California’s scratchy creature of ghoulish delight, Neck Face followed 2009’s storied Miami exhibit with a grisly, beer-soaked trip, Into Darkness, last night at his opening reception at LA’s OHWOW gallery. Purely getting into the space proved a major part of the holiday-appropriate romp.

To start, you’re separated from whatever party you were with in line by tattered, blood-covered, pillowcase wearers with wooden sticks and hurried behind a metal door, finding yourself smack in a full-featured haunted house. Forgiving the long line, it’s then a brief jaunt through token scenes of the horror canon; there’s the chainsaw attacker, a mother of multiple demon babies and a pure scene of shrieked female devil possession. What’s behind the exit’s black curtain though, seems comparatively like a leisurely respite to the above scenes of death and torture: cheap beer, skateboarding and the actual art.

Showcasing no more than 20 pieces, Neck Face showed his colors over scenes of known hairy demonic characters, playful comic-strips (Cheetos’ tiger smokes crack, catches himself on fire, becomes Flamin’ Hot was a standout alongside the Death meets Heath Ledger piece), larger text-based works (“I’ve been there, it took my nowhere, but it was fun” scrawled across red Afrika-print background) and a pair of installations adorned with smutty clippings, metallic cut masks and marionette dolls.

There was also persistent heat from the crowded space, some mini-ramp tricks, Tecate and lots of girls dressed Black Metal. Ending seemingly rushed around 11pm, most of the party headed over to Three Clubs for more costumed libations and a performance from stoner skate-band The Goat.

Neck Face: Into Darkness runs through November 20th, 2010 at OHWOW Gallery, 101 S. La Brea in Los Angeles. Click any of the images to expand them and check after the break for a gallery of my images from the opening night party.

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Welcome to a new Bloglin feature foccused solely on exposing the creative underbelly of Los Angeles. We’ve asked our record reviewer, Hollow Eyed to take some time away from Hollywood coke parties and meandering through beastly LA traffic to start a monthly—or maybe more frequent—column entitled Smog City Sounds in the hopes of bringing the best of The City of Angels has to offer to the Bloglin eyes. To kick things off, he reviews dream-pop foursome Superhumanoids’ latest, self-released and produced 12-inch Urgency.

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LA-based Superhumanoids play a sound that’s well beyond their short career. Featuring two members of snarky post-punk speedsters The Franks, they claim it’s “music to help kiss the doldrums away” and the quartet are pretty much right in their over-the-moon assertion. Throughout their current, self-released (on own imprint Hit City) and self-produced, six-song 12″ Urgency, the band succeed outright in letting spill the slow-growing froth of perfectly paced dream pop. Mimicking the likes of all things Labrador Records, former acts like Felt, early Talking Heads and the bevy of Kraut or Velvets’ garage delivery, these songs are spiced with Calypso shine, rolling bass, chorally-shared vocals and tender electro-meets-organic backbones.

Opener “Persona” slowly ticks on the cylinders like an Arcade Fire growth over motorik beats before “Cranial Contest” drops in for a hazy surf-pop bob. Continuing by steering down different roads and known eras, Urgency’s engine remains fueled by the same enjoyable entity; it may be bedroom funk on “Hey Big Bang” and Sarah Chernoff’s “All I want to do is love, but sometimes my love is gone” assertion, or “Contemporary Individual” aping Grizzly-Bear-like delicacy over early Cure guitars.

Making shape-shifting look effortless, these six songs are well worth the time you’ll spend just trying to name a few of your own sonic comparisons. Like a large number of acts these days, pure lobbed genre classification is spent and with Urgency, Superhumanoids are going forth knowing this.

For those in The City of Smog, Superhumanoids are among the lineup for the upcoming LA HEARDfest that’s set to go down next weekend at the Historic State Park in Chinatown. Curated by promoters Heard of Elephants, it marks the debut multimedia festival for the group and features 20-plus local bands, comedians and artists.