SOUNDTRACK: DEAFHEAVEN-“Dream House” (2013).
NPR’s Lars Gotrich always picks songs that I like–even if I would never have found them any other way.
His favorite album of the year so far is by this band Deafheaven whom I have never heard of. The song is 9 minutes long and it combines big loud guitars, super fast crashing drums, and cookie monster vocals (mixed so low in the mix that they almost sound just like noise–a neat trick). The waves and layers of sound give it a kind of My Bloody Valentine feel.
For the first half of the song, the drums are absolutely speed metal fast–pounding and pounding with wild cymbals. But they too are mixed low in the mix–setting a beat but not dominating the song. For really this song seems to be all about the guitar–which is not exactly playing along with them. Sure, there are fast moments, and the guitar is largely distorted and noisy. But the tone of the guitar is very bright–especially when he starts playing some simple but pretty riffs (amid the noise).
And then about half way through, the noise drops away and the music become quiet and pretty. Two guitars interweave slow melodies. Until the music crashes back in, but with a different tempo and a feeling like Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai.
I know many will be turned off by the vocals (I think I might even like it more if it were purely instrumental), but the way they are mixed, shows that the music is the dominant sound, and I can get behind that.
[READ: June 12, 2013] “Company Man”
I always enjoying reading a David Sedaris Personal History (interestingly I haven’t read all of his books—I seem to stick to the articles instead). This one is about having a guest room. He considers it a true sign of aging gracefully that his new house has a guest room (with its own bathroom).
Their previous house in Normandy had nothing of the sort and he gives typically humorous anecdotes about being embarrassed for the guests who don’t have any privacy in the bathroom (“we’ll be going out for about twenty minutes if you need anything.”) But now they have this new space.
Which means of course that they have guests. I enjoyed the part when Hugh’s friends come to visit–based on his father’s behaviors, David is allowed to leave in the middle of a conversation because he is not the one entertaining the guests). But the bulk of the second half concerns David’s family.
His three sister’s come to visit. And although he likes their company, he often takes little breaks from them in his studio—so as not to overstay their welcome. But then he keeps coming back in the middle of conversations wondering what the hell he has just missed.
His poor family! He reveals things like his sister sleep walking and sleep eating. She realized one night that she ate a nutrition bar for her pet turtle (which is basically pressed dead flies) AND a poinsettia leaf. But other more obscure quotes include:
It used to be that whenever I passed a mirror I’d look at my face…. Now I just check to see if my nipples line up.
Or the discussion about his sister’s uterus and her fear that it is getting too thick. David wonders aloud what it is made of, possibly “whatever it is that grapes are made of.” His sister Amy replies: That would be grape. Grapes are made of grape.”
Some other interesting quotes:
“Don’t you just love the feel of an iguana.”
“Well, can’t you make it with camel butter?”
“Now was that guy a Pygmy or just a false Pygmy?”
As the tale comes to a close there’s a very funny sequence about how David and Hugh return to normal after the guests leave (they are no longer on their best behavior). He relates a fight where Hugh says “I haven’t liked you since 2002.” Rather than being upset by this revelation, David just wants to know “What happened in 2002?”
This piece made me laugh a lot, in a way that only Sedaris can.
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