Schnipper’s Slept On
- story THE FADER
Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s Black Dice’s Beaches and Canyons. Listen to “Endless Happiness” below, buy the record and read Schnipper’s thoughts on it after the jump.
Recently, my gastroenterologist kept me waiting in the lobby for a half an hour before a nurse told me I have gained somewhere between five and ten pounds in the last two years and before the doctor told me I don’t have to have a colonoscopy. I told them my height was still the same so they didn’t check that. Two years ago my doctor told me I did have to have a colonoscopy. I told him then that I would schedule it soon but it turned out I was lying. I watched the movie Ghost Town on Saturday night and Ricky Gervais gets a colonoscopy from Kristen Wiig who is super funny and then he dies. But she brings him back to life. There are so many special touches.
The best part of going to Mexico was closing the screen door but leaving the glass door open so I could hear the waves at night. Black Dice tacked on six minutes of the sound of waves to their song “Endless Happiness.” That’s funny. Sometimes I listen all the way through. But the best parts of Black Dice were the drums. I don’t have night waves anymore and Black Dice doesn’t have a drummer anymore. But I do have the memory of the ocean piddle and Black Dice does have Beaches and Canyons. “Big Drop” is my favorite song because it has the fastest drums. It also has the yelling. I think that failed to win hearts.
On New Year’s Day I watched my friend Jacob almost get into a street fight in front of the best bakery I have ever been to. I was trying to figure out if I could logistically bring home a pan of shortbread on a plane. Do you know how embarrassing it is to ask pretty girls who bake things for a lot of sweets? They are polite to your face but I know what they are thinking. After this guy hit Jacob’s bike, Jacob kicked his bag. The guy took off his coat like he wanted a fight, but fizzled out, stoned or drunk or just San Franciscan. We walked away and our friends got ice cream because the bakery was just closing. Ice cream messes with my stomach so I abstained.
Later Jacob gave us a vague retelling of when he was in The Rapture and on tour with Black Dice. Black Dice used to be angry when they played and they had a fight with some kids at a show in Milwaukee. It had been rumored to us that Jacob choked someone out during the show but he clarified that that was not the case and just kept people away from the stage and hurting his friends. After the show, someone slashed the tires of their van.
I am glad Jacob did not choke anyone and I am glad that he didn’t fight the guy on the street. I have never been in a fight and I am sure I would get hurt. I don’t need that kind of negative attention.
Black Dice doesn’t sound aggressive these days, more like a manmade version of the ocean. I miss the fake violence but I guess I get it. If I could live in a vacation, I would too.
Related:
- Schnipper’s Slept On
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- Freeload: Black Dice, “Glazin”
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- posted on Jan 13, 2009 in SLEPT ON
- tags black dice, experimental
