Tag: Gothic Christmas

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Introducing: Willie Dick

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Every once in a while, I get emails from artists, review their work, and then sit at my desk blinking rapidly and thinking What the actual hell did I just watch?

Sometimes I dig deeper and it doesn’t go well; other times I’m seduced by raw charisma and want to share my joyful bafflement with everyone I know.

Willie Dick, of Glasgow, Scotland, falls firmly into the latter category. His work will turn your brain sidewise and you will like it.

This is Deeper Darker, a truly unsettling tale from his Halloween special album Halloween Horror (download it for free at bandcamp!):

WILLIE DICK - Deeper Darker

 
And then there is My House My Rules, created while he was squatting in an abandoned nursing college and morgue (!), which includes Deeper Darker, but also infectious bangers like I Will Be Your Juliet:
 

WILLIE DICK – I Will Be Your Juliet from Billy Campbell on Vimeo.

 
Merry Gothic Christmas, y’all. Have fun, be safe, we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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Light ‘Em Up: A Compendium of Halloween Music and Light Shows

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And today, fresh-fished from YouTube, a selection of my favorite Halloween house displays synchronized to music.

There is an art to this; selection of music is important – there are several songs that are apparently popular for these shows that are hot right now but not especially seasonal – but choreography is just as crucial. The following are videos that I thought nailed the idea of “Halloween Musical Light Show” in terms of both form and content.

First, from Naperville, Illinois: a show set to My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light ‘Em Up) by Fall Out Boy, because YES, perfect use of this song!!!! and also they pick the right thing to highlight during the actual Light ‘Em Up section of the chorus. They have multiple videos: there is also one for Du Hast, by Rammstein (unusual but also classic music choice!!) and Dragula, by Rob Zombie.
 

Thomas Halloween 2013 Naperville, Fall Out Boy, My Songs Know What You did in the Dark, Light Em Up

 
From Valley Center, CA, something for classic rock fans: AC/DC‘s Hells Bells, another unusual but excellent choice. Also I love the little skeleton doing jumping jacks.
 
Musical Halloween sequence to Hells Bells by AC/DC

 
And from Leesburg, Virginia, Sail by AWOLNation (Skorge Remix), for truly excellent choreography to a dubstep track. They also have a bunch of videos, including one for Ghost N Stuf by DeadMau5.
 
Halloween Light Show 2013 - Sail by AWOLNation (Skorge Remix)

 
And finally, a Honorable Mention for a classic from 2011: from Riverside, CA, This is Halloween (Original Soundtrack), from Nightmare Before Christmas.
 
Halloween Light Show 2011 - This Is Halloween

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Video: The Dirty Nil, Nicotine

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Okay so this video for Nicotine by The Dirty Nil isn’t scary, but it does explore extraterrestrial themes.

To properly enjoy it, first consider the following:

What if –
1) We made contact with aliens
2) Some of them were human-shaped
3) They would consent to get romantically involved with humans
4) One of those alien-human relationships went horrendously wrong
5) What would it look like if they ended up on a future equivalent of the Jerry Springer show?

Ok. Ready? Turn your speakers up and press play.

 

The Dirty Nil - Nicotine (Official Video)

 

Nicotine is from Smite, due in January 2014.

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Video: Swiiim, All My Things

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I’m posting this video for All My Things by Swiiim (Danny Fujikawa, formerly of Chief) during Halloween week because I have to watch it through my fingers because it mashes on not one but TWO of my greatest-fear buttons: being trapped in an enclosed space and drowning.

That said, the song, which is from his new record, Cellophane Castle, is full of echo-booming wub-wub synths and lines like I have been reduced to using the Internet to communicate and is awesome.
 

SWIIIM - ALL MY THINGS - (DIRECTED BY CHRIS ACOSTA)

 
You can listen read an interview about the making of the video – it is just as hair-raising as it looks – and listen to the rest of the (really great!) record at Impose Magazine.

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Video: Alice Cooper, Teenage Frankenstein

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This is the video for Teenage Frankenstein, by Alice Cooper, the grand-daddy of shock-rock.

It originally appeared on Constrictor (1986), though I came to it via Prince of Darkness (1989), the compilation record he put out in 1989 for, I’m guessing, all of the new fans like me that he acquired when Trash (1989) blew up.

Also, I totally just fell down a YouTube hole just now while looking for this video, and while we’re on the subject of Trash, man I had forgotten how much I really loved House of Fire. Poison was so good, too, I still listen to that one frequently. But if you just want a quick overview of his back catalog, Prince of Darkness works pretty well; my other super-creepy favorite from that one was Roses on White Lace.

Anyway, back to Teenage Frankenstein, which I am sharing because it is great and has an immensely satisfying chorus to shout along to, especially if you are fourteen and feel really awkward. And it’s still fun when you are way older than fourteen, too.

 

Alice Cooper - Teenage Frankenstein

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Halloween Special: Sleaze of the Reaper, Blackwater Jukebox

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For all of your Halloween party / waiting for trick-or-treaters / quiet evening at home with zombie movie needs: the latest from NTSIB favorites Blackwater Jukebox. I suggest you download it – it’s free! – and then crank it up.

Some of my favorites include Black Rain, from the Restricted Archives of the Smithsonian:
 

 
And also Harvest Tarantella from the Sicilian highlands:
 

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Halloween Special: Citóg Mixtape Volume IV

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Gothic Christmas has (probably) been rained out for me this year – I’m writing this as Hurricane Sandy rolls over Manhattan – but I’ve been staying in the holiday spirit by listening to this mixtape from Citóg, a record label/ independent collective from the west of Ireland.

Milan Jay, scrappy little band of my heart, contributed a track called Mask Up (The Ballad of Michael Meyers) which I am sharing below, but the rest of the compilation is also excellent.