freddyruppert.com

Bubovice, May, 2012

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:28:47 -0400

Bubovice, May, 2012

Volyně, May, 2012

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:27:38 -0400

Volyně, May, 2012

At this rate, if there is a next Former Ghosts album, it will come out like…. ten years from...

Wed, 09 May 2012 04:27:05 -0400

At this rate, if there is a next Former Ghosts album, it will come out like…. ten years from now.

Prague, April, 2012

Sun, 06 May 2012 04:43:00 -0400

Prague, April, 2012

have you listened to the new blink-182 album? what did you think of it? do you like their self-titled?

Sat, 05 May 2012 13:13:35 -0400

I like quite a few songs on self titled. As far as the new record goes, I heard a couple of the singles and was not interested at all. Could not get into it.

The only record I actually consistently go back to/listen to is Dude Ranch.

One of my best friends was recently visiting Prague for the...

Sat, 05 May 2012 05:58:00 -0400

One of my best friends was recently visiting Prague for the first time. While riding the underground we saw the above advertisement and made some joke that this must be the Czech version of Blink-182.

Well…. As soon as we got home, we found out that we were right. More than right.

How is this possible? How do they get away with pulling this off? I think that is the exact riff for Rock Show?

I repeat, how is this possible? Are these guys making their living from this?

They not only have copied the sound, but the exact schtick, looks, jokes, everything. Even that calm breakdown before the final chorus????

Can I do this in the Czech Republic based on some other huge U.S. band, quit my day job, and get away with making a living off it?

P.S. Some extra trivia knowledge: The tattoo’d face guy in the beginning is Czech porn king Robert Rosenberg, known for ass fucking girls “dirty” (known in the biz as unplanned anal on the set without a pre enema) supposedly.(?) He is in a bunch of Czech music videos.

MIND BLOWN…..AGAIN

do you like your peanut butter creamy or crunchy?

Sat, 05 May 2012 02:54:14 -0400

Crunchy. But I’ll settle for creamy if it is the only thing around.

For school, I have to memorize a poem. I was wondering if you had any poems memorized, or if there is a poem you wish you had memorized.

Sat, 05 May 2012 02:51:00 -0400

For school, I had to memorize Robert Frost “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. Which is total bullshit. The whole idea of trying to force yourself to memorize a poem and then having to recite it in front of a classroom is total bullshit. It usually goes into a temporary memory space and then the brain flushes it out for other things and it is gone. There is no way I could recite those poems again now. I didn’t even like them.

I never took much of an interest in poetry until I read Ted Hughes The Birthday Letters. That collection is completely devastating. If you know the backstory behind Plath and Hughes, and you read Plath’s Ariel collection alongside Hughes’ The Birthday Letters, you find yourself on the voyeuristic side of two fascinating people’s devastating and tragic endings.

A few people want to dismiss Hughes completely, call him a total asshole and blame him for Plath’s death. They often write The Birthday Letters off as his last attempt to appear more humanistic, his last ditch response directly to Plath and the feelings people held against him. I’m in the opposite camp. I think the Birthday Letters is a deeply moving and personal collection. I highly recommend reading the Ariel collection and The Birthday Letters side by side.

Below is my favorite poem from Ted Hughes, it is called “Red” and it is the poem that closes The Birthday Letters.

Red was your colour.
If not red, then white. But red
Was what you wrapped around you.
Blood-red. Was it blood?
Was it red-ochre, for warming the dead?
Haematite to make immortal
The precious heirloom bones, the family bones.

When you had your way finally
Our room was red. A judgement chamber.
Shut casket for gems. The carpet of blood
Patterned with darkenings, congealments.
The curtains — ruby corduroy blood,
Sheer blood-falls from ceiling to floor.
The cushions the same. The same
Raw carmine along the window-seat.
A throbbing cell. Aztec altar — temple.

Only the bookshelves escaped into whiteness.

And outside the window
Poppies thin and wrinkle-frail
As the skin on blood,
Salvias, that your father named you after,
Like blood lobbing from the gash,
And roses, the heart’s last gouts,
Catastrophic, arterial, doomed.

Your velvet long full skirt, a swathe of blood,
A lavish burgandy.
Your lips a dipped, deep crimson.

You revelled in red.
I felt it raw — like crisp gauze edges
Of a stiffening wound. I could touch
The open vein in it, the crusted gleam.

Everything you painted you painted white
Then splashed it with roses, defeated it,
Leaned over it, dripping roses,
Weeping roses, and more roses,
Then sometimes, among them, a little blue
bird.

Blue was better for you. Blue was wings.
Kingfisher blue silks from San Francisco
Folded your pregnancy
In crucible caresses.
Blue was your kindly spirit — not a ghoul
But electrified, a guardian, thoughtful.

In the pit of red
You hid from the bone-clinic whiteness.

But the jewel you lost was blue.

are you bisexual?

Fri, 04 May 2012 01:43:00 -0400

No.

Many things in life are never completely black and white.

Why should we think of human sexuality as being any different?

(see: Foucault, post-sexuality, pan-sexuality, etc. etc.)

I fully support all sexual orientations and gender orientations and however one defines OR does not define such things.

What's the number one thing you look for in a boy?

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:53:33 -0400

I think the initial thing that usually pulls anyone’s attention is some sort of physical attraction, which very much differs from person to person. When it really comes down to it though, the number one characteristic I look for in a partner is if they are someone I can trust. If you can’t trust the person you are with then it is bound for failure.

(Hint: Can someone please give me a job writing a love advice column for some magazine or website or whatever?)

What's the number one thing you look for in a girl?

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:36:11 -0400

(Hint: Can someone please give me a job writing a love advice column for some magazine or website or whatever?)

Could you write here the Bare Bones lyrics?

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:27:28 -0400

I don’t really want to revisit this song fully, if you really still want the lyrics for this though, then just e-mail me instead and i’ll sort it out freddyruppert@gmail.com

how are you feeling when you're performing and the audience is just sitting and staring at you?

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:27:13 -0400

I do my best to not pay attention to the audience ever unless they are handing free alcoholic drinks to me or throwing bottles/glasses at my head.

did you keep those old photostrips? (twitpic)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:11:23 -0400

I’m the kind of person that never keeps anything. The less stuff you have the more happier you are.

Prague, April, 2012. Photo by Amir Shoucri

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:34:53 -0400

Prague, April, 2012. Photo by Amir Shoucri

are the lyrics for Home From the Wars EP printed anywhere?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:22:09 -0400

http://freddyruppert.bandcamp.com/album/home-from-the-wars-ep

1. HOME FROM THE WARS

maybe it’s the feeling you get

just beyond the hill

when you see all the city lights

maybe it’s that feeling you get

at the bottom of a bottle

and then it really hits you

you’re never, never coming home from the wars

you let your whole life be defined by it

moments you can’t prevent

every last drop ‘til you forget

maybe it’s that feeling you get

when you feel like dying

under the blurry street lamps

maybe it’s the feeling you get

under a bath tub of water

and then it really hits you

you’re never, never coming home from the wars

2. AN INTOLERABLE REIGN

what’s your bluest memory?

this is me at 19

searching for a landmark

edging beyond the waves

this is me at 25

sucking down a landmark

mother, mother lead heavy

i let your deaths define me

the state i’m always in

mother, mother lead heavy

i’m always running circles

around the things i cast off

what’s your greyest memory?

breaking with one too many

not to bad at tying one on

you can never calm down

this is me at 14

just barely breathing

i look too damn nervous

never ever shining

nothing shuts me up

mother, mother lead heavy

i let your deaths define me

the state i’m always in

mother, mother lead heavy

i’m always running circles

around the things i cast off

mother, mother lead heavy

i’m still always here….

the same places i’m always going

mother, mother lead heavy

i built this entire reign

the state i’m always in

3. UNDER LOOSE STONES

you will carry that burden

of all the drunk ancestors

and all their mistakes you can call your own

a sick family handdown

an obsession with tedium

and a fate that tastes bitter

i’m the great star watcher im not buying any of it

hold my tongue, it just causes me troubles

your friends are whoring

boring me to death

your friends are whoring

boring me to death

there is no redemption in work

just hours lost

just reveling in the past

i bet he sings another song

about his poor dead mother

exploiting all the feelings already owned

i’m the great star watcher i’m not buying any of it

hold my tongue, it just causes me troubles

your friends are whoring

boring me to death

your friends are whoring

boring me to death

under loose stones i find bottles and halos.

4. HERO’S DEATH

i think heaven has found a place for you

i can’t see any justice if not

savior of a million awkward teenagers

savior of a million lost souls

but now i see you turning, turning slowly away

and i can’t blame you.

5. COWARD

without caution i find myself turning back to it

no perfect replacement

mother in a faceless portrait

yes, i’ll have another

those with their own god always have it easier

i learned that the unliving

make the best number ones

now doesn’t that sound like a coward?

they said eventually you will just have the fond

but all i see is bed sores

maybe i’m getting used to it

yes, i’ll have another

those that choose their own fate

always have it easier

6. TO HELL WITH THIS WHOLE DAMN CITY

to hell with this whole damn city

it’s not so cute anymore

i’m a sorry sentimental bastard with a boring disposition

hey girl, i’m not really so tough

it’s just a lie

but maybe that’s why you love me

no grace, but maybe that’s fine

yea, i’ve got some jokes

but they aren’t any good

well what are you thinking about?

I spend all my time figuring out how to do nothing at all

I swear if I have one more drink

I’ll start talking about airplanes

Or I’ll pick a fight over one of your ex boyfriends on the long walk home

I’m sorry that’s not very cool

It’s just the drinks talking

Lets chalk it up to a foreign land

and my ever lasting insecurities

to hell with this whole damn city

to hell with this whole damn city….

to hell with my god damn self

i’m not good at it

but you give me love, you give me time

and your side i want to die by

Joyce Manor

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 06:14:00 -0400

I’ve been friends with Barry from Joyce Manor for quite awhile. When I was doing This Song Is A Mess But So Am I we used to play some shows together with an old band of his called The English Work Standard. Pop punk is something that has always held a place in my heart. The new Joyce Manor record is an amazing record of 9 songs in 13 minutes. When I was talking to Barry about it, he told me that it is like a pop punk record in the breath-span of a powerviolence record. I really liked the idea of that. Each song feels just like a super great idea and then it is done. You hear the amazing hook in the song one time and before you know it you are half way through the next song. Their first S/T record has very much the same approach as well. Barry wrote me and asked if I would just do a remix of their song “See How Tame I Can Be” for fun. Here is a remix I did for the track that sticks to the nature of brevity the original has with an emphasis on the melancholy. Just super simple and brief. I believe Jamie from Xiu Xiu is also doing a remix of the song.

The greatest poem of all time....

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 05:59:11 -0400

Everyday I come home from work and attempt to finish new songs for the next Former Ghosts album but feel as if I am getting nowhere. Inspiration works in very horrible ways sometimes. This poem by Raymond Carver called “Your Dog Dies” is quite possibly the greatest thing ever written about inspiration and maybe even the feeling of exploitation behind it…

“Your Dog Dies” By Raymond Carver

It gets run over by a van.
you find it at the side of the road
and bury it.
you feel bad about it.
you feel bad personally,
but you feel bad for your daughter
because it was her pet,
and she loved it so.
she used to croon to it
and let it sleep in her bed.
you write a poem about it.
you call it a poem for your daughter,
about the dog getting run over by a van
and how you looked after it,
took it out into the woods
and buried it deep, deep,
and that poem turns out so good
you’re almost glad the little dog
was run over, or else you’d never
have written that good poem.
then you sit down to write
a poem about writing a poem
about the death of that dog,
but while you’re writing you
hear a woman scream
your name, your first name,
both syllables,
and your heart stops.
after a minute, you continue writing.
she screams again.
you wonder how long this can go on.

What are your thoughts on the somewhat recent trend of fan-made music videos? Do like and/or support them (presupposing they are actually well made)?

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:12:13 -0400

I think the opinion of whether or not something is “actually well made” is based purely on someone’s subjective taste.

I have no feelings against someone feeling a need to create something.

do u have tshirts for sale

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:00:30 -0400

Not right now. Magic 8 ball says: Ask again later.