The first three minutes of this clip are possibly some of the funniest dialog ever recorded in a movie. I SAID PERIOD!
Last year I set out on a quest to rediscover a 1980s movie I vaguely recalled watching on tv many years ago. I would relay what I remembered to various parties in that it involved a boy whom no one believed knew of an impending invasion by a Martian force buried beneath the sand installing little transistors installed on the back of peoples’ necks. I went on to madly describe the events of the boy having a lucky penny that he used to somehow power a Martian ray gun and in the end it was all a dream, or was it? Much like the boy, no one knew what I the hell I was talking about. Then a co-worker, who was quite the bad movie connoisseur, enlightened me that the movie in question was Invaders from Mars by director Tobe Hooper (known for directing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist). He also happened to own the DVD, which was long out of print (at least at the time).
As the story went, Hooper was contracted to direct three movies for Cannon Films under the command of Golan-Globus (god bless them). One was to be a sequel to Massacre and the other two were Hooper’s choosing (least I think he had a choice). One was a screen adaption of Colin Wilson’s novel The Space Vampires titled Lifeforce. Though it was a box office flop and panned by critics, I thought the movie was pretty kickass as it was directed by Hooper, written by Dan O’Bannon (Alien), special effected by John Dykstra (ILM), and scored by Henry Mancini. Not only that but it had Mathilda May in the buff throughout most of the movie (not really a notable actress but she was pretty hot) and Patrick Stewart being killed. Well that movie cost more to make than it brought in and consequently caused the budget of the last movie, Invaders from Mars, to be significantly reduced.
So, a friend and I watched the 1986 remake of Invaders from Mars. It was frightening in how bad the actual movie was but how damn good the creature props were in comparison. So what does all this exposition mean? Well I didn’t know the movie was a remake but once I learned, I threw the original 1953 offering on my Netflix list where it set for a few months. Well I forgot about it until it finally arrived last weekend. I called over Brian to watch it with me as I said we were going to watch a bad 50s sci-fi movie to steal samples from. This movie is chalked full of samples though the above is by far my most favorite scene.
Svein and Torbjørn (that’d be the two Norwegians behind Röyksopp) come at us with a new single from their upcoming Third album (appropriately titled) Junior. To me, the track has a very “Eple” feel about it thanks in part to the keyboard sample but now that Röyksopp has a voice, they add syrupy vocals to evolve their sound into something new and yet familiar. The video itself is a very cute fan-made animated piece with a “web avatar-like” couple taking a drive through a sunny Wile E. Coyote-ish desert.
Interestingly enough, when I shared this with my friend Jarrett of JX2 he reminded me that Nice and Smooth originally lifted that same sample from Parliament’s ambiguously titled track “Do That Stuff” back in ‘89 for their “Funky For You” (hello, I hate jello). All in all, I’d say Röyksopp flipped it for the better with some pitch-shifted notes (the excellent site Who Sampled can give you links to the originals).
I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed the two remixes off the single release as they just didn’t capture the fun of the original but I did, in fact, pre-order the Junior LP out on March 23rd.
CODA (Sydney, Australia). A cool mix of orchestral and synthetic sounds - having seen them a few times now in Brisbane, I’m always astounded by their performances. Enlightening and technically brilliant to watch.
Our friends over at Tonehammer just released a new library. Troels and Mike along side Karl and Gregg have done some amazingly fun libraries. Here’s the blurb!
The Didgeridoo (aka Didge) is an Australian Aboriginal wind instrument dating back over approx.1500-2000 years. The instrument is made from Eucalyptus logs hollowed out by termites and is widely regarded as one of the oldest woodwind (aerophone) instruments in existence. Tonehammer recorded two different Didges for maximum user flexibility. The first one is an original Eucalyptus log and the second one is a modern version made from PVC pipes.
The library contains over approx. 500MB of samples and programs contain modwheel controlled time-stretching and sample offset options allowing users to get more flexibility out of the samples. The Didges come at two different mic (close/medium) distances and a far mic for our dual-didge FX group. Didge 1 is close mic and Didge 2 is medium mic.
When someone forces you into vengeance, you know they had it coming. The preposed sequel “Unnecessary Vengeance” just didn’t work on so many levels.
While Forced flashbacks had a facial hairless variant (quite rare), in this scene the Stetson-loving, kapelophilic Norris (why do they always pick on his hat?) kicks ass while the wheelchair-bound crime lord takes a break from watching cartoons to cheer on his man servant.
I’m now certain that I should loosen the bolts on my toilet just in case Chuck breaks into my home and shoves my face into a bowl of my own unflushed urine. Such precautions are needed.
Perhaps the best part of the movie was stripclub scene with girls dancing to the track “The Go-Go Girls” which sounds an awful lot like Rick James’ “Super Freak.”
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I suppose when this movie was being filmed (also in 1981) the film’s composer William Goldstein had just heard the song as it was climbing the charts. I’m sure Rick would have given the scene four thumbs up.
I’m just posting this here, to rub in Alex’s face.
I’m more so impressed by the simple interface enhancements (multitrack parameter manipulation, and even easier plug-in midi assign) - definitely a must for me in 2009.
It was fifteen dollars, approximately $35 in drinks sipped, and 1:20 AM when the beanie-capped, fully bearded Lindstrom finally started working magic. It was short lived at only about 70 minutes worth of material but it was a fantastic Norwegian space-disco voyage combining material from his ‘It’s a Feedelity Affair’ and ‘Where You Go I Go Too’ albums. It’s unfortunate but some asses in the balcony were throwing their drinks down on the people dancing and caused an electrical short and killed the set midway through. After it got going again, it was all good (and hopefully said asses were ejected from the club). We didn’t stay around for the remaining dj set (as it was 2:30 and the record vibe was starting off kinda lame) but fun times were had. I’d say that Paradise Lounge is actually a pretty decent club with two floors of music and three bars (with acceptable beer even) except they let in WAY too many people. It was almost impossible to move around. I’m surprised someone didn’t catch on fire in the “lounge” section upstairs.
Why yes, we were that close. Is that Ableton Live I see there, Hans?
PLUGS: Not that he updates but you can catch his “personal myspace music section” over here. Also, thanks to my buddy Tom for taking the photo. The fancy G1 phone doesn’t even attempt to take photos in the dark. I guess I’m going to have to get myself a “club cam” at some point.
