SHOREBREAK (1st Entry)
shOREBREAK tiiiiimmmmeee
This column will focus on the beach-themed corner of indie rock so prevalent at the moment (think: wavves, best coast, diiv, etc. x 1,000,000,000) Shorebreak is to be a segment, one of several, on my upcoming, long-in-the-works music blog curated by this here american libertine (in between bouts of sin, iniquity & deeply depraved debauchery...& work-shopping away bad habits like corny-ass alliteration & redundancy...coming in April 2016..as yet unnamed...any ideas?).
Surf's Goth, ZZZZZ (Nods Off In the Suun)
Have you been listening to DIIV's new album "Is the Is Are?" non-stop constantly like I have? And having played that totally out 'til "Under the Sun" scorches yr pasty alabaster winter-skin leading to hospitalization and near-death? Do you fantasize about killing Zachary C Smith whereas you used to fantasize about shooting up with Zachary C Smith while listening to "Dopamine." No? Just me? All of it or some of it? FINE! I'll stop talking about DIIV and ZCS and I didn't bring up Sky Ferreira but don't get me started....
DIIV'd out or not, the following two songs are the cure for yr winter blues & beyond that are the aural equivalent to liquid vicoden. "Zen A" by Brooklyn's (don't roll yr eyes, don't hate, don't presume - possible name for new music blog) own Surf Rock is Dead is very likely my favorite song in 2016 so far. With a handful of singles out and an EP, they're new to the scene but already brilliant songwriters. Somehow, they're able to bring an originality and freshness to the beach/coast/wavvy sound that's damn-near inescapable within indie music these dayzzzzzz.
Heartfelt, well-written songs with perfectly fitting lyrics (no cringe-worthy melodramatic bad poet bullshit, here--don't get me wrong, SRiD are feeling feelingz, but feelin' 'em like well-spoken adults with real scars and strength) makes this band one to watch. To my knowledge they haven't hit the West Coast yet for tours so no first-hand on their live shows yet. I'll get to to the songs....the 2nd being the equally catchy and brilliant "Late Risers" that's perhaps a note more lowkey than "Zen A" but fucckkkkkk soooooo goooood....
Posted on February 25th, 2016
American Libertine Biography (In Flux)
...college graduate with a Bachelor's in English from U.C. Davis, minor in sociology, I have a strong sense of injustice & believe firmly in speaking out for what is right yet strategically; Politically active yet thoroughly disgusted with the hypercapitalism that blankets the political system turning everyone into brainwashed foot soldiers for the heads of major corporations who have exponentially more power than our president, our Congress, and even the Supreme Court. Don't mistake my tone for disdain, rather I absolutely LOVE America & my love drives me to voice painful criticisms of Western culture--in the hopes we, against the odds, nurture the better angels of our nature to achieve actual results. I've worked steadily since 15 in jobs as diverse as bus boy, tech salesman, call center collector, corporate banking foot soldier, record store slacker, journalist, on-camera anchor, photo tech & many more... yet I'm a firm believer in what Gary Snyder espoused--take the best paying, best fitting job to support oneself through the creative life until the creative life either becomes support or die in relative obscurity blessed with the peace of having always followed the creative vision and with as little compromise as possible--I cringe, hedging my bets-while I greatly admire those Outlaws who we now view as Great Men of History but who were anathema in their own time, I don't have the full-bore madness (nor the bravery) to commit to a life exercising my will purely, absolutely like Nietzsche's "Superman" (ubermensch). Like everyone, I'm trying to outsmart time--Time is relative if we tell ourselves the right stories and thus, I'm a writer. In the final analysis, I'm an obnoxiously average nice guy, but a truly open-minded person who thinks all humans should be judged by WHO they are not WHAT they are NO MATTER WHAT. Racists, bigots, zealots, child predators, and bullies all burn in the hell I would never believe in were it not for these failures of humanity...
Posted on February 25th, 2016
Aphorism I
"We learn an overwhelming majority of a person's nature in how they behave in cases of forced intimacy, such as public buses, government offices, etc. And this is no small reason why we universally revile the time we are forced to remain in these situations--for who enjoys that curiously prone and vulnerable performance we are forced to improvise, never prepared with any clue to the nature of our prospective audience. So it is our raw skills we must rely on. How utterly terrifying to be oneself. Conversely humans find small groups of friends and only then are they content: an audience for which they are consistently prepared. But when a friend sees that which makes you most yourself how swiftly we view them as enemies...human mirrors from which we avert our eyes."
-american libertine
Posted on February 12th, 2016
