Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 19

Musicalia #57 over at The Drunken Odyssey!

You can hear the newest playlist, “The Widow’s Wall, The Widower’s Wind”, over at The Drunken Odyssey.

Marginalia #42

Carrington exquisitely captures the moods of her paintings in her stories–disturbing, playful, strange. They read a little like Kafka’s parables or the dreams and nightmares of Angela Carter’s characters. With a symbolic density equal to poetry, well worth re-reading.

If you liked Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, then I highly recommend The Cat (1992). Lam Ngai Kai directed both and each is genre-hopping, maniacal fun. What seems like a variation of Poe’s “The Black Cat” turns into a multiple alien showdown on Earth. The cat is a general in one of the armies. With outrageous and goopy practical effects, you also get moments out of French New Wave.

Fantastic 80s metal with some Iron Maiden influences. About half of the album feels like a collection of epic end credit songs.

I finally got around to Pure Adult’s release from earlier in the year. I liked the singles, but hadn’t gotten to the whole record. I love the song structures here. Parts come and go and there are not traditional transitions. They do this well. I’m not sold on all the lyrics yet.

The Musicalia playlist is now part of John King’s The Drunken Odyssey. You can check it out there.

Musicalia over at The Drunken Odyssey!

McClurg’s Musicalia #56: Hoppin’ John and Skippin’ Jenny is available over at The Drunken Odyssey.

You get a short introduction, some playlist-related haiku, a list, and links to the playlist on Tidal and Spotify.

Thanks for listening!

A Marginalia and a Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This is Marginalia #41.

I read this decades ago after Derek Bailey inspired a new way for me to approach instrumental playing. His recordings could be hard to find back then, but worth it when found. I loaned my copy to someone back then and never got it back. Finally got another one.

In this book, Bailey looks at different genres and how they have incorporated improvisation. I think most valuably, at the end of the book, you get perspectives from Bailey, the recently departed Tony Oxley, and others about their development of feely improvised music, or as Bailey calls it, non-idiomatic music.

Parts of this were eventually made into a BBC documentary and you can find clips online. Highly recommended! Bailey had a great narrative voice.

Adam Levy is a fantastic guitarist and teacher. 

Much of this book is based on his Guitar Tips series on YouTube with additional observations and ideas from Ethan Sherman. What’s nice about the book is that in covers the lifespan of a musician. There are exercises, sure, but the authors lay out processes and ways for the musician to start from where they are and get better. It reads like companion to Zen Guitar, by Philip Toshio Sudo. Maybe one that lives more frequently in technical domains.

Levy’s books are the real deal. The material is frequently challenging (this one is challenging in a different way), but in musical ways.

I assume Saul Bass is considered one of the major designers of the 20th Century. I do not know that world, but I do know his contributions to film as a designer and director. I loved Phase IV (especially the original ending) and this short film that’s available on YouTube. Probably will seem outdated to younger audiences, but if you are of a certain age it will remind you of classroom film reels and early interstitial cartoons and shorts on shows like Sesame Street.

Keiji Haino’s Tenshi No Gijinka (Seraphic Impostor) is not what I thought it would be. He’s known for noisy guitar improvisation, but this record is a studio project with lots of temple-style reverb, chants, screams, bowls, bells, and other similar sounds that give the album an atmosphere of unseen and unknown rituals. Unexpected and strange beauty!

One of my favorite things about YouTube is getting to see someone like Bailey perform live. This one is like getting a front row seat.

New Show: Future Hate with We Are the Asteroid

I’ll be supplying bass for Future Hate this Wednesday as we support We Are the Asteroid. Our vocalist, Miranda, has this to say about the show:

Super excited to announce we will be offering support to Texas weirdo superstars WE Are The Asteroid!!! Check them out….they feature Ed Hall, Pain Teens, Helios Creed, Pussy Gillette, Surfbort & many many many more alumni… for worshipers of Trance Syndicate and the ilk…don’t miss it.

New Playlist: McClurg’s Musicalia #51

I’ve got a new playlist available for you and it has nothing to do with the holiday. New and old tunes for the week. Sublime eclectic mayhem.

You can listen on Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/b83a3314-62cf-4d29-a0d6-1fc8b3b41f55

Also available on Spotify:

New Show: Page of Madness Live Film Score

I’ll be playing a live film score for Page of Madness tomorrow at the O’Neal Library in Birmingham.

Here’s the information from Under the Mountain, one of the sponsors:

Join Under the Mountain and @sleepincinemabhm at the @oneallibrary on November 12, 2023 at 7 PM for a special FREE screening of the silent-era nightmare from Japan, A PAGE OF MADNESS (1926), featuring an original score performed live by Stephen McClurg (@clurg ).

Set in early 20th-century Japan, A PAGE OF MADNESS is a hallucinatory psychodrama about a man who takes a job as a janitor at a mental asylum in order to be near his wife. Although his wife suffers genuine mental anguish, the man believes he can rescue her—but his attempt to break her out only lead to death and even more madness.

 Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by the director in his storehouse in 1971, Teinosuke Kinugasa’s A PAGE OF MADNESS (1926) uses superimpositions, rapid and insistent visual patterns, fantasy sequences, and the visual flamboyance of actors impersonating mad people, to build an atmosphere of astonishing intensity. (Chris Fujiwara, Ebertfest.com)

This screening is part of the No Longer Silent film screening series, which highlights significant and historic silent films with live accompaniment from local music talent to create a one-of-a-kind experience. This performance will be followed by a panel discussion from local organizations, giving the audience an opportunity to discuss and reflect on the ideas and concepts presented.

This event is 18+. Enjoy snacks, drinks, candy, free spooky short stories, prizes, and adult beverages (with ID).

RSVP through the linktree on our profile and earn more chances to win prizes!

I’m thrilled to be a part of this series! Thanks to Sleep In Cinema, Under the Mountain, Substrate Radio, No Longer Silent, the O’Neal Library, and especially to Tony, Gareth, and Craig!

New Playlist: McClurg’s Musicalia #48: A dusty red potato of a planet.

New and old tunes for the week. Sublime eclectic mayhem.

You can listen at Tidal.

Or at Spotify below:

Some words on our new album…

Review – Half Serenity’s You Are The Temple

At Horror DNA: The Hunger Review

A new review is available over at Horror DNA. Short version: I may not be a fan of historical fiction.