Fishing the sound
Welcome to Hella Immaculate, I love you.
I’m Dave, a comedian, podcaster, storyteller, teacher, and abolitionist organizer. I love making light of heavy shit and taking frivolous things too seriously. Hella Immaculate is my existential, spiritual, political, creative-process-and-culture-obsessed alt-weekly.
If you enjoy this, please consider joining my Patreon. You can get playlists, shoutouts, and bonus podcast audio. You’ll also stock my fridge with insulin and have the satisfaction of keeping my work independent—meaning I’m accountable only to The Mystery and you.
I know I’m in danger of turning this into Hella Immaculate: Placeholder Thoughts Between Music Documentaries Worth Watching, but if you care about creative process and experimentation or finding ways to pursue your own idiosyncratic vision, you’ve gotta see Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. It’s a slice of the composer’s life during a heightened time of cancer, anti-nuclear activism, and finding a way to create new music in spite of it all. I watched it over five or six sittings, which felt like the perfect way to immerse myself in the world of Sakamoto’s ideas.
In a time where I’m returning to my previous one-man show, Feed Wolf Ice Cream, to refine it into something new, while wondering if I should just scrap it and move onto the next thing, it was freeing to see Sakamoto talk about doing just that with an album (i.e. it’s allowed! whether I make the same choice or not).
It was inspiring to see him walking the woods and glaciers making field recordings. It seems clear his music practice is expansive. He doesn’t consider himself Not a True Musician if he isn’t playing piano every day, so maybe I can lighten up on myself for not going to open mics.
I found it instructive watching Sakamoto care about the world and show up to direct actions in support of causes. The film provides some concrete answers to the question, “How do you make non-corny art from political concerns?”
Finally, I loved him conceptualizing his new album because I think about top-down vs. bottom-up creativity all the time, i.e. do you start with concrete images, sounds, words, etc. or do you start with an idea/feeling and find the concrete stuff to match? It seems he takes the top-down approach, at least sometimes, and that was comforting to me.
I realize I’m the perfect audience for this doc, and maybe you’re not. Maybe you hate relaxing meditations on creativity and the meaning of life! But if so, what are you doing here?! Meditations on creativity and the meaning of life is like my whole thing, but less “relaxing” and more “agitated.” I’m losing focus now. Anyway, it’s a great doc, watch Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda.
THIS IS MY PODCAST, THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
My guest: Me again! It’s Part 2 of the “Reversaroo,” where comedians, previous guests, and TIYA fans Meaghan Strickland and Claire Favret ask me my own questions.
We talked: Glib hell vs. actual terrifying hell, my idea for a one-man show about the sidewalk, “Is your coma still your ‘coma’?”
This two-parter was so fucking fun that I’ve asked Claire and Meaghan to join me for a new This Is Your Afterlife aftershow, probably called either After Afterlife or This Is Your Aftershow and probably mostly on Patreon with trickles to the main feed. So stay tuned for that! I just can’t not have this experience in my life regularly.
THEY’RE JUST, LIKE, MY SUGGESTIONS, MAN
Sign up for my Personal Story Workshop starting Thursday, October 7. It’s not too late! Just email thisisdavemaher@gmail.com to get it done.
Buy music. It’s Bandcamp Friday! Need some suggestions? Here. Lotta whites and men on this list, so I clearly still have some diversifying to do in my listening.
Low: HEY WHAT. Noisy, holy brilliance.
Cole Pulice: Gloam. A dreamy blanket of saxophone and electronics.
Oui Ennui: Occupe-toi de tes oignons. My current favorite release from the ultra-prolific experimental electronic songwriter (and my budding friend), with the most epic, Bon Iver-but-militaristic track of the year, “Long-Haul’s Lament.”
Mount Shrine: Winter Restlessness. Cozy ambient music with air traffic control field recordings for the upcoming cold months.
Alabaster DePlume: To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1. Moving, meditative instrumental jazz from my new favorite guy ever.
Bill Callahan: Gold Record. Typically funny mostly-solo-guitar-and-voice record from the poet laureate of straight-faced smirking.
Calvero: “Black Rain”. Enya influenced epic song from an independent artist comrade-in-arms.
Lightning Bug: A Color of the Sky. A really lovely fall record (prob. better for late summer, but who’s auditing?) of sweet melodies and slow guitars.
Sankara Future Dub Resurgence: Anarchist Africa::When Visions Fall From Sky. Fucking righteous African anarchists radicalizing you with bass.
The first Fuubutsushi record, Fuubutsushi, which is the one they released for fall last year. Hushed, ambient jazz with haunting found sound clips about Japanese internment. Some of my favorite shit this past year.
Got a response to something here? Reply or comment, and I’ll hit you back.
MAY I PLAY YOU A SOUND?
This Is Your Afterlife guest Matt Sage tipped me off to this ethereal, propulsive track by Tonstartssbandht (no idea how to pronounce this name). It’s a preview of their forthcoming album, Petunia, which Matt says is his album of the year tied with Low’s HEY WHAT. High praise, and judging from this song, deserved.
And if you’ve made it this far this week, guess what? Low are my guests on the podcast next week!!!
A moment with ye,
DM