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. Sonic Flower – Black Sunshine
Blistering Japanese stoner-psyche freakjam that will cave in your skull. I like to wake up to this and then punch in a few windows. (K)

12. A Wizard A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio by Paul Myers
I was in the mood to read a book about music again but I wasn't in the mood to read one about drugs and debauchery in the wake of music. It's getting to be an old story with the same old ending, ether death or recovery, the former being more interesting than the latter. I've always been a big fan of Todd's and I knew he produced a ton of records but I never knew the details.  This is a great book about music. Just music. This is just Todd in the studio, there is almost nothing about Rundgren's personal life, it's just about him making records, for himself and others.  Todd was the king at the controls behind some great records: The Band's  Stage Fright, Sparks' Halfnelson, Bad Finger, Grand Funk, The New York Dolls, The Tubes' Remote Control, XTC's Skylarking,  Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell and million other stunners and mega-sellers. If anything it makes you want to check out a for the first time or re-examine a ton of cool records.  A refreshing look at the recording process and I loved every minute of it.  (S)

11.  Sexytime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur
Everything about 70’s (and half of 80’s) porn was fascinating. I mean, the movies themselves are kinda gross/boring, but everything else – the promotional art, the cheap, funky soundtracks, the crackpot producers and druggy stars – all endlessly entertaining. This gigantic book collects some of the cooler/weirder posters from the era in eye-popping full-color, and it’s awesome. Raincoat not included, but recommended. (K)

10. Steve Hillage "L"
Produced by Todd Rundgren (big surprise) this is Hillage's second and maybe most excusable record. Playful, funny, deep and massively psychedelic in a 70's post hippie kind of way that only Gong's guitar play could. Great covers of songs by Donovan and the Beatles. Note the trumpet solo in the clip below by free jazz trumpet player Don Cherry.  Flying teapot Forever! (S)

9. Halina Frackowiak - Wodo, Zimna Wodo
Polish  psychedelic funk is great, because…I mean, who the fuck would expect Polish psychedelic funk? And Halina Frackowiak is the queen of Polish psychedelic funk. Which is a real thing. (K)

8. Hall & Oates - War Babies
Who knew  the smooth operators from Philly could make a record that fits perfectly in the Advanced Demonology pantheon? But They did it. With the Help of guess who? Todd Rundgren. He also helped them get dropped from therecord label for making a scary record. But it's great! By far my favorite thing I've heard by these guys. Weird as hell. It's sorta about how horrifying everything really is. Supposedly it was about New York but ya know….(S)

7. Comedian pisses himself
I’ve watched this a bunch of times, and I  dunno if this is extreme anti-comedy or just a guy having a nervous breakdown, but either way, holy smokes,  this is a long way to go for laff. (K)


6. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - Eyes Like the Sky
These Aussie superstar garage rippers are already on the third full-length in 2 years. Eyes Like The Sky is a spaghetti western themed sleaze opera. They are teasing us with one song on bandcamp but I got my pre-order in and so should you. (S)

5. Berry – Le Bonheur
There is only one thing better than watching pretty girls twirl around in the desert singing folky  songs, and that’s pretty French girls twirling around in the desert, singing folky songs. (K)

4. The Ovations
It doesn't get much better than this. I'm addicted to soul and this is pure uncut soul, scored at the dope-spot. Because after hearing this version, I think this song is actually about Heroin…..I'm serious. (S)

3. Dead Malls
With the advent of internet shopping and the cratering of  the US economy, shopping malls have become less and less useful. As a result, many of ‘em are shutting down, and  the spaces are too big to do anything with, so “dead malls” are proliferating all across the country. Deadmalls.com is a website where you can check your state for any dead malls; urban explorers often take photographs of the decaying malls and there’s some pretty eerie videos on Youtube, as well. What will we do with these giant cavernous spaces? My vote is we bring back roller disco rinks. (K)

2. Mad River
A bunch of creeps from Ohio form a band in 1967 and head out to San Francisco for free love and revolution but end up taking too much speed which they thought was acid and accidentally play speed metal way before they or anybody else knew what it was. (S)

1. Ted Russell Kamp – Night Owl
Swilson and I have been going nuts over this guy this week. He’s the quintessential 70’s soft-rock/country-soul crooner, singing plaintive late-night ballads about long-lost loves, only he's not doign it in 1976, when it would have landed him at the top of the AM radio charts, he's doing it right now. This guy makes Dr. Hook look like GG Allin, but goddamnit, the songs are so good, and he clearly means every word, how can anybody resist? TRK, man. This motherfucker is the real deal.(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. Abandoned Suitcases of Insane Asylum Patients
Well, the title says it all, really. The Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane in Willard, NY, served and housed mentally ill patients from the 1910's until the end of the 60's, when it became the less sinister sounding Willard State Hospital. While clearing out some rooms in 1955, employees found a stash of suitcases brought there by patients and kept under lock and key for many decades. For some patients, the suitcase and its contents were their last connections to the outside world. In 2011, photographer Jon Crispin began a project: to photograph the suitcases and their contents. Fascinating, eerie, sad, and compelling. (K)

12. Viper Cobra
Glowing yellow and green raptors, sex dazed stoned blondes, the virgin mary, cool skulls, a flying rabbit shooting lasers out of his eyes at a moose! I'm describing the cover to Dinosaur Nation. The music itself reminds me of the Replacements on a date with Monster Magnet. I didn't think that would ever happen. Viper Cobra are from Rotterdam, so that might explain it.  (S)

11. Cerrone's Paradise
There once was a man named Cerrone. He was a weird, pint-sized Frenchman with a terrible mustache and a fondness for tinfoil tracksuits. Cerrone had a dream: to be the (French) King of Disco, and to have a harem of beautiful (French) Disco Chicks. If Cerrone had attempted such folly today, he'd be laughed at, humiliated, dismissed. But he did not attempt it today, he attempted it in 1977, and all of his dreams came true! (K)

10. Mother Dust - Volume 2
Outrageous bloody guitar freak-outs from modern day Krautrockers. I'm not sure about where Volume One resides, but you can score Volume 2 over at bandcamp. No other info avails.  (S)

9. Still-working 16th century monk automaton 
Looking for proof that demons once ran amuck amongst an unwary populace? Watch this. And then don't sleep for a week. (K)

8. Wire Demos 1976
Further proof emerges that Wire anticipated where punk was going  before it even really started. This is pre-razor sharp-ness Pink Flag. Young, loud and snotty. Heaping spoonfuls of Johnny Thunders, the Ramones and Black Sabbath.  One more cup of coffee brothers and sisters, head down to ghostcapitol and nick it. (S)

7. Idris Muhammed
Muhammed's 1977 album Turn This Mutha Out is heavy as fuck and smooth as silk all at once. If you dig flutes and the 70's and bad-asses and jazz-funk, you're gonna wanna ride this soul train hard. (K)

6. The Falcons
The soulful well from which Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Robert Ward, and Mack Rice sprang. What more do you need to know? (S)

5. Tina Aumont
Been awhile since we featured a Hippie Death Goddess. Tina Aumont (RIP, 2006) was an American/French actress who starred in many memorable Euro-spy, giallo, sexy-schocker and far-out art films in the 60's and 70's (Modesty Blaise, Torso, The Howl, Fellini's Cassanova, etc.) and was even in Jean Rollin's freaky Two Orphan Vampires in 1997. She was wild, beautiful, exotic. A true 70's supergirl. Check out Mondo-Macabro's mini-doc/interview below. (K)

4. Starbuck - Rock 'n Roll Racket
An apartment complex in Hollywood. Every thursday night is a potluck by the pool. Casseroles, California wine, California Grass, a little Bolivian, and a jello mold for dessert. You're 34, look like Burt Reynolds, and can score with some of the younger tenants.  (S)

3. White Hex
I can't figure out where they're from: Italy? Berlin? Australia? But then again, this is not the kind of music that stays grounded to one place. White Hex are narco-goths, playing a kind of drawling, intoxicating hypno-darkwave. This is probably what porn sounds like after you've gulped down a teacup full of hemlock. (K)

2. Aquarius Rising: The Rock Festival Years by Robert Santelli
Sure everybody knows about Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont.  But what about the Festival Of Life, or the Atlantic City Pop festival? This book is an amazing study of all the major rock fests in the USA during the late 60's and early 70's. It's no wonder we didn't see these kinds of events reappear until 30 years later. They were all a mess. Financial and musical disasters. The baby boomers really knew how to misbehave and they all thought they were entailed to a free ticket. It's a riot of a read. An important edition to any Advanced Demonologist's library. (S)

1. Tomita
Isao Tomita is/was an early pioneer of electronic music. He began his career creating soundtracks for Japanese sci-fi cartoons in the mid 60's and then went on to reinterpret classical pieces with analog synthesizers. In 1974, he created his Grammy award-winning masterpiece, the Snowflakes are Dancing album. The album features Tomita's all-Moog renditions of Claude Debussy's tone paintings. I have no clue who Debussy is or what a tone painting is, but I am telling you that this record is THE FUCKING JAM. (K)