< comics/x >
FALLEN ANGEL PRESENTS: HELLSSA and
FALLEN ANGEL SPECIAL: H.P. LOVECRAFT
(Enrico Teodorani / Via Ca'Nova 215-S. Andrea in Bagnolo / 47020 Pievesestina di CESENA (FC) / ITALY. Web:
digilander.libero.it/mupis.
Adults Only)
These comics are for those who like their adventure stories ripe with T&A, S&M, forced sex and girl-girl action. Although they're completely in Italian it's pretty easy to keep up with these campy stories following the badass Fallen Angel as she is captured, fights and escapes from Hellssa ("the Granddaughter of the Third Reich"), bumbling Hitler clones, a
Metropolis-style robot, evil nuns and that guy from Iron Maiden album covers. These stories were written by Enrico Teodorani and nicely drawn by Gianluca Pagliarani, Enrico Zanoletti, Oscar Celestini, Silvano and others. I don't know what else there is to say. Between my description and the cover scan above I imagine you already know whether or not you want to see more. If this is your bag check out their site for more.
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< zines >
BOB #1
($1.50 from Bob Sheairs / 30 Locust Ave. / Westmont, NJ / 08108 USA. Web:
www.njghost.com)
This first issue of Bob Sheairs' self-titled zine is a collection of articles, all of which are interesting and worthwhile explorations. However, I also think each could've been expanded upon a great deal. They're all good pieces but they're not as indepth as I'd like to see (especially since it's clear that Bob has it in him). That's not really a complaint but a desire on my part to read more about the subjects undertaken. My favorite article – and also the shortest – is "College Education and Other Fairy Tales" which is essentially an editorial piece in which Bob outlines how universities went from being institutions of higher learning to money-grubbing whoremongers (my words). The longest article deals with what he calls the "Cult of eBay", those nonconformist jokesters (and their fans) who post auctions for such items as a half-eaten sandwich or a right ass-kicking. These are the auctions that never see completion thanks to eBay's humorless-yet-sensible lawyers but they entertain just the same. The remaining piece, "Britney Is a Pepsi Whore", discusses the popularity of soft drinks and the compromises that go along with it. As I suggested earlier I'd like to see these pieces fleshed out even more. Even as they are, though,
Bob is an entertaining and thought-provoking read. I look forward to the next issue.
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< film >
JERKBEAST THE MOVIE
(
www.jerkbeast.com)
Review by Tom Spurgeon
Jerkbeast is a Seattle-area public access show turned minor motion picture now being screened in various out of the way locations and DVD release planned sometime in its future. The film and show feature a man in a giant puppet-type monster suit – think the larger Muppets that run around on two feet – who screams at people in torrents of hilariously abusive dialogue. The TV show consists of Jerkbeast (played by Jerkbeast), his studio partner Benny (Calvin Reeder), their producer Marty (Brian Wendorf) and the occasional studio guest taking phone calls against a blank backdrop and verbally slapping them to the floor. This can be the scores of young people who seem to know the show and who enjoy the chance to curse on the air, or even an unfortunate victim who happens to stumble across something on the show that upsets them, such as the brusque language or a guest-star in a KKK outfit. It's a great idea for a public access show, a middle finger raised to the content- and personality-driven pomposity that makes up the bulk of that kind of programming, at least in the Emerald City. To its credit, the movie has almost nothing to do with the show, and instead chronicles the efforts of Jerkbeast and his pals to secure rock and roll fame behind the song "Looks Like Chocolate, Tastes Like Shit." The crudely filmed movie uses the TV show as a starting point from which the characters flee blissfully and to which they fear returning, and some of the funnier lines early on are from the leads eviscerating their weekly efforts on public access as, at best, the most handsome turds in a toilet bowl.
The movie finds its best moments when the focus is on Jerkbeast, particularly his way of bellowing insults. The costume leavens the nastier implications of the tirades in the same way that Don Rickles being on stage with a microphone in hand lets us in on the performance. Jerkbeast's mini-jeremiads are imaginatively stupid and delivered in a wonderfully jittery bellow, Mr. T crossed with the coked-up Tom Arnold. Having a giant monster rid himself of emotional entanglements by screaming at a lovelorn admirer, "I think your butt smells like a dumpster!" as if he were a 13-year-old on a field trip is about as good and weird and left of reality as insult humor gets. Nearly every scene with Jerkbeast at its center is at least potential comedy gold. When the focus shifts elsewhere for more than a few seconds, the material starts to thin out; the performances are nowhere near as sharp or appealing. There is a humorous recurring bit about the fearsome ugliness of the best-looking cast member, Benny, and a nicely executed dead girlfriend subplot, but many of the scenes without the monster feel unscripted and overlong. The possible exceptions are a couple of loopy narrative vignettes by a friend of Benny's named Preston (Nathan Conrad) who shows up twice unexpectedly. Adopting a child in a car he steals and later starring in backroom porno shows, the character relates these bizarre incidents like the generic letter in a Christmas card. I would watch a whole movie featuring that character, and I would watch ten more that starred Jerkbeast.
Note: for comic book fans, Johnny Ryan and a copy of his
Angry Youth Comics make separate and equally amusing appearances. A cartoon working from Ryan's art is accessible through the
web site and features pretty much the same sense of humor and structure as the film. You can sign up for updates and information on screenings elsewhere on the site.
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< recordings >
TALKIE WALKIE
by Air
(
Astralwerks Records, released 01/27/04)
Review by Tim O'Neil
The French duo of Air (Jean-Benoit Dunckel & Nicolas Godin) are quite possibly some of the very best – and best regarded – producers in the field today. This is not without some justification: everything they touch sounds brilliant, smooth as silk and sweet as candy. The problems arise when they try to write songs, because – frankly – sometimes they embarrass themselves.
You've probably encountered someone in the course of your life who at one point or another was
really into Air. In 1998 they released an album called
Moon Safari which caused quite a ruckus in the adjacent worlds of both electronic and indie music. They actually got some airplay on MTV (or at least MTV2) for their bouncy Europop-influenced single 'Sexy Boy'. The album went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Sounds like your prototypical indie success story, right? Well, not quite.
The problems with Air had nothing to do with their successful and groundbreaking debut or their subsequent and successful side projects (such as their well-received soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's
Virgin Suicides). The problem with Air had to do with the fact that after
Moon Safari everyone else in the entire universe wanted to sound like they did. So unfortunately their next album, 2001's
10,000 hZ Legend, sounded nothing at all like Air.
The problem with
10,000 hZ was not that the album didn't sound great – it did – but that the songs were just not very good. In fact, they were horrible. I really think they need some sort of internal ombudsman during the recording process, because under no circumstances should fake computer robot voices and spelled-out chorus lines (such as P-E-O-P-L-E I-N T-H-E C-I-T-Y) ever leave the confines of the studio. Aside from Beck's characteristically solid contributions there are a lot of songs that just fall apart because of one or another goofy idea that should never have made it past the demo stage. As I said, if you were of a mind to listen solely to the album's production values, it was gorgeous. But the greatest production in the universe is useless unless you have some songs to go with it.
Moon Safari still holds up. It still sounds wonderful and distinctive, and manages the tricky feat of being just a little bit corny in all the right ways. It's a good formula that none of Air's many copycats (Zero 7, this means you) seem to have grasped. One of the reasons the album holds up so well is that at the time they seemed to understand that at the heart of any good music is strong songwriting. They lost this concept altogether on
10,000 hZ.
Thankfully,
Talkie Walkie is nowhere near the embarrassment of their previous album. It's got some good moments – and a few
very good moments. Even though I dislike the helium-pitched little girl voices they affect on songs like 'Cherry Blossom Girl' and 'Surfing on a Rocket', the songs still work somehow. There are still a few blunders – such as 'Biological', featuring just the kind of lame lyrics that ruined their last album – but on the whole the duo seem much more conscientious this time out. Perhaps the very visceral backlash to
10,000 hZ from their core fanbase upset them, perhaps not – in any event, they've not so much returned to the sounds of
Moon Safari as reigned in their songwriting eccentricities. Tracks like 'Venus' remind you of why you fell in love with Air in the first place – if you don't mind the cheesy vocals, the simple guitar & piano riff that underlies the track reminds you how beautiful music can be when it wants to.
If you liked
Moon Safari, well, you've probably already got this reserved down at the neighborhood Sam Goody, don't you? Its not as strong as their debut but it is a solid return to form. If you were scared off by
10,000 hZ's lyrical sterility take this as a solid guarantee that it's safe to return to the fold. I can guarantee your local indie music emporium is going to have a pile of these on hand for people just like you. I daresay that this stands a strong chance of becoming
the album of choice for sensitive musicheads in the spring of '04 – at least barring a new Cat Power release, that is.
All things considered, I think I can give
Talkie Walkie my tentative recommendation, especially if you have liked Air in the past. There's a lot to recommend this album even for the casual fan, and the good definitely outweighs the bad.
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