Titus Crow and the Burrowers Beneath/ The Transition of Titus Crow

Titus Crow and the Burrowers beneath by Brian Lumley is a book that I read as a kid and really made an impression on me.  It is a book loosely classified as horror that has its basis on H.P. Lovecraft's weird fiction from the turn of the century.  Of course if you are a Lovecraft purist you may be a little disappointed by this book because though it features the Great Old ones, it also prominently features elements of the mythology introduced by August Derleth after HPL's death such as the "good versus evil dichotomy"  [1] instead of the"nhilistic"  unbeatable and singularly evil pantheon created by HPL himself and his immediate contemporaries [1]

Of course that means nothing to you if you have not read Lovecraft's work so I will try to briefly lay down the foundation of the myth cycle that figures so prominently in the Titus Crow books as well as being featured in various degrees in various other pop culture items from Hellboy to Jerusalem's Lot by Stephen King. 

In short it is all about this nasty guy right here:

That, my friends, is Cthulu.  The most evil dragon-octopus from space you will ever read about.  Of course Cthulu has many other deities whom he lords over all the while trapped deep beneath the Pacific in his slimy city of R'lyeh. Most of these deities were created by HPL himself in various works of fiction, some were created by Robert E. Howard of Conan the Barbarian fame, some in the verbose stories of Clark Ashton Smith, whille others were created by August Derleth and others who came after such as the author of Titus Crow, Brian Lumley.  Among the pantheon are Shudde M'ell, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and various other unpronouncable evil gods.

Of the story itself, the first part in the saga "The Burrowers Beneath" details Titus Crow an occultist with wizardly knowledge and Henry Laurant-de Marigny who acts as Crow's Watson-esque sidekick and who's diary serves to narrate most of the story (a favorite convention of HPL).  Of course the story is completely fantastic, and yet it drew me in and I had a difficult time putting it down.  In the first part of Crow's saga you are informed of most of the action through de Marigny's journal which serves to keep suspense (HPL was known to tell stories in this form only to have the characters die in the end and leave their journal as the only evidence of their fate) and it also keeps Crow somewhat aloof, adding to the mystery of his character.  Crow is indeed mysterious he seems to be incredibly intelligent, and posseses artifacts of great magical power and arcane knowlege that he uses to help fight against the ultimate evil.

I don't want to give away too much about the story but Crow does eventually find aid in the mysterious "Wilmarth Foundation"  from Miskatonic University who use their sorcerous and scientific knowlege as well as government contacts to act as a cross between "Men in Black" and "Constantine"  traveling the world battling the minions of Cthulu and attempting to exterminate them. 

At the end of the story Titus Crow and de Marigny are missing and presumed dead, however in the second installment, "The Transition of Titus Crow"  de Marigny appears in the middle of the Thames with every bone in his body broken, while Crow is stranded in outer space somewhere in the distant future or past, with a little help from the technolgy of the Elder Gods.

In "The Transition of Titus Crow" Crow is fleshed out a little more, he acts as the narrator for most of the story and we are able to gain a little insight into his head.  At this point the story becomes completely fantastical and goes from being a story about cosmic horror to a story of epic fantasy, complete with a robot playing god, dragons, Gods and Godesses and a nice cheesy romance plotline thrown in to spice it up.  Of course all the eclectic elements available to Lumley are put together to make a story that should be horrible and too far-reaching, but somehow he manages to write a tale that really pops and while it is a little rediculous at time you will find yourself rooting for Crow, and hoping for his return to the earth.

I give Titus Crow: The Burrowers Beneath and The Transition of Titus Crow an 8 out of 10 and I recommend it for fans of weird fiction, adventure, fantasy and horror.    


1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos

Avatar...

Ok this is going to be short but sweet. I have some mixed feelings about this film, but if you havent seen it already, definitely go see it.  It will be worth the 10-19 dollars that you may have to pay to see it in its various formats. 

Shelter Red and The Days The Nights

I had the pleasure of seeing two great local bands this past weekend. The first was Shelter Red. Shelter Red really wowed me with their instrumentation and their musicianship, however there was one drawback, the fact that their guitar tracks are prerecorded by the drummer and played through the PA system; of course the guy must be amazingly skilled to write such intricate parts for guitar and play the drums as well but these guys should really bring somebody on to learn the parts and play them to increase their stage presence.  Another problem with the performance which was completely out of their hands was the fact that the fuses to the venue blew out whenever they would turn on their stage lights, even without the light show these guys were a treat to listen to.  Also this band does not have any lyrics or a singer, their songs are completely instrumental. However I think that this actually drives them to write more interesting time changes, breakdowns, and more intricate riffs to keep your attention on the music. Give them a listen on myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/shelterrock

The Days the Nights played after Shelter Red. These guys had some serious energy and well written post-punk hard rock songs.  If you listen to the songs on their myspace you may not get the entire experience however.  They sound good of course; but live they sounded great.  These guys really brought their A game to the stage and despite it being in a small venue with faulty fuses serviced by a frozen outhouse on one of the coldest damn days of the year I had more fun at this concert than I can remember having for a long time.

http://www.myspace.com/thedaysthenights

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

I recently had the pleasure of being loaned "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by a friend of mine and I must say that this book really struck a chord with me.

I loved this book because the story was so completely crazy, and yet somehow believable.  If I told you that a  story could include a Golem, a showdown in the antarctic, an escape from nazi Prague, and Salvador Dali suffocating in a diving suit in a living room; you would probably say it sounds schizophrenic.  You might not be wrong in some respects as the characters in Kavalier and Clay sometimes seem to do exactly the opposite of what you want them to do, somehow they manage to manufacture their own misery with the best intentions. 

 Somehow Chabon combines the Holocaust and WW2 with the mystery of magicians and escape artists, and then drops the story into the Golden Age of comic books; a time of prosperity for comic books and aspiring artists that has never been rivaled.  Into this entire pot he stews themes of loss, revenge, redemption, and self acceptance. 

This book is great and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to embark on an emotional rollercoaster; however I will caution some of my more conservative readership; if you in fact exist, there are some pretty adult themes in the book including graphic depictions of sexuality and homosexuality.  Hopefully this does not deter anyone from a great read that should not be missed, because this book really is something extraordinary.

 in the end I give it 9 out of 10 melted golems.

Ninja Assasin Review

I had the pleasure of seeing Ninja Assasin the night it was released, and I have to say it was exactly what I was expecting and hoping for. The film tells the story of Raizo the ninja (played by South Korean pop-star Rain) who is on a quest for revenge (of course) against his former ninja confederates and his master.  The story is pretty much irrelevant just making excuses for people to be chopping each other up with the energy of a nuclear powered quisinart.

The two western main characters "Maslow" and "Mika" were pretty much completely irrelevant and worthless which is the main problem with the story, of course their interpol connections make them very handy for calling in shuriken-fodder for the evil ninjas which is the only reason I can even see having them involved in the plot at all.

Prepare to not care about this person

 The action in the film however is superb, with excellent stylization, top notch effects, and buckets upon buckets of gratuitous blood spraying out everywhere. In case you had trouble understanding the last sentance

DO NOT see this movie if the following things disturb or offend you:  Peoples' heads being chopped off, people being chopped in half, peoples' heads being chopped in half , people getting sharp objects thrown into their eyes/ every painful area of the body, people being stabbed in the neck, people being stabbed in the femoral artery etc, etc. In fact this movie was so completely filled with great gouts of viscera that I almost felt guilty for enjoying it, like I should have been horrified by the level of carnage.  Maybe I should also point out that Raizo is the most hardcore of all the ninjas, and yet at the end of the movie even he looks like this: 

 On another note, this movie used CGI created blood effects, and were actually successful enough that I didn't feel that it detracted from the exploitation grindhouse-y feel of the movie.  The movie also featured several really cool ninja weapons; the following clip features two of them Raizo's whip blade and Takeshi's dual sided Katana:




Of course if you have trouble suspending your disbelief you may have problems with this movie, It isn't the greatest plot to begin with, and on top of it the ninja's do have full-on magic powers, like limited teleportation and the ablity to heal wounds by chanting some magic words and making crazy magic hand gestures.  If you are the sort of person who is going to sit in the back of the theatre and say "That wouldn't really happen in REAL life" you are going to be sorely disappointed because realism is not what this film was going for. 

In all I give the film a solid 8.5 decapitated ninjas out of ten. 

Air Force Ones, and Square Horse Tongues: TheFREEhoudini by Themselves

Ok folks here is a real treat for this review, this Album theFREEhoudini by Themselves is the third album from the Anticon collaboration between Dose One and Jel.  This Album is exciting for several reasons, not the least of which being that it is in fact, free, and features such icons as Aesop Rock, and Oddnosdam, Yoni Wolf and Dose working together as cLOUDDEAD for the first time on a record since their breakup.  However this isnt just a bunch of ambient noise with weird lyrics...

...Ok a lot of it is ambient noise with weird lyrics but lets break it down a bit and I will tell you why this album is great and why at the bottom of my page, you should click the link and download this thing immediately.

 So the first thing about this particular album is that if you want it for free you will end up with a single forty minute long track, mixtape-style.  The beginning of the album is a little rough if you are not into experimental hip hop. Of course Dose's rhymes are well crafted and trippy but you would be forgiven if you fast forward to about 4 minutes in where Aesop Rock makes an appearance spitting possibly what might be the sickest shit I have ever heard from him, of course it helps that he has a great driving beat behind him pushing him forward. In the end once he finishes and Dose comes in you start to wish that he had a longer verse but thats going to be a recurring theme in this album.  Luckily right after this short excursion we are led directly into another song, this time featuring Buck 65 a canadian MC this time backed up by a funky sounding beat involving some sort of Bari Sax or similar instrument.  After the song featuring Buck 65 we are treated to a short freestyle by Dose backed up by yet another excellently crafted beat.  By now we are about 10 minutes and 30 seconds into the album, and brace yourself for another mind blowing guest appearance in the following song this time by Sole.  This time we are treated to a low pulsing beat while Sole spits rhymes that while excellent and experimental, also seem to be flavor injected with a little throwback to gangster rap attitude. Sole's delivery is really intense, in-your-face, and again you will be wishing that his appearance was longer.

After Sole we're given another song with Dose that takes a more experimental tone,  following which you can hear a chorus singing about "Air Force Ones, and Square Horse (hoarse?) Tongues, which devolves into a trippy super fast and oddly punctuated song, not one of my favorites on the album but the intro is strange enough and intriguing enough to make it worth a couple listens. After the aforementioned crazy spazz out Lionesque makes an appearance, spitting out a good track with a nasally voice, not one of my favorites but definitely worth hearing a few times.

Now at about 17 minutes into the album you will be hearing another freestyle by Dose, followed by after which there is a song that is just too crazy for me,  at this point I usually fast forward to about 21 minutes in where you should hear a slow methodical rap by D-styles lasting for about 1 minute after which a fast techno esque beat starts with more crazy rhymes by Dose.  If you are like me the crazy techno esque song is probably not your thing however from this point onwards theFREEhoudini is pure gold.

At 26 minutes a song comes in with a nice slow and harmonic track, these are some of the most interesting and intelligible rhymes on the whole album designed to invoke imagery in your head, I recommend listening to it when you have time to devote to just listening.

Next is Dose and Jel with a song that kind of sounds like some sort of populist anthem however I haven't really been able to decipher any actual message from it since the rhymes are so quick and almost sound like they are just vowel sounds rather than words.  After this song Dose chops it up with some intense rhymes over a trip-hop sounding beat that really just needs to be heard to be understood.

And finally the ending song which reunites Dose, Yoni Wolf, and Odd Nosdam as cLOUDDEAD, the rhymes are well thought out, Yoni's verse opens the song with slow, well articulated rhymes, after which Odd Nosdam uses his wizard like DJ abilities to create a chorus out of the spiced together verses of Yoni and the upcoming Dose verse.  Dose comes in after the chorus with more excellent rhymes, however the delivery is not as good as Yoni's. After this verse Odd Nosdam yet again pulls out a masterful chorus that has to be heard to really be appreciated... In fact you can here it right now:

If you want to download theFREEhoudini, and I strongly suggest that you do, it is available here: 

http://www.anticon.com/thefreehoudini/

Blood: The Last Vampire

I rented the newley released dvd of "Blood: The Last Vampire"  this weekend and gave it a spin, this is what I thought:


As you can see, the movie is based on an anime which was popular enough in Japan to spawn multiple manga books a video game and an animated series called Blood+.  I honestly don't have any familiarity with the source material so I can't speak to what they are like however I can say that this is the type of film that while it was enjoyable I will probably never revisit for another viewing, unless its on cable and nothing else is on. 

The only thing that this film did right really was the violence, there were some good fight scenes, decapitations, and Shogun Assasin esqe scenes where the protagonist single handedly takes out dozens of enemy combatants with impunity.  There were a few scenes that captured a few of the signature visuals that make anime so famous, however these are few and far between and fall short in capturing whatever type of stylistic feel the director was after. 


In short, this:

Just does not translate very well into this:

Despite some sweet violence making this movie at least marginally entertaining.  The flaws were many, first off all the CGI was garbage, everytime the enemy vampires/demons were generated by computers they looked like absolute shit. Furthermore all the gore was done in CGI which is a trend in hack and slash movies that I really do not approve of.  This movies' action looked to be influenced by Shogun Assasin/ Lady Snowblood era exploitation samurai films, and half of what gives japanese grindhouse flicks their style is the blood that looks like bright red acryllic paint spraying out everywhere, not some weird chunky burgundy computer vomit like what they used in this film.

Another thing that I really didn't like about this film was all the anime cliches that permeate it, first of all the protaganist is a teenage girl who somehow is the most badass force on the planet.  Ok I am sure the first time that was done in an anime it was a total mindblower, but now it is just played out and not even close to original.



Something that I find confusing about the movie is that it is called "The last vampire" however the word vampire is never used in the entire film, Saya hunts demons, and while on the back of the box it says that the main character Saya is a "half-vampire" the movie refers to her as a half demon, or a demon with a human soul. This leads me to the next huge cliche that kills this movies cred for me:

The Half Vampire. The Half Vampire or Dhampir if you enjoy some folklore, is probably the most overused concept in the entire universe of vampire fiction.  You have D from vampire hunter D, another highly popular gothic style anime, Nahuel from the forth twilight book, Blade from the films and the Marvel comics,  Alucard from Castlevania, Rayne from Bloodrayne, and the list goes on and on.  Ohhh a half-vampire half human what a new idea, oh wait it is a hackneyed piece of trash writing convention that has a deus ex machina effect in explaining how a diminutive Japanese teenager can be the ultimate badass savior of humanity.  Its rubbish. 

Alucard: A totally badass Dhampir from back when it wasn't such a common convention.

There are also alot of other little problems with the film that just detract from the whole thing for example: The film is set during the vietnam war, however you will forget completely about that, I have no real reason why the writers made this choice, possibly because during vietnam there would be alot of english speakers in Japan and the film is mainly shot in English, the choice is still completely arbitrary though because the vietnam era has little to no effect on the story whatsoever, the soundtrack tries to pump out some late sixties classic rock to set the mood but gives up halfway through the movie and the production values for the most part are so dark and modern that you will completely forget the era the film was supposedly shot in.


In all this movie had good action, poor acting, hackneyed and cliche story elements and just never really came together to make a lasting impression.  The anime may be able to bypass the fact that the half vampire is played out, or that the teenage girl protagonist is played out by using cool visual effects and stylization, but the live action film did not make a good faith effort to replicate the stylistic elements that anime and manga are known and made popular by. The final verdict:  wait until this ones on the sci fi channel.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.

A couple of days ago Danielle and I went to go see Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, as a compromise because she wanted to see "Couples' Retreat" and I wanted to see "Zombie Land" I was not very excited about this movie however I figured even if it was terrible it couldn't be worse than the alternative.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. John C. Reilly is always at least marginally entertaining, and he really appears to be enjoying his role as Crepsley the vampire. Chris Massoglia does a good job playing the reluctant vampire-to-be Darren Shan, the only character that didn't really do it for me was the obnoxiously mysterious Mr. Tiny played by Michael Cervais however it may have been how the character was written as opposed to how he was portrayed.

The story follows a teen aged boy as circumstances force him to become a vampire set against the backdrop of a war between vampires who don't believe in killing their victims and vampires who do kill their victims, also called the vampaneze. 

The one thing that really grabbed me about this film was how the vampires were stylized, their powers are a little different from what they can do in most popular fiction. This is also why Twilight was so popular, however Cirque Du Freak appealed to me where Twilight could not, probably because it isn't completely retarded.  Despite being a movie aimed at young adults the flm had some really cool action scenes, with vampires fighting each other with their razor sharp and indestructible claws and super speed, there is also a scene where John C. Reilly and his evil counterpart have a knife fight, throwing and catching the same knife at each other several times while they slowly walk towards each other, this scene in particular struck me as really cool. 

To make a long story short I think this film was very entertaining and I reccommend that if you don't see it in theatres you at least rent it.

Obscure Music Roundup Part 2

Part 1: Portland Pride

Ok folks time for some more obscure music.  First off the bat is Ether Circus, a band recently brought to my attention by my wife who is somehow related to the drummer/ organist. Of course when she asked me to take a look at this band I groaned inwardly because when it comes to musical tastes Danielle and I are a little bit like oil and water.  However these guys are legit.  They are a little like hardcore punk however more approachable and with an organ that kind of gives it a trippy and distinctly original type of feel that sets it apart from your average dime a dozen punk band.

Besides the Organ, the other instruments are well polished and the lyrics and vocals are what I would expect from a standard above-average punk throwback band.

Definitely check these guys out at

http://www.myspace.com/etherfuckingcircus  Give the song "the Quarry" a listen.



Part 2: The cLOUDDEAD diaspora. 

So last time on Obscure Music Roundup we were introduced to cLOUDDEAD, the flagship artist of the anticon record label.  This week we are going to take a look at Doseone, Why? and Odd Nosdam the 3 men who made up this legendary indie experimental group and have gone on in completely different yet equally weird directions. 

First up is Yoni Wolf the headman for Why? and former cLOUDEAD member.

This guy is a good song writer however he is really really weird:. His lyrics are more about creating some kind of image in your head than in really conveying a coherent idea, its actually a little bit like avant guard poetry and expressive imagery set to music.


Here's a music video



and another:



This is just a song but is its one of my favorites:




The next artist we'll be examining is Doseone, who is more Pure Hip-Hop as opposed to Why? 's Indie rock leanings also due to the fact that he is a hip hop artist he is a little more constrained to use lyrics that make a little more sense and have to rhyme more consistently. His delivery is a little lacklustre if you ask me compared to his time in clouddead. 


He is probably my least favorite of the three former members of cLOUDDEAD




The comments after this video say it all: "He makes me feel dumb all the time but I learned many words from him and use them all the time ^.^" -Some jackass.


This one is pretty solid:




Last but definitely not least is Odd Nosdam the former DJ of cLOUDDEAD, His beats go from bordering on hip hop to being more like ambient music.  He is very popular with skateboarders due to the fact that he was featured in the skate video "This is My Element" sponsered by element skate boards.  He did the music for all the skaters in the video, the soundtrack was also released as and album called the T.I.M.E. soundtrack.  It is very approachable music offering a little something for everyone.   

This is a sweet hip hop track along with a fan vid:





Here is a little bit of ambient experimental with a guest vocalist:



and some more of the same:



And finally one of his songs from the T.I.M.E. soundtrack:




Finally to end this post on a gansta note. Felipe Coronel a.k.a. Immortal Technique the Peruvian born battle rapper and current president of Viper Records. The reason you may not have heard of Tech, even though you should have is because his raps are mostly about social justice, politics, and how much major all the record labels can pretty much suck it. If you are either really liberal, or think that corporations are the devil than you will probably really enjoy this music. His quick wits and inventive beats are what really set him apart in a hip hop market that is oversaturated with mediocre artists.

An older song featuring Mos Def



Heres a song I mentioned in an older post about Pumpkinhead who is also in this song:



Another older one with what is possibly the funkiest beat ever and some hilarious lyrics hating on record labels and Bill O'Reilly featuring Pinnochio (seriously).



A more Serious song one of the best as far as rhymes are concerned:



Last but not least is my favorite song of his just because the beat is so intense:

Paranormal Activity Review

Ok so tonight I went to go see "Paranormal Activity" and I have to say that it lived up to its expectations.  It was very frightning,  and did a lot of things that really resonate with me and with what I think true horror should be about.  First, the acting was rock solid, the actors were also a couple of unknowns, Im sure their IMDB probably has a pretty hefty resume with various television appearances etc, but at a first glance I had no idea who these people were.  The fact that you have no idea who these people are helps to sell the second factor that makes this film really work.  The movie is shot on what is meant for us to  believe is a single camcorder, the picture is grainy and there are no multiple angle shots. However this does not create much of a problem, the employment of a tripod captures much of the action in third person, and the first person view helps to obscure the action enough to make it horrifying, however it does not jump around so much to make the film frustrating on a "Cloverfield" type of level.  This combined with the unknown and yet skilled actors is what really makes this film feel real and complete. 

We have established that the film feels real, but the thematic elements employed in the film and the writing are what really drive it and take that real feeling and amplify it and make it terrifying.  A friend of mine said that the movie was boring and I can see why some people would get that idea, the majority of the movie is just suspense and rising action leading you on with more and more tension.  Be advised that while this movie is definitely really scary, it does take a great deal of patience to reach the payoff. 

This thing is bad news...

By far the thing that will either make or break this flick for you is the "less is more"  approach to horror that has been so absent the past few years in horror cinema.  This film really uses the viewers own imagination against them, the majority of the weird scary stuff happens off screen, and the monster itself is invisible.  For people with vivid imaginations such as myself, this creates a creature in their mind that is completely horrifying.  Then again the filmmakers do show a shadow of the creature, and they also show the footprints of it which give you a little bit to work with in your mind.



In all I think that this is a genious work of low budget character driven horror.  If you are more frightened by what a hollywood special effects shop can cook up as opposed to your own dark imaginings you may be disappointed, and if you need nonstop action you will also be disapointed.  However if a sense of impeding dread and doom punctuated by creepy happenings and the slow degeneration of two characters sounds like something you wouldnt mind watching you will probably get scared good and hard.  The ending of this movie is where all the payout is at and where you will really be left looking in your backseat nervously when you get in the car on the way out of the theatre.


Oh yeah and according to IMDB.com this guy right here:

         Left his screening early because he got too scared...

Obscure Music Roundup!!!!!!!

Ok folks its been awhile since my last update and I know that I promised some reviews of new movies, however I am poor as hell right now so instead its time for me to introduce you to some crazy music that you may or may not have heard of, and that I can write about for free. Just a disclaimer, I am not an expert on many of these bands, in fact I know little to nothing about most of them because I have one or two songs from a mixtape I picked up god only knows how long ago.  The purpose of this post is to expose people to something new and weird.

For Example you may have heard a little snippit of this following song for the commercial to skate 2, the song is called "Ince Ince" by Selda Bagcan, a turkish folk singer. (You will soon see that for some reason I love Turkish music) Anyway just give the song a listen, its like a crazy middle eastern Jefferson Airplane or something. I first heard this song on a Cd given to me by a friend, he thought it was a mix of Israeli music, I was able to figure out that it was mostly Turkish music, but it was virtually impossible to get any information about the album itself or any of the artists featured on it.  All I know is that 90% of them kicked some serious ass. 





Here is the song remixed slighty by "Dr. No's Experiment" Awesome. 



Ok time to get away from turkish music for a second and onto the good old USA, Another band that I think is really interesting and definitely an aquired taste is cLOUDDEAD (dont ask me why they capitalize it like that).  This band is a trip... very experimental hip hop that borders on noise at times with some bizarre beats and distortion effects.  If I had to call this band anything I guess it would be Sludge-Hip Hop fusion. Anyway anyone who is familiar with the Anticon Label may know these guys or may know the 3 members of the band individually as Why? Odd Nosdam and DoseOne. 









Now, Onto one of my favorite Genres, METAL
First off we have Acid Drinkers, which is a polish metal band with weird accents and a crazy eastern european sense of humor.
These guys have a rediculous amount of original material with 6 albums that I know of, they may have even more that I havent found, they are also willing to cover just about any song that you can think of, on youtube they have covers of Kashmir, Ace of Spades, Proud Mary, NIB, and others. These guys were definitely heavily influenced by classic rock and 80's power metal and traditional heavy metal.




This is my Favorite of their songs:





Time to throw in some thrash metal, from Turkey no less. this is Mezarkabul (The Pentagram)



And for the Coup De Grace, one of the most hardcore badass black metal bands that scandanavia has ever graced us with, Antestor. Wait a minute is this a Christian Black metal Band? it seems like a contradiction but I guess life is full of contradictions. The band is still completely rad if you like black metal however so give it a listen.







Okay Navigating away from Metal, here is a little Erkin Koray, another singer from Turkey who is known for his psychadelic style and his electric baglama, his album Elektronik Turkuler is a must for people who like either psychadelic music, middle eastern instrumentation coupled with a healthy dose of experimentation (and probably drugs).





And if you have not watched a single one of these videos I would really recommend not to pass this one up:
Fast forward to 4:40 to hear what may be the one of the sweetest breakdowns in music.  Really what makes the breakdown so sweet however is the 4 minutes of weird crap you have to listen to to get to it first though so I reccomend the whole song.




Last but not least, I recently stumbled across a rapper from Alberta Canada that Does a pretty good job expounding on the Wu-Tang obsession with Kung-Fu and well crafted beats.  Of course his delivery could use less fake hip hop bravado and his guest rappers are generally better than him but still, I give you: White Lotus.





More Obscure Music Roundup to come sometime in the future... Stay Tuned.

The Days, The Nights.

So today I found out that I had my first request.  The request was to review "The Days The Nights"  a band based out of Portland, OR.  Of course this brought me to a realization, since people asking me to review things may have a vested interest in something receiving a good review. This leaves me with a dilemma, Should I help people I know out  by giving good reviews and possibly damage my integrity, or should I be brutally honest and damage projects that may be important to friends?

Well its not going to be a problem this time because this band is pretty solid.  Of course if you have my type of tastes and are more into Sizzla and Immortal Technique this band will probably turn you right off.  However if you are down with the Murder City Devils, or The Queens of the Stoneage this band might really do something for you.

For this review I only had the rather limited sample of four songs that are up on their Myspace page, but I will detail what I liked about them here.

"Her Name is Alice"  - Okay I can see why this song has the most plays out of all of the songs on their page.  It has a pretty sweet hook right off the bat, its got some heavy distortion and your basic hard rock instrumentation, the lyrics are nothing to write home about however the delivery of the lyrics makes this song shine. It is a little bit too long for me but maybe you have a longer attention span.  

"Greenlight" Again the guitar riffs in this song are catchy, this time the vocals could be improved. The bridge about 2:25 into the song actually really took me by suprise with an almost Muse-esqe chord progression and tempo change that was very pleasing to the ear.

"You Should Ask Yourself"  This song seems to be an attempt at showcasing the vocal talents of the lead singer however it lacks the interesting riffs and hooks which immediately caught our attention in the first two songs other songs, leaving this song alas, a bit mediocre, of course it has its moments, a interesting breakdown before a guitar solo that while not that impressive is probably the perfect length helps to break up the song so it is not monotonous.  By the end I was actually enjoying it bit more than I was at the beginning.

 "One Last Kiss" A little more punkish with less emphasis on trying to harmonize; makes this song the most unique of the four  It is nice and upbeat with a good catchy chorus and it is the perfect length to hold the attention of the listener. However the song is soured by the screaming at the end which I can never accept by any band besides 'System of A Down"  period.  This song was still good however it was my least favorite of the four. 

The Days the Nights will be playing Corvallis at a venue near you on December the 10th check them out.   







 

Pandorum (GO SEE IT)

Tonight I saw pandorum and wow I have not seen such a good sci-fi thriller/horror film since Event Horizon.  I am completely serious when I say that any fan of horror and especially fans of scifi-horror should go see this film immediatly.  In fact I would actually put this flim before Event Horizon in the sci fi horror film pantheon and say that it ranks up there with alien.

The first ten to twenty minutes of this film will scare the shit out of you. Yes thats right; a horror flick that actually scares you instead of just grossing you out.  We have returned from the blighted wasteland of Eli Roth and Darren Bousman to the land of the genuine scare instead of the simply disgusting gross-out snuff flick horror that has dominated hollywood for the past few years.

To be honest this film isn't completely original due to the fact that it is "The Decent" in space. However if you have seen "The Decent" you know that it completely kicks ass, and you might not mind seeing something similar in the sci fi genre.  So if you dont mind watching that same damn thing plus a crazy mind screwing ending that you probably won't see coming; I would definitely fork out the 8 bux to see this immediately.

As far as acting goes in this film Dennis Quaid does a good job acting but is far surpassed by Ben Foster, and pretty much everyone else in this film. Also the character played by Cung Le establishes himself as a bad ass early on and does not disappoint by the end. I give the acting for the film an A-. I was totally impressed by what I thought was going to be B film material.



Again. If you like scifi-horror, go see this film immediately. 

Album Review: Pumpkin Head's Orange Moon Over Brooklyn

Its been awhile since I downloaded any underground hiphop, so when I got an Itunes gift certificate I took the opportunity to look up Pumpkinhead. You may be familiar with Pumpkinhead if you are a fan of Immortal Technique, he was on the tracks "Peruvian Cocaine" and "The Illest" and he impressed me, however I was never able to find any of his solo work before deciding to pony up some money to apple.  The Itunes page has 4 reviews giving the album 5 stars; one of said reviews compared this album to the 36 Chambers by The Wu-Tang Clan, and Madvillany by Madvillan a.k.a MF Doom.  With those types of comparisons I was obviously very excited to give this thing a spin, sadly I was a little let down. 

What impressed me about PH when he was making guest appearances on other albums, and on the only other song of his I owned was his upbeat and quick inventive rhymes. However the style of Marco Polo his DJ was very downbeat and slow which does not compliment PH's style.  Pumpkinhead just dosen't really shine in many of the tracks and I have a feeling its because the beats are so homogenous and  uninventive. This isn't to say all the songs are duds, here are the highlights:


Track 2: Authentic
 This beat is a little bit boring but it manages to keep your attention for the first half of the song and it at least uses some sounds uncommon to the rest of the album such as a xylophone, the rhymes are good but not great.

Track 3: I Just Wanna Rhyme
This song features sampling from Nas' One Mic which is one of the few samples on the album, If Marco Polo had replicated this approach and used some more samples to spice up his beats and create interest the album would have been much better.

Track 4: Trifactor
This song features Wordsworth and Supastition, generally as a rule any song on the album that brings in other rappers has the type of variety to keep you interested.  The beat has strings in it which help to create interest as well, however asthetically something about this song left a bad taste in my mouth.

Track 9: Swordfish
The beat on this song reminds me of something from Ong-Bak, it has a eastern type of feel this is probably my favorite track on the entire album.  The chorus features high speed rhymes that showcase some skill on PH's part.

Track 15: Anthem for the End of the World Featuring Jean-Grae
Another track with some sampling in it, this is a slow song but the lyrics are well thought out and serious in nature, the beat is a little more distinct than some of the others by Marco Polo but the rhymes are what make this worth a listen.   


His Label is Located Here.

Album Review: The Journey: The very best of Sizzla

This is why I love Pandora radio so much, because it helps me find great music like this.  Sizzla came up on my Buju Banton radio station the other day and I was so intrigued that I had to learn more about him.  He is supposedly a dancehall artist but on this particular album he seems to be channeling Bob Marley more than Bounty Killer.  This actually serves him well because he has the vocal chops to stand up as a peer to Bob Marley in fact when he gets too many synthesizers and dancehall elements into his songs it actually takes away from them in my opinion.   He creates a distinctly old school reggae sound by incorporating real instruments in with his electronic sounds and by utilizing some very talented back up singers to really hammer home the melodic choruses that are common in his songs.  The tone on this album is very Rastafarian with most songs involving praising Jah, Selassie and Rastafari. 

Sizzla's voice work is pretty exquisite, he almost takes a R&B approach to many of his songs, and his vocal range is impressive to say the least, in the song "like mountain" he utilizes quick upbeat rhymes in a driving beat; while on the track Be Strong he utilizes an impressive falsetto over a slightly latin sounding guitar and classic reggae instrumentation.  In all it is safe to say that Sizzla's vocal prowess is advanced and he knows how to use it to keep the listener interested.

The tracks that I like on this album are:

1) Just One of Those Days (Dry Cry)

This song is a straight up classic reggae throwback, complete with reggae instrumentation a minimum of electronic tinkering if any,  It also comes complete with skilled background singers and showcases Sizzla's vocal range.  This is also one of the only songs not concerning Rastafarianism on the album instead being a "Missing You" type of regretful love song.

2) The Solution

A little bit more Hip-Hop than Dry Cry, this one utilizes mellow reggae instrumentation as well with minimal electronic meddling.  The lyrics are what make this along with the heartfelt delivery.

3) Ain't Gonna See us Fall

Getting into more dancehall territory with this slow jam, electronic manipulation is a little more evident, the beat is pretty sick, and the intro really gets your attention right away. Vocal work on this track is exquisite and the lyrics are great.

 4) Love is Divine

This song uses a drum machine in more dance hall influenced beats but also uses instruments in a Reggae influenced manner, the intro gets your attention right away and the lyrics again are very good. The vocal work besides the intro isn't as interesting but this is one of my favorite songs on the Album nonetheless.

If you like Reggae, I would strongly recommend checking out Sizzla and this album in particular. 

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

 Over the last couple days I took the time to read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, My interest was immediately piqued by the description on the back, a psychotic child murderer loose on an Alcatraz-esqe island. Of course the fact that it was going to be put on film by Scorsese starring Leonardo Dicaprio also got me interested.  This book was a great read, however if you read the description you may be expecting something a little along the lines of "Silence of the Lambs." This is not the case however in fact the book comes of a little more along the lines of "Memento." The story reads great however despite being a little slow at times this only helps to accelerate the story straight into the mindbender of an ending.  Although I am not a big fan of thrillers, this book is obviously what makes the genre so popular; and I would strongly recommend picking it up.

Forests of Mystery: A hidden Gem?

So today I was on Facebook and I saw an ad for Forests of Mystery which mentioned something about mysterious happenings in forests near Tillimook, this intrigued me and I clicked on it. It led me to a web based series called Forests of Mystery.

Done in a Blair Witch pseudodocumentary form this show really took me by suprise.  It is done by amateurs and the acting and production values obviously reflect that, however the writing is actually pretty good, So far what seems to unfold is a mystery regarding malevolent and somewhat lovecraftian forces in a specific area in the tillimook forest that two young research assistants are trying to investigate.  So far there are 5 webisodes online. The first one had me instantly hooked as soon as I saw it.  The following 4 webisodes are more of a build up to some sort of revelation that we will have to wait for.  What also makes this interesting is that forests of mystery's facebook and webpage are designed in a way that presents the story as a true documentary, complete with interviews with experts that seem to be both real and fake, and even a link to a fake website purportedly run by the crazy man that they interview in episode 4.  It is this format with both facebook, the webpage, and the show itself all informing each other and all being completely devoted to portraying this as "truth" which really breaks new ground with me.  Another thing to note is that the camera work is actually done pretty damn well, the camera shakes and doesn't always capture what is going on completely, however this is only done enough to aid in the plot and to really help drive home the "real" feeling of the series.  There is a nice little jab at Cloverfield in the first episode when Dewey tells cameraman Jeff to hold the camera still so people don't puke. 

Of course the show could benefit with better actors in the supporting roles. However the two main characters do their job solidly and the writing is pretty damn good if you like lovecraft-esqe weird fiction, some people may be frustrated with this because it really just creates more questions than it answers.  I am impatiently waiting for the next webisodes to be posted. If I were you I would be watching these guys because they really may go somewhere with this. 

www.forestsofmystery.com



Edit: visit the links on their webpages to get the whole experience. 

Halloween 2 (Spoilers)

So last night I decided to go out and watch what could have either been an awesome horror remake or a piece of absolute garbage.  Unfortunately Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 didn't exactly come out smelling like roses. Don't get me wrong, while Rob Zombie's over the top gore and brutal violence are usually a little bit too much for me I respect him alot, The Devil's Rejects was a great film however disturbing it might be, and his first Halloween remake made a really good impression with me.  This film however was not executed correctly.  The beginning of the movie showed alot of promise, taking place in the familiar hospital setting that helped to make the original Halloween 2 so cool.  Michael Meyers obviously shows up and starts brutalizing everyone in sight, unfortunately this turns out to be just a dream that his younger sister and would-be victim from the first flick is having.  From then on out the film gets a little bit boring, so there are some stabbings, but they are all just about exactly the same, Meyers' sister Laurie has a few more nightmares that would be disturbing if the acting was better.

Speaking of the acting in the film, there were ups and downs, mostly downs. For one In all honestly the actress playing Laurie Strode pissed me off so much I hoped Mike would just come put a knife in her and get it over with. My next issue: Rob, stop putting your wife into films, she may be attractive but she can't act to save her own life.  The writing was cheesy at points too, there were so many F-bombs that I began to wonder if Mr. Zombie knows any other words, he wrote F*** into that film so many times that any emotional emphasis made by the characters was lost completely when they would shout out some expletive.   The psychological aspect of this film with the dreams and hallucinations of both Meyers and his sister come off as cheesy and forced and detract from the film instead of helping drive the plot.  Of course there is a lot of violence, but it is not even very creative, Michael Meyers is a great character because he is both creative in his violence and brutal at the same time,  this film only showcases the brutality with Michael killing the majority of his victims by stabbing them in exactly the same way after a minimal amount of stalking. There are problems with the music as well, the movie really could have benefited from using the original score which gives a creepy and suspenseful feel to the original, the only time that the score really helped the movie was when "Knights in White Satin" was playing during the hospital scene, giving it a really dreamy and unpleaseant feeling.


Of course this movie isn't all bad.  I thought that Malcolm Mcdowell brought his A game in playing doctor Loomis, despite the real problems with the  writing for the character and his transformation from a main character and an okay dude to a more tertiary role as a huge asshole. I was also impressed by Brad Dourif as the sherriff, who managed to make his character actually seem 3 dimensional despite the shit writing.  In all I would say that while this may scare some folks, If you really want to be frightened look to something else, if you are a fan of the Halloween franchise I would rent this but don't bother seeing it in theatres.

The Wolfman By Nicholas Pekearo

Last night I picked up a book titled "The Wolfman" by Nicholas Pekearo at Albertsons and read it at work.  I have to say that it was a pretty exciting read. There is also a sad story behind the book Pekearo wrote this particular story and was then shot shortly afterwards working as a volunteer police officer in New York.  He had originally intended this book to be the first in a series which sadly will never see the light of day.  The book still stands on its own rather well despite the tragic story behind its authors' death.  While I was skeptical for the first forty pages or so after that the author really seemed to get into a groove and some of his lines really shine.  I found myself laughing at the sardonic main character and his witty comments and horribly foul mouth.  One thing that struck me however is that the writers youthfulness rubbed off on his character making him seem more like a twenty something than a forty year old vet. This and a few unclear or slightly rediculous passages (like the first sentance) take a little bit of wind out of the sails but not much, I found myself to be riveted at certain points and dying to find out what happens next.  Unfortunately we will never know what happens the the Marlow Higgins after he leaves town at the end of the book beacause some sick bastard took it upon himself to open fire on the young author before his book even hit shelves, cutting short what could have been an illustrious career in horror fiction given just a little more experience and practice under Pekearo's belt.  As an added bonus at the end of the book is an essay written by Pekearo about why he became a volunteer cop and why it is important to him, which I found to be soul-crushingly sad, but in a beautiful kind of way.  Definitely run out to the local bookshelf and fork out the 8 bucks for this book ASAP.

Mercury Man

Ok so today I watched the movie Mercury Man which is a film done by Sahamongkol Film and Baa-ram-ewe productions.  Of course Sahamongkol films was responsible for Ong-Bak, Tom Yum Goong (The Protector), Born to Fight, and Chocolate.  Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong are possibly 2 of the top 10 best marital arts films ever.  Mercury Man also boasts Panna Rittikrai the mentor of Tony Jaa and stunt coordinatior for Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong as the stunt coordinator in this film.  Of course even though this film does have some good fights in it and you can definitely see Rittikrai's fingerprints all over this film's stunts it falls flat on so many other levels that I couldn't enjoy it.  For one the plot was not well written and was overtly convoluted for what it was trying to accomplish.  Another problem is that unlike Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong, this film uses special effects heavily; this becomes a problem when B-rate special effects are used for the superhero action scenes.  Even with Panna Rittikrai behind the stunts in this film, the action cannot live up to the other films coming out of thailand right now because the cinematography does not do a good job complimenting the stunts.  There are a few scenes in this film worth watching, but prepare yourself for disappointment if you are a fan of any other marital arts films coming out of Thailand recently.

9, and Food Inc.

So today I saw 2 flicks, the first was the animated movie 9 and the second was Food Inc.

9 was really a disapointment, It only had 2 things going for it, it had amazing visuals and an interesting premise; however the execution was very poor. For one it was too short, the story felt rushed, for example 9 awakens one day and stumbles out into the world where he meets the other various numbered ragdoll people and within a day they all treat him as if they have known him for years.  Elija Woods'  voice acting also seemed forced, It didn't really feel like anything he said was authentic and everytime 9 opened his mouth I could picture him standing in a recording booth reading lines off of a script.  The storyline in 9 had some potential but unfortunately things were not well explained, and the ending felt like some kind of cop-out because the writers couldn't think of an ending, also it was a huge downer when it could have easily been reconciled to be at least a little bit happier.  In conclusion the premise was interesting and the visuals really shine during the action scenes but this is not enough to really draw you in completely or make up for the lackluster feel of the story.

Food Inc. on the other hand was great.  For a documentary it was really engaging with excellent production values.  Also the film does not rely on gross out tactics by showing animals being brutally slaughtered.  There are a few instances of footage of animals being abused however they are not what makes up the bulk of the movie. What really disturbs the viewer in this film is the various people who had their lives destroyed by large agricultural conglomorates for various asinine reasons.  Another huge plus is that the film is very bipartisan, democrats and republicans are both shown in positive and negative light an equal amount.  It was a tad bit long and viewers may find themselves getting a little fidgety by the end however it is definitely worth watching to see who owns what we eat and where what we eat comes from.  I think that this film should be shown in public schools so everyone can learn the truth about industrial agriculture.

Heres an older review taken from my facebook page, the flick is still in theatres though so see it quick.

I had the good luck to randomly ask Danielle to go see this movie last night, we went to go see "Moon" starring Sam Rockwell at the Dark Side Cinema in Corvallis. This movie was a very pleasant surprise. As an independent film I was expecting Moon to have some lower production values, especially in a sci-fi movie that seemed to call for some pretty demanding special effects. Moon's effects were great, the music was the perfect eerie score to help underscore the theme of isolation and mystery and slight menace that permeates the entire film. In the end the music and the special effects would have been nothing without Sam Rockwell's excellent performances in his multiple roles; I cant really go into the details of what i found so impressive or the plot may be given away, but suffice to say Rockwell did an excellent job and turned an interesting yet slightly predictable plot into an intense eerie and sometimes creepy drama. Kevin Spacey also makes an appearance doing the voice overs for Rockwell's robot helper and did a really solid job at it as well.

I definitely recommend that you look up Moon in your area and go see it before it is out of theaters. Below is the trailer for those that are interested.

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/moon/trailer.html

Samurai 2

Ok, folks I have just finished watching Samurai 2: Duel at Ichioji Temple and I have one thing to say:
TURN UP THE BRIGHTNESS ON YOUR TV.  Seriously, the lighting in some of the most climactic and crucial fight scenes is absolutely ATROCIOUS. I understand that Samurai like to fight it out at either dusk or dawn but come on get some lights on that scene.

Other than this glaring problem the movie was great. Mifune is a great samurai yet again; probably because he is so good at looking so damn pissed off.  Ok maybe there is more to it than that, he can actually show a pretty solid range of emotions and he's got that really deep japanese badass voice that a good samurai actor needs to have. Of course the romantic subplot is developed and becomes more complex and the characters that were all seperated througout the first movie start to come back together. Also some of the stylistic signatures that we expect to see in a samurai film start to make an appearance such as duels consisting of a couple feints and then one decisive slice; and of true sword technique being displayed instead of just raw slashing and fighting.  In all this is a great movie, I will probably have to watch it again though because the darkness of some of the shots ruined a few scenes for me.

Samurai 1

I watched the movie Samurai 1 the other day, as I was watching the sequel, cleverly named Samurai 2 I decided I would review it here. Samurai 1 is the tale of Musashi Miyamoto, a Japanese folk hero. I read the book attributed to Musashi "The Book of Five Rings" in it he claims to have killed over a hundred different people in duels and fights and is believed to be the best swordsman who ever lived.  Of course when you are dealing with a historical figure and folk hero, who happens to be the best fencer to ever live, it is not exactly hard to come up with an interesting movie, add to the mix that Toshiro Mifune one of the best samurai-actors of all time stars in the lead role and you have a recipe for a masterpiece.

Obviously you can see where I am going with this, the film is great.  If you are a fan of stylistic elements of films like Afro Samurai, Kill Bill or the pulp samurai adventures characterized in movies like Shogun Assasin in the 70's you may be a little disappointed because this movie is a character driven narrative, focusing on the growth of Musashi from headstrong outlaw to upstanding retainer.  Also the highly stylized fighting we see in martial arts movies today is lacking with the few fights in the movie consisting of people slashing wildly in a mad free for all.  The fights seem like true struggles in this movie, they may not be meticulously choreographed or full of stylish flourishes however they do have their own legitimate sense of realism. The score to the film is great as well. It gives the movie an epic type of feel and actually brings to mind the often cited similarity between Samurai films, and the American Western film. 


There are a few problems with this film. I do take a little issue with the fact that the majority of his maturing and growth takes place in the 3 seconds it takes "3 years later" to flash across the screen towards the end of the movie. Also some of the shots are painfully dim, making it difficult to tell who is who or what is going on.
These problems aside, the film is a wonderful work of art and a window into midievel Japan and one of Japan's greatest historical figures.  

Ok I lied.

So I will actually post some content today; its kind of a cop out because it is just a link to another page however you should really check this page out because it is HILARIOUS.  Of course i need to qualify that statement; it is hilarious in all caps if you think that stupid fanfics and people on the internet making fun of them is hilarious.  Really I cant even begin to explain to you what this is you just need to read it for yourself. Also if you have ever written a fanfic... Please never return here again.

First read the backstory here:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2974771

Then read this awful piece of garbage in comic book form in an attempt to immortalize its god-awfulness forever:   
http://chr.nerdramblingz.com/


That should keep you busy for awhile. 

First Post

Ok, so on a whim I decided to whip up this little monstrosity so I could impress my views and values onto you people, every so often I'm going to review a movie, album, pretty much any type of mass media that I see fit so all those Philistines out there can get schooled in the ways of a counter culture loving pulp fiction devotee such as myself.  Any requests for things to be reviewed, original works or whatever will be honored to the best of my ability... Anyway I have been awake for a rediculous amount of time and there won't be anything forthcoming until I get some rest.  Keep it real out there.