Advanced Demonology 42: Bikers

This week, it's all about the big men with throbbing machines and the women who love them. It's about murder and 120 miles per hour, it's about flying into the very mouth of hell in the most dangerous way possible. Rev up your engines everybody because it's biker week on the Advanced Demonology show! Biker jams by biker bands for biker people all night long!

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. Blue Oyster Cult: Live At the Empire Concert Club Cleveland Ohio 1991

I never thought the day would come when I'm recommending a B.O.C. bootleg from 1991 but today is the day. These days the 8th wonder of the world has been reduced to playing chili cook offs and street fairs (I'm actually going to see them July 21st in San Diego..a street fair). This was recored for a radio broadcast and has the band in amazing form. They play all the hits with such ferocity and swagger it rivals On your Feet or On your Knees. (S)

12. Faithful Breath - Judgement Day 

16 blissful minutes of awesome late 70's Viking prog! (K)

11. Radio Birdman Live 1978!!!

Australia's answer to the Stooges and the MC5 by way of Blue Oyster Cult, I'm sure they are already your favorite band.  (S)

10. New Roctober is out! 

Roctober is one of the greatest music magazines of all time, ever, and they've just published their 50th issue, which also happens to be their 20th anniversary issue! 141 pages of arcane rock knowledge, weird interviews, kooky komics, and hundreds (if not thousands) of reviews printed in the tiniest font imaginable. So you might wanna break out a magnifying glass. Either way, this hefty tome will eat up your weekend, that's for sure. (K)

9.1968 Playmate Gale Olsen

On a recent trip back to the fatherland of New Jersey I picked up in some junk shop, a copy of From Playboy Press: The Youth Culture 1971. It's Playboys special report on what's happening with the youths in  early 70's America. It's got an awesome interview with Peter Fonda fresh off from the success of Easy Rider. He's a smart mother fucker. A cool story about a commune in New Mexico and a mind blowing panel discussion about Drugs with: Baba Ram Dass, John Finlator (former director of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control), Alan Watts, William Burroughs, Harry J. Anslinger ( who is 80 at the time and was one of the main men behind prohibition and was the guy who made grass illegal!), Leslie Fielder, and James Coburn. But the real star of the show is 1968 Playmate Gale Olsen, holy hippie death goddess!!! She would make a later appearance in the glad mag almost 20 years later and her daughter became a playmate in 2009. Wow! (S)

8. Outer Spacist - Even Iller

These Ohio spacejammers released a single a year or two ago, "I Don't Care About Love, Baby" that knocked me out with its aggressive Stooges-riffs and sneering punk rock vocals. They were like Flipper jamming with Gaye Bykers on Acid. I figured they'd break up or fall out of a window or something because they sounded too crazed to last for long. Well, lo and behold they managed to keep it together long enough to spit out a fantastically sleazy mini-album of scorching cosmic punk. Hot! (K)

7. Brion Gysin: Dream Machine

I missed the Brion Gysin retrospective when it was in New York and I don't think it has come to L.A. so the next best thing is this companion book published by Merrell. It's the first comprehensive collection of the proto-psychedelicist's visual work assembled in book form. His art is more a product of personal psychological experiments, than finished pieces and although not all that groundbreaking, they are extremely ascetically pleasing.  He viewed art as a method to induce different state's of conciseness in himself through the process of creation. I like that. (S)

6. Nihilist Spasm Band - Destroy the Nations

So, who really invented noise-rock? My money's on these loonies. The Nihilist Spasm Band was a group of Canadian musicians, artists, tinkerers and manic street preachers who built their own instruments and created an unholy racket with 'em. They called it "Free improv". Everybody else called it a headache. This was in 1965, by the way! "Destroy the Nations" is a tasty track from their 1968 album, No Record. Most of the original members are dead at this point, but the Spasm Band is still together, and still battering eardrums with abandon.(K)

5. James Knight & The Butlers: Black Night (1971)

Let's face it…when was the last time you put on a 70's soul or funk record and were disappointed. Maybe it wasn't something you'd remember forever but it wasn't bad, in fact it was probably better than most anything else you listened to that day, even your favorite rock band.  So when it comes to 70's Soul it's really only worth reporting the truly great finds here on Advanced Demonology.  James Knight's Black Night recored for CAT records in Miami Florida, 1971 is a truly GREAT find. In fact I think it might be the most Advanced Demonological soul record of all time. Tailor made for this blog.  The record effortless dances a tight rope between smooth easy soul, down home funk, blues,  fuzzed out psychedelia,  and free jazz without ever becoming one thing or the another. James belts out his vocals with punk rock vigor with no apparent real concern for staying in key. His guitar sounds at times like the distortion is being achieved by plugging it into a clock radio.  He has a matter of fact charisma that keeps the listener pinned to tunes like funky cat, uncle joe, and fantasy world. There is a beautiful cover of Aretha Franklin's "Save Me".  Further proof that Miami's greatest legacy is 70's funk….well second greatest legacy next to 80's cocaine.(S)

4. Virgin prunes - Decline and Fall

Holy fuck. No one would dare to be this ridiculous/awesome these days. 80's goth was amazing.(K)

3. Badmags.com

Before cable TV, before home video, before  the inter-web  if you wanted to get your cheap sleazy kicks, in the privacy of your own home your best bet was magazines.  Yeah sure there were porn mags but there was all sorts of other rags to get your rocks off to (mostly porn disguised as something else): Detective mags, True Crime, UFO mags, Biker mags….It's fun to collect these things now, especially since the computer age. The eye candy is great and it's a fantastic way to see how the world was viewed. What old school stereos are worth grabbing. How lecherous  squares really viewed hippie girls. It's a kaleidoscope of sleazy  selections that one might find overwhelming rummaging through thrift stores and flea market bins. That's where Badmags.com comes in. An extremely well thought out online guide to the perverted periodicals of yore.  Each entry well written with tons of awesome covers scanned in.  Even whole sections dedicated Manson, Ed Wood Jr. and Myron Fass ; the publishing madman behind such forgotten gems as: Gasm(!?!), Acid Rock, Buccaneer, and Flick (which if you look at the title at the right angle it looks like FUCK..brilliant!). (S)

2. Freewheelin' Frank: Secretary OF The Angeles As Told To Michael McClure By Frank Reynolds

"the Earth is hell and on it there are Hell's Angels" It's 1965 and Frank is in his early twenties and he is a young man in the throws of the demon. He is at the top of the food chain of the toughest biker gang on the planet and at ground zero for the unleashing of one of the most powerful psychoactive drugs known to man. The combination makes for an amazing read. One minute he's talkin' about loving everyone the next minute he's talking about stompin' a guys brains out. There is an amazing scene where he is chased by the SFPD on his bike while high on acid, caught and almost beat to death, when he ends up in front of the judge the next morning, still dosing, the judges asks him if he's got anything to say, he recites the entire lyrics from Dylan's "It's Alright ma".  The poet Michael McClure basically typed the book as Frank Reynolds talked, the two remained friends and when frank was sent to prison for arson in the 70's Michael sent him a book on zen to help him through. When he got out frank became a zen hermit and lived alone in the redwood forest, near a waterfall. He died in 2003. (S)

1. The Curiosity Rover is due to land on Mars in August. So how hard is it to drop a robot on to the surface of another planet?

 It's insanely hard. Check out this excellent video detailing the various means utilized to make it happen. (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. Disco Dracula - Betamax
whacked-out Nu-disco remake of "Soul Dracula", the legendary '77 dancefloor hit by German polyester-abusers Hot Blood. That song seemed pretty perfect just the way it was, but this one's a sweet, spooky jam as well. (K)

12. Ghost Blues: The Story Of Rory Gallagher
This is a really good, but not great doc on Rory ( he makes lots of appearances on the Top 13).  The not great part is the celebrity talking heads  included to give "credibility" to Gallagher's legacy.  The Fuckin' Edge from U2!  OK he's an Irish guitar player too……  Fuckin'  Bob Geldof!  Why the fuck is Bob Geldof famous anyway?!? Who the fuck listens to the Boomtown Rats!?!?  Other than that….this is well made, with great live performances and interviews with Rory's brother/manager and longtime bandmates. The coolest no fuckin' nonsense guitar player ever!  We will take what we can get. (S)

11. The Royalty - Lovers album
Texas band that basically sounds like retro soul-pop singer Duffy fronting a scruffy garage band that's super into 50's doo-wop. Great vocals, really catchy songs, more than a little weird. I'm into it.  (K)

10. The Great Unwashed: Clean Out Of Our Minds
A 1983 side project from  New Zealand's pop-a-delic  godfathers The Clean. Unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed super hits oh plenty. Nicked from the always crucial Ghost Capital. (S)

9. 42nd Street Forever: The Blu-ray Edition
This exploitation trailer series has been running for years now. There's even an XXX version. All of them are great and offer up many hours of entertainment as they unspool one jaw-dropping exploitation movie trailer after another. Now they've upped the ante with their first blu-ray edition: crisp HD transfers of bottom-of-the-barrel 60's/70's/80's cinematic swill. This one serves as a "best of" comp from the first two DVD editions plus a fistful of new stuff, as well. Overwhelmingly bad-ass entertainment.  (K)

8. Groundhogs: Uk Tour '76

Wow! Fuck! Holy Shit Man! Far Out! Heavy! I got a real kick out of seeing Tony McPhee's name on the 1976 Melody Makers reader's poll for the best guitar player in Britain, right next to that boring Eric Clapton, in the Gallagher doc (Rory he topped the list).  Captured live from that punk rock watershed year, touring to support the Crosscut Saw record, pure smoke on the water fire in the sky, cruiser's creek yeah. (S)

7. Run Angel Run - Tammy Wynette
Run Angel Run is a grubby biker flick from 1969. I haven't seen it yet, although I suspect it's exactly like every other biker flick ever made: hassles, weed, chain-fights, ol' ladies flashin' boobs. Regardless of its cinematic qualities, the fuzzy soundtrack by Stu Phillips is solid, and the kicker is the hazy, doomy theme song, by terminally depressed country crooner Tammy Wynette. It's awesome. If only Tammy actually starred in the movie too, as one of the aforementioned booby-flashing ol' ladies, then we'd really have something. (K)

6. Synanon
I watched the 1965 movie starring  Chuck Connors, it's a great film, and It got me reading about the real Synanon. Holy Cow!!! It was a drug rehab on the beach here Santa Monica. They coined the phase "Today is the first Day of the rest of your life". Well it starts out as a drug rehab….but like all things in California, it turns into a cult!!!!!  Shaved heads (Lucas used people from the clinic as extras in THX), forced abortions, child abuse, people not being allowed to leave, Tax evasion, a cultish concept called "lifetime rehabilitation", an actual underground railroad of sorts was started to get kids out of Synanon!  It did help people in some way, (see the 1962 Joe Pass record: The Sounds Of Synanon) but why did they have to take it so far?? Will Advanced Demonology devolve into a cult someday? I sure hope so. I'm sitting over here on a Parchment farm. (S)

5. Larger than Life documentary
When I was around seven or eight years old, I was nuts about Kiss. Of course, it was the 70's, and all little kids were. But then I turned nine, discovered AC/DC, and decided I was too mature for Ace and the gang. Besides, they were heading into some weird territory (disco, whatever the fuck "Music from the Elder" was, "She's So European", etc). By the time I was a teenager, they were deep into their "Lick It Up" era, which was...I mean, it was gross, right? And then after that, basically all you ever heard was Gene Simmons blathering on about how rich and successful he was. No rock n' roll in that at all. I guess what I'm saying is, fuck Kiss. But Kiss fans? Endlessly entertaining. Can't get enough of 'em. Enter Larger than Life, a documentary about a Kiss tribute band. It's like a suburban Spinal Tap with even worse haircuts. Awesome! (K)

4. LSD March: Under Milk Wood
Any band that names itself after a Guru Guru song has to be great, right? Japan blows mind again and again. Under Milk Wood is the entry point into the wild world of the LSD March. All things Advanced Demonological are represented here/hear, dressed in Nippon black cool, with ( stoned) zap comedy, and always  psychedelic artistic integrity. These are the people your parents warned you about…….psychedelic artist types……who are Japanese. (S)

3. Groovy Movies: Far Out Films of the Psychedelic Era
Even a cursory glance around here will give you ample evidence that Swilson and I are fairly obsessed with what could be comfortably be called the "psychedelic era", i.e. the mid 1960's to the mid 1970's. The music, the style, the mayhem, the kooky kults, we love it all. Naturally, the movies were pretty choice around this time as well, and this helpful, immersive tome offers up essays and reviews about all the various genre flicks splashing the screens during those woozy days: spy flicks, road movies, biker movies, whacked-out musicals, sexploitation, warsploitation, sun-baked spaghetti westerns, etc. etc. Dig in. Your Netflix queue will be fairly bursting by the time you're through. (K)

2. Ray Barretto: Acid
There ain't too much LSD marching on this record, I think Ray was trying to catch the hippies with a buzzword. But Goddam! This is a latin boogaloo!! BBBq, Beer and Weed for me, yes please. I just got back from a springtime vacation to New York City.  This is the soundtrack to the approaching summer. Listen to everything on Fania. (S)

1. Boob Mug!
Just got back from a week in Florida. I wanted one of these my whole life, and they had 'em at the souvenir shop. And now I have one. Mine says “St Pete's Beach”, because that's where I was,  but really, these are pretty representative of Florida as a whole. It's a very boob mug sorta state. (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. Wytch Hazel
Clearly, heavy metal's apex was the fertile time in the late 1970's when the famed and fabled "NWOBHM" sprang up in working towns all over England. A rock-slob reaction to the first wave of punk, NWOBHM bands like Angelwitch, Venom, Tank, and Motorhead took the spit n' piss of the Pistols and wrapped it up in all the goofy excesses of 70's arena-sludge. These bands had terrible haircuts and a lot of them had stupid names (Sacred Alien!) and many of them couldn't even play and only lasted for a 7" before imploding, but the freewheeling, ramshackle spirit of the stuff is pretty infectious, and it's hard not to like clunky mullet epics like Savage's Loose n' Lethal album or Girlschool's amazing/awful Gary Glitter tribute. Which brings me to Wytch Hazel, a new band from Britain who do a fairly amazing job of recreating the sound (and, I'm assuming the smell) of used leather and walls-o-Marshalls in Birmingham circa 1979. They've just released their first single (digitally), and it's a corker. Be sure to save some room on your denim vest for a Wytch Hazel patch! (K)

 12. Dire Con - Pills
Driven by a chorus lifted from  Marvin Gaye, this tune has the swagger. Fantastic first thought best thought rhyming lyrics that jumble into each other about the sensation that is sweeping the nation!  I think these guys are out of Knoxville? I think this tune is all they have up? I know It's very crucial to America that anyone in Tennessee with musical interests, outside of country music, pursue them in these Dire times….and the Con…well, all rock musicians are con-artists, really, and I got no complaints with that. (S)

11. The Midnight Archive
Demonologists (budding or advanced) will definitely want to check out The Midnight Archive, a great web-doc series that explores various facets of the occult and High Weirdness with a sober but inquisitive eye. There's episodes on ouija boards, a woman that mummifies pets, the weirdest spots in New York, and lots more. Great production values and really interesting subjects. Check it out. (K)

10. Those Were Different Times: Cleveland 1972-1976
Somebody makes the good point that had all of Cleveland's great punk bands not left the city for grittier pastures in the late 70's (Devo, Dead Boys etc.) that it would be regard as one of genre's founding bloody fountains. This comp of blistering and absolutely undeniable proto-punk certainly helps the case. This now completely out of print collection from 1997 focuses mainly on three bands: The Mirrors, The Electric Eels and The Styrenes.  Mostly Stooges rip-offs and Velvet clones, and the secret to their greatness is the fact that they were doing it in a time when The Stooges and Velvets were mostly despised. But that last statements sells this stuff short. These bands are all monsters in their own right. It's like you can hear the American dream dying. (S)

9. Jill Barber
Is there a less ridiculous word I could use here than chanteuse? Probably, but I don't know any, so Jill Barber is a Canadian chanteuse and her new album, Mischievous Moon, is amazing. It's got flutes and clarinets and pretty much every song sounds like something John Waters and David Lynch would slow dance to at their respective proms. Or with each other, if they went to the prom together. It could've happened. Also, this is great "mood music", if you know what I mean. And I think you do. (K)

8. The Mirrors - She Smiled Wild
When I grabbed Those Were Different Times I was really looking for this song. the Swilson band is going to cover it. The Mirrors really are unabashedly Velvet Clones fronted by an ex-Vietnam Vet (if I remember correctly). This youtube clip has been on constant rotation. I think I'm going to make up my own lyrics for the "verse" and keep the chorus. By the way, The Mirrors had a revolving cast of members except for Jamie Kilmek, and one of those members was drummer Michael J. Weldon , bashing away on the tune above, who went on to found the Psychotronic Video empire!(S)

7. Keeping the British End Up
If you're a fan of saucy 70's Brit comedies - the Carry On films, Confessions of a Window Washer, anything with Mary Millington - then you're going to want to snatch up this fun and informative book, which gives not only an overview of the Brit sex-comedy genre and it's principle players and plenty of (ahem) "inspiring" photos (some in color!), but also offers dozens of reviews of individual films. If you're a big fan of popped-tops, flipped-wigs, and the phrase "How's your father", then you'll love this book. (K)

 6. Dave Wyndorf Interview
Tom Scharpling from WFMU talks to my hero Dave Wyndorf in his kitchen in Red Bank  about being a kid in the 60's, a teenager in the 70's, GBGB's punk mayhem, early 90's drug rock , turn of the century rock stardom, overdoses, Norman Mailer, Gene Simmons, and Jersey!  It's Epic!! (S)

5. Charlene Tilton on roller skates, circa 1979 
I was only 8 when roller disco mania hit the US around the summer of '78. All the girls I skated with were also around 8 years old and I fell down a lot. So I quit, and considered the whole stupid "roller fever" a waste of time. But, I mean, just look at this picture. Clearly, if you were old enough to reap its rich rewards, roller skating to disco jams definitely had some serious sex appeal. (K)

4. Phil Yost: Bent City
Grabbed this off the mighty Ghost Capital blog. Released in 1967 on John Fahey's Takoma Records. There is no info about him out there. The record is a cavalcade of beautiful acid woodwind, that will make your house melt into your head if you play it while cleaning. I should know.(S)

3. Winchester Mystery House
I used to read about this joint a lot when I was a kid, and it really freaked me out. Basically, what happened was the widow of the Winchester rifle fortune began building useless additions to their mansion as a way of dealing with her grief. This went on for 40 years and the end product was a crazy quilt house filled with stairs that go nowhere and doors that open to brick walls. I dunno, something about that seriously creeped me out as a kid. Anyway, it's supposedly haunted (spoiler alert: it's not) and it's definitely unnerving, and I just found out that you can actually tour the place now! Holy smokes! If I'm ever in Northern California, that's where I'm going. I'll probably get lost in there and end up crying.  (K)

 2. Rory Gallagher: Irish Tour 1974
I bought this on blu-ray. It's freaking amazing! Rory Gallagher is the most exciting Irish blues guitar player ever. His records are good, but live…holy smokes!!!!  This is a great document because you can see how much the early 70's Irish kids love Rory, when he hits Belfast the kids go berserk.  Immediate and intense. Do yourself the favor.(S)

1. Satan's Satyrs - Wild Beyond Belief LP
A headache-making racket of greasy biker scuzz-rock wrapped up in a Satan's Sadists rip-off sleeve and pressed on red vinyl. I think your next move is pretty obvious. (K)

We are the Hellcats nobody likes

The Eye Popping Sounds of Herschell Gordon Lewis
Birdman Records

Sure, there's Jaws and Halloween, but this side of Hollywood, has there ever been a more memorable movie theme than the creepy two-note kettledrum death drone of Blood Feast? Sheep guts king and exploitation pioneer HG Lewis not only dragged the rotting meat and Karo syrup gag out of the gutters of German performance art and onto American drive-in screens with nothing but pocket change and an eye for shameless opportunism on his side, but he also did it all to the cock-eyed rhythms of his own hillbilly-skewed compositions, and if the self-penned liner notes on this amazing collection of songs from the abyss is any indication, than on-the-fly songwriting was one of his favorite parts of the trip. "Eye Popping Sounds" encompasses a vast array of his film music, from the aforementioned faux-Egyptian human sacrifice tunes from Blood Feast to the immediately recognizable ("Yeehaw!") redneck hoe-down mutant bluegrass of 2000 Maniacs. Herschell's son Bob even gets in the act with his high school buddies in Faded Blue for Get Off the Road, a ramshackle slice of 60's fuzz pop from She Devils on Wheels. Elsewhere,they perform the hilariously dated Blast Off Girls theme, and there's plenty of Lewis penned C&W and incidental tracks, as well as a few choice radio spots and dialogue snippets. If you're looking for actual good soundtrack music, well, you're in the wrong place, Jack. But nobody ever looked to HG Lewis for good, anyway. He's always been about cheap, fast, and out of control, and there's plenty of that action here. For fans of Lewis' notoriously sleazy world of trashfilm, or of cheap thrills in general, this collection is as about as mandatory as they come.

- Ken McIntyre