boniverotica:

Today at the flea market, Bon Iver found a box of old hats.  He bought them all.  ‘I couldn’t decide which one felt most like home,’ he said.

Woman: “Please don’t do this to me, I have a baby with me!” Cop: “You in trouble lady, you tried to shank him.” Woman: “I didn’t shank nobody!”

fuckyeahsufjanstevens:

Rosie Thomas & Sufjan Stevens - Where Were You?

For most, Vincent Van Gogh was a fine artist.
To some, he lacked technique.
Paint straight from the tube, very heavy-handed.
How Van Gogh cut off his ear is what is most intriguing to folks.
In each piece I’ve ever appraised, the story
is always more fascinating than the actual piece itself.

- Northfork 2003 

Just designed a box to move my mod pedals from the front of the amp to an FX loop with the flick of a switch, and a different output cable. I’m excited to build it.

farmolio:

Bruce Springsteen- Promised Land

A little blurb I wrote 5 years ago:

Lately I haven’t been able to get enough of The Promised Land. I know Bruce Springsteen seems awfully corny to some, and sometimes oversimplifies complex human emotions. But sometimes he gets it just perfectly right in a way that many respected songwriters never do.

In this case, I’ve known this song my entire adult life, maybe since I was about 10 or so. Compared to other songs on Darkness on the Edge of Town, this one never stood out that much. Racing in The Streets, Badlands, the title track, Candy’s Room— those songs resonated with me. But this song came on randomly the other day on my iPod, and something about it really clicked with me.

At first I’d thought of it in the same context as Badlands, as an earnest and fervent song of individuali rebellion. But my little revelation yesterday was that it bore much more far-reaching implications than that.

The song functions as an apocalyptic call to arms. Rather than focusing strictly on the individual’s plight in a barren and indifferent land, it looks forward to promised salvation, particularly in the third verse. I’ll quote it here:

There’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I pack up my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain’t got the faith to stand its ground.
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing
But lost and broken hearted

The imagery comes straight out of Apocalypse, doesn’t it? The chorus makes sense in this light too:

The dogs on Main Street howl, because they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister, I ain’t a boy, no, I’m a man,
And I believe in a promised land.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t harbor any illusions that Springsteen is preaching or proselytizing. Even though the song—and the entire album, for that matter— is heavy with references to innocence, sin, and redemption, this isn’t an essay or a sermon.  The song ends as an outcry to all who’ll listen— a storm is coming, and those times will cause us to throw away everything that is foolish and hurtful, and to cast off infantile or adolescent ideas in exchange for that in which we have a mature faith. He’s not a boy anymore, and the life of an adult includes a faith that not only includes a belief in a promised land, but lends him the strength and courage “to stand (his) ground.”

What’s more, he heads “straight into the storm.” That is, he embraces the coming changes, and sees them as an opportunity instead of simply a crisis or threat.

I guess I’m so taken with the song because Bruce is so rarely held up as a spiritual or metaphysical songwriter. Most of his work is brilliantly insightful, but only insofar as it examines the tangible realities of human existence. He does have songs that deal with the intangible elements of our lives, but they’re outnumbered greatly in his songbook.

This would be amazing:

fakecriterions:

The Three Amigos [1986]

An email submission from David Cornelius. 

farmolio:

The Black Keys- Lonely Boy (live on The Colbert Report)

So the Black Keys have another number one album, El Camino.  What a great thing to happen for this new band, a couple of exciting young kids on the music scene. 

On the final track from undun, also titled “Redford,” the band takes Sufjan’s instrumental, and, with some help from Sufjan himself, they turn it into a sprawling four-movement work. We’ve got three of those movements streaming below.

On the first movement, “Redford,” Sufjan plays the song alone on piano. And in the ensuing two movements, Questo, a string quartet, and an avant-garde pianist all offer their takes on it.