Music Review: Doomsquad, Pageantry Suite EP

By Jeffery X Martin

“You review music! That must be a dream job,” everyone says to me, and that is how I know the person talking does not review music for a living. While I agree that reviewing music for a living is a sweet gig, and I do get to hear a lot of cool tunes before the general public does, there are times when it provides just as much frustration as any other job.

The latest Doomsquad release is one of those frustrations. Their last album, Kalaboogie, was a Tantric trip back to the cradle of civilization and beyond (review). That’s a pretty heavy description, but it was a great record, filled with thunder and mystery, giving us only hints about where the trio was going next.

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Interview: Composer Claudio Simonetti of Goblin

By Jeffery X Martin

As a founding member of the Italian progressive rock band Goblin, Claudio Simonetti has helped create some of the most famous and recognizable horror soundtracks of the last 50 years. His side bands, Daemonia and Simonetti Horror Project, have also met with great success. Popshifter spoke with Simonetti about the upcoming 30th anniversary re-release of the Demons soundtrack, American fame, and the horror of working for a major label.

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Music Review: Demons (Original Soundtrack 30th Anniversary Re-Release)

By Jeffery X Martin

Lamberto Bava’s 1985 monster movie Demons is a nasty, brutal affair, filled with sharp teeth, green blood, and enough stream of consciousness nonsense to make an absurdist’s brain melt. It’s also considered a minor classic by horror aficionados. One of the things that makes the film so effective is the ambitious soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti.

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Movie Review: Gut and Phobia

By Jeffery X Martin

When approached with the right mindset, there can be few things better than a low-budget horror film. Limited funding can force creativity and turn a small story into something greater. This is not always the case, as anyone who has been burned by a late-night drunken Netflix choice knows. Cheap computer generated effects can snap a viewer out of a movie like cracking a roasted peanut out of its shell. Unfortunately, that’s the route most filmmakers choose to take.

The guiding hands behind the films Gut and Phobia have chosen the road less traveled by, and their finished products are all the better for it.

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Music Review: Wire, WIRE

By Jeffery X Martin

“Seminal” is a funny word which makes the 12-year-old boy who still lives inside my adult body giggle. Yet, this is the word most often used to describe the band, Wire. They are a “seminal” New Wave band. Maybe they’re a “seminal” art punk band. They might be simply a “seminal” rock band.

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Music Review: Todd Rundgren, Global

By Jeffery X Martin

Nobody writes a lead-off single like Todd Rundgren. When that guy is on, he is all the way on. “Evrybody” is no exception. With its simple demand to clap your hands and some clever lyrics, this is the closest thing to a rave-up you’ll find on Rundgren’s new album, Global. It’s also enough to make you believe, at least for a moment, that he’s made another fantastic record.

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Music Review: Blancmange, Semi Detached

By Jeffery X Martin

Blancmange’s fifth album, Semi Detached, is the first one recorded without core member Stephen Luscombe. Remaining founder Neil Arthur has taken the opportunity to revitalize the Blancmange brand name by taking the music on a gleeful trip to hell. It’s also one of the purest synth-pop albums in years, with electric guitar mainly layered in for texture.

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DVD Review: Motivational Growth

By Jeffery X Martin

One of my favorite movies is a film from 1968 called Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. It is the cinematic definition of “meta.” A film crew is making a film in Central Park. They are being filmed by another film crew. Somewhere across town, a film class is critiquing the film as it plays out. Meanwhile, a flamboyant group of Central Park weirdos interrupts the filming of the original film. If it sounds like madness, it’s not. Sure, it’s experimental as Dr. Jekyll, but it’s an utterly fascinating watch.

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Comedy Review: The Audio AdventureBook of Big Dan Frater, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

Big Dan Frater (Brian Howe), Dutch “The Swede” Annacrombie (Dan Conroy), and plucky town librarian Millie Healey (Allison Martin) were all characters in a movie called Trail of the Screaming Forehead, written and directed by Larry Blamire. They were an amusing onscreen trio, certainly strong enough to carry an entire movie on their shoulders, but their triumphant return to the screen never panned out.

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DVD Review: The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

You know that moment when you first start getting a hangnail? You know you should get the clippers and cut it off before it becomes a real hassle, but instead, you play with it. You twist it around, push it back into the already ruptured skin, or pull on it. Sometimes, you can make it bleed. It hurts. You know you should stop. You don’t even understand why you’re putting yourself through that pain. But you keep doing it because part of you, a dark nameless section of your psyche, enjoys it. It loves the pain. It needs the humiliation.

If you’re a fan of that level of masochism, you’ll have a great time with The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1. Low-budget horror can be a wonderful thing. Even some zero-budget stuff can be all right. But there are some movies that are not watched as much as they are gawked at, where wretched ineptitude is the real star of the show and it hurts.

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