Fives on Friday, 4/5/2024
Bandcamp Friday, new Fictiones, plus my appearance on Zero Brightness
Happy Friday! Hope all my east coasters rode that earthquake safely. As you head into your weekend, here are five recommendations, five track reviews, and five album micro reviews. Access to these curated links and tunes will only cost you your time and five pieces of self-promotion. Maybe you’ll find something new to read, listen to, or do this weekend. See you next week!
» » » » » GET REC’D « « « « «
I don’t have much to say about this older piece from Blackbird Spyplane about the importance of credit sequences and liner notes other than “hell yeah.” Whether you’ve read my series Drumming Upstream or visited my bandcamp you know that I love liner notes. I love reading them and I love writing them. The more names the better! Robust credits help demystify the creative process and help the average listener quantify the labor that goes into making their favorite music.
This post from Aquarium Drunkard about “Late Cold War Style” put a name to a collection of interests that have been swirling in my head for the last few months. You’ve probably noticed that my Listening Diary has been populated by a number of tracks from the late 70s and early 80s lately. Solo Peter Gabriel, Argentinian jazz rock, the early stages of post-punk, the last days of the high prog era, etc. For completely unrelated reasons I’ve also been reading about New York City in the same era. I suppose something about the air of defeatism in the national spirit and all of the discourse about the supposed crime dystopia of present day New York has me looking backwards for precedents. Can you think of other good examples of Late Cold War records?
If you’d prefer to think about the future instead, you might find this piece by composer Phong Tran about changing the way commissions work in classical music/art music interesting. Tran does a great job detailing how the economics of music have forced composers to become more proficient performers and made ensembles operate more like bands. In these conditions it makes a lot of sense for composer/performers and ensembles to treat each other more like direct collaborators than separate entities. I’m more skeptical of going direct-to-consumer with commissions. While I’m sure there is a market for people who want bespoke music from composers, I worry that a lot of that crowd might already be looking to AI-generated solutions to that desire. Still, all worth considering!
One of the smartest parts of Phong Tran’s piece is looking to other art disciplines for inspiration. I think artists have a lot to gain by sharing their perspectives and practices across disciplines, which is why I’m excited to attend the second Priyo open mic & showcase at Parley in Sunset Park on Sunday, April 7th. These events are a good way for poets and musicians to link up and rub shoulders, plus the food is legit great.
As I mentioned in my letter two weeks ago, John Berger’s work in Ways of Seeing and About Looking were a major influence on my lyrics for The Lonely Atom. After the record dropped I pulled this piece from Aeon about Berger’s career after Ways of Seeing from the bottom of my reading pile and gave it a look over. The piece makes two arguments that I found refreshing. First, as I claimed on the Death//Sentence podcast, that John Berger’s “warm materialism” is the template for pretty much all cultural criticism in the internet era, especially on video-centric mediums like YouTube. Second, that Berger’s arguments about the way art has lost context in the televisual era dovetail neatly with his political interests in exiles, migrants, and the stateless. As personal as The Lonely Atom is, these ideas point to the political themes under the record’s surface.
# # # # # The Self Promo Zone # # # # #
Wouldn’t you know it, it’s Bandcamp Friday again already! And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve got a brand new album for you (yes, you!!) to buy. It’s called The Lonely Atom, and it’s best collection of neo-nü-metal and alienated electro-pop jams that you’re likely to find in 2024. Does the thought of a hypothetical “Hybrid Theory at home” excite you? Do you think Deafheaven didn’t go far enough to be truly considered “hipster black metal”? Then this album is for you! You can buy the album digitally on my bandcamp or grab a cassette copy via Furious Hooves & People | Places Records. You can also pick up a Lamniformes shirt and a handful of releases from the Lamniformes back catalog while you’re at it!
Speaking of speaking about my new album, I made an appearance on a recent episode of the video game podcast Zero Brightness to talk about The Lonely Atom and nostalgia for the aesthetics of the y2k era in modern culture. We also ended up talking for a long time about grief in the internet era, what MF Doom has to do with Sufism, and ended with a podcast length digression about Dark Souls. I had a great time talking to Ali Jafaar and I think you’ll have a good time listening to us.
Ali and I started talking about Dark Souls because of a piece I wrote a few years ago about my experience playing the game for the first time while processing the death of a friend. I haven’t had much time to write about video games lately, mostly because I haven’t had time the time to play many video games (maybe now that I have a job again that’ll change, as counter-intuitive as that seems). Still, despite it not being my usual beat I’m proud of this piece. If you’ve wondered what the deal is with Dark Souls, give it a read!
Lamniformes isn’t the only project I’m involved with that’s released new music recently. Fictiones, the band led by Dan Rico that I’ve drummed for over the last year just released their latest single “Someday We Might”. You can listen to the tune, which blends soul, house grooves, and jazz fusion chops into a super unique party jam.
After taking a month off to focus on The Lonely Atom promo, I’m getting back into the groove, literally, with Drumming Upstream. As promised the next entry covers “Moment of Truth” by Gang Starr. To read this entry and to gain access to the rest of the Drumming Upstream archive, subscribe now for only $5 a month. You’ll also get all of my new tunes in advance of their official release!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here are five songs that I enjoyed listening to recently! You can find a playlist with all of this year’s tracks at the bottom of this section.
“My True Love is Depression” by Citric Dummies (Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass, 2023)
This rec comes by way of Plague Rages. How could I not check out an album with a title and cover like that? Though I doubt it’s an intentional homage, this song title reminded me of Giles Corey’s “Guilt is My Boyfriend”. If this is what this band sounds like when they’re depressed I’d hate to get in their way when they’re manic. Super-speedy hardcore punk. I love the way the meter gets stretched to make the chorus fit, and the synth lead in the final verse is a nice touch!
“Living in Another World” by Talk Talk (The Colour of Spring, 1986)
Just because my band Laughing Stock weren’t named after the Talk Talk record doesn’t mean I don’t get down with Talk Talk. Or at least I’m doing my best to do my homework in case anyone grills us on the subject. Some absolutely bonkers arrangement decisions on this tune. The verses are sparse, pushing the guitar to the background to make room for the drums and percussion. The chorus by contrast is overflowing with STUFF. Huge organ, a harmonica solo, even more percussion, two different vocal lines. I get why this band went way abstract after this album, it sounds like they’d pushed their pop tendencies to the absolute limit here.
“Sections 56-73” by Erik Hall (Canto Ostinato, 2023)
If odd time signature noodling is one of your comfort foods then Grubhub are going to build a plaque in honor of how many times you’re going to order up this tune. Endless 5/8 for multiple pianos, organs, and dulcimers, courtesy of composer Simeon ten Holt. A gorgeous interwoven fabric.
“HIROGARU-NAMIDA” by Lamp (For Lovers, 2004)
Zoomers and millennials finally agree on one thing: “I love Lamp”. I’ve gathered in the comment sections of RYM that this Japanese sophisti-pop act are having their Steely Dan moment on TikTok. Typing that sentence caused boils to erupt on my skin and bile to pour forth from my ears, but I’m not complaining! While I get the sense that the band is ambivalent about their viral crossover, I’m happy to have come across them downstream on my slower paced side of the web.
“Mystery” by Wipers (Is This Real?, 1980)
The Laughing Stock boys are all big fans of Wipers, so I’m being a good bandmate and doing my homework on them. What I’m learning is that Cloud Nothings basically bit their whole shtick, all the way down to the generously nasty drumming, from this tune. Listen to those kick drum fills in the chorus! So good!
\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /
Here are five micro reviews from my high school and college CD collection. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in late 2020, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
Death Knows Your Name by The Hope Conspiracy (2006) - Hardcore
I wasn’t aware of The Hope Conspiracy when they were first active, only discovering them through their singer’s next project All Pigs Must Die. This CD was another Deathwish Inc clearance pick up and is probably the best of the bunch. I’m actually stunned that this came out in 2006. I assumed it was an early 2010s release. Just slightly ahead of its time. This album kicks ass. Great production, sharp songwriting, tasteful playing, and lots of variation from track to track. I should listen to this more often.
Pantheon of the Lesser by Ocean (2008) - Doom Metal
Very bad timing on the part of this band to come out right around the same time as the much more accessible The Ocean. Hard to overcome a confusing first impression, though you’d never mistake the two by sound. This is some ultra slow minimalist doom. I have a lot of admiration for this kind of music since it takes the doom sound to its logical conclusion. But admiration is not pleasure. I found it hard to concentrate on the album and rarely felt like my concentration was rewarded. Much respect, not really for me.
Human by Death (1991) - Death Metal
The birth of Death’s technical period, with help from the guitarist and drummer of Cynic. The lineup alone made this a highly regarded album on the metal internet of the 00s. It’s a fun and quick listen. Drummer Sean Reinert (RIP) is particularly great, but the songs don’t stick much in my memory. Take the riffs individually and they all rock, but taken in sequence they don’t add up to much. This band in general has not stood the test of time for me, which is a mild bummer.
Evangelion by Behemoth (2009) - Death Metal
An astoundingly popular and enduring band, considering the extremity of their style and their singer’s propensity for making boneheaded public statements. Part of their appeal is that they present themselves and sound like they are the biggest extreme metal band on earth. Maybe they are. I was very into this album when it came out, but I’ve cooled on this band a great deal since. The nonstop blast beats and double kick completely flatten the dynamics of these tunes. The slower tunes fair better, but the rest just turns into white noise after a while. I prefer my Evangelion Neon.
Celestial Lineage by Wolves In The Throne Room (2011) - Black Metal
This was a Christmas gift from Josh Oakley, thanks Josh! Wolves in the Throne Room are another black metal band that crossed over into the broader hipster audience, in part because of the perception that they were eco-primitivists of some kind. If you want a concrete example of what I mean by that cross over, I bonded with some of the members of Yowler while on tour with Gabby World’s back in 2019 over our shared love of this record. This is one of my favorite black metal records. I love the spooky, slower, softer parts, and the melodies that they build their heavy parts around are soul stirring. This was a big influence on the darker parts of my record Sisyphean. Highly recommended if you have a passing interest in American black metal.