Archive for October, 2006

I just learned that Sandy West, drummer for The Runaways (Joan Jett’s band before she went solo) has passed away. More information can be found at The Runaways website. R.I.P. Sandy.

The Devil’s Rain - DVD
Dark Sky Films

The Devil’s Rain is a 1975 movie about a family that has had possession of a book belonging to a satanic priest named Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) that contains the names (written in blood) of all those who sold their souls to Satan. Corbis has been looking to reclaim the book for 300 years as it has been passed down through generations of the Preston family. When the eldest Preston goes missing along with his mother, the oldest son Mark (William Shatner) decides to face Corbis in an effort to free his family. His parents had already been delivered to the fiery master and they have become the eyeless wax servants that all those who willingly (and unwillingly) gave their souls to Corbis (Satan’s right hand man) turned into.

Mark is easily outnumbered and becomes and unwilling sacrifice to Big Red and much like his parents, he too becomes one of the eyeless. This leaves only his younger brother Tom (Tom Skerritt) and an Occult expert to try and stop Corbis and free the trapped souls in the container that holds the Devil’s Rain. After his girlfriend is abducted and set to be the next offering, Tom and the expert find the container and face off against Corbis and his army of eyeless minions.

The movie gets off to kind of a slow start and some of the editing was a little suspect in how the scenes would end and piece together. It took awhile for me to really get interested in what was going on, but when they introduce Tom’s girlfriend who has a strange kind of telepathy and can see into the past and future of Corbis, it is then that the story finally starts to make sense. Shatner’s cheesy dramatic acting is quite prevalent in early scenes and it kind of reminded me of some scenes in Star Trek and had me chuckling. Borgnine does a convincing job of the Satanic high priest and easily steals the show in this film. Once you get past about the first half hour, the film starts to pick up and becomes a lot more enjoyable. It’s a pretty dark-themed film and seems fairly unique for the time period in which it was released. Satanic followers might be interested to know that Anton LaVey makes a cameo in the movie and I think was the consultant for all things satanic in the film.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and the picture quality is very sharp, much more that I anticipated. I don’t imagine it ever looked this good back in the day. The film is the original 2.0 mono mix and sounds pretty good, though in some of the louder scenes you really can start to hear the limitations of the recording at the time and things kind of get a little muddy sounding, but nothing too detracting from the viewing experience. Extras are limited to a commentary track, the original movie trailer (man trailers were a lot longer back then), radio spots, and a 1 minute new piece about Anton LaVey.

If you have the attention span to get through the first half hour and are looking for something a little different from your typical hack and slash movie this Halloween, you might want to check out this one for your party. Once again it’s nice to see some care put into a rather obscure niche film in its DVD presentation in regards to the quality of the presentation instead of just slapping something together that looks poor.

Related links:

Order the DVD from Amazon.com

Dark Sky films

The Devil’s Rain on IMDB

The Fix - At the Speed of Twisted Thought CD
Touch and Go Records

25 years ago, a relatively unknown band from MI put out a pair of 7″ records in the couple years they were together and toured the country twice playing to hardly anyone. They only pressed up 200 of their first single because at the time they never thought they’d sell that many and the second one only saw about 800 more get made. They did sell them all and no one knew they’d fetch hundreds of dollars on ebay at the turn of the next century, nor did they think their music that so few people really got to hear, would have such a lasting impact on people. This little known, yet hugely influential band was known as The Fix and finally Touch and Go has remedied the fact that this crucial music was only available on bootlegs by issuing this CD that collects their entire recorded works and then some.

The Fix pretty much created the blueprint for Midwest hardcore. At the time they were around, there weren’t that many hardcore bands in the Midwest and you could easily count the people in the scene and remember the number because it was so low. The band played hard, fast, brutal and angry hardcore music that became a staple of the early 1980s punk scene, except The Fix did it before and better than most who followed. Listening to this disc nearly two decades after I first got their Jan’s Room 7″ (sadly The Punk Vault still lacks an original copy of their first single), this music still sounds as good to me as it did to my much younger (and less jaded) ears. Modern hardcore bands simply can’t match the genuine intensity and power of The Fix no matter how much they try.

The CD contains the two 7″s, the track from Process of Elimination, as well as some demo and live tracks. The studio records sound as good as ever if not better than on the original vinyl due to better mastering. The demo tracks also sound good and the live tracks are surprisingly good considering how long ago that was and what technology was available. Where they found these tapes is a mystery to me but thankfully someone had the good sense to preserve it! There is a total of 24 tracks.

The packaging is equally nice and faithful to the old vinyl. The artwork is the same red and black images found on both 7″s. Inside is some very interesting liner notes from band members and people like Tesco Vee and Henry Rollins. The lyrics are also faithfully reproduced inside too. It was obvious a lot of care went into this reissue and I’m glad to see it wasn’t half-assed and slapped together quickly to make a quick buck. It’s the kind of package that helps redeem this format as something that shouldn’t be replaced with digital downloads from an online store. Holding the CD in your hands and reading the booklet while playing the music is a good feeling and really conveys just how important this music was.

The label is two for two in the old punk reissue department; first with Blight and now The Fix. Here’s hoping the rest of the old Touch and Go punk back catalog will be given some sort of similar treatment in the near future. It’s been unavailable long enough.

Related links:

Order the CD from Amazon.com

Touch and Go Records website

Friday night I went over to the Beat Kitchen to see These Arms Are Snakes play. It had been about a year and a half since I last saw them play and I missed the last two times they came to town due to the shows either being sold out, or my inability to score a spot on the guest list. I felt bad for missing those shows because the band is always amazing live and are one of my most favorite current bands.

Young Widows

Young Widows

I was still wiped out from seeing Naked Raygun the previous night and waking up for work early so I opted to come to the show late since there was four bands playing. When I arrived, I caught the tail end of Young Widows, who were the first band on the bill. Upon hearing the one and a half songs I got to see, I kind of regretted not showing up earlier. They were pretty heavy and what I heard was really interesting. They also played in near darkness with bright white lights coming out from some rigs in their amps behind them.

River City Tan Lines

River City Tan Lines

Next up were River City Tan Lines. They were a three piece from somewhere down south (maybe TN?, I forget where they said they were from) featuring a female guitar player and dueling male/female vocals. They were sort of a dirty rock band that weren’t bad until they played an Alley Cats cover. I was probably the only other person in the club outside the band who caught it. Since that breaks my golden rule, I was instantly down on them from that point forward and put my camera away.

Mouth of the Architect

Mouth of the Architect

Mouth of the Architect were up next. With a name like that I half expected some emo band but man I couldn’t have been more wrong! They sounded like a cross of Neurosis (before they mellowed to the point of sedation), Isis, and Pelican. Their songs were long and heavy and would build upon a groove that would eventually explode into some heavy screamed growling vocals. I haven’t used this term in many years but I’m telling you, they were so powerful they damn near made me soil my pants involuntarily! They damn near stole the show and on top of buying their CD (which is excellent!), I have now them added to my “must-see” list of bands!

These Arms Are Snakes

These Arms Are Snakes

After a short break for equipment setup, These Arms Are Snakes took the stage. I have seen them four or five times before since they first started and they always were super energetic and played their asses off with an added intensity not captured on their records. Well this time out, they took that formula and cranked up the intensity another 200 percent! No one in the band held still for a minute, they were all over the place on stage playing their songs with such ferocity that the crowd couldn’t help but go nuts. By the third song, every member of the band e\was drenched in sweat and they showed no sign of letting up, and didn’t in the near hour-long set they performed. They played a good mix of songs of the new album, Easter, and their previous album, Oxneers. They also played “Riding the Grape Dragon” from the first EP. My one and only complaint was this was the first time I’ve seen them not play my favorite song of theirs, “Drinking from the Necks of the Ones You Love”. However the new songs were so good live as was everything they played that it was like seeing some Super These Arms Are Snakes and I forgave them for not playing my favorite song. The band is easily a must-see live, in fact they could very well be at this moment be one of the best live bands still active in the world! They were that good!

These Arms Are Snakes

These Arms Are Snakes

I left the show speechless from being completely blown away from two amazing bands that played back to back on that dimly lit stage of the Beat Kitchen. The show was so good it even helped ease the pain of being at that club since I’m not a fan of it at all and it’s such a pain in the ass to photograph in, thanks to the limited safe spots (of which there is exactly one) and it being so small and usually poorly lit. I ended up having to use the flash more than half the time but this evening, Mouth of the Architect and These Arms Are Snakes made it totally worthwhile.

More photos after the jump, and even more on my flickr page.

Dual Forces: Chrome & Helios Creed - DVD
Music Video Distributors

Chrome was an artsy, avant-garde punk rock band that started around 1980 and featured Helios Creed and Damon Edge. They put out a small handful of pretty good records before separating. Helios Creed then went solo (and garnered a somewhat loyal following in the early 1990s releasing records on the Amphetamine Reptile label) while Damon Edge put out a couple more records under the Chrome moniker, though they never were as good as the original.

This DVD collects some old Chrome music videos from 1980 - 1983. It features “New Age”, “Firebomb”, “Danger Zone” and “Meet you in the Subway”. Until this DVD came out, the “Firebomb” video had never been released before. The videos look exactly like you’d expect an underground band’s music video to look; low budget and full of effects like distortion and inverse images. They all have a similar look about them which fit in perfectly with the music. Audio-wise they sound excellent. Aside from the music videos there is also some live footage of a Chrome reunion from 1998. I am not sure if this is the full original lineup or not as there is no information as to who the players were. The footage was shot on one camera from somewhat far back in the club but the camera had a good zoom that was used on occasion. The sound on the live footage is pretty good, though there was a fair amount of hiss that probably could have been EQ’d out. The footage is just of one song, “Armageddon” recorded live in Cleveland.

The Helios Creed portion features music videos for “Your Spaceman” (from the Dope Guns and Fucking Up Your Video Deck DVD/VHS), “The Rant”, “Exodus”, and “Sandbox Jungle”. Having only owned a couple of Helios Creed’s records it was cool to check out some songs I wasn’t familiar with. It also features footage of “The Beginning of Light” recorded live. The footage is very similar in quality as the Chrome live footage, but the audio is much cleaner sounding. It was recorded in Oakland, CA in 2006 and it did a good job of cluing me in on what his live show looks like now since it has been well over a decade since I saw Helios Creed play.

The DVD’s main menu is split up into three sections; one for each band plus a timeline that gives a discography for both bands. Inside each band’s menu you can choose what song you want to play, or there is a “play all” option”. Navigation is very simple and functional. The picture quality was excellent, only limited by the technology of the time the videos were created. The audio for the music videos is in stereo and sound perfect, you’d think you were playing your CD’s while watching the images on the screen.

As a mild fan of both bands, and only having seen one of them personally, I found this disc while short, to be quite entertaining and a worthy addition to my collection. It’s also not a bad way to get a sample for some of the best material available from either band. My only wish that there was more material on it, as the total time is about 45 minutes for the whole thing.

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

Helios Creed website

Music Video Distributors

Today I would like to wish a happy birthday to, well, myself! Yes, it is that time again where I am one year closer to the dirt nap. If you are keeping score at home I’m 37 and it is fucking scary that I’m pushing 40. Hell, I never thought I’d live this long back when I was an angry young teenage punk. Anyway to celebrate my birthday, last night some of my friends, my lady and I went bowling and drinking at a local bowling alley. It was a lot of fun and apparently I’m a pretty good drunk bowler! I scored 136, 160 and 140.

Today I had a mini Gigante reunion of sorts where four of us went to the Palace Grill for much missed Palace Burgers (a half pound burger on french bread, oh man does it rule). It was well worth the drive to the city in traffic and it was nice to see some old work mates again.

And as for presents check out what I got!

That is a brand new and super-sweet lens for my camera. It is on top of a skull and cross bones blanket. The lens was bought for me and the blanket made for me by my lovely girlfriend, who happens to be the sweetest person on the planet. I’ll be taking the lens out for a test drive this coming Friday when I go see and photograph These Arms Are Snakes.

Since it’s been awhile since the last MXV update I’m happy to report that aside from the new lady mentioned in the paragraph above, I also finally have found a full time job. I’m back to doing video game design work again like I used to for a company in the area. It was a long time coming but I’m quite happy to be back on my feet, even if it means waking up in the morning before double digits on the hour hand. The people at the new gig seem very nice and I think I’ll be quite happy there. The commute isn’t half bad either, in fact it is far better than the last place I was at so that’s a definite plus.

The lack up regular updates around here lately is due to my still adjusting to my new schedule and lack of free time between the job and the lady and the general maintenance of Combustion Manor. It should resume a regular schedule shortly.