Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth
You got the backwash of the elixir of life. – my homegirl, Sarah
I have been talking about a concept for an essay for a couple of days now. The short anecdote is a true and simple story, but I cannot consciously avoid beginning this piece without mentioning it, and furthermore making it the premise and foundation of a feeling I have been trying to uncover since it happened.
I woke in a puddle of someone else’s drool. Continue reading
Written By: Giovan Alonzi
As a goof, or jest, or in some sort of lampooning of something conventional—you, me, a “rock band,” a “main musical project”—Pink Mountaintops (often considered Stephen McBean’s side project next to Black Mountain) has not failed to, yet again, crank out a work of indulgence. Not indulgent like Dragon Force, or a math rock band, or that “noise band you’ve always wanted to destroy music with.” No, Pink Mountaintops’ indulgence lands inside something giant and wet and poppy. Take, for instance, the melting croon that opens, Sixteen:
As the people stood around and stared / we were racing passed the walls / outside the bars of innocence / we could steal it all Continue reading
Connan Mockasin and Blood Orange at Primavera Sound Festival last weekend.
(Photo credit: Tom Spray for Pitchfork)
Curated By: Guillermo M. Cerredo
Pakapi Records is an Argentinian record label that releases and promotes South American experimental and noise music. Our friend, and founder of Pakapi Records, Guillermo M. Cerredo has contributed a mixtape to Publik / Private, highlighting some new weird South American music.
We love when our old friends do weird stuff, so we’re sharing it with you. Continue reading
Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth
“Third Wave Anton Newcombe.”
It’s difficult to begin this review because I don’t want to be overzealous. I don’t want to blurt out that this is probably the best album Anton Newcombe has ever written. I’ve spent so many years fighting with my editors on the tiniest morsels of semantics and nuances of the full portrait of Newcombe’s work, and at the same time, I’ve been holding my breath through the “Post Brian Jonestown Massacre Era” waiting for Newcombe to wake up from his jet setting haze of manic soundscapes, and to return to the heart of the matter, and back to the root of the deepest layers of BJM’s artistic statement. The “Post Brian Jonestown Massacre Era” is a collection of the band’s work spanning from 2008’s My Bloody Underground to 2010’s Who Killed Sgt. Pepper and 2012’s Aufheben. Continue reading
Written By: Emily Ballaine
There is a picture of me. The only picture of myself I really like. I’m staring up at something out of the frame. My face is scrunched up: half serious, half comical. I am not even paying attention.
I am nineteen. I am wearing hiking boots and a western belt buckle and a shirt that keeps riding up, a shirt I was probably pulling at a second before that camera click. Continue reading
Written By: Lauren Espina
Clear Lake Forest is a limited edition EP that was released on April 19th for Record Store Day. The seven track album features all new, previously unreleased songs.
“What if I told you that everything you know isn’t even really true?” begins Alex Maas of The Black Angels on “Sunday Evening,” the opening track of the Clear Lake Forest EP. Though the question alone tugs the threads of reality, luring the listener into what is sure to be an angst-ridden introspection on truth and the Universe, these opening words are a quick fake-out. The song quickly lightens into cheeky territory. “I don’t think that you know much, do ya? Not that anyone does now do they?” asserts Maas in his stoned cadence, breathing tranquil air into a soundscape that transitions between mid-tempo riffs and a chugging chorus. Continue reading
Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth
I arrived at a small venue in Greenpoint – Brookyln, NY at about 5 pm to meet up with French music blogger, Juliette Billy and Louise Hayat-Camard (the grand daughter of Marianne Faithful) to see a show. This was the caliber of attendees who made a successful effort to support the then, 18 year old post psych band, The Blue Angel Lounge. The international psych scene traveled far and wide to support the young band’s first American tour in 2010. Continue reading
Written By: Mark Fritz
Editor’s Note: Mark Fritz is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, awarded for his coverage of the Rwandan genocide. He has contributed this op-ed piece to Publik / Private and examines the story of a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, who became famous for her affair with former president, Bill Clinton. Fritz references himself as he was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and covered the story when it broke in 1998. Now, he takes a look at the scandal over a 6 year span of time.
May 6, 2014
Remember when you were in your late teens or early twenties, full of ambition and invincibility? Sex was one of the spices in the hot stew of a future furiously unfolding. You could strive for your goals, work 12-hour days, and skip sleep while still reveling in the pure physical pleasures that seemed part of the wild ride to some distant destination of self-satisfied stability. It was a place you were in no particular rush to reach, because the route there was filled with endless, exquisite levels of sublime experiences. Continue reading
Written By: Lindsey Lee
WHERE: Sarasota, Florida
WHEN: Thursday, October 17, 2013
WHO: Me, My Dad, Uncle Todd, & Luis
At 5am on Thursday morning, I was sitting on the ground of the shower, listening to Waxahatchee, trying to decide if it was too early to go into the room my dad and uncle were sleeping in to tell them that I was pretty sure I needed to go to the emergency room. I had been really sick for about five days now (first diagnosed with viral Pharyngitis, then self-diagnosed with possible tonsillitis) and it had been slowly getting worse and worse. I’m not a doctor but, I’m pretty sure when you can no longer speak and are close to not being able to breathe, it’s not a sign that you’re on the road to recovery.
Publik / Private 