Just a man and a guitar on a stage with a voice as raw as Curt Cobain and a body that shivers with electricity as he sings raw, naked songs. Chick Graning come out of Knoxville to Boston, where he formed first Anastasia Screamed and then Scarce, was on the cusp of fame when a brain hemorrhage knocked him off his feet. Here he is two years later finding his footing in Kendall Cafe. A near miss at greatness but always great. Watching this set years later is like watching the last act in a heartache of a life, a poignant moment of might-have-been captured letting out a last eruption of the sun within. If you want to know more about Chick Graning, go here or to hear his last lost record go here.
Series
Photo by Ron Padgett
5 by Larry
Larry Sawyer
“There are poets who write poetry as a side gig, for whom poetry is one among many other things that define their life. And then there are poets whose life is poetry, whose entire way of understanding the world and themselves is through poetry. Larry Sawyer was in this latter category. His life, for those of us who had the privilege of knowing him and of experiencing his presence and kindness, was structured around poetry and the worlds of poetry that he built for others to live in. For those of us who lived in Chicago in the early 2000s, we benefited firsthand from the institutions of poetry that Larry built for us, and which sustained so many of us over such a long period of time… Larry’s poems are light without being naïve; and at the same time, they are often existential and extremely consequential while being soft, musical, and supernatural … reading his poetry…has been a moving experience, a solemn experience, and, ultimately, a celebratory one. I am in awe of how much he wrote, of the different ways in which he wrote, and again, of the subtle ways that he lived in art, music, and language…” —Daniel Borzutzky, 2016 National Book Award winner for The Performance of Becoming Human
*
The Huh
Craters of your past,
voices from the usual walls,
winter emits shrill lies across
the room, 3:00 AM margins of night.
I still love the sound of my own razorblade
voice, I shake the morning of its dust,
come up for air, the same miracle rerun.
Rear View Mirror
The splendid dead
suited, the splendid dead
relax in coffins they lounge
after long life crisp shirts
unbearably white carnation
inserted like a nail into lapel
reclining at the speed of sound
upward toward leisure
cool to the point of severity
these splendid dead
not a hair out of place
so suave as to appear
so suave as to appear
not a hair out of place
these splendid dead
cool to the point of severity
upward toward leisure
reclining at the speed of sound
inserted like a nail into lapel
unbearably white carnation
after long life crisp shirts
relax in coffins they lounge
suited, the splendid dead
the splendid dead
Foost
Walker Zupp
Lavinia’s cold when she wakes up. Head reeling like a German trade union dispute. And given the General German Trade-Union Federation, the German Trade-Union Federation and the Hirsch-Duncker Federation of German Labour Associations—those three mutually hostile Spitzenverbände—are about as friendly as a kick in the teeth, she must have the mother-of-all-headaches: which sounds like an opera. But she’s not singing this morning: not with that throat of hers. A bout of morning sickness pushes her over clutching her stomach. And when she observes the room the results are terrible. Dishes piled high, the acrid stench of rot and bioengineered hand towels, broken glass under the only window, and freezing air filling the putrid apartment—beyond which a dank alleyway echoes with prostitutes and urchins. Before she can wince at the brown stains on the mattress supporting her tired body the door bangs open. In walks a Marlene Dietrich rip-off complete with penciled eyebrows, a John-Waters-esque moustache, a top hat cocked at an angle. Must’ve been a decent wife-cum-agent before the Great War. Before the Weimar Republic. Before inflation and prostitution went hand in hand. “Decided to wake up, huh?”
“Where’s Foost?” Lavinia asks.
“Only God knows. But I’m Agnes. And this is my daughter Barbara.” Pointing to the corner: looking like a rejected set from the film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. Amongst an architectural zone where lines and shapes go nowhere and everywhere, a shivering girl’s sitting there with dyed ginger hair wearing a German alpine hat with frayed string and block stockings made traitorously by a Swiss cheese factory.
Trim
Ben Segal
I walk around cutting off people’s heads. They grow back quickly as flowers.
Jake saws similarly, but leopards bloom in the place of the heads he severs. These are not, to be clear, leopard heads. They are full leopard torsos, with front legs and claws and heads and everything, and they are the size of ordinary leopards.
The people Jake cuts have difficulty balancing after. They are awkward creatures, stumbling, unwieldy.
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Boston Bands in the 90's: Victory at Sea, Shiva Speedway, Lisa King
You will feel all the feelings here—the slow, the sad, the sultry, the rage, the disgust. From—Victory at Sea were a legend of Boston dark indie rock and slowcore, with their heavy, brooding passages, Mona Elliott’s aching, "euphoric" vocals, dynamic range, and overall mood, i.e. somber & spooky—to—Shiva Speedway, and its angular, guitar-heavy sound of '90s feminist punk and indie rock, blending riot grrrl energy with a Sleater-Kinney-like tight, dynamic, guitar-driven sound featuring inventive riffs, stop-start rhythms, and sometimes slow-burn tracks with varied vocals, offering a raw, catchy, and attitude-filled rock experience—to—Lisa King, the slam poet, very Gil Scott-Heron.
Billy Ruane was a staple of the scene at one point, and he documented endless shows throughout the 90’s and beyond. These videos came out of that.
Chapter 15: Every Day a Different Toxin
in Podcast, Series, Weltschmerz
In this final installment of Welcome to Weltschmerz, USA, Boyer finds himself at Burning Man on psychedelic mushrooms, through nervous breakdowns and binges and general drug-fueled confession upon the sands of Black Rock, NV. His summer taking theater to bedrooms across America has ended and all he’s got to show for it is a nagging twitch of the eye
You can find Chapters 1 - 14 here.
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560 Pages
$16.00
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Video: Triumph
“One day we’ll sit back and look at all what we did.” We end our collection of Manson & Madri Song-A-Day songs with a truly great song about looking back, taking stock, and what is left. Triumph is perhaps my favorite of the lot, with its shimmering synths and John’s affecting lyrics performed in his usual understated style. “Leave your conscience at the door and live triumphantly.” Enjoy!
Triumph is just one of a series of rock videos we have been posting from their collaboration, all of which can be found under the Song-A-Day link along the sidebar and you can find a selection of these songs on their album Secret Griefs here.
John Manson and Dan Madri of The Gondoliers, became involved some years ago in a project called Fun-A-Day. (Or FAD.) And now John and Dan are continuing this tradition under the title Song-A-Day or SAD, and over the course of the coming months, we here at Mutable will be posting them regularly for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Video: Crush
“When I first saw you, I was pretty sure I would be crushed.” Some jarring guitar, simmering cymbals, and another poignant word poem from the minds of Manson & Madri. Enjoy!
Crush is just one of a series of rock videos we have been posting from their collaboration, all of which can be found under the Song-A-Day link along the sidebar and you can find a selection of these songs on their album Secret Griefs here.
John Manson and Dan Madri of The Gondoliers, became involved some years ago in a project called Fun-A-Day. (Or FAD.) And now John and Dan are continuing this tradition under the title Song-A-Day or SAD, and over the course of the coming months, we here at Mutable will be posting them regularly for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Boston Bands in the 90's: Taylor Ho Bynum Quartet
There was a time when the free jazz was flowing and joyful, and Taylor Ho Bynum was part of that. The trumpeteer and composer went on to play with Anthony Braxton and record an array of influential albums, including The Middle Picture, Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths, Owl Jacket, and Navigation. A reviewer from Next commented that Bynum "deploys a litany of buzzes, whistles, drones, pinched fanfares and garrulous brass muttering in acrobatic arcs that twist and somersault." He has been the director of the Coast Jazz Orchestra at Dartmouth College since 2017.
Billy Ruane was a staple of the scene at one point, and he documented endless shows throughout the 90’s and beyond. These videos came out of that.
Chapter 14: Alone Again, Naturally
in Podcast, Series, Weltschmerz
Gabe and Jill wonder about the Pacific Northwest, running out of money, stumbling into dinner parties, working at a buritto shack during hempfest, attempting to spoon, and ultimately saying their final goodbyes. As we approach the end of our Bedroom Theater tour of America, Gabe and Jill have only succeeded in completely breaking each other's spirit in this penultimate episode of Welcome to Weltschmerz, USA
You can find Chapters 1 - 13 here.
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560 Pages
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The Zulu and the Redcoat
Walker Zupp
1
Now it was 6:00 a.m. and everyone was tired from weeks of travelling to this benighted spot the locals called Isandlwana and Lorne Novak was wincing before a small parade of his fellow soldiers, including Captain Wallass, whose pocket-watch Lorne had pocketed the night before.
Their superior’s sjambok split the sun in two before whistling through the air and striking Lorne’s hairy spine.
“It didn’t work, sir!” Lorne assured him, referring to the pocket watch.
“Be quiet, Novak!” the Officer replied, raising his sjambok again, cutting the sun, and adding another red bar to Lorne’s skin.
“Twenty-second of January,” Captain Wallass noted inwardly, enjoying the sight of Lorne’s penalty, but also thinking about what the damaged Lorne had in stall for him…
After he delivered the last blow, the Officer replaced his pith helmet, mirroring the submarine-like protuberance that shadowed the campsite. It seemed to have burst though the dry landscape like a modern submarine through arctic ice, and the British soldiers were afraid of the odd dark tower.
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Video: Seduction 1
In this darkly profound exploration of desire and its malcontents, Manson’s signature spoken word is off-set by a disquiet of drum machine and synth. “Our growth is retarded by fantastic tools” We are bombarded by the fake and fakery of the erotic in the accompanying video as Manson & Madri croon their way through another cynical masterpiece. “Nothing’s more important than your feelings feeling okay.” Enjoy!
Seduction 1 is just one of a series of rock videos we have been posting from their collaboration, all of which can be found under the Song-A-Day link along the sidebar and you can find a selection of these songs on their album Secret Griefs here.
John Manson and Dan Madri of The Gondoliers, became involved some years ago in a project called Fun-A-Day. (Or FAD.) And now John and Dan are continuing this tradition under the title Song-A-Day or SAD, and over the course of the coming months, we here at Mutable will be posting them regularly for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
My Asinine Life: Unrequited Me as Still Life
in Article, My Asinine Life, Series
Gabriel Boyer
How do you summarize a life? How do you conclude yourself? Where are you when the boulders come bouncing down the incline? Are you at home and gazing at the glowing screen with some excitement? Are you out on a hike with your long-suffering spouse? Do you have your fingers in many pies at the moment? Have you given up on ever being anything like yourself?
Are you alone in your room and realizing that you are always going to be alone in your room from now on as you nurse your gout-ridden foot? What about that you didn’t end up here because you slid into a giant trap door in the sky or because of some other deception of the scene and the people in it but more because of the general complications of being, some of which very much have nothing to do with you and who you are, and some of which very much do—you ended up here because you just couldn’t help yourself—whatever that means in your specific case—or because you didn’t have the courage to do it differently—or maybe you did and that’s why. ‘Here’ herein meaning wherever you happen to be at the moment.
Could of been you didn’t think it through. Or you just got lonely. Or your mother got sick and someone had to take of her and it ended up being you. Or there came a point in your marriage when nothing made sense any more and now you’ve been divorced for five years and it still doesn’t make sense. This is where I am.
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Video: Passion
“There was passion in my walk and it hurt in my feet.” With a jangle of tambourines and wailing guitar we are introduced to the many passions of Manson. His deep baritone voice speaks through the passion like a knife cutting through hot butter. “Passion dies like little bird except it doesn’t make a peep.” Enjoy!
Passion is just one of a series of rock videos we have been posting from their collaboration, all of which can be found under the Song-A-Day link along the sidebar and you can find a selection of these songs on their album Secret Griefs here.
John Manson and Dan Madri of The Gondoliers, became involved some years ago in a project called Fun-A-Day. (Or FAD.) And now John and Dan are continuing this tradition under the title Song-A-Day or SAD, and over the course of the coming months, we here at Mutable will be posting them regularly for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Businessman and Apple
Chapter 13: Anarchy for You and for Me
in Podcast, Series, Weltschmerz
Jill and Gabe find themselves on an anarchist compound in Saginaw, OR. Do they actually have lamas? Gabe reminisces about the future, when he will one day indeed live on this compound while working as a wildland firefighter while Jill is nowhere to be found. Beer is procured and an anarchist musical is performed. Later, that musical will be filmed. You can view the results of this filming here and the final shot of the Kenny Rogers Rock Opera (also performed in Saginaw) can be found here. Eventually, Gabe gets a haircut. Everything ends in tragedy.
You can find Chapters 1 - 12 here.
Paperback Book
8" x 5.25"
560 Pages
$16.00
Now Available
A Room That Is And Or Is Not Past Tense
Ben Segal
In the felt room is a softer spot in the soft of the whole. There is a slot there for the cards that poke out each morning and afternoon.
The morning card is Tongue Exercise
So the morning was for flexing and stretching, for folds.
Afternoon was another easy one, Sitting Still. It was a common card. A favorite.
At night the four people in the felt room slept side by side without touching.
In the morning the card said Diamond Mining and the four people who live in the felt room switched on their helmet lamps and entered the mine shaft. They carted diamonds to the softer spot in the soft whole of the felt room and pressed the diamonds to the slot, which was warm and wet, which one of them swore was pulsed with breath, which one of them swore tasted right. The afternoon card read Handcuff Game and that took the four of them to night.
The slot in the softer spot of the soft of the felt room is not mouth or vagina.
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Video: Fantasy
“Tell me your fantasy. Tell me your secret.” With Manson & Madri’s signature driving drums and shimmering guitar. “Tell me your dirty secret and I’ll tell you mine.” Manson’s voice lost in the storm of sound continues to coo to the listener his saccharine half-truths with the deadpan candor of grifter at last call. Enjoy!
Fantasy is just one of a series of rock videos we have been posting from their collaboration, all of which can be found under the Song-A-Day link along the sidebar and you can find a selection of these songs on their album Secret Griefs here.
John Manson and Dan Madri of The Gondoliers, became involved some years ago in a project called Fun-A-Day. (Or FAD.) And now John and Dan are continuing this tradition under the title Song-A-Day or SAD, and over the course of the coming months, we here at Mutable will be posting them regularly for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Boston Bands in the 90's: Sebadoh
Lo-fi pioneer Sebadoh shown here with the original line-up of Lou Barlowe, Jason Lowenstein, and Eric Gaffney performing early renditions of such hits as Oven is My Friend, and As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow Bigger, and tossing out the occasional witty banter. Raw, intense, with a driving beat and minimalist, distorted guitar—beautiful tunes and beautiful times. “Every time I get up on stage, it’s like the spirit of punk rock inhabits my body.” Indeed.
Billy Ruane was a staple of the scene at one point, and he documented endless shows throughout the 90’s and beyond. These videos came out of that.
Chapter 12: I Sing a Slice of Life
in Podcast, Series, Weltschmerz
Jill has cooked a delicious kale dinner for Boyer and co in Silicon Valley. A performance at a loft in Oakland goes terribly and Jill goes missing. They journey north, to a pebbly beach, a pizza shack and its lost waitress, through dreams of John C. Lilly, into the redwoods and the future of 20 years from now, and ultimately, to Riddle, Oregon.
You can find Chapters 1 - 11 here.
Paperback Book
8" x 5.25"
560 Pages
$16.00
Now Available
Mosaic of Time: PRVSLY RCRDED
in Series, Mosaic of Time, Poetry, Story
Lina Ramona Vitkauskas (b.1973, she/they)
"1996" from PRVSLY RCRDED
All video poems included in the project PRVSLY RCRDED revolve around the notion that all life is “previously recorded” via inherited memory or biological encoding. The cycle of life (birth/death)—as well as the epigenetic scars inherited from ancestors’ fight-or-flight past—contribute to how we re-imagine/re-tell our narratives. Past poems (written) have now been deconstructed, re-arranged, and re-told as video poems. In the poem "1996", we hear the artist retell her journey to Lithuania as a 25-year-old graduate student—not a typical trip—as all "coincidences" in her journey seem to suggest she was being vetted as a diplomat or intelligence contact at the time. A trip to the borderland area of Kaliningrad, a conversation with the president, and some family secrets divulged resonate throughout the piece, causing the artist to ponder this suspicious series of events.
PRVSLY RCRDED will be an ongoing project, eventually becoming an online space / portal where I can re-purpose / re-present poems. As a 50-year-old poet re-inventing my work—also as a new immigrant from the US during a tumultuous time in all geopolitical spheres—I hope to offer a space for dialogue for those who have also experienced ancestral trauma.
