Allan Guthrie’s ‘Slammer’

Hardboiled Wonderland has posted an interview with Scottish writer Allan Guthrie, author of TWO-WAY SPLIT, KISS HER GOODBYE, HARD MAN, SAVAGE NIGHT, and the recent SLAMMER. In the Q & A, Guthrie remarks, “I don’t identify that much with hardboiled character types. I’m much more into noir characteristics: fear, paranoia, anxiety, psychosis…”

Amen! Those unpleasant sensations run rampant throughout SLAMMER, a harsh prison story about a rookie guard bullied beyond endurance by hostile co-workers and blackmailing, drug-smuggling inmates.

Guthrie knows how to put the screws to his characters…and his books don’t shy away from violence. HARD MAN features one of the most memorably hideous, agonizing hallucinogenic trips put to paper, and SAVAGE NIGHT is a massacre of a novel about “blood phobia and blood lust”.

In SLAMMER, the author takes a daring plunge into the darkness of abuse and personality disintegration. The novel hits with the impact of its title, laden with the sort of suffocating doom that fans of David Goodis and Jim Thompson will embrace.

Mr. Guthrie has graciously consented to an original HARD FEELINGS interview in the near future. In the meantime, get the book here.

For more from Allan Guthrie, visit his terrific Noir Originals site at http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/.

- David Szulkin

now playing: Wo Fat, “The Gathering Dark”

Meatmen, ‘Prisoner of X’

A few links/recommendations:

Tesco Vee of the Meatmen analyzes the blonde from ABBA and her solo career here. This article was originally published in Forced Exposure.

I saw the Meatmen twice this summer on their tour with Chapstik. They wrecked the place both times, and Tesco was hilarious as always. On the final night of the tour in Austin, Tx., they played “Centurions of Rome” with Leighton of Chapstik on second guitar as the whole band donned Ben Hur headgear.

The new album “Meatmen Cover the Earth” features Tesco and his new band storming through Blue Oyster Cult’s WWII Nazi warplane anthem “ME-262″, G.G. Allin’s “Highest Power”, FEAR’s “I Love Livin’ in the City” two Black Randy songs and many more. It’s worth it just for the tour through Tesco’s musical tastes, with his rendition of the Temptations’ “Psychedelic Shack” and even a Saxon tune among the standout cuts. And yes, ABBA is represented. Plus, you get the return of Shecky Shpilkis in “Sex Mart 2010″.

All the essential Meat CDs are now back in print, including the metallicized War of the Superbikes and Rock N Roll Juggernaut, along with the Tesco Vee’s Hate Police album and Vee’s noise project, Blight. I’m excited about his forthcoming Touch & Go book with the complete run of the essential punk ‘zine; I just ordered the Meatmen DVD (see cover above), which I’ve heard is amazing.

Chapstik proved a worthy opener for the Meatmen with a roaring, balls-to-the-wall three-guitar attack. Barnburner and the EP Fire! Die in It are both excellent. “Cream of Everything”, “Egregious Philbin”, “Twat’s it To Ya”, and “Mustache” are among my fave tracks, and each album ends with a choice Sabbath-style dirge metal epic.

I mentioned the Meatmen in my recent contribution to The Official Heavy Metal Book of Lists – specifically, Tesco’s lyrical reference to Captain Beyond in the War of the Superbikes classic “Pillar of Sodom”: “Drugged-out visions of the dead in crypts/That dust be bringin’ on a Mesmerization Eclipse.”

When I saw the mighty Meatmen in L.A., I asked Vee about Captain Beyond. Smiling, he enthusiastically pointed out that he swiped a riff from that ’70s rock band in the Tesco Vee’s Hate Police song “BGC” (“Big Giant C*ck”).

Allan MacDonell’s PRISONER OF X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine is the best book yet written about the insanity of working in the X-rated entertainment business. MacDonell’s prose is bulletproof, and his story is incredible. He spares no one, including himself, in this amazing account of his career with Larry Flynt’s notorious publication. His recollections of the early L.A. punk scene here are great and deserve a book of their own. Mandatory purchase.

New Pulp Press has added three new titles to its upcoming slate, including the reissue of a vintage sleaze novel by the late Gil Brewer. Check them out here.

Look for some big news on EVIL DEAD in the coming weeks. I’m setting up the U.S. theatrical tour for Sam Raimi’s classic unrated splatterfest anounced here and anticipation is high. This is going to be a major event in the horror world!

I’ve also received favorable early reactions to my noir novel-in-progress, THE CREEPS, which I hope to see published in the coming year.

- David Szulkin

now playing: Serpent Throne, “Ride Satan Ride”

Coffin Joe’s ‘Embodiment of Evil’, Zeltserman’s ‘Small Crimes’

Brazil’s legendary director Jose Mojica Marins has been the character Ze do Caixao (Coffin Joe) since the 1960s in such films as At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul and This Night I Will Enter Your Corpse. Marins’ latest Coffin Joe extravaganza Embodiment of Evil is a triumph of total dementia, a feast for horror fans around the world.

I saw Embodiment of Evil at the Los Angeles Film Festival. I was so knocked out by what I witnessed that I went back the next night to see it again. Shot on 35mm film, this is Coffin Joe’s most grandiose production to date. Marins proves himself a true master of cinema, conjuring visions of Hell in numerous horrific sequences.

If you haven’t seen the film, I won’t spoil it. To see the trailer, click here.

I also recommend Small Crimes, by Dave Zeltserman. I reviewed Zeltserman’s Pariah here; Small Crimes is a variation on the same theme, rife with corruption and brutal violence and told from the criminal point of view.

Released from prison after seven years for stabbing a D.A. in the face during an arson, crooked ex-cop and addict Joe Denton finds the disfigured attorney gunning for him. Pressure mounts from all sides in this merciless, straight-to-hell story. Great, dark stuff.

I’ll be posting more reviews and interviews as time permits, along with updates on S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and the theatrical release of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead.

- David Szulkin

now playing: YOB – “Elaborations of Carbon”