De Skrigende Halse: "Riders of Depression"

Arrrgghhh, awesome!!! xD

Turn on the web camera and you'll see me kicking myself in the head for not having bought the record, the CD, and the VHS when it all came out. All I have is a stinking DVD-R off telly :o(

Heey, my old SORT SOL betamax tape from 1987 is now on YouTube! xD

SORT SOL (aka SODS)
Three tracks live (DR TV, Denmark, 1987)

1) Blood on the Saddle
2) Searching Down the Block
3) Pinocchio Loose (aka Pinocchio on the Loose)

This is SORT SOL at their best! In 1987 Danish state tv ran a series of music shows entitled "Musicbox" and to me this was definitely the highlight of the series.

SORT SOL started out in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1978 as a full-on punk band under the name of SODS. Their debut LP "Minutes to go" is a mile stone in Danish punk music but soon after the release they got bored with the three cord limitations that punk music offered and on their second LP "Under en sort sol" they had moved in a more avantgarde'ish direction.

Their third LP "Dagger & Guitar" is the first one where they use the name SORT SOL but what many new fans don't realise is the band actually used both names for years to come. And if you were a "real" fan you kept calling them SODS. "Sort Sol" was for wanna-be fans, haha. I don't think I started using the Sort Sol moniker till 1990 or something. LOL.

On "Dagger & Guitar" SORT SOL recorded two tracks with LYDIA LUNCH. If you do a YouTube search you'll find their "Boy/Girl" track that features miss Lunch. It's uploaded by someone else in Canada (G'day mate, whoever you are) but (via other traders) the clip comes from a recording I did in 1984 when television in Denmark broadcast a documentary about the band called "OMKRING EN SORT SOL - et portraet af SODS".

There was a pretty big gap between the third and fourth LP and when "Everything that rises must converge" finally came out in 1987 their sound had become the violent music you'll hear on this live recording. Like I said this is the band at their best in my opinion. Later records never quite reached the intensity and violent rawness as on "Everything".

The original title of the LP was actually going to be "The Violent Bear it Away" but they change it before it was released. The CD version of the album, which wasn't released till many years later, contains a bonus disc for which they used the title.

THE LOUSY PICTURE QUALITY

My gawd, it is pretty crappy isn't it. LOL.
When I taped this concert in '87 I used a Betamax VCR and obviously I loved the recording and almost played it to death! And it shows!!! You'll notice my tape is in less than perfect condition... TO SAY THE LEAST... but actually I think it kinda fits the band. SORT SOL was a raw band, their music was raw and violent, and this recording is raw and rugged almost to the point of not working anymore. It almost makes it better.

And even if you don't agree there's not much to do about it as there's a good chance I'm the only person who actually has this on tape; I have never come across anybody else who has it nor have I seen it mentioned on fan pages.

I also taped the 30 minute documentary film I mentioned and I'll probably upload it later.

Arr man, those dwarfs sure have fun

LA FEMME NIKITA, not the HK way, not the US way, not the telly way... the FILIPINO way!

BURADOR, ANG BABAING SUGO (Philippines, 2000)



Check this trailer out; it's a remake of the French classic LA FEMME NIKITA from the Philippines!!! And it looks awesome! The Nikita character is played by Filipino actress January Isaac who starred in a bunch of action film from 1997 thru to 2004.

I posted the trailer on my Filipino blog recently but it NEEDS to be posted here as well cos it's just too cool!! And, uh, also cos my extensive search for a copy of the film has brought me... nothing. I'm pretty sure it was only released on VHS and maybe there's a VCD in the Philippines. The trailer was uploaded by Dvdmaniacs member Robert who's located in the US and he tells me the trailer stems from a locally released tape (with a different film) that his parents rented many years ago.

Unfortunately, Robert doesn't have the film either. If any of you have a copy... well, you know in which direction to send a DVD-R (hint hint). Unfortunately, I have a feeling a copy isn't gonna turn up any day soon. Boo-hoo.

ID this man-with-deadly-iron-hand movie

Time for the annual re-posting. Oy vey. :-(

I remember something Damon Foster once said in an issue of Oriental Cinema: 'I'm so old dust comes up when I cough'. That's how I feel too. Well, at least now that I'm going to explain all this about some mysterious film I watched in my childhood:

In 1971 I was in my first grade (yes, nineteen seventy fucking one!!). My mum thought it would be a grand idea to sign me up for the film club at my school (thanks mum!) and a couple of the films had a lasting impact on me. One was about some cool supermen and the other... I'll get back to that one.

Of course being 7 yrs old I didn't bite into film titles or which country they came from so it took quite a while to find out about any of the films. A couple of yrs ago a friend of mine got hold of a video tape and his description over the phone sorta rang a bell: a flick with three cool supermen: and yes, there it was: THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN (I Fantastici tre supermen, Italy, 1967)!!! It was a bit of a let-down though. I had enjoyed it tremendously as a seven year old but in adult life it just seemed too silly.

However, the other film is still a big mystery to me. I remember it as being a kind of a crime movie. There was this evil dude who had an electric iron hand and when he wanted to hurt someone he'd just grab their face and just burn their puss to a crisp. The images of their burnt faces was pretty scary. At the end of the film the hero fought the evil dude and knocked him over so his hand touched a train track (I think) and electrocuted himself. Phew! Scary stuff when you're a first-grader

Anyway, obviously I'm still anxious as to find out which film this is. Does any of you know? Does it ring a bell? Since I was so young I didn't notice finer details such as which language they spoke. I think it would've been a western flick but I guess it could've been Asian. Any help is appreciated.
[originally written as a post over on Dvdmaniacs]


PS: The film is none of these films: The Projected Man, The Glove, The Black Hand, Creature with the Blue Hand, Hand of Death.

Thanks to everyone so far who has come up with suggestions.

Asian Trash Cinema is folding

Bummer! I just received today's newsletter from Asian Trash Cinema (i.e. Asian Cult Cinema for you kids) and due to personal issues they're closing down the mag right away. The ish that's already out will be the last.
At least for now.

I'm aware quite a few fans of HK movies don't like Thomas Weisser because of, well, heaps and heaps of faulty info especially in the ATC books, plus info that was purely made up!! (and a friend of mine who collects spaghetti westerns told me Weisser wrote a book on the genre and reviewed a number of films even tho those films were only planned but never got actually made!! Haha).

And not least due to his being behind Video Search of Miami (VSoM) in the early days (not so much because he was behind it as such but because their video dupes were often crap, to put it bluntly).

But, hey, I bought the mag in the early days from when #1 came out. Actually from when the first incarnation of the mag, Naked! Screaming! Terror! the special HK issue (that later got re-released as ATC #1) came out! And back then, when Craig Ledbetter was onboard, it was a lotta fun.

Sure the mag hasn't been "fun" for a long time, the old excited fan feel went down the drains a long time ago but they still published good interviews and info. And I just love to read a REAL magazine instead of always staring into a computer screen. I was looking for a misplaced tape today and found an old issue of European Trash Cinema (from '92) and I thought Gee, why doesn't anybody do real fanzines anymore (and where the fuck is Craig Ledbetter?? I'd buy every issue if he put out ETC again!!).


Thomas Weisser/ATC newsletter:

The current issue #64 of Asian Cult Cinema magazine is the last.
Effective immediately, I am shutting down publication of ACC magazine.
Personal family obligations force me and my wife Yuko to retire from this business and - at least temporarily - to relocate in Japan.
This may be a brief venture. Or Yuko and I could be gone for a much longer period of time. Simply, we are uncertain of our immediate future; however, I have already passed company responsibilities to my assistant, Archie Cole.
Most of you already know Archie. He has managed the Asian Cult Cinema and World Cult Cinema website for the past eight years. Although he does not feel qualified to helm the magazine (see his comments below), Archie Cole is committed to continuing - and excelling with - the ACC E-Commerce website. So, most importantly, you will continue to have access to all the Asian and World Cult DVDs.
I want to personally thank you for your support. It's been a good 18 year run.

The above post was originally posted on Dvdmaniacs, yesterday. I simply couldn't find the energy to write a different post for the blog. Live with it! xD

Kewlest ever OBLIVIANS toon on a Satday night

Don't be a square and don't tell me I've posted this a zillion times. It's too cool not to post! xD.

Best Kilink on a Saturday

Kilink is without a doubt one of the coolest bad guys ever. These films are totally rad! Kilink is a bad guy who doesn't refrain from killing left and right and hitting beautiful women and shooting guns and stuff. And yet the Turkish film makers still made him the main character! Awesome!

The quality of these uploaded Onar trailers aren't all that happening (too much pixelation) but do yourself a favour and get hold of the official DVD releases from Onar Films. :D



And lastly; not a Kilink film but The Spider!! In 2006 this was announced for release from Onar in 2007 but it never came out. A pity, looks fun.

Black Sabbath - live, Paris, 1970 (complete broadcast)

The other day I posted a song from Black Sabbath's concert in Paris in 1970. I must admit I got quite impressed by the clip. As I wrote in my initial post (and also discussed this with "Magnus" in the comments' section) this original version of a very young Black Sabbath was way better than everything that came after. Well, in my book and to my liking anyway.

The Paris gig was actually released as a bootleg LP the very same year (1970) entitled Come to the Sabbath. I've done nothing to check this out but I could imagine this is one hell of a rare record these days. The recording has since been released (probably several times) on CD and is available for free here [no, I don't support sites who bootleg official releases but we're talking a bootleg here so the only people whose money you'll be "stealing" are the bootleggers' money].

After having posted the first clip the other day I made a YouTube search for uploads of the rest of the gig. The good thing is all the songs are there. The less cool thing is most of the tracks have been uploaded multiple times and often in crappy picture quality. Most of them are off multiple generation bootleg tapes. But lo and behold, I found one uploader in the UK who not only uploaded the full show (including intro sections with the band) but who actually taped the show off television when the gig was broadcast as a two part programme.

Now, obviously the recording isn't from 1970 as nobody had VCRs in those days but from a broadcast on tv in the UK sometime in the 1980s. And in addition to it being a 1'st generation copy it's also been uploaded in HD. I've already downloaded the entire thing and made a nice DVD-R of it. Yay!

You might notice one of the video clips go slightly out of sync halfway thru but stick with it anyway. There are other uploads that aren't out of sync but they look less good and not least importantly they SOUND no way nearly as good as this upload. So get to it, buddy; off to the show!
(PS: obviously I'm posting the videos in their correct order, beginning from the top)

Black Sabbath live at the Theatre Olympia in Paris, France, 20 December 1970.

EDIT: The original embedded video links were dead as the YouTube account was shut down. I found several new uploads that even cover the entire concert in one upload. This one is "even" presented in the original fullscreen format (at least one of the other complete uploads is in widescreen. Argh!) [April 2, 2013]

A Bollywood star - now also in South America

Check Member-X's fake VCD cover (with me) out on this website located (I believe) somewhere in South America. Haha. These cats scour the web every day for cool cover scans (70-80% is vintage porn mags). Hmm, maybe I should go to Bombay and hook up with the Ramsay family. Hmmm. xD