Electronic Go-Go Non-Stop

Un-fucking-believable. Fuck yeah, it's a tireless repost but deservedly so. 7 years after I posted this little fucker I'm still break dancing to this shit in my kitchen. Still my most-est favorite lawn-mowing music ever. I won't bore you with a sad retread of the original post - needless to say I absolutely fucking LOVE this groove and would do anything to find out more about the geniuses behind it. Scatwerk?!?!? Fucking godlike. Enjoy.

Kill. Drive. Repeat.

Music To Tag To

Here's a soundtrack snippet by a gang I've mentioned before, the somewhat infamous DayByDay comedy duo of Will Carsola and Dave Stewart. Culled from their 2006 comedy sketch flick Teenagers From Uranus, today's/this months's upload features three-ish hip-hop tracks from the DVD soundtrack. Played over several "intermissions" (a.k.a. run time filler) of graffiti artists running around in what I assume is Baltimore, the tracks are probably local RVA artists and probably demos or unreleased. Couldn't get a whole lot from the credits so best guessing one or all of the artists are local legend Oxen Johnson (with or without his group Luggage), Ali Thieves and maybe some remixes by Kjell. Good old-school gangsta rap for us old fucks out there. As for Carsola and Stewart, I only recently discovered these guys made their way out of the River City towards sunny CA to create the Mr. Pickles show for Adult Swim. Who knew and good for them escaping the tri-cities. Check out some more of their funny sketch comedy shit here.

Sloppy Seconds

Get off my case motherfucker!

As I've droned on about in other pages of this blog I'm a huge fan of Italian cannibal/zombie horror and have been ecstatic seeing some of the more notable "classics" get the deluxe re-release treatment on Blu-Ray. Movies that were only seen as a scratched, beaten negative in the smelliest dives on 42nd Street or via cloudy nth-generation VHS dubs are now being scanned into high-def with a host of fun bonus shit for sleazeophiles like me. Umberto Lenzi was the auteur behind 1981's Cannibal Ferox (astute trash cinema historians will know it by its VHS title Make Them Die Slowly), a poor man's cash-in on Ruggero Deodato's epic Cannibal Holocaust. While much has been written about the two directors' individual style, Lenzi was clearly the knock-off king of the two, riding an established genre wave to its inevitable completion. Cannibal Ferox effectively ended the minor Italian cannibal cinema renaissance - it's a mean-spirited canker sore of a film that features absolutely no likeable characters spitting spiteful dialogue from one to another with contempt and a sneer. It's a riot. And that's not even counting the inescapable violence that supposedly got this gem banned in 31 countries. Gluing the whole thing together is a solid synth-funk soundtrack by one "Budy Maglione," also known as composer Roberto Donati. Donati was a Lenzi regular in the early 80's, scoring his other cannibal/Guyana mishmash Eaten Alive! and oddball comedy Daughter of the Jungle. While nowhere near as coherent a soundtrack as provided by Riz Ortolani for Deodato's jungle films, Donati effort is much more poppy and terribly catchy. Some of the NYC jingles almost sound like they were recorded for some 1980's L'eggs commercials - they are that kitzchy (to be honest I think Donati was trying to sound like Ortolani's "Do It To Me" from La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco but that's just me). Anyways, the actual soundtrack is only 20 minutes or so long but there are a host of alternate takes to keep you interested - enjoy a trip down tit-piercing, dick-cutting, brain-eating memory lane.

Los Últimos Canibales

VHS Memories...

Technology is fucking amazing. While I'm kind of a luddite in the sense that I don't own a fucking smartphone or GPS or any of that silly shit, I do put what sadly little money I have into my home theater system. Tonight I watched the recently released HD of Cannibal Holocaust and I simply cannot get over it. I have watched this film probably 100 times - and it's never been in the same format. Starting with my first 50th-generation Venezuelan bootleg in 1988 (which looked like it was filmed through a paper towel) to the limited 25th Anniversary box set which was until now the pinnacle; I've purchased nearly every iteration of this cannibal epic without even thinking twice. The new Blu-Ray is fucking amazing. I can't help but actually stand in front of the fucking TV while it's playing. Shit that was a blur of off-whites is now a clear, crisp hut in the corner, or discarded turtle carcass. In a nutshell - I fucking love Cannibal Holocaust and seeing it in a more beautiful format than the few folks who saw it in 1979 makes me feel oddly priviledged. Here's the uncut soundtrack from Deodato regular Riz Ortolani, a beautiful synthesizer symphony which stands alone as the most haunting soundtrack to an Italian horror movie in history. Enjoy.

The Deuce

Songs For Clay

Yet another movie soundtrack that far exceeds the quality of the movie it represents, Less Than Zero was curiously released by Def Jam Records (soon to be Def American) and helmed by none other than producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin. While the film suffered from a healthy blanket of late-80's cheese that simply does not age well with time, the accompanying music has some nice surprises, at the time unavailable anywhere else. Def Jam veterans Public Enemy debuted "Bring The Noise" (later released on the seminal It Takes A Nation Of Millions) and L.L. Cool J contributes his smooth talking "Going Back To Cali" - showing a much more mature side of the rapper after his sophomoric BAD album earlier that year. Slayer covers Iron Butterfly in a solid, blissfully 3-minute version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" played at their typical breakneck speed. For the top-40 crowd, the Bangles offer their version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade Of Winter" (of which I'm sure everyone remembers the video), Aerosmith covers an old Huey Smith tune, Poison invokes Kiss, and Roy Orbison croons through the dark "Life Fades Away" (penned by Glenn Danzig no less!) Speaking of Glen (sic) Danzig, he does his best Elvis impression on the amazing "You & Me" - performed with the oddly-monikered "Power And Fury Orchestra" (evidently the original lineup of Danzig with George Drakoulias playing bass for Eerie Von who was clashing with Rubin on the song's arrangement). Probably the Lodi, NJ native's most heartfelt tune and the high point of the record. There are a couple other tracks on the album (mostly R&B) but I'd be lying if I said they ever graced my stereo speakers. It would be interesting to see Less Than Zero remade in today's graphic, dark Requiem For A Dream-esque style - some rumors claim Quentin Tarantino is trying to do just that.

Rip

A little about me...

During the Superbowl there was actually a block of commercials long enough for me to stop my bitching and ranting about the inevitable Patriots downfall to discuss movies with a few of the other less football-oriented Sunday partiers. It all started with a discussion about various Coen Brothers films and mutated into a "best movies ever" challenge.

So here's my top ten films of all time. These are movies that I think reached true perfection - from cinematography to soundtrack to story, FX, whatever. Whether big- or low-budget, these exceptional pieces of celluloid either inspired me to create something myself or give up whatever project I was working on because they proved someone had already done it better then I ever would. I really think they are flawless works of art that can easily withstand most criticism and are (to me) more of an experience then just a "movie." Repeated viewings encouraged for sure.

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974 - ugh, do I even need to write that?)
2. Easy Rider
3. Alien
4. Pink Flamingos
5. The Shining
6. Combat Shock
7. The Big Lebowski
8. The Thing (1982)
9. Reservoir Dogs
10. Nekromantik

In addition, below are a couple guilty pleasures that could have made the cut if I had been a little more forgiving (or drunk) - even though it was extremely unlikely anyone at the party had ever heard of them (it took me almost twenty minutes to convince the unenlightened yokel that Nekromantik was a legitimate film). Either overly gruesome, twisted, low-rent or fucked up, these are flicks that I don't think are perfect by any means (although with some that only adds the charm) yet I've still managed to watch them a zillion times. Neither technically great nor watershed works of art, when I go through my DVDs for something to watch they always end up being regular grabs. Here they are in no particular order...

1. Threads

2. La Planète Sauvage
3. Cannibal Apocalypse
4. House By The Cemetery
5. Contamination
6. House On The Edge Of The Park
7. Last House On Dead End Street
8. Over The Edge
9. Black Devil Doll From Hell
10. The Angry Red Planet
11. Touch Of Death

These are all personal faves, fun movies for a 6-pack of tall boys and frozen pizza while the wife goes out for girl's night.

So what brought this up, do you ask? I was listening to Ennio Morricone's incredible soundtrack to Carpenter's The Thing today and figured I'd change it up and do the movie tip. If you've never heard the score, check it out. Now. Opening with funereal violins and piano, horns sweating ice-blue angst as strings stoke panic, "Humanity" and its tuba embodies menace without rationalization. "Contamination," a contagion of string-plucked hysteria that succumbs to eerie sawed violin feeds the overpowering "Bestiality." Employing the single-note piano ploy of Carpenter's score for Halloween, "Solitude" leads to "Eternity," which descends with a Phantom of the Opera cathedral organ. Crescendos of string stretch above a coagulating pool of bass on "Wait," prior to "Humanity (Part II)," which both opens and closes Carpenter's remake, its organic pulse of inevitability as taut as a German synthesizer, woodwind warning crowning sustained red organ agony. (thanks Austin Chronicle)

As far as movies this week goes, I've seen Dead & Buried (good but somewhat dated), Scum (excellent) and Shark Night (so fucking terrible it makes direct-to-DVD tripe like Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus look positively Oscar-worthy. $25 million for a gigantic 3-D turd that is somehow even made more worse after the closing credits with an agonizing cast rap video. You've got to see it to believe how bad it is.) OK, time to go class. Let me know some of your faves anonymi out there in Internet land...

 
Currently watching: The Believer

Currently listening to: Aposepsy Aposepsy

R.I.P. Krug Stilo

Man, what a drag it was to hear David Hess passed away on Saturday. Not only was he the lead villain in two of my favorite movies (Last House On The Left and the incredible House On The Edge Of The Park) but he was an accomplished musician who composed one of my favorite horror flick soundtracks (the aforementioned House... er... Last House). And he seemed like a cool guy to boot; enthusiastic over his cult stardom, a horror convention regular, never one to turn down a fan. There's already a wealth of info online regarding his early days as a songwriter for Elvis and Mercury Records A&R rep so I thought I'd skip all that and upload two albums of his - the soundtrack to Last House and his 2001 release Caught Up In The Moment. LHOTL is an amazing album, it reeks like a bad acid trip, full of post-60's influence but way way darker - the untitled "Road Leads To Nowhere"' ditties are almost suicidally bleak. "Ice Cream Song" could easily be used today as some random commercial ditty for Old Navy. "Sadie And Krug" is a wonderful polka-ish tune in the ilk of Zappa's "Jewish Princess" - and the full songs at the end of the album could have easily passed on some random England Dan & John Ford Coley LPs without turning a head. Caught Up In The Moment isn't always my cup of tea, some of the songs are a bit cheesy on the symbolism ("Animal Dreams" for one) to the point that you could imagine Trey Parker singing them. But he is easily redeemed with the hilarious "High" (my personal fave), "Vagabond" and "Nice Girl" - all which dip into the welcome territory of of his 70's sound. Actually, to any Ween fans who read this - he is on par with Chris Harford's music if that means anything to anyone. Anyways, check him out, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. You passed too early Dave, thanks for the memories and the music.

1972                                                                 2001

Currently watching: Look
Currently listening to: The Book Of Mormon

Ménage À Trois

One of my favorite films of all time is Jörg Buttgereit's super-8 masterpiece Nekromantik. Not sure what that says about me or my celluloid tastes but I have never viewed the contemporary horror film the same way since I saw what a bunch of West Germans were able to create with absolutely no money, no equipment and no fucking shame back in 1987. I'm sure the three people who check this blog out are more then likely familiar with this piece of cinematic corpse-fucking so I figured I'd post one of the more beautiful (?) sides of the flick - the music. The sadly defunct Barrel Entertainment's DVD release of Nekromantik 2 included a CD of the soundtracks for both films. So here I present one of the more twistedly original compositions to ever accompany a film about necrophilia. From the demented abattoir opus "Surprise" to the darkly sweet "At Home" and the suicidal "Drunk," it is a 25-minute joyride through chaos. I think the music to the second film is somewhat derivative so I didn't include it although if I get a comment or two maybe I'll get around to it. Regardless, enjoy.

Masturbatory Suicide

 
Currently watching: Re-Animator
Currently listening to: Windhand Practice Space Demo

42nd Street Sleaze

One of the more random flicks in my DVD collection is the 1970's Nick Phillips raincoat oddity Roxanna. A strange 50-minute softcore descent into big breasts, thigh-high boots, leather and tribbing; nicely blended with suicide and dementia. Too depressing to be considered a token skin flick, Phillips' movie absolutely reeks of 16mm Manhattan sleaze; it's gritty, low budget and unrelentingly fetishistic. And the music score is fantastic. Imagine generic 70's porno funk downtuned into a cheerless acid-trip dirge and there ya go. Recorded live and barely mixed, I would love to find the band that sat for this session. I ripped the soundtrack from the DVD and cut out most of the annoying narration - I couldn't find a movie poster of the film's original grindhouse release (only the yawn of a 2002 remake with Misty Mundae) but I discovered a pretty cool painting by some dude named William Wright.. his other artwork can be found here. Enjoy!

Uschi

 
Currently watching: Team America: World Police

Currently listening to: Wormcumshot Oh!! What A Fuck!!!

Disco-Ortolani

Of course we all love Ruggero Deodato's flicks for the über-violence (and some would argue for their socio-political agendas) but one high point has been his repeated employment of Italian composer Riz Ortolani. Known primarily for his (Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated) Mondo Cane score as well as the beautifully haunting Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack; Riz is an incredibly affluent composer, with over 215 scores across 50 years in the business. One oft-ignored score is for Deodato's sweetly mean-spirited House On The Edge Of The Park, David Hess's post-Last House vehicle where he plays nearly the same role and terrorizes a group of naïve partying socialites. Regardless, one of the few humorous points in the film is a catchy disco tune entitled "Do It To Me (Once More)" which, as with most 80's Italian horror film scores, sits completely out of place with the rest of the film. It eventually found release on his 1981 Phantom of Love (Fantasma d'Amore) album, an incredibly catchy tune which you'll find yourself humming for days. Go Riz.

For the audiophiles, I could not find a satisfactorily full version of the song (his CDs are out of print and the tracks I could find on the internet are minute-long 128 kbps edits) so I ripped it off of video and removed as much hiss as I could. The file is in AIFF format and I think it sounds pretty good. Enjoy.

Groovy

 
 
Currently watching: Return Of The Killer Tomatoes

Currently listening to: Body Count Body Count

Filth Music

What can you say... love it or hate it, John Waters' legendary Pink Flamingos is probably the sickest piece of celluloid to ever cross the lens of a film projector. I've seen some of the most unsettling horror films out there and they pale in comparison to this "exercise in poor taste." Remember the icky feeling you got watching Gummo's retarded poster boy eat a dripping plate of spaghetti in the bath tub? This entire movie is like that. Whether you're talking about Edith Massey greedily shoving hardboiled eggs in her face (while sitting in a crib) to Babs sleazily licking a pig's head at her birthday party, it's all so..... gross! And I'm not even touching the rape, puking, transvestitism, incest, kielbasas-tied-to-dicks, shit-eating or winking assholes - you can discover for yourself. One nice companion to the film's 25th anniversary re-release was this remastered collection of all the 45" singles making up the soundtrack. You've got Link Wray & His Ray Men, The Trashmen, and even Little Richard making an appearance. Waters' liner notes calls the soundtrack a compilation of "filth music... aggressively shabby, technically primitive, and always sexually ironic." I couldn't agree more. Although personally I think these songs are now much more "filthy" than Waters' ever thought they ever were just by being associated with his twisted cinematic triumph. And now you can say you heard "Surfin' Bird" long before Family Guy made it annoying.

Swag It

 
Currently watching: The Redsin Tower

Currently listening to: Bee Gees Main Course