Copernicus = Genius

I discovered a genius about seven years ago. I was minding my own business working at the Citysearch office in Pioneer Square and in come seven cd's. We used to get hundreds when we had an actual staff with an actual music writer. Anyhoo, in the afternoons we'd get bored and I would put in a succession of cd's for, I dunno, a minute each. We'd all laugh, gag, boo, hiss, whatever at the music. BAD music, my friends. The world is littered with people who definitely do not deserve music deals.

But then it happened. Without warning, I discovered a mad genius. Copernicus is his name.



The album I was lucky to discover was called Immediate Eternity. I was attracted to the album for myriad reasons, not the least of which because an old, crazy, long-haired man was bursting into the universe in a halo of flames on the cover. Awesome, right? Well, you got that right.


The music, though...wow. How to begin? Here's a quote from an article on Copernicus:

Not only is "From Bacteria" one of Copernicus' golden rants, bellowing and raw, harking back to a previously unrecognized Age of Microscopy, before humans or even dinosaurs began fouling the nest, it leads straight into one of his most cherished pieces, "The Lament of Joe Apples," a drunken Bukowskovian narrative by a fictional frothing bullman running his ego against the leash.

I told you! Awesome. Read more here.

My friend Clare told me that her mom shows a fantastic high school history class video starring Clare, me and three other friends reenacting Odysseus but in "current" terms. This involved me creating a joint out of lawn grass and paper towels (and lighting it and having it literally burst into flames in my face), and the use of a canoe on the lawn and our friend Kathy throwing a wooden fish back and forth out of camera view. Clare, with her hair affro'd out in all directions, played a sea monster. Anyways, Clare's mom shows this to people in order to judge whether they have a sense of humor. And this is what I did with my new Copernicus album. Every time we'd hire a new person I'd play Copernicus and watch them try to figure out if I was serious. Good times.

Anyhow, it's worth looking this guy up. I promise, even though you'll spend the next hour wondering what the hell he's talking about, it'll be worth it.