Halloween

yeah that's right...I posted the AFI version instead of the Misfits' original. Happy Halloween everyone.

Movie Review: Let Me In

how about we don't...

Oh boy...here we go. Let Me In isn't a bad film. Say for example, I lived in a cave and knew nothing about the book or original Swedish film, both titled Let The Right One In, and saw Let Me In on a whim. I might exit the theater thinking, "what an interesting little film I just saw." Part thriller, part tragedy, part love story, filled with great performances by two wonderful child actors, by all accounts Let Me In is a good movie. Unfortunately, I lack the blissful ignorance needed to formulate such an opinion. I saw the original film Let The Right One In last summer and my mind was officially blown by it's sheer awesomeness. So while Matt Reeves' American remake is a competent/ok film it's literally blown out of the water by Tomas Alfredson's original.

Alfredson's film revolved around Oskar, a 12 year old social misfit who could only find happiness &  understanding by befriending a 12 (going on 200+) year old vampire "thing" named Eli. 


.

Reeves' movie centers around Owen, a 12 year old twink who falls for a 12 (going on 200+) year old vampire girl named Abby.



After leaving the theater, with Let Me In still fresh on the brain, I began discussing the differences between the two films while eating King Taco with my girlfriend. I literally played both films side by side in my head as I ate and slowly but surely my mild disappointment with Reeves' film turned into an all out rage. My girlfriend thought I was nuts because she saw both movies and claimed to enjoy them almost equally, with some elements of Let Me In eclipsing the original she claimed. Turns out I'm not insane and this article illustrates nearly all the points I laid out at King Taco. The reviewer, Brit Mandelo says:

The word I would use to describe Let the Right One In is “quiet,” or perhaps “poignant.” The word I would use to describe Let Me In is “clumsy,” maybe even (and this is cheating) “trying too hard.”

Never truer words spoken (or typed).  Alfredson's film is slower, giving bits of dialogue when needed. The camera doesn't move too much either but with Let The Right One In's amazing cinematography you won't even notice.  It's literally a beautiful film to watch. You could pause any shot in the movie and frame the image on your wall and I'm not even joking. Reeves' movie is faster paced, almost to the point of feeling rushed, filled with more dialogue, camera tricks/CGI and pop culture references (80's music). The best thing about Let Me In in my opinion (aside from the gratuitous tit shot in the beginning) is Reeves' filming of the car wreck sequence. That's some dazzling directing going on right there. And that's what pisses me off the MOST about this movie. The best thing Reeves' adds to his version is a still a big cop-out compared to Alfredson's work. In Let The Right One In, Eli's henchmen gets stuck in a pretty hairy situation and decides there's only one way out of it, resulting in a gruesome yet extremely touching scene. Reeves' take on this results in a cool to watch car wreck sequence that lacks the emotional power of Alfredson's version.

There are so many other things that bother me about Let Me In, like the total glossing over of the original's implicit sexual undertones and replacement of Alfredson's social commentary about the horrors of modern society with Reeves' bland battle between "Good & Evil," dribble. I'm starting to get all worked up again. Once more, be sure to visit Mandelo's article for a complete breakdown of why Alfredson's film > Reeves'. In conclusion, Let Me In is not a horrible movie...it will just be forever overshadowed by it's far superior Swedish cousin, Let The Right One In. Reeves' did make the genius decision casting Elias Koteas in his movie though. So if you have to, go see Let Me In and show CASEY JONES FROM NINJA TURTLES (excited?!) some love.

let HIM in

CELEBRATE: Back To The Future

RESPECT

Twenty-five years ago, possibly one of the greatest events in all of human history occurred. No, I'm not referring to my birth for once, this is even MORE important than that. See, when I'm dead and gone in 100 years time and nobody gives a shit about my festering bones people will still be praising the genius of Robert Zemeckis' Back to The Future. This film rules on so many levels it's absurd. I watched the film on the big screen last night as part of the 25th anniversary celebration and fell in love all over again. I was so psyched I've decided to break my little self imposed blogging vacation to gush over the movie like a little school girl!
So get off your asses and break out your Back to the Future DVDs or Netflix the sucker right now, because as far as I'm concerned this films anniversary should be a federal holiday.

It's Raining..

Its raining here in Southern California. For those of you in other parts of the country/world that actually experience other forms of weather, you should know that any disturbance to our consistently arid climate causes the shinny happy people of Los Angeles to collectively freak the fuck out. Not me however. I despise the sun. The first good rain of the year is cause for celebration in my book!

I don't know about you, but I enjoying blast two types of music while driving around in the rain....grim and frost bitten Black Metal, and uber depressing "post metal/stoner/gaze" type shit.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


so heres to all the traffic jams, car accidents, tardiness and awesome music associated with the rainy season!

"Ladies is pimps too..."

Cosmo Lee @ Invisible Oranges first brought "SmooneGrri" to my attention earlier this year. She's an 18 year old Dutch girl who's down with the sick sad guttural world of Wigger Slam. For those of you unfamiliar with the tenets of Wigger Slam, please see Sergeant D's in depth analysis from his now defunct blog, Metal Inquistion, aptly titled: "Everything You Need To Know About Wigger Slam Metal." 

So now it appears that SmooneGrri has found herself a band via the power of the internetz.


Now her new band Cerebral Bore aren't totally about the Slamz. Kinda technical, with far more thrashy elements than most straight up slam bands would care for (and something about their sound reminds me of None So Vile era Cryptopsy...the bass slaps perhaps?) but the breakdown @ the 2:42 mark is classic Wigger Slam. If I was wearing a hat I'd totally turn that shit sideways right about then. Enjoy.

Arcade Fire @ The Shrine Auditorium. 10/7/10.

"rough like timberland wear..."

This may come as a surprise, but I'm also a fan of NON-EXTREME METAL. Like...regular music. Strange huh? Well yeah, although most of my time is spent listening to growls, blast beats and ungodly time changes I honestly enjoy all kinds of music. Montreal's Arcade Fire are not only one of my favorite "normal" bands, but one of my favorite acts period. I first stumbled upon them on accident. About five years ago I had downloaded At The Drive-In's In Casino Out off SoulSeek and some careless/unorganized user included Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" in the album file. One second I'm listening to angular post-punk and the next, its Arcade Fire...majestic and catchy as fuck. I was hooked and immediately downloaded their debut album Funeral and the rest is history.

So now Arcade Fire are huge. They've always been indie media darlings as far as I've known, but now they're like # 1 album in the country, touring w/ U2, "saviors of rock music" ultra hype huge. I've seen them slay thousands at Coachella. I've watched them in the freezing cold at the Hollywood Bowl. Tonight, they were playing one of two shows at the far more intimate Shrine Auditorium (inb4 6,000 seats is still big). They were playing a smaller, indoor venue and promoting their awesome new album The Suburbs. Needless to say I was stoked. So of course I started fighting a nasty cold the day of the show. Figures.


The sold out show was filled to the brim with dirty hipsters, yuppies, grandma & grandpa Woodstock veterans and all around goofy fuckers like myself. HOT chicks though. Despite the differences in the audiences' demographics, we all came together in rocking out once our favorite Canadians took the stage. They opened with "Ready to Start" off their new album and began the kickass-ery that lasted the entire night. Sure, there was some moments of muddled sound, Win's guitar's stopped working mid way through their set and he flat out forgot some lyrics toward the end, but really people, Arcade Fire tore the joint up. They played a healthy does of new material ("Sprawl II," "Modern Man," "Rococo," "We Used to Wait,") and old tracks off Funeral ("Laika", "Haiti," "Rebellion Lies") with a few Neon Bible cuts thrown in as well ("No Cars Go," "Intervention,").


This easily one of my favorite Arcade Fire songs. It's like some ancient tribal Ewok jam and I fucking love it. If the Storm Troopers had been blasting this out the side of their Imperial Walkers, they would have subdued Endor a whole lot quicker is all I'm saying.


This is another old Funeral track only it was recorded by some lucky bastard with a better seat than me. I remember the first time I saw this video on MTV2 and it kicked my ass. Notice how the chick singing in the other video is playing drums here? Yeah, they're all pretty much multi-instrumentalists. Seven (sometimes eight or nine) dudes/dudettes onstage...like a talented Slipknot, or an Amish Wu-Tang Clan.

So yeah. Arcade Fire put on a damn good show and I heard night two was even better. My personal highlight of the evening was Win talking shit about the Lakers before drowning out the boos and groans by launching into "Power Out." Good stuff man.

* side note. I saw a few minor celebrities walking around after the concert ended (the asian doctor on Grey's Anatomy/naked chick in Sideways, Hyde from That '70s Show, and the retarded guy from The Office)...too bad I didn't give two shits about any of them. Funny because I met Danzig at the Shrine when I was a teenager during some comic book/porn fest before I even cared about The Misfits.

2nd chances w/: Cephalic Carnage

"rocky mountain hydro grinders"

3/4 of my closet is like this =/

So I was having lunch with an old friend of mine the other day and the conversation turned to the shirt I was wearing (cough*side photo*cough). I explained to her that they're an awesome little grind/death/WEED band from Denver. I praised their absurdly awesome live performances, wacky sense of humor, fondness of marijuana and penchant for releasing amazing albums....most of the time.

See, I was relatively disappointed with Cephalic Carnage's newest record, Mislead By Certainty. I first discovered the band when Lucid Interval came out in 02' and have stuck with them ever since. Sadly, this was the first time I was not blown away by a new Cephalic record. After reading in Decibel that their founding guitarist and primary song writer had quit the band prior to recording, it was beginning to make sense why Mislead By Certainty felt so different.

I don't know about you, but I like listening to my extreme metal while I'm working out (the transition from Metallica to Morbid Angel is easier when your doing push ups). Since my computer died last week and I was internet/iPod-less I had no choice but to actually spin relics from my CD collection. Guess what I decided to give another chance? So now I have a new stance on Cephalic's latest mind fuck grind opus. I still can't stand the 1st track "The Incorrigible Flame," just useless wankery as far as I'm concerned, but aside from the beginning, the album as a whole has really grown on me. I like it when Cephalic warp their two opposing natures, spazzy technicality & dirty sludge into singular songs, like "Raped By An Orb," for example. If I had to choose, I'd say I appreciate their slower psychedelic moments (saxophones in "Ohrwurm") but maybe that's because I'm getting old and cranky. So yeah, Misled By Certainty isn't the greatest Cephalic album (newbs might want to check out 2005's Anomalies first) but it definitely isn't horrible and honestly, better than most of the shitty metal that pollutes the modern landscape. 

Speaking of "Ohrwurm," the band released a SICK ASS video for the song available to stream exclusively  HERE. If you're into metal, gore, porn or just freaky shit in general I highly recommend you check it out. If you're a relatively normal person, I'd advise you to save your lunch/soul and forgot I ever mentioned it. Like these dudes probably wished they had:

100+ Followers!

Whats that Kelly Brook? I have 100+ followers?!

Sometime early this afternoon my blog gained it's 100th follower. Thanks for all the support people. I shall continue ranting and raving about my shitty taste in music/film/life with renewed gusto. A have a concert review from last week I plan on posting soon as well my first (of probably many) political/social commentary blogs. Here's to more annoying posts and another 100 followers!

Movie Review: The Social Network

failbook CAN succeed.

New David Fincher film, The Social Network. Go see it. Really, what else needs to be said?

That's how I convinced myself to actually see Facebook's two hour+ origin saga in theaters. I honestly had zero interest in the subject. As far as I was concerned Facebook was just the new Myspace, which defeated Friendster and LiveJournal before them, another here today gone tomorrow site, meant for trolling, spying, drunk girl pics...and keeping in touch with people you don't care enough to talk with IRL.

So David Fincher, the dude who warped my fragile eleven year old mind after watching Seven on loop all day (thanks to the wonders of 90's illegal pay-per-view/black box piracy), whose Fight Club served as The New Testament for the frustrated teenage geeks of my generation and whose Zodiac so drastically engrossed every fiber of my being I forgot to study for a big final exam and...well yeah; his newest project was about facebook. Was I excited? NO. Will I force myself to watch anything David Fincher directs? YES.

Low and behold, the movie is amazing. From the opening scene on, which highlights Aaron Sorkin's brilliant, rapid fire dialogue, I was hooked. With movies like this, based on factual real life occurrences, the plot is almost irrelevant in some respects. We all know the Titanic will sink in the end. Mark Zuckerberg  is the genius/asshole who created facebook and got filthy rich doing it. No surprises here folks. It's Fincher's cinematic craftiness that shrines through however and makes The Social Network one of the most gripping films of the year. No nudity, no guns, no violence, just great performances (amazing casting as far as I'm concerned, and Arnie Hammer steals the show playing BOTH Winklevoss twins), Trent Reznor's haunting musical score and superb storytelling. Kudos to Fincher, Sorkin and everyone involved with this film for breathing such life into what could have been (and I assumed to be) a boring ass movie about the origins of Facebook. Instead we get a poignant tale of loneliness, alienation, and the ills of modern high tech society. Stuff all us John Doe & Tyler Durden disciples dig you know?



Is this my favorite David Fincher flick? No way. Is it my favorite film of the year. Definitely not. Is it a damn good movie worth seeing. YES.

High On Fire, Torche & Kylesa @ The Glass House, Pomona. 9/30/10.

I have a love/hate relationship with this venue. The Glasshouse has great sound, allows in’s and out’s and doesn’t hassle people about cameras inside. Unfortunately, because it’s a fairly large, flat venue, depending on the crowd turnout you might get stuck in the rear of the building staring at the back of some guy’s head. That and it’s in Pomona…which means a traffic plagued drive to barren town USA.  We left extra early to make sure traffic wouldn’t screw us out of seeing Kylesa. Turns out the doors didn’t open until a half hour later than advertised and there was another band opening the show also. Since we had about an hour to kill we headed over to a Mexican restaurant down the block to grub.  In our gluttonous delight, our fat asses missed the opening band Yeti’s entire opening set and made it to the Glasshouse as Kylesa finished up their first song (“What Becomes An End” I believe).

Kylesa was on fire this night. Their last headlining run through Hollywood was a muddled mess, plagued with sound problems and a fill in drummer. Tonight, the band made the most of their limited opening slot and rocked the fuck out. This was my first time experiencing Kylesa in a legit venue (their headlining off date at the Echoplex was sick, but the sound was shotty and their last gig at the Knitting Factory was just prior to the club shutting down…pretty dilapidated). The crisp PA and awesome sight lines (i.e. not ridiculously crowded) allowed me to be fully engulfed by the band’s set.  No really, I literally felt like I was in some kind of trance. Laura’s eerie vocals on “Running Red” sucked me in like the snake from The Jungle Book.  Kylesa’s dueling drummers, and addition percussion from Phil (guitar/vocals) and the bass player displayed throughout the night was the icing on the hypnotic cake. Heavy, trippy, rockin’ sludge metal…whatever the fuck Kylesa are, I love them.

Torche blasted through their set like a band possessed. I swear, the energy emanating from this band is beyond infectious. I heard some good things about these guys in the past but after I finally caught them live at 2009’s FYF FEST I was sold. Fat, monolithic doom riffs meets sugary rock’n’roll = AWESOME. It’s rare to see “heavy” type bands smile onstage, but Torche is one band who wears their enthusiasm on their sleeves.  I positioned myself dead center in front of the stage to watch their gamma powered drummer in action. For my good deed I was rewarded by almost taking a flubbed drumstick to the face(er, camera lens). It’s all good though. Torche rocked the house and dare I say, stole the show.

He puts the spring in Springfield.

AC/DC, Motorhead…High on Fire.  That’s pretty much the entire review of their set right there. Workhorse band who’s the best there is at what they do, and in this case it’s rocking out hesher style. Matt Pike is the “M” in metal alright? Sure, they’re kind of a one trick pony (stoner rock meets mid paced thrash with Lemmy vocals simmering above) but what an awesome trick it is. I’ve never proclaimed myself to be the biggest High on Fire fan alive and although I have all their records tucked away on my trusty iPod, I’m not the dude memorizing their lyrics…or even song titles for that matter. All I know is that in a live setting, this band kills. I stood off to the side of the stage as the long hairs tussled with each other in the make shift pit bobbing my head with a goofy grin on my face.  Why? I don’t know. It’s in my metal DNA or some shit. Like how fish thrive in the ocean, I enjoyed the hell out of my time watching High On Fire play.

shitballs

Having some computer issues at the moment. Won't have online access for another day or two (I had to sell my soul just to post this). I shall return with more updates, including another movie review and video from the High On Fire/Torche/Kylesa concert from last week, well hopefully.