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 misunderstandin​g
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 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

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?

LA RECORD Reviews the Self-titled Release on How to be a Microwave

(official 1st album)
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

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.

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 ❤ sodapopculture back ?

MN: I ONLY SAY I LOVE YOU WHEN I WANT MONEY

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

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.