Hello from the Glutenhead himself
Naked in Toronto Newsletter #917249 (Sept 2022)
Helloo!!!!! Welcome to the Glutenhead newsletter September 2022 edition! A quick point if you’re confused why you’re getting this »»»» if you’ve gotten this email it means you’ve either:
subscribed directly to the NiT newsletter
bought something from bandcamp
signed up for the bandcamp mailing list
given glutenhead your email at some point (maybe at a show??)
Anyway, if you didn’t want this email and don’t want to be on the list …. sorry. definitely unsubscribe!! you can even send me a spiteful message if you’re really angry. I understand. these aren’t very well thought-out and I never edit or proofread, so who could blame you!!!
Ok so welcome!!! I feel like I should give a couple updates, etc.
Glutenhead the rock (?) band played many shows at the beginning of this year! Especially (…exclusively…) in Toronto. So after our July show at the Baby G we decide to take a little break from playing in the city but don’t you worry, we’re planning a big “homecoming” gig either early 2023 or late 2022. Kylie recently moved to Ottawa for school and I (Ben) just started grad school so it’s kind of a nice time to take a breath as well.
The thing is… we aren’t actually taking much of a breath. We’ve been working for 2 years now on our debut album!!! And now are getting really serious about finishing it off. It’s definitely the most bombastic and raw expression of what we’ve been trying to get across and I’m most proud of my writing on it compared to our previous releases. We recorded 5.5 of the songs back in May at a studio in the woods over a weekend and have applied for more $$$$ from gov grants to finish it off and record more. Waiting now to hear but hopefully in November we can record the rest and start with the process of fucking up all our shit. Everyone is sounding so good so far!! ZEV!!! PETER!! KYLIE!! BRANDON!!!! ZACH!!!! since Brandon went to music school his guitar lines have gotten wild.
Some influences for this record in a random order:
Carl Jung
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
SOPHIE, bladee, 100 gecs
Workingman’s Dead
my band and friends and loves
Kabbalah
William Blake paintings + writing
Fairies, Goblins, UFOs, etc
Disco, Klezmer, Nigunim
David Berman/Silver Jews/Purple Mountains
Kris Kristopherson, Gillian Welch, Songs: Ohia, John Prine, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams
Aleister Crowley
Aphex Twin
Foxing
Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan
Irvin Yalom
The Ccru
wine (the drink)
Call Me By Your Name
Abbas Kiarostami
This isn’t all the influences but it’s all I could think of off the top of my head right now. Hopefully enough to get intrigued!! Or disgusted!! Either way you’ve now been primed.
Maybe I should just put one of our “demos” here. Lots to work on for this one, but maybe it will be fun for you to see a work in progress. This song is called “The Dirt” and it’s kinda like an existentialist pirate oddysey. A whole bunch needs to be rerecorded and a ton of layers are missing. Enjoy it ! Dionysian pleasure!!
So we got these lovely shirts designed by Sonja Katanic in March but there were big delays in our order because supply chain yada yada, so we got a mini batch printed for our summer shows and pretty much sold out. Don’t fear though!!! A big batch of these is on the way and hopefully will be ready soon!!
Another thing → feel free to email me if you have any questions or if you want to chat about music or critical theory or death anxiety or anything!! or if you need anything from me or the band. would love to connect with people. glutenheadmusic@gmail.co
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Another another thing → glutenhead guitarist Brandon Klerer is in another band too now. They’re called Bent Neck & the Joints and they are so frickin good. Alt-country with lots of big emotional moments. They’re recording their first EP now and have been playing a bunch. We’re gonna play with them soon.
Another another another thing → do you play an instrument or sing or produce music???? Maybe you could do something on the new record. Don’t be afraid to reach out!!!
Okay this is the end of the news. After this I’m gonna put a writing experiment I was doing in non-rational non-linear writing. Designed to put you in an altered state. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. I would not blame you if you stopped reading here!!
Big love,
Benjamin (Glutenhead) + the rest of the Glutenheads
btw all songs, videos, socials, etc → https://linktr.ee/glutenhead
A Unified Mythos
(or… The Definitive Guide to Cultural Accomplishment)
(or… The First and Only Inquiry into The Metaphysical Structure Implied by The Magnetic Fields’ 1999 Studio Album “69 Love Songs”)
In the beginning, there is only obliteration. Obliteration, in an effort to enchant itself, creates death. This death takes a first breath, inhaling “The Flows” and exhaling “The Phases”. This is the beginning, though there is a shadow. There is a second and more fundamental kind of death. One which doesn’t breathe and only waits. One which embeds itself into both “The Flows” and “The Phases”, which is born continuously out of the first death’s cries for birth, everywhere and always. This beginning – called Red, or 6, or annihilation, among other names – it is the womb. Obliteration, death, second death, “The Flows”, “The Phases”, it has one flaw. The “yearning” to be no more. To be born. To complete its own annihilation and find another life. The one flaw of 6 is the implication of 9. And thus, in the beginning, there is the end, and annihilation. What is left is “yearning”.
A brief descriptive excursion to orient the reader to “The Masks”: the last 6 weeks before the summer solstice carries chaos and multicoloured interdimensional sprinkles spontaneously manifesting in the medium, the fabric, the substance. We (the fingers) interpret these as synchronicitous events. Collaging these events together, we construct The Masks. The 9 weeks following summer solstice can be seen as the process of removing The Masks. This Flow, this Phase, is a demonstration of “yearning”. As participants in “yearning”, our duty as fingers is to “touch”. To “touch” is to perceive, interpret, translate, convert, and reconvert.
As a quick aside on the phrase “us and them” – it is important to note that these two words, the word “us” and the word “them”, they resonate together.
We understand our obligation to do this “yearning" in the first place, as our bodies are processes of time. The meaning is implicit, it is obvious as soon as one understands the means by which obliteration, death, second death, “The Flows”, and “The Phases” give way to the false duality of annihilation and yearning. It becomes increasingly evident, through a careful course of irrational inquiry, that the false duality is in itself a unification. There is only One duality, born out of the one flaw and Red, or, I should say, (the one flaw and Red). For two to exist is only by way of One. And this all changes, surely, each sprinkle brings different insight. Insight which is completely at odds with all other insights. To fully comprehend this, one needs to accept that that which is truly Real already exists, and not only in its form – in all potentialities of form and formlessness.
There is another word for “yearning”. The path towards “The Other Word” is called “change”. “The Other Word” is “will”, and its semantic nature in the English language is no accident. There is one meaning of “will”, constructed as a duality between desire and inevitability. “Will” is the intersection of desire and inevitability. And a manifestation of “yearning”. You are starting to get this now.
A brief digression: it's possible to manipulate the flow of time by creating "phases" in the time stream. Taken together, these are referred to as “The Phases”.
To move us back from the digression, towards the purpose, we must now understand that the purpose of religion is heaven. Heaven is annihilation, or, obliteration, death, second death, “The Flows”, and “The Phases”. It is also passion, ecstasy, insight, disorientation, and reorientation. “The Flows” and “The Phases” develop into heaven, or birth. The green and blue stone is the natural setting (green and blue are 9, stones are Red). From this, one can see that heaven is “yearning” (or “will”). This net, this structure, is represented most clearly and concisely in the 1999 studio album “69 Love Songs” by The Magnetic Fields.
An example illustrating a method for breaking out of time perception:
“All the kids were gone and I spent the morning scrapbooking, watching movies, and listening to the 1999 studio album “69 Love Songs” by The Magnetic Fields. I went to the grocery store after lunch and after I got back, I gave Cade a much-needed bubble bath and put him to bed. I sat with a cup of tea and my other boy to watch Pirates of the Caribbean and be lazy.”
Another example:
“In this example, the feeling of time passing is interpreted as a sequence of three-color squares being placed across the face of the clock. It is a result of the identification of each of the black squares with a particular feeling of time passing; since each successive black square is created as a time slip, the black and white squares alternate as well: as a rule the white square always takes over before dying, ad infinitum.”
A third example:
“This album was way too long, but it contained loads of cool songs, though most of them ended up on the end of the album. My general reaction to “69 Love Songs” is not enthusiastic. I was hoping for a more austere, introspective, romantic album from The Magnetic Fields, which is why I only gave this album 2 stars in my first review, but I was hoping, by reviewing again, a different result may transpire. Perhaps I would go another way. I did not. Some great music is on this album. There are seriously some very strong tracks. Strangely, however, some of the great music actually is on two of the weakest songs of the album. There is “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, there is a great little tune called “Enclave” (the English version is “Enclave #7”), and on the track “The Human Contradiction”, there is the song “Rue Malaise” that is pretty good, if you’re into that kind of thing.”
These, taken together, are heaven, “yearning”, “will” (which, if you remember, is the intersection of desire and inevitability), annihilation, passion, ecstasy, insight, disorientation, and reorientation; as well as the linking factor between desire and inevitability – “change”.
The national anthem of heaven has always been written. It has yet to be sung, though it desires to and inevitably will. The national anthem goes as follows:
“I have a new job.
I am a train guard.
I don't sound out or call
Any train numbers
I just direct folks
To the trains that are
Arriving and departing
And alert them
Of any
Delays.
I can imagine the angels
And the garden of wishes
The trees and potatoes
Perpetually doing dishes
I imagine them standing
In a way which is meaningful
Behind an antique shop counter
In an old rusty vehicle.”
To manipulate the flow of time, try reciting the following phrases. Recite the first phrase once, and then repeat the second phrase over and over until desired effect has been achieved.
First phrase: “The show starts at 9pm and I will have to leave by 8 so I can still get out by 9 to help a friend with something she needs done.”
Second phrase: “My father’s name is Mr. Belvedere, and he is very sick.”
As you are repeating the second phrase, try to bring up all your deep buried thoughts. Maybe you can’t explain your need for time travel, but you can let the release of these thoughts carry you through the event (or complex of events).
When you are finished, it is very important to engage in a “banishing”. You may have trouble coming back if you do not. “Banishment” is quite straightforward. Simply close your eyes, imagining that you are wearing a top hat, a lightweight down jacket, striped red and green jeans, and hiking boots. This part of “banishment” (specifically the visualization of oneself in the aforementioned attire) is called “wardrobing”. While “wardrobing”, recite the third phrase.
Third phrase: “My mother’s name is Theodora, and she is not sick.”
This part of “banishment” (specifically the recitation of the third phrase) is called “playing”. As you “play”, just try to let those words sink into your subconscious. There you have it, “banishment” emerges as the unity of the dichotomy created by “wardrobing” and “playing”.
A final aside: it may be hard for you to understand why you need to read this text, or why it may be useful to you (as a finger). To address this, it is best to draw on the wisdom of chance. Usefulness turns to “rubbish”, as they say, when gazed upon by a finger (do not forget that you, in fact, are a finger). That is why most fingers do not have any eyes. Consult the wisdom of chance, and it will likely speak the fourth phrase to you (the results of these consultations follow a normal distribution, and approximately 68.26% of consultations inevitably will result in the fourth phrase being spoken, with the remainder of consultations resulting in various digressions, asides, and excursions).
Fourth phrase: “Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, but don’t touch. The herb’s sweetness gets expressed through the scent with the slightest whisper of apricot.”
After the fourth phrase, the wisdom of chance inevitably will move into in various digressions, asides, and excursions. It is advisable to ignore these. An example of one such departures:
“Did I mention that blueberries are yellow-green? My aversion to them may have come from a bizarre childhood dietary incident where I attempted to consume the berries before ‘training’ them to my palate, but I just can’t stomach them. Blueberries are both sweeter and more tart than their counterparts (author’s note: it is unclear what is meant by “counterparts”), making them completely unpalatable to someone seeking communion with great divine fruit-oriented consumption.”
In the beginning, there is only obliteration. Then death, second death, “The Flows”, “The Phases”, annihilation, “yearning”, etc.
I love the the demo. I could definitely hear some Cohen influences. I WILL love hearing the rest of the album too. This was great newsletter to read on a contemplative Sunday morning.