Sure,you know what's cool. But do you know what's really fuckin' FAR OUT? That's where Advanced Demonology comes in. 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. Marianne Faithfull: Dreaming My Dreams
Although I can't really deal with Marianne's later-career goth cabaret stuff, 60's MF was pearl: the doe-eyes, the mopey gloom-pop, the heroin, the black leather, all of it. This engaging doc from '99 - available streaming at Netflix- has lots of stories and vintage clips from her teenage smack goddess days. It's pretty stellar stuff. Plus, there's a clip at the very beginning where a 17 year old Marianne utters a line I am now adopting as my life philosophy: “No matter what they say about me, no matter what they do to me, my head is cool.” Awesome. (K)
Herve goes around the world with a video camera, visiting the locations of famous movies like the Exorcist, A Clockwork Orange, Rambo, Goonies, The Good The Bad And the Ugly. He than meticulously edits his camcorder footage with the corresponding scenes. The list of films is pretty long and the result extremely entertaining and informative. Great job Herve! (S)
11. Scorpion Child
Texan freak warriors channeling proto-metal godz from Zior to Pentagram. Best of all, their vocalist – almost always the weak point in dope-rock bands – is amazing! If I could pull off a denim vest at this point in my life, you better believe I'd be stitching a Scorpion Child backpatch onto it. If those exist. They must. Scorpion Child, please make some backpatches already, your legion is waiting. (K)
10. The Family by Ed Sanders
Ed was the main man behind the primordial punk band the Fugs. He wrote this book about the Manson gang in 1971 just one year after the trial. It’s mostly about the culture that surrounded The Family and Sanders follows every tripped out rumor he hears from every spaced out creep he meets on the street. The result is not all that factual, but man is it fun! It reads like a underground comic with Charlie making snuff films and conjuring up the devil. Monster Magnet could have written a rock opera based on this book. Try to get an early printing because our friends at the Process Church Of Final Judgment sued the publishers for defamation because of a chapter linking them to Manson. They won. (S)
9. Yoga
Who is Yoga? Where are they from? What the fuck do they want? I have no answers. All I know is this: this might be the ultimate couch-of-woe band. Like if you took every downer/bad-trip drug at once and washed it all down with a vodka from a plastic bottle mixed with Nyquil and then you spent all weekend watching Nick Zedd and Richard Kern super 8 movies on an endless loop, this is what the inside of your head would sound like. They have a new record, Skinwalker. You might want it. Then again, you might want to stay as far away from it as possible. Your call. (K)
8. Alex Harvey presents the Loch Ness Monster
Apparently Harvey took a break from his sensational band to make this spoken word album about the Loch Ness Monster. Wow! Alex Harvey is like an onion, man…. layers and layers. Do you guys believe in the Loch Ness Monster? (S)
7. Computer from 1784
In the 1780's, a German engineer invented what almost has to be the first working computer. It was used to compute the volume of trees. You can't check Facebook on it or anything, but holy smokes, look at that thing! You can read all about it HERE. (K)
6. Boones Farm Commercials
Everybody knows fastest way to headache land and rainbow throw up time. I just wanted to see if they made commercials for it. They did! Don’t join the apple core kids. (S)
5. 4D Space-Time Crystals
I've been reading up on these all week, and I still don't get what they are, but I think the important thing here is that “4D Space-time crystals exist, and we can use them to, among other things, create a clock that will keep time even after the universe dies. I don't know why we would need that, but perhaps it would come in handy at some point. Science is nuts. (K)
4. Anawa – Anawa (1972)
Awesome Polish pop prog, if there is such a thing! Lead by Polish singer, saxophonist, actor, cabaret artist, and trained typesetter: Andrzej Zaucha. In the late 80’s he became a huge pop star in Poland until French film director Yves Goulais shot him dead after a performance in the parking lot of the concert hall along with actress Susan Lesniak with whom Zaucha was having an affair. He got shot nine times. (S)
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3. Porno Star
Tina Russell is a long-forgotten porn-princess from the early 70's “golden age” of the adult film industry. Back then, most of it was being produced in New York and backed by mobsters. If you've read Linda Lovelace's book, you get the idea that it was all harrowing exploitation and rape, but Russell's memoirs are a lot more gentle, and you get the feeling she really enjoyed her sizable ('70-'75) stint as a skin queen. Still, she didn't exactly escape intact. Russell developed a drinking problem during her porn days and died of liver failure in 1981.
PS I don't know how many of her movies even exist at this point, but a lot of 'em sound amazing: “Joe Rock Superstar”! “The Erotic Adventures of a Male Chauvinist Pig”! “All in the Sex Family”!! (K)
2. Andy Pratt – Records are like Life (1969)
Yes they are Andy. Yes they are……….(S)
1. Butter
Great little indie-com about competitive butter sculpting in Iowa. I've been to Iowa, and I can attest that Iowa is the kind of place that would have butter sculpting contests. Olivia Wilde is AMAZING as a down-on-her-luck punk stripper who wheels around town on a BMX bike. (K)
Got any picks of your own? Let us know below!
