the glint of the crystal knife

good morning ~

(click the link / carpeted congregation to listen)

My Big Breakthe glint of the crystal knife

today’s track has some really nice rain, frogs, birds, highway, and a distant train that I captured on my phone’s memo recorder

my buddy SVB and I are gonna be doing a special on the Lot Radio this weekend, doing our best to whip up a frenzy around the upcoming 24-HOUR DRONE fest - - - join us in the chat if u like!

and then next Friday I’ll be back in New York for the Saapato album release at sundown - finally playing a show there after many years of threatening to, will be fun

One thing I've learned in this life - if you really want to party, you gotta take a fucking nap, dawg.

I wanted to be present and alive and full of a thundering when I took the stage in the 2am hour (3am EST). So I asked the organizer if we could nap at their place, a logistically challenging request. And in response they showed true genius: why don't you go to the Korean Spa near the airport?

Straight from the tarmac to the nude wet room, let's go. Dude who picked us up was absolutely delighted that he was dropping us off there. It's a Korean spa, he said, looking in the rearview. Yeah! We said, we love them. He raised his eyebrows, asking if we had ever been to one before. Gracelee replied - yeah, I've even been to Seoul! He smiled, you know...I'm Korean. We all had a laugh. And then he dropped a true knowledge bomb - he suggested we get lunch at H-Mart beforehand because the food was expensive and not as good in the spa. Good looking out, buddy! Five stars for you. The food court was indeed the spot - one of the best kimchi pancakes of my brief time on earth, and plenty of it!

How many penises have you seen this year? I'm in the neighborhood of sixty or so now. I have a funny relationship with being naked, having hated team sports and also sometimes my body my whole life. I tried to force myself to like it in college, even infiltrated a nudist colony for a term paper, but I prefer to expose myself publicly in other ways. I treated this shvitz as an interesting experience - not necessarily meditative but unique. And plus, my skin felt terrific. I much preferred walking around the gender neutral sections in my little uniform, lounging idly in the squeaky pleather chairs. This place is amazing! We napped so hard!

Rode the blue line to the gig smelling of King Spa moisturizer. The Drone Sleepover was to happen in an actual church that, to my surprise, was very much in active use on a Friday evening - I could hear their songs of praise wafting from the floor below. Everyone that we met there was so sweet! Is everyone nice in the midwest? Or are people who are interested in sleeping through drone music just cultivating cuteness? I felt very welcomed and totally at home in a room with modern architectural aesthetics, a wooden cross, and a carpeted floor, this is the stuff I'm made of. Meanwhile on the first floor it appeared to be singles night - tangerines and la croixs and what appeared to be speed dating, my heart!

An hour or two to kill and us strolling through downtown Chicago sipping on topo chicos in plastic bottles desperate to rehydrate our steamed little bodies. Is there anything greater than a rambling walk around with your sweetie in tow?

The first set began and as if enchanted I fell asleep almost immediately - a hypnotic galumphing bass figure knocked me right out and I was pleased to discover it was still going when I woke up 40 minutes later. I roused during the next set - saxophone, nice - and got my table of noise together as quietly as I could. And then it was my turn to rip it - I did so. I loved playing this music while most people were asleep. Plus my buddy Seth was there? Sick! A good portion of my set simply involved breathing into my microphone and looping it which had the hilarious effect of calming me down a lot and making me really sleepy. I also rubbed my face into the mic, similar effect. I passed the baton and cleared my table and hit my camping pad hard after snagging some snacks from the insanely beautiful table spread they had laid out for us after the church finished their speed dating.

I slept through most of the rest of the night and enjoyed deeply the weird delirium one is afforded in these sleepy music experiences. One of my favorite ever DJs closed it out and she was so cool to chat with when the music was over.

We were so tired! Damn, I'm in my 30s! But we needed breakfast and our hotel wouldn't let us in until like 9am, so we slipped out the church's backdoor and made our way to Chinatown where beautifully grumpy aunties sold us what could very well be the greatest char siu bao in America. We took a risk and went to the hotel a full six hours before check in. Listen, I turned it on pretty hard, but still I was quite surprised that my charms led to a keycard. We could fucking sleep in a king size bed! With blackout curtains and a belly full of BBQ pork and peanut mochi!

Often I have asked myself why for the reward I reap be so sweet. To be invited to one of America's greatest cities for the privilege of singing to the sleepers? To slumber among others? How gentle do they snore! To spend basically all night in a big, clean, bed with the giant flatscreen gently droning above us? To crush an all-beef hot dog on a bed of crinkle cut fries on a beautiful early spring day? To tell your sweetie darling, book whatever scrub you like in honor of her birthday? And to then receive a free admission back into King Spa and use it immediately again on Sunday on your way back to the airport? So profound are the joys on occasion when the world is so often cruel. There is a trick to it, hard to get the hang of. The hoarding of and the piling up of matters not. It is in fact the gleam of the flake, the glint of the crystal knife! Look among the facets of the amethyst lining the walls of the dining hall! Find yourself in the many prismatic surfaces of the golden pyramid room!

But what about you? Have you ever been to a 24-hour Korean spa? What have you done lately to deserve so rich a life? When was the last time you slept face down on carpet?