A dose of horror rock!
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:28 pm
I know the favorite flavor around here is typically metal, and I can certainly appreciate that, but I've tapped into something completely unknown to me recently and I think it's certainly share worthy with the rest of you.
Death rock, horror punk, this is my latest obsession and I've discovered a lot of shit that I think kicks ass on most everything in the universe. Everyone around here is probably familiar with The Misfits, and if you like them, then you'll probably really dig a lot of these bands. Most of them have a heavy base in gothic music, but drop all preconceived notions about that genre. These bands seriously kick ass. My recent acquisitions are the following:
Antidote Records is home to a lot of really awesome horror rock bands. They seem to be a central label to the American horror rock movement. If you look around their site, they have a sampler called Rock Is Undead that is freely distributed. You can download the whole thing and listen to it to your heart's content to get a feel for the other bands on the label.
Calabrese are my current favorite band on the Antidote label. Their harmonies are ripped straight off of a Misfits album and their songs don't feature many more than three chords, but they present it all with a shitload of energy that is tough to resist. Their song Midnight Spookshow is featured on the Antidote sampler and is really cool.
Antiworld are a shameless robbery of 45 Grave, but that's really not such a bad thing. They're from Portland, OR.
Rock City Morgue is the latest project of Sean Yseult, formerly of White Zombie and Famous Monsters. The music is really cocky and trashy and manages to stay out of the typical cliches (misfits ripoffs, 45 Grave ripoffs, rockabilly) that a lot of these deathrock bands slip into sometimes.
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 are the band that preceeded the Roadrunner band Murderdolls. As a matter of fact, a lot of the Murderdolls songs were Drag Queens songs first. It's loud, rude and extremely trashy. They're a lot glammier than most of the bands in the deathrock scene and some of their songs even bring to mind Motley Crue with a shitload more raunch.
The Brides/The Brickbats/Rock And Roll Star Destroyer is the band of a thousand sideprojects. I think The Brickbats came first and they mutated from there. I'm still trying to figure out what makes The Brides different from The Brickbats since both bands feature the same mebers and they both sound the same. Maybe the addition of a keyboardist for The Brides is the difference. RnR Star Destroyer is a concept band where everyone is an Ace Frehley knock off and all their songs sound like Kiss and are about destroying the Earth. My personal favorite of the bunch is The Brickbats. They're awesome.
The Coffinshakers are a vampire country band. They write songs about being a vampire, drinking blood, sleeping during the day and seeking victims. Their sound is a very old style country in the vein of Cash or Williams Sr. - the vocals go from Bela Lugosi to Eddie Spaghetti in the same song often. They're a class act and I have yet to hear anything like them. Ghoultown doesn't count because they suck.
Zombina & The Skeletones - I have NEVER heard anything like this band. They aren't agressive like many of these other bands can be. Not in the slightest. They're actually a pop group with extremely syruppy sweet songs about being a zombie, marrying a giant ape and being unable to get rid of a radioactive meteorite. Despite the complete lack of balls on this album, I find myself compelled to listen to it and I can't stop. Neither can anyone else. The deathrock chat on Soulseek is constantly swamped with requests for their album Taste the Blood of Zombina and The Skeletones. I can't explain it. It's beyond catchy. I hear the song Nobody Likes You in my sleep.
Death rock, horror punk, this is my latest obsession and I've discovered a lot of shit that I think kicks ass on most everything in the universe. Everyone around here is probably familiar with The Misfits, and if you like them, then you'll probably really dig a lot of these bands. Most of them have a heavy base in gothic music, but drop all preconceived notions about that genre. These bands seriously kick ass. My recent acquisitions are the following:
Antidote Records is home to a lot of really awesome horror rock bands. They seem to be a central label to the American horror rock movement. If you look around their site, they have a sampler called Rock Is Undead that is freely distributed. You can download the whole thing and listen to it to your heart's content to get a feel for the other bands on the label.
Calabrese are my current favorite band on the Antidote label. Their harmonies are ripped straight off of a Misfits album and their songs don't feature many more than three chords, but they present it all with a shitload of energy that is tough to resist. Their song Midnight Spookshow is featured on the Antidote sampler and is really cool.
Antiworld are a shameless robbery of 45 Grave, but that's really not such a bad thing. They're from Portland, OR.
Rock City Morgue is the latest project of Sean Yseult, formerly of White Zombie and Famous Monsters. The music is really cocky and trashy and manages to stay out of the typical cliches (misfits ripoffs, 45 Grave ripoffs, rockabilly) that a lot of these deathrock bands slip into sometimes.
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 are the band that preceeded the Roadrunner band Murderdolls. As a matter of fact, a lot of the Murderdolls songs were Drag Queens songs first. It's loud, rude and extremely trashy. They're a lot glammier than most of the bands in the deathrock scene and some of their songs even bring to mind Motley Crue with a shitload more raunch.
The Brides/The Brickbats/Rock And Roll Star Destroyer is the band of a thousand sideprojects. I think The Brickbats came first and they mutated from there. I'm still trying to figure out what makes The Brides different from The Brickbats since both bands feature the same mebers and they both sound the same. Maybe the addition of a keyboardist for The Brides is the difference. RnR Star Destroyer is a concept band where everyone is an Ace Frehley knock off and all their songs sound like Kiss and are about destroying the Earth. My personal favorite of the bunch is The Brickbats. They're awesome.
The Coffinshakers are a vampire country band. They write songs about being a vampire, drinking blood, sleeping during the day and seeking victims. Their sound is a very old style country in the vein of Cash or Williams Sr. - the vocals go from Bela Lugosi to Eddie Spaghetti in the same song often. They're a class act and I have yet to hear anything like them. Ghoultown doesn't count because they suck.
Zombina & The Skeletones - I have NEVER heard anything like this band. They aren't agressive like many of these other bands can be. Not in the slightest. They're actually a pop group with extremely syruppy sweet songs about being a zombie, marrying a giant ape and being unable to get rid of a radioactive meteorite. Despite the complete lack of balls on this album, I find myself compelled to listen to it and I can't stop. Neither can anyone else. The deathrock chat on Soulseek is constantly swamped with requests for their album Taste the Blood of Zombina and The Skeletones. I can't explain it. It's beyond catchy. I hear the song Nobody Likes You in my sleep.