Alex Silver
@halfvivid.bsky.social
120 followers 130 following 400 posts
Folk music experimentalist and French teacher. Portland, Maine area. https://alexsilvertown.com https://alexsilver.bandcamp.com/
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halfvivid.bsky.social
Gah! Why didn't I know about this till seeing my email just now? I could've gone. If you live near Boston, FYI. I only know 'On A Moonlit Hill in Slovenia' but it's wonderful.
halfvivid.bsky.social
This makes me happy. I saw him with Bill Callahan at MOCAD in Detroit in July of that year. He was very thoughtful. So was Callahan haha.
halfvivid.bsky.social
For some, the day-to-day is just too much and chewing glass is too little. Some need good strong stuff, and it is out there.
halfvivid.bsky.social
After giving it some time, this is absolutely my favorite song of the fall. It seizes me every time I hear it. I love it so much.

Thank you @orindal.bsky.social Records. Also, read reviews by @jenpkelly.bsky.social, who did one for this album.

"Driving slow / to a bridge / I kinda know / where."
orindal.bsky.social
"wistful, bittersweet, and deeply nostalgic, like flipping through an old photo book of half-forgotten memories."

Thanks @undertheradar.bsky.social for premiering "Driving Slow" the final single/video from 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐚's debut album 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧 𝙀𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙚𝙨.

www.undertheradarmag.com/news/premier...
Premiere: herbal tea Shares New Track, “Driving Slow”
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www.undertheradarmag.com
halfvivid.bsky.social
I went into this with a friend knowing only the title from his text. WTF, so good! Accidental Paul Thomas Anderson haha.
halfvivid.bsky.social
The world was fragrant, dense, and multi-dimensional until what, like 2014?
halfvivid.bsky.social
This is a lovely, patient album that "makes sense" whether you play it in the trees or the dark fold of an idea-world. Calming and I love "A Vivid Imagination" for its images.
halfvivid.bsky.social
One of the things I appreciate about your account is that you point to things that are easy to understand but difficult to imagine.
halfvivid.bsky.social
Looking forward to reading this.
halfvivid.bsky.social
Oh no. Thank you, I'll be paying attention.
halfvivid.bsky.social
What are you feeling is gross? I've felt a little discouraged lately too, but more with regard to its momentum and how most IRL friends aren't here. Trying to stay steady. Feeling like you're seeing acrid stuff?
halfvivid.bsky.social
Are you on Subvert? There's an interesting related thread right now.
halfvivid.bsky.social
I'm happy for your potential employment—but I'm afraid you dented my naiveté in a way I cannot afford.
halfvivid.bsky.social
Fell off for a bit, but you didn't! Can't wait to get back :)
halfvivid.bsky.social
This is very interesting, Frog—now I'm in. Thanks for the tip.
halfvivid.bsky.social
Chico States has a new single out today through The Ugly Hug. I wrote the blurb for this album. Can't wait for you to hear the whole thing on Oct. 23.

uglyhug.com/2025/10/01/c...
Excited to welcome Chico States to the bagel fam with this fantastic third record. Hope you enjoy :)


This third full-length of encyclopedic Americana shows Joseph Barresi elaborating on his odd merger of personal minutiae and public history. 𝘐 𝘚𝘢𝘸 𝘈 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘰 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 appears almost Lorca-esque in its take on the hyper-current-meets-the-heriditary. Coming off a few years of heavier performance and a shifting and expanding membership, Chico States’ band shows a pithiness in style and sonic clarity that earlier records hadn’t yet realized, partly due to scale. But here you can feel—in mind and chest—the distance and scary spaciousness of Barresi’s experience of travel through subcultures of the Pacific Coast, France, Aotearoa, Maine, or even along tracks in imaginary locations like Farmington Bay. It’s difficult, and rewarding, to know an artist whose voice confuses you about what’s real and what’s simply interesting. Barresi’s is like that, and this third record gives it a durable body.

Like the tongue-and-cheek term “American primitivism” Fahey gave to his guitar music, the terms cosmic Americana or even anti-country become easier ways to understand this music. But the joke is that there is no actual desire to appropriate: in fact, Barresi’s songs are achingly sincere and concerned with real relationships to tradition, place, people, and 2020s gestalt. Folk music, from Roud Ballads to the documents of Appalachia made by Alan Lomax, has always expressed the individual situation in a way others feel inclined to repeat. In recording highly idiosyncratic, personal music borne out of compulsory love for rail systems especially, Chico States permits us to partake in the organized disorientation normally reserved for trainspotters.

- Alex Silver
halfvivid.bsky.social
I do and your sanity is bracing
halfvivid.bsky.social
Thanks for the teacher appreciation, and for the Radio Is A Foreign Country tip!
halfvivid.bsky.social
Continuing to look forward to this. Can't wait to see how he pulls it off with a longer narrative.
halfvivid.bsky.social
Not embarrassing at all.