LISTEN NOW
Mark of the Astro-Zombies Starring Tura Satana, Brinke Stevens and Liz Renay. Directed by Ted V. Mikels. Music and sound effects by Bentmen.
MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES stars the immortal Tura Satana (FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!), Brinke Stevens (HAUNTING FEAR, SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY) and Liz Renay (John Waters’s DESPERATE LIVING, BLACKENSTEIN) as well as the disembodied head of John Carradine (you won’t believe it)!
The movie is written, produced, directed, photographed and edited by Ted V. Mikels. For the uninitiated, Ted is the living legend behind such drive-in classics as THE CORPSE GRINDERS, BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS, THE DOLL SQUAD, the original ASTRO-ZOMBIES and GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS (as seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000).
Ted was a very nice man, who put a lot of faith in us to do the soundtrack to MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES and his enthusiastic response was very gratifying. We’re so glad we had the presence of mind to save this off our voicemail.
Cheap, bargain-basement technology, pressed into the service of something greater, both primitive and futuristic at the same time, is a total BENTMEN signature, and a major contributing reason as to why we feel such an affinity for films like MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES.
The movie is written, produced, directed, photographed and edited by Ted V. Mikels. For the uninitiated, Ted is the living legend behind such drive-in classics as THE CORPSE GRINDERS, BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS, THE DOLL SQUAD, the original ASTRO-ZOMBIES and GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS (as seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000).
Ted was a very nice man, who put a lot of faith in us to do the soundtrack to MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES and his enthusiastic response was very gratifying. We’re so glad we had the presence of mind to save this off our voicemail.
Cheap, bargain-basement technology, pressed into the service of something greater, both primitive and futuristic at the same time, is a total BENTMEN signature, and a major contributing reason as to why we feel such an affinity for films like MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES.
The music and sound effects for the film were created by Boston’s longtime purveyors of ultimate weirdness, the BENTMEN (that’s us). We actually wrote all the music without seeing a single frame of footage — just going by Ted’s synopsis, a few stills on his site and our own imaginations.
We are known for being a very heavy rock band, and while there is ample proof of that in the film, we also wanted to take the opportunity to branch out into some different musical realms that we don’t often get to play in. So we did a bunch of sessions with small sub-sections of the group.
There was a session with just Crazy Eddie (our guitarist), Dark Mark (our bassist, playing upright bass with a bow) and yours truly playing electronic triggers. There was another session with just Mark on upright bass and me playing keyboards. Another session had everybody on board except Eddie, with Des (our singer) singing through a Pod (guitar amp simulator) and occupying the space normally taken by the guitar. The result is some of our most unique and disturbing music to date.
We are known for being a very heavy rock band, and while there is ample proof of that in the film, we also wanted to take the opportunity to branch out into some different musical realms that we don’t often get to play in. So we did a bunch of sessions with small sub-sections of the group.
There was a session with just Crazy Eddie (our guitarist), Dark Mark (our bassist, playing upright bass with a bow) and yours truly playing electronic triggers. There was another session with just Mark on upright bass and me playing keyboards. Another session had everybody on board except Eddie, with Des (our singer) singing through a Pod (guitar amp simulator) and occupying the space normally taken by the guitar. The result is some of our most unique and disturbing music to date.