Feeding the Tree
or, I don't remember putting on these sweatpants
What I have in front of me is supposed to be what those of artistic dispositions dream about. Something has woken me up early this morning and hasn’t let me go back to bed; one look at the state of the apartment has told me clearly what I’m doing today, but also that it can wait; a warm cup of coffee and some soft music and a nagging inner monologue that I’m told can be dispatched much in the same manner as a sinus infection. What I’m talking around is that I feel like Posting to my Blog, and don’t make me explain why cause I know I’ll get over it, but for now it’s embarrassing.
Before I get too far into that, I’ll frontload graf2 here with the most pertinent and practicable info:
-A new single, “DOCUMENT OF DESCENT,” is available for streaming and download on the iffin bandcamp.
-A new EP, HOMAGE TO CATATONIA (PICARO TWO), has been announced for release on May Day 2024. I don’t know what physicals will look like for that, but it’ll be on bandcamp.
-the next iffin show is on Saturday, April 20th at 5 Iron Golf in Capitol Hill, and is ALL AGES. Full details are on the Eleanor-made flyer below.
-iffin is also playing an early show at The Crypt in Olympia, WA as a part of the yearly Art Walk on Friday, April 26th. music starts at 6:30.
-Rat Paws is playing Darrell’s Tavern on Saturday, April 27th with Sun Tunnels, Dunzo Lusco and Double or Muffin.
So. Last night was the first real, true and proper iffin show at the Monkey Pub. auntie death was there - my friend and I witnessed an amazing moment during their set when a few college mooks who had wandered in off the street from God knows where (one of them had some kind of headband on? he kept fiddling with it) heard the band covering Nirvana’s “Something In the Way” and, in perfect sync with one another, doubled over at 90 degree angles in time with the music. They were like, clutching their abdomens for dear life, with these grins on their faces like they’d been handed a pill at a party and already surrendered to its plans for them. I have more to say about this than I thought.
orchard ladder was there, with a full band that I had never heard before. It gave me a feeling like something resembling Folk Rock is maybe starting to come back in style - not that churchy, towering, emotionally didactic folk music like Fleet Foxes, with all its claustrophobic breathiness and edges so soft they feel rotten, but the type of shit that would start fights at the open mic in the 60s. The kind of stuff that’s been driving iffin for years now - very auspicious.
And of course bird dog was there playing her haunted-train folksongs, and her rhythm section played them impressionistically, coming in and out of focus kind of like ghostly sentries in a nightmare. I hope it’s coming across that this is a high compliment. This is the only way I know how to describe music that feels true.
I’m going to level with all of you - my prose muscles have atrophied over years. It’s been about two distracted hours since I typed the word “true” into this submission form, and the responsibility of that word has been weighing on me all day since. This is the first post, really, so I think I’ll leave the truth aside and hope to see you at the next show.
Mira
