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.”

A Most Mysterious Him

Clear from the film,
clear from the foil,
a most mysterious him
set on the evening boil.

I listen at the latch,
the larch, the booby hatch.
I’ve traveled down that road,
the captain says, natch.

Leave the wick wide open.
The opera crowd now riots.
The bodies have been doubling,
piled in moontide quiet.

On and all again,
the waxwork communion:
all these dusty bedsheets,
all those bloody reunions.

The TV won’t turn off.
The trash compactor won’t eat.
The buns sleep in the freezer,
We breed thick worms for meat.

The dissenters were shut in the barn,
near the flood and the Toblerone.
We blamed a most mysterious him.
He said we had acted alone.

An Evening Boil
Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “Swan Lake” – Madness
2. “At Risk” – Sylvie Courvoisier
3. “Shopping Should Be Pleasurable” – Caspro, Decisive Koala
4. “Swan Lake” – Public Image Ltd.
5. “Markov Chain” – Francesco Baldini, Alessandro Ferrazzi
6. “Anything” – Black Marble
7. “Elysium Air” – Cadpro, Decisive Koala
8. “Leiter zum Erfolg” – Jul Dillier, Flora Geisselbrecht, Bernhard Hadriga
9. “My Lost One” – Julia Holter
10. “Dia” – Tyondai Braxton
11. “I Wander (II)” – Djrum
12. “soulless cycle” – L’Rain
13. “As Toucans Learn” – Carl Stone, ASUNA
14. “Night Signals from Sector Five” – Scanner

Stephen McClurg (Episode 473 & 666) composes and improvises inSerenity 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.