The low-res phase of proofs arrived at Bazillion Points HQ this morning for TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79–’83, the illuminating and eliminating 576-page compendium of vintage punk zines produced by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson. Obscene gestures and legendary sneers bounce off of every page like bricks and sticks during a police riot. By late June the books will be printed, bound, stitched, embossed, and blessed by a bloody nose. In the meantime, I hope to have more to show from the pompous purveyors of pop and perversity pretty soon.

More info, please?

http://www.touchandgobook.com

Today brings the official release of Only Death Is Real: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost 1981–1985, by Tom Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain. This large format 288-page hardcover is now available for sale from bazillionpoints.com, Century Media, Revolver USA, 20 Buck Spin, The End Records, Metal Haven Chicago, Shaxul Records SF, Vintage Vinyl NJ, The Ajna Offensive, Hells Headbangers, Obliteration Japan, Crucial Blast, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Buy.com, and coming soon everywhere else.

The book has been a long time coming in the eyes of Hellhammer fans, but in the big picture it’s a minor miracle the book exists at all. What other forms of music have a figure like Tom Gabriel Fischer? He labored for years to collect the hundreds of photos on display here, to gather memories from his long ago bandmates and then reassemble the story of his often painful boyhood, in order to tell the tale of personal transition, and of the birth of entirely new genres of music. His writing is excellent—precise and unflinching, and although this is an illustrated history, Bazillion Points would have gladly published the unaccompanied text in plain black and white.

Personally, Hellhammer was a gateway to underground metal for me, at least as far as underground metal existed before Hellhammer. I read about the band in Kick*Ass Monthly as a 14-year old, and was attracted to the band’s visual mystique and Bob Muldowney’s hard-wrought descriptions of the band’s unique abrasive metal. (In fact, Only Death Is Real is dedicated to the memory of three persons, including the late Kick*Ass editor Muldowney). Hellhammer’s “Crucifixion” tortured my ears and opened the gates for the soon-to-come sounds of Cryptic Slaughter, Death, and Morbid Angel. So much metal history has sprung from those early desperate notes, but I believe this book is much more than that.

I’m honestly kind of exhausted from shuffling hundreds of 40-pound boxes of Hellhammer books around over the past several weeks. So I’m laughing giddily at the Only Death Is Real contest concocted by my dear friend Christoffer in Stockholm. First, learn Swedish, and then read his high praise for the book. Next, guess the weight of Olivia Obliteration and possibly win yourself a copy! Or at least enjoy the juicy photos… And by the way, Hellhammer is definitely not “for the Hitler.” Read the text, enjoy the book, and marvel at the tale of our people’s struggle.

Thanks to Classic Rock magazine [UK] for setting the record straight on the Hanoi Rocks score in their recent review of guitarist Andy McCoy’s autobiography Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks.

Guns N’ Roses would have sounded like a turgid metal band without them. Garish glam styling would have stayed lost in the 70s. And nobody would have been able to point out Finland on a map. Highly influential but criminally underrated, Hanoi Rocks updated early-70s glitter-rock for the flash-rock generation and influenced countless bands along the way…

Are you listening, Mötley Crüe? Poison? Faster Pussycat? Championed ceaselessly by Kerrang! back in the yesteryears of metal, Hanoi Rocks were a band extreme enough in image and quality to capture the loyalty of even the fiercest metalheads. Matt Olivo and Scott Carlson of Repulsion are fans. Fenriz of Darkthrone has a Hanoi Rocks tattoo. For me as a metal-crazed teenager, Hanoi Rocks were a window into a thousand rock bands through their incessant magpie swipes of song particles belonging to the Stooges, the Stones, the Clash, Bowie, Ramones, MC5, and the New York Dolls.

So if Sheriff McCoy seems strange to you sitting on the Bazillion Points bookshelf alongside Swedish Death Metal and Only Death Is Real, it shouldn’t. Andy McCoy, Mike Monroe, Nasty Suicide, Sam Yaffa, and Razzle invented a new kind of high-energy music. They were absolute outsiders who became radical originators, and Andy McCoy remains an unpredictable spectacle, a phenomenal guitarist, and a dispatcher of great rock war stories that all the surviving witnesses swear are true.

UPDATE [03-10-10]: And Amp joins the chorus with a nice lengthy review that ends: “Sheriff McCoy is a frank, but upbeat experience, and should be required reading for all those who believe in the transformative thunder of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Feature-length documentary chronicles the “ancient samplers,” the Chamberlin and the Mellotron keyboards, featuring members of the Moody Blues, the Beach Boys, Genesis, King Crimson, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, the Zombies, Latin Playboys, Yes, Maroon 5, Opeth, and many more.

Standing room only screening at NAMM drew rave reviews and a sold-out crowd including members of Bigelf, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, Brian Kehew (Recording the Beatles), Darian Sahanaja (Brian Wilson producer/bandleader), electronic music legend Larry Fast (Synergy), Pea Hicks of Optiganally Yours, Markus Resch of Mellotron Archives, and Michelle Moog of the Bob Moog Foundation.

Bazillion Points Publishing happily announces today’s long-awaited DVD release of the acclaimed and unusual music documentary, Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie, by Dianna Dilworth, 2010 in NTSC Region 0 format packed with bonus features in a deluxe Digipak. Color insert booklet features essay by Mike Pinder (The Moody Blues) and Chamberlin / Mellotron production timelines.

“While everybody knows the sound of the instruments, most people have never heard of the Mellotron or the Chamberlin,” says director Dianna Dilworth. “I hope Mellodrama will change that.”

Mellodrama explores the five-decades-long rise and fall of the Chamberlin and its better-known successor the Mellotron—the first musical keyboards to play the prerecorded sounds of other instruments. Essentially the first sampler, its haunting sound has changed the production and texture of popular music, from the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” to Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.”

featuring members from: The Beach Boys • The Moody Blues • The Zombies • King Crimson • Yes • Cheap Trick • Black Sabbath • Genesis • Refugee • Opeth • Latin Playboys • Goblin • Maroon 5 • Moog Cookbook • Änglagård • Optiganally Yours • Bigelf
plus: Fabio Frizzi • Jon Brion • Michael Penn • Matthew Sweet • Woody Jackson • Zac Rae • Patrick Warren

During 2009, Mellodrama screened at over a dozen international festivals, including the CMJ Film Festival in New York, Buenos Aires Film Festival, Documenta Madrid, Portobello Film Festival in London, Atlantic Film Festival in Canada, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Indie Memphis, Tucson Film and Music Festival, and, at the invitation of Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))), the Lausanne Underground Film Festival.

For more information, to view trailer, and see DVD details, visit:

http://www.mellodramadvd.com

Thank you! Any questions?

Heh heh ha ha… I pretty much lost interest in the popular “Who Are You?” [search below to catch 'em all] series of posts here after Adem Tepedelen started his excellent Test Your Metal blog a while back. But Adem yanks out old band photos, not pics of old buildings. So here you go!

Why is this structure of utmost significance to the history of heavy metal? Looks like a lovely place for a swim, doesn’t it?

Above: Hellhammer, Birchwil, Switzerland, January 1, 1983. (Andreas Schwarber)

“Only Death Is Real” HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST Book Available for Pre-order

Bazillion Points Books is very proud to announce that pre-orders will be accepted beginning January 1, 2010 for the massive hardcover book Only Death Is Real: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost, by Tom Gabriel Fischer with Martin Eric Ain. These books will ship worldwide in March 2010. For more information and to place orders, visit Bazillion Points Books.

This formidable oversized hardcover runs 288 pages (including a 32-page color section), and combines hundreds of unseen early Hellhammer and Celtic Frost photos with a vast treasure trove of artwork and memorabilia. A substantial written component by Fischer details his upbringing on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland, and the hardships and triumphs he faced bringing his groundbreaking bands Hellhammer and eventually Celtic Frost to reality. In addition, the book includes an introduction by Nocturno Culto of Norwegian black metal act Darkthrone, and a foreword by noted British author Joel McIver.

Significantly, the pre-order date of January 1 marks the anniversary of the first Hellhammer photo session in 1983, and also kicks off a new year which will bring the debut release by Fischer’s new band Triptykon, along with his much-anticipated featured role as guest curator at Holland’s respected Roadburn Festival.

According to Fischer: “The earliest existing photos of Hellhammer were taken exactly 27 years ago, on January 1, 1983. At that date, I found myself at the dawn of a new period in my life, much as I do today. On that first day of 1983, we in Hellhammer conducted the first proper photo session as a band, at the tiny farm village of Birchwil, Switzerland. The year that had just begun would also see the recording sessions and release of Hellhammer’s three demo cassettes, possibly the most important and enduring aspect of Hellhammer’s legacy.”

“Now, on this first day of 2010, I am yet again embarking on a new stage of the path that is my life. I am once more part of a new group, Triptykon, and this year will see the release of our first album, Eparistera Daimones. It is coincidental, but no less significant, that this release will be preceded by the publication of Only Death Is Real, the book chronicling the very beginning of this path.”

Says Bazillion Points publisher Ian Christe: “There is no question that this book goes farther than any other source in exploring the origins of underground heavy metal. The wealth of visual information is astounding, both in terms of documenting early 1980s headbangers and exposing the still-relevant imagery of the first Hellhammer and Celtic Frost photo sessions over 20 years ago. On top of that, the written chapters combine Tom Fischer’s vivid stories with lengthy quotes from Martin Eric Ain and the other main Hellhammer members, all explaining in highly personal terms how and why extreme metal was born. I could not be prouder to play a role in making this remarkable book a reality.”

States Fischer: “This is a book about the real Hellhammer, the essence of that group, the aura it carried, and the truly unique spirit of revolution of the times in which it existed. It is a book about a group of outcasts—about persistence, dedication, and an utterly personal vision. I have worked very hard to make sure it will do justice to the work of a number of very unique people who shared the same ideas at a very unique point in time.”

http://www.bazillionpoints.com

Happy new year!

“Surprisingly fascinating.” –Philadelphia Weekly

“A study in the unpredictability of innovation.” – Rhizome

“An insider’s view on the history of the Chamberlin and the Mellotron, which isn’t always pretty.” – Echoes

“The Mellotron stays cool.” – Brian Wilson

“This is where sampling started.” – Jon Brion

Bazillion Points Publishing is delighted to announce the long-awaited DVD release of the acclaimed and unusual music documentary, Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie, by Dianna Dilworth, coming January 2010 in NTSC Region 0 format packed with bonus features in a deluxe Digipak.

Mellodrama explores the five-decades-long rise and fall of the Chamberlin and its better-known successor the Mellotron—the first musical keyboards to play the prerecorded sounds of other instruments. Essentially the first sampler, its haunting sound has changed the production and texture of popular music, from the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” to Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.”

Featuring Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, Ian McDonald of King Crimson, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, famed L.A. producer Jon Brion, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, singer-songwriter Michael Penn, author Brian Kehew, (Recording the Beatles), as well as members of Opeth, Bigelf, Maroon 5, and former employees of the Mellotron and Chamberlin companies. While the musicians tell their tales, the engineers and experts deliver the gear porn by taking you inside the captivating contraption.

Mellodrama screened at over a dozen festivals throughout the world in 2009, including the CMJ Film Festival in New York, Buenos Aires Film Festival, Documenta Madrid, Portobello Film Festival in London, Atlantic Film Festival in Canada, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Indie Memphis, Tucson Film and Music Festival, and was specially programmed by Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))) at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival in Switzerland.

“While everybody knows the sound of the instruments, most people have never heard of the Mellotron or the Chamberlin,” says director Dianna Dilworth. “I hope Mellodrama will change that.”

Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie DVD includes the 80 minute film, 30 minutes of DVD extras, and an 8-page booklet containing an essay by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues and several illustrated machine timelines.

Preorders and more info are now available right over here:

http://www.mellodramadvd.com

Are you in Montreal this weekend? Are you near Canada? Are you even half-alive? “Morbid Chef” and hellfire commando DJ Annick Giroux is throwing a massive metal cookbook bash at the underground Bar Katakombes [1635 St. Laurent] for the release of her latest claim to fame, Hellbent for Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook.

Loud and proud entertainers Exciter Bëehler [Recipe for Disaster / Tour Bus Molotov Cocktail, page 188], the mighty Metalian, and Rochester, NY, renegades Orodruin [Witchfinder Grinder Turkey Club, page 144] will turn up the heat, while Annick mixes up a small swimming pool of Mortal Sin’s potent Mayhemic Destruction Fuel [drinks, page 222]. You might want to devour Blasphemy’s delectable Misanthrope’s Last Supper [poultry, page 130] before heading over to rage the night away…

Response to Annick’s cookbook has been enormous worldwide, from Latvia to Malaysia to Germany to Canada to everywhere else. Brazilian Playboy even interviewed the Morbid Chef. She deserves a party, so get to the Katakombes and get her a glass of Richard Christy’s manly Viking Testicle [page 214].

And yes, this is completely fun but completely serious. Schmier of Destruction gave up the Pizza Tonno recipe [seafood, page 154] that was the star attraction of his restaurant for many years. “Sweet book indeed!” he says. “I hope people support that great idea Annick had! I unveiled the secret of the best pizza in the world. Customers of my restaurant would have killed to get the recipe!”

For all of you who freaked out over the Hell’s post a few weeks back, this is a special demo post dedicated to Annick Giroux, whose awesome Morbid Tales ‘zine has uncovered the mysteries of so many francophone metal acts of the 1980s, and who is about to enter metal history this Tuesday with the release of HELLBENT FOR COOKING: The Heavy Metal Cookbook on Bazillion Points Books.

Oxenkiller—or possibly Oxen Killer, to be perfectly honest—are as unknown, unsung, and as French as it gets. They tread an unreasonable line between gleeful and gloomy, and come across as the closest thing to Mercyful Fate I’ve ever heard apart from the real thing. There was an EP on King Klassic records a couple years after this demo that stupidly tried to float a giant electric airbrushed ox as a band mascot, but forget about that—it  sounds completely different from this slow, catchy and morbid piece of classic European heavy metal.

OXENKILLER * 3-song demo 1985 [36.9MB]

Watch this space, because as soon as I can salvage the band’s definitive coverage in Suck City from the fanzine heap of history, I will scan and post. Rudö Anvilmeister’s incredibly clever drawing of an oxen laying on its back with hoofs in air and knife in belly really says it all!

Wow, suffragette city! As the latest in our ongoing series of people engaging in metal behavior before heavy metal was invented (see recent post of Velvet Underground in grim corpse paint in the mid-1960s), here’s a gaggle of gals experimenting with cryptic hand gestures in North Berkeley about a hundred years ago. Of course I’m in love with the necromistress in the solid hat, but I’m also making morbid claws in the general direction of the woman with the giant bow tie who seems to be studying and feeling out Madam X’s metallic approach. Perhaps they were psyched, knowing that in 11 more years they’d be allowed to vote. And the rooster?

Photo sampled from the book Berkeley 1900: Daily Life at the Turn of the Century by Richard Schwartz. This is less than a mile from Amoeba Records on Telegraph Ave., modern day spawning ground for Von reissues, Asunder splits, and Master’s Hammer box sets.

Thanks, Mathieu!