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. Jeremy Steig – Fusion
I know, nobody likes fusion. I'm with you, man. “Jazz-rock” is the worst. But this cat Jeremy Steig is a whole different trip. Half-paralyzed from wiping out on his motorcycle as a reckless youth, he developed a unique style of flutin' that is apparent from the first note. It's like he sings – and sometimes screams – right into the flute. It's fuckin' dynamite. He's got a couple dozen records out, stretching from the mid 60's to just a couple years ago (he's still active at 70), but my fave is the Fusion album from 1970. A double-album set, it's pure jazz-funk mega-flute jam bliss. As one Jazzbo critic noted, it sounds like it defies gravity. Seriously groovy, and one of the best albums I've heard this year. (K)



12. GR - Reverse Age
Gregory Raimo (GR)  is the  axe wielding Frenchman behind the ever sizzling blow-out known as the Gunslingers. This is his third solo record. The one before this was a collaboration with Michael Yonkers.  You know the drill, eat a bunch of yellow pills, wash it down with orange juice, have a seizure and grab a guitar. (S)



11. Ten Hours of Kate Upton's bouncing boobs
Some dude – clearly a hero of some sort, or perhaps a madman – has edited together a startling ten-hour loop of curvy supermodel Kate Upton bouncing down the runway in bikini tops that are clearly too small for the remarkable bounty she possesses. I could live without the techno track, but you can always add your own ten-hour mix. I'd suggest something with flutes. Either way, this is a pretty fantastic way to wile away a day at work. (K)



10. A Gang of KISS Children
My wife and I stumbled upon this strange street gang while wandering the streets of downtown L.A. shortly before departure. (S)

09. Stacey Dash Is Normal
Imagine Curb Your Enthusiasm, only instead of prickly, uber-rich aging comedian/curmudgeon Larry David, it starred the less-rich-but-still-loaded hot actress from Clueless, who, it turns out, is also a prickly curmudgeon? I have no idea if this is gonna be a web series or it's going to be a TV show or what, but whatever it is, I am going to watch the hell out of it. (K)



08. DMZ
I saw David Johansen at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch the other night. He was awesome but we're kinda like CNN here at Advanced Demonology, if we don't have a good clip we can't report it. Since it was straight up party music I got a little buzzed up. One of the opening bands played a DMZ cover and I forgot how much I liked that band. Boston Proto-Punk produced by may main men Flo & Eddie. (S)



07. The International Banana Museum
In a continued effort to bring culture to Demonology, I present you with another museum. Last week, I told you about the 8 Track museum and this week, the banana museum. Everybody loves bananas. They're fun to eat, fun to look at, fun even just to think about. And this screwball has a whole goddamn museum dedicated to them. Bonus: it's located on the shore of the doomed Salton Sea, effectively guaranteeing that no one will go there, ever. (K)



06. Dresden Leningrad
You would think there would be more World War Two themed Doom Rock. (S)



05. Heavenly Bodies
This Playboy-produced romance/drama from 1984 is about two warring aerobics studios. The small. Plucky aerobics studio is being bought out by the big corporate one across the street, until they are challenged to an aerobics dance marathon. The winner gets the studio. And so that's what they do, they have a goddamn aerobics dance marathon. This movie is out-a-sight. 90% of it is just girls sweating in leotards. The rest you can nap through. The 80's were awful, but occasionally, they were tremendous. (K)



04. The Erotic City Electric Blues Band
I'm sure at some point this duo is going to shorten the name to: Erotic City. It was written in a basement and recorded in a barn. Kinda like a Swilson record. Written in a Mansion, recored in a shed.  Great mix of everything fast and heavy and fucked up. More magic to come I'm certain of it. Where's Portsmouth? Is that New Hampshire? (S)

03. Nocto Loco
I need to get me one of these things!!! Drive my parents nuts! (S)

02. JuJu - In Trance
Justin Adams, who plays guitar for Robert Plant, teamed up with Gambian griot
Juldeh Camara.  Perfect name for the record and you might be in trance by the end of this thing. (S)



01. Your Reflection - Electric Indian
Awesome, head-spinning psychedelic moog-rock from Kansas City. Tremendous stuff,
I been trippin' out on it all week. You can get the digital version on Bandcamp for 7 bucks;
all proceeds go towards getting this thing down on wax. Groovy. (K)

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. Marthas & Arthurs - The Hit World of...
Gorgeous debut album from these Brit sunshine popsters who sound like the Mamas and the Papas frolicking in the park with ABBA. And not even doing drugs or anything, just flying kites and whatnots. This could be the soundtrack to your summer, but only if your heart is pure. If it's not, then probably the Drive soundtrack. (K)



12. Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution
A CBS news special aired in 1967 hosted by Leonard Bernstein. It was an attempt to try and give some "credibility" to what the kids were listening to. There are lots of back handed compliments from Lenny like he likes 5% of the music the kids make, but  95% is trash and he would never defend it.  It's really pretty amazing when you see it now, because more than anything else, it's a reminder that there really was a generation gap back then. Not now. Not today,  Mom and Dad like the pills and metal, just like YOU. (S)

11. Don Juan (1973)
So, who wants to see Brigitte Bardot and Jake Birkin cuddle naked and smoke cigarettes together? Awesome and available on Netflix PS: there's a lot of nudity in the European section of Youtube. (K)



10. WEED: Adventures Of a Dope Smuggler By Jerry Kamstra (1974)
Cool book about dope smuggling back went dope meant grass not smack and mexico wasn't a country about to be overthrown by head hunting cocaine barons.  It's really a travelog more then anything from  a person who risked it all to provide the holy sacrament of the love generation. Great photos of Mexico. (S)

9. Chesty Morgan on Blu-ray
Doris Wishman's Chesty Morgan flicks from the mid 70's, Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73,  are two of the most hilarious, depressing spectacles you'll ever see. You've got Doris's trademark wonky direction and random camera angles (look, it's a shoe! Now it's a painting on the wall!), a depressed, aging, disheveled "star" with gross, sagging, seriously over-ripe melons, terrible dubbing (Doris didn't like Chesty's thick Polish accent) and some of the most godawful "fashions" you've ever seen. What's not to love? And now Something Weird has graciously unleashed both of these fleshy fandangos (as well as a third non-Chesty Wishman flick, The Immoral Three) on a budget blu-ray! Hooray! I dunno if these have been remastered at all, but Chesty's chesties in hi-def is about the scariest thing I can think of. (K)

8. Fern Kinney - Baby Let Me Kiss You (1979)
Hot! This smokes!!!! (S)

7. The goblins of Kentucky
Back in the 50's, there were reports of goblins invading a Kentucky farmhouse. The case was never solved, although (spoiler alert) anybody with a lick of sense assumes it was an owl. Well, goblins are running amuck in rural Kentucky once again, and this time, the guy who's being invaded has photographic evidence (sort of, but clearly not really). Regardless of what's really happening (probably owls again), the saga-so-far is lots of fun to read about. (K)

6. The Manx: Storms Thrashing Our Vessel
Imagine the apocalypse has come and gone and the U.S.A. has been broken apart into tribes. The average life expectancy is 23 and teenagers are pretty much running the show. Music is at the center of these neo-savages lives and it's ethno-musical linage is based on a distant memory of early 21st century heavy metal (Girndcore, Death Metal, Black Metal etc.). There is no electricity and all they have is acoustic instruments.  There is no more volume or distortion so to approximate it , the whole tribe belts out the songs of horror and hell in unison. If that scenario were true The Manx would be it. Storms Thrashing Our Vessel is like a field recording from the Mad Max future…. or maybe Waterworld. (S)



5. Cannibal tunes comp!
The great film-music blog Manchester Morgue has put together a groovy-gruesome comp with a man-eating theme. Anthropophagic Cookbook has both music from cannibal flicks (Cannibal Holocaust, Ravenous, Parents) and songs about cannibals (Toto Coelo's I Eat Cannibals, Slices of You by Electric Six, etc). Fun, ghoulish stuff. Download for free, and bon appetit! (K)

4. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Directed by the great Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu) it's set in feudal Japan and follows a brother a sister's horrific journey through slavery and prostitution at the hands of the sadistic lord Sansho. Like all of Mizoguchi's films beauty and horror, hope and hopelessness race side by side unrelenting.  I'm not certain there is a story more painful than this portrayed on film. You'll pretty much feel better about your life afterwords. (S)

3. Starcrash lobby cards
The always-fun Space70 blog posted a generous sampling of Starcrash promo materials earlier this week, and they're a (laser)blast! Directed by Luigi "Contamination" Cozzi and released by Roger Corman, this bargain-basement space opera was bashed out in record time and splattered into theaters in just enough time to bask in the box-office afterglow of Star Wars. It stars the ridiculously hot scream-queen Caroline Munro, hippie preacher Marjoe Gortner, lots of dimestore robots and rubber monsters, and sexy space girls. Roger Corman re-released it recently as part of his cult-classics series, so be sure to check it out, it's goodtimes. In the meantime, gawk at these amazing lobby cards and stills. Not bad for a cash-grabbing rip-off! (K)

2. Lalo Schifrin : Dirty Harry Soundtrack (1971)
On Advanced Demonology we constantly remind you of how creepy the 70's were. I just re-watched Dirty Harry and holy smokes (!)  is it a creep fiesta. Dirty Harry himself is a creep (like a stoic Archie Bunker with a gun). The killer is a creep. The victims are creepy, and San Francisco seems like it's bubbling over with a racially charged psychedelic fear of civilization slipping away from beneath the sidewalk. But what I was most struck with this time seeing it was the soundtrack. It surges, swims,  grooves and jet propels us through this cinematic nightmare.  It's like the hippies, the brothers, vegas lounge act squares and Mantovani all showed up for a death of the 60's cocktail party hosted by Hunter S. Thompson. (S)

1. Late 70's Penthouse
I just bought an (almost) complete 1979 run of Penthouse Magazine and I've been poring through 'em all week. Penthouse tried their best to be "classier" than Playboy but the gross "forum" letters sprinkled through the mag sunk that battleship. Still, like Playboy, it's a great barometer for gauging what culture was all about in '79 - sex, stereos, disco, and murder. At least one (and usually a couple, sometimes all four) are plastered all over every page. And I gotta give 'em this much: their taste in naked women was impeccable. Great Donna Summer interview in the July issue, as well. (K)

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. Disco Dracula - Betamax
whacked-out Nu-disco remake of "Soul Dracula", the legendary '77 dancefloor hit by German polyester-abusers Hot Blood. That song seemed pretty perfect just the way it was, but this one's a sweet, spooky jam as well. (K)

12. Ghost Blues: The Story Of Rory Gallagher
This is a really good, but not great doc on Rory ( he makes lots of appearances on the Top 13).  The not great part is the celebrity talking heads  included to give "credibility" to Gallagher's legacy.  The Fuckin' Edge from U2!  OK he's an Irish guitar player too……  Fuckin'  Bob Geldof!  Why the fuck is Bob Geldof famous anyway?!? Who the fuck listens to the Boomtown Rats!?!?  Other than that….this is well made, with great live performances and interviews with Rory's brother/manager and longtime bandmates. The coolest no fuckin' nonsense guitar player ever!  We will take what we can get. (S)

11. The Royalty - Lovers album
Texas band that basically sounds like retro soul-pop singer Duffy fronting a scruffy garage band that's super into 50's doo-wop. Great vocals, really catchy songs, more than a little weird. I'm into it.  (K)

10. The Great Unwashed: Clean Out Of Our Minds
A 1983 side project from  New Zealand's pop-a-delic  godfathers The Clean. Unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed super hits oh plenty. Nicked from the always crucial Ghost Capital. (S)

9. 42nd Street Forever: The Blu-ray Edition
This exploitation trailer series has been running for years now. There's even an XXX version. All of them are great and offer up many hours of entertainment as they unspool one jaw-dropping exploitation movie trailer after another. Now they've upped the ante with their first blu-ray edition: crisp HD transfers of bottom-of-the-barrel 60's/70's/80's cinematic swill. This one serves as a "best of" comp from the first two DVD editions plus a fistful of new stuff, as well. Overwhelmingly bad-ass entertainment.  (K)

8. Groundhogs: Uk Tour '76

Wow! Fuck! Holy Shit Man! Far Out! Heavy! I got a real kick out of seeing Tony McPhee's name on the 1976 Melody Makers reader's poll for the best guitar player in Britain, right next to that boring Eric Clapton, in the Gallagher doc (Rory he topped the list).  Captured live from that punk rock watershed year, touring to support the Crosscut Saw record, pure smoke on the water fire in the sky, cruiser's creek yeah. (S)

7. Run Angel Run - Tammy Wynette
Run Angel Run is a grubby biker flick from 1969. I haven't seen it yet, although I suspect it's exactly like every other biker flick ever made: hassles, weed, chain-fights, ol' ladies flashin' boobs. Regardless of its cinematic qualities, the fuzzy soundtrack by Stu Phillips is solid, and the kicker is the hazy, doomy theme song, by terminally depressed country crooner Tammy Wynette. It's awesome. If only Tammy actually starred in the movie too, as one of the aforementioned booby-flashing ol' ladies, then we'd really have something. (K)

6. Synanon
I watched the 1965 movie starring  Chuck Connors, it's a great film, and It got me reading about the real Synanon. Holy Cow!!! It was a drug rehab on the beach here Santa Monica. They coined the phase "Today is the first Day of the rest of your life". Well it starts out as a drug rehab….but like all things in California, it turns into a cult!!!!!  Shaved heads (Lucas used people from the clinic as extras in THX), forced abortions, child abuse, people not being allowed to leave, Tax evasion, a cultish concept called "lifetime rehabilitation", an actual underground railroad of sorts was started to get kids out of Synanon!  It did help people in some way, (see the 1962 Joe Pass record: The Sounds Of Synanon) but why did they have to take it so far?? Will Advanced Demonology devolve into a cult someday? I sure hope so. I'm sitting over here on a Parchment farm. (S)

5. Larger than Life documentary
When I was around seven or eight years old, I was nuts about Kiss. Of course, it was the 70's, and all little kids were. But then I turned nine, discovered AC/DC, and decided I was too mature for Ace and the gang. Besides, they were heading into some weird territory (disco, whatever the fuck "Music from the Elder" was, "She's So European", etc). By the time I was a teenager, they were deep into their "Lick It Up" era, which was...I mean, it was gross, right? And then after that, basically all you ever heard was Gene Simmons blathering on about how rich and successful he was. No rock n' roll in that at all. I guess what I'm saying is, fuck Kiss. But Kiss fans? Endlessly entertaining. Can't get enough of 'em. Enter Larger than Life, a documentary about a Kiss tribute band. It's like a suburban Spinal Tap with even worse haircuts. Awesome! (K)

4. LSD March: Under Milk Wood
Any band that names itself after a Guru Guru song has to be great, right? Japan blows mind again and again. Under Milk Wood is the entry point into the wild world of the LSD March. All things Advanced Demonological are represented here/hear, dressed in Nippon black cool, with ( stoned) zap comedy, and always  psychedelic artistic integrity. These are the people your parents warned you about…….psychedelic artist types……who are Japanese. (S)

3. Groovy Movies: Far Out Films of the Psychedelic Era
Even a cursory glance around here will give you ample evidence that Swilson and I are fairly obsessed with what could be comfortably be called the "psychedelic era", i.e. the mid 1960's to the mid 1970's. The music, the style, the mayhem, the kooky kults, we love it all. Naturally, the movies were pretty choice around this time as well, and this helpful, immersive tome offers up essays and reviews about all the various genre flicks splashing the screens during those woozy days: spy flicks, road movies, biker movies, whacked-out musicals, sexploitation, warsploitation, sun-baked spaghetti westerns, etc. etc. Dig in. Your Netflix queue will be fairly bursting by the time you're through. (K)

2. Ray Barretto: Acid
There ain't too much LSD marching on this record, I think Ray was trying to catch the hippies with a buzzword. But Goddam! This is a latin boogaloo!! BBBq, Beer and Weed for me, yes please. I just got back from a springtime vacation to New York City.  This is the soundtrack to the approaching summer. Listen to everything on Fania. (S)

1. Boob Mug!
Just got back from a week in Florida. I wanted one of these my whole life, and they had 'em at the souvenir shop. And now I have one. Mine says “St Pete's Beach”, because that's where I was,  but really, these are pretty representative of Florida as a whole. It's a very boob mug sorta state. (K)