Screams in the Memory Palace

When we first began discussing this project, I asked Spencer, vocalist for the Murder City Devils, if he'd like to release a poetry record. He responded by sending me 14 poems, 2 songs, and a box of screenprinted posters. He said he wanted to name the album Screams in the Memory Palace, and that the records we made were to be accompanied by the posters he'd had printed of Old Jail. "Alright," I said, "but what is Old Jail? What is the Memory Palace?" This is what he told me:

• what is old jail
  first an apology, my band Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death made a little compact disc, let’s say 20 years ago. the record was titled Old Jail. i did not know we were naming the record after me. not my intent and not fair to my band mates to make it about me.
  but that was my old jail. 
  you see 
  Old 
  Jail
  it’s a very short poem. and i am old jail.
  and old jail is a place. a basement down the stairs. 
  i can only enter running and screaming. an ill conceived MEMORY PALACE. everything inside is blurred. 
  but OLD JAIL is a memory palace AND OLD JAIL IS myself in condensed form. 
  Like a record or a poster. 
  And the sign above the door says welcome.

Screams in the Memory Palace is the new poetry album from Spencer Moody, released as a poetry chapbook accompanied by a UV-Printed 10" 45rpm record and a screenprinted poster. The poems are visceral and immediate, like most of Spencer's work, and the songs are reinterpretations of the poems, set to music. The chapbooks are printed in my home studio, and the records are made in-house, too, using a ~1936 Presto 6DSP. The posters were printed by our good friends at Wider Awake. 

Welcome to the Memory Palace, follow me down the stairs and into the basement and let's see what Old Jail has in store for us.