Radio Werewolf

Radio Werewolf

Zeena Schreck as co-director of Radio Werewolf at the Berlin Independence Days Music Festival 1989
Background information
Origin Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres Deathrock, Experimental, post-industrial, neoclassical, gothic rock, dream pop, electronica, darkwave, ambient, Post-Punk
Years active 1984 (1984)-1993 (1993)
Past members Nikolas Schreck
Zeena Schreck
Kirby
Vladimir Rosinski
Christoph D.
Evil Wilhelm
Paul Antonelli
James Collord

Radio Werewolf were a stylistically eclectic musical collective active in Los Angeles, California and Europe from 1984 to 1993.

History

Radio Werewolf was founded in Los Angeles in 1984, by Nikolas Schreck (vocals), Evil Wilhelm (percussion), James "Filth" Collord (bass) and Nathan Pino (hammond organ.) When Nathan Pino was asked to leave the band, he was replaced on the keyboard (known by Radio Werewolf as the Lycanthropachord) by Paul Antonelli, formerly with the band Animotion.

Holding a series of controversial theatrical ritual events billed as Radio Werewolf Youth Rallies at such landmark Sunset Strip venues as The Whisky A Go Go, the Roxy, and Club Lingerie, as well as at pioneering Gothic underground clubs The Krypt, The Scream, and Zombie Zoo, the band attracted a cult following they came to identify as the "Radio Werewolf Youth Party." As such, Radio Werewolf claimed that their sound was part of a musical purist movement, designed to evoke feelings of power and harmony through the use of the "dominant frequency" which lead vocalist Nikolas Schreck described in the liner notes of the 1989 Radio Werewolf album The Fiery Summons as sonic magic.

Although this early Radio Werewolf formation recorded many of their signature songs on a 1987 studio album which has since been widely bootlegged, the only official release of music from these sessions was Buried Alive, on the American Gothic LP compilation released by Bomp! and Gymnastic Records in 1988. The 1988 black comedy film Mortuary Academy featured Radio Werewolf as themselves performing 1960 Cadillac Hearse another song featured on their first unreleased album.[1][2][3][4]

Radio Werewolf's live performances from 1984-1988 in Los Angeles sparked a heated controversy due to the nature of the song material. While Schreck and the rest of the band would later refer to their work as mainly a theatrical performance designed to emulate specific aspects of history or culture, songs like "Pogo the Clown" (about serial killer John Wayne Gacy), "The Night" (about a lovesick vampire), and "Incubus" (about a girl being visited by an Incubus), were pointed to by critics as condoning necrophilia[3] and literal vampirism. Adding to the controversy of the band was a number of references to National Socialism. The biggest was the song "Triumph of the Will" which was about an elderly former Nazi reminiscing about Nazi Germany. The very title of the song comes from a Nazi propaganda film, and when performing this song on stage, Nikolas would be dressed in an SS uniform. Radio Werewolf's own name is a reference to Werwolf's "Radio Werewolf" propaganda station. The band also had a song called "Strength through Joy," which was a Nazi slogan and recreational program. And their cover of "These Boots Were Made for Walking" features an army march in the background, as well as Zeena singing a few lines in German. Schreck and Wilhelm also filmed an interview at the August 8, 1988 rally where they had a Nazi flag hanging next to them. The person interviewing them said the Satanic rally seemed similar to what was happening in Germany during the 1930s, to which Schreck and Wilhelm agreed.

Nikolas Schreck

In the late 1980s, Radio Werewolf was heavily featured on talk shows and in media material, billed as heading a worldwide Satanic movement. Interviewed variously by investigative journalist Geraldo Rivera, Tom Metzger, Wally George, Christian pastor Bob Larson, and others, the media infamy associated with this phase of the group culminated, on August 8, 1988, with a Satanically themed rally in San Francisco at the Strand Theater held with NON. This event marked the first Radio Werewolf collaboration with Zeena Schreck, who appeared in her capacity as High Priestess of the Church of Satan.[5]

This performance, along with a Radio Werewolf interview featured on the highly rated Geraldo Rivera's Exposing Satan's Underground TV special broadcast on Halloween of 1988, was additionally controversial due to the perception of the band by some quarters of the music press as supporting Neonazi ideologies. Though this was denied by the band, Evil Wilhelm quit Radio Werewolf shortly after the 8-8-88 Rally, later stating that he felt their music was being misunderstood by Nazi groups.[1][6][7]

Schreck continued Radio Werewolf as a solo project with the release of the 1989 album The Fiery Summons, released by Gymnastic Records of Germany. The release of this album and several mainstream magazine interviews with Schreck in the German press increased Radio Werewolf's cult following in Germany.

In 1989, Nikolas Schreck released a documentary about Charles Manson entitled Charles Manson Superstar under Radio Werewolf's sister label "Video Werewolf." Billed as the only fair interview ever conducted with Manson, the video featured photographs and footage of Spahn Ranch along with interviews of people connected in some way with Manson or movements he has been associated with. Schreck indicated in the documentary that Manson was mostly a misunderstood and misused figure, advocated as evil and archetypal of everything negative through a large scale fabrication by the media. Musical support and Narration also provided by fellow Radio Werewolf member and co-Producer Zeena Schreck.[8]

Zeena Schreck's compositions, performance, and graphic design on Radio Werewolf's 1989 ambient ritual music EP The Lightning and the Sun marked her official entry as Radio Werewolf's Co-Director. She also served as Co-Director with Nikolas Schreck, of the Werewolf Order, a magical and ecological initiatory circle which evolved from the earlier Radio Werewolf Youth Party. The subsequent Radio Werewolf recordings, Songs for the End of the World, Bring Me the Head of Geraldo Rivera, Witchcraft-Boots: A Tribute to the Sin-Atras, and Love Conquers All increasingly covered magical and mythological themes related to the couple's use of sound as a magical tool. From 1990-1993, Radio Werewolf toured only in Europe, and were based in Vienna, Austria, where percussionist Christophe D. and viola player Vladimir Rosinski joined the group.[9]

Radio Werewolf's last performance open to the general public was held at Zurich, Switzerland's historic Kaufleute Hall on December 30, 1991 and was billed as The Zurich Experiment.[10] A Video Werewolf release of the same name was released in 1992. Zeena and Nikolas Schreck continued to operate the Werewolf Order until 1999, but ended the Radio Werewolf aspect of this activity in 1993.[11]

In 2012, Radio Werewolf's The Vinyl Solution - Analog Artifacts: Ritual Instrumentals and Undercover Versions was released by World Operations. The compact disc, the first official Radio Werewolf release since 1992, compiles newly remastered re-releases of 12 ambient sonic magic tracks from Zeena and Nikolas Schreck's rare Radio Werewolf vinyl recordings between 1989-1992 as well as 2 bonus tracks never previously released to the public.[12][13]

Media & Press for The Vinyl Solution

In conjunction with the new release of The Vinyl Solution - Analog Artifacts: Ritual Instrumentals and Undercover Versions, Zeena, Radio Werewolf`s former co-director, composer, performer, graphic designer/art director and She-Wolf from 1988-1993 will grant a very limited number of interviews for its release.[14]

In December 2012, Zeena Schreck was invited to speak for a Nightwatch Radio Interview.[15] Among other topics, the interview was promoting the 2012 Radio Werewolf release of The Vinyl Solution - Analog Artifacts: Ritual Instrumentals and Undercover Versions CD, the first authorized Radio Werewolf release in 20 years,[16]

Discography

Albums

Under the Zeena Schreck/Nikolas Schreck collaborative years:

EPs

Under the Zeena Schreck/Nikolas Schreck collaborative years:

Singles

Under the Schreck/Wilhelm/Collard/Antonelli collaborative years:

Unreleased

Under the Schreck/Wilhelm/Collord/Antonelli collaborative years:

Live performances

Under the Zeena Schreck/Nikolas Schreck collaborative years:

References

  1. 1 2 "Interview und Übersetzung : Dominik Tischleder" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  2. ↑ "Radio Werewolf". Atakra.com. 2003-07-22. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  3. 1 2 The Music Connection, "Who Needs a Record Deal when you're Busy Taking over the World?" Vol 3, No. 12, 1989
  4. ↑ "Radio Werewolf on Rock Renaissance". April 7th, 1985. Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)
  5. ↑ "No Other Radio Network September 22 Broadcast". September 22, 1988. Missing or empty |series= (help)
  6. ↑ Divinity Magazine "Interview with Boyd Rice" Vol 4 No. 1, 1992
  7. ↑ "Race and Reason Interview with Radio Werewolf". July 8, 1985. Missing or empty |series= (help)
  8. ↑ Charles Manson Superstar (Video 1989) - IMDb
  9. ↑ "Link to RW group members page including Kirby (RW writer/performer), Vladimir Rosinsky (RW viola player), Christoph D. (RW percussionist) and Zeena with Arnoldo Steiner (Concert promoter of the last public RW concert The Zurich Experiment).".
  10. ↑ "Arnoldo Steiner's blog with poster and commentary about The Zurich Experiment".
  11. ↑ "The Zurich Experiment, Video Werewolf, Vienna 1992". www.zeena.eu.
  12. ↑ http://nikolasschreck.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=59
  13. ↑ "Review of The Vinyl Solution from "Hail the Werewolf"".
  14. ↑ "News page:press announcement on Zeena Schreck's official homepage".
  15. ↑ "Zeena Schreck Nightwatch Interview Dec. 11, 2012".
  16. ↑ "Radio Werewolf's The Vinyl Solution - Analog Artifacts: Ritual Instrumentals and Undercover Versions - CD".

External links

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