Monday, October 31, 2011

BOMBER

Happy Halloween to you all and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mickey Dee of Motorhead who was born today back in 1963! Obviously, Mickey Dee is one talented bastard and I was reminded the last time I saw Motorhead back in February what a terrific showman he is behind that crazy kit. He makes it fun to watch the drummer and that most definitely is not always the case. Mickey also held down the fort for heavy metal back in the 90's. Do you remember the 90's? Trust me, you owe Mickey Dee a drink. He also performed on my two favorite King Diamond records Fatal Portrait and Abigail. Now, Mickey Dee did not play on the early Motorhead records that defined the band's raw sound and white line ethos but we also celebrate that most seminal (cough) era today. In fact, the classic third LP Bomber was released this very week back in 1979 and the rest, as they say, is history. It stands the test of time as one of the finest rock n roll records of the late 70's. To commemorate the occasion of its release upon the world (and to get candy from strangers) I glued Cocoa Puffs to my face and did speed for five consecutive days. Just kidding about that last part. But the Cocoa Puffs are very real. Trick or treat!

I REMEMBER HALLOWEEN

BOO! My third annual Halloween Mix Tape is now available for download at the indomitable Cosmic Hearse! Aesop Dekker has been blowing minds with obscure tunes every fucking day since 2007 and I'm honored that he's asked me to make my spooky mix tapes an annual tradition. I hope you get a little thrill out of the bloodcurdling ditties I've assembled for you this year. Or at least a laugh. In case you missed out, here's a link to last year's mix and my 2009 mix. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLIAM GIRDLER!

"The time has come..."
~William Marshall

That's right, boils & ghouls...it's almost HALLOWEEN! If you're looking to liven up this cold October with some sleazy cinematic treats, why not revisit the obscure, under appreciated, fucked-up films of prematurely buried auteur William Girdler? What??!! You never heard of William Girdler?! Well, today is his birthday and had he lived a full life he would be celebrating 64 years of mind boggling movie-making madness. Fortunately for us, he packed a lot of living into his brief existence and directed no less than nine films before the age of 30. To commemorate his birth and celebrate his frequently ignored legacy, I've pillaged the Destroying Angels archives to bring you this humble introduction to the mysterious young man who delivered such films as Asylum of Satan (1972), Abby (1974), Grizzly (1976) and Day of the Animals (1977). This tribute was written by Michael Grutchfield (aka, "Pope George Ringo II") and cut & pasted/footnoted by yours cruelly many years ago for issue #3. Click on the images below to zoom in, turn on and drop dead. Happy Birthday, William Girdler. Rest In Pieces (I couldn't resist).




Thursday, October 20, 2011

LOVECRAFT

Thanks to everyone who came out last night and joined me in invoking the season! Especially Ryan, Jason, Mason, Cassy, Meadow and our lovely LOVECRAFT bartender, Zoe, who really didn't have much choice in the matter. We'll do it again very soon...

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

SILVER SHAMROCK



As the veils thin and we creep inexorably toward the grave it is time to laugh at death, invoke the Old Ones and spill absinthe all over my records again. Tomorrow night I will be playing records for your listening (dis)pleasure at Portland's very own Cthulhu themed nightclub The Lovecraft. This will be a special evening of Halloween themed music, scary soundtracks and horror flicks projected on the venue's movie theater sized screen. It's almost time, kids...

THE LOVECRAFT
Wednesday October 19
421 Southeast Grand Avenue
Portland, Oregon
9pm-2am

"...stir the dormant sense of strangeness."

Saturday, October 08, 2011

PISS YOUR PANTS


David A. Hess
September 19, 1942 - October 8, 2011

It may seem quaint in these days of live streaming hardcore porn and jihad decapitations but when I was a kid Last House On The Left (1972) hit me hard and was one of the few pieces of cinematic art that nearly knocked the wind out of my young gorehound guts. I can still remember watching it in awestruck silence for the first time with my older brother and by the time the screen finally faded to black we both felt like our eyeballs had just been rolled slowly through some rank Stygian sewer. It was a mean spirited anti-joy ride into the shadow side of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and even the eventual parental retribution by chainsaw and toothy fallatio could not restore goodness or equilibrium to the world. Things go from bad to worse and everyone is complicit, especially the viewer. One of the main reasons this re-imagining of Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring (1960) worked so well was the absolutely unflinching performance by a rugged unknown named David Hess. Hess' seething portrayal of "Krug", the ultimate freewheelin' sociopath, was so unnerving that his greasy grimace would forever be associated with celluloid scumbaggery and he would go on to terrorize audiences with nearly identical roles in Hitch Hike (1978) and Ruggero Deodato's essential House On The Edge Of The Park (1980). I never had the opportunity to meet David Hess but my guess is that his real life temperament had very little in common with his violent onscreen rampages. By all accounts he was a laid back acoustic guitar slinger and a loving dad and husband. I sorta prefer to think he was Krug 24-7. Sadly, today we bid farewell to this cult actor, singer-songwriter and honorary eyeball rapist. In memory of David Hess' legacy I humbly offer up his original soundtrack for Last House On The Left, a film that was released the year I was born and had such an impact on me as a kid that I named my regular DJ gig in respectful homage, forever causing all manner of confusion among people who don't get the reference and believe every fucking month is my last month of spinning records (they should be so lucky). R.I.P. Krug. Enjoy:

Friday, October 07, 2011

BLOKE PARTY

DANAVA has kindly requested that I play records at their official record release show at East End tomorrow night. If you live in Portland, be sure to come out and grab their new LP Hemisphere of Shadows. The rest of you North American continent dwellers are advised to catch them in support of THRONES on their upcoming tour. Since hatching in 2003, DANAVA has metamorphosed like a strange chromatic insect and the latest offering is a beautiful hard rock creation fossilized with eerie sythns and duel shredding not entirely unlike Wendy Carlos doing knife hits with Jerusalem and Di'Anno-era Iron Maiden. Don't let any of the inevitable half-assed "hipster" and "faux-retro" descriptors throw you off the scent. This is a band at the glorious zenith of a long strange trip indeed.

THRONES & DANAVA
2011 TOUR DATES

Oct 12 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Oct 13 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
Oct 14 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Oct 15 - Tucson, AZ @ Solar Culture
Oct 18 - San Antonio, TX @ The 1011
Oct 19 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Oct 20 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
Oct 22 - Nashville @ The End
Oct 23 - Atlanta @ 529
Oct 25 - Baltimore, MD @ Golden West Cafe
Oct 26 - Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
Oct 27 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Acheron
Oct 28 - Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
Oct 29 - Somerville, MA @ PA's Lounge
Oct 30 - Providence, RI @ Machines with Magnets
Oct 31 - Portland, ME @ Space Gallery
Nov 1 - Montreal, QC @ Club Lambi
Nov 2 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Nov 3 - Detroit, MI @ Lager House
Nov 4 - Indianapolis, IN @ Vollrath
Nov 5 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Nov 7 - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
Nov 8 - Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
Nov 12 - Seattle, WA @ Comet Tavern

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Sunday, October 02, 2011

GROSS ANATOMY (part 14)

Welcome back to Gross Anatomy, psilvercybin surfers! Lately I've been doing lots of nostalgic rambling on the blog but today we unveil a new illustration I did recently for a local Portland band who asked nicely at precisely the right moment. Eternal Tapestry is a spacey jam band comprised of a bunch of music nerds who drink coffee in my neighborhood. They have a meandering krautrock sound not entirely unlike the more organic moments of Neu! and Can with a righteous dose of Hawkwind slipped on the tongue for good measure. It was refreshing to collaborate with a band that smiles often and doesn't pretend they're soldiers in an imaginary war (although they do fancy themselves "vandals of the void"). Absolutely no bullet belt pretense with these unassuming gentlemen. They've been noodling away in blissful obscurity for about six years and finally decided to take their improvisational magic carpet on the road to Europa. The tour kicks off this week with a string of dates on the east coast before they head overseas. Here's the shirt I drew to commemorate the occasion...

Brainstorm: As usual I started scribbling aimlessly until I landed on a sort of abracadabra formation of letters that seemed appropriate. I tried a few variations and when I showed my kids they immediately said, "A lotta' apes try?" Doh! They're grounded again.

Thanks to my kids' keen observation about the unfortunate accidental word formations in the earlier draft, I reworked things and flipped the pyramid for a design that would flow well with the proportions of a human body. Note to artists: drawing at its best is a solitary endeavor but it's sometimes a good idea to float your concepts past neutral eyes to get critical feedback that often strengthens your design. Especially the neutral eyes of cruel teenagers that don't mind ripping your ass apart.

Next, I took a bunch of hard drugs and went on a vision quest in the desert for 14 days. Just kidding. Instead, I penciled this sketch to make sure the symmetry and dimensions were approximately pleasing to the eye before hitting it with ink. I say "approximately" because I obviously never use rulers, Photoshop or even graph paper in the execution stage so almost everything I draw is slightly crooked, off-center and mathematically impossible. Get over it.

Here's a raw scan of the final inked art. The typography is based on the beautiful work of Rick Griffin, pioneer of the American rock poster and one of my heroes of post World War II art. I used a Micron .05 and black Sharpie to keep it clean and scanned it into Photoshop to adjust the contrast a bit before sending it along to the printer who worked his own special magic with silver metallic ink...

Most artists probably get scantily clad ladies to model their merchandise. I got this guy. Jed Bindeman is a drummer, prism light traveler and generally nice dude. It's psychedelic pizza time!

Here's a nice close up of the finished shirt. Definitely not as cool as the 5,000 people occupying Wall Street this week but it turned out pretty sweet and, as my daughter was pleased to announce, "Finally, you did a shirt I can wear to school!" Everyone's happy. If you happen to live across the pond near merry ol' Birmingham you can judge these galactic derelicts for yourself at the Supersonic Festival where they'll be performing along with Secret Chiefs 3, Scorn, Zombi, Turbonegro and Electric Wizard!

Until next time...
ride the silver machine and keep feeling mean!