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10/5/2004
DEGENERATES ABROAD
This will probably be our last broadcast before we head out. We’ll be bringing
back a full report from the deserts of the southwest, including Phoenix, Tucson,
the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and, of course, fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. We’ll
be back in time for your editor’s birthday and the subsequent Halloween
festivities so stay tuned!
FILM FLAM
Last week we caught a preview screening of Ray, the Ray Charles biopic starring
Jamie Foxx. Foxx does a fantastic job in the lead role. Aside from the amazing
likeness and ability to mimic Ray's quirks, he brings a harshness to the role
lacking in the former singer's public persona. The film jumps back and forth
from Ray's childhood to his rising success in the late 50's and early 60's. My
only complaint is the rushed ending. It just seems to wrap up too quickly, as if
there were more to tell but the studio thought the picture was already too long
at 152 minutes. It didn't feel too long to me - it held my attention to the end.
But you can't help but feel a little frustrated when some of the lifelong issues
Ray was dealing with are resolved in a short dream sequence and the last 40
years of Ray's life are summarized in a minute long montage.
Odd ending aside, it's an excellent film, definitely worth seeing and will
likely end up nominated for a trophy from one award show or another.
Sunday we hit the drive in for the final Mondo Movie of the year. Unfortunately,
the projectionist for Starlight passed away recently and they didn’t have anyone
who knew how to splice together the old trailers they usually show so they had
to dive straight into the first feature, Kingdom of the Spiders with William
Shatner. The first half hour or more is rather dull, but with the wooden
dialogue and setups for each scene you’d swear it’s a porn movie. “You two
should really come check out my motor home!” says one guy, giving Shatner a wink
and leering at the female lead. It’s far creepier BEFORE the spiders show up.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a 50’s b-movie with giant radioactive spiders. You get
the mundane sort, though of the fairly large and hairy sort and in large
numbers. Skip to the next paragraph if you plan on ever seeing this film, I
don’t wanna spoil the ending for you. Perhaps the best part is the final scene
where the survivors look out the window the next morning. You expect some kind
of miracle a la War of the Worlds, only to see the every building in town
cocooned for the spiders’ future food stores. It’s man against nature, and
nature wins!
Next up, The Fog, an old John Carpenter flick with Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee
Curtis, Janet Leigh, Hal Holbrook and other then-B-list actors. I had low
expectations for a horror movie about fog. How scary could it be? But
fortunately the fog is just the cover for leprous zombie pirates. On the down
side, they only come to down once every hundred years to kill 6 people, three of
whom are killed right off the bat. And you don’t even get a wet t-shirt scene
with Adrienne’s Barboobs. Not to mention the screening of this film apparently
killed Janet Leigh, who died the same night:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/04/obit.leigh/index.html
Kingdom of the Spiders offered far more opportunities for heckling, but The Fog
is probably the better of the two films. Still, neither should be seen anywhere
other than the drive in, or late night TV…
EAR PLUGS
We've received a passle of CD's lately. Let's jump right in.
Hot Young Priest sent us their CD EP, Burning Hot and Free. It's only 5 songs,
but there's a lot of similarity in all the tunes so 5 is probably enough to get
the idea. It's sort of hard, guitar-driven stuff, but with very catchy hooks and
clear vocals. Pretty darn good, but I hope they do a full length record with
some variations in sound. Definitely catch 'em live if you get the chance, or
check 'em out online at www.hotyoungpriest.com
Another group with female lead vocals over guitar-driven rock is Bambix. Their
label, Daemon Records, sent us their latest, What's In A Name? It's a lot more
metallic than Hot Young Priest, but I was immediately impressed with the clarity
of the vocals. Stuff with distorted, wailing guitars is usually matched with
incomprehensible, wailing vocals. There's some decent melody in the fuzzy guitar
but it didn't hold my attention. I should probably give it another listen and
catch them live and review 'em again.
The Dualtone label has been sending me all sorts of nuggets lately. This week we
got Close Harmony, A History of Southern Gospel Music, Vol. One 1920-1955. It's
the non-secular answer to the Oh! Brother soundtrack. Most of the sound quality
here is amazing. The songs are probably familiar to anyone who grew up in the
church, but it's almost all new to me. You can hear the influences, both of and
for, genres like bluegrass, western swing, and even do-wop. The album gives you
a profound feeling of driving down an old country road, gravel rumbling under
your freshly-washed Model T, on your way to a Sunday meetin'. I'd like to see if
volume 2, when/if it comes out, delves into the soul and R&B era of gospel.
That's more the style of music that almost makes me want to convert - sweatin'
and stompin' along with Jesus. Volume 1 is more like a spring picnic in your
Sunday finest.
Duotone also sent us A Western Jubilee, Songs and Stories of the American West.
It just ain't our cup o' tea. It's a compilation of old songs and new, even
incorporating some spoken word cowboy poetry in there. It's fine stuff, probably
a great gift for anyone that's into the traditional Western sound and old school
country. But it don't swing enough for me on the Western front, and there's not
enough heartbreak on the old school country front. No, I'm less of a cowbow,
more of a honky tonker. Besides, this doesn't really fall into the local music
we try to stick to in our coverage. Who needs to roam far and wide for a good
song when there's too much to hear by the local campfire?
In other news, we received a notice about a TV program on local music. Musicians
and those who love ‘em should check it out:
Hello!
I produce an underground video show in Atlanta, GA called Channel Zero. We
first started up in Montgomery, AL about 15 years ago. After relocating to
Atlanta, the show moved with me. We now broadcast in metro Atlanta every
Saturday night at 11:00 PM on Comcast Channel 24. I was wondering if it
would be possible to get a mention of some sort regarding the program on
the Degenerate Press/Ear Plugs site.
To better explain what we're all about, each week we feature a different
guest artist who acts as VJ for the night. The guest host helps pick the
week's videos. Combine that with rarely seen clips and
educational/propaganda films from the 50's & 60's and you might have an
idea of what you're like.
Previous hosts have been Pretty Girls Make Graves (Matador), The Oranges
Band (Lookout!), Tortoise (Thrill Jockey), Cursive (Saddle Creek),
Decahedron (Lovitt), Evening (Lookout!), Feable Weiner (Doghouse), The
Catheters (Sub Pop), The Supersuckers (Sub Pop/MidFi), Piebald (Side One
Dummy), Azure Ray (Saddle Creek), The Jealous Sound (Better Looking), Lola
Ray (Red Ink), The Soviettes (Adeline), and the list goes on...
Some of our upcoming hosts will be: The Thermals (Sub Pop), Blonde Redhead
(Matador), Hellogoodbye (Drive-Thru), Enginedown (Lookout!/Lovitt), Scatter
the Ashes (Epitaph), and Enon (Touch & Go), among others.
We also give local bands a chance to take over the airwaves from time to
time. Some of our local acts have been Gentle Avenger (airing this
weekend), Catfight (next weekend), The Swear, Sharks & Minnows, The
Woggles, Population, The Close, The Moto-Litas, Nillah, Monte Cassino, E.X.
Vortex and more.
We believe that we have a great program. As you can imagine, we spend a lot
of time trying to get the word out. Oh yeah, we're completely commercial
free. We have no sponsors. Channel Zero is 100% independent, underground
television entertainment.
Thank you for your time and check us out if you get a chance,
"The Other" Jeff Clark
Channel Zero producer
404-315-9045
BLASPHEMY
Last episode generated several responses, but again I’ll only print an opposing
opinion rather than the many encouraging emails we received:
Dear Dictator,
"falsehoods, untruths, exaggerations..." departs from your usual humorous and
refreshingly perverse perspective. It nearly crosses into the realm of the
fanatical and unbalanced.
If you are offended by falsehoods, untruths, exaggerations..., the recent
dissemination of lies by the Kerry campaign to Dan Rather should be far more
consequential than the wholly inconsequential and intellectually insincere
ramblings of a local Degenerate. How can you be aghast by one and apparently
unfazed by the other? Do you recognize how fanatically biased this appears?
Publishing KH's stuff also smacks of base fear mongering. All of which raises
concerns that you are becoming KH's Democrat doubleganger.
Editor’s Response:
I don’t consider CBS’s failure to check their sources and documents to be of
much consequence. The facts remain – Bush dodged the draft through powerful
friends and family (who wouldn’t?), Kerry served heroically.
And who’s to say the Kerry camp issued these lies? Any more evidence than the
Swift Boat Veterans came from the Bush camp?
So I didn’t mention the tit for tat efforts by both parties (or their
supporters) to smear each other in favor of pointing out the obvious failures of
the current administration and this smacks of fanaticism?
I can’t help but point out I didn’t get a single email disputing a single one of
my accusations against the administration.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m in the Anyone but Bush camp. I said as much
months ago. I’ll go one step further. At best, this administration is
incompetent. But I don’t think they’re really that innocent. No, I think this
administration is corrupt to the core, deceitful on all fronts, a menace to
world peace, and I don’t mind frothing at the mouth a bit when I’m up against
pure fuckin’ evil and the cattle that stampede to follow them.
Fortunately, I don’t live in a swing state. If I lived in a state that had a
chance in hell of giving it’s electoral votes to Kerry I’d have to get off my
ass and go door to door, stand on a street corner holding a placard, drive
voters to the polls on election day, donate money to the local Democratic party,
etc. I say it’s fortunate because A) I’m a lazy, lazy man, and B) my occasional
rant in the recent ezines would pale by comparison and I’d probably lose all my
Bush supporting subscribers. Yes, all three of them (assuming DAC hasn’t changed
his mind after the debate last week.)
No, I live in the state that sent Zell to the Republican convention to froth at
the mouth.
Fortunately, the administration seems to be falling apart at the seams. Every
day there’s new evidence of their mistakes, new evidence of their cover-ups, new
evidence of the abuse of their POW’s, new evidence of the failure of torture to
provide useful information, another insider stepping forward to say the
administration is, at best, on the wrong track. Hell, even the hand-picked
flunkies who are supposed to be on Bush’s side are letting a few Freudian slips
out:
The former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, says the United
States "paid a big price" for not having enough troops in Iraq after the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
he had not seen "strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam and al Qaeda, but he
later said he had been misunderstood.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/05/bremer.rumsfeld/index.html
So relax, HPL and KH. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we won’t have G.W. to kick around
any longer come November.
On the other hand, we’d lose the source for some of the blackest humor in my
lifetime.:
http://home.earthlink.net/~houval/gopconstrm.mov
(Thanks to degenerate AH for the link.)
Degenerate FGR sent us this one:
Being campaign season, I thought you might like some of these.. pretty
funny stuff, some of it anyway.
http://indieish.com/category/features/postcards-from-the-campaign-trail/
Keep it coming.
Speaking of funny, my favorite response to all the anti-Bush rants lately came
from the normally verbose degenerate PK:
hippie.
Damn, did that one make me giggle! For you newbies and others who don’t know me
offline, I’m about as far from a hippie as I can get without getting a flattop
and joining the NRA. For starters, I bathe, regularly. More importantly, I don’t
believe in passive, non-violent protest. Sometimes you have to fight in self
defense, and sometimes you gotta storm the Bastille.
Oh, and jam bands SUCK.
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