User:Francisca Braga/sandbox

DAMN LASER VAMPIRES (brazilian band)

Ron Selistre – voice, guitar Francis Kafka – guitar Michel Munhoz – drums

From 2005 to 2012, Damn Laser Vampires made noise in the Brazilian underground scene. Formed in Porto Alegre, the trio (Ron Selistre, voice and guitar; Francis K, guitar; Michel Munhoz, drums) played from South to North of the country, attending important music and film festivals, concert halls, bars, museums, art galleries and train stations. They built their own audience and won the critics admiration, and left a multimedia collection including videos, comics, film scores and a discography with two albums and an EP.

The debut was the EP “The Devil Is a Preacher”, co-produced with Alexandre Birck (Graforréia Xilarmônica), which gave the band an invitation to perform on the tv show Radar, the main spot channel for new local TV artists at the time. The concerts begun and a self-produced version of the debut album, "Gotham Beggars Syndicate", was released. The CD quickly got the attention of American label Devil's Ruin Records, which offered the band an agreement, releasing an official edition in the US and Canada, then with extra tracks. "Gotham Beggars Syndicate" presented the band's universe and its main elements. Polka, psychobilly, gothpunk, postpunk, humor, horror and mystery. The album entered many lists of best releases of 2008. In 2021, in a work led by the journalist Cristiano Bastos, it was elected by a jury of 50 names in the musical industry as one of the 100 greatest South-Brazilian albums ever.

Video clips are a hallmark of the DLV. Most produced by the members themselves, all illustrators with pre-music careers. The trio always matched design and music, and art exhibitions have been also held under the band's name.

The DLV has four tracks on the soundtrack of “Still Orangutans” (Gustavo Spolidoro, 2007), first Brazilian one-shot film, winner of the 13th Milan Film Festival.

In 2007, on the Radar program, the band performed live “Demolición”, a 1964 song by the Peruvian quartet Los Saicos. The video helped to popularize the song in Brazil and earned a mention of the DLV in the box set “Los Saicos - Demolición: The Complete Recordings”, released In Spain containing the complete work of the Saicos on vinyl.

“Saint Of Killers”, track 10 of “Gotham Beggars Syndicate”, was included by the Canadian magazine Rue Morgue Magazine on the CD commemorating its 100th edition, in May 2010. Before that, the band had already been the subject of an exclusive article in issue n. 80, in July 2008.

In 2009, during a minitour through RS (produced by Jack Garcia) with the British band Black Mekon, which on that Brazilian tour had Marco Butcher as their drummer, DLV picked up with him a partnership that would result in the recording of the second album, “Three-Gun Mojo”. By Butcher’s invitation, and produced by him and Luis Tissot, the record was made in March 2010 at Caffeine Soundstudio, in SP. “Three-Gun Mojo” was released in 2011 by the labels Terrötten Records, Cauterized Productions and Mamma Vendetta.

DISCOGRAPHY: The Devil is a Preacher (EP, independent, 2005)

Gotham Beggars Syndicate (Full album, Devil’s Ruin Records, 2008) Marcos Lemos: drums in tracks 1 to 10 and 13) Mason Hiatt: accordion in “Graveyard Polka” Recorded/mixed by Alexandre Birck at Music Box Studio, Porto Alegre, on June 2005 / June 2006 / march 2007 Produced by Alexandre Birck &amp; Damn Laser Vampires 2008 by Devil’s Ruin Records

Three-Gun Mojo (Full, Terrötten/Mamma Vendetta/Cauterized Productions, 2011) Marco Butcher: percussion in “Shiva Bop” and “Shadowmaker” Jonas Blackneedle: piano in “Shiva Bop” and saxophone in “The Mo” Recorded/mixed by Luis Tissot at Caffeine Soundstudio, São Paulo, on March 2010 Produced by Marco Butcher and Luis Tissot 2011 by Terrötten Records / Mamma Vendetta / Cauterized Productions

FILMS: Ainda Orangotangos (Gustavo Spolidoro, 2007), David Blyth’s Damn Laser Vampires (David Blyth and Felipe M. Guerra, 2011)  , Trantastic (Scumbag Movies, 2011)