mysteries revealed
Video for “We Are Not Famous” from my upcoming album The Nothing From Which Nothing Comes out soon on Disintegration Records and Marathon of Dope. The video is directed by the incomparable Mike Marynuik. It was filmed on location at the abandoned Target store in Winnipeg.
I am happy to announce that on Saturday, April 14th, I will be joining my good friend and sometimes collaborator Speed Dial 7 on stage at the Pand.A club in Kortrijk, Belgium. I am very excited to travel back to Europe, and I look forward to seeing some of the friends that I was lucky to have made the last time I visited. Although my stay will be short and jam-packed, I hope to experience all that I possibly can while I am there.
Unfortunately, my time in Europe will only include one performance. However, for those of you who are fans of film, I will also be participating in another event that may interest you. Back a couple years ago, I played the lead role in a film called The Goose. On Saturday, April 7th, that film will be playing at Lichter Filmfest in Frankfurt. Not only will I be in attendance during that screening, but I will also be introducing the film to those in attendance. If you are a fan of psychedelic coming of age stories, or you think you might be, please come and say hi.
If you happen to be in Rotterdam or thereabouts I suggest you go see Mike Maryniuk’s new feature film The Goose, which is screening three times this week at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The Goose is worth seeing for the bare fact alone that it is a psychedelic thrill ride sure to leave you entranced from the opening shot until the credits roll. But! beyond that, you should also go see it because I play the titular character. The Goose is a mute man-boy who gradually comes to the idea of escaping the dead ends of his close-minded rural Manitoban town and heading south to Arizona before another long harsh winter hits home. Travelling by foot through a tripped-out version of the Interlake, soundtracked by Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers, the Goose meets a deli-platter of uniquely Manitoban caricatures, impeccably dressed by the incomparable Gwen Trutnau and portrayed by the likes of Al Simmons, Washboard Hank and Lee White of the Crumbs (among others).
Getting the chance to work on this film has been a highlight of my stupid life. Not only was it as fun as all hell to drive around the back country roads, from town to village to hamlet, searching for some strange location that Maryniuk has had stored in his mind since childhood; nor was the fun confined to the fact that I got to join the film’s small crew of tight-knit filmmakers coming together with more love than money to see this thing through; not even the fact that I was hanging out with a bunch of Winnipeg Weirdos™ issued the artistic license to act even weirder than usual is what made this experience as enjoyable as it was. Ultimately the most rewarding part of this whole dang thing was the fact that I got to be involved in the realization of a Mike Maryniuk project. I believe so deeply in what he is doing, and it was a great honour to be allowed on set, let alone to play the main character. This film is unlike anything I’ve ever seen and I’m overfrickinjoyed that I got to be a part of it.
If you aren’t in Europe this week, don’t worry. You will also be able to catch the film elsewhere sometime soon. I’ll keep you posted.
This past summer, Pip Skid and I participated in an artist residency put on by Synonym Art Consultation at The Tallest Poppy in Winnipeg. We spent a whole weekend in one of the booths at the diner making beats, writing lyrics and recording songs while dining customers stared at us in bewilderment. We had a few friends stop by to help us out, and the result is the Poppycock mixtape. The mixtape features guest artists Birdapres, Greg MacPherson, Charlie Fettah, Nestor Wynrush, Watg Steve of 3peat and Mic Holden. Currently the only place in the universe to hear it is at the Tallest Poppy. It is on constant loop, playing out of a jukebox that was crafted by Pip Skid himself (pictured below). If you happen to be in Winnipeg, head down and grab a spot close to the earphones!
Disintegration Records and The Windsor Hotel Presents:
Rob Crooks – Releasing new single
Figure Walking (Rob Gardiner + Greg MacPherson) – releasing new single
Johnny Phantom (members of Haunter)
DJ No Contact
All proceeds going to Bar None Prison Ride Share
Friday December 23
The Windsor Hotel
Tickets $10.00 advance/$12.00 at the door
There is a new Marathon of Dope compilation complete with all new and exclusive songs by some of the great artists I’m proud to be associated with, such as Pip Skid, Bazooka Joe, Nestor Wynrush, Birdapres, Zucchini Drive, Nomad, Mike Ladd and more. Download the whole thing here for free.
Listen to the brand new song I did exlcusively for the compilation:
“Marathon Of Dope is proud to present our second compilation. We have drawn from this community’s diverse pool of talent, and built a collection of new and unreleased tracks as a special thanks for all of your support. Please enjoy this free smorgasbord of M.O.D. exclusives. Whether you’re searching for an old favorite flavor, a glimpse of a secret side-project, a nostalgic melody, an intricately wound instrumental, or just something to dance to, this compilation has something just for you.”
Download the new EP for pay-what-you-want/can:
http://marathonofdope.com/portfolio/rob-crooks-transcendentality/
We use the word transcendentality in order to distinguish it from forms of new-age or religious transcendentalism. Transcendentality is not about the pure authentic self transcending mere appearances. Nor is transcendentality about the eternal soul transcending the finite body, or the transcendental subject, untouched by the empirical world. Rather, transcendentality is meant to describe the open-ended structure of being. Transcendentality is the play between being and nothingness.
The form of being is time. To be is thought of as being present in the now. However, time does not simply consist of an ever-present now; time consists of the present, the past and the future. The present is not a being itself, but is a coordinate at the nexus of the past and the future. But by definition, the past and the future are not present, and in this sense, they do not have being; they are nothing. To be, then, is to be at the horizon between having-been and not-yet-arrived.
As beings, we are projected towards nothingness. At any now-moment we find ourselves stretched out into the past and towards the future, oriented by the former towards the latter. Put to the extreme, this is being in it’s being-towards-death. The ultimate nothingness of our future is our death. However, short of this ultimate end is the nothingness of our future as our radical freedom. We are projected into the non-being of the future, into the nothingness of pure possibility.
Our imagination plays a formative role in this projection into the future. Since the imagination is the faculty of representing that which does not exist, it projects concrete possibilities into the open space of the future. Our imagination produces images, or fantasies of what the future may hold. And yet, our fantasies are somewhat determined by the non-being of a deep and dark past. And if we become so committed to the fantasies that we project, to the point of blocking ourselves against the radical freedom of this futural nothingness, we limit the possibilities of letting the world reveal itself to us.
Transcendentality is a positive affirmation of our being-towards-death. It gives us a responsibility to not only let ourselves become greater than we are, but also to let the world and the beings we encounter therein to be free to determine themselves. This relation to our radical freedom can be terrifying, but it can also be life-affirming.
New song from the upcoming Transcendentality EP, “Horizon.”
For the first time in history, I have teamed up with my long time friend Factor Chandelier for a song. We call it “Precious Stone.” Our hope is that the song gets in your bones and makes you wanna move your body, no matter how introverted you are, or how weird you may feel. That’s how we feel too, but we still love music that makes us dance.
You can purchase the song on Bandcamp or listen to the audio on Soundcloud.
I owe a big thanks to my friend Ryan Simmons, who shot and directed the video. Thanks Ryan!
I also have to thank Dany Reede, who made this amazing artwork for us to use as the cover to the single. Thanks Dany!
I hope people like it!
I recently sat down with the homie and Winnipeg hip-hop lover Bruce Lord to record an episode of his podcast Pluganomics. We had a couple beers at the Sherb and talked about rap, Winnipeg hip-hop history, the DIY attitude, punk music and authenticity. And some other stuff too. Then we got kicked out by the bouncer. It was rad. Check it out here.