Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Symbols in this world

Nice to see some big thinking out there in rock-ville...here's my review of songwriter Dan Zimmerman's latest, up last week at Blurt.

Dan Zimmerman, Cosmic Patriot (Sounds Familyre)
Immanence, the concept that the divine resides within the material world, is the driving force behind this eccentrically powerful songwriter album. Zimmerman, who has lived all kinds of lives, from preacher's son, to itinerant hippie, to gallery-approved visual artist, finds a bit of god's spark in everything and his songs link ordinary observations to animating mysteries. "Symbols in this world, of the world to come," he sings in his big hollow baritone, at times sounding like Leonard Cohen, at others Richard Thompson or Silver Jews' David Berman, but always seeking the hidden spiritual underpinnings of everyday matter.

More:

“Symbols in this World”

I wrote the bio for his Dusted Listed a couple of week ago, too.

2 comments:

Meatbreak said...

Hi JK. This is a random place to say this but - I am working on a new mix/comp (for the IMP/anyone dnld) all about John Dwyer and while hunting round the web I found your Splendid feature on Coachwhips - and I enjoyed it a lot.

This >>>

"Do you think a lot of rock music is too complicated?"

<<< is a question that should be asked of everyone.


Just thought I'd drop by and mention it, because obvs, I read it and thought of you. ha.

MxBx

jenniferpkelly said...

Oh thanks, no one reads them anymore, but I still feel that a lot of my best work was published at Splendid. It was that last place, too, that I could interview whoever the hell I wanted, so we ended up breaking a whole bunch of bands.

Kind of ashamed of it now, but we were the first non-Portland pub to interview the Decemberists, very early on Devendra Banhart, TVOTR, Akron/Family, Grizzly Bear, Fiery Furnaces...and of course, a whole bunch of bands that never really made it.

But Dwyer was super fun to talk to, and I had one of those silly rock star crushes on him for at least a week and a half afterwards.

Nice to have a comment. It's been weeks.