April was an exciting month, and not only due to my move. Not only did Jónsi, of Sigur Rós fame, release his first solo album, but I also got to go up to Amoeba Records in San Francisco to see him play a live acoustic set for Record Store Day a few days before my move. And the week before that, I was lucky enough to see Beach House perform to a sold-out crowd in town. A great goodbye from California, if I may say so.

The rest of the month was spent driving and visiting and driving and moving boxes and painting furniture and other such things, so the list is a bit more slim than usual. I hope you are enjoying your day as much as I’m enjoying mine.

1. Jónsi – “Go Do” (Go)
2. The Sight Below – “Splénétique” (It All Falls Apart)
3. Radiohead – “I Am A Wicked Child” (Com Lag: 2plus2isfive)
4. Wye Oak – “For Prayer” (The Knot)
5. Beach House – “Zebra” (Teen Dream)
6. Beach House – “Take Care” (Teen Dream)
7. Mimicking Birds – “The Loop” (Mimicking Birds)
8. The Tallest Man On Earth – “A Lion’s Heart” (The Wild Hunt)
9. The Hold Steady – “Slapped Actress” (Stay Positive)

And now you can listen to (most of) these tracks, because it’s just a good idea.

It should be made clear that when Dark talks about “apocalypse,” he’s not talking about some end-times event where the world explodes and all those who “accepted Jesus into their hearts” go to some other-place called Heaven. He’s talking about the actual meaning of the word “apocalypse:” lifting of the veil. To explain more explicitly, Dark is looking for threads of capital-T Truth in our art and culture that speak to the idea of the human conditions of suffering and imperfection, the necessary inclusion of eternal grace and love in our lives, the beauty of admitting to not knowing it all, and the ability of one person to “get” another even if, and especially if, that “getting” is something we can’t seem to quite put in words.

In short, apocalyptic is that which lifts the veil shrouding what life really is, has been, will be and is meant to be.

In Everyday Apocalypse, Dark runs through examples from Radiohead to The Simpsons to Flannery O’Connor, expressing how each has a way of subverting mere entertainment or pop cultural art and hinting at a deeply-rooted issue of what it is to participate in life on earth and, often, a part of the truly Christian ideology (not just what the culture of market-driven, Western evangelical Christianity has put forth as an example).

One part theology, one part philosophy, and one part art appreciation, the book was a perfect match for me, despite occasionally feeling a bit over my head. After truly grasping upon his idea of apocalyptic, though, the feeling of something going over my head didn’t seem as frustrating as it might’ve been before reading.

I’m excited to explore what apocalyptic lifestyle really is. I feel that, through my explorations of food, art, music and what it means to live faith every day, I’m already on my way, but I know I’ve hardly stepped a foot in the door.

Finally, it’s refreshing and relieving to see someone speaking to a more Catholic idea of living a Christian faith, in the sense that Christianity is hardly about “accepting Jesus into my heart so I don’t go to Hell.” It’s hardly that, if that at all, and if we are truly living the faith fully, such ideas should be the last thing on our minds as we seek to restore, renew and reveal the world we live in today in preparation for eternity.

1. Dr. Dog – “The Old Days” (Fate)
2. Paolo Nutini – “Keep Rolling” (Sunny Side Up)
3. Aesop Rock – “Nickel Plated Pockets” (Daylight EP)
4. M83 – “Gone” (Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts)
5. Radiohead – “Lucky” (OK Computer)
6. The Knife – “We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Trentemoller remix)” (We Share Our Mothers’ Health single)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Useful Chamber” (Bitte Orca)
8. The Hold Steady – “Citrus” (A Positive Rage)
9. edIT – “Artsy Remix (feat. The Grouch)” (Certified Air Raid Material)
10. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ’59 Sound” (The ’59 Sound)
11. Mathew Good – “Champions of Nothing” (Hospital Music)
12. Manchester Orchestra – “Colly Strings” (I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child)
13. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” (Manners)
14. The Veils – “Sit Down by the Fire” (Sun Gangs)
15. mewithoutYou – “Allah, Allah, Allah” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
16. The Dear Hunter – “Mustard Gas” (Act III: Life and Death)
17. Bruce Springsteen – “Born to Run” (Born to Run)
18. Wilco – “I’m the Man Who Loves You” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

Regular posts return this week as I slowly collect my brains post-travel and try to spit them out for you to read. Meanwhile, enjoy the music!

Of these twenty songs that made up the audio journey of April 2009, about half were highly Coachella-influenced. The rest are present thanks to my constant exploration the musical landscape. Same old, same old.

1. Glasvegas – “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” (Glasvegas)
2. Eels – “Things the Grandchildren Should Know” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
3. Los Campesinos! – “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” (We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” (Carnavas)
5. Okay – “Natural” (Huggable Dust)
6. Blitzen Trapper – “Furr” (Furr)
7. Grand Duchy – “Come On Over to My House” (Petits Fours)
8. TV on the Radio – “Stork & Owl (Gang Gang Dance remix)” (Read Silence EP)
9. Stone Temple Pilots – “Sour Girl” (No. 4)
10. My Brightest Diamond – “Feeling Good” (Dark Was the Night)
11. The Hold Steady – “Citrus” (Boys and Girls in America)
12. The Veils – “Sit Down by the Fire” (Sun Gangs)
13. Cage the Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” (Cage the Elephant)
14. Fucked Up – “Crooked Head” (The Chemistry of Common Life)
15. Antony and the Johnsons – “Kiss My Name” (The Crying Light)
16. Radiohead – “I Am Citizen Insane” (Go to Sleep)
17. The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys and Girls in America)
18. Camera Obscura – “French Navy” (My Maudlin Career)
19. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
20. Radiohead – “Let Down” (OK Computer)

And for those interested, I made an imeem playlist so you can check the whole thing out. Enjoy.

One of the major themes Schaeffer discusses in the book, which I’ll outline here, is the criteria which he feels Christians should use to develop their perspective of art. I felt that he not only addressed problems with Christian culture’s take on art, but also helped to build a healthier perspective for me as well. I mean, hey, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m just as imperfect as the people of the Church.

Here are the perspectives Schaeffer defines to help build a healthy attitude toward a piece of art (and art as a whole):

The art work as an art work.

“A work of art has a value in itself,” says Schaeffer. “For some this principle may seem too obvious to mention, but for many Christians it is unthinkable. And yet if we miss this point, we miss the very essence of art. Art is not something we merely analyze or value for its intellectual content. It is something to be enjoyed.” He is quick to point out that, in his opinion, this is the most important perspective and discusses it first for this reason.

In the current time, this to me underlines the issue that art is not primarily intended for sending a message. Western Christian culture has far too often sacrificed this idea and turned art into a vessel for a message and nothing else.

I’ve gotten into small debates about this recently. I look at films and music primarily marketed as “Christian” with some cynicism and discontent and generally get a quick response that I’m overlooking the message. This is often true, but these people are also often distorting their own perspective of art (or even refusing to call it art, which makes me sad).

Art forms add strength to the world view

“Art forms add strength to the world view which shows through, no matter what the world view is or whether the world view is true or false.”

Here Schaeffer highlights Rembrandt’s Side of Beef Hanging in a Butcher Shop, pointing out that seeing a side of beef in a butcher shop is ignorable, but in seeing it in a painting, the very idea brings attention to the same image in a very concentrated way, changing his own perspective on that image from that point on.

He also points out that “the effect of any proposition, whether true or false, can be heightened if it is expressed in poetry or in artistic prose rather than in bald, formulaic statement.” This reminds me of what Donald Miller says about Moses’s use of poetry in the Old Testament.

Normal definitions, normal syntax

He discusses here the fact that artists often take words and ideas out of their normal contexts or definitions, “going far beyond a rudimentary use of normal grammar and normal definitions of words. And in doing so he adds depth and dimension.” Furthermore, he argues that a dimension of art is lost when artists don’t go to this length.

Art and the Sacred

“The fact that something is a work of art does not make it sacred.” His basic point here is that, while we can appreciate art with an opposing world view, it doesn’t mean we should, or will, agree with the world view being expressed.

Four standards of judgment

Schaeffer says that he believes there are four standards by which to critique a work of art:

1. Technical excellence. I can still appreciate the talent of an artist without having to agree with his world view. On the other hand, I see far too many artists, especially younger musicians, valuing technical excellence above all else, often throwing out the other standards for the sake of honoring talent. So, then, onward to the other standards.
2. Validity, meaning “whether an artist is honest to himself and to his world view.” In other words, an artist’s work loses value if it is created to express the opinions and ideas of someone other than the artist. Perhaps a case for why everyone should be artistically active in some way?
3. Intellectual content, “that which reflects the world view of the artist. As far as a Christian is concerned, the world view that is shown through a body of art must be seen ultimately in terms of the Scripture.”
4. The integration of content and vehicle. “The greatest art fits the vehicle that is being used to the world view that is being presented.” This is best explained by example: look at Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely.” Near the end of the song, as Thom Yorke finishes singing about loneliness and disrepair, the sounds all start to fall apart into a pile of dissonant noises. Order is quickly restored, but only to portray the distinct contrast between order and chaos that loneliness might also bring.

This is getting a bit lengthy, so I think I’ll finish up on Monday. Come back for the second half!

Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

I couldn’t even begin to put these in order of preference. They’ve all been number one in my heart at some point or another. So, in true Rob Gordon fashion, I put them in autobiographical order, all the way from high school up to now.

I won’t even begin to try and explain each album or even the general progression of my music habits. If you are curious, that’s kind of what comments are for.

1. Jimi Hendrix – Woodstock
2. Project 86 – Drawing Black Lines
3. Incubus – Make Yourself
4. Radiohead – OK Computer
5. Tool – Aenema
6. A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step
7. Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
8. Extol – Undeceived
9. Sufjan Stevens – Michigan
10. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine
11. The Mars Volta – De-loused in the Comatorium
12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
13. Radiohead – Amnesiac
14. He Is Legend – I Am Hollywood
15. Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache
16. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Irony is a Dead Scene
17. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place
18. mewithoutYou – Catch for Us the Foxes
19. The Appleseed Cast – Low Level Owl: Volume 1
20. mewithoutYou – Brother, Sister
21. This Will Destroy You – Young Mountain
22. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
23. Sigur Rós – Takk
24. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
25. This Will Destroy You – This Will Destroy You

This morning I watched the music video for “My Girls” and a sense of inspiration hit. All of a sudden there was an itch to be creating music. Something about the song touched the creative nerve in my brain (however dormant the action of creation may be). It reminded me of something Bob Boilen of NPR’s All Songs Considered said about a Radiohead show (that I was at!):

These guys write great songs, and sometimes you can even sing along to them, but what they do better than any band is create a sonic adventure — a soundscape which, at its best, stretches time and allows the mind to wander and rejuvenate. I think of it as resetting the synapses. Creativity breeds creativity. When the music was over, I felt unboxed and changed and pretty darn happy. Drugs are overrated; music is underrated.

Resetting the synapses. I like that. Everyone should make a list of songs (or any kind of art, for that matter) that resets their synapses, where its creativity inspires your creativity. Here are eight songs that inspire me to create:

1. Radiohead – “15 Step” (In Rainbows)
2. Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Forever Heavy” (Dandelion Gum)
3. Animal Collective – “My Girls” (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
4. Eightball – “Drama In My Life (feat. Psycho Drama)” (Lost – Chopped and Screwed)
5. Burial – “Archangel” (Untrue)
6. Radiohead – “House of Cards” (In Rainbows)
7. Ryan Adams – “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
8. M83 – “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)

And an iLike playlist if you want to listen to the songs:

Isn’t technology wonderful? Radiohead has such a great grasp on how to publish content in the Internet age, and not just because they gave away In Rainbows for free. They’ve been pushing out all sorts of remix contests, video webcasts, and countless other things since the album’s release.

I think all of this has helped them keep fans and grow new ones in big ways over the past year. Of course, they have a budget that allows them to innovate and create these new ideas. Someone else just needs to take these ideas and make tools to do the same thing cheaply and easily for artists just getting their start.

Change is afoot.

1. Jakob – “Pneumonic” (Solace)
2. The Velvet Underground – “Who Loves the Sun” (Loaded)
3. Radiohead – “There There” (Hail to the Thief)
4. M83 – “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)
5. The New Pornographers – “These Are the Fables” (Twin Cinema)
6. Joshua James – “Today” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
7. dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip – “Letter from God to Man” (Angles)
8. Neko Case – “Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)” (Blacklisted)
9. Joshua James – “Winter Storm” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
10. Neko Case – “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Blacklisted)
11. mewithoutYou – “Carousels” (Catch For Us the Foxes)
12. TV On the Radio – “Crying” (Dear Science)
13. Jay-Z – “Renegade” (The Blueprint)
14. Hammock – “We Will Say Goodbye to Everyone” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
15. Ingrid Michaelson – “The Way I Am” (Girls and Boys)
16. Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile – “The Farmer and the Duck” (Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile)

P.S. If you get a chance to, go see Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile live. I saw them last weekend in Irvine and was thoroughly impressed. It’s a beautiful thing to see modern legends collaborate so well with each other. And if you don’t get a chance, at least pick up a copy of the album.

Sample of Radiohead’s Planet Telex? Check.
Catchy glitch-pop melody? Check.
Social/religious commentary? Check.
Cute kid in a dinosaur costume? Check.

I think we’ve got all the bases covered.