There are many things that goes through one’s head while waiting for a Hot Pocket to heat up in the microwave, the agonizing time spent between gently placing the frozen snack on the glass plate and that moment you frantically stop the timer at 0:01, just to not have to hear the annoying-ass buzzer sound.
For Los Angeles’ Butch Bastard, the pseudonym of singer/songwriter Ian Murray, formerly of Poor Moon (Sub Pop/Bella Union), those precious few minutes are when his brain starts to race with all the thoughts of a man trying to make sense of the world.
“You’re standing there at two in the morning, probably in your underwear,” Butch Bastard says in a press release that we read from start to finish. “You’re hungry, but you have to wait a few minutes for this thing. There is a lot to reflect upon in that time… By the time I had put the Hot Pocket in it’s cardboard sleeve, popped it in the microwave, waited for the cook cycle, popped it out, let it cool, filled a small ramekin with Ranch Dressing, and eaten it while watching the last 15 minutes of an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I had done enough soul searching to compose this piece.”
The gentle, acoustic, reflective track, appropriately titled “Waiting For A Hot Pocket”, burns the tongue, but in a good way. It will appear on Butch Bastard’s upcoming LP, which that aforementioned press release tells us was recorded pretty much all by himself but includes contributions from Mitch Rowland, Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty), and Jonathan Wilson.
Ponder the death of friends, prison sentences, and the shade of Los Angeles by pressing “cook” below.