HIGHLY RECOMMENDED W/ THE VELVOIDS
* Providing the A's to the 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q's today is The Velvoids — music-makers from Greece who recently dropped the music video for single ‘Let It Breathe’ off their great new album ‘Mother’ (and you can also catch ‘Let it Breathe’ on the HI54 Mix CD ‘EVENINGS’) // photo by Vasilis Stergiou
#1 - WHAT IS THE ONE ALBUM (OR EP OR SONG) THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE VERY NEXT MUSICAL THING THAT EVERYONE PRESSES PLAY ON THE NEXT TIME THEY FIND THEMSELVES THINKING “WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NOW”?
One of the most recent albums a friend suggested I check out was J. William Parker’s “Shadowmen”. It’s a pretty chill and transcendent piece of work; I think the person who suggested this to me did so knowing I’m a John Frusciante fan, mostly his Niandra Lades album, anyway, “Shadowmen” kind of falls into that category.
We’ve been rediscovering a lot of vinyl we have at home since the COVID-19 lockdown, this is just one of them, strongly recommend it, though. Also worth checking out is Guruguru Brain, the label who put this out, founded by members of Kikagaku Moyo.
#2 - WHAT IS THE ONE MOVIE OR TV SHOW THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE NEXT IN EVERYBODY’S NETFLIX QUEUE (OK, DOESN’T HAVE TO BE NETFLIX, WE’RE ALL INTERNET ADULTS HERE AND KNOW HOW TO FIND ANYTHING ONLINE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER)?
We’re actually all over those cooking series on Netflix at the moment. Jon Favreau’s “The Chef Show” is pretty good; we’ll also binge to anything Chef David Chang may be doing. That “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” documentary was great, by the way.
I generally sleep really late, and on one recent occasion I started watching the new “Tiger King” series on Netflix, completely oblivious to what it was about at first, turns out to be pretty good, I mean, if you liked that “Making a Murderer” one, you’ll like this also.
#3. I (AND BY “I” I MEAN “THE PERSON THAT IS READING THIS”) AM GOING TO THE LOCAL BOOK STORE (OK, MAYBE THE LOCAL LIBRARY FIRST) TO FIND THE VERY NEXT BOOK THAT I WILL BE PUTTING SOME EXTREMELY VALUABLE ‘ME-TIME' ASIDE FOR. WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU GET, IF YOU WERE ME (AND, I SUPPOSE, YOU HADN’T ALREADY READ WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SUGGEST)?
I read a lot of books, I don’t know I’d probably suggest going for some poetry or nomad literature maybe? Stuff like Arthur Rimbaud, Verlaine, or Jean Arp’s poems. William Blake, Lord Byron, Yeats, Christopher Marlowe, Franz Kafka, T.S. Eliot, Poe, Tom Sawyer, Kerouac, or William S. Burroughs?
I’ve read nearly all that stuff, though, so this probably doesn’t count.
#4 - WHAT IS THE ONE WEBSITE (OR JUST ANY OLD INTERNET THING: APP, GIF, SERVICE, WHATEVER) THAT YOU WOULD GET REALLY DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT IF IT WERE TO SUDDENLY GO AWAY?
I don’t know, we’re pretty sure we could live without any one of those things. Off the top of my head though, you know those 10 hour-long “Earth from outer space” videos up on YouTube?
I suppose I’d be pretty bummed if those were to disappear.
#5 - AND FINALLY… PLEASE GIVE ONE COMPLETELY UNAIDED RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD START DOING / USING / WATCHING / EATING / THINKING / QUITTING / ETC-ING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE BETTER AND/OR BEARABLE.
I’m sure there’s a lot to be said there but everybody’s different, really. I suppose what someone would need less of depends on who they are or what they’re currently suffocating themselves with in life. On a spiritual level I’ll say love, not a romantic kind, just inner balance or spiritualism.
On an everyday, more down-to-earth level, I’m going to go with cooking. Cooking will mellow you out.
