FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Philip K. Dick In France
04.27.2010
11:18 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
(Dick, right, with Blade Runner director, Ridley Scott)
 
Fascinating 3-part interview with sci-fi author and visionary Philip K. Dick (VALIS, Ubik, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said) conducted for French television.  Footage of Dick is hard to come by.  Equally hard to come by?  Passionate boosting of France!  Watch below as Dick discusses his (seemingly justified) paranoia, equates being a writer with being an enemy of the state, and schools us on the Nazi origins of “egghead.”

 
Philip K. Dick in France Part II, III

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
|
04.27.2010
11:18 am
|
Archie Comics go gay
04.27.2010
12:30 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
With the new student at Riverdale High being the openly gay character, Kevin Keller, Dangerous Minds pal James St. James reminds us that Archie Comics have been gay for a while now…

Via World of Wonder. From the collection of Charles Johnson.

 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.27.2010
12:30 am
|
Leonard Nimoy is a chubby chaser
04.27.2010
12:03 am
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
From his Full Body Project portfolio (Leonard Nimoy Phtography)

Thank you Lenora Claire!

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.27.2010
12:03 am
|
Epic Thriller
04.26.2010
11:43 pm
Topics:
Tags:
image


Odd Michael Jackson phenakistiscope by artist Kelly Coats:

I created this phenakistiscope (old optical toy), titled Epic Thriller, For my solo exhibition at Gallery Rimjaus in 2005. It was also presented at the My gallery at ... exhibit at The Brewery Arts Colony Gallery in 2008. Below you can see a simulation of what the animation looks like when you set this optical toy in motion.

image
 
(via Mister Honk)

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
04.26.2010
11:43 pm
|
The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville
04.26.2010
10:13 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Interesting 2007 essay by Sean Wilentz from the Oxford American Magazine about the recording of one of the greatest albums of the last century, Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. A couple of interesting quotes in the piece from actor-musician Kris Kristofferson, who at the time (1965) worked as a janitor in the recording studio where the album was made. Here Wilentz describes the scene when the epic Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands was created:

The strangest Nashville recording dates were the second and third. The second began at six in the evening and did not end until five-thirty the next morning, but Dylan played only for the final ninety minutes, and on only one song: “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” He would later call it a piece of religious carnival music, which makes sense given its melodic echoes of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the chorale “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” Unlike “Visions of Johanna,” though, this epic needed work, and Dylan toiled over the lyrics for hours. The level of efficiency was military: Hurry up and wait.

Kristofferson described the scene: “I saw Dylan sitting out in the studio at the piano, writing all night long by himself. Dark glasses on,” and Bob Johnston recalled to the journalist Louis Black that Dylan did not even get up to go to the bathroom despite consuming so many Cokes, chocolate bars, and other sweets that Johnston began to think the artist was a junkie: “But he wasn’t; he wasn’t hooked on anything but time and space.” The tired, strung-along musicians shot the breeze and played ping-pong while racking up their pay. (They may even have laid down ten takes of their own instrumental number, which appears on the session tape, though Charlie McCoy doesn’t recollect doing this, and the recording may come from a different date.) Finally, at 4 a.m., Dylan was ready.

“After you’ve tried to stay awake ’til four o’clock in the morning, to play something so slow and long was really, really tough,” McCoy says. Dylan continued polishing the lyrics in front of the microphone. After he finished an abbreviated run-through, he counted off, and the musicians fell in. Kenny Buttrey recalled that they were prepared for a two- or three-minute song, and started out accordingly: “If you notice that record, that thing after like the second chorus starts building and building like crazy, and everybody’s just peaking it up ’cause we thought, ‘Man, this is it….’ After about ten minutes of this thing we’re cracking up at each other, at what we were doing. I mean, we peaked five minutes ago. Where do we go from here?”

The song came to life as swiftly as any of Dylan’s ever had, requiring only two complete takes.

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands took just two takes? WTF?
 

 
The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.26.2010
10:13 pm
|
Liars: Sisterworld
04.26.2010
09:22 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
The new Liars album, Sisterworld is getting serious consideration as my second favorite album (after MGMT’s Congratulations) of the year so far. Sisterworld’s dark musical textures call to mind Radiohead, Philip Glass, Faust and Megadeath simultaneously. It’s one of the most sonically “colorful” albums since Their Satanic Majesties Request, with a palette ranging from house-shaking electronic Krautrock drones to calm, syncopated oboe and bassoon ostinato, often in the same song. It’s an album that must be listened too fucking loud or else you’ll only understand half of its charms. This album wants to brutalize you. It wants to kick you in the head and leave you bleeding and puking in the gutter. But in a good way! Highly recommended.

The brilliantly packed version I have (w/ slipcover and hardback sleeve) also came with an alternate version of Sisterworld with remixed versions by Carter Tutti, Melvins,Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Alan Vega, Thom Yorke and Boyd Rice.
 

 

 
Thank you Iain Forsyth!

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.26.2010
09:22 pm
|
Rare Footage Of San Francisco’s Avengers
04.26.2010
07:54 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Ah, Avengers!  Led by art student Penelope Houston, the San Francisco-based band opened, of course, for The Sex Pistols during that final, disastrous show at Winterland.   And, yeah, maybe his band was imploding, but Steve Jones liked what he saw.  The Pistols guitarist went on to produce the band’s first EP, which, IMO sounds far more ferocious than their still glorious (and still out-of-print) full-length, Avengers.

The clarity of the following clips—both of them, gulp, 32-years-old—is absolutely astounding.  I’m assuming the first one’s from SF, but the second one takes place at LA’s legendary Masque.  Click play, watch, repeat!

 

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
|
04.26.2010
07:54 pm
|
New M.I.A. single: Born Free (w/ Suicide sample)
04.26.2010
05:48 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Shit! Have you heard this new song by M.I.A.? Dig that rad Suicide sample! If you want the ultimate sound of power electronics—so violent—why not go back to the ur-source of Alan Vega and Martin Rev? I could listen this on repeat all day.

Live version here.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.26.2010
05:48 pm
|
Sister Irene O’Connor: Fire of God’s Love
04.26.2010
05:11 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image

Via various links around the Tumblrsphere I discovered this great WFMU post on Sister Irene O’Connor, the “post punk nun,” who dropped a drum machine and some echo effects behind some Catholic jams to ignite the holy spirit.

Among the sea of sound-a-like private-pressed Catholic lps that came out in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Sister Irene O’Connor’s 1976 album stands out with its primitive drum machine and spooky, echo-laden vocals. Released in 1976 on the ‘Alba House’ label, the dual-titled Fire of God’s Love/Songs to Ignite The Spirit lp features several haunting and remarkable songs, including the three below.  In particular, the title track “Fire of God’s Love” strikes me as so otherwordly and uniquely eerie that I wonder how far Sister Irene’s O’Connor’s seeming solipsism extended beyond music.

(Songs linked in the post!)

(WFMU: Two Australian Nuns Turn on Drum Machine to Ignite the Spirit)

Posted by Jason Louv
|
04.26.2010
05:11 pm
|
Who Killed Bambi?  The Roger Ebert Sex Pistols Screenplay
04.26.2010
05:05 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
  
After the death of Malcolm McLaren, film critic (and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls scribe), Roger Ebert posted on his always-excellent journal, McLaren & Meyer & Rotten & Vicious & Me, his take on getting a Sex Pistols movie off the ground with Dolls director, Russ Meyer.

At the time, Ebert had no idea who the Sex Pistols were.  The Pistols, though, very much wanted to work with the creative team behind Dolls, a movie Johnny Rotten deemed as being, “true to life.”  It’s a funny, informative account that somehow, along the way, accommodates both P.J. Proby and Scientology

As to why the movie, Who Killed Bambi?, never happened, various reasons have been circulated: Maybe 20th Century Fox pulled the plug after reading the resulting screenplay, or McLaren’s shaky finances would never have covered the film’s budget.  Or perhaps, most intriguingly, (Princess) Grace Kelly, who served on the Fox board of directors, simply didn’t want the studio to back another Russ Meyer X-travaganza (likely profits be damned).

Oh well, we still have Julien Temple’s The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Filth and The Fury.  But we can now add to that era another document.  Ebert just posted on his journal the complete screenplay for Who Killed Bambi?  Here’s a sample:

Just then the SEX PISTOLS appear on the screen.  They’re dressed in what could be described as Proto-Punk: The look is definitely different from that of the other people on the line, and yet isn’t as well-defined as it will be later on.

They split up to work the line: They’re of it, but not in it.  STEVE carries his guitar, vaguely suggesting they’re into music of some sort.  SID VICIOUS goes into his famous Sun-Glasses dance, his hands inverted and placed in front of his eyes to suggest either binoculars or a Batman-style headdress.  The Pistols seem amused by the notion that people would stand in line in an unemployment queue at all.

Proby watches, fascinated by their wonderfully Downtrodden look, as they approach the others.

SID VICIOUS (to the Miner)
Why stand in line, you silly twit?

JOHNNY ROTTEN
It’s your money - why wait for it?

PAUL COOK
Why don’t they provide seating out here?

The crowd grows silent, uneasy, in the face of the attack.

STEVE JONES
They take it with one hand and give it back with the other.

SID VICIOUS
So smash it and take it!

And while Ebert refuses to comment on his script, “I can’t discuss what I wrote, why I wrote it, or what I should or shouldn’t have written.  Frankly, I have no idea,” here he is in ‘88 with Meyer and McLaren discussing—and venting over—Who Killed Bambi?

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
|
04.26.2010
05:05 pm
|
Page 2127 of 2338 ‹ First  < 2125 2126 2127 2128 2129 >  Last ›