If you listened to the latest episode of the 6′+ podcast, (which you can subscribe to on iTunes or listen to through Stitcher) you heard the song ‘Nameless’ by a band King Ghidora. Taking their name from the Monster Zero antagonist of the Toho/Godzilla mythos, they play surf-space rock heavily influenced by Man…Or Astro-Man?, Dick Dale, and fellow space-surf-denizens, Daikaiju.
King Ghidora paid tribute to Daikaiju last October, dressing up as the band as they played The Deluxe. Watch the video below and then head over to King Ghidora’s Facebook page for all the updates.
To quote the description given at the new listing:
“We make way for music from bands who have never been on 6′+. MonsterMatt digs out his Igor during the MonsterMatt Minute and Dr. Gangrene decides to hightail it to the clean living of Switzerland to talk with Marc Stroace of KROKUS for the Metal Morgue.
There’s music from KING GHIDORA, The Bloodtypes, The Tombstone Brawlers, Beware The Dangers of A Ghost Scorpion!, The BlackRats and you get to go 3ftDeep with Dead Elvis and his One Man Grave. All this and more!”
Remember to email 6′+ (contact at 6ftplus.com) or leave a comment below about the show, whether you liked it or not. Tell your friends, leave a review on iTunes, but above all – enjoy.
There aren’t many albums that I listen to from start to finish on my first play. I usually stop, do something completely unrelated to the music at hand and, when a significant amount of time has passed, I come back to finish the album, usually restarting it. Or, worse, the music is so bad that I need a break from it before continuing.
Voodoo U Luv by The Vooduo was a rare exception, for after loading it up, all notion to stop the music was dismissed and external distractions were kept at bay. Good rock and roll keeps itself going until the records over, transporting your conscious out of the limits of time, gravity and social obligations. When the record wound down, I actually went back to the beginning and listened to it again.
When an artist releases two albums within two consecutive years, it’s traditionally accepted by the rock and roll journalist cartel that both albums are two sides of the same coin. I think Zappa’s Over-Nite Sensation/Apostrophe(‘) combo is an example of this, as well as the Lust In Space/Bloody Pit Of Horror combo that Gwar put out in 2009/2010. Arguments by demented critics are made as they froth and frug at the audacity of a music group DARING to have a prolific output. Instead of two albums, blubber the critics, the artist could have released a single entity composed of the best songs, picked and chosen from the two.
If going by this pattern, Voodoo U Luv is the second half of the story started by last year’s The Rock And Roll Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies. But if you listen to them both, Voodoo U Luv is its own creature. Rock And Roll Creatures… established the Vooduo’s sound, cementing the foundation first laid by 2008’s Have Voodoo, Will Travel. This third album by the duo of Eerie Powers and Neidi Night shows some real growth and experimentation. Maybe this was the plan – a rock and roll striptease, showing bits and inches of their talent slowly. It’s very clever of them.
They still play the skinless-blood-guts-soul bared-rock and roll that comes from Eerie’s guitar and Neidi’s drums, but somehow, they manage to make this simple set-up sound so different on each song.
I really don’t know how they did it, but they did. They topped their last album. I thoroughly loved Rock And Roll Creatures, for its playfulness and its distinct sleazy, groovy, grindhouse sound. And I love Voodoo U Luv because it’s NOT just another Rock And Roll Creatures…. Each song is a new world to explore.
The slow haunting track of ‘Zombie Love,’ where unofficial third member Dave Klein rocks the Theremin (whose skills and keyboards were also on Rock and Roll Creatures…) provides the atmosphere for a ghoulish shimmy of a song. It’s similar enough that it connects this with the prior album, but it’s different enough to surprise you.
And wow. There are many surprises on this album. A lot more twang in songs like “Evil Eye” and “Howlin’” than previously reported. “You Is A Rat Pfink” is delightful. I thought that a lot of The Cramps spirit was infiltrating ‘Rock And Roll Creatures.’ Here, on Voodoo U Love, I envision Link Wray has come up from the grave to sit in for a session. Maybe Eerie has been possessed by Wray? It’s possible. If you listen to ‘That Voodoo,’ it sounds like it. Maybe an exorcism is required? Or perhaps a twenty-city tour. I also think Neidi Night’s drums are haunted because they cause me to dance when I’m not paying attention. Her rhythm is contagious, unavoidable like a gypsy’s curse.
This is a high recommendation for me if you like rock and roll. If you like twang, if you like the type of country that made Elvis shake, if you’re into the type of music that makes the dead walk the earth and bum smokes off your mechanic as he’s sipping a beer at the bar, then you want this album. This is the voodoo that the VooDuo do so well, the voodoo you will love.
To quote the description given at the new listing:
“VHS, Beta, Blu-Ray and DVD. Find them all at your Local Video Store. This episode captures some of the history so that your local store has a future.
Metal Morgue has Dr. Gangrene talking with Count Lyle of Ghoultown, and there’s also MonsterMatt’s Minute. Music from The Amino Acids, The Dead-Tones, Theater Zombies, The Neanderthals and Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space. ALL THIS AND MORE!”
Remember to email 6′+ (contact at 6ftplus.com) or leave a comment below about the show, whether you liked it or not. Tell your friends, leave a review on iTunes, but above all – enjoy.
Labretta Suede and the Motel 6, Dumb & Dirty Official Site
Let’s face it – there’s a widespread pandemic of men not having any game anymore. I liken it to the advent of modern video gaming, funny enough, most notably with the introduction of the X-Box. Gaming became less an outlet of gamers and nerds and something far more accessible to a greater population of men and women. Listen to me pontificate my theory – the growth of the X-Box/PS2 industry, in my theory, exasperated a growing problem of DUDES NOT KNOWING HOW TO TALK TO WOMEN and even worse, making dudes unlearn what they little they already knew. And yes – it’s true, ladies – dudes do not know how to fuck anymore.
I think Dumb & Dirty might be a way to save the X-Box generation from its perpetual kidulthood* and finally get most of my dying generation to grow up.
Right off the back, I noticed that Dumb & Dirty successfully avoids the contrived journalistic idea of a “sophomore curse,” that idea that the second album often sucks after a really great debut. I noticed that it AVOIDED this curse because it doesn’t exist. This idea is something Rolling Stone invented. It’s not real. The “sophomore curse” is really the audience waking up from the stupor that had them fooling thinking that Julien Casablancas WASN’T a piece of shit, or that The Hives weren’t a bad idea.
Labretta Suede and the Motel 6 have never been misleading in presenting themselves. They’ve only gotten better at refining the message and this makes them dangerous because if they were ever to take to a national stage, we’d be powerless to stop them. They are unadulterated sex and might possibly take you to bed with them if time permits. This is a band that will fuck the world and be great in the sack. They aren’t about ‘making love,’ but about getting down, dumb and dirty. If I were to find out that everything they’ve done has been an act, I’d be gobsmacked at how good they were at lying. I don’t think they’re lying, though. After listening to sick songs like “Thickened Sludge,” “You & Me,” and “All Girl Gang Riot,” I can’t see them not being 100% earnest and forthright about their attitudes on rock, life, sex and everything else. It seems like you can’t make this kind of music if you don’t believe in it completely.
This is a fantastic album. It even made me forgive them for choosing the unfortunate subject of “Gary Glitter,” what with the man’s widespread pedophilia. Hearing “My Boyfriend thinks he’s Gary Glitter” sung by the sultry sound of Labretta Suede’s voice makes me slightly worry for any young boys in the audience. Of course, the song is less about Labretta’s beau making a trip to Thailand but instead, taking her shoes and lipstick and picking glam over punk rock. If the song was bad, I would feel easier to cast a discouraging eye but the truth is, it’s catchy as hell! And that makes me forgive them.
All throughout the album, the music is fun. While maintaining its signature sound, Labretta Suede and the Motel 6 branch out with different hues of their music chromatic key. “Beach Party Town” lets Johnny Moondog out to play in the surf with his guitar while the album closing opus of “Priscilla The Monkey Girl” is a noir-ish tale that fills your ear with dark smoke, red lipstick and intrigue. The whole band is really tight, incredible considering they straddle the two hemispheres. As the band is based both in Brooklyn, NY and Auckland, New Zealand, the rhythm section for Dumb & Dirty is split between the two countries. Seaon ‘Connel and Max Speed $1000 are the Americans, while Jay L Yodanovich and Bumpo Kemp bring pride to New Zealand. There isn’t a point where one aspect is off or overwhelming. It’s amazing to have six people contribute to reach a perfect parity and they did it.
If ascending into a dictatorship over the land, I would have this album be installed as part of the sex education curriculum in our nation’s schools. And Al Greene. Don’t hold me on this because I haven’t conducted enough tests yet, but I think Dirty & Dumb made me better in bed from just listening to it.
I write to you from the perspective of not having seen them in concert. This is good for having not prior documenting me before exposure to the band firsthand, I can offer this proof of how I was before my life changed. Because, after seeing them, I know my life will be altered. Firsthand exposure to such mind altering perspectives and landscapes of Labretta Suede and the Motel 6 will rearrange a person’s priorities, lessening the emphasis on a guy’s Achievements and more on being a man of a physical world. Dirty & Dumb is a record that makes you want to run, jump, scream and feel the weight of gravity. It’s a record that makes you want to sweat, to feel your heart beat, to know the excitement that comes when talking to an attractive stranger. It’s the record that will steer people away from the immaterial and the electronic and more to the physical and local. It’s fucking awesome and you should go get it right now.
If thirteen random songs were picked from thirteen random CDs off of the thirteen (in reality, ten) shelves I have in my library, the album compiled together would be, odds on, a good representation of my musical interests. It wouldn’t be a complete picture and the styles and genres contained within this mix would range from one type to another. The same can be said of most anyone, though some people are more specialized than others. Mostly, I imagine that everyone had a diverse ear and that to assume that one person is straight up a single genre does them a great injustice.
Ergo, what happens when someone makes an album that can accurately represent them? A good answer to that question would be Bradley Tatum’s It’s a Beautiful World. Contained in this collection of songs is music ranging from punk to electronic, industrial to elegant Victorian arrangements to goth dance rave fantastico.
The album starts off with “Under The Storm Clouds,” a throwback to the 90′s goth-techno familiar to fans of VNV Nation, before shifting into a subtle electronica-versus-metal guitar track entitled “The Others.” The electronic is flavored with the 90s boon in the genre, but to confuse this for a straight up electric record would be a grave misunderstanding.
Bradley Tatum is the creator of the horror-punk label, Blood and Guts Records. But since closing the label to work as a creator and not just an overseer of other band’s music, Tatum has allowed his interests to flourish and experiment. The result is a body of work that frankensteins the many aspects of a life deeply involved in horror-music.
The industrial-goth influence of the 90’s is felt throughout the album, though it’s less thrash and more dance. It’s hard to peg it down. A remix of “The Others” might be in your next goth club DJ’s rotation, the Baroque “Midgaard celebration” might be played at a Steampunk convention. In addition, the title track is an elegantly arranged electronic piece that might have been out of the seventies. It’s what Devo would have sounded like if Lou Reed joined DEVO right away instead of forming the Velvet Underground.
The influence of publishing and distributing bands like Serpenteen, Casket Casey and Rival Skulls is seen on “The Human Experiment,” which is a horror punk song fueled by a butcher knife-guitar. “They’re Drawn To You” is a classic rock song in the purest, almost Ramonesque 50’s style influenced punk. It’s followed by one of the many instrumental songs on the album, the metal anthem “Raiders.”
I can see someone having a problem with the variety of It’sA Beautiful World, as the shift between guitar and electronic can be jarring for some people. It’s an album mixed, with melodic strumming bleeding from one track into another, while mechanical beats shift, pause and start up again. If one picks this up expecting one type of music from start to finish, they will be surprised.
You’ll be surprised when you listen to it because you’ll find that you like at least one song. Then, you’ll hear aspects of it in another and sooner than later, you’ll find that all music is related. Bradley Tatum has shown you the way and you will be forever in his debt.
The Year 2011 brought us a wide collection of great music from many genres of horror music. It would be pretentious of us here at GdL16 to think that we could pick THE BEST ALBUM OF 2011. And as science has proved, lists are for suckers and shitty music blogs. Since we’re a bettter-than-shitty horror blog, here are FIFTY RELEASES OF 2011 for you to check out. These are in no particular order of importance. Each of them deserves your attention as much as the other. To make it a challenge, we’ll sum up the album in 31 (20+11=31) words.
Kepi Ghoulie, I Bleed Rock and Roll
Foundation rock and roll that can support you and stand up against the flood of fuzz and reverb that emits from your speakers after you put this in and press PLAY.
Alice Cooper, Welcome 2 My Nightmare
If only you knew the number of times that the one they have christened Alice Cooper has been killed and resurrected, you wouldn’t go about living like the way you do.
The Misfits, The Devil’s Rain
“Is it or is it not The Misfits,” was asked and no one could offer a good-enough answer, leaving them to skitter about the darkened hall until a light was found.
Midnight Syndicate, Carnival Arcane
If you ever need to know how to take the mood of a backwoods circus, to capture the smells, the joy and the dread, and record it down, here you go.
Hank Williams III, Hellbilly Joker
This long and often bootlegged album saw an official release this year, cementing a line of country western royalty to the psycho outlaw scene in a baptism of fire and whiskey.
Nick 13, Nick 13
Reaching out on a solo project, the Tiger Army frontman produced a time machine record, transporting you back to honky tonks and roadside watering holes where music like this was played.
Blitzkid, Apparitional
Horror punk triple threat returns with six fists pounding directly upon your unprepared cerebellum, leaving you quivering, babbling and devastated in the smoking crater of what used to be your bedroom.
Vagora, Nurture
In addition to their sophomore release, the additional EP the band put out proves that you can never have too much, unless your greed has deviated far into borderline sociopathic kleptomania.
Nox Arcana, The Dark Tower
Those devilish master of the macabre and atmosphere contribute another step towards the swirling miasmic ink of despotic night that will swallow the sun and plunge us all into celebratory darkness.
Various, Hymns From The House of Horror Vol.2
Second edition of this Rue Morgue compilation series collects songs from surf, psychobilly and all types of horror rock, evident in its selection range that includes Calabrese, GWAR and The Brains.
If we’ve missed out on your favorite album, you have 31 words to sum it up in the comments. Who knows? Maybe we’ll pick the best one out and send you something.
The Year 2011 brought us a wide collection of great music from many genres of horror music. It would be pretentious of us here at GdL16 to think that we could pick THE BEST ALBUM OF 2011. And as science has proved, lists are for suckers and shitty music blogs. Since we’re a bettter-than-shitty horror blog, here are FIFTY RELEASES OF 2011 for you to check out. These are in no particular order of importance. Each of them deserves your attention as much as the other. To make it a challenge, we’ll sum up the album in 31 (20+11=31) words.
Voodoo Zombie, Santa Muerte
It’s always smart to go out on a high note, as the lead singer would depart after this band after it releases one of the best psychobilly albums of the year.
Nekromantix, What Happens In Hell, Stays In Hell
Despite their best efforts and all the money they wound up spending, they couldn’t kill this iconic psychobilly band, leaving the ensuing masses to fear their subsequent but deserved wrath.
Rezurex, Dance of the Dead
I thought I knew her—like really knew her, through and through—but after I found her listening to this collection of well-composed psychobilly melodies, she’s like a completely different person.
Vince Ray and the Boneshakers, The Sound Effects of Sex and Horror
In that dimension where Elvis never died, this album has been playing nonstop in his Cadillac’s stereo for the last three weeks, his rhinestoned fingers tapping along on the steering wheel.
Bonsai Kitten, Done With Hell
If you’ve ever been roundhouse kicked in the brain by a flaming, steel toed, leather boot worn by the object of your soul’s desire, you know what this album sounds like.
Johnny Nightmare, Kicking Satan Out Of Hell
It’s an admirable goal to dethrone the king of all liars, and if they are as motivated as they sound with this album, it’s plausible that they will be incredibly successful.
Kitty In A Casket, Back To Thrill
Down that darkened alley, the only light seen is from a dive bar, seemingly unreal because of its unearthly clientele drinking fire and the music of this album playing from below.
The Limit Club, This is Cutthroat Business
Frenzied and whirling like a Sonoran Desert Devil, this trio of wild men soothsayers offers to reveal the secrets of life, lords and the universe, but only for a specific price.
Alucard, Vamp City Rockers
Found drained of all worthless limitations like shame and doubt, the body picked a fight with the coroner, concluding the person had listened to this album before the time of death.
Labretta Suede and the Motel 6, Dirty and Dumb
When science finally distills those exact amino acids that produce things like “excitement,” “joy” and “fear” inside your lizard brain, they’ll find the chemical make-up looks exactly like this album’s cover.
If we’ve missed out on your favorite album, you have 31 words to sum it up in the comments. Who knows? Maybe we’ll pick the best one out and send you something.
The Year 2011 brought us a wide collection of great music from many genres of horror music. It would be pretentious of us here at GdL16 to think that we could pick THE BEST ALBUM OF 2011. And as science has proved, BEST OF lists are for suckers and shitty music blogs. This isn’t a BEST of List, but just part of a collection of FIFTY RELEASES OF 2011 for you to check out. These are in no particular order of importance. Each of them deserves your attention as much as the other. To make it a challenge, we’ll sum up the album in 31 (20+11=31) words.
The Moans, The Three Amigores
This debut release from the Sacramento trio Frankensteins horror and pop punk together, sort of like stitching screeching weasels to the face of Glen Danzig but with much better sounding results.
Southern Culture On The Skids, Zombified
Coming back from the dead, this re-release of a long out-of-print EP comes back to life with four extra tracks and an insatiable hunger for blood, brains and bile.
The Deadbeats, The Day of the Deadbeats
After failing to make this illegal, government forces have been reluctant to wash their hands of the oncoming rabid madness that will sweep the world once it inevitably discovers this band.
Kill, Baby…Kill, Sometimes They Come Back
Why they grow them so weird and bizarre in Huntsville stumped even the greatest philosopher, who ended up carving arcane symbols in the walls while this EP was playing on repeat.
The Phantomatics, She Left Her Brain At The Drive-In
Excellent classic surf rock that will lead to you question the era you are in, leaving you completely disillusioned about all the lies and half-truths you have been bred to believe.
The Night Shift, Devils In the Sea and God In London
Don’t make the mistake of letting the terms “Self released” and “free” prevent you from listening, since they don’t diminish the quality of this incredible EP from the horror punk hurricane.
Spookhand, Keep Out!
The first of three official releases from the band this year captures the fury and fear of this mad science punk rock in ways to make you afraid of the dark.
Darrow Chemical Company, A Nightmare on Seventh Avenue
From the shed skin of Mister Monster, the new invocation rises in a miasma of melodic punk with an acid laced tongue that laces around your brain and melts it away.
The Screamin’ Rebel Angels, Pounce Like A Tiger
Being bad never sounded so good as this rock release combine sultry hooks and Dead Man’s Curves in a rockabilly roots rock package trimmed with a little sex, a little violence.
The Evil Streaks, Go-Go To Hell
Sinister sounds of the latest Necro Tone Family outing melds together the ingredients to make a wicked brew of garage rock, demented surf and Americana rooted evil to a sonic success.
If we’ve missed out on your favorite album, you have 31 words to sum it up in the comments. Who knows? Maybe we’ll pick the best one out and send you something.
If you’ve ever listened to a lo-fi band or musician, it’s the lesser quality that adds to the music’s charm. There’s something endearing about feedback or fuzz, something that is lost when the music is smoothed out, de-loused and returned from the dry-cleaners.
However, CDs don’t suck.
Personally, I prefer digital music. I like CDs because they’re easier to bring home after a show. I also like mp3s that are encoded at a proper bitrate. I like having fifty available albums in my coat pocket. But I can see why people like Vinyl. I understand when someone says that a vinyl release “sounds better,” or “sounds warmer” than digital. The positives of vinyl that people extol are actually the medium’s flaws, how the warm sound is the inferior sound quality.
Records don’t suck. In fact, there’s something ceremonial to playing a record, to having a physical presence of music. It takes a greater amount of consciousness to play a record (not that much than throwing a CD into a player, granted.) The whole act of playing vinyl also anchors you, since turntables aren’t known for their mobility. It also is a communal process, unless you happen to have a pair of headphones. However, I can picture a room full of people listening to their own mp3 players in dead silence. I can’t see the same with individual record players, both for logistic and logical reasons.
I get how vinyl is more appropriate for Lo Fi artists. I also am glad that I have The Creeping Horror of The Quasi-Men cd because damn, is it a great collection of music.
The Quasi-Men came into my consciousness when I bought the two demos off of Max Reverb after a Crimson Ghosts show at 4th Street in Troy, New York. Both demos— ‘Cemetery Girl’ and ‘I Wanna Knock Up Elvira’ —make their way onto this album, both a debut album and a retrospective collection. The Quasi-Men are currently in a state of undeath, coming back to life when the planets and elements are aligned (i.e. when the three members are in the same place at the same time. Max has gone down to Florida to start up the band Gigi and the Cretins, another one you should check out.)
The Quasi-Men is horror punk at its finest. The Devil lives in suburbia and the Quasi-Men use his garage as practice space. Songs like “Message from Space,” “Possess Me” and “Werewolves Hate You” are the nitty-gritty of all things scary and spooky. This is reverb-surf-horror. This is groovy and gory.
If you can track down the every growingly rare supply of this CD, buy it.
You’re getting old. Does that scare the hell out of you? It drives Mr. Fallingard to stay up at night. I haven’t lost any sleep over it but I did lose something.
You see, there isn’t a lot of music that I avoid. Yes, there are some genres I don’t like. I find that’s an acceptable practice. There’s very little chance you’ll find me owning any dubstep or releases from artists like The String-Cheese Incident or Lil’ Wayne. But I think that’s not terribly offensive. However, I hate HI-FIVE SOUP! by The Aquabats.
I do, however, like The Aquabats. THE FURY OF THE AQUABATS! is a great album. VS. THE FLOATING EYEBALL had some weak spots but the collection MYTHS, LEGENDS AND OTHER AMAZING ADVENTURES VOL.2 is a great batch of songs. Though they abandoned the horns on CHARGE!!!, the album grew on me and it turned out to be a great step for the band as they matured. But if I can help it, I will never listen to HI-FIVE SOUP! again.
The Aquabats have always had a slightly ridiculous and, dare I say, zany approach to their songs. Their earlier releases had some youthful anthems (“My Skateboard”, “Red Sweater”) and songs about weird creations (“The Cat With Two Heads”, “Powdered Milk Man”, “Magic Chicken”). However, though they sang about junior-high in “Pizza Day,” the music was universally accessible. It was the product of the group’s generation, harking back to Saturday Morning while going to work early on a Tuesday. But man. HI-FIVE SOUP takes that youthful exuberance and cranks it waaaaaay the hell up.
In an interview, the alter ego of the MC Bat Commader, Christian Jacobs, said about HI-FIVE SOUP:
“I think on Charge!! [The Aquabats] were tackling some more sophisticated humor, things like fashion, popular culture and stuff that isn’t as kiddy or pre teen as the early AQUABATS! stuff, where we were singing about tarantulas and baking chocolate cakes and midget pirates. I think this new record has more stuff like that o it, silly kid stuff, which is fun. It’s less trying to appeal to a little bit older crowd and just trying to appeal to the Halloween costume crowd, ya know?”
He’s right. CHARGE!! did deal with some developed concepts. “Stuck In A Movie!” was about the problem of relying on fictional media as a framing reference point for real life. “Look At Me (I’m A Winner!)” dealt with the concept of viewing yourself as a success, even if you’re spending your days working on a jobsite with ‘four radios blasting classic rock.’ “Fashion Zombies!” addressed the problems of dressing up in retro-fashions. Of course, there were songs about giant mechanical apes, nerd alerts and waterslides. There was stuff for the kids but also for their older siblings. I was in mid twenties when the album came out and I could still jam out to both “Plastic Lips!” and “Demolition Rickshaw!” alike.
I’ve been trying to figure out what “the Halloween costume crowd” means, though I think he meant “kids.” Specifically, “those kids who have made our kid show ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ a hit.” Granted, that makes a lot of sense. The show started in 2007, thirteen years after the Aquabats started as a band. Even from the beginning, the band existed with theatrical elements, based on what I assume is the influence of MC Bat Commander (aka Christian Jacobs) tenure as a child/teen actor.
There were numerous of unsuccessful attempts to transform the Aquabats into a television entity, with only the recent announcement that The Hub will turn “The Aquabats Super Show” into a reality. The children’s show, ‘Yo Gabba Gabba,’ is a, if not the most important success in the Aquabats’ career. To modify their music to appeal to the group most likely to identify them from that show seems a logical, if not a bit too-safe, decision.
It could also be that the departure of longtime guitarist, Chainsaw the Prince of Karate, removed a mature element of the band in terms of songwriting. In the DVD documentary that came with the 1-Year Anniversary reissue of Charge!!!, Chainsaw comes off more like the dude who just wants to play punk rock and not deal with the all the childish, goofy shit. Off to tend to his thriving woodcarving business, Chainsaw might have taken a good counterbalance to the music writing process. Or not. Who knows for sure?
What I do know is HI-FIVE SOUP is not an album made for me. I was disappointed to find that out, to discover that I was too big for the ride. I had unknowingly committed the unforgivable sin of growing older. The music, to my ears, is a bit regressive and simplified, but The Aquabats aimed their sound for a younger audience. It’s not a case of two entities drifting apart. It’s more that they went a hard left as I inevitably turned right.
There are bands that I have outgrown, selling or giving away my copies of their CDs since their hair rock or death metal fashions no longer need apply. But this is the only time I can remember a band outgrowing me. If at the great concert of metaphor, I had to give up my space in the audience because three younger fans needed to get in and see the show. I can be resentful for it, but if this means the band can rise to greater levels of success, the disappointment will taper off.
I think staving off death or prolonging a condition that should have ended is a common thread in horror. It’s always about conquering death, refusing defeat and maintaining a level of comfort or power even when the moment has passed. I could be a monster, snarling and riddled with angst at what I saw as a betrayal as I pursue the reversal of the clock’s hands. Or, I can be glad that I got a chance to see the band a couple of times and that they released some albums that I really like. I’m too old for The Aquabats. Kind of sucks but I had my turn being a Cadet. I’ve gotten older and it’s time to let the kids have some fun. After all, with the Aquabats, it’s always about doing it for the kids.
I avoided certain genres of music for a while because after one or two attempts to get into them, the handful of bands I optioned all sounded the same. Psychobilly was this to me for a while – I just could not get into it because everyone I listened to was doing a bad Kim Nekroman impression, turning the upright bass up in the mix and having that deep-gulch yokel vocal.
Homogeny is the worst thing to happen to a scene or a genre. When there is only a specific look and sound that’s accepted, innovation is impossible since all the people doing different things are forced out. And once that acceptable sound is established, there can be so many new bands conforming to it that homogeny actually promotes a premature nostalgia. Look at modern mainstream country or the current state of rock.
This is why a band like Bad Whoremoans is a good thing. On their own, they’re a great punk band. As a horror punk band, they’re fucking fantastic because in addition of a sound that doesn’t sound like anyone else, they bring that “fresh blood” into it. They take their sound more from garage punks and the Descendents than the Misfits, which is a bit of poetry since Paul of the Living Dead, frontman and founder of the band, is 100% New Jersey.
Perhaps that’s why Bad Whoremoans don’t sound like the Misfits. If this band’s music, in any way whatsoever, shows some influence from the Lodi, NJ band, there would be the instant connection. It’s a shadow that I think many bands out of the Garden State have to evade. Sort of if you wanted to start up a band in Liverpool, Seattle or Gary, Indiana.
BAD WHOREMOANS is a celebration of the VHS age of cult and horror movies. Included on the album is a double Troma feature, songs about both “Surf Nazis Must Die” and “Class of Nuke’Em High.” Hometown hero Jason Voorhees gets a celebratory ode with “Camp Crystal Lake,” whose infectious chorus makes me think it’s a blast to see it live. Other horror staples like Michael Myers (“Haddonfield Horror”), Frankenstein’s Monster and its Bride (“It’s Alive”), Christine (“Killer Car”) and vampires (“Vampire Pin Up Girl”) are all represented.
I think that’s why I like this music. This is the soundtrack to growing up with a Video Store. This is the music for the weird kids that spent their teenage years among VCRs and faded cover art and plastic cases. Mutant slasher punk youth that doesn’t take itself too seriously because that’s not fun.
There’s some really good songwriting present here and that’s evident with the acoustic tracks for “My Dead Girlfriend,” “She’s Weird” and “Graveyard Girlfriend.” It’s a tender side of Paul of the Living Dead’s vocals and able to adapt a punk song into a somber, if not romantic, ballad.
At this point, there’s only one Bad Whoremoans release and Paul of the Living Dead’s activity is also divided up with his band, The Exstatics. Hopefully, there will be future music from this band since we need new voices to rise above the din and keep us going.
June is a four letter word. June, historically, has been what they call a shit month for me. Nothing outright tragic or catastrophic has come about within that calendar month which is why the yearly dolor that rides in after May is confounding. Outside of some biological or metaphysical association with the start of summer somehow triggers a lethargy party in my frontal lobes, I can’t figure out why this month just brings me down.
This isn’t an indulgent plea, but more of an explanation that for the last fistful of years, I’ve found that during this period, instro-surf-mental music tends to make the days a bit more tolerable. About three summers ago, I was digging through the used bin at a local record shop, trying to see if my good fortune would kick in. Luck had it that I found a later-stage Man…Or Astro-Man? release (A Spectrum of An Infinite Scale) as well as both something from The Fireballs and The Pyramids among the billion copies of Crazytown’s first record and other alt-rock castoffs. Sometimes you dig without knowing what you’re going to find. That day, I came up with A Glorious Lethal Euphoria by a band called The Mermen.
No clue about who or what this group was. The Mer- prefix hinted at water, which hinted at surf. The opening song title was “Pulpin’ Line” with additional tracks “The Drowning Man Knows His God,” “Lizards” and “Blue Xoam.” I honestly had no expectations. If it turned out to be a dud, it couldn’t be resold. It was an exciting risk, something that is harder to duplicate with modern technology and how everything these days comes with a thirty second preview. This store didn’t have listening stations set up for those who wanted to sample before purchases so appropriately, I dove in.
I think it was the title “With No Definite Future & No Purpose Other Than To Prevail Somehow…” that gave me the go ahead, letting me know that this album was going to work out. And it did.
It’s not traditional surf, but has the influences of surf. The title “The Drowning Man Knows His God,” a bit prog-rockish (hell, most of the titles are prog) gives warning that this isn’t some Ventures cover band. A lot of reviews for this record, which came out in 1995, link the words “psychedelic,” “Hendrix” and “reverb,” which I think one of the three are fitting.
The album is powered by Jim Thomas’s guitar and like the Experience, Allen Whitman’s bass and Martyn Jones’ drums offer a solid support for Thomas’s more fuzz-covered explorations of sound. But there’s something heavy here. A Glorious… has some weight in the songs. The sticker on the front of the album describes them a “Dick Dale meets Sonic Youth,” which is terribly accurate. This is the music of minds soaked in reverb and held down/up by consciousness, very influenced by the year it was released. “They’ll Bloom” supports this grunge-against-surf comparison, as Jim says it was written “in anger at Kurt [Cobain’s] supposed suicide.”
The cover image, taken from the ceiling of a Mexican restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, features a painted rendition of Jesus dying on the Cross. The title is taken from the philosopher Martin Buber, whose “I-Thou” philosophy consists of “relationship that stresses the mutual, holistic existence of two beings. It is a concrete encounter, because these beings meet one another in their authentic existence, without any qualification or objectification of one another.”
“I guess you can say the theme between the title and the cover is about bearing the difficulties and compromises of life, carrying your cross, not diluting them.” – Jim Thomas
As June shows up, I’m more readied to handle what trials and tribulations may come within the next thirty days. With this album, I am more ready to deal with the difficulties of these five weeks. A good message with great music.
The Zombeatles MEAT THE ZOMBEATLES
(Purchase HERE)
It’s amazing how well it works, since it easily could have gone horribly wrong.
The premise is simple enough: take the most legendary rock band of all time and turn them into zombies. However, going half-ass at the project by sprinkling the word “brains” across the lyric sheet taken from a “Greatest Hits” comp would have resulted in a disposable novelty record to be quickly forgotten or, if lucky, to be dusted off for October episodes of the Dr. Demento show when the good Doctor had nothing better to play.
Instead, MEAT THE ZOMBEATLES is astounding and very enjoyable. It’s only eight songs long, though that brevity might help the parody. The Zombeatles don’t wear out their welcome, nor does the concept run thin. (The clip of “A Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead,” a clip that gained national exposure when Rob Zombie picked it for his Halloween Picks back when YouTube’s Front Page held some clout, is from a documentary about the Zombeatles, which hints at more music or a possible follow-up recording.)
Three of the eight songs can be considered noteworthy hits – “Halp,” “I Wanna Eat Your Hand” and “Hey Food” emulate established staples of radio (if, at the time of this writing, radio exists) play. I think that these songs were picked, not just because their Zombeatle counterparts are fun to listen to, but if the Zombeatles didn’t include them, people would say “What about….?” as some half-hearted, I-Can-Do-This-Too attempt at ‘constructive criticism.’ These are the obvious targets for parody and their inclusion is more, in my opinion, an appeasing gesture.
They’re good songs but when compared to the other tracks selected, the three Hits, they lack that extra panache. Plus, it’s the deeper cuts that show that the musicians behind the Zombeatles put some sincere thought into what they were doing. Instead of regurgitating their copies of “1,” that collection of #1 hits, the Zombeatles have dug deep to find songs. These are true Beatles fans and that shows in the music, as well.
“Brain” Itself is a particularly genius song, not in just its adaptation for the undead crowd but its selection. At first, I didn’t know which song it was parodying; having no idea that “Rain” was a B-side to “Paperback Writer”, further research indicated that the ‘promotional videos’ for the song were an early version of a music video. It’s not as obscure as I first originally though, but it’s not “She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)”
The album doesn’t sound like a Beatles cover band doing zombie versions of the songs. It sounds like legitimate zombies are playing the instruments. The breakdown of “Dead Prudence” and “Hey Food” is what a less-than-animated-reanimated player would sound like.
It’s no big secret that the Zombeatles have some living alter-egos in the band The Gomers, a band you should check out in their own right. But big respect for Gorge, Jaw, Pall and Dingo; for how exceptional MEAT THE ZOMBEATLES is as a recording, it’s a testament to the quality and thought put into the project. Lesser meat would have failed and the Zombeatles get to reap the tasty, fleshy rewards of victory.
The Vooduo
THE ROCK AND ROLL CREATURES THAT STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES
“That’s all still a fantasy now, of course, but where d’ya think all the great revolutions begin if not in fantasies?”
The inside photo of Neidi Night and Eerie Powers, posing in black leather beside a Yamaha 350, is the clear evidence that these two are throwbacks to a different time of outlaw attitudes and aesthetics. They’re made in the image of roadhouse rebels, the monsters of grindhouses during the period when the atomic threat of the fifties proved too goofy and the serial slashers of the eighties had yet to be king. Night and Powers, known as The Vooduo, are the creatures of an American period where mutation was too dangerous to be hip, when the derelicts and diseased were on the winning side.
Neidi plays drums while Eerie jams on his guitar and vocals. For their latest, they had a Dave Klien guesting on theremin and organ, noted on the opening song, “Zombie Baby.” Compared to their first album, The Vooduo have developed a depth and greater understanding of who they are. There’s no pretense or bullshit. THE ROCK AND ROLL CREATURES… is straight-up honest rock and roll.
Songs like “Groovy Ghoul,” “Shrunken Head” and “Hell on Wheels” hark back to the dirty and grimy times where there wasn’t a term for ‘grindhouse’ cinema, back before classification was beyond plausible so the blanket of ‘horror’ fell upon it all. The song “Blood Breast and Beast” celebrates this period, where you could find one (or in the case of breast, two) of each in every movie. The attitude of “Bone thru The Nose” shows that there are freaks and finks that will find that life is groovy when it’s dark and dirty.
Consider this: The Vooduo’s new album takes its name from a movie that, like many, we first and only know from its showing on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s hard to think there some people went to see ‘The Rock and Roll Creatures That Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies’ in earnest, but they exist. We have documented proof, since one piece of concrete evidence of sincere watching is the recorded testimony from the wild mind of a venerable rabid rock critic, Lester Bangs. A good line from the running commentary goes:
“What about all the truly great movies comprised of unreconstituted trash, which are important not only because nothing else is deranged in quite the way they are, but also because they demonstrate that occasionally intersecting tastes don’t in any way prove the sharing of Good Taste cross twenty or thirty years?”
Like the movie, nothing else is deranged in quite the way The Vooduo are; other bands might bring in more members or bloat their sound with the day’s fashion. The two of them run a tight operation. These two aren’t of bad taste or trash, but of the Bad Taste back when it wasn’t hip or fashionable. Not everyone is going to get them. That’s fine. There’s room for all in this world.
If you’re a fiend, a demon, a monster kid or just some Screamin’ Jay, you will already have this album. If you don’t, you know what you need to do.
“….Realize that the whole concept of Good Taste is concocted to keep people from having a good time, from reveling in a crassness that passeth all understanding.”
As if having the name The Arkhams wouldn’t draw in the psychobilly fiends and spooky kids, the Ed Rothized picture of C’thulu on the front of Road To Arkham will definitely make your horror punker friend pick the disc up. Then, the real horror begins.
The Arkhams are one of those bands that are psycho in spirit and not in song. On Road To Arkham, there are no songs about zombies, vampires, psychotic murderers, undead love or even any of the eldritch nightmares conceived by the inventor of the band’s namesake, H.P. Lovecraft.
You know what? That is perfectly a-oh-kay. Why? Because there are roughly five-THOUSAND-other psychobilly bands with records chock full of all those songs about every horror aspect imaginable. So it’s forgiven if a band decides not to.
Does this make the band a psychobilly band, though? If I were to start up “Strange Jason the Axe Murdering Blood Bather and His Cavalcade of Carnivorous Circus Cats” and do nothing but covers of Debbie Gibson and the Chantels, would I classify as a pyschobilly band because of the upright bass player’s black pompadour? Yes, only if I do those covers with attitude.
As with small/ne niche music genres (and subsequent scenes) there is the rise of the dreaded purity test, right? Punk and Rap have well documented issues with bands that were not real enough for some crowds. Having not been involved deeply within any community to witness such trials, I come to the argument as an outsider. So, it’s plausible that there have never been a moment when an audience has looked onto an act and deemed them publically “posers” in the psychobilly scene. It would be idyllic to have some kind of musical genre that was welcoming of all.
However, I’m a cynic and will assume the worst. Perhaps people wouldn’t take to SJtAMBB&HCoCCC even if the attitude was there. Perhaps people have talked shit about the Arkhams. If the latter is true, that’s a shame. Road To Arkham is a good album with some pure (poetic justice!) rock and roll.
Perhaps the band foresaw the possible criticism and included “I Want a Woman (Generic Rockabilly Song #8675309)” as both a dismissal of the criticism, an appeasement to their fans and a tribute to Tommy Two-Tone. Generic it might be but rockin’ it still is, along with the songs “She’s Got The Power,” “She’s Lost Control” and “Drivin’ Me Insane” – a trio of songs detailing the complicated process of having relations with someone. What makes the band a psychobilly band is that there’s a subtle implication of madness behind every song.
While it’s there in the title of “Drivin’ Me Insane,” the lyrics of “She’s Got The Power” and “She’s Lost Control” imply that there’s something more than an earthly force at work. They don’t come out and say it because, as said above, there are plenty of other bands that do that. I think, whether a conscious decision or not, The Arkhams have gone a different route to be distinctive and different.
The album is full of full body guitar riffs, stompin’ bass strummin’ and music that veers from surf explosion to roots rock. If you’re into rock and roll, rockabilly, pyschobilly, or just the kind of music that made your grandfather a punk, you’ll find that the Arkhams cover all the bases and are a welcome expansion to your library. Pick them up and expand.
Robert Frost said the worst word in the English language was “exclusive.” Let’s not be such monsters.
Comments are welcome down below about any kind of scene-snobbery you’ve experienced, or if there are some exemplar of the Psychobilly scene might shed light on this where I can only provide darkness.
