D'oh!

Yeah, I know this is probably the most vanilla post I've had on this blog so far but c'mon!!! Ya gotta give props to a musical testament of the greatest TV show ever. And you think the Simpsons are popular today??? They were truly taking over the world back in 1990 - does anyone remember that "Do The Bartman" was the number one song in the UK for fucking three weeks and was an MTV staple looooong before Simpsons re-runs took up most of Fox's afternoon schedule? The bootleg Simpsons t-shirt market probably generated more income than any fucking "work at home" infomercial scam offered today (remember the plethora of "Black" Barts?). Regardless, the tunes are as fresh as the show is today (and I don't mean that sarcastically) - Burns and Smithers squabbling in "Look At All Those Idiots", Homer admitting he isn't the brightest bulb on the tree in "Born Under A Bad Sign". Priceless. OK, the voices aren't quite as perfected as they are today (Marge in "I Love To See You Smile" comes to mind) but you'd be retarded not to know who's who. Enjoy.

Down-dum-diddley-load

 
Currently watching: Squirm

Currently listening to: Molotov Solution The Harbinger

NoVA Nü Metal

Back a long 12 years ago it was really exciting to have a semi-local band playing the stuff that KoЯn and (sadly) Limp Bizkit were ruling the airwaves with. Sev oozed out of the D.C. suburbs and occasionally made it down I-95 to Richmond for a gig here and there. On stage they rocked, small venues suited their sound perfectly and two vocalists offered a slightly different style from the norm. Studio-wise, a little is lost on Back Rider, unlike their first demo Sunflower (which sounded exactly like anything Ross Robinson was producing those days), Back Rider is bleached fucking clean. Vocals are mixed way too high and the music is really oddly equalized, I mean easy on the treble guys, come on! Oh well, I guess it was enough for the band to get noticed by Pepsi for a new campaign that lasted all of 5 minutes. Y'know, now that I think about it, I guess my problem with this album is that whichever singer of theirs sold me the CD after the show reacted so cocky to the props I gave him it just rubbed me the wrong way. Oh well, lemme just break open this crisp Pepsi Blue and get over it...

Play It

 
Currently watching: Sweet Movie

Currently listening to: The Bloodhound Gang One Fierce Beer Coaster

Lo-fi Death Metal

Hailing from the worthless tourist scab known as Little Rock, AK, the first (legit) LP from the two-man death metal outfit known as Shredded Corpse shows how different a climate existed for death metal bands back in the mid-90's. Nowadays, with any band able to get a cutting edge PC for less than $500 at Wal-Mart (and pirated music software just a few RapidShare clicks away), the glut of death/grind/gore bands that sound well-produced number in the thousands. Back in 1996 though, you just sounded like you had no money. Oddly sterile, completely humorless, and sounding like it was recorded on a cassette deck, Exhumed And Molested is worth more as a piece of nostalgia than anything to raise your fist to. Interestingly, guitarist/keyboardist William Rocky Gray joined the platinum selling rock group Evanescence in 2002. And who said death metal isn't a gateway genre?

Shred

 
Currently watching: The Prophecy

Currently listening to: Faith No More Introduce Yourself

филм follow-up

Well, it took a month but I finally got my hands on a copy of the much-anticipated A Serbian Film. So how was it??? Well the DVD-rip was expectedly crappy (some shitty screening copy but it was unedited and subtitled so I can't complain) but I gotta say it is solid, well-acted and yes, it's a REAL film. Taken really seriously, not some lame garden hose of red-food coloring shot-on-video piece of shit (a la Violent Shit and that pathetic ilk). It runs a little slow at hour and 40 minutes, director Srdjan Spasojević could probably have taken out half an hour (some of the exposition gets a tad long in the tooth and seems like you're watching the build-up in an episode of CSI) but the film completely makes up any arguable delays with its incredibly brutal ending. Excellent, I thought they couldn't have handled it better (that's the way I usually critique this sort of stuff... kinda a "if I was gonna go this far then I'd...."). The "skullfuck" scene was admittedly a little silly but it still worked and the film's last frames are great. As for the gore - it's definitely not the sickest thing I've ever seen (a title still held by August Underground in case you're wondering) but it's pretty twisted, especially two scenes which I'm sure left most audiences gagging (and running for the door). More of a "let your mind fill in the blanks" then all-out splatter flick as a whole there's a good amount of restrained gore - everything's relatively dark so it works well. Actor-wise, Srdjan Todorović as Milos is really good, for a washed-up porn star he really evokes the empathy - I felt sorry for him before he even gets involved in "the production". But Sergej Trifunović as the insane director is awesome, he hams it up the whole film and completely steals the show. Fucking crazy fucker. So in a nutshell, I loved it. Track down a copy for yourself or wait for the legit release by checking out the film's official website. Peace!

 
Currently watching: A Serbian Film (duh!!!)

Currently listening to: Waking The Cadaver Beyond Cops. Beyond God

Blood Flows Like Chicken Gravy

Yeah, I know I posted a Post Mortem 7" just the other day but I was getting some more records together and found this gem. Not only is the cover hilarious (love the Gerber Baby) but the album is a perfect acid-trip slab of Boston metal. "Reconciliation Of The Fish" is easily the best song although "Burning Sinister Turnip" is almost just as good. What the fuck was (sadly R.I.P.) singer John McCarthy on when he wrote those lyrics? Incredible. I ended up getting their full-length Festival Of Fun a couple years ago but it didn't do all that for me - this is really the band at their best.

More 'Mortem

 
Currently watching: Fast Food Nation

Currently listening to: House Of Pain Same As It Ever Was

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

Some cuts from the Master...

I'm not sure where I picked up this compilation - it's the umpteenth one I have, yet surprisingly has a few interesting tracks mixed in with the same 'ol recycled stuff. One the highlight is an older (mono?) mixed version of "Freedom" that appeared on his posthumously hurried Cry Of Love album - since that's been replaced on the record shelves with the remixed/mastered/edited First Rays Of The New Rising Sun it's nice to hear the old-school version. The epic, 15-minute recording of "Red House" is without a doubt one of the finest live versions I've heard of his blues masterpiece - it slows down and builds up over and over again with the force of a tractor beam - you're left reeling when it's over. Other tracks were culled mostly from his Blues album but they are all tight and listenable - the last real treat is a live version of Them's "Gloria" where Hendrix starts rambling about Noel's girl who's "breath smelled like wet pussy... Yeah!"

Jimmy James

 
Currently watching: Rock & Rule

Currently listening to: KoЯn KoЯn III: Remember Who You Are

Boston Death Metal?

I'll admit, I initially only got this 7" because Seth Putnam (of A.C. fame you retard!) sang vocals on it. What a nice surprise once it hit the turntable because it fucking kills! Most of the "metal" webpage archives classify Boston's Post Mortem as "death metal" but I hardly agree - side A's "Noodles In My Bile..." is down-and-out sludgey goodness. Putnam's wailing vocals contrast perfectly with the downtuned chugga-chugga guitar. Side B's "Anal Drip" is a little bit more standard thrash fare but still worthwhile. Best $2 I ever spent.

Wicked Sick

Currently watching: North Shore

Currently listening to: 311 Evolver

Fuck "Possum Kingdom"

OK, OK, don't fucking get all bent out of shape, I actually like "Possum Kingdom" - I just wanted to piss off all the goth/Twi-hard dorks out there Googling their favorite song. Losers. Fort Worth's Toadies were one of those bands that got jinxed by a hit single. By the time they finally recorded their 1994 debut full-length they'd been kicking around various incarnations of these songs live and on various EPs for almost 5 years. The practice clearly paid off, Rubberneck is absolute gold, with almost every track a keeper (in my opinion, "Possum Kingdom" is actally one of the lesser tunes). Nice hooks and grooves as well as great lyrics (gotta love "Velvet") make this an essential post-grunge masterpiece. They've released some inconsistent follow-ups since and have recently (circa 2008) reformed with a new lineup. Check 'em out when they come to your town.

I Burn

 
Currently watching: Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!

Currently listening to: Big L Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous

RVA Metal

Solid 1999 debut release from this Richmond metalcore band - while back then it sounded a lot like what everyone else was doing, ten years later it's a nice change of pace. I was fortunate enough to work with the lead singer back in the day and got to catch their formative gigs at the sadly defunct downtown institution Alley Katz. Good breakdowns, riffage and anger. As with most self-produced metal demos, the energy and sound of their live show doesn't quite translate into the studio but it's still a fine listen. While Presh-us faded out sometime around 2003, some of the members went on to form Thousand Yard Stare (check 'em here) which still (as of late 2009) seems to be doing their thing.

Check It

 
Currently watching: Dexter (Season 1)

Currently listening to: Vomitous Surgical Abominations Of Disfigurement