Showing posts with label Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars. Show all posts

Friday, February 2, 2024

Butthole Surfers Week Day 6


Despite recent claims otherwise, "Mexican Caravan" from 1985's Psychic.... Powerless.... Another Man's Sac is probably my favorite Butthole Surfers track, simply because of the guitar. It's always kind of made me imagine Jimmy Hendrix playing while on ten hits of blotter acid. But then, that's kind of what the Surfers do.




Watch:

One day last week while I was still sequestered at the hotel in West L.A., I watched Josh Forbes's new movie Destroy All Neighbors and had an absolute BLAST with it! Here's the trailer, which I can now endorse does not give anything away other than a taste of the Hallucinatory 90s Practical FX goodness you can expect from this one!


Produced by Alex Winter, with FX by Gabriel Bartalos (Skinned Deep!), Destroy All Neighbors reminds me more than a little of 1993's Freaked, which Winter co-directed with Tom Stern. This fits in nicely with Butthole Surfer week, as Stern Produced/Directed last year's The Butthole Surfer Movie, and the Surfers were involved with Freaked, starting with lending their frontman to the film's cast to play Cheese Wart. There's a certain tone Freaked employs - a kind of madcap 90s Practical FX and sets grandeur - that is at work in Destroy All Neighbors as well. The opening credits reminded me so much of the 90s, with its swirling, wormhole-like background, that I knew I was in for goodness. 

Neighbors obviously did not have the same budget; no studio is going to give anyone 11 Million to make a movie like this in 2024, but the movie does so much awesome stuff with what they have, that you won't notice unless you're checking while you watch. And you won't be doing that, because you'll be laughing out loud. This is a story we've definitely seen variations of before, but not like this, and not with a Prog Rock obsessive as the lead character (Jonah Ray is awesome!)  




Re-Release:

Just a quick heads up to any Blut Aus Nord fans out there, Debemur Morti just re-pressed Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars on vinyl, and it's available both on the label's site HERE (where I ordered it this morning), and from the band's Bandcamp HERE


I've been laying off ordering vinyl, but this was a no-brainer. By far my favorite album from a group that has quite a few albums I adore, I have been waiting to grab this one on vinyl for probably over ten years now. 




Playlist:

Ready for the World - Oh Sheila (single)
Sheila E. - Glamorous Life (single)
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face
Double Life - Indifferent Stars




Thursday, January 8, 2015

Blut Aus Nord Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry



I completely forgot this came out!

Although I've been unable to track down a copy of the first chapter of Blut Aus Nord's Memoria Vetusta, the second one is neck and neck with the band's masterpiece The Work Which Transforms God as not only my favorite BAN album but my favorite black metal record of all time. Where TWWTG is a journey away from convention and an amazing example of what metal can be, Memoria Vetusta II, subtitled Dialogue with the Stars, is the height of perfection when it comes to the classic, regal black metal the likes of which was often hinted at and attempted by too many stalwart death metal bands of the 90s to mention. This third and apparently final chapter of the Memoria Vetusta cycle is a continuation in spirit and a stunning example of Vindsval's continued mastery of tone and technique, not too mention his wonderfully poignant disregard for what anyone else in the scene is doing/saying/making.

If you dig it buy it, and if you know where I can find a copy of the gatefold vinyl (sold out in their label Debemur-morti's online merch shop and virtually nonexistent anywhere else) please leave a comment and let me know!