#Infants Under The Bulb

[senorboombastic]

Listening Post – June 2024

Words: Andy Hughes Listen – don’t even get us started on how quick this year is going. Ay caramba!  Alongside our bumper playlist for the year (capturing everything we’ve been loving from January through to now), the ‘Listening Post’ returns this month and is rammed with some top tunes, 20 of them in fact – old and new, all gold! Whilst you’re here, why not get involved with our new podcast?…

[dustedmagazine]

Uranium Club — Infants Under the Bulb (Static Shock)

Photo by Jack Cress

Join Uranium Club for the demented rants and snaky, agitated jams, but stay for the bizarre, beguiling window on our bizarre, beguiling times. Now, there’s nothing wrong with rants and jams alone — it is punk rock, after all — but this band is more ambitious. On their latest full-length, Infants Under the Bulb, these enigmatic Minneapolitans fling their conceptual heft in a new direction and expand their musical objectives without ceding much, if any, of their signature, careening tension.

Uranium Club has often pushed up against its core guitars-drums-bass sound to set or deepen a scene, but mostly at the margins. The space-age synth textures on 2016’s “God’s Chest,” for instance, or the cacophony of honks and alarms from “Grease Monkey” and muted piano underneath “Interview With The Cosmo Cleaners,” both from 2019. Though even in the latter example, which lasts the bulk of the song’s nearly 11 minutes, the embellishment seems more sampled than played. It tugs the main thrust of the music to another place. It’s pleasantly disorienting, but almost superficial.

On Infants Under the Bulb, horns and keyboards, when present, are embedded deep. “Viewers Like You,” with its desperate Eddie Argos-ian outbursts is driven by winding bursts of guitar, bass and drums, but it’s the tight yet delightfully berserk horn section that supercharges the riffs and rhythm before squiggling off into freer, jazzier spheres. It’s jolting and bracing and fits snugly into the band’s hard-charging style. So too does a similar, if more fleeting interplay on “Big Guitar Jack Off in the Sky.” Counter to its name, the song is most notable for the charismatic piano and saxophone parts than the racing guitars, a compliment to the new elements more than a beef with the eponymous instrument. Uranium Club has been and remains a great guitar band.

And a great vocal band. With Art Brut’s Argos, I’ve already mentioned one frontman I hear in Uranium Club’s ravings, but there’s plenty of Jad Fair and D Boon too, and the mid-tempo sneer of “Tokyo Paris L.A. Milan” could be a somewhat less spiteful Ron House project. Pick your favorite punk not-quite-singer and you’ll likely hear a hint. It’s not derivative, it’s just a good lineage from which to deliver one-liners like “if I have to drool, it might as well be on cashmere” and “I wanna trade sex for information!” But if wide-eyed tirades are central to the band’s identity then so, too, are experiments with spoken word. Uranium Club has a history of using prose performance to weave narrative into an album — the aforementioned “Interview…” and “Michael’s Soliloquy” from The Cosmo Cleaners, or “Intro” from All Of Them Naturals. While the latter has no musical backing, the Cleaners pair hew (with the exception of piano on “Interview…”) to the band’s usual oeuvre. And this is where Infants Under the Bulb goes from tugging the band’s music towards new realms to really yanking.

In four parts across three tracks, we’re told the story of “The Wall.” It’s fairly straightforward, a departure from denser precedents like “Interview..”. The parable concerns two women living apart in an unnamed, blandly pleasant place. Suddenly, a wall appears, and dictates its importance to each woman. The benefit is safety and its sinister shadow, security. This is welcomed by all, despite the uncanny sense that no one felt unsafe or insecure prior to the wall’s suggestion. To quote track seven, “2-600-LULLABY”: “Connect the dots, y’all.” One day, the wall disappears. The women are dismayed but meet each other in the wall’s absence. In the end, they rebuild the wall together. Performed by organist Molly Raben, the graceful, meditative instrumental demonstrates Uranium Club’s very punk commitment to not only follow creative vision where it leads but to find collaborative catharsis in the face of a changing, often sinister world. So come for the unhinged bangers, the double-time drums and heart-racing bass, the slashing guitars and stabbing horns; Infants Under the Bulb has all that. But stay for the solidarity and the calm between the storms.

Alex Johnson

[genericamentegiuseppe]

The Uranium Club - Infants Under the Bulb

Né punk né post punk, mai pretenziosi ma neanche immediati, gli Uranium Club se ne fregano delle definizioni e giocano nel mezzo di queste, la poca immaginazione diventa un cifra stilistica (e ideologica). Era un po’ che aspettavo questo ritorno, ma devo dire che i quattro da Minneapolis sono riusciti a stupirmi di nuovo, più maturi ma non meno incazzati di cinque anni fa. Eccovi qualche link…

[twistedhypersonicnavigator]

Day 1: Bug Hunt

Emmet sat back watching his Joltik having their mid day snack. Once again attempting to count the masses. Ingo had previously told him that he'd likely never be able to since they were always moving, and he'd likely count many of them twice because of it. He tried though, at this point it was like counting stars.

"1, 2...4...uh 9...12. no spark stay there. ah discharge don't steal your sisters batteries, 28, 32, no no fork do not bite! 44, 48, uh...52...are you two fighting! Flash! Crackle stop that fighting! You both had your shares." He stopped after he reached the undesired number. He looked around the apartment and then down at the stretching mother.

"Wheres Fulmy?" He asked looking around at the others to see if he could find the lone shiny. The spider mother stood up and looked around her infants who stopped fighting, biting, and stealing batteries from one another.

Her pincers made a clicking noise as a mother called throughout the apartment. It always astounded Emmet that a Garvantula can switch to a different language when talking to her babies. A male had no such thing. The females were loners and once the deed was done she produced and raised the brood on her own.

"Van?" She looked up at Emmet who reached down scratching her around her cheek.

"I'll try to look for him, you keep looking out for your babies." Emmet stood up to his full height and started to look though his usual haunts. Joltiks were tiny and can hide in places pretty well.

So under the counter in the bathroom, in the kitchen, under the bed, and just inside the cups on the table. Emmet looked around the room and then up the the lights. at first he thought he saw him and took the bulb off and looked inside. Nothing but cobwebs probably left behind by the previous brood.

Emmet was at a loss. He sat down the think about it. Where hadn't he looked?

the front door opened and shut.

"Good evening Emmet. Have a good day off?" Ingo walked in taking off his jacket and putting it onto the coat stand by the door. taking off his hat and placed it just beside Emmets.

"It was eventful, I can not find..." He spotted just on Ingo's head the one Joltik that had gone missing. "You little traveler...it would seem the one I have been looking for all day long has accompanied you to work." Emmet lightly picked up the yawning Joltik. Likely low on energy.

"Ah yes, I found him when I sat down to eat my lunch. I fed him and stowed him back under my had for safe keeping. He was a good boy." Ingo scratched the Joltiks fur. Only to receive a loud friendly chirp and a shock.

[majorasnightmare]

throws my out of date psych college courses into the ring

so!! as a fun fact, humans actually only have two instincts! instinct here referring to unconscious automatic behaviors that dont need to be taught. in humans thats fight or flight, and suckling in infants!

dirge, as the Dark Urge, has Genuine Actual Instincts, an experience literally no one else in or out of the party has! even druids like halsin only have conditional instincts based on their wildshape, and can break out of them

so in addition to the default humanoid package dirge has, he also has kill instincts, instinctively knowing how to kill other humanoids and when to pounce. this is bhaal's "holy promise of murder" and even without the influence of the Urges, dirge retains the instinct still. a letter from sarevok in the epilogue indicates that the dark urge is also saddled with an instinctive need to sire progeny that also will manifest depressive symptoms if left unsatisfied, but also that this particular instinct can take years, if not decades to actually pop up, which makes sense as breeding instincts in other mammals are usually on a hormone based timer.

its somewhat common knowledge that humans have more than five senses (proprioception, the sense of how our bodies are oriented in 3d space and used for movement and acrobatics, and a sense of temperature), but in addition to those dirge, as a bhaalspawn, also can sense the presence of death and life dying around him, typically a pleasant sensation. as specifically a godspawn made from bhaal's flesh, dirge also possesses the capability to physically sense faith and sacredness, though he hasnt honed it since his lobotomy and thus is very vague and faint. (his eldest paladin siblings, however, have trained and honed that sense extensively)

under the hood, dirge has a denser-than-average olfactory bulb, owing to his sharper sense of smell, and his eyes have a mutated color cone allowing him to perceive a greater variety of red with finer nuance in shades and saturations. the corpus collosum was damaged by orins attack, but has since recovered somewhat around the scar tissue, and the reward and pleasure center in his brain is unusually dense, with specific neural structures dedicated to allowing that part of his brain to be activated externally, owing to a lifetime in the cult of bhaal having the ecstasy of murder triggered repeatedly. the amygdala and brainstem areas are also denser than average, due to dirge having more instinctive behaviors than a normal tiefling, and a lifetime of near death fear activation. those areas also have to account for dirge having unique muscle groupings that behave unlike other muscle sections in his body, and thus necessitate their own instructions (dirges jaw muscles having variable tensile strength for inhuman bite force, dirges leg and hip muscles able to rotate for an on all fours stance)

theres also the changes he made to his own brain, inviting caiphon into his mind and training psionics for years, and then utilizing the astral tadpole to further develop them. psionics for SURE causes changes in brain structure but i dont know if itd be localized to the frontal lobe or distributed throughout the entire brain, but i know that for how heavily dirge uses em, his brain is DEFINITELY showin signs

dirge is this odd chimeric mix of aberrant and divine, beastial and civilized, and i think it rly shows in how his brain just. does NOT look normal, even before he got holes punched in it

[idsfantasy]

Summary:

At one year old, Vash knew he aged faster than humans, and had tried to come to terms with the fact that he would probably die well before any of the humans he met.

He didn't anticipate just how wrong that assessment was.

Vash knew that, as Independents, he and Kni were different from humans. Like any Plant, they had gates (though Vash still hadn’t figured out how to use his, if he even could at all), and had special markings that only appeared under certain kinds of light or when using their powers to talk to other Plants. It just so happened that, according to Rem, the twins looked and acted like they were relatively normal, eight year-old, human children.

Which, of course, was part of the whole ‘different from humans’ deal given the two were only a year old.

Not that it bothered Vash much. He’d heard about human infants from Rem, and he was more than happy that he could actually understand and enjoy the life he was living. He couldn’t imagine having to eat just mushy baby food for so long! He might actually understand Kni’s dislike of eating if they had to do that.

But even if Kni teased Vash for not acting like a Plant, it wasn’t as though Vash didn’t know he was one. It just didn’t really feel like it mattered.

At least it didn’t until one night at dinner, Kni looked up from his largely untouched plate, and asked, “Rem, since we age faster than humans, how long are we going to live?”

“I don’t know, Kni,” Rem said. “Dependent Plants have longer lifespans than humans-”

“But you said we’ve been growing faster than humans,” Kni interrupted, “and the dependent Plants don’t seem to age at all.”

As the implication of Kni’s statement set in, Vash felt his fork slide from his grasp and clatter to his plate. Eyes wide, Vash whipped his head up from his meal to face Rem, who inhaled sharply, her smile strained and fading.

“I don’t know,” she said again. “The only real reference for long-term Plant aging we have are the dependent Plants, but-”

“But we’re different from them, and the bulbs keep them alive! What if being independent is why we’re growing so much?” Kni said, and Vash could hear the note of worry in his voice. “Are we just going to age fast forever until we die in a few years?”

“Wait, what if we never get to see the planet? What if we die before we can even wake anyone up?” Vash’s voice cracked as he added his questions to his brother’s, his heart pounding faster and faster as thoughts of the future flew through his mind. “And what about you? If we don’t stop aging fast, we’ll die, and you’ll be alone-”

“Oh, boys…” Rem quickly stood from her seat, made her way around the small table to stand behind the two Independents, who immediately turned to face her as she rested a hand on each of their shoulders. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I promise, it’s going to be okay. Sometimes…sometimes even humans don’t live as long as others, but that doesn’t mean that the time they do have isn’t precious. No matter if you live as long as a human or less, your lives have meaning. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Then, Rem pulled both Vash and Kni into a tight hug, but not before Vash saw the start of tears in her eyes.

After that conversation, Vash had consigned himself to the fact that he and his brother likely weren’t going to live as long as the humans on the ship.

And then they discovered Tesla.

And then there was The Fall.

And then Vash was found by the crew of Ship 3. 

A member of the crew, Luida, recognized him as an Independent (though she was the only one who seemed to know what that was), and Vash was locked in a cell by a crew that didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t know what to do with himself either. He didn’t eat, except for when the hunger got too fierce, and marked the days that went by on the wall. Ticking down the days to where his rapid aging may end his life before the hunger or the humans did.

Vash had spent nearly a third of his life in the cell before he was able to earn their trust by saving one of the Plants, and finally Vash knew that he had a purpose. He couldn’t generate electricity, or water, or food, or any other useful resource, but he could at least make sure his sisters were healthy enough to do it in his stead. He started helping other crashed ships with their Plants, and the crew of Ship 3 became something like a family. 

Then his role in The Fall was discovered and Vash ran. He found Kni, only to lose him once again, along with his left arm. A left arm that Brad, the very man whose accusation of betrayal caused Vash to run, replaced as an apology.

“It’s a bit clunky, but it should work as a temporary solution. Just let me know if it has any issues,” Brad said as he watched Vash flex the fingers of the prosthetic. “We’ll need to replace it in the next few months after all, what with you sprouting up like a weed any time we look away.”

Vash let out a soft laugh at that. “Guess I’ve hit my growth spurt.”

“You only just hit it now?” Brad scoffed and shook his head. “What do you call the last two years then?”

Vash looked down at the new arm and felt his smile dim slightly. He didn’t like to think about his age. When it was just him, Rem, and Kni (Knives?), it wasn’t as though Vash had any other kids to look to as a reference other than his twin, who was growing up at the same rapid pace as him. 

Now, at Home, there were human children out of cryosleep. Not many, but enough to where Vash was very aware of how he went from being something close to their peer to something nearly adult before any of them hit puberty. Sure, his aging was apparently slowing down, something Luida confirmed from what she remembered about Independents, but in spite of whatever relief he felt at knowing he wasn’t going to be dead in a few years from his body’s aging, he still felt the separation.

As an Independent, and one that had human needs at that, he was already too human to be a proper Plant, but his aging made it clear that he was too much of a Plant to be human either. The kids didn’t mind too much when playing with him, less than the teenagers who knew he was a little kid only a couple years ago did anyway, but it made something in Vash’s stomach twist. He knew that the only people actually his age on the ship were barely grown up enough to start preschooling, but whenever one of the kids he’d been playing hide and seek with only a year ago started treating him differently because he looked older than he used to, Vash felt as though it created another layer of distance between them. 

“You’ve got a point there,” Vash finally said before the pause could get too long. He looked back up at Brad, making sure to fix his smile more firmly on his face. 

“Of course I do,” Brad said with a smirk, though…was that a hint of concern in his expression? “Anyway, we’ll get you fitted for a new one in a couple months. I should be able to figure out some of what works and what doesn’t by then. Can’t have you go telling people I made you that thing only for it to not work. That would be bad for my reputation.”

“Of course,” Vash said, his smile becoming a bit more genuine.

By the time Vash turned six, he was taller than most of the humans he met, and the majority of the people he ran into recognized him as and treated him like a full grown adult. A young one, sure, and he’d overheard plenty of comments about his childishness, but in his defense, the other kids his age were much more childish than he was.

In any case, he looked like an adult, acted (mostly) like an adult, and could handle himself on his own. As such, rather than having Brad take time away from important projects at Home to chaperone Vash on his trips to heal the Plants, Vash began making the journeys between crash sites and budding towns on his own. He still stopped by Home occasionally, but as he met more and more people in more and more places, the gaps between his visits grew longer and longer. 

With how much traveling he was doing, it was understandable that he hadn’t really noticed. It wasn’t as though he kept track of time, as he was mostly busy trying to get to dying Plants before Kni did, and with him not staying in one place for long, it wasn’t as though Vash had any long-term references to compare himself to.

Because of this, Vash didn’t notice just how much his aging had slowed until he returned Home and realized that the same kids he’d played with when he’d first been let out of the cell weren’t kids anymore.

In fact, they looked older than him.

“Vash, is everything okay?” Luida asked when she noticed him standing frozen in the hall, watching one of his former playmates walk by. 

Luida herself was showing signs of aging, something Vash hadn’t really paid much attention to with how he wasn’t often around to notice in the first place. Vash had expected that he would look older than her by the time her hair started to go grey. 

Vash turned to face her and asked, “How long has it been since The Fall?”

“It’s been about twenty-seven years,” Luida replied, though her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, highlighting the wrinkles Vash could see beginning to form on her forehead. “Why do you ask?”

Vash inhaled sharply, and looked over at his reflection in the clean metal of the ship walls. Maybe it was because he was similar enough to humans in how he looked and acted, but when he’d found out his aging had slowed, he had assumed that it would eventually just reach human levels. Looking at himself now though, his face looking just the same as it had when he’d turned six years old, he realized that he never should have assumed that to be the case.

A dependent Plant’s maximum natural lifespan wasn’t completely known. They could be pushed beyond their limit, causing their energy to dry up, but even then Vash knew that every Plant on this planet was well over 200 years old. He knew that Plants lived much, much longer than humans.

Vash was different from the dependent Plants, but maybe Vash wasn’t different in this.

Maybe Vash wasn’t going to die before the humans he’d come to consider family. They’d die decades, maybe centuries, before him.

“Vash!”

Vash flinched away from the sudden pressure on his shoulder, and his head whipped around to face Luida. He processed her outstretched hand and concerned expression the same instant he realized just how heavily he was breathing. 

Vash took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Luida’s concern remained, though she lowered her hand and smiled back at him. “That’s alright, Vash. But why did you ask how long it’s been? Is there something bothering you?”

Vash didn’t bother to hide his frown, and looked back down the hall. If his suspicions were correct, Vash could be around for decades, centuries beyond any human’s natural lifespan. He loved his sisters, but he couldn’t connect with them the same way he could connect with humans, he was too Independent for that, and Kni…

Kni wanted to destroy humanity, and Vash just couldn’t go along with that. Life was precious, human and Plant. No one had the right to determine who should live or die. Kni however, clearly disagreed. Kni caused the ships to crash, mercilessly killed the humans he considered a plague, and while Vash hadn’t caught him in the act, he had heard of Plants going missing from some developing towns shortly before he arrived to help his sisters who were in pain, dooming the towns to deterioration. Bodies sliced to pieces were left in the kidnapper’s wake, and Vash couldn’t think of anyone other than Kni who would do something like that. Kni was the only living being on this planet who could perfectly relate to Vash, but also he couldn’t relate at all.

Vash had taken some degree of solace in his connections to humanity, but in time, the people he loved would be gone. He had already lost Rem, and it had nearly torn him apart. How could he possibly handle centuries worth of this?

“Vash, please,” Luida’s voice cut through his thoughts and Vash snapped back to reality. She had moved to stand in front of Vash, both hands placed firmly on his shoulders. He wondered when she had done that. “Please, let me help you.”

It was then that Vash noticed he was crying. Blinking furiously, he hastily scrubbed the moisture from his face and broke eye contact with the older woman.

“Vash, please tell me what’s wrong,” Luida insisted, her voice brimming with worry.

Vash took a deep breath. “I don’t think…I don’t think I’m aging at all anymore.”

Luida’s eyes widened in realization, and the pressure from her hands on Vash’s shoulders let up slightly. “Oh.”

Without thinking, Vash found his hands curling over hers, the added pressure on his shoulders anchoring him and his thoughts. He returned her gaze and took a shuddering breath as his train of thought threatened to spiral into worst case scenarios, centuries into a lonely, empty future.

“What if I have the lifespan of a dependent Plant?” Vash whispered, and he felt the burn of tears behind his eyes start up again. “I don’t want to die early, but I can’t…I don’t know if I can handle outliving anyone else.”

He didn’t have to mention who he’d already lost for Luida to understand. The crew of the former Ship 3 may have survived The Fall, but she’d had a knack for empathizing with others as long as Vash had known her, and Luida was well aware of how much Rem meant to the Independent. She had seen just how badly it had shattered him, and had eventually helped him pick up the pieces.

Melancholy moved over the older woman’s face, though it wasn’t long before it was accompanied by resolve. “I have been considering making use of cryosleep, partly because it would allow me to work on my projects with the flora over a longer scope of time without having to worry about dying of old age before they can grow. If I did, I would leave instructions for the others to wake me up if I’m asleep when you come by. While I can’t speak for Brad, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t willing to do the same. It would have its limits, but do you think that would help?”

Vash stared at her, eyes wide as he processed Luida’s words. “You would do that?”

Luida smiled. “I suggested it, didn’t I?”

Then her grip on Vash loosened. Vash instinctively leaned forward, chasing the touch as her hands pulled away, but he didn’t have time to second guess his body’s movement as he quickly found himself pulled into a firm hug. After a brief pause, Vash slowly, but tightly wrapped his arms around Luida in return, bending down slightly to bury his face in her hair as his tears fell and his breaths heaved into sobs.

“I’m sorry,” Vash gasped, though he couldn’t bring himself to let go of her. “I shouldn’t ask you to-”

“Vash, no,” Luida murmured, her voice soothing his fraying nerves as she held him tighter. “You don’t need to apologize for this.”

Vash disagreed. If Luida did use cryosleep to match his lifespan more closely, she’d just be joining him in leaving the people she knew behind if they didn’t do the same. She would outlive her friends. Her children. All for the sake of a broken Independent who couldn’t bear to be alone.

But Vash didn’t say any of that out loud. He couldn’t deny her that choice, just as he couldn’t deny the relief he felt because of it. So instead, Vash buried the guilt beside the rest, and let himself cry in Luida’s embrace.

[blogovision]

blogovision2024 1-50

1. Fontaines D.C. - "Romance" (475) 2. Cure - "Songs Of A Lost World" (415) 3. Beth Gibbons - "Lives Outgrown" (347) 4. Charli XCX - "Brat" (336) 5. Smile - "Wall Of Eyes" (260) 6. Beak> - ">>>>" (172) 7. Idles - "TANGK" (170) 8. Jamie Xx - "In Waves" (162) 9. Billie Eilish - "Hit Me Hard And Soft" (150) 10. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Wild God" (135) 11. Kendrick Lamar - "GNX" (110) 12. Sprints - "Letter To Self" (110) 13. Kim Gordon - "The Collective" (109) 14. Being Dead - "Eels" (107) 15. Cindy Lee - "Diamond Jubilee" (102) 16. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead" (97) 17. Beyonce - "Cowboy Carter" (89) 18. Chelsea Wolfe - "She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She" (88) 19. Nadine Shah - "Filthy Underneath" (87) 20. Vampire Weekend - "Only God Was Above Us" (86) 21. Mannequin Pussy - "I Got Heaven" (84) 22. Jessica Pratt - "Here In The Pitch" (82) 23. Floating Points - "Cascade" (81) 24. Tyler, The Creator - "Chromakopia" (79) 25. Xiu Xiu - "13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips" (79) 26. Fat White Family - "Forgiveness Is Yours" (78) 27. Echo Tides - "Στον Δρόμο Που Φυτρώναν Φράουλες" (77) 28. Memorials - "Memorial Waterslides" (76) 29. Shellac - "To All Trains" (73) 30. Kneecap - "Fine Art" (71) 31. DIIV - "Frog In Boiling Water" (70) 32. Body - "The Crying Out Of Things" (68) 33. Smile - "Cutouts" (67) 34. Uranium Club - "Infants Under The Bulb" (66) 35. JPEGMAFIA - "I Lay Down My Life For You" (66) 36. Tindersticks - "Soft Tissue" (61) 37. Porridge Radio - "Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me" (58) 38. MJ Lenderman - "Manning Fireworks" (57) 39. Arab Strap - "I’m Totally Fine With It ???? Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore ????" (56) 40. Amyl And The Sniffers - "Cartoon Darkness" (56) 41. Chat Pile - "Cool World" (55) 42. English Teacher - "This Could Be Texas" (53) 43. Magdalena Bay - "Imaginal Disk" (53) 44. Father John Misty - "Mahashmashana" (52) 45. Julie Christmas - "Ridiculous And Full Of Blood" (49) 46. Mdou Moctar - "Funeral For Justice" (49) 47. Blood Incantation - "Absolute Elsewhere" (49) 48. Moin - "You Never End" (49) 49. Marina Satti - "P.O.P." (48)

[fotobill]

06. Friko | Where we've been, Where we go from here

previously:

07. Uranium Club | Infants Under The Bulb

08. Chastity Belt | Live Laugh Love

09. King Hannah | Big Swimmer

10. Pan Pan x Years of Youth | Λύκοι στον Άρη

11. The Smile | Wall of Eyes

12. The Cure | Songs of a Lost World

13. The Hard Quartet | The Hard Quartet

14. Arab Strap | I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍

15. Kim Gordon | The Collective

16. Camera Obscura | Look to the East, Look to the West

17. Porridge Radio | Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me

18. Being Dead | EELS

19. English Teacher | This Could Be Texas

20. Adrianne Lenker | Bright Future

[tydy-the-megnet]

They called me "Gramps."

All of them, from the elders to the infants, they all looked to me as some primordial kin, despite the fact that I still looked thirty-two.

I walked down a street that was paved with asphalt — a modern, black, artifical rock, and nothing like the uneven cobblestones I'd grown used to — and I watched the multitude of stores as I passed by. They were modern, too. Huge windows displays rows of mass-produced goods, all sparkling under the modern lanterns — light bulbs, I reminded myself.

With hands in pockets, I thumbed the cash that was sitting there. The same amount could've bought a lot more just a few years ago, but I had so much of it at this point that I wasn't about to begrudge the world its capitalism. Not when there were so many other problems for me to complain about. Instead, I complained under my breath about the options, of all things. As I let out a huff, my breath fogged in the winter air, and I paused at a particularly colorful store. I gazed into the windows, silently stepping out of the way of passersby as I looked at the different shops. You always found the neatest little things in spots like this. Little touresty towns with too-high prices for their gimmicky little goods. I loved them. I had money to burn, a byproduct of my longevity, so the overpriced shirts hyperspecifically decorated cups always ended up catching my eye.

It was like a memoir, in a way. A method of remembering every little thing I'd ever done. Like my entire life was a vacation.

It might as well be, at any rate. I'd accumulated enough wealth to be able to travel like this constantly, so I did. Usually I ended up visiting family. A very large family, at this point. It'd kept growing over the years, but I made it a point to keep up with them for as long as they'd have me.

Of course, as the times changed, it became harder to just knock on doors and visit, but I still kept up my own traditions — from postcards, to telephone calls, to e-mails, making sure to update my methods as time went on. It made it easier and easier, actually, to keep up with everyone, even as my family grew from generation to generation.

I walked into the store, and saw a section of small novelty keychains. I'm sure I had a granddaughter somewhere who loved these things. I would need to check my family journals. I had far from a perfect memory, and needed books to help me remember who's who, and where.

I smiled at a little keychain with a little globe on it. I pointed out to myself the places I had family — the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Australia, India, Egypt, Italy, Spain, England, and so many others — I'd had to learn so many languages over the ages, as well as keep them all updated with the times.

I chuckled as I saw Batman stickers next to the keychains. That little boy... Devon? Darren? Damien? I couldn't quite remember the name, but I remember when he asked if I was a vampire. It didn't help that I'd recently been to Dacia. Or Romania. Whatever is was called now.

I decided to get the keychain, and stepped back out into the cold, only to hear, "Bye Gramps!" from one of the workers. I looked back to see the young woman waving. No, hold on, the young man. I smiled, both at my grandson and the marvels of modern technology (turning women into men and vice versa! How fascinating!).

"See you soon, Daniel!" I waved back, "I'm in town for the week!" Daniel! That was his name! I smiled, "Just be sure to invite me in!" I added with an accent, "playing to the bit" as they said.

The last I heard was a gasp as I left.

Most immortals become the angsty “everyone I have ever loved is gone” kind of immortal. You, on the other hand, instead took it upon yourself to be a loving presence to entire generations of your chosen family, because they are descended from someone you once loved long ago.

[hlektronio]

1. Uranium Club - Infants Under The Bulb

Περασμένα μεγαλεία

2. Fontaines D.C. - Romance

3. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

4. BEAK> - >>>>

5. Chastity Belt - Live Laugh Love

6. Metz - Up On Gravity Hill

7. Elias Rønnenfelt - Heavy Glory

8. The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World

9. DIIV - Frog In Boiling Water

10. Marbled Eye - Read the Air

11. The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet

12. Lightning Bug - No Paradise

13. Sprints - Letter to Self

14. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

15. Porcelain - Porcelain

16. The Green Child - Look Familiar

17. Dr. Sure’s Unusual Practice - Total Reality

18. Neighbours Burning Neighbours - Burning Neighbours

19. Beige Banquet - Ornamental Hermit

20. Tall Juan - Raccoon Nights

[fangyuanriot]

01 Beth Gibbons Lives Outgrown

// 02 BEAK> >>>> 03 MEMORIALS Memorial Waterslides 04 Fontaines D.C. Romance 05 The Smile Wall of Eyes 06 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Wild God 07 Kim Gordon The Collective 08 Drahla angeltape 09 Ty Segall Three Bells 10 Echo Tides Στον δρόμο που φυτρώναν φράουλες 11 Thurston Moore Flow Critical Lucidity 12 DIIV Frog In Boiling Water 13 King Hannah Big Swimmer 14 Uranium Club Infants Under The Bulb 15 Radio Sect Wired 16 The Cure Songs of a Lost World 17 The Hard Quartet The Hard Quartet 18 The Smile Cutouts 19 Arab Strap I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍 20 Party Dozen Crime In Australia

[senorboombastic]

Listening Post – February 2024

Words: Andy Hughes Eagle-eyed readers might’ve spotted the lack of a ‘Listening Post’ at the start of the year. We’ve been a bit busy launching a podcast you see – ’60 Minutes or less’ – live now, featuring interesting chats with Joe Casey (Protomartyr) and Paul Hanley (The Fall)! That doesn’t mean we’ve had our ears closed to new music, mind. Alongside our bumper playlist for the year…

[dustedmagazine]

Dusted Mid-Year 2024, Part III (The Lists)

Winged Wheel

Dusted’s writers picked two for the mid-year exchange, but any of them could easily reel off a dozen or more other favorites.  Find out what else they liked in this collection of lists. 

If you haven’t read Part I or Part II yet, check them out. 

Christian Carey

Arooj Aftab —  Night Reign (Verve)

Richard Baker —  The Tyranny of Fun (NMC)

Kyle Bruckman —  Of Rivers (New Focus)

Madi Diaz —  Weird Feeling (Anti)

Julia Holter —  Something in the Room She Moves (Domino)

Hurray for the Riff Raff —  The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)

Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey —  Compassion (ECM)

Kali Malone —  All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)

Rosali — Bite Down (Merge)

Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion —  Rectangles and Circumstance (Nonesuch)

Ches Smith —  Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic)

Waxahatchee —  Tigers Blood (Anti)

Tim Clarke

DIIV — Frog In Boiling Water (Fantasy)

Loma — How Will I Live Without A Body? (Sub Pop)

Jessica Pratt — Here in the Pitch (City Slang)

Jon Mckiel — Hex (You’ve Changed)

Winged Wheel — Big Hotel (12XU)

Corridor — Mimi (Sub Pop)

English Teacher — This Could Be Texas (Island)

Helado Negro — Phasor (4AD)

Ty Segall — Three Bells (Drag City)

The Smile — Wall of Eyes (XL)

Andrew Forell

Arab Strap — I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍 (Rock Action)

Camera Obscura — Look to the East, Look to the West (Merge)

Daryl Groetsch — Above the Shore (self-released)

Drahla — angeltape (Captured Tracks)

Geotic — The Anchorite (Basement’s Basement)

Iceboy Violet, Nueen — You Said You’d Hold my Hand Through the Fire (Hyperdub)

Kim Gordon — The Collective (Matador)

Mick Harvey — Five Ways to Say Goodbye (Mute)

Sandwell District — Where Next? (Point of Departure)

Umbrellas — Fairweather Friend (Slumberland)

Yosa Peit — Gutbuster (Fire)

Reissues:

Brion Gysin — Junk (WEWANTSOUNDS)

These Immortal Souls — Get Lost (Don’t Lie!) Mute

Bryon Hayes

Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)

Winged Wheel – Big Hotel (12xU)

Gastr Del Sol – We Have Dozens of Titles (Drag City)

Beings – There is a Garden (No Quarter)

Ambarchi Berthling Werliin – Dusted II (Drag City)

Sunburned Hand of the Man – Nimbus (Three Lobed)

Water Damage – In E (12xU)

Dun-Dun Band – Pita Parka Pt. 1: Xam Egdub (Ansible Editions)

Gerycz Powers Rolin – Activator (12xU)

Magic Tuber String Band – Needlefall (Thrill Jockey)

Alex Johnson

Rosali — Bite Down (Merge)

RE Seraphin —  Fool’s Mate (Take A Turn/Safe Suburban Home)

Uranium Club —  Infants Under the Bulb (Static Shock)

The Spatulas —  Beehive Mind (Post Present Medium)

Yohei —  Echo You Know (Perpetual Doom)

Pardoner —  Paranoid in Hell (Convulse)

NYSSA —  Shake Me Where I’m Foolish (Six Shooter)

Nowhere Flower —  Ruts the Place (Radical Documents)

Sheer Mag —  Playing Favorites (Third Man)

Cindy Lee —  Diamond Jubilee (Realistik Studios)

Oren Ambachi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werlin —  Ghosted II (Drag City)

Winged Wheel —  Big Hotel (12XU)

Jennifer Kelly

Rosali—Bite Down (Merge)

Mdou Moctar—Funeral for Justice (Matador)

Mary Timony—Untame the Tiger (Merge)

Myriam Gendron—Mayday (Thrill Jockey)

Lupa Citto—S-T (12XU)

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg—All Gist (Paradise of Bachelors)

Rail Band—S-T (Mississippi)

Winged Wheel—Big Hotel (12XU)

Six Organs of Admittance—Time is Glass (Drag City)

Split System—Vol. 2 (Goner)

Ian Mathers

The Body & Dis Fig — Orchards of a Futile Heaven (Thrill Jockey)

Broadcast — Spell Blanket: Collected Demos 2006-2009 (Warp)

Cassandra Jenkins — My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)

Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (Loma Vista)

Jessica Moss — For UNRWA (Self released)

Laura Masotto — The Spirit of Things (7K!)

loscil // lawrence english — Chroma (Self released)

Myriam Gendron — Mayday (Feeding Tube/Thrill Jockey)

Polar Inertia — Environment Control (Northern Electronics)

Whitelands — Night-bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day (Sonic Cathedral)

Jim Marks

Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash — Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols (Sonic Camera)

Mary Halvorson — Cloudward (Nonesuch)

Demian Cabaud — Arbol Adentro (Porta Jazz)

Fabiano do Nascimento and Sam Gendel — The Room (Real World)

Francesco Sensi — In Abstracto (WoW)

James Brandon Lewis Quartet — Transfiguration (Intakt)

James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg — All Gist (Paradise of Bachelors)

Juan Pablo Alcazar — Otro Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (Porta Jazz)

Michele di Toro, Yuri Goloubev, and Hans Mathisen — Trinomics (Calogola)

Tony Moreno Trio — Ballads Volume 1 (Sunnyside)

Patrick Masterson

Cindy Lee — Diamond Jubilee (Realistik)

Chief Keef — Almighty So 2 (43B)

Marika Hackman — Big Sigh (Chrysalis)

Water Damage — In E (12XU)

Oneida — Expensive Air (Joyful Noise)

Winged Wheel — Big Hotel (12XU)

Burial — “Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above" (XL)

Gouge Away — Deep Sage (Deathwish Inc.)

Blues Ambush — Blues Ambush (Radical Documents)

Tei Shi — Valerie (self-released)

Armand Hammer — BLK LBL (self-released)

Donato Dozzy — Magda (Spazio Disponibile)

Bill Meyer

 أحمد  [Ahmed] —Wood Blues (Astral Spirits)

 أحمد  [Ahmed]—Giant Beauty (Fönstret)

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet—Four Guitars Live (Palilalia) 

Itasca—Imitation of War (Paradise of Bachelors) 

Lisa Ullen, Heirloom (Fönstret)

Lumpeks—Polonez (Umlaut) 

Matthew Shipp Trio, New Directions in Jazz Piano Trio (ESP-Disk’)

Olivia Block—The Mountains Pass (Black Truffle)

Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin—Ghosted II (Drag City)

Rafael Toral—Spectral Evolution (Moikai) 

The Handover—The Handover (Sublime Frequencies) 

Tomeka Reid Quartet—3x3 (Cuneiform) 

Jonathan Shaw

Bad Breeding—Contempt (Iron Lung)

Fuera de Sektor—Juegos Prohibidos (La Vida Es un Mus)

Cindy Lee—Diamond Jubilee (Realistik Studios)

SUMAC—The Healer (Thrill Jockey)

Thou—Umbilical (Sacred Bones)

VR Sex—“Hard Copy” (Dais)

[poetrybyaliens]

My Mothers Ghost

My Mothers Ghost

Started Dec.4th 2024

My mothers ghost floats through my family’s new home.

An ethereal blue, cold and beautiful.

She taught me everything.

I have so much to relearn.

She haunts my nightmares and doubts, my desperate anxieties.

She warms the heart, a soothing balm like a shining golden star against the cold infinite stillness of space.

She’s a fiery red blaze of passion, rebuilt, destroyed and rekindled a hundred times.

If she made it why cant I?

17 with an infant and a crack addict husband, 5 years for a 2-year degree, first of her family. Hurt by the system in ways I will never be.

The fire of a warm incandescent bulb has flickered and faded to a cold blue fluorescence.

My kitchen growing up was tacky, outdated, a loving rustic burgundy and brown.

Tacky brown furniture, and outdated carpets.

All the walls in our new home are white.

The furniture is gray now.

I miss the poorly installed wood paneling of the living room.

I’ve never felt safer.

I’ve never felt safe.

Her passion was suffocating.

Painful.

 “A child should have a healthy fear of their parents.”

“I never let you act like that in public, how embarrassing.”

“If that were my kid I woulda beat sense into them.”

My twin was valedictorian.

He was the favorite.

He’s too disabled for college in person.

Was.

I watch him rust, rot, and dim under the strain of my parents basement.

He’s an old porcelain doll, once lovingly painted, dropped once it wasn’t fun to play with anymore and left to rot.

Now cracked and glued together with a shaky inexperienced hand.

If I could get good enough with Kitsungi I could make him whole again.

We’re a family of crafters, I can fix this.

The ghost haunts him too.

Mocking, belittling, snide remarks.

How could a computer be so important to someone?

Wasting life.

Old dolls can’t drive, how are they supposed to meet to make friends?

Her voice echoes down the stairwell, a horrible echo of who we knew.

The ghost has a laugh that lights up rooms with a warm yellow glow and I remember her as she was.

This hurts the most.

The yellow fades back into the cold mists of her.

It always does.

You can’t use your disabilities as an excuse.

They’re not even real.

 I’m getting groceries what do you and Eden need?

If he’d just try harder.

Kids these days, back when I was your age.

Oh honey, everyone feels this way, just gotta pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Do you need gas money?

My mothers ghost is smart, top of her range, irreplaceable at her job.

First of her family to get a degree.

I’m so proud and inspired.

It’s a November morning, crisp breaze through rustling rusting leaves.

Yellow sun, amber trees, bright for now but I know it doesn’t last.

Me and my twin’s porcelain corpse were talking about his newest recipies.

I was complaining of a cold.

Carefully painting life back into his blue eyes with shaky unreliable hands.

I don’t visit enough for the color to stay.

I can fix this.

Her warm and mellow voice carries into the kitchen.

It floats learned hate and conspiracy as easy as breathing.

A cold front covers the sky with clouds again outside the window as I stare so I don’t have to look at the white walls.

She laughs warm and clear.

Her laugh can light up a room with glowing yellow sparks, it feels more like a florescent tube bulb now.

How do I grieve the living?

The ghost of the woman who raised me.

Silver spoons of love are now tarnished forks barely holding anything sustaining.

She despises everything I am that I haven’t told her.

She loves the idea of me as I love the idea of her.

Full of bitter regret, poisonous hate and dishonest harmony.

How do I grieve the living?

I wish I could call my mom and ask.

I see less and less of her now.

I wonder if she exists or if the ghost has taken her place.

I can fix this

How do I fix this

Can I try

How do I try

Mom please just tell me what to do again

I miss you so much

[revilermpls]

The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band Expand Their Sound With Infants Under the Bulb

Am I writing about new LP Infants Under the Bulb by The Minneapolis Uranium Club because I love the music and have been a longtime fan of the band? Or because I spent a Saturday afternoon last summer dressed in a red rain poncho with a bunch of strangers posing in different spots in a circle to help make the album cover? Can it be both? While my (indistinguishable) presence on the cover makes…

[drmanishgarg]

How to treat a child's cold?

Colds are a common ailment in children, especially during the colder months. While they are usually not serious, managing the symptoms effectively can help your child feel better faster. The best child specialist in Kota offers these expert tips on how to treat a child's cold:

1. Keep Them Hydrated

Ensure your child drinks plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. Water, clear broths, and diluted fruit juices can help. For infants, continue breastfeeding or formula feeding as usual.

2. Use a Humidifier

Using a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room can help ease congestion and soothe irritated nasal passages. Make sure to clean the humidifier regularly to prevent mold and bacteria buildup.

3. Elevate the Head

Keeping your child's head elevated while they sleep can help reduce nasal congestion. For infants, elevate the head of the crib slightly, but ensure it is done safely.

4. Saline Nasal Drops

Saline nasal drops or sprays can help loosen mucus in a stuffy nose. They are safe for use in infants and children. Use a bulb syringe to gently suction out the mucus for younger children.

5. Ensure Rest

Encourage your child to get plenty of rest. Adequate sleep helps the body fight off infections and recover more quickly.

6. Offer Honey (for Children Over One Year)

For children over one year old, a spoonful of honey can help soothe a sore throat and reduce coughing. Do not give honey to infants under one year due to the risk of botulism.

7. Comforting Foods

Warm soups, broths, and teas can be comforting and help with hydration. Avoid giving spicy or acidic foods that might irritate the throat.

8. Over-the-Counter Medications

For children over six years old, certain over-the-counter medications may help alleviate symptoms. Always consult with the best child specialist in Kota before giving any medication to ensure it is safe and appropriate for your child's age and symptoms.

9. Practice Good Hygiene

Encourage your child to wash their hands frequently to prevent the spread of germs. Teach them to cover their mouth and nose with a tissue or elbow when they cough or sneeze.

10. Monitor Symptoms

Keep an eye on your child's symptoms. If the cold lasts more than ten days, if symptoms worsen, or if your child develops a high fever, difficulty breathing, or ear pain, seek medical advice promptly.