Frequently, I will fall madly in love with a piece of furniture that leaves even my closest friends & allies scratching their heads in confusion. Such was the case with my new desk. When I first showed it to my husband, I could tell he was skeptical, but knew better than to say so...When the glimmer is in my eye, just back away.
It was love at first glance on Craigslist for me:
So I contacted the owner to arrange a viewing. We had several conversations over the course of a few days while attempting to fit our schedules together and I learned that the desk had belonged to his mother and he had the pity-able task of sorting out her belongings. I told him that I was a furniture maker and would take really good care of it...that I wasn't sure if I would refinish it, or leave it alone, but either way it would be loved. In a small way, I think these exchanges may have been a bit therapeutic for him, as I sensed he was perhaps a bit choked up on the other line.
I should mention, in addition to being incredibly kind, he was also extremely fair with the price ($45 for desk, chair, & mirror) and generously offered to deliver it to me for free.
So yesterday, when he showed up, it was an easy no brainer. I saw it on the truck, knew it was love, handed him the money, and brought it in the house. It was a little dirty from being in storage, but a little simple green & elbow grease was all it took to clean up nicely:
While pulling out one of the drawers, my husband discovered hidden treasures had fallen into the back of it. I couldn't believe it - a beautiful desk AND hidden treasure! I had hit the jackpot. The best things we found: an antique bottle opener, stolen from a San Francisco hotel called The Raphael; a porcelain lid to a tiny box (this must have made her CRAZY trying to find it); an old silver swiss army knife? or nail cutter?; and best of all - a tiny gold skeleton key with a #2 on it.
Doesn't that just pique your sense of wonder & adventure like crazy???!!!! WHAT on earth does that key open and HOW will I find it?
Well, those questions may have to go unanswered. I plan to call the man today and offer him what I found...but I'm REALLY hoping he doesn't want them back, because I love them so much! I would like to keep them with the desk, either displayed behind my computer or in a shadow box on the wall. Each item has so much history and so many secrets to tell...If I am allowed to keep them, I know they will provide endless inspiration and possibly good luck while spending long hours feverishly writing at this desk.
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01/23/10 Ampere München
Discography
01/24/10 Studio 672 Köln 01/26/10 Magnet Berlin 01/28/10 Rocking Chair Vevey 01/29/10 Ziegel Oh Lac Zurich 02/01/10 Prinzenbar Hamburg 02/09/10 Thekla Bristol 02/10/10 Hare & Hounds Birmingham 02/11/10 Brudenell Centre Leeds 02/12/10 ULU London 02/13/10 Audio Brighton
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Straitjacket Escape ♥ photo by Dave
The straitjacket incident was obviously the most epic moment of the night, but the theatrics didn’t end there. There was interpretive dancing, rogue boomerangs, and a pretty intimidating box accordion. Throw in a picturesque stage setting and a watering can attached to the drum kit, and it wasn’t an average Webster Hall show. The band managed to take a spacious, relatively normal venue and shift the atmosphere to match that of the album: warm, enthusiastic, and frenzied.
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by DaveWith only one album, they had a limited supply of songs to play. My personal favorite, “I’m a Pilot,” drew from the band’s most appealing quality: their infectious camaraderie. This was most apparent during the encore, when they had run out of songs to sing, so they resorted to the obligatory cover, Low’s “Just Like Christmas,” featuring opening band, Freelance Whales. Anything holiday-related is instantly a cheese-fest, but throw in a cavalcade of instruments and a dozen earnest musicians and it becomes easy to suspend any cynicism.
(I really wanted to end this review by writing, “...and by the end of the night, you could say that the entire audience had shed an emotional straitjacket – and put on a fringed vest of love.” But I won’t. Swearsies.)
Photos by Dave:
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave 
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo & Freelance Whales
12/22/2009 00:12:42 ♥ kateg (
)
♥ fanfarlo.com
♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo
When I was a desk jockey in San Francisco, I frequently changed my desktop image to something happy and tropical because I was, well - unhappy & cold. Now that I'm back in Hawaii, I wanted to put some images out into the internets, in case anyone out there is searching for warm, flowery, happy, tropical, Hawaii wallpaper:
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The Zatoichi series ran 26 movies (1962-1982) and a television series ran for five years (1974-1979). Twenty years later, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano reinvented Zatoichi with his version of the character. This was easily one of my favorite movie at the time, I saw it at the independent theater twice in 2003 and ordered a region 3 release of the DVD as soon as it was available on import. Incidentally, to show support for the US market, I also bought the US edition of the DVD, which came with a bonus Sonatine movie (which was originally released in the states by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder productions).
Considering the movie did quite well, critically and (I'm assuming) in sales, I was hoping for a follow-up movie by Kitano, but unfortunately there's no such plan. However, interestingly enough, one of my all-time favorite Japanese director, Takashi Miike* directed a stage adaption of Zatoichi for live performances in 2007.
I'm happy to report that, I saw a very good re-imagined of the familiar character, reinvented as a female protagonist, called Ichi. I wish the producers had kept the brand of "Zatoichi", as people who hear "Ichi" does not always associate the name with the blind swordsman. To be fair, Ichi is the original character's name. The term "zato" means low-ranking blind person (low-ranking in the Todoza guild). Logically, they could've named this movie Gozeichi, because Goze refers to blind musician women of that time period.
Anyway, beside my gripe about the Ichi name as the movie title, I also didn't like the idea that a model (Ayase Haruka) is playing the part of the protagonist. All that was really not worth worrying, because the whole movie is quite entertaining and enjoyable, and there is only once where Haruka is seen 'dolled up' for a music performance (most of the movie, she's covered from head to toe in dirty rags). However, there are at times when the director Fumihiko Sori choose to stay too long on Haruka's beautiful unblemished face. We get it, she's cute.
The story is uncomplicated, Ichi wanders into some town with an inept sword-drawing samurai Toma (the name is close to a slang "tonma" for idiot or fool). The town is in trouble from the Banki gang, and in Zatoichi fashion, Ichi and Toma saves the town. During the course of the film, there are the tried-and-true Zatoichi moments like slashing out the lights and Ichi triumph in complete darkness, the use of sound to throw Ichi off, and, of course, the Cho-Han Bakuchi dice gambling.
What made the film interesting, at least to me, is that the soundtrack is by Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard! So throughout the movie, you do hear that ethereal vocals, similar to her efforts on Ridley Scott's Gladiator. I suspect she only wrote the vocals, the credit I have for composer is Michael Edwards, who previously worked with Gerrad on her solo material. The soundtrack was a bit of a surprise to me, generally these J-movies' music and production team are usually kept inhouse. Although, having said that, the one outro credit song is by Korean J-Pop singer SunMin.
Ichi the movie will be made available in the US market via Bluray and DVD in two days (December 22nd), just in time for last-minute xmas shoppers. Hopefully those Best Buy tonmas will be smart and order some copies for their store (however, if it costs over $25, I'd rather order it online, or not own it at all - hey times are tough!).
* I love all three billion of his movies! Audition, City of Lost Souls, One Missed Call, Ichi the Killer, Fudoh, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman, Sukiyaki Western: Django, etc.
12/20/2009 02:06:34 ♥ vu (
) ♥funimation.com/ichi
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For this Christmas, I did buy myself Swords deluxe edition via my favorite store, amazon. It was a bit pricey for a CD/DVD combo ($23 vs $12 for the standard disc), but I'm worth it.
I actually have had a digital copy of the B-Sides compilation since late October, thanks to pen pal friend Mel, as it was a "bonus" if you had preordered tickets to see Morrissey in live in 2009. And of course, like most fans, we still buy the physical release anyway, so it's a bit of a win-win situation for everyone.
I'll briefly summarize Morrissey's history: he's a bit of a sensitive, indie songwriter with The Smiths. He went solo in "nineteen-eighty-hate" with some classic modern rock hits with "Suedehead" (aka that "I'm So Sorry" song) and "Everyday is like Sunday". He went a bit rockabilly with Your Arsenal (his previous album Kill Uncle was heading to this direction, especially with the B-Sides and singles from this era), and pretty much stayed in this "muscular" rock type music since. As I previously mentioned, I think this has to do with his musical collaboration with Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte.
If you're new to Morrissey, I don't think Swords would be a good starting point for you. I would recommend starting with Bona Drag, a weird mix of b-sides and oddities. Most of the songs on Swords were co-written by Alain Whyte, and there's a nice cohesive feel to each song as they have similiar song writing structure. When you do run into a non-Whyte song, such as "Sweetie-Pie", it just feels out of place. In fact, I think this is possibly one of the worst Morrissey song, right up there with "Michaels Bones".
There is one non-Morrissey-penned song, and it's a live recording of "Drive-In Saturday" (live at Omaha on 11 May 2007). Morrissey's music obsessions tend to be from the 60s and 70s era, so it didn't surprise me to hear him doing a David Bowie cover from the Aladdin Sane time period. But the two are friends, I know that Bowie showed up at a Morrissey show in Los Angeles in the early 90s to do a duet of a T.Rex's song for "Cosmic Dancer", and, of course, Bowie would later record a soul-ish version of Morrissey's "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" in 1993.
Also, it seems in post-2008, Morrissey's songs have been about fatherhood and retirement. Just looking over his titles: "Good Looking Man About Town", "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice", "Teenage Dad on His Estate", "Children in Pieces", that "constipated look" for Swords, and that controversially album cover for Years of Refusal ... you would think that he's married with kids. Maybe that's not a bad thing, with Morrissey's heath in question, maybe he should take it easy. We all can't be like James Dean, you know.
12/19/2009 03:47:04 ♥ vu () ♥itsmorrisseysworld.com ♥ truetoyou.com ♥ morrissey-solo.com
As the pipe clamp blisters began to pop and heal on my hands, I knew I was in a race against myself to find my next gig in woodworking. I had just quit my job after I was put on a mandatory 72-hour work week schedule, which was neither safe nor necessary in the warehouse where I was a full time furniture maker. From my first taste of sawdust, I was hooked. I loved everything about it, especially the aches & pains associated with putting in a hard day of manual labor.
I had moved thousands of miles from my industrial Michigan factory roots, only to go to college and decide the blue collar life is what I wanted. I quit my job, only when it was obvious that it would either kill or permanently injure me...but it was still one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. Besides the fact that I love it, I realize now how wrapped up I was in the identity of being just one thing...In my working life, I have always had to have at least three side hustles going on and I've done everything from nude modeling, to being a maid, a well-paid executive assistant, an extra in movies, a make-up artist, to an apprentice sander in a woodshop.
When I call home to update my family, typically, whatever it is I describe is met with unconditional love & acceptance, even if there is a tinge of it not necessarily being understood. As a woodworker, I was finally able to align myself with an identity - one thing that I loved being and doing...and it was so much easier to explain that!
Predictably, when the job fell apart, I scrambled for any paying gig I could find on craigslist. As it turns out, it was a good time to be involved with film making and I even signed up for acting classes. Being involved in the process is as exciting as it seems like it would be - even the long hours of waiting, while being completely dressed to the nines for a 6:00 a.m. call time, shouldn't be exciting, but it still is.
Around this time I also found work as a fit model, working for a local design house. It's a job that pays very well but the work is inconsistent. Still, I am extremely thankful to have it, even if it is a bit weird for me to use it as an identifier at the dentist's office and have the receptionist squeal and ask me a bunch of questions about the job. That's a rock star moment, I'm not going to lie, but it's completely foreign to me to identify myself as "model" in any capacity...especially when "factory rat" was a closer signifier just weeks ago.
I'm not sure if all the discomfort in lacking a fixed occupation or identity squarely rests on my shoulders, or if I am reacting to other people's confusion when I try to explain, "Well, I'm actually a furniture maker, but I'm out of work, so I'm doing the acting and modeling thing, while looking for another woodworking gig." Who does that? I'm not sure if I even understand myself anymore.
In the long run, it's probably a good thing that I am so versatile & adaptable - I always have something relevent for any type of resume I'm creating for myself (and I have at least 3); but I long for the day when I have a short answer to the question, "So what do you do?"
DOMINO? YOU MEAN DOMI-YES
dominorecordco.com
You know, I honestly don't know how Ryan does it, keeping up with the various 'tweets'. I personally think twitter become absolutely useless if you have more than 50 friends. There's also so much spam on twitter!
So, I mostly just have it filtered to reading our own twitter to discover new freebies. So below was sent out a few days ago:
weheartmusicWe♥Music
Check out the @DominoRecordCo Xmas Sampler - http://bit.ly/53Thv0 - Final Fantasy, Wild Beasts, The Kills, Franz Ferdinand & King Creosote.
11:49 AM Dec 14th from web
I also really dig Joker's Daughter (for non-comic book nerds, yes the Joker had a daughter - I think she mostly fought the 70s Teen Titans). I love "classic" pop girl-group sound, and this band has the vocals and melodies. Although the subject of Gremlins and "Bouncing Liquorish Bears" may be on the weirder side.
OF DOVES AND FISH
harveysidfisher.com
Dovecote Records gathered three of their recording artists to do a mini-tribute to Harvey Sid Fisher. While I don't know much about Fisher, based on hearing the three covers by Mason Proper, Tim Williams, and Trevor Giuliani, I have concluded that Fisher was a bit of a strange songwriter and has a bit of an interesting "older" man's vocals... each of the modern artists do try and emulate the singing style.
My personal favorite is Tim Williams' rendition. Nice backup vocals and the repetitive "hit another wall" refrain.
If you want to hear these songs for yourself - head over to dovecoterecords.com and click on the "Download Now" link. There's no catch either, none of that "give us your email" thing. Just a nice little free EP.
UPDATE 12/18/09: I misread the press info, the songs are all sung by Harvey Sid Fisher (doing covers of Dovecote artists). This would explain why all the songs sounds like an "older" man.
OLD WAVE MIXTAPE
nouvellesvagues.com
Cover lover band of approval, Nouvelle Vague, made a 10-track free mixtape at whenyouawake.com.
Most of the tracks are by American artists, some classic from Roy Orbison ("You Got It"), Louis Armstrong ("We Have All The Time In The World"), Johnny Cash ("Ring Of Fire"), etc. There are a few weird ones (weird as in didn't fit in) like Sufjan Stevens and Rolling Stones... however, I will admit tapping my feet when I heard the intro to "Let's Spend The Night Together". There is the token French artist Serge Gainsbourg on the mixtape for good measure.
While I'm not entirely sure about the legality of this free download, I think it's good promotions for the bands mentioned on the tape. Plus, it's a nice boost of ego, you know?
daffodilpublicity.com confirms these are their forth-coming North American tour dates:
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Friday, Jan. 22, Philadelphia, PA, World Café Saturday, Jan. 23, New York, NY, Webster Hall Sunday, Jan. 24, Boston, MA, Somerset Tuesday, Jan. 25, Montreal, PQ, Metropolis Wednesday, Jan. 27, Toronto, ONT, Opera House Thursday, Jan. 28, Detroit, MI, Crofoot Ballroom Friday, Jan. 29, Chicago, IL, Logan Square Monday, Feb. 1, Denver, CO, Bluebird Tuesday, Feb. 2, Salt Lake City, UT, Urban Lounge Thursday, Feb. 4, Seattle, WA, King Cat |
Friday, Feb. 5, Vancouver, BC, Venue Sunday, Feb. 7, San Francisco, CA, Regency Monday, Feb. 8, Sant Cruz, CA, Rio Theater Tuesday, Feb. 9, Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Friday, Feb. 12, Dallas, TX, Granada Saturday, Feb. 13, Austin, TX, Mohawk Sunday, Feb. 14, New Orleans, LA, Republic Tuesday, Feb. 16, Miami, FL, Revolution Wednesday, Feb. 17, Orlando, FL, Firestone Thursday, Feb. 18, Atlanta, GA, Loft Saturday, Feb. 20, Washington DC, 9:30 Club |
YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO SAVE MONEY
I don't work for Best Buy, but I wanted to pass along this deal, since it is almost a crime to not buy it. It is $140 for HANNspree 23" HD LCD 16:9 Widescreen Monitor. That's cheap, considering the same monitor would've cost at least $700 a few years ago.
I did buy it and setup was very plug-and-play easy. It came with a disc for a Windows Vista driver, but if you just have XP, it would just recognize the monitor. Hooking it up on the PS3 using the HDMI cable (not included) was also easy - however I did not like the long pauses as PS3 auto adjust when it plays bluray discs (I suspect this has to do with determining that it's a compliant display since HDMI is notorious for anti-piracy junk).
Compare to the old CRT monster monitors, this 23" is superlight - even Mr Burns can easily move the monitor around. The product page lists 9.9lbs, but it feels like it's only one or two pounds.
The monitor does have built-in speakers, but it sounds tinny. Not exactly awesome audio, but for $140, that's just a bonus. I recommend buying monitor headphones and plugging it in the monitor for clearer audio. And speaking of audio, since this is marketed as purely a monitor - there is also no remote control access. If you need to turn down the audio, you have to adjust it on the monitor itself.
Despite my complaint, this is one of best image display I've own. It's native 1920x1080 is pretty sweet when I'm playing Dragon Age (since now I can have more items in the "quick" slots at the bottom).
* practically free
12/16/2009 11:25:14 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Greetings, dear readers. I hope you are well.
I had a couple of vertebrae fused last October, and so I've been away on a health sabbatical of sorts. The cold weather is not helping! I feel so odd saying that I will welcome some warm temperatures again, especially after we got some lovely snow in my home area last weekend. But when you have metal in your body, or nerve damage, or both, you start feeling the barometric changes more.
I wanted to take a moment to share some other music blogs I have been reading here at VOX. I promise I will be back with more music, including 2NU's last offering. (Who is 2NU? Stay tuned...) But until then, allow me to share some other blogs of interest, including a side project of mine.
(On a side note, it seems to me that many of the resources I looked at when writing reviews here seem to be very similar to what friends of mine looked at writing for university and college publications, or what they played for college radio. But I digress...)
Those that have followed my reviews here know that I'm a big fan of mashups and bastard pop. It's always been a satirical commentary for me, in some part, on how the commercial industry likes to come back to familiar hooks and "radio-friendly" licks-- how else can two or more songs, especially when they seem so radically different, come together? They can come together, all right, in a rather slick way that can express an entirely new idea that is different from the sum of the mashup's parts.
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The Dude’s Blog (Blog de The Dude) has a general focus-- nothing too specific, but that's fairly within the spirit of things at W♥M-- write about what you like. Obviously, his username is taken from The Big Lebowski, which was referenced by Vu in Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In). His latest post covers his album picks for 2009.
- Aurelio’s blog is a little more general than even that--"Un cocktail de musique, ciné, bouquins, bonne bouffe et rigolade" (A mix of music, film, books, good food, and comedy). He hosts Albums 2009, so some of his latest posts have also been about his selections of music in 2009.
- niggytardust writes in English and French, so if you don't speak/read/write French, you have an English option. More of a rock focus.
- Ground Countrol To Major Tom focuses on new artists and independent music.
- Music Is My Radar is written by moien
So there you have it. I'm probably just scratching the surface, but most of these bloggers and Vox Groups specifically mentioned (if not all) have contributed to W♥M in some form or another, so have a look around.
12/15/2009 23:56:22 ♥ jaklumen (
/ jaklumen.vox.com)First thing I’d like to say is, if you really love a band and you get the chance to see them play in Adelaide, take that chance. I am now a firm believer the people in Sydney are at least seven times more rude than anywhere else.
So, Jarvis Cocker is about to wrap up his second solo Australian tour this weekend and I managed to see him at both the Metro in Sydney and the Gov in Adelaide. Now… both shows were equally as excellent musically, the sound was much better in Sydney, but the atmosphere in Adelaide was just so much more amenable to such an apparently accommodating chap such as Jarvis Cocker.
What do I mean by accommodating? Well he’s very generous with the chocolates (can’t say the same for the girl in Sydney who would only stretch as far as giving me half a square of a chocolate – I didn’t care that it was Jarvis’, I didn’t want to ruin your chances of selling it for $15 on ebay, I just wanted chocolate) and drinks (but hopefully not a nasty strain of Jarvicoccus Aureus – oh microbiology jokes, so hilarious) and quite amenable to having a good old chat with the audience.
One thing I was especially impressed with was that between the two shows, I can’t recall one thing he repeated saying. (Might have had something to do with the cheat sheet he had attached to his set list). Although, I am well known for being easily impressed.
All the tunes were there: Angela, Black Magic, Further Complications, Fuckingsong, Homewrecker and even You’re In My Eyes, the disco song, which I have professed to dislike intensely, but actually got me dancing. I must say, there’s something about the really loud parts of Jarvis’ songs, most notably in Black Magic, that just sends a shiver down ones spine. The man, again, lived up to all expectations (after two sneaky pretending-the-show-was-over-and-walking-off-stage moments), wrapping up the set with a lovely rendition of Running the World.
Aside from his witty banter about such profound topics as koalas and why they don’t just eat something else (because what they actually eat doesn’t give them enough energy to do anything other than sleep when they aren’t eating), being attacked by an emu and whoever’s birthday it happened to be on that day (someone had been doing their research), by far the greatest thing of all was Jarvis’ trademark dance moves. He must really have an excellent sense of balance, a lesser man would have been a pile on the floor if they tried to pull off some of the leg-flailing movements that Jarvis can do.
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Special mention also goes out to Martin Craft (you may remember him from the Australian band, Sidewinder); support act and guitarist within Jarvis’ crew. Talented guy; quite a musical contrast to Jarvis both within the song subject and the feel of the tunes. Slow, and wispy, a single acoustic guitar, a synth and a saxophone. Nice.
Brilliant.
(Thanks to Miss Kristen who followed the man around the country and took these pictures)
On a side note, I just wanted to
thank everyone who came to the Abercrombie hotel for britpop last week and want
to draw your attention to the Britpop Christmas party happening on the 23rd.
Could very well be the last one! Get there!
Sally
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GOBLIN COCK
myspace.com/goblincock
First of all, I love the name and theme. All the band members have RPG elements to their name, like singer Lord Phallus (Rob Crow) and guitarist Larben the Druid. You can tell that this San Diego doom metal band are fans of comics (due to their self-titled Bagged and Boarded) and the Terminator movie (that's a famous line, "come with me if you want to live"). From the cover artwork, to ancient runes, it's safe to assume these guys are also into Warhammer and D&D stuff, pretty geeky - and proud of it!
I don't have their debut album, but based on listening to Come With Me If You Want To Live, I can see why they were nominated for the PLUG metal album award (they lost out to Fantômas). Come was designed as a whole album, from the instrumental introduction music "Hissless" through all these film/movie references. You can hear movie samples in some of their songs, like "Trying to get Along with Humans" and "Ode to Billy Jack" (which is really about those 70s movies).
Some of the songs on this album sounds too clear and sounds too slow to be classify as metal. On those songs, they seem more like early 90s grunge music (think Soundgarden, not Nirvana).
Not really sure where Goblin Cock will exists in Rob Crow's ever-growing band involvement. He's still in Pinback, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, Optiganally Yours and Thingy. Plus earlier this year, his other band, Aspects of Physics, just released their third (in a trilogy of album) called Marginalized Information Forms 3: Other.
Come With Me If You Want To Live is available now from Absolute Kosher Records. Recommended if you don't take your metal too seriously, and enjoy the adolescent geekiness of the band.
Trivia: "Beneath the Valley of the Island of Misfit Toys", another instrumental, seems to be derived from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Valley of the Dolls, and Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer (he ends up on Island of Misfit Toys).
METAL RETARDATION
metalretardation.com
When I first read Bill Zebub's name, I chuckled a little at his nod to the lord of the flies (Satan). So the guy has a sense of humor, and you can hear a lot of that humor in his interviews for his magazine, The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds, on this DVD collection.
Unfortunately, sometime his questions goes on too long (note: the bands are the star, not the interviewer), and sometime the questions have nothing to do with anything. I'll give you an example, during the George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher from Cannibal Corpse, Zebub had a long question about Almond Joy and Mounds. I won't give away the punchline, but when it was delivered, neither myself or Fisher cared much for it. The same feeling of "I don't get it" or "I don't care" came up again when Mathias Nygård, from Turisas, had to endure the shark jokes.
I'll have to admit, there are some some gems like the Cannibal Corpses and Nevermore interview, however the footage is unwatchable due to poor lighting. The filming is very gorilla-style, often with just Zebub and his camera. Some footage looks like it was taken from old VHS tapes, while some of the more recent footage looked incredible. The uneven quality, the lack of transition (these are quick clips going back and forth), uneven audio levels... these things made the program really hard to enjoy.
It doesn't feel like there's a purpose or direction - just random questions and answers. Personally, I feel this whole disc should be a "bonus" disc of some other feature. I can't recommend this unless you're a fan of The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds or the bands on the disc (Finntroll, King Diamond, Type O Negative, Gwar, etc).
Extras includes Band Introductions & Skits, Darkthrone Phone Interview and Venom Phone Interview. The phone interview also includes topless women. The "area" are censored, so it's not entirely pornographic.
PAGAN METAL: A DOCUMENTARY
billzebub.com ♥ thegrimoire.com
Like Metal Retardation, the Pagan Metal DVD begins with a disclaimer that if you don't appreciate this film, then you are "too gay". What are you twelve? I feel like I have to defend myself and any reviewers out that that doesn't like this documentary - I do own and watch a lot of movies and documentaries.
What makes a good documentary for me is to keep me interested in the subject. Like for instance, if the band is talking about, say Norse gods, the editor should insert an image referencing said god. I will say that to keep us entertained, between sessions of interviews, you're shown some live footage of various Pagan Metal bands. My favorite is Turisas, only because of that crazy looking violin player.
Usually really good documentaries tries to do answer three questions: 1. Where did (subject) came from and its origin? 2. What exactly is it and why do people like it? and 3. Where does it go from here? Unfortunately, this documentary doesn't really address any of these questions. I'll grant you that Zebub did try and ask the Pagan past, but the interviewees, such as Korpiklaani, were unprepared to answer.
The one shining light out of this is Primordial's Alan Averill (note: the DVD does not credit the interviewee, I am guessing it is the singer). Everything he had to say was intelligent and smart, and even if it had nothing to do with Folk or Pagan Metal, it sure made a whole lot of sense to me. There's a section where he talked about in the "old" days when he was doing his fanzines, he would swap a lot of tapes. Compared that to today's file-traders, he feels like it's too easy and unfulfilling. Maybe it's a generational thing, but for old fanzine editors like myself and Sally, we still want to own the vinyl or CD if we like what we've heard on cassettes, or later minidiscs and cd-rs. What does this this have to do with Pagan Metal? Well, I think it's relevant because how else are people going to hear Pagan Metal - the radio stations aren't going to play it.
So, if you are wondering why Pagan Metal is have taken over the Black Metal scene in Europe and interested in hearing some of these bands (Korpiklaani, Finntroll, Leaves Eyes, Tyr), then I'd recommend this DVD to you. Although, I wouldn't call it a documentary, this is more like a series of interviews with these bands. Between Metal Retardation and Pagan Metal, I would, without a doubt, recommend Pagan, because it has a theme and a purpose.
The extras ? There are none, unless you count the Rated R trailer for Assmonster prior to the feature.
12/12/2009 01:45:36 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
