theavc: Pioneering Ann Arbor: Protomartyr pays homage to The Stooges If you look very carefully, you might be able to see Morgan and I drinking coffee in the shadows. (You can’t.) It was a good, brief set, and there was free lunch, and I got to chat for a minute with Ez Love. There weren’t many people there, but there also wasn’t much notice for this thing. But it felt appropriate considering what we were all there to celebrate. The Stooges came from Ann Arbor, but they didn’t get a lot of love from Ann Arbor. Joe Casey and Kevin Boyer and a lot of great Detroit artists went to school here, but you don’t see a huge local outpour of support from Ann Arbor crowds at local Protomartyr and Tyvek shows. (Also: it was a weekday afternoon, so people had work and class.) Then we went and picked up our wedding rings and the lady there was like, “How was your day?” I said, “Great, we just had a free lunch at a free concert.” And she was like, “Oh, neat, who performed?” And I said, “This great Detroit band Protomartyr.” She laughed nervously. Jewelry stores are the worst.

theavc:

Pioneering Ann Arbor: Protomartyr pays homage to The Stooges

If you look very carefully, you might be able to see Morgan and I drinking coffee in the shadows. (You can’t.) It was a good, brief set, and there was free lunch, and I got to chat for a minute with Ez Love.

There weren’t many people there, but there also wasn’t much notice for this thing. But it felt appropriate considering what we were all there to celebrate. The Stooges came from Ann Arbor, but they didn’t get a lot of love from Ann Arbor. Joe Casey and Kevin Boyer and a lot of great Detroit artists went to school here, but you don’t see a huge local outpour of support from Ann Arbor crowds at local Protomartyr and Tyvek shows. (Also: it was a weekday afternoon, so people had work and class.)

Then we went and picked up our wedding rings and the lady there was like, “How was your day?” I said, “Great, we just had a free lunch at a free concert.” And she was like, “Oh, neat, who performed?” And I said, “This great Detroit band Protomartyr.” She laughed nervously. Jewelry stores are the worst.

I get angry emails sometimes. I definitely prefer them to anonymous Tumblr messages, which I disabled a while back. (My inbox was just filling up with “why you so shitty at your job” missives and nothing actually substantive or engaging. Except messages from Tyler Nickell. Hey Tyler.)

I understand the impetus behind sending an angry email to a writer, because you want that person to know exactly why you took issue with what they wrote. I get that.

What I’ve never understood is when people assume that I “think I’m so cool” or am “self-centered” or whatever. I’ve never read something I disagreed with and just outright assumed something about that person’s character, and then emailed them to say “here’s a generalization about you that I just made up because I’m angry at your writing”.

But then I’m operating from this side, where I’m comfortable with who I am as an actual person. When I’m buying groceries or washing dishes, I’m not an internet personality or a byline. Maybe people just need to angrily assume things in order to work through what they’re feeling.

A lot to consider.

Sincerely,

Self-centered cool guy
April 17, 2014

spoiler

spoiler

funniest Fallon bit ever

false

false

"The spirit of Ultimate Warrior will run forever." Unbelievably sad.

Viet Cong interview outtake

Matt Flegel:
Do you have a drink right now?
Me:
I have this candle.
I reviewed one of my favorite albums of 2014 thus far, Protomartyr’s Under Color of Official Right. In the review, I talked about how it’s tempting to annotate Joe Casey’s lyrics RapGenius style. After seeing this illustration in the zine (yes, zine) that accompanies the LP, it partially cleared up the first lines of “Pagans”: Mero met Livy* in the lineto drown the frog mouths**in the bar I already told you about*** * I think Livy = Titus Livius Patavinus (not sure about Mero)** drown the frog mouths = pee into a urinal*** he already told you about Jumbo’s But yeah, there’s a lot to tease out in these lyrics, if you want to. I started reading Patrick Hamilton because of this record. The accompanying zine also has some interesting Italian poems.

I reviewed one of my favorite albums of 2014 thus far, Protomartyr’s Under Color of Official Right. In the review, I talked about how it’s tempting to annotate Joe Casey’s lyrics RapGenius style. After seeing this illustration in the zine (yes, zine) that accompanies the LP, it partially cleared up the first lines of “Pagans”:

Mero met Livy* in the line
to drown the frog mouths**
in the bar I already told you about***

* I think Livy = Titus Livius Patavinus (not sure about Mero)
** drown the frog mouths = pee into a urinal
*** he already told you about Jumbo’s

But yeah, there’s a lot to tease out in these lyrics, if you want to. I started reading Patrick Hamilton because of this record.

The accompanying zine also has some interesting Italian poems.