Tag Archives: jeremy lowe

St Rooster Books: Stranger With Friction 1 & 2

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Tim Murr walks the path of most resistance when it comes to DIY publishing. Having debuted his first collection Destroying Lives for Fun and Profit over 25 years ago before founding St Rooster Books. Managed with his wife Stephanie, St Rooster Books regularly releases anthologies and horror novellas. Uplifting writers with a unique flair for horror with e-readers or a print-on-demand service. Remaining loyal to the palpable connection with art, Murr also released the physical magazine, Stranger With Friction. A quarterly publication offering outsider literature for those inspired by horror, comics, and punk rock. 

The first few issues offer a variety of regular columns and personal essays. Diving into horror franchises like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and various albums of Black Flag and Alice Cooper. Chris Cavoretto of Werewolves in Siberia, contributes a dissection of punksploitation soundtracks like Repo Man and Return of The Living Dead. SWF also examines socio-political issues within the horror genre in an interview with up and coming indie director, Izzy Lee. 

Other steady purveyors of twisted fiction like “Neighborhood Watch” and “Secret Satan” is author Carter Johnson. Keeping the nightmares alive from the infected trenches of an apocalyptic suburbia to the cubicle walls of a literal office Hell. Jeremy Lowe also haunts the pages of SWF with “Macho Insecurity” and “Bury Them Deep”. A queer punk videodrome of self discovery and a carny possessed hearse taking on a hillbilly sex church. Others are newcomers, like Lamont Turner and his tale of mad science haunting a house with time warping mutants in “Cramps”. Reed Alexander writes “The Nightlife”, a thriller about a late night rave that turns into a cannibal buffet. There’s political prose from Erik Stewart and morbidly romantic poetry by Marcelline Block. 

Lastly, a Publisher Spotlight is featured on Sam Richard of the kindred indie press, Weird Punk Books. Richard talks about origins and upcoming releases of the erotic occult variety. (Checkout their tribute anthologies to GG Allin and David Cronenburg.) 

For those that dabble primarily in weird cult genres, Stranger With Friction is worth picking up from St Rooster Books. If not inspired to submit to the magazine itself,it is a must read to further introduce yourself to the many voices of indie horror culture. 

You can pick up Stranger With Friction #1 & #2 HERE and peruse other releases by St Rooster Books. Check out the latest The God Provides by Thomas R Clark!

Review: Kids of the Black Hole – A Punksploitation Anthology

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My first introductions to punk rock were exactly as Tim Murr described them, “pink mohawked parodies on TV shows like Mama’s Family.” Or perhaps it was a young Johnny Depp “Speaker Diving” to Agent Orange on 21 Jump Street. The fascination with these cartoon portrayals led me to seek out other punks on film. Low budget movies with actual bands performing punk rock soundtracks and even real punkers as extras.

Anyone with a special devotion to punksploitation has a story of the influence it had on their life. Return of The Living Dead took place on the day I was born, and I’ve sampled many lines from Repo Man for mixtapes, over the years. Tim Marr shares the same love for the subgenre that I do. Curating a small collection of original short stories inspired by classics of the 80s like Suburbia and Dudes. St Rooster Books released the (hopefully the 1st of many) anthology, Kids of the Black Hole.

Sarah Miner’s “Black Thunder” is a fast-paced tale of mad science. Flesh crazed Gipper clones terrorize a dive on the outskirts of town. A band of punks on tour deliver a splatter fest with excellent one-liner cheese. Chris Hallock continues the theme of surreal tour life with “Urchins”. A punkrock girl finds her true voice after a gig. Facing off with Nazi skin heads as newly crowned queen of the Philly CHUDs. Paul Lubsczewski’s “I Love Livin’ in the City” is a hard-boiled fleece. A punk gang prowls through strange city streets, ready to pounce on poseurs for a good time. But amid the flames and dead bodies, who is hunting who? “Skate or Die” by Jeremy Lowe is a demonic cumming-of-age nightmare. Weird kids gotta stick together and take back their power when friendships are threatened. Even if it means unleashing hell on your hometown with Satanic skateboard Droogs! Tim Murr concludes the anthology with “What We Do Is Secret”. A spooky crush drags a musician into the middle of necromancer feud. Caught between a swamp witch and a death cult, this story proves that sometimes punk rock can save your life.

I certainly hope to see more volumes of punksploitation anthologies from St Rooster Books in the future. The title, Kids of The Black Hole was taken from a song of the same name off the Adolescents’ blue album, as a tribute to the late bassist, Frank Soto. It’s sloppy good fun for lovers of weird fiction and the horror show of subculture.

Available on Amazon here.