Issue 66 Giant Robot Magazine asked me to write a list of top 5 things, any 5 things like songs, movies, jobs, etc. I decided to submit 5 things women should wear more.
Giant Robot Magazine Issue 65
Replacing Their Owners Heads TRAILER
Trailer for 2nd video from 2nd album “Swimming to Cambodia”
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Being Myself is Getting me Nowhere
“Being Myself is Getting Me Nowhere”
by Michael Nhat
question things among yourselves but always trust your dentist
invite her to lunch tomorrow
(even though a month later she’ll say “just friends”)
make a resume based on things i care about like falling through roofs
imagine back then so you don’t forget the meaning of generosity
learn to read bad handwriting
no one eats bat anymore
name your curtains in case they ever talk back
always hope the worst for people it gives you self-esteem
i first talked about hate in 1993
love traditions they are good for your joints
i always eat pho on my birthday
The line of crooked teeth
my shoes are black
(Unscramble)
adnil tsaw a tac nmdea wcomso
what leaves you speechless?
Marvel multiplied to an infinite degree yet you’re losing yourself to the common cold
(I’ve lost count)
“no word could exude life like an image could”
make them die slowly
no one knows how miserable i am because i’m too embarressed to write it
but i know my fate
ignored in my lifetime like david hume
and get famous after i die in the plane crash i was suppossed to die in along time ago
(i want in on the bets)
i am proud to die saying i have never been to disneyland
i am proud to die saying i have never been to a stripclub
the only thing i have learned from trying to meet someone new is how to get shot and not bleed anymore
don’t commit suicide or you’ll never get your deposit back on the apartment
being myself is getting me nowhere
(maybe i should take up acting)
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Swimming to Cambodia (The 2nd Album) by Michael Nhat
2nd Album “SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA” is Finished! Record Release Party@ ECHO CURIO August 30th (a monday) Copies of the new CD will be available for the 1st time ever and for the super low price of $35.00! Not good enough? Fine $5.00 and it’s yours! Also expect a FREE rare EP also for those who purchase the album at the release party!
(microwaving the grissle)
This album started out as The November Album which i was planning to release in november. The great change in mood and setting between this album and the first one is vast. So, to prepare listeners i made plans to create from scratch an EP and call it Swimming to Cambodia and release it in the summer. While making this EP, it quickly became a full length. Then i decided fuck it let’s just put all the songs from the November Album on it now because i know that when fall comes i propably won’t be as excited about them and i’ll shelf them. I am very glad i have made that decision.
Great title? thank you i actually stole it. i was at old bank dvd about 2 years ago and i seen the title and imagined my own interpretation. That Swimming to cambodia meant to do the impossible and absurd for the love of someone. Then i actually saw the film and it was nothing like that, and that’s fine and dandy with me.
I consider this my “white” album. I do not expect a commercial embracement of this whatsoever. Instead i expect a slow appreciation under the radar, kind of like Paul’s Boutique when it came out. It was years ahead of it’s time. I expect the usual stale format conservatives and ophrah winfrey traditionalists to ostracize it like was done to Okay Computer at first “…this is more like music to cut your wrist to..” again is fine with me.
If the first album moved your mind and feet, this one should move your mind and maybe heart? no dancing shoes required this time around. A return to form if you will. 90% of the music on here is from 2001/2002.
I know you’ve heard me say plenty of times, “when i buy a _____ album i want to hear what i already have expectations of that artist”. One of the reasons we like so and so is because they made this song or album and when the next comes we want more of that but different right? As a consumer it always pissed me off when artists/bands changed their direction and i just bought their new i wish i was a surfer album and i was expecting some shut the fuck up and swallow your own severed tongue stuff. So why am i doing just that? Changing my sound and contradicting myself?
I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself. This is only my 2nd album. In translation that means i don’t even have a sound yet except… hissy tape music. But let’s be honest, there’s something about me you can’t put your finger on, but you know and i know very well it’s a michael nhat project, and that’s consistent enough. When you release your 2nd album there’s two great changes that occur within your listeners. One there are people who now have expectations. Two you lose the element of surprise. I like to think i defeated both, but who knows, maybe everyone will say they like the first one better like they do with a lot of artsits because of their expectations. And maybe the album is prematurely ahead of it’s time. And the problem with that is.. there’s no one else here to enjoy it with me.
In the words of Werner Herzog on Harmony Korine’s avant garde filmmaking not making any enormous waves and changes in cinema is… “So what?” that’s what i have to say to that.
Sincerely,
Michael
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1st video from “SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA” (2ND ALBUM)
written and directed by champoy hate
starring me and lis bomb
from my 2nd album “Swimming to Cambodia” availabe August 31, 2010
“Pay Me and I’ll Tell you”
by Michael Nhat
We shot this video before we even knew what song it was for Champ asked me a day or two before if he could do a video downtown with me and lis, this was in february. They picked me up at work right when i clocked out. It was cold. This was before Swimming to Cambodia as we know it even started. Maybe 2 weeks later we got together again, this time with a crew, and shot “Here’s a Mop to Clean the Floor” and that was done and edited in one week. Another weekend after that Champ asked me what are going to do with that footage downtown? So i came over to the Malo Funnhouse and we edited it, to a song i was calling The Emptiness. That same day we took a break and i recorded a collaboration with Eric Recendez and Rhea Tepp (magick orchids). About an hour later it was back to the video. I didn’t like the name The Emptiness, i just named it that because i was calling the beat that before there was lyrics, so Rhea helped me out submitting 4 names on a piece of scratch paper “Pay Me and I’ll Tel You” was the last on that list and immediately was the one. That’s it. Then Champ posted it on his Vimeo.
Michael
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GIANT ROBOT Reviews My 1st Record
I made GIANT ROBOTS TOP PICKS in issue 64 BLACK PLANET
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FREE MP3 “BEER” by Michael Nhat
CLICK HERE FOR MP3 on LA RECORDS ST PADDYS DAY MIXTAPE 2010.
“Beer” by Michael Nhat
I wrote this and made the music in 2002 at the Avalon Hotel in Burbank, California. I recorded a demo of it then, and have been wanting to re-record it for years. When i saw LA RECORD advertise for a drinking song for this mix, i found a reason to bring light back to this song.
Visit the Link at the top to download “BEER” and the entire Mixtape!
Michael Nhat and Lis Bomb (Christmas Dinner on a boat) by Champoy Hate
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I’m Conceited
Yesterday my roommate told me she dated a guy a long time ago that told her i was really conceited and that everyone in the valley hates me. I have no idea who he is after she told me his name, but i thought it was funny and I laughed.
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Disconcerted Romanticism
“Disconcerted Romanticism”
by Michael Nhat
If i were to film the life of christ i would film the scenes that were left out
“my version of the life of christ is like, everything they didn’t show” – from Leti, Leslie, and Marianne….
Hold you in suspense for days on end (Giono)
Everything is Successful because of a misunderstanding
Thanks to cultural alibi, there is no such thing as noble or plebeian subject
(This one is about choice)
I Don’t know how to tell a story
but at the end i’m going to feature an asian woman never mentioned previously telling us a story about failing to make her parents happy so she murders her unsuccessful lover (her parents) despise and gets a telemarketing job that allows their employees to wear denim blue jeans and sneakers to work where the office is always cold because it lowers the body temperature, thus preventing them from becoming tired at work.
i want to get get to the point in my life where i make you regret that you left me…..
(This is about being okay with loneliness by not opening up, then meeting someone and opening up and that person leaves you)
She’s only herself when she’s smoking cigarrettes
I Grew up repulsed by my sister smoking
She’s used to being afraid of losing people
I’m used to years of having no one but i’m okay with it because everyone leaves
she asked her bf before me to marry her
she has always been the one to ask her lovers out
no one hits on me (Lis Bomb and Andrew Felix are the good-looking ones in the band)
she has always gotten heartbroken and left (until me)
and I usually do the breaking up (until her)
she has never dated anyone she really wanted but settled out of fear of being alone
(but she accuses me of it with her)
i finally got my tattoo that said, “i have better taste in movies than you”
he’s just a friend, he’s the last person in the world she’d date
i guess i don’t have to worry about you leaving me and then dating him right after, so yeah sure he can spend the night or vice versa, i trust you
her: i didn’t tell you i had feelings for him out of respect
me: you didn’t tell me just because of respect, but also because if i knew you two liked each other i’d ask if you didn’t hang out with him
Moral Anarchy (Friends lie)
Child Abandoment
Everyone Pigeonholes Adventure
People forget they exist
A Way of selecting certain scenes than others
Christina: I felt weird doing that with you because it made me think of him
Raven: She’s not even cute Michael and her new boyfriend is creepy
Yara: that same exact thing just happened to me!
Tania: My bf left me for his cousin, your gf left you and dated her brother
Deseret: That is really fucked up i can’t believe it
(Anonymous friend): Well, I never liked him anyways
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Trailer for ALL BIRDS BORN BLIND COMMIT SUICIDE (by Andrew Felix)
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Did you think it hurt when i cut her? said the kid
by michael nhat (naught)
i wonder if anyone has watched and paid attention to that line in the movie a boy and his dog at the very beginning, he was one of the rapists.
inspiration or thievery?
little red riding hood is based on a peasant tale about an uncle who molests/ed his niece and murdered her family member (i don’t know if it was aunt or grandma)
no one says ragdog anymore
we used to wear top hats
(i only commit to efforts in getting commercially successful is because i’m scared of getting imitated by a watered down and contrived version of me who becomes recognized for something he or she ripped off from me, yes i said the word me) how the hell am i suppossed to see the picture?
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LA RECORD Reviews the Self-titled Release on How to be a Microwave
Michael nhat - (Self-titled LP)
I read somewhere that he wants to show people “what the music of a post-Vietnam War orphan would be like.” But Michael Nhat’s debut LP sounds more Angelino than Vietnamese, with humorous non-sequiturs, pent-up hostilities, portraits of hipster chicks, and admonitions about werewolves rapped and sung over tracks that sound like they were sampled right out of the air in Filipinotown or the less gentrified parts of Echo Park. Featuring catchy lo-fi looping keyboards, Nhat’s minimal beats propel his brutal, barking cadence towards something that is alternately poppy (”Everybody Knows Werewolves Kill”) and disconcerting (”Death by Bells”). Yet his charm has much to do with his unparalleled charisma in a live setting. A musical movement unto himself, he’s got this “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that is only foiled by the obvious care and commitment that he puts into his performances. It seems a bit empty, honestly, to hear his detached voice on a slab of vinyl, because part of the fun is watching him emote while getting bounced around by drunk girls in their early twenties who are worshiping at the alter of Nhat and having the time of their lives. Fuck it, though – this record is a good training manual for the show. The songs sound just like they do live, so memorize them and muscle your way into the front row sing-a-long next time this dude plays your living room. You’ll have a lot of fun if you do.
-Geoff Geis (LA RECORD)
SHOP MICHAEL NHAT here: http://shop.larecord.com/brands/Michael-Nhat.html
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Footage of my Record Release Party for the Self-titled LP@Vermont House
i didn’t throw up or have a hangover from that night
i didn’t get laid that night either
Horror Movies – “Save the Witches from Burning” LIVE
me and my gf, gabie gonzalez, have a band HORROR MOVIES
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buy indie stuff
i like buying from indie stores because it makes me feel good knowing my money isn’t going to some overpaid giant.
i like buying indie albums brand new because (maybe i’m wrong) but i thought it would give numbers to soundscan which would make the industry say to itself, “hey this kind of music does sell, maybe we should look into this” and they’d get a clue that there are a significant number of people who will buy this kind of hiphop. and after learning that maybe they’d stop forcefeeding the masses pop rap and perhaps put a balance of both or all kinds of hiphop in the exposure i feel is needed.
i used to not want anything to do with majors and mtv etc. and i wanted to do things like perform everywhere i can be successful like bands in the 60′s and 70′s without mtv’s help. but then i realized shit.. this isn’t then. i can’t think that way.
if thom yorke and bjork can be on majors and release authentic music why can’t we?
i first heard about slick rick, eric b and rakim, heavy d., bdp, stop the violence, public enemy, etc because i saw their videos on yo mtv raps.
if hiphop from then came out now with the same exact beats and style, they wouldn’t be on majors. they’d be indie. and they wouldn’t have the status or respect they do as much either.
the point is times have changed.
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SODAPOP CULTURE INTERVIEWS MICHAEL NHAT
SODA POP CULTURE INTERVIEWS MICHAEL NHAT
SPC: First of all , why did you start playing music ?..
MN: I WANTED A GIRLFRIEND
SPC: Any bands / artists you listen to get inspired ?
MN: YES, MY BEATS AFTER I MAKE THEM
SPC: How would you label yourself in the music world ?
MN: ROCK AND ROLL FOR TODAYS STAGNANT CRAP ON THE AIR
SPC: Any secret meanings in your songs ? if so , care to dish them out ?
MN: I ONLY RAP ABOUT GIRLS AND THE END OF THE WORLD
SPC: How close are you to your fans ?
MN: CLOSE ENOUGH TO KNOW SOME OF THEIR BRA SIZE
SPC: Have fans done anything crazy at your shows ?
MN: SOMEONE STARTED HUMPING THE COUCH AND SWINGING HIS FEDORA HAT AROUND LIKE A COWBOY
SPC: Any people you look up to ?
MN: BLACK PEOPLE THAT DON’T SAY THE N’ WORD
SPC: How would you react if you blew up famously ?
MN: I WOULD NOT TELL ANYONE
SPC: What’s one place in the world you’d love to visit but not live in ?
MN: THE CASTLE THAT VLAD THE IMPALER LIVED IN
SPC : Any guilty pleasures ?
MN: 40 OZ COBRAS AS OF NOW
SPC: Who’d you love to play with ? (Dead and alive)
MN: FRANK SINATRA AND RADIOHEAD
SPC: Any big things in the near future ?
MN: THAT QUESTION IS TOO HARD I CANT ANSWER IT
SPC: And finally , do you <3 sodapopculture back ?
MN: I ONLY SAY I LOVE YOU WHEN I WANT MONEY
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LA RECORD Reviews my Record Release Party
iTunes
www………myspace………com/michaelnhat
Michael Nhat. Fuck, this dude is a total hip-hop star! He was about to start the show when he realized that he’d left his beats outside, so there was this five minute stretch of time where everyone in the hallway was chanting “Michael Nhat! Michael Nhat!” Arto from Narwhal Party hyped the crowd while we waited, asking us about our drug preferences (“Do you like shrooms?!” “YEAH!!!” “Do you like to shoot heroin?!” “YEAH!!!”), and eventually Nhat got there with his jams and started
bumping them. The crowd immediately raged and surrounded the rapper, a
short Vietnamese dude with a very-Vietnamese beard and impeccable taste in sweaters. It was pretty great to watch him bounce around in the midst of his fans, clutching onto his microphone and once getting thrown so hard into his CD player that he inadvertently shut off his backing track. I saw part of his show last week at Environmentaland, and he was sitting down in a chair during that. This was very different indeed.
I didn’t hear a word that he had to say. It wasn’t really that kind of show, and I’m not even sure that he’s that kind of a performer. But some spark shines through in his performance—even if the words are distorted by a shitty mic, through a shitty PA, in a shitty room. And he has sick beats, and I really like the sing-songy nature of his flow. But to be honest, I’m having a hard time figuring out why exactly I thought he was special—was it the music itself, or was it
the fact that it came out of this particular guy? I bought his record, so maybe I’ll figure it out later.
- Geoff Geis LA RECORD
www.larecord.com
the fact that it came out of this particular guy? I bought his record, so maybe I’ll figure it out later.
- Geoff Geis LA RECORD
www.larecord.com
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LA RECORD Interviews me for “I LOVE BREAD” Mixtape
Rapper Michael Nhat’s new self-titled album releases Tuesday, Oct. 27, on How To Be A Microwave and his record release show is this Saturday at the House of Vermont. He presents L.A. RECORD with a mixtape—which he titled I Love Bread—and a story to go with every song.
Mozart “Fantasy In F Minor”
One of my girlfriends in 1997 played it live at her school and it made me really appreciate classical music because I didn’t before.
Sonic Youth “Panty Lies”
This song influenced me to start rapping. I had been doing it for fun but this one encouraged me to rap professionally. When people ask me one of my greatest influences, I refer to this—Kim Gordon and Sonic Youth.
Wu-Tang Clan “Can It Be It Was All So Simple”
This is what I was listening to in 1993. I bought my first 4-track and was making music for fun. I played this a lot. The beats and the music inspired me because it was at a time when rap had just finished its MC Hammer era and they were dividing themselves on East and West Coast. And I was East Coast.
Wayne Newton “Danke Schoen”
When I was a kid I heard it in the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off movie. I didn’t know who sang it. But this song started my obsession with hunting down songs I would hear places. This was before the Internet.
Etta James “Trust In Me”
This came on in Chicago at a party on the Southside, and it was my first time encountering her. I immediately liked it. I wish I could sound like Etta James.
PJ Harvey “Is That All There Is?”
I heard it when it first came out in 1996 and maybe a little after that my dad died. This is the first song I played after that so it takes me back there.
Radiohead “Fitter Happier”
The writing of this song is probably the deepest influence in how I write my songs. It changed how I see the writing process. I didn’t get it at first. I just liked it for music’s sake. But as I started paying attention—I would say I emulate this style, as opposed to what everyone else confuses me with. People think I am influenced by Anticon and Busdriver. I am not. I’d never even heard of these people until I moved out here.
Johnny Mathis “It’s Not For Me To Say”
This was when I decided to quit making music as a hobby in 1997. I wanted to be normal and go to school and get a job. I had a daughter and this makes me think of her. I was going to school for film and I made a short and put this song in for her.
Otis Redding “I’ve Got Dreams”
This reminds me of the last time I robbed a house. We were looking up obituaries and found someone who had just died and went to his place. We tried to get as much as we could, but ended up just with his guns and sold them. This was something I’d been doing since I was 16. Also at that time, I got in trouble for storing crack for a friend. My dad found it and flushed it down the toilet. My friends thought I sold it or smoked it.
Sesame Street Kid “Sesame Street”
In Iowa at the parties, DJs would play songs like this at the end of their set. It opened my ears to this type of funny happy song. I started collecting songs like that. Eventually this began to influence my music, which is why my songs are so poppy.
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE “I LOVE BREAD” MIXTAPE here: http://larecord.com/radio/2009/10/22/mixtape-michael-nhat-i-love-bread/
MICHAEL NHAT WITH VOICE ON TAPE, HALLOWEEN SWIM TEAM, NARWHAL PARTY, REDEMER, BLUE TAPE RED TAPE AND LUNA IS HONEY ON SAT., OCT. 24, AT THE RELEASE PARTY FOR MICHAEL NHAT’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM AT THE HOUSE OF VERMONT, 1515 S. VERMONT AVE., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM / DONATIONS / ALL AGES. HOWTOBEAMICROWAVE.COM. MICHAEL NHAT’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM RELEASES TUE., OCT. 27, ON HOW TO BE A MICROWAVE. VISIT MICHAEL NHAT AT MICHAELNHAT.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/MICHAELNHAT.
Posted in INTERVIEWS, PRESS
Tagged Michael Nhat, anticon, busdriver, download, etta james, Free promotions, house of vermont, how to be a microwave, johnny mathis, kim gordon, mixtape, mozart, mp3, otis redding, pj harvey, radiohead, record release, sesame street kid, sonic youth, wayne newton, wu tang clan
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No one Completes You
me: what are you doing friday? want to hang out?
her: friday? i work until 6:30. yeah let’s hang out.
(an hour later a friend meets up with us)
friend: i want to see “where the wild things are!”
her: me too! want to go see it friday?!
friend: alright i’ll go with you. what are you doing friday michael?
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Michael Nhat 12 inch LP
October 24th is the Release Party @The Vermont House in los angeles for $10 bucks a record.
AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE @www.howtobeamicrowave.com
“Fiercely intelligent, standout lyrics—dark, irreverent, and brutally honest—sear over the unabashedly catchy music, comprised of homemade synth beats and/or snappy, classy samples. Nhat’s inimitable throaty voice and perfectly enunciated rapid-fire delivery (with just the right dose of attitude) complete the outfit” – Regina Cherene/LA RECORD
(Song Listing)
(side a)
1. Here’s a Mop to Clean the Floor
2. A lot of People Ask if That’s Her Real Name
3. Tell Me You’re Not Wearing That
4. Death by Bells or Cemetary (w/Jbts)
5. Everyone Knows Werewolves kill
6. Dirt (w/Travisaurus)/(bonus – Tongue Part 1 w/Timmo & k-the-i???)
(side b)
7. Tongue Part 2 (Sandra edit)
8. Blood on the Cats Skin
9. Japan
10. We’re Learning How to Walk through Walls
11. Photos of a klansman Raping Bettie Page/(bonus – When Dracula Met the Wolfman (w/k-the-i???)
12. Ponds and Lakes (w/Cardio Pulmonary)
Album Cover Photography by Elizabeth Ann Alvarado
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