HOUSE of MYSTERY Vol.4, "House of the Dolls"

Welcome back to the HOUSE of MYSTERY, boys & girls! This past August 13th, was an fiercely female night of estrogen-fueled antics and adventure! Five gravely glamorous groups of Japanese femme-fatales appeared on stage at Club Heavy Sick along with special attractions including a sneak-peek screening of B-movie maniac Chris' footage for his tentatively title slasher flick "I Ain't Your Geisha!" and special burlesque dance performance by the lovely Baby Rita! Last but not least, special thanks to DJs Sachi B and Meg the Eyeball for assisting myself, the Stately DJ Wayne Manor, with sinister record spinning!


(THE PHANTASMS)

THE PHANTASMS were the first band to materialize on stage invoking a kinda girls in the garage meets 70's powerpop style. Their cutesy demeanor and bubbly stage presence mixed with an array of covers from divers performers like The Undertones to Billie Davis wowed the early-comers. A special treat was a surfy girl pop version of THE SHAPES' "I Saw Batman in the Laundrette!"


(VILLAINZ)

A blender full of horror punk, organ-powered garage and a heavy dose of raw psychobilly is what's in the VILLAINZ' cocktail. And the crowd drunk up during their haunting set which included original favorites like "Pray of Devil" classics like Shocking Blue's "Venus!"



After the audience picked up their jaws from the watching the Villainz, there was a short intermission where aspiring horror movie and music video filmmaker Chris showed his two Harpy's videos "Tut" and "Crushed Cake" and a shocking slasher clips from his work-in-progress which features detached Japanese women exact their revenge on a male-dominated modern society, like Maki who (The Harpy's) slashes up random guys (like Billy Trash of Ed Woods) with her trusty box cutter!


(THE MERCIES)

Stepping back in time to London circa '62, The Mercies then graced the stage with their old-period Beatles stylings. Quite popular in the Japanese mod and garage scene lately, these four young gals from Tokyo cause a quite a rave-up at the House of Dolls, I didn't even have to ask them to please please me!


(The MADAME CATS)

As always, The Madame Cats rocked hard with their gritty garage blended with Japanese mystique and intrigue. When leader of the pack Madame Who wails on her harmonica the room seems to swirl and when she shakes her maracas wildly, she seems to shake her fans up along with them!


(BABY RITA)

A second intermission featured slinky burlesque dancer Baby Rita slither across stage in her sexy black lingerie which appeared to evaporate amidst hoots and howls to reveal nothing but a delicate face and porcelain skin in a feather boa mist!


(THE PAPPYS)

House of Dolls was also a big chance to dance with The Pappy's, one of the legendary Japanese girls bands still playing around Tokyo and the final band of the night! These three cheeky girls in the garage blitzed through a set of headstrong 60's pop via Ramones style punk! Indeed they might have even called the spirit of Joey Ramone back from the grave for Obon (Japan's festival of the dead happening over the weekend) with their encore of "Rock 'n' Roll Radio!"


(DJ MEG THE EYEBALL)

The Stately DJ Wayne Manor thanks all those involved, including DJs Meg the Eyeball for her wild, random and twisted tunes as well as Sachi B for her punk & psycho playlist and taking the pictures for this blog! Hope to see you all again when the door of the HOUSE of MYSTERY are swung open for the next freakout!