Creeping in for the kill.

A few words about me, as this blog used to be ALL about my tastes, commentary and obsessions, before the My Castle of Quiet radio show broke ground in June of 2009.

Who woke me up this morning? It's wasn't G_d, it was my iPhone alarm. I've been attending a weekly NA meeting, and I do enjoy the company and conversation (usually) of fellow and former addicts and substance abusers; I like the way addiction is the great leveler; in those rooms, black, white, young or old cease to matter. But why, oh WHY (!) does the seemingly ever-present spectre of a monotheistic deity have to enter into it? I am encoded with all the ways of right and wrong, right here in my solar plexus, and I never, but never, expect to be forgiven for my many misdeeds and bad behavior. The world, and life as we know it, is sometimes ordered, "destined" if you will, but mostly strikes me as a constant collision of random particles in chaos. I am alright with chaos, not the kind that strikes sometimes in daily life, but the kind that "governs" our progress. At the end of every meeting, I back out of the circle, I DO NOT hold hands, and I DO NOT recite the Serenity Prayer. May I never accept that there is something I cannot change, though I butt up against these things nearly every day. Accepting is a different ballgame, and I'm not a good batter, the outfield always came in when I went up to bat, but I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeve, and have spent my every day trying to be a righteous man and have gathered many an ally, simply by being a good person with no hidden agendas. G_d is not required, in my case, for a righteous path to be taken. Where it ends, I know not, but I won't blame my failures, aggravations, or disappointments on a misty deity, any more than I will humbly thank the same for my successes and good fortune in life.

Keep in mind, that here in the States, we stand a very good chance of having a new leader who wears "magic" long underwear. If a Mormon does make it into the White House, that desperate move to plead for Canadian citizenship may really be in order this time. Most of the people I know and talk to about these things, know that a third-party, truly anti-corporate-rule candidate is the only option to potentially "save" this country and our flagging economy, and that's just not going to happen any time soon. For that I DO blame G_d, or at least his concept, for keeping the masses complacent and "faith"-full, or full of faith, so much so that any man who wears the veil of righteousness, while underneath lies the prideful garment of a false prophet, can fool the great number.

Extremely awkward segue to this week's radio horrorcast™; I was feeling especially good, having turned an important corner in my personal development as a productive human being. My focus has shifted, in indeed a very positive way, and that is always cause for celebration!

Much love for -

Dead Times, and their split with TRTRKMMR (we heard the TRTRKMMR side not long ago); the label, Aum War, looks to be extremely promising.

Judas Priest's "Exciter." Priest are one of those bands that mark true metalheads, their brilliance, as a prog band, a hard rock/heavy metal band, and even later as a pop concern (conforming to the MTV times, as they did in the 1990s) will stand forever the test of time, and "Exciter" never fails to be a boot to the ass.

Demonologists, this time their Waves of Decay cassette release, Sermons of Death and Eternal Damnation, though the project never fails to ignite excitement on the MCoQ playlist. An upcoming release on my own Prison Tatt records label is, I say with as much humility as is possible, which is not much, some of the best, if not THE BEST, material from the Cory / Dustin duo phase of Demonologists. I can't wait to get this one on the street, kids. I know that I say this about every P-Tatt release, but this time...wow. It rattles my neighbors, providing me much glee, whenever I pull into my driveway blasting the CDr which will eventually be this record.

Mortuor, an outstanding release from Dustin Redington's (see above) Ministries of Blood CDr label (35 FREE downloads at that link!) There was not a boner in that entire label discography, though Mortuor's I'm Waiting For You stands out as one of the best releases in the MoB canon, wrought with sinister warnings and dark-as-pitch emotions.

Luciation, excerpts from Side A of their Manifestations in Unholy Blackness LP. A roller-coaster ride (the kind where bolts are loose, it's rickety as hell, and you may not make it off alive) of Satanic grind, from the Analog Worship label. Luciation's home-made videos on YouTube are quite enjoyable! (Click on their name to see "Infested Female Skull Orgy.")

There's special programming and live guests aplenty gracing our show in April and May, but I'll leave the details for a future post. For now, please click on this week's screen capture, again from Hammer Films' Plague of the Zombies; my dream mate, with matted hair and blued skin—and she's a quiet lot, as well! Haha- That click will take you to the audio archive, comments board and playlist for this week.

And until next time, remember, YOU are your own master, no higher power need exist than the individual; we are morally "encoded" to do right, most of us anyway, and no book (that written by men, though attributed to power on high) need be consulted, ever. Look inside yourself, for it's there that the answers lie.

Please note: Will be getting the Wretched Worst session from 2 weeks past up online, in mp3 form, as soon as possible, likely during the coming week; my apologies for the delay.

Here's a Sign of the Times...

Old CD shelving found in attic, now being used for tapes; space problem solved, for about 5 minutes.

less kiss, more piss.

Like most valuable lessons, I need to learn this one again and again; My Castle of Quiet is the show that must remain ever-vigilant, not even a dropper-full of saccharine must be offered, for it leads only to—surprise!—requests for even more saccharine! I know there's some animal that will eat some sugar-substitute food additive, continuously, until it dies, and that's just about as factual as I'm going to get, because the Korrekteur-trolls will come out, and then, well, I just lose it. I'm often careful to use the qualifying phrase, "I think," and you know why? BECAUSE I'M NOT SURE. But in this case, I was sure, I just wasn't married to giving the correct facts about a KISS track, basically a little "FUN" to roll out the show. I KNOW Gene Simmons sings "Great Expectations," and that that song is the last song on one or the other side of KISS' Destroyer album, I KNOW these things, but do I really put my mind to them—no, because my angle was simply that I thought it would be an unexpected treat to open a set of soul-pulverizing doom with a song from Destroyer, involved as I am in a personal, off-air renaissance of the rock albums that mattered to me when I was 10. Fuck the facts, as the band-name goes, I know them anyway, and a correction is still a correction, it's still ultimately rude, even wrapped in a compliment—dog shit, with twigs and candy wrappers embedded remains the same, once you get off the pink bow and the shiny wrapping paper. So, NO MORE FUN on The Castle, because it's a slippery slope to three hours' worth of saccharine, and of course, YOUR requests, la la la! No one, well almost no one, gets my sense of humor. Waaaah! Complete this maze, and press the buzzer for more food. And no offense "Al," but 16 is a little old to be at the front lines of the KISS ARMY.

So, what else happened? You know, as in trolldom not ruining the whole KISS-intro thing for me? Well, listener Rory sent me a kick-ass (literally) link to this Altered Beast video-game clip (see, I missed that whole thing; no offense to anyone, but it were the ladies and consciousness-altering substances that drew my focus back in the bad old days. If only someone had TRIED HARDER to shove me towards SEGA.) Here it is below; Glory!



Man, that's good squishy.

Praise list >>>

Warloghe. A Finnish band not bowling us over with quantity (two full-lengths in 12 years!), but it's quality that counts, and one single Warloghe track, taken occasionally, is guaranteed to make your waistband snap, and your underwear do that thing where it floats around inside your pants. Hell yeah.

Pine Smoke Lodge. A CDr contributed to the show by good friend Todd Watson (who's programming this Castle, anyway?) of much-appreciated, wandering-in-the-dark atmospherics. From the great city of Portland, Maine.

No one but no one asked this week about the screen captcha, from Hammer's Plague of the Zombies (hot trailer!), but even clearheaded men of science must admit that that corpse wandering on the moors is an "undead." Click on zombie & victim up top to access the (quite amusing) comments board, playlist and audio archives for this week's muthagrabbin' horrorcast™, and keep your requests to yo' damn self. Please.

Torch lights on!

BAM-KA-BAM-KA-BAM...BAM-KA-BAM-KA-BAM...BAM-KA-BAM-KA-BAM...

It doesn't matter whether you believe in powerful spirits; energies that slam doors and cause the tides to rise. I know now, after my experience that night beyond the dblglas, all the way up on that elevator that seems it will surely crap out and leave you stranded, claustrophobia rising, at the end of that long, narrow room, that which would make a larger man nervous. Your body makes a "T" with the turntables, and you'd better learn to be comfortable there.

Thereupon the dblglas, did I see with my naked eyes the movement of the Wretched Worst, that like a wounded boar, making its way insistently through the forest, on to a greater battle? or to wherever boars live. Slinging metal Frisbees—hair, drumsticks, and guitar necks drawing crazy, narrow, 25- to 45-degree angles in laser not visible to the naked eye.

Wretched Worst did play, and play they did, like masons without tools, punching the floor in case the boss walks by. HAHAHAHAHA.

BEERRRBEERRRBEERRR DA-TUM-TM, BEERRRBEERRRBEERRR DA-TUM-TM...

They did sign my foul contract (for I always keep a copy in my pocket), and hence their set (the Wretched Worst) will post as mp3s in more-or-less than a fortnight. Catch them tonight, March 16th in Providence, RI at AS220 w/ SHV, Veiled and Male Perverts, or tomorrow, March 17th, in Brooklyn at La Sala w/ Form A Log, OPPONENTS and High School Confidential.

Wretched Worst will have new cassettes Sisters' Piss + Sisters' Piss II, bloody t-shirts, and more.

Forming an audible and somewhat visible pivot to WW's magnificent set, was the choppy, angry, sometimes-a-black-metal song, sometimes a bone-breaking dervish, selection of pieces from TRTRKMMR, their side of the split LP with Dead Times. Many comments on the comments board for that one, as well as the new-ish Grasshoper opus, Classical Music, brought to us by 905 Tapes (we heard "Destroyed In Seconds"); Grasshopper NEVER fail to inspire live kudos-throwing on our comments board, no not never.

OPPONENTS' Sleepy Hollow ltd. cassette edition, wowed with the title track, "Broken Divine," and Filthy Turd continued to inspire amazement and much scratching of heads.

That's it for now. Click on the apple up top, take it, etc. etc. The archive and playlist of last night's horrorcast™ await thee, and probably some other distressing shit, too.

My Castle of Quiet welcomes Wretched Worst...TONIGHT!

Out of Kentucky they come, from their home near the corner of wherever Can, Flipper and grindcore intersect. Their exuberant, long- and shorter-form songs and group extrapolations, laden with doom-wrought concepts and Downer-rock riffage, come wrapped in some bloody mess of a drawing, ink on fishpaper, courtesy of vocalist / illustrator Matt Minter. These guys are heavy, casually so, like a biker gang that just runs over you without even looking.

Yes, I speak of Wretched Worst, the band that everyone in the noise-rock microverse is excited about, the first live band on The Castle in several months. Expect ashes and rubble in their wake. Expect the unexpected. Expect nothing and everything. Wretched Worst return to NY as part of a mini-tour to promote their latest release, Worse Than Jail, with shows in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Providence and in nearby Brooklyn on 3/17 (with Castle favorites OPPONENTS and High School Confidential, and Form A Log, at La Sala at Cantina Royal.)

I deftly navigate the usual hail of silver bullets, starting the show @ 12 midnight.
WW @ 12:30 approx.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web, with accu-playlist and message board

WHIPPIN UP DAT BAD BUSINESS. BLEAK TWEAK 2012!

Biddle-biddle dum dum, de do dum.... the riff from Tangerine Dream's Halcyon invades my head space, again. No worries—happens all the time. Sometimes all I can muster is some ancient-rock gibberish.

So glad to be BACK though, to relative normal on the My Castle of Quiet program. Though I think I enjoy the pitching more than many, it is nonetheless plain exhausting. So much easier to just put what you do OUT THERE, than to explain to someone why it's good, why they should donate actual money to keep it in existence. But the WFMU marathon is so much more than any necessary evil, it's actually a good time for the staff, and our friends and volunteers. For example, duking it out in my head with T-Dream is Rage Against the Machine, put there by Tom Scharpling's inspired performance at our free form-aoke party. Wuzza wuzza, even I was swinging white-boy hip-hop arms, or maybe just bobbing my head, can't remember—either way, my secret's safe with you.

THANKS AGAIN FOR SUPPORTING WFMU & MY CASTLE OF QUIET. THE 2012 MARATHON WAS A SMASHING SUCCESS!

A new week, a new show, a powerful vibe, if I may say. (Yes, us older guys say "vibe," but slightly younger men than I say "rad," all the time too, so I think it's a fair trade off of that-lingo-does-not-match-your-bald-spot, and "where's your surf board, by the way" inappropriateness.)

This was the show that the "bessicles" were just barely holding back for two weeks.

It's always cool to see our theme get a nod after several years, as it's been the Frizzi-for-Fulci that opens The Castle's doors every week. And some clear enthusiasm early on for our broad-scope opener from Sentenced For Life, a damn straight trade I made of a T.O.M.B. LP for two copies of this excellent, creative tape from Australia. Write to bustedupslut@gmail.com for a copy; also see here. Love also for the exclusive Demonologists' track from the MCoQ 2012 Marathon premium CD. And, and...the Death Factory on No Visible Scars, the Grafvolluth on Regimental (hopefully a live appearance awaits us this Spring), and the extended trailer for Teenage Mother.

Oh, and I almost forgot, there were several after-the-fact shouts for the UK's Filthy Turd. A very unique performer, indeed. Here's Filthy Turd on MySpace.

That's all; I hope you had fun listening, and if you missed this one, there are always WFMU's very well-maintained archives; you can access this week's horrorcast™, its playlist and comments board, simply by clicking on the malevolent patient from Lucio Fulci's Aenigma, above.

THIS IS IT>>>NEXT WEEK, THE LIVE EVENT TO END ALL. MY CASTLE OF QUIET WELCOMES WRETCHED WORST!!!!!!

Werewolves on Wheels -the last 17 minutes-

So, here am I, saving you over an hour of your life. Though this feature is on DVD, as well as online in full via YouTube (and probably elsewhere), these closing 17+ minutes are all you really need.

Disappointed was I to find that the "werewolves on wheels" so generously promised by the title, do not even appear until the last 8 minutes of the movie. Despite some above-average visuals, this really amounts to a mediocre offering, a story about some not-very-vicious bikers who somehow still manage to run afoul of a lycanthropy cult. I posted these last few chapters to YouTube for anyone's viewing pleasure, minus all the unnecessary buildup.

Trust me, and enjoy! (Watch on YouTube for the full frame.)

brimstone is hell on the pedicure.

Back from the front lines of public-broadcasting fundraising and mouldy demon feet.

Tremendous thanks to my co-host Bill Zebub, who went above and beyond, salvaging a $400+ pledge from the clutches of our solitary phone volunteer, who was extremely intoxicated and kept speaking jibberish to the caller, and then hanging up, saying that it was a "prank." The pledge was from the patrons at White Star Bar in Jersey City, the result of a collection taken up by Jessica, the pledger / bartender. Also, listeners Bas in Utrecht, Dave in Morristown, NJ, and Jasmine in Maidstone, UK, also checked in with VERY generous pledges within the last 15 minutes of our broadcast. Many listeners checked in throughout the show with generous pledges.

THANKS YOU, CRAZIES!!!!

Fundraising is tough business, especially for a show that appeals a good deal to a small, albeit very devoted, coterie subset of WFMU's listening audience. Still, we met and surpassed our goal for this, marathon shift #2, more modestly set this time, so I'm pleased, and can now go back to relative normal and the business of doing the radio show, which is after all, what it's about.

Thanks also to Magda, and Megan McKee for dew-dropping in, and making the broadcast more of a good time than it would have otherwise been, what with two grumpy, sardonic radio hosts in attendance. Must however note that I auto-matically fell into the role of straightman, what with such a naturally intelligent and humorous rake as my co-host.

Some of that lowbrow sex and bar humor I just don't go for (that on the comments board of the flies who flew in perhaps because Bill and I were teamed up; but at least the mooks were listening. The combination of Bill and I is simply too much for lesser men of more simple-humored minds.) One of the moths drawn to the light was sure that calling me "girl" was a supreme insult. Uh oh, I'm suddenly dickless, what ever will I DO!??!!

Bill Z. is a super-bright guy, about 1,000,000 times more bright than well, that guy who was calling himself "Fact Checkers Unbenevolent Association"—and the best insult I can think of for him is that he's a "dick"—a decidedly male insult. If I HAD been born a woman, you'd be gumming up your keyboard to my pictures, you callous fool. I slap thee.

So, one can now count upon MORE DYNAMITE SHIT business as usual and more so, next week's Castle by design will be the most corpse-ripping, noise-exploded, metalpunched broadcast in many a week, MANY A WEEK. I have tons of great material, a highly-toxic palette that I have been forced to hold back for two weeks due to the needs of fundraising, and now the same shall be released, and a great destruction will fall down upon all in its wake. In brief, I may just play three straight hours of music to peel your inner paint to, very little talking.

And on March 15th, you know it, as promised, a live hammering from Wretched Worst.

FUCK, YEAH!

Those in search of yet more illicit thrills, and/or a "let's settle this outside," can come to Maxwell's in Hoboken on Sunday night for the end-of-the-marathon party featuring the Hoof 'n' Mouth Sinfonia, directed by Scott Williams, wherein yours truly will sing (yes, "sing") Echo and the Bunnymen's "Heaven Up Here." I shit you not.