In 2008, Oneida began the Thank Your Parents triptych with Preteen Weaponry. Since, the Brooklyn band—Kid Millions, Bobby Matador, Baby Hanoi Jane, Showtime and Barry London—has completed it with 2009’s Rated O and the new Absolute II (Jagjaguwar). The quintet is touring Europe in August and is also playing the Asbury Park, N.J.-based All Tomorrow’s Parties in October. In addition, Millions will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Millions: Frederick Seidel is one of my heroes. An iconoclast who rarely gives interviews and never gives public readings, his poetry is vicious, funny, old-fashioned and deeply affecting. He’s unapologetic for all his shortcomings. He says mean things. He’s unrepentant about being a wealthy guy who loves motorcycles and lurks around the Upper West Side and Europe. He was asked to write a book of poems for the “new” Hayden Planetarium (it reopened in 2000), which evolved into a three-volume collection called The Cosmos Poems. Oneida is into trilogies—you might have heard. Our music was also just included in a Joshua Light Show event at the Hayden Planetarium. That’s probably enough coincidences for now. I hope to meet Seidel someday. He keeps getting better with age. His poems and persona seem to be setting into something tremendous and rooted. I own a signed copy of his unpublished book Evening Man. That’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to him.
Video after the jump.
