The Life and Times of John Vanderslice

*illustration by Drew Beckmeyer - check out his site here*


John Vanderslice - Fetal Horses (Romanian Names, 2009)
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names (Romanian Names, 2009)
*
John Vanderslice - Wild Strawberries (Cellar Door, 2004)
"Wholly and totally brave I swam under dying Philippino light
Fighting and furious against the tide
'cause I lost our keys in the sea, diving deep under coral reef
Following treeline on the shore
I stumbled back to the road
Left you on the hood of a rented ford
I looked back, it was the last time I saw you alive
Still light follows the same rules that I do
Reflecting off the water never making it down to the bottom"

*

John Vanderslice - Me and My 424
(The Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, 2002)

La canción de aquel momento en que soñabas con un tiempo que nunca quiso volver.

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Nosoträsh is currently my 4th most played artist on Last.fm. This is largely due to one album of theirs, the sheer musical joy that is "Popemas". If I had a top 50 albums that say a little something about who I am, this would definitely be one of the 50. One of the characteristics of the songs on it is that they're all really short, averaging around 2 minutes long. This is hardly coincidental. In fact, inside the cd jacket sleeve, accompanying the song lyrics is a quote by Augusto Monterroso. The quote - perhaps slightly paraphrasing here because I couldn't find a translation - goes something like this: "What's certain is that there is nothing that the writer of brevities wants more in the world than to write endlessly long texts; long texts where the imagination wouldn't have to work, where facts, things, animals and men stumble upon one another, look for each other, flee from each other, live with each other, love each other, spill their bloods freely without subjection to the semicolon, to the colon. To that colon that in this very instant has been imposed on me, by something stronger than me, something that I both respect and hate.*" Monterroso is a writer of brevities - indeed he is said to have written the shortest story in the world**. And Nosoträsh are writers of brevities as well. They're that kind of band. The kind that cares about the difference between the colon and the semicolon. They pay attention to the detail; they look for the simplest but greatest of melodies; they look for the right words, the perfect words. Yet they talk about simple everyday objects like ashtrays and coffees, and coats and milkshakes and clouds. Their songs feel very much like short stories - sometimes in the song descriptions I couldn't help but write "the protagonist" instead of "the singer" - and in fact I might've called them short stories, if only their melodies weren't so beautiful. I've included only a sample of three songs here, but I strongly recommend that you get the whole album.

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"Arte"

In the first of the three songs the singer is attempting to describe what constitutes Art for her: letting you brush my hair instead of thinking about it; abandoning myself to anyone's hugs, as long as they know how to lie to me and they kiss me hard; returning to your arms, sensing your rejection, yelling until I am left speechless...

"Corazón Colilla"

This one is a metaphor of the singer's love life as the process of smoking a cigarette, which lasts only briefly, leaving you forever unsatisfied. She concludes that, for her, hopes of love are extinguished all too soon and the only thing left is the cigarette butt that is her heart. And even after all the disappointment... "I will draw your picture in the ashes. I will draw your picture with the ashes. I will draw your picture in the ashes".

"Gloria"

In "Gloria" the protagonist is trying to come up with ways to cope after a break-up. Her first impulse is to write to him, and tell him how she's been doing lately. But she realizes that nothing at all mention-worthy has happened in her life ever since and that the letters would be very boring. So she makes plans of what to do with her day instead. Her "1001 ideas" include planting some flowers, getting lost in the streets and "making myself a dress with maps of all the places I've visited since you left me". Dance in cold hallways, make chocolate milkshakes, stay up until dawn on Sundays, "have dinner with the waiter of our restaurant". Jump up and down on the bed or, even better, not be alone while jumping up and down on the bed. Yes, those are all the things she plans on doing. If she ever does do them however, we never find out. And that's how the best of short stories always end. In doubt.

♥ Buy "Popemas" from Elefant Records! ♥
♥ Buy "Popemas" from iTunes! ♥
♥ Song Lyrics (en Español) ♥

*1: "Lo cierto es que el escritor de brevedades nada anhela más en el mundo que escribir interminablemente largos textos, largos textos en que la imaginación no tenga que trabajar, en que hechos, cosas, animales y hombres se crucen, se busquen o se huyan, vivan, convivan, se amen o derramen libremente su sangre sin sujeción al punto y coma, al punto. A ese punto que en este instante me ha sido impuesto por algo más fuerte que yo, que respeto y que odio.

**2: The shortest story in the world is this: "When she woke up, the dinosaur was still there." (Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.)

***3: Visit Marisilla's page on Flickr for more pretty illustrations like these!

short, bittersweet.

'Temporary Home' by Kelie Bowman

Upon entering Pipas' website/blog the first thing you probably notice is a green header that says:
"Lupe and Mark sing songs that make their world go around. short, bittersweet."
I think that's pretty much all you need to know about them. The rest you'll find in their songs.

The Bobby from 'Chunnal Autumnal' (2002)

What Nobody Does from 'A Cat Escaped' (2002)

Hiding in the Park from 'Golden Square' (2004)

No nightmares last night

Sebadoh - Dreams
"In my dreams, I react as my true self"

Weezer - Only in Dreams

The Magnetic Fields - Asleep and Dreaming
"I've seen you when your ship came in, and when you train was leaving"

Chasing Dorotea - Dreamer (Acoustic)

Get Well Soon - Your endless dream
"One by one they tear up your heart with their coldness and word, one by one you stop to feel your bleeding knees and heart, and everything that's real"

dEUS - Dream sequence #1
"My little dreamone, you O. K.? I'm thinking about you everyday. Along with your smile, I took my belongings . Along with the sunshine, I went away. There is a space here, there is a void, I need to find, a little more time gimme time.

Of all of the fuckups that I do, I've saved up the best one for you"

Oh my God, it’s somebody’s birthday again

It’s the same problem every time. It’s someone’s birthday and you don’t have any good birthday songs.

It’s not like Christmas, for which there are already approximately 2,300,987 songs, and new ones added every year.

It’s a bit like Easter. Know any good Easter songs?

Exactly.

Well it’s the same with birthdays. So I’ve compiled a few, sorted by theme. None of them are particularly suitable for cakes, candles and wishes, but hey, that's exactly my point.

*A freaky kooky ooh ooh ooh look, a squirrel (!) birthday beside a lake. In Iceland.

The Sugarcubes – Birthday

"Today is a birthday
They're smoking cigars
He's got a chain of flowers
And sows a bird in her knickers

They're smoking cigars
They lie in the bathtub
A chain of ... flowers"

*Fuck it, what’s the point, this year will just be worse than last year.

Bright Eyes - Happy Birthday to Me (Feb. 15)

"Into this song I send myself
And with these drinks I plan to collapse
And forget this wasted year, these wasted years
Devoted friends, they disappear..."

*You’re in a club, surrounded by Danish models. Someone is opening a bottle of Cristal, and somehow there’s confetti everywhere...

Cut Copy – Lights And Music

"This is what you hoped to say on your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight."

*All your friends have their birthday during the same month, and every year you have to buy a million presents at the same time. You consider perhaps replacing a few friends for others (with more practical birthdays) next year.

Candy Bars – The Birthday Song

"Oh my God, it’s somebody’s birthday again"

*And uhm… if you have a friend named Lisa.

Jens Lekman – Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa

"Turn on the radio, clean the windows.
Do it in slow-mo, as the day unfolds.
Oh how the sun shines inside you, just like I do."