Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts

Friday, July 12, 2013

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. Ron Wood - I've Got My Own Album to Do
A lost classic. In alot of ways a lost Stones record.  It convinced Mick and Keith who we're already doing drugs with Ronnie that he might be also be able to join the band because of his playing too. The cast of characters is awesome: Mick and Keith, Mick Taylor, David Bowie, Rod Stewart and a host of cool classic rock session men. Party time! (S)



12. Sex in films
This amazing website catalogs instances of sex/nudity in film starting from the beginning. I mean, seriously, the very beginning of filmmaking. Like in the silent era. Pre 1920's. Wanna see the world's FIRST porno? Now you can. You might regret it, though. That's somebody's great-great grandmother, you know. Anyway, goodtimes. Thanks, Sex in Films! (K)



11. Firefall 
I've only got the 1st LP and it's way groovy. If your in the mood for some smooth Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan type 70's mellow this is for you. Hot summer night music. (S)



10. Cassette documentary
You knew this would have to happen eventually. Hot on the heels of the 8 Track doc and the VHS doc, here's a bunch of folks waxing nostalgic about, probably, the worst goddamn medium of all time. Fuck, remember having to fix these things with a goddamn pencil? Paying 11 dollars or whatever for the new Pussy Galore cassette for your Walkman, and the tape fucking snaps on the second listen? Fuck cassettes, man. But I'm totally gonna watch this anyway. (K)



9. Roland Kirk - We Free Kings (1961)
He's got a massive discography, hard to navigate. This is one of his early efforts. Strutting through post Charlie Parker bop and soul. Added bonus: Flutes!!! (S)



8. The Sleaze - Smokin' Fuckin' Cigs
Bunch of apes in a go-nowhere garage band from nowhere singing about how there's nothing to do but sit around and smoke smokes and stare at each other. So beautiful it makes me wanna cry. (K)



7. John Mayall - Blues From Laurel Canyon
John has been overlooked by many. He is remembered most for the seminal british blues record that launched Eric Clapton further into super start 'em. Peter Green pre-Fleetwood Mac and Pre-Stones Mick Taylor. Largely thought to be just a traditional blues guy and rarely revisited by 21st century acid heads and freaks.The truth of matter, he was a 60's freakster freek just like all the rest, banging out garage stomp classics like Witch Doctor and jazzed up work outs like Room to Move. Blues from Laurel Canyon brings us awesome fuzzed-up long hair music  along side heavy lidded folk tinged drones. Blues inspired yes but something all it's own and completely demonological. Get hip. (S)



6. Yes is the Answer
So, this book contains essays and short fiction (!) about prog rock. This book will either make you love prog rock more than you ever did, or hate it even more passionately. I haven't even read it yet, but the watercolor cover makes me love AND hate prog more than ever. Prog will not be denied, brothers and sisters. It's inside us all. (K)



5. Heavy Metal Archaeological Discoveries 
Here is a list of some severely grim and totally fucking metal archaeological discoveries.  Mass Viking beheadings, human sacrifice, giant bird claws, vampires killed with bricks, ancient chemical warfare, skulls stuffed with skulls, impossible stone statues, armies of clay soldiers, proto computers, scrolls and batteries from ancient Babylon. Any one thinking of forming a band should get a pad and paper out now! (S)



4. God's Cartoonist 
Awesome doc about Jack Chick, the religious fanatic who messed with kids' heads for decades with his sick little born-again weirdo comics. He's probably the reason Swilson and I are advanced demonologists today. He mighta invented black metal, who knows? Check it out. (K)



3. Da Captain Trips - Anechoic Chamber Outcomes I 
They can get the acid in Italy too. Somewhere between surf music and Ash ra kraut. Made for driving down a desert highway late at night. But I live in Jersey so I substituted the 10 freeway for the Garden State Parkway. Worked just fine. (S)



2. Outdoor Thai psych jam
I hate parties but I wanna be at this party. (K)



1. Lantern - Rock N' Roll Rorschach 
It's out now on Sophomore Lounge  and it' pretty much the best thing happening. Every song a super hit!  Certainly the album of the year for Swilson.  It's straight no chaser rock music with just the right amount of mystery, magick, sex appeal and weirdness that we all love and crave here at Advanced Demonology.  I've been a big fan of  Lantern's lo-fi recordings, but I've longed to hear them in a proper studio. I always felt the hiss and fuzz ascetic fogged stellar songwriting, killer riffs and undeniable swagger.  Too bad the time machine is broken because the next record deserves to be record at Electric Lady Land with Eddie Kramer, released on Atlantic and managed by Peter Grant. (S)

Saturday, January 26, 2013

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. Lantern - Heart In your Tongue
My favorite living band posted this groovy video of a recent live show in Philly. I dig the track, can't wait for more recordings and now that I live on the east coast I got to get over to the city of brotherly hate, and catch a gig. (S)




12. Pins and Needles
Hidden in a warehouse in LA, Pins n' Needles is an underground pinball arcade run by a saucer-eyed stoner chick, where long-gone daddies and roller girls can tilt the night away. Holy fuck. I think there needs to
be a satellite version in every town. (K)



11. Crime in The Streets
It's 1956, it would be first wave of many, of society sounding the alarm for juvenile delinquency and this is one of the best "JD" films of the era.  It's the late great John Cassavetes debut film. He plays a gang leader hell bent on revenge on his upstairs neighbor for snitching on a fellow gang member for packing a peace. He ropes Sal Mineo and Mark Rydell into his twisted scheme, only the plot is threatened when social worker James Whitmore get's wind of it. Will he stop the boys in time?  Cassavetes hits it out of the park acting wise and Mineo would earn the nickname the "Switch Blade Kid" (S)



10. Tara – Day By Day
Prepare yourself for the K-pop Apocalypse! This 15 minute head spinner has everything: bouncy jams, motorcycles, sword fights, hot chicks, more sword fights, Mad Max-y motorized mayhem, bunny rabbits, and the end of the world. Tara is next level shit, man. (K)



9. Nuggets From The Golden State: The Hush Record Story
A small record label from the San Jose area puts out one of the best selling garage rock singles of all time: The Syndicate Of Sound's "Little Girl". Lot's of lost gems here including The Brougues, starring future Quick Silver members, with their monstrous "I ain't no Miracle Worker", later covered by The Chocolate Watchband, and The Diminished 5th with a weirdo, almost X sounding "Doctor Dear". Get it! (S)



8. Iggy Pop: A documentary
Pretty awesome and thorough examination of the Stooges era, mostly straight from the horses' mouths. You don't hear Iggy explain those bizarro days with such clarity very often. (K)



7. Slade - Play It Loud
After bombing as Ambrose Slade, they dropped the Ambrose and adopted a skin head, doc martin image and put out Play It Loud. Thus further alienating anyone in 1970 England who might be into buying records at the time. Gradually they donned the platforms and rainbow patchwork bells and went to the the top of pops, Play It Loud all but forgotten. I scored a copy for a buck and low and behold it rocks! It's punk as fuck at least seven years before there was such as being punk as fuck and I think they look cool as skinheads. (S)



6. The Banana Car
The Dirty Brothers (!) built a banana car. And now they're gonna travel all over this land in it, spreading peace and love and warning everybody about deep vein thrombosis (!). They really should have done
this in 1967, but better late than never. I can only hope there's a Saturday morning cartoon based on their adventures in the works. (K)



5. The Life Of Oharu
Death, dismemberment, prostitution, and suicide . All the hallmarks of a great Kenji Mizoguchi film. The story is based on a book from the sixteen hundreds but it's told with a proto- feminist heavy hand. Most of his films follow a similar theme, maybe because his older sister was sold into white slavery? We love porto-everything here on the AD. (S)



4. The History of Black Metal by Fenriz
This was originally a DVD extra from Until the Light Takes Us, the recent awesome/ridiculous black metal documentary. Fenriz – one half of 'second-wave' BM chuggernauts Darkthrone- puts chalk to chalkboard
and explains how Sabbath and Motorhead spawned a legion of church-burning creeps decades later. I know, you hate school, but this is one class you'll wanna pay attention to! (K)



3. Stamping Ground Rotterdam Festival 1970
For some reason growing up, my local video store had this on VHS and I used to rent it every other weekend. I thought it was widely available only to never see it again until the inter web age. It's got some great footage of Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the out-tastic freak out band Family. Really good Pink Floyd stuff from Saucerful era, it's too bad that some of the bands on the bill weren't included, instead of a plodding Canned Heat, and a sputtering, one winged,  Jefferson Airplane. But our buddy Al Stewart is featured!  (S)




2. 31 Flavors
The Firebirds were a studio band meant to conjure up fake heavy-psych in a Blue Cheer/Hendrix vein. They released an album that's almost as heavy and just as weird. Word is that 31 Flavors are also the
Firebirds in disguise, and this ultra-obscure album from '69 is full of mind-frying aggro-psych. Not bad for fakes. Bonus: Distortions of Darkness's metal riffing may or may not have predated Black Sabbath by
a couple months! (K)



1. Pussy Galore Live 1987
Reunited once again with all my Records, I dug out some old Pussy Galore. Before the Blues Explosion, before Royal Trux, there was this abomination. Some how I really enjoyed listening to it again. I don't why because it's profoundly unpleasant. (S)

Friday, April 20, 2012

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. Spiritualized - Hey Jane video 
So, Spiritualized - the 90's psyche-drone-pop band that spun-off from the 80's psyche-drone-Stooges rip-off band Spacemen 3 is back with a spankin' new album called Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, and to celebrate, they've released a fucked-up, 10 minute-long mini-movie about a transsexual hooker who gets in a seriously brutal fight. I mean, that's not what it's about - I'm sure there's a deeper meaning to it all - but that's definitely what happens. (K)


12. Terror On The Beach
There were a few movies that used to come on television when I was a little kid that scared the living shit out of me. They would be burned in my memory like a bad dream. The rest of my life I would be wondering "what the hell was that movie I saw when a was a kid, with that…..". Bang! the internet is invented and my problem is solved. (S)


11. Kim Jung Mi: Now
A Korean Psychedelic masterpiece produced by the great fuzz guitar player  Shin Jung Hyun. If you like moody female 60's euro-pop like Jane Birkin you'll love this. (S)



10. Kadavar
A trio of German weird-beards who lay down a seriously smokin' set of proto-metal slabbage on their self-titled debut (Tee Pee Records). These dudes have the whole package: songs about mountains, riffs copped from Sir Lord Baltimore, mental-patient mutton chops, etc etc. Also the dudes in the band are named the following: Wolf,  Mammoth, and Tiger. A stone groove. (K)



09. Robert Hazard and the Heroes
Ken and I were talking on a recent show about how at one point in time you could be big in one city and completely unknown in another. Robert Hazard is the best example of this. He sold 300,000 records in his home town of Philadelphia. That's huge! There is only 5 million people in Philly. I think he wrote a big hit for Cindi Lauper called : Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,  and than faded. (S)


08. Snow Cola 
there's been a lot of studies popping up lately suggesting that the chemicals in the food coloring they use in traditional colas will, eventually, cause you to stroke out. Now, I'm the kind of fella that enjoys the occasional soda, but does not care for strokes or cardiac events. So, good news: Snow is all natural, and the coloring is made from fruits and vegetables. How's it taste? Well, I've only had the diet version, and it tastes like...well, like diet cola. Disgusting, but oddly satisfying. I bet the non-diet cola is super-tasty, though. And no strokes. Hooray for bubbly brown liquids!  (S)




07. Mean Jeans
I was worried that the kids didn't want to party no more. I was worried that they was staying home on the inter web too much. I was worried that things were getting a little too "smart". I was worried that they only wanted to listen to emotional mermaids singing underwater in an electrified swimming pool(!?).  I was worried worried worried. Mean Jeans put's my mind at ease. Just some good ole American instant gratification. (S)



06. Roger Corman Cult Classics: The Nurses Collection 
Finally the Roger Corman Cult Classic series get to the nurse movies! Romance! Action! Violence! Friendship! TOPLESS NURSES! (K)


05. Kenneth Patchen
Poetry is dead so it's high time we enjoy some dead poets. You like popular music right? Well poetry doesn't have much to do with popular music, despite what they say, Rock 'n Roll is Not poetry set to music, sorry (I don't have time to get into why right now). The only thing that music has in common with poetry  is that popular music replaced poetry.  Because this short form of written communicate was in high demand for at least 1,000 years. Now it's not. Kenneth Patchen was a pacifist and a radical and was pretty upset by the way human begins mistreated each other and he wrote beautifully about it.  You should spend at least twenty minutes with him if not more. (S)



04. Bebel Gilberto
she's not Astrud's daughter, but she sounds like her. Sweet, breezy samba for lazy spring days. Lovely in every way. (K) 


03. SRC: Self titled
I've owned this record since 1993. I never really got into till yesterday. I read an article in the SHINDIG! Annual No.1 about them and it really brought me into the whole trip. They are from Detroit and while the rest of there compatriots were proto-punking and Mitch Rydering there way through  flower power, these guys were piper at the gates of dawning. I get it now! Like ALL of the great Detroit 60's bands they made all the wrong career moves and ended up in the dust bin. Bummer. But good news! it's 2012 and it's as relevant as anything else out there. (S)



02. Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 60's and 70's 
This seminal tome from Scott Aaron Stine has been out of print since the mid 90's and now goes for astronomical prices, but I just discovered that it's available on the Kindle for a low (well, in comparison) $14.99. If you have a taste for proto-splatter from the sick sick 70's (and the far-our 60's), then you'll love this book. Nice overview of the genre and dozens of reviews of twisted visions like Carnival of Blood, Criminally Insane, the Flesh and Blood Show, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, etc. Well-written and with enough suggestions to keep your Netflix queue stuffed for months. (K)



01.  Catching Playmate / attempted murderess Victoria Vetri on Star Trek……(S)

Friday, March 9, 2012

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. George Harrison - Beware of ABKCO
All advanced demonological roads fortunately and unfortunately lead back to the Fab Four. Everybody listened to them back in the daze, from Buffalo Springfield to Black Sabbath. It was the one thing almost everybody agreed on. George, the coolest and most understated of gang, recorded these demos for his "All Things Must Pass" record. It's nice to hear these tunes before that lovable megalomanic Phil Spector got his hands on 'em. (S)


12. James Levy and Blood Red Rose
I don't really know anything about James Levy except that he's a singer-songwriter type from Vermont. I don't know much about Alison Pierce, either, expect that she's one-half The Pierces, who do that accordian-driven goth-pop theme song to the Pretty Little Liars TV show. What I do know is that Levy and Pierce - as James Levy and Blood Red Rose - have a new album out, Pray to Be Free, and it's lead-off single, Sneak Into My Room, is amazing. If you dig Nancy n' Lee - or Serge n' Jane - you'll love this. Harmonies so sweet it makes me wanna cry. The album isn't quite as good as the single (is it ever?), but still, well worth checking out. (K)


11. Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader
If you've ever tried to trudge through Crowley's writings without being a full blown occultist freak, than you know how impossible it is to access what the cat was all about. Well the Portable Darkness is your 3 day pass. It's a small collection of his writings on his favorite subjects: Qabalah and Magick, Yoga and Magick, Sex and Magick, Magick and Law, and Lies. In laymen's terms he was a proto Freek reacting very psychedelically to the very un-psychedelic attitudes of post victorian England. Well worth putting aside any anti-new age sentiments that one might have for the few hours it takes to read this. (S)


10. Lonnie Mack - Untouched by Human Love
In 1963, country/blues/rockabilly pioneer Lonnie Mack released an instrumental single called "Wham" that leaned so heavy on the tremelo bar that rock n' roll basically just decided it was his deal and started calling it the "Whammy Bar". Lonnie went through many different stages and styles in his career (he's still alive and well and whamming it up but good), but 1969 was definitely one of high points, when he released two great albums, Glad I'm in the Band and Whatever's Right, full of his aggressive, soul-powered guitar and poppy, hook-heavy, bloozy, hippie-rock. Check out the killer "Untouched By Human Love" from Whatever's Right for a prime example of Lonnie's signature style. (K)


9. The Unband

Thanks To Ken, Swilson finally discovered the Unband and you all should too. Where were these guys all my life? Very Hot hot this week! (S)



8. Farrah. Sometimes you forget, seeing that the 70's are drifting further and further away, and then you stumble on a photo of her and it all comes back to you. The golden-haired goddess of the Me Generation, now and forever. (K)


7. Gypsy Girl (1966)

Hayley Mills stars as the emotionally stunted Brydie White who takes to burying dead animals in a church cemetery after the shooting death of a child hood friend. The town comes unglued and drives Brydie to take up with a band of Gypsies…sorta. This is a weird movie, it's got a great energy.(S)


6. Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008)
Great documentary about the sweet-spot in Hollywood (late 20's to late 30's) when the movies really WENT FOR IT, and films were filled with vice and debauchery of all kinds, before the Hays Code "cleaned Hollywood up" and left America to suffer through a decade or two of Mickey Rooney and Doris Day. There's also a corresponding book. I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure it's just as illuminating. It's available on Netflix and Amazon as part of the "Forbidden Hollywood" pre-code collection from TCM. (K)



5. Lantern - Burned Youth

Mellow, Exile on Main Street, pop-a-delic , swaggering, sing-a-longs from the urban backwaters of Philadelphia. Shake The 8-Ball the future Is always hazy.(S)




4. Doug Jerebine is Jesse Harper
Jerebine was a 60's garage rock hero in his native New Zealand, known for his impressive, inventive, and whacked-out guitar style. In '69 he split NZ and moved to London, where he changed his name to Jesse Harper (JH - you know, like Jimi Hendrix!) got a band together and released a demo of heavy, Hendrix-y psyche-rock. The demo was a winner and Doug/Jesse was being courted by major labels, but the dude had an epiphany - as many did back then - and split for India, where he joined the Krishnas and vanished from the rock n' roll map for over 30 years. Luckily, acetates of the demo survived and have been released once or twice over the ensuing decades, most recently by Drag City (home of the Jimi Hendrix of comedy, Neil Hamburger) ensuring Doug's status as a well-deserved cult-rock hero. Loud, wild, groovy, and seriously far-out, "Is Jesse Harper" is a tantalizing glimpse into what was and what could have been. (K)


3. Edgar Winter Group - They Only Come Out At Night
Did you guys know that every song is really good on this record? I didn't until this week. Not just Frankenstein and Free Ride ( those are still the best tunes but..). It's real beer can in the afternoon jammer. Great if your unemployed on a hot March afternoon. (S)


2. The Eccentropedia
Headpress is one of the most consistently inventive/alarming book publishers in operation (they even released a book by yours truly once). Almost everything they put out is aggressively weird/awesome, and their latest release is no exception. The Eccentropedia promises over 500 pages (!) of real-life weirdos:

" The most comprehensive book on eccentrics ever published. Everyone from George Adamski, ufo contactee, to Nicolas Zuniga Y Miranda, self-professed ‘President of Mexico’. Entries include both the contemporary (Michael Jackson) and the less familiar (Martin Van Butchell, dentist). An A-Z of eccentrics! 266 true stories of the most original and outrageous people on earth, from bad poets to transsexual evolutionary theorists this encyclopedic guide covering ancient times to the present, includes reams of material never seen in book form before. Famous eccentrics like King Ludwig, Salvador Dalí and Howard Hughes rub shoulders with a host of lesser-known, but equally colorful, characters in these - mostly - life-affirming stories. There are unsuspected parallels and connections throughout creating an alternative, off-kilter history of the world."

Sounds great, right? The book comes out in June, but you can pre-order it (in various editions) now, and you can take a peek inside, at the Headpress site. (K)


1. Ronnie Montrose -R.I.P.
Ronnie started out as journeyman guitar player and session musician, He played on Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" and Edgar Winter Group's "They Only come Out At Night" before starting Montrose With Sammy Hagar. He had a very heavy, straight to the throat , no frills, bring the fire way of playing the guitar. A wizard a true star. He was 64. Rest In Peace Ronzo. (S)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Demons: Jon Wolff

Jon Wolff


If you think too much with your heart, here is a warning: you might end up dead. Fuckin' Dead!!! Grass, gas, or ass no one rides for free. Hit the road in an appropriate style, a foxy chick on the passenger side. Jon Wolff apparently is a highly musically educated person, but he has not let all that fancy book learnin’ get in the way of his Steppenwolf like ID. He needs to get out of city, kiss public transportation goodbye, stuck it to the working world. Let your body and mind unwind girl. Skinny-dipping, His guitar is on shore but he wants more, what he really wants now, you want it too.

Like a rocket from the velvet tin mine of rural, Pennsylvania. This self produced EP is Jon’s 8th mesmerizing release. He dabbles in just about every musical style known to the self-proclaimed free world, but most of his recordings are in the Joe Satriani (be forewarned) guitar instrumental vein. On Nook 'N Boots its glam damage sex rock.

-Swilson

Monday, November 21, 2011

New Demons: Lantern



Lantern
Summer EP 2011

Sometimes Lantern sounds like James Williamson, Randy Holden and Darby Crash formed a Hasil Adkins cover band, to play a one off gig at a Delta Tau Chi fraternity party. Sometimes they sound Japanese. Sometimes they sound like the ‘65 Stones on lean. All advanced demonological street jive aside, what does it all mean?

Nothing. It just means that these new demons sound like a really sweaty, American (From Canada by way of Philadelphia), full tilt, rock ‘n roll band, out for a good god dam time. Don’t think. Drink! Kill!!!



-Swilson