Category Archives: Movies

Fat Mike Writes A Ragtime Album?

It’s true folks.  Fat Mike, you know that guy who boozes it up a lot in NOFX, has written a ragtime album that will also supply as the soundtrack for Soma Snakeoil’s new fetish film Rubber Bordello.

Remember “Buggly Eyes” from White Trash, Two Heebs, and a Bean?  Well you can expect an entire album full of music just like that song. 

It’s actually something Fat Mike has wanted to do for years.  Teaming up with members of the Mad Caddies and Tom Waits’ backing band, Fat Mike has created 10 old time-y ragtime tunes guaranteed to entertain.  His music also will provide for the soundtrack to a flick that is probably best stored in a shoebox under your bed.

HEADS UP! Rubber Bordello is for mature audiences only, so make sure you are 18+ before heading over to the site to check out the preview of the movie.  It’s not for everyone.  Let that be your warning…

Head over to iTunes to check out Fat Mike’s soundtrack and snag it for yourself!  I will have a review shortly up here.

Post Record Store Day Blues

Ignore the title of this post, I just thought it sounded cool.  I am going to ramble here – just a heads up…

Honestly , this year’s Record Store Day (RSD) did not exactly go to plan but it worked out entirely in my favor by the end of the day yesterday.

Record Poachers

A term my pal Eugene texted me when neither of us could find any of the wax we were looking for in retail stores on Saturday.

A record poacher is one of those folk out there who fancy a profit of mass proportions.  They snag up all the good RSD vinyl and throw it on eBay where people like me will pay outrageous amounts of money for items that normally cost $10-$20.   Some of these record poachers are actually shady store owners too who know damn well that they are cheating the purpose of RSD.

Knowing this, I still refuse to be defeated and try my luck on eBay.  I am not the only one either.

Why do we do it?  Because we are the reason RSD exists, we are the the vinyl collectors and sometimes we need to bite the bullet and pay a little more to get something we really want.

Example.  I really wanted the Deftones Covers LP.  It was sold out almost instantly across America.  Coincidentally it was also all over eBay going for $40 to $70.  Mind you there were only 3000 made. 

I bid on it and was outbid immediately.  I knew that I should just forget about it.  I was bummed, but honestly, it is a record, I will live…

Right?

Lucky for me I have some amazing ass friends out there across the states and once they heard I was looking for that, as well as a couple other LPs,  they made every effort they could to search for them.

There is a Deftones LP waiting for me now.  I did not spend $452.87 on it either.  There are also a couple other RSD releases I had my eye on that will be accompanying that LP too.

I have some damn good friends out there.  I feel the need to emphasize that.

I am done rambling now.

Beyond my battle to get some of the RSD releases I wanted, I have to say that RSD 2011 was enjoyable.

How about a recap of RSD?  Ok…

There were about 100 people lined up in the rain outside of Music Saves waiting to get first dibs on the goods when I arrived around 11:30am.  That is dedication right there.

I sat in my car and chose to wait for my friends – and stay dry. 

Come noon, my friends and I all perused Blue Arrow Records for a while, snagged up a couple things here and there, and just enjoyed the excitement that surrounded us.  I picked up the Rome 7″ I was looking for as well as some used records that caught my eye.

Once the line at Music Saves calmed down, we all took a peek in there to see if any scraps were left over.  I knew in advance of the Music Saves offerings and this year around there was not anything that got me too excited so I was ok with just grabbing a couple little things and saying hi to the owners and their special in-house phone answerer guy.

The Beachland opened their hallway to a couple of vendors who had some good finds.  I walked out with a Pagans cover 7″ as well as a Germs cover 7″ both totaling a whopping $4.  Not too shabby.

After kicking it on Waterloo we did the next best thing – went to Chili Peppers on 185th to feast.  Best burritos ever.

It’s actually become a tradition for me to do RSD and then pound a burrito at Chili Peppers with friends.  I did it last year, and I am pretty sure I will do it again next year.

I love me some RSD.  It’s the one day a year where I can just geek out on vinyl with friends and complete strangers.  Blue Arrow and Music Saves always do an amazing job with setting up for the big day and evening.

I skipped out on the free shows again this year in favor of hangouts with good peoples.

Good music was being spun and played at all the shops and everyone was in a good mood.  If only every holiday were like this.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Not sure why it took me so long to see a preview for the upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, but now that I saw it I am already making top secret arrangements with myself to see it in the theater.  The movie looks bad ass!  When I first heard about it I was like “Oh boy, another Michael Cera movie….woo”.

Then I saw the preview which completely changed my mind:

The dork in me loves the comic book / video game-like fighting scenes.  The hopeless romantic in me of course likes the whole boy-falls-in-love-with-girl-too-good-for-him-but-is-different-in-that-he-is-not-like-the-rest-and-she-falls-for-him.  The director, Edgar Wright, is the man behind Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz.   Add in a bitching soundtrack and it looks as if I am going to go to the movies this summer after all.   The soundtrack drops tomorrow and the movie premiers this weekend.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing:
1. We Are Sex Bob-Omb – Sex Bob-Omb
2. Scott Pilgrim – Plumtree
3. I Heard Ramona Sing – Frank Black
4. By Your Side – Beachwood Sparks
5. O Katrina! – Black Lips
6. I’m So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad – Crash and the Boys
7. We Hate You Please Die – Crash and the Boys
8. Garbage Truck – Sex Bob-Omb
9. Teenage Dream – T. Rex
10. Sleazy Bed Track – The Bluetones
11. It’s Getting Boring By The Sea – Blood Red Shoes
12. Black Sheep – Metric
13. Threshold – Sex Bob-Omb
14. Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl – Broken Social Scene
15. Under My Thumb – The Rolling Stones
16. Ramona (Acoustic) – Beck
17. Ramona – Beck
18. Summertime – Sex Bob-Omb
19. Threshold 8 bit – Brian LeBarton

BONUS TRACKS Exclusive to iTunes Deluxe Edition
20. Garbage Truck – Beck
21. Threshold – Beck
22. Summertime – Beck
23. Black Sheep – The Clash at Demonhead

Har Mar Superstar “Tallboy” Video + Whip It (No, not the Devo song…)

Seems like I have been pimping out Har Mar Superstar a lot lately.  I can’t help it, he’s great.  I still have yet to hear the entire album that just dropped recently called Dark Touches but I did get to hear the first single from the release “Tallboy”.  Electro-catchy and now put into video format for you all to enjoy.

Fun little fact for you all:  This song was was originally submitted for Britney Spears. After Spears rejected the song Har Mar decided to sing it himself.  I think it was meant to be…

Are you still reading this?  Well I might as well add one more Har Mar tidbit.  There is a movie about the hot hot sport of roller derby coming out this weekend called Whip It.  Har Mar plays a roller derby coach in the movie.  He also recorded a cover of an Association song, “Never My Love”, with Flea, yes from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on the horns that can be heard during the credits as well as on the soundtrack to the movie.

Two Flea references in two posts…  It was a fluke I swear!!!

What?  You have not heard of Whip It yet?  Well of course I will post a trailer of the movie…

I’m not going to lie, this movie scares the crap out of me.  One, I know I will like it.  That Juno girl always wins me over.  Two, I am a huge fan of roller derby and I am afraid this movie it going to make the sport too popular.  Before you know it, Kanye is going to make a rap song about it.

The sport does deserve credit, those women take a lot of pain in doing what they love.  It’s real.  I am glad that there are real actors in this movie too though…  I will be checking it out.

It just seems to me that sometimes people will look for anything to make a movie.  What’s next, a movie about two people playing cornhole who fall in love?  I think I am on to something…

UPDATE:

Thanks to one of my readers named Jen my dreams of one day making a cornhole movie were shattered after she brought this to my attention…

No this is not a joke and yes I do give up…

Times Of Yore: Repo Man

"A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness." - Miller

Back in 1984 a certain movie came out focused around a group of men who ideally remove people’s cars from their property once the owners failed to pay the bank what was owed.  The movie, Repo Man, of course was not just about stealing back cars for the bank and had a twist of sorts including aliens, drugs, and also offered one of the best punk rock movie soundtracks to date.  The movie is a comedic sci-fi cult classic to many and still to this day one of my favorite movies to watch.

Starring a young brat pack Emilio Estevez (The Outsiders, St. Elmo’s Fire, Men At Work) as well as Harry Dean Stanton (Cool Hand Luke, Alien, Escape From New York) the movie focuses on Otto (played by Estevez), a young punk kid with hippie parents and no plans on life.  Soon Otto meets up with Bud (played by Harry Dean Stanton) who takes him under his wing into the twisted world of booze, drugs, hi speed chases, and of course hot wiring cars.  Soon Otto is part of the repo crew and he is slowly discovering a sense of maturity.

If the movie sounds boring to you then maybe I should also mention the hunt for a certain 1964 Chevrolet Malibu from New Mexico driven by crazed old man who has something hidden in the trunk.  I am not going to ruin it for you but I can tell you the contents in the truck emit incredible heat and also vaporize anyone who opens the trunk door to see the actual contents.  With a hefty reward for repossessing the car no one will stop at trying to get it.

Add a crew of druggie punk rockers raising hell in the city, a girl who wants to help the said aliens, and the lady with the tin foil hand this movie really goes all over the place.  This crazy trip through the mean streets of L.A. is one hell of an adventure.

One of the highlights during the film for me is to see punk rockers The Circle Jerks playing as a lounge act at a bar that Otto visits.  The song they play is a slowed down version of “When The Sh*t Hits The Fan”.  I also loved all of the generic food products in the movie.  Beer is labeled “Beer” and chips are labeled “Chips”.  So generic yet so perfect for the movie especially when Otto eats of an open can of “Food”.

The soundtrack to the movie was one of the first of it’s kind as it was full of punk rock songs from major punk acts of the 80’s. Featuring Iggy Pop, The Plugz, Suicidal Tendencies, and Black Flag just to name a couple the soundtrack was like no other soundtrack of it’s time and remains a classic to this day.

I had actually purchased the soundtrack on cassette when I just was a young kid before I even saw the movie.  Seeing a soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop and the Circle Jerks was good enough for me.  I eventually grabbed a VHS copy of the move and watched that movie over and over.  It was really one of the first movies I repeatedly would watch.  Once DVDs came out a good friend of mine bought me the Repo Man collector’s DVD tin box that includes the movie and the soundtrack on CD.  Score.

This movie is not going to ooh and aah people who are looking for something serious.  It is a comedy action sci-fi punk rock movie with no structured plot other than a bunch of hoodlums trying to get the car to get the reward.  Punk music backing up a movie about repo men, guns, drugs, violence, car chases, and a surprise ending.  Can a movie get any better than this?

“Repo Man” performed by Iggy Pop: