#Vacant Stare

[thatsbelievable]

[turbotasstic]

someone had a dental cleaning and tooth extraction today.

very different energy compared to when he got neutered (but he is as high as a kite all the same)

[bandcampsnoop]

2/4/23.

Dick Stusso. The original release - "Nashville Dreams/Sing The Blues" - that chronicled the travails of Dick Stusso was released on cassette by Vacant Stare. I was enthralled (and still am) by the sounds and story. Dick Stusso then released "In Heaven" - which was good but not nearly as interesting.

Now comes S.P. (Hardly Art), and the feel from the original album returns. The sounds are diverse and the story thread of Dick Stusso returns. But this time, the character is in a downward spiral.

Nic Russo (Oakland, California) is the genius behind this project. He's enlisted his father, Marc Russo (saxophonist for The Doobie Brothers), and has put together a great diversity of sounds and feels.

In 2016 I mentioned Bingo Trappers, John Lennon and The Nectarine no. 9 as touchstones. I still feel those apply, but maybe in the loosest of ways.

[tenth-sentence]

"(...) The lustre of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. (...)"

"Heart of Darkness" - Joseph Conrad

[decamarks]

The three most prettiest girls you will EVER meet

[dustedmagazine]

Rob I. Miller — Companion Piece (Vacant Stare)

Companion Piece by Rob I. Miller

In my review in February of Blues Lawyer’s All in Good Time, I spotted Rob Miller as the power pop element in that sometimes brashly punk, sometimes C86 wistful Bay Area foursome. Now Miller’s first solo album confirms the diagnosis. Eleven scruffy, wistful gems with clever wordplay and chiming guitars prove Miller’s skill at the articulate, tuneful bummer.

The touchstones, clearly, are Teenage Fanclub and Big Star, though executed on a smaller scale; Sebadoh in deft melody and offhand execution (“Clean,” especially, sounds like a Gaffney song); and occasionally, when Miller turns things up, the rough romanticism of Paul Westerberg (as on “In Circles” and “Hide”). These tunes bend jangle-y guitars into rainbow arcs, and if there’s a lot of fuzz and clatter, it doesn’t hide the shimmer, just diffuses it.

“Wedge,” for instance, flares up in a gloriously serrated TFC-esque guitar tone, socked in with ricocheting, kit-battering drums (producer Andrew Oswald played drums, the sole other player besides Miller). That ragged roar continues throughout the piece, though tamped down to admit Miller’s gentle vocals; he doesn’t insist you pay attention to the singing, but you do.  

Miller has a penchant for wordplay, inserting contradictions and oppositions into his breezy lyrics. The shambling chorus for “Wrong for Us,” is one example, with its sidelong assertion that, “I think you are right/this is wrong for us.” “In Circles” observes that Miller is “Falling out of love/with the part of me that loves.” They’re not flowery, these lyrics, but they pull you up short, subverting expectations and deflating cliché.

You might want to compare Miller to Tony Molina, another songwriter who distills hooks and lines into lo-fi gems, but Miller is more expansive. He’s got the time that Molina never had for a medium-sized guitar solo or an extra verse; none of these songs clock in much under the power pop ideal of two minutes 30 seconds. Moreover, Miller’s songs seem less intricately crafted and more lived in, smart and capable but left a little raw. The title suggests that this album echoes and reflects and relates to Miller’s work with Blues Lawyer, but it’s good enough to stand on its own.

Jennifer Kelly

[potatobugz]

its like this, basically

[greghatecrimes]

This man has suffered more than jesus

[tubework]

area man fails "go to bed challenge" every day of his life forever

[normalbrothers]

s03ep05

[energonnaccinos]

Found quite possibly the best Arcee panel ever

#👍

[5ummit]

[thatsbelievable]

[cyberkiss2uu]

good morning everynyan [it is 10 pm] im on ep 16 of jrwi [finally started it to prep for my first dnd campaign yayy] and i love them so much i feel sick and nauseous. theyre everything. i need to seriously draw them but this was so make me laugh after the Events of. dare i say it..no. IM SICK ok. alsoo i miss amanda rin. also grizzly is insanely good at sfx its so awesome... so so awesome.... i shouldve started jrwi earlier aughhh

[targarrus]

🫧

[samijey]

#rocking the classic post-gunther-match look