new Howling Hex / Neil Hagerty brings the funk!

^^ At first, I read "crackers" as "peanuts", but now I think he means it in the racial/ethnic connotation.
I think I posted in the Royal Trux thread that I hoped Neil wasn't biting the hand or whatever regarding 'who the fuck but Drag City would put out Howling Hex records". The answer apparently is 'not anybody, actually'.
I pay for the Patreon, and kinda felt like it was a ripoff, but Neil seems to put stuff up in chunks. Last week he posted a few musical pieces, a one act play, a self-help coloring book, a harsh assessment of The Wire, and some state of the Hex updates. Worth it, imo.

and *at first* kinda felt like..
**Actually** worth it.

FYI for those who aren't Mike: Neil's little essay on The Wire -- the acclaimed TV show, not the magazine -- also featured very pointed digs at white people.

(He also recently suggested that a motivated fan might want to update his Wikipedia page.)

The one-act play basically reads like an extension of the little skits in the You Can’t Beat Tomorrow DVD (though it’s very up-to-the-minute; involves “Covid-90”).

Soon as I get some income again, I'll subscribe. NMH is prob the one living *celebrity* I'd most want to meet

He just uploaded a track labeled - "Return of The Rusted Sled" by The Vicksburg Occupation

New band name(?)

Looks like he's used the name for something: https://vicksburgoccupation.yolasite.com/

(that site's metadata includes a ref. to "www.denverbrunchgamesco.com")

It's really something -- this increasingly baroque insularity ("the howling hex is wrecked and is retired/done as a name"), blended with fresh stabs at outreach (the Patreon; "I noticed the wiki looked thin (no surprise) so if anyone wants to fuck around with it, say whatever you want. Just spell my name right...").

https://i.ibb.co/pnfWQbT/Screenshot-20200514-060417-Patreon.jpg

Remember when he sprays the phone in that longform RTX video? Dude was ahead of his time.

His twitter is chockablock with the most random, inscrutable musings. Like reading replies to questions that you never got to hear from someone else's conversation. I sometimes worry about Ol' Hag.

Nahh NMH is as usual using the message to skewer the medium

neutral milk hotel rules at twitter, are you kidding me? if you can make a twit like "beisbol is the sport not crakerball [cannon v hammer, 1817]" and have it not have any hearts, comments, or recycles at all, yet still maintain 2K+ followers, then you're playing games and you're winning

Aesthetically, I feel like The Best Of was already sort of the “final” Howling Hex album, bookending the project that began with All Night Fox.

Denver felt like something different — it didn’t really feature the New Border Sound any longer (of course, Neil hasn’t lived near the border for years now anyway). The new album is, similarly, a return to more straightforward rock ‘n roll (though you could point out that XI also fit that description, and you’d be right).

Neil has also slowed down, output-wise, which adds to the sense that the old throughline has fallen away. His concerns seem more local and specific now (though no less idiosyncratic) — he’s getting older, we all are.

Lol @ "recycles"

Neil Hagerty

May 18 at 5:20am

Unlocked

BEISBOL

**working out some place sketches & maybe have an origin story [not wholly fact] by Tuesday

BEISBOL USA

The game many of us grew up playing [& it is a game a person can play into their 80s] was known as “Beisbol”— I learned it in southern california, southeastern atlantic coast, Florida, urban townhouse suburb areas, military housing areas, public schools, central summer league. It differs from Cracker Ball (steam hammer versus electric torpedo) in a few general, gentle ways. 

For example:

1 Ball is used for the entire 9 inning game. Ties stand. Ranking by pts.

2 pitching changes per team.

2 non-injury substitutes. Subs cannot be removed once placed, barring injury.

Advancing as a runner from bases may only occur with the standing runner(s) beginning the play with 2 feet touching the bag.

No steals or other between-pitch live ball action.

The outfield wall is deep, 450ft. minimum recommended. Home runs are rare. 

Pitching mound and home plate are the standard distance. 

The typical backstop should be close to the plate and rounded. Passed balls &c. advance runners 1 base and then are dead balls.

Balk rules are loose.

Infield fly = strike (incl. 3rd.)

Double if ball passes wall NOT on fly.

Foul balls are strikes, even 3rd strike.

Most the rules of Base-Ball are intact if not mentioned.

If you want to die, believe in lies.

I was listening to a Silver Jews live 7” from a rate early gig, I guess it was some sort of Drag City showcase. Berman says something along the lines of “before the gig we were playing monopoly with Royal Trux, and they had an interesting strategy. They bought Baltic Avenue, put one house on it and quit.”.

In the Patreon, Neil shared a pretty heavy story about his childhood, and how the incident shaped his character. I guess I won’t repost it here (even though he gave his blessing to the sharing of audio files and stuff), out of an abundance of caution.

Oh snap — his latest upload (from “the cassette vault”) is a 1986 track from the mythic Jet Boys of N.W.!

(...sorry, Jet Boyz)

(...) I must now go all the way back to the first band I had back in DC, Jet Boyz of NW— the band that I put on hold so I could do 1 tour and 1 record with another band— but one thing after another and now it’s decades later. The band name comes from a NY Dolls song with our local info attached; it was a great name because crackers would think it was some “gay” thing when to others it was a dig at private school kids. And everyone always finds it easy to dismiss and gain pleasure from dismissing “rock and roll” so it was a very uncool name, lots to clown with.

In Denver I LIVE in NW so it all fits, and the same kind of folks still plague me personally and professionally— so the mission is ongoing. We will see what the future brings. My only other next move after PATREON is playing on the street, if the city has a system to let musicians do that. If that happens I’ll be painting the Jet Boyz logo on a guitar and getting out there, hopefully get a band together that way. After all the false starts and dead enders I can finally get back to where I started and do it right. (...)

Cross-ref from the RTX thread:

(....)1 year ago, after they torpedoed the trux thing fat possum came back and said they'd let me do a record to come out in the fall of ’19 and they would back the record up with tour support and so on. They buried the record this may I think and still owe me 17K in unpaid invoices for travel, show expenses, sessions, musicians, artwork. The publishing company offered me 0$ for it. That’s 0$ I came away with for all the songs I wrote for the trux record and the solo record.

This is the work that I do and I don’t get to choose the 2 bosses who i work for but if things go bad they blame the musicians & listeners have no sympathy. Things get contorted.

All I know is to stay on the path my father set me on, keep working to get very good at a few things, don't listen to white lies, you can't go wrong with a song-- no one else ever had better advice for me.

A friend had an extra copy of the Hagerty-Toth record that he gave to me this weekend and totally killed me. Singing a little wonky in a few spots, but awesome guitar and fun grooves.

^I was just thinking about that record the other day - would like to revisit it...