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March 04, 2005
Hasil Adkins and Jack Starr
Hasil Adkins was the best thing that happened to me in our trip to the States. Actually it was kind of weird cause I brought this record in LA on literally our first day in America, but I couldn't listen to it because I never had access to a turntable. So I pretty much brought it because of the photos of Hasil and the text on the back (describing his recording methodologies and the subject matter of his songs . . . cutting off his girlfriend's head so she "cain't eat no mooore hot dawgs"). Listening to it when I finally got back was like a relgious experience for me. Having an idea in your head for a while about this 'thing' that might exist and then finding it . . . I have seen the light!
Hasil Adkins is THE MAD SCIENTIST. He makes MONSTERS. The process and the artefact always reside on the verge of being out of CONTROL. Within the very familiar formula that was 1950s rock'n'roll (rockabilly) Adkins creates RISK and DANGER. "Out to Hunch" also reminded me of Lisa's questioning of my need to 'finish' things and what that might mean. Cameron also suggested that what was actually interesting about monsters was that they were unfinished, incomplete. Hasil's songs never feel finished or complete . . . they exist more like sketches, as evidence or as outcomes of exploration.
In my last seminar I talked briefly about the hybrid nature of rockabilly music and related it to my interest in creating 'monsters' (of a kind). I then discovered the Cramps album "How to Make a Monster" which also draws the same connection. Jack Starr (like Adkins, and on the same label, Norton Records) actually lives/acts out this connection. Starr actually wants to BE THE MONSTER, the cover of this album "Born Petrified" features old b/w photographs of Starr wearing monster masks and outfits. Starr was infatuated with monster flicks of the time and set about to make his own, creating his own costumes and, of course, soundtracks.
Posted by Luke Wood at March 4, 2005 02:19 PM