dan deacon

why is it that when three dudes from Baltimore end up doing something similar, they have to make up a genre name for it?

sorry, one dude

i'm thinking about going to his show 2nite with the schwartzenegger vid. Anyone seen this?

wait, what is the genre name for it?

future shock

wtf, i thought i read most of his press and i've never even heard that phrase before, but google says you're right, bunch of other references. some stupid bullshit, but for what it's worth, there are a ton of guys in Baltimore working more or less the same aesthetic, not just him and one or two other dudes.

new album - "Bromst" - does ilx have an opinion on this guy?

stinks

^here, here.

A Baltimore musician helping to revitalize and reinvent his city's music scene

http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/images/smilies/bullshit.gif

No love for Bromst? I think it's excellent, a huge leap forward from Spiderman of the Rings.

chris in belfast, wats the craic? so to speak... aaron from belfast

Ha, how's it going Aaron? Do you read AU by any chance? I interviewed Dan Deacon for the new issue, look out for it next week.

yez indeed man, always. gotsta stay in the loop haha. Im runnin nites in the su at the art college,
starting up on march 19th, called ataxia, its gonna be a rite mashup haha. ur more than welcome mate

No way does this stink! It's really, really good! It's like a whacky turned Animal Collective/Panda Bear on LSD, most importantly adding a much needed overdose injection of Steve Reich-like minimalism. The chant-like toddler music somehow always seems to flow/derail into Reichian symbiotics and minimalistic terrain.

reichian symbiotics?

Sorry, what I meant is Reichian esthetic

i though you meant the small steve reichs that attach themselves to the gills of sharks

Well, there's that as well, obviously

i look forward to going to his show and not dancing

It's like a whacky turned Animal Collective

yeah i had this thought too. i didnt like the animal collective-like direction he took in some songs...it's really not an aesthetic i can stomach too often.

ya after listening a few times it feels like something that will polarize roughly along the same lines as MPP. Personally I love the way he vomits out these rainbow-colored chants.

this album has too many cunting songs on it

Ohhhh come now. These criticisms are way nitpicky.

i liked it... yeah i made the Animal Collective connection too - very similar in texture to Merriweather Post Pavilion. It is a really good album, but it's very very long and I can't imagine listening to it all the way through more than twice for that reason. One track at a time is enough really.

^^^

Parts of this make me think he has a great album in him

(this isn't it)

Why is this dude even still around?

Pitchfork

This is kinda the worst music of the past fifteen years of 'indie.' What a bunch of bullshit.

Look at his wacky clothes and silly glasses!

downloading Bromst now, sounds interesting...

check out "snookered." it sounds like early solo eno, almost like dd convinced him to guest

This is kinda the worst music of the past fifteen years of 'indie.' What a bunch of bullshit.

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:26 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Look at his wacky clothes and silly glasses!

― Lemurian commode (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:49 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ha, OTM!

ha, such total bullshit

thought Bromst was interesting but perhaps a little stiff

saw him live with his new 12 piece band on saturday night -- do not miss the live show. 3 drummers = if it wasn't on par with the Boredoms '99 shows when they were playing VCN, that's the only other concert that came to mind on the way home -- that good.

(haven't heard Spiderman / never saw his iPod-era live shows which I imagine were easier to dislike -- this too, still exhaustingly day-glo, but with a 12 piece band, there's real energy)

live only imo

I really like this album!

I can see what people mean with the MPP comparisons but I'd say it's more like Panda Bear X Battles X Trans Am.

I've never been all that enamored with this dude, but "Surprise Stefani" is incredible.

This guy was such an asshole at Primavera. Threatening to stop the gig cos the crowd, who were predominantly Spanish surpisingly enough, couldn't follow his directions and wouldn't join in with his wacky antics. How about playing some music dude?

Yeah, I listened to one of his shows that NPR streamed and at least 40% of it was him giving these ridiculous instructions to the crowd. The 30 minutes of actual music he played were pretty good though. Love his albums.

This is kinda the worst music of the past fifteen years of 'indie.'

nahhh

i saw him 3-4 years ago and thought he was super annoying and that the format of his shows is idiotic, came around to his records later but continue to be mystified that he's known as a good live act

This has turned out to be one of my favourite albums of the year, surprisingly. Between this and Fool's Gold I feel hella indie.

man i wish i'd seen him with the band

q.: listening to this thing of his on spotify, now, 'meetle mice': does anyone know anything about it? because it is not anything like what i would have expected

of him in 2007, i mean. this last track was either six minutes of free improv or a convincing simulacra thereof.

saw him in 2008 during one of those "round robin" tour shows . . . he was decent iirc but the bands he played with were mostly O_O iirc

also, the audience O_O

one band was drums, bass, and singer iirc and all i remember is the dude repeatedly saying "WE'RE BUILDING A GHOST TOWN"

current track sounds like trying to write an arrangement of other parts to an analogue synth where the oscillator's on random output

not sure if i was a fan; put bromst on instead

the Baltimore round robin thing is so awesome and fun when it's done right, but so many of the acts they took on that tour are just the dregs of the local warehouse one joke novelty act theater nerd indie fuxx scene.

Dan is looking for collaborators for a new project http://inlog.org/2010/07/09/dan-deacon-and-jimmy-joe-roche-are-looking-for-collaborators/

sounds lame bro

dan deacon, lame? get outta here...

new movie of the making of of hij new film project http://vimeo.com/14481232

don't miss him with the 12-piece band...it was incredible. one of the few live shows I've seen where the energy just kind of lifted the place to another level. its understandable if you don't like the crowd participation stuff but i dunno, some of that has got to be for his own amusement.

This is amazing:

http://mabsonenterprises.bandcamp.com/track/call-me-maybe-acapella-147-times-exponentially-layered

new album is pretty good

actually wanted to post that in a carly rae jepsen or call me maybe thread but I guess there isn't one?

'America'. Thoughts? I like the album so much more than the singles let on. A lot of the extended composition stuff he got into on 'Bromst'. Might need to digest it a bit more but it's really rubbing me the right way. The suite at the end is kind of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack on Four Loko or something

what were the singles besides "Lots"? i like it but i feel a little like there's diminishing returns where the more i hear of his stuff the less impact each successive record has, regardless of quality.

Lots was the first single and the second was True Thrush? The rest of the album is a lot less distorted/yelling/chipmunk shit and a lot more instrumentation/orchestration which I actually think is one of his strengths

think I'll wait till my copy comes in but I really expect this to be very good

In the meantime, the "True Thrush" video is really one of the coolest concepts I've seen in forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnXiXlF7olo

I like the fact he's toned down the sugary toytown schtick (a little). My favourite at this stage I think USA i: is a monster is the best, the orchestration is excellent. I gave Bromst a glowing review back when it first came out but somehow never went back to it. Feel kind of the same way about this. It's okay while it's on , but I'm never in the mood for it.

Great video - I loved that!

dan deacon seriously has an album out and its called america? huh ok

it's political, thomp

tbf i kind of love him so i will probably listen to this as immediately as i am capable of

I gave Bromst a glowing review back when it first came out but somehow never went back to it.

I know where this is coming from, I really think Bromst is excellent, but it's almost too overwhelming to ever *want* to listen to sometimes. I don't think this is a strike against Deac; when that glitched out buzz honk that starts "Red F" comes on I always wonder if I'm really up for this, but in the end I'm always thinking that the album is a modern masterpiece. Like with Spiderman of the Rings I always remembered thinking that "Crystal Cat" and "Wham City" were so cool, wouldn't it be great if he made like, and entire album like that? And that's what Bromst is.

Exactly. It's more something I can appreciate for its craft than something I can truly enjoy.

I honestly think Bromst is a modern classic. It is a task to get through however. Generally I'll pop on 'Surprise Stefani' if I just need a taste as that track's got pretty much everything awesome about the album wrapped up in one imo

IMO, every track has everything awesome about the album wrapped up in one tune (outside of that brief vocal thing). I remember when P4K previewed "Snookered", I thought it was alright, but also thought, "I really hope this isn't the best he's got"; then when I actually heard the album I realized that "Snookered" was actually supposed to be the "mellow" tune, and that P4K likely chose it because it was the only one that was halfway comprehensible. I do definitely agree with the "modern classic" label, I can't forsee anything else sounding quite like this unless it comes from Deacon himself.

this is lovely so far

i wavered but i think i'm anti-bromst. one day i will make myself i. actually make the tent ii. give it another chance.

Thinking about putting together a comp of Deacon's pre-Spiderman stuff, there's probably like five hours of material out there but a lot of it really isn't very good, lots of chaos and art school type experiments and sine wave junk but also some real keepers that your typical "Dan Deacon guy" probably knows nothing about

the only one i was familiar before Spiderman was Acorn Master and that one is pretty good

'My Own Face is F Word' is a standout of his early stuff, IMO. the really arty/prank shit with the stupid names are entertaining in small does. 'Aerosmith Layer' is so obnoxious that I have to give him some credit for making it.

frogbs i am weirdly touched that you are a dan deacon fan

the pre-spiderman thing i heard was a composition-with-improv-tendencies thing, i think. i wasn't really feeling it. the new album was really good, and i don't want to risk listening again, because i might retroactively be disappointed.

on the other hand i am also avoiding listening to the new why? so as to not be proactively disappointed so okay there's another thirty-three volumes of dick's picks to get through who's with me

'Aerosmith Layer' is so obnoxious that I have to give him some credit for making it.

This is what I like about him - I remember reading someone who said that if a hyperactive 6-year old could describe his ideal musician, it would be Dan Deacon. Give a 6-year old the technology, and he will see what it sounds like to hear every Aerosmith song at once. Granted its a good thing he only does "Permanent Vacation" because I do find it funny how "Dude Looks Like a Lady" is recognizable through a bit chunk of it.

Okay. Finally got my copy of it. On first listen; very good. First half is sort of like the sequel to Bromst, but with maybe a more three dimensional sound. The USA suite is not completely unlike Deacon, but it has a big Reich influence. Sounds like 15-20 musicians in the room, each one playing their one note at different intervals, it's really quite hypnotic, and I didn't want the piece to end. If anything I'm disappointed that he kept this in the 40-45 minute zone instead of an hour like Bromst.

two sides, yo

feel like not being able to listen to this as my train pulls out of penn station is turning me against it a bit, somehow

AMERICA is such a monumental work, so good to see Dan evolving past the half retarded man child image a lot of people pigeonholed him in, not that he was ever completely that, but he certainly played into it and still does to a degree. seeing him at the ottobar in baltimore in two weeks, maybe the 8th or 9th? time i've seen him, can't wait, i have my dan deacon phone app readi

if anyone's interested I have a recording of a super early version of USA called USAISAMONSTER from a show I saw the annex in bmore at a space called the Nicholas Cage on 9/11/09 and it fucking rules, i'll post it up if anyone wants that. he played crystal cat, red f, and two other new songs that didnt make the LP: Konono Ripoff #1 and Ramp Rock/Fergle.

would definitely be interested in that

a show I saw the annex in bmore at a space called the Nicholas Cage

baltimore warehouse space kids are just the worst sometimes

"the Nicholas Cage" is hilarious

here's the whole set

DAN DEACON - THE NICOLAS CAGE, COPYCAT ANNEX, BALTIMORE MD - 9/11/09
http://www.mediafire.com/?5qg9a8ebcohaq

intro
Red F
Ramp Rock aka Fergle
Konono Ripoff #1
USAISAMONSTER
The Crystal Cat

the pa cuts out a bunch during USA, not completely tho but it's not that bad. lots of people smashing against his shit and fucking it up. sound problems not that bad tho

thanks. will have to dl that tonight.

dunno why I even bothered to read the p4k review of this. it makes no sense whatsoever. this is a serious album of the year contender.

yup pfork review is nonsense. they can't reconcile his seriousness with his goofiness, which is fucking stupid

? doesnt read that way to me

I was exhausted after the end of this record.

it's recorded so horribly, i like the music though

I just hate quotes like this

"Prettyboy" is gorgeous, undoubtedly, but it's still on the level of really top-shelf video game music.

I'm not really much of a gamer but how is this a bad thing

I guess it implies the music lacks depth beyond that novelty?

that's the thing. video game music HAS depth. especially the "top-shelf" stuff. I mean the review isn't necessarily horrible as usual, just that it does not really tell a whole lot about the album and why it's better/worse than the other two.

it also stupidly suggests that there is one thing called "video game music"

I think that sentence needs to be quoted in context, which suggests that jess is using "video game music" as shorthand for energetic intensity versus a more varied use of dynamics, rather than lack of depth. You might still disagree with that of course but it's not what the quote seems to imply in isolation:

"That first half proves the less successful, though at the same time the opening three-song run may be the best thing Deacon's ever recorded. For all its jittery and hyper-percussive excess, with cartoon-tribal drums the lead voice on "Guilford Avenue Bridge" (the breaks of which sound a little like Don Caballero playing a hoedown) and static all but drowning out Deacon's own voice on "Lots" (gleeful yelping in search of transcendence), this stuff flows, which is increasingly one of Deacon's great virtues as an album programmer. If his earliest records could feel like various intensities slammed at you until you staggered away dizzy or elated or both, he's grown much more assured at dynamics, bringing you in and taking you along for the ride.
And that opening run's got "True Thrush" stuck in the middle, Deacon's most affecting song so far. Deacon's singing is clear and sad-eyed, though he still can't resist digitally scrunching his voice into computer pixie noises at various points, and he even throws in some angelic back-up harmonies, which make an unselfconsciously beautiful counterpoint to the information-overload of the music. It's the middle of the album that fizzles slightly after the bracing crunch and buzz of the first three songs, which bring new emotional dimensions to Deacon's music without totally skimping on the energy that was his earlier stuff's reason for being. "Prettyboy" is gorgeous, undoubtedly, but it's still on the level of really top-shelf video game music."

lol @ u nerds getting all defensive about video game music

yes how embarrassing for...us

http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dan-deacon-web.jpeg

hahaha

it also stupidly suggests that there is one thing called "video game music"

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, September 4, 2012 5:19 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

i dunno it's pretty dense to pretend that 'video game music' doesn't evoke bleepy 8 bit Atari soundtracks for most people

like jazz takes a million different shapes but it's ok if people hear the word jazz and think walking basslines and hi-hat tappin'

video game music isn't just bleeps & bloops; scores are rearranged played by symphony orchestras across the world!

i think the second sentence is the key to some dude's post and i think he's 100% otm. it isn't that video game music IS one thing, its how it may be perceived by a large chunk of the population.

dan deacon will be regarded the way riley is today in 50 years

tel, vin or ted?

Lol either way

anyone seen him and his ensemble on their current US tour? i'm seeing them this saturday in Baltimore - eager to see if the smartphone app is any good.

and imo America is really holding up listen after listen...I wonder how many people going to the shows have heard it or are just looking to dance/be goofy/hear the crystal cat

finally d/led that boot...I'll post thoughts later

I do think America is going to hold up as well. I listened to it on headphones for the first time yesterday and it was incredible. Previously I had only listened to it in my car. My woofer goes nuts for Dan Deacon so I hadn't noticed everything underneath the surface there.

like this song, fuck this app

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF9dtgNvrcI

haven't listened to america yet but his new mashup cd is great

latest listen to America after putting it away for a month+: this is really, really good. I'm still unsure if it's better than Bromst but given the way his music sounds I think the shorter runtime is probably better. I definitely get the "two sides" concept and feel now that side two really makes you forget about side one (as good as it is). When I listened to it in the car the hairs on the back of my neck stood up for the whole thing. I actually wish it were 5-10 minutes longer. You can listen to the entire album or just the "USA" part and it's satisfying. I think "Great American Desert" is the best part of it but "Rail" is really intriguing, I feel like this is the kind of thing DD's going to do a lot more of in the future.

either way I'm still kind of irritated by the way a lot of reviewers are handling this album. I think Deacon's persona is not really an act at all, he really does seem like an enthusiastic goofball in everything he does, I dunno why some writers think that this guy has to put out stuff like Spiderman of the Rings his whole career or else he's overstepping his boundaries. to me SotR was about layering sounds past the breaking point which seems like Deac's main obsession. He hasn't exactly stopped doing that...

had no idea what to expect, but he put on a really fun show last night in millennium park.

he played a show at the crown (100 capacity) last week, playing all material, it was great!!

i'm glad he wasn't messing with that immaterial stuff like last time

^eugh, new material!

i wonder how much new stuff he's doing in the basketball arenas and enormodomes he's opening for arcade fire in

by new do you mean, newer than America?

he's definitely playing some stuff from the upcoming album

i've been waiting 5 months for that correction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBVd-7tJb8o

new disc out Feb 2015
very excited since America is starting to make a run for my favorite disc of this decade thus far

wasn't as into the song in that video, but obv it was just a minute worth. and i've not enjoyed the singles released prior to the albums... i think his stuff comes across better when he has time to stretch things out. esp like the song 'lots' i didn't think was v representative of america really

excellent hour+ interview with dan https://soundcloud.com/height-zone-world/episode-24-dan-deacon-all-of-the-satans-of-every-religion

ah cool, Height's interviews on there have been really good so far

that was a really fun listen, love dan's laugh

gliss riffer is amazing. like steve reich dj rashad with that signature deac' euphoric build. completely love it

agreed, i'm really happy his sense of humor is more apparent than on the super serious (but great) America. that one chord progression he overuses in the sig deac euph build is only on one song, too, i think. masterfully crafted but with the spirit of pizza horse or lion with a sharks head or totally boner eat shit.

"feel the lightning" is one of my favorite songs this year, sounds like Black Moth Super Rainbow.

he doesn't get enough credit for his song titles. "Learning to Relax" followed by "Take it to the Max" is hilarious. "Steely Blues" is great too, i remember for a long time he was impossible to find on youtube because of deacon blues

^^ all the song titles on meetle mice back you up there

that one chord progression he overuses in the sig deac euph build

lol true, the one in crystal cat that is also used on like half the songs on spiderman of the rings

take it to the max is awesome but... he could've taken it a little bit more to the max, imo

p4k not on his side with this one. it's a drag

xp lol maximum groove

i just thought the last 2 albums were a major snooze so this one's kind of back to the basics, super fun upbeat scannersheadexplode.gif zany dan d madness

Bromst is his masterpiece imo

this is great b/c his prankster side is back tho

oh yeah, he's absolutely hilarious. he's a great stand-up/improv performer. the long interview i posted a bit upthread has so many amazing throwaway lines and bits and voices...the way he imitates the concert promoter from Texas trying to book the Sex Pistols ("um...I have a cohn-certe hall...") just LEVELS me

Awesome album, lovably weird & uplifting. Also, I continue to somehow strangely connect him to Eno ca. Taking Tiger Mountain.

it really is gorgeous. I don't think it's much like Spiderman really; more like an album of "True Thrush" in the way Bromst was an album of "Crystal Cat". I've been floored with it on every listen thus far, "Meme Generator" in particular is really neat. related note, I've come to realize that America is one of my favorite albums ever.

Dan Deacon bashing Poptimism

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/2015_artist_survey_dan_deacon/

in a recent interview -

Mainstream pop music is increasingly embraced by indie rock musicians and listeners, as well as serious music critics. At this point, do you draw any distinctions between Top 40 pop and indie rock/pop? Are you comfortable with this shift?

The only part of the shift that feels weird is that so much of pop music and mainstream culture revolves around the ideals of capitalism and wealth fetish culture. I don't care how people want to arrange tones, rhythms, words, and textures but I do care when it works to perpetuate our fucked system and I feel lots of pop music does that without realizing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGZ9ICeyiic

Is "Bjork's House" like a space or...

I'm assuming that's a yes looking at the other videos in the channel.

Oh my Dan Deacon
We could make it together

Saw a good amount of DD this past year through connections between the people we were dating. Unsurprisingly a nice a fun guy.

Forgot how much I liked this, really glad there's footage of it.

https://vimeo.com/19247287

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BZduxT2h4

saw him on this tour, probably the most fun show I've ever been to. Dan singled me out because I was wearing a bear hat, which in my state felt like appropriate attire for a Dan Deacon show

cool! SPIDERMAN OF THE RINGS reissue w/ ULTIMATE REALITY on vinyl for the first time http://pitchfork.com/news/dan-deacon-announces-spiderman-of-the-rings-10-year-anniversary-reissue/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video

Still have my white vinyl copy... somewhere... erghj i should look for that...

tour behind bromst was one of the best shows i've ever seen

me too. that whartscape video i posted upthread was one of the most exciting sets i've ever seen.

first time I saw dan live was a month before Spiderman came out, he opened for Girl Talk at a 300 cap. bar and played on the floor. i was squished up against him and danced like crazy the whole time. probably saw him 20+ times in those 3 years. eager to see whatever he's working on now.

just pulled up to the venue in his wacky oil-powered school bus they'd all been living/touring in and knew i was in for something special

:)

full Whartscape 2009 set, necessary viewing for any fan: https://vimeo.com/5624665

gonna be a good boy and wait until my preorder arrives but word is the new one is very very good

Yep it really is, I think everyone who’s a fan is gonna be satisfied with this

Just bought tickets for his tour. Not the biggest fan in the world but his is a show I've always wanted to see

I think everyone who’s a fan is gonna be satisfied with this

yep, very satisfied. I could have done with a change of pace in the second half - the whole thing's pretty relentless - but all good really. I was puzzling over the second 'disc' of edits on Spotify. Then I realised: they're perfect for playlists.

does anyone else wish he would stop using the same chord progression on multiple songs on every album of his

half of this is good, half is a retread imo

I can see that - the "Jimmy Joe Roche"/"Get Older" progression shows up a couple times, though he's got such a unique sound that I give him a pass on that sort of thing

my one minor complaint is that its pretty stuffed, feels like one of those albums that could've hit the hour mark but tried to cram everything into a single LP. tbh I don't know if this is necessarily a bad thing. as much as I like Bromst I've definitely wished it was cut down a bit

Pitchfork gave this a 6.4 even though the review is pretty much entirely positive, minus a comment about the lyrics. pretty much what I expect outta them these days.

ok I def hear that on "Sat By a Tree" now, it's like an AI-generated Dan Deacon single (something that probably only bothers me: there's a vocal part in it that sounds copped from TMBG's "Window")

rest of it sounds pretty fresh. I think "Arp" might be the best thing he's ever done so far. next to "USA" I guess.

he has a new soundtrack album out, called Well Groomed, a movie about...I dunno, haircuts for dogs or something

I didn't really get into his other soundtracks but this one is pretty good in a "Dan Deacon lite" sorta way, lotta shimmery and very pretty bits in here, almost sounds like Harmonia

this rules

I've got his main albums on vinyl now and something that strikes me about the first 3 is they have bits which just overwhelm the speakers ("True Thrush" and "Get Older" are the two biggest offenders). normally I'd say they were just mastered lousy but I wonder if there's something inherent in Dan's music that vinyl can't handle. like it's too dense to be accurately etched into the wax. Gliss Riffer & Mystic Familiar don't have that problem.