Mood Board is our column where artists share a few of the things that inspired their new record. This time, the Chicago band Curls Ultra tells us how Don DeLillo, Timothy McVeigh, Looney Tunes, and more inspired their new record American Blood — out today on Truth Zone Records.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
1. Aberration In The Heartland Of The Real: The Secret Lives Of Timothy McVeigh by Wendy S. Painting, PhD
A required reading text for all band members, with at least two copies in the tour van at all times during the 2025 Lets All Go To Heaven Tour. A deep analysis into Timothy McVeigh’s life and the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Painting rips apart the “Lone Wolf Theory” narrative that is prevalent about the event and brings up chilling portrayals of other “lone wolves” in American history like Stephen Paddock. Several Curls Ultra songs were inspired by these trains of thought (“Lone Wolf Theory,” “Heartland Of The Real,” “Nothing 2 Love,” “God’s Lonely Man,” and “Vegas / Mandalay Bay”). This book inspires the myriad para-military dystopian themes in many Curls Ultra songs.
2. The “Post-Groovy” Mindset (Vision Creation Newsun album cover by Boredoms)
“Joining Curls Ultra in the winter of 2024, I was thrown into a rambunctious cauldron of raw creativity and militant levels of improv and free expression. A lot of late night conversations in poolhalls about artists like Boredoms, Cave, Can, and Sun Ra and how they approached music through a creative and improvisational mindset. The first 10 rehearsals I went to with Curls Ultra, there were no words exchanged or even spoken for hours, just complete improvisational freefalls into our sound that we eventually cut into the second and third MKCurls volumes. The true essence of ‘Psych-Rock’ has been lost and we don’t even claim that genre since it’s infested by milquetoast wimps claiming stolen valor. We have elevated to a ‘Post-Groovy’ state and are continuing to explore intentionality in each sound that we create.”
— SJOD, theremin/sampler/synth
3. “American Blood” by Don DeLillo, Rolling Stone, 12/8/83
The title of the album American Blood comes directly from a 1983 Rolling Stone article by novelist Don DeLillo. Fresh off John Hinckley’s miscalibrated attempt on Ronnie Reagan’s life, DeLillo ruminates on the history and conspiratorial nature of Political Assassinations in America. Coincidentally, we were slated to play a sold out show with Hinckley at the Logan Auditorium in Chicago back in 2022. Unfortunately, the beautiful event was canceled last minute due to the cowardly actions of venue ownership.
4. Looney Tunes
The greatest American contribution to art and culture there ever was. A huge influence on the C Ultra mindset and sound. We aspire to emulate and channel the great Looney themes as much as possible: chaos, rhythm, absurdity, subversiveness, romance, obsession, cruelty, violence, crises of morality, defiance of authority… It’s all in there, and it’s all so wovely…
5. Phish — Bethel “Waves” Soundcheck Jam from 5/26/2011
Blissed out jamming leads into a dissonant early ‘70s Miles Davis type movement. Some nefarious fizzy lifting drink type sensations. Things then move forward into a spacious halftime groove until a washed out ambient section settles this spaceship back down to Earth. You can hear the jam discovering itself in these deep moments. No pressure to move ahead or back, just sitting in dense tones and repetitions until the path forward reveals itself. Every band should aspire to attain the innate musical connection and intuition on display in this jam performed to an empty amphitheater on a beautiful May afternoon in 2011.
