Tub o’ Horror

This is pretty damn neat: A fan video of original grungers – yes, they pretty much help invent the damn genre – Steel Pole Bath Tub‘s Train to Miami using footage from the Spanish horror classic Horror Express. It’s a win, baby! Taken from their 1993 album The Miracle of Sound in Motion released on Boner Records.

The ‘Tub was an aquired taste, but I am personally convinced that their brand of ugly noise and twisted drones was the initial seedling that later evolved to the doom and sludge sounds found in today’s metal scene. Along with outfits like The Melvins (whom they shared label with) they took the first steps towards stoner rock – to much chagrin from the underground community that was too hung up on not allowing bands to create whatever the hell popped into their heads insisting a maintenance of the status quo – and IMO you’d gotta be pretty damn deaf to miss that one.

The 1972 outing Horror Express is actually one of my personal faves in the genre. During the 80′s I spent many late Thursday nights glued to Super Channel as they aired cheap (?) horror movies and this mummy/zombie/evil creature feature made quite an impression on me. Considered to be in the public domain you can actually download it legally via Archive.org or watch it in full on YouTube.

Bigfoot Diaries

Make sure you check out the latest installment of Troy Church and Co’s The Bigfoot Diaries Live – available via YouTube! Musical guests are Seth Peters and BJ Forst of Dead Horse Trauma, the main topic is the various sub genres of metal and I was pleasantly surprised receiving a plug towards the end of the show.

Speaking of Bigfoot, the poster I created for them is still available for sale! There’s six different designs in total with every print being a 11″ X 17″ limited numbered edition and made of the highest quality card stock. Only $10 plus $5 shipping and handling, foreign rates will be higher. Get ‘em here.

Get it!

Call Me Greenhorn – Armageddon Dub (video)

I looked and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him…

Yes, here we go: Proudly announcing that the video for Call Me Greenhorn‘s Armageddon Dub is now up and running! Directed by Robert Boud it’s based on his great photo project Aftermath Apocalypse and fits the bleak industrial sounds of the song just perfectly. I already written about how the song was conceived, but my stats show you guys sure don’t like to click stuff, so it all began with me trying out both some new parallel processing techniques as well as getting to know the utterly insane Russian VST Molot one weekend, getting an initial basic track finished late on Friday evening and going to bed ending up having the worst nightmare in years.

With a heavy Walking Dead feel, the nightmare kinda freaked me out and I spent that Saturday trying to re-create the desolate feel of it and ended up with a weird, industrial soundtrack to go with the pretty standard meat-and-potatoes Dub rhythm track. Totally satisfied with the results I was kinda taken aback by the sheer darkness of the damn thing and am still scratching my head how it just kinda jumped out of me. Where the hell did that come from? Anyway, as much as I like the song I’m not adding it to the coming full length as its feel just differs from the rest of the material too damn much.

Now, if you wanna talk synchronicity let’s rewind roughly two weeks where I’m a bit bummed out about not having the equipment to edit new Greenhorn videos (I switched computers early 2013) and am trying to figure out just when and how to get something rolling when I jot down my little post about the Necronomicon Ex Mortis iPhone Case and wouldn’t you know somewhere in the UK was Robert reading it, clicking “like” and the next thing I’m checking out his portfolio and being blown away by his work – with the rest being history. Like I already stated he was perfect for the job as his imagery fits the feel of the song so good it’s eerie.

So make sure you check out the video on YouTube, it has been added as a download bonus goodie on Bandcamp so check that one out here, and please pay Robert a visit on his official site to check out his portfolio ’cause it’s damn good work. And if you wanna try out the insane Molot VST you can do so here.

The World’s Smallest Movie

Well, here’s something that’ll please both my love for naïve library music as well as interest in quantum physics: IBM Research‘s minute-long animation A Boy and His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie - made by moving actual atoms frame by frame! Yes, in order to generate interest for their research they used the technology already at hand in order to create an animation using single atoms – with pretty decent results. It’s nowhere near say Ralph Bakshi‘s 1978 The Lord of the Rings, but nice nonetheless.

For more info about how this was conceived make sure to check out the video Moving Atoms: Making the World’s Smallest Movie on YouTube here, and there’s an article available at ABC News to read up on as well.

While on the subject: If you liked the music used in the animation as much as I did, how about giving Vic Mars a spin? I was hepped to this UK musician via Project Moonbase and after a couple of listens at his Bandcamp I’m hooked on his future-retro vibe. Visit him on Facebook here.

And let’s hope the kid doesn’t try to split it…

Spoonful

For those who enjoyed Richard Gale‘s The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon I wrote about in 2012  - and the last time I checked it had over 22 million views on YouTube so there’s no doubting its popularity - I was happily surprised discovering that the story of poor Jack and his utensil-loving nemesis Ginosaji has continued into a web series!

Three parts so far, and if you thought the original ten-minute short film was silly and surreal you should definitely check out these episodes. I’m not gonna spoiler but Jack kinda snaps, rides a bus, goes to the Happy Place and there’s a squirrel involved as well. Check it out!

Aftermath Apocalypse Photography

Yes! Might have some kick-ass news coming soon – if nothing else a future post regarding the phenomena “synchronicity” – but up until then make sure you check out UK photographer Robert Boud‘s video project Aftermath Apocalypse Photography on YouTube. It’s pretty stark imagery but still oddly beautiful.

Coffin Nails

Oh man, this is so cool! Got it via The Year of Halloween: A vintage musical coffin cigarette dispenser! Remember those cheap-ass skeleton coffin piggy banks you used to have as a kid, where you wound it up, put a coin on the lid and then had to wait roughly fifteen minutes watching a hand slowly drag the damn thing inside? Well, this one easily beats those – even though I sometimes wish I still had mine. And this plays a lil’ tune to boot! Awesome! I’m adding one of these to my watch/wantlist on eBay right now.

Nerdgasmus Maximus

‘Scuse Grampa while he’s having a ten-minute nerdgasm, kids, but I found this YouTube video via my pal Troy Church at The Bigfoot Diaries‘ official page on Facebook and this is just audiophile heaven! I was oblivious to Quality Record Pressings, but according to information gathered they’re at the top of their game when it comes to mastering and pressing vinyl records.

This is just a total nerd dream as owner and all employees truly mastered their art – and yes, honing a craft is an art – and I can watch this clip over and over. Passion is so rare these days and watching a highly skilled worker perform is just as fascinating and inspiring as say the The Scientist at work in the studio clips I posted last year. So give it a spin and make sure you check out their official website here.

‘They Call Me Superseven’ OST teaser taste!

Alright, here we go: I just made a short teaser taste collecting soundbytes from thirteen out of the nineteen tracks off Call Me Greenhorn‘s They Call Me Superseven OST on Bandcamp – and it’s free! Yup, roughly 30 seconds each from this project that was about one month and a half in the making – there were some mixing issues as I basically am a Neanderthal that enjoys things a bit louder than the girlyman digital format can handle.

Anyway, that has all been sorted out so check it out here and don’t forget to spread the word via sharing on Facebook etc. The more the better. The teaser track (in full):

Tortelvis!

Well, as I completed yet one more lap around the block this past Friday and found myself receiving tons of pleasantries and well wishes from all corners of the world – except the usual Antarctica and North Pole, if you live there hit me up! – I was especially positively surprised when my pal Troy that runs The Bigfoot Diaries congratulated me and informed me that I share birthday with none other than Tortelvis from Dread Zeppelin! Now that, sir, is what we call awesome.

If you somehow should be unaware of this band – really? – I can inform you that they are probably the most unique damn outfit there ever was. In short they do reggae cover versions of Led Zeppelin. With an Elvis impersonator handling the vocal duties. Yeah, everybody goes “WTF!?” when I explain that. Still, if you’re gonna do something like covers – something I usually loathe – you should do what these guys are doing; A completely unique and original take on the material.

Growing as a phenomenon and cult band since the 1990s they have Robert Plant himself among their fans – check it out here for yourself if you don’t wanna take my word for it - I recommend you at least checking out some of their videos on YouTube, and speaking of Troy you can read his interview with Tortle here.