Your intelligent source for freshly reanimated culture.
Plenty of zombie-relevant content out there in the music world
“Digitalis” is the song by the awesome retro-electro rockers of ZOMBI. How cool is it to make new music that sounds like classic euro-horror?
Really not sure why the music video contains so much nature footage of fish, sea mammals, the ocean, etc. Somehow it works for me.
re: “The Cool” — Chiago rapper Lupe Fiasco lays down a descriptive third-person narrative about climbing out of the grave in search of human brains. Bravo. Now I demand more zombie hip-hop. Get to it, Music Industry.
Watch your tight-pants-wearing hipster ass. Rock group Interpol deeply understands the emotional implications of the coming zombie invasion. Their language is obviously living corpse-related, and also full of complicated sentimental abstractions. Yes, Interpol (the band not INTERPOL the International Criminal Police Organization), we’re all going to have to face the “cadaverous mob” at some point. A single tear for you, Zombie Interpol…
Exhibit ZED (Lyrics of “A Time to be Small” from the Antics
A time to ease your solace, a time to be so small
We saw you from the urchin’s side, from under the boat
We saw you making knots, we saw you get the rope
The boy appearing on the deck and making it lurch
The bubble of your interests ready to burst
He whistles and he runs
We saw you in distraction: a sleeping, slow despair
Rehearsing interaction, he wasn’t even there
A creature is a creature though you wish you were the wind
But the boat will not stop moving if you tie him up until the end
He whistles and he runs so hold him fast
Breathe the burn, you want to let it last
He might succumb to what you haven’t been
He has a keen eye for what you didn’t see
When the cadaverous mob save their doors for the dead men, you cannot leave
When the cadaverous mob save its doors for the dead men, you cannot leave
Fancy summer’s stall, a time to be so small
To the urchin, see a mirrored time for all
A summerside way of life, a time to be so small
Stronger from the urchin’s side, a time to be so small
Urchin will lurch into there, for the facts
Urchin will lurch into there, for the facts
Urchin will lurch into there, for the facts
Urchin will lurch into there, for the facts
When the cadaverous mob save their doors for the dead men, you cannot leave
When the cadaverous mob save their doors for the dead men, you cannot leave
Searching, still searching
Urchin will lurch in there, for the facts
Urchin will lurch in
It’s all in the faded past
The bottom of the unwind
It’s the end of the world, the past
The bottom of the unwind
“Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead”
Who would have guessed that members of THE BEATLES could survive so skillfully against constantly rushing mobs of fast zombies?? I imagine hatchet-wielding Paul McCartney would finish off most close-range undead with wicked-cool spinal injuries and/or a solid roundhouse kick.
In 2005, George Romero gave us the long awaited fourth”…of the Dead” installment, a post apocalyptic vision of a quasi-functional human/undead coexistence called LAND OF THE DEAD. This narrative, which takes place well after the initial outbreak, is much more about poverty and human subsistence in an ultra capitalist society clinging to the comforts of the old world, pre-infection.
Land of the Dead poster
George primarily sticks with what he knows. Commentaries on social & economic class warfare get delivered in dump truck-sized doses. The wealthy few have managed to hole themselves up in a mall/condo/high rise called Fidler’s Green, an island protected by water on all sides, all made possible by Kaufman (the enterprising capitalist played by the impossibly difficult Dennis Hopper). Everyone else who managed to survive this long is relegated to the drug and disease-ridden slums surrounding Fidler’s Green.
John Lequizombie
As an aside, exactly one month before the June 2005 release of LAND OF THE DEAD, the ensemble genre blending hip-hop troupe THE GORILLAZ released DEMON DAYS which rocks. And how could the album suck with guest spots from some of the industry’s greatest: MF DOOM, Dangermouse, Roots Manuva and Del tha Funky Homosapien to name a few? With heavy sampling of tracks from GOBLIN and Dario Argento’s music
composition from the original DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), DEMON DAYS remains an impressive tribute to zombie myth and culture. In addition to overt z-tracks like LAST LIVING SOULS, the album contained a strange song called FIRE COMING OUT OF THE MONKEY’S HEAD, which is basically a dark fairy tale narrated by weirdo alien-sent-to-earth Dennis Hopper.
As Romero expands on his own zombie mythos, braking previously established rules, as the undead learn to communicate with gestures and problem solve while mastering tools and weapons. Romero implies that zombies feel empathy towards each other and simply desire to survive. Damn those zombie peaceniks!
While he occasionally employs gorgeous gore via timeless practical effects, Romero opts for CGI more than ever before, with questionable results which already show their age. George returns to the basics in DAIRY OF THE DEAD but will no doubt be forever haunted by the melodramatic z-parody that is John Leguizombie’s performance.
Whether a result of radiation, rage virus or Haitian voodoo, one aspect I adore about the impending zombie invasion is the situational madlib of humor & horror that occurs when soulless monsters take the place of “normal” humans doing “normal” human activities.
For example, a clown at an outdoor birthday party seem like a childhood cliché. Cake & balloon animals. Presents with bows and colorful streamers. But when Z-Day hits, this typical suburban scene turns into an absurd and terrifying display. Cannibal children pass over chocolate ice cream for the neighbor’s Scottish terrier. A decaying grease-painted clown greedily chews at spleen of the a parent slumped over the charcoal grill. No one’s even touching the cake!
Post-invasion, traditional culture and practice are immediately subverted, while our bodies continue wearing a costume of “normal” humanity.
Smaller confines result in an even faster spreading of zombism. As a survivor, there are few places to hide and remain protected. Rural areas work until the zombie hordes see your fire, hear your generator running or simply catch a whiff of your delicious brain. Eventually they will get though the fence, window, basement, back door or just pile on top of each other like a cannibal cheerleader pyramid until they reach you in the attic. Your house is not made of reinforced concrete, so the big bad zombie wolves will find a weak point and break through.
Your best bet remains in big box stores like Target or Walmart, since they can be locked securely and tend to have a sizable stock of preservative-heavy snack foods that won’t spoil for a couple of decades. After all of the sodas, twinkles and candy bars, you may develop diabetes but you yourself will not yet be zombie food.
Ideally, you want to find a prison for it’s maximum security locks, bulk food storage and acceptable cooking/living quarters, which leads me to the irony of the prison yard. Because of the close confines, prisons are highly susceptible to mass zombie infestation. One sickly guard is all it takes. So how do you clean out thousands of shoulder-to-shoulder zombie inmates? Who knows. What if the jail is free of the undead? Now, in order to get to the most secure safe house, you have to break in and coexist with the prisoners still locked inside.
Remember, there is no safe place after the zombie apocalypse. There will never again be a safe place.
“They’re coming for you, Barbara!” – NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD