Dear Arielle 001
I feel like lately, when we exchange music, we recommend a lot of house music to each other, but I still love indie rock. I found this band called The Bedflowers. As far as I can tell, they only released a single cassette, back in 1990. They have this one song called “You’re Not Blonde, You’re Not Blonde And Stupid, But Nobody’s Perfect”, and it’s just so, so good. Their other songs are good too (in particular, “I’m Not Cool”), but this one’s my favorite. Anyway, when I heard it, it immediately made me think of you. It just seems like classic Arielle music. I think the lyrics are really great. I mean, the words are very cute, but there’s this one line, “I write your name on my pencil case when you’re not here” that just really...I mean first of all, I haven’t heard the words “pencil case” since ‘nam, so that really took me back to a simpler time. But also, I dunno, I think the line speaks for itself. It’s just this tiny little hyperreal detail where I heard it and I thought “holy shit, I used to do that!” And there’s a kind of beauty in the fact that a sentiment, or a behavior, can be so incredibly specific, and yet so universal.
There are a couple other obscure 90’s bands I found recently that I think you’d like. The Rainyard (https://therainyard.bandcamp.com/album/a-thousand-days). They’re a jangle pop band. Very high quality tunes, in my opinion. And then this band Khai (https://cascadecollective.bandcamp.com/album/khai) which is a midwest emo band (your favorite!!!). I’d make you a playlist, but none of this stuff is on any streaming services.
Oh! I almost forgot! The best thing about The Bedflowers is that if you look closely at the cassette cover, you can see that they are in need of a new bassist! They even left their number on the cassette, so you can call them if you’re interested. Arielle. This can be you. You can still play guitar, right? If you can play guitar, you can play bass. You can be the new bassist for this sweet little band. Wouldn’t that be fun? Speaking of, if we’re ever (fingers crossed) living in the same city again, can we start a band? I feel like we’d be good, and we both love music too much to die without doing it. Besides, I need an outlet for all the stupid little songs I write. We wouldn’t have to worry about, like, “making it” or whatever. We could just play little gigs around town for the hell of it, invite some people, maybe a few would show up. You’d probably have some friends that would show. Certainly more than me. But my sister would show. She’s a good one. So would her boyfriend. Of course, this would be contingent on it being in Chicago. But who knows where the future will take us. Maybe our paths will cross in another city, like LA or Toronto or something. Either way, you’re in, right? What kind of music would you want to make? I’m partial to noise pop. I think it could be really fun and it could be useful for covering up our sloppy musicianship. I went back to Times New Viking recently*. That stuff still holds up. I mean we probably wouldn’t be as good as Times New Viking, but I’m just saying maybe it would be fun to play noise pop. It doesn’t have to be noise pop, though. I’m open to other ideas.
Anyway, I was in a real funk earlier this week and The Bedflowers were the third thing that got me out of it. The second thing was this new house EP I heard called “JS02” by the artist Jump Source. 3 of the 4 tracks on it are called “Empathy Dub”, and they’re all incredibly good. I highly recommend it. It’s very beautiful house music, but it’s not, like, overly precious the way that some house music can be. It’s just entrancing and kind of has a lot of those complex details that make it a very fun listen because you can really...explore the tracks with your ears? I think you’ll like it.
But the first thing that got me out of my funk was the new Omar S. I’m surprised it hasn’t really gotten much press as far as I know. I think it’s very good. This track “Ambiance” is such a blast.
It totally had me dancing/smiling in my chair at work the other day. The track is just so groovy I can’t resist it. Going to listen to it a bunch more today. The other tracks on this album are amazing too. You’ve gotta hear it. Ugh, I love house music. I think it’s cool that we’re both into house music now. Like, idk, 10 years ago, I mostly just listened to rock music. I think maybe you were a bit more open-minded than me, but maybe not as much as you are now. Even around the end of college, when I would listen to house music, it would mostly just be, like, Pantha du Prince and Robag Wruhme and stuff like that. Living Room House Music, if you will. But you know, people grow, you open your mind a bit and find out that you love different things. And now, I love listening to Bangers.
I’m sorry if this felt like a rambling list of music recommendations. I love music, but that’s not my favorite kind of conversation. I know you have so much to say that isn’t just about music, and so do I. I had ideas for deeper things to write about, but I felt like, ya know, maybe it would feel a bit unearned to be ruminating on spirituality or something in the first post. But I think this blog is going to be good. This is cool. We’re blogging!!!
Ok. I think I’m going to wrap it up. I hope you’re doing well. I hope this week has provided peace and clarity. What have you been ruminating on lately? Let me know. Talk to you soon.
Love,
Mike
*Btw, did you know the girl from TNV came out with an album under the name “The Girl From Times New Viking” last year? It’s pretty good.