Well, it's Black Friday again, and you know what that means...Hell on Earth, and yes, the one year anniversary of this blog as of tomorrow! Yes, it all began the Saturday after Black Friday, and here's the post that really started it all. I hope you all have enjoyed this blog so far, and I look forward to seeing a second year anniversary here as well. Thanks to everyone for their support. And now, without any further ado...The Jingle Cats!
"Hot on the heels of Black Friday...here's The Jingle Cats performing one of their amazingly psychedelic Christmas tunes....."White Christmas"! This first clip is the original version, and it's trippy enough...but the second clip is a re-mix..."White Christmas in Hell". It is brain melting indeed...Helios Creed would be proud."
The Consumers were a ferocious American punk band that only released one album, "All My Friends Are Dead", in 1977. Their sound is vicious and distinctive, like a cross between The Sex Pistols and The Ramones sped up and amped to deafening volumes with snarling vocals. Almost hardcore but not quite, The Consumers manage to retain the melody of punk through the cacophony of it all. "All My Friends Are Dead" is a deafening, frightening, and addictive blast of energy that knocks you down but makes you want to come back for more. Songs like "Anti, Anti, Anti" and "Teen Love Song" are so good they are practically punk anthems. After The Consumers' short career, gutarist Paul Cutler helped form the gothic/art/punk/hardcore band 45 Grave led by Dinah Cancer. They re-recorded faithfully devastating versions of many classic Consumer's tracks, elevating the Consumers' work to a new, legendary status. Go out and get "All My Friends are Dead" now. Play it loud and scare your neighbors. Here's "Teen Love Song" and "Consumers". Enjoy!
Ryan Webb's "See Jane Run" (2007) is a gruesome, brilliant little horror movie that harkens back to the good old days of gore and exploitation movies from the 1960's and 1970's such as "Bloodsucking Freaks", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and "The Wizard of Gore". Just like these movies, it leaves you in a state of shock, wondering "What will they think of next? How can they top that last scene?" And it does not disappoint....it holds you from beginning to end. And after watching it....well, you may feel like you need to take a shower...but that's all part of the experience. Unlike it's predecessors from a bygone era, however, "See Jane Run", is a very slickly produced movie. It does feature some bizarre camera angles and some old country music in the beginning, along with some familiar plot devices but that's about as retro as it gets.
"See Jane Run" is about a group of teens who pick up a stranger who's car has broken down in the middle of nowhere in Brownsville, Texas. They find an auto mechanic who can fix his car, but it won't be for a while. The mechanic tells them of a great place they can get some barbecue and stay the night. Tired and hungry, the group jumps for it. Once they get to the restaurant, they realize it does not look like a place to eat. It is someone's house, and a very nice, modern, and huge house it is. And the owner, well he seems nice too. Very straight-laced, well-groomed, and well-mannered. He cooks them up some barbecue and everyone loves it. They remark on how different it tastes...
Something isn't right here, but what?
Oh, yeah. It's their host. You see, he really is a bloodthirsty cannibal that loves him some human flesh. "Why leave the flesh to rot in the earth with the rats and worms when it can live on inside of you?" he says. And he has already killed and eaten his family. That's why he lives in such a huge house alone. And he needs more human flesh!
He is very moralistic for a cannibal. Very disdainful about cheating on your loved ones, as our teens do tend to sleep around a bit. And smoking. You can forget it. It taints the flavor of the meat. And he is all about some torture: human dart-boards, a hot iron strapped to the face, etc. etc. The torture scenes are intense and gut-wrenching.
Will anyone survive and will there be anything left of them? You must watch this movie to find out.....it is time well spent.
The Angry Samoans are a gleefully irresponsible and vindictive West Cost punk band that was around from the late 1970's thru mid 1980's. Filled with joyfully dry, sneering, spiteful, and offensive lyrics, and a simple, straightfoward yet addictive musical delivery that skirted the line between hardcore and Ramones style punk, The Angry Samoans were a force to be reckoned with. Their best two albums are "Inside My Brain"(1980) and "Back from Samoa" (1982).
Here's "You Stupid Asshole" from "Inside My Brain"....
..and here's "Lights Out" from "Back from Samoa".
Give these two a listen...if you like 'em go out and pick up these two albums. They will not disappoint.
Andrew Parkinson's "I, Zombie"(1999). I have this on VHS and I was wanting to watch it badly the other day. I put it in the VCR and to my horror, the tape no longer worked. It had deteriorated and the picture quality was unwatchable. I'm still trying to get my VHS collection re-purchased on DVD, so I looked this one up to see if it was out on DVD. No luck. Both VHS ad DVD are out of print...
"I, Zombie" is one of my favorite zombie movies. It deals with the human side of being a zombie, what happens in the life of one person as his body slowly deteriorates. The main character(Mark) is a scientist and he is going out in the woods to collect some samples. He comes across a dilapidated house in a field and finds a man that has been shot several times in the head. In another room he hears a woman moaning and goes to check on her. She is in the final phases of turning into a zombie. He picks her up to help her and she bites him on the neck. He passes out for a while in the field and returns home to his apartment after he awakes.
Mark is slowly turning into a zombie. How does he keep his relationship with his girlfriend? How does he cope with the isolation and loneliness as he locks himself in his apartment most of the day? How does he deal with the urge to feed and still function in society? How does he deal with his body decaying more and more everyday?
"I, Zombie" is a very realistic, saddening film. You feel for the main character and want to help him but you can't...all you can do is watch his physical and mental state deteriorate. This movie was filmed on video tape, yet the production and direction are highly effective. The story and acting are strong, making you feel strongly for the main character. Mark's slow decaying as a zombie is horrific and depressing. I want to watch this movie again, but I guess I'll have to wait until a new DVD release becomes available. This is not your typical zombie movie nor your typical horror movie. It is more of a drama with tons of gore. If you're adventurous in your movie watching, check this one out if you can find it. I'm sure you will like it.
Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) is a landmark film in the world of horror. There is a reason why this movie has spawned so many sequels and one remake. It is hard for a movie to come even close to this film's intensity. Filmed at a frantic, nerve wracking, nightmarish pace with bizarre camera angles and creepy sound effects laced throughout, this movie hits you hard every time. It is about a group of teenagers who make a pit stop for gas and what have you in the middle of nowhere in a creepy, small, hillbilly town. A violent hitchiker, old country music played in the background and blank creepy stares are all you are greeted with from the locals. Of course they wind up sticking around a while and snooping where they shouldn't be, and all hell breaks loose. And this is where the fun begins.
All of the sets in this movie convey an unsettling sense of desolation and decrepitude. The suspense and tension that buids with shock after shock as we watch these teens brutally murdered one by one is superb. They only had about 10 days to film this movie and it shows in the atmosphere. Working long days with little or no sleep keeps the tone of this movie on edge and delirious...the intensity of this movie never lets up, and by the end you are emotionally drained.
If you are wary of watching this movie because of all the sequels it spawned, don't be. This the one you need to watch. It is one of the best 1970's horror movies ever made, and one of the horror movie genre's greatest movies of all time. Go rent or buy this one now if you haven't seen it already. And if you have...well, watch it again.
The Melvins' "Bullhead"(1991). A pure, molten, blistering slab of stoner metal from start to finish. Sludgy passages oozing with psychedelia mixed with dizzying stop and start rythyms that explode into full throttle scorching head banging monster riffs. Buzzo's vocals are filled with intensity and fit perfectly with the music, and there is so much energy in The Melvins' playing that even the slow sections never seem lethargic. From the agonizing 10 minute opening track "Boris" through the ending track "Cow", this album never disappoints, and you never know what is coming next. "Bullhead" is my favorite Melvins' album, and has been a huge influence on the world of stoner metal, especially with bands such as Kyuss and Fu Manchu.
Everybody knows who Frank Henenlotter is by now, right? If not, check out my reviews of "Basket Case 2" and "Frankenhooker". Well here's another installment in the demented world of Frank Henenlotter....BRAIN DAMAGE! It came out in 1987 and its much more dark and twisted than any of hos other works in my opinion. It delves deep into the human side of horror and drug addiction, and shows the streets how they really are.....and yet at the same time this is the funniest and strangest movie you will see in a long time. You will fall out of your chair laughing in horror and disbelief!!
BRAIN DAMAGE is about a parasite named AYLMER that loves to eat brains. He is blue, looks like a turd(MR. HANKEY ring any bells?), has many many sharp teeth, speaks perfect English, travels through the decrepit inner-city New York plumbing and will eat your brains in a second. But there is one catch. He is lazy and quite sophisticated. He would rather have someone else go find his brains for him!
So how does he do this? Well, he promises to get you high! He sinks his fangs into the base of your brain and secretes a chemical that makes you feel like you are on LSD but addicts you like heroin. If you don't bring him brains, he cuts you off!!! In fact, he cut off his last owners because they would only give him animal brains...the nerve! It's human brains or nothing!
So he finds a new owner, a gullible youth named Brian...watch him sink to the depths of despair in the most disgusting area of New York you have ever seen! He can't get a girlfriend because Aylmer wants her brains, he can't get a friend because Aylmer wants brains! And he has to have his fix...
This movie is a must see! Drop everything now and find this movie before Aylmer crawls up through the drain of your bathroom sink and tries to get you high or eat your brains...
Saint Vitus. A legendary psychedelic doom metal band whose best moments(to me) were in the mid to late 1980's . Their three best albums are "Born Too Late"(1987), "Mournful Cries"(1988), and "V"(1989). Their sound is very Black Sabbath oriented, with a dose of Black Flag and a heavy dose of psychedelia thrown into the mix. The tempos are agonizingly slow yet hypnotic...they reach a nice head banging mid-pace every now and then. The guitar playing is thick, sludgy, and heavy, with guitar solos that conjure up the darkest psychedelic demons from the depths of hell. Scott "Wino" Weinrich's vocals owe some debt to Ozzy, but they also have a rough and reflective edge. Saint Vitus's influence on stoner metal as well as as doom/goth metal is tremendous. Bands ranging from the psych/space rock of Monster Magnet to the gloomy, acid laden goth rock of Christian Death(with Rozz Williams) to the superbly crafted doom of Electric Wizard owe a heavy debt to their work.
Saint Vitus never achieved commercial success. They stayed true to their sound and roots, and maintained a loyal cult following. Their vocalist Wino left the band and formed The Obsessed and later Spirit Caravan. Saint Vitus continued to make music for many years in different incarnations.
Here's the slow, title track from their first album with Wino, "Born Too Late". A hippie metal anthem. The album is a raw, sludge laden masterpiece.
Here's "Dragon Time" from "Mournful Cries", hands down the gloomiest album of the three.
And here's "Ice Monkey" and "I Bleed Black" from "V", my personal favorite CD of theirs.
I love the whole sub-genre of Spaghetti Westerns. They were made by Italians and filmed in Spain, because the landscape resembles that of the old west. Italian directors at that time had a great eye for scenery, atmosphere, and excellent camera work. They also had a great ear for music and incidental background noises that really set the atmosphere. The morals to these stories are always gray, as the heroes are not exactly the best people in the world, and a lot of the times you find yourself seriously questioning their actions. There are many great Spaghetti Westerns out there, but the most definitive and well made of them all is Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" (1967).
"The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" is the final part of a loosely knitted together trilogy. The first two installments were "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More". The movies center around three characters, Tuco, Angel Eyes, and Blondie(or The Man with No Name), whose paths cross in some way or another in all three films. All three of the men are scum, especially Tuco who is a sloth and a violent thief and drunkard. Angel Eyes (played by Lee Van Cleef) and Blondie (played by Clint Eastwood) are no better. They are bounty hunters, thieves, and guns for hire as well, but they have a certain air of sophistication about them that Tuco lacks.
"The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" pits these three characters against each other perfectly. The movie opens with Tuco and Blondie in the midst of an ingenious money making scam. Tuco has a price on his head just about everywhere. As the two travel from town to town, Blondie pretends he has captured Tuco and hands him over tho the authorities to collect the reward money. As Tuco is about to be hung for his crimes, Blondie shoots the rope, and the two get away to go to the next town, where Tuco's bounty has now gone up.
Eventually, the two hear of some money that is buried in a soldiers grave. The problem is, one knows only the name of the cemetery and the other knows only the name on the grave. Eventually, Angel Eyes enters the picture, and the three men try to no end to outsmart, back stab, and betray each other to find out where the money is. Eventually some one gets the money. But who? And which one is the good, which one is the bad, and which one is the ugly? A tough decision, but that is only one thing that makes this movie so great.
The historical background of this movie is sweeping, set against an awe-inspiring, detailed backdrop of The Civil War. And the scenery! Beautifully film desert landscapes, haunting scenes of the wild west and The Civil War, profound images of an America that once was. The camera work is also incredible, and really helps to build suspense with its slow, lingering shots and insane close-ups. Another way Sergio Leone hits you is with silence, sparse dialogue, and background noise. Sometimes silence speaks louder that words, and Leone uses this as a great way to build suspense. Long periods with no dialogue, just the sound of boots and spurs jingling on a hard wood floor and noises that are going on outside often lead up to the most violent and climactic scenes in the movie, filling the air with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife...
Of course one of the best and most memorable things about this movie is the excellent, beautiful, and strange soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Mixing fuzzed out electric guitar, whistling, chanting, and Spanish horns, fused all into a Western movie soundtrack. His music is instantly recognizable and unforgettable.
One word of note: only watch this movie in wide screen. If you have only seen this movie in pan and scan, as they usually show it on TV, then you have not really SEEN "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". I first saw it in the full screen TV format, and a few years later I broke down and bought it on DVD in wide screen. It was like watching a completely different movie. Visually, it floored me.
Anyway, if you haven't seen this one, drop what you are doing and go rent it now.
This has to be one of the strangest and disturbing songs and videos I've ever seen or heard. It came from the art rock band's His Name Is Alive 1993 release "Mouth By Mouth". The song is "Can't Go Wrong Without You", and the video is made by the strangely beautiful yet disturbing stop-motion animation masters The Brothers Quay. I remember seeing this on 120 Minutes way back in the day when it first came out. For some reason, it's been stuck in my head for the past couple of days and I can't get it out. The album it came from is pretty good as well, but this song just stands out for some reason. Here's the video. Don't worry. I'm sure it will haunt you too.
Anybody remember those unintentionally funny, bizarre comic book religious tracts that you would find (and still do) in odd places that someone left laying around just for you? They would turn up in public restrooms, restaurants, and other places. They are called Chick Tracts. They began being published in 1961 by Jack T. Chick and are still being published today. I always get a kick out of reading these. I love the gruesome color art work on the covers. And the artwork inside! Most of it looks like the art in the old EC horror comics from the 1950's...somewhat cartoonish yet grotesque and horrific at the same time. Some of the artwork has a grim, photo-realistic quality, not as impressive to the eye, but equally effective. And the stories! Highly preachy, loaded with fear and paranoia, and grim, depressing plots....that is, until the end, when someone accepts Jesus as their saviour and all is well. Still, this doesn't come until the main character has hit rock bottom and has suffered enormously.
The ironic thing about these tracks is that they unintentionally glorify what they are preaching against by revelling in it's excess and making everything so laughably melodramatic. Also the beliefs and morals held in these tracks are so stilted that you cannot take them seriously.
I got a boxed assortment of a hundred of these several years ago for my birthday and I love it. You can order them here.
There is an incredible website that catalogs every Chick Tract ever made. You can click on and read just about every one, and it's free. Click here and kickback, enjoy, and have a few good laughs.
The Grenhornes are an amazing retro 1960's garage rock band. These guys stand out well above the legion of garage rock revivalist acts out there. Their first album, simply titled "The Greenhornes"(2001), is a masterpiece. Their outlook is gloomy, and their sound brings to mind the best of the The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Standells, early Paul Revere and the Raiders and the like...a perfect mixture of blues, soul, and a fuzzed out yet highly polished and melodic sound. The vocals and harmonies are incredible, engaging, yet detached. They fuse all of the best things about the garage rock era into something completely original and all their own, making it sound fresh and new again. If you're into 1960's garage rock like I am and you enjoy the "Nuggets" and "Pebbles" compilations as much as I do, this is a must have in your collection. And even if you're not, give these guys a listen anyway. I'm sure you will like them.
1956's FORBIDDEN PLANET. A masterpiece of science fiction cinema. Has anybody out there ever seen this one? It is a classic. Great visuals, great soundtrack, great story. FORBIDDEN PLANET centers around the mysterious planet, Altair-4. It seems that an ancient alien race, the Krell, once inhabited the planet millions of years ago with a technology vastly superior to ours....but some mysterious force wiped them out. A team of researchers from Earth led by Dr. Morbius colonized the planet. They were all massacred one by one by some terrible entity. Dr. Morbius and his daughter are all that remains, and they inhabit an ancient fortress built by the Krell. He is the sole protector and student of the Krell's technology, which is still present and completly operational. Another team from Earth comes to visit the planet and find out what happened to the missing researchers. Dr. Morbius pleads for them to leave, because terrible things are bound to happen to them.....of course they don't listen and all chaos ensues. What is causing all of these deaths? Well, it is creatures from the Id of course......and nothing can stop them! This movie is beautiful to look at, with futuristic sets galore. Also, the soundtrack by Louis and Bebe Barron is incredible...it is the first movie to use the moog synthesizer and theremin to full effect. I highly reccomend this one.
The Ramones' self titled deblut album, released in 1976, is a masterpiece of punk, the proto-type from which many American punk bands would follow. The Ramone's approach was simple yet unique: Stripped down, primitve, early rock and roll sped up and amplified to the extreme with purposefully mindless and irresponsible lyrics. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes long, their debut packs a powerful, quick punch, with hooks that make you want to come back again and again. Every song on this album is unforgettable, from the classic opening track "Blitzgreig Bop", to 'Beat on the Brat" and the horror movie inspired "Chainsaw", to "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue". Fourteen songs total. All mindless, addictive, gleeful fun. My all time favorite Ramones album. Here's "Chainsaw" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Let's take a trip back in time to 1992. The time of the first Iraq war, the year I graduated high school. The music scene at the time was pretty good with bands like Soungarden and Nirvana starting to make it big. Anyway, I went to Lollapalooza 2 that summer and saw Ministry play live, just a few months after their devastatingly heavy new album "Psalm 69" was released. I remember Al Jourgensen came out wearing a big George Bush mask as "N. W. O." started playing and the whole crowd went wild. What a show!
"Psalm 69" is a masterpiece of industrial metal. Ministry were in perfect form on this album...at their peak actually. "Psalm 69" is the perfect blend of Ministry's brand of industrial rock and super heavy thrash metal. The production on this CD is so loud and full it is frightening and Al Jourgensen's angry vocal delivery is top notch. On "Psalm 69", Ministry create the perfect soundtrack to the apocalypse driven by an intensity that has never been matched sense. If you haven't heard this album, go out and get it now. It will not disappoint.
French director Jean Rollin's "Two Orphan Vampires"(1996), is an excellent, atmospheric, beautifully filmed, dreamlike horror movie. Jean Rollin's movies combine violence, eroticism, and surrealism, making for a unique viewing experience. I have only seen two other Rollin movies, "the Grapes of Death" and "Rape of the Vampire". "Two Orphan Vampires" is slightly tamer, but packs a powerful punch just the same.
The movie is based on a series of novels written by Jean Rollin himself. It concerns two gorgeous orphan vampires who are blind during the day but can see at night. They light they perceive is blue, so many scenes from their perspective are filmed in blue light. When the movie first starts they are living in a Catholic orphanage. The nuns take care of them during the day, but at night when their vision returns, they sneak out and hunt their next victim, careful to return to the orphanage before the nuns awake. They are soon taken in by an eye doctor, who vows to find a way to make them see again. The problem is, these two orphans are very violent. They have a misleading innocence about them. They cannot stay in any one place too long, because they like their independence and their blood lust sometimes becomes too much for them to control.
The two orphans meet several bizarre creatures in their night time wanderings. A ghoul on the beach, a female werewolf that lives in a rail yard, another female vampire wearing bat wings that lives underneath a church in a beautiful, huge cave filled with candy colored lighting... Their wanderings have a dreamlike quality, and this movie as whole follows the logic of a dream. Jean Rollin is very reserved in this movie, saving most of the violence towards the end, building you a up to a bizarre, climactic finish that will not disappoint.
Rollin's movies can be difficult at times, and this movie is no different. Sometimes things make sense. Sometimes they don't. At times the pace of this movie is exhilarating and sometimes it crawls to a near standstill, letting your mind wander as if in a dream... I love this movie. It is not perfect by any means, but it will keep you entertained and it is very beautiful to look at. And by the way, watch it in the original French language version with English subtitles. The DVD has an option for this feature.
Here's a short clip from the movie. Not one of the best scenes, but it's all I could find.
FRANKENHOOKER (1990). What a great movie! I don't know where to start... Anybody familiar with Frank Henenlotter's stuff? He directed this movie as well as the "Basket Case" trilogy and "Brain Damage". His brand of horror is very twisted. It's streetwise, human, very funny in a sick kind of way and always deals with the human side of horror. What strange things can go wrong with the body and mind!
FRANKENHOOKER is a demented love story, very outside the box. The movie opens at a birthday party. Jeffrey,a scientist and inventor, is a throwing a big birthday party for his long-time girlfriend. Everything is going smoothly until the auto-pilot lawnmower he built malfunctions and runs his girlfriend over, cutting her into tiny pieces! All that is left is her head... So he begins a a maddening quest. How can he get his girlfriend back? He keeps her head in a freezer and her brain still works. It's hooked up to all kinds of electronic gadgets! So now to the next problem. How do you get her body back? SIMPLE! You invent SUPERCRACK, so powerful it will make you literally explode, hit the streets and find a bunch of prostitutes, get with their pimp, invite 'em all over for an orgy, give'em some supercrack, wait til they explode, take the parts you want to rebuild your girlfriend, throw the rest away or hide'em in your deep freezer, and BAM! your problem is solved! Now all he has to do is sew the parts together and reanimate her. It just takes a couple of minutes in the movie and he's done......right?
WRONG! An undead girlfriend, reanimated with body parts from prostitutes full of supercrack does not bode well. None of her parts match, she lumbers around, "wanna fuck?" is just about all she can say. She is extremely dangerous, as The SUPERCRACK gave her super-human powers! Things are not going well for poor Jeffrey........and what about those extra body parts he didn't use and left in the deep freezer? The freezer is making a weird noise and funny lights are shooting out of it...
Well, what are you waiting for? FRANKENHOOKER is a movie no one should miss!
