Very Good Song Review Haiku: “Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth” by the Minutemen
Certainly the best
song about the function of
language in culture.
(Note: I also once used it to frame my argument for declaring war on the Chicago Reader, and it was a perfect frame indeed.)
1/6/2021
Very Cool Review Haiku of Some Songs From Salty Tang by Betwixt:
I.
Women telling me
to rock and roll with them, is
basically the best.
II.
“Who knows who’s dead, the
future holds its weary head”
MUSIC FOR THE NOW!!!!!!
Note: 2020 reissue made my list of Very Good Things from 2020, which is dropping exactly and precisely when it is ready.
1/6/2021
A Very New and Good Music Nerd Daydream: Mariana Timony and EMD ARE CRAMPING MUSIC JOURNALISM!!! (NOT A HAIKU!!!!)
Mariana, of California and much love of guitars, is Poison Ivy Rorschach, obviously. I, a Cleveland Girl and a person who loves yelling, am Lux Interior.
She S H R E D S and rips;
I am quite unhinged and entertaining on the mic;
Music Journalism Gets Better…
with us taking out the trash!!!!
Sincerely,
Thee Mad Mad Daddy of Music Journalism
1/6/2021
Very Weird Day With Only One Mail Highlight, in Haiku Form:
If you refuse to
support live music venues,
they will not exist.
1/6/2021
Very Good Crowd-Sourced List On How Birds Inspire Us Through Music, in Haiku Form:
The best thing about
the Cramps: they point constantly
to the history.
Nothing is more clear
about being chill as fuck
than seasonal birds.
(Long note: Édith Piaf’s working surname means ‘sparrow.’ She is noted for saying that “there are people who cry when they have a crisis,” but that she sings. This is a mostly English translation, to support your understanding:
This tune which haunts me day and night
This tune wasn’t written today
It comes from as far away as I come
Trawled around by a hundred thousand musicians
One day this tune will drive me mad
A hundred times I’ve wanted to say why
But it’s interrupted me
It always speaks before I do
And its voice drowns out my voice
Padam…padam…padam
It comes running up behind me
Padam…padam…padam
It plays me the trick of: do you remember
C’est un air qui me montre du doigt
Et je traîne après moi comme un drole d’erreur
Cet air qui sait tout par cœur
It says: “Remember your loves
Remember cos it’s your turn
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t cry
Encumbered with your memories”
And me, I see again those who remain
My 20 years make the drum beat
I see the succession of gestures flash by
All the comedy of love
To this tune which just keeps playing
Des “je t’aime” de quatorze-juillet
Padam…padam…padam…
The ‘always’s which we buy on the cheap
Des “veux-tu” en voilà par paquets
Et tout ca pour tomber juste au coin d’la rue
Sur l’air qui m’a reconnue…
Listen to the commotion which it causes me
Comme si tout mon passé défilait…
You need to keep some sorrow for later
I’ve got scores full in this tune which beats
Which beats like a wooden heart.)
THAT HAIKU, THO:
“there are people who
cry when they have a crisis”:
she S I N G S survival.
Birds: inspiring tunes!!!!
Throughout the ages: they sing!!!!
And sometimes, they rock.
IF YOU’RE NOT HUMAN
AND I’M NOT HUMAN, ALSO:
We are in “Birdland.”
A whole flight of birds–
I heard getting free right now–
just as we listen!!!!
Birds recur often
symbolizing the oppressed
in the songs we love.
This one is for the
“BIRD-MAD GIRL” they sing about:
birds are also G I R L S.
AMERICA! Look:
You have no race or gender:
you are just a D A N C E.
NO BIRD KEEPS US HERE
l i s t e n i n g…like Bobby Byrd
when we get on up!!!!
Birds have special ways
of staying warm when it’s cold
and sticking around.
Birds are confusing–
their sounds indeterminate,
yet so inspiring.
THE BEST BALTIMORE
ORIOLES HAVE NOTHING TO
DO WITH BASEBALL, FOLKS.
The idea of
the birds as people we’ve loved,
returning to us.
A Hungarian
song about a bird in jail:
cello rock is born!
Excellent birds and
excellent snow, warming up
our wintry window.
It seems everyone
agrees that birds are the real
heroes of struggle.
Birds are good, pure friends,
but they always fly away!
…sometimes, they come back…
Once engaged to a
jazz trumpet player; much this
and murmurations.
People have often
desired for birds to come save
America, huh?!?
(Note: This track appears on the album titled Megatop Phoenix.)
This bass is F I L T H Y
and very much “for the birds”–
but in a GOOD WAY.
The bird is hardly
lazy; its cymbal pulse of
swift, sustained action.
Such a tiny thing
always inspiring us to
be resilient.
THIS IS A NOISE BIRD,
inspired by the surfin’ bird.
BIRDS⏩MUSIC⏩NOISE⏩BIRDS
I conclude, my friends:
dance to the sparrow’s song, and
keep your eyes open!!!
Now, class, I hope I have made it very clear that it is totally possible that birds are the single greatest influence on the development of human musical culture. Everyone go spend a good, long time listening to actual birds outside or in Norman W. Long’s Electro-Acoustic Dubcology I-IV. You can attend this conference of birds for extra credit. Class dismissed!!!
Note: These contributions are crowd-sourced from The Flock. We believe in democracy out here. A few of these songs I would never have chosen, but for my seemingly unending interest in how other humans have heard bird songs and interpreted them and added value to their life and the lives of others. Please replicate it every day. Birds are about FREEDOM, principally.
1/6/2021, a noted Intense Day in America
A Pretty Good Mail Day: Expect Haikus On the Optic Sink – S/T and LOVE INJECTION FANZINE 059 feat. Lauren Flax, a Very Good DJ
1/7/2021
Me, in My Kitchen Tonight, Mopping Up Mud in Shoes Covered in Mud (ABSOLUTELY NOT A HAIKU!):
THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE DEEP IN THE BELLY OF D I S C O U R S E!!!!!
Thee Mad Mad Daddy of Music Journalism
1/7/2021
A Very Good and Important Note About the Health of One of the People We Need the Very Most Right Now (NOT A HAIKU):
Angel Bat Dawid has been laid up in the hospital with Covid-19 for a number of days. Please send all of the energy you can muster towards her speedy recovery!!! We absolutely need her. In case you are unaware, being under constant care in a hospital in America is sinfully expensive, and hospitals and other institutional spaces are also often wildly retraumatizing and oppressive to any form of marginalized person. So, I am also asking you right now to either purchase LIVE or Transition East on Bandcamp, for you or someone you love, so that this veritable Woman King can survive this bullshit without a mountain of medical debt and keep teaching us with her profound, beautiful, and revelatory music. You need the music, anyway, and she is going to need to be paid to keep bringing it. “Tha wicked shall not prevail!!!!”
1/7/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: S/T by Optic Sink
Music that makes me
feel unstoppable when I
feel I “can’t survive.”
(Note: This album is in my 2020 faves list, which will, again, be Very Ready for you whenever it is. I never stop listening. Actually, every album from 2020 I have bothered to review is accounted for there!)
1/7/2021
A Very Good Deep, Contemporary Tape Review Haiku: Sister Mirror by Janel Leppin, Susan Alcorn, and Meghan Habibzai
Strangely, listening
to Édith Piaf a lot
today: great intro.
1/7/2021
Very Good Digital Release Review Haiku: Air Drop by Darryl Blood
Someone is tuning
a piano, but my heart
is the instrument.
1/7/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Common Wealth by Diane Cluck
Growing up with her
through this music has been F U L L
with: grief, healing, joy.
1/8/2021
Another Very Good Deep, Contemporary Tape Review: Eraserhood by Jeff Zeigler & Dash Lewis
The sea and the sky,
now continuous BEYOND.
Boundaries erased.
1/8/2021
Very Good Girl Presenting Yet Another Very Good Mail Day:
1/8/2021
Editor’s Note: While the song “Mystery Achievement” is Very Good, it is the Absolute Best when you understand it as Chrissie Hynde riding the complete and entire ass of all the unpaid labor she has done.
1/8/2021
Another Very Good Deep, Contemporary Tape Review Haiku: Isolated Bliss by Amy Reid
I.
Having rarely been
to the sea, I am surprised
to be fine flotsam.
II.
Floating the surface,
light and air bubbles, I learn
underwater breath.
III.
The sirens appear!
Breathing in water; go deep.
Into the darkest.
IV.
The world needs me back.
The songs of the world above,
calling to surface.
V.
Through the darkness, I
bound back towards the air, light.
Every shade: green.
VI.
The return is long.
Barely fitting this small sea,
I am left floating.
1/9/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Just Look At That Sky by Ganser
The best band to play
the scene of a crime, or an
intense accident!
(Note: I was, in fact, almost hit head on by a CPD van on my bike while listening to this record on my clip speaker. Now, listening more to these lyrics, I have realized it is actually the perfect music for catastrophic events or anything that feels dangerous.)
1/9/2021
Another Very Good Tape Review Haiku: Andrew Weathers/David Menestres
rumbling caverns and
endless skies lead us to a
violent peak and B I R D S
1/9/2021
Another!!!! Very Good!!!! Deep, Contemporary Tape, That Will Realign All of Your Chakras Any Time For a Very Small Price Review Haiku: Unity by Landon Caldwell
putting it back together in a way where it is more grounded, manageable, and deepened in its awareness–without drugs!!!!
Truly feels as if
reality dissipates
but also deepens.
1/9/2021
Very Good Mail Day: Folk as Fuck Edition
1/9/2021
Sunday Morning Shout Out to David Mancuso of the Loft:
1/10/2019
Less haiku reviews in the past 24 hours because I have been reading a lot and digitizing tapes for release w my 2020 Sonic Extravaganza! I did have to buy a new set of my favorite pens, though, due to how much ink I have been going through, and it felt Very Good.
1/10/2021
Very Good Soundtrack to Having A Very Good 2021 in Winter Quarantine:
Last night I digitized my new year/winter quarantine mixtape. I made it for my friend, Glenna, but decided it was something that could serve as an important soundtrack for us all in these times. Please download it and listen to it whenever you want, and of course, buy the tunes you love from the artists and labels because they are all Very Good. (Both Mary Timony songs are from Mountains, an absolutely perfect album for these exact times both politically and seasonally, which is being reissued for its 20th anniversary THIS WEEK!!!)
1/11/2021
1/11/2021
A Brief Overview of Some of the Very Good Inserts From My Abner Jay Record (NOT A HAIKU!!!):
1/12/2021
W I L D L Y Good Day & Very Good Mail Day, Even If I Only Received One Very Important Thing:
Hello!! It is my complete pleasure to announce that I was just offered a considerable sum of money for all of the work I do for free anyway!!!! Watch out for Erin Margaret Day in those bylines of the Most Important Musical Purveyor of the Nowtimes.
I also received a Very Important Hat, from 1st Ave/7th St Entry in Minneapolis, as a part of my ongoing effort to support live music venues I love in America. I have only been there once, but I saw Scout Niblett with Todd Trainer on drums, and it changed my life!!! I was also only five feet away from thee Emma Louise Niblett smoking outside the venue, but I could never impose. I cut a hole in the hat in my scissor excitement in the ecstatic opening process.
1/12/2021
Very Important Realization About My New Role in the World as the “Queen of Birds,” feat. One Very Good, Light Bird-like Piece of Mail, and a Subsequent E-mail (NOT A H A I K U):
(Note: My primary English teacher from high school, who made me want to be an English teacher, has quit teaching after decades of work, and now struggles to write! I have made it my duty to be his Writing Cheerleader, as teaching English also destroyed my love and deep enthusiasm for reading and writing for many years. His last email reminded me that my present successes are the result of all of the work I have been doing since high school…and thanking me for the inspiration I have been sending his way.)
My Very Good Response:
“Speaking of that work: I recently, on one of these many Entirely Unsane days in America, became obsessed with birds and how they are probably the principal reason for the development of human musical culture!! (The whole haiku essay prompted by audio/visual clips is on page 2 of Very Good Haiku. EMD’s Sonic Lesson Plan for America!!!)
Today, while walking the pups–one of whom bit me (not breaking the skin) and one of whom I was afraid of being bitten by, because she is a Very Anxious Doberman I have been working hard towards the trust of, but she she was a Very Good Girl!!!–I realized something very important connecting my new obsession with the role of birds in music-making and the song “King of Birds” by R.E.M. The connection is Henry David Thoreau!!!
Do you remember when I decided to skip college and spent a lot of my time reading every book the library had on Henry David Thoreau?? Your email to me began with, something like: “I see no work and no school is not making Erin a dull girl.” 😀
Anyway, I am no huge fan of R.E.M., but my friend who is an R.E.M. scholar began to call me the “Queen of Birds” after this anxious night of Revolutionary Sonic Reminders to the Nation, and today I realized R.E.M. are re-voicing Thoreau when they say: “I am the King of all I see; my kingdom for a voice.” That is from Walden: “I am the monarch of all I survey.” It is also very funny, because I have been on a tirade recently about how much I hate Boston, due to all the colonial heart of America bullshit and the prestigious university people thinking I am only worth where I went to school, but the best place I am aware of in Massachusetts is the Concord Free Library, where anyone can view the Most Accurate Maps of the Time, which were created by Henry David Thoreau, on his daily walks, and I am sure soundtracked by BIRDS. So, this is all to say, the Journey of Listening continues to be Very Good. I am happy to finally have one R.E.M. song I actually love very much, finally, in my 30s; happy to be the Queen of Birds; deliriously happy to be the world’s first Punk Anarcho-Naturalist Music Writer….and I am here, in a city inhabited many, many moons by my mother’s family, after they had to leave Ireland…
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
Carl Sandburg
Also, happy always to find new ways to fulfill my true heart work of being a teacher…but through W R I T I N G. (“Old man, don’t lay so still, you’re not yet young, there’s time to teach! Point-to-point–point observation: children carry reservations.” -R.E.M.)
Perhaps one only becomes the Queen of Birds through the conduction of a vast tour of many industries! Birds are wildly industrious…and resilient.
Thank you for really seeing and hearing me when I was struggling to believe anyone would ever do either.
Also…OLD MAN….DON’T LAY SO STILL…you have important lessons to conduct yet…in any moment you are still here doing anything at all….
Much love,
The Queen of Birds!!!!!
1/13/2021
Extremely Good Mail Day and Some Evidence I Now Have So Much Merch I Look Like a Security Guard Entrusted With the Security of Many Venues (NOT A HAIKU!!!!!):
Today, I am very tired from plotting my revenge against Brent Decrescendo, Known Hater of Music and Also Probably Women, in my Very Good Review of the 20th Anniversary Reissue of Mary Timony’s Mountains. The only MOMA I wanna go to is the MOMARYTIMONY, which is also what my room is presently called, while I reconsider and revisit every wonderful thing she has ever made. So, expect a lot of Mary Timony haikus this weekend leading up to my review deadline!!! I get up to 300 words, which will be so very easy now that I have gotten Very Good at boiling music criticism down to seventeen syllables which still often include a lot of profanity!!! I can’t figure out if this is good or bad? Fuck words might be what the haiku form was missing all along; one to two syllables in exchange for Very Significant Enthusiasm.
1/14/2021
Some Very Good Notes and Images from the MOMAryTimony (NOT A HAIKU, HAIKUS TOMORROW!):
Anyone who has experienced severe depression is acutely aware of how difficult it is to make an attempt at anything, which is exactly and precisely why Brent Decrescendo giving Mountains by Mary Timony such a low rating and a review that essentially mocks her for having mental health issues is really fucking inhumane, actually, even if the album wasn’t an incredible and deeply prophetic masterpiece. But the thing is: her attempt at something was and remains fucking incredible and also timeless, because it comes from inside of her and continues to show us how to live through abysmal despair. Brent Decrescendo is never going to get to Virginia Woolf’s Lighthouse, where Mary Timony performs her magnificent attempt at something, her “two star symphony,” every night, instead of filling her pockets with heavy rocks and walking into the fucking sea!!!!
1/15/2021
Very Good Mail and Library Day and a Very Good Haiku About the Ascendance of My Spirit Mama, Eris Drew:
resissue just in time for me to correct the record on this excellent and wildly prophetic masterpiece!!!
Very Good Haiku Upon Receiving fabric presents: Octo Octa & Eris Drew:
I.
Perhaps I was the
first person to acknowledge
Eris Drew’s gender.
II.
Pre-transition, while
assigning familial
roles in Hugo Ball.
III.
I said, “Sev is Dad,
and this person is our Mom.”
It rang very true!
IV.
Upon coming out,
our lives became very dark,
even as light rose!
V.
Many times we left
our own events to flee harm,
and she was homeless.
VI.
Living with parents
who could not understand yet;
crashing in my bed.
VII.
The joy of dancing
got mired in the murk of it,
but she never stopped!!!!
VIII.
A joy to return
to the music that healed me;
Mom ruling the world!!!!!!!!
1/16/2021
Very Good Process Shot of My Review of Mary Timony’s Mountains:
First draft! We like to make labor visible around here, so here is a process shot! I also received very enthusiastic permission this morning from Mary Timony, Her Very Royal Self, to correct the record on this timeless masterpiece. Time to get ready for drum practice before attempting to type this up tonight. It seems a very good initiatory honor in my new reign as Thee Queen of Birds that all of these songs I am discussing in my first review for Bandcamp are credited by ASCAP to MARY TIMONY AND LOUD PINK BIRD SONGS.
1/17/2021
A Very Official Decree Regarding the Future Description of Bass Lines (NOT A DAMN HAIKU!!!):
Let it be known today–the 18th day of the Very Good Month of January in the Very Good Year of 2021–that going forward, all bass lines which sound equally industrial and sophisticated, shall be referred to as “Chicago bass lines.”
-Thee Mad Mad Daddy of Music Journalism
1/18/2021
Very Good Explanation of Why I Am Only Accepting Honorary PhDs at This Time and Also Forever (courtesy of Wikipedia):
According to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee (approximately equivalent to $128 in 2019) for a Harvard diploma. In fact, the master’s degree he declined to purchase had no academic merit: Harvard College offered it to graduates “who proved their physical worth by being alive three years after graduating, and their saving, earning, or inheriting quality or condition by having Five Dollars to give the college”.[26] He commented, “Let every sheep keep its own skin”,[27] a reference to the tradition of using sheepskin vellum for diplomas.
1/18/2021
Very Good Handwritten Review Haiku, in Four Parts: Magic Strop: Tonight by Swirlies
I.
Beginning to feel
Swirlies exist to confuse
me to attention
II.
Etching in the wax
is so very miniscule!!!
Must be held to light!!
III.
No idea who plays what;
none of this side or that side,
only: see and hear.
IV.
Sneaky Flute Empire:
plotting confusing sound wars
for deep attention.
Did I mention that I FUCKING LOVE SWIRLIES?? Might have gotten lost in my deep affection for Mary Timony’s Mountains, which were of course, drummed and engineered by a Swirlie, so really I NEVER LEFT THE SNEAKY FLUTE EMPIRE!!!!
1/18/2021
Some Very Good Notes on a Hard Day (NOT A HAIKU):
Yesterday, someone stole my bike helmet while I was in the midst of working on my bike. Fortunately, the next client had a helmet and no bike, so I can borrow it until I have one! (The world needs my brain to survive.) Even more fortunately, Nutcase Feathered Friends helmets are currently on half-price recession sale, so it is beyond possible the Queen of Birds just needed to receive her crown.
I also had a tough day with canine and feline animals, both my own and the ones I care for in my business, and I decided an especially great thing about birds is that they never fuck up my life. I got paid, too, so I bought myself this:
Lastly, and most importantly, I convinced my editor (who I now love very much) to double the amount of words I can use to communicate with the world about the importance of Mary Timony’s Mountains!!!! The victory sounds like this:
1/19/2021 🐦🐤🐥🐣🦉🦆🦅👑👑👑👑
Very Good and Important Decree About the Future Description of Days Featuring a Combination of Thick, Freshly Fallen Snow and Full Sunshine, Looking Very Luminous and Full of Love (NOT A HAIKU!!!):
These are called “Björk Days.”
1/20/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Possible Dust Clouds by Kristin Hersh
Everything she makes
surpasses the previous!!!
How does she do it?
1/21/2021, the day my first album review was finalized and my editor told me I “crushed it”🎾🎾🎾
Very Good Bernie-Mitten Meme Tributes to Cities That Made Me, Focused on Injustices Done to Women in Music (For Someone With Photoshop Skills to Compose — NOT A HAIKU!!!):
Milwaukee, WI – Bernie Sanders, huddled in his chair with mittens, is watching me finally install a cast bronze statue of Suzi Quatro/Leather Tuscadero next to the “Bronze Fonz.”
Cleveland, OH – Bernie Sanders, huddled in his chair with mittens, while Tina Turner is freezing her gorgeous ass off in one of her iconic leg-baring outfits, holding all of her solo records that made her career as big as it was, outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Note: Tina Turner, despite being the QUEEN OF ROCK AND ROLL, has only been inducted on the basis of her work in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, work mired in a deeply abusive relationship she had to walk away from in the middle of the night with nothing and completely rebuild her life and career from. There is a precedent for inducting artists on the basis of their solo work and work with bands, as Stevie Nicks has been. STEVIE NICKS IS NOT THE QUEEN OF ROCK AND ROLL. She is white, though, which really seems to help.
1/22/2021
Very Sad Album Review Haiku: “This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993” by Kicking Giant
The best music for
another brilliant person
choosing to leave us.
1/23/2021
Very Good Song Review Haiku: “Octaves Apart” by the Spells
Songs about closeness,
distance, returning, and youth
are helpful right now.
1/23/2021
Very Good Song Review Haiku: “Love Science” by Kicking Giant
Rumbling drums and
noisy feedback on the top
is our friends, crying.
Note: Thee Queen of Birds is trying to enjoy the arrival of her official crown, which does fit perfectly and feel appropriate, but also extremely saddened to discover her next gig is teaching someone she loves who has experienced an untenable loss that it is possible the people we have loved the very most return to us, as birds.
Lyrics to a song I wrote that has yet to locate a FINAL RECORDED VERSION, about the person I wanted to spend my life with if he could just get it together dying miserable and alone, when I was almost 27:
Who’s the witness to this empty room?
All I want to do with my life is perform for YOU:
If I can’t gaze in YOUR eyes for your sudden death,
I’ll gaze into IT’S eyes for some instruction.
Was it quick or slow?
And did it knock you off your feet?
Did you see my face aglow in the dark just before your heart ceased?
There’s a light–doesn’t go out–and it’s your eyes smiling in the sun!
Are you there each morning, when it’s rising,
between my knees and up, up?
Every young widow across space and time, but also principally, EMD in 2015
Note: this song contains blatant allusions to both “There is a Light and It Never Goes Out” by the Smiths *and* “Deformative” by Black Eyes.
1/23/2021
A Very Good Update: Not a Haiku, but Foretelling the Future Haikus of Tomorrow
Today, my first official album review (and also my debut writing for Bandcamp!) went live. I am presently working on a label guide to Atlantic Rhythms–dropping in the next few weeks–so I am spending more time reading Pauline Oliveros and less time haiku reviewing my listening sessions! I was also approved today to compose a Lifetime Achievement piece about an incredible songwriter and musician I love very much, Diane Cluck, in April! It comes out shortly after my 34th birthday, by which time I will have officially spent half of my life deeply inside of her songs–the distillation of seventeen years of wild attention to her teachings. It pleases me very much, as I am trying to manifest what I want to exist in the world, and acknowledge when I may be the very best person to carry it forward!
I am very sad that my friend’s husband took his own life the same night I submitted my final Mountains review. I think this album has probably saved a lot of lives, and it feels like he slipped through the cracks in the time-space continuum as I was running home with the medicine, as my best friend phrased it tonight. I am very tired of people I care about leaving us early, but it would seem all we can do to solve it is work to create a world worth staying alive for every fucking day.
Tomorrow, then, I will return with a Very Good Snowstorm haiku series on all of the best music for being snowed in for many days, because it is very important to me to keep listening and making life meaningful through music, writing, and observation, particularly in this time of non-stop trauma and misery. Currently, my favorite thing about the snow is that my dog loves it, and her favorite thing is when I make her a snowball, throw it, and it dissipates into the rest of the snow as it lands: a Very Good Puppy Mystery, and also a way I am teaching her about being-in-the-world and consciousness.
1/26/2021
Yet Another Very Good Crowd-Sourced List of Songs About Snow and Consciousness, in Haiku Form:
If you have desired
to be buried with your love
then, I guess: you know.
First time listening
after his death, wondering
about his last snow.
Desperate backdrop
of NOR’EASTERS every week
for a month: JANDEK!!!!!!!!
Riding the M train,
two feet of snow drifts sideways.
Everything: copper.
Drums fall like strong snow:
tragedy and comedy,
“love you ’til the end.”
Note: This last line is what I *hear* in the chorus, not the actual lyrics. Most of the geniuses we love seem to die early of self-inflicted wounds.
Staring out windows
with my daughter, wondering
about what went wrong.
A night off, drawn out
by tavern fellowship’s glow–
egos checked in snow.
Love songs of: change, self,
the fathers who weren’t around,
those who held our truth.
A Minnesotan
locates this in Seattle,
a plow-less wasteland.
Very few Black folks
have composed songs about snow–
SNOW AS OPPRESSION!!!!
Grooving and dreaming,
consciousness unclarified,
making joyful noise.
Got fired on Thursday
from the CD/game exchange
where they paid in DISCS!
Sweet psilocybin
pyramid-shaped chocolates
got me FLIPPIN DISCS!
Age 10, MTV’s
gorgeous music goddesses!!
RED-HEADED BASSIST!!!!!!
Moving to Richmond
from NYC, I wonder
if the snow falls here?
Once a heckler yelled:
“PLAY THE SAD ONE!!!”–and he laughed,
laughed so fuckin’ hard!!!
Kate Bush is truly
snow’s greatest champion and
sonic cheerleader.
Very Important Note: I am the second greatest.
Perfectly captures
heavy snow on gigantic
pines from my window.
The best street art here
was blasted off: “MEMORIES
ARE SACRED,” it said.
Fresh blizzard, downtown
Chapel Hill, empty campus
on repeat with plants.
Walking and singing
towards work, in the coldest
and wettest weather.
(English translation) A stick, a stone It's the end of the road It's the rest of a stump It's a little alone It's a sliver of glass It is life, it's the sun It is night, it is death It's a trap, it's a gun The oak when it blooms A fox in the brush A knot in the wood The song of a thrush The wood of the wind A cliff, a fall A scratch, a lump It is nothing at all It's the wind blowing free It's the end of the slope It's a beam, it's a void It's a hunch, it's a hope And the river bank talks Of the waters of March It's the end of the strain The joy in your heart The foot, the ground The flesh and the bone The beat of the road A slingshot's stone A fish, a flash A silvery glow A fight, a bet The range of a bow The bed of the well The end of the line The dismay in the face It's a loss, it's a find A spear, a spike A point, a nail A drip, a drop The end of the tale A truckload of bricks In the soft morning light The shot of a gun In the dead of the night A mile, a must A thrust, a bump It's a girl, it's a rhyme It's a cold, it's the mumps The plan of the house The body in bed And the car that got stuck It's the mud, it's the mud Afloat, adrift A flight, a wing A hawk, a quail The promise of spring And the riverbank talks Of the waters of March It's the promise of life It's the joy in your heart A stick, a stone It's the end of the road It's the rest of a stump It's a little alone A snake, a stick It is John, it is Joe It's a thorn in your hand And a cut in your toe A point, a grain A bee, a bite A blink, a buzzard A sudden stroke of night A pin, a needle A sting, a pain A snail, a riddle A wasp, a stain A pass in the mountains A horse and a mule In the distance the shelves Rode three shadows of blue And the riverbank talks Of the waters of March It's the promise of life In your heart, in your heart A stick, a stone The end of the road The rest of a stump A lonesome road A sliver of glass A life, the sun A knife, a death The end of the run And the riverbank talks Of the waters of March It's the end of all strain It's the joy in your heart
(THAT HAIKU:)
Much adored by my
dead lover–February
was too long and hard.
A civil war in
the people we most need here:
everyone loses.
Always reminds me
of early winter, teenaged,
Chicago’s North Shore.
Note: All haikus composed from human memories relating to snow and sound, mostly sourced via Twitter!
1/27/21-1/28/21
Very Good Mail and a Gift From a Friend:
1/29/2021
A Very Good LP Review Haiku: That Dark Electric by George Cory Todd
abrupt shifts disrupt
industrial noise, lit up
by high, swelling synths!!!
1/31/2021
Very Good Whole Discography Review Haiku: Garland of Hours
Garland of Hours by Garland of Hours
piano driving
the snow into swells and drifts:
our memory bank.
The Soundest Serum by Garland of Hours
cellos of winter
stomping through blizzards down the
longest, hardest roads
Lucidia by Garland of Hours
POSTPUNK!!! No, CHAMBER
POP!!! NO, NO, NO!!! JUST V E R Y
GOOD SONGWRITING, FOOLS!!!!!!!
1/31/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: How Am I Not Myself? by French Vanilla
CELEBRATION MUSIC!!!
Smart dance punk, wrought from 80s
UK and Athens!
2/1/2021
Very Good Archival Album Haiku Review: Some Funkettes by Patrick Cowley
video games tunes
for a game in which you just
groove around the block!!!
2/1/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Don’t Stay Too Long by Jessamine
music for bad moods:
curious ability
to soften the bleak
2/3/2021
YET A N O T H E R Very Good Deep, Contemporary Tape Review Haiku: Mercury by Dura
the earth turns, marked by
heavy precipitation:
warmed by fire of sound.
2/4/2021
Very Good Lo-Fi Punk Tape Review Haiku: maiden muva crone 3 by drea the vibe dealer
There is a special
place in “Heaven” reserved for
punk-r&b love.
2/4/2021
Very Good Live Recordings Review Haiku: West Coast Tour 2008 by Diane Cluck and Anders Griffen
Diane with live drums
is a very serious
sonic offering!!
2/5/2021
Very Good EP Review Haiku: She’s Calling EP by Octo Octa
The strong desire to
become a rave animal
in the dancing woods
2/5/2021
Very Good Box Set Review Haiku: Three States & Rarities by Dear Nora
Simple, musical
philosophy at its best:
life’s great sing-a-long!!!
2/5/2021
ANOTHER!!! Very Good Deep, Contemporary Tape Pre-Order Review Haiku: A Million Questions by Jackson Ryland
A natural field
comes to life vividly to
show us how it works.
2/6/2021
Very Good Healing Frequencies Tape Review Haiku: Huizkol by Matchess
Matchess is my favorite new composer of the last decade. I can assure you all of the tapes will sell out, and then your friends who got one will rub it in your face forever, so you are advised to cop them while they are still available!!! Also, like everything Whitney Johnson makes, they are extremely beautiful in both sound and aesthetics and always brimming with healing energy.
That Haiku:
By the end of this
everything is pulsing
and flowing in me.
Note: Y’all *got* to visit with this one. I basically came up with a title for a future feature I have been wanting to write about her for a while now while listening, and it is: “Whitney Johnson is Ending the Cycle of Trauma on a Cellular Level and Repairing Our DNA With Sound.”
2/6/2021
Very Good Digital Download Revolutionary Dub Review Haiku: Sankara Future Dub Resurgence
A dub portal from
ancestral struggle to the
work for us here now.
2/7/2021
Very Good Anarchist Dub Digital Download Review Haiku: Anarchist Africa::When Visions Fall From Sky by Sankara Future Dub Resurgence
Dubbed out reminder:
collective autonomy
was most of the past.
2/7/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Songs of Praise by African Head Charge
Very Groovy Church!!!
Would go anytime, healing
through sonic praises.
2/7/2021
Very Good Mail Days Becoming Infrequent: Empty Bottle Shirt and T4T LUV NRG Slip Mat
I have spent a considerable portion of two days listening to The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby and I still have no idea what to tell you about it, so you will just have to wait while I keep listening. I did receive an advance of the new FACS record, and y’all better prepare yourselves for that….
More haikus soon! Been busy working on my label guide to Atlantic Rhythms!! I also just got approved to write a label guide to Trouble in Mind, in May! So, we can talk about the new Very Good FACS Record….
2/10/21
Very Good Album Review Haiku: The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby by Dorothy Ashby
Soft snow suspended,
listens; hovers in the air
around her music.
2/11/2021
Very Good Ways to Feel Better When You’re Not Feeling Very Good: A List With Intermittent Haikus
Tired of music and music writing? Read things that aren’t music writing and do things besides listen to music. Today I ate a weed edible and have been reading in a very nonlinear way–while also beginning to listen to music again and spending a lot of time observing and unleashing my difficult emotions–Thoreau on Birds and From This Condensary: The Complete Writing of Lorine Niedecker. Despite this being a break from music writing, it is sure to support me in my goals of being the world’s First Punk Anarcho-Naturalist Music Writer and a music writer who is exceptionally literary despite being deeply working class, who insists that music writing be as songlike as the music it is about, with space and tension, double meanings, flight, weight, pleasure, struggle, long roads, big skies, bends in the river, and principally, birds! While I have been picking up bits from them here and there, this mix from Jim O’Rourke helped me start hearing music again after days of it just irritating me, because I was feeling so low it was ceasing to reach me. (Always a cause for immediate intervention, as music is how I stay alive, most certainly.)
feeling so grateful
for music that holds bad moods
and enriches them
After this mix, I was ready to listen to something again. I put on the advance I received of the new Nightshift album, Zöe, dropping on the 26th, and…now I just want to keep listening to this one on repeat all day.
The tension of the
world, its course of history:
anarchic rumblings!
Next, I am going to revisit the advance of the new FACS record, Present Tense, dropping on May 21st, which I have listened to many times over the past few days, but not felt in the right mind for being fully present to. Then, I noticed I was having this issue with essentially all music, sooo…I had to do some processing and releasing before music could speak to me again.
Present war landscape:
quarantine’s search and rescue
mission through music.
2/13/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Measures of Joy Deluxe by Virginia Wing
Recommended if
you always wanted Broadcast
to hit us harder!
Very Good News: Lorine Niedecker Loves Musicians and Hates Capitalism!!!!
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Private Life by Virginia Wing
Gorgeous harmonies
soaring o’er electronic
woods of pop and noise!!!
Very Good Practice Tape Review Haiku: Practice Tape by Brian Case
Archaic structures–
prisons, factories– E N G U L F E D,
recycled in sound.
2/14/2021
Very Good Digitally Transmitted Messages Improving the Timeline
Well, the past few days were very hard to get through, and I have been wildly unmotivated, but today I received some very good messages! This morning, I was delighted to receive a VERY GOOD PROMO from the Chicago band, Lifeguard, with the following haiku review:
Hey we enjoy your
Haiku reviews they are much
Better than pitchfork
A Very Good*AND* Very True Haiku!!!! I liked this haiku so much that I listened to their promo immediately. I am going to interview them leading up to their new single release March 5th, but you can listen to them here in the meantime.
In another promo email, someone said: “I started following you cuz you were tweeting about the swirlies.” This is Very Good News, because it means my endless discussion of Swirlies online is not for naught, and that the Sneaky Flute Empire is always quietly building momentum. Someone else chimed in that THE SNEAKY FLUTE EMPIRE IS “THE ONLY EMPIRE WORTH EXPANDING.” He also said he played guitar on a Flipper cover with Swirlies at their last show in Dallas. I love the Sneaky Flute Legends. This person also told me “In Harmony New Found Freedom” changed the way he hears music, so now I have an important feature to write about how Swirlies changed how people hear music!!!!
Today was a much better day, so maybe by tomorrow I will enjoy writing more haikus.
2/17/2021
One Singular Very Good Piece of Mail: Interdimensional Transmissions/Save the Tangent Gallery Sweatshirt
The past two weeks? Trash.
But I’m still here asking you
to save our stages.
2/21/2021
Very Good Reminder to Read Lorine Niedecker, a Very Important Poet Who Loves Birds, Musicians, Artists, and Haiku and ABSOLUTELY HATES CAPITALISM:
Today, I celebrated the publication of my first longer piece for Bandcamp–on one of my favorite labels, Atlantic Rhythms–and socialized a lot online with people around that! I also went to a Zoom talk about a book about BIRDS and sent a field guide to the birds of West Virginia to my father, who lives there presently. Tomorrow, however, I am planning to be a Very Disciplined Reader of Lorine Niedecker and Composer of Wildly Good Haikus. The first will be about the album Let’s Skip the Details by My Dad is Dead, an album which has been bringing me back to life from my deep depression via constant rotation for the past two days! It is also an album I like to imagine was being composed down the road as my parents drove me and the insane rock and roll hair I was born with home from the hospital in April of 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio.
2/23/2021
Very Good Old Album Review Haiku: Let’s Skip the Details by My Dad is Dead
Possibly the best
music for bad moods I’ve found—
makes me sing again.
2/24/2021
Very Good New Album Review Haiku feat. Many Rhymes: Tell Me I’m Bad by Editrix
This one grooves A N D rips!!!!
Dips and rips between sections
and riffs so damn swift.
2/24/2021
Very Important New Additions to Percussion Discourse (NOT A FUCKING HAIKU!!!): “The Backpocket”
When drummers play in the pocket, but kind of behind the beat, they are playing in the BACKPOCKET. The Greatest Drummer of the Backpocket is Britt Walford.
–Thee Mad Mad Daddy of Music Journalism
2/24/2021
Very Good Bandcamp Day 7″ Review Haiku: “Receiver” b/w “Sun Ra Jane” by Lifeguard
Lifeguard make it clear
they are the best teen rock band
SINCE SQUIRREL BAIT, Y’ALL!
2/24/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Dive by Lifeguard
The best bands of the
times run us out of free spins
before Bandcamp Day.
2/24/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Stranded in the Mystery Zone by Dead Moon
Perfect rock and roll
for people who don’t kiss ass,
work hard, love harder.
2/24/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: High Drama by Opposite Sex
Quite an insane ride!!!
New Zealand is killing it!!!
Bluesy no wavers???????????????
2/24/2021
Very Good Explorative Tape Review Haiku: Deep Strand by Landon Caldwell
Best Dog Dream Music!!!
Best Music for Human Tears!!!
Deepest resonance.
2/24/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Lazer Guided Melodies by Spiritualized
Makes me want to run
slowly, with pleasure and joy
in being alive.
Note: I completely hate running, so this is really a huge deal. They also make me want to stretch, which I have not done since the beginning of quarantine, basically.
2/25/2021
Very Good Mail Returns, Briefly:
2/25/2021
EXTREMELY GOOD MAIL DAY!!!!
TRILOGY!!!!!! Also, evidence they read my haikus!!!!! Thank you so much, Trouble in Mind ❤
Very Good Tape Review Haiku Special: New Releases From Full Spectrum Records Night!!!!
New Ruins by Marsha Fisher
A calming movement
in which beauty is mundane
and ubiquitous.
Practice by Lucy Liyou
The intimacy
of family across noise,
distance–even death.
Metal Lake Reservoir by Background Noise Ensemble
Full Spectrum remains
a unique purveyor of
true experiments!
2/25/2021
Very Good New Record Review Haiku: Chart for the Solution by Writhing Squares
Noisy grooves and F L U T E S!!!!
Wildly unhinged, quite a spin:
nothing quite like this!!!
2/26/2021
Yet Another Very Good Exploratory Tape Review Haiku: Scrawls of Social Distance by Nondimension
All my animals
foraging through space tonight
for every sound
2/26/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction) by Dax Pierson
I haven’t jacked my
body this hard in so long—
but it goes deeper.
Note: MUCH DEEPER.
2/26/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: Phoenix: La Petite Mort Édition by Eartheater
Makes stunning records!!!
Reworks them into even
more stunning records!!!!!
2/26/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: South Shore by A B
So much history
in these songs and images.
Quarantine Day Trip!
2/27/2021
Very Good New CD Review Haiku (Because Some Motherfuckers Out Here Think It’s 2004): Big Tex, Here We Come by Andrew Weathers & Hayden Pedigo
West Texas highways:
open, endless, liminal…
the world passing by.
3/3/2021
Very Good Bandcamp Day Newly Released Track You Can Buy For $1: “Original Face” by Diane Cluck
a new sonic zone
but always quite compelling,
like all she creates
I am now publishing Bandcamp Recommendations on the blog, so today’s are here. A great month for music, anarchism, and woodwinds (which are absolutely murdering 2021!!!)
3/5/2021
Very Good Song Review Haiku: “Circulating” by Jeff Zeigler
A song so pretty
Bandcamp must offer us all
a repeat function.
3/6/2021
Very Good Album Haiku Review: Not So Deep as a Well by Myriam Gendron
Early spring mornings
much complimented by these
warm and welcome songs.
3/10/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: A Body Full of Tears by Shoeb Ahmad
Gorgeous tones, voices–
sort of mystical: dark, deep,
and necessary.
3/10/2021
Very Good Remix Album Review Haiku: Realignment by Shoeb Ahmad
Can artists always
be remixed by those they
most love to hear from?
3/10/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: The Manhattan Project – Live in New York by Nuke Watch
So interesting…
how sound can re-center us
to hear messages.
3/13/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: frozen iguanas, bless their hearts by J. Hamilton Isaacs
I don’t even know
why exactly; I just need
to keep listening.
3/13/2021
Very Good Live Sketch Tape Review Haiku: Sketches for World of Echo: June 25 1984 Live at Ei by Arthur Russell
I will always want
to hear every single
blessed iteration.
3/15/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits by The Space Lady
If Whitney Johnson
and Moondog covered pop songs:
IT’S THE SPACE LADY!!!!!
3/15/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Im Sinne der Zeit by Klaus Johann Grobe
Perfect soundtrack for
rocking out in my kitchen
on this cold evening.
3/15/2021
Very Good Record Review Haiku: Do the Duvet by Naked Roommate
Had to break my rule
and listen to bass after
9pm for this!!!
3/15/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Dias Raros by Melenas
Let it be stated:
rock music needs more harmonies,
keys, and wild beauty.
(Fortunately, this one has it all!)
3/24/2021
Very Good Archival Compilation Review Haiku: Furaha Wenye Gita by George Mukabi
The title translates to:
“Happiness with Guitar,” and
that is what you get!
3/24/2021
ANOTHER Very Good African Guitar Archival Comp Review Haiku: Guitar Music of Western Kenya: 45s from the Archive of Shem Tupe by Shem Tupe, Justo Osala, and Enos Okala
Might just spend the spring
dancing in the garden to
African guitar.
3/24/2021
YET ANOTHER VERY GOOD African Archival Comp Review Haiku: Edo Funk Explosion, Vol. 1
I dare you to try
to be an angry, stressed mess
while tuned into this.
3/24/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Sem Nostalgia (2021 Repress) by Lucas Santtana
Music for the shifts
between sun and shade: warm, cold
blowing wind, open air.
3/24/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Take One by Hallelujah Chicken Run Band
The revolution
has rarely sounded so, so:
bright, clear, obvious.
3/25/2021
Very Good Archival Comp Review Haiku: La Locura de Machuca: 1975-1980 by Various Artists
Psychedelic swirl:
fusing Colombian and
African rhythms.
3/25/2021
Very Good Revolutionary Reissue Review Haiku: Fundo De Marê Palinha (Limited Dance Edition) by Voz di Sanicolau
Rarely do we get
to hear women on these old
world records: a treat.
(A groundbreaking, prioneering TREAT!)
3/25/2021
Very Good Bandcamp Discography Review Haiku Series to Encourage Supporting Matt Christensen on Bandcamp
Wet April morning:
gorgeous, supple synth support
for a slow, soft launch.
One of Chicago’s
very best voices is quite
palpable on here.
Quiet, dark power,
increased volume: ideal for
this overcast day.
4/8/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: NOW by Damon Locks – Black Monument Ensemble
A lot of kicking
and twirling in the kitchen
all morning on loop.
4/11/2021
Very Good Gospel Compilation Review Haiku: When the Moon Goes Down in the Valley of Time: African-American Gospel, 1939-51 by Canary Records
What you need much more
this fine Sunday morning than
more “post-punk” posers!!!
4/11/2021
Very Good Rare Gospel Soul and Funk Compilation Review Haiku: Greg Belson’s Divine Funk: Rare American Gospel Soul and Funk by Cultures of Soul
Momentarily
convinced the troubles of the
world are nearly done.
4/11/2021
Very Good Arabic Jazzy Funky Folk Compilation Review Haiku: Habibi Funk 016: Fine Anyway by Rogér Fakhr
In swift but perfect
turns: folky, funky, jazzy–
in a living heat.
(As opposed to a “dead heat”: the sounds are not in competition with one another, but work together organically.)
4/11/2021
Very Good 60s Gospel Label Compilation Review Haiku: Saved & Sanctified: Songs of the Jade Label by Various Artists
Deep in my dreams, we
all have a crown, rejoicing
amongst each other.
4/11/2021
Very Good Gospel-Inflected Disco Compilation Review Haiku: Greg Belson’s Divine Disco – American Gospel Disco 1974 – 1984 by Cultures of Soul
If music’s your church,
the dance floor your salvation—
then this is for you!!!!!
4/11/2021
Very Good Long-Awaited Reissue Review Haiku: Missing You by Robert Cotter
By the end, even
the slower songs have lit a
fire inside of you.
Note: Very Good Soul Flutes.
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: a softer focus by Claire Rousay
Interstitial tunes:
soft, shifting–alien and
deeply domestic.
4/11/2021
Very Good Mixtape Review Haiku: LAC 042 Cantos Oscuros by Little Axe Records
An eclectic mix
of tunes equally soulful
yet variable.
4/11/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: S/T by Sosena Gebre Eyesus
Her soothing voice and
the calm, buzzing begena
lead my mind to rest.
4/11/2021
Very Good Somali Sounds Review Haiku: Layla by Kooshin
Bongos and kaban
support gorgeous melodies:
THE QUARAAMI SOUND!
4/12/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Seacide by Hiiragi Fukada
An electronic
sea: noisy, mechanical
to soft, melodic.
4/13/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Challenge for a Civilized Society by Unwound
Every record by
them is their best record, while
you are listening.
4/14/2021
TWO WEEKS WITHOUT A DAMN HAIKU????????
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: Pure Phase by Spiritualized
When the springscape is
quite lush green in contrast to
the overcast sky!
4/30/2021
Very Good Record Review Haiku: Juillet by En Attendant Ana
The wild beauty here
is vast, and I cannot stop
flipping it over.
5/1/2021
Very Good Compilation Review Haiku: Turn My Dial: The M Squared Recordings and More, 1981-84 by Tangled Shoelaces
Perfect music for
this verdant, overcast, and
introspective day.
5/6/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: An Old Backpack by Big Liquid (no link yet)
A mystery is
uncovered, increasing in
its vast majesty.
5/6/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: Luke Stewart/Patrick Shiroishi
Two of our greatest
play with space, echo, feedback:
inspiring solos.
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: Simultaneous Systems by Landon Caldwell and Flower Head Ensemble
Lines between improv
and composition collapse:
they were always false.
5/6/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: Bright Green Field by Squid
One of last year’s most
exciting new bands drop a
ripping first full length!!!!
5/6/2021
Very Reissue Review Haiku: Contemporary Movement by Duster
This band will always
connect me to something sad,
youthful, and infinite.
5/6/2021
Very Good Live Record Review Haiku: ANRMAL by Juana Molina
Juana Molina,
please perform for us in the
States A.S.A.P.!!!!
5/6/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: More Energy Fields, Current by Carlos Niño & Friends
My day shall be greatly
enhanced by having begun
with two rotations.
5/7/2021
Very Good New Release Review Haiku: FS100 by Tender Crust
Excellent label
drops its hundredth release: no
surprise here–gorgeous.
(Spoiler Alert: After my Trouble in Mind Records records label guide is done being edited, Full Spectrum is the next thing I am writing about! Dropping in June.)
5/7/2021
Very Good Deep Listen Review Haiku: Transient Seclusion by C. Lavender
Anxious thoughts build ’til
smashed by frequencies, they fall
away…dissipate.
originally 5/7/2021, re-composed 5/13/2021 after deeper listening
Very Good New-ish Release Review Haiku: Stay Indoors and Swim by Ki Oni
Bath Bae is always
happy to locate new sounds
for indoor swimming.
5/7/2021
Very Good Percussion Record Review Haiku: Mora I & II by Francisco Mora Catlett
Glad I had this on
when something went wrong: no rage
can override this!
5/7/2021
THIS MONTH PLUS LONG BREAK BROUGHT TO YOU BY A HOUSING CRISIS AND RELATED EXHAUSTION. NOW BACK TO OUR USUAL BULLSHIT.
6/16/2021
Very Good Record Review Haiku: Cloud of Thought by Sallow
Sweltering morning
reminder: post-hardcore bands
with women are BEST.
(This is available as a free download!!! No excuses!!!!!)
6/16/2021
Very Good Thing-I-Want-Everyone-to-Listen-to-Without-Hearing-It-Myself-Yet Review Haiku: Live in Stuttgart 1975 by CAN
No words until I
grab my copy at Tone Deaf
and say ‘hi’ to Bill!
6/16/2021
Very Good EP Review Haiku: Spill EP by Cusp
I would like to get
to know myself under this
great new circumstance!!!
(Began listening to this one in the process of moving to an apartment where I can be very happy after many years of endless housing crises.)
Very Good Compilation Record Review Haiku: Songs of Light by Shirley Ann Lee
When the gospel is
Very Good, it is the best
music in the world.
6/16/2021
Very Good Compilation Review Haiku: Jackie Shane: Any Other Way by Jackie Shane
Most victorious
soundtrack to a poor girl who’s
moving up in the world.
6/16/2021
Very Good Digital Compilation Review Haiku: Lovesick: A Discography CD by Lovesick
Biking around to
these tunes today, I wish I
had them in the aughts.
6/16/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Messes by Stef Chura
This is what I wish
Angel Olsen sounded like!
Saddle Creek exists?
6/16/2021
Very Good Compilation Tape Review Haiku: For When the Future Rolls Around (Selected Songs, 2012-2017) by Two White Cranes
She tricked me into
enjoying a song by Blink
182, fam!!!
(I have nothing but respect for this.)
6/16/21
Very Good Nostalgic Summer Bangers Review Haiku: S/T by Idle Ray
Beautiful, heartfelt
songs for dancing in the sun
with friends, memories.
6/16/2021
Very Good Reissue Review Haiku: S/T by XV
Very noisy punk
with sick bass freakiness, quite
rude– for total brats!
Very Good Compilation Tape Review Haiku: Another Song About Riding the Bus (Selected Songs 2002-2020) by Fred Thomas
A real gift to those
given the enormous task
of condensing him. 😉
Note: Fred Thomas Lifetime Achievement coming to Bandcamp.com next month, penned by yours truly.
6/16/2021
Very Good EP Review Haiku: Mayahuel by SÁVILA
A gorgeous collab
capturing the sacred place
which is Oaxaca.
(Please read the Album of the Day by the wonderful Maria Barrios.)
6/17/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Open Up the Window and Leave Your Body by The Mind
This dream pop is both
weird and noisy enough for
my firm approval!
6/17/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: New Long Leg by Drycleaning
Every aspect
is entirely sick; can’t wait
to see them rip live.
(Vocalist reminds me of Anne Clark!!! If you aren’t sure how you feel about this record, start at the beginning of the catalog.)
6/17/2021
Very Good EP Review Haiku: Sweet Princess EP by Drycleaning
Going mad, with all
these sexy bass lines throbbing
against my shoulder!!!!
(Shout out to the JBL Clip 3, which helps a noise sensitive girl surround herself in a safety bubble of tunes each day.)
6/17/2021
Another Very Good EP Review Haiku: Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks EP by Drycleaning
This is the EP
from Drycleaning for the folks
who wish she’d sing more!
6/17/2021
Very Good Drone Disc Review Haiku: Flatland Mystic by Aura Gaze
Precise drones capture
the stillness and drifting sands
of Lubbock, Texas.
6/17/2021
Very Promising Compilation Tape Review Haiku: Sing Wide (Selected Songs 2002-2019) by Little Wings
Funny to recall
how K briefly made me a
teenage hippie-punk.
6/17/2021
ANOTHER!!! VERY GOOD!!! Compilation Tape Review Haiku: Your Most Secret Name (Selected Songs 2008-2011) by Twig Palace
My favorite tracks
on this one are deep, groovy,
soulful, and so bright!
6/17/2021
Very Good Cover Album Review Haiku: When the Pawn by HXXS
Noisy punk takes on
Fiona Apple are pulled
direct from my dreams.
6/17/2021
Very Good, Very Punk Comp of 45s Review Haiku: The Void by Sauna Youth
Real punk bands do not
release ALBUMS, but comps of
all their 45s!!!!
6/17/2021
Very Good Music Nerd Gold Review Haiku: Pere Ubu: The Scrapbook (1975-1982) by Communex
Cleveland rock girl is
pleased to have received with a
postcard from Robert.
Note: You can still buy it on Ubutique!!!
6/17/2021
Very Good Collaboration Review Haiku: Arrangements by Lucy Liyou and CC Sorensen
Two brief but haunting,
moving, and beautiful sides:
extended replay.
6/17/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Sweet Tree by Matt Christensen
Matt’s emotive force
transcends words; he speaks so much
with just his guitar.
6/17/2021
Very Good and Promising New Release Review Haiku: Constant Green by Matt Christensen
Matt’s compositions
never fail to make me feel
less alone in life.
6/17/2021, REVISED 6/22/2021 after all tracks released
Very Good Limited Edition Cassette Review Haiku: Haram by Armand Hammer & the Alchemist
One of this year’s best
remains available for
a limited time!!!!!
6/17/2021
Another!!! Very Good Limited Edition Cassette Review Haiku: Brass by Moor Mother & billy woods
One of last year’s best
is reissued: limited
edition cassette.
6/17/2021
Very Good Digital 7″ Haiku Review: Cloud Juice by Gretchen Korsmo
The early morning
ambient medicine for
my listless bullshit.
6/21/2021
Very Good Mixtape Review Haiku: Hush Harbor Mixtape, Vol. 1: Doxology by Angel Bat Dawid
A psychedelic
and spiritual journey
through Black history.
6/21/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Dothe by Rachel Langlais
Pianos rarely
drive me so far, wide, with might–
simultaneous.
6/21/2021
Very Good Split Cassette Review Haiku: Matthew Crowe/Marsha Fisher Split by Matthew Crowe/Marsha Fisher
Dense forests of sound:
chaotic, harrowing, wild
lead to a clearing.
6/21/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: In My Dreams I’m There by Devin Shaffer
A perfect title:
lush dreams open up space for
presence and desire.
6/22/2021
Very Good Album Preview Review Haiku: Stoner Lake in G by Nathan McLaughlin
All of life, passing
through consciousness, mirrored
in water, motion.
6/22/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Urban Driftwood by Yasmin Williams
Today: drifting songs
which capture the reflection
of life in water.
6/22/2021
Very Good Digital Release Review Haiku: Hakanai by Carlos Ferreira
Songs for transience:
the beauty of the spaces
we move through, their flight.
Note: if you like this, please check out this article on Japanese Environmental Music. This tape is also available on limited edition cassette from Histamine Tapes.
6/22/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Eghass Malan by Les Filles de Illighadad
Transports me! I want
to be in the desert, too:
clapping and singing.
6/23/2021
Very Good Live Desert Recording Review Haiku: S/T by Les Filles de Illighadad
Women’s traditions
in this nomadic desert
community soar.
Note: Recorded live “in the open air studio of the desert,” where this music is traditionally performed.
6/23/2021
Very Good and Promising Preorder Review Haiku: At Pioneer Works by Les Filles de Illighadad
I.
The best thing about
village music is that life
becomes music. Here
II.
evidenced by the
mortar and pestle employed
as a working drum.
6/23/2021
Very Good Ambient Album Review Haiku: Fields of Yarrow by Robert Eggplant
I look forward to
conjuring the ambience
of storms whenever.
6/23/2021
Very Good Live Set Review Haiku: Live in Stuttgart 1975 by CAN
CAN make it quite clear
they are the only jam band
for an EMD.
6/25/2021
Very Good Ambient Tape Review Haiku: Lonesome Valley by Tomu
Dreamlike ambient
softening the world’s edges
and slowing us down.
6/25/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Strange Fortune by Powers/Rolin Duo
Something sacred is
being revealed; motion in
stillness, entangled.
6/25/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: S/T by The Haskels
Milwaukee produced
one of the greatest early
punk bands in the world.
8/5/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Some Boots by Karate
Introducing: the
world’s sexiest emo jazz!!!
“Those incrediblllllle––”
8/5/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Sentimiento Mundial by Mint Field
Opening, shifting
commanding and lush, defies
limits, expectations.
8/5/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Don’t Stay Too Long by Jessamine
This is the greatest
sex record, in all of my
vast, endless research.
8/5/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Damballah by Dr. Pete Larson and His Cytoxic Nyatiti Band
Lyre-based psych improv
from some long-running sonic
experimenters.
8/5/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: S/T by Quickspace
Spacey and sometimes
crunchy Rainer Maria
for mature adults!!!!
8/16/2021
EMD PROMISES MORE HAIKU VERY SOOOOOOON!
Very Good New Album Review Haiku: Do You Like Salt? by BRNDA
DC art punks serve
up whatever they want at
their new restaurant.
8/19/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Isometry by Emily Jane Powers
She is electric,
experimental, and at
the top of her game.
8/19/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: The Long Arm of Coincidence by Jessamine
Noisy, dissonant,
brooding!!! Full of scorching heat
and refined dischord.
8/19/2021
Very Good Comp Review Haiku: L’ by Th’ Faith Healers
A comp so immense
in its greatness, I ordered
music on CDs!
Note: For the first time since possibly the late aughts? Gave my huge CD collection to my brother when I moved to Chicago in 2013 and haven’t had a CD player since until I recently inherited my mom’s old car. I dropped just over $100 on Discogs and acquired the Peel Sessions, Lido, and Imaginary Friend on CD and two EPs (In Love and A Picture of Health) on vinyl. If there is no other way to listen to this music, I will 100% buy CDs. “Gorgeous Blue Flower in My Garden” is immediately one of my favorite songs of all time.
8/19/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Vines by Damiana
I maintain my belief:
everything Whitney Johnson
touches is sacred.
8/21/2021
Very Good Pre-order Review Haiku: Mirror Ensemble by Brett Naucke
This one has brought all
of the animals to quite
rapt attention here.
8/21/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: A Hole in the Fence by Walt McClements
Every sound captures
the exact point where pleasure
and pain intersect.
8/21/2021
Very Good Album Review Haiku: Social Crutch by Gold Cage
felte specializes
in music I expect to
find boring, but love.
8/21/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: I Am Here For A Moment by Gardener
Listen first thing in the
morning if you’re trying to
have a gracious day.
8/22/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: Unjust Intonation by Derek Monypeny
What I imagine
planetary rotation
would sound like up close.
Note: Like if you could get your ear to the exact place the motion is occurring! If there was a sound and you could hear it close to the source!
8/22/2021
Very Good Tape Review Haiku: The Human Being As A Fragile Article by Patrick Shiroishi and Camila Nebbia
Strong cinematic
vibes, like a very creepy
Fantasia of noise.
8/22/2021
TOOK A BREAK FROM HAIKU AND LISTENING DUE TO EXTREME EAR FATIGUE AND INABILITY TO CARE ABOUT ANYTHING AT ALL FOR A WHILE.
Very Good Advance Album Review Haiku: Shade by Grouper
For the last decade,
she has brought me back to the
shore of listening.
Note: More often than any other composer, Grouper helps me hear music again when I feel tired of everything, sick of it all, incapable of finding in music what I usually do that helps me find beauty and meaning in the world and survive. I am very grateful for this and for this new record performing this work again for me on this beautiful September day.
9/6/2021
Very Good Advance Album Review Haiku: Why is my arm not a lilac tree? by Credentials (Link to follow when available)
And Milwaukee takes
Album of the Year, as well
as the NBA.
9/8/2021
I basically got tired of having to post haiku in so many places eventually, so I stopped! But the point of this project was to establish a regular writing and listening practice and start getting paid money to write about music, so it fulfilled its intention in spades!!! It also is a huge factor in me quitting drinking and smoking following two months of creating most of this content on my phone, following a spilled beer sending my laptop into the shop. I’m very grateful for all outcomes. I am still going to write haiku reviews, but they will appear as comments on Bandcamp you can can find through my library and be summarized each month with a list of Bandcamp Recommendations in blog posts on the main Come Away With EMD page.
This is the end of Page 2, but you can still read Page 1 if you haven’t, by clicking ‘1’ under ‘Pages’ down below. I don’t know where to put Very Good Blurbs for my blog, so just know this: Mary Timony says it is “genius,” and to Mary Timony, I say: “game recognize game, fam.” The wildly good local Chicago band, Lifeguard, say my haiku are “much better than Pitchfork” and to Lifeguard, I say: “Very Good Promo, and thanks for the Very Good Haiku Review.
© FUCK SAUCE MEDIA 2021
COME AWAY WITH EMD 