With the 10th anniversary of The Chain coming up in April, we've relaunched Chainlinks, a series we started back in 2017 to give our friends a space to share the stuff currently inspiring them — music, film, books, or anything else they wanted to recommend to the world.
For Chainlinks 059, we have our own Curran Reynolds – co-founder of The Chain and vocalist/songwriter behind hard rock enigma Body Stuff. Body Stuff will be performing at The Chain’s official 10th anniversary celebration, April 19th at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY (presented by Saint Vitus Bar), along with Swing Kids, Fatboi Sharif, Trace Amount x Ignabu, and Venus Twins. Get your tickets!
I set out to tell you about three things that have inspired me in the past month. Here's seven:
Boxing
James Joyce, Ulysses
Boxing
I love the grace and finesse, the movement and angles, the calm under pressure. Vasiliy Lomachenko is one of my favorites, it's like watching Baryshnikov. And younger guys like Shakur Stevenson and Ryan Garcia.
I am 650 pages into this beast of a book. It's everything they say it is. Inscrutable, hilarious, astounding. He blasts language apart and plays with the remains.
Powerplant, Bridge of Sacrifice
Powerplant, Bridge of Sacrifice
Weird, wonderful music, drawing its own crooked line between punk and metal. Nice to hear a band mix shit up in a wild way but make it sound authentic and necessary.
Kim Gordon, PLAY ME
Kim Gordon, PLAY ME
I've been listening to this iconic voice since 1989: wavering, quavering, vulnerable, powerful, pissed off, cool and warm. I don't care for the tracks she's singing over on her new album, PLAY ME. Very blah, very 2026, no passion. But Kim's presence makes it great. She shines. She thrives. Her "Count Your Chickens" art show opened last week here in my neighborhood and I will wander up there soon and check it out. Generally speaking, longevity is something that inspires me. Seeing an artist work for decades and decades, going through the inevitable peaks and valleys, booms and lulls. The perseverance is the thing. What they do in their seventies might put a whole new spin on what came before. My mom is around Kim's age and she's an example of this. Still creating, the intensity as strong as ever.
I like the minimalism of the songs and the soulfulness of the lyrics. The vibe is humility, but there's some swagger too. Pain is indeed a must.
A beautiful silent film. I based my next music video on a scene where the dude is peeping in keyholes.
A perfect representation of 1985. Willem Dafoe radiates androgynous power. Soundtrack by Wang Chung, the first band I ever saw live in concert (1987, Portland, Maine, opening for Tina Turner).