Shoplifting from American Apparel (Movie)

             An attempt at making a movie out of Tao Lin’s ‘?-selling’ book has finally arrived, with all of the hype it so rightly deserves. Tao has been having a fantastic year this year, getting married, writing for Thought Catalog, and now a movie. Everything has been coming together for him after so many years of living in the direst of poverty. Hopefully he spends all the money from this movie and spends it wisely on drugs, so he can videotape himself doing them via his production company MDMA Films. I think that’s known as ‘investing’. 

                Who is behind this delightful development, sure to bring warmth and good cheer among an ultra-specific group of people? Pirooz Kalayeh is the director for this, bringing together a vast network of great people.  Seeing Pirooz in the trailer, he states how he could watch Gchats all day, so you know it’ll be a riveting performance. A cartoonist and animator have been brought in to spruce up the production and give it that glossy sheen it truly needs. In case this wasn’t enough, he actually has some pretty wonderful companies working with him to provide the bizarre sorts of items no one really needs (talking tree?), but likes having. 

                Sadly, they have run into a hitch. Unbeknown-st to them, making a film costs a great deal of money. Maybe they even knew this, I’m not sure. But their Kickstarter shows off some of the progress they’ve made thus far. I guess making a film of this caliber costs roughly $37,500. Personally, I’d urge you to check out the various goodies they’ll bestow upon you for various disclosed amounts of cash. For $5,000 you get to attend the world premiere of the movie in sunny California, with the luxurious accommodations of Kalayeh’s floor. Contribute $10,000 and you get the same thing but this time the couch, so you can see it is totally worth it. 

 Sangha films (located in Long Beach) need your help to create a film celebrating the joys of stealing stuff and selling it on EBAY to survive. Personally, I’d tell them a good way of raising cash for this film might involve stealing stuff and selling it on the internet. Hey, worked for Tao.

                Tao’s book speaks to all those who’ve tried, perhaps in vain, to add something to the vast body of literature out there. New York City is expensive, and I know people who did things similar to Tao in order to survive the great city. Unlike Tao, they didn’t write, they vegetated and eventually moved to Indonesia. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Tao does and continues to do, despite the vast indifference most of the internet (and reality) has towards him. With this movie, that indifference is vaguely combatted, probably while wearing a neutral expression.

                Actually the movie itself appears to be a mixture of a documentary on Tao’s harrowing life from guy typing stuff on a computer to his current situation of guy typing stuff on a computer who is married. Due to the subject matter, it is an absurdist look into someone who has been called a “literary prankster” by people who know the true definition of one. Besides Tao’s work being involved, it looks into the various creative roadblocks the crew itself faces, like raising money. Perhaps part of the movie will involve them refreshing their Kickstarter page, wondering who else just contributed money.

                Pirooz stated himself to share the link with friends and family. So I’ll do that. Click here to learn more about the myriad ways of supporting a starving artist who is doing a movie about another starving artist. And the circle of life is complete.

Jean Wilder – Nice Trash 7.5

                At first you hear just the samples. Then you hear what Andrew Caddick actually did with them. Is this chillwave? I feel like if there ever was a dictionary-defined band for chillwave, this would meet the criteria. Does it wax nostalgic using old samples? Check. Does it bring up images of laziness and the beach? Check. Is there distortion? Check.

                Obviously distortion is a soft spot of mine. Not all musicians can pull it off, but Jean Wilder does a pretty good job of making the sounds expand into the stratosphere with “Blonde Beach”. If that doesn’t scream ‘summer fun’ at you, then I’m sorry but you’re an idiot. 

                The looped samples are not all treated the same. Sometimes they are extremely obvious, but he does throw them into the digital wood chipper, like for “Blanket Mountain” where the origin remains a bit more mysterious. Other tracks show off a sense of humor, like the clipped 50s vibe of “Sparkler”.

                Finally, he shows (and this is important) good taste. Hearing the closer “Light Sleeper” made me so happy. It samples Bedhead’s “The Present” one of my all-time favorite songs. Andrew captures the mood of the original without simply repeating it.

                Nice Trash grows on you. After a few listens, you get what he was aiming for. In case you like this, well, he’s doing what all the cool kids are doing: touring Europe. He needs your help though and roughly $2900 of your dollars. Apparently flying from California to Europe costs a bunch of money. Here’s him on the surprisingly successful website “Kickstarter”.

Ducktails – Killin’ the Vibe 12 Inch

             As a member of Matt Mondanile’s generation (80s born and raised), I can’t help but to relate to what he does. Hypnagogic pop speaks to me, and Matt’s approach happens to be one of the more accessible ones in the field. Ducktails is a fun project, and his own evolution from living in his parents’ basement (he moved out this December to Greenpoint, Brooklyn) is an experience countless millions can relate to. 

                He’s now trying to earn money to release a 12 Inch version of his song “Killin’ the Vibe” to the suspecting masses. Besides just asking people for money on “Kickstarter” the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, he offers goodies. People can opt to get a 30 minute cassette of unreleased songs (known as B-sides or sketches), the vinyl itself with a handwritten note and new songs, or with a Zine (so retro) of his photographs, and finally guaranteed shows of him playing in the Northeast. Apparently his fan base is rabid enough to take up all of this, even the last one with the $500 contribution. In fact, the only one not taken is having him perform in your living room for $1000, which is something I hope gets amended. 

                Now he’s even exceeded his goal of fundraising: he has exceeded his goal of $3500 by about $1940. I guess his chops are complete; he tends to avoid the prolific releases of his friends James Ferraro and Spencer Clark (of The Skaters fame). That’s a good thing; it has allowed me to keep track of his various projects, including his most famous one “Real Estate”. Seeing how he literally lived with those two Skaters in Berlin during a study abroad trip gives me hope for when I’ll be doing that. I always thought study abroad sessions were supposed to be stuffy; his experience proves my theory dead-wrong.

                I’m hoping he succeeds in getting this 12 out. He exists as sort of an in-between point between various different genres: rock, hypnagogic pop, cassette culture, lo-fi recordings, etc. Considering he’s only in his twenties, he’s been lucky enough to tour with some wonderful people (like Emeralds and Deerhunter) has an excellent grasp of aesthetics (Lauren Pakradooni will do the 12 artwork). Plus, and this is huge, he’s managed to show New Jersey as a place where interesting things are going on, where actual art is created. Instead of feeling like they need a crutch of New York City, they show exactly why New York needs more people like him to move here. 

                With that, I’d like to say if you feel like contributing to this guy, or want him to perform in your living room; you might want to go here: