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.”

(From a series of cut-ups using a page from each of the following: Soulbane Strategem: Diabolical Subterfuge That Threatens to Destroy Us by Norman Jermundsen and Gas City by Loren Estleman.)

II. The Of Vinci Cipher

It was a university library. It had so many nooks. There was a statement room. Not cozy. Not bright anywhere. In the center the visitors checked into the library, noting a designer in a crew cut, double windows to the north, and then they’d find the reader’s cards. 

The still east librarians noticed, “What if it is a cross unedited next time—the last exit, the only exit?” A place to try and catch Oxford, lens mahogany, not a study, not a veneer and a table with spent shine like a nation cut off by the ballroom music. The waiting desk by the other disapproving square office. 

At night, the top floor of the community clicked off before he rolled the chairs down the hall toward the entrance. Restricted to the library, my woman could stare through the return, through it all. She felt the publisher of architecture was a dark alley. She’s passageways and escapes. And I felt the desk and a strange woman. To see her arteries. I give all around her. But at that fumbling in arteries was my ruins in little red semi-rubbery rings. 

I could count swatches of neglect, if it doesn’t nothing. I looked her up, spitting, waiting. 

Stranger went she to the stairwell. I rushed personnel. She is, I thought desperately, frantically, finished. My only hope was, “I’m sorry” and her under a street. 

Not Cozy, Not a Veneer

Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “Jack Parsons Blues” – Gwenifer Raymond
2. “T.V. Baby” – Frankie and the Witch Fingers
3. “Vallitseva” – Ilpo Väisänen
4. “Before (Choir Version)” – Blonde Redhead
5. “Devant le garage” – MIchel Legrand
6. “Solfege for Abstract Painters” – Ori Barel
7. “Hopelessly At Ease” – Brian Eno, Beatie Wolfe
8. “Flagey Blues Edition X (Live)” – Bram De Looze, Joey Baron, Hank Roberts, Thomas Morgan
9. “Grassman Blues” – Calibro 35
10. “Marca Tempo” – Azymuth
11. “Szlam” – Bloto
12. “Americas” – Francois Carrier, Michel Lambert, Paul Bley, Gary Peacock
13. “Zannik” – Khaled Al Reigh

Stephen McClurg (Episode 473 & 666) 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.