David Kuhnlein – Bloodletter
Limited edition, with 4 Art Cards

We are proud to present Amphetamine Sulphate 50
AS Horror Vol.2

With cover design, illustrations and Art Cards by Steven Purtill (Human Rights, Coyote, Small Talk at the Clinic etc.)

114 pages, perfect bound

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I WILL FILL MY BELOVED MEXICO WITH BETTER DISFIGURED GHOSTS

 

David Kuhnlein writes like he’s casting a spell. Bloodletter is entrancingly evil, every sentence a revelation and a curse: “How much can you care for someone if you can’t afford to dress them in a body bag?” A grotesque world unfurls from his searing prose: “Ghosts reveal their measurements in smoke, different shades, more rings in the middle if they died long ago. Satan can’t keep up.” Blood sacrifices have never been so beautiful. — Danielle Chelosky

 

“Half our clothes are on the floor. The other half hang from the ceiling. Labyrinthine flesh-piles make a staircase. Polishing the soot off a breast with my sleeve, I dance horizontally. The band regurgitates into their instruments to slow the tempo, blowing catchy bubbles of sick. Sweat snows upward, stagnant when we see ourselves pooled within it, mosquitoes in a tin can. Vestigial, amoebic replications, abominable degenerations of the ape, totems fucked through stained glass. I toast the trash. Out of mounds, shaved together into a consciousness, a golden star excretes, floating toward me in a mist, apples singed in her teenaged hair, waist the width of a cigarette. I’m going to bugger her so hard they’ll have to put a serial number on the headstone. “If I’m to your taste, mister, this might spell the end for you.” What more could I ask of a woman? A heart condition of a child, torqued to breed too soon. I offer dialectic fugues, press her forehead, cast a sigil tuned to the cacophony around us. Swaying, she enters a canyon trance, plummeting under magma. Beautiful funerals for all my friends. Remember me as an itch.”

 

Buy BLOODLETTER in the US
Buy BLOODLETTER elsewhere

 

 

A translation from Sara Aldrete’s book Me Dicen La Narcosatánica (They Call Me The Narcosatanist):

Since April 13, 1989, I have been known by various aliases or nicknames: the Priestess, the Godmother, the Devil’s Concubine, the Narcofanatic and the Narcosatanist. Or, simply, Satanic. From that day on, and for two long months, the national and international media spread my name, my image and my connection with the Cuban-American Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, aka El Padrino (The Godfather). They found us guilty of having murdered thirteen people found in the vicinity of the Santa Elena Ranch, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. They claimed that we sacrificed them in satanic rites. Adolfo, in fact, was a santerno, he professed Santeria and was very well accredited in high political, artistic and police circles. Despite this, the Federal Judicial Police also accused him of being a drug trafficker… Hence the sonorous, scandalous and chilling nickname that the forced companions of him receive: The Narcosatanists.

 

 

References:

Heathens: Primitive Man and His Religions – William Howells
Across the Border: The True Story of the Satanic Killings in Matamoros, Mexico – Gary Provost
The Power of Silence – Carlos Casteneda
Me Dicen La Narcosatánica – Sara Aldrete
The Satanic Bible – Anton LaVey
Interpretation of Dreams – Sigmund Freud
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
The Hunger – Whitley Strieber
Perfume – Patrick Süskind
The Black Art of Vampirism – Temple ov the Black Vampire
The Culling Texts – Order of Nine Angles
Book 4 – Aleister Crowley
McGlue – Ottessa Moshfegh
Thirty-Two – Antonin Artaud
Closer – Dennis Cooper
Practical Occultism – Blavatsky
The Village Notary – Jóseph Eötvös
“War Is the Health of the State” – Howard Zinn
The Ancient Art of Strangulation – Haha Lung
Power of Movement in Plants – Charles Darwin

 

I MISS THE DAYS WHEN THE DEVIL HID BEHIND EVERY TREE

 

 

The writer Frigyes Karinthy reported on the case with his characteristic black humor:

“One man collects crested pipes, the other insects, the third postage stamps. Béla Kiss collected female corpses. I stood there in Cinkota’s cemetery in front of the tin barrels, watching in turn as the contents of the opened barrels were tipped over to the autopsy table. Tin barrels of different heights: equally galvanized, precisely, with conscientious work. Those who opened the first barrel did not doubt for a moment that the contents of the others were the same, though this assumption was unimaginable, awful. And those of us who stood there at the inspection all took it quite natural for a small woman to fall to the ground from the smaller barrel and a larger woman from the larger barrel. After the second barrel we knew how to turn the barrel, how deep to reach, and where to grab the twine around the neck of the emerging female head, where the loop was, where it led down to the legs, and how they were knotted together. An ordinary accurate collector works like this, one who understands his craft and loves order.”

 

 

Faces of Kiss:

 

PASS ME THAT GOAT’S HORN:

Brujeria – Pito Wilson (1995)

The Police – Wrapped Around Your Finger (1983)

Brujeria – Consejos Narcos (1995)

Tormentor – Elisabeth Bathory (1988)

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. The blog is lucky enough this weekend to become the location of an entranceway for the new book by the daring and lyrical writer David Kuhnlein. Here’s his site if you want to know more. ‘Bloodletter’ is a fascinating work, and I’m happy to point/jab you in its direction. Please spend the next couple of days reading, looking, and pondering the evidence at hand, and thank you David as well as Mr. Best at the redoubtable Amphetamine Sulphate for radar-ing this spot. ** Charalampos, Errands, I have a few of those. Really don’t know about the Corll/Gacy thing, but it sure sounds like wishful thinking. Um, no, I don’t think I was thinking of any real life situations when I was writing ‘The Sluts’, no. May your spirits be kind. Hugs from blog central. ** PL, Hi. It’s interesting and welcome that, considering how open this blog is, it doesn’t get trolled almost ever. Knock on wood, etc. That is a curious story: that online partly made up guy. Pretty colorful. Trust is definitely very important to me in real life. Weird people … gosh, I feel like I’ve never known anyone who wasn’t weird, but almost always in the good way. I’ve developed pretty good radar for real world fakers, I think. My parents went to church once in a while, and they dragged me along a few times, but I never paid attention. So The Bible wasn’t in my upbringing at all. But lots of really good artists, you obviously included, have used their religious upbringing to make amazing work, so hats off to The Bible as an artistic resource, at least. I’d like to see the paste with your favorite animals, yes, please. Snakes, that’s scary. I forgot that I had a big tarantula chase me for almost a mile when I was in Texas when I was 6 years old, and I think I’ve never been more frightened. It was BIG. Have a really terrific weekend. What happened? ** _Black_Acrylic, I remember reading about that Tramway show. The good old Tramway. We played ‘Kindertotenlieder’ there ages ago. In fact that’s where/when I first met Misanthrope, Joe Mills, Wolf, and a bunch of other d.l.s turned good friends. ** Misanthrope, Ho. Um, well, I think that Twitter person has the right idea, frankly, ha ha. Dig the party tonight. Ideally with mom. And, you know, Alex. And Beth. ** Steve, Hi. Thanks, I’ll check for the Anger doc. Oh, sure, knowing more obviously is a plus re: reviewing the contextually unfamiliar, but there’s the whole naiveté unlocking the pure and unforeseen thing too. Oh, no, sorry about your dad. That’s scary. Still House Plants are on the cover of the new Wire, as you doubt know, and I’ve been planning to find out what they are. Thanks for the nudge. If you didn’t see it yesterday, Uday wrote ‘Oh also could you tell Steve I’d be happy to discuss Indian film?’ So hit him up/back if you like. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thank you. It always felt close to certain that we wouldn’t get into Cannes, so it’s not a big blow. And seeing what did make the cut in the category we submitted to — Un Certain Regard — it’s clear that we didn’t have a chance. A strength of our film — that it’s aesthetically unique and anti-trendy, i.e. deliberately not about politics, identity, race, pop culture, etc. (there aren’t even any cell phones or computers in it) — is also its weakness in situations like this where festivals are looking for films about trending topics and themes. It seems like they would be hungry for originality, but they really aren’t. They like homogeny, possibly with an edge. So I suspect the festival circuit is not going to be friendly to us, and we’ll likely end up finding another way to get the film out into the world. Which is fine. But we’ll keep trying for a while. I have a fetish for perfect titles. I lie in bed at night trying to come up with them. I too think love is very lucky to be childless. No offence to the child creators. Love making the laces on my left shoe stop unraveling all the time for no seeming reason, or at least explaining to me why they do that, G. ** James Bennett, ‘Harrow’, excellent, I loved that. She’s a god. Um, for some reason I feel like I should wait until either the book has a pub date or the press itself announces the book to reveal the source. That might be old fashioned of me. Soon, for sure. I think I remember feeling that way a long time ago when I read ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Probably since too, but that example is the one that springs to mind. I haven’t read Hemingway in yonks, but I do remember he wrote very good sentences. Same re: your wellness and the quality of your weekend. ** politekid, Aw, thanks, pal. It’s no big, really. I really believe in the film, and I know it’ll find its way. But, yeah, fuck Cannes. How are you? ** Justin D, Hi Justin. Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t realise there were two Justins, and I just thought you commented twice. Sorry, sorry. I should have been paying more detailed attention. What was the accompanying game to the ‘I Wished’ recitation? I might just try that. Aw, thank you for the feeling it gave you. I’m way over the JT Leroy thing, although I can’t believe she’s still out there with a fanbase in tow. She’s wretched. But oh well. How was your weekend, and what happened, eh? ** Harper, Hi. Beatnigs and Death Grips, that’s really interesting. Huh, I can see that. Great about your body returning to form! That’s romantic: having a mom who worked in a bookstore. My mom thought books were decor. I had to hide almost everything I read from my parents when I was young. I think they thought fiction writers were cult leaders or something. ** Dev, Hi, Dev. Welcome! It’s really good to meet you. The only metal I listen to falls into the Black or Death area, or the more experimental area like Sunn0))) or Earth and that sort of thing. What do you recommend? I could use some directives, for sure. Congrats on heading towards med school wherever that leads you. That’s a tough choice, no? I should say I’ve only driven quickly through New Orleans, so I only know its vibe, which was good, btw. Personally, I hate hot weather, so that kind of puts a damper on N.O., although DC gets really hot too. They’re such different places. I mean if you choose DC you’re close to NYC, which might be good? I don’t know, what are your instincts telling you? Are the two schools basically on the same level in terms of educational desirability? Anyway, good to talk with you. I hope to do that more. ** Uday, Hey! Oh, uh, no booking rates on my end. I don’t do that stuff very often. I think I’m pretty easy. Yes, the ‘Shy’ Kevin Killian. Well, yeah, I collect books too, I must admit, and, yes, it is rather an accumulation. I’ll go back up and tell Steve that. I know there’s some way to post a comment as a reply to another comment because I see people do it, but I don’t know how. Isn’t there a ‘reply’ option on the comments themselves maybe? ** Bill, Hi, Bill. My pleasure, obvs. Some of the original imbeds were dead so I had to replace them, and I hope my replacements were okay. Thanks about Cannes. It’s okay, we’ll be fine. Big weekend to ya, somehow somewhere! ** Okay. Please investigate and possibly spring for Mr. Kuhnlein’s fine book, and I’ll see you on Monday.

* (restored)

Among long-time San Franciscans, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the 80s to early 90s: rent was cheap, things were falling apart, and every block seemed to have a crazy gallery (like the legendary Kiki), colorful cafes to hang out at (like the late lamented Bearded Lady), performance spaces hosting insane splatter projects (by the likes of the Sick and Twisted Players), or wacky band. This was also a city in the throes of the AIDS epidemic (protease inhibitors weren’t available till well into the 90s), dealing with the effects of the Loma Pieta earthquake, with regular ACTUP/Queer Nation actions and massive protests against the first Gulf War. It didn’t look like things would get better any time soon, but people made and did beautiful things, and partied.

Simon Reynolds, in his essential book on post-punk, Rip It Up and Start Again, devotes an excellent chapter to the San Francisco (freak) scene. I’m a big fan of the better known bands (Tuxedomoon, Residents, Chrome, etc), but there are some poorly documented groups that made some fine music, that’s finally showing up online. Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed.

 

Minimal Man

Discogs page
Myspace
Wikipedia entry

 

Formed by leader Patrick Miller when he moved to San Francisco in the late 70s, Minimal Man made some fine noise rock in its early days. (Later songs can sound somewhat like Gary Numan.)

 

 

 

Trial

Discogs page
Sean Reveron’s appreciation

 

I never caught Trial live; their shows were supposed to be real events. The thick tribal percussion and guitars remind me of a more political Crash Worship.

 

 

 

Glorious Din

Discogs page
Some articles and miscellaneous info

 

Probably one of the more straight ahead postpunk bands in this post, kind of Joy Division meets shoe gaze, more angular and with hazier guitars. Very tasteful.

 

 

 

Stickdog

Facebook page
Discogs page

 

Stickdog actually started in Iowa (sounds like there was quite an Iowa-Bay area exodus in the 80s), but moved to San Francisco after releasing their 2nd lp on SF’s Alternative Tentacles label. Love the thick dark guitar sound, and metallic percussion.

 

 

 

Tragic Mulatto

Wikipedia page
Discogs page

 

One of those short-lived Bay area legends, with a big sludgy spastic sound (often compared to Butthole Surfers), horn section, Flatula Lee Roth’s operatic wailing and outrageous chaos onstage.

This was probably their (ahem) hit:

 

 

Live:

 

 

Beatnigs

Beatnigs wikipedia page

 

Beatnigs was of course Michael Franti and Rono Tse’s band, before Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Spearhead. I remember a really electric live gig with a stripped down lineup at the late lamented I-Beam; unfortunately the youtube live clips mostly have terrible sound quality.

 

 

 

Mudwimmin

Discogs page

 

After Tragic Mulatto, Bambi Nonymous re-emerged as Mudwimmin’s drummer. Their early 90s gigs were always a glorious explosion of noise and burlesque, with their thick viscous sound, odd arrangements, and on-stage antics. This gives an idea:

 

 

Luckily they actually recorded a couple albums before disappearing.

 

 

Ovarian Trolley

Discogs page
Trouser Press page with snarky Ira Robbins text

 

Ovarian Trolley slipped in at the tail end of this time window, anchored by the Hall sisters on drums and vocals, and Buck Bito on guitar. Ira Robbins hates their stringent, cutting sound; I love it.

They haven’t performed regularly in decades. But they can still play:

 

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** PL, Hi. I think MJ’s saint days in the US are behind him at this point. Maybe 50% are still high on him at most? I like what I know of Clams Casino, but I don’t have that album, so I’ll get it, thanks! A long time ago, there was a regular commenter on the blog who made up a fake other identity for a while. In that case, it was obnoxious because the fake person was supposedly young and suicidal and asking for help and stuff. Someone from here found out what was going on, and I confronted the commenter and told them to never, ever do that again. But months later, they did the same thing again, and then I told them never to come back here. I’m big on trust, and if someone betrays my trust, I sort of have to totally distance myself from them. Other than that, the fake commenters have mostly been kind of amusing and obviously made up. You know, I’ve never read The Bible. Not even a word. Weird, no? So that stuff is really foreign to me. You should make that animated film. I’m already really interested. And in your take on animals. That’s super interesting. I like animals, especially birds for some reason. Pigeons live near my apartment windows, and I study them a lot when I’m smoking at my smoking window. I was surprised at how complex their social lives are. Hm, I don’t think I have any wild animal encounter stories. A shark chased me in Hawaii once. That was scary. Otherwise, whenever I’ve seen wild animals it’s always been kind of a chill, polite encounter. Have you had intense one-on-ones with wild animals? Awesome talking with you too. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I like trying to come up with the perfect title, but I think it would be hard with clowns. The problem is I watched a couple of pet rescue videos on Facebook, and Facebook decided I must like them, and so now I get tons of them in my feed all the time. I’m trying not to watch them so Facebook will unlearn that interest of mine and leave me alone. Ha ha, love has the best rocks, no doubt. Love disappearing my disappointment that our film didn’t get accepted at Cannes, even though I saw that rejection coming from miles away, G. ** ellie, Hi! Cool, I look forward to it! I’m assuming the complicatedness in your life isn’t the good kind, so I hope that passes. My life’s a bit complicated too at the moment, but it’ll simplify soon, I think. Take care. Excited! xo. ** _Black_Acrylic, I never got into Primal Scream. Well, except their very first single ‘Velocity Girl’ when they didn’t sound anything what they soon became. ** Tosh Berman, So cool you were on those sets. I visited the set of ‘I Love Lucy’ when I was a kid because my aunt was friends with Lucille Ball. I hung out on the sets of the ‘Hardy Boys’ TV show in the early 70s because my friend was one of its stars. My new book is really short and skinny, so it won’t take up too much space. ** Charalampos, Oh, okay. I don’t have any Kylie albums either. I think the Gacy/Corll theories are total made up fantasy crap. But more power to the dreamers, I guess. High five from 75008. ** Misanthrope, Glad you dug it. I think David needs to try the cafe allonge with double espresso chaser combo, and then we’ll see who’s the bigger maniac. ** Justin, Hi, Justin! Happy you liked that piece. When I’m not creating something, I literally don’t what to do with myself. I’m trying to imagine listening to ‘I Wished’ while playing a video game, and I can’t, but I like the idea. I’ve never listened to the audible version. I wanted them to let me read it, and they wouldn’t, and that kind of pissed me off. The fake commenters: most of then were just for fun and self-entertainment and general entertainment too, I guess. The one fucked up one, which I described above, was for … well, I don’t know why they did that. Wanting attention and wanting to mess with people, I guess. Another commenter found out that the fake commenter was fake, I don’t remember how, and he told me. I didn’t confront the perpetrator here on the blog because I didn’t want to start some big controversy that would be taxing and exhausting to deal with, so I told them to stop privately. It really pissed me off because … I don’t know if you know the whole JT Leroy thing where I and a lot of people were duped by a fake supposedly dying boy/writer, but the fake commenter thing here was totally exploiting the fact that I had fallen for a similar prank, and I thought that was evil because the JT Leroy thing was really ugly. So, yeah. Thanks, I’m very happy you liked Zac’s and my films. No, the Adam Lanza photo was a decision made when shooting the film. Zac had it on his wall, and we just decided to use it. It’s such an amazing photo. Zac was really fascinated by Lanza, may still be. Great idea: the film based on/inspired by Lanza. My advice would be to not worry whatsoever about possible sentimentality and just write exactly what he inspires you to write. I’m a big proponent of what you can do in revision and editing later, so I would just write freely and then see later if you think it’s too sentimental towards him, and then excise that if you want to, My suspicion is that what you write won’t be as sentimental as you fear. The death metal track in ‘PGL’ is ‘Permanent Funeral’ by the band Pig Destroyer. Bon day! ** Darby 🐗🪓🏃‍♂️, Ha ha, that emoji sequence honors my boar experience. Although, technically, I was armed with a bow and arrow. Congrats on the roommating of your cat. Give them a scrunch for me. Huh, it is kinda of like alchemy. Its effect is certainly magical. Ha ha, no, none of the pigeons around me do that. Wow, that’s amazing. I wish I could teach them that skill. What a beautiful gif. I stole it. I’m going to use it in something. Speaking of rocks, you rock. ** Steve, I saw a preview for ‘Civil War’ before the ‘Godzilla x Kong’ viewing the other day. I thought it would be more stylish. It just looks like a ‘meaning’-packed disaster movie. No, I know nothing about that ‘HB’-like TV series, no. How curious. The perspective of someone who’s outside of something, say ‘Bollywood’, seems just as valuable as insider’s perspective, isn’t it? ** Harper, Hey, H. I’ve never read ‘Vineland’, maybe because of its initial meh reaction. Hm, I’m going to rectify that absence. Let me know what you think. I read ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ when I was sixteen, and it seriously blew my mind, as you can imagine. Even though I had already read lots of experimental fiction by then. Your description of it is crazy great! I also read that Richard Farina novel in my mid-teens. I always forget about it. I liked it. I remember thinking it was a lot better than ‘On the Road’, which everybody was reading at the time. I still have a Richard and Mimi Farina album somewhere. My next cigarette will be like the champagne bottle that christens a cruise ship, and you’ll be the cruise ship, and not the Titanic, I promise. ** Joseph, Hi, Joseph! Good to see you, bud. I’ve never thought about it before, but I think I would really like to have a deep conversation with someone who passionately loves rocks, or interview them maybe. I’m glad you liked the Kitchen book. Yeah, really fresh, right? A happy discovery. Cool, take it easy. ** Nika Mavrody, I put ‘rock’ + ‘contemporary art’ into the google search window, and then I hunted what came up with an eagle eye. ** Uday, Oops, my fucking eccentric blog. Goodness. Please thank your subconscious for casting me in your dream in such a meaty role. I’m chuffed. I really like doing events at colleges. I’ve had the most interesting conversations with the most interesting people there. So, yeah, I would be cool with an invitation. Gosh, thank you. Mm, I don’t think I collected rocks. I boringly collected stamps for a while. I collected Pez dispensers for a while. I collected rare records, but I usually ended up reselling them for $$. My friend Kevin Killian used to collect stray pubic hairs he found in public bathrooms. Did or do you collect things? Much love back, me. ** Right. Today you get a restoration of an old post by the honorable Bill Hsu that guides you through the wonders of San Francisco-based post/ art/ punk/ noise music of the 80s/90s, and it’s educational treat. So, throw caution to the wind. See you tomorrow.