HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE

On 🚶🏻‍♂️Hokas, 🇬🇷 Greek Rebetiko Music, 🕯️Clip on reading lights, and more.

Dimitri Giannopoulos is the frontman of Brooklyn/Boston-based band Horse Jumper of Love. Active since 2013, the band stepped into the spotlight of the slowcore / shoegaze resurgence with their 2017 self-titled album and has dropped several stellar albums since. I saw them perform over six years ago when they opened for the band Hop Along at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston and knew they were one to watch. Their most recent, Disaster Trick, came out last August, featuring contributions from other PI favorites like Mj Lenderman, and a music video shot by Lance Bangs. After a busy fall touring with DIIV, we are excited to see what this year brings for Horse Jumper of Love. Lucky for us, Dimitri is here to tell us what he’s been into.

💆🏻‍♂️

Listening to brown noise on my noise cancelling headphones

I feel like it sucks you out of the world. There’s a 12 hr long brown noise track on Spotify I listen to. It’s one of the best things I’ve discovered, especially on tour. It made me realize I’m kind of sensitive to noise and the brown noise helps with anxiety specifically associated with traveling.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🪐

W.G. Sebald

I recently read Vertigo and now I’m reading Rings of Saturn. They are part travelogue, part memoir and part history book. I find he is really easy to read because he speaks universal truths but with really unique and beautiful language and it feels like you are wandering around thinking about life with him. A big theme is decay. There is a part in Rings of Saturn where he talks about how the memory and expanse of a place turns into a single tiny spot in your mind and I can’t stop thinking about that.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🚶🏻‍♂️

Hokas

I’d never bought a nice pair of athleisure shoes but a couple years ago I bought some Hokas and damn. I walk a lot so it’s pretty game changing. Feels like I’m walking on a cloud. I wore my last pair almost everyday for 2 years until they fell apart. Now I got some new ones with the gore tex.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🇬🇷

Greek Rebetiko Music

as a 1st generation Greek-American I love Greek music. But the Rebetiko style is especially amazing. It’s mostly songs about crime, drug addiction and general hardships. It was the popular urban music in Greece in the 1930s but had a revival in the 1960s/70s in Greek pop music. Mississippi Records has a great compilation of one of my favorite Rebetiko artists, Markos Vamvakaris called “Death is Bitter” and there is a great comp from Canary Records called “Bed of Pain” that are both worth checking out.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🕯️

Clip on reading lights

there is one I have where the color of the light resembles a candle glow and it’s the best way to read. I bring it when I’m traveling. It's a lot better than the reading lights on an airplane or the bedside lamp in a hotel.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🚘

2006 Acura TL

I bought a 2006 Acura TL a little over a year ago for $1000. Me and my dad had to put a little work into it but I love early 2000s luxury sports cars - it’s super fast, has a moonroof and only plays CDs and Cassettes, no AUX - which has led me to start buying CDs again. I love going to a thrift stores and finding Smashing Pumpkins or Alice In Chains or some shit for super cheap.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🙂‍↕️

Medjool Dates

I always carry around a little bag of them. Such a perfect snack… absolute candy from nature and they are good for you. Combo them with some pistachios and it’s heavenly.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

🎺

Let’s get Lost (Chet Baker Documentary)

directed by Bruce Weber, I watched this recently and it's one of my favorite music documentaries. Chet Baker has always been a huge influence on me. I’ve listened to slow jazz way before I got into slow core. This doc is free on YouTube and it’s an amazing and sad insight into his life. It juxtaposes the young handsome Chet on his way to the top with the old Chet in the 80s - the doc came out a couple months after he died - he’s reflecting on his life and his choices and it portrays him as a man who is lost in this dream world. It interviews his kids and his ex wives and lots of other people who saw his career form and fall apart. It’s a tragic story about talent and the harm of addiction. The cinematography is great too - there’s a shot it keeps going back to of Chet Baker as an old man in the back of a convertible with the wind blowing that I love.

@dimitri-ciannopoulos

Jan 7, 2025

HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE

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