Shark Move - 'Chede Chokra's Shark Move' (1970)

 Pretty cool downbeat psych rock from Indonesia that reminds me of a heavier Traffic. Lots of jazz keys and direct input guitar solos. I guess it also sounds a little like SRC.

Tracklist:

1. My Life

2. Butterfly

3. Harga

4. Evil War

5. Bingung

6. Insan

7. Madat

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Megatrip - 'S/T' (1996)

 Don't know what this is or why I have it, but somebody is probably looking for it. Doesn't seem to really exist anywhere in full that I can find.

4 super long, super sloppy psych jams very informed by 70's improv stuff (see 'Song for Syd.') The outro is spoken word over some real noisy space synths.

Tracklist:

1. WWPFAT Spoiled Mushrooms

2. Song for Syd

3. Slicing Hearts

4. Megatrip Outro

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Fifth Era - 'See You in Hell' (1999)

 Apparently we're retroactively calling this type of music 'doomcore' which I guess is fine. It's slow-to-mid-paced hardcore techno/gabber with a lot of doom and gloom. This, along with the Rat of Doom EP, are two of my favs. Also worth checking out is the 'Selected Classics' comp by The Mover.

(It's just one long track bc it's a tape rip)

Tracklist:

1. See You in Hell

2. Live in the Netherlands

3. Night of Fear

4. Kill, Kill, Kill

5. Are You Ready?

6. Sabotage

7. Blackest Shadow

8. Live in Hackney 1999

9. AC93

10. Broken Souls

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Crack Baby - 'Gestation Period of a Smurf' (2000)

 Finally found this in a pile of old CDs and junk...I used to go see this band at the community center when I was very young. I don't know what's in the water, but my tiny town had at least three super confrontational bands that blended Black Flag-style hardcore with grunge. These guys were the tightest musicians for sure, and some of these tracks still slap. I'll never get tired of hearing 'I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKIN RULES' lol. 

I misplaced the tracklist, so I'm going to just guess. It should be noted that the ska song ('Rudy Can't You Wait') was probably written about one of my friends.

I'll fill in the other tracks if I find the list.

Tracklist:

1. Stupid Reason

2. Fed Up

3.

4. Stupid Reason (Radio Edit)

5. Track 3 Radio Edit

6. Booger Off

7. Never Leaving

8. 

9. 

10. Blank Stare

11. Love Song

12. Next in Line

13. Black Market Babies

14. Do I Smell Bacon?

15. Loose Stools

16. Rudy Can't You Wait?

17. 

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AFRTS (Various Artists) - 'The Simple Gifts' (1972)

This is a really, really weird and unsettling recording. It's some kind of PTSD coping exercise, and I'm pretty sure it's the only record ever released by the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services. 

Not sure if it's actual veterans on the album, but it's mostly extremely harrowing spoken word pieces set to sometimes restrained, sometimes atonal orchestral music. 

Tracklist:

1. The Sea

2. I Am a Number

3. His Childish Face Grown Old Too Soon

4. Look to This Day

5. I Pity the Drunk

6. Who Has Woe?

7. Good Old Days

8. The Committee

9. The Door

10. Words... Words... Words

11. Show Me My Door

12. Beggars on Church Steps

13. Hearts Unlovely and Unloved

14. Don't Be Angry

15. Who is Man?

16. Simple Gift 

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Five Star Hotel - 'Streets of Rage' (2016)

 Five Star Hotel is one of my favorite current producers. Her music is I guess EDM trap? But that's really not doing it justice...there's a lot of influence from harsh noise, goth, industrial, and body horror cinema. 'Gray Data' is the classic album, but she's since moved onto noisier material with harsh vocals. I think because the current sound is so far removed from her old work, a lot of it has either been taken down or is just lost to time.

This is a mixtape (I think) that I spent months trying to track down. It's got a very distorted, bitcrushed sound and a vague dystopian theme running through it. Some of these recordings were reworked for her full-lengths (I think one of them is on 'Outlands?') but the mix flows really nice as a single piece.

Please support her other projects if you like this one! She has a deluxe version of 'Gray Data' up w/ extra tracks...get it now bc it could always disappear...

Tracklist:

1. S1

2. Streets of Rage

3. Radio Free

4. NetgearAD

5. Horizon

6. S2

7. Pentium

8. Hexagoness

9. S3

10. Underpass

11. Tempad

12. Column

13. S4

14. Whole Earth Gone Again

(nevermind the double tracks...hard drive copying bullshit and I already uploaded it lol)

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The Shape Shifters - 'Know Future' (1999)

 So these guys have kinda vanished from the internet. Conspiracy theorist boom-bap alien rap collective from LA. This is one of their harder-to-find releases (the most popular being 'Shape Shifters Was Here') and also one of the weirdest. All the tracks are super long, barely have anything resembling a hook and the beats are noisy and lo-fi. Some of these dudes have serious skills and interesting flows...Awol One and Radioinactive came the closest to blowing up.

Tracklist:

Disc One - 'Primitive'

1. Rock Der Planet/Abundance

2. The Peoples' Rally of Area 51

3. Planet Rockers

4. a. Reincarnate

5. b. Man 2 Ape 2 Fish

6. c. 666.com

7. d. LA 2 San Jose/Outermost

8. e. Let Da Good Times Roll

9. f. Strawberry Alarm Clock

10. Girls Dipped in Chocolate

11. Pond Scum

12. The Calendar

13. Moses Freed the Slaves

14. Brain Fish Oner

15. Gotta Be Undastanden

16. Hey, Nimrod... It's Yer Birthday!

Disc Two - 'Future'

1. Give it to Me (Intro)

2. Lojack Leviathan

3. One Percent

4. Pot Full O Gold/OG

5. Area 52

6. Squash Da Beef

7. Zumthing Different

8. Surf En Tsunamis

9. Beatle Borg/OG

10. Appoca-Palooza/Crop Circles (Outro)

11. Gen X Dot All

12. Joy 2 Da World

13. Untitled

NO IDEA about all the bizarre track segues, it all kinda just flows together into one hazy puddle of backpack rap.

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Desiree - 'Desiree Tapes (77)'

 No idea where this came from or if I ever even played it on the radio program, but it rocks hard. Started listening to some tracks and couldn't stop. It's just kinda generic hard rock/pre-metal stuff but the riffs hit and it's a lot of fun.

Apparently they are from Germany and have some other recordings, too.

Tracklist:

1. Free Again

2. Rock Live on Stage

3. Take My Heart

4. Song of a Bird

5. On His Way

6. God of Hell

7. Kingdom of Dreams

8. Baby Love Me One More Time

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V/A - 'Curl Activate' Vols. 1 and 2

 The theme this time around is basically digging through all my endless hard drives of random music from years and years of collecting shit, and finding stuff I have no idea about. I'm also trying to find things that are at risk of being lost to time (i.e. things that aren't on YT yet lol.)

First up, a couple comps courtesy of the Music for Maniacs blog (linked in sidebar.) They have consistently uploaded some of the weirdest shit on the web, but a lot of the older links are down.

I had no idea what this even was until I did a little research. It's basically two volumes of novelty rap from the 80's and early 90's, when everybody thought rap was a 'fad' and all the white record exec lames pumped out tracks like 'Rappin' Rodney' and 'The Presidents Rap' (the latter is actually on a DJ Screw tape where it slaaaaps.)

Some of these tracks are made by 'legitimate' rappers...like Bobby Jimmy and the Critters, which is a pseudonym of Arabian Prince from NWA.

Vol. 1
1. Deryl with the Curl and DJ Curl Activator - Curl Activate
2. Akeem the Dream Olajuwon - The Unbeatable Dream
3. The Rappin Reverend Dr. C. Dexter Wise, III - The Original Rap 
4. Chunky A - Owww
5. Chick Hearn - Rap Around
6. Hurt Em Bad and The S.C. Band - Monday Night Football
7. Mac the Rapper - What Is Love
8. The Wilson Sisters and Speedy D - The Magic Man
9. Rich Little - Presidents Rap
10. The Coach - Take it to the Hoop
11. Gerty Molzen - Walk on the Wild Side
12. The Fat Boys - Chillin with the Refrigerator
13. Bobby Jimmy and the Critters - NY-LA Rappers

(No track tags, sorry)

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More Info

Vol. 2
1. The Qwarymen - Beatle Rap
2. Greg Poltrock and Rick Rumble - Mayberry Rap
3. Joe Piscopo, Eddie Murphy and D.S.T. - Honeymooners Rap
4. Rodney Dangerfield - Rappin Rodney
5. Shawn Brown - Rappin Duke
6. Elvira - Monsta' Rap
7. Hurt Em Bad - NBA Rap
8. Ron and the DC Crew - Ronnie's Rapp
9. Doonsbury Break Crew - Rap Master Ronnie
10. Bobby Jimmy and the Critters - Roaches
11. Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks - City of Crime
12. Eddie Murphy - Boogie in Your Butt
13. Hurt Em Bad and the Soul Connection Band - Boxing Game
14. Mel Brooks - Hitler Rap
15. Chicago Bears - Super Bowl Shuffle

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More Info

MX-80 Sound - 'Big Hits and Hard Attack'

Ok, really, this is the real reason I started doing this blog again. I wanted to post this record, realizing I never did a few years back when I was heavy into these fellas.

Coming out of the oasis of Bloomington, IN (basically the ONLY good thing in Indiana, and a pretty strange place), this band is a combination of influences that I really don't like. I hear a lot of Captain Beefheart, whom I despise, and also maybe some Frank Zappa, who is ok but not my favorite, Velvet Underground, who I also hate, and an assortment of 70's radio rock. Somehow, all this ends up being awesome, and completely unlike anything else, no matter how many people say they 'sound just like Sonic Youth.'

This kind of music just doesn't happen anymore. Here you have some college dudes in the middle of nowhere, just making music and playing for their friends, without ANY real musical worldview. So out of touch with everything going on in '76 that they sound current in 2016. It's fitting that they were discovered by The Residents, who also put out the bulk of their material on their Ralph Records, after Island dropped the band.

Since I can't really relate their sound to anything else other than their influences (which really doesn't cut it), this might get a little detailed.

So, you've got scratchy, 'angular' guitar work that sounds half-improvised, but always inspired. It's also really unpretentious...it never feels like the band is 'trying' to be weird, or experimental, they're just weirdos. You can tell there's a lot of early heavy metal influence in the guitar work as well. And yes, some parts sound strikingly similar to Sonic Youth drones, but more interesting, I would argue.

The bass player is ALWAYS busy, and actually has some of the 'lead' riffs while the guitar fucks around. Best, however, are the drums, which are SO FUCKING HEAVY. It sounds like an old jazz kit being played as hard and fast as possible. Like, I don't even really know, I was just smiling at this guy's playing the whole album, it's way funkier than you'd think for this type of music, and also REALLY idiosyncratic, maybe a little like Primus.

Primus is actually a good comparison, come to think of it. Except the vocals aren't super fucking annoying, and the songs don't feel as laborious.

Speaking of the vocalist, who sounds a little like Jesse Michaels from Operation Ivy, except crazy, he is VERY good at his limited style. He's not the best singer, but he doesn't just get the fuck out of the way like most noise-rock vocalists. If he's not conversationally joking about PCB's and kidnapping girls, he's honking on his out-of-tune saxophone.

I could just go on. I don't even know how many times I laughed at the bizarre jokes in the lyrics. Rich Stim has perfect comedic timing in the way that only the Dead Milkmen or The Frogs perfected.  When he does get serious, it's more creepy than anything, and makes the band seem sort of menacing, like their live shows must have been totally out of control.

Aaaaanyways, their second album, 'Out of the Tunnel,' and the third, 'Crowd Control,' are also very good. Their later stuff is spotty, but I'm glad they're still slightly active. Definitely my favorite band on Ralph Records, which is pretty insane considering their roster includes Tuxedomoon, Snakefinger, and of course The Residents.

NOTE: My version also includes their first EP, as 2 long tracks at the beginning of the album. It's good, but 'Hard Attack' is where it's at.

MX-80 Sound - 'Big Hits and Hard Attack'

Tracklist:

1. Train to Loveland / You Turn Me On / SCP / Til Death Do Us Part
2. Myonga Von Bontee / Boy Trouble - Girl Trouble / Tidal Wave
3. Man on the Move
4. Kid Stuff
5. Fascination
6. Summer '77
7. PCB's
8. Crushed Ice
9. Tidal Wave
10. Theme from 'Checkmate'
11. Facts-Facts
12. You're Not Alone
13. Civilized / Demeyes
14. Afterbirth / Aftermath
15. Sad Girls (Bonus Track)

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Singers and Players - 'War of Words'

I've also been listening to a lot of Jamaican music. All the way from ska and rocksteady to the dub and roots reggae of the 70's. Of course, I wouldn't post something here unless it were a little out of the ordinary. Lots of dub has strange qualities...I mean, it IS a genre founded on getting high and doing the craziest mixes you can think of to pre-recorded tracks. It just sounds like pure fun. This album, however, is not fun at all.

Initially I saw this described as 'gothic reggae,' and I guess that's not far off the mark. It's got a very skeletal, sterile dub sound. The echo and reverb is all harsh and digital, and for some reason there's also a lot of super-distorted guitar, which is atypical of dub. The lyrics are all performed in creepy whispers, or a really deep, smoked-out toasting voice.

Everything, down to the black and white cover photo, conjures up a deeply depressive vibe, something also atypical of dub. While it's normally bass-heavy and minimal, this is heavy in different ways.

If you're looking to get into reggae, but want to start with the furthest possible point from Bob Marley, this is probably a good bet.

Singers and Players - 'War of Words' - 1982

Tracklist:

1. Devious Woman
2. Quante Jubila
3. Sit and Wonder
4. Fit to Survive
5. Reaching the Bad Man
6. World of Dispensation
7. '91 Vibration

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Terje Rypdal - 'Descendre'

Going to try summarizing what I've been listening to for the past 2 years...until I get bored anyways. Winter always gets me in a jazz mood, especially ECM stuff. This label specializes in clinically-produced, note-perfect jazz that a lot of people find too sterile. That's true if you stick with stuff like Pat Metheny and Oregon, but a lot of the Scandinavian artists featured on the label are pretty innovative.

Terje Rypdal is a Norwegian jazz-fusion guitarist with several albums out on ECM. The double-LP 'Odyssey' is maybe his best work, but I think this one from 1979 distills that album's best ideas into a one-album set, without any 20-minute ambient soundscapes. Despite that, it's still very dreamy. Although Rypdal developed his style in a totally different time, his playing is very shoegazey.

According to the information I can find, most of his recorded material is at least partially improvised, which is pretty impressive considering how focused the mood here is. Well, it's not just here...most of his work has a late-night, creepy vibe, that would be taken to extremes by dark-jazz groups like Bohren and Der Club of Gore in the 2000's.

Good stuff to zone out to. I'd recommend it even if you're not a jazz fan, because this reminds me a lot of post-rock, which makes sense because a lot of the best post-rock seems to come from Scandinavia as well.

Terje Rypdal - 'Descendre' - 1979

Tracklist:

1. Avskjed
2. Circles
3. Descendre
4. Innseiling
5. Men of Mystery
6. Speil

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Reader submission: Avant-garde strangeness from the deep web

Got another reader submission the other day, this time from someone who found me on the RateYourMusic website. He sent me a few albums, and a link to his weekly podcast.

He goes by the name of Tunnel Rat, and his music is somewhere in between bizarro Jandek outsider improv and the early chaotic releases of Beck. I'm actually not sure where he's based, but he's had records put out by labels from Florida and Canada. The one on Panama City's Fork and Spoon Records, called Rothko, features free form improvisation on bass, and some very strange spoken word sections. There are also some field recordings and odd samples, giving it a definite vibe of 'bedroom music.'

It's a very short affair, with the longest track being just over three minutes. Despite the amateurish recording quality, Tunnel Rat sounds pretty proficient on the bass, and some of this stuff reminds me of 60's avant-garde jazz. The poetry set to it gives the whole thing a completely different feel, though.

The other release I was sent, which is titled Hide The Syrup Spacemen, is even more avant-garde and strange. This was the one that reminded me of Beck's early sound experiments. Odd in-jokes are combined with distant-sounding field recordings and some spastic mandolin playing. I don't know what to make of it all, but if you were a fan of the Obscuro! radio program, you'll definitely be into this.

His internet podcast is sort of a discussion on experimental and spoken-word music, but it also touches on conspiracy theories, current news events and the benefits of the RateYourMusic website. It's every bit as strange as you'd think it is from hearing the music.

Thanks for the submission, Tunnel Rat, and to everyone else, keep 'em coming!

Some scare-tacular listening for All Hallow's Eve 2014

Even though I'm focusing on my movie blog right now, I had to come back with some scary albums for Halloween. Some of these are actually kind of frightening, but most are just silly. They're all out of the Obscuro! radio program vaults, from my numerous Halloween theme shows.


1. Anton LaVey - 'Strange Music' EP

The founder of the Satanic Church (and author of the Satanic Bible) is also, hilariously, fairly proficient on the pipe organ. He has another album of mostly instrumental stuff called 'The Devil Takes a Holiday,' and it's pretty funny to me that this dude obviously can poke fun at himself. Anyhow, the majority of these tunes are his versions on old standards (i.e. 'Gloomy Sunday.') It's not great, but it's totally the type of thing you can throw on at a Halloween party.


2. Lucifer - 'Black Mass'

Electronic music pioneer Mort Garson did this album under the Satanic pseudonym, presumably because it's darker music than his other stuff. If you like the horror-movie synth soundtracks of the 80's, or the library music stuff I've posted here, you'll probably dig this. I did feature it in a previous Halloween post, but the blog I linked to for a download is apparently long-gone, so I re-uploaded it myself.


3. The Elm Street Group - 'Freddy's Greatest Hits'

Of all the dumbed-down horror movie merchandise to come out of the 80's ('Toxic Crusaders,' anyone?) this might take the cake for stupidest. Some no-name studio musicians concocted these run-of-the-mill synth-pop tunes (many of which are covers of 50's and 60's novelty songs) and somehow got Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger) to lend his voice to them. It's all pretty bad, but 'Do The Freddy' at least has novelty appeal. I guess by '87, the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise was pretty much a joke anyways.


4. Moevot - 'Ézléýfbdréhtr Vépréùb Zùérfl Màzàgvàtre Érbbédréà'

Okay, THIS is genuinely scary. An anonymous 'black metal' musician, whose music sounds more like recordings from inside a long-buried tomb than actual metal. I guess it's not to dissimilar from the ambient tracks on Burzum albums, just....way more poorly recorded. And it's got these weird groaning vocals that sound like a ghost. I dunno. It's fascinating, if nothing else.


Happy Halloween, y'all....

More incredibly strange metal

Here are a few more of these oddball metal releases I've collected over the years...

First, two non-classics from the Metal Enterprises label. See this post and this post for more info on that fiasco...

Kalaschnikov, like the other artists in the ME stable, probably just wanted distribution for their mediocre album ('The Torture Never Stops') but got ripped off like so many others when the label did a fake 'follow up' record with their own in-house musicians/producers. Unlike the other groups (such as Killer Fox, whose original recordings were just unlistenable garbage) Kalaschnikov's sound was at least weird on its own.

The whole album kinda feels like it was written in a day, including the lyrics, which are so over-the-top 'evil' you have to hear them to believe them. It's like somebody told the vocalist to just sing about stuff that was the opposite of the Bible, so you get classics like 'Kill Your Neighbor' and 'Devil's Your Hero.' Despite the crappy production, it's a pretty good time, and you can't really hate songs like 'Rockin' By the Graveyard' and 'Video Monsters.' The lack of musicianship also seems to have resulted in some unusual guitar riffs in a kind of Voivod-ish way.

So, then, enter the ME staff's version of Kalaschnikov, present on their second (and final) album 'Desert Storm.' It sounds like they weren't even trying on this one. Two long tracks of obvious space-filling 'ambient' stuff, a few songs that sound a little too musically competent to be the ME staff...my guess is that they got hold of some Kalaschnikov demos for a second album, and dubbed their own awful vocals over. Then there are a handful that are obviously the same people responsible for the second Killer Fox and Thrash Queen albums. The ridiculous female operatic vocals and the snarly cartoonish male vocals, bad drum machines and totally non-metal guitar tones. Oh yeah, and whistling solos.

Yeah. Fucking whistling solos on what is essentially a thrash metal song ('Czarewitch').

Well...basically, if you're for some reason collecting all the Metal Enterprises releases, these will be of use to you. Otherwise, probably not? Oh well, the first album is enjoyably funny at least.

Kalaschnikov - 'The Torture Never Stops'

Tracklist:

1. Devil's Your Hero
2. The Haunted House
3. Rockin' By the Graveyard
4. Kill Your Neighbor
5. Chosen One
6. Demon's Rebellion (Instrumental)
7. Video Monsters
8. Hell's Runnin' Wild
9. Demon's Rebellion (Vocal)

DL

Kalaschnikov - 'Desert Storm'

Tracklist:

1. Czarewitch
2. Siberian Werewolf
3. Homage to the Holocaust
4. Headbanger
5. Stinking Shrine
6. Scull Scratcher

DL

Lastly, here's a release that might not be EXACTLY metal, but it definitely has metal influences (mostly from the doom genre) and it's certainly fucked up. While there are quite a few bands calling themselves Warning, this is the 1982 release by the German synth-doom group. Actually, the vocals here wouldn't sound too out of place on a Metal Enterprises release...they're like...death metal growls? I guess? But put through all sorts of effects to make it sound like aliens. The music is literally a head-on collision between OG doom metal (think Sabbath and Witchfinder General) and euro-disco synth stuff.

It's pretty goofy, but it's also very enjoyable, and occasionally really creepy. One review compares them to Rammstein, and I guess that's not far off, but WAY WAY more 80's than that description lets on. It really does sound like Kraftwerk playing satanic metal before that kind of metal even existed. If you read this blog, you'll like it I'm sure.

Warning - S/T

Tracklist:

1. Why Can the Bodies Fly
2. Magic Castle
3. Wild Roses for the Exit
4. Darkness
5. Out of Tune
6. The Door (Pt. I)
7. The Door (Pt. II)
8. A Message
9. Warning
10. Lost in Time
11. In the Crowd

DL

2 classics of 'incredibly strange metal'

Here are a couple relics from my days as a metal radio guy. Hopefully I will put some other stuff like this up here in the near future.

First up, an experimental death metal band from Italy called Trifixion. Apparently they only put out this one album, in 1995, although there is at least one other band with the same name.

It's way more varied than pretty much any other death metal release out there...atmospheric keyboard passages lead to psych-rock jams, which lead to trebly black metal guitar and psychotic screaming. I'm not really sure what kind of audience these guys were going for, and maybe that's why they only did one album.

I guess some of the experimentation could be called similar to Voivod (my favorite metal band) but basically if those guys were death/black metal instead of thrash. It isn't particularly well-recorded, but all the musicians are super-talented so you never really notice. The artwork is fairly creepy, too. Probably more out there than most experimental metal fans can tolerate, but outsider/weirdo music appreciators will dig this.

Trifixion - 'Abschurfungepoch'

Tracklist:

1. Fear, Is All That I See
2. Col Heaven
3. Litanie
4. World Called Truth
5. Immortal
6. You Breed
7. Abschurfungepoch

DL

Next is a release that isn't nearly as challenging or intelligent. Actually, it's not intelligent at ALL. You may remember me posting about Killer Fox and the awful Metal Enterprises label. Click that link, please, so I don't have to recap.

This is another outing from the producers of the second Killer Fox album, and it's just as awful, if not more so. There are some very distinct (and completely out-of-place) reggae influences, and it also has the WORST Beatles cover I've ever heard. The female vocalist who is present on the Thrash Queen album is on this quite a bit. Also, it seems like they included some demos by the original Godzilla band, as if the album wasn't inconsistent enough already. Just terrible, stupid, and entertaining.

Godzilla - 'II'

Tracklist:

1. Ingoz
2. Helter Skelter
3. Ass of the Prophet
4. I Followed the Zombie
5. Cinderella Rockefella
6. Halfbreed
7. Killing Joke
8. Foul
9. Outgoz

DL

Outsider cinema, vol. 2 - 'Hawk Jones'

First off, this post does NOT include a download link for the movie, BUT, it is extremely affordable from the creator's website, and I'd encourage all of you to support them.

This is one of the most bizarre things to come out of the 1980's VHS era that I've ever seen. We will start off with a quote from the director's website:

"Hawk Jones was the brainchild of Tor Lowry.  Tor got the idea for Hawk Jones when he saw a Bill Cosby Jello commercial in which all the kids were dressed as adults.  Tor thought that would make for an interesting movie to have an all child cast and his brother, Rico, agreed.  "

Yep. The only film I'm aware of with an all-children cast...but it's also not FOR children.

The plot is not very good, and the script isn't either...it's your basic thriller/crime caper with 40's film noir references. Obviously, though, that doesn't matter, because it's ALL CHILDREN.

So, it's an hour and a half of kids smoking cigars, driving cars, shooting each other up (yes, there is blood), hanging out at bars, and talking like 1940's adults ('The streets are no place for dames!'). All of which makes for an incredible viewing experience.

One review I read claimed that this is the type of film you couldn't get away with making in modern times, which is definitely true. I'm surprised that they found a whole cast of children whose parents were cool with this back in '86 or whatever. I mean, some of it is borderline creepy. Judging by the info on the director's website, they did have trouble finding a distributor, even in the anything-goes VHS era.

What's weirder is that it's actually well done...it does look to be shot-on-video, but the editing is flawless, and all the sets are well-decorated. My guess is that an extremely wealthy person did this, and had enough sense to hire people for production than do it himself. Somehow, he also found some pretty decent child actors...I mean, a few of them are REALLY good for how old they are.

Here are a few highlights:

-A kid hitman named 'The Eliminator' who wears some bizarre homemade sunglasses and a golfer hat.

-A lengthy, awkward scene where two kids 'make eyes' at each other.

-Multiple kid gangsters with drawn-on facial hair who keep asking their boss 'want me to waste him??'

-The music, which is gloriously 80's but also would be more appropriate for an early Olsen twins film or something.

-A kid playing an old man, complete with a walker and grey wig.

Yeah, it's great. I also wonder if any of these kids went on to become 'real' actors?

Outsider cinema, vol. 1 - 'Double Down'

It's been brought to my attention that some of you may be interested in this film...I uploaded it to share with a couple of interested parties on the RateYourMusic website, but the fact that people are asking about it means it's pretty damn hard to find...

I'm hoping that director Neil Breen doesn't sue the shit out of me, or get my Mediafire account taken down, but we will see. I don't necessarily feel bad about posting it, as Mr. Breen sort of condemns his films to obscurity each time he makes a new one. I even contacted him a while back about his second feature, 'I Am Here....Now' and he told me he wasn't making anymore copies. This one (his first film) is even harder to come by.

So, basically, this is 'outsider' cinema...made by a fairly successful real estate agent (the realty king of Las Vegas) who uses his earnings to make b-movies that he writes, directs, and stars in (and even does some of the music for, I think.) Which, if you know anything about film, means there is a LOT of room for things to go wrong...lots of situations where nobody else gives input or says 'maybe you shouldn't put that in your movie.' Fans of Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room' and 'Troll 2' would definitely be into his stuff. I'd wager that Breen creates even WEIRDER films...

Whereas Mr. Breen's two more recent movies are kinda sci-fi action, his first is mainly an action/thriller (I guess?!) with a LITTLE bit of fantasy thrown in for good measure.

Oh yeah, before I go any further, just in case Neil stumbles across this post...I have NOTHING negative to say about this movie. I will probably watch it over and over. Yes, it's basically a how-to on making a movie completely wrong, but that doesn't matter. It's pure entertainment, and it's also demented as hell.

The 'plot' concerns a genius computer hacker (who seems to not really know anything about computer) who is trying to save the world with his skillz, after years of working for anybody who will pay. It's unclear what he really does, but he spends a lot of time waking up halfway in his car in the desert (seriously, this happens about 10 times, and it's all different shots, so I'm not really sure if it's supposed to be a flashback or what) and dicking around with a whole bunch of laptops that never seem to be on. Most of the film is actually just that...the hacker (played by Breen) driving around Las Vegas with a car full of laptops.

Everything is held together by a voiceover explaining the story, that disappears halfway through for seemingly no reason...then reappears towards the end. Oh yeah, and somewhere along the way, the main character realizes he has the ability to cure cancer with his mind(!)

EVERYTHING you could want to go wrong most certainly does, from head-shaking music cues, to bizarre dialog, to the distinctly skewed worldview the film creates. And it's all completely awesome.

GET IT. Now, before the feds come for me...

HERE
HERE
HERE
and HERE

Also, if YOU somehow have a copy of 'I Am Here....Now'...help me out?

Rare proto-punk megapost

While doing my proto-punk, punk and post-punk radio show, I often came across some fairly rare releases (not PHYSICAL, but y'know). Some of these took weeks of searching to dig up. Now, I'm dropping a bunch of 'em on you. This post is for the proto-punk stuff, obviously, which would be from the early 60's to the mid-70's.

Heavy Goods Vehicle - 'Keeper of the Sands'

Loud, super-stoned and super-slowed blues rock, in the tradition of Black Sabbath and Pentagram. Maybe a little bluesier than either of those bands, but just as noisy. This album totally sounds like garbage, probably demo recordings of some kind, but it's pretty great because it sounds like they're breaking the tape deck with their volume. Includes a completely incomprehensible cover of 'Wild Thing' that somehow manages to be sloppier than the original. Maybe more proto-doom-metal than proto-punk, but it's got the spirit.

NOTE: The only proper tracklist for this I could find was COMPLETELY different from what I have, so I'm just listing the tracks alphabetically.

Tracklist:

1. 1976
2. Capitalist Blues
3. Feed Back (1976)
4. Heavy Goods Vehicle
5. Heavy Music
6. I'm a Man
7. July Morning
8. Keeper of the Sands (Intro)
9. Lucifer
10. Race with the Devil
11. Time to Cry
12. Wild Thing

DL

Pi Corp - 'Lost in the Cosmic Void'

Early artifact from the same Ohio scene that produced Rocket From The Tombs, Vertical Slit, Pere Ubu and the electric eels. It's fairly dissimilar from those releases, being more like early Pink Floyd I guess. But, the experimentation and gleefully noisy interludes definitely get it an inclusion in the proto-punk 'genre.' Plus, I think a few members went on to be in 'real' punk bands, so yeah. It sounds like a live recording, and honestly it isn't too great, but it's historical. My favorite tracks are 'Together,' which kinda sounds like a simplified Black Sabbath jam with weird echoed-out yelling over it, and 'Shiiit,' which is a psych-rock jam filtered through basement recording.

Tracklist:

1. Introid
2. The Dirge
3. Drumola
4. Together
5. Devil Weed
6. Just Another Song
7. LSD 1
8. Space War
9. Shiiit
10. Telarama Boogie
11. Organ Over Easy

DL

Doug Snyder and Bob Thompson - 'Daily Dance'

This one's pretty amazing. Supposedly, these guys went home after an early Iggy and the Stooges show and started writing these noisy, semi-structured jams. They were also from Ohio, although a more rural part. The 'songs' contain no vocals, just super blown-out heavy guitar and equally distorted, frenzied drumming. It actually has a feel not unlike the band Sleep, but obviously less structured. The two guys also regrouped in the late 90's to cut another LP, but I've never heard it. This one was independently released in '73, in a 500-copy run.

Tracklist:

1. Daily Dance
2. Living with the Crocodiles
3. Time Overlaps Itself
4. Soul and Universe
5. Hit and Run
6. Truth is a Pathless Land
7. Teenage Emergency

DL

Gudibrallan - 'II'

Swedish bang that DEFINITELY sounds a little closer to the punk era, and this goes way back to '71. Although usually listed as prog-rock, don't think it's gonna be a bunch of flutes and weird time signatures. It's actually more like the early Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart style of prog-rock, where it's just fucked up sounding. I guess there are elements of Swedish folk music here, but I don't know that stuff well enough to pick it out. There is definitely some wild saxophone and lots of yelling though. Somehow, this is the band's second album, too.

Tracklist:

1. T-Doja
2. Sosse
3. Terjes Klagan
4. Sprutan
5. Sommar Uti Hagen
6. John Boy
7. Berusa Er
8. Hispan
9. Visa Om Jungfrun

DL

This Heat - 'Live at Krefeld'

More hard-to-find shit for ya. I was pretty surprised to find that this release (from 1980) isn't up anywhere else at the moment. People are finally starting to discover this band, so I figured that an actually good-quality live recording of them would be more popular, but I guess not.

First of all, I'm not the type of person who really gives a shit about live recordings usually. I don't listen to them, unless there's not an alternative (like the Wire 'Document and Eyewitness' recordings.) I'd rather hear studio creations, and if I give a shit enough to hear the songs performed live, I will go to a show (which doesn't happen too often.)

This release isn't really any different for me...I'd probably listen to 'Deceit' over this any day, BUT on the flip side, it's really cool to hear how accurately these guys could recreate those recordings in a live setting. It couldn't have been easy, considering all the crazy shit going on. And, I don't think it was a large band, either...just three or four guys?

If you're big into these dudes, you will probably like this...there's a track called 'Unreleased Title,' and I can't really tell if it's an unreleased track or not, because it's been so long since I've put their studio albums on. But, it probably is? Because, this recording seems to have a pretty good representation of their short career, which tracks from both studio full lengths, and 'Health and Efficiency' from the EP of the same name.

Probably only essential for completists, but y'know...

This Heat - 'Live at Krefeld'

Tracklist:

1. Paper Hats
2. The Fall of Saigon/Testcard
3. S.P.Q.R.
4. Makeshift Swahili
5. Unreleased Title
6. Music Like Escaping Gas
7. A New Kind of Water
8. Twilight Furniture
9. Health and Efficiency

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