Sunday's Playlist: 10-30-11

The Smiths – “Shoplifters of the World Unite”
New Order – “Hurt”
Air – “Cherry Blossom Girl”
John Cale – “Helen of Troy”
Aimee Mann – “Just Like Anyone”
The Like – “Walk of Shame”
Camper Van Beethoven – “Civil Disobedience”
The Pixies – “Nimrod’s Son”
Hall & Oates – “Rich Girl”
Akron/Family – “Light Emerges”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – “Nowhere”
Grizzly Bear – “Knife”
The Killers – “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”
Bomba Estéreo – “Música Acción”
Jónsi – “Tornado”
SWV & Wu-Tang Clan – “Anything (Old School Version)
The xx – “Crystalised”
Fujiya & Miyagi – “Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Puppet”
English Beat – “Rotating Head”
Patrick Park – “You Were Always the One”
Superchunk – “Fractures in Plaster”
M83 – “Raconte – Moi une Histoire”
Bon Iver – “Beach Baby”
Rick Springfield – “The Light of Love”
Sons & Daughters – “Breaking Fun”
The Head & the Heart – “Ghosts”
Cults – “Rave On”
Les Paul & Mary Ford – “In the Good Old Summertime”
Supertramp – “Give a Little Bit (Live)”
Portugal. The Man – “Floating (Time Isn’t Working My Side)”
Ladytron – “White Elephant”
Swans – “Little Mouth”
Howard Jones – “Hunger for the Flesh”
Ikara Colt – “Wake in the City”
The Birthday Party – “Release the Bats”
Elbow – “Fugitive Motel (RJD2 Remix)”
The Avalanches – “Since I Left You”
The National – “Murder Me Rachel”
Erykah Badu – “On & On”
Urban Dance Squad – “Good Grief”
Janelle Monae – “Suite III Overture”
Band of Skulls – “Blood”
The Sundays – “Can’t Be Sure”
Simian Mobile Disco – “Casu Marzu”
Rick Springfield – “Taxi Dancing”
Valient Thorr – “Con Science”
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – “Star Wars”
Kings Go Forth – “Now We’re Gone”
Spiritualized – “Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space”
Kim Carnes – “Bette Davis Eyes”
John Cale – “Coral Moon”
Mumford & Sons – “White Blank Page”
Stricken City – “Five Meters Apart”
TLC – “Creep”
Galaxie 500 – “When Will You Come Home”
Explosions in the Sky – “Your Hand in Mine (Goodbye)”
Oneohtrix Point Never – “When I Got Back from New York”

Films of the 60s, Part 23: I'm Running Scared

“That final design, that self-destruct,
That condescending critic that’s out for blood,
The dark at the top of the stairs
I’m running scared.”
- Dead Moon, “Running Scared”



It’s the day before Halloween and I feel I have no other choice than the write about some more horror films. It’s certainly not that I’m disappointed in that result. In the past few months I have started on a journey of becoming a connoisseur of scary films. I’m not quite there yet, but give me some time. I’ve written about horror films from the 50s and 60s before on this blog and I still have quite a few more I’ve seen and about which I have not yet written. The three I’ve chosen below are due to their particular creepiness. In my quest to become a horror movie connoisseur, a side effect has been an inurement to being scared. It doesn’t happen as easy or as often. The three films I have chosen for this installment may not have had me jumping out of my skin or throwing my popcorn in the air, but they stick with you. Plus, they are just great stories, well told, which is usually the deciding factor for me on the likability of a film.



Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey)

Herk Harvey (what a great name) made this movie for only $33,000. Today, you can’t get catering for that amount of money. Despite its shoestring budget, Carnival of Souls is a captivating film. It is also proof that budget cannot constrain concept. Though effects and ADR may be primitive and clumsy, they do not detract from the final product, especially as the film moves on and ensnares you in its mystery. The story begins with a drag race. Mary, who we come to realize will be our main character, is in the girls’ car, racing the boys’ car. A slight bump throws the girls off of a bridge and into the water below. Only Mary survives. She becomes despondent and leaves her job at the organ factory, heading for Salt Lake City to take a job as a church organist. Her despondency and, well, the fact that she sees freakish ghouls make us begin to wonder about her sanity.

When Mary sees her first “ghoul,” shown in the passenger window of her car, it is quite shocking, even if primitively done. This made me realize that you don’t need gore, blood, hair over the face, or any other now stock imagery for a real scare. Just the idea of someone being where they shouldn’t be, and watching you is creepy enough. Mary moves into a small apartment that comes complete with a lecherous and brutish neighbor who preys on her, all the while she consistently has visions of the ghoulish man in her mirror. A new wrinkle is thrown in when she begins to experience moments when people around her cannot see or hear her. This, more so perhaps than the ghoulish visions, would be unnerving to me. In one instance, you would think you are hallucinating or seeing things, but in another, is there any way that you wouldn’t think you had somehow crossed over into the land of the dead?

Throughout the film, Mary is inexplicably drawn to the Saltair Pavilion, an old abandoned amusement park in Salt Lake City, and hears organ music that is distinctly different than the hymns she tends to play in church. The music she hears is wild, psychedelic, and unsettling. So, let’s recap: we have scary organ music, an abandoned amusement park, ghoulish figures stalking our heroine, and the occasional bout with invisibility. Yes, those are the perfect ingredients for a nightmare. The signature scene of the film comes when Mary somewhat lets the strange goings on influence her. Rather than being scared, she surrenders to it. In a mesmerizingly shot scene, Mary seats herself at the church organ and begins to play the eerie music that has been haunting her. She succumbs to the rapture of the music, and it is physically apparent. As her fingers somewhat suggestively stroke the keys, her bare feet are pressing down pedals. She is a woman possessed.

I won’t give away the ending, despite it being near fifty years old. It is too good and a predecessor for the later wave of “twist” endings that would be de rigueur for modern horror films. The scares that Harvey evokes with simple, low budget filming should be a lesson for all those filmmakers trying to get big scares with overdone effects. Of course, one can point to the success of The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity films as proof of this, but I’d be hesitant about putting all of these in the same bucket. Carnival of Souls ended up inspiring the likes of George A. Romero, whose low budget zombie films became the standard for that genre, and David Lynch, whose atmospheric and unsettling scenarios became his signature style. I can see elements of Carnival of Souls in work he’s done, Twin Peaks to Lost Highway and beyond. Don’t let its budget fool you; this is a wonderful and highly influential film.



Black Sabbath (1963, Mario Bava)

Black Sabbath (yes, from whence Ozzy’s band took its name) is, in actuality, three short films in one, all different in tone, but each a lesson in terror. I would expect no less from Mario Bava, the master of Italian horror. I’m still trying to get over one particular scene from Black Sunday. Depending on which version you see, the stories might appear in a different order, but I will recap them in the order I viewed. The horror pedigree doesn’t just stop with Bava; the narrator is horror legend Boris Karloff! He introduces each segment, in a somewhat Serling-ian fashion, and even appears in one of the stories. In this way, it is somewhat reminiscent of one of Corman’s Poe films or a Freddie Francis portmanteau film. However, Bava’s film is somewhat more terrifying.

Case in point is the opening story, “The Drop of Water.” Structured like a Poe tale, it involves a “beyond the grave” revenge and the slow, steady torture of a person’s sanity. In a way, I suppose it is a rip-off of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” but it is still entertaining and frightening. A nurse is asked to tend to the newly deceased body of a medium. As the nurse is doing her duty, she sees an attractive ring on the finger of the corpse and relieves her of it. Immediately, she starts to become pestered by a fly. Though this is innocuous enough, it is when Nurse Chester returns to her apartment that the terror is ratcheted up to the Nth degree. She begins to hear water dripping from her bathroom faucet, echoing the drips of water she heard from a glass that was tipped over at the medium’s apartment. The fly also returns, continually buzzing around her. However, that is nothing compared to the images she sees of the medium, alternately in her bed, and walking toward her, with the most terrifying rictus grin I’ve ever seen. Though you can probably guess Nurse Chester’s fate, the nice capper on the story is the suggestion that this cycle will continue.

The second story is “The Telephone,” a revenge play that is a bit Hitchcockian in nature. Rosy is a Parisian escort (let’s be classy about this, shall we?) who begins to receive haunting telephone calls from her ex-pimp (ok, not that classy), Frank, who has just been released from prison. You see, Rosy was the one who was responsible for Frank going to prison, and he is now out to get her! Rosy calls her ex-lesbian lover, Mary, to comfort her, only to find out that it was a trick played by Mary in order to be reunited with Rosy. Of course, Frank actually does show up to have her revenge on Rosy, but kills Mary by mistake, leading to a final confrontation between Rosy and her assailant. In this simple story, Bava presents psychological and stalking terror at its best, all isolated in one location, and exploring the depths of evil that some will go to in order to either have companionship or revenge. Apparently, the cut American version removes the lesbian subplot, showing the hypocrisy that prostitution and murder is just fine, but love in a different form is taboo. Ridiculous.

The final story is “The Wurdalak,” adapted from an Aleksey Tolstoy tale (Leo’s cousin). Bava faithfully sets the scene in 19th century Russia, in which a young gentleman on a long journey comes across a headless corpse with a dagger in its chest. He removes the dagger and continues on, finding a cabin and a family inside. It turns out that the dagger belongs to the patriarch of the family, played by Boris Karloff, who had left previously to hunt the dreaded Wurdalak, a term that they define as a walking corpse who feeds on the blood of the living. In other words, this is a vampire story, though it shares certain elements with zombie tales as well. The father returns, having been turned into a Wurdalak himself, cleverly and heartlessly preying on the members of his family, one by one. This segment combines many standard elements of great horror, including the supernatural, undefeatable monster, the idea of that monster being someone close to you, the stranger caught up in accidental terror, the isolated cabin in the woods, and people being picked off one at a time.



Kwaidan (1964, Masaki Kobayashi)

First of all, let me say this: Kwaidan is a gorgeous film. This is apparent from the first few frames of the credits, with images of ink in water, creating an ethereal atmosphere. The rest of the film is just as mesmerizing. Like Black Sabbath, Kwaidan is made up of a series of short stories, these based on traditional Japanese ghost stories as told by Lafcadio Hearn. The first story is called “The Black Hair” and is not one that is easy to forget. A samurai leaves his wife and an existence of poverty because he simply wants more out of life. He marries again into wealth and status, but his second wife is selfish and awful. He goes back to his first wife, having somewhat realized his error, and while everything seems fine at first, he wakes up to find that his original companion has turned into just a skull and hair. In payback for his selfishness, he finds that he too has become older, and ghoulish in appearance. Though the story is simple, it takes its time to set a tone and an atmosphere, making the payoff that much more satisfying. Additionally, like the Hammer Horror films of the time, it uses a magnificent color palette for a genre that doesn’t generally use them.

The second story in called “The Woman of the Snow” and may seem familiar to those who have seen the 1990 film, Tales from the Darkside, which was originally intended to be Creepshow 3. A terrible snowstorm hits two woodcutters and they take shelter in a small hut. The titular woman of the snow comes, kills one of the woodcutters, then spares the other, telling him that he cannot utter a word about what happened, or she will know and punish him. The spared woodcutter later meets a pretty young girl and they fall in love. He, of course, tells her the story of the woman in the snow and his young wife reveals herself to be that woman. But, rather than killing him, due to their having children, she decides his punishment is simply leaving him. Due to their happy existence, the punishment seems to be enough, though she does say that if the children complain about her absence, she will come back to kill him. Again, the greatness of this story is how it is drawn out, much like a great story that is told around the campfire, as well as the amazing color and imagery presented throughout the telling.

“Hoichi, the Earless” is the third story, and it is a doozy. It begins with the epic poem, “The Tale of the Heike.” A young, blind monk has been secretly performing this epic poem at the behest of the ghosts who actually fought in the battle as portrayed in the song. The elder monks, sensing the danger of the situation, punish him, but also tattoo the young monk’s body with protective kanji. This, in effect, leaves him invisible to the ghosts who seek his singing and storytelling. By mistake, they leave the young monk’s ears unmarked. In a clever bit of special effects work, the ghosts come looking for the monk and see a pair of floating ears, which are soon cut off by the warrior ghosts.

The final story is “In a Cup of Tea,” which finds a samurai haunted by the image of a man in his, you guessed it, cup of tea. Even more samurai later haunt him and they eventually drive him mad. This tale becomes a two-fer as it stops in the midst of a battle between the haunted man and his ghostly assailants, revealing that it is being told by a heretofore-unseen writer who has decided to let the readers determine their own ending. The writer’s wife returns to find her husband has disappeared. She screams as she looks into his cup of tea and you can guess the rest. Kwaidan is definitely an expressionist film, with realism being put on the back burner for effect and atmosphere. Kobayashi uses artificial backdrops, images of eyes appearing in the simulated sky, and created landscapes in order to make the point that these stories are mythologies, fairy tales, or campfire stories, to be taken as artistic presentations. In this way, the film works on two levels, as moralistic mythology and as entertaining terror. Again, it is a gorgeous film and well worth the time.

Saturday's Playlist: 10-29-11

Ani DiFranco – “Gravel (KCRW)”
Cat Power – “Ye Auld Triangle”
Camper Van Beethoven – “One of These Days”
MF Doom – “Saliva”
The Jayhawks – “Two Hearts”
Neil Young – “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere”
Crooked Fingers – “Gentle on My Mind’
Feist – “Where Can I Go Without You?”
M. Ward – “Chinese Translation”
New Order – “Thieves Like Us”
Okkervil River – “Show Yourself”
Small Black – “Invisible Grid”
Longpigs – “She Said”
The Jesus & Mary Chain – “You Trip Me Up”
Nick Drake – “Fly”
Sufjan Stevens – “The Dress Looks Nice on You”
The Lonely Island – “Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde”
New Order – “Confusion (Instrumental)”
Twin Shadow – “Shooting Holes at the Moon”
Soul II Soul – “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)”
Styx – “Mr. Roboto”
Childish Gambino – “Nowhere to Go (Disaster Babe)”
The Cure – “Plainsong (Live)”
John Cale – “Pablo Picasso”
Hugo Montenegro – “I Dream of Jeannie”
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – “One Polaroid a Day”
Chris Cornell – “You Know My Name”
Low – “Done”
Suckers – “It Gets Your Body Movin’”
Matthew Sweet – “I Wanted to Tell You”
Oingo Boingo – “Dead Man’s Party”
The Rolling Stones – “Start Me Up”
Battles – “Inchworm”
Crystal Castles – “Doe Deer”
Smashing Pumpkins – “I Am One”
ABC – “How to Be a Millionaire”
Galaxie 500 – “It’s Getting Late”
Titus Andronicus – “The Battle of Hampton Roads”
Bee Gees – “To Love Somebody”
Dead Confederate – “Sugar”
Allman Brothers Band – “Melissa”
Obits – “I Want Results”
Suede – “Can’t Get Enough”
World Party – “Sweet Soul Dream”
Mew – “Tricks”
The Black Angels – “True Believers”
The Innocence Mission – “Bright as Yellow”
Saint Etienne – “Mario’s Café”
X- “How I (Learned My Lesson)”
The Chameleons – “Perfume Garden”
Childish Gambino – “So Fly”
Sweet Apple – “Hold Me, I’m Dying”
The Chameleons – “Looking Inwardly”
The Bird & the Bee – “Heard it on the Radio”
Grant-Lee Phillips – “Under the Milky Way”
Depeche Mode – “Never Let Me Down Again (Digitalism Remix)”
The Tallest Man on Earth – “Steal Tomorrow”
Angelo Badalamenti & Julee Cruise – “Falling”
Wild Beasts – “Underbelly”
The Boxer Rebellion – “Evacuate”
Prince – “Raspberry Beret (12” Version)”
Ryan Adams – “Boys”
Battles – “Africastle”
Red Sparowes – “The Great Leap Forward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like a Mighty Storm Suddenly and Furiously Blinding Our Senses”
Ryan Adams – “1974”
Washed Out – “Untitled”
Sigur Rós – “Hjartađ Hamast”
Eksi Ekso – “Rein, White Sun”
ESG – “Parking Lot Blues”
Suede – “Motown (Demo)”
Suede – “My Insatiable One”

Thursday's Playlist: 10-27-11

The Go-Go’s – “Mercenary (Live)”
Billy Squier – “It Keeps You Rockin’”
Q-Tip – “You”
Mariachi El Bronx – “Litigation”
Tom Waits – “Temptation”
Dolorean – “Hannibal, Mo.”
Mumford & Sons – “Thistle & Weeds”
Dirty Projectors – “Still is the Move (Jimmy Douglas Mix)”
New Order – “True Faith”
The Silencers – “Blue Desire”
Gorillaz – “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach”
The Pixies – “Where is My Mind?”
Howard Jones – “Bounce Right Back”
Smith Westerns – “Be My Girl”
Warren G – “Regulate”
Suckers – “Black Sheep”
The Smiths – “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
Wolves in the Throne Room – “Woodland Cathedral”
The Rapture – “Children”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – “Century City”
Mariachi El Bronx – “My Brother the Gun”
Sufjan Stevens – “The Upper Peninsula”
Blondie – “A Shark in Jets Clothing”
Gang Starr – “Mass Appeal”
Delta Spirit – “Devil Knows You’re Dead”
The 88 – “Lost and Found”
The Cure – “Babble (Instrumental)”
M83 – “Soon, My Friend”
Glen Hansard – “Trying to Pull Myself Away”
Led Zeppelin – “The Rain Song”
Scritti Politti – “OPEC-Immac”
Cults – “Most Wanted”
LCD Soundsystem – “Us v Them”
Bachelorette – “Digital Brain”
Stevie Wonder – “You Met Your Match”
The Dandy Warhols – “The Last High”
Red Fang – “Whales and Leeches”
No Age – “Life Prowler”
St. Vincent – “The Strangers”
Childish Gambino – “Break”
Battles – “Futura”
Blondie – “Hanging on the Telephone”
The Go-Go’s – “Get up and Go”
Band of Horses – “Compliments”
Japandroids – “Darkness on the Edge of Gastown”
Dusty Springfield – “Mama Said”
Felt – “Primitive Painters”
The Magnetic Fields – “Always Already Gone”
Christopher O’Riley – “No Surprises”
The National – “Squalor Victoria”
Kyuss – “100° / Space Cadet / Demon Cleaner”
Luscious Jackson – “Space Diva”
The Knack – “That’s What the Little Girls Do (Demo)”
ESG – “About You”
Mates of State – “At Least I Have You”
Lush – “Starlust”
Future Sound of London – “Lifeforms (Path 1)”
Rilo Kiley – “American Wife”
Flying Lotus – “German Haircut”
James Blake – “The Wilhlem Scream”
Wilco – “Summer Teeth”
Jawbox – “Breathe”
My Bloody Valentine – “Honey Power”
James Brown – “Soul Power (Live)”
Male Bonding – “Dig You Out”
Fleet Foxes – “Quiet Houses”
Yeasayer – “Love Me Girl”

Wednesday's Playlist: 10-26-11

John Cale – “China Sea”
Billy Squier – “Don’t Say No”
Psychedelic Furs – “Pretty in Pink”
Robyn – “Get Myself Together”
Oingo Boingo – “I’m So Bad”
Blueprint – “So Alive”
Ryan Adams – “Dirty Rain”
The Drums – “Skippin’ Town”
Jellyfish – “Now She Knows She’s Wrong”
Spoon – “I Summon You (Demo)”
Four Tet – “Smile Around the Face”
Dirty Projectors – “Remade Horizon”
Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Action”
Prince – “Raspberry Beret”
REO Speedwagon – “I Wish You Were There”
Deee-Lite – “Groove is in the Heart”
Opus III – “It’s a Fine Day (Edit)”
Magnetic Fields – “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”
Sleigh Bells – “Kids”
Bell Biv Devoe – “Gangsta”
Sigur Rós – “Njósnavélin”
X – “Blue Spark”
Lily Allen & Mick Jones – “Straight to Hell”
Nine Inch Nails – “No, You Don’t”
Bad Audio Dynamite – “E=MC2”
Fleetwood Mac – “Not that Funny”
The Human League – “Don’t You Want Me”
A Tribe Called Quest – “Check the Rhime”
José González – “Time to Send Someone Away”
Iron Maiden – “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Def Leppard – “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak”
Peter, Bjorn and John – “Second Chance”
The Shins – “We Will Become Silhouettes”
Robyn – “None of Dem”
Junior Boys – “High Come Down”
Flight of the Conchords – “Carol Brown”
Peter, Bjorn and John – “Down Like Me”
Suede – “Asda Town”
Bomba Estéreo – “Fuego”
Bad Brains – “Jah Calling”
Loch Lomond – “All Your Friends are Smiling”
Cut Copy – “Where I’m Going”
Psychedelic Furs – “Here Come Cowboys”
Portugal. The Man – “Once Was One”
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – “Let it Ride”
Jimi Hendrix – “Fire”
The Coconutz – “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Soul II Soul – “Fairplay”
Duran Duran – “The Reflex”
The Pixies – “Planet of Sound”
Alphaville – “In the Mood”
Kvelertak – “Blodtørst”
Ella Fitzgerald – “Slap that Bass (Miguel Migs Petalpusher Remix)”
The Cure – “Untitled”
We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Picture of Health”
Hothouse Flowers – “Lonely Lane”
Fruit Bats – “Dolly”
Prince – “Lavaux”
Interpol – “Slow Hands”
Van Morrison – “Crazy Love”
Digable Planets – “9th Planet (Blackitolsm)”
The Silencers – “Painted Moon”
Altered Images – “I Could Be Happy (Dance Mix)”
The White Stripes – “300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues (Live)”
Fennesz & Sakamoto – “0320”
John Cale – “Bamboo Floor”
Christopher O’Riley – “I Can’t”
Café Tacuba – “El Fin De La Infancia”
Suede – “She’s Not Dead”
Journey – “Send Her My Love”
Dum Dum Girls – “Jail La La”
Massive Attack – “Paradise Circus”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Rocket”
Stevie Nicks – “Secret Love”

Tuesday's Playlist: 10-25-11

Esben & the Witch – “Hexagons IV”
Passion Pit – “Swimming in the Flood”
Sufjan Stevens – “I Want to Be Well”
Shudder to Think – “Airfield Dream”
X – “Arms for Hostages / Country at War”
Feist – “Bittersweet Melodies”
Foals – “Hummer”
Twin Shadow – “Yellow Balloon”
Twin Shadow – “Shooting Holes at the Moon”
Nine Inch Nails – “Get Down Make Love”
Bluetones – “Slight Return”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
The Cult – “Electric Ocean”
ABC – “The Look of Love, Pt. 1”
Art Brut – “Modern Art”
Rogue Wave – “Postage Stamp World”
The Wake – “Talk About the Past”
The Long Winters – “Delicate Hands”
Tears for Fears – “The Conflict”
Thomas Dolby – “Mulu the Rain Forest”
Glasvegas – “Stronger than Dirt”
Gorillaz – “Man Research (Clapper)”
Flying Lotus – “Nose Art”
Hi-Five – “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)”
Thompson Twins – “Hold Me Now”
Leftfield – “Open Up”
Billy Squier – “Whadda You Want From Me”
James Blake – “Lindisfarne II”
The Killers – “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”
The Smithereens – “Blues Before and After”
Mogwai – “Like Herod (Live)”
The Other Two – “Tasty Fish (O.T. Mix 12”)”
Oneohtrix Point Never – “Ships Without Meaning”
Blondie – “Call Me (Original Long Version)”
David Bowie – “Hole in the Ground”
Cake – “Federal Funding”
Eksi Ekso – “West of Rize”
Aimee Mann – “I’ve Had It”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Rhinoceros”
The Stepkids – “Legend in His Own Mind”
Concrete Blonde – “Everybody Knows”
Matt Pond PA – “Brooklyn Fawn”
Jaydiohead – “Dirt Off Your Android”
Wilco – “A Shot in the Arm”
Ringo Starr – “It Don’t Come Easy”
A Flock of Seagulls – “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (Extended Version)”
Wilco – “Jesus, Etc. (Live)”
New Order – “Kiss of Death”
Robyn – “Fembot”
Mekons – “Darkness and Doubt”
George Thorogood – “John Hardy”
Black Mountain – “Buried by the Blues”
The Boxer Rebellion – “Lay Me Down”
Modest Mouse – “The World at Large”
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “(Stranded on) the Wrong Beach”
Mew – “Start”
Rush – “Tom Sawyer”
Funkadelic – “Super Stupid”
Okkervil River – “Walked Out on a Line”
Mogwai – “How to Be a Werewolf”
Howard Jones – “Always Asking Questions (12” Version)”
Nirvana – “Drain You (Live)”
Liars – “The Overachievers”
Modest Mouse – “Trailer Trash”
Admiral Radley – “Lonesome Co.”
Fountains of Wayne – “Utopia Parkway”
Future Sound of London – “We Have Explosive”
Spoon – “Don’t Let it Get You Down”
Caribou – “Jamelia”
The Knack – “(She’s So) Selfish”
The Twilight Sad – “That Room”
Pearl Jam – “Say Hello 2 Heaven (Temple of the Dog Demo)”
Girl Talk – “Let it Out”
The Cure – “Cold”
Aimee Mann – “This is How it Goes”
The Rapture – “In the Grace of Your Love”
Sufjan Stevens – “Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie”
Oneohtrix Point Never – “Behind the Bank”
Daniel Martin Moore – “Softly and Tenderly”
Stephin Merritt – “You Are Not My Mother and I Want to Go Home”
Dan Wilson – “Honey Please (Live)”
Squeeze – “Woman’s World”
Destroyer – “The Sublimation Hour”

Sunday's Playlist: 10-23-11

Nada Surf – “Question”
Bat for Lashes – “Daniel”
Free Energy – “Light Love”
The Other Two – “Ninth Configuration”
The Pixies - "Alec Eiffel"
Pete Townshend – “Let My Love Open the Door”
The Police – “Every Breath You Take”
Kurt Vile – “Puppet to the Man”
Fleetwood Mac – “Bermuda Triangle”
Jawbreaker – “Want”
KISS – “Love Theme from KISS”
The Jayhawks – “Pray for Me”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – “It’s Rainin’ Again”
De La Soul – “The Magic Number”
The Smithereens – “Not a Second Time”
Tom Waits – “Martha”
Paul Simon – “Learn How to Fall”
Karen Elson & Donovan - “Season of the Witch”
Ian McCulloch – “The Flickering Wall”
OK Go – “This Too Shall Pass”
Dum Dum Girls – “Coming Down”
Hot Chip – “Boy from School”
Sondre Lerche – “Mr. Bassman”
Childish Gambino feat. Garfunkel & Oates – “These Girls”
Christopher O’Riley – “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Small Sins – “Pot Calls Kettle Black”
A.C. Newman – “The Cloud Prayer”
Neutral Milk Hotel – “Holland, 1945”
Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On”
Bangles – “If She Knew What She Wants (Extended)”
Future Sound of London – “Lifeforms”
Fugazi – “Burning Too”
Childish Gambino feat. DC Pierson – “Different (Feel it All Around)”
Red House Painters – “Down Through”
Anamanaguchi – “Danger Mountain”
Scritti Politii – “Perfect Way (Edited Version)”
Calexico – “Stray”
Foals – “Two Steps, Twice”
Fountains of Wayne – “Everything’s Ruined (Acoustic)”
Black Kids – “Hurricane Jane”
Morrissey – “Ouija Board, Ouija Board”
Depeche Mode – “When the Body Speaks (Karlsson & Winnberg Remix)”
Thomas Dolby – “The Flat Earth”
Delta Spirit – “Vivian”
Interpol – “Obstacle 1”
Modest Mouse – “Education”
Blondie – “Little Girl Lies”
The Cult – “Judith”
X- “Yr Ignition”
Swans – “No Words / No Thoughts”
A Flock of Seagulls – “Transfer Affection”
Howard Jones – “Like to Get to Know You Well”
The Lonely Island – “Rocky”
Valient Thorr – “Rezerection”
Mötley Crüe – “Bitter Pill”
Kanye West & Jay-Z – “Murder to Excellence”
Antony & the Johnsons – “Hope There’s Someone”
ESG – “Dance”

Films of the 60s, Part 22: When We Laugh Indoors

“When we laugh indoors,
The blissful tones bounce off the walls
And fall to the ground.”
- Death Cab For Cutie, “We Laugh Indoors”



It’s been said that stand-up comedians are the new philosophers. This was certainly true of Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and more current comics, such as Louis C.K., Marc Maron, and Greg Proops. Pointed and profound messages can be cleverly, but perhaps not easily, couched in humor. That’s not to say that all comedy has to be incredibly deep, philosophical, or political. It can just as easily be absolutely absurd. The three comedy films discussed below are all groundbreaking in some way, but what they all share is that they are hilariously funny.



What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966, Woody Allen)

Having just come off of writing and starring in What’s New Pussycat?, Woody Allen made his directorial debut with another film whose title asks a question. Long before the Mystery Science Theater gang started their meta commentary project, Woody Allen was breaking new ground in postmodern comedy. What’s Up, Tiger Lily? was certainly a unique project at the time. Allen took footage from two Japanese films, called International Secret Police: A Barrel of Gunpowder and International Secret Police: Key of Keys, and essentially made a remix / dub. So, instead of a taut spy thriller, we get to see Woody enmeshed in a mob battle over the hunt of the best egg salad recipe.

Any essay or article about the content of the film could not do it justice. Woody Allen’s writing, acting, scene construction, and jokes are so meticulous that they have to be seen and heard in context. For instance, his early nebbish delivery of how death is his bread and danger is his butter does not come over well in print. But, out of his performance, I was laughing out loud. I could be wrong about this, but this film seems to me to be the first of its kind, certainly influencing MST3K and perhaps even such Bond spoofs as Austin Powers. And, even though some wildly funny films had been made during the 60s and before, I don’t think the general public had seen anything as absurd as this, especially the non-sequitur ending featuring China Lee.

Woody Allen would go on to make not only some of the funniest films ever made, in Bananas, Take the Money and Run, and Sleeper, but he would also start to make films that were poignant, deep, philosophical, and related to the human condition. I’m not sure one can make that claim about Tiger Lily, but sometimes funny is just funny. Okay, so there are some Asian stereotypes that are played with a little fast and loose for today’s politically correct and progressive audiences, such as the sisters with the names Suki Yaki and Teri Yaki, but overall it is fairly unobjectionable. It has been said that The Graduate has every type of humor in it, from farce to puns, slapstick to sight gags, and I would argue that What’s Up, Tiger Lily has this wide range of elements as well. Had anyone else shown a visual of a supposed hair caught in the projector, and then a silhouetted hand trying to remove it? In this film, plot didn’t matter and the jokes were everything.



The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967, Roman Polanski)

After the truly disturbing films Repulsion and Knife in the Water, and before the equally disturbing Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski made a farce, though it might be hard for American viewers to make any kind of attribution to Roman Polanski. What am I talking about? Well, apparently, an editor at MGM reedited Polanski’s film and made it even more kooky and cartoony than the director had originally envisioned. I couldn’t tell you which version I saw. From all the research I have gathered, it appears that the American recut of the film is now rare, and the original version must be the one I screened. (Yes, I don’t watch films, I “screen” them.)

In this film, we follow the titular “vampire killers,” one old and exceedingly eccentric, Professor Abronsius, played by Jack McGowan, the other young, shy, and enormously excitable, Alfred, played by Polanski himself. Like with Tiger Lily, there are different types of humor on display here, from Polanski’s physical humor, to the broad slapstick of a high speed coffin / sledding chase, to the abstract silliness and stupidity of the two spying on a hunchback building a coffin with the memorable exchange, “What’s he doing?” “He’s woodworking!”

Polanski had not really been known for comedy before this film and hasn’t really since, but this film is certainly not to be dismissed. It is not only funny, it also retains some of Polanski’s hallmark dark undertones, especially in the fact that the vampires end up defeating out heroes and evil wins out in the end. A scene that stands out as one that certainly inspired such later films as Young Frankenstein, the two hunters try to fit in with a group of vampires, participating in an elaborate dance, and try to have a conversation while being constantly interrupted by the movements and changing of partners. The vivid colors also make it a near-perfect Hammer Horror homage. Of course, this film is now notorious for featuring the gorgeous Sharon Tate, just one year before she married Polanski, and two years before her tragic murder.



Putney Swope (1969, Robert Downey, Sr.)

The aforementioned Louis C.K. has gone out of his to praise Putney Swope and how it directly influenced his comedy. The film, written and directed by Robert Downey, Sr., (yes, that Robert Downey, Sr.) is at once uproariously funny and socially as well as politically potent. The idea is simple: the CEO of an advertising agency dies, and in the pursuit of becoming his successor, the rest of the board vote for the one African-American member, as they can’t vote for themselves. Putney Swope becomes the new CEO and drastically changes the direction of the company, to hilarious results.

At first, Swope is dead set against the firm’s involvement with companies that produced alcohol, tobacco, and war toys. As such, he renames the company “Truth and Soul, Inc.” and tries to align the company philosophy with his own, replacing every white board member in the process. We are treated to some of the commercials they make, intercut throughout the film, and they are some of the funniest things I have ever seen, surely influencing later likeminded films, such as the Zucker and Abrahams movies. As the company grows in success, and profits, we see the new militant members of the firm become just as corrupted by money as their predecessors, including Putney, who has to come to some kind of reconciliation with himself.

Downey dubbed in his own voice over that of the actor who portrayed Swope, Arnold Johnson, claiming that the actor had a hard time memorizing his lines. The resulting effect is jarring, but also adds to the humor. The film was somewhat before its time in its skewering of Capitalism and modern advertisement, but right on time for its incisive commentary on the misunderstanding of the Black Power movement. I tend to think that those who gave this film a bad review, claim it isn’t funny, or that it misses the mark, just didn’t get it. It’s well beyond time that Putney Swope was reevaluated as one of the funniest films of the 60s. Appropriately enough, Downey’s son was later criticized in much the same manner for his portrayal of method actor Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder, which was equally funny.

*Note: The poster for Putney Swope is the DVD cover, as the theatrical poster is somewhat more risqué.

Saturday's Playlist: 10-22-11

David Bowie – “Wild is the Wind”
AC/DC – “Back in Black”
Mötley Crüe – “Without You”
Here We Go Magic – “Fangela”
Little Joy – “Brand New Start”
Loggins & Messina – “Back to Georgia”
The xx – “Infinity”
Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)”
Future Sound of London – “My Kingdom”
Gang Gang Dance – “Mindkilla”
The Smiths – “Oscillate Wildly”
Fences – “Boys Around Here”
Robyn – “In My Eyes”
Deerhunter – “Revival”
Blonde Redhead – “Spain”
Billy Joel – “The Stranger”
Flying Lotus – “Clay”
Gravenhurst – “The Ice Tree”
Alexi Murdoch – “Orange Sky”
Vampire Weekend – “Mansard Roof”
Gorilaz – “19-2000”
Baths – “Rafting Starlit Everglades”
The Jayhawks – “Nothing Left to Borrow”
Phosphorescent – “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise”
Foo Fighters – “These Days”
Elbow – “Some Riot”
Vampire Weekend – “I Stand Corrected”
Girls – “Ghost Mouth”
Public Enemy – “She Watch Channel Zero”
The Pixies – “Manta Ray”
Loch Lomond – “Carl Sagan”
Loggins & Messina – “Danny’s Song”
Nick Lowe – “Cold Gray Light of Dawn”
Flying Lotus – “Drips // Auntie’s Harp”
Squeeze – “If I Didn’t Love You”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Yesterday, Never”
Supertramp – “Casual Conversations”
Björk – “I Go Humble”
Bright Eyes – “Ladder Song”
D’Angelo – “Brown Sugar”
Arctic Monkeys – “Library Pictures”
Eels – “My Beloved Monster”
Cake – “What’s Now is Now”
Missing Persons – “Words”
Matthew Herbert – “November”
Destroyer – “Bay of Pigs”
Torche – “Little Champion”
Def Leppard – “Stagefright (Live)”
Jens Lekman – “Black Cab”
Blondie – “For Your Eyes Only”
David Essex – “Rock On”
Sigur Rós – “Straumnes”
The Jesus & Mary Chain – “Inside Me”
Supertramp – “Gone Hollywood”
A Flock of Seagulls – “The Fall”
Damien Jurado – “Sheets”
No Doubt – “Hella Good”
Wolf Parade – “Palm Road”
Les Savy Fav – “One Way Widow”
Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On (Rhythm & Strings Mix)”
Mission of Burma – “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”
Edith Piaf – “La Vie en Rose”
Liturgy – “Veins of God”
Tom Waits – “Tom Traubert’s Blues”
Caribou – “Sun”
ESG – “I Can’t Tell You What to Do”

Thursday's Playlist: 10-20-11

Crystal Castles – “Pap Smear”
Duran Duran – “To the Shore”
TV on the Radio – “Staring at the Sun”
Of Montreal – “I Feel Ya’ Strutter”
Depeche Mode – “But Not Tonight (Extended Remix)”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Cutter”
Franz Ferdinand – “What She Came For”
Blue Scholars – “Marion Sunshine”
Gorillaz – “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach”
The Bird & the Bee – “The Races”
Dan Wilson – “Willie the King (Live)”
Of Montreal – “Hydra Fancies”
Kansas – “Sparks of the Tempest”
Laura Veirs – “Make Something Good”
Alphaville – “Summer in Berlin”
Blitzen Trapper – “Street Fighting Sun”
Valient Thorr – “The Recognition”
Orbital – “P.E.T.R.O.L.”
Dirty Projectors – “Cannibal Resource”
Falco – “Der Kommissar”
New Order – “Hurt”
Suede – “Together”
Explosions in the Sky – “Magic Hours”
Galaxie 500 – “Hearing Voices”
Bad Lieutenant – “Poisonous Intent”
Ministry – “So What”
Def Leppard – “Too Late for Love”
Kaiser Chiefs – “Take My Temperature”
Talking Heads – “Listening Wind”
David Bowie – “Ashes to Ashes”
First Aid Kit – “Pervigilo”
Radiohead – “Paranoid Android”
Eels – “I’m Going to Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart”
Fruit Bats – “The Banishment Song”
The Album Leaf – “Landing in Snow”
Hall & Oates – “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin”
Carissa’s Wierd – “You Should Be Hated Here”
Foo Fighters – “White Limo”
Orange Juice – “Rip it Up”
The Black Keys – “Have Love Will Travel”
New Order – “Fine Line”
Gene Pitney – “24, Sycamore”
Music Go Music – “Just Me”
Oneohtrix Point Never – “Laser to Laser”
Anamanaguchi – “Dawn Metropolis”
Propellerheads – “Spybreak!”
Hothouse Flowers – “Christchurch Bells”
Eagles – “In the City”
M83 – “Kim & Jessie”
White Denim – “Incaviglia”
White Denim – “Through Your Windows”
Torche – “Meanderthal”
The Smiths – “Barbarism Begins at Home”
Real Estate – “Kinder Blumen”
Suede – “Metal Mickey”
Thomas Dolby – “I Scare Myself”
David Bowie – “TVC15 (Live)”
The Polyphonic Spree – “Light & Day / Reach for the Sun”
The Fray – “Mahna Mahna”
Troy & Abed – “Somewhere Out There”
Sleater-Kinney – “Dig Me Out”
M83 – “Train to Pluton”
Scritti Politti – “Wood Beez (Version)”
The Strokes – “The Modern Age”
Nite Jewel – “Falling Far”
Q-Tip – “Do You Dig”
Tombs – “Black Heaven”
David Bowie – “This is Not America”
New Order – “Blue Monday”
Nik Kershaw – “Wouldn’t It Be Good”
The Black Keys – “Do the Rump”
Phantom Planet – “California”

Tuesday's Playlist: 10-18-11

Superchunk – “Fractures in Plaster”
Heatmiser – “Get Lucky”
D’Angelo – “Untitled (How Does it Feel)”
Tom Vek – “On a Plate”
Squeeze – “If I Didn’t Love You”
British Sea Power – “Baby”
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – “Even Heroes Have to Die”
No Age – “Common Heat”
Tommy James & the Shondells – “Crimson & Clover”
Clearlake – “Treat Yourself with Kindness”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “There She Goes, My Beautiful World”
Galaxie 500 – “King of Spain, Part Two”
The Power Station – “Some Like it Hot”
Jawbox – “Savory”
Ladytron – “Tomorrow”
The Antlers – “Epilogue”
Alice Cooper – “Unfinished Sweet”
Fennesz & Sakamoto – “0330”
ABC – “Vanity Kills”
Blitzen Trapper – “American Goldwing”
Eagles – “My Man”
Explosions in the Sky – “The Only Moment We Are Alone (Live)”
Orlando Cachaito Lopez – “Mis Dos Pequeñas”
Born Ruffians – “Jimmy Jimmy”
Kate Bush – “The Red Shoes”
Owen Pallett – “A Man with No Ankles”
Raphael Saadiq – “Radio”
LCD Soundsystem – “Too Much Love”
The National – “Mr. November”
XTC – “I’d Like That”
The Go-Go’s – “Good for Gone”
Future Sound of London – “Lifeforms (Path 3)”
Morrissey – “The Last of the Famous International Playboys”
Deerhunter – “Earthquake”
Yuck – “Sunday”
Jonathan Rice – “My Mother’s Son”
Luscious Jackson – “Here”
Underworld – “Between Stars”
Broadcast – “Echo’s Answer”
Marvin Gaye – “Save the Children”
Brendan Benson – “You Make a Fool Out of Me”
Blue Scholars – “George Jackson”
Ministry – “Dream Song”
Thomas Dolby – “Weightless”
Tom Waits – “Way Down in the Hole”
Julianna Barwick – “The Highest”
Travis – “Flowers in the Window”
Marvin Gaye – “What’s Happening Brother (Live)”
U2 – “Numb (New Mix)”
Fleetwood Mac – “Oh Well, Part I”
Red House Painters – “Mistress”
Iron Maiden – “Mission from ‘Arry”
Spoon – “Is Love Forever?”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Heroin (Live)”
Björk – “Hyperballad”
The Autumn Defense – “Step Easy”
New Order – “Elegia”
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – “Spiral Jetty”
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – “Typecast”
Led Zeppelin – “The Rain Song”
tUnE-YarDs – “Gangsta”
Crooked Fingers – “Big Darkness”
Aimee Mann – “Red Vines”
Broadcast – “Distorsion”
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”
Arctic Monkeys – “All My Own Stunts”
Wilco – “Hate it Here”
The Tallest Man on Earth – “I Won’t Be Found”
McLusky – “To Hell With Good Intentions”
Björk – “Dark Matter”
Björk – “Mutual Core”
Red Sparowes – “Truths Arise”
Tom Waits – “Jersey Girl”
Orange Juice – “Lovesick”
Lush – “I’ve Been Here Before”
First Aid Kit – “Ghost Town”
Interpol – “NYC”
The Other Two – “Selfish (The East Village Vocal)”
The Go! Team – “Buy Nothing Day”
Sigur Rós – “Heysátan”
Suede – “Cheap (Demo)”
Flesh for Lulu – “I Go Crazy”
A Tribe Called Quest – “Mind Power”
The Chameleons – “Perfume Garden”
John Cale – “Leaving it Up to You”
Morrissey – “Happy Lovers at Last Reunited”
Carl Cox – “The Joker”
Camper Van Beethoven – “Eye of Fatima, Part 2”
Austra – “The Noise”
The Field – “It’s Up There”
Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”
Wild Flag – “Black Tiles”
Iron Maiden – “Children of the Damned”
Finn Brothers – “Eyes of the World”

Weekend Playlist: 10-15-11 & 10-16-11

Girls – “My Ma”
Crowded House – “Elephants”
Les Savy Fav – “Poltergeist”
Chevy Chase – “The Way It Is”
Surfer Blood – “Harmonix”
The Twilight Singers – “The Beginning of the End”
Baroness – “War, Wisdom and Rhyme”
Modest Mouse – “We’ve Got Everything”
Jónsi – “Boy Lillikoi (Live)”
Orbital – “Speed Freak (Moby Remix)”
New Order – “We All Stand”
A Tribe Called Quest – “Youthful Expression”
Danger Mouse & Danielle Luppi – “Season’s Trees”
The Clientele – “Since K Got Over Me”
Ladytron – “Runaway”
Sigur Rós – “Hoppipolla”
Foster the People – “Warrant”
Stevie Nicks – “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)”
Sunny Day Real Estate – “8”
Dum Dum Girls – “Just a Creep”
Jellyfish – “Bedspring Kiss”
The Decemberists – “Valerie Plame”
The Smiths – “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”
Duran Duran – “Girls on Film (Extended Night Version)”
Blue Scholars – “Marion Sunshine”
Richard Hawley – “Don’t Get Hung Up In Your Soul”
Cake – “Friend is a Four Letter Word”
Curtis Mayfield – “Miss Black America”
The Smiths – “Girl Afraid”
Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Wavelengths”
Of Montreal – “Disconnect the Dots”
Billy Idol – “Dancing with Myself”
En Vogue – “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”
Eels – “Baby Loves Me”
Les Savy Fav – “Reformat (Dramatic Reading)”
Bomba Estéreo – “Juana”
Big Star – “Take Care”
Death Cab for Cutie – “Information Travels Faster”
Tom Waits – “Clap Hands”
Spoon – “Vittorio E”
The Bangles – “Manic Monday (Extended)”
Journey – “Any Way You Want It”
The Mission – “Beyond the Pale”
Eagles – “Journey of the Sorcerer”
Foreign Born – “Blood Oranges”
Suede – “By the Sea”
Black Mountain – “Rollercoaster”
X – “Hungry Wolf”
Bon Iver – “Skinny Love”
Alice Cooper – “Sick Things”
Gruff Rhys – “Christopher Columbus”
Suede – “Golden Gun”
The Antlers – “Shiva”
Wilco – “Dawned on Me”
Better than Ezra – “Circle of Friends”
Dum Dum Girls – “Oh Mein M”
The Cure – “Closedown (Live)”
Maximum Balloon – “The Lesson”
Crash Test Dummies – “In the Days of the Caveman”
The Decemberists – “The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)”
Janelle Monae – “Cold War”
Van Morrison – “Into the Mystic”
Magnet & Gemma Hayes – “Lay Lady Lay”
Beethoven – “Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement”
Explosions in the Sky – “Let Me Back In”
Maxence Cyrin – “Where is My Mind”
Explosions in the Sky – “Trembling Hands”
The Jayhawks – “Tomorrow the Green Grass”
The The – “The Beat(en) Generation”
Flight of the Conchords – “Angels”
David Bowie – “Life on Mars (Live)”
Placebo – “Bigmouth Strikes Again”
The Smithereens – “Especially for You (Live)”
Sons & Daughters – “Rose Red”
Architecture in Helsinki – “Denial Style”
Ryan Adams – “Breakdown into the Resolve”
Future of the Left – “Yin / Post-Yin”
Split Enz – “Hard Act to Follow”
DJ Shadow – “Tedium”
Minny Pops – “Dolphin’s Spurt”
The Decemberists – “O New England”
Neil Finn – “Don’t Dream It’s Over (Live)”
Run-D.M.C. – “Rock the House”
Elliott Smith – “Everything Reminds Me of Her”
The Dodos – “Fools”
Blue Scholars – “Seijun Suzuki”
The Cool Kids – “Swimsuits”
Gillian Welch – “Look at Miss Ohio”
Those Darlins – “Boy”
Damien Jurado – “Everything Trying”
X- “Beyond and Back (Live)”
Little Dragon – “Scribbled Paper”
Baths – “Aminals”
Little River Band – “Cool Change”

Films of the 60s, Part 21: We Gotta Get Out of This Place

“We gotta get out of this place
If it’s the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl there’s a better life for me and you.”
- The Animals, “We Gotta Get Outta This Place”



Many of the films of the 60s could be described as being stories of escape of some kind, including everything from Holly Golightly’s escape from country life and a loveless marriage in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Marion Crane’s escape from low / middle class drudgery and harassment into a life of crime and eventual doom in Psycho. One could even describe some of the 60s films as audience escapes in such films as the James Bond series or exuberant movie musicals. These three films are more literal in definition, the first two being escapes from prisons of some sort, being the French prison of Le Trou and the German prison camp of The Great Escape, and the final, Dead Ringer, an escape not only from poverty, but also from identity.



Le Trou (1960, Jacques Becker)

I had never heard of Le Trou before I placed it in my Netflix queue (poetry unintended), but it ended up to be a film I will never forget. The title translates to “The Hole,” a word that is generally known as a slang term for a prison, but in the case of this film is also a literal reference to a hole that inmates dig in a corner of their cell in an attempt to escape. Le Trou is based on a true story, as it seems most prison escape films are, save The Shawshank Redemption and a small handful of others, and the director truly makes an effort to capture the realism of the tale. Becker, in fact, goes to great lengths in this endeavor in a few ways, one of them being the hiring of non-actors to fill the roles of the inmates, regular looking fellows one would perhaps expect to see in a prison environment. One of the actors is actually an inmate from the real life escape attempt from the La Santé prison in 1947. This “actor” introduces the film.

The film begins as we follow a young inmate, Gaspard, being put into a crowded cell with four other prisoners. The four are facing incredibly long sentences. However, we don’t know much else about them, allowing us as viewers to perhaps confabulate or ignore whatever their crimes may have been in order to curry our sympathies. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what they have done in order to fuel the plot and action. Quickly, these prisoners must decide whether or not they can trust Gaspard. In a brief enough time, they determine that it is, if not wise, at least necessary in order to complete their goal. The prisoners are nothing if not resourceful, volunteering for “box-making” duty, not only to keep themselves busy, but to have their stack of flattened boxes to use as a convenient cover to place over the titular hole in the corner of the cell.

Some of the more realistic aspects to this film, aside from the non-actors, are the absolutely meticulous scenes and the lack of a score. We see close-ups of the hands of prison guards as they slice up sausages into small segments, plunge their hands into soaps and cheeses, systematically going through every care package in the search for contraband. The first actions involved in the escape are equally detailed, with long, unbroken shots of the prisoners using a rod from a bed frame to start hammering into the concrete floor and not resorting to a montage until nearly five minutes later. In this way, we sense the arduousness, the anxiety, and the difficulties that these prisoners face in this endeavor. We are escaping with them. It is brilliantly put together. As mentioned, the only music that appears in the film is in the closing scene and credits. Otherwise, throughout the rest of the film, we are left to feel a realistic tension that is not “dramatized” or escalated by the presence of a score. There’s a twist at the end, one I won’t reveal, but the line that comes from one of the characters in response to the turn of events is profound.



The Great Escape (1963, John Sturges)

Whereas Le Trou is atypical as far as most Hollywood films go, after all, it was made in France, not Hollywood; The Great Escape is absolutely typical of the Hollywood film, and the antithesis of Le Trou in style and atmosphere. Instead of “real” looking people, we have the chiseled, blue-eyed Steve McQueen and the slightly less-chiseled but still attractive James Garner, along with our requisite tough guys, Charles Bronson and James Coburn. Instead of a music free tense atmosphere, The Great Escape is packed with a rousing score by Elmer Bernstein, which has since gone on to become one of the most recognizable pieces of film music in history. Further, the civility shown between the warring sides here is most likely fiction, even though it, too, is (somewhat) based on actual events, at least historical certainties of POW camps in WWII. Though, I suppose the POW camps could have been different than the concentration camps.

This is not to say that The Great Escape is a bad film, but rather just a different one as compares with Le Trou. With such big Hollywood and international film stars, the events tend to become more glamourized by default. Yet, the planning, choreography, and dangers in the escape are palpable and riveting. And, lest you think that this is an overly sanitized version of events, there are moments of cruelty and arguable unwarranted shootings. In a mirroring of heist films, each prisoner has a duty or an area of expertise. As such, they also get memorable nicknames such as “The Ferret,” “The Scrounger,” or “The Tunnel King.” But our main point of focus is “The Cooler King,” so named because of the time spent in solitary, played by McQueen. If there is one thing to truly criticize in the adaptation from real life events to novel to screen, it is the focus of Americans as the more cunning escapees and stars of the film. In reality, American prisoners had little to nothing to do with the actual escape attempts.

But, with those things in mind and set aside as mere annoyances in storytelling fiction as opposed to truth, this is an enjoyable film. McQueen’s performance is one that surely cemented him in Hollywood legend and perhaps elevated him to the status of icon, especially with his motorcycle stunts. The music helps to establish a dramatic tone throughout the film as one of hope amidst diligence, as opposed to what it could have been, which is incredibly dour and despairing. As an action film, the right decisions were made, but it is definitely interesting to see the comparison which a film as diametrically opposite as Le Trou, despite covering similar topics.



Dead Ringer (1964, Paul Henreid)

Dead Ringer is another film that was a pleasant surprise, as one that I had not heard of, despite its star director and legendary star. Bette Davis is magnificent playing twin sisters, Margaret and Edith, a feat she had performed eighteen years earlier in A Stolen Life. Karl Malden is equally magnetic and engaging as Police Sergeant Jim Hobbson, the man in love with Edith, the poor sister. While Edith is poor, living in a squalid apartment above a jazz club in an alley (albeit a Hollywood studio alley, nearly sterile), her sister, Margaret, is extraordinarily wealthy, living in a mansion that has been used in over 81 films and television shows, including The Social Network, The Big Lebowski, X-Men, and There Will Be Blood. Margaret’s husband dies and Edith, three months’ behind on her rent and about to be evicted, concocts a plan to eliminate her sister and take her place.

Whereas some of today’s thrillers might focus on the tension leading up to the murder, this film gets to it in a hurry, as the more interesting part is how Edith psychologically deals with the guilt (if any), smartly maneuvers through this new life, and ultimately is found out. Please, how else could it end? The murder itself is tastefully done, cutting quickly from the seated Margaret’s face as she turns to face the gun creeping in from the side of the chair to the jazz drummer’s sticks hitting the snare from the club below. At first, Edith’s plan seems flawless. She cleverly ensures that the murder looks like a suicide based on poverty and depression, and has the real Margaret’s arm fall from a position that would match a self-inflicted gun wound. She later uses subtle and sly tricks to make sure that the mansion’s staff doesn’t let on to her lack of knowledge about the geography. When it comes to a point at which she must learn to sign her sister’s signature, she cunningly, but perhaps insanely, picks up a hot poker with her right hand in order to be forced to sign with her left to mask the discrepancy.

Ultimately, a few unexpected wrinkles do her in. For one, Duke, the Great Dane that belonged to her late husband, hated Margaret, but loved Edith. Duke, the only non-human character in the film, is the first one and the only for quite a while, to know the difference. The maid and the butler seem to be taken aback by her unorthodox behavior, in opposition to the behaviors of the real Margaret, but remain in the dark. Peter Lawford, who plays Margaret’s boy toy, eventually tricks her into revealing her true identity, but his harsh treatment of her leads the dog to attack and kill him. As Edith is tried for the crime of killing Margaret’s boyfriend, she makes one desperate attempt to convince Sergeant Hobbson that she is, in fact, Edith, but he cannot believe that the woman he fell in love with could commit such heinous acts. She, somewhat unbelievably, gets the death penalty, and Hobbson asks if what she said was true, if she truly was Edith, but she denies it, knowing that she had truly succeeded in escaping her previous life, yet could not escape her resultant fate. One of the more moving moments of the film comes when the butler approaches her and asks her what she would like him to say at the trial. “You knew the whole time?” she asks him. It appears that Edith was much better to the staff than Margaret was, and that means something to them. It is a truly memorable moment.

Friday's Playlist: 10-14-11

Christopher O’Riley – “Fake Plastic Trees”
Morrissey – “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore”
The Weird Sisters – “This is the Night”
The Smithereens – “Drown in My Own Tears”
Tom Waits – “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”
Mew – “Owl”
The Black Keys – “Countdown”
Dan Wilson – “Across the Great Divide”
Torche – “Hideaway”
Blueprint – “Go Hard or Go Home”
The Doobie Brothers – “What a Fool Believes”
Kurt Vile – “Peeping Tomboy”
ABC – “Tower of London”
Low – “$20”
Jawbreaker – “Fine Day”
Mogwai – “Tracy”
Here We Go Magic – “I Just Wanna See You Underwater”
Danger Mouse – “Justify My Thug”
José González – “All You Deliver”
Engineers – “What It’s Worth”
Women – “Venice Lockjaw”
De La Soul – “Thru Ya City”
Oingo Boingo – “Weird Science”
The Cure – “Fear of Ghosts (Instrumental)”
The Like – “Trouble in Paradise”
Fujiya & Miyagi – “Pills”
Sufjan Stevens – “Sister”
Matt Pond PA – “Starting”
Gorillaz – “Last Living Souls”
The Smithereens – “Any Other Way”
King Khan & BBQ Show – “Invisible Girl”
The Pixies – “Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) (Live)”
Eels – “Love of the Loveless”
Morrissey – “Children in Pieces”
Hoodoo Gurus – “What’s My Scene?”
Morrissey – “Everyday is Like Sunday”
The Morning Benders – “Sleeping In”
Phoenix – “Love Like a Sunset Part II”
The Pixies – “Tame (Live)”
Happy Mondays – “Donovan”
Allman Brothers Band – “Melissa”
The Weeknd – “Thursday”
The Duke Spirit – “Everybody’s Under Your Spell”
Interpol – “Slow Hands”
DJ Shadow – “Midnight in a Perfect World”
Here We Go Magic – “Tulip”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Too Tough”
LCD Soundsystem – “Time to Get Away”
Propellerheads – “Spybreak!”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Snail”
Duran Duran – “Friends of Mine (Demo)”
Loch Lomond – “Carl Sagan”
Matthew Sweet - “Good Friend (Demo)”
Rufus Wainwright – “This Love Affair”
Hum – “Why I Like the Robins”
Fujiya & Miyagi – “Ventriloquizzing”
Mew – “Repeaterbeater”
Goldfrapp – “Voicething”
The Smithereens – “Only a Memory”
Girl Talk – “Get It Get It”
Galaxie 500 – “King of Spain”
Prince – “Let’s Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix)”
The Black Angels – “Entrance Song”
Radiohead – “Lucky”
Level 42 – “Something About You”
New Order – “Vanishing Point (Instrumental)”
Cults – “Rave On”
Morrissey – “Death of a Disco Dancer”
Lansing-Dreiden – “Part of the Promise”
Psychedelic Furs – “Love My Way (Acoustic)”
The Go! Team – “Rolling Blackouts”
Mister Heavenly – “Bronx Sniper”
Mike Ness – “Misery Loves Company”
Woods – “Pushing Onlys”
Best Coast – “The End”
Flying Lotus – “Recoiled”
Shabazz Palaces – “An Echo from the Hosts that Profess Infinitum”
The Antlers – “Hounds”
The Future Sound of London – “Lifeforms (Path 2)”
Idlewild – “Out of Routine”
The Pixies – “Weird at My School”
Megafaun – “Bonnie’s Song”
Otis Redding – “Respect”
Hooray for Earth – “Last Minute”
Fiona Apple – “Never is a Promise”
Stereolab – “Leleklato Sugar”

Thursday's Playlist 10-13-11

Stevie Nicks – “Edge of Seventeen”
Lush – “The Invisible Man”
Kings Go Forth – “You’re the One”
Engineers – “The Fear Has Gone”
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – “Up From Below”
Fleetwood Mac – “Over My Head”
Tears for Fears – “The Conflict”
!!! – “The Most Certain Sure”
Wild Flag – “Endless Talk”
Surfer Blood – “Catholic Pagans”
Bee Gees – “Love You Inside Out”
That Dog – “Never Say Never”
Glasser – “Glad (Lucky Dragons Remix)”
Dexys Midnight Runners – “Come On Eileen”
The Tallest Man on Earth – “Honey, Won’t You Let Me In?”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Proxy”
Nirvana – “On a Plain (Devonshire Mix)”
New Order – “Weirdo”
Suede – “Positivity”
Future Sound of London – “Just a F#$%in’ Idiot”
Jawbox – “Nickel Nickel Millionaire”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Date with the Night (Live)”
Fleet Foxes – “Your Protector”
Blitzen Trapper – “Fletcher”
The Blood Arm – “Suspicious Character”
Spoon – “Before Destruction”
Weezer – “Velouria”
Engineers – “Emergency Room”
Flying Lotus – “Kill Your Co-Workers”
The Pretenders – “My City Was Gone”
Psychedelic Furs – “Shock”
The Kinks – “Shangri-La”
Fatboy Slim – “Right Here Right Now”
Male Bonding – “Year’s Not Long”
The Kinks – “Most Exclusive Residence For Sale”
Bomba Estéreo – “Camino Evitar”
A Flock of Seagulls – “(It’s Not Me) Talking”
Fleetwood Mac – “The Ledge”
The Cult – “She Sells Sanctuary”
U2 – “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
The Tough Alliance – “Take No Heroes”
Pelican – “March to the Sea”
No Age – “Katerpillar”
HEALTH – “USA Boys”
Clem Snide – “Denise”
Sonic Youth – “Teenage Riot”
Aimee Mann – “Calling It Quits”
The National – “All the Wine”
Jawbox – “L’il Shaver”
The Morning Benders – “Excuses”
Iron & Wine – “Glad Man Singing”
Danny Elfman – “Cool City”
Gorillaz – “Demon Days”
Bryan John Appleby – “Noah’s Nameless Wife”
The Kinks – “Nothing to Say”
Camper Van Beethoven – “At Kuda”
New Order – “Ceremony (Alt. Version)”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Never Let Me Down Again”
Supertramp – “Give a Little Bit”
Falco – “Rock Me Amadeus”
Janet Jackson – “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”
The Feelies – “Nobody Knows”
Mew – “Hawaii”
Wayne Newton – “Danke Schoen”
Interpol – “PDA”
Japandroids – “Sexual Aerosol”
Smith Westerns – “Smile”
Panda Bear – “Benfica”
Cake – “It’s Coming Down”
LCD Soundsystem – “Sound of Silver”
Finn Brothers – “Suffer Never”
Camper Van Beethoven – “Wasting All Your Time”
Peter Salett – “Heart of Mine”
Feist – “Comfort Me”
Small Black – “Hydra”
Belle & Sebastian – “I’m a Cuckoo”
Liturgy – “Son of Light”
Black Tusk – “The Takeoff”
The Cure – “Primary”
The Rosebuds – “Worthwhile”
Jason Forrest – “My 36 Favorite Punk Songs”
Radiohead – “Give up the Ghost”
The Cure – “Fascination Street (Instrumental)”
Pearl Jam – “Say Hello 2 Heaven (Temple of the Dog Demo)”

Tuesday's Playlist 10-11-11

Scritti Politti – “Flesh & Blood”
Mastodon – “Blood & Thunder”
LCD Soundsystem – “One Touch”
Viva Voce – “Analog Woodland Song”
New Order – “Every Little Counts”
Public Enemy – “Louder than a Bomb”
Add N to (X) – “King Wasp”
Gang of Four – “Do As I Say”
Ride – “Vapour Trail”
Suede – “Streetlife”
World Party – “And I Fell Back Alone”
Suede – “My Insatiable One (Piano Version)”
Big Star – “Jesus Christ”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero”
Nirvana – “Verse Chorus Verse”
Papercuts – “The Messenger”
Silverchair – “Madman”
St. Vincent – “Cruel”
Pearl Jam – “Better Man / Save it for Later (Live)”
Mystery Jets – “Lorna Doone”
The Pixies – “Hang Wire”
A Tribe Called Quest – “Ham ‘n’ Eggs”
The Cult – “Revolution (Full Length Remix)”
Trail of Dead – “The Best”
Devo – “Fresh”
Mike Ness – “Gamblin’ Man”
George Thorogood – “I’ll Change My Style”
The Futureheads – “Hounds of Love”
Röyksopp – “Eple”
Ian McCulloch – “I Know You Well”
Childish Gambino – “Nowhere to Go (Disaster Babe)”
The Elected – “Time is Coming”
Alice Cooper – “Freezin”
The Roots – “Doin it Again”
The Smiths – “I Know It’s Over”
The Cure – “Plainsong (Guide Vocal)”
The Big Pink – “Frisk”
REO Speedwagon – “Take it On the Run”
Bon Iver – “Holocene”
Mystery Jets – “Dreaming of Another World”
The Smiths – “Oscillate Wildly”
TLC – “Creep”
Patrick Park – “You Were always the One”
Information Society – “Attitude”
David Bowie –“Heroes”
Camera Obscura – “French Navy”
OK Go – “Here it Goes Again”
The Dears – “Stick w/ Me Kid”
The Pixies – “The Holiday Song”
The Go-Go’s – “Yes or No”
Aphex Twin – “Windowlicker”
The Turtles – “She’d Rather Be With Me”
Queens of the Stone Age – “I Think I Lost My Headache”
Stars – “Celebration Guns”
A Tribe Called Quest – “After Hours”
Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
Kate Bush – “Lily”
LCD Soundsystem – “I Can Change”
Espers – “Sightings”
Fleetwood Mac – “Brown Eyes”
Kanye West & Jay-Z – “Otis”
Suede – “The 2 of Us (Demo)”
Mumford & Sons – “Winter Winds”
The Black Keys – “If You See Me”
Nine Inch Nails – “Where is Everybody?”
Dexys Midnight Runners – “Let’s Get This Straight (From the Start)”
Duran Duran – “Anyone Out There (Demo)”
Tom Vek – “A Chore”
Torche – “Piraña”
Cake – “Easy to Crash”
Crowded House – “Saturday Sun”
Foo Fighters – “Skin and Bones (Live)”
Robyn – “Call Your Girlfriend”
Doves – “There Goes the Fear”
R.E.M. – “The Flowers of Guatemala”
Free Energy – “Dream City”
Q-Tip – “Shaka”
Paul Kelly & Angus Stone – “Four Seasons in One Day”
We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Pear Tree”
Bell Biv Devoe – “Above the Rim”
Terry Tucker – “Overture to the Sun”
Suede – “One Love”
Kylesa – “Hollow Severer”
Billy Idol – “Blue Highway”
Band of Horses – “Older”
Daft Punk – “Nocturne”
Orbital – “Speed Freak (Moby Remix)”

Weekend Playlist: 10-8-11 & 10-9-11

Split Enz – “Albert of India”
DJ Lobsterdust – “She’s Hearing in the Air Tonight (Bloc Party vs. Phil Collins)”
Kings Go Forth – “I Don’t Love You No More”
Broken Social Scene – “Lover’s Spit”
Male Bonding – “Nothing Used to Hurt”
XTC – “Generals and Majors”
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – “The Celtic Soul Brothers”
Clint Mansell – “Night of Terror”
OK Go – “This Too Shall Pass”
Childish Gambino – “My Girls”
The Stepkids – “Santos and Ken”
Bat for Lashes – “Daniel”
Jenny & Johnny – “Animal”
Liars – “Plaster Casts of Everything”
LCD Soundsystem – “Too Much Love”
Panda Bear – “Last Night at the Jetty”
INXS – “What You Need”
Wye Oak – “Hot as Day”
PJ Harvey – “One Time Too Many”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Do You Know Who I Am”
Junior Boys – “Itchy Fingers”
Curtis Mayfield – “Readings in Astrology”
Guy – “I Like (Hype Version)”
Surf City – “Yakuza Park”
Sleigh Bells – “Rachel”
Deerhunter – “We Would Have Laughed”
Tom Vek – “Aroused”
Jakob Dylan & Gary Louris – “Gonna Be a Darkness”
Baroness – “Steel that Sleeps the Eye”
PJ Harvey – “The Glorious Land”
Radiohead – “Everything in its Right Place”
Marvin Gaye – “Head Title aka Distant Lover”
The Olivia Tremor Control – “HIdeway”
The Go-Go’s – “He’s So Strange”
Suede – “Saturday Night”
Her Space Holiday – “Bitter Hearts”
Suede – “Buckley (Simon)”
Sufjan Stevens – “Alanson, Crooked River”
Def Leppard – “No No No”
Suede – “A Man’s Song (Heroine Demo)”
King Khan & BBQ Show – “Animal Party”
Beach House – “Norway”
ABC – “Ocean Blue”
Galaxie 500 – “Fourth of July”
Shudder to Think – “Ballad of Maxwell Demon”
Otis Redding – “A Change is Gonna Come”
Vetiver – “Another Reason to Go”
Oingo Boingo – “Weird Science”
Death Cab for Cutie – “Transatlanticism”
Eagles – “One of These Nights”
El Debarge – “Real Love (House Mix Radio Edit)”
Irma Thomas – “Time is on My Side”
Mike Ness – “Charmed Life”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Clay”
Iron Maiden – “The Prisoner”
Peter, Bjorn, and John – “Breaker Breaker”
Loch Lomond – “Wax and Wire”

Films of the 60s, Part 20: Not Exactly the Boy Next Door

“These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe
Not exactly the boy next door
He’ll tell you tales of horror
Then he’ll play with your mind
If you haven’t heard of him
You must be deaf or blind.”
- Lou Reed, “Edgar Allan Poe”



I would say there is no better time than now to review these films from the minds of Poe and Roger Corman, but there really is no bad time to revisit them. I say no better time because of a recent batch of films due to be released featuring Poe as a character. Of course, at any given time (just look at IMDB), there is a film in production somewhere around the world based on a Poe story, but this new seemingly coincidental happenstance is noteworthy. Francis Ford Coppola has Twixt, a murder thriller featuring Ben Chaplin as Poe in a secondary role, while James McTeigue, the director of V for Vendetta, has The Raven, another murder thriller, featuring John Cusack as Poe in a starring role. Corman’s adaptations of Poe’s works are perhaps the most famous, all being released in the 1960s. As opposed to past posts, in which I look at the films one after another, I am going to try something different and discuss these films in a continuous, amalgamated fashion.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
Tales of Terror (1962)
Premature Burial (1962)
Masque of the Red Death (1964)
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
all directed by Roger Corman

Depending on your view of literature as popular entertainment, you most likely either enjoy or dismiss Poe. The same can be said of Corman. He is often seen today as a b-movie maven at best, but like Poe, was an innovator, inspiring many who came after, including launching the careers of several talented directors, writers, and actors. His Poe adaptations are perhaps his most lauded films, despite their low budgets, showing reverence, creativity, and real chills.



I say reverence because of Corman’s tendency to try to remain faithful to time periods and the feel of each individual story, even going as far as to highlight each film with either an epigraph or a closing quotation from the Poe story being adapted, or perhaps a related quotation. One could argue, however, that Corman and his writers, including the great Richard Matheson and one Robert Towne, were a bit fast and loose with the stories, interweaving different plot points in order to make a feature length film. For instance, in the case of The Masque of the Red Death, elements of the story, “The Hop-Frog,” were used as a subplot. Even in Tales of Terror, which is essentially an anthology / portmanteau film, a series of three short films in one, “The Black Cat” incorporates elements of “The Cask of Amontillado.”



In a summary analysis, however, these mashups don’t really seem to matter as most Poe stories tend to be about the same thing, as are all horror stories, having something to do with a fear of mortality and unnatural death. All of these films capture that fear in an entertaining and creepy fashion, fully visualizing the eerie feelings I got when first reading these stories as a teen. The huge, slowly swinging pendulum axe, the terrifying concept of being buried alive, the now seemingly ever present notion of unholy resurrection and subsequent haunting, and even in one case, the idea of being kept alive in an unnatural fashion are all elements of stories that are based on real, common, and base fears.



There are some amazing actors in these Corman / Poe films. Peter Lorre is amazing, as always, in “The Black Cat” portion of Tales of Terror. Ray Milland is absolutely spectacular in Premature Burial, doing some of the best face acting he’s ever done, and Barbara Steele, the gorgeous horror movie vixen queen, is eminently watchable. But, one can’t get through a survey of these films without talking about Vincent Price. Hammy and affected as he may be, he is perfect for these roles. Playing in all three Tales of Terror, Masque, Ligeia, and The Pit and the Pendulum, Price is Corman’s go-to actor for making the “scared-face.” He could also traverse from tortured and betrayed recluse to maniacal elitist from film to film.



Corman does a whole lot with very little in these films, with very Disney-esque décor, including strategically placed cobwebs, matte painting backgrounds, obvious studio sets, and stock audio of rain and thunderstorms throughout these films. However, the original stories are so great, and Corman’s handling of them so deft, that it hardly seems to make a difference in our enjoyment. Corman uses incredibly interesting camera techniques, including dutch angles and overhead shots, that help inform the films’ atmospheric tension. He also created his own signature segment for each movie, being a hazy, color saturated dream sequence, each one adding yet another layer of terror beyond the realm of the “real.” In Corman's hands, even the image of a cat simply sitting on a stair, in The Tomb of Ligeia, evokes both fright and humor, which is not easily done. In most cases, it is either one or the other.



For me, the most terrifying thing is the aspect of being buried alive. Poe, and subsequently Corman, revisited this trope a number of times (“The Cask of Amontillado” portion of “The Black Cat” within Tales of Terror, Premature Burial, and a portion of The Pit and the Pendulum), and all to horrifying effect. Yes, the thought of waking up in a coffin, knowing that you are going to slowly suffer and die is scary enough, but for me, even being an observer on the outside was a creepy enough notion. The first time I saw a bell hanging on a gravestone, with the string going down into the coffin (I’m sure I saw it in a film and not in real life) chilled me to the bone. The idea of that bell suddenly ringing kept me up at night. Then there is the further conflict of whether the buried person is alive or (gasp!) undead! Then again, I am also creeped out by those electric candles in the windows of east coast Victorian homes, mostly because of the folk tales of sailors’ widows who would leave the candles there to guide their ghostly husbands home. More than monsters, serial killers, and demons, these are the things that truly give me nightmares. Roger Corman does a great job of putting these kinds of scares up on the big screen, faithfully representing the things that so scared me within Poe’s stories. The only thing that would have made it even scarier are creepy children popping up out of nowhere.

Friday's Playlist: 10-7-11

DJ Lobsterdust – “Sex in Chains (Kings of Leon vs. Tears for Fears)”
Sunny Day Real Estate – “In Circles”
The Tough Alliance – “A New Chance”
Q-Tip – “Official”
Zola Jesus – “Ixode”
Simply Red – “Holding Back the Years”
Laura Veirs – “Wasps of Rain”
Phoenix – “Too Young”
Nada Surf – “The Agony of Lafitte”
The Knife – “Silent Shout”
Superchunk – “Without Blinking”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Bedbugs & Ballyhoo”
Superchunk – “My Gap Feels Weird”
Galaxie 500 – “Plastic Bird”
Alan Vega – “Jukebox Babe”
Bryan John Appleby – “Honey Jars”
R.E.M. – “Radio Dub”
U2 – “The Three Sunrises”
Sufjan Stevens – “We Won’t Need Legs to Stand”
Pelican – “Gold Diggers”
Women – “Bells”
Engineers – “Three Fact Fader”
The Cure – “2 Late (Instrumental)”
The Bangles – “Let it Go”
Wilco – “Hate it Here”
The Kinks – “This is Where I Belong”
Jane’s Addiction – “Jane Says (Live)”
Twin Shadow – “Forget”
M. Ward – “Poison Cup”
Surf City – “Yakuza Park”
The Bird and the Bee – “Heard it on the Radio”
Heart – “These Dreams”
Muse – “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist”
The War on Drugs – “Come for It”
British Sea Power – “S*#& Factory”
Crystal Castles – “Year of Silence”
Free Energy – “Young Hearts”
Suede – “Seascape”
Mariachi El Bronx – “18 Roses”
Fennesz – “Caecilia”
The Hot Rats – “Bike”
New Edition – “Lost in Love”
Adam & the Ants – “Prince Charming”
Neil Finn – “Astro”
Marvin Gaye – “Right On (Detroit Mix)”
Wild Flag – “Endless Talk”
Black Flag – “T.V. Party”
Kurt Vile – “On Tour”
The Pixies – “Evil Hearted You”
Lee Hazelwood – “Pour Man”
The Kinks – “Till the End of the Day”
Phoenix – “Lasso (2 Door Cinema Club Mix)”
The Cult – “Christians”
Hall & Oates – “Las Vegas Turnaround”
The Lonely Island – “Attracted to Us”
Donovan – “Sunshine Superman”
Menomena – “Queen Black Acid”
That dog – “Family Functions”
Bonnie Dobson – “Winter’s Going”
Gorillaz – “White Light”
Red Fang – “The Undertow”
The Future Sound of London – “Lifeforms (Path 4)”
Gruff Rhys – “Sophie Softly”
R.E.M. – “The One I Love”
DeVotchKa – “All the Sand in All the Sea”
Nada Surf – “Question”
Menomena – “Bote”
Morrissey – “Christian Dior”
The Pixies – “Mr. Grieves”
Pearl Jam – “Indifference (Live)”
Joe Henry – “Dirty Magazines”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”
Architecture in Helsinki – “Contact High”
ceo – “Oh God, Oh Dear”
Hans Zimmer – “We Built Our Own World”
King Khan & BBQ Show – “Lonely Boy”
Bruce Springsteen – “It’s a Shame”
The Knack – “Heartbeat”
Cults – “You Know What I Mean”
Circle of Ouroborus - "Pimean Renkeina"

Thursday's Playlist: 10-6-11

Rakim – “The 18th Letter (Always and Forever)”
BLK JKS – “Zol!”
Russian Circles – “Hexed All”
Jens Lekman – “Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song”
New Order – “Procession”
The Tallest Man on Earth – “King of Spain”
Matthew Sweet – “Your Sweet Voice”
Nirvana – “Sliver (Live)”
Fruit Bats – “Heart like an Orange”
Admiral Radley – “I Heart California”
Spoon – “Back to the Life”
Okkervil River – “We Need a Myth”
OK Go – “This Will Be Our Year”
R.E.M. – “Out of Tune”
Suede – “Everything Will Flow”
Big Boi – “Be Still”
U2 – “A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel”
The Future Sound of London – “Quagmire / In a State of Permanent Abyss”
Luscious Jackson – “Water Your Garden”
Nirvana – “Dive (Smart Sessions)”
The Smithereens – “Miles from Nowhere”
A Certain Ratio – “Knife Slits Water”
Kelis – “Caught Out There”
First Aid Kit – “When I Grow Up”
The Black Angels – “Telephone”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Crocodiles”
The Black Angels – “Melanie’s Melody”
Prince – “Sticky Like Glue”
Iron Maiden – “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
T. Rex – “Jeepster”
R.E.M. – “The Flowers of Guatemala (Instrumental)”
Hall & Oates – “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”
Gary Numan – “Cars”
Badly Drawn Boy – “It Came from the Ground”
HEALTH – “Heaven (Pink Skull Remix)”
Daft Punk – “Adagio for TRON”
Bachelorette – “Tui Tui”
The Motels – “Only the Lonely”
Caribou – “Leave House”
Carissa’s Wierd – “All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truely, Ugly Valentine”
The Smiths – “These Things Take Time”
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Menopause Man”
Prince – “Darling Nikki”
The Rolling Stones – “Let’s Spend the Night Together”
Mumford & Sons – “White Blank Page”
Marah – “Round Eye Blues”
Talking Heads – “And She Was”
Nirvana – “Polly (Live)”
The Style Council – “My Ever Changing Moods”
Little Dragon – “Turn Left”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Winterlong”
Beastie Boys – “Tadlock’s Glasses”
Mew – “The Zookeeper’s Boy”
David Bowie – “Fashion”
Luscious Jackson – “Rock Freak”
Danzig – “Soul on Fire”
Eric B & Rakim – “Pain in Full (Coldcut Remix)”
A Place to Bury Strangers – “Everything Always Goes Wrong”
Snow Patrol – “Tired”
Bad Brains – “Big Takeover”
Duran Duran – “(I’m Looking For) Cracks in the Pavement”
Squeeze – “Piccadilly”
Bell Biv Devoe – “Word to the Mutha!”
Damien Jurado – “Dimes”
Danzig – “Mother”
The National – “Terrible Love”
The Jayhawks – “Ranch House in Phoenix”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “Villiers Terrace”
The Pixies – “There Goes My Gun”
The Magic Numbers – “There is a Light that Never Goes Out”
Alice in Chains – “Down in a Hole”
Espers – “That Which Darkly Thrives”
Animal Collective – “Winter’s Love”
ESG – “It’s Alright”
Wilco – “A Shot in the Arm”
Of Montreal – “Famine Affair”
Cocteau Twins – “Lorelei”
The Go-Go’s – “It’s Everything But Party Time”
Clint Mansell – “A New Swan Queen”
The Swell Season – “Once”
Fennesz & Sakamoto – “0423”
Bachelorette – “Not Entertainment”
Neil Young – “Helpless”
Tombs – “Red Shadows”
Valient Thorr – “Lime Green Net”
Joe Jackson – “Sunday Papers”
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Very Rare”
Aloe Blacc – “Politician (Reprise)”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “Beyond Belief”
Kurt Vile – “Ghost Town”
Be Your Own Pet – “Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle”
Bruce Springsteen – “One Way Street”
The Black Keys – “Thickfreakness”
Little Dragon – “Constant Surprises”
Mates of State – “Total Serendipity”
Sufjan Stevens – “The Seer’s Tower”
De La Soul – “All Good?”
Morrissey – “Lucky Lisp”
R.E.M. – “Überlin”
Gorillaz – “Faust”
Fruit Bats – “Tangie and Ray”
The Boxer Rebellion – “Cowboys and Engines”
Dan Wilson – “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
Editors – “Orange Crush”
Jimi Hendrix – “Manic Depression”
Life Without Buildings – “Sorrow”
The Black Angels – “Bad Vibrations”
HEALTH – “Before Tigers (Gold Panda Remix)”
Ryan Adams – “Come Home”
Kate Bush – “The Hounds of Love”
The Smithereens – “Time and Time Again”
Suede – “Breakdown”
Hans Zimmer – “One Simple Idea”