I faved this song so I can bathe in blood to it later

I'd consider last night's horrorcast™ a personal high of recent times. I love them all, of course—lucky me I get to sit and play records for an assembled, somewhat-focused group every week, and then they let me babble on microphone! In all seriousness, lots of "catchy" more-trad.-type metal & swinging punk dominated the playlist, which is never a bad thing; it's never a bad time to hear "The Day The World Turned Day-Glo." Not to worry, we got to plenty of "blistering black" later in the program.

The end of the year is always a time of hope for new potentials, new possibilities, and as sad as it was to lose Lemmy, his death feels so perfectly timed to give us all a parting gift of reboot, as in, "I'm out, fuckers, good luck!"

I quite liked the new 7" from Prison Moan, still living off the great Life Stinks LP, the new Expander tape on Caligari, and a 2016 teaser track from Pink Mass. ... More, listeners liked:  Motörhead's classic, ideological plodding-groove anthem "Orgasmatron" | Black Magick SS | Nudity | Muerte | Iancu Dumitrescu | Third Ear Band



Click on the Queens of Evil above, to reach the streaming audio, playlist and comments for last night's program—which in all possible modesty, I deem "a doozy." ...and to follow up on just a fraction of our lively film conversations on the board last night, here are the first four minutes of Hellinger, a low-budget oddity / odyssey that I can't seem to get out of my head:



Want to also plug again the My Castle of Quiet 2015 films & music rundown, because eh, I worked hard on it & you just might like the read. Until next time, Onnellista uutta vuotta!

Movies That Made My 2015, and a Ridiculously Bloated Music List

When I reflect upon my experience with a film (and let's be honest, a great many films are not even worth reflecting on), I fall back to these three simple criteria: 1. What did this movie set out to achieve? 2. Did it accomplish those goals? and 3. How well? I find that this works, eschewing all other notions—at least at first—save for this trio of basic rules, because you might get complete satisfaction out of a Bill Zebub movie, or a Jerzy Skolimowski film, but you would rarely if ever compare those vacuum-housed paragons to one another. All the movies on this list are "masterpieces," within their self-appointed frameworks, give good resonance, working alternately as comedies, dramas, with moments of great suspense, and of course, terror; harmonizing the elements I look for always, in any cinematic endeavor.

With movies, as with music, these lists are not focused on 2015 the calendar year, though I do always strive to be current; it's more about what thrilled me personally and thoroughly in the past 12-month time frame, with at least half an eye on latest and / or greatest. As always, entries are in no particular order.


Lost River

Ryan Gosling aims for high craft and mostly succeeds with his first directorial feature, a fable set in rural USA, in a dead town that's been mostly flooded and abandoned. Visual / structural nods to David Lynch and Gosling's collaborator Nicolas Refn are here, but there's a unique visual & storytelling voice too, complete with muted-yet-vibrant color. It's a to-die-for cast as well; everyone from the mesmerizing Ben Mendelsohn, as a wicked, lecherous bank-loan officer, whose character also runs the local Grand Guignol / burlesque club, where desperate and broke single Mom (played by Mad Men boob goddess Christina Hendricks) takes a job in desperation, to those also plucked like diamonds from the talent pool—the great Barbara Steele, Gosling's Mrs. Eva Mendes, and cult-cinema it-girl Saoirse Ronan. Nicely otherworldly, blending simple beauty, grotesquerie, and unique visual concepts (the rowboat ride through submerged streetlights is a highlight), Lost River holds up to multiple viewings, and makes one realize that this heartthrob actor also has some promising talent behind the camera.

The Babadook

Hopefully it's not giving too much away to say that The Babadook is an elaborate, swirling metaphor for grief; that which stays in your life forever, what one can only hope to "tame" rather than ever dismiss. This is also one of the best mainstream horror films in a long while, a woman's tale to be sure, that manages to excel as a gut-wrenching, emotional drama, as well as a briskly paced pop-culture-phenom horror movie. It's loads of fun, despite the incredibly difficult subject matter: loss, loneliness, motherhood, and the raising of an extremely trying and traumatized child. A mysterious, seemingly one-of-a-kind child's storybook shows up in the home, seems to change with every reading, and is relatively indestructible at least until its core antagonist, Mister Babadook, is made flesh. A great idea, and as I am fond of saying, the best horror stories are human stories masquerading as horror, and this film epitomizes that notion. In its sum total, I would even go so far as to call The Babadook a love letter to grief, with innovative visuals aplenty and all the classic touches to keep genre fans well satisfied.

Housebound

Our first of two films from New Zealand on this list, and like What We Do In the Shadows below, it's a horror-comedy, but that is where comparisons end. Housebound is a story told from a fiery, young, female POV; it's subtle, smart, quick-paced, dryly funny, and somehow follows the skeletal structure of a horror film all at once. Our protagonist Kylie, a grumpy badass pretty much custom-designed to make my heart pop out of its bony cage, has fucked up royally, is near 30 and planted back at mum's house with an ankle bracelet by the local authorities—let the arguing, passive aggression and eye-rolling between mother and daughter begin! While it's not this movie's goal to be super scary, it's fun as hell, with parch-humored Kiwi dialogue and a mystery that needs solving, because house arrest back at mum's is bad enough, without any supernatural nonsense mucking about.

Faults

Sterling character actor Leland Orser plays a shit-show of a cult deprogrammer, his life in shambles, living out of his car and stealing meals; this guy has not a damn thing to live for, and the one thing he was good at has led him into misadventure and undeniable failure. Along comes a lifeline, in the form of desperate parents who entreat the broken nebbish to help them get their daughter back from a mysterious cult. The "victim" in question, Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), has a ripened sexuality and a quiet force of will that only complicates matters, and nothing goes down quite as expected, Faults ending up being a tight little thriller with a spooky, downbeat ending. Highly recommended.

What We Do In The Shadows

It's hard to imagine anyone disliking this movie, so perfectly poised as it is, as a crafted & clever horror-comedy piece, one that feels effortless, full of hard laughs, and similar to The League of Gentlemen BBC series in that it was made "with love," by comedians and writers with a clear appreciation and knowledge of the horror genre. Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement leads a trio of vampires, old and well-traveled, with fringy, difficult personalities (even for vampires), who are now bound to a tatty house in Wellington, with their sire, an aged nosferatu, living in an upright casket in the cluttered basement. This premise alone is a pisser, and the movie seizes upon an arterial range of vampire-vaulted satire like no other I have seen. From a hilarious fashion montage, to arguing over dishes, to etiquette lessons on victim-taking, "swearwolves," and breaking in unwanted new initiates, What We Do… is quite simply the best horror comedy of recent years, and I can't think of a damn thing bad to say about it.

It Follows

This movie inspired some real love and hate reactions; I'm on the love side, perhaps because I tend to let cinema wash over me, without taking a microscope to things like plot, I'm much more about atmosphere and ideas, both of which It Follows has aplenty. A unique horror concept, a faceless predatory curse that can take any human form, is transmitted sexually from person to person, one tryst at a time. That alone could have been enough to get me interested, but It Follows delivers on so many other levels, taking place in "no time" (one girl reads from a makeup-compact kindle, while half-moon wall telephones abound and 70s cars seem to be everywhere); cramming a deep sense of John Carpenter / Halloween homage into a striking, panoramic, creeps-abounding, decidedly post-millennial visual palette (and as my friend Matt said, yes, everything does look like an Instagram photo (i.e., filters applied) but this just appeals to me rather than distracts.) There is always something happening in every shot, often at the periphery, and at times you'll feel like you're squinting—there will be things you won't notice about It Follows until the second or third viewing, but how great is that? To me innovation is key, both in ideas and execution, especially in horror cinema, and sometimes the Hollywood-vaulted, theatre-chain megalith just happens to get it right. An exciting electronic score by Disasterpeace also keeps It Follows surging forward, marrying to the film as the best Carpenter and Goblin soundtracks have to their respective high points.

Late Phases

The films that resonate with me typically demonstrate the talent to make art, tell a story of some kind, keep me engaged, regardless of means & resources—big budget or small, if the abilities are there, the inspiration, it will shine through. Late Phases is a perfect example of low-budget cinema done right. A gloomy werewolf tale, set in a community of retirees, where one retired military man's blindness leads him to a heightened awareness that something is very wrong, on the first day of his arrival in town. Looking stonily with a lack of fear at the end of his life, our ex-soldier has a nose for bullshit, and a better sense of impending danger than Spider-Man. There are also real scares and tension in Late Phases, the monster scenes rendered fully with "practical" effects (a term that has only become necessary as filmmakers have moved deeper into digital, computer-based effects, sometimes for better, but more often for worse) and is sure to give you a warm fuzzy for the low-budget classics of earlier decades, the 90s most probably. Late Phases may not be a life-changer, but it held up to multiple viewings for me and has cemented itself nicely in my memory.

Bad Behavior

Definitely the worst babysitting job, ever. In the lifetime of this horror subgenre, babysitters have been terrorized, sexually assaulted, watched loved ones slaughtered etc., but I'm hard-pressed to think of a night more fucked-up than the one this girl has. This is a "small" movie, more thriller than horror, populated with excellent actors, and novel ideas—that most of the story takes place in the bathroom of a suburban house, yet remains engaging throughout, speaks to the economy and craft of the filmmakers, especially considering the obviously low budget. This tightness and tension is established right away, and stays elevated, as we're greeted by the albeit oddly placed Ted McGinley and Linda Hamilton as the hiring parents, whose eldest son is, give or take, about as old as the sitter herself—so what the fuck is she doing there in the first place? You'll find out, and Bad Behavior's bleak ending will also likely please genre fans, as well as further speak to the overall class of the production, because well, bleak endings rule.

V/H/S sequel segments

High time I talked about this. While it's generally accepted amongst genre fans who liked (or loved, as I did) the first V/H/S horror anthology film that the original was gold, and the sequels declined in quality with each release, and that much is true, there are several sequences within those two sequels that are not only of great merit, but if combined would have made for a much finer, more comparable and worthy sequel to V/H/S the first. They are, notably: Safe Haven by Gareth Evans, a Welsh-born director who mostly works with Indonesian actors (as in The Raid: Redemption); his segment, set inside the HQ of a suicide cult, is more jam-packed with memorable scenes, and moments of high tension & wild gore than most feature films. Jason Eisener's Slumber Party Alien Abduction, the one V/H/S 2 segment I've watched over and over, a perfect short that's perhaps the scariest treatment of this subject I've ever seen. The camera is mounted on a little terrier, and through economic & clever use of sights, sounds and colors, we are in the horror with a big sis, her boyfriend, and a group of kids who all fall prey at a lakeside house to powerful alien invaders. Nacho Vigalondo's Parallel Monsters; the director of the memorable Timecrimes gives us a delicious alternate-universe story, typically Spanish (or should I say Catholic?) in that the other "we"s are engaged wholly in sin and debauchery, blood and sex, with a decidedly anti-Xtian societal norm; it's an exciting idea that in its limited time plays out perfectly. Lastly, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorehead's Bonestorm, which I could see inspiring some haters, but this fast-moving segment of SoCal skateboarders with head-mounted GoPros, who retreat just south of the Mexican border to find a place to ride and stunt unbothered, and end up getting very bothered by a numberless horde of rotting, undead esqueletos, is super-effective and satisfying.

Bluebeard

From 2009, though I just got around to seeing it. Director Catherine Breillat, known for her unflinching, visceral treatments of human drama, like Fat Girl and Anatomy of Hell, does a perfect treatment here of the Bluebeard tale, with not a frame wasted or an ounce of dialog tossed off. It's a superb rendering of period atmosphere (think grime, stone and steel) populated by young girls, sold off or orphaned, and unsure of their fates, and one girl who treads willfully and fearlessly into the chambre of the beast. It's perhaps telling that I feel I have the least to write about Bluebeard, but ultimately enjoyed it the most of everything on this list, and felt compelled to include the film here despite its having been out for more than a few years. At a sparing 80 minutes, the film abounds with gorgeous photography, deep, complex characters and an ever-tightening story, including an ending that might inspire solo, private ovations.

mentions:

L'il Quinquin - Master of the heavy-yet-light hand, French director Bruno Dumont (whose California-set third feature Twentynine Palms blew a lot minds, mine included), often obsessed with matters of faith, once again takes on the insular world of French provincials (as he did with both Humanité and Flanders), this time with humor (dark as always), charm and bleak realities. Created as a four-episode miniseries, rendered on Netflix as one long film, L'il Quinquin has fascinating characters, an odd murder mystery, and a nicely "hung" ending.

Dark Star - H.R. Giger's World - Wholly satisfying for any fan of Giger's paintings and creations, we get a view inside the life and home of this iconoclastic illustrator, painter and sculptor. Shot shortly before his passing, we see a truly humble artist, surrounded by his loved ones, friends, and works—the ride on his personal, self-built backyard mini-rail system being a superb highlight. All the biographical high (and low) points and curiosities are also addressed, without feeling episodic, and with a lens of true kindness and deep respect for its subject.

Best actor: Ben Mendelsohn, Mississippi Grind
Best actress: Nina Arianda, Rob The Mob


Now, as to music, there's a lot that I love and even more that I like…. These are releases that wowed me enough though, front to back, that as stated above resonated throughout my year and likely will reach far beyond. That said, though I keep copious notes, there's the genuine chance that I innocently forgot something (for example, Excepter's Familiar appears here, where it should have been on the list for 2014.) A lot of great music came out this year and last, and in some cases the brilliance of things creeps up on me…. Regardless, this may look like a big list, but it's a mere surface scratch of the mass of music I listened to, liked, and/or played on the radio this year:


Devilspit - Grim, Hateful and Drunk | Impalers - Psychedelic Snutskallar | Necrovulva - all | Zavod - all | Human Bodies - No Life + MMXIII-MMXIV | Bog Oak - A Treatise… | Contact - First Contact | Excepter - Familiar | Young and In The Way - When Life Comes to Death | Bretwaldas of Heathen Doom - Seven Bloodied Ramparts | Night Bitch - s/t 10" | Vorde - Vorde | Shaved Women - Just Death | Caïna - Setter of Unseen Snares | Nekromantiker - Nekromantiker | Ides - sorry, nothing | v/a - Frozen In Time II: Music to Accompany the Films of Ingmar Bergman | Cretin - Stranger | GIDIM - all | Leather Chalice - all | Vilkacis - The Fever of War | Vivisektion - Gaskammer Edict | Arvo Zylo - Falling Tower, Terrible Fountain | Blood Rhythms - Assembly | Sektarism - split LP w Darvulia & s/t CD | Heavydeath - X - Solus in Mortem / VIII - Futility & Death | Mueco - Demo 2013 | Mocoso - Demo 2014 | Dark Blue - Pure Reality | Ashencult - Black Flame Gnosis | Svffer - Lies We Live | Limbs Bin / Two Million Tons of Shit - split | Anasazi - Nasty Witch Rock | Volahn - Aq'Ab'Al | A.M.S.G. - Anti-Cosmic Tyranny | Haare - Musta Magia | Kyle Eyre Clyd - Pale Dawn Creeps | Ramlord - splits with Cara Neir, Krieg, 7" EPs | DDAA - Hazy World | NRIII - Gnashed | Spitzenqualität - all | Dumal - Dumal | Alexandra Atnif - .A:A. mix.1 | Krasseville - Nous Sommes Faux | Encounters - Prolonged Nostalgia | Orthank - Rotting World | Belus - Demo MMVV  & Anicon / Belus split | Volkmort - Traces of Doom | Uniform - Perfect World | Night - Night | Disasterpeace - It Follows OST | Nocnitsa - Reveling of Foul Spirits | Unholy Two - Talk About Hardcore | Good Willsmith - Aquarium Guru Shares the Secret Tactic | Nuit Noire - Inner Light + Deluge of Starlight | Sinoia Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST | Recreant - Still Burn | Husere Grav / FRKSE - split LP | Miller / Camfield / Merzbow - No Closure | Justin Marc Lloyd - Your | This Colony Is Sleeping In - Stay / Gone | Moon Pool and Dead Band - MEQ | Faustian Funeral - Demo | Vetala - The Lord of Eternity | Makoto Kawabata - Astro Love & Infinite Kisses | Ateh Gibor Le'olam Shaitan - Ritual II | Aktisa - Grands tyrans | Grausamkeit - Satan's Addicktion & Pure Madness | Unspeakable - Under the Black Spell | Cape of Bats - all | Black Cilice - Mysteries + Old Oaths | Warground / Hithaeglir - split | DA - Artcore Action Heroes | Drew McDowall - Contact | Long Distance Poison - Human Program | Tyrants of Hell - Haggard and Rotten | Serpentine Path - Emanations | Sapthuran - Hildegicel | Vomit Breath - Confessions of a Necrophiliac Priest | Expander - Laws of Power | Askeregn - Monumenter | Viands - Temporal Relics | Life Stinks - You're Not Gonna Make It | Clandestine Blaze - New Golgotha Rising | Crowhurst - Give In | Crowhurst and Bonemagic - Dedicated To Wheeler Winston Dixon | Slugga - all | One Master - Reclusive Blasphemy | Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn | Oppression - Sociopathie & glorie | Nudity - Astronomicon

Sons of bitches want EVERYTHING!

Excited by the recent influx of great punk / death rock / hxcx vinyl into WFMU's new bin; new LPs by Life Stinks, Muerte, Manateees, and Condition are ruling the day. Also, still feeding off the great Tyrants of Hell (Wohrt) and Expander cassettes (Caligari), as well as the Helmsplitter / The Communion split CD. ...

Listener-comment / playlist nods went to selections from great albums by Absurd | Tarm

Keeping this one short; thanks as always for tuning in, and for your passive or active participation....

Click on our "devoted" young lady above, answering an old storyteller's dying wish (from the delightfully raunchy Japanese comedy / musical Wakeful Nights), to reach the archived audio, playlist and comments for last night's horrorcast™. Lots of great live music, and a new show logo, coming in 2016 on MCoQ.

Dr. Who shit just got real.

There are problems, and then there are problems. All in all, this guy had a good night, one of the more memorable of his life for sure. You'll have to see Cheap Thrills to find out more. ...

My 2015 list of films and music is coming, still making notes...Cheap Thrills will not be on it, but it had some strong competition. Look for that post here within the next week & 1/2; in the meantime, here are my music and film lists from 2014 and 2013...just to remind you that I don't half-ass these things, I write 'em "meaty," and it's never just a line item list, free of opinion or context or commentary, films being such a huge, daily part of my life that the yearly posts start to write themselves in my head, especially once I'm watching these works for the 2nd or 3rd time. My list-keeping may have been a little too good this year in terms of music, currently hovering at ~80 entries.

Last night's show was a blast. Sometimes it's useful to have a "metal-light" program, as we did when hosting COMPACTOR last week, and Horoscope a few weeks past, to strike a victorious return, coming back car-crash force the week following.

Listeners commented:  The Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme | Wende | Moonspawn | Leash | Overkill's "Space Truckin'" (Matt W. played the Deep Purple Live in Japan album-side-long version later) | The Leather Nun's "Prime Mover" single (quintessential death rock before that term existed) | new Viands LP on Midwich | ...new releases that rattled my air included:  Expander | Tyrants of Hell | Vetala LP | Life Stinks | Muerte | Virgin Flower cassette | Patrick Cowley archival CD

So click on the hapless-yet-victorious Craig, up top, to reach the playlist and audio archive for this week's horrorcast™...thanks for listening, back next week.

likey.

Well, COMPACTOR played its fabricated heart out last night; it was a dense, fat set that laid out the project's breadth of sound—from the near-constant texture of digital down, the cyclical beats, the mechanical fits and starts, to the "organic" and "inorganic" machine sounds. Very enjoyable, as "meaty" as non-meat can be. COMPACTOR's set will *not* be posting to WFMU's Free Music Archive, as some tracks performed / recorded may be used on future releases, so the easiest way to directly hear COMPACTOR's live set is by clicking above to access the full My Castle of Quiet stream from last night.

There was comment love for our first set, pre-COMPACTOR, which included tracks by Crowhurst [popnihil live cassette here], Encounters [new tape; our live guests this past August], and a sterling 1969 film track from Piero Piccioni.

Following COMPACTOR's vast, shapely set, we rode the night out with notable selections from Hiiragi Fukuda, Funeral Art, Serpentine Path, an elevating Paul Schütze organ piece, Death Citadel [lurching, primitive, blissful-blackened funeral doom], 2014 Earth, music from the doc-film Jodorowsky's Dune, and more from the Mauthausen Orchestra 4cd boxed set.

Creepy capture / horrorcast™-archive link above, "My Girl" Christina Hendricks, in Lost River, one of my favorite films from the last year of watching. Year-end My Castle of Quiet film-and-music list for 2015 coming very soon! Thanks for listening.

can you please play a bad song so I can go to sleep

 

The first half of last night's horrorcast™ was pure movement-over-land, careening like a stagecoach, muskets whipping & clacking into the air, hooves hammering the dust. ...Endurance! It's no small feat rendering ~22 shorter-duration selections in 90 mins., cueing up tapes (stopping at one point to switch decks mid-song), records, mp3s...I felt a bit like the "morning guy" at some mythical, alternate-dimension "AM zoo" station, out of time and out of step with anything happening in the real world, but pressing on urgently regardless.

Again this week, seconded & thirded high praise for Cape of Bats, and if you like My Castle of Quiet (meaning you're *sort of* like me, in the broadest sense of course!) you're as taken as I am by their dark, encrusted, Transylvanian, rockabilly-infused emanations. It's some cold shit, and they're dropping a new, full-length album later this month.

The new Tyrants of Hell (cassette on Wohrt; digital album also avail.) has been getting great reactions too; I'm working through it one song at a time, and an older-favorite single on Legion Blotan by Styggmyr ended the ride, chests heaving....

Other personal highs included:  Furdidurke | Unspeakable | DA (new LP!) | Horoscope | Decades / Failures | new Mick Travis on Midwich (quite taken by all the Midwich releases this year, just in general) | a great Total Life piece | and one selection from the excellent Slowdown by COMPACTOR, who will be our live, real-time guest performer next week. [COMPACTOR Facebook event listing]

And no, that is not Harvey Keitel above, though it could be if you looked quickly and disregarded the actor's nose...instead a moment captured From Beyond the Grave, one of the great Amicus horror-portmanteau films, with a cast to impress. Click there to reach the playlist, streaming audio & comments for our show.

i was listening to this while trying to sleep, it was great

The Female Chimera was the title of last night's horrorcast™. Chimera? "...a fire-breathing female monster, usually part lion, goat, and serpent. Because of this derivation, chimera and its adjective, chimerical, came to mean something illusory, fantastical, hoped-for but impossible." Sometimes I don't know what I'm saying or writing really, until sometime later when I reexamine my choices. Inspired by that beguiling screen capture above from Spring, I plucked the title from the air, true significance to be filled in later.

Last night's show was certainly female, and serpentine; the path clear for a while, only to suddenly spur off elsewhere. I say this with deference to Hercyn, whose live set was delayed some 20+ minutes (and no, they were not standing right there, waiting to play—I'm not that much of a bastard) by organic, free-flowing conversation with our guest Tiffany Minx, the formidable / former proprietor of Apop Records in St. Louis, a store with a history of great taste, integrity, celebrating music's farthest fringes, and hosting many a memorable live show. WE GOT TO TALKIN'...things happen; and we hope some or all or most of our banter was engaging for those listening.

When you meet another high-ranking member of your tribe, so much simply being understood, conversations happen—not necessarily on the radio, of course...but Ms. Minx and I found ourselves quite engaged and engaging, hoping that some of you did too.

Then came Hercyn's mighty, barely contained exuberance. "That was superb stuff" as one listener commented.... I'm finding more and more that good, thoughtfully rendered rock music is just good rock music, that definitions are not at all important, and that genre reductions only attempt to corner something that's just happening, because the right players got together in the right room at the right time (Couch Slut also come to mind, as in "what do they do? Who cares, it's amazing (live set from MCoQ, January at that link ^) ...

So, Hercyn, riffs and arrangements that, at least at first, take me to wispy thoughts of prog heaven, perhaps something like Anekdoten—then suddenly I'm riding an air-chariot with forgotten gods, screaming at the wind that yes, we're coming. It's rich, heady stuff, perhaps not for short-loud-fast-type attention spans, but there's a lot of reward for those who listen, raw-but-baroque shanties that recall perhaps Enslaved, or vintage Wolves In The Throne Room. Maybe I'm reaching, but regardless, I admire the romance of what they do and its many layers. Hercyn's set is slated for release on cassette, sometime soon.

Other playlist nods went to Tyrants of Hell (Wohrt Records) | Cape of Bats | Black Aura | while personal highs included new popnihil cassettes, from Warground / Hithaeglir, Crowhurst, and Burnt Hair; Leash; Cuntz; Infernal Stronghold; Unspeakable; and an excerpt from one of my year's favorite releases on cassette, a sprawling, hypnotic piece of articulated gloom by Ateh Gibor Le'olam Shaitan.

Thanks for listening, regards to Hercyn, and Tiffany Minx.
...back next week with more face-punching diversion.

...the darkness which just exudes all around

No, I do not have a captivity-torture setup in my basement, but I'd build one for the right gal! I'm adaptable; one of the benefits of aging is that some at least become more capable of growth.

Glad to be back on air after a week off, recharged and with the music cup running over as always.

Pretty intrigued by that Invisible Guest cassette, of which we heard a side...came to me with no info, and is quite good—just the kind of languid, eerie instrumental music I'm listening to a lot of late—so whomever you are, Invisible Guest, perfect timing!

Other personal highs included, but were not limited to:  Unspeakable (St. Louis) | new Yellow Eyes (pre order) | Grip | new punk LPs from Soft Shoulder & Cuntz | Moonspawn | the Warground / Hithaeglir split cs on pop nihil ...

Much listener enthusiasm for: the great Cape of Bats (recently heard them for the first time, an immediate favorite, just dripping with all the things I love) | vintage PiL | vintage Birthday Party (I realized that I play The Birthday Party & Nick Cave about as often as Matt Warwick plays Can, and that's just fine | Vorpal Sword (coming soon, here) | great new DA LP (DA shop)

Another still this week from Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard; I've yet to see a film of hers that I didn't deeply appreciate, all of them human stories, grim, yet artfully composed, almost painted.... Click there to reach the archives and playlist for this week's horrorcast™.

Next week: a LIVE SET from HERCYN ... (FB event)

HORROR ALL YEAR 'ROUND

Much to my surprise, and to my knowledge, no paper exists entitled The Apotheosis of the Antiheroine in Literature and Cinema. Why? The answer, all too obvious: Because I, Wm. Michael Berger, did not complete my higher education! How I would have basked in the indulgence of my professors, had I seen that idea through. Nothing stopping me from doing it now, of course, and were I to, Alice Morgan from the Luther series would be my cover girl. Pitiless, arrogant, brilliant, over-proud, loyal to a fault, controlling, easily wounded, irresistibly sexual. I can only hope that some flawless parallel of the Alice Morgan character actually exists, somewhere in the world, and that I stay on her good side, preferably on her very good side. (Alice Morgan so deliciously and enticingly portrayed by Ruth Wilson; credit where credit is so very much due!)

Every boy, then, needs an Alice Morgan; a truth-teller, defender, fly on the wall, perpetual vigilant ally, and lust / love object, hovering eternally at a (very near) distance. What an exciting life that would be! Simply waking up every morning would be a fresh dive into the abyss!

When I listen back these My Castle of Quiet archives every Wednesday, I sometimes think, as I do this week, that I really like my show—I grok the reverence and energy I put into it, revel in the selections, et al.—it'd be a bloody fucking waste if I didn't. That said, I'm a fan first, a person with fans second, and perhaps that's why I never tire of the gratification of knowing that there are those who also like my radio program, for their own reasons perhaps, but still. Every enthused, encouraging, positive and/or wholly irreverent comment on the weekly playlist is appreciated, and donations, well—wasn't I surprised to see that once our program-specific goal had been achieved, listeners continued pledging (including one pledge that came in mid-program last night)—thereby surpassing our goal. Sometimes I feel like Sally Field at the 1985 Oscars...a bit incredulous, humble but definitely very pleased!

Playlist hails last night went to Spiteful Urinator | Grausamkeit | Nuit Noire | Psychic Anomaly

...We heard lots of black metal vinyl last night; LPs and singles (selections of mine left over from Singles Going Steady week on WFMU two weeks prior); I'd mention some personal highs, but I pretty much loved the whole show last night (clearly stated above, but we old men tend to repeat ourselves...)

New, excellent releases did abound from Castle friends and familiars The Communion | Halloween5 (aka Enslaved By Owls) | Yellow Eyes | DA | the aforementioned Nuit Noire... ...and that Mauthausen Orchestra 4xCD box on Urashima is no slouch. Back next week.

Thanks again for your donations and support!

...it's all white boy bongo music to me so far.

France, with its built-in, cultural-aesthete position in history, with centuries of art appreciation, and particular obsessions with existentialism, death and the macabre, was bound to be a place where black metal would flourish, a fertile ground for generations of uniquely satisfying music.

There's no substitute, then, for a band with a decade-and-a-half's endurance in the genre coming over to the U.S., reminding us that our indigenous black metal, as great as it often is, is distinctly American, and comes from a different dark corner of the soul. ...and with the best French bands, crafting this music comes as naturally as eating snails, or killing off one or more protagonists at the very end of a film.

Mortífera were the indisputable stars of our night, inasmuch as their set was truncated by circumstantial necessity. Those three songs, for myself, were a hearty bowl of black soup, a savoring of what would come the next night, with Mortífera onstage at full force.

We then heard an older track from Celestia; both bands are comprised of nearly the same personnel (adding Ghaast on guitar), yet present so very differently. I'm particularly attached to the song we heard, "Immortal Floating Shadow."

Castlehead-playlist cheers went to Ateh Gibor Le'olam Shaitan  (here's another piece; YT link) | gorgeous grind—one half of a split release by Trepanation | ...and some Stooges-inspired, Swiss, ritual-style electric weirdness from 1978 by Tötenköpf. 

ETERNAL THANKS FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT! AS THE YEARS DRIFT BY ON MY CASTLE OF QUIET, THE TIDE RISES, FALLS AGAIN, SEEMS I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON APPRECIATIVE MY CASTLE OF QUIET LISTENERS TO DONATE / PLEDGE TO THE SHOW, AND HELP WFMU LURCH FORWARD DURING FUNDRAISING TIME. 
MUCH APPRECIATION FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!

Our screen capture this week, a personal favorite, comes from Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard (2009), a wonderful, beguiling film that I can't recommend highly enough.

Thank you for a fantastic October, with Halloween still to come!

Greetings friends, Castleheads, Castle haters, et al. ...

Pos or neg, I appreciate your participation in the ongoing "radio experiment" that is My Castle of Quiet—trying always to bring those darker emotions and unsavory music to the airwaves. WFMU is hoping to raise pledges / funds all October, $ we really need in advance of our more official 2-week yearly marathon in March 2016. And yeah, we're running out of October, with the program holding @ 50% toward its *very modest* fundraising goal of $900 for the month.

This month-long "fun-raiser" is low impact; that said, our building needs all kinds of urgent, ridiculous repairs, we have two new t-shirt designs we're offering for your pledge, and you can enter a photo of your pet in our Mascot Contest v.2 when you pledge.

See the white, rectangular, "WOOF-MOO" Flash pledge widget above to make a donation, or go to my playlist-archive page @ http://wfmu.org/playlists/WB

For more information, or to donate to WFMU at large (or another WFMU program) see here.

Hails and thanks to those who have pledged already, those who will pledge, and those who are unable to donate but just listen and engage My Castle of Quiet with enthusiasm! I'm eternally grateful for your support!!

Essence indeed.

The inherent value of doing a radio show based solely around the 7" format is many-fold—to herald the labels that continue(d) to champion the format, in a non-hit-based musical underground, in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, as well as those post-2000 vinyl fiends, who continue to produce and purchase singles to this day. ...It's also damn hard for even the most mediocre of artists to make a BAD single. Almost everyone who at least attempts to make music has at least two good sides in them.

The format itself necessitates the immediate, strong statement, so WFMU naturally sounds different during Singles Going Steady week; each DJ is still doing their own, particular thing, but the listener gets more "booms" per set, in fact, it's almost all booms, which I guess is the idea. I should note that this is the first year I've participated in the annual, optional week-long fest, and I'm sorry for all the years that I stuck firm to my standard weekly plan, rather than diving in with zeal, as I did last night.

Castleheads spiked to selections by Drunks With Guns | Wretched Worst | Skullflower | Royal Trux | Scritti Politti | Haare | Atrax Morgue | Necrovulva ... and I'm surprised that no one asked about our atypical playlist image—not a movie screen capture, obviously. I received this picture of a ripe young gal, axe in hand, provocative glare in eyes, by way of a unsolicited phishing email, a "romance scam" if you like, and for some reason I saved it, and thought it had visual entrancement properties, and was somehow appropriate for this show; accompaniment for the program title Pitiful Portable Picnic Player, a phrase I often think of when I think of singles, A Clockwork Orange at this point encoded into my DNA.

Join us again next week for live music from Mortífera, a rare and special black-metal event not to be missed. Please also remember that WFMU is "silently" fundraising this month, and we're swiftly running out of October; My Castle of Quiet now @ 50% toward its modest goal. Huge thanks to those who have already pledged!

make me cry!

Paper towels, tear with ease at the perforation...or F E E L  M Y  W R A T H ! ! !

On occasion, My Castle of Quiet takes on spontaneous form, a swirlie of pre-planned and unplanned elements; such was last night's show, with engaging conversations forming a centerpiece, surrounded by mostly lovely, haunting music.

As I intentionally festooned the program around Rene Nunez' soulful and many-textured Horoscope performance, that lapsed into a chat, give or take as long as the set itself, rare for McoQ, but Rene and I fell in quite naturally, an extension of our off-air talk that preceded the program. The live set itself was rich with engaging and varied approaches to solo sound manipulation, using circular musical figures and compelling spoken extracts, and I'd imagine Horoscope's available and soon-to-be available recordings reflect that same singularity and heart.

A bracing chat ensued as well with music writer and Castle friend Mike Rowell, mostly about the SF Fabio Frizzi concert, some other brief music and film tangents as well. Mike's reports from the left-coast field will likely become a recurring segment.

Castleheads loved "Demon Loaf," from the new cassette and digital album Chuck by former McoQ live guests The Gate, as well as selections in our opening set by David Bowie (from Low), Vond, and the supreme new double LP by Kawabata Makoto on vhf.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WFMU IS FUN-RAISING ALL THIS MONTH! Find out more about the drive, new t-shirt designs and mascot contest here. To contribute directly to support My Castle of Quiet, please see the white dog-and-cow pledge widget above this post.

Next week, my singles, going steady (or at least liking you as a friend), live music from Mortífera the week after. Click on the gloppy, green mummy from Charles Band's Petrified, above, to reach the playlist and archived audio for this week's horrorcast™.

Needs more Gutterals.

WOULD YOU RATHER...? Be Father Merrin, or Father Karras?

A few more questions: Where is my Women of The Huff Post calendar? ...and if, from my receiving end, that request seems to minimize women, why then do I feel so aroused every time I watch a Huff Post Live report by Logan Tittle, Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani, or Alyona Mink? It certainly can't be the content; the way they belabor those important issues, yammering on and on with "experts," through shaky Skype connections? Someone there at HuffPost is up to something, and I am merely the libidinous male having my brain and hormonal surges tinkered with.

Also... Why can't the U.S. and Russia team up to defeat ISIS, the way Goku and Vegeta aligned against the more-powerful Frieza? We'll deal with Assad later, and besides, we've supported plenty of ultra-shitty Mideast dictators in the past. MAKE MY LIFE INTO A HAWKISH ANIME PLOT! PLEASE!

Can't say enough good things about Throaat, our live guests on last night's horrorcast™. What I expected and got was raw black metal; what I didn't expect was a lesson in great songwriting and classic metal chops. It was a real exercise in intensely controlled chaos; a well-heeled, but also wild presentation by a band in their prime. Just great metal music.

Also garnering appreciation in our first, pre-Throaat set were Royal Trux (the topic of a recent behind-the-scenes difference of opinion involving myself and several of my radio colleagues, so I've naturally been revisiting their catalog) with one of my most-fondly recalled songs of theirs (and I come down very much on the "YES" side, having long appreciated Neil Hagerty's angular, avant-Stones approach to making music); and Heavydeath, from their latest full-length...so much love for a first-set doom track, that hopefully the ripple leads to Caligari Records selling a few tapes—whup—"5 remaining"—better jump on that.

Also among the noteworthy last night were: Voqkrre | Grausamkeit | Rid | Orodruin | great new Drew McDowall LP | Black Leather Jesus | new GX Jupitter-Larsen with The New Blockaders LP

Yes, we (My Castle of Quiet and WFMU) are FUN-RAISING for the month of October (see the white, rectangular WFMU logo-widget above this post) and we here at MCoQ appreciate deeply your generous donations toward achieving our very-modest program pledge total for the month. Those not thanked on-air this week will be thanked next week, where we'll have more live music; this time a real-time set by Horoscope (music embeds in that post from Italian noisey; Horoscope on Facebook) .

I don't hear any slobbering.

So...last private party at The Castle for a while, as WFMU gears up for Crunch Time: our stealthy, low-impact, October stopgap fundraiser. Fun times last night, more fun to come.

I learned a few things this week; a) you can buy ridiculously inexpensive desktop-printer ink off-brand that works FINE; b) living in the moment as often as possible will always serve you best; and c) Netflix's contractual situations don't care if you want to spend October watching great movies, great SCARY movies, etc.—Oct. 1, what a day to remove The Exorcist, Invisible Invaders, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Blue Velvet, Bloody Sunday, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Going Places, Justine, Nightmares Come At Night, and Schoolgirl Hitchhikers (see above) from their streaming universe. Ah, first-world problems!

Had my usual blast last night, starting off with "Stolen Police Car" by King Tears Bat Trip, sounding like Albert Ayler backed by Boredoms 77, and receiving much approval on our playlist. What followed was a flood of black-ish metal, including the newest (and apparently final) tape from Canada's Putamen Insula, a band I've followed with great interest (featuring members of Oppression and Verglas); wild punk-black from Brasil's Velho; a great, split-single A side from Ancestors Blood on Tour de Garde; also on T-d-G, one whole tape side of creepy, funereal ambience from Old Tower; a classic speed track from Germany's Running Wild (have been playing their first album, a 2015 WFMU Record Fair acquisition, to DEATH at home); and yet another track from Bloodfucking Freaks by Throaat—our special, live guests on next week's program! [Facebook event announcement]

Our final hour was an electronic festi, with tracks from Slenderman, Alexandra Atnif (crunchy, beat-based, home-cassette goodness!), Long Distance Poison's new LP (not to boast AT ALL, but I wrote the liner notes, and WFMU's own Michele Colomer did the design and layout), Golden Retriever, et al.

Click on officer pigtails above, to reach the archive and playlist for last night's horrorcast™, and please join us @ WFMU & My Castle of Quiet next month for live music, Singles Going Steady week, and more. Info tc.

I must dash, and rewatch Curtis Harrington's Night Tide before it's too late.

Sounds like the swinging pendulum over the pit.

Ah, blissful coverage! A lined hoodie, long pants (ok, sweats...yes I wear sweats in public because I just don't give a shit) a crisp breeze across my face, and my desire to leave the house all mark the coming of glorious Autumn in the Northeast. Everything seems possible, my temperament goes from "hair trigger" to "safety on," music sounds better, films and photos look better, my olfactory sense tingles, and hell, I may even get kissed before the year is out (though I hedge no bets.)

This is when traipsing to WFMU to do my weekly program becomes a real joy—may sound pretty much the same—feels renewed, rebooted, to me. That lusty breeze that fuels through Jersey City at the Hudson's edge is simultaneously invigorating and deeply relaxing. Hint: Once you turn the corner of 50, you tend to take not a damn thing for granted.

On to last night's horrorcast™, surprised no one asked about our screen capture...it's the lovely Christina Hendricks, of Mad Men fame, peeling off her face in a less-than-Grand Guignol of sorts, in the Ryan Gosling-directed Lost River, a gloomy, Lynchian, neon-lit fable set in a ruined American town, that the more it resonates, is fastly becoming one of my favorite views of the year. Also starring Barbara Steele (!) in a non-speaking role, and the entrancing Saoirse Ronan.

Playlist comments went to a thoughtfully reissued 1981 Heldon single (pop-orange vinyl; on Souffle Continu); Darvulia's great, last gasp; vintage Pussy Galore covering The Stones; prog-black weirdness from Murw; more vintage, New York Dolls' full-throttle cover of Bo Diddley's "Pills," always a personal favorite (live clip 1974), and our opener, a Nurse With Wound single, from their Dada-exotica phase ca. 1995.

Personal highs included the theme from Night Train to Terror; Human Bodies; vintage Piledriver; Red Dragon (on Tour de Garde); one side of the Nembutal cassette on Yamabushi Recordings; and new releases on Midwich by Magas and Moon Pool and Dead Band.

Lots of live music coming in October on My Castle of Quiet—sets next month from Throaat (10/7); Horoscope (10/14); Mortífera (10/28.) More info tc. Thanks for tuning in!

SCARIEST most DISTURBING image yet!

Thanks slugluv1313, I thought it was a skin-crawler; even more so if you see the movie, Wake In Fright (1970), a landmark in existential cinema, and Australian cinema overall. High-tension, and not a minute wasted! Click on owur luvvley haaus bend to reach the streaming audio archive & playlist for last night's My Castle of Quiet horrorcast™.

Fan favorites included: "So Jellified" from the new album by Cherubs [got MY attention for sure!]; classic 1981 krautrock from Hardy Kukuk, brought to us by the excellent Wah Wah label, featuring Klaus Bloch, more well known for his idiosyncratic Extrem Musik a la Ping Pong albums.
Some YT audio below:


Listener blee praised the "fierce[ness]" of our second set, which included many new tracks, from One Master | Hercyn | Hadit | ...and a quartet of selections from three cassettes on the outstanding, UK-based Yamabushi Recordings label.

Thanks for listening and joining in. Back next week...

do you have any TKK?

Why yes, I do! Have a soft spot for that old Wax Trax! grime. I rarely if ever take "suggestions" (as listener Jake Gould noted, sounds much better than "requests"); my old 80s-90s show description in WFMU's LCD 'zine used to end with the sentence, "None of your damn requests." (My default method is cut those solicitors off at the knees.) Still, as we saw last night, sometimes a request can suggest an unconsidered path. 

It's a common misconception that I go out of my way to *not* be a crowd-pleaser, which couldn't be further from the truth. It's quite simply that my own listening habits need constant, fresh input, frequent reboots of new sound stimulation, so I work the show outward from that personal premise, with the understanding that listeners often respond favorably to the known/familiar; I endeavor to appease that demon to some degree, while answering my call to duty of spreading the more-challenging and the seldom heard.

'Twas a lively playlist, with much crowd participation and commentary. The suggestion of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult steered me toward great selections from my stash by Magas and Teatro Satanico.

Also garnering playlist-comment praise were: vintage Cure | Ride For Revenge | Father Murphy | Death Factory [extended selection from great 2013 CDr] | smooth ecojams from MindSpring Memories

Our screen capture this week comes from Stuart Gordon's Dagon, and while not the director's finest H.P. Lovecraft interpretation, it's worth a watch for its mood, production design and arresting visuals. [trailer] Click on the image to reach our horrorcast™ playlist and streaming archive.

The biggest news: My Castle of Quiet continues into the new WFMU schedule, starting next week, through June 2016. Looking forward to a live visit in late October from the legendary Mortífera; that month marks WFMU's Web-based "silent" fundraiser and mascot contest, more info t/c.

You are nothing!

...said the dude in the plague-doctor mask to the gal in the hog-tie face cage.

Ride For Revenge, with their clang and buzz, their sturdy, insistent mid-tempo declarations of Satanic love, opened our horrorcast™ last night with an extended epic that highlighted all their thudding, grubby mastery. ...Listeners also liked 80s-vintage slimy electronics from Master/Slave Relationship and Cat Rapes Dog.

Personal highlights included "Watchin' You" from Kiss ALIVE! (a formative album that led to "stronger stuff" for me); another track from the Kristallnacht Tour de Garde collection (2010, though currently in heavy rotation here @ home); fantastic, new One Master; great, new Sapthuran on Vanguard Productions cassette; tracks by Indricothere | Ramlord | Cherubs (brand fucking new!) | Ground | Clocked Out (LP on At War With False Noise) | ...and thoughtfully reissued classic Kraut-electronics from Conrad Schnitzler (rare interview airs tomorrow on WFMU's Strength Through Failure.)

Our still this week, which inspired great reaction & inquiry, is from a film called The Poughkeepsie Tapes, a "found-footage," serial-killer torture-captivity film on which my personal jury is still out...quite a compelling image, though.

Paul Bruno fills in next week, providing lubricious entertainment. See you in 2.

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

What have we learned? YOUR HOST, AND "PEOPLE," LIKE GARY NUMAN. More to come on that exciting revelation. ...

What else? New Drainolith [made even more exceptional by the contributions of Nate Young and Neil Hagerty; and two songs by a swell band I just saw for the first time, Ground from Southern NJ.

Our still this week comes from the unashamedly chessy-but-hits-all-the-right-notes Stitches, by director Conor McMahon, who's made some other promising features, like the peat-bog Nosferatu meditation From the Dark...but also seems yet to make his masterpiece.

Click on Clown-With-Wound above, to reach the audio archive for last night's horrorcast™.

How are you going to mop up all that blood?

"Not false" was the watchphrase for the evening, a "good, old-fasioned" Castle show; TWO ABSOLUTELY FLOORING sets from Encounters, fierce chunks of necromancy, electric and vibrant. Todd W. (Husere Grav), our guest several times previous (and one of my favorite people in the world) and Raj (aka FRKSE, of the great Divergent Series label) kept great company, and we reveled in horror-ciné talk, wholly in its place on My Castle of Quiet...a conversational thread I'm always interested to explore, and something I'm always happy to have more of on the show (the music is great, it's why we assemble, but it will also "keep.")  

"I'd watch Lance Henriksen make a peanut butter sandwich!"

Great to see and converse with good people, thus rebooting one's very interest rolling out of bed in the morning. The occasional discourse on Roger Watkins, Necrophagia, Jim Van Bebber and Amityville II: The Possession is good for the soul—my soul, at least.

Playlist comments were light, though my opening bridge of Bauhaus-into-Shellac (into the great Italian Catholic-guilt purveyors Father Murphy) seemed to garner some appreciation. Newer sides by Belus, Welkin Dusk and NYC psych-freakout guides Pulcinella were among other high points.

Much gratitude to Encounters for their intense performance(s)! You can hear their sets, and the full program archive by clicking above, on our weekly screen capture from The Raid: Redemption (also discussed in our circling film-appreciation table talk.)

Thanks for listening. Back next week...

Holy crap

...or unholy crap, as may be appropriate.

I've been extraordinarily lucky, since returning to WFMU's weekly air in 2009, in that my show quite often falls on or proximate to my birthday. What could be better than being able to put out 3 hours of concentrated music appreciation on one's anniversary of birth, the "highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion"?

Of course, the mighty frontispiece of last night's My Castle of Quiet program was our live set by the great Volahn, making their third visit to The Castle—an outstanding charge of supreme black slaughter of the very highest order. Volahn are always surprising, I'm always floored by their meta-level musicianship and the sheer power and force of their performance. This time, their set was recorded to multitrack, with live mix and outstanding post-production work by JP Gautreaux, enhancing / preserving all the energy with an album-like feel. Couldn't be happier!

Also making the greatness even greater was the live debut of International Mrs. & Mr. Leather, in our last hour; two great, talented people I really admire; a heavy electronics performance rendered in-the-moment, right there next to me in WFMU's Studio A. Strong, heady, steamy stuff. Plus they brought cake.

In betwixt the live KOs, our usual array of thorny releases / recordings, new and old, including: vintage Nuit Noire, new on LP from Seedstock; more greatness from the It Follows OST, by Disasterpeace; bracing, blackened selections from Ramlord, Arcanus Tenebre, Arizmenda, Nocturnal Blood and others.


Hear it all by clicking above, on the frenzy of psychedelic, tentacular love captured from The Dunwich Horror (1970.)

NEXT WEEK: YET MORE LIVE MUSIC FROM ENCOUNTERS!!

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