BRB WITH SOME MUSIC.

GO OUTSIDE WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

BE COOL.

I'll believe

in

anything

if you believe

in anything.

Guess

what

I'm

capable

of

love

clearly

not

enough.

Miguel Caldron is the man. He's the artist responsible for the crazy paintings in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. He also does a bunch of other awesome shit and has a generally cool attitude on his art. Love this dude.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/art-talk/miguel-calderon

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering upBorn in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand. Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son don't you understand now"
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.

Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
I'm on fire
Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can he do to you the things that I do
I can take you higher
I'm on fire
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby
Edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
Through the middle of my skull
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the
Middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
I'm on fire

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around,this is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometownIn '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come, to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown
Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming backto your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I'm thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and saidson take a good look around, this is your hometown

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
Darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me
You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
Oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late, we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder RoadWell I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/art-talk/wes-lang

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/art-talk/vito-acconci

theres a reason that i work

so hard at this stuff

when all i want to do

is take it easy

its not a ticket

for you to pick at

other people

who dont know whats up

like youre so sure you do

Were we wrestling?

Or were we hugging?

You know

that they only will doubt you

when you

start to lose their features

Specifically 2:13

Who walked the dog?

Lost in the fog

squat down below

tongue to the snow

I saw Atlas Sound last night in my hometown. It's funny that I saw an artist such as Bradford Cox in a place like Upland, Indiana. Not to say anything bad about Upland, it's a nice place. But Atlas Sound is accompanied, in my mind, with an attitude maybe not in complete cahoots with what Taylor gives off, to put it as delicately as possible.

But, I ignored that stuff for a while and assumed everyone else would try their hardest to do the same.

Atlas Sound was good. Austin had seen him at Pitchfork a year or two ago and from his experience we were all a little weary. On top of that, I had seen Bear in Heaven the night prior and had a general disdain for internet-rumor-bands. Though, I'm not sure I'd consider Atlas Sound that type of thing, despite being acclaimed by the all-mighty-but-not-as-bad-as-we-all-want-to-imagine-it-as Pitchfork media.

Like most people, I really like Deerhunter; furthermore, I really like "Cryptograms". That album is a perfect mesh of noise (good, ambient, noise, I mean the sort of thing you would find on those noise-ambient compilation things) and cool punk songs. Atlas Sounds' set last night was not entirely different sounding than "Cryptograms". In fact, it sounded more like a Deerhunter show than what I would have expected Atlas Sound to be. Cox's new album, Logos, is hit-or-miss for me. Tracks like "Walkabout" and "Sheila" are, of course, highlights and are reason enough to deem the album at least good. Both of those songs were re-created live in various forms. "Walkabout" began, like most every song, with a noisy interlude followed by Cox manipulating his pedals and loop machines to create the backbone of the song. It could have been hard to distinguish "Walkabout" if not for the vocals that are some of the best on Logos: "To go away and not look back, and think of what the others say, to go ahead and change your life, without regard to what is said"

"Sheila" was a pretty direct translation of what can be heard on the album, with the exception of a bass guitar. While the effects pedals were numerous, they lent a hand to make the show feel big despite being only one person. Specifically during the chorus' of "Sheila" an effect was used which seemed to delay and pitch-up the notes, creating a cool atmospheric sound around the chords.

After the last song "Criminals", another stand out track on Logos, Cox conducted a Q&A. When I first started listening to Deerhunter, I remember watching videos of them playing some songs live, which then led me to a selection of interviews with Bradford Cox. At the time I was interested in hearing people talk about their craft. I was getting really into these Bob Dylan interviews and watching interviews with artists, etc. So, I found those interviews to be really rad, to the point where I watched them over and over again. Bradford Cox is an interesting guy, he is genuine and disingenuous and it's hard to make up your mind on whether or not he's trying to be honest and expressive or a little mean and bully-like.

Cox opened up the floor to questions and received a lot of general, typical things such as "When is the next Deerhunter album? What about that leak thing?". Cox's reactions were peculiar. Whether or not it was a reaction of being put on the spot or a sort of put-on, I'm not sure. He seemed to invite questioning, telling everyone not to be shy or embarrassed, and then proceeded to sort of, well, embarrass them. The whole thing was strange and lasted about half an hour. I'd be totally lying if I said it wasn't compelling though and a part of me felt bad for the guy. It seemed like he was trying to be genuine and kind, but just picking and choosing when to be that way and when not to. I remember when David Bazan came to Taylor and did a very similar Q&A type deal in between his songs. People asked him things like, "How is your faith?" and "What's your favorite Bible verse?" (no joke). Similarly, there were a few loaded questions directed at Cox, one being "What gives you hope?" to which Cox had no reply and "What do you think about religion?".

A friend of mine told me the other day he tries to critic music in the same way he would think about his friends' music. In the end, I'd like to think this is the way things should be in my head too. After all, it's just people trying to make some sort of art, trying to be expressive. So what if sometimes it's not exactly correct or nice, or even genuine. At least it's something. Right? What Bradford Cox does is interesting and was definitely worth my 8 dollars.