February 2012
4 posts
The garageband champions beat Wilco again
Back from the Grammys. It was a nice getaway. Short, and not very relaxing, but a vacation nonetheless. Seeing my uncle, Danny, aunt, Kendall, and cousins, Leah and Charlie, is always refreshing. (I hate that word, but it was.) With all due love to said family members, Charlie remains the most refreshing factor of our trips out there. There’s nothing like a one-year-old to shove aside...
Grammys!
Headed to LA for the Grammys! This is the fifth year Wilco’s been nominated but it’s my brother Sammy’s and my first time coming along. They’re making us sit in the back away from all the important people, but it’s okay because our uncle, Danny, and cousin, Leah, are going with us, too. (They’re not important either so they can keep us company.) I’m happy...
Elizabeth Cotten & Good Ole Music
Watch “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten on YouTube
This is Elizabeth Cotten. When she was a teenager, she bought herself a guitar. It was a right-handed guitar, but she was left-handed, so she taught herself how to play it. Not restrung. Upside down. She invented a style of fingerpicking, now known as “Cotten picking” (and played by people who use rightside-up...
Unrequired Listening →
My friend Joey Pfeifer and I have started a weblog about music called Unrequired Listening. We don’t aim to be the next Pitchfork, Stereogum or whatever. It’s more just a personal journal, about music, that we share. I hope you like it.
January 2012
2 posts
"I'm proud of you, Spencer"
At the start of this school year—my sophomore year—I began receiving dozens of emails a week from colleges that seem pretty, pretty torqued at the notion of my attendance, despite their having no clue who I am or what my qualifications are. They’re form emails that emulate a genuinely interested, “proud” human on the other end, which I find manipulative and gross. It makes me...
December 2011
4 posts
“One Day” — {Formerly The Blisters}
...
November 2011
4 posts
“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson on art
Just starting to cover transcendentalism in my American literature class and it’s really interesting. I’m a full-fledged believer in modernism and innovation, but that doesn’t stop me from finding ole Ralph, Walt n’ Henry admirable and their work...
Might as well post this one, too. No vocals.
Yet another demo. Bad vocals.
October 2011
6 posts
A demo from my avant-garde, turtleneck-wearing,...
The Fear of Missing Out
I am uncomfortable very often. It’s something that I’ve talked about a lot before. It’s that notorious “creative itch,” that infamous, insatiate hunger that drives people to make beautiful things and some things that are only beautiful to them and sometimes gamble their chance of a conventionally successful lifestyle to pursue the passion that was birthed out of that...
September 2011
11 posts
“I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers — who I...”
– — James Blake
As someone who spent a month at sleep-away camp this summer, and therefore spent a month involuntarily listening to balls-out dubstep, all day, everyday, because Eminem, K’naan and Afroman aren’t good enough for white suburban Jews anymore, these words are golden....
WatchSammy just couldn’t contain himself and jumped on stage at Central Park last night to give the crowd a little taste of his masterful interpretive dance moves.
Capital Angst — Spencer Tweedy
Another little...
I promised a spirit—conjured via ouija board...
August 2011
15 posts
Tug-of-war
A few nights ago, as I lay in bed, thinking, because I forgot not to, a rare thing happened. One of the myriad branches of thoughts and half-baked anecdotes that often keep me awake transformed into a not-so-often mental delicacy of mine: a verbalizable nugget. First, a romantic preface.
There is a line that separates the two stages of human life, commonly referred to as child- and adulthood....
WatchSammy taught Charlie some new words.
Mission Save Joey's Hair: Failed
A couple days ago I made a post about a petition against the dress code requiring my little brother’s best friend, Joey, to shear off his overgrown, oh-so tastefully styled locks.
For those of you that participated in the petition, or at least stood by, concernedly, I have some sad news.
Joey was forced to cut his hair yesterday evening. It is comparatively short yet still long enough to...
Just found this little recording of me being all...
“I played ‘Declare Independence’ by Björk for my cabin at camp and...”
– Sammy
July 2011
16 posts
Anonymous asked: what's the best place to get film developed?