So, if y’all didn’t know, I recently attended the first-ever Minneapolis Indie Expo (MIX), and boy-howdy was it a totally great time!
It was my first-ever tabling experience, too, so I guess it was a double-trouble good place to go. I couldn’t have asked for better table-mates, too, what with Ben Bertin and Lale Westvind being so great and talented and all!
I think it went pretty well. While I don’t have any prior experience with tabling, so I don’t have any experience to base it on, I feel totally satisfied with how it went. I sold a slew of Low Sparks, at least one of every other book I had for sale, then made some phat trades, met some phat people, had a phat time! It was great. I’m sure I’ll post some of the photos I find around soon. I’ll let you know.
But now! Here are some of the far-out books I got! (I also got a T-shirt from Jeremy Tinder,) but I don’t have a picture of it, cha).
I seem to be the only person who hadn’t read this one already, but I’m sure glad I have now! I traded a Low Spark (and a Cyber Winter, too, I think) with a fellow at Sparkplug Books for this gem, a most far-out trade if you ask me.
Oh Boy, Comics! by Neil Brideau.
A new compilation by Neil, a fine chap, who was on the megabus back with all of us (and also Sam Sharpe and Aaron Reiner, no less!) This is a fine-looking book with a great cover, and a trade I made that’s worth it for the “Laundry” comic within by faar. Check it out sometime!
Poo and These Yams Are Delicious by Sam Sharpe.
A one-two punch of great comics here from Sam Sharpe, another stellar guy (Man, maybe every comics artist is stellar. Or maybe I’m good at meeting the stellar ones?). Poo has a slew of great gag comics, and Yams is a really great and funny sci-fi story. Totally great!
Errand Service by Will Dinski.
This one is put together so well, and has such a great story! This might be my fave acquisition (Ferengi much?) from the day. It was so good I went and gave him a Low Spark in thanks. He’s also really nice. (duh).
These are all pretty meager descriptions of some fine work all around. I’m just still very excited by how great the whole weekend went, really. I think I’m definitely going to make the ‘con circuit next year, I felt so great about the whole experience. See you then!
P.S. Oh, and Minneapolis, WAY TO GO for being such a great town filled with lovely people!
Sometimes, really. It may seem like I’ve been doing nothing, like this site is an old one, one you’d find by accident, check the dates and maybe feel a twinge of sadness.
Well, I assure you that’s not the case. I do, in my defense, post things often to my Tumblr, and while that’s not very professional (or whatever), if you’re wondering how I’m feeling at any particular moment about David Bowie, then you should still read it.
But I am doing things, I swear. Even music, now! Music is the hardest things to keep up with since graduation. During school, it was the pipe-dream of “what if,” you know? A thing to do in my spare time that could end up being my real outlet in life, maybe even a career!
Which isn’t to say I still believe those things. It’s still a dream, maybe even a goal. But, when school was replaced by “a job” (and what I have as one barely counts, productively speaking), my “free time” is now taken up by my “work.” So I have to choose what I work on in my free time. And, sad to say, it has to be the “work” that is more likely to “pay the bills.” And, sadder to say, music has less chance of doing that than comics and other drawing does (it doesn’t actually do that either).
But! I still work, still consider myself a musician, still am working on albums. Number five is coming along, slowly, but maybe a little more surely. And here’s a little taste of it— something old made new, no less!
“Let’s go,” Prince declares on “Bonus Track #77.” It’s followed by total silence: the end of the album. So where are we going, then? It’s almost certainly giving him too much credit to be this smart and self-aware, but the answer is right there: we’re going nowhere.
It’s safe to say at this point that Prince’s 2000’s comeback, that started with “Musicology” and hit its peak with “3121″, is over. His latest album, “20Ten,” if remembered at all in his once-unflappable canon, will most likely be remembered as the album where Prince declared the internet as “over.” It was a silly remark, one that made it’s rounds in internet memes and tumblr posts, but even then, didn’t make much of a splash. It was just more nonsense coming from Prince, more of the same, more of his increasingly predictable jabber.
“20Ten” is an album that reflects this “more of the same” attitude that a new Prince album radiates, but steers that reflection in an admittedly surprising way. When (and if) people listened to “MPL5OUND” and heard that he was using his old drum machines and synths again, they were confused by his willingness to look back and scratched their heads at the reasoning behind it. Was it a cash-in to the old glory days at the top of the charts? Was it a joke? A shameless bid to His Purple Majesty’s Nostalgic Side?
What no one could have expected was that “MPL5OUND” was actually the sign of Prince’s next move. “20Ten” takes the retreading of retro drum/synth and runs far off into the mountains with it, leaving us with an album that tries excruciatingly hard to sound like it was made in 1981.
“20Ten” takes “MPL5OUND”’s retro-activity and leaps it into the next level, removing almost any traces of modernity to the sound. Prince has even produced it to sound much more raw than his oily-slick last few albums. The lack of sheen, instead of adding a sense of urgency to the songs (like it did on “Dirty Mind,” an album that, sad to say, is “20Ten’s” best companion piece), makes them sound empty and incomplete.
Another difference between Prince’s 80s sound and this mess is his choice of sound. Prince’s early albums had their energy because of his careful choice of instrumentation, often steering away from the more cheesy or kitschy sounding synth noises of the time unless they distinctly applied to an aside or a joke he was making in the song. Prince’s early albums were strokes of genius for their melding of loose-sounding grooves disguising a very well-woven song.
Of course, the other thing missing from “20Ten” is the tight composition that made his older songs so danceable (or at the very least, listenable). Prince has been getting looser in his jams for years, but they were more fitting to the slow-adult-contempo-jazz numbers he was working with. Applying that looseness to these new retro-jams makes them all plod along at dirge-like speed.
“Beginning Endlessly,” personifies almost all of the problems with “20Ten.” It’s a song begging to be played fast, but here on the record it sounds like it’s played through molasses. Prince further derails it by adding auto-tune and the worst kind of “I’m writing a techno song” kind of sounds on top of it. Then, to top it off, the increasingly boring slog stretches out to almost six minutes. Where is the restraint?
That last question is one that keeps cropping up when listening to “20Ten.” Prince’s older songs often were quite lengthy, like the album cuts of “Controversy” or “1999,” but they were content to stay on a similar groove for most of their seven-plus minutes. On “20Ten,” it sounds like Prince is getting bored with his own songs, and chooses to add more and more and splice in another movement here and add twelve more choruses there, so on and so on— by the end of each and every song, you don’t even know what you’re listening to anymore.
All that said, it just proves the point that when Prince keeps the songs short, they shine (however dimly). “Sticky Like Glue” has a tight groove, well-placed harmonies and a head-bopping and catchy chorus, and a manageable length. Of course, Prince then throws an inane rap on top of it, ranting about going to see a movie with a girl but not really watching it. I’m sure he means because they were kissing, but his delivery makes it seem more like he went to see Avatar and forgot his 3D glasses.
“Lavaux” and “Everybody Loves Me” are as close as he gets to achieving the compositional prowess of his earlier work. Prince was always at his best when you had to remind yourself that it was often only one man playing every single instrument. Most of “20Ten” sounds like Prince is performing the album by himself in his fur-lined basement, and didn’t bother to do any second takes if he missed the beat. “Lavaux” is pleasant and danceable, but he’s not really saying anything. “Everybody Loves Me” really does manage to sound like an outtake from “Controversy,” but the kind that gets buried on the lowest-grade bootleg.
It seems virtually impossible to divorce discussion of “20Ten” to his older works. It inevitably happens whenever he releases a new album, and similar to the constant tag on new Bowie albums of “his best since Scary Monsters,” every Prince album since “Purple Rain” has either “his best since Purple Rain” on it, or just “New Prince Album. Again.”
Yet this time, Prince is driving the comparison into our faces. He’s using all his old sounds, all his old tricks, and barely even trying to make them sound fresh. What does it mean that Prince, once upon a time the most impressive innovator in popular music, is now looking back so ardently? It’s difficult to say what is more depressing: that Prince is finally out of ideas, or that he’s fully put himself in “American Life” territory with terrible “raps” about ordinary things (for rich people) and declaring himself “The Purple Yoda.” The Purple Yoda? What does that even mean? That he’s 900 years old? That he’s a puppet?
And he ends his worst album yet with the words “Let’s Go.” And after trying to listen to this fan-baiting mess for a second time, I think I know where we’re going: to sleep.
It’s called “Low Spark (1913-1938-1973-201?),” and it’s out, and it’s awesome (if I do say so myself). Plus, that picture of me holding a copy doesn’t really do it justice, as the copies I’m currently shifting around are fully hand-colored! WHOA!
Anyways, like I said, it’s awesome. Quimby’s called it “Boss.” Boss!
(I think I’m quoting, but I might be paraphrasing, they’ve since removed the listing. But it’s still boss, I swurrs.)
Case in point:
Another case in point:
Drawn during a spirited and feverish April, 2010.
I was going for a much different approach this time around. I’ve been plugging away at the melodrama of Birds & Wolves for so long, so I decided to make not only a silly comic, but one that wasn’t so planned out. So, having done four tiny little thumbnails for this “new comic,” I decided to be free and write it without a script or any idea where I was going to go. As you can see from the above, I ended up going pretty far out, indeed.
Obviously the spark (all puns intended) came from the far-out cover of Traffic’s “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys.”
I started this comic without ever having listened to the album, though having done so now, I would imagine it’d make a pretty far-out soundtrack to the desert utopia I’ve outlined in this comic. Another slight gag in the title that I feel no one gets (and why should most of them, anyways) is a reference to David Bowie’s song “Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?).” (fave blog ever, btw) I took the title as a reference to the “transformation” between Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, and bracketed a new year as a hypothetical deadline for a new Bowie album. Make sense? No, didn’t think so. But neither really does the comic. :D
Anyways, this mini is OUT NOW, at Quimby’s, I imagine, unless they’ve run out, in which case, you know where to find me. (UPDATE: which, in fact, they had, but I’ve since replenished them) I will also be selling this wild escapade at the upcoming Minneapolis Indie Expo, August 21st! 9-5! Free admission! Be there, just like me, and just like Low Spark!
So, Violence, my …third? Yes, third album. Never quite got around to making a physical copy of it, so no one outside of my friends ever really got to hear it (no one outside of my friends ever hears my music, really, but instead of ‘difficult,’ it was just ‘impossible.’)
It was a real shame, too, because I’d go so far as to consider Violence my best work. It’s my most cohesive work, certainly, thanks to the masterful production and mixing done by my good friend Jacob Strick. Before he put his hands on it, it was a completely inaudibly, unlistenable mess. After him, it was a thing of beauty.
It’s also a concept album, in the most prog-rock sense. More actually in ithe most Richard-Harris-y sense. He once recorded a concept album called “My Boy” about the failure of love. Here’s a tidbit of the synopsis written on the back:
SIDE TWO:
REQUIEM
After a night of love with Beth he suspects that their marriage is over.
THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN
It is. She leaves him.
HA HA AH HA. Way to go Richard.
Actually, Violence isn’t much less overwrought than that, but I don’t think I’d go so far as to spell it out on the sleeve. Actually, if I ever make a physical release of it, I will actually consider doing that.
I would be easy, as I kind of already have. You see, I wrote Violence in a very unusual way. I planned out the beats of the ’story,’ then I assigned song titles to those beats, then I would write songs to those song titles.
Here’s the original Violence cheat-sheet:
So, to summarize, there’s a balloon salesman, who is also a gravedigger at night. One girl always buys a Blue Balloon from him, every day. Until she grows up and doesn’t any more. Later, he sees her when her father dies (he has to dig his grave). She is distraught, and clings to the only thing she recognizes: the balloon salesman. She has sex with him once, but leaves him. He doesn’t see her until more years later, when he has to dig her Mother’s grave. She is even more distraught. She won’t talk to him, so he pops all his balloons, but sees her walking down the street. So he runs out of his house (he’s a recluse, so it’s a big deal), gives her a Blue Balloon, but she just smiles and goes upstairs to her apartment, where she promptly shoots her self dead. Of course, he has to dig her grave. The album ends with him weeping in the rain as he fills her grave, then the sun coming out and him letting a Blue Balloon fly into the air.
I mean, obviously.
Some things changed over time. For instance, “The Knot Is Still There” was renamed “Circles,” since “Circles” didn’t particularly have anything to do with the ’story.’ I later decided that “Circles” was a dream the main character was having, that represented his feelings for his unattainable love. (You can laugh, it’s funny.)
Likewise, there’s a blank for song seven. It ended up being “Water III,” which certainly doesn’t really have anything to do with the ’story.’ It became another ‘dream’ song that dealt with the death of His Love’s father.
Another great thing I changed is I moved the story-perspective to some stranger reading her obituary, instead of having the Salesman describe him finding her body. Breakfast is a great song.
I’m not sure how much of that story you can get out of just listening to it. It might even ruin it for some to know it. But it’s there, no matter what. It’s totally fine if you ignore it, the songs are great by themselves.
ANYWAYS, this LOOOOOONG preamble is to announce that FINALLY, after THREE YEARS, Violence is available to the general public. Thanks to the wonderful Bandcamp, I am now selling a high-quality digital version of Violence on the internet. AND GUESS WHAT? (What.) RIGHT NOW, IT’S ONLY ONE DOLLAR. You can pay more if you’d like, but the base cost is a buck.
Fifteen songs! For a buck! Wow!
Anyways, here’s the streamer below:
Here is a link to the album’s page up there, in case you need one.
I hope, if you haven’t heard it yet, that you love it. I’m quite proud of this one.
This is great. So remember when I said I’m playing that show on friday with my friend AJ? Well, he also writes some great songs, and I am privileged to be, now, in a band, playing his great songs with him. The band is called Videotape, and I’m sure we’ll be playing some shows in the future.
Here’s a link to hear some songs of his (with the fantastic Sophie singing): Videotape.
This morning we played a Buddhist Center and got a standing ovation! So YES!
@ Happy Dog Gallery
1542 N. Milwaukee Ave. 2nd Floor
Featuring Artwork by:
Jean Cate
Bridget Crowe
Emily Irvine
Millicent Kennedy
Therese Kuempel
Sarah Louden
and Jessica Mazza
And the Music Stylings of
Brunejuice and his JIGSauce
Violet Mice
and Magic Milk
Come experience an art and music extravaganza that is sure to please your BEST senses!
The first band will perform at 9PM, and all others will follow after that.
$5 donation at the door, All ages welcome!
(I will be playing this show NOT SOLO, for the first time in a while. Joinin’ me will be my friend AJ on another guitar. Things are cookin’ in the mousehole for sure!)
So, it’s been a while since a post. This is a drag! Especially since there have been many things happening!
First off, earlier in the month I (and a fantastic companion) visited Toronto. Toronto is an absolutely wonderful and beautiful town, and I heartily recommend you to go there, all of you (grammar much?) Anyways, whilst there I went to The Beguiling, which is an absolutely amazing comic shop!!! While there, I managed to sell them a few copies of Cyber Winter and Good-Bye The Pig, so now, if you are in Canada, it is that much easier to get my comics!!! :D
Later in the month, the Comics Symposium of Chicago took place, and I must say it was a runaway success! I participated in a panel with Joey Jacks, Sarah Becan, and Anders Nilsen, moderated by Jeremy Tinder. WOW! I think it went well, and I heard that it’s going to be podcasted or some sort of “you can hear it” thing, so I’ll keep you posted.
Lastly, the newest issue of SAIC’s Xerox Candy Bar comics anthology is out, and I contributed a one-pager foldy zine to it. If you attend SAIC, you probably already have it, and if you don’t, sneak in and try to steal one. My one-pager is called “Getting To Know You Better,” and I may post it online here in the near future.
As for me? I’m fine. Working hard/hardly working. (I am penciling page 105 of Birds & Wolves, and have inked up to 101. Those are incredibly large numbers.)
Oh, yeah! Got a show coming up. April 16th, I believe, at the Happy Dog Gallery: 1542 N. Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, IL 60622. I’ll keep you posted.
I feel in need of a recap, professionally speaking.
By which I mean: I have five mini-comics out in the world (which you can regard at Quimby’s here in Chicago), of which I will write here, with short descriptions:
It Won’t Be Long:
A visual pun, a transition, youthful romance:
Bob Dylan’s 115th Hat:
A treasure, a lunar body, a cantankerous kid:
Life in the Cyber Winter:
Freezing, responsibility, the future:
(apologies for the massive/blurry photo)
Good-Bye, The Pig:
Reality, Water-Strands, new beginnings:
Garfield In Chains:
Sass, The Portly Prankster, Fantasy:
There is, too, of course, “Birds & Wolves,” my in-progress graphic novel, which I am putting up on Lulu.com in Chapter-size chunks. So far Chapters One and Two are available, and I am knee-deep in the penciling/inking of Chapter Three. BUT, more on thaaat later, friends.
Hey everyone! Fantastic news. I’m going to be involved in a panel discussion at the upcoming Chicago Comics Symposium! Whoa! SYMPOSIUM. Anyways, here’s the scoop on that:
The stubborn work ethic of Chicago’s comic scene will be explored in the first ever Chicago Comics Symposium, hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) on March 11th and 12th 2010. Through panel discussions with over fifteen local comic makers, the Symposium will investigate the city’s influence on the comic making process, tackling the sad, serious, and silly topics that reign supreme in the realm of sequential art. All events are free and open to the public.
CCS will be comprised of four separate panel discussions with multiple artists on each and will be moderated by some of Chicago’s greatest thinkers, critics and (of course) readers of comics. The questions posed to the Windy City makers will address many issues including: the tasks of self-publication, the changing cultural status of comics and the difficulty of representing identity. The queries will oscillate between common knowledge and the complexity of the nitty-gritty details, giving equal enjoyment opportunity to new readers as well as true-blue comic connoisseurs.
Comics are infiltrating movie-theaters and chain book stores, sustaining independent comic shops and edging their way into academia. Comics are made any and every where, but Chicago has a distinct community of hard working doers, makers and shakers. The event will attempt to unite and uncover the inner workings of Chicago’s comics.
Attracting artists who currently live and work in the city, as well as former Chicago residents, the Symposium will bring together the old, new, big and small. Attendees include: Sarah Becan, Jeffrey Brown, Christa Donner, Surabhi Ghosh, Beth Hetland, Nicole Hollander, Paul Hornschemeier, Joey Jacks, Lucy Knisley, Ian McDuffie, Bernie McGovern, Anders Nilsen, Laura Park, John Porcellino, and Jeremy Tinder.
The Chicago Comics Symposium
Hosted by The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Thursday-Friday, March 11-12, 4:30-7pm
SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave.
Free
Email: chicagocomicssymposium@gmail.com
They’ve also a website at chicagocomicssymposium.tumblr.com
Look at that list of names! Anyways, hope to see you all thurr!
Here, two weeks after the fact, is my personal faves of the last year. It’s the songs from last year, rather than the songs I listened to the most then (they’d be different lists). Naturally, there’s some omissions, because I don’t want to go too nuts with y’all. I’ve appended youtube videos with the songs, but I’m choosing this list for the music, not any visual accompaniment.
1. St. Vincent- The Strangers
There was a lot to love on “Actor,” but this song’s got what I want. It’s something about that “prettily sung but actually real dark” vibe, and the repeated line of “paint the black hole blacker” works in a way I could never understand.
2. Beirut- On a Bayonet
Funny maybe, that I choose the instrumental from “March of the Zapotec,” and also that I didn’t choose something from the better half of that album, the electro-pop “Holland,” but this little piece just has a charm and depth that’s kind of incredible for it’s minute and a half.
3. YACHT- Psychic City
This summer was certainly the summer of YACHT for me, with it all peaking at their Fantastic show at the Empty Bottle. There were a few stellar candidates for “Summer Jam,” with this one nearest to the top.
4. Animal Collective- Guy’s Eyes
It was obvious Merriweather Post Pavilion was going to be everyone’s favorite this year, but oddly enough it just didn’t hold up for me. It lost it’s personal importance to me after less than a month, which was pretty strange. It’s not that the songs weren’t great (they were!), so I don’t know whaat it was. In any case, my favorite was definitely this one.
5. Julian Casablancas- 11th Dimension
I wouldn’t have thought this song would be so great, but it totally is, and it is totally also Todd Rundgren for the new millenium (which is probably why I like it so much).
6. Fever Ray- I’m Not Done
I could have chosen any song from Fever Ray’s album, but I went with this one. That incessant beat drives right through my heart, won’t let up, then seals the deal with those close-mic’d strings at the end. But that’s a terrible explanation of how great and haunting this song is. I’ll leave it up to the line “how do you say you’re sorry, and there’s nothing to be afraid of.” What.
7. Neko Case- This Tornado Loves You
One liner— a love song from the perspective of a tornado!
8. Atlas Sound- Walkabout
I loved this song from the moment I first heard the crappy bootleg of some show somewhere. The quality was terrible, but I still listened to it over and over. This jam was that good. Another candidate for “Summer Jam,” obvi.
9. Dirty Projectors- Stillness Is The Move
BAM. If you needed any more reason to love this band after Rise Above (I didn’t), Bitte Orca delivered. ON EVERY TRACK.
10. Pains of Being Pure At Heart- Stay Alive
An easy-to-like “epic song,” which seems deliberately written to be “epic,” but they’ve done their homework, and hit all the right notes.
11. Smith Westerns- Imagine, Pt. 3
Hey, did you guys know? I worked at an ice cream store this summer with the lead guitarist from this band! I was so jealous. Especially when I heard this song.
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Soft Shock
At first, I hated “It’s Blitz!” Then, pretty soon afterwards, I loved it completely. Naturally, I will choose the slowest (second slowest? third?) jam on the album. Why am I using the word “Jam” so much? Ugh.
13. Pool Holograph- Fireworked Beach
Sadly, I can’t find a youtube video of this fan-tastic song by my friend Wyatt. But trust me, it’s a winner. I assume the song I mean to show you is five-ish minutes in, but you certainly don’t have to skip to it!
14. Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks
Veckatimest was an odd album, because every song on it was golden, yet it was hard to listen to as a whole (I am the only person who thought that). I was discussing it with some friends, and I think the reason the album seems to plod a little is that they blew their Pop Jam load too quickly. This song, or “While You Wait For the Others,” should have been the centerpiece! Then the album would Peak instead of Valley.
15. Thom Yorke- All For The Best
What a surprise! When the beat first started, I thought “oh, an Eraser b-side. I hate The Drunkk Machine.” But then as soon as the organ came in, I knew this would be my favorite song of the summer, my defining “repeat song.” It didn’t let me down.
16. Cold Cave- Love Comes Close
It’s a drag the album this comes from only has one other song as great as this one. This, and “Life Magazine,” are two great goth-pop masterpieces. This one has a killerkiller chorus, so I’ll choose it.
17. The xx- Crystalised
I hesitated before I listened to The xx, mainly because I was put-off by the hype, but then I remembered that I originally refused to listen to Deerhunter for the same reason! Likewise, I discovered the hype wasn’t misplaced.
18. Atlas Sound- Quick Canal
Bradford Cox’s dream comes true, and we get a great new Stereolab song. Just kidding. But anyone who heard the instrumental version of this when Logos originally leaked was very much Not Disappointed.
Those have numbers (put them in a mix, they sound good), but what’s the numberless Best Song of The Year? It comes from my favorite album of the year, too. And, of course, its:
Antony & The Johnsons- Aeon
When this song first started playing, I though “ohh, that’s a nice little piano bit,” then the song kicked in and my mind went “woah, I should listen a little closer.” When he hits the “his arms are warm” line, I was frozen in love. That line means so much to me, especially for the time that I heard it in, and still sends shivers up me. Damn.
In 2006, before Violet Mice began, before I went to New Orleans, before a whole slew of life changing things went and happened and changed my life, I made an EP for my Mom’s birthday. Dubbed (naturally) The Mom EP, it had four cover songs on it. Songs that had the distinction of being songs my mom would play endlessly on repeat over and over forever. It’s her way of showing affection for the song, which I certainly inherited. The four songs on it are Modest Mouse’s “Baby Blue Sedan,” Coldplay’s “Amsterdam,” the Pumpkins’ “With Every Light,” and Bowie’s “Strangers When We Meet.”
Tonight I share with you the Bowie cover. I’ve just listened to it for the first time since I made it, pretty much, and I am very impressed with my young naive self! It’s got the build-up I strive for in my songs now, not to mention a vocal delivery I couldn’t ever compare to, and much more to recommend. It’s sparse, but not boring. It’s proof that I can go minimal if I want to. And it tells me that maybe I should!
Recent Comments