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Not all animal horror films are created equal. Some achieve cinematic greatness, while others thrive on their comedic, campy notoriety. But one addition to the category is just flat out brutal. The 1988 film Slugs lives up to the genre by supplying fans with a creepy-crawly adventure glistening in equal parts slime and blood. Making garden dwellers intimidating is no easy feat, but director Juan Piquer Simón gave them an edge by focusing on dynamic and gnarly special effects. Take a break from the slashers and psychological games with this nature-gone-wild gore fest.

With her first two albums, particularly 2022’s Painless, Nilüfer Yanya created an immersive, moody vibe and delivered some of the most irresistible guitar pop this side of Porches. Yanya levels up on both counts on her third studio album, My Method Actor, and intensifies her songwriting game to boot.

The album’s guitar work, courtesy of collaborator Wilma Archer, deals in extremes more so than on Yanya’s previous releases, contrasting naturalistic acoustic licks with splayed-out electric fuzz to maximal effect on tracks like “Like I Say (Runaway).” The guitar playing isn’t overly technical, but Archer and Yanya land on grooves that scratch an almost indescribable emotional itch, as on “Binding,” a devastating song about addiction.

Like Yanya’s past work, My Method Actor is predominantly minor key and melancholic in tone. The lyrics reinforce a lack of personal fulfillment and a search for satisfaction, both internally and interpersonally.

Beck is gearing up for a string of orchestral performances, where he’ll be hitting venues like the Hollywood Bowl and the Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall with a rotating crew of instrumentalists.

Kicking off in the Seattle suburb of Woodinville in July, the limited run of dates will feature Beck with orchestras local to each city throughout the tour. This includes staples like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the legendary Boston Pops.

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As for the setlist, Beck promises cuts from throughout his multiple decades of music, offering both unique symphonic arrangements of favorite tunes alongside deep cuts from his extensive catalogue. In a statement, he teased a reimagining of his body of work, calling out Odelay, Mutations, Sea Change, and Morning Phase.

Tickets for most dates are now on sale, while seats for the Carnegie Hall performance will go on sale on May 23rd at 11 a.

Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Slow Pulp take us through their new record Yard.

Today (September 29th), Chicago quartet Slow Pulp return with their sophomore album Yard.

Featuring Emily Massey on vocals, Alex Leeds on bass, Teddy Matthews on drums, and Henry Stoehr on guitar and production, Yard builds on the guitar-forward dream-pop of Slow Pulp’s 2020 album Moveys. But now equipped with an even deeper level of trust between themselves in the years since, the band use Yard as an opportunity to showcase their broader influences within indie rock, infusing their sound with gritty punk, piano balladry, and folksy twang.

Massey’s vocals also sound more confident on Yard, especially on the single “Broadview,” a bittersweet country ballad that encapsulates late-night summer love. “This song is about letting yourself fall in love for...

The songs on Slow Pulp’s second studio album, Yard, revolve around feelings of isolation and trust. Indeed, there’s a melancholic haze that permeates the album, as singer Emily Massey grapples with learning to be alone. “Could you want me tomorrow/Or is it gone?” she cries on the opening track, “Gone 2,” hinting at the themes she’ll go on to explore throughout the album.

Because of Covid restrictions, the vocals for Slow Pulp’s first studio album, Moveys, were recorded in Massey’s father’s home studio, and the band did the same on Yard. As such, Massey’s vocals remain distinctly warm and intimate, if bleak: “Yet another full moon that I missed this year,” she laments on “Mud.”

And similar to Moveys, the songs on Yard alternate between mellow acoustic ballads and fuzzy pop-punk anthems. But whereas the earlier album was full of light, poppy beats,...

Chicago-via-Madison band Slow Pulp presents ‘Doubt,’ the new single from their forthcoming album and Anti- debut, Yard, out September 29th.

Following lead single ‘Slugs’ – which “was made for that hazy and sweet late summer crush” (Nylon) – ‘Doubt’ is taunting and upbeat, a track about begging someone to validate your insecurities. “In my process to fight against self-deprecation, I found this strange new pattern popping up where I fished for critiques from others,” says lead singer Emily Massey. “I wanted people close to me to validate the things I hated about myself. Self-doubt had found a home in me, it felt safer to stay in this familiar negative space than to like myself. I thought if others shared that with me I wouldn’t have to do the work to change.” On Yard, Slow Pulp tackles the process of becoming comfortable with yourself – a balancing act with learning to trust, love,...

Swedish electronic band Little Dragon are back with “Slugs of Love,” a spirited new single. Check it out below.

Slugs are famously slow molluscs, but “Slugs of Love” wiggles at a much quicker pace with propulsive bass from Little Dragon’s Fredrik Wallin and animated vocalizations from Yukimi Nagano. It’s the type of song the Gothenburg group says should be played “by a bunch of youngsters with rubberboots in different sparkling colors.” As for the slug reference, they clarified:

“Did you know that Leopard Slugs perform a very sensual and acrobatic dance, an exchange between two individuals carrying the same set of reproduction systems? Maybe we are all yearning for love and ecstasy, as we turn more sluggish and slimy trying to convey this urge.”

The track marks Little Dragon’s first release since last year’s Opening the Door EP, which featured an appearance from Jid. Their last LP,...

Few Grammy Awards were as memorable as the 57th annual event. That night, Sam Smith almost swept the general field, Kendrick Lamar won his first awards, and Sia delivered one of the most memorable Grammys performances of the 21st century. But most importantly, the 2015 ceremony was remembered for the last award presented, which would prove not only controversial but, to many people, an exemplification of certain problems with the recording academy that have only gotten worse since then. The night of the 57th Grammy Awards was defined by one big question: how did Beck beat Beyonce?

To understand Beck’s landmark win, we first have to take a short look into his previous work. Beck has been known for making eclectic yet mainstream alternative music. His debut album, the folk-driven “Golden Feelings,” didn’t receive much attention. It wasn’t until his third studio album, “Mellow Gold,” that Beck got...

Creature features, monster movies, or however you'd like to refer to them, are old defining staples of the horror genre that were as loved in the 50s as they are today. Many of film's most memorable villains are creatures; thus, many of history's greatest horror films can be considered "creature features."

There's no boundary on what may constitute a killer creature in horror, and filmmakers are always finding fun, inventive ways of villainizing animals and objects.

There's the obvious movie monsters, like vampires, werewolves, mummies, and zombies. There's the commonly seen creatures like vicious sharks, killer crocodiles, and even deadly bugs. Then there's the laundry list of classically less threatening creatures that still leave behind carnage in B-horror history, like slugs, roaches, and bats.

While monster movies have been hot ticket items since the early days of film, genre lovers haven't tired of watching otherworldly creatures, rodents, mutants, and the like wreak havoc on screen.

Arrow Video is excited to announce the August slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the action-packed black-and-white nautical nightmare Lake Michigan Monster, the uncut version of Argento's Tenebrae and Stephen King's Children of the Corn.

Lake Michigan Monster has been acclaimed at film festivals around the globe, taking home the Gold Audience Award for Best International Film at Fantasia, Best Visual Effects - Feature at FilmQuest, Best Ensemble Cast at GenreBlast and Best Wisconsin Film at the Beloit International Film Festival. Writer, director and star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews has crafted an inventive and irreverent homage to the classic monster films of yore with the bizarre Captain Seafield, joined by a colorful crew of misfits on a mission to slay the sea beast that killed his father.

Lake Michigan Monster and Inferno of Torture will be available August 3rd on the Arrow Video Channel in the US and the UK.

Arrow Video announced a killer August lineup for their video channel, including Children of the Corn, the uncut version of Tenebrae, and much more:

London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the August slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including the action-packed black-and-white nautical nightmare Lake Michigan Monster, the uncut version of Argento's Tenebrae and Stephen King's Children of the Corn.

Lake Michigan Monster has been acclaimed at film festivals around the globe, taking home the Gold Audience Award for Best International Film at Fantasia, Best Visual Effects - Feature at FilmQuest, Best Ensemble Cast at GenreBlast and Best Wisconsin Film at the Beloit International Film Festival. Writer, director and star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews has crafted an inventive and irreverent homage to the classic monster films of yore with the bizarre Captain Seafield, joined by a colourful crew of misfits on a mission...

Give it up for Juan Piquer Simon. Not only did the Spanish director bestow upon the horror world one of the craziest and memorable slashers of all time, Pieces (1983), he also found it within himself to give us Slugs (1988). Not quite as crazy as Pieces (but almost as good), Slugs trades heavily in the J.P. Simon business: a whole lot of weird, a nuclear ton of energy, and gore galore. If you only see one badly dubbed mollusk monster movie, filled with heavy pettin’ and (literally) explosive action, you would be wise to choose Slugs.

Released Stateside by New World Pictures (post Roger Corman years) in February, this Spanish/American coproduction has never been as beloved as J.P.’s killer-on-campus opus, but that’s only because it seems to play out in a more straightforward manner. Trust me; this film brings all the B level goods, with no expiration date in sight.

For a creature that is not inherently scary, the common slug sure has menaced a lot of horror movies. From Night of the Creeps to Slither to The Puppet Masters, the slimy little mollusks have played the villain on screen again and again. But it is only Juan Piquer Simón’s 1988 film Slugs (aka Slugs, muerte viscosa) that gives them top billing. Of all the slug horror movies, this one is the sluggiest.

Slugs is also trashy, gory nonsense, which is to be expected from the director of Pieces, one of the most insane slasher movies ever made. While Slugs lacks the inspired lunacy of Pieces, it’s not for lack of trying. The film stars Michael Garfield as Mike Brady (that’s right), a worker with the health department who suspects that a recent rash of gruesome deaths are the result of a new strain of slug that has...

Slugs (1988) Arrow Video recently released Juan Piquer Simon ‘s Slugs on Blu-ray and the oozy 1988 shocker has never looked better. As a film that lives or dies by the quality of its visual creature and gore FX, it remains a top notch curio of the era and has stirred in me an interest in revisiting more in the garden variety, […]...

Nick Aldwinckle Oct 25, 2016

Fancy some horror? We've been taking a look at the discs of Ghoulies, The Burning, Psychomania and more...

“Have you ever heard a frog scream?”, the tag-line to George McCowan’s 1972 ecological horror Frogs (out now on Arrow Blu-ray) should have read. Indeed, for any of you readers that have ever been rudely awoken at 2am by the sound of a traumatised frog being gifted to you by your pet cat/furry psychopath, an amphibian cry of terror is probably the second worst sound there is (behind, of course, Kaiser Chiefs).

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Not that frogs themselves are inherently evil, though viewing this classic dose of seventies green-themed nastiness might convince you otherwise. Slugs are Ok, too, though we’ll get on to them later on in this month’s vague...

You can tell Halloween is right around the corner, as September 27th has over 20 different horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases looking to put a dent in your wallet. As far as new movies go, The Shallows, The Neon Demon, and Warcraft are all coming home on Tuesday, and for all you classic horror fans, there are new releases of An American Werewolf in London, Blood Diner, Chopping Mall, Lady in White, Slugs, and the 30th anniversary Blu-ray for Highlander.

Other notable releases for September 27th include Stephen King’s Cell, Count Dracula’s Great Love, The Mangler, Grimm: Season Five, and The Shape of Things to Come.

An American Werewolf in London: Restored Edition (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray)

Re-discover one of the most gripping horror films of all time with the cult classic An American Werewolf in London Restored Edition. Blending the macabre with a wicked sense of humor,...

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Streaming Dead, where I will be sharing with you some titles of note that have been added to Netflix Instant during the month of April 2012.

If you missed my initial post on what to expect from this column, you can read it here. However, if you don’t feel like reading that piece, the gist of it is that this column will feature three recommendations from the new crop of horror titles that are currently available for streaming via Netflix Instant: One “Featured” title from the latest additions to the streaming library; One title chosen from the many pre-existing titles that the service offers; One pick chosen from the titles that will be expiring within the next few weeks. Following those recommendations will be a quick rundown of several other horror-related titles that have recently been added or renewed that you may be interested in checking out.

During the 70's, 80's, and 90's, independent Spanish exploitation filmmaker Juan Piquer Simon quietly and lovingly cooked up an ambitious and outrageous collection of goofy and gonzo genre cinema curiosities, full of cracked charm and fantastical old-school practical effects (rubber-suit monsters, matte paintings, opticals, etc.). Ever since I converged on Simon's wild filmography for the first time, by unintentionally discovering separate films independently of each other and then tying them all back to the same man, I have always been impressed and intrigued by his eclectic string of independently made oddball fantasy cinema delights, like; Where Time Began (aka Fabulous Journey To The Center Of The Earth) (1976), the MST3K made-famous The Pod People (1983), Supersonic Man (1979), Slugs: The Movie (1988) (served up on Jfd Ep#8), Mystery On Monster Island (1981), The Rift (aka Endless Descent) (1990), Sea Devils (1982), Pieces (1982), Cthulhu Mansion (1990) and Manoa, the City of Gold (1999), among others.

According to IMDb; "Simon...

It is with great sadness that I am here writing that the director of one of my favorite slashers has passed away. Juan Piquer Simón is most known for the goofy and yet bloody 1983 slasher Pieces. Though it certainly didn’t re-invent the wheel, Pieces finally gained its much deserved attention over the past couple of years with DVD releases. I first stumbled upon this gem through one of those “10 movie sets” that included a group of public domain films all in one case. Its over the top approach to horror quickly won me over. Pieces finally saw a more proper DVD release through Grindhouse Releasing in 2008. The director is also known for the films Slugs: The Movie, The Pod People, and Satan’s Blood. Juan Piquer Simón died at 74 after battling lung cancer. Dtb extends our condolences to Simón’s family and friends.