The Mesmerist
the impressive whispers and esoteric gestures of baby universes?

http://flavors.me/jordanlee

LOVE
It was nearing the end of sxsw and I was in a bit of a Doritos fueled existential brand panic.  I was trying to remember why we even go to music festivals.  Why was it that I was spending more of my time escaping places that made my soul feel gross instead of using the opportunity to see so many people and bands that I love converged onto one city.  I was starting to feel less like a person and more like a target market to some upstart social vodka ipad app. Luckily a handful of friends who happen to run the music blogs Stadiums and Shrines, Think or Smile, and Smoke don’t Smoke (respectively) decided to throw a backyard show all last minute like which turned out to be the perfect antidote to my consumer blues.  Almost completely unadvertised, it was just some human beings eating s’mores by the fire, drinking lonestar and playing music for each other on a absolutely beautiful Texas evening.  New friends Matthew Sage and EOLA played as well as old friends Steffaloo and Little Spoon. Yesterday, much to my surprise, I found out that Tonje over at No Fear of Pop got a pretty great recording of the last half of my set and put it out there in the interzone.  Since I was playing for mostly my good friends it gets a little sillier than a normal mb show but I’m weirdly happy with how it all turned out.  Thanks again to everyone who set this up + Tonje for the recording + Nate Mckee for the mastering. Setlist: Cowboy’s Prayer (last half) / Desert Island Feeling / Here / Exit / Animal Death Mask / Moonville Tunnel / Stargazer mp3 orginal article on no fear of pop

It was nearing the end of sxsw and I was in a bit of a Doritos fueled existential brand panic.  I was trying to remember why we even go to music festivals.  Why was it that I was spending more of my time escaping places that made my soul feel gross instead of using the opportunity to see so many people and bands that I love converged onto one city.  I was starting to feel less like a person and more like a target market to some upstart social vodka ipad app.

Luckily a handful of friends who happen to run the music blogs Stadiums and Shrines, Think or Smile, and Smoke don’t Smoke (respectively) decided to throw a backyard show all last minute like which turned out to be the perfect antidote to my consumer blues.  Almost completely unadvertised, it was just some human beings eating s’mores by the fire, drinking lonestar and playing music for each other on a absolutely beautiful Texas evening.  New friends Matthew Sage and EOLA played as well as old friends Steffaloo and Little Spoon.

Yesterday, much to my surprise, I found out that Tonje over at No Fear of Pop got a pretty great recording of the last half of my set and put it out there in the interzone.  Since I was playing for mostly my good friends it gets a little sillier than a normal mb show but I’m weirdly happy with how it all turned out.  Thanks again to everyone who set this up + Tonje for the recording + Nate Mckee for the mastering.

Setlist: Cowboy’s Prayer (last half) / Desert Island Feeling / Here / Exit / Animal Death Mask / Moonville Tunnel / Stargazer

mp3

orginal article on no fear of pop

Golden Ring - Shekar Dar Kohestan (mp3) I’m trying to help my roommate put together a mix of songs with whistling which reminded me how much I love this Golden Ring song off of Raks Raks Raks, a compilation of garage rock from Iran.  Can you guys think of anything to add?

Golden Ring - Shekar Dar Kohestan (mp3)

I’m trying to help my roommate put together a mix of songs with whistling which reminded me how much I love this Golden Ring song off of Raks Raks Raks, a compilation of garage rock from Iran.  Can you guys think of anything to add?

I’ve been re-reading Poetics of Resistance by Jeff Conant this tour and it’s even more incredible in the post Arab Spring / OWS reality we live in than when I first attempted it a couple years back. It combines some of my favorite and thought-provoking subjects to basically assert that the 90’s Zapatista insurgency in Mexico was the first “postmodernist uprising” and studies how they were able to lift a lot of the mythology and symbolism of their indigenous Mexican heritage to gain awareness and sympathy from the Western world. There’s an absolute treasure trove of (almost prophetic) material that directly relates to the anti-corporate political struggle we have found ourselves in recently.  I also appreciate the optimisitic tone that runs throughout that differentiates it very much from other similar material that (rightly) condemns the ills of late capitalism + corporatism. It’s got me thinking very much about the important role that artists, musicians, storytellers, local businesses, and neighborhoods have in collectively shaping national discourse and how it is a shame that so much of what we do tends to either help or be silenced by groups/companies/publications bigger than us that are working solely off of a profit motive.  It’s also a shame that as artists we too often use the soapbox given to us solely to self-promote (and worse! self-brand) instead of creating a scene outside of ourselves and networking with other like-minded folks across the globe. Don’t get me wrong, these are huge, complicated issues that can’t be solved by bumper-sticker slogans and dubious charities, but in my recent travels I keep finding the most vibrant and inspiring spaces exist outside the norms set by the “culture-defining” voices who have enough money to make their voices ring deafeningly from one coast to another.  It exist outside of decades of market psychology aimed at making you buy or eat or think something that may not be in your best interest.  I met so many people who were selectively deaf to the national conversations buzzing frivolously about and instead focused their energy on creating a more livable community in their own neighborhoods and backyards.  The letters D I Y have been overused to the point of almost being meaningless to me but so many of the places I went through last month reinvigorated my feeling that the more alienated we feel from our own communities and the more we just use the pre-existing systems and chains so conveniently right in front of us the more life just feels like a chore.  How tragic to be disconnected from our own neighbors, from our own public space! Riding your bike an extra mile to support a business you love or making a showpaper  to highlight alternative happenings around your town or to turn your front room into an art gallery once a month may not seem like a revolutionary act, but I’m more convinced  than ever that it is small actions like that added up and multiplied by thousands that makes real change both politically and culturally.  It tells the story relevant to you and your city instead of echoing some focus-tested language that has nothing to do with your life. Please excuse me if I sound like a self righteous twerp!  I’m still working on all of these things too!

I’ve been re-reading Poetics of Resistance by Jeff Conant this tour and it’s even more incredible in the post Arab Spring / OWS reality we live in than when I first attempted it a couple years back.

It combines some of my favorite and thought-provoking subjects to basically assert that the 90’s Zapatista insurgency in Mexico was the first “postmodernist uprising” and studies how they were able to lift a lot of the mythology and symbolism of their indigenous Mexican heritage to gain awareness and sympathy from the Western world.

There’s an absolute treasure trove of (almost prophetic) material that directly relates to the anti-corporate political struggle we have found ourselves in recently.  I also appreciate the optimisitic tone that runs throughout that differentiates it very much from other similar material that (rightly) condemns the ills of late capitalism + corporatism.

It’s got me thinking very much about the important role that artists, musicians, storytellers, local businesses, and neighborhoods have in collectively shaping national discourse and how it is a shame that so much of what we do tends to either help or be silenced by groups/companies/publications bigger than us that are working solely off of a profit motive.  It’s also a shame that as artists we too often use the soapbox given to us solely to self-promote (and worse! self-brand) instead of creating a scene outside of ourselves and networking with other like-minded folks across the globe.

Don’t get me wrong, these are huge, complicated issues that can’t be solved by bumper-sticker slogans and dubious charities, but in my recent travels I keep finding the most vibrant and inspiring spaces exist outside the norms set by the “culture-defining” voices who have enough money to make their voices ring deafeningly from one coast to another.  It exist outside of decades of market psychology aimed at making you buy or eat or think something that may not be in your best interest. 

I met so many people who were selectively deaf to the national conversations buzzing frivolously about and instead focused their energy on creating a more livable community in their own neighborhoods and backyards. 

The letters D I Y have been overused to the point of almost being meaningless to me but so many of the places I went through last month reinvigorated my feeling that the more alienated we feel from our own communities and the more we just use the pre-existing systems and chains so conveniently right in front of us the more life just feels like a chore.  How tragic to be disconnected from our own neighbors, from our own public space!

Riding your bike an extra mile to support a business you love or making a showpaper  to highlight alternative happenings around your town or to turn your front room into an art gallery once a month may not seem like a revolutionary act, but I’m more convinced  than ever that it is small actions like that added up and multiplied by thousands that makes real change both politically and culturally.  It tells the story relevant to you and your city instead of echoing some focus-tested language that has nothing to do with your life.

Please excuse me if I sound like a self righteous twerp!  I’m still working on all of these things too!

Before spending a couple weeks making a semi-arbitrary circle around the Eastern United States making sounds for people who both did or did not want to hear them I would have never guessed that my favorite stop would have been Conway, Arkansas.  More than anything I was overwhelmed by the spirit of everyone who attended.  One of the people that stood out the most was E. Arnie, who arrived with a screen of a penguin and was ready to print it on to anyone’s shirt.  I, of course, obliged and later learned she makes music, poetry, and visual art under the name Neon Glittery.  Now that I’m back home with seemingly endless internet non-time I came across one of her tapes that Atlanta-based, Magic Rub Cassettes just put out and had to share it.  It’s got that same spirit that I’m having a hard time shaking from my consciousness and maybe wishing that some of the bigger towns with more established art scenes would take note of.     

Before spending a couple weeks making a semi-arbitrary circle around the Eastern United States making sounds for people who both did or did not want to hear them I would have never guessed that my favorite stop would have been Conway, Arkansas.  More than anything I was overwhelmed by the spirit of everyone who attended.  One of the people that stood out the most was E. Arnie, who arrived with a screen of a penguin and was ready to print it on to anyone’s shirt.  I, of course, obliged and later learned she makes music, poetry, and visual art under the name Neon Glittery.  Now that I’m back home with seemingly endless internet non-time I came across one of her tapes that Atlanta-based, Magic Rub Cassettes just put out and had to share it.  It’s got that same spirit that I’m having a hard time shaking from my consciousness and maybe wishing that some of the bigger towns with more established art scenes would take note of.     

((photos by Ali Carter))

The Music Tapes - The Minister of Longitude

Yesterday’s Music Tapes show at Dreamhaus officially put me in the christmas mood.  Apparently a holiday tradition, Julian Koster and a group merry travelers tour east coast living rooms to spread winter cheer with musical saw-centric renditions of traditional carols.  There was also a singing snowman, a gingerbread orchestra, and go-nowhere stories that managed to be both surreal (Billie Holiday learning how to sing because of an off-kilter whistling dreidel depicting the moon landing) and touching.

Julian Koster may be best known for his connection to Elephant 6 and Neutral Milk Hotel, which he was visibly relieved to not have to talk about yesterday, but he will forever be remembered by me for his beautiful quote about the role of local music scenes in bringing out the best in all its artists.

I think what Elephant 6 meant for us is very simple: there’s something pure and infinite in you, that wants to come out of you, and can come out of no other person on the planet. That’s what you’ve got to share, and that’s as real and important as the fact that you’re alive. We were able, at a really young age, to somehow protect each other so we could feel that. The world at large, careerism, money, magazines, your parents, the people at the rock club in your town, other kids, nothing is going to give you that message, necessarily. In fact, most things are going to lead you away from it, sadly, because humanity is really confused at the moment. But you wouldn’t exist if the universe didn’t need you. And any time I encounter something beautiful that came out of a human somewhere, that’s them, that’s their own soul. That’s just pure, whatever its physicality is, if the person can play piano, if they can’t play piano, if they’re tone deaf, whatever it is, if it’s pure, it hits you like a sledgehammer. It fills up your own soul, it makes you want to cry. It makes you glad you’re alive, it lets you come out of you, and that’s what we need: we desperately need you.*

As a musician, I’ve had plenty of good shows, bad shows, magical shows, soulless corporate showcases, and all kinds of other situations but his quote really touched me.  It showed me the light and cleared up some questions in my head.  Seeing him play only furthered the idea of clubs, finicky audiences, hip labels, only being middlemen between you and the art that’s inside of you wanting to come out.

I look forward to seeing The Music Tapes play every time they come through the town I live in from now on.

*quote taken from Kim Cooper’s 33 1/3 book on Neutral Milk Hotel

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
  • 10 Plays

Hoffman Quartet - Volksliedchen, op. 135, no. 1 / Bohemian dance, op. 14, no. 8 

It seems like the Hoffman Quartet’s longing op. 135, no. 1 and then the upbeat Bohemian dance, op. 14, no. 8 would be a nice inaugural post for The Mesmerist.  The pieces were recorded in 1914 on wax cylinder and recently digitized by the kind souls over at Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.  I could (and often do) lose hours in the right-click abyss of that site especially in the Hawaiian section.

I’m often struck by the raw musicianship of players from that era.  If you listen closely each instrument is so expressive and dynamic.