Legit Smitty's Underground Binder Clip Society

Hello, and welcome to Volume 50 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Sometimes I remember that certain people exist and it makes me want to cry. I have great grief and and great hope inside of me. They share a pillow at night. My grief is worldly. My hope is other-worldly. Otherwise I would have no hope. This other-worldly hope rings true in song and dance. Poems and prayers. Paint brushes and...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 49 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. I once decided that a change would be made. That I would not return. I would move onward and upward. But I don’t think I believe in this anymore. Now, I think it’s just onward really. Keep trucking. Stay attentive. Learn some things along the way. You might even see yourself change. But all change isn’t good change. Sometimes...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 46 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. It’s a sad thing. Our desire for digital confectionary over spiritual sustenance. Dopamine more than knowledge. A quick laugh more than long peace. I am a guilty consumer. And a perpetual perpetrator. In one hand I wield a flip phone. A signposting of digital abstinence. A practical solution to addiction. In the other, I wield...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 45 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. For the last couple years, I’ve been working part-time jobs to help pay my rent between projects. I’m fortunate enough to have clients, new and old, who trust me to record and mix their songs, a handful of times a year. The rest of the time, I’m recording and mixing my own songs, and working 2 or 3 days a week. Super-part-time...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 44 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. About a month ago my buddy Trent asked me if I wanted to ride with him to St. Louis for a work trip he’d be going on. He was riding solo if I said no, and we had never roadtripped together before, so I told him I was down. I had already been solidifying some DIY shows for an upcoming solo tour and St. Louis was (for some reaso...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 43 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. [ The Following Excerpt Is From last Monday, a few days before my 24th birthday ] I am 24 this Wednesday. Twice the age I was when I first thought to myself, “man, i’m getting old.” I feel a lot like that 12 year old boy when I write like this. I’ve been trying to let him drive more. I stood atop my picnic table table yesterda...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 42 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Be sure to make it to the bottom for a demo of a new song called “First Try ” I cant deal with whiners. If you wanna give up, go ahead. Especially in art. If you can live without it, then maybe you should. If it feels like work, then maybe don’t do it. To me, it feels like work and play. It feels like rebellion. Like swimming...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 41 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to check out a demo for a new song called “Where Will You Go?” I’m up before the sun. The coffee pot sizzles in the kitchen. My bedroom is right off the kitchen. I share a wall with my studio—everything I need. I can smell the day ahead. I’ve been waking up early and not being able to get back t...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 40 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. This year was the hardest year of my life. I struggled to pay rent. I was tired a lot, sad a lot and had lots of relationship problems. But I was chasing my dreams. I played more shows than ever. Cooked more and ate more. Got some new hobbies. Acquired some new skills. Flirted with some new ways of being. Took two steps forwar...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 39 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. I got in trouble this week. Real bad. I conducted myself in a way that I shouldn’t have. I felt guilt and shame and conviction. I did what I could to apologize and explain myself. But I didn’t do all that I could. Maybe just enough. In some sense, I felt warranted. I felt justified. I carried on, traveling to the edges of what...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 38 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. I started recording and releasing music as Legit Smitty in 2016. 8 years ago at the time of writing this. The first musical project I ever released was called “The Legit Tape” and it was a rap project (if your’e generous enough to call it that.) I chose the name Legit Smitty in middle school as my instagram handle because I wa...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 37 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Big Inhale. Big Exhale. I give thanks. Make a little list. Have a bite to eat. I’ve had some tidying up to do for about as long as I can remember. Some tasks to attend to. Big and small. Short assignments , as Anne Lamott would call them. Long assignments too. Given to me by others, or myself or God. I’ve felt a smidge more at...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 36 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. We don’t have to be best friends with everybody. I really don’t think we are capable of having more than a handful of friends. There’s only so many hours in the day. You make time or you don’t. You find out who’s family after awhile. Who’s gonna stick around. In Nashville, everybody’s working. Looking for a gig. The line betwe...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 35 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. There is a phrase I have been saying and not obeying. “Work as little as possible and make your art as much as possible.” Meaning, work enough to pay your bills and survive, and then make art with whatever time you’ve got left. I have scoured the internet but I don’t quite know where I heard this idea. It’s a way of living tha...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 34 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Boy is it good to be back. 30 days off, and a good handful of social-media-benders later. I am officially kicking myself in the pants and trying to get back to it. I never would’ve thought i’d still be learning so much about life and purpose and what I believe. I surely am “living into the questions” as Rilke puts it. There is...

Hello, and welcome to Volume 32 of the Underground Binder Clip Society. Please Enjoy the Video Version of this weeks newsletter above, with overlayed drawings and an original musical score. I did in fact work hard on it. What do we do when life doesn't feel “normal?” How do we find homeostasis? What are we leaning on? What are we hoping will be the one thing left standing when all else crumbles? T...

The sun is out and hot and shining. The people in the city are honking their horns and having very little patience. Others are pushing strollers and walking and talking and being peaceful. People are working their summer jobs, traveling, laying out on the beach. Having summer flings, actually falling in love, laying low, picking up new hobbies. Passing time. Trying to beat the heat with a bit of s...

“You’ve gotta fight for your right to party.” Thats the Beastie Boys. Did they say it best? My desire to party is most definitely something I have to stir up. I have to create a habit of exercising my social muscles. My first year out of college I spent far too much time at home, but I got to work on a lot of projects. I was developing my craft and furthering my knowledge in the field of audio. I...

Hello and welcome to Vol. 28 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. “Be where your feet are.” “Just Show up.” “We will see who has staying power.” I feel a further call toward presentness. Towards staying put and widening my eyes. Broadening my gaze. Lengthening my listening. There is so much to take in. There are so many people to be there for. So much will be lost in translation. So many will e...

Hello and welcome to Vol. 27 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. Working at the cafe today. I just ate a slightly-stale-chocolate-croissant after getting most of my shift chores done. Lemonade is made, and waffle cones too. I check in with my mind, top off my presentness, and pray for greater awareness. I am in a slower and less anxious place today than I was a week ago. But I am still behind....

Hello and welcome to Vol. 26 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. I’ve got this nasty habit of not unpacking for weeks after arriving back in town. I already have two “clothes chairs,” so the floor becomes a third. I also have a hard time unpacking my brain whenever I blow back into town. I can get really disoriented when I lose my routines. Last week, I wrote about letting go. This week, I am...

Hello and welcome to Vol. 25 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. It seems we have somehow reached 25 letters together. I am trying once again to glean significance from everything. Is this a trick? A worthwhile investment? A way to quickly exhaust myself? It is a slow fade. I am quickly losing my will to give a s**t. At least in the same capacity as I once did. However, there is a deeper care...

Hello and welcome to Vol. 24 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. What people say about me when I’m not around is none of my business. The things I haven’t been invited to are also none of my business. The more I get to know myself, the more comfortable I become with not being included. Being left out isn’t always personal. Most people think about themselves a whole lot more than other people....

Hello and welcome to Vol. 23 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. We got to play live as a full band this Wednesday with Lighthearted . It was a Great night, and some good times hanging with the band. The night before the show we got to grab pizza at a joint called Diceys here in town. They do a great pie called the “peppy boy.” It’s mostly just a pepperoni pizza with hot honey. We ate our pizz...

Sorry to bother you with a duplicate newsletter, but I think I have figured out how to get the newsletter voiceovers onto Apple and Spotify podcasts! You can click on your preferred platform above to subscribe and (hopefully) stream this week’s newsletter. Thanks yall. 🫶🏼 Hello and welcome to vol. 22 of The Underground Binder-Clip Society. The pivot foot in basketball is the foot that remains in...