#brian bendlin

[joanofarc]

tv goodbyes, steven cheslik-demeyer (1987).

i hate to watch other people have to leave other people

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Linda Smith

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith has released music on labels such as Harriet, Shrimper, Slumberland, and her own Preference Recordings. Captured Tracks issued Till Another Time: 1988-1996 in March, which collects highlights from the period. Chris Liberato reviewed the compilation for Dusted, calling it “an enchanting introduction to Smith’s world of primitive and expansive indie pop songwriting.” This year also saw the arrival of Untitled 1-10 Plus 1, Smith’s first collection of new music since turning her focus to painting almost two decades ago. Here she shares a list of Ten Firsts (in no order).

First Job, 1973

Ticket and concessions seller at a General Cinema in the local mall. Just out of high school and without any idea of my next move, I thought it would be great to see movies for free whenever I wanted. The job only lasted 4 months, due to the somewhat sleazy management and low pay.

First Punk Idol — Patti Smith

Sitting around watching tv late one night in 1976, I came across a musical revelation unlike anything I’d experienced since I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Saturday Night Live’s featured guest was Patti Smith, and though I hadn’t tuned in to see her (in fact, I don't think I’d ever heard of her), my six year disinterest in rock music came to an end. Her performance was at once amusing, inspiring, and brought back memories of the 1960s while moving rock music into “another dimension.”

First Trip Overseas — Italy, 2004

(Linda Smith, 2004) I’d dreamed of going to Italy for quite some time when an opportunity to study art there and earn credits towards my late in life degree presented itself. The country did not disappoint but I wish I'd been able to do less artwork and more exploring.

First 4 Track — Fostex X15, 1986

On my lunch break from the advertising dept at J&R Music World in lower Manhattan, I spied this magic machine in the window of an electronics store on Church St. It was small, easy to use, and offered me a way to arrange and play everything on my songs without having to leave my apartment. At first I imagined I’d make demos for the band I was in but the act of recording quickly became an end in itself.

First Favorite Movie — The Wizard of Oz

Judy Garland was the first big film star I knew of, through yearly broadcasts of the film in black and white. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was the first song I’d heard that conveyed a sense of yearning for places beyond what you grow up knowing and living in.

First Apartment, 1981

Located on Maryland Ave. near 25th Street in Baltimore, MD and shared with one of my sisters, it provided freedom and a place to hang out with new city friends, playing records (“Juju” by Siouxsie and the Banshees being a favorite at the time) and eating carryout after having lived a bit too long in the suburbs.

First 45 I Bought — "Ticket to Ride" by The Beatles

I bought this in 1966 from a little variety store near where my grandparents lived. The opening guitar riff, along with the first line, “I think I'm gonna be sad…,” seemed to sum up everything I loved about the possibilities contained within a 3 minute pop song.

First Song I Wrote — “Pretty Part of Town”

The song is based on looking out of bus windows while riding through West Baltimore in the early 1980s. Here is a recording of my first band, The Symptoms, practicing it. With Nancy Sexton on bass and Peggy Bitzer on drums.

First Art Museum Visit — Baltimore Museum of Art, 3rd grade field trip

(Photo by Stephen Spartanasm) I had never seen paintings before except in books. The other kids giggled at Matisse’s Blue Nude while I felt as if a new world had been discovered. For the past 15 years I have worked there in the security dept, an art education in itself.

First Big City — NYC, on yet another school field trip, in high school

We must have come into town across the George Washington Bridge because I will never forget the awe I felt upon seeing skyscrapers for the first time. Much later I would jump at the chance to sublet a friend's apartment in order to live and play music there in a band called The Woods, with Peggy Bitzer, Brian Bendlin, and Steven Cheslik-De Myer.

[joanofarc]

two by two, the woods (2023).

two by two, they walk down the street two by two, in pairs a boy and a girl a boy and a boy a girl and a girl a girl and a boy a boy and a boy a girl and a girl they're looking happy to be together today no need to look for anything else, it's okay

[joanofarc]

love me again this summer, the woods (1985).

it's summer time and all the boys are taking their shirts off and walking around. and i look at you, you're looking around, and i think to myself that i'm looking, too.