This Means More

[butterzisthelabel]

(fabric)

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Fuck, this is so good. UKG takes me somewhere else...

[unendingmaw]

two pieces for BORDER. the first will be available to hand screen at a DIY SPACE FOR LONDON print collective benefit on an item of your choosing on the 23rd june: https://www.facebook.com/events/1759015417718316/

BORDER also play shay fest on the 19th of june with sarcasm, scrap brain, score, inner peace and more: https://www.facebook.com/events/1880048458888324/

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Playlist: Comfort Emo

This is sort of a response to a thing I wrote last year about emo revival, and trying to reframe emo as an inherently political/confrontational music versus an inherently nostalgic and personal one. It’s what I put on when I just want to listen to guys whine sweet mysoginies over twinkly crescendoes, basically. It’s part MTV-emo, part Emogame soundtrack, part “authentic” Fourfa fare, each of which formed my conception of emo circa 2003 or so. 

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

I bought a painting.

Just saying that seems really bourgeois but it’s true, I bought a painting.  I sometimes feel the need to justify it, and when I do I say it makes me feel optimistic. 

I showed it to my partner and some friends and told them I wanted to buy it and none of them tried to talk me out of it. 

The portion with the astronauts makes me think of roaring-1990s progress. A poster featuring an astronaut using the [googles “astronaut jetpack thing”] manned maneuvering unit was ubiquitous in my elementary school classrooms. Just as ubiquitous were the commercials on children’s television for space camp. I was so passionate about manned space exploration I convinced our sixth grade science teacher to add an astronomy unit to our curriculum in 2001.

The bottom portion seems like a very European beach and calls to mind for me the setting of Tender is the Night (which I never finished though in classic high-school-pseud-fashion told everyone I had).

The mountains are just rendered gorgeously, chunky swatches of blues and greens. Maybe it’s a world where venture capitalists don’t sacrilegiously climb Mt. Everest. I don’t know.

You really need to see the stars and the space shuttle exhaust up close to appreciate those, they’re probably my favorite part of the piece. Maybe I will post detail shots.  

I swear I didn’t think of myself as some kind of patron, supporting a student artist with my hard earned. [I nod my head as the origin of “patronizing” dawns on me] I just wanted this on my wall because looking at it made me happy. I also often don’t have enough to support myself some months, so if I were to be patronizing about this purchase I would also be delusional. I think I overdrafted later that week. 

Anyway, the artist is Jess Kohut. She’s actually primarily a photographer and this is where you can find her very good work in that medium: http://jess.kohut.media/

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Last Saturday, my classmate Caroline and I spent most of the day riding SEPTA. We are trying to shape the idea of a “transit hike,” inspired by her own “blue seat tourism.” This trip was probably more like a derive as none of it was planned ahead of time and we let ourselves be at the whim of SEPTA’s weekend timetables instead of particular destinations. We wound up in Pottstown, in Northwest Montgomery County.

I think my fascination with public transit has a lot to do with proximity. One encounters many different kinds of proximity on transit. The obvious one is spatial, that these systems link places together and, in some cases (though rarely American ones), are the fastest way to get to there from here. The second picture is a view from the Market-Frankford El, just before the last stop. It’s one of my favorite “moments” in the entire system because I think it’s crazy you’re on a heavy, loud silver train in a lush forest in proximity to a creek. Our second leg was aboard the Norristown High Speed Line and had a few more of those moments, as the right of away bisected golf courses and followed more creeks (Caroline pointed out some neat infrastructure along the NHSL specifically meant to control the waterways near the railway that I neglected to shoot).The NHSL gets really close to a few neighborhoods along the right of way prompting Caroline to ask “is SEPTA a good neighbor?” On the NHSL, and across all  transit systems, there’s a temporal proximity too. These routes are typically very old and often inherited from defunct transit companies. My mom still calls the NHSL the P&W,  and in fact we could almost see the house she grew up in from our car. 

We took the 93 bus from Norristown and could see evidence of the trolleys that used to serve the route (more temporal proximity). Between Norristown and Pottstown, there’s a brief moment where the inner ring ‘burbs fall away and we were treated to some pastoral views (grain silos!). But as we got closer to Pottstown, those nuclear cooling towers were the backdrop for the outlet mall and Costco. On the way back to Norristown, I considered the effect gas and car service stations, and before them country inns, had on proximity. There also was the fact that I’d never been to Pottstown before in my life but a fortuitous alignment of transit modes lined up to put me there (at least for a few minutes while the bus turned around).

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

At the barber shop I am at my absolute worst.

I just had a haircut at one of those places that’s undoubtedly opened in your town or city. They are essentially pomade dealerships with a barber shop attached and churn out dozens of Mad Men-style cuts you see tattoo artists or bartenders wearing. Oddly enough in this place all of the barbers had completely shaved heads but very large beards, or were wearing flaccid beanies. Additionally the music in this establishment was the most milquetoast “hip” fare like War on Drugs and Mac Demarco. Demarco’s whole thing is infuriating to me because of the disconnect I find between his slimeball weirdo schtick and his mass appeal. The reason I even went to this place is because I’m the worst: I missed an appointment with the woman I normally go to, whose shop isn’t normally open on Saturdays (and has been in operation for 90 years) that I didn’t even SLEEP through, I had just straight up forgotten about it while I was dilly dallying in bed listening to 1999. I realized about 25 minutes too late while I was in the middle of “Let’s Pretend We’re Married.” A haircut had to be gotten today because I start a new gig tonight, barbacking downtown so I went to this new place up the street.

Anyway haircuts are a huge problem for me and it helps to go to someone who “knows” me. In the barber’s chair, when they ask what I want I tend to say something really vague and unhelpful. In this and other ways getting a haircut is like a metaphor for my life, where I have trouble speaking up for myself and asking for what I want. Normally the barber will make suggestions to help me better flesh out my needs and no matter what they say I nod my head and say yes because I’m terrified of speaking up for myself. Anyway this works to an extent. In the aftermath of most haircuts I’m pretty dissatisfied but I don’t feel violated or look drastically different. 

Today, my troublingly bald barber skips the part where he assists me in elaborating my needs, which are “I need to lose a lot of length and it should look good with bedhead.” He immediately goes at my skull with a completely unguarded hair trimmer, relieving me of all the length. Again, I should have spoken up when I saw the trimmer. “Hey, maybe not that short?” or something. But I didn’t and and he begins what has to be the longest most complex method of administering a buzzcut I’ve ever been subject to. I realize why it’s taking so long when I glimpse myself in the mirror and realize he’s “fading” my hair, which is what Macklemore does. What I want even less than to speak up for myself is to look like I’m trying to be “on trend,” or to emulate Macklemore or a pro footballer or whoever. This guy continues to do his thing, while I listen to another guy a few chairs down talk about his “pretty weird” 29th birthday party playlist. “Weird how?” his barber asks. “It’s got stuff like Hop Along seguing into Beyonce!” Now I’m silently judging people while the barber ruins the next two months of my life. The irony is I’m actually doing the most damage to myself by repressing my anger and feelings! My intense interest this morning in Billy Corgan’s cowboy hat in the video for “Perfect” now seems prophetic. 

Anyway, this has been a post! How’s everyone been?

[sneek-m]

For the San Diego show, Taylor Swift invited Avril Lavigne to perform “Complicated.” Taylor gushed about how she grew up with Avril’s music and how she was one of the first solo female pop star she knew growing up. It’s a common story for a pre-teen growing up in the 2000s, but listening to this debut album, I’m really convinced Taylor listened to this album a lot growing up. Sound and production wise, at least, the era-specific finish of Avril’s album reminds me of the slick pop sheen laid to the guitar-centric affair of Fearless. Call me Taylor-obsessed, but I don’t know, I heard the making of early Taylor in this album. Like, can’t you see the Taylor who wrote “Picture to Burn” jamming the fuck out to “Sk8r Boi”? (All of us did at one point, though, didn’t we?)

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

I’m with this.

[runningofthebuls]

like silt: a 2 car journey to the west coast 

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

“Out the club about three/to the takeaway/shit in a tray merchants.”

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

h/t literalshit/no gang colors

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

1996 London Pirate Radio tape montage - various stations & DJ's

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Taking Back Sunday

favourite song:  “you know how i do” all the way. it’s the sensation of it being may and almost the end of the school year and having endless possibilities available to you. least favourite song: always thought “new american classic” was awful but i’m sure they’ve done worse since.have i ever seen them live: unfortunately, no.favourite band member: adam lazarra has a tattoo of a lyric from my favorite lifetime song tattooed on his elbow and made the underground a safe place to swing mics. least favourite band member: john nolan for “existentialism on prom night.”how many of their albums i have: the first two.favourite album: tell all your friends, no questionfavorite lyrics: “if it’s not keeping you up nights, then what’s the point?” so perfectly explains hundreds of intensely overdramatic late-night aim convos. it is also followed by “i’m in your room. is this turning you on? am i turning you on?” which remains really fucking funny to me. favorite music video: “cute without the ‘e’”’s “recut” of fight club is everything 13 year old boys think is cool, right? like if you were in a band, you would make a video like that.ever met any members: no, holding out hope though.

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Arctic Monkeys

*cues up whatever people say i am, that is what i am not*

arctic monkeys is sort of a unique band for me in that i am familiar with only the first record and the most recent record! the first record was this inescapable phenomenon in the states if you were a music fan at that time. a new “saviors of rock” and “the next oasis” and all that. then for no particular reason  i never listened to their subsequent albums ‘til AM, which my very good friend sean implored me to put on in the car while i drove him to JFK airport the year it came out.

favorite song: "a certain romance,” go-to mix cd closer for a few years.least favourite song: “i bet that you look good on the dance floor” doesn’t it seem like every month in 06-07 there was a new “dance”-related single from a buzzy- guitar band?have i ever seen them live: no. though their first tour of north america was with a band from my hometown (sorta) called the spinto band and i wanted so badly to go. spinto band are probably best known for soundtracking a sears commercial and here i am 9 years later writing about arctic monkeys on tumblr.favourite band member: the drummer of this band is MEN’AL. i love his playing on whatever people say i am, the first thing I probably think of when i think of that record is that opening drum roll. least favourite band member: can’t say, they all seem like well affable chapshow many of their albums i have: none, physically. favourite album:  even though this post has been all about the debut to this point, it’s probably AM. i had a memorable introduction to it and it’s such a sensual rock record. i feel like these fellows grew up with me.favorite lyrics: “have you got color in your cheeks?/do you ever get that fear that you can’t shift/the type that sticks around like something in your teeth?” - do i wanna knowfavorite music video: “when the sun goes down” is pretty grim but i find myself drawn things shot at council estates. see also: 1 2 3 4 ever met any members: no

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

BLUD BLUD BLUD 

BLUD AND FIYA

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Fairport Convention - The Ballad Of Easy Rider

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

Paramore!

favourite song: “be alone.” the delay on the guitar during the intro tickles my eardrums. then it just goes off. the lyrics resonate deeply since it’s about saying fuck the world and just hanging out alone or with your s.o. hayley raises a middle finger to social hierarchies and various “shangri las” that become victims of their own popularity among fashionable kids. there’s a possible danger as well because shutting everyone out but your partner is stifling and you’ll deprive yourself of rich conversations with your peers, but it’s exciting to know that hayley and chad live so close to the edge.least favourite song: unpopular opinion but probably, at the moment, “hate to see your heartbreak.” it’s not as good a ballad as “the only exception,” and on the self-titled it’s totally outshined by the manic and amazing “one of those crazy girls.”  i ever seen them live: yesfavourite band member: it’s gotta be hayley, right? although touring drummer aaron gillespie (ex underoath) is probably a close second, if he counts.least favourite band member: the farro brothers for crying about hayley and paramore being manufactured and false and for probably lots of behind the scenes handwringing about if their music was getting too far from the message of christ.how many of their albums i have: none physically. all of them digitally, plus an excellent fan-compiled set of unreleased songs and b-sidesfavourite album: i want to do an ordered ranking. it’s probably self titled>all we know is falling>riot!>brand new eyes.favorite lyrics: i posted about the lyrics to “future” a few months ago and even though they’re pretty trite and simple they have been known to wreck me. “i’m writing the future, i’m leaving a key here. something won’t always be missing, you won’t always feel emptier.” powerful stuff.favorite music video: “that’s what you get” because it just captures (in a glamorised music vid way) what being an alt-teen in 2007 was like.ever met any members: no =/

[wolfpartyjoe-blog]

ABBA

favourite song: the one that started it all: their eurovision 1974 entry “waterloo.”least favourite song: toss-up between mamma mia and dancing queen, which are for poseurs and people who don’t own any abba but own the original cast recording for “mamma mia.”have i ever seen them live: no, well before my time although i think it would have been phenomenal.favourite band member: frida, whose phil collins produced solo debut something’s going on is the best post-abba recording by a longshot. least favourite band member: bjorn and benny, for birthing the musical “mamma mia”how many of their albums i have: no physical LPs although now i think i’ll hit the dollar bins this weekend to see if i can turn anything upfavourite album: i was going to answer this as if i was really well versed in abba’s catalog but the jig is up, i’ve just been looking at wikipedia ¯\_(ツ)_/¯favorite lyrics: thanks for playing, sartajfavorite music video:ever met any members: