Notes of A Mad Blogger

Welcome! If I may repeat myself, I recently (as of 10/25/2019) repurposed my old, basically dormant blog (fka WAR DURING LIFETIME) to be a (mostly) music blog.  I have a large archive of stories, poems and essays here, for now at least.  But due to my obsession with music and my proclivity for writing, it …

2/28/17

putting dead rodents to rest in abandoned pizza boxes catering battles of sexes a world's Viking funeral's best

Personality Crisis-NEW ARROWS

Personality Cult, NEW ARROWS (Dirtnap Records) No slight against this band, but the first time I listened to NEW ARROWS, I didn’t see how I was going to write about it.  That’s on me. And that, along with the fact that the music sounded great, is the reason I listened to it again, and again, …

Variables and Votes

I’ve heard a worrisome number of liberals and progressives say that they’re not voting in the 2020 elections.  They don’t vote. Both parties are the same. There’s no difference among the candidates.   I would genuinely like to know why.  Do they really believe that both parties and all candidates are 100% alike?  And if they …

Paranoid Story

When I was 19, I had my car stolen by some gang bangers, on a very fateful, crack-fueled night in the ghetto, Dixmoor, Illinois, South Chicago, where they lived, and I’d driven them after our shift at the tobacco shop, or rather really they commandeered my car, 1987 Chevy Caprice Classic, a high school graduation …

Snowing (fragment)

Contained short-short, or piece of a longer story? I'm not sure yet, but I smell Barthelme and T.C. Boyle all over this. "We, at the co-op, are all arguing. About who's going to take out the garbage. It hadn't seemed fair to solely task one person with it, day in and day out. They'd be …

Hello Neighbors

Your old pal Jonas has been heavily occupied, which is why I haven't posted any reviews or poems lately. I'm still posting music and other amusements on a daily basis on my Facebook page, Downward Spiraling Dog. Most of my time has gone to just listening to tunes and learning bass and guitar, which is a …

Sentimental Saturday

Here's one from TWO THOUSAND AND FUCKING SIX! One poem, I mean.  Enjoy, poetry junkies! A Sing-Songy Thing (With Which to Sing Along) At a point there’s a story and at some point the story begins. There are things you do (do you see?) and I see them. I saw you gawking when you saw …

Before the arctic blast…

THE FAIR By the time I begin to feel decently for the first time in a night it’s right back to bathrooms with no hand soap, borrowed staples and staplers wasted parchment and washed up warped paper clips. I wish your son a fine birthday and brush my teeth with blood and bacteria and sodium …

Types

There are several types of people who visit my blog.  Most are curious randoms. Some come for (now) incendiary band interviews, record reviews and recommendations, and other music-related contact. Many more come for the poetry, including followers I've had for a decade.  I really appreciate that. Others come here for the mental-illness angle, some of them …

INTERVIEW: SIDEKICK KATO

My first band interview is with a band.  They're The Sidekick Katos. SIDEKICK KATO was a major entity in the Chicago punk scene in the 1990's, bringing their own brand of hardcore emo and indie rock to venues across Chicago and its suburbs.  They developed a passionate, Budweiser-soaked cult following, releasing their first album, First Class …

NICE COPS-EP

Nice Cops, EP Nice Cops!  Ha! Great name.  Although maybe in Winnipeg it’s not ironic.  But this is a punk band, at its core at least, so it probably is.   Piano!  Clean piano features on (I believe) 2 of these 3 tracks, and that extra layer makes their sound all the more rich.  This is …

Humble Drips

High productivity and sleep problems persist.  It's Practice Day (guitar and bass), so I may not do any reviews, but probably will by midnight CST.  You know me. Wrote the chorus for a new song today, and the poems keep coming.  High anxiety, but I'm managing it.  Punk rock (Al Quint's Sonic Overload) and writing. Donate …

Throwback on Saira’s Birthday

HARD TAR The cicadas are perfect they sound like they belong here now Past exhaustion and passed by by hundreds on highways Sweat up and down stairs Ice wasting on hard tar Powdered paychecks swollen necks my word what is this weather? Hard tar encrusted desks busts of Pope John Paul the Second (II) eating …

Poem for Truckers I Knew

MICHIGAN I talk religion at work, walk away when I’m done, and Archie has the worst breath I’ve ever sniffed. Lou wants trips to MI, where lives some “broad” he’d like to give a poke.  Too much on the plate. Jersey is clogging the arteries, pornography plugging up the arsenal. Some days you wanna stick a …

Brainflakes: Someone, Somewhere

BRAINFLAKES, Someone, Somewhere (Hidden Home) I talk about the weather a lot.  I know it. Perhaps it’s a Midwestern thing, a Chicago thing, or just me.  People balk at “talk about the weather” but really it’s something we all experience in common.  And you can’t deny it’s a factor when it’s extreme.   Brainflakes makes emo …

Mood Swingset

My bipolar's in full swing.  Yesterday was a very odd, off kinda day.  I swear, Mondays are the same anywhere; it doesn't matter if you work a 9-5 or not. I'd gotten a decent night's sleep, then got some (more!) good news in the morning.  I had plenty to do, but I was feeling irrationally …

RATIONAL ANTHEM: It’s Only Permanent

RATIONAL ANTHEM, It's Only Permanent (A-F Records) “Pop punk born in Florida, Midwest living.”  Oof, that’s rough. But this Iowa City trio nails Midwest living.  Though their songs are ostensibly, mostly about girls, as with so much pop punk the “songs about girls” are just a medium.   I listened to this first on its release day, …

DJUNAH: Ex Voto

DJUNAH, Ex Voto Goddamn, this is rad!  This is the first (and second) time I've listened to Djunah before. Right off the bat, this Chicago two piece is pounding and shredding away. This is noise rock with an emphasis on rock. Most people hear “noise” and think right away of noodling, but no; Djunah has …

Redemption?

Ahoy, mates!  Your old pal has bucked up a bit, and I wanted to post a revised poem to make up for my ranting earlier.  Enjoy! TOO MANY NEIGHBORS Come at last full circle, horizontal. One rogue vertical blind sways perpetual, pendulum-like. Somewhere near: a party. Above: the creak of 2 AM feet. I put …

I Don’t Wanna [Insert Undesirable Activity]

Hello, neighbors!  I look like like shit right now.  I'll own it. Well, technically that was on Halloween, when we got a snowstorm here in Chicago.  HO HO HO.  In any case, I'm gonna launch into Whiny Adolescent Mode, because I need to vent, and that's the easy way to do it.  This is why …