Sublime eclectic mayhem. That’s been my playlist project and musical life, one that begins with The Muppet Movie soundtrack and later involves performing hymns, death metal, surf, and bluegrass. I’ve played in theaters, tents, and basements, for multi-stage festivals and squirrel rodeos. I’ve written and recorded music for The Drunken Odyssey. Sublime eclectic mayhem. A warning and a welcome for joyous noise, for those navigating what Beckett called “this bitch of an earth.”

I walk childhood paths on Google Earth
and as I do so often in real life, 
wish for something that isn’t there.

The sidewalk where I learned to ride a bike
leads me past the bakery, now closed, where 
I found my favorite maple peanut doughnut,
coating my memory in distinct sweetness. 

There’s the parking lot where bullies chased me
and where I played dodgeball with my best friend.
There’s the mill race where I gigged frogs one day
and felt miserable the next for all my murderous joy.

My childhood libraries still call to me, 
though they are unrecognizable. 
I would love to walk the stacks and
smell the books no longer there.

I hope to wander into a Wayback Machine,
my small heaven of small houses, 
and see, maybe, raised at a window, 
a once warm hand frozen in a spectral wave.

Looking Through Ghosts To See The Stars

Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “Göç/Me” – Kit Sebastian
2. “Kick Back Relax” – MC Lyte, Q-Tip
3. “A Brief Madness” – Walter Smith III
4. “Mutations” – Nilüfer Yanya
5. “24.03 (Live at Studio 1, Warsaw)” – Hania Rani
6. “The Rhinestone Ceiling” – Goldie Boutilier
7. “Gone West” – Steve Howe
8. “The Chapel (Live from Maida Vale)” – Ishmael Ensemble
9. “1973” – Ben Monder
10. “Matalo! (Ghosts)” – Mario Migliardi
11. “Big Bovine” – Being Dead
12. “Black Tea (Twig Harper Remix)” – Six Organs of Admittance
13. “Abysm” – Elliott Sharp
14. “4U” – Klara Lewis

Stephen McClurg (Episode 473) composes and improvises in Serenity Dagger, The Abdomen, and other projects. Along with session work for mid-Alabama singer/songwriters, he frequently collaborates with musicians across the state adding bass, guitar, and synths to friends’ recordings. He currently writes reviews for Horror DNA and is the substitute low end wrangler for Mobile-based punk rock band Future Hate. You can find out more about his work here.