Skip to main content

Daniel Johnston

68
Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston
My first encounter into Daniel’s world, because that’s what it is when you discover him, it’s his world and you’re just passing by, as Daniel famously sang in his song “Peek A Boo”, “You can listen to these songs / Have a good time and walk away / But for me it’s not that easy / I have to live these songs forever” was by watching the 2005 documentary on the man, titled The Devil and Daniel Johnston. I hate to admit it, but sometimes a film will turn me into a fan. Even a Hollywood bio-pic like Walk the Line. But this documentary really spoke to me. I was in high school feeling like an outcast, and most the time I would just play music in the basement whether it be drums or keyboard. Then I came across this documentary on this mad-man who was doing the same thing I was, just 20+ years previous. Instead of recording through a computer mic like I was doing on my dad’s PC, Daniel would record his songs in the basement of his parents’ place, record them on cassette and hand them out. He made hundreds of tapes and passed them out, his own loony D.I.Y. scene. I identified with the craziness that is Daniel’s world. The documentary was great and I soon went down the rabbit-hole of Daniel’s discography and there is a ton to seek through. I would direct newbies to start with his compilation of his most well known songs, titled Welcome to My World: The Music of Daniel Johnston. Most people won’t get farther than that. Daniel is a polarizing figure in the sense that you will either love him and appreciate the artistry or see complete trash. Daniel did a lot of artwork too that I’m a fan of. It’s crazy how much you can truly love an artist, someone you have never met, but I felt a strong connection with Daniel and I still do. Unfortunately we lost him last year [2019]. Here is a great obituary by New York Times. His legacy will live on forever. He was the first true bedroom artist. A troubled soul with a talent for writing honest, disarming great, direct songs. 
It’s…
Daniel Johnston

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cake

43 Cake Cake What you need is some CAKE. The late 90's were primed for CAKE. When the emotional hangover of the grunge scene was too much, we got CAKE. This isn't a gag joke. In fact- your gag reflexes are in need of some CAKE.  Despite CAKE's quirky surface, singer John McCrea's deadpan delivery and Vince Di Fiore's mariachi trumpet playing, CAKE is as real as it gets. And with more than 25 years as a band and still going strong, they have nothing left to prove. It all started with 1994's Motorcade for Generosity with the single " Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle " which mocked trust-fund rebels. Then came 1996's Fashion Nugget with the all-time classic " The Distance ." 1998 gave us Prolonging the Magic, a high-water mark. I got on board in 2001 with Comfort Eagle . I was big on disco at the time and their cover of " I Will Survive " caught my attention, and then I saw the " Short Skirt, Long Jacket " video o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouper

 131 Grouper  Grouper Reverb. Echo. Effects. Acoustic. Droney. These are some words you could use to explain Grouper's earlier work. Grouper is the solo project of Liz Harris. Her first album was self-titled & self-released. Grouper's second album was 2006's Way Their Crept . There was something special about that mid-ought's droney-underwater sounding indie. Grouper would go on to release five (!) more albums before I came on board as a fan: 2006's Wide , 2007's Cover The Windows & The Walls , 2008's widely acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill & 2011's double-album (but separately released) AIA: Dream Loss & AIA: Alien Observer ... just to be followed up by 2012's double album: Violent Replacement Part I and Violent Replacement Part II . It wasn't until Grouper's more structured-releases that I became a full fledged fan. It was with 2013's The Man Who Died In His Boat that I finally jumped on board as a full-fled...
Post a Comment
Read more

FKA twigs

99 FKA twigs FKA twigs FKA twigs is the brain-child of Tahliah Barnett. Under her stage-name of FKA twigs (which I'll just refer to her as twigs from here-on-out) she has released three EP’s (2012’s EP1 , 2013’s EP2 , and 2015’s incredible M3LL155X EP )  and two albums (2014’s LP1 & 2019’s Magdalene ). With someone with such a small catalogue, it's amazing how dense and rich this music is. Before Billie Eilish made the whole whisper-singer mainstream last year, twigs was already releasing down-tempo-trip-hop-whisper-sung music back in 2012. That is when she released her debut, EP1 . twigs hqd been studying dance since the age of six, but deep down, she knew she always wanted to be a recording artist so she eventually left the dancing behind (in a way [dance has always been a big part of her project]) to focus on her music project. However, limiting to just a music project is doing it an injustice in labeling. It’s more of a visual-dancing-art project. Ever ev...
Post a Comment
Read more