It seems we are back in Mercury retrograde again, and I am feeling all of its effects. Trying to pay bills today, my bank locked me out of online banking. They claimed someone in India was trying to get in. Wha? Wha?
After scanning my computer for possible viruses, they still refused to allow me access back in to the site over the phone. In hopes they could easily get me up and running, I answered the craziest test questions that I set up a million years ago. I answered them all correctly (my mind isn’t going yet), but they made me go to the bank branch due to the inability to text me a passcode. When I arrived at the bank branch, after much to-do and verification…the banker apologized and said the entire system of online banking was down briefly. AGGGGH!
Hours later….I can now pay my bills, but I am drained and seething. I just don’t have the stamina anymore to deal.
I am behind on about everything. I am not moving backwards like Mercury, but my moves are drudgingly slow. Perhaps that is a good thing with Mercury retrograde. I think and rethink decisions, actions, and words.
What’s new about that? It is who I am. I rarely jump on band wagons, or flippantly spout info without sorting it out carefully.
So, instead of just expecting the worst, maybe I should take this retrograde period to pay attention to how I deal with delays, misfortunes, and unexpected inconveniences. Am I a ball of knots? Or can I breath and remind myself it will eventually right itself? Perhaps, this is an important time to set aside for reflection and contemplation. It is almost the end of another year, and it provides the perfect reason to review 2017 and consider making changes or adjustments to 2018. Or simply making changes to my actions and reactions.
Looking back over my last 512 music blog posts, there are many bands I want to reflect on, revisit their catalogue, and listen to again with fresh ears. I want to seek out and hunt down what they are doing now.
Recently, I was surprised to find Typhoon has new music, Offerings, a seventy-minute exploration of memory and sacrifice in four movements, the first of which is available on their website here…Typhoon. Offerings is out in its entirety on Jan 12 on Roll Call Records.
I can’t think of a better way to begin my revisit with music I love than sharing Typhoon’s newest release. Typhoon is a band I deem as an emotional and powerful favorite of mine. In “Rorschach”, there is so much to uncover and wonder about.
Don’t let their talent get away….Listen.
Typhoon Rorschach
“Eyes on the screen. We have all the information now but what does it mean? Reason’s a tease. Drank up all that hemlock, here I am just reading the leaves. Left wondering: what happened to the life we lost, that got lost in the living? All this fiction makes me nervous, turns out it was blood spilled on the canvas we admired just like some Rorschach painting. The film in your brain—it edits to remember, keeps the figure in the frame. A sacrificial violence, all those passed over in silence then cast out with the blame. And I’m trying to stay sane—meanwhile, the river of forgetfulness starts spilling the banks. Caught in a lie and instead of fessing up we’d sooner just go out of our heads. I’ve been holding up my end when I should have doubled down on my own atom bomb shelter instead How you gonna hold on to everything? How you gonna hold on to your memory? How you gonna hold on? When you know that you can’t?”
Typhoon is an eleven piece band from Oregon with Kyle Morton as the lead vocals multi-instrumentalist and primary songwriter. Their past music encompassed uplifting complicated arrangements and detailed orchestration while lyrically focusing on Morton’s lyme disease hardships, mortality, and hazy dark subjects. Emotionally writhing at times, their songs have a formidable strength and beauty that keeps you listening and considering, until you are forever hooked. “Rorschach” follows suit with Morton’s distinctive vocals and powerful lyrics among beautifully soaring instrumentation from talented band mates.
On the Roll Call Records website….
The 70-minute album for Roll Call Records, which is the Portland, Oregon indie rock band’s fourth studio album, centers on a fictional man who is losing his memory, and in turn, his sense of self. “I’ve always been preoccupied with memory, losing memory, and trying to recapture memory. I wanted to explore the questions: What does a person become if they don’t know where they came from? What is the essential quality of the person if you strip away all memory?” explains singer/songwriter Kyle Morton.
Morton also masterfully makes a parallel with the character’s journey to the state of the world today starting with the second track, “Rorschach,” which looks at the age of information and collapse of meaning.
The music is a bit dark, but always compelling and begs us to listen and engage in a robust discussion concerning the power of memory and/or the lack of it. We all struggle with it to some extent, or experience others that do, therefore creating a divide from our capability to function well. Fortunately memory is somewhat malleable, despite the decay bound to occur with age.
Music can speak volumes and Typhoon is a band that doesn’t shy away from serious depth and meaningful significance worthy of examination and interpretation. They begin touring in January with a stop in Atlanta on February 2, 2018. Here’s the full list so you don’t miss your chance.
Great listen, thanks!