New album from Hussalonia!!! One of my favorite songwriters, who thankfully records and releases more music than is humanly plausible. He's had a huge impact on me, both musically and in the ways I'm able to think, especially about mental health and depression. I'm deeply grateful for his work, and it's fun as hell to sing along with. This album is packed with hits, even on a first listen.

NONDUM IN AUGE, Hussalonia’s 48th release on Bandcamp, offers a rather straight-forward album of Americana-tinged, melancholic, alternative rock about loss and hope. Unlike previous Hussalonia albums which rely heavily on the multi-tracking process necessary for a solo recording artist, the basic tracks of NONDUM IN AUGE were recorded live in The Hussalonia Founder’s basement in the summer of 2018 with Drummer-composer-visual artist Rob Lynch and bassist-composer-designer Jonathan Hughes who have played on a number of previous Hussalonia releases (see: 2010’s DEEP IN A DONUT DREAM, 2016’s MY DEAD TOOTH, and 2019’s PHIL). While overdubs were later added, there was a concentrated effort to preserve the live sound of three people making music in a low-ceilinged, hole in the ground. It’s an album that is several years in the making, interrupted by crippling bouts of depression and anxiety surrounding the state of the nation. How does one function normally in a tailspin of chaos? One doesn’t.

Nondum In Auge is a Latin phrase which can be translated to mean: not yet at its zenith. It’s a sentiment that, if one were feeling hopeful, could apply to the United States. That it’s being offered in a dead language adds a gut punch of pathos — all things, no matter how orchestrated and engineered, must pass. Loss and hope! Loss and hope! Too, I suppose, it’s a phrase that could apply to Hussalonia itself. Still toiling in willful obscurity after 23 years, Hussalonia has not yet reached the height of its popularity or, let’s hope, potential.

"Isn't living strange? We're drawn to other people's pain. So tell me wherefore does it hurt; in some vague place beneath your shirt?"

After re-listening to Celine Dion's incredible full-length "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (written by Jim Steinman), and revisiting a few tracks off of Meat Loaf's explosive Bat out of Hell (written by Jim Steinman), I had to do a little more research about Jim Steinman! Here are two great quotes!!!

From a fun essay by DB Fishman:

He may not have been of the rock & roll world, but he was definitely of its attitude. Inspired by his heroes – Wagner, Hitchcock, Spector – Steinman’s music uses elaborate and convoluted, multi-part arrangements, channelling in bombast and excess the emotional storm of teenagedom. He regarded the songs on Bat (average length: 7 minutes) as single edits, as he’d already whittled them down from 20 minutes each.

Then, from his Wikipedia entry, after describing the wild-sounding play he wrote in college that started his musical theater career:

Several motifs, lyrics, and monologues from this show appear in songs Steinman later released. For example, the lyrics "turn around bright eyes" from "Total Eclipse of the Heart" can be heard in the song called "The Formation of the Tribe". This was originally a reference to the blast flash of nuclear explosions, and the full riff of the original Dream Engine composition can be heard in the musical break of the Bonnie Tyler recording, (including symbolic musical "blasts" to punctuate each phrase.)

Not only did I not know he wrote absolute legend and karaoke showstopper "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the fact that "turn around bright eyes" is about a nuclear explosion is one of the most ridiculous and hilarious music facts I've ever heard! 😅😲🤣

Anyway, I once described Jim Steinman as "rock music for dads who would never admit to enjoying a musical," and I stand by it. I truly love his songwriting!

the juliana theory — we make the road by walking

"there's beauty everywhere!!!"

Nathan J. Robinson, at Current Affairs:

All else equal, depressed people know more than people who have not been depressed. I do not mean that more intelligent people tend to be depressed. I mean simply that a person who is depressed has had an experience that a person who has not been depressed has not. They know the depths of human misery, and this is important, because it means they know that misery exists and what that means for a person. This does not automatically make a depressive more empathetic. But it does make them aware that all is not right with the world, that there is a terrible darkness in it. It helps them see through cheerful lies about how wonderful everything is and how we should all just appreciate it and be happy.

A problem is that the people who think they matter the least are unlikely to think they have the capacity to do anything vital and important. (Unlike Trump, who thinks everything he does is vital and important.) But with so great a gap between human potential and the world we have actually made, every single human mind that can be put toward the project of improving the world needs to be. The brutal Social Darwinism embodied in Donald Trump will triumph unless the modest and compassionate assert themselves and believe in their importance. Every last person is needed for the mission of resisting the descent into cruelty; all forces that can be mobilized must be mobilized.

If you've ever wondered — as I have — why we go on despite all this: I recommend reading the whole thing.

for real: this would make a fantastic anime opening theme!!! "Blood cells pixelate and eyes dilate" is an Extremely Anime Line

i tell you what, i never listened to fall out boy until a few years ago, but if you've never given them a real shake, this album stomps

(their first three albums are all very good, energetic, singalong parties)

Tim's "Inverted Review Of Final Fantasy VI" is a hell of a read. Lots of bad words, because it quotes directly from dipshit 90s teens. It is heavy. Tactile. I'm glad I read it.

I sat on the edge of my bed in my cargo shorts and hiking boots after my shift mutely pushing carts, measuring the heft of Chrono Trigger‘s turgid box. I’d bought it on faith alone. I tried to guess at how many pages its manual had. A confusion found me. It didn’t leave for a while. I think now that at last, with nonchalance, my hole had finally found me.

I'm pretty sure it's gonna get taken down in the next few months, because we're rearranging the site and not bringing everything over. Not everything on the internet will wait forever for you; much less than you think. In part, reading this made me reflect on how much of our tangible world has eroded in the last three decades. Details like a plastic case clattering into a video rental dropbox slot; craning to see an arcade machine's screen over the sweaty shoulders of taller teenagers; the heft of a box bought on faith alone. The world feels more immaterial now than ever, now that the external world is forbidden, now that we've been taken away from each other by the world's grimiest morons, now that the few places left to go, you can't go there. Life wasn't better back then; that's clear and painful, too. But there are pleasures, and there are regrets, in the tangible.

It's here.

this is one of my favorite records from the last few years

Here's the link! Bone appetite.

HELLO

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