raptorville

wow, ok, so why aren’t you into sebadoh? i just can’t understand it… they are SO rad. i recently put on a semi-neglected record of theirs - vs helmet - and it’s so good!

they’re also re-releasing their albums one by one with extra stuff and some cool liner notes, so if you’re  CD buyer, check ‘em out.

here’s the classic - CLASSIC - gimme indie rock to whet yr tastebuds, or buy it here.

the way that the general public eat ice cream. and muesli.

on this mad list of he top 10 most gruesome death scenes from films, they have a collage of all of the death scenes from john carpenter’s the thing (1982). these are some of the best sfx ever, check it out!

there’s also clips from other cool films, check it out on hecklespray.com. they also have the 10 most disappointing film deaths ever.

FUN FACT: the thing was set in the antarctic (scientists are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills) and the tagline was: ‘man is the warmest place to hide’. amazing!

this was the third screening of ‘a night of horror’ at dendy newtown that i attended this week, and the worst! oh it wasn’t that bad, three or four of the films were great, but the rest were pretty bad. it’s interesting - i love dodgy film, especially horror - and one of my favourite events of the year is always squatfest, which almost prides itself on showing lame films (alongside brilliant ones), but i found the quality of the films at this screening disappointingly crap. maybe i’m just lame.

maybe because they make ya pay, or maybe because i assume that there are plenty of good short horror films being made, and a lot of these were shit? i dunno.

the night included: egg ghost (dongkeun lee - kor / usa), peekers (mark steensland - usa), halloween high (tyson hauff - usa), eel girl (paul campion - nz), akai (carlos gananian – bra), fine meats (guy verge wallace - aus), red harvest (dylan griffith - usa), go ask alice (shannon lark - usa), uninvited (shaune harrison - uk), victor and the machine (carlos talamanca - esp), the lycanthrope (lucas peltonen - usa).

egg ghost was pretty boring, where a clay-mation ghost takes a girls face. peekers was cool! it was the kind of film that kat and i reckon we would make - easy, short, and funny. it won’t seem funny in words, so i won’t explain it, but you can watch some of the mark steensland’s films on his site.

halloween high started with some laughs - it was essentially a rip off of a lot of horror films- mainly scream (not that scream is a credible horror film, of course). it showed a bunch of horror stars - freddy krueger (a nightmare on elm street, and related spin offs), michael myers (halloween - the best series ever), and leatherface (texas chainsaw massacre) - fretting over a spate of murders in their town. blah, blah, blah, it was jane austen taking revenge on the stars of horror for making kids watch their films on friday nights instead of reading pride and prejudice. lame. but they snuck in a few early laughs, so all was not lost.

eel girl was entertaining, i guess - i’m glad that it was as short as it was. at least the production and effects/make up were pretty awesome.

akai was shit on so many levels. it was an over complicated, broring, sexist vampire film - do we really need to see another film in which female prostitutes/escorts get murdered? we had no sympathy for any of the characters, which would be fine if either a) it didn’t go for 21 minutes, or b) that something happened. self-indulgent, and boring.

fine meats, the only australian film of the night, was sadly badly made clay-mation, not in a good way. not even fine.

red harvest, was the coolest i reckon. it was basically children of the damned meets 28 days later, and although obviously done on the cheap, was done really well - super clever. they created true drama and suspense by using simple tricks, and just concentrated on good make up when needed.

go ask alice was atrocious - i’m not going to waste too much space talking about it, just don’t watch it. if you don’t believe me, or are intrigued, you can watch it here, but don’t say i didn’t warn you. blech! it’s part of the viscera series, which is films made by women only, which is cool, but this is just an awful film.

the next film, uninvited, was really lame. i saw what they were trying to do, but it just wasn’t good to watch, and made me a little sleepy. a writer having a car accident on christmas eve (without setting that scene at all, by the way), stopping in a local pub, and then an unscary ‘thing’ and nothing scary happening is bad enough, but then switching to him telling the story at a podium at his book launch is just embarrassing. oooooohhh, and then the not-scary ‘thing’ from the pub is in the mirror at the very end. snooorrreee.

the last two were pretty cool, although victor and the machine is not a horror film. admittedly, it could be classified as a monster film - a small child fills his recently deceased dad’s body with a motorbike motor to make him work again - but it’s not horror dudes. that’s cool though, everyone liked it from what i could tell.

the closer for the evening, the lycanthrope, was hilarious. i don’t want to ruin this one, because it will hopefully show up online soon (i can’t find it now), but it was cool, funny, and gross. the only downfall was the out-of-sync sound (that’s annoying, huh), but everyone should watch it if you can!

overall, the ‘a night of horror’ film festival was awesome - of course there will be some films that you don’t like, especially if like me you watch 24 in one week!!! - but it’s still worth checking out these things out, and the good ones are worth the wait. heaps of cities have a similar festival - go and support it!!!

FUN FACT: texas chainsaw massacre character leatherface was loosely based on real serial killer ed gein, who also influenced the characters norman bates from psycho and buffalo bill from silence of the lambs, as well as the film in the light of the moon.

well, thursday - as in tonight - there’s a rad ALL AGES event happening at sydney/jimmy sing’s record stand:

theeennnnn, this weekend :::

friday april 12:

RAPTORVILLE PICK:

a night of horror 18+

the closing party for ‘a night of horror’ at dendy newtown, featuring an argentinian feature film, la antena. the screening is followed by an award ceremony and party. it’s $20, but sounds like it’ll be pretty cool.

gameboy/gamegirl - 18+

fucked venue/fun band’s ep launch - gameboy/gamegirl. supports are: catcall, miami horror, hey now, yellow bird, redial, tranterco. candy’s apartment, 22 bayswater rd, kings x.possibly 10 bux or more.

new justice team - 18+

new justice team with frank rizzo + maus + taipan + vae victus at the lansdowne, city rd. 9pm + free!

radiators - 18+

at rooty hill rsl with the spys (ex-spy vs spy). what a line up! $25.

saturday april 13

RAPTORVILLE PICK:

sewer sprints 2 - ALL AGES the greatest bike/pisshead event since sewer sprints 1. bike sprints, trolley races, bike jousting, texas twins. sick afterparty - warehouse, cheap booze, mad bands. follow signs from sydenham station. 32 shirlow st., marrickville for the afterparty - 8pm. more…

guns are for kids -18+ gafk have new album and stuff, so come and hear it at hermann’s, which is part of sydney uni, on city rd. they’re playing with between the devil and the deep + call the medic, call the nurse. $10.

surry hills festival - ALL AGES prince alfred park, surry hills- 10am to 4pm. line up includes kat frankie and more, + 2ser stage!

smartarts 2008 - ALL AGES pine street arts and cultural festival for ‘young people’. free, 2pm to 8.30pm.

the gin club - 18+ at the annandale with mike noga & the gentlemen of fortune, the shipwrecked. $18.

wagons - 18+ at the hopetoun with the dawn collective + chad mason + the sons of katie elder. $10.

witch hats - 18+ at spectrum with talons, circle pit, group seizure. $10.

sunday april 14

wollongong city gallery zine fair corner of kembla and burelli, wollongong. come to buy/sell/trade your zines, comics, artist books, art, badges, hand made toys, clothing, accessories, vintage and recycled wares, baked goods, cds and records. and there’s other fun stuff too:

• workshops! presented by vanessa berry (i am a camera and strawberry hills forever) and matt huynh (stickman)
• performances! by the common cold poetry collective
• tea party and zine launch! with natalie von catalie
• end of day forum on zines, comics and graphic novels! with vanessa berry, matt huynh, julie ditrich and clementina velasco

stolen from electronic frontier foundation:

umg says throwing away promo cds is illegal
posted on eff by fred von lohmann

in a brief filed in federal court yesterday, universal music group (umg) states that, when it comes to the millions of promotional cds (”promo cds”) that it has sent out to music reviewers, radio stations, djs, and other music industry insiders, throwing them away is “an unauthorized distribution” that violates copyright law. yes, you read that right — if you’ve ever received a promo cd from umg, and you don’t still have it, umg thinks you’re a pirate.

this revelation came in a brief for summary judgment filed by umg against troy augusto. augusto (aka roast beast music collectibles, ebay handle roastbeastmusic) buys collectible promo cds at used record stores around los angeles and resells them on ebay. umg sued him last year, claiming that the “promotional use only” labels on the cds mean that umg owns them forever and that any resale infringes copyright. eff took augusto’s case to fight for the proposition that a copyright owner can’t take away a consumer’s first sale rights just by putting a label on a cd (after all, the supreme court first recognized the first sale doctrine when a book publisher tried the same thing with a label stating “may not be sold for less than one dollar,” and we’ve seen patent owners trying the same trick on printer cartridges). in other words, eff believes that if you bought it, or if someone gave it to you, you own it.

umg seems to think that the “promotional use only” label somehow gives it “eternal ownership” over the cd. while this might make sense to a goblin living in harry potter’s world, it’s not the law under the copyright act. according to the first sale doctrine, once a copyright owner has parted with ownership of a cd, book, or dvd, whether by sale, gift, or other disposition, they may not control further dispositions of that particular copy (including throwing it away). it’s thanks to the first sale doctrine that libraries can lend books, video rental stores can rent dvds, and you can give a cd to a friend for their birthday. it’s also the reason you can throw away any cd that you own.

for eff’s view of the reality of “promo cds,” and why it’s absurd for umg to claim to still own them, years after they mailed them out and deleted all records of who they were sent to, read our summary judgment brief on behalf of augusto, also filed yesterday.

SO DUMB!!!!!! they’re coming for their cds, you’d better watch out! their crappy old promo cds are what’s ruining their business!

wouldn’t you say that it’s the fact that they’re light years behind consumers, and what the hell is actually going on in the music world? do they maybe have something better to do with their time and money? like signing the next fallout boy or whatever the crap they put out?! fuckers.

thanks to ben-ha for the link.

FUN FACT: universal music group is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, with a 25.5% market share. wow.

film festivals happen all the time, and often there are pretty cool looking horror fests in sydney - at least one or two a year, anyway. i never go to them, because i’m completely slack, and only go to the cinema once or twice a year no matter how much i want to see stuff.

but i went to this one! a night of horror, just over a week of horror flicks, at the cinema near my house. i didn’t go to all of them (i wondered if anyone did though - like, a million horror films), but i managed to get to two screenings on sunday april 6 (and am planning on going tonight, too).

the first screening (4pm) was based around the debut of a silent/film noir adaptation of the h.p. lovecraft story the call of cthulhu (original text) (”that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.”).

trailer:

not the one with tori ‘gory’ or ‘horse face’ spelling that i never heard of until right now and what the fuck were they thinking?!?! ‘welcome home… to the end of the world’???

trailer:

the one that i did see was so good, though. i can’t believe how good this film was! it was so true to form, so fine, so well done. the attention to detail was incredible, and the sets and models were superb. on top of this, the original score was outstanding, and perfectly suitable. i could go on. so i will. the story is really great, and from what i can gather, the film was produced by the h.p. lovecraft hostorical society - so that’s why it’s so on the money…

i have discovered that you can get in on dvd, and if you like lovecraft, or 20s style silent films, you should get it any way you can.

the film was preceded by 4 other shorts, all based on lovecraft stories, and the first of which i missed. the three that i saw left a lot to be desired.

the film that was playing when i entered, la partition, was a series of stills with a voice over (in french), as opposed to, uh, you know - film. it was better than it sounds, and there was one scene that began to put me on edge, but not enough i’m afraid. the second one that i caught, getting out (usa), was the coolest of the three shorter shorts, and featured crude animation and pretty lo-fi voice overs. i don’t really feel as though its worth going into detail of the stories, it might just be better to read the originals.

the third one, a legend told (sweden), was good for a laugh, and i got one fright out of it, but it till fell a bit flat. they really left the cinema craving something brilliant, and we got it with the call of cthulhu.

the 7pm screening - which was titled sick in the body, sick in the head and featured 10 shorts - was awesome, too. i saw my friend aaron out the front in between, and he felt as though after the call of cthulhu, he wouldn’t bother trying more films, as he was so satisfied. this made sense at the time, but i’m glad that i stuck around for the next screening.

two of the ‘films’ were video clips, from torture device (usa) and old world disorder (sweden). they were two of the worst fucking things i’ve ever seen in my life. these were the only mistakes that the curators made - they were seriously so bad, it makes me sick to think of them. not because they were grotesque, but because i was embarrassed to be in the cinema while they were shown, they were that lame. i managed to escape to the toilet during one, killing two birds with one stone, but somehow forced myself through the second. old world disorder? awful.

thankfully, the rest of the films were great fun. they went as follows: when sally met frank (victoria waghorn - aus), anesthesia (adam kargman - usa), hideous (benjamin sztajnkrycer - can), kirksdale (ryan spindell - usa), eyes of edward james (rodrigo gudino - can), on edge (frazer lee - uk), lobe massage (heath hanlin /megan ehrhart - usa), wretched (leslie delano/ heidi martinuzzi - usa).

the most terrifying, by far, was anesthesia. it began with a woman kneeling on the floor of a hospital room, praying to god make everything with her heart ok (replete with crucifix necklace). we’re then in the operating theatre, to witness her heart transplant. after anesthetic is administered, we are inside the woman’s head, looking out, and hearing her thoughts.

that’s kind of fucked up enough, right? but the anesthetic doesn’t work properly. her body movement is out, but her brain is alert. she can feel he cold of the gel applied to where her chest will be ripped open - ‘oh, that’s cold… wait…’ she realises that this isn’t right, so attempts to let the surgeons know by trying to move a body part. as she’s begging her finger to work, even just a little, she hears and sees the surgeon that’s about to operate as he turns around and offers the scalpel to a younger looking guy.

‘c’mon johnny (or whatever his name was), you’ve got to get your feet wet sometime.’ shit. she flips. she realises that not only is she going to feel everything that happens, she’s going to be operated on by a first timer. she really, really tries now, to get her finger to move. and it does. it pops up a little of the bed.

the young surgeon sees it and stops, looks around. ‘don’t worry, that’s just a nerve - it happens sometimes’, says a nurse across from him.

he proceeds to cut her chest open, and pull open her ribs. seriously, you see this shit happening. all you hear is the woman screaming - silently - screaming inside her head. screaming for god to help her, for the doctors to stop, for anything. this goes on for a while, before she screams for god to ‘take her anywhere but here, just take me away!’ and she flatlines.

the doctors, surgeons, etc. don’t know what’s happened, and they all look at the young surgeon with half-accusatory, half-sympathetic looks.

wow, so full on. it’s not that i’d neccessarily recommend watching it, because it was pretty full on, but kudos for the shock and sick factor. i’ve got a pretty strong stomach, but this had a whole theatre of slasher-flick fans squirming and looking away, including myself.

my actual favourite of the screening was probably the eyes of edward james. i won’t explain it, as i’ve been writing about these films for ages, but here’s a synopsis from the infamous imdb.com:

roughly 15 minutes in length, the eyes of edward james is a suspenseful, intriguing narrative. shot in the first person p.o.v, the film is a very accurate depiction of the subconscious mind and the blur between memory and accuracy. very hitchcockian/lynchian, very noir.

gudino treats the audience with respect, allowing for an interpretive perspective of the film, and does not underestimate the viewer’s comprehension of the material - nor does he feel the need to blatantly ‘explain’ his vision to the viewer.

beautifully shot, this atmospheric film is a welcomed addition to the suspense/horror genre.

yup, clever film. the films were great, and all worth seeing (except for the music videos, of course). i feel really lucky to have the opportunity to go and see stuff like this, as anyone who is given that opportunity should. if you are that lucky, go and check some shit out - whether it’s film festivals, bands, art shows, or whatever - because without our support, they won’t happen again.

FUN FACT: on the greatest films website, there is a list of the ‘greatest scariest movie moments and scenes’, which includes the death of bambi’s mother! it is intended to be a collection of ‘the most classic, ’scariest’ scenes in movie history, including film scenes that were once considered ’scary’ upon their initial screenings, but have lost some of their shock appeal.’ awesome.

eucalypt are so young, and so good. i love that playing on the floor as opposed to a stage really does break down that barrier of crowd vs band, and with eucalypt you really become part of their show. sadly, the gig on monday was the last chance that we had to experience it, as they’ve now broken up.

i saw eucalypt play for the first time at the tri-state carni chooch festival in march 2007. they, along with quebec from melbourne (who are also breaking up shortly, and have played their last-ever sydney show), blew my fucking mind that weekend.

talking to a member of eucalypt on monday, apparently one member had decided to move on, and as they work so closely (and so well) together, they decided that it couldn’t go on without him. this also gives an idea of what kind of band they were - they weren’t together to learn one person’s songs, or any typical rock-band deal, but were together because they all wanted to do the same thing, and do it together.

the show at sydney (one of my favourite venues ’round town) was great, from what could tell. as the space is small, and a lot of people came, not many people got to actually see the band. i’m sure it was pretty special up the front, but i couldn’t quite deal with the heat so i got the fuck out of the kitchen. i’m glad i went along, because the great songs were still there, but i really should’ve made the push to the front line to get the most out of it. also, from what i could gather, the band were doing shout outs and dedications to each other in between songs, which could have been nice to hear (or not, guess i’ll never know).

here’s flyer that was handed out after their set:

i’m sad to see these guys go, but i’m sure they’ll all do something cool with themselves.

playing before eucalypt was the diamond sea, from melbourne. the space was already jammed, so i didn’t stay close for long, but what i heard was really cool! there were moments of thaw-like post hardcore, love of diagrams-ish vocals, and good energy all round. definitely see these girls and a guy if you can, my main memory is sweet melodies over duelling guitars and nice solid drums and bass.

the last act was off minor (mp3) from the usa, whom i had only heard of via their split 7″ with my disco. once again, toooo packed (and hot!), so we stood to the back of the top level to listen, and try and catch what we could sight-wise. i liked their stuff though, heaps. i’m sure that it went down a treat the next night at maggotville, too, but i couldn’t make it along. it’s awesome to see a hardcore show in a venue like sydney, but i guess i wasn’t feeling very hardcore.

FUN FACT: when the cops showed up for the second time this night (which was inevitable - it was so fucking loud out the front), they were rad. yup, the only time that you’ll ever here me say that cops are rad. after hearing from a resident of the venue that it was one of the band’s last gigs, and that there are only ‘2 more songs to go’, they walked in to check it out. one was shaking his arms in the air along to off minor, before walking out laughing, saying to his mate ’sick show’ or something. when two more cops walked in, as these dudes were leaving, he said ‘ no worries, it’s just a cool concert!’. or something to that effect. big ups.

i was worried about this gig. no offence meant for anyone, but after the reunion tours that we’ve seen come through sydney of late what are we to expect?

tactics are a band that it took me a long time to find, but when i did: wow. for the many of us that missed them the first time around, they formed in canberra in the late seventies, and moved to sydney around 1980. they released 4 studio albums, a live album, a b-sides compilation, and a bunch of singles. they have recently released 2 double disc volumes (the sound of the sound) featuring all of their recorded work (well, demo versions of some, and remastered versions of others, but most of it’s there in some way, shape or form). the gig on saturday april 5 at the annandale was to launch the 2nd volume.

i had interviewed david studdert, tactics songwriter, vocalist and guitarist the tuesday before, which made me really excited about the show (download the interview here [30mb - mp3]). he’s a cool guy and has the right ideas about music (well, i think so). the band, which lasted through the 80s, had a revolving door line up which seemed to change around quite a bit. it mostly centered around david’s writing, and was successful due to his enthusiasm/pro-activism.

i’m not sure about who else made up the line up tonight, sorry - it hadn’t crossed my mind to ask. david took centre stage to the room full of obvious old mates, and old enemies, as well as a bunch of new fans and friends. the fun started straight away, as did the stories of nights spent playing and writing these amazing songs. the band were obviously all really enjoying the night, which in any circumstance is good to see.

songs tonight included my favourites burning country, cleaning a gun, and coat tails, to name but a few. david’s dance style is something to be envied (and copied, should the chance arise), and the songs themselves haven’t lost any of their magic - they still sound so refreshingly original. david lives in london now, but i’m sure that well be treated to another tactics show and if i were you i wouldn’t miss it for the world.

cloud control were the middle support, and we’d never heard them before. they’re cute smiles and bubblegum melodies won us over at first, but it all seemed a little manufactured after a while. really talented musicians, though, to the point that we guessed that they got together at the con. killer bass lines, that’s for sure.

opening the night was peter fenton, who we sadly missed.

one thing of note regarding this gig was the crowd. anyone familiar with the annandale will know that it’s famous for rock n’ roll - and is famous for its rock pigs. not to say that they’re not nice people, but i’ve often ended up with beer on my sleeve and sore toes, which is of course all part of the rock n’ roll experience, i know. tonight, though, we were treated to a room full of polite, courteous punters (well, most of ‘em). there were some younger peeps, and a couple of yobs, but also a lot of older people (than us) sipping wine and chatting quietly. it sounds really lame, but it was really nice! it was like being at the basement without the snooty fucks.

FUN FACT: tactics went through at least 20 band members over the course of their 11 or 12 year career!

so baseball’s first full length release finally came out this year, animal kingdom, which includes tracks from their ep of about 2 years ago baseball, taiwan – japan tour ep. this was the sydney launch for animal kingdom, at spectrum on oxford st.

i’ve always dug baseball, and was really into said ep. when the album came around i was looking forward to it. when i was looking at it i wasn’t so sure. enough has been said about this album cover on other blogs and forums, so i won’t go into it too much here, except to say that i hate it, and that it doesn’t make me think - even for a second - that the music on that disk would sound anything like it does.

the way that the music sounds on the disk doesn’t do that much for me either, to be honest, but how could it? anyone that’s seen baseball live would know that there’s no way that you could capture that intensity without the visual accompaniment of the band. so, seeing as i hadn’t seen them play for some time, my interest had kind of waned. this show, though, was just what i needed to see to be reminded of how great they are - so much energy, such cool songs, such cool people. they brought the songs off animal kingdom to life, and i was really happy to have my interest rekindled.

just before them, wollongong 4 piece ohana (which loosely means family in hawaiian culture) had played a good set, troubled slightly by an unsuitable mix. vocalist/guitarist will is one mighty fine dude to watch, and his voice and their duelling guitars were on the money tonight. i think that ohana really suit an environment different to somewhere like spectrum, so if you see them on a line up at an unconventional venue - which they’re often on - try and make it along. also, buy their album weak wrists here.

we missed dead china doll this time ’round, as we were starving and last time we saw them our ears bled. dimitri’s pizza gets a 10 out of 10 for their chili bread and vege pizza though.

openers for the night were sydney rockabilly 4 piece psychonanny and the babyshakers. they’re the band that you always see on posters - it’s as though they have a street team sometimes - and that are often in a line up that’s unexpected for a band of its style. theyre good though! really good, if you like rockabilly. which i do. i wouldn’t say that what they’re doing is as original as baseball, and they’re not as tight as ohana, but who cares? they write fantastic songs and are heaps of fun to watch. once again the sound plagued them (or maybe just me) a little, and sonia’s voice was too loud, which detracts from the quality of it. she has the perfect voice for this stuff, as does lead vocalist/guitarist simon (her husband). they’re in the process of finishing up some recordings, and we should all be excited to hear them.

this was one of those shows that, although the venue is pretty awful, was really great to see. heaps of people were there right from the start, who all seemed to stick around, too. and although the genres were mixed (which i love, but which doesn’t always make for the best atmosphere), it all seemed to fit, and to maintain energy all the way through. super fun night, actually.

FUN FACT: baseball is somewhat of an indie supergroup, and features thick passage from ninetynine and sandro (violin and vocals), monika fikerle from love of diagrams, sea scouts, jihad against america, the bites, and the grimm (bass guitar, drums and vocals), evelyn morris, who is pikelet and is in true radical miracle (drums and vocals, and bass), and ben butcher from the grimm, assassination collective, jihad against america, fibonacci, and aardvark. (guitar and vocals). all of these bands mentioned are great.