p e n g u i n d e v i l

Yep, it’s been quiet around here. We’ve been going through sick spells and haven’t even been watching much for movies, but a while back, we did watch one of my old standbys. After finally getting something more watchable than the VHS copy I’ve had for the last 18 years, it was time to have my hundredth or so (probably more) take of one of the best music documentaries out there, Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years. I know, yes, it is all about the Sunset Strip Glam Scene of the late 80’s which, well, sucks by any standard, now or then. But the interviews are great and that is where it really gets fun!

what the? dude…

There are plenty of live “performances” of the sunset strip bands and interviews with the band members and with rather lame “metalheads” and scenesters, but Spheeris mixes in some great interview scenes with “metal” musicians who actually had some success. The contrast between the “once young and arrogant, now old and wise” and the “still young and arrogant” is a lot of fun. These young bands (especially the terrifying London, Odin and Lizzie Borden) are so lame that it’s almost unbelievable (well, Faster Pussycat are fine, if you are into that GnR thing and, back in the day, I actually ended up buying an album by the lamely named Seduce, based on the song they play here, “Crash Landing”), the endless interviews of these guys saying “oh, I’m going to be rich and famous, there’s no question” are quite entertaining (and some time in the last few years, I did see one of these guys on TV… dressed in a towel… on Cops). The best bits are with Ozzy, Lemmy, Joe Perry and (especially) Chris Holmes, they are standout’s and Ozzy and Holmes are, really, unforgettable… All their tales of ups and downs and debauchery are a kick. If you can stand the terrible fashions and hair-don’ts of this late 80’s scene (and most of the music is pretty weak), it’s a lot of fun.

an early Osborne’s preview

ok, so there are some real metal fans here…

man. “drink like a beast” is more like it…

Then when the movie is winding down… Megadeth appear and play “In my Darkest Hour”, and it’s not really fair. After watching these guys dressed like tacky valley girls strut around for an hour bragging about how great they are, Megadeth suddenly seem like the best band in the world. They have attitudes and music that just plain blow away everything you’ve just sat through.

On a much different note, thanks to F-dog and family, we actually got to head out on our own, with no little Elinor in tow. We opted to go to a movie theater and watch a movie, since it had been a long time since we’d be able to do something like that. Of course, that led to the standard, difference of opinion as to what to go to, but I agreed to go to Atonement, which I wasn’t looking forward to. What I was looking forward to was trying out the St Johns Theater. I am very glad that you can go to a nice, old movie theater and see current movies, it is so much better than going to those gosh-awful multiplex/chain nightmares. Anyway, so it was nice to go there (even if we did show up for the showing before they serve beer), but what was also quite nice was the movie. I must say that I really liked Atonement. A great and touching story, beautifully shot, epic in scene and scope, well-acted and a very, very nicely made production. Atonement is the story of a little lie told by a little girl and the effects it has on the lives around her as the years progress, and how the effects come back home to haunt her. It has rich people, poor people, war, prison, death and all that good stuff, all very well done… It is sad and tragic and just great. I thought that the scenes around the evacuation at Dunkirk were really top-notch.

After much anticipation, we watched The Science of Sleep. I’m not totally decided about it. It is pretty clever and fun, but it is another one of those where the lead character is a rather unlikable and unsympathetic loser. Beginning in the studio of Stephane TV, we meet Stephane. Stephane is an artist and after being absent for many years he arrives at his mothers in Paris after the death of his father because his mother has told him of a job at a calendar publisher. He thinks that this might be is big chance to get his calendar published. He has put together calendar of cartoonish disasters that is a hokey yet terrible yet fun collection of silly drawings called “Intestino Grues”.

He gets there to find that the job was a put on. It is a job, but it is actually typesetting the calendars, not “creative” work. He also finds a girl living in the apartment right next to his who he, of course, falls for and who shares his obsession with making little things and fantasy. The boy/girl things starts of quite hesitantly, with Stephane living it in is dreamworld and Stephanie being sort of uninterested. The job doesn’t start of hesitantly, he is thrown right into the midst of a bunch of nuts who waste no time having fun with him by suggesting he show his calendar idea to the boss. But they become his friends of sorts, especially Guy who he becomes very close with and who tries (in his own inappropriate fashion) to get Stephane to get his act together, especially in regards to mater of the heart. From here, the story progresses, but half of it takes place in his dreamworld (which frequently crosses over into his waking world) like at his studio for Stephane tv. The movie can go back and forth quite abruptly from real life to not real, sometimes quiet clearly, sometimes there is little sign at all. The dream sequences themselves are quite good, all props and stop motion and overflowing with activity and certainly the manifestations of all of his childlike fears and desires for revenge The movie is quite cute, with fun and clever set design and great props (lots of fabric creatures milling about) , but I found that Stephane’s continual dreamworlds, made him seem a bit pathetic, though there are some nice scenes with him and Stephanie. In addition to the great visuals, there are some good supporting characters, especially Guy, who I found to be one of the highs point of the film.

We watched Straw Dogs tonight, a film that I’ve been reading about a lot these days, and one of Peckinpah’s classics. Well it was quite fine. Dustin Hoffman is an American who has married a English woman and moved into the British countryside (to a town where she used to spend lots of time) to, once again, write a book. The locals don’t seem too friendly and a number of them seem to have pre-existing attractions for his wife. I couldn’t help get over my general dislike for Dustin Hoffman’s character. He treats his wife badly and, as the locals seem a bit cool towards him, he doesn’t do anything to warm them up. The movie starts out fairly slowly and we just get used to Dustin being kind of uptight. He is basically a jerky fish out of water and, when things start going on, he gets paranoid but not paranoid enough, as he is also a coward who finally gets his bravery up at the wrong time and for the wrong reason. I suppose that’s the point to the movie: a “meek” city fellow who tries to avoid any conflict he can, but then breaks. I had felt from what I had read that it was a slow breakdown, but in actuality he seemed equally lame until he finds his cause, then the movie gets quite fun. There are some good local characters and it also features, yet again, David Warner, who always makes me want to watch Time Bandits again.

And to complete an old thought. As I stated a few months ago, in Collecting Online Collections, I felt that there was an online space missing for cataloging albums that included the kind of LP’s that I tend to have. Well, yesterday I stumbled on a great one (which strangely enough, is local,) called discogs.com. It seems to be a great place to catalog your music (including LP’s which is what I am most interested in doing), and to buy and sell things. So I’ve spent a lot of the last day putting LP’s up there, something that gets a bit tricky due to a couple of things: 1) I only have about 25% of my LP’s with me and 2) of the LP’s that I tried to add to my collection, fully a third of the ones I’ve looked up aren’t listed. That is fine, as I can certainly submit them, but it does make the process take quite a bit longer.

Lately we’ve been engaging in some of that good old time fun… finding things to sell. Though we’ve had some luck on eBay (including my Ulver Trilogie boxed set, something I’d always thought about selling, since I’m not an Ulver fan, but never got around to), I am always open to finding more things to ponder selling. I took a stroll through the CD’s, to see what I might be able to part with and I took a gander at the Mercyful Fate. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a Fate fan for quite sometime. I was first introduced to them by Dave Murphy in probably 1984. He was talking about how King Diamond’s vocals go so suddenly from high-pitched to low-pitched and that was because “he’s evil man, evil”. That was enough for me! I knew I had to hear it and I went out and bought Don’t Break the Oath and Melissa and was hooked. I never looked back, but I never really looked forward either. Oh sure, I would pick up the odd Fate or King Diamond album as I came across them, but I never really gave them a listen.

classic.

This week though, I pulled out the four cd’s of theirs that I have. I doubt I’d ever listened to them so I thought they might be fine to part with. Of course, after the last couple of decades of black metal, Fate doesn’t seem quite as evil as they used to. But for someone of my taste who prefers the solace of early 80’s metal, those old albums had just the perfect amount of evil drama, metal sensibilities, layered guitar solos (or would those be “feathered”) and creepiness. But I feared what directions they may have gone in over the last 20 years… Admittedly I did see them here live in the late 90’s and it was one of those “personal greatest moments”, but recordings? You know what? They were pretty good. Here I am with: Dead Again, Time, Into the Unknown and 9.

not quite so classic.

While 9 doesn’t really move me, both Into the Unknown and Dead Again are both worth having around. They both have good songs without real much weakness. The big surprise album was Time. I thought it was quite impressive, right up there with Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath. Well, maybe not with Oath, and it certainly can’t begin to compete with those on cover artwork (but then again, what can), but it’s darn good. Of course, looking them up I do see that Time is the oldest of these and 9 is the newest, continuing on with the stereotype of bands declining with time, but considering that Time was released 10 years after that last album of theirs that I has listened to, I was impressed. Maybe now I need to dig out some King Diamond!

they speak for themselves

As you all remember, a month ago I mentioned that I had been listening to Anthrax’s first album again, which I consider to be classic speed metal. Now while I’m not the most knowledgeable speed metal person, I certainly do like that album and Accept’s Fast as a Shark (they certainly aren’t speed metal, but I think that song certainly is) but aside from that, it’s been a long time since I listened to much of this ilk. Lately my metal listening has had the urge to stretch beyond black metal (which happens occasionally) so I thought I would revisit some of the old 80’s stuff.

First impression, while this stuff certainly is metal, it doesn’t seem too speedy, not like those other bands. Maybe it’s just that Black Metal has turned up the knobs so much these last 15-20 years (none of these bands speed through like Impaled Nazarene, that’s for sure), that this stuff really shows its “big hair” roots and has a Sunset Strip sound. There certainly is some potential out there, though. I first tried out Cacophony’s Speed Metal Symphony. It was alright, the songs are alright, the vocals aren’t too bad, but probably not something I would tend to play much. I do appreciate the sleeve though.

oh yeah?

I then listened to some Racer X. This was a hit and miss bag. They have some good stand out songs, including a mad cover of BOC’s Godzilla (admittedly from their 2001 release Superheroes)! What really stood out from them were their instrumentals, especially Scarified (from Second Heat) and Viking Kong (also from Superheroes), these are complete guitar wanking, air guitarist dreams: clear, technical, fast guitars, like speed scales with a rhythm section, all the song long. The trouble with the rest of their stuff is the vocals. Really lame. In fact, I couldn’t really sit through most of those songs. Some are alright though, at their best (especially on Street Lethal) the vocal songs sound like Krokus, which isn’t bad. But some of the instrumentals are certainly worth keeping around.

racer x “scarified”

The high point of this so far has been Overkill. I listened to Feel the Fire and I thought the whole album was good (especially Hammerhead), fast, still rough with a sort of punk edge to it. I may need to look into more stuff of theirs. Also maybe find some other 80’s bands that are speedier.

…or so I thought until 1986 when Judas Priest dropped that lump of coal turkey, Turbo, and I ran screaming away from their Twinkie and multi-colored leather infested comedy sketch for Turbo Lover. Ok, so that was just the last straw, the Rock first started to fail me with the faltering of Hard rock, such as in 1983 when Leppard followed up their brilliant High ‘n Dry with that Pyromania album and then in 1984 when VH had the gall to follow up their comedy oldies album Diver Down with, ugh, 1984. But the Metal thing stayed intact. In fact, by 1984 I had just started getting into better and more extreme (for the time) metal such as Anthrax and Mercyful Fate, but I abandoned any future metal releases once “Turbo” came out… For a decade. If only Judas Priest would have released Rob’s later redemption, Fight’s classic LP War of Words, instead of “Turbo”… Many years of musical wanderings could have been improved. What brings this on? Well, I finally digitized Anthrax’s Fistful of Metal, one of my top ten metal albums of the 80’s…

Top Ten 1980’s Metal Albums (ok, maybe one could argue the “metal” mettle of Leppard and Motorhead, so I’ll just add them to the 10) :

Accept “Restless and Wild”
Anthrax “Fistful of Metal”
Def Leppard “High ‘n Dry”
Iron Maiden “The Number of the Beast”
Judas Priest “British Steel”
Judas Priest “Point of Entry”
Judas Priest “Defenders of the Faith”
Mercyful Fate “Don’t Break the Oath”
Motörhead “Ace of Spades”
Mötley Cruë “Shout at the Devil”
Raven “All for One”
Scorpions “Blackout”

Of the music left from that era which followed me into the 1980’s, Fistful of Metal was about the metallist of them all, and it continues to remind me of its greatness. But it did seem to be Anthrax’s first and only metal success (as far as I know) . And I have no idea how they descended from such great heights as “Deathrider” and “Death from Above” to the pitiful depths of “I’m the Man” (and surfer clothes) a mere three years later.

Plus it has one of the best cheesey album covers of its day…

more like a mouthful of metal…

As the 1970’s stretched into the 1980’s and as the preteen becomes the teen, that is when the seedlings of musical taste really become planted. Though lots of bands and genres have come under my radar in the years since then, one band who had many early and influential appearances then was Blue Öyster Cult. While I don’t think I ever considered them the “American Black Sabbath” (I mean, come on… Black Sabbath?), they were still of monumental importance.

Now I am no collector, aficionado or expert about this band (though I did, in probably 1981 or 1982, see the film Black and Blue in the theater… With Let There be Rock, no less)… They became very key players in my 14-16 age world. There is Rock and then, there is Godzilla. From the opening massive guitar riffs, still timelessly some of the best laid to wax, to the back-n-forth Godzilla chanting, to the great lyrics, it sounded almost too good to be true. I recall that Godzilla was the first song with stereo effects that I remember listening to through headphones, which was amazing, it was also way better and more interesting than the eponymous movie and monster.

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

And when I was 16, my friend Kevin, somehow, had a VCR(!) and a video tape of Heavy Metal. A movie that I am still shocked that I do not own (well, on DVD… I own the VHS, of course). Not only is the movie a great, yet cornier, extension of the magazine featuring gratuitous cartoon nudity, excessive gory violence and some wonderfully fun storylines (including Richard Corben’s Den). I would watch the movie over and over again, in regular speed, frame-by-frame, whichever. But the soundtrack to the film? It is a monumental classic! Featuring “Heavy Metal” (Sammy Hagar’s only good song), Don Felder’s “Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride)” (even better than Hagar’s), some D-evo (one of my favorites bands at the time) and a couple of songs by the band Riggs (their great track “Radar Rider” was so damn good that I even went out and bought their album)… But the standout was BOC. “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”, not only was totally awesome, but it was co-written by Michael Moorcock, who was one of my three favorite writers at the time. The song is a slow one but it tells a nice little story and it remains a song that I feel the need to play fairly frequently (it is even in my top 50 plays iTunes list).

Aside from: the concert movie, the Heavy Metal soundtrack and Godzilla, what else? well, I had little interest in “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Burnin’ for You”, as they were a bit to poppy and, honestly, not sci-fi enough, for my tastes. But 1980 saw the release of Cultosaurus Erectus which had long been the only album of theirs that I owned. Now, this album certainly has some good songs, but the song “Black Blade” (written again with Michael Moorcock, and actually featuring his characters Elric and Stormbringer!) was just too good to not listen to constantly (now, 27 years later, it is at #14 on my all time iTunes playlist). Basically it tells the story of the sickly wizard king Elric, who doesn’t really mean much harm, but his sentient sword, which sucks souls to increase its own power, has a way about it to see that harm happens. Of course, this sends Elric’s fate down sad, blood stained paths. The lyrics sum up the great story, and they also sum up all that is grand about 1970’s rock. One thing missing from rock for the last few decades is the sci-fi/fantasy storytelling element. A lot of the soul went out of rock when that went away, and that’s why music can be so boring now. But Blue Öyster Cult were great purveyors of the stuff. Once Black Blade started off with:

I have this feeling that my luck is none too good
This sword here at my side don’t act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave

I knew exactly what that was about. It spoke right to my favorite fictional reality, and coupled with Godzilla and the Heavy Metal movie… Blue Öyster Cult was well established in my world.

Sadly, they followed that all to common path where they were quite prolific, then they got successful and became much less prolific and then, when their star dipped, they were “gone”. Another example of how success is bad for a career. Even a career of evil. They released 8 studio albums and 2 live albums in their first 10 years, and then after that last studio album made them biggie-big, there were only three studio albums and one more live album in the next ten years. Though, they weren’t totally gone. Even though they went as much as ten years without an LP, seemingly they continued touring most of those years, and I recall stories that even at their height of popularity they still snuck in small gigs under the Soft White Underbelly name. I recently read that Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma have performed upwards of 4000 shows! But then, it has been 40 years since the band got together.

Though I hadn’t spent anytime looking into anything new, I have continued to listen to those classic old tracks and pick up interesting looking LP’s when I come across them. It was just recently, after spending too much time listening to those same few tracks that I’ve been listening to forever, that I decided to try out their early albums. They are an interesting sound experience. Sounding heavily influenced by the 1960’s (though the earlier one seems less like the 60’s than the later one) and certainly with substantial helpings of Prog-rock, you can still feel the rock there. While the songs don’t hold as much rock as I would prefer, most of them have some good moments hidden in there, surrounded by a strange tasting progressive shell and some odd titles (“I’m On The Lamb But I Ain’t No Sheep” and “She’s As Beautiful As A Foot” come to mind). While their debut is still my favorite of the oldies, Secret Treaties is growing on me… “ME 262” is the best track from it so far, and I may end up trying out their second album, Tyranny & Mutation next… I am also starting to get curious (even if it sounds scary, and to heck with Will Ferrell) about hearing their two newest albums, Heaven Forbid and The Curse of the Hidden Mirror, though the album covers sure pale in comparison to the early albums.

(the first penguindevil “by request” post…)

In my current minor project of expanding/updating my Blue Oyster Cult collection, I picked up a copy of Secret Treaties. This is their third LP (1974) and is one that I haven’t heard anything off of before, so I didn’t know what to expect. Well, I’ve only heard part of it so far (with the little miss yelling at me from the backseat), but it didn’t jump right out at me, as did their recently acquired first album, Blue Oyster Cult (featuring Transmaniacon MC and, of course, Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll), but it certainly has something going for it!

Inside the case are liner notes and photos, which feature two of the most awesome photos in rock n roll…

Awesomely bad…

And just plain awesome

Now if those aren’t worth 8 bucks, I don’t know what is…

But aside from that, since we were on the Dan O’Bannon subject (remember Lifeforce), I had to watch one of his good films. A film that is, in fact, one of the great punkrock comedy horror films of all time, Return of the Living Dead!

Everyone probably knows the story already, but it is worth telling again. Years ago, canisters of chemically contaminated corpses (“remains of the true life story that was the inspiration for night of the living dead”) got accidentally dropped off at a little medical supply firm. In the present day, Frank (the ever wonderful James Karen) decides to show-off one of the corpses to the new punker kid they have working there. Of course, one should be more careful with things like that. As everything proceeds to go from bad to worse, they get their boss and the embalmer next door (Burt and Ernie) involved in an attempt to clean up the mess (aka, running corpse). As one would expect, they proceed to make everything worse, over and over again. As one might imagine, having the corpses that “inspired Night of the Living Dead” stored in a warehouse right next door to a cemetery is a recipe for bad news, especially for the merry gang of punkers in the graveyard.

Those great movies punkers…

After a few more missteps, we end up with, well, some more zombies. And these aren’t your average dumb zombies… They talk, they run, they impersonate people, they set traps and they are looking for fresh brains to ease their pains!

Similar in a lot of ways to Re-animator (released the same year, man, those were the days), this is a not-that-scary, not-that-gory, non-stop and no-holds barred action zombie movie, filled with fun characters (well, the punkers characters are pretty lame, though “Trash” [Linnea Quigley!] and “Suicide” are fun), lots of screaming and what seemed like, when it was released, a killer punk soundtrack, including The Cramps and the famous 45 Grave, “Do you wanna party? It’s partytime” scene… This doesn’t seem to pack quite the same wallop as it did when it came out, but it is still fun and it brings back memories.

One thing I like about it, though it may seem silly. Is that the characters in these tend to be dumb teens and , while this does include dumb teens, the main characters are three middle aged men, Frank, Burt and Ernie. Who are easily the most fun and engaging characters in the film…

burt and ernie, takin’ care of business…

the business…

These days I have been all about trying to listen to things forgotten. One thing that I have quite a fondness for (though only so much patience for listening to in quantity) is what I consider occult metal. The first time this label occurred to me was whenever I first heard one of these bands who I feel are more about an evil atmosphere than a musical structure. Of course, that can be construed in a number of ways, but the band that I have in mind is Funereal Moon (the other being the great Arckanum, and, I suppose, Abruptum). I really like the feel of it and the sounds, though sometimes I think it is better music to play when you are doing something else at the same time (or lost in the drink and darkness). Years ago, when I first spotted this strange EP, “grim… evil…” I could tell I had something great before the first listen. I suffered an evil whim and went and picked it up, and I was right. Sometimes musical, sometimes not, but always creepy and distant… I went out and added “Beneath the Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon” and at that point, the tracks “Revelation” and “Funereal Letanies from the Graves” hit heavy rotation on my play lists, making it onto most of my compilations. I stopped hearing them for a couple of years, but went through some this week and, I’ve got to say, it is still great stuff, and now much easier to find now that there is a, um, “best of” CD, “Luciferian Symphonies of Destruction”. Very evil music, some of the best.

Funereal Moon, Mexico’s finest evil

Arckanum, one of the all time classic band photos

Ans then I pulled out another good oldie, everyones favorite “one man black metal project from Monaco”, Godkiller. What to say? I think it’s pretty cool, albeit a mixed bag. The music verges between alright and good (sometimes better, “On The Way To The Battlefield – Path To The Unholy Frozen Empire” has really good music and it’s a well named song as it brings the sense of an evil battle about to unfold to mind, and it’s fun), but the vocals are both the highpoint and the lowpoint, depending on my mood. Screams that have a sense of both tiredness and desperation, like a demon in a hole screaming for help with his last few breaths, they are fairly unusual and very prominent. I would also suggest the track “The Final Battle – Blood On My Swordblade” as it is a great mix between 80’s metal and homemade 90’s synth-black metal. In his career, he does stray from that old Black Metal sound, but I would listen to “The End of the World”, which has one of my all-time favorite albums covers or the album that the tracks mentioned above are from, “The Rebirth Of The Middle Ages”, which I would recommend for listening, though it has one of my all-time least favorite album covers.

The End of the World

In other music news, I was listening to one of my favorites today, Silverfish. When I listen to them, I always feel the need to ponder the major label influence. See, I have always been one of those anti-major label folks, as they suck and they make bands suck. But then, and I’m not trying to remove whatever “cred” I may have, two of my favorite bands signed to the majors and released albums that have become their albums of choice for me to listen to the most. The Butthole Surfers and Silverfish. I really loved Silverfish’s records, but once Organ Fan came out (on Columbia!), it blew me away. I was also very surprised to see that my great musical idol from the 80’s, Jim Thrilwell had produced it and though he added a lot of production (as is his way) it is louder and “fuller of the rock” then their earlier work, yet still has all of the hostility that is their trademark… And the song “Jimmy” has probably my favorite bass lines since the Crüe put out Shout at the Devil. So the majors are still bad, but some bands can still pull it off (though it was pretty much the end of Silverfish).

Rocking the lil’ bebe to sleep, I find myself more aware then ever of the shining of lights through the windows. It seems that wherever one lives in the city, there always manages to be some bright light that finds its way to your eyes at night, some errant porch light or street lamp. This sort of pollution is just another reason to flee the city (as if the EMF dangers from cell-phone transmitters and Wi-fi aren’t enough)! It reminds me of the three weeks spent on the shore of Harvey’s Lake in VT. At night, it was night. It would be so dark that if you woke up in the middle of the night, you could spend some time trying to get your eyes to adjust so you could see your way around the house, but it just wouldn’t work. And dead silent. And it was a 10 minute drive before you could even consider using your cell-phone. Man, I certainly felt at ease there. Relaxed, healthy and just plain content.

Another advantage of rural VT is the lack of sprawl at the edge of town. We just returned from a trip to a little town about 30 minutes north of here, St Helens. It is an adorable little town of about 10,000. Adorable, that is, once you get to “old town” and don’t stray to far from there. Around that, it’s tract houses and Wal-marts and Quizno’s out at the highway. How does every town of any good size have the same gross sprawl around the edge: Car Dealerships, the exact same restaurants as every other town, endless thoughtlessly designed plywood houses and Wal-marts? There is so little variety in that which people want and buy and eat. It is a sad thing for me that the most memorable thing from my brief drive through the South was that they had Waffle House’s on the highways, and I’d never seen one before. It is a dull and boring aspect of our culture and this drive for homogenization sucks the heart out of our communities.

Maybe it would be better if there were more record stores, but those seem to be vanishing, I imagine to make way for more Starbucks (so that everyone in the world can drink the exact same coffee with never a variation… who cares if they alter traditional drinks, burn their coffee and put way too much sugar in all their drinks. At least everytime you order your watery, burnt, sugared-up nightmare, it will be exactly the same as the last one)!

But I am digressing! I just really wanted to complain about the closing of record stores. You see, Ozone3 just closed. I hadn’t ever shopped there (guilty!), but it was the last in the 15-yearish line of 5 stores that were: Outer Limits, Ooze, Ozone, Ozone UK and Ozone3. Coupled with the closing of Tower Records (I know, not quite the same, but they had such a history and, in 1998 when I started collecting DVD’s, they were about the only place I could find them), Django’s, Ozone UK and this talk of the NW Music Millennium store closing. It is a sad sight. I think of all the stores I frequented in my younger days: Longhair, Dudley’s Route 66, Budget, Bird’s, Crystalship… All are long, long gone. I wonder about the notion that the increase in music downloads is killing the brick and mortar stores? I guess it could be, I buy very little music via download, but most of it I do buy through the internet. I have moved away from buying much music in person (except for the Burnside Street Music Millennium, I love that place), because no one in Portland seems to have a really high quality metal selection, except for Anthem Records .

Oh, and in other news, my “book” page was a silly idea. I decided this because I joined Goodreads.com, so from now on, any book stuff I come up with will go there… As will the “Books” link in the sidebar. But speaking of books, the Rare Book room got in two of the 3 Lovecraft that I feel I really need to own: first printings of The Dunwich Horror and Tales From the Cthulhu Mythos! It was quite exciting as I ended up buying (at a reasonably good price) the Dunwich Horror, a dust jacket that I’ve been wanting for a long time… The Tales book though… I had never even seen the jacket before, so that was quite exciting, but they put $225 on it, which was a tad more than I was willing to spend. Of course, it sold in barely over a week… Here is what I didn’t manage to acquire…

I was wandering around “on demand” when I discovered the video for Daft Punk’s “Robot Rock”. Well… It’s pretty darn cool. I’ve never heard Daft Punk before but I know their name, in fact I’d always thought they were a late 70’s/early 80’s band. Nope. Regardless, it is a great song! Music that I would think of as Electronica, but performed with drums and guitar… Very fun and exciting, albeit a bit repetitive, but I’ve never minded that. Of course, I grabbed the song from the iTunes store, but I may have to look into more of this.

Can you go wrong with a double-necked guitar and a motorcycle helmet? I don’t think so…

And to continue with the mp3 project, I have held off on doing more Metal… For one, I want to do that stuff as full albums, which is bit more consuming, and second, I tend to trot about with around 600 of those tunes, so I’m set for the moment. Inspired by the KMD post at Thudfactor I decided to do something that I have planned for years, grab those much loved old rap jams off the lp’s and digitize them. It’s a good thing. Since three quarters of my records are in storage (argh!), I have limited pickings, but I think I brought the best ones along so the first picks in this project are From the Funk to the Back by Kokane (Jesus, how this guy never got more notice… This is one of the best ones out there), Me and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Granada Last Night and Breathing Apparatus by The Coup, The Boom (Coming from the smoke filled room) by The Goats, Dumpin’ em in ditches by Spice 1 and, yes, the king track of the all… Public Enemy’s You’re Gonna Get Yours (dub/Terminator X Getaway Version) from this dope EP…

Anyway I’m pretty excited about these kinds of things, I just need a longer headphone to RCA cord so I don’t have to keep scooting the computer 4 feet to the left…