The Necro Tonz
"Fare Thee Well (And Go To Hell)"
 |
From the album |
 |
|
The Necro Tonz |
||
We end This is Vintage Now with the highly entertaining B horror-inspired Halloween jazz group The Necro Tonz. They make a postmortem appearance here with “Fare Thee Well (And Go To Hell)”, from their now out-of-print album Welcome to Cocktail Hell (2002).
This talented “Vampira And Her Addams Family Swing Combo” act do Halloween jazz exactly the way you would want it done, with swingin’, atmospheric music, vampy sex appeal, and black humour and high camp galore, all underscored with rock solid musicianship. Red-haired chanteuse Colleen “Necrophilia” Morgan, self-proclaimed “Diva of the Dead”, croons in a sultry “come hither if you dare” contralto, backed by four corpse-painted musicians named Mike the Mangler, Smilin’ Jack the Ripper, Robin Graves, and Glooo (with three “o”’s). In their late-1990’s heyday, this group would fill the dance floors of goth clubs with swing dancers, leaving people bewildered and unsure of what to make of them. Particularly impressive is their solid commitment to jazz in this environment, when everything around them was firmly entrenched in goth and punk. Hence why we have included them on This is Vintage Now.
The Necro Tonz have done some clever and well-executed (no pun intended) swing covers of heavy metal and hard rock songs that work surprisingly well. One of these is “Black No. 1” by heavy metal band Type O Negative. Their cover version came to the attention of Type O Negative’s late frontman Peter Steele, who tried unsuccessfully to have The Nerco Tonz tour with Type O Negative as the latter’s opening act. After this fell through, Steele continued to stay in touch with lady frontman Necrophilia. However, this turned into Steele falling for her and chasing after her over the course of a summer, leaving dozens of warped, demented messages on her answering machine (which she kept on a CD and still has). Irony of ironies, the irresistible “Diva of the Dead” refused Steele’s advances and sent him looking elsewhere because she was too much of a good girl (or is that “a good ghoul”?) for him. :)
Although Welcome to Cocktail Hell is out-of-print, there are copies available at collector’s prices at Amazon.com (US). The group has been inactive for a number of years, but recently agreed to reform for a one-off reunion show on Halloween night 2012 in their home city of Dallas, Texas. The proceeds of the show will go to long-running community radio station KNON. (Click here to buy tickets!)
The Necro Tonz Discography:
Are You Dead, Yet? (Last Beat Records, 1997)
2001 Demo (promo only) (The Necro Tonz, 2000)
Welcome to Cocktail Hell (The Necro Tonz, 2002)
