Archives : all posts by Dan

Sweet - "Co-Co"

Today is the last Best Show on WFMU. And I had prepared a eulogy. It was about how the show truly felt like a companion that I had spent the last seven years with. It talked about breath, about a 'living & thinking' work of art. It made me cry while I wrote about the times it's helped me through. It started with the phrase "radio is a medium prone to obsession". But then I woke up this morning to read it one last time and thought, "Ha."

It's one of my favourite things on earth, and I will miss it dearly. There.

[13 years of archives, last show 9pm EST - midnight]

Thee Oh Sees - "What You Need"
Thee Oh Sees - "Devil Again"

The party was one of those "nice socks" parties. Where you look on the floor and they're all clean and cumulatively it's like a thousand bucks. Dead-eyed ladies and well-cuffed men, and somehow I felt like these people were all the contents of the Queen's rectum. Queen shit. And I fit right in. It didn't matter that I didn't know anyone, it didn't look like they even knew each other. I stole someone's nice-ass beer, ate a few vegan somethings, and hit the coat room. I always stand halfway in my shoes and pretend to look for my smokes, like they fell out of my pocket. From that party I got three phones and two wallets. Christmas is when I make my money for the year.

Outside, the snowbanks were like castle walls.

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Eminem - "Love Game (ft. Kendrick Lamar)"

I kinda like living in a place I kinda hate.

Co-dependent fire, drum pulse rare-flossed grin all blood in the teeth. Days that clamor, loud and long, either God or the mayor's fingernails ripped up track marks, pyloned craters that drip down iron to the Lake. People put on their jackets in community centers and think, "Well, a little bit is better than nothing." Drivers deaf and grimacing with Angry Young Man's disease, sceptre-swinging and power-stripped. "That's a million-dollar home. And that's a million-dollar home. And that's a million-dollar home." That? That's a leaf. "Sorry. Next to the leaf." And the weather screams, tortured and strapped to the ceiling.

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(image from consume consume)

1.
Sardines have a lot of predators, let's face it. But they have a built-in defense against these predators called baitballing. When they are under threat, they swirl rapidly in a large spherical mass, becoming, essentially, a weapon. Some predators either see the mass as a larger animal or can't process what's happening and move on. But often predators are familiar with the baitball and will pick off the undoubtedly slower, weaker swimmers on the outside. The baitball really only works for those on the inside. So why would the weaker, slower fish participate in the baitball? They're going to lose. But they don't know the numbers. And for fish, survival is all about the numbers. Thousands of eggs are laid by every mating pair, but only a few survive to adulthood. To a fish, there is no such thing as the odds of survival, and thank goodness, because they would just give up and die.

2.
I swear to fucking God I could feel his cell phone vibrating in his pocket during the show. I could FEEL it. I was sitting next to him and I could hear it with my cheek, I felt it in my shoe. And I knew what was happening: "You're so good!" "You look cute up there!" "Haha, sry Ill wait til your finished" I was sweating. My thighs were sweating. Those fucking seats were making my thighs sweat and I thought Christmas is gonna suck. I'll be up there with my parents and CNN.com and fucking Ricky the dickhead, and all I'm gonna be able to think about is him and all he'll be doing is texting and texting her and they'll be sending each other fucking holiday selfies. "Should I eat this?" snapchat whole bowl of chocolates. "YA!" reply super-cute smile. Ugh, 1000-piece puzzle here I fucking come.

3.
On the back of a receipt for iced tea and a Kit-Kat Chunky: "It's social suicide, it's very different."

Don Cavalli - "You And My Zundapp"

I've laid in bed ten thousand times and clucked the moon under my tongue. It's sugary with every bed-partner I've ever had and they all get stirred up and together like ocean dust. I've felt the same way every night, I watched-pot myself to sleep from four feet in the air, thinking maybe I'll be able to see it happen, learn how. And there is no lesson from the flicker and the uplights that jag ceiling corners, there is only wouldn't that be slutty, and text messages, the new erections.

[Buy Temperamental from Insound]

(photo by Jérémie Souteyrat of a park in Fukushima)

Sparks - "Big Boy"

I deserve a piece, I get a piece. Everyone who works hard gets a piece and I wanna piece. I want a big piece, I don't know which one, but I'll know the piece when I see it. Lemme see some pieces, I wanna pick my piece. I want that piece, that's the piece I want, that's a big piece, that's a good one. Gimme my piece, now. I came here, gimme my piece, I want it. Don't touch my piece til I get it, no one can touch it anymore until I get it, it's my piece. See that piece? Don't touch it, it's mine. You promise you'll watch my piece, right? I don't want anyone touching it. It's mine. Mine. Mmm, I want it. Tasty piece. Big, tasty piece. Want it. Want it so bad. Look at it. Look at my piece, look at it. So big. Mmm, tasty. Yummy piece. Imma get that. 'Ma get that piece. Mmm. Yum.

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Sparks played an incredible show in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. The brothers Mael continue to be an inspiration. Europe is next on their tour.

The Dirty Nil - "Nicotine"

When I was 16 I chased Larry Berg through the woods. Something about the memory feels justified, like a holy quest. I remember the air was cold in my lungs and I felt like it was making me stronger, and him weaker. I remember when he tripped and fell and I pounced. It was lunch hour, I remember that.

The days when Larry Berg would show up to school in his leather car. I remember he brought greyness to my face when he spoke. When he smiled and everyone believed it. I remember the way he would look through me, and crack his knuckles absently whenever he felt like it. I remember his wallet. 15.15$ and a full sub club card. I remember thinking the club card was more valuable.

[offered kindly by the band as a download from our site, this is from the upcoming 2014 EP Smite, which, if their other material is any indication, promises to be fantastic. They have a video for this song, and you can purchase other stuff at their bandcamp, and I've written about them previously]