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Hugh's avatar

1) This is probably my favorite of the songs from Disasteroid that didn't get re-recorded for SSFFTV. Do you remember how the band chose which songs to do over?

2) I like that you pointed out the rhyming "hell" and "trail" by adding the little inflection at the end. This is one of those semi-common vocal flourishes that teeters very close to a precipice for me where sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it. It doesn't take much to tip it over the edge. I cannot explain why. I like it here, for the record.

3) The Jesus twist usually enters your lyrics in the bridge, there's not a bridge in this one, had to put it in somewhere. I actually kind of dig the different structure. Did you feel an obligation or responsibility at the time to put something in every song about him? Apologies if I have already asked this elsewhere.

4) It's sort of interesting that so much marketing towards our generation is nostalgia-based, yet Benji is almost forgotten. The copy on that poster isn't an exaggeration. That dog was MASSIVE for a few years there. I don't really understand what gets chosen to be regurgitated for cultural consumption again and what gets left behind.

5) Something that always bothered me is that we were told God is all-powerful, but in practicality, Satan/Hell were treated as more powerful. Church leadership would deny that intent if you asked them, but it came through in the messages. The constant warnings about vigilance, because if you let up for even a moment, the hounds o' hell would overrun the supposedly transformative Holy Spirit and undo everything. This inconsistency was one of the first chips in the wall for me; I just couldn't reconcile it. I'm treading a line here, and I want to make clear I don't blame you, we were all victims of the mindset in a sense, but I am curious about your thoughts, having been a performer with an audience, on being complicit in that message? If this is too personal and better served as a DM, feel free to delete this comment and let me know. I promise it's not intended as confrontational!

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

1) Cool! Interesting to hear. I think we just thought we could do sonically better versions, but I have no memory why some were chosen over others.

2) I think it's right on that edge and I came not to like it. I was being intentionally goofy but that doesn't always play well over time. Probably a reason it didn't get re-recorded for SSFFTV. Now I've swung back to kind of liking it haha.

3) No, I felt zero obligation to cram in the Jesus. I was just that keen. Believe it or not, most of this stuff was confessional notebook material. I metaphorized my struggles all the time and this became more focused into s.f./horror over time. By the time these sketches reached final song stage I was also performing a lot of wannabe literary/poetic and just fun aspects packed in around the me-and-Jesus personal struggle stuff. Even my you-and-Jesus lyrics were part of that struggle as I was always trying to make sense of "unbelief" in the world, for my own understanding. (But I was also consciously evangelizing, of course.)

4) I'm sure Benji benefits from not having a million watered down reboots. Sometimes relative forgottenness is better than generations of weak reiterations. I said in another comment that I wonder if we even have these major animal character heroes anymore. Possibly a very interesting cultural shift.

5) This is a crucial question and I'm very glad you asked it. I'm going to answer it in a separate comment that I'm also going to make a "note" as I think it's of general interest.

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

I want to answer Hugh's extremely important question regarding "Hounds o' Hell" as a "note" for everyone to see. I very sincerely ask that you carefully consider it, no matter your current beliefs. Give it some time. Let it sink in. I welcome your thoughts in response.

Hugh wrote: "Something that always bothered me is that we were told God is all-powerful, but in practicality, Satan/Hell were treated as more powerful. Church leadership would deny that intent if you asked them, but it came through in the messages. The constant warnings about vigilance, because if you let up for even a moment, the hounds o' hell would overrun the supposedly transformative Holy Spirit and undo everything. This inconsistency was one of the first chips in the wall for me; I just couldn't reconcile it. I'm treading a line here, and I want to make clear I don't blame you, we were all victims of the mindset in a sense, but I am curious about your thoughts, having been a performer with an audience, on being complicit in that message? If this is too personal and better served as a DM, feel free to delete this comment and let me know. I promise it's not intended as confrontational!"

It's not confrontational at all, Hugh. I pulled back a bit on critiquing the evangelical mindset on this song for some reason. Perhaps I worried folks were getting a bit tired of it. So I'm really grateful you've brought up what was on my own mind. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing these problematics in the lyrics and the broader culture that helped produce them.

I was struck as I pondered your question that the hounds of hell aren't always all that different than the so-called Hound of Heaven. (A theme I somewhat unconsciously invoke, through a line from C. S. Lewis, in "MRR" on the next album.) What at first appears to be a chink in the power of God's protection over the believer (why otherwise this need for vigilance?), leaving us vulnerable to the ravages of sin and the devil, eventually comes to feel like a threat from God "himself". Either a "I'll take my protecting hand away from you" or "these hounds *are* (the back of) my hand". Seriously, why do Christians literally live under *threat*? That is a profound and acute question that can't be easily dismissed by *any* variety of theology with assurances of "grace" etc. Every conscious, intentional Christian believer knows this experience intimately through personal feelings of guilt, fear, shame, and so on. Not just the healthy kind that lead to helpful self-examination and amends toward others. The kind that eat at you from inside and out. The hounds of hell that you've allegedly invited in. The pathology in a fun, barky-go-lucky song like "Hounds o' Hell" is pretty fuckin wild to be honest. I'm going to say it baldly: it expresses actual institutional and ideological mental and communal abuse. *These* are the ravages that I and countless others have suffered. *These* (doctrines, practices, implicit assumptions, logics, etc.) are the HOUNDS OF HELL. We were victims indeed.

So yeah, I was very complicit in voicing what so many of us were feeling in one way or another. And expressing it helped perpetuate it. And I kept it up to the very end in one iteration or another, perhaps slightly more cryptic at times, even to myself. (See, for example, "Human Fly Trap".)

In all honesty, I think this kind of material was one of the key things so many fans of Blaster connected to (along with the lyrical preaching that made us all feel like a part of something together that was trying to bring "good news" to the world - an almost unbearably painful irony considering what we're discussing here). It can be a healthy thing to find artistic expression for internal struggles. But this was the kind that perpetuated and exacerbated itself instead of helping process the problem.

I think Christianity really has to face up to this legacy. It's baked in. I'm not saying there's not some healthy way forward for the religion. But *forward* it must be, making amends and doing better, much, much better--really nothing less than rooting out and transforming toxic theological structures and their practical consequences. And mourning the horrors it caused and just can't fix. That's incredibly tough stuff. I certainly mourn this as having been a long time part of it.

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Jimmy Brougher's avatar

Btw Would you mind culturally reappropriating the circular image in the upper left of the comic for a blaster sticker??

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

Not a bad idea! :)

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Jimmy Brougher's avatar

And just poetically speaking it’s a gem of a tune. It’s silly sure but there’s a real art to crafting a quality “ditty” ya know?

It’s pretty much in the limerick family isn’t it?

I mean,

“Why oh why when I feel joy

do I always holler, ‘here boy!’?”

Come on! That’s just good writing

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

Rad, thanks! I think you're right that it's limericky. I really am surprised at how much I don't mind this set of lyrics.

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Jimmy Brougher's avatar

Always had a soft spot for Benji. He was my first dog celebrity/parasocial animal friend.

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

I have to admit I was *quite* into Lassie as a wee kid. I was genuinely awed that she could tell folks Timmy was stuck in a pipe or whatever with just a bark or movement.😂

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Jimmy Brougher's avatar

My mom said as a little girl the theme song was just too sad and lassie sitting there whining forlornly was quite unpleasant

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Daniel Otto Jack Petersen's avatar

Aw, bless. (I don’t even remember the theme song!🤪) I wonder if there are animal actors / characters / shows that people have these emotional reactions to anymore or if that was a historical window.

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