Song of the Week: "The Jason Lodge Poetry Book"

Getchya playlist HEYAH! Fresh off the press! (Even though this song is not on Spotify so I can't add it to the playlist ahhhhhhhhhh!!!)

"The Jason Lodge Poetry Book"

Gothic Horizon

from The Jason Lodge Poetry Book

1971

From the La Salle Collegian, Entertainment Magazine Section, "Underground Sound" column, February 12, 2009:

       Underground Sound is “the music you haven’t heard—yet.” Still, every time the column is published, a select group of people make a minor uproar because the music I write about is not “underground” enough. They shake their heads because they have, in fact, heard it before.
       I can guarantee you have never heard of Gothic Horizon. But you should.
       Gothic Horizon is an acid-folk duo plucked out of obscurity by yours truly. I tried to search around the internet for more information about it, but that is pretty much all I could find. Perhaps that is for the best, because the beauty lies in the music, not the mysterious band behind it.
       Its only album available pretty much anywhere still is The Jason Lodge Poetry Book, a collection of wonderfully drug-induced acid folk tunes. It was released in 1971 but sadly never got much buzz. Images of psychedelic toadstools and hazy, colorful summer days float in and out of the music. This results in nothing but good fun.
       Take, for instance, the title track. It starts out with a jaunty little whistle and slowly evolves into an epic tale of escape across the ocean with your lover—on an empty oil drum, no less. Then the chorus takes over, and it turns out to just be one of those “la-la-la” choruses. I’ve never been more overjoyed to listen to music. Ah, the ‘60s were a special time.
       But what really drives the music home is the way these songs are sung. The two-part harmonies evoke comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel, if, you know, Simon & Garfunkel terribly, terribly stoned. Your inner hippie will relish the chance to sing along.
       What I don’t want you to think is that this album is overly “funny” or “goofy,” because some of these songs are in fact very sad and sobering love songs. “Song for Susan” waxes such poetry as “She danced into my life / Just like dawn’s new blush on this new day.” After writing that, I noticed the line does not make much sense, but it sounds pretty, doesn’t it? With the gentle flute and luscious string section playing in the background, I swear I get a tear in my eye every time.
       Optimism is also a big theme on this record. The final track, “A Farewell Ode to Port Sunlight,” characterizes this theme best. “I suppose it will be okay,” sings Singer Number 1, and Singer Number 2 promptly responds, “I know it will!” Wasn’t this what the ‘60s were all about in the first place? To make a broad generalization, the young men and women of that era preached a message of peace, love, and optimism for the future. This album mirrors that message and does it well.
       Gothic Horizon, in a distant past, put together a great record that not many people appreciated upon its release. Without help, not many people will appreciate it in the future, because you won’t find The Jason Lodge Poetry Book in your local record store, and you won’t find it on iTunes. Luckily, you can find pretty much anything on the internet if you search hard enough. Go to tinyurl.com/ce3xad to find a free and legal copy of this amazing piece of work.

This was a pretty bad piece of writing. First, it creates a straw man. Did anyone actually give a shit about the Underground Sound column? Probably a handful of people. Did anyone actually get offended that some of the bands I wrote about "weren't 'underground' enough"? I doubt it. Like, was there a single student out there saying, "Psh, the Olivia Tremor Control are TOO POPULAR"?! C'mon. It's silly.

Second, there's a shameful lack of research. While it's true that the average music listener may not be familiar with Gothic Horizon, there is absolutely is some information about them on the internet. Wikipedia directs me to Andy Desmond (or, "Singer Number 1"), who is currently some type of yoga guru, but was at one point a folk artist signed to the record label of Ray Davies (of the Kinks). There is less info about his partner in Gothic Horizon, Richard Garrett, but at least there's a name here. This is basic googling, something that apparently 2009 Joe was too lazy to do.

Third, I was employing the same music writing tropes then that I still use now. E.g. an overuse of the word "fun," an overuse of allegations of drug use, a cherry-picked lyric and then an immediate dismissal of said lyric instead of critically analyzing it. But writing about music is hard, so I suppose I'll give 2009 Joe a break on this one.

One thing that I got right in this article is the focus on that damn title track, today's Song of the Week. "The Jason Lodge Poetry Book" is an all-time great song. Teenage Joe, clearly, was all about this song, because it defined how I wanted to live my life at the time: "We can be free!" Plus all the drinking references and silly harmonies and all that good stuff. It's corny as fuck, but I'll always love it.

I included the tinyurl link above that I had so brazenly included in the Collegian article back in the day, and surprisingly, the link still works. But—on my computer at least—a download link no longer shows up on the page. But you're an enterprising millennial. You know how to bootleg shit. Go out and download this underground sound right now!

The Highwomen, Rachel C.

The most obvious overtone of the album is that ~*this one’s for the girls*~, but The Highwomen as an album pushes to further define the lady-stories that haven't quite found their way to past popular country songs. 

"Highwomen"—This possibly my favorite track on the album. I get chills every time Yola comes in at 1:07. It is intentionally reminiscent of the classic “Highwayman” and I appreciate the revival.

"Redesigning Women"—sounds like if School House Rock had asked Dolly Parton to write the songs for an episode on the “History of Women.” It’s cheesy and I’m here for it.

"Loose Change"—has all the word play and money puns I need.

"Crowded Table"—Without being a major CHEESEBALL, this reminded me of a recent Poconos trip with my friends. Having time to sit at a crowded table with the people you love will always be a blessing.

"My Name Can’t Be Mama"—This song sounds like it would be a score following a morning commute montage in a B movie but I love the harmonies, and the sentiment.

"If She Ever Leaves Me"—Second favorite track on the album. It’s a charming love ballad, with tongue-in-cheek humor.

"Old Soul," "Don’t Call Me"—These are two I usually SKIP. Maybe one day they’ll jump back out as hidden gems.

"My Only Child"—Does a song ever need to be dedicated the tragic irony of being devastatingly lonely despite having near constant attention of (most likely) two adults? I don’t know, but I don’t like this song. SKIP.

"Heaven Is a Honky Tonk"—too country. SKIP. Heaven is a Korean spa and everyone knows it.

"Cocktail and a Song"—I love everything about this song, but mostly Amanda Shire’s lil baby voice.

"Wheels of Laredo"—Another love ballad, with beautiful imagery and harmonies.

The Highwomen, Bridget

I notoriously don't like country music so I was skeptical about this album... but I know Rachel had been talking about it for a while. After a first listen I thought hey this isn't half bad. And by the third time listening through I had really changed my tune and thought to myself dang am I a country music fan now?! My favorite song on the album is the first song, "Highwomen." It showcases the different members of this group (band?) and is just really melodic. "Heaven is a Honky Tonk" is just such a lil treat. Overall this album was very different from my usual car music, but I did enjoy it and will continue to pop this on from time to time. Overall, I would give this album a 3.5/5 stars! So that's fun!

The Highwomen, Nate

If the goal here is make the point that women should be taken as seriously as men are in the modern country landscape, nods to Lizzo-brand #feminisim on songs like "Redesigning Women" and "My Name Can't Be Mama" do more harm than good. The old soul proclamations on "Highwomen" and, uh, "Old Soul," land more squarely.

Why don't they make the entire plane out of "Don't Call Me," you may ask? Because the Pistol Annies already exist.

As much as the positioning here is radical, the only real eyebrow-raising moment is "If She Ever Leaves Me." That alone makes the experiment worth it, though the jokes aren't half bad, either.

The Highwomen, Joe

"A strong woman is one who feels deeply and loves fiercely. Her tears flow as abundantly as her laughter. A strong woman is both soft and powerful, she is both practical and spiritual. A strong woman in her essence is a gift to the world." —Native American Saying

My goal for this review is to avoid getting an angry email from Sara B****** after this is published. It's a tricky tightrope to walk, because I get the importance of albums like this, and I get that anything negative that I say about it will reflect poorly on me and on all the other straight white males that also have something to say about this album. So I will do my best to temper and to equivocate and to over-explain.

I'd like to think that I am an ally in the fight for women's equality. I also am fully aware that every shitbag white male will willingly make that same claim, even if it's not remotely true. So I understand if that's not enough. I acknowledge that there is no way for me to "prove" that I am an ally through some fucking words in a fucking album review. If my actions have indicated that I am a sexist or don't take women's equality seriously, PLEASE be a good friend and tell me, because I now have two daughters and I need to get my shit together now.

But for the purposes of my opinion of The Highwomen, I'm going to have to accept that you will have your own opinion about me regardless of what I say here. I will accept that, because here's what I won't do—I will not proclaim that I like The Highwomen more than I do, or say that it's a better album than it actually is, just to perform some type of virtue signaling. That would be a disservice to myself and to the very small audience reading this.

The lede, unburied: This is not a good album.

It deserves this description: The Highwomen is the inspirational cross-stitch hanging in a foyer of an upper middle class suburban rancher. If I walked into my aunt's home, and saw a cross-stitch that said "Home is where the heart is!" I wouldn't hate it because of what the cross-stitch said. I would hate it because I find the idea of inspirational cross-stitchings appallingly lame. I can hate it, even if I agree wholeheartedly that home is indeed where the heart is.

There is plenty about The Highwomen that I agree with. The country music scene is grossly male-dominated, and so the fact that four powerhouse female voices in country could come together and sing in unison about why women are badasses in both large and small ways... it's fucking great. I agree. Go Highwomen.

(Those women are: Brandi Carlile, who just last week got nominated for some more Grammys and totally deserves 'em; Natalie Hemby, more of a country songwriter, and she has written songs for both great artists—Lee Ann Womack—and complete trash—Little Big Town—but regardless, clearly knows her shit; Marren Morris, who sang the hook on the very un-country-ish hit "The Middle" that even I know; Amanda Shires, who is my favorite of this group, who's last album was pretty phenomenal, and who, yes, has a quasi-famous quasi-country husband whom I also love, but who she is married to is totally secondary to why her music is good.)

But the way this laudable message is presented is, like the cross-stitch, fucking LAME. A lot of this country music wouldn't be out of place at Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree. They take country's classic tropes and do absolutely jackshit with them.

Maybe that's overstating it a little bit. There are moments of clarity among the muddled bullshit. I like Shires' curdling snarl during "Don't Call Me"'s outro. I like the different singers popping up from out of the mist for introductions in the lead-off track. I like mostly everything about "Crowded Table," because it has hopefully convinced Pam to have more dinner parties.

But most of the rest of the album is just run-of-the-mill country bullshit that I find so dull. It's a shame, because, again, I like what they are saying, but I can't get past the way they say it. "My Name Can't Be Mama" should be the type of song aimed squarely at my heart at this very specific time in my life. I should be lovingly playing this shit every time Pam starts tearing her hair out because of the little ones. But instead, it's the type of country song that could be featured in Adam Sandler's The Ridiculous 6. It's so cliché that it borders on parody.

I wish the Highwomen nothing but success. If they can take down the Toby Keiths of the world, then it will have all been worth it. But as far as listening to this album goes, I will pass.

Alright Sara, my email address is jmk1201@gmail.com. Send away.

GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5

Your Favorite Movie: The Silence of the Lambs, with Stephan C.

Welcome once again to Your Favorite Movie, in which we pretend that we need a friend's help in loading a couch into a van, but really we're closing the van doors and forcing them to tell us about their favorite movie of all time.

This week, Stephan C****** puts the lotion in the basket and tells us about his favorite movie. Like many of my college friends, I met him through the theater program, where he was Bobby Strong-ing his way through Urinetown, and showing this dumb freshman the ropes. Stephan has the gift of making people want to be his friend, and so I've been his friend for a while now, always finding time to grab a couple beers and catch up. So yeah, I was real excited to finally sit down and talk with him about his movie.

That movie is, obviously, The Silence of the Lambs. Even if you've never seen the movie, you know this movie. It's one of the classics. We discuss it below, with Allison and Pam, whom you know from previous entries in the YFM canon. The conversation is transcribed with permission, and slightly edited, mainly to cut out Pam's out-of-nowhere monologue about how the priest from Fleabag is so hot(????). Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joe: We're talking about this right before Halloween, but this is going to be published right before Thanksgiving. So is this more of a Halloween movie, or more of a Thanksgiving movie? [laughter]

Stephan: Well, I'm thankful that they—spoilers—that they catch Buffalo Bill. Well, that they kill Buffalo Bill. Even though Hannibal gets away. It's a suspenseful movie, so it definitely fits Halloween.

Allison: But it's not like a "Halloween scary" movie.

Joe: And I definitely want to get into that eventually.

Allison: Do they reference what time of year this takes place at all? It just seems autumnal.

Pam: Yeah, it seems a little chilly. Clarice has her heavy jacket on most of the time.

Stephan: She's running though the woods with a sweatshirt on.

Allison: So yeah. [laughter] It's a late-autumn movie.

Joe: They kind of talk about the importance of meals in this movie...?

Pam: For Thanksgiving?

Joe: Yeah, even though the meals are human flesh. Or, ya know, the weird bonds we build among unlikely parties.

Stephan: Coming together.

Joe: Clarice and Hannibal become a... family... that they're thankful for...?

Allison: Much like the pilgrims.

Pam: We watched the "human meat" episode of It's Always Sunny last night.

Joe: I mean... that was definitely a joke question. But this movie actually premiered in theaters on St. Valentine's Day.

Stephan: Oh yeah, we did read that.

Joe: So I guess it could be a St. Valentine's Day movie?

Pam: I wonder what the trailer was. [laughter] If they were like, [voice-over movie trailer voice] "Coming this Valentine's Day..."

Joe: Do you think there were couples who went to see this for their first date on Valentine's Day, and are married still?

Allison: I hope so!

Pam: Probably. It's definitely a popcorn movie. I'm sure it drew a lot of people into the theaters.

Stephan: And suspenseful movies are good movies to take a date to.

Allison: I could definitely see someone taking advantage of that last hour of the movie, having a woman clinging to him in the seat next to him.

Joe: I tried to do some googling, like, "is silence of the lambs a good valentines movie," and VH1 actually had a listicle. [laughter] For why this is a good Valentine's Day movie! It was... real bad. It was real bad.

Stephan: I will say, though—this is a very Drew A******* thing to know—it was not originally scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day.

Joe: Oh god.

Stephan: I know. So it was originally supposed to be released in the Fall of '90, but they didn't want to compete with Dances with Wolves, for the Oscars. Because they felt like they had a good movie.

Pam: Did Dances with Wolves win?

Stephan: I believe so, yeah. So they just decided to do it afterward.

Joe: So they didn't do it on purpose.

Stephan: They didn't do it on purpose. But it's still really funny that it was released on Valentine's Day.

Joe: So VH1 was wrong when they said one of the reasons this is a good Valentine's Day movie is because "Lambs are cute."

Pam: ...There aren't even any lambs in it. [laughter]

Allison: I guess if you wanted to trick somebody into thinking this could be a cute, romantic movie?

Stephan: Maybe this is a Halloween movie. Maybe the dog was really a lamb? The dog's cute and fluffy.

Allison: The dog is lamb-like! I've never considered that.

Joe: He's not silenced though. He's very loud, in all his scenes.

Pam: True.

Joe: Okay, so... another question that seems like a joke question, but it's really not. Glad to have Allison N*** back on the record. Wizard of Oz is definitely still one of my favorite movie discussions I've had. So, glad to have you back. What are some connections we can find between Silence of the Lambs and Wizard of Oz?

[laughter]

Joe: It seems like a joke question, but it's a serious question. As we're going through this, I'm starting to form a theory that all these movies are connected in some way. I started to create this big chart with lines connecting each movie, with reasons why they're connected.

Pam: Wait, where is this chart? Am I going to walk down our basement and find red yarn on a bulletin board? [laughter]

Stephan: Pepe Silvia!

Joe: But for real, how me fill in the blanks. What goes on the line between Wizard of Oz and Silence of the Lambs?

Stephan: That's.... do you have anything in mind?

Joe: I have some things that I think are comparisons, but I'd like to hear your take.

Allison: I think you can draw some parallels between Clarice and Dorothy. They're far from home. They're on their own.

Stephan: She's kind of living in man's world. She's a strong female character in a world full of men, but she's definitely taking charge, taking lead. I've never thought about this... [laughter]

Pam: The guy who's there is the "mastermind." Hannibal is more impressive of a mastermind. But the Wizard appears at first to be a mastermind.

Joe: Right, and we talked about in the Oz interview how the Wizard sent them to their death, right?

Allison: Where she had to prove herself in order to get where she was trying to go, which for Dorothy was home, and for Clarice was the FBI.

Joe: I kind of compared the Wicked Witch of the East to Buffalo Bill, in that, to the characters in the town that they lived, they were the main villain. To us as the audience, by the end of the movie, they were not the main villain. It ended up being the Witch of the West and Hannibal that were the actual threat.

Allison: Interesting.

Joe: And we can also compare the Lion's "King of the Forrest" to Buffalo Bill's tucked-penis karaoke!

Stephan: They're pretty much the same. [laughter]

Pam: He even has a little bow in his hair! [laughter]

Allison: It's true though. They're scenes that make you ask, "Why was this included? But if it wasn't included, would I have missed it?" We were talking about this last night. Because you [Stephan] were like, "We didn't need to see this." but I was like, it's so jarring... you need it.

Stephan: I don't know if it's needed, but it definitely works, and it definitely solidifies his weirdness.

Allison: If you didn't fully understand what Buffalo Bill was trying to achieve, that scene is like, "Oh... I get it."

Pam: Because doesn't he have part of the skins on?

Stephan: He's got the scalped wig.

Allison: You see on the mannequin half of the suit. With only one boob... which we can get to later...

Pam: He's waiting for someone else for that other boob, I guess.

Joe: I feel like Buffalo Bill, who's seemed like—I mean, I didn't give a shit about this movie in '91, I was three years old—but it seemed like, from reading about it, that there was a lot of people that misunderstood what Buffalo Bill was all about. LGBT communities were offended, like, "Why did the only gay character in this movie have to be a killer?"

Stephan: I think it's a valid argument. But I don't know if I agree with it. I think it's just an element of his character. It's not that this trans man wants to... that all trans men are violent, or something like that. I don't get that. I think it's kind of a stretch. In the movie, they try to justify his behavior. They say something along the lines of... I forget.

Allison: Well, Hannibal says something like, "He's not really transsexual, he just thinks that he is because of years of abuse and trauma. He's trying to find his own identity."

Stephan: Although, I think that's still problematic, because that's still kind of a misunderstanding of transexuality. I don't think the movie portrays it in a great light, but I don't think it's as bad as the LGBT community might've made it out to be. And again... I wasn't old enough to know the impact. What I do think is interesting, though, is Jonathan Demme's next movie is Philadelphia. I think the LGBT community is very pro- that movie. I wonder if that was in response to the criticisms from Silence of the Lambs?

Joe: And if it helps your argument, the director didn't even believe that Buffalo Bill was gay at all. I got a quote here. "He wasn't a gay character. He was a tormented man who hated himself and wished he was a woman because that would have made him as far away from himself as he possibly could be."

Allison: Right, and there's some Nazi symbolism happening with Buffalo Bill too. I read an article, I think it was the actor stating, "I never intended to play him as gay, or queer, or a member of that community." But pointing out that this was an individual who had gone through multiple identity shifts, and tried to find an identity that fits him, and just had a twisted mind to take it in this direction. Is it a good representation regardless? No, but...

Joe: It's hard to give a good representation of a serial killer.

Allison: For the '90s, there wasn't going to be a good representation of different orientations, so... it's unfortunate. But I don't think that was intention of the film.

Stephan: So something—and I don't know if I'm jumping the gun—actually, it's my interview, I can say whatever I want.

Joe: Yeah, do it up man! I'm tired of you coming out of the bullpen! It's your fucking interview this time, man!

Stephan: One of my favorite things about the movie—and probably one of the most unconformable—is the amount of direct eye-contact. Like, the idea that you're being "watched." So Clarice is in a man's world, right? Most of the interactions she's had are with men, outside of the one girlfriend she has. Very few of the exchanges are a two-person shot. They are all very up-close on the eyes and face, and I feel like everyone who is looking at her is objectifying her. And that's an unwanted feeling. But you look at Buffalo Bill, and he wants to be a woman, he wants the focus to be on him, he wants to be objectified. I think it's an interesting element, making him trans for that reason. So, maybe it seems a little insensitive, but I think it's interesting. It's like, well, women don't want to be looked at that way, but he wants you to look. He does these heinous murders because that way you will see him.

Joe: And also, he's looking directly at the camera, for most of his shit. Same with Hannibal. I'm not sure if they were trying to make that a serial killer thing. But Jodie Foster doesn't really look at the camera directly. A lot of the shots, she's looking off to the side. I guess that plays into the "her being watched." The camera is playing from the perspective of the watchers.

Pam: Didn't she have a crazy stalker in real life too?

Allison: Oh yeah!

Joe: After this movie?

Pam: I don't know if it was before or after. She's definitely had a stalker in real life, it was significant. [looking it up] John Hinckley Jr.

Allison: I think the stalker was portrayed in the musical Assassins?

Stephan: Oh yeah! I think that he was played by... Chris McBride.

Pam: Weird.

Joe: Okay, hold up...

Stephan: So in the Sondheim musical Assassins, it's all these killers—

Allison: He sings a duet with Squeaky Fromme? One of the Manson girls.

Stephan: "Unworthy of Your Love," which I think is one of the best songs in the show. That's Jodie Foster's stalker.

Joe: The character is based on him?

Allison: The character is him. He tried to assassinate Reagan to impress Jodie Foster.

Stephan: Which is crazy.

Allison: She probably wasn't impressed by that...

Joe: So there is a musical based on this movie. Unlike the other movies that we've talked about that had musicals based on them, this one is unofficial. It almost comes off like a parody. It's called SILENCED! With all caps, and an exclamation point.

Allison: That's never a good sign.

Joe: I listened to a few songs. It was pretty funny. The Clarice character had a very heavy lisp, a heavy Southern tilt, to the point that you could tell they were making fun of her. One of the songs was called "If I Could Smell Her Cunt," which Hannibal sings from his jail cell.

Stephan: I wish it was Miggs, jerking off while he sings about it.

Pam: And then he swallows his tongue at the end of it.

Stephan: When did it come out?

Joe: Apparently it started out as an internet joke? Like an online community, making some of the songs, and it snowballed into an off-Broadway type deal.

Stephan: An early Harry Potter: The Musical-type thing.

Joe: Yeah, we can go into all the stuff inspired by this movie, or what it was inspired by. Again, I kind of see this interview as a sequel to the Wizard of Oz interview, and we definitely talked about all these subjects then. Like—it was based on a book, and what are the differences, etc.

Allison: And similar to my response for Wizard of Oz... have you [Stephan] read or seen anything related?

Stephan: I haven't read anything related. I haven't seen the sequels. I haven't seen the TV show.

Allison: He's a Silence of the Lambs purist!

Stephan: I just love this movie.

Pam: The other ones are probably not as good.

Stephan: I hear Manhunter is good. The original movie version.

Joe: Oh, yeah! That was... the first prequel was a rewrite of that movie, I think?

Stephan: Yeah. Red Dragon.

Allison: Red Dragon's not bad.

Joe: Hannibal is the sequel, so they're trying to catch him. Hannibal Rising looked real bad, according to the Wikipedia article I read.

Pam: And Anthony Perkins is not in it?

Joe: That's the only one he's not in.

Pam: So you already know that it's bad, based on that.

Joe: I'm surprised nobody's read the book though.

Allison: I read it. I read it in high school.

Joe: It was pretty close to the movie?

Allison: From what I remember, it was pretty close. There were scenes in the movie... I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, but rewatching the movie, I felt like I was remembering scenes from the book. Which was weird, because I don't remember a lot of books that I read anymore.

Pam: Was the book called The Silence of the Lambs?

Joe: Yeah. And I couldn't find too many differences. It was a lot closer to the source material than Wizard of Oz.

Allison: I think they trimmed a lot of stuff about Buffalo Bill.

Joe: Right, because some of it was from his perspective, right?

Allison: His character gets kind of chopped up a little bit. From what I read the other night, there's more explanation for his trauma and his personality, why he's doing what he's doing, that they kind of sum up. In the book, Clarice or the other FBI guy go to one of the hospitals, and talk to a doctor that would've been treating people with gender reassignment surgery about what to look for. They dig into that a little more.

Stephan: They kind of skim over that in the movie.

Allison: They do skim over it. Like, "Oh, we called up hospitals, and his name was on a list!" Great! [laughter] "We're going to the wrong house right now!"

Pam: I love that scene, when they're going to the wrong house entirely.

Joe: Was there a TV show that did that? Breaking Bad or something? Where it was cross-cutting, but it ended up being two different houses? What was that from?

Pam: This Is Us? [laughter]

Joe: "It's a completely different decade!"

Pam: But I loved that, when they did that in the movie. [Editor's note: Someone help me out with this, because I don't know how to google the answer to what other movie or TV show this type of thing was in. I'll edit this note and give you credit!]

Allison: Seeing it several times, it's still so intense.

Stephan: Even last night, knowing what's going to happen, I was like, "Oh my god."

Pam: And the scene where the power's cut, and she's walking around, it's just incredible. Do you have anything about—do you know if they filmed it in pitch black? Was Jodie Foster not able to see anything?

Allison: She really does sell what she's trying to do. I had kind of forgotten how good Jodie Foster is, and how believable she is. We've talked about how the male gaze objectifies her, but I feel like the movie doesn't sexualize her in any way. She's not "hot." She's not a "hot lady detective." She's a student, and she's trying to be professional.

Stephan: All of her traits—she's very strong, she's very wise, she's brave as shit.

Joe: You don't think the male characters sexualize her at all?

Allison: I think they do, but I think the way the movie...

Joe: The movie is portraying these dudes as scumbags.

Allison: Exactly. They're kind of creepy.

Pam: The other small-town cops in that town.

Allison: They're either being creepy or belittling, or they're dismissive, or they're... the bug guys. So, harmless—

Stephan: But the bug guys are still hitting on her! And still being kind of creepy dudes. [laughter]

Pam: I forgot about the bug guys.

Joe: Me too.

Allison: I also forgot about the bug guys.

Joe: Aw, poor bug guys. We all forgot about them.

Allison: They're at the party at the end! They get cake, and pictures.

Pam: They were pretty essential in figuring the whole thing out.

Joe: I guess that's another thing—the bugs symbolizing the "metamorphosis" of Bill.

Pam: As Hannibal points out.

Allison: But is Buffalo Bill the only character in this movie who is trying to go through a metamorphosis? Clarice is trying to go from student to detective.

Stephan: And she's trying to break the mold of the other female students, who probably haven't had such an opportunity, because of their gender. And she's fucking crushing it, doing better than all the guys, making everyone look foolish.

Allison: Really making everyone look foolish.

Joe: So what does that say about Hannibal, that he's the most comfortable in his own skin? ...No pun intended.

Allison: I think he's already a butterfly. He knows who he is. He embraces that.

Stephan: I think he needs to change. I just don't think he wants to change.

Allison: But I feel like... the scene toward the end, when he attacks both of the guards. I feel like, every time I see that scene, I think, "There's gotta be another way to incapacitate this guard than biting his face." But it's just who he is! He wants to bite this guard in the face.

Stephan: But think about the form of combat you are not prepared for as a police officer—someone biting you in the face. You might be expecting him to swing, you might be expecting him to reach for your gun, or kick you in the balls. You're definitely not expecting someone to grab your face and bite it.

Pam: Well, you should be expecting that with Hannibal Lecter. They couldn't have known he had the key to the handcuffs in his mouth, but still...

Allison: Protect your face.

Pam: They were pretty lax about it.

Joe: That's probably a good segue to talk about why this movie is scary. Do we all agree that it's a "scary" movie?

Stephan: I would say scary. For me, even rewatching it last night—it had been a few years since I'd seen it last—and there were certain things, I was like, "Wow, this really plays up on all of my fears." I am very afraid of insects. So pretty much the whole bug guy scene creeps me out, and gives me the chills.

Pam: And all the moths flying around?

Stephan: And they find the pod in her mouth, and it's just like, "This is really gross."

Joe: Is it more creepy than scary?

Stephan: No, because it also plays up on a lot of traditional fears. Like the idea of being stalked. That's really terrifying! That's not just creepy, that's very scary, and dangerous.

Pam: Because it could happen to you! I feel like I watched a lot of serial killer stuff this year. I watched the Ted Bundy thing, we watched Mindhunter. It's so scary because that's all true. It's all things that have happened to people.

Allison: I do feel like the way that Catherine gets kidnapped is a very classic SVU-type scene. A woman coming home from work, has groceries—

Joe: Playing "American Girl."

Allison: —an unsuspecting man with a broken arm, needing help getting a couch in. And she stupidly gets into the van.

Pam: I don't know if it's because I've seen this movie so many times, or just because it's 2019, but I would never fucking help someone with that.

Allison: And she's a fairly unsympathetic victim.

Joe: Right! When she's like "Get the fuck back here!" to Clarice.

Allison: "You fucking bitch!" I do love that.

Joe: Who among us wouldn't do that?

Stephan: It's definitely funny, but I would leave her ass in that well. [laughter]

Allison: But I do feel like that scene is like, "It could happen to anyone." You stop to help a stranger, and that stranger could kidnap you to do who knows what to you. And I think that plays on some very real fears from the '80s and '90s—kids getting snatched up, things like that. It plays up a lot of real fears, and takes a lot of serial killer tropes that people were familiar with, and turns them into these new characters. And you're like, "Great, now I have to be afraid of this guy too." And bugs! And the dark!

Stephan: And close corridors, if you're a little claustrophobic too. I feel like it does a good job using very general fears, and incorporating them into the movie.

Joe: For me personally, I get more creeped out when it's unsettling, versus a sudden burst of violence of something. Like, just the way Hannibal looks at Clarice creeped me out more than a dude being crucified.

Stephan: I agree with that. I don't really like direct eye contact. I feel like I haven't looked at anyone in the eye for too long. There's so much direct eye contact in that movie. Yeah, Hannibal is in your head, because he's looking at you directly in the eye!

Allison: The intense framing of their last scene together, where he has his head tilted down, and his eyes pointed up at the camera, and he's not blinking, and it's the tightest of close-ups... it's so unsettling. And you know that he is not a threat to her, but you still feel threatened by him. In this scene, he's not threatening her, but he's just such an intimidating character. I think that's why he's such a memorable presence in the film.

Joe: Actually, according to AFI—the American Film Institute—he was ranked the number one villain of all time.

Stephan: Oh, really?

Allison: Which is crazy, because he's not the main villain in this movie.

Pam: He doesn't do anything.

Stephan: I think we tried to look it up—someone said he was on screen for only sixteen minutes, someone else said twenty.

Allison: We weren't sure if they were doing literally when he was on the screen, or included all the scenes that he was in.

Joe: I know it was the second-least amount of screen time for any winner of Best Lead Actor.

Stephan: Was the first Anne Hathaway?

Joe: Nah, it was some dude from the '50s, from a movie I'd never heard of. [Editor's note: Some clarifications. According to everywhere I can find, Hannibal is on screen for sixteen minutes. Stephan is right in that Hathaway was in Les Mis for only fifteen minutes. For Best Lead Actor specifically, Hopkins is second to David Niven in 1958's Separate Tables, in which Niven is on screen for fifteen minutes and 38 seconds.] But this was a cool list to look at. The Wicked Witch of the West was number four! Mr. Potter was number six!

Allison: A good collection.

Joe: So what does that say about you three, as a collective, that your favorite movies have such strong villains?

Allison: And they're all such different movies. Is there a connection between It's a Wonderful Life and Silence of the Lambs?

Joe: Oh, absolutely.

Allison: Is there?

Joe: Yeah.

Pam: What is that connection?

Joe: Wait... until I can do a little more research.

Allison: George Bailey covets a better life, so he and Buffalo Bill are pretty much the same person.

Pam: He's far away from home too, right? And he's objectified... No, I'm just kidding.

Allison: Zuzu is clearly the lamb. [laughter]

Joe: To be fair, Clarice and George Bailey were both in the top ten of Heroes. No Dorothy.

Allison: Well, that's fair. She's far more passive in her journey than Clarice is.

Joe: Yeah, I don't even think she was in the top fifty.

Allison: I get that. I'll take the L.

Joe: Do you mind if I use the bathroom real quick? Unless anyone has anything else to add about Dorothy's omission from this list?

Stephan: ...I think you're good.

[bathroom break]

Joe: Okay, I found the connection between Wonderful Life and Silence of the Lambs. I needed the silence of the bathroom to think. The white noise of my urine hitting porcelain. So, imagine George Bailey, after everyone leaves his house in the last scene. The phone rings. He picks it up. It's fucking Mr. Potter, who says, "I'm still out there. I'm going to keep fucking with you."

Pam: Well, he is still out there.

Joe: Right. As too is Hannibal!

Pam: But Hannibal doesn't fuck with Clarice.

Joe: Watch the sequel!

Stephan: He's not out for Clarice, though. He's definitely out there to eat some people, and definitely kill Chilton.

Joe: Mr. Potter wasn't out for George Bailey specifically. He was fucking everyone in town.

Pam: No, I think he was out for George Bailey. He found the money, and he didn't give it back, because he knew it was George Bailey's. He was on his way to give it back to the bank, and he was like, "No no no, turn me around."

Joe: Because it promoted his own twisted self-interests. Not because he had a personal vendetta against George.

Pam: I think he did have a personal vendetta. Against the Bailey boys.

Joe: I'd be happy to continue to go down this rabbit hole with you.

Pam: Not right now.

Joe: We briefly mentioned the Oscars before, but I want to talk about that. It won a lot of major awards.

Stephan: Actually, my other favorite movie was nominated for an Oscar the same year.

Pam: What movie?

Stephan: Beauty and the Beast.

Allison: The man contains multitudes.

Stephan: '91 was a good year for me.

Joe: I want to quote you from the Wizard of Oz interview: "How often does the most popular movie, or even the movie that I thought was the best that year, actually win Best Picture?" So I thought it was interesting that your favorite movie actually won that year.

Stephan: Because they intentionally didn't have it go against Dances with Wolves!

Allison: It was interesting that it was released in February, and didn't win until the following year. Not a lot of Oscar-winning movies do that. I don't think the studio believed in it enough to release it during Oscar season? But that movie held on for eleven months.

Stephan: Which speaks volumes. And apparently, this was the first movie to have a VHS release, and then go on to win the Oscar. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Pam: I do remember going to Blockbuster, and seeing a whole shelf of that movie, the cover with the butterfly on the mouth, and just being like [makes shuddering sound].

Allison: It's a jarring image.

Stephan: And it has the little skull head on it. It's terrifying! So what did it win for? It won Actress, Actor, Picture...

Joe: Director.

Stephan: And Adapted Screenplay, right?

Joe: Yup. It only lost in Sound and Editing. Both to Terminator 2.

Stephan: ...I quite like Terminator 2. Third favorite movie...? It's not. [laughter]

Joe: Okay, but does... I guess after the fact, when critics are all in on a certain movie, TV show, book, does that affect your opinion at all? Are you that type of person? I know I'm that type of person. Like, I will really like a TV show, but then read a critical review of it, and be like, "You're right! This is a fucking great TV show!" People convince me that it's even better than I originally thought.

Allison: But is the opposite true? Where you'll like something, and you'll read a bad review of it? And you're like, "Man, maybe I didn't like that as much as I thought I did."

Joe: I dunno. Pam had mentioned This Is Us. Critics don't seem to be all in on This Is Us.

Pam: Critics don't like it?

Joe: I mean, AVClub reviews it, but that's one person.

Pam: It's definitely not at the level of other shows that AVClub usually reviews. But for mass audiences, it's popular. Like, our parents watch it.

Joe: So no, I don't think I've ever liked something, and someone said it was bad, and I agreed with them. But I think definitely the opposite, if I already like something, and someone is talking about it, I tend to like it more because of that.

Allison: It feels vindicating—"I was right about this!"

Stephan: I do wonder... because, even now, I will not go see a movie unless it was well-reviewed by a friend, or a critic. I saw this movie way after it had won, already knowing the character of Hannibal, knowing Jodie Foster... personally...

Joe: You're the stalker?!

Stephan: So I do wonder, if this movie came out now... well, if it came out now, it would be well-reviewed, and of course I would go see it. But I would also say that this is a genre of movie I gravitate toward. I feel like I always want to see movies of this genre. And that's probably because I really like this movie. It was one of my first introductions to good movies in this genre. I'm used to crappy movies...

Pam: Because there's so many movies that come out in this genre, horror...

Stephan: Most of them are so bad. I grew up watching Tales from the Crypt with my dad. Looking back, so much TV-14 stuff that I should not have been watching when I was young. But it's super cheesy, and none of it is good. But I love that! And it's a little scary, a little spooky, whatever. So I just always gravitated toward that. So this movie would be an easy sell for me now, because that's just what I like.

Allison: And I feel like I'd be really hesitant to go see it in theaters.

Stephan: Yes. But I am too easily influence by reviews.

Joe: I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Stephan: But sometimes I miss out on things that I could enjoy. So many of the other movies that I like from my past are shitty movies. My favorite holiday film is Jingle All the Way. That movie is terrible! But I love that movie! And I'm sure that movie got ripped to shreds in reviews. I know this is something you always talk about regarding "favorite movies." What makes something your favorite? It's that personal connection. I mean, yeah, a movie could be garbage, but there's something that personally connects it to me.

Pam: I feel like kids, growing up, you're less likely to see something because it's well-reviewed. It's more like, "This is a popular movie that's out, I'm going to see it, because all my friends are going to see it." Even now, I'm putting on crap movies, because they're kids movies. "Let's watch Trolls." It's a kids movie that might keep Willow's attention for a little bit. I watched Hotel Transylvania like three times. But... I kind of like that.

Joe: "Pam's favorite movie of all time." [laughter] I feel like we're kind of getting there, Stephan explaining why this is his favorite movie of all time. I thought it would be interesting, in the same vein as interviewing a serial killer, if we could try to guess, or maybe psychoanalyze Stephan, in terms of what we know about him as a person.

Allison: Mhm. Yes. Great.

Joe: And how we can connect him to this movie. I mean, Allison knows you the best. So Allison, in a vacuum, knowing Stephan. and knowing that this is his favorite movie, why would you say that this is his favorite?

Allison: It's interesting. When we first had this discussion, months ago, when you first introduced this concept, Stephan said that this was his favorite movie, and I said, "Really? This is your favorite movie?" I know a lot of movies that Stephan likes, and this is one I would not have immediately guessed. But then after watching it last night—well, at first, I was like, "Oh yeah, this movie is a lot better than I remembered." Because all I remembered was Hannibal Lecter's stuff, Buffalo Bill's stuff, and then I knew there was a lot of Clarice stuff in the middle, and I wasn't sure if I cared about that. But I do! It's really good! But when Stephan pointed out that this movie has so many things that you don't like in the world—bugs, darkness, enclosed spaces—I was like, "Do you like this movie because it challenges you?" It's not just a standard horror movie. You watch a lot of silly scary movies when you're working from home. The crappy Hulu things.

Stephan: ...I watch good scary movies too.

Allison: I'll come home, and you'll be like, "Oh my god, I watched the dumbest movie." [laughter] But this movie, it challenges you. It doesn't just try to scare you. It gives you all of the things you don't like, but it's packaging them in a really enticing way.

Joe: So you're saying that Stephan is someone who likes a challenge.

Allison: Yes. In real life. [mumbling] That's why he likes me... [laughter]

Stephan: I want to hear what everyone else has to say.

Pam: I was going to say, weren't you a Psych major?

Stephan: Yup.

Pam: So I feel like that, with the psych thing, getting in the mind of someone, finding out what makes them tick.

Joe: That's what my notes said too. We watched Mindhunter, and all that was about was understanding someone—and I guess this is a snake eating its own tail, in that we are trying to psychoanalyze you, and I'm saying that you like to psychoanalyze us...?

Stephan: "Why do people do the things that they do and like what they like?" You hit the nail on the head.

Joe: That's your fucking job. You work in behavioral health.

Stephan: I actually picked this field, because it was something people told me I was good at. When I was growing up, people would say, "Oh, you're a pretty good listener." And, ya know... young people don't really talk about what they're gonna do, unless they definitively know, like, "Oh, I'm gonna be a cop." ...Sorry, that came off wrong. Being a cop is a great profession! [laughter]

Joe: Whole different conversation.

Stephan: But I feel like it's always been one of my strengths. I've always felt like I'm good at watching people. We're here talking, but interviews are something that I would generally shy away from, because I don't like to say too much. You guys have known me for a long time, but I'm generally quieter. Without alcohol, I'm usually one of the more quiet ones.

Joe: I don't know if I agree with that.

Stephan: I mean, personally, I feel like I'm less verbose.

Joe: You're less likely to speak abrasively toward your friends.

Stephan: That's fair, yes. I dunno. I just like observing... not a in voyeuristic way.

Allison: "Who do you identify with in this movie?" [laughter]

Stephan: I don't have to answer that! [laughter] But you could argue that Clarice is doing the same thing to Hannibal. She doesn't know Hannibal, she's observing him and communicating with him to get more insight into why he is the way he is, so she can get more insight into Buffalo Bill's psyche. That's something that's always been inherently interesting to me, which is why I love the behavioral field, which weirdly shaped me, I guess? This is way too much to think about, Joe. [laughter]

Joe: Well, alright, but let's go further in that direction. Say you were the one trying to interview Hannibal Lecter. Him being the perceptive monster that he is, how would he try to break you?

Pam: Like, what's your lamb story? [laughter]

Joe: Yeah, exactly.

Stephan: I think what he would do specifically to me is what he does to Clarice in the very beginning. He picks out very obvious physical characteristics. It's very easy to tell what people are insecure about. Often times, people with teeth issues will cover their mouth, that's something their insecure about. For me, I kind of... well, I won't say what mine are. [laughter] But I feel like he would be very quick to point out things in my physicality that would give you insight into what I'm insecure about. Until the third interview, when he's delving deeper into, ya know, "What's your traumatic story?" I tried to save the lambs! [laughter] Guys, I'm absolutely not running out into the cold with a lamb. That lamb is going die. And probably be a delicious lamb chop. [laughter]

Joe: Yeah, I wasn't trying to get you to tell a traumatic story or anything.

Stephan: And I'm not going to. No, but I do think it would be physical characteristics, because that's the easiest thing to see right away. Even in an interview, half the time the reason someone doesn't get a second interview is because of some physicality.

Joe: For Clarice, it was her accent, right?

Allison: "Your good purse and your cheap shoes."

Stephan: Right. And she didn't say anything about herself, but he could pick up on all those things, because of how she was presenting herself.

Allison: I feel like that's another fear that people have. That you're going to be "found out." Clarice comes into the movie, she accepts the assignment, and she's very... you can tell she's a bit unsure. But that moment when Hannibal starts picking her apart like a catty bitch. It's kind of delicious to watch, but there's a fear of being on the other side of that, of someone being able to pick out all of your flaws.

Joe: No, that's pretty scary for sure. It definitely—not to talk about myself that much—but I definitely agree that it's an interesting part of this movie. I'm just very interested in why people act certain ways, why people think certain things. I guess that's kind of—ostensibly—why I'm doing these interviews.

Stephan: A social experiment.

Joe: I know it's mainly to just to hang out with people. but I like to pretend that it's so we can try to understand more about each other. Not in a creepy serial killer way, but... it's definitely interesting.

Stephan: The movies we've identified as our favorite—as you said before, is kind of a B.S. question—but I think it says a lot about us. I think all of your psychoanalysis was correct. I think everyone is spot on, as much as I'd like to deny it.

Joe: Okay, so then speak plainly about why this is your favorite movie. Did any of that play into this?

Stephan: I mean, I can definitely look back and say that I've been influenced by this movie. This isn't why I originally chose to go back to this movie. This is a movie that I saw way too early. I think my grandma just had it on, and I was like, "...what is a cunt?" [laughter]

Joe: That's a big theme in these interviews—grandparents that just don't give a shit.

Stephan: So this is just a movie that was on. And it wasn't until I rewatched it in high school, all the way through, that I was like, "Oh my god, Buffalo Bill is the actual villain of this movie." I had just seen bits and pieces up to that point. And when you're a kid, what's the scariest thing? Hannibal Lecter staring at you. I feel like, outside of the behavioral stuff and social science stuff, I just love the suspense. The movie is exciting, but it's cerebral. I love this genre, and this movie knocks it out of the park.

Allison: And it's gorier than I remembered.

Stephan: It's definitely bloodier than I remembered.

Joe: They kind of hold it close to the chest for a little bit. It's not a gore-fest or anything.

Stephan: Until the final twenty minutes, when they have the angel gutted—

Allison: He's wearing the face.

Joe: Even leading up to that, though, I thought personally the creepiest part of the movie was when Lecter had the police baton, the way he was swinging it, with just a blank expression.

Allison: And the light spray from him. It's not like he's splashed with blood, but it's just a light mist.

Stephan: And even then, you never see that officer's face.

Pam: Right before that, he's sitting in there listening to music, and he's doing the same thing [makes conductor motions with hands]. So it's just as easy as listening to music for him. And all the gore is with Lecter, pretty much. I mean, they show the girls, the victims of Buffalo Bill.

Allison: Yeah, you see some pictures, and you see the one corpse.

Stephan: But you don't actually see Buffalo Bill hurt anyone.

Allison: You don't see him doing anything, really. He's wearing a scalp... okay, maybe we're being dismissive of all these horrors. [laughter]

Joe: Yeah, "There's no blood, it's just skin!"

Allison: "It's not that bad!" One thing I can never not think is... did the skin suit smell? Or did he treat it in a way that he could sew it...? Because these women had been murdered over the course of several week, right?

Joe: Well, he lotioned them up before he killed them.

Allison: Right, but that's not preserving your skin. That's just to keep your skin nice and soft.

Joe: Maybe he was still lotioning them, even after the skin left the body.

Allison: It's just... something I think about.

Joe: If there's anything we can take away from this movie, it's that skin smells when it's detached from the body.

Allison: I assume!

Stephan: Considering the condition of his house, I don't think he cares about the smell of a human hide. To be honest!

Allison: But he's wearing it! He's going through so much trouble so he can wear it.

Stephan: In the well, there are fingernails and blood. He doesn't care! That dog shits all over the basement!

Pam: There are bugs flying everywhere.

Allison: There is an old woman decaying in the bathtub.

Pam: I always forget about that too.

Allison: I also saw this movie probably too young, and I feel like that image stuck with me. Because it doesn't linger for too long, where you can take in everything from that moment. It's just like, "What the fuck was in that tub?"

Joe: What would you say is the minimum age that you can watch this film?

Stephan: For my own future kids?

Joe: Based on your own personal experience, and based on how you feel you would be as a parent, what age would be okay?

Stephan: I feel like I would be okay if my—

Joe: Infant daughter.

Stephan: No! If my child saw this in their early adolescence, I'd be okay with that.

Allison: What age is that?

Joe: Yeah, commit to an age here.

Stephan: Like twelve years old.

Allison: My gut instinct was thirteen.

Stephan: I would think—I'm just saying about myself—my parents would like to think—if you're reading this, I'm sorry—possibly my parents, when I was twelve, thought I was this saint child, that had never seen anything bloody, or gory, or bad. But we had access to stuff in our youth, and it's only going to get worse. So if my kid can make it to twelve without seeing this movie, that would be a huge victory.

Allison: Or seeing anything worse than this on the internet, then I've done a good job!

Stephan: They're going to see Oldboy before this. [laughter]

Joe: Oh no.

Pam: I feel like seeing this as a teenager, I would be scared of different things than I'm scared of now.

Joe: What would Teenage Pam be scared of?

Pam: I think just the gore stuff? But now, I'm watching it and scared of being stalked, and being the victim of a serial killer. Back then, I would be scared of the Hannibal stuff, with the guards.

Joe: So when I walked in the house earlier while you and Willow were upstairs, and you yelled, "Is that you?!" that was your fear?

Pam: Yeah.

Joe: That I was a serial killer?

Pam: It wouldn't be a serial killer.

Allison: Just a regular killer. [laughter]

Pam: It would be someone who's looking to rob us for money to buy drugs.

Joe: ...We can't end the interview on that note.

Allison: "This interview brought to you by the Port Richmond Neighborhood Association."

Joe: What's something positive we can take away from Silence of the Lambs? Let's end on that.

Pam: They caught Buffalo Bill?

Allison: I think Clarice is a great portrayal of a woman character.

Joe: Sixth best hero of all time!

Allison: I don't know if I'd categorize this movie as a "feminist movie," but I feel like she's smart, she's capable, she's strong. She does, by herself, what so many men in boots cannot accomplish. The scene when all the cops are in the hallway, about to enter the room where Hannibal was kept, and they're doing all these evasive maneuvers. And they look kind of silly? They're kind of bumbling around. But Clarice has approached Lecter by herself, unarmed, on her own. She takes down Buffalo Bill in the darkness, on her own.

Stephan: I think, for me, the example that's the strongest is that crosscut scene, the climax. You see all these bumbling FBI agents, guns toted, a decoy flower box, agents in a plane—

Allison: All the SWAT gear, storming the house—

Stephan: —like, "We're going in!" And they ring the doorbell. You think it's Buffalo Bill's house, but it's an empty house. And then there's Clarice.

Allison: Who's just showing up to ask an old lady some questions.

Stephan: And she's the one who has the epic encounter. And she totally handles the whole situation on her own.

Allison: Juxtaposing that to a scene early in the movie, where they're doing a drill, and she gets shot. She doesn't check the corner, her partner does fine, whatever. Watching that kind of growth, from this cadet who's still learning, sitting on the dryer with her roommate talking about the case, to then taking down the actual serial killer, on her own. Crazy. It's empowering!

Stephan: I think it's a good movie about growth. Even though it's a short amount of time, you definitely see Clarice grow a lot.

Joe: From out of her cocoon.

Stephan: She's a skull-headed butterfly.

Allison: It's all shrouded in death, but she emerges in the end.

Album of the Week: The Highwomen

This year, I am thankful for Record Club. Have a great holiday week, everybody! Check out our archives along the right sidebar, and check out our playlist HERE. Continue on for this week's album!

WEEK 43 — November 24-30, 2019

What we're listening to this week (Rachel C.'s pick):

ALBUM: The Highwomen
ARTIST: The Highwomen

RELEASED: September 6, 2019

WHAT GENRE IS THIS: Country

WHY RACHEL C. PICKED IT: "I would never describe myself as country fan, but I am a huge fan of Brandi Carlile and I extend that same appreciation to the Highwomen."

TRACKLIST:

1. Highwomen (ft. Yola)
2. Redesigning Women
3. Loose Change
4. Crowded Table
5. My Name Can't Be Mama
6. If She Ever Leaves Me
7. Old Soul
8. Don't Call Me
9. My Only Child
10. Heaven Is a Honky Tonk (ft. Sheryl Crow)
11. Cocktail and a Song
12. Wheels of Laredo

LENGTH: 42:59

READING SOME SHIT: I've never heard of Taste of Country but it was the first google hit so here we are.

Happy listening, fam! Have a great week!

Song of the Week: "The Flinch"

My daughters want you to click HERE for the SotW playlist.

"The Flinch"

Dave Hause

from Bury Me in Philly

2017

I have no idea where Dave Hause came from. Well, I mean, I know where he literally came from. That answer is Philadelphia, the city where all great musical artists come from. But I don't know where he was before he showed up on my radar and made me a fan almost instantly.

Seriously, I can probably count the amount of times this has happened in my life on one hand—when you're at a gathering, or out in public, or otherwise just listening to something while talking with friends and shooting the shit, and even when it's on just in the background, the music instantly blows you away. First you ask "who is this?" and then you write it down and then you're home a few hours later drunkenly downloading that shit off of Kingdom Leaks.

His discography features a whole bunch of bands that I'm not familiar with; I'm only familiar with his two most recent solo albums. They are two of the best albums of the decade, Bury Me in Philly especially. I'll talk more about it in a couple weeks, I'm sure (and I already talked about it a little bit in 2017's round-up), but it's worth singing the praises yet again here. Dave Hause meets punk rock and heartland rock halfway, and does literally nothing new, and yet somehow it makes me feel like home.

Like, here's "The Flinch," a stomper of a song that is equally gritty and enlightening. The riff is simple (there's more of that idea of "not doing anything new here" in the riff, but, ya know), but sticky. Hause's voice is powerful throughout. 

And the message is what makes this song soar. "The flinch," you see, is the idea that you would hold back in aspiring to your full potential, that you won't take steps now to achieve your goals... that you'll "flinch," in other words.

But then Hause sees the Liberty Bell ("that broken bell"), that beacon of hope in our city, that symbol of freedom that our forefathers won for us. Those forefathers didn't fucking flinch, and so Hause is inspired to do the same. To step up. to do his part, to start NOW on working on those dreams. He ain't flinching anymore.

This was Martha's first song.

It was chosen as my second daughter's first song she ever heard because I feel like it's a message that one can live by in her life. I don't ever want Martha to flinch. I don't want her to look back and have regrets. I want her to live life to the fullest. I want to be her broken bell, bidding her to keep going.

This choice for baby's first song was a little less meticulous than the choosing process for Willow's was (that banking commercial about being way more lax with your second kid is totally true), but I am happy with this choice, and I hope one day, when Martha is a teenager, and she's looking for some badass late '10s rock to listen to, she can look back to the song that she heard first. And I hope that Dave Hause can show the way, past the music, and on through life itself.

Tentanda Via, Sean E.

Tentanda Via is a rawer, more angsty album than American Trappist’s self-titled debut album or the last few albums of front man Joe Michelini’s previous band, River City Extension. It is a deliberate rawness and not the unfiltered sound of an inexperienced garage band. It is a mature angst, not that of an overly emotional teen. It is the raw, angsty sound of someone in their late 20s / early 30s, battling depression and anxiety, someone that is diving deep into the existential questions of life to see if there are any answers there.

With that said, let me clearly state that I did enjoy this album, both because I am a longtime fan and because I can relate on various levels to many of the themes of the album. Some of the transitions between songs seemed odd at first listen, but on the second and third time around they are clearly an artistic choice that are meant to serve the purpose of keeping the listener on edge. This album is a bit of a different sound than American Trappist’s first album, and definitely a departure from River City Extension’s more folk infused sound. While I am more musically inclined toward this earlier work, I am happy Michelini is developing as an artist and willing to take risks. I am thus in agreement with the title Tentanda Via, this way must be tried.

Tentanda Via, Sam

When a band slings power chords, loud pianos, and dude themes, I'm in. American Trappist takes up the mantle of shit I like. It's within the pantheon of sweaty, beer chugging dude rock that Springsteen, Titus Andronicus, the Hold Steady, and Japandroids evoke for me. This album takes the express to my heart.

My love of this album makes me question my tepidness of another. The flow of one album to another on Record Club caused me to reach this conclusion: Music is more gendered than I thought. I guess that should have been more apparent to me.

Last week, I liked, not loved Saves the World by MUNA, as the artist discusses a female experience I cannot fully appreciate. But American Trappist's ode to "driving around with my friends to buy drugs" and other white dude lore is well within my wheelhouse and life experience. There's a very fair criticism to American Trappist that it's inaccessible outside of a certain lane. But I'm within that lane and have been granted full access.

I'm glad I listened to MUNA and appreciated several of the songs very much. But I'm lazy now and am stuck with my preferences.

That said, "Strange Days" really takes a nosedive. Really, the back half of this album is a hand-in-the-buzzsaw moment for me. Sorry, dudes; no Mr. Robot voice songs. Fuck "Unfresh Dirtwolf" (WXPN compared it to Frank Ocean; I guess that's fair because it's slow? idunno.)

Fortunately, Tentanda Via ends on a high note with "Nobody's Gonna Get My Soul" bringing back all the horns, pianos, and guitars I was missing for three songs. Having an album with only three songs I don't like is definitely a win.

Tentanda Via, Rachel S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUJe3vkLIs

I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed. But can you ever just be whelmed?

I think you can while listening to this album! I'm getting big opening act energy here. At first, you're like hey, yeah this is good! Then after 3 or 4 songs, you're wondering how much longer this set is going to be and wished you'd sprung for the VIP section with seats by the bar because your back is already starting to hurt. Vocally, I'm like SIR, if I wanted to listen to Ben Folds, I'd listen to Ben Folds. And what was that Bob Dylan tick?

This album is strongest on guitar and most interesting during "Other Reasons." All in all, a fine listen and something I'd expect to hear on XPN around 2:15 PM. Now, onto the headliner, the band that has a similar vibe with much bigger bite, Say Anything.

Tentanda Via, Joe

Over the past few months, I've become extremely bored with the idea of just saying that a band sounds like another band, as a shorthand way to describe a band's sound. I know it accomplishes the task at hand, but I just feel lazy doing it. So at the beginning of this week, I resolved to not do that, no matter who or what the music sounded like on this week's album.

And then American Trappist walked in, and of course they sound so much like their influences that comparisons are completely unavoidable.

The easiest place to start is Bruce Springsteen. The Boss's influence is clearest on the first three tracks, but he's all over the album, honestly. This checks out—Bruce Springsteen is awesome, and his sound should be blatantly ripped off. Plus, the main artist behind American Trappist, Joe Michelini, is from New Jersey, and typically, people from Jersey would wear a sweater made from Bruce Springsteen's taint hairs if they were given an opportunity.

If we're being honest, the first song, "Death Wish," is probably more of a rip-off of the War on Drugs. But War on Drugs take a lot of their sound from Bruce, so there's really no point in squabbling about who the rip-off is directed at here. And there's plenty of other shit that I've heard other places. "False Prophet" is Wilco. "Getting Even" is basically "Karma Police." "Nobody's Gonna Get My Soul" could've been on the Men's Tomorrow's Hits. Michelini desperately wants to sound like Tom Petty. I could go on.

And yes, we'll circle back, as we usually do in these reviews, to say something like, "Well, it sounds like X and Y, but X and Y are fucking great, so this is too!" (I've been doing that shit since fucking Week 1). And yes, that's mostly true here.

But for this week, I'll actually go beyond that backhanded compliment, and make it a full-blown praise: Tentanda Via is surprisingly excellent. American Trappist just seems to have an uncanny ability to take the best parts from superior bands and make an amalgam that tastes almost as sweet. This is probably the first time since Record Club began that I have been sincerely caught off guard by how good an album is. It's not the best rock album I've heard this year, but I bopped to this shit hard all week. Good work, everybody.

But I swear to god this is my last "They Sound Like" review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5