Archives : all posts by Dan

Daniel Kroha's New Band Who Don't Have A Name Yet - "Don't Get In The Car"

I've always been a victim of something or other. This time it was third-degree carpet burn. It was a balancing accident involving a shopping cart, a copy of Northern Newsly, and a soon-to-be-stained basement carpet. When the wheel hit the magazine, I dove face-first into the scotch guard at 25mph and it ripped my face up. It looked like I'd rubbed my face in a Denny's skillet. I had a job interview the next day, cashier at Brady's. I told the guy I got mugged. He was fat and his white shirt tucked into his belt was stretched so tight I could see the hairs on his stomach through the fabric. "What'd they mug you with, a cheese grater?" he sat back in his chair, so proud. I saw my chance, "No, actually, they stole all my money and ID, and threw me down on the pavement," I looked at the floor, drawing him in, "I've got bad balance so I don't have the reflexes to protect my head when I fall." I got the job. Floor cashier first week. I even dated the guy's daughter. Well, dated. We jerked each other off after doing whippets in the walk-in fridge. I went right out and finished my shift. She liked my face the way it looked, she said it was like kissing a zombie. I looked at her and said in a low slow voice, "Braaaas.." and went for her shirt. She liked that.

Viva L'American Death Ray - "First Impression"

I've always been a victim of something or other. This time it was a stab in the back. Me and Theo, we've always been close. Coupla ding-dings, my dad used to say, when we were kids. We used to run weed and sell firecrackers and beat up smaller kids for their bikes, stuff like that. But we were best buddies, like brothers. We mixed our blood, we called it doing The Viking's Cheers. One time I even took heat for Theo. I remember we were 16, well I was 16-and-a-half, and he wanted to steal a car. He hadn't got his driver's license yet, and I had mine, but he wanted to try driving so he said let's steal Mackenzie Greyhound's car, 'cause she was a rich kid in our neighbourhood so she wouldn't care. Well when the cops tried to catch us, Theo jumped out of the car and they didn't see him so when they finally got me, with a big knee on my back, I didn't tell them he was with me. He'd been to jail before so they were gonna really send him away but I didn't say nothing. So here we are, me and Theo, 6 years later, and it's like he's forgotten all about what I did for him. I have to hear from Patty Greyhound, Mackenzie's little trampy sister, that Theo's been saying you got no heart and you're basically a goof. Some brother. Some friend. Coupla ding-dings my ding-ding.

[Buy Yeti Ten from Yeti Publishing]

Ernest Djedje - "Zadie Bobo"

"Play the best song you know," they said, into the phone. "Okay, but after that we hang up." "Okay, okay." "I love you," they said, it was the morning where they were, the sun cold outside their bedroom window, the pillow warm. Slowly, clicking, fumbling, placing the phone. Mini-Elvis bobblehead waited, perched on the windowsill. The flat and fanning horns came in, and suddenly the phone had all the power in the world.

Moussa Doumbia - "Unité"

Oranges around the world, salt from here to there, oil under the sand, diamonds impossible, the mountains to see it all. Curvature, bodies and earth.

[Buy through Juno Records]

(image: directions to Cory's Cave)

Group Doueh - "Beatte Harab"

Markeh and Nevi want a child. Two men cannot conceive a child. Nor can they adopt. Markeh and Nevi live in a small town, they fear death if their neighbours were to discover that they are not like the other men their age who live together. Roommate is a word with two meanings in the local language; it means "co-lodger" as normal, but it also means "co-builder", as in a kind of teammate. Markeh and Nevi still used "roommate", but meant it really as "teammate". And they wanted a child. Markeh traveled to a doctor far out of town, and pretended to be a husband lacking potency to impregnate his wife. "Is there anything...else I can do?" The doctor had a leering look, he had an air of tired violence. Too many patients asking too many miracles. "Get your friend to bed your wife. Turn out the lights, she may not know the difference." Confused and upset, Markeh arrived home to find Nevi gone, a note: singing. He went to Valeth, the green hill, where Nevi would sing some nights. When he sung he sounded possessed, as if God himself were passing through him, as if all the ghosts of all the dead were passing through him. When he sang he seemed to bring things into being that were not there before, notes that do not exist in pretty songs. He sang, near screaming, for nearly an hour. Markeh loved him and watched him and sighed. [Buy]

Adriano Celentano - "Prisencolinensinaiciusol"

FIRST CONFIRMED CASE OF ALIEN SEDUCTION. PROOF OF ALIEN NATURE: INCOMPREHENSIBLE USE OF GRATUITOUS HARMONICA. PROOF OF SEDUCTIVE NATURE: LISTEN TO THAT PULSE. [Buy]

(image)

Atlas Sound - "Mona Lisa"

With the afternoon sparkling through the leaves, dashed upon the light walls, the two were curled up in the cutest possible position: trying to read the same book at the same time. Impractical, yes, but fucking cute. Platonic does not just mean without sex, it really refers to the transcendent, above the material. "Are you done?" she reads fast, she doesn't hear the words in her head like he does.

Atlas Sound - "Drums & Pissing"

At night, they argue over dinner. "Are you saying you wouldn't love me if I were Hispanic?" "Not at all. Of course I would." "But you're saying you'd have to think about it." "I'm saying my...my intake of you as a person would have to be rebooted, you know?" "Why?" "Because, unfortunately, we live in a society that cultural heritage is a factor in the consumption of a person's personality." "Just 'cause we live in that world doesn't mean you have to play by those rules. I don't see it as a factor at all." "I'm not saying it would change anything, I'm just saying..no, yes I am, of course it would change things..--" "See? This is what I'm saying. You're basically racist." "Whoa. Come on." The waiter comes over, hispanic, "Is everything okay?"

Atlas Sound - "How to Pass the Time"

As they drift off to sleep, their minds go in different ways. She imagines the cold sunday mornings, at church with her family, where she would go afterward and count the collection in a bare white room. Her father wears a tie with stain on it; the stain is bugging her. Meanwhile, he's on a plane, with no windows but also no wind, over some African-looking landscape, where the patterns in the grass make faces and frowns and animal shapes. He's holding a small container of berries, not eating them but squishing them between his fingers. He looks curiously at the stains on his fingers.

[Bedroom Databank Vol. 3]
[Bedroom Databank Vol. 4]

(image source: this insanity)

Bradford Cox of Deerhunter has released FOUR ALBUMS worth of new material as Atlas Sound. They are wonderful and surprising and full of little marvels. One would think (meaning, "I thought") that given such a huge amount of music in one shot, lots of it would be bad, but I was proven wrong. All four albums, called simply Bedroom Databank vol. 1-4, are available for free via his blog. I will post one song from each, volumes 1 & 2 today, 3 & 4 on Friday.

Atlas Sound - "Wild Love"

At my first painniversary the gift was of course paper. I was given notes, some personal, some to be read aloud. "I never thought it was right", "I forgive you", "I completely understand, I've been where you are", "get over yourself", "this is taking too much, too long", and so on.

Atlas Sound - "Helio Intro"

Wait. Fuck. Wait, wait. fuck. Fuck, wait. Wait, wait wait... Wait, fuck! Fuck. Wait. Wait. Wait, wait. Wait, fuck, waitwait. Wait. Fuck. Fuuuuuck. Wait. Wait, wait. Fuuuuck. Fuck. Wait, wait, wait wait wait waitwaitwaiwaiwaiwait. Waaaaaaaaiit. Wait, fuck. Fuck, wait. Wait, wait, fuck, wait, wait. Fuck. Wait, fuck. Fuck! Wait! Waaaaaiit! Wait. Fuck? Wait. wait. wait, fuck. wait, wait, fuck. fuck. wait. wai-

[Bedroom Databank vol. 1]
[Bedroom Databank vol. 2]

Matthew Friedberger - "Courteous and Orderly" (removed at label request)

A house with thirty staircases. Stairs to the cupboard, to the kitchen table, to the toilet, to the window. Out the window, stairs in the backyard, to the pool, to the tree, to the rainbow ferris wheel, out of service. A winding staircase in the middle of the yard, up up up. Past the treetop, past the top of the rainbow ferris wheel, out of service, to a platform high in the air. On the platform are two chairs and a table, very small, almost crouch-y. Precarious. Up on the platform, on the table, piping hot tea. Tea cups. Saucers. Biscuits, land! Sit up there, with an incantation, a small prayer to "My juggie, my puggie" and hold the tea ceremony. Feel the wind, see the land, sway in the air, enjoy the tea, enjoy the biscuit. Relax, if you do that. Steep, if you can. Sing, as you do.

Napoleonette is a fascinating album, with many great moments (like oh, the hell of it, and underneath the mountain in Monterey), well worth getting.

[Pre-order subscriptions for Solos, an eventual EIGHT-ALBUM SET from Thrill Jockey that will take all of 2011 to release. Oh my, yes.] [image source]

--

NEW, EXCITING SITES

OUT MY WINDOW

An interactive documentary about the institution of the concrete high-rise apartment. From all over the world, real people have let the NFB glimpse inside their lives, and discuss their apartments, their buildings, and how they relate to the world outside their window. It's a brilliant, and very touching project. Go, with half an hour to spare, and check out (at the very least) some of my favourite stories. In Johannesburg, check out the story of bandit landlords in 'Hijacked Buildings', go to Sao Paolo and watch 'Everybody's Baby', it's a story of a phenomenal, instinctive kind of love. In Beirut, see 'Balcony Bombing Music', and in Toronto, check out 'Yak', the story of Tibetan exiles living in Canada.
*Directed by Kat Cizek with music supervision by Helen Spitzer*

CRANKYTOWN

Friends of mine have spent a year putting together a wonderful website dedicated to young women experiencing their first period. It's currently in development, so right now it's only Camp Cranky, the whole Town is yet to come, but what they have so far is pretty astounding. True, funny, lovely stories from women in Canada and around the world. Go look, see some great videos, hear some neat poems (by people like Feist and Emma Thompson!), and maybe share the page with someone who might really need it.
*Created by Jenna Wright, Vanessa Matsui, and Liane Balaban*

Puppets by Jenna Wright, photographed by Ian MacMillan

The Slits - "Shoplifting"
Group Inerane - "Tchigefen"

This is not the time of "us". Each creature lives upon a timeline, extended unseen from their chest jutting forward in the direction of their movements. At each point on the timeline, there is a signature, as a human culture we use a dateline, but in actuality the imprint is much more detailed. Unhappy, rich, hungry, in love but unnoticed, guilty, unborn, pleasing to the eye. On a constantly changing timeline, you can be standing in front of someone, having met another person in this world, and sense keenly but with no evidence, our keys have matched at different points, they do not match now, good bye.

[Buy Cut]
[Buy Guitars from Agadez Vol 3]