You probly think this poem is about you! Don't you?

Well... this is a first for me. I have written a poem. Yes, I know. I was surprised too. Yes, I've written a poem that I'll share with you. I might even suggest that it is not bad.

It's shocking for me too. I'm sorry, I just had to add these. There not much funny beyond this point. Just this once, I'm going to nix the mix and get a little naked for you. Not really, you know, just in the 'Tada! Here are some deep emotions!" kind of way. This winter has been a time of getting it all out in that cold and snowy (and far too windy) air and feeling better for it. Hey, it might even be a good guessing game for you, see if you're in it!

Cheers,

Merman

To Those Who Have Scorned Me

To you, my lost lamb
who saw something I didn’t
who knew the way
You, who saw that light ahead
A stern shepherd grasping an impervious cane
You, a stupid, stupid little lost lamb.

And to you, my emergency flare,
I saw Jesus in your eyes and in your bowed head
Jesus in your porch swing
in your open hand and guitar
in your pitcher of rum and rolled paper cigarettes
after midnight
under your shirt
in the small of my back
in the haze and headache
and hungover communion

I couldn’t tell who needed saving.

And to you, Mixtape Fantastic
quid pro quo pianos
electronics, quick quips
You, so quick to change the track
kick the beat

I kept up with your steps

I sweat, laughed, recited
memorized the steps
the turns and tempo changes

I shared your morning coffee

And to you, the Charleston South Carolina Cook,
You should know better, master chef,
than to twist your knife
so carelessly through bone
Especially when you’ve invited
them to dinner.

And to future scorners,
I will not believe
You
I will not dance to your drum
I will not believe your silence
Or your naked gospel

Times of Wine and Roses - The Duke Ellington Orchestra

The feeling is Vague, the Mixtape is not

All I have to say is that it's been a bitchin' month for music. Put this in your pipe and smoke it:

1. July Flame - Laura Veirs
2. We are happy plants - Apollo
3. I shall cross this river - the black atlantic
4. Let go - Jj
5. Lewis Takes Action - Owen Pallet
6. Tane Mahuta - The Ruby Suns
7. In steps - Letting up despite Great Faults
8. Youthless - MillionYoung
9. Games you can win - RjD2 (Feat. Kenna)
10. Island, IS - Volcano Choir (sound familiar?)
11. King of Spain - The Tallest Man on Earth
12. In the Sun - She & Him

This is my favorite:

I suggest you listen to this whole album sitting at the foot of your bed, lights dimmed with the biggest ridiculous headphones you can find. I guess it's one part broken social scene, mayhaps 2 parts, and genuine without the 'oh isn't everything so precious' quirks of the former band. I really am quite too tired to do it justice, so give it a go, folks.

Cheers,

Merman

No pants day in New York

I get on the subway tonight to go to an organ concert, and what do I find?

And then in Union square....

Not kidding, folks. Today was no pants on the subway day. Why? That's a damn good question. Everyone I asked refused to answer the question. "Well the department stores are so hot, you've got to even it out". "Because my snuggie didn't come with pants!" And so on. If it weren't for a 100 year old organ at St. Thomas calling my name, well, I probably wouldn't have taken my pants off anyway. But, you've got options like that in this city. You've got options for nudity and duck-duck-goose in your underpants in the snow with 300 strangers. I like those options. At any rate... this is a good album:

Throughout my 2009 posts, I've notice I left a quite a good album consistently off of my radar. Yes, yes. You know them, you probably went to their sets in NYC, and they are very much a part of why 2009 music was so great. Miike Snow has make an album that blends artistic sound engineering and genuine music ability. So, I shall start off my 2010 with their whole album. It was one of my biggest pleasant surprises. My suggestion is Silvia, just sexy.

Cheers,

Merman

Swim Until you can't See Land

Just a quick HOLY SHIT for ya tonight...

Frightened Rabbit's new video for "Swim Until you Can't See Land" is so warm and cozy in the comfiest of ways. Aren't you familiar with those shows you go to when you can't tell who is a bigger fan of whom? You know, the artist is just right in the shit of it, standing in the middle of he crowd, in awe of the lyrics being screamed back at them? It's like that. Plus... This is the coolest flashlight party I've ever seen. God, I can't wait for The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Which comes out in MARCH. Really, Fat Cat Records? Enjoy Scott Hutchison & Co with some other gems...

1. Modern Leper

2. Keep Yourself Warm

3. Behave

Cheers,

Merman

'Tis the Swell Season!

STOP THE PRESSES!

I usually let it go a week, or 3 months, or so until I say anything on here. However, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, (you may recall weeping over their albums together as The Swell Season.. and let us not forget Once) released Strict Joy on the 27th, and subsequently completed my second, and maybe third, life. They got the name right, that's for sure. Their lyrics and melodies swell in the heart and what overflows can only be described as complete and unadulterated joy and sorrow and love and awe. It's quite impressive, really.

It's happy and heartful and souful and haunting; a candid shot of a heart on a sleeve. If you're truly aching for something that will catch all the fish hooks surrounding your heart and tug up the greatest and most genuine ardor lurking under the surface, Strict Joy will have you reaching for a Kleenex and and hand to hold. Still trying to figure out how to speak the fiery Goidelic language of love, maybe this Irishman will look at me with those deep pools of blue green eyes and sing In These Arms.... Sigh.

From Strict Joy:

1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms

Cheers,

Merman

Whoaaaa Backlog.

So... It's been a while. HI!

This is what happened: A friend told me, well, he told me didn't like what I wrote. We'll let it be that. Here is how I felt: Stupid. So I stopped writing. Here is what that was: Stupid. Then I read Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. And I forgot all about my my friend's superiority complex.

This is what it felt like:

I remembered that crazy is awesome. Awesome and crazy are two terms that can sometimes be opposite. The former describing a moment of awe, an impressive and somewhat unimaginable event. The latter usually indicates a negative and uncontrolled aspect of a person or thing. These terms are meant to put people in boxes in which they have either put themselves or someone else has done for them. Vonnegut reminded me that I hate boxes. And also, that sometimes your opinion sucks. I'd like to pay reckless disregard to any opinions of anyone who doesn't think, well, anyone who doesn't think he's any good, and so on. This is an Ode to Vonnegut. An ode is a dedication usually expressed in the form of medias like song, poety, acting, singing, or mixtapes. Definitely mixtapes. It is meant to put someone on a box, instead of in one. Here is one to Kurt Vonnegut.

This is what it sounds like:

1. Rain Machine - Give Blood
2. Surfer Blood- Swim to reach the end
3. Islands - Vapours
4. Karen O & The Kids - Rumpus
5. United State of Electronic - Open your eyes
6. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
7. Coco Rosie - Werewolf
8. RJD2 - All for You
9. Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel
10. Codes in the Clouds - Fractures
11. Yeasayer - Ambling Amp
12. Kings of Convenience - Boat Behind
13. Kurt Vile - Blackberry Song
14. The Cave Singers - Hens of the Woods
15. Broken Social Scene - Hit the Wall

Cheers,

Merman

The Hazards of Life: Death!

A couple of days ago I was bobbing along in the subway listening to this album and reading a book about death. Well, death's expression in music, and how most songs today fail to capture the appreciation and acceptance of it, anyway. I must say, the combination of these was rather humbling.  There was something about the simple and comforting lull of the guitar paired with a heart-aching folk undertone that did the trick. It stirred me to a level of calm and heavy contemplation I needed to feel the kind of emotion Graeme Thompson was talking about.

 (If you're wondering...)

Usually, my love of music derives from it's ability to lift me up,  it's capacity to enliven me beyond any other form of expression.  I usually just scour tracks for the spark of a new high. Oh, Piss off, you do it too.  Some have alcohol, and others have heroin. I, however, have a spanked-new 120 BPM pulse laid over banjos and key-tars. Okay. That's possible OD (and, I guess that'd be fitting for this post?)...But you get the picture.  I've never taken music much further than a high. Oh, believe me. Its been a deep and soulful high.  But it always has a lofty objective.

I've never really explored the feeling beyond that. You know...the feeling once the music fades. The feeling when your heart stops beating.  The very moment when you feel the light leaving your eyes. When is the last time you heard something that accepted and described death in human terms?

Well - I'm not sure if it was the words of the book, or the hushed, stirring rhythm of Blind Pilot's fortitude that got me.  But something did. And I considered it for a moment. It's a simple emotion, really, how we feel about death.  So why does it seem like the artistic expression of it got lost in 'Trying to get to Heaven' by Bob Dylan? (...by the way, I think I like reading about him more than listening to him, sorry.) Why is it that most artists today stand around twiddling their thumbs when asked about Katrina or Iraq? Why is it that every song we listen to about the most shallow levels of sex or love or anger or complacency or apathy or protest? At least, that's basically what I catch in the lyrics of my favorite songs.  And even more-so, why is it easier to write and talk extensively about death now than it is to feel it? I know I've ignored it.  Probably because I'm 23 and stupid and scared of it and I have enough modern technology to forget it exists even though it will probably happen to me when I'm 400, maybe.

It doesn't have to be all that bad or unapproachable, now does it? I listened to a few tracks, swallowed hard, and I thought about how I would feel and what it might mean if I thought about death in a real way. Not fist fighting a silver back gorilla, and not flying off of a cliff in a 1966 Thunderbird Convertible holding Louise's hand (yes, I'm Thelma in this scenario).  I mean death in the understanding that it will happen, and I should probably make sense of the whole fuss.  

I guess I would treat it like any other life promenade.  I'd get ready, quibble around for something to wear - give up - and wear something comfortable like I always do. I'd make sure the people I wanted were there, you know, the friends that laugh from the gut and ask more questions than favors. Then I'd find some music everyone could live with, okay, maybe just me. Then, I think I could welcome the warm, dark, numbing wave of the waters of Lethe. I think if I was hoary and decaying I would be at peace with it all. A little tired,  a little humbled, and so grateful.  Not unlike a really, really fun, long night out? You're exhausted, but so glad you did it.  It'd be a rest well deserved, I think.  And, anyway,  it'd be the first time I shut my mouth and quit ranting. I think that'd make death a little more pleasant for anyone, really. 

So if you want to think about it... here's how a few taxpayers take a stab at death (Hah! Get it? The only things certain are taxes & de-? ...Stab at dea-?... oh well.) And Yes, I've purposely dodged the more notable ballads that Thompson mentioned in 'I Shot A Man'...savoir-faire, dudes.

1. Oviedo - Blind Pilot 

2. Godspeed - Radney Foster 

3. Tryin' to Get to Heaven - Bob Dylan 

4. The Rakes Song - The Decemberists 

5. I will follow you into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie 

6. P.S. You rock my world - Eels 

7. A Minor Incident - Badly Drawn Boy 

8. Today - Smashing Pumpkins (had to do it, sorry.)

9. That Girl has love - Rooney 

10. If I ever leave this world alive - Flogging Molly 

11. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens 

12. Let the train whistle blow - Johnny Cash  

Cheers, 

Merman