6 posts tagged “dvds”
gothkill.com
The latest DVD we received is a horror movie called Gothkill. This is a straight-to-DVD low budgeted movie, starting America's Got Talent's Flambeaux (as Nicholas Dread), musician Eve Blackwater (as Kate) and Mistress Juliya (as Demonatrix, aka the Devil Girl).
Mistress Juliya's name should come as no surprise to fans of heavy metal, she did, after all hosted Much Music USA's Uranium, then onto its spin-off show, Metal Asylum. Her obvious sex appeal solidified her as a fan favorite, she now appears regularly on No. 1 Countdown Rock show on the MMUSA-turned-Fused TV.
Eve Blackwater's other job seems to be as a fire-eating musician. Her myspace hilariously discourages creeps: "STOP TRYING TO GET IN MY PANTS!!! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!! sorry to disappoint you."
The story of Gothkill is quite simple, Nicholas Dread, a Catholic Priest tries and save innocent women from accusations of witchcraft. His efforts lead the church to believe he's in league with the devil and sentenced him to be burn with the women he "confessed". This lead to Dread's disenchantment with his religion and made a pact with Satan.
100 years (?) later, in modern-day New York, Dread comes back to finish his deal with the devil. His revenge is unleashed on a stripper/goth club and basically it ends in fire and hell.
The DVD cover artwork by world-famous death metal artist Mike Hrubovcak promises us: B-Movie (check), T&A (check and check), metal (check), bloody gore (check), hell (check), goths (check), and deaths (check). While I did not enjoy very short movie, I would recommend it if you are looking for a midnight gory b-movie with a heavy goth/metal theme (with all the checks above), this will fulfill what you're looking for.
Also, it's not quite as comedic or as cheesy as some of the reviewers made it out to be, sure there are some unintentional bad acting, but that's to be expected with these type of film. I thought the
Gothkill was released May 12th, you can netflix this (it's available, I just checked). If you insist on buying a copy for your Mistress Juliya collection or for the extras (including audio/video commentary by director JJ Connelly, Flambeaux, and Blackwater), you can head over to Gothkill Store. Watch the trailer at Wild Eye Releasing.
SCION
scion.com
The application is really designed for DJs for determining beats per minute (BPM), for, what I'm assuming so they can match music to that thumping-thumping noise. The application was created and developed by Epic Tilt, who is the company-for-hire when big companies need to cross promote their product (such as that Be Like Lady Gaga application). It's actually a smart way to promote, I'm just wondering why companies don't concentrate their efforts on applications.
I did download and tested out the BPM application and discovered that this application was not meant for me. This is really for DJs, as I have previously mentioned. After testing four songs, the number given back to me ranges from 100-200 BPM and that's pretty much it. You can then save the information on a playlist or assign notes to it or share them with your DJ friends.... but I found that since I did not understand the use of the BPM, it quickly became a useless application for me.
However, if you're a DJ, or interested in DJ work, I think this application is valuable to you. Plus the price is just right: FREE.
twitter.com
It
would seem like most current/modern bands all have Twitter accounts
now. If not setup by the band themselves, it's set up by their record
label. Pretty soon, all musicians will have a Twitter account, like
they do with their Myspace.
W♥M Twitter experienced a huge spike with all the bands migrating to the service - we had +63 adds since last night, mostly by bands. It's not John Mayers numbers, but it's big for us.
And I have said it before: I don't get what all the fuss is about with Twitter. Why is the country in love with it? The limitation of 140 characters kills me.... plus people use it as a popularity contest. Also, once you add more than 50 people to follow, it becomes absolutely useless. I know hardcore Twitter users basically use 3rd party applications to keep them organize (since Twitter doesn't offer such functionality).
The microblogging service hit mainstream media earlier this year with Ashton vs CNN and Oprah endorsing it. Recently, I was at a grocery store when I saw The Times with twitter for their front page story.
If you're new to Twitter, or interested in being more productive on Twitter, here are some services that I use and endorse:
- Tweet Later: Automatically follow people that follows you - and the best part, it also drops people that unfollow you.
- Twitterfeed: Automatically post feeds (RSS).
- We Follow: A directory of twitterers, ranked by popularity.
06/14/2009 20:42:34 ♥ vu (
)
♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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Words for the Dying MC-845, 1990 microcinema exclusive $US 24.95 $US 50.00 Format: DVD, NTSC, Region 0 (All), European List Prices: £16.99 / 24.95€ License for theatrical exhibition |
Words for the Dying DVD (09/30/08) >>>
We don't normally get 'screener' DVD copies for review (I think the last one I got was for Negativland's DVD), so I was pretty excited to get Words for the Dying DVD.
Being an early adopter of the DVD format (I own over 2,000 DVDs), I do appreciate the higher visual and audio quality that DVD had over VHS. I am starting to get into Bluray (I also have a handful of HD-DVDs), so as far as movie snobbery goes, I'm up there. Keep this in mind when I talk about the poor visual and audio later.
First of all, for introductory purposes, both John Cale and Brian Eno are very accomplished musicians. Cale's history with the Velvet Underground, Eno is regarded by many as the "father of ambient music" and his work with Roxy Music. This DVD release, it seems to me, was for fans' services/demands. Documentary fans might also want to check this out but, to be honest, if you don't like music documentary, you should skip this one.
This documentary, by director Rob Nilsson, is about the recording of John Cale's album, also of the same name. Although the cover art clearly depicts and credits Brian Eno, it would seem whenever he's conscious of the camera's presence, he's either covering his face and/or giving the viewer the finger. He makes it known that he did not want to be part of the documentary (although he does appear with a formal interview at the very end of the album talking about the mix).
According to the DVD box, there are four parts to this documentary, revolving around four Dylan Thomas poems. However, watching it, it felt to me that there were only three parts (Cale in Moscow, in London, and Wales). Moscow and Wales are shot in black and white, which leads me to believe that either it's done for artistic reasons and/or the footage they had (with poor lighting) was unuseable in color. Sometimes the poor audio and visual made it hard for me to watch on my high definition television. Maybe I'm just spoiled but, speaking for myself, I like seeing movies in color.
At the beginning of the documentary I had trouble understanding what was going on. Why were they going to see these various Moscow bands? I eventually concluded that they were talent, but there are random things like playing racquetball that I felt didn't belong in a music-making documentary. Overall, it felt like the journey of recording the album was really epic and squeezing all of that in an hour and a half documentary is quite an achievement.
For their defense, they did have 1987 film equipment (probably VHS recorders) and considering that the original 1990 is long out of print, having it re-released on quality DVD by Provocateur DVD is well worth your time if you are a fan of John Cale or Brian Eno. The DVD price listing is $24.95 but obviously you can find it at a cheaper online price. As a long-time DVD buyer, I can tell you that usually Deep Discount DVDs usually has the best prices ($16.47 includes free shipping).
Talking to people, I get the impression that no one is really all that excited about the new X-Files movie that was just released on Friday. Admittedly, since I'm an old-school X-Philer, I own every X-Files season on DVD (defnitely not looking to re-buy it on bluray).
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I am going to see the movie today (Sunday) - in the meantime, enjoy this little tribute article to The X-Files music.
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Obviously, with the success of the television show, an album "inspired by the X-Files" called Songs in the Key of X was released in early 1996. The compilation sold very well, partly due to the popularity of the show and its respectable artists on the credits, such as Nick Cave, Soul Coughing, and Danzig.
There's even a PM Dawn remix of the X-Files theme that sounds a Spaghetti Western dance mix. A very interesting mix, but I did prefer the original songs. Soul Coughing did a great job on their song "Unmarked Helicopters", about men in black.
It wasn't long before Mark Snow's original soundtrack for the television show was released, called The Truth and the Light: Music from The X-Files. The music are taken from the first three seasons (1993-1995) - including that familar X-Files Theme song. Some of the songs are nice and relaxing, but as they were designed to be background music, nothing really stood out for me. There is an occassional dialogue excerpt from the show mixed into some of the songs, but outside of that this album is meant only for hardcore X-File fans.
When the first movie, Fight the Future, hit the theaters, back in '98, the soundtrack was also released. I picked this up through our friends the BMG. The track listing seems to compile the typical artists of that time period (notably Ween, The Cure, & Better Than Ezra).
I believe all the songs were written especially for the movie, and the ones I used to listen to a lot was The Dust Brothers's version of "The X-Files Theme", Noel Gallagher (Oasis)'s "Teotihuacan", and The Cardigans' "Deuce". The last song seems more like a love song, I'm not sure where it actually appeared in Fight the Future, but it's been years since I saw that movie. It's actually one of the few X-Files DVD that I'm missing because when I bought it originally (via the internet), that company went bankrupted and never shipped my DVD.
This finally brings us to the new soundtrack, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which was released a few days ago, July 22nd. I have only picked it up hours today, so I haven't really listened to it. Mark Snow does most of the instrumental stuff, but there are two songs of note on here: "Broken" by Unkle and what sounds like a rap song called "Dying 2 Live" by Xzibit.
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In the bonus segment of this article, here are songs that were inspired by the television show. From Britpop, comes Catatonia with their song, "Mulder and Scully". I used to really love this song, but it sort of wore thin when I realized that there were only a handful of great songs from their 1998 International Velvet. Although this won't be an in-depth article on Catatonia, I do have a most of their releases that I want to talk about (particularly Cerys Matthews' solo material). |
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As far as I know, "Extremis" was the only song that's ever released by Gillian Anderson. With an mixer outfit called HAL (a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey?). With the techo beats and Anderson's deep, sexy voice (with loads of heavy breathing), it comes off (haha) like a porno song. I actually don't know much about HAL, or where Anderson's music career is right now, but what I do know is that back in 1997, "Extremis" ruled the various trance/ambient compilation CDs. I remember all the entertainment television show was talking about Gillian Anderson's venture in music. Too bad nothing ever came of it, because, "Extremis" is a pretty good song. |
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Bree Sharp's "David Duchovny" was a big hit for her, possibly a
one-hit wonder if you ask me. She's released one additional album since
her 1999 debut, A Cheap and Evil Girl. Looking over at her myspace, there seems to be an indication of a brand new 2008 album called Robots in Love. Anyway, this stalker song is really about the actor that plays Agent Fox Mulder, it's quite funny - especially at the end when she says "I'm gonna kill Scully." |
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Not to be outdone is Yellow Sloth Chicken Broth's lustful song about Gillian Anderson, the actress that plays Agent Dana Scully. The punk song complains how she never shows off her cleavage (except on the internet), and it's pretty forgettable. It's safe to say that he wants to be with her in a three way or something? You can find this song on their Party Of Four (1998) album. |
Links:
weheartmusic.com
| vu wrote: Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 9:42 PM |
![The X-Files: I Want to Believe [Theatrical Release]](http://a6.vox.com/6a00cd970e4cda4cd500fa968b6b0e0002-200pi)
I'm choosing my words carefully, as to not give you any spoilers.
First of all, you do not need to know any X-Files before venturing to see this movie, it does hold up to a stand-alone film... but it does help to have known the show as there are winks that only loyal fans would understand.
I did enjoy the film overall, but I believe if you don't care about the X-Files, this would come off as a pretty standard crime/police movie with a little bit of the unknown/supernatural.
I've seen a LOT of movies, and what works here is the "real life" coppers and evildoers. I like it when the movie is grounded in reality - and it plays off like "Silence of the Lambs", where you're given bits of clues and you sort of "piece together" the story as it unfolds.
Where the movie fail is the incredibly, unbelievable, even ridiculous premise. You will know what I'm talking about once you've seen the film.
Other failure: relationships of Fox and Dana. Who is asking for this??? Not me. The movie would've worked if we never know (it would've been better if you didn't know). The unveiling of the answer hit you like a brick in the face, WTF.
If you like crime drama/thriller, this might be a movie for you - if you've never cared for the X-Files or thrillers, skip this movie. For X-Files fan, you must see this movie. It feels good to see it on the big screen, and I'll pick up the bluray of this when it's released.
Maude Maggart is the sister of Fiona Apple. |
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If you've ever seen my DVD collection, you'll know that I am a pretty big fan of Star Trek. I have previously mentioned how much I love Data from Star Trek and was glad to see that the actor, Brent Spiner, had recorded Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back. The 1940's pop and showtunes standard album have been out of print for a while, and fans and collectors have paid a lot of money to own an original copy. I would recommend getting a copy of his new, just-released, album, Dreamland before it goes out of print or you'll regret it later.
Dreamland is an old fashion radio musical with already established jazz singer, Maude Maggart. We've previously used her cover of Cole Porter's "Night and Day". It is important that I mention the Porter tune, because Brent Spiner heard her Porter cover of "Looking at You" and fell in love with her voice.
The other star appearing on this CD is Mark Hamill (Star Wars). He plays the villainous boyfriend and the Spanish waiter, and I believe other character voices too. I'm not familiar with the other voice actor Pat Richardson, but I think she is a pretty famous TV actress.
This album was meant to be listened to from start to finish, like an hour radio program. I was surprise to see that you can download it as per song ($1.50), but to me, this doesn't make much sense because you're only getting 1/16th of the story.
I didn't realize that the story is actually a dream (if you think I'm spoiling the story, I'm not, the explanation is written on the liner notes), so at one point in the story I was pretty confused when Spiner woke up with (what I imagined based on the voice acting) a horrific and older lady. The story is a great idea and it keeps you listening to find out what will happen next.
As for the songs, if you love old big band/swing Frank Sinatra tunes ("In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", "Nice 'n' Easy"), you'll love these new recording from Spiner and Maggart. The songs that are excellent are the duets, especially on the last track "To Know You is to Love You".
For some reason, when I was listening to this album, the one song that I kept going back to was "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone". There's a sense of humor in the song ("What do you call a singer who breaks up with his girlfriend?" answer: "Homeless!") and some improvisation and it made me think of a live 1930 setting.
Check out this video "behind the scene" of Dreamland, it really shows off what a great fun time they all had while recording this album (and it translate to the album too).
Dreamland is available on amazon and iTunes, but I would recommend getting it directly from therealbrentspiner.com because you can get it personalized and autographed.
What's in store for Brent in the future? It looks like he's going to be filming a documentary? From reading his blog, it would seem that he's going to be traveling around and will personally make stops to people's homes.
Bonus: Let's not forget other Star Trek actors have recordings. Here are some songs that we've previously used:
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Links:
therealbrentspiner.com
myspace.com/realbrentspiner
maudemaggart.com
myspace.com/maude...
Once a major DVD player, Anchor Bay Entertainment, seems to have lost many of their licenses to the major movie studios (it was more profitable for them to release the DVDs themselves). Lately, Anchor Bay have been releasing B-movies and direct-to-DVD movies. Although this is common and accepted for such places like Japan (where they even coined the term V-Cinema and OVA), in America, Direct-to-DVD is not good as it's generally ignored by the mass market.
So, anyway, for a time, Anchor Bay released some really cool tin collectible DVDs. The Repo Man tin came with the original MCA soundtrack, which is a nice bonus. The soundtrack has some old punk favorites like Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, Iggy Pop, and The Circle Jerks. The best songs are the Spanish songs by the Plugz.
These are long out of print, but you can always try and track these down on the secondary market. I did some random price checks, the most expensive ones are the smaller print run (obviously). The least desireable one is Evil Dead 2 on account that the film is available in many, many, many reissues. The two that I'm missing are in the high $60+ ranges.
ANCHOR BAY TIN DISCOGRAPHY (Title/Limited Number)
- Hellraiser I/II (not listed, probably 30,000)
- The Beyond (20,000)
- Evil Dead II (50,000)
- Halloween 4 (40,000)
- Halloween 5 (15,000)
- Maniac (5,000)
- Candy (16,000)*
- Heathers (15,000)
- Two Lane Blacktop (15,000)
- The Wicker Man (50,000)**
- Repo Man (30,000)
* Circular tin case, available in pink case and "pill" case
** The case is made from pine wood, instead of a tin case.
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