brain running down along spear from the wound in the eye hole

My favourite holiday is here once again; and just in case you are not prepared, here are a few suggestions to help you spook up this Halloween.

Music:
Scott Walker: The Drift
My third favourite record of last year is a 60 plus minutes journey of weird, dark, and eerie experimental music!

Clara [super-wicked-cool song]
Hand Me Ups [super-wicked-cool song]
The Escape [super-wicked-cool song]

buy The Drift here


Movies:
Planet Terror
This is probably the most entertaining film of the year. The very gorey and funny film pays homage to classic cult horrors such as the Evil Dead series, Re-Animator, and Zombi 2.

30 Days of Night
After seeing this film last Friday, my friend and I have concluded that we have absolutely nothing bad to say about this surprisingly great vampire(/zombie?) film.


Costumes:
I was at Toronto Zombie Walk 2007 a couple of weeks ago; below are some of my favourites, maybe they’ll inspire you.

out this week

Napoleon IIIrd: In Debt To
The highly textualized instrumentations as well as ironic and thought-provoking lyrics make In Debt To one of the best records of 2007. It has been available digitally for many months now over at Brainlove Records, and it is finally out in CD format this week!

This Is My Call To Arms [super-wicked-cool song]
Hit Schmooze For Me [super-wicked-cool song]

buy In Debt To here


Scott Walker: And Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball?
A four movement contemporary dance piece for the disabled and non-disabled dance company CandoCo; get it fast because this release is limited to only 2500 copies! Scott Walker is brilliant!

2nd Movement [wicked-cool song]

buy And Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball? here


Thursday: Kill The House Lights CD/DVD
A marvelous retrospective package that includes a documentary film, three brand new tracks, plus nine addition b-sides, demos, live recordings, and alternate takes.

Signals Over The Air (Live)
Paris In Flames (Demo) [wicked-cool song]

buy Kill The House Lights here


Saves The Day: Under The Boards
I don’t even know what provoked me to even listen to this record. I am really not a fan of Saves the Day mainly because I absolutely hate Chris Conley voice! ...BUT... I actually enjoy their new record, Under the Boards! It is a surprisingly excellent record and I have nothing bad to say about it whatsoever!

Getaway [wicked-cool song]
Kaleidoscope

buy Under The Boards here



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halloween 2006

Who’s throwing a Halloween party this year? Well, I’m not; but for those of you who are, here is a list of music you should consider rotating:



Scott Walker: The Drift
This is one of my favorite records of the year so far. It is a 60 plus minutes journey of weird, dark, and vastly experimental music. You can read my review on The Drift here.

Cossacks Are [wicked-cool song]
Jesse [wicked-cool song]
Hand Me Ups [wicked-cool song]
The Escape [wicked-cool song]


My Chemical Romance: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
Vampires, murders, suicide, ghosts... a Halloween essential and MRC’s finest.

Vampires Will Never Hurt You [wicked-cool song]
Headfirst For Halos [super-wicked-cool song]


Alkaline Trio: Good Morning
All Alkaline Trio records are prefect for Halloween, but Good Morning deserves a mention solely for the violently opening track, "This Could Be Love".

This Could Be Love [wicked-cool song]
One Hundred Stories
Blue In The Face


Suicide: Suicide
I think I have mentioned this record, in particular the song Frankie Teardrop enough times on this blog… in case you are a new reader, go here to read about "Frankie Teardrop"... the absolute scariest song of all time!

Ghost Rider
Cherree
Frankie Teardrop [super-wicked-cool song]


Hilary Duff
Basically anything by Hilary Duff, she scares the crap out of me!


Boys Night Out: Trainwreck
This concept album disturbs the line between nightmare and reality, kind of like Lacan’s concept of real and reality... it involves killings, doctors, drugs, mental hospital... it’s like a scary/thriller movie, but only in music form.

Dreaming
Medicating
Relapsing


Franz Schubert: "Erlking"
Here’s a fascinating early Romantic opera by Schubert. The text depicts the quest of an evil Elves King and his hunger for a young boy’s soul.

Erlking [super-wicked-cool song]


Sunn 0))): Black One
Black One is loud, noisy, abstract, extremely creepy and haunting, prefect music for late night drives out to the middle of nowhere.

It Took The Night To Believe
Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)

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brain running down along spear from the wound in the eye hole

The Drift by Scott Walker sounds like a lot of things: ranging from a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie to an opera by Schoenberg. However, if one had to describe the musical style of The Drift, it would be either avant-garde or expressionism. The songs are strangely composed and the music is extremely abstract: it is randomly structured. Walker plays with the idea of time as he stretches, broadens, speeds up and slows down various stages of his songs. In addition, Walker employs a speech-voice singing style, very similar to Suicide or Xiu Xiu’s freakout vocal style, creating the feeling of hysteria. Indeed, this feeling of hysteria upraises as Walker sings "I’m the only one left alive, I’m the only one left alive..." repeatedly at the end of "Jesse"; making the ending section absolutely chilling! The Drift continues with "Jolson and Jones", which middle jazz fusion section sounds like something out of the Lost Highway soundtrack. Again, this jazz fusion sound appears at the seven-minute mark of "Cue". The lyrics cannot get any more abstract than "Hand Me Ups", what the hell is Walker singing about?? Nevertheless, I love the song! The second last track, "The Escape", despites multi-levels of fear and horror. The listener gets a surprise shock when freakout vocals and music enters at the 2:44 mark. This terrifying excerpt of "you and me against the world... world’s about to end..." eventually ends as the vocal and music soften. That is until the 4:10 mark, where a mutated voice appears and it is backed up by the strumming of the minor chords. Musically, The Drift by Scott Walker is not for everyone. It is very avant-garde and at times, seems very pretentious. You will either like it right from the beginning or hate it forever. If you dislike it after the first listen, don't waste your time as this album will not grow on you after several listens. For me, perhaps one of the appeals to The Drift is Walker’s unexpected directions in treating each of his songs as every track is a surprise!

Jesse
Jolson and Jones
Hand Me Ups
Psoriatic
The Escape
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check out The Drift's mini-site here
buy The Drift here