I don't know that you'll hear a better band this year than Cleoflatula and the Soft Sons of the Sons of Rome. Their forthcoming album Dept of Swollen Interiors was recorded almost entirely underwater. Today we have a peek at the track list. "We were definitely chasing something shiny on this one," Cleoflatula said. Venerable record label Bait & Tackle is calling it "a new kind of dense."

Dept of Swollen Interiors
Cleoflatula and the Soft Sons of the Sons of Rome
Bait & Tackle, 2013
1. Human Certification Practice Test
2. And I Was a Pants-Less Lad
3. Chutes & Chutes
4. Has Anybody Seen My Mood?
5. Ignoble Butthurt
6. Keep Me In The Breasts Of What Is Happening
7. Nobody Knows Ludlow / Split The Mountain Down The Middle / Used To Be No One Could Get There In Time (The Good Ol' Days)
8. The House Where The Worst Serial Killer In The Nation Lives Is Right Down The Street Here If You Want To Go Take A Look Around
9. Texas Men Of Emissions
10. If I Speak Loud Enough You Can Get Drunk Too
11. I Was A Lad In Pants
12. The Day They Shut The Doors On My Dad's Robert Plant
13. F*ck Me (Where Did I Put That Mood?)

Marine shell beads and flakes of obsidian found in my bed this morning suggest I have been living in the area for 33,000 years.

Movies:
the patrician class,
genre hacks.

Yesterday would have been the birthday of Gene Clark, under-appreciated singer/songwriter, fellow Missourian (born and now at rest in Tipton, Missouri, about 30 miles from where I was born and raised), and an all-time favorite voice of mine. I cannot express to you the riches of the Clark song catalog, extending from The Byrds to Dillard & Clark to a bunch of great, genre-bending solo records which through a combination of weirdness, timing, personal misfortune and tough luck never found all the ears they should have.

This singular voice and these many songs have served to quiet my soul for a long time. Happy birthday, Gene. Thank you. And my momma thanks you. My sharing of your music with her has been a great pleasure of my life, through times of hurt, times of stillness and repose, and times of great joyous reach.

For anyone interested, John Einarson's book Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of The Byrds' Gene Clark is a great read, not only for its sensitive exploration of Clark's life but also its valuable look at some of the American musical and pop cultural landscapes of the 1960s and 1970s in which Clark operated and was a verified trendsetter.

Most importantly, seek out the records. They are as alive now as they ever were. Honestly, I love every one of them, and each is unique in conceptualization and execution. Gene's family will appreciate your legal purchase of these necessary, vital artifacts. Also appreciative will be the more sensitive, subtle receptors of your brain and chest. I promise.

Today someone with a new way to see our world is born.

Where is a good place to post a photograph of yourself on the Internet?

". . . an American idea, and not a universal one but one I think kids get exposed to very early: that you are the the most important. And that what you want is the most important. And that your job in life is to gratify your own desires. That's a little crude to say it that way, but in fact it's something of the ideology here. And it's certainly the ideology that's perpetrated by television and advertising and entertainment, and the economy thrives on it."

". . ."

". . . this is one enormous engine and temple of self-gratification and self-advancement and in some ways it works very, very well. In other ways it doesn't work all that well because -- at least for me -- it seems as if there are whole other parts of me that need to worry about things larger than me that don't get nourished in that system."

". . ."

-- Dave "David Foster" Wallace

My own transcription from an unedited, awkward (and, to me, beautiful) interview for German TV. Part one of the interview may be seen here. I would recommend watching all nine parts.

Think back to where you left the _____________.  Find it.

When I woke I had a pulled muscle in my back.

Saw one of my favorites last night here in a town I love. Eddie Vedder had not before been to El Paso. "Let me take this opportunity to say something I've never said before. Hello, El Paso," Vedder said at the top of the show. "I'm having one of those moments. It's one of those 'what the fuck were we thinking' moments. It's beautiful here." El Paso is a great city. A beautiful soulful city, deep and rich in history and spirit. A border town, a place from which to see with eyes both old and new. The venue itself is walking distance from this man-made border. In this setting Ed Ved gave the many faithful something special. He gave something like a two and a half hour gift of song. A set rich in treasures, up and down the catalog. Heady, earthy, weird. We were in the wake of Tuesday's hopeful election results and the good buzz was real. Energy was palpable. The many fine people there open, delighted, earnest. I was in the balcony, not nearly as concerned as I used to be that people see me cry. My cheeks riverbeds. It is a life, you know. It is something I can never fully grasp. I am humbled before it. It rings in my chest. It compels me. How can it not? Thank you, Eddie. The songs make me feel better and always have. More than better - they make feel stronger.

I should say I saw a couple of my favorites last night because Glen Hansard was there. Oh my. The set he delivered was a tour de force. Blew me away. (Glen's great bands include The Frames and Swell Season. And he is a lead in the film Once - one of my favorite films. If you have not seen it, I urge you to check it out. An ode to song. It is one of a few films I have seen in a theater and then felt compelled to return to a following day and experience theatrically again.)

Eddie and Glen playing together, as they did off and on all evening, was a head-lifting musical kinship. A lively duo. Two old hands at ease and purpose with one another. Fun and funny. Moving. Strong and bright on the chest.

Thank you, friends.

Eddie Vedder
The Plaza Theatre
El Paso, Texas
November 7, 2012

Setlist
"Waving Palms"
"Can't Keep"
"Sleeping by Myself"
"Without You"
"Broken Heart"
"More Than You Know" (1929, from "Great Day" and "Funny Lady")
"Wishlist"
"Elderly Woman Sitting Behind a Counter in a Small Town"
"I Believe in Miracles" (Ramones)
"Far Behind"
"Setting Forth"
"Guaranteed"
"Just Breathe"
"Rise"
"Long Nights" (with Glen Hansard on bass)
"The Needle and the Damage Done" (Neil Young)
"Off He Goes"
"Les Paul Uke"
"Unthought Known"
"Porch"
(encore)
"I Am a Patriot" (Steve Van Zandt)
"Immortality"
"Tonight You Belong to Me" (1929, covered by Frankie Laine and used in "The Jerk," with Melissa Ibarra on b. vox)
"Society" (with Hansard on b. vox)
"Sleepless Nights" (Everly Brothers, with Hansard, b. vox)
"Falling Slowly" (from "Once," with Hansard, lead vocals)
"Open All Night" (Bruce Springsteen)
"The End"
"Arc"
(second encore)
"Hard Sun" (with Hansard)

Thanks, Doug.

Two words: Colorado.

Yes. To work.

Glad to say goodbye to Todd Akin. Fall of He who would be Lizard King.

It is nice after untold thousands of years to begin to see this kind of man recognized, called out, and rightfully scorned for that He is. For so long He has called all the shots, He has plundered our bodies and souls. No more. 

And for the love of simplicity and decency get rid of the Electoral College already. Why do we not shout this from the rooftops? The argument that the Electoral College is the only thing empowering "small" states does not hold sway in the interconnected world of today. In fact most voters today are excluded from the dialogue and from a vote that counts because of the Electoral College and the system's resultant focus on a few "battleground" states. What we need is these candidates (all of them! all parties!) addressing the all of us all at once, fully addressing our many diverse dilemmas, questions, and concerns. Not just a few broad and purposefully vague polling topics. And we need to directly address these candidates. We need more of these candidates, more choices. Legitimate choices. We need room for a wider spectrum of communication, opinion, and democratic dissent. Dialogue and discussion has been effectively stifled in our society and the Electoral College is one of the key ways this has happened.

At the very least you might vote against the extreme right wing of the Republican party establishing an even greater control of the Supreme Court for what could be a very long time. The next president of the United States may well appoint two, maybe three new Supreme Court Justices in the next four years. We cannot let that president be Mitt Romney. We cannot let the extreme right wing of the Republican party exert this kind of outsized presence in the future of our world. And this obscene wing of the Republican party -- they are running this show. Know that. Romney is a shit-eating figurehead. He is a confused lottery winner unable to acknowledge or even begin to comprehend privilege and what it means in our society. The privilege blinder remains a problem fundamental to our present society and in Romney it is manifest.

Romney. After a bloody primary this manicured dud was eventually and reluctantly allowed by the extreme right wing of the Republican Party to what looks like the front of the line. They hope Romney can confuse the country as to what their party's leadership stands for. In truth, they know that their policies are terrible for all but the mega rich and war profiteers and that they represent outdated social ideas an ever growing majority of Americans disagree with. If he is elected they know that Romney will fail, that their policies will once again wreak social havoc, and that Romney will be voted out of office in 2016. They do not give a shit. As with Bush, they will blame the man, not the plan. And it is the same damn plan! It has always been the same plan. Their party as it presently exists is in its last throes. The things they stand for are increasingly irrelevant. And because of that they covet this election. It is why they are spending/wasting billions of dollars on a propaganda machine. It is their last hard hustle. They think if they can just sneak in there by way of Romney they can enact policy and appoint judges that might cement our lives in their awful designs for a long time to come.

I think you have to get out and vote. And tell all you know to get out and vote. Even -- especially! -- in states where you might think the end result is a foregone conclusion. No! Vote. Be counted. Let the extremists know you are out there and that your voice is always growing.

The extreme right wing of the Republican party would push fear on you. Do not let them do this. Hope. Pray. Believe. There are countless problems endemic to our society and the fact that we only broadcast two parties, both of whom are entrenched in the design, remains obscene to me, but I believe only one of the two major candidates in this presidential election thinks past the present selfish day. That is Barack Obama.

The reasons I have to vote for Barack Obama are endless. I like many of the things he wants to do. He is saying them. He is not hiding his plans. I wish he were not blocked at every turn by a defensive, obstinate, backward looking congress of lizards, as well as a polarizing ratings-driven media. Obama is a friend to evolution. He is a friend to education. He is a friend to empathy. I am deeply grateful for his presence in this world. I know that any future we might have is better with President Barack Obama.