Muse-ic Monday: In Defense Of The Undead

Hollywood Undead is one of my favorite bands. I started listening to them from the first time that I heard "Undead" on the radio nearly ten years ago.

CAUTION - This post might not be work safe or for children. It contains explicit content that may even offend some adults. You've been warned!

They caught my attention because they were this strange mixture of rap and rock, but they were different than anything I'd ever heard before. They bent the genre even more. They were funny, yet their lyrics were dark, moody, offensive, and sometimes extremely scary and depressing. They are a group of six dudes, (now five it seems. Oh well, I didn't even realize Duece was gone. Guess he wasn't as important as he thought he was.), who rapped/sang about smoking weed, drinking whiskey, bangin' sluts and toting guns. They have great singing voices but they can also rap and scream pretty damn well too. They also wear these crazy, creepy masks ala Slipknot.

I know, you're saying “Holy shit, that's totally creepy.”

Yeah, well not really. It's all fun and games. They're really just a group of pretty normal looking guys. See?

I think that's why I love them so much. You know all of their songs about being hardcore, gun toting thugs are most likely bullshit. But, they do it so well, while listening to the songs, you totally don't care.

Normally I'd call this a form of selling out or straight up lying to fans. As an audiophile I find honesty between bands and their fans to be crucial. But right off the bat you know they're just guys having fun who found an entertaining way to make great music and some money from their talents. I can respect that shit, yo.

I think they are most famous for their humorous songs about partying and shootin' shit up, such as “Gangsta Sexy”, “Everywhere I Go”, “Comin' in Hot” and “Dead In Ditches”. They're a band that gets you in the mood to party and have some fun.

Some of my favorite lyrics to “Everywhere I Go” are as follows. I can't help but giggle every time I hear them.

“Let's get this party jumping
Let's see some 40 chugging
I wanna see your booty rubbing
Against my dick when I start buzzing

Come on, girls, I wanna see you drinking
I wanna see your brains start shrinking
Make a move, I saw you winking
Drunken pussy's what I'm thinking

I don't give a fuck if you're drunk or not
Turn it up loud and feel the ambiance
Grab two hoes and do some body shots
I wanna party all night until they call the cops

Fuck a wristband, let's all do a keg stand
I'm like Cheech without the Chong hitting up the beer bong
When the cops show up, they're gonna get the finger
And I don't give a fuck 'cause I'm the designated drinker! “

-Hollywood Undead “Everywhere I Go”

Now let's all listen along together!

Another favorite party song, well, my personal favorite party song from them. It's just so fun to drink whiskey too & dance around with your friends. "Comin In hot"

Aside from great party songs the band has much more to offer than that. Every time I get a craving for them it's because of these fun songs and then I'm quickly reminded how all around bad ass they are. They have some seriously powerful lyrics.

“Pour me, pour me, pour me another,
It holds me, holds me,
Like no other,
One more drink, then I swear that I'm going home,
Truth is, I don't really have a place to go,
So pour me, pour me, pour me another.

I wake up right about the mid-afternoon,
With the sun in the sky but night's coming soon,
And I walk to the mirror just to fix myself,
Yeah life gets harder when you love nothing else,
So I pick my pills from the counter drawer,
Pick my self-esteem up off the fucking floor,
I guess I'm a man of no recourse,
As I crack another bottle, got no remorse,
And I'll say a little prayer for the child in me,
I swear I used to be what I truly believe,
That I'm not just a man with these broken dreams,
That even I could go to heaven,
If I part the seas...”

-Hollywood Undead “Pour Me”

Keep those speakers cranked up ya'll...I've got a few more of my favorite songs by them coming up back to back.

This next one is my all time favorite Undead song. It's beautifully dark and heartbreaking, laced with a little bit of hope.

(S.C.A.V.A was created by combining the names of two of their daughters, Scarlet (Danny's daughter) and Ava (J3T's daughter)

“When the end is getting closer
And the earth has burned the sky
Now repent 'cause it's all over
Just let me die

Here's the massacre
A mausoleum fit for me
Lived a hundred years
A hundred years I didn't see
Gave all my hope away
Is there any left for me?
Bombs are splitting atoms
What can the future bring?
We can fill a million choirs
And wait 'till children sing
We can walk a million miles
And end up in the sea.
And our lungs just keep filling,
And lying when we breathe.
The world's filled with liars,
Liars like me!
And I look at my child
It's finite – this feeling.
Eyes blue like the sky
I see all of this meaning.
I reach up to God
And I ask if I'm dreaming.
So sorry I don't have
Those things that you're needing
And darling a kiss
Kiss me. I'm leaving!

When the end is getting closer
And the earth has burned the sky
Now repent 'cause it's all over
Just let me die
As my body lies here broken
And I'm carried to the light
Now my heart is finally open
Just let me die!

Everybody says greetings and goodbyes
Everybody pays – no one knows the price
We know the price of sin
The sin of sacrifice
I know I'll sin again
But who can save me twice?
How much can we ask?
You'll get the answer first
How much can we kneel
With the air that chills the Earth?
The air keeps getting colder.
My knees keep hitting dirt.
The innocent can cry without the guilty getting hurt.
You ask who you love and you don't know, no, do you?
The spirit of God just passes right through you.
You gave away heaven handed right to you
And I can see it all. Tell me, is it true?
Kiss me, my darling. Darling, I need you.

Where do we go?
We go, oh, Lord, I don't know
Where we go?
We don't know
I don't,
Where do we go?
We go, oh, Lord, I don't know
Where we go?
We don't know

Lord, I don't know!

When the end is getting closer
And the earth has burned the sky
Now repent 'cause it's all over
Just let me die
As my body lies here broken
And I'm carried to the light
Now my heart is finally open
Just let me die!”

Holywood Unded “S.C.A.V.A”

So C'mon, once again sing along with me kiddies! This is made using Anime. Beautiful.

Another favorite is “Take Me home”. This video has an incorrect title listed and it's made using cool video game cut scenes.

Lastly, just to prove they are indeed different than any band out there right now, let's listen to “Bullet”. It's a depressing song about suicide set to the happiest tune you'll ever hear.

I guess what I'm trying to say by this post is that you should never judge a book by it's cover. Don't judge them by only hearing a darkly depressing song, or by only having heard a crazy party song. Don't brush off this band as some poser ass, white boys who've never gang banged in their life. Don't hate on them for wearing weird masks. The truth of it is that it doesn't fucking matter whether or not Charlie Scene has ever had a six-some while poppin' caps in the PoPo's ass... What matters is that they're capable of suspending our disbelief. And that's why I love them. Musicians are writers too and that's what we're all about. Suspending disbelief and sucking you into the worlds we've created. Hollywood Undead has mastered this skill and adding music to their stories only make it that more intense. Some are obviously fictional but I'd be willing to bet there are also some autobiographical songs in there too.

I can't stand "real" rap that talks about the same issues that these dudes talk about. Yet, when they do it I love it. It's not because they're white. It's because they do it in a humorous manner. It's fun. Don't be offended. 

They're also my go to music for when I'm being insanely destructive and crazy playing APB: Reloaded. They're music is literally perfect for that game.

Next April I'll be attending my first ever music festival with some dear friends, Welcome To Rockville, and I'm praying that they'll be playing. I'd kill to see them live! 

Watch the music videos that I've posted above, all of them, don't just stop after the first one. And then please leave a comment about what you thought of them. Are they only posers using gimmicks to make money or are they something deeper than that?

Author  ~  Whiskey Black

Listening to Hollywood Undead “From The Ground”

Friday Finds: Goodwill YA Book Haul - August 2015

While visiting my mom earlier this week I stopped in one of the local Goodwill's to check out their book selection. Usually when I go there I always find something interesting.
This trip I walked away with seven books in great shape. Oddly enough most of them fall into the Young Adult category. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like YA, as long as it's well written and not drowning in cliches...
If you'd like to know more about the books click on the pictures to be taken to their Amazon page. I'm too lazy today to take and upload my own pics. And really, what's the point when Amazon's covers look great, hmm?

The first book I grabbed was Revealers by Amanda Marrone.
I've never heard of the book or the author but I liked the shiny cover and the story seemed somewhat interesting. It's about a group of high school friends who are witches that have the power to make supernatural nasities reveal themselves. As each girl turns 18 and is initiated into the innermost circle of their coven weird shit starts happening and the main character has to figure out what's going on.

The second book I snagged was a softcover of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson.
I've heard good things about the book and the movie even though I don't know too much about the story line. I'm excited to finally get to check it out though!

Next I picked up Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater. I've never heard of her either, or so I thought, but upon further Amazon inspection it seems that she's written some werewolf books that I sort of want to check out. Although I own a few faerie books I've never read any, yet. Oh, did I mention that it's a signed copy? Score!

I also picked up a slightly warped, but still in good shape, copy of Immortal: Love Stories With Bite. It's a vampire anthology featuring stories by Tanith Lee, Rachel Caine, Claudia Gray and others. Once again, I've never read anything by any of these authors but I felt that it was worth a gamble since I only had to pay a buck for it.

Speaking of Claudia Gray, I stumbled upon a shiny, sexy hardcover of Fateful. A dark romance set aboard the Titanic..and it has werewolves! Sounds original enough to me. Certainly better than that other story set aboard the sinking ship.

I also picked up a brand new copy of Hades by Alexandra Adornetto. I've been wanting to read this series for awhile now so when I saw the second book in this series, in hardcover, in such great shape, for less than two bucks, I couldn't help but pick it up.

The last book that I discovered was also YA. Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It's a werewolf book, so naturally I picked it up with barely a second thought. I can't help it, I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting, well written wolf stories. Sadly it's something that seems to be seriously lacking in the YA genre, hell, even the adult genre. I can't wait till I have mine written. They certainly will be lacking most of the typical cliches, thank Gods.
Anyway, sorry for the shameless self plug there.
This is about a young girl whose family gets violently shredded by a werewolf and then she gets raised by a pack of them. Well, that sounds a lot like Underworld there minus the vampires, hmmm? Of course that doesn't mean the book is going to suck, err...bite. It still sounds interesting. Hopefully it won't disappoint.
As it stands right now I'm happy with my purchases. I've been meaning to check out some new YA books, as opposed to the older ones by R.L Stine, Christopher Pike and L.J Smith that I grew up reading. Of course, YA authors today need to take a hint from these masters. YA doesn't have to be watered down, it can be violent, bloody and just as horrific as adult horror if done the right way. Nothing pisses me off more than a potentially great YA book that's reads like it's written for a five year old. Just because you're writing for a younger audience doesn't mean that you have to write like you're a part of it.
Author ~ Whiskey black
Listening to “Queen B” by Puscifer

Friday Finds: Horror Block – July 2015

My Horror Block for July arrived yesterday.

I wasn't expecting it this early, or maybe I just lost track of time because of working on this story for the October anthology and another for class this term.

For those that don't know, Horror Block is a monthly subscription box from Nerd Block and it's geared towards horror fans. Each month you'll get a box filled with an exclusive T shirt, a Rue Morgue Magazine and 4 or 5 other items to fuel your nightmares for only $19.99 + S&H.

This is my second Horror Block and so far I've loved everything in both of them. I'm going to try and stick with them as long as I can. What really drew me to picking this block instead of one of the other geek related monthly subscription boxes is because it comes with an exclusive T shirt every month. Also because it just seemed like it would have more items geared towards my tastes. I adore geeky items and video stuff but the truth is that I'm really just not THAT geeky, no matter how much I pretend to be :p

I was really excited for this months box because I saw a post on their Facebook page that there would be a Buffy The Vampire Slayer item in it. YAY!

The July 2015 Horror Block contained the following items.

Titan vinyl figure of Spike from Buffy.

I love this. I'm new to collecting geeky items, or anything aside from coffee cups and books, so I think this is a great way to start. I subscribed to Loot Crate a few times and ended up with a really cool Funko Pop vinyl Joker-Batman figure too, So that was my first introduction to the world of vinyl figures, and I can't say that I was disappointed.

My next favorite item was the T shirt that came this month. If you don't know I'm a huge werewolf fan and they're often the main creature feature in my stories. So to say that this “American Werewolf” shirt was perfect for me might be an understatement!

There was also a Walking Dead car window decal. I don't drive so I'll have to figure out somewhere else to put this, unless I give it to my mom to put on the back window of her VW beetle, hahaha.

There was an interesting looking DVD in the box this month. It allows you to choose which way the characters will die in the film. This has the potential to be really awesome or just really bad. Either way I'm going to have to check it out soon. I read somewhere else that it's from the 1980's, so on one hand that makes it a lot cooler because it's retro and you know it's going to be cheesy.

Every month with your subscription you also get a subscription to Rue Morgue Magazine, which is one of the go to sources for everything related to pop culture news about horror flicks, books and TV shows. I apologize for the crappy quality of the pics. I was in a hurry & having to take them from my phone. I'll do better next time, I promise!

The last thing that came in this July block was a second T shirt from the Nerd Block box as a way of trying to show you what you've been missing by not signing up for the other boxes. Mine was a Dr. Who shirt. It's nifty looking but... I'm just a Whovian, sorry. I'm going to end up giving it to one of my friends, I think.

Overall though I was stoked about this month's box. I think the Spike figure and the werewolf shirt were totally worth it on their own.

Adora's favorite thing this month was the box! :-)

Author ~ Whiskey Black

Listening to “Ain't Misbehavin'” from 1920's Jazz Favorites

Muse-ic Monday: Love Is Love

I recall the day I first heard this song. It wasn't on the radio, it was sent to me over Facebook from one of my best friends, my sister in Law. I broke down in tears and sobbed. I still cry evetytime I hear it. I can't help it.

The second time that I heard it was when a friend and I were helping my ex-husband move out. I burst into tears on the drive away from our home. My friend said he wanted to change it because he doesn't like rap. My ex, a notorious metal-head, quickly jumped to my defense and said it wasn't exactly rap or hip hop, but it was simply an important fucking song. I still love him so much for defending me in that momeent.

I love my ex, with my whole heart, he's still my best friend. It doesn't matter that we realized that we were better as just friends. What matters is that we realized we needed to change for our daughter and for each other, even if that meant being without each other in the romantic sense.

He's known for years that I've wanted to be with a female. Not that I didn't enjoy being with him, I absolutly did. It was just a little more complex than that. My family isn't exacltly accepting of...people like me, Goth/Freakiness aside. It's not something that they seem to tolerate that well.

Most of my closest friends know, and a few of my family members know, but I think they choose to try an deney it. Which is ok, that's their choice.

Anyway, I'm sort of just rambling, music makes me do that sometimes. I hear a song and pour my heart out over it. I can't help it.

In doing a little soul searching lastnight I came to realize that not only do I not want to be labeld in life (Goth, Punk, Hippy, etc...) I don't want to be labeled for my sexual preferences. More importantly, I don't want to be judged by them. If you want to date me then date me, don't worry about who I used to date or if I still like guys or girls.

That speaks more about your own insecurities if you're judging me based on the fact that I like people. Seriously, do you think it really matters if I still like guys (or girls) ? I could just as easily fall out of love with you and in love with a tree...

I mean, C'mon. It's like that saying "A mind that has expanded can never go back to it's old dimensions" I just can't and I don't want to. So, if people choose to judge me, or you, because you fall for hearts instead of parts then screw them.

So yes, this song hits me hard everytime. To me it's not just about liking the same sex, it's about the entire LGBT community as a whole. It doesn't matter who you love, as long as you love truly and with your whole heart.

Whiskey Wednesday: The Spastic Writer

How many of you have ever had a great idea and then five minutes later forgot what it was?

Yeah, me too. I do this all of the time. Like, not even joking. I'm a total freaking spazz. It doesn't seem to discriminate between simple thoughts or really impressive, mind blowing ideas. Nothing is immune to the scatteredness of my brain.

This is where carrying a notebook and pen with you at all times comes in handy. Fleeting thoughts, random snippets of an overheard conversation, names of people or places, write down anything and everything you find even the slightest bit interesting.

Aside from random inspiration inspired by your surroundings it also comes in handy dandy for jotting down those little bits of storyline ideas or blog posts that you think you might remember, but you end up forgetting anyway.

Yup. My lesson has been learned.

Never shall I leave my notebook at home again.

Author ~ Whiskey Black
Listening to "Valley Of The Dolls" by Marina & The Diamonds

Whiskey Wednesday: Strong Women...And A Poem

I like strong women, I always have. I think it's because I've never felt strong myself. So, when I read about them, or watch them on TV or in a movie it provides me a spark of joy and a bonfire of excitement deep down in my soul.

Strong women in all of their glorious forms are great. However, pair a strong woman with the ability to kick major ass and I'm in love!

One of my all time favorite ass kicking women is Milla Jovovich as "Alice" in the Resident Evil film series.

She's my favorite actress and I've never seen a film of hers where she didn't portray a strong woman, granted, most aren't filled with her battling the wretched Umbrella Corp, but I can forgive that.

Most of my writing involves strong women who are emotionally wreaked, and deep down horrible people, but who are able to kick butt. That's the way I like it for now. Perhaps someday I'll change that, we'll see.

For now here's a poem inspired by Milla, the Resident Evil films and video games.

Ode To Evil
By whiskey black

Creeping in the darkness
beneath the Umbrella of corruption,
chaos, insanity, global destruction

Shotguns, big fun
blood everywhere
gun shots, head shots
you'll find yourself there

Cerberus, T-virus, Nemesis, Las Plagas
violent tendencies, fantastic sleaze
strain of decay and utter loss

Delve into the darkness, don't be afraid
psychotic, sick, slick, hypnotic
painful, blistering, beautiful, demonic
unleash your rage and revel in the crusade

Here's a bonus for all of you lovely readers!...

Did you know that Milla is also a singer? If not check out the awesome collaboration between her and Maynard James Keenan!

Puscifer and Milla Jovovich - "The Mission"