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Natas das liah! Join me and the man who accepts no introduction, Brian Toney, as we talk about backmasking (which some people incorrectly google search as back masking, It's ok, you are still welcome here). Backmasking is a recording technique where you record something but then set it to play backwards in the final recording. There have been legit cases of back masking such as it's use on The Beatle's song "Rain", but that's not really what we're talking about tonight. Tonight, we'll be discussing the more demonic side of the alleged trend. Thought the 70's and into the 1980's, some morality groups claimed that certain music groups, especially though not exclusively heavy metal groups, used backmasked lyrics and messages to inspire fans to worship the devil, use drugs, and commit suicide. Judas Priest was even taken to court over their alleged backmasking and two states tried to introduce laws that would require music with suspected backmasked messages to require special labels warning listeners (not unlike the "explicit" labels still in use today).

Brian and I will walk you through the whole craze and try to separate fact from fiction. We'll give you some examples of alleged backmasked messages and let you see if you can hear anything. I even conducted a super scientific experiment via Facebook which I'll go into in detail in this episode. SCIENCE!!! You get to hear my own "satan jam" that apparently includes the backmasked message "my mother made a bad boy!" which gives Brian and I a good idea for a t-shirt. Plus you'll get to hear me stumble over the word "backmasking" a bunch of times. Bass masking? Bass massing? Paradillia? Peridolia? Pareidolia?

Listen to this episode by clicking here!
It's a very special episode as I discuss a ghost story from my hometown with a guest cohost from my hometown! The town is Ashland, Massachusetts. The haunted place is John Stone's Inn...at least that's what it will always be known as to me and those of my generation. Today, it's known as Stone's Public House and the good news is it's still serving up fine food...and "spirits"

Stone's is allegedly haunted by several ghost including John Stone himself. There is a legend that he killed a man who cheated during a poker game. Stone and some locals buried the cheat in the basement and swore his conspirators to secrecy forever. Did such events take place and if so, do murerous spirits still stalk the halls of Stone's Public House?

And what about the little girl that people often claim to see looking out at the center of town in the middle of the night from windows on the second floor? Could she be the little girl who was hit by a train and brought into Stone's while they unsuccessfully attempted to save her life? And what happened to her dress???

And just how good are the corned beef cabbage rolls that Stone's Public House offer up these days?

​All these questions and more will be discussed on this episode of Spooky Ass Shit!

My guest cohost is Jennifer Lecesse who I've known forever and still call by her maiden name, Jennie Blades (no offense meant to her husband or new name, it's just...how cool is the name "Jennie Blades"?!?! I'm just supposed to give that up from my life? No thank you!). Jennie is on the board of the Ashland Historical Society so she is particularly qualified to help us serrate fact from fiction when it comes to John Stone's.

Listen to Ep 2 by clicking here!

My guest cohost this week is comic Tom Cole (see him at Laugh Boston March 2, 2016). The topic on this first ever full length episode of Spooky A S is Shadow People. Usually seen at night and out of the corner of the eye, this phenomena has taken on many guises: incubus, succubus, cats, the old hag, hat man, and a hooded figure. More recent reports even state they have started appearing in broad daylight and some have glowing red eyes! Are these demons? Extra terrestrials? Interdemensional beings? Or just our minds playing tricks on us? All these possibilities are discussed and explored on Spooky Ass Shit episode 2! Plus I tell of my own encounter with a shadow person!

Tom Cole and I did our first stand-up gigs on the very same show. We are comedy blood brothers. 

​https://youtu.be/N8I3y4H44cc

Listen to Episode 1 by clicking here!

My buddy Brian Toney came over to help me set up my mics and teach me some garageband basics. We made a short test recording to make sure everything was in working order. Good news: it was! We never intended the recording to go public, but after listening back to it, I thought it gave a pretty good explanation as to what the show is supposed to be: a funny(ish) Unsolved Mysteries hosted by a skeptic. I decided to use this as a teaser first published on Facebook in January of 2016. Now that the podcast has become an actual thing, I've decided to make it the first episode.
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​Brian likes to leave himself a bit of a mystery so I won't tell you too much about him. He's been a friend of mine for many years. A good friend and hiking buddy. One time we did the Warrior Dash together. Well, sorta.



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Excited to announce that we are FINALLY available on iTunes and Sticher! This is such fresh news you may not even be able to search iTunes for us yet (it takes a few days to become searchable) but for not, I have direct links for you.

iTunes
Sticher
Direct Link to Feed Webpage


The first 3 episodes (intro, shadow people, ghosts of John Stone's Inn) are available now. I'll update this blog today or tomorrow with separate post about each episode including cool pictures and stuff.

PLEASE download, subscribe and give the show a good rating. And don't forget to tell me what you think of the show! Hope you enjoy!

Don't be afraid,
Eric

IDK what is going on with iTunes. I'll take responsibility for the original issue, but since 2/18, it's all been on them. Technically, the podcast has been up and running since 2/17, it's just not available on iTunes yet. For one thing, I had to modify the name. Spooky Ass Shit isn't allowed since it has curse words, but you also can't self censor so something like "Spooky A$$ Sh*t" also wouldn't have worked. I've gone with Spooky A S for iTunes. I just resubmitted it again and hopefully it will work this time. Again though, it could take another full week to find out their verdict.

In the meantime, if you just can't wait to check out the podcast, I'll give you links to download the first 3 episodes, but promise me you'll still download them when they do become available on iTunes? We want hose numbers as high as we can make them so we get some attention and thus more listeners. Ok, here's the links:
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Ep 1 What Is Spooky A S?

​Ep 2 Shadow People

Ep 3 John Stones Inn (aka Stone's Public House)

Enjoy some spooky ass shit! And let me know what you think.

I said in my last post that I didn't anticipate any problems, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be! We got rejected by iTunes in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, I think it's because of the title. Why didn't I think to check if the title would be an issue? I blame Marc Maron and his show What the Fuck...or WTF I guess I should say since that's the official iTunes title. It's a big pain in the ass but not the end of the world. I've altered the name slightly (we'll see if it passes the iTunes test before I announce it) and resubmitted it. I didn't hear back yet, but I take that as a good thing. Hopefully we'll have some good news in about a week.

In other news, I had a little time to kill today so I took a detour to check out a local legend. I give you the famous Westford Knight! There are a lot of theories about what (if anything) you can see on this rock and who or what put it there. You're supposed to be able to see a Scottish knight in full armor complete with sword snd shield....I see a rock. I had to look up photos on my phone to tell what I was supposed to be seeing and even then I was very disappointed. What can you see?

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Ok, the theme song (composed by Occultic Overtones) is done, the mixing is done, the rss feed has been configured and 3 episodes have been uploaded to a server and submitted to iTunes and stitcher radio...now we're waiting for approval. I don't anticipate any problems, but from what I've heard it still could take at least a week before you can find episodes on iTunes. I'll keep you posted but in the mean time, I'll tell you what the first 3 episodes are!

Ep 1: What is Spooky Ass Shit w/Brian Toney
In this episode, my pal Brian interviews me as to what you can expect from Spooky Ass Shit. This is more of a teaser      than a real episode, but it gives you a good taste of things to come

Ep 2: Shadow People w/Tom Cole
Ever see a shadowy figure standing in your room late at night? Ever think you've seen a dark figure pass you in the hall? You may have just seen a shadow person!!! What are they? What do they want from us?

Ep 3: The Ghosts of John Stone's Inn (Stone's Public House) w/ Jennifer Lecesse (Jennie Blades)
Two nearly-townies discuss the most famous ghosts in all of Ashland, MA!

Hopefully you'll be able to hear these REAL soon!!!

Some of you may be wondering about the podcast; here's the scoop. I've recorded/edited a bunch of episodes (I think 7 or 8 at this point) and I've got more scheduled. So that's going great. The hold up is I'm trying to perfect the mixing method so they sound good, waiting to add a custom theme song which is still a work in progress, and I have to learn how to actually publish it with the correct tags and all. I'm hopeful that all that will be done and the show will go "live" before the end of the month. In the mean time, you can follow the show on twitter and instagram both @spookyassshit
Don't be afraid