chapstick, and chapped lips, and things like chemistry

Winter is upon us ... I am dry - Physically, Creatively, and probably something else more sensual-ly

Hello wonderful human subscribers. I am writing to you from my slightly chaotic home in Los Angeles. Suitcases are out. Clothes on the floor. My various winter moisturizers are sprawled out on the coffee table. I highly recommend the Aquaphor lip repair as well as the D’keeffe’s Working Hands cream. Without these my lips and hands would be far too dry to be kissing the asses and shaking the hands of the industry executives I very obviously am around on a regular basis here in Los Angles. The second largest cultural epicenter of the world - which brings me to my next update.

I recently performed in New York, yes thee cultural epicenter of the world, at Pioneer Works alongside my bffs LEYA and More Eaze. Working with these three other people really has been an example (for me personally) of what good and healthy musical and emotional chemistry can be. When the group of collaborators is juuust right shit pops off every night. We were opening for my other bff (slightly less so) William Basinski. The night was gay, adequately-rehearsed, and full of love. Literally played to thousands of people there and only stressed about it a teeny bit in the form of a debilitating panic attack following the performance. Massive thanks to everyone who came, bought merch, worked the venue, etc. MAJOR XO to Billy for inviting us

My performance schedule is over for 2023 and I am spending the rest of the year in LA straight up hanging loose baby. It is funny to think of art/music/whatever as having on and off seasons. This is especially interesting to me because during these ‘off’ seasons, I generally have the most ideas and do the most behind-the-scenes work. I have a new album out next year so this kinda is a pre-announcement of that record. It will be out on the fabulous label Thrill Jockey, who I have followed as a fan for many years. It feels both and honor and an oddly *meant to be* after the last 6 or 7 years of obsessing over the label, their bands and Chicago in general. Hoping some of y’all are excited for a new LP and the slightly new musical direction that I am experimenting with on it.

Last few things I have to say are more business actions than anything else.

1. I have newly printed Emo Ambient T-shirts in BLACK available for purchase online that begin shipping the first week of January. Super excited about these and the ability to offer them in a color everyone has been asking for. ORDER ONE HERE. Or below where there is more info.

2. I am performing next year quite a lot but am not allowed to tell you about it yet. It is so stupid but the way the ridiculous industry works that I somehow found myself deeper inside than desired. No shade to my team. I have the best people around me and am grateful everyday that none of them are too pushy, fucking capitalist snakes, or idiots. You can find the dates I am allowed to tell you about below.

3. My final NTS show of the year airs tomorrow December 18th, 2023 at 9pst | 12est | 5gmt. You can catch it live or thru the archive the next day. This show is my end of the year list of sorts. All tracks on it are from releases that deeply touched me in 2023. I was not asked to contribute my list to any of the cool kid websites this year so I have also included my full albums of the year list in this Substack letter. Tune in HERE when the time is right.

The shit you want or don’t:

EMO AMBIENT T SHIRT IN BLACK

LIVE PERFORMANCES (so far) IN 2024

January 20th - Darkness Sounding - Los Angeles, CA

January 26th - Drone not Drones - Minneapolis, MN

March 22nd - Big Ears Festival - Knoxville, TN

April 11th - Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts - Omaha, NE

claire rousay’s EOTY list of music

Asha Sheshadri - Whiplash

Ellen Arkbro - Sounds While Waiting

J and the woolen stars - Personal Problems

Steve Gunn & David Moore - Let the Moon be a Planet

Flora Yin-Wong - Cold Reading

Plume Girl - In The End We Begin

Lisa Lerkenfeldt - Halos of Perception

Felicia Atkinson - Ni envers ni endroit que cette roche brulante (Pour Georgia OKeeffe)

Theodore Cale Schafer - Trust

Yuele - softscars

Jules Reidy - Trances

Nykolaes & Daniël Paul - neofolk

Martyna Basta - Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering

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I typed this whole thing out in one take without going back to edit anything. I am not a writer and absolutely am not talented in the same way some of my fellow musicians are, where they can write essays, compose music, speak eloquently about world matters, etc. I am, however, trying really fucking hard and that’s gotta count for something.

Link to the song the title of this post is from

With so much love,

cr

photograph by Adam Sputh