Psychomania has been on my list to watch for a long time, though I never knew anything about it outside of the trailer. It features troublemakers that return from the grave to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting English town; there are motorcycles, action, cool costumes, witchy undertakings, shades of A Clockwork Orange and The Wild One, a badass 1970s soundtrack. That’s what the trailer for promises. The film itself breaks most of these promises and is instead a dry, absurdly comic B-movie, that’s too slow and doesn’t play up any of its strengths. (more…)
Fernando is a drug dealer from Mexico living in Austin, Texas. He works for a man named Guillermo and is doing all right for himself since crossing “la frontera.” Then one night he’s attacked, shoved into a trunk, and presented to a man named Indio. Indio isn’t the kind of man you usually find in Austin; a large, powerfully built monster, covered in so many tattoos that his skin is almost black. He wants to take over much of Guillermo’s territory and wants Fernando to deliver a message. Part of that message involves having to watch the torture and murder of his colleague Nestor. So begins Zero Saints, a fearful, fast-paced descent into what may be the final few days of un hombre invisible. (more…)
Over at The Bluegrass Situation you’ll find the video for the debut single from Americana artist Jade Jackson. The song, “Motorcycle,” is the lead track from the forthcoming album produced by Social Distortion’s Mike Ness. “Motorcycle” is scrappy but soft-spoken and feels like a dusty western noir. I’m really looking forward to this album; if “Motorcycle” is any indication Jackson will be an artist to watch in 2017.
Overkill, The Grinding Wheel (Nuclear Blast Records)
Thrash veterans Overkill return on February 10 with The Grinding Wheel. The first single, “Our Finest Hour,” is exactly what you want/expect from Overkill, which is lightning-fast, squealing-tires-on-pavement, aggressive, and confrontational classic thrash metal. You can check out “Our Finest Hour” below. The album is currently up for pre-order on digital, digi-pak, CD, and vinyl. The vinyl comes in four variants; black, yellow, green, and splatter. You can pre-order from Nuclear Blast Records.
Mastodon, “Sultan’s Curse”
In keeping with the “coming soon” theme of the day, Mastodon released their first single for their March 31 album Emperor Of Sand a few days ago and you can preview it on Loudwire. It’s called “Sultan’s Curse” and sounds like the Mastodon we all know and love. I’ll admit that nothing the group has done since Leviathan has exactly thrilled me as much as their metal adaptation of Moby Dick, but that hasn’t stopped me from being excited every time a new album is announced. In addition to the video in the link, Loudwire also has some info on the album itself. Spoiler alert: it sounds pretty great.
Iron Maiden brings The Book of Souls Tour back to North America
Maiden remains one of the best live bands ever. Their heavy and ambitious Book Of Souls album is a highlight of their nearly four-decade career and with their latest tour they promise to bring back all the Eddies. I saw them a couple years ago with Alice Cooper (who also still knows how to put on a hell of a show) and it was a blast! It’s absolutely worth the experience. (And Ghost is opening!—Ed.)
JUN 03: BRISTOW, VA; JIFFY LUBE LIVE;
JUN 04: PHILADELPHIA, PA; WELLS FARGO CENTER
JUN 07: NEWARK, NJ; PRUDENTIAL CENTER
JUN 09: CHARLOTTE, NC; PNC MUSIC PAVILION:
JUN 11: TAMPA, FL; AMALIE ARENA
JUN 13: NASHVILLE, TN; BRIDGESTONE ARENA
JUN 15: CHICAGO, IL; HOLLYWOOD CASINO AMPHITHEATER
JUN 16: MINNEAPOLIS, MN; XCEL ENERGY CENTER
JUN 19: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK; CHESAPEAKE ARENA
JUN 21: HOUSTON, TX; TOYOTA CENTER
JUN 23: DALLAS, TX; AMERICAN AIRLINES CENTER
JUN 24: SAN ANTONIO, TX; AT&T CENTER
JUN 27: ALBUQUERQUE, NM; ISLETA AMPHITHEATER
JUN 28: PHOENIX, AZ; TALKING STICK RESORT ARENA
JUL 01: SAN BERNARDINO, CA; GLEN HELEN AMPHITHEATER*
JUL 03: LAS VEGAS, NV; T-MOBILE ARENA
JUL 05: OAKLAND, CA; ORACLE ARENA
JUL 07: SALT LAKE CITY, UT; USANA AMPHITHEATER
JUL 09: LINCOLN, NE; PINNACLE BANK ARENA
JUL 11: KANSAS CITY, MO; SPRINT CENTER
JUL 12: ST LOUIS, MO; HOLLYWOOD CASINO AMPHITHEATER
JUL 15: TORONTO, CANADAvBUDWEISER STAGE
JUL 16: QUEBEC CITY, CANADAvVIDEOTRON CENTRE
JUL 19: MANSFIELD, MA; XFINITY CENTER
JUL 21: BROOKLYN, NY; BARCLAYS CENTER
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mick Harvey will likely be best known as Nick Cave’s longtime collaborator, from their first 1band The Boys Next Door, to the Birthday Party, to Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Harvey worked with Cave for 36 years, but he’s also had a distinguished solo career in his own right with Crime And The City Solution, The Wallbangers, and under his own name. It seems whatever Harvey has touched has been at the very least a fascinating addition to the annals of rock and roll. (more…)
The Pacific Northwest’s Dark Palms return with a four-song EP that expands the group’s sound in fantastic ways. Smoke opens with a title track that sounds like Black Sabbath by way of Hüsker Dü with a Funhouse Stooges digression. “Heroes” has a push and pull rhythmic thing going, almost as if the song is fighting against being buried alive. “Salton Sea” is more of a straight-forward rocker, like it could have been on the band’s previous release, Hoxbar Ghost Town, but there’s an aged quality to it, like a hot rod running against a desert wind.
The album closes with “Margarita And The Master” which borrows its title from the Mikhail Bulgakov novel about the Devil visiting the atheistic Russia. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on the lyrics and if they actually reference the novel, but the song conjures an interesting notion. All four tracks are damn good and Smoke is a great companion to the group’s debut from last year.
Werewolves In Siberia, Transcontinental Road Race (Bandcamp)
Ah, Werewolves In Siberia, one of the most kick-ass synth-wave projects out there… This album hits Bandcamp today to coincide with the release of Death Race 2050. You get three tracks: the title track, plus two versions of “Frankenstein, The Indestructible,” one with a sample from the original film and one without. The trailer looks like a direct sequel to Roger Corman’s original Death Race 2000, and it looks fucking awesome. The EP is pretty great itself, as one would expect from WiS.
RIP Gabby Gaborno
A while ago during my hiatus from Popshifter, Gabby Gaborno, lead singer of the Cadillac Tramps and Manic Hispanic, passed away after years of struggling with health problems. He was a great singer and frontman and both bands are well worth your time to seek out if you’re unfamiliar with them. From interviews I’ve read Gabby seemed like a really cool, nice guy. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
“The box. You opened it. We came. Now you must come with us, taste our pleasures.”
Those iconic words spoken by Pinhead in the directorial debut of Clive Barker are still chilling nearly 30 years after they were first heard. The film Hellraiser, based on Barker’s own novella The Hellbound Heart, is a harrowing, shocking, graphic slab of supernatural erotic body horror. It divided critics and thrilled horror aficionados and launched a franchise that still, for better or worse, survives today, not to mention the various comic book series and tie-in books from Barker and several others that continue to be published in regular intervals. (more…)
Lucio Fulci’s Zombie comic from Eibon Press
Stephen Romano and company have made a huge splash with their first series, an adaptation/on-going series based on the Lucio Fulci classic Zombie, the infamously gory 1979 Italian flick that served as an unofficial sequel to George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead. The comic features fantastic art in glorious color and comes packed in sturdy slipcases. Only available through the Eibon Press website, this series is a great way to create niche collectible comics. With adaptations of Gates Of Hell and Maniac and the original series Bottomfeeders coming soon, it looks like Eibon Press will be the publisher to beat in 2017. (Read more.)
Dark Palms, Hoxbar Ghost Town
The debut album from the Pacific Northwest band took goth and post-punk and created a highly entertaining, propulsive slab of rock and roll. (Read my full review.)
Phantasm RaVager directed by Don Coscarelli
The fifth and final film in the Phantasm franchise arrived in October and was a worthy farewell to a group of characters who phans have loyally followed since 1979. There has been some knee-jerk negativity directed at the film, but I found that on repeated viewings the movie gets better (but I liked it right away!).
High-Rise directed by Ben Wheatley
Starring Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Jeremy Irons, and Elisabeth Moss, High-Rise is a dizzyingly moving adaptation of the JG Ballard novel from 1975. Set in a fictional mixed-use high-rise building, it’s a microcosm of class struggle in an alternate historical 1970s Britain. Brilliantly cast, beautifully shot, and fairly fucked up, High-Rise is one of the few book-to-film adaptations that lives up to its source.
Sherlock Holmes And The Servants Of Hell by Paul Kane
Paul Kane is the world’s leading expert on Hellraiser and powerhouse of a writer. In this book, Kane does a pitch-perfect Conan Doyle as he mixes the world of Sherlock Holmes with the world of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, pitting the world’s greatest detective (not named Batman) against The Order Of The Gash. It is a very cool book and it’s a lot of fun to see Holmes and Watson going up against Cenobites and… an “old friend.”
Ten minutes is barely enough time for some films’ opening credits to run, much less properly set up the first act. Writer/director Izzy Lee deftly creates a three-act story in just minutes that feels every bit as complete and satisfying as a full-length feature. Her new film Innsmouth takes a police procedural and drops it into Lovecraftian horror. The result is truly something to behold. (more…)
