PODCAST: December 2022 Episode

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EPISODE NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS:

This episode begins, as too many of them do these days, by marking the passing of an artist that meant a great deal to the music this show was built on. In this case, we lost an icon: Angelo Badalamenti. Known primarily as the man who crafted the incredible moods of many David Lynch projects -- especially "Twin Peaks" -- Badalamenti could set a tone like no other. Whether effortlessly painting the atmosphere of a darkened wood with minimal synth, or haunting a scene with the most heartbreaking songs of ethereal longing and slow-motion loss, Badalamenti's influence changed the world of soundtrack music by letting it stand in the foreground of so many scenes, like a character all its own. To honor his memory, this episode opens with (perhaps) his most iconic piece, "Laura Palmer's Theme," followed by a rarity from the Twin Peaks Archives, a seldom-heard (and absolutely heartrending) vocal performance from a man who usually let his fingers do the talking, Badalamenti himself. I defy you to get through his demo for "Questions in a World of Blue" with a dry eye.

 

R.I.P. Angelo Badalamenti: 1937 - 2022

 

But -- because the man gave us so much more than could be summed up in just an intro, every talk break in this show is lined with his soundtrack work, selected from many corners of his dark music portfolio, AND a special closing nod as well. Also, if you've never seen the clip where Angelo tells the story of composing "Laura Palmer's Theme," I've embedded it below. Pure magic. Rest in peace, sir. Your music will travel with me the rest of my days. Or nights.

After that, we dive into the first regular set of the show, beginning with the brand new single from The Bellwether Syndicate. A guitar-driven goth rock banger right out of the gate, "Beacons" gives us a second taste of the band's long-awaited forthcoming full-length album, Vestige & Vigil. Keeping the gothic rock going, we catch up with resurrected UK goth band Sirens of Light for a deeper cut from their newly-unearthed and remixed 2004 album Nullus Margis Gothica MMXXI, before catching up with Black Rose Burning, whose 2021 release The Wheel had eluded airplay on this show - until now! A brand new standalone single from current goth rock powerhouse The Waning Moon comes next, followed by a deeper cut from the new Panic Priest album, Psychogoria -- this time, a wonderfully executed cover of the classic Italo Disco anthem, "Self Control." Finally, the set closes with some fresh, melancholic darkwave from California's Harsh Symmetry.

 

The second full set of the show is your Christmas Bonus! So to speak. It is, in fact, a short collection of holiday-related tracks, but not in the traditional sense, so never fear! We begin with the latest holiday single from The Crüxshadows, a snappy little synthpop track that channels a bit of the Cure's more sunlit hits through a traditional Christmas filter. Grab it here. We then hit a patch of black ice, in the form of a mini-set dedicated to the 30th anniversary of "Batman Returns," featuring music from Danny Elfman's score, some film dialogue, and the immortal Siouxsie & the Banshees track that ties the whole affair together. We then honor the memory of Batman's animated voice for an entire generation, Kevin Conroy, who passed away last month. Rest in peace, and thank you.

 

R.I.P. Kevin Conroy, 1955-2022

Since it also happens to be the 30th anniversary of "Christmas with the Joker," one of the greatest episodes of one of the best shows of all time, "Batman: The Animated Series," you'll hear select dialogue samples from that episode, featuring Conroy's Batman facing off with Mark Hamill's Joker, guiding us along between two more Xmas anniversary selections: Alien Sex Fiend's drunken goth club anthem, "Stuff the Turkey" -- which turns 35 this year -- and Georgia band Porn Orchard's oft-confused cult classic, "This Holiday Season," which famously fooled thousands into believing that Tom Waits and Peter Murphy actually got together and recorded a Christmas song. They did not, it was Porn Orchard all along. Anyway, depending on which release you count, it came out in either 1991 or 1992, so it's ripe for an anniversary salute. It's always worth hearing, either way. 

The next set continues my ongoing spotlight on the music of Ukraine, this time with a holiday-related twist. As it turns out, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first recording of the song that's come to be known in the west as "The Carol of the Bells." What most may not realize is that this most famous of Christmas Carols is actually an old Ukrainian folk melody, turned by composer Mykola Leontovych into the enduring multi-part harmony we all love, then married with traditional lyrics to create a song known as Щедрик ("Shchedryk" meaning prosperous, generous, or bountiful). The original pre-Christian Ukrainian lyrics reveal a song of prosperity for the new year rather than Christmas, but could anyone imagine this time of year without it? That said, the set begins with three versions of the song: The original 1922 recording by the Ukrainian National Chorus, followed by a 2022 live recording by Shchedryk Ukrainian Children's Choir captured in Carnegie Hall -- the very same venue that hosted its first US performance 100 years prior -- and, finally, marking the halfway point between the two with a 1972 version of the song by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, utilizing the traditional Ukrainian instrument, the bandura.

The rest of the Ukrainian set focuses on new and current post-punk and darkwave acts, starting with a selection by Smurno, taken from Sideline Magazine's second Ukrainian artists compilation, "Electronic Resistance: Reconstruction ," the proceeds from which benefit Ukrainian aid efforts. We then go further into the catalogue of Quadrille (КАДРИЛЬ) with their 2019 single, before closing the set with a song I can't seem to stop playing, the latest single (and video) from Ukrainian wave newcomers Spokusy.

After two ultra-focused sets like that, we turn to a set that is united more in mood than in style or sub-sub-genre, beginning with new music from Entertainment's Horror, Pt, 2, an ultra-atmospheric piece of isolation-deathrock. We then delve deeper into the more theatrical textures of ROME's new album Hegemonikon: A Journey to the End of Light. Building from that song's ambient landscape, we hear a collaboration between Images in Silence & Fjolla Hoxha, two Nashville arists on the Trance//Furnace label, who recreate the Bauhaus classic "Double Dare" with a new dark ambient dimension. Interestingly, the track is exclusive to a zine entitled Transmissions From The Island Of The King, which you can get here. We then play with the theme of the newly-arrived winter with the next three selections: A late 35th anniversary cut ("I Coldy Stare Out") from Pink Turns Blue's 1987 debut If Two Worlds Kiss, followed by a debut ("Stay Awake") from the '80s-soaked California new wave/post-punk band Sacred Skin (formerly Second Skin), and a rare industrial selection from the vaults, the :Wumpscut: classic, "Die In Winter."

 

The dark metal portion of the show begins by marking the 25th anniversary of Katatonia's final harsh-vocal release, 1997's Sounds of Decay EP, before going a cut deeper into An Eternity of Misery, the latest from Italy's In Grief. A pair of personal winter metal classics come next, in the form of Agalloch's "Fallen Snow" (which is incredibly timely, given the extreme cold front and snow storm that is ripping through as I type this) and Summoning's Tolkien-inspired "Kôr," taken from the recently 25-years-old album, Dol Guldur. Both songs represent the respective acts at their peak, in my opinion. After that, we close the metal set with brand new music from Dutch doom masters Celestial Season, taken from the follow-up to their return to death-doom, Mysterium II.

The show then ultimately closes with one more nod to Angelo Badalamenti. Showing how much a master could do with so little, the Twin Peaks background mood piece "Nightsea Wind" leads us into the Twin Peaks-inspired song "Black Lodge" by (no doubt very-unexpected-on-this-show) Anthrax . But before anyone thinks I just included a random song by some famous David Lynch fans, know that Angelo Badalamenti himself did the string arrangements for the song, which I also hold as a very underrated and atypical song from a band that I already loved.

 

All of that PLUS: Side stories, touring news, Xmas jeer, and more!

 

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PLAYLIST BEGINS HERE
Format: Band Name - Song Title [Album Title, Year]

(each band name is also a website link)
(sets and talk breaks separated by dashes)

"Out ov the Coffin" w/ Ichabod
  Show recorded: December 22nd-23rd, 2022

Opening Theme:
Elliot Goldenthal - Libera Me ["Interview with the Vampire" (soundtrack) 1994]

Angelo Badalamenti - Questions in a World of Blue (demo)  [The Twin Peaks Archive, 2011]
Angelo Badalamenti w/ David Lynch - Laura Palmer’s Theme  [“Twin Peaks” (Soundtrack) 1990]
-
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Sneaky Audrey / Dark Mood Woods (Full version) / Half Speed Orchestra 1 (Stair Music) [The Twin Peaks Archive, 2011]
-
The Bellwether Syndicate - Beacons [single, 2022]
Sirens of Light - Succubus’ Requiem  [Nullus Margis Gothica MMXXI, 2004/2022]
Black Rose Burning - The Wheel  [The Wheel, 2021]
The Waning Moon - Scars  [single, 2022]
Panic Priest - Self Control  [Psychogoria, 2022]
Harsh Symmetry - Skin  [Display Model, 2022]
-
Angelo Badalamenti (partially w/ Charles Bernstein) - Save the Children / Grave Walk / Puppet Walk  [“A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (score) 1987]
-
The Crüxshadows - Angel Voices  [single, 2022]
Danny Elfman - The Cemetery [“Batman Returns” (soundtrack) 1992]
[SAMPLE] Batman Returns (1992)
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Face to Face  [“Batman Returns” (soundtrack) 1992]
[SAMPLE] Batman: The Animated Series "Christmas with the Joker" (1992)
Alien Sex Fiend - Stuff the Turkey [single, 1987]
[SAMPLE] Batman: The Animated Series "Christmas with the Joker" (1992)
Porn Orchard - This Holiday Season  [The Mother of All Flagpole Christmas Albums (comp.) 1992]
[SAMPLE] Batman: The Animated Series "Christmas with the Joker" (1992)
-
Angelo Badalamenti - L'anniversaire d'Irvin  [“The City of Lost Children” (soundtrack) 1995]
-
Ukrainian National Chorus - Щедрик (Schedryk)  [Poor Hawthorne / Shtchedryk / Koza, 1922]
Shchedryk Ukrainian Children's Choir - Щедрик (Shchedryk) (live at Carnegie Hall, 2022)
Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus - Shchedryk  [Christmas Carols, 1972]
Smurno - Sklo (Glass)  [Electronic Resistance: Reconstruction (comp.) 2022]
КАДРИЛЬ (Quadrille) - Оцепенение и страх (Numbness and Fear)  [single, 2019]
Spokusy - Ordlo  [single, 2022]
-
Angelo Badalamenti - Main Titles / Cue 13 / Cue 21 & 24  [“Blue Velvet” (soundtrack) 1986]
-
Entertainment - An Alter of Remembrance  [Horror Pt. 2, 2022]
ROME - Icarus Rex  [Hegemonikon: A Journey to the End of Light, 2022]
Images in Silence & Fjolla Hoxha – Double Dare [Transmissions From The Island Of The King, 2022]
Pink Turns Blue - I Coldly Stare Out  [If Two Worlds Kiss, 1987]
Sacred Skin - Stay Awake  [The Decline of Pleasure, 2022]
:Wumpscut: - Die In Winter  [Bunkertor 7, 1995]
-
Angelo Badalamenti with The City Of Prague Philharmonic - Mulholland Drive / Love Theme  [“Mulholland Drive” (soundtrack) 2001]
-
Katatonia - Nowhere  [Sounds of Decay, 1997]
In Grief - Ярна (Yarna)  [An Eternity of Misery, 2022]
Agalloch - Fallen Snow  [Ashes Against the Grain, 2006]
Summoning - Kôr  [Dol Guldur, 1997]
Celestial Season - The Sun The Moon And The Truth  [Mysterium II, 2022]
-
Angelo Badalamenti - Fred’s World / Haunting & Heartbreaking  [“Lost Highway” (soundtrack) 1996]
-
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Nightsea Wind (exc.)  [The Twin Peaks Archive, 2011]
Anthrax - Black Lodge (Black Strings Mix)  [Black Lodge (single) 1993]

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