Friday, April 29, 2011

Mayday Outdoor "Cult" films!

Sun. May 1-  Pagans & Satanists!
Time for Mayday movies! My first thought was to show some uplifting worker’s doc like The Take, something about the anarchist history of Mayday like Sacco & Vanzetti, or even Harlan County, USA. But dammit, it’s just too hard to compete with female nudity & occult ritual when it comes to the midnight movies format. So instead of “Dump the bosses off your back,” it’s “Fuck you, patriarchal sky god!”
Well…sort of. Satanists are still pigs, if often quite stylish ones.

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) - Paganism baits & triumphs over Christian oppressors in this researched & thoughtful “historical horror” classic. It’s also a nice variant on the glut of anti-Christian (& particularly anti-Catholic) films besieging Establishment Religion in the 70’s. Starring (in a slight deviation from typecast) Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward & a bare-ass nekkid Britt Ekland!
No one shall be allowed to mention Nicholas Cage’s name during this screening.


To the Devil, a Daughter (Peter Sykes, 1976) - Hammer’s final horror film isn’t one of their best, but it’s well made and looks great. The plot involves a Satanic convent/coven/cult and the teenage girl they plan to make the Devil's earthly incarnation. Definitely an aesthetic pleasure over an intellectual one, which is perfect if you’re as altered as you should be by the time we watch this. Starring (of course) Christopher Lee, Richard Widmark & a bare-ass nekkid Natassja Kinski
@ The Cornell compound, BBQing & hangout begins early afternoon, BYOWhateva.
Wicker Man starts 8:30pm. Obviously it has to be outdoors and obviously there’s gonna be a fire.

DCat

Friday, April 8, 2011

W. Texas DIY: Age of Giants & Steven Drew Poeling

These recordings are from video that Brad Ivens shot of DIY shows around 2002-2003.
The first is from Age of Giants, when they were on tour with Fukrot (pre- Roñoso) and playing the Rock'n'Roll Taco in El Paso, Mar. 16, 2002. Age of Giants was: Drake Hardin- gtr, "Big" Scott Williams- vox/trumpet, "Little" Scott Lunson- drums, & Alan George Ledergerber- bass. They were all W. Texas transplants to ABQ, and lived in a house on Buena Vista called (obviously) the Texas House, which also hosted lots of shows. Everybody in that band has continued to do amazing things in the music & art scenes, both in this town and around the world. Age of Giants might've been labeled "screamo" back then, when it wasn't such a bad word. Definitely, there was a lot of At the Drive In influence for these guys, having grown up so close to El Paso. But there was probably a good deal of The Cancer Conspiracy in there as well, and just good ol' DIY hardcore. The vocals are a bit buried, but that's just the way it was live. The sound quality on this is pretty damn good though. Many thanks to Mark Beyer for transferring this audio, and definitely look up other videos of Brad's at http://www.youtube.com/user/brianislands.
Track 2 is from a show at the Texas House on a beautiful summer night, August 10, 2002. Lubbock friends Steven Drew Poeling & partner Melanie Chaffin played a set of simple guitar & drums ditties; charming & whimsical and sublime. We've been trying to get them to come back here ever since.
I understand that this same house is now home to other ABQ musicians and partiers, most notably Adobe Homes. Good on ya kids, but it's always gonna be the Texas house to me. This is one of my best memories of the place.
DCat

Have a soak in the nostalgia bath

 PS- anyone that remembers the song titles or other info for these sets, lemme know or post them in the comments.