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premiere: Old Smile - No Reason
/ I know that you’ve been looking for some new slow n’ sexy summer songs, so allow me to introduce you to my friend Tom Herman‘s featured video for his outstanding record that top-notch indie outfit Two Syllable Records. This whole album is exquisite, tempered with easy waves and washes of sunset strips. To know that it’s come from one man’s heart excites me to no end. You’ll thank me when you get the whole record and keep it spinning during the melting heat.
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MINKA - Company Man
/ Try as I might, I cannot pinpoint the abashed love and influence from any one of the Talking Heads, The Cars, Devo, Prince or B-52s. From this astral plane, Dick Rubin, Max Perla, Joe Flack, and Barney Cortez have successfully ripped out the guts of the music their mothers were listening to while dancing feverishly in 1987 and replanted it 30 years into the future. They have taken this to over 100 house parties in Philadelphia in the past year and a half, and I anticipate these sweaty free-for-alls will be going beyond our humble town soon.
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Suede Persuasion - Innate State
/ Beautifully out of tune. As they tell me: “Shane and I (Nicolas), are two childhood friends. I was living on his couch for a couple weeks in the spring, to sell some guitars in Philadelphia, and we had been connecting over a love of studying and writing poetry, Rimbaud, Hollo, and Lorca, to name a few. Well, after strumming a bit of chord together, we placed some of Shane’s poetry right from his notebook into the songs and have created our pop style.”
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Source:
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Dark Web - Toxic America
/ You’ll have to watch the ultra-low-brow homegrown video that starts this punk anthem, but it’s totally worth the screams.
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Chat!
/ @yvynyl + @nightlands songwriter David Hartley /
The other day, I connected with my old friend to catch up on life, new projects, old projects, and how we all dream of living in Big Sur. He just happens to write gorgeous songs that sound like he’s been living there all along, not the gritty city.
Mark Schoneveld: Hey brother! Are these internet wires working? :)
David Hartley: hey man! yes I think the dial-up modem in my garage is finally up and running.
Mark: hahah right on
David: sorry, this is the only instant messenger I use, or am really aware of anymore. is AOLinstant messenger still a thing? I used the shit out of that in college.
Mark: I think it is, yes. I’m not sure anymore either, tho. I just use Messages on Apple products mostly. But anyways, Gmail works.
David: right on
Mark: I’ve been wondering, since I last saw you (when was that? at a Jesse Hail Moore’s show?), how long have you been working on this new record?
David: I started writing the songs during some time off during the last The War on Drugs touring cycle… I was living with my then-girlfriend (now wife) in Ridgewood/Queens and started demoing while she went into Manhattan for work every day. Then when the Drugs finally took an extended break, I rented a warehouse in Kensington and started working in earnest last winter.
Mark: So do you still need to be up in NYC from time to time? Where’s your full-time home?
David: No, I’m full-time Philly. I realized the other day that I’ve lived in Fishtown longer than any other place, ever. Which shocked me… my wife still commutes to Manhattan a couple times a week but we’re dug in here in Fishtown, at least for the time being. I constantly fantasize about moving to Hudson or Ojai or Asheville, like most people, but home is where your friends are. I’ve found the density of wonderful people/musicians/creatives in Philadelphia second to none.
Mark: Philly does have a certain “dirty magic.” But your music - like a dream from Ojai - seems oddly in place, doesn’t it?
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Molly Burch broke hearts last night… 🥀 (at Boot & Saddle)
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// Letters to YVYNYL //
premiere: Berdmajik - The First Time
/ I’ve been pretty stoked to be close to this project. My good friend Donny Felton has been working for a time on his solo stuff, and I’ve been listening to his new work with anticipation. He’s so on-point with the mix of homemade-digital beats and tripped-out sounds, and he jumped out of his regular gig with Grubby Little Hands to slowly craft this new record. He gave me the pick of the litter to premiere, and this one just popped out at me with effervescent charm.
Hey brother,
I always describe Berdmajik as my “new project” but when I think about it, it’s actually my oldest project. My earliest musical impulses were fueled by a mixture of golden-era hip-hop, like ATCQ, De La Soul, Geto Boys, etc., with the jazz and classic rock that filtered down from my parents’ and grandparents’ collections.
I was always attracted to the hypnotic quality of boom-bap rhythms, as well as the enchanting musical gestures of jazz and the more harmonically rich end of the rock/pop spectrum. I think you can even hear the intersection of these influences in some of my Grubby Little Hands compositions like “Feel in my Back” or “Dial Tone,” but they are tempered by the collaborative identity of the band. For better or worse, Berdmajik is an unadulterated manifestation of a particular set of my artistic proclivities.
I consider these songs to be fictional and like most works of fiction, they are made of autobiographical components, but they are deconstructed, rearranged and re-contextualized into fictional narratives, which coincidentally mirrors my compositional process for much of the music. I record segments, then chop up and rearrange the pieces into mutated versions of the original ideas.I have always had a tendency to do things to create artificial distance between myself and my work. When I can create enough distance that it starts to feel unfamiliar, I can start to feel comfortable enough with it to unleash my best ideas. I once jokingly told a friend that managing my own self-doubt defined my entire creative process.
It’s funny how truth has a way of revealing itself through humor. This project has, to an extent, been a study in acknowledging this neurotic compulsion and even embracing it right down to the bones of my art. At the same time, it’s also just a hedonistic scratching of the itch to make shit that feels good. In any case, it was a purifying and cathartic experience and I’m excited to finally be sharing it.
I really appreciate you taking the time to listen so thoughtfully to this record and for helping us introduce it to the world!
Donnie
Submit your story to Letters to YVYNYL.
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// Chat! Chat! //
/ a conversation w Eric Slick at YVYNYL /
David Lynch’s film “Eraserhead” gets batted around a lot when people talk about Philly, or when people leave this city. Eric Slick, the drummer of Dr. Dog, wanted to start a new solo project once he had moved away from our town a couple years ago. We got online to chat about where he went, and how it influences his music writing. I feel like he found the deeper meanings of his work beyond a catchy melody after he ditched. Listen to “You Become the Light” while you read our conversation below.
Eric Slick: my service is terrible in my apartment. let’s text away
Mark Schoneveld: I hear ya! No sweat. Happens to the best of us. Are you in Comcast Land? I know Philly isn’t your home base anymore…
Eric: I’m in Richmond Virginia now! No longer the land of Comcast. Dominion perhaps? Oh, wait. It’s Xfinity. So yeah. Still KableTown.
Mark: hahah yup. So you needed to get out of Philly? How long have you left our fair city?
Eric: I grew up in Philadelphia, so I watched it grow and become something that’s positive for the transplants and confusing for the natives. I left for the first time in 2013 and I moved to Asheville, then I returned back to the island (like the show Lost). I moved to Richmond in 2016 and didn’t tell a soul.
I’m the kind of person who needs to move. It’s called ADHD
I’ve made peace with Philadelphia though and I love it again.
Mark: Is this a way to tell all your pals that you’re in Richmond now?
Eric: Exactly. Come visit. it’s clean here!
Mark: My sister lived in Richmond for a few years, it’s a really lovely city. The Fan!
Eric: That’s where I live!
Mark: I imagine there’s a great bunch of music nerds living that ‘hood…
Eric: Yeah. My partner is Natalie Prass and there’s the whole Spacebomb music community in our neighborhood. And Jellowstone Records/Butcher Brown crew. It’s unbelievable.
Mark: Oh nice. I didn’t know that, but I’ve seen Natalie play at Boot n’ Saddle a few years ago! Great performer.
Eric: She’s the best, but I’m completely biased.
Mark: Of course! Do you guys play together? Doing any duo work, or do you like having your own personal creative stuff?
Eric: Yeah! She occasionally plays bass and keyboards with me. Very gracious of her. If it wasn’t for Natalie, this record wouldn’t have gotten finished. I haven’t played her music yet - I don’t think I’m skilled enough! Maybe I’ll shake a tambourine on her next record.
Mark: Tambourine works!
Eric: haha
Mark: Traditionally you were mainly a drummer. Are you doing more guitar work now on your new solo record?
Eric: Yes. Guitar, mellotron, Moog, marimba, and vocals. All new territories for me. I read an interview with David Lynch while he was making a record and he said, "I guess I’m making music now.” I can relate to that 100%. I also started practicing meditation because of Lynch. He was an unknown catalyst to my process.
Mark: That’s excellent. I share this practice, too. I was thinking about Spalding Gray - his monolog Swimming to Cambodia, particularly - when it was mentioned in the email to me. I haven’t read Impossible Vacation yet, but how did this play with your music now?
Eric: I read Impossible Vacation in 2013 and it changed my whole course of thinking and creating. It was so brutally honest. Gray achieved something pure in his writing that I’m still grasping at. It also toyed with the concept of the impossibility of Zen, that you never really get there until the afterlife. You either drift or desire. Life is just a means to an end, so you live in the now moment as much as you can. Grays life was comically tragic/tragically comic. I relate to that. A lot of my friends see me as a comedian. I was the class clown in high school. But the other side of comedy is a tragedy. My album deals with that a lot. I almost wanted to put the smiling mask/drama mask on the cover but I can’t be too literal!
Mark: There has to be some humor in death, doesn’t there?
Eric: I think there is. Death is the ultimate mindfuck. I lost a lot of people close to me very early on my life. They say black is all the colors at once and it’s analogous to death for me. Death is every feeling at once. So humor is there. I love morbid humor.
Mark: Me too. What’s a film or a show that can encapsulate that for you?
Eric: I loved Jodorowsky’s Dance of Reality. That movie hits the mark of diving into death and absurdity. Inland Empire, too. Laura Dern’s character gets stabbed and then the film lights come up.
To me, it was a statement about constant rebirth.
Mark: Does this relate to your work on Jungian dream therapy?
Eric: Absolutely. I started doing dream therapy in 2014. My teacher would analyze my dreams and then do tarot readings. Dreams of death and sickness have plagued me my whole life. Then she told me it didn’t mean literal death. It meant constant renewal.
Mark: I love that.
Eric: She also pulled the craziest card one time. Our last session, I had a dream that I was overlooking an ocean and wearing a gold cape and I was singing. I was leaning on a cane. And someone walked up to me and said “keep singing!”
The first tarot card she pulled, completely random, was a man wearing a gold robe, overlooking the sea, holding a scythe.
I nearly passed out.
Mark: Um, isn’t that now your album cover!? 😊
Eric: You got it. That’s why I did it.
Mark: Amazing. She was on to something there.
Eric: Totally! and I am very self-conscious about entering this territory of writing songs and singing, and it was like my dream was giving me permission to do it. And then the tarot confirmed it
Mark: Fantastic. You have several projects right now, but what about the biggest one: Dr. Dog. How’s that going?
Eric: It’s going well. we’re finally taking a short break after 7 years of nonstop work. it’s been so great. everyone feels recharged. We’re doing a few festivals this year and then recording sometime in the future.
Mark: Recharge and rejuvenation is important for any creative team. And your new solo work is giving you that!
Eric: Exactly! creativity is a renewable resource. people forget that.
Mark: A trip around the East Coast, a bit of SXSW, and then some summer dates with the Dr. Dog festival circuit…
Eric: Like I said, I need to keep moving.
Mark: Both in your dreams and in “reality” right? 😊
Eric: hah! Yes. And hopefully without too much negativity attached to it. Music is supposed to be a great time. It seems to me that the tortured artist paradigm is finally coming to an end. Or at least I hope it is.
My musical friends are all working hard to be healthy. It’s inspiring.
Mark: So important. Health should be our all #1. Mentally, spiritually, physically. It’s my point of view, for sure. For me, music helps keep those things all in working together
Eric: I love that! I think you’ve always been a positive force in the Philly scene
Mark: Doing my best. 😉
Eric Slick plans to take his solo act on the road in 2017, starting with a string of performances at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
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Nightlands - Lost Moon
/ This song tastes of the Pacific Ocean, but shows its true intent: to let you close your eyes and be wherever you want to be in that 5:56 minutes. Perfect new piece of music craft by my friend Dave Hartley.
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Norwegian Arms - West Queen West
/ I was just listening to Animal Collectives early record Sung Tongs and then I played my bud Keith Birthday’s newest release. He came down from NYC and played some of this new work more acoustically at the benefit show I ran a few weeks ago, but certainly feeling the relationship to how early AC’s stuff influenced him.
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// Letters to YVYNYL //
premiere: The News - Stranger Danger
/ Philadelphia-based duo Rachel Haines and Benjamin James have been sending me some great pop over the past few months, and though this one is slightly more somber it’s got a solid story and they wanted to use this lens to describe their feelings.
Hi Mark,
“Stranger Danger,” the third song we have recorded wrestles with the emotional turmoil that loved ones go through during the moments after a traumatic event occurs. Specifically there was an abduction case that happened a couple years ago out on the Mainline section of Philadelphia, and although the abductee was ultimately found, the mental anguish suffered seemed to reverberate for long there after, with not only those directly involved, but also with those within the community in which this crime was committed. This type of crime simply doesn’t happen in those affluent suburbs of Philadelphia… until it does.
Without going into too much detail, the troubling thing that really resonated with area residents was the true random nature of the crime, and that their was seemingly no premeditation nor connection to the victim at all. It was this level of uneasiness and unknown that “stranger danger,” was conceived. The protagonist of the song seeks refuge with others in order to feel more safe. It’s sort of a “safety in numbers” sort of thing.
The News for better or for worse, to date, has written songs that are of a more personal nature, often coloring them musically with shinier melodies that the lyrics tend to implicate. We gravitate to that certain sense of melancholy that lives just below the surface of a song. Our favorite songs do that, and it is something that we strive for, because frankly, we think it adds depth to the material.
In the abduction case we were drawing from, we perceived of a double-edged tragedy, one that played out with the immediate family and the victim, but also the uneasiness that befell the community where the crime took place. How do we move forward? how do we feel safe again? how do we get back to a place of comfort? is it even possible? This type of physiological warfare, is so often the intended goal of terrorist acts that we read and so often feel desensitized toward in the news, but it is only when we can imagine ourselves in such situation, or it happens in our backyard, do we start to truly take notice and pay attention.
We are not writing a lecture, for this song, merely working through a very specific set of feelings, and trying to make sense of them. There are no over arching take aways or conclusions, just a solace that we tend to have, when we know that we are “all going through something together.”
Enjoy the song.rachel
Submit your story to Letters to YVYNYL.
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Allison Crutchfield - Dean’s Room
