The third installment in our "Meet the Editors" series (see 1, see 2) is from Brian Barker. Brian is the author of The Animal Gospels (Tupelo Press) and a former editor at Gulf Coast and Center as well as a new member of the UC-Denver faculty.
57 minute mix
1.) Man Man, "Against the Peruvian Monster"--These guys like to stomp & holler & bang on the drums. I'm sure they make Tom Waits proud.
2.) TV on the Radio, "Wolf Like Me"--I give this song four paws. It's got a beat & you can dance to it.
3.) Wolf Parade, "Dear Sons & Daughters of Hungry Ghosts"-- Monsters, wolfish men, hungry ghosts. . .A theme emerges.
4.) Split Lip Rayfield, "Devil"--One of the best live shows you'll ever see. Speed bluegrass. They sweat blood live onstage. The mandolin player burns through string after string, & the bass player wrestles an upright bass fashioned from the gas tank of a Chevelle. It's affectionately called "The Stitchgiver."
5.) Sufjan Stevens, "They Are Night Zombies!!! They Are Neighbors!!!"--Zombies are the new black, & they seem to be slimming down and getting faster. If I was a zombie, I'd like to eat Sufjan Stevens' brain. He's such a nice boy. Clean cut and so talented.
6.) The Mighty Underdogs, "Monster"--Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truth Speaker, and Headnodic. Rap super groups are so much better than rock super groups.
7.) Kool Keith, "I'm Seein' Robots"--If you're not listening to Kool Keith, your life is bad & you should feel bad.
8.) The Pixies, "Dead"--In which Frank Black screams loud enough to wake the dead.
9.) Aesop Rock, "Keep Off the Lawn"--In which Aesop Rock tells a bunch of ghosts to get off his lawn.
10.) The White Stripes, "Little Ghost"--" The first moment that I met her / I did not expect a specter / When I shook her hand I really shook a glove." Jack White raises grass fed ghosts on his lawn in Nashville.
11.) Neutral Milk Hotel, "Ghost"--See my note for #7.
12.) Tom Waits, "Heigh Ho"--When the Disney execs heard Waits' cover of this cheery Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs song, they issued a cease & desist letter claiming he had changed the lyrics. He hadn't changed a word.
13.) Skip James, "Devil Got My Woman"--Skip is metaphysical!
14.) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Stagger Lee"--Don't listen to this before going to bed.
15.) The Mountain Goats, "Lovecraft in Brooklyn"--"Woke up afraid of my own shadow / I mean genuinely afraid / Headed for the pawnshop / To buy myself a switchblade / Someday something's coming / From way out beyond the stars / To kill us while we stand here / It will store our brains in Mason jars!"
Book
Larry Levis' Elegy--No book has taught me more about pushing the envelope, about the imagination, about how a long poem can work, circling a subject and coming at it from different angles while keeping several ideas and images in the air at once. I didn't get it when I first read it, so I read it again, and I've probably read it at least a hundred times since. This book never fails to transport me.
Shoes
John Fluevog Angels. Black with white contrast stitching. The classic Fluevog super swirl on the side. Stamped on the sole: "Resists alkali, water, acid, fatigue, and Satan." Who doesn't need a pair of shoes that can resist Satan? Amen.
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