Brendan Wells @sometimesthings - Tumblr Blog

https://uraniumclub.org

I think this is the best album of 2022. It’s a live studio performance from 2021 so it’s kinda not even from 2022 and its now four months into 2023 so this post doesn’t even make sense and I don’t even like or care about participating in “best of” shit but it’s that good that I want to talk about it. The way to listen to it is looking up the live video on the 2nd slide here. So it’s not even actually an album you can look up by it’s name to listen to online, but again, it’s that good that I think it’s the best album from 2022. Subjectively I will call the genre perfect punk. It’s that good! (at Calgary Stampede) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqiysDWJoHE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Another DIY redo for a book I want to read but was disappointed in the cover. This looks like a Gravity Records 7” but the book came out in 1998 so that kinda fits. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoDZPVrJORP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Finished a project today. I saw a shelf I thought was really creatively designed but it was kinda crappy so I thought “I could do that.” The vibe reminds me of how @wackjob_gentle dressed during that season he lived in Minneapolis. The green area was cut from a piece of scrap wood I used to test brushstrokes on when I was painting the sign for the Greenbriar Montessori school a couple summers ago. The rest is made from a broken shovel handle, a disassembled magazine rack, and some cheap bracket shelving we didn’t like that came with the apartment. I like the backside of this shelf because it shows the mistakes and messes that came with trying to make it. (at Powderhorn, Minneapolis) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn73HniMCyi/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

If you’ve asked me what I’m up to lately I’ve tried to explain this cabinet project thing I’ve been working on and I finally finished. I thought the radiator in my room was ugly so I wanted to build this thing to hide it. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm7ZrcgJxWR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

A fun thing to be a part of! Fichines Ruido Zafarla is a DIY label from Argentina and they recently did a run of 50 copies of Uranium Club’s Cosmo Cleaners on cassette. Includes complete Spanish translation of inserts and lyrics, plus a pencil. Neat! https://www.instagram.com/p/ClEdhEJpt54/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

More documentation of DIY personalization with this Amps for Christ shirt drawn with a paint marker (plus source material) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkOY2FrO6nu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

More DIY album art with a 6 1/2 minute version of Da Da Da that I’ve wanted for a long time! https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLmVu4sFez/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Made my own cover (first image) after a double take on how fuuuucking terrible this copy of Slouching Towards Bethlehem looked at the thrift store (second image) with a cover that predicted Microsoft word art by 15 years. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj6TBPzpFNV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I’ve been making frames from wood I find on walks. The first one was for Molly Raben for a drawing she bought recently, matted and finished with glass and everything. The second one was for an En Kernaghan painting I’ve had and is kinda the opposite, unsanded and trimmed with some cardboard. (at Minneapolis, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChWQo3isTK_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Link in bio. Did I do this right? It’s been so long, wow. And for way way too many reasons, really, and also just because I haven’t done it, and so what at that. I did it, I do it. One thing Marcel Duchamp said was that in the 60s the idea of expecting a high output from artists was introduced. Make a lot of things, make make make, sell sell sell them, and that was something he didn’t agree with, believing in the old ways of taking whatever time it does to complete something. Wait for inspiration and do it right. That’s something I strive to subscribe to without the shame I associate with inactivity. Things happen at the time they are supposed to. So that is to say if you don’t like it you can jump off a bridge into a lake to kiss~my~ass. (at Southside Mpls Baby !!) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYQet7uM535/?utm_medium=tumblr

@justis_whatitis gave me a copy of this Seeds album saying he couldn’t sell it because it smelled so bad from mothballs. This jacket reeks so I made a new one. If your records stink like hell or you find vinyl without a jacket I highly encourage doing a personalized job, this was fun! https://www.instagram.com/p/CYFAs7vltt-/?utm_medium=tumblr

Working on my second painted storefront sign. Rustoleum and One Shot dry beautifully but that’s when they actually finally dry and stop being a sticky headache and when I finally get in the swing of things and my brush strokes get cleaner. Weighing the balance of the incredible stress of this project being part of the learning curve or if I should just not do this again. Commissioned work is never easy on me! But it looks good. https://www.instagram.com/p/CTNNReZlsgR/?utm_medium=tumblr

@cariboucoffee is still putting people over profits with their poor support of employees #bootocaribou (at Caribou Coffee) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAVuADcnBpH/?igshid=542kwovjp4je

#bootocaribou

Confrontation between performer and audience. I would do this early on to be a twerp and to make people uncomfortable, and these videos seem like more harmless instances, but is it appropriate? I went on to think though of it as making something human, causing discomfort in a way that could have people ask why they’re uncomfortable or for them to loosen up. Not cool? Or should it actually be done more? Even eye contact (there’s kinda a lot in this video haha) will make someone uncomfortable I find, but how often does a performer personally acknowledge anyone? Can discomfort be a positive challenge in a performance interaction or is it innately inappropriate to pursue discomfort (maybe at least certain kinds)? A presence of aggression of some kind without violence? What about physical contact? Bumping is commonplace but what about touching? Playful intentions but alienating? There’s something special about a performance being a performance, something to look in on, but what about being humans in a room? At times I people approached me after a performance and called it something special or uncomfortable but in a way they said they needed or appreciated. I also know I tried to push a microphone into someone’s butt, and that the eye contact was seen as rude and alienating and singling someone out publicly. There are certainly lines for safe spaces but is there room for challenging behavior or discomfort?

https://www.mixcloud.com/brendan-wells2/unemployed-ep-48-and-dont-call-me-shirley/ A link to a new episode of my radio show and if you’re someone who creates things then stop trying to do the same shit everyone else is doing right now. The world doesn’t need more of the same thing. It only makes sense people start off imitating others and that’s a great way to learn and if your band sounds like Parquet Courts or you’re making art that looks like whatever net art has evolved into today then 9/10 times it’s going to be a faded photocopy because it lacks anything that shows a sense of personal view. It will be something people see and maybe even something celebrated right now but shortly it is going to be dated by a shift in trend that is likely going to leave it looking like what it is, which is lacking definition in a way that is not worth revisiting. Many people can agree with the problems of a disposable consumer structure when it comes down to something as seemingly inoffensive as plastic straws so why not figure out how that can be applied to a creative culture where content evaporates when you give it any kind of critical inspection and you’re left with a dollar bin of music from 2007 with triangles and irregular shaped “crystals” drawn on the cover. The least I think people can do is seek multiple and varied influences while learning so that a culture we involve ourselves in by choice can help encourage us to think for ourselves because an audience and community deserves to experience something during their day worth remembering instead of another week where everyone will say “Nothing, just working a lot” when asked what has made their time special.

I’m up to episode 43 of my online radio show, Unemployed. It’s been a lot of fun! Check out the other episodes.

The Neon Boys - Love Comes in Spurts 00:00

Buzzcocks - I Believe 04:20 The Moles - Rich Man 11:25 Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer 14:50 Roxy Music - Jealous Guy 19:50

Rolling Stones - Sway 25:17 The Beatles - Till There Was You (Live at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London, 1963) 28:57 Warsaw Pakt - Safe and Warm 31:38 Seconde Chambre - Le Miel d’Hier 34:40 Cian Nugent - Sixes & Sevens (Excerpt 2) 39:17

Flipper - Ever 47:35 Nirvana - Sliver 50:20 Ke$ha - Praying (Live at Grammys 2018) 52:25 Greg Oblivian & the Tip-Tops - Bad Man 57:12 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - It’s Not Enough (1976 Demo) 59:47

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Chartered Flight 1:05:50

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Brendan Wells