Look, I’ve been bad, I’ve been constantly neglecting to tell you that I put out an album:

It’s called Burque Spirit, and you can listen to it in this thing below:

I’ve already written a pretty good introductory blurb for it, so I’ll just put that here:

Instead of just saying “Hey guys, I put a new album out today!” (Which I did) I’d rather just talk about how I wonder if the sort of occasionally spiritually-imbued malaise one feels growing up in New Mexico is a universal feeling, or not.

What I mean by that is there’s such boredom, such a put-upon and unexplainable feeling of a chained, go-nowhere existence growing up there that there seems to be the expectation of qualifying those feelings with some sort of ‘spiritual excuse,’ as if our adolescence was the proof of a higher power.

It was all very melodramatic, obviously (but who isn’t when you’re growing up!), but it’s easy to be melodramatic when every single night, the sun starts to set, and the mountains that usually shield you turn the most brilliant color of pink. Sometimes the city itself would turn pink, and you’d be wading around washed in luminescence. It’s beautiful in New Mexico!

That was the problem. Once you left (if you left), you realize how nice it was there. Usually not (ooh, i want to move back) nice, but you remember how good the weather is, or how funny (instead of embarrassing) it is that the “big river” we have is generally ankle-deep. Or you’d remember when half the bosque burned down and the drive to Rio Rancho was marred by a charred graveyard. Tons of things. Thinking about it is like instant-oatmeal-nostalgia.

But see, these feelings are typical, which is good, because no Land of Enchantment-dweller should need any more reasons to feel isolated. We’re all on the same planet, here.

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Anyways, I finished this album. Im very proud of it, it might be my best (who am i to judge that, ha ha)? I’ve been working on it for a very long time, and thus have put quite a bit of myself into it. It also sort of represents the ‘end’ of an ‘era,’ in terms of my ‘album-making,’ as it’s going to be the last album that’s dedicated to themes of ‘growing up’ and ‘new mexico’ and ‘nostalgia’ and ‘having a crush on the same girl for like, six years, but now i’m over it (and she’s getting married so good for her).’ Which is great! Those things are fine, but it’s time to move on.

So yeah, that’s some heavy shit, but this is a fun album!

It’s a summer jam!

Burque Spirit!

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I am very proud of it, and I’m proud of all the people who are name-checked (or memory-checked) in it for still being alive (unless they aren’t), and I’m very proud to have you hear it.

I should also mention that, if you download it (it’s five dollars, btw!), you get a lyric/photo book, which i designed myself after staring at R.E.M.’s “Monster” album for a week. Here’s some samples:

So that’s nice.

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Once again, I’d like to thank all the people whose existence led to the writing of these songs, and especially a thanks to Jacob Strick, who mixed this album (like he did for Violence, my other best album), and saved it from middling mediocre mishmash music to the grandiose giraffe of a gesture it is now (or whatever, he did a great job).

Also, thanks to you for listening.

Ian