bent_by_elephants raze i think i loved you best when all your tattered photographs were wreathed with dust and i had to hold them up to the light to see the faces squinting between the folds. was the clean electric guitar a deliberate choice? or was it an outgrowth of something simpler and sadder, like not being able to afford a distortion pedal or an amp with dirt in its throat? you recorded these sounds in the basement of a university named for a scottish merchant. no words on the spine of the six-song ep's cardboard sleeve. hand stamped and homespun. last track unlisted. bought straight from the source. before so many things fell apart for everyone. to hell with the richer production on the follow-up album named for a moment in a david_foster_wallace commencement speech. these first breaths hit hardest. chelsey sings: "your absence, shithead, left me blue, but still i'm soft when i think of you." she says she finds herself picking up lies 'til there's nothing left. she talks of carving shadows into snow. she tells me victor has the means to be invisible to poverty. the only victor i've ever known is the son of a woman who didn't live long enough for me to make as many memories of her as i wish i had. i never thought i'd grow to be as tall as him. some days i think i could reach the stars if my hands weren't too tired to touch anything they didn't already know_by_heart. 240328 what's it to you? who go blather from