If you’re a fan of actor Bill Moseley—and judging by his recently maxed-out Facebook page, many people are—you’re no doubt savvy to the fact that the rogues’ gallery of wingnuts he’s played onscreen are very closely aligned to the man’s eccentric personality. Beginning with his self-scalp-eating cannibal kook in Tobe Hooper’s TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and continuing through his portrayal of Otis in Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, Moseley has become iconic in the genre, working steadily in features, showing up on the con circuit and generally forging a legacy as a sort of trailer-trash kin to Vincent Price.

But outside of his acting, only some followers are familiar with Moseley’s ventures into music. His turn in the recent REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA aside, the man also had a wild, almost entirely improvisational project with guitar legend Buckethead called Cornbugs that’s sadly now defunct, and contributed vocal stings and narration to his REPO! co-star Kevin “Ogre” Ogilvie’s last solo record, THE DEVILS IN MY DETAILS. His latest sonic experiment is Spider Mountain, the bastard love child of Moseley and Rani Sharone. Its new platter is called NO WAY DOWN, and it’s great fun.

Not a hit in the mix, but that’s what makes it so memorable: It’s defiant in its inability to behave like so called “normal” music should. Over the span of 13 tracks, the multi-instrumental duo lay down wave after wave of genuinely weird anti-pop music that feels filtered in from another dimension. Channeling stuff like The Residents, The Cramps and some sort of inbred bluegrass, the band—if you can even properly call them that—milk Moseley’s counterculture credibility (he handles all the vocals and wrote all the quasi-Beat-poet lyrics) to grand effect, and if you’re a fan, you’re going to love this album. If you love wonky, out-there, abstract mashup art-rock dementia, you’ll also love this album. If your idea of edgy music is Lady Gaga, you’ll run screaming from the speakers, ears bleeding and eyeballs bulging…

You've either been inspired or warned. NO WAY DOWN is available from Moseley’s website.

 

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Reviews - Musick Reviews