Chores Are Good, Actually
Fives on Friday 6/14/2024
It happened to me: I lived a writing cliche. While scratching my head as to what to write for this week’s newsletter I unconsciously stood up, walked straight into the bathroom and cleaned the sink and the toilet. I had intended to spend the morning at the laptop and to clean at an undetermined point in the future. Upon opening my draft template on Substack cleaning somehow leap-frogged several spots on my to-do list.
A quick google search reveals that a lot of cartoonists have either experienced this phenomenon themselves or observed it in other writers. Having recently lived with another writer with a Substack, I’ve witnessed this behavior myself. On more than one occasion I’d see my roommate zip by, laundry in tow or paper towels in hand, lamenting that they were unable to get any words down. Usually I’d offer some mildly encouraging reply, roleplaying a sitcom version of myself, benignly positive and largely unobtrusive to the core storyline. Today I’d like to play that role for the wider internet. Get your alto saxophones ready, because here comes my lesson for the week: Doing Chores Is Good, Actually.
As this is generally the view of most parents, arguments for this position should be self-evident. But for the sake of thoroughness (a good quality when cleaning) I’m going to list them anyway.
It is better to write in a clean house than a dirty one. Clutter, mess, grime, and the rest are on a base level distractions. Distractions are bad for writing. The fewer distractions, the easier it is to focus on the task at hand. Even if writing requires a certain degree of tunnel vision, letting your word count come before your standard of living isn’t worth it. If the state of your zone is such that you cannot block it out while writing, you probably needed to clean it anyway.
Chores are good because they get you out of the house. Getting out of the house, even for a quick run to the grocery store or laundromat, is good for living. Living is good for writing. If I’m suffering from writer’s block, some external stimuli can help shake things up and push me in a new direction.
Chores are essentially “active rest” for writing. They are a non-writing activity that gives the writing side of my brain time to sort through my thoughts and return with a refreshed perspective. I say active rest because the act of cleaning, reorganizing, or restocking is not so dissimilar from the act of writing itself. Writing is the process of organizing thoughts, dusting them off to make them presentable to the outside world and putting them in the proper order. If I find a hole in the flow between one idea and another, I go out and find a new one that fits. That piece I wrote a few weeks back about moving? Most of it came together while I was struggling to untangle string lights. A hack metaphor maybe, but an honest one.
Chores help build the diligence to see a slightly unpleasant task through to the finish line. They are habit forming exercises that translate quite easily to other disciplines. When you boil it down writing is more chore than art. Anyone can have a spark of inspiration. The process of turning that spark into a readable piece of writing is a matter of unremarkable and unsexy work. It isn’t fun or hot to read your stuff out loud, but boy does it help keep the mold off your prose.
In a handful of his lectures philosopher (and member of the Lamniformes Pantheon of Influence & Excellence) Rick Roderick describes philosophy as housework. Not because it’s boring, but because it constantly needs re-doing. There’s no end to philosophy, in the same way that you can’t end the need to wipe dust off of surfaces or remove stinky trash from your immediate surroundings. Because it’s never going to be a done deal you have to do philosophy for the sake of doing it.
Lately I’ve been teaching drums to a lot of beginners. It’s forced me to confront how many aspects of drumming I take for granted. The sheer physicality of the instrument makes it easy to get started but like it says on the Othello box drums take a lifetime to master. Or more accurately, drums cannot be mastered. Since the uptick in teaching, I’ve found myself practicing differently. In addition to the song-oriented work (I promise new Drumming Upstream is on the way!) I’ve been drilling rudiments to a metronome at a steady medium pace, working on basic coordination exercises, practicing “simple” grooves for long periods, that kind of stuff. I’m not just shoring up my fundamentals, these drumming chores help me return to the mind frame of a drummer just starting their relationship with the instrument.
Do not let the cartoonists make you feeling guilty for doing your chores! Embrace your chores and feel good in finishing them!
# # # # # The Self Promo Zone # # # # #
Last week’s Laughing Stock show at Gold Sounds was a smashing success! Not only did we play a great set (our best yet?) to a crowd of both new and old friends, we also launched the Laughing Stock Newsletter. It’s pretty bare bones, as we’re still in the process of getting the band’s “visual identity” sorted out, but if you’d like to sign up for regular updates about Laughing Stock, hop on over and add your email!
After talking at length about the value of chores I’m in no position to avoid the often unfun job of promoting my music. Luckily, this week I found something that’s actually exciting for me to talk about:
This is a sketch of my rough idea for the cover to my latest album The Lonely Atom. It isn’t dated, but I’d guess its from 2018-2019. Definitely pre-COVID. The idea was a lush green landscape with a mirror set in the dead center, 2001 Monolith style, showing a reflection of me flipped upside down. I’m not sure what all the lines up top are supposed to be. Clouds? Branches? Your guess is as good as mine.
The concept went through a number of changes by the time I pitched it to Joseph Klomes, who of course added his own spin to it. But it’s surprising to see how much of this original draft survived in the final version.
There’s a bunch of other cool stuff in this old notebook. There are entries from at least as early 2011. It’s been pretty wild reading those old thoughts and memories. There are some stretches, like a tour diary and some pre-production notes on the old Lamniformes album Sisyphean, that you might find interesting too. Paying subscribers can expect some transcriptions and pictures from the journal in the near future, alongside their usual access to exclusive playlists and the Drumming Upstream archives. As a gesture of gratitude to those who have given The Lonely Atom a place in their lives, if you respond to this email with proof that you bought the record I’ll give you a year of free access to the paywalled material. In either case, thank you for giving the record a shot.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here are five songs that I enjoyed listening to recently! You can find a Spotify playlist with all of this year’s tracks here, new tunes added Monday-Friday.
“Pain Enduring” by Replicant (Infinite Mortality, 2024)
In death metal, going hard is its own reward. As a musician and a music writer I’m susceptible to novelty. The eye finds new wrinkles more notable than old ones. That lens can distort the appearance of a song like “Pain Enduring”. Could I find some way to argue that this banger is new, innovative, groundbreaking, etc? Maybe. But that argument wouldn’t capture why I like the song so much. I like the song because it kicks ass, because the half time groove in the climax makes me want to throw a javelin into the sun, because Replicant know the exact right proportions of “big brain” to “lizard brain”. Death metal is good.
“Asayake” by Casiopea (Super Flight, 1979)
Since I wrote about Casiopea in a previous listening diary I’ve seen a substantial uptick in people posting about the Japanese fusion group on social media. They even came up while Sam Falala and I were practicing some new Lamniformes material earlier this week. That may or may not have any bearing on the new Lamniformes songs, but it at least means that Casiopea are way more popular than I realized. One of those things that once you start paying attention to something you start seeing it everywhere. Anyway, this song is very pretty.
“Man On A Wire” by Church Chords (Elvis, He Was Schlager, 2024)
As far as I can tell, Church Chords are less of a band and more of group chat of cool LA musicians that rotate in and out for each of their songs. If this track isn’t hitting, there’s a solid chance that another one on this album might still do it for you. “Man On A Wire” does hit for me though, especially when the horn sections blooms open at the end while the rest of the arrangement falls apart. Very slick stuff.
“Tattoos” by Shellac (To All Trains, 2024)
Most of the people I’ve seen talking about the tragically final Shellac album have focused on the closing track “I Don’t Fear Hell”. I agree that it’s eerie as heck to hear someone sing about their own death shortly after they die IRL, but on my first pass through To All Trains it was “Tattoos” that jumped out to me. Though I’m no expert on their catalog, this song does what I think Shellac did best: anger so tightly wound that it’ll snap into furious action before it gets the chance to boil over into histrionic expression.
“Rewind” by Beth Gibbons (Lives Outgrown, 2024)
For anyone like me pinning for the arrival of a fourth (or maybe Fourth?) Portishead album, Lives Outgrown is likely the best approximation we can get. Which means that we got exactly what we asked for because Lives Outgrown is terrific. “Rewind” is a perfect extension of Portishead’s late career interest in rumbling, anxious krautrock. For an album about the passage of time, it’s remarkable how little Gibbons herself has changed as a singer. Great as always.
\ \ \ \ \ 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.
The Incident by Porcupine Tree (2009) - Progressive Rock
The final Porcupine Tree record [Editor’s Note: The band has reunited since this review was written]. After this, Steven Wilson went solo and Gavin Harrison joined King Crimson. Not sure what happened to the other guys. The first disc is a continuous 55 minute medley, the second is b-sides and leftovers. Probably for the best that they split after this. You can tell they’re running low on new ideas. “Bonnie the Cat” is a pretty rad drum exercise, but most of these tracks feel like Porcupine Tree by the numbers. Well made, but uninspired.
Blessed Black Wings by High on Fire (2005) - Heavy Metal
I remember feeling like Repulse Records was pushing this album super hard back in the day. These were the first tunes I heard from High on Fire. Notably, this album was recorded with Steve Albini. I have a theory that there is no great High on Fire record, but that there are no bad High on Fire records either. This one happens to have my favorite moment of their entire discography (the end of “Cometh Down Hessians”) and the rest of the material is solid.
For more on “Cometh Down Hessians” check out Drumming Upstream #41:
Fear of a Blank Planet by Porcupine Tree (2007) - Progressive Rock
Steven Wilson’s “kids these days” record. Generation X vs Generation Xbox (i.e. millennials). This was also the record that launched Gavin Harrison into drum superstar territory, from what I can tell. Even though the lyrics are pretty clumsy I remember feeling like they were getting at something real; a late 00s anhedonia and atomization that has only gotten more severe since. These are some of my favorite Porcupine Tree songs. The 17 minute epic is an obvious highlight. Good, if heavy handed.
Lazarus Bird by Burst (2008) - Progressive Metal
Unlike their last album, I barely saw any discussion of this when it dropped. Burst broke up shortly thereafter. A shame because this was a huge step up from an already good band. In the late 00s a lot of bands that had previously flirted with prog jumped right into bed with it for at least one record. Turns out that Burst were a very good prog rock band hiding inside a metalcore act. “We Watched The Silver Rain” is the highlight but there isn’t a bad track on this thing. Highly underrated.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (2011) - Score
This duo’s second David Fincher score after winning an Oscar for The Social Network. This record is actually longer than the movie it was written for, nearly three hours in total. As a Ghosts-style instrumental NIN record it is phenomenal. Lots of pitched percussion, analog synths, unsettling drones, etc. The usual Reznor stuff, you know? The two vocal tunes are very cool. I would love to hear Karen O and these two work together more.