Mark Todd/Henry and the Habits

Hey Syphilites,

This is spoken word that will jangle your nerves. Stories dark and thick like molasses - Glue below is a good example of what you can expect.

Blind Side

The man behind this, Mark Todd, is a graphic artist/writer who has now turned to spoken word recordings. His voice is deep and scraggly, carrying you to other, darker, places. To compare, if we have to, this is what William S. Burroughs' and Tom Waits' 'Black Rider' sounds like, but this rider is a lot blacker.

Paste and Spit

Todd has recorded four albums. Two as 'Henry and the Habits' - 'Prison Songs' and 'Blind Side' and two as Mark Todd - 'Ugly Child' and 'Paste and Spit'. All were released in 2009 and can be downloaded from CDBaby for just $6.99.

This is his myspace and his website. All the pieces on his myspace seem to be from 'Paste and Spit' - like 'keeping her' below, but I own 'Blind Side' as well, and it is similarly haunting.

This Mark Todd's bio from his myspace:

"Mark Todd is an author and artist/designer known for his warped sensibilities. Paste and Spit is the fourth in a series of recordings by Mark Todd (the first two – Prison Songs and Blind Side – recorded under the alias Henry and the Habits, and the third, Ugly Child, a reissue of those first two). Paste and Spit is the audio accompaniment to a book of the same title, published by wormfarm. The stories collected in it are rough, fragmented vignettes of a world gone bad. Perhaps post-apocalyptic. But we’re never certain. About anything. The characters participate in macabre activities such as scientific studies in dingy warehouses, the stealing of teeth, women in fish costumes. The characters are diseased and desperate, escaping through injections that change their identity and reclaim past memories. Part bizarre circus and part a charred landscape of emotional ruins. The recording is rough, hallucinogenic. Crudely played instruments whine and wheeze. Available through cdbaby.com and itunes."