Live interview with the band Blitzkid backstage at The Muse in Nashville, 2-16-11.Any band that mentions German expressionist films as a major influence is okay in my book!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Interview with Blitzkid
Live interview with the band Blitzkid backstage at The Muse in Nashville, 2-16-11.Any band that mentions German expressionist films as a major influence is okay in my book!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Ghoultown Mistress of the Dark DVD
GHOULTOWN -
MISTRESS OF THE DARK
MISTRESS OF THE DARK
If I die tomorrow
I’d raise myself up from the dead
Just to sing your name
I recently got a copy of the new Ghoultown DVD and finally got a chance to sit down and give it a good once through. This is one pretty cool DVD!
Ghoultown is a western/rock n’ roll/cowpunk band from Dallas TX. I like to describe them as the bastard child of Sergio Leone and George Romero, mixing equal doses horror and western influences to create their own unique sound. Ghoultown has been rockin the graveyard since 1999, and their latest endeavor is a music video for the one and only Mistress of the Dark, Elvira.
The band met the horror hostess at a convention and she suggested they do a song for her. Count Lyle and the fellas ran with the idea, working up not only a song but collaborating with director Gris Grimly for a music video shot on location at the one and only Magic Castle! It is a great song with a really catchy chorus. Elvira (who turns 60 this year) still looks amazing and the video turned out top notch with really great production value.
But the DVD includes much more than just the music video. First off it’s a two-disc set. Disc one is a CD containing six songs (although two of these are remixes of the Mistress of the Dark tune).
Disc two is a DVD featuring the Mistress of the Dark Music Video, a making of the video featurette, and a storyboard to video comparison. There is also a short feature on here called the Har Har show, which is a really funny take off of the Hee Haw show (a clip of which appears in the music video). In addition the disc is loaded with hidden bonus tracks which include a live performance of the band in concert, trailers from other movie projects by director Gris Grimly, a funny classic Elvira clip, and lead singer Count Lyle taking viewers on a tour of his house and all the many monster collectables he owns.
This disc definitely gives you your money’s worth – this is a special limited edition dvd – only 2000 were made, so you don’t wanna miss out on this. Head to:
http://www.ghoultown.com/shop.htm
and get your copy now!!
Friday, February 11, 2011
METALOCALYPSE SEASON 1
Cartoon Network adult Swim
Brenden Small, Tommy Blacha, Victor Brandt, Mark Hamill, and Malcolm McDowell
"We’re here to make coffee metal! We will make everything metal! Blacker than the blackest black times infinity!"
On the recommendation of my good friend Jeano of the Creeping Cruds I ordered the first season of Metalocalypse from Netflix. Now I was somewhat aware of Metalocalypse, and had even watched an episode or two but had never really paid it much attention. I thought I’d give it a closer look… and I’m glad I did.
Metalocalypse is an animated TV series that airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The episodes for season one season are 11 minutes each, which is a nice length when you start watching them back to back. Metalocalypse follows the most successful band in the world, the death metal band Dethklok. The band is made up of 5 members:
Nathan Explosion – Lead Singer – He speaks in a deep growl, and loves all things “Brutal” and “Metal.” He drinks so much he sometimes throws up blood and has to have regular liver transplants.
Skwisgaar Skwigelf –Lead Guitar – From Sweden, he is the fastest guitarist in the world. He is unable to read music but is so talented he doesn’t need to. His hands are insured for ten billion dollars – one billion per finger!
Toki Wartooth – Guitar – the second fastest guitarist in the world. Toki is Norwegian, and is the most childlike member of the band, although he is responsible for just as much death and destruction as the rest of the band.
William Murderface – Bass – Murderface is an always angry alcoholic that speaks with a heavy lisp. He can play the bass with his schlong (the band refers to this as the cock-slap technique) and is fond of destroying historic artifacts.
Pickles – Drummer – Has taken so many narcotics and illegal drugs he is immune to all effects. He used to be the singer in an 80’s hair band called “Snakes and Barrels.”Dethklok is amazingly popular, so popular, in fact that the band’s net worth is in the billions and is greater than that of some small countries (and climbing). They are so powerful that the government turns a blind eye to all sorts of illegal activities perpetuated by the band, including murder. The band is pretty much allowed to do whatever they want – which is not necessarily a good thing since their combined I.Q. is about that of a guitar amp. They boys are dumb, and pretty much oblivious to the real world. They all definitely dabble in the dark side and blood, death and murder are an everyday part of life for them. That is the METAL way of life.
The band lives in a giant medieval structure called Mordhaus. They have their own private army of servants and guards (that also double as roadies) called the Klokateers that blindly follow their every order. The Klokateers all wear black sleeveless t-shirts and executioners hoods. They each have the band’s logo tattooed on the back of their neck and no longer have names – they are just called by numbers. If a Klokateer fails a task or displeases the band, they are killed.
A secret organization of world leaders called The Tribunal keeps tabs on Dethklok and monitors their activities. This secret group often tries to foil the plans of the band and infiltrate their inner circle by sending in specialists to disrupt them. This inevitable fails, and even often backfires on The Tribunal. The band leaves behind a trail of death and destruction wherever they go. The term Metalocalypse refers to an ancient Sumerian prophecy the Tribunal fears the band is drawing powers from. In this prophecy, the world will be destroyed by an Apocalypse of Metal!
___________________________________________
Metalocalypse was created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha and premiered in August, 2006. Brendon had previously created a series called Home Movies that also ran on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. He wrote, did voices and composed music for that series, which ran for four seasons. In 2006 he worked with writer friend Tommy Blacha to create Metalocalypse. The voices are done by Brenden, Tommy, Victor Brandt, Mark Hamill, and Malcolm McDowell. The music is all done by Brendon Small.
Much like Spinal Tap the band actually put out CDs. Their first CD was released in 2007 called The Dethalbum. It consisted of music from season one of the TV series plus additional new songs. The album amazingly debuted at #21 on the Billboard top 200 chart!
A band called Dethklok featuring creator Brendon Small on vocals does actually tour, but they don’t dress as the characters on the show. They do play the music from the show and CDs, however.
The first season consisted of 20 episodes:
Episode 1- The Curse of Dethklok – The band plays a huge concert to promote a new coffee jingle to a sold out crowd of 300,000.
Episode 2 – Dethwater – The band records their new album in the most brutal place on earth – the Marianas Trench.
Episode 3 – Birthdayface – Murderface’s birthday the band buys him a unique present – JFK’s limo decorated with priceless memorabilia, and they enlist him in a demolition derby so he can literally “destroy history.”
Episode 4 – Dethtroll – The band accidentally awakens a giant troll when they perform a new song whose lyrics were lifted from an ancient folk song.
Episode 5 – Dethkomedy – The boys decide it would be brutal to learn comedy – then learn the only way to become successful comediennes is to embrace their rage – and focus it on the crowd.
Episode 6 – Dethfam – a talk show host secretly invites the band’s parents to Mordhaus – Nathan says – “The fact that my parents had sex in order to create me makes me want to be buried alive.”
Episode 7 – Performance Klok – After a fight onstage the band hires a therapist to help them get along.
Episode 8 – Snakes N’ Barrels – Pickles reunites with his old band, Snakes n’ Barrels.
Episode 9 – Mordland – Mordhaus is open to the public for one day a year, with “brutal” results.
Episode 10 – Fat Kid at the Dethharmonic - the band adopts an overweight kid but have no idea how to be parents.
Episode 11 – Skwisklok – Skwisgaar holds a pay per view guitar class.
Episode 12 – Murdering Outside the Box – Dethklok learn someone is embezzling from their company – it eventually turns out to be themselves.
Episode 13 – Go Forth and Die – Nathan goes back to get his GED while Murderface enters a spelling bee.
Episode 14 – Bluesklok – The band learns the blues from blues legend Mashed Potatoes Johnson and makes a deal with the devil.
Episode 15 – Religionklok – Murderface almost dies in a motorcycle crash so he tries to find religion – at a variety of places from a Christian rock concert to a satanic mass.
Episode 16 – Dethkids – Toki tires of being nice and becomes super “brutal”, while a terminally ill girl wins a trip to see him.
Episode 17 – Dethclown – Toki becomes friends with Rockso, the cocaine sniffing clown, who is secretly a spy for the Tribunal.
Episode 18 – Girlfriendklok – The band has been asked to host the Pornography Awards, but Nathan’s new overbearing girlfriend has other plans.
Episode 19 – Dethstars – The band stars in a new movie called “Blood Ocean” but their acting is atrocious.
Episode 20 – The Metalocalypse has Begun – The Tribunal attacks the band at the performance of their new album.
____________________________________________
I think at first I just didn’t “get” this show. This time around it took three or four episodes before I caught the vibe of it. But I have to say the more I see the more I appreciate it.
This show is firmly tongue in cheek. It is both a parody and a tribute to the excesses and successes of metal bands. Think Spinal Tap on an unlimited budget. This band is beyond ridiculous. They go wherever and do whatever they want and are more out of touch with reality as David St, Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel or Derek Smalls on their worst day.
There is a heavy horror influence on this show, including monsters, demons and supernatural events. This of course is a play on the “brutal” subject matter of death metal bands. Gratuitous amounts of violence and gore are an everyday occurrence on Metalocalypse, and the show has a rating of TV-MA V. There are also quite a lot of sexual references – but the thing that makes all of this work is that it presents everything – the extreme metal music, the violence, the sex and the gore with a black sense of humor. The show is a comedy – it doesn’t take itself seriously or expect the viewer to. It praises metal music and musicians as much as it parodies and makes fun of the excesses of bands and the content of their songs, much like a modern day Spinal Tap. Definitely a creative and entertaining show. Give it a try and watch a few episodes before you make up your mind about it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Checking out Jennifer's Body
Jennifer's Body (2009)Directed by Karyn Kasuma
Written by Diablo Cody
Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons
"That Band, Low shoulder - they're totally evil.
They're basically like agents of Satan with really great haircuts."
Jennifer's body was made in 2009, starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried and directed by Karyn Kasuma. It features wrap around segments of a blond girl named Needy Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried) in a mental institute.
She is a violent inmate, and psychologically disturbed… but she wasn’t always this way…
**Spoilers ahead. Be warned**
Rock band Low Shoulder is coming to the town of Devil’s Kettle. They're playing at a local dive bar, the kind of shitty place where bands pay their dues while struggling to make it.
Once outside the girls catch their breath. Jennifer, however, seems to be still in a trance. The lead singer of Low Shoulder finds them and tells them he's glad they made it out okay. He invites the girls back to his van. Jennifer agrees to go with him, but Needy thinks it’s a bad idea. The van drives off leaving Needy at the club.
Once Needy gets home she calls her boyfriend Chip and informs him of everything that just happened. When she hangs up the phone she hears something downstairs. She finds Jennifer in her kitchen, covered in blood and acting really strangely.
She pulls a chicken out of the fridge and starts eating it, then vomits up some kind of vile black fluid that shimmers. She attacks Needy, pinning her against a wall, and asks her, "Are you scared?" She then tosses Needy to the floor and leaves without harming her.Out on the street Jennifer runs across a boy who was also at the club. Once she finds out no one knows he made it out of the club safely, she lures him into the woods. Snack time!
You see there was a reason the band was interested in Jennifer's sexual status - they needed a virgin for a sacrifice to Satan. They were tired of paying their dues (and obviously didn't have the talent to make it on their own) so they decided to take a shortcut. They took Jennifer to the waterfalls the town is named for, and killed her with a bowie knife while reading some words they found in a book on witchcraft at the library.
But they made a mistake. It turns out that if the person sacrificed isn't really a virgin, something else happens - and surprise - Jennifer wasn't a virgin! It's called Demonic Transference, and it means the ceremony still works but the demon is trapped inside the body of the victim, forcing them to feed on human flesh. It also gives them powers, basically turning them into a flesh eating supervillain. Jennifer is now a succubus, a demon-possessed temptress that has to feed on human flesh.
The next day at school everyone is mourning the tragedy at the club, except for Jennifer, who seems positively giddy. She’s in a great mood and all this sadness is bringing her down. After school she finds a football player on the practice field who is very upset at the loss of his best friend at the club. She talks him into going into the woods alone with her, where she’ll help get his mind off his friend.
They start making out and she starts dropping clothes. Suddenly her mouth opens about three times larger than normal, teeth sprout and black shit oozes out of it. She lunges at him and starts ripping him apart.A teacher hears the screams and investigates. By the time he gets there she’s gone, the boy is dead and a deer is licking blood from his chest cavity. She literally ripped his heart out!
Jennifer begins feeding on other boys of Devil's Kettle, too, and it is up to Needy and her boyfriend, Chip, to stop her.
This eventually leads to a big showdown in an abandoned swimming pool house. Chip is killed and Jennifer gets away. Oh, and this is after the craptastic Low Shoulder play at the High School dance, and we're treated to the same song they played at the club at the beginning of the movie, "Through the Trees." Again.
Later that evening Jennifer is back home chilling in her bedroom, as if nothing ever happened. Suddenly an enraged and completely over the edge Needy bursts through Jennifer's bedroom window and attacks her. She has a box knife, and intends to end this insanity once and for all. According to a passage in a book on witchcraft from her school library (man these libraries have some well stocked occult sections) the only way to destroy the demon is to plunge a knife in the heart of its host’s body. They fight and in the end Needy does indeed plunge the box knife into Jennifer's chest. To which Jennifer moans, "My tit." And Needy replies, "No, your heart."
We get the back bookend of the movie here, where we return to Needy in prison. She is in solitary confinement for attacking a guard. But there is another reason for her disturbed nature. We discover a little known fact of demonology - If a person is bitten by a demon and lives, the demon passes on a little of its power to that person. She levitates into the air and kicks open a screen window, escaping into the night. She makes her way to a highway and hitches a ride. A man pulls over and asks where she's going. She tells him east, she's following a band. End.
Well, almost. While the credits play we get little snippets of Low Shoulder at the next gig, partying back stage. Then the screen goes black, and more credits roll. Back to another snippet, etc. The band hears a knock on the door. credit. Singer tell his camera man to go away, they're about to have sex. Credit. Shot of band member dead, ripped apart. Credit. Another shot of a dead band member - and so on, till we learn they were all violently murdered backstage. Needy got her revenge. End.
OK, first things first. I have a few major problems with this film.
This band, Low Shoulder, is some serious wuss-rock. If this band was the one that caused me to be possessed by demons, I’d be pissed - not because I was possessed by demons, mind you, but because the ones responsible are such douches. I don’t understand why, if you’re making a movie about an evil rock band in league with Satan, you would cast such puss music instead of a band that really kicks ass. I guess this radio friendly mid-tempo crap is the type music that appeals to teens (who I think this movie is aimed at). At least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with. The music is actually done by a band called No Country. Here’s hoping their stuff is better than this garbage.
Second, Jennifer looks like she’s 30, much less a high-schooler. Megan Fox was actually 23 when she made this movie. She’s beautiful - stunningly so - but there’s no way she could pass as high school age. Even in the scenes where she’s made down - little to no makeup, frumpy clothes – she still looks older than her peers. Her co-stars in this movie, Amanda Seyfriend (Needy) and Johnny Simmons (Needy’s boyfriend Chip) are the same age as Megan, but they’re able to pull off the high school look much more effectively, mainly because they don’t look like super models. Perhaps if Megan had been cast as a teacher, or substitute, or teacher’s aide I could buy her in this role. But not as a student. And honestly, come to think of it, there’s no reason it wouldn’t have worked as well or better with her as a teacher. She could still have been good friends with Needy, perhaps a mentor of sorts, and it would have been much more believable.Third, the dialogue in this movie is really annoying. Writer Diablo Cody tries way too hard to be cool. Rather than write good, snappy dialogue, she writes this "trying to be cool hip-speak" that gets old fast.
Here's what director Karyn Kasuma said in an interview about Cody's script. "I've seen auditions of people trying to do Diablo's dialogue and it's like falling off a cliff," she says. "It’s tough dialogue, and [Fox] just nails it. She's mean, funny, dangerous and sexy."
Fourth, I wish we had gotten to see Needy exact her revenge on the band. That’s where the film was finally starting to get interesting. We had gotten past the predictable death of Jennifer and requisite Needy revenge sequence (none of which was ever in doubt), and the film was finally going off in an interesting direction. Needy escapes and goes to make the band pay for ripping her life apart. She isn’t needy any longer – she’s evolved into something else. Finally the portion of the film where we have some true female empowerment, a theme that Cody mentions time and again as the impetus behind this movie. But instead of showing it we’re cheated out of seeing the story through to its end. Come on, people! This is way better than whiny teen drama! You finally get a unique segment of the movie, heading into uncharted territory, and you blew it.
Jennifer’s Body is, ultimately, a fraud. It promises rock and roll and delivers top 40 lightweight whiny pop, teases nudity and shows none, threatens a horror story and gives us teen drama, and leads up to an ending it doesn’t deliver. It is a fluff film aimed at teens - twilight with demons. My boyfriend is a vampire. My girlfriend is demon possessed. “Oh my god – the high school dance is coming up. It’ll be like an all you can eat buffet.” Sigh.
You know, When it comes to rating movies I’m a little harder on big budget Hollywood pictures than little independent films. They have the budget to do it right, so there are no excuses. Jennifer’s Body isn’t a terrible movie – in fact it is very well made, sharply directed, the effects are good for the most part, and it looks great. But then it had a budget of 16 million dollars, so it’s SUPPOSED to look good. Still doesn’t excuse terrible music throughout and a story that falls short. I think Diablo Cody is a good writer, but until she stops being so gimmiky, sets aside personal agendas, and puts the story first we'll never see just what she's capable of. Until then, more fluff like this is on the horizon.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Interview with Count Lyle of Ghoultown
I got a chance to sit down and chat with Count Lyle from Ghoultown recently. Ghoultown is one of the best horror punk bands in the business. Hailing from Dallas Texas, they’ve been dealing their own unique brand of western horror rock for over a decade now, and are going stronger than ever. In 2010 they worked with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and recorded a special song and video for her. They’ve been on successful tours in Europe and America, been featured in movie soundtracks, and even had their own comic book.
Howdy Lyle – thanks for spending some time with me here. Ghoultown has been around for a while now, and in fact you were one of the first folks I encountered on the web when I began my horror host gig back in 1999. I believe that is about the time Ghoultown got their start too, correct?
Right. We played our first show in the spring of 1999.
You were in some other bands before Ghoultown. What were those?
In the early ‘90s I was in band called Solitude Aeturnus. It was more or less considered doom metal. We did some albums on Roadrunner and Pavement, two big metal labels, and toured around the U.S., Canada and Europe. Solitude continued on – to this day – but I left to start a horrorpunk band called The Killcreeps in 1996. We did one album called Destroy Earth.. It’s out of print now, but you can get it digitally on CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/killcreeps).
While doing The Killcreeps, we started writing some dark western type material, which was really unique. When we disbanded the The Killcreeps in 1997, I wanted do a band based on that dark western sound and came up with the name Ghoultown for it. That’s how this all got started.
Describe Ghoultown’s sound for folks who may not have heard you before.
It’s kinda hard to describe since we are a mix of many elements like psychobilly, metal, punk, spaghetti western, horror. To make it simple I always describe us as a mix between Johnny Cash and Rob Zombie. We exist in the crossroads right between these two, if there were such a thing.
I’m guessing you’re a big Sergio Leone fan, based on the look and sound of Ghoultown?
Oh yes, definitely. I love spaghetti westerns, especially Leone’s trilogy… The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and all those movies. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be like The Bad. I used to wear my dad’s black cowboy hat around all the time. With Ghoultown I pretty much merged that image with music.
You have a distinct horror vibe to Ghoultown, and many of your songs based on horror movies and horror themes. Have you always been a horror movie fan, and if so what are some of your favorite horror movies?
I love horror movies too. I always thought the spaghetti westerns had a lot of horror elements, so both genres really influenced the concept of Ghoultown. I’m a big fan of all types of horror movies really. As a kid, my dad first got me into the old Universal monster films. I like the b-movie horrors from the 1950’s, love the Hammer movies from the 60’s, the slashers of the 70’s and 80’s, all the way up to horror movies of today. It’s really hard to name favorites, but if I had to I would say The Shining, the original Halloween, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Creature From the Black Lagoon, King Kong, Psycho, just to name a few.
Did you have a horror host in your area growing up?
No, we didn’t really have one here in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, that I knew of at least. We live in the bible belt, so it was probably too evil for local television. It wasn’t until the 1980’s when Elvira came around that I knew of horror hosts.
How did you come to work with Elvira, and what was that experience like?
We were playing an acoustic set at a horror convention VIP party where Elvira’s manager happened to see us. He loved the band - even in our acoustic element - so he told Elvira (Cassandra) about us. The next day I was hanging out with some friends of mine at the convention and someone ran up and said ‘Elvira wants to meet you, get to your booth.’ I thought it was a joke, but just in case I headed back to our booth where the Ghoultown girls had been selling t-shirts and CDs for us. Sure enough, Cassandra came by with her entourage and talked for a few minutes. During that time she suggested I write a new song for her. I had a short meeting with her manager later on and came up with a plan to write a song and maybe shoot a video if it worked out. Two weeks later, I sent them a demo of the song, which they liked. From there we recorded it and decided to do a video. I called up our friend Gris Grimly out in Los Angeles and asked if he wanted to direct. He was excited about the opportunity, so once he was on board we headed out to Hollywood and shot the video. Cassandra was able to hook us up to use the Magic Castle out there, so that’s where much of the video was shot.
She was great to work with. She’s very personable, always laughing and making jokes. She worked very hard on the project, even though obviously it wasn’t a high paying gig. We’ve become good friends since this, so I’m really honored to have had the opportunity to work with her.
So the final product, the Mistress of the Dark DVD, includes the video, a making of documentary, and some other crazy stuff that Grimly had us shoot. It’s sort of like a bizarre take on an old 70’s variety show. Like a horror version of the show Hee Haw. It’s pretty crazy and campy, just like you would expect from Elivra. It was a cool experience.
Are all the members of Ghoultown big horror movie fans as well?
Some of them are, but they aren’t into as much as I am. I’m probably way over the top compared to most people. My office at home is like a museum of monster toys and posters. In fact, if you look real hard at our Mistress of the Dark DVD, there’s a hidden Easter egg that has a tour of my collection.
You’ve had some music featured in different movies, including American Nightmare and a short film called Headcheese. Is that something you enjoy and would you like to do more of that?
I really like writing songs for movies. I would love to do more, if it comes up. I’ve also been approached a few times about scoring an entire movie, but unfortunately none of those projects ever got off the ground. Maybe one of these days the right movie will come along.
Tell me about the Ghoultown comics. I never saw those – what were they about?
It was something I did about 10 years ago. I had developed a horror western comic series that got picked up by a small comic publisher here in Texas. The comic was called Ghoultown, but it focused on completely different characters than the band members. We appeared occasionally in the background, but it was a stand-alone story on its own. The outlaws were sort of like insane vampire cowboys, set in a post-apocalyptic old west. The company published two issues of a four-issue mini series and then stopped doing comics. Since I no longer had a publisher, it just sort of stalled and died there. I just didn’t have time to pursue comics without a publisher helping me. I had my hands full running our label and doing all the business, so we sold up the issues we had and that was that.
I caught you guys a couple of years ago here in Nashville at the Goon Anniversary show at The Cannery. You guys were great and the crowd really dug you. I have to tell you, man, you’re a pro – all the shots of tequila you were doing onstage and you never missed a beat! Guess free shots are just another perk of the business, huh? (laughs)
Oh yeah, we don’t make any money at this so we gotta take what we can get. Luckily I like tequila, although if the fans are in a real buying mood, it can get out of hand. But we are trained professionals, so we can handle it. However, it shouldn’t be tried at home.
Seriously though, I’d been looking forward to seeing you for a while and you didn’t disappoint! So what are the future plans for Ghoultown?
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we’ve not been able to play very many live shows lately.
We did a European tour last summer, but other than that we’ve only played a couple of one-off shows in the last few years. In the meantime, I’ve mainly been working on some videos for some of our songs from the last two releases. We’re working on a video for “Drink With the Living Dead” that is gonna be all art and animation. It goes along with the story in the lyrics. We’re also in the planning stages to do a possible video for “Return of the Living Dead,” which is an older song but we recut it on our Mistress of the Dark E.P. Maybe one for “Werewolves On Wheels” too.
I also notice that you’ve been doing some writing for Rue Morgue magazine.
Yep, I recently started writing for the horror mag, Rue Morgue, so that’s been cool too. I do articles and reviews for the printed magazine and I also have a column called Monstro Bizarro on their online staff blog. Fans can check that out at: http://rue-morgue.com/blog/archives/author/lyle/
Thanks again my friend, and we have to get you ghouls back up to Nashville sometime soon, maybe even for one of our Horror Hootenannys one year.
Hell yeah, we hope to rock Nashville again. It was a great time and great show!
Read more >>
Right. We played our first show in the spring of 1999.
You were in some other bands before Ghoultown. What were those?
In the early ‘90s I was in band called Solitude Aeturnus. It was more or less considered doom metal. We did some albums on Roadrunner and Pavement, two big metal labels, and toured around the U.S., Canada and Europe. Solitude continued on – to this day – but I left to start a horrorpunk band called The Killcreeps in 1996. We did one album called Destroy Earth.. It’s out of print now, but you can get it digitally on CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/killcreeps).
While doing The Killcreeps, we started writing some dark western type material, which was really unique. When we disbanded the The Killcreeps in 1997, I wanted do a band based on that dark western sound and came up with the name Ghoultown for it. That’s how this all got started.
Describe Ghoultown’s sound for folks who may not have heard you before.
It’s kinda hard to describe since we are a mix of many elements like psychobilly, metal, punk, spaghetti western, horror. To make it simple I always describe us as a mix between Johnny Cash and Rob Zombie. We exist in the crossroads right between these two, if there were such a thing.
I’m guessing you’re a big Sergio Leone fan, based on the look and sound of Ghoultown?
Oh yes, definitely. I love spaghetti westerns, especially Leone’s trilogy… The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and all those movies. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be like The Bad. I used to wear my dad’s black cowboy hat around all the time. With Ghoultown I pretty much merged that image with music.
You have a distinct horror vibe to Ghoultown, and many of your songs based on horror movies and horror themes. Have you always been a horror movie fan, and if so what are some of your favorite horror movies?
I love horror movies too. I always thought the spaghetti westerns had a lot of horror elements, so both genres really influenced the concept of Ghoultown. I’m a big fan of all types of horror movies really. As a kid, my dad first got me into the old Universal monster films. I like the b-movie horrors from the 1950’s, love the Hammer movies from the 60’s, the slashers of the 70’s and 80’s, all the way up to horror movies of today. It’s really hard to name favorites, but if I had to I would say The Shining, the original Halloween, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Creature From the Black Lagoon, King Kong, Psycho, just to name a few.
Did you have a horror host in your area growing up?
No, we didn’t really have one here in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, that I knew of at least. We live in the bible belt, so it was probably too evil for local television. It wasn’t until the 1980’s when Elvira came around that I knew of horror hosts.
How did you come to work with Elvira, and what was that experience like?
We were playing an acoustic set at a horror convention VIP party where Elvira’s manager happened to see us. He loved the band - even in our acoustic element - so he told Elvira (Cassandra) about us. The next day I was hanging out with some friends of mine at the convention and someone ran up and said ‘Elvira wants to meet you, get to your booth.’ I thought it was a joke, but just in case I headed back to our booth where the Ghoultown girls had been selling t-shirts and CDs for us. Sure enough, Cassandra came by with her entourage and talked for a few minutes. During that time she suggested I write a new song for her. I had a short meeting with her manager later on and came up with a plan to write a song and maybe shoot a video if it worked out. Two weeks later, I sent them a demo of the song, which they liked. From there we recorded it and decided to do a video. I called up our friend Gris Grimly out in Los Angeles and asked if he wanted to direct. He was excited about the opportunity, so once he was on board we headed out to Hollywood and shot the video. Cassandra was able to hook us up to use the Magic Castle out there, so that’s where much of the video was shot.
She was great to work with. She’s very personable, always laughing and making jokes. She worked very hard on the project, even though obviously it wasn’t a high paying gig. We’ve become good friends since this, so I’m really honored to have had the opportunity to work with her.
So the final product, the Mistress of the Dark DVD, includes the video, a making of documentary, and some other crazy stuff that Grimly had us shoot. It’s sort of like a bizarre take on an old 70’s variety show. Like a horror version of the show Hee Haw. It’s pretty crazy and campy, just like you would expect from Elivra. It was a cool experience.
Some of them are, but they aren’t into as much as I am. I’m probably way over the top compared to most people. My office at home is like a museum of monster toys and posters. In fact, if you look real hard at our Mistress of the Dark DVD, there’s a hidden Easter egg that has a tour of my collection.
You’ve had some music featured in different movies, including American Nightmare and a short film called Headcheese. Is that something you enjoy and would you like to do more of that?
I really like writing songs for movies. I would love to do more, if it comes up. I’ve also been approached a few times about scoring an entire movie, but unfortunately none of those projects ever got off the ground. Maybe one of these days the right movie will come along.
Tell me about the Ghoultown comics. I never saw those – what were they about?
It was something I did about 10 years ago. I had developed a horror western comic series that got picked up by a small comic publisher here in Texas. The comic was called Ghoultown, but it focused on completely different characters than the band members. We appeared occasionally in the background, but it was a stand-alone story on its own. The outlaws were sort of like insane vampire cowboys, set in a post-apocalyptic old west. The company published two issues of a four-issue mini series and then stopped doing comics. Since I no longer had a publisher, it just sort of stalled and died there. I just didn’t have time to pursue comics without a publisher helping me. I had my hands full running our label and doing all the business, so we sold up the issues we had and that was that.
I caught you guys a couple of years ago here in Nashville at the Goon Anniversary show at The Cannery. You guys were great and the crowd really dug you. I have to tell you, man, you’re a pro – all the shots of tequila you were doing onstage and you never missed a beat! Guess free shots are just another perk of the business, huh? (laughs)
Oh yeah, we don’t make any money at this so we gotta take what we can get. Luckily I like tequila, although if the fans are in a real buying mood, it can get out of hand. But we are trained professionals, so we can handle it. However, it shouldn’t be tried at home.
Seriously though, I’d been looking forward to seeing you for a while and you didn’t disappoint! So what are the future plans for Ghoultown?
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we’ve not been able to play very many live shows lately.
We did a European tour last summer, but other than that we’ve only played a couple of one-off shows in the last few years. In the meantime, I’ve mainly been working on some videos for some of our songs from the last two releases. We’re working on a video for “Drink With the Living Dead” that is gonna be all art and animation. It goes along with the story in the lyrics. We’re also in the planning stages to do a possible video for “Return of the Living Dead,” which is an older song but we recut it on our Mistress of the Dark E.P. Maybe one for “Werewolves On Wheels” too.
I also notice that you’ve been doing some writing for Rue Morgue magazine.
Yep, I recently started writing for the horror mag, Rue Morgue, so that’s been cool too. I do articles and reviews for the printed magazine and I also have a column called Monstro Bizarro on their online staff blog. Fans can check that out at: http://rue-morgue.com/blog/archives/author/lyle/
Thanks again my friend, and we have to get you ghouls back up to Nashville sometime soon, maybe even for one of our Horror Hootenannys one year.
Hell yeah, we hope to rock Nashville again. It was a great time and great show!
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