Tristan Thorndyke at The Bearded Monk, Denton TX - photo by the rock philosopher
A black leather clad apparition appears in the doorway at The Bearded Monk, a guitar case dangling at side. I wave my hand and the lanky musician makes his way to the table where I’ve assembled a jumble of cables, microphones and gadgetry to record an interview and live performance. All this effort to peer into the soul of a rock n roll believer. With a pompadour, ghostly skin and biker jacket on a skeletal frame, Tristan Thorndyke looks as if he’s stepped out of a time portal from a world where greasers fought preppie kids in varsity sweaters. The music that inspires his three piece band Rock N Roll Cannibals draws its influences from Elvis, Johnny Cash, The Cramps and Link Wray. In a world dominated by electronic music and big data companies, the rebel is carrying an acoustic guitar and a flip phone.
While I’ve just met Thorndyke for the second time, I feel like I may have known him my entire life. There is something about artists carrying the collective talent and soul of generations past that captivates and what I really want to say without saying it is: “I’ve met you before haven’t I?” Just as a protagonist from Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey will follow a very specific series of events, so it would seem for the musician before me.
In the morning before the podcast I prepared a series of questions ranging from weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten to how do you feel about the apocalypse? It would be lunacy were not for Thorndyke’s songs like “Jeffrey Dahmer’s Making Dinner Tonight” and “Please Don’t Feed the Werewolves Cocaine.” Who says horror can't be fun?
After recording the podcast, we get a bite to eat and walk back to a small apartment near Fry Street. Over PBRs we listen to the two Rock N Roll Cannibals releases in a compact living room decorated in horror movie posters. What blares out of the speakers is befitting of the age where teens went to sock hops and slurped cherry cokes at the 5 and dime. I am not totally convinced the music was recorded in the new millennium even as an hour earlier I saw them performed before my very eyes. Perhaps the comic book fan discovered a time machined, jumped back in time, made these records and then returned along with the souls of The King, Buddy Holly, and god only knows who else? The Swamp Thing could be lurking under the sofa. While I have no memory of the 50s I have memories of watching films set in the 50s (while a kid in the 70s and 80s)… it’s almost like I was there being pulled through a wormhole…. I have woken up in modern times and am thoroughly disillusioned.
There’s a podcast coming out in a few days with Tristan Thorndyke: some chit chat with ridiculous, ill-conceived questions that have nothing to do with music and a great live performance of the crooning rock 'n' roll cannibal solo. It’ll be on Mixcloud.
If the Rock 'N; Roll Cannibals sound interesting, check out the website.
http://www.rocknrollcannibals.com/
While I’ve just met Thorndyke for the second time, I feel like I may have known him my entire life. There is something about artists carrying the collective talent and soul of generations past that captivates and what I really want to say without saying it is: “I’ve met you before haven’t I?” Just as a protagonist from Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey will follow a very specific series of events, so it would seem for the musician before me.
In the morning before the podcast I prepared a series of questions ranging from weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten to how do you feel about the apocalypse? It would be lunacy were not for Thorndyke’s songs like “Jeffrey Dahmer’s Making Dinner Tonight” and “Please Don’t Feed the Werewolves Cocaine.” Who says horror can't be fun?
After recording the podcast, we get a bite to eat and walk back to a small apartment near Fry Street. Over PBRs we listen to the two Rock N Roll Cannibals releases in a compact living room decorated in horror movie posters. What blares out of the speakers is befitting of the age where teens went to sock hops and slurped cherry cokes at the 5 and dime. I am not totally convinced the music was recorded in the new millennium even as an hour earlier I saw them performed before my very eyes. Perhaps the comic book fan discovered a time machined, jumped back in time, made these records and then returned along with the souls of The King, Buddy Holly, and god only knows who else? The Swamp Thing could be lurking under the sofa. While I have no memory of the 50s I have memories of watching films set in the 50s (while a kid in the 70s and 80s)… it’s almost like I was there being pulled through a wormhole…. I have woken up in modern times and am thoroughly disillusioned.
There’s a podcast coming out in a few days with Tristan Thorndyke: some chit chat with ridiculous, ill-conceived questions that have nothing to do with music and a great live performance of the crooning rock 'n' roll cannibal solo. It’ll be on Mixcloud.
If the Rock 'N; Roll Cannibals sound interesting, check out the website.
http://www.rocknrollcannibals.com/
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