David Lynch's All-American Spring Break.
April 2, 2012 2:10 PM   Subscribe

"Crazy Clown Time" is the new music video by filmmaker and musician David Lynch. It's kinda not safe for work, or life.
posted by The Whelk (115 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
Couldn't make it through the whole video - it was that bad.
posted by Flood at 2:14 PM on April 2, 2012 [5 favorites]


No
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 2:15 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm just assuming that this is video from a pool party David Lynch was throwing.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:15 PM on April 2, 2012 [10 favorites]


Is this the pre-autotuned version?
posted by crunch42 at 2:19 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm sorry, but since when is showing up to a New Jersey backyard and letting the camera roll a "music video"?
posted by griphus at 2:19 PM on April 2, 2012


It is more or less exactly what I would expect from a music video by David Lynch. Way creepy and un-enjoyable. Self-conciously so.
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:19 PM on April 2, 2012


Didn't he keep the Angriest Dog in the World chained up in that backyard?

Not a bad video. A little dated, though. It seems like something that would have been the deepest darkest thing ever when I was thirteen, and the other gothy kids would all quote it to each other along with Dead Milkmen songs.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:21 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Countess, I definatley felt like I should be watching this on MTV at 2am ....in 1994.
posted by The Whelk at 2:22 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


Okay, so, substantive discussion!

I've listened to this song a great many times since the album was released and if you share this disposition and situation, you'll notice that there are some sound effects and vocals added to the audio in the music video.

....mostly screaming.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:22 PM on April 2, 2012


Ah, well... um. Kind of what you'd expect from a bunch of mildly creative college kids at a land grant school to put together circa Wild at Heart/the second season of Twin Peaks.

Does David have a mohawk? That's a new look for him.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:23 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Didn't he keep the Angriest Dog in the World chained up in that backyard?

Okay, I swear I saw this, but some random newspaper comic -- there were talking animals in it, possibly a mouse and a cat? -- had a strip one day that was just a straight-up Angriest Dog strip but with the characters from the comic.

I SWEAR THIS IS A REAL THING.
posted by griphus at 2:26 PM on April 2, 2012


Oh, he's just trolling us. Not the first time, surely not the last either. He's turning into the kind of nutty old geezer I can approve of, if not always enjoy as such.
posted by Iosephus at 2:26 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


I generally like David Lynch but I only made it about 2 minutes into that. It just seemed completely juvenile in a high school filmmaker with a HD camera trying out effects with some drunk friends kinda way.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the depth that I had attributed to Lynch movies was just him layering on fairly nonsensical elements in an attempt to look deeper than they really are. His tendency to not really provide a lot of insight into his filmmaking process doesn't really inspire a ton of confidence.

Maybe he just needs a new muse and someone kicking his ass from an editorial perspective because he's fallen off dramatically from where he was circa Mulholland drive.
posted by vuron at 2:27 PM on April 2, 2012


I blame Rammstein.
posted by chillmost at 2:29 PM on April 2, 2012


I only made it 4/7 of the way. Some people, though, must really like it — according to my YouTube it's been viewed 303 times, and 'liked' 1,009 times.
posted by LeLiLo at 2:30 PM on April 2, 2012


Lotta spittin' in that video...
posted by Windopaene at 2:31 PM on April 2, 2012


Zola Jesus and David Lynch is a combination of things I enjoy separately but would have no idea to try together. Except it turns out they're perfect together.
posted by griphus at 2:34 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm just happy that music and music videos still have the power to get people all riled up.

You squares enjoy squinting through your monocle and declaring your cultural snobbishness. There are some things that are just not meant for you.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:35 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


I think the album is pretty great, personally, and the video keys in pretty well to the mood that the song establishes.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:35 PM on April 2, 2012


You know, I'm pretty sure if you meet some dude wearing a monocle, chances are he likes David Lynch.
posted by griphus at 2:37 PM on April 2, 2012 [5 favorites]


I watched it through because I love that hypnotic Angelo Badalamenti vibe. Though I thought the Pink Room scene (also NSFW) in Fire: Walk With Me did this better the first time.
posted by usonian at 2:38 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


I prefer the one where he eats the warm panties.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 2:39 PM on April 2, 2012


Who killed Laura Palmer the music video?
posted by Fizz at 2:40 PM on April 2, 2012


Well I liked it
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:41 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


You know, I'm pretty sure if you meet some dude wearing a monocle, chances are he likes David Lynch.

Like Colonel Klink?
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:41 PM on April 2, 2012


Sometimes I wonder if some of the depth that I had attributed to Lynch movies was just him layering on fairly nonsensical elements in an attempt to look deeper than they really are

A lot of Lynch's stuff is pretty absurd, or "nonsense", and like Iosephus says, "trolling". It's still fucking great though.
posted by Hoopo at 2:41 PM on April 2, 2012


Note: No actual clowns.
posted by Foam Pants at 2:45 PM on April 2, 2012 [3 favorites]


"Nonsense" means only that he has no message in mind for it. He has lots of other stuff in mind for it, particular emotional reactions mainly.
posted by LogicalDash at 2:45 PM on April 2, 2012


It's better than Inland Empire, which isn't saying much.
posted by dortmunder at 2:46 PM on April 2, 2012


I don't think it's trolling. According to his biography he tries to incorporate a lot of 'texture' in to making movies, which comes from his training as a classical artist at the Philly academy of fine arts. His time in Philly also accounts for his love of industrial noise and his unique brand of American decay. He usually puts all of this together in a non-linear way, and often is inspired by the logic of nightmares and dreams. On preview, what LogicalDash said. His movies are more about tapping in to raw emotions than telling plot-based stories.

That being said, this felt an awful lot like someone self-consciously imitating Lynch, and it took me 14 minutes to watch the entire things because I had to keep pausing it to take breaks. Still sort of cool, though.
posted by codacorolla at 2:46 PM on April 2, 2012


Maybe he just needs a new muse and someone kicking his ass from an editorial perspective because he's fallen off dramatically from where he was circa Mulholland drive.

You know he's only made one feature film since then, right? And that it was awesome?
posted by shakespeherian at 2:47 PM on April 2, 2012 [5 favorites]


I think he came up with that, after watching this for about 70 hours straight.
posted by markkraft at 2:51 PM on April 2, 2012


OMG guys check out 4:00 and 5:44 he shakes the camera it's so creepy I think I saw Bob in the background in the bushes.

There's a big thick line between being brilliant and being a hack. And when you go past self-parody to pure tedium, it's time to hire an editor. I checked out at Mulholland Drive, myself, but in retrospect Lost Highway was the sign it was time for Mr. Lynch to get some help.. He needs to do another Straight Story, or Dune, or something connected. Anything other than smearing himself in his own feces.
posted by Nelson at 2:51 PM on April 2, 2012


(Personally, I really liked Mulholland Drive, and would gladly see any upcoming David Lynch film, even if he's not exactly the most normal musician in the world.)
posted by markkraft at 2:54 PM on April 2, 2012


Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
one who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
posted by helion at 2:55 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


There's a big thick line between being brilliant and being a hack.

There is a thick line between investigating art and dismissing it. I'm pretty sure I know what side of that line your comment falls on.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:55 PM on April 2, 2012 [5 favorites]


I don't think it's trolling.

This particular video, neither do I. I'm referring to other tricks, like the "scare" in Mulholland Drive (you know what I'm talking about) where it seems like he's having a laugh at conventional film storytelling techniques while also having a laugh at the audience for falling for it. There doesn't have to be a lot of "depth". An artist can have a sense of humour, too.
posted by Hoopo at 2:55 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


sweet...I especially like that the singer sounds like Neil Young.
posted by eggtooth at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ugh.

And I actually really liked Inland Empire, a lot. :-)
posted by smidgen at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2012


These clowns...are not candy-covered.
posted by jquinby at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2012


He let the kids onto his lawn.
posted by longsleeves at 2:59 PM on April 2, 2012 [3 favorites]


I have not watched a music video in years and years. Are they all like this now?
posted by mazola at 2:59 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


I really liked Mulholland Drive which I suspect is largely because there is a semblance of a coherent narrative and characters at the heart of the movie which would've formed the basis of a tv series. Inland Empire seemed to abandon even the pretense of a coherent narrative and also dragged on and on. Now maybe I just need to sit through it again but damn 3 hours is a long time to commit to rewatching a movie that didn't exactly blow me away the first time.
posted by vuron at 2:59 PM on April 2, 2012


Sometimes, it's like "Eraserhead" never even happened.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 3:02 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


Okay folks time for another David Lynch talk. Gather the kids.

David Lynch is an artist, and I don't mean that in the like 'oh you just don't understand, he's special' way, I mean that he went to art school and thinks of himself primarily as a painter and not a filmmaker, and the fact that he would up making films is something that sort of happened sideways to him, in that he was at one point at art school and wanted to make a painting that moved and then made a looping animation to be projected on a sculpture while a siren played on repeat. Someone liked that piece a bunch and gave him some money to make another, similar, piece, and he did and then eventually wound up at the American Film Institute where he worked for five years on Eraserhead which got seen, somehow, by Mel Brooks (I know!) who got him a gig directing The Elephant Man. But Lynch has never been primarily interested in conventional narrative filmmaking, and the fact that he found himself in that world sort of by accident served for a while as ammunition for his art (and again by 'art' I mean 'pieces that he worked on') and he incorporated certain elements of traditional film and discarded others because it was interesting to do so. But despite the success of Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet he's never been a guy who's making regular ol' films that are a little bit weird, he's always been making weird art pieces that get closer or farther away from what we tend to expect when we think of something as a movie.

The fact that Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr. and INLAND EMPIRE are non-linear and super-weird doesn't mean that Lynch has moved away from anything or disappeared up his own ass or anything, it just means that he was playing for a while with a particular form and is now less interested in that form. It just so happens that during the peak (heh) of his interest in that form and its accouterments he managed to capture some kind of zeitgeist and then a bunch of people who wanted him to make Tarantino movies with little bits of weirdness glommed onto him and now that he isn't doing that anymore a bunch of that bunch think that he's changed or gotten weird. He hasn't.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:02 PM on April 2, 2012 [58 favorites]


shakespeherian - I totally heard your (I know!) in Mike Birbiglia's voice.
posted by jquinby at 3:05 PM on April 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


This is like lost footage from Lost Highway. Give me a Mystery Man cameo and I'll be in hog's heaven.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:07 PM on April 2, 2012


I for one am glad that people like Mr. Lynch and Mr. Keith continue to voice their opinions regarding youth partying.

I am mostly serious about the above statement and kind of wish David Bowie would come out of retirement in order to make a similar statement. Make of this what you will.
posted by sendai sleep master at 3:08 PM on April 2, 2012


Man I love that stagey, artificial atmosphere he's doing now, swooping lights and all.
posted by The Whelk at 3:08 PM on April 2, 2012


I've never watched Lost Highway... and I keep putting it off... because then I will have seen... everything.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:10 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Also worth noting: A lot of the Lynch pieces that have something that seems like a conventional narrative have had that imposed on them by collaborators. Mark Frost was responsible for the narrative elements of Twin Peaks. The original novel imposed the narrative elements of Dune. Barry Gifford provided the narrative elements for Wild At Heart and Lost Highway. Left to his own devices, Lynch makes things like Rabbits.

It may not be to your tastes, and that's fine, but it's the sort of art he makes, and it's good and worthwhile on its own terms. You can choose to investigate those terms or not, as per your tastes, but nobody ever comes off well when they declare art to be crap because it doesn't live up to arbitrary standards that they make up on the spot.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 3:10 PM on April 2, 2012 [3 favorites]


This looks great on an iPhone, btw.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:13 PM on April 2, 2012


I generally like David Lynch but I only made it about 2 minutes into that. It just seemed completely juvenile in a high school filmmaker with a HD camera trying out effects with some drunk friends kinda way.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the depth that I had attributed to Lynch movies was just him layering on fairly nonsensical elements in an attempt to look deeper than they really are. His tendency to not really provide a lot of insight into his filmmaking process doesn't really inspire a ton of confidence.

Maybe he just needs a new muse and someone kicking his ass from an editorial perspective because he's fallen off dramatically from where he was circa Mulholland drive.


I think Lynch just doesn't have much of a filter. He's very prolific.
posted by timsneezed at 3:14 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


David Lynch is a happy little flower. He's just not *your* happy little flower.
posted by markkraft at 3:15 PM on April 2, 2012


There has to be an equivalent of Godwin's Law that states that any discussion about a new work by David Lynch devolves into a "discussion" that goes something like:

Inland Empire sucked!
No it didn't, I liked it!
Inland Empire was ok, but Mullholland Drive was the bomb!
Yeah, well I think he hasn't made a decent film since he abandoned linear narratives!
Nonsense, he hasn't made anything worth watching since Eraserhead!
posted by treepour at 3:17 PM on April 2, 2012


I'll say way what I said when this record showed up on our new release board last fall. "Crazy Clown Tme" would have been a shoe-in for top honors in the "Most Hilariously Godawful Vanity Musical Project of 2010" category had it not been for the mighty Loutallica.
posted by thivaia at 3:19 PM on April 2, 2012


thank you shakespeherian, it is about curtains and a noise and maybe a white light.
posted by beefetish at 3:21 PM on April 2, 2012


Huh. I actually really love David Lynch and was not impressed at all by this. I didn't find it especially creepy or disturbing (after the first 30 seconds or so...Lynch has me programmed to expect something horrible to happen after he shows me a static-y television) and I got bored. Maybe it would be more...textured if I listened to it with headphones on and could really catch all the different sounds in the music, but I'm probably not motivated enough to do that.

I hope he's having a great time doing this, but it's most likely not for me. (Still have to get around to watching Inland Empire, though.)
posted by Aquifer at 3:22 PM on April 2, 2012


Rabbits is awesome. First time I saw it you could almost feel it giving your Broca's Area a sound asskicking. It might make you suspicious of telenovelas and sitcoms for a few days afterwards, too.
posted by Iosephus at 3:25 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


is it really that bad? i'm at work indefinitely, but i'm SO CURIOUS.
posted by Avenger50 at 3:28 PM on April 2, 2012


There's a lady who spends most of the video with her shirt off (although there are black censor boxes). Otherwise a lot of moody lighting, unnerving imagery, and spitting.
posted by codacorolla at 3:31 PM on April 2, 2012


One thing I really admire about David Lynch is that his work shows no sign of his giving a fraction of a shit what anyone thinks about it, or what's fashionable or cool. He appears to genuinely be making things solely for his own creative satisfaction, following his own crazy vision wherever it leads. This video is awesome, but it's also almost embarrassingly uncool -- or would be, if a guy like Lynch could be embarrassed -- and not in an ironic or winking way. As a consequence, it's ripe for criticism or dismissal, but I kinda love it for that.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 3:32 PM on April 2, 2012 [9 favorites]


Rabbits is awesome. First time I saw it you could almost feel it giving your Broca's Area a sound asskicking. It might make you suspicious of telenovelas and sitcoms for a few days afterwards, too.

Oh man I forgot how good RABBITS is at making TV seem uncontrollably sinister.
posted by The Whelk at 3:36 PM on April 2, 2012


I love a lot of what David Lynch does.

I do not love this.

But, of course, I do love The Cleveland Show, so, hey.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:37 PM on April 2, 2012


I am mostly serious about the above statement and kind of wish David Bowie would come out of retirement in order to make a similar statement. Make of this what you will.

The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
posted by The Whelk at 3:37 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


So THAT'S what doing TM gets you.

Daaaaaamn.
posted by THAT William Mize at 3:43 PM on April 2, 2012


I hope he's having a great time doing this, but it's most likely not for me.

This is basically what I think about everything Lynch has done post-Mulholland Drive, which I also think is his best movie and maybe the best movie of its decade, too. I think Lynch just kinda does whatever he wants now, and what he apparently doesn't want is to spend a lot of time working on a movie with a conventional narrative, which I doubt he ever really wanted to do to begin with. I personally watch stuff like Inland Empire and think, "Wow, David Lynch got to go to a bunch of neat places and film them beautifully in the DV he's so enamored of, and I bet he got a lot of ass, too." And that's really it. The movie is just the vacation slides. I don't have that much interest in it, but I love David Lynch and I'm glad he got to have a fun time.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:44 PM on April 2, 2012


But, of course, I do love The Cleveland Show

It's a lot like the Dune phenomenon, that one; People familiar with Herbert's Dune and not used to Lynch's idiosyncrasies tend to dislike the Lynch Dune the same way fans of the MacFarlane Cleveland Show hate Lynch's adaptation.
posted by Hoopo at 3:45 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


The Whelk, that's the best-case scenario. The worst is, well...
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:47 PM on April 2, 2012


the same way fans of the MacFarlane Cleveland Show hate Lynch's adaptation

No, seriously, I wasn't just being "random," as the kids say. David Lynch actually voices a recurring character on The Cleveland Show.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:51 PM on April 2, 2012


Wow, I would say he "normal-Al'ed" Literal Videos, except there is nothing really normal about this.
posted by mysterpigg at 3:54 PM on April 2, 2012


Rabbits is like some aliens or things from another dimension or cthulhu or something watched a bunch of sit-coms and decided to make their own. It's just fucking amazing.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:59 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


I liked it okay. It's not my favorite Lynch thing ever, but I'm not sure any of his works stands in complete isolation from everything else. It's also the kind of thing I wish The Residents were still doing.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:03 PM on April 2, 2012


I just had Waking Life on in the background, which I turned off to watch this video. When I was done, I turned Waking Life back on again. I have no opinions. It's just that day, right?
posted by furiousthought at 4:11 PM on April 2, 2012


THERE IS NO WACKY MCJAZZERSON.

I googled.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:12 PM on April 2, 2012


Sometimes I wonder if some of the depth that I had attributed to Lynch movies was just him layering on fairly nonsensical elements in an attempt to look deeper than they really are. His tendency to not really provide a lot of insight into his filmmaking process doesn't really inspire a ton of confidence.

David Lynch would be nothing without Mary Sweeney. I'm pretty sure so many of the elements loved about Lynch's films are products of her genius.
posted by mykescipark at 4:18 PM on April 2, 2012


I'm not an expert on Lynch at all, but of all all the stuff of his I've seen the thing that blows me away more than the imagery or the weirdness or anything like that...it's the sound design. In my opinion David Lynch is a genius of sound design. Blows me away.
posted by Doleful Creature at 4:18 PM on April 2, 2012


doleful I think that David Lynch and Alan Splet and Angelo Badalamenti would be very happy to hear that.
posted by beefetish at 4:25 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


LEAVE WACKY MCJAZZERSON ALONE
posted by The Whelk at 4:29 PM on April 2, 2012


In my opinion David Lynch is a genius of sound design

I agree. The sound design for Eraserhead is often the star of the movie. Here he is talking about the importance of sound in his films.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:35 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


I liked it. But nobody likes what I like. I like that too.
posted by Splunge at 4:41 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


Yawn.

The Residents have been mining this musical territory for 40 years and 60 albums. And pairing their work to more visually provocative and interesting mixed media.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:45 PM on April 2, 2012


LOL
posted by hellojed at 4:49 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]




The Residents have been mining this musical territory for 40 years and 60 albums.

Any recs on the last decade or so? I got disenchanted with them around Demons Dance Alone, but I feel kind of bad about it.

posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:03 PM on April 2, 2012


Personally, the song made me want to listen to the whole album but I found the video distracting and dull. David Lynch has an almost unparalleled ability to create arresting images using motion pictures (I love what he did with the Lumiere project). I do not believe that he did so here.

In general, I haven't been thrilled with his DV work. Although there are some incredible moments in Inland Empire (Laura Dern running through the night with her face frozen in a terrifying rictus is something I'll carry with me for a while), the chuff to wheat ratio is a little askew to me.

Anyway, when it comes to weird music videos referencing clowns produced by people in the entertainment industry who are not primarily known as musicians, I'm a "Clowny Clown Clown" man myself. But I'm a square.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:09 PM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


What made this interesting for me was a sense of uncanny familiarity mixed with alarm bells of wrongness constantly going off, the kind of paranoia that's induced by taking drugs at a party and having them take you on a psychological wrong turn where everything gets confusing and strange. I've been there, maybe we've all attended this backyard barbecue in some form or another. The liquor and drugs and youthful (suburban?) aimlessness and a particular BAD VIBE that no one can place or explain. And the night wears on and things get fuzzier and the particular cocktail in your brain is making things spinnier and what is Jackie doing? And why is that guy grabbing the lighter fluid and - what - how - this is no good man - I can't - we should go - my legs can't operate - why are we all running in circles - who's shouting, that's, that's me shouting? fuck
posted by naju at 5:32 PM on April 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


...and then spitting...
posted by Windopaene at 5:34 PM on April 2, 2012


Rabbits is awesome.

He also remixed a Duran Duran single last year.


Rabbits and David Lynch/Duran Duran previously on MetaFilter.
posted by hippybear at 6:06 PM on April 2, 2012


Bob's out of the Black Lodge and into Mr Lynch.
posted by Catblack at 6:07 PM on April 2, 2012


His time in Philly also accounts for his love of industrial noise and his unique brand of American decay.

(Industrial) Business as usual...
posted by ovvl at 6:12 PM on April 2, 2012


My favorite Lynch/Badalamenti musical project has got to be Industrial Symphony no 1. I could watch that multiple times a week. Just listening to Julee Cruise's Floating Into the Night makes a good enough substitute, though.
posted by owtytrof at 6:49 PM on April 2, 2012


I rather like Mercury Rev's new sound.
posted by munchingzombie at 7:09 PM on April 2, 2012


I...well...fuck it. It's David Lynch, what exactly were you expecting?
posted by MikeMc at 7:11 PM on April 2, 2012


OK, as shakespeherian said, Lynch is an "artist," meaning film is just one of his avenues of expression. That said, I don't like his visual art at all. Neither do I enjoy his musical diversions. And his TM prostleyizing...sigh...not much better than the Jehovah's Witnesses who show up at my door.

Sad, since I've been a rabid fan for thirty years (Eraserhead: 1977). Twin Peaks: one of the last TV shows I watched every week. Mulholland Drive: Great!

Nothing said in defense of this stupid video convinces me of its excellence. I don't know if I'm a Philistine or an Oracle, but count me out on Lynch until he redeems himself with another work of quasi-surrealist excellence. (It will be in cinema. He's a dilettante in every other art form.)
posted by kozad at 7:27 PM on April 2, 2012


You're right. Not the best time to click "play" in the office.
posted by dfender at 7:57 PM on April 2, 2012


7 minutes of Crazy Clown Time? No problem. This I had to turn off after less than a minute.
posted by usonian at 8:21 PM on April 2, 2012


David Lynch would be nothing without Mary Sweeney. I'm pretty sure so many of the elements loved about Lynch's films are products of her genius.

He made Eraserhead before he started working with her.
posted by Praxis at 8:31 PM on April 2, 2012


Jeezus fuck you guys, I've got every single thing that Wacky McJazzerson has ever done. Bootlegs, got em, soundboards, got them too hell i've even got it all on vinyl, including the pink flexi-disc from the April 1983 Upstroke magazine that had his cover version of Lynch's Iasis (that Lynch himself wouldn't even write until '96, yes McJ was that hip) and now, thanks to you, everybody is going to be into him. Everybody's going say that they've known about his genius all these years. My mixtapes are ruined now because everyone will give that knowing nod, that curl of the lip that shows they KNOW and have known. Shit shit shit. I've turned so many motherf*ckers on to Wacky over the years...and always, always...the first rule of Wacky McJazzerson...is you dont.post.on the internet.about Wacky f-in McJazzerson...period.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:48 PM on April 2, 2012


I've been there, maybe we've all attended this backyard barbecue in some form or another. The liquor and drugs and youthful (suburban?) aimlessness and a particular BAD VIBE that no one can place or explain. And the night wears on and things get fuzzier and the particular cocktail in your brain is making things spinnier and what is Jackie doing

I've been there too and I ate a cigarette and then I ate 2 leaves I plucked from the tree then I jumped in the pool and Dave was like all pale green and puked in the Doritos bowl and said "no more Troika for me".
posted by Hoopo at 10:53 PM on April 2, 2012


Seems a little derivative, wasn't Crispin Glover doing more or less exactly this in the early 90s?
posted by Meatbomb at 11:55 PM on April 2, 2012


"If you're not a fan of Throbbing Gristle or Fad Gadget/early Mute records stuff - where CCT would have very much fit in - then it's ok if you don't like this, but please realize that many, many other people do, people with discriminating and educated tastes that know good weirdo post-punk/proto-industrial when they hear it. I've grown tired of people whose idea of good music is Jonathan Coulton or Wacky McJazzerson or whatever was popular in the adult contemporary blogosphere 4 years ago criticizing music from a genre that they know little to nothing about, nor care to learn about."

Meh. I'm a fan of some Throbbing Gristle, a lot more EN and Cabaret Voltaire and still go to noise shows pretty regularly. Is it OK if I don't like it, or do I have to do that annoying thing where I justify my abrasive listening habits with how many Merzbow albums I own in order to say that not all intentionally obnoxious music is worth the effort and that in particular this music didn't do anything for me? I don't particularly care for the vocals, the texture sounds boring and dated (it really does seem like an early '90s throwback), and that there didn't seem like there was going to be enough narrative to stick with the video all the way through.

Not all experiments work, and not everyone who doesn't like your precious Lynch baby is just a square who can't appreciate the challenging sounds being laid down.

(To be fair, I find a lot of Residents and Space Negros stuff unappealing too, and it's more down that path.)
posted by klangklangston at 12:47 AM on April 3, 2012 [3 favorites]


The literalism of the video killed it for me. "Here is what is happening in the song. Here is a visual depiction of what I am describing in the song. Here is the next line of the song, with accompanying visuals, etc." Sometimes the literalness of Lynch works, that sort of gutsy directness or unvarnished sincerity, but I just didn't feel anything in response to this video. Oh wells.
posted by speicus at 1:52 AM on April 3, 2012


In my opinion David Lynch is a genius of sound design

A third of his ashes are kept under the sound console in David Lynch’s film studio.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:04 AM on April 3, 2012


Also Lynch should just give into temptation and make a full-on pr0n film... although it would probably put you off sex for life.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:05 AM on April 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ha, my husband, who is a big Lynch fan and also one of those aforementioned Throbbing Gristle/EN/Cabaret Voltaire/Residents appreciators surprised me in that he never got around to listening to this record when it made a splash. I was playing the video out of curiosity and he was intrigued and about to ask me what it was and then he heard the "crazy clown time" line and was like "Ohhh. Huh. This is better than I was expecting, kind of makes me want to go listen to that record after all." I asked him why he never did in the first place given his Lynch fandom and the way it was described seeming up his alley. Said he couldn't get past the title, which made me want to think up good albums/songs with the word "clown" in them to annoy him.
posted by ifjuly at 5:22 AM on April 3, 2012


(Xiu Xiu was all I had right off the bat.)
posted by ifjuly at 5:23 AM on April 3, 2012


7 minutes of Crazy Clown Time? No problem. This I had to turn off after less than a minute.
Huh. I had meant to post that in the 'Dancing with Han Solo' thread, but I kind of like it in here.
posted by usonian at 6:18 AM on April 3, 2012


is it really that bad? i'm at work indefinitely, but i'm SO CURIOUS.

It's just...weird. The biggest NSFW element is a woman dancing in about a minute into the thing and taking off her top to reveal some rather sizeable breasts, and then she kneels down and just sort of hangs out there. There are two black censor bars over her nipples, but it'd still raise eyebrows if your boss walked by.

The rest was just...well, you have what looks like a suburban backyard littered with the trash from a house party, and three guys sitting in a row against a wall -- one is on the drums, but one is sitting on a table and glaring straight ahead and sort of hitting the table rhythmically with his fists; the camera intercuts between them, a few other people acting out the lyrics to the song (the chick taking her shirt off is one, and a guy pouring beer on a girl's naked back is another), and every so often there's a shot of a guy who looks like Salvador Dali and a girl who looks like Kate Bush lying on the ground and reciting backward-masked poetry. I got about two minutes in before I realized I could be watching other things and gave up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:18 AM on April 3, 2012


Well, it certainly didn't do anything for me watching with the sound off. I might give it another go with the sound on later. No headphones, and I'm in a place where I can't use my laptop speakers, but I was really curious. I did watch the whole thing, though.
posted by owtytrof at 5:54 PM on April 3, 2012


I think that Lynch would appreciate you watching it without sound. Why? Who the fuck knows.
posted by Splunge at 7:09 PM on April 3, 2012


Here's something a bit more sane to cleanse the mental palate.

Kitties.
posted by Splunge at 7:23 PM on April 3, 2012


I think that Lynch would appreciate you watching it without sound. Why? Who the fuck knows.

Just don't watch it on a FUCKING telephone. Get Real.
posted by naju at 7:25 PM on April 3, 2012


Or Something.
posted by Splunge at 7:31 PM on April 3, 2012


I liked it somehow... After the first few minutes I was thinking "oh no", but somewhere in the middle I just started laughing until the end. And now I just think it does what it says on the tin.
posted by aielen at 11:08 PM on April 3, 2012


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