While driving back from a gig in Michigan, I stopped in Valparaiso, Indiana. Valparaiso is known for its great college basketball program but is also the birthplace of Orville Redenbacher. After the popcorn King's death, the town erected this statue in honor of his contributions to the world. I stopped by to pay my respects. Before leaving, I thanked Orville for the damage his product has done to my cholesterol and colon. He offered no response.
Back in the fifties and sixties, Design Records was a subsidiary of Pickwick International. A low budget label, it churned out cheesy corn like, "Polkas For Parties", "99 Men In Brass Play Marches" and "The Fabulous Beats Go Country Style". In 1965, in a rare stroke of hipness, they released this excellent set of spy jazz.
Cashing in on the mid-sixties James Bond/secret agent craze, this album features swinging covers of "Thunderball", "Man From U.N.C.L.E” and the “I Spy Theme”. According to the liner notes (which were not always 100% factual) the album features jazz luminaries J.J Johnson on trombone and Milt Hinton on bass. The arrangements are heavy on brass (with trombone featured on several tracks) and the improvisation is excellent.
What separates the album from many other similar records that were released at this time is the fun factor. This album screams SIXTIES. From the album cover to the arrangements that feature such non-jazz elements as, hippieish flute solos and harpsichord runs. Imagine, a jazz album that doesn’t take itself too seriously. When’s the last time you heard one of those.
Mr. Speed is a KISS tribute band out of Cleveland, Ohio. The band has been performing for over twenty-five years. The current line up consists of Rich Kosak as the Starchild (Paul Stanley), Jim Seda as the Demon (Gene Simmons), Quinton Kufahl as the Catman (Peter Criss) and Mark Hermansen as the Spaceman (Ace Frehley).
I must confess that in my youth, I was not a KISS fan. From my late teens into my early thirties, I was basically a music snob. I thought I was too cool for bands like KISS. (As I have mentioned before, I was sadly mistaken. I may have been a lot of things back then but cool was not one of them. Trust me, I've seen pictures.)
Eventually as I entered middle age, I realized I'd missed out on a lot of fun by being "too hip for the room" and I am actually much more open-minded now then I ever was in my twenties. Which brings us to MR. SPEED.
A few weeks ago a couple friends of mine, who were KISS fans growing up, and I made plans to attend one of the upcoming KISS farewell shows. However, after seeing the ticket prices we decided to find a less expensive alternative.
MR. SPEED was the alternative, they did not disappoint. It was a fun show.
Here is my interview with Rich Kosak, singer, guitarist and the founding member of MR. SPEED talking about his passion for all things KISS and life in a tribute band.
CASEY: When did you first discover KISS?
RICH: I first got into KISS around the age of twelve. The very first time I saw them, to the best of my memory, was on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. I was captivated by them. The next time I saw them was on a Saturday afternoon while watching TV and a commercial aired for the KISS radio. When I saw the explosion and heard the music again, I was captivated. The song was "Detroit Rock City". That was followed by an appearance on the American Music Awards where I believe they aired a taped rendition of "Rock N Roll All Night" from Largo, Maryland.
CASEY: When did you attend your first KISS show?
RICH: My first KISS concert was in the summer of 1979. The date was July 21st to be exact. I went with a childhood friend named Chris and we had fifth row seats. It was my third concert overall at the time and the first time I ever smelled pot and an experience that has obviously shaped the person I am today.
CASEY: How many shows have you seen and which was your favorite?
RICH: I have been fortunate enough to see KISS sixty-four times in concert. A few were less memorable than most but by far my favorite show, aside from the very first one, was December 4th, 1998. We had first row seats for the show and I proposed to my wife afterwards backstage with Paul Stanley standing right next to me. I knew the local promoter in town and arranged through that connection to set up the proposal and have Paul there. We were very fortunate because I don't believe that would happen today or at least not without a large price tag.
CASEY: When did you start playing guitar?
RICH: I started fiddling around with the guitar around the same time that I was being infected by KISS. My older brother was my inspiration and I would hear him playing every day in his room. He was into a lot of progressive bands like Yes and artists like Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower. So hearing the music coming out of his room, I was always listening. For a brief time, he would play Frampton Comes Alive and I loved it. Soon I acquired my own copy and would wear out needles on my parent's console stereo in the living room playing all four sides.
CASEY: What was the first band you ever played in?
RICH: The first band I ever played in was never really a band at all. My friend Chris was also dabbling in guitar at the time and he knew another kid named Todd. I knew a drummer named Don and together we nervously set up what little equipment we had in one of our neighbors front yards. We rehearsed for what seemed like weeks but, in reality, it was probably no more than a day or two. We learned three songs one of which was by Bread, if you can believe it. We certainly didn't set the world on fire and I'm also certain that we never performed together again after that. Honestly, I don't think you can even categorize us as a band but I'm sure we thought we were. It was four kids following the lead of one who had some talent and I'm here to tell you, it wasn't me.
CASEY: What bands did you play in prior to MR. SPEED?I
RICH: Prior to MR. SPEED, I was only in one other band. Right out of high school I was asked to join, by default mind you, a group of guys that were really established in my high school. These guys played assemblies at school and were known around the community as the local rock stars. For whatever reason, they needed another guitar player and someone suggested me. What's funny about this scenario is these guys were really not a "rock" band like KISS. In fact, they hated KISS and weren't very fond of me either. But they needed someone and I filled the void. I can even recall an incident before I joined their band where I ran into the keyboard player at our Fourth Of July community event. I happened to be wearing a KISS t-shirt and he approached me and said, and I quote, 'I loathe that band'. Funny how things have a way of working themselves out, right? So I show up to audition for their band with my original Ibanez Paul Stanley PS -10, scared out of my mind. We played two shows that entire year at the same venue on a Friday/Saturday night and I think I made forty dollars for both nights.
CASEY: How did MR. SPEED come together?
RICH: MR. SPEED came together through a chance meeting between myself and a guy named Mike Gavigan. We met on a Sunday morning at a Pittsburgh area record show. We hit it off pretty well and spent six months teaching each other KISS songs. After six months we thought to ourselves that what we were doing sounded pretty good. After a quick conversation, which included putting a band together, we placed an ad for a bass player and a drummer. Twenty-five years later here I am talking to you and I am still talking to you and still answering questions about my passion for KISS. The idea really did blossom from an article that I came across in Metal Age Magazine. The article shines a light on a KISS band from L.A called, Cold Gin. Ironically, this band contained the current lead guitarist in KISS, Tommy Thayer. I was intrigued and thought, why not? So we continued to practice and formulate some sort of plan as to what we were going to do. Never thinking it would last twenty -five minutes, much less, twenty-five years.
CASEY: Why did you pick the Starchild (Paul Stanley) character instead of Ace or Gene?
RICH: In September of 1978, KISS released their solo albums. I practically lived at our local record shop and one day I paid them a visit and found two of the four albums in their New Release bins. Right there in front of me were the new solo albums by Paul Stanley and Peter Criss. I ran home and confronted my dad and begged for eight dollars. He asked me why and I hesitantly gave him a reason. He relinquished the money to me and I ran back to the store and stood there staring at the two painted faces. For whatever reason, I grabbed Paul's album, slapped the money down on the counter and then ran back home again to my bedroom and to my turntable. I can honestly admit that from the very first listen, I was hooked. Up until that point, I was equally enthralled by all four members of the band but that moment for me defined why Paul would become my favorite KISS member and help me to transform myself into his image in MR. SPEED.
CASEY: Does the band do their own make up?
RICH: Yes, each one of us does our own make up. It's part of the whole process. We each vary in our techniques and in the time it takes to apply it. We range anywhere from sixty minutes to up to three hours, depending on the individuals.
CASEY: How many KISS songs can the band play?
RICH: For each and every show we usually perform roughly twenty songs. We can probably play forty, or so, very well. We're always trying to work on and implement different songs into our live show. We tend to stick with one set for the majority of each tour and when time or ability permits, we'll filter in a song here or there. We have always had a sense of pride in being the KISS tribute band that stepped outside the box, so to speak, and tried to perform songs that are a challenge. I believe it shows our muscle and ability a bit more than just rolling over the same songs year after year after year.
CASEY: What are your five favorite favorite KISS songs?
RICH: This is a really tough question for any fan of any band to answer. But for the sake of this interview, I will answer with these five songs: "Magic Touch", "Shout It Out Loud", "Thou Shalt Not", "Mr. Speed" and "Creatures Of The Night".
CASEY: Have you had any interaction with the members of KISS?
RICH: We don't have any interaction with KISS or its members. Subsequently, we don't get KISS tickets for free or anything of that matter. In the end, being a fan is what we all started out as and we're cool with continuing that trend and being confident in ourselves in the process. They are aware of who we are as a tribute to them and that's good enough for us. There are so many versions of what guys and girls call a KISS tribute band but very few of them really tap into the heart and soul of what KISS means to the fans. I believe that we do that and have for sometime now. In my opinion, I don't believe that KISS or its members really care that much about tribute bands. We fill a void for them in markets and for fans that simply can't afford the ticket prices or that KISS would never visit. For us it's simply a matter of taking our passion for KISS via our tribute band to Anywhere, USA to share with other fans what we all feel. We are constantly asked when KISS ends their final tour would we take over? I'd be lying if I told you the thought hasn't crossed my mind but I'm quite sure it's not going to be that simple. But if the opportunity presents itself, we would certainly give the audition one hell of an effort.
CASEY: What are MR. SPEED's future plans?
RICH: MR. SPEED has big plans in store for our immediate future. We plan on an entirely new stage set and show for as early as 2020 complete with new costumes, props and songs. You can keep up to date with where we are headed by visiting our website at, www.mrspeedonline.com for the latest in our tribute to KISS.
The Michael Stanley Band was a huge phenomenon in Cleveland and Northeast, Ohio back in the seventies and eighties. They still hold attendance records at Blossom Music Center and the long gone Richfield Coliseum. Although they were on major record labels such as Epic, Arista and EMI and had a couple singles break the top forty ( "He Can't Love You" #33 1980 and "My Town #39 1983) and performed on Solid Gold and American Bandstand, they never broke out nationally. In fact outside of the Cleveland area, they were virtually unknown.
I was in high school in Cleveland at the height of their popularity and I must confess, I was not a fan. At the time, I was a budding music snob and probably thought I was too cool for MSB's Midwestern pop-rock. I was mistaken. I may have been a lot of things back then but cool was not one of them. Trust me, I have photos to prove it.
Regardless if you were a fan of not, in the early eighties, in Northeast, Ohio the Michael Stanley Band was everywhere. All over the radio, featured in newspapers and magazines, seemingly blasting from every boombox at every high school party I ever attended. My high school girlfriend was a huge MSB fan and I dutifully took her to a couple of Blossom shows and I remember attending a free concert in the parking lot of the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Although I was not thrilled about attending those shows, they were much more enjoyable than the Barry Manilow concert we went to. Wow, I must have been a really good boyfriend.
The Michael Stanley Band broke up in 1987 and I left the area not long after and completely forgot about the band. I can honestly say I literally never heard an MSB song for probably twenty-five
years. I was a radio DJ for many years and every once in awhile I would get a request for “He Can’t Love You” or “My Town” or maybe, “Lover” and I would immediately ask, ‘What part of Cleveland are you from?’ and the person would invariably answer, ‘How did you know I was from Cleveland?’
Four or five years ago, I ran across some Michael Stanley Band videos on YouTube and was completely knocked out. Once my high school nostalgia subsided, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the songs were. Really great eighties pop music. All these years later, I have finally become a Michael Stanley fan. I even like a lot of his "new" music with The Resonators. The prodigal son has returned to the fold.
Which brings us to Timothy Giles' book, "Seeking Stanley: The Elusive Search For The Michael Stanley Band". A great memoir on the author's thirty year obsession with MSB. Back in the eighties, Timothy Giles was having the complete opposite experience that I was having. Living in the Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia, he not only couldn't find another person who liked the band, he couldn't find anybody who had ever even heard of the band. The book chronicles one teenage fan's search for his hero in the age before the internet.
Seeking Stanley is a fun read not only for Michael Stanley fans but for anyone who remembers what it was like to be a young person in that long ago time known as the eighties.
The book is available on Amazon and Timothy is generously donating royalties to charity. The initial royalties went to St. Christopher's Hospital For Children in Philadelphia, a reference to the MSB song, "Spanish Nights", and St. Jude's Children's Hospital will receive all future royalties.
American Bandstand 1983
CASEY: How did you first hear about the Michael Stanley Band?
TIMOTHY: I grew up in southern New Jersey across the river from Philadelphia and my town got cable TV pretty early. In the early days of MTV, they were not playing a lot of well known bands and I happened to see the video for the song, “He Can’t Love You”. I guess I was the original target audience using video to attract music buyers. As far as I know, they had little, if any, radio play in the Philadelphia market since there were a plethora of local Philly bands that were going to be “the next big thing” at the time like Robert Hazzard, The Hooters, The A’s etc..,
CASEY: What was it about them that caught your attention?
TIMOTHY: As I mentioned in the book, I thought the band in the video were actually factory workers who played music on the side. I found the song to be very catchy and thought the video was pretty humorous. Again, I was like fourteen, so I didn’t get out much. Of course like anything, you can’t start a fire without a spark, so that was my first foray into a thirty year following of Michael Stanley.
CASEY: You also tell a story about meeting the band before one of their shows. What was that like?
TIMOTHY: They played Slippery Rock University’s Spring Fling in April 1986 and it was the first time I was able to see them live and I decided I wanted to meet them. I was actually quite nervous, for some reason, but the band was very cordial and very unassuming. I used the intro about the Tribe playing that day and that got the conversation rolling. They could not have been nicer.
CASEY: You also mention you are not a fan of Jonah Koslen or MSB’s seventies music. Why?
TIMOTHY: If you listen to the Epic and Arista years the band to me did not really have a pop or rock sound. I don’t think I have
listened to “Ladies Choice”, “You Break It, You Bought It” or “Cabin Fever” more than once. Nothing there really grabbed me. I feel on the album “Greatest Hints”, where Kevin Raleigh first joined the band, you can hear them gravitate to a more pop music sound that definitely shows up in their next album “Heartland”.
CASEY: What are your top five Michael Stanley songs?
TIMOTHY: “All I Ever Wanted” from the “Heartland” album. “Spanish Nights” from “MSB”, far and away my favorite album. “In The Heartland” from “North Coast”, the title track from”Inside Moves” and “If You Love Me” also from “MSB”. Ironically, the song that got me hooked, “He Can’t Love You”, would not even make the top fifteen. Michael Stanley’s post MSB recordings have produced some quality songs also, “The Ground” is a great song.
CASEY: Why do you think the band wasn’t able to breakout nationally?
TIMOTHY: That is the question that has plagued mankind forty years. I am sure everyone has an opinion but I feel personally the early eighties were over saturated with the working class sound of Springsteen, Seger, Mellencamp etc..I used to love the two guitar, bass, drum and maybe a horn player type bands and back then there were lots of them. I think the Del Lords should have been huge but they never broke out of the bar band mold either.
CASEY: I have always had a theory that one of the reasons they didn’t break out was that the band was too anonymous looking. Nobody really stands out on the album covers. Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen had bands but they were always the main focus in photos, videos, marketing etc. Do think if Michael Stanley had been more the focus they may have been more identifiable and possibly had more success?
Michael Stanley in the eighties
TIMOTHY: Not a bad observation but since they had two lead singers and two songwriters, Koslen and Raleigh, focusing on just Stanley would probably not have encouraged the other two to write and sing. Raleigh did write and sing the biggest hit of the band’s career. If you are farmiliar with the documentary, “MSB Confidential” they discuss this and it seems no one could nail down why. Maybe having a band name like Styx or REO would have been a better decision.
CASEY: It seems that Michael has sort of turned his back on the MSB years. I’ve been told he doesn’t play many of his old songs in concert. Why do you think that is?
TIMOTHY: I personally have not seen Michael Stanley and his band, The Resonators, due to timing or geography. They rarely play outside of Northeast, Ohio. But I do have quite a bit of audio that has been made available over the years and they do play quite a few MSB staples. They do not usually play the songs written and sung by Kevin Raleigh but they do play, “all the hits that you wanna hear”.
There’s a “Midwest Midnight” plug.
CASEY: Do you think they will ever do a reunion show?
TIMOTHY: No. They did some reunion shows back in the day. I think nineteen-ninety something was the last one. Over the years, members of the band have shown up at Michael Stanley concerts but they have not done an MSB reunion since the nineties.
Michael Stanley Today
CASEY: What made you write the book?
TIMOTHY: It's a bucket list kind of thing. 'Who the hell is Michael Stanley?' is the question I have been asked the most. Followed by,
'How did you hear about MSB?'. It has been in my wheelhouse for quite some time and I finally decided to just go for it.
Thanks to Timothy for writing the book and taking time to do the interview. You can e-mail Timothy at, timothyagiles@hotmail.com
Although the Michael Stanley Band broke up in 1987, Michael has continued releasing albums and performing live both solo and with his band The Resonators. He has also been a radio personality on WNCX -FM in Cleveland for many years. Most, if not all, of his recordings can be found on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify and he still does shows around Northeast, Ohio. For more information, check out his website http://michaelstanley.com
Tired of the same old Christmas songs? Are you "Jingle Bell Rocked" to death? "Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’d" out? Then check out Casey’s Musical Dustbin’s Rock N Roll Christmas Party Podcast featuring the hippest Yuletide tunes you will ever hear. Take a listen HERE
PLAYLIST
BACK DOOR SANTA (CLARENCE CARTER) Great funky Christmas tune from the guy who would become infamous a few years later for his risque hit “Strokin’”. Santa’s been a bad boy.
MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT (RAMONES) Joey and company give Phil Spector a run for his money on this one. Check out the Uber cheesy eighties video on YouTube.What says Christmas more than leather jackets and sunglasses?
THE MAN IN THE SANTA SUIT (FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE) One of my all-time favorite Christmas tunes from the band that brought you the 2003 top ten hit “Stacey’s Mom”. Great jangly guitar pop told from the view of a department store Santa.
SLEIGH RIDE (VENTURES) C’mon, it’s the Ventures. What’s not to like?
SANTA LOOKED A LOT LIKE DADDY (BUCK OWENS) Buck and the Buckaroos at their mid-sixties best.
BE BOP SANTA CLAUS (BABS GONZALES) Hipster version of The Night Before Christmas
ROCK N ROLL SANTA CLAUS (LITTLE JOEY FARR) Great rockabilly from a kid whose sounds about twelve. No relation to the cross dressing actor in MASH
MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY (CHARLES BROWN) Turn out the lights, turn on the tree and snuggle on the couch with your honey. Cool late night Christmas blues. Otis Redding would rearrange this into an upbeat funky number a few years later. Bruce Springsteen had a Christmas hit with Otis’s version in the seventies. I prefer the original. Incidentally, Charles Brown also wrote “Please Come Home For Christmas”. You hear the Eagles’ version every thirty seconds during the holidays. Once again, the original is better.
SANTA ON THE ROOF (REVEREND HORTON HEAT) As always, the good Reverend brings us great music, funny lyrics and wicked guitar work.
SANTA CLAUS & HIS OLD LADY (CHEECH & CHONG) Politically incorrect on so many levels but so much fun
FROSTY THE SNOWMAN (LOS STRAITJACKETS) Christmas music in Mexican wrestling masks. How fun is that?
SANTA CLAUS (SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON) Weird blues tune from, perhaps, the greatest blues harpist of all.
HEY, SANTA CLAUS (MOONGLOWS) The Moonglows were a doo wop group out of Cleveland, Ohio. The were discovered by Alan Freed and were pretty big on the pop charts. In fact, they were inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame in 2000. This is a fun r&b bouncer with great tenor saxophone.
I WANT A ROCK N ROLL GUITAR (JOHNNY PRESTON) The spoken word tale of a kid who wants a guitar for Christmas. Johnny Preston does his best Elvis impression. He would go on a few years later to have a hit with “Running Bear”
JINGLE BELLS (SINGING DOGS) What a bunch of talented canines. When I had a dog, I couldn’t even get him to roll over.
WHITE CHRISTMAS (VENTURES) Okay, okay, I know we already played the Ventures but c’mon, it’s the Ventures for crying out loud!
TRUCKIN' TREES FOR CHRISTMAS (RED SIMPSON) I have never been a huge country music fan, (I don’t get why they dress up like cowboys) but I always liked truck driving songs. Not that C.W MaCall Convoy country/disco stuff but the mid-sixties tunes by the likes of Dave Dudley, Del Reeves, Red Sovine, Dick Curless and yes, the greatest of them all, Red Simpson. He actually put out a whole album of this stuff called, “Truckers’ Christmas”. It’s worth a listen.
SANTA'S ROCKABILLY CHRISTMAS (SKIP THOMPSON) I wonder why there are so many rockabilly songs about Christmas? There’s almost as many rockabilly Christmas records as there are rockabilly records about flying saucers. Almost. This is one of the best.
LIGHTEN UP, IT'S CHRISTMAS (GEEZINSLAWS) Here is a seasonal favorite for anyone who has had the misfortune to enter a mall during the time of “peace and joy”.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE (ORIOLES) Great Holiday Doo Wop.
Merry Christmas. You can listen to the podcast HERE
With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time to talk with Derek Koch, the host of Monster Kid Radio, about some of his favorite classic horror movies. Monster Kid Radio is a weekly podcast devoted to classic horror flicks. It not only contains lots of discussion about famous and the not so famous movies but also has special guests, interviews, listener polls, trivia, lots and lots of old horror movie clips and some very cool music too.
Monster Kid Radio has won a couple of Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards through the years and will soon celebrate it's 400th episode. The podcast can be heard on iTunes, Stitcher and Libsyn.
CASEY REDMOND: What is a Monster Kid?
DEREK KOCH: It’s kind of hard to answer. The term came about
Derek Koch
several years ago when David Colton of The Classic Horror Film Board and the Rondo Awards wrote an essay that appeared in an AOL chatroom about, What is a Monster Kid?. You know, we are the kids staying up late watching monster movies and making models, things like that. For a long time, it was used to describe people who grew up in the fifties and sixties watching these things and and enjoying these movies. For me, I feel like I’m a Monster Kid. I stumbled into loving these movies when I was younger and it really just stuck with me and has defined me as an adult. A lot of times, I will call myself Monster Kid X because I am part of Generation X.
CASEY: What's the first horror movie that made an impression on you?
DEREK: I think the first one that really made an impression on me growing up was Poltergeist. One afternoon I was flipping through channels and, at the time, we had Showtime and they were showing Poltergeist in the middle of the day. Not really having any experience with horror movies or monster movies at the time, seeing the guy peel his face off in the bathroom really influenced me and affected me quite a bit. That's probably my earliest horror movie memory.
CASEY: Was that the start of your love for monster movies or did that come later?
DEREK: I think it started a little beforehand with those
Crestwood House books that you find in school libraries, kid libraries. I think that is probably what sparked everything for me. Growing up, it's not like I could turn on the TV and see classic horror movies. So, these Crestwood House books were pretty much my in. They hooked me from the beginning. I knew who Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi were in grade school. I remember distinctly this paper I wrote in class one day in grade school going off about how people who dress up like princesses are ruining Halloween because Halloween should be about Chaney and Lugosi and Karloff. I was a cocky little kid.
CASEY: Explain for those who don't know, what are the Crestwood House books?
DEREK: The Crestwood House books was a series of books, I believe they were published in the seventies, designed for young
Crestwood House Book
readers. They found their way into a lot of school libraries or the kids section of public libraries. Each book, at first, was about a particular film. So there would be a book about The Wolf Man, a book about Dracula that sort of thing. Most of the book would be about the film itself with pictures from the film. I learned later that a lot of those photos came courtesy of Forrest J Ackerman. Then the last quarter of the book talked about who was in the movie, sequals, remakes, influences. I first learned about the silent film, The Golem, from the Crestwood House book about Frankenstein.
CASEY: So you knew about the movies before you ever saw them?
DEREK: My parents didn't really encourage me to watch R-rated movies or horror movies, I wasn't allowed to. But for some reason or other, learning about these black and white monster movies that was somehow safer.
CASEY: When did you finally begin watching the movies?
DEREK: As a film geek, one of the jobs you could have in the nineties was working at a video store. During my working career I've worked at four. Working there and having access to all of these VHS tapes and ordering them, using my employee discount, filled out my collection of classic horror movies and modern horror films too.
CASEY: You prefer old horror movies over newer?
DEREK: I do. For awhile, I was all about the zombie stuff and the modern stuff and the slashers and things like that. But I always had a love for the black and whites and the Hammer's. I even did a podcast about zombie movies for several years. It was called, Mail Order Zombie. The gimmick of that was that I would cover zombie movies that you had to get through the mail. Eventually, we ended up covering any zombie movies.
CASEY: Can you still listen to the podcast?
DEREK: The podcast is still there but we haven't put out a new episode in forever. I got to the point where they just weren't giving me the enjoyment. I suppose burnt out is part of it. I was feeling like there wasn't a lot of substance anymore, at least for me. They just stopped speaking to me.
CASEY: On Monster Kid Radio what is the time frame you cover?
DEREK: I go pretty much from the silents up through the sixties. I typically use 1968 as my cutoff because that is when Night Of The Living Dead came out and it was a game changer. But that being said, I do toe dip into the seventies a little bit. Like I am getting really into Dark Shadows and this December I am going to do a Dan Curtis themed month where we are doing nothing but Dan Curtis properties. We are calling it, Dancember.
CASEY: Who are some of your favorite horror movie actors?
DEREK: We say that we have three patron saints on Monster Kid
Bela Lugosi
Radio; Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and John Agar. Those three are right there at the top of the list. Of course, I can't skip Chaney and I can't skip going over to the U.K and saying I've got a mad love for Peter Cushing.
CASEY: Are you a film fan in general or mainly just horror movies?
DEREK: Yes, I thought I was going to be a filmmaker when I grew up. I went to film school for a little while and did a ton of video production classes at a community college. I love movies. I was a Star Wars kid. I loved science fiction and then I got into horror movies and I was doing special make up effects and making myself up as various monsters. I set myself on fire for a movie once, much to my mother's dismay.
CASEY: Tell me about your writing.
DEREK: I started writing in grade school. I thought I was so clever writing these one page things about a guy who ate so much pizza that one day the pizza ate him. Just stupid stuff. Then as I started writing scripts for little movies that I thought I would shoot stop motion style with my G.I Joe action figures. I remember writing this huge sprawling saga where G.I Joe and the Cobra figures are fighting each other and there were death scenes and funerals and sacrifices. I don’t know whatever happened to that stuff. I was always interested in reading and that led to an interest in writing and creating my own fiction. I started writing horror in high school. Hardly any of that exists anymore. My mother never saved any of that stuff.
CASEY: It probably scared her.
Derek: Or concerned her. (laughing)
CASEY: Do you still do fiction or is it mainly non-fiction?
DEREK: For a little while, I fell away from fiction. Which is sad because I love writing fiction. Recently I was, to use their words, separated from my job. I was working a day job. It was a pretty toxic environment and it really did a number on me mentally. I think it really impacted a lot of aspects of my life. You know, stress levels, lack of sleep, overall mental health and writing. It really impacted my ability to be a creative writer. As I’m away from that now, I’m getting back into it. But I have written non-fiction for magazines. I am a columnist for Strange Aeons Magazine and my first column is available at www.strange-aeons.com. I have also done a few things for Scary Monsters over the years and other places here and there.
CASEY: What projects do you have coming up?
DEREK: Monster Kid Radio is going strong and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. We launched it in 2013 and with the exception of one week, when I was recovering from some health issues, we've always had an episode out. We have episode 400 coming up. I am really excited that we are going to hit the 400 mark. We have Dancember coming up. In December, we will have nothing but Dan Curtis media. I don't know if we are going to talk about every single episode of Dark Shadows, I don't think that's possible. But we will give it a good talking about. And I am working on the Plan 9 By 9 Podcast.
CASEY: What's going on with that?
DEREK: I was asked to be a guest on a podcast that talked about the movie, The Adventures Of Buckaroo Bonzai Across The 8th
Dimension. It was a lot of fun. What they did is they take a five minute chunk of the movie and do an episode about it and then
take another five minute chunk and do an episode about that. I thought that format just sounded fun and I wanted to apply it to what I do on Monster Kid Radio. So, we have created the Plan 9 By 9 Podcast. We take Plan 9 From Outer Space nine minutes at a time. We have at least two special guests lined up and it is hosted by myself and Scott Morris who's been on many many shows over the years. The first episode is available at, www.plan9by9.com. After this is done we are targeting a few other ugly so called "so bad it's good" type movies.
CASEY: Halloween is right around the corner, so can you give us five movies we might want to check out.
DEREK: The Crestwood House books are so important to me because they introduced me to the Universal movies so, of course, a Universal movie would have to be in there and I am going to go with, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. I know it doesn't have Karloff, which is probably the one missing ingredient, but it's got Lugosi as the monster and that's still pretty good. But it has one of the creepiest monster resurrection scenes in the very beginning and that scene by itself makes the movie. Now are you familiar with the Inner Sanctum films that Universal did?
CASEY: No, I'm just familiar with the radio show.
DEREK: Universal did a handful of movies inspired by Inner Sanctum and Lon Chaney was in all of them. It was probably the closest Chaney ever got to being the leading romantic man. He was in one called Weird Woman. It's my favorite of the Inner Sanctum films. Evelyn Ankers is in that too and she plays against type. She is not as goody-goody as she normally is in other films. I would recommend that too. For Halloween, I always try to pick something that has a fantastical element. Space aliens are great but that is not spooky the way Halloween is. So, I want to have something that is supernatural like, Thirteen Ghosts.
CASEY: I like that one, William Castle.
DEREK: I was actually just watching that last night. It's wonderful. And then I love my Hammer movies, so I would probably do either Horror of Dracula or Brides Of Dracula. Peter Cushing is in both of those films as Van Helsing but he is a little more "action-heroey" in Brides Of Dracula. That one kind of gets me going. Then for my fifth, I'd probably go with something outside the classic era and pick up, The Monster Squad.
CASEY: I vaguely remember that.
DEREK: The Monster Squad, with exception of one little thing that kind of reminds you that it's in the eighties, I feel it holds up and
it's fairly timeless. It's just a romp. It's The Little Rascals Meets The Universal Monster which is how Fred Dekker pitched it when he was trying get money for this movie he wanted to direct. It's got one of the best on-screen Dracula's I've ever seen, it's got a Wolf Man design that's fantastic. It's got a little bit of comic element to it but it's scary, I mean it's a horror movie. I think it's a pretty good flick.
This record came out on Walt Disney Records back in 1964. It was basically just a way for Disney to make some easy money off of their sound effects library. In fact, side two was exactly that, just a bunch of cuts of ghost howls, thunderstorms, screams etc. But on side one, they used the sound effects to augment a series of spooky narrations by Laura Olsher that were very well done.
They re-released it on Disneyland Records in 1973 and that is when I bought a copy of it at a local drugstore, either Super-X or Cunningham's, I can't remember which. I played it dozens of times on my old plastic red, white and blue record player. My favorite cut being the first, "The Haunted House".
The album was certified gold in 1972, selling over a million copies. Through the years, it has been sampled by various hip hop performers and was performed live in 2014 by the rock band Phish. It is a great record to get you in the mood for the Halloween season. So as always, turn out the lights, crank it up and BYOB.
