BRAIN DAMAGE

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

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.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

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.

"Can't Go Wrong Without You"

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.

CHICK TRACTS

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 GREENHORNES

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.

Here's "Let Me Be", and "Can't Stand It". Enjoy.

Let Me Be - The Greenhornes

Cant Stand It - The Greenhornes

FORBIDDEN PLANET

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.

Here's the trailer:


Here's some of the soundtrack.

Ancient Krell Music - Louis and Bebe Barron

THE RAMONES

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".

MINISTRY'S "PSALM 69: THE WAY TO SUCCEED AND THE WAY TO SUCK EGGS"

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.

Here's "N.W.O" and "Just One Fix". Enjoy!

N.W.O. - Ministry

TWO ORPHAN VAMPIRES

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

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!

KING CRIMSON'S "RED"

King Crimson are an amazing prog rock band who were at their peak in the late 1960's early 1970's. Their best album is their final release of the 1970's, "Red"(1975). After "Red" they disbanded and would not reform until the early 1980's. "Red" is a masterpiece of prog rock/metal, light years ahead of it's time. The album is very dark, dissonant, and brooding. With only five tracks, "Red" packs a heavy punch with Robert Fripp's unique guitar playing conjuring up sounds that have never been heard before or since. Bill Bruford's bizarre yet solid drum playing and John Wetton's excellent bass work hold everything together perfectly. It is embellished perfectly with sprinklings of horns, woodwinds, and violin. King Crimson pulled off something that is very hard to come by in the world of progressive rock. They made an album that is just as much complex and devastating as it is accessible and immediately enjoyable. A rare accomplishment indeed.

The first track, "Red" is a dissonant yet irresistible dark instrumental track that showcases Robert Fripp's ability to carry a strong melody and still sound strange as all get out. The next two tracks, Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare" have melodic vocals but bizarre drumming and rhythms and dark chords, making for a frightening listening experience. "Providence" is a spacey, instrumental, incidental track with violin that sets a quiet yet evil mood. The final track, "Starless", is a masterpiece, possibly the best song King Crimson has ever written. It starts out as an easy going mellotron driven ballad and slowly builds with a simple ascending quarter tone repetitious guitar pattern that keeps escalating until you are about to go insane, then it explodes into an all out nightmarish finish that always gives me goose bumps.

If you only hear one King Crimson album in your life, let it be this one. You won't be disappointed, and I'm sure you will want to hear more.

Here's the beautifully devastating first track, "Red".

CALABRESE: THE TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW

CALABRESE are an amazing horror punk band that brings to mind the best of "Walk Among Us" era Misfits. Cool, campy horror inspired lyrics, fast tempos, and infectious sing-a-long choruses abound. What really makes these guys stand out in the throng of horror punk imitators is their sense of melody combined with heavy, shredding guitar work and carefully chosen samples. Their energy level is incredible. Their album "The Traveling Vampire Show"(2007) is a high octane blood feast that is so catchy that after the first listen you will never be able to get the tunes out of your head. This CD is relentless all the way through with two of my favorite tracks being "Voices of the Dead" and "Vampires Don't Exist". Go out and get this one now if you haven't already. It's a must have in the library of any fan of horror rock.
Here's the video to "Voices of the Dead".

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO

Actor/director Ray Milland's "Panic in Year Zero"(1962) is a masterpiece of apocalyptic cinema. It brings the fear of a nuclear holocaust down the human level by dealing with what happens to one family as they are fleeing for their lives and struggling for survival after a nuclear disaster. They know little of what is going on in the rest of the world except for information they get from the radio. This movie is so suspenseful it brings to mind George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", but it would be years before that movie would be released...

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO is filmed in black and white with an edgy jazz soundtrack and a claustrophobic vibe. A family is going on vacation when a nuclear bomb goes off. They see the cloud and don't know what is going on because their radio does not work. People are fleeing the city(Los Angeles) and looting and driving like maniacs. Lawlessness prevails. Eventually their radio starts working and they realize that all major cities have been nuked...everyone is fleeing to the country. Watch as a well-respected family learns how to fiend for itself in a lawless society and watch as even the best of men can become the most savage criminals. See for yourself the degradation of mankind, the decline of civilisation, as primitive man plots to take the wilderness for himself. Anarchy prevails. But this is nothing compared to what is going on in the major cities, where almost everyone is dead. Can mankind reclaim itself or will it fall into ruin?

What makes this movie tick is that you are learning about things just as the characters discover them. A top of the line post-Apocalypse movie. Highly recommended.

Awaiting Mastadon's "Crack the Skye"...

Early this year, Mastadon, an incredible, insanely heavy prog-metal band will be releasing their new album, "Crack the Skye". It is going to be a concept album of sorts about Czarist Russia. There is a track-by-track review that just came out today and you can read it here. I can't wait. In the meantime, their previous two classics "Leviathan" and "Blood Mountain" will have to suffice.