The Psychic Soviet
Publishing House: Drag City
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Psychic Soviet, The
If you own any Nation of Ulysses or Make-Up albums ‘ both bands previously fronted by D.C.-area hipster/Weird War singer Ian Svenonius ‘ then you know there’s nothing the man loves more than cooking up a propagandizing manifesto to slip into the liners. A philosophical, historical-revisionist text you can easily slip into your back pocket, The Psychic Soviet makes crackpot connections so far-fetched using language so pointedly academic they’re almost believable: that the Lord of the Rings novels/films carry a strongly anti-maternal subtext (holes/rings/pits = vaginas), that Seinfeld was a promotional tool used to rekindle aristocratic interest in city living, that the fall of the USSR as a major world power ‘ Svenonius sets up the Cold War face-off as a sort of planetary marriage ‘ has resulted in an increased use of antidepressants globally. Of special interest are the chapters exploring vampirism’s rarely discussed racial dimensions and the (possibly) exploitative cultural significance of consuming coffee, vodka and other beverages.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2006.