Free Ukraine

There are obviously many problems with war, most noticeably the loss of lives, especially the "collateral damage" of civilian deaths.  But with his invasion today of the Ukraine - and yes, it was an "invasion" - Putin may have triggered a chain of events that are difficult to predict, with consequences even more unpredictable.

Will a refugee exodus of Ukrainians into Western Europe further inflame the anti-immigrant right in countries like Hungary, France and England?  And what will that in turn trigger?  How will the chaos of war and the sanctions placed against Russia by the U.S. affect inflation, supply chain problem, and the already stressed economy?  What other important issues will get ignored while this conflict sucks all the oxygen out of the conversation?  Will the fighting spill over to the NATO-member Baltic countries and bring Russian and American troops into direct conflict?  Will all of this eventually go literally nuclear?

My formative childhood years were in the 1960s with their "duck and cover" nuclear war drills in school, watching neighbors dig fallout shelters for their families in their backyards, and the grim realization that if the bombs did start falling, there was no room in their shelters for me.  "If anyone dies whilst in the shelter," we were told by the PSAs, "be sure to put identification tags on their bodies first before putting them outside for identification purposes later." Grim stuff for a 10-year-old.  

Most of my life, I was fairly convinced that I was going to die, like most of the human race, in the inevitable global nuclear war.  It was a remarkable sight in 1989, then, when I watched German protesters take sledge hammers to the Berlin War, signaling the end of the Cold War.  Maybe I wasn't going to burn to death by thermonuclear annihilation after all.  The 90s were a great decade of apparent stability, not without problems to be sure, but the end of the world wasn't among them.  Things began to unravel again following 9/11, and here we are once again considering nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the Rooskies, as Major T. J. "King" Kong put it in the movie Dr. Strangelove.

Pillow Man Invades Atlanta

"My Pillow Guy" Mike Lindell "stormed" the Georgia capital in Atlanta on Friday with 40 boxes allegedly containing affidavits claiming election fraud and demanding Georgia State Troopers arrest Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. "He's probably on the phone with China right now," Lindell ranted incomprehensibly.  "You know, in Georgia here, Brad Raffensperger is probably, you know me, melt down the machines and put him behind bars."  I dare you to try and diagram that sentence, much less make sense of what Lindell is trying to say.

The whole stunt was broadcast live on Steve Bannon's podcast. Of course it was.

According to reports, Raffensperger is still roaming free. Lindell was also allowed to leave the capital without arrest, even though Georgia Rep. Park Cannon, a woman of color, was arrested for knocking on Governor Kemp's door during a vote on election laws, and Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams, another woman of color, was arrested for protesting over voting rights. Lindell, it is noted, is a white male and was allowed to "storm" the capital, disrupt the legislative session, and live-cast his self-serving, partisan stunt without arrest.

I can't wait until this kind of trash stops appearing in my fair city.

“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride." 

- Anthony Bourdain

Death to Buckhead

It's worth noting as we enter the third year of the covid pandemic that it was two years ago yesterday that the World Health Organization first announced the official name for the disease that was causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: covid-19. The new name for the disease was an abbreviated version of coronavirus disease 2019.

In very much unrelated news, the Republican-controlled Georgia state legislature did the right thing for once and shut down any referenda or legislation to allow secession of the Buckhead community from the City of Atlanta.  In a blow to the cityhood movement, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston agreed yesterday to give new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens time to curb violent crime before considering legislation to split the city.  Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, the president of the Georgia state Senate, previously announced his opposition to the measure.  With both chambers opposed to the idea, the cityhood movement is officially dead until at least 2023. 

It was always my contention that the movement was just a charade to increase Republican turnout in the 2022 general election by whipping the base up into a frenzy.  Georgia Republicans are now going to have to rely on the nationwide false controversies being pushed by the GOP, like the supposed teaching of critical race theory in school.

Meanwhile, In Georgia (Politics Desk)

Georgia Republicans are overruling local redistricting maps drawn by Democratic-led counties and enforcing their own commission and school-board zones. 

More specifically, Cobb and Gwinnett Counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area and Richmond County in Augusta all have majority Democratic representation at the state Capitol and in their local governments.  But at the state level, Republican lawmakers are bypassing the traditional, local redistricting process to enforce Republican-drawn county commission and school-board district maps. 

The votes have fallen along party lines and against the will of the county commissions, which traditionally have managed their own local redistricting. Gwinnett County's Republican-backed county commission map passed the Senate yesterday and heads to Governor Brian Kemp for signature.  Cobb County's Republican-backed county commission and school district maps passed a House committee Wednesday and await a full House vote. And Augusta-Richmond County's Republican-backed county commission and school district maps were introduced last week, passed the Senate yesterday, and are headed to the House. 

On the Senate floor yesterday, state Sen. Michelle Au (D-Gwinnett) called the Republican maps a "stunning abrogation of the custom of majority rule in the democratic process." In a House committee meeting Wednesday, Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Cobb) said he was "disgusted" by the process. Fellow Cobb Democrat Rep. Teri Anulewicz called it "opaque obfuscation."

Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan told her colleagues: "We are tearing this body apart … In the name of what? Being able to take local decisions out of the hands of duly elected officials?"  

It seems inevitable that this issue will be headed to court.

More From the Music Desk

I'm still listening to all of the great music from February 4, both the new releases (Time Skiffs by Animal Collective and Ants From Up Above by Black Country, New Roads) and the newly rediscovered (the legendary All Lights Fucked by the Hairy Amp Drooling by the musicians who would become Godspeed You! Black Emperor).  

But last year, in a fit of optimism, I bought tickets to the 2022 edition of Knoxville's Big Ears Festival despite the covids, convinced that the newly developed vaccines would finally bring about the end of the pandemic.  Since the time of the purchase, I observed the decline of the delta variant and then the rise and current fall of the omicron variant. The festival is scheduled for the 24th to the 27th of March - new omicron cases are declining and I'm hoping they're all gone by then, and no new variants cause a new wave of infections.

But in any event, I'm fully vaccinated and boostered, and, despite the lack of a positive test but based on my loss of sense of smell, I suspect that I was infected by the virus last January. My sense of smell has recovered a little bit since mid-January, but I still can't smell my morning coffee.  In any event, I'm probably now as immune and protected as anyone can be, and the festival will require proof of vaccination for entry and claims masks will be required at all times.  It's time, if not past time, to get back to life despite the risks - not a time to be stupid, but to take reasonable precautions and accept that all of life carries some risk.

The reason I bring this up now is because the schedule for Big Ears 2022 was released today, and just as I feared, they did it: the three acts I'm most looking forward to seeing - Animal Collective, Patti Smith, and Kim Gordon - are all playing on the same night.

On Friday night, Kim Gordon plays the wonderful Tennessee Theater from 7:30  to 8:45 pm, followed by Patti Smith from 10:00 to 11:30 pm.  Animal Collective plays from 9:15 to 10:30 pm at The Mill and Mine, some half-mile-plus away.  One could conceivably beeline from the Tennessee Theater after Kim Gordon and make it to The Mill and Mine in time to catch Animal Collective, but you'd probably not get a great viewing spot.  And then you'd either have to leave Animal Collective early to see Patti Smith, or settle for just the last half-hour of her set.

At this point, I'm leaning toward a night at The Mill and Mine with Kim Gordon and Patti Smith, and passing on Animal Collective. Not to take anything away from AnCo, but I've already seen them several times while I've never seen Patti Smith or Kim Gordon (or her former band, Sonic Youth). In addition, while I enjoy the new AnCo LP, Time Skiffs, it doesn't really make a compelling case for being heard live.  It's a fine, perfectly acceptable album, but it's not revelatory or groundbreaking in the way their early 2000s album were.  Which is fine - it's not fair to demand that after 20-plus years, AnCo have to reinvent popular music with every new release.  There are plenty of experimental passages, but it's the sort of experimentalism we've come to expect from the band.  Animal Collective have made enormous contributions to contemporary rock, and after 21 years, it's unreasonable to expect every new release to break new ground.  I'm mean, The Beatles revolutionized rock music in the mid-60s, but 21 years later, no one was expecting the surviving  members to reinvent popular music in 1986.  The mere fact that AnCo are still making music together, and good music at that, it cause enough for celebration.  But arguably not enough to pass on the chance to see Patti Smith and Kim Gordon for the first and most likely only chance in my life.

But who knows?  If I start hearing amazing things about Animal Collective's performances on this tour, I may change my mind.

Thursday night, before the AnCo-Gordon-Smith debacle, I expect to see the band Low.  Like AnCo, Low is a veteran band, playing together since at least 1994 and arguably steadily improving and refining their sound with each passing year.  What no one expected was that in 2018, after successfully recording together to critical acclaim for nearly 25 year, they radically altered their sound, while somehow still retaining their unique identity. 2018's Double Negative suddenly introduced huge slabs of static and noise into their slightly baroque folk-rock sound, and the experimentation continued with 2021's Hey What.  Low are evidence that some old dogs can learn new tricks and can accomplish more than merely coexisting successfully over two decades.  Strangely, despite all the studio effects and layers of static, they still somehow sound like Low, with all their sweet harmonies and heartfelt lyricism still intact. It's an amazing trick, and one no one expected from Low at this point in their career.

Other musicians I anticipate hearing at Big Ears this year include Sō Percussion and 75 Dollar Bill (Thursday); Claire Rousay, Aurora Nealand, and L'Rain (Friday); John Zorn, Mary Lattimore, Meredith Monk, Jaimie Branch, and Efterklang (Saturday); and Andy Schauf, Bonny Light Horseman, Lisel, and Yves Tumor (Sunday).  Of course, the programing is so diverse and eclectic that I may wind up at totally different sets.  The whole point of Big Ears is discovery, and I anticipate learning about new bands via recommendations from other audience members.

Two For Twenty-two

It's been quite the day today for the Music Desk.  It's been quite the day for lovers of certain unclassifiable forms of contemporary popular music.

The big news was the album Time Skiffs by Animal Collective was released today and immediately made available for streaming on YouTube and Spotify and for purchase at Bandcamp (where it can also be streamed), the Constellation label website, and all the usual vendors.  The pending release was well publicized and I had at least a half-dozen emails in my inbox this morning from the band's email account, from Constellation records, from Bandcamp, and from various ezines and websites alerting me to the release.  

It's not all just hype - the release is kind of a big deal for fans of experimental, electronic rock.  It's Animal Collective's first full-length, full-band release in six years, and in my opinion is their best record since 2009's beloved Merriweather Post Pavilion.  Not that MPP is my favorite AnCo album, but it was the last album of theirs that I still listen to today.  They followed MPP with 2012's Centipede Hz, which has some good songs but is generally a noisy, chaotic record.  In many ways, it was the perfect response to those who wanted a polished pop follow-up to MPP, and a statement by the band that they were still an experimental, avant outfit not looking to be the breakthrough pop stars of the 2010s.  Okay, got the message, but while Centipede Hz isn't a '"bad" record, it's not comforting or welcoming either and if I'm in the mood to listen to AnCo, there are several other records I'd select first (Feels, Sung Tongs, Strawberry Jam, and Spirits come to mind, as well as my personal favorite, the Water Curses EP).

After Centipede Hz, AnCo released the forgettable Painting With in 2016, which did sound like a polished pop record.  On closer listen, they do some very interesting things with the vocals and harmonies, but overall, I found the record disappointing.  While I will admit several of the songs play better in live performances than in the studio, I was concerned that Painting With might be a harbinger of the decline of a once-awesome band.  

In addition to the two studio albums between 2009's MPP and now, members on AnCo have released several solo records, soundtrack albums, a couple conceptual video albums, and some live recordings, records indicating that their experimental instincts and inquisitive mentalities were still intact despite the tepid full-band studio recordings.  But many of us were still longing for a return-to-form studio album of new music from the band that would be worthy to stand alongside the rest of their impressive discography.

Time Skiffs is that.  They had already released at least four very promising tracks from the album prior to its release, and today I finally got to hear the whole album through.  It was a great experience, and like all the classic AnCo albums, I'm certain that on subsequent listens I'll hear new things I missed the first time through. It's easily one of AnCo's most accessible albums and others have said it's the follow-up to MPP that fans have been waiting for since 2009.  

I'll be seeing Animal Collective next month in Knoxville at the Big Ears festival.  I'll be going to Big Ears this year no matter what the covid pandemic throws my way (unless I'm actually sick and testing positive) - at this point, I'm either going to get the virus or not but I'm done with missing out on my life in the meanwhile.

So, the release of Time Skiffs today is a pretty big deal for fans of contemporary rock music.  But also on this day today, the fine British ensemble Black Country, New Road released their much-anticipated second album, Ants From Up There. BCNR are hard to classify (which adds to their appeal).  Post-rock? Baroque Pop?  Folk punk?  All of the above as well as other genres arise and fade in the course of their often lengthy and meandering compositions.  They're one of my favorite new bands (for some reason, most of the new bands I like these days all seem to be coming from the UK). I streamed the LP on Spotify today and can attest that the album holds up to my anticipation and all the hype around this new band. 

But the really interesting but also tragic aspect of the new BCNR release is that the band's future couldn't be more uncertain right now.  Just last week, frontperson, singer and songwriter Isaac Wood announced he was quitting the band, citing mental-health issues and the need for recovery and treatment.  The band had to cancel their planned first U.S. tour, but announced that the remaining six members have already begun to work on new music without Wood. Bassist Tyler Hyde will become the band's new lead vocalist, but out of respect for Wood, the band will no longer perform any music from their first two albums. All those great songs on Ants From Up There are doomed to exist only as recordings, and we'll never get the chance to hear them performed live, unless Wood decides that he's willing and able to return to the stage.

So today I got to listen to two brand-new and much-anticipated albums by one of my long-time favorite bands and one of my new-found faves.  That alone would make today a pretty big deal for the Music Desk, but then all of a sudden a nuclear-grade bombshell of an announcement caused seismic shock waves in the post-rock world:  

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's long-lost debut album was just discovered and uploaded to the net!

If I had to pick two bands as my favorites, depending on my mood I'd probably choose Animal Collective and Godspeed.  On other days in other moods, I might pick differently, but I would still have to acknowledge than I listen to the those two a lot. Today, February 4, 2022, saw new music surface from both of my favorites.  

The mystique around the Godspeed debut is a story unto itself.  Reportedly, back in 1994, the then-unknown and unsigned band assembled several tracks, field recordings, and samples from live performances onto a cassette tape and titled it All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling.  The band has stated that only 33 copies were made, and no one in the band knows where - or if - an existing copy still exists.  Band members claim that the tape wasn't very good and not at all representative of the sound they developed later.  

At the time the tape was made, Godspeed was an unknown Canadian collective still three years from their first album and six years from their 2000 breakout album, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.  No one who happened to come into possession of the cassette tape at the time would have had any idea that the band would later become popular, nor would they have much reason to keep the odd assortment of tracks.  Most likely, the tapes got handed off and traded among fans in the local music scene only to wind in the dust bins of various collectors and ultimately in the trash.  Where are your cassette tapes from 1994 now?

But the existence of the tape became the object of fascination among Godspeed fans. Okay, maybe it's not good, but what was it like?  What did the band sound like all those years before their debut?  From time to time, a copy would be reported to have been found, most notably in 2013, but the prior "discoveries" turned out to either be fakes or the person claiming to have a copy would refuse to upload or share the music, suggesting that they really didn't have a legitimate copy. But the false claims and dead ends only added to the mystique of the tape, and it became something of a Holy Grail among Godspeed fans.

Today, the Holy Grail was apparently found and uploaded.  You can stream it on YouTube and I downloaded a copy from my dark web sources in case the stream gets taken down.  To my knowledge, no one in the band has confirmed or denied its legitimacy, but listening to it today, I can attest that it does sound like something young members of a band that would become Godspeed might have played.  Their trademark "field recordings" are present, as are some of their hypnotic guitar patterns.  There are some live snippets of punk rock quite unlike Godspeed's current, orchestral sound, but it should be remembered they were rock musicians before they were post-rock.  There's a lot of odd experimentation and sound manipulation on the tape that seems very Godspeed.  

Overall, today's All Lights Fucked upload sounds to me to be quite possibly legit.  It's not professional quality but it's not unlistenable either.  In its random, disjointed state, it almost reminds me of Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind (1996). If it isn't the legendary lost tape, the recording is still noteworthy as someone's interesting musical experiments, a forgery almost as worthy as what it's pretending to be.  In the future, I may not listen to it frequently but I sincerely doubt I'll never listen to it again.

Summary (tl;dr): Today, February 4, 2022 - 2-4-22 (two for twentytwo) -  the Music Desk was treated to a return-to-form album from old favorite Animal Collective, possibly the last recording by the promising new band Black Country, New Road, and the elusive and the legendary long-sought-after mystery tape All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  I had a great time listening to lots of strange new music today.