Estrus: Shovelin’ the Shit Since ’87

Boy, was I excited when I first heard the news of this new Kickstarter campaign! A new book from Korero Press featuring the complete history of infamous independent garage-rock record label, Estrus Records!

From the Kickstarter campaign page:

Dweebs, punkers and shitheads rejoice! Estrus: Shovelin’ the Shit Since ’87 gives you the sights, sounds, stories...and shit...behind the iconic independent record label Estrus Records. The book—a roughly 9" x 12" cinder block of a publication—chronicles label founder Dave Crider’s journey from small-town hobbyist to regarded move-and-shaker in the DIY/punk/garage rock circuit.

Not only will Shovelin’ include the matchless imagery that accompanied Estrus releases by artists like Art Chantry, Frank Kozik, Darren Merinuk, Alex Wald, and (Chris) COOP, but it contains stories and other words of wisdom from members of The Mummies, Man or Astroman?, The Makers, The Mono Men — plus other bands that don’t start with the letter “M” like Fireballs of Freedom, The Nomads, Cheater Slicks, The Drags, Sugar Shack, Guitar Wolf, The Trashwomen, Gas Huffer,  The Oblivians, Prisonshake, The Von Zippers, Lord High Fixers, Phantom Surfers, The Quadrajets, The Statics, Estrella 20/20, Gasoline, Jackie & the Cedrics, The Fall-Outs, and more…

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I'm backing this one 100% simply for the absolutely incredible work from one of my favorite graphic designers, Art Chantry. An endless flow of amazing work him and a host of other well-known artists that created now-iconic work for the label...

Ah, heck. The label put pout some REALLY awesome music, too!

And apparently I'm not the only one excited for this new book release, because in about 2 hours the ENTIRE project was fully funded! Nice work! But I still kicked in to grab a copy of this one, because it's a mandatory addition to my library.

Give the Kickstarter page a visit to get in on this one. It's open until April 20th and it's already fulled funded, so it's a done deal!

  

Lords Of Infinity - "Go Open The Door Of Death"

How could you NOT love a track with THAT title!?

Brand new ritual/horror ambient track released by Lords Of Infinity. So dark, grating and haunting. Another fantastic release from the Black Mara label out of Georgia (the country, not the state).

Grab the entire release, Lost Sense Of The Old Times, here.

Enjoy!

  

"Nosferatu The Vampyre" Opening Credits

The opening credits to Werner Herzog's 1979 German Gothic masterpiece, Nosferatu The Vampyre, has to be one of the absolute best in horror.

The credits open with incredible film footage of the Mummies of Guanajuato, a famous collection of mummies from Guanajuato, Mexico dating back to an 1833 cholera epidemic. (The mummified remains were later unearthed after the failure of living relatives to pay burial taxes of the time, and were stored together in an above-ground building adjacent to the cemetery. By the 1900s, these mummies began attracting tourists and eventually the building became a permanent museum. A bucket-list destination, for sure.)

Along with the stunning imagery of the twisted mummies overlays the hauntingly beautiful Gothic soundtrack from German electronic/organic ambient artists, Popol Vuh. The track, Brüder Des Schattens (Brothers Of The Shadow), sounds like something pulled from a dark, candle-lit monastery with orchestral strings, woodwinds, and monastic chants.

And over it all, the sound of the human heartbeat. The life pulse of the vampire.

The scene then transitions to a bat flying through the night sky, only to be suddenly shattered by the bloodcurdling scream of Lucy Harker, jolted awake from a terrible nightmare.

A perfect foreshadowing of events to come...

Enjoy.

(And if you're interested, you can see the entire film here!)

  

How To Operate A Financially Successful Haunted House

So this one was making the rounds the other day, and it's soooo good I wanted to share it here!

Back in the early 80's, Philip Morris (of Morris Costumes fame) and Dennis Phillips wrote an instructional how-to on creating your own haunted house, called How To Operate A Financially Successful Haunted House, that quickly became the industry standard. Choc full of incredible clip art illustrations, savvy promotion tricks, and the latest and greatest special effects and makeup how-tos, the manual quickly went through multiple represses to meet demand in an exploding haunted house industry.

And while I don't yet have an early copy in my collection, Flashbak did us all a favor and posted a ton of the pages from the manual on their site. So much wonderful Halloween and haunted house nostalgia on each page! And even though many of the ideas are no longer relevant in this day and age, I could still sit back and peruse those glorious pages for hours. It really takes you back to that incredible era of haunted houses where literally anything went. Regulations? We don't need no stinking regulations!

Do yourself a favor and check out the truly awesome collection of pages Flashbak posted up. And grab a few of those insanely awesome clipart pages! I'm definitely going to work up something fun with those!!

Enjoy!