#great imagery in this one <3 folks who love religious imagery (me) will get a kick outta this one <3

[bumblingbabooshka]

"Everything you went through was meaningless." [St Voyager S3 E7: 'Sacred Ground']

[moonlitdiane]

Hello! I moved from my old blog, @dianethus​ to here, you can probably call this a re-intro!

Diane | 18 | Filipino-Chinese | She/They | Pansexual | Scorpio | xNTP | Neurodivergent | Psychology Major | Graphic Designer | Practicing Wiccan

I’ve been trying to write since I was around 12 years old with silly little k-pop and percy jackson fanfics. Even though I cringe now whenever I think about the things I wrote, I still believe it was a necessary phase that all writers have to go through to become better.

I mainly write for the #OwnVoice movement that focuses on the South East Asian experience and especially the experience of being queer in an Asian environment. I aim to give the queers of Asian history whose stories never got to be told a voice. I write to expose the world to Philippine Mythology and the stories passed down from ancestor to ancestor. I also aim to conjure up nostalgic imagery in the readers' minds.

low fantasy. I'm not that really good at world building but I'm in love with the idea of everyday magic.

supernatural.

historical.

angst. I'm SORRY but writing and describing pain is a different kind of joy for me.

found family. I'm gay.

cosmic motifs.

enemies to lovers. oh for someone to see all my worst parts and still fall in love with me. also consider: childhood friends to enemies to lovers.

religious trauma & guilt. I went to a catholic school what did you expect?

The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified.

Evil Is Sexy.

Trapped In Another World. I want to be Isekai-d so bad.

Song Fic. Most of my titles are actually song lyrics or my basic outlines follow the structure of a song.

“Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl,”

Somewhere In Limasawa Street is a queer historical fiction story set in 1898 when the Philippine-American war is just beyond the horizons and 19 year old mestiza, Lucena Candella is in the middle of a war with herself. Sheltered and painfully aloof, she meets brave but brash, Urduja Kalangitan, who is as emotionally aware as a rock and who happens to be the Revolutionary Army's best gunman—maybe that's what pulled quiet Lucena to her.

Between paper planes, porcelains, and battle scars, Lucena slowly learns to love, and that scared her. It scared her because she wasn't allowed to love that woman with the scarred smile and wild hair.

This is my main WIP and my passion project. I really wanted to write something that I can dedicate to the queers of history, the indigenous and people of color whose queerness is never told.

The title is a reference to Limasawa Street by folk pop band, Ben&Ben, I actually used the album and a few singles as inspiration for the plot. 

WIP Playlist. This story will be unapologetically Filipino.

“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil,”

The Devil’s Choir is a low fantasy story following the adventures of seven unlikely friends who just want to go apeshit and run away from their shitty town. That is until they’re thrown into a you-need-to-save-the-whole-world mess without their written consent. Lucifer and Dionysus show up at their door step, dragging them head first into an abyss that even the Gods refuse to fall into. A war between the golden age and the future, it’s now up to this peculiar gang to save the world from the real threat.

The seven deadly sins but make them moody teenagers. this story has gone through so much revising for years! Found family, enemies to lovers, and unwilling heroes? check.

Unintentionally a copy of American Gods. It was too late until I realized the plot was kind of similar to American Gods. Help. 

WIP Playlist. I smell chaos, don’t you?

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”

Manila Encounters is a paranormal urban fantasy story unfolding right in the pearl of the orient seas. When the clock strikes 3 AM and the lights of the skyscrapers turn dark—when the city sleeps, the monsters roam free. Deep between the alley ways of Manila city, look out for kids with a certain glow and bite behind their smiles. Look for the ones with sunkissed tans who speak in tongues. Look for the ones whose feet barely dip into murky bay waters and fingertips grazing moonlight. 

A dummy’s guide to Filipino folklore. Manila Encounters was inspired by a hashtag on Twitter of the same name where people wrote their own twist to Filipino urban legends and folk stories.

Oh great, another Percy Jackson rip-off. the main characters are demi-gods or descendants of Gods. Original, I know.

WIP Playlist. driving at midnight sort of vibe.

"You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us."

And I Love her is a queer romance story about a girl who just recently moved into an old but well maintained cottage in some seaside town in Europe—and she finds in the middle of dusty furniture and underneath cobwebs, a rotary telephone sitting there unused for decades. It rings unexpectedly one day and what greets her is a soft voice belonging to someone who lived 60 years ago.

a dreamnotfound fanfic inspired this. and the South Korean horror film, The Call. 

gay yearning agenda. so much yearning. so much. I’m projecting.

WIP Playlist. My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand, taking mine, but it's been promised to another

A selected list of fics from my AO3 account. It’s gay.

I drowned a long time ago. Sakusa Kiyoomi isn’t in love. He’s devoted. Serial Killer AU.

Maaaring bang magkunwaring akin ka pa? A Tagalog Haikyuu fic based on the movie, Camp Sawi.

Marupok na puso ko. A Tagalog Haikyuu fic where they do the Filipino thing and get drunk.

My good puppy. My first try at writing smut. Jesus Christ.

Be my mistake. Where Kuroo Tetsurou calls up Tsukishima Kei one last time.

Make it hurt. The two times Atsumu Miya saw the entire universe behind Sakusa Kiyoomi’s eyes.

I still have a lot of stories that I hope to finish, I find it hard to discard or erase story ideas. So I hope one day, you can all watch me finish this list.

We Don’t Belong Here / Viva La Filipinas / Luna De Sangre Conspiracy / Lilith and Lysander’s Guide To Immortal Godparents / Lonely Hearts Club / A Lady’s Guide to Princes and Principles / Attack Block / Empty Thrones /  A Double Take / Stupid Cupid / Idle Town / Alice? / The 30 Day Deal / Lost Stars / The Apocalypse Program / Heartstrings  / Disastrously Danae

[asimawv]

I write and conceptualize story to music, so I’ve compiled a playlist of 30 Darkest Dungeon-specific songs that I listen to when writing (and subsequently re-writing) in no particular order, which I hope will help you set the vibe too. :+)

Names in bold are links for easy listening - tons of Hozier and Of Monsters and Men up ahead, five minute warning.

1. ‘Fire and the Flood’ - Vance Joy

If you listen to nothing else on this list, listen to this one - it’s the kind of song that’s made for movies about yearning. Folk influences, choruses of trumpets and vocal harmony, and instruments that are layered for a rich, resonant sound. This is the song I imagine Dismas and Reynauld horse-racing through a crowded outdoors market in the hamlet to, and the song I listened to nonstop freshman year when I first started writing The Myth of Sisyphus.

You're the fire and the flood And I'll always feel you in my blood Everything is fine When your hand is resting next to mine Next to mine You're the fire and the flood

The chorus is built around biblical allusions to the fire (the burning bush signifying first contact) and the flood (destruction of the first world), the beginning and end. Every line is similarly evocative of Darkest Dungeon in their simplicity (“I’ve been getting used to waking up with you,” etc.)

2. ‘Soldier, Poet, King’ - The Oh Hellos

By the title alone you can guess who this is for. Even the Guild quote for the Leper approaches these three things as the defining parts of his character (specifically it’s “a ruined man, a warrior, and a poet.”) This song coincidentally has an old world influence to it, with a Medieval Renaissance style from a guitar playing a lute-adjacent melody.

There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord

To be smeared with oil is to be anointed by a prophet and thus chosen by god himself to be king, just as David was and his boy after him (presumably Solomon). There’s something strangely wistful about the imagery, which is just how I like my songs about bygone kings.

3. ‘Exit Hymn’ - Bear Attack!

This song is about the end of the world in a version where everyone simply stands together in silence watching, rather than having the masses swarming in panic.

Lovely shapes to the world descending, Brothers and sisters. Lovely shapes to the world descending, Brothers and sisters Mute.

It defies Lovecraftian horror, which is based on the premise that “common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large” - it flies in the face of existential nihilism and the despair that it should bring us. That’s why I like this song for deaths in the end-boss fight; it also has a special place for other death-related ideas, like full-party wipes - entire teams of people vanishing into the dungeons, gone insane, holding hands while the darkness surrounds them.

It’s a bare song which has a sanctity to it, mostly just piano and rain and human voices. Just what you would hear at the end of the world.

More under the cut:

4. ‘Pursuit of Glory’ - Jhameel

This song is laid-back. It doesn’t have the Homeric intensity that some of the other songs here do - it’s a guy with a guitar and vocal harmony. By god is it a great piece of writing though (all of Jhameel’s older songs have that quality to them), and all of it is evocative of Darkest Dungeon.

So many eyes set on the path to glory Too many ties, friendship is for the lonely Can't still my heart, my tongue has tasted folly Thirsty for art, hungry for power and money

This is a song for everyone in the barracks, especially the ‘laundry list’ of people and their approaches to the pursuit of glory.

5. ‘Good Old Days’ - Macklemore (feat. Kesha)

This fucker put a Macklemore song in here. I did, yeah. It’s not even the only song with Kesha in it here (I’m sorry.) 

It’s a sentimental pop song, and I am sentimental to a fault. This is Darkest Dungeon AMV material, and I always mishear one of the lines as “we were underground, loaded mercs in that 12-passenger van” so it’s here.

We've come so far, I guess I'm proud And I ain't worried about the wrinkles around my smile I've got some scars, I've been around I've felt some pain, I've seen some things, but I'm here now Those good old days

6. ‘Past Lives‘ - Kesha

Here it is, the other Kesha song - this was introduced to me by a good friend, also in a Darkest Dungeon context. There’s just something about the lovers spanning time trope and finding each other in one life to the next that is irresistible (for the obvious reason in the context of Darkest Dungeon.) It’s a soft song, totally out of place in Kesha’s typical discography, and has a line about losing someone to the crusades, so... you know.

There's just somethin' about you I know Started centuries ago though You see your kiss is like a lost ghost Only I would know But I, I keep on falling for you Time after time Time after time

7. ‘Viva la Vida’ - Coldplay

You cannot fight this. You know that this is the song for King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, you know it is. Did you know the official name of this genre of music is “Baroque pop”? Yes, that means more songs like this exist. You will live with this information now.

Don’t fight it. Just let it wash over you.

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can't explain Once you go there was never, never an honest word And that was when I ruled the world

Mirror, sword, and shield, the three other members of his party, his missionaries in a foreign field. Thinking emoji. I typed that out so I wouldn’t have a repeat of the crab emoji incident.

8. ‘The Boxer’ - Jerry Douglas (feat. Mumford & Sons, Paul Simon)

Partly inspired by the Bible, Simon & Garfunkle’s ‘The Boxer’ is a folk rock song about poverty, loneliness, and homesickness. It’s written and sung in a style that’s strongly reminiscent of older times, and the final verse about its eponymous boxer is particularly powerful:

In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of ev'ry glove that laid him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame "I am leaving, I am leaving" But the fighter still remains

This is what I use for Dismas’ life leading into organized crime and his foolish abandonment of stable job prospects in a half-baked bid for fame, as well as being punched down over and over again but with nowhere else to go. That last part is widely applicable across the cast.

9. ‘I Will Wait’ - Mumford & Sons

I am but a simple man. I see 'folk rock' and add it to my Darkest Dungeon playlist. This song I use for Reynauld - it has that sort of “salt of the earth,” somewhat biblical humility in its choice of words and style. 

Raise my hands Paint my spirit gold And bow my head Keep my heart slow

10. ‘Little Lion Man’ - Mumford & Sons

Have we not beaten this song to death yet? Can you blame us? This is the people’s song. We reserve it for all of our favorite fuck-up characters, as primal as Saturn devouring his son. We love this song. Jesus.

Tremble for yourself, my man, You know that you have seen this all before Tremble little lion man, You'll never settle any of your scores Your grace is wasted in your face, Your boldness stands alone among the wreck Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck

The line about learning from your mother in particular is why I think of this song for Dismas’ introspection, but I also associate it with the Hellion.

11. ’From Eden’ - Hozier

There’s too much Hozier in my playlists. There is so much of it, and it’s all important to me, says the hoarder. There’s something about profoundly intimate folk music that I love, and god put folk, R&B, blues, and alt rock into a Vitamix for 45 seconds to make Hozier.

Honey you're familiar like my mirror years ago Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword Innocence died screaming, honey ask me I should know I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door

‘From Eden’ is, according to Hozier, about idolizing someone from a distance, written from the perspective of the devil “looking longingly at something he desires - for everything that he does not have.” I associate this song with the Grave Robber for its playfully nihilistic tone - Audrey does say something to the effect of being left for dead by high society and the affectionate bordering condescending address is on-brand.

12. ‘Cherry Wine’ - Hozier

‘Cherry Wine’ is unabashedly about domestic violence, and its sincerity is heartbreaking, the sanctification of the blood spilled in the name of keeping her.

The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine Open hand or closed fist would be fine The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.

This song is strongly tied to the Vestal for me.

13. ‘Work Song’ - Hozier

A song about unconditional love - heaven and hell were just words, indeed.

When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her

I think of this song for both Dismas and the Abomination - it’s a song about love transcending spiritual and even physical need, complete devotion, but something about it is also not quite right. It’s morbid and excessive, self-pitying, and almost ugly in its sincerity.

14. ‘Sunlight’ - Hozier

The strong gospel influence with the choruses, church organ, religious fervor - I think it makes a great song for traveling scenes and church/altar scenes.

I had been lost to you, sunlight Flew like a moth to you, sunlight oh sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight (sunlight, sunlight) But it is sunlight

15. ‘Arsonist’s Lullabye’ - Hozier

The gospel this time is paired with electric rock instrumentation. Something about the lamentation is unapologetic and matter-of-fact in its disturbing inclinations - this is Paracelsus’ song. Arguably representative of Bounty Hunter and Flagellant as well.

Now that I think about it, it’s great for Abomination as well. Damn.

All you have is your fire And the place you need to reach Don't you ever tame your demons But always keep 'em on a leash

16. ‘We Sink’ - Of Monsters and Men

Of Monsters and Men are closer to the indie rock/pop spectrum with influences of folk, with much less biblical influence and more folklore-inspired lyrics. They make for great trailer and action songs.

We are the sleepers, we bite our tongues We set the fire and we let it burn Through the dreamers, we hear the hum They say come on, come on, let's go So come on, come on, let's go

In Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos, dreams are how the Old Ones commune with humans on the earth’s surface while they slumber in the ocean depths (Cthulhu fhtagn meaning “Cthulhu is dreaming”); I like to think of the ‘sleepers’ as the heroes being tasked to “set the fire” and the ‘dreamers’ being the Heir and Ancestor driven by some unseen force to unearth the antediluvian underground.

17. ‘I Of The Storm’ - Of Monsters and Men

Very somber song, overwhelmingly piano and snare drum and vocals. Also a great death scene song, or for introspection around the campfire, or played to reveal a major event.

If I could face them If I could make amends With all my shadows I'd bow my head And welcome them

18. ‘King and Lionheart’ - Of Monsters and Men

My favorite OMAM song - it’s clearly written about two children, kind of reminiscent of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ in its fantastical nature, and very upbeat about the end of the world.

His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly Pass the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind Though far away, though far away, though far away We're still the same, we're still the same, we're still the same

This part is reminiscent of the Leper’s journey, but the mentions of taking over a town, howling ghosts, the end of the world, a black sea and creatures lurking below, etc. are all evocative of Darkest Dungeon.

19. ‘Little Talks’ - Of Monsters and Men

Also very upbeat for its subject matter - according to OMAM, it’s a narrative of a woman speaking with the ghost of her dead husband, or going insane and believing that she’s speaking with her dead husband.

Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear 'Cause though the truth may vary This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

The call-and-respond style of the song is haunting. I like this song for expeditions and afflicted heroes.

20. ‘Wolves Without Teeth’ - Of Monsters and Men

Suitable for both Occultist and Abomination, being consumed by an unseen and otherworldly force that inhabits them - well, maybe just rarely seen, in the Abomination’s case. Special mention to OMAM’s ‘Human,’ same conceptual backing but more raw.

You hover like a hummingbird Haunt me in my sleep You're sailing from another world Sinking in my sea, oh You're feeding on my energy I'm letting go of it He wants it

21. ‘Desierto’ (Original Motion Picture Score) - Woodkid

This is a full album, because all of it is dark orchestral cinema music described as ‘unsettling,’ with the sole exception of ‘Land of All,’ which has vocals to it. I reserve this album for writing fight scenes and for particularly unsettling events because it’s tense and wordless. I read Junji Ito to this soundtrack too, it’s insanely high-strung and discordant.

22. ‘Iron’ - Woodkid

‘Iron’ qualifies as Baroque pop - you might recognize this as the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations song. The large-scale, cinematic style of it and thematic lyrics make it great for writing about dramatic encounters or brigands.

This deadly burst of snow is burning my hands I'm frozen to the bones, I am A million miles from home, I'm walking away I can't recall your eyes, your face

23. ‘Never Let You Down’ - Woodkid (feat. LYKKE LI)

Another somber song, orchestral with some industrial noise in the mix - another great introspection song, or one for a scene with some hard decisions to be made.

Will you come along cause I'm about to leave this town In my eyes, a waterfall, all I can hear, a siren call Could you be waiting by the shore, oh I could drown without you Will you be holding out the line when I fall?

24. ‘Run Boy Run’ - Woodkid

Church bells, fast percussion, strong orchestral presence. For chase scenes, obviously, but great for fast-paced sneaking scenes as well. Also has a strong quasi-Medieval fantasy setting style to it.

Tomorrow is another day And you won't have to hide away You'll be a man, boy! But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!

25. ‘I Love You’ - Woodkid

Don’t let the scream effects and aggressive percussion at the beginning deter you (it kind of took me by surprise the first few times too) - it soon fades into more of the church bells and melodic string accompaniment.

Oh yeah, unrequited love song? It’s free (mental) real estate, baby.

Is there anything I could do Just to get some attention from you? In the waves, I've lost every trace of you Where are you?

26. ‘Vagabonds’ - Grizfolk

A rare departure from folk! Grizfolk is alt rock/indie pop. Stylistically it doesn’t match the feeling of Darkest Dungeon, but lyrically it’s almost 1:1 to arrival in the hamlet and the subsequent expeditions. Good song for writing about recruits bonding.

Oh this careless ground, guessing this is home now Oh in no man's land, at least we're still standing And we're all just fighting, some of us will not return And there's no redemption in trying to find your way out

27. ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ - Lorde

Great trailer fuel, if you’ve seen the AC: Unity E3 trailer with this song - I listen to an extended version when writing fights in the Guild, especially one where two heroes are beefing. It’s got a primal kind of thing going on. I also associate this song with the Arbalest - lyrically, it fits her backstory like a glove.

Welcome to your life There's no turning back Even while we sleep We will find you

Acting on your best behavior Turn your back on mother nature

28. ‘Torches’ - X Ambassadors

More alt rock/indie pop - kind of a rallying song for dark expeditions, hopeful but still somber in nature - some gospel elements. X Ambassadors’ more popular ‘Renegades’ is also a fun tavern song.

Come on, carry your flame Carry it higher Leave it in the darkness Carry your torches

29. ‘Passing Afternoon’ - Iron & Wine

This is a song I use for reconciliation or domestic scenes - Dismas with Junia in the garden, for example. It’s soft and kind of meandering, and features vintage piano - you know, the piano you heard in the basement of your church turned community center as a child.

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

30. ‘Some Nights’ - Fun.

You know this song, your mom knows this song, everyone knows this song from like, middle school. Thought it’d be fun to end this list on an uplifting and very popular song. This is the song that a Disney adaptation of Darkest Dungeon would use in the Training Montage™ - from the point of view of Reynauld. It hits all of the points - being their commander rather than their equal, his stern and antisocial zealotry with no true ideology behind it, the ghost of his wife.

Verse 2, starting with “Well, that is it, guys, that is all / Five minutes in and I'm bored again” is where I see it transitioning to Dismas.

Well, some nights, I wish that this all would end 'Cause I could use some friends for a change And some nights, I'm scared you'll forget me again Some nights, I always win (I always win) But I still wake up, I still see your ghost Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh What do I stand for? What do I stand for? Most nights, I don't know

_____

Well that’s all from me! Feel free to leave your own recommendations in the replies, and I’d love to know what you think about my personal picks. :+)

[doomedandstoned]

Are You A Bible Basher?

~By Billy Goate~

Art by J. Hannan-Briggs

Words from the Bible,

                      ...riffs from Hell.

This is BIBLE BASHER, a lumbering, sludgey beast of a death-doom band, drawing its fellows from Kurokuma, Archelon, Spaztik Munkey, and a band whose name alone intrigues me enough to spirit them out: Temple of Coke. The debut recording before us is 'Loud Wailing' (2020), just released last month on the Sludgelord Records Label and it's good stuff.

Chances are good that if you're unfamiliar with the band, you're waiting for the other shoe to drop: what's the agenda here? It bears mentioning that "Bible Basher" is an almost uniquely UK term. In the States, we tend to use the more politically acceptable (though still insulting) "Bible Thumper." Getting to the point: a Bible Basher is not someone who subjects the big black book and the pages there to beating, maiming, or otherwise spilling syrup on its Holy Writ nor turning its sacred pages into roll paper for a cheap high.

No, a Bible Basher is someone single-mindedly determined to bash you with their beliefs, clean across the head. You gotta get you on board with the whole worldview, the Last Days manifesto, the 3 steps to this place, the 5 steps to somewhere else, and however many more steps to the sanctuary doors. Usually, this evangelism has all the clumsy subtlety of a Jack Chick tract left on the Gas Station john. Sometimes it gets a bit more intrusive, like a manic street preacher with a megaphone or, more annoying still, a brainwashed politician determined to fence you into their highly selective idea of "God's Will."

All culture warring aside, it might surprise you to learn that I hold a great deal of respect for the Bible and believe it has an important role in developing our understanding of what makes human beings so fundamentally religious. The Bible is just one expression of people's religious and spiritual identity, of course. There have been many volumes written, by the gods it was said, attempting to reconcile the real and the ideal, time and eternity, the drab and the divine.

All fancy preambling aside, I wonder why more bands haven't gotten into the Bible and other sacred/profane lit, you know kinda breathing new life into old words? You have to admit, the concept is fascinating and the medium of expression surprisingly fits the unsparing nature of the content.

Perhaps afraid of appearing sacrilegious or being denounced as a Deicide wannabe, bands have just decided to walk away slowly. That or they don't even know how truly bizarre and sometimes brilliant the Bible can be. True, there are bands like Trouble/The Skull who have adapted Scripture into music, even succeeded in crossing over to a non-religious audience. Hell, The Byrds practically immortalized the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes back in '65 with that folk rock classic, 'Turn, Turn, Turn." Bible Basher are definitely onto a thing here.

Regardless of where you find a band called Bible Bash on the meter between "disgusting" and "fucking awesome, dude," they really aren't here to mock Scripture or Christians, not even to pronounce a value judgement. This is an artful attempt at retelling the stories of old, allowing us to gaze upon their vision.

☩

So Samson Sang

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

Out of all books, The Bible is perhaps most prized for its collection of ancient stories, many of which become embedded in our collective consciousness over time (if not the unconscious mind itself). The tale of Samson, for instance, is practically universal (Hercules, anyone?). Bible Basher invoke its powerful imagery for this Rage against the Philistines opener. The bulldog gruff of "So Samson Sang" suits the song unexpectedly well. Perhaps the impact is greater because we feel the punch of each word, measured and metered, calculated to leave the most indelible impact.

Simson verslaat de Filistijnen met een ezelskaak (1562) by Cornelis Massijs

Plagued

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

You'll never hear the anguish of Job expressed with as much weight as you will in "Burning and Blackened," for example. And the death-mongers among us, you'll enjoy the swirling storm of blast beats that "Plagued" stirs up and whips around Egypt, 10 plagues in all it is said. As this topsy-turvy number swarms along, the song feels like it's burrowing itself deeper and deeper into the ground in a crazed hypnotic dirge, as if seeking some relief from this madness of rivers turned to blood and a head full of lice.

Seventh Plague of Egypt (1823) by Martin John

Burning and Blackened

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

I'm really digging the Middle Eastern vibe of "Burning and Blackened," on the tape's flip side. I could all but feel the cool of dawn and that first burning lick of the sun's rise. As a die-hard doomer, it won't surprise you that I marked this my favorite song of the experience. The way this grand skeleton of chords suffles about had me thinking of Iowa City's Aseethe (I hereby wish an Aseethe-Bible Basher tour upon the world come 2021).

Job and his Friends (1885) by Gustave Dore

Sodom & Gomorrah

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

By the time we reach "Sodom & Gomorrah," we're battered, basted, and baked, ready for a fine finish to this four-course nosh. The vocals seem harsher than usual this time, but you have to understand that's the prophet divining judgement upon the most infamous twin cities of history (we find out in the interview to follow that there are multiple vocalists).

The whole song's got a nice, chewy groove to it. Plenty of meat on them bones. The lyrics consist of nothing more than the Bible's words, adding as much expressive liberty as death vocals will allow. The thick, smoky atmosphere of this whole song gave me flashbacks to 71TONMAN's "Phobia" and Old Man Gloom's "Procession of the Wounded."

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Jules-Joseph-Augustin Laurens

If I've any gripe with Loud Wailing, it's the runtime. Okay, yeah, sure, it's appropriate for an EP, but I can't shake the feeling that this is actually more of a teaser for something even grander in scope. Perhaps this is a toe in the water for the band, to see how people respond? Well, it's enough to reassure us that this sound and subject matter is poised to make some mighty big footprints.

Heck, I'd do the whole Bible book by book, if I was in their shoes. 66 in all, right? No problem. Okay, 73 if you're Catholic, 78 if you're Eastern Orthodox. Whatever, bonus editions. Works either way, 'cause you've got a guaranteed record deal and freaks like me to follow you wherever this piper lures. The band can break up from the repetitive bore of the long-ass genealogies in Leviticus and Numbers, but then reunite again to take on Deuteronomy.

All kidding aside, the dramatic potential of this collaboration is unreal. Bible Basher's debut is a promising record that presents tantalizing artistic possibilities (perhaps even with a roving collective of performers). The EP wears well on its own terms with repeated listens and I never found myself disinterested, even for a moment. Loud Wailing is the brutal dawning of a New Age in dirty grunts and dank riffs.

Give ear...

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

An Interview with Bible Basher

By Billy Goate

Intrigued by this hulking beast shrieking out in my backyard, I had to move in for a closer look. Following is my conversation with band member Joe E. Allen, who most of us know from Kurokuma and gives us insight as to who Bible Basher is and what the band is up to.

☩

Would you be so kind as to give me some background on the band, how you guys ended up coming together, basically the whole history?

Tich has recorded and helped produce most of the Kurokuma releases up till now, most of which you've heard or written about. Tich mostly makes electronic music and is pretty well known for it, but he was also in a band called Temple of Coke back in the day. Daft music with two guitarists and no bassist. Some big riffs in there.

They stopped doing much after one of the guitarists left Sheffield, but Tich still had a lot of riffs lying around. Obviously, he used to come to a lot of Kurokuma gigs in Sheffield -- and even saw us in Japan -- so he felt like getting back on writing some big guitar stuff and asked me if I'd give him some input. Over the course of a year or so we just reshaped those old riffs and added plenty of new ones and as we progressed it just kept getting bigger and heavier.

What's up with the name? You've got pretty distinct religious themes (love the motto). I come from a strict religious background myself (preacher's kid). What are your own backgrounds relative to the themes you explore?

I've always thought that some of the stories from the Bible, especially the Old Testament would make for perfect concepts in heavy metal. Unrelatedly, one day we were sitting around and Tich said let's call this Bible Basher -- it just came out of nowhere. I agreed, it just seemed to make sense. Here in the UK it's what you get called if you go to church, it's an insult. I had a really Christian upbringing with my dad being a vicar, as well, so was very into all that when I was younger.

Plus I went to a religious school, so I've definitely been called a bible basher quite a bit. It's actually taken me a while to remove that whole paradigm from the way I see reality, but that's another story. Tich wasn't like me in that aspect, but he did go to a religious school, as well. At this point, I think we're both not massive fans of organised religion, but that doesn't mean we're not into philosophy and more celestial concepts. We've both read quite a bit of things like Manly P. Hall and The Kybalion. We didn't wanna make a "statement" on anything with this, though. Just wanted to present it "as is."

I'm sure we'd all love to know how the individual tracks came together. The single on this one was "So Samson Sang," which met with some pretty positive reception.

I know the Bible pretty well and it wasn't too difficult to find concepts for the tracks. "So Samson Sang" was the first one we did. The lyrics are: "With a donkey's jawbone, I made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, killed a thousand men." And then "I have slain, heaps on heaps." They were from the book of Judges, when Samson slaughtered loads of Philistines, pretty much taken straight off the page. It was that easy. We got George in to do the vocals, for obvious reasons. We sat on the track for a bit and sent it round a few mates and everyone was like, "This is sick," which made us want to finish up the other tracks, which already were mostly done.

The other three tracks all came together in one night. We basically asked three mates from other bands to come over and figured out concepts for each of them. It was good to get their input and it was pretty collaborative. I think they all enjoyed being given a bit of a brief to work within and we were buzzing to end up with four different vocal styles for each track. So on track 1 you have George from Kurokuma, then on track 2 you have Bing who used to be in a thrash band called Psython and can obviously do the really fast/rhythmic thing and his death growls were just spot on. That track ended up sounding like Pig Destroyer or something to me. Obviously, it's about the ten plagues of Egypt and the fast/swirling nature of the riffs just seemed to fit.

On track three, we have Craig from Archelon and Holy Spider, so I know him pretty well. He did more of a Neurosis style on the track about Job. That one starts off with a zurna, which is a pipe from the Middle East area. There's a spoken word section in the middle, a conversation between God and Satan. I actually only realised what this was when we were going through the Bible for the lyrics.

God calls all his angels together, Satan being one of them, and they get into this conversation where God is saying he likes Job and Satan is saying if his life went to shit, I wonder if he'd still worship you. So God is like, "Okay, go for it." It's stuff like this that fascinates me. I think there's a fairly deep message to be heard in that if you read into it, but most Christians won't. As a text of folkloric wisdom the Bible is pretty meaningful to me, but most Christians don't treat it in that way in my experience.

And then we have the demented squeals of Chris from Spaztik Munkey doing the voice of God on track four which is about Sodom and Gomorrah. It worked out well that the ending riff fit perfectly with the syllables in the phrase "Sodom and Gomorrah."

In general, this release was a right laugh to work on. The songs just came together and it was good for us all to collaborate on something outside of our normal bands. And the response has been mega positive so far. Aaron sold out the first 50 tapes in three days so we're already on the second batch now.

Get Their Music

[gretagerwigarchive]

KCRW Guest DJ Project - Greta Gerwig podcast

source: https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/guest-dj-project/greta-gerwig-2018-02-14

FROM THIS EPISODE                                                    

Actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker Greta Gerwig describes herself as a person who “lives with very vivid emotions” and she gravitates towards musicians who are like that as well, from Kate Bush and Judee Sill to Brian Eno. Her film “Lady Bird” has been an awards season favorite and she now has the distinction of being the 5th woman ever nominated for a best director at the Academy Awards. (Hosted by Aaron Byrd)

Tracklist: 1. Kate Bush - "Hounds of Love" 2. Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans - "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" 3. Judee Sill - "The Pearl" 4. Laurie Anderson - "Baby Doll" 5. Brian Eno - "Lay My Love"

Aaron Byrd: Hey I'm Aaron Byrd. I am here with actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker Greta Gerwig. She is having a big year with her film Lady Bird, which she wrote and directed. It was nominated for a bunch of Golden Globes and won a couple -- and NOW she has the distinction of being the 5th woman ever nominated for a best director at the Academy Awards.

We are here with Greta to talk about some of the songs that have inspired her throughout her life as part of KCRW's Guest DJ Project. So first of all, welcome Greta. Thanks for joining us.

Greta Gerwig: Hi, thanks for having me.

AB: What did you bring today?

GG: Well, I brought in a variety of songs. They all qualify as songs that I have listened to obsessively.

If I love a song, I listen to it over and over and over again. Until I feel like I can never hear it again and then I won’t listen to it for six months and then I will rediscover it. So the first song is "Hounds of Love" by Kate Bush. I find her lyrics mysterious and evocative - almost like poetry -- and there is a real spaciousness to her music that feels cinematic to me. But specifically with this song, "Hounds of Love", I had really been obsessed with it for a long time. But then I did a play - it was called “The Village Bike" -- and in the play a women is taken over by irrepressible, destructive lust and there was something about this song that really tapped into that for me.

I'm a person who lives with very vivid emotions that feel like they often can only be expressed in heightened states of either music or poetry or films or theater and I think that she makes the kind of music that feels like she is always at a 10, emotionally. That level of just sheer emotion and excitement, and it taps me into probably the reason why I make art.

AB: That's great. So up first we have "Hounds of Love" by KCRW favorite Kate Bush.

*Song: Kate Bush – Hounds of Love*

AB: And that was "Hounds of Love" by Kate Bush and, going on to the next song, what do you have for us?

GG: The next song is "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," which I think most people know from Disney movies. But this "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was first recorded by a group called Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans in 1962, I believe.

It was produced by Phil Spector and it's the most haunting, mournful version of this song that you can think of that's associated with almost maniacal cheeriness.

The voices are just aching, but it also has that Phil Spector kind of wall of sound thing going on.

I haven't found the film I want to use it in yet, but it's definitely a song I would like to use in a movie so, I feel like I am taking a bit of a risk because, in a way, I want to play these more close to the chest so that nobody steals them out from under me. It's been my go-to song to play to friends or something. I’ll say listen to this and everybody just stops, and they're like, ‘WHAT! WHAT! I have never heard this recording.’ Then I look very cool indeed.

*Song: Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans - Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah*

AB: And there you have it. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", the pick of our guest DJ today, Greta Gerwig. So up next we have something from Judee Sill, right?

GG: Uh huh, I first discovered Judee through my writing partner and my creative partner, Noah, when I first read his screen play for Greenberg. You know, she is sort of part of that folk scene of Californians in the sixties and seventies and she is actually quite religious; a lot of her songs have pretty religious imagery and angels and Jesus, but she was also a big druggy so it was that combination of heroine and Jesus, which makes for really great folk music.

But this song, "The Pearl," you have a sense of the thing you have been looking for has been inside you and that's what the lyrics of this song point to and there is a lyric in this song that can make me cry every single time. It’s a quite soaring part of the song when she sings, "I found a way outside myself to make my spirit climb."

Every time I hear that I think I know what she means to find your way outside of your own confines of what you think your goals are or your personality is and find something that goes beyond the edges and this song to me is about that. I think anytime I feel like, what am I doing? What am I doing with this writing and acting and filmmaking and I listen to this song, I think, Judee knows what I'm doing.

*Song: Judee Sill – The Pearl*

AB: That's great. So moving on from the combination of heroin and Jesus by Judee Sill, that was “The Pearl”. Let's see, what do you have next for us?

GG: "Baby Doll" by the great Laurie Anderson. This is not a sad song at all. This is an incredibly happy song.

It is also a song that I feel relates to my life as it is -- making art and not knowing exactly what you're doing all the time. It features one of the greatest lyrics, I think. She says, "Take me to the movies ‘cause I love to sit in the dark."

And it's about her brain, talking to her. It’s like one part of her brain is saying, "Why don't you get a real job?" and "What's wrong with you?" you know, and struggling to come up with words and the other part of her brain is like, "Take me to the movies" and "Take me to the ballpark" and "Take me out town tonight" and there is something about the celebration of the part of you that wants to slack off and just go have fun that I love!

*Song: Laurie Anderson – Baby Doll*

AB: So moving on to the last song, I see you have Brian Eno for us.

GG: This is "Lay My Love" by Brian Eno.

I listen to music when I write. Not all the time, but I find writing to be quite isolating at times because it feels like the all the kids are outside playing and you have to stay inside and work and it can be lonely.

I don't listen to music all the time, but sometimes a well-placed song in the middle of writing will get my spirits back up. I've used this song for that a lot, because it’s got this kind of relentless beat underneath it, it’s got a driving sound. It’s not really like chorus, verse, chorus verse, it more just goes on a loop. It's the kind of song you would run to, but I write to it.

*Song: Brian Eno – Lay My Love*

AB: I like how you set us up with all the sad songs to lead us to the happy songs in the end.

GG: Yeah, yeah that’s right. I’m jealous of your listeners if they’ve never heard these songs and then they get to hear them for the first time. I mean that's my most exciting moment, when somebody says, “I’ve got a new song for you" and you think "Oh my God, yes! Now I have a new obsession!"

AB: That was amazing! Thanks so much Greta for joining us at KCRW.com.

GG: Thank you so much for having me, it was really super fun. It’s such a fun format!

[madewithonerib]

I think for a lot of us when we hear you talk about how good GOD is, it is enormously moving—because we’ll find there are these things that we think we’re supposed to believe about GOD, & then there is a way there is a way that I hope the world turns out to be.

     And it’s often as if—as you talk about GOD—       what I will find myself thinking is:

          HE’s better than what I most hope           the world could be. (absolutely)

So when you say things like, “Seeking the KOG,” I know that’s present in your mind—but for most of us, when we hear things like seeking the KOG, they have become so churchy & so superficial, & so stupidly religious.

And it’s the same with disciple & so many things.

     How do you break beyond that trap      that so many of us feel—which is,      we would love to love GOD.****

But we don’t know...how do you do that?

     Well I need to say, that is a gift, but you have to be willing      to make the move. And many people are so weathered      to a horrible image of GOD—where when they read:

          “Seek ye first the Kingdom of GOD”

     That it’s <Whip-TISH> “Straighten up! or I’m going to get cha.”

     And we miss the whole point of the passage—which is the      overflowing goodness of GOD.

     And we keep thinking of HIM in terms of:

          If GOD isn’t mean, HE can’t manage the world.           It’s only if you’re mean that you can manage things.

     So we have that imagery.

     I think there is at least a simple answer to the question,      which is:

          BEGIN TO PUT IN PRACTICE THE THINGS THAT           JESUS SAID.

John 14:15 | If you love ME, you will keep MY commandments.

John 21:15 | When they had finished eating, JESUS asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love ME more than these?” “Yes, LORD,” he answered, “YOU know I love YOU.” JESUS replied, “Feed MY lambs.”

1a] Something simple might be,      “let your yes be a yes & your no be a no.”

Matthew 5:37 | Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ & your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

John 17:15 | I am not asking that YOU take them out of the world, but that YOU keep them from the evil one.

Proverbs 15:28 | The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil.

     In all of JESUS’ teachings, & now we’re ready for Saturday.

     In all of HIS teachings, you go through a process.

     That’s why discipleship is so important.

          It is a process of learning.

     And letting your yes be a yes, & no be no.      JESUS put it like this: “More than that comes from evil.”

     And our evangelical translators can’t keep from saying:      “from the evil one.”

          No, it’s what is evil in your heart.

     [Gen 6:5; Deu 9:4; Pro 21:4; Jer 4:14; Eze 14:4; Mat 24:48]

Genesis 6:5 | Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, & every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

Deuteronomy 9:4 | When the LORD your GOD has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought ME in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

Proverbs 21:4 | Haughty eyes & a proud heart —the guides of the wicked—are sin.

Jeremiah 4:14 | Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

Ezekiel 14:4 | Therefore speak to them & tell them that this is what the LORD GOD says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart & puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, & then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him according to his great idolatry,

Matthew 24:48 | But suppose that servant is wicked & says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’

     See you ask yourself: Why do I not say it’s this way, or that?      Why do I have the endless song & dance that I go through?

     >> To turn a yes into a no, & a no into a yes?

     Well it’s because of our will to manipulate people, that’s      the evil that it comes from.

     If we’re willing to just let people be, tell them how it is &      how it isn’t, and let that be. Then we can just say: YES.

     It’s this way, or that way.

Additional Questions:  Discipleship

     If the main thing a disciple does is to try to learn from      JESUS how to live & put things into practice.

     I think a lot of folks wrestle with this question, if you      think of a Christian as “I’ve got the heaven issue resolved”      cause I’ve affirmed the right doctrine & I have the right      experience, it leaves that feeling like it’s a real      clear cut decision.

     You know that the alternative is: “I try to please GOD on      my own works of righteousness” that I’m rejecting that &      I receiving forgiveness & salvation by grace through faith.

     So that feels clear cut.

     But to be a disciple of  JESUS, when HE was alive on earth      that also seemed very clear because HE was walking around.

     So you were either walking around with HIM or your weren’t.

     Then in the Acts 2 Church, that community was so radically      different from other communities that again it felt like it was      a concrete presence that helped you know:

     Yup, I’m a disciple because I’m living with these guys that I      would never be otherwise.

     However in a society like ours, there’s Churches everywhere      it’s kind of Christian but it’s kind of not Christian.

     If I say a disciple is someone who is seeking to do      what JESUS says, it feels kind of fuzzy.

     If I do that once an hour, then do I qualify?      Is it once every 5 minutes?

          No, you’re seeking to learn            how to do what JESUS said.

          I ask myself that a few times a week:           Am I still a disciple of JESUS today? No..

          No, if I’m a disciple, I’m learning from HIM.           I’m HIS student.

     JO: So do you sometimes say to yourself, you’re not a      disciple today?

     DA: Yes there are occasions, where I realize that I haven’t      learned a thing—that I haven’t sought to learn a thing.

     JO: And is that okay if you say no? Your eternal destiny      isn’t in jeopardy now?

     DA: No, it is okay; GOD isn’t breathing down your neck.      You gotta ask yourself, “Why didn’t GOD just stay in the      garden?” HE came on out.

     In fact if you read the early chapters of Genesis, GOD is      quite chatty. HE is..isn’t that right?

     I mean okay, Cain’s got a problem, I’ll go out & talk to him.      Right? And so HE gives him a little lesson and      it doesn’t seem to help him, but GOD was there.

     JO: “Mmmm hmmm”

     DA: So I remember asking James Brian Smith once on the      platform, “Do you think GOD let’s you get away with anything?

     And the answer is: Yes, all kinds of things!      That’s what a life of grace is.

     And I said: Were you ever afraid to say that?      Well because you’ve been looking for that..No, no, no

     That’s what you’re learning, you’re not looking for that.

     You’re not looking to get away from something.      But on the other hand, this is a life in which

          GOD is bringing us to the           fullness of the likeness of HIS SON.

Ephesians 1:9-10 | And HE has made known to us the mystery of HIS will according to HIS good pleasure, which HE purposed in CHRIST as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven & on earth together in CHRIST.

Colossians 2:9 | For in CHRIST all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.

     And in order to do that, HE gives us some life.

Ephesians 3:18-19 | will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length & width & height & depth of HIS love, & to know the love of CHRIST that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD.

Romans 15:28-29 | So after I have completed this service & safely delivered this bounty to them, I will set off to Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of CHRIST.

     In giving us a life, we have some choices & they matter.      They don’t always have to be correct.

     GOD isn’t keeping score.

     I bet that is shocking to many people, but      HE’s not, HE doesn’t care—about that.

     HE cares about who we become; & HE knows that      as we become more like CHRIST, then      there’s not going to be anything to keep score on.

Living in CHRIST’s Presence P1,2,3 | Dallas Willard [P2-8:20]

I first came across Dallas’ work over 20 years ago, when I heard about his book, The Spirit of Disciplines.

And I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I wasn’t changing the way that I wanted to & the Church where I was serving wasn’t changing in the way that we wanted.

And I got that book, & I can still remember at the beginning reading that thesis statement:

Authentic transformation is possible, if we’re willing to do one thing & that is to arrange our lives around the kind of practices that JESUS led: Be constantly receiving power &

[oilskirt7-blog]

Behind an all-star Americana collaboration (Mark Erelli interview)

It’s funny to hear Mark Erelli describe himself as “largely unknown,” since I’ve admired his songwriting and singing for years. But I suppose all things are measured on a scale, and weighed against the Taylor Swifts of the world, his assessment is fair. That being said, he’s a frequent sideman for both Josh Ritter and Lori McKenna, and in the smaller world of folk singer-songwriters, he’s well respected for his own music too.

Aiming to make Americana’s first socially-conscious, multi-artist project (like “We Are the World,” only with more acoustic guitar), Mark recently recorded and released a single about the gun violence epidemic. He called in some favors from a number of other notable singers, including Ritter and McKenna, Sheryl Crow, Rosanne Cash, and Anaïs Mitchell — and partnered with Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s Courage to Fight Gun Violence organization, which receives 100% of the proceeds.

“By Degrees” is a great song — Rosanne Cash called it “the most compassionate, vivid and non-preaching anti-gun violence song I’ve ever heard” — so I wanted to ask Mark Erelli some questions about the writing process, the collaboration, and what it’s like to distribute and promote a song that has such a clear social purpose. My thanks to him for taking the time.

As someone who admires your songwriting, I’m curious — if you can average out such things — how much stuff do you throw away, compared with how much you keep?

I guess it depends what is meant by “throw away” and “keep.” I might have anywhere from 15-30 new songs when I begin making a new record that will ultimately only have 10-11 tracks on it. It might seem that I throw away as much as 2/3 of what I write, but the just because something doesn’t make the record doesn’t mean it’s discarded.

Some songs get used on future recordings or as part of a concert set. Some of those songs have imagery that I love, but it’s not enough to carry that particular song. Oftentimes, the same or similar lines may appear in a completely different context in a newer song, but does that mean I threw the first song away, or was it just a draft that I had to work through to get to the one I “kept?”

How do you know whether it’s time to discard it, set it aside, or move ahead?

If I’m trying to decide what stage a song is at in this process, the guiding principle is always “what am I trying to say?” Does the song communicate an idea clearly, does it evoke a deep emotional response? If it does, I keep it. If it doesn’t, then I know I’m not finished with it yet. This process can take an hour or two or, literally, years.

“By Degrees” has four strong verses, but for me the real punch of the song happens in verses five and six, when we have to consider the children. Maybe that means I’m as numb as anyone to the feeds and headlines and arguments you refer to earlier in the tune, but Jesus, the kids! When you were writing, did you discover those verses later in the process, or did you start with the kids, and reverse engineer the song? 

I don’t always write linearly, but I think in the case of “By Degrees” I did write the earlier verses first before following the river downstream. It’s not religious, but it is a very “moral” song, in the sense that I felt the need to explore why all these little changes and degradations matter. Adults, at least some of them, can think critically and see how we got to where we are. But the thought that this sort of gun violence might be the only sort of world my kids knew was and remains a sobering thought, so bringing it back to the kids felt like a very natural conclusion.

As I write in the song, I really don’t know what to tell my boys (ages 8 and 11), so I have not had any explicit conversations about societal gun violence with my kids. They’ve heard the song many times, of course, but I’m not sure those later verses have sunken in yet.

Why make this song a collaboration?

I grew up in the 80’s with MTV and I still have vivid memories of things like “We Are The World,” where multiple artists banded together behind a common message. Not that my song is on an equivalent scale, but I felt there was a place for a project like this in the Americana scene. It’s a relatively new designation, and though many great artists identify or are identified with the genre, there really hasn’t been a socially-conscious, multi-artist project like this before, that I can remember.

Ultimately, I am not alone in my struggle to comprehend how we got to where we are, and having multiple voices sing the song kind of emphasizes that this is a problem that we all face collectively and will all have to work together to solve.

How does this kind of collaboration work, I guess first in terms of asking the artists and getting permissions, and then actually piecing the vocals together? Lots of Dropbox?

So much Dropbox! I would have loved to get everyone in the same room and run it down, old-school, which would have saved me months of work. But when you’re a largely unknown independent folksinger, you’re calling in too many favors to work that way.

The whole collaboration started with Rosanne Cash, who was aware of the song and had sung it with me before at a Brady campaign fundraiser. I knew I would need help bringing artists on board, but I felt that if Rosanne wasn’t into it, then it was basically a non-starter. Thankfully, she is so generous and supportive, and it only took her an hour or so to respond enthusiastically.

From there, it was just a matter of dreaming up artists to work with and seeing what connections we had with them. The band signed on right away, so I was able to at least build a good basic track and sing a guide vocal, so artists would get a sense of what they were signing up for. Once people did commit, they basically each sang their verses at different studios, Dropboxed us the files, and mix engineer Lorne Entress did a painstakingly brilliant job of making it all sound cohesive and musical.

How did you come to work with Gabby Gifford’s organization?

For some reason, I have never thought of this song as anything other than one that should raise money for some other group that is doing good work in the fight against gun violence. There are so many that are addressing this issue—Moms Demand, Sandy Hook Promise, Everytown —but Rosanne was the one who suggested and put me in touch with Giffords.

How has the promotion for this song differed from your past releases? Like, I noticed the song has its own website.

I’ve never released a standalone single song before, but it turns out that if you want to do a good job getting it heard than you basically have to do everything to promote and publicize it that you would a full-length record.

The biggest difference was timing: I didn’t get the final verse vocal til just after Labor Day, but the Giffords folks really wanted the song to help amplify their efforts leading up to the midterms. So we basically had to rush to assemble a promotional team on very short notice. I got a few “we don’t have time for this” sort of responses, which I could sympathize with because between my own records and sideman work, I didn’t really have enough time to work on this!

But it was something I felt compelled to do that just happened to have a well-defined political, non-musical timeline, and I just had to find champions who felt similarly compelled to get involved. Fortunately, Signature Sounds, Brad Paul Media and Songlines all came on board, donated their services and gave it their all on very short notice. I am extremely grateful for their efforts.

When a song has such a clear purpose, does it free you up from some of the usual ego things that songwriters deal with when sharing or promoting their music?

Completely. I find it very difficult to talk about the worth of my own material, though I obviously wouldn’t devote my life to something I didn’t fully believe in. But if there’s a bigger purpose other than “look at me!” it makes it a lot easier to push for people to listen to it.

For example, with the Milltowns record, I really wanted to shine a light on the legacy of Bill Morrissey, so it was a lot easier to advocate for it. “By Degrees” was the same way—I don’t make a cent from this. It’s not enriching me personally in any way or selling out concerts for me. It’s just something I’m doing because I know what doing nothing looks like and I can’t just stand by anymore.

I don’t really know how to do political organizing and push for legislation; all I know how to do is write and sing songs that hopefully support the ones directly engaged in those efforts. It feels very good to put myself in service to the music and an idea larger than my own gain.

You’re a professional songwriter and performer, but I’m curious about your day-to-day work that happens away from the guitar or stage. How much of your life is emails, booking, promoting, packing lunches?

Next year will mark my 20th year as a professional musician, and it’s a bit dizzying to think of how my day-to-day routine has changed over that time. The biggest change was becoming a parent, and since I’m home a lot of the weekdays most of my work happens during the school day, between 8 am and 2 pm. I can be pretty productive in that time, but I have to be ruthlessly efficient and come up with a plan for every day.

My average non-gig work day is as scheduled and planned out as anyone who works in an office, and it has to be if anything is ever going to be accomplished. I’m up between 5-6 am everyday, making lunches, doing the morning routines with the boys. After drop off, I head straight to the gym for swimming or lifting. It’s about 9 am after that, so the next 5 hours can go any number of ways, though several loads of laundry are nearly always involved.

If I’m taking a day to do office work, I can spend that entire time keeping up with emails, social media, and advancing gigs. More often than not, I spend those 5 hours rehearsing for whatever I have coming up next. Could be shedding Josh Ritter or Lori McKenna tunes, reminding myself how to play bluegrass, working out and rehearsing set lists for solo shows, and more. I like to say that I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I haven’t been bored since 1998.

And what’s the revenue picture like for you? Are you earning a living mainly from your own touring? CDs and vinyl sales? Sideman gigs? A little bit of each?

It’s a bit of a mystery to me how it all works out, because I get income from several different streams, and they seem to tag team at random to for the distinction of being the most lucrative.

Sometimes I’m doing lots of solo gigs and that’s where the money comes from, other times it’s a lot of sideman work, which is great because it’s all income and no expenses. I’ll occasionally get a recording session or something like that, and then there are modest checks from Soundexchange, CD Baby for digital online sales, and ASCAP royalties.

Every once in awhile, an extra zero will really surprise me at the end of the payout, which is lovely but completely random and can’t be depended upon. For example, my ASCAP check just tripled for one month and as best I can tell, it’s due to recent airplay of a song from a 16-year old record…in Belgium. I’ve never performed in or even been to Belgium, so that about sums up how unpredictable and capricious making a living as a musician can be. I basically look up at the end of every month and think “holy sh&t, I did it again!”

What’s up next?

I’m working on my 12th full-length album of originals, and it’ll hopefully be released in fall of 2019.

Check out Mark Erelli’s website for concert dates, music, and more.

[Photo by Lara Kimmerer.]

Source: https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/musician-tips/behind-an-all-star-americana-collaboration-mark-erelli-interview/

[poorquentyn]

Bestie! So yesterday I was thinking a lot about "The Drowned Man" as a chapter, and considering whether I would rank it among the best of AFFC (certainly)/ASOIAF (probs?). But since you're infinitely better at themes and ironborn stuff than I am, I wanted to hear you wax about it 😊

Hey Nina The Stand summed it up nicely in this description of Euron’s true identity forerunner Randall Flagg:

When he walked into a meeting, the hysterical babble ceased–the backbiting, recriminations, accusations, the ideological rhetoric. For a moment there would be dead silence and they would start to turn to him and then turn away, as if he had come to them with some old and terrible engine of destruction cradled in his arms, something a thousand times worse than the plastic explosive made in the basement labs of renegade chemistry students or the black market arms obtained from some greedy army post supply sergeant. It seemed that he had come to them with a device gone rusty with blood and packed for centuries in the Cosmoline of screams but now ready again, carried to their meeting like some infernal gift, a birthday cake with nitroglycerine candles. 

I’d probably call “The Drowned Man” the central chapter of AFFC, as Attewell argued RE Catelyn III ACOK. All the moods and ideas of the book are as one here: the comprehensive expression of the feast, the crows, and how we got ourselves to the point of watching the worst of said crows descending on said feast. That element of playing witness is very central to the chapter, because for all the political and metaphysical implications at play, “The Drowned Man” is ultimately rooted in our POV character.

Aeron Greyjoy’s story is a religiously-inflected gauntlet of nightmares, designed to pierce his external performance (the Voice of God) and his inner defenses (the fog of repression surrounding his abuser, rendered as desperate mantras and flashes of imagery). The chapter opens with Damphair acknowledging, well before Dragonbinder and Euron’s triumph, that his armor is down:

Only when his arms and legs were numb from the cold did Aeron Greyjoy struggle back to shore and don his robes again.

He had run before the Crow’s Eye as if he were still the weak thing he had been, but when the waves broke over his head they reminded once more that that man was dead. I was reborn from the sea, a harder man and stronger.

This follows directly not only on him fleeing the feast tent in “The Iron Captain,” but also on his solo ruminations in “The Prophet,” in which Euron functioned as an offstage catalyst to Aeron’s fearful inner journey, helping us understand them both. That earlier chapter is at heart about measuring the gap between Aeron’s public persona and his inner demons, come home to roost. He starts off as secure as he can be (on the surface, which is all he allows himself to access), sure in his god, sure in himself, sure that CPR constitutes a miracle; he’s demanding imperiously of nobles if they’ve been drowned properly, aware of his cultural cachet and seeking to increase it.

And then, his “mighty pillars” come crashing down, and he is a child again, listening to his bedroom door squeak open.

Aeron was almost at the door when the maester cleared his throat, and said, “Euron Crow’s Eye sits the Seastone Chair.”

The Damphair turned. The hall had suddenly grown colder. The Crow’s Eye is half a world away. Balon sent him off two years ago, and swore that it would be his life if he returned. “Tell me,” he said hoarsely.

So as with Arianne’s queenmaking in Dorne, while the kingsmoot is at one level a collective expression of cultural defiance and a self-conception as separate from mainland Westeros, it’s also a deeply personal, intra-familial maneuver. Arianne’s rebelling against what she believes to be her father’s betrayal, and Aeron’s taking refuge in tradition as a defense against his abuser’s return. The Dornish plot, for all its many aspects and resonances, boils down to Doran and Arianne facing each other down across a cyvasse board, and the Ironborn plot, while also a social and cultural interrogation, takes as its engine Aeron’s fear and hatred of Euron.

Perhaps consequently, the peace and strength Aeron finds in the sea is the fragile, flickering heart of his character (more than ever in “The Forsaken”). It is genuine and moving, despite the lack of actual divine communication. 

No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could, nor the bones of his soul, the grey and grisly bones of his soul.

Memories are the bones of the soul: such a lovely weaving-together of the ethereal and the concrete! By repeatedly using the bones of Nagga’s Hill to symbolize Aeron’s internal struggle, GRRM links the overarching political ramifications of the Ironborn plot to the one-on-one confrontation of Aeron and Euron. His eye for the personal inside the large-scale movements of the plot is for me what makes all the new POVs in the Feastdance work so well; Cersei, Brienne, Asha, Arianne, Quentyn, and Jon Connington also have this kind of searingly intimate moment that draws you in so close it’s as if they’ve been POVs since book one.

And so the politics can begin, GRRM setting the scene in patient, exquisite fashion.

Dark clouds ran before the wind as the first light stole into the world. The black sky went grey as slate; the black sea turned grey-green; the black mountains of Great Wyk across the bay put on the blue-green hues of soldier pines. As color stole back into the world, a hundred banners lifted and began to flap. Aeron beheld the silver fish of Botley, the bloody moon of Wynch, the dark green trees of Orkwood. He saw warhorns and leviathans and scythes, and everywhere the krakens great and golden. Beneath them, thralls and salt wives begin to move about, stirring coals into new life and gutting fish for the captains and the kings to break their fasts. The dawnlight touched the stony strand, and he watched men wake from sleep, throwing aside their sealskin blankets as they called for their first horn of ale. Drink deep, he thought, for we have god’s work to do today.

The sea was stirring too. The waves grew larger as the wind rose, sending plumes of spray to crash against the longships. The Drowned God wakes, thought Aeron. He could hear his voice welling from the depths of the sea. I shall be with you here this day, my strong and faithful servant, the voice said. No godless man will sit my Seastone Chair.

It was there beneath the arch of Nagga’s ribs that his drowned men found him, standing tall and stern with his long black hair blowing in the wind. “Is it time?” Rus asked. Aeron gave a nod, and said, “It is. Go forth and sound the summons.”

In ASOS (oh man spoilers), a lot of powerful people died. AFFC is about the aftermath, examining how the survivors deal with death politically and personally, how the dead are both omnipresent and yet powerless to determine their legacy, and how all of this ultimately amounts to a rolled-out red carpet for the Others. In the specific case of the Ironborn, what we’re dealing with is the reckoning–or lack thereof–with the costs of Balon’s Old Way in the wake of the king’s death. We’ve already seen that dynamic at work in the first three chapters of this storyline, all of which comes to a head here…but before the Greyjoys, we get the other contestants, starting with our favorite candidate:

“The ironborn must have a king,” the priest insisted, after a long silence. “I ask again. Who shall be king over us?”

“I will,” came the answer from below.

At once a ragged cry of “Gylbert! Gylbert King!” went up. The captains gave way to let the claimant and his champions ascend the hill to stand at Aeron’s side beneath the ribs of Nagga. This would-be king was a tall spare lord with a melancholy visage, his lantern jaw shaved clean. His three champions took up their position two steps below him, bearing his sword and shield and banner. They shared a certain look with the tall lord, and Aeron took them for his sons. One unfurled his banner, a great black longship against a setting sun. “I am Gylbert Farwynd, Lord of the Lonely Light,” the lord told the kingsmoot.

Aeron knew some Farwynds, a queer folk who held lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk and the scattered isles beyond, rocks so small that most could support but a single household. Of those, the Lonely Light was the most distant, eight days’ sail to the northwest amongst rookeries of seals and sea lions and the boundless grey oceans. The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers, unholy creatures who could take on the forms of sea lions, walruses, even spotted whales, the wolves of the wild sea.

Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. “Make me your king, and I shall lead you there,” he cried. “We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen.”

His eyes, Aeron saw, were now grey, now blue, as changeable as the seas. Mad eyes, he thought, fool’s eyes. The vision he spoke of was doubtless a snare set by the Storm God to lure the ironborn to destruction. The offerings that his men spilled out before the kingsmoot included sealskins and walrus tusks, arm rings made of whalebone, warhorns banded in bronze. The captains looked and turned away, leaving lesser men to help themselves to the gifts. When the fool was done talking and his champions began to shout his name, only the Farwynds took up the cry, and not even all of them. Soon enough the cries of “Gylbert! Gylbert King!” faded away to silence. The gull screamed loudly above them, and landed atop one of Nagga’s ribs as the Lord of the Lonely Light made his way back down the hill.

Y’all know in your hearts he was telling the truth, too. But srsly, we said our piece on Gylbert Farwynd: he’s Good Euron, down to the eyes, creating a mirroring effect. The kingsmoot ends as it begins, with someone promising to elevate the Ironborn above this “dry and dismal vale.” But GRRM knows how to use contrasts as well as parallels—just look how he follows up Gylbert’s vision.

Aeron Damphair stepped forward once more. “I ask again. Who shall be king over us?”

“Me!” a deep voice boomed, and once more the crowd parted.

The speaker was borne up the hill in a carved driftwood chair carried on the shoulders of his grandsons. A great ruin of a man, twenty stones heavy and ninety years old, he was cloaked in a white bearskin. His own hair was snow white as well, and his huge beard covered him like a blanket from cheeks to thighs, so it was hard to tell where the beard ended and the pelt began. Though his grandsons were great strapping men, they struggled with his weight on the steep stone steps. Before the Grey King’s Hall they set him down, and three remained below him as his champions.

Sixty years ago, this one might well have won the favor of the moot, Aeron thought, but his hour is long past.

“Aye, me!” the man roared from where he sat, in a voice as huge as he was. “Why not? Who better? I am Erik Ironmaker, for them who’s blind. Erik the Just. Erik Anvil-Breaker. Show them my hammer, Thormor.” One of his champions lifted it up for all to see; a monstrous thing it was, its haft wrapped in old leather, its head a brick of steel as large as a loaf of bread. “I can’t count how many hands I’ve smashed to pulp with that hammer,” Erik said, “but might be some thief could tell you. I can’t say how many heads I’ve crushed against my anvil neither, but there’s some widows could. I could tell you all the deeds I’ve done in battle, but I’m eight-and-eighty and won’t live long enough to finish. If old is wise, no one is wiser than me. If big is strong, no one’s stronger. You want a king with heirs? I’ve more’n I can count. King Erik, aye, I like the sound o’ that. Come, say it with me. ERIK! ERIK ANVIL-BREAKER! ERIK KING!”

Erik Ironmaker, clearly the Tormund of the Ironborn, is thoroughly grounded in the “dry and dismal vale.” His platform is that he represents the masculine ideal of the Ironborn, full stop. But Asha spots the same problem as Aeron, and gives it voice:

“Erik!” Men moved aside to let her through. With one foot on the lowest step, she said, “Erik, stand up.”

A hush fell. The wind blew, waves broke against the shore, men murmured in each other’s ears.

Erik Ironmaker stared down at Asha Greyjoy. “Girl. Thrice-damned girl. What did you say?”

“Stand up, Erik,” she called. “Stand up and I’ll shout your name with all the rest. Stand up and I’ll be the first to follow you. You want a crown, aye. Stand up and take it.”

The aforementioned masculine ideal is past its sell-by date. Erik wants the crown as a symbol of a life well lived (by his standards), but Asha’s implicitly arguing that this is a debate about the future, not the past. (Of course, her platform has its own blind spots. More in a bit!)

Next up is Dunstan Drumm.

He climbed the hill on his own two legs, and on his hip rode Red Rain, his famous sword, forged of Valyrian steel in the days before the Doom. His champions were men of note: his sons Denys and Donnel, both stout fighters, and between them Andrik the Unsmiling, a giant of a man with arms as thick as trees. It spoke well of the Drumm that such a man would stand for him.

“Where is it written that our king must be a kraken?” Drumm began. “What right has Pyke to rule us? Great Wyk is the largest isle, Harlaw the richest, Old Wyk the most holy. When the black line was consumed by dragonfire, the ironborn gave the primacy to Vickon Greyjoy, aye … but as lord, not king.”

It was a good beginning. Aeron heard shouts of approval, but they dwindled as the old man began to tell of the glory of the Drumms. He spoke of Dale the Dread, Roryn the Reaver, the hundred sons of Gormond Drumm the Oldfather. He drew Red Rain and told them how Hilmar Drumm the Cunning had taken the blade from an armored knight with wits and a wooden cudgel. He spoke of ships long lost and battles eight hundred years forgotten, and the crowd grew restive. He spoke and spoke, and then he spoke still more.

And when Drumm’s chests were thrown open, the captains saw the niggard’s gifts he’d brought them. No throne was ever bought with bronze, the Damphair thought. The truth of that was plain to hear, as the cries of “Drumm! Drumm! Dunstan King!” died away.

On the one hand, he’s absolutely right that the Greyjoys owe their primacy to the very polity against which they’re leading rebellions. On the other, he gets bogged down and fails to offer an affirmative case for something better, reflected in his paltry offerings.

These candidates provide context for the main act: the three Greyjoy candidates. That Victarion has nothing to offer but this…

“You all know me. If you want sweet words, look elsewhere. I have no singer’s tongue. I have an axe, and I have these.” He raised his huge mailed hands up to show them, and Nute the Barber displayed his axe, a fearsome piece of steel. “I was a loyal brother,” Victarion went on. “When Balon was wed, it was me he sent to Harlaw to bring him back his bride. I led his longships into many a battle, and never lost but one. The first time Balon took a crown, it was me sailed into Lannisport to singe the lion’s tail. The second time, it was me he sent to skin the Young Wolf should he come howling home. All you’ll get from me is more of what you got from Balon. That’s all I have to say.”

…resonates with Erik Ironmaker’s pitch. Victarion is the status quo candidate. He’s this guy:

(gif by stevemcqueened.tumblr.com)

Something is rotten in the state of the Iron Islands, and Vic can’t identify it, let alone deal with it. Again, the personal and political are intertwined: deep down, Victarion Greyjoy knows he’s unhappy, but can’t conceive of what to do about it. “Balon 2.0” is enough for many of the captains and kings, but not a majority, because Balon’s failures are becoming harder and harder to ignore.

So how does Balon’s chosen heir respond?

“Nuncle says he’ll give you more of what my father gave you. Well, what was that? Gold and glory, some will say. Freedom, ever sweet. Aye, it’s so, he gave us that … and widows too, as Lord Blacktyde will tell you. How many of you had your homes put to the torch when Robert came? How many had daughters raped and despoiled? Burnt towns and broken castles, my father gave you that. Defeat was what he gave you. Nuncle here will give you more. Not me.”

“What will you give us?” asked Lucas Codd. “Knitting?”

“Aye, Lucas. I’ll knit us all a kingdom.” She tossed her dirk from hand to hand. “We need to take a lesson from the Young Wolf, who won every battle … and lost all.”

“A wolf is not a kraken,” Victarion objected. “What the kraken grasps it does not lose, be it longship or leviathan.”

“And what have we grasped, Nuncle? The north? What is that, but leagues and leagues of leagues and leagues, far from the sound of the sea? We have taken Moat Cailin, Deepwood Motte, Torrhen’s Square, even Winterfell. What do we have to show for it?” She beckoned, and her Black Wind men pushed forward, chests of oak and iron on their shoulders. “I give you the wealth of the Stony Shore,” Asha said as the first was upended. An avalanche of pebbles clattered forth, cascading down the steps; pebbles grey and black and white, worn smooth by the sea. “I give you the riches of Deepwood,” she said, as the second chest was opened. Pinecones came pouring out, to roll and bounce down into the crowd. “And last, the gold of Winterfell.” From the third chest came yellow turnips, round and hard and big as a man’s head. They landed amidst the pebbles and the pinecones. Asha stabbed one with her dirk. “Harmund Sharp,” she shouted, “your son Harrag died at Winterfell, for this.” She pulled the turnip off her blade and tossed it to him. “You have other sons, I think. If you’d trade their lives for turnips, shout my nuncle’s name!”

“And if I shout your name?” Harmund demanded. “What then?”

“Peace,” said Asha. “Land. Victory. I’ll give you Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, black earth and tall trees and stones enough for every younger son to build a hall. We’ll have the northmen too … as friends, to stand with us against the Iron Throne. Your choice is simple. Crown me, for peace and victory. Or crown my nuncle, for more war and more defeat.” She sheathed her dirk again. “What will you have, ironmen?”

Asha comes the closest to Grandpa Quellon’s reformation, but she’s got a fatal blind spot regarding Balon’s wars and their effect on both the North and the Ironborn. The former are not going to accept the latter’s control of the Stony Shore, let alone forge an active alliance against the Iron Throne, especially after what Theon did at Winterfell. Asha doesn’t even stop to consider the Northern perspective on the Ironborn, the cost and consequences of her family’s actions in Stark territory—she just assumes she can create a lasting peace through hostages. But she can’t. The North wants Theon Turncloak’s people gone, which is why Stannis and the Boltons are both trying to win over Northerners by fighting Ironborn. Asha’s ADWD chapters are all about her facing this:

Asha smiled back. “Mormont women are all fighters too.”

The other woman’s smile faded. “What we are is what you made us. On Bear Island every child learns to fear krakens rising from the sea.”

The Old Way. Asha turned away, chains clinking faintly.

Of course, Asha’s also running up against the patriarchy, and many of the captains and kings associate giving up any conquest with a “craven’s peace.” So I’m not entirely blaming Asha here, as again she’s much closer to a sustainable path than her (kraken) uncles, but she fails to offer a sufficiently powerful counter-narrative, and so leaves the door open for Euron. In the moments before he begins his pitch, chaos reigns.

Men began to shove at one another. Someone flung a pinecone at Asha’s head. When she ducked, her makeshift crown fell off. For a moment it seemed to the priest as if he stood atop a giant anthill, with a thousand ants in a boil at his feet. Shouts of “Asha!” and “Victarion!” surged back and forth, and it seemed as though some savage storm was about to engulf them all.

That is the war; that is the feast; that is everything the Others need. So what better “savage storm” to interrupt this “squabbling over spoils” than the apocalypse?

Sharp as a swordthrust, the sound of a horn split the air.

Bright and baneful was its voice, a shivering hot scream that made a man’s bones seem to thrum within him. The cry lingered in the damp sea air: aaaaRREEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

All eyes turned toward the sound. It was one of Euron’s mongrels winding the call, a monstrous man with a shaved head. Rings of gold and jade and jet glistened on his arms, and on his broad chest was tattooed some bird of prey, talons dripping blood.

aaaaRRREEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The horn he blew was shiny black and twisted, and taller than a man as he held it with both hands. It was bound about with bands of red gold and dark steel, incised with ancient Valyrian glyphs that seemed to glow redly as the sound swelled.

aaaaaaaRRREEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

It was a terrible sound, a wail of pain and fury that seemed to burn the ears. Aeron Damphair covered his, and prayed for the Drowned God to raise a mighty wave and smash the horn to silence, yet still the shriek went on and on. It is the horn of hell, he wanted to scream, though no man would have heard him. The cheeks of the tattooed man were so puffed out they looked about to burst, and the muscles in his chest twitched in a way that it made it seem as if the bird were about to rip free of hisflesh and take wing. And now the glyphs were burning brightly, every line and letter shimmering with white fire. On and on and on the sound went, echoing amongst the howling hills behind them and across the waters of Nagga’s Cradle to ring against the mountains of Great Wyk, on and on and on until it filled the whole wet world.

Such are the bones of Euron’s soul. This is what the inside of his skull looks like: an LSD-soaked portal to hell, driven by blood sacrifice and a keen understanding of the sweet spot between fear and awe. This horror-tinged passage is supposed to feel jarring, like something out of a completely different genre; Euron’s not really a part of the debate he just interrupted, but is rather out to hijack it for his own apocalyptic ends. (Remember: what is signaled by three horn blasts? “Others.”) Look at what he’s disrupting: a “giant anthill.” Damphair’s kingsmoot was made to be bulldozed; it’s a fragile gathering of fragments against the ruin. The weaknesses were there to be exploited…but of course, Euron has to put on his pirate suit to do so.

The Crow’s Eye stopped atop the steps, at the doors of the Grey King’s Hall, and turned his smiling eye upon the captains and the kings, but Aeron could feel his other eye as well, the one that he kept hidden.

“IRONMEN,” said Euron Greyjoy, “you have heard my horn. Now hear my words. I am Balon’s brother, Quellon’s eldest living son. Lord Vickon’s blood is in my veins, and the blood of the Old Kraken. Yet I have sailed farther than any of them. Only one living kraken has never known defeat Only one has never bent his knee. Only one has sailed to Asshai by the Shadow, and seen wonders and terrors beyond imagining …”

GRRM consistently uses the “smiling eye” as a microcosm of Euron’s public face, and the Crow’s Eye as a microcosm of the self he keeps hidden from his fellow Ironborn (other than Aeron). I’m the ultimate pirate, guys, nothing else to see here—just look at my eyepatch, and don’t worry about what I’m hiding underneath it. Indeed, Euron knows his audience well, constructing his argument patiently; only after establishing his Old Way bona fides can he then take the next step.

“My little brother would finish Balon’s war, and claim the north. My sweet niece would give us peace and pinecones.” His blue lips twisted in a smile. “Asha prefers victory to defeat. Victarion wants a kingdom, not a few scant yards of earth. From me, you shall have both.”

For all Euron’s skills, he only wins because both Vic and Asha’s platforms are riddled with flaws—and not only that, the flaws compound each other, allowing Euron to link them together rhetorically as insufficient. This resonates with the captains and kings because the Balon-Aeron-Victarion agenda has immense cultural appeal but has blatantly failed to deliver on its promises, while Asha’s platform would push the Ironborn in a better direction but isn’t convincing enough (emotionally or pragmatically) to be an effective rallying point. Euron, ever the postmodern magpie, steals the most appealing aspects of both and frames it as the ultimate Ironborn dream of conquest. My brothers’ dream has fallen miserably short in reality, and my niece is telling you stop dreaming. The former cannot defeat the greenlanders, the latter is telling you to admit that—in a way that won’t bring peace anyway! I will be the best of both worlds, doing what the former cannot and the latter wants to give up on. In short: Euron tells the Ironborn that they’re losers but can be winners if they follow and imitate him, whereas Victarion won’t admit they’re losers and Asha won’t let them win. It’s such a potent appeal to cultural self-conception and resentment that it even sways Damphair, if only for a moment:

“We are the ironborn, and once we were conquerors. Our writ ran everywhere the sound of the waves was heard. My brother would have you be content with the cold and dismal north, my niece with even less … but I shall give you Lannisport. Highgarden. The Arbor. Oldtown. The riverlands and the Reach, the kingswood and the rainwood, Dorne and the marches, the Mountains of the Moon and the Vale of Arryn, Tarth and the Stepstones. I say we take it all! I say, we take Westeros.” He glanced at the priest. “All for the greater glory of our Drowned God, to be sure.”

For half a heartbeat even Aeron was swept away by the boldness of his words. The priest had dreamed the same dream, when first he’d seen the red comet in the sky. We shall sweep over the green lands with fire and sword, root out the seven gods of the septons and the white trees of the northmen …

But the rest of the crowd, of course, sees only the “smiling eye.” Our POV knows better, and being in Aeron’s head primes us to see the cracks in Euron’s facade, the tears in his pirate suit. Only Aeron recognizes, at chapter’s end, that Euron is out to dethrone the gods.

Even a priest may doubt. Even a prophet may know terror. Aeron Damphair reached within himself for his god and discovered only silence. [Because that’s the name of Euron’s ship, you see] As a thousand voices shouted out his brother’s name, all he could hear was the scream of a rusted iron hinge.

Euron cares not for the Seastone Chair, nor even the Iron Throne, not really. So what is he in this for?

“Crow’s Eye, you call me. Well, who has a keener eye than the crow? After every battle the crows come in their hundreds and their thousands to feast upon the fallen. A crow can espy death from afar. And I say that all of Westeros is dying. Those who follow me will feast until the end of their days.”

There it is, right? AFFC summarized: “all of Westeros is dying.” The war has rendered Westeros a fit meal for Euron…and the Others. And indeed, the “anthill” of the kingsmoot is a perfect microcosm of that political impotence in the face of the abyss. That’s the message “The Drowned Man” communicates: we let Trump Euron happen. As I’ve argued before, the essence of great horror isn’t that the monsters are at the door. It’s that we’re going to let them in.

[abarahman-richard-chignell]

Christchurch: Muslim reaction is to lash out!

Media coverage and indeed the killer himself may make you think that the default Muslim reaction to the massacre on Friday 15th March 2019 is to lash out. I'm here to tell you that, alhamdullilah (all Praise is due to God), that just ain't so. 

This media narrative and desire by the killer in his manifesto to create an overreaction and division is simply ill-conceived and is going to spectacularly backfire.    Actually what you see happening is that it makes us stronger as a community of Muslims and indeed grow our ranks. Let me elaborate on the non-Muslim and Muslim reaction and show how this kind of thing is only going to backfire, why it always is going to backfire, and why if you hope for division you're going to be sorely disappointed. The overwhelming majority of the non-Muslim Western world community members are intelligent, humane, educated, and events like this horrify them and cause their hearts to go out to their neighbours. Hatred is not alhamdullilah widespread in communities and never will be. Misunderstanding, lack of knowledge, mixed levels of inter-community bonds.... maybe.... but hatred towards the 'other' not the case! These extreme groups will never prevail as they simply don't have the numbers that sympathise. Our Western communities are more mindful, intelligent and loving than that.   (As a minor caveat: I focus on Western due to the nature of the attack and the desire according to the killer's manifesto to specifically incite European and Western (over)reactions) For many non-Muslims, this will be their first real interaction with Muslims and this shared pain as well as learning about what Muslims are really about and like, will knit the communities together and remove much of the media-induced fear. When statistics show that so few actually 'know anything' about Muslims and often times haven't even had a conversation with a Muslim, this real-world interaction will break down barriers. You see humanity is disgusted by this kind of thing. It always will be. Slaughter hurts people at their core. That pain transcends hate-filled ideologies. Even the most atheist and irreligious feel the pain and the senseless in acts like this. Westerners as a whole have a live and let live attitude. We have for the longest time respected an individual's freedom to worship, even if we may disagree, and will stand up for the right to that worship. Whether it is liked, accepted or altogether understood, the fact is that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Incidents like this or even those by extremists claiming to act in the name of the religion force many to research and study about the religion. The numbers show, and indeed I can attest to this from personal experience, many will start a journey as a result of the Christchurch massacre where they will end up embracing Islam as their own religion. Let's ignore politicians and country heads for now, although most have called this terrorism (finally), shared in our pain and shared many genuinely heartfelt things: let's look at the actual non-Muslim community reaction around us.   Well, actually I should clarify that! Alhamdullilah the reaction has been so broad-based that I am just going to pick an indicative few: Flowers and condolences cards by the hundreds in Christchurch alone, the broader community showing their care and support, other religious communities embracing their Muslim neighbours and offering support in any way they can. Far away from New Zealand, community members standing guard outside mosques so that their friends and neighbours can feel safe praying. Police and community support officers standing guard outside mosques in a demonstration of solidarity to the Muslim communities in their neighbourhoods. I am a huge rugby fan and one of the biggest events in the rugby calendar the 6 Nations was concluding this weekend with packed stadiums.  I watched the matches in Cardiff where you had Wales vs Ireland and in Twickenham where you had England vs Scotland and at both heartwarmingly you had 70,000 plus fans and dignitaries hold a minutes silence for all those lost. This was of course broadcast to households everywhere. The rugby community showing its solidarity for the disgusting slaughter of innocent people in their house of worship.   Wales went on to win the 6 Nations and with a Grand Slam to boot and whilst jubilation for the players and fans I think it is significant that New Zealand born Hadley Parkes dedicated their Grand Slam to the victims of the attacks on the two New Zealand mosques. I could go on with these but I will simply say that it is clear that for so many 'regular' folk Muslims are part of their community, not some 'alien other'. They stand with us in times like this, as we do with them, in any times of hardship. We are all one and the same, we all have families, we all bleed the same blood and we all have hearts that feel the same pain. Now, what about the Muslim reaction? It's perhaps interesting how I view these things with 37 years of 'western' education prior to becoming Muslim. I have the ability to put on two different hats (pre and post-Islam) and am always going to have a foot in both camps identity speaking.  I also found I took this incident incredibly hard as I'm as western as they get, well educated, white, but also 100% Muslim. This kind of disgraceful killing hits at me from multiple different angles. I'm going to address and try to unpackage elements of this in a series of posts. In this one, I am going to try to stick to the topic of community reactions. So, let me get back to it: Let me tell you what I have seen personally as the Muslim reaction:  A global community checking up on each other. Phone calls, emails, messages within moments of the news breaking about the attacks. The immediate reaction being dua (prayer) for the victims, the families, the community. In every single communication. Over and over again. There is great pain for our Brothers and Sisters who were harmed. We are told by the Prophet pbuh in an authentic hadith “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” This was incredibly evident in the aftermath of this event. As believers, as an ummah (a community), we felt the pain as if one. This is what Brotherhood and Sisterhood really mean. The realisation that however horrid, those killed were martyred (an incredibly noble death in the view of all Muslims), in the best of places (to be martyred in the mosque whilst worshipping their Lord), on the best of days (on a Friday a holy day for Muslims). The messages were reminding us of what a blessing this actually was for these people, what a noble and honoured status they have with Allah swt.   Specific prayers for the martyred that they would be accepted by Allah swt as martyrs and granted the highest levels of Jannah (heaven). Prayers for the injured and that they would be granted healing. Prayers for the family members that they would be granted patience and ease to their emotional suffering. Prayers for the broader Muslim community around the world in the face of this tragedy. Prayers for the non-Muslim community during this trying time. Over and over again we Muslims make duas, pray to Allah swt, say Ameen to other peoples prayers. The default reaction is prayer and remembrance of Allah swt. Due to timezone differences here in the UK, it was soon time to go to the mosque for our own Jumaah (Friday Prayer). I have to confess my feeling was that nothing was going to stop me. An event like this has an internal reaction with someone like me of increasing my already strong commitment to represent. I asked my wife if she was comfortable with going to the mosque and was pleasantly unsurprised when she said why would I not? Upon arriving at the mosque Epsom police force had sent community support officers to stand guard at the front of our mosque. More examples of the broader community pulling together for their own. The mosque was full. Do you want to scare us? Seems we don't scare so easily? In fact, it is quite the opposite.  You have a few nutters who back you up - there are a billion plus of us and we have the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth backing us up! Allahu Akhbar - God is Greater!!   Naturally, the Imam covered the incident in Christchurch in his Khutba but rather than reactionary and incendiary as the media might have made you think it would be, on the contrary, it was heartfelt, measured and balanced - like our religion always is. From what I remember he covered: 1) That we never know when we are going to die 2)  That those killed were martyrs: martyred in their place of worship, on a blessed day, in a state of remembrance of Allah swt, in congregation. 3) On the importance of community and personal responsibility to build it with the local non-Muslim communities in our own town. 4) Not to share the horrific imagery as it furthers the aims of the murderer, hurts the families of the victims, dishonours the victims, and can create fear amongst our community around the world. There were more duas and prayers in the masjid and everywhere I seemed to turn. Intelligent reactions from Imams and Scholars in the West in khutba's (sermons), articles, being shared amongst the community. Even materials on how to cope with trauma from US-based Sisters with psychology expertise in these matters. There was NOT ONE angry, lashing out style, clash of civilisations type of message or reaction that I saw or read. What there has been on other hand is the first reaction that Muslims should have. That first reaction is to call on Allah swt. It is an incredibly optimistic sign that as a global community we remember our Creator and ask of our Lord before anything else. This is Islam (submission) where you try to hurt us and it does nothing but strengthen us. You want a reaction, it is not going to be one of hate like your life is filled with, the real Muslim one is going to be one of prayer and worship.  Do you want to see how real Muslims behave? Who the followers of Islam are? Then simply look to your communities after Christchurch. We are Muslim and this is what we do. Let me end with my own dua (prayer): I pray for all those murdered that Allah swt makes them martyrs and offers them (Jennah al Firdaus) the highest levels of heaven. May He give shifa (healing) to all those injured in these attacks. May He give the families of the victim's patience and steadfastness during this incredibly trying time. May Allah swt bring the Muslim community closer together and deepen our resolve to worship none but The Most Merciful and Most Kind. May our bonds with our broader communities strengthen based on our shared humanity. And may the remembrance of Allah swt always be on our lips, the following of His final Messengers example our aim, our community bonds strengthened until we are also inshaAllah in the company of our Brothers and Sisters taken from us in Jennah al Firdaus (the highest level of heaven). Ameen.

[ulyssessklein]

Behind an all-star Americana collaboration (Mark Erelli interview)

How a “largely unknown independent folksinger” partnered with Sheryl Crow, Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, Anaïs Mitchell, and Lori McKenna on his new single.

It’s funny to hear Mark Erelli describe himself as “largely unknown,” since I’ve admired his songwriting and singing for years. But I suppose all things are measured on a scale, and weighed against the Taylor Swifts of the world, his assessment is fair. That being said, he’s a frequent sideman for both Josh Ritter and Lori McKenna, and in the smaller world of folk singer-songwriters, he’s well respected for his own music too.

Aiming to make Americana’s first socially-conscious, multi-artist project (like “We Are the World,” only with more acoustic guitar), Mark recently recorded and released a single about the gun violence epidemic. He called in some favors from a number of other notable singers, including Ritter and McKenna, Sheryl Crow, Rosanne Cash, and Anaïs Mitchell — and partnered with Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s Courage to Fight Gun Violence organization, which receives 100% of the proceeds.

“By Degrees” is a great song — Rosanne Cash called it “the most compassionate, vivid and non-preaching anti-gun violence song I’ve ever heard” — so I wanted to ask Mark Erelli some questions about the writing process, the collaboration, and what it’s like to distribute and promote a song that has such a clear social purpose. My thanks to him for taking the time.

Mark Erelli on songwriting, collaboration, mysterious music revenues, and laundry.

As someone who admires your songwriting, I’m curious — if you can average out such things — how much stuff do you throw away, compared with how much you keep?

I guess it depends what is meant by “throw away” and “keep.” I might have anywhere from 15-30 new songs when I begin making a new record that will ultimately only have 10-11 tracks on it. It might seem that I throw away as much as 2/3 of what I write, but the just because something doesn’t make the record doesn’t mean it’s discarded.

Some songs get used on future recordings or as part of a concert set. Some of those songs have imagery that I love, but it’s not enough to carry that particular song. Oftentimes, the same or similar lines may appear in a completely different context in a newer song, but does that mean I threw the first song away, or was it just a draft that I had to work through to get to the one I “kept?”

How do you know whether it’s time to discard it, set it aside, or move ahead?

If I’m trying to decide what stage a song is at in this process, the guiding principle is always “what am I trying to say?” Does the song communicate an idea clearly, does it evoke a deep emotional response? If it does, I keep it. If it doesn’t, then I know I’m not finished with it yet. This process can take an hour or two or, literally, years.

“By Degrees” has four strong verses, but for me the real punch of the song happens in verses five and six, when we have to consider the children. Maybe that means I’m as numb as anyone to the feeds and headlines and arguments you refer to earlier in the tune, but Jesus, the kids! When you were writing, did you discover those verses later in the process, or did you start with the kids, and reverse engineer the song? 

I don’t always write linearly, but I think in the case of “By Degrees” I did write the earlier verses first before following the river downstream. It’s not religious, but it is a very “moral” song, in the sense that I felt the need to explore why all these little changes and degradations matter. Adults, at least some of them, can think critically and see how we got to where we are. But the thought that this sort of gun violence might be the only sort of world my kids knew was and remains a sobering thought, so bringing it back to the kids felt like a very natural conclusion.

As I write in the song, I really don’t know what to tell my boys (ages 8 and 11), so I have not had any explicit conversations about societal gun violence with my kids. They’ve heard the song many times, of course, but I’m not sure those later verses have sunken in yet.

Why make this song a collaboration?

I grew up in the 80’s with MTV and I still have vivid memories of things like “We Are The World,” where multiple artists banded together behind a common message. Not that my song is on an equivalent scale, but I felt there was a place for a project like this in the Americana scene. It’s a relatively new designation, and though many great artists identify or are identified with the genre, there really hasn’t been a socially-conscious, multi-artist project like this before, that I can remember.

Ultimately, I am not alone in my struggle to comprehend how we got to where we are, and having multiple voices sing the song kind of emphasizes that this is a problem that we all face collectively and will all have to work together to solve.

How does this kind of collaboration work, I guess first in terms of asking the artists and getting permissions, and then actually piecing the vocals together? Lots of Dropbox?

So much Dropbox! I would have loved to get everyone in the same room and run it down, old-school, which would have saved me months of work. But when you’re a largely unknown independent folksinger, you’re calling in too many favors to work that way.

The whole collaboration started with Rosanne Cash, who was aware of the song and had sung it with me before at a Brady campaign fundraiser. I knew I would need help bringing artists on board, but I felt that if Rosanne wasn’t into it, then it was basically a non-starter. Thankfully, she is so generous and supportive, and it only took her an hour or so to respond enthusiastically.

From there, it was just a matter of dreaming up artists to work with and seeing what connections we had with them. The band signed on right away, so I was able to at least build a good basic track and sing a guide vocal, so artists would get a sense of what they were signing up for. Once people did commit, they basically each sang their verses at different studios, Dropboxed us the files, and mix engineer Lorne Entress did a painstakingly brilliant job of making it all sound cohesive and musical.

How did you come to work with Gabby Gifford’s organization?

For some reason, I have never thought of this song as anything other than one that should raise money for some other group that is doing good work in the fight against gun violence. There are so many that are addressing this issue—Moms Demand, Sandy Hook Promise, Everytown —but Rosanne was the one who suggested and put me in touch with Giffords.

How has the promotion for this song differed from your past releases? Like, I noticed the song has its own website.

I’ve never released a standalone single song before, but it turns out that if you want to do a good job getting it heard than you basically have to do everything to promote and publicize it that you would a full-length record.

The biggest difference was timing: I didn’t get the final verse vocal til just after Labor Day, but the Giffords folks really wanted the song to help amplify their efforts leading up to the midterms. So we basically had to rush to assemble a promotional team on very short notice. I got a few “we don’t have time for this” sort of responses, which I could sympathize with because between my own records and sideman work, I didn’t really have enough time to work on this!

But it was something I felt compelled to do that just happened to have a well-defined political, non-musical timeline, and I just had to find champions who felt similarly compelled to get involved. Fortunately, Signature Sounds, Brad Paul Media and Songlines all came on board, donated their services and gave it their all on very short notice. I am extremely grateful for their efforts.

When a song has such a clear purpose, does it free you up from some of the usual ego things that songwriters deal with when sharing or promoting their music?

Completely. I find it very difficult to talk about the worth of my own material, though I obviously wouldn’t devote my life to something I didn’t fully believe in. But if there’s a bigger purpose other than “look at me!” it makes it a lot easier to push for people to listen to it.

For example, with the Milltowns record, I really wanted to shine a light on the legacy of Bill Morrissey, so it was a lot easier to advocate for it. “By Degrees” was the same way—I don’t make a cent from this. It’s not enriching me personally in any way or selling out concerts for me. It’s just something I’m doing because I know what doing nothing looks like and I can’t just stand by anymore.

I don’t really know how to do political organizing and push for legislation; all I know how to do is write and sing songs that hopefully support the ones directly engaged in those efforts. It feels very good to put myself in service to the music and an idea larger than my own gain.

You’re a professional songwriter and performer, but I’m curious about your day-to-day work that happens away from the guitar or stage. How much of your life is emails, booking, promoting, packing lunches?

Next year will mark my 20th year as a professional musician, and it’s a bit dizzying to think of how my day-to-day routine has changed over that time. The biggest change was becoming a parent, and since I’m home a lot of the weekdays most of my work happens during the school day, between 8 am and 2 pm. I can be pretty productive in that time, but I have to be ruthlessly efficient and come up with a plan for every day.

My average non-gig work day is as scheduled and planned out as anyone who works in an office, and it has to be if anything is ever going to be accomplished. I’m up between 5-6 am everyday, making lunches, doing the morning routines with the boys. After drop off, I head straight to the gym for swimming or lifting. It’s about 9 am after that, so the next 5 hours can go any number of ways, though several loads of laundry are nearly always involved.

If I’m taking a day to do office work, I can spend that entire time keeping up with emails, social media, and advancing gigs. More often than not, I spend those 5 hours rehearsing for whatever I have coming up next. Could be shedding Josh Ritter or Lori McKenna tunes, reminding myself how to play bluegrass, working out and rehearsing set lists for solo shows, and more. I like to say that I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I haven’t been bored since 1998.

And what’s the revenue picture like for you? Are you earning a living mainly from your own touring? CDs and vinyl sales? Sideman gigs? A little bit of each?

It’s a bit of a mystery to me how it all works out, because I get income from several different streams, and they seem to tag team at random to for the distinction of being the most lucrative.

Sometimes I’m doing lots of solo gigs and that’s where the money comes from, other times it’s a lot of sideman work, which is great because it’s all income and no expenses. I’ll occasionally get a recording session or something like that, and then there are modest checks from Soundexchange, CD Baby for digital online sales, and ASCAP royalties.

Every once in awhile, an extra zero will really surprise me at the end of the payout, which is lovely but completely random and can’t be depended upon. For example, my ASCAP check just tripled for one month and as best I can tell, it’s due to recent airplay of a song from a 16-year old record…in Belgium. I’ve never performed in or even been to Belgium, so that about sums up how unpredictable and capricious making a living as a musician can be. I basically look up at the end of every month and think “holy sh&t, I did it again!”

What’s up next?

I’m working on my 12th full-length album of originals, and it’ll hopefully be released in fall of 2019.

Check out Mark Erelli’s website for concert dates, music, and more.

[Photo by Lara Kimmerer.]

The post Behind an all-star Americana collaboration (Mark Erelli interview) appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Matthew Golombisky

Matthew Golombisky grew up in North Carolina, where he picked up the bass to play metal with his buddies and jazz in a couple high school bands. After college he moved around the US, playing upright and electric in countless bands and spending time in the Bay area, upstate New York, and New Orleans. In the Crescent City he bonded with his most enduring musical partner, drummer Quin Kirchner, with whom he has toured extensively as a duo and as the rhythm section for other bands. When Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the town they both eventually moved to Chicago.Both of them played with trombonists Jeff Albert and Jeb Bishop in the Lucky 7s, and Golombisky made strong connections with the city’s jazz scene. In 2007 cofounded Ears And Eyes Records, which has issued albums by notable current and former Chicagoans such as Bill MacKay, George Freeman, Caroline Davis, Chad Taylor, Charles Rumback and Matt Piet. He has toured the US with Zing! And NOMO and stage-managed at Pitchfork, but after traveling around South America he landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2013. There he plays and teaches music and is raising a family, but he sustains ongoing connections with his mates in North America. Golombisky has recently released two cassettes, Cuentos 1 & 2 and Cuentos 3,named after the Spanish word for short stories. Each volume is devoted to a group of musicians connected with one of Golombisky’s old homes, and the music that he composes for them combines the emotional expressiveness of mid-20thcentury modern jazz with the close engagement of chamber music.

Milli Vanilli, Girl You Know It’s True

Though as a kid, I grew up listening, per my parents, to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who, CCR, Steppenwolf, Jethro Tull, Simon and Garfunkel, and David Bowie, the first cassette I ever bought with my own money was in the late 80s and it was Milli Vanilli’s. I was 9 or 10. How I came across their music I don’t remember, but probably from MTV. I remember on late night drives back home with my father from his auto body shop in his red 1986 V8 5-speed Z28 Camaro (with louvers on the back glass), which I bought from him as my car in 1998, we’d blast that cassette (as well as Herb Alpert and Fine Young Cannibals cassettes, what a mix, no?)! I have no idea how long this lasts, but it couldn’t have been long because when I learned Milli Vanilli was a total front and a lie, I went out into the boonies(woods), where we lived, in the middle of small-town North Carolina, and had a cassette-tape-burning session. I gathered some gasoline and matches and melted that tape to a little pile of plastic. It felt good and well-deserved. When my dad found out, he got incredibly upset (or so I’ve told the story as I remember… maybe one day I’ll confirm with him if it’s true if he’d even admit to being angry about my destroying myMilli Vanilli tape, I’m not sure). I guess the only reason I’d include this in Dusted’s “Listed” feature is that it was a profound experience of “create your own damn music!!”

Miles Davis, Volume 1

Me getting into jazz: All I knew of jazz for a few years was my playing bass in the high school big band, so mostly reading what Sammy Nestico had written out for me. My first jazz record, Miles Davis’ Volume 1, was a birthday present from a girlfriend, but I didn’t immediately become a jazz enthusiast. I didn’t run out and buy more jazz records (I was still buying Mr. Bungle, Infectious Grooves, Primus, Nirvana, Megadeth, and Faith No More cassettes and CDs). But I did play this Miles CD over and over again! I had played cornet for years prior to this and it simply blew my mind what Miles was accomplishing here; his tone, his lyricism, and also his patience. I did, however, fall in love with what I thought the idea of jazz was; at least one of them: improvisation. In high school, I founded the school jazz combo and this is where I discovered more improvisation; I was always super elated that we could play the same song over and over, and I could manipulate the vibe and mood of the tune in the moment. Improvising! Creating something new(ish) all the time, each time. This idea is what attracted me so much to playing jazz and that idea of creating something from little (or nothing) is how I think I came to be a composer, among other creative outlets I find myself in. With music (which spoke and called to me) and being able to always explore and find new ideas via ‘jazz’ the most viable avenue to do this? Yes!, then let’s study jazz!!!

Opeth, My Arms, Your Hearse

I feel in love with Opeth on their first release, Orchid (1995). Not only was the music incredibly original and fresh for me, but I was also a fan of the fact that it was metal music, which I had already been listening to and playing, that I could distinguish and hear the bass guitar clearly from Johan De Farfalla. And then Opeth’s Morningrise (1996) was released; even better! And then My Arms, Your Hearse came out, even better! My Arms, Your Hearse is probably my favorite “death metal” album of all time. Lead singer, main guitarist and composer, Mikael’s death and clean vocals are thick, heavy, soaring, beautiful and powerful. I’m a person that doesn’t often hear or pay much attention to lyrics. I can sing along with the melodies always, the notes, but I almost never know the lyrics to most songs I love even. I’m definitely not one to write lyrics either (I wrote a children's musical a few years ago and had to “contract” out for lyrics). Sometimes, I take a closer listen to lyrics when conscious about my lack of musical character and most of the time, it just makes me dislike the song (admit it, a lot of lyrics are crap. Not all, but a lot). But I know the lyrics to My Arms, Your Hearse, start to finish. It’s such a cool mysterious story about a ghost checking in on his friends, family and environment, chock full of lush imagery… in my humble opinion. (As writing this paragraph and re-listening to this record, I had an almost second-by-second opinion of each phrase, harmony, and melody and the wow-ness I thought about including but decided against writing a short novel.)

This Is Spinal Tap (a favorite scene)

In my second year of college my band at the time, Daylight Dies, rented a house together. We had also been friends for about 6 years by then. I don’t know if it was weekly that we watched Spinal Tap, but it was a lot. Since that time in my life, Spinal Tap has continued to be my all-time favorite movie. I watch it at least a few times a year still and can start the movie dialogue from the start and recite a good 90% of it in its entirety. Then when the DVD came out around 2004, I was blessed with another 45 minutes of unseen footage! I think that one of the best aspects of the movie is that with all this material filmed and executed amazingly, there were only 11 pages of a predetermined script when they started filming. Again, improvisation, I love it! “Lukewarm water”… I might add that Daylight Dies continued on to great success, even touring with some of the bands that were our favorites when we were in high school. I got to revisit the band in a way and recorded a contrabass “choir” on one of their releases and arranged strings/woodwinds, using my Tomorrow Music Orchestra on another release of theirs. It was fun to have my death metal “upbringing” returning to my professional musician/composer life.

Steve Reich, Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards

I was really lucky to have attended an undergraduate program, majoring and studying jazz, that also required me to take three years of classical music history and theory. Even luckier, the professor who designed the program, Dr. Joye Dorr, was a big fan of 20th Century Classical music and thought it important to expose undergraduates to its wealth, even for the jazz folks. In those years, I was transformed into a musician much different and more of whom I am now. But just before we started in on that 20th Century material, my alarm clock woke me one morning and on the radio was a recording of Steve Reich’s Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboardsand I missed my first class, transfixed in bed with this repetitive “trance” music I had never experienced before. I became a devote fan of minimalism (for a while) from there. Honorable mentions in this category would have to be Gavin Bryars’ “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet” and “Sinking of the Titanic”.

Charlie Haden, The Montreal Tapes with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell

Charlie Haden is my musical hero. I’m not sure I could choose just one recording because I find beauty in everything he’s done. But for the sake of the Listed-vibe, let’s say the first album I experienced, The Montreal Tapes with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell. I was mesmerized and captivated by his sound, his singing-like soloing/lyricism, his patience, his support in the trio, his tone. The open feel of this record makes for an incredibly clear statement, musically. By the time they recorded this live at the Montreal Jazz festival in 1989, these guys had been exploring jazz (and quite a bit of free jazz) together for some 20 years; and it comes through on this record. And yes from here, I went out and bought every Charlie Haden-related record I could. And when I finally met him for the first time in Montreal in 2002 after a concert, I couldn’t help the flow of tears. I heart Charlie Haden profoundly.

Arvo Pärt, Fratres

What an incredible composer to get to know if you’re looking to enhance aural beautification to your life. Part’s music is so powerful for me and not because many consider him (including himself) a “religious minimalist composer”; that I could care less about. The motion of the lines and dramatic candor are completely intriguing and alluring to me. This record especially. I love that it’s also a piece that can be played with varying instrumentation and carry a different timbre but still be as powerful. The voices between the instruments, where they are placed in the sonic spectrum, the repetitive melodies, and especially the drone! This music not only takes me to a tranquil place but also invigorates me to be better and try to heal the world the best I can. Part is an inspiration for creating more beauty in the world. One of his most popular pieces is called “Spiegel im Spiegel” and the first thought I had upon listening years back was: kindness. Yeah man, more of this, please.

Henryk Gorecki, Symphony No. 3

I have a hard time falling asleep; it started when I was about six or seven. Thoughts of the day, as well as newer and older ones, arose continuously (and still do). This piece has psychosomatically calmedso many of those, what would have been, sleepless nights. It has a depth to it where my mind can get out of whatever million thoughts are being processed and then relax me in order to calm the mental activity. The low strings repeating the same melody in a brooding canon, wow, with a mix of minor 9ths, major 7ths, perfect 5ths, major/minor 6ths; a mix of doublings I find chilling in the first couple minutes that set the tone for the rest of the piece.

James Blake, The Colour in Everything

Bon Iver, 22, A Million

Honorable mentions on current production ideas and such that I study: all of Bjork, Radiohead, and artists that are involved with visual art in some form. But these two mentioned records are fascinating production (and music) - wise. Woah.