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Friday, January 31, 2014

,,,,izzit coffinated?,,,or or nnnnoooo itz alive!!!

Being buried alive does not negate attractiveness in the extreme, especially when you are firmly planted in the natural breast-full lipped universe of 70s Eurosploitation / ultra-weirdness. Does this girl get out of her dirty entombment? Is she re-cast as a vampire? Do we care? It hardly seems to matter, in The Reincarnation of Isabel, one of those Salvation Films-released, visually rich, richly naked movies we all love soooo much.

Thanks for listening this week; I had the usual great time with the music, and things flowed pretty naturally. Praise for:

early ULVER | LORD TIME's newest | Echoes Within The Attic | Artemeiv's original Solaris score, reissued


...more essential reissues from Superior Viaduct


We return in earnest to live music in real time with a session from Ubasute. Make sure to join us! (That's the Facebook event link.)

Click on the unfortunate Christa, buried alive (but still looking fabulous!), to reach the archived audio and playlist / comments for this week's My Castle of Quiet show.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Why are homeless people attacking macolm macdowell (?) ... I always feel like applauding after the end one of your sets. ... Gods be made mortal!!!!

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54128
Did anyone else notice that "Longtime Listener" got silent for the rest of the night, as soon as I mentioned (in jest) that we could track his I.P.? I hate to think that there might actually be a Castle listener with women held prisoner in his basement, but it's also a possibility that I would be irresponsible to rule out entirely. Then again, it could be an old, familiar voice/face, jiving me just to get some attention. Ahhh...oy! Don't quote me, never quote me. ...Listening now, I see why there were also some commenter/listeners, writing about licking, sticking etc., but "sticking the landing" What is that? -And I guess I'd better brace myself for the possible, overwhelming smell of chloroform, eh? Lights out.

So, Tuesdays? Tacos. Two-fers. Preferably together, as I like them both (that's songs for the latter, not women.) I posited long ago, perhaps even off-line (in real-life, imagine!?!) that it was in fact TUESDAY that is the worst day of most people's work week (I won't go into the vapor of why, here, but my conviction to this edict is strong), so maybe The Castle can serve as some kind of balm for Tuesday pressures, a breathing out for the ever-growing volume of Castle-heads. (Vat Tuedays; everybody wants something from me, I shit you not. "Wm., can you? No, I cannot!" I need to learn to say "no" more effectively, and those that ask the least, get the most —a clue! In my case at least, being the squeaky wheel will get you—oil withheld.)

So, much love for the prog—good, good! Voluminous were the comments of praise for last night's first set. Great to know that those typically enriched by the wealth of black metal we share on The Castle will also walk with me to Birgé, Gorgé and Shiroc. And much praise for The Gate as well; their live radio set continues to be a favorite of mine and of others, too. The Vomit Dreams CD is a grim-but-eloquent slice of blood-soaked improvisation, just like I like, and thanks to the band, we'll have one copy as a prize giveaway when the 2014 WFMU marathon hits, of this very special, unique recorded offering.

Now, miniature black birds fly upwards in the periphery of my vision, and I realize that it is time to finally sleep. I'm sure that "grabbed" feeling I feel today (some would call it "Wednesday," but my Tuesday has not yet ended) can be largely attributed to my very-colored perception, "enhanced" by a sheer lack of shuteye. So, in conclusion, this Tuesday thing seems to be a boon all around, for reasons cited above, and I am glad.

Click on the apparition of poor Viviane, re-released into this Wild World too soon, from Maurice Devereaux's End of the Line (that's "Morris," by the way, not "More-eese"), a mini-classic from 2007 (though it feels very 1991), to reach the playlist, colorful comments, and audio archive of last night's My Castle of Quiet radio program. (End of the Line trailer)

Sunday, January 19, 2014

I smell like fetid water and am ripping off my flesh (sic) anticipation!!!!

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54082
Last night's quite (quiet)-by-chance "blackout"—nothing but crazed metal tracks, for a solid three hours. ...

Honors to:

BURNING WITCH | STRIBORG (one-man, Tasmanian DSBM of the highest order) |
YELLOW EYES (one track from a new two-song EP, The Desert Mourns, just officially released, and top-shelf, as usual)

The Castle returns to WFMU this coming Tuesday night @ midnight, in our new, permanent slot (I'm indebted to Mary Wing, for switching shifts with me when I really needed to.)

Thanks for listening, and for following this radio program, wherever it may go. Click on the "pretty face of Bruno Ganz" (according to listener Aurélie E), from the late-70s classic Messer im Kopf, aka Knife in the Head, to access the playlist, comments, and audio archive of last night's My Castle of Quiet.

And those people, always looking—why do they glare? "You got a problem wit' your eyes?" How can they be so sharp, as dedicated members of THE HERD, to see that I am clearly not one of them? ... The law of the jungle, I suppose, but unless you're a handsome woman, look away, look away!

Monday, January 13, 2014

ONE MASTER - LIVE in the CASTLE of QUIET; ltd. tape, due out by the end of the month, from No Visible Scars!

I am fiercely proud; for the first time, a full, live My Castle of Quiet session, by the phenomenal One Master, will see a legit label release at the end of January from the terrific—and oft-celebrated on our show—No Visible Scars label. It was a fantastic session, and to see it receive this treatment from the band and from NVS, my shoulder compatriots, both the one in white with the wings (he's usually not too busy, hehe), and the one in red with the pitchfork, are both dancing, and wildly at that!

Up top, the tape cover, and here are links to NVS, on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NoVisibleSacrs, blogspot - http://nvslabel.blogspot.com/ and bandcamp - http://novisiblescars.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-the-castle-quiet so that one can purchase the limited cassette as it drops.

Here also, is the review/"look back" I wrote about the session, when it was all still fresh and strongly in mind - http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2013/06/my-boss-is-an-angel-cast-out-of-heaven-not-a-jewish-carpenter-one-master-live-on-my-castle-of-quiet-.html ... Pretty keen on the post title, too, I've always been!~

Many, many thanks to Bill C. of NVS, Ryan, Lord Valder, and the other gents from One Master, and to session engineer Juan Aboites for mixing the session with his high skills and expertise, the same that he's always applied to the many Castle sessions he's helmed.

Gratzi, gratzi~ The finest in USBM, presented as it is so often on The Castle, this time rendered with musical expertise and the utmost force and brutality. Thanks, gents! ...What I do occasionally matters, and herein lieth the proof!

...Please also remember that One Master's previous two full-lengths are available, albeit in very limited quantity (as well as the Eviscerate CD, also on Eternal Death), at the Prison Tatt Records distro.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

regally creepy ... this is just the kind of music that can coax one out of the banal fog of everyday existence

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/53894
Lots of folks loved our playlist photo this week (reproduced above.) Many thanks to longtime listener and supporter SiHV for contributing.

Positive, and/or quizzical comments, and/or odd descriptions for the early Doors' "Go Insane," | a long track by Wraiths | and The Gate from Vomit Dreams

Many thanks! My Castle of Quiet radio returns in two weeks.

Click on "Dead Red" to hear this past weekend's Castle show archive.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Resonant.

Subsequent to compiling the My Castle of Quiet 2013 year's-end film and music list, I saw several films that, had I seen them earlier, would have fattened out that list most definitely, being the kind of films that surprise low (or lowered) expectations, and leave the viewer reflecting and contemplating these works of cinema far beyond the initial viewing. This resonance, by and large, is often how I measure a film's "greatness."

They are: Monsters | You're Next | Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay | Right At Your Door | Sunset Strip ... (IMDb links)

Monsters (see image above), from 2010, is a most-definitely-unsung subtle and clever road movie, following two characters (a freelance photographer, and his boss' daughter) through a "contaminated zone" between Mexico and the U.S., an area where large, extraterrestrial creatures have bred and inhabited the landscape, after a UFO crash a few years earlier. Fans of both road movies and intelligent science-fiction tales will find this feature quite satisfying and engrossing from start to finish, depicting both the standard of corruption and "palm-greasing" that still reigns in third-world nations, and applied to this most-tragic of circumstances, as well as borrowing a page from the equally smart Cloverfield of 2008. I don't want to give too much away, but the viewer is left with the feeling similar to that of the 2009 box-office hit District 9, that these creatures are simply so large, powerful and/or different from us, that their mere existence endangers humans, though at the same time, their "intention" is not necessarily to be harmful to humans (unlike the monster in Cloverfield) and simple coexistence is a challenge, and therefore met with the predictable shock-and-awe of a military response. The story unfolds, as a believable love story quite naturally evolves between the protagonists, though it takes a decided back seat to the overall moral "message" of the film. Fans of my year-end film list for sure will not be disappointed.

You're Next, surprising on nearly all levels and loaded with action and several adroit plot twists, comes on like the now-familiar, home-under-siege tale (comparable, on its face, perhaps, to something like The Purge.) Directed by the talented Adam Wingard (V/H/S) and cast with a string of indie talent (AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg, Ti West and dazzling newcomer Sharni Vinson), You're Next is a fast, pulsating horror tale, and considering it's not at all a supernatural or hyper-realistic story, it rocked my world unlike most slasher/killer films, a genre of which I've just kind of had my personal fill. ...Having gathered for a parental anniversary party, a wealthy family begin to get picked off one-by-one, but not only is one of the guests unusually good at self-defense tactics, but the plot twists and turns are so genuinely and smartly woven into the narrative, that You're Next must have killed at the box office (no joke intended), considering the word-of-mouth it likely generated, weighed against what it probably cost to make. Writer Simon Barrett and director Wingard collaborated not only on some V/H/S 1 and 2 segments, but also on the brilliant, understated and underrated A Horrible Way to Die (scroll down to my 2011 favorites here), also starring Bowen and Seimetz as its principals, and inhabiting the same space as far as rich and unexpected characterizations, and neat plot twists. My only question now is how do I get my hands on the original score—a bubbling, 80s-style electronic suspense-builder.

Deceptive Practice... is an immediately engrossing and economically rendered quasi-biography documentary of sleight-of-hand/magician/writer Ricky Jay—his world, his personal history, his influences and mentors. Jay came up from his humble roots as a Jewboy in suburban NJ, through the 70s and 80s as a long-haired card-flipper playing between rock acts, both in nightclubs and on TV programs like The Midnight Special and The Dick Cavett Show. Despite being a legendarily crusty curmudgeon, the film is packed solid with great stories, anecdotes and quotes, from journalists, colleagues and friends, regarding Jay's talent, wisdom and respect (both that which he commands and affords others), shared with the public via Broadway shows and almost-countless film and TV roles (one may recall a particularly notable X Files episode starring Jay, and David Mamet's House of Games, just to cite two very-memorable examples.) I could go on, but it's best you just see Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, all regardless of whether you have a particularly acute interest in card magic or Ricky himself (mine was middling before I saw the film, and I was nonetheless both moved emotionally and thoroughly educated and entertained.)

Right At Your Door is a jarring, realistic depiction of how it might go down were a series of dirty bombs set off in downtown Los Angeles, and how one couple copes with this very doomed and relatively hopeless scenario. Made great both by its economic script, and a brilliant performance by Rory Cochrane, a woefully unsung talent, who you may remember as Freck in Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly (for my money the most spot-on cinematic rendering to date of a Philip K. Dick novel, and one that, unlike most films based on Dick novels, thoughtfully renders the mounting paranoia and consummate intelligence of the author's challenging prose.) Here, Cochrane plays a decidedly non-Freckian character, a loving husband who must haplessly regard the governmental reaction to such an epically proportioned tragedy/emergency. Right At Your Door will shake up the viewer, and is most definitely not an "easy watch," pulling no punches with its both epically and personally tragic subject matter. It's great performances, writing and direction that save Right At Your Door from simply being a huge bummer and instead make the film a challenge well worth meeting.

Finally, Sunset Strip is a haunting, charming, sad-yet-exciting history of those few most-happening blocks of L.A.'s Sunset Boulevard, starting in the early 20th century and rolling until present day, with warts-and-all commentary from Johnny Depp, Kenneth Anger, Paul Mooney, Kim Fowley, Steve Jones, the members of X, various actors, journalists, entrepreneurs, hair-metal bands, Peter Fonda, Mickey Rourke, Hugh Hefner, countless rockers and gangsters—all the sin, glory and engrossing history of the various characters, from Mickey Cohen to Jim Morrison, from Lou Adler to the Osbournes, River Phoenix and Miss Pamela—the small people, the larger-than-lifes like John Belushi, the cocaine, the tattoos, The Garden of Allah, The House of Francis, the Chateau Marmont, the Rainbow, Tower Records, Sammy Davis, Jr., the nightclub-Rat Pack days, the sex alleys, the 60s street-riots and arrests, Hustler HQ, garage rock, hair metal, biker bars, Rodney on the ROQ, Led Zeppelin's notorious debauchery and groupie abuse, The Viper Room—those who survived, and those who didn't. In general, I've often considered this locale of uniquely American history, sin and lack of subtlety, to be a place that I personally never needed to visit, but the thoroughly intense and vital tenor of this documentary both intrigued me and turned my head around.