The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, aka The Oscars, will take place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood tomorrow, March 12, and thrash metal will be represented, thanks to the inclusion of [now-defunct] Houston, Texas quintet dead horse's Murder Song on the soundtrack of animated short film My Year Of Dicks.
Based on author/screenwriter Pamela Ribon's 2014 memoir Notes To Boys (And Other Things I Shouldn't Share In Public), and directed by Icelandic filmmaker/artist/ animator Sara Gunnarsdóttir, My Year Of Dicks is described as a 'female-forward look at sexual awakening'. The synopsis for the 25-minute animation reads:
'It’s 1991, and Pam is trying very hard to lose her virginity, but it sure doesn’t match up to her fantasies.
Always searching for her ultimate paramour, this old soul swimming in new puberty will struggle between the real world and her grandiose fantasies by exploring a relatable variety of boys of yore - goths, skaters, indie film snobs, straight edge poseurs - all while trying her best to avoid being grounded. Luckily she has her best friends by her side, who’d like to keep her from cementing a mistake.'
The film, which has already picked by awards at the SXSW film festival, the Raindance film festival and the Brooklyn film festival, sees 15-year-old Pam attract the attention of, among others, a misogynist skateboarder/wannabe-vampire and a Neo-Nazi straight-edge punk, and can be viewed - for a limited in time - in full at myyearofdicks.com.
dead horse, who were active from 1988 to 1996, and toured North America with Entombed and Exhorder as well as opening shows for Pantera, Mr. Bungle and more, were approached by producer Jeanette Jeanenne to have Murder Song from their debut album Horsecore: An Unrelated Story That's Time Consuming (originally released in 1989 by Death Ride Records, and given a re-release 10 years later by Relapse) included in the film. By their own admission, the group were "slightly skeptical" upon leaning the name of the film, but were assured that they would not be embarrassed by the association: the band members are now reportedly thrilled to be part of this moment in film history.
Band manager Randy Haaga, a producer of the Horsecore... album, tells Louder, "It's a great honour to help take thrash to the Oscars. I don't know all the history, but I'm pretty sure it's rare for the genre to get near this award show."
"dead horse is still worthy of a listen, Murder Song is still ferocious and exciting. The band was unique and remains an oddity of the genre, but holds a place deep in the heart of Texas. I'd love to think that place is somewhere near where the Buthole Suffers, Scratch Acid, and Rocky Erickson live. It's a kinda messed up place, kinda dark and confusing, but comforting to those who dared to spend some time with it."
You can listen to Murder Song, and watch the trailer for My Year Of Dicks, below:
Update: Tonight, March 12, the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film was awarded to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which features the voices of Jude Coward Nicoll (The Boy), Tom Hollander (The Mole), Idris Elba (The Fox) and Gabriel Byrne (The Horse), but no thrash metal whatsoever.
