So admittedly I've gotten into one of my era kicks where I listen to only one era of music for a whole month. This month is the 60's. In doing so I came across two bands that I wasn't all that familiar with. I had heard of them but until now I hadn't delved into them. I'm sure Nolan and some of you guys have probably heard of these bands but even most people from the '60s haven't.

Blue Cheer: Vincebus Eruptum -- Yes I now know where Sabbath came from. The Blue Cheer on Vincebus Eruptum churn and sludge out grungy bass grime and pounding doom like no band in the peace and love era ever would. Metal as we know it was born here.

Love: Forever Changes -- L.A.'s most reclusive and yet most original band's third album was a dark affair showing that the streets of L.A. weren't all gold and sunshine. Frontman Arthur Lee was one of the only Negro rock stars, the other being Hendrix who Lee was also friends with, and his alienation shows. His premonitions of his own death (which proved to be wrong) permeated the albums mood of acoustic guitar layering and dreamlike lyrics. Yes, this was the summer of love and ironically enough the band whose namesake was that summer were singing " sitting on a hillside/ watching all the people die/ i'll feel much better on the other side". If The Mama's and the Papa's were the sugar coated false truth of the 60's then Love were the hard cold facts. A forgotten masterpiece.

Comics             
If you are not picking up almost everything from Humanoids Publishing then you are buying the wrong comics. They are the American distributor for all the cool French comics by Jodorowsky, Moebius, etc.

The Incal: If you missed the first run of reprints of the prequel series to Jodorowsky's 70's Metal Hurlant serial then you can pick them up in Trade Paperback just in time for September when Humanoids reprints the original storyline from the 70;s drawn by Moebius.

Metal Hurlant: Humanoids keeps the flame alive by relaunching their classic anthology series. America's version, Heavy Metal, blows compared to this.

Books             

Haven't been doing much book reading lately but I did finally get around to diving into Dennis Wheatley country. His Black Magic series started in the 30's with The Devil Rides Out, an excellent occult thriller that Hammer made into a feature film in the 60s. It follows the story of occult hero Duke De Richleau and his struggle to win back his friends from the clutches of the evil Moccata and the Goat Of Mendes (Satan). Wheatley also wrote a great occult/witchcraft study called The Devil and All His Works.

Movies             

As always I'm on the search for the rarest movies because frankly half the time you find that those are the films that Hollywood ripped off and got fat and famous from.

Chappaqua: Directed by Conrad Rooks (no, Rooks, not Brooks!) this film documents one man's journey through an acid trip. I'm assuming. It also features Burroughs, Ginsberg and all those other cuddly beatnik legends.

Blue Sunshine: Jeff Lieberman directed this tale of a drug that a group of people took in the 60;'s which now causes them to loose their hair and go on a murderous rampage. An effective thriller that oddly enough seems like a Cronenberg film before Cronenberg was making those types of films. Lieberman went on to direct the only effective man vs. nature horror film, Squirm.

That's all for now. Go check this stuff out and maybe just maybe you will have the credentials to argue with me in the lettercol. Nah! You won't...but still, it's worth a try.

To Hell With You All
Terence Nuzum