Welcome back to Pop Loser! This week, Kacey Musgraves put me in a “bad girl good mood” on her Middle of Nowhere tour, while Billy Corgan put me in a just plain bad mood with his gross interview with the New York Times Popcast. And, of course, it’s Halloween on Saturday, and if you don’t have plans yet, I’ve got you covered. Plus, I’ll share two underrated Halloween songs that are not “Monster Mash” or “Thriller.”
This Week in Music:
This week in Strangerland, I attended Phoebe Bridgers’s phone-free show at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday and brought a retired courtroom sketch artist as my date to document the show. Charles Mudede gave a brief history of death and hip-hop and shared ten songs about grief and loss.
Kacey Musgraves broke Seattle’s dry spell. I attended night one of Musgraves’s two Seattle shows on her Middle of Nowhere tour and was completely spellbound by her flawless vocals, inventive stage design, and unabashed horniness. Standouts from the setlist included “Butterfly,” with an animatronic butterfly soaring around the arena, “Rhinestoned,” performed on a giant pair of mirrored testicles, and two tracks in Spanish: Ramón Ayala y los Bravos del Norte’s “Mi tesoro” and Texas Tornado’s “(Hey Baby) ¿Qué pasó?” Since attending the show on Monday, I have listened to “Mexico Honey” at least fifty times. It truly has me “shaking my ass in my hot pink shorts.” I mean, for real, what the hell!
Let’s talk about the “disco balls.” Some are calling them testicles, while others insist that they are truck nuts—I’ve been sitting here pondering the difference. When Musgraves unveiled the tour prop back in August, she explained that it’s the result of her manager never telling her “no,” adding, “My Nana, something that she always told me. She was like, ‘Honey, if you’re gonna do something, you better do it big, and you gotta do it sparkly.’ And I don’t know if this is what she had in mind, but aren’t they nice?” On Monday night, as the scrotum lowered from the ceiling, Musgraves expressed gratitude for being able to perform for a living, but admitted that “it takes balls to get up here on stage.”
What are you doing for Halloween? If you find yourself without plans this weekend, might I recommend heading to the Sunset Tavern for Den Tapes’s annual two-night Halloween bash. Musicians from the label’s roster will play covers from artists like the Ramones, SZA, Pixies, Spice Girls, Matchbox 20, Rammstein, and so many more.
Cue the Entertainment Tonight theme, because there are some famous birthdays to celebrate this week. Which psychedelic rock singer said this?: “No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.”
It was Queen of San Francisco, Grace Slick, who turns 87 on Friday. The last remaining member of the Smiths who’s a good person, Johnny Marr, turns 63 on Saturday. K Records founder and Beat Happening frontman, Calvin Johnson, turns 64 on Sunday. Patsy Cline reincarnate, k.d. lang, turns 65 on Monday. My favorite chanteuse Lulu turns 78 on Tuesday. And happy birthday to my boyfriend, Frank Ocean, who turns 39 today.
Billy Corgan has proven himself to be unredeemable. This week, the Smashing Pumpkins’s frontman was interviewed on The New York Times Popcast and said a number of creepy, out-of-touch things. The first to make headlines was a delusional defense of his friendship with the disgraced Marilyn Manson, who has been accused of sexual abuse and domestic violence, but was ultimately cleared of charges due to the statute of limitations. “As a Christian person, you have to stand by your friends,” said Corgan. “I personally didn’t feel that he was guilty of the things he was being charged with.”
Corgan somehow made things even more gross, describing the 25-year age gap between he and his wife, Chloe Mandel, as an “advantage.” When they began dating in 2012, Mendel was 19, and Corgan was 44. “I don’t wanna make all the feminists mad,” he said, going on to explain that he had met a lot of “broken women” before he met his wife (puke). “Her youth was an advantage because she hadn’t been wounded like so many people are,” Corgan explained. Complex’s coverage of this story reminded me of the incredible statement issued by Sharon Osbourne to NME in 2000, after she stepped down from managing the Smashing Pumpkins: “I’m resigning for medical reasons: Billy Corgan makes me sick.”
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show (if you even care). Beyoncé’s husband, who also happens to be the founder of the company that books the halftime show, has chosen himself to headline the high-profile gig.
New movies incoming: A new band-authorized Fleetwood Mac documentary, Fleetwood Mac: The Chain, is coming to Apple TV in January. The film will focus on the band’s lineup from 1974–2018 and promises never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews. The shelved David Bowie concert film, Stage, filmed in 1978, will premiere in Berlin this February, with worldwide multi-stage arena screenings to come. Charli xcx has been cast in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film, What Happens at Night, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Kid Cudi has also announced that he is writing, producing, and starring in his own Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic. “For years people have asked me about playing Jean-Michel Basquiat in a film,” he says. “But no project actually came to be. This year, I finally said fuck it, ima write it myself.”
Now, take a deep breath and enjoy…Our tour of the elusive Gremlins Museum:
Music Events Worth Your Hard-Earned Money This Week:
Juana Molina Oct 28, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+
Julia Jacklin Oct 28, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages
Beabadoobee: The Powerlines Tour Oct 29, Climate Pledge Arena, 8 pm, all ages
See you at The Crossroads: Death & Hip-Hop Oct 29, Black & Tan Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages
Thao Live on KEXP Oct 29, KEXP, 11 am, all ages, free with limited tickets
Thao In-Store Acoustic Performance Oct 29, Easy Street Records, 7 pm, all ages
Den Tapes Halloween Bash III: Night One Oct 30, Sunset Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+
Joy Oladokun: The Heavy Things Tour Oct 30, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages
Rebecca Black: Exhibition on Tour Oct 30, The Showbox, 8 pm, all ages
Den Tapes Halloween Bash III: Night Two Oct 31, Sunset Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+
Fashionably Undead: MOPOP’s Halloween Bash Oct 31, MOPOP, 8 pm, 21+
Gorillaz: The Mountain Tour Oct 31, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages
Lime Garden Nov 2, Barboza, 7 pm, 21+
Ian Sweet Nov 3, Baba Yaga, 7 pm, 21+
The Songs That Keep Me Up at Night:
“There’s No Blood In Bone” by the Poppy Family
Apparently the Poppy Family was big in Canada, but I never hear anyone in our neck of the woods talking about them. Their 1969 album, Which Way You Goin’ Billy?, is an immaculate psych rock masterpiece, on par with Surrealistic Pillow, Maggot Brain, and Are You Experienced. The entire album is eerie and suitable for a Halloween dance party, but “There’s No Blood In Bone” is the one. The track opens with a Twin Peaks-style backward vocal played in reverse and continues to haunt with a ghoulish string sample.
“Yodeling Ghost” by Patsy Montana
Patsy Montana’s 1954 “Yodeling Ghost” is about a house haunted by a friendly female ghost whose yodeling echoes through the cellar, attic, and halls—I consider it a holiday classic. Happy Halloween!
