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Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture
02.05.2018
10:30 am
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Recently I have become rather mopey and down-in-the-mouth, to be quite honest. No, it’s not politics and it’s not due to some dumb horrible break-up either. It’s simply due to the realization that I will never have the chance to live my best life and rock out to bands like Wild Asparagus or The Ding Dings. I will never be able to see shit go down at The Sound Spot or The Stomp House.

These things have been keeping me up at night. It’s just not fair. Why can’t I go back in time to the East Village and have a drink with Beebo Brinker? And why the fuck isn’t North Beach in San Francisco as steamy, sexy and crime-laden as it used to be? I wanna get myself a grumpy-ass detective man who hates hippies and reluctantly gets dragged into investigating a drugged-out cult killing. I never got my shot to take up with some doped-up horn player who lives in a jazz club and parties until dawn, dammit.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

Ever since I read the shatteringly great Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980, I am a mess! If I was once nostalgic for a past I wasn’t even alive for, I am now pining for characters and circumstances that never happened at all! Editors and authors Iain McIntyre and Andrew Nette have created something unbelievable with this volume. Something that seems almost unthinkable: it is a reference book for pulp work written in a pulp-style. What I mean by this is that it is addictive, a quick read, and it leaves you wanting more.

All pulp is of the “betcha can’t eat just one” variety and so is this book. You can’t just read the chapter on 1960s British Youthsploitation Novels and you can’t just read the bits on early juvenile delinquent pulps. It’s simply not possible with this book. The way that Girl Gangs infiltrates your senses could easily be equated to the experiences of the characters in the counterculture pulps it documents: the volume starts slow like a neatly rolled joint, then kicks off mad like a killer acid trip and doesn’t let go until the contributors page and acknowledgements, at which point you find yourself the last person to leave the party, saying: “That’s it? No more? Should I just start it again from page one? I probably missed something. Okay. Here goes!” Drop that tab. Just smoke that bowl. There’s many layers to this book. It goes down just as smooth the second time around.

There are many writers who attend the Girl Gangs shindig, and every one of them should be well praised for their hard work. On a personal note, the inclusion of the YA fiction work at the close was so brilliant as there is an entire world of literature that I treasure that (apparently) only the writers of this book and perhaps a few others have recognized as pulpy, dangerous, subversive and REAL. And no, I’m not talking about Go Ask Alice (although that is one of the books discussed).

What makes McIntyre and Nette’s book such an achievement is the fact that not only does it include actual passages from extremely difficult and impossible to find pulp novels, many works are not US-based. Due to the fact that many of the contributing writers are UK or Australian-based, this book has one of the most uniquely international looks at pulp I have ever come across, period. It is glorious.

I have seen plenty of coffee table books on pulp cover art, academic publications, and merchandising galore (who hasn’t seen the card holders/compacts/cigarette cases for Don Elliot’s Hot Rod Sinners or Edward De Roo’s Go, Man, Go!) but I have never met a book that is as pleasingly exhaustive as Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, And Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980. I have never been so aware of Australian crime, women pulp writers, queerness in pulp and the influence of social/political events on the genre. I was well aware of how subversive the genre was, but the interviews with authors floored me and the amount of deep research in this book on a rather obscure literary genre blew my mind.

I don’t care who you are you this book will thrill you. It’s a bookcase necessity. If you have any interest in rock ‘n roll, lesbians, cult murder, car racing, leather jackets, skinhead violence, surfing spies, girl gangs or adolescents trying pot for the first time, THIS IS YOUR BAG, BABY. You will not get most of this material anywhere else. Trust me, I’ve looked. I have a list now of the things I want to read/find but I know I will be screwed when it comes to getting them. Most of them are either out of my price range collectibles or simply nowhere to be found except in the hands of exceptional weirdo wonderfuls like Iain McIntyre, Andrew Nette and their fearless crew. As an archivist, I trust them with these treasures implicitly. And await their next title with bated breath!
 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Ariel Schudson
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02.05.2018
10:30 am
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The gorgeous sci-fi ladies of ‘UFO’
02.05.2018
09:20 am
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Actress Gabrielle Drake (sister of musician Nick Drake) in character as Lt. Gay Ellis from UK television show, ‘UFO.’
 
Television program UFO made its debut in 1970, in the UK and Canada. It came out a bit later in the U.S. The show was the creation of dynamic husband and wife duo, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson—who were best known for their pioneering kid-oriented “Supermarionation” shows such as Thunderbirds. The futuristic storyline for UFO takes place in the not-so-distant year of 1980, and it was honestly pretty gnarly for prime time viewing as it presents the scenario of a ragtag fleet of dying aliens coming to earth to harvest human organs in order to sustain their existence. No big deal. Among the members of the large ensemble cast were Gabrielle Drake (the sister of musician Nick Drake), Polish actor, Vladek Sheybal (who is likely best known for his portrayal of chess master Kronsteen in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love), and model/actress Shakira Baksh who would wed actor Michael Caine in 1973. The show had much in common with 1969’s Doppelgänger (AKA Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, its better known title)—the Anderson’s’ first project to use human beings—including many of the same props, sets and even actors.

UFO was an instant hit, due much in part to the special effects created by the talented Derek Meddings which took approximately a year to develop. Meddings would go on to do special effects for several James Bond films and the pyrotechnics for every live Pink Floyd show in 1975 during their Wish You Were Here tour. Another element of any successful TV show is the development and visual appeal of its cast of characters, and as I mentioned earlier, UFO‘s actors did not disappoint. Here, we are going to focus on the lovely ladies who were a part of SHADO (the acronym for Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation) who always looked cool even in the face of an alien invasion. The most memorable characters got to wear badass purple-hued wigs and silver catsuits which made them look like go-go dancers from the future. There was also some risky looking fishnet worn by members of the cast during “underwater” sequences—a far cry from the basic turtlenecks, jumpsuits, and clerical-style jackets worn by the members of SHADO.

The show ran until 1973 and inspired a line of collectible toys and model kits based on the far-out vehicles and spaceships featured in the series, many still coveted by collectors to this day. If you had either forgotten about this television gem (which was a precursor to the Anderson’s last collaboration, Space 1999 starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain) or were unfamiliar with it until now, you are going to love the groovy images of the fictional female members of SHADO posted below. 
 

One of the lovely ladies of SHADO.
 

Actress/model Shakira Baksh/Caine.
 

Fishnet shirts are futuristic.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.05.2018
09:20 am
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Send in the Clones: Photographs of extreme Cure, Motörhead, Bjork, Sex Pistols, & Dolly Parton fans
02.05.2018
07:35 am
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Cure fans.
 
The first time I saw someone dressed-up to like one of their cultural idols it was a young lad, no more than fifteen, wearing white denim, white shirt, red braces, a bowler hat, with a natty black umbrella parading with a swagger and a menace outside the ABC Cinema, Lothian Road, in Edinburgh, where they were screening A Clockwork Orange. He was obviously a fan of Alex, or maybe one of his droogs. Within a few months of this, and on the same stretch of road, came a gaggle of female Bay City Rollers fans stomping in their six-inch platforms decked out in white half-mast bags with tartan trim and white short-sleeved shirts with similar plaid detail, holding scarves above their heads while singing “Shang-A-Lang.” It was almost religious. Young girls out evangelizing the heathens about their mighty gods.

Then came the long-haired trench-coated prog rockers, the punks, and button-downed mods and new wave rockers. If you stood long enough on any high street you would see the fashions come-and-go just like Rod Taylor did in The Time Machine when he watched the window display of a shop opposite his laboratory change year-by-year as he hurtled into the distant future. According to ye old fictional textbook Pop Psychology for Beginners, dressing-up like your pop idols is about expressing your individuality and a way for youngsters to find like-minded people to share their interests and experiences or a favorite band/singer/pop group/artist/dictator.

Between 2004 and 2011, photographer James Mollison documented many of the different pop music subcultures and their fans. He traveled across Europe and the U.S.A. with a mobile photographic studio which he parked outside various music venues and then invited an assortment of fans to come and have their picture taken. When he had enough, he put all these different portraits into one composite picture. He called the finished series of photographs The Disciples. These pictures capture fascinating moments of pop culture history and something of how our search for individuality inevitably leads to conformity. See more of James Molison’s work here.
 
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Fans of Bjork.
 
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Motörhead fans.
 
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Missy Elliot fans.
 
More fab pix of the usual fan suspects, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.05.2018
07:35 am
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The killer unreleased score for the 1982 low budget slasher film, ‘Unhinged’
02.02.2018
07:40 am
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Unhinged
 
The 1982 slasher film, Unhinged, is a largely forgettable motion picture, though one aspect of it is exceptional—the original score.

Shot on a shoestring in Portland, Oregon, Unhinged is the first of just two movies directed by Don Gronquist (he also co-wrote the picture). Gronquist, like so many other slasher filmmakers at the time, took inspiration from two films that highly influenced the horror subgenre, Psycho (1960) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). The Unhinged plot concerns three young women who drive to a music festival, but after a car accident in a rural area, they are taken in by a dysfunctional family. Eventually, a mysterious figure emerges and begins offing the women. In what was surely an attempt to super-size this slasher, the killer uses large, bladed tools—a scythe, an ax, and a machete. The murders aren’t all that graphic, though we see the bloody aftermath.
 
Ouch
 
In the UK, Unhinged appeared in theatres uncut, but was subsequently labeled a “video nasty,” though it’s relatively tame when compared to other “nasties.” It didn’t come out on home video in the country until 2004.
 
VHS
 
Unhinged is by no means a good film. Most of the players in the small cast have no discernable acting ability, the screenplay is full of holes, and despite its relatively brief running time (less than 80 minutes), the pace is sloooooow. Having said that, it’s not without merit. There’s some nicely framed shots, the surprise ending is impressive, and the synthesizer soundtrack is so great it’s often scarier than the action on screen. 

The music for Unhinged was written by little-known composer, Jonathan Newton. His stellar score is easily the best part of the picture. Though the work has never been offered as a standalone release, it’s developed a cult following amongst fans of slasher film music.

In 2014, FACT magazine made a list of “The 100 greatest horror soundtracks,” and Newton’s Unhinged score was their #40. Not too shabby.

Newton’s score for synth marries Carpenter-style moodiness with unusually dynamic drum programming, and, simply put, ticks all the boxes: genuinely killer theme, impressive atmospherics, occasional moments of unsignposted lunacy. Newton never really got a proper break—other low-key scores include 1985’s Shadow Play and another Gronquist film, 1995’s The Devil’s Keep—which is a shame, considering the obvious chops on display. (FACT magazine)

Have a listen, after the jump…

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Posted by Bart Bealmear
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02.02.2018
07:40 am
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‘Satanic Panic’ era televangelist has the hippest ‘alternative rock’ record collection
02.02.2018
07:39 am
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Typically Christian anti-rock crusaders during the “Satanic Panic” era of the 80s were coming out strong against heavy metal and sometimes punk bands. The Hell’s Bells special is one of the classics in that field—a program which was actually screened at my college in the early 90s—with most of the “very secular” audience cheering for their favorite bands.

“Satanic” bands like Venom and Slayer were always go-to bands for 80s televangelists decrying the devil’s influence on music, but in the clip below, taken from Valley of Decision, a Michigan cable access show from 1991, Mark Spaulding (author of Heartbeat of the Dragon: Occult Roots of Rock and Roll) presents the case for alternative (or “college”) rock being a force of evil in the world.

The remarkable thing about this segment is just how fucking HIP Spaulding’s record collection (of blasphemous titles) is.

In this segment, he presents albums by Tragic Mulatto, David Bowie, Christ on a Crutch, Crass, The Damned, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Birthday Party, Jesus Couldn’t Drum, Bob Mould, Crown of Thorns, Severed Heads, Psychic TV, The Cramps, Jethro Tull, Blue Hippos, Wire Train, The New Christs, and Black Sabbath—a rather eclectic batch of records with some deep cuts that would be hallmarks of cool for any super-hip 80s music geek’s collection.

Like, WHERE did this guy hear about The Birthday Party and Psychic TV?
 

“This is a band called The Damned—which is pretty accurate if you ask me!”
 
If you’re a fan of dumb 80s televangelists being terrified of popular music like I am, you’ll want to see this hard-hitting exposé. 
 
Watch it, after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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02.02.2018
07:39 am
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Beautiful homoerotic art and comics by Felix d’Eon (NSFW)
02.01.2018
12:46 pm
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A piece of art by Felix D’Eon inspired by his love of vintage Golden Age comics.
 
Felix D’Eon was born in Guadalajara, Mexico to a French father and a Mexican mother, though the young family would leave Guadalajara soon after his birth and take up residence in Southern California. After high school, D’Eon would enroll in the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he would often sketch images of his friends—many of which were gay men or in his own words, “anyone I found cute.” Influenced and inspired by the city’s openness to gay lifestyles, D’Eon decided to start creating more symbolic pieces of work reflective of the many lifestyle choices made by the residents of the city. Here’s more from D’Eon on what drove him to create art which revealed the depth of diversity within the LGBTQ community in San Francisco as seen through his eyes:

“I feel that no one was represented in this artwork except for this very narrow range of people, and I really like the idea of being able to extend this narrative of love and history and just a romantic image of our ancestors to include a wider part of the queer community.”

D’Eon’s style is heavily influenced by Edwardian dress as well as children’s books, vintage sheet music and comics associated with the Golden Age which featured the first glimpses of Captain America and his nemesis the Red Skull. His mother was fond of giving the young D’Eon vintage books she loved, which would also influence the budding artist’s style. His work would quickly evolve to include a much more significant sphere of the LGBTQ spectrum such as those identifying as gender neutral, transgender and gay people of color. D’Eon’s delightful Instagram is filled with more than 3,000 posts from the Chicano artist and self-described activist including his joyful illustrations and homoerotic photography. D’Eon maintains an Etsy shop where you can purchase his original art—something you can also do on his website where you will find, among other things, greeting cards which I can safely say won’t be available in an aisle of your local CVS, but should be.

The images in this post merely scratch the surface of D’Eon’s large body of work. Much of what follows is NSFW.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.01.2018
12:46 pm
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Bruce Conner talks ‘spaghetti art,’ ‘crystal elevators’ on public access, 1987
02.01.2018
09:11 am
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Sparks superfan, publisher and writer Tosh Berman hosted a public access show in 1986 and ‘87, and he recently stuck all 20 episodes on YouTube. His guests on Tea with Tosh were of unusually high quality for a talk show on local cable: Tom Recchion of LAFMS, Philip Glass, Phranc, Peter Case, and Russ Tamblyn are among his interlocutors, or analysands. I’m particularly fond of the interview with Bruce Conner, who was an associate of Berman père.

True, I am partial to Conner’s art, as who is not. But mainly it is just so refreshing to hear a couple of regular guys talking plain sense:

Tosh Berman: Did you somehow work your exhibit and the meteor shower at the same time, or was this by chance?

Bruce Conner: Everything was coordinated on seven mystic levels.

Berman: Huh. Hmm. And you have an interest in mystical levels, don’t you?

Conner: Yeah.

Berman: What’s your interest, exactly, in, uh, in mystics?

Conner: Usually, getting on the elevator and never getting off again.

Berman: Oh, gosh, don’t say that. That’s another one of my things, elevators.

Conner: Elevators that go so high, they become transparent, become pure light?

Berman: Yes. Yes.

Conner: Crystal elevators.

Ascend into the astral light with Bruce and Tosh after the jump…

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Posted by Oliver Hall
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02.01.2018
09:11 am
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Like Francis Bacon painted something Walt Disney puked-up: Gregory Jacobsen’s ugly beautiful art
01.31.2018
11:18 am
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‘Ms. Chlorine.’
 
Meet Gregory Jacobsen. He likes all those things you hate about yourself. Flab, bingo-wings, over-bite, acne, tombstone teeth, receding chins, unwanted hair, and explosive bodily fluids. He likes to put these things in his paintings. Lurid, grotesque, comic, cartoon-like pictures that make passing reference to work by artists like Francis Bacon, Picasso, Henry Darger, Bosch, and Arcimboldo. Add in some Ren and Stimpy, a splash of Joe Coleman, a twist of Walt Disney, serve over some crushed Charles Burns, with the merest hint of a Catholic upbringing then you can imbibe fully on the deliciously weird majesty of Jacobsen’s art.

Then there’s the content. Sex, murder, androgyny, and strange unnameable rituals all gleefully tied together by a wicked sense of fun.

Jacobsen was born in Middlesex, New Jersey, in 1976, a kinda industrial borough where “they manufactured nuclear bomb parts” and then “had to remove all this radioactive dirt from the site, which they buried in a junkyard two blocks behind [his] house and covered with tarp and tires.” In between exploding factories and industrial waste poisoning the fish and ducks in the rivers and ponds, Jacobsen was the fat kid, the average student with average prospects until he shifted some beef and was told go to art school because they “will take any old idiot” there. Off he traveled west to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where he graduated with a BFA in 1998.

At art school, Jacobsen mainly focussed on sound and performance as the painting department wasn’t too supportive in helping him develop his talent and ideas—though there were a couple of good tutors. He listened to the Fall, the Residents, the Contortions, and Captain Beefheart. He also dug “old, goofy, novelty songs from the 1950s and ‘60s, and old 78s.” This provided him with an inspirational soundtrack while he painted more and more strange, powerful and original work.

Since the turn of the century, Jacobsen’s been exhibiting his grotesque and vibrant paintings mainly thru the Zg Gallery, Chicago. His work has also been shown across country in New York and California and over the seas to Berlin and Paris. When not painting, Jacobsen makes videos and is lead singer with Lovely Little Girls an avant-garde, art-rock, prog rock, performance group who wear masks that look like the people in his paintings. See more of Gregory Jacobsen’s work here or have a swatch at his brilliant NSFW pictures below.
 
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‘Majorette.’
 
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‘Glamour Face.’
 
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‘Ritual and Ceremony—No Longer Sanitary.’
 
More of Jacobsen’s grotesque art, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.31.2018
11:18 am
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The original ending for Dario Argento’s 1971 thriller, ‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ (a DM premiere)
01.31.2018
10:16 am
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Poster
 
The Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) is the second motion picture directed by the maestro of the Italian giallo film, Dario Argento. Cat originally had an ending that was cut before it made it to the big screen, and though the footage is now lost, Dangerous Minds has the script pages, which haven’t been seen publicly before.

Argento’s debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), was such a big hit in the U.S. and elsewhere (though not in Italy), that there was demand for a follow-up, posthaste. The Cat O’ Nine Tails was the result, and in addition to being film #2 for Argento, it’s the second in his “animal trilogy” (Four Flies on Grey Velvet was the third). As was the case with Bird, Cat demonstrates the influence Alfred Hitchcock had on Argento early in his career.
 
Argento
The director sizing things up on the set of ‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails.’

The story was adapted from the director’s original screenplay, with a title borrowed from an existing novel. Karl Malden, an American character actor familiar to stateside audiences, was a cast as a blind man who has insight into a recent death. He teams up with a reporter to investigate, and then the bodies start to mount. 
 
Karl Malden and James Franciscus
 
The film’s thrilling climax takes place on a rooftop (shades of Vertigo here). The original cut of Cat concluded with an epilogue, which was subsequently deemed “too American.” So, Argento went back to the editing room, trimmed up the rooftop scene and got rid of the coda altogether. Here, transcribed into English for the very first time, are the script pages for the original ending (click to enlarge):
 
Page 1
 
Page 2
 
Page 3
 
The only surviving image from the epilogue is this German lobby card:
 
German lobby card
 
The script pages and the lobby card are part of the extras included with Arrow Video’s pending Blu-ray/DVD combo of The Cat O’ Nine Tails. This limited edition set will be released on February 20th. You can pre-order it on Amazon or by way of MVD.
 
Much more after the jump…

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Posted by Bart Bealmear
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01.31.2018
10:16 am
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Surreal photos of the Scorpions from the mid-60s way before they looked like the Scorpions
01.31.2018
10:12 am
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A postcard with a photo of members of the Scorpions while they were in their teens in 1966. Founding member Rudolf Schenker is pictured to the far left wearing a sweet pair of plaid trousers and a black turtleneck under his button-up shirt.

Most of the images in this post were taken of various lineups of German heavy-metal gods, the Scorpions during their earliest days in the mid-1960s. In this post, you will see a fascinating treasure trove of photos of the band sitting on top of their tour van—an old VW bus with the letters L.S.D. scrawled on it, and candid images of them playing teenage parties. There is no long hair or pulsating chest hair, either. No leather, no studs, no spandex. Instead, we see young versions of the Scorpions looking quite serious at times, wearing proper button-up shirts, plaid trousers, and even *gasp* TURTLENECKS (see above). This post is the equivalent of a proud parent pulling out baby photos of their kid to show to their date before they head off to the prom. And I love it.

I came across the photos via a French Wordpress site called Scorpscollector, most of them are attributed to former Scorpions drummer Wolfgang Dziony. Dziony was with the band until about 1972, or just before they would start to transition from a psychedelic groove machine into a heavy metal band and ruled the 1980s. When they got their start, guitar wizard Rudolf Schenker would trade off vocals with Dziony. The group would also enlist a couple of other vocalists including (according to Dziony) a cat from Berlin by the name of Gerd Andre whom they nicknamed “Jimi Hendric” due to his likeness to guitar hero Jimi Hendrix. Hendric would only hold the spot for few shows in his native Berlin before Hanover, Germany native Klaus Meine would take on the vocal responsibilities sometime in 1969 for the Scorpions—a role he still holds to this day, some 49 years later.
 

The Scorpions playing their very first gig as “The Nameless” in Sarstedt, Germany.
 
In another interesting twist, the liner notes included in a 1997 compilation called Psychedelic Gems 2 provides more history about the younger days of the Scorpions—comprised now of Rudolf and Michael Schenker on guitar, Meine on vocals, Lothar Heimberg (bass), and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. The story goes the boys entered a contest in Germany in 1970 showcasing up-and-coming talent. Apparently, the band played way over their allotted time slot which almost got them disqualified from the contest. As luck and the combination of sheer talent would have it, the Scorpions won and were rewarded with a record contract from CCA Records (the Concert Corporation of Allemania—also, CCA producer Hans Werner Kuntze was part of the judging panel). With CCA they would record two early versions of “I’m Going Mad,” and “Action” which would later be reworked for their 1972 debut, Lonesome Crow.

I cannot lie—I find the discovery of this kind of ephemera very satisfying. It’s sort of like getting ahold of a rare European high school yearbook from a flea market filled with photos of future superstars playing the big dance and acting like the badasses they would soon become, while perched on top of their shitty tour van. In addition to the vintage images of the band below, I’ve also posted a few early singles by the Scorpions that I’m pretty sure you are going to dig.
 

1966.
 

1965.
 

An early lineup of the Scorpions playing a party in 1965.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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01.31.2018
10:12 am
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