UNTIL
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.
Last night she turned to me with colour in her cheeks and she said something that felt complicated and direct and unwavering, like she was taking my hand and putting it in a fire, and taking my eyes and making me see that our hands were in a fire. As she spoke, I listened without any confusion, because she is M. I watched each expression flicker across her face. Colour in her cheeks. In my heart I said, secretly, Okay, enough. Let's. Let's. All our lives, we shall lie in the grass and see certain stars that one-another has imagined. [Beyoncé's 4 is out June 24] The Brian Michael Roff Catastrophe - "Symbols". Toward the end of this song, there is a synthesiser - or a guitar? or a saw? or a small man happily tearing his arms off? i can't tell - and this is one of those rare moments when an instrumental solo says just as much as the entire rest of a song, not because that song is simple, but because the solo is bizarre and magnificient and very slightly wrong. It's the fitting end to a song about symbols, some of them clear and others opaque. Roff sings of symbols in the light, a phrase that can stand for film, or ink, or even our computer monitors' projections. Such symbols are at once art and distraction, thin reassurances. Roff cannot decide if wants or needs them. He sings the asking, with shambling drumbeat and a living electric guitar. These are his friends; with warmth and care, they refuse to answer each question. [buy the Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly, Winter 2011 issue]
Comments
Sean, Thank you for these two songs and beautiful write-ups. You are a treasure. Posted by Bryan at May 30, 2011 9:15 PMPost a comment
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this is a daily sampler of really good songs. all tracks are posted out of love. please go out and buy the records!
to play a song in your browser, click the . to download a song, right-click the link and choose 'Save as...' all songs are removed within a week or two of posting. said the gramophone launched in march 2003, and added songs in november of that year. it was one of the world's very first mp3blogs. if you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch: montreal, canada: sean toronto, canada: jordan toronto, canada: dan please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets. if you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. please do not direct link to any of these tracks. please love and wonder. "and i shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and i will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels lives in Montreal. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here.
Dan Beirne is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Email him here. Jordan Himelfarb lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Jordan's posts appear at Said the Gramophone only on the last Wednesday of every month. Email him here. Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by .
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