bodeganyc

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Then to now.

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This week we are releasing the last episode of the podcast exploring the histories and mysteries of Bodega Bay and our 2024 'remake' of Our Brand Could Be Yr Life. It's been lovely reconnecting w/ old friends and exploring the first ten years of BODEGA consciousness. Thanks to everybody who tuned in ---> Streaming wherever streams are streamed.

EP I : Adam Sachs (mixer/engineer of OBCBYL)

EP II: Nikki Belfiglio (vox/percussion)

EP III: Joe Wakeman (the 'front man' of Bodega Bay)

EP IV: Dan Ryan (BODEGA lead gtr)

EP V: Josh Fu (Perfect Teeth/Bodega Bay bass)

EP VI : Aiko Masubuchi (Bodega Bay founder/drummer)

EP VII : Adam Shumski (BODEGA drums)

EP VIII: Mike Brandon (Mystery Lights)

EP IX : Tom Miller (Bodega Bay bass)

EP X: Richard Vagnino (Perfect Teeth/Bodega Bay drums)

EP XI: Ben Hozie (vox/gtr)

EP XII: Brendan Mehan (drums in Ben's old band Big Fur)

EP XIII: Kate Mohanty (sax in Bodega Bay)

EP XIV : Devin Johnson (Sunset Diver/filmmaker of 'Bodega Bay Breaks Up')

EP XV: Adam See (BODEGA bass)

EP XVI : Tim Race (BODEGA bass/ 'Brand on the Run' engineer)

EP XVII : Mike Delaney (Milk Dick)

EP XVIII: Ben Hozie

EP XIX : Nikki Belfiglio

EP XX : Adam See

EP XXI : Joe Wakeman

EP XXII: Aiko Masubuchi

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Nikki's document of SXSW 2024.

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2014 Bodega Bay from the vault.

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Gazing w/ Joe Wakeman at our last show of this year.

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I was cleaning the apt after returning from tour and found this -> this is the only photo I have of 'Charlie'. He had gotten a bass guitar for Xmas the week before he drowned in the Charleston river -> we had grand plans to start a band. That previous fall we exclusively plotted and mimed our moves listening to our favorite LPs. I miss you still.

-Ben.

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BRAND ON THE RUN is out now (streaming and b(r)andcmp only for now). It’s a collection of 7 tracks that we designed to extend our remake of OUR BRAND COULD BE YR LIFE.

Myrtle Parade

Cry When Yr Young (Milk Dick cover)

Music Hall of Wburg

Listen w Yr Eyes

Adaptation of the Truth about Marie

Cultural Consumer IV (w/ Joe Wakeman on vox)

N.A.S.S.

Tracks 1-3 were recorded summer 2024 at La Fam w/ Tim Race. Tracks 4-7 were recorded 2023 at Trout during the OBCBYL sessions w/ Adam Sachs. Adam Sachs mixed all of them.

** All of these tracks (except the Milk DK cover) were originally Bodega Bay songs ('Myrtle Parade' was played live 2015-2016 but never recorded / 'Music Hall of Wburg' is a rewrite of 'ATM II'). The Milk DK track is one of my favorite songs ever. They were a band Bodega Bay often played w/ that should have been more popular. Nine times out of ten Bodega Bay ended shows w/ N.A.S.S. so it's fitting that the disc ends there.

The original Bodega Bay 33 track version of ‘Our Brand Could Be Your Life’ is currently available at B(r)andcamp -> All money from downloads will be donated to the Sameer Project for Gaza Relief. We have just a few of the original 33+1/3 Bodega Bay lyric books left that we will also sell at the Nov 14 BK show for Gaza relief. We plan on repressing more for next year.

^^

https://bodegabaynyc.bandcamp.com/album/our-brand-could-be-your-life

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Tarkovski w/ one of my fav zone drones w/ some Stone Roses + Pillar at Manchester this summer.

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This is the first in a series of video essays I've made that relate to the OUR BRAND COULD BE YR LIFE thematic(s).

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We decided to join the boycott against official SXSW performances this year and will continue to in future years unless SXSW cuts their ties to genocidal war profiteering 'defense' contracting companies such as RTX and L3 in the future.

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I remember people being upset by the potato chip branding at SXSW in 2012 ---> flash forward a decade and there are music stages sponsored by the US Army...

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CC III -> Directed by Lucas Balser and shot by Hunter Zimny /// CC IV /// -> Made by Ben and Joe Wakeman.

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'City is Taken' and it's B-side 'New Age Spineless Sophists.'

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B-side to 'Tarkovski'.

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Dedicated to the tub readers and Toussaint.

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FYI : ‘Tarkovski’ is an intentional mispelling of Andrei Tarkovsky -> it’s a pun on the director and snow skiing. I chose it mostly cuz it’s looks cool spelled w/ the ‘I’.

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I love Dan's playing in the zone drone.

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OUR BRAND COULD BE YR LIFE -> April 12 on Chrysalis Records.

Dedicated to the Dedicated

G.N.D. Deity

Bodega Bait

Tarkovski

Major Amberson

Stain Gaze

Webster Hall

ATM

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Drum

Protean

Born into by what Consumes

Cultural Consumer I

Cultural Consumer II

Cultural Consumer III

City is Taken

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Some thoughts on rockist attempts to 'adapt' Joyce's Ulysses:

The first day I sat down w/ Ulysses (2009) I was jolted coming across 'He is the boy who can enjoy invisibility' in one of the early Stephen chapters -> that lyric was so familiar to me from Sonic Youth's EVOL cut 'Secret Girl.' Since it's near the beginning of the book I imagined Kim started and put down the pages after getting some great lines for a new track (I didn't make it all the way to the end on my first try). Unfortunately Kim doesn't mention the story behind this song in her book or anywhere else (to my knowledge). The track's lyrical commentary on advertising ties in w/ Bloom's profession (he sells copy space for a Dublin newspaper) so she probably did get further than me first try on the odyssey.

Mike Watt claims his Double Nickels tracks were Ulysses-inspired although the only direct allusion on the album is the title of the instrumental track 'June 16th' (the day the book is set, Bloomsday) on the 'Chaff' D side . Regardless these Watt songs (and Minutemen arrangements in general) evoke the feeling of reading Joyce and thinking-in-real-time so incredibly well. 'One Reporters Opinion' is an especially lovely/fun attempt at a Dedalus style self-portrait. I also love that the lines 'He's a chalk / He's a dartboard / His sex is disease / He's a stop sign' end the A side of the record. Stop sign reached.

Fontaines D.C. have a 'heart like a James Joyce novel' on their first LP and have a newish enigmatic vibey track called 'Bloomsday' that seems inspired by the Irish identity politics woven into the book. U2 also rep Bloomsday on their 'Breathe' (not a Floyd cover unfortunately).

Kate Bush has the show-stopping 'The Sensual World' which is a sonic staging of the book's erotic Molly finale (when Molly finally enjoys infinity). Bush recently re-did the track as 'Flower of the Moon' only including text directly from Joyce but I still prefer the vocal take of the original. I wonder if this was an inspiration for Bjork's incredible ecstatic sensual 'Cocoon'? (The most romantic track I know).

I recently was hipped to J Airplane's 'Rejoyce' which does directly allude to Bloom, Stepen, Molly, and her lover Blazes Boylan while also cleverly commenting on the state of corporation USA ('Sell your mother for a Hershey bar / Grow up looking like a car').

I dove into Ulysses on our 2019 tours (w/ the aid of an audio) and wrote lyric fragments in the style of the Proteus ('Thrown') and Nestor ('Top Hat No Rabbit') Stephen chapters in our van. I was also re-reading Shakespeare and Aristotle (Stephen's obsessions) which made the Proteus chapter in particular feel thrillingly alive -> it is still my favorite part of the book and takes me far inside each time I revisit. In 2020 I revised the 'Thrown' text in an attempt at self-portrait (similar to Mike Watt) adding more allusions but keeping Prince Hamlet and Dedalus.

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I think Joyce (and Godard) are often taught (or thought) incorrectly, as if their reference-based works are merely academic exercises in meta-textuality. I think of their dense signifying styles as diaristic expressways to the skull --> to paint a portrait of a cultural consumer you must include that which is consumed.

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--> 'I find in the world without actuality'.

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New NYC post etc. band ---> the b-side on this new 7" cruises. Caught them last week w/ Open Head (whose killer new set bodes extremely well for their upcoming second LP).