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)
#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)
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)
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)
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 photosLeather 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)
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)
