xpanding da mpire

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

TUMBLR

wavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvves, luv michael

my first ever encounter with the band/entity/brosephhhhhh known as wavves, was via gorillavsbear.net. there was some washed out pic of nathynath williams and a link to beach demon. I did a little diggin and found that most tracks had demon or goth added to the end, references to being/getting fucked up aplenty, and  I decided, after a couple listens to vermin (which I still hate to this day) and beach goth, that wavves was shitty and nathan williams was a giant douche. then came the barca-breakdown, which was followed by a barely-there apology stitched to a story of alcohol and drug abuse (HA!), which nearly cemented his astronomically high level of douchbaggery in my mind.

then

after wavvves and after the spanish suckfest, I heard a newly released song (slash demo that might never be expanded on!) called mickey mouse. 

and then

I got it. I understood nathan williams and his jamz-ingly perfect blend of ol dirty bastard and lesley gore and the smell and the marvelettes. and I loved it. the fucked up ooohs through dented mikes and torn up speakers through a million buzzing bees fucking drenched in sun and salt and the heavy smell of marijuana, dripping with pizza grease and TEENAGE NRGY! and the more I got it, the more I loved it and it was a huge cycle that lead to this past friday.

I am in college and for some reason I have yet to make any friends with the same musical tastes as I have, which is fine, it just makes concert-going an interesting experience. but I bought a ticket and I love the band, so I'm going. the night started off in a sketchy manner. I made it downtown on the train and got to the right bus stop. unfortunately, my phone told me that the bus was going to be taking a straight line from my stop to the chopin theatre stop. much to my confusion, we turned south and continued for a long while. the battery on my phone was about to die and I was not about to be stranded somewhere without a phone, so I turned it off. long story short, I ended up getting off a couple stops early, which was fine, but I ended having to walk under the kennedy expressway with all the people who lived under it and it was a little jittery there for a moment. after a couple blocks (oh yeah, in the pouring rain too) I arrived to the theatre. about 46.5 of the 50 people who were going to the show were outside smoking. It was almost magical, walking through that cloud of nicotine, inside the theatre. 

it was a real theatre. with theatre seating. like chairs. for a wavves show. hmmmmm. the opening act spit on the crowd, pretended to smash the front row with a mike stand, and pretty much obliterated the equipment. all while we sat. it was odd. thennnnnnn mr. williams comes in, all 5'4" of him, and fucks shit up. 

"first things first: get the fuck out of your chairs and come down here. stand here, stand there, stand on top of me, I don't give a fuck, but if you unplug something, plug it back in."

um, fuck yeah.

him and fucking zach hill (who beat that kit to death 40 times over) started with so bored, and the party fuckin started. the crowd was a bunch of hyped up teenagers ready for a fucking great, a fucking loud, a fucking WAVVES show and that is what the fuck they got. I thrashed and thrashed and thrashed and my neck is pissed at me for it still, but I swear to god I couldn't help it. the raw energy that was in that little room with all those little people was pure ecstasy. there were arms and sides and heads and HAIR and elbows and legs and we were one throbbing knot of blissed out kids, doing nathan williams' will, personifying the music. and just when it couldn't have gotten crazier, he started playing no hope kids. it was like an instant switch. all of the sudden nathan was ramming his tiny body into the crowd (my stomach) and getting people to sing the oohs for him and everyone was flipping out in the best, most thrashy was possible and my neck broke fifty times but all I could feel was the guitar in my face and the drums at my chest and the endorphins in every atom, buzzing with the bees and dripping with sweat instead of pizza grease. 

and then

I got it more. because wavves is seriously everything that has to do with energy and youthful angst and youthful ignorance and youthful happiness. and it makes sense that I went to an underage show because who else is wavves really meant for? and nathan williams isn't a douchebag in any way. he is a kid and he is human and he is kinda stupid. and he is so sincere but not in a pussy way and he just wants to have a good time. and really, who doesn't?

WAVVES, or HOW I FELL IN LOVE WITH NATHAN WILLIAMS

strip me of my clothes. strip me of my skin. can you see it? you can see my skeleton, right? pressed between my muscle and my sinew and tendons white and burgundy. it starts down at the base of my spine. it is black and viscous and glittering and glorious. it crawls it's way up each vertebrae, worming it's way into my central nervous system. it paints my ribcage and my sternum black, just because it wants so badly to encapsulate my heart. it creates it's shelter, around my vitals, within my chest cavity. i can feel it's pulse, it's heat in my blood, my muscles, my blurred vision. it possesses me completely and informs every decision i make. i can feel it just like that, always starting in my spine, ending in my heart. every time you hear something so perfect that you have no choice but to fall in complete love.

this happens to me, always after i see a band live. it is almost tragic that i become obsessed with bands after the fact. y'know? if i could just see them again, this time around i'll know all the words, promise.

well wavves fucking killed it. like, seriously. we got to the venue roughly forty minutes before the crew was finished setting up so we just chilled i guess, makin' friends. observin'. i swear to fucking god that the nerdiest hipsters on this planet are grinnell hipsters. they each looked like they just found themselves last month. no one really comfortable in his/her hipster shoes yet. i mean, shit, it was kinda cute, y'know? any-fuckin'-how, most the pre-show chitchat surrounded the percentage chance that Wav "nathan williams" Ves would have another complete mental breakdown (we figured between 13-20%), like his ridiculously hyped Barcelona nervous meltdown.

quotable nathanbro: 'If people think that I'm not going to fuck up, then they're wrong. And if they think this is like the last time I'm going to fuck up, they're wrong too. Because I'm young. I'm kinda stupid. I'm human.'

nathanbro's very teenagery apology:'I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn't exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I'm sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I've made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I've made and it for sure wont be the last. I'm human. Don't know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to lose my shit, but that's life. You live and you learn.'

(thanks p4k!<3<3<3<3)

yeah okay, so maybz this kid has got the rep of douche-iest bro in the indie biz. but i knew it, soon as he walked on stage to set up his pedals and shit. the crowd was probz a little over 50 kids. small, small venue in the basement of a college residence building, right. and between band set up music plays for the crowd and crew bitches who do the amp and drum kit lifting and stuff. well the music that was playing during nathan's set up was like this fuckin' weird '80s mix. i was AMPED up, shit, like WIRED, right, coz i really really do love wavves. i have mad passion for this whole no-fi indie punk scene that's coming out of california right now. so some whitney houston song comes on and me and the geek-chic grinnell hipsters are dancing and being generally very silly. i was in the very front, pressed against the stage along with all the other front-rowers (all girls, go figure, am i right, nathanbro?). the whole situation was a throbbing kinda sweaty "I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY, I WANNA FEEL THE HEAT WITH SOMEBODY" okay? so nathan is setting up his pedals and just singing and dancing along and making eye-contact with us row-one-ers and laughing and being overall jovial. i knew it then, i thought "shit, this kid fuckin' rules, and he has a great sense of humor and isn't even a little douchey". OH, and he is just a little kid, seriously, he is probably 5'3". so fucking cute.

during soundcheck the sound board kept shorting and fucking up, which is where he really lost his 22 year old drug addled shit in Spain, but he was totally chill. he laughed about it and was super polite to soundboardbro. then he, killr punk rock aesthetic in tow, decided to fuck it and went straight into his probz most famous and beloved track 'So Bored'. his mic shorted like a third of the way through, but i could hear him screaming from my spot roughly one foot in front of him and i screamed his lyrics back at him and without all the reverb and effects his voice sounded just like a kid who wanted to have a good fuckin' time. the rest of the show went pretty much like that. just a bunch of kids who wanted to have a good fuckin' time. and when nathanbro stepped away from the mic, he really fucking thrashed, playin' his guitar and smiling, his hair (maybz a mullet) submitting to his head banging. nathan, how do you do it night after night? you gave so into the whole performance, how could you live through this intensity, how is your neck not broken? so the point is i really like nathanbro, he was really chill, and i quite frankly expected spazzzztik behavior. i talked to him after the show to let him know that he fuckin' rulez and that his new shit that's he's put out, like cool jumper, mickey mouse, and my personnnnaaallll favorite song right now hula hoop, are like all completely genius and that he just keeps gettin' better. he seemed to be really complimented and really appreciative of our support. he seemed like a humble chill bro who just likes to perform. he just enjoys making music, and sometimes when you get so way hyped shit gets tough and it gets harder to function in a way that doesn't feel like you're doing what you are contractually obligated to do rather than want you really just wanna do.

so, i love you, nathan williams. you're great and your music is really fuckin' awsome, and you're realllllly fun to see live, and i hope you keep on doing what you're doing so long as it's still what you want to do.

Wavves from TERROREYES.TV on Vimeo.

luvvv, chloe

this is for your ears

i may have mentioned once before that los campesinos! is the lill' white rocks to my burgeoning crack habit. well yesterday they posted a new song, which i assume is off of their upcoming (sophomore? i dunno why they don't consider We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed an LP) record. i didn't know how to feel about this song, The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future, when i first heard it. the lyrics are remarkably sad, which is unlike the bitchy-gareth-assault that i am accustomed to. but with each successive listen i like it a little more, and regardless i know they still have the punch i love because of the new track RIB (the song actually begins at 1:08, also note how positively adorbz gareth is whilst singing) which they played live at Lollapalooza. well, anyway, new track: the sea is a good place to think of the future. it really is quite beautiful. you know what. i like it (how could i not?). i might take it to the swings, so's we can get to know eachother a little better.

Luvvv,

chloe

two truths and a lie

my grandmother taught my grandfather how to read. my grandfather threw his seventh grade vice principal out of a second story window, he went to Mckinley. after that, however, he never went back to school. he went to a reform institution, where they used him to test out new tattoo removal techniques. he had two tattoos, one on each forearm. they were both of ribbons. on the ribbon on his right forearm it said "fuck you". this tattoo was cut off. the scar used to be just below his elbow, but since he was thirteen when it was acquired and he has since grown, the scar is now closer to his wrist. the ribbon on his left arm had no text in it, it was burnt off. however, that was unsuccesfull and you can still faintly see it.

my grandmother grew up in california, she was an only child who enjoyed reading superhero comics and eating tar off the streets. she loves minorities and relating everything that has ever happened to her own life. she and my grandfather got married in 1962, they say they waited to get married until african americans got their rights. it was a protest thing. my grandmother is in love with john f kennedy. she used to be a chain smoker. my hands and my grandmother's hands look exactly alike, down to the freckle we both have between our left thumb and forefinger.

my family is entirely normal.

luvvv,

chloe