The Fourth Transmission

The Beatles had Sir George Martin. Led Zeppelin had Peter Grant. Local electro garage band The Transmission's fourth member dwarfs any man. Their fourth member is constantly proving to be a muse, often appearing on stage with them and on the tracks of their new release Freakout! Device. It's not a roadie, a producer, a spiritual guru or groupie. It's the Hollywood Video and Blockbuster shaming collection of the hundreds of sci-fi and horror movies the trio owns.

"A lot of them are the worst movies ever made. That's what makes them so good," says guitarist and effects head J.Reed. "It's stupid and awful, and it's entertaining."

Their macabre friend helps them come up their lyrics and themes to songs like "X-Ray Gun," a cut piped out of a ray-gun fight. If there are in a pinch for a good sample on a domestic abuse song - "Sugar" - it steps up and offers the climax of Sid & Nancy.

"It's hard to find the perfect clip for a song about a murder suicide," says lead singer, bassist and Moog player Christopher Slim. Their use of sampling hatched after writing "The Horribly Beautiful," an instrumental and progressive song they found just a touch too pretty. It needed something disturbing to set it off. I Spit on Your Grave was the answer.

"He (Slim) used the words, 'you'll never be the same after you've watched this movie.' So then of course I had to watch it, " says theJim, the drummer, vox box and keyboardist. When he saw and heard the scene where the lead actress exacts her revenge with a brutal castration, The Transmission had its first sample.

The trio is only about a year and a half old, but horror and sci-fi has always played a role in their lives. At every slumber party, there is always a kid who keeps his eyes covered during all the scary parts. In theJim's circle of friends, he was that kid.

"I may have started smoking cigarettes cause I had to go outside instead of watching the movies," he says. Now, veteran gross-out masters Reed and Slim offer him suggestions as to which creep fest he should buy or rent. He can now tell you the best and worst of the horror subgenres (slasher, supernatural horror, etc.) and why today's CGI zombies pale in comparison to their slow-moving counterparts of yesteryear.

For The Transmission to rise from the dead and turn into electro garage zombies, a few other bands had to die. Immediately before joining the Transmission, Atomic Deluxxe and Triple-X Stars yielded Reed and Slim. Vertigo Sun is still crawling the earth, just without theJim. Previous to those three groups, the band members did their time in metal and punk bands before opening up to electro garage, the soundtrack for zombies and ghouls on crank and demonically possessed hot rod drivers.

"That's one of the best things about being in this band: you've always got some guy who comes up to you and says, 'Can I touch it?' A grown-ass man will walk up to you and say, 'Can I touch it?'" laughs theJim of one of their latest acquisitions. Inspired by the sounds of old horror and sci-fi movies, the band acquired the holy grail of gadget rock - a Theremin. It's a strange instrument, played minus the use of one's hands, created in 1919 by Russian physicist Lev Termen, later known as Leon Theremin.

Until a few months ago, The Transmission only had an effect meant to emulate the sound of the Theremin, easily identified warbling away between scenes on Star Trek or in the background of a Beach Boys record. Admittedly, it was a pretty cheesy substitute. Luckily, Bobby Lirette, drummer for (the) Frames of Reference and fellow gadget head, sold Slim a bonafide, hands-free Theremin.

"Now we are doing it proper," says Slim. For the latest Transmission creations, Reed is concocting Theremin affects. Forget the symphonic, intricate and classical compositions of Clara Rockmore on his training video, Reed would much rather experiment and go where the movement takes him.

"I just plug it in and do this," he says, waving his hands randomly, "and see what happens, you're actually supposed to play it like notes."

With all their gadgets and movies, you would think they were satisfied. After all how many times can you see the same movie? And how does one actually watch such a extensive movie collection?

Even if they wanted to get away from it, like a skimpy-clothed coed in a bad slasher movie, The Transmission just can't shake the horror addiction that starts baying when they pass a discount DVD bin, Virgin Megastore or pawn shop.

"I think probably in the next five years, between the three of us we will have the entire something-weird video collections," says Slim.

"If we ever got to tour bus status we'd have to have a bus just for the videos," says theJim.

To which Reed adds, "You'd see The Transmission (bus), then The Transmission library."