Thing of the Week: "I Am With You" by Ty Segall, Portuguese Man-O-Wars, Fishing with John/Willem Dafoe

LJ'S THING OF THE WEEK: "I Am With You" by Ty Segall

I'm a big Ty Segall fan. I love his big fat moony Nordic face. I love closing my restaurant to Twins and Goodbye Bread; I think it's a cool thing, "closing down a bar or restaurant" music. I love "Gold on the Shore" on the subway, the chunk of "Comfortable Home" where he's like "She said she wants to buy a couch/ I said "Why do we have to buy the couch?"/ I understand why/ She wants a comfortable home," and you're just like "Oh God. Dudes." He's like a scuzzier Beatles, one of the only guys who's ever been able to adequately articulate an audible John Lennon influence, a Revolver-y thing: it's cool, it's rock and roll, it's lazy and perfect, perfectly lazy. I like how he's just some crappy dude from today who is two years younger than me. This morning I watched a video of him doing that "What's in your bag?" Amoeba Records thing and it was so standardly 2013 and boring and I really appreciated it. I'm at an unromantic place in my life where I mostly just go to work and like work and think about making money; I'm not really in the mood for anything Kinks or George Harrison or any crazy meaningful shit to change my life or anything. All I need's some chill guitars for spring. 

"I Am With You" is my favorite Ty Segall song because it starts out a bit glimmery and psych-y, but quickly deteriorates into almost a whole minute of lyrics beginning with "I'm sick of..."- Ty Segall's sick of so much shit! It's funny and great. I hear him. Then it changes into a different part, with sunnier and more laid-back vibes and he sings "Breathe the air/ Feel the sun/ Don't you know/I am with you" for nearly the entire rest of the song, but it never feels weird, like he shocked you out of the first place, where he's sick of things. It sounds very honest and natural, to switch up from being so hateful and negative into all dazey and sweet a second later. I feel like songs are often meant to represent only one emotion, and that's a shitty thing about music versus writing. You can explain like seven thousand emotions over the course of one novel, but songs are usually only a) happy or b) sad. Really cut and dry. 

In my life I hope to hear more and more songs that switch from nasty to sweet like that, take heed all songwriters who are reading, but for now I am cool with just this one. He's set the bar pretty high. 

LIZ'S THING OF THE WEEK: Pictures of Portuguese Man-O-Wars

THESE ARE REAL PICTURES OF ACTUAL THINGS THAT EXIST: Portuguese man-o-wars, as photographed by a dude in Florida named Aaron Ansarov. Here are three of my favorites:

You can see the rest here. 

My other thing of the week is I'm going to Memphis on Thursday to commune with Alex Chilton's ghost. Get in touch if there's anything else you think I should do/see/eat/experience while I'm in Memphis.

JEN'S THING OF THE WEEK: Fishing with John/Willem Dafoe

On Wednesday night I went to see Fishing with John episodes played at Nitehawk with John Lurie there doing a Q&A after. It was so fun to watch them there, and to see John Lurie, who was super generous with his answers. They also played a little film of images of Lurie's paintings, which I like, and a song by him, which I also liked. The Fishing with John episodes screened were: the Willem Dafoe episode, the Tom Waits one, and the Dennis Hopper one. I don't like Tom Waits and honestly, that is the worst episode. It's good, they are all good! Of the 5/6 (does a 2 parter make it 5 or 6?) it's the dud. Dennis Hopper is nuts and the rapport he & Lurie have is so fun to watch. The Willem Dafoe episode is A DREAM! They are both so funny and goofy and clearly enjoying each other's company. What a little sweetheart Dafoe is! The episode sparked a mild obsession/strong interest in Willem Dafoe for me (all of Fishing with John sparked this with Lurie for me. Right after I first fell in love with Fishing with John I watched Paris, TX and Wild at Heart without realizing he was in them!! Psychic connection). Part of my Willem interest is narcissistic. I think I look like him. I haven't had anyone back me up on this but that IMDB pic...pretty much looks like me! But older! I also just like him. During the Q & A someone asked John who was the most easy going, down to earth person to hang with while filming the episodes. Obviously, he said Willem! The Question Asker then said something like, "Oh weird, Willem seemed a little creepy". WHAT! I haven't read that book The Psychopath Test yet, but after I heard this guy's reaction to Dafoe I thought of my own psychopath test. If someone watches the Willem Dafoe episode of Fishing with John and DOESN'T like him afterwards I think they are probably a psychopath.