Bad Times Deceased
TGIF Mix Tape #2 Includes: Sam's Top 5 Horror Screen Queens, New Music Friday ft. Rebecca Black, Tiarra Girls, CHVRCHES, Jake Wesley Rogers, & More
Although it’s the beginning of June, honoring the horror ‘Screen Queens’ (new feature alert) of Halloween past isn’t a seasonal celebration. For me, I do it all year round.
There are so many horror queens to honor, but for brevity and keeping this post compact, I’ve narrowed it down to five Horror Scream Queens. - Sam
1. Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The moment Ms. Lanchester rose from the dead at the end of Bride of Frankenstein, I believe I knew what true love was. With her razor-sharp features and pitch-black hair, with a single white strip traveling the length of it, the beauty in horror I knew is embodied in Elsa Lanchester. She may be the most iconic Horror Screen Queen, even though her screen time wasn’t more than 5 minutes long. It has undoubtedly made an impact on the future of horror.
2. Gloria Holden in Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
If you haven’t seen the original Dracula (1931), you are seriously missing some classic Hollywood filming. The whole film is brilliant and even more intelligent that they came out with a sequel called Dracula’s Daughter in 1936. If Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula weren’t badass enough, you’d love his daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska, even more. Gloria Holden is stunning as this young Horror Screen Queen.
3. Sissy Spacek in Carrie (1976)
Fast forward to the mid-70s, and teenage Carrie White is getting bullied in high school by very mean girls. Carrie is based on the novel by the Horror King himself, Stephen King; Carrie is iconic because you can’t help but feel sorry for her and maybe even cheer her on secretly as she seeks revenge on the ones who wronged her. Covered in pig’s blood and simply tired of everyone’s shit, something tells me Carrie would’ve loved Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR (2021).
4. Shelley Duvall in The Shining (1980)
You don’t have to be a monster or super-powered being to be a Horror Screen Queen. Sometimes, all you need to make this list of iconic Horror Queens is to have a good scream! And boy, does Shelley Duvall know how to scream. In The Shining (1980), her character, Wendy, is a sweet character who knows how to survive. I think this is what makes her character so endearing and, yes, iconic: just because she’s sweet doesn’t mean she won’t hit you with a baseball bat in self-defense.
5. Jessica Lange in American Horror Story
Jessica Lange is perfect in absolutely everything she does, but especially in the American Horror Story series. It’s hard to choose just one of her iconic characters in the show, but the most well-known is most likely when she played Fiona Goode, The Supreme of the witches in AHS: Coven (2013-2014). Lange always brought something unique to her characters when portraying them. You can’t do anything but fear her when she’s on-screen. Lange is the answer to our modern-day Horror Screen Queen.
New Music Friday on Youthquake is always on shuffle, so here are some of the latest tracks you should hear and watch now. - Naomi
🎧: Rebecca Black Worth it For the Feeling
For a slow-burning and smooth-like silk track with dulcet vocals, you’ll for sure get lost in, like the enticing siren she is. Re-introducing herself to the world while breaking every expectation that we once thought we knew about her, Rebecca takes the reigns and controls her narrative. Please get to know more of her with Worth It for the Feeling and pre-save her forthcoming project Rebecca Black Was Here (out June 16th).
“This year has really been a reintroduction of not only where I’m at in my music but really everything surrounding that to create a full picture. In every project we have approached together thus far, Weston Allen seems to always be challenging that in the same way which makes working together that much more exciting to me.” - Rebecca Black.
🎧: Tiarra Girls Soy Chingona
When I first hit play, I was swept away by the honeyed vocals of early ska Gwen Stefani coming from my headphones. Beautifully merging genres with alt-rock, reggae, and Latin dance rhythms, the bilingual track (Soy Chingona = I’m a badass) is an homage to the powerful women before us; this anthem is for every identifying Diosa.
Mexican American and three-time Austin award-winning trio Tiarra Girls— composed of sisters Tori, Tiffany, and Sophia Baltierra are making their entrance while also being very much about that life. Adding to the theme of feminine celebration, the multi-faceted sister’s also deliberately utilized an all-women identifying production crew from creative conception to execution to bring their accompanying visuals to life.
Soy Chingona marks Tiarra Girls’ first single, and accompanying video, since signing a co-management deal with Cosmica Artists and 484 Management. Watch here.
🎧: CHVRCHES How Not to Drown Feat. Robert Smith
Following the release of their single, He Said She Said, a scintillating banger with an equally thrilling accompanying video. CHVRCHES has not only announced their fourth studio album, Screen Violence, due out August 27th via Glassnote Records. The band also shares their second single, How Not To Drown, featuring one of the trio’s ultimate heroes, The Cure’s Robert Smith.
Resulting in a hypnotic contrasting blend of goth and ethereal due to Smith and Mayberry’s vocals, overall it’s entrancing, and I can’t get enough. Listen via your preferred streaming service here.
🎧: Jake Wesley Rogers Momentary
Paying homage to trailblazing LGBTQ+ pioneers, Jake Wesley Rogers drops a stunning love letter to icons that include Marsha P. Johnson, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Pan, all of whom are featured in a powerful yet wistful video (here). JWR further details the song and what it means:
“Momentary is a funeral and a celebration of life. As a queer person, I think it’s important to recognize the complex tapestry that began before I was here and will continue after I’m gone. In the song, I pay respect to my heroes, both fictional and actual who didn’t get a chance to grow old. In the music video directed by Se Oh, I boldly sing in fishnets and a loin cloth while being crucified on a cross, a powerful representation of the impermanence of love and life. Everything truly is momentary.” – Jake Wesley Rogers
🔥 Throwback Banger
With so much focus on the somehow polarizing Olivia Rodrigo, I thought, why not think of similar angsty teen dream albums of my youth for this week’s TGIF.
Katy Rose is perhaps most remembered for her tracks Overdrive, famously featured in Mean Girls, while Lemon is featured in Thirteen. She’s like a more punk Avril Lavigne with heavy bass and riffs back in 2004 and clever wordsmith. Critics didn’t seem to get her, giving her mixed reviews, but that didn’t stop me from loving this LP. Don’t mind me; I’ll just be going down memory lane listening to Because I can. - Naomi
The Rocky Horror, Rose Tint My World-inspired headline says it all. Sam and I will be happy in our blush-painted world while prepping for upcoming Youthquake features. Also, my last-minute prep for Tribeca Film Fest, which I’m beyond delighted to cover. I wish I can say more, but I’ll leave with a vague cliffhanger; we won’t tell— at least for now.
- Naomi