monster disco

Audio

Haunted Disco (1979)

TRACK #408:

Haunted Disco by Chromium

Holy shit, more Haunted Discos? Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. It’s kinda why I kept the Disco Draculas together and held onto these for a different season.

This particular Haunted Disco, actually called Haunted Disco, comes to you from Chromium, a one-off project from British producer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes.

Now, if those names don’t sound familiar, (and let’s face it, they probably don’t) perhaps their original band, The Buggles, will ring some bells. Still nothing? Well OK, but how bout their huge single and MTV kickstarter Video Killed the Radio Star? There it is. Now we’re cooking.

Whoa, wait, whaddya mean you still don’t know who or what the hell i’m talking about? Really? Well shit, I don’t know what else to say if you don’t know Video Killed the Radio Star. This obviously means you’re entirely too young to recognize that song, which by default means you aren’t actually reading this post right now. In which case I guess you don’t exist in this reality and I’ll stop addressing you. If you are old enough and you still somehow don’t know that song, I’m still gonna assume you’re also not reading this and move on.

Now, it seems they recorded the Chromium album Star To Star between forming The Buggles in 1977 and releasing their own first album, Age of Plastic in 1980. But the single for Video Killed the Radio Star dropped in 1979, after the Chromium album was released. So they seem to have been jumping back and forth.

However, after that song hit, both Trevor Horn and Downes we’re back at it and recording next to Prog-Rock outfit Yes, whom had recently shed their lead singer and keyboardist (Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, respectively.) They asked Trevor and Geoff if they wanted to join Yes, and who says “No” to Yes, so they stuck around to record their 1980 album Drama. But Yes called it quits a year later, so the duo fell back on The Buggles and released their follow up album entitled Adventures in Modern Recording.

Right after that though, Downes went for the Prog-Rock mega team-up with Yes guitarist Steven Howe, King Crimson bassist John Wetton and ELP drummer Carl Palmer to form the Supergroup Asia. The Shindig maintains a deep lineage, continuing to show that anyone who’s anyone in this game has some weird Monster Song roots.

Which brings me to a strange point. Wikipedia… OK yeah yeah, that’s the old trope, but I guarantee you it has more accurate and better sourced information than whatever Facebook link you just clicked or the dumb video you just watched.

But anyway, the Geoff Downes Wikipedia page claims “Then they formed the short-lived Chromium, with Anne Dudley and Hans Zimmer and recorded an album Star to Star in 1978”

I’m sorry, did you say Hans Zimmer? Like A League of Their Own, Zero Boys, Cool Runnings Hans Zimmer? Get the fuck outta town. I had to cross reference this claim.

Discogs, as you might imagine, makes no reference to Zimmer on the Star To Star album proper, so I was like, yeah, that shit ain’t true. But, searching within Hans’ specific discography does ping a small credit on some releases of Star To Star, including an unofficial expanded CDr release, the US cassette release and the Canadian LP. OK, that’s a little weird, but technically still true it seems. He is credited as “Electronics” whatever the hell that really means. Was he programing synths? Was he soldering SSM chips into a Fairlight CMI? What kind of electronics are we talking about here, fellas?

So, I don’t know if I’d say they formed Chromium like with Hans Zimmer or if he was just like a studio tech or what, but he is actually credited in there. So chalk up another one for the Monster Song and it’s long line of decorated purveyors!

Also, apparently Hans makes an appearance in the Video Killed the Radio Star video, which is also kinda weird. Way to go bud!

Anyway, let’s get on with this song, shall we? It’s almost midnight and my Internet’s been down for hours while I’ve been trying to wrap all this shit up.

Listen, the Disco Queen wasn’t buried where she should have been, and you know that shit is a problem. And if that same shit definitely doesn’t lead to a Haunted Disco, I don’t know what does!

 

Audio

Transylvania Disco Hustle

TRACKS #405:

Transylvania Disco Hustle by Monsters

Do you remember back in 2023 when we were talking about The Monsters from the UK and I said they weren’t these Monsters over here to the left, but that we’d get to them in just a bit?

Oh course you don’t. Why would you? What am I, fuckin ridiculous? I barely remember it and I wrote all this dumb shit. Nobody even read that post, much less remembers it 2 years later, let’s get real here.

At any rate, I said that and you can cross reference that if you want, but I don’t know why you would. Either way, that “just a bit” I was talking about was apparently 2 years, cause we’re about to talk about those Monsters and their “disco jammer” right now.

The Monsters (pictured above looking appropriately fiendish in this graveyard, you ask me) started life as actual monsters, dressed up and everything, but calling themselves Children of the Night. Check them out over here on this other album looking just as Monstery.

Now, they dropped that album and an accompanying single in 1976, but began life their musical life 3 years prior in New York.

For some reason, after this LP and some monster swapping, they became The Monsters proper in 1977 and released this album. Even looking through some of this great promotional material and reading the interview with The Wolfman found there as well, it seems a bit unclear why they changed the name. I would venture to say it was less of a mouthful than Children of the Night. Catchier and easier to remember as well. But who knows. They’re dressed up as monsters and their holding guitars, they can call themselves whatever the fuck they want really. We’re on board, either way, I mean, c’mon.

That album features a cover of the Monster Mash, a solid jam about The Mummy and this banger that gives the disco treatment (yet again) to that Monster Party ethos. And as we like to say, if that kinda thing can’t be here, then it can’t be anywhere. This is the place where things like this land. This is where it belongs.

I will say the narrative on this one kind feels a little bit like The Monster Club, where this square fella gets seduced by a Vampire bar and then taken to a club where a bunch of different monsters are dancing and having a great time. It’s a fun story and when the guy goes back even, the club is gone!

It makes a for a fun Disco monster tune, that’s for sure. But no one old enough to know what The Hustle is actually reading this blog. In fact, I’d say no one is, period, but you get the point. No one that would have been doing The Hustle is here right now reading this.

But if there were, they might tell you that The Hustle was a popular line-dance that became associated with Disco and then sort of turned into a catch-all for several similar dances across the scene. It originated with Puerto Rican teenagers in the South Bronx in 1973 before becoming a mainstay at clubs all throughout the mid-70’s, then becoming the subject of a song by Van McCoy in 1975, culminating in John Travolta Hustling it up in Saturday Night Fever, simultaneously exposing the entire world to the dance and shooting it in the back of the head.

Eventually, like most dance crazes, it landed in Transylvania, were monsters of prestigious report, like Dracula and The Wolfman – to lesser ghouls, like The Cyclops and The Thing, all partook in its stepping shuffle of this

Apparently, at some point in the 80’s, the band were trying to get a TV show made. What? Gimmie a break, and no one gave the green light to that thing? If that had gone through you know I’d be posting those episode to TeleWeen right now, but here we are in reality without any Children of the Night TV show.

But we do have some Children of the Night music. Or at least some musics from The Monsters, at any rate. So let’s give in and do the Transylvania Disco Hustle.

Everyone was high!

Yeah, I’ll bet.

 

Audio

Monster Disco Ball!

Not since the Shock! Theater revival of the late 50’s and early 60’s had so many non-acts decided it was a groovy idea to start singing about Frankenstein and Dracula. Especially Dracula, yeesh.

And why? Is there something I’m not understanding about Monster Music? Did this shit sell well? Were they making a killing tapping into this market? Who knows. Someone was making something beyond these folks just making these records, or else no one would have been having them make ’em, right?

But it’s not like this is Christmas music, where you’re almost guaranteed a stockingsworth of sales, and for years to come, so long as your record isn’t a complete pile of shit. No, this is Monster music. You’re already dealing with a pretty lean fan base to begin with and without that wholesome, doesn’t-it-just-make-ya-feel-good-by-the-fire vibe, what’s the angle? Your Grandma ain’t listening to fuckin Disco Blood, ya know? Well, I mean, unless she is, and that’s awesome. Doubt that’s most of our Grandmas, though.

Was there a large market for this shit in the late 70’s that I’m just not understanding? Pretty much all of these pre-date Thriller as well, so I’m just confused. Why were so many artists leaning into this?

I  couldn’t tell ya, but boy am I glad they did. Above you will find the finest in Monster Disco The Shindig has to offer, including a couple of Monster Disco Ball exclusives! 

So blast a rail or 2 off a mirrored ball, throw on a Don Post Mask and Boogeyman down!

Audio

Horror Ball

TRACK #341:

Horror Ball by Big Eric

Oh yeah? Big Eric, huh? So, what’s this guy’s deal?

Well, let’s start with that name. “Big Eric “ appears to be a one-off pseudonym used by German artist Eric Billinghurst specifically for this track.

But Eric Billinghurst is better know throughout Germany as Bill Hurst, a standard issue AOR style rocker who produced 2 albums including the (apparently quite rare) 1982 release, Ice Cold Calculation. That fucker’s going for over 200 buck right now on Discogs. This is a shame because it contains a track called Horror that I’d love to investigate. Is it a different take on this song? Is it some other referential rock rarity? Who knows? Not us. Well, at least not yet anyway. That’s fuck off dollars from something I ain’t heard before. I’m hesitant to buy the Critters LPs that are goin for half that much, and the playlist needs a cleaner copy of that song pronto. But Ice Cold Calculation is in our sights, so we’ll keep you posted.

Until then, we can satisfy our Bill Hurst fix with Horror Ball, a peculiar Discoish tune that doubles as a fun play on words.

This one’s a bit silly, but that’s never been a problem around here, and it’s got a good groove, which is always a plus.

On top of that, it’s giving you what you need. All the Monsters you want getting shouted out to an infection disco beat.

And look at the cover to this thing! That’s just plain old fashion monster awesome.

So let’s get some horror going with Big Eric, shall we?