H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N

Lurking the Imposter

Apparently elections are around the corner. Is there a candidate running on making Halloween a national holiday, allowing growth hormone to be readily available, and ensuring my hard earned tax dollars go to education?

Great Pumpkin

Growler of 'The Great Pumpkin' helps ease missing Elysian's Fest.

PUNK'N Harvest Pumpkin Ale - Unita Brewing Company

Vanilla lacing, autumnal color, and crisping clove aromas.

Fairly natural pumpkin starch taste with a spiced finish.

Can't pass up the chance to try a new pumpkin ale.

Quadruple Pumpkin Corned Beef

Corned beef coated in brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg then dropped in a dutch oven on low with DFH 'Punkin' Pumpkin Ale, Elysian 'Night Owl' Pumpkin Ale, Elysian 'The Great Pumpkin' Pumpkin Ale, and freshly plucked pumpkin pieces.

Cooking between the lines, that's what makes my life worthwhile.

Bourbon Aged Roast Pumpkin

Trumps a living dead pandemic. Huge thanks to the finely fanged folks at Fremont Brewery.

Treats

Acid Witch - Rabid Werewitch
Black Tusk - Witch's Spell
Bolt Thrower - Plague Bearer
Church of Misery - Where Evil Dwells
Destroyer 666 - Witch Hunter
Dishammer - Werewolves on Wheels
Drudkh - Glare of Autumn
Electric Wizard - We, the Undead
Eternal Elysium - Rest In Peace
Gates of Slumber - Feast of the Dead
Heathen - Goblin's Blade
High on Fire - Speedwolf
Kilara - Succubus
Melvins - At The Stake
Municipal Waste - The Thing
Orange Goblin - We Bite
Overkill - Raise The Dead
Portal - Omnipotent Crawling Chaos
Pungent Stench - Viva La Muerte
Ravens Creed - Bloodbath
Saint Vitus - Zombie Hunger
Samhain - Halloween II
Sourvein - Septic Werewolves
Villains - Headless Excruciator

Apple Snails - Iron Teeth Torture

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Neon Syrup for the Cemetery Sisters
Bozo Cyclops - Memphis Cadaver
Brother Dege - Mexico
Dax Riggs - Blood Music
Dead Man - Season of the Dead
Frank Sinatra - Autumn in New York
Grails - Reincarnation Blues

M. Ward - Undertaker
Mark Lanegan - Carnival
Nick Drake - Harvest Breed
Pentagram - When The Screams Come
Tom Waits - Cemetery Polka
William Elliott Whitmore - Rest His Soul
Witchcraft - Wooden Cross (I Can't Wake The Dead)

Being undead will be the death of me - BC

Mr. October

The Great Pumpkin - Elysian Brewing Company (2010)

It's back to the 1st beer reviewed for the 1 year anniversary post.

Taken in at cozy, windows open and corned beef cooking in the oven, room temperature.  Frosted buttery pumpkin aromas with a cinnamon seed brittle bite. One of my favorites.  7.7%.

                     Electric Wizard - Black Masses: 11/01/10

To Heavy for Wraps Salmon

Net Caught King Salmon, Egg, Amana Orange Tomato, Cucumber, Tomato, Red Bell Pepper, Avocado, Mango, Lemon, Romaine Lettuce

Dark O' The Moon - Elysian Brewing Company (2010)

I think '09 was the first year that Elysian put this into the bottle.  No better start to the best month.

Shifting cinnamon, ginger, & cocoa aromas.  Coated in a hide of confiture de lait and rabietic roasted pumpkin marrow.

As it warms both hypertrichosis & ravenous spiced chocolate kick in.

Does not mix with silver.

Lunch of Champions

Alaskan Salmon, Onion, Lemon, Kale, Tomato, Buttered Sourdough
                                        Hypno-Vista

Spook Stuff for Hallowe'en (1960) - 99¢ Record #9

More 33 1/2 RPM sound effects for the season.

Can't fail with descriptions like "Witches and goblins take off for Halloween shenanigans on the moon" and "A cowboy escaping from a prairie fire on a stormy Halloween night."

Tracks:
1. Prologue - Witches Rehearse for Halloween
2. 18 Spooky Sound Effects for Your Ghost Stories
3. The Haunted Mine
4. A Deserted Prairie Ranch
5. A Cemetery at Midnight
6. Halloween at the Haunted Castle
7. Spooky Zoo Party
8. Hobgoblins and Spaceships
9. Hey Diddle Diddle Spook Stuff

Halloween, where the weirdest wildest sites are seen - Oscar Brand

Ichabod Coors

                       Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale is Ichabod.

Snake Bite Porter - Silver Moon Brewing

Silver Moon Brewing is located in, one of the many homes of the western rattler, central Oregon.

Fresh buttery roasted coffee and creamy cocoa. Faint vanilla fused with silky caramel and a Count Chocula fanged pine finish.  5.2%.

Riboflavin flavored, non-carbonated, polyunsaturated blood.

Breakfast of Champions

                 Sockeye Salmon, Eggs With Asparagus, Fruit

Alaskan Brewing - Double Black IPA (2010) + Sounds to Make You Shiver (1974)

Alaskan Brewing Company is out of Juneau, AK.

Oily smooth chocolate roasted pine and berry aromas rise up from perched russet hued foam.  Chocolate spiced coffee with honey glaze and a subtle hop tang. 8.5%.

Sounds to Make You Shiver is a fun LP with creepily layered and eerily evocative haunted house effects on side one and an auditory delicatessen of the macabre on the other.

With 42 days to go the mood is gearing up.

Tracks:
1. A Night in a Haunted House
2. Witch Laugh
3. Count Dracula and His Victim
4. Screams & Groans
5. Moans & Groans
6. Cats
7. Dogs
8. Banging Shutter
9. Phantom Piano
10. Creaky Door & Breaking Windows
11. Thunder & Wind
12. Frankenstein's Monster Breaks Loose
13. Hooting Owl

Cable television is upchuckerous.

Momentarily Lost in Sleep

Portland, OR

Portland is a cool but tough to check out with work obligations. Missed two concerts but rode the rails, had hummus & beer at Belmont Station, witnessed a mugger beaten, and visited Powell's.

                           Alameda Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA

Happy Labor Day

Pulled Pork with green peppers, red onions, fresh lemon juice, heirloom tomato, and Oregon Dan's Apricot BBQ Sauce on a buttered La Boulange bricohe bun.

Corn on the cob, roasted squash with ginger, Boundary Bay IPA.

Chess or global thermonuclear war?

Bitches Brew - Miles Davis & Dogfish Head Brewery

I know little to zero about jazz but it has Halloween spirit.

A tense organic tapestry of frothing and potent discordant sound-scapes made exclusively for time dilation.  Tugging at cosmic strings and free falling through pyramidic caverns.

Warmed to room temperature with frantic lavender and vanilla aromas. Using gesho root instead of hops which means I've learned something new.  Viscous roasted sugar beet syrup with ash charred cocoa and a faint apple bite. 9%.

I.
1. Pharaoh's Dance
2. Bitches Brew
3. Spanish Key
4. John McLaughlin

II.
1. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary
3. Spanish Key
4. John McLaughlin
5. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
6. Spanish Key
7. Great Expectations
8. Little Blue Frog

III.
1. Directions (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
2. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
3. Bitches Brew (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
4. Agitation (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
5. I Fall In Love Too Easily (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
6. Sanctuary (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
7. It s About That Time (Copenhagen 11/4/69)
8. The Theme (Copenhagen 11/4/69)

Brethern.

Pumpkin Ales

Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale:  Cloven aromas with roasted ginger & crushed stems. Fluffy spiced pumpkin mash with vanilla cream undertone. 6%.

Elysian on Capitol Hill plays host to the the "Great Pumpkin Beer Festival" this Oct. 16-17.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale:  Hearty cinnamon cracker crust and malted ginger soaked yams. Sugary pumpkin booze goodness. 7%.

This is the time of year for choate cucurbita celebration.

Bongripper - Satan Worshipping Doom (2010)

Bongripper immediately sold me with "The Great Barrier Reefer" which tied Mammatus as one of the best of 2006.

Witty album titles aside these guys bring Vesuvius sized instrumental damnation.

Distorted sulfuric riffs that cause craters and continental drifts while filling your head with eschatological tephra.

Brimstoner heaviness from amplitude-mongers.

Tracks:

1. Hail
2. Satan
3. Worship
4. Doom

Satan is our pal.

Halloween Movie Round-Up 2010

2 months of chillingly creepy cinema that will civilize cannibals, counts, and creatures commences! 2009.

The Bad Seed (1956): 10/10
Roseanne Halloween Episodes (1989-1996): 10/10
Murder Party (2007): 9/10
The 'burbs (1989): 9/10
Lord of Illusions (1995): 9/10
Haunted Honeymoon (1986): 9/10
The Masque of the Red Death (1964): 8/10
Idle Hands (1999): 8/10
Sometimes They Come Back (1991): 8/10
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994): 8/10
A Perfect Getaway (2009): 8/10
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974): 8/10
Beetle Juice (1988): 8/10
Pieces (1982): 8/10
The Resurrected (1992): 8/10
The Monster Squad (1987): 7/10
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987): 7/10
The House of the Devil (2009): 7/10
The New York Ripper (1982)
The First Power (1990): 7/10
The Gravedancers (2006): 7/10
Horsemen (2009): 7/10
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1986): 7/10
Frozen (2010): 6/10
Return of the Living Dead III (1993): 6/10
Lifeforce (1985): 6/10
Leviathan (1989): 6/10
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977): 6/10
Assault of the Sasquatch (2009): 6/10
Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999): 6/10
Butterfly Effect 3 (2009): 5/10
The Food of the Gods (1976): 5/10
Living Death (2006): 5/10
My Mom's a Werewolf (1989): 5/10
Drive Thru (2007): 5/10
Circle of Eight (2009): 5/10
Curse of the Forty-Niner (2002): 5/10
2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010): 4/10
Wolves of Wall Street (2002): 3/10

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The beginning of the best time of year for those of us whose brains are properly hardwired with fibrous strands of pumpkin pulp. 

 

Lucid + Mercyful Fate + Hellhammer + Nocturnal + Pumking

Shiner Bock - Spoetzl Brewery

Shiner Bock from the Lone Star State.

Grain and sweet corn aromas with caramel underpinnings.  Roasted malt and crisp raisin sugar. Drink these and do dip(s). 4.4%.

Texas Forever.

SAY GOODNIGHT TO THE WORLD

Dax Riggs second full length under his name and the fifth full length he's been involved with post, the greatest band to grace dimensions, Acid Bath.  Ahead of Weedeater this is my most anticipated album of the year.

1. Say Goodnight To The World:  Showcases that the album is on a syncretic trip different from the previous.  Dizzying apocalyptic gloom rock with truthful apostasy.

2. I Hear Satan:  A spooky ethereal summons in pure Dax fashion. Reminds me of High Monster.  Looking forward to seeing this tune live.  

3. You Were Born To Be My Gallows:  A soporific sex-death-bed eulogy.  This delicate bluesy curveball bottoms out and sold me on the direction of this album.  Plucking guitar, a tambourine, and vaporous vocals.

4. Gravedirt On My Blue Suede Shoe:  To keep things honest this is my least favorite song.

5. Like Moonlight:  Celestial, eerie, and cut straight from a David Lynch soundtrack. Fortune tellers could use this right before they flip the thirteenth card of the Major Arcana. 

6. No One Will Be A Stranger:  An electric cosmic hymn with lyrics that would make Poe envious.

7. Heartbreak Hotel:  Dax has performed numerous covers over the years with my favorites being Leonard Cohen's "Night Comes On" and Buddy Holly's "Everyday."  A droning-tribal-doom laced homage to the King. 

8. Sleeping With The Witch:  My favorite tune on the album.  Soaring straight downwards this song sounds like a demo ripped from a parallel universe circa the Agents of Oblivion era.

             Tour Dates 2010
9. Let Me Be Your Cigarette:  Don't be fooled by the title as has some of the best Dax lyrics to date.   Pop sounding riff brought down a few notches to accompany his trademark howl.

10. See You All In Hell Or New Orleans:  Wrapping up the album is a 60's inspired psalm. Had the Doors been drowned in a lysergic swamp they still couldn't trip out like this.

A collective meant to be heard in(toxicated) entirety.

Coco de Mer & Proposition 8

   I'm anti-politics but support, the best store ever, Coco de Mer 100%