Jam of the Day: Jessica Pratt - "Back, Baby"

Jessica Pratt's vocals are surely distinctive; child-like and disarming, but also full of emotive power. On her haunting track "Back, Baby," she is refusing to go back to a relationship that wasn't working, and it is a case of can't look back rather than one of don't look back. She is wide-eyed and optimistic for a future full of promise.

Videos of the Week

It was a very long and busy week. Here are some videos to get us right into the weekend:

Get More:
Purity Ring, Push Pull, Music, More Music Videos

The first video from Purity Ring's upcoming sophomore record Another Eternity is for the song "Push Pull," which finds singer Megan James in ethereal, gossamer mode.



Zola Jesus as sculpture in this clip for "Hunger."



Intriguing animated clip for this collaboration between Lxury and Deptford Goth.



Humorous clip for Interpol's latest single, showing the band members getting ready for a NYC show, with singer Paul Banks being the dick everyone assumes he is.



Beautifully shot clip from Boxed In features Oli Bayston interacting with a beached whale.



Cloakroom record amid a variety of different landscapes.



Dramatic, shoegazey track from Programm gets an elegantly shot black and white video.



New Zealand trio Yumi Zouma work some Twin Peaks' vibes in this clip.



Trippy clip from Run the Jewels.

Jillian Hervey, the daughter of Vanessa Williams, fronts Lion Babe, featuring her and producer Lucas Goodman. This clip for their song "Treat Me Like Fire" is a simple performance clip, but Hervey is such a striking presence, it is difficult to look away.



Arty clip from Barcelona post-punk band Mourn.

Jam of the Day: Lapalux -"Closure (ft. Szjerdene)"

Seductive new track from Lapalux's sophomore record entitled Lustmore.

Video: Purity Ring - "Push Pull"

Ethereal video for Purity Ring's song "Push Pull." The song is from their upcoming sophomore record Another Eternity.

Get More:
Purity Ring, Push Pull, Music, More Music Videos

Non-Sequiturs

I'm done.

I do like them beefy.

SBJ.

Sexy in tighty whites.

Eyes and fur.

So cute.

I normally don't go for smooth, but this guy is sexy as hell.

Love my redneck hotties.

Stay for the view.

Beautiful beard and belly.

Haaaay.

Damn.

Hmmm, what are you grinning at?

Gorgeous.

Now that is a muscle bear belly.

Amazing fur.

Perfect build.  Love em stocky and beefy.

Sigh.

Super sigh.

Love the lighting on this pic.

I truly hate when someone asks me "what are you into?"

Unless you are using a condom or a dental dam or some sort of protection when you are giving someone a blow job, it is still unsafe sex.

Republicans just need to shut up.

Seriously, someone explain to me the appeal of the Strip in Las Vegas.

Perfect.

I wouldn't mind a little snow this winter, as long as it was during the week, and didn't stick to the ground and ice over.

We started a new workout and diet plan this week. I am sore, and tired of eating every three hours.

The new protein powder my trainer suggested for me tastes good initially, but it has the most off-putting after taste, as if one has swigged from a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic coconut tanning oil.

There is a partner on my floor who is in his early 70s, and it obvious he has not changed the decor of his office since the 1970s. It feels like walking into an episode of Mad Men.

Poor Marco.

Life is implied.

I will always pick the Stones over the Beatles.

I would love to be a music supervisor on a movie or television show.

Interesting that Marilyn Manson's most streamlined and boring record in ages is getting tons of glowing press.

You're a hazard, Harry.

In my practice group meetings, which are held via video conference, there is always a feed in an empty conference room in San Francisco and sometimes in our Denver office. Sometimes, in my bored reveries, it makes me think about the final 8 minute montage in Antonioni's classic L'Eclisse, which is nothing but empty scenes from places the characters frequented, stripped of meaning. Looking at the empty room with its long conference table and lonely chairs, it is rather haunting and poetic.

Blatant desperation on Scruff or Growlr is not appealing.

If you have my phone number and we're friends on FB, why are you messaging me from some random website/app?

My office furniture is rather cheap. If you set a wet glass down on my desk, it immediately forms an irremovable stain.

I love the description of Hawaii: Murder Mountains.

I can't wait to get my beard trimmed today.

If I am going to be doing as much work as an associate, I should be getting an associate's salary.

The European music festivals are seriously kicking the USA festivals' butts.

Gofundme.com should not be used because you can't figure out how to stick to a budget.

The Prodigy is stuck on repeat.

I so want to say this as I am exiting a job.

If you are over the age of 25 and still use phrases like "throwing shade," you seriously need to evolve.

Always forward, never look back.

Is there some sort of football game coming on this weekend?

I don't think I could ever do an exercise called a burpee.

I love this quote from an appraisal of Sarah Palin's rambling, disjointed speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit: "if the GOP had a problem with people saying things that don’t make any sense, then there wouldn’t be a Republican Party."

Your cute of the day, winter edition.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Brain

"Once you fell out of love
Our love couldn’t carry you
And I didn’t even notice
For our love kept me safe from death

You doubted the lights
And the shelter it can give
For in love we are immortal
Eternal and safe from death

If I regret us
I’m denying my soul to grow
Don’t remove my pain
It is my chance to heal

We carry the same wound
But have different cures
Similar injuries
But opposite remedies

After our love ended
Your arms don’t carry me
Without love I feel the abyss
Understand your fear of death

I will not forget
This not get
Will you not regret
Having love let go."

Bjork
"Notget"

"Lost my shape,
Trying to act casual.
Can't stop,
I might end up in the hospital.
Changing my shape,
I feel like an accident.
They're back,
To explain their experience

Isn't it weird?
Looks too obscure to me
Wasting away
And that was their policy

I'm ready to leave
I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost
Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there,
No information left of any kind
Lifting my head
Looking for danger signs

There was a line
There was a formula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us
There was a line
There was a forula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us

Still waiting."

Talking Heads
"Crosseyed and Painless"

Appealing Things

Coyote pups
The end of football season
Purity Ring touring
Sonar Festival lineup: quirky and cool
Jessica Pratt

Annoying Things

Those little strands that come off the inside of a banana when you peel it
Businesses who have their heat on full blast when it is barely chilly outside
Guys on Scruff/Growlr that don't use the location feature or allow you to see they have looked at your profile

Jam of the Day: Nadastrom ft. Nina K - "House Shoes"

This track from the upcoming debut full length from Nadastrom feels like a collision between the Cocteau Twins and many acts on the DFA label. It is enchanting.

New: Burial - "Temple Sleeper"

Burial releases the track "Temple Sleeper," his first track since "Lambeth," which appeared on the "Lambeth", which surfon the Hyperdub 10.4 compilation.

Non-Sequiturs

Beefy Dad.

Woof.

Yum.

Love the smirk and stomach.

Sir.

Damn.

Solid.

UNF.

Grrrr.

Cheeky.

Handsome.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Big boy.

Nothing better than a Bike jock.

Ginger beard.

Wow.

I had someone ask me to remove a picture of someone from one of these posts because they didn't like the person. Um, no.

It would be nice to have the means to actually take a winter vacation to somewhere warm and sunny.

Good expression (taken from my friend Chris H): "She's as lost as last year's Easter egg."

I'm at that stage in a project where I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

Love this.

Andrew and I started watching The Blacklist. So far, I am really enjoying it. I am just hoping it doesn't get bogged down in a similar story line every episode.

The new Bjork album is pretty great. Her work with Arca and the Haxan Cloak is beautiful.

I am very ready for this week to be over with.

Finally, it seems like new music releases are starting to come in. Usually the first of January is like a ghost town.

Exactly.

There is a thin line between stocky and fat.

The first Eve has nothing on the sins of her present namesakes.

Billy Crystal says he doesn't want gay sex scenes on television and movies shoved in his face. Well Billy, I don't really care for straight sex scenes shoved in mine.

I miss warm weather.

Perfect.

I really don't want to have to wait until April to see the Wolf Hall miniseries.

Is it bad that I use the birthday notifications on FB as a way to cull the herd?

I suppose I should really read all these ethical wall memos I get at work, considering I was named in one today.

Isn't it time for the next exercise craze to take over for Crossfit?

Your cute for the day.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Brain

"I wake you up in the middle of the night
To express my love for you
Stroke your skin and feel you
Naked I can feel all of you at the same moment

I wake you up in the night feeling
This is out last time together
Therefore sensing all the moments
We've been together, being shared at the same time
Every single touch
We ever touch each other
Every single fuck we had together
Is in a one trust time lapse
With us here at this moment
History of touches
Every single of archives
Come pressed into our seconds
All with us here as I wake you up."

Bjork
"History of Touches"

"Lying on my bed I was reading French
With the light too bright for my senses
From this hiding place, life was way too much
It was loud and rough round the edges

So I faced the wall when an old man called
Out of dreams that I would die there
But a sight unseen, you were pulling strings
You had a different idea

I was like a child, I was light as straw
When my father lifted me up there
Took me to a place where they checked my body
My soul was floating in thin air

I clung to the bed, and I clung to the past
I clung to the welcome darkness
But at the end of the night
There’s a green, green light
The quiet before the madness

There was a girl that sang like the chime of a bell
Then she put out her arm, she touched me when I was in hell
When I was in hell

Someone sang a song and I sang along
'Cause I knew the words from my childhood
Intellect, ambition they fell away
And they locked me up for my own good

But I didn't mind 'cause the silence was kind
And spoke to me in whispers
There was the sound of the wind in the cold cold dawn
And the quiet hum of business

Let me dangle a while in this waiting room
I don’t need to go I don’t need to know what you're doing
You know what you're doing

Lying on my side you were half awake and your face was tired and crumpled
If I had a camera I’d snap you now 'cause there’s beauty in every stumble

We are out of practice, we're out of sight
On the edge of nobody’s empire
And if we live by books and we live by hope
Does that make us targets for gunfire?

Now I look at you you’re a mother of two
You’re a quiet revolution
Marching with the crowd singing dirty and loud
For the people’s emancipation

Did I do okay, did I pave the way?
Was I strong when you were wanting?
I was tied to the yoke with a decent bloke
Who was stern but never daunting

And he told me to push and he made me feel well
He told me to leave that vision of hell to the dying
Oh, to the dying."

Belle & Sebastian
"Nobody's Empire"

Appealing Things

House of Cards coming back next month
Turning 45
Counting down the last payments on my car
Bjork's Vulnicura


Annoying Things

Blurry profile pics
Evil employers
Falling into a deep sleep 10 minutes before the alarm wakes you
Rushed deadlines