Salem's Pot

So...many...puns.  All silliness aside, "The Vampire Strikes Back" is a pretty raucous psych-blaster from the band Salem's Pot.  It makes me want to smoke cigarettes and shotgun beers in my garage.  Listen to the full version below and grab the 7" here.

Argento

So Halloween has come and gone.  Pumpkin beers have been consumed.  My kiddo's stash of candy has been raided by his parents.  And my football team decided to stay home today.  As there are probably a whole lot of folks still partying with all the goblins and ghouls out there, here's some excellent jams to wind your evening down to, another fantastic homage compilation album from Retro Promenade.  The aptly titled "Argento" takes its cues and moods from the works of filmmaker Dario Argento, and though it's only four songs, it's a perfect way to close out Halloween 2015.  Stream it below and download it here.

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

For so many years, Tommy Lee Wallace's "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" was the unwanted, redheaded stepchild of the "Halloween" franchise.  It's only been in the last few years that the film has received the due respect and recognition it deserves, carving out its own rabid fan base.  I like Michael Myers as much as the next guy, but we got totally cheated when "Halloween III" failed to garner any acclaim...or more importantly money.  The series was originally conceived to be a yearly horror anthology series with a new story every film.  How awesome would that have been?  How did a movie about a mass ritual murder of children not set the box office on fire?  Oh what a world we live in.

Watch the trailer below and Happy Halloween!  Be safe out there and remember kids, be in front of your TV sets for the Horrorthon!

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: The Beyond

I probably use this descriptor too much, but Italian schlock master Lucio Fulci's 1981 film "The Beyond" is absolutely bonkers.  There is so much crammed into its run time, so much gore, so much madness, so much schizophrenic storytelling, that it seems to exist purely as a brain melter.  This movie has everything: a portal to hell, death by spiders, a lynch mob murdering a suspected warlock, a horde of zombies in a hospital, an obligatory Fulci eye gouging scene, gallons and gallons of blood, and a totally bleak ending...just the way it should be.  For best effect, enjoy this movie with a group of like-minded weirdos such as yourself, but go ahead and watch the trailer below now.

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: Martyrs

There are a handful of films out there that have left me completely speechless once the credits roll.  Films that stay with me long after they're finished, images and scenes burned into my brain for better or worse...a long waking nightmare.  Pascal Laugier's 2008 French film "Martyrs" is one of those movies.  I don't even know where to begin.  And maybe i shouldn't.  I went in completely cold when i first saw the movie, and maybe that's the best way to do it.  Watch the trailer below.

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: Kill List

The last few years have seen British filmmaker Ben Wheatley come out as a real master of genre cinema.  Every one of his films feels totally unique, playing with bits of horror, noir, crime, and more, yet maintains a director's signature and style.  2011's "Kill List" was the first Wheatley film i had the pleasure of viewing, and it's a monster.  Following two former soldiers who become hitmen, the movie begins as a crime film, the duo carrying out a list of three assassinations given to them by their shadowy employer.  As the jobs progress, things become uglier and more brutal, and nothing is as it seems.  Mystery and dread intensify up to the horrifying ending.

Watch the trailer below...and you should go ahead and check out Wheatley's whole filmography.  Every one is a winner.

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: Night of The Demons

Featuring plenty of gore and demon transformations, a whole array of high school horror tropes, plenty of Raimi-aping camera work, and a villainess who's a cross between Dr. Frankenfurter and Zuul, but in demon form, Kevin Tenney's 1988 film "Night of The Demons" is just too much fun, a bloody laugh for the midnight movie crowd.  It's one of those movies that feels like it needs to be watched on VHS at a friend's house in a sleeping bag, with a bunch of other like-minded maniacs cheering along with you.  Is it kind of cheesy?  Sure!  But that's what makes it great.  Watch the trailer below.

Halloween Horror Trailer Week: Possession

All week long, i'm going to be posting a trailer for a different horror movie or thriller, hopefully for films that most of you have not seen...or maybe even heard of.  First up is the absolutely amazing and bonkers 1981 film "Possession," written and directed by Andrzej Zulawski.  Featuring full throttle, balls out performances from Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as a couple whose relationship is going to tense and bloody pieces after an adultery, the film begins as a psychological thriller that soon becomes more surreal and horrific as it progresses.  Zulawski pulled from his own divorce to craft a film that's at once a personal purge of emotion, but also a terrifying supernatural nightmare.

I was floored after seeing this film at a special screening a couple of years ago, and i cannot recommend it enough.  Watch the trailer below.

Julien Baker

Sometimes when it's late at night, and you're sitting in the dark with the cold glow of the television gently lighting the room, and your wife is sleeping on the sofa next to you, and you're tired but not sleepy and maybe a little buzzed from the dark beer you've been drinking, you'll come across something perfect to soundtrack your little scene, your little world.  In my case tonight, it's the beautiful, stripped down lullabies from Tennessee singer-songwriter Julien Baker.  The 19-year old's "Sprained Ankle" LP feels like the work of someone who's lived and experienced way more in her lifetime than she ever really could have.  It's old soul music that gets under your skin and moves its fingers around in your heart.  I should go to bed.  Listen to "Brittle Boned" below and get the album here from 6131 Records.

Nosferatu

It's October.  Halloween is right around the corner.  Why wouldn't you want to listen to some impeccable horror movie soundtracks?  The latest from Waxwork Records is a beautiful double LP of Popol Vuh's score to Werner Herzog's 1979 "Nosferatu" remake.  The band's droney psych music is creepy and oozing and transcendent.  Get it here and listen to "Through Pain to Heaven" below.