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 UNCENSORED NY

Adam is back from Japan: tales of shopping, noise, fem-boys, etc OST Merging Moon "Blackout before Shadow" Prurient and Linkekraft "Container of Souls" Beherit "Sadomatic Rights" LLoyd Banks "Empathy" Blancmange "Living on the calling" LINKS: Hospital NWN Fest

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 girl power message. It also owes Adam royalties. FULL EPISODE HERE Soundtrack Martin Rev "Jomo"  Hanatarashi "Ultra Cocker" (attached) E-40 "My Drinking Club"  GISM "Frozen Dirt"  My Bloody Valentine "Feed me with Your Kiss"  LINKS Buy BOTCHED CHADIFICATION PUMP METAL

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 "Watermelon Man"  Reverend Bizarre "In the Victory of"  John Frusciante "God"  UGK "Pocket Full of Stones"  Hans Zimmer "Eclipse"  LINKS: Ben at X: @graduatedben Monica at X: @MochaK92 

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$ "Back to Me" Controlled Bleeding "Fat Bird Curd"  Blue Cheer "Out of Focus"  Omni Trio "Mainline"  Abba "Take a Chance on Me"   LINKS: Follow Emma on Instagram Follow Emma on Twitter "Eulogy for the Male Gaze" 

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 overall viewpoints about the modern world. FULL EPISODE SOUNDTRACK Helltown Inc. "Guard of Life" Suicide "Speedway" Final Solution "69"Cro-Mags "Show no Mercy"Pierre Henry "1952 Musique Aans Titre Fete Foraine"Max Julian Eastman "Jesus Love" Helltown Inc, "Oh the Sweet" 2pac "Trading War Stories"  LINKS: Helltown Inc, This Too Shall Pass at Tribe Tapes Read This Too Shall Pass memoir

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 asked to be Mr. Miami, hanging out and working with the stars of Norwegian black metal, and much more... FULL EPISODE HERE Bjarne's new film and exhibition opens at Faurschou Gallery in NY on Feb 7 SOUNDTRACK: Darkthrone "In the Shadow of the Horns" Larm "Chemical Suicide" Thorns "Stellar Master Elite" Miss Kittin and the Hacker "Homme a La Mode" Pure "Nigredo" Eric's Trip "Follow"  LINKS: Bjarne at Instagram: @bjarnemelgaard Bjarne at Thaddeus Ropac Faurschou Gallery Richardson Magazine A11

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 one. PATREON LINK Soundtrack: Vaurien "Enfant du Neant" Instant Automaton "Catacomb" Bloody Cumshot "You're Disgusting" Axemen "The Dream" Venom "Don't Burn the Witch" LINKS: Follow Zane at X Yorgos Lanthimos and Ari Aster The cast of Poor Things 

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 what makes him the most important artist alive. He is perhaps the only living CONTEMPORARY artist, one who channels the multitudes and contradictions and informational channels crossing over of digital culture. He is the richest and most powerful artist of our lifetimes, one who has made billions not just for himself but for others, but he still manages to embody the rebel spirit of industrial music culture or dada. He's Artaud, Bowie, Michael Jackson, and William Benett at once. With all of us excited about Vultures coming out, we brought out another Kanye head — the photographer Matthew Denicola — to discuss the man. PATREON LINK SOUNDTRACK: Kanye West "The Blame Game" Kanye "Love Lockdown"  Kanye "I'm in It"  Aphex Twin "Avril 14" Kanye "Famous" Sombre Chemin "Hiems" Children of the Corn "Call You Bitch" Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign "Vultures" LINKS: Kanye West Rant Kanye West Twitter Matthew Denicola at Twitter Matthew Denicola Website Lou Reed Worshops Yeezus 

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 called one of the "most disturbing novels ever written in" with a novel called Flan, to writing and playing songs as Dogbowl, it's a career that a two hour conversation couldn't possibly do justice to.    Nevertheless, Adam here is going to try... FULL EPISODE  LINKS Stephen Tunney Newton Gallery  

We are now a few weeks passed the 2023 Mr. Olympia contest. Bodybuilding seems to have reached its pinnacle, with Phil Heath being the champion who set the standard for what a bodybuilder should look like in the 2010s. Since then, conditioning has gone down hill, no one is getting in shape, and the one guy who does get in shape (Nick Walker) was injured right before the show, tragically. To discuss all of this, Adam brings on music producer and bodybuilding enthusiast Laje Amare and competitive bodybuilder William Landry. Note: I fully understand that most of our audience will have no fucking clue what we are talking about. Accept it as a good bit of provocateur theater  FULL LINK Soundtrack: Rasputin's Stash "Take me on Back" God's Gift "These Days"  Kreator "Blind Faith"  Monkey 101 "French Feelings" Unit Black Fight "Imprint Manifestation"  Links: Laje Amare at Bandcamp Laje at Instagram William Landry at Instagram

Boul God records is a Philadelphia-based bizarre music label that traffics in all manner of surreal and mind-bending contemporary styles of music. From the cavernous, early Death in June influenced post-punk/neofolk of Gorseddd FM, to the disorienting blend of head fucked techno and garbled BM vocals of Grail Wizard, to the brutal and frightening electronics of Incluse, to the dadaist, Kiwi-influenced fucked guitar pop of Flying Mausoleum , Boul God is less concerned with genre than it is the cultivation of an AESTHETIC and an atmosphere. You see, underground labels function best when they are approached as conceptual art projects. The best underground labels — Siltbreeze, Harbinger, Bunker Records, Darker than Black, Hospital Productions — understand this, and when we think of them we think of a certain aesthetic. Boul God is establishing itself upon that list. The anonymous curator/owner/auteur of Boul God joins us here to discuss the label, his own personal taste, covering the Grateful Dead, and the decline of the music scene in his home city of Philly. PATREON LINK SOUNDTRACK: Flying Mausoleum "Wiking in Scotch Ghetto"  Grail Wizard "The Werewolf Call"  Incluse "Thousands of Intelligent Reliable..."  Gorseddd FM "The Promise of Rot"  Bizarre Carnival "Ketamine Death"  LINKS: Boul God at Bandcamp Boul God at Big Cartel Dirk Kolk at Youtube 

Artist, 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 

Montana's most avant-garde good ol' boy and the editor of the magazine American Vulgaria, Ryan Simón, joins the show to discuss him and Adam's adventures in Los Angeles, Terry Richardson, art history as a history of cooming, and the circumstances and horniness that led to the creation of his magazine. SOUNDTRACK: Home Blitz "Home" Christ Agony "Inceremonial" Aphex Twin "Xtal"  Lungfish "Samuel"  Charley Patton "Tom Rushen Blues" Duffy Power "Love's Gonna Go" LINKS: American Vulgaria Magazine Follow Ryan Simón on X: @ryandsimon Follow American Vulgaria on Instagram: @americanvulgaria Ryan interviews Adam for American Vulgaria

Dan Baltic, writer and co-host of the New Write podcast, releases his debut novel Nutcrankr for Terrorhouse Press. It is a contemporary novel about masculinity and male delusion; one man's plummet into debasement. Baltic joins the show to discuss the novel, masculinity, cope, writing, classic rock, some other stuff, I can't remember. FULL EPISODE HERE LINKS: Nutcrankr New Write Pod New Write on Twitter: @NewWritePod Dan on Twitter: @baltic_dan Watch Adam's short play, Celebutante Rape Therapy

Adam has been re-reading David Keenan's historical biography on the rise of Industrial Music, England's Hidden Riverse, after it was re-published with extended material over the summer. That book primarily looks at the rise and legacies of Coil, Nurse with Wound, and Current 93 (and suspiciously, only passingly mentions Douglas Pearce and Death in June.) There is also, however, a plethora of material dedicated to William Bennett and what led the British artist to create the pioneering power electronics project Whitehouse. Formed by Bennett in 1980 and joined by Philip Best in the '80s and Peter Sotos in the '90s, Whitehouse developed both the sound (throbbing bass, ear searing and abused synths, washed out white noise, brutal and screamed vocals) and content (power, abuse, serial murder, war crimes) of the style that we now call power electronics. Though PE has since given us several iconic artists and acts — Con-Dom, Grey Wolves, Genocide Organ, and Ramleh among them — there is still something about the conceptual rigor, thematic depth, and historical mythos of Whitehouse that makes the group an enduringly fascinating area of study. To discuss the legacy of Whitehouse as well as the philosophy and history of industrial music, Adam and Will converse with friend and noise musician Xylon Genesis Otterburn, back for the second time on the show. PATREON LINK SOUNDTRACK Whitehouse "Mindphaser" Whitehouse "Rapeday" Coil "Panic" Whitehouse "I'm Comin Up Your Ass" Nurse with Wound "Two Mock Projections" Whitehouse "Philosophy of a Wife Beater" Current 93 "No Hiding from the Blackbird" Whitehouse "A Cunt like You" Waylon Jennings "Freedom to Stay"   LINKS Whitehouse Bandcamp Susan Lawly Xylon on Instagram: @null_disclosure A Conversation Between William Bennett and Dominick Fernow Buy England Hidden's Reverse 

Writer Alex Kazemi wrote his first novel, Your Truly, Brad Sela, back in 2013 when he was only 19-years-old. In a true time capsule of the 2010s, Alex published an excerpt of that manuscript on his Tumblr page, and it exploded. He got 132,000 views and signed a book deal with MTV Books. For whatever reason or another, the book didn't come out when it was planned for. Instead, Alex embarked on several interesting projects in the media: contributing to magazines such as The Observer, Dazed and Autre, working as managing editor at Prim Magazine, releasing a series of video ads for Marilyn Manson, and founding the Advisor which collected letters contemporary male icons to young men, with contributions from heroes like Richard Kern, Bruce LaBruce, and Moby. The initial novel, however, NEVER DIED. And it now LIVES. Alex's debut novel is New Millennium Boyz and it is published by none other than Permuted Press, a sub-division of Simon & Schuster. It is a fast, frenetic and hilarious read, and finds its protagonist Brad Sela as a senior in high school. Brad is a popular good looking kid who feels alienated and bored by his stereotypical and normie friends. His life forever changes when he strikes a friendship up with the Hot Topic'd, gothified new kids Lu and Shane and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and self-destruction. Adam immediately identified with the novel because it takes place in the year, 1999, when he came into his full pop cultural awareness: Manson, Eminem, Columbine, Y2K fear, Corgan, consumerism aglore! Here, Adam and Alex discuss their peculiar shared work histories, millennials, masculinity, '90s pop culture, Gen X, Gen Z, sociopathy, New Millennium Boyz and much more... FULL EPISODE HERE SOUNDTRACK: Marilyn Manson "Kiddie Grinder" The Prodigy "Serial Thrilla" Blink 182 "Emo" Tool "46 and 2" Eminem "Role Model" Fiona Apple "Limp" Limp Bizkit "Nookie" LINKS:Buy NEW MILLENNIUM BOYZ Alex interviewed by Vanity Fair

One of the greatest American film artists, William Friedkin, has passed away at the age of 87. The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents (who fled their country after the antisemitic pogroms of the early 20th Century), Friedkin was a shitty student and a great basketball player until he discovered cinema in the '60s. He then rose from a Hollywood journeyman doing shitty films for studios until it all came together with The French Connection and the greatest horror film of all time in The Exorcist. Friedkin would evolve from being the most celebrated auteur in America, to a scrappy indie arthouse director who warred with studios with financing, to an even scrappier arthouse auteur adapting transgressive plays in his later life. What. A. Fucking. Career.  To discuss his entire oeuvre, Adam brings on his friends and former guests: artist Benjamin Kellogg and artist and filmmaker (and director of the Botched Chadification Masculinity Under Threat music video.) FULL EPISODE HERE SOUNDTRACK: National Philharmonic Orchestra "Polymorphia" (from the OST to the Exorcist) Peste Noire "Commune" (accoustic live in Kiev) David Kilgour "Filter" Wang Chung "To Live and Die in LA" (from To live and Die in LA OST) Jugra "Darah and Maruah" Tangerine Dream "Vengeance" from Sorcerer OST) LINKS: Bradford Kessler Bradford Kessler on Instagram: @bradfordhurstkessler Benjamin Kellogg on Instagram: @benjamin_kellogg Botched Chadification Masculinity Under Threat William Friedkin Obituary, by Adam Lehrer

Celebrated novelist and essayist Walter Kirn, author of works of fiction like Up in the Air and non-fiction such as Lost in the Meritocracy and veteran of major media outlets ranging from GQ to Esquire to Vanity Fair and beyond, has seen his place in the media landscape evolve in the last few years since he was early to recognize the truth about the hysteria driving the Covid "pandemic". Since then, he's written important essays for Compact (where Adam has a monthly column) and started a podcast with Matt Taibbi called America this Week. Most recently, Kirn has teamed up with the celebrated writer and journalist David Samuels to found a new publication called A County Highway, which is in the style of a 19th Century newspaper and will focus on the totality of America, not just its primary cities. Walter and Adam here discuss that new publication, the middle of America, Cape Cod, San Francisco, Covid, psy-ops, the opioid epidemic, Danny McBride and much more. SOUNDTRACK: Thin Lizzy "Boogie Woogie Stance" Swervedriver "Sci-Flyer"  The Dead C "Sky"  The Velvets "Heroin (Live at the MatrixI)"  Mercyful Fate "The Oath"  LINKS: Walter at Substack Walter at Twitter County Highway Walter and David Samuels introduce County Highway America this Week Walter "Paranoia is our Duty" 

Scott Litts is a New York-based writer, linked tangentially to Expat Press who also publishes a literary site called Violence Café. While the reason for this discussion was Scott's excellent piece on the Angelicism01 movie, Film01, we ended up discussing drugs and writing far more.   FULL EPISODE Links: Follow Scott on Twitter: @cafeviolenza Scott on Film01 Café Violenza