happy new year
first things first: we’re playing TOMORROW at ELSEWHERE in brooklyn!!! doors are at 6PM and we hit early at 7PM. be there!!! we’re probably not playing new york city again until april so… let us see your beautiful and lovely faces there <3
and if you haven’t pre-saved our new SINGLE "fine, fine, fine” then you absolutely need to… we’re officially announcing on saturday so be the early bird that does in fact catch the worm…
here is a little reflection on the new year
I love the new year. I love the promise of newness. I know better than to love newness. It is a tired trope, a false hope, as much function and longevity as eloping with yourself. This Knowledge does not stop me from loving the New. And Its Promises to me.
My dear friends (Autumn, Christina, Emmett) and I went out in Philadelphia exactly one time over the holidays. We sat at a bar on Girard Ave and had too many (?) drinks but we continually returned to the concept of brain rot, because we have been feeling that we have lost something vital the past couple of years.
Theories were fielded (the screen, the inability to be cringe, the lack of time to create diverse, generative forms of art, the result of capital pressing us into smaller and smaller boxes to advance to any form of success etc.etc.etc). I’ve been thinking about this in conjunction with my goals this year - both small box (music business, let’s say) and big box (music spirit/generative art & intellect) - and know that as the small box becomes tighter, the big box becomes diffuse and less definitive. As I become more and more obsessed - and successful - in my career, it becomes more difficult for me to think outside of practical terms, or to think, period. Is this my brain rot? For sure.
And so yes? The answer is less time on phone, more time writing, less time worrying (another theory I’m fielding now is that much of my brain rot is a result of my anxiety both in a literal and practical sense) more time playing, etc.etc.etc. That’s all true.
But it occurred to me today another cause? I’m just going to throw it out there: confidence/authority. I feel completely lacking in confidence/authority, something that is sucking my creativity/intellect well absolutely dry and replacing it with an exhausted bitterness and numbness that either enables or reinforces brain rot. Sure the confidence/authority problem is a result of structures (obsession with credentials and accomplishments, whether academic or clout in artistic communities, for example) and also likely just the anxiety that plagues me pathologically. Unfortunately, the facts that I experience this own anxiety with my peers and loved ones and bandmates leaves me with more questions than answers and wondering what to do to feel confident in my ideas and my art and myself again, like I did when I was, say, in school. If my goal this year is to ultimately to create the best work and to advance our career path as a band then I need to find a solution to this in the newness.
And maybe we all do. Something is in the water, so to speak, culturally, intellectually, politically, etc. etc. etc. and we need a way out of it. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this for I sorely need them.
Happy new year partygirlies… see you at Elsewhere, or somewhere <3