Loot the Body: New Zine and Interview with Levi Nunez
Loot the Body: New Zine and Interview with Levi Nunez
Plus The Sword Live
Loot the Body has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a “zine and soundtrack for Dungeon Crawl Classics” called Against the Cult of the Hippie Commune. Here is a short description of the adventure included in the zine:
In Against the Cult of the Hippie Commune, players are humble townsfolk in 1960’s rural America attempting to rescue innocent teenagers from the clutches of a sinister hippie cult. Dirty bikers, dark rituals, and strange weed smoke await those brave enough to confront the mysterious Jackie Starr and his minions. The PCs are no city slickers, but they know evil when they see it, and they sure as heck aren’t gonna see their town ruined by some dirty hippies!
I love this promo video for the project:
I’m a big fan of Loot the Body’s music, and Levi Nunez from LTB was a guest on a previous episode of my Appendix LP Podcast. I’m very excited for Levi to be applying his creativity to a TTRPG adventure.
Below is an interview I conducted with Levi via email, in which he talks more about the Against the Cult of the Hippie Commune zine and the associated music he recorded:
Matt: How does music figure into the adventure scenario?
Levi: Music is probably the biggest inspiration for the scenario. Especially bands from the San Francisco scene of the late 60’s. I’m a huge fan of those bands and that scene. I think what really kicked the idea off was listening to Blows Against the Empire by Jefferson Airplane. It’s the epitome of the idealistic hippie dream turning in on itself. I wanted to explore some of that in this adventure. What happens when a hippie pied piper lures away the kids of a town? What options do the regular folks have when their kids are in danger and the law won’t help? It seemed like a perfect setting for a level 0 funnel.
Matt: Can you talk about the songs you have written and recorded for the project?
Levi: The adventure takes place on an old estate where a hippie cult has set up shop. On this particular night there will be a lunar eclipse and of course there’s a band playing. Their name (Stryp Tygur) came to me in a dream so I had to use it. In my mind they’re a cross between Moby Grape and Strawberry Alarm Clock.
The idea behind the recordings is that their roadie set up a couple of mics and the recordings were lost for years until Loot the Body bought them off eBay. I wrote all the songs and recorded them as if it’s just a 5 piece band. I was lucky enough to get Linus Dotson ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_of_Hollywood) to mix them for me and he really brought that whole live sound to life.
The release features 5 songs and 2 instrumentals.
“Orange Moon” - This is the set opener. A call to arms for everyone in the commune to begin the debauchery.
“Love is the Authority” - Classic anti-authority 60’s pop
“The Kindred” - The name of the commune is The Kindred. I imagined that the band were recent converts and wrote this song as a recruiting tool of some sort.
“Lovely Summer Day” - I heard that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is supposedly about LSD but there’s lots of other words in there that don’t spell out LSD. Well I can guarantee that every word in this song spells out LSD (little simple daydreams, likely sow dismay, lonely seems delightful, lovely summer day…)
“Keep on the Grass” - The title sort of says it all but this is my favorite of the lot. Beyond any gimmicky stuff this might even be the best song I’ve ever written.
Then there’s Crystal Revelation Part 1 and Part two, two longer instrumentals that take place during a culminating ceremony. I thought that the tape had perhaps run out and had to be swapped, this is why it’s split into 2 parts.
Matt: We spoke about our mutual affinity for psychedelic music during our Appendix LP Podcast interview. From the project video and adventure info, it seems like you are doing both an homage and a satire of the 60s California music scene and counterculture. Am I on track with that?
Levi: It’s both in equal measure. Some of my earliest memories involve VW buses and the smell of patchouli. 60’s rock is some of my favorite music of all time. And yet I also see it in hindsight. It’s like appreciating “White Rabbit” and “We Built This City on Rock and Roll.” Both are amazing and also complete BS in their respective ways. I definitely align more with the counterculture of the 60’s than I do with the Nixon apologists. But I can also see how the hippie generation did more damage to their cause than the establishment did. Don’t get me started …
Matt: How would you compare writing an adventure to your music projects? What skills overlapped and what new skills did you have to develop?
Levi: At the beginning of the idea, it’s all the same thing. There’s a world, there’s characters, and there’s a premise. Some of it grows in the game and some of it grows in the music. The music videos I make also add a piece to the world. Knowing that I can lore-dump in the songs helps me keep the writing lean. The skill that is always difficult for me is the game mechanics. Dak Ultimak’s feedback was incredibly valuable to me in this respect. We were driving back to LA from the Goodman Games Dragonslayer screening in SF. I told him the whole idea, and he was so encouraging that I decided to move forward with it. He was the first to read this and playtest it. If he hadn’t been so generous, this whole project would probably still be a doc on my drive.
Matt: Anything else you would like to add about the project?
Levi: The only reason I’m doing this as a Kickstarter is because I do get requests for physical product, but most of my stuff is digital. Michael Hsiung manages our Skate Wizards fulfillment, and I am very grateful that he does, but I just couldn’t keep a shop open for LTB stuff. There’s only so many hours in a day, and I’d rather write more songs than manage merch. So I would encourage folks who like to own stuff to get in on this because I can’t guarantee anything. I’m already ready to move on to the next project!
Thanks to Levi for giving us the full scoop! You can pledge your support for the project at the Against the Cult of the Hippie Commune campaign page. To preview the music Levi has created, check out this video for the song “Orange Moon” from Stryp Tygur: Live at the Cobb Estate 1967:
Lastly, you can learn even more about the project from Levi’s appearance as a guest on a recent episode of Joey Royale’s Pizza Party.
The Sword Live
Legendary metal band The Sword are playing a one-off reunion show in Austin, TX on the 3rd of November. To celebrate, they are also releasing a live album on the 11th of October with previously recorded live songs. Here are some details from The Sword Bandcamp page:
Austin, TX doom metal legends, The Sword, welcome in the Twelfth vinyl release in the Live at LEVITATION series. Earlier this year the band announced they would reunite for a one-off concert on November 3 at the 2024 edition of LEVITATION in Austin to the joy of metal fans all over the world. In celebration of the band’s return, 7 live versions of key tracks from the band’s discography have been unearthed from the Levitation archive, each one a time capsule of the band’s renowned live shows. This limited live release showcases the bands appearance at LEVITATION 2015 and 2021, now immortalized on beautiful limited colored vinyl.
The following tracks will on the record:
“Maiden, Mother & Crone”
“Seven Sisters”
“Lawless Lands”
“Empty Temples”
“Dying Earth”
“Cloak of Feathers”
“Iron Swan”
You can preview a live version of “Iron Swan” and pre-order the upcoming album at the following: