Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 25

Show Updates

No Marginalia this week as I’m getting ready for several shows and having some difficulties adapting to the time change. I do have the Musicalia playlist below.

On Friday, I’ll be making a solo premiere at East Village Arts for Exprov 8. It’s quite a lineup of players! I’ll be improvising on tabletop acoustic bass guitar and effects.

Many thanks to Taylor Rouss for organizing these shows!

On Saturday, Future Hate will be playing Birmingham in a show featuring groups all led by women vocalists. While I sub on bass duties, I won’t be playing, I’m looking forward to the show.

Brian and Hannah Burx are working and organizing events around the city non-stop!

On Sunday, I’ll be doing my first live set as Serenity Dagger for the March edition of Birmingham Noize Night. I’ll be improvising to a short film using a Korg Volca Sample and effects. These shows have been a blast to see, so I’m looking forward to playing one.

Many thanks to Kily Payne and all the work he does in organizing these shows!

For those interested in the new playlist: McClurg’s Musicalia #15: That blasted samoflange!

Marginalia #25

As a lifelong horror fan (Jaws at three!), I’ve seen it go through the genre cycle and back again, rise in popularity, crash, and rise again in different forms. I’m nostalgic as anyone is for what they grew up with, but I’ve always liked seeing how people update genre tropes, elements, and themes.

I delight in how Wise is updating ideas from Gothic horror, Lovecraft, body horror, etc. Her work is more literary than splatterpunk, and she often uses a variety of epistolary forms–letters, artistic statements, etc.

Some of her other work looks more YA than I’m interested in, but I’ll definitely look into the bibliography more.

Considered the second movie of classic Mexican horror alongside Two Monks, which also came out in 1934. Old Dark House mixed with rustic Catholic Gothic vibes.

For me, old haunted house films are feel-good movies.

I got suckered in by the album being called Kenneth Anger, but I enjoy this. Synth pop that’s not too dark and not too light. Good for nightdriving or imagining you’re on a night drive.

Maybe I am the last to know that the oldest kid in this band is now 19 and they’ve been together for about a decade.

Like the previous album, I was suckered in by the Jaws reference on the cover of their latest, Nonetheless. There are elements that feel new, but a lot of it feels like updated 90s thrash. I had no expectations, but enjoyed this.

Your playlist for the week if you choose to accept it: McClurg’s Musicalia #14: I touched your bacon.

Let’s see how the AI suggests I end this week’s post:

I felt the warmth of the bacon, and the smokiness of its aroma. It was as if it had been crafted specially for me, just as every week in Musicalia. I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that these moments of bliss are what add richness to life, regardless of whether we’re singing, playing, or simply listening.

Marginalia #24

Although I haven’t read the academic literature on folk horror, Ingham’s introductory guide to the genre was a delightful read. Ingham illuminates the defining characteristics of this enigmatic genre, while also exploring the edges where its boundaries blur and fracture. Ingham’s curated list of films captures the unsettling essence of folk horror.

RIP Wayne Shorter. One of the greatest.

Last Friday, I went to Montgomery for the debut of Traftar, the genre-bending sci-fi prog thrash band. I’d call it a sonic assault that’s equal parts loud, heavy, and exhilarating.

Drew Martin came through with fairly short notice to kick things off with an acoustic set. Props to him!

I brought my kids along, but not without giving them a quick lesson on ear plugs. As it turned out, they left our ears and minds intact after Traftar’s skull-rattling performance, but the kids were done! I’d have to see Uncaste another time. We piled back into the car for the drive home. We turned on some Dave Brubeck, and they promptly fell asleep under the Desmond serenade.

It was nice to see some old friends in Montgomery, some of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long.

Sunday was a weird day. I had several meetings on potential projects and got a new bass (more on that soon). It just so happened that an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time was at the coffee shop where I had my first meeting. He was available to go to the monthly Birmingham Noize Night with me.

There were some cool performances capped off with a bowel-shredding set by Flesh Circuit. It was worth the late night.

I finally got my Sleep-In Cinema mug for being on the show!

I posted the schedule for the tribute to Davey here. Lee Shook just released a teaser trailer today for his documentary.

WordPress still has their experimental paragraph AI generation gizmo going. This time it gave me complete sentences and generated a description for the playlist:

Welcome to the odd world of McClurg’s Musicalia! Each installment of our series experimentally combines off-beat sounds and textures in a unique, out-of-the-ordinary style.

This week’s edition of McClurg’s Musicalia (#13) is extra funky, combining clunky percussion and quirky synths to create a tension-filled foundation for your audio adventure. With this strange and unique soundtrack, you can explore the unexpected, immerse yourself in creative exploration and inspire those unpredictable, creative moments of self-reflection.

Let McClurg’s Musicalia be your soundtrack to a relentless journey. And don’t forget to groove along to the funky, clunky sound. Enjoy!

New playlist: McClurg’s Musicalia #13: Make it clunky.

Marginalia #23

Although I haven’t read the academic literature on folk horror, Ingham’s introductory guide to the genre was a delightful read. Ingham illuminates the defining characteristics of this enigmatic genre, while also exploring the edges where its boundaries blur and fracture. Ingham’s curated list of films captures the unsettling essence of folk horror.

RIP Wayne Shorter. One of the greatest.

Last Friday, I went to Montgomery for the debut of Traftar, the genre-bending sci-fi prog thrash band. I’d call it a sonic assault that’s equal parts loud, heavy, and exhilarating.

Drew Martin came through with fairly short notice to kick things off with an acoustic set. Props to him!

I brought my kids along, but not without giving them a quick lesson on ear plugs. As it turned out, they left our ears and minds intact after Traftar’s skull-rattling performance, but the kids were done! I’d have to see Uncaste another time. We piled back into the car for the drive home. We turned on some Dave Brubeck, and they promptly fell asleep under the Desmond serenade.

It was nice to see some old friends in Montgomery, some of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long.

Sunday was a weird day. I had several meetings on potential projects and got a new bass (more on that soon). It just so happened that an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time was at the coffee shop where I had my first meeting. He was available to go to the monthly Birmingham Noize Night with me.

There were some cool performances capped off with a bowel-shredding set by Flesh Circuit. It was worth the late night.

I finally got my Sleep-In Cinema mug for being on the show!

I posted the schedule for the tribute to Davey here. Lee Shook just released a teaser trailer today for his documentary.

WordPress still has their experimental paragraph AI generation gizmo going. This time it gave me complete sentences and generated a description for the playlist:

Welcome to the odd world of McClurg’s Musicalia! Each installment of our series experimentally combines off-beat sounds and textures in a unique, out-of-the-ordinary style.

This week’s edition of McClurg’s Musicalia (#13) is extra funky, combining clunky percussion and quirky synths to create a tension-filled foundation for your audio adventure. With this strange and unique soundtrack, you can explore the unexpected, immerse yourself in creative exploration and inspire those unpredictable, creative moments of self-reflection.

Let McClurg’s Musicalia be your soundtrack to a relentless journey. And don’t forget to groove along to the funky, clunky sound. Enjoy!

New playlist: McClurg’s Musicalia #13: Make it clunky.

Davey Williams Memorial Guitar Festival

Many years ago, two of the reasons I was excited about moving to Birmingham were Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith. Recently Danny Kamins, a celebrated improvisor in his own right, announced from the stage at East VIllage Arts how excited he was to back playing in the birthplace for free improv in North America. That’s largely due to Davey and LaDonna.

Davey died in 2019. That night, I was supposed to be playing on a steel bass with him and LaDonna and several other players. Davey, while being an internationally recognized musician, was also just a guy in the neighborhood. I met him one night in the grocery store and he was staring at the butter. I said hello and he said, “There are so many kinds. Salted, unsalted, sweet cream, organic…” He kept listing and I laughed and walked away. He was always funny, and his own brand of artist and writer.

I’m happy to be playing with the Antenna Road Orchestra for this three-day festival in Davey’s honor. I’m posting the schedule (due to change!) as I have it below.

$10 Admission at door / $20 Three-day Pass

Davey’s music and writing will also be available for purchase.

FRIDAY

5:00 -6:00 Davey Williams Commemorative Guitar Parade

7:00 WELCOME

7:15 GUITAR SOLOS

7:30 CLEERS (Taylor Rouss, Patrick Stone, Jasper Lee)

7:45 GUITAR SOLOS

8:00 STORY-TELLING ON DAVEY: Craig Legg, Jimmy Griffin

8:30 Concert: KILLICK, Athens, Ga.

9:00 GUITAR SOLOS + ALL (group improv)

SATURDAY

1:00-3:00 “HISTORY OF R&R” Craig Legg. The Gallery is open!

“DW MUSIC” &/or Cast Iron Guitars available for public play & experimentation.
Also: Festival Guitarists may gather, set up, improvise or collaborate during this period.

6:00 doors open

7:00 GUITAR ROUND ROBIN

7:30 JEAN-JACQUE GAUDEL “MUSICAL INVENTIONS” talk and improv demo
LaDonna Smith – electric twelve string polished steel tabletop guitar
Jody Nelson- electric flat polished steel 6 string guitar
Majid Amraim –polished steel electric cello
James Robert Foster- steel & copper electric bass

8:15 STORYTELLING ON DAVEY: Johnny P. Williams, Jimmy Griffin, Johnny Coley, Craig Legg.

8:30 GUEST ARTIST: BRADY SHARP, Chattanooga, TN

9:00 GUITAR ROUND ROBIN:

ALL GUITARS TOGETHER: NOISE-OUT!

SUNDAY

6:00 Documentary FILM “Convulsive Blues” by Lee Shook

6:30 STORY-Telling on DAVEY (Volunteers..)

7:00 THE ANTENNAE ORCHESTRA

Marginalia #23

The second film in the Yokai Monsters series couldn’t help but not be as surprising as the first, but I found it as, if not more, enjoyable. Sometimes it feels like a kids’ movie, then the blood starts flowing and it brings you back in. Great ending sequence!

I have lists of 100s of albums to listen to, so if you mentioned this to me, thanks! I write down bands and records and sometimes it takes me years before I hear them.

The Saints are an Australian band that go all the way back to 1973. Their first album (I’m) Stranded was released in 1976 and sounds a little like The New York Dolls and a little like the Stooges. Fiery rock!

Speaking of hot stuff, I listened to this Italian disco album while cooking this week. D’Angiò tends to go for either an almost frightening falsetto or a Serge Gainsbourg “sexy” voice. Some fun basslines.

A new playlist is available for those interested: McClurg’s Musicalia #12: So them were my thoughts. Some new releases from Abracadabra, Blackploid, and Alessia Obino and some classics from the artists mentioned above.

My most recent attempt at the Disquiet Junto. Based on a sample from a leaky downspout. More info here.

New Sounds: “Downspout Forestry” / Disquiet Junto 0581

Here is the information for this round of the Disquiet Junto Project and my finished track at the end.

Disquiet Junto Project 0581: Helsinki Downspout

The Assignment: Use a rhythmic field recording as the foundation for a new track.

Step 1: This is a shared sample project, one in which all the participants will utilize the same provided recording, about a minute and a half long, as the rhythmic element for their own music. Access the track, originally recorded by Scott Fletcher and used with his permission, here:

Step 2: Listen to the provided track several times. Think about ways to map its content, perhaps making notations about when certain unique, momentary aspects surface.

Step 3: Record an original piece of music for which the provided music is the underlying rhythm. You might take this quite literally, using the source as it is, resulting in a track that is precisely 1:35 long. Alternately, you might elect to sample and rework the source material. If you go the latter route, make certain that the original sound is, at least at some point in the finished track, recognizable.

The sample made me think about how much I loved finding Environments, Atmospheres, and field recordings in used record stores when I was growing up. I knew I wanted to use the sample and modify it as little as possible and hope it echoed those kinds of records and sounded like percussion instruments being played in the forest.

I made three edits to the sample. One was to get rid of a pop at the beginning. My second was to use a short clear excerpt from the sample, and then the third was the edited loop. That looped track was then bussed to about 9 tracks of various delays, eqs, and pitch plug-ins in Logic. All were stock plug-ins except one use of the free Valhalla Super Massive delay/reverb to make the eighth-note loop towards the end.

More on this 581st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Helsinki Downspout (The Assignment: Use a rhythmic field recording as the foundation for a new track), at: disquiet.com/0581/

Thanks to Scott Fletcher for having provided the original material. It is used thanks to a Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Original track at: Disquiet – Helsinki-downspout

More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-pr…helsinki-downspout/

Marginalia #22

A fascinating history and critique of the recent concept of creativity and how we got to living in a time of creatives and creative economies and drowning in content.

This book reminded me of one of my first joys of reading philosophy: the interrogation of ideas that I had taken for granted.

Paul Leni made some of the great silent horror films. Waxworks, The Man Who Laughs, and The Last Warning are all worth viewing if silent film interests you.

This one is light Gothic Romance mixed with Screwball Comedy.

Sentimental, silly, and fun. Michelle Yeoh is spectacular as always, but Jamie Lee Curtis as supporting character Deirdre steals the show on a first viewing.

I won tickets through Substrate Radio to see this at Sidewalk. Two of my favorite Birmingham institutions!

Outside of the Spearfinger universe, this is my favorite track by Ghost Food. Dark, brutal, and engaging electronics and sounds. I’m loving this series.

Finders Keepers is one of my favorite labels. They are releasing an amazing array of lost soundtracks. The Possession score, with most of the music not used in the film, was a gem. Diabel is right up there. As a bonus, they’ve released The Devil Tapes, like a composer’s rough draft for the score. Phenomenal.

Hopefully more of the films will become available.

Tachycardie’s Nouvelles et Anciennes Pratiques de Cartographie Amateure mixes field recordings, percussion, electronics, and both improvised and composed techniques. Unique textures, soundscapes, and moods.

I have a new Musicalia playlist if you’re interested. It features some artists listed above, De La Soul, and some classics from Mississippi John Hurt and Jerry Reed.

I just received music for the Antenna Road Collective Orchestra that will be performing on March 5 as part of the three-day Davey Williams Commemorative Guitar Festival happening at the East Village Arts Center.

I’ll post more about it soon.

At Horror DNA: Razzennest Review

New review over at Horror DNA for a movie with one of the strangest structures I’ve seen.

Marginalia #21

I started the week with a drive to the Imperial Triumphant/Cloak/Couch Slut show in Mobile. Couch Slut was a noisy, sludgy rock that I liked, though I couldn’t hear the vocals. Imperial Triumphant were great to see up close at a smaller venue. Kenny Grohowski, their drummer, is worth hearing in any project, whether it’s high-level jazz or black metal or whatever fusion of genres he’s playing. A good friend hooked me up with tickets. Thanks, man!

I just finished watching this, so I’ve had little time to process. Part of me is thrilled that an experimental horror movie was presented at local mainstream theaters. The movie envelopes the viewer in a nightmarish atmosphere and features some great sound design (with a few nods to Eraserhead, The Shining, and Poltergeist). Skinamarink features a few fascinating and haunting images. It captures the feeling of being a child and waking up in the middle of the night and feeling scared or lost.

However, I often found it boring. I say that while acknowledging how much I love Chantel Ackerman’s boring films like Hotel Monterey. That could be the viewing context, I don’t know. This next part might be spoilery–Ultimately, while the experience is interesting, I couldn’t read the film as being about anything other than the neglect and murder of children. I’m a monster kid, and I know the worst monsters are human, but that’s not the horror I’m attracted to, which also may be another contradiction that I’m willing to live with.

Local group Ghost Food is releasing a track each month this year with a guest artist. “Wolf Moon” is the first one and is another great trip into the noise/electronics/improv/film score sounds of the group.

Greenlief’s releases are always worth a listen. This one‘s fantastic. Solo horn compositions, heavy on the improvisational elements. “Deconstruction Meditations” is a cut-up of themes from Berio, Stravinsky, and Thelonious Monk. Greenlief’s performances have so many nuances and I go back to them all the time.

A new playlist is available. I had it ready to go and then we lost Burt Bacharach, so I added one of my favorites by him, “Trains and Boats and Plains.” I saw him with a friend in concert about twenty years ago, and some some smiling elderly ladies bought us popcorn. The music was sublime and immaculately performed. And just like Tony Williams who follows him in the playlist, they are both singers I like, but who got a lot of criticism for their voices. Of course, Bacharach also worked with exceptional singers to bring his glorious melodies to life.

I just noticed an AI button to generate text. It warns it’s in the experimental stage. Everything below is AI, including the unfinished sentence.

I recently read an interview he did a few years ago and was fascinated to learn that among his many brilliant musical accomplishments, he was a skilled exponent of the delicate art of marginalia.

Marginalia, roughly defined, are notes written in the margins of a text, typically with the intent to make observations or provide commentary on the main text. It’s a practice that dates back to the ancient Greeks, but it was made popular again in the 19th century.

Bacharach, according to the interview, loved to