Moving Has Turned My Brain To Mush

Five unorganized thoughts

Hello!

I’ve spent this week tying up seven years worth of loose ends before ~*My Girlfriend*~ and I drive from New York to Chicago on Sunday. I have not had the wherewithal to organize my thoughts along with the rest of my stuff, so I’m going to keep this letter brief and rattle off a few things that have occupied my mind this week.

1. Eric Adams Got Indicted LMAO

After I spent last week’s letter raging against the corrupt stupidity of New York politics you best believe that I LOL’d real hard when the Mayor got indicted on charges of bribery, wire fraud, and accepting campaign donations from sketchy Turkish construction companies. My life in New York got measurably worse after Adams was elected. In addition to all the cop stuff I mentioned last week, there’s a good chance that Adam’s refusal to fund the public libraries directly effected ~*My Girlfriend’s*~ ability to move here. I also don’t think its a coincidence that my last two landlords pricing me out and terminating my lease (dis)respectfully both occurred under Adams’ administration. That’s before getting into all the awful treatment of immigrants, etc. So if you’re sad that I’m leaving NYC, add that to the list of Adams’ crimes and join me in wishing him a swift removal from public office. Good riddance bozo!

2. I love The New York Liberty

I won’t pretend that I’ve been the most active WNBA fan this year, but now that the playoffs are up and running I’m all the way back in. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to root for a team that’s actually good. The last time the Bulls won a playoff matchup Derrick Rose was still on the team. Now that guy’s straight up retired. The Liberty aren’t just good, they’ve got personality! They crush teams on defense, and any given possession could end in an outrageous shot from Sabrina Ionescu or go-go-gadget absurdity from Breanna Stewart. The roleplayers are charming. The mascot is a hoot. I am deeply terrified of the Las Vegas Aces but for now I’m psyched to see the Liberty make it to the semi-finals.

3. Saying goodbye to my students made me really sad

I love teaching drums. It’s easily the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had. Even the parts that are frustrating feel productive because, as I often tell my students, frustration shows us where we can improve. Watching my students gradually build their skills and confidence over the last few months has been so inspiring. It’s forced me to reconnect with my fundamentals in a new way. No surprise that I’ve also loved putting my students on to bands that haven’t trickled down to their generation yet. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to keep watching my students on their journey with the drums, but fingers crossed I’ll be able to get my teaching off the ground in Chicago soon enough.

4. Bloodborne rocks

Over the last few months, coinciding with the lease termination, I’ve spent a lot of my downtime playing FromSoft’s 2015 masterpiece Bloodborne. This is great news for anyone who has to endure my naive habit of comparing stuff to Dark Souls since 2022. The bad news is that now I can’t stop comparing stuff to Bloodborne. The gist of the game, if you’re unfamiliar, is that your player character has found themselves trapped in a Victorian metropolis overrun by werewolves, murderous clergymen, horrible snakes, and other Lovecraftian creatures that defy easy description. Like Dark Souls the plot is obtuse and indifferent to the audience. Unlike Dark Souls the action is fast and hectic while still demanding just as much forethought and patience to survive. I’ve been playing the game with Portuguese audio to brush up on my vocab. It’s slow going, but I’m picking up some words here and there. Hopefully once I finish the game I’ll write about the experience.

5. It would be great if you bought a Lamniformes shirt today

I only have a few more items to pack (like my Playstation 4, on which I am currently playing Bloodborne). I travel pretty light, but I’d love to travel even lighter if possible. To that end, I’d really appreciate it if you bought a Lamniformes t-shirt and/or a Sisyphean cassette. Clearing these out would be a great way of saving space in the move and would help fund the rental cars/storage space costs. The shirts feature a tasteful circular Lamniformes logo and are quite comfortable. The cassettes come in some of the coolest packaging I’ve ever seen for an independent release, including miniature lyric sheets and a surprise bonus that fans of 1990s basketball will delight in. You can grab them on my Bandcamp linked above, and I will ship them out first thing tomorrow before packing up the rest of my life and heading (mid)west.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 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, updated with a new song every Monday-Friday.

“M’ars Poetica” by Solaris (Marsbéli Krónikák, 1984)

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been catching up on progressive rock from the 1980s. The consensus is that this was a rough decade for the genre. I wonder whether this idea comes from the Anglo-centric way the genre is viewed, because all of the 80s prog that I’ve heard from the other side of the iron curtain from this era rocks. This Hungarian instrumental is noticeably more synth-forward than other prog acts, putting the electric guitar line in more of a supporting role. The synth gives these busy melodies a crispness that helps the notes pop even as they fly by at light speed.

“Hoops” by Unto Others (Never, Neverland 2024)

My first impression of Never, Neverland is that it’s just a toe too far over Tufnel’s Line in the direction of stupid. I don’t think this disproves my hunch that Unto Others have a bright enough future to warrant their love of wearing shades indoors, if anything I think it’s a sign that I’m right. Besides, certain types of stupid are exactly what I want. A goth jock jam where a bunch of guys yell “HOOPS” from the bottom of a well is just what I need to get psyched for the dual arrival of the NBA season and Halloween.

“Distracción” by Tenue (Acros, Bóvedas, Pórticos, 2024)

Two weeks in a row I have to give it up to Zachary Lipez for putting me on to some cool tunes. This is some very polished screamo from Spain. If you prefer the wilder, more hectic side of the genre this might not be for you. But I think what Tenue lose in chaos they make up in ingenuity. How else could they pull off sticking a bossa nova-by-way-of yacht rock interlude right in the middle of a song that otherwise sounds like Envy?

“Revolt La Libertad Lógico” by Eddie Palmieri (Vámonos pa’l monte, 1971

Salsa spring ends when I say it does, and it ain’t over yet folks.

“Graduate” by Third Eye Blind (Third Eye Blind, 1997)

I’m a Music League group with a bunch of ~*My Girlfriend’s*~ friends. Once my life settles down for a bit I want to write about Music League for one of these weekly letters. Fun game, interesting way to listen to music. Anyway, this week someone submitted this Third Eye Blind album cut and uhhhh what??? I had no idea this band had songs this good. These drums are incredible! After some digging around on RYM I learned that this drummer also used to play with Vijay Iyer and now drums for Pierce The Veil?? Strange career. Wild how this is what a lot of hardcore sounds like these days.

\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /

Here are five micro reviews from my high school and college collection of burnt CDs. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in 2021, 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.

V: The New Mythology Suite by Symphony X (2000) - Progressive Metal

Music to blast while owning people at multiplayer Age of Empires. Not as outright heavy as their later stuff, this album still leans hard on the “neoclassical” elements of their sound (i.e. ripping off actual classical music). There are some neat reoccurring melodies on this one. As much as I enjoy cracking jokes about this band, they are quite good at what they do. Given the higher production value on this album compared to their first few, this might be a good place to start with them if you need more prog metal in your life.

Eulogy for Evolution by Ólafur Arnolds (2007) - Modern Classical

A continuous composition for piano, string quarter, and then, very suddenly for the finale, rock band. Stands in both the post rock and modern classical worlds at once. I’d be interested in hearing what New Music folks think of this. It seems like a very 00s kind of record. Does this “count” as classical music? Who gets to decide that, etc? As a background listen I enjoy it, although I wish it was just a bit more adventurous harmonically.

The Black Mages I by The Black Mages (2003) - Progressive Rock

A bunch of SquareEnix employees got together with Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu to play prog rock versions of battle themes from the series. Since Uematsu’s music for the Final Fantasy series is pretty much how I got into music period, you know I had to check this band out. It’s cool! It is still very synth heavy so there’s a fair amount of this album that sounds like video game music, but the added guitar harmonies and solo sections are a cool way to adapt the material. Sometimes it feels more like a very hard fusion album than a rock one. I’m not sure this would appeal to anyone not already familiar with the games.

The Skies Above by The Black Mages (2004) - Progressive Rock

Another collection of adaptations of Final Fantasy tunes, this time drawing from a few non-battle themes and bringing in vocalists for two songs. The vocal tracks are, uh, not the best. The instrumental tracks are an improvement on their debut. The band take bigger leaps in adapting the songs, sometimes blending in references to other Final Fantasy tracks or quoting Deep Purple in the solo sections. This is fun, but again probably a hard sell to non-Final Fantasy fans.

Darkness and Starlight by The Black Mages (2008) - Progressive Rock

The final Black Mages album before Uematsu left SquareEnix and formed his own, much worse, prog metal Final Fantasy cover band. This one is back to mostly battle themes with the exception of the mini rock opera from Final Fantasy VI to close it out. The version of “Assault of the Silver Dragons” on this album kicks so much ass, and there are a few other tunes that I’d count among the best this group made. The opera is a bit much imo, but I respect that they really went for it. In general I wish this project had taken more chances like that and done prog metal arrangements of less obvious choices from the Final Fantasy catalog.