***SZANDORA LAVEY is Old Nick’s favorite Renaissance Woman. Hula hoop artist, writer, burlesque performer, model, and photographer are just a few of the hats she wears. She has toured far and wide as the hula hoopin’, strip teasin’ front woman of such instrumental groups as THEE SWANK BASTARDS and SINISTER TWIST. If you attended Harvard University in 2013, you might have heard her lecture on Modern LaVeyan Satanism, a subject near and dear to her black heart. You may have seen her face on album covers for artists like the Dwarves and Inferno of Joy. Now she adds singer to her resume with this single, the first official release to feature her on lead vocals. At her Satanic majesty’s request, San Francisco’s THE BEAST OF ENGLAND headed by husband and wife duo LANCE EASON (THE HARD PONYS) and KATHLEEN AUTERIO, have laid down a version of the Patti Smith penned Blue Oyster Cult classic, “Career of Evil,” a lifelong favorite of Miss Szandora’s. The band plays it straight, sticking close to the original and allowing Szandora to deliver her own uniquely devilish take on the song’s vocal.The B-side finds her vamping it up even harder on a Cramps-like original, “(Belle of the) Black Heart’s Ball,” coming on like a punk rock Wanda Jackson over what is more or less a classic novelty song in the vein of “The Monster Mash.” The band is rounded out by Beast of England mainstay TIM SUNDERMAN on bass and the Hard Ponys’ JIM CLENNEY...
7" $7.00
02/09/2018
***“THE HARD PONYS are a rock band from San Francisco. The music they make isn't freak-folk, noise-core or post……anything. It sure isn't art damaged. The melodies aren't sunny, sun-soaked or sun-dappled. Their debut album sounds nothing like three mystic shaman roasting marshmallows in a snowstorm, and they know it. These guys have thought long and hard to come up with a name for what they do, and what they finally came up with is...Rock 'n' Roll. The kids are gonna love it, Daddyo—it's the latest. Trust us. They've taken the proto-punk swagger of bands like the Ramones and the New York Dolls and married it at gunpoint to everything punk was supposed to destroy: Arena Rock, Heavy Metal, Easy Listening and, yup, straight-up Butt Rock as epitomized by the likes of Guns 'n' Roses and Skid Row. Feel violated yet? Co-opted, even? On the bright side, they're not trying to sell you a car. Yet. Just think of it like the time Professor X and his arch-rival, Magneto, merged into one being to form Onslaught... On second thought, forget that.” Features former members of FLASH BASTARD, THE DEL BOMBERS, STAGGER & FALL and RADIOSTAR SF.
CD $5.40
06/21/2011