music of the killer
well i've seen a few people play the games now and have to announce an area of concern, which is that nobody seems to know the tune to any of the lyrics that appear onscreen. is it possible my own tastes are not what the kids these days are into? no, surely.. but just in case. i wanted to write up some notes in form of a mixtape to some musical reference points of the game, not the reference points of tom's wonderful soundtrack, just my own touch points when listening to stuff and daydreaming. some of it was directly quoted and others remained shadow influence.
- john cale - fear is a man's best friend: a lot of the music comes from the mid 70s to early 80s, this sustained period of reaction and neoliberal victory where a bunch of formerly experimental artists seemed to almost feel the need to recant, to go underground in the mainstream itself, camoflaguing themselves in the most anodyne musical forms: country and western, bubblegum pop, MOR. but with a sense of unease they were never able to disguise.
- the go-go's - you can't walk in your sleep: case in point the go-go's, whose first album is animated by a sense of jittery nervousness that the lyrics sometimes acknowledge, sometimes don't. i always thought this wd be good on a nightmare on elm st soundtrack.
- the flying burrito brothers - dark end of the street: what the nurses sing in the cafe and what, spoilers, BB sings at the very end of the game. country music itself as the darkest end of the street, face shadowed under cowby hats... originally the nurses were going to sing "secret agent man" but i couldn't get it to scan in the dialogue boxes. a pretty face can hide an evil mind.
- fonda rae - over like a fat rat: what BB sings in the toilet of the dream resort. for someone whose official taste is spiky new wave i thought it would be appropriate if she was also something of a closet disco fangirl.
- magazine - because you're frightened: a frightening world's an interesting world to live in. quoted as the motto of the night college in hands of the killer and also itself kind of a motto for a pre-new pop era of postpunk.
- baron daemon & the vampires - transylvania twist: i was obsessed with the horrible energy of this record and the whole subcategory of surf music featuring guys with the worst dracula voices you ever heard. originally a horror host vampire and his backup singers were gonna be the villains in blood of the killer; when i didn't get to use it, the novelty horror thing got relegated onto its own musical episode.
other good novelty horror songs: "haunted castle" is the b-side to the kingsmen version of "louie, louie", proving the subgenre has been present from the start... "i wanna bite your hand" of course speaks for itself. - the urinals - shape of things to come: cover of a song from the soundtrack of crazed lsd-themed teensploitation movie "wild in the streets", which became kind of a pop modernist totem in its own right. let the old world make believe, it's blind and deaf and dumb, but nothing can change the shape of things to come - gramsci or somebody i think
i listened to a lot of old psych and surf records for the music themed game, in one of the many relaxed "research" tasks i managed to invent for myself over the series. special shout out to "batman & robin" by the sensational guitars of dan & dale, a.k.a. the sun ra arkestra moonlighting as a surf pop band on an album of instrumental batman covers to make some extra cash. the truth will pose as a lie to escape the risk of becoming its own opposite. - rocket from the tombs - sonic reducer: there are more music bits in the music game but this is the other main one. i'll be a pharoah soon, rule from a golden tomb, "golden tomb" became "golden grave" due to confusion with the pc-88 game of the same name, ougon no haka. which is also why ougon batto posters are scattered around in their killer game manifestation as ougon birdo. the dead boys version of this is the most famous but rocket from the tombs status as a mysteriously influential supergroup that never actually released an official record made them more fitting. a lot of the game was influenced by david thomas's remarks about seeing a future of rock n roll that seemed so obvious and so inevitable but that never came to pass. what do you do after that?
- jay reatard - turning blue: hard to recommend the music to people without getting hung up on the stage name, his high school nickname. but whom amongst us has not chosen a regrettable teenage bandname and remained unfortunately tied to it after that, ha ha ha. the "blood visions" album of slasher themed garage rock was very influential to wanting to make the games. as sad as it seems you're turning blue in my dreams.
- giant sand - warm storm: you could see this as a more or less optimistic reversal of the "new wave going underground into country music" thing. what if it happened the other way around? they say that new wave and old time will be one and the same, a little bit later on in the game.
- blondie - x offender: love in a fascist climate. i looked at your life, and your style, wanted nothing more. c/w the scene is now's "the jailer's perspective" for the take from the other side of the bars - i love the sound of steel on steel, hard boots on tile. a bird will squeal.
- comet gain - why i try to look so bad: if i had the money i would have made this the "credits music", since it's where the games began. years back i wanted to make a horror game about one specific thing i kept imagining and being afraid of - the idea of going to a party in someone's house and having fun, being able to relax and unwind, finally feeling comfortable in your own element. and then looking in your new friends eyes and seeing nothing there. screams from the kitchen. it's killing time. the buried feeling of anxiety in all those children's shows finally comes out. a mangled version of this became the plot of the last game. heaven is the closest thing to hell.
there are more but i'm not putting who put the bomp on here even if it does chafe me if people only know it from grease. i hope people have fun singing along.
