The only way to play surf... JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS... in glorious mono

This is, like, more awesome than awesome!! Wild insane surf music by the Japanese band JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS recorded sometime in 1997 (or some such). How often would you see stage diving at surf shows in the old days, ay. Haha. This is fucken rad! Burning instruments, wild guitars, crazy acrobatics, hot Japanese teen babes in skirts!!! (and do notice towards the end when one of the guitar players falls off the monitor, LOLZ.). Wild!!!

[pop a top polis]

I watched the new(ish) documentary film about JIM WYNORSKI last night and it was a blast! I'm gonna watch it again. I haven't watched too many of his films but the ones I have watched were all cool. And his debut film, THE LOST EMPIRE, is one of my favourites. I urge you to seek out the documentary if you have any interest in entertaining psychotronic lowbudget flicks. The DVD is avaliable from their website.

The Danish release of THE LOST EMPIRE - unfortunately it's not on official dvd (there's a UK dvd but it's said to have VHS picture quality and I guess it's likely to be a boot).

Hugh Gallagher's gore trilogy at CINEMA J today

I watched Hugh Gallagher's entire gore trilogy today; GOROTICA, GORGASM, and GORE WHORE and what can I say but WHAT A TREAT!!!

GOROTICA (1993) is about a heist gone wrong. Two crappy burglars have the fuzz hot on their heels so they decide that one of them better swallow the most valuable jewel. It would've been a grand idea if a Cop hadn't arrived and shut dead the guy who just swallowed the stone. For the rest of the film his buddy drags him (i.e. the dead corpse) around as he doesn't want to lose his ticket to a better life. Fortunately he runs into a chick who digs him - or so he thinks anyway but actually she prefers his dead friend. There lots of gore and nudity. In contradiction to Gallagher's other two films this one contains quite a few graphic real death photos (at the beginning when the necro chick masturbates to a video tape that shows the photos). The film clocks in after 60 minutes.

The main character of GOREGASM (1990) is on the opposite side of the law compared to the main characters in GOROTICA. He's a cop (albeit a crappy on) who gets assigned to track down a killer who ties up men in their home and stabs, slices or carves them to death. At the house of the first dead guy he finds an erotic fanzine with ads for a woman who promises "the ultimate climax". Altho the cop mucks up his investigation he does end up in the hands of the ultimate climax woman. Or was it a hand he lost? Hmm. With a running time of around 20 minutes longer than GOROTICA I thought it dragged for a bit too long. I would have preferred a tighter narrative of 60-70 minutes but over-all almost as good as the first one, and lots of gore and boobs in this one too. Each film is different to one another and Gallagher should get kudos for not repeating himself!

In the first film we had necrophilia, in the second one we had an escort girl who finished off her customers real good, and in the last film, GORE WHORE (1994), we have... ZOMBIES! (but no need to worry, fake dicks and tits (not fake) in this one too!). A scientist hires a depressed private investigator to find his female assistant who's taken off with some very important documents. What are the documents about? Don't ask, just get them! The private dick finds and follows the ex assistant who spends her time having lesbian sex and killing a woman (in the most gory scene of the three films. It's like Hugh Gallagher and his buddies each had a ketchup bottle and just sprayed the stuff around, haha) and she is then off to, surprise-surprise, the graveyard to get some, uh, green dick. This final entry to Gallagher's gore trilogy is no less enjoyable than the first two films.

The director wrote a piece on the film in his magazine DRACULINA and I seem to remember he said he found the "actress" (I use the term loosely) by placing an ad in a newspaper and that she was really a stripper. If she really was a stripper it must have been from the cheapest seedy end of whatever crumb-bum town she came from. Sorry, but she looks like a crack ho (if you think I'm being too rude here sorry about that but that was my impression). In the film she so skinny you'd think the only thing she had digested for many months before the shoot was cum (and what's with her walk? Looks like she'd crapped her pants. No fucking kidding!). I forget how long the film runs and I'm not gonna check again. Let's say 70 minutes or so. Btw, there is a familiar face in GORE WHORE; the truly lovely D'Lana Tunnell (who plays a cop) was also in the very cool SORE LOSERS. I urge you to seek out SORE LOSERS! (it's a film about a hitman from the 1950's who was abducted by aliens and who returns to Earth to do one last hit so he can finally rest in peace. He's played by whatshisface from the old multo cool'o garagerock band THE OBLIVIANS - and the equally cool Japanese garagerock band GUITAR WOLF is in there too. It's on vhs and dvd).

These movies are home-made films, sure, but they are well done and they contain a crudeness and lack of "good taste" that you'll usually find in bigger productions. Sure, judging by the films none of the actors seemed to have grand acting careers ahead of them, and the special effects are cheap ass cheap. But when one necrophilia girl says, "Love doesn't last, hate is forever" (and has sex with a corpse in the bathtub) you know you're no longer in Kansas. I've tried several times to get in contact with the director but he flat out ignores my emails. I guess he's somewhere else in life now and doesn't give two shits about the films he made when he was 20 years younger. Too fucking bad if you ask me.

ABOUT THE TAPES AND THEIR RELEASES:

Like I said, Hugh Gallagher's three Gore movies are low budget indie productions ("indie" is what we used to call underground movies back in the day!) and I believe the video label was the director's own company (probably only set up to release these films); Ill Tex Productions on the last two film and Main Force Pictures on the first film (the p.o. box is the same with all three releases).

GOREGASM was made in 1990 but the Main Force Pictures copyright date on my VHS states 1993. Why the copyright is dated three years after the film was made I have no idea. Maybe Gallagher released the film on an earlier tape that wasn't released on Main Force Pictures? My copy of the tape is from 1998 so I assume it's a re-release but how many times he released the film I don't know. GOROTICA; made in 1993 and my VHS has a copyright date that says 1993. Finally, GORE WHORE is from 1994 and I have two copies, one from 1993 and one from 1998. The covers are identical, only the tape labels are different and on the tape from '98 there is an FBI duplication warning but it's not on the first release (on GOROTICA the copyright warning states that Gallagher is gonna kill anybody who bootlegs the tape and he'll use their corpses in GOROTICA 2, haha).

The films only came out on VHS (small cardboard cases only) and have never been re-released on DVD, and they're probably never gonna get a re-release either. Someone is selling copies of one of the films on DVD on eBay but it's clearly a bootleg. All three tapes are very rare which is unfortunate as the movies are pretty cool. The most frequent of the three tapes to get listed on eBay is the last one, GORE WHORE. I've seem GOREGASM two or three times there. And I think I've only seen GOROTICA listed twice (and I won it one of those two times).

All three films are probably on torrent sites and on dvd-r from iOffer. And you can get copy of GORE WHORE from Amazon.com if you're loaded (right now a new copy is $510 and a second hand one is $110. ARGH!!).

Bury me an Angel - trailer

Someone mentioned BURY ME AN ANGEL from 1972 to me yesterday; I checked out the trailer and... whoah!... this looks totally rad! Unfortunately, it seems there's no official DVD release (there is a PD set that reportedly looks like ass!). Too bad. Check the trailer. Awesome voiceover! RATED RRRRRRRR.

James Chance and the Contortions - "Contort yourself"

You should have this on the turntable on "repeat" all thru the night. "James is a wild man so bug off!"

Killer Angels - again!

I'll be getting yet another version of one of my old HK faves, THE KILLER ANGELS starring cute ass-kicker Moon Lee. I'm exited about this version as it's the US Chinatown VHS in Chinese (I assume it's Cantonese) with English subs. Awesome cover too. I already own the unsubbed HK VCD, the English dubbed version on a bootleg DVD, and a Mandarin dubbed DVD with English subs from Taiwan (which is sourced from a video tape!!). There's a German DVD but I have no idea whether it's uncut or not and it doesn't have English subs (I'm not even sure if it only carries a German dub?).

New rags

The other day I told you about one of my new T-shirts (check here) and here's some more that I have received this week. Living in Shitsville used to mean it was totally, insanely and uber-ly, difficult to get cool T-shirts but with the invention of the Internet it's become a lot easier. That doesn't mean it's exactly easy to find the cool stuff, in order to get there you'll have to wade thru 3 billion tons of crappy shit shirts. TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS was one of the original no-wave bands from New York. The picture on the shirt is from a live cassette tape that was only available from Lydia Lunch's webpage. Unfortunately, I never got hold of the tape but at least I have the T-shirt now. ^_^

This one sports the cool picture from the French pressing of THE GUN CLUB's first album "Fire of Love" - the zombie cover. The original edition (and the new vinyl re-print) uses a much inferior picture if you ask me.

Nick Cave's old band THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. Probably thee most dangerous band ever. They simply radiated dangerousness.

DNA!! Unknown to most. Adored by few. I'm one of the latter. They were also part of the no-wave movement in New York in around '78/79. The seller had sold out of L and didn't want to get more in as they were selling very slowly. I grabbed an XL and good thing too cos it turned out to be the last one! It's not that much bigger and I intend to get fat anyway so it's alright.

Some SONIC YOUTH T-shirts are meh but this one is cool. Actually so cool that I bought it again when I discovered that altho the first copy was the right size... it was a slim-fit for chicks. I put it on and looked like a human size condom. Hahaha. Anyhoo, it was my own mistake (gotta learn to READ the seller descriptions!!!) so I didn't wanna bother swapping it. Besides, I would have had to cover the return postage to the UK which would have made it even more expensive anyway.

Ghost on the Highway (USA, 2008)

Yesterday, I received the film GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY about the band THE GUN CLUB and its charismatic frontman JEFFREY LEE PIERCE and being a long time fan I could do nothing but dig into it right away!

What immediately struck me is a note on the back of the cover that states the film doesn't contain any music by the band whatsoever!! I've later learnt that the director tried to get music from the first two LP's but didn't have the money.

Too bad but in a way it's actually not that much of a loss as it keeps the documentary from becoming somewhat of a concert movie which often happens and which would have annoyed me endlessly. I'd rather see and listen to interviews by the people who where there. And we get that. Actually that's ALL we get!

There are interviews with the original old "disgruntled" (as Jeffrey Lee called them on the back of the cover of the album "Danse Kalinda Boom") members WARD DOTSON, TERRY GRAHAM and JIM DUCKWORTH. DEE POP (who was in the band on the "Death Party" EP is there too and thankfully also KID CONGO POWERS (who was also in THE CRAMPS of course). The always interesting HENRY ROLLINS is there too and so is MIKE MARTT from the awesome band TEX AND THE HORSEHEADS.

And there are more people who dealt with Jeffrey and the band too. Oh, and LEMMY from MOTÖRHEAD is interviewed (at a bar of course) but, uhh, don't get me wrong I love Lemmy and Motörhead but I fail to see why he's in the film. He's got nothing to say about the subject matter and he probably never even met THE GUN CLUB.

In about 95% of the film everyone talks shite about Jeffrey Lee and says what a cocksucker he was (except for Kid Congo) but I guess that's alright if that's how they feel. I would rather they spew out bile than give us the usual polished Hollywood bullshit in which previous back-stabbers kiss arse to make it seem like they were the main character's fucking soul mate or some such. You're hardly gonna get THAT impression of neither Ward Dotson nor Terry Graham after this documentary. I'm not blaming them by any means. If everyone says he was a dick then chances are he probably was.

But on the other hand sometimes the best and truest artistic creations come from people who lack basic skills in the social department. Artists who focus all their energy on creating something unique. And the music of Jeffrey Lee Pierce has been amongst my fave music for almost 30 years now and I don't see my love for that change just because it turns out he was a dick.

However, having said that, I do wish they would have found some old interview bits of Jeffrey and given him his own voice so to speak. He doesn't get to say his own piece in this film while almost everyone else is dissing him and that's not fair. It's a one-sided story.

Anyhoo, this is a crappy review so I suggest you go here and here to read some more incisive ones. The film runs around 96 minutes and despite its shortcomings it is highly recommended.

I ordered the DVD from CDBABY in the States. 25 dollars + postage.




By the way, I actually got to see THE GUN CLUB once. Like Jeffrey Lee Pierce I spent the late 80s in London and in 1990 I saw them at the Town & Country Club. I bought the "Mother Juno" LP the same year (check out the awesome track from it that I'm posting here). There were a couple of support bands, one of them being THESE IMMORTAL SOULS. I had the bootleg poster from the gig (it cost £1!) on my wall until very recently.

Ninja, Say Your Prayers!

Here's some rad scenes from Cinehound members Harm's unfinished film NINJA, SAY YOUR PRAYERS! It's the best I've seen in a long time. A crime to humanity he didn't finish it. Godfrey Ho would have been red with envy that's for sure! xD

Bowery at Midnight (Wallace Fox, USA, 1942)

At some point during the wee hours I ate fried rice and watched Bela Lugosi in BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT. It's one of the "quickies" he did for Monogram studios and if you check IMDb you'll see a bunch of whiners complaining about the movie. I don't know what these sorry ass wankers want from their old b/w horror movies; Obviously Bela couldn't keep re-making DRACULA and went on to do other exciting stuff. Hmm, come to think of it BOWERY isn't actually so much a real horror movie as it's a "evil no-gooder doing insane stuff" movie! Bela teems up once again with Dave O'Brien whom he also did the excellent horror movie THE DEVIL BAT with. And just like in that film Bela gets to play an insane criminal mastermind who... does criminal insane stuff like killing his own men and leaving a corpse every time he does a new robbery! What a trademark, eh! In THE DEVIL BAT he wanted to kill people for revenge, in BOWERY he's simply a schizoid loco. LOL.

There's also a good looking babe and a (I suppose) handsome looking male detective but - lo and behold - as something of a surprise they DON'T get to get each other in the end nor even fall in love. In fact the babe's douchebag boyfriend gets killed halfway thru the movie (or becomes a zombie, whichever fits the description, LOL).

BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT runs just over an hour and doesn't overstay its welcome. I wanted to get the restored DVD from Roan Group but it's unfortunately OOP and is now way too expensive so I bought a cheapie disc from a label called Imavision and expected it to look like ass but was pleasantly surprise to find that the print looks excellent!! The DVD is a release from Quebec (my first Quebec DVD actually) but apart from the address and optional French subs it didn't look terribly Québécois to me. The cover text is in English and the same goes for the menu. There's no extras. I'm not gonna bother checking but from memory I think I paid around £3 for it via Amazon UK. Oh, did I mention it has zombies!! But they're crappy ones. Don't buy it for the zombies, haha.




EDIT: I just checked Amazon.com after all and now the Roan bastard is down to 11 dollars and they're selling second hand copies for a buck, argh!! I hate you all, you scum Marketplace sellers!!!