I resembled this mannequin last Wednesday night, apparently.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Whoa, this guy is intense.
Also, why the fuck did I drink so much last night?! I need to be reminded that I get hangovers now. Thanks, meds.
My heeead. And my knee. And my chin, for some reason.
Fuck. What? Huh? Yeah. DON'T DRINK, YOU MORON.
Anyway.
This incredible new record by Bon Iver is the follow-up to the debut, For Emma Forever Ago. It will be released in North America on June 21st, 2011 and June 2oth in the UK. After the jump we have the official track listing as well as a short piece written about the album by author Michael Perry.
Side A:
Perth
Minnesota, WI
Holocene
Towers
Michicant
Side B:
Hinnom, TX
Wash.
Calgary
Lisbon, OH
Beth/Rest
First it was For Emma, Forever Ago. The soul in a refraction of icicles. A moment hanging like breath on air. And yet life – even still life – is not still. The story is not a story if it does not unravel. Your eyes you may cast backward, but the heart is locked in the chest and must beat forever forward. Bon Iver, Bon Iver is the frozen beast pressing upward from a loosening earth, one ear cocked to the echo of the ghost choir still singing, the other craving the martial call of drums tumbling, of thrum and wheeze. The desolation smoke has dissipated, cut with strips of brass. Celebration will not be denied, the cabinet cannot contain the rattle, there is meat on the bones. It’s there right away, in the thicker-stringed guitar and military snare of “Perth,” and “Minnesota, WI.” Anyone who had a single listen to For Emma will peg Justin Vernon’s vocals immediately, but there is a sturdiness – an insistence – to Bon Iver, Bon Iver that allows him to escape the cabin in the woods without burning it to the ground. “Holocene” opens with simple finger-picking. The vocal is regret spun hollow and strung on a wire. Then the snare-beat breaks and drives us forward and up and up until we fly silent through the black-star night, our wreckage in view whole atmospheres below. The vocals in “Hinnom, TX” ease to the muffled depths, while the instrumentation remains sparse and cosmic. “Calgary” is a worship song to everything For Emma mourned, and at the point in the final track “Beth/Rest” when Vernon sings, “I ain’t livin’ in the dark no more” it is clear he isn’t dancing in the sunshine, but rather shading toward a new light.“Bon Iver is often equated with just me,” says Vernon, “but you are who surrounds you, and for Bon Iver, Bon Iver I wanted to invite those voices as musical catalysts.” Thus on the track “Beth/Rest” and throughout the album, we hear the pedal steel of Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell), the uniquely layered low end of Colin Stetson’s (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire) saxophones, the riffing of Mike Lewis’ (Happy Apple, Andrew Bird) altos and tenors, and the lush horns of C.J. Camerieri (Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens). Bon Iver regulars Sean Carey, Mike Noyce and Matt McCaughan contributed vocals, drums and production, Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons, The National) helped with arranging and added strings, and fellow members of Volcano Choir, Jim Schoenecker and Tom Wincek provided processing. Bon Iver, Bon Iver was recorded and mixed at April Base Studios, a remodeled veterinarian’s clinic located in rural Fall Creek, Wisconsin. The main recording space is constructed over a defunct indoor pool attached to the clinic. “It’s an unique space and destination; it’s our home out here,” says Vernon, who purchased the structure with his brother in late 2008 with the sole intention of converting it into his ideal recording studio. “It’s been a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built. It’s also only three miles from the house I grew up in, and just ten minutes from the bar where my parents met.” The creation of Bon Iver, Bon Iver was a three-year process, and Vernon says the completion of the studio paralleled the completion of the album. “I was writing and recording in the windows of time snatched between tours in support of For Emma,” he says. “When I finally came home to hunker down for a solid stretch there was a feeling of solid ground and an opportunity for liberation waiting in the space for me. In the absence of solid ground, the whirlwind becomes a whirlpool, and Bon Iver, Bon Iver is Justin Vernon returning to former haunts with a new spirit. The reprises are there – solitude, quietude, hope and desperation compressed – but always a rhythm arises, a pulse vivified by gratitude and grace notes, some as bright as a bicycle bell. The winter, the legend, has faded to just that, and this is the new momentary present. The icicles have dropped, rising up again as grass.
- Michael Perry
http://jagjaguwar.com/blog/2011/04/bon-iver-bon-iver/
My heeead. And my knee. And my chin, for some reason.
Fuck. What? Huh? Yeah. DON'T DRINK, YOU MORON.
Anyway.
Side A:
Perth
Minnesota, WI
Holocene
Towers
Michicant
Side B:
Hinnom, TX
Wash.
Calgary
Lisbon, OH
Beth/Rest
First it was For Emma, Forever Ago. The soul in a refraction of icicles. A moment hanging like breath on air. And yet life – even still life – is not still. The story is not a story if it does not unravel. Your eyes you may cast backward, but the heart is locked in the chest and must beat forever forward. Bon Iver, Bon Iver is the frozen beast pressing upward from a loosening earth, one ear cocked to the echo of the ghost choir still singing, the other craving the martial call of drums tumbling, of thrum and wheeze. The desolation smoke has dissipated, cut with strips of brass. Celebration will not be denied, the cabinet cannot contain the rattle, there is meat on the bones. It’s there right away, in the thicker-stringed guitar and military snare of “Perth,” and “Minnesota, WI.” Anyone who had a single listen to For Emma will peg Justin Vernon’s vocals immediately, but there is a sturdiness – an insistence – to Bon Iver, Bon Iver that allows him to escape the cabin in the woods without burning it to the ground. “Holocene” opens with simple finger-picking. The vocal is regret spun hollow and strung on a wire. Then the snare-beat breaks and drives us forward and up and up until we fly silent through the black-star night, our wreckage in view whole atmospheres below. The vocals in “Hinnom, TX” ease to the muffled depths, while the instrumentation remains sparse and cosmic. “Calgary” is a worship song to everything For Emma mourned, and at the point in the final track “Beth/Rest” when Vernon sings, “I ain’t livin’ in the dark no more” it is clear he isn’t dancing in the sunshine, but rather shading toward a new light.“Bon Iver is often equated with just me,” says Vernon, “but you are who surrounds you, and for Bon Iver, Bon Iver I wanted to invite those voices as musical catalysts.” Thus on the track “Beth/Rest” and throughout the album, we hear the pedal steel of Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell), the uniquely layered low end of Colin Stetson’s (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire) saxophones, the riffing of Mike Lewis’ (Happy Apple, Andrew Bird) altos and tenors, and the lush horns of C.J. Camerieri (Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens). Bon Iver regulars Sean Carey, Mike Noyce and Matt McCaughan contributed vocals, drums and production, Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons, The National) helped with arranging and added strings, and fellow members of Volcano Choir, Jim Schoenecker and Tom Wincek provided processing. Bon Iver, Bon Iver was recorded and mixed at April Base Studios, a remodeled veterinarian’s clinic located in rural Fall Creek, Wisconsin. The main recording space is constructed over a defunct indoor pool attached to the clinic. “It’s an unique space and destination; it’s our home out here,” says Vernon, who purchased the structure with his brother in late 2008 with the sole intention of converting it into his ideal recording studio. “It’s been a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built. It’s also only three miles from the house I grew up in, and just ten minutes from the bar where my parents met.” The creation of Bon Iver, Bon Iver was a three-year process, and Vernon says the completion of the studio paralleled the completion of the album. “I was writing and recording in the windows of time snatched between tours in support of For Emma,” he says. “When I finally came home to hunker down for a solid stretch there was a feeling of solid ground and an opportunity for liberation waiting in the space for me. In the absence of solid ground, the whirlwind becomes a whirlpool, and Bon Iver, Bon Iver is Justin Vernon returning to former haunts with a new spirit. The reprises are there – solitude, quietude, hope and desperation compressed – but always a rhythm arises, a pulse vivified by gratitude and grace notes, some as bright as a bicycle bell. The winter, the legend, has faded to just that, and this is the new momentary present. The icicles have dropped, rising up again as grass.
- Michael Perry
http://jagjaguwar.com/blog/2011/04/bon-iver-bon-iver/
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
24 today.
This is how I spent my 24th birthday.
Packed up most of my stuff (laptop, clothes etc), and caught the train to work. Ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a long time, which was nice and unexpected. Had a good day at work - got to learn more stuff pertaining to my actual job. My amazing job that I love (I mean that). After work I shifted my stuff to my friend's apartment, then met up with my best friend for a catch up. Got tired pretty quickly though and was back at the apartment by 8:45pm. I've spent the past couple of hours watching these.
Best birthday ever? Yeah...just about.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The winners of the David Lynch music video contest.
Last year, David Lynch and the website genero.tv ran a competition for film-makers to create videos for Lynch's songs 'Good Day Today' and 'I Know' in the space of a month (between the 29th of November and the 25th of December). I don't know why I only heard about this today.
The first is for 'Good Day Today' and was made by Arnold de Parscau, a French film student who is only 22. Younger than me. That's depressing! But anyway, this video is a total work of art. Stunning. The description, "A little boy is having dinner with his family", wildly belies the true darkness of this video.
This one is for Lynch's song 'I Know'. A very different sound from 'Good Day Today', but that's David Lynch for you. I think I prefer this song, actually.
The video was directed by Tamar Drachli and is about a man obsessively trying to get his ex-girlfriend to come back to him. His weapon of choice? A remote control. Disturbing in an entirely different way to de Parscau's video although they both have a revenge/retribution theme which I really like.
You can view all the finalists here. Which is what I think I'll do right now; I may update this post later with some of my favourites, if I have any. I'll have a thorough browse of this website anyway, it seems pretty great.
Well I very much dislike the song 'Hollywood' by Marina & the Diamonds but I love this quote. I guess her attitude is good, it's just too bad her music sounds like boring pop.
"I’ve felt both rich and poor, very ugly and very beautiful, and I’ve conformed and been an outsider, as well. I suppose the song’s a way of saying, ‘I’m not this. I’m not gonna be a dumbo who doesn’t know what the hell is going on.’ I think, without getting into conspiracy theories, that most people don’t realize that they’re being bombarded everyday with who they should be, and you are, especially in America and the U.K. And that’s what Hollywood is about—it’s about breaking free of that and being your true self, which is who you’d be if you were living in a cave 2,000 years ago. I always think, ‘What would you do if you were in a cave, Marina?’ So that’s my basis for everything. I just wanna be myself."
- Marina Diamandis
Friday, April 1, 2011
Recently:
Watched:
Eastbound & Down Series 1 - 9/10
The Trip Series 1 - 9/10
Daria Seasons 1-5 - 10/10
Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day - 8/10
This Is England directed by Shane Meadows - 10/10
Black Snake Moan directed by Craig Brewer - 7/10
Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky - 10/10
Buffalo 66 directed by Vincent Gallo - 10/10
Brown Bunny directed by Vincent Gallo - 8/10
I Am Love directed by Luca Guadagnino - 10/10
Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino - 9/10
Read:
Lovesong by Nikki Gemmell - 7/10
The Book of Rapture by Nikki Gemmell - 5/10
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - 6/10
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - 8/10
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - 9/10
Geek Love by Katherine Dunne - 10/10
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - 6/10
Reheated Cabbage by Irvine Welsh - 9/10
Junior by Macaulay Culkin - 3/10
A Mercy by Toni Morrison - 7/10
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - 9/10
Listened to:
The King of Limbs by Radiohead - 8/10
Let England Shake by P.J. Harvey - 8/10
Kudos by Surf City - 9/10
Street Chant EP by Street Chant - 8/10
Sinister Militia EP by Telepathe - 8/10
Hardcore Will Never Die...But You Will by Mogwai - 9/10
Currently reading:
"With one burning hand she held his and with the other she kept pushing him away."
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
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