Pattern Familiar

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It came to my attention
one day
so late.
Over Irish Coffee -
heavy cream, whiskey,
sugar cubes, and company.
The name I have,
The name I'll keep,  
may end with me.

These talks of kings and queens,
Lineage releasing despair
for a child to walk with a sword, to speak
spreading seas, birds and bees.
So it was written.
Our only deed.

Yet days wandered to years
as time disregarded love
and rambunctiousness wrestled and wronged
the avenues we could have called home.
Because why grow up as my stubble grows thick?

Memories remain,
callouses harden from the same, the same,
and I can't remember
a day, a November,
that I wasn't alone
wrapped in ecstasy of you.
Our permanence -
etched lines of physical signs -
only stenciled.
And bruises always fade. 

If ever the rust of perception
will clear,
the beating heart in this study
will bear
not just a name, or a poem on names,
but a reason to give in.

And the grin of a doting father
will replace the temporary harbors
dancing like pieces of a cookie cracked
whose fortune read exactly as dreamt.

And I sip and think of kings and queens.

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Album Review - The Maccabees - Given to the Wild

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The Maccabees, a pretty well known band in the UK pretty well forgotten in the States, released their third album, Given to the Wild, in 2012. The album won NME's Best Album of the Year.  It was listed as #15 in my Top 25 Albums of 2012, and now that I'm listening to it again, I think it deserved to have a higher ranking.

The album is an original. I can't think of any apt comparisons other than Bombay Bicycle Club's So Long See You Tomorrow (especially the atmospheric intro tracks that flow right into the second) sounding somewhat similar, but the BBC album pales in comparison.   

This album is all about love - that which we follow, idealize, grab and grasp for, then take for granted and ultimately lose.

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Singles - New Artist - Natalie Prass - Bird of Prey

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A couple days ago I went through a musical exercise that was one of the many reminders why music touches so many different people in different influences. One of the artist involved, Natalie Prass, will be releasing a new album on January 26th. This is the first song I heard by her. She reminds me of a folksy Feist with her melodies, various instruments, and distinct voice. Check her live version of this song out (I can't seem to embed the YouTube video...) which really showcases her voice!

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A Quick Musical Journey

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I'm first taken by its relaxed pace. Then Prass begins to sing. That melody. I've heard that before. But from where? I think and think and think. I listen to it again. Pause. Think. Listen again. That melody is on Drake's last album! So I'm scrounging through all the tracks when I remember, wait, it's on Kendrick Lamar's last album! I immediately cue up "Poetic Justice.”

So Prass did a cover of Janet Jackson's original which Kendrick Lamar sampled (and I'm guessing the title "Poetic Justice" is a sly shout-out to Janet since she was in a movie - with Tupac - with the same title.) What a beautiful circle of music. Thanks Janet!

Can you hear the same melody? I then chuckle when Drake starts rapping (half credit?). But then I'm intrigued as to whom is singing the melody on Lamar's track. Sure enough, it's a sample from a Janet Jackson song entitled, you guessed it, "Any time, Any Place:"

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Albums to look forward to in 2015!

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I've scoured the interwebs for a bunch of info on 2015 album releases (thank you Consequence of Sound, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Metacritic, Ranker) and here's an incredibly quick listing of albums that I promise to listen to MANY MANY times which are ranked from somewhat excited to RIDICULOUSLY excited):

Brandon Flowers - TBA
Savages - TBA
The Dodos - Individ (1/27)
Wild Nothing - TBA
Panda Bear (Noah Lennox from Animal Collective) - Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
Heems (from the now extinct Das Racist) - Eat Pray Thug (3/10)
Jose Gonzalez - Vestiges & Claws (2/17)
Fleetwood Mac - TBA
Chromatics - Dear Tommy
Pusha T - King Push
Freddie Gibbs - Lifestyles of the Insane
James Blake - TBA
DIIV - TBA
Purity Ring
Belle & Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (1/20)
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (1/20)
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2/10)
Death Cab for Cutie - TBA
Chance the Rapper - Surf
Blood Orange - TBA
Joey Bada$$ (finally!) - B4.DA.$$ (1/20)
Band of Horses - TBA
Drake - Views From the 6
Adele - TBA
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves (3/3)
Beach House - TBA
A$AP Rocky
Grimes - TBA
Run the Jewels - RTJ3
My Morning Jacket - TBA
Kanye West - TBA
Kendrick Lamar - TBA
Radiohead - TBA
Frank Ocean - TBA

Family Tree

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There's a tree outside
whose bark's tough hide
has seen winter whither lesser trees,
summers parch lesser beings,
and the spoiled crabgrass scream,
but the tree has outlived these misgivings
to bear the brunt and toil,
see both beautiful and soiled,
and relay these lessons, these morals
to give its branches more
than Spring's shining store.

And here it stands
in the wide expanse
with its branching reaching far
to be just like the tree.
And if the tree could know
the effect of its hold, 
of the nutrients sowed,
its long embrace and let go
for the branches to thrive solo
shaking off the misery and cold
and exploding with beautiful leaves of its own.
Well, let's hope the tree has always known. 

And the branches' leaves will shed
from the burgundy to red
and whisper until the ground
that it learned a thing or two.
Age will cultivate
as rainfall alleviates
the circle of leaf, life, limb, and fate.
For the branches will grow
singing to and fro
to the tree whistling in the wind. 

There's a tree outside
whose bark's tough hide
mirror the roots that run so deep.
There's a tree outside
of heart and life
whose trunk will never cease to be.
And this tree outside - 
despite the shifts in time
and different street name signs -
will forever be ours to keep. 
And forever ours to see. 

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Album Review - Mac Demarco - Salad Days

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“As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder, rolling through life to roll over and die.”

Mac Demarco’s first line on the title track (and my #2 Top Song of 2014) of his album Salad Days perpetuates the strange dichotomy between Demarco’s public persona and his writing as a singer/songwriter. 

One one side, there's his public persona - goofy, humorous, playful, idiotic, likable, and crude (instead of a band prayer/pep talk, I envision Demarco and his buddies playing the “Penis” game prior to stepping on stage). There's his ridiculously and I presume intentionally stupid documentary, Pepperoni Playboy, that has amassed over 500,000 views. His music videos are beyond comprehensible.  His live shows are messy and completely enjoyable. I saw Demarco at The Great American Music Hall in SF, and Demarco broke his strings on three separate occasions, once asking his bassist to do a cover of Coldplay while he restrung his guitar. “Let Her Go” was played completely out of time, and Demarco laughingly stated so after they got through it. Demarco and Co. were in the middle of one song, and a fan jumped on stage, put his arms around the bassist and took a selfie. The bassist smiled happily for the camera. The show was more like a circus act, and I loved it. Demarco’s crazy persona was in full force. 

Then there’s the other side.

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Top 25 Albums of 2014

in

“As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder, rolling through life to roll over and die.”

Mac Demarco’s first line on the title track (and my #2 Top Song of 2014) of his album Salad Days perpetuates the strange dichotomy between Demarco’s public persona and his writing as a singer/songwriter. 

One one side, there's his public persona - goofy, humorous, playful, idiotic, likable, and crude (instead of a band prayer/pep talk, I envision Demarco and his buddies playing the “Penis” game prior to stepping on stage). There's his ridiculously and I presume intentionally stupid documentary, Pepperoni Playboy, that has amassed over 500,000 views. His music videos are beyond comprehensible.  His live shows are messy and completely enjoyable. I saw Demarco at The Great American Music Hall in SF, and Demarco broke his strings on three separate occasions, once asking his bassist to do a cover of Coldplay while he restrung his guitar. “Let Her Go” was played completely out of time, and Demarco laughingly stated so after they got through it. Demarco and Co. were in the middle of one song, and a fan jumped on stage, put his arms around the bassist and took a selfie. The bassist smiled happily for the camera. The show was more like a circus act, and I loved it. Demarco’s crazy persona was in full force. 

Then there’s the other side...

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