SPINNING THE TRASH WAX ON "TOP SHELF OLDIES" WITH MITCHELL AND HORRORWITZ!

This Wednesday night, April 15th, from 9pm to 10pm (East Coast time) I will be a guest on the online oldies music program "Spin Along With Mitch"! Hosted by obscure oldies wizard Gary Mitchell, "Spin..." is one of many amazing rock-n-roll music show broadcasts heard every night on the web station Top Shelf Oldies, a great place to hear some obscure rock, doowop, r&b, etc.. Gary had asked me to be a guest for 1 hour and said I could provide all the music! Nyaaa ha-haaa! I've dug deep into the Trash Palace 45 and LP archives to bring you a smattering of wicked wax that'll knock you on your keester, baby! So if you're into wild rock-n-roll and r&b please check it out. After the show is broadcast (or whatever they call these online things... "webcast"?) I will be posting the entire program here on this blog for your listening seizure. Er... pleasure! In addition to the rare rockin' records we'll be throwin' at ya Gary will also be throwing a few questions at me about bands I've played in and who knows what the hell else. One music set will be a tribute to Lux and the Cramps, plus a few surprises! And who the hell doesn't like surprises, eh? And, if you are so inclined, you can also take part in the live chat room that's happenin' during the show to voice compliments / complaints / death threats / marriage proposals / etc. Check out their website at http://www.topshelfoldies.com/ , click on one of the "Listen Here" links using your choice of program and the streamin' steamin' sounds of "Spin Along With Mitch" (and Horrorwitz) will fill the room! Or, check back at this spot at a later date and listen to the show after the webcast. Either way it'll rock your day!

VAMPYROS COMPLETOS

My close friend Dr. Penis has recently posted a blog about the 1996 "3 Films By Jess Franco" CD release, it's original 1969 source LPs and the subsequent re-releases under the "Vampyros Lesbos" title. Unfortunately the complete version of the CD featuring all of the music has been out of circulation for many years now. But if you check out the article over at his Purple Zombie DJ blog you can download it there for free! This psyche-pop music composed and released on 2 LPs in Germany circa 1969 by Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab was a surprise indie hit when re-released on LP and CD in 1996 and pretty much then jump-started the entire Euro-trash soundtrack / pop / lounge music craze! I myself remember being given a cassette of this back then by my buddy Joe Johnson (creator of the ahead-of-it's-time way-cool fanzine "3:AM"). At first listen I didn't really know how to take it. It had rock elements but wasn't really rock. There was a psychedelic / experimental side to it but then it had a pop sound as well. After 2 or 3 listenings I was hooked! It became one of my fave soundtracks ever and I never get tired of listening to it. I remember tracking down fuzzy looking VHS bootlegs of the 3 Jess Franco German movies that the music was used for ("She Killed in Ecstasy", "Vampyros Lesbos" and "The Devil Came From Akasava"). None of these movies were subtitled and despite my lack of understanding most of the German dialogue I probably watched those tapes 10 times each! A big part of the appeal was finally seeing / hearing how the music was used in each film. Franco was always pretty progressive when it came to sometimes mixing in modern music with his movie scores. Somehow using these prog-ish and at the time modern sounds worked for those movies and set a whole new flavor to the way Euro-exploitation movies sounded. Franco had already used music by Manfred Mann in his "Venus In Furs" (aka "Paroxismus", 1970) and would go on to direct "Killer Barbys" (1996), a gothic horror flick featuring music by and starring the titular Spanish garage punkers of the same name, as well as "Tender Flesh" (1997) which featured music by the heavily under rated Spanish rock band Sexy Sadie. Not to mention "Vampire Blues" which was scored by my band The Ubangis. "Vampire Blues", like "Vampyros Lesbos", was another lesbian re-telling of the Dracula story. Only Jess Franco could have come up with the idea of telling these kinds of stories using rock music as a sonic backdrop!

If you have any interest in movie soundtracks, psychedelia, strange pop music, Jess Franco or Euro-trash films then the original complete "3 Films by Jess Franco" CD is required listening folks! GO GET IT NOW while you can!

LINKS:
The Purple Zombie DJ blog is at http://purplezombiedj.blogspot.com/
The "3 Films by Jess Franco" ("Vampyros Lesbos") article is at http://purplezombiedj.blogspot.com/2009/02/3-films-by-jess-franco-vampyros-lesbos.html

THE IMPORTANCE OF LUX INTERIOR, IVY RORSCHACH AND THE CRAMPS

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KNIF OF THE LIVING DEAD: DIG LUX'S RADIO SHOW AND LIFT YOUR SPIRITS!

Roll on, rock on, yeah now bop, yeah rock on
Well, there's still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones

I wanna leave a happy memory when I go
I wanna leave something to let the whole world know
That the rock 'n' roll daddy has done past on
But his bones keep rockin' long after I'm gone

Roll on, rock on, yeah now bop, yeah rock on
Well, there's still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones

Well when I die, buried six foot deep
With a rock 'n' roll record at my feet
A phonograph needle in my hand
I'm gonna rock my way right out of this land

Roll on, rock on, yeah now bop, yeah rock on
Well, there's still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones

Well, when I die don't bury me at all
Just a-hang my bones up on the wall
Beneath these bones let these words be seen:
"The running gears of a boppin' machine"

Roll on, rock on, yeah now bop, yeah rock on
Well, there's still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones
Still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones
Still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones
Still a lot of rhythm in these rockin' bones

~Ronnie Dawson, 1959

I couldn't have said it better than Ronnie Dawson has. But from me more needs to be said. And much more WILL be said soon enuff! But in the meantime I'll say this: The sudden death of Lux Interior has his friends and fans in shock. I am still in a stunned disbelief (writing this on little sleep so pardon the grammer). Truth be told, I haven't felt this sad in years. This is a tough one, folks. But Lux and The Cramps, despite their groundbreakingly ghoulish tunes and horror-filled lyrics, were really all about life; Livin' it up and tearin' it up! I knew Lux and I can tell you he wouldn't want people sitting around crying over him like many of us have been doing all this week. Nope, he'd want you rockin'-out in his memory! So if you are feeling as depressed and numb as I have been, fear not! A little feelgood medicine has just arrived: My mysterious friend Dr. Penis aka The Purple Zombie DJ has posted the entire "Purple Knif Radio Show" presented by Lux Interior (aka The Purple Knif) circa July of 1984. So turn that frown upside-down, my chillun! Check out the link below for Dr. P's blog, download the show and dig it!

LINKS:

The Purple Zombie DJ Blog at http://purplezombiedj.blogspot.com/

LUX

This morning my friend Lux Interior, lead singer of the Cramps, passed away. I am so sad right now I don't really know what to say.

THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE NAZZ PROMO

Speaking of the sad passing of Ray Dennis Steckler, did you know that besides directing all those incredibly strange movies he also made a promotional music film for Todd Rundgren's band The Nazz? Around 1968, Steckler made what can be considered an early predecessor to the music video for the song "Open My Eyes". The short film, re-broadcast on MTV's "Closet Classics" show in the late 1980s, has the same kind of manic exuberance, fast editing and overall wackyness as the music scenes in "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" and "Wild Guitar". Check it out!:

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE

Yes, yes, I know I've been slacking. I've been recently chastised by a few (very few) for not adding to this blog more often. Things've been a bit hectic at the Palace, but I have some trashy goodies coming up. My feeling is I'd rather wait and post "quality" things, that is, things I think are worth reading, then just try to make a quota. So to those impatient few I say HOLD YOUR SHORTS! And I promise it will be worth the wait.

I just got the sad news that another idol of mine, director / actor Ray Dennis Steckler, has passed away. So many great people are leaving us more and more and it saddens me, and thus it is hard for me not to turn this into the "Who's Cool That's Just Croaked" blog but that wasn't my intention when I started it. So I am holding my tongue for the most part, or trying to at least. I guess that's how life is, the older you get the more people you know of start going. But I suppose that if our time wasn't limited on this orb then it wouldn't make life so valuable. And as for Mr. Steckler, I will leave it to those who are better then me at writing bio's and sutch (that's most people!) and just say that I loved his movies and greatly admired his passion for film making. Steckler was one of those film makers whose works you either loved or hated and thus he has a true cult following. If you've never seen one of his movies check out my favorite "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo".

Steckler directs and stars as the hypnotised knife-wielding psycho killer in "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" (pant! pant!) also known as "The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary".

LINKS:
Ray Dennis Steckler official website at http://www.raydennissteckler.com/
Ray Dennis Stecklaer on the Internet Movie Database at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0824306/