"Psyche-Out at the Cinema" radio special

 If you missed my 1 hour special on the WFMU Rock and Soul Radio stream last month called "Psych-Out At The Cinema" - a collection of some of my fave tunes from movies circa 1965 to 1970 featuring tracks from "The Trip", "Wild Angels", "The Touchables" and much more - you can check it out here!

Drop-In: "Psyche-Out at the Cinema" from Brian Horrorwitz on Vimeo.

TRAILER OF THE MOMENT: THE LOVE-INS (1967)

CLIP OF THE MOMENT: POPCORN (1969)

Here's a hard-to-find pop art montage sequence from the uncut version of Peter Clifton's 1969 movie Popcorn, featuring the song "I'm A Man" by The Spencer Davis Group.

"ENTER THE VOID" DIRECTOR'S CUT TO PLAY IN DC MAY 6th & 7th

One critic called this movie ambitious and I agree! Enter The Void is indeed the most ambitious piece of experimental cinema to come along in awhile. And on May 6th and 7th the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, DC will be screening the 2 hour 40 minute director's cut as part of their Midnight Movies series.


From director Gaspar Noé, the man that brought you the nerve shattering drama I Stand Alone and the feel-bad cinematic mindfuck Irreversible comes a psychedelic deathtrip that you will not forget soon. I have screened this film for a few people and read many online interpretations and this one really seems to divide the crowd. People seem to fight over whether Void has valid messages or not and there is certainly lots to observe in it. Some find it to be meaningless psychedelic dribble while others proclaim it is a new kind of masterpiece. Some find it intense and others vapid; some beautiful, others disturbing. Enter The Void is not a plot driven movie with a linear story, but an experience to soak up for the open-minded. And the fact that it is being screened in an actual movie theater in these times is amazing to me. I only wish that the E Street Cinema was screening it earlier than Midnight (DC is a bit of a haul for me) but if you are in the area and have an interest in experimental cinema, filmic interpretations of life, death, reincarnation, etc., you will want to check this out.

MONTEREY POP: THE THINKING HIPPIE'S WOODSTOCK

With all the hubbub over the 40 year anniversary of Woodstock and this weekend's release of Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" movie, I thought I'd throw up a little blurb about a sometimes ignored concert event that, to me, was just as important and MUCH more entertaining; The Monterey International Pop Festival held June 16th to 18th, 1968. The 3 day festival, the first of it's kind, laid the blueprints for the vastly inferior (in my opinion) Woodstock festival. The diverse lineup exposed many "new" talents who would go on to great success. The event was shot and released as a feature film, directed by the talented D. A. Pennebaker. Although not every act that performed made it into the final cut, the ones that did were pretty amazing and, in some cases, at their peak performance-wise: Big Brother featuring "recent discovery" Janis Joplin, a "pre-Tommy" The Who still in their snotty Mod mode, Otis Redding backed up by Booker T and the MGs (it don't get better than that, baby!), Jimi Hendrix, Hugh Masekela, Ravi Shanker introducing the west to sitar music, and others. Around 1976, when I was a little 11 year old snot-nose, I had the good fortune of taking a music class in middle school who's teacher, although a bit of a hot-head, was fairly hip. He'd often show us movies like this one that would have a resounding effect on me later in life. The thing that stuck with me the most about the Monterey Pop movie was the performance by The Who which ends in total destruction of their amplifiers, drums, guitars, etc.. I had never seen anything quite like it! For a 1968 "Love festival" type of event this was pretty eye opening to say the least!

"This is where it all ends."
Nico and Brian Jones digging the grooves.
Otis Redding seemed to steal the show and the star-studded audience was simply blown away! A few years later when I viewed the Woodstock movie I was pretty let down. To me it seemed overly long, self-indulgent and just plain boring a lot of the time. The Who's performance at Woodstock for instance, which they've acknowledged was not among their best, seemed bland and a bit pretentious by comparison, like they'd become "important" rock mega-stars all of the sudden. I suppose this is all just a matter of opinion. But if you have any interest in music and pop culture, you should really check out the Criterion label's 3 disc DVD box set with book that came out a couple of years back. It presents the original feature plus the full sets by Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding and unused band footage, unseen until this DVD release, which includes several of the groups that didn't make it into the feature film.

Check out the original theatrical trailer below! (Look for The Monkees' Mickey Dolenz in the audience.):

VAMPYROS COMPLETOS

My close friend Dr. Penis has recently posted a blog about the 1996 "3 Films By Jess Franco" CD release, it's original 1969 source LPs and the subsequent re-releases under the "Vampyros Lesbos" title. Unfortunately the complete version of the CD featuring all of the music has been out of circulation for many years now. But if you check out the article over at his Purple Zombie DJ blog you can download it there for free! This psyche-pop music composed and released on 2 LPs in Germany circa 1969 by Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab was a surprise indie hit when re-released on LP and CD in 1996 and pretty much then jump-started the entire Euro-trash soundtrack / pop / lounge music craze! I myself remember being given a cassette of this back then by my buddy Joe Johnson (creator of the ahead-of-it's-time way-cool fanzine "3:AM"). At first listen I didn't really know how to take it. It had rock elements but wasn't really rock. There was a psychedelic / experimental side to it but then it had a pop sound as well. After 2 or 3 listenings I was hooked! It became one of my fave soundtracks ever and I never get tired of listening to it. I remember tracking down fuzzy looking VHS bootlegs of the 3 Jess Franco German movies that the music was used for ("She Killed in Ecstasy", "Vampyros Lesbos" and "The Devil Came From Akasava"). None of these movies were subtitled and despite my lack of understanding most of the German dialogue I probably watched those tapes 10 times each! A big part of the appeal was finally seeing / hearing how the music was used in each film. Franco was always pretty progressive when it came to sometimes mixing in modern music with his movie scores. Somehow using these prog-ish and at the time modern sounds worked for those movies and set a whole new flavor to the way Euro-exploitation movies sounded. Franco had already used music by Manfred Mann in his "Venus In Furs" (aka "Paroxismus", 1970) and would go on to direct "Killer Barbys" (1996), a gothic horror flick featuring music by and starring the titular Spanish garage punkers of the same name, as well as "Tender Flesh" (1997) which featured music by the heavily under rated Spanish rock band Sexy Sadie. Not to mention "Vampire Blues" which was scored by my band The Ubangis. "Vampire Blues", like "Vampyros Lesbos", was another lesbian re-telling of the Dracula story. Only Jess Franco could have come up with the idea of telling these kinds of stories using rock music as a sonic backdrop!

If you have any interest in movie soundtracks, psychedelia, strange pop music, Jess Franco or Euro-trash films then the original complete "3 Films by Jess Franco" CD is required listening folks! GO GET IT NOW while you can!

LINKS:
The Purple Zombie DJ blog is at http://purplezombiedj.blogspot.com/
The "3 Films by Jess Franco" ("Vampyros Lesbos") article is at http://purplezombiedj.blogspot.com/2009/02/3-films-by-jess-franco-vampyros-lesbos.html

THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE NAZZ PROMO

Speaking of the sad passing of Ray Dennis Steckler, did you know that besides directing all those incredibly strange movies he also made a promotional music film for Todd Rundgren's band The Nazz? Around 1968, Steckler made what can be considered an early predecessor to the music video for the song "Open My Eyes". The short film, re-broadcast on MTV's "Closet Classics" show in the late 1980s, has the same kind of manic exuberance, fast editing and overall wackyness as the music scenes in "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" and "Wild Guitar". Check it out!:

IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO TODAY

20 years ago today, October 30th, 1988, was the very first gig of my old band Date Bait. I can't believe that was 20 FREAKIN' YEARS AGO! Yes, I am still in shock. *sigh*... Date Bait gigged pretty regularly for 10 years and released 2 CDs and 6 different 45 rpm records in 5 different countries. But despite all that most people have never heard of us or knew we ever exhisted. That's okay, I forgive you. In any case, I've gone and put together a tribute page on the Ubangis / Trash Palace website featuring some pictures and clips including video of the very first Date Bait show. Pretty cool shtuff if I do say so meself! ROCK-N-ROLL!!

LINK: The Date Bait webpage is at http://www.trashpalace.com/datebait.htm

TRA - LA - HUH!!?? THE BANANA SPLITS ARE BACK!

Break out the Ritalin, kids! The Banana Splits are returning to television! Yes, you heard right! The new Banana Splits shows are scheduled to slip onto your screen sometime in September on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang channel, although I am not 100% clear if these are to be full-length programs (as they were in the '60s) or "shorts" thrown into commercial breaks during pre-existing shows. I can though say that, after taking a look at their orb-popping website , they seem to have done a good job emulating the old Sesame-Street-on-LSD style but cranked-up with a bit of speed for the new ADD generation. Whether or not resurrecting Beagle, Fleagle, Drooper and Snork from Kiddy TV Pergatory is a good thing depends on if you liked the show to begin with. I myself was a pretty big fan although I'd probably have taken "Ultraman" over them any afternoon of the week. I did convince my Mom to let me send in the Poptart boxtops for the set of Banana Splits 45s which I still have (what's left of them). As for the show itself, I always dug the live-action bits with the Splits running around slapstick-style while a barrage of Hannah-Barbera stock cartoon sound fx boinged and popped throughout. I also liked the groovy songs and the jungle live-action "Danger Island" sequences. But some of those particular cartoons just didn't quite do it for me. Even as a young kid I was mostly bored by those, they always seemed like filler to me that I had to wait through to get to the "good stuff"! It'll be interesting to see what kind of 'toons (if any) the new show has. There are reports that Warner Brothers (who owns the rights) are already getting ready to market new Splits products including a CD with all-new tunes (titled "Go Bananas Your Way"), a DVD and... yes, a live tour! Hmmm... Maybe I can actually make it into this one! I was stopped at the gate at both Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus concerts. (Apparently there is some silly rule about wearing raincoats indoors when it's not raining outside. How was I to know?) And now with the Banana Splits resurrected, I ask you... can The Bugaloos be far behind? One can only dream.

Below you can compare the old and new Banana Splits. They look pretty much the same to me although Beagle appears to have lost a few pounds. Also Snorky seems to have much shorter hair now and looks less freaked-out then he did in the '60s. But, in his defense, it was the hippy era after all. Rumor has it that due to many bad trips he had gone the way of Syd Barrett but, after several years struggling in rehab, he has reportedly cleaned up his act. Good on ya Snorky! Tra-la-la, la-la-la-la...

THEN:

NOW:


For more info and a LOT of flashing colors, loud sound effects, moving thingies, groovy songs, nutty games and many video clips check out the official website at http://www.bananasplits.com/ .

THE GROOVY FACTOR part 1

In some of the movie reviews I've done on the Trash Palace website I mention the Groovy factor. But what exactly is the Groovy Factor? HAVE I LOST MY MIND!!?? Well, for me it represents films that contain certain elements from the time period of roughly 1966 to 1972, although there are many exceptions. Any scene in a film that has psychedelic lighting, clubs with body-painted go-go dancers, people freaking out on acid trips, mod fashion models in mini-skirts... and so on. The fact that so many movies from that era contain the "groovy" elements and that, subsequently, most movies thereafter don't (although there are still some that do) one can assume that these things are products of their time naturally. But how did they come to be that way? It didn't just change like that by itself. And why do I dig the Groovy Factor so much and go on and on about it? Look at how things changed so drastically in the 5 years spanning say 1964 to 1969. Look how long men's hair became, the drastic changes in the way popular music sounded, not to mention the attitudes of people, the expanding of people's consciousness and open-mindedness. And a big part of this social revolution came from, or at least was somewhat helped along by, LSD. In my opinion there never in the history of popular culture has been such a noticeable change in such a short amount of time. Certainly since the '60s any changes at all have been much slower, almost unnoticeable. Does 1982 really seem that different from 1987? No way, Jose! And along with the '60s new social attitudes came artistic and sexual changes as well. And commercial art, like the clothes and music, were a reflection of this new young culture. The wild colors that come from an acid trip changed the way clothes were designed. The flowers handed out by hippies that represented a good will gesture of peace and love became absorbed into popular art of the times. And once psychedelia became commercialized you had flowered wallpaper, black light posters sold in mainstream stores, etc. Remember those groovy looking flower-shaped rubber sticker things you put inside your bathtub to keep from slipping around? And remember when Snoopy was suddenly "Feelin' Groovy!"? Hmmm... why was he feeling that way? And where did those designs come from? Yes, there is no question that it can all be traced back to the influences of the times; the drugs, the big pop stars of the day (particularly the Beatles) and, subsequently, the trippy mind-expanding drugs they were using. Those things had a major effect in changing the way we looked too, and the way all commercial art was created. Movie-wise things were affected in the obvious ways; films went from exploiting youth culture in the "don't-let-this-happen-to-YOUR-kids" style to the "turn on and tune in" approach. To me it seems that you can look at a few seconds of pretty much any movie or tv show that was made in the late '60s or early '70s and tell it was from that time period. And for me, personally, I have a soft spot for films from this era, and the groovier the better! Even the flicks that aren't considered particularly "good" still have those qualities going for them by default and sometimes that's enough.



A movie like "The Touchables" (1968, above trailer taken from Something Weird Video's "Dusk To Dawn Drive-In Trailers" vol. 7) I never get tired of watching although most people seem to despise that film. I've never read anything good about it even in supposed pop-culture and counter-culture film books. But who wouldn't like to watch 4 cute mod chicks kidnap a rock star and take him to their inflatable dome for some groovy frolicking? There is a real anarchistic approach to the way the girls act and speak, a "modern" look to the film and some really cool music and colorful visuals,... things that make this movie a product of it's time for sure. And for me that is ultimately 100 times more entertaining then ANYTHING playing at the multiplex right now.

Sometimes the Groovy Factor alone can make a bad movie worth watching. And the GF was applied to all film genres of the time. Like the comedies: There was a period where mega-comedies with blockbuster casts were all the rage. Films like "Skidoo", "Candy", and "The Phynx" where the producers tried to cram as many celebrities into 1 movie as possible, sort of trying to one-up "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" from 1963.


Take "Casino Royale" for instance (the 1967 James Bond satire). It's really quite a disaster of a film. There were 5 different directors working on it and the parts don't really mesh up making for one uneven mess. But why do I love this movie so much? First, there is an amazing score by Burt Bacharach and Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, groovy pop to be sure. A mega-star cast featuring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and Woody Allen, plus, more importantly, uber Euro-babes including Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Barbara Bouchet and others. Plus the storyline gets wackier and wackier as it progresses, like the film is writing itself or something, becoming quite psychedelic and ending in a slapstick comic free-for-all. A real mess to be sure, but a very groovy mess! The same thing can be said about the movie "Candy" (1968). A great groovy cast (Ewa Aulin, John Astin, Elsa Martinelli, Ringo Starr, Marlon Brando, James Coburn...), but the idea of trying to do a commercial film version of the x-rated book (which itself was basically a paraody of a smut novel but still very smutty) would be impossible. What director Christian Marquand did pull off was another mega-comedy mess but with a great Groovy Factor. I know it's not considered to be a "good" movie, but I can watch it a hundred times and never get tired of it. And the Groovy Factor did not stop there. No way, baby! Pretty much all cinematic genres were affected. And thus some of my favorite horror and erotic movies are films from that era and have major doses of groovieness permeating their celluloid vibes.

TO BE CONTINUED? OH YEAH!