"I was manhandled at Hyperpop Night /.I reeled soda, did hopscotch / Anonymous made eye contact / Gay mecha romance / What could I say to anyone else?"
The amazing absurdist K-pop antidote "return of jafar" by Applied Communications, the musical alias of Washington, D.C's Max Wood, might be called an experimental anti-pop manifesto or might be called an acquired taste but this is the thing, if it is your taste, you will surely have found your new addiction. The glitchy Casiofied electronica with a wonderfully kind of art punk tropicalia stirred in provides a cheeky but pleasing musical bed for Max to lie in and let what feels like stream of consciousness babble about his real life, quirky observations and snarky diatribal little rants all in a kind of monotone way (that is my favorite part) and as you hear his commentary it first washes over you or past you until you feel that first barb, and then the second until you are literally hooked. Streams of thoughts like this:
Gay mecha romance
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BlSL7AW25EcF437hVc37w
https://www.instagram.com/maxwellwood
What could I say to anyone else?
What it means to freeze
Ashamed of myself
Go home and see my dog
He's just like me
On the floor whimpering
AND as with music and comedy, timing is every thing and his timing, both self deprecating and self aware makes for some incredible punch lines for us the listener and also a yearning to know what is real what is not and what stories curdle between the lines.
I was an only child
with my uncle's girlfriend
Dave's mom
Nagano Snow
Eccentric and rich
She arsoned her antique store
I helped her to learn Ebay
About "return of jafar", Wood shares:
"In 1998, as a 12-year-old, I spent a weekend with my uncle's very eccentric, mysteriously wealthy, much older girlfriend. Just me and her. We watched the Olympics, ate ice cream, made an eBay page, and she somehow had a literal star named after me. I had free rein in the pool house and play house. The play house had ska-friendly checkered floors and 'this is your brain on drugs' posters on the walls. The pool house had a water bed.
Making this record, I found myself meditating on a bunch of oddball childhood memories, and then drawing connections to all the problems and neuroses that drag me down today. (As well as all the weirdness and wonder that lifts me up!) Along those lines, this track connects the alienation I feel around younger people today with the alienation I used to feel among older people – over a bed of 909 bossa nova beats, pitch-bent flutes, and warped saxophones."
Making this record, I found myself meditating on a bunch of oddball childhood memories, and then drawing connections to all the problems and neuroses that drag me down today. (As well as all the weirdness and wonder that lifts me up!) Along those lines, this track connects the alienation I feel around younger people today with the alienation I used to feel among older people – over a bed of 909 bossa nova beats, pitch-bent flutes, and warped saxophones."
I feel like the stories that birthed "return of jafar" woud be a wonderful and wonderfully weird / funny Netflix or Hulu binger, (is anyone listening). Anyway, I will be poking around, going back into the applied communications vault and hang around currently to see what is on Max's mind. He is definitely exorcising some demons and fortifying, in my mind, that life really is an unrelenting cosmic joke that punches all of us in the gut from time to time and maybe the only way to survive is to express our damage in artful ways.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Applied Communications is the musical alias of Max Wood. As a teenager, Max created polarizing, experimental pop music. Pitchfork listed their 2005 album Uhhh Sort Of among the worst of the year, while PopMatters called it "hard to stomach, but even harder to turn away from."]
[Performing in laundromats and laser tag arenas, Max built a small, loyal audience in the early aughts while alienating larger crowds with glitchy, intense, mostly electronic pop songs. Now after nearly two decades away from music, Max's work found unexpected new life when a TikTok influencer sparked an internet archaeology project that pulled the Applied Communications discography back from the dead. People dug through archive.org and eBay, recovered the music, and launched a fan-site – drawing Max back into making music with two EPs: 2024's applied communications has a midlife crisis and 2025's greatest applied communications music.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BlSL7AW25EcF437hVc37w
https://www.instagram.com/maxwellwood
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556252993962
Applied Communications is the musical alias of Max Wood. As a teenager, Max created polarizing, experimental pop music. Pitchfork listed their 2005 album Uhhh Sort Of among the worst of the year, while PopMatters called it "hard to stomach, but even harder to turn away from." Performing in laundromats and laser tag arenas, Max built a small, loyal audience while alienating larger crowds with glitchy, intense, mostly electronic pop songs.
After nearly two decades away from music, Max's work found unexpected new life when a TikTok influencer sparked an internet archaeology project that pulled the Applied Communications discography back from the dead. Fans dug through archive.org and eBay, recovered the music, and launched a fan-site – drawing Max back into making music with two EPs: 2024's applied communications has a midlife crisis and 2025's greatest applied communications music.
Now, applied communications bites the big one is the first full-length Applied Communications album in over twenty years. It's 25 minutes of bouncy, bratty, beat-driven, sample-heavy noise pop with lyrics focused on excavating and re-contextualizing childhood trauma and insecurities. The new LP lands September 25 via the Rare Noodles imprint in collaboration with Bar/None Records.
New single, "return of jafar," pairs bizarro nostalgic musings and bouncy synthesizers. It contrasts adult neurosis with sonic whimsy.
applied communications, Max Wood, creator, experimental pop, glitch pop, indie pop, art punk, spoken word, absurdist, electronica, indie electronic, vent pop, "return of jafar" (Official Video), childhood trauma,
Applied Communications is the musical alias of Max Wood. As a teenager, Max created polarizing, experimental pop music. Pitchfork listed their 2005 album Uhhh Sort Of among the worst of the year, while PopMatters called it "hard to stomach, but even harder to turn away from." Performing in laundromats and laser tag arenas, Max built a small, loyal audience while alienating larger crowds with glitchy, intense, mostly electronic pop songs.
After nearly two decades away from music, Max's work found unexpected new life when a TikTok influencer sparked an internet archaeology project that pulled the Applied Communications discography back from the dead. Fans dug through archive.org and eBay, recovered the music, and launched a fan-site – drawing Max back into making music with two EPs: 2024's applied communications has a midlife crisis and 2025's greatest applied communications music.
Now, applied communications bites the big one is the first full-length Applied Communications album in over twenty years. It's 25 minutes of bouncy, bratty, beat-driven, sample-heavy noise pop with lyrics focused on excavating and re-contextualizing childhood trauma and insecurities. The new LP lands September 25 via the Rare Noodles imprint in collaboration with Bar/None Records.
New single, "return of jafar," pairs bizarro nostalgic musings and bouncy synthesizers. It contrasts adult neurosis with sonic whimsy.
applied communications, Max Wood, creator, experimental pop, glitch pop, indie pop, art punk, spoken word, absurdist, electronica, indie electronic, vent pop, "return of jafar" (Official Video), childhood trauma,
No comments:
Post a Comment