DEAD OF NIGHT self-titled 7″

DEAD OF NIGHT – self-titled 7″ single

Red Menace Records

Getting a random record in the mail is like answering a phone call from an unknown number; that call could be a long lost friend wanting to catch up or a person trying to get you to do a survey about your insurance. In the end, it’s all a bit doomed but one of them is easier to stomach and the other you fuck with or hang up on (you decide).  However, that wasn’t the case on either side with this Dead of Night 45. I really needed this stamp right now. It hit on all the sorrow and anxiety I was already feeling. It amplified it and then calmed me in knowing that these fellas are sad, too. Musically it sorta reminds me of that one Amebix LP that’s really sorrowful for the past lyrically and drags you from ditch to ditch in with a concussive sonic attack.

Here’s the thing though, it is so heavy and hopeless that I want to find these fellas and pet their hair and tell them that everything is going to be OK. You know what I mean? Like maybe just a hug, some eye contact, and a sincere “I like you, you’re worth it”. But if I do that, they could lose the thing that makes this so great. Also, let’s be honest, if you listen to this it is pretty obvious that these guys are adults. To be clear, I’m referring to the misery that comes through losing a parent or child, a car crash, losing a job, having friends OD, no longer living in a punk house and having to pay bills, break ups, back togethers, realizing your vote means nothing, ideas and dreams crushed under the yoke of everyday life, prolly growing up going to church for a while and having an internal conflict over being in a country that is on the Lord’s side but also responsible for so much suffering, having a kid and not knowing how to protect her/him from what you know is coming… or whatever, all cool. So on and on, I guess. I’m just saying that I felt a connection. Those Amebix folks were young and they made a record around what they thought the world was, wherein Dead of Night is living through that world and their commentary isn’t hyperbole or fiction, it’s truth.

Look, Dead of Night, I’m headed to Maryland Death Fest this week with my pals Will T, Keith H, Kyle H, Mario T, and David M.  If any of you from Dead of Night are there too, I’ll give you a big hug, tell you it’s all going to be OK and then I’ll pull you close and whisper in your ear something like “in these 30 seconds we took to meet, 1000 puppies were gutted and twice as many children lost their fingers in machines making shoes for you” just to fuel the fire for your next record.

My only critique, and it might be the style that I’m not familiar with, but for anyone that gets this melancholy heavy banger, it’s cut a little quite and bass heavy so I turned up the treble a bit and cranked the volume.

Side A The Culling

Side B The Scourge

(JD)

___________________________________________________________________

Justin Dratson: JD   Nate Wilson: NW   Matt Average: MA

THE CHILD (1977)

THE CHILD (1977)

Director: Robert Voskanian

Starring: Laurel Barnett, Rosalie Cole, Frank Janson, Ruth Ballen, Richard Hanners

DVD (released by Something Weird) 

The Child is a movie I like, but it also bores me out of my skull at the same time. Maybe I like it for what it could be?

It starts out with promise, as we are introduced to Rosalie Nordon (Rosalie Cole) in a fog enshrouded cemetery handing over a kitten for food to a ghoul hiding behind a tombstone. It’s obvious Rosalie is not a well adjusted child. In fact, she’s quite terrible on all levels. Shitty personality, hanging out in the graveyard, and vindictive over the slightest transgressions. From this point on the movie chugs and sputters along at varying levels of success.

Alicianne Del Mar (Laurel Barnett) is hired on to be Rosalie’s nanny, and doesn’t seem to question why a blue oil drum came rolling down the hill forcing her off the road. She eventually meets Mrs. Whitfield (Ruth Ballen) in the woods as she finds her way to the Nordon house. Whitfield invites Alicianne back to her place, a boarding house in better times, but they all left over time because “the woods made them nervous.” When pressed by Alicianne, Whitfield reveals just a little more, “They said something was out there,” which she believes is Rosalie Nordon playing tricks on them to scare them away. Whitfield ominously tells Alicianne, “Consider my home a safe port when the Nordon seas get too stormy.”

In the woods between Whitfield and the Nordon house the Alicianne sees claw marks on trees, and the carcass of a mutilated animal, but doesn’t seem terribly alarmed by any of this. Upon arriving at the Nordon house, she meets Joshua Nordon (Frank Janson), Rosalie’s father, as well as a bitter curmudgeon. The son, Len (Richard Hanners), has a defeated personality, and seems like his mind is a million miles away. His interactions with his fractured family portray him as trying to keep the uneasy peace in place. Then there’s Rosalie, the strange child that we were introduced to in the beginning, who reveals how much more strange she is with every scene. 

We learn that Rosalie has psychic powers allowing her to communicate with the dead, and either her, or her mother from the grave, are able to raise them to do her bidding and kill anyone she feels stands in her way. As she warns her father, “They’re going to hurt you! Hurt you bad!”

Eventually Rosalie and her “friends” wreak terror, though it’s nothing that will have you on the edge of your seat.

The final few minutes are brutal with tedium, as well as the screeching of Alicianne as the ghouls, or maybe they’re zombies, come out and amble and stumble over to attack her and Len in an oil field. I found myself wanting the ghouls to do us all a favor and eat her just so I don’t have to hear the overwrought screaming, screeching, and blubbering. It was a performance too pathetic to elicit any sympathy. There’s one point where Len is hammering the windows in the tin shack they take shelter in and it seems to go on a little longer than it should, and all Alicianne can think to do is lean against a wall and pathetically cry.

This movie suffers from glacial pacing, and some terrible acting. Interactions are awkward with stilted dialogue, strange pauses, and no real sense of fear from the actors when the moment calls for it. Ideas like strange sounds in the woods, animal mutilation, Rosalie’s world of interacting with the dead in the cemetery, and the mentioned in passing revelation that her mother liked to read “books on the mind” should have been built upon, instead of long scenes of people walking through the woods, gardening, nor wasting time on the non starter relationship developing between Alicanne and Len.

One aspect of this film that gives it an even more strange edge is the voices were dubbed in, which made me feel like I was never in the film as a viewer, and more of someone standing outside peeking in. It’s sort of like a nightmare in slow motion. This is a movie I would probably love if it were in the line up of an all night horrorthon, scheduled to run around 3 or 4 in the morning when the mind is on autopilot and logic and rational thought are nodding off behind your eyes.

Though I’m no fan or remakes, this is one I would love to see what Rob Zombie could with. Imagine Sid Haig, or Bill Mosely as Frank Nordon! They could do wonders for the character. Sheri Moon Zombie as Rosalie Nordon would be awesome! Yes, she is past her teenage years, but I think why not? She was great as Baby in The Devil’s Rejects, and House of 1,000 Corpses. Make her Rosalie a full grown woman who is so mentally fucked up she’s forever mentally frozen in her teen years, and the rest of the family encourages it. They would ratchet up the psychotic personalities in the red, making this what The Child should be. (MA)

________________________________________________________________________

Nate Wilson: NW  Devon Cahill: DC  Heath Row: HR  Matt Average: MA

COMBAT SHOCK (Director’s Cut, 1984)

COMBAT SHOCK (Director’s Cut)

1984, USA

Director: Buddy Giovannazzo

Starring: Ricky Giovannazzo (Franki Dunlan), Veronica Stork (Cathy Dunlan)

Music: Ricky Giovannazzo

Viewed: Streaming

Transfer Quality: Very Good

If this were edited down to 45 minutes I could imagine it receiving some polite (albeit uncomfortable) applause from director Buddy Giovannazzo’s classmates at his community college’s video art class final crit, but as a 91 minute feature it’s a truly insufferable slog. I honestly don’t understand the cult following this film has. Sure, the final scene is brutal, but if you make it that far you’re likely to be left rolling your eyes (as I was) after the amateurish drudgery you’ve been subjected to up until that point. It’s as though Giovannazzo was trying to mainstream David Lynch’s Eraserhead by giving it more characters, dialogue, and a backstory and then filming the whole thing in color. Imagine Henry Spencer but as a Vietnam vet. Oh, brother…

The film opens with our lead, Frankie Dunlan (Ricky Giovannazzo) experiencing a
flashback to his time in Vietnam and his vague recollections of a massacre of some kind that he was involved it. Flash to the present as he wakes up in his filthy apartment and his life of squalor with his wife Cathy (Veronica Stork) and their deformed baby (a la Eraserhead), whose incessant wails seem to be produced by the same synthesizer that’s responsible for the hideous soundtrack. This grotesque being is apparently the product of Frankie’s exposure to chemicals in the ‘Nam. So, he’s got no job, no money, and no food… just a filthy apartment in the worst slum of Staten Island. Frankie’s day consists of wandering around the wasteland (sometimes seemingly in real time) looking for a job and occasionally running into gangs, druggies, and prostitutes who are each trying to squeeze him for money he doesn’t have, all while he blathers on to himself about his predicament. These scenes are interspersed with flashbacks to his time in Vietnam as he tries to piece together what happened there that led him to the horror show that is his life. 

I’ll quickly make my case as to why this is a shit movie:

Exhibit A: the interminably dragged-out scenes of Frankie wandering through the
wasteland of 1980s NYC that just fall flat. I mean they go on and on and on and on.
Yeah, we get it, it’s a wasteland.

Exhibit B: the multitude of tangents in the storyline that confuse more than they reveal and, in some cases, don’t even jibe with one another. I still don’t get what the whole thing with his father was all about and that goes on for like twenty minutes!

Exhibit C: the excruciating and unimaginative dollar store take on a Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Seriously, it’s as though Giovannazzo purposefully made a score out of the least interesting noises his synth could produce. I’ll give him credit that the music for the closing credits was good, but then again my elation over the film ending may have clouded my judgement.

Exhibit D: Frankie’s painfully incessant superficial and self-indulgent existentialist
yammering. I mean by the 30 minute mark, I had pretty much stopped caring about what happened to Frankie.

Anyway, I had to scratch my head when reading some reviews where the critics engage with this film as though it were a valid examination of the Vietnam experience and the pain and disorientation of coming back after the war. I mean, that’s gotta be a joke, right?!?

The only interesting thing in this movie is the final scene, which, if taken out of the
context of the mind-numbing 75-minutes that precede it, is so good that it would actually make you want to watch the rest. My advice to you is, don’t do it. (DC)

__________________________________________________________

NW: Nate Wilson    DC: Devon Cahill   HR: Heath Row   MA: Matt Average

 

PROJECT: KILL (1976)

PROJECT: KILL (1976)
Director: William Girdler
Starring: Leslie Nielsen (John Trevor), Gary Lockwood (Frank Lassiter), Nancy Kwan (Lee Su), Vic Diaz (Alok Lee), Pamela Parsons (Lynn Walker)
Music: Robert O. Ragland
Country: USA
Viewed: Streaming
Transfer Quality: Miserable

Mr. Lassiter: Stand! What’s your project?!?

Troops (in unison): Kill!

Mr. Lassiter: Again!

Troops (in unison): Kill!

A film that is truly as brilliant as its title!

I was in a rush downloading stuff to watch on a long flight, and I was lucky that this one got snared in the net. Actually, I almost turned this off a couple minutes in because it opens with a nighttime fight scene made practically invisible by the terrible transfer… just lots of white cuffs and collars flying around in the dark. However, the over-the-top hand-to-hand combat and man in flames emerging from an exploding jeep convinced me that I needed to tough this one out…and It was so worth it! Although William Girdler (The Manitou, Three on a Meathook) and cast really phone it in here while on vacation in the Philippines, they accidentally stumble into a masterpiece in the process.

The basic story is that the US military has developed an elite force of super-assassin bodyguards to counter political threats from abroad under the code name, Project: Kill. A surprisingly ripped Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet, Naked Gun), plays it straight here as John Trevor, the commander of the operation, who has grown jaded because of the Project’s increased reliance on drugs and mind control in its quest to develop progressively super-human soldiers. Trevor…that’s Mr. Trevor to you…busts out of the base and makes his way to the Philippines to reunite with two former Kill members who are also, presumably, on the lam. Of course Trevor’s former second-in-command, Gary Lockwood’s Frank Lassiter (2001, Earth II)…that’s Mr. Lassiter to you…and Asian mob kingpin Alok Lee, played by legend of shlock Filipino cinema Vic Diaz (Beast of the Yellow Night, The Big Bird Cage), are in hot pursuit…the former to protect the secrets of the Project and the latter to exploit them. In the meantime, Trevor falls in love with bad transfer-defying beauty Nancy Kwan’s (Flower Drum Song, Wild Affair) Lee Su who must deal with his progressively violent withdrawal from Project: Kill’s drugs and mind control.

Although there are so many happy accidents and details to obsess over in this film: the wooden acting, the cartoonish bad guys, Pamela Parsons’ maladroit Lynn Walker, the sublime performance of Lonely World by Pilita Corrales–it’s the fight scenes that keep you coming back for more. You’ll never see someone overthrow a punch like Gary Lockwood! I kept pausing and replaying them because they were just too good to be believed.

In the end, I’m convinced that the low quality transfer actually adds to the experience of watching Project: Kill. You really have to earn it, but the payoff is big.
(DC)

________________________________________________________________________

Nate Wilson: NW  Devon Cahill: DC  Heath Row: HR  Matt Average: MA

VALLEY GIRL (1983) / THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (1999)

Valley Girl, and The Virgin Suicides double feature at the New Beverly May 18. 2019. Photo: Matt Average

 

VALLEY GIRL (1983) 

Director: Martha Coolidge

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Michael Bowen, Cameron Dye, Heidi Holicker, Lee Purcell

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (1999)

Director: Sofia Coppola 

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Kathleen Turner, James Woods, Michael Paré, Hanna Hall

Played to a sold out crowd at the New Beverly on May 18, 2019. 

PINOCCHIO self-titled 7″ EP

PINOCCHIO – self-titled 7” EP

Toxic State Records

I’m turning 50 at the end of this month, and I’m jaded, cynical, and grumpy for the most part, but that’s how life plays out. Despite all that, every now and then I hear or see something that makes me believe that things aren’t all that shitty. Things like this Pinocchio EP. Sure, the cover is pretty bland, and easy to overlook, but get past that and you will be far more than pleasantly surprised. When I listen to this record it makes me think we’re on the cusp of some great era in punk. Maybe we’re in the midst of it already, I don’t know. What I do know for sure is this is one of the fucking best punk records I’ve heard in years, possibly the past couple decades (not like there’s any real stiff competition, but let’s not split hairs in my excitement). Listening to this EP gives me the same rejuvenating rush I felt when I latched on to punk in 1981. A new world rife with possibility, and everything sounded fresh and great. It makes me want to be involved, instead of standing at the back or on the sidelines. I listen to this and wonder what their live shows are like, and I would love to had been there when they were writing and recording these songs. Every song on here is inspired. Pinocchio inhabit a sound somewhere between punk and post-punk, but they’re not nailing their feet to the floor to stay in one place. It’s in doing so that gives them life and keeps them from being a reenactment band. The woman who sings has a great voice, and never delves into histrionics. Her focus aids in the sonic impact with the rest of the band. Imagine the Slits and the Delta 5 without the reggae influence crossed with early American hardcore. “My Time Vol.1” reminds me of the Talking Heads with its walking beat, minimal instrumentation and lyrics. They wrap it up in the second volume on the second side by cranking up the energy before reverting back and turning tables with the close “Your Time.”

The “Light Speed” trilogy brings the faster tempos into the fold and tilt towards mania at times. “Behind You”, which sits in between volumes two and three, floors every single time. The tempo is at a boil, a catchy as hell beat, and the vocals are in fine form. “Trick Plane” is godhead with the tribal percussion, confrontational attitude, and it’s brevity leaving you wanting more. (MA)

___________________________________________________________________

Justin Dratson: JD   Nate Wilson: NW   Matt Average: MA

JACKAL self-titled 7″ EP

JACKAL – self-titled 7” EP

Pain Killer Records

Jackal (current hardcore band from Florida, not to be confused with the chainsaw wielding rock from the 1990s) don’t mess around! They come out with both barrels blazing and do not let up until the very end. Their sound is heavily influenced by the early 1980s USHC bands like White Cross as well as some of the East Coast bands of that era for extra punch. It helps to have a breakdown thrown in to alleviate the sonic pummeling they deal out. The guitar has a thick sound, while the drums have a rumbling style that gives everything a solid base, and hints at the chaos roiling underneath. Lyrically, they vent their frustrations with life, and fighting, and fighting. There’s no pretense here. My one and only complaint with this record is it’s only four songs and I want to hear more. First world problems (currently)….  (MA)

___________________________________________________________________

Justin Dratson: JD   Nate Wilson: NW   Matt Average: MA

MIRACLE DRUG / PIECE OF MIND split 7″

MIRACLE DRUG / PIECE OF MIND– Split 7″

Available on a few different color vinyl options and with a download code to boot!

 Available through Trip Machine Laboratories

 I have to start this review with a few clarifiers:

 

·      I purchased all 3 versions of this 7in (see pic).

·      If you are a fan of hardcore, then you should grab this.

·      Split records, for good or bad, are a contest of which side is better.

·      Sorry to anyone in Piece of Mind but…well…you were outgunned. 

 

I file my split LPs, 10ins, 7ins at the end of the alphabet but I’ve found I’m in the minority.  I was in NJ this past week visiting some pals and the consensus was that any split is filed alphabetically by the band you like better. An example being that the Faith/Void split rarely sees the F section of a record collection (FYI, mine would be in the F section so that may automatically go to the credibility of this review). 

With that, had this just been a Piece of Mind (PoM going forward) record review I would have gone bananas for it. They are very competent and hit all the right marks to make me throw a fist in the air while sitting in my chair reading along to their lyrics.  But here’s the thing, the folks in Miracle Drug (MD going forward) have each been in bands and playing and recording since the mid ‘90s (C.R., Mouthpiece, Supertouch, By The Grace Of God, Enkindle, Mouthpiece and on and on and fucking on… uhh, an exhausting amount of stuff). And, if I’m any good at math at all, that’s around 300 years of combined experience. Furthermore, with over a century’s worth of experience, MD have a “fuck you(ness)” about them that only comes with that. I’m not talking about the “fuck you” of being in a band in your 20s where you pretend that shit rolls off your back but if there is one missed note at a show, the entire band sends a palpable wave of embarrassment over the crowd. And then a band meeting ensues where an entire hour is spent saying things like “we gotta get tight before our next show”. The “fuck you” I’m talking about comes from adulthood. I imagine that if MD messed up a song at a show it would be an exchange of smiles among the band and their band meeting, if they even would have one, would be them giving each other shit and bustin’ chops. Also, as far as Hardcore goes, I’d be surprised if these guys listened to a lot of hardcore at all these days. I’d put money on that a few of these fellas dig Steely Dan as well as Black Sabbath.  There are a couple changes that took me by surprise and pulled me in. Who knows, they might also all be assholes.  

In the end, this is a great record with two great bands but maybe not the greatest combination. It wasn’t a chocolate and peanut butter tasty combo, but it wasn’t a toothpaste and orange juice one either. Maybe it was milk and Pepsi, complementing but not peer to peer. However, I did do this. I ordered the PoM demos and recent cassette to check out and maybe review. Look, PoM were just outgunned on this release and I bet they’d agree. Regardless, go grab one before they are gone. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.  (JD)

___________________________________________________________________

Justin Dratson: JD   Nate Wilson: NW   Matt Average: MA

MUTILATED TONGUE Fuel the Flame LP

MUTILATED TONGUE – Fuel The Flame LP (2019)

Armageddon Records

I’m pretty out of touch with what has been happening in the DIY hardcore/punk scene for a few years now.  I can tell you this though..this shit is straight up fucking refreshingly awesome.  Total C.O.C. Animosity worship vox happening here…It’s blatant, and great!  Who doesn’t love Mike Dean 80s era Corrosion Of Conformity?

I  mean almost everything about this record is godly, and almost perfect (I’ll get into the almost perfect part later).  

The musicianship on this is stellar, and you can tell when dropping the needle onto the wax that these folks are vets.  The drums don’t stop pounding, this dude is able to do it all.  Heavy toms, fast beats, slow beats all caught on a totally raw but pro recording.  It almost makes me wish I lived in Oakland to take some drum lessons from this hero (I said almost).  The song writing is ferociously brilliant.  I love the short little melodic Discharge guitar leads that are thrown in.  This record flys by and is almost over as soon as it starts.  

It is hard to imagine that this can be pulled off live due to the fact that they are a three piece, and the guitarist sings.  Thats always a tough one to do.  Again though, these folks are vets, and they are probably pulling it off.  

I mentioned “almost perfect” at the beginning of this review. Well the almost for me is the band name… It has had me standoffish about whether this could be good from the moment I heard of them. Guess what? After three listens now, I’m starting to warm up to the name a little. I’d love to know the origin of it or what it really means to the people involved. Not a band shirt I could wear to pick up my daughter from school. I guess thats the point though, right?

I’m not going to get into all the ex bands that this group have on their resume. The music speaks for itself and really doesn’t need that hype. Just go buy this and support the people involved in making this happen. (NW)

___________________________________________________________________

Justin Dratson: JD   Nate Wilson: NW   Matt Average: MA

THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976)

THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976)

Director: Arthur Penn

Staring: Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid

Amazon Prime

Great transfer (shit fucking movie)

I can’t believe I made it through this film.  There were so many times I just wanted to turn it off, but for some reason I felt obligated to finish it (Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde).  This was painfully agonizing to watch and when it was over I felt like it was a complete waste of two hours.  I mean I love Westerns, and I thought this was going to be a classic.  The attempt at humor or slapstick comedy was terrible and doesn’t hold up (It probably was never funny).  The music was almost enough on its own for me to kill my TV.   I seriously thought that at some point either Jack Nicholson, or Marlon Brando might suddenly save things, but obviously neither of them ever did.  The only great acting in this film was done by Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man).  Marlon Brando’s character was super annoying and from the moment he appeared on the screen I wanted to see him die.  Unfortunately that took two hours to happen.  

I mean Christ… throw a dog a bone or something…at least give me some nudity or some sick violence. 

I’m not even going to get into the plot here.  Nobody should waste their time on this over-rated garbage.  (NW)

________________________________________________________________________

Nate Wilson: NW  Devon Cahill: DC  Heath Row: HR  Matt Average: MA