Luan Phung

Dan McCarthy: Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout

by Dan Bilawsky
December 11, 2022

Songs of the Doomed is, in essence, the love child of self-stylized journalism and outré composition methodologies. Drawing inspiration from the work of Hunter S. Thompson, vibraphonist Dan McCarthy created the gonzo cypher to help translate some of the maverick's writer's lines into tone rows. The rules of serialism then cemented certain things in place while setting the leader and his bandmates on a course to another universe. Working with a two-guitar quintet, à la mallet great ...