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Showing posts from 2007

Laughing Gas

Unfortunately, seems that these series haven't been compiled as a dvd box set yet, so finding this clips in youtube brings such an amazing joy. The Inspector (Clouseau) was part of the Pink Panther Show broadcasted in the late 60's. Every show had 2 PP episodes and one from The Inspector in between them. As far as I remember, everyone of them was really good, not a weak one or a not that funny, all of them were truly gems of cartoon humor. Above is one of those episodes that through the years have become very hard to forget. In other words, a beauty. I specially enjoy as a madman the scene when they crash their car thanks to a laughing gas cloud above them, and cracking out loud of laughter they recap how many broken bones they have and how deadly painful it is. I'm really glad to have found this one in particular, because the spanish dubbing is amazingly good. I would really like to listen to the original one just to see how well was realized from the beginning (or if it

Brujeria

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Movies, movies, movies... humm, well, the one that comes to mind directly related to witches, witchcraft, demons, evil and 'real' obscure thingies is Haxan , a silent movie from the early days of cinema, portraits stories about the old days in witchcraft. Nice documentary that can be accompanied with your preferred choice of music as soundtrack (personally, I listen to Art Zoyd and UZ). As a matter of fact, I assisted to a screening at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, where this film, and Murnau's Nosferatu and Faust were proyected one each evening, while Art Zoyd (featuring personal hero Daniel Denis from UZ) sonorized and musicallized live the flicks. From any angle seen, it was awesome, one of the coolest things I've witnessed. The theme, the music, the players, the band, the director, the stories, the photography...

Folkish romance

Just wanted to throw a couple lines here before I forget about this great movie I just saw for the second time almost by accident. It's not my kind of flick, I know, but same thing happened with Amelie. Yes, this is a musical, and yes, it is about some kind of romance, but what makes it actually good and interesting (at least for me) is that they get together because they both are amateur musicians and almost without wanting it, they connect deeply through the simplicity of their shared music. For me, there are 2 moments on the film that are really worthy: when they jam for the first time at the music shop, and the first take of the first song in the studio. Those 2 moments really reached me, and the funniest part is that the music is not even close to the kind I like -it's folk! Oh, and the spoiler: they don't stay together, which made the movie even better...

Bits and pieces

The second half of 'Presage' from UZED. Univers Zero at BajaProg 2007. How i wish I could had been there. Daniel Denis without any doubt is one of my biggest heroes. And this version of UZ actually play the song exactly as it is, in case any one wanted to know how the original sounded like. A dark movie for your ears. Superb. And in a completely unrelated topic, an excerpt from Matt Groening's & Co at their finest, and a complete Looney Tunes episode, featuring the coolest character ever to appear on screen.

Boris @ Chopsuey

Alright alright alright, finally the date has almost arrived. Thursday evening it is, when we, cow, are heading to enjoy one of the finest rarities Asia has to offer right now to a bunch of loud doom freaks like us. Also Alex is coming to witness the coolest thing around. The poster mentions 'Boris / Damon & Naomi US Tour 2007'. I'm not that certain on who are these guys, but here you can find some info. Michio Kurihara is going to play in both sets. The poster is also great, and it must be by Fangs Anal Satan as everything graphic for them. Yes, quite excited to watch them perform live.

Moloko Vellocet Indeed

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Just discovered a few days ago about LEMON Magazine. "LEMON is “Pop Culture With A Twist”: a new breed of magazine that stakes its claim at the intersection of 60s-70s Pop and 21st century hyper-culture. Designed and produced with obsessive attention to every last detail, each issue of LEMON is pure Pop Art." I was very curious about it, 'cause in this 3rd and most recent issue, superb monster-director Stanley Kubrick is the main topic. Hmmm... two day were how many I could resist the urge to drop by 'my' magazine store -if there was a mag stand who could have it is this one. If they didn't, then i would have to wait for these guys to put out the suscription options (I already had e-mailed them to inquire, hehe). Welly welly well my little droogs, there it was, right in front of me as soon as I walked in. And this was one of those purchases that you don't even want to flip through the pages to get a sneak peek nor a quick glimpse; this one I had to experie
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So, again, it's been ages since last time... Between being busy with money-work, summer guests, and trying to keep things together I've forgotten all about the moloko vellocet thing -not to mention the sneak peek site! Well, hmmm, where should I begin... COW: After a 3 month period of stand-by due to Greg's trip to the land of the rising sun, we're finally back together playing and trying to come with a couple of things worth for recording in a quite soon moment. Unfortunately for COW (but fortunately for him, Jenn and their soon-to-come newly-born Eva), Kris is moving back to the East Coast next January, so that implies for the band to move faster and with much more precision if we want to record something -which is my main objective. In order to do so, I have just gotten, as part of my toy collection, a shiny Roland VS880EX Digital Recorder from Kevin, who had it at the bottom of his office below a thick layer of dust. With it, I intend to do a decent 8-track live rec

Eat them up, yum!

I remember watching this clip on TV when I was in my teen years. I remember also, I didn't understand it and that I couldn't find any coherent explanation to it other than it was some kind of 'art'. A very strange one. Later, while studying, reading and writing about the different art movements throughout time, I understood one of the most important premises of it: it is not mandatory for it to have an explanation in order to be art. Furthermore, it does not need to have a reason or a rationale, nor any kind of background theory to be a masterpiece. Recently, thanks to internet and sites like YouTube, I was able to find the clip again and some other info on it's creators, Barnes & Barnes which seem to be some kind of dark left-side artist of the 80's, with strong influence from The Residents. A mix of disturbing, weird and silly. Barnes & Barnes , fictional twin brothers Art & Artie Barnes, are a "novelty rock" duo based in Lumania , a

Really creepy Lynch

I'm not a huge fan of scary movies, although I love dark suspense and obscure wicked ones, but I actually enjoy the good creepy ones that can really drive your nerves to the edge. But, how do I know if a flick is scary enough to be put on that shelf, or if it's just childish crap? I simply put myself in the shoes of the character going through the traumatic experience in the film, and if I feel I would break into millions of tiny little shaking pieces, then it's a film worth of my collection (not that my so-called 'collection' is something else, but I try the best I can). This 'barometer' has showed me, pretty accurately I must say, that films like 'Blair's Witch Project', 'The Shining', 'Henry' and of course 'The Exorcist' fall into that category really well. Another one of my favorites is 'Lost Highway', although I wouldn't call it a 'scary' movie, it's more like a 'creepy' one. Lynch'

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Today in the afternoon, while waiting for Chicken outside her office, I saw a chunky big guy with a 'nice guy' looking face and had a small mustache that immediately made me recall a guy from a movie I saw a long time ago, but couldn't figure out who the actor was. Later, by some strange mystery, as soon as I opened my emails at home, the first one was the newsletter from my video rental store (really good one by the way) promoting a 'John Candy package' kind of thing. Then I knew. I'm not really into him, in fact I find him a little bit into the 'easy laugh' side, but I remember enjoying one of his movies –in fact the first one I saw with him and Steve Martin. Looked up for it in youtube, and voilá! Here it is! Now I don't have to rent it and rip it...

Igneous Ejaculation and other hardcore miniatures

Some Naked City. This is John Zorn's infamous turn-on-a-dime band. Although they can play any style of music, the majority of their songs are noisy and complex. At any moment, a beautiful melody can degenerate into a hurricane of white noise — and then suddenly switch to something else. They've taken everything aggressive about jazz and heavy metal, blended it together, and tightened it. They are disciplined players, but the music is a lot of fun. They look like a rock band : drums, electric guitar, bass, keyboards, and saxophone. On four of the albums, Yamatsuka Eye adds his unique vocals. He howls and snorts like a maniac instead of singing. It's very entertaining. (He is sometimes credited as "Yamataka Eye.") The band formed in 1989, playing live before they recorded their first album. They recorded their final album in December of 1992. The series includes an album of ambient music (Absinthe), the soundtrack for an SM film (Heretic), an album that consists

COW

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Again, ages since my last post. Probably I couldn't find any interesting thing to comment on. Probably I haven't yet. Ha! Well, the only thing I can write about that comes easily to my mind is COW. 31 years old bass player - vocals from Ontario who's very fond and oriented to new sounds and new alternative heavy bands like Shellac, Slint, GYBE, Mogwai, Melvins, etc., multi-talented and with lots of sense and feel when it comes to playing. Loves to jump out of the traditional and instead embraces the noisy experimentation ala Sonic Youth as well as non-expected lines and patterns to counterpoint and/or complement the guitar line at the moment. He also loves heavy doom stuff. Then, 21 years old guitar player - vocals, originally from Russia, moved to Toronto and recently settled in Vancouver also. Intense and passionate, King Crimson and Zappa are in his top list along with many others. Hungry for new music to learn from, also very talented, has a constant eruption of fresh i