Archive for September, 2006

Sunday night I went over to the Beat Kitchen to see The Vibrators, The Black Beauties, The Bomb, and like another half dozen bands. Because of the sheer ridiculous number of bands that were on the bill, I opted not to sit in a too-small, smoky bar longer than I had to and tried to time it so I only caught the last three bands. I timed it pretty damn close too because that is pretty much exactly what I did.

The Bomb

The Bomb

After meeting up with MDP outside and getting a beer at the bar, we head back to the room where the bands play to catch the tail end of whatever band it was that was before The Bomb. I didn’t catch their name and I was talking to someone so I wasn’t really paying much attention either. After a short break The Bomb took the stage. The Bomb is the new band Jeff Pezatti from Naked Raygun sings in. Well, they aren’t really that new, they’ve been around for a few years now but this was the first time I’ve ever seen them. They seemed sort of conflicted between being an angular indie rock and sing-along Naked Raygun styled punk. They ended up doing three Naked Raygun songs at the end of their set; “Home of the Brave”, “Home” and “Treason”. The crowd in attendance popped big time for the Naked Raygun tracks. They sounded alright to me I guess. I didn’t get mad at their covers because it was the singer of Naked Raygun up there afterall.

The Black Beauties

The Black Beauties

Next up were the Black Beauties. They played some raunchy rock ‘n roll but after about three songs I grew rather bored of them and just wanted the Vibrators to play. This also coincided with about the time I started getting very tired so that might have had something to do with it.

The Vibrators

The Vibrators

Finally The Vibrators took the stage. They played about a 45 minute set consisting of many old songs and a couple of new ones. The biggest pop was for “Baby Baby”, but overall the crowd were way into their set. There was lots of dancing and singing along, much more so than the last two times I saw them play here. This was my third time in as many years seeing The Vibrators and just like those last two times, it was a really fun and enjoyable set, even while fatigue was really getting the best of me, proving once again they are a must see when they come to town!

The Vibrators

The Vibrators

Sadly the lights this evening sucked so I had to bust out the new external flash I got and give it a test run. A few more photos after the jump.

American Hardcore - film
Sony Pictures Classic

A few years ago a fellow by the named of Stephen Blush published a book that attempted to document the early North American hardcore punk scene. At the time of its release there had been a few books that chronicled the early punk scenes, but none whose sole focus was the hardcore years of the early 1980s. The book’s major shortcoming was its narrow-mindedness in its focus on only select bands and scenes as well as its numerous inaccuracies and the fact that it seemed to be written with some kind of strange agenda. Instead of presenting the facts and the history, it seemed to get bogged down with rumors and gossip of who slept with who. The author would frequently break off from the subject at hand to mention he got a blow-job from some girl while on tour with No Trend. The result was a book that sounded better on paper than it ended up being in execution. Needless to say that when I found out a movie was going to be made (ironically by Sony Pictures) based on the book, my first reaction was, “oh no”.

I am happy to report that American Hardcore, the film is one of those rare occurrences where the movie is better than the book! While nowhere near perfect, the film does a pretty good job of at least scratching the surface of what was the early American hardcore scene in a few select areas from around 1978 - 1986. The movie drops you in right at the beginning of the Reagan administration and the state of American culture at the time and these punk musicians feelings against it and how they wanted to speak their minds. From there its pretty much non-stop interview footage interspersed with old live footage and photographs.

While there is almost no attention given to how these folks discovered punk rock in the first place and how the music evolved into the speedy thrash it became, they do an ample job of explaining the progression of hardcore and the violence associated with it. They also did a fairly good job of explaining just how there was no avenue for this type of music at the time and the bands had to go out there and pave their own roads and do everything themselves. Particularly interesting was Ian Mac Kaye’s tale about how they made all their own sleeves for the early Dischord 7″s and learned to do so by disassembling records they bought at the store to make a template for their own sleeves which they printed and hand cut and glued. There was quite a few tour stories too about how you’d sleep on floors, eat on no money, and made friends in other bands along the way which became allies and gave you more places to play and stay.

The film covers only a few select major scenes; The west coast which was almost exclusively the Los Angeles punk scene with very little attention given to the San Francisco area with the exception of Flipper. I found this to be a pretty large omission especially with a band with the following of the Dead Kennedys being from San Francisco and yet were barely given a mention. The Midwest portion was extremely limited with only small bits covering Zero Boys, Die Kreuzen and Articles of Faith. Where was The Effigies? Where was Naked Raygun? They did have a little footage of Negative Approach and the Necros but what about the Meatmen and The Fix? There is another small bit on the Texas area that covered DRI, MDC, Really Red and the Big Boys but again it was quite brief. The east coast coverage was the most heavily weighted in the division of territories in this film, which is where Stephen Blush was from and just like the book, it sort of painted the east coast as being the mecca of hardcore at the expense of a lot of influential and important bands from other parts of the country. There is plenty of stuff on Bad Brains, SSD, Minor Threat, Cro-Mags, DYS, Gang Green, Jerry’s Kids and Negative FX especially. They also throw you a curve with some footage of YDI and Void among others which was actually a really unexpected surprise. What is covered is good, don’t get me wrong, but I would have liked a little more equal division of camera time for the people and bands outside of the east coast and Black Flag.

Another thing I noticed about the overall presentation is this story is told in such a way that it is really aimed at the people who already know what it was all about, or someone like me who was around at the time and part of it. It doesn’t do the best job of explaining how it really came to be. It tells a bit about the “why it was there”, just not the “how we got there” part so much. It also closes with the sort of “death of hardcore” when all these people got out of it or changed their sound. Again they barely touch on it in closing and I think some more time should have been given to this topic. I don’t think a teenager or someone in their early twenties is going to come out of this film with a greater understanding of the history of hardcore and how and why it came to be, but at least he/she will hear some interesting recollections and get to see some great footage of these old bands.

The recollections and footage bring us to the real strength of this film. Each person who was interviewed had something interesting to say and the stories were told with a sparkle in the eyes of the person on camera as you can see that they were looking back fondly on something that ended up being really special. There was no scandals talked about and no one came off as bitter nor were any stories laced with attitude. They subject did a good job explaining whatever the topic was being covered, at least in a general sense. I would have loved to hear a lot more details about everything however that likely would have made the movie twice as long, which is why I guess they invented DVDs so you can throw all that stuff on there as extras!

The movie is 1 hour and 36 minutes in length and the time literally flew by and was over before I knew it. There wasn’t a dull moment in the film and I was left wishing it was longer and there was more coverage of stuff outside the east coast but I guess if one’s biggest complaint is wishing there was more, then that makes for a pretty good film. I also would have liked some more coverage about the fanzines and the record labels (aside from SST) since they were just as important to the scene as the bands themselves. For anyone who was there at the time and is a fan of this music this is pretty much a must-see film. For those who were too young to be there at the time, while maybe you won’t get the best history lesson on the subject, it is all you have at the moment and for the first major documentary on this genre of punk rock, I’d say it was a pretty good effort and a major improvement over the book, worthy of the price of admission for sure.

Related links:

View the trailer for the film

American Hardcore - the book

One of the hardcore punk albums held in the highest regard by so many actually started its life as a cassette-only release in the 1980’s and remained that way for nearly a decade before it would finally get a proper release on the preferred format of vinyl. Throughout its vinyl life, it has seen more than its share of variations so let’s get down to it shall we?

Originally this came out sometime around the end of the 1980’s or possibly the very early 1990’s on Dutch East India Records, or Dutch East Wax as the label states. Dutch East India was one of the biggest independent record distributors at the time and also had its share of in-house labels such as Homestead Records, Giant Records and later, Rockville Records.

The first press on Dutch East on yellow vinyl.

After being out of print for a number of years it was released on vinyl once more, this time on ROIR who decided after years of doing nothing but cassettes, to give up on that dead format and step up to the real man’s format of vinyl. This resulted in the record being pressed on a new color about every six months for the first couple years of its existence.

First it came on yellow vinyl, just like it used to on Dutch East only note the changed cover art and labels.

After this is came on red vinyl

and white vinyl.

It also was released on black vinyl, which is the only flavor you can still buy new today. Some black vinyl copies have a sticker on the shrink wrap stating “limited edition black vinyl” which is total bullshit because that’s all they make ‘em on these days!

So there you have it, every color of the Bad Brains - ROIR Sessions, damn near every color of the rainbow!

Bad Brains - Live at CBGB 1982 DVD
Music Video Distributors

It can be argued that the Bad Brains are one of the most influential bands of all time, not just in hardcore punk circles, but music in general. These four black musicians from Washington DC changed the way people looked at music forever and opened doors for future generations of bands. At their peak in their early years, there was no more powerful force than the Bad Brains. Sadly as time wore on, they damn near tainted their legacy with numerous break ups and scandal especially in regards to lead singer, H. R. The other members even tried replacing him once or twice but it was never the same. The original lineup of the Bad Brains had a magic kind of chemistry that only happens once in a lifetime.

I never got to see the band in their prime, by the time I had ample means to get to the city, it was already the late 1980s and the band had changed directions, or broken up at least once. The best substitute I could have hoped for was for some bootleg video footage, which there seemed to be almost none of that I ever came across. Thankfully 24 years after it was recorded, footage of a trio of shows at New York’s infamous (and soon to be defunct) CBGB has been unearthed, edited together and released on this DVD.

While not necessarily the greatest footage known to man, especially by today’s standards, for 1982 technology the footage is quite good. The one thing that it did perfectly was capture the energy of their live set. The band’s intensity wasn’t lost in the footage and at times it damn near gave me chills down my spine because I was in awe of the powerhouse they were back then. From the opening chords, people in the crowd were already climbing up on stage ready to dive off, dance, or sing along with their hardcore heroes. Throughout the entire set the crowd never relented, you can see the energy surging through the place even when the band slowed down and threw in one of the reggae songs. In the rather narrow-minded world that was the hardcore scene back then, it was pretty amazing they were able to play something outside that to at least a somewhat warm response.

For much of the feature, it was filmed on a couple of different cameras from varying angles. Near the end however it seems for one of the shows where footage was used for a few songs, there was only one camera angle and it was from behind the stage, so you see more of the crowd and the back of H.R. than anything else. For 1982 though, the picture is pretty clear and it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment. The audio has two options; stereo and 5.1 surround. Neither one of them really stood out as being the superior one, though I think the stereo mix sounded a bit more full to me so that was what I ended up watching most of it with. The disc is packaged in a keep-case and comes with an insert with liner notes on one side and a reproduction of the show flyer on the other which I found to be a nice touch. Bonus features are limited to some interviews with random members of the audience and an audio track of “I and I Survive”. The total running time is about one hour and the tracks consisted pretty much everything from the ROIR album/Rock for Light.

With not much footage from their early days available, I’m glad something like this was unearthed and I got to see what I missed out on by not seeing them and even though I knew it before, I think I have an even better understanding now having witnessed at least this footage of their live show, just what a truly unique and special band the Bad Brains were back then.

In celebration of this DVD, there is going to be screenings of this at a few select locations in the United States. The schedule for them are as follows:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - In conjunction with Amoeba & SF Bay Guardian
12 Galaxies - 2565 Mission Street @ 22nd - San Francisco, CA . 94110
Tuesday, September 19th @ 9pm
FREE TO THE PUBLIC

SAN DIEGO, CA – In conjunction with Lou’s Records
Lou’s Records - 434 North Highway 101 - Encinitas, CA 92024
Tuesday, September 19th @ 7pm
FREE TO THE PUBLIC

PORTLAND, OR - In conjunction with Jackpot Records
Bagdad Theater & Pub - 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd - Portland, OR 97214
Tuesday, September 19th @ 8pm
FREE TO THE PUBLIC

LONG BEACH, CA - In conjunction with Fingerprints
Murphy’s Pub at the Belmont - 4918 E 2nd St - Long Beach, CA 90803
Tuesday, September 19th @ 6pm
FREE TO THE PUBLIC

LOS ANGELES, CA - In conjunction with Tower Records
Knitting Factory, Hollywood - 7021 Hollywood Blvd. Ste. 209 - Los Angeles, CA 90028
Thursday, September 21st – Doors @ 7:30 & Show @ 9
FREE TO THE PUBLIC

WASHINGTON, DC - In conjunction with Tower Records
Black Cat - The Backstage - 1811 14th St. NW - Washington, DC 20009
Thursday, September 21st – Doors @ 9 & Show Time @ 9:30
$3 ADMISSION

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

Bad Brains official website

Music Video Distributors website

The Toy Dolls - Our Last DVD?
Music Video Distributors

Another UK punk mainstay of the past 25 years gets a video release on MVD. They’ve been on quite a frenzy lately of releasing rather high quality live DVDs of long-time punk rock bands, especially from overseas and this is no exception.

This disc was recorded in Holland in 2004 on their alleged “last tour”. Whether or not it really was I’m not sure, but I thought they were playing out this year. Since I was mostly into North American punk, I didn’t get around to picking up a lot of the UK punk rock stuff I missed out on until fairly recently and The Toy Dolls are among the group of bands I neglected when I was younger. Obviously I never went to see them so this was the first time I’ve been exposed to what they are like live, and I have to say it sure looks like it would be a fun show to attend. This particular set consisted of 28 songs, so it’s a safe bet nearly any song you’d want to hear was probably played at this show. In between songs there was plenty of entertaining banter with the crowd and it was fairly obvious that the band were having a great time up there on stage. You can hear the crowd singing along to lots of the songs as well.

The image quality is excellent, it is presented in full-frame as it was originally shot and the quality is super sharp and the colors are quite vivid. There are two sound options; 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo. The stereo option seemed to have a lot more low end to it. Either one sounded really good on my sound system but I think the nod goes to the stereo track. The live show was one hour and 12 minutes in length. At different points in the show, Olga would don some props for songs such as “Fiery Jack” and “Yul Brenner was a Skinhead” that were pretty entertaining.

The disc has a few bonus features as well. “On the Road” is a 35 minute feature of various rehearsal footage where the band is practicing not only their songs, but at one point their choreography, which consisted of Olga and Tommy jumping backwards four times in unison to the beat of a song. It also features various footage from the tour. There is also a 43 minute interview with Olga that covers the tour and various other topics that was pretty interesting. A biography and photos round out the bonus features and overall it felt like a pretty healthy amount of material.

Rabid Toy Dolls fans are definitely going to want this in their collection. As someone who never really followed them very closely, the disc did a great job of getting me up to speed with what I missed for the past two decades, thumbs up!

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

Music Video Distributors website

Secret Films website

The Toy Dolls website

The Tooth Fairy - DVD
Anchor Bay Entertainment

The Tooth fairy is a modern day horror film that takes a long time children’s icon and turns it into something dark, evil, and deadly. In 1954 a deformed witch who lived in a run down house in a small town would lure kids to her home where she would steal their last remaining baby tooth, which somehow is connected to their souls, and then kill them in ways most violent. This resulted in the poor victims souls being trapped in limbo for as long as the witch was still alive and had possession of their teeth. After vanishing for nearly half a decade and becoming something of a local ghost story, the witch is reawakened after an ex-doctor turned aspiring author buys the old house and fixes it up into a bed and breakfast. He is joined by his estranged fiance and her daughter, as well as a tenant and friend and sure enough, it isn’t long before the killing starts again, but this time its not just the kid that is the target, but its everyone who is in the house.

The kid, Pamela, befriends the ghost of one of the Tooth Fairy’s victims who tells her all about what happened and puts it on Pamela that it is up to her to kill the Tooth Fairy so their souls can finally be set free. As more people associated with the house die in very violent ways, it’s up to Pamela to convince her mom and step-dad to be what needs to be done.

While the story is somewhat interesting, the movie’s biggest fault perhaps lie in the stiff acting and odd pacing. The actors don’t seem to do a very convincing job of conveying any real emotion and there isn’t anything in the story that really make you care about any of the characters in it. When you don’t feel any attachment to anyone in that house, they are simply props waiting to be killed and you not only expect their deaths, but when they happen, you don’t really care. The kid, Pamela, seems to be awfully level headed and mature for someone being stalked by a disfigured witch, especially when she is seeing everyone around her get violently killed. There is also no real back story given as to how this witch really came to be and why. They just sort of glaze over it rather quickly as if it was an afterthought to even include any of it at all.

The one thing the film did right in many cases however was its sort of return to old-school slasher films in the way it presented the gore during the death scenes. They were quite generous with the blood and at the very least with the results of the violent ways these people were killed, even if you don’t always see where the ax was hitting in some scenes, you get to see the results and there is one definite “holy shit” moment that was nearly as humorous as it was gruesome and graphic (if only for a second). Sure there are times when the blood and dismembered bodies look a little too fake, but overall on the gore front this film gets a thumbs up. One other nod to old-school horror was the casting of Halloween victim P.J. Soles as the weird next-door neighbor who seems to know an awful lot about the history of The Tooth Fairy.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and the image is super sharp. The only gripe I have in it was where the layer change takes place was rather disruptive and actually resulted in an interruption in dialog. There are two sound options; 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo. The 5.1 option had a very good mix and had some use of surround effects and rear channel action, though I thought considering the genre, there would have been quite a bit more of that. There is also a commentary track with the producer and one of the film’s stars. The movie is 89 minutes long.

Bonus features are limited to a 15 minute making of feature which is pretty standard fare for that type of thing, and a two minute segment where the stars of the film chime in with their childhood memories of the Tooth Fairy and how much they got from her. Aside from that all you get is the theatrical trailer. There was no deleted scenes or any outtakes.

Overall The Tooth Fairy was a film that seemed to look good on paper but didn’t quite get over as well as it should have in execution. For some mindless drunken fun if you are up for some gore and care not for the story you might find it worth a rental some night, but as far as repeated viewings or being a candidate for someone’s favorite film list, sadly I don’t see it happening.