COI011: What do you want me to say?
What do you want me to do to let you know that I do mean it?
Presenting 14 thoughts, one for each of the 14 days that have passed since the last installment of Colors Of Insomnia:
First off, this is a call to action! I’d like to run a mailbag installment of COI in the near future, so please reply to this with any questions you may have for me and I’ll do my best to answer them. Nothing’s off-limits — let’s see what you got. Part of the reason I haven’t written anything in a little bit is because I wasn’t sure what y’all wanted to read, so feedback is much appreciated.
The new Black Midi album, Schlagenheim, is incredible. Imagine if the Dismemberment Plan, McClusky and Battles decided to form a supergroup — it’s weird, angular, mathy and hypnotic, with some of the oddest vocals you’ll hear all year. I can’t get enough of it. (Stream on Spotify.)
The new Blink-182 song, “Happy Days,” is so wack. As I initially tweeted, it is yet another a co-write with outside songwriters. In fact, every single song Blink has written since Tom DeLonge left the band has been a co-write with outsiders. This time around, Tim Pagnotta (of Sugarcult fame) and Sam Hollander (who wrote Panic! At The Disco's "High Hopes" and Fitz And The Tantrums' "Hand Clap" among many more songs you hear while grocery shopping) created “Happy Days,” which you can listen to here if you’re feeling masochistic. Is it too much to ask for bands to just write songs without trying to mark every box on the mass-appeal checklist?
My current favorite Twitter account is Wiki Titles Singable To TMNT Themesong, which is a mouthful, but you’ll get it as soon as you click.
I’ve gotten into Cleveland’s college radio scene big time this year, and it keeps turning me onto cool new songs. Exhibit A, if you’re into English indie-punk that references Rowdy Roddy Piper:
Exhibit B, if you’re into the idea of Turing Machine with a saxophone:
Exhibit C, if you’re into Quicksand/Helmet-esque, ’90s-leaning hard rock:
I saw the Smoking Popes last week for the umpteenth time, and they still sound as perfect as ever. Josh Caterer’s croon is still so beautiful (and his guitar solos so eloquent) that I could watch the band play for hours and never get bored. Their new album, Into The Agony, is excellent — check out “When You Want Something” if you want to hear a perfect song.
The new Raconteurs album, Help Us Stranger, is pretty good — and it has a pretty dope alternate cover, too:
The other night, I dug out my old copy of Jets To Brazil’s Orange Rhyming Dictionary and tweeted this:
Which led to a friend checking in on me to make sure I was okay. I guess that’s not an unreasonable reaction when someone says they want to listen to a song over and over that contains the following couplets:
Now I'm making out the shapes / Like the shower rod, can it take my weight? / I will tell you I am fine / I got some news, friend, feels like I'm dying
I promise I’m good, y’all! I actually just hit three years of being in therapy a few weeks ago, I’ve lost 65 pounds already this year, and I’m likely in the best mental and physical shape of my life. However, I am very grateful to that friend for being sensitive and reaching out, because so often we let these kind of potential calls for help slide by on social media. I apologize for accidentally crying wolf, but I encourage everyone to be more mindful of what their friends are saying and read between the lines. Better to be wrong than the alternative. Crazy as it sounds, we need you around.
On that note, I find myself missing Brittany Strummer a lot in recent weeks. I’m lucky enough to work for a place that lets me do really cool things, and as such, this season, I’m directing a London Calling show, where my students will play the iconic album start to finish in honor of its 40th anniversary. I almost sent Brittany a message the other day because I had a question about one of the songs and I knew she’d know the answer, and then I had to stop myself and remind myself that she’s dead. It’s cruel that such a unique person left us so early, and even crueler that it was by choice. Death or glory becomes just another story.
By the way, have you listened to London Calling lately? Because holy shit, does that record get way weirder than I remember. Joe Strummer wrote an entire song about an alcoholic movie star from the 1950s who got in a car crash and had to have extensive plastic surgery on one half of his face while making a movie. Like, what the fuck?
If you live in my neighborhood, please stop lighting off fireworks. You’re scaring the shit out of my dog.
If you’re in need for a good summer playlist with songs you might not know yet but will definitely dig, check out Summa Boix, created by my friend Kirby (and crowdsourced by his friends). I added the song “Mary” by Teenage Wrist, which I can’t get enough of:
Today’s subject line is a lyric from the song “What Do You Want Me To Say” by the Dismemberment Plan, off the damn-near-perfect album Emergency & I which turns 20(!!!) this year and still sounds as forward thinking as ever. Listen to the song below, and if you dig it, you can buy the record it’s from on Amazon (and by clicking that link, there’s a chance I may make a few cents):
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