Archives : all posts by Dan

Califone - "Alice Marble Grey"

This is delicious soup. It's tomato with a bit of chive and it's warm because I left it in the sun an hour. To go with this I have a pair of salt crackers in a plastic wrap. I lick the wrap clean and lick the bowl clean and spit wash it. Tomorrow I'll use the cucumbers as they'll go before anything else, so I'd better eat them first even though I don't like cucumbers much, especially so many all at once. Then the brocolli will be the following week, water should be here by then, I can make another soup. At the end of that week I'll have some of the chocolate and powdered bread. That will bring us through to Valentine's and I'll eat the potatoes then, that will be nice. I can eat those like apples. Oh. Apples. I don't like to think of it, but I hope to taste an apple again. After the potatoes, oh God, there will only be onions left until thaw. 4 candles to last that time, and 17 and one-half matches. I lit a match this afternoon and put it out on my tongue. It crackled and made my spit red. My skin is soft from all the carrots I've been eating these last weeks, my cheek bones feel like soft metal beneath. You'd like it. I sometimes see distant smoke plumes rise like lazy hands raising to volunteer above the tree tops. And I wonder how your supply is doing, if you have enough to last the cold, if I could spare some of mine so that you'd make it through. [Pre-Order]

Irma Thomas - "Cry On"

An ancient Chinese general, in love with his assistant, demanded that a service be set up so that he could send messages to his troops in the field. When his assistant offered to deliver the messages personally, the general refused, declaring that a whole staff of people would be employed to handle the delivery and trafficking of messages. The troops soon began to receive messages like "good work" and "continue fighting", which, while it heartened them greatly to receive kind words from the general, did not improve their tactics greatly. The young assistant, however, would receive lengthy anonymous letters almost daily. "Dear Honest One, your throat is slender like a swan, your legs are strong like bamboo, your smile like a singing morning bird, your soft tongue like a succulent oyster. I only want your purest dreams to come true, I want your life to be a waking dream, where every wish you have is granted instantly and precisely." The young assistant, awed that he would be "chosen" by such a secret admirer, decided to follow the wishes in the letters and make his dreams a reality. He enlisted in the army, and defended his country against its enemies. He was exploded in his second battle, and on his person were found, though charred and mostly unreadable, responses to every letter, unsent.

[Buy] (thanks, MCS)

This. is. genius.----->[via MBV]

(image source) where the source doesn't like the image.

The Dutchess and the Duke - "Hands"

I know the moment when things looked different. When your body looked small like the way a stranger's body is just a body, yours was always a body until then. I saw the way one of your eyes opened a bit wider than the other, the way your ears sat high on your face, which slung your chin down low, like a lonely diabolo. The way your crooked smile kind of limped across your face and your hair fell like it always had, down. If I drew you, it wouldn't match up. You're more beautiful than my mind is able to see, it wouldn't be fair. I remember the moment. You were on the phone, doodling casually, and you drew a really nice face. A nice face that looked like a kindly doctor or something. And then you drew a jar around it. And I just thought, so loud in my head, so loud I knew I would never be able to make it quiet again, "Why does everything have to be in a fucking jar?" [Buy]

Zerditou Yohannes - "Bolel"

You hold the spoon and I sip the soup. You push the gas and I steer the wheel. You gather the wood and I gather the sticks. You spin the girl and I hold her shoes. You hold the keyboard and I type the words. You roll the camera and I say the words. You wink the eyes and I give the smile. You start the fight and I keep the peace. You hold the penny and I shine it up. You hold the bottom while I sing a song. You start the sentence and I lift it to Heaven. [Buy]

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Oh, and please more comments on the amazing post by Michael Krueger!

Circulatory System - "Tiny Concerts"
Circulatory System - "Electronic Diversions"

Yo yo, come here and check this out. Come here, shut up, come here. Remember I was telling you that time that the swamp behind my house is haunted? Remember I was sayin that? I know it's more of a pond, but we call it the swamp, that's just what we call it. Well, check it out, I'm not--I were-asn't lying. Check it out, check out this picture. My cousin took that, his name's Jeff, he's like 25 now, but he took that when he was our age, he took it right back here, see that tree? It's the same tree, and the water in the background. He took it right here, and I guess there was this old ratty oil drum back here, but he didn't care about it, he just took the picture, 'cause who cares about an old ratty oil drum, why would you take a picture of that, right? Well he said he just took it, like he just felt like taking it, but now when you look closer you'll see why. You see that? on the edge there? the white? you see that? see how it kinda comes all the way and it kinda starts from the oil drum? see that? Look at that, it was taken right here, and there's a shape coming right out of oil drum and my cousin said he must have caught the ghost when it first came out. And what else? my stepmom sees all sorts of stuff back here. One time she saw a man that was wearing a mask, and a woman in a red dress. And one time she heard a person crying but it was like the middle of the night, so no one even was awake. And plus even me, I lose stuff out here all the time. One minute stuff's there and another minute it's gone. Just gone, like you turn your head and it's gone. Like my brother's comic book Hell Night, that happened to me with...and like, food, of mine, and stuff...and, oh, even like, your Ewok bank it happened to. Yeah, your Ewok bank. The swamp took your Ewok bank, I meant to tell you. I'm telling you now.

[Buy]

Capybara - "Soft"

Clean playing, clean notes, clean leaves and clean breath. Animated rose envelopes, eloquent children and light breakfast. Sparse decoration, felted palms, thoughts like open windows and sidewalk sales. GUI, "phooey", and donc. The smell of pine and pining.

Capybara - "Happiness / Let Child Roam"

I feel it would be wrong to say the alphabet was "invented". It seems more appropriate to say it was "discovered". There doesn't seem to be a sound missing to convey any English thought imaginable. At the discovery of the last letter, let's presume it to be "h", there must have been such a sense of relief. As if finally, now, we have all the tools we need to use, the alphabet (formerly alfabet) is complete, and anything we need to add will be to accommodate other languages, English is fully-equipped. As I lie on my back, on the roof of a car, in Hatfield MA (can you see me?) I wonder if a symptom of growing old is feeling like your alphabet is complete. I wonder casually if "Happiness / Let Child Roam" is the last piece in the puzzle of how-to-perpetually-enjoy-myself-eternally. So between "Post-Modern Girls" and "Father to a Sister of Thought" and peanut butter-banana sandwiches and cold coffee and kissing and The Philadelphia Story and coasting down a hill on a bike and the way scotch tape cleans a cell phone I just won't ever need anything else to always be having a great time, I can just rotate between all of these perpetually for the rest of my life. Of course it's completely egotistical to think that all the most enjoyable things will happen during the time in your life when you're open to that sort of thing, but I mean it only in the nicest way. The way Capybara boom-in that fuzz guitar halfway through and end with their stick-clacks and sailors' choir, maybe that's it, maybe that's all I need.
(see you Friday!)

[Site]

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Titus Andronicus Contest:
Some great submissions, good work to all who submitted. The first runner-up is "Tu: Unicorn Sadist" and no one got the instant-winner I had in mind (today's title) so the WINNER IS "Custard Unionist" by Drew. It makes me think of the Pudding Riots in the 20's and lines and lines of beige breadline dessert passionantes. So congrats, Drew, email me your info and we'll get you that vinyl.

TITUS ANDRONICUS PLAY IL MOTORE FRI SEPT 4th. Go see them. Other dates here.

The Hidden Cameras - "Ratify the New"
The Flaming Lips - "The Captain"

These songs have fictional physics. The kind of dream science that anything can happen if you just start small. These songs move slowly like the sun. They move like mountains tapped on the shoulder, turning around to see who it is. They rip up the roots, in slow motion, their regular motion is slow motion. They move like whales organizing to change the tides. They fold up forests and lay creases at the valleys. They use sky in their speech and whole planets in their eyes. They magnify the enormous, louden the deafening, repeat the obvious.

Hidden Cameras links:
[The Hidden Cameras' Origin:Orphan relased Sept. 22 on Arts & Crafts] [free EP with pre-purchased show tickets]

Flaming Lips links:
[Soft Bulletin re-issue with non-album tracks]

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TITUS ANDRONICUS CONTEST
Still 4 hours left! There's still at LEAST one left!
(winner announced next week!)

(still from The Rape of the Sabine Women)

Ernest + Tom - "Non Stop Orbit"

Virgin, common, liar, too rich, too smiley, gay, hot but boring, angry, short, way too short, old, selfish, wears makeup, cries, smoker, doesn't have a car, cheesy, stupid, bald, show-off, gross teeth, stuck in the past, no male friends, muscle-head, desperate, too healthy, takes phone calls at dinner, always apologizing, ruined by other girls, dresses nicer than me, hair too long, fucking awful shoes, blase, cheap, rebounding, too jealous, bad fuck, "Game" advocate, little twee bitch, fat, ugly, sweaty, testy, tests me, pencil-thin anything, finishes my sentences, gets too drunk, fake laugh, coward, kisses too quick, remembers too much from phone conversations, doesn't tip cabbies, embarrassing pants, couldn't find the bathroom in a bar, grabby, dense, pink blazer, talks about youtube.
[MySpace]

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TITUS ANDRONICUS CONTEST

I've written about Titus Andronicus a couple of times (1, 2). Now, Titus Andronicus are going on tour this week (They will be here in Montreal on Sept 4th at Il Motore, but don't worry, I'll remind you next week). In promotion, they are giving away a 12" vinyl Live in London. We have one to give away. So a small contest will take place:

Put your best anagram of "Titus Andronicus" in the comments. I've got one in mind that I'm really hoping to see. Contest ends Friday August 28th at 11:59pm EST. have fun!