Driving a cab in Linden right now. Thanks for the energy boost.

Happy to help. Watch out for the Wendigo on 1/9. He usually hangs out around the dumpster behind the Burger King on South Stiles.

Something I neglected to mention: Not three songs into last night's first set, Winamp decided to lock up on me, and refused to function. I took Winamp aside at box-cutter point, and explained why it would be wise to cooperate. I get hotheaded sometimes. This took some of a short while; software can be stubborn—especially freeware. Because of this, you may have noticed an interval wherein LP-groove thuk-thuk took over early on. It's ok. I will always give you this—much better than not knowing. (Besides, hearing it now, it kinda worked! Worked well!)

Yes, the Wendigo is awkward; like a stilt-walkers' skeleton for sure. But it is the mind of the child which transforms the Wendigo into something not quite as laughable—a wellspring of HUNGER.

Some love, some love. Most especially for two absolutely enveloping sets of acoustic terror from Hoor-paar-Kraat, last night's very special guest. Also then, for the new Chris Pottinger, Dwarves (vintage), and the soundtrack to Messiah of Evil. Indeed!

Hoor-paar-Kraat's sets will post as mp3s next week to WFMU's Beware of The Blog and Free Music Archive. In the meantime, you'd do well to bide your good deeds, take care, and click on the "Wen-dee-go" above to access the playlist and streaming audio of last night's full horrorcast™.

Hoor-paar-Kraat visits the Castle, tonight

Never ask Anthony Mangicapra what you should get as your next tattoo—well no, I take that back, DO ask him, if you're prepared to chuckle to yourself for days at his response. My suspicion is that Anthony is possessed as much of Jack Paar, as he is of the son of Isis and Osiris.

Anthony is the joker in the deck of noise—a painter, draughtsman and a master of eerie sonic collage—a long-haired, formerly furry-faced, approachable guy, who's always ready with a good/bad joke and amiable conversation. That said, the man has a well-developed dark side, a Pagan nature, and a penchant for making your skin crawl with sound. His project since 1999, Hoor-paar-Kraat, has expanded these notions over many releases (some on Anthony's own Goat Eater Arts label), and encompassed a great many collaborators.

Comparisons could be made to the earliest-of-early Current 93 releases, or Nurse With Wound classics like Homotopy to Marie and Thunder Perfect Mind, though Hoor-paar-Kraat is almost as likely to hit the listener with rapid-fire comic cut-ups, as he is to creep you slowly with patiently building, nearly static, haunted hover of the highest order. You're in a chamber inside a pyramid, the air is absolutely fetid, but at least you've got a good drink in your hand, and a semi-comfortable seat—as Hoor-paar-Kraat has deemed it so. Anthony brings a unique performance to the Castle airwaves.

Check out these My Castle of Quiet streaming archives (1, 2, 3) to hear some of Hoor-paar-Kraat's recordings previously aired on the show.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-CLUNK. @ Midnight
H-p-K @ 12:30 approx.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

New on the Free Music Archive --- from 2007, S.k.i. M.a.s.k.

Early crunch and crumble from the members of OPPONENTS.

This is bedroom filth-noise of a very engaging order, like an urban-American New Blockaders.



Also see OPPONENTS' live My Castle of Quiet session from a few months ago, and other sloshy, screamy, vibrant, and/or metallic goodies at my FMA curator portal.

moonshine

The animals are going absolutely mad from my energy lately. At night, when I'm up and roaming the house, they follow me like a mini-stampede. I wish I could shield them somehow from the shards of my psyche; little tin-foil suits, perhaps?

Birthing anything is hard, and you don't need a Samantha Eggar-type brood-mother to tell you that. A painting, a piece of music, a love affair, a friendship, a business venture, a human being—all birthing is simply bubbling over with excitement, anticipation, and the most fragile of human emotions.

After a solid year back on the air at WFMU, I've lived a whole set of good and bad experiences I would never have had otherwise, because of my radio show, Web presence, and also my genuineness, my shitty temper, unmanageable sex drive, weird writing, coffee abuse etc. I've gained valuable allies, and been painted villainous in the eyes of more than a few others. I've lost people I didn't want to lose, simply put.

Ideally, I say, a man wants no haters—let everyone love me. I am, to be loved, finally, as I was born in the month of August, and lions like to bask. Understand, I DO FEED ON YOUR HOSTILITY, BECAUSE IT TASTES SO MUCH BETTER THAN MY OWN, A FLAVOR GONE STALE IN NEARLY 46 YEARS. I SPEAK TO THEE. Then, referring back, even if the ratio is 3:1, allies:foes gained, those are still terrible odds, near unacceptable for this child of the sun and fire. Perhaps I should have stayed at home last June. But, ah! What has been birthed CANNOT BE UN-BIRTHED.

Extra-special Castlehead boners on the playlist for The Birthday Party, Scorpion Violente, Flesh Coffin, Fecalove, and Treriksröset.

Click on the shotgun-blasted Brood kid to access the playlsit and audio archive of last night's horrorcast™.

Next week --- Hoor-paar-Kraat CUTS YOU UP.

That Tenacious Terrier Tasks Again; Cryptic Carousel Fest, Starting @ 5 Today in Brooklyn

Terrier, my collaborative project with Mr. Bob Bellerue, renders our second live performance tonight as part of the Cryptic Carousel Fest, a massive event of great music organized by Corey Bauer of Fluorescent Vibes and Cryptic Carousel Records, featuring more than a few of the artists who've graced the Castle airwaves. Tonight's lineup includes, but is not limited to, OPPONENTS, Nonhorse, Laurel Craig, Rust Worship (the latter two feat. members of Towering Heroic Dudes), the aforementioned Fluorescent Vibes, and The Alienist (Don Sigal, who often chimes in on our Castle playlists.)

For a full lineup and location info (Division of Human Works, 1501 Broadway, Brooklyn), click the CC Fest link above.

Hope to eat you there!

Terrier video, by Torsten Meyer.

killer babies are cool

I knew it was going to be a good night when C. Lavender showed up with disco fries. "Disco fries" are the closest New Jerseyans ever get to the Canadian delicacy of poutine (a slovenly dish with which I am unashamedly obsessed.) Even in Canada, melted mozzarella is often substituted for the fresh, white curds that make poutine special, to say nothing of the fact that Canadian gravy is generally more savory, and the fries themselves crisper and less floppy than the Jersey-diner standard fare. But I do digress.... All the talk of Vancouver on last week's Castle playlist got me a hard hankering for some sweet poutine, or its nearest approximation, so on the way home, I stopped at the famous Tick Tock Diner and got me some muthafuckin' disco fries. Exactly one week later, C. Lavender shows up to play, and immediately runs out to The Flamingo, the foulest of the foul of Jersey City eateries, and returns with—disco fries! Never, NEVER try and tell me that there is not a cosmic order to the universe, as there so very plainly IS.

Lavender's performance was possessed of the grace and consideration I always hope for in a Castle-guest set. She considered the opportunity (that being something more than a live gig, somewhat less than a recording session in earnest), the setting (a radio/music show "about" horror movies), planned a unique presentation, and delivered accordingly. Her set, as yet untitled, will post next week to WFMU's Beware of The Blog and Free Music Archive, the latter posting via my curator portal on the FMA, of which I'm quite proud. In the meantime, you can click on Jennifer's now-very-bloodstained prom dress above to stream last night's full horrorcast™ and also view the playlist and comments there.

Some love was expressed on our playlist (love being, after all, the law) not only for our guest, but also for Twin Stumps, Bee Mask and Habsyll.

C. Lavender is coming to kill you. You have about a day and a half to live.

You've heard Ms. C. Lavender sass me on the Castle program before, but that was all in good fun. Her sets tomorrow night, somewhat less so.

When she isn't lurching amps across the room with the Laundry Room Squelchers, or leaping into crowds off a Cock E.S.P. stage, or traveling great distances to play four-minute INC sets, C. Lavender is in her studio crafting the excellent tracks currently up at her myspace page.

Lavender, the multidisciplinary artist who formerly Paid you in Puke, now calls your marker with heightened brutality, all the more potent (in part due to that woman-energy stuff.)

Lavender has been an avid supporter of the My Castle of Quiet program from the very start, having initially put the word out online, and co-hosted the show with me twice in the past. She also contributed the chilling-yet-somehow-buoyant track "Rites of Winter" to the MCoQ 2010 WFMU Marathon premium CD. Now she returns to WFMU to ply her considerable sound-mashing talents. With her set-up always changing, and her sets varying in length and intensity depending upon the atmosphere of the performance space and the mood of the moment, I hope I don't have a big fuckin' mess to clean up. Haha.

I break open the doors with an impossibly huge graveyard cross @ 12 mid.
C. Lavender @ 12:30 approx.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

I'm pretty sure Lavender hates this set below, due to the unplanned radio interference, but I quite like the battle myself, and there's some wonderful sonic excitement (at about 3 min., the RFI goes down for the count.)

C. Lavender from My Castle of Quiet on Vimeo.

Upcoming Performances:

7/16 - Collab w/LDP for Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, NY
7/17 - Cryptic Carousel Fest, Division of Human Works, Brooklyn, NY

a place of extremes

If one were to observe only casually, or perhaps not even at all, one would likely not notice that she is, in fact, me. All pride is (finally!) lost in being dead and disposed of. And amid the putrid-organic decay, in the fetid ooze of matted hair, runny garbage and disease, new life emerges. Resistant life.

Nominated by Castleheads for best-supporting cast last night were Sensible Nectar + Gaybomb, Black Stepdad, the new Merzbow split LP on Chrome Peeler, the great city of Vancouver, cats, Raven's The Murder Sessions, and Hoor-paar-Kraat (coming to the Castle 7/30!)

She is me is beautiful even in death. The tender flesh of her arm, the gentle bumps of her chin bone, and the way her open eyes—now married to the void—bring out the teal in her dress. Rose's final indignity / divinity will take you, with a single click, to the audio archive and playlist of last night's horrorcast.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in last night and commented live. Many of you, were I to judge by the uh, loosened nature of your remarks, seemed more trashed even than the DJ, and that's saying something.

Next week --- C. Lavender LIVE!!!

HELLO FROM THE GUTTER WILLIAM!!!!!!

Never open the unnaturally glowing case or crate! Has this woman not seen Kiss Me Deadly? Of course, so many of the films we love so much, not least of all for their clunky spirit of inquiry, would be very, very short were it that the case never did get opened.

I've been pondering a lot lately about mini-universes, and about how everything small, every interaction, every relationship, every kiss—every set of music, in fact—really does contain all the information of some much larger version.

So I keep doing this thing, though in the late night, quite honestly, it does feel somewhat raped of its significance; just more weird shit relegated to the periphery. The playlist comments are fewer (though often more bizarro, which is welcome!), and the night gets sleepy as it wears on. "Why am I here?"

Some love on the comments board was felt (If I'm to read between the lines in several cases) for the Virginal Volcanoes track, Ghetto Rats, Missing Foundation, Cursed, and most definitely my special guest Two Years on Welfare, whose two sets were like magic beds, upon which we rested as they expertly navigated the stars, despite or perhaps because of Glenn Nelson's creative roots in "The Filthy." Psychedelic basement mire. Look for those sets, "Receiver," and "Swamp Ass," to post next week to WFMU's Beware of The Blog and via my curator portal at the Free Music Archive.

In the meantime, Jennifer's curiosity, with a single click, will take you to the full-length, streaming audio archive and playlist of last night's horrorcast™.