Selden Cummings

I was on the wrong board for this day, my 8’4” spoon. But I didn’t have anything else with me and I couldn’t resist paddling out. You can see I’m barely holding on by the end of the drop, but it was a perfect NorCal morning: fog keeping the water calm, long period NW swell, only three or four guys out. Super fun session with friendly folks in the lineup. After this wave a guy shouted “nice one!” “I can’t believe my board held together,” I replied. He laughed and said “neither can I!” Can’t wait to get back out there. Thanks to my dad @cummingsproductions as always for shooting video. Also about the song: iykyk #surfing #bigsurf #california #surfer #norcal

Launching “Weeds” was a big success!! Thank you everyone who came to @toposbookstore to celebrate, and thank you once again for @bottlecappress for publishing my work. I’ve got plenty more poems and stories to come! You can find the link to my chapbook in my bio.

Happy spring! Put this one out today and I’m kind of proud of it. Thanks @_clutchy_ at @swordanddaggeraudio for the production and @torrie.stories for the cover photo ❤️🙏

Very excited to announce the launch of my very first poetry chapbook!!! Thanks @bottlecappress for publishing this collection of mythological poems I’ve been working on for the past couple years. To celebrate, I’ll be reading some poems at @toposbookstore (Topos Too) on May 14th alongside some of my favorite NYC poets including @timothy_donnelly @ry_p_cook @heathergluck @ninarrreljic @orfinn and @mickeyroberts Copies are available online via bottlecap and in person at the launch! Thanks @mickeyrobertsart for the poster and @torrie.stories as always for the inspiration and photographs ❤️❤️❤️

It’s been exactly two years since we put this song out and I still love playing it. Tune in for my whole set at @crossroadschicagoradio on Sunday at 9pmEST/8CT on Crossroads Chicago Radio on Live365. #indiefolk #folkmusic #altfolk #radio #liveset

Stoked that I got to play some tunes on @crossroadschicagoradio last weekend in the Midwest. Thanks @jack_austin10 for having me on. I had a ton of fun sharing my crazy songs. Speaking of which, this is an excerpt from “Super Saiyan” and it’s the nerdiest verse I’ve ever written. #nerdcore #altrap #flobots #boburnham #watsky

…or history in general. #folk #indiefolk #jessewelles #protestsong #bobdylan

Last week I put out some very raw acoustic material—demos, GarageBand trials, that sort of thing. Unfiltered, unedited, like these pictures. Someday soon these demos will be pretty and polished and mastered but right now they’re still gestating and I think there’s something intimate and beautiful in that. footnote acoustic demos walk on water pretty boys wear black peace of mind dark side Spotify link in bio

What I love most about climbing is that you can try something over and over and OVER and even though it feels impossible, there’s always a tiny glint of childlike hope (and a bit of insanity) that keeps you going. And then suddenly you do something you haven’t been able to do for weeks, sometimes months, and it actually feels like you broke the laws of physics and achieved the impossible. It’s therapeutic and it’s symbolic—knowing that if something SEEMS impossible, that doesn’t mean it IS, has changed the way I move through the world, and made me a more optimistic person for it. Thank you, climbing 🧗‍♂️ Thanks @metrorock_bushwick for the awesome set and @feppel for filming! #rockclimbing #bouldering #climbing #inspirational #indoorbouldering

Maybe because it feels vulnerable and scary, but I’ve never put out acoustic music before. Even though I have, BY FAR, clocked more hours with an acoustic guitar in my hands than an electric. In any case, I’m excited to release my first fully acoustic songs today (two of them, to be exact). Big thanks to @_katyavilla_ for adding much needed vocal dimension to “Stuck,” as well as @_clutchy_ at @swordanddaggeraudio for creating a safe, fun space where we could get these recordings done. Thanks to my dad @cummingsproductions for creating the trippy green album art, which may or may not be a photo of my brother and I as kids, and thank you of course to @torrie.stories for supporting me no matter what (and taking pictures of me with Polly ☺️❤️). THE SONGS “Stuck” - Written in 2022, this is one of the first originals I showed Katya when she helped me start footnote in 2023. As simple as simple gets, I intentionally used the classic I – vi – IV – V progression to write a doo-wop song (hence the literal “doo wop wops” in the bridge) along with a swing groove and sappy lyrics. The lyrics say “love song” but it’s never really felt like that to me. Needless to say, harmonies and unison singing works really well over this progression, and melding our voices in the chorus sounded so good, and felt so easy, that we recorded this I think in three takes, and kept the third one. “Underneath Me” - Also written in 2022, this song was originally a poem about the “King of Hell” (whomever that might be), that morphed into an abstract take on becoming one with the world. This actually took forever for me to record because it’s so easy to get super pitchy during the verses. But I’m happy with this take and happy to have it out. Thank you for reading and thank you for listening. I only have 73 billion more of these to release haha, so stay tuned.

Wrote this before Alex Pretti was murdered but rest in peace Alex, too. #reneegood #fuckice #alexpretti #protestsong

Saturday Night Live (V4) It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with John Yablonski that he was the one to discover and FA this classic moderate in Joshua Tree. The story is that one Saturday evening in the late 70’s Yabo took shrooms and wandered around Hidden Valley Campground, stumbling across this boulder that, despite its proximity to one of J-Tree’s most popular areas, no one had ever climbed before. Classic Yabo, finding problems that other climbers had walked by for years without seeing (a similar legend tells of his discovery of Midnight Lightning in Yosemite, the most famous boulder problem in the world). Hurrying back to camp that night in Josh, Yabo had trouble convincing his friends that he had discovered a stellar boulder problem so close by. “You’re high, man,” they said. “There’s no way nobody else saw that.” He led them back to the boulder, which they played on late into that Saturday night. You can see that without the chalk on its holds, this problem would be easy to miss. It’s amazing that such a fun, exciting climb is entirely comprised of just three holds: the starting rail, the sloping crescent, and the top jug. What makes the final move challenging is the fact that the jug is overhanging, so you need to counterintuitively jump INTO the rock in order to stick the dyno. But God it feels good when you do. Thanks Yabo for your imagination. #bouldering #joshuatree #rockclimbing #dyno