Long before electronic wizard Dan Deacon released his commercial debut, 2007’s Spiderman Of The Rings, he’d gigged with a high-school ska band, earned a computer-music-composition degree from SUNY at Purchase, blew tuba for Langhorne Slim, shredded improv grindcore guitar with Rated R, started a chamber ensemble, co-founded Baltimore’s Wham City arts/music collective and released a series of experimental computer-music/sine-wave recordings. Deacon continues to pursue an eclectic musical course—his Carnegie Hall debut in March was part of a John Cage tribute—but his greatest successes have been in the electronic/dance scene. America (Domino), Deacon’s new album and the follow-up to 2009’s highly regarded Bromst, could cement his status as one of the country’s most adventurous and inspired electronic architects. Deacon will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Deacon: Few artforms have fallen into mainstream cultural wayside as much as poetry. It’s hard to make poetry cool—in my mind. I have a hard time ever wanting to seek it out. What’s exciting about these two poets—Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez and R.M. O’Brien—is that they approach poetry the way musicians approach the DIY. The emphasis is on performance, and this chapbook is like merch. It’s a souvenir of the live experience. And reading it, it’s easy to imagine the poems being read outloud.
Video after the jump.
