87. Divination Has a Chokehold On Your Flow.
7/4/25
I’m sending this the night before I fly out east to spend time on the South Jersey Shore, where Pennsylvanians do their recreating.
As opposed to the Central Jersey Shore, where I grew up, amidst the summering New Yorkers.
I decided to put this week’s newsletter out a couple days early on this sham holiday. As I type this The Big Fucking Billionaire Bill was just passed by the house.
There wasn’t even the tiniest attempt to pretend this benefits a single working American.
The United States Government is a death cult praying to $$$.
The hooded sheets are off and the nazis are in power.
They are kidnapping people and sending them to foreign countries with no trial.
They are building concentrations camps overnight. They guarding them with alligators. Sick comic book supervillain shit. The psychopathic nazis in power and their bootlicking cronies are due for a reckoning.
Something Old Testament Biblical, The Way They Like It.
I have faith in the balance of the universe.
We can’t normalize this overt fascism, the hidden shit is a thing of the past.
THEY ARE STRAIGHT UP STEALING FROM THE POOREST AND GIVING TO THE RICHEST.
Every time you speak up against these cowards, cowards with our blood, and the blood of Gaza, on their hands, you may just empower another person.
A person who may think they’ll get in trouble, or that their voice doesn’t matter.
Get in trouble for that person first if you need to. No time for complacency.
Life During Wartime / The Talking Heads / David Byrne 1979
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some grave sites out by the highway
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto
I've lived all over this town
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain't got time for that now
Transmit the message to the receiver
Hope for an answer someday
I got three passports, a couple of visas
You don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading
Everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, and I work in the nightime
I might not ever get home
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C.B.G.B.
I ain't got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
To last a couple of days
But I ain't got no speakers, ain't got no headphones
Ain't got no records to play
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time?
Can't write a letter, can't send no postcard
I ain't got time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
We blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines
I know that that ain't allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
I don't know what I look like
You make me shiver, I feel so tender
We make a pretty good team
Don't get exhausted, I'll do some driving
You ought to get you some sleep
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won't help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
The burning keeps me aliveA.I. IS DEATH.
THIS BIG FUCKING BILL IS DEATH.
BILLIONAIRES ARE DEATH DEALERS.
Lil’ Man Palate Cleanser
Parody, Besides / Kallo News
I'd like to welcome SkullHum012 into the world.
KalloHumina presents "Parody, Besides" a Dan Gonzalez solo joint.
A compilation of Pacific NW road trips and attic room synthesis. All bloops on various hardware synths.
Free stream / name your price to support KalloHumina and download the goods.
Interview With Dan Gonzalez
Dan has the distinction of being the only member of KalloHumina, besides myself, to play at every live show. (The fact that his rig was on mute the entire first show is not a disqualifying factor by any means. He played, the universe heard it.) I sent him a questionnaire so that you, and I for that matter, can take a biographical peek behind his curtain. - DJ Larstonovich 1. Where did you grow up and how long have you lived in Portland? I grew up mostly in Chico, CA and went to high school in Eugene. I’ve been in and out of Portland most of my adult life with sojourns in Olympia, Louisville and New York City. The first time I paid rent in Portland was 1997. This current stretch of Portland living started in 2009. 2. Do you have a strong early musical memory? When I was 7 and 8 I was really into Duran Duran. It cracks me up that even at that age I wasn’t sure I even liked their music, I was just kind of into being a Duran Duran fan. I bought all their albums, watched their weird video comps on VHS. The end of my fandom ended when I bought the 12” single of “Wild Boys” and waited and waited until I was alone one day so I could blast it. I put it on and it pretty much sucked. It’s a terrible song. 3. What was the first instrument that you played? Was it of your own choosing and if not what was the first thing you chose to play? My mom signed me up for piano lessons, I didn’t like it very much but I did it for a couple years. I really wanted to play cello and I took a couple lessons but it fizzled out, not sure why it didn’t work out, I’ll have to ask my mom. I then chose to play French horn and I did that for a few years- I really enjoyed it. 4. Please tell me a little about your history with recording. I’ve had the same tascam four track and sm57 for about twenty years but I’ve never been much of a home recorder. I had an unreal amount of field recordings captured on micro cassette that have disappeared and I’ve filled up a few phones worth of sounds that I don’t know what to do with. Only in the past couple years I’ve become more diligent about recording jams with friends or just my little scribbles, it’s fun. 5. And your history of playing live… I’ve always liked playing live even though I used to get super nervous. I think I was lucky to be playing in bands during a time when everyone was treated as a star for just trying. Like, you could play in someone’s basement and absolutely shit the bed but afterwards was like hey! That’s cool! Thanks for trying! 6. Often in life we are forced at gunpoint to relocate to a desert island that has a killer stereo with a 5 disc changer. Typically your captives will allow you to choose 5 albums from their unfathomably complete library to fill it with. What discs would you choose? This one is so tough. I was trying to think of discs that without hyperbole changed my life. If not for the music but being so evocative that the memory of listening to these could keep me in a good place. • Gang of Four - Entertainment! • Velvet Underground - White Light/ White Heat • CAN - Tago Mago • Eazy-E - Eazy-Duz-it • Stereolab - Random Transient Noise Bursts 7. Please geek out and tell me about some of the live set-ups you’ve brought to KalloHumina shows and/or any of your other favorite combos you like to noodle with. I can tell you that the set up I was most excited about for a KalloHumina show was a mess! It was a Rumble of Ancient Times by Soma Synths paired with a Ciat Lonbarde Cocoquantus. Both of those are loose by design and if it starts to go bad well, it’s hard to reel back in. I thought I had it dialed but it went off the rails right away. The most successful and most likely what I’ll be playing at the next show is the Make Noise Strega paired with a Bastl Dude in a feedback loop. Can go from a subtle drone to squelching feedback - and stay in tune! 8. Finally, I’d love to share any other projects you’d like to promote with the Skullcrushing Hummingbird readers. I play in a ambient/experimental improv duo with my buddy Howard. Our first physical release is being mastered now and who knows maybe will be released some day. We’re playing at the Shanghai Tunnel on August 2. See you there.
KalloHumina plays July 22 at Turn, Turn, Turn with Quivering lip and Leather Jester.
Poem
The Phone Poles Of A Ghost Town
There are clues to your divine
Rights in the dappled patterns
Playing on the Lurie print.
Divination has a chokehold
On your flow. Bored
By laughter, bound to the
Tartness of the cherries,
That die before their due,
You dog ear a prayer book,
Earmark a gun show,
Decide on a color scheme,
And wheat-paste the phone
Poles of a ghost town.
Visual Noise
KalloHumina. Swamp Gas. DJ Larstonovich on drum machine, synth, vox.
Live
July 1, 2025 Moda Center, Portland, Oregon
Run The Jewels.
Wu-Tang Clan. Wu-Tang Is For The Children. Wu-Tang is Forever.
See ya next weekend in the ‘stack. Fight the Power.