System of Systems

Adam and reoccurring guest host Sandra , the beauty formerly known as Bimbo Ubermensch, discuss reality TV. That's it really. What is reality tv? What is its function? If you are a reality TV producer, please listen to this entire episode. Sandra and I have ideas for the greatest shows that have still never been made.

SOUNDTRACK: Deha "Better to Reign in Hell"

Boyd Rice & Death in June "Black Sun Rising"

 Children of the Corn "Down For Mine"

Bestial Summoning "Evil Will Prevail"

SPK "Victim (live)"

Skid Row "Mudkickers" 

Adam and Will are joined by friend Filthy Armenian in the wake of the release of his podcast Filthy Armenian Adventures's recent episode in which Armenian followed Adam around a tour of the New York art world recording the entire ordeal over five hours. It is a truly epic work of audio art, and Armenian's podcast to us represents an exciting new development in the form where a heaping of cinema verité style reportage bleeds into the restrictions of the audio format, creating a surrealist effect that makes for delightfully delirious listening.

Due to the podcast discussions, this conversation steers towards the coterie of Twitter accounts that seem to orbit podcasts while claiming to never listen to them, and finally.... They talk about comedy. Armenian's work in stand-up, but moreover the death of humor.

Also, this episode is a comedy of technical errors

Full Episode available here 

Filthy Armenian recommends: Eve Babitz Will recommends: Peter Sotos, Goethe Adam recommends: novelist Matthew Stokoe, critic/poet M. Kitchell, 'German Angst' Blu-Ray trilogy

Soundtrack: Staccato du Mal "Plea Bargain" 
Necrodeath "Necrosadist"  
Navicon Torture Technologies "Pyrokinesis"
Marco Shuttle "W.E.I.R.D."  
Shadow Huntaz and Kareem "Snake Bite" Angelo Badalamenti "Audrey’s Dance" The Cramps "I Was A Teenage Werewolf"

Links: Filthy Armenian Twitter: @FilthyArmenian
Filthy Armenian's Adventures

For the fourth edition of Alex Bienstock's SOS side project Collectin' Scalps with 'Stock, Bienstock and Adam interview their friend Bradford Kessler. Kessler, a NY-based artist known for his work in sculpture, painting, illustration, and video, is currently plotting an emergence as a feature film director. The three men discuss their work, drugs, cinema, and the importance of constructing a collective of likeminded creative individuals.   SOUNDTRACK:
The Virgin Prunes "Don’t Look Back"  The Velvet Underground "The Black Angel’s Death Song" live  Accept "Demon’s Night"  the Shadow Ring "Man"  Impetigo "Dis-Organ-Ized"  The Sonics "The Witch"

LINKS:
Bradford Kessler website 
Bradford Kessler Instagram @bradfordhurstkessler
Bradford Kessler interview 
Paul Thomas Anderson interview on 'The Master' 

Adam and filmmaker Michael M. Bilandic have been mutuals on social media for a little while now, but it wasn't until Mubi recently made Michael's films available on its streaming platform that Adam found himself burning through Michael's work and was thoroughly impressed. A frustrated artist exploits a rural horrorcore group in 'Hellaware', a raving delivery man accidentally kills a famous client in 'Jobe'z World', a performance artist locks himself in a cell as the Floyd riots rage outside in last year's 'Project Space 13'; while taking place in a tightly contained and well-crafted cinema universe, Michael's films mirror the reality of living in the contemporary culture industries to an uncanny degree.

Michael joins Adam and Will here to discuss not only his own films, but also Adam and Michael's shared love of Nick Zedd and the Cinema of Transgression, Michael's time working at legendary defunct East Village shop Kim's Video and Music, the crypto-transgression of Todd Phillips and 'Joker', and Bilandic's work with film art icon Abel Ferrara. 

SOUNDTRACK:

Young Torture Killaz  "Cut Yo Dick Off"
Pissgrave "Euthanasia"
Skaters "Untitled 2" 
Strangulated Beatoffs "Earth To Satan"
Overkill "Rotten To The Core"
Ultravox "Vienna" 
Abel Ferrara on the making of 'Driller Killer' 

LINKS:
Michael M. Bilandic Twitter: @_RareArt
Michael M. Bilandic Instagram: @m1kebillz
Michael M. Bilalandic films at Mubi 
On the films of Michael M. Bilandic 
Watch Nick Zedd's 'Bogus Man'
Watch Nick Zedd compilation |
Watch Nick Zedd's 'War is Menstrual Energy' 

Nick Zedd CoT manifesto

Richard Kern video interview

Richard Kern 'The Evil Cameraman' 

Adam, Will, and Sandra discuss the two most undeniable masterpieces from Van Morrison's oeuvre. Adam had heard Van as a kid, but wouldn't become acquainted with the total mastery and genius of the songwriter until reading Lester Bangs' essay on Van's '67 swan song Astral Weeks and finally listened to the entirety of the record himself. It totally changed his life.


Van recorded Astral Weeks, ranked by critics overall as the 4th greatest album of popular music history, when he was only 22 fucking years old! It is shocking the extent to which this young man was in touch with the full range of his humanity. Lester Bangs wrote: "It sounded like the man who made Astral Weeks was in terrible pain, pain most of Van Morrison's previous works had only suggested; but like the later albums by the Velvet Underground, there was a redemptive element in the blackness, ultimate compassion for the suffering of others, and a swath of pure beauty and mystical awe that cut right through the heart of the work."


Veedon Fleece wouldn't be released until 1974, five albums after Astral Weeks, but now can be seen to function as Astral's spiritual sequel. The most obscenely overlooked album in Van Morrison's oeuvre, there are fascinating things happening lyrically here. Not to mention, it is the only record in which Van seems comfortable expressing and showing off the full range of the seismic instrument that is his voice. "I'm not a good enough writer to explain how magical [Veedon Fleece] is," says Ben Chasny of the freak folk/psych band Six Organs of Admittance. "You'll just have to trust me."     Do you want to see God? Listen to Van Morrison.     (NOTE: this record got cut off at the end due to tech problems, but you don't miss much)   Astral Weeks: https://music.apple.com/us/album/astral-weeks/1031002336   Veedon Fleece: https://music.apple.com/us/album/veedon-fleece-bonus-track-version/1030926137     Soundtrack (all by Van Morrison):

Astral Weeks   Cyprus Avenue   Madame George   The Way Young Lovers Do   Linden Arden Stole the Highlights   Who Was That Masked Man   You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Push the River Comfort You

LINKS:   Lester Bangs on Astral Weeks

Greil Marcus on Astral Weeks
Ryan Walsh on Astral Weeks

Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance on Veedon Fleece

Gary Suarez on Veedon Fleece 

Happy New Years, Motherfuckers!

For the first show of 2022, Adam, Will and reoccurring guest host Sandra are joined by writer Katherine Dee, aka Default Friend, specifically to discuss the limitations of the "dissident" branded publishers that have sprouted up throughout Covid in response to a renewed enthusiasm for anti-mainstream thought.

Can there be genuine dissidence when art is tethered to political backing of any kind? Who the fuck knows. Whatever. We also talk about cinema and celebrity and plastic surgery and Zac Efron's fake jaw making him look like a mongoloid.

Sorry for the hella fucked up audio on this one, the Chinese spy software wasn't functioning properly.

This is a PREVIEW of the final episode, the full show is available to patrons only, which you can find here

Soundtrack:

Zoviet France “Something Spooked The Horses” 

Brenoritvrezorkre “Borarp” 

Ornette Coleman “Bird Food” 

The Four Tops “Bernadette” 

Walkingseeds “666 Squadron” 

Butthole Surfers "Concubine" 

Links:

Katherine Dee at Twitter: @default_friend

Katherine at Substack

Katherine Dee "A Critique of Right Wing Art"

Katherine Dee at Unherd

Based swaggot Alex Bienstock produces his third episode of his SOS side-project Collectin' Scalps w/ Stock. In this new episode, 'Stock and Adam interview music producer Laje Amare. What are we talking about here? All sorts of shit: body building, male dysmorphia, vanity, pop music, experimental music, the woes of internet temptations in the world of romance, and the fear of being fat projected as fatphobia.

SOUNDTRACK:

Laje Amare "Tim Hecker Can Suck My Cock" 

Autoerotichrist "Slyvania" 

Anal Massaker "Vision Of Fear" 

Sadokist "Enter The Devil" 

Tim Hecker "Chimeras"  Laje Amare "I Just Told My Mom I Will Never Fall In Love"

LINKS:
Laje Instagram: @lajeamare
Alex Bienstock website: http://www.alexbienstock.com/
Alex Bienstock Instagram: @wholesomecreativeguy
Alex Bienstock Twitter: @escbas

In our last main episode of 2021, we are joined by two great men, brothers, and creators of The Perfume Nationalist Jack and Ortant. What the fuck did we talk about? I don't know. Last year, Jack came on the show to discuss our favorite movies of 2020, but we didn't have that many great movies to talk about this year.

So, compensating for the lack of good flicks, we talked about other shit. The three season arch of The Perfume Nationalist and the show's bravura third season finale with Zack and Amanda Milius. The long-coming schism in the Twitter sphere. Being a cult leader. Media soap opera narratives. Apoliticism collapsing beneath the weight of leftism. And more.

Enjoy.

SOUNDTRACK:

Fleetwood Mac "What Makes You Think You’re The One"

The Godz "White Cat Heat"

Juvenile "Flossin Season"

The Caretaker "Haunting Me"

The Country Medical Examiner "Expeditious Evisceratory Mishap" 

Coil "Disco Hospital"

LINKS:

The Perfume Nationalist Season 3 Finale with Amanda Milius and Zach Langley Chi Chi

Jack interview with Countere

Jack at Twitter

Ortant at Twitter

Meme account extraordinaire Beyond Woke and Problematic Discusses the Thiel/Soros pipelines, Kali Yuga, BAP, Kantbot, and the mesmeric allure and insidious confusion of niche internet ideology.

Royal Trux - Teeth (Live)

Martin Denny - Little China Doll

Kid606 - Going Back To Kali Yuga

Mutilation - Born Under The Master’s Spell 

Agonal Lust - Satan’s Den 

Pin Group - Hurricane Fighter Plane 

Rusted Shut - Chemical World 

Funkadelic - You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks 

LINKS:

BWAP Twitter 

BWAP Instagram: @bwap_2

Friend of the show Yeerk. P joins the show and..... this is a weird conversation to summarize. It started with a thread that Yeerk posited about his belief that techno is a form of hard rock. This led to much discussion about genre, genre codification, the nature of art in late modernity, the persistence of wiggerdom, nu-metal, noise's absorption into broader pop music tendencies, David Lynch, and Antifa's hatred of art. Listen and enjoy, motherfuckers!

SOUNDTRACK:

Blunt Force Trauma - Schreklichkeit 
Slipknot - "Prosthetics" 
Gai - Liar Shackleton - Shimmer, Then Fade
Charli XCX - "Good Ones"  Summoning - "Flight of the Nazgul"  Pere Ubu - "Come Home"

LINKS:
Yeerk. P Twitter
Yeerk P at Substack: https://yeerkpool.substack.com/
Ray Brassier "Genre is Obsolete" 
Adam on Tom Smith/To Live and Shave in LA
Arthur C. Danto on Walter Benjamin