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My 25 favorite records of 2017 (so far)

Joan Shelley, “Joan Shelley” (No Quarter) 

John Moreland, “Big Bad Luv” (4AD)

Kelly Lee Owens, “Kelly Lee Owen” (Smalltown Supersound) 

Jesse Colter, “The Psalms” (Sony Legacy) 

Fletcher Tucker, “Cold Spring” (Gnome Life) 

Kevin Morby, “City Music” (Dead Oceans) 

The Myrrors, “Hasta La Victoria” (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records) 

Shabazz Palaces, “Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines” (Sub Pop) 

Strand of Oaks, “Hard Love” (Dead Oceans) 

James Elkington, “Wintres Woma” (Paradise of Bachelors)

Hurray for the Riff Raff, “The Navigator” (ATO)

Mountain Goats, “Goths” (Merge) 

The Necks, “Unfold” (Idealogic Organ) 

David Bazan, “Care” (Undertow) 

Wooden Wand, “Clipper Ship” (Three Lobed Recordings) 

Kendrick Lamar, “DAMN.” (TDE)

Aimee Mann, “Mental Health” (SuperEgo Records)

Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2, “Star Stuff” (Company) 

Chuck Johnson, “Balsams” (VDSQ) 

Vince Staples, “Big Fish Theory” (Def Jam) 

Psychic Temple, “Psychic Temple IV” (Joyful Noise) 

Mind Over Mirrors, “Undying Color” (Paradise of Bachelors) 

Sunn Trio, “Sunn Trio” (Sky Lantern Records)

SZA, “Ctrl” (TDE)

Fleet Foxes, “Crack-Up” (Nonesuch)

Forthcoming: Clientele, Hiss Golden Messenger, Weather Station, Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Protomartyr, Lee Renaldo 

Others: Harriett Tubman, The Drums, Mt. Eerie,  Ryan Adams, Eivind Opsvik, Bash & Pop, Brokeback, Thundercat, Magnetic Fields,  Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble 

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June 29, 2017

Chavez, “Unreal Is Here” [1996] 

“There is nothing to not be amazed at.” 

Company Men [2017]

My Tucson-based buddy Jared Carter's started a podcast called Company Men with his pal Chuck Tommervik. It's a show about hospitality, cooking, and beers, and because Jared's involved, it's very funny and ultimately an examination of vulnerability, community, and kindness. For fans of Awesome Etiquette, Judge John Hodgman, and Doughboys. 

Psychic Temple, “Tennessee Blues,” “Sail Away,” “The Christian Life” [recorded 2016; published 2017] 

Generally speaking, I enjoy most if not all of Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions series, which sits artists down to record cover versions of songs that mean something to them. Chris Schlarb is one of my favorite people making music these days. His forthcoming album, “Psychic Temple IV,” is a West Coast pop epic, with a lot of heart and musical warmth. Here, he shares a stripped-down session recorded in Nebraska. Accompanied by a chorus of bugs, he plays songs by Bobby Charles, the Louvin Brothers, and Randy Newman. It feels like a peek into Schlarb’s musical mind and the heights he aspires to in his own art. 

Twin Peaks: The Return” Part 8 [2017] 

The most baffling and exciting episode of the show yet. Terrifying, gorgeous, haunted and haunting. Lynch at his height. 

Desert Oracle Radio [Friday, June 23, 2017] 

I spent much of last week in Las Vegas for work, which is not one of my favorite places. One thing I do love about the place is the desert surrounding it, with those giant rock formation and deep, severe gouges carved in the earth. Gambling appeals very little to me, so each night after work and dinner, I retreated to my hotel room to read (Marvel’s Gods of Mars and, coincidentally, John Carter’s “Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons”) and listen to podcasts. Best of all was Friday night when Desert Oracle editor Ken Layne launched his new late night paranormal, desert-centric “Desert Oracle Radio” on KCDZ Z107.7 FM. Layne’s booming voice and tales of floating orbs and Yucca Man kept me company in Sin City, sharing out the window onto the neon expanse below. If you have ever settled into the deep weirdness of the desert at night -- and I have on many occasion -- this show will feel eerily familiar. 

Floating Points, “Mojave Desert” [2017] 

Speaking of the majestic Mojave. Floydian!  

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June 5, 2017

“Long Strange Trip,” directed by Amir Bar-Lev [2017]

Sure, I’m coasting on the leftover fumes of seeing Dead & Company last week, but even if I weren’t, Amir Bar-Lev’s moving and detailed documentary “Long Strange Trip” would have knocked me on my ass. Crammed with rare footage, fantastic interviews, and exquisite music, the series tells the story of a truly American art project, movement, and subculture, centered around the idea of musical adventure and fearlessness, and the resulting human costs that inevitably required. 

“Lovecraft Country,” by Matt Ruff [2016] 

So there’s terror -- unknown forces, demonic pulses, and cosmic dread -- and then there’s terror: human hatred, unjust systems, the purely evil idea that some human beings are lesser than others. This book, episodic and currently being adapted by Jordan Peele for HBO, addresses and unites both kinds of terror, and probes the legacy of pulp/weird literature with a thoughtful, incisive touch. 

“Call climate change what it is: violence;” “The Loneliness of Donald Trump,” by Rebecca Solnit [April 7, 2014; May 30, 2017]  

Solnit, with a zealous humanist drive, makes concerns about the climate less abstract and understandably visceral, and explains Donald Trump’s consistent, all-encompassing black hole villainy for exactly what it is: sad and profoundly useless. 

“The Profoundly Prophetic Witness Of David Lynch,” by David Dark [May 29, 2017] 

“Nothing can stay hidden forever.” 

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May 30, 2017

Pixies, "Doolittle" [1989] 

While working on an essay about Bush (specifically) and ‘90s nostalgia (more generally) for “Phoenix New Times,” I ended up listening to the Pixies, the band that, more or less, created the template for what Bush tried to do on its early albums. My personal favorite Pixies record is “Doolittle,” which I found in a Casa Grande thrift store in what must have been 2000 or 2001. I had no frame of reference for the Pixies, but I was pretty sure Weezer was inspired by the Boston band. Of course “Wave of Mutilation” confirmed that notion, but the rest of the record blew me away too. I dug it out and have been listening all week. An arcane and wily classic. 

"Void Indigo," by Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik [1983]

Worked at Phoenix Comicon all weekend, which was fun despite the weirdness that kicked things off on Thursday. I’m always on the hunt for magazine-sized comics while working at these things, and discovering the bizarre “Void Indigo” by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik (”Howard the Duck,” “Man-Thing”) was a highlight this year. Part Conan, part “Highlander,” part counter culture freak-out, “Void Indigo” tells the tale of an extra-dimensional barbarian “Mick” Jhagur (say it out loud) navigating the southwestern desert of the early 1980s. It’s pretty ridiculous and overwrought, both in violence and high-minded tone, but I also love how weird it is. It was followed by two issues of a monthly series before being cancelled due to criticism of the book’s violent content -- so now I’m on the hunt for those, too.  

"Twin Peak: The Return" [2017] 

Speaking of cosmic violence! Utterly baffling, terrifying, hilarious, and mind-bending. I don’t know what to make of “Twin Peaks: The Return” -- but I’m glad I get to try and figure it out. 

"On the Road: the Original Scroll," by Jack Kerouac [2007]; "The Dharma at Big Sur," John Adams [2003]

Guess my inner Wally Brando just wanted to high five my current self. 

Dead & Company at Ak-Chin Pavilion, Sunday, May 28, 2017 

Went in hoping for a good time. Delivered on all fronts. Sluggish “Dear Prudence,” sure, but “Drums->Space” melted my head and “Scarlet -> Fire” was perfect. And honestly, “Touch of Grey” was a wonderful, concise closer. 

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May 15,2017

Well, I finally blew it and missed a week. Didn’t take long, did it? But I come with excuses at the ready: I worked a ton leading up to a weekend off in Palm Springs, then worked a bunch the next week to get ready to spend most of this weekend at the Form festival at Arcosanti. Expect more writing on that soon, but for now, a few things I’ve been digging the last couple weeks:

“The Case for Hard-Shell Tacos,” Sam Sifton for New York Times Magazine (May 11, 2017)

"They are a taste of inauthenticity, perhaps, a heretical sham — lame supermarket Tex-Mex food, a whitewashed charade. Gringo tacos, some people call them, an embarrassment.

But they remain well loved, in surprising quarters."

“Dreaming the Beatles,” Rob Sheffield (2017)

I could happily read Sheffield talk about just any band, but he’s riffing on the context and culture of a band as rich in both as the Beatles, the results are magic. Sheffield pulls off the best possible move a writer can, he expresses deep, insightful points in the most entertaining, effortless to read fashion. Incredibly personal but researched, each claim expertly backed up. Dude’s a king. 

“A hotel room more interesting than the cosmos: In praise of the downsized concept album,” Chris Richards for the Washington Post (May 9, 2017)

“Spirit World,” Jack Kirby (1971/2012)

In 1971 Jack Kirby headed to DC Comics with the intention of launching an occult-themed comic magazine for adults, something similar to “National Lampoon” in format, “Eerie/Vamperiella” in content. DC Comics published one issue (under the name Hampshire Dist. LTD) before the whole thing fell apart, stories written and illustrated for follow-up issues shuffled off to DC books like “Weird Mystery Tales” and “Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion.” Some intense themes run through the stories, including environmental terror, sexism, and the ravages of war, but the biggest draw here is the fumetti and collage work of The King, in full on supernatural freak-out mode. Absolutely perfect stuff. 

“WildC.A.T.S.” issue #3, Jim Lee and Brandon Choi; “Savage Dragon” issue #3,  Erik Larsen (1992)

For a few minutes there I could claim I was reading everything “Youngblood” related for research, but not I’ll fully cop to just indulging purely nostalgic impulses with these thinly plotted, over the top violent Image crossovers. (Bonus points: Dan Quayle as a character in this issue of “WildC.A.T.S” -- someone calls him a “potato head!”) 

John Moreland, “It Don’t Suit Me (Like Before)” (2017)

“But they don’t suit me, babe, like before They don’t suit me like they did before Always waving flags and waging wars But it don’t suit me like before It don’t suit me like before”

“Masters of None,” season two (2017)

“Ode to Gravity: Joanna Brouk interviews Steve Reich” (1973)

Still feeling very bad about the passing of electronic composer Joanna Brouk. I’d listened to this a handful of times before, but really enjoyed revisiting after @doomandgloomfromthetomb shared it. A nice, quiet talk and of course some brilliant music. 

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May 1, 2017

“Universal Harvester,” John Darnielle (2017)

“It’s not that nobody ever gets away: that’s not true. It’s that you carry it with you. It doesn’t matter that the days roll on like hills too low to give names to; they might be of use later, so you keep them. You replay them to keep their memory alive. It feels worthwhile because it is.” 

Tweedy, “Summer Noon” (2014)

“Like a lioness or a coyote/At a pink beating heart in the balcony/I followed the finger to the creature's gate/In the hubbub where the pitiful congregate/I thought there was a note that I could not hear/So I floated to the whisper up against my ear”

“Last Man on Earth,” “Name 20 Picnics...Now!”  (April 23, 2017)

“The eye roll is a classic sign of respect.”

Shabazz Palaces, “Shine a Light” (2017)

“It's seven, it's heavy, it's heaven/Shine a light on the fake/This way my peeps can have it all.” 

“At Your Age I Wore a Darkness,” Maggie Smith (August 1, 2016)

“several sizes too big. It hung on me like a mother’s dress. Even now,

as we speak, I am stitching a darkness you’ll need to unravel,

unraveling another you’ll need to restitch. What can I give you

that you can keep? Once you asked, Does the sky stop? It doesn’t stop,

it just stops being one thing and starts being another.”

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April 24, 2017

Record Store Day (April 22, 2017)

I usually end up writing something about about record store culture around Record Store Day, the industry-generated holiday that is a popular topic of discussion on the internet (and also in records stores) and this year is no exception. I wrote this fairly churchy and probably too flowery thing on Twitter and then adapted it to Facebook on RSD eve, and for the sake of reflecting where my head was this week (as is the goal of this blog) here it is once more: 

I always feel compelled to say something before Record Store Day, because some of my most joyful moments have happened in record stores. I've had mind-altering, life-changing experiences in record stores; learned most of my important lessons in record stores; I met my wife in a record store.

It's easy to fetishize objects. Collecting can easily get gross and greedy. But the most ardent record buyers I know are in it for love. Above all. Most of the people I know in record stores love music. Not passively -- actively. Same for the people who write about music, who think about it constantly. It's a language. You're in it to connect. To share, to communicate, to say "This is who I am, this is what I feel." Those are the experiences I treasure most in my years in record stores.

You don't have to buy records tomorrow if you don't want to. But if you DO buy records tomorrow, tear them open. Play them. Play them with your friends and your loved people. Or play them by yourself and take all the comfort you need from them, so that you can go out into the world and listen for the beauty in it. Because you've trained your ears to do that.

Record stores aren't sacred because of records, or at least not only because of records. They're sacred because shared spaces are sacred. And shared spaces deserve to be celebrated.

“Silicon Valley” (2017)  

I do understand people’s frustrations with Mike Judge’s “Silicon Valley,” how its plots seem driven by an endless sequence of the characters trying and subsequently failing, but it’s one of my favorite shows on TV. The first episode of the fourth season, knowingly titled “Success Failure,” isn’t going to win new viewers over, I loved the way it keyed on on the gap between main character Richard Hendrick’s idealism and his inability to execute his ideas in any meaningful way. Curious to see where this goes, and what path his decision to launch a company separate from the core cast (made up of the funniest comedians and improvisers around) will take him down. 

“In the age of Trump, can Mr. Rogers help us manage our anger?” David Dark, for America: The Jesuit Review (April 19, 2017)

David Dark on Donald Trump, Octavia Butler, John Lewis, Kendrick Lamar, Wilco, Rush Limbaugh, and "a community of thoughtfulness." Dark’s ability to infuse his writing with heart astonishes me. His soul and deep reverence for art and those around him nourishes me. 

"The awareness campaign we undertake together as writers and readers, listeners and thinkers, has long been underway, beckoning us in for centuries. Books are people talking. What we call literature is nothing more nor less than the greatest hits of the human species. The ancient work of recognition is never done, and anyone with an ear to hear or a mind to pick up what has been laid down is invited to join in. Self-examination, I try to assert, is what makes a beautiful life possible."

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April 17, 2017

Mike Judge: The Bard of Suck, Willy Staley for The New York Times Magazine (April 13, 2017) 

An expert walk through the themes of Mike Judge’s “Silicon Valley”, “Idiocracy,” “Beavis & Butt-head,” and “Office Space.” Though I would like to have seen “King of the Hill” explored too, as I think it represents a different side of Judge, this piece still offers so much. Judge is a uniquely American seer of bummer and failure, or as Staley perfectly puts it, “The Bard of Suck.” 

“Homesick For Another World,”  Ottessa Moshfegh (2017) 

A catalog of grotesque characters and grubby scenes. It’s not exactly a comfortable read, but Moshfegh writes with a particular beauty about ugly things. You find yourself in her worlds and you want to back out, but are compelled to stay and see if you cant figure these people out some. 

“Win It All” (2017) 

Two thumbs up for “Win it All” on Netflix, the latest from director Joe Swanberg (“Drinking Buddies,” “Easy,” “Happy Christmas”) and writer/lead Jake Johnson. Dark (but not that dark) comedy, big heart, really sweet romance, beautifully cinematography, an expert capture of the sibling dynamic, and A+ music supervision (I spotted at least two jams from the Johnny D. Arizona Song Archive).

Starflyer 59 - Live in Marion, Indiana (February, 20, 2003) 

Great video uploaded by THEE Mike Adams of dream-pop/hard rock/shoegazers Starflyer 59 performing at Wesleyan University. “Old”-era lineup: Richard Swift on keys, Velvet Cloud on bass, Frank Lenz on drums, and Jason Martin on Les Paul and vocals. There are days were SF59 is my favorite band of all-time, and the Martin’s output is certainly one of the most pivotal for me in terms of defining what kind of music I like. 

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April 10, 2017

Los Colognes, “The Wave” (2017) 

RIYL: High-fives, grooving, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, drumming on your steering wheel, drinking cold ones, looking at old pictures of your dad, looking at old guitar advertisements, looking at old pictures of your dad with guitars. 

Joan Shelley, “Where I’ll Find You” (2017) 

From Shelley’s forthcoming self-titled masterpiece. Maybe the best expression of intimacy since “Harvest Moon” (which it gently echoes).  

Songbird Series: The Mother of New Age Music Gets Down to Ambient Sounds (April 5, 2017) 

My friend Jess Rotter makes swell comics for “The Lenny Letter.” This one, about pioneering sound poet Joanna Brouk, is hands down my favorite. Brouk is the real deal. One of my favorite interviews ever. 

Desert Oracle (No. 6, spring/summer 2017)

Finding a new issue of Ken Layne’s desert-centric, pocket-size magazine in the mail box is always a thrill. Covered in the spring/summer 2017 issue: The Devil in Amboy Crater, A Rare and Terrible Jackalope, the Krill Papers, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, much more. “America’s western heritage depends upon hikers and hunters, rockhounds and road trippers, weirdos and weekenders,” Layne writes in a particularly impassioned letter from the editor. “Zap a few dollars a month to your local land trust, if you can. Glance at the news now & then, if you can bear it. Keep a close eye on the schmucks, and they’ll get away with far less.” 

The True Topography (2017)

A lengthy, immersive playlist of Afro-futuristic, new age, kosmische jams put together by the Paradise of Bachelors dudes in combination with the science fiction/fantasy reading list they wrote for Aquarium Drunkard.

Closure of Tent City (as reported by AZCentral on April 4, 2017)

Hard to classify this one as “pop culture,” but Tent City has been a blight on my state since 1993, described by its racist/bigoted/cruel mastermind as a “concentration camp” for inmates. While he still has so much work to in Maricopa County, our new sheriff Paul Penzone announcing the closure of Tent City is a step in the right direction. Now, to take the couple thousand more steps needed to make Arizona a more just place to be.  

Some For Dudu :: A Dudu Pukwana Companion (2017)

A great mix of Dudu jams by Ben Kramer. Made for a blissful Sunday afternoon. Two hours, all killer. 

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April 3, 2017

“Invisible Planets,” Hao Jingfang (from “Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF In Translation,” edited and translated by Ken Liu, 2016) 

“You know something? The real key isn’t about whether what I say is true, but whether you believe it. From start to end, the direction of narrative is not guided by the tongue, but by the ear.” 

Strand of Oaks & Heather McEntire, Valley Bar, Phoenix, Arizona (Friday, March 31, 2017) 

A perfect combination of voices and sentiments. I’ve seen McEntire perform with her band Mount Moriah, but playing alone with a striped Fender Jaguar offered a sparsely adorned showcase for her powerful voice and intimate Southern poetry. Then Strand of Oaks took the stage, and with guitarist Jason Anderson (Wolf Colonel) at the ready, played rock & roll music that made me happy to be alive. No one better articulates the feeling of falling in love with songs like Timothy Showalter, and he writes songs to fall in love with in return. 

“South and West: From a Notebook,” Joan Didion (2017) 

A fascinating look into Didion's process; few notes read quite so fully-formed. I struggle sometimes with Didion’s assumptions of people in the South, but find her observations regarding the divisions of American life striking, and despite her writing them in 1970, timely. 

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March 27, 2017

“I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore” (2017)

Two thumbs up for "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” writer/director Macon Blair’s brutally funny, genuinely redemptive thriller. The movie’s tone lands somewhere between the Coen Bros (especially “Blood Simple” and “The Big Lebowski”), “Brick,” “Safety Not Guaranteed,” and uh, I dunno, “Napoleon Dynamite?” Great performances by all involved, particularly Melanie Lynskey, whose Ruth is put upon but seeks a path through a broken world, and Elijah Wood, whose character Tony is a very funny joke until he isn’t at all. Oh and David Yow, who’s fucking terrifying here. The violence in the film -- and there is quite a lot of it -- feels appropriately heavy, matching the biblical tone and moral, which examines the total depravity of human nature and offers, in unpreachy terms, an illustration of literally putting your life on the line for another’s. 

“Black Hammer,” Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart (issue 5-7, 2016-2017)

“Black Hammer” aligns pulpy sci-fi, horror, gonzo Kirby-ness and Golden and Silver Age superhero themes under one melancholic banner. Touching, weird, funny, ghastly, and referential to comics history without being stuffy about it or entirely focused on meta-criticism. It’s become one of my favorite books to read each month. (And the art is exquisite.) 

“Rogue Columnist: Phoenix 101: Desert towns,” Jon Talton (June 27, 2012) 

"Before interstate highways, ubiquitous McDonald's and sprawl, there was that unique creature of the American Southwest: The small desert town." Great 2012 read from Jon Talton about towns I grew up around in Pinal County (and towns like them scattered across the state). 

“A Danish Choreographer Finds Inspiration in the Desert,” Becky Bartkowski, “Phoenix New Times” Immigration Issue, Thursday, March 23, 2017 

“New Times” recently devoted an entire issue to the topic of immigration in Arizona. No shortage of great reads included, including Anthony Sandoval’s great look at Radio Phoenix deejay Mr. Klean B and Stephen Lemons’ profile of Holocaust survivor Oskar Knoblauch (“‘Make America Great Again' sounds a lot like 'Make Germany Great Again'”) but I was especially blown away by the way Becky Bartkowski found her way into the theme by speaking with Danish choreographer and Phoenix Ballet artistic director Ib Andersen. I still believe in the goodness of humankind...But there’s a lot of obstacles right now, that’s for sure. That’s why the arts are important, you know?”

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March 20, 2017

“The Wild Storm,” Warren Ellis, Jon Davis-Hunt, Ivan Plascencia (Issue #1, February; Issue #2, March, 2017)

Extraterrestrial forces manipulating society from the shadows? ‘90s superhero nostalgia reconfigured for our current, ultra-conspiratorial reality? Count me in. 

Chuck Berry Reviews Classic Punk Records (Jet Lag, 1980) 

“If you’re going to be mad at least let the people know what you’re mad about.” Rest in peace, Chuck. You were complicated and brilliant. 

“Spent Saints,” Brian Jabas Smith (2017) 

Dorothy Allison said, “Write the story that you were always afraid to tell." In his new collection “Spent Saints,” Brian Smith powerfully writes about the things we fearfully keep secret from each other, those battered glories and spooky truths. The book's charged with rock & roll spirit, the same one that captured my imagination reading Smith’s words when I was just a kid thumbing through “New Times” at my mom’s apartment. There’s a lot of heart and a lot of hope in these brutal stories. You have to dig for it. But that’s just how it works.

Jake Xerxes Fussell, “What in the Natural World” (2017) 

Folk music rooted as much in the present and the future as the past. “What’s in a man to make him thirst/for the kind of life he knows is cursed?” 

“The Year Of The Rat,” Chen Qiufan (from “Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction In Translation,” edited and translated by Ken Liu, 2016)

“I was, or maybe I still am, one of those lost young men. In China, the propaganda of collectivism infuses the educational experience of every young person. But at the same time, we are all exposed to extreme acts of selfishness in society, not just by individuals, but also by interest groups and the government. This kind of schizophrenic existence leads to confusion, and many of us do not even understand ourselves, much less how to address the relationship between the individual and the collective, between self and society. Of course, I wasn’t attempting to answer these questions in my story. I just wanted to use the form of the narrative to get readers to think about them.” -- Chen Qiufan, in conversation with Fantasy and Science Fiction

Kelly Lee Owens, “Kelly Lee Owens” (2017)

Truly expressive (lyrically) electronic music. A record to get lost in. 

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Top 20 Films of 1997

Almost missed a week. Sorry about that. Been busy working on an essay and series of podcast episodes about my time in Texas for the Marfa Myths festival, as well as what feels like 5,000 other cool projects. You’ll be able to read a bunch of stuff soon, but in the interest of publishing a list this week, I thought I’d share my personal top 20 movies of 1997, which you may notice was 20 whole years ago. Time, right? 

A few caveats: 

1) I have seen parts of Lost Highway, but not for a long time and I certainly didn’t comprehend whatever I saw. So it’s not included on this list. I will make it a point to properly watch soon, as I generally love Lynch’s work and imagine the film’s got plenty to chew on.  

2) I don’t know why I haven’t seen Gattaca. I should see Gattaca. 

3) Titanic. Look, of course I saw it. Maybe twice or even three times in the theaters. My father was obsessed with old ships; Titanic was a huge deal in our house. When it was released on home video, I remember it being one of the rare two-volume VHS sets we owned. You’d have to get up and put in the second tape because the film was too long to fit on one. So I have a lot of feelings about Titanic, including the nascent sense of sexual shame that accompanied my parents instructing me to cover my eyes during the “draw me like one of your French girls” scene, and the inevitable peeking through my fingers. But I never feel the need to watch or desire to watch Titanic, though I suspect that it made a bigger impact on me than I even realize now.  

4) This list, like any I make of stuff that is 20 or more years old, blends of things I feel are objectively good (and plenty I saw in the years after their release) and things I liked in the moment, which I don’t view critically per se. Of course there are films that work on both levels, like Men in Black, which I believe to be one of the great films of my lifetime and movies like Starship Troopers, which I like now for very different reasons than I liked then. 

20 Favorite Films of 1997:

1. Men in Black (I legitimately think this film deserves a Criterion edition; it’s imaginative and funny, razor sharp, perfectly paced, weird. Barry Sonnenfeld forever.) 

2. Jackie Brown

3. Princess Mononoke 

4. Fifth Element (I can’t wait for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets!) 

5. Selena 

6. Boogie Nights 

7. The Apostle 

8. Deconstructing Harry 

9. Starship Troopers 

10. Contact (“You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”) 

11. Grosse Pointe Blank 

12. Year of the Horse (Roger Ebert, who dismissed the film as one of the worst of the year, writing as if this is a bad thing: “....the band typically sings the lyrics through once and then gets mired in endless loops of instrumental repetition that seem positioned somewhere between mantras and autism...The music is shapeless, graceless and built from rhythm, not melody...”

13. L.A. Confidential 

14. Face/Off 

15. Con Air

16. Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World (such knowing Goldblum) 

17. Waiting for Guffman

18. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion 

19. The Ice Storm 

20. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 

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March 6, 2017

Mavis Staples in discussion with Ed Masley, AZCentral (March 1st, 2017) 

My friend Ed Masley in discussion with the wonderful Mavis Staples, whose words are considered and so charged with optimism I get a shiver reading them. It’s a forceful talk (particularly when she describes a bloody brawl between Pops Staples and some shitkicker who had the gall to insult her) but that kind of preaching -- focused on driving out devils and clinging to beauty -- is necessary. I like being reminded of messy gospels. The talk accomplishes what all great music writing seeks to, offering insight into who Mavis is as a human being, and what’s fueled her to sing some of the greatest music in American history. 

Logan (2017) 

A lean, brutal western about borders and asylum seekers, the inevitability of age and decline, and what we pass off to younger generations. Not perfect (I’d have to spoil stuff to really get into it) but so much fuller and more resonant than other recent X-Men films it’s pointless to even compare. Mournful and unrelenting, but also gorgeous and humane; no film has ever got the story at the core of Wolverine so right. 

The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, Patreon (2017) 

I was a sporadic listener to the Best Show when it was WFMU, but since Tom Scharpling launched it as a stand-alone entity, it’s become a Tuesday night ritual for me and @beckybartkowski. Once acclimated to the tone -- Numero Group’s The Best of the Best Show boxset and Flannelgraph’s Rock, Rot & Rule LP helped get me up to speed -- I settled into the world of Newbridge to find it’s a bizarrely comforting place. The show recently launched a Patreon page to financially sustain it, and I’m happy to contribute. The first exclusive content available to subscribers came this week in the form of an Ask Me Anything podcast with Scharpling and Jon Wurster, and honestly, as much as I love their comedy, I’m perfectly content to listen to them discuss prog rock and the Coen bros if that’s all they wanna do.  

Sleep Walker with Pharoah Sanders, “The Voyage” (2003) 

I head to Marfa, Texas, this week for the Marfa Myths festival. There’s no shortage of things I’m excited about -- the chance to see Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, watch Roky Erickson, to hear the poet Eileen Myles speak -- but I’m especially thrilled about seeing Pharoah Sanders live. My buddy Justin uploaded this gem to @aquariumdrunkard this week -- a 2003 release by Japanese spiritual jazz combo Sleep Walker, featuring Sanders on incredible lead sax, and it’s my official getting ready for Texas jam. Enjoy. 

[oftenaffected]

2.27.2017

Alex Chilton - Live 1985-1999 (published on YouTube December 16, 2016)

A real treasure trove of live LX recordings. My love for Big Star is deep and abiding, but there’s something about Chilton’s R&B/jazz/standards-mining solo work really stays with me. Post “Third” and “Like Flies on Sherbert” (two undeniable masterpieces of deconstructed song craft) he eased into this loose, nonchalant style that nonetheless displays his impeccable skills as a guitarist and vocalist. I don’t know how to state it other than to say it takes a wealth of institutional knowledge to sound so casual. 

“Santa Clarita Diet,” season one (2017) 

Absolutely disgusting (I mean genuinely revolting) and hilarious. Barrymore and Olyphant commit to the gross-out premise with gusto, and these kids -- Liv Hewson and Skyler Gisondo -- are on-screen hurricanes. Not a horror person generally, but this one really got me. 

The Both, “The Both” (2014) 

This week Ted Leo launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his new album and I revisited his collaboration with Aimee Mann as The Both. Impeccable songwriting, two distinct voices really playing off each other, and such griping words. “Milwaukee” might be my favorite Leo song since “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone.” 

On Being: Marilyn Nelson -- Communal Pondering in a Noisy World (February 23, 2017) 

Mowing the lawn on Friday evening, thinking about the beer I’m going to drink when I finish, listening to Krista Tippett interview poet Marilyn Nelson for the essential On Being podcast/radio program. Nelson reads a poem about Venture Smith, an 18th century slave who purchased his own freedom, and subsequently the freedom of many other slaves. Surveying his crops, Nelson reads in his voice, “...My wife and two of my children stir in my house/For one thirty years enslaved, I have done well/I am free and clear; not one penny do I owe/I own myself—a five-hundred-dollar man— / and two thousand dollars’ worth of family... I turn around slowly/I own everything I scan.” And then Jon Hopkins’ “The Wider Sun” rises up in the mix, and I begin to cry, the sun setting, the smell of wet green in my nose. Nelson goes on (as do I, completing the task) to speak more wisdom. I cry a little more, and later I choke up discussing the podcast with my wife. How lucky we are to have people like Marilyn Nelson in the world, to remind us, “how to be what [we] have always thought [we] were, but couldn’t see.” 

Reading George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo” (2017) while listening to William Tyler’s “Behold the Spirit” (2011) 

Tyler’s lyrical, haunted melodies with Saunders’ funny, melancholic fantasias. Some things seem meant for each other. (Additionally: Seth Myers in discussion with Saunders, filling in for Charlie 'effin Rose, LIKE A CHAMP!)

“Piper” (2016), screened as part of No Festival Required and Zia Records’ presentation of the 18th Annual Animation Show of Shows at Phoenix Center for the Arts (Saturday, February 25, 2016) 

Like that other Academy Award winner “Moonlight,” Disney/Pixar’s “Piper” is a perfect film. 

Between the Liner Notes: The Dance Floor Doesn’t Lie (Disco Part 1) (February 21, 2107) 

A great aural history of disco, of dividing lines vanishing on the dance floor, of humanity being affirmed, and why of course that couldn’t last. 

[oftenaffected]

2.20.2017

Delicate Steve, “This Is Delicate Steve” (2017) + Manuel Göttsching, “Inventions for Electric Guitar” (1975) + Michael Rother, “Flammende Herzen” (1977)  

Three examples of instrumental guitar in various shades of wanky. Göttsching and Rother share the kosmische connection, but their approach is vastly different, with the former (at least on this particular record) playing some fairly aggressive stuff over looped and manipulated sheets of guitar, and the latter evoking open blue skys with his delicate compositions. As for Steve, I dunno, the record’s kind of slight but very pleasurable, like a fizzy cherry cola. The ZZ Top-style stuff doesn’t do it for me so much (I’ll put on the Gibbons when I want that) but the straight up George Harrison rips work real nice for early afternoon work.  

Are We Being Kind Enough to Donald Trump? -- George Saunders on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (Wednesday, February 15, 2017) 

“Empathy is really...it’s like a superpower. Very robust if you do it. If you have somebody over here, say a Trump supporter, who is believing in certain things which cause great harm to, say, some Mexican family over here, immigrant family, what’s the greatest kindness you could do for that guy? You could persuade him.” 

Chris Squire’s isolated bass track from Yes’ “Heart of the Sunrise” (1971)  

Bonkers! 

Kimchi fried rice, pork belly steam bun, golden tomato & persimmon tart at Clever Koi (Thursday, February 16, 2017) 

The meal itself was nice, as every trip to Clever Koi is. I got the fried rice. I almost always do. When I glimpse those big vats of kimchi through the kitchen windows I figure “Why fight it?” But it’s been a while since we’ve sat at the bar. Doing so is a joy. My seat was situated directly in front of the wood-fired grill, and occasionally bursts of flame from the range warmed my face. Watching the cooks work with such precision and vibrancy is a treat. I don’t write about food often, but viewing these tattooed dudes shout orders, delicately plate vegetables, and carve seared meat is a reminder of how much skill goes into your nice, unassuming meal. A needed reminder of intent and craft too often taken for granted. 

“The Fascinating '80s Public Access Films Produced by a California UFO Cult” by Ella Morton for Atlas Obscura (September, 2016)

“To me, Unarius in those golden days was the ultimate DIY spiritual creative collective.” --  Jodi Wille

“White Tears,” Hari Kunzru (2017)  

A terrifying novel about race, sacred knowledge, blues, and the other ghosts that haunt our heads and hover above our bodies as we move forward (and backward) through time. 

The Talkhouse: MC Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) on Time, Death and Ryan Adams’ Newest Record (February 17, 2017) 

Taylor on the purpose and audacity of art as “a bulwark against time’s dispassionate ticking." He’s writing about Ryan Adams new album, “Prisoner,” a great LP I’ve spun seven or so times this weekend, but in true Hiss Golden Messenger fashion, Taylor’s writing about much more than the one thing. He’s writing about it all. 

White Converse All-Stars 

Bought my first pair of Converse All-Stars since high school this weekend. A white pair of low tops and they look so fresh. I remember my stepmother and father buying me a pair of white high tops my sophomore year of high school, but they were a size too big. I had only recently begun to grasp our financial standing in those days and felt strangely guilty bringing up the shoes. I wore them a handful of times -- I really wanted to look like a member of the Strokes -- but they hurt my feet and looked a little ridiculous (All-Stars having the tendency to look clownish as is). So I put them in my closet, hoping my parents wouldn’t notice that I wasn’t wearing them out. If they did, they never said anything;  they probably had other pressing matters on their minds. So here I am at 6:35 AM on a Monday morning, looking at my new white Chucks, thinking about economics and adolescent shame. But my shoes look dope. 

“The Sellout,” Paul Beatty (2016) 

A sharp, questioning novel every bit as funny as it is shocking and provacative. I was turned on to it when a review or tweet referred to Beatty as a black Vonnegut or Twain, and while I get that comparison, he’s utterly his own man. A one of a kind American treasure, so wonderfully weird, with a golden tongue and razor wire quips at the ready. 

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” season two (2016-2017) 

A riotous companion to “The Sellout,” poking holes in our shared delusions. Possibly the bravest show about human relationships (in their many varieties) on TV and most of the songs are tremendous to boot. (Especially this one.) 

[oftenaffected]

2.13.2017

Rihanna, “Consideration (feat. SZA)” (2016)

“You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold.” -- The Alchemist, Alejandro Jodorowsky's “The Holy Mountain” (1973) 

“Legion”, Chapter 1 (2017)

Maybe comic book adaptations have entered their progressive rock phase.

Bash & Pop, “Anything Could Happen” (2017)

Feels like Tommy Stinson read Bob Mehr’s Replacements bio “Trouble Boys” (2016) and decided he had to make an album as good as that book.   

“The Expanse,” season two (2017)

SF prestige television. Exceptional world building, pacing, and characters. 

VNSA Books Sale (Arizona State Fairgrounds, 2017) 

Spent Saturday morning in line with a couple hundred Phoenix book lovers waiting to cram into a livestock warehouse and comb through thousands upon thousands of books. Shout out to the volunteers who found a first edition Heidi which hadn’t even been sequestered off in the excellently curated “Rare and Unusual” section. 

"In a Tub" by Amy Hempel (1985) + “Letter of Recommendation: The Recordings of Pauline Oliveros” by Claire-Louise Bennett (2017)

On listening outward and inward.

Histry in Pictures 

FAKE NEWS! FAKE HISTORY! FAKE EXISTENCE! 

“The Good Place,” season (2016-2017) 

Impostor syndrome writ large. Most humane and brutally cynical comedy on TV.