298: Wolf Parade // Apologies to the Queen Mary

Apologies to the Queen Mary Wolf Parade 2005, Sub Pop

Apologies to the Queen Mary is on the short list of ‘00s indie records that I’d consider masterpieces. The funny thing is that my list, as someone who was there (or there-adjacent), is pretty well fixed in time, whereas the consensus among Zoomer critics continues to morph in ways I’d never have figured. (Or maybe it’s not funny, really—just always how time and memory work.) In 2008, I would’ve bet my left pinkie that TV on the Radio (and especially Return to Cookie Mountain) would be the defining band of the era. Meanwhile, in 2024 the Killers are still riding the same five songs to a second greatest hits record and fifty times TVotR’s monthly residuals; the National have tween fans; and I hold a mug weird. Time clowns us all and Wolf Parade are a dad band now, owners of a few anthems from the era before genuinely weird indie bands could near the summits of the pop chart, economically compelled to continue touring small theatres together despite both Boeckner and Krug having been more invested in other, even less profitable projects for some time now.

Wolf Parade is one of those bands with two lead singers who sound indistinguishable before you know the group well, and instantly identifiable thereafter (like John and Paul of the Beatles, or Felix and Will of Chapo Trap House). They’re both yowlers who let their voices crack pubescently as shorthand for the frayed emotional spectrum they traffic in, given to barking and hooting to help drive their bric-a-brac compositions forward. Boeckner is a lanky post-punk looking fuckboy in roughly the Richard Hell mould, given to posing sweatily in torn undershirts and starting projects with a succession of raven-haired keyboard players he’s also dating. He loves motorik dance rock and Wire, but also has a substantial helping of Bruce Springsteen in his songwriting. Krug is a stocky, normal-looking guy who doesn’t really meet your eyes and self-deprecatingly called his solo project Moonface. He writes lyrics that sound like philosophy and love letters translated from an alien language, and prefers his music to both thwack and quaver.

Their similarities give Wolf Parade coherence, but much of their dynamism comes from how the two singers pass the controls back and forth. Backed by electronics tinkerer Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson, a drummer (crucially) capable of serving as a rhythm section unto himself, Krug and Boeckner find the perfect balance between Krug’s experimental art collective predilections and Boeckner’s slyly sexual rock ‘n’ roll heart. Krug leads with the empty warehouse strut of “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son”; Boeckner parries with the hooky acoustic rocker “Modern World”; Krug closes with the brittle seven-minute dirge “Dinner Bells”; Boeckner responds with the pinkly-hued Suicide-Springsteen collab “This Heart’s on Fire.”

Both Boeckner and Krug have made wilder, stranger music elsewhere, and there are plenty of other brilliant Wolf Parade songs to be found across their subsequent records. But Apologies remains the greatest blend of their particular talents they ever managed, a perfect example of two guys pushing each other to do their best work. With luck, a future generation will reconsider Wolf Parade and its many, many satellites (Sunset Rubdown, Operators, Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Divine Fits…) as one of the most interesting micro-scenes the whole post-alternative rock era produced. And if not, I’ll still be here spinning the record a few times a year, believing in it all all over.

298/365

being old is so hard literally my back hurts all the time my knees creak every time i stand up when will death come for me it must be soon... (me literally not even 30)

I’ve listened to MCR and like, it’s fine. It’s not exactly my thing, but I can enjoy it.

But I have to respect it, because if I were a decade or so younger, I’d have been SO into it.

Too Much Time on my Hands

One of the joys of growing older and no longer having to work is supposed to be having more time to do whatever you want. Well, I have found that this is both a blessing and a burden. It is fabulous to have time to decide that you are going to do each day, but the other side is that you feel somewhat left by the roadside when all the younger, still employed people living around you, are busy going to work, looking forward to the weekend and rushing to get things done when they get home from work. Whilst you have the luxury of taking your time doing whatever takes your fancy, the downside is that it can make you feel left out.

I feel that I am watching other people’s lives from the outside these days. My kids have busy lives working every day and doing what young people do in their leisure time whilst I amble along on the sidelines. Half of the time I love it and treasure the fact that I am able to live in a fantastic country where I can take time to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings and count my blessings. The other half of the time I feel a bit adrift. As though my anchor has come loose. I don’t have a certain direction in which to travel. My ship is not in a current any longer, it is drifting wherever the tide takes it and blown about by stray breezes. It is a strange feeling after spending a lifetime in a current always working towards goals.

This feeling of drifting is causing me to try things I have never thought of doing before. Like gardening. Well, I say “gardening” meaning that I potter around planting various things in recycled hanging plastic bottles that are within easy reach of my house. Grubbing around in the soil with worms and insects will never be my thing. I may be on the older side of life but I still find most insects scary and choose to have as little to do with them as possible. I have never understood why you are expected to stop being scared of insects just because you have grown up. Why? What happens to take away the fear? I understand pretending to be brave and unafraid in front of your children in order to attempt to provide an example of mature adult behaviour but once they have left the nest why keep up the pretense? Because pretense is all it ever is. So ”gardening” is all I am ever going to be doing.

20 years damn, im old in a young way and young in an old way

This is the Buddy for today, July 30th. In true bad boy tradition, Buddy seems to have defaced this wall with a spay painting of himself.

You know, it's weird, I used to read stories about troubled kids when I was younger, and the moral of the story usually was listen to your parents or guardians, and they know what's best for you.

A few years ago I read The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, and in one chapter the main character (whose name sounds a bit like Buddy's) is being cared for by the 'obviously a werewolf' Miss Lupescu. The boy predictably dislikes her, disobeys her and gets in trouble with some ghouls. Seems like a pretty clear moral for the kids reading it.

But, reading it as an adult, it felt like the moral should be if you're taking care of a kid, be responsible and don't push him to a breaking point, otherwise you'll be to blame when he gets in trouble. The way I see it, Miss Lupescu is watching a six year old kid as a favor to her friend Silas, she acts super strict, lets the boy run off and doesn't explain she's a werewolf. So, really, considering his age, she's the one at fault.

I think that's something I've noticed a lot in entertainment made for kids, as an adult. The adults in the story pick up the idiot ball and don't take good care of the kids, but the moral is supposed to be for kids not to misbehave.

So, I guess the moral of today's drawing is, Buddy shouldn't be defacing walls, but maybe his parents shouldn't be letting him carry a spray can to begin with.

adolescent shark! doot doot doot! middle school shark! doot doot doot! it's 20-freaking-22 shark!

Oooo good luck on your exams!!!

What are your favorite study/learning methods? I love a good flashcards situation, plus just writing down everything I know.

THANK YOU - think they went well! I'm excited to catch up on fic updates and reply to stuff generally :)

good q on study methods - I've found a pattern that works for me over the years, and how I study/learn now is v different to how I studied for exams when I was a teenager/undergraduate.

thoughts on cramming can cramming work? yes and no. I crammed throughout my undergrad, all-nighters, covering a module's worth of lectures in 24 hours. did I do well? actually yes. I had decent short-term memory back in the day, so my method then was to take out my old notes/audio transcripts from my dictaphone (long before recorded lectures were A Thing), and write everything down verbatim. everything. in tiny, cramped handwriting. the success of cramming depends on the subject and what is expected of you. anything more engineering/maths-based is difficult. more essay/factual recall-based? I could absolutely get way with cramming HOWEVER cramming is simply awful for your physical and mental well-being. I swore to myself I would never live like that again lmao, off red bull and monster, terrible takeaway meals, two hours of sleep a night, high-level anxiety bowel movements (tmi). just. hell no. I was a wreck after my finals

being an Adult and work-life balance it turns out you DON'T have to live like the above. who knew??? I still have to do professional exams in my thirties, when I have so many other commitments than before. sometimes I wonder where I would be professionally if I hadn't pissed away my twenties ... anyway. I had fun. nowadays I think you're better off turning up to class and working through your problem sheets, practicing past papers, going through extra worksheets, teaching your friends. is that more effort? of course it is, and I obviously didn't do this when I was eighteen. I sort of have a list now of what's important to keep myself sane during mandatory exam prep:

nothing I learn during revision is new. it is revision. throughout the year/term/module, I keep up in class, ask questions throughout if I don't know, form study groups (with a highly selective group of friends, no deadweights), find and collate all the past paper questions, practice my examinations/clinical reasoning, and most importantly, spend the most time possible on the job with people I admire professionally.

batch cook. batch cook. batch cook. no takeaways, no shit meals. have a set time for food breaks in the day

eat healthily throughout. drink lots of herbal tea because I hate water. a big salad a day. lots of study snacks and treats to keep going

exercise!! don't neglect that. have socialisation with friends during a group sport activity. following that ...

don't neglect friendships; they just might have to change during a busy period. I won't drink but I'll go to the pub for a couple hours after studying. I won't miss a big birthday, I just may join for the dinner and not the party after. I will never miss a wedding

set goals and stick to them. I have so many tips and tricks now on how to keep myself motivated and have a high-output I may write down.

if you have a writing (rather than exam) deadline, don't be afraid of writing absolute garbage and then EDIT. don't be scared of the blank page. just shit it out

rely on your partner/friends/family. and do the same back for them when they are busy. get a hype man, be the hype man

and good luck with all your exams! I have faith in you anons. now eat your vegetables

So, as I enter into the old age era of my 20s, I started having similar problems like my mom's (i.e. sore back, sore feet, sleepiness in the afternoon, etc).

We came up with a fun game called "fake dramatic ads". The rule is to use daily inconveniences to promote common household objects and/or medicines, as ridiculous as possible.

For example, today she's helping me move to a new place. Like the gigachad that she is, she's been going back and forth lifting boxes into my room. Then...her back started to hurt. Unpromted she said, "With just a payment of aging yourself around 59.99 years, you too can be addicted to heat pads!". (She did this as she reached into her bags for heat pads).

I then replied with, "As remaja jompo*, I've been experiencing sore back since 14. With an affordable price of 4 years hunching through university, you too can get a back that hurts like hell!". I do this as I sit down, out of breath.

We then proceeded to cackles like witches.

I recommend this game for everyone.

*) Indonesian slang phase. Literally means 'elderly teenager', it means young people with elder people's problems

i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues

???

Obsessed with characters who portray themselves as worse than they are. Who are lying to everyone including themselves about it. People generally assume if someone's lying about themselves they're trying to look better but sometimes they're trying to look worse. They attribute agency to where they had none, add intend to accidents, try to convince everyone that this is something they did instead of something that happened to them.

My Mane 6 Redesigns all together! I was going to post them separately but ended up finishing them all before I got around to it lol

I just wanna say bc I KNOW you're somewhere on tumblr, to the teenage girl who attended Take Your Kid To Work Day at an office building in Ontario, Canada circa 2013 and had a conversation with a middle aged woman in which you showed her your Black Veil Brides fanart and fanfics and ship content and told her about different fanfic tropes including a/b/o verse bc she happened to know who Panic! at The Disco and Fallout Boy were and thus you felt the need to show her your bandblr ship art, that was my fucking mother and I had to clarify all that to her including looking my mother in the eye and trying to explain a/b/o verse without sounding like a lunatic.

It's been 10 years and I still regularly sent evil energies in your direction. Since you'd be probably two years younger than me and thus legally an adult now, please know if this post reaches you it's on sight.