More than four decades ago, "one of the strangest and most shocking martial arts movies ever witnessed" (DVD Talk) drove 42nd Street audiences into a stunned frenzy. Newly restored by Severin Films, the legendary kung fu oddity The Crippled Masters is now streaming. When a crime boss chops off the arms of a peasant (Sung-Chuan Shen, born with Thalidomide Syndrome) and acid-dissolves the limbs of a henchman (Chao-Ming Kang, born with deformed legs), the two men train to combine themselves into one unstoppable fighting machine!

His fellow musicians call him “Fitzy” a term of both affection and respect. Born March 27, 1970, in the Canadian province of Manitoba, the hockey loving multi-instrumentalist is always busy. In his long, eclectic career, he has worked with Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Theory of a Deadman, Alice Cooper, Vince Neil, Union, Gene Simmons, The Guess Who, Brad Whitford from Aerosmith, Derek St Holmes, and Ronnie Montrose just to name a few. This caffeinated conversation took place at our mutual favorite, Star Wars-themed local coffee house, Grouchy John’s, just days before he hit the road for a three-month European stint with the Dead Daisies. He is truly a prince in a land of few gentlemen.

Experimental psych rock band Psychic Ills, formed in 2003 by the late Tres Warren with guitarist Tom Gluibizzi and later bassist Elizabeth Hart and drummer Brian Tamborello, evolved over their 15 plus year career from creating trance-like noise rock to their more recent, subtle releases that rely on more traditional psychedelic songwriting. Highly respected by their peers, the group is known for their work on indie labels Social Registry and Sacred Bones. In March of 2020 Tres Warren tragically passed away.

Born in 1954 in Versailles, France, Philippe Krootchey was a musician, DJ, radio and television host at the forefront of the gay liberation movement in France.

For Iron & Wine’s seventh record, Light Verse, songwriter Sam Beam takes a more playful turn with songs borne out of joy and lightness.

Roxy Petrucci, born Roxanne Dora Petrucci, arrived on Planet Rock March 17, 1962, in the iron fisted Michigan village of Rochester. Rox and her sister, Maxine, formed Madame X in the mid 80s but she is best known as the highly respected drummer of the all-female glam metal outfit, Vixen. As the last original member standing – and Godmother of the group – she continues to hit kit harder than most of her male counterparts. We go back to 1989 when I green lip the first Vixen feature for Rip. Puts her heart into every kick and fill.

“Take Off” to Chicago-based independent label Drag City featuring music videos from Bill Callahan, Ty and Denée Segall, Circuit des Yeux and Smog.

As Spellling, Oakland-based artist Tia Cabral creates experimental synth pop that is born from the haunting images and ethereal messages from her dreams. Blending hypnotic folk with darkwave and elements of soul, Cabral’s first self-released record, Pantheon of Me, arrived in 2017 and quickly raised her profile beyond the Bay Area. Her third album for Sacred Bones, The Turning Wheel, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim.

Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.’s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change.

Xylouris White is the folk duo of Greek lute player George Xylouris and Australian drummer Jim White. Their 2014 album, Goats, features a fluid mix of regional folk traditions with psych and rock inspirations. They would expand on this with subsequent releases, including their punk influenced Drag City debut The Sisypheans

SRSQ is the moniker of Oakland singer and musician Kennedy Ashlyn, who has steadily honed her songcraft to create a “music of tumult and triumph.” Her 2022 LP “Ever Crashing” is an “aching, reverent” dream-pop creation.

Greg Turkington’s fictional persona Neil Hamburger, a misanthropic, anti-comedian was introduced to the world in 1992 on the album Great Phone Calls Featuring Neil Hamburger, a self-deprecating assault on the expectations that had developed in stand-up.

Luca Yupanqui began recording music when she was literally in the womb. The child of musicians Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé, the pair began recording their unborn child with biosonic MIDI technology Diaz Mathé compared to a polygraph. After her parents spent 2020 mixing the album “respecting the sounds as they were produced”, Luca made her Sacred Bone’s debut in 2021 with Sounds of the Unborn, described as an “expression of life in its cosmic state.”

“Take Off” to independent label Dais Records featuring music videos from Death Bells, SPICE, Choir Boy, and Death of Lovers.

Warped tape loops, aging VHS home-movie samples, and processed vocals tinged with harmonic specters from Body of Light on Dais Records.

Veteran folk artist Devendra Banhart teams up with Mexican Summer labelmate Cate le Bon for spare new direction on Flying Wig, his eleventh album.

The lives of three residents of Redlands, California, intersect and ultimately collide in this claustrophobic exploration of radical creativity, sexuality and violence in America. From director and photographer John Brian King (Punk Daze: Los Angeles 1977–84) comes an arthouse take on a film noir storyline with elements of black humor. Redlands is a dark, voyeuristic film that slowly builds to a savage denouement.

Latvian composer and artist Sign Libra's Sea of Islands and Sea Of Nectar.

The sonic world Helado Negro builds an aura vivid enough to be seen.

“Take Off” to Seattle-based independent label Sub Pop featuring music videos from Weyes Blood, Metz, Wolf Parade and Bully.

American singer Chrystabell reunites with legendary director and musician David Lynch for “Cellophane Memories,”a haunting and atmospheric new collection of songs for Night Flight indie label partner Sacred Bones. We're featuring two Lynch-directed videos for the project and a Super 8 video directed by Eden Tijerina in this exclusive Video Profile.

Amen Dunes’ Sub Pop debut, Death Jokes, sees the artist take a sharp left turn to the more electronica and rave-influenced sounds of his youth.

Margaret Chardiet’s industrial noise project Pharmakon blends slow rhythmic beats with guttural synth blasts and wailing vocals that are as disquieting as they are hypnotizing. Her live shows have been described as confrontational, interrogating the division between performer and audience, an emotional trance-like experience she has attempted to recreate on her more recent albums, 2017’s Contact and 2019’s Devour, released on Sacred Bones.

Jeremiah Sand was the charismatic leader of the Children of the New Dawn, a cult that descended upon a California recording studio in the 1970s to create Sand’s ultimate, psychedelic masterpiece. Not much is known of what transpired at the recording studio where these sessions took place, except that one night, Sand awoke the studio owner in the middle of the night at gunpoint and forced him to hide the master tapes in a lockbox until he returned. Decades passed and Sand was never heard from again, but in 2018 wildfires revealed a box in the ruins of the studio that contained a short film, esoteric artwork, and 50 year old album, Lift It Down.

Art rock outfit of multi-instrumentalist Graeme Jefferies.

Legendary singer-songwriter Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s new album Keeping Secrets will Destroy You is for keeping people together, and for listening together.

Damon McMahon started his solo musical project Amen Dunes in 2006, recording atmospheric, lo-fi psych-folk alone in the Catskills before moving to Beijing and further honing this dark sound and recording occasionally. These would become his debut Sacred Bones EP Murder Dull Mind.

Drab Majesty, the project of Deb DeMure, blends New Wave and early 4AD sound into a “hypnotic and futuristic originality.”

Longtime collaborators David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti started recording under the name Thought Gang in 1991. 25 years later, the spiritual jazz and spoken word recordings have resurfaced as a self-titled album on Sacred Bones.

Wand’s Cory Hanson rides into the high desert on a glossy melody through lustrous mists of instrumentation: acoustic, wah-electric and steel guitars, acoustic and electric drums. Pale Horse Rider explores myths and truths of a country on the way down, viewed through a deep-focus lens trained on the city from the deserts on the east; a terminus of unoccupied residential parks and streets fading into craggy footpaths to nowhere, where our passage is seen as diligent, ephemeral and grotesque by turns, forgiven and made beautiful again by the sound. Directed by The Coconut Brothers Liquid Light Projections by The Mad Alchemist Liquid Light Show Music & Sound FX by Dr. Coconut Filmed by Casey Hanson, Asal Shahindoust, Dr. Coconut and Keith Ballard Live Sound Engineered by Zac Hernandez

Dinosaur Jr. frontman's project for Sub Pop records. Featuring music from 2018's "Elastic Days" and more.

After a collection of demos and early studio recordings earned her a dedicated audience, songwriter Jessica Pratt moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and recorded her first intentional album in her bedroom. That album, On Your Own Love Again (released by Night Flight indie label partner Drag City in 2015), would bring her around the world many times, leading many to fall under the spell of Jessica Pratt the performer, the songwriter, the singer with the heavy-lidded voice that feels alien and familiar at the same time. Quiet Signs, the artist’s debut record for Mexican Summer, finds Pratt's songwriting and accompanying guitar work refined -- more distinct and direct.

“There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night." Singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon began her career collaborating with fellow Welsh musicians Gruff Rhys and Richard James before releasing her first EP, the Welsh language Looking in the Eyes of a Borrowed Horse in 2008. In 2019 Cate Le Bon signed with Mexican Summer for her fifth album, Reward, released to critical acclaim. Here's the video for "Home To You."

Industrial punk band Pop. 1280, named after a pulpy Jim Thompson story about a corrupt, deceptive and murderous Texas lawman, was founded by Chris Bug and Ivan Lip as a method of exploring their darker, somewhat sinister musical ideas. Their first song, “Bedbugs” would lay the groundwork for their next release, an EP called The Grid, which they followed up with the full-length The Horror, both on Sacred Bones. Their haunting, guitar heavy sound would slowly give way to more refined harmonies and clean polished keys, especially on their grim 2020 album Way Station.

High Vis, led by enigmatic front person Graham Sayle, play “aggressive, gripping, and artful punk” that is sonically beyond the parameters of any single genre or scene. On their second album Blending, they bring a more introspective focus to their political lyrics.

Lust For Youth is a synth pop duo currently composed of Swedish and Danish producers Hannes Norrvide and Malthe Fischer. As a solo act Norrvide’s Lust For Youth was largely dark and lonely minimalist synth that verged on harsh noise, but with the expansion of the lineup the group’s releases on Sacred Bones are more associated with the catchy songs about heartbreak, most notably channeling elements of New Order and Pet Shop Boys.

Inspired by Buddhist tales and set to the tune of Pauline Anna Strom’s astral electronic soundscapes; Ether Antenna is a short film following the journey of some 10 robot characters through Nepal. Fusing spirituality with robotics this cybernetic tale exploits humanity’s fascination with technology and religion. Designed and built on residency at RAN (the Robotics Association of Nepal), all robot characters were developed to act specifically as puppets and carry out precise interactions through different scenes and scenarios. The film begins as robots are birthed from a sacred tree into the pure streams of water at Muktinath and follows their journey toward the polluted rivers of Kathmandu.

Initially getting its start as a noisy and abrasive solo project in the basement of Philadelphia guitarist Mike Polizze, before expanding into a power trio, Purling Hiss made their name in the sceen playing alongside acts like the War on Drugs.

Sean Ragon’s dark, post-punk neofolk band Cult of Youth, began as a solo project with the release 2008’s A Stick to Bind, a Seed to Grow. Recruiting a supporting band, Ragon expanded the group’s sound on its 2011 self-titled Sacred Bones debut. This would be followed by 2012’s chamber-pop like Love Will Prevail, then 2014s Final Days.

Today we’re covering DAIS Records, who focuses on artists “new and old,” including SPICE and Stephen Mallinder.

Weyes Blood’s gorgeous melodies have earned her acclaim from the far reaches of the music press. Her album And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow continues her distinct combination of chamber pop and psychedelia to further musical heights.

Actor, screenwriter and artist Karen Black cemented a place for herself in the New Hollywood movement of the 60s and 70s with starring turns in films like Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). During an acting career that spans 5 decades and over 200 credits, Black began writing and recording music with notable producers Bones Howe and Elliot Mazer. Decades later under the oversight of Cass McCombs, her work has been restored from the original tapes for release on Mexican Summer’s Anthology Records label.

Texas-born musician and actor Caleb Landry Jones makes psychedelic music that “reaches into the cosmic realm of imagination.”

“Take Off” to independent label Dais Records featuring music videos from Space Africa, Choir Boy, Xeno & Oakland and Death Bells.

San Francisco psych rock band Moon Duo, composed of Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada began playing and recording together in 2009, making their Sacred Bones debut with the EP Killing Time that year. The pair have continued touring, recording, exploring “all things Magick and supernatural” while incorporating new sounds and elements to their music, the 2019 album Stars Are the Light brought in sonic aspects from disco, madchester and 90s rave music while dialing back their use of the guitars mechanical rhythms.

Dan Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never’s releases for Mexican Summer are sample-based meditations that are as lyrical as they are ecological, featuring re-purposed “ghost vocals” which serve as narration for Lopatin’s signature amorphous, ambient passages. His 2010 album Returnal’s placid, synthetic surroundings are accelerated through darker, more unpredictable terrains via Lopatin’s use of samplers, analog filtering, tape-op, piano, plate reverb and sub-bass.

Arp is Brooklyn-based electronic producer and composer Alexis Georgopolous’ ambient solo project, first unveiled in 2006. While Georgopolous’ early work as Arp is largely defined by minimalist soundscapes made on synthesizers, each consecutive release remains untethered from the former, with later works exploring Glam, art pop and field recordings. The fifth Arp album, Zebra, arrived in 2018 and features elements of jazz and traditional folk music paired with Alexis’ signature ambient stylings.

Bézier is the moniker of all-live-analog electronic wizard Robert Yang from San Francisco. Yang’s studio set up includes a variety of vintage Roland and Korg synthesizers as well as the Italo Disco favorite LinnDrum.

Today we’re looking at Don Giovanni, an independent record label from New Brunswick, New Jersey whose catalog includes Melissa Paternoster, Keith Secola, and Bad Bad Hats.

“intertwined etymologies of spirit and breath” from RVNG Intl.'s Ka Baird.

Suzy Poling's latest record uses sounds and samples collected from the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Oakland, CA.

Tokyo-based artist Satomimagae weaves subtle songs for guitar, voice and noise, propagating variant folk strains that flicker between organic and mechanistic, personal and environmental, warm and cool. Satomi’s latest offering, Hanazono, is a work of both simplicity and intricacy, a veritable biosphere of unfiltered artistry.

Sub Pop's Father John Misty, the alter-ego of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Josh Tillman. Featuring the 25-minute album trailer for 2017's "Pure Comedy."

Over time, through his vast collection of pure and cinematic ambient hymns, Tor Lundvall has steadily established himself as one of ambient music’s most familiar faces.

X RAY POP are the French synth-pop duo that began as part of the no wave art group Bocal 5 in 1981. Referring to their sound as “minimum naive new wave” their songs feature rich textures on concise but relentless arrangements with playful lyrics and a general tongue-in-cheek of humor that’s as catchy as it is eccentric.

Filmed in 1989 at Fender’s Ballroom in Long Beach, California, this previously unreleased GWAR concert captures the legendary group in all its blood-soaked glory. Originally recorded for Stuart S. Shapiro’s Gorgon Video Magazine, the full concert is presented exclusively on Night Flight Plus, directly from the original Betacam SP master tapes and preserved without alteration. You can smell the sweat and taste the fake blood. This special release is dedicated to the memory of GWAR co-founder Chuck Varga, aka the Sexecutioner (1960–2026), and was made possible in collaboration with his widow, Bambi, who will receive royalties from the film in perpetuity.

Night Flight rocks regional tonight as we travel to Asbury Park and beyond to explore the sounds of The Garden State. Featuring music from, of course, the Boss, blues revivalist Southside Johnny, Hackensack’s Joe Lynn Turner, Clarence Clemons and more!

Night Flight Goes to the Movies for John Waters' classic "Hairspray" and a couple of less fondly remembered also-rans released in March '88. Next is a high-octane look at The Cars legacy in music video with interviews between songs.

Tonight we head to Ventura, California 1987 for Night Flight’s special segment on a Motorcycle Rodeo. Like a Heavy Metal Parking Lot for the great American Biker community, this feature takes an intimate look at the customs of the leather clad, bearded, booted men of the Highway. Featuring such events as the Slow Race, Motorcycle Tug Of War, Keg Derby, and the couples competition Weenie Bite, (which features a mustard slathered Hot-Dog that you’ll just have to watch for yourself to truly understand) tonight’s episode gets you all need to know about “the modern day cowboys of the American Highway!” Stick around after the Easyriders motorcycle mayhem for a vintage episode of "Night Flight Goes to the Movies," where we featured clips from Hollywood movies released in 1988: "License to Drive," "Dudes" (featuring a young Jon Cryer!), "Arthur 2: On the Rocks," "Wall Street," and "Siesta." "And now the Summer of Love returns" Pat Prescott tells viewers next, "with this week's home video pick, 'Monterey Pop,' the concert that captured the dawning of counterculture rock, and one of the greatest gatherings of pop heroes of all time." Highlights from the Monterey Pop Festival include the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Who. After that, Night Flight talks to Full Force, Brookyln's family of fresh funk artists, and viewers get an up close 'n' personal look at Full Force's collaboration with the great James Brown ("I'm Real"). How's that for a tank-full of rollickin' good Night Flight fun?

Video hits from Prince and affiliated acts such as Morris Day and The Time and the late, great Vanity.

Welcome to part 2 of Visions of Platinum! We look at the top selling artists of today (1985!). You'll see videos from best selling artists Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, ACDC, and Kiss. We also speak to the producers behind some classic records Nile Rodgers producer of David Bowie and Duran Duran, Phil Ramone, the main producer of Billy Joel and Julian Lennon, and Madonna's producer Jellybean Benitez.

This Night Flight episode focuses on religion in music, from the satanic accusations against Ozzy Osbourne to the Christian rock band Stryper. Also featuring videos from The Saints and XTC.

One of the more popular animated short films that aired during Night Flight’s '80s heyday was Wes Archer’s cult fave Jac Mac & Rad Boy, Go!, a wonderfully frenetic cartoon about two party-bound teens who inadvertently destroy a city on their way to hell, which Archer admits he may have also been inspired by his own wayward youth in Houston, Texas. Note: Wes went on to have an amazing career in animation and is currently the supervising director on Rick and Morty.

“Their music was devil’s music: high decibel, tortured, frenzied songs about Death, Destruction and Black Magic.” Welcome to Night Flight’s 1984 Take Off to Heavy Metal History with a look at metal forgers Black Sabbath. We go back to the 1970s for classic Sabbath, trace the development of Ozzy Osbourne and Ronny James Dio from their days as Black Sabbath’s lead singers to their solo careers in the mid 80s as “Rock’s Top MadMen.” We’ve heard from many of you that your first exposure to BS was late at night on Night Flight, so consider this your return trip home to some 35 years ago. If you are a Black Sabbath original line-up purist and Dio isn't your thing, may we suggest the Black Sabbath Video Profile for another excellent episode?

"Take Off To Animation" takes a colorful look at the use of animation in music video over the previous few years in styles ranging from experimental camera technique to 'Saturday morning cartoon'. Many of the videos compiled for this episode first became well-known due to their repeat exposure on Night Flight. Bona fide Night Flight classics here include Tom Tom Club's "Pleasure of Love", Randy Andy's "The People (Livin' in the USA)", Machinations: "Pressure Sway" & Will Powers: "Adventures In Success". Night Flight's innovative "Take Off" series dispensed with playlists, bland VJ set-ups and the usual tired video countdown format and instead cleverly programmed music videos and performance clips by theme. The series regularly featured hits from Eighties pop icons juxtaposed against obscurities from not-ready-for-MTV cult favorites. Original Air Date: 2-17-84

This Night Flight Original episode features a segment from the "Take Off" series on Politics and Progressive Rap. We also included extra special bonus feature on 'Movie Villains.'

Welcome to Night Flight circa 1993. “Ten years ago,” Pat Prescott tells us “The Replacements played their first ragtag gig in a church basement in Minneapolis. Much to everyone’s surprise, including their own, the ‘Mats became one of the hottest underground bands in the world.” Tonight’s Video Profile shows off some of the band’s finest moments and features ultra-candid interviews with Paul Westerberg. Part B of Night Flight's Original Episode tonight is the German-surrealist short film "Balance." Created by twin brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, this stark experimental animation allegory won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1989. Another treasure of the archive.

"All through the rich history of Rock N Roll, artists have claimed the material of others..." says Night Flight syndication host Tom Juarez at the start of tonight's Take Off to Cover Songs. The hour long episode salutes the great musical tradition in what turned out to be the golden decade of covers, featuring Fine Young Cannibals covering Elvis, Cyndi Lauper's best Marvin Gaye impression, and The Pretenders' Jimi Hendrix reinvention. Chrissie Hynde sits down at the Night Flight studio to talk us through how she created the tune, while additional cuts from Boomerang, Club Nouveau and more follow.