Twin Peaks Returns

???

Well I've done it. That is endured the longest 4 hours of 2017 so far. Today was Twin Peaks day. I tried to act like I was more enthused than I was, suspecting that maybe I was over this teenage obsession. We specially signed up for the streaming service Stan so we could watch the show immediately. Bored, angry, tense, duped, old, sad and bemused are just some of the things I felt whilst watching the 2017 season of Twin Peaks. I would have been quite happy to discontinue watching the show after each of the first three episodes. However speechless Emma kept going so I sat and hoped that it would improve. It's worth remembering though that most of the second half of season two (aired 1990-91) was unwatchable and incredibly disappointing.

During tonight's first three episodes I just kept thinking 'Am I too old for this shit?' 'I'm just not the same person anymore.' 'Am I too depressed to enjoy this?' These thoughts were perplexing. Then I thought hang on this is Lynchian but it's not really Twin Peaks is it? It wasn't until the 4th and final episode, for this week, that it started to feel even remotely like the Twin Peaks of old. The thing is Twin Peaks of the early 90s was almost entirely set in Twin Peaks and its surrounds. Scenes not in the town were rare. In this new season however only about a quarter of the scenes so far have been set in Twin Peaks. Nobody has had pie yet. Dale Cooper has only had one sip of coffee and he spat that out. This is quite possibly a punkish statement of intent from Lynch ie. He's not gonna give us the nostalgia trip of a warm and fuzzy agent Cooper drinking endless cups of coffee while quipping enthusiastically about their merits.

The stories and soap opera/cop show vibes are barely there. Leaving us mainly with just the weird and horror portions of the show. If the ratio used to be 90% soap/whodunnit and 10% weird and scary, this time Lynch has flipped it so it's the other way around. I don't actually know what the fuck happened in episodes 1-3 tonight. It felt like I was drugged and can't remember what happened except for a few strange inexplicable dark segments. Who were all these new characters? How and why were we supposed to give a shit about them? A lot of the first three hours felt like a student film or 70s Dr Who on acid. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire were invoked more than the original Twin Peaks itself. Cast members from these films turn up too, further entwining all things Lynchian into the tv show.

By the time we got to the fourth episode, it ever so slightly started to feel like Twin Peaks. I will watch the next episode unreluctantly but.....I want more Douglas Firs, damn fine coffee, absurd quantities of donuts, cherry pie, that original sepia tone, cheesiness, other pies and the town of Twin Peaks! (Oh dear, I am the sad nostalgist Lynch doesn't want to pander to). The funny thing is 26 years ago I probably would have wanted less goofy soap and more mental shit. The bizarre and scary scenes had more impact back in the day because they were used more sparingly though.

I did sit on the couch and watch four hours of the new season of Twin Peaks in a row. That means something, I guess...

*One game I played when I got bored was - Who has aged best? The winner being David Lynch (Gordon) himself closely followed by Madchen Amick (Shelly). The rest looked old, hey that's life.

**If only Mark Fisher were still alive today to give us his analysis.

Bad Moon Rising - Sonic Youth

I haven't been posting as much due to, you know, life and that but also because I've been doing some writing for a web site. This writing is eating into my blogging time, anyway whatever. So I've decided to include some of these writings here in a little series called Tim's Ultra Rough Guide To Rock. This first one is on Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising. I think I could write a major article by expanding this small piece or maybe being this concise is just right.

SONIC YOUTH - BAD MOON RISING

This is a weird album. Bad Moon Rising has a mysterious atmosphere that just hangs and engulfs all in its path. This is the most singular Sonic Youth LP making it unique in their catalogue. Like David Lynch did with Blue Velvet, Sonic Youth shine a light on the dark underbelly of the suburban American Dream. Perhaps coming to the conclusion that it may in fact be a nightmare. Sex, mental illness, hippie optimism and its ultimate disillusion, subversion, nihilism, death, transgression and power are all covered lyrically here. Sonically the clangs and the air of alienating dissonance mirror that of the urban sprawl and the squalor it entails. This LP moves at a creepy catatonic pace that parallels life in the sleepy suburbs. The pace only picks up with a burst of violence that is Death Valley 69. A bit like Charles Manson’s endgame to those dreaming of a hippie utopia throughout the 60s.

*This really is a concept LP which would have been very uncool at the time. How did it get past the taste police, I wonder? This has me thinking about a piece Simon Reynolds did a few weeks back about a Thurston Moore quote about 1985. The gist was that in 1985 Thurston thought it was quite radical to reference music from the rock no go zone of 1968-75, citing Green River as the catalysts for this move. Perhaps this double think allowed him to make a concept LP in 1985 as well.

*Bad Moon Rising got reissued a month or so back I've just noticed making this post quite topical and not as pointless as I thought.

*Then there's this (below) that everyone seems to be reading, even my Mrs who's not even a Sonic Youth fan (While she was a massive Pixies fan, she was more into your Guns & Roses, Temple Of The Dog, Mother Love Bone, Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Screaming Trees in your late 80s into early 90s rock period). I've only read the first paragraph and it's a fucking classic. She calls Thurston Moore a phoney. I sense it will be a great read with a start like that. She's has quite a gift for writing amongst her many other talents.

Horror Movie Soundtracks Need No Transformation

I've only just noticed this article from late last year where it is claimed that perhaps soundtracks are mere memorabilia and the vinyl reissue boom of horror soundtracks is not necessarily based in "the music's stand alone appeal." It is also claimed that the vinyl resurgence of OSTs of horror may have led to the live revival of certain acts.

Using me as an example lets have a look at these claims. DRG Records had this series of cds in the mid 90s Classic Italian Soundtracks. I have the first two volumes of the Goblin compilations, one on  Ennio Morricone's  trilogy of soundtracks for Dario Argento and 4 volumes of  of the Spaghetti Westerns compilations. Of the 17 soundtracks featured on those 2 Goblin comps I'd seen one of the films, Patrick, at the time. Since the mid 90s I have collected 9 individual scores by Goblin and even a couple from the solo Claudio Simmonetti. Now over 15 years later I've only seen one more of the movies that they scored Suspiria and I'm not even sure if that's worth watching. Three of my all time favourite Morricone scores (sure, I like a few others too) are the 3 he scored for Argento The Bird With Crystal Plumage, The Cat O Nine Tails and Four Flies On Grey Velvet. I've never viewed the movies and probably never will. But this music is some of the all time great music of the Twentieth century.

Now I will pick 10 of my favourite horror soundtracks off the top of my head not including any of the aforementioned.

• Christine - John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
• Maniac - Jay Chataway
• Zombie Holocaust - Nico Fidenco
• Porno Holocaust - Nico Fidenco
• Halloween - John Carpenter
• A Lizard In A Woman's Skin - Ennio Morricone
• Chopping Mall - Chuck Cirino
• La Coda Dello Scorpione - Bruno Nicolai
• The Wicker Man - Paul Giovanni
• Eraserhead - Alan Splet & David Lynch

These ten soundtracks I have listened to a zillion times (but only seen three of the films) and think the music is fantastic just as much as any other genre of LP I would listen to. In fact surely there is a case for John Carpenter to be considered one of 20th centuries great composers. I don't need some deluxe reissue for this terrific music to be transformed beyond memorabilia, do I Mr Reed? Perhaps your attitude to movie music needs to transform more than anything. I often think a lot of movies don't deserve the brilliant music they get to soundtrack their films. This all fits in with my 'music is a much more successful cultural artform than film' argument that has been mentioned previously on my blog. Sure you might think I'm just a music guy, so of course I'm going to say that. Once upon a time however I was a definite film guy and was going to go into professional movie reviewing.

For how serious and intense people are about soundtracks and sound design you may want to check out the three volumes published from Philip Brophy's Cinesonic conferences in 1998, 1999 & 2000 by The Australian Film TV and Radio School. Brophy also published the excellent 100 Modern Soundtracks which was part of the BFI Screen Guides series in 2004. Perhaps someone should publish (er... maybe me) a book on soundtracks that stand alone as musical artefacts considering I've just come up with 25 of them in this short article.

The live return of people like Alan Howarth, Fabio Frizzi, Goblin (Goblin have always been around in one form or another as far as I can tell) and another Goblin was inevitable as their cults grew bigger and bigger by the day. More than likely the internet has served as the main reason for these artists' growth in popularity. Having said that, if someone was cluey and cashed up enough in the 90s to promote these artists live I'm sure they would have sold out shows in capital cities across the world.

Don't get me wrong, beautiful new shiny packaging, special artwork and the fetishization of vinyl are all fine things but it's still all about the music innit? I mean Blue Jasmine is an excellent film but I'm not about to rush and buy that OST if its released with a bunch of extra bells and whistles on chunky vinyl am I?

Love the soundtrack & the poster.
I wonder what the film's like?

More On Soundtracks

I've only just realised there was a 1983 sequel to 1980s The Boogey Man and it is possible Tim Krog was responsible for the soundtrack to that as well as the original but information is thin on the ground. By the looks of things the soundtrack to Revenge of the Boogey Man aka Boogey Man II has never seen the light of day. Now that would be a coup if a record company could get a hold of both of these scores. Although perhaps the original score was just reused. If anyone has any information and can confirm or deny such rumours leave a comment.
                                                                                                                                                           

I've also discovered this brilliant mixtape of 70s and 80s horror soundtracks at SoundCloud called Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death from RFLX. Its got all your favourite composers Frizzi, Chattaway, Lynch and Splet, Shore, Fidenco, Korzynski etc. I know 95% of this music but it's mixed in such an exciting and propulsive manner that its a joy to listen to despite its familiarity. This is the biz.

Audrey Horne

Just to cleanse your eyeballs after that last post 

here's the one and only Audrey Horne.