I finally watched this fantastic 1973 horror a couple of days ago, and wanted to share some of my favourite shots with you. It was directed by John Hough, and stars former child actress Pamela Franklin as well as a nicely understated Roddy McDowell. There’s a real sexual intensity to the film – highlights include the fondling of a statue (pictured below) and consensual sex with a manipulative ghost.
The film’s excellent score was created by Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, so if you haven’t seen it you could play a Radiophonic Workshop drone track of your choice while you look at the following images. Much to my disappointment, the soundtrack is commercially unavailable.
When I first found out about this recently-published book, I was literally beside myself. The very concept of it seemed so utterly perfect for me that I had never before even dared to dream of something like this! My taste in films covers most genres, eras and styles, but – although this idea had perhaps not fully crystallised in my mind until I learned of the book – if a film features punks, then there is a fairly good chance that it will be of interest to me.
To describe Destroy All Movies!!! as thorough and comprehensive would be something of an understatement. The book covers over 1,000 films, from the very well-known to the (sometimes deservedly) ultra-obscure. Even barely-seen TV movies that feature little more than a fleeting glimpse of punk characters get a short write-up, but the book rightly deals at greater length with more significant and influential features such as Suburbia, Class Of 1984 and Repo Man. The book also looks and feels gorgeous, as one would expect from the celebrated Fantagraphics imprint.
On top of the reviews themselves – written in a style that is often humorous, but imbued with a genuine love and enthusiasm for the material – the book features fascinating interviews with key punk-film figures such as directors Penelope Spheeris and Alex Cox, actors Mary Woronov and Jon Gries, and musicians Richard Hell and Lee Ving, amongst many others. The most shocking revelation that I have uncovered so far from reading these is that actor Stefan Arngrim – in his role as the infamous Drugstore – genuinely shot up heroin on-screen in Class Of 1984!
Needless to say, I have barely begun to scrape the surface of the vast wealth of information offered by this book. So far, only one omission has slightly intrigued me: the book covers several films involving Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vernon Wells (the legendary screen uber-punk Wez in Mad Max 2), but overlooks their collaboration in Commando. This interests me, as I’m sure the film must have been considered and, for me, in his villainous role as Bennett, Wells’s leather trousers, mesh vest, chains and cropped hair (not to mention his prior status in the field) make him a punk – a moustachioed gay-clone/leather-daddy punk maybe, but still a punk in my opinion!
Anyway, to conclude, I think Richard Hell’s foreword to the book best sums up how amazing it is, and how much of a compulsory purchase it is for anyone even vaguely interested in the subject:
This is one of those gems of immaculate editorial conception, perfectly executed, that will probably not stay in print for long. Like Jesus. The world is really not worthy of this book, and if you don’t buy it now, you will regret it later when it’s a lot more expensive.
You can learn more about the book and its creators, Zach Carlson and Bryan Connolly, on their excellent website, www.punksonfilm.com, and as a taste of the riches within, I’ll leave you with their review of our favourite film of all time, Tuff Turf:
At the weekend I picked up an intriguing Masters of Cinema DVD. The 40-page accompanying booklet – featuring an essay and stills from the film – led me to expect great things, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi was an experimental film maker who had become a big name in Japanese commercials in the 70s, directing hit ‘CMs’ starring the likes of Charles Bronson and Kirk Douglas, but he had never made mainstream narrative cinema.
Toho’s decision to let this outsider direct a feature demonstrated the crisis facing Japan’s traditionally rigid film industry at the time. Obayashi was asked by desperate Toho executives to deliver “the Japanese Jaws“, and House (Hausu) is what he came up with.
The film was supposedly inspired by the director’s young daughter, who one night pondered how scary it would be if your house attacked you. Her nightmarish ideas – a piano chewing off your fingers; electric lights dropping on your head; being mangled by the gears of a grandfather clock – are all present in this kaleidoscopic, funny and visually-innovative film. I hope these images whet your appetite to seek it out.
House features a cameo from groovy pop group Godiego. I love their soundtrack song “Cherries Were Made For Eating”:
An album of Bacharach songs? From Japan? Produced by Jim O’Rourke? Imagine our elation on learning that the record of our dreams is in fact a reality! What’s more, the album is just as amazing as we would have hoped.
Whilst we don’t know the precise details of the recording yet or how this project came about, it appears that Jim O’Rourke played most of the instruments and was assisted by Wilco’s Glenn Kotche on drums. The sound of the album is pure O’Rourke, and works as a really nice companion piece to last year’s brilliant The Visitor.
Jim has tackled the songs in a quite different manner to projects such as the ostensibly similar Tzadik album of Bacharach songs, eschewing jarring avant-gardisms in favour of arrangements that are in tune with the songs’ original tone and style, but also cast them in a new light.
To be totally honest, the vocal performances are somewhat variable in quality, but all are performed with genuine enthusiasm, love and respect for the source material.
The album begins with a wonderfully louche version of “Close To You” by Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haruomi Hosono. In typically irreverent fashion, Hosono changes the lyrics to make the song a narcissistic paean to himself.
Thurston Moore would probably be the first to admit that his laconic drawl isn’t best suited to melodically adventurous material like “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me,” but the uncluttered arrangement suits his style perfectly. You can hear his performance on the TwentyFourBit blog.
Next up, Sotaisei Riron vocalist and artistic polymath Etsuko Yakushimaru performs a beautifully hushed half-speed duet with Jim O’Rourke on the obscure track “Anonymous Phone Call”, previously best known as a Bobby Vee B-side.
Then comes one of the album’s definite highlights, a fairly straight cover of the theme to Peter Sellers’s 1966 crime caper After The Fox, with veteran Japanese free jazzers Akira Sakata and Masaya Nakahara hamming it up alongside O’Rourke’s own mellifluous tones.
Here’s the original, as performed by Peter Sellers and The Hollies.
Singer/songwriter Yoichi Aoyama then performs an endearingly passionate rendition of “You’ll Never Get To Heaven”, before Shibuya-kei legend and O’Rourke muse Kahimi Karie weighs in with a heartbreakingly understated take on “Do You Know The Way To San Jose”. This is another album highlight, with (one assumes) Glenn Kotche’s soft touch on the drums and O’Rourke’s gently droning arrangement combining beautifully.
Next up, a nicely rootsy organ-drenched version of “Don’t Make Me Over” voiced by Japanese gospel singer Chu Kosaka, followed by Towa Tei and World Standard collaborator Mitsuko Koike‘s slightly irksome performance of (the admittedly already irksome song) “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”, which is at least enlivened by some Van Dyke Parks-esque steel drums and enveloping flutes.
Yoshimi (of Boredoms and OOIOO fame) attempts a take on the challenging “Say A Little Prayer For Me”. There’s a karaoke-ish quality to this track, but Jim’s arrangement is a fine example of his brand of rustic experimentalism.
“Trains and Boats and Planes” is the only song that Jim performs alone, and is another high point of the album, with an arrangement that is intriguingly similar to the obscure ’70s Bacharach track “Time And Tenderness”.
The record is rounded off with the immortal “Walk On By”, performed by Donna Taylor. It’s another immaculate piece of production and, although the vocals may be a little flighty for my personal taste, the presence of an actual member of Bacharach’s own musical ensemble does lend the project a well-deserved sense of authenticity and kudos.
This is an outstanding album, and the sort of release that Jim O’Rourke fans like ourselves had dreamed of since his peerless Bacharach-influenced solo records, Eureka (featuring a cover of “Something Big”), Insignificance and Halfway To A Threeway. It’s presently only available in Japan, but importing is a must!
We’ll leave you with one of our favourite (and, we think, most spookily Jim O’Rourke-esque) Burt Bacharach songs, “Hasbrook Heights”.
Mei Yau and I have recently become utterly fixated on the horror films produced by the British production company Tigon in the 1960s and ’70s. If you want my take on the appeal of Tigon in a nutshell, then imagine Hammer films drained of any vague residue of respectability and awash with a Swinging ’60s licentiousness that prevails regardless of subject matter or setting. By far the most impressive Tigon productions are the two films directed by the tragic visionary Michael Reeves, Witchfinder General and The Sorcerers. Needless to say, these are required viewing for any genre fan, but the company also produced many other films that are well worth seeking out. Here are a few of them in chronological order, with a brief outline of their pros and cons. I will hopefully add to this post as and when I manage to watch any other Tigon films.
Pros: apparently the film that inspired Broadcast and The Focus Group’s recent album; great miserable-old-git turn by Boris Karloff in his final performance.
Cons: fairly useless, “humorous” quip-spouting male lead; common Tigon problem of mid-scene switches from day to night.
Cons: some truly abysmal male cast members; general lack of menacing atmosphere.
N.B. this film was actually only distributed by Tigon, but it is part of Anchor Bay’s Tigon boxset, and certainly shares enough “qualities” with these other films to warrant its place on this list.
(A list in no particular order by Tim, with input from Chris and Mei Yau)
Jim O’Rourke The Visitor (Drag City)
Beautiful, subtle, shifting pop symphony from Jim.
Daniel Johnston
Is And Always Was (High Wire/Eternal Yip Eye)
Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (Warp)
An engrossing collaboration that’s like a slow trip through a haunted radio dial.
Fever Ray Fever Ray (Mute/Rabid)
Great solo album by Karin Dreijer Andersson from the Knife that sounds exactly like the Knife.
Bill Callahan Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City)
The Joanna Newsom Breakup Record!
Fitness Forever Personal Train (Elefant)
Watching Fitness Forever was a highlight of this year’s Indietracks festival, and the album is a peach.
Bonnie Prince Billy Beware (Domino)
Au Revoir Simone Still Night, Still Light (Moshi Moshi)
I do love their cymbal sound.
Nite Jewel Good Evening (Human Ear)
Amazing, woozy 80s funk/Italo disco grooves, recorded at home onto cheap analog multitrack.
Super Furry Animals Dark Days/Light Years (Rough Trade)
Tickley Feather Hors D’ourves (Paw Tracks)
Not quite as good as her fantastic debut record, but I can’t put my finger on why. It’s still compellingly weird and dreamy.
Belbury Poly From An Ancient Star (Ghost Box)
The most poppily tune-filled Belbury Poly album yet.
Dâm-Funk Toeachizown (Stones Throw)
P-Funk, G-Funk, Boogie-Funk, Electro-Funk and every other kind of funk all come together in perfect harmony on this mammoth album that brings melody and optimism back to ‘urban’ music.
Tortoise Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey)
Seeland Tomorrow Today (Loaf)
Ex-members of Broadcast and Plone create an understated album of retrofuture pop.
Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career (4AD)
Roj The Transactional Dharma of Roj (Ghost Box)
The Broadcast connection continues with an album of atmospheric horror movie pieces by their former keyboard wizard.
Misty Roses Villainess (Frog Man Jake)
Torch songs about Mario Bava and Delphine Seyrig. Rarely does such intense emotion and drama come so elegantly packaged.
Jason Lytle Yours Truly, The Commuter (Anti)
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavillion (Domino)
It’s not perfect, but this album contains some incredible moments.
This concludes my self-indulgent look back over 12 months of new music, but these weren’t the only great records that came out this year. Navigation by Arthur and Martha, Begone Dull Care by Junior Boys, Bird-Brains by Tune-Yards, Eating Us by Black Moth Super Rainbow and 21st Century Man by Luke Haines were all wonderful too, and there’s a big list of interesting stuff that I still haven’t listened to…
I’d love you to recommend any you think I’ve missed in the comments.
While I’ve been lazily chewing over the first issue of Fire & Knives, the likes of Eat Me Daily, Serious Eats and Kottke have pipped me to the post in blogging about this new food quarterly.
I was given a copy by the editor, Tim Hayward, a couple of weeks ago at, of all things, a family birthday party. It was pretty, it was about food so of course I loved it!
In homage to the tactile joys of eating and cooking, the magazine is beautifully presented, like a cross between an academic journal and The Believer. The thick, matt paper; the uncluttered design; the lovely colours; the handy size all add to the pleasure of reading – Eat Me Daily has some photos of the pages.
In this issue there are articles about cooking with tobacco, on the demise of the dinner party, a history of the Half Hundred (an inter-war dining club for Hampstead intellectuals), an unpublished review of Fanny Craddock by Elizabeth David unearthed at the Guildhall Library, a short story about a malignant quail and many other features by both established and new writers.
My favourite, though, has got to be Hayward’s piece on Vincent Price, “Theatre of Food”. We all know Price for his classic horror performances but did you know that he was also an art collector, gourmet and author of many cookbooks?
He was clearly a man who put his enthusiasm into all that he loved.
