Walpurgisnacht checklist:

—Blood of a virgin (Bottle King?)
—Send out naked altar offer mass-mail
—Invite local coven (they won't come, anyway)
—Hooded cloak @ dry cleaners
—Mark compass points on wall to avoid embarrassment (remember: "Leviathan is the West")
—Chalice polish
—Beer

Album of the Day - LFO / Freak e.p. and Video

Latter-day-Kraftwerk sifted through the distorted beats of the 90s dance floor. The singles "LFO" and "We Are Back" (both from 1990, and collected with remixes on a great Tommy Boy CD) are still some of the hardest, speaker-chomping fuzz-outs of the pre-Gabber era.

The Freak e.p. is undeniably LFO's other great masterwork, a percolator filled with candy and razorblades. The video for the song "Freak" is also good fun, and went nicely with the J-Horror films I was watching at the time it came out, like Uzumaki and the original Ju-On video series.

>>LFO - Freak e.p. + mpg video clip (2003)<<

As a bonus track, here's the theme from Uzumaki, "Raven" by Do As Infinity:

>>Bonus track<<

(Please remember, with coolfilehost, you'll need to click the "Get File" button twice to get the prompt to download. On the plus side, I think the links stay active for a long time.)

Last Night's Show...

Just in case you missed it, here's the direct link to the playlist and archived audio of my show on WFMU last night. The two hours flew by, but consequently, there was no fat whatsoever on the broadcast—nice and tight, like a latex mask.

Highlights included Guilty Connector, Repugnant and a new track by pHoaming Edison.

Thanks to Bethany for letting me fill in, and to Jed for stopping by.

Hey, I'm on the Radio Tonight

WFMU-FM, 10 p.m. - mitternacht, ET.

Melody will be available, but supplies are limited. Swine Flu inoculations administered virtually. Thick, ropy stream here. Live playlist with optional comments will be here.

Meanwhile, across the International Date Line, my show is already over, and Professor Dum Dum is cueing up a Mercyful Fate triple-play.

Album of the Day - Ghetto Rats

Some friends of mine from rural NJ. Improvised, not-so-harsh noise and circuit-bent percussion, by way of the Pine Barrens. The perfect gift for that special someone on Walpurgisnacht.

Tracks:

1. Tarpaulin 10:06
2. Church Fuck 3:16
3. Ghetto Rats Fight Song 12:18
4. Horrendous 13:22

Download:
Ghetto Rats - s/t CDr (2009)

Kustom Komp of the Day - Hemp-Hop

Originally posted April 20, 2006, on Beware of the Blog. Because I have no new ideas today.

Compiled in 2003 (so I guess it's worth revisiting at least every three years!)

This goes out to Terrance and Kevin, my old smoke buddies from Trenton, who introduced me to "haze," and tried in vain to teach me how to roll a blunt.

Lots of great tracks, especially the Luniz, Eazy E, and Warren G.

HEMP HOP
1 Bob & Tom – Weedies
2 Double D – Blaze A Blunt
3 B-Legit – The Hemp Museum
4 Eazy E – Down 2 Tha Last Roach
5 Iconz – F Heron
6 RBL Posse – Smoke A Blunt
7 Project Pat – Blunt To My Lip
8 Redman – How To Roll A Blunt
9 Total Devistation – Hemp Rally
10 Krayzie Bone – Smoken Budda
11 Warren G – Indo Smoke
12 Warren G – Smokin’ Me Out
13 Luniz – 20 Blunts A Day
14 Luniz – Got 5 On It
15 Trick Daddy – Weed Song
16 Dayton Family – Philly Blunt
17 Andre Nickatina – Smoke Dope And Rap
18 Dr. Dre – Blunt Time
19 Schoolly D – Smoke Some Kill

Screen Capture(s) of the Day

I had to go back and re-watch Amityville II: The Possession, if only because it seems to be the horror bread-and-butter favorite of Phil Anselmo and his pals. (First, the drummer from Necrophagia praised the 1982 prequel/sequel in the interviews on the band's Through the Eyes of the Undead DVD, then on a much more recent Superjoint Ritual live DVD, Phil takes the time out of a brief interview to rave about it too, and completely out of context at that!) That it should come up twice in hardcore horror-enthusiast Anselmo's video-release library tells me that maybe I missed some elusive greatness the first time around. I did remember Burt Young being intense and frightening as the hair-trigger angry Dad of the family, and on second viewing he did not disappoint. This performance is perhaps the grimiest in a long line of similar roles for Young, including Adrian's throw-the-Thanksgiving-turkey-into-the-alley brother in Rocky, and the thumb-chopping, lye-drinking Bed Bug Eddie in The Pope of Greenwich Village.

Amityville II is one creepy little bit of 80s ugliness—though for sure not a masterpiece—with Bava-seque colored lighting, a bubbling-skin possession motif, a dogged exorcist/priest, and a troublingly effective brother/sister incest subplot. If you aren't put off by some obvious visual references to The Exorcist and other assorted haunted-house movie clichés, you'll find yourself getting into this tale of rapidly escalating family violence and compelling demonic presences. You're also almost guaranteed to have that "need a shower" feeling when you're done.

The movie is based on the first-hand accounts of author Hans Holzer, whose ghost-hunting books captivated me as a youth. Holzer was investigating the haunting of the Lutz family, in the house at 112 Ocean Ave. in Amityville, LI, where the notorious DeFeo murders occurred in 1974. How much the fictional Montellis are intended to represent the DeFeos is questionable; though I haven't read the related books, I tend to think that a lot of liberties were taken. Perhaps someone who's actually bothered to read The Amityville Horror can fill me in.

The first link in the first paragraph of this post will take you to a Web site entirely devoted to the appreciation of this film (their page of audio snippets is especially enjoyable.) But answer me this—why, on their homepage, standing to the left of the priest, is there what appears to be a ghostly image of Kurt Raab in Tenderness of the Wolves?

Fetish Item of the Day - Wrath of the Weak

Just arrived in the mail from Belgium! The new disc by Wrath of the Weak (aka Jordan Buck from Buffalo, NY), a 3" CD mounted on a little block of wood, with a printed cotton slipcover—and the music's really good, worthy even of its thoughtful packaging. (You can hear some of Wrath of the Weak's "dismal wall of sound" dronambulism at their MySpace page.) My copy is #52 of an edition of 66. There were also 6 copies made with a leather slipcover.

The disc also marks the first release for the Luchtrat label, run by Jeroen Pede of the excellent Flemish black/doom band Alkerdeel. One might still be able to purchase the Wrath... mini CD, entitled Persse, for €6.66 (of course!) by emailing luchtrat@gmail.com.

Song of the Day - Yet Another Live Version of "Ruckzuck"

This wonderfully percolating, flute-free take on "Ruckzuck" is from a show at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 9.21.1975:

Kraftwerk - "Ruckzuck" 1975b

It goes to show how many different ways the simple but effective structures of Kraftwerk's tunes could be endlessly reinterpreted by them. They were still subtly reconfiguring their hits in live performance when I saw them in 1997.

Hell, I could create a whole blog devoted to the versions of "Autobahn" I have socked away.

Of course, you'll want the entire Fairfield Halls show, so download it here, from Guitars101.

Song of the Day - Kraftwerk / "Ruckzuck"

This particularly raunchy live version of the signature track from Kraftwerk's first album has so entranced me that I needed to rip the audio from the YouTube video in order to listen to it and appreciate it uniquely, separately from the clip. (Download below; I'm trying out coolfilehost, so be prepared to click twice on the "Get File" button—the first time a browser window pops up; on the second click you get your file.)

Kraftwerk / "Ruckzuck" Live WDR 1970

This track also seems to be an incredibly rare capture of a short-lived three-piece Kraftwerk featuring Ralf, Florian, and the late Klaus Dinger.

I've heard this song so many times, meditated on it, become one with it, even sampled it—and this raw, circuit-busting version lends yet another layer to my appreciation. In fact, I have another live version of "Ruckzuck" in my collection, another completely unique rendering from either the WDR version or the album version, so here's that one too—one presumes it's played by the familiar four-piece lineup of the band's most successful era:

Kraftwerk / "Ruckzuck" Live 1975

And here's yet another interpretation of "Ruckzuck," a video clip I posted a while back on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, this time by Ralf and Florian's pre-Kraftwerk band Organisation. (P.S. - the Krautrockteam links in that post are unfortunately inactive.)

(Not So) Scary Gifs 3

Accompaniment: Der Plan / "Wenn Du Nicht Zuhause Bist"

Hear Kurt Dahlke (aka Pyrolator of Der Plan, early DAF, Ata Tak records, etc.) tonight on Daniel Blumin's show on WFMU, 12-3 a.m.

_____ of the Day - Ken Freedman's Crazy Image Cache

I thought a had a pretty swell digital image library, bizarre and random, but my library of gifs, pngs and jpegs pales in comparison to the comments column of Ken Freedman's WFMU playlists. As far afield as Ken's sense of humor—or anything else he does—Ken's image shack is a windfall of mind-bending animated gifs, foreign movie stills and other confounding visual ephemera (not to mention corn weenies.) In the spirit of co-opting, re-posting, and a general celebration of the hungry ouroboros that is the Internet, here is my favorite image from yesterday's Ken show:

KO-KA-EEN!!

Says Ken: "I just browse around the web, looking for stuff that intrigues me. It's sort of the visual equivalent of pulling records for my show. ... I upload the images before my show and then create links, and during my show, I just cut and paste the links in to my playlist." Such modesty. I know from experience that doing a live radio broadcast, choosing music, keeping up with the real-time online playlist, and contemplating one's upcoming mic break already consumes a tremendous amount of psychic energy....

For more eye-popping entertainment, search the WFMU blog for Ken's Cleaning Out My Gifbox posts.

Screen Capture(s) of the Day

I've been waiting years for Guy Maddin's Careful to come back into print on DVD; I had never seen the film before, and it did not disappoint in its consummate weirdness and exquisite, labor-of-love production design (also rendered by the director himself.) Maddin was clearly inspired by both Kenneth Anger and the Kuchar brothers, but also by the German Expressionists (and by the unique obsessions bubbling in his own head.) Maddin seems disarmingly normal in the 60-min. documentary also included on the disc, though he does at one point talk about submerging his characters in a bog of blood, sperm and crystal. The newly remastered Zeitgeist DVD also features the wonderful short film, Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (see below.) See more on Maddin's page at The Auteurs.

Transmission #4 - Take a Feather...

Music by Birchville Cat Motel.

Link from Terror Noise Audio.

Album of the Day - Mount Vernon Astral Temple

Not nearly enough is said about the work of Scotsman Drew Mulholland. I started buying his singles in the mid-90s, when he was using the Mount Vernon Arts Lab moniker. I appreciated Mulholland's unique approach to sound, and always kept up, on through his more recent mutation as Mount Vernon Astral Temple. This is noise-music reconfigured as psychedelia—and much easier on the ears—where power electronics meets its Krautrock godfathers in a wholly new sonic environment, buzzing and alive with alternating current. Since the folder I found this album in also included one track from the MVAT Untitled CD, released later the same year (both by Eskaton), I've zipped that into the download as well.

Mount Vernon Astral Temple - Musick That Destroys Itself (2003)

Drew Mulholland discography

Mp3 tracks come image-ready for iTunes.
Download link available for 14 days.