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.”

Rebus
The book fell off the shelf
and I saw your name on the page
in sentences written a century before.

In the light late at night,
thinking about reading rather than life,
it’s dark except for the porch lights 
killing the fireflies. Wickedness can be bright.

A different life drawn around the angels’ names
in old books. Muses that Milton updated
and Modernism tried to bomb away.
The coffee’s gone and the candle’s out.
Sin is what the others saw.

It’s fall somewhere. Find a name in leaves there.
He had notions of letters in the oceans
and reading waves. I chipped a tooth on a tetherball,
but her nail polish rarely chipped at all. 
The broken pieces were on the inside.

A Bright, Wicked Light

Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “The Tell-Tale Heart” – Kenyon Hopkins
2. “Glance” – Modern Nature
3. “uni-sun station” – Spanned Canyons
4. “Yemenja” – Pharaoh Sanders
5. “Chahar” – Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin
6. “There’s a UFO up There” – Travis Wammack
7. “Hagazussa Madichon” – MMMD
8. “Joe and Michelle” – Balmorhea
9. “Mack The Knife” – Wayne Shorter
10. “Idi Amin” – Black Randy & His Elite Metrosquad
11. “R” – Henry Threadgill
12. “Now that I’m a Woman” – Samantha Echo
13. “ei” – Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O’Rourke
14. “He’s a Dancer” – Kristy & Jimmy McNichol

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.