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A 45-minute ‘God Save the Queen’ for HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee!


 
“A report in 2019 revealed that Queen Elizabeth II and her family cost the British people £67 million per year,” says grateful subject Andrew Liles, introducing his elongated version of the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen.” The monarchy is a sweet deal for Britons, since the royals put on the occasional horse show starring Tom Cruise to thank the common people for expending their lives in toil so that their betters may luxuriate among jeweled combs and Sèvres tea services.

Now, Liles has found a musical way to tell the royals “you’re welcome” for the generalized misery that supports their year-round debauch: extending Her Maj’s favorite Pistols choon from a length of about three minutes to 45, one for each year since 1977. In all likelihood, this is the very melody she will be humming this morning while she consumes a year of your wages for breakfast.

Unfortunately, there’s still no future, but on the bright side, there’s a lot more of it!
 

Posted by Oliver Hall
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05.19.2022
03:08 pm
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Richard H. Kirk on ‘Shadow of Fear,’ Cabaret Voltaire’s first new album since 1994
11.18.2020
07:46 am
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‘Shadow of Fear’ on Mute

Like a late-night transmission from a long-dormant UHF station, a new Cabaret Voltaire LP is beaming from Sheffield on November 20 to succor Dangerous Minds readers during these trying times. Shadow of Fear, the Cabs’ first new release since 1994’s The Conversation, is also the first we’ve heard from the band since founding member Richard H. Kirk resurrected the name for the 2014 Berlin Atonal festival and subsequent live performances in happy European cities.

I caught up with RHK by phone last week. Despite a historically bad connection, I managed to learn a few things about Shadow of Fear, the new incarnation of Cabaret Voltaire, and Kirk’s welcome plans to release two more new Cabs albums and a twelve-inch single next year. An edited transcript of our conversation follows.


Richard H. Kirk (Courtesy of Mute)

How has the last year been?

Um, pretty boring. I mean, I was lucky, insomuch that I managed to get all of my recording finished just as the lockdown was coming in in England, so, you know, that was something. But pretty much since I finished recording the new album… I’ve got a couple of guys who I work with on the artwork, so next thing I was into that, and then afterwards it was mastering.

So it’s been pretty boring, you know? Not particularly nice weather, um, and, you know, now lockdown again. [laughter] I mean, I haven’t been out of the house since January. 

Wow.

Well, back in January I got sick with some kind of bug which was suspiciously… it felt like it could be COVID. But I was unwell for about six weeks, and then I finally came back from it, so I just didn’t feel it was advisable to go out. I mean, I’m lucky; I have a garden, so I’m not kind of [stuck] indoors.

I just feel like, over the summer, people went a bit too crazy. They lifted the lockdown, started encouraging people to go to pubs, restaurants, and that’s all kind of kicked back in, you know? It’s still out there.

I saw a lot of pictures in the media of people on beaches.

I mean, I’m 64 and also, I smoke, and I figure that I could be a good candidate [laughs] for illness, so I just have to be patient. They just announced some sort of vaccine today in the UK, but I don’t know whether I believe much of what’s on the news media anymore.

You’ve always been a skeptical consumer of media, right?

Totally, news.

If not for COVID, would you have been out on the road this year? Did you have plans to tour?

Yeah, I mean, there were a couple of possibilities for Europe. I think one was in the Czech Republic and one in Spain. But in the end, you know, it was October, and I just thought, I don’t think it’s gonna [work]. I’d love to be out there. I get the opportunity to travel around Europe, so, I really enjoy that, but at the moment I’m kind of stuck—stuck in Sheffield. Next year, things might be better, but there’s no guarantee about that.

Can you tell me about the process of making the record?

Okay, so, the tracks I started to write back in 2014, when I did the first Cabaret Voltaire show for twenty-something years, and it just built from there, basically. Over a five-year period, I had about three hours’ worth of material that I’ve been using for the live shows. And then in September of last year, I started to assemble it into the album, just making overdubs and removing things generally. Trying to make something that was a live experience into something that could be played as an album and repeatedly listened to. 

I don’t want to pry too much, but the bio mentions that you had computer problems, so I’m curious what your setup is.

Okay, well, I have like a very old ProTools system on a Mac G4 which is twenty years old, so even my computer equipment is vintage. [laughter] But I decided to buy a MacBook Pro, and I was gonna get, like, Ableton, or another program called Reaper that’s very cheap and apparently very good. [So I bought my] MacBook, and I was just about to order the software, and I noticed that the USB ports didn’t work. So I took the computer to a repair place, and they said that it looked like someone had spilled a cup of coffee in there, into the circuit boards. So I sent it back and got a refund and just decided to work with [the G4]... you know, because I’d spent a long time looking into different setups and talking to various people who might recommend some different ways of working, and then I just got fed up, and decided “I’ll work with what I have.” And it turned out good for me in the end.

Yeah, I like this record very much. Do you play guitar on it at all?

Sure, there’s quite a bit of guitar on about three or four tracks that spring to mind. Maybe four tracks or something.

Are there any other live instruments?

No. Just guitar.
 

Cabaret Voltaire, 2014 (via Mute)
 
And these are pieces that you came up with playing at festivals, right? Starting with the Berlin show, and then you built it up as you did the festivals?

Yeah. I was writing new tracks when I usually went to a different place. Also I used a lot of ambient and tonal material in the live shows, like drones, so I kind of kept expanding upon that as well. There was way too much for an album. So apparently I’m okay to mention that there are gonna be two more albums and a twelve-inch single in the new year.

Oh, that’s wonderful!

Well, uh, you haven’t heard it yet. [laughter] The two albums are kind of drones, like sixty-minute tracks, very electronic, no beats, just kinda head music, which was a total contrast to what I did for the first piece. And the twelve-inch single is kind of, not techno, but more dance-orientated, but didn’t really work within the context of Shadow of Fear, so I thought it would be nice to make that a separate release just on twelve-inch vinyl. So yeah, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

When I was listening to Shadow of Fear, I imagined a visual accompaniment to it when you see it live. Is there a video or film component?

I mean, I used these screen visuals for the live shows, but none of it was synced up. It exists, but not as yet in conjunction with the music, and I think the problem… it’s kind of one thing to do it live, but there’s so much copyright material in there, I think if I tried to release it on a DVD or as a film, I could end up with some legal problems. [laughs] But I don’t know, maybe at some point in the future, it may be something that could happen, but at the moment it’s just straight-ahead music.

You always handled that aspect of the band, right? Didn’t you create the video component of the live show?

Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the things that I did throughout Cabaret Voltaire. Originally it was, like, Super 8 and standard 8 film, and then, in the early Eighties, video. I didn’t make the promos. We worked with a guy called Peter Care who now is based out in Los Angeles, and he made a lot of the long-form videos with us, some we edited, some he edited. But the live visuals always kind of had more to do with what I did. That was a kind of continuation, just with more screens and larger screens.

As a fan of Cabaret Voltaire, I always thought of it as a kind of information service, maybe in part because of what you did with Doublevision. I wanted to ask you where you go for information and culture.

Oh my God! I mean, I don’t use social media at all, you know, I don’t have any of my own channels. If I’m honest, I have fun trying to decode mainstream media, i.e., television. I’m still with television and radio, but I do use certain things; I do find the internet useful. But I wouldn’t rely on it for a lot of things. Maybe some years back, you know, it was easier to find some clarity and some truth, but, I mean, what can I say. The last four years of Mr. Trump and fake news hasn’t really helped, shall we say.

No, it’s one of the things that’s really worrying about a vaccine, because if a large percentage of people in America or the UK don’t believe the vaccine works, or think it’s nefarious, it will be much harder to get rid of the virus.

Totally, totally. But then again, who knows? Like, they say that this virus originated in bats. You know, we might end up with a load of vampires! [laughter] People start mutating. But, I mean, they say that the one they have, the one they’re gonna use here, they’ve tested it, and I assume that means at least no one’s died who’s been given it. 

But yeah, I totally agree with what you’re saying about whether people will trust it. Especially if there are voices shouting loud that you shouldn’t, you know?
 

‘Chance Versus Causality,’ Cabaret Voltaire’s 1979 film soundtrack issued last year
 
There’s something about the early days of industrial music—I feel that you all approached music-making as a form of counter-propaganda, if that makes sense to you. Do you think of Cabaret Voltaire as still having that function?

I think, if not that exact function, then something very similar. Maybe it’s more evident in the live shows. But it’s difficult to explain. It’s nice to ask some questions in there, if you get what I’m saying, without being too specific, too blatant about it.

Raising doubts?

Yeah, that would be a good way to put it. And just, I don’t know, taking the piss out of establishment values. It was a big thing with the Surrealists, and I still hold true to that, you know?

Richard, did you have anything else you wanted to say about this record?

Not particularly. I hope that it can speak for itself. It’s not a piece of COVID propaganda or something, it’s just about the dark times we seem to have entered in recent years. It’s almost like, especially with the news media, everything seems to be a threat to people of one type or another, whether it’s Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, the coronavirus, you name it, there’s a very long list. I often wonder, why do they do this to us? Why should everybody be scared? 

I’m a bit relieved that Trump didn’t win another four years, because in England things are—kinda like a right-wing government, and if you look back to the 1920s and what happened in Germany, and the notion that immigrants are scapegoats, and like basically if you create a situation of chaos, then what it needs is a strongman to come in and take charge. And we all know who the strongman was in Germany, we know how that went. So the way this thing has been going, you can’t help thinking about how we ended up with the Nazis, and are we going to end up with them again? But I don’t know, maybe things might change now.

I totally agree with you. That was Trump’s strategy over the summer, was to try to make the protests as violent as possible so that he could then appear to be the person restoring law and order to the country.

Strange way to do it. [laughter]

It’s like a protection racket.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. And you’ve got a few people in Europe, very right-wing leaders, and I’m just wondering now whether we might see the domino effect now that the main protagonist is exiting stage left, hopefully.

Hopefully.

Well, yeah. I just got some news earlier, and he’s mounting his legal challenges. I mean, I was watching the news over the past couple of days, and they just had this bedraggled figure in a baseball cap swinging at a golf ball on one of his fucking golf ranges. [laughter] It just looks so sad, you know? All on his own.

I don’t know, I don’t think he’s been right since he supposedly had the coronavirus and then they gave him a load of steroids. I think something went a bit astray.

I think the guy’s in denial. He needs to do the right thing and let someone else clear up his mess. 

Thank you for talking with me, Richard, I’m a huge fan of your music. I hope you’re able to tour sometime soon so I can see you play.

Well, now that things have changed in America, you might even see me make my way across the Atlantic, you know? I look at a lot of news footage, and those mass shootings, you know, it just seemed at one point, America just seemed, like, very dangerous. I don’t know, maybe I’m just seeing the worst and not the best. 

You know, and then there’s all the police beating and murdering Black people. I mean, for fuck’s sake, man, you know?

It doesn’t make you want to visit?

Well, not up until the recent change of leadership. It’s a long time since I’ve been to America. I think 1991 was the last. I think I went to Montreal in the year 2000, but that’s Canada.

Was that a solo gig?

Yeah, it was. I played at FCMM film festival. It’s really good, a really good festival. I’ve had one or two requests, but the problem is I don’t like to fly. Some guys, they were trying to get me on a cargo boat, but it took like two weeks or something.

That’s a long trip.

Well, it is on a cargo boat. [laughter]

Probably not a lot of amenities.

No. [laughter] So, we’ll see. It would be great to get back out and play some more live shows, but by that time I will have written new work anyway, so it would be a combination of existing things from the new album and then a bunch of new stuff. 

Shadow of Fear is out November 20 on LP, CD, and streaming.

Posted by Oliver Hall
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11.18.2020
07:46 am
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‘Sassy Justice with Fred Sassy’
10.26.2020
09:45 am
Topics:
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The world-famous, household names behind this don’t want their identities revealed just yet, but it shouldn’t be all that difficult to guess who they might be!
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.26.2020
09:45 am
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Team Human: Douglas Rushkoff and Richard Metzger talk counterculture (and where it might be heading)


 
I was on my old friend Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human podcast. We taped this just before news of George Floyd’s murder became widely known, and talked for over four hours over the course of two long calls. The edited version is just under an hour. It’s always fun to have a conversation with him.

Playing for Team Human today, counterculture icon and Editor of Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger. Metzger envisions what life might look like on the dole and what that means for the future of the counterculture.

Rushkoff and Metzger consider whether the ideals of yesterday’s counterculture were so successful that they’ve become the new over culture? And if so, who really are the new revolutionaries? They also consider the effect Covid-19 will have on a new generation’s financial prospects, and whether the underlying flaws in capitalism will finally be laid bare.

In his monologue, Rushkoff looks at the way our policing problems can only be solved if we fund and utilize other kinds of civil servants instead of just ones with weapons.

Read “Good Cops Don’t Need Grenade Launchers” by Douglas Rushkoff from Medium’s GEN.

 

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.12.2020
11:04 am
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You can own Roger Daltrey’s 1977’s green Volkswagen Beetle
11.27.2019
10:10 am
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Of course I’m tempted to buy Roger Daltrey’s 1977 Volkswagen Beetle and I don’t even drive. I’d keep the damned thing in a garage and have buddies drive it around while I’m drinking beer and listening to Quadrophenia or Tommy or The Who Sells Out or Who’s Next. It would be fun. Well, for a time. But let’s be honest, I’d eventually get bored with the novelty (even though this little beauty is painted sparkling green—the color of my favorite soccer team Celtic), and know in my heart it really should be owned by someone who not only likes the Who but digs vintage cars like this one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Who but I have never quite understood most people’s passion for cars. Call me olde fashioned.

Like I have no idea what all this spiel…

The 1303LS Beetle was the range-topping model of its day. It is powered by the 49bhp 1.6-litre twinport air-cooled flat-four engine, driven through the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission.

...actually means.

All I appreciate is that it’s got four-wheels, was once owned by a rock star (god) I admire, and gets you from A-B. Yeah, you can call me a Luddite, but I live in Scotland where we all wear kilts and climb mountains every morning before breakfast just to wrestle some grouse into two falls or a submission and like salt in our porridge. Fuck that maple syrup and fruit shit.

Any-old-how.

The stuff that does interest me is that Mr. Daltrey owned this 1977 VW Beetle 1303 LS Cabriolet (a classic, iconic design in “outstanding condition”) for nearly thirty years between 1977 and 2005. Mr. D. clocked up 76,000 miles during this time, which is a lot of driving. Where the fuck did he go? What was he doing? And why didn’t he ask me along for a ride? Selfish bastard…

The other stuff you petrol-heads will need to know is that:

A Volkswagen Museum certificate on file confirms the specification above, that it was built on 27 January 1977, and that the delivery destination was Great Britain. It also confirms the original colour scheme of Viper Green metallic paintwork with a Pale Sand hood.

And:

The Karmann bodywork received a full bare metal respray in 2014, in the original factory hue of Viper Green. It is now in outstanding condition, with a smooth and glossy finish all around the car. Its hood has evidently been replaced recently as well, in the correct Pale Sand colour. There is absolutely no damage to the material, and it fits snugly over the original frame.

The vehicle has seat belts, a “contemporary Alpine stereo head unit [...] fitted, with an MP3-compatible CD player, additional speakers, and Bluetooth connectivity. A custom air-conditioning installation is also present, with the compressor running off the engine via a modified pulley system,” and a trunk with “with smart black carpeting tailored to size.”

The owner after Mr. Daltrey clocked up 2,000 miles since 2005, which doesn’t seem much. But during “the penultimate service while in Roger Daltrey’s care, the original service book was mislaid, and so the maintenance history for this period is authenticated solely by his signed letter.” I have no idea if this is good or bad. But I do know this green VW is now domiciled in Kuala Lumpur which means there will be some cost in transporting this rock star mobile to your address in Moosefart, Montana, or wherever it is that you live.

At the time of writing, there is only one bid of $1,000 for the vehicle, which sounds to me as incredibly cheap. But what the fuck do I know? Like I said, I don’t even drive. Now where’s that fucking grouse…
 
02DaltreyVW.jpg
 
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See more of Roger Daltrey’s fab green VW, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.27.2019
10:10 am
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‘Its time to act’ Book of Shame release ‘Greta Thunberg Mix’ of ‘Hope & Glory’: A DM Premiere

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One of the stand-out tracks on Book of Shame’s debut album was “Hope & Glory” an excoriating assault on the state of the world, both public and private, written by the band’s renegade duo of Peter Boyd-Maclean and Gary Bridgewood. 

“The song, ” Boyd-Maclean tells Dangerous Minds, “was written in response to a number of issues going on personally and on a more global spectrum. In particular, the way democracy has been hijacked by the rich industrial business looking after themselves and fucking the rest of humanity in the process. Whether this is indifference to climate change, Trump, or Brexit.”

Boyd-MacLean thinks it’s now time to do something to stop the greed and political chaos he sees currently destroying the world. Taking a lead from Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN , Boyd-Maclean and Bridgewater remixed “Hope and Glory” to coincide with the recent Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London and across the UK.

“In troubled times,” Boyd-Maclean asks, “is there any hope, is there any glory?  You can be the judge… I think it’s important we all do something to change what is happening in the world. From climate disaster, Trump, the rise of the right, to Brexit. And now as the Extinction Rebellion movement is gathering pace it’s time to act in all forms to change the world for the better for all.”

“Hope and Glory” (Greta Mix) will be released on November 29th, but you can watch the promo exclusively here.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.06.2019
07:51 am
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Laibach’s nightmarish new short film, ‘So Long, Farewell’: a Dangerous Minds premiere


Photo by Ciril Jazbec
 
The Sound of Music ends with the von Trapp family’s escape from the Nazis through the Alps, crossing from annexed Austria into neutral Switzerland. Or that’s how the stage version ends; the closing shot of the 1965 film is ambiguous. In it, the von Trapps appear to be going in the wrong direction, fleeing into the Bavarian, rather than the Swiss, Alps.

In fact, the mountain at which Robert Wise chose to film the last shot of The Sound of Music was the Obersalzberg, the site of Hitler’s mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. Once you recognize the location, the end of the movie takes on a horrible significance: as they hike up the Obersalzberg, singing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain (Reprise),” Georg and Maria von Trapp are leading their brood on a death march to the Nazis’ second headquarters. We can easily imagine these Hollywood von Trapps wandering too close to the Berghof after the last notes of the song have died in the chill air, and the camera, like the guilty eyes of Buñuel’s Christ in L’Age d’Or, has averted its gaze from earthly things.

Laibach’s new film “So Long, Farewell” begins with this cinematic wrong turn into horror. The group has been interpreting The Sound of Music since 2015, when, as the first Western (?) band ever to perform in North Korea, Laibach included a number of songs from the musical in their set. In this, the latest video from Laibach’s Sound of Music album, the singing family has not escaped the Nazis—note the swastika-shaped Christmas tree from John Heartfield’s “O Tannenbaum in deutschen Raum, wie krumm sind deine Äste!“ ripped from its parodic context, as a fir is cut from the earth—but, because it is a special time of year, the children are permitted to leave the basement for a few minutes to sing for the adults.

Speaking with a single voice, Laibach answered my questions about “So Long, Farewell” by email. The film follows our conversation below.
 

 
Please remind us why Laibach chose The Sound of Music for the performances in North Korea.

Laibach: Throughout our career we’ve been looking for an opportunity to sink our teeth into The Sound of Music. When we received an invitation to perform in Pyongyang, we knew the moment had finally arrived. The Sound of Music is probably the only piece of American pop culture that is not only allowed, but also actively promoted by North Korean authorities. For years now the musical has been part of their school curricula. It seemed only natural that we address the people of North Korea with something as universal as The Sound of Music, therefore we decided to create the concert program around our interpretations of the songs from this musical. The Sound of Music story really fits well into the North Korean situation and can be understood affirmatively, but also subversively – very much depending on the point of view.

It looks to me as if, in Laibach’s telling of The Sound of Music, the von Trapp family does not escape capture by the Nazis, and a sinister patriarch played by Ivan Novak takes the place of Baron von Trapp. The appearance of Milan Fras as the Reverend Mother further complicates the picture: does the abbess sanction this ghastly ménage by her presence? What is the scenario of the “So Long” video?

“So Long” is in fact more a short film than the music video. The original film is, of course, the first of all the apotheosis of Hollywood entertaining industry standards and clichés, but there are many – not even very well hidden – perverse twists in it, full of sexual and psychoanalytical connotations. Slavoj Žižek has a very thorough (and very Laibachian) observation, claiming that officially the film is in principle showing Austrian resistance to Hitler and the Nazis, but if you look at it closely, you see that the “Nazis are presented as an abstract cosmopolitan occupying power, and the Austrians are the good small fascists, so the implicit message is almost the opposite of the explicit message.” No wonder that Austrians officially don’t like this film much, or maybe they are only denying it on the surface and watching it secretly in their cellars. This “hidden reverse” may also be the reason why the movie was so extremely popular, Žižek argues, because it “addresses our secret fascist dreams.” (Which is an interesting assertion, considering most of the people who created the original musical were Jewish.) Catholicism, of course, plays a key role in The Sound of Music film, therefore it represents an important stance in the “So Long, Farewell” miniature as well. On the surface, Catholicism portrays itself as being all about harsh moral discipline and strict rules. But, under the surface, it provides opportunities for great license, including sexual license. You can have your cake (feeling righteous morally, identifying with this “morally strict” organization) and eat it too (providing opportunities to have fun and play around). According to Žižek the power of the film resides in its obscenely-direct staging of embarrassing intimate fantasies. The film’s narrative turns around resolving the problem stated by the nuns’ chorus in the introductory scene: “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” The proposed solution is the one mentioned by Freud in an anecdote: Penis normalis, zwei mal taeglich… Recall what is arguably the most powerful scene of The Sound of Music: after Maria escapes from the von Trapp family back to the monastery, unable to deal with her sexual attraction towards Baron von Trapp, she cannot find peace there, since she is still longing for the Baron; in a memorable scene, the Mother Superior summons her and advises her to return to the von Trapp family and try to sort out her relationship with the Baron. She delivers this message in a weird song “Climb Ev’ry Mountain!” whose surprising motif is: Do it! Take the risk and try everything your heart wants! Do not allow petty considerations to stand in your way! The uncanny power of this scene resides in its unexpected display of the spectacle of desire, an eros energumens which renders the scene literally embarrassing: the very person whom one would expect to preach abstinence and renunciation turns out to be the agent of the fidelity to one’s desire. In other words, Mother Superior effectively is a superego figure, but in Lacan’s sense, for whom the true superego injunction is “Enjoy!” But the real Maria and the real Baron didn’t marry because they loved each other; according to her autobiography they married only for the love of children.
 

 
Red is everywhere in this video: the mistletoe berries, the Reverend Mother’s rosary, the children’s Trumpian neckties, and the hot red light throughout. Instead of climbing to freedom in the snowy Alps at the end, it looks like the family descends into the fires of Hell. Does Laibach’s Sound of Music end in captivity and death?

Yes, in “So Long, Farewell,” the von Trapp family never escaped from the Hollywood Austria, annexed by Nazis. They were “trapped” and they just went a bit “underground.” Same in North Korea, people are trapped within the Pleasure Dome of North Korean controlled society (not that Western society is not controlled…). The Sound of Music certainly ends in captivity and death, like we all do.

When you first saw The Sound of Music, was the film censored or altered in any way? If Laibach were to censor the movie, what would you change?

We could in fact change the ending, that would give a different perspective to the whole film, but the scenario did loosely follow the real story of the von Trump family. We don’t recall that the film was censored anyhow when we saw it first time, but Žižek claims that the three minutes of the “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” song, with Mother Superior singing was in fact censored back then in Yugoslavia, as this is the most obscene moment in the movie.

“The von Trump family” is a wonderful parapraxis. When making this film, did Laibach draw inspiration from Mrs. Trump’s Christmas decorations at the White House?

Quite possible, especially if decorations in White House would be created as a classic Trumpian slip.

As far as I know, the few swastikas that appear in Laibach’s work come from the photomontages of the anti-fascist artist John Heartfield. In this case, it’s the swastika-shaped tree from Heartfield’s parodic poster announcing the Third Reich’s new “standard fir” for the holidays, a festive addition to the hearth of the von Trapp/Trump home. I wonder if, in the film, the proclamation of Heartfield’s poster has become a historical reality. In other words, is it mandatory for the family to display the “crooked” tree?

Using a straightforward reference to the classic Heartfield Christmas tree today would merely present the aesthetization of the subject, while the direct swastika-shaped tree becomes a mandatory festive background of historical reality, the aesthetization of a society that does not find it (very) problematic anymore.
 

 
Writing for Die Welt on the eve of Laibach’s first trip to North Korea, Slavoj Žižek discerned the image of the Josef Fritzl household in The Sound of Music. He argues that warmth, good cheer and sentimentality are not only compatible with brutal crimes, but hospitable to them; when Fritzl imprisoned his children in the basement and raped them, Žižek suggests, he did so with a merry song in his heart. Is there a place for bad conscience in kitsch?

Only if it is a bad kitsch. A good reference to this problem is also possible to detect in the Sharp Objects TV series, especially in its final episode.

Žižek also imagines the children attending an “upstairs reception in the Fritzl villa” where they sing “So Long, Farewell” before departing for bed, one by one. Is that where the idea for the film originated?

There are several different inspirations for the “So Long, Farewell” film miniature; there’s definitely The Sound of Music itself – a film full of latent sexuality within the patriarchal (and matriarchal) musical family with structural elements of fascism, then there’s an ultimate model of utopian, communist/religious (very musical) state, nominally led by the supreme Kim Dynasty, and finally there is a reference to the extreme case of Josef and Rosemarie Fritzl’s family from Austria – a raw model to the similar families around the world, potentially including some famous ones within political and entertainment/musical spheres as well.

Laibach’s The Sound of Music is out on Mute Records, and Morten Traavik’s documentary Liberation Day follows the band’s travels in North Korea. (Also of note, Laibach fans: MIT Press’ excellent book NSK from Kapital to Capital includes a contribution from Alexei Yurchak, the scholar who coined the term “hypernormalisation.”)
 

Posted by Oliver Hall
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03.14.2019
09:19 am
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My Interview with Amethyst Realm: The Woman Engaged to a Ghost
12.13.2018
06:29 am
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October 30th may have been what they call a ‘slow news day.’ Gangster Whitey Bulger was murdered in prison. Pharrell sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump. Kanye now wants to distance himself from politics. Woman who has had sex with twenty ghosts is now engaged to one. Wait wait, hold on - what happened?
 
To me, this was the day that I read one of the most incredible stories of my lifetime. It was a headline that should have run in the National Enquirer or the Daily Mirror. In fact, it probably did.
 
The suspicious timing near Halloween made this international news. I even got a push notification about it. The woman’s name is Amethyst Realm and she is from Bristol, UK. And, as the headlines have stated, she is marrying a spirit. I know what you are probably thinking - this is rubbish. I would think so too, if I didn’t believe her.
 
I needed to learn more about this paranormal love affair, so I reached out to the source herself. We spoke on my radio show about her prior relationships, proposal, and plans for the wedding. If any of the below speaks to you in ways like it impacted me, remember, she’s working on a book.
 
Bennett Kogan: Okay, just to make sure I understand this correctly. Your fiancé is – a spirit?

Amethyst Realm: Yes, that’s correct.
 
And this isn’t your first spirit lover… let’s hear a little bit about your past experiences with the occult.

I’ve always been very open spiritually and aware of other presences. When I was around eighteen, I moved into a new house and met my first spirit romantically. And since then, I’ve had a few lovers. It’s been… yeah.
 
But that was your first time with a ghost?

Romantically, yes. I’ve always been aware of them. It’s something that’s been sort of normal to me. I can pick up on different presences - like if I were to walk into a room. I’ve always had that kind of sense.
 
How does an intimate relationship with a ghost compare to one with a human?

In a lot of ways, it’s pretty similar. For me it’s totally normal, so I find it quite difficult to explain. We’ll still go out on dates and things like that, but we don’t really need to communicate in the same way than with a partner of this realm. It’s much deeper and a lot more emotion based. And intimate.
 
What was the realization that these encounters would become something that was meant to last for an eternity?

It was just something that felt so much more real and serious. Kind of in the same way if you met someone in the living world that you fell in love with instantly. It was love in first sight, in a way. “Love at first sense,” maybe. When you meet someone, you look into their eyes and feel something. You feel that energy. For us, it’s just that energy.
 
The spirit that you are now engaged to, how did that introduction occur?

I was in the outback of Australia, not looking for anything. Just walking and enjoying the amazing scenery out there. When suddenly I just felt their presence. And it just felt right from the start. I just knew it was a real, serious thing. It wasn’t gonna be a fling.
 
Were you able to address him by a human name?

We never really bothered with names. It wasn’t important. I have now given him a name because it makes it much easier. He showed himself in photo that a friend took of me. He appeared as a ray of light shooting across the photo. So now, I call him “Ray.”
 
Can you visualize his face?

No, because I can’t see him. He definitely has a presence. His energy and emotions form like an emotional shape almost.
 
Are there certain characteristics that you’ve been able to sense since first meeting him?

I guess he feels strong. And very solid and there. Recently I got a reading with some psychics who told me a little bit about what they felt his history was in his past life. And now, I can say that he is male. Before that, it was so unimportant to me what he looked like that I didn’t know what his gender was - and it didn’t matter to me.
 
Is Ray there with you right now?

Yeah, he came back on the plane with me to the UK.
 
And that’s where the proposal occurred?

We went up to Somerset one weekend. And while we were there he really wanted to go to the Wookey Hole Caves, which are quite a ways away. I was a little bit confused by it. Because I’ve always trusted him, but thought maybe he’s got an ex-phantom lover there, or something? It’s a quite heavily haunted spot. So, we went on a tour around the caves. While we were there, he asked me to hang back from the rest of the crowd. And then he proposed.
 
So now you’re engaged and looking forward to the big wedding. What type of ceremonies do you have prepared?

We’re planning a spring wedding, I think. I want kind of something based around a hand-binding ceremony, rather than a traditional wedding. Because obviously, spirits don’t have hands. I’ve been referring to it as a “soul-binding” ceremony. We’ve got a really special venue lined up as well, which is very exciting.
 
Your family and friends, what were their initial reactions to this kind of news?

They were really happy for me. My family and friends are quite alternative, so they’re just happy that I’m happy. They understand that there is more to this world than what you see.
 
It was interesting how the media portrayed your story. I’m looking at a headline right now that just states, “Woman who had sex with 20 ghosts is now engaged to a spirit.”

It seems that the world at the moment is really interested in the concept of alternative relationships versus the traditional ones that everyone has. Of course, I expect some people to disbelieve me. I hope I’ve made those that are having the same experiences as me feel a little more comfortable with it. Or those that aren’t satisfied with a normal, mainstream relationship can feel like there is an alternative.
 
I’m sure people have been reaching out to you since your news went viral.

So many people are asking me if Ray can set them up with one of his spirit friends.
 
I’m definitely open to the opportunity.

I’m in talks with publishers about writing a guide about how to seduce a ghost. It seems like so many people want to do it. I’m hoping that I can educate some people and maybe help them along their path.
 
I’m sure that our everyday paranormal encounters could have escalated into the same experiences that you’ve had. For those who are reading this now and aren’t convinced by your story, what advice do you have to offer them?

I know what’s going on and I know what’s real for me. Keep an open mind and heart. And just be aware of the signs, really.
 

Posted by Bennett Kogon
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12.13.2018
06:29 am
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Dangerous Finds: ‘Guardians’ director loves the Replacements; Gun march; Cohen felony charges?
03.26.2018
03:09 pm
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Guardians Of the Galaxy director James Gunn is a HUGE Replacements fanboy and he’s not afraid to tell you about it: “As far as I’m concerned, Let It Be and the three albums after it Tim, Pleased to Meet Me and Don’t Tell a Soul are four of the greatest rock and roll albums ever produced… no matter how many people acknowledge it.” His essay on Facebook and his Replacements Spotify playlist.
 
Zuckerberg hits users with the hard truth: You agreed to this. After another privacy bombshell, Facebook tells horrified users, “it’s explained right there in the app.” (Vanity Fair)
 
David Hogg Rips Santorum For ‘CPR’ Comment: CPR Won’t Help ‘If You Take a Bullet From an AR-15’ “At the end of the day, if you take a bullet from an AR-15 to the head to no amount of CPR is going to save you because you’re dead.” (Mediaite)
 
How much is Rick Gates telling Mueller about Trump? Lawyers and Trump associates describe deep unease about what the former Manafort deputy might be telling Mueller in exchange for leniency. (Politico)
 
This Democratic Senator Has a Plan to Make College Debt-Free for All. The cost of college is too damn high. Between 1988 and 2016, the median household income in the United States grew by a little over 11 percent — while the average price of a four-year education at a public college in the U.S. increased by over 200 percent. (New York)
 
AP Poll: 62 Percent Of Americans Think The US Is Headed In The Wrong Direction. Anyone know why? (Talking Points Memo)
 
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen may be ‘looking at felony charges’ over Stormy scandal. Karma’s a bitch. Being a fucking dummy doesn’t help much either. (Raw Story)
 
It Wasn’t for the Politicians. This Day Was for the People. The March for Our Lives was for the victims and those who knew them, all of whom are bound in blood. (Esquire)
 
The damage this billionaire businessman did will haunt us for years to come. Behind his carefully stage-managed veneer of bipartisanship, Peterson engaged in a decades-long war on the social contract. (Raw Story)
 
“I Got Chills When I Heard Emma González”: 50 Years Later, the Students Behind the 1968 Columbia Uprising Recall the World They Made. In April 1968, hundreds of students at Columbia University took over campus buildings in an uprising that caught the world’s attention. Fifty years later, they reflect on what went right and what went wrong. (Vanity Fair)
 

Speaking at the March for Our Lives event in Washington, Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Emma González memorializes the victims of the Parkland school shooting and tells demonstrators to fight for their lives so someone else won’t have to.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.26.2018
03:09 pm
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Innocence & Despair: 1970s school children sing Bowie, Beach Boys, Beatles and Eagles


 

“Picture the Shaggs and Danielson presiding over an elementary school assembly for shy kids, and you begin to understand how sweet, sincere, and slightly unsettling these recordings are.”

Mike Appelstein

I was browsing in a record store last week when they played the CD of The Langley Schools Music Project: Innocence & Despair. If that doesn’t jar your memory it’s an album compiled from two records that were the documentation of an after hours choir project led by a 24-year-old hippie music teacher named Hans Fenger in a rural school district southeast of Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally recorded in the mid-1970s, these songs were released in two self-pressed editions of just 300 for the participants themselves to have a keepsake of the project. The records featured a group of around 60 school children singing and playing songs they had learned in Fenger’s music classes taped (with just two mics) in an echoey school gymnasium. But not “Frere Jacques,” songs from Free to Be You and Me or even “Corner of the Sky,” as might have been the case in most schools of the time, these songs were the AM radio hits of the day like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Band on the Run” and a lot of Beach Boys songs because, well duh. The untrained voices in their wobbly harmony sounded like a Phil Spector-produced Gregorian chant performed by a very large prepubescent garage band. The sparse musical backing comes from a (perfectly) out-of-tune school piano, an acoustic guitar, xylophone, bells, an electric bass with one string and an overeager (perfectly) plodding percussion section of tambourine, woodblock, and a stripped down drum kit. The “lift off” in “Space Oddity” was achieved with a Coke bottle scraped across a steel guitar. It’s absolutely magical. A perfect example of lightning being caught in a bottle.
 

 
The Langley Schools Music Project recordings were rediscovered by a record collector named Brian Linds who found the first album in a thrift store in 2000. He sent it on CD-r to Irwin Chusid who immediately realized how special it was. Irwin tracked down Hans Fenger who told him that there was also a second album. So championed by the inspired “outsider music” promoter, author and archivist the albums were released by Bar/None Records in 2001 as Innocence & Despair, a single-CD compilation culled from the two LPs. With people looking for feelgood stories after 9-11, the extraordinary bittersweet chorus of innocent young voices along with the unlikely saga of the rediscovery of the Langley Schools Music Project, saw the CD go on to worldwide acclaim. It was a story especially tailored to an outlet like NPR, and there was even a VH1 documentary made about Fenger and his students.
 

 

“I knew virtually nothing about conventional music education, and didn’t know how to teach singing. Above all, I knew nothing of what children’s music was supposed to be. But the kids had a grasp of what they liked: emotion, drama, and making music as a group. Whether the results were good, bad, in tune or out was no big deal—they had elàn. This was not the way music was traditionally taught. But then I never liked conventional ‘children’s music,’ which is condescending and ignores the reality of children’s lives, which can be dark and scary. These children hated ‘cute.’ They cherished songs that evoked loneliness and sadness.”

—Hans Fenger, Langley music supervisor/arranger

Much more after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.26.2018
12:50 pm
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