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 Somerton Man
Australia's strangest unsolved mystery. In 1948, a dead guy is found at Somerton Beach in Adelaide. Nobody knows who he is or how he got there, but experts are pretty sure he was murdered via undetectable poison. They find a rolled-up note in his pants pocket that turns out to be a page torn out of a very rare poetry book. The book's missing, but some dude finds in the back of his car. Naturally, there's a secret code written on the back page. And then, a year later, they think they find the dead guy's suitcase in a bus depot, and things get even weirder. Honestly, you can jump down this rabbit hole and lose days trying to figure out what happened. The case is still open and unsolved. The groovy, stylish 1977 giallo The Pyjama Girl Case is partly based on this story. (K)
12. The Exiles (1961)
This was filmed in 1958 and not released until 1961. It follows a group of american Indians who have left the reservation to try and make a life for themselves in the blighted Bunker Hill area of downtown L.A. We hang out with these lost souls as they drink and swagger for 12 hours through the City of Night. It's shot in a quasi-documentary style, it has an almost John Cassavetes feel, though it pre-dates Shadows by a year. The scenes of Main Street L.A. when the bars let out is worth the price of admission alone and the music that blazes from the radios and juke box is fantastic. (S)
11. The first half of the new Tank album, War Nation
Ok, so Tank founder Algy Ward is nowhere to be found, and the dude singing now (former Yngwie Malmsteen frontman Doogie White) is a little too high-pitched for my taste, and there's a weird Jesus-y vibe to the lyrics, and the second half is prog-metal sludge, but seriously, the guitars on the first half of the tunes are amazing, and all the songs are still about war (and now Jesus, too). I guess we're breaking 50/50 here, but any diehard Filth Hounds know the awesome power of Tank's relentless NWOBHM CHUGCHUGCHUGCHUG once they really get cooking. (K)
10. Tiger B. Smith
Glam? Metal? Proto-Punk? Proto-Metal? Forgot it, man. Don't worry about the labels. Tiger B. Smith hail from a time when rock was a circus, outrageous, obnoxious, stupid! Leopard boots, afros, and pink tutu's. No baseball caps, sweatshirts, and shorts! Music without the slightest tear of introspection. Lovely! (S)
9. Spider Invasion!
In a small village in India, a new, previously unknown strain of particularly aggressive tarantulas have invaded. They leap from trees and latch on to people, injecting them with venom. Also, the may or may not feed specifically on vertebrae blood. Holy fuck. The local witch doctors (!) are working overtime to treat the afflicted, but even real doctors report that there's no known anti-venom, and the best advice authorities have so far is to "stay inside at night", because that's when they attack. This is every horror movie, ever, come to squirming life. (K)
8. Ronnie Bass
What do religious cults, mad scientists, art academia, hip-hop, Elctro-pop, Texas, fish markets, Swilson, and New City have in common? Why, it's Ronnie Bass. My partner in crime at the fish market and sometime collaborator is making some of the most next level art/music out there. He writes outsider electronic pop musicals about CompUSA workers turned cult leaders and all sorts of weird wonderful things. And ladies…. Gotham Magazine voted him one of New York City's most eligible bachelors. (S)
Australia's version of Sasquatch is a lot less scary. He's only four feet tall. More like Smallfoot, amiright? (K)
6. Giorgio Moroder: Son of My Father
Everybody knows Giorgio rules the wasteland. I just got turned on to this by the drummer in Swilson. Killer groovy euro-seventies sleaze. (S)
5. Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow
Umberto is the brainchild of one Matt Hill and a revolving cast of funky friends. Essentially the dude creates towering odes to 80's exploitation flicks not unlike Goblin wrestling St Vitus to the ground and bashing in their skulls with John Carpenter's megaphone. Prophecy of the Black Widow is, so far, Umberto's epic. It sounds like ten Suspirias at once. Word on the street is that live shows involve Keytars, fog machines, and gratuitous blood/nudity as well, so keep an eye on this gang o' loons.(K)
4. Boris Manco
Turkish psych is the best! Maybe because it was a hash culture for so long and the indigenous music is naturally psychedelic. Whatever the reason is, I love it and Boris Manco is the closet thing Turkish rock has gotten to international success. This video is amazing. (S)
3. Tim Blake - Blake's New Jerusalem
Tim Blake played keyboards for both Gong and Hawkwind, so clearly, he's an expert on all things space-rock. His '78 album, New Jerusalem, is a masterpiece of galactic synth-rock, blending acoustic guitars, mournful vocals, and hippy platitudes with his far out, light-emanating keyboards. It's majestic stuff, ridiculous and awe-inspiring and touching. Love it. PS Tim's apparently the first guy to offer a laser light show with his rock. Sorry, B.O.C.! (K)
2. Miami Vice
I'm balls deep into Miami Vice cause they got it up on Netflix. It's the ultimate 80's show. I didn't miss an episode when I was a kid, now that i'm, well….older…I notice a few things about it : It's extremely cinematic for a television show, and the music budget must have been HUGE. Every episode has some gigantic song from the day: Tina Turner, Clapton, Collins and the list goes on and on. Also the gust stars!!! (S)
1. There's a Lot of Naked People on the Covers of Disco Records
As mentioned on the latest episode of the Advanced Demonology podcast, I've been loitering around the local disco hut lately, and I chanced upon a pretty amazing discovery: there's a lot of nudity and heavy sexuality on the covers of 70's disco records. Way more than in 80's metal, even. Dude, I really wasted my time with boys-only stuff like Sabbath in the 70's. I could have been oglin' fine ladies and learning to dance. BTW, I am going to make a disco record cover coffee table book.Someday. So don't steal my idea. (K)
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