Top 13 (of the Week)

Sure,you know what's cool. But do you know what's really fuckin' FAR OUT? That's where Advanced Demonology takes over. Every week, (K)en and (S)wilson trudge through the murky waters of the pop culture hellscape, dredging up sparkly morsels of wonder. These are the result of our latest foray into the world of the weird, our wildest, wiggest-out picks of the week. Call it our 13 Point Program.

13.The Shrine

The only reason they are number 13 is because they deserve that auspicious number. Just check out that photo! That's what it all should be. The Shrine are from Los Angeles and although I think they should change the name of the band to the name of any one of the songs on the demo: Freak Fighter, Primitive Blast, Wasted Prayer, or Zipper Tripper, they are even a good candidate for the name "Engine Beast" (that's a name that Ken came up with?), and even though I've never seen them play, I'm convinced they are the best band in the City of Fallen Angels. Check out the "Bless Off" demo. It's a primitive blast!!! Get in the van, sorry the passenger seat is a mess……(S)

12. Gram Parsons' Weekend at Bernies adventure

Apparently everybody already knows this story, but I just read about for the first time this morning. Turns out after country-rock's reigning drug casualty Gram Parsons finally kicked the bucket in '72, his manager STOLE HIS BODY FROM THE AIRPORT, took it out to the desert, and SET IN ON FIRE. Because, you know, that's what Gram wanted. Kooky! (K)

11. Andrea True

70's porn star turned 70's disco star. Andrea moved to New York City in the late 60's to become an actress. Having trouble breaking into legit movies she decided she'd take a few "adult" roles in order to get her name out there to producers. It didn't work. She got stuck in porn and appeared in over 60 hardcore features . After a finical debacle involving the Jamaican government and a Caribbean real estate company, she decided that music was her ticket out of porn. It worked! For a while at least. In 1975 she recored "More, More, More".(S)

10. Phantom Limb

British country-soul outfit with a blues-y belter up front. It's like that Tina Goes Country record with a twist of early Black Crowes revival rock. I'm not sure how you couldn't like this. (K)

9. My Living Doll

My Living Doll was a TV show that aired in '64-65. It starred Bob Cummings (Love That Bob!) and Julie "Catwoman #1" Newmar. It's pretty high concept. Bob's a psychiatrist whose buddy invented a sexy robot (guess who?) and then flaked off to Pakistan (?) for some unknown mission and asked Bob to look after her for a few months. So he keeps her in his apartment and tries to turn her into the "perfect woman" (i.e. totally subservient), but the more she learns about people (mostly from watching TV), the feistier she gets. The whole thing is completely delightful. I'm not sure why they only released half the season, but any Newmar is good Newmar. (K)

8. Loleatta Holloway : The Hotlanta Soul of Loleatta Holloway

This is a collection of tunes she recored for the Atlanta based Aware label before she moved over to Salsoul and became a dance disco diva. Too much soul to control!!!! (S)

7. On The Road With The Ramones by Monte A. Melnick

This book is indispensable to any Ramones fan. It was put together by the road manager, the behind the scenes war chief, who fought side by side with Forrest Hills favorite sons for two thousand plus shows. It's a fast, 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, furious look at punks big bang, more up close and personal than almost anything else out there.(S)

6. Ruthann Friedman

A lot of time I order shit on the internet and then forget I did it until a package shows up at my door. And then I'm like, "When the fuck did I order a Ghost t-shirt and seven purple wristbands?" But then I'm always happy to get 'em, because I have fantastic taste, especially when I'm picking out stuff for myself. This week I got a package from Drag City (home of Neil Hamburger and DWarr!), and inside was a 7" single by one Ruthann Friedman. Who is that? Well, I think I bought it based on the cover - I'm a sucker for hippie death goddesses - but it turns out, she's right up my musical alley anyway. Ruthann was an acid-queen from SF and almost ended up singing for Jefferson Airplane, but instead wrote a funky psyche-folk album called Constant Companion that I only found out about 20 minutes ago but am suitably psyched about. This single has a couple non-album tracks from around that era (1970). One's about peace. It's called White Dove. The other one's about psychotic bikers. It's called Motorcycle Madness. Both are awesome. Also, there's no label on the actual 7". It's just black. Cool! (K)

5. Erwin Rommel

I just watched The Desert Fox starring James Mason, although the film has some weak spots it's pretty dam good. It brilliantly incorporates real WWII footage in with staged combat scenes and really get's ya thinking about this strange Anti-Hero. Regarded as a humane and professional solider he ignored orders to kill captured british commandos, jewish soldiers and civilians. He knew Hitler was nuts. Tried to assassinate him and failed, than was forced to commit suicide! It's all a very heavy metal. Has any band done a concept album about this guy? The Shrine? Engine Beast?(S)

4.Phenomenal Handclap Band

It's kinda like glam, disco, pop, and soul all mashed up with samplers and whatnots played by groovy longhairs and their foxy mamas. It's one of these deals where you really want in, but you know it's gonna end up in some sorta Manson-esque blood sacrifice somewhere down the line. I'm into it, though. If Swilson had a bunch of funky friends, he might have ended up doing something like this. But Swilson is a loner, so that will never happen. (K)

3.Santo Gold Informercial

An absolutely lysergic late night informercial that fried the mind of an entire generation.(S)

2.My new favorite Charlie's Angel: Kate Jackson.

I've been staring at this photo all week. Dreamy! (K)

1.John, the Wolf King of L.A.

Basically a farewell letter to the world sent by John Phillips, before giving himself alternate injections of cocaine and heroin, every fifteen minutes of every day for the next fifteen years. The backing band is L.A.'s Wrecking Crew. Depressing and beautiful, the way ya want it. (S)