Namesakes #109: The Vampires

Time for my traditional shoe-horning of a Halloween-themed bunch of Namesakes. I wasn't surprised to learn that there was more than one band to have used the name Vampires... but I didn't quite expect this many!

THE VAMPIRES #1

Groovy British instrumental band who released a song about Swinging Ghosts, daddy-o, in 1959...

The Vampires - Swinging Ghosts

THE VAMPIRES #2

Memphis-based lords of the undead from 1962. They'd later change their name to The Bentleys, presumably after the car as none of them were called Bentley.

The Vampires - Why Didn't I Listen To Mother?

THE VAMPIRES #3

Norwegian sax-heavy instrumental cover of the Little Eva / Kylie Minogue classic... from 1962.

The Vampires - Loco-Motion

(BARON DAEMON &) THE VAMPIRES #4

More Halloween-appropriate nonsense from 1963 when, of course, all self-respecting blood suckers did the twist.

Baron Daemon & The Vampires – The Transylvania Twist 

THE VAMPIRES #5

One year later, these Vampires supported Milton Delugg, star of late night New York TV show Broadway Open House... it's all a bit Bobby Boris Pickett.

Milton Delugg & the Vampires - Don't Just Stand There

THE VAMPIRES #6

Det Ferring, Micky Kluge, Paul Waldhecker and Wolfgang Jünger were German Vampires back in the mid 60s. Apparently, after they lost the Hamburg Battle of the Bands contest two years running, they upped stakes to Spain in '65, releasing a bunch of garlic singles over the next couple of years. 

The Vampires - New Love

LES VAMPIRES #7

I think the photo says it all really. 60s. Canada. I'm sure those costumes seemed like a good idea at the time.

Les Vampires - Viens à moi

THE VAMPIRES #8

New York vampires caught on tape... some time in the 60s, I'm guessing, though it may not have been released till much later. It's a Jimi Hendrix cover, but you'd have worked that out for yourself.

The Vampires - Fire

THE VAMPIRES #9

Mick Roche (of earlier Namesakes The Arrows) fronts a band of Vampires in '68 with a pretty standard version of the oft-covered Bobby Freeman song...

The Vampires - Do You Wanna Dance?

THE VAMPIRES #10

Singapore girl band, also from 1968... with a title that translates as Cold Rain Song, according to google.

The Vampires - 寒雨曲

THE VAMPIRES #11

Psychedelic funk (with added flute!) from 1971... South African and / or Indian of origin, apparently.

The Vampires - Memphis Underground

THE VAMPIRES #12

More German neck-biters, this time of the heavy metal persuasion in 1978. Sadly, I can only find their full album on the tube of you. Still, it's only 45 minutes... I'm sure George will manage it.

The Vampires - We're On The Road Again

THE VAMPIRES #13

The highlight for me this week - not that I'm supposed to pick favourites - comes from 1981. A classy slab of new wave power pop by a gang of vampires led by one Fletcher Christian, who had presumably finished his mutiny by this point. Fletch would go on to front the band Absolute Shower, which surely earns him extra points.

The Vampires - Harry's House

LES VAMPIRES #14

Parisian punks, drinking blood between '83 and '88, founded by Thierry Wolf, aka Comte Wolf, aka Titi Wolf. Lots of different names to keep Van Helsing from tracking him down.

Les Vampires - Maman Sexe

THE VAMPIRES #15

Surf rock vampires (also from Deutschland) from 2001... (!?)

The Vampires - Vampexico

THE VAMPIRES #16

Italian Oi! punk from the dawn of the new millennium...

Vampires - Fight For The Flag Of My Bloody Nation

THE VAMPIRES #17

Aussie Vampires, active since 2005. I prefer to let them describe themselves... 

"The Vampires have forged their sound from their travels and musical lives in jazz, improvisation free- diving and the vibrant cultural bleed. The compositions have always been postcards to other Vampires from wherever they were, but have gradually shifted from the early jazz soloing into longer stretches building texture and tone, buoyed on irresistible riffs."

The Vampires - Action Reaction

THE VAMPIRES #18

Here are some hard-rocking Canadian vampires who appear to prefer an empty toilet roll to a microphone. In 2014, Stylus Magazine said, "Catchy shoegaze elements and full on noise... captivating lyrics... at no point is the listener left idle."

The Vampires - There's No Kissing Anymore

THE VAMPYRES #19

Finally, try your ears on some "heavy psychedelic Kraut/Gothic Rock" from Linz, Upper Austria. This is from just last year...

The Vampyres - In The Night

Which Vampires would you invite into your home? And which ones would be left outside, knocking on the window, like this guy...?

Snapshots Spillover: More Halloween Horror Films

Suede - The Living Dead

I do like a good horror film. 

I also like a bad horror film.

Black Francis - The Conjuring

Generally, I just like horror films. 

While my tolerance for many other movie genres has waned over the years, I've never grown out of the thrill of watching horror films. And I hope I never do.

For Halloween week, I figured I'd share as many songs connected to horror films as I could find...

Barbarian is the best horror film I've seen in the last few years. It's one of those flicks where you think you know where it's going, and then... woah, wait a minute, WHAT just happened?

INXS - Barbarian

Another strong contender for best horror movie of the past decade is the Aussie movie Talk To Me. Terrific supporting role for Miranda Otto in this too...

60ft Dolls - Talk To Me

I also thought Smile was pretty good, though a lot of true horror fans seemed to think it wasn't quite enough...

There are lots of songs called Smile. Here's the most obscure one I could find in my hard-drive...

Colenso Parade - Smile

One of the best British horror films of the last 20 years (actually, it's almost 20 years old... which just seems wrong) was The Descent. Great ending, though that was slightly undone by the unnecessary sequel...

Bob Mould - The Descent

I like films where the baddies wear creepy masks and you can't see their faces. The original Strangers movie was a pretty scary movie back in 2008, but like a lot of horror films, its impact has been diluted by too many unnecessary sequels...

The Kinks - Strangers

I'll have more of these later in the week, but we'll close today with a movie that already featured in this week's Snapshots, when I included a song by The Mock Turtles... largely because they were harder to identify than Jarvis & Pulp would have been. 

And while I think the original version of The Wicker Man is untouchable, I also have a soft spot for the gonzo 2006 remake starring Nicolas Cage. NOT THE BEES!

I refer you back to my opening comment: I also like a bad horror film.

Pulp's Wickerman is from their final, unjustly overlooked, album, We Love Life. Produced by Scott Walker, it's Jarvis at his best...

Snapshots #367: A Top Twenty Songs Named After Horror Movies

Darkness falls across the land

The midnight hour is close at hand

Creatures crawl in search of blood

To terrorize y’all’s neighborhood

And whosoever shall be found

Without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the Hounds of Hell

And rot inside a corpse’s shell

The foulest stench is in the air

The funk of forty thousand years

And grizzly ghouls from every tomb

Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive

Your body starts to shiver

For no mere mortal can resist

The evil of the SNAPSHOTS!

AH HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA

Thank you, Vincent. This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

It's Halloween this week, and when I started looking for songs that share their names with horror movies, I hit a bumper bundle. But did you guess them all?

20. Bad jingles get me in such a tizzy. 

"Bad jingles" was an anagram...

J. Geils Band - Fright Night

19. Lost inside Outwood Golf Course.

In case you're wondering, Outwood is just down the road from where I work in Leeds. Fortunately, I've never spotted u-two while driving through there...

U2 - The Fly

18. Ttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssss iiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssss ttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeee ccccccccccccccllllllllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeee.

Slow Readers Club - Lost Boys

17. The Haiti dollar hides a silly secret. 

The Haiti dollar, Silly Billy.

Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face

16. Boopadoop.

Named after Chic Young's Blondie comic strip: her surname was Boopadoop.

Blondie - Island Of Lost Souls

15. Noughties boy band, aphrodisiac, Ian Astbury.

Noughties boy band = Blue.

Aphrodisiac = Oyster.

Ian Astbury = The Cult.

Blue Öyster Cult - Nosferatu

14. Frippette?

She's married to Robert Fripp...

Toyah - Alien

13. They're ghosting you.

The Phantom Band - The Howling

12. Can you hear them?

The Sonics - Psycho

11. ...is a V. smarmy DJ mix.

..."is a V. smarmy DJ" was an anagram...

Sammy Davis Jr. - The Candyman

10. A wing and a guitar.

A Fender is what we Brits would call the wing on a car... and it's also a type of guitar.

Sam Fender - Poltergeist(s)

9. Just desserts.

The Sweet - Hellraiser

8. Read one section of your home. 

Chapterhouse - Don't Look Now

7. This guy, and another four droplets.

A tough one this, and probably not one you could guess from the clue alone... but once you worked out the theme... maybe?

Anyway, the photo above is Bernie Nee, the singer on the track below. The rest of the Blobs were session musicians, so no photo exists of the "band" itself...

The Five Blobs - The Blob

6. Bitten by a green bird that wishes it could fly.

Orville might have wished he could fly, but he could at least peck.

Orville Peck - Dead Of Night

5. Used to make soup for Alice and the Queen.

Then the Queen said to Alice, "Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?"

"No," said Alice. "I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is."

"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from", said the Queen.

(From Alice In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.)

The Mock Turtles - Wicker Man

4. A carpenter and a great hangman. 

The Great Hangman is a cliff. Richard was a Carpenter.

Cliff Richard - Carrie

3. Chest, pea, dough.

Chestnut, peanut, doughnut...

Nut - Scream

2. What do Jennifer Anniston, Julie Andrews and Jane Austen cook their eggs in?

In the J.A.pan, of course!

Japan - Halloween

1. Lad-ra-doodle.

It's not often you see Damon Gough without his hat on...

Badly Drawn Boy - The Shining

Not Number One because it's my favourite song... but it is my favourite horror film.

Such a bounty of horror-film-related songs did I find, that there will be more to share later in the week... and a much less scary Snapshots will be back next Saturday.