September 9, 2008

Frankenstein Music


I’m guessing that Mary Shelley Overdrive took their name off a Sabertooth mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002. The South Carolina, post-punk band madly mixes original material — self-professed “unmitigated foolishness” — with reckless covers of everything from Devo to Bo Diddley to the Batman Theme. And if that’s not crazy enough for you, they give most of their music away.

Dial up the band’s website to access free downloads, and admire the splendidly trashy record covers and graphics.



Freakenstein hails from Pori, “the Liverpool of Finland”. The band describes its music as “melodic aggressive punk rock” with gothic themes influenced by “horror movies, comics and splatter nightmares”.

Check out Freakenstein’s website for news, bios and band photos. The comic book-style illustration of the Freakenstein character and its victim is by Kari Kuusinen.

The Newcastle-based alternative pop band Dog Years has released a CD entitled Frankenstein Songs, suggesting something patched together and out of control. The band keeps a MySpace presence.

The fabulous cover art for Frankenstein Songs is by Richard Thomas Short. His website is a delight.


2 comments:

Mary Shelley Overdrive said...

Thanks for the mention! You're right about the Sabretooth comic (though I've never read it, and Mark apparently hated it) but I've been a big fan of Frankenstein for most of my life. It was the first book I ever read.

Our next album (Bride of Shock Theatre) will have a song called "The Monster Demands a Mate," with lyrics that mention the mad doctor directly. We also covered the Blue Oyster Cult song "The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankensteins's Castle at Weisseria," but that song did not make the final cut.

Keep in touch!

- Simon

Pierre Fournier said...

Thanks for popping in, Simon. And thanks for all the music you guys give out for free!