five for five, by Jaded Azurites

five for five

by Jaded Azurites

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1.	little volcanoes 01:24	buy track
2.	sex is work 01:51	buy track
3.	argument 01:59	buy track
4.	it's hard to say exactly how I feel 01:14	buy track
5.	dreamland fire 01:54	buy track

about

Write something. A few sentences, a short paragraph. Tell yourself something you need to hear, yell at someone—an ex, an aggressive driver. Write on a piece of scrap paper, on the back of a dumb bill, on a receipt. Write in pen or pencil, with your hand; make it solid so that you can hold it when you’re done.

Everyone’s a writer, just like everyone can draw or sing or bang an instrument in rhythm. It’s not a question of virtuosity, but of an ancient impulse to escape the self, to forge pathways to each other through channels beyond speaking. Mike Watt has been living this idea for over forty years. “Punk is whatever we made it to be,” said D. Boon, his bandmate in the Minutemen, and Watt continues to carry forth the notion that if he and D. Boon and George Hurley could do it, so can we.

Now his band is my life. Jaded Azurites has a new EP, “five for five,” our fifth since our debut in January 2018. The stakes feel higher this time—I no longer take for granted a “next” anything. We all wake up to the realities of infectious disease, climate collapse, and now a war in Ukraine—images of civilians shot off bicycles, threats of nuclear annihilation that seem designed to keep us frightened, on edge and easier to control. Five new Jaded Azurites songs is an almost laughably minor effort in the face of calamities, yet I think writing something, anything—or playing bass, recording it, making it stick—is minor only if it’s unique. And it’s not. Joining the effort, we make it bigger.

“Argument,” “Sex Is Work” and “It’s Hard to Say Exactly How I Feel” originated as poems; Mike composed bass to words I gave him. “Little Volcanoes” and “Dreamland Fire” are bass compositions from which poems grew. In 1911, the Dreamland amusement park in Coney Island burned to the ground; ambitious carnies sold tickets to the smoldering ruins. Did you ever feel like that? Write it down. Make it stick. I believe in you.

credits

released April 29, 2022

karen schoemer - vocals
mike watt - bass
all words by karen schoemer
all songs schoemer/watt
recorded during 2021 in new york and california
produced by mike watt
all photos by karen schoemer