My son’s black metal band Liturgy has put out a four-minute video of their song “Returner.” Apparently there’s some big controversy (like father, like son) connected to the fact that they’re “hipsters” playing black metal; Bernard says the fans would prefer that they be wearing bullets on their belts and rusty nails sticking out of their shoulders. I don’t get it. After playing the South by Southwest festival they stopped in McKinney, Texas, and visited my 83-year-old mother. If you knew my mother, you would find the idea of her entertaining a black metal band in her kitchen tremendously enjoyable. Anyway, Liturgy’s new album Aesthetica (on Thrill Jockey – a label I’d actually heard of) got a very nice placement in one of New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrices,” halfway between highbrow and lowbrow and almost all the way towards brilliant.
The pivot repertoire that links Bernard’s musical tastes with mine is Brian Eno and the Residents. He came home and we had an Eno-fest last night, both of us singing virtually all the lyrics to all the songs. I doubt that anyone has noticed, but a thesis could be written about Eno’s influence on my music (hint: think Another Green World).
UPDATE: When the band mentioned to my mother the possibility of her coming to one of their concerts, she said, “That would redefine the word ‘anachronism.'”