the Grocerystowe

Gotye feat. Kimbra

2012-01-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Our Country

2011-10-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Joe Henry put out a new album yesterday, so in honor.....

I saw Willie Mays
At a Scotsdale Home Depot
Looking at Garage Door Springs
At the far end of the 14th floor

His wife stood there beside him
She was quiet and they both were proud
I gave them room but was close enough
That I heard him when he said out loud

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was my country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

The sun is unforgiving and
There's nobody who would choose this town
But we've squandered so much of our good will
That there's nowhere else will have us now

We push in line at the picture show
For cool air and a chance to see
A vision of ourselves portrayed as
Younger and braver and humble and free.

This was our country
This was our song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was our country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

I've started something I can't finish
And I barely leave the house it's true
I keep her out on my sores and joints
But I've guess I've had my blessings too

I've got my mother's pretty feet
And a factory keeps my house in shade
My children they've both been paroled
And we get back all the peace we've made

I feel safe so far from heaven
From towers and their ocean views
From here I see the future coming across
What soon will be beaches too

But that was him
I'm almost sure
The greatest centerfielder of all time
Stooped by the burden of endless dreams
His and yours and mine

He hooked each spring beneath his feet
He leaned over then he stood upright
Testing each against his weight
For one that had some play and some fight

He's just like us I want to tell him
And our needs are small enough
Something to slow our heavy door
Something to raise one up

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was God's country
This frightful and this angry land
But if it's his will
The worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

If it's his will
The worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

Youth Lagoon

2011-10-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Great new band on Fat Possum Records

Youth Lagoon - Montana from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

Album of the Year? Zola Jesus: Conatus

2011-09-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

Three years ago teenager Nika Roza Danilova arrived upon the fringes of the pop-music world with a voice as big as her 4'11" frame is small, and a sound as exotic as her Wisconsin home seems Rockwellian. Clear from the beginning was that this young, dimunitive, mid-westerner is an unmistakeable force to be reckoned with.

At first encounter Ms. Danilova's Zola Jesus moniker alone carves out a place of iconoclasm and mythology in the pantheon of rock 'n roll history. Sonically, she matches that initial impression with a 21st century goth-electronic sound full of operatic drama, soaring vocals, and dissonance. Through the sounds and images of her first several releases Danilova has created a well-considered narrative of evolution for her goth-goddess image. Zola Jesus came to us a murky, dark and distorted voice of catharsis and decay portrayed that way consistently through imagery as well as her recordings. A slew of steady releases has allowed her to slowly lift the veil of obfuscation from her lyrics, persona, and sound. Holding constant the dramatic, gothy feel of her overall aesthetic, each release seems to bring her powerful voice and personality closer to the forefront of increasingly cleaner compositions.

Before even listening to the album there are two indications of Danilova's arrival upon a new phase of her career's evolution. Previously she has always been visually captured out of focus, in all dark colors, and even literally covered in sludge. However, Ms. Danilova appears on the cover of Conatus in front of a white backdrop, dressed in all white, even her usually-black hair bleached blonde, and in crystalline high-resolution. Then there's the album title Conatus, translated: the will to keep on, to move forward. It's quite a message to send fans of a gothy chanteuse, but there is nothing here to fear. There is continuity, visually in the veiling of her face, and sonically in the ever-present drama in her voice and atmospherics in production. The real changes lie in the translation of the album title. No longer a vessel of catharsis for a heart and mind weighed down by the inevitability of decay and loss, Zola Jesus is a celebrant of the beauty of chaos and that same process of decay. That perspective is evident in the quality of a more controlled chaos in production, increased elements of confidence and accomplishment in her already magnificent vocals, and the laying bare of the underlying pop-accessability that's always been lurking in her songs.

The album is streaming here, and will be officially released on September 26th, 2011.

Mike Egan show at Yard Dog + Timber Timbre

2011-09-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Mike Egan is a painter from Pittsburgh, PA. A former funeral director, his paintings are meditations on life, death and religion. The German Expressionists, stained glass windows, Halloween, Southern folk art, funeral homes, horror films, music, lowbrow art, outsider art and religious icons are some of the sources of inspiration he cites. Clearly, this is exactly my cup of tea. I'm sure you've also noticed with your eyeballs his pop art aesthetic that does well to balance out the otherwise creepy elements of his work.

I've been a fan for years and after missing his first show in Austin at Yard Dog I wasn't about to miss the opening of his newest show, The Death of 1977. On the drive to Yard Dog I happily realized I've had Timber Timbre's Creep on Creepin On stuck in the cd player (yes i still use those) for a good week and that it was the perfect soundtrack to a Mike Egan focused night. Yard Dog's proprietors agreed and Timber Timbre's skeletal compositions provided the aural backdrop to a great night of cheap beer and paintings of literal skeletons. The show continues at Yard Dog through October 9th.

Tinariwen - Tenere Taqhim Tossam (feat. TV on the Radio)

2011-08-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

Forklift Danceworks Presents the Trash Project

2011-08-29T00:44:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of witnessing the final performance of Forklift Danceworks', The Trash Project this weekend. The Trash Project was a choreographed dance of 16 municipal Solid Waste Services trucks, 30 Solid Waste Services employees, and a three-piece band, performed before 2,000 people on an abandoned airstrip in the triple-digit heat of an Austin dusk.

Forklift Danceworks' Choreographer, Allison Orr clearly set out to challenge the viewers' perceptions of: dance as a medium, public art, community, consumerism and waste generation, and the Solid Waste Services employees and machinery who constitute the entire cast of performers. What's as, if not more, remarkable than how deftly Orr recasts these terms in our minds, is how emotional that response becomes under the collective influence of the performers, Orr, the audience, and composer and performer of the original score, Graham Reynolds. Conceptually, it's easy to imagine a "public ballet of garbage trucks and garbagemen" challenging one's preconceived notions of the subjects and forms involved. Harder to imagine is a cohesive execution of that concept which evokes strong and opposing feelings of loneliness and a sense of community, or recognition that the love and artistry that resides, often deeply obscured, in our hearts is a universal occurrence. The ideas that beauty is found in the commonplace, or that love is in the details, are all but cliche these days, but rarely elicited so resoundingly and surprisingly.

Luckily for those who were not there to witness the live performances, filmmaker Andrew Garrison has captured, "An amazing vision of the people and the process that lead to this unique performance. Now in editing, the feature documentary brings you the usually unseen people who do a city’s dirty work, transforming their jobs into dance."

TRASH DANCE - Trailer from Andrew Garrison on Vimeo.

Graffiti

2011-08-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

Best Music 2011... So Far

2011-06-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

1. James Blake - st
D'Angelo, Justin Vernon, and Antony give the world a dub-step baby. And the world is a better place for it.

2. Destroyer - Kaputt
Dan Bejar sets a new standard for mining 80's straw and spinning gold.

3. Bon Iver - st
You've already heard everything there is to say about this

4. Dirty Beaches - Badlands
Careless, Reckless, Hopeless. Fuzzy, sloppy, distorted pop nuggets full of sex and soul.

5. The Cave Singers - No Witch
Northwest coast and folk heavy, but manages to fit elements of UK punk and bouncy power pop into the equation.

6. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Kings of Brooklyn post-rock and funk step out of the fuzz into nine types of light.

7. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972
Ambient experimental meets melodic.

8. Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blue and Melancholy Jam
Grimey, woozy UK hip-hop with dub-step beats.

9. The Antlers - Burst Apart
Doesn't quite match the intensity of Hospice, but there are moments that do.

10. Adele - 21
you know this one too

also
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Richard Buckner - Our Blood
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

Dubstep, Evolved

2011-03-17T02:00:00.003-07:00

2011 has already seen releases by mainstream mainstays from total opposite ends of the pop-spectrum, Radiohead and Britney Spears, that exhibit dubstep beats and characteristics, so I feel like it's time to talk about a fledgling genre learning to fly.

I'll start with a disclaimer.... I'm no expert, or even, in most cases, a fan of electronic dance music. I approached the genre in the last few years from the alternate angle of a fan of ambient/experimental noise. In it's early iterations, DJ's and producers' experimentations with bass frequencies and beat echos laid the groundwork for a dark, new, mostly-instrumental genre. Artists like Burial and Mount Kimbie fine tuned those atmospherics into an art form that defined, and set apart, the genre. And now, in 2011, we have witnessed the arrival of fully formed genre palatable for mass consumption. In addition to the previously mentioned 'dubstep-influenced' records, there have also been at least two exceptional, fully-formed, pop records released by dubstep producers already in 2011.

Ghostpoet is a producer, who's beats and tone are unmistakably dubstep. He's also a rapper who combines elements of grime with an almost lazy, intoxicated, or disaffected delivery. The result is a vocally driven, hip-hop album by an artist steeped in the world of dubstep. It's also fantastic, and representative of what's happening on the frontier of the music world in a way that records by artists trying to incorporate that "cutting-edge element" into their calculated repertoire can never achieve. Start with "I Just Don't Know" and "Survive It" and get hooked.
James Blake is another young dubstep producer who decided to throw vocals into the forefront of his 2011 release. As impressive as Blake's string of mostly-instrumental EP releases has been, his Self-Titled full-length 2011 release is a revelation. Blake channels Justin Vernon circa-Bon Iver, Antony Hegarty, and even, at times, D'angelo with his falsetto crooning over his own dubstep production. It's about as good a debut LP as I've heard. It sounds like right now, it sounds like the future, it sounds like the past, it sounds like soul, it sounds like a singer-songwriter, it sounds like experimentation, and it sounds so comforting and safe..... it sounds like the narrow spot between our world and the next.

Dubstep, Evolved

2011-03-17T02:00:00.001-07:00

New Okkervil River Song on Jimmy Fallon

2011-02-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Destroyer - Kaputt

2011-01-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

Indie rock's King of obtuse wordsmiths, Dan Bejar, has now been doing business as Destroyer for quite awhile and I was just beginning to think i could put a finger on what i love about him. However, Destroyer's ninth record, Kaputt, has left me equally awed and tongue-tied.

I'll start off by saying that since i've known who Dan Bejar was I've always loved Destroyer AND wanted a really tough-looking black cat with the same name. Of course I want said cat to be a cuddler and generally laid-back bookstore type of cat, in clear contrast to the cat's appearance. I guess that's how i've always seen Mr. Bejar. He's the lovable academic, with his unruly hair, scarves, beard, and commitment to alliteration in his lyrics, but his sardonic wit and ability to create urgency and indefinite drama with small hisses, snarls and pops in his delivery, match the dark name he chooses to record under. Then there's his penchant for 70's style glam that's perfect for exploring alter-ego's.... All that being said, i guess we should get into who we're talking about before the discussion of Kaputt. As the only constant member of Destroyer, the brain to AC Newman's heart and Neko Case's soul in the New Pornographers, a third of the yelping musical cereberus Swan Lake, and co-founder of Hello, Blue Roses, Mr. Bejar has maintained a cavalier persona, as well as a hyper-literate and sharp, if obtuse, tongue on the issues of modern culture, particularly, music and songwriting. His lofty indifference a charming, often funny, and, dare i say 'cool', balance to his apparent compulsion to verbally lay his surroundings to waste. Okay, now onto Kaputt.

Kaputt is a different beast altogether. Bejar's non-chalance no longer feels like he's playing coy, and the immediacy and urgency usually present in his vocals is nowhere to be found. However, his vocals won't be anywhere near the first departure noticed by any listener. While the rest of the indie rock world has been mining their influences from the immenintly cooler and more obvious touchstones of 80's music (i.e. Talking Heads, Blondie, the Smiths, Joy Division,etc) Destroyer's Kaputt is dominated by the sounds of saxophone-dominated early 80's soft-rock and smooth jazz. I'll be the first to admit that this equation sounds like a recipe for disaster. Luckily music, or any art for that matter, is not a math equation and has the ability to be far more 'true' in reality than conceptually. Bejar's vocal delivery stops just short of Nico-esque indifference, and avoids sounding at all contrived. Instead, his voice matches the appearance he's arrived upon. Once the sharp-tongued academic of the underground, Bejar is now the unassailably cool elder aesthete. I see him here as the Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man in the World" of the music world, casually casting off pearls of wisdom and experience, indifferent to whether his audience will recognize them for what they are. He's calm, and confident, ever the obtuse-wordsmith, but somehow by removing the drama from his delivery he's arrived at a more majestic pose.

And then there's the music.... Bejar worked with acclaimed ambient electronic artist Tim Hecker for the immediately Kaputt-preceding EP, Archer on the Beach. This collaboration did not extend into the Kaputt sessions, however the exercise paid apparent dividends for Destroyer's sound on the record. At first listen, the saxophone-dominated early 1980's sound is unmistakable and hard to adjust to. However, the further into the record you get, and in subsequent listens, Hecker's influence becomes more apparent and the instrumentation, paired with Bejar's new delivery, more beguiling. I don't think any soft-rock or smooth jazz record has ever been described as minimalist or skeletal, and i wouldn't use either term to describe Kaputt. That being said, Destroyer does bring elements of those terms into this record, exploring atmosphere and space more than on any previous LP. At times sounding both lush and spacious, the musical backdrop to Bejar's perfomance (Destroyer is ultimately Bejar's platform) elevates his performance into the realm of a dream-like stateliness.

Destroyer's next move is always hard to predict, and while i certainly wouldn't begrudge a revisiting of the crackling urgency of Destroyer's Rubies, Kaputt seems poised to smolder around the periphery of the music world's consciousness for a good spell. As comfortable as Mr. Bejar seems to be in this new pose, I look forward to whatever our new reluctant advisor does next.

Winter's Bone

2011-01-27T00:52:00.000-08:00

It's difficult not to compare Debra Granik's film, Winter's Bone, to The Coen Brothers', True Grit. The two films share so many similarities with each other and so few with any other recent films. Both are set in the foreboding environs of winter in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, and both feature a teenage girl on a determined hunt for a very bad man. True Grit was a great movie by one of today's best directing teams, but if you're looking for the best story of a teenage girl exhibiting determination and grit in the face of hardships presented by America's frontier look no further than Winter's Bone. Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Ree Dolly (damn, what a great name!) marks the emergence of a true talent.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Coen Brother's and I loved True Grit, but Winter's Bone is THAT good. And, don't be misled by me, Winter's Bone is NOT a western in the typical sense of the word. Dolly's frontier is not one of a 19th century, lawless, Indian Territory. Her's is one of meth houses, backwoods cops, and a lack of opportunity. Not that these themes are inherently superior, or even necessarily good. As with anything, it's the execution that sets Winter's Bone apart from other films of 2010. Another director could've easily made this story feel like any other overly-stylized, sensational investigation of modern drug culture. Ms. Granik's excellent choice of casting, music, pacing, and shot locations make the film something bigger than that, a true Southern Gothic. Just as important as the drug-world to the film's suspense and underlying tension are the culture-specific music, the surrounding environment and community. And to be clear, that suspense and tension is pervasive and palpable in this relatively quiet film.

What struck me as so remarkable about this film was how rare a thing it is. Western's have made quite a resurgence recently, but on average they bore me, mostly because of their inability to get at the essence of living in a time and place on the fringes of the 'known'. Directors have turned the western into a period piece, where the costuming is more important than the substance. Winter's Bone does more to articulate the hardships of living in an American frontier (on the fringe) than just about any recent Western i can think of (apologies to Dead Man, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and The Proposition), and all within the context of a rural American community. I've written substantially here of musicians exploring America's remaining frontiers and redefining what Americana means. Winter's Bone does the same for film, in particularly the Western.

Best Music of 2010

2010-12-25T14:34:00.000-08:00

TOP TWENTY ALBUMS I HEARD
1. Doug Burr - O Ye Devastator
Gorgeous and meticulously crafted bedroom pop from mini music-mecca, Denton, TX. A voice as fine as cashmere, stories as well crafted as a Lahiri short, and equally as emotionally evocative sonic craftsmanship, all tempered with exceptional restraint and control.

2. Beach House - Teen Dream
Baltimore dream pop delivers androgynous bliss through a disaffected haze. The accompanying videos are very much worth watching.

3. Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring
Horse Feathers step out of the dark, southern gothic landscape they cut their teeth in and emerge into soft pastoral light. Spring indeed.

4. Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon
TV on the Radio's David Sitek enlists a slew of celebrity friends and artists to make a modern day funk and soul record worth shaking your ass to.

5. John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Midlake backs former Czars frontman and everyone is better for it. Grant has an unparalleled baritone voice and his lyrics manage both dark humor and deep poignancy. If The Courage of Others left you wishing for something a bit more dynamic from the Midlake boys, here's your record.

6. Jonsi - Go
7. Samantha Crain - You (Understood)
8. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
9. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
10. Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
11. Neil Young - Le Noise
12. Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central
13. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
14. Vampire Weekend - Contra
15. Sharon Van Etten - Epic
16. Kanye West - My Dark Twisted Fantasy
17. Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
18. The Black Keys - Brothers
19. Nathaniel Rateliffe - In Memory of Loss
20. Grinderman - Grinderman 2

HONORABLE MENTION: The New Pornographers, The National, Frightened Rabbit, JBM, Mumford and Sons, Max Richter

TOP 10 EP'S
1. Moonface - Dreamland EP: Marimbas and Shit Drums
2. White Dress - EP
3. XX Remixed by The Four Tet - VCR
4. Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP
5. Zola Jesus - Valusia EP
6. James Blake - Klavierwerke EP
7. The Tallest Man on Earth - Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird
8. Active Child - Curtis Lane EP
9. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
10. Destroyer - Archer on the Beach EP

Breathe Owl Breathe and the best band Press Photo Ever

2010-11-13T19:38:00.001-08:00

While Breathe Owl Breathe's new album Magic Central will more than likely occupy a spot in my "Best Albums of 2010" list, their press photo is the best EVER.

Le Noise

2010-10-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

If you've read any of these other posts you already know I love to contextualize the music experience. Where I was, what I was doing the first time a record grabbed me, the artist's backstory and who collaborated on a record all contribute to my appreciation (or dislike) of a record or performance. Obviously I'm no fucking purist.

Case in point, Neil Young's new album Le Noise is a great record who's greatness grows the more I think about it. Neil's now in his mid-sixties, his place in the history of rock 'n roll firmly entrenched. It'd be easy, even reasonable, to rest on his mighty reputation and put out agreeable acoustic folk records that have always garnered him great acclaim, or let a younger influence pilot the twilight years of his legendary career through the hazards of the modern music industry a la Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash. Hell, he could even retire like any sensible sixty-something year old with piles of money would. But this is NEIL YOUNG, the massive man with the fragile voice, the stubborn sonic explorer. So he set aside his acoustic guitar, and he set aside Crosby and Stills and Nash, and he set aside his electric guitar, and he set aside Crazy Horse, and he picked up an electro-acoustic guitar designed by fellow sonic adventurer Daniel Lanois and started another exploration. Alone with that guitar and his reedy, vulnerable voice he laid down the tracks recorded by the genius producer Daniel Lanois. Informed by a personally devastating year in which Mr. Young lost two very close friends, and allegedly only recording on nights with a full moon, Lanois captures perfectly a raw and powerful capstone on Neil Young's glorious career. Guys a third his age would kill to put out a record this urgent and relevant.

Le Noise couldn't be more suitably titled. Lanois and Young are both already famous and sophisticated purveyors of Sound, and this record listens like a manifesto. By stripping away everything else, Lanois and Young focus on the NOISES Young's voice and guitar and Lanois' recording equipment can make. There's the guitar and the voice for sure, but distortion, feedback, echoes and fingers on frets take prominent position as well. The argument is made for noise, for the beauty of imperfection, for the necessity of abrasiveness and dissonance as a counter-weight to harmony.

Woven Hand

2010-10-21T18:15:00.001-07:00

David Eugene Edwards has to be one of the most interesting men in the Rock N Roll business these days, despite being mostly ignored by people in the rock n roll business during his 20+ year career. Mr. Edwards has been a cornerstone of the rich and deep music movement (often referred to as American Gothic, or Southern Gothic) centered in Denver, Colorado. That scene produced acts like Edwards' own Sixteen Horsepower and Woven Hand, as well as The Denver Gentlemen, Jay Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots, Devotchka, and Slim Cessna's Auto Club. These groups shared much in common including often sharing members and gigs. They also shared influences, aural aesthetics, and a common approach to performing. Informed by Appalachian Folk, snake-oil salesmen, shape note singing, gospel music, eastern gypsies, traveling preachers, and country music these groups reflected an image of Denver as a frontier town in the late 20th Century. When I listen to this music I always imagine Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady)'s increasingly industrialized and developed, but still wild and virtually lawless, Denver hometown from Jack Kerouac's classic On The Road. Unlike Kerouac, these artists (except for maybe Devotchka) have enjoyed little commercial success for their portrayal of the underbelly and forgotten past of the America's New West. Which bears mentioning because it means a chance to see them perform is a rare delight oustide of Denver and Europe, where they carry a strong following.

Enough of the history lesson. Woven Hand played Mohawk last Thursday night and it was a spine-tingleing experience! David Eugene Edwards was raised by fire-and-brimstone traveling Nazarene preachers and has integrated their convictions and histrionics into his live performance, all to great effect. Rock and roll hasn't seen performances like this since the days of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Jim Morrison. What's better is his affectations don't feel like contrivances in the name of creating a rock-god mythology. They feel genuine. From a project that's often been stark and skeletal, Woven Hand's last record is a huge, booming thing. They brought that feeling into this show. Perched on a chair, face twitching and ticking, in a flat-brimmed cowboy hat adorned with a long feather and swapping between banjo, electric guitar, hollow bodied guitar, and some sort of mandolin Edward's spouted Old-Timey Christian incantations, Native American chants and throaty conjurations. All this in front of a punishing rhythm section and keyboard that jumped wildly between middle-eastern, balkan, native american, country, and gospel arrangements. Nick Cave and his Grinderman co-horts have a harder time shocking and shaking me with vulgarity. It was the kind of show that rattles your mind, perception, and rib-cage all at the same time. Like being rocked to sleep by turbulence and a carnival barker. Whew. Can we do that again please?

Samantha Crain

2010-09-17T00:05:00.001-07:00

In just two LPs and an EP, Samantha Crain is turning out to be a female equivalent of Richard Buckner for me. I got hooked on Ms. Crain's voice and folksy sensibilities upon the release of her 2007 EP, Confiscation. It's a little gem of a record in the vein of Jolie Holland and Buckner's first album, Bloomed. Crain's subsequent LP was a terrific example of revivalist Americana. Her new record, You (Understood), finds her navigating the revisionist terrritory of Buckner's later work (esp. Impasse), and thank god for it. She's always had a voice like a train, but here she straps on the electric guitar and lets her drummer loose, a la Jim White on his AMAZING collaboration with Nina Nastasia. The results are documentation of an artist helping to redefine what Americana means in the 21st century.

Samantha Crain - "Lions" - HearYa Live Session 7/16/10 from HearYa.com on Vimeo.

Required Reading

2010-09-12T23:32:00.002-07:00

Grinderman 2

2010-09-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Nick Cave's testosterone fueled side-project, Grinderman, is streaming their soon to be released album on their myspace page. It's as raw and filthy as the last album, and a must have for any Nick Cave fan. They've also released a video directed by John Hillcoat (who's film, The Road, Grinderman members Cave and Warren Ellis scored) that's probably one of the craziest and best videos ever made.

Grinderman 'Heathen Child' from Trim Editing on Vimeo.

Zola Jesus, Sea Talk Video

2010-09-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Zola Jesus - Sea Talk (Official Video) from Souterrain Transmissions on Vimeo.

Zola Jesus dyes her hair blonde and continues her trend of making perfect visual companions to her gorgeous and brooding songs.

Miranda July, Eleven Heavy Things

2010-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Miranda July's latest endeavor, the sculptural installation titled Eleven Heavy Things, is currently on exhibit at Union Square Park.

The multi-talented artist/actress/writer/director displays her usual off-kilter sweetness and sense of humor in both the works themselves and the idea behind them. The sculptures are intended to be posed on, or within, for photographs, and to convey playful (sometimes even naive) textual messages and imagery. The resulting photographs will be taken by and shared with countless acquaintances of the tourists and visitors who pass through the park. The format all but guarantees an audience far more diverse than a typical gallery, museum, or even public art showing; exhibiting an optimistic/populist view of art consumption. It's a view that mirrors a lot of her work.

If you're familiar with any facet of Miranda July's creative output you already know that she's a prolific, bizarre, and singular artist. She's an important voice of a fragmented generation, capable of finding strange beauty in highly unlikely circumstances. Her collection of short stories, "No One Belongs Here More Than You", is the most distilled articulation of her weirdness, inexplicable optimism, and vulnerability.

At the Grocerystowe our first exposure to Ms. July was through the exceptional film "Jesus' Son" (based on the equally exceptional collection of short stories of the same name by Denis Johnson). Ms. July had a small, but memorable role in that film. She went on to write, direct, and star in the quirky and poignant film "You, Me and Everyone We Know".

Sadly, the installation is the final public project to be presented by Deitch Projects.

New Chromcraft Desk Chairs

2010-07-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Picked these vintage 1960's? beauties up off of craigslist earlier today.

Zola Jesus, Sea Talk

2010-07-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Zola Jesus - Sea Talk

Zola Jesus strips away the noise and lets us hear what she's singing. Turns out that voice is even more powerful without all the noise.

Sonic Arboretum, A Collaboration by Andrew Bird and Ian Schneller

2010-07-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

Mr. Andrew Bird has always been a hugely popular at the Grocerystowe, and our admiration of Ian Schneller's horn speakers has been previously documented here. As has the connection between Mr. Bird and Mr. Schneller. Their latest collaboration, however, makes me want to cut the legs off a pair of my jeans just so i can use the term 'cream in my jorts' to express the magnitude of my excitement. The two Chicago-based artists are teaming up to create an audio-visual landscape/performance piece for the Guggenheim's Dark Sounds Series (which also includes Beirut!).

I can't imagine a more fitting setting for the performance than Frank Lloyd Wright's nautilus-inspired building. It'll be a rumination on experimentation by master craftsmen inside a rumination on experimentation by a master craftsman, amplified by hundreds of artist-created horns inside a giant artist-created horn.

The photos above are from the photo journal on the Speciman website, and there's a ton more of them worth checking out.

Also, Mr. Bird just contributed to the Voice Project, a noble and artistic cause. I believe their logo includes artwork by the late mission school legend Margaret Kilgallen.

Artists discuss New Album "Grey Oceans" by CocoRosie

2010-07-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of these freaky/folky ladies since stumbling across their Beautiful Boyz EP while trying to find Beachwood Sparks' cover of Sade's "By Your Side". But that's neither here nor there. These sisters are artistic anchors of the so-called 'freak-folk' scene in New York and exhibit those qualities I most admire in music; experimentation, daring, vulnerability, and earnestness. Their music is certainly "difficult", but that's hardly an excuse for their ultra low profile in the music world.

Stereogum writer, Brandon Stosuy, and many of his musician friends clearly agree. Follow the link to read a great discussion on the merits of CocoRosie's music and artistic identity. Grocerystowe favorites Antony Hegarty, Doveman, Nico Muhly, Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) and William Basinski are among those who weigh in. If you don't take the time to read the piece I strongly suggest you at least download the track "Lemonade", as it's one of the best tracks of 2010 so far.

The Swedish Subway System

2010-06-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

The Scandinavian countries have frequently set the bar when it comes to efficiency and design over the past century or so. These photos are a very vibrant reminder of those qualities. I find the images almost overwhelmingly inspiring. We can only dream of mass transit so modern, clean, and efficient in the United States, and works of public art here rarely approach the scope of this project in terms of both size and public engagement. You could certainly argue that the recent works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude fit this bill. However, their work is usually temporal and, in its own way, esoteric.

Conversely, the planners and artists of the Swedish Subway System appear to have deliberatley set out to project traditional Swedish folk themes and motifs in a very modern and urban way that reminds me of the output of the members of the Mission School featured in the film/book/exhibit "Beautiful Losers" (esp. Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, Chris Johansen, Clare Rojas). I love the execution but i also love the apparent intention of reminding a community of its past, and humanity, while looking to the future, both artistically and technologically.

p.s. can't figure out where the originals of these photos came from or i would link them. they're all over the interwebs though if you wanna see more.

2010 World Championship Cheese Contest | Cypress Grove Chevre

2010-06-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

2010 World Championship Cheese Contest | Cypress Grove Chevre

I've been espousing the virtues of Cypress Grove's Midnight Moon Goat Gouda for years. Now the experts have validated my taste. Head on out to the grocerysto' and pick some up already!

Ryan McGinley's European Wrangler ad

2010-06-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

Ryan McGinley directed the video spots for Wrangler's ad campaign in Europe before he started working with Levi's on the Go Forth campaign. I couldn't find the video until just recently. Not quite as amazing as Go Forth but I think it's well done.

JBM, Not Even In July

2010-06-28T01:55:00.000-07:00

Shortly after discovering new artist JBM, I discovered that he would be touring with Grocerystowe favorite, AA Bondy. Shortly after that i discovered the two would playing here in Austin on August 13th. I already bought my ticket.

JBM shares a label in the US with Mountain Man (see previous entry). I'm afraid to admit i was not very familiar with Partisan Records until just recently. They're a small label but have a very solid stable of artists including Deer Tick, Dolorean, and the criminally overlooked group the Standard, as well as those previously mentioned. The album, Not Even in July (official release date in July, but you get an immediate download code by pre-ordering it from partisan) is full of slow burners and features warm but disaffected vocals, with some sublimely recorded, rich guitar sounds.

Mountain Man

2010-06-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

<a href="http://mountainman.bandcamp.com/album/mountain-man">ANIMAL TRACKS by Mountain Man</a>

More Appalachian inspired folk outta Vermont, the state that was kind enough to give us Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly, Doveman, so much maple syrup, and Meredith. Their forth-coming album is being released by those stalwarts of great taste and espousers of the Denton scene, Bella Union.

Band Bio from Bella Union's web-page

Mountain Man is, as decribed by themselves “a creature growing from the mouths of,” Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath. They met at Bennington College in the small town of Bennington, Vermont. It was not until Molly visited Bennington during a term off that the seeds of Mountain Man were set. On hearing Molly playing a song in the living room of their shared house, Amelia demanded she taught it to her, singing Dog Song over and over until Amelia felt she could remember it well enough to teach Alex. When Molly came back to Bennington in the spring, all three sang together for the first time. All equally amazed by the sound they made together, Mountain Man was formed. Each member writes for the band, writing a cappella songs nestled in the tradition of American folk, with the occasional use of an acoustic guitar. Their songs are shaped by three searching voices, encompassing harmonies and a shared belief in and love of the world. They are mutually moved to sing by their love for people, and for trees, birds and mountains, the ocean, the night, the moon, and being a woman.

Summer Love

2010-06-14T12:56:00.001-07:00

Conan and Jack White!!!

2010-06-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

if this doesn't make you at least a little bit happy check your pulse.

Efterklang

2010-06-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a lovely little video from Danish atmospheric quartet, Efterklang. Mr. Peter Broderick has a pretty extensive and impressive body of work under both his own name and with Efterklang. This video reveals the quartets tendencies towards pastoral folk and sweeping atmospherics through both the visual imagery and lush string arrangements. I like the juxtaposition of pounding percussion, pop vocals, and bouncing piano tones alongside those other elements. The net result is chamber pop any fan of the genre can get behind.

The video is inspired by the Danish film, The Deer Garden, and was directed by the daughter of the original film's co-director.

Danish film + patriarchal artistic homage + orchestral/pastoral Scandanavian music = A good day at the Grocerystowe

Pela

2010-05-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone already loves "High Violet", the new album by the National, so writing about it would be sort of redundant. Even if it would allow me to further my obsession with High Violet contributors, and Whale Watching Tour/802/Bedroom Community staples Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota and Thomas Bartlett. But I'm not going to indulge that obsession today. A few posts back I called (or maybe i just meant to call) John Grant's "Queen of Denmark", the album Midlake should have put out this year. I'm going to continue along that line here by recommending everyone revisit Pela's fantastic 2007 release, "Anytown Graffiti". It's a moody and terse album that will fit neatly into your music collection alongside the National's output. Like the National, Pela exudes Brooklyn swagger tempered by midwestern roots. Unfortunately, the band broke up late last year and this was their only LP. I just thought it could use a little dusting off.

bonny billy

2010-05-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

New Zola Jesus Vid

2010-05-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

like everything this little firecracker does, it's pretty great. kinda looks like a dan flavin exhibit in the background no?

Shutter Island

2010-05-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Shutter Island and I thought the movie was pretty good. The score, however, was drop-dead gorgeous. The highlight of the whole production comes during the credits for chrissake. Robbie Robertson curated the soundtrack and selected Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" from his superb, The Blue Notebooks, as the pictures aural backbone. That is saying a lot in the context of a collection of work by modern classical giants like John Cage, Richter, Ingram Marshall, and Brian Eno. Robertson reprises the selection in the credits and seamlessly folds Dinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth" vocals into the composition making it seem that she was always there, or he was always there, or whatever the hell. This is currently my very favorite thing to listen to.

Breathe Owl Breathe

2010-05-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

Breathe Owl Breathe - Own Stunts from Magic Central on Vimeo.

Love these guys, and this video is entertaining if nothing else. I'm not really sure why he's wearing that robe whilst cross-country skiing, but his snow moustache is top notch.

Will Oldham and a Dystopian Robot Brewmeister

2010-04-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is one of the more entertaining ruminations on the world of beermaking since Strange Brew. It features craft brew hotshots, Dogfish, and everyone's favorite beardo, Will Oldham, aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, in all of his bizarre glory. It starts off seemingly very improvisational, and a little off-mark, but hang in there. You will be rewarded. Oh yeah, and if you haven't seen Old Joy, please do so now.

Does anyone else think Will Oldham's life seems really, really fun? He gets to have an awesome beard, dress HOWEVER the fuck he wants, make incredible records with a dizzying spectrum of collaborating artists, hang out with craft brewers, and occasionally star or cameo in a movie.

Jonsi and Nico

2010-04-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

Jonsi from Sigur Ros taps grocerystowe favorite, Nico Muhly,on his debut solo record. Bird imagery abounds, and thats usually a good thing.

Resurrection of an unknown Czar

2010-04-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

‘I Wanna Go To Marz’ - FREE DOWNLOAD

John Grant is one of THE great voices in pop music today. He was the singer in the underappreciated Denver group The Czars. After a tumultuous history, that produced three fantastic records, the Czars are just a relic of a fantastic Denver music scene (including Sixteen Horsepower, the Denver Gentlemen, Woven Hand, Devotchka, Jay Munly, and Slim Cessna's Auto Club) that almost nobody paid any attention to in its heyday. Well, Mr. Grant is back with his best record yet. Not only is "Queen of Denmark" a great display of Grant's baritone voice, it features Midlake as his backing band. If you were disappointed with Midlake's 2010 release, The Courage of Others, give this record a listen.

Pearl Snaps Are For Farmers

2010-04-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

Try not to be too jealous of this vintage, customized western shirt. Thank God it fit me! Now i just need to bring it to Jimmy at ZZZ Threadz and have him add an "'s grandson" to the end, and i've got a fashionable tribute to my grandfather. He is the epitome of Americana. Francis Wagner farmed the fertile soils of eastern Iowa well into his 60's, dances better than anyone else i know, loves baseball, and was by all accounts a hell of pitcher in his younger days. Proud indeed.

AA Bondy on Hearya

2010-04-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

The good people over at Hearya.com have a vast library of quality content. This is from their in studio session with AA Bondy. Mr. Bondy's record last year, When the Devil's Loose, was one of my top 10 records of 2009. He's got a face almost like Woody Guthrie's, a whiskey and honey-soaked voice, and his songs feature alt-country touchstones like harmonica, national guitar, and pedal steel. While I am a sucker for the product of those collective elements, Bondy achieves something both bigger and smaller than the sum of the parts. His restraint in both singing and songwriting produce the subtle kind of beauty Terrence Malick captures visually. It's like being wrapped in the warm air of a summer breeze and knowing you've got time and space to do nothing but enjoy it. There's still the obligatory heartbreak and hardships of the genre, but it's comforting and soothing in a way very few records are.

Richard Buckner: Daytrotter Session recorded Mar 22, 2010

2010-03-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

this is very much worth downloading

Richard Buckner: Daytrotter Session recorded Mar 22, 2010

Timber Timbre on Breaking Bad

2010-03-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

Breaking Bad's Season 3 is upon us and I, for one, am thrilled. It's hands down the best show on TV right now. It's both insanely dramatic, and excruciatingly sparse. The show features great acting by the likes of two-time Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, gorgeous cinematography and shot construction, and writing that sucks me in every time. Which brings us to music. Dave Porter's dusty and ominous score perfectly sets the tone for each episode of Breaking Bad, and the creators have shown great taste in selecting suitable, left-of-the-dial songs to subtley frame the unfolding drama. However, I was still taken aback to hear Timber Timbre's 'Magic Arrow' uninterrupted by dialogue, and almost in its entirety in last night's episode. Awesome.

Will Johnson's Baseball Paintings

2010-03-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

The lovely ladies at IF+D brought a little slice of Americana into my life this thursday night and officially ushered in spring, as far as I'm concerned. The prolific, multi-talented, and part-time Austin resident, Will Johnson finally showed his baseball paintings IN Austin. You may know Mr. Johnson from one of his many Americana oriented music projects. Mr. Johnson fronts the feedback-friendly band Centro-matic, as well as the gentler South San Gabriel, in addition to recording and touring under his own name. Most recently Conor Oberst, Yim Yames, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward were wise enough to realize they better include Will to fully deliver on the promise of their collective name, and had Mr. Johnson play drums and do a bit of singing on their Monsters of Folk tour. But that's enough about music, Thursday was about art! and baseball. and hot dogs. and cold beer.... and maybe even furniture.

Mr. Johnson's paintings struck a chord with me on many levels. The paintings depict primarily Negro League players, and baseball personalities that endured other unfair challenges during their careers. Clearly informed by American folk-art, pop art, and the rich tradition of outsider art so prevalent in these southern states, Mr. Johnson's paintings visually depict these heroes and anti-heroes in broad, iconic strokes. Coupled with these portraits are painted texts that apply more specific information to the subjects, sometimes telling a story, other times including a short quote that's particularly revealing of the subjects story. Being a fan of baseball, under-dogs, and this style of art; I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It didn't hurt that in between gawking at the paintings and grabbing a fresh PBR out of the ice-stocked kiddie pool, IF+D supplied us with free hotdog's from Frank and beautiful and comfortable couches to sit on from Blu Dot. I left with this song in my head that I remember my dad singing over and over again in the springtimes of my childhood. I never knew where it came from until this event caused me to look it up.

Take Care You Throaty Fairies

2010-03-10T03:30:00.000-08:00

His voice is a fucking train. It could totally demolish you. Be careful.

Joe Henry

2010-03-10T02:44:00.000-08:00

Last night my two best friends in the world went to see Joe Henry at the legendary Blue Note in Manhattan. I was supposed to be at the show with them, and really wish I could've been. I hear the show was everything a person could expect out of the man i think has the most accomplished body of work in the music world of the whole last decade.

Beginning with the Craig Street produced, avante-garde meets tin-pan alley 'Scar' in 1990, Joe Henry has been creating unclassifiable but unmistakeably American masterpieces, all through the naughts. Mr. Henry is a student of the blues, jazz, folk, and pop that define this country musically. He's proven his credibility producing albums by the likes of Allen Toussaint, Bettye Lavette, Ani Difranco, Loudon Wainwright III, Solomon Burke, and the Blind Boys of Alabama; but Mr. Henry has really shown his chops on his own records these last ten years. His obtuse but highly lyrical songwriting, coupled with compositions running the gamut of American roots music, presented in challenging incarnations, performed by the most talented and respected studio musicians of our times, have resulted in a body of work with no comparison. I mean that literally. Try to compare any one of his last four albums to anything out there and you'll be stretching your imagination at the least. Scar, Tiny Voices, Civilians, Blood From Stars. These albums are what it means to be an American and a romantic.

Samamidon + Beth Orton!!!!

2010-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. I love Beth Orton. I love Beth Orton so much that when i saw her play in 2002 i asked her for her autograph. Pretty awesome, huh? Maybe not quite as awesomely dorky as when i hugged Wayne Coyne, but still pretty good. If you're not familiar with the lovely lady, immediately go buy her first two albums, Trailer Park and Central Reservation. I'll admit, i've found her work since then to be pretty inconsitent and largely disappointing. That is until now. NPR's World Cafe is now streaming a second track, You Never Mind, from Samamidon's forthcoming release, and it's a duet with Beth Orton! With strong stamps of participation from Valgeir and Nico on the track, Mr. Amidon lifts Ms. Orton's voice back to the lofty place it held on those earlier records.

Sage wisdom aka bathroom graffiti

2010-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

This little gem in the Longbranch Inn men's room seems very appropriate with SXSW and all of its excesses and debauchery fast-approaching.

Provisions

2010-02-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

When you're doing some really important or cool shit, like going to the moon, or climbing a really big mountain, the names of lots of things change. "Plans" become "itineraries", "food" becomes "rations", and all the fun things you get to go buy before you leave are called "Provisions". And that is why provisions is a rad word. The fellas over at Stag are definitely on-board the "provisions" bandwagon, they even just added the word to their outdoor signage. Since we have yet to mention them here's a little "debriefing", or history. They've got great taxidermy on their walls. The store is run by five guys with a background in vintage furniture among other things. Everything, including the fixtures and decor in the store is for sale. Which is pretty lucky for us because their store is impeccably decorated and merchandised.... and will soon have some new Stowe Provisions. Just in time for your SXSW "itinerary".

Lumberjack Chic

2010-02-19T23:16:00.001-08:00

Meredith gets in on the lumberjack fun with this vintage find from New Bohemia on South Congress. I'm gonna toot my own horn and claim bragging rights for finding it and insisting that she buy it.

HearYa’s SxSW 2010 Day Party! Friday 3/19, Noon – 6pm

2010-02-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

HearYa – Indie Music Blog

HearYa and Woods Entertainment are excited to finally announce the lineup for our SxSW 2010 day party! Short of the bar running out of booze, there’s no reason to leave. Show up early, shake off your hangover, meet some of the nicest musicians around and stay ’til it’s over.

If you plan to show up, shoot us a note at rsvp@hearya.com. We’ll do our best to reserve a spot for you, but we recommend getting there early.

Here are the party details:

Beauty Bar (@ the outside stage)
617 East 7th Street
Friday 3/19 | Noon – 6pm
rsvp@hearya.com

Sponsored by: Beer Nuts, Manifest Digital

Here’s the lineup:

The Deep Dark Woods
The Mother Hips
Lissie
Joe Pug
The Low Anthem
Ben Nichols
Murder By Death
Gringo Star
Love Language

+++++ I've already RSVP'ed and you should too! Ben Nichols is the lead singer from Lucero, and Lissie and Love Language were two of my favorite new acts from 2009. This should be a great show. Thanks, hearya.

OMG, Charlie Darwin!

2010-02-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

just to be clear this is the song "charlie darwin", not to be confused with the song "OMG,CD" on the same album.

The thematic similarities between The Low Anthem's, "Charlie Darwin", and Shearwater's album, The Golden Archipelago, are just too substantial to leave it alone. Evolution, decay, and the interplay of mankind and the natural world are all center-stage in this disarming stop-motion animated video to "Charlie Darwin".

Neither as sonically epic nor as obtuse lyrically as Meiburg's work, "Charlie Darwin" inverts that approach with equally fantastic results. Ben Knox Miller delivers a pretty direct assessment of our lot in this world of science and history in a sublimely reedy falsetto alongside his usual, painstakingly-crafted, dirge-like compositions. In other words, to tell the same story, Meiburg lets his Shearwater soar, and Miller brings his Anthems in nice and low.

Me And My Barry McGee

2010-02-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

Peggy Honeywell – Me And My Barry McGee – Free listening at Last.fm

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In case y'all didn't understand this earlier, i totally heart clare rojas. Not in a creepy way. That's why i posted a link to a nice little cover she did of the Kris Kristofferson/Janis Joplin classic, "Me and Bobby McGee". With practically no effort at all, Honeywell turns it into a charming lo-fi love letter to her real life husband. I can't help but think the painting above could easily be of the two as well. Eyes and ears, start enjoying.

Shearwater ^ The Golden Archipelago

2010-02-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

Austin's Jonathon Meiburg and Co. just dropped their latest album, the Golden Archipelago, via Matador at midnight. The album is the third by the group, Shearwater, in its triptych of albums broaching the subjects of environment, decay and the largely negative effects of human activity on the natural world. These subjects are near to the heart of Meiburg, who's formal education was in the realm of orinthology and field research. This third, and final, panel in the triptych focuses specifically on the natural processes specific to the isolation of island environs. Early purchasers of the album even received a full-color, 50-page dossier based on Meiburg's studies on islands at the fringes of our globe. The video above has been streaming on Shearwater's website in promotion of this release for some months and is pretty compelling on its own.

I haven't had a chance to fully process this follow up to the gorgeous Palo Santo and Rook yet, but, a cursory listen reveals the usual drama, lushness, and epic scope of those earlier releases. As usual the instrumentation is dynamic and accomplished and Meiburg's voice absolutely soars. In short this is a band with lofty goals and accomplishments in terms of both intellectual and creative content, as well as emotional solicitation.

Spencer Krug goodness

2010-02-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

You may know Spencer Krug as one of the two vocalists from Wolf Parade... or THE vocalist from Sunset Rubdown.... or one of the three vocalists from Canadian supergroup Swan Lake.... Or maybe not at all. Whatever. His newest and possibly least accesible project, Moonface, just dropped their inaugaral release. You're not really looking for wild commercial success when you release a one track, 20-minute EP under your fourth musical moniker and call it Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums. Shit-drums? Yes, of course, i played those in high school marching band! And you're really not looking for commercial success when said EP contains one song containing only the sounds of your voice, the marimbas, and some admittedly shitty sounding drums. Then again... his tits do look pretty great on the cover, so maybe.

Oh, did i mention this record is fucking great? Cause it is. Krug brings these three elements together with his usual aplomb, despite they're unusual co-existence. He obviously beefed up on his marimba skills before the recording and manages an organic sound that evokes Kieran Hebden's Four Tet compositions. And the usual drama of Krug's voice and vocal delivery is as compelling as ever in this constrained format. You can find out more about the project and download the EP for a suggested donation over at their Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian site, but, please, someone give that man a million dollars, for god's sake, he showed us his tits.

Breaking Bad Season 3!!!

2010-02-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

Of course, normally i think that knowing when a program is going to be on TV places a person somewhere between boring and mouth-breather, but that was before Bryan Cranston started cooking this shit. In case the Penthouse reading dentist, Dr. Whatley, or speed-walking enthusiast, Hal, had somehow failed to convince you of this man's brilliance and you haven't been watching the first two seasons you have until March 21st to freebase those seasons on netflix and get good and strung out on season 3. This is literally the show that made my technologically-challenged ass learn how my DVR worked.

iamamiwhoami

2010-02-11T03:48:00.000-08:00

Music nerds are all up in a tizzy over this viral ad campaign on youtube. I know i'm intrigued. The short videos are really pretty fantastic in both production value and aesthetics, and the minimal electronic compositions and distorted vocals are working for me too. Visually, I'm actually reminded of Lars Von Trier's film Antichrist. But, ya know, without the whole smashing-my-dvd-player-then-crying-in-a-fetal-position-in-the-shower-and-washing-my-eyeballs-with-bleach part. Shame on you Lars. What was i talking about? Oh yeah, iamamiwhoami? I'm gonna feel really weird if this turns out to be christina aguilera like so many nuts out there are guessing. I'm not gonna put any money on a specific guess, or spend all day trying to decipher the clues they've left, but i don't think these folks are american. probably of some northern european heritage.

as of now there are three more videos in this campaign at youtube.

Peggy Honeywell aka Clare Rojas

2010-02-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite banjo-plucking female folkies (honeywell), and probably my current favorite visual artist (rojas) just published her second childrens book and completed an installation at Ikon Gallery in the UK. That last bit of info is of importance because that's who you can buy the book from. The book's called Pidgy (as in pigeon), and someone buy me one already because the copy I buy will certainly end up in my handsome nephew's hands. It's vintage Clare Rojas, heavily influenced by textiles and folk-art as well as the whimsy of her husband, Barry McGee.

Pidgy even looks a little Charley Harper influenced if you ask me, and that's not a bad thing.

Better still Miss Rojas has a show stateside this spring in Savannah, a mere seven hour drive from Knoxville and it's Big Ears Music Festival.

April 1
Performance by Peggy Honeywell (Clare Rojas)
ACA Gallery of SCAD, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St., Atlanta, Ga.
SCAD exhibitions department presents "Through the Woods," (Feb 12 - April 2) a solo exhibition by California-based artist Clare Rojas traversing five years of the artists productionfrom painting and printmaking, to installation and sculpture. A careful blend of comedy and tragedy, past and present, Rojas imaginative landscapes are peopled with stylized human and animal characters playing out poignant and witty allegorical narratives. "Through the Woods" showcases Rojas distinct iconography, inspired by folk art, street art, quilting and cartoons, that evocatively connects themes of history, community, feminism and ecology in an unforgettable folklore entirely contemporary and unique. The performance is free and open to the public.

Roadtrip anyone?

Evening Hymns, Port Hope

2010-02-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

A perfectly dreamy video that was coincidentally directed by Taylor Kirk (aka Timber Timbre). This guy pops up even when i'm not looking for him. Strange

the Low Anthem

2010-02-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

Geez. That voice. This is more of that music that climbs out of cracks in drying soil. Dusky, mournful and gorgeous. It should come as no surprise that they're touring this spring with Timber Timbre. I can't wait to catch them during SXSW.

The video is from their Hearya session in Chicago. They've got a pretty great website over there, and the Low Anthem's isn't too shabby either.

Draumalandio

2010-02-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

<a href="http://valgeir.net/album/draumalandi">Grýlukvæði by Valgeir Sigurðsson</a>

Valgeir Sigurosson's upcoming release on Bedroom Community is the score to a documentary of the same name, Draumalandio (or Dreamland in english). The film examines the devastation of Iceland's breath-taking landscape through the exploitation of its natural resources. The selection of Valgeir and his label-mates seems a wise choice, as fluent as they are in the language of atmospheric sounds and aural landscapes, and as capable they are of representing conflict in subtle hues.

You can hear the input and coalescence of all of bedroom community's big 5 in the track Grýlukvæði, a children's folktune sung in icelandic by sam amidon. Immediately apparent are sam's banjo, and BC newcomer Daniel Bjarnason's prepared piano tinklings. There's Ben Frost's industrial distortions and fuzz, and Nico Muhly's arrhythmic compositions, and, finally Valgeir tying it all together with his trademark hushes and swells. I haven't seen the film and don't understand a bit of Icelandic, but its easy to see how all these pieces fit together sonically in their own right, and as an accompaniment to the documentary. Sam's appalachian folk delivery with Valgeir's swirling composition behind him provides a sense of provincialism and vast, raw, natural beauty. Ben and Nico's challenging and dissonant contributions could certainly represent an affront to that beauty and Daniel's off-timbre piano articulates the inevitability of the impending destruction. I'm looking forward to the album, as well as the film.

Folk Graffiti

2010-02-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

More vintage fabric, stencils, and spray paint.

Music + Commerce = ???

2010-01-29T00:50:00.001-08:00

The pairing of earnest music and advertising is a controversial and tricky topic. Irresponible record companies and mega-corporations have certainly made some unholy unions between art and commerce but, let's face it, radio is dead, and the music industry is constantly having to reinvent itself in our high tech age to remain profitable. In the right circumstances, young ad agency creatives are able to introduce some of their favorite bands to a whole new audience, and small, or well-run, record labels are able to gain some revenue and greater audience for their talent.

We've seen what VW, iTunes, and the Gap can do for a band on the cusp of economic viability, and that model seems to be catching hold. I just saw a commercial for Seventh Generation Inc. featuring my favorite song of the last three years (Blitzen Trapper's Furr) in the background. Green company + hippie portland band. It seems a truly perfect marriage. The music fits the branding image of seventh generation and requires no compromise on the part of blitzen trapper. The song was already written and recorded, and the company in question doesn't seem to contradict their ideals (i'm sure the constantly touring and hard working trappers didn't mind staying in hotels and eating good food with the extra dough either).

the band's fantastic official video

Free People

2010-01-29T00:27:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna toot my own here and post a link to the latest blog entry about Stowe Provisions over at Free People. Toot toot.

Poor mouth.

2010-01-29T00:21:00.000-08:00

the eyes get in on the fun here. good find meredith

Beach House

2010-01-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

"Wow, this makes my eyes and mouth wish they were ears." My good friend Ruben Nusz with the final word on Beach House's fantastic new album, Teen Dream (which is also getting serious accolades from the likes of Grizzly Bear). Not much improving on that description. Besides being clever and funny, ruben is a talented and hard-working visual artist in Minneapolis.

Best Album of the Year So Far

2010-01-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

I know it's early, but, gosh. There's definitely love in somebody.

the Bedroom Community

2010-01-26T00:33:00.000-08:00

VIDEO 1
This serves mostly as a 'bedroom community 101' short course with glimpses of the synergy that's being harnessed here. At one point, Ben Frost say's, "on paper this shouldn't work.... but it does". It doesn't just work, it captures something so rare, haunting and beautiful i'm having trouble putting words to it. He's right though. These four horsemen bring together such vastly different backgrounds in life and music that its hard to comprehend how they've arrived so punctually on the same note.

Valgeir Sigurrosson is an Icelandic master of airy, ethereal studio production, having worked with Bjork and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy among others. His recent solo album, Equilibrium, shows that he's beyond capable when coming out from behind the mixing boards to write, play and arrange.

Nico Muhly is a classically trained Julliard graduate come avante garde composer and arranger. He's worked with Phillip Glass, arranged for Antony and the Johnsons, Grizzly Bear, and the National, and scored major motion pictures like 'the Reader'.

Ben Frost is an Australian ex-pat living in Iceland who's work might be the musical equivalent of Roberto Bolano and his 'infrarealism' movement in poetry. His music fits into the larger categories of 'experimental', 'ambient' and 'electronic', with a smattering of industrial, post-rock and metal influences. More than most music, it defies classification. He presents a sophisticated, yet visceral and un-nerving musical experience.

Sam Amidon is the child of folk musicians and has been playing and performing from a very young age. His sound borrows heavily from his appalachian folk roots, Sacred Harp shape note singing, and he makes no secret of being a student of the legacy left behind by harry smith and alan lomax at the smithsonian folkways.

VIDEO 2
Everybody's heard that perfect song at the perfect time at least several times in their life (i hope). Gram Parsons on a shitty old transportable record player while vintage shopping. Sigur Ros when you're geeked out. Centro-matic in the middle of a muggy day with all your friends and lots of cold cold beer. Bob Dylan. Well, have you ever put on a record, on a really nice night, with all the windows open in your house, and felt like the music was coming in from outside instead of the other way around? Like the notes are crawling out of the soil and settling out of the sky like evidence of cells splitting, rock eroding, and god? No? Fuck you, it happens to me sometimes. I don't even need the open windows and acclimate weather here. These pale beauties have watches that read in geologic time and their fingers know every detail of specific glacier's stories. huh? it's like everything's in slow motion and they're not. they know just when to pluck, just when to clap, just how to make their goddamn vocal chords vibrate, and the knowledge is ancient and unerring. i think they just hit the universe's natural frequency. you know, the frequency at which a system will naturally vibrate when it's been set into motion. powerful shit. just ask the poor bastards stuck on the tacoma narrows bridge when the wind and highway traffic combined to hit the bridge's natural frequency in 1940.

Did i mention they're all playing Big Ears? Who's going to Knoxville with me?

Songer Singwriter

2010-01-26T00:17:00.000-08:00

This Weekend Bowery Presents and the Brooklyn Vegan presented a benefit show for Haitian relief efforts at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) and Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) reunited (apparently they made a song for something called Twilight that the kids all love) and played several covers together. They even came up with a cutesy She and Him style name (see posting title). Here's hoping that further collaborations are in the cards for these two. Annie Lennox songs sure do age well, no?

Best of 2009

2010-01-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

My self esteem must be at an all-time high. You've seen all the experts' lists , but recently i'm convinced that "expert" just means well-connected. So, hey, here's my two cents. In case you couldn't have guessed my two cents may have spent a little time weathering the elements under a softball field bleacher, aquiring a nice patina. Maybe someone spilled a beer down there. Definitely not shiny.

top 10 records in whatever order i thought of them

Animal Collective ^ Merriweather Post Pavilion
the xx ^ xx
Chad Van Gaalen ^ Soft Airplane
Timber Timbre ^ Timber Timbre
St Vincent ^ Actor
the Antlers ^ Hospice
Ben Frost ^ By the Throat
AA Bondy ^ When the Devil's Loose
Olafur Arnalds ^ Found Songs
Lightning Dust ^ Infinite Light

top 5 films

Fantastic Mr. Fox
A Serious Man
Moon
Up
Away We Go

Try not to steal from these people, because they actually give a shit. And sometimes its hard to make money AND give a shit at the same time.

Big Ears 2010

2010-01-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

Shit. I might have to skip SXSW this year and save my money for a trip to Tennessee. In just it's second year, the people at Big Ears have curated an incredible lineup of singular, highly expressive artists for this years festival in Knoxville. The group is not large, but, you get to see them perform in gorgeous, intimate, and PROPER settings. With a heavy dose of bedroom community/802, and ambient dub-step performers there promises to be much in the way of collaboration and live experimentation.

TERRY RILEY
DOVEMAN
NICO MUHLY
NADIA SIROTA
SAM AMIDON
IVA BITTOVA
TIM HECKER
BEN FROST
BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS
JOANNA NEWSOM
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
ANDY MOOR
BRYCE DESSNER
ANDREW WK with THE CALDER QUARTET
GYAN RILEY
THE 802 TOUR
THE NATIONAL
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
JAVELIN
GANG GANG DANCE
ST. VINCENT
THE EX
CLOGS
THE xx
jj
DJ /rupture
BUKE & GASS
ANDREW W.K.
DIRTY PROJECTORS
TRACY SILVERMAN

Seriously, Creepsters

2010-01-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

When i hear that a band i've had recommended to me is from Austin, Iceland, or Sweden they automatically move up the priority list of "must-listen- to's". Partly because when a country like Sweden holds their huge music awards ceremony some of the biggest names show up like this. That would be Karin from Fever Ray, committed as always to her every creepy whim. Zooiks!

the Aforementioned Female Folky

2010-01-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to Sharon Van Etten's music through some truly serendipitous circumstances. Austin's SXSW is famous for its capacity to introduce new listeners to new musicians (or old listeners to old musicians, or non-discriminating listeners to bad musicians, blah blah blah). Seemingly the entire city turns into a giant RIYL beer party, and that's what i love about it. Even with the expectation of uncovering new musical talent in unexpected locales, my chance encounter with Sharon Van Etten was pretty remarkable. On the recommendation of a friend of a 'friend' i dragged several other friends far off the beaten path and into a truly shitty and ugly space for what was being described as one of the many "unofficial SXSW day parties". This "party" consisted of a couple twelve packs of lone star in a fridge next to a sink full of filthy dishes, an overgrown and littered backyard, a dozen or so on-lookers, a bathroom in the remarkably untidy master bedroom, AND...... the absolutely captivating voice and guitar of Ms. Van Etten. She sat alone in the middle of a half empty living room, with late afternoon light pouring through the west facing window behind her, and sang like the words and notes she projected were the only thing that mattered in the whole world. Her body was quiet and calm but in her eyes you could see she's as raw and wide-open as the winter sky, her strength and vulnerability both at odds and working together.

Fast forward three years and her name keeps leaping out at me. She recently collaborated with She Keeps Bees, provided notable guest vocals on the Antlers album "Hospice", and finally released a proper album, "because i was in love", produced by Espers' Greg Weeks. Lucky, lucky us. That performance at SXSW07 was the kind that makes your hairs stand on end and wonder what the fuck just happened. 'Because i was in love' manages to capture that feeling and sustain it over a 50 minute record. Spare instrumentation accompanies a voice that refuses to be anything but true. She ends up reminding me of Richard Buckner in the way she derives her power from living in her fragility and vulnerability. Not reveling in, or exploiting it, but being aware and respectful of it. The sum of these small parts is anything but sparse. It's full and accomplished and downright breathtaking at times.

Hospice

2010-01-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

So, admittedly I’m a latecomer to this record, but it’s so damn good I’m gonna write about it anyways. The cover art and the album title give the listener fair warning of the emotional landscape they’re about to enter. The album’s lyrics, subject matter, and backstory are absolutely devastating, but, then, we’ve heard all that before. What separates this album is its commitment to conveying its complex emotions sonically as well as lyrically.

The seminal Antler, Peter Silberman, reportedly withdrew from his Brooklyn surroundings for over a year, suffering through an experience one can only assume is, at the very least, tangentially related to the story within Hospice. He distilled that anguish into the apartment recordings that would become this record. On the album Silberman tells the story of a man falling in love with a terminally ill patient and the subsequent pitfalls of a romance with a predetermined half-life. This isn’t Hollywood and you already know how the story will end.

Unlike a typical narrative-based album that adheres to a fairly uniform sound (often lo-fi, chamber pop, etc) serving as a backdrop, while relying on prominently featured vocals to tell the story, Hospice swings wildly between skeletal lo-fi folk, ambient compositions, and lush anthemic pop that at times completely obscure the vocals. That is no accident, as Silberman is telling a heartbreaking story of love, illness, loss and grief set mostly amidst the florescent lights and whirring machinery of hospital rooms and hallways. As in real life, when pain and love and joy become too intense to process in real time, words become inadequate to fully articulate the experience. To compensate (or more accurately, complement), Silberman, uses huge sonic shifts to bridge that gap and put the listener in those thin spots between this world and the one we cannot describe. You know, those places that lodge whimpers, yelps, and foreign words firmly in your throat and won‘t let your eyes close. That’s not to say that the lyrics and vocals alike are not gorgeous. Beautifully and intimately recorded in a Brooklyn apartment, Silberman’s falsetto flutters and breaks in all the right places and the sincerity of his approach gilds even questionable lines like “we’re fucked, and not getting un-fucked soon” in pure gold. It also doesn't hurt that up-and-coming female folky Sharon Van Etten lends her lilting, haunted vocals to the voice of the dying lover. This album might ultimately wreck you, but on the way you’ll find all the places high and low and in between.

All the Kings Are Named MJ

2010-01-20T00:41:00.000-08:00

I think the people who call the shots over at Wrangler might be bi-polar. They've got Ryan McGinley doing their TV ads in europe, Marc Jacobs designing a ridiculously small premium line in the U.S., and millions of Wal-Mart shoppers rocking denim washes that no one's liked for twenty years. Whatever. They've made righteous pearl snap shirts for decades on end and i love the jeans this tag came with.

You Gotta Know When To Hold 'Em

2010-01-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

One look at this bad boy was all it took, but the label didn't hurt either. I found this beauty in Riverside, California, while visiting my brother. We were driving aimlessly in search of entertainment, preferably in the form of a baseball hurling robot and a bat or two, when we stumbled upon the highly recommended dive bar, Sire Club (thanks SAM). I, being on vacation, and the both of us, being sorely in need of a little hair of the proverbial dog, decided that an afternoon beer or two were in order. After enjoying the comforting feeling of being in a midwestern bar despite our left coast location, we ventured back out into the daylight and came upon Rob's Vintique a mere block or so away. Rob absolutely knows his shit. He had two pearl snaps that fit me AND exceeded my lofty expectations of a western shirt, an eddie murphy tour shirt from "Raw", a killer vintage sunglasses collection, AND..... rob recognized the T-shirt i was wearing as a Timber! (despite not bearing the word anywhere). Hardcore boomtown indeed. Kudos rob, kudos sire club, kudos kenny rogers western collection and kudos timberps.

Very Good News Indeed

2010-01-10T23:43:00.000-08:00

My current favorite eccentric and maker of beautiful music, Sam Amidon, has announced a release date for his next album. In just two months time we get to experience what lovely sounds Mr. Amidon has unearthed with his dizzyingly talented friends Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett, Valgeir Sigurosson, and Beth Orton!!!, among others, while recording in fantasy island. Until then, he's made a song from the album available here.

More Analog Amplification

2010-01-07T03:04:00.000-08:00

I once rode an early morning winter train from Beacon, NY, down the Hudson River valley, and into the great city, listening to this record on my headphones. Steaming smokestacks, frosty steel signs of industry awakening, snow dusted hills and cliffs, and the black and rolling river, all in rhythm to the perpetual chug of machinery beneath my body. It was a truly beautiful experience. It also created for me a visual companion for this song that would be hard to match. BUT! this video is spot-on AND has seemingly vintage spinning double horns amidst all its grainy steampunk imagery. Eat your heart out Andrew Bird. Honestly, the video is gorgeous despite my own competing experience, and this piece of music is such a moving investigation of the relationships betweeen technology, atmosphere, humans, and sound. The album itself is now several years old and you can read up on it all you want on these fantastic interwebs, but my affinity for every aspect of this project compels me to at least plant this seed.

Jacques Penoit

2010-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

It's no H Bar C, Rockmount, or even Wrangler; and that's probably why the pockets are slightly too close together and low on the shirt.... BUT, I LOVE this new addition to my western shirt collection. You might say it's a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll. Thank you JC Penney's and Room Service Vintage.

WWZD?

2010-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

probably see you only through a beautiful lacy lense and love you forever and magnificently even though you don't deserve it.

Mi Casa

2010-01-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my living room for quite a while and just made some serious progress decorating the walls. Andy Warhol did a lot of the work in the first photo and i got plenty of help from the good people at Yard Dog in the second one. The second photo includes paintings by Mike Egan (top row, middle) and Jon Langford (middle row, right column; and bottom row, left column). The middle piece i found at the citywide garage sale and the remaining pieces i made with vintage stretched fabric and stencils with spray paint.

Creepsters

2010-01-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know what is going on here, but its freaking amazing. A million people could try to make this and it would turn out terrible every time because you can't fake creepy. I keep watching the video and thinking i wish my house was one the neighbors houses.

Still With the Lumberjacks? Yes, still.

2009-12-28T15:07:00.000-08:00

Billy Reid is an Alabama based clothing line, and while i don't know how many trees they have in Alabama, the boys at billy reid do understand that even lumberjack pajamas are pretty sweet. In all seriousness, their products, stores, and overall branding image are all exceedingly well executed. If you don't believe me go to their website.

So I mentioned axes earlier, but i really can't get over how pretty these are. They're a beautiful, and potentially fear inducing, marriage of function and form.

Everyone likes lists at the end of a decade, but they become so redundant. So I made a list of recent albums that have either been recorded, or should be listened to, in a remote cabin by bearded men and flannel clad women. It's not intended to be all inclusive and I'm gonna omit the obvious ones (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Band of Horses, et al)

1. Strand of Oaks "Leave Ruin"
2. Timber Timbre "Timber Timbre"
3. Small Sur "We Live in Houses Made of Wood"
4. Zola Jesus "the Spoils"
5. Horse Feathers "Words Are Dead"
7. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy "the Letting Go"
8. Mi an L'au "Mi and L'au"
9. Revival "Horses of War"
10. Songs: Ohia "Didn't It Rain"
11. Balmorhea "Rivers Arms"
12. Olafur Arnalds "Found Soungs"
13. Phosphorescent "Pride"
14. Doveman "the Conformist"
15. Great Lake Swimmers "Great Lake Swimmers"

Finally, I didn't say enough about Timber Timbre... Timber Timbre is a Canadian (of course) named Taylor Kirk. He hangs out with the weirdos in Bruce Peninsula (also very good) and records for the well respected Arts and Crafts label. His sound is an amalgamation of Screaming Jay Hawkins' swampy voodoo delta blues sound, Stuart Staples' disaffected soul singing with the Tindersticks, fellow Canadian Chad VanGaalen's macabre songwriting perspective, and Mason Jenning's unusual vocal inflections. However, I hate to reference other artists because this record is fantastically singular in its beauty and creepiness. I've been listening to it on repeat and it strikes me as something that could've been recorded by someone that can barely play any of the instruments used (sparingly) throughout it. Somehow this doesn't detract. You've already bought it (like, with actual money going to the artist) right?

Timber!

2009-12-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

Original print by native vermont on etsy

T shirts from timberps on etsy

I'm sure you've heard that flannel is the new black, or whatever. These folks understand that it's not about a grunge revival or a fashion statement. The truth is lumberjacks are cool as shit with their facial hair, suspenders, and toques. Oh yeah, and axes are freaking boss.

Uhhh.... hello? I'm calling to extend my credit limit.

2009-12-22T17:31:00.001-08:00

If you've seen Andrew Bird on tour in the last few years you've seen his custom horn speakers built by Specimen in chicago. These home speakers are by the same folks and belong in my house. They're part steam punk, part pop art, 100% amazing.

Here's the always dapper Mr. Bird with his spinning double horns.

Best Christmas Party Ever

2009-12-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

apparently being a nearly 70 year old Jew doesn't preclude one from throwing a bitchin christmas party and actually making a christmas song worth listening to. i think maybe he's been listening to some tom waits

Bedroom Community

2009-12-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

It was created under the cloak of nocturnal snow in the far northest reaches of financial-fanstasy island, a concept borne of Frost and weapons manufacturer, war monger and evil genius Sruli Recht, captured by the all-seeing-eye of Bjarni Gríms and forged in the fires of hell by Rebeca Mendéz

these people coax music out of their instruments like an archaelogist does a fossil from the ground, and breathe light on everything around them.

The VERY best thing on television right now

2009-12-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

With words by Walt Whitman, images by Ryan McGinley, denim by Levis Strauss, and audio recordings from the Smithsonian Folkways it doesn't get more Americana than this. That, and you will never see it done better. Go Forth.