Rubin Recommends

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

photo by: Emmett Shine

I found out about Norman in 1997 when my friend Brett let me borrow a few copies of the zine Anti-Matter (that I kept,) then I got into the band Texas Is The Reason (that he played guitar in,) and he released one of the most amazing comps of that time, The Anti-Matter comp that was made up of bands that he’d covered in his zine. That comp is a mix tape of everything I liked when it came out. It was life changing. (Thanks to Curtis for connecting us.)

Keep up with Norman on his blog http://nervousacid.org, Purchase the Anti-Matter Anthology book, and check out the Anti-Matter comp CD.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Brannon: I’ve sort of ducked out of public life for a second to go back to school. I’m a 34-year-old full-time college student right now, studying Writing & Literature with a concentration in Secondary Education. The idea is that I want to become an English teacher, obviously, so I’m definitely anxious to finish my degree and get on with it.

Making music is more of a personal endeavor at this point, but I’m pretty excited by the recent direction of Zodiac Social. The last few tracks I finished have really set the tone for what I hope will become a full-length album. Also, I just took a brief sabbatical from blogging after driving myself crazy posting about the election, but I used the time to prune and redesign Nervous Acid. The break gave me a chance to figure out how I would make it more of a personal statement and less of a pop culture catch-all. I’m going to try to roll that all out this week.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Brannon: My boyfriend and I took a hike in upstate New York a couple of weeks ago, on Sugarloaf Hill, which is somewhere between the Hudson River and absolutely nowhere. There is one stretch of the hike that is kind of ridiculous — like, it feels like you are walking up a wall. I was struggling a little bit and we saw this family coming down from the peak with a 7-year-old girl and boy who had to be 4. I turned to John with this face, like, “There must be a fucking elevator somewhere. There is no way they did this.” So anyway, the little girl waits for me to climb by and then she stops me and says, “Don’t worry! The view is worth it!” I must have just scowled at her. But it was pretty awesome at the top.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Brannon: I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Notwist. I saw them play a few weeks ago and it was the first time I’ve been so excited about a show in years. I also recently discovered this guy in London named James Yuill, who makes this really unique kind of pop-techno. The only way I can explain it is that if you took out the electronic elements, it would still be a solid folk record, and if you took out the guitar and vocal, it would still be a solid techno record. I can’t think of anyone else who can really pull that off. There’s been a lot of Lowgold, Radio Slave, and Carl Craig in the mix, too.

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Brannon: Local is a relative term in New York City, so I will say I had a pretty awesome vegetable risotto at La Nacional on 14th Street the other night. But my favorite restaurant in New York is Vatan, hands down. It’s the best Indian food I’ve ever had, and I’ve probably spent at least 6 or 7 months of my life living in India. They shut down for, like, a year to renovate, and I thought I was gonna have a heartattack.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Brannon: Yeah. Four years ago I got hit by a tow truck while crossing the street, and I almost died. I was in the hospital for, like, two months. And I got literally hundreds of get-well cards and letters from well-wishers who appreciated something I did in the past 15 years. Maybe I was in a vulnerable state, but I got really choked up by it — just looking at those boxes of mail by my hospital bed. Anyway, it would have been impossible to write everyone back and I never managed to put out there, somewhere in the ether, that all those letters really helped me through it. So I wanted to put it out there now, better late than never.