For the uninitiated, the Rock N Roll Cannibals are a psychobilly band from Denton, TX led by Tristan Thorndyke. See an early post on Tristan here. If you are still not sure what hell psychobilly is think 50s rock n roll with grisly themes of murder, madness and mutilation all gleefully delivered with a smile. With a pandemic and no gigs to play, the decision to make a video special to promote the album was brilliant. Tristan and his wife Kimberly produced 17 music videos- that is one video for each song. While the songs are generally in the 3 minutes give or take range, it is considerably ambitious to shoot that many videos and do all the post production. So hats off to you cannibals.
The Doo-Wop of the Dead special features a pale skinned host played by Tristan complete with same trademark wit Thorndyke’s Facebook followers are accustomed to. The host weaves the videos together like an anthology of short stories. With 17 to choose from, a few stick in my mind as favorites including Voices, Bigfoot and Get In My Van. As with all the Rock N Roll Cannibals videos, there is an emphasis on the hilariously macabre. The special elicited a lot of laughs from the audience. If you have spent hours of your leisure pouring over serial killer films and literature, you will love the Doo-Wop of the Dead theatrics. The creators paired a complete vision of music and film with a shoestring budget and it deserves a gold medal for blood and guts.
The videos were shot at The Parker House, a haunted house in Denton Texas with a skeleton crew of only Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke. The videos also feature bassist Jim Carr, drummer Trent Jones and trumpet player Charles Tomohiro Hanson of The Wee-Beasties. The sound engineering talents of Michael Briggs are also evident throughout the one hour special and I cannot forget to mention the previews which deserve to be part of the whole enchilada. I was blown away. Long live the Rock N Roll Cannibals.
Honorable mention to the movie Faux Paws, a campy story about a gay werewolf couple escaping prison and journeying to Maine!
Check out the new Rock N Roll Cannibals album here.