Archives : all posts by Dan

Hologram - "Blazey Storm"

Hologram are unassuming. They're not operating with any gimmicks or tricks or showy selling points. I'm trying to say: they're not interesting. But they are amazing. Simply, with few instruments and little inhibitions, reservations, they have burst onto the scene, meaning my scene, meaning my heart.

Here, in "Blazey Storm", Caroline (drums, voice) comes taw-tawing down the street just totally swinging, singing, pursed. No indication, ever, is given to just how good things will get. That's what I love about this band right away. It's like when you play a level in Contra so much that when you're finally doing it flawlessly, you kind of wake up halfway through and you're like "woah, I'm still not making any mistakes!" That's what this is like; no mistakes. Listen, really, none.

Hologram - "Team"

This is literally a hologram. It's hard to see, you need to be at the right angle, but there it is clearly. See, that's what Broadcast would look like if they were a focused rock band. Yeah, that's them, that's Hologram, out having pancakes at 3am, high-fiving the waitress. They're really "carousing", aren't they? They're really vital, with that steady smashing and that moaning guitar, and those vocals sounding almost like caroling. You'd almost think, as they crest with that lovely pink scream, that you wouldn't be able to pass your hand right through.

[Site]

(photo from The Wooster Collective)

So, this is the last thing I'm going to say about the Wonderful Video Contest before it's over. We've been getting some amazing submissions, and everything is going great etc. BUT...this is it. You have one week from today to submit, and if you haven't started yet, you can still start now and get it done in time. In hopes of encouraging you, lighting a fire under you, I'm submitting to you (not to the contest, obv) a video I just finished tonight. It's made with puppets and it might be the best thing I've ever done.

Fiery Furnaces - Slavin Away from daniel beirne on Vimeo.

made by Dan Beirne and Etan Muskat

additional assistance from Marc Rowland, Danny Zabbal, and Pat & Nora Beirne

No Age - "I Wanna Sleep"

I turned my family's home into a laboratory. I say my family's because they really own it, not me. I paid for it, I worked for it, but I don't really own it. That is, I didn't really own it until now. I cleared out all the furniture, I took down all the pictures, removed all the fixtures. The only thing that stayed was the plumbing and the foundation. I covered all the walls in white tile, even the ceiling, and every few feet there's a drain. I can make tests in completely sterile settings. I test viscosity and fecundity, velocity and perk. I'm a man of very few rules, but the rules that exist are hard and fast. And I had become lazy in enforcing them, a traitor to myself. So now the kids can make their lunches on the tile counter, the food stored on the colder parts of the floor, and we can all get along a bit better. I can never go back to how it was. [Buy]

(photo by meredith)

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Oh, the deadline for the Wonderful Video Contest is in 11 days! So finish editing, wrap shooting, or get goshdarned started! because this is it! the one!

Night Recordings from Bali - "Gamelan Gabor #2"

Like a hundred people trying to build a house of cards, like some wild vaudeville madhouse slapstick, this smashing smashing is an enormous drunken wander. Teetering and swaying and then falling forward and running, then stop! -ping and running again. It's mob logic, it's mania by committee, it's dark and red and silver and so so beautiful. It's impossible to dance to, you look like someone trying to sing along to made-up words, but it's amazing to watch it dance. [Buy from Sublime Frequencies]

OOIOO - "Umo"

Get out of here. Get out of here, they're coming. [Buy]

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idea for combination from going through old favourites at popsheep

Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run"

As I was thrown spinning from the wreckage, I thought to myself, "I'll never get to see Obama win."

This is no time to give up. Staying up all night is good for your health. The same way crying your eyes out or getting punched in the face is good for your health.

I got married when I was 17. And goddammit, look at me now. I earned this face.

This? This is nothing. Honestly, it's nothing. You'll think it's nothing when it's over.

He said he loved me "with all the madness in his soul". And I believed him. I had no reason not to.

Largely, I don't see the point of dancing naked after a shower, but I just couldn't help myself. I felt like a blade of grass, or a flag or something.

They knew it was a lost cause. Anybody could have seen that. But they just kept fighting. Oh my god, you should have seen that.

"I'll have a side of fries as well."

"Okay, side of fries, with what sauce?"

Direct eye contact, "American."

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[Buy] [Tom Scharpling version] (image credit: I found it here, took the words out, and couldn't help but notice there are only white people in this picture)

Ladyhawk - "Night You're Beautiful" (mp3 removed at label request)

Like truth in television, like overreacting, like karaoke, this song carries with it a kind of soft drama, a warm familiar holler that's at once both comforting and Sunday-sad. It's, like much of Ladyhawk's great songs, made for summer woods with towering towering trees that seep crushes and furtive campfire smiles out their sides. This is a song someone will have their heart broken to, no question. I'm just glad it's not going to be me. [Buy old stuff]

SS Cardiacs - "Age of Navigation"

I'm working on a small mass of knowledge not found in regular books. If you think of an encyclopedia less like a contirbution to science, less of a mountain of facts, and more like a friend to help you get through something, then you're beginning to understand The Encyclopedia Dan. It will contain answers, though maybe not the answers, to questions that I wish I could have read about before I finding out for myself.

file under: life changes: small: face
the first day that you wear your glasses you might feel like you're shorter than you are. you might feel uglier than you are, you might get a headache.

file under: purchases: small
when you buy a dish rack from the dollar store, don't forget to also buy the tray that goes underneath it. that's also a dollar.

file under: growing up: firsts
if you need to know what french kissing is like, and how to do it, I would recommend thinking of the kiss as a sleep and your tongue as the dream. It's not right away, and it doesn't last the whole time.

file under: etiquette: tipping
you should tip movers. And not just with lemonade. 15-30$ should be fine.

file under: general questions
you're right where you should be. you're on the right track.

You can add your own in the comments. Though you're wrong if you think I know enough to make The Wikipedia Dan.

[download Fear the Love for $8.88]