One thing I am certain of is "If That's The Case, Then I Don't Know."

Behold this ancient photo of the band!

I really need to stop “holding off” writing about things that are constantly present in my life; 19 years after first posting about this song I get around to sharing it again. 

The Electric Soft Parade's "If That's The Case, Then I Don't Know" is one of those rare songs I can never turn off, that always brightens my mood, and that seems to hang suspended in the aether as a perfectly crystallized distillation of itself; the driving beat, the swirling bridge, the living breathing beast of a song. I no longer have many reliable "break glass for predictable emotional effect" songs these days, and I have decided to start recording more often which tunes fall into that category for me.

Sadly there is no Bandcamp download of the album available, so this YouTube video will have to do.* But, as I suspect you will, you enjoy it I heartily recommend tracking down a physical copy (or file) for a dependable jolt of joy to deploy as needed.

*Yes, I am personally anti-streaming and prefer to promote physical copies/permanent downloads, but I’m also a realist and don’t think my personal habits need be adopted by everyone, especially when so many quite simply have never known a music world other than streaming. So please do feel free to hunt this tune down in your favorite streaming service. It’s on there. 

Thank gawd, 'The Vampire Lestat' rawks.

Working in a book store in the late ‘80s, and being a general weirdo, it will not surprise anyone to know I was really into Anne Rice's growing series of Vampire Chronicles books, and I experienced The Vampire Lestat as a relatively new release. I was in the coterie of folks who had high hopes for the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt movie adaptation, though I walked out of the theater feeling "well, I guess they got as close as a mainstream movie would allow you to."

When AMC announced their Interview With A Vampire series, I largely ignored it until the drum beat of enthusiasm for its first 2 seasons grew impossible for me to ignore. I hadn't been willing to get an AMC+ subscription, and rarely watched terrestrial cable (even though I pay for it), but once both seasons were on Netflix I decided to dive in.

I loved it. More than loved it. They got it! Yes, story points had been changed, and timing of events had been adjusted, but every tweak seemed to allow the spirit of those early, original books to shine through more brightly. And when they announced season 3 would tackle The Vampire Lestat I was very excited ... and very afraid. It would be very easy to ruin the vibe or throw off the balance if the music that Lestat's band plays to launch them into the stratosphere of megastardom didn't feel like music that could become widely popular, the whole thing could end up being super lame, despite the excellent track record for immersion the show had already set thus far. But I wasn't going to miss this I real time and finally signed up for a discounted year of AMC+.

Well, the premier episode of season 3 debuted Sunday, and I have zero reservations now. The structure they've set up to tell this season's story is flexible enough for multiple viewpoints yet durable enough to feel reassuringly consistent. The music takes more of its cues from glam and pop, and thus far the songs Lestat performs have been believable and good enough that I won't be avoiding the eventual soundtrack of collected music from this season. Heck, the signs of this season possibly surpassing prior seasons are so strong I even went and bought a piece of merch. For a TV show! I never do that! Yet here we are.

The vibes seem to be that Interview With A Vampire / The Vampire Lestat is falling into that category of TV shows that look like a million bucks, have incredibly passionate followings, and are largely (and confusingly) ignored or fall under the mainstream radar. Don't be one of those folks who discovered their favorite TV show after it's been canceled and get in on this goodness. Then spread the word. You'll be the coolest if you do.

Letting go and trying out this new thing called listening to what I like(d), for once.

Over the last week I've been treating myself to a sort of "summer break" wherein I listen to older music on my phone instead of feeling like I should spend most of my time ingesting newly released music.* I throw things on shuffle and allow myself to revisit past feelings and rediscover old forgotten favorites. I know, that sounds pretty normal to most, but it's super self-indulgent for me.

Every once in a great while a song comes up that hasn't stood the test of time (and gets removed during the next iTunes/tankPHONE sync), but mostly this has meant I've had a few solid days of wallowing in songs I already knew I liked. And there are a few songs that are like warm, reassuring blankets that I had forgotten about, but know now I can turn to I moments when they'll do the most good.

One of those warm blanket songs that also happens to rock is "Don't Cry" by The Sweet Serenades. The tune was on the Swedish band's 2023 album Everything Dies, and when it played while I was on the road to Wisconsin last weekend, its power came rushing back at me, and I questioned how I could have ever forgotten about this tune!

Wrap yourself up in this cozy rocker.

*O.K., I did listen to the new album from the Mountain Goats. But I can't talk about that for months. Other than giving into that digression, I have otherwise kept up a regular diet of "old faves" for at least the last week.

It just goes on and on and on and on and...

I saw Backrooms over the weekend and enjoyed it. I do love that an incredibly young creator is being given the opportunity to make the jump from online video to the big screen, but if you’ve listened to any interviews with Backrooms creator/director Kane Parsons you understand that he was more than ready for that leap.

As far as transitioning an online series to the big screen, this is a genuine success. I know nothing of the online mythology (which is apparently deep) but Parsons made the right choice to focus on the space and experience over building a cinematic universe (yet).

To an older brain like mine the plot comes across as a mish-mash of books like House Of Leaves and Horrorstör, so while the premise didn’t seem particularly “new” to me, seeing those kinds of spaces brought to life was a bit thrilling. Perhaps the oddest thing was seeing the alternate spaces created by Backrooms and finding them less scary and more cool than I probably should’ve.

To those still interested but on the fence because they keep hearing how scary Backrooms is; it’s less scary than you think, there is almost no visual violence, and I personally found the he overall vibe more meditative than stressful. I’d catch this in a theater while you can, but I also think it will work well on the smaller screen since size and scale are less important than snackable spaces in Parsons’s visual approach.