VIFF, Eugene Chadbourne, Blank City

Eugene Chadbourne, Darren Williams and Kenton Loewen, by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

Still phasing myself out, but am realizing that the Vancouver International Film Festival is around the corner. I may pop back up to write about a film or two here, I don't know.

Meantime, note: next week,Eugene Chadbourne plays Kozmic Zoo with Darren Williams and... I'm not quite sure who is drumming, but it's on Monday September 5th. Then he plays Nyala (as part of the Audio Hallucinations accordion fest) on September 6th, alongside bands like Ejaculation Death Rattle. Eugene is the most exciting musician in America, by me, a true great and a true original. Nardwuar the Human Serviette will interview him on his show this Friday. See him here with departed Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black. A past interview with Doc Chad is here.


Eugene Chadbourne at one of the final shows at the previous incarnation of The Cobalt

Oh, and people who have cared about the stuff I've written about here probably will want to see the film Blank City, about New York in the '70s and '80's. Eugene doesn't appear to be in the film, which seems a curious omission. John Lurie is - a recent interview. Haven't seen it myself, but I guess I kinda have to!

Bubbles Galore tonight!

...a Canadian funded independent film starring Nina Hartley and Annie Sprinkle? WTF? Bubbles Galore plays the Cinematheque tonight!

Jack Layton and JIM CARROLL?

Whaaaah. So Adrian Mack, on the Straight blog, posted a clip of a film I was unaware of - Ron Mann's non-documentary feature Listen to the City, featuring none other than Jack Layton in a role. He points out that the scene "rings with all sorts of weird little ironies," which it does indeed - but there's one he missed. The patient in the other bed is played by none other than Jim Carroll, singer of "People Who Died."

How 'bout that...

RIP Jack Layton

Photos by Allan MacInnis, March 20, 2004

I only saw Jack Layton in person once - at an anti-war demonstration in Vancouver where DOA played and Noam Chomsky gave a speech.

Any Canadian politician who'll share a stage with DOA and Noam Chomsky is okay by me.

(Actually, truthfully, I was always a bit ambivalent about Layton - he seemed too much a career politician, a species I mistrust on principle - but that never stopped me voting for his party, and I was happy to see him make the official opposition - a success he well-deserved.)

My condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Jack Layton's letter to Canada - his last words to the nation, basically - can be read here.

I'm Bored

I think mostly the issue is, re: this blog, I'm bored. Bored of writing about music and film. There aren't many rewards, there's a lot of work, and several obstacles; and I've accomplished pretty much all I want to accomplish at this level, anyhow - so why keep doing it? Writing here has become a sort of obsessive, leftover echo, an obligation, and a way to waste time when I have little to waste; unless I'm getting paid for it, why do something that seems increasingly like a chore...?

There are still pieces I owe, mind you - pieces I've already put work into and made promises on. Something on the Little Guitar Army, something on Zev Asher, maybe even something on Jello Biafra, since it's been discussed. Haven't quite figured out what I want to do with Rob Zombie, but I hope to find a paid venue for that - though something may also end up on the Big Takeover site. Working on something for their next issue, too, relevant to Vancouver music. I have old work that I could easily put up there, too - stuff that's been in the can for a long time that I haven't done much with (Nels Cline, Mike Watt, and Jaap Blonk, especially). And I must keep this going until the Eugene Chadbourne shows in early September, obviously. Am I forgetting anything? Maybe. Anyone want to publish a book on Bev Davies?

...these are all interesting projects, and more than enough to keep me occupied. What I'm doing here, though, does not seem that valuable at the moment.

Sorry to go on about it...

Corpsegrinder tonight!

Canadian thrashers Infernäl Mäjesty take the stage at the Rickshaw tonight with affable, monster-throated Cannibal Corpse vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher on vocals. Wrote about it for the Straight here! (We talked a bit more than that, and I considered throwing down another quote or two here, but on reflection, most of the relevant stuff - his relationship with the band, his being a "lyrics guy," and his love of the scenery and fresh air are already present in the article. About all that didn't make the cut were his impression that BC'ers are a bit more laid back than Floridans - and the news that presently Cannibal Corpse will be returning to the studio to record their next album!).

Sigh... (More notes on the death of the video store)

Found out about another video store closure today: the downtown Maple Ridge Rogers Video, where I personally still go to rent movies, will shut its doors in mid-September. I normally don't make much fuss about the closure of franchise stores, but:

1. I worked at that location for two years, back in the early 1990's (pre-DVD), and have emotional attachments to it.

2. It's the only video store within walking distance of my apartment, and I'll be damned if I'm going to get on a bus - devoted non-driver that I am - for the privilege of renting a movie.

3. As generally banal and uninspired as the selection is at Rogers, I HAVE stumbled across some interesting films there, which I may not have noticed otherwise. In part this is because I'm habituated to digging deep in such locations, because I know that I'll HAVE to in order to find anything of interest. Because of this, many films I've enjoyed in the last year have been found exactly by the old fashioned method of walking the wall and peering at box art and reading the advertising copy on the back. The relative ease of finding interesting stuff online makes it, somewhat paradoxically, LESS likely that I'll dig very deep, lest I get overwhelmed; plus on DVD Beaver, invaluable as it is as my prime online resource for finding out about upcoming film fare, all you get on their very long list of films to come out is a brief written description - title, director, year. You can click on a link for more information, but I rarely do. An unfamilar title generally isn't as eye-catching as a nice big illustration on a DVD case, plus there's a question of ease of access - why would I necessarily WANT information about a movie that I'm likely going to have to do work and spend money to ever see? At least with Rogers, I know as I peruse the box art that the films are RIGHT THERE, available, and can be rented if I want. Beaver I tend to use more to see what films I already know I'm interested in are coming out on video).

4. The place does serve a social function for me, and for the community. I've met more than one person I developed friendships with there, over the years. I even met Art Bergmann there, when I worked there (he came in with friends, and I got him to autograph a VHS copy of Highway 61 for me for a hoot. He signed it, for the record, "Dear Allan: Rent this sucker! Art Bergmann"). Even now, often I enjoy bullshitting with a local metal musician who works there, whom I'll have no contact with otherwise. He even occasionally has been useful as a source of information to write about...

5. Downtown Maple Ridge doesn't really have many places to go, culturally. So few that Rogers Video counts as a cultural hot spot for me. One less place to go when walking about town is a major loss, when there were only a handful of potential destinations on my map to begin with.

Without Rogers, and without any interest in the Netflix model of delivery, it seems all the more likely that I'll just turn to torrenting movies, all the time. I actually strive at present to keep my downloads to a minimum - restricted to films that I cannot find, or know I would not buy, on DVD - but it's hard to feel very guilty when the options get fewer and fewer.

It occurs to me, in this great video store die-off that we're experiencing, the "last men standing" could potentially make out very well. It's all about outliving your competitors...

West Memphis Three go free!

Wow. On condition of not contesting that the state had sufficient evidence against them (???), the West Memphis Three have been released from prison. I figured they would die there. See here (a movie-oriented angle, including a trailer for Paradise Lost 3) and here (the support website for them).

Happy Zombiewalk, Vancouver!

Photo by Femke, zombie by Kyla. That's me, under there!

Just wanted to wish Vancouverites a happy Zombiewalk this Saturday! There's still time to go get some makeup and fake blood and practice staggering, for those who have never done it - it's truly a delightful experience, combining street theatre and the spirit of Hallowe'en with a sort of ironic/absurdist protest march against pretty much everything 'cept eating people. Only in full zombie attire have I ever gotten to publicly stagger about the streets showing for all to see just how confused and alienated I am by my surroundings, how little sense they make... I never knew how rewarding being a zombie could be until I tried it...

Photo by Dan, zombie by Harlow!

As cool as the zombie movie contest on the 19th at the Rio Theatre sounds, my favourite zombie-themed event this weekend is the Romero-thon on Sunday, playing the original versions of the three classic Romero films in their entirety, back to back. I haven't seen any of these films theatrically ever, with the exception of a highly significant double bill of Dawn of the Dead and Phantasm that my father brought me to in Mission when I was 14 or so; I find myself highly tempted to go.

One caveat about Zombiewalk - while many delightful memories can be made from partaking of this experience, some traumatic ones can, too, so be kind to the kiddies out there. Zombiewalks just don't happen often enough for children to have a frame of reference for them. (Maybe in addition to casual Fridays, we could start having "zombie Mondays," eh? Then again, maybe we already do...).

Watching a movie at Ma's

...Tonight it was Spy Game, a rather dull but nicely shot Tony Scott film.

The Flesheaters vs. Rudementary Peni

Was blown away by the similarities in vocal delivery on SOME Rudementary Peni songs with SOME Flesheaters songs. I'd always thought Chris D.'s singing was completely unique, but compare "Sleeping Sickness," for instance - or maybe the more destinctive "Pony Dress" - with Nick Blinko's vocals on "The Horrors in the Museum"... there's definitely a kinship there! Who knew?

Ah, fuck

You know, I really don't know what to do with myself.

The whole idea of giving up the blog (see below) had less to do with having been ripped off and more to do with being highly intoxicated at the time. From that state, it seemed very clear to me that I was - that I am - on the wrong course in my life, that radical changes are required. Sometimes there's a clarity that comes from being out of one's normal mind due to the use of drugs and/or alcohol, truths that could not come to light in a normal state, and I'm not convinced these insights aren't valid just because one happens to be wasted when they arrive. It probably didn't hurt that, once sufficiently loosened up, I received a shock; but however we understand the source of the experience - there was this powerful feeling of seeing something about myself that I had been previously dodging.

It's a hard thing to question, when you feel such things. There was this deep inward certainty - strong at the time and flickering throughout yesterday - of a higher purpose, a higher self - an inward voice that I have been neglecting, partially out of fear that I cannot afford to hear what it has to say.

Whenever one finds oneself there, the way out is to assume that whatever it is one is afraid of realizing is true. I remember that lesson well, but it doesn't make it easier to apply.

Back in my 20's, under the influence of a certain singularly persuasive and charismatic Lakota I used to know, I made drastic changes in how I was living, strove to hear what that voice had to say, to get in touch with a far greater purpose for my life than I had been previously acknowledging. I sometimes referred to it ironically as a period of "religious fanaticism," and raised more than a few eyebrows among my peers at the time. Not all the choices I made then were good ones, but the fact is, I pushed harder then than I ever had before to reform myself. I did uncomfortable and odd things to "step outside of my comfort zone," flirting with Native spirituality - smudging, sweating - and making challenging and completely out-of-character decisions to do things like take up tree planting (which I did for nearly a month!). I went back to school, not only completing a degree previously abandoned but taking a bizarrely intense "counsellor's training" course through a now-defunct institution known as Stellar College. I sold off half my property, plunged myself into rebuilding my relationship with my parents, and became a bit of a pain in the ass with friends as I adopted said Lakota's somewhat uncompromising and confrontational style, "calling people on their bullshit," as he would say. Which forced me in turn to practice what I was preaching. This would have been around 1996/1997, and the decisions I made in those years, the work that I did to unfuck myself up, take life seriously, and start moving forward set me on a trajectory that informed the subsequent fifteen years.

Which takes me more or less up to now.

Maybe in part it's an illusion caused by the fact that I'm back in Maple Ridge - where I was when the whole thing started, the location of the lowest lows of my life: a sleepy suburb condusive to lessened expectations, feelings of mediocrity, and growing despair. It's no wonder that the smell of pot wafts through the streets and alleys of this town every evening; there's a pervasive feeling here of nothing-to-be-done-ness, a sense that whatever decisions you make in a place like this can't much matter, because neither life nor you are particularly important. It's a humbling town, a hard place to sustain any illusions one might have about oneself.

My only purpose here, indeed my only purpose in life other than hustling for money and keeping myself entertained, has been taking care of Mom, and that's a fine moral purpose indeed, but it's insufficient to satisfy me. I need to be DOING something, need to feel like there's some purpose beyond lying on Mom's couch and keeping her company for Wheel of Fortune (or shopping or cooking for her or so forth). I'm stagnant. This blog doesn't change that. It keeps me locked in a sort of narcissistic trance, a tidy artificial identity-construct, helps me ignore what I'm really facing in life; instead of waking up in the morning and deciding how best to use my day, I inevitably just pop into my "office," such as it is, and fuck around online for a few hours. Check email, read headlines, scan the daily obits, masturbate. Often I'll check my two main email accounts a dozen times in the morning. Sometimes I'll even visit the Wikipedia Recent Deaths page more than once, to see if anyone has died since I last looked.

It's not always ENTIRELY counterproductive, but how many real challenges in ones life can be resolved by blogging, or emailing, or surfing the web, or...?

I helped a friend move, last week. She was a bit puzzled, I think, at the amount of work I was prepared to do to help her. Many boxes were carried, much furniture lifted. What's odd is that it felt entirely selfish: it gave me a sense of purpose, otherwise sorely lacking in my life. I'm hungry enough for real, meaningful work that I'd eagerly go lift furniture for someone else, if I were needed. But that's more about a fear-driven hunger for distraction (and maybe for the cheap pleasures of gratitude - because it's so easier to help others with their challenges than to face ones own) than it is about really getting anything done.

Fuck, I gotta do something with my life. A tribal elder would be handy, about now. Too bad we don't make them anymore.

Cassavetes, Noirs, Videomatica Weekend

Upcoming at the Cinematheque: on Wednesday, it's A Woman Under the Influence, regarded by many as John Cassavetes' most perfectly realized film, with terrific performances by Gena Rowlands and the late Peter Falk, as a working class couple, Mabel and Nick Longhetti: the wife is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, struggling to negotiate the various demands and expectations on her, her energies threatening to break loose and overwhelm those around her; the husband is well-meaning but gruff and inarticulate. Everyone should see this film at least once, but be prepared - it's emotionally exhausting. Note: "Adolf" is played by Cassavetes own father, Nicholas John Cassavetes, while Nick's (that is, Peter Falk's) mother in the movie is played by Katherine Cassavetes. As a commenter below also points out, Lady Rowlands is also in the film as Mabel's mother. You don't know what a family dinner from hell can be like until you've seen this film...
My favourite noirs in their ongoing noir series, meanwhile (of those I've seen - there's a bunch I haven't) are The Lady from Shanghai - my favourite Orson Welles, actually, even though it only exists in a truncated cut; In a Lonely Place (my favourite Bogart, and one of the psychologically grimmest portraits of an artist as a self-destructive asshole, with more than a pinch of autobiographical insight into Bogie's character from director Nick Ray); and Kansas City Confidential - a film that delighted me when I watched it a few months ago, but breezed right through me, leaving mostly an impression of a young Jack Elam. There's also a young Lee van Cleef in it. I vaguely recall the film being densely plotted and compelling but remember so little of it I may check it out again on the big screen.Come Friday, Videomatica Weekend will be kicking off at the Vancity Theatre - a three-day film extravaganza of favourite titles from Videomatica's catalog, including one, Latcho Drom, that has never been released on DVD, despite it's best-renter status. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, is probably the most entertaining film in all of Russ Meyer's (generally pretty darn entertaining) ouevre, with the terrific, inimitable Tura Satana (RIP) as a chesty "butch fatale" with a proclivity for killing by hand, a love of fast cars, killer cleavage, and a mean mouth. Beautifully shot and edited, lower-than-lowbrow, and ridiculous in the best of all possible ways, this would be an absolute joy to see with an audience. As might The Big Lebowski, actually - who among us has actually seen this on the screen? Lots else to make this a great event - The Third Man is a must-see, too - I think that's a triple bill, on Saturday the 20th, not to be missed (tho' it conflicts with that Infernal Majesty show... hmm...). The press-release promises "nine beloved films... with tributes from guest presenters - film critic Katherine Monk, broadcast legend Red Robinson, Bard on the Beach founder Christopher Gaze, actor Jay Brazeau, punk rock journalist & Evaporators frontman Nardwuar the Human Serviette, actor Ben Ratner, author and journalist Steve Burgess, film reviewer Michael van den Bos and filmmakers Nimisha Mukerji and Mark Ratzlaff."

There will also be the premiere of a "shot-at-Videomatica comedy web series," called Support Your Local Video Store. Again, from the press release, the episodes are "produced by Red Wheelbarrow, a sketch comedy troupe, which includes the management team of Videomatica (BJ Summers and Joe Balogh). The video-store experience is fast disappearing, and these insiders are in good position to depict it both authentically, and with an eye to the absurd situations that happen every day. One segment of the six episode web mini-series will screen before each feature at the Videomatica Weekend."The full screening schedule for Videomatica Weekend:

FRIDAY
WITHNAIL AND I
Fri 19: 6.30
This screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Videomatica founders Graham Peat and Brian Bosworth.
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY
Fri 19: 9.15

SATURDAY
THE THIRD MAN
Sat 20: 6.00
THE BIG LEBOWSKI
Sat 20: 8.30
FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!
Sat 20: 11:00

SUNDAY
REBECCA
Sun 21: 2.00
BEST IN SHOW
Sun 21: 4.30
BARAKA
Sun 21: 6.30
8.30 LATCHO DROM

...no shortage of great movies to see this summer! By the way, read my interview with Graham Peat about the impending Videomatica closure here, if you've missed it (but note that as of yet, Videomatica is still open for business!).

Blog closure pending, plus more Doc Dart/ 26

As stated below, I'm still thinkin' (once I clear up a few promised pieces of writing) on closing the blog this summer, or at least mothballing it for a long time. It's become counterproductive for me to keep this up. I'm figuring by the end of the month or so I can clear up any outstanding writerly debts to people - a few more posts to get out of the way.

In the meantime, some more writing on the former "Christmas Friends" singer Doc Corbin Dart/ 26, who still is fascinating me:

A review of The Messiah:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/doc+corbin+dart

Great stuff, that: "Often pegged, unfairly, as a zany provocateur due to the work of his hardcore outfit, the Crucifucks (cf. 'Hinckley Had a Vision'), Dart’s output is actually a remarkable composite portrait of bottomless empathy in conflict with a blindered world." Nicely said!

A Patricia review, on the Strung Out on Music blog:
http://strungoutonmusic.blogspot.com/2009/06/d-doc-corbin-dart-patricia.html

"He’s been broken by a multitude of causes, but returns often to feelings of abandonment: by friends, lovers, family, even someone who died before him. He knows that this issue is majorly screwing with his head, but doesn’t know how to conquer it, and the person he was leaning on to help get through it has cut him off (in the title song, he hints that Patricia stopped the sessions because the love he expressed for her was over the line."

Let me again direct readers to this terrific, terrific pop song by Doc Dart, "Out My Window," off the album Patricia. I can't get enough of this song. Love you, 26!

God Bless Funkys and Goodbye

Unleash the Archers, cellphone pics by me, taken tonight at Funky's


Right, so: I got ripped off tonight!

Don't get me wrong: Funky Winkerbeans is a wonderful place. While it would be great for her to get a place of her own, it's jes' (I'm a bit drunk) terrific that wendythirteen is settling in to ol' Thrasherbalts', making it feel more like home. When first I visited the place a year ago, it sure didn't, but murals now decorate the once brick-red walls, and airbrushy, mood-metal appropriate paintings of Victorian streetlamps have replaced at least some of the kitschy but out-of-place vintage burlesque posters. The sound system, as Wendy proudly noted whilst smoking outside, is now pretty damn good, and there's a pleasantly familiar "scene" feeling that reassures me that even though the Cobalt might be gone, some of its spirit, but not its smell, lingers on in a new, admittedly smaller, admittedly demographically different form. It's not the walls that make a home anyhow, eh? (Tho' menacing gigantic tentacles graffiti'd on 'em sure help). I'm happy to see that the blow the punk and metal crowd experienced with the closure of the Cobalt (as we knew it) is slowly becoming a thing of the past, that the scene is healing, morphing, persisting. Long may it run.

And bear in mind (I am probably too drunk to blog without embarrassing myself later), I in no way hold the venue to blame for tonight's theft. I set a plastic bag down at my feet, leaning on the protective monitor-casings, feeling a little drunker than I ideally wanted to be, while waiting for Auroch to set up. I relaxed thus for a few non-vigilant minutes, and when I sharpened my mind a bit and looked down for my bag, it was gone. Bits of pacing and poking netted me nothing but a hand somewhat wet from whatever had been thrown in a Funky's garbage bin (there were some shoes down there, but they weren't what slimed me... I'd seen some plastic bags in it, dig, that COULD have been mine, but weren't).

For the curious, in that stolen bag - and now permanently, for all I care, lost - were: one copy of William Goldman's Marathon Man, 3/4's finished (THE FUCKING BOOK I WAS READING! THAT I WAS GOING TO FINISH TONIGHT!); two CDs by bands whose names I could barely read and cannot now replicate, purchased at Scrape on an irresponsible whim based on their cover art earlier today; one Auroch CD ("to support the band"); and, since I bought and changed into an Auroch T-shirt in the men's room, one faded, XL Bison BC Quiet Earth shirt!

The Golers, taken at Funkys on a previous night, also by me!

....that being my favourite, most-worn t-shirt!

Also in the bag: with sincere apologies to Harlow McFarlane of Funerary Call and Sistrenatus, the Funerary Call CD he gave me to review has now been pilfered, plundered, mislaid. It is the loss that most impacts me - because it equals what will likely be a broken promise, made when I ran into Harlow earlier today and agreed to write about it. I apologize, Harlow, for my carelessness in laying my possessions at my feet thus in a venue so clearly in the heart of the downtown eastside! It is all my fault! It is all my fault! (It is also the first time in my life, a couple of internet/mailorder scams aside, that I have been RIPPED OFF by someone. I am rather in shock, and keep checking by my feet to see - even though I am no longer in Funky's - if my bag will mysteriously re-materialize).

The lesson to this, the moral? (...Other than don't lay your bags on the floor where you can't see'em at Funky's and cease to pay attention to them?). I am going to choose to read it this way: I have been spending too much money, too much time, too much effort on pursuits that fundamentally do not matter - that will not, in any significant way, advance my own interests, those of the people I care about, my community, my planet, or so forth. Much as I love the punk and metal scenes of Vancouver - much as I crave the sense of community I get from them, mostly absent otherwise in my daily life - they do not really need what I am doing, on this blog or in general. While it has been fun and in many ways profitable and life-enhancing for me to have explored these avenues, I realize, in plumbing the meaning of this evening, that I have been investing a great deal of time and energy writing about things that do not objectively matter (much as they seem to, to me, at times) and neglecting real, meaningful impacts I could be making on the world, purposeful, world-enhancing activities - such as might come if I took the role of "teacher" more seriously and furthered myself that way, say. Or got involved in my actual PHYSICAL community, out in Maple Ridge, such as it is. What a waste of life, devoting my time writing about... entertainment! Jeezus, it's time to grow UP, innit?

I have a few outstanding writerly debts, that I will fulfill, but I think tonight's rip-off was an omen that it's about time to retire from these hobbyist obsessions and start living like my choices and decisions actually mattered... Vanity, guestlistings, and the meagre pay that I get are not enough to justify not heeding this lesson.

Note: this is not a petulant fit, because mostly I'm amused by having so carelessly ALLOWED myself to be thus pilfered from. What a stupid, amusing turn to the evening. Shit!

Blind Mark of the Dayglo Abortions (by me! At Funky's).

By the way, once I sober up, I may feel differently about all of this. I reserve that right.


Funky's Listings:

THURS AUG 18 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – UNLEASH THE ARCHERS - CELESTIAL MACHINE – AUTERIC - TRIBUNE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=224127800965555
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=205790522799233

FRI AUG 19 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - EXCAVATOR – GATE KRASHER – EPIDEMIC - CADAVOR DOGS
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178702185524769

SAT AUG 20 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - MORTILLERY – DIRE OMEN – THE JEN HUANGS – M16
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191070667616818

SUN AUG 21 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - TARANTUJA – SHITHAWK – M16
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216744531681543

THURS AUG 25 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS TOURING STONER DOOM – DEVOTION - LORDOSIS – BLOATED PIG – GRAVES
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126802000747368

FRI AUG 26 – BRUTAL ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS – GROSS MISCONDUCT – HARVEST THE INFECTION - WORLD CLASS WHITE TRASH – PROLOGUE TO THE OMEN
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192180994176879

SAT AUG 27 – EAST VAN METAL FEST – MARES OF THRACE – AHNA – JOYCE COLLINGWOOD – CATHAR
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144313505643584

SAT SEPT 3 - NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – TIMECOPZ – THE THROWAWAYS – STREET LEGAL DIRTBIKE – DURBAN POISON

SUN SEPT 4 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – UNLEASH THE ARCHERS - VANQUISHED – THE KILLING FIELD
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=241180269247902

FRI SEPT 9 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – RAVENSUN - SUGAR COATED KILLERS – GYNOSAURUS X - CLOACA

SAT SEPT 10 – MY ANNUAL BIRTHDAY AND JAKS SK8 COMP AFTER PARTY - DAYGLO ABORTIONS – FUQUORED - GNARCOLEPSY - CHACHI ON ACID – DAN SCUM SOLO
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146086202142876

FRI SEPT 16 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS HONG KONG BLONDE – LIMM VOCIFEROUS – GRAVES – DOC HOLLIDAY

SAT SEPT 17 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS JESSES TRIBUTE LADEN BIRTHDAY BASH WITH - HAM WAILIN (VAN HALEN) – SNAGGLETOOTH (MOTORHEAD)

SAT OCT 1 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – ABRIOSIS – AKAKOR – SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES

THURS OCT 6 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - ALONE AGAINST ROME – DATURA

FRI OCT 7 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – WITHOUT MERCY – SCIMITAR – CARNIVITRIOL – ANTECEDE

FRI OCT 28 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – SKULL FIST - STRYKER

FRI NOV 4 – NO BOLLOCKS AND THE INVISIBLE ORANGE PRESENT - WARBRINGER – LAZARUS AD – LANDMINE MARATHON – DIAMOND PLATE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225971560773822

Titan's Eve Tonight

Titan's Eve by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

Tonight at Funky's - Titan's Eve. Anyone who likes Amon Amarth should check them out - they have a similar musical sensibility, with solid "classic metal" song structures and melodic, memorable playing, old-schoolish but toughened up as per the needs of the contemporary metal audience... pretty cool band! Also playing - Auroch, Unleash the Archers, and Sacred Ally... Facebook page here.

Amon Amarth online

Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

For my Amon Amarth feature for the Straight, I talked to drummer Fredrik Andersson for something like 40 minutes, only 10 minutes of which got used in the article. I've assembled the outtakes into something for Big Takeover, with photos from their Vancouver show - we talk about Norwegian church burnings and other fun, controversial topics. Awesome concert!

SNFU vs. Chris Walter!

Kinda ironic: Chris Walter's next project - as he's let the world know on Facebook, where he keeps a fairly entertaining presence - is scheduled to be a band bio of SNFU. But the booklaunch for his current project - Up and Down on the Downtown Eastside - is actually in competition with Saturday's SNFU gig at Funky's!

By the way, the SNFU gig IS happening - Chi was waylaid by illness in Saskatchewan (as most of us found out via Chris' Facebook posts, by the way) but is back in form now...

Paul Collins Beat in Vancouver Aug. 19th!

Received from Dave Bowes, re: Paul Collins Beat/ Tranzmitors/ Nervous Wreck @ Pat's Pub Friday Aug 19:

Paul Collins, Jack Lee and Peter Case formed The Nerves in 1974. The Nerves proved to be one of the pioneers of the burgeoning US punk rock scene, independently releasing their own 4 song EP which included the classic “Hanging on the Telephone,” later to become a hit for Blondie.

After Lee left the band, Collins and Case continued as the Breakaways; their best known song is "Walking out on Love", frequently performed by the Nerves in concert but never recorded by them.

After The Nerves disbanded in 1977, Collins moved to LA and formed The Beat which went on to tour with The Police, The Jam and Joe Jackson, showcasing Beatles and Byrds-influenced guitars and catchy choruses that defined skinny-tied power pop similar to what The Knack took to the charts. Now known as the Paul Collins Beat, they have released three studio albums of original material since 2007 and will be playing selections from these and likely some older stuff too!

http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/paulcollin​sbeat​

"Tranzmitors are the perfect answer to anyone looking for songs with the astute hooks of Elvis Costello's This Year's Model and the punk virility of the Buzzcocks... sounds like something from the Stiff Records catalogue that would have sat on the charts next to the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks." " - Exclaim Magazine
http://www.myspace.com/thetranzmitors​

Nervous Wreck is some great Alberta pop punk with a strong old rock and roll vibe. Think Briefs meets Teenage Head.
http://www.myspace.com/nervouswreckab​

Join the facebook invite for updates:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213327032042194

Rubber to screen!

Word to the weird: the highly inventive, very funny metacinematic surrealist/ absurdist dark comedy Rubber - about a killer tire - is going to screen at the Vancity Theatre this Friday! (My enthusiasm for the film was previously registered on this blog here). This would be very fun to see with an audience...

Still thinkin' bout the Crucifucks

Doc Corbin Dart's Patricia and 26's The Messiah remain on heavy rotation for me; fascinating albums, some very exciting, surprising popcraft on both. Just found another interview with him here.

Important news for Crass fans (which they may already know)

Maybe this is something everyone else already knows about, but it was news to me, so I'm bloggin' it.

A couple of years ago, I encountered an article by Penny Rimbaud online, which I can no longer find, about how internal disputes in the Crass camp had scuttled plans for remastered releases of their catalogue. It sounded like the dispute might sink Southern Records, as I recall; upon reading this sad news, I scuttled to scoop up what Crass releases I cared about that I did not already have, and felt justified, vindicated, etc. as gradually all Crass products - the main titles of which had been available for years in Vancouver shops - disappeared entirely. Suddenly, there was NOTHING - a few copies of Yes Sir, I Will kicked around longer than the others, since it's the least easily assimilated of their albums still in print, but soon those were gone too, and I had to assume that this would remain the case: that the youth of tomorrow would have to grow up in a world without the unique packaging, striking collage art, distinctive inky smell, and the kinda essential lyric sheets that are all part of the Crass experience. Being the type of guy whose heart warms whenever I see anyone under age 25 sporting a Crass emblem on their clothing, this was saddening indeed.

And then today I discovered that the Crass remasters are out, and have been so, unbeknownst to me, for some time. On first blush, they sound great - I haven't gotten close enough to spot the differences, but the three I picked up (Feeding, Stations, and Penis Envy) seem a lot fuller-sounding and revealing of just how richly, anarchically MUSICAL Crass could be. Better still, where past editions padded out CD-lengths or 2nd LPs with live tracks, these new versions sport previously unreleased (or at least hard to come by) demos, John Peel sessions, previously unheard songs and other rarities, all welcome. There are also extensive liner notes by Penny Rimbaud and less extensive contributions from Steve Ignorant, Eve Libertine, and perhaps others (I didn't buy'em all, so I don't know!). The original LP fold-outs are presented in quaint miniature, but they still smell like Crass ink! (I sniffed them happily). More from Penny Rimbaud on the Crassical Collection here!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: great fun for frustrated revolutionaries

There are amazing energies tapped into in Rise of the Planet of the Apes - in which frustrated, oppressed captive simians rise up against their captors (greatly aided by an intelligence-enhancing drug) and begin what could be a highly exciting franchise (I'm sincere in saying that, for the record - because the problem with mainstream cinema isn't the plethora of franchise films, but the very few that actually have an inspired premise that makes you WANT to see the ideas in them further elaborated on). It's the sort of film that raises puzzling, provocative questions: what does it mean that for the majority of the film you're identifying with the super-smart chimp at the center of the action (memorably, movingly played by Andy Serkis, with terrific, tho' still obvious, CGI effects from Weta), and ultimately rooting for Caesar and his ape recruits to organize, revolt, and break their shackles? Shouldn't a civilized human audience want the HUMANS to triumph? ...because we don't; even the sympathetic human characters are kind of lame and ineffectual, compared to the apes on hand here - the primates are clearly the film's moral center for the majority of its runtime. Just what aspect of the human experience do the apes represent, then, that we can so identify with them? - our wild, pre-civilized interior selves, fed up and fantasizing of any sort of revolutionary change attainable? Does it help us enjoy and accept the revolution that it is rendered fantastical and unreal by the SF premise, or is there in fact some more historical human experience being tapped into here? (...because I must confess that as Caesar undergoes radicalization in prison, staring through the bars in proud rage at his captors, I found myself, not entirely comfortably, thinking of Malcolm X... I am sure there are people who will find this observation problematic, but I think this indicates something problematic in the film, not in this viewer, since there is something in Rise of the Planet of the Apes that evokes the revolutionary energies of classic Blaxploitation... maybe because it's the only other place in genre cinema you can see revolution so matter-of-factly endorsed; colonialist apologia like Avatar doesn't count, since it takes a white hero to spearhead the revolt and serve as messiah).

In any event, it's a thoroughly enjoyable film experience, especially for anyone with fantasies of revolt or change or such. Go, ape, go! Beats the hell out of a hockey riot, anyhow.

Blog holiday

...see y'all next week, I don't think I'll be blogging much the rest o' this one.

PS: Eugene Chadbourne will be coming back to Vancouver in early September...

...All the Marbles at Videomatica

...and speaking of Videomatica, I'm told that the sale store - still up and running - has brought in a couple of copies of what I remember as being a very interesting/ entertaining 1981 film starring Peter Falk, ...All the Marbles, in which he manages a duo of lady wrestlers. Yes, I know, this SOUNDS like tawdry exploitation fare, but my recollection is that it rises far above that, or... further above that than one would expect. Director Robert Aldrich - it was his final film - was an uneven filmmaker, and I haven't always liked all his films (his classic noir, Kiss Me Deadly, which recently came out on Criterion, was so offputting the first time I attempted it that I turned it off - can't recall exactly why; reading about it since, and discovering how much Repo Man pays homage to it, makes me badly want to see it again). Of his late fare, none of those I've seen were either all good or all bad, but contained memorable moments, ie. Emperor of the North Pole, The Grissom Gang, and of course The Dirty Dozen... really Falk is the reason to see this movie...

If... screening tonight!

Graham Peat hosts a screening of If... at the Vancity Theatre tonight! More here.

Top five movies to watch on LSD

It's interesting to peruse lists online of people's top 10 acid movies.

"Mondo Justin" has some very strange choices (Casablanca? ...I mean, I'm sure he truly enjoyed it, but, I mean, just because during a psychedelic experience I once drank RealLemon lemon extract from a brandy snifter and enjoyed it doesn't mean I'm going to recommend it to anyone). 2001 is too obvious, but the Araki, the Waters, the Lynch, and yes, perhaps even Natural Born Killers make more sense. Return of the Jedi? Fuck off.

A discussion forum on the topic nets recommendations for A Scanner Darkly and Waking Dreams - this is also getting somewhere. I could see the suggestion of Lynch's Lost Highway working quite well. (I haven't done acid in something like 16 years so I can speak for no such current film fare). I think I'd pass on Fantasia and Koyaanisqatsi and Japanese anime but I guess I see where people are coming from. On the Shroomery website, someone suggests Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which seems obvious and agreable. AVManiacs throws Tron and the films of Kenneth Anger (especially Lucifer Rising, perhaps?) into the mix - all good, but not necessarily my ports of first call on this trip.

Bearing in mind that acid was a thing of my early 20's, and that I in no way advocate or participate in its usage now, my favourite film experiences under the influence (I can only manage five) are:
1. Zabriskie Point. You wouldn't necessarily know it, but altered states of consciousness play a significant role in this film - a sentimentalized view of '60's American youth culture by an Italian leftist arthouse filmmaker, co-written by Sam Shepard and connecting laterally with the Mel Lyman cult, in the presence of non-actor Frechette, who would later hold up a bank - claiming it as a revolutionary activity - and die in prison. Despite stunning visuals and music, you have to be attuned to such matters to really "get" the references, or even notice them. There's a scene where Daria and Mark, in the desert, do something that looks a LOT like dropping (near where Daria is talking about the "Soanyway River"), which prefigures the whole hippies-making-love-in-the-desert centrepiece; it's not just meant as a bit of filmic poetry, but, I think, as a signifier of a trip, and watching it stoned gives tremendous impact to certain adjacent shots (like the arrival of the tourists or the scrutiny of the cop, f'rinstance). The whole thing about painting the plane and returning it - including a bizarre line about being "back in time before they know it," as if Daria and Mark have been "out of time" during the experience - could be seen as an attempt to negotiate the understandings one attains in an altered state back to ones normal, waking consciousness. It doesn't work out so well, but - the explosion at the film's climax has some of the most interesting music Pink Floyd ever recorded post-Barrett, and the visuals are astonishing. See if you can find a version that doesn't have the fucking Roy Orbison song at the end, though (it doesn't belong there, was imposed by the studio and, alas, stuck on the recent DVD release).

2. The Trip. It must sound cheesy and obvious, but the minds and actors behind this film - including Roger Corman, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern - really bent themselves to the task not only of representing a psychedelic experience, but showing how it can help one attain insights into ones personality (whether one does anything about them is another matter, as the film's somewhat cynical/ moralizing ending makes clear). Nicholson, I recall reading somewhere, was undergoing a messy divorce when he wrote this, and seems to be delving into his own personality on a very deep level, at times (through ample fictitious filtration, of course - he doesn't actually appear in the film). One wonders how he feels about this film now - he may wince a bit, but it's undeniably an amazingly rich experience. Some of its visual effects and dialogue may be dated, but there's a lot of neon meat on this particular octafish's bones, especially if you approach it as just another drugsploitation film and allow yourself to be surprised.

3. Stalker. For the truly ambitious - a rather heavy, but spectacularly visual, Russian film of profound spiritual/ metaphysical/ psychological scope, most of which is perhaps best meditated upon when not tripping, since it's not all that easy to process (unless, perhaps, you don't need the subtitles). But my God, what images, what sounds, what amazing cinema - a small cadre of psychedelicized friends and I watched this repeatedly from the state, and it blew us away every time. A scientist and writer are led into a "forbidden zone," where the rules of everyday reality do not apply, on a quest led by a mystical "stalker" to attain... well, it's best you see it. You will never look at cinema the same way again after experiencing this movie in a psychedelic state. Anytime a visually or spiritually ambitious film comes out of Russia, it gets compared to Tarkovsky, but the reality is, there has never been, could never be, a filmmaker quite like him.

4. Marat/Sade: giddy, harsh, text-heavy, and definitely a perverse choice here - not many people would want to experience this with their mental shoelaces untied - but still a very, very funny and strange and provocative film, if you're of the right mind. Inmates at Charenton asylum reenact the last days of French Revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat, with commentary and direction by the play's author, the Marquis de Sade, and various musical numbers ("what's the point of a revolution without general copulation?". It may overwhelm less hardy viewers with the effort it takes to follow its arguments, but if you have a dark sense of humour, enjoy the play of ideas, have any interest in history, and like the idea of a Theatre of Cruelty, this film is unquestionably for you. Clip here, more writing on it here.

The last item on the list calls for a pause while I deliberate. Altered States is too obvious and probably too hokey, though it definitely comes to mind. Peter Greenaway's Tempest adaptation, Prospero's Books, is spectacular to watch in a psychedelic state, but I haven't looked at a Greenaway film in years, and feel no great lasting fondness for this one, as good as it was to me at the time. El Topo and The Holy Mountain both seem like obvious choices, but I've never seen either film under the influence, I confess, so can't really fairly put them on my list. Ditto Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void, though it screams for consideration. As for A Scanner Darkly, I'm not sure I'd want to visit it in a vulnerable psychic state; assuming one actually engages with the story (without being distracted by all the celebrities present, which I know keeps a few people out of the film), it simply gets too sad. I guess I could bow to the tastes of youth and mention Donnie Darko, but...

No, I think I have to resort to another obvious choice:
5. Performance. A decadent rock musician (Mick Jagger at his most counterculturey) and his female cohorts undertake to deconstruct, with the aid of sacred mushrooms, the sexual identity of a sadistic gangster hiding out in their building. Co-directed by Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg, with much of the visual sensibility that Roeg would mine throughout his subsequent career without ever producing another film quite as aggressively out-there or playful or puzzling as this; this seems now like an artifact of a very different world - a far richer one, unfortunately.

Does anyone care to add their own favourites to the list?

Radio Free Albemuth discovery

Whoa, just realized: Shea Whigham - this dude, from the Herzog Bad Lieutenant - plays Philip K. Dick in Radio Free Albemuth. Alanis Morissette is in it, too. Wild! Still no word on a Vancouver release date...

Summer of Metal in Vancouver, plus Funky's listings!

It's amusing to me to note that - despite some six or seven years engaged in the craft o' music journalism in and around Vancouver (and a lifetime as a music fan in the area, excepting the few years when I lived in Japan) this Wednesday marks my first ever visit to the venue formerly known as GM Place, now Rogers Arena. So little interest do I have in the sort of artists that normally fill such houses that I have - the odd Neil Young show aside - never even seriously considered going to a show there. Wednesday marks the change: I'm going to see see Exodus, Rob Zombie, and Slayer.
Photo by Andrew Stuart, taken from the official Slayer site

I am most excited about this show. Having come late to Slayer, just as I came late to metal, having walked away from it in the 1980's in favour of punk - I have to say that it's utterly remarkable that a band this aggressive, antisocial, and passionate are ABLE to put on an arena show of this size - particularly when most of their equally talented peers and heirs have a hard time fillin' venues the size of the Rickshaw. Metal of the sort Slayer plays SEEMS like an underground taste, but Rogers Arena is definitely NOT an underground venue! I'm most curious how it will all feel. I can't even remember the last real arena-rock show I went to - maybe when I took a friend to see Roger Waters in Japan in 2001 or so (she was visiting me there, and a fan; it was one of the dullest musical experiences of my life). I should imagine Slayer will be considerably more exciting!

And lest he feel left out, I'm growing increasingly interested in Rob Zombie, as well; I simply haven't GOTTEN to his music yet - having ignored metal steadfastly until about 2009 - and I had mixed feelings about his first two films, when I first saw them, but I thought his Halloween remake, which I caught up with recently, had very interesting things to say about the backstory of Michael Meyers, highly relevant to the metal attraction to evil... Even Exodus sound pretty cool; I checked out their thrashy song about murderers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, and quite liked it...
I'm equally stoked to see Amon Amarth this Thursday at the Commodore. See below for a link to the Straight interview I did with their drummer. It fascinates me that they're using the tribal tendencies of metal to stimulate a vaguely neoPagan revival of interest in Norse myth, without, apparently, succumbing to the tendencies that some of their peers have had towards yoking such things with a nasty Nazi nationalism or a proclivity towards burning churches... this all seems like a very healthy, very potent use of the energies of metal, even to someone without a pinprick's worth of Scandinavian blood. (A certain woman with a Dutch background will be with me at the show, tho'; perhaps you can guess who?). And by damn, they rock! Amon Amarth have everything musically that I still like about Iron Maiden, while improving on all the areas where I'm less thrilled... I've been spinning their music for weeks now, and it just keeps getting more satisfying...

Plus there are gigs announced by Arch Enemy, Opeth, Enslaved, Mayhem, Napalm Death... And there's that August 2oth gig with Corpsegrinder doing vocals for Infernäl Mäjesty. And tho' I won't be there, there's also Cephalic Carnage and Exhumed at the Rickshaw, this very evening...! It's going to be a good few months in Vancouver, metalwise...
On top of all that, I see that a very interesting prairie metal band, Akakor, is coming back to Funkys in October. I saw them a few months ago and liked their take on metal - remember it as a variety of technical death metal with particularly interesting bass parts (perhaps enhanced by the fact that they were played by a female!). To atone for the fact that I'm neglecting the local scene to go to a couple bigger name shows this week, here's the whole of Funky's listings for the next while... Fans of Amon Amarth and Maiden especially might want to check out Titan's Eve on the 11th...

THURS AUG 4 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – BAD FATE - GREYS – THIS CITY DEFECTS – CASCADIA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132681150149331

FRI AUG 5 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – HONG KONG BLONDE - GREENBACK HIGH – THE BLACK AMPS – SKATIN FOR SATAN
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188089657914679

SAT AUG 6 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - ALCOHOLIC WHITE TRASH – LESBIAN FIST MAGNET – VON BONES – CAR 87

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169261136471215
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213916345312237

THURS AUG 11 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – TITANS EVE – AUROCH - UNLEASH THE ARCHERS – SACRED ALLY
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220208184663605

FRI AUG 12 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – MEMORIAL – A.T.F. - PSILOCYBIN

SAT AUG 13 - NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS SELEIGHNE14’S 21! – SNFU – BLOODNASTY – LIKELY RADS
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146081168799589

THURS AUG 18 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – UNLEASH THE ARCHERS - CELESTIAL MACHINE – AUTERIC - TRIBUNE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=205790522799233

FRI AUG 19 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - EXCAVATOR – GATE KRASHER – EPIDEMIC - CADAVOR DOGS
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178702185524769

SAT AUG 20 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - MORTILLERY – DIRE OMEN – M16
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191070667616818

SUN AUG 21 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - TARANTUJA – SHITHAWK – M16
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216744531681543

THURS AUG 25 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS TOURING STONER DOOM – DEVOTION - LORDOSIS – BLOATED PIG - GRAVES

FRI AUG 26 – BRUTAL ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS – GROSS MISCONDUCT - WORLD CLASS WHITE TRASH

SAT AUG 27 – EAST VAN METAL FEST – MARES OF THRACE – AHNA – JOYCE COLLINGWOOD – SEI HEXE – PURPLE RHINESTONE EAGLE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144313505643584

SAT SEPT 3 - NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – TIMECOPZ – THE THROWAWAYS – STREET LEGAL DIRTBIKE – GUT FEELING

SUN SEPT 4 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – UNLEASH THE ARCHERS - VANQUISHED – THE KILLING FIELD

FRI SEPT 9 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – SUGAR COATED KILLERS – GYNOSAURUS X - CLOACA

SAT SEPT 10 – MY ANNUAL BIRTHDAY AND JAKS SK8 COMP AFTER PARTY - DAYGLO ABORTIONS – FUQUORED - CHACHI ON ACID

SAT SEPT 17 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS JESSES BIRTHDAY WITH HAM WAILIN

SAT OCT 1 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS – ABRIOSIS – AKAKOR – SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLES

THURS OCT 6 – NO BOLLOCKS PRESENTS - ALONE AGAINST ROME - DATURA

FRI NOV 4 – NO BOLLOCKS AND THE INVISIBLE ORANGE PRESENT - WARBRINGER – LAZARUS AD – LANDMINE MARATHON – DIAMOND PLATE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225971560773822