“Just feel that good clean power surging in from the dark…Ah, but listen to her! She’s driving in, she knows what she wants, there’s no hero or devil on earth that can talk back to her…Come on in, girl!” The man talks over his beloved sea to “The Voice”; both having isolated themselves out there, away from the City and its people. This is one of my favorite lines from “The city wears a slouch hat”, a radio play written by Kenneth Patchen with a score by John Cage. It was broadcast on May 31, 1942 by WBBM radio station (Columbia Broadcasting System in Chicago) and is the Voice’s surreal journey through the City, culminating in a message for humanity in a time of World War.


“The city wears a slouch hat”, a radio play written by Kenneth Patchen with a score by John Cage. Cover art by Patchen.

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Prick’s “Communiqué” to start the weekend. One of my best stimulants, sonic adrenaline in its purest form:

From Prick’s self-titled album on Reznor’s Nothing Records (who, I think it’s safe to say, is past his creative zenith).

Have been stalking Coco Sumner for a couple of years now, and love this acoustic performance of I Blame Coco’s “Selfmachine”. I feel that what I’ve heard of her band’s new material is pop-heavy and less endearing than her earlier work. Coco is magic with just her voice and guitar, extracted from the pop template:

Please come to Seattle, Coco.

Halfway through Céline’s Death on the Installment Plan the ellipses started floating under my eyelids like retinal flotsam. I needed a break, a breezy intermission. Browsing the stacks I came across Richard Fariña’s Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me:

My copy of Richard Fariña’s Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. New York: Dell Publishing, 1969

Oh yeah. I keep meaning to read that. It’s got a Pynchon quote on the back. As it turns out, Been Down So Long has some of the most haunting prose I’ve ever read. Why did I neglect this book for so long?

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After seeing that Spin Magazine included supermodel Karen Elson’s performance at SxSW as a “Best Moment“, I got curious. I first came across Elson in a musical capacity several years ago with Melissa Auf der Maur covering Danzig’s “Devil’s Plaything”. Elson has improved since then. “The Ghost Who Walks” is a very pretty song, and her album releases May 25th on husband Jack White’s Third Man Records.

photo of Karen Elson by David Swanson

I love crime jazz, and there’s a wonderful crime jazz special on the Retro Cocktail Hour radio show, hosted by Darrell Brogdon. It includes the “Checkmate” theme by John Williams, a selection from “Twin Peaks” composed by Angelo Badalamenti and “Marlowe’s Theme” from Farewell, My Lovely by the incredible David Shire. Don’t miss the cover gallery.

Album cover for Private Hell 36 (1954)

Collapsing.

Incredible voice. Striking song.

My Gold Mask - Violet Eyes

Lodestar

Long overdue in plugging one of my favorite local bands, The Dead Science.

“Throne of Blood (The Jump Off)”

Mickens’ vibrato rubs me the right wrong way.