Category Archives: Music

Music Video of the Day: Bewitched by Candlemass (1988, directed by Jonas Akerlund)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The lesson of this video is don’t try to bury Messiah Marcolin.

Marcolin was the lead singer of the Swedish doom metal band, Candlemass.  In this video, for their song Bewitched, Messiah Marcolin not only comes back to life and rises from his own coffin but he uses his powers of awesome singing to create an army of brainwashed zombies.  This would be scary, except for the fact that Messiah Marcolin spends most of the video looking like this:

And this.

He does somehow manage to entrance a cute girl about halfway through the video.

I guess that’s the power of Swedish doom metal.

This video, which has been called one of the most enjoyably bad metal video of all time, is significant for being the first video to have been directed by Jonas Akerlund.  From working with Candlemass, Akerlund has gone on to direct videos for everyone from U2 to Jane’s Addiction to Beyonce to The Rolling Stones to almost everyone else who has ever had a ht song.

As for Candlemass, they’ve disbanded and gotten back together a few times.  In January 2013, Candlemass was voted the greatest Swedish hard rock/metal band of all time by the writers of Sweden Rock Magazine.

Horror Song of the Day: Prince of Darkness Opening Credits (by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth)

Posted on by Arleigh

Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter, as most long-time readers and visitors to the site will know, is one of my favorite filmmakers. While he has been in a self-imposed retirement these last 15 or so years from directing, his works for two decades prior have to be considered some of the best genre films.

While some of his films have been critically-acclaimed from the start, others weren’t treated as well when they first released. It would only be years later when genre fans would finally come to appreciate some of his lesser works.

One such film is Prince of Darkness. The second film in his unofficial “Apocalypse Trilogy”, this one would be lambasted by most film critics upon it’s release. Even fans of his films would mostly avoid this entry.

Yet, years later it has turned out to be one of his most underappreciated films. It’s soundtrack, one Carpenter did himself with assistance from long-time collaborator Alan Howarth, would become a favorite.

The expanded “Opening Credits” section of the Prince of Darkness soundtrack is a great example of the sort of mood Carpenter can create with his preferred usage of synthesizer and electronic keyboards when it came to composing his film’s soundtracks.

Music Video of the Day: The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen (1984, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

One of the seminal songs of the 1980s, The Killing Moon‘s biggest fan might just be the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch.  In an interview with Uncut magazine, McCulloch said, “You don’t need to read The Bible, you can listen to ‘The Killing Moon‘ and get as much out of it. It’s the greatest song ever written.”

I would not go as far as to compare it to the Bible but this is a song and a video that epitomizes an era.  The atmospheric video, which mixes snow, abandoned roomed, mysterious figures, and flickering lights, is a riddle wrapped in an enigma and seems to be meant to viewed in October.

Years after it was released, The Killing Moon was discovered by a new generation of listeners when Richard Kelly used it in the opening scene of Donnie Darko.  As guitarist Will Sergeant explained it to The Guardian, “Years after it was a hit, we got an email saying this bloke wanted to use the song in a film, Donnie Darko, which we didn’t think would go anywhere, so accepted a one-off £3,000. Then when the director did the director’s cut he replaced ‘The Killing Moon’ with ‘Never Tear Us Apart‘ by INXS. Aren’t some people knobheads?”

Music Video of the Day: Rock and Roll All Nite By KISS (1975, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Do you remember what people used to think KISS stood for?

Knights in Satan’s Service.  Preachers and community leaders were told and actually believed that the band was trying to put teenagers under the thrall of Satan.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  Paul Stanley came up with KISS and it was never meant to be anything other than a cool name.  As Peter Criss explained it, “”It really means a lot. It’s the first thing you do to a chick or anybody. It could also be the kiss of death. It’s a strong word. It’s easy to remember.”

Still, the members of KISS didn’t hesitate to play up their dangerous image.  Gene Simmons may have been a self-described “nice Jewish boy from Long Island,” but when he was on stage, he became the blood-drinking Demon.  (When Marvel published a KISS comic book in 1977, the red ink was said to contain drops of the band’s blood.)

What’s funny to me about old school KISS is that they would come out on stage, made-up to look like hardcore demons and monsters.  Fires would burn as they performed.  Blood would pour out of Gene Simmons’s mouth.  KISS went out of their way to look evil but their music was so radio friendly that it could probably be played at a church retreat.  The idea that anyone believed that they were “knights in Satan’s service” seems ludicrous today.

Rock and Roll All Nite was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.  Their goal in writing the song was to come up with an anthem for their fans and no one can deny that they succeeded.  This video was a promo video that was released, along with the song, in 1975.  Like most music videos that were produced in the pre-MTV days, the video keeps things simple and focuses on KISS performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Decades later, a second video would be released for Rock and Roll All Nite.  However, that video features KISS without their makeup and that just feels wrong.

Music Video of the Day: Would You Love a Monsterman by Lordi (2006, directed by Pete Riski)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yesterday, I shared the first music video for Lordi’s Would You Love A Monsterman?  Today’s music video of the day is the second video for Would You Love A Monsterman?

This second video takes the plot of the first video and replaces the little girl in the woods with a young woman in a morgue.  There’s no doll in this video but there is twice as much killing.  Again, the video ends with the main character deciding that yes, she can love a monsterman.

Music Video of the Day: Would You Love A Monsterman by Lordi (2002, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There are actually two music videos of Lordi’s Would You Love A Monsterman, one that was released in 2002 and another one from 2006.  This is the 2002 video.

This version features a young girl playing with a dirty doll in the woods when Lordi suddenly appears and invites her to join them.  They even set her doll on fire but she still decides to join.  That is the power of Lordi.

Lordi is a Finnish band, who have been making music since 1992.  An earlier version of Would You Love A Monsterman was recorded under the title I Would Do It All For You in 1993.  When I Would Do It All For You was turned into Would You Love a Monsterman in 2002, it became Lordi’s first big hit.

Four years after this video was released, Lordi would make history as both the only Finnish and the only “hard rock” act to win the Eurovision song contest with their song, Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Music Video of the Day: I’ll Bite Your Face Off by Alice Cooper (2011, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

To quote Alice Cooper himself:

“This is my tip-of-the-hat to early Rolling Stones.  Like in 1964/65 when their songs were very Chuck Berry orientated. They just feel so good, in the pocket. This song was begging to be in the live show. We’ve done it in four different continents now and no one had ever heard it. By the second chorus, the whole audience is singing ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off.’ It’s the perfect little 3 minute hit single.”

I’ll Bite Your Face Off was the first single to be released off Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Alice Cooper’s 26th studio album and a follow-up to Cooper’s 1975 album, Welcome To My Nightmare.  Each song represents a different aspect of a bad dream.  In I’ll Bite Your Face Off, Alice dreams about being introduced to the devil.

The video was filmed at several different live venues.  One of these performances was at the 100 Club in London, where actor Johnny Depp joined the band on guitar.

Music Video of the Day: Michael Caine by Madness (1984, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

From the minute that I read Lisa Marie’s review of The Island two weeks ago, I knew that I wanted to highlight this video from Madness.

As you can tell from the title, the song is a tribute to Michael Caine and his status as a British cultural icon.  The video is based on The IPCRESS File, the best known of the five films in which Caine played Harry Palmer.  Harry was the working class equivalent of James Bond.  Bond was a glamorous bachelor who slept with beautiful women and traveled the world.  Harry, on the other hand, lived alone in a shabby flat, wore glasses, and never got paid what he deserved.

That actually is Michael Caine repeating his name for the song’s hook.  When the band first approached him, Caine turned them down because he had never heard of them.  Only after his daughter told him how popular Madness was did Caine change his mind.  The sample of Caine repeating his own name was meant as a tribute to a scene in The IPCRESS File, in which Harry Palmer resisted a brainwashing attempt by repeating his own name.

Michael Caine spent 8 weeks on the British charts, peaking at number 11.

Music Video of the Day: Broken Wings by Mr. Mister (1985, directed by Oley Sassone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A man drives through the desert in a Thunderbird.  A hawk perches in a church.  An unknown couple dance the tango.  The beach awaits.  Yes, this is the video for Mr. Mister’s Broken Wings.

The video was directed by Oley Sassone, who later directed episodes of Hercules and Xena..  According to Sassone, “The subtext of the story and what I wanted the audience to feel was our hero’s own backstory in his mind. The tango dancers, juxtaposed with the images of him getting lost while driving, tossing a map and instead following the hawk overhead was, symbolically, his own soul, his own voice deep inside telling him to carry on – to lead him to a new path, a new beginning.”  Personally, I have always thought this song was about someone struggling to recover from a bad breakup.

Broken Wings is a song that epitomizes the mid-1980s so it’s not surprising that it’s also included on the Vice City: Grand Theft Auto soundtrack.  Getting chased the a police helicopter while listening to Mr. Mister is a surreal experience.

Sound of the Summer of Love: RIP Marty Balin

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

Another voice from the fabled “Summer of Love” has been silenced, as Jefferson Airplane cofounder Marty Balin has died at age 76. While co-lead singer Grace Slick got most of the attention, Balin’s soulful voice rank him among the very best rock vocalists in history.

Marty Balin was born in Cincinnati in 1942, and at age 20 recorded a couple of solo singles (“Nobody But You”, “I Specialize in Love”) that went nowhere. Migrating to the West Coast, Balin was involved in San Francisco’s burgeoning folk music scene, until The Beatles exploded in America and changed everything. By 1965, he’d opened a club called The Matrix and decided to form a band. Together with Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Signe Anderson, Jerry Peloquin, and Bob Harvey, the first incarnation of Jefferson Airplane (a riff on bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson’s name) was born. Harvey was replaced by Jack Cassidy, Peloquin by Skip…

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