Brooklynvegan's show with POP Montreal at Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent. Set times: 10pm - Jahnice & DJ Kobal, 11pm - Saidah Baba Talibah, 12am - Lee Fields & The Expressions]

Sparks - "Amateur Hour"

I believe in the equality of humanity. I believe men and women are equally important, every piece of humanity is of equal value. Beyond that, I believe in a humility of humanity towards nature, an open-mindedness to the idea that past decisions and lifestyles were mistaken and can be corrected. I believe in progress towards a functional world, a sustainable world, a harmonious world. I believe in the capacity of humanity and all people to put aside political differences, past transgressions and hardships and suffering, in favour of a new deal, a fresh slate with lessons learned and taught. I believe in all that, I believe, I do believe. But now, for right now, I want you to choke me. I want you to slap me across the face and spit down my throat. I want you to throw me down in gravel and smear a diaper across my back. I want you to rip me open like a spoiled kid on Christmas, and I want to feel it like real hatred. I want to feel like I'll never recover, like I'm plunging over the edge with my blood rushing like tides to and fro in my body. I want to be garbage, I want to eat garbage, I want you to be fucking garbage. I just want that. I'm sorry. [Buy Kimono My House]

Thao + The Get Down Stay Down - "Goodbye Good Luck" (removed at label request)

I will give this the completely positive categorization of "dependable rock". [Pre-order]

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(I have added a caveat to my sidebar)

BIG THANKS TO SEAN FOR THE AMAZING POP GUIDE. READ IT. DO IT.

RatTail - "Go Green" (demo)

When I was a kid my family moved around a lot, because of work and other things. We had trouble affording to live on our own a lot, so we would live with extended family members, and that would kind of run its course sometimes. I didn't really stay in one place for more than a year. It was good and bad and all that, but I'm only talking about it because of one very specific feeling. I would keep it a secret from everyone I met that I could be leaving forever at any given moment. It was this burning secret that I would keep to myself, and it would lay a thick layer of emotion onto simple interactions. If I was mad at people, it would make me feel better, fuck them I don't need them. If I liked people, if I was in love with someone, I could force that burning secret into the wound and make it hurt even more. This song makes me remember that very specific feeling, of driving away from some place forever. It's early morning, we'd stop for food nearby, and then I'd eat as I watched all the neighbourhood stuff pass through the foggy car window. I'd write shapes or words in the wetness. This song feels like the act of pulling two people apart.

RatTail - "Gasmask" (demo)

Gorgeous, throaty guitar and a thick, fuzzy pulse. I can sleep in this music. Finally, I can sleep.

[Site]

Cave Weddings - "Bring Your Love"

On the subject of the inter-mingling of the senses, I've heard much talk about the colour of music or the smell of a dream or a memory. If you're a reader here, you'll know that I am a strict separationist when it comes to the senses. Music can only be experienced aurally, painting is a completely silent aesthetic sensation, sex is a practice reserved only for touch. But I can't ignore this realization I'm having while listening to this song. I have to remind myself, sitting here aching and hungry, that "Dan, you can't eat music." [MySpace]

Think About Life - "Sweet Sixteen"

She keeps three pills in her jean jacket pocket. In her ratty jean jacket, with "reality creator" scrawled across the back in masking tape, and her stringy dyed hair rubbing in her face, she keeps them in her breast pocket in a little baggy. She's straightedge, with grey eyes and messed-up teeth, but she keeps these pills on her at all times. "What's it gonna take for you to take those things?" "Panic." [Buy from Alien8]

Also: Think About Life are the featured artist in The Bitter End episode 1, online now. Also in the Montreal Mirror this week.

Jookabox - "You Cried Me"

I chased your brother down the golf course, it was wobbling like the Tacoma Narrows. It was dark blue wet grass, the shapes and ovals like ground clouds. I stumbled and scraped my knee, the skin opened up like a chocolate bar wrapper. I laughed and smoked and high-fived a tree. Nothing ever fits enough into your body as much as it's meant to. Your body isn't like an "inventory" bag, but if it were, I wouldn't want to die with all sorts of unused items left over. A blue candle, a pirate key, a magic mask, 4 empty bottles, and a full stock of crash bombs. [out Nov. 3 on Asthmatic Kitty]

Aphrodite's Child - "Four Horsemen"

I went to the University of Michigan in the 80s, and there I studied under Malcolm Everdige Ph.D., at the time a religious studies teacher, right when religious studies was getting pretty fearless and heated. He had a copy of the Bible so rare there exists no version like it. I was left alone with it one night when he went out to find wine at three a.m. and I was sitting in his dusty saggy apartment. I opened it and from page one it was like reading a totally different text, all the while being the same. It's a multi-translational defect, the story passed through so many interpretations that what resulted is astounding. First of all, it's told first person; "I created the world, the water, the animals.." and so on. It's more the story of how God feels about everything that's happening, and how it all stems from his expression of himself. You realise about two-thirds of the way through that God is really just trying to understand himself, and the World is just one of his many ways of trying to get there. God doesn't even really see himself as "God", the idea of "God" isn't even mentioned until Revelations. Instead of fire and brimstone, it's another flood, and once the water fills up the World, it takes hundreds of years to settle, and forms a mirror finally big enough for God to see his own face, seconds before he plunges his face underneath. Literally, the last words are, "now I understand." Why isn't this on Wikipedia? [Buy 666](MCS)

(image source)

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THE BITTER END

As you may or may not know, over the last year I've been creating, with some immense talents here in Montreal, a web series of which I'm very proud. During this year's Funding Drive you actually helped fund the project, so I like to think that I won't be bugging you readers with my bi-weekly plugs for the next 3 months, but rather just keeping my investors informed of my activity. It's called The Bitter End, it's a sitcom, it's about two brothers living in the same apartment and messing each other's lives up. But it's made with honesty, and fervor, and lots and lots of effort. Episode 1 goes up this Thursday (I'll remind you every time a new episode comes out) and then every two weeks until all 6 are available. The series trailer is online now, at thebitterend.tv. Thank you.