Introduction
Five Songs, 3/25/2022
Five Songs

Five Songs, 3/25/2022

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H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, "If I Were A Deep One"

The arc popularity of Lovecraft's writing has been kind of an interesting one to watch. When I was a kid, Lovecraft was largely unknown outside of only a handful of turbo nerds. Call of Cthulhu, the tabletop RPG, did exist, and it slowly brought awareness to Lovecraft's writing, which was extremely niche in prior years. As the years ground on, and as nerd "culture" continued infiltrating the broader culture, referencing Lovecraft's writing became just a general shorthand for cosmic horror, a way of gesturing at the ineffable horrors of the universe. Thus, it was invevitable that Lovecraft would slowly become more of a punchline, a cheap gimmick to gain some laughs of recognition from people who understand that this stuff is supposed to be horrible, but look! It's being played for laughs! SO SUBVERSIVE!

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if there were more Lovecraft-related crap that was somewhere on the joke spectrum than there is stuff that is intended seriously. Given how crappy of a dude he was, I don't really have a problem with this, but it's funny to observe the path of assimilation, and how inevitably it arrives at the black hole that is parody.

But what do I know? I'm the dipshit who bought this record.

The Polyphonic Spree, "Section 19: When the Fool Becomes a King"

Meanwhile, the Polyphonic spree is over here showing us real horror.

Otis Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness"

A repeat, but always a welcome one.

Guided by Voices, "14 Cheerleader Coldfront"

I'm not sure it would be possible to parody Guided by Voices successfully. Anything that even remotely evokes their spirit would be indistinguishable from a deep cut on an early record.

Skeletonwitch, "Shredding Sacred Flesh"

So, you can basically blacken any metal genre - get some strangled vocals in there, some blast beats, off you go! (This is blackened thrash, for instance.) But now, I'm sitting here contemplating blackening other musical genres. Blackened ska, say. Or a blackened polka. Blackened bluegrass.

Has-Lo, "Fiber Optics"

Yeah, good one, blackened rap! Hmm. Might be problematic, I'll work on the name.

Joshua Buergel
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