THE Hellbilly Band Deals – Phantom of the Black Hills on eBay
Ratchet Blade Records has put up some great deals for their favorite hellbilly band Phantom of the Black Hills, some of these bundles include the new album Scalped and the new band T Shirt design, as well as previous releases and the classic Phantom “Sword” T shirt design (both in Men’s and Girly T). There are also buttons, stickers, download cards and more! And if you have one of the items you can give it away as a gift and keep the other items for yourself. Click HERE to check them out.
ENEMY! is Out Now, All POTBH Cds are $9.99!
ENEMY!, the third Phantom of the Black Hills album was released Tuesday, and to celebrate for a limited time all POTBH cds (ENEMY!, Born To Gun [2010] and Ghosts [2009]) in our store are just $9.99! Check out the sale HERE.
Enemy Video Debuts Tonight
The first video for the new Phantom of the Black Hills album is the title track “Enemy”, and has been uploaded tonight. ENEMY! will be released on September 25th and will be available only in the Phantom of the Black Hills webstore or on the Ratchet Blade Records website. The street date is Spring 2013 when it will be available on Ratchet Blade Records through Nail Distribution.
Two More Stills From “Enemy” Video Shoot
Two more fiery photos from the shoot, the song is the title track from the new record “Enemy”. The release date is September 25th, the Pre Sale is going on HERE.
Photos From “Enemy” Video Shoot
Some stills from the video shoot for the title track of the new POTBH album “Enemy” are available here. The video wraps next week, the album will be available online only on Sept. 25th, and in stores the first of 2013. You can listen to samples and order the Pre Sale HERE.
“Enemy” Pre Sale Launches Today!
Buy the “Enemy” cd during the Pre-Sale and for a limited time get it for just $8! The first 100 that order get a FREE POTBH Backpatch, and it will be shipped at least 1 week before it’s release to the public (est. Sept. 18th). So order now to receive this great price and guarantee your FREE Phantom of the Black Hills Backpatch. (After the backpatches are gone the Pre Sale will continue at $8 a cd, but no free backpatch.)
***UPDATE*** More backpatches are in, for a limited time Pre Sale orders will receive a free backpatch.
Always Check For Special POTBH eBay Deals
There’s almost always a good deal on a Phantom of the Black Hills bundle on ebay, click HERE to see the current listings.
New ad for the “Enemy” release
The new ad for the soon to be released Phantom of the Black Hills record “Enemy” features a pic from the photo session by underground photographer Sadie Nitrate, as well as a sneak peek at the cover art. The cd booklet will feature more photos of sepia dread from these sessions.
New Promo Video For “Enemy”
A new promo short for the summer 2012 release of “Enemy” has gone up on youtube, check it out here.
“Enemy” entering final mixes
Geza X
The new POTBH record “Enemy” is entering into final mixes, and mixing the record is legendary producer Geza X (Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Mau Maus), upping the ante on what is sure to be the most ferocious Phantom of the Black Hills album to date. Check back for more info on release date and to hear song samples, and you can download the advance track “Raisin’ Hell Again” in the right hand sidebar.
Outlaw Contest Winner
Congrats to Marti Sowell of Coarsegold, Ca. for correctly naming John King Fisher in the Outlaw contest. Here’s some facts about Fisher:
By the late 1870s, Fisher had a reputation as being fast with a gun. In 1878, an argument between Fisher and four Mexican vaqueros erupted. Fisher is alleged to have clubbed the nearest one to him with a branding iron, then as a second drew a pistol Fisher drew his own pistol and shot the man, killing him. He then spun around and shot the other two, who evidently had not produced weapons and both of whom were merely sitting on the fence the entire time.
He was arrested several times for altercations in public by local lawmen, and had been charged at least once with “intent to kill”, but the charges were dropped after no witnesses came forward. Although well known as a trouble maker, he was fairly well liked in that part of the state of Texas. He served briefly in 1883 as acting sheriff of Uvalde County, Texas, and during this service he trailed twostage coachrobbery suspects. The two men were brothers, Tom and Jim Hannehan, and Fisher tracked them to their ranch near. The two brothers resisted, and Fisher shot and killed Tom Hannehan. Jim Hannehan then surrendered and was taken into custody along with the stolen loot from the robbery. For years after King Fisher’s death, Tom Hannehan’s mother would travel to Fisher’s grave on the anniversary of Tom Hannehan’s death. She would build a fire on top of the grave and then dance around it.
Enter this month’s contest HERE
Olive Oatman on AMC?
In this review/article on AMC’s drama series Hell on Wheels, Margot Miffin mentions one of the character’s resemblance to Olive Oatman. Olive was kidnapped by Yavapai Indians in southern Arizona (then Mexico) in 1851, and is the subject of Olive Oatman from the Phantom of the Black Hills record Ghosts, a song, Ms. Miffin maintains, would work beautifully on Hell on Wheels. Read the article HERE.
POTBH Outlaw Contest Winner
Congrats to Dan Stephens of Thompson’s Station, TN who correctly named Big Nose George Parrot and then was drawn from the correct answers to win a copy of the Phantom of the Black Hills cd “Born To Gun”. Here’s a bit on the death of Big Nose George and the interesting use of his corpse:
“In 1880 Big Nose George Parrott and his second, Charlie Burris or “Dutch Charley”, were arrested in Miles City by two local deputies, Lem Wilson and Fred Schmalsle, after Big Nose and Charlie got drunk and boasted of killing the two Wyoming lawmen, thus identifying themselves as men with a price on their head. Parott was returned to Wyoming to face charges of murder. Parrott was sentenced to hang on April 2, 1881, following a trial, but tried to escape while being held at a Rawlins, Wyoming jail. Parrott was able to wedge and file the rivets of the heavy shackles on his ankles, using a pocket knife and a piece of sandstone. On March 22, having removed his shackles, he hid in the washroom until jailor Robert Rankin entered the area. Using the shackles, Parrott struck Rankin over the head, fracturing his skull. Rankin managed to fight back, calling out to his wife, Rosa, for help at the same time. Grabbing a pistol, she managed to persuade Parrott to return to his cell. News of the escape attempt spread through Rawlins and groups of people started making their way to the jail. While Rankin lay recovering, masked men with pistols burst into the jail. Holding Rankin at gunpoint, they took his keys, then dragged George from his cell.The 200-strong lynch mob strung him up from a telegraph pole. Charlie Burris suffered a similar lynching not long after his capture; having been transported by train to Rawlins, a group of locals found him hiding in a baggage compartment and proceeded to hang him on the crossbeam of a nearby telegraph pole.
Doctors Thomas Maghee and John Eugene Osborne took possession of Parrott’s body after his death, to study the outlaw’s brain for clues to his criminality. The top of Parrott’s skull was crudely sawn off, and the cap was presented to 15-year-old Lillian Heath, then a medical assistant to Maghee. Heath became the first female doctor in Wyoming and is said to have used the cap as an ash tray, a pen holder and a doorstop. A death mask was also created of Parrott’s face, and skin from his thighs and chest was removed. The skin, including the dead man’s nipples, was sent to a tannery in Denver, where it was made into a pair of shoes and a medical bag. They were kept by Osborne, who wore the shoes to his inaugural ball after being elected as the first Democratic Governor of the State of Wyoming. Parrott’s dismembered body was stored in a whiskey barrel filled with a salt solution for about a year, while the experiments continued, until he was buried in the yard behind Maghee’s office.”
Ed Gein’s got nothing on this guy. Enter this month’s contest HERE
POTBH Interview at Examiner.com
An interview with Phantom of the Black Hills
James Carlson
Roots Music Examiner
Phantom of the Black Hills
“Cross Yourself (Before You Cross Me)” is off of Phantom of the Black Hills’ latest album, 2010’s “Born to Gun,” on Ratchet Blade Records.
When it comes to the music of South Dakota’s doom country and hellbilly punk desperadoes Phantom of the Black Hills, two worlds couldn’t collide more violently, with plenty of bluegrass banjo pickin’, backwoods mandolin and upright bass thumpin’, together with loud punk guitar, hard-hitting drums and dirty, snarling vocals. This definitely isn’t your grandpappy’s country music, that’s for sure. And let me tell you, these fellas don’t look like the strummers and singers your grandpappy watched at the Grand Ole Opry or Louisana Hayride; instead, with cowboy hats pulled down over menacing outlaw masks, button-down shirts with suspenders, jeans and leather boots, these bandits look better suited to rob a stage coach or hold up a bank than lay down their hellfire songs.
Speaking of Phantom of the Black Hills’ songs, they pretty much go down like burning swigs of old Appalachian hooch; but they also make you want to move your legs a bit, like the twitching limbs of a condemned man danging from the gallows. On both albums — Ghosts and Born to Gun — it quickly becomes clear that their songs are much more mechanical than organic, with loops and sampling, and with a lot more distortion than twang. Even more than that, their songs amount to a soundtrack for unleashing one’s inner sinner and going forth into a night of transgression, where one loses oneself in drunkenness, violence and debauchery, at the end of which one very well might have ruined one’s chances at heaven.
Phantom of the Black Hills is a loose and ever-changing assemblage of evildoers and musicians, with but two anonymous core members. These modern-day outlaws are the sort who pick buckshot out of their meals, guzzle firewater, hide out in seedy saloons and gambling shacks and brothels, hoot n’ holler and fire their six-guns at the moon. They’ve got the devil in ‘em, and it shows in each and every song they write and play.
Last year I came across a Phantom of the Black Hills song for the first time, “Roses on a Grave,” on a compilation from Devil’s Ruin Records titled Rodentum: Dark Roots Music IV. While I was impressed with all four of the compilation volumes, I found myself listening to select songs over and over, among them the one by Phantom of the Black Hills. As a writer and music enthusiast, it didn’t take long before I contacted them and asked if they would be interested in being featured in one of my roots music pieces. Not long after that I received a press package containing their second full-length release, Born to Gun, on Ratchet Blade Records. And as far as the individual tracks on Born to Gun, I am especially impressed with the opener ”Scratchin’ at My Door,” “Cross Yourself (Before You Cross Me),” “Thief in the House,” “Whorehouse,” and “That’s How I Pull Rank.” MORE
“Enemy” Coming Summer 2012
From the Phantom:
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”
FINISHING OVERDUBS, THEN MIXING, THEN RELEASING “ENEMY”, THIS ONES A KILLER!
