When the world is unkind, my dreams tend to compensate with wholesome whimsy. Musicians whom I happen to know in real life often enter my dreamscape: There was the one where Sadie Dupuis from Speedy Ortiz cracked a joke in her typical dry wit and Hayley Williams (a frequent figure of my sleepytime subconscious!) from Paramore busted a move. Many years ago, Michelle Zauner created an ambient room-tone version of the Japanese Breakfast album Soft Sounds from Another Planet — in the dream, I swear it was brilliant. 

Just this past week, I had a dream that I've come to title "Pylon Big Band." Several versions of the Athens post-punk band are performing on a small stage, original members mixed in with the Reenactment Society lineup. There's a trombone trio and a rag-tag punk choir that just keeps growing in size, including Adam Bewley, the son of the late guitarist Randy Bewley. The stage overflows and the backdrop falls to reveal a basketball court, which everyone makes a run for. My dad, who does not like this kind of music at all, is snapping photos with his old camera. My friend Tracy Wilson (Courtesy Desk, Outer World, Dahlia Seed) grabs me to get a closer look. It's all very chaotic and happy and huge — I didn't want to wake up. 

How nice of my brain, really, to offer some respite from real-world things out of my control. —Lars Gotrich, vikingschoice.org