Bikers from beyond the grave! I want one of those helmets!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
MOON UNIT
Crunchy Ash Ra Temple jams? YES PLEASE! Do your self a fucking favor and pick up Moon Unit's two AMAZING albums: New Sky Dragon and the new one Hell Horse and Heady Stratus.
They will blow you away with their Krautrock infused noise jams that fly off into the deepest parts of the universe. Lose yourself in yourself to blissed out guitar noise, drool inducing keyboard drones and deliciously frantic drumming. I've got these two babies on vinyl and i'm loving every minute of them!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
DEAD GAZE
So I'm working CMJ this year at Cake Shop for only one reason: to film R. Cole Furlow's Dead Gaze. I feel in love with this project after he dropped the tape End Of Days, Why Not You? a little while back. I cant get enough of this weirdo, synthy, alien, middle American, Neofolk, music.
The opener "Back and Forth" reminds me of early Flaming Lips recorded on a VHS tape in your basement. Chugging with simple distortion drenched chords and layered with hazy vocals. A party anthem for the burnt out if you will. "Your Ozzie Face" could only have been recorded in between coasts. Chugging acoustic guitars, a buzzing synth, and floating keys make for a tragic, sad,detached feeling but surprisingly a snug little layer of warmth. Like looking back at your high school years later. The instrumental "Song for RS" with its ethereal synths casts images of longing ghosts wondering in barren corn fields seeking each other but fading upon touch. "Honesty" is down right haunting. I love the lyric and how Furlow whines out "You don't know what its like to be honest now". Like a midwest skater kid crying at the end of a bong wishing his girlfriend would come back. Sounds silly but surprisingly heartfelt and emotional.
I think Furlow's music has a little similarity with Neon Indian and Kurt Vile but has carved out a little place for himself to stand apart and have his own sound. I can't wait to see how all this music is brought together live!
The opener "Back and Forth" reminds me of early Flaming Lips recorded on a VHS tape in your basement. Chugging with simple distortion drenched chords and layered with hazy vocals. A party anthem for the burnt out if you will. "Your Ozzie Face" could only have been recorded in between coasts. Chugging acoustic guitars, a buzzing synth, and floating keys make for a tragic, sad,detached feeling but surprisingly a snug little layer of warmth. Like looking back at your high school years later. The instrumental "Song for RS" with its ethereal synths casts images of longing ghosts wondering in barren corn fields seeking each other but fading upon touch. "Honesty" is down right haunting. I love the lyric and how Furlow whines out "You don't know what its like to be honest now". Like a midwest skater kid crying at the end of a bong wishing his girlfriend would come back. Sounds silly but surprisingly heartfelt and emotional.
I think Furlow's music has a little similarity with Neon Indian and Kurt Vile but has carved out a little place for himself to stand apart and have his own sound. I can't wait to see how all this music is brought together live!
DEAD GAZE - Back and Forth from DEAD GAZE on Vimeo.
The Incredible Melting Man Incredibly Melts
Pretty much allllll that happens in this flick, but that's why I love it. You can really MST the hell outa this one.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Broadcast and The Focus Group investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
This mini album came out last year and I could shoot my self for not picking up the LP (Its since become a rarity). I have been utterly fascinated by the music. It's like Broadcast went back in time and started working for the BBC Radiophonic workshop with Daphne Oram at the controls. A truly wondrous and remarkable little record that makes for a perfect autumns day.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
NEU! - Hero - Live 74
NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!NEU!
JUST ANOTHER HERO, FUCK ANOTHER HERO
JUST ANOTHER HERO, FUCK ANOTHER HERO
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - 1972
Simply an amazing achievement. Love that doom laden score by Popol Vuh!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Omon Ra II
Omon Ra II is my new obsession. I discovered them after getting the split they did with Dirty Beaches and have been in L-O-V-E ever since. They sound like High Rise and The Stooges got in a street fight with The Rolling Stones during a gang bang with Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley. Yeah, this shit is outa sight and seeped in some serious distortion but with grooves and hooks that sink in and strangle you for the rest of your mother fucking life. This is the kinda music that makes me want to punch a random stranger in the face and say Fuck YEAH! Listen and worship at the temple of Omon Ra II!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Aphrodite`s Child - The Four Horsemen
Bought this a ways back. Heard this played in a coffee shop the other day. Forgot i had this...
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
The Manitou 1978
The head coming out of the black ooze scares the bejeezus outa me. Great Native American themed supernatural spookfest!
Mr. Freedom - Klein 1969
This is what I say to myself in the mirror every morning. Yeah that's Serge Gainsbourg playing the piano... loved this movie!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Speed 1980
Film by Philip Hopper Music by Alan Brown Mix by Geoff Alderman from California Images: HiFi For The Eyes
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Franco Battiato
Franco Battiato in my mind is the Italian version of Eno. Do yourself a favor and find his album Fetus. Then get all his 70's albums.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Michael Mantler "The Hapless Child and other inscrutable stories" 1976
An awesome concept album from the 70's. Take Edward Gorey's macbre stories and have Robert Wyatt sing them over proto goth music.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunsetcorp
Taking songs from say Fleetwood mac (!) remixing them in a unique way and then putting them to strange 80's video clips. Very cool.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Levi's "Trademark" 1977
Cool commercial from the late 70's. No CGI in this at all! It's all hand-rotoscoped, hand-animated and early analog "motion control" to layer different actors on a blue screen. Wish they'd do this kind of thing nowadays, but it'd cost a fortune!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow
I am so excited this is coming out because i forgot they even existed in the first place and now its like they were never gone... If you remember 70's and 80's sesame street or 3 2 1 Contact these animations are probably ingrained on your brain waiting to be remembered. Highly enjoyable.
Celestial Navigations: The Short Films Of Al Jarnow Trailer from numerogroup on Vimeo.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Public Image Limited - Careering
This is one of my favorite songs, off one of my favorite LPs. You can't BEAT this song. Can we all agree that Metal Box is one of the best records of all time? Yes, we can.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Jay Reatard Interview
One of my favorite musicians ever. I got to interview him on the fly around Sept 2007 for a journalism class. He was fun to talk to on and off the camera and put up with my amateurish interviewing skills. At the time he had a girlfriend in Cleveland and said he loved coming to town. I've seen him play more than any other band, and I'll really miss him and his music.
Jay Reatard Interview 2007 from Ryan Haupt on Vimeo.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
"Reflecting Skin" written and directed by Philip Ridley
I have wanted to see Philip Ridley's Reflecting Skin for as long as I can remember. I first saw the cover on someones Amazon.com list under the tag"Bizzaro Films" Definitely bizarre but it's also emotionally draining if you can get past some bad acting.
Set in 1950's rural Idaho A boy named Seth Dove becomes obsessed with Vampires and fixates his obsession on the widow Dolphin Blue. His father commits suicide after he becomes a prime suspect in the death of one of Seth's friends, based solely on the fact that he was caught kissing a young man years before. The sheriff attributes his reasoning to "Kissing leads to Killing". Seth believes his friend was killed by the vampire after he mistakes a baby Jesus replica in an old church for his dead friend returning as an angel stuck in our world because he was murdered.
Seth soon fears that his brother, fresh from WWII and played powerfully by Viggo Mortensen, is in danger after he starts to have an affair with Dolphin. His world becomes even smaller when another friend turns up dead.
The performances in the movie are hit or miss due in part to the main child actor. It always looks like he is two seconds from bursting into laughter, especially if it's a dramatic scene. Viggo gives a fantastic performance with a lot of range in this film, especially with anger. He'll often times go from zero to full on rage in a single scene.
The story has all the musings of a Flannery O'Connor book and reminds me of another great auteur's work. A sheriff who has lost his hand, an eye, and part of his ear to animals, set pieces decorated in dead sea animals and small town politics all echo elements of Lynch's work in Twin Peaks.
The music is an exceptional mix of droning, ethereal, orchestra and keyboard work. Combined with striking and unconventional cinematography of the barren, rural, Idaho landscape, makes for a truly unsettling and eerie experience. I highly recommend this film. If you can get past the child actors performance this film will reward you.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Why Can The Bodies Fly - Warning
I am a huge fan of the MUTANT SOUNDS blog and if you haven't checked it out do so now. They find the most rare vinyls, record them into the computes, and make them accessible to everyone with a computer. Many a nights I have poured over that blog... and I couldn't believe that a band like Warning could exist. A German band that mixes hard rock with some serious cookie monster vocals over pseudo disco beats from the early 80's? They dress up like crazy Star Wars characters on the cover of the album? Sign me right the fuck up! The album is pretty amazing in its cheesy goodness but it wasn't until I decided to pop their name in YouTube that I truly fell in love with them. I want to pour liquids into a glass and have a half naked woman magically appear and start dancing! Behold. WARNING!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
"Chief Inspector" by Wally Badarou
Ah yes Wally Badarou. This man knows how to work a synth brotha! Wally was the keyboard wizard on Close to the Bone by The Tom Tom Club and if you've heard that album you know how amazing those synths sound. He released a great solo album called Echos in 1983 that has some fantastic synthesized African sounds and then some really drab " this could be in a bad Robin Williams movie from the 80's" tunes. This cut i think is the best. Its groovy, funky and those keyboards just gel. The video is everything I want in a music video circa 1980's MTV, all kinds of mediums mixed into the fold to make something truly unique and fun.
Monday, December 21, 2009
LUCIA and LUIS by Niles Atallah, Cristobal Leon Joaquin Cociña
Found these awesome videos last night and they are certainly creepy. To be honest I don't truly understand what is going on, but the feeling of it reminds me of "The Devils Backbone" mixed with a Jan Svankmajer film. The Luis film is unsettling and I love that face on the wall. The two parts are connected, so watch in order.
Sekitani Norihiro Music video
Found this artists over at kurutta, one of my favorite blogs at the moment. Sekitani Norihiro is a Japanese artist who specializes in gruesome, odd, collages. You can check out his work as his website here. I like the collages but its this video that he directed that makes me laugh so hard i have tears in my eyes. Its as if Tim and Eric were Japanese, died, and went to hell. I dare you to enjoy.
Ganymed - Music Drives Me Crazy (1978)
Found this song on someones itunes mix and decided to see if anything would pop up in youtube. This is awesome...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
How Wings Are Attached To The Backs of Angels by Craig Welch (1996)
Well i finally found it. I saw this short film last year and for the life of me could not remember the name of it or where I saw it. The images inside cast a spell on me and I have been unable to forget this jem. Stark black and white animation with no words creates a surreal world, Poe like in its macabre and phantasmagorical delivery. Science that dissects and reduces angels to mere obsessions. Utterly fascinating in its use of sound. Its almost as if you could step inside and walk around in this emotionless world. I just don't think you'd make it back...
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Stray Toasters by Bill Sienkiewicz
I usually go to Midtown Comics every Wednesday and rummage through old graphics novels while everyone else pour over the new comics of the week. From my frequent visits I have come across and forgotten this title repeatedly. The images enticed me, but what was going on here? At first glance it seemed so cluttered and dense. I finally hunkered down and shelled out the 25 bucks, fearing I'd forget it again. Glad I got this gem.
Stray Toasters is a fever dream. A bizarre story about a washed up detective named Egon Rustemagick recently released from a mental institution in order to capture a serial killer that targets young boys and mutilates house-wives. The boys are completely drained of fluid and are left with strange ritualistic markings all over their body. Egon must plunge through the muck and dirt of the city, find answers, meet an old flame and all the while keep his sanity.
Set in grimy quasi futuristic New York City, this is a sadistic mystery that leads you down the rabbit hole. When you finish, you're not exactly sure you "get it" but you sure liked getting lost in it.
If I had to point this to anything else I'd say Blade Runner, in that, at its heart its a noir , femme fatales and all. However, layered on top is a beaten down futuristic back drop and some seriously deranged antagonists. As a bonus, intermittently throughout are post cards from "The Devil" himself. Messages sent to hell to his lover, describing a trip in our mortal world. Reading these made me feel like I was raving mad.
The images in this are absolutely jaw dropping. Colors pour off the page as your eyes fall into a dizzying maze of shadows and lines. The hues of blue with thin gold lines are what first caught my eye. Seinkiewicz does an excellent job of mixing mediums. Within the paint, chalk, and ink pieces, you'll see real circuitry, bubble wrap, and perhaps a plastic fly or two.
Get this. It's worth your time, trust me. One of the best graphic novels my eyes have ever gazed upon. Just don't come crying back to me when you want your sanity back.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Breathtaker
Found this awesome graphic novel in The Strand a little while back. Breathtaker written by Mark Wheatley and drawn fantastically by Marc Hempel was originally published by DC comics in the early 90's.
The plot revolves around government experiments and a pretty girl named Chase Darrow who is addicted to finding true love. She has guys falling all over her, unfortunately for the guys, loving her means death. Kissing her is kind like kissing Rogue from X-Men. She sucks the life right out of them and they age rapidly. I think everybody can kinda relate to that...
I won't give anymore away but lets just say there's a reality show government super hero called aptly, The Man, a devoted, love crazy, group of ex lovers, and a hilarious scene with a moose.
The story and the art just make this collection. The warm colors surround your eye and you just wanna fall in! Ahhh the colors duke, the colors! I can't recommend this more!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
REVIEW: PTA's: A Long Goodbye
My favorite music blog site Mutant Sounds posted this little 2-song-8inch record a months back and I've been in love ever since.
The first song "Woo-guy After Dark" I'm not to keen on. Its slow and wafts around to a Jah Wobble like bassline. Not a bad song, but not particularly interesting either. The song goes through all the post-punk motions you would expect it to albeit with Japanese vocals.
The second song "The Little Sister" is where it's at my friends. With kraut rock beats and lovely melancholy drenched post-punk guitar work, PTA builds emotion higher and higher with each and ever guitar stroke, ultimately spiraling down to leave you in a gray mist, contemplating, like at the end of a bitter sweet romance. Kraftwerk like electronic whispering and monotone singing, speaking god knows what into your ear, evoke images of lovers passing like ships through the night, staring at the sea, not knowing whats to happen next. Yea, it's that good.
The dizzying guitar work reminds me of another foggy, hazy, band My Bloody Valentine. Upon investigation the guitar work is fairly similar to MBV's "What you Want" off the Loveless album. Almost as if you could drop the two songs on top of each other and they'd fit perfectly.
If it wasn't for the first song this would be the crown jewel of rare 8inch Japanese records. PTA were ahead of their time and I would love to hear any other outings by this somber group as I saunter down a rainy Manhattan day.
GRADE: B
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
REVIEW: Nachtmystium- Assasins: Black Meddle Part I
I have been out of the world of metal for a while now. Nothing has really striked my metallic core what with all the bland clones of Pelican and Isis that have littered the scene for a while now. Thankfully I picked up this little nugget of awesomeness: Nachtmystium's Assassins: Black Meddle Part I. Equal parts Black Metal, Experimental and Psychedelic! I've had this for a while now but only listened to one or two songs, promising myself to listen to the entire album. Glad I made the plunge!
Wow what a trip these guys take you on! Their music is the sonic equivalent of getting lost in a swamp, discovering ruins, and then running from something ominous. The album is very varied for a black metal album. Synths gurgle in the background as they chug along with the metal only to leave you lost and creeped out with some spindly, spidery guitar work that reminds me of something off of Il Balletto Di Bronzo's Ys" album. Even a saxophone makes an appearance and takes their sound into more of a free jazz sound than a black metal one. The only draw back is that a couple of songs drag a bit in the middle but as soon as that happens they blast back into form.
Impressive, expansive, and definitely worth your time. Even if you're not a fan of the genre.
GRADE: A-
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