Heavy Metal Gone Underground, Headbanger's Ball, and Bullet For My Valentine

Metal is underground, and I couldn't be happier.

The last time true metal was big was in the mid 90's, when Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer,
Pantera, and other acts were riding high. Grunge had not affected those bands the way they did the insipid Winger, Warrant, etc, and they enjoyed MTV airtime, and good record sales. Around 1997, ticket sales started to wane as the loud guitar culture shifted towards rap-rock acts as Limp Bizkit, Korn, Hed p.e., and other soundalikes. The likes of Metallica haven't really been seen on MTV a lot, but that's ok. Really.
I have probably gotten into more new bands, and bought more records sight unseen in the last two years than I have ever, and it's mostly thanks to Headbanger's Ball. Revived a few years ago to meet the demands of metal fans everywhere, HB resides in it's original timeslot of 10 to midnight. But the bands! It introduced me to Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Children of Bodom, Most Precious Blood, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, and some others who are slowly growing on me. HB is hosted by Hatebreed singer Jamey Jasta these days, whose laidback approach is a welcome change from original host Rikki Rachtman's uber-syncophantic style. Unfortunately, the quality of the show seems to have waned in the last year. With a few exceptions, there seem to be the same videos every week, and I haven't heard anything that made me really want to run out and pick up the record except for BFMV in the lastsix months. A dry spell, maybe? But like any good "hipster", I love not having my shit invaded my 14 year olds constantly. Not that there's anything wrong with 14 year olds liking this stuff, but hey.....I'm a curmudgeon.
Now......Bullet For My Valentine. These guys hail from Wales, like the LostProphets and Funeral For A Friend. Like the aforementioned bands, they seemed to be buying Testament, Metallica, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden when everybody and their grandmother was listening to the fucking Insane Clown Posse or something. I didn't love the hell out of this record when I picked it up, but it's grown on me like crazy.

There goes my valentine again/Soaked in red for what she said/And now she's gone!

Like fellow younguns Atreyu, BFMV are sensitive boys masked by the buzzsaw guitars, but you shouldn't hold that against them.

Will I just fall to pieces/Or am I alright?/To iron out my creases/You must lacerate me till they’re gone


On BFMV's website, a qoute from singer/guitarist Matthew Tuck asks, "Where the fuck have all the riffs gone?". I hear you, Matt. I had to give BFMV's debut record The Poison (released on Valentine's Day, haha) about 7 or 8 listens, but it's solid from beginning to end. The band is a tight unit, the songs are very good for a debut effort, and the production sounds pretty good. I give The Poison
7 all-ages shows, or a rock solid 17 out of 22 on the 22 scale.

Best songs:
Hand of Blood (from the Hand of Blood EP, get it from Itunes.)
Her Voice Resides
All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)
Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do?)

Website:http://www.bulletformyvalentine1.com/website/html/news.php

The band will be at the Axis in Boston on May 27th. I'll see you there!

Freaks and Geeks

This entry is my promised review of Freaks and Geeks, Judd Apatow's incredibly cancelled sitcom. It's pretty much impossible to call something one of the best things you've ever watched without building expectations too much, but I'm gonna try. Freaks and Geeks is centers around the Weir children, Lindsey (Linda Cardellini) and Sam (John Francis Daley). Lindsey is a brilliant student who finds herself gravitating towards new friends, the "Freaks" of the school, essentially the "bad" kids who smoke under the bleachers and listen to rock music. Sam's arc revolves mostly around he and his friends dealing with high school, unpopularity, and girls among other things. The "freaks" are ringleader Daniel Desario (James Franco, in a star-making turn), his bad girl girlfriend Kim Kelly (Busy Phillips), uber-wiseass Ken Miller (Seth Rogen), and wannabe drummer/pothead Nick Andopolis (Jason Segal). The "geeks" are Neal Schweiber (Samm Levine), and Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr). The setting is vaguely around 1981, but you can feel the influence of the late 70's on the time period.
What's great about Freaks and Geeks? Everything. The look of the show, the acting, the writing, the music, the production values.......everything here shines. What's not so great? The fact that it got cancelled, and had to end quickly. Stand-out features include:
-Cameos! Including, but not limited to, Ben Stiller, Trace and Joel from MST3K, and Jason Schwartzman!
-Millie (Sarah Hagen), the best Christian ever on TV! (Yes, it seems like she's the butt of jokes at first, but don't make any judgements until you've seen Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers)
-Atari!
-Joe Flaherty from SCTV!
-And so much more!

Seriously, I love this show to bits. The characters are incredibly human, and they also look like real people, which isn't something you see a lot. Even the heppest creators have shows chock full of skinny people (yup, looking at you, Joss Whedon.......). I heartliy recomend this show to anybody, really, and give it 9.5 Van Halen records, or 21 out of 22 on the 22 scale.

(Points subtracted for Lindsey's arc in the final episode. Meh! I didn't like it.)

Standout Episodes for me include:
Beers and Weirs
We've Got Spirit
The Garage Door (aka Tries and Lies)
Noshing and Moshing
The Little Things

V for Vendetta Addendum

I re-read V for Vendetta on my lunch break yesterday, and have a few more thoughts. One is that I really miss the "body parts of England" element in the film (The Fingers, The Eyes, The Voice, etc). Another problem is that they suck the guts out of Evey. They don't drive home in the film how desperate and frightened she's become as a result of living under the regime in the novel, and how much stronger she is at the end of the story. I don't like how she betrays V, instead of him setting up her extrangement from him before he puts her through what he experienced at the concentration camp. And the filmmakers lose big, big points for not showing just how bigoted and racist the government is. Gays and Muslims are one thing, but the film would have been much stronger if they had shown that the blacks, dissidents, and other minorities were now persona not grata. Plus, they didn't really drive home the point that art, all art, was banned. This makes it much harder for people to sympathesize with V, and weakens the film considerably. My new score is 5 out of 10 sticks of dynamite, or 4 out of 22.

V for Vendetta

Ok, all the activity in local blogs regarding V for Vendetta has given me the need to write a review for it, and hand out my two cents. I'm glad it's been a month or so since I've seen it, because it has given me more time to contemplate it. Let me start out by saying that I'm a big, big fan of Alan Moore. I have been since I rediscovered comics back in high school, and he's hands down one of my favorite writers in any medium. Watchmen, his Swamp Thing, and V for Vendetta are watershed moments in the 80's comics renaissance , and his recent work on Top 10, Tom Strong, Promethea, and other books have been equally strong. He is a very private and guarded man, as is evidenced by his absence from conventions since the release of Watchmen, and his seemingly frequent spats with DC Comics over issues of creative control. One can hardly blame him for being a bit skittish. I can only imagine that he's trying not to think of the extremely truncation of Watchmen that's forthcoming, thanks to David Hayter.
Now, on to the film itself: Masked dissident befriends young girl in quasi-fascist state, wackiness ensues, etc, etc, etc. I wasn't bored when I was watching V for Vendetta........but I found the second half a bit more engaging than the first. Hugo Weaving does a pretty great job as the enigmatic V, and Natalie Portman leaves a lot to be desired with her sketchy "British" accent. They got an unknown to play Superman, are casting calls in the UK really that out of the question? I know, I know, they need a "name". Other casting? John Hurt is serviceable enough, Ben Miles is bound to be distracting as hell to anybody who's ever seen "Coupling"(the original British version), and Stephen Fry is, well, he's ok. Not much of a stretch for him, I'm afraid.
V for Vendetta pleasantly surprised me with the stuff that they were able to leave in. Veronica's note. The pedophile priest. I'd say the story was about 60% accurate in the stuff that they kept completely intact. There was a lot of stuff I missed, though, even though it was hinted at. Prothero's dolls. Storm Saxon. I think Storm Saxon is important, because it shows just how far gone the government is. The original ending (I won't spoil it.......V still dies, but......just get the book out of the library. You'll find it interesting.) V quoting "Sympathy for the Devil" at the Bishop and taking his hat off to reveal little devil horns on his mask. Just little flourishes. The one great addition to the film is a sequence that is a loving tribute to the Benny Hill Show. The absence of more British things makes the feel veer off course, like an American's idea of England, which is probably what the film is, really.
Let me reiterate that I think the Wachowski Brothers are *&^%ing idiots. The Matrix was a phenomenal film, The Matrix Reloaded much less so, The Matrix Revolutions a master class in How Not to Edit A Film, and How to Plot With As Many Story Holes As Humanly Possible. I think this film is a bit better than The Matrix Revolutions. I enjoyed it more than King Kong, anyway. The politics are completely screwed, another reason Moore backed away slowly, so to speak. The government in the film V are like that playground bully that beats you up every day during recess. The government in the novel is like that guy who raped your sister and cut her ear off. Yes, they're bad but not as bad as they should be. But I thought the movie worked as a popcorn version of warring radical politics. Should you see it? I can't think of a reason why not. It's engaging enough, at least on first viewing, and you might be prompted to learn more about stuff like media bias, crappy governments, etc. But I can't say that it's a modern-day classic. Somebody must like it, because it's number 192 on the IMDB top 250.

I give V for Vendetta 5 out of 10 dynamite sticks, or a 8 on the 22 scale.

This entry was fueled by the hum of Radiographic equipment.

Nathan Fillion/Slither

So I'm just washing down a particularly brilliant breakfast of eggs, vegetarian sausages, and toast with a perfectly "chilled" Harpoon IPA (three cheers for Eve's broken refrigerator!!), and am finally putting in the first entry of Dear God, That's Nummy!. I'm going to discuss the music, films, actors, food, drink, people, and other things that make Western living in this day and age so ideal. Today's topic? Nathan Fillion, star of the late, extremely lamented Firefly, its motion picture sequel Serenity, and currently Slither.
Nathan Fillion was born in Canada, and did acting-type stuff here in America. He had small roles in Saving Private Ryan and Blast From The Past , and mostly did the strugging thing. He (unsuccessfully) auditioned for the role of Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer(!), and eventually found his way to his current "success". Why is Mister Fillion worthy of your attention? Because he's everything that a good movie star/actor should be. He's good-looking, charismatic, and funny. Girls love him, and guys look at him as the type of guy theyt wouldn't mind being. He doesn't jump on couchs (or go on Oprah), marry wispy singers from vastly overrated Brit-pop bands, or engage in other ridiculous tabloid activities. To sum, he's the next Harrison Ford.......or is it the next Bruce Campbell? Harrison Campbell? Bruce Ford?
But, on to Slither. When I saw the Dawn of the Dead remake a few years ago, I thought that James Gunn definitely had something going on. James Gunn was the writer of that, the Scooby-Doo movies, the hilarious The Specials, and writer/uncredited director of Tromeo and Juliet , my favorite adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, courtesy of Troma Studios. ("No, your grace, I did not know they were topless dancers. Well, they certainly helped raise a lot of money for the church.") Slither is Gunn's (major) directorial debut, and it doesn't disappoint. (Less alliteration in my next post, I promise.) Slither is the story of sleepy Wheelsy, South Carolina, and what happens when people stop being polite, and start being taken over by grody alien slug thingies. The trouble begins when local rich dude Grant Grant (Michael Rooker, playing his Variations on an Asshole, movement # 17.) gets stung by a suspect looking organism in the forest, and begins hoarding meat, pets, and the local hoochie-mama who harbors a crush on him. Grant spawns nasty little slugs that take over people by crawling in their mouths, wackiness ensues, and it's up to Sheriff Bill Pardy (Fillion), and Some Hot Chick That I Thought Was One Of The Girls From Seventh Heaven, But Really Wasn't (Tania Saulnier) to save the day. I found the film well-strcutured from a story point of view, funny, gross, creepy, slightly suspenseful, and irreverent. Special mention also goes to veteran "character" actor Gregg Henry (24, Payback, Gilmore Girls) as the foul-mouthed mayor of Wheelsy. I give Slither:

8 out of 10 beers.

It should also be said that Slither is not for the squeamish, but if I need to say that, you are in a very special class of idiot.

This installment was fueled by Thursday's Full Collapse.

Be here next time as I discuss Freaks and Geeks!