Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 30

Punk Night at True Story

I’ll be playing some shows with Future Hate as a substitute bass player. This one’s going to be weird because we will be playing with an electronic form of the drummer.

The show must, etc….

Marginalia #3

An annotated discography for sound and sound art at the fringes. You could probably get all Benjamin and Adorno on these genres and ideas, but Tau keeps the critical machinery to a minimum and often approaches the pieces and artists very practically. What draws us toward or away from these sounds? What does one get out of making this? Sometimes the answer is conceptual and sometimes it’s more like “we needed something else on the merch table.”

Listed in Shudder’s current Giallo selections. Jean Seberg and Marisol are tormented by a hitchhiking yard boy while the village is tormented by a raincoated killer with a sickle, who might also be the yard boy. Perfect for Euro-sleazy summer night.

The English marketing on this is way off. There’s no cannibalism in the movie–well–almost. Our leading man, as the poster says, is indeed a butcher, but he’s not a cannibal, on purpose, anyway. Bodies start piling up in a comic mode drier than Hitchcock. Meanwhile, the film seems to be more about masculinity and homosexuality. De la Iglesia is new to me and is known for his commentary on the transition out of Franco’s control of Spain. Shudder also has a collection of his films running right now.

Finally listening to some of Tom Verlaine’s solo work. Like most of Verlaine’s work, uneven with moments of brilliance.

Listened to Big Black’s discography. Ferocious and funny. I am currently prepping for a project that may feature electronic or pre-recorded drums and wanted to dig into a band known for that.

St. Vincent covering Big Black. Not a fan of the vocal effects, but I certainly enjoy the guitar playing.

Seeing the St Vincent video reminded me of the Shreds videos by St Sanders. I hadn’t seen those in years and it looks like he’s occasionally putting out new material.

Lots of stuff for the guitar geeks this week.

Marginalia #2

An epic about change and organized around the history of the world. I can’t imagine any reader not knowing some of these stories. I had been meaning to read the whole thing for years, especially after coming across Samuel Beckett’s enthusiasm for it. I can only remember offhand Beckett celebrating Proust, Joyce, and Ovid. Beckett’s work certainly catalogs change, mostly disintegration, but with a dark humor.

This goes into the To Be Read Again stack. I read the Frank Justus Miller translation. If you have a preferred translation, let me know!

Also known as The Devil Within Her and Beyond the Door. From the director of The Visitor (1979)! That may be all some viewers need to know. For others, I’ll say that the Italian film industry has a marvelous history of rip-offs and unofficial remakes that are sometimes as glorious as their source material. This is Rosemary’s Baby meets The Exorcist. It predates The Omen–so maybe the Italians aren’t the only ones inspired by other movies.

I’ve been working a little on the famous Willie Weeks bass solo on this track. Overall, I haven’t been able to listen to a lot of new music this week because I have several projects and possibilities in process. This entire Donny Hathaway album is well worth a listen, though.

This 19-second clip of SRV telling a keyboard player his wah-wah don’t work has cracked me up so much this week and I don’t even know why. His phrasing? His hand sign for wah-wah? His mid-solo shrug? I don’t know.

Marginalia #1

A recent read that gives insight into before and after the folk explosion of the 1960s, referred to here as The Great Folk Scare. Great stories with a personal perspective on an era considered so important because of its connection to songwriters like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Van Ronk’s relationship with and stories about Mississippi John Hurt led me to the book below.

Hurt is one of my favorite musicians and I was excited to read this since the Hurt family had okayed Ratcliffe’s book. This is the only biography I’m aware of, though there are many books about his guitar style. It was good, but very dry in spots–like reading census reports dry. In spite of that, Ratcliffe is chained to fact unlike so many other music biographies that are more than happy to mythologize their subjects. There is room for another book that explores his life, times, and blues in a different way.

I love stop-motion animation. A while back I got to go on Sleep In Cinema and talk about Harryhausen’s The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and the Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema exhibit at the National Galleries of Scotland. Mad God has been discussed by fans for decades. Tippett is one of the few relatively well-known names in stop-motion because of his work on mainstream releases like Star Wars and Robocop. I can’t wait to see the movie again. It felt like the Quay Brothers adapting Dante’s Inferno with death metal record covers as reference art.

This is one I’ve listened to for years, but I think I like it more every time I hear it.

I’ve only been able to listen to a bit of Elias Rahbani’s work, but I’m hoping to dive into it more. Some of it reminds me of Morricone’s film music and some is like musicians performing Perrey and Kingsley. Sometimes it reminds me of Omar Khorshid tracks I’ve heard.

New Release: Just Daddy: Eat Blud

The second Just Daddy release is available on disc or on streaming. I did a lot of guitars on “The Price Is Rot” and some synths and keys on “Hexagon Fumes” and maybe more on some other tracks. I just don’t remember at this point after working on an earlier release (and currently working on new tracks). I also don’t get to work on all the demos I get and Trey reworks material right up to the end. I’m hoping to speed up my process so I can contribute to more future tracks if asked.

Just Daddy is experimental ambient doom from Trey Lane and Ryan Jetten and guests.

I also got asked to write a series of prose poems for the press release. You can read it at Cartographer Records.

It Happened

This wasn’t only my first live show since the pandemic started, but my first live show in a decade. Kids, career change, moving, etc. We played “Where Pathways Meet,” “Plutonian Nights,” and “Space Is the Place.” The group was headed by Cliff McPeek, and included LaDonna Smith, Charles Pagano, Holland Hopson, and several others.

I was supposed to play an improv set a couple weeks ago and got a stomach virus. Next show happening soon. I hope.

New Reverse Engineer Release!

I co-wrote the newest Reverse Engineer ep with Kenny Johnson. It’s available on Bandcamp and streaming.

Kenny and I go back two decades playing both rock and freely improvised music.  I had taken a long break from music while teaching and raising kids, and noticed he had been putting out new material that I admired. He had always written fun, aggressive rock songs. I contacted him hoping I could jump into the bass spot of Terrible Lovers, but he had just formed a band around that material. He said, “I do have some other pieces, maybe for Reverse Engineer, if you’re interested.”

When I initially got his synth tracks, it brought me back to the first experiences of playing improvised music, of staring at a guy with an SK-1 and a contact mic on a coffee grinder and me realizing that the “Spanish Castle Magic” riff wasn’t going to work. It took a while to get started, but being a child of the ‘80s, his synth tracks led me to movie images, and to focus on ambience and film score textures. I appreciated the freedom and encouragement to try ideas that I hadn’t before, while tapping into some of the foundations of my musical imagination.

Ubiquitous Relics available now!

Our Serenity Dagger ep is ready for listening or download for today’s Bandcamp Friday.

Info about the release is here.

Serenity Dagger Release Info

Over in the menu, you can find some information on the upcoming Serenity Dagger release. Or just click here.

You can also check out a work-in-progress over at Derek Ballard’s Instagram. He’s playing with a story we wrote a while back. Plus, you can check out all kinds of other stuff he’s working on.

Sleep In Cinema: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Here’s Sleep In Cinema’s episode on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I was happy to be a part of the episode and talk about my life-long love of stop-motion animation and Ray Harryhausen.

Me with co-host Gareth Jones. Despite the face I’m making, I had a good time. I thought I was smiling. Thanks to Craig, Gareth, and Substrate Radio!

You can hear Sleep In Cinema on Saturdays from 9am-10am on Substrate Radio.