#34: Doom Metal Spoken Word Poetry

Atheist Alien; Irreversible Entanglements; Porridge Radio; I am the Manic Whale; Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate

Sep 10, 2021

Band Name Bureau #34 is brought to you by sleep deprivation.

Atheist Alien

Sometimes a subject line is just a subject line, and other times it’s a riddle with no answer, only question after maddening question. To read it is to gaze into the face of insanity and dare not blink.

Laser Yoga Records Releases Atheist Alien, the World's First Doom Metal Spoken Word Poetry Album and World's First 12" USB-LP

As BNB pal Josh Modell said when he sent it my way, “Lot to unpack in that subject.” Let’s try:

Laser Yoga Records: “Formerly known as Depressing Prospects Films and Labrecque Art and Film,” per its website.
Atheist Alien: “Ever since I became an atheist, I feel like an alien on my own planet,” goes the flanged-out spoken intro to the album. Has anything good ever followed “Ever since I became an atheist…”? Nope!
“Doom Metal Spoken Word Poetry”: It’s also “Doom New-Age spoken word poetry,” according to the press release, which emulates The Iliad, the Mahābhārata, and Edgar Allan Poe. (One of these things is not like the other.) The story follows an adrift human, “captured by the Earth’s sick religions in their desperate attempt to rob people of their freedom of thought and reliance on factual reality,” who undergoes a Homeric odyssey and transforms into a “vengeful, mythical anti-God lunar deity.” (Anti-God Deity is the name of my new death-metal band, by the way.)
“World’s first” 12-inch USB-LP: From what I can tell, this “amazing collectors [sic] item” is a USB thumb drive in a 12-inch record sleeve. That’s all I can gather from intro video below featuring Robert Lowe of Candlemass, because there are no photos otherwise. Says Atheist Alien’s Bandcamp: “contains NO vinyl. I had to categorize it as ‘vinyl’ to be shown as an album version, since there’s no USB-LP selection on Bandcamp—yet!”

More confusing, sole member Brian Horustopheles Labrecque “wrote and produced” the album, but doesn’t actually perform on it, according to the album credits. Did he write the poetry, but other people wrote the music? Who knows? But you can find Labrecque’s other written work on the Laser Yoga website, such as a graphic novel “about a superhero who thinks he’s Tori Amos,” an “LGBT love story about two losers who meet a woodland faery,” and a sci-fi book “with androids, clones, anti-gravity, unicorns, holographic-penises, and lots of rude people screaming at each other.” They’re all downloadable for free.

Irreversible Entanglements

Would you be surprised this nine-syllabled collective plays “liberation-oriented free jazz”? You shouldn’t be! They appear to be quite good at what they do, but that name is a mouthful. Bands who self-describe as “collectives” tend to have a lot of members, but Irreversible Entanglements only has five, so it comes out to roughly two syllables per member. (Two Syllables Per Member is the name of my bro-comedy stand-up album, by the way.)

Porridge Radio

Speaking of Josh Modell, long-time BNB readers may remember his giving a shoutout to this poorly named band in issue #1.1, when he said their album Every Bad was his favorite of 2020. About that name, Loud and Quiet declares, “As far as lousy band names go, Porridge Radio sure isn’t one of them,” because the “imagery of cereal based broadcasting just sounds right and essential.” Counterpoint: While these things are subjective, no. Band leader Dana Margolin—who started Porridge Radio as a “sadcore bedroom project,” per a press release—doesn’t have much to say about it. ““I reckon everyone else thinks it makes us sound twee,” she says in that Loud and Quiet interview. “But we’re not. We are definitely not twee for fuck’s sake.” Wait, twee means “occasionally ferocious post-punk,” right? No? OK, then never mind.

I am the Manic Whale

It’s so easy to get distracted while researching the bands that appear in Band Name Bureau, and I am the Manic Whale is a case in point. Googling the British prog quartet doesn’t bring up a lot of relevant information, but it does return a story about a lobster diver getting swallowed by a whale and, because Google probably knows where I used to work, a BuzzFeed quiz about whether you’re a manic pixie dream girl. At least the story about the co-founder of Said the Whale starting a record label makes sense. News stories about I am the Manic Whale are hard to come by, probably because they’re an unassuming bunch. Just look at this band photo that accompanies their bio.

It’s the small-time-British-prog-band equivalent of this:

It’s blurry. Nothing’s in focus. The lighting’s weird. There’s distracting al fresco dining behind them. Yet this is the picture I am the Manic Whale said, “Yes, this one goes above our bio.” It makes even less sense because they have great pics on their Facebook page. Maybe one of the Whales threw together the website during a manic episode and hasn’t gone back.

Anyway, if you happen to check out the band’s 2015 debut, Everything Beautiful in Time, and find yourself wondering what the story is with, say, first track “Open Your Eyes,” the Whales are happy to elaborate.

I’m not sure why, but I find the “A song about” construction for every track charming. The songs are as earnest as they seem. I mean, they wrote a song about Legos for crissakes.

Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate

Speaking of British bands, there is no more British name than this one, a fellow prog outfit that’s playing an upcoming festival with I am the Manic Whale. While the band doesn’t offer any insight into its ur-British moniker, it does want you to know that they’re “recommended by” Genesis’ Steve Hackett. What does that mean? Who knows!

POST-SCRIPTS

I am the Manic Whale has a show coming up with a band called the Emerald Dawn. Not a great name, but this logo is unforgivable.

I am the Manic Whale’s logo though? Solid.

Here’s another reminder that Band Name Bureau will follow this schedule going forward: free newsletter the first half of the month, bonus issue for paying subscribers the second half of the month. If you aren’t paying, you’re missing out on stuff like the mysterious origins of Hoobastank, fun interviews with people like comedian Jimmy Pardo and Cursive’s Tim Kasher, as well as assorted nonsense.
The new Turnstile is great. The new CHVRCHES is also solid. The new Joy Formidable is a little sleepy.