#footings

[remash]

art barn ~ thomas randall-page | photos © jim stephenson

[russellmoreton]

Drawing, tissue paper, tape, body outline with astronomical data on paper. by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: Footprints In Search of Future Fossils David Farrier

[kittensfeeties]

DM me if youre interested ❤💜❤

[dustedmagazine]

Footings — The Worm Moon (Feeding Tube)

The Worm Moon is the fifth full length LP from New Hampshire’s Footings, home to the songs of underground music lifer Eric Gagne. Out now on Feeding Tube records, The Worm Moon is an immersive set of brief skeletal folk-rock missives and instrumental interludes that rewards repeated through-listens. Thematically The Worm Moon deals with attempts to find peace and growth within spaces of decay and stagnation, reflecting its title which refers to a full moon in March. A time when the worms start moving again, and all the new possibilities of spring are just around the corner – but we are also reminded of all that living tissue which fell the previous Autumn, upon which the worms feast. Like many works of art surfacing at this point in history, this record lets loose the feelings, thoughts and melodies that gestated during the dread-soaked peak of the COVID pandemic, only to burst forth and escape into the wind, or into the grooves of an LP, as that set of anxieties gave way to others.

There is a sense of restlessness both emotional and physical in the words of The Worm Moon, but the music is focused, consistent and concise, the product of a group that operates on long shared common ground. The band lays down sparse arrangements of guitar, bass, drums and keyboards which are further elaborated on by viola, pedal steel, and back-up vocal figures. These vocal arrangements and layers of viola pull the sound vaguely in the direction of woodsy, droned-out psychedelia, while the songs themselves and pedal steel give the music a country feel. Footings have served as Will Oldham’s backing band for stretches, and it is clear how that would be appropriate, with their exploratory playing and arrangements, leaning into jazz and post-rock in places, tied up into short songs with steady backbeats and dry tones. For all the brevity, this music also contains deep catharsis in the performances alone, especially in the two musical interludes that share the album’s title, and the extended final track. “The Worm Moon Part 2” is a particularly beautiful explosion of near free jazz by way of a rock band.

At its heart The Worm Moon centers around the songwriting, personal and poetic, and the voice of the songwriter, deep and soft, at times comped into a pleasant diffusion, at times close-mic’d and breathy. There is a restlessness but there is a tension; is it restlessness to leave or to come home? The lead single, “Reverie” seems to be about the solace that can be found in motion, the joy of hitting the road, “heading out at first light” and the call to “drive forever if I could.” In the almost honky-tonk atmosphere of “Dreams”, Gagne and vocalist/guitarist Candace Clement sing “where can I go when I just need to go, I just need to disappear.” At the other pole of desire lies the album closer. “I Won’t Go,” feels like a tender pledge to stay with a partner no matter what, featuring a lengthy noise rock intro, the one nod on The Worm Moon to stretching out a jam, then repeating the titular line in an emotional, high-flying round-style vocal with Clement. In between these poles are imagistic glimpses at life, family, and aging through mixed circumstance. In the opening line of the album itself Gagne sings “how can we move forward when we’re going nowhere?” This comes across more like a feeling or a vibe than a statement of geography and it seems to suggest that in the world of The Worm Moon there are myriad ways to move, to leave and come home, and they don’t all take place on foot or in a car, they can be journeys of the heart and mind; one can return home to place or to a person, even to themselves.

Josh Moss

[speakers77]

[thebirchlands]

The second giant footing for the new build at the cabin is done. It was terribly hot today, so I got up and at it as early as possible. Thankfully, I was able to get the digging done before the sun rose directly over the clearing.

Part of the day was also spent waging an almighty war against a particularly aggressive colony of wasps that claimed the cabin door as their territory. The bastards stung me six times before I finally found their nest tucked away under the handrail of the deck. They're gone now, but on my way home, I heard a buzzing noise in the cab of my truck. And there on the dash was another wasp...

[thebirchlands]

I know it doesn't look like much, but this is most of a day's work at the cabin. Digging a four foot deep hole for a 16 inch footing and then packing in and mixing all the concrete to fill it is a fairly exhausting chore. And I get to do another one tomorrow! At least it will be even hotter then.

Thank you to the wild raspberries for being in season right now.