Advanced Demonology Podcast Lesson 10: Supersoft!

On this month's show, your fave couch-lizards lay down four hours of mellow grooves! Join us as we melt your anxieties and smooth out all your rough edges...prepare to go Supersoft!

Listen/Download HERE! 

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 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. Bloody Hammers
First of all, did you know there's an occult rock print magazine called (sensibly enough) Occult Rock?
Holy smokes! They even use the same font we do (I ain't mad)! Anyway, occult rock is clearly making a big comeback, and if Bloody Hammers is any indication of what's ahead, things are about to get seriously heavy. Clearly inspired by Roky Erickson and Black Sabbath in equal measure, this band is all meat, no filler, just bleary-eyed bikerdoom jams until your head caves in. Debut album (on vinyl, natch) coming in a couple weeks. In the meantime, dig these killer sounds. (K)

12. The Education Of Sonny Carson
Is the 1974  film based on the autobiography of one of New York's most controversial black community leaders. The Lords  got a fuckin problem with the Hawks and our man Sonny Carson is at the center of it. Like a runaway steam train, destination brick wall, Sonny has got nowhere to run sweet back run. He's caught between the man and the streets with there is no way out.  A cinematic blaxplotation gauntlet, this is black power at 24 frames per second. A forgotten masterpiece but not for long. (S)

11. Who's Who - Roll Jacky Roll
#666 in an ongoing series of records I'd really love to own but can't afford: this bouncy French disco rollerjam from '79 by the dad of one of the Daft Punk dudes! (K)

10. What we do is secret: The story of the Germs
Yeah yeah it's a bad movie, I know, two stars on Netflix, but hold on for second, let's look at what we are dealing with here. A work of art must be judged against it's peers, right? And what is this movie up against? Exactly! Other rock 'n roll biopics and we all know that this is the most failed and ill advised cinematic genre of all time. Unless the bands are over 100 years old they should just be represented by documentaries. Now I'm gonna say it right here and right now. This is the best rock bio pic I have yet seen ( I've tried to avoid them mostly).  That doesn't mean it's good or you should even go out and watch it.  What We Do Is Secret impressed me for what it didn't do.  It didn't try to mythologize the bands like The Doors movie or try to over dramatize or even moralize the characters like The Runaways movie. Instead it stays rooted in rock 'n roll fun, focusing on the rowdy, let's fuck shit up,  teen age, riot. The fact that this movie seems like a high school play, written by you and your friends when you were 16 only works to the it's advantage.  Shane West does a convincing job at playing Darby Crash and the on screen Germs are way more rocking and menacing than any footage I've seen of the real Germs. Shane did such a good job in fact that the surviving Germs reformed and had Shane playing Darby on tour. An act I find utterly depressing. As if we needed something else to remind us that Rock music has nothing at all to do with rebellion anymore, that's it just music. I mean how can it be anything but? Now a days kids have grandparents who grew up on Blue Cheer and Cactus!! But so what, great job Shane. (S)

9. Paul Williams: Still Alive
One of my fave long-gone 70's celebrities gets resurrected, sorta, in this weird anti-documentary. Basically Paul agrees to to film a doc about his life and career and then refuses to take part in it, while still allowing the director to follow him around all day. I would have loved an actual career-centric doc on the man behind "Old Fashioned Love Song", but there's still some real interesting bits on here, particularly a climactic series of clips featuring Paul guest-hosting on a talk show coked off his tits, saying shit like "I'm a devoted husband and father until I buy a plane ticket." Ha, the 70's were crazy. (K)

8. The Worlds Most Dangerous Drug
Speaking of fun loving teenagers. The kids from Vice head down to Columbia to scope out Scopolamine, the worlds most dangerous drug. A little bit can kill ya, and an even littler amount can put you into a hypnotic trance so that you will do anything anyone tells you to do. You're totally conscious and appear to be normal, but you're not really. It's a real favorite with robbers and rapists. Some real life horror just in time for Halloween. By the way these trees grow all over Los Angeles. (S)

7. Matthew Sweet - Devil with the Green Eyes
Matthew Sweet is responsible for, hands-down, the best power-pop song of the 90's (Sick of Myself). But he's got plenty more great songs, and I've been listening to this one all week. From his 1993 album Altered Beast, The Devil With the Green Eyes is his stab at Advanced Demonology, a dark, occult-y pop gem that sounds like Roky Erickson in a moment of quiet clarity. Dig this doom: "Devil with the green eyes/you were never meant to be mine/Cuz I came up from a dark world/ And every love I've ever known is dead". Haunting stuff, just in time for Halloween. (K)

6. Brain Donor
White face painted motherfuckers from England.  Motherfucking Kiss. Motherfuckin MC5. Motherfuckin Speed, Glue and Shinki. Motherfucking Julian Cope. Brain Donor has got a few motherfucking records out already and I just picked up Love, Peace & Fuck. It's drives like a motherfucker. Down the high-way head on, into the  motherfucking pagan dawn. (S)

5. Mae West – Treat Him Right
Hip til the end, in 1966, at age 72, Mae West hooked up with teen garage rock band Somebody's Chyldren to record an album of then-contemporary rock covers, Way Out West. And guess what? It fuckin' rocks! Here's Mae tearing through Roy Head's classic. (K)

4. Snow On The Bluff
The Education Of Sonny Carson is a Disney film by comparison. Aside from the suspension of disbelief that you need to except that this is in fact a stolen video camera, the rest of this movie is an utterly convincing portrayal of the mean streets of Atlanta. Curtis Snow carries the film with some amazing swagger and charm and somehow gets you to care about his character even though he's a robber and murderer.  Check it out. It's a damn shame that the so called drug war has turned neighborhoods into something resembling a third world civil war. A price worth paying just so people don't get high on the shit? America eats it's young, It's too bad it's no joke. (S)

3. Tales of Murder and Dust
One of the most gonzo freak-out nu-psyche bands in operation, these Danish loons take shoegaze-y acid spacerock to dangerous new heights. I remember when I was a teenager and my idiot cousin raided my uncle's medicine cabinet and swallowed a fistful of his heart pills just to see what would happen. A few minutes later, he was on the floor, gurgling and flailing. I'd like to think this was screaming in his ears at the time. New album available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp. I would suggest a one million dollar donation, but go with your heart. (K)

2. The Litter: Distortions (1967)
I had this record kicking around the stash for years and years and I've been told over and over again how heavy it is.  I don't know what it was, but I just never got around to it. Well I'm glad. I'm 38 and I'm disco dancing to Action Woman. People exhale them in the same cloud of reefer smoke as the MC5 and they are right, goddamn it. Barring the hallmark of righteous midwestern rock 'n roll: blood, sweat and cum. A true testimonial in the privacy of your own home is just a click away click away. (S)

1. Alan Vega: Collision Drive (1980)
Leather jacket juvenile delinquents frozen in ice, since 1958, return to 1980 as zombies. What's left of there brains has reduced them to only being able to speak in a rhythmic, repetitive stream of conciseness. Far out! (S)

0. Playboy Bunny Reunion photos
Artist/photographer Robin Twomey recently went to a Playboy bunny reunion and shot a series of portraits of aging bunnies from the 60's and 70's. It's a pretty remarkable testament to the temporary nature of physical beauty, and is either empowering or depressing, depending on your point of view. (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 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. Sacred Alien 
I've been on an NWOBHM tear lately. The best NWOBHM is the most obscure NWOBHM. I don't know why, that's just the way it is. I used to see ads for Sacred Alien gigs in Kerrang! back in the early 80's. Sacred Alien? Sacred Alien?!  I think they used to wear make-up, like KISS. I didn't figure I'd ever actually hear them. You didn't get to hear everything in the world back then. Now you do. And what do you know? Sacred Alien are...well, a mess, but a fun one. Far as I know, they only ever released this single. (K)

12. Wicked Lady - The Axeman Cometh
The combination of Whiskey and LSD can only be the explanation for the stone grooves that emanate. Culled from demos and what not's from 1968 to 1972. British? I didn't bother to check but I'm taking a wild guess. It's Like a back woods black mass for lorry-drivers. (S)

11. Blank City
Swilson and I both wanted to be brooding NYC underground filmmaker Nick Zedd when we grew up. But who did Nick Zedd want to be? This excellent documentary traces the history of the "transgressive" super 8 film movement in NY to it's post-Waters 70's roots. It's filled with lots of vintage footage of Steve Buscemi and Vince Gallo and Debbie Harry acting in bullshit death hipster home movies in their early daze and interviews with all the heavy hitters. Really makes me want to make a Super 8 movie! (K)

10. Workin' Man Noise Unit
Speaking of lorry-drivers, run don't walk over to band camp and fork over your two pounds for these two releases. The most recent, Serious Power Hour and the almost just as recent, Drinkin' Stella to Make Music To Drink Stella to.  It's blasting no holds bar weirdo rock. A friday night of doom, gloom, noise, fun, sun,  dope, tits, ass, beer, hash, glam, guns, fucking in the streets and than back to work on monday morning. (S)



9. Huntress
I am sorry for this week's Top 13 being so metallic, but I've been writing a lot for Metal Hammer lately, so what the fuck, it rubs off. Anyway, heavy metal is at its best when it's at its most ridiculous, and Huntress is awesomely ridiculous. Thrashy power metal fronted by a woman in a barely-there superhero outfit? YES PLEASE. (K)

8. Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live At The Hollywood Bowl
Ok so it's not all obscurity here on Advanced Demonology. I love Neil Young and I wanted to go see him play with Crazy Horse and I wanted to go to the famous Hollywood Bowl. Neil was great. For a guy his age he's still got it in the voice and his guitar playing is amazingly psychedelic and searing. The band was full of energy and would blow away most bands half their age. The set was dominated by the newer stuff off of his upcoming Psychedelic Pill record. It's not all that inspiring and he's starting to rip himself off, maybe. So the songwriting is slipping a little. As for the Hollywood Bowl, nice place but made for classical music not rock and roll. It's too constraining with the orchestra seat set up, and it's tough to boogie down. Not that this audience wanted to boogie down, or get up on the good foot, or even bop till you drop. They seemed kinda pissed to be there? I don't go to many "arena" shows and this is going to be the last one for a long time. Nothing makes you feel more insignificant and part of the heard. Maybe that's good for the baby boomers but not for us Loner Rockers. (S)

7. French Accordion Music
The other day I picked up an album called Bal Musette by Andre Beauvois, His Accordion, and His Orchestra. It's got a couple dancing in a cafe on the cover. The guy's wearing a beret. The record cost me one dollar. I thought to myself, there is no way this record actually sounds like it does in my head. Then I brought it home, and it turns out it sounds EXACTLY like that. And now it is my favorite record of all time, and French Accordion Cafe Easy Listening (whatever you call it) is now, officially, where it's at. Break out the croissants and fromage,  c'est une bonne soirée! (K)

6. Dave Tarras - Yiddish-American Klezmer Music 1925-1956
This music speaks for itself and if you need an entry point into the ecstatic world of Klezmer than start with Dave Tarras. (S)

5. The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema
This week's Advanced Demonology book club selection is Nikolas Schreck's exhaustive and authoritative guide to diabolical cinema. Packed with groovy photos, this unholy tome pretty much features every significant appearance of the devil in film up until it was published in 2001. Like many of Creation's books, it gets fairly academic in places, but what the fuck, where else are you going to find a whole chapter on Satanic silent movies from 1913-1929? Awesome stuff. As far as I know, it's out of print, but copies can be had on Amazon for about $25 and there's PDF's around. (K)

4. Halloweencollector.com
Mark B. Ledenbach is a serious Halloween collector. He runs a blog dedicated to help people find strange and exciting Halloween decorations from the past. His focus is mainly on the 1920's when Halloween wasn't a children's holiday it was for adults. So the decor form that time is particularly scary.  With it's dazzling gallery of pictures and it's informed histories I highly recommend browsing around this site even if you don't plan on buying anything. Scary eye popping stuff (S)

3. The 924 Gilman Street Project
Hardcore punk was the last non-commercial musical movement. Most of it was just a buzzy headache, but some of it was amazing (Misfits, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, DRI, DKs, GBH, Verbal Abuse, Discharge, Minor Threat, etc etc), and more importantly, it gave a whole lot of misfits and freaks something to believe in. the Maximum Rock n' Roll affiliated all-ages punk club Gilman Street is one of the longest-running, all-volunteer punk venues in operation, and if the spirit of hardcore punk is still alive, you can find it in there. This low-watt, high-energy doc is available from Jello Biafra's label. It's fun and informative and a lot easier than actually going to the club and getting kicked in the head by a 14 year old. (K)

924 Gilman St. Trailer New!

Scarred Films | Myspace Video

2. Timmy's Organism
My hip next door neighbor hipped me to this beautiful strangeness. Timmy Vulgar fronted some other weird rock bands and apparently is a well known artist. I don't know anything about that but Rise Of The Green Gorilla rules. (S)

1. Salem's Pot - Sweeden
This is a great way to spend the next 35 minutes. Just lay down on the floor and crank this until your mind snaps. (K)

Advanced Demonology Podcast Presents: New Demons

Tonight! Ken and Swilson delve deep into the NOW with blazing jams from "contemporary acts" far and wide, plus a smattering of vintage goodness on top! New demons, better than the old ones? Let's find out!

Listen/Download HERE!

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. Bucharest Metro Digital Library
Deep in the bowels of the Bucharest subway, there's a mammoth free digital library! Basically it's a giant mural on the walls at a metro stop. All the books and CDs pictured on the mural contain QR codes. Scan 'em and voila, instant culture. Amazing idea, we should have them here, everywhere! (K)

12. 1-800-Band
If you like exuberant three chord blasts, covered in sweat and sugar, all the way from Brooklyn music city, and who doesn’t, just dial 1-800-BAND.  Don’t really try to dial the number you’ll end up getting a credit card company. This is like if the Warriors were a rock band instead of a gang, and let me tell ya, they are having more fucking fun than you are right now, I’m sure of it. Check ‘em out live on WFMU. (S)




11. Expo '70
Justin Wright is the man/machine behind LA psyche-drone drug-bubble Expo 70. He creates towering monoliths of hazer stoner distress signals and rolling waves of hallucinogenic cough-syrup jams. He's got a new record out, it's called Beguiled Entropy (what?), and it sounds like all the dark secrets hidden inside all those really rough 70's detective magazines. Remember all those ads where you knew they were selling something fucking crazy, but you couldn't figure out what it was? It was this. (K)




10. Message From Space 
Keep in mind when your watching “The Japanese Star Wars” , that  United Artists spent millions of dollars to buy the film and release it here in the States.  Because Star Wars was so successful, how could they lose? (S)





09. Clothilde at Les Charlots
Incredible French TV special from 1967 featuring mysterious ye ye girl Clothilde, who released two amazing Eps when she was 19 and then vanished. Belying her dramatic tunes, this goofy TV show finds her in barrettes and a loud orange jumpsuit (!) lip-synching into the camera with a blank-eyed stare. This is alternated with the Les Charlots running around dressed up as schoolboys and whatnots. What does any of it mean? Who knows, but it sure is fun to watch! (K)






08. Los News
This is what scantly clad sorority girls at slumber parties listen to before they get killed by axe wielding maniacs, who won’t stop calling and breathing heavy into the phone. As far I can tell Los News are from Spain, and they should have called the band Corinthian Leather.  I don’t know if you want to drop 10 euros to find out why. If you drive a ’73 Dodge Charger you might want to consider it. (S)

07. Evil Head
A few years back, punk-porn princess Joanna Angel starred in a pretty amazing/ridiculous/kinda disgusting XXX Reanimator parody, Repenetrator. Well, just in time for Halloween, here's a new horror-sex hybrid from Joanna. Evil Head, as you might guess, is a sex-saturated satire of Evil Dead (or maybe Evil Dead 2? I get them confused), and from the trailer, it looks as nutty as you think it would. Boners will be popped, blood will be shed. (K)

Evil Head, Parody of Evil Dead from BurningAngel Entertainment from Joanna Angel on Vimeo.



06. Paths Of Glory
Look I’m sorry to recommend something like a Stanley Kubrick movie on the Top 13, I know we mostly dedicate our time to finding less obvious diamonds in the rough, but I never saw this flick and it’s great. So in case you never saw it, it’s streaming on Netflix right now. Spoiler Alert: There were no happy endings in World War One, millions of people died and it just lead to World War Two, only thirteen years later. (S)






05. Kings of Glam
Awesome BBC doc on the glory daze of 70's glitter rock. Lotsa vintage footage and new interviews with Suzi, Noddy, Jayne County, Rolan Bolan (!) and more. Great stuff, and the whole doc is on Youtube. Let's bend some genders! (K)






04. Grand Trine
A mix of proto-punk sleaze rock madness and free jazz, what’s not to like? The song titles read like an Advanced Demonology shopping list: I am magnet, catatonic state, love & napalm, prescription drugs, and Nazi gold. (S)

03. Electric Eel Shock  - Rock ‘N Roll Can Rescue The World
I watched the debates the other night, got depressed so I needed something to cheer me up. (S)

02. Eddie Harris – It's All Right Now
Went to the record store today and was lucky enough to score Eddie Harris's seminal '76 psychedelic-soul-funk-jazz classic This is Why You're Overweight for the less-than-princely sum of $2.99. Killer. This is one of the album's many sweet jams. When I listen to this, I really do feel like it's all right now. (K)




1. Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic By John “Drmbo” French
Captain Beefheart is a musical genius, but the guy who made it all happen was drummer John French. He wrote down what the Captain played on piano (mostly) and transcribed it for guitars and taught it to the band.  This is the craziest account ever of playing in a Rock ‘n Roll band. I’m not talking Def Leopard, with girls and drugs (well some drugs) crazy.  I’m talking Jim Jones and The people’s Temple crazy; I’m talking David Koresh crazy. It’s a miracle the story doesn’t end with mass suicide or the whole band going up in flames.  Captain Beefheart ran his band like a cult and John “Drumbo” French has the emotional scares to prove it. It’s done in a oral history style with French Interviewing most of the key players. Warning: this thing is a tome. Set aside at least a month to get through it. It's Everything you wanted to know about Captain Beefheart but were afraid to ask. (S)