TOP 10 OF 2012: INDIVIDUAL TRACKS
1. PASSION PIT: CONSTANT CONVERSATIONS
2. HOP ALONG: TIBETAN POP STARS
3. THE AMERICAN SCENE: THE VIEW FROM HERE
4. THE AMERICAN SCENE: SHAPE SHIFTER
5. PURITY RING: BELISPEAK
6. JAPANDROIDS: THE HOUSE THAT HEAVEN BUILT
7. LOS CAMPESINOS: TIPTOE THROUGH THE TRUE BITS
8.CLOUD NOTHINGS: WASTED DAYS
9. PRAWN: SPRING RIVER
10. HOW TO DRESS WELL: COLD NIGHTS
I made an effort to try and only do one song from each artist, but I can’t stress enough how fucking great The American Scene record is and it was tough to keep a few more tracks from them off this list.
TOP 10 OF 2012: RECORDS
1. THE AMERICAN SCENE: SAFE FOR NOW
2. PURITY RING: SHRINES
3. JAPANDROIDS: CELEBRATION ROCK
4. HOP ALONG: GET DISOWNED
5. CLOUD NOTHINGS: ATTACK ON MEMORY
6. PASSION PIT: GOSSAMER
7. THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH: THERE’S NO LEAVING NOW
8. KENDRICK LAMAR: GOOD KID, MAAD CITY
9. POS: WE DON’T EVEN LIVE HERE
10. NOW NOW : THREADS
I had considered doing write ups for these records, but I remembered I have no idea how to describe/talk about music anymore. Also realized I didn’t listen to too much new stuff this year. Getting old. Getting lazy.
I know we’re taking forever to release a new EP, but it’s not because we get off on being withholding or we’re trying to tease it for some bullshit hype. We’re just not entirely happy with how things have been sounding, so we’re going to keep taking our time with it with no real timetable for a release. To try and make up for the wait, we’re releasing this live set from last night for free which has a bunch of new stuff as well as some old. A huge thanks to everybody at WRCT’s Advanced Calculus who were super cool to us and for doing a phenomenal job with this. If you like it, please share it.
My band just released a live studio set we recorded for WRCT’s Advanced Calculus radio show for free download/streaming. http://www.worncolors.bandcamp.com
Mick Malone : The Postman Doesn’t Come At Night
I want to drink the blood from the throat of something ancient and impossibly strange, feel its fur between my teeth, its lungs breathing through my lungs. I want moonlight in my eyes so I’m painting crosses beneath my lies, terrified that you’ll break your spine bending over backwards to make me feel okay, and it’s not okay and will never be okay. So I sat in silence and ground my teeth to powder, watched a dubious zebra and poisoned cobra fight in the waving tree branches till the sky turned dark, till silhouettes wash into backdrop and my mouth fills with smoke. I cross my fingers till they break and weave together, my hands are boats taking on water. I’m drinking out of bathroom faucets and breaking mirrors in subway stations. I’m solving puzzles only so I know how to dismantle things, keeping keys beneath my fingernails to doors beneath rivers and across countries. I’m singing you songs from broken staircases in the corner of our former homes. I had notes written, dizzy and manic in scratched out eyes of painted saints in forest churches in languages I’ve forgotten while tangled up in bed sheets and hanging from the ceiling fans but the postman doesn’t come at night and I just can’t bare the light and all you are is light.
An update of sorts
I haven’t updated this in a while, so here’s what’s up.
My band Worn Colors has been writing / recording a new EP that will hopefully be out early September. It’s dark and heavy and a fucking bummer. But we have good times. We’ve been playing a bunch of shows around Pittsburgh and hoping to get out to more cities soon.
I have begun work on my next solo / spoken word / experimental record. Nothing recorded yet, but words have been written and ideas formulated. It’ll be out this year, but no idea when.
I also have a couple other projects in the works, but I don’t want to delve into them until I really know what’s going on with them.
The Gardens Roam [6/30]
The gardens aren’t planted; they crawl out from the oceans in the shape of lions. Their enormous sundew manes drip ink and seed; bees follow the enormous paw print through tar and wet asphalt. The gardens roam.
Five People Sleeping. [5/30]
1. A family of foxes covered themselves in white paint; they hide against your bedroom walls until the daylight fades and plant blackberry seeds beneath your pillow while you sleep.
2. The rat king has fourteen mouths. He sets off bottle rockets all night until your neighbors call the cops.
3. In a dream, you gave me an orange under the condition that I only eat the peel. You walked away, I didn’t eat anything.
4. It’s so strange how every thing reminds me of what we’ll never be. If it hurts, just say the word and to the roots I’ll return. I’ll misread the signs and pull away; there are some things I could never say.
5. Somebody rakes all the pine needles out from beneath the trees. I’d like to know them, I’d like to know where they go.
Untitled [4/30]
Stay asleep with me;
I’m studying vampire geography through the dresser drawer.
We share the most uncanny dreams.
Shadow Puppets [3/30]
I want you to lay on your back in the dry grass, open your eyes wide and with my hands we’ll cast shadow puppets against the sky. I’ll be the monster and you can be the bird. My claws will disappear into your wings, get a little close, we are one shadow, come a little closer. Close your eyes.
