Safety Propaganda 101
System of Systems
At the end of 2023, Adam took to the podium to explain the Safety Propaganda ideology and the Counter-Agency of the Avant-Garde to a small but captivated audience. This event was sponsored by
info_outline
Weebed Out
System of Systems
Adam is back from Japan: tales of shopping, noise, fem-boys, etc OST Merging Moon Prurient and Linkekraft Beherit "Sadomatic Rights" LLoyd Banks Blancmange LINKS:
info_outline
PREVIEW DECA DYKE
System of Systems
Shortly before Adam's journey to Japan, he and Matthew discuss two trashy arthouse thrillers from the past and present: Ingmar Bergman's 1980 made for TV movie From the Life of the Marionettes and Rose Glass' 2024 bodybuilding lesbian romance thriller Love Lies Bleeding. From the Life of the Marionettes is a disturbing slow burn of a masterpiece – restrained and haunting in equal measure. Love Lies Bleeding, however, takes a good narrative conceit and then destroys it with every Tumblr millennial girl trapping: shallow Lynch wannabe surrealism, style suffocating substance, and an obnoxious...
info_outline
Spiced Out (W/ Benjamin Braddock and Monica Milkers)
System of Systems
Dune: Part 2, Denis Villeneuve's second half of his adaptation of Frank Herbet's sci-fi masterpiece Dune, is out. It's huge. Everyone has an opinion. So do we. Dr. Benjamin Braddock and Mommy Milkers join the show to discuss the film. SOUNDTRACK: Herbie Hancock Reverend Bizarre John Frusciante UGK Hans Zimmer LINKS: Ben at X: Monica at X:
info_outline
The Avatar is a Pornographer (w/ Emma Stern)
System of Systems
A week before the opening of her exhibition the Pond Society in Shanghai, artist Emma Stern discusses her work, porn, ABBA and the creation of avatars. Matthew Denicola is the new producer and co-host of SOS by SP. We thank Will Samson for his two years of work Soundtrack Y$ Controlled Bleeding Blue Cheer Omni Trio Abba LINKS:
info_outline
PREVIEW Welcome to Helltown (W/ Edward Giles and Max Julian Eastman)
System of Systems
Conceptual artist, musician, and founding member of iconic NYC power electronics group Final Solution, Edward Giles, joins the Safety Propaganda network. The primary topic is the reissue of Edward's industrial project Helltown Inc on former guest Max Julian Eastman's label. The release not only comes with hours of music, art inserts and otherwise, but a memoir of sorts in which Edward recounts the underground culture of New York of the '80s. Edward and Max discuss the release of Helltown Inc and Edward discusses his history in art, losing his friends and bandmates from Final Solution, and his...
info_outline
PREVIEW Barney Does it All (W/ Bjarne Melgaard)
System of Systems
Regularly referred to as "The most famous Nordic Artist since Edvard Munch," painter, sculptor, filmmaker and installation artist Bjarne Megaard joins the audiocast to dish on decades in the art world. Topics covered: Bjarne's new film Barney Does it All based on his time as a whore in Sydney, his interview with porno actress Rae Lil Black in the new issue of Richardson Mag, the perpetual antagonism between him at the art world and the cowardice of curators, his former financial backers who fucked him out of millions, drug addiction, ketamine therapy, fashion, anabolic steroids and being...
info_outline
Poor Greek (W/Zane)
System of Systems
Yorgos Lanthimos has not been a preferred filmmaker of the Safety Propaganda universe. Too self-consciously "weird". Too Letterboxd. His new film Poor Things, starring Emma Stone in a virtuosic performance as a young woman with the brain of an infant, is a comic masterpiece. Based on a story by surrealist Scottish author Alsadair Gray, 'Poor Things' is an absolute delight to watch. Riotously funny. A must-see. Joining us to discuss this massive leap in Lanthimos' artistry, as well as other new films (The Iron Claw, The Zone of Interest etc,) is our friend Zane. A true HEAD if there ever was...
info_outline
Kanye Versus the Vultures (w/ Matthew Denicola)
System of Systems
Kanye is trying to release a new record, Vultures, with Ty Dolla $ign, and his enemies are refusing to get its samples cleared, leaving the record unreleased. Kanye, of course, isn't staying quiet about what's happening behind the scenes, and treated the world to a 15 minute rant against his many enemies, ranging from LVMH CEO Bernard Arnaut, the Rothschilds, Jay-Z, and Drake among them, as well as the abandonment of the family that has left him adrift. It's powerful stuff, and of course he isn't exactly taking it easy on Zionists either. The controversy and aura around a Kanye release is...
info_outline
PREVIEW Life Long Insomniac (W/ Stephen Tunney AKA Dogbowl)
System of Systems
At the end of November, friends of SP Newton Gallery hosted an exhibition of paintings and cartoons by American artist Stephen Tunney. Many of those in attendance likely had no idea that these disorienting, vivid, and fantastical images were made by the same Stephen Tunney behind the indie rock solo project Dogbowl. When Stephen plugged his guitar in to perform some of those songs, the image completed itself. Indeed, Tunney has had a long and fascinating career, from playing guitar with cult band King Missile, recording with godhead of New York weird music Kramer, writing what has been...
info_outlineArtist, musician, academic, and member of legacy American experimental band ONO Conor Tomaka joins the show once more, but with a specific purpose this time around. John Frusciante is already a God-level figure in the oeuvre of Safety Propaganda, but this time we are going back to the virtuoso guitarist of the Chili Peppers and experimental solo artist's infamous and masterful first two albums: Niandra Lades and Usually just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets you Hold.
Both of these albums were recorded on a 4-track tape recorded in the early '90s when Frusciante was closing in on death due to intensely high and daily usages of heroin and crack cocaine. Video documents of the artist at his home show the once handsome and vivacious punk rock LA kid as a death shadow of his former self: cheeks sank all the way into his jaw, teeth falling out, ghastly white and pallid, anything resembling muscle tone vanished. He was disintegrated, and these albums are gorgeous-avant pop ballads disintegrating into the abyss.
Niandra was partly recorded in Frusciante's bedroom at the mansion where he and the Chi-Peps recoded Blood Sugar Sex Magick at night time, and the second more ambient and abstract side was recorded after he'd left the band and plunged into addiction. Smile was recorded during similar sessions, he says, and includes vocals by the ghost of the late movie star and brother to the current greatest American actor Joaquin – River Phoenix. While both albums are masterpieces in differing ways, channeling Frusciante's enthusiasm for Beefheart, Zappa, Syd Barrett, and other weirdo troubadours, it is only Niandra that is still reissued and available for purchase. Frusciante has let Smile fall into obscurity – perhaps it is just too painful for him to listen to.
Hail Frusciante.
PATREON LINK
OST (All songs by Frusciante)
"The Big Takeover"
"Smile is a Rifle"
"Your Pussy is Glued to a Building on Fire"
"Blood on my Neck from Success"
"Height Down" (featuring River Phoenix)
"The Ni**er Song"
"The Poppy Man"
LINKS:
Follow Conor on Instagram
Buy John Frusciante's Niandra
Infamous John Frusciante Heroin doc
John Frusciante live at All Tomorrows Parties, 2005