Despite a rich tradition of horror writers and film, until recently we never really did Hallowe’en in this country. In the 80s and 90s you’d be hard pressed to find a Horror film showing on TV for the night itself (though for some reason we have long upheld a tradition of Ghost Stories at Christmas) and Trick Or Treaters were highly unlikely to darken your door, so we certainly never got carried away to the extent that there was a season-long British equivalent to your Knott’s Berry bollocks, in fact practically everything we know about the festivities of Hallowe’en in this country are informed by your films and TV shows. But we had distinct enough of a handle on the overarching concept to be nonplussed when we watched E.T., or a Spider-Man cartoon where people were flouncing round on the big night dressed as belly dancers and cowboys in search of sweeties.
The Joup Friday Album: ‘Day of the Dead OST’ John Harrison/Modern Man 1985
Endless Loop: Pets
Have you ever had one of those songs that gets stuck in your head for days…weeks…years? Sure you have. These are the songs that always make the cut. The songs on repeat. We all have them. I have a ton. Welcome back to Endless Loop.
“Pets” by Porno For Pyros
“My friend says we’re like the dinosaurs, only we are doing ourselves in much faster than they ever did.”
The Joup Friday Album: The Final Cut – Consumed
Senior year in high school, so we’re talking the fall of 1992, bumper stickers for The Final Cut’s album Consumed began to appear all over my friend Brian’s house. They worked their way through our group of friends and eventually you saw them everywhere: school, other people’s houses, bumpers, the walls at the local burger king where people hung out after school. Everywhere. It was the best example of sticker-based marketing I’ve still ever seen, and all from a band that chances are, few people remember today.
Endless Loop: Help Me When You’re Gone
Have you ever had one of those songs that gets stuck in your head for days…weeks…years? Sure you have. These are the songs that always make the cut. The songs on repeat. We all have them. I have a ton. Welcome back to Endless Loop.
“Help Me When You’re Gone” by Starflyer 59
Have you ever been to one of those Christian stores? They’re these weird little gift shops that trade in religious iconography and nick-nacks, a showroom full of tables, racks, and shelves stacked and stuffed with books, Bibles, trinkets, shirts, crosses, and chachkies. Jesus freak paraphernalia. Salvation through consumerism. Praise be to the lord.
Endless Loop: Head On
Have you ever had one of those songs that gets stuck in your head for days…weeks…years? Sure you have. These are the songs that always make the cut. The songs on repeat. We all have them. I have a ton. Welcome back to Endless Loop.
“Head On” by The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Horror Vision: Hold The Dark
In a few days the first episode of my new podcast will drop. The Horror Vision is a four-man discussion on all things horror, where my friends Ray, Anthony, Chris and employ a round-table, informal setting to wax philosophical on a featured movie every month. The format of the show will come into its own eventually, but for the moment we’ll begin each episode with a catch-up, spoiler-free discussion on anything we’ve seen since the last episode that we want to tell people about, and then move into the featured film, where spoilers will not be a consideration. For the first episode, which we recorded last Sunday and which should hopefully go up on our forthcoming website and iTunes tomorrow, we chose Benson and Moorehead’s The Endless. While we wait for that to drop, I’ve been thinking. I’ve started watching a lot of movies again, and I wanted to have a place to discuss them. I also wanted to start a new column on Joup since my previous one ended, so I figured, why not combine both? So welcome to the inaugural installment of The Horror Vision: The Column.
The Joup Friday Album: Broadcast- Tender Buttons
Vastly underappreciated in their creative heyday, and still an untouched gem for many, Broadcast were a dire part of indie lore. The group formed in England in the mid 90’s and consisted of vocalist Trish Keenan and multi-instrumentalist James Cargill. They put out five records over the course of their career, which was cut short when Keenan tragically passed at 42 in 2011. The albums they left behind though were nothing short of hypnotic and bewildering; stylistically bringing their own flavor to indie electronic and dream pop with a slight shoegaze tinge. Their sound earned them many comparisons to the group Stereolab, but I personally always connected with Broadcast more. Their ability to add a level of warmth and sensuality to this genre always resonated with me, and there’s no better example of them doing this at their best than on 2005’s Tender Buttons.
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