Tormentor

TRACK #387

Tormentor by W.A.S.P.

So, it’s been about 4 years or so since we enlisted any news players onto The Shindig All-Star Team. At almost 400 songs deep on the playlist, that either seems perfectly reasonable to you, as we’ve tapped out most of the big hitters already, or it seems completely unreasonable because how the fuck is that possible after so many goddamn songs?

Well, take your pick, but the fact remains, no one has hit 3 songs since Acid Witch and King Diamond both did so back in 2020. And honestly, it’s amazing to me that either one of them hadn’t already.

Well, today we welcome abroad new All-Stars Blackie Lawless and the boys of W.A.S.P.

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from Los Angeles lent their tune Tormentor to Charlie Band’s 1984 bat-shit anthology The Dungeonmaster. It shows up specifically in Charlie’s own segment entitled Heavy Metal.

What’s more? The boys actually appear in the film, playing this very song and it’s awesome. Charlie forever immortalized their short-lived and controversial on-stage Torture Rack gag.

And if that’s somehow not good enough for you, Tormentor also makes an appearance in 1984’s resurrected Samurai rampage picture Ghost Warrior, and once again in Charlie Band’s own TerrorVision, playing on the television. And hey, is OD wearing a W.A.S.P. shirt?

You’re goddamn right he is.

So, let’s not belabor the point. W.A.S.P. rules and it’s good to see them finally get the All-Star representation they deserve. Welcome aboard, fellas!

Do you like this noise?! Then you shall have your fill of it!

Scream Until You Like It

TRACK #277:

Scream Until You Like It by W.A.S.P.

I’m not sure really which way the Ghoulies winds are blowing these days. I’m not out there on the streets catching the general consensus regarding a 30 year old rubber monster franchise no one with real concerns has actual time to give a shit about.

A quick, but not completely unrelated sidenote: this is my cat named Ghoulie. Seen here when she was just a kitten, hangin’ out with some pumpkins back before this website existed. She didn’t come out of a toilet or anything, but we did find her in a bush. And I’m sure someone pissed in that bush at some point, so there’s that.

Anyway, back to the real, but still fake, Ghoulies.

So yeah, I dunno how people feel about this shit, but if you ask me, I’m a Ghoulies 2 guy all day long.

Now, I would never suggest Ghoulies is high drama. It’s plenty silly. But it’s not quite silly enough, given the context. It takes itself just a tad too seriously for a movie with little monsters raising hell.

On the other hand, Ghoulies III is almost too silly. It’s fun and all, and I like seeing the Ghoulies in a cliched College romp, complete with threats of expulsion, panty raids and full scenes of Kevin McCarthy arguing with rubber monsters. But the concept is taken to its goofy extreme.

Ghoulies IV? That one’s just of a mess of a thing, really. It barely even feels like a Ghoulies movie for the most part.

Ah, but Ghoulies 2? Now, that’s silly in the best and most appropriate way.

Additionally, Buechler’s Ghoulie puppets are a definite improvement the 2nd time around. They look good in part 3 also, but I think I like their look best in part 2.

Plus, you get Royal Dano, genre vet Phil Fondacaro, and that guy from Dazed and Confused that never seems to be in enough shit.

Then they throw all of that into a carnival featuring an animatronic monster filled house of horrors called Satan’s Den? C’mon, what better locale for a movie about demonic little puppet monsters? They tie a guy to a pit and pendulum in front of a roomful of excited children that think its a gag. It’s great. What more do you want?

Well, how bout some rockin 80’s hair metal?

No problem.

Compliments of Blackie Lawless and the W.A.S.P. gang again, here’s Scream Until You Like It.

Where are my tunes!?

Interesting side note, Halloween fans: I just noticed while rewatching Shindig favorite Trick Or Treat, that this is the song Nuke fires up on that fine fine Rocktober morning. Now, I don’t know if everyone already knew this, but I’ve seen that movie I don’t even know how many times and that’s the first goddamn time I ever noticed. Granted, I happened to be editing something for the show using a clip from the movie, and had my headphones on. Perhaps that made the difference. But yeah, Scream Until You Like It can boast being featured in both Ghoulies 2 and Trick Or Fuckin’ Treat?

I might just need to update that Super Soundtrack…

Savage

TRACK #276:

Savage by W.A.S.P.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5 has a pretty notorious soundtrack.

2 Golden Raspberry nominations for Worst Song of the Year, including the recipient of that award, Bruce Dickenson’s unfortunately listless solo version of Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter. In fairness, that was a song even a fully assembled Iron Maiden couldn’t make much better.

The other nominee, Kool Moe D’s Let’s Go, isn’t such a bad song by itself. In the context of A Nightmare on Elm Street though, it does kinda feel like a lazy attempt to rebottle the lightning of Are You Ready for Freddy without any of the referential charm that made that song so great.

2 unspectacular Freddy tracks, to be sure. You won’t be seeing either turning up on the playlist, I can say that. Worst Songs From a Film: 1989? I dunno about all that.

Incidentally, that Kool Moe D song a diss track aim squarely at L.L. Cool J, as apparently the two had been feuding around that time. Way to go, music supervisors Kevin Benson and Neil Portnow. I’ll bet that isn’t the only ball you guys dropped on this production.

Nope, because buried on this soundtrack, almost so’s you wouldn’t even notice, is this pedal-down metaller from Blackie Lawless and the boys of W.A.S.P.

Savage, a preexisting W.A.S.P. song, is totally wasted in the film, playing only briefly as an ambient background track during a graduation pool party at Springwood High.

It’s even more of a waste knowing the following scene finds Dan being attacked in his truck by Freddy while listening to the radio. What a perfect time to utilize this perfect, 4-on-the-floor rocker that was just playing mere seconds earlier.

It’s even more of an inexplicable waste once you consider that immediately after this, Dan jumps on a Yamaha VMax and it turns into Moto-Freddy at top speed. This song is literally about driving the open road on a motorcycle…like a savage. A fully squandered opportunity.

But, that’s probably a microcosm of The Dream Child as a whole, which is easily my least favorite numbered installment. A rushed production, edited deaths and multiple script revisions all coming together to form the sort of under-cooked mess that is Freddy’s 5th outing.

Don’t get me wrong, like any Elm Street, it’s got some great moments. It’s got the aforementioned Moto-Freddy scene, a largely likeable cast, Super Freddy and his AH-HA dream sequence. But, attempting to illuminate Freddy’s origin, it’s seemingly desperate inclusion of a pregnancy, it’s nonsensical ending and it’s lack of any real Elm Street kids just make it definitely feel like Freddy in decline.

So, let’s unearth the goodness of W.A.S.P.’s unfortunately buried Savage. Let’s put it on Halloween Shindig’s open road of sprawling, horror-paved blacktop, so it can finally ride free.

Don’t dream and drive!

Freddy’s (Actual) Greatest Hits

Well, what’s good for Jason is good for Freddy. These 2 monsters of 80’s horror go mask in glove, especially around here. So, I can’t give Jay his own private playlist without giving one to Fred too, right?

Well, I’m sure Freddy would conclude as much, anyway.

So presented here is what I think you could accurately call “Freddy’s Greatest Hits,” unlike the very real album Freddy’s Greatest Hits, which is comprised of (at best) the only songs Freddy ever released.

From 213’s original Nightmare to (well, eventually) Iggy Pop’s Why Was I Born, and even a few gems from Mr. Big Time himself, here’s the Shindig’s celebration of Freddy Krueger in song. Enjoy!