First things first, you must go out and find The Long Winters album, When I Pretend to Fall . They're on Barsuk Records with Death Cab for Cutie, etc. After hearing one tune on KEXP, I searched the internet, called New World and was like "do you have it? good. put my name on it." The counter boy was impressed by my indy cred I think. Awwwww ;). Anyways, anyone who was even briefly in my prescence this weekend knows that I have been listening to this album non-stop, and probably also agrees with me that it is a brilliant friggin' record! You can listen to some tracks on their (really his, a guy named John Roderick) website. Also, what a hottie to boot... Dare I say, rockstar??



I really really want to move to Seattle now, even more than before. I mean, sensitive guys with marty stouffer beards! My dream come true!

As for the music, to me it's Built to Spill with a byway through Neutral Milk Hotel, add a splash of the Shins, and oh maybe just a little Jeff Buckley for that really heart-bending ole school effect. Or as John Roderick describes it: "This is our new record. It’s made of downtown right as the sun comes out after it’s been raining and a little bit of 3AM city bus in from the airport."

Yup, rockstar.

Thank you John in the Morning! I can't stop lovin' my KEXP. Today I heard this song by the Long Winters, and it's on this new compilation, which I just ordered. I think I may get the whole LW album from Itunes, it sounds pretty good too. Here's the skinny on the compilation though. Now you can listen to great music and feel politically engaged at the same time!

Love,
the Inactivist

"Barsuk's next release will be a fundraising CD compilation, titled future soundtrack for america, a joint project with MoveOn.org and Music For America. (McSweeney's Publishing is also releasing a book with similar fundraising goals that will include a copy of the CD; the future dictionary of america features contributions from an astounding group of almost 200 writers, from Paul Auster to Michael Chabon to Jonathan Franzen to Joyce Carol Oates to Kurt Vonnegut to Wendy Wasserstein.)

One hundred percent of our and McSweeney's profits will go to non-profit progressive organizations, including Music For America, Common Assets, The Sierra Club, and others.

The CD will be available August 17th in most stores and here in the Barsuk shop; something tells us that you just might be able to get it a few days earlier if you're on the MoveOn e-mail list...

Complete artist and tracklisting:

OK Go : This Will Be Our Year
David Byrne : Ain't Got So Far To Go
Jimmy Eat World : Game of Pricks (BBC evening session)
Death Cab For Cutie : This Temporary Life
Blink-182 : I Miss You (James Guthrie mix)
Mike Doughty : Move On
Ben Kweller : Jerry Falwell Destroyed Earth
Sleater-Kinney : Off With Your Head
R.E.M. : Final Straw (MoveOn mix)
Bright Eyes : Going for the Gold (live)
The Long Winters : The Commander Thinks Aloud (future mix)
will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas : Money
They Might Be Giants : Tippecanoe And Tyler Too
Clem Snide : The Ballad of David Icke
Yeah Yeah Yeahs : Date With the Night (live)
Fountains of Wayne : Everything's Ruined (acoustic)
Nada Surf : Your Legs Grow
The Flaming Lips : Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (live on the BBC)
Old 97's : Northern Line
Laura Cantrell : Sam Stone
Tom Waits : Day After Tomorrow
Elliott Smith : A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free"

It's only $12! Buy it!

Last night I read the entire first volume of Grant Morrison's the (now old) New X-Men that (e:matthew) gave me like a year ago. It was very escapist and helped me get out of my head awhile. But here's what scared me... I think I'm turning into Cassandra Nova...

So yesterday I was pretty miserably, even morbidly depressed. I slept a lot, and dreamt a lot. I thought of a lot of depressive things to write about: my total lack of ambition, my intensifying agoraphobia, my tick tick ticking biological clock (one dream I had involved losing a baby for several days in a labrynthine network of cupboards). But instead of talking about depressing depression, I will tell you a bit about one of the strange dreams I had, that involved some e-peepers. It's brief, since I kept hitting the snooze alarm on my news-tuned clock radio, which meant that the dream ended up as a Bush/Kerry debate, which was also pretty weird.

But here is how it started. I was backpacking by myself through a huge jungle nature preserve. Everything was oversized, giant leaves, spanish moss on everything (thanks south carolina for adding that coolness to my visual reservoir!) There were animals hiding here and there in the woods, including the collage-gorilla (e:matthew) made [inlink]matthew,300[/inlink]. It moved around and was gorilla-sized but was made out of tiny pieces of cut paper. This gorilla was with his family and he watched me calmly if cautiously as a trudged by with my grungy pack.

It seemed like I had been traveling a long time, everything I had on was pretty dirty, and I felt pretty seasoned. I crossed a huge ravine by walking over a fallen log and on the other side I met (e:terry) and weirdly, (e:jeremy) (jungle?). They were happy hippies who came to tour the park too. They asked me if I had touched the gorillas, as if it was the thing you absolutely had to do while you were there, and of course I hadn't. They were like, ohhh, you missed out.

So I went to sleep on a high hill and I didn't pitch a tent, I just put down a green tarp and a sleeping bag and slept out in the air. It rained on me, but as I said I was pretty used to traveling so I was only mildly annoyed. It was like I was an itinerant monk trying to mortify myself.

In the morning I woke up and sat up in the lotus position immediately and started chanting a mantra, Nam myoho renge kyo. Which is weird since I haven't chanted in years, and I never chanted this mantra, and I haven't thought about or practiced Buddhism in ages. As I was chanting, a crowd of Buddhist nuns sat down beside me, and started chanting with me. They had shaved heads and beautifully embroidered white robes. One of them on my left looked directly, intently at me, and then I don't remember any more.

Here's a little something about the mantra:
When deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a Buddha. This is similar to a tarnished mirror that will shine like a jewel when polished. A mind now clouded by the illusions of the innate darkness of life is like a tarnished mirror, but when polished, it is sure to become like a clear mirror, reflecting the essential nature of phenomena and the true aspect of reality. Arouse deep faith, and diligently polish your mirror day and night. How should you polish it? Only by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime- Nichiren