Here's another song from the upcoming Boy Crush / Starry Cat split 7" out on Birdtapes later this month. Today we're premiering a song from Boy Crush's side of the split titled 'Creep'. The song continues the dark dreamy pop established on Boy Crush's previous release, hauntr, from 2011. Boy Crush is the solo project of Sean Posila, who also plays in the garage fuzz pop band High Pop. Catch both Starry Cat and Boy Crush at the Birdtapes Halloween Show next week!
We're a big fan of Meredith Bardo's illustrations, and appreciate her love for 80's music and horror films. We asked if she'd be interested in contributing some appropriately themed art for the month and she certainly delivered! Read more to see her wonderful set of horror film inspired art and be sure to check out her site! You should also read this interview she recently did with The Le Sigh and now that you're in the mood, check out our curated list of 31 horror films for October.
Here's a new song/video from Shelf Life AKA Scotty Leitch. The song features lyrics by Eric Livingston, you can read our post about Eric's poetry here. Scotty also released a new song on his birthday this week via his soundcloud (Happy Birthday and thank you!). Scotty plays in Olive Drab and used to play in a band called Pirouette - you should be listening to all of his projects. Check out Scotty Leitch, Pirouette, Shelf Life, Olive Drab and new Pill Friends.
We're excited to be premiering a song from Sam Ray's solo project, Starry Cat. The new track, Hello.mp3, will be out on a split 7" with Boy Crush via Birdtapes later this month. Both of them will be playing the label's Halloween show, October 24th, in Brooklyn. Sam will also be releasing a new Ricky Eat Acid album, Three Love Songs, on Orchid Tapes early next year.
Doesn’t seem like a ground-breaking concept, does it? It’s probably safe to assume that anyone who lived through the days of music videos/Napster/AIM/iPods would agree that music is memory. As a generation, we've been the most technologically advanced – countless "Milennial" articles in The New York Times can attest to that – and there's no doubt that it's changed our personalities. “Connected” is the way marketers like to position us, and really all that means is that we process a shit ton of information every day...
From reading emails, to Twitter accounts, looking up directions, YouTube and SoundCloud to simpler things like text messages and snap chats - then there's the BuzzFeed articles, blogs, and who can forget Reddit, or really, whatever strikes your fancy. As a generation, the amount of "data" we consume on a daily basis is exponentially more than anyone else who has ever lived. That is both empowering and frightening, and it manifests differently for everyone.
I’ve noticed two major things in my peers as a result of this insatiable quest for information propagated by the internet. First, is a weird doctoring phenomenon. That whole FOMO (fear of missing out) thing is created by selective Instagramming, Facebook posts, what have you. Who ever broadcasts eating ramen noodles for the umpteenth night in a row because you're late on your student loan payments and your shitty entry-level job limits your food choices to things that cost $3 or less?
The other large pattern is a loss of short-term memory. I can't look at something once and remember it anymore, I have to refer to directions multiple times when going somewhere new - on a desktop, laptop and mobile phone sometimes - I have to visit a band's website multiple times when writing about them, I make people send me videos and songs multiple times because I can't remember the chats we had even hours ago.
But I'd like to make the argument that despite all of that, all of the ugliness that comes with us being the children of the internet, there's one place where it undoubtedly and unabashedly helped: music. Thanks to the internet, unknown teenage singers from New Zealand can blow up in under six months. Thanks to the internet, I can share music with my friends quicker than ever before – sending them a Facebook message with the link to the Spotify URL is infinitely faster than listening to the record, as my parents did with their friends, or driving around listening to mixtapes, as my sister did with hers. It is perfectly acceptable to listen to music via headphones 24/7 in every office job I've ever worked. In theory, from the minute I wake up to right before I go to sleep, I can listen to music – while getting ready for work, throughout my commute, at work, at whatever activity I am doing after work (bar, concert, boring errands like grocery shopping), to when I'm cooking at home, then before I go to bed. And while that seems excessive, it matches our constant connectivity and data consumption. For myself and for the majority of my friends, it's normal; we simply don't know anything else.
The situation is surely somewhat different for people (like myself) who obsess over music than it is for those who enjoy it more casually, but I still think it applies to the majority. I'm not saying I wouldn't remember important days or moments in my life if there wasn't music, I'm saying that these important moments and events are so much easier for me to categorize when thought about in the context of what I was listening to at the time. It's not like I am some amazing person who has done a lot in my life – I mean, I'm happy with the things I've managed to do so far and am planning to do, but I'm no Oprah – so it's not coming from a place of me just having so many amazing things to remember that I can't keep them straight without the soundtrack, it's more that my short-term memory sucks and I need the culture clue help when thinking back on things. Music is everything for me in terms of jogging my memory, almost nothing else works these days.
Being so “connected” means there's a soundtrack at every moment, a song that goes along with every mood and every day, and we are in control of it. Again, empowering but also frightening. For most of the defining memories of my cognizant life, there's some song associated. And that's really the crux of all of this – music is now at the point where it's supplementing my memory, and I suspect a lot of other people's memories as well.
Birdtapes will be having a Halloween Show, Thursday, October 24th at The Silent Barn in Brooklyn. Catch several of the label's bands including Alex G and R.L. Kelly who just put out a split 7" last month. Also playing will be Shelf Life, Trace Mountains, Boy Crush, and Starry Cat. Read More to see the full poster designed by Brohloff
It's the last post of our first week! We're working on filming some live sessions for the site but until then we have a video of Julia Brown from Birdtapes. Watch this intimate live performance of the track 'The way you want' from the 7" they released on the label in June. Julia Brown are playing at the Metro Gallery in Maryland tonight with Us and Us Only and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Philadelphia's Pill Friends shared a few new songs on their Soundcloud last month, including the wonderfully catchy 'Worthless'. It might be a month old, but it's still stuck in our heads, and if you aren't listening to it everyday you should change that. They also released a new version of their 420 Love Songs track 'Right to Chug' on a split, Trip, with friends Mumblr and Soda Bomb.
Welcome to our first Creative Wednesday where we will be sharing creative pieces such as poetry, illustration, and photography. Today’s work is by Eric Livingston, the former drummer of the now defunct Teen Suicide. While Eric didn't write lyrics for the band, fans of Teen Suicide will certainly appreciate his poetry. Eric’s writing has influenced many, especially other musicians around him, including R.L. Kelly and Infinity Crush. We asked Rachel and Caroline to share some of their favorite pieces with us…
I love skizz, I haven't met him yet but I've known him for as long as our souls have been what they are, connected.
Every time I read this poem, I have so many feelings- connectedness/sadness/pointless hope/etc. I remember writing a song months after reading this poem. I didn't know it at the time, but the same feelings I get whenever I read this poem, mirrored the feelings I had when I wrote the song. There's an incredibly beautiful sadness to these, with such power that they reach me months later without even consciously thinking about it. That is as real as it gets. I love you Eric.
- by Rachel Levy
Before I knew Eric very well or really at all, I heard him read some of his poems at a coffeehouse at my school last spring. When he spoke everyone listened, and he filled the room with the saddest and strangest warmth and I never wanted him to stop. But he did stop eventually because all things stop, and all I wanted to do for a very long time was recreate the feelings he put inside me when I heard his poems. I talked to him briefly that night, too shy and intimidated to tell him the extent to which I loved what I heard. I eventually told him more in depth how much I appreciated his art about six months later when we were in Teen Suicide together and grew close, but I will never really be able to tell him enough. Before we were friends, Sam would sometimes send me his poems, and then eventually Eric did himself. I was impressed every time. Eric is a huge influence on my lyrics and my own writing: I've talked so much about his poems to poetry professors and friends and family. I loved his poems even more as I realized the words reflected a beautiful person that loved me in a way most people don't and hugged me like he meant it and gave me candy and remembered what sweets I liked.
For our first post we asked Ian Stanley to create a list of movies to watch for every night of October. You probably know Ian from Portals, Cactus Mouth, and Chill Mega Chill. Not only does he have excellent taste in music, he's also passionate about horror films. We highly encourage you to follow along with this well crafted list, including both classics and recent films, and covering several sub genres from slow burn to gorefests...
Note: We're very excited to be able use this still from Suspiria as the image for our first post. This is one of our favorite shots ever captured, the lighting, the color, the texture - it's beautiful cinematography (not just for a horror film) and the perfect way to launch the site.
Halloween Horror Movie Marathon:
1. Slither (James Gunn, 2006) – Might as well start the Halloween season off with a bang, right? A slimy, guts-n-gore covered bang. Slither is a prime example of a horror film that bombed horribly at the box office only to turn around and garner an insane cult following upon its home release. It’s a creative, hysterically funny alien invasion/zombie feature with an amazing cast that even makes a few nods to the body horror genre. What’s not to love?
2. Murder Party (Jeremy Saulnier, 2007) Here’s a little-known indie that, in my opinion, should be passed around a lot more than it is. Billed as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre meets The Breakfast Club, Murder Party tells the story of a hapless loser who is invited to a party on Halloween night. Little does he know that the party is a ruse by a group of narcissistic artists who plan to kill him as the ultimate artistic expression. Sound batshit? It is.
3. The Strangers – (Bryan Bertino, 2008) – Screw the naysayers, I love The Strangers. It’s bleak and brutal and sure, the leads do stupid things; but when has the horror genre been known for its critical thinkers? It borrows heavily from the 70’s and 80’s, it’s unsettling in its realism, but most of all I love this film because it’s just so damn nihilistic.
4. The Blob (Chuck Russell, 1988) – For a bit of 1980’s B-movie fun you can’t really get better than The Blob. A remake of the 1958 classic, The Blob is pretty much the most gooey, gory fun you could have following around Kevin Dillon and his absolutely ridiculous mullet.
5. The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979) – Even though he maintains that he is not a horror film director, The Brood is one of David Cronenberg’s most overtly “horror” films. Even if you’re versed in horror WTF-ness, you’ll have trouble predicting where this bizarrely disgusting film ends up.
6. The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002) – I remember seeing The Ring in the theatre with my sister when I was 14. Already an avid horror movie watcher, I still found the film terrifying proof that a PG-13 means nothing if you can effectively make people crap their pants.
7. Pumpkinhead (Stan Winston, 1988) – Directed by the late great special effects wizard Stan Winston, Pumpkinhead is pretty much just a perfect Halloween-season horror film. It takes place in the fall, there are some stupid young people up to no good, and there’s a bloodthirsty demon on the loose. What more could you want?
8. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009) – For a lot of horror fans, Drag Me to Hell was something of a miracle. Somehow Sam Raimi had managed to make the jump to giant blockbusters and back to his roots (finally) while keeping his very specific horror aesthetic intact.
9. Insidious (James Wan, 2009) – After building his name on the Saw franchise, James Wan turned a lot of heads with Insidious. His last feature, Dead Silence, fell relatively flat and so expectations for Insidious weren't exactly high. That worked in the film’s favor and resulted in it packing a pretty hefty punch. It is a legitimately scary film that admittedly gets a bit goofy in its final act. But even that misstep is not enough to sink this fun flick.
10. Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) – Don’t Look Now is weird, man. The entire film is building up to be this intense psychological thriller before the end completely throws that notion in the trash. Don’t read about it. Just see it.
11. Scream (Wes Craven, 1996) – Scream is important for so many reasons. Not only was it a welcome return to form for director Wes Craven, but also the film was a kick in the pants for the horror genre in the wasteland that was the 1990’s. It mixed laughs and scares equally and was clever enough to be self-referential. It created a turning point in the genre and from that point on every successive horror movie became post-Scream.
12. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper [though really Steven Spielberg], 1982) – The granddaddy of all haunted house movies, Poltergeist is an undisputed classic. It’s also a staple of my Halloween season viewing tradition. Plus if you want to add a bit of extra spook, do some behind-the-scenes reading on this supposedly cursed franchise.
13. An American Werewolf In London (John Landis, 1981) – As far as I’m concerned, there is no greater werewolf film than An American Werewolf In London. I mean, the Academy Awards even inducted a category for special effects makeup because of this film. To this day the transformation scene has never been topped.
14. Hatchet (Adam Green, 2006) – Hatchet was a much-hyped return to the fun-loving slasher of the 1980’s. Not only is the film over-the-top on the gore meter, but it’s pretty damn funny to boot. Just do yourself a favor and avoid the sequels like the plague. They drove what could have been the birth of a franchise bully, on par with Freddy or Jason, deep into the ground.
15. The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977) – In the wake of The Exorcist, there were scads of satanic horror thrillers. While it isn't as high profile as some of its peers like The Omen, Michael Winner’s feature The Sentinel is batshit crazy, unsettling, and even a little exploitative. If you make it to the end you’ll see what I’m talking about.
16. The Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie, 2012) – Man, Rob Zombie’s take on the Halloween franchise was a complete and utter disaster. I hate those films. Hate. That being said, I am a big fan of The Devil’s Rejects. On the strength of that alone I still held out hope for Zombie’s upcoming features. While The Lords of Salem isn't perfect, it is a lot of fun in its referencing of greats like Argento, Polanski, and Jodorowsky. Welcome back, Rob.
17. Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985) – I like Fright Night because it so cleverly mixes the old school with the new. A vampire tale with an 80’s twist, the film throws gothic tradition in with gory scares and tops it all off with a killer soundtrack. The Lost Boys takes a lot of credit as the vampire comedy of the 1980’s, but in some ways I much prefer Fright Night. At the very least it gave us Evil Ed.
18. The Innkeepers (Ti West, 2011) – A lot of people found problems with its abrupt shift in tone, but even so The Innkeepers cemented Ti West as one to watch in horror circles. Although it’s not as strong as his preceding film, The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers is a creepy, original horror film that makes a bold step by championing its characters as its charming core.
19. Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987) – In my opinion, Prince of Darkness is John Carpenter’s most underrated film. It’s wildly creative and it toys with the occult in ways that no other horror film had. Satan as radioactive jelly in a jar? Come on. Plus it stars Alice Cooper as a bum, so there’s that.
20. Maniac (2102, Franck Kalfhoun) – I’d become so incredibly wary of remakes until this year. This year two films changed my perspective. The first of those two is the highly-anticipated, Alex Aja-produced Maniac remake. I suppose it bears mentioning that the original Maniac, outside of some excellent Tom Savini effects work, was nothing to write home about. This left the remake a lot of space to improve upon, and improve it did. Intensely unsettling and graphically violent, this entire POV slasher would be viewed as a game-changer in a perfect world.
21. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968) – Hands down my favorite horror movie. Not only did the film kickstart the modern zombie genre, but it took some artistic risks that paid off in a big way. It also serves up social commentary in the most unassuming yet truly disturbing manner. It’s basically a masterpiece.
22. The Cabin In the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012) – With Joss Whedon attached as writer, The Cabin In the Woods should have been a dream release for any major studio. Unfortunately that didn't stop the film from being shelved for several years. I can’t be too sour though because the film eventually had an amazing run at the box office (for a horror movie).
23. Night of the Demons (Kevin Tenney, 1988) – A Halloween horror movie list without the original Night of the Demons would be woefully incomplete. Telling the story of a group of teenagers who head to a haunted funeral parlor for an all-night Halloween party and awaken flesh-possessing demons instead, Night of the Demons is essentially everything you could want from an 80’s horror movie. And by that I mean a sexed-up, gore-soaked romp with enough WTF moments to fill a trick-or-treat bag.
24. The Changeling (Peter Medak, 1980) – The Changeling is like the stern, creepy uncle of haunted house movies. It’s a slow burn, but if you’re in the market for some good old-fashioned spooks and scares, it’ doesn't really get much better than this.
25. Evil Dead (Fede Alvarez, 2013) – I can’t even begin to tell you how ardently opposed I was to this remake. I mean anyone in his or her right mind would be. But I’ll be damned if Fede Alvarez (with some help from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell) didn’t make one of the year’s best horror films. With its healthy nods to the original, Evil Dead managed to set out and muster its own identity. On top of that the film is so unbelievably violent that I am still, to this day, surprised it wasn’t slapped with a dreaded NC-17 rating.
26. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) – As the crowning jewel in not only the Three Mothers trilogy but also his career, Dario Argento’s Suspiria is, plainly speaking, a work of undisputable art. Shot in lush, psychedelic colors, the film’s distinct style has oft been copied but never matched.
27. Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985) – In my opinion, Stuart Gordon does not get the credit he deserves. He’s filmed several cult classics, but his crowning jewel is the macabre, H.P. Lovecraft-inspired gorefest that is Re-Animator. Black comedies rarely get darker than this.
28. The House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009) – I’ve been hailing Ti West as the future of horror for a few years now and his 2009 feature The House of the Devil is a prime example of why. His slightly mumblecore-leaning occult feature, set in 1980’s , so cleverly and convincingly emulates the filmmaking style of late 70’s/early 80’s horror movies. Everything down to the slightly grainy cinematography makes this film seem like it’s some undiscovered gem. Telling the familiar story of the unwitting babysitter, Ti West lets the evil atmosphere simmer for a bit before amping it up for the stomach-turning finale.
29. Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker, 1986) – For a really long time (like over 20 years) Night of the Creeps was that rare word-of-mouth horror movie that you always heard about due to it being nearly impossible to track down (see also: the Internet didn't exist). Now that it’s readily available, I tell pretty much anyone who will listen about how much fun it is. With a plot that revolves around slug-like aliens that invade the brain and turn their hosts into zombies, Night of the Creeps is sort of what would have happened if John Hughes had directed Slither in 1986.
30. Trick ‘r Treat (Michael Dougherty, 2007) – It’s pretty much criminal what Warner Brothers did to this film. After shelving it for several years despite promising it a theatrical release, they finally dumped it on home release in 2009. Since then it’s built up a massive cult following and for good reason. It’s pretty much the ultimate Halloween movie and a glowing example of an anthology horror film done right. Not only does it roll several horror genres into one rollicking good time, but also it perfectly encapsulates the spooky feeling of the season.
31. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1979) – Dude… I mean, come on. If you’re not celebrating Halloween night with an annual screening of John Carpenter’s seminal classic, then you’re a total neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie.
