Words by Peter Tanski
Peter Tanski grew up in the small but thriving Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, fronting several bands and founding the music and literary fanzine, Exmortus. After a brief stint living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and writing for Legends Magazine, he returned to Pennsylvania where he began to work with web based music site NEPA Rocks. He currently fronts the melodic hardcore/punk band, Heart Out and hosts The Book of Very Very Bad Things PodZine.
This month, Shadow-Plays celebrates the years before the big Grunge boom, when Twin Peaks and David Lynch primed the masses for the underbelly of Alternative music, and all that it entailed in those foundational times.
“In heaven, everything is fine. You’ve got your good things, and I’ve got mine. In heaven, everything is fine.’ – The Lady In the Radiator, from “Eraserhead”
Throughout my tenure as a columnist for OffShelf, I’ve often opened Shadow-Plays with a quote from a favorite film of mine. This is a cheap tactic, often used as a device to set the tone of the piece. I say it’s cheap, but it is effective, and with the minute space I have to impress upon the reader the virtues or shortcomings of new releases, it is a fine crutch. A majority of my crutches are surrealist or horror related, and the director that seemed to pop up in my work the most was, ultimately, my fellow Pennsylvanian, David Lynch.
The films, serials, and teleplays of Lynch and their effect on the cultural landscape (especially youth culture) cannot be disputed. Their effect on me began when I was 5 or 6 years old, the same age my son is now. It was my mother that first exposed me to his work, via early cable tv and his black and white opus of empathy and anguish, “The Elephant Man”. “John” Merrick’s physical maladies and the ultimate exploitation that he is subjected to via the medical establishment and society at large, wormed its way into the my untouched grey matter and left me empathetic and shaken. It also rendered me a devotee of the director’s particular vision.
In the year nineteen and eighty-four, I was taken to the movies by my aunt, and a vision of a sand washed and barren planet, on which people mined a powerful hallucinogen that was necessary for interstellar travel. The spice was excreted by massive worms. There were magic wielders and pirates, preternatural combatants, and massive budgets. I loved Dune with a voracity that few shared. Looking back, it was a lesser vision in the Lynchian cannon, but a fine fit none-the-less. David had shot his shot, working from source material that was not his own, and he was shunned for it. Thankfully, he rebounded 2 years later with the film that I believe truly set the tone for all of his works to follow, “Blue Velvet”. This was the film that caused an uproar in cinemas, and in my own home. This was the Neo-noir, psychedelic, surrealist vision that lived up to a film that, at that moment, I’d yet to experience, Eraserhead. The Friday that my mother returned from the hardware store that we rented videos from with this film in hand was to be the tipping point in my young mind, and what my parents would tolerate my viewing of. It was “that” scene. Not the ear, not sex scenes, but Dennis Hopper’s unhinged sexual dominance over Isabella Rossellini’s broken chanteuse, huffing nitrous oxide and bellowing “baby wants to fuck”. Oooh, did my normally permissive parents Freak out.
As my teen years and puberty struck midnight, Lynch, with the help of partner Mark Frost, took the deranged road show to network, prime time television in the form of a detective psychodrama in soap opera format, Twin Peaks. This perfect storm of violence, sexuality, and all out high strangeness laid the groundwork for Alternative Music’s rise to the mainstream. This was, undoubtedly, a major aspect of what the magic of that era was. No need to seek out obscure titles in a video store, here was the counter-culture virtually taking shape on commercial TV, airing weekly, in your living room. No nudity or extreme vulgarity for the adults to crow about as it was no more extreme than anything happening on 90210. The quirky jazz interstitials, courtesy of Angelo Badalamenti, propelling us from oddball scene to scene. The cool girl in class with the chin length, black hair and Siouxsie Sioux shirt that would go on to become your High School love interest just gushed over it, as did the skaters, punks, thrashers, and burnouts. The tribes were aligning.
The fellows in Nashville mopesters, Palm Ghosts, are most certainly casualties of the era, embracing the dark sounds of the pre-grunge, post-punk era and infusing a strong sense of songcraft. Having released their lates full length incrementally over the course of 2024, the entire empanada has been reformed as “Facades” (Poptek/Sweet Cheetah Records), 20 songs that are representative of the well oiled creation engine that is this duo. A bold and auspicious undertaking by any standard, this is a massive leap for the veteran band, and I have it on good authority that they are sitting on hundreds more!
Another fellow Get X survivor that leans heavily into that magical time is Ryan Patterson of Coliseum and his post-punk project Fotocrime. His new single “Cautious” is Available via Artofact Records.
Another Artofact Records artist, Male Tears dropped the 80’s inspired electro-pop single “Little Doll”, and it’s dance floor ready!
Composer Robin Carolan has orchestrated a supremely dark vision to accompany Robert Eggers masterful interpretation of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (Sacred Bones), summoning the jarring and gothic sensibilities the material demands.
Electrogoths RATPAJAMA have dropped a new, self released single, the lurking and sensual “Feral”.
From the Cleopatra Records, Sisters Of Mercy/Clan of Xymox school of goth music, Saiph have risen from the sarcophagus with the creepy, self released single “Castle of Wanderers”.
Fevr have been steadily dropping albums for the past 3 years. Their new E.P. “Escape” (Of Sun Media) is a 6 song slap of cold wave sad core that tickles all of the right areas for the morose music lover.
The gothfathers themselves, The Cure, released the live companion to their recent return to form record with “Songs of a Live World: Live at the Troxy, London, MMXXIV” (Polydor). It is an outrageous and beautifully executed live album, as all of their live releases have been. The aforementioned bands were inspired by the Twin Peaks era, the Cure WERE that era, and this release is a not so gentle reminder that they still carry the crown proudly.
Some more releases for your consideration: Alien Skin’s “Discotheque Asylum” E.P. (self-released), Vioflesh – “So Empty” E.P. (darkTunes Music Group). Je T’aime – “Unbroken Sleep” single (Noires Productions). Finally, the incredible Echo Eudora’s “Lovers in the Dark” 3 song single (self released).
The Filmography of David’s that followed his first T.V. show, Wild At Heart, Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, et al, were all variations on heartbreak and loss, longing and violence, confusion and spiritual embattlement. They were all larger than life, relatable, and era defining. His work progressed and he returned to the unfinished business of that town in the Pacific Northwest, and created a modern television masterpiece. He started a Transcendental Meditation foundation, and ultimately lived a deliberate life, on his terms. May we all aspire to that. Rest In Peace, David Lynch. There will not be another quite like you. Thank you for your kind hospitality.
“Anger, Vanity… you mix that together with liquor, you’ve got two brothers that haven’t spoken in 10 years. Ah, whatever it was that made me and Lyle so mad… don’t matter anymore. I want to make peace, I want to sit with him, look up at the stars… like we used to do so long ago.” The Straight Story, David Lynch