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. Captain Beyond bitchin' live footage! 
A whole set, live from Montreux. Far fuckin' out. (K)

12. Super Ego 
These are my friends down in Brazil who make a most amazing cosmic witches brew of psychedelic free funk.  Like everything musical that comes from Brazil, it's awesome. Cosmic Moods / Mystic Groove is the latest, and I can tell you that the title is apt. Get down!! (S)


11. Camp Meeting Jubilee
From 1916. The first documented use of "rock n' roll" in a song. Pretty spooky, too. 1916 sounds nutty.  (K)

10. Wendell Harrison - Organic Dream
Wendell's organic dream is not the same as say, Whole Foods organic dream.  His dream is infinitely more cosmic and intensely sexual. Involving ginseng, love juice and a green meadow. Sounds like my kinda organic dream. Can you believe this space funk was recorded and released in the profoundly un-spacy year of 1981? It's sounds totally 1972. Speaking of 1972, Wendell Harrison put out a record called: An Evening With The Devil.  It just made this years Christmas list. (S)

9. Infandous
As close to a full-on nervous breakdown as I've ever heard in a "song". Outsider black metal from from the locked ward. (K)



8. Krypts - Unending Degradation
The first full length by Krypts is a never ending juggernaut of constantly interweaving death and doom metal.   For those of you who are hip to that world view but you can't decide if your more into personal individual death or the destruction of the entire planet and maybe even the universe. This record will help you figure it out.  (S)


7. Creepy 1920's Photos of the Boogieman
Ever wonder what was lurking under your great-grandparent's beds? Now you know. Sleep tight. (K)

6. Arrowwood - Beautiful Grave
This is sorta like if those two twins in The Shining that keep showing up asking Danny boy "to come and play with us" teamed up with Fairport Convention in an enchanted forest. Skip right to the title track, you're sold. (S)



5. Warning
Holy fuck, mask-wearing German early 80's death-disco freaks Warning have an actual VIDEO for their crazed "hit" Why Can the Bodies Fly, and it's as insane as you'd imagine. (K)


4. Keshco - The Blood, The Horror
They claim on the bandcamp page that they are influenced by Lalo Schifrin, NASA flight recordings, Elvis Costello, Lord Sutch and Iggy. I don't know but this is the closest thing we have to the Deviants in 2013 or maybe the Holy Modal Rounders. This thing get's more outside with each progressing track.  Is LSD still available on the streets of London? If it is contact Keshco cause they got it. This is real! (S)



3. Turmoil in the Toybox
Pastor Gary Greenwald was infamous for his 80's rants against backmasking and the "satanic" messages in songs as innocuous as Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'. He pretty much found satanic panic everywhere, even in kid's toys. This completely fucking bonkers show finds Gary exposing the terrible truth behind everything from He Man figures to Yoda dolls. Spoiler alert: God don't like 'em! (K)


2. Sabbath chopped and Screwed
Ever just drink too much cough syrup and smoke so many blunts that even Black Sabbath sounds too fast for you? I'm not sure who made this and to be honest I didn't bother to look into it. But whoever it is they did a great job, mixing in samples form movies, bong water bubbles and classical music fills. Wildly relaxing. (S)



1. Laibach documentary
The scariest joke band of all time? The world's most militant anti-militants? Tongue-in-cheek fascism? Disco for people forbidden to dance? The death and rebirth of rock n' roll? Yeah, all of that.

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. Barb Wire Dolls
If you base the quality of a punk rock band on how hot the girl lead singer is (and I do), then Barb Wire Dolls is the best new punk band in the goddamn world. I mean, holy smokes is this chick photogenic.  Their debut album, Slit, is out now. It's fun, poppy, snot-rock. The vinyl version is due out on  Jan 15th. Crazily enough, there's a doc in the works about 'em because they're the first punk band from Greece to make it (sorta) in the US.  Anyway, cool tunes, foxy chick, punk rock. It's can't-miss situation. (K)

12. The Visitors (1972)
You can tell right from the get-go this one is going to be a long slow bummer, 1972 Style. James Woods plays an ex-Vietnam vet who lives on a farm with his girlfriend, new born baby and an aging alcoholic father-in-law.  When they get an unexpected visit from a couple of his old army buddies who have an axe to grind about some shit that went down in 'Nam. Steve Railsback, who played Charlie in Helter Skelter, is as deranged as can be. (S)

11. Blood on Satan's Claw
I've been waiting decades to see this early 70's Satanic-shocker from Tigon, and it was worth the wait. Super creepy flick about kids in an 18th century British village pledging their allegiance to Satan, who stomps around like a mutant goat. I think Black Metal got it's whole schtick from this fucked-up movie.  Also, Linda Hayden is the most evil-looking 18 year old I've ever seen in my life. (K)

10. The Devil Loves Anal Sex
If anyone should know anything about the Devil and anal sex it's going to be gay porn star right? Joseph Sciambra was "saved" from gay porn and homosexuality by Jesus Christ. If you find this video compelling check out the rest of the story! (S)

9. Unknown Mortal Orchestra
UMO is a pop-psychedelic band from New Zealand and/or Portland (there probably isn't that much of a difference). Their second album, the cleverly titled “II” is out next month, and it's awesome, like the Polyphonic Spree on a hot dog budget jamming with Marc Bolan in a basement somewhere. Bonus: the cover has a naked Satanic chick with a sword on it. Double-bonus: pre-order the vinyl from the band, and get an art-print of said naked devil-childe to adorn your wall. (K)

8. Thy Courage Quail -Goblin's Gate
Really nice downer folk, good tunes, great banjo. Songs about being lost in the wilderness of life. "Old Fat Fox" is a highlight. (S)



7. Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings
Rack toys weren't good toys, they were the bullshit plastic junk they sold at the drugstore. They were also one of the greatest things about being a kid. Since they cost next to nothing, you could almost always convince your parents to get you a rubber Dracula or a Banana Splits kazoo. This far-out book collects hundreds of photos of these long-gone childhood trinkets. It's eye-popping and hilarious. I mean, really, a Police Woman Crime Lab Play Set? (K)

6. Puffy Areolas - 1982: Dishonorable Discharge
Brilliant! These serious down home rust belt belt freak out punks/pukes named themselves after something truly delectable, that doesn't get enough media attention, if yah ask me. My guess is that 1982 is the year these scumbags ( I mean that as a  term of endearment) were born?  Bongs explode and beer cans melt. (S)

5. Carny (1980)
I'm not sure why The Band's Robbie Robertson made and starred in a movie about carny hustlers, but he did, and it's great. Gary Busey is an evil clown, Jodie Foster is a teenage runaway, there's freaks and strippers and homicidal rednecks and hustles and hassles. Bitchin'. Really well made and cool flick. (K)

4. Black Science - An Echo Through the Eyes Of Forever
Like if Roky Erickson fronted the Cult or Guns "N Roses? Or maybe if the Replacements took acid as much as they drank? It's like cock freak out rock? it rules! it's really out of fashion to do this kind of thing right now whatever this thing is. This is some of the most out there shit in the out land I've ever outed. Do yourself a favor and spend the time on the lyrics they are fuckin' worth it: "Sitting out on your house, Watching hardcore U.F.O's , Drawing pictures playing solos till ten, are you amplified to rock?" If you order the "Chaos Magick Edition" of the CD the band promises to personally enchant the disc with a rare chaos magic ritual and they are not joking. The disc will arrive haunted! (S)


3. Krautrock: the Rebirth of Germany
Everybody loves Krautrock, ie weirdo German bands from the 70's who mixed rock with jazz, prog, punk and whatever else and made gonzoid experimental head-melter albums. But how did it happen, and who's to blame? This killer doc from the BBC tells the whole kooky story. (K)

2. Death Drug (1978)
This is a tough film to track down and an even tougher one to watch, but  it's worth it.  Philip Michael Tomas stars in an ant-PCP film. Only be careful, you might actually need to smoke PCP to numb the pain. (S)

1. Jessica Pratt
We didn't bother to do any end-of-the-year Top Ten lists because, honestly, there was so much amazing stuff this year that paring it down just seemed impossible to me. Clearly, we are in a rock n' roll Renaissance of some kind. But anyways, that being said, I do have a favorite album of 2012, and it's this one, the self-titled debut by Jessica Pratt. A singer-songwriter from SF, Pratt's plaintive folk songs are deadringers for long-gone hippie death goddesses like Judee Sill or Vashti Bunyan. Her album is haunting, eerie, melancholic, and amazing. I listen to it everyday. I believe I am bewitched! (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. Golden Slumbers
New doc making the rounds about the lost world of Cambodian cinema. Basically, during the psychedelic era, Cambodia produced over 400 home-grown films - mostly groovy fantasy flicks based on local mythology - but once Pol Pot took over, almost all of them (and many of the people involved with the productions) were destroyed. The stuff that remains (Crocodile Man!) is tantalizingly kooky. Golden Slumbers tells the sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant world of the Cambodian film industry. A must-see for fans of wild n' wooly world-cinema.(K)





12. Sweet Apple: Love And Desperation
I'm guessing everyone knows about this: J. Mascis got together with Cobra Verde madman Jon Petkovic and Dave Sweetapple from Witch, to belt out this heavy pop masterpiece back in 2010. If you also live five years behind the times, check it out. Every song is a super hit!  This project was apparently put together in order to deal with the loss of a loved one. (S)

11.Arthur Dave and Toni - Hearken to the Witch's Rune
Holy fuck, records don't get more 'Advanced Demonology' than this one. Stark, sparse, delightfully creep-o pagan folk from a trio of British weirdies whose day job was on children's TV. Only in 1970 did crazy shit like this happen. (K)

10. Juggernaught
These African rednecks play something known as Man-Rock. I don't know what that is, but does anyone know what anything is? Mountain Man is a  tune is from a record called: Act Of Goat. It's much better than anything that Black Label Society put out, in fact I think these guys are succeeding at what BLS is hoping for without even trying, Kinda like when the Faces out stoned the Rolling Stones, or maybe not. Maybe it's the reincarnation of Tad? Maybe South Africa is just like the Southern United States except with man eating beasts? (S)

9. Enterprise - Stages
Mexican nu-disco kingpin masquerades as mid 80's Mexican porn-soundtrack synth-assassin. Here's the tagline:
"Mexico, 1985, Nico Raibak is leading a small porn movies production company, when he decided to launch a new live concept linking the acts to the sound. After six months holed up in the studio with his actresses, they are on stage."


And here's the glorious results.


'


8. Angel Dust
Great "documentary" aired in 1980. This is all about kicking back with some PCP and is further proof that California is full of Satan worshipping creeps and weirdo's. Angel Dust is the nameless drug that you see in the after school specials that makes the kids think they can fly. When you watch that stuff in Health class  you say to yourself "I ain't never felt like I can fly when I'm stoned". Well, you just ain't tried Dust.  If anyone out there can track down the film "Angel Death", narrated by Paul Newman, let me know because I've been searching for since I saw it back in 1991. (S)





7. The Heavy Eyes - 2 demo 
 For a coupla dudes who made our bones on Stooges/Sabbath heavy-devy ass-rock, we don't really talk about it all that much on the Top 13. That's because it's a given, really. Who doesn't like, you know, The Devil's Blood or Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats? But every once in a while, a group of biker-grease scruffs release some new music that batter our earholes with such finesse and/or ferocity that we just gotta mention it. Southern lords-of-demonfuzz The Heavy Eyes just posted a couple demos on Bandcamp that will eventually land on their upcoming second full-length, and they FUCKING SMOKE. So check 'em out. (K)





6. New Dawn: Theres A New Dawn
This came out in 1969 but it's firmly rooted in 1966. They sound like they could be from Massachusetts but they reign from Portland Oregon.  Each tune is a sizzling weird bummer and I can't stop playing it. Lost classic. (S)

5. If Planets Orbited the Earth 
I mentioned this on the Space episode of the Advanced Demonology podcast. It's a startling/awesome/terrifying animation that depicts the Earth's night sky if the other planets in the milky way orbited Earth. Pretty much it would be panic-inducing. (K)




4. The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie
Flo & Eddie used to confuse me as a kid. They were talk show hosts? Record producers? They were D.J.'s? They played with Zappa….no wait, they were the Turtles? Anyway, now I'm old enough to realize they are just two of the coolest guys in rock history. Cool enough to be all those things. The Pholerescent Leech & Eddie is from 1972 (a record the drummer in Swilson turned me on too). It's an amazing ride of 70's sunshine, California groove, psyche and hard rock all swirled together with excellent taste and restraint ( not a quality I normally applaud).  We are trying to get them to produce a Swilson record. (S)

3. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Aufheben
So, fist fightin' psychedelic nutball Anton Newcombe fucked off to Germany a couple years back and has been picking away at the shards of his band, Brian Jonestown Massacre, ever since. Sorta comically, the latest from the Teutonictown Massacre gets released a week after their bitter cinematic rivals the Dandy Warhols (watch the awesome Dig! for further explanation). Aufheben is decidedly less "establishment" than the Dandies record, what with the generic sleeve and the lack of fuss or fanfare. It's also less overtly "rawk", but it's still a sweet, acid-fried ride nonetheless. Basically, it's a loose collection of groovy ragas with zithers and bloops and bleeps sprinkled atop rolling hills of glossy, glassy psychedelia. Great "couch of woe" type action.

2. Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Robert Aldrich (Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?) Teams up agian with Bette Davis for this star studded thriller! Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead and George Kennady co-star.  Murder! Mayhem! Deceit! It ended up getting seven Oscar nominations back when it meant somthing. (S)

1. Discovr
Apparently this is the number one music app in the world, so it looks like I am as behind the times as El Swilson, but if you don't have it, you gotta get it. Basically what happens is, you search on a band you like, it finds it (Replacements!), and then like an octopus, it offers up a fistful of other bands that have been crowd-sourced to appeal to fans of the original band (Soul Asylum! Husker Du!). And then you can do that with the new bands it found (Mathew Sweet! Teenage Fanclub!), as well. It's nuts.I'm using obvious choices here, but you get the idea. Full songs would be alot nice than just snippets, but still, as a music discovery tool, it's amazing. (K)

Let us know your picks! PS New episode of Advanced Demonology Podcast out May 19th!

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 results 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. Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid Psych and Experimental Folk By Jeanette Leech

I thought I was reading the same acid-folk book Swilson was. I wasn't. I was reading this one. And it's awesome. Stretching back to the 50's and ending squarely in the freak-folk forest of today, J Leech tells the whole twisty tale with flair and economy. Great stuff. (K)


12. Cactus "One Way….or Another" - Yeah I think they invented boogie rock ( not a good thing), yeah there's a bunch parchment farm covers, but it's easy to forget about all that once Jim McCarty steps on his ampeg scrambler and blind sides you with a heavy dose of bonged out  fuzz. Plus, how many bands can claim that their lead singer was….. machine gunned to death!!! (S)

11. Explorers Club – Grand Hotel 
70's style soft rock returns with a groovy collection of tunes by a new band from South Carolina that sounds like the Beach Boys rifling through the Burt Bacharach songbook on a sunny afternoon. (K)

10. Kenneth Gangemi "The Volcanoes From Puebla" - It's an A to Z travel guide to Mexico published in 1979 from the hilariously unique author of OLT.  The entries start out very objective and then get..well..subjective.  It's a fast read like all of Gangemi's books and all of his books are highly recommended. (S)

9. Last Days Here: The Pentagram Documentary

I remember hearing DC proto-doomsters Pentagram's first (sorta) album, Relentless, in 1985. At the time, it was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard. Basically I decided right then and there that I didn't need to hear anything heavier, and I still stand by it. That shit was pure, tree-trunk thick DOOM. At the time, Pentagram main-man Bobby Liebling was on the comeback trail; Pentagram (and his even earlier band, Stone Bunny) had been bringing the heavy since the very early 70's. Bobby's been a (very) underground cult hero ever since, which of course does nothing for his wallet or his sense of well-being. Turns out he's been teetering on the edge of oblivion for decades – doom, indeed. Last Days Here is the Anvil-esque documentary that will either make or break Bobby Liebling. Either way, it's gonna be a heavy ride. (K)

8. "Hippies, Hasch und Flower power" - A collection of 60's German pop reactions to the hippie movement. Some great tracks on here to cherry pick, but If you can listen to this collection all the way through with out going "verruckt", than mister your a better man than I. (S)

7. PP Arnold was/is an American singer who made her bones in Britain in the mid 60's, providing UK audiences with authentic American soul. She had great tunes and she also happened to be drop dead gorgeous. 

And she still is. Dig it. (K)

6. Square Grouper - An extremely entertaining, very sincere  and unusually sympathetic look at three separate stories of weed dealing in southern Florida during the 70's and 80's.  (S)

7. The Band in Heaven: An obnoxious, ungainly mess of fuzzy shoegaze, dreampop, and  psychedelic blow-out rock. The perfect teenage soundtrack for guzzling a box of wine and falling down the cellar stairs. I don't even know if they have a record. They don't even need a record. They can get by on pills and Youtube, I'm sure of it. (K)

6. Mellowtone Wolf Computer - Who doesn't want a Wolf Computer in the band?!?! I just got this stomp box and it's out of control. I can't seem to wrangle it. (S)

5. Jezebel (1938) I haven't been this conflicted about a movie in a long time. Bette Davis plays a southern belle/hellraiser who shows up at a debutante ball in 1852 in a racy red dress – I imagine the 80's equivalent would be showing up to the prom in a mohawk – and her brazen behavior ruins her life. 

Her boyfriend (Henry Fonda) leaves her and she loses her standing in the community. And then she spends the rest of the movie whimpering and begging for forgiveness. But then again, she was pro-slavery, so maybe she got what she deserved? Dunno. Also, is Bette hot or sorta homely? Also don't know. But it's all fun to think about. Cool flick!(K)

4. Chromium Dioxide Magazine – I should mention that I've yet to actually read this magazine; I just became aware of it a couple days ago. But here's the set-up: a print mag dedicated to half-naked chicks, beer-swilling, denim-vest heavy metal and obscure splatter flicks on VHS tapes. That's like me, at age 14, in a magazine. I WANT IN. (K)

3. Laya Raki. German exotic dancer/actress/singer  from the 40's/50's. 

She could apparently hypnotize men and cause them to walk into traffic. I believe it. (K)

2. Agwa:  Bolivian Cocoa Leaf Liqueur - This stuff is pretty good. You get a weird buzz from it when drank by itself, but it makes a nice mixer. It's good for a party. Get's the girls all giddy. (S)


1. Magpedia. The Movies About Girls show finally gets its own Wiki! Advanced Demonology included. If you want to find about about the roots of Advanced Demonology – as well as four-plus years of podcast craziness – check it out. (K)

PS Drop by this weekend for a brand new episode of the Advanced Demonology Podcast! 

New Demons: Spencer Jacob

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.




-Swilson

Hippie Death Goddess(es) of the Day

Joanna and Klara Soderberg are two teenage sisters from the burbs of Stockholm who craft swirly, woodsy folk-jams, dress up in hippie-chick rags and make Wicker Man-esque videos. It's acid folk without the acid, but twice the Swedish hippie chick.

They have a new album, Lion's Roar, out any day now. On vinyl! Sweet.

PS: If you have a little sister, she might also be into this band. They seem to have a pied piper effect on the kids. She could def do worse.

PPS:  the sisters are influenced primarily by Bright Eyes - which is still pretty good, for teenagers - but for street-cred sake, let's just say they are way into Susan Christie.

- Ken