Archive for the ‘Bad Rock’ Category
In which Dealth Culture at Sea* is a light that turns to blue. *Since there seem to be a few new folks stopping by here, a note of explanation: I used to play in an indie-rock band called Saturnine, and this — i.e., Death Culture at Sea — is my new ‘band,’ consisting of me, […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Dream, Good Rock, Orchids | Leave a Comment
Tags: Indie Rock, Late Bloomers, Music, The George Washington Bridge
In which Death Culture at Sea breaks out the vintage gear. Until now, all of the Death Culture at Sea songs have been recorded with an acoustic guitar that frankly needs to be worked on a bit, and then we added distortion and all other effects ex poste facto. With this song, we finally retrieved […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Decay, Dissonance, Good Rock | 1 Comment
Tags: Cathedrals, Fender Princteton Reverb, Fender Telecaster Custom, Reverb, Sunsets
In which Death Culture at Sea ‘rocks out a lil.’ Listen on Tumblr or download directly from the Death Culture at Sea site. “Retromeme” We all know the kind of people who never seem to leave Sometimes they can help you by affirming your beliefs Never trust a movie star to tell you what you […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Distortion, Guitars, Lo-Fi, Retromeme, Songs
On Death Culture at Sea: 1968
In which The Gay Recluse rocks out a lil? Listen on our Tumblr or download from the Death Culture at Sea web site. Can’t believe the things I have to say before I make it through the week I’m feeling sicker than philosophy I read a million useless words when I was younger then Today […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Nostalgia, Pessimism | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1968, Death Culture at Sea, Lofi
On DeathCulture@Sea: Anodyne
In which The Gay Recluse sings a song. Here’s the latest from DeathCulture@Sea — aka the staff here, some papers towels, an acoustic guitar and a book (oh and chopsticks and a silver plate) — a song inspired by our recent remembrance of shoegazing past (even though this is more an attempt at lo-fi Spacemen […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, Death Culture at Sea, Dream, Good Rock | 1 Comment
Tags: DeathCulture@Sea, Lofi, Shoegazing, Singing, Songs
On Nowhere
In which The Gay Recluse remembers Ride. The opening chords of “Vapour Trail” are high and open, yet filled with same (phase-shifted) melancholy we associate with ringing church bells. To hear this the other day, as we plodded through our thirty minutes on the elliptical at the gym, was to be swept away with a sense of forgotten potential — […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Decay, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Resignation | 3 Comments
Tags: Beth, CBGBs, Kiss, My Bloody Valentine, Nowhere, Ride, Shoegazer Rock, Vapour Trail
On The Rest Is Noise
In which The Gay Recluse recommends a book about music. When we finished The Rest Is Noise, Alex Ross’ survey of twentieth-century (classical-ish) music, our feelings were mixed; not about the book, which — as we are hardly the first to point out (Google it!) — works brilliantly on many levels. It’s really beyond our […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Gay, Good Rock, History, Landscape, Literature, Writers-American | 5 Comments
Tags: Aerosmith, Alex Ross, Classical, Free Jazz, La Monte Young, Led Zeppelin, Pierre Boulez, Pittsburgh, The Rest Is Noise, The Who, Walter Benjamin, WDVE
On the City Pattern Project: On the Internet, the Lost Dreams of Youth Are Just One Click Away
In which The Gay Recluse remembers life as an indie rocker. After obsessing about the Hipster Runoff review of TV on the Radio for the past two days, we realized that it had sent us into a retroactive identity crisis. It was as if it were fifteen years ago, and we were just starting a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Bad Rock, City Pattern Project, Conspiracy, Decay, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession | 3 Comments
Tags: Hipster Runoff, Music Reviews, Teevee on the Radio, The Olds, The Youngs
In which The Gay Recluse is interviewed on the BBC (but not credited) and then adds a backing track. [Note! Update appended below or click here.] Ha, so today we got an e-mail from “BBC World Service Request” with the following message: I work for a programme called World Have Your Say which broadcasts on […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Gay, Government, History, Pessimism, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse | 3 Comments
Tags: BBC, Netiquette, Obama, Quid Pro Quo, World Have Your Say
In which The Gay Recluse remembers tenth grade. Like a million other kids in 1984 we were obsessed with Murmur, by R.E.M. Our friend Tom owned the LP and we used to go down to his room to listen to it — this was at boarding school — and then we made a tape. (That […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Language, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: Boarding School, Michael Stipe, Murmur, Perfect Circle, R.E.M., Tenth Grade
On Death Culture at Sea
In which The Gay Recluse starts a new band. So we decided to start a new band: Death Culture at Sea. We googled it and nothing came up, so we’re assuming it’s fair game. We’ve always loved Echo and the Bunnymen, so we decided to start things off by covering one of their best songs. […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1980s, Bands, Death Culture at Sea, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon
In which The Gay Recluse records and tumbles. Hey fans of the British Invasion (by which we mean the one with Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine)! Why not tumble on over to the latest in Saturnine Death Culture at Sea — recorded by us like five seconds ago on this very laptop — where […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Capitalism, Communism, Death Culture at Sea, Dissonance, Dream, Good Rock, Photography, Pleasure, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Evergreens, New Songs, Saturnine
On a Song for Saturday Morning
In which The Gay Recluse writes a song for Saturday morning. Oh hai! So apparently WordPress.com (on which The Gay Recluse is hosted) doesn’t allow you to upload MP3s, but for those souls interested in hearing our first musical composition since like forever, why not tumble on over to our Tumblr blog and have a […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Gay, Good Rock, Ruins, Search, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Epic Diva, Lo-Fi, Recording, Saturnine, Tumblr
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Actually, this was yesterday. (We were so much younger then, we’re older than that now.) I, too, have an obsession with the George Washington Bridge. However, mine involves a nagging compulsion to complete a football pass from the deck of the bridge […]
Filed under: Addiction, Architecture, Bad Rock, Good Rock, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Memory, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: August, Football, Reverse Bob Dylan, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse describes a trip to hell the gym. And speaking of music, we’ve already described our general aversion to the inexplicably horrendous 1970s AOR rock our gym sometimes plays, but today marked a special occasion: yes! they played “Stairway To Heaven.” Which might not have been so bad under different circumstances; […]
Filed under: Athletes, Bad Rock, Dissonance, Gay, Memory, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Arena Rock, Babes, Gyms, Hell, Led Zeppelin, Stairway To Heaven, Stereo, Zoso
In which The Gay Recluse sees you on the dark side of the moon. We’d like to put forth the case that the most random graffiti can be found uptown. Exhibit A: Spotted on the southbound platform of the 163rd Street subway station: The cock is stupid, but we have to admit that the Roger […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Infrastructure, Sickness, Subway, Washington Heights | 2 Comments
Tags: Celebrities, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Time of photographs: April 19th, 7:00-8:00 (ish). Washington Heights is a place of extremes. Even the clouds are intense. Life is nothing but abrasive. Washington Heights is completely bereft of visionaries. But resonates with the dead genius of the past. Here we […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beauty, Merengue, Music, The George Washington Bridge, Torture
In which The Gay Recluse again laments the suffocation of the gay voice in American literature. If you’re like us, when you scanned through the list of books included in New York Magazine‘s recent “New York City Canon 1968-2008,” you had one reaction: wtf! where are the gays? In every other format, gays are represented […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, History, Infrastructure, Literature, Memory, New York City, Ruins, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Writers-American | 4 Comments
Tags: 9/11, AIDS, Andrew Hollaran, Closet Cases, Dancer from the Dance, Edmund White, Gay Books, Gay Literature, Gay Voice, HIV, New York Magazine, Rick Whitaker, Sam Anderson, Susan Sontag
The Gay Recluse 