"Published four times a year, Stranger With Friction is a magazine that reaches outside of St Rooster Books’ publishing orbit to artists, writers and musicians who we admire and/or are inspired by. It encompasses outsider literature, punk rock, and horror movies which have informed St Rooster Books’ mission statement from the start. Featuring essays and reviews, interviews, fiction and poetry, and artwork, Stranger With Friction is printed as an oversized, perfect bound book-zine through a print-on-demand service and available to e-readers. St Rooster Books seeks to create a unique reading experience by mixing an eclectic group of writers and artists in an entertaining and collectible riot of a combination of Slash Magazine, Rue Morgue, and the Evergreen Review."
If you've been around here a while, you know how big a fan I am of Werewolves In Siberia. Masterminded by Chris Cavoretto, WiS are one of the best horror-prog projects out there. He's created modern classics of the genre with THE RISING (2013), BEYOND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (2014), and THE DEAD HOUSE (2015). In addition, earlier this year WiS provided the soundtrack to the excellent slasher comic SLICE. Along with those stellar albums, you can find some fantastic covers and mixtapes over at the WiS Bandcamp page HERE.
So continuing with our series of Top 3 Favorite horror films (scroll down for previous lists from Jeffery X Martin, Albert Muller, and Ghoulish Gary Poulin) I asked this lycanthropic synth fiend for his...
What the hell else can I possible say about John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN??? Especially for this time of year, it's a must watch. Somehow the barebones approach and premise of this 1978 classic is able to stand the test of time, remaining scary against almost four decades of stiff competition. And that music- my kids haven't even seen the movie, but I can walk up behind them and hit play on the music from my phone and they scream. That's how powerful Carpenter's synth game was. HALLOWEEN will always be remembered alongside such indispensable classics like THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and PSYCHO. And Michael Myers aka The Shape is as iconic a monster as any that's graced the silver screen before!
THE FOG was one that Jeffery X Martin picked as well and called it "the best American ghost story filmed in the last forty years." I'm not going to argue with that dude and neither are you, punk!
"Legend says that Antonio Bay was built in 1880 with
blood money obtained from shipwrecked lepers, which no one believes. On the eve
of the town's centennial, many plan to attend the celebrations, including the
murdered lepers." (*from IMDB) That's just plain creepy and the film is even more so. Starring Tom Atkins (HALLOWEEN III), Jamie Lee Curtis (HALLOWEEN), Adrienne Barbeau (SWAMP THING), and Janet Leigh (PSYCHO), and directed and scored by John Carpenter THE FOG is a trick or treat bag filled with full sized Snickers bars and for parents looking for something a bit more stout than IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, but aren't quite ready to break out THE THING for the young'uns, THE FOG is fairly bloodless and boobless. As creepy as it is, it's totally appropriate for 10-12 year olds.
Rex Reed called TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE "the most horrifying picture I have ever seen." Anyone would be hard pressed to argue against that statement. The 1974 shocker featuring a band of lost teens dummying upon a lone farm house where a family of crazed cannibals resides has shocked audiences around the world, been a standard bearer for horror films that followed, and threw down the gauntlet as a challenge for future film makers. With it's documentary style intimacy and twisted Americana through the looking glass sensibility, TCM remains the one to beat 42 years later. On top of all that and a terrifying score, uncomfortably realistic sets, and devastating kills, TCM also gave birth to one of the scariest horror icons to ever terrorize the silver screen, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen).
The Misfits' "Collection I" album is
probably the most essential album out there for me.It embodies my love of horror, rock and roll, lo-fi
recordings and being outside the mainstream all at once.There's a story to my love of this
album.It starts when I was
fifteen.
In 1993, I was learning guitar, playing in my first
band and completely obsessed with Metallica. They were the epitome of Bay Area thrash and I was quickly
diving into as much of their music, home videos and info on the band as I could
get my hands on.
Thanks to the popularity of the live version of
Mother getting airtime on MTV, I was exposed to Danzig around this time. These guys played a heavy, metal-edged
rock and had all the imagery that grabbed my attention instantly.. skulls, long
hair, black clothes, cool guitars, etc.
At this point, Danzig and Metallica were, without question, my two
favorite bands. I couldn't get
more of their music into my collection fast enough. If I had extra money, it was going to them.
I noticed the infamous Crimson Ghost in tons of
Metallica pictures. They were always wearing Misfits shirts but I didn't know
anything about the band. You
couldn't just find out anything you wanted to know on the internet at this
point. Through a Metallica
biography, I came across the fact that Glenn Danzig was the singer for The
Misfits. I was sold. I didn't need to know anything more, I
just needed a Misfits album.
I found a few CD's at the record store the next time
I was there. "Legacy of
Brutality" had cool skeleton art on it. "Walk Among Us" had an awesome ode to B-horror
movies going on with the cover art.
Then, there was "Collection I". The cover art was a little more plain but it had twenty
songs on it. Twenty songs! That was mine. I got home and immediately called my
friend, Adam (the drummer for my first band).
"Dude, I got a Misfits CD. You need to come over and check this
out with me."
He came over right away and I put it on for our
first listen. She is the first
song on the album... and it was... weird.
"What the hell is this?" "Did they record this in their
garage?" "This is
Danzig's old band?" These are
all thoughts that immediately came to us and I'm pretty sure each one of these
phrases spewed from our mouths.
By the time the second song, Hollywood Babylon, was
done, we were hooked, even singing along already. We weren't used to recordings like this and, though it was
dark subject matter, it didn't sound angry, it sounded fun. Once the shock of something new and
completely unexpected wore off, the simplistic genius set in. It sounded bad, but it sounded right
sounding so bad. This was
completely unpolished, full of 50's-style rock and roll chord progressions,
crooning, yelling on key, a little thrash towards the end, a healthy dose of
punk rock attitude and a ton of horror movie influence all in one.
Last Caress was the song I knew because Metallica
covered it live (someone I knew eventually dubbed their "Garage Days"
cassette for me so I could have Last Caress/Green Hell, but I don't think that
had happened yet) . Last Caress
wasn't on "Collection I".
I think that made me a true fan.
It made me listen to the whole thing instead of seeking out the one song
I knew and listening to it repeatedly.
As a horror fan, the imagery is right, the subject
matter is right. That unpolished
sound, even though it took about a minute and a half to get into, really just
works for me. Glenn Danzig's
almost Elvis-style vocals with the dirty, lo-fi sound; it all fits together so
well.
Metal and punk rock are definitely complimentary for
horror fans but no one's ever done horror rock (or horror punk) like The
Misfits. Legions of horror punk
bands have popped up since. Most
try to sound like The Misfits.
Hardly any could hold a candle to them, though.
This album, in particular, influenced my song
writing so much as a teenager and still it does. Almost every band I've been in where I was sort of the
"guy in charge" covered at least one Misfits song. Even in my current project, Werewolves
in Siberia, I covered Halloween and London Dungeon in a completely different
fashion; turning them into horror synth songs that fit in well with the rest of
my WIS stuff.
There are a few Misfits songs I'm not too into but,
for the most part, I really dig their entire catalog (original Misfits,
anyway). It doesn't matter what
mood I'm in, you can throw on The Misfits and I won't have a problem with
it. "Collection I" was
not only my introduction to them, but having twenty songs on it, it was also a
great way to get a grasp on the band, as a whole. This makes it THE necessity for me, rather than picking one
of the albums they originally released.
There are so many iconic songs on this album. She, Hollywood Babylon, Skulls, Where
Eagles Dare, Die Die My Darling, Vampira, I Turned into a Martian, All Hell
Breaks Loose, London Dungeon... I haven't even begun to scratch the surface
here! It's just awesome. It's probably the most listened to
album in my collection (in any format).
It just fits, no matter what, anytime.
