Video Disturbeo: Revolting Cocks.

Ah, who says you can never go back? In October of 2010, I highlighted a few acts who recorded under the Wax Trax! label out of Chicago, Illinois. Somehow, I'd managed to look over Revolting Cocks while including their musical home-base of good ol' Ministry. I swear, it will never happen again.


Originally conceived as a side project for Front 242's Richard 23, Luc van Acker, and Ministry's Al Jourgensen (modern folklore states that the name "Revolting Cocks" was chosen after a particularly brutal bar brawl on the evening of celebrating the beginning of their collaboration – as they departed the fracas, the owner of said pub reportedly screamed after them, "I'm calling the cops, you revolting cocks!"), Revolting Cocks (also commonly known as RevCo by their fans) recorded one album for Wax Trax!, Big Sexy Land, in 1986. Richard 23 left soon after, citing "creative differences," and ever since then RevCo has always had in it a rotating cast of characters. 


In 1993, they signed to Sire Records (home to such luminary acts as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Talking Heads, and Ice motherfucking T) and released probably their best album, the seminal (ha ha) Linger Fickin' Good. van Acker and Jourgensen, aligned with Chris Connelly, William Rieflin (from KMFDM and Pigface, among other similar acts), and Jourgensen's partner in Ministry-related crime, Paul Barker.


One of the tracks off of Linger Fickin' Good is a raunchy and giddily off-the-charts bit of certifiable madness – RevCo's absolutely inspiring "cover" of Rod Stewart's 1978 classic "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" My gosh, it's pretty damn awesome what RevCo did with it – it's grungy, it's squelchy, and it's quite frankly hilarious. When Connelly sings/mutters the line "He says I'm sorry but I'm out of KY Jelly," he himself can't stifle a laugh. Needless to say, the video for "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is NSFW. Featuring cartoonish satanic imagery, strippers with peeling skin, and copious amounts of flesh, you still can't look at this video and not think to yourself, My God, those guys are having a shitload of fun.


Enjoy!

Video Disturbeo: Soft Cell.

Oh. My. I really don't think I've ever actually seen the original video for Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf." I mean, I probably would have remembered seeing it; it's a fairly memorable affair. Directed by Tim Pope, the prolific British director who's responsible for some of the greatest Cure videos ever made, this little film of absolute madness is one of the strangest things we here at SDU HQ have laid our eyes on in recent times.


A naked lady is strapped to a hospital gurney. Dave Ball is smirking in the corner of the white room, playing the blades of a chainsaw like a cello, surrounded by hanging hunks of raw meat. Marc Almond, whilst caressing the struggling naked lady, crows the demented lyrics as the room fills with half-dressed and BDSM-attired people who then proceed to commence an orgy. AND – just when things can't get any whackier, a leather-bound midget (the "sex dwarf" in question, I'd reckon) enters the fray and begins throwing raw meat everywhere.


This is just wrong. But when we here at Second Drawer Up say "wrong," we mean it in a good way. And – hoo, boy – is it NSFW.


From their 1981 debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, here is "Sex Dwarf" by Soft Cell, in its original, uncensored form – the way it was meant to be seen. Fucking brilliant.

Soft Cell - Sex Dwarf (Original Video) from Sergio Diaz on Vimeo.

Video Disturbeo: Nine Inch Nails.

Hard to believe that it's been seventeen years since the release of Nine Inch Nails' second long player album, 1994's The Downward Spiral, isn't it? Yet sitting back, popping it on, and breathing in its intoxicating fumes of dissonance, mayhem, hard-edged social (and religious) commentary, intricate craftsmanship, and – yes – utter beauty ... it's still very much a relevant record, and it's still the powerhouse motherfucking masterpiece it was when Mr Trent Reznor first dropped it on the 8th of March, 1994 (see, I knew it was a Pieces). From the opening razor-like squalls of "Mr Self Destruct" through to the seething anti-Christianity crusade of "Heresy;" from the thoughtful and morose ("Hurt") to the gleefully profane and anarchic ("Big Man With A Gun"); and to the deliriously lush one-two punch of the trance-like "Eraser" and "Reptile" – The Downward Spiral is very much an album of brilliant ideas that consistently hit their mark. There's not a flat moment on this fucker; it's just that awesome. But no song on this album hit the clubs and radio the way that "Closer" did. Decidedly radio-unfriendly (well, in the "we're so afraid of the F-bomb" USA at least), what with its chorus of "I want to fuck you like an animal," "Closer" still went on to reach #41 in the Billboard, #25 in the UK, and a huge #3 in Australia. 


So is it correct to assume that, with such a bruiser of a song, Reznor would want to go all out and release a video that's just as shocking? Of course it is. Directed by Mark Romanek (who went on to direct the under-appreciated Robin Williams thriller One Hour Photo, and is in theatres now with Never Let Me Go), this artfully creepy and horrific little film manages to push many squeamish buttons with its abbatoire imagery and pseudo-religious iconography. Full-frontal BDSM nudity? Check. Pulsing chunks of meat nailed to furniture? Check. Reznor licking a nipple-shaped microphone? Check. Holy crap, there's even a crucified monkey! Here it is, in all its squirm-inducing glory (F-bombs intact as well). Need I say it's NSFW?



Nine Inch Nails: Closer (Uncensored) (1994) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Video Disturbeo: Nurse With Wound.

Nurse With Wound, the brainchild of Londoner Steven Stapleton, has, in its 30+ year long existence, released an astonishingly prodigious amount of music – over forty long-players so far, and still counting. Stapleton isn't one to shuffle off and rest on his laurels ... He not only writes, performs, and releases his own music; he also designs the dust covers himself under the nom d'artiste Babs Santini!


I don't even know how to begin describing Nurse With Wound's music to you, if you haven't heard them before. I like to liken the sound of NWW to what a madman might hear back in the dark days of Victorian asylums – huge, dimly-lit and crumbling institutions with dark corners and shifting shadows, piercing shrieks emanating from locked doors, mysterious colourless liquids running in rivulets down the mouldy wallpaper, and heavyset orderlies tying one to a chair, preparing a massive syringe with a "medicine" unknown. Equal parts loopy drones, sampled and distorted dialogues from long-forgotten horror flicks, industrial soundscapes, demented cabaret, and fucked-up mish-mashes of disturbing sound effects – all bound together with a humourous sensibility, mind you – are just a smidgeon of the NWW "sound". Want to check out some Nurse With Wound? For starters, you couldn't go wrong with 2009's compilation "album" Paranoia In HiFi. Essentially, it's a one hour-eighteen minute, single-track mixing together of several previously released NWW tracks. Look it up, download it, whatever – it's an amazing ride.


Here, from 2008's limited edition vinyl-only EP The Bacteria Magnet, is a great track called "The Bottom Feeder." The video from it, taken from two short Jiri Barta films (The Last Theft and The Club of the Laid Off), makes me want to scratch myself – there's something about creepy marionettes doing creepy shit that makes me incredibly uncomfortable. You can watch some clips from Barta's weird puppet-flicks here. Eesh. There's something about that little girl putting back together a smashed watermelon that really, really gives me the heebie-jeebies. Enjoy!

Video Disturbeo: Marilyn Manson.

Running through the annals of popular culture and the storied history of pop music itself, the yearning to shock the public's sensibilities has always been a constant in the course of entertainment. From KISS and their demonic costumes, Alice Cooper with his snakes and scimitars, Jimmy Page and his studious transliterations of the writing of Aleister Crowley, Ozzy Osbourne's pigeon/bat feasts, and John Lennon's blasé dismissal of Jesus' popularity to GWAR's epically nasty (and fucking disgusting - in a good way) stage massacres, Revolting Cocks' own name, Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy's self-mutilation, and Judas Priest's S&M-inspired frenzies of metal mayhem, there has always been something out there somewhere to shock just about anybody. Heaven knows people can be easily offended; and sometimes offensiveness is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to moving copies of albums off those record shelves. (Or getting kids to clickety-click on the "Buy" button on iTunes.)


So it came as no surprise that, at the end of the 20th century, the bogeyman du jour for middle-American parents was none other than Brian Hugh Warner from Columbus, Ohio -- better known to the world at large as Marilyn Manson. A card-carrying member of the Church of Satan who had supped personally with that church's leader Anton La Vey in his San Francisco home; a provocateur of the highest order with that vaguely disturbing coloured contact lens and the androgynous costumes; an estimable member of the late 90's shock-rock community with blaring guitars and bludgeoning lyrics revolving around violence, drugs, mayhem, and - yes - Satan; and a shameless self-promoter whose often conflicting statements about his "message" in interviews confused many; Marilyn Manson represented many aspects of popular culture to many different people. But on the 20th of April, 1999, when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Marilyn Manson was ridiculously blamed somehow for the carnage and sadly, his career took a hit.


I've never been a huge fan of his music, truth be told. I usually found his music to be on the puerile side of things -- I didn't think his works represented any kind of shock, per se. More like schlock than anything else. I personally found Portrait of an American Family to be a quite irritating record -- grating, masturbatorial nonsense. Antichrist Superstar fared better in my opinion, but I felt it was outweighed by an almost impenetrable barrage of speed metal. But when Manson and his merry band of mates put out 1998's Mechanical Animals, something snapped in me. Here at last was an intelligent, well-thought out, thematic, aggressive, and entertaining piece of work that still, almost thirteen years later, stands up on its own as a brilliant record. From the squelching drone of "Dope Show," to the hyperdriven manic energy of "Posthuman," to the flat-out rocking "Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)" -- this is very listenable stuff, and I can't recommend it enough.


Today's Video Disturbeo is not taken from the album, but it was recorded in the same year for the soundtrack to David Lynch's time-puzzle of a film Lost Highway. (In fact, Marilyn Manson had a bit role in the film as "Porn Star #1). The song I'd like to showcase today is called "Apple of Sodom," and it ranks right up there with my favorites. Disturbing vocal distortions, an incredibly menacing synth, and the phrase "I'm dying - I hope you're dying too" make this track a suitable addition for our Halloween playlist here at Second Drawer Up HQ. Enjoy!

marilyn manson

"apple of sodom"

lost highway soundtrack

Video Disturbeo: Simian Mobile Disco.

picture: routenote.com

Hailing from Londontown in Dear Old Blighty, Simian Mobile Disco are James Ford and Jas Shaw, two supremely talented and unpredictable DJs and producers who have worked with a great many awesome bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Peaches, Air, and Klaxons. Ford and Shaw, who previously were in a four-piece band called Simian, came to prominence as a trés popular DJ duo who eventually began to write, record, and perform their own compositions. In 2007, they released their debut album Attack Decay Sustain Release, and, in doing so, became a force to be reckoned with.

A potent mix of hardcore analog and seriously thumping beats that veer wildly back and forth from acid-house to progressive techno, tracks such as "Tits And Acid," "Hustler," and "Hotdog" are supremely blissful affairs that affably dovetail with a bristling undergrowth of subtle darkness, sustaining throughout a detectable aroma of danger.

For today's entry in the "Video Disturbeo" pantheon, I'd like to share with you the video for "Hustler." With deliciously saucy and defiant vocals by New York City singer Char Johnson, this track has it all: Witty lyrics, throbbing bass lines, fluctuating chirps bleeps bloops, and some seriously wicked beats. The video starts off rather scintillatingly, with supermodels striking poses on a revolving stage whilst lip-synching the words. And then we begin to see plates of food on a spinning dais, such as french fries, hotdogs, and donuts. And then the models begin to eat. It's a veritable orgy of suggestive eating (NSFW, in case you were wondering), and then things suddenly get ... ugly. Very ugly. Watch for yourself - this is a pretty fucking disturbing video.

Video Disturbeo: Vive La Fête.

picture: last.fm

Vive La Fête. Long live the party! Who wants to party? We all want to party!

I love a cute couple. Who doesn't? And I especially adore cute couples who make music together, and make it well. Arising on a wave of 80's nostalgia, pretty legs, and clever songs about parties, lovemaking, and general bacchanalia, Ghent, Belgium-based Vive La Fête (the lovely Els Pynoo on vocals, and her handsome paramour Danny Mommens (bassist for Belgian band dEUS) on guitar) sprouted like a lovely confetti-strewn flower from that odd little country and, within a few short years, conquered the fashion world.

Let me tell you - their shit is wild. Fun, humorous, and unpredictable, you'll never really be able to figure out where they're going next. Is the music going to be rocking out with its cock out? Is it going to be smooth and aching, like the best fucking groove-heavy dubby shit you've heard? Is it going to be balls-to-the-walls techno?

Shit, you never know. The one constant, I believe, is that Els and Danny are in love - not only with each other, but with taking the best of what each has to offer and flying off it, creating a quasi-universe of great sounding confectionary aurism (yes that's not a word, thank you very much, but I just made it up. Get used to it).

So it almost pains me a little bit to debut Vive La Fête for a new little feature I'm going to be doing from time to time on this blog: "Video Disturbeo." In these snippets, I'll be showcasing videos that are just a little bit shocking; a little disturbing, even. There may be violence. There might be blood. There might even be - gasp! - sex. But I guaran-fucking-tee you: It will always be interesting!

So let's get cooking! From their 2003 album Nuit Blanche, here is the track "Noir Désir." In this clip, we get to see the slow, horrible descent of a beautiful girl into the world of drugs, thievery, and despair. It doesn't end well, needless to say. Still - the music! Such a great mixture of great synths with powerful rock-n-roll guitars provide a fitting soundtrack to such a depressing video. Els has some serious pipes on her as well - great screaming! Enjoy, my friendly readers. I adore you all.