Archives : all posts by Dan

Pet Politics - "When I Get Old"

Pet Politics reminds me of Agent Simple. Them both being from Gothenburg has almost nothing to do with, though. Or maybe it has more to do with it than I understand. There's just no illusions about the nuts and bolts of life. There's no talk about "true love" or "perfection", it's just "what I like best" and "my friends and my wife". It's just major chords, that's all. It's just a tambourine, another layer of guitars, and a verse about the city. He likes to write songs about things that make him happy, about things there are to do, and about plans you can make with all this time and space. Perhaps it is geographical, maybe I'm meant to live in Gothenburg, where this will all resonate so strongly with me I'll just Tacoma Narrows all over the place.

[New 7"] [MySpace]

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T. D. Reisert - "To Sleep the Sleep"

Even though I am most certainly a man, my love, I'm writing to you because I think I'm pregnant. I know we haven't spoken in a couple of months, and what we had together was negligible, to be kind. In all honesty, I've forgotten your last name. But I am undoubtedly altered, and I fear, expect, suspect, something is growing. I remember the smell of sweat in your hair, your cold cheeks. I feel your dents and bumps, the warped lines of your body, like a pile of cinnamon in my stomach. The mark you left is heavy, I carry it around with me wherever I go. It takes half of my energy, I can't stay out as late anymore, and I need help getting out of cars and up from the floor. It's a burden, I admit, it weighs me down, it's holding me back. But still, despite what younger people think, or some of my friends think, I'm proud of it, it makes me nervous and excited, I've already started to care for it. It makes me think about the future.

[my man T.D.]

Shapes & Sizes - "Alone/Alive"

I got on a bus to Toronto to look for a job, it was the 9pm. It was late, and I wasn't at all tired, so I got off at Cornwall 'cause I could see the pinball machine (Lethal Weapon 4) through the bus window, and I liked how empty the station was. The driver had to unlock it to let me in, I mean there was NO one. I liked that, it was way better than the stupid bus which was just full of weirdos anyway, watching downloaded tv and holding it in. I played pinball until 3 or so, talked to the operator on the payphone a bunch (Trudy, which probably wasn't her real name, we talked about being naked in a sleeping bag, and how it's cold and slippery and sweaty) then went walking on fencetops and looking in darkened windows. I ran down the cold street and shouted "lights out! lights out!" like a crazy old man. I wandered a whole bunch, I like looking at people's houses, it's like their face in a way, a sign of how they're living their life. I kept expecting to see someone, but I never did. I kept expecting the sun to come up, but it didn't.

[Buy]

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a more straightforward approach lies at ajisignal.com, where I wrote this piece's big sister.

I have just been pointed to the incredible Sublime Frequencies label. I've heard Group Inerane now, and I don't want to go home. I feel like we'll be hearing, if I may, game-changing things from this label.

Group Inerane - "Kamu Talyat"

I don't know what's out there, I don't know how old I'll get, and I can't stop thinking about what it'll be like tomorrow. I'd rather not speak, I can hear the soccer game down below in the town, but from this rooftop I'd rather keep it to myself. Not speaking is my way of telling you that I'm alright. I'm always looking at myself in mirrors when I see them, windows when I pass them, because I like to be reminded of what I look like. Sometimes I feel like a cat or a mushroom, or much shorter or awkward than I am. I move like a horse, I move steady and with grace, I'm a full cup of man and I'm happy to be reminded of my blessings. I take this song as one of my blessings, that I wrote for this town, for those four girls, for my family and for the ocean when I'm near it. I believe we'll be seeing a lot of each other; enough to learn what smiles lie waiting inside, and I think it will be nice. Let the sun set blue and let the wind blow the smoke towards the water.

Group Inerane - "Awal September"

At 6 she had divorced her parents and moved to the city. She grew up with the homeless and at 22 had solved that whole problem. (hint: a definitional adjustment)

[More about Group Inerane] [Sold Out Everywhere]

Extra Golden - "Jakolando"

Two brothers are headed into town, the hot afternoon sun white on the gravel road. Onyango has the money, to get the bread and sugar, and Ganabe skips alongside. They walk the alleys of the market, saying hello to the few people they recognise. They are referred to as a unit by the people in town. "Jakolando," they say, "you'll get fat on this much sugar." "My father makes less than you, Bunte." "You are too sensitive, Jakolando, I'm only kidding." Onyango does not smile as he takes the bundle under his arm to leave. "I want to stay and talk with the women," says Ganabe, tugging at his brother's hand and pointing to the tavern where the music is coming from, softly. "We don't have time." The women make eyes at the little Ganabe. "Hi, Jakolando." Ganabe will be a man eventually, but Onyango will be a man first, and there's no telling what will happen between then and now. The boys head home as the sun sets coolly behind the bare trees. Ganabe makes them stop for water, and then again to urinate. [Buy]

Fiery Furnaces - "A Candymaker's Knife"

Part two in my continuing insistence that Rehearsing My Choir is fantastic. "A Candymaker's Knife" is really when the story of the album's main character gets underway. It's the third track on the album, and there's been a lot of hinting, setting up, thematic beginnings, but its most clear beginning is here. A young woman, taking a cooking class, is swept up in her hectic life. The song's opening spookiness foreshadows the main plot point: that on the night she is to meet her father-in-law for the first time, she gets drunk and embarrasses herself in front of her new family. A simple and tender plot, approached (no, attacked) from all sides at once by call-and-response double-character illustration by Eleanor and Olga, and the music waltzing, sometimes leading other times following, along. The lyrical and musical synchronicities hit like a full-page image in a comic, or a sentence in all caps, "I wore the scarf he sent to me..." becomes blue, floating, a standstill. And my favourite image "I reached for the arm of the armchair and missed..." gets me every time, because I immediately go back to the title, as she's falling, and I think, as I would, drunk, about the knife. [Buy]

Bedtime - "Fall, In a Shade of Red"

My Bedtime cd arrived in the mail today. It's different than I expected, having listened only to streams, and only parts of them. I knew I wanted to hear it clearer, and I listened over and over to "Fall, In a Shade of Red" while walking around today. The air, now cold enough to chill your nose, was right. The strangers, a mixture of business people and ben folds fans, were just right. The music, with pleasant vocal dekes and guitar solos like an old highway, strong and coolly crumbling, was grey and perfect. It's a song that doesn't pull you too far in one direction, which I liked, today I just want someone to stand with me, just stand there, not changing me.

[Buy]

Kutiman - "Music is Ruling My World"

I feel like I've gotten away with a crime listening to this song, my booty like the wheels of a getaway car over lined pavement. This song is all asphalt, as in ass-fault, as in fault line, as in line of coke, as in coca-cola, as in brown syrupy liquid, dripping down the back of your hand, onto the dancefloor, mixing with the loose change, dripping from my pockets, 'cause I got money to burn. I'm rich when I listen to this, I'm hot-steppin', noose-preppin', you know what I mean? It's over, brother, and I'm taking all of this stuff with me, even your chair. That means you, and you, and you, are coming with me. Get it? I didn't come for the breakdown, I came for the verses, as in vs., as in we're fighting this out, this ends tonight! Time to test your addictions, see if they're still there. Watch out!! [Buy]

The Phonemes - "Pain Perdu"

The brilliant bursting Phonemes are bringing the sunlight on cafeteria trays today with "Pain Perdu". Translated, it is generally understood to mean French Toast, but I prefer "lost bread". Little slices of rye following the man in the brown jacket for 20 minutes before realizing that's not their father. Suddenly the crowd seems purposefully ignoring them, just any old slice of bread, and a frantic panic head-turning reveals no familiar face. Some lost slices run around crying, others simply wander, enjoying the sights for their new sad beauty. But a piece of bread cannot be a poet, at least not all of them, and surely it's only a matter of time before one goes stale. Then one can only hope to be softened slightly by holding eggs and milk, and settling into a routine. Every day, every day, every night, every night, all I want, all I want... [Buy]

Dan Deacon - "Wham City" [11:45]

"Wham City" is split distinctly into two parts. The first part is seven minutes, the second part is almost five. They seem like separate approaches to the same song, glued together, but their union evokes in me separate eras of a great and old city.

In Part I, we slowly enter Wham City, old stone pillars hold the sky resting just above the rooftops, and the town square is eerily deserted, tables and chairs empty, until (at 1:51) people, rows and rows of people, swoop into the carrefour from the woods and begin to sing, hands splayed, in tribute. They build a brass fountain in the center of the square, and it is the pride of Wham City. And in the infant days of this city, life is hard but worthwhile, as the citizens have found a common goal, and have successfully found a way to work on a community; with surrender.

In Part II (at 7:12), we return to Wham City, in the far distant future, where the poor have been replaced by robot slaves, and the rich that remain are organic humans. The poor sing a working song as they shove stacking blocks beneath their human masters elevating them higher and higher, as high as they can stack, digging up the dirt from the once-deserted square to make the artificial mountains even taller. Eventually they hit brass, and carefully sweep it away, to find the fountain, the one the original pioneers had built, and the robots are the only ones listening to the message that emanates from within, and they promptly stop their stacking and follow the newly-freed spirits of the city back into the woods outside of town. [Buy]

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Neil Young - "The Way" [Buy]

these are the only words that come to mind

(Saiga Yuji)