The SubGenius Hour of Slack Podcast

This MIGHT be the greatest Hour of Slack episode of all time -- and it was a lost episode until this week! It's #69, from late 1986, and it was a kind of a "best of" collection. Includes songs, rants, and collages by Slackmaster Cleve, Byron Werner, Rev. Bleepo Abernathy, Puzzling Evidence, Dr. Hal, Rev. Ivan Stang, Doug #3, Gary G'Broagfran, Sister Krys (her sermon on "The 'Feminist' Conspiracy!"), The Firesign Theater, Ken Nordine, Oingo Boingo, G. Gordon Gordon, and the great Doktorz 4 "Bob"!

Rerun of #468 -- exactly 1,300 shows ago! About half is the first part of a 1990s Negtivland double CD, "Time Zones Exchange Project." In between, Stang does quite a bit of ranting about the (newly-invented) Internet and the place of The Church of the SubGenius in it. There's also a pretty good string of Young Stang's rather forceful and colorful answers to audience questions about "Bob" Dobbs at a Starwood Festival of those olden days.

Soothing and jarring music from many Doktors bracket two new rants (by Rev. Absent and Rev. Watt deFalk), and a half hour of onstage radio Slack from 22X-Day Drill featuring Dr. Hal, Rev. Angry Larry and Rev. Stang... on July 5, after another disappointing failure of the world to end. The Spouters activate a toy robot that turned out to be dangerous, sing the praises of Rev. Susie the Floozie, Creationism vs. Destructionism, and the slogans and aphorisms of "Bob" that can put you in the hospital.

Starts with Part 2 of Rev. Xister's collage "Ship of State." Uncle Onan Canobite presents two Cautionary Tales of the SubGenius, and we get a brand new somewhat sardonic song from Bob Walkenhorst from his new Patreon outlet. There's also a new RSP instrumental and a pretty old prank call from "Melba" to Bob Larson's Christian-cartoon talk show. At Tarzan's Radio Station, StangDoe tell Lonesome Cowboy Dave of some new mind control apps just to scare him.

This episode (rerun of #1341, from 2011) is all one fantastic old-school media barrage by the hard-working and very talented Rev. Xister, previously heard weekly on a fellow SubGenius show, The Ministry of Slack. It’s a collage about The Conspiracy, and harkens back to the carefully-arranged media barrages that we used to splice together on reel-to-reel tape back in the 1980s before Hour of Slack was born. “Bob” and SubGenius are not mentioned at all, but it is PURE SubGenius.

This is the first episode in about 20 years to use Rev. Stang's favorite rock songs about religion, philosophy, and everything from his high school and early college years, ~1968 to 1975 or so... songs by well-known bands that nonetheless weren't widely heard on rock hit radio, because, well, obvious reasons: the touchy subject matter. And, nightmarishly, these old timey ditties are possibly MORE relevant today than they were even then. Don't fret, we won't have to do this again for another 20 years.

Slack, Bob Dobbs, Hour of Slack, comedy, conspiracy, collage, satire, X-Day, sex, Church of the SubGenius, Ivan Stang, The Firesign Theatre, Dr. Hal Robins, Puzzling Evidence, Dr. Philo Drummond, Rev. Susie the Floozie, Lonesome Cowboy Dave, Princess Wei, McLuhan, movie trivia, comics, DEVO, bad movies, mash-up, apocalypse, end of the world, Fernandinande LeMur, drugs, frop

Poor beat-up old Rev. Stang has to undergo the gauntlet of the Failed Rupture every July 5, at 7 am, as the gathered SubGeniuses at whatever campground wait to see him, with the help of Rev. Susie the Floozie, Dr. Hal, Dr. Drummond, Princess Wei, et al, etc., pull some new kind of rabbit out of that same old hat. Stang always does, and this particular rabbit is the most pathetically raggedy, crippled and aged rabbit yet. Good thing there was plenty of 'Frop!

It was July 4 at 22X-Day Drill and Rev. Ivan Stang and Princess Wei had returned, re-energized and joined on stage by our erstwhile Cleveland Heights neighbor, IDRMRSR, who was drunk. Also Rev. Watt deFalk; music by Rev. Angry Larry with mystery accompanist X; The Rudy Schwartz Project; The Skeletons (Psycho); and Dewey Cox. "Bob" Dobbs is mentioned.

We get music new and old by The Rudy Schwartz Project, The Slot Rods, and Dr. Onan Canobite, plus a Lonesome Cowboy Dave classic, "The President's on the Phone," from three Presidents ago. The talk's from July 4th of the so-called 2019, on location at the cult compound where the X-Day Drill was held. Dr. Hal, Dr. Philo Drummond, and Rev. Ivan Stang, presiding, along with Rev. Lord Angry Larry. Detailed discussion of the greatest of the worst movies, as well as of Doc Savage and his son Dork.

Interspersed with Lemurian collages, two Onan Canobite rants read by Stang, and music by The Rudy Schwartz Project, The Slot Rods, Rev. Watt de Falk and The Psycho Skeletons, most of this is a lively conversation between Dr. Hal, Dr. Philo Drummond, Lord Angry Larry, and Rev. Ivan Stang from the second hour of the July 4, "2019" show at 22X-Day. There is much discussion of Bible movies versus Bible books, and, Stang previews a pop rock pot rot dog X-Day opera he and Wei have written, "BUDDY."

What are the holidays without Slack and reruns? Sappy, nostalgia-provoking reruns on TV are what Christmas is all about, right? This is the hoary old annual traditional Xmas Re-Rerun of #867, which was itself a condensation of fifteen years' worth of SubGenius and other Xmas weirdo collections going back to 1985. Includes over 66 separate tracks! And no, not one bit has been changed in all these years. Now that's Slack!

This is one of those mash-ups of three very different live SubGenius shows and a bunch of weird music and nicely tortured noises. There's also an actual new 10-minute Written Stang Rant, "Sorry, Non-Boomer" (albeit only partially written by Stang), which reveals "Bob's" revised SubGenius slogans for older SubGeniuses. It's the Battle of the Buzz with Lonesome Cowboy Dave calling in, intercut with a 22X-Day session. And new Rudy Schwartz Project!

A very old-school SubGenius fundie doctrinal episode, since it's Dr. Philo Drummond, Dr. Hal, Rev. Ivan Stang and Rev. Angry Larry -- all ancient and revered Hierarchites, spouting sacredly at 22X-Day Drill on July 4th, in the first hour of the first show... and, there's a brand new Rudy Schwartz Project album out!

The "live" part is from the third show of the second day of 22X-Day. The panel starts with Stang, Drummond and Dr. Hal, but new radio spouters Mistar Sistar and Rev. Crimsoniculous replace Stang and Drummond, creating a unique ambience even for SubGenius shows. Interspersed are collages by LeMur and music by X-Day regulars Andrew the Impaled (working with full band The Liberty Tubes) and The Slot Rods, plus new pieces by Rev. Jimmy Ryan, Massive Hotdog Recall , and The Psycho Skeletons.