My new album If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975 is out now! Vinyl available on Bandcamp and via Anthology / Mexican Summer. All of these songs were written back in my late teens and recorded on reel-to-reel. I’m so grateful to be able to share them today.
Listen + order at the link in bio
Maybe I’m Dreaming, the newest compilation album from @anthology is out today.
A sentimental mixtape, Maybe I’m Dreaming features songs unearthed in personal collections, deep YouTube burrows, dilapidated web archives, and the dim corners of Discogs, with many selections tied not only to intuition but to personal connection.
The magic is in the untold story of the artists behind these songs; those who missed the big time, but whose song craft and unrequited care hit the right notes, both high and low.
2. Clete Stallbaumer
3. Elderberry Jak
4. Deb Heineman (Jim Ware’s wife)
5. John Lyle
6. John Lyle
7. Michael Moore
8. Palm Pizzaz!
9. Peter Kraemer
10. Rick Penta
11. Ronnie White
12. Ronnie White
13. The Squad
14. Twice As Nice
15. Twice As Nice
16. The Watson Brothers Band
Brian Blomerth’s (@pupsintrouble ) MYCELIUM WASSONII is an account of the lives and trips of R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson, the pioneering scientist couple responsible for popularizing the use of psychedelic mushrooms in the United States.
The Wassons’ journeys took them from Russian folk wisdom to midcentury Manhattan, from the indigenous traditions of the Mazatec people of Mexico to the mysteries of ancient Rome. A globetrotting vision of science and mysticism with appearances by J.P. Morgan, Robert Graves, Life Magazine, and the CIA, Mycelium Wassonii is a visual biography and a tragic love story as only Blomerth’s Isograph pen can render it.
On sale now at shop.mexicansummer.com
@robertlesterfolsom joined @pastemagazine during SXSW to play “I Don’t Know” from his latest album ‘If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes’
Watch the full session on Paste’s YouTube channel now.
Out Now: Fourth Chapter - “In The Rain”
Fourth Chapter was a garage rock band from the Dearborn Heights suburb of Detroit made up of Charlie Block, James Henterly, Pat Mezza, Bob Okonowski, and Gordie Roedding. These childhood friends started jamming together at the tender age of ten, and it wasn’t too much later that they solidified their status as local legends on stages throughout the Great Lakes State. The band released its one and only 7” as Fourth Chapter, “Whatcha Gonna Do ‘Bout It” b/w “In the Rain,” on Michigan’s Pennie Records in 1973. A few years later, under their new Mariner moniker, they’d go on to win a local Battle of the Bands and tour worldwide.
Listen to “In The Rain” on Anthology’s new playlist: That Was Now, This Is Then (link in bio)
The Art of Library Music:
In the heyday of B-movies, low-budget television and scrappy genre filmmaking, producers looking for a soundtrack reached for library music: LPs of stock recordings for any mood. Initially regarded as an inexpensive alternative to traditional film scores, library labels became treasure troves for record collectors, and much of the work became recognized as extraordinary.
Library music cover art developed its own quiet visual language, shaped by function as much as aesthetics. Labels like KPM Music and De Wolfe Music favored bold, minimal layouts: flat color blocks, rigid grids, and clean typography that signaled mood and function at a glance. Elsewhere, catalogs from CAM and Tele Music leaned into abstraction - collage, surreal imagery, and experimental forms untethered from commercial trends. With no need for artist branding or mass appeal, these sleeves existed in a space between design system and artwork - practical objects that, over time, became icons of a parallel graphic history.
Check out our library music playlist “Unusual Sounds” at the link in bio
Tutorial for my song “My Stove’s on Fire!” Come see it live this May!!
Thanks again @fender for this beautiful guitar. I love it!
#70smusic #acoustic #guitar #robertlesterfolsom #tutorial
Select pages from @0utdoors ’ comic William Softkey and the Purple Spider
Buried deep under sand sits a library the size of a small city, owned by the eerily powerful Mr. Wish and protected by roving bands of toughs and lethal sentient vehicles. When a small but heavy interdimensional spider demands access to the vault, poor William Softkey, with assistance from the gravity-experimenter Gigglewindow sisters, is hired to deal with the problem.
Rendered in the artist’s trademark stark linework—against a backdrop of paranoid techno-fantasy, strange emblematic beings, and woozy halftone patterns—William Softkey and the Purple Spider is acclaimed cartoonist CF’s second dreamy narrative published under the Anthology Editions banner.
Clip of “Memphis” by Karen Black from Robert Altman’s film Nashville (1975)
Karen Black is unforgettable in Nashville as Connie White - a country star holding it together on the surface, but barely underneath. She also wrote and performed her own songs for the film, which makes her on-screen performances hit even harder.
That same spirit carries into the posthumous compilation, Dreaming of You (1971-1976), released by Anthology in 2021, which brings together her recordings and highlights just how singular her voice was. #robertaltman #nashville #film #countrymusic #movies
Before CGI was standard, Ed Emshwiller was already making computer-generated films. in Crossings and Meetings (1974), he used analog video layering to multiply human figures into ghost-like repetitions.
To learn more about Ed’s background and take a closer look at his art, check out our book Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller. Available now at the link in bio
Elias Rønnenfelt and visual artist Elizabeth Peyton in conversation about their collaboration on Sunken Heights, Elias’ debut poetry book.
Sunken Heights balances the poet’s reflections on the aggressive and primal present with strikingly romantic and surprisingly vulnerable musings on variations of love, delusion, and maturation in a smoldering world.
Peyton also recently contributed original cover art for Iceage’s forthcoming album For Love of Grace & the Hereafter, releasing May 29th.
Copies of Sunken Heights are available at the link in bio
