Josh Ritter, happy accident

Josh Ritter started his career as an acoustic singer-songwriter. He eventually pulled a Dylan and now plays with a full band, but they perform under his name and the emphasis is squarely on him. I’ve been listening to the guy for about a year, and his album So Runs the World Away has become a favorite.

The weird part is that I’m not supposed to like this music.

More precisely, I’m not usually interested in singer-songwriters or in poppy rock music that depends heavily on lyrics. But I’ve become a Ritter fan anyhow. Thanks to my incessant introspection, I’ve frequently asked myself what’s so special about this fellow.

Political Animal

I've followed politics since I was in middle school. I've also been politically inert, more or less, since middle school.

My younger sister is currently working on a high school assignment in which she is required, as I understand it, to interview just about anyone on a civil rights-related subject. I interned for the Council of American-Islamic Relations one summer while I was in college, so she asked if she could interview me.

I complied, with some misgivings. My internship at CAIR is my only experience with political activism of any sort to date. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Not because of the work I did, mind--it was a relaxed work-from-home internship in which I wrote a report on various discriminatory tactics practiced by American law enforcement agencies. While the backlash against the American Muslim population post-9/11 has never been as severe as I feared, there's no question that the U.S. government has found a variety of ways to officially screw over Muslims. The manner in which the FBI and the DHS have ridden roughshod over their civil liberties colors my perspective to this day, and researching the subject was an eye-opening experience for me.

Maryland Deathfest

This is my life. These are my peers.

I'm currently on my way to the ninth annual Maryland Deathfest. This will be the fifth year in a row I've attended "America's biggest metal party of the year," as it bills itself.

And this year, like every year, I find myself wondering how exactly I ended up involved in such a wacky culture.

The Importance of Not Knowing What You're Doing

I've been spinning Corroded by Drugs of Faith quite a lot over the last month or so. I've known of this band for years, largely because they share vocalist and guitarist Rich Johnson with Agoraphobic Nosebleed, where he does vocals and plays bass. But because of my tendency to ignore bands that haven't released an LP, I never listened to them until they dropped their debut longplayer via Selfmadegod Records earlier this year. My bad.

Drugs of Faith call their music "grind'n'roll." I like this term, but it's misleading in their case. Drugs of Faith never lapse into bluesy swagger, as bands like Leng T'che do. Johnson does use lots of big, ramshackle chord voicings that defy melody and key. Call it "noise rock'n'grind."

When you watch videos of Drugs of Faith playing live, you can see the abandon with which Johnson plays his instrument. Unlike most metal guitarists, he whacks away with inefficient whole-arm swings. He hits tons of open strings, washing even simple chords in a dissonant drone. He plays like a guy who has no idea what he's doing.

Of course, Johnson--and the rest of Drugs of Faith--know exactly what they're doing. They're a tight, rehearsed band that's composed of veteran musicians. But theirs is a sort of closeted professionalism. Punk and metal are supposed to be feral, animalistic. It's music about losing control that, ironically, requires a great deal of self-control to perform properly. Drugs of Faith have found the perfect balance between these two competing tendencies.

Slickness: 1, Failure: 0

I live in a comparatively fashionable part of Brooklyn. Like most fashionable parts of Brooklyn, it used to be crummy, and like most fashionable parts of Brooklyn, it likes to think that it still is crummy.

That's not to suggest that my neighbors wish that they could still buy heroin from the old dope peddler down the corner. Most of them would probably call the cops if they so much as saw a hypodermic needle lying on the sidewalk. But as a whole, my neck of the woods is still very attached to its gritty aesthetic, however gritless its inhabitants might be.

Like Donald Trump's dick slapping you in the eye.

In recent years, this neighborhood's cognitive dissonance has been made manifest by its growing population of large, modern condominiums. These condos are not gritty, you see. They shine in the sunlight. They are in compliance with New York's many building ordinances. Their elevators work, and quickly. They have doormen and electronic key fobs. Thurston Moore would furrow his brow in disgust behind his Wayfarers at these buildings (and probably has). Nonetheless, real estate developers continue to build, and presumably rent out, these eyesores.

Words Like Riffs

I sometimes feel as though college was an exercise in realizing how little I (and most of the people around me) know about the world. That being said, I got more out of school than an ego check and a dim view of people who claim to have conclusive solutions for major social problems. Among other things, I improved my ability to read 'difficult' novels. Note here that I really mean read, not wholly understand.

Since my current job doesn't offer much in the way of intellectual challenge, I've been gobbling up weird books steadily for the last year. Some of them, like Bolaño's 2666, proved extremely enjoyable, even if I wasn't quite sure I 'got' it. Others, like Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, were chores to get through.

But the weirdest book I've read in my year of weird books is definitely The Orange Eats Creeps, by Grace Krilanovich.

AND SO IT BEGINS

Hello!

In this blog, I will contribute to the infinite reserves of idle talk already available on the internet. I've been writing steadily for most of my 'adult' life, and since I'm currently between active writing ventures, I need a place to practice. Practicing in public where people might provide some feedback is more satisfying than practicing in private, so that's what I'll be doing here.

I aim to adhere to a rigorous Monday-Wednesday-Friday update schedule. Beyond that, I have no ambitions or goals for this here blog. It's easier to make yourself write when you don't have to write about anything in particular, so I'll just discuss whatever's been on my mind. I expect that many, if not most, of the posts will have to do with music. Some others will have to do with movies, sports, politics, and the vicissitudes of urban life.

A little more about me:

A view often romanticized by people who aren't me.

I'm a recent college graduate living in New York City. You might say that I ended up here by mistake. I had no professional or academic plans when I graduated, but I was (and still am) involved in a band based in Brooklyn, so I moved here so I could get more involved in playing music. I'm currently supporting myself by working at a well-known restaurant--a job I have little natural inclination towards, but it pays the bills. I'm a big nerd and I like nerd things. I also read the news a lot.

If you're reading this, chances are you know me already, so that little spiel was probably redundant. I like to cover my bases, though.

And we're off! Thanks for reading.