Good news!

I'm relieved- earlier in the week John Barleycorn shut down his blog, Look Back in Anger. I thought he was done blogging, but he started a new blog John Barleycorn Reborn. So far every post has been great (for whatever reason I think his best posts have one-word-titles and that's what's on the new blog.

It's good to have JB back.

Big Plans

In honor of the 3 week anniversary of this blog, later this week I'll be posting my first review of a movie I did see; I'm very excited.

Also there will be some general 4AD posts.

Stay tuned.

"Dig For Fire"

I'm always excited to find a remix version of a song I like. My first experience with remixes was when I found the 12" section at my local Strawberries. I had no idea about them so I was thrilled to find the Madonna "Open Your Heart" 12" single- it was like the 45 with the same black and blue photo and a 10 minute-plus version.

What I liked about that remix, as opposed to other song remixes I've heard over the years is that it kept the basic sound of the original- it just stretched it out and changed things around (and in the case of OYH, it added an couple of new lines).

What I don't like about certain remixes is when they take the original song and just add some generic dance/techno background, for instance, the "Rescue Me" remixes.

Remixes of rock songs- or at least rock songs I like- are rare. There's my favorite: "Slow Dog (Radio Remix)" by Belly; it was the B-side to "Gepetto". It had a fast intro and a fade at the end.

Another is from the Throwing Muses Not Too Soon EP- "Him Dancing (Remix)" an extended version, about twice the length of the original.

Then there's the Pixies "Dig For Fire (Remix)" which aside from the intro isn't that different. Still, just the idea of a Pixies remix is exciting to me. Plus the EP had a couple really good B-sides- "Santo" & "Winterlong".

These are just a few DFF-related pictures.

Don't go Look Back in Anger

This afternoon I went to check one of my favorite blogs and it was gone. There had been a post mentioning that "Look Back In Anger" was done but I was hoping it was just gonna be a name change. A couple weeks ago he had written about a couple other people, including Dave Lozo, deleting their blogs.

I'd found the writer through myspace- his brothers screen name was a quote that I recognized from The West Wing; his page led me to John Barleycorn, who I wrote to, asking if he took the name from the Frank Black song. We talked a couple times and he seemed like a nice guy but I didn't want to be a pest and end being the subject of a blog post.

I'll miss LBiA; for two years I enjoyed all the posts- except for the ones about video games, which I skipped.

Hopefully, it'll be back, maybe under a new name, we'll see.

I'm crushing hard

I want to be clear on the fact that I'm not receiving any compansation for the following post. I want to make it even clearer that I'll say anything in this blog if the price is right.

I love the new Camel Crush. I fell in love about 3 weeks ago after a friend introduced us. He explained,"They're like regular cigarettes till you press down on the filter and it turns into a menthol". There's, I guess, a small plasic ball inside filled with menthol, and even though menthols are nasty, I love a good gimmick.

I'll take a couple puffs, then crush. I love the way that *pop* feels. It doesn't matter that it's menthol. For all I care it could be bleach or ammonia or a combination of the two. *Pop* Mmmmmm.

Its not all 4AD and Paisley Park here

I didn't hear the Sugarcubes till "Hit" in 1991. I picked up their last album Stick Around For Joy from a tape club I belonged to at the time. I like it but I remember it seeming very same-sounding at first. "Walkabout" & "Hetero Scum" were favorites back then; now the songs that stand out are "Lucky Night" & "Happy Nurse".

Before I go any further, I wanna make it clear: I love the Sugarcubes. Listening to them make me very happy. But why does that guy have to talk/sing in every fucking song? I wish Elektra would re-release each album with his voice remixed out. They can leave him in for "Gold", "Pump", & "Hot Meat". That's it.

Also, by the time I got It's It, their remix collection in 1994 it was already dated. Some other time we'll get into remixes of rock songs. For now I just wanna say, if you haven't heard any of their songs try "Bee" from Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week. Or just buy the whole album; you can probably find it for under $5.

My least favorite sub-plot

AMC is playing all the Godfathers again tonight; watching Part II reminded me of, what I consider, the most annoying sub-plot in some movies:
The complaining wife.

Think of a movie like Donnie Brosco- good movie, interesting story. So how come every 15 there's another scene with Anne Heche whining that Johnny Depp isn't around enough? Instead, couldn't there be just one line of dialogue, maybe Johnny saying to a co-worker at the FBI, "Yeah, my wife is pissed cause she never sees me".

I didn't see all of JFK but I think the same thing happens there. There are other movies too, but I can't think of them right now. If you think of one let me know.

The thing is, whatever it is that the main character is doing, whatever their main purpose is- that's why we're watching the movie. Who wants to keep hearing, "You never spend any time with me & the kids"?

One week anniversary

This Saturday- October 18, 2008- is the one week anniversary of the birth of this blog. Incidently, the delivery was brutal; I was in labor for 18 hours, and frankly, there was some tearing.

I'm still sore, but tonight, God willing, my "doctor" will "prescribe" something for the pain. Stick a fork in me; I won't feel it. I'd like for the next couple days to be like one long Aimee Mann song.

Anyway, it's gonna be a big day. See the space between this sentence and the last? It doesn't look like much distance- but in between writing those two sentences I thought for 3 full minutes about 3D porn. I wonder if there is any; I'll look it up later. I was just thinking: it would be awful to get caught jerking off and wearing 3d glasses.

But like I was saying, Saturday is gonna be huge. Stop by, and please, bring whatever leftover bottles you've got in your medicine cabinet. We'll go through them together and see what's what.

While there are some blogs that I've been reading for years, this is all pretty new to me- like when other people link to past posts of theirs with highlighted text. To my mind, that must be something they took years to learn. I can Instant Message, download songs, & find free porn, but there are a lot of basic, Baaaasic things that are beyond my reach.

Anyway, my point is: someday I'll be able to- for example- place pictures in the middle of my text. Other blogs do it; I've seen it. It's probably simple. Someday I'll reach the level of simple. that's my promise to you, The Reader.

The focus of this blog will mostly be on record sleeves. Plus I'll be throwing in some of my other obsessions:
movie trivia
general trivia
3D movies

Did you know that Sherilyn Fenn dated Prince for a while and they continued to be friends afterwards (at least up to the point when she was on Twin Peaks). That seems so weird to me.

random Kristin Hersh

I really like the back of the In Shock EP, and even more I like the back of the Like You EP.

"Sunny Border Blue"

Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by RJ

When I think of Prince, I think of the big hair, the motorcycle, the purple jackets; I think of "Purple Rain"-era Prince.

I don't know if that was his best album, but it was definitely his best time overall. The B-sides were his best (except for "God"), and the sleeve design was the best (except for "Take Me With U").

"17 Days","Erotic City", & "Another Lonely Christmas" are three of my favorite songs to this day (though, while the other two have held up pretty well, "17 Days" seems slightly dated, also whenever I hear it, it seems so much slower than I remember- like when your walkman batteries are dying).

First I got the "Doves" 45- loved the back cover with all the flowers and that purple text. Even more, though, I loved the record label itself which was a section of that picture with the same pointy lettering. It was the 1st time that I had seen a label that wasn't the usual Sire or Portrait or Epic. Very exciting.

My new favorite show again

Tonight, my roommate was watching last night's episode of Desperate Housewives so I went in and watched it with him. Five minutes into it he had to press Pause because I was asking a thousand questions;
"Does what's-her-name still have cancer?"
"Whatever happened to Zack?"
"Susan has a son?"
"How did Carlos lose his vision?"
"It's 5 years later?"

I haven't watched DH since midway through the 2nd second season; I didn't lose interest, I just missed a few episodes and figured I'd catch up eventually. Which I did.

What I loved about the show is that it's so funny and I saw tonight that it's still the same. Bree is great.

The other thing I love is all the people that joined the cast, either for a few episodes or for good. Agent Cooper, Julia Sugarbaker, Aunt Jackie (plus Fisher), the weird guy from Band of Brothers, and most of all, Mrs. Landingham.

Did you know that Sheryl Lee, the actress who played Laura Palmer on Twin Peaks, was the supposed to play Mary Alice Young? I guess she even filmed some scenes for the original pilot. That would've been neat, a good idea, but they probably made the right choice- the woman who does the voice is perfect and I couldn't imagine anyone else doing it now.

It's October so...

...it's a good time to write about a horror movie. Jeepers Creepers (2001) was on yesterday and I got to see it all the way through. Not bad. I had seen a 1/2 an hour of it a few years ago and for whatever reason didn't catch the rest. I remember I thought the actor who played the brother, Justin Long, was the guy from The Doom Generation. Nope, that's somebody else.

I don't have much to say about the movie, but one thing always seemed odd to me and I could never figure it out: during the scene where the brother and sister are getting a police escort, the song "Peek-A-Boo" comes on the radio, but it's not Siouxsie and the Banshees. It's kind of a watered-down cover. I don't get that. Maybe the Siouxsie version was just too dated (yeah, 1988), maybe it's too weird with that accordian and everything. Still, I think the original version would've been more effective. It's loud and jarring.

On a side note, I used to share a room with my younger brother and and he'd be stuck listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees (not much like the Metalica and Megadeth that he liked). One time we were watching Beavis & Butthead and they were watching the video for "Peek-A-Boo"; one of them said, "This is music for people who don't have any friends", and my brother laughed and laughed.

Throwing Muses

Through Belly, I heard of Throwing Muses. I got one of their albums, Red Heaven, at a big record store about 20 miles away from home. I didn't know till I got to my car and opened it that it didn't have Tanya Donelly on it, she'd already left the band and this was their first record without her.

I listened to it on the way home, and while I wasn't crazy about the singer's voice there were a few songs I liked. Next I tried Hunkpapa, this one had two TD songs, one-"Angel"-that I really liked. Besides that, I also liked most of the Kristin Hersh songs-they were really interesting. I'd drive around with it in the tape player and when I was at school or walking around the songs would be playing in my head.

Whenever I went to this record store I'd be there for at least a 1/2 hour, looking at everything. I had looked at the tape for The Real Ramona probably five times over five different visits before I finally got it.

What was so strange about that album is that the tracks aren't listed on the outside at all. The tape just has the barcode, the CD back has a picture of the band gathered around a rock in the ocean.

I like that: It's just a basic black & gray design with a mysterious photo on the front and white letters-"Throwing Muses The Real Ramona". This was their third full length album and I like that the idea was, "We're not even gonna list the song titles; this is the new Throwing Muses album".

I think it's great; it's not my favorite TM record, but it's their most fun. I think Rolling Stone called it "their slap-happiest record to date" and that sounds about right.

Reviews of movies I've never seen: "Righteous Kill"

Righteous Kill (2008)

I've been wanting to review this movie ever since I saw the trailer and decided I didn't want to watch it. It's the movie everyone's been waitng for: Al & Robert, together for a full movie, not like The Godfather Part II where they had no scenes together, or even Heat where they shared the screen for about 10 minutes.

I'm basing this review on the trailers I've seen.

Turn-off #1: "Sympathy for the Devil". Right off the bat I'm annoyed that the movie studio is trying to make it seem like a Scorsese movie by playing a Rolling Stone song.

Turn-off #2: This looks like every shitty movie the two of them have been making for the past 10 years.

Turn-off #3: They don't mention that Pacino worked with the director on his last film: 88 Minutes (from earlier this year), a movie that critics hated and people avoided in droves.

Turn-off #4: They're playing cops, and clearly this isn't just a cop movie; it's all about loyalty and "the brotherhood".

Those two are getting old but that's not the point. They could each live another 60 years and I still don't think either of them will ever make another good movie.

"Hey, again, up for a spin?" Record labels

Spotlight on some cool record labels. One of them-the "Gepetto" 7"-I've got. I'd love to have that awesome one with the small red (poppy?) flowers.

1. "Divine Hammer" The Breeders
2. "Gepetto" Belly
3. "Hang On To Your Ego" Frank Black
4. "Now They'll Sleep" Belly
5. Surfer Rosa LP Pixies

Reviews of movies I've only seen parts of: "American History X"

American History X (1998)

American History X was on TV this afternoon and since nothing else was on I watched for a while, beginning during a whites vs. blacks basketball game and stopping at Edward Norton's arrest (plus I missed a few scenes while I was flipping around).

I'll be honest- many people recommended this movie to me over the years but I avoided it, and not because of Ed, or even because it's a "movie with a message" (which is, I guess: racism is wrong).

No, I stayed away all these years because one time I overheard some people at work talking about "the curbing". I heard a guy say that at one point in the movie a character is made to lay in the road and put his open mouth over the edge of a curb and he then gets stomped in the head. I love horror movies and action movies and I consider myself to be pretty tough. But this sounds like the most horrible thing in the world. I decided that day to never watch American History X.

I still don't know if that really happens in the movie, and if it's as extreme as he described it-I was out of the room making waffles and when I came back there was a guy laying in the street and Ed Norton was surrendering to the police.

Again, I have to say, I was unimpressed by Edward Norton's acting. He's never the guy, he's never the character, he's always the greatest actor of his generation giving yet another fearless performance.

You know who was good though: the other Edward (but have you seen pictures of him lately? Gigantic. Not as big as Corey Haim with his headband on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Idols, but close). He's very believable as the adoring younger brother.

Plus I couldn't get over how young Beverly D'Angelo looks. I think she's beautiful and I've loved her ever since the Vacation movies.

You know who was awful in this movie? What's-her-name with the weird name and the creepy eyes. Can't stand her.

Anyway, this is a movie with a message, with an overly dramatic title, and the music (like during the basketball scene) is ridiculous. Would I watch this movie all the way through? Yeah, I guess. I can probably even watch the curbing scene; it can't be any more upsetting than what I've been imagining all this time. I already know how it ends but that's fine; I've only seen the last 10 minutes of The Usual Suspects (which, I take it, is a surprise twist) and I'll watch that someday.

Reviews of movies I've never seen: "The Life of David Gale"

I've never seen The Life of David Gale (2003), not even flipping around on a Saturday afternoon, or-since I've been looking for a job-on a Wednesday afternoon.
All I knew about it at the time it came out was that it's a death penalty movie starring Kevin Spacey.

Thank you, but no.

I put Kevin Spacey in the category of actors who are considered great but seem totally unbelievable to me. Edward Norton's another one. Watching Red Dragon I could see him imagining his lines on the page. The script was practically in a balloon over his head. He wasn't any better in Primal Fear, the movie that put him on track to be the next big actor. Which reminds me, he was alright- just alright- in The Score, which I really liked.

Anyway, nobody was good in Primal Fear; in fact, I really disliked Laura Linney after seeing it, and I didn't realize that she isn't an asshole till I saw her in You Can Count on Me, and I only saw a 1/2 an hour of that. Laura Linney also stars in TLoDG. Is she any good in it? I don't know, I never saw it. She only appears in flashbacks, I'm guessing. Probably a lot of the movie is flashbacks; the rest probably takes place in a prison, possibly Death Row.

Before you get too impressed that I seem to magically know details of a movie I've never seen, I guess I should let you know: I read about the movie. I don't know exactly where it came to my attention, but I read somewhere that Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times hated this movie-0 stars. If I remember right, it was the ending, the very last shot, that bothered him. He didn't reveal details so I looked it up. Now I know, but like Brittany Murphy, I'll never tell.

This brings it back to why I didn't care about the movie in the first place: it's a death penalty movie. That's why I didn't want to see Dead Man Walking (I would like to rent Shocker, though). There's nothing worse than a movie with a message.

Frank Black "Headache"

The 1st two are the covers of the Headache EPs. The orange one is better as it's got 3 great b-sides, though the silver one is worth getting for "This Is Where I Belong".







These two are from the 7". I like them both, but I could do without the purple circle.

Review of movie that I didn't see all the way through

Primer (2004)
I started watching about halfway through. If I'd just been flipping around I would've instantly recognized it an IFC movie. I don't mean a movie made by IFC, though it might've been. I just mean it has that look. I've seen a lot of movies on IFC, some good, some bad; I'll watch any channel that plays uncut movies without commercials.

It's the typical IFC movie except it's about time travel. Actually, it's got a pretty good story, but here's where it falls apart. The dialogue, which is unspectacular, and the two main actors, who are fine but just not interesting to watch.

Would I watch it again from the beginning? Sure. But there's a lot of things I'd watch.

That Star tape I was talking about

I left out the red giant cause it's the same as the Sire tape. I left the green & black belly logos in cause it's such a good picture.

I could, I'll hook you up

I like Belly, but they're not really a favorite. there just aren't that many songs that I really, really like, and after King things dropped off a lot. So when Tanya Donelly started putting out solo records in 1996/1997, I didn't bother. First there was the Sliding & Driving EP, then the full length Lovesongs for Underdogs.

I missed out. It wasn't till 2004 that I picked up Lovesongs and got to hear "Landspeed Song", one of the best TD songs. Then I found "Influenza", a B-side and probably the greatest TD song.

None of the TD record sleeves were anywhere near the Belly ones, though the Lovesong era ones were ok.

Favorite scenes

This month when they start playing horror movies there are two things I want to see.
Even though I like the two movies themselves, what I like most is their opening scenes. First, The Exorcist. It's not the story in the Iraq sequence I like but the way it's shot. It's so clear, and not just on DVD. All those people swinging pickaxes, that kid running along the ruins. I don't know how they got the picture so clear; I guess it has something to do with recording using more frames per second or something like that.
And the shot at the end of the sequence where Merin is turning around and the camera pulls back, so perfect.
When The Shining is gonna be on, all I wanna see is 30 seconds of it. I had seen The Shining a few times since I was a kid, but it wasn't till a few years ago that I noticed the opening shot and how great it is.
I love when it goes from the old Warner Bros. logo to that shot of the island and its reflection in the lake. Again, the picture is so clear as the camera goes over it and the music plays. Creepy, but mostly just beautiful. It's a good movie but I don't think anything in it tops that opening shot.

I won't always stop and watch The Shining, but I'll almost always watch The Exorcist when it's on.

"She's testing you"

This morning I figured out what to do when there's a problem with the Direct TV here ( last night it froze on the big dinner scene from The Miracle Worker, it was the first good thing that's been on TCM since I moved here, but not the best thing on Direct TV-The Chiller Channel has Twin Peaks reruns).

This computer hasn't been hooked up to the internet in over a year, and when I was looking through my Favorites I found some kind of database (not eyesore) that had Belly & Breeder cover scans.

Here's how it looks: the Kristin Hersh page, for instance, will have say, 7 entries for Hips & Makers and maybe 6 of them will show just the cover, or an alternate cover, but the 7th may have some of the inside artwork.

Yesterday I got to see the booklet for In a Doghouse; interesting, but I'm glad I didn't buy it like I did Sweet Ride.

There were two very exciting finds. The first was the Gepetto remix EP on cassette. It's a lot like the Gepetto cassette single I have (both Gepetto and Slow Dog remixed), except it's in the normal cassette format and not the cassingle format. I love the "Gepetto Remix" side lettering, plus the backflap song title lettering with the purple/brown Belly logos in the background.

The monkey wrench picture is the same but the lettering is different (I like my tape version better).

The next exciting thing was the cassette version of Star from 4AD. Again, a lot like my Sire version, but with some cool differences: the back flap has the song titles closer, the doll picture is colorized, and the best thing- the fake flowers from the CD back cover; it must be the original full photo, covered in Belly logos. I love the back cover of the Star album, not just the photo itself which has a kind of watercolor quality, but the both versions of the song title lettering. I switch around a lot, but this picture has probably been my desktop background more than any other.

I don't know how long I was on this site yesterday, probably no more than two hours. I checked all the releases for Belly, Tanya Donelly, Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh, Pixies, Frank Black, and The Breeders.

I think a good place to work would be the place where they print out that v23 stuff.