Horror, Lust and MS Paint

From July 2004. I cast some of my of-the-moment celebrity crushes in what I thought were appropriate roles.

Screen Captures of the Day - Deadgirl (2008)

I hope we're past premises that need to be, um, defensible, you and I. Way past it? Good, good. Deadgirl also sometimes has a dopey, WB-drama-style, boys-coming-of-age feel to it, but at least it's captured in an urban, working-class greeny-grey, rather than Everwood sunshine. A story with some significance does get told in there somewhere. Try thinking of it as a low-rent Picnic at Hanging Rock for horny, young boys—really horny boys.

I watched it last night and can't stop thinking about it—icky, yicky, sticky, and loaded with gore and grime. Filthy and disturbing, yes, but oddly arousing, at least to my socially cast-out, inner 15-year-old. And don't worry—the "deadgirl" of the title more than gets her redress.

Read an interesting interview here with the co-directors.

Josh Millrod accepts My Castle of Quiet MVP Award

For his outstanding work in both Grasshopper and Filth Beast, for making me laugh, and for being perhaps the most "unlikely" noise musician one might ever meet, Josh Millrod is this summer's My Castle of Quiet Most Valuable Player.

Last night, he graciously accepted his prize (convenience-mart-bought shitkicker hat, embroidered w/skull, barbed wire and flames); little did I know Josh would be wearing a t-shirt that featured a skull and flames, but his precognitive fashion sense was of little surprise to me.

GET EM WILL! GET THEM ALL!

Cosmic destiny, here I come! When you inject yourself into the interplay of forces, with sincerity and complete conviction, things happen. Magic works!

Last night's horrorcast™ brought joy to many—some of whom were completely not expecting it!

Mr. Okuyama, above, embittered and out of touch with his identity, can still lead you to the playlist/archive page with a single click on his bandaged face. Choose "MP3 - 128K" or "Pop‑up player!" based on your preference.

With the stars Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Mama Bär, Filth Beast, and Bee Mask.

Screen Captures of the Day - Ceremonia Sangrienta (1973)

When you wait years to see a movie, the expectations bar gets set pretty high, and a middling first reaction is almost a given, especially since this one was crafted by the magic fingers that made Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue), one of the best 70s zombie oddballers ever. See this Beware of The Blog post for my take on how Sleeping Corpses figures in the classic zombie-film pantheon. (Make sure to check out the zombie-sharkfight animated .gif in that post—my first animated .gif ... sigh.)

European horror directors loved to mine the Erzebet Bathory legend for exploitation fodder (see Walerian Borowczyk's odd and brutal Bathory segment in Immoral Tales, or Harry Kümel's Daughters of Darkness), and kooky Spaniard Jorge Grau was no exception.

Ceremonia Sangrienta is well-stocked with gothic settings and beautiful women, so depending on your needs of the moment, that may be enough. It does get rocking in the closing 35-40 minutes with bloodlettings aplenty and visions of the dead (see top.) I know I'll like this one even better the second time around.

she's a real cutie. you're doing great.

Sometimes 13 is just an unlucky number, even for those of us who have chosen (or in desperation, wandered down) the left-hand path. Jabladav/James showed serene patience when faced with my sickening technical incompetence, and gave good interview despite it all. Some good music got played. Entertaining, cathartic radio perhaps—I haven't ruled that out.

Clicking on the above image of Leila Waddell will take you to the playlist/archive page, where you can listen and judge for yourself.

Jabladav was the obvious star.
Every man and every woman is a star.
Somebody please punch me in the face.

Tonight, on the Castle - Jabladav

Jabladav approach black metal from a strikingly unique, idiosyncratic perspective, adding decided prog moves, Greg Ginn-style guitar freakouts, ambient drone, and even (horrors!) a well-developed sense of humor, to the expected obsession with graveyards, forests and the blackest blackness of spirit possible. Tune in when this NC-based, one-man metal phenomenon (aka James H.) joins My Castle of Quiet for a phone interview, the premiere of one brand-new, WFMU-exclusive track—"Loss"—and a sampling of the new full-length Jabladav release, Atta Vinter. The new track and album are nothing short of Jabladav's finest work to date, on a par with the Primland 2CD, in that these releases both heartily satisfy, as well as aggressively redefine, the sometimes narrow genre definitions of "black metal" and "progressive rock."

Doors @ 8 p.m. ET.
Jabladav @ 9.

The Harry and Cookie Awesome Show,

Ive been playing this at work. My customers are afraid.

Last night's horrorcast was like a real radio show—how in hell did that happen? Sets fell together like unusually well-organized armies of the dead awaiting instructions. Death metal/black metal/noise—pummel, pummel, pummel. Maybe there is something to this "Government of the Cosmos" thing.

With the stars The Berzerker, Liturgy, Gnaw Their Tongues, Crebain, Sudarium, Armagedda, Head Molt, The Decapitated Hed, and our brothers in the mystic, Telecult Powers. Star-fucking-studded.

Horror queen Patty Shepard (above) can guide you to the playlist/streaming archive page with a simple click.

Screen Capture of the Day - Corpse Mania (1981)

Not a Shaw Bros.-Hong Kong horror masterpiece along the lines of Black Magic 2, Killer Snakes, or The Boxer's Omen (BM2 being one my favorite horror films of all time), Corpse Mania still has its moments; there are several intense murder scenes, and weird visuals throughout. There's also a definite Bava/Argento/giallo vibe going on here. The story drags a bit. What can I say? I couldn't resist posting this screen shot.

Slasher Risk—I'll Take That Risk!

Brooklyn's Slasher Risk combine so many elements that I love: basement/practice-space noise; the sonic echoes of everything from Albrecht D, to The Velvet Underground, Total and Whitehouse; and an overpowering live show. Basically one man, one woman, one or two guitars, sometimes a drum kit, some effect boxes, and anything goes. Their recordings are eclectic and bewitching—from evocative interludes, to minimalist rock, to completely unhinged emotional release.

Their live set (or at least the one I've seen so far—ABC No Rio, 9/5/09) was mighty intense, providing that necessary pummeling we all need sometimes (admittedly, I probably need it more often than many.)

Here are some still shots, and a brief video to underscore my point. Many thanks to Witchbeam and those Grasshopper boys for insisting that I investigate this native euphony/cacophony.

[[Market Hotel show on October 3rd -- CANCELED. Watch the band's MySpace (link above) for upcoming gigs. Slasher Risk will be playing live on WFMU's My Castle of Quiet in October.]]

Liturgy - Pure Transcendental Black Metal

Some blurry iPhone shots of Brooklyn's Liturgy, blazing away last night @ Glasslands.

Coming to the Castle in October. Check out their new CD (vinyl coming soon), Renihilation.

I may never be able to listen to any other kind of music ever again. I am infected.

The number Eleven could go either way, but this time we were favored. Light and dark in almost perfect balance; nerve-wracking sonics and irreverent discussion walked hand in hand through a field of corpses aflame.

Selma above will guide you through the brazier, to the playlist and archive of last night's horrorcast; silly Jaime, he can't do much of anything.

Undoubtedly last night's stars were Caldera Lakes, who blessed us with a rough-cut preview of their new album. Also starring Yellow Tears and Merv Griffin.

Screen Captures of the Day - Der Fangschuß (1976)

Valeska Gert as Aunt Praskovia (above), and Margarethe von Trotta as Sophie, in Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuß (aka Coup de Grâce.) Not a "horror" film, thought it is most certainly horrific.