Thousands and thousands of bats.

Very grateful to both Bleak and Hell Mary for playing excellent sets last night! As much as I revere all the music played on MCoQ, there's simply no substitute for a great live performance.

...Much Castlehead love on our playlist for both our guests, and we're all happy to oblige, and appreciate your comments! Listeners also remarked on our classic opener by Killing Joke, as well as selections from the Water Torture Discography CD, highly recommended, and our closing 10-12 minutes, selections from the Artemiev scores for Tarkovsky's The Mirror & Stalker, from a deluxe, new LP reissue on the Superior Viaduct label.

As always, many of the selections were to me personally / especially gratifying to hear; been carrying around that Prowls CD maybe 1-2 years! I listen to it at home, and am well-acquainted, and love to get that dusty improv stuff out there, too, as it's one of my other musical passions apart from extreme metal / Krautrock etc. Artists like Morphogenesis, Smegma (Jackie from Prowls' "mother" project), and worthy contemporaries like Moth Cock get me pretty excited. ...Morphogenesis 1994 live on YT:



Can also recommend the Enbilulugugal 2CD collection of their black metal / noize on Crucial Blast, it's pretty fuckin' mighty; mighty as well is the ALL-NEW Telecult Powers LP, their second full-length on vinyl, Black Meditations, on the Experimedia label.

NEXT WEEK:  I turn 50, holy fuck, and our special, live guests will be Joshua Slusher and his new-ish duo PRIVILEGE, from Brooklyn. Very much looking forward to their dark pulsations! See you then....

You can click now on our weekly screen cap up top, from the curious bit of filmmaking known as Subconscious Cruelty, an odd exercise in sexual / religious / visual nihilism, to reach the playlist, comments, and audio archive for last night's horrorcast™.

TONIGHT on MCoQ ... LIVE sets from BLEAK and HELL MARY!

It's time for live music on My Castle of Quiet again! This time, two outstanding bands of BLACKENED / PUNK / GRIND from our own tri-state area:

BLEAK (Syracuse, NY) - Irresistible songs, in a heavy, dark-grind atmosphere. For fans of Cattle Decapitation and The Communion. With a new vocalist, and a split 7" soon to be released, these guys just get better and better.
http://ihatebleak.bandcamp.com/

HELL MARY (NJ)
With a great 7" and tape already under their belts, Hell Mary spin a unique brand of hardcore, incorporating melodic riffs with raw, anguished vocals. Their songs roll hard, and swing heavy, like No Class on a trip to some wretched, personal hell.
http://hellmary.bandcamp.com/


Both bands not to be missed!


I set aside my deathwish for yet another week ... at 12 mid.
Live music begins at 12:30 a.m. approx.
WFMU 91.1FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1FM (Hudson Valley)
in Rockland County @ 91.9FM
wfmu.org LIVE on the Web.

You gonna rise or what?

Not sure on the rising, especially with that Nazi temptress / torturess from Der Todesking looming. The message is so clear; arouse your interest -then lob it off! ...You ladies want to know how "creeps" are created? Sexual deprivation, lack of female affection, breeds a kind of madness in men. Not saying ladies don't need sex too, far from it, but in my years of observation, they can go without and not suffer quite as much. ...Men get weird, we get obsessive, start sniffing chairs etc., and even the old bags at the supermarket start to look "not so bad" to us. It's uncontrollable. Men do not go through menopause, though our sex drive does diminish / calm down with age, we're pretty much raging until we die.

I was raised for the most part in my Grandparents' home, and I recall one night getting up to go to the bathroom, passing my Grandparents' bedroom, and hearing my Grandma say, "get off of me!" - just like that. I really felt for my Grandfather at that moment. He was a randy gent, always admiring the ladies, right up until his 80s, when he got sick, and as far as I know, was always loyal to my Grandmother.

I'm not suggesting that women roam the countryside handing out "charity fucks," that would be absurd, but when a man spends his lifetime with a fairly regular diet of sexual / romantic encounters, he begins to flounder and get weird, and yes, "creepy," as that frequency dwindles. So watch where you sit, as my face may be buried in your chair after you leave. It's a compliment!

...I often think, "why do I do this show, still?" as I head towards the station every week, but it always turns out well, I enjoy the creative release, and sharing the music I love with a receptive public, even if it is from 12-3 a.m., and the playlist comments are sometimes minimal / quiet. I've already amassed a substantial archive / legacy of unusual radio, over 200 shows which will stand the test of time, especially for those like myself that obsess over dark, aggressive, mysterious sounds. I will always be a slave to the less-obvious, the hidden, the less-socially acceptable arteries of creativity and art. I won't grow old and adopt mellower tastes, as some do.

Love on the playlist for Wargrinder, Voqkrre (album on iTunes!), Pig Destroyer (a 2001, "classic" track) ... then some sincere lamentation of the absence of Sue P.'s Solid Gold Hell program (both on my part and that of listeners), and then, a healthy bitch session on the plague of bedbugs. ... Sue P. was / is the real deal, a true maverick individual, with great taste in music, and for those that know her, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, no-bullshit lady; I've always admired Sue a great deal, and her taste in what she conveyed on her weekly program was peerless. Sue continues to do fill-in shows on WFMU.

Though by and large, my weekly playlist is mapped out in advance, I still end up discovering the true greatness of many selections during the course of the show; this week, tracks especially by Excepter (awesome new LP!), Murw and Fatalism, really opened like flowers for me, and I reveled in the privilege to be able to share them with you. ...

Next week on our show, GREAT live sets from both Bleak (Syracuse, NY) and Hell Mary (NJ) grace the horrorcast™! Here's the Facebook event page.

Any and all further discussion, debate, discourse on the topic of male / female, sexual / romantic deprivation is welcome, on or off these pages. (You can email privately to castle@wfmu.org.)

Click on our capture from Der Todesking up top, to reach the playlist, audio archive, and listener comments for this week's show, and thanks as always for tuning in.

...the sound of people needing to do things they very much do not want to do....

Some things are just honest by nature - the blush of a woman, a kid's craving for ice cream, and a radio show rendered when the DJ is actually in a good mood. ...I play so much music that could be construed as "bad mood" music, and my tastes are in some ways an outgrowth of my personality, but we all NEED Abraxas - that balance of dark and light - and if I'm truly miserable (see last week), the show, despite my usual best effort, cherry-picked selections etc., will wilt, and the audience will react in kind with the vibes being transmitted. Yes, I believe in vibes.

And where do I look for this serenity, that which makes me not loathe the day, waking up, living? Sometimes, Buddhism. I've referred to myself before as a "Satanic Busshist," both for laughs but more often quite seriously. Do I pray? No, but I observe, I read, I observe some more. It's the only world religion that by definition that is strictly non-dogmatic; there are no "Buddhist fundamentalists" trying to take over the world, or spearing Muslim women and children on the ends of swords, like some Hindus do. Buddhism says, "feel good," "don't envy, don't struggle, don't yearn; these will all lead to unhappiness." No big THOU SHALT NOTs with Buddhism. Or at least, only good ones, great ones even.

Which leads me, somewhat ridiculously, to this week's film recommendation - a colorful, funny, violent, silly, and thoroughly entertaining film called Journey To The West. The giant hand of Buddha literally saves the day, not to give out a spoiler. Chinese horror in general has always been populated with Taoist priests who swoop in and defeat all evil and malice. Journey... features a band of demon hunters, colorful, campy characters with absurd powers, who cheerfully do battle and die with absurd bravery. It's loads of fun.

 

A movie I really hated, this week? I Used To Be Darker, one of those films that will leave you wondering why this film needed to be made, or its story told. Populated with miserable people, cold, capricious women especially. I don't appreciate the reinforcement of negative female stereotypes, especially as female filmmakers were involved. Why? Bah, what a piece of soul-hammering crap THAT was! Do not be fooled by the small-scale, indie drama charms of its trailer - the best scene was a party scene, that featured Dope Body playing a bitchin' song (free download at that link!), very much the postmodern Jesus Lizard they appear to be. ...Horror films are my refuge from the this type of cinema, anything "Sundance selects"...the banal portrayal of everyday human suffering, that which we get already just by living and engaging.

So, a windfall of praise on our playlist for a song from the latest Cattle Decapitation album. They deserve all the love they get; I saw a show in SF in 2009 that I'll never forget (remember Spike, we were there together, that was a fun night / Cephaic Carnage, too!); Travis was doing his usual spit acrobatics, and insulting goons in the pit, the latter so deftly that the targets didn't even realize...and their playing, and the whole thrust of that set was just perfect. If I ever leave the house to see live music again, it will be because of the memory of shows like that one.

I also quite liked our opening selection from Cara Neir, both Hells (France and USA), new tracks by Bleak, Excepter and Barrikad. Praise on the playlist, also, for a now-"classic" black metal track by Furdidurke, from the very memorable split 7" from 2006 with Bone Awl.

I'm off next week, gentleman Jeff Conklin, a friend, and guest on our show previously, will be filling in and I'm quite sure you'll enjoy his show.

Live music to come in the weeks ahead, from Bleak and Hell Mary (July 30) and NYC's Privilege on our August 6th show.

Click on this week's MCoQ screen capture, from the clever, witty, charmingly violent You're Next, to reach our playlist, streaming audio, and listener comments for this week's horrorcast™. Thank you all for listening, and participating on the playlist, it really amps up the whole experience of doing radio for me, so it's much appreciated! See you in two weeks. ...

A summary.

Lightest playlist comments ever! No discourse to speak of last night, but my main discourse is with myself anyway, so, not only am I my own best audience, and as much as it's unhealthy to spend too much time in one's own head, at least I developed no new co-dependencies this week. You reap the benefits of my playing records outside the house for three hours every week. ...I'm learning well how to spend HUGE amounts of time alone. ...I guess my "to read" pile looms now, lots of great stuff in there! My brain will again be full of dynamite, astute observations, commentary and general mindfulness, that I can then in turn share with NO ONE. I consider myself a "true" black-metal head, then, I am LIVING THE LIFE. All I need is a shotgun and a more rural residence, and I'm all set. I really am THAT GUY, and maybe that's what makes the weekly horrocast ring true for its fans.

...Most of these characters with whom I share many traits, at the very least, the oddball mavericks, have at least one woman who understands them, "puts up" with them, shares their life and world vision, but this is not to be my lot. And as I approach 50, in a few weeks, I'm looking at a long stretch, so maybe it's time to return to my teenage love of painting, YET SOMETHING ELSE that will acquire moderate attention, respect from a cherished few, and minimal if any financial return, like all the other things I do. Painters do occasionally partner with beautiful, inspiring women, right (?), so that's a consideration, and boy-o-boy do I have "visions" to share. Similar to my dream of being a private detective, I can always keep that one in my back pocket, at least until a hole forms and it falls out.

So I don't count on anyone, not really, for company or emotional support, and it is what it is, like losing a loved one, or a limb, you just keep on living. I heard someone in a film refer to themselves as "not having the constitution for suicide," oh, it was Xander Berkeley as Cotton Mather in Salem ... and I pretty much agree, there's always that nagging feeling that you might miss something, kill yourself just hours before some big label offers to M&D Prison Tatt, or my soul mate sends a tentative email to my inbox. So yeah, HOPE - hard wired, perhaps unfortunately, into the human coding.

So, my little radio show, I mean if you heard it you liked it, this week - you're of that rare, minor percentage of "Castleheads"; you like the music I like, and pretty much that sums it up. I enjoy music, always have / always will, it enriches my life, and you rare followers of this show understand that, and presumably feel the same. Life is, for its greater part, a disappointing, wretched shithole, and music certainly makes it "better." ...

A positive remark for the new King ov Antichrists / War cassette on Vanguard Productions; for sure their tapeography is breaking some new ground in the genre, and more than worth checking out. ...

And so, at least for today, I surrender, beginning the "Howard Hughes part" of my life, with neither great, accumulated wealth, nor "handlers." NOW IF ALL THE ABOVE IS NOT A HUGE ADVERTISEMENT FOR ME AS A LIFE PARTNER, I DON'T KNOW WHAT WOULD BE! START LINING UP, LADIES!

Thanks as always, for listening / reading.