are you writing from the heart?
For this week, here’s an excerpt from a personal essay about my experiences with Sufjan Stevens and his music. I wanted to share this on his birthday two weeks ago, but it wasn’t ready, and I’m glad I didn’t try to cram it to meet a self-imposed deadline.
I wonder, is this 'sad' indie and folk icon actually a deeply unserious, goofy man? Two hours of powerful post-rock version of the tracks from Carrie & Lowell, culminating in an 18 minute version of its closer "Blue Bucket of Gold," remind me of his power to wield, display and evoke feelings of shared grief and reasoning with an unreasonable world. However, throughout, I can't stop thinking about the 'Sufjam Fever' shirt. It is then that Sufjan comes back out for the encore, and brings show opener Gallant on stage. A familiar drum beat starts playing...the intro to the Billboard behemoth of 2015, Drake's "Hotline Bling." Sufjan Stevens is covering Hotline Bling.
You can read the rest here. Happy belated birthday, Sufie.
A whole lot of kinda big gigs coming up for Overheard.
Colony in Woodstock, NY on Sunday August 10th, courtesy of the Capital Region’s Superdark Collective! Get tickets here;
DromFest in Catskill, NY on Saturday August 30th! Tickets are sadly sold out for our specific date because of a certain Yo La Tengo, but the rest of the dates are still available here;
and O+ Fest (!!!!) in Kingston, NY on Friday October 10th Get tickets here.
Misc. Stuff I’m Into:
Books:
Listening to the audiobook of Jamie Loftus’s Raw Dog, full of personal essays and history around the hot dog, my favorite food. It may seem tailor-made for hot dog-loving freaks like me, but anyone and everyone should read it.
Naomi Klein’s The Battle for Paradise. I guess I’m always mad for Puerto Rico, but I like feeling hopeful for it too.
Pedro Pietri’s poem “Puerto Rican Obituary.”
I’ve also been slowly collecting Chainsaw Man in physical volumes, I am ready to be hurt by Part 1 again.
Movies:
Decision to Leave [2022, dir. Park Chan-wook]. A movie where I had the thought ‘lol what even was that’ when it ended but I have been thinking about it for weeks and probably will for the rest of my life.
Music:
A lot here in the past few weeks, some new and some old that is new to me!
Don Caballero’s What Burns Never Returns;
The Bronx’s The Bronx (I);
Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People;
Anri’s Timely!!;
Barry Can’t Swim’s Loner;
Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out;
Slow Pulp’s Moveys;
Hurray for the Riff Raff’s The Navigator.
Pick one that seems interesting if you haven’t heard it and let me know if you like it! And if you’re thinking ‘Will you hadn’t heard (x)??’ I know, I know, but better late than never.
Would like to also shout out Ben Seretan for featuring my writing in an edition of his excellent newsletter My Big Break called ‘Your Big Break Volume 1!’
It’s been a kinda sad couple of weeks (especially with billions of taxpayer dollars being funneled into Trump’s unsanctioned gestapo), but I feel a little better now, and when this newsletter goes out, I will be on Staten Island. I will try to not let that fact change the ‘feeling a little better now.’
On my quest to feel better during Fourth of July weekend, I went on a walk through Prospect Park and encountered a cardinal. Here is a story about that cardinal in five images.
Thank you to this cardinal, and Sufjan, for unknowingly helping me through.
- Will