I’ve never been able to sufficiently describe Darkside. “Electronica meets blues meets the opening credits to a non-existent HBO show” is kind of the best I can do and yet it’s still just the bare impression of a sound. They are unique yet somehow the merging point of a number of familiar frequencies. I should probably stop writing and you should probably just listen, if you don’t already know them. And once you’re hooked, you should buy a ticket to one of their very few upcoming performances as part of a multi-city residency. I already purchased mine for a night at Paris’ recently reopened La Gaîté Lyrique, but they’re also playing London, Los Angeles, and New York in the coming months.
-DW
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A son, his 78-year-old alcoholic father, seven grams of psilocybin, and a therapist’s living room in Kalamazoo. This excerpt from writer John O’Connor’s forthcoming book is harrowing, very funny, and refreshingly unsentimental about what psychedelics can and can’t do. (A Short, Strange Trip comes out next week but is available for pre-order now.)
-VvP
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Despite being published on April 1st, I’m going to believe the veracity of this story nonetheless. Apparently researchers successfully “reconstituted in a plant assay the complete biosynthetic pathways of five most renowned natural indolethylamine psychedelics from three kingdoms of life (i.e., Plantae, Fungi, and Animalia),” or, in other words, engineered the tobacco plant to produce psilocin/psilocybin, DMT, bufotenin, and 5-methoxy-DMT in a single crop. Beyond the fact that this is just really cool, it’s a compelling glimpse into the future of "molecular pharming," where the next generation of psychiatric medicine might be harvested from a greenhouse rather than cooked in a sterile lab. It’s just a shame the term “wacky tobaccy” has already been claimed.
-DW
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I can’t stop listening to Bruce Hornsby’s latest album, which is at turns insanely catchy, a little bit weird, and surprisingly eclectic—at least to me. Indigo Park includes contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Justin Vernon, and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, which comes through in the mix. But I recommend starting with the video for “Ecstatic,” Hornsby’s collaboration with Raitt, which features the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team. (Here’s some complementary reading if you’re curious what Hornsby himself had to say about the album.)
-VvP
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I wrote about the first Bob Ross auction back in October, and now we’re on our third. Like the initial one at Bonhams, 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his paintings will go to defunded public television stations across the country. I recently introduced my son to the joy of The Joy of Painting and it’s been amazing to watch him not only discover Ross’ infectious calm, but also see how simple it can be to create layered works of art. Four works will be available for viewing at Bonhams New York from April 18th to April 22nd, and the auction itself will be held on the 23rd.
-DW
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