Videodrome

Leslie and the Lys - Zombie Killer

I'd been sitting on an opportunity to post this ridiculously, awesomely fun number by the goddess of weirdness and stretchy gold pants, Leslie Hall (aka Leslie and the Lys) for some time now. And seeing as how the first of October is the anniversary of the release of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (from which Zombie Killer directly draws it's inspiration) I figured what better time than now.

Hailing from Ames, Iowa Leslie Hall sprung out of nowhere and became an internet sensation a few years back with her online hit How We Go Out (she was even featured on VH1's 20 Greatest Internet Superstars). Transforming her success into a cottage industry of strangeness (wherein she hawks her homemade wares at shows such as headbands, self designed, hilariously cool t-shirts, rugs made of spandex scraps and an assortment of other oddities not to mention her best offering, the music itself) Miss Hall regularly traverses the countryside with her backup girls, the Lys, and her Mobile Museum of Gem Sweaters in tow, preaching the divine word of Mother Gem to all she sees. As you're about to find out, you'd do well to listen to her.



Last year my husband, our dear friend Meghan and I began our very long and very tireless campaign to bring Miss Hall and her Lys to our little shit smear of a Midwestern town. There was much begging and pleading online on our part "Puuuuh-leeease come play here! We love you! We love you soooooo much! Rescue us from this hillbilly nightmare of boredom!". After much coaxing, Miss Hall at last relented and graced our local hole in the wall dive bar with her presence. To say that it was one of the best nights of music this no man's land has seen in ages would be an understatement. She rocked it and rocked us.

Leslie Hall and Junior Gems husband Daniel and I

To learn more about the keeper of the gems, you may visit Leslie and the Lys' website by clicking here. In addition to every other rad thing she's got going on in her store, there is also a Zombie Killer 45 pressed on blood red vinyl featuring the voice talents of none other than the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira. Get to shopping dear readers!

Videodrome

Animal Collective - Peacebone

You'd have to be living under a rock to have not at least heard the name Animal Collective over the past few years, Baltimore Maryland's experimental rock trendsetters. The band, consisting of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb), and Geologist (Brian Weitz) have tore up the college rock scene for the better half of a decade and they don't appear to be slowing down. People seem to love them and hate them an equal measure, as their noisy, everything and the kitchen sink approach to their material leaves a lot feeling overwhelmed with the sheer bombasity of it all, while others rejoice in their consistent unconventionality. You'll find us here at The October Country in the latter camp.

The music video for Peacebone, off of their 2007 album Strawberry Jam. finds the band in typical weird form. Directed by Timothy Saccenti, the video comes across as a Frank Henenlotter-esque meet-cute romance if the courting couple in question happened to be the slimy, snarling creature from John Gulager's Feast and some escapee from David Lynch's Red Room with H.R. Giger's embryonic xenomorph in tow. Whew. And yeah, it's as awesome as it sounds.

Videodrome

Scream Edition

In retrospect, I suppose the Scream soundtracks weren't all that I thought that they were when I was 15. Well, let me rephrase that. The first one's soundtrack still stands up. A little (perhaps this is due to the bands in question having been mostly independent acts, who knows). In particular, Gus's acoustic cover of Don't Fear the Reaper retains the same haunting power it did in '96. The inclusion of Julee Cruise (David Lynch's forgotten muse) on any soundtrack is cool beyond the telling of it. Alice Cooper needs no excuses. The Connell's Bitter Pill still remains somewhat enjoyable and Birdbrain's Youth of America (the video is below) follows suit. The masterstroke though, is obviously Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's amazing Red Right Hand, which went on to become the franchise's anthem of sorts, reworked versions of it subsequently appearing in the next two sequels.

However, the soundtrack to Scream 2 is rather annoying. Truth, it was rather annoying back in the day, but it is even more so now. What with the producers attempting to fill (or overfill, there are no less than three bands that play throughout the closing credits if I remember correctly) the movie with "hot acts" to "hip up" their film. I choose to believe that the inclusion of The Dave Matthews Band's (irritating voice of yuppies everywhere) Help Myself, which played at sorority sisters' Lois (Rebecca Gayheart)and Murphy's (Portia de Rossi) party, is meant to be an indicator of how grating those two characters were (sometimes you have to tell yourself lies). The Eels is a bright spot, but their song Your Lucky Day In Hell was never one of my favorites. Less Than Jake's cover of I Think I Love You is to this day is as energetic as ever. Everclear = blah Republican rockers. Kottonmouth Kings = no, just no. Followed by a no, no, no and no to just about every remaining act on the album, with special attention being paid to Collective Soul's She Said, which simultaneously is akin to an entire classroom of rambunctious kindergarteners collectively dragging their nails down a chalkboard while making me feel as though I am being horribly violated and molested as it plays and lastly, leaves me in such a mood that drop-kicking infants into roaring a furnace could only free me of it. I really hate that song. Oddly, the one track that no longer bothers me (though it use to) is Master P.'s Scream (whose video is also below). It's definitely grown on me since I started revisiting these songs in preparation for Scream 4. But this is where I end it because as far as Scream 3's soundtrack is concerned, not then, not now, not ever.

Birdbrain - Youth of America



Master P. (featuring Silkk the Shocker) - Scream


My apologies for the less than stellar qualities of these two videos. They are the best that I could find.

Videodrome

Jogger - Nephicide

How heartening is it when you recognize in some little prepubescent, pint sized terror, a bit of yourself at that tender age? Obsessed with death, destruction, mayhem and a general snubbing of one's nose at the plasticized, bright and shiny environs of suburban life, the two little devils in Jogger's endlessly amusing Nephicide music video, are definitely one of us. If your daily life consisted of all those fake happy smiles, who wouldn't don corpse paint and vomit blood on skaters? Though as a teenager, I didn't personally slather my face in the stuff my attitude and shitty disposition towards that particular world was the same. You just know these two are sitting in the back of a theater screening some horror film they snuck into, smiling in amusement at the dismemberment on screen and that dear readers, lands them squarely in the middle of the The October Country crowd. Nephicide's amazing video is directed by Matthew Robinson, the co-writer and co-directer (along with England's current king of wit Rickey Gervais) of The Invention of Lying, and here Robinson brings the same keen eye for subtle social commentary and explosive dark comedy that he did to that overlooked gem. As for Jogger themselves, Newbandday.com had this to say about them:

"Jogger are Amir Yaghmai and Jonathan Larroquette, from Los Angeles, CA with a sound that is so diverse that at one moment your spacing out to a Ratatat beat, then pulling back your headphones from death metal mayhem then you cruise in for a smooth landing with Erland Oyesque vocals. It’s very good and unique enough to help them rise to the top of the Silver Lakers".

I couldn't agree more or say it better myself, so I won't. Save to say this, this is awesome fucking stuff right here kids!

Videodrome

Dream Cop - Marooned

Wunderkind Dream Cop (aka Tommy Davidson), a Virginia based multi-instrumental outfit, debuted this amazing video not too long ago on de webs and truth dear reader; we here at The October Country have been dying to sing its praise ever since. Blending experimental ambient noise with a lo-fi/shoegazer sensibility, Dream Cop utilizes nearly every warm and fuzzy genre of music that your gets your host's toes tapping and makes his ears melt. The video, directed by Benjamin Brewer, comes across as some sort of darker, fairytale retelling of of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (itself, a relatively dark fairytale) somehow achieving a perfect balance between absolute beautiful and Troll 2. Rarely do we see such top-notch quality in indie music videos, from impeccable shots to an eerie storyline and some amazing costumes. The haunting song itself, Marooned (off of Dream Cop's debut EP Mango) is still killing it too (this and Beach City / Carol I Know gets played in heavy rotation at the Country's headquarters). His sophomore EP, Basement Tapes, released through Output Noise Records back in December, is also highly recommended.



For more on Dream Cop, you may visit their band page by clicking here.

Videodrome

Goldfrapp - Alive

It's been awhile since I've gotten into Goldfrapp. A big fan of their first release Felt Mountain, they lost me a bit with their sophomore album Black Cherry (though, several years ago I was known for getting all too drunkenly dance-happy to Tiptoe, from that same offering). Alive comes courtesy of the duo's fifth studio album Head First and if it's as infectiously fun as this single, I just might have to take another crack at their 80's style synths. Alive's sonic world of happiness and brightness is offset in it's video by a darker, demonic world inspired by heavy metal bands and the music video for Olivia Newton-John's Physical of all things. Laser beams, aerobicizing satanists, neon coffins and hot, dancing vampire chicks, culminating with lead singer Alison Goldfrapp resembling Delphine Seyrig's Countess Bathory from 1971's Daughters of Darkness...what's not to love?

Videodrome

Soars - Throw Yourself Apart

Jamie Harley directed this moving, eerie video with clips from the 1960 Japanese horror movie Jigoku, which translates "Hell". The depictions of hell — heads stuck in the dirt, fire and brimstone adds some hard edges to the Pennsylvania band’s foggy, drifting single. Think a vamped-up Cocteau Twins, or an industrialized My Bloody Valentine. Yummy stuff.

Soars - "Throw Yourself Apart" from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

For more on Soars, you may visit their band page by clicking here.

Videodrome

Dokken - Dream Warriors

I've definitely been feeling a one Mr. Frederick Charles Krueger lately. This is most likely due to having finally gotten my hands on the epically awesome Nightmare on Elm Street documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. Among all the amazing things I gleaned from viewing it's over 8 hours of material, was learning that no, it wasn't all in our imagination, Freddy's Revenge is the gayest horror film ever made, Kim Myers has become even more stunningly beautiful with age, Andras Jones has apparently drank Lisle von Rhoman's magical potion and I still hate Renny Harlin, even more than I suspected possible (that hack and now perv, which I would usually like but not they way he's doing it). So, to further indulge my fanciful pondering of everybody's favorite sandman slasher, I present Dokken's Dream Warriors from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (what else). "Maybe tonight you'll be goooooooooooone." Metal fingers everybody!

Videodrome

Masters In France - Mad Hatter

If any of you have had the pleasure of seeing last years Australian horror film The Loved Ones (arguably one of the greatest genre films of 2010) you shouldn't be at all puzzled about the content of this video. It's a wonderfully loving homage to that vicious little movie from UK rockers Masters In France. Enjoy.
For more on Masters In France, check them out here.

Masters In France - Mad Hatter from Thulsa Doom on Vimeo.

Videodrome

CocoRosie - Gallows

A gorgeous, eerie video from freak folk due Cocorosie. I was lucky enough to experience Sierra "Rosie" Casady's distinct vocal stylings a few years ago in Detroit when she was singing operatic backup on tour with Priestbird (then known as Tarantula A.D.). Her voice was just as haunting live.
Check them out here.






COCOROSIE Gallows (Official)
Uploaded by piasrecordings. - See the latest featured music videos.

Videodrome

HEALTH - We Are Water

This music video, a 3 minute exercise in gruesome beauty, comes from California noise rock outfit, HEALTH. Somebody get them a directing gig in the genre immediately.
Check them out here.

HEALTH "We are Water" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.