A Body Wrapped in Plastic
Laura Palmer, David Lynch, and All Eyes’ album Daystar
In 1990, you could find me in front of the television when Twin Peaks was on. Lights off, blanket on, and sitting alone — no-one else in my family was into the show. There was a magnetism to the strange, and sometimes frightening, town of Twin Peaks and the hunt for the killer of the town’s prom queen Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee). The question “Who Killed Laura?” was everywhere. I was all in, using every bit of my allowance to buy Laura’s Journal, a transcription of the FBI’s best agent Dale Cooper’s tapes, the Twin Peaks visitor guide, and even issues of the Wrapped in Plastic fanzine whenever I was lucky enough to find them.
My obsession came at the hands of the symbolism and the fun of trying to decrypt what everything meant. The mix of indigenous mythology, Arthurian literature, and bits of horror kept me locked in for every bit of the first two seasons. I screamed at the TV when left on a cliffhanger in the last episode of season two, cheered when the prequel movie “Fire Walk With Me” was released, and initially too when season three was released on Showtime. I say initially because although Kyle MacLachlan was brilliant, the Dougie Jones plotline made me want to poke my eye out.
Since the conclusion of Season Three in 2017, I reflect in quieter times about what things keep me obsessed with the events of that small, pacific northwestern town. One consistent answer I come up with is the music. In the first two seasons, the David Lynch/Angelo Baldamente/Julee Cruise musical collaboration lead me once again to the piggy bank. I first purchased the series soundtrack and the Julee Cruise “Floating Into The Night” on tape, eventually having to repurchase both on CD because of the squeals the tapes made after constant rewinding and fast-forwarding.
I think in Season Three David Lynch realized how important music had been to the success of the show and as an almost tip of the hat to those of us obsessed with the music he concluded each show with a performance of a different artist on the stage of the fictional Bang Bang Bar. No matter how much Dougie irritated the hell out of me, I suffered through to see who the artist for the week would be. I loved all of them in relation to the show but dove hungrily into portfolios of artists whose music made a connection with me. Nine Inch Nails, Eddie Vedder, Au Revoir Simone, Sharon Van Etten — I mean c’mon the artist names alone show you the quality of the music.
Since 2017, all of the music of Twin Peaks stays in my iTunes library. It is welcomed when it shuffle plays on long car rides, but only after not hearing it for a long time does it give me that “chill” of the very first time. As such, I have, over the years, become a Lynchian music radar.
I don’t actively look for Twin Peaks adjacent tracks, but when I find them I know I have because it gives me that feeling again.
About a month ago, I got that chill when I first heard All Eyes’ track “Falling Into Place”. It had everything I loved: haunting vocal reverberations that echoed off into the distance, gentle synth and guitar vibes carrying me through a track to an uncertain place, and a perfect bit of dreamy darkness that is both static and floating. After digging more into them, I found they too loved Lynch and his work!
Kismet.
And for a month, every evening, I have been running Daystar. It helps calm me. It is the perfect vibe for firepits with friends. For the audiophile, it is a perfectly constructed piece of art worthy of a place in your collection. For fanboys and girls of Twin Peaks, it is a modern time capsule holding all of the excitement and wonder of the unknown in that Pilot broadcast 31-years ago.
Working with The Collective once again, care was taken with this week’s playlist. There are many moving parts here: genre, feel, influence, and nostalgia. Hopefully what we constructed will serve you well for the weeks and months to come. Thank you to All Eyes for helping rekindle the Lynchian excitement and musical passion, and for the amazing music. I hope they continue the grind, and I hope all of you will support them with me along the way.
