...less enforced cheer

 

Bowie, Bowie, Bowie. When strangers ask me what I like in music, I state all the obvious Castle choices, but Bowie is always in there, too. At least up to and including Scary Monsters, his albums were groundbreaking, way ahead of anyone's "time," the ideal melding of rock, pop and art. As I eagerly received each new release as a lad, every one was a dazzling, innovative, cold fish slap in the face of music-industry expectations; I reveled in his "Berlin phase," Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, all of it. Glad that our opening selection of "Where Have All The Good Times Gone?" made an impression.

Going to try and keep this short, been blogging my fingers off, but there was listener appreciation for many selections last night, and I wholly concur:

Doomsday Student new! | Fear (my singular nod to the holiday) | Swallowed | Couch Slut (live on our show 1.20-21) | Dope Body | Zepulkr | Axnaar | Durazis | new Dhampyr | Choke Thirst Die | new Alraune | Orthank | ...and an absolutely great, new tape side from Australia's Half High.

Tracks by R. Nikolaenko, Grasshopper, and Antonius Rex were also personal highs. ...

I'm not much for the "enforced cheer" of the holidays, as listener SeanG put it, and our playlist topper (see above), by Lulu Cipher, sums up my general sentiment. Some people are nicer this time of year, kinder to one another, to strangers, while many more seem to pull inward, looking after their own interests even more than usual, stealing packages right off my porch, and driving like maniacs across our area, to secure every stocking-stuffer, and make sure Aunt Tillie has her Diet Sprite.

Take care of the ones you love, hold them close, remind them that you love them. Reach out to a lonely friend.

Click on Lulu's Darkwave Holiday Card to reach our archived audio, playlist and listener comments for last night's horrorcast™.