AN EXERCISE IN SELF CONTROL
released JUNE 5, 2020
RELEASE 89
I felt like I hadn't written anything in a while, so I challenged myself to record obsessively for a week and release everything I made for it. There were two unfinished instrumentals that I ended up not putting on here, and which have not surfaced in any form since. Also during this week, George Floyd was murdered and the thought of sitting in my bedroom recording all day felt kind of weird. The thing itself is weird for different reasons. I don't know what I'd refer to it as. I don't consider it an album but it effectively functions as one. Maybe it's because a lot of the tracks are covers, re-recordings, and sound collages. The intro collage has some audio pulled from some early mixes of then-recent HW songs, among old movies and commercials. "Many Changes" was centered around a 19/8 drum beat I came up with in 2017. "Her Face All Red" is based on a song from 2014 that finds its best version on this thing. "People As Clocks" has a weak chorus but I think the verse works really well. I knew at the time that "Easily Entertained" was due for a remake after it barely missed the cut on Atlantic Witchcraft, but this wasn't its time. It doesn't add or improve anything. It does, however, have an entertaining clip of Lou Barlow taunting an audience at a Sebadoh show in 1993. "Offend Maggie" seemed like a comparatively easy Deerhoof song to cover. Many of their songs are quite hard to play. The percussion in the intro to "667" had some sort of cool origin and I can't remember at all what the origin was. As far as the new songs go, this one might be the strongest. The vocals on "Man Called Blunder" should have been louder but as a whole I think it's a good cover. "They Said Fuck On CNN" is good too. I don't know, this is a weird one to talk about.