I Did It

I did it. I'm not sure if I am the first, or the only, but it's definitely my very first time, this previous week, to post a blog that garnered not a single comment. I'm way too fucking lazy to go back and find out for sure. One thing I have done this past year of coarse, expositional, and often deeply personal posts is keep my language fairly literal. You read what I meant. For the most part. Well, okay, in all honesty, that isn't actually true. In fact, I have often cloaked meaning in flourish, in subterfuge, and in diversion. So what. I'm an alchemist who still thinks gold will be fused. Deal.

Along the way, since NAP's inception, I have traversed thousands of miles in my heart, in my mind, and in my life. And as I stand today, light years from yesterday, eons from a year ago, I have recorded a certain change in tack, an alteration of course. It's no bother. The way becomes obscured, the navigator changes course. Common trekking sense.

So last week was a post that laid down a simple premise. Yes, a simple premise, or I should say a blend of two ideas, both shedding light on my inner life, neither voiced in certain terms. That is a new concept for me. This new terms business, it's new stuff. I prefer to deliver the goods in unadorned presentation. But these are trying times. The gravity has been altered. Maybe we have come too close to the sun. I can't say for sure. I only know the field has taken on new qualities, meaning that the rules have changed.

This means you get posts from me that come to you in the very clothing I wear as a man in the world. This means that my words have shed their naked luster and come before you wrapped in a shroud of ornate opacity. I am both sorry and pleased, almost relieved to have this happen.

But, fuck all that. I'm getting a little off course, which is funny to say because this is a post without a rudder, in a blog without a map, from a week's worth of writers without an alignment. And last week, I managed to go an entire week without a single comment.

I think that's an accomplishment.

I get it too. I wouldn't have commented on that post either. I never do when I don't see the point. There was probably no point to commenting on a soaked, rich, purple hued post that plied the trade of personal exposition at the expense of clarity. What is there to say?

Sometimes I wonder, just a little, what you people think about the shit I churn out.

Like my accidental mis-post a few days back. I am amused at how much chain I can be given at times. Especially since i probably don't fucking deserve it. I am, after all, a douchebag at heart, and foster a cool sense of alienation between myself and the rest of the known world.

So, hats off to me.

And now, some utterly unrelated music miscellany.

This is what I have been into lately.

I have been a complete whore for the whole post/instru/art/metal thing lately. I am talking total fucking whore to it. Years back I caught Neurosis live and was floored by their presentation. The intensity, the passion, the directness of their music and their performance was good, good stuff, but I never followed through and became too familiar with their work. That has since changed, and there are few catalogues in music today that I can tolerate as widely as I do theirs right now. In the following years I read about the rise of the whole post-rock thing. Then it was the epic explorations of bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and a few others. I got into it for a while, enjoyed the long format, the scale of it, the cinematic warmth it espoused. But with time, I grew bored with it. The capper was when I caught Godspeed live. The opener was the Philly psych powerhouse, Bardo Pond, and they simply blew me away. I knew them, had a few of their releases, and was a fan. The crowd, the pretentious limp dicked indie asswipe crowd, was bewildered by Bardo Pond. Respectful. Mildly attentive. Clearly bewildered.

And then Godspeed came out, and proceeded to bore me to tears. No passion. No drama. No humanity. No love. No blood. Nothing. Just the motions. Just the motions and a sea of adoring followers who would have found genius in the fecal residue floating at the bottom of the toilet bowl that had recently housed the turds of the band members themselves.

No thanks.

But then I found out about Pelican, and Isis. Instrumetal, they called it. Shitty name, interesting idea. Instrumental metal. Heavy, punishing, long form instrumental reaches into the something other than the obvious.

I had to check it out, and so I did. And, I liked what I heard. Isis had just released Panopticon, and I was seriously digging it. I got it. It wasn't exactly challenging, or too bright, but it did the trick and I enjoyed it.

And then, I bought the Isis DVD. That was a mini turning point for me. It bored me to tears.

So now, here I am, working with a die hard Isis/Mono/Pelican/Godspeed/Mogwai junkie. And other people I know are also digging it. And I find myself trying to explain myself, but they just keep playing it. Next thing I know, I am pulling out Panopticon again and really digging it. Then Isis puts out their latest, as does Pelican. I check them both out. Also, I acquire the bulk of the Neurosis catalogue. And then a funny thing happens.

I lose my mind over the stuff. I am like a crackhead for it.

And I am Last FM-ing this stuff to the heavens, I am scouring the earth for more. And I am in the throes of a full blown semi-obsession.

I am tired of rambling, but if you don't know this stuff, check it out. If you are familiar with some, but not all, or if you don't know where to begin, check this out. If you just want to listen to something other than _________, or what have you, then check it out. Or if you just want to know what is turning on this enormous husk of a man, do me a favor, and check it out.

No more rambling. This is an off the cuff list. Do the rest yourself.


The entire Neurosis canon, but especially Souls At Zero. Start there, and then move on to A Sun That Never Sets. Then, Through Silver In Blood, and then do whatever you like. I would say go with the new one, Given To The Rising, but whatever. The Jarboe/Neurosis collaborative effort is great too.

Then check out Isis' Panopticon, In The Absence Of Truth, and go wherever you like from there.

Pelican's whole catalogue. Start at the beginning.

Mono.

Russian Circles.

Mouth Of The Architect.

Cult Of Luna.

Rwake.

Grails, even.

And fuck it, they don't really fit in here, but just go check out Baroness, and Torche. They both do it for me too. There's more but I'll spare you.

Best of luck to someone who has seen the knife. They won't need it, but I wish it all the same.