First Post About Music

Ok, so I started this blog for a bunch of different reasons. One was to use this as an incentive to keep a record of my progress with my own art, paintings, etc. But I also wanted a place to post my favorite pictures, music, and things. I'm in the mood to talk about music tonight, but I have no one to talk to about it! Everyone's busy, because it's midsems week!

So.....

Some Albums I've been listening to lately and am very excited about and why I am very excited about.

1. Fennesz- Venice
I'm not sure if this kind of album is normally my thing. But my friend Chris gave me a copy, and though it took a few listens, I've found myself somewhat attached. I'm not sure what it is, but I find this album to be very otherworldly.... like being transported into the middle of a william blake drawing, I see post apocalyptic angels being born in solar light cocoons through the labors of indivudal light beams, slowly emerging in the middle of space or levitating above craters on mars. The image I have, especially at a couple of key moments, is of this angel raising his hand, or blowing his trumpet, and all of the earth suddenly right before him beginning to disintegrate. This little vision is all very ridiculous and I'm not sure how it happened but in this case it did, and I'm more than a little embarassed by it.

2. Shelby Sifers- Yeah and I'm in love, too
Unbearably Sweet..... but also unbearably sincere, I think. Shelby is from Portland, and the packaging I got her CD in matched exactly what I would have imagined it to look like... carefully assembled and signed "with love". I think I like this album because there's actually no naivety, or if there is it's just feigned. She sings about love, sex, childhood, prostitution, whatever, but the illusions she does have about all of it are ones she keeps consciously, as though guarding against the things she knows she can't overcome. The song geraniums and potatoes makes me tear up a little bit every time. It's a song about depression; serious depression, clinical depression. Her life with this has been hard, but it would be harder without being able to describe it in potato terms. The album is simple, maybe too simple, but I forgive her for it, I'd forgive her anything.

3. Mount Eerie- Live at the Department of Safety, Anacortes, WA, 6/20/03.
Phil Elverum performing at the department of safety in his hometown of Anacortes. I love this concert because it really captures what the experience of his live show is like. It's an increddibly intimate experience. He has this ability to be both a very tangible human being (he fucks up a lot, forgets the words, his voice cracks, etc.) while still creating an absolutely holy exerience. His tools are so crude and he knows it. I think good art, music, whatever is about interconnection, about fully expereincing each other as human beings, even if it's for just an instant. I think this is what I felt like when I saw him in chicago. Less so in Mount Vernon, cause that was kind of a distracting show. But still.... an amazing thing. Hiss songs are choppy, some might say naive, but I think this is a real route towards saying something incredibly profound. It's fragile, beautiful, but also so so important. A beautiful concert.... you can probably still get it here, mounteerie.trivialbeing.net. I recommend it.