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Danzig’s ‘Skeletons’ Cover Album Gets U.S. Release Through Nuclear Blast!

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Danzig wants to show you where it started with his tenth full-length album and first since 2010’s awesome Deth Red SaboathSkeletons.

Due out on November 27 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment/Evilive Records Skeletons will be available for pre-order within the next couple of weeks.

A labor of love that began in 1979, Danzig pulls back the curtain behind his influences with a collection of ten covers spanning artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, ZZ Top, and Aerosmith to Black Sabbath, The Troggs, The Everly Brothers, and more. Recording across several years in Los Angeles, he quite literally reveals the bone structure for his own style and features some of the most striking album art of his career. Nodding to David Bowie’s Pin Ups, the cover features Danzig and model Kayden Kross in skullface.

danzig 2

“These are my skeletons,” he affirms. “You may or may not know that I dig these songs. You could say that some of this music is the actual basis and skeleton of what I listened to growing up—ultimately informing the kind of music I like. It’s the foundation. If you took Elvis and Sabbath out of my life, I probably wouldn’t be the Glenn Danzig you know! I’m glad both sides are represented on this record.”

Among the tracks, he takes Presley’s “Let Yourself Go” from the film Speedway and transforms it with a swinging distorted stomp and bluesy vocal crescendo. “I thought it was a song I could do something really cool with,” he goes on. “It’s also something that I didn’t think anyone would necessarily expect. When you tell them you’re going to do an Elvis cover, they expect something they know. Not a lot of people know this one. It’s actually on The ’68 Comeback Special, and it’s worth going back to.”

The Troggs “A Girl Like You” becomes a punkified juggernaut in his hands with its fuzzed-out guitars, pounding drums and the trademark Danzig sing-a-long choruses. He captures the rebellious spirit of the sixties outlaw biker films with a punked-out take on “Devil’s Angels” from the Devil’s Angels Soundtrack complete with his old school Misfits Dallas Arbiter Jumbo-Fuzz Pedal. Regarding “Satan” from Satan’s Sadists, Danzig assures, “You might be surprised, but I didn’t change any of the lyrics. I didn’t have to!”

Ultimately, Skeletons sparks the next phase for Danzig. Helping catalyze his next full-length offering and tour plans, it’s yet another revolution. “I hope people dig it,” he leaves off. “I also hope it gives everybody a little bit of insight into the music I listen to and maybe an insight into how I did the songs. If you enjoy it, that’s great.”

Skeletons Track List
1. Devil’s Angels (from Devil’s Angels soundtrack)
2. Satan (from Satan’s Sadists soundtrack)
3. Let Yourself Go (Elvis Presley)
4. N.I.B. (Black Sabbath)
5. Lord Of Your Thighs (Aerosmith)
6. Action Woman (The Litter)
7. Rough Boy (ZZ Top)
8. With a Girl Like You (The Troggs)
9. Find Somebody (The Young Rascals)
10. Crying In The Rain (The Everly Brothers)

Glenn Danzig (Danzig, Misfits, Samhain) is on the road this fall with his very own The Blackest of the Black Tour. A long-standing tour that he first launched in 2003, The Blackest of the Black Tour 2015 features Danzig as well as Superjoint with Phil Anselmo, Veil of Maya, Prong, and Witch Mountain. Hitting cities not visited on Danzig’s recent summer tour, these dates will also include markets the band has not played in many years including Memphis, New Orleans, Birmingham, and Portland, Maine. He will also be joining Rob Zombie in Las Vegas for a performance on October 30.

While in Memphis on October 7, Danzig stopped by the local SiriusXM studio at Graceland and took over the Elvis channel for a live broadcast sharing his cover of “Let Yourself Go” as well as his favorite Elvis songs. The show is being rebroadcasted through the year-end.

The online pre-order for Skeletons will be live within the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime the album will be available for pre-order at record stores across the nation. Fans in Philadelphia, PA and Auburn, MA will have the chance to pre-order at their local FYE stores and then attend a private meet and greet with Danzig as he signs album posters at the stores later this month. Please see below for location and timing information.

Fri, Oct 16
5pm – 6pm
FYE Ave of the Arts
100 S Broad St
Philadelphia, PA 19110

Sat, Oct 17
5pm – 6pm
FYE Auburn Mall
385 Southbridge St
Auburn, MA 01501

Be sure to also check out the full list of his tour dates below.

Tour Dates
10/14 in Charlotte, NC at The Fillmore Charlotte
10/16 in Philadelphia, PA at Electric Factory
10/17 in Worcester, MA at “Rock and Shock”, The Palladium
10/18 in Montreal, QC at Metropolis
10/20 in Portland, ME at State Theatre
10/21 in New York, NY at Best Buy Theater
10/23 in Cleveland, OH at Agora
10/24 in Milwaukee, WI at The Rave
10/25 in Omaha, NE at Sokol Auditorium
10/27 in Boulder, CO at Boulder Theater
10/29 in San Jose, CA at City National Civic
10/30 in Las Vegas, NV at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel w/ Rob Zombie
10/31 in Los Angeles, CA at Microsoft Theater

danzig

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

Music

‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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Lost Themes IV
(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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