The Counterforce No. 44
James, How To Play A Necromancer's Theremin, Letterkenny...
Last week both my sister and I were at my parents’ house. I was making breakfast and put on James’ Hymn From A Village and Meg walked in and commented ‘oh nice’. It was a lovely little moment as we continued to listen to the rest of the song together. What I really love about it is how obscure this bonding agent between siblings is. After discovering James in 1993, I I first heard the song the following year when I bought a 12” live bootleg of theirs from Brass City Records. I believe it was a Reading Festival performance. This was the summer before I went away to college and I put it on a mix tape for the car. My sisters would’ve been 15 and 14 at the time. And we all loved it. It would be another couple years before I would find the studio version on the Jim II EP at Mars Records in Boston. This was when it still a small little room upstairs in the Allston mall. And another couple years still before the song was released on cd on the 1998 Best Of. James always seemed to know what a great tune this is. And it is. I love how fizzingly anarchic it is yet so catchy
What put me in mind of the song last week is I was listening to the Music Maps podcast by the Rock N Roll Book Club. They have an excellent 2-part interview with Tim Booth about his novel, and there’s lots of great early James info in there as well. If you’re in London, do check out the Rock N Roll Book Club events. I had a fantastic time last October at the Slade book launch, and was cool to meet Mark who runs it after being Twitter friends for a while.
The only time I’ve ever seen James was on the Laid tour - May 8, 1994 at Toad’s Place in New Haven - and I still remember it as one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. My friend Jon and I had just discovered Julian Cope and we got to meet a few members of James afterwards and instead of talking to them about their band, we asked them a bunch of questions about The Teardrop Explodes. Bassist Jim told us that was his first gig. Many years later, when I was living in London, my British friend Ed told me that when he first saw Pavement, he met them and spoke exclusively about Slint. I guess this is a teenage boy thing when it comes to international bands. Though probably very much of its time - the 90s - when the world seemed a whole lot bigger.
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Sometime last year I saw the above video and knew that How To Play A Necromancer’s Theremin was a book for me. So I was thrilled that when I met Maudlin House’s Mal Smart in Chicago in May, we traded books for it. I love trading books. And I wasn’t wrong. How To Play… is very fun and funny but also insightful about the nature of existence and how language creates such. Running with, among others, the theories of Robert Anton Wilson, Wilhelm Reich, and Alfred Korzybski to create a multi-dimensional “indie lit fantasy experience”, as they often say in the text. Also some great single mentions of Pynchon, Mitch Hedberg, and Luigi Russolo, again amongst many others. Echo, Octavia, and friends are traveling to Paris to see and stay in the former apartment of their favourite psy-fi writer, Rocco Atleby, whose writings have greatly influenced their lives, being as they are and are about The Patasphere - an eternal text containing everything - as well as altering consciousness and perception. So while the group is on the plane to and also within Atleby’s apartment, they also slip through the fabric of reality to also drink (and puke) heavily at a Tampa punk rock bar, and deal with the aftermath of joining in on a Paris music festival. All while constantly watching a documentary on Atleby’s life that eerily synchs up with their own actions, dealing with the world-rearranging Fat Tornado Clocks, and ingesting tons and tons of ‘bookpowder’. And towards the end there were a couple pages-long popcultural ‘Slothrop’s Desk’ lists that I really loved.
Although it isn’t quite indicative of the whole text, I found this passage rather wonderful, especially the end - “As Holger and Marcel stood in front of the table, mouths agape, Mom grabbed the mustard and ketchup and Dad grabbed the mayo and butter, all four condiments in squeeze-top bottles, and squeezed the ever-loving hell out of the bottles as they continued to scream in joy at each other - the vintage yellow, the B-rated horror-esque chunky blood red, the off white, and the creamed corn yellow sprayed like one part string theory confetti and one part edible fireworks all over the nook.”
As it’s too soon to watch the latest season of Shoresy for the third time, I decided to rewatch Letterkenny. All 12 seasons. It’s just so great. Such a love letter to language. And there’s always more to pick up on as they pack so much into each episode. I also discovered The Produce Stand podcast and am really enjoying it. Excellent interviews. So far I’ve listened to the ones with creator/Wayne/Shoresy Jared Keeso, Evan Stern (Roald), Mark Forward (Coach, also check out his stand-up, fantastic stuff), Alex McCooeye (Jim Dickens), and Tyler Johnston (Stewart).
I particularly liked the Jared Keeso interview and was impressed to learn that he chose all the music for the show, even writing scenes with specific songs in mind. I discovered a lot of great music through Letterkenny, most notably White Reaper, who I love and have followed enthusiastically ever since, and my latest obsession is BRONCHO’s Get In My Car
I love the bit in the podcast where Keeso talks about how great it is to hear your new favourite song and how you just know you’re going to listen to it a bunch of times with great joy before you listen to anything else.
I got to thinking about my favourite Letterkenny moments and tried to make a Top 10. That proved too difficult, as there are too many things I love about the show. So here’s my Top 15
15 - “Fugazi Osbourne”. So indicative of the wordplay throughout the series, but I feel Fugazi Osbourne has just been hanging there for us since 1988. I was filled with such joy the first time I heard this, I told everyone about it
Alexander’s “Why can’t you hear a dinosaur pee?” joke
Shoresy accusing Riley & Jonesy of being “separatist sympathizers” when they’re having qualms about chirping the Newfoundland team
When Bonnie McMurray is totally taken with being in front of the camera in the Dragon’s Den parody. She nails that self-obsession of such a moment, and also the annoyance at being taken out of her role by being asked questions, while at the same time still crushing on Wayne
Wayne’s drunken repetition of “in it to win it”. I loved this. The show really echoes the amusing minutiae of real life with stuff like this. Wayne drunkenly taking to Katie’s off-hand remark and then just repeating it ad infinitum with glee every time
The fact that Peaches’ “F*ck The Pain Away” was Dax and Ron’s wedding song. So perfect for those two
Riley & Jonesy’s repeated pop sound talking about dropping their balls into the Bags shorts
Jim Dickens. That an auctioneer was written into the show I find funny enough in and of itself, but him having to correct folks whenever they (all too often) call him ‘Jimmy Dickskin’ is hilarious. And when he’s hanging with his auctioneer friends for the Caesar contest and taking such delight in their company, truly a joy to watch
Mary-Anne and Betty-Anne’s first chirping. This had me rolling on the floor. Even funnier than most of Shoresy’s chirps.
Barts, Yorkie, Schultzy, Fisky, Boomtown. The rundown between these five is always hilarious. I find Fisky’s the funniest, and it never fails to crack me up whenever he emphatically says ‘Boomtown’
Coach’s cakes rant. That stylized kick of the garbage can at the beginning and especially the “Lady Baltimore” run of lines
“Dark Web”. Letterkenny is so much about repetition but Stewart and Roald’s inflections on “dark web” and the overwhelming delight they take in saying it is a joy every time
Stewart and Roald Red Card. Gutted not to find a clip of this. The idea of giving someone a red or yellow card in real life is fantastic, and the whole scene with the Skids here is ‘wondrous’. From the pleasure they take in calling their band The Hottest Sex Imaginable, to Roald’s announcement of his side project Susan Serrated and Stewart’s reaction to it, and finally their aping of professional soccer players upon receiving a card is perfect
Coach’s Xmas Party speech. I won’t spoil anything here but there’s that one joke that by all accounts even made everyone on set crack up during the take. The whole scene is comedy gold
And my favourite Letterkenny scene is My Tattered Journal at the talent show. Glen is such a phenomenal character, his Wayne obsession never better than it is here. And MTJ is a perfect name for an emo band
The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass audiobook is now out on all major platforms. You can listen to it at Bandcamp too. Much appreciated if you’d like to buy it
And for those of you in Los Angeles (Letterkenny voice - “el ay”), I’m doing two readings mid-August. Saturday August 17th at North Figueroa Bookshop 5PM with John Andrew Fredrick, and Sunday August 18th at Time Travel Mart, Echo Park 4PM as part of David Rocklin’s Roar Shack show. Come on out, it’ll be great to see you
And since it’s summer again, ‘Ouroboros’. What happens when the mythological snake decides it wants to try something new to eat and attempts to book a table at a restaurant? It just so happens to be the one from Party Of Five and when asked what name the reservation will be under he panics and replies ‘William Burroughs’
I put your LA dates in the calendar. If I'm in LA I'll be there!