CHROME

melt music...

DEATHDREAM (A.K.A. DEAD OF NIGHT, 1974)

R.I.P. KARACHI VICE

r.i.p. mike shaw (a.k.a. makhan singh, above left) 1957-2010

yes, as of this coming monday our beloved jamspace (nicknamed karachi vice after the bad guys from calgary stampede wrestling pictured above) is no more. long story short, after 6 years of paying rent on time and being good tenants in general, our landlord decided to kick us out. in some ways i understand where he's coming from, but in most ways FUCK HIM. douche move. anyway, lot's of memories, fun times, recordings... we'll miss her dearly...

TOMORROW!

NEVER KNOW

just imagine this song playing on the beach, speakers facing out over the ocean on a warm summer night, hanging out with friends, not a care in the world...
god, i miss summer.

MY DAWG

check out homeboy's latest portfolio:
http://www.jasonnocito.com/portfolio/i-heart-transylvania

DRIVER'S SEAT

IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING/NO TEARS

SEASON OF THE WITCH

FIRE ETC.

some o.g. black metal shit!

BE THERE!

LUDDITE JOE

TODAY

MY FOOLISH FRIEND

KANGAROO

i still can't believe alex chilton is dead.

POOR & NEEDY

I BELIEVE IN YOU

JABBERWOCKY (1977)

ALONE AGAIN OR

weird cover!

AFTER THE RAIN/WHAT ELSE!?

"the sun will shine again, after the rain..."

A DAY

wow. they don't make hairdos like that anymore...
when i was a surly teenager obsessed with the cure, i would try to make my hair like that by stealing my sisters hairspray (or mousse), but i could never quite get it right. i never figured out the whole back-combing thing. actually, a few times i tried to do a complete "robert smith makeover", hiding in the bathroom, smearing my face with my mom's lipstick and eye shadow. to my horror (and i'm sure my family's horror as well), i discovered that make-up, especially when poorly applied, doesn't wash off very easily. i remember coming down to eat dinner with red stains all around my mouth... my parents worried about me a lot.
those were the good old days!

UP THE DOWN ESCALATOR

SENSE OF PURPOSE

KISS ME

WAX

INTO THE VALLEY

JAH WAR/BABYLON'S BURNING

ALL THAT IS MINE

THE LONELY SPY

EASY SQUEEZE

BE THERE

possibly dance to something like this:

HAPPY

YOU ARE IN MY SYSTEM

STAY

TACOMA NARROWS

i remember seeing this footage as a small child and being terrified by it. in fact, i still feel slightly uneasy driving or walking across bridges to this day. i'm not sure what made me think of it today, maybe a preoccupation with destruction in general i've had lately. it just seems like chaos and disaster are occurring everywhere around the world these days and eventually they have to reach here as well. the noose is tightening, so to speak. this is the kind of shit that haunts me. of course, living on a major fault line doesn't help. the other day i was watching the news and they had a segment about "THE BIG ONE", something i've also been hearing about and subsequently been terrified of since i was a kid, but the only clear point they were trying to make was that it could happen any time, today, tomorrow, 50 years from now... nobody knows. but rest assured (ha ha!), it WILL happen. i mean, it's great to be aware and try to prepare yourself, but it just seemed like fear-mongering to me. thanks guys, i needed that. i think more and more every day about leaving the city for the idealized small town/country in my mind and i would be lying if i said that the idea of "THE BIG ONE" wasn't lingering prominently in there with all my other half-baked reasons for wanting to go. my sister actually did leave the city for the idealized small town/country in her mind and openly states that her growing paranoia of total destruction was a key deciding factor. how can you not have that fear lurking in the back of your mind? i guess the key is to be prepared (whatever the fuck that means) and to not live your life crippled by fear. and truthfully, i'm NOT crippled by fear, i still go around doing my thing every day, i function reasonably well (debatable). my fear is more like a bad case of athletes foot- persistent, annoying and hard as fuck to get rid of.
another fact about the above clip that's haunted me since i was a child: the only casualty of the collapse of the tacoma narrows bridge was a dog named tubby, he was in that car you see just before the whole thing goes down. they tried to rescue him, but he was too scared to leave the car and bit the hand of the guy who tried to grab him. sad stuff.
this one's for you, tubby.

DRAGGED TO THE ROOTS

someone's gotta do a chopped n' screwed version of this!

STATE OF CONFUSION

SPACE

OBSIDIAN NIGHT

BLUE MONDAY

keep it classy tonight at the waldorf with my man sipreano, spinning sounds like clouds with silver linings...
today is apparently the most depressing day of the year, but i say it's all a SCAM!
best day ever...

BLACK WIDOW

THE PROCESS

scary stuff...

TOMORROW!

BRICKFIELD NIGHTS

BORED TEENAGERS

bored teenagers? well, the bass player definitely looks bored, the guitar player looks like he's 45...

BORSTAL BREAKOUT

SIX

you don't mess with the zohan!

ROBERT

the most beautifully fragile and emotive voice ever.

FEARGAL

SEAN

maybe the best thing i've ever seen.
i saw this on an artsy fartsy blog recently and had to post it myself. this kid is so cool! too cute. i'd smoke some grass with him...

THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN

JUST FASCINATION

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

ruling.

THE MANITOU (1978)

ok, so the vengeful spirit of a 400 year old first nations medicine man chooses to be reborn via a boil on a woman's neck. her ex-boyfriend, a fake psychic, enlists the help of a modern day first nations medicine man in a long grey wig to help battle the spirit. a bunch of stuff happens, modern medicine and technology prove useless, the woman gives birth out her back to a 4 foot tall dude that looks like the leprechaun from that other movie, there's an epic battle that partially occurs in outer space with lazers and so on and so forth you get the idea. sounds better than it actually is. kind of tedious, actually.
not as good as the second stampeders album.

(DON'T TRY TO) RIDE A WHITE SWAN

i remember once as a kid running towards a group of swans on the shore of lost lagoon in stanley park, my thought at the time being that birds run or fly away when you chase them. well, my little mind never figured that a swan as tall as i was would instead turn and spread it's massive wings, strike me across the face and knock me to the ground. fair enough, a life-long lesson learned. don't fuck with swans.

THE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES OF KOMBUCHA

examining the links between kombucha tea, satanic rock music and night terrors... with the dude from the avengers.
AND kombucha is great for hangovers! (like the one i have right now...)

THE TRUTH OFTEN HURTS THE HEART

experienced bunk bed player available for session work...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH DRINKING WHISKEY?

did i miss my acid window?
that's right, i've never actually done acid.
well, not really.
or have i...?
there was this one time... in the forest... memory unclear... there may or may not have been some form of interstellar vehicle... i remember moss... tree bark... lights... i think a fern said my name... i definitely made friends with someone from somewhere else...
might have eaten some leaves... dirt...
who can say?
the same things have happened drinking whiskey... except without pants on.

THE PLEASURE BOYS ET AL

"the crash of the anvil and the nightclub school"

LADY SHAVE

um, ouch.
when was the last time you went to a show where somebody pulled out their pubes roughly and blew them into the crowd before slathering themselves with shaving cream?
never?
but seriously, nothing wrong with a little body hair, people.
it's only natural, right?
take it from me, i'm a fucking yeti...

LOW SELF-ESTEEM GIRL (2000)

i've never seen this movie, but i'd like to.
definitely fits in with my (obvious) destroyer fever...

SO EXCITED

i'm pretty excited for the new DESTROYER album! the couple songs i heard online were doing it for me in an almost shameful way.
it's like he read my mind and crafted songs/ART using pieces of all the things i love (the suave, continental sophistication of bryan ferry in the 80's for starters...) and managed to make his sense of ennui so languidly poetic and beautiful that his voice just sort of slips out of the song and into the jacuzzi right beside you (i fucking WISH!). the perfect soundtrack to the sorts of late night debauchery he seems to be looking upon with bemused detachment...



"all sounds like a dream..." (to me)

DEAD END STREET

"a sunday joint of bread and honey"
sounds nice, i don't think it's supposed to, but hey...

DROWNING

"NO WAY STREET"

"...devoted collectors of paraphernalia out walking the rock
battle and bitch for the ultimate kitsch
of a crucifix clock
two miniature romans, running on rails
appear every hour and bang in the nails
i've got to have it, christ, i gotta be the first
on our block..."

THE SHAME OF THE PAST

according to my minimal research, al jourgensen has turned his back on the the first ministry album, stating that it's overtly poppy sound was due to interference from his record label at the time. although this is in no way unheard of, my belief is that he's simply embarrassed that the pouty-pseudo-english-accented-spiky-haired youth pictured here doesn't fit in with his more current dreadlocked-wanderer/warrior-of-the-post-apocalyptic-wasteland musical persona. this got me thinking. just because i greatly prefer the wimpier version of al doesn't mean i can't totally relate to the way he feels. i mean, looking back on the version of myself that recorded the first ladyhawk album a mere 5 years ago, i can't help but feel a little embarrassed myself. not so much about the music, which is admittedly and perhaps charmingly mediocre (and although there may have been a bit of label interference there as well, i can assure you that it was for the best), but more for my behavior and overall naivety at the time.
who doesn't look back in shame now and again? maybe you don't want your new headbanging friends to know that you were once a headbanded hippy or something. for me it's also not so much about an inability to embrace the past, but more an unwillingness to accept that for all your growth, maturity and wisdom acquired through experience, you might just be fundamentally the same exact fucker you always were. time marches on and you merely lacquer on more and more layers of whatever it is you need to hide who you really are deep down. or maybe that's just my fear. surely the object of life is to strip away all the layers of bullshit and artiface, revealing that single glowing nugget of your true and beautiful soul.
whatever.
i just can't help but feel that that "single glowing nugget" in my case is actually a spoiled, attention-craving eight year old fat kid.
zing!
it's not like i'm lying awake at night thinking about it. i'm too busy lying awake thinking about all the other shitty and embarrassing things i've ever done. the truth is, that's life. we can only hope to come to terms and make peace with the parts of ourselves we strive to hide and instead strive to become the people we wish to project to the world.
i'm sorry, i've been listening to new age music again.
you don't have to be proud of your past, but you have to own it.

WHY NOT?
TELL YR FRIENDZZZ...

THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES (1971)

well, here we are in 2011. another year for me and you, another year with nothing to do- i think count chocula said that. new years resolutions? try not to succumb to the crushing depression that has been haunting me for the last couple months. actually, "crushing" might be a bit of an overstatement, more like "nudging" depression. i mean, it's winter, it's hard to feel stoked when everything is cold and dark. to quote per "dead" ohlin, the actually dead ex-vocalist from the band mayhem: "when it's cold, and when it's dark, the freezing moon can obsess you..." whatever that means. i'm not gonna go down that road. that's resoultion #1. looking on the bright side, maybe i'll try that out for a while. why not? you can't be sitting on the beach all the time. yet. in the meantime i'll just KEEP ON TRUCKING- i think jerry seinfeld said that... whatever that means.
anyway, le frisson des vampires, another cool (if somewhat sleepy) sapphic vampire flick from french art-sleaze jean rollin. i like the way that sounds "sapphic vampire flick", remind me to work that into my upcoming rap album (resolution #2???). easily the best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, great songs from paula cole, sarah mclachlan and suzanne vega amongst others, a real lilith fare vibe. KIDDING. more like wonky psych rock, not too far from saucer full of secrets-era pink floyd. or maybe piper at the gates of dawn. or maybe "rowdy" roddy piper at the gates of don knotts' estate. THAT'S going on my rap album, too. here's a clip of the opening credits:



dope, no?
nothing depressing about that.
i'm pretty sure that i'll be fine. that's revolution #9...