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. Metal Queens channel on youtube This channelcompiles rare videos of female metal screamers from the 80’s and there’s a couple really rare/awesome clips in there, including Belgian devil-worshippers Acid and New York lingerie abusers Blacklace! (K)
12. Hackamore Brick Kama Sutra. What have we been telling you guys on the podcast? Everything they put out was great. Lost 70's Cult Band? I never met anyone who was in the Hackamore Brick cult cause I would of joined many goddamn years ago. This is right up your filthy, seedy, dirty little alley. (S)
11. Bloearg
The problem with Logan's Run? Not enough thrash metal. Bloearg fuckin' fixed that. (K)
10. Big Eyes - Almost Famous
That's pretty much all of these days-Almost Famous. A bunch of kids move from Jersey to Oregon. Why? Maybe to make a really awesome Rock 'n Roll Record. (S)
9. Black Metal Antiquarium
Wanna see cool old photos of weirdos, like Tom Warrior wearing a fuckin' LA Guns shirt? Check out the Black Metal Antiquarium! (K)
8. The Fall - Re-Mit
The new record is out. It's their 2,000th release? It's fucking awesome. Mark E. Smith is the Merlin the Magician of outsider rock 'n roll. (S)
7. Witches of God
Poppy, Bolanesque(!) stoner-doom jams pressed on tasty wax with a striking naked chicks cover. If you slept on the Bloody Hammers thing and missed out, well, the Witches of God thing is just like the Bloody Hammers thing. So don’t miss out this time! (K)
6. Bad Noids
The Cleveland metro area has been breeding disenfranchised youth going all the way back to the Civil War. Bad Noids are the latest crop of nihilists from the region to pick up an axe and a can of beer. This is some serious "folk" music (Hardcore is folk music) for people who are not having any fucking fun in life. Imagine stumbling on to this picnic in the woods? Much love. (S)
5. What It's Really Like to Work in a Music Store
I used to have a friend who worked at a music store. It was his dream job until he finally got the gig. It turned him into a neurotic wreck. He didn’t play his guitar for years after that dumb fuckin’ job. This dude, who posts short video snapshots of his life selling guitars and keyboards to people who have no business owning guitars or keyboards, clearly shares my pal’s pain. Funtimes. (K)
4. PC Worship
This came suggested to us by the kids in Lantern. It's really good. Undefinable weirdo rock 'n roll that infuses field recordings with break neck beats, psychedelic, folk and prog-ness. Out-tastic. (S)
3. Going Attractions
Probably the second greatest American invention (we gotta give rock n’roll top-billing), drive-ins were the perfect spot to lose your virginity or your mind. There still isn’t a better way to see cinematic trash like Astro Zombies or Bloodsucking Freaks or Hobo With a Shotgun. This new doc tells the whole sordid story. Bring ‘em back already! (K)
2. Kassidat: Raw 45s from Morocco
From the folks at dust to digital. This heat wave won't break and I feel like I'm melting. I needed some severely hot weather music to get me through. (S)
1. Blood Ceremony
I know, there’s a ton of femme-fronted “occult rock” bands out there and that we’ve mentioned just about all of ‘em here on the Top 13, but I am going on record to say that Canadian doom-folkers Blood Ceremony – who have a great new album out, The Eldritch Dark – are the best of the bunch. Why? Because FLUTES, MOTHERFUCKER. (K)
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. Rolla Olak
Canadian singer-songwriter who crafts some seriously affecting americana/country-soul/soft rock on his new album, Western Heart. Kinda like Tom Petty jamming with Neil Young at a party thrown by the Eagles in the desert in 1976. Plus he's got a cool name. (K)
12. SOUL! The first in a series of one hour programs aired Thursday September 12th 1968 at 9pm on PBS. Soul! was a show aimed at the NYC metropolitan area's black community. The ultra-sharp but low-key Ellis Haizlip hosted a range of African American guests ranging from Betty Shabazz (Malcolm's widow) and James Baldwin to Ron O'Neal and James Earl Jones. Coupled with awesome musical guests from every facet of the 70's pantheon of great black music. Sometimes they even had guest hosts like Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler! (S)
11. April & Nino April Stevens is probably best known for her crazy-sexy 1959 non-hit Teach Me Tiger, which was banned from radio play for its suggestiveness. That va-va voom tune almost axed her career, but luckily she found success with her brother Nino a couple years later, when they recorded Deep Purple, a million-selling smash hit. While they never topped the charts again, they did have a solid run through the 60's and early 70's. This Bandstand clip features their signature song, Hey Baby. You already know it, even if you think you don't. It's from 1965. The part at the beginning when Nino yanks April's arm bugs me, but what are you gonna do? Sibling rivalry. Anyway, great tune, great lipsynch perf. April and Nino are both alive and well, by the way, and they've got the old timey windows 98 website to prove it! (K)
10. Bathory - The Return…(1985)
After taking Fenriz's class on the history of black metal last week, I thought I'd check out some bands he mentioned that I hadn't heard yet. He spent allot of time on the Swedish band Bathory. After listening to their second record, The Return…, I know why. It's fucking scary, man! I mean it actually scares me! Now I know the point of all extreme Metal is to scare the shit out of people, which throws me off, because In my mind, making any kind of music is about getting laid, no matter what it claims to be otherwise. I guess I assumed in my head, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, Black Metal dudes where just trying to court creepy Nordic doomer chicks. But after hearing this I am now a true believer in true Black Metal! (S)
9. The Existential Dread of Wearecatfish t-shirts
Wearecatfish is just some dude/chick who creates t-shirt slogans and then hawks the tees via Zazzle, the cheapest, cheesiest t-shirt vendor going. I read through their entire selection yesterday and found myself laughing and wincing in equal measure. Imagine, strolling down the avenue on a bright summer day, wearing a pale blue t-shirt festooned with a message like, “I ate something weird but I don't remember what it was I think a piece of metal” or “Everything tastes better when you're crying” or “You can fill your stomach with french fries but you're still empty as a person” or “What year is this” or “What do straight people even do”, or (my favorite) “I need to go and lay down on the nearest floor.” I'm pretty sure they're all just Youtube comments, but still, perfect for when you just wanna confound/bum out everybody in the neighborhood. There's 14 pages of these beauties, randomly priced (naturally), on their site. (K)
8. Midsummer Rock
Here it is folks! The entire broadcast! The rock festival made famous by the fact that there's a sports announcer commenting on the all the rock action. Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Mountain and The Stooges, Iggy with the peanut butter. (S)
7. Hansadutta Swami
So you know how most loner folk dudes are just terminally depressed shut-ins from California? Well, this guy sounds like that, but he's definitely cut from a different cloth. Hansadutta Swami was (is?) a German con-man (he used to claim he was Hitler's cook!) who converted to Krishna in the late 60's but still swilled vodka everyday and eventually went to India and assassinated a high-ranking Swami. And then, when he discovered a reporter was hot on his trail, he assassinated him, too. This is all while recording a couple albums' worth of wobbly outsider psych folk. It's also possible that none of this happened, except for the last part. Either way, holy fuck. (K)
6. New York Dolls - One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (2006)
If you already checked this record out back when it came out and have an opinion on it already, move on to the next entry, But if, like me, you're a Dolls fan and were a afraid to listen this, I'm here to tell that it's a cool record. I always thought the Dolls were like the Beatles, a sum of each part, and without one of the crucial members it isn't actually the Dolls, but that's not really the point, is it? I mean the other guys are dead for god's sake. So on to the music. The songs are really good, David Jo's voice has worn well, he sounds old, but in an old blues kind of way, he sounds the way he was trying to sound like back in the 70's, if that makes any sense. Sylvain Sylvain is in there plugging away on guitars, so it's all good times. (S)
5. If It Aint' Stiff
Awesome BBC doc on the pioneering indie label Stiff Records, home of Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, etc etc. I spent the summer of '78 walking around town wearing an “If aint' Stiff it ain't worth a fuck” pinned on my t-shirt everyday. I was 9. I did not get the joke, but I did dig the records. (K)
4. ABC Movie Of The Week
It's now becoming increasingly more possible to time travel, like the character in the book, Somewhere In Time, by just surrounding yourself completely with artifacts from whatever particular time period you want to go to. I've been traveling the last few days to 1972, and the fact that youtube has all the ABC movies of the week on there has made it simple and fun! Check out this weird one with Donna Mills. There is a million more "great" flicks, and I'll be posting some future gems from the past here as I catch 'em. (S)
3. Vincebus Eruptum magazine
In an effort to reduce the clutter in my life, I've been trying to drastically cut down on the amount of magazines I read/collect. There are many plastic bins in my basement filled to the brim with mags covering my 60's/70's chicks/movies/rock obsessions, and I'm trying to keep them down there until me and Swilson and our ladies retire someplace sunny in 25 years and then I'll read 'em all while listening to Jeremy Steig bootlegs until I die. That being said, who can resist Vincebus Eruptum, a full color Italian stoner/psych/space rock mag (in English), that comes with a bonus CD of obscure Italian psychedelia? Nobody, motherfucker, so plunk your 11 bucks down and be done with it. (K)
2. The California Shake
If you haven't checked out theCalifornia show on Advanced Demonology yet, do it! It's fantastic and I can't stop rocking this song that Ken brought to the table. I mean this is pure Proto-Nothing Metal (Heavy metal themed with lyrics and intention with out the heavy metal guitars and blast beats etc.) You better get up, and run for a doorway! (S)
1. Spanish New Wave
This week on the excellentBooze Tunes Blog, they've been posting volumes of a carefully curated comp series called Spanish New Wave The Golden Age 1978-1984. I think just knowing this exists is explanation enough for why it's here. Get to it, lots of amazing tunes most of us have never heard! (K)
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. Burden of Dreams So Werner Herzog made a movie, Fitzcarraldo, about a bunch of maniacs dragging a ship through the over a mountain. For authenticity, he got a real ship, and dragged it over a fuckin' mountain. Burden of Dreams is a documentary that depicts Werner's descent into filmic madness. When Klaus Kinski seems like the sane one, you know you're in for a bumpy ride. (K)
12.Electric Holy Land I'm starting realize that Jesus is actually cooler than Satan. Not from an organized religious standpoint ( I don't know anything about that jive), but from a rock 'n roll stance, he's way cool. All the hipsters are absolutely afraid of him, he's a bearded longhair, digs wine, most likely digs weed ( just look at him), is full of spaced-out love for hookers and thieves and other anti-establishment low life's, and can do psychedelic card tricks. Jesus is totally underground right now. Electric Holyland is exhibit A in my case. 12 blistering tracks of spaced out Jesus rock ! All from the original master tapes and all with the consent of the original groups involved. Only 500 pressed up from Lysergic Sound Distributors. I got number 432. My only complaint is this could of been a great opportunity for a for a book insert about this phenomenon. Praise to the church of the cooler Jesus. (S)
11. Christine Delaroche – Le 4eme titre Delaroche is a French actress. I've never seen any of her movies. I don't know if that's even possible. But I tell you one thing: this video of one her pop tunes, from 1967, is AMAZING. (K)
10. Freak Out Total Vol. 33 I was drawn to this because of the the front cover, a kid being dragged away from the cops during some kind of presumably drug induced freek-out. The back cover is even more poetic. A man with a sombrero face down into a box of Molson ( I've been there, brother). Mucho Gusto is a cool label. They reissued The Hermans Rocket record that we played on Advanced Demonology Lesson 5. This is a great comp of french and french speaking Canadian flower power swagger that only the Gauls could swing. Only available on vinyl , no digital, no CD. So snatch it up! (S)
9. Dandy Warhols' new album There was a time in the 90's when I suppose it was cool to hate the Dandies, since they were the go-to psyche band for frat boys or whatever. But now they're old and we're old, so let's just get on with the jams.They've got a new album. This Machine, out this week. Lead single, Well They're Gone, sounds like the Dead Brothers Funeral Orchestra, which is suitably kooky, but my fave so far is snotty sike-punker Enjoy Yourself. I did! (K)
8. The Stranglers: Nice & Sleazy at Bittersea 1978 I've been watching this over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. (S)
7. Simon Sisters – Red, Red Rose If you've listened to the Advanced Demonology podcast, then you know I am a big fan of records made by the siblings of famous singers. Leah Kunkel (Mama Cass's sister), Kate Taylor (James' sis), LaCosta Tucker (Tanya's), Priscilla Coolidge, etc. Love 'em all. And while I can't quite get behind Lucy (Carly's hotter sister) Simon's solo albums (they're seriously syrupy) I definitely dig the record she made with her sister, The Simon Sisters Sing For Children, back when they were a coupla folkies. Originally recorded in '69 but then embellished with a session band for more of a 70's stoner-vibe and re-released in '73, it's essentially acid-folk for kids. Cool and kinda awesomely creepy. (K)
6. Fastest: Theme California is full of devil worshipping creeps and weirdos? Tobin Konradthe Yamaha wielding axe murderer that created this joyous horror show might be one of them. He pressed up a bunch of these CD-R's and left them on the doorstep of Aquarius Records. As far as I know the only place you can get it. I've been trying to wrap my mind around this all week and it's really starting to get weird around the Mind Warp Pavilion. I think I might have let a poltergeist in by playing it too much. Next level masterpiece? The keyboard noodelings of a madman? A C.I.A. plot to destroy the do-it-yourself musical revolution? YOU decide. (S)
5. The Hammer Vault Great coffee table-esque book that collects various Hammer Studios ephemera: script pages, props, film stills, unused posters, a blood n' boobs-drenched cornicopia of goodness from the sexiest horror film studio of all time, ever. (K)
4. Robert Frank: The Americans The dope shooting photographer who gave us the Exile on Main Street cover and Cocksucker Blues was actually a fine arts beatnik photographer (I didn't know that) and this is the book that made him. With an intro by Jack Kerouac, it chronicles his travels around the country clicking shots of everyday people like you and me and your grandma. Catching 'em in that right moment where you feel like you know that person without knowing them. That's what any great portrait artist has to do, don't they? This is a window into an America that the last traces of is literally about to disappear of the next five years or so. (S)
3. Marsha Hunt Meant to post this as a Hippie Death Goddess (of the Week) this week, but ran outta time. Marsha married the dude from Soft Machine, recorded with Marc Bolan, starred in the London production of Hair, played the Isle of Wight festival in '69 with her band White Trash, dated Mick Jagger and was the inspiration for “Brown Sugar”, recorded a disco album at Gorgio Moroder's Musicland studio in '77, etc. etc. What a career! And she rocked the afro/leather hotpants combo hotter than anybody. (K)
2. Sudden Death Compilation 1982 Long out of print. Dig around on the inter web you'll find it, too. Los Angeles creep punk mistakenly branded as "Hardcore", Red Kross and JFA ( banging War cover) are maybe the biggest names on here. The real reason to click "download" on this epic collection is "Massacre Killer" by Crankshaft……wow!! (S)
1. Future Disco 5: Downtown Express Latest installment of this pretty amazing series of “Nu-disco” comps. Nu Disco bands, it turns out, pretty much sound like old disco bands, only with more squiggles and squelches. Two discs, one mixed for maximum buggin' out, the other they leave up to you. You should know that I am thinking about installing a a mirrorball in Advanced Demonology East. This shit is getting serious. (K)
The Swilson band needs another member in the live Act. I would settle for a keyboard player who can double on electric guitar, or I would be into some wild haired, leather wristband wearing, acidhead who wants to Larry Wallis and Wayne Kramer himself all over the proverbial Polyester Shirt Polyester Pants. They gotta be the right fit for a band. They gotta share the Swilson blurred vision. I just assume that the more we play out the right man will come along. Chuck Berry on acid.
Sometimes for fun I comb the criagslist “musicians” page. It’s usually a really depressing task. With guys who want play in bands that are “serious” and “pro”. Sometimes you come across an incredible manifesto that someone writes about being in a band. Like if Carl Marx had written a book on the philosophy of what a band should be. I thought of copying some of them into a word document and putting them up on the blog because they can be amazingly entertaining.
Rarely in my search on criagslist do I find a great record? Spencer Jacob moved down here to Los Angeles from San Francisco and he’s looking for some cats to play with. He included in the ad a link to a record he made called Never Home. It's an authentic slab of loner, downer folk, that would fit into any Advanced Demonology podcast very nicely. The songs are simple and to the point. Mostly acoustic with just the right amount of electric freek out when needed. I doubt Spencer Jacob is the Larry Wallis I’ve been looking for, He has a will all is own worth checking out.
The Flaming Dragons Of Middle Earth are led by Danny Cruz. He has down syndrome and loves Sun Ra and Black Sabbath. He leads a revolving cast of non-musicains in a weekly Freek-Out that takes place at The Brick House Community Center, 24 3rd street, Turner Falls, Massachusetts, on Thursday nights from 4 to 6 PM. He makes the the most outside, outsider music in America right now.
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.
Caustic rock writer Byron Coley (who I used to rip off blind, stylistically speaking, back in my teenage sleazegrinder days), figures prominently in this creepy-crawly documentary about tuneless spacecase Jandek. He was one of the first scribblers to ‘discover’ the infamous outsider, so he gets to opine at length about the many moods of J. Which is cool, I mean, I’m not arguing. I’m just mentioning him because that’s how I came to know Jandek, by loitering in the store he worked at/co-owned/whatever in the 80’s, In Your Ear, in Allston Rock City (still running, I was there yesterday).
In Your Ear carried all – or at least plenty – of Jandek’s ugly ass records. They all had blurry black and white covers and they smelled weird, like old people, or rash ointment. I never once even considered buying one, but I figured must have had some kind of sizable following, since IYE carried so much of his junk. I also figured that every other record store in town probably sold his albums too, I just never checked, because what good J bands were there in the early 80’s, besides Priest, and maybe Joan Jett?
Turns out that In Your Ear was probably one of the only record stores in the whole country that carried his nightmarish releases, and the reason they were always fully stocked is because nobody ever bought them. By Jandek’s own admission, he’d only sold 150 albums, TOTAL, 7 releases and ten years into his ‘career’. And that ain’t much, even in the weirdo-slacker-punk-rock loserdom world of Lisa Suckdog and Eugene Chadbourne and whatever other loonies that snagged hipster ink in the 80’s.
Come to think of it, they were big on playing endurance-test records back then – I distinctly remember when the first Melvins album came out, and you could walk into In Your Ear on any given Sunday afternoon to hear the great crashing kinghellnoisedoom of “Gluey Porch Treatments” rattling the windows. So they might have played Jandek’s retard blues at some point, I dunno. All I know is that once around 1984 or so, Byron Coley said to me, he says, “Hey, why don’t you move out of your mom’s basement?” because I was buying a Truck Stop Women poster, which might have been suitably snarky if I was 25 at the time, but I was only 15. I mean, where the fuck was I gonna move to, Byron? Juvey? Fuck you, pal. And fuck your unlistenable Jandek bullshit, too.
But I digress. For the uninitiated, Jandek is a reclusive, possibly insane creature from Texas who, since 1978, has been releasing a cuppla albums a year that are filled with what sounds like a guy with iron claws for hands trying to kill an acoustic guitar while he bemoans his pitiable plight in a ‘singing’ voice that brings to mind a mental patient in the throes of violent hallucinations. Like, 20-30 album’s worth. Now, I realize that when anyone describes Jandek’s music, it sounds fun, like a hearty laugh at some fool’s expense, but it is not fun, it is SICK and AWFUL, and will only make you feel like crying. And if all you had to go on was how Jandek’s trainwreck musick sounded, then we would not be speaking of him at all. He would have been forced to melt all those awful records down and go back to muttering to himself on the bus. But because he so shrewdly marketed his music as the strange and mysterious ramblings of an otherworldly loner from Nowhere, USA, a cult of awe and reverence formed over the years, made up of over-educated rock scribes and desperate-to-be-cool college radio programmers and (presumably) hardcore masochists.
And so, a documentary, artfully shot by first time director Chad Freidrichs. Only one problem, though – the subject is nowhere to be found. About the closest Freidrich gets is a close-up of Jandek’s post office box, an audio interview from 1985, and an anecdote from writer Katy Vine (Texas Monthly), about the time she drank beer with Jandek, but was not allowed to ask him about his music. Compelling and puzzling evidence, to be sure, but the rest of the 89 minute doc is filled with talking heads like Richie Unterberger (Unknown Legends of Rock n’ Roll) and Dr Demento, who pontificate on who this bizarre anti-musician really is, and what, if anything, could this nonsense really be about?
And of course, nobody knows, not even Jandek. The tape of John Trubee’s ’85 Spin interview with J closes out the film, and it’s something of an anti-climax, because he sounds relatively normal, if not a little aloof and…well, kinda boring. Just another hopeless, tone-deaf rocker trying to move units. No wonder he refused to do interviews after that one, he would have blown the whole suicidal weirdo shut-in aura completely. Since the doc's release in '05. Jandek even made a few appearances in public, played a few awkward gigs,and basically admitted, yeah, I'm real. Weird, but real. And the world shrugged and went back to work.
So, it's a Use Your Illusion situation, really. You can walk away from Jandek on Corwood (Corwood is his one-man record label, by the way) fully convinced that Jandek is some sort of high priest in the church of the gonzo freakvibe sent here from Planet Thorazine to enlighten us all in the pleasures of sticking our heads in the oven, or you can take the more cynical approach, and just assume he’s a slightly imbecilic prankster with too much time and money on his hands, who doesn’t know when to quit. Either way, there remains a man named Jandek making miserable, scary puke-folk in Texas, and a whole buncha graying smart-asses in the rock-crit world that think he’s some sort of demented, reclusive genius, and this documentary will tell you all about it. Unless you like the sound of small things being eaten alive by bigger things, then there is very little chance that it will convert you to the cult of Jandek, but it will creep you out for days, and I can’t imagine the strange, elusive man behind it all would want it any other way.
