Yessss! It makes me vomit too!

A lot can happen in a bloody fortnight. I come back to you somewhat transformed, from a grouping of events that run the spectrum from "that really fucking sucks" to "life-changingly, unexpectedly amazing." I jawed enough about stuff & things last night; better y'all just listen to the archive, than that I start dipping my toe into repeating color commentary logged in a spirited fashion during our broadcast. ...

Coming back after a week's absence from the air is like "shooting Castles in a barrel" for me; I get easily and compulsively overloaded with ideas of music to play, set construction, etc. I've had compulsions far worse, to be sure! The constant flow of great new music makes it very easy as well. I'm really about 2016, what's happening RIGHT NOW, rather than opting to wallow in familiarity and nostalgia; what's been there will always be there, but what have you got for me that I haven't heard before?

So, with that two-week, lust-building exercise in mind, it would be a bit ridiculous for me to pick favorites, because even more so than usual, last night's playlist was chock full. I do want to point to some outstanding recent releases by Crowhurst, Sonic Poison, Straight Crimes, and Vasculae. Castleheads remarked upon selections from Iskra | Burnt Skull | Bleak | The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ...

Our capture this week comes from a short film entitled Hag (see below), part of the somewhat-uneven but ultimately quite satisfying comedy-horror anthology Monsterland; click on that little moment of love paralysis up above to reach the streaming audio, playlist and listener comments for last night's horrorcast™.

You had me at orphans

Open and enthused dialog is always encouraged at My Castle of Quiet—butts v. boobs, how The Jam's music has not aged well, weevils ... it's all good, very very good; group share, without hugs or the gut-stab of the serenity prayer at the end. Did I ever mention how much I dislike the serenity prayer? How it plays into our already-rooted Judeo-Xtian programming; another backhanded slap of prostration before the misty "Lord," who we invented to shoulder the burden of our natural, human weakness. "Accepting the things I cannot change" never got a bridge built. You know what else "works if you work it?" You get the idea.

"Fist in the Air" has to be the anthem of 2016, and who better to serve it up than Cherubs, who after 20 years, just decided to start making amazing music again. Also remarked upon were a classic track by Renegade Soundwave | Magnetic Systems w Fabio Frizzi | the trailer for Blood & Lace (see below) | the always-amazing Couch Slut (ferocious live set video below)(Couch Slut on My Castle of Quiet 2015 @ the Free Music Archive) | NJ's Null & Void [coming soon to MCoQ for a live set!] | Ustalost ... personally, I can't escape the new releases from True Love | Haxen | Verminaard ...my year's favorites are lining up fast, just past the halfway mark.
 


I'll be tending to family business next week ... please lend new WFMU DJ Carol McCrossen your ears & indulgence; she's got a fine radar for what's good.

Want to close with a double-down on my recommendation of 2008's Plague Town (director David Gregory also known for the excellent Richard Stanley documentary, Lost Soul), a film of humble means, rich in great atmosphere, resonant visuals, and brutal gore. Back in two weeks!

Given the musical motif, I thought I should speak severely.

 

Good, dark times this week per usual. Enrique of KAVRA already summed up our horrorcast™ better than I ever could have (see the lead post @ The Castle Facebook grp), heartfelt appreciation from a bandmember/listener/participant/friend always better than notes from the maestro (I like the way he called the program my "monster child," that's perfect.)

Do want to say that conversation on Brooklyn eats, Oasis restaurant, and a good bowl of borscht all very much appreciated. How satisfying its rough heartiness would be today—in this oppressive heat—with a cool dollop of sour cream on top.

I only ever ask for life to be reasonable, and it is, more often than not. Perhaps that's why the unreasonable moments really stand out—like hi-beams at night—getting under my skin like an irritation, a scabies infection—insulting my very senses like the acrid, over-warmed air of Northern NJ in July. A pale-skinned lass to share the occasional bowl of borscht, to sit on my chest a few times a week, to mosh in the kitchen, to share in the joys and mockery of life?!—seems like a reasonable request to me. "What's not to like?" (Right, D?)

Listeners remarked upon Iggy Pop's classic "Caesar" | Sand ... personal highs included, but were not limited to, new USBM from True Love | The Repos | Null & Void | new Misery Ritual | new top-shelf dark ambient from Verminaard | new Jason Crumer | Jabladav [James Harlow on bandcamp] ...

Our still this week comes from Georges "Eyes Without a Face" Franju's Judex, and we see there the titular character, where you can click to reach the streaming audio, image-laden playlist, and listener comments for this week's horrorcast. Thanks for your ears and appreciation.

And to close, I want to second my on-air recommendation for the 2014 film Honeymoon, working the "female partner is sensitive to spirit-energy, thus is drawn into a separate realityscape/consciousness" horror trope to rewarding dramatic effect: