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Drooling while SleepingAs I sit here writing this, I am effectively putting off a paying assignment in order to pull something out of my ass for your benefit (you being the three people who end up reading this). I love writing for this blog as it affords me the opportunity to stroke my ego, create something, blather about music, and get into fights. Most film people harbor a fairly high level of apprehension for the films of Harmony Korine. I can’t really argue with this sentiment. He is often juvenile at best, and his apparent desire, if not need, to be provocative more than occasionally gets in the way of his actually making something worth a shit. Having said that, I have thoroughly enjoyed some of his work, including the infamous mess, Gummo, but perhaps even better than the film is the soundtrack. I knew I was in for something tasty when in an opening scene you see the two hillbilly protagonists (used loosely) of the film riding their bikes through a trashed rural town to the beautiful sounds of Sleep’s Dragonaut. Dragonaut is one of those songs that is so fucking badass that other songs offer to do its homework in order to not get their ass kicked. I was first introduced to the majesty of Sleep at one of Ramon and Rosa’s killer Christmas parties. Back when they were still throwing these shindigs, these parties were like a who’s who of Houston retards. Members of many of Houston’s best 90’s bands were not only in attendance, but were also well cidered into the next millennium with years to spare. While being thoroughly amused to the blatantly Black Sabbath oriented sound of Sleep I was approached by Dave Keith, member of the local grunge monster, Bleach Bath. Dave had clearly partaken in an excessive dose of the cider and was giving me one of his drunken looks. “Hey man, what the fuck is this stuff we’re listening to,” he asked me. “They’re called Sleep. Isn’t it amazing?” “Shit. I gotta tell you, I’m having a real strong sense of Sabba-Vuj-De.” Short, silent pause as we look at one another, and then suddenly both burst into laughter. “Would that be the sense that you have heard this somewhere before, but originally created by Sabbath?” “Something like that.” Another in a long line of reasons why Dave is so incredibly cool. Dragonaut is a motherfucker of a track. In fact, Dragonaut is the capper on the top of an album that is as monstrous as you would want it to be. It’s also the most derivative album I may have ever heard and still thought was total genius. It’s so good that I would personally sucker punch anyone who tried to argue its brilliance, so just don’t. The album is called Holy Mountain. I used to own it; well I guess I still technically do, but unfortunately for me, Mr. Sparrows o’ Happiness has had my copy for well nigh twelve years now. Holy Mountain, which I would assume is named after Alejandro Jodorowski’s amazing film, is the be all-end all Sabbath tribute band. For me, although it is not the first release to do this, it is the genesis of the modern stoner rock sound, post Sabbath. To hear this album is truly like a bad case of Sabba-vuj-de. Around every corner is a riff lifted right out of Tony Iommi’s book, but they do it so well that it only adds to brilliance of the whole thing. The whole time I listen to that album, I am constantly laughing at the obvious Sabbath influence, all while getting blown away by how good it sounds. Basically, if you took the members of Sabbath, raised them in California, kept them loaded down with free NoCal weed (like some Humboldt County shit or something), bought them Orange amps, kicked their ass into next week, and then removed half of each band member’s brain you would have Sleep. Cut them loose in a studio and you get Holy Mountain. Totally fantastic stuff. Another essential release in the Sleep catalogue is the album known (depending on which version you have) as Jerusalem, or Dopesmoker. They are essentially both the same record, but while Jerusalem is the original release that was basically a bootleg authorized by the original band members, Dopesmoker is the revamped version, released full-length, and with no edits. This matters because Jerusalem/Dopesmoker is one long, insanely ridiculous track performed at grindingly slow speed with maximum distortion and sleaze. It is completely retarded and I love every second of it. While Holy Mountain was able to both be inadvertently pants-wettingly, and completely capable of blowing you away at the same time, Jerusalem/Dopesmoker seems to sport a knowing, tongue in cheek quality to it simply by the sheer magnitude of its hugeness coupled with lines like “proceed the Weedian, Nazareth.” Nice. It’s as though Matt Pike (later of High on Fire (also fantastic)) is beginning to get the joke. In actuality he would probably kick my ass for saying that since nothing is funny to Matt Pike. It would appear as though the “Weedian” are some sort of chosen-people, out in the desert, nomadically getting all biblical and shit. I know, I know, it’s fucking ridiculous. Don’t you love it though? Yes, the answer is yes. Enrique Iglesias could almost perform the rest of the Gummo sountrack after the Sleep track and I would probably still like it, but thankfully his mole-laden visage is nowhere to be found. Unless, that is, he plays in a Norwegian black metal band. Not saying he doesn’t, but if he does, I hope he got that Aryan creature Anna Kornikova to play bass. I’d burn churches with those two. It would totally be worth it. The whole soundtrack is a pretty enjoyable collection of generally fairly obscure death metal bands with the exception of a few huge names. Brujeria, the joke band that also happens to be brilliant is on there with their anthem to killing whitey, Matando Gueros 97. The New York death/grind outfit, Mortician, has a brutal and merciless track replete with blastbeats that sound like they just might live up to the song title (Skin Peeler). There is a handful of nasty if not entirely goofy satanic sludge tracks like the one by New Orleans monsters, Eye Hate God. Drew from Project Grimm (my old band) is an enormous Eye Hate God fan. Their signature is slow, brutal, Sabbath-like riff oriented muck that leaves you feeling thrilled and hopeless at the same time. Rounding out the album is a couple tracks by dramatically different artists whose pieces both sound as though they belong together in this otherwise brutal collection. First off is Suite No. 2 in Solo Cello in D Minor Prelude by the Russian composer Mischa Maiski. If I had to guess, this is the track that guys put on their extreme metal mix tapes to convince that girl that’s on the fence that it’s ok to blow him because he is really sensitive at heart. I’d like to believe that this worked on Chloe Sevigny who has twice now shown herself to be a most interesting foil to megalomaniacal filmmakers with a lust for overstatement and unintentionally hilarious imagery. No doubt Vincent Gallo promised her the world if only she would blow him, onscreen, at the climactic moment of his generally underrated film, Brown Bunny (the edited version anyway. I can’t vouch for the extended cut; you know, the one that sent him packing from Cannes with the sounds of boos hot on his ankle-booted heels). Don’t get me wrong, the Maiski cut is truly beautiful, and it is the perfect compliment to the rest of the soundtrack. I just think that if Korine was going to put the sensitive track on there, he should perhaps mix things up just a wee more. Which, I guess, he arguably does by including the last piece I want to mention off this album. The track in question is Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität by the Norwegian madman, Burzum. Burzum, for those not already in the know, is the stage name for Varg Vikernes, and Vikernes was at one time a member of the Norwegian black metal band, Mayhem. The founder, guitarist and eventual vocalist of Mayhem, Euronymous (who took over after the original vocalist, Dead, blew his head off in a fit of ironic glee), was at one time great friends with Vikernes, but eventually like all things crazy, all hell broke loose. Apparantly, Vikernes felt his extreme – even for Norwegian black metal – views were simply too much for him to tolerate his friend’s homosexuality, politics, views on the “scene,” and whatever else it takes to set those already teetering people over the edge. Vikernes’ solution to their differences was to brutally stab his friend to death. In a music scene already well documented for its complete adherance to violence, Satanism, ultranationalist politics, Norse mythology, extreme one-upmanship, and a slavish hatred for the centuries old influx of Christianity into Viking culture that leads to more violence and church burning, Vikernes is still a lunatic above them all. Quite a feat really. Burzum is the name of Vikernes’ band/solo-project. Early on, Burzum sounded like a particularly bleak and frightening black metal outfit with a penchant for creepy aesthetics suffused through a hushed, ghostly wail of a voice. While guitar based, early Burzum is somehow totally unique to the black metal idiom while still operating well within its boundaries. Eventually, as Vikernes became the only actual member of Burzum, the music morphed into electronic soundscapes that are often disturbing without being brash, and also quite impressive in their stark beauty. A fine example of this is the track used on the Gummo soundtrack. And it brings me back to the topic at hand. Coupled with Maiski, Burzum is a welcomed respite in the maelstrom of pounding heaviness that otherwise dominates the soundtrack. I suppose, or at least hope, that Korine’s use of the Burzum track as a pleasnt couterpoint to the rest of the metal and noise serves as his way of injecting a little humor in the proceedings, but you know, Korine did write the screenplay for Kids after all. Subtlety isn’t exactly one of his strong points. Then again, he did get Werner Herzog to drink cough syrup out of a women’s shoe in the film Julien Donkey Boy. That alone is enough for me to defend the guy. If only Sevigny had blown Herzog on film too. Oh well, better luck next time. Before I go, I just have to mention one quick thing. Ever since Ramon mentioned it in his last post, this has been burning me from the inside out like some sort of hyperactive ulcer after a chili dinner. It’s that time of year once again when the local “alternative newsweekly,” the Houston Press, gets all goofy under the collar for local music and has their music awards showcase. Fair enough. It’s a good way for people to have some fun and see a lot of music, and also a great way for some of the more popular bands in town to hang out and get blind drunk in bars that would never welcome them otherwise. Dandy. But this is where the horseshit idiocy of epically monumental proportions takes over and the Press shows itself to be the soulless turd hive that it so clearly is so much of the time. Unless this is some sort of huge joke on the Press’s part, they will be closing out their awards showcase this year with a little band called Saliva. I know who Saliva is, but it is admittedly for dubious reasons. I don’t really know why this is, but I have this horrible ability to remember all sorts of horrible things about popular music, horrible, useless things. And when I refer to the music in question as popular, I mean – in the case of Saliva – on the verge of total anonymity. Saliva had a very minor hit about five years ago. It was one of those Three Doors Down type of rockers that makes you want to buy a rock of crack and go beat down that guy at the corner store like you always dreamed of doing if you could just find the balls to do it. Beyond that completely forgettable little number, Saliva’s main assbag is also known for singing a duet with the single greatest fuckweed in pop outside of that Creed douche, Scott Stapp: Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger. It was recorded to go on the soundtrack for Spiderman 2 and it is truly atrocious. People have been killed for less. That’s who Saliva is, and that’s who will wrap up the awards show into one neat and tidy little package of shit. Nobody likes this band, nobody, not even the fat, sleazy, Vegas crack dealer of a frontman who sings of unrequited love and big manly guns. They are completely worthless on every level, and then to think that some asshole thought it would be a good idea to put these douchenozzles on the end of a local music awards showcase, as if a national act of the lowest order was still somehow more interesting that anything we have to offer here in Houston, is as fucking brilliant as it is arrogant. It’s like telling all the local bands that, “hey guys, we really think you’re all so gosh-darn groovy. In fact, we think you’re all so dee-lish that we want to punch up the show with a little treat for everyone just to show, A) how little we actually think of Houston bands, and, B) how morally bankrupt our sense of humor has to be in order to think we could ever walk in this town again without being sniped from the top of every building. Enjoy your show, Houston! You rock, baby!” Idiots. May Rusted Shut finally do the do and burn that fucker to the ground. I might go to that show. On second thought… 31 comments to Drooling while Sleeping |
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didnt one of those nordic guys eat the other guys brains? cooked them and ate them? or is that a different Norse death metal band?
I like Korine. I liked Kids and I liked Gummo.
Funny though how you think Brown Bunny is underrated, cause almost everyone i know thinks its the greatest film ever made or something like that. I saw it and i thought it was overrated, way overrated. Not that i didnt like it, but it just wasnt all that those around me had led me to believe. Then I found out about the whole ’spend a night with Vincent Gallo for $50,000′ and almost wrote a post about it here, but for some reason decided against it. Though i did find the whole thing, including the million dollar sperm, pretty funny.
Supposedly, Euronymous and the other members of Mayhem ate the brain of Death after he offed himself. Euromymous was also supposed to have kept pieces of the guy’s skull which he wore around his neck as a sort of talisman. That’s why it’s so funny to me that Vikernes trumps them all. Check out the book Lords of Chaos for the best version of that whole scene I’ve found. Vikernes also had a website that is more than a little creepy if it’s still up.
All I’ve read about Brown Bunny in Film Comment and the like, was that it was a giant practically unwatchable mess. Even my film-nerd friends told me it wasn’t very good. Well, except for this one guy I know who worships the ground at Gallo’s feet. Me, I was expecting the film to suck, which in the end didn’t suck at all. In fact, I thought it well paced, and actually fairly poignant. I also didn’t think the bj was gratuitous in the scheme of things, if that’s even possible.
I love the line,”$200,000 buys the lesbos a weekend”. That is quality.
I hadnt read any reviews and i thought it dragged a little in the middle, but i also thought it was quite poigniant and didnt think the bj gratuitous though i did wonder about the necessity of using method acting for that scene. I mean, i would’ve too, but by doing so it took me a little bit out of the movie and into the actors mind, instead of the other way around.
I’m gonna have to go find that book. Gotta love brain eating stories.
“Eventually, as Vikernes became the only actual member of Burzum, the music morphed into electronic soundscapes that are often disturbing without being brash, and also quite impressive in their stark beauty.”
You forgot to mention that most of Burzum’s music has been made from inside Tromso prison in Norway, where he’s been incarcerated since 1993 for murdering Euronymous and burning down some churches.
Actually, I’ve heard the reason he went electronic was that prison authorities wouldn’t let him have guitar strings, for fear that he would use them to kill himself, or possibly someone else.
I know this is a horrible story, but really I can’t help laughing thinking about what a crazy dude that guy is.
I don’t think he is that “crazy”. I think part of his problem is that he never gave up the youthful anti-establishment stance, even though it would have served him. He does have a bit of an obsession with magical realism.. but I can’t discredit him by giving him some kind of mental illness, (the proof isn’t entirely there/available)but the whole “evil” persona thing is something that I believe the media ran with. I used to associate/relate with “evil” because I was so sick of the hypocrisies that the vehicles of purity (organized religion) shoved down my throat.. So anyways, I believe the media used him as their catch-all. I also think that the death of Hieronymous is no more spectacular than any other homicide where the two parties involved have some unsettling history.
Vikernes symbolizes how absurd our society can be from every angle that you look at it. I’m glad he exists. Doesn’t mean I worship him. Burzum… the music, it’s ok. Is it creepier given the blown up history? Sure. But to be honest, the circus surrounding the Beatles and John Lennon’s death has always scared me more.
One more thing.
I am not contesting that Vikernes or members of Mayhem were fucked up violent people. I am just saying that their stories have been sensationalized because of the mystical/magical/mythological garbage they were obsessed with and the media lacking any sense of duty to be responsible reporters… add to that the fact that it was the 1990’s and being dismal was the equivalent to being a homicidal maniac.
We have seen similar stories to this whole Mayhem business in our own press, (minus blatant cannibalism for the most part) during the same 90’s in our country. Tell me that the majority of press Satanism and the like received here wasn’t entirely based on some puritanical witch hunt and a few bored, neglected, and mentally unstable kids. I blame society, (just like the criminals) I must be one. Now if I ever do anything criminal, there’s this written proof that I aligned myself with cannibalists because that’s more interesting than the fact that I wasn’t stable in a society that has no idea how to help it’s people…
Back to clinical duties.
Head Stapler,
Try reading some stuff from Vikernes’s library:
Burzum’s Library
Here’s his account of Euronymous’s killing:
A Burzum Story, Part II
Excerpt:
“Some people have claimed I slew a helpless and unarmed man, but first of all he tried to get a knife before I did, and certainly he could have armed himself if he had chosen to stay and fight instead of running away like a coward. There was a number of other things in his apartment he could have used to defend himself with, when he failed to get hold of his kitchen knife.”
Try looking for some remorse- you won’t find it.
Some more choice excerpts:
“Modern Muslim terrorism is a scam and we can and should solve this problem by throwing out all the Muslims from their countries – and give them a bullet in the back of their head if they should refuse to go voluntary (or if they don’t get out fast enough).”
“There are several characters named Varg Vikernes in Norway. One is the demonized, alienated, pilloried and ostracized bugbear denounced by the Jew-press and the so-called judicial system in Norway.”
Although Vikernes doesn’t admit to the acts of arson that he was convicted of, he has referred to them as “revenge” for Christian desecration of Viking burial mounds, and seems to view them as a good thing.
Frankly, he doesn’t strike me as dismal so much as sociopathic.
Well, I think Varg is the Dreamiest.
I’ve read all that stuff before.
Don’t forget that the person Varg has no apparent remorse for killing is the same guy who ate Dead’s brains and made jewelry from his skull. You play, you pay.
And, I repeat… I never said they weren’t all fucked up in the head. My point is that the media can’t get enough of it, and regardless of Varg’s personal politics and crimes, the whole thing smacked of a senasational witch hunt. I still think it’s interesting to listen and look at the art and music made by those on the outskirts of society… pathological or not. Remember I’m the one who always sides with the underdog even if he’s a bastard. Dreamy? Sigh. But I’m already married.
Let me just try to put my feelings in perspective here.
I think that a million humans committed by their governments and people to slaughter and destroy patches of civilization on genocidal rampages all across the Earth since the dawn of time is “Crazy” and a single homicide between a handful of death fashion subjects years ago is “dismal”.
HS – the whole world is crazy, except for you and me.
But honestly, sometimes I think you’re a little nutso too.
Whatever you need to tell yourself, and… Thanks.
Harmony Korine is a fucktard but even fucktards have moments of brilliance. The Gummo soundtrack was one of those squirts.
I witnessed Matt Pike order a “Hot Toddy without honey” when I caught High On Fire. Everyone at the bar eyeballed him after he made the order, then he said, “the tea’s good for my throat . . . when I sing.” He was wearing a 1984 Van Halen concert jersey. I hadn’t even heard High On Fire yet but I knew they were going to be awesome.
Vikernes had numerous photographs of himself in Burzum t-shirts. See. I don’t know about y’all but only douchedrinkers wear their own band’s shirts. See.
My lord does Saliva stink. I remember watching them on a late night talk show and the lead singer was rapping, screaming and singing. He was a fat tub of shit too. Someone kick that guys ass.
Vincent Gallo gets gold stars for:
1. Being obsessed with Yes
2. Brown Bunny Blowjob
3. Popping & Locking like a mofo
4. Calling Roger Ebert a “fat pig with the physique of a slave trader.” [Roger Ebert's retort was even better: "although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of The Brown Bunny."]
5. Brown Bunny Blowjob
can we get back to the fabulous parties that we used to throw? jim rizkalla making wassail in the kitchen. drew passed out in the bushes, lots of cross-armed introspective musicians frowning and their knock-out girlfirends, and EVERYONE smoked. god those were the days…
ramon and i were just reminiscing about the ornaments people brought (it was a tree trimming party, remember?): the hand grenade ornament and the lemmie ornament (austin thomerson), the jerry garcia topper, matthew thurmans’s drew barrymore/american flag/money ornament, the cement block with a hook glued to it, the tire painted like a wreath, the s&m santa claus that hung from hooks in his titties, the papier mache ramon dressed in a black trenchcoat and shooting metal horns, x-rated ornaments galore…wow. good tymez.
“I think that a million humans committed by their governments and people to slaughter and destroy patches of civilization on genocidal rampages all across the Earth since the dawn of time is “Crazy” and a single homicide between a handful of death fashion subjects years ago is “dismal”.”
Does that count as a Godwin?
HS – that was a bastardization of a Robert Owen quote. Something my grandmother would wryly say to me when I’d gripe about the state of the world.
But it’s fitting also because of other views you share with the originator. You’re in good company.
I think the original quote is…
All the world is queer save thee and me. And even thou art a little queer.
Daniel,
Isn’t it funny you mentioned Hitler and not me?
Kilian,
Is that Marvin Zindler? I so miss hearing about slime in the ice machine.
Marvin Zindler just passed away like 2 days ago on the same day as Antonini and Bergman.
The greats always go in threes.
By the way, as long as we’re dorking it up in here, this might be of assistance, Daniel: “However, Godwin’s Law itself can be abused, as a distraction or diversion, that fallaciously miscasts an opponent’s argument as hyperbole, especially if the comparisons made by the argument are actually appropriate. A 2005 Reason magazine article argued that Godwin’s law is often misused to ridicule even valid comparisons.”
I found HS’s comparisons to first be not as literal as you may have taken them, and second to be appropriate to her point.
I also have just outed myself as being a bigger nerd than I usually care to let on, so let’s all pretend this comment never happened.
For my part, I think that if you take Vikernes’ story of the Euronymous incident at face value, you are still left with a very troubled man. Perhaps I was being a tad colloquial when I referred to him as a “madman,” but what the fuck do you want from me? A cogent, well researched argument? Surely you people jest.
Clearly the media jumped all over that story and blew it all out of proportion. Am I will admit to falling for a certain amount of it. I liken that phenomenon to the way I try and deal with stupidity: it’s unavoidable, but awareness is your greatest ally. In other words, I will always do stupid shit, like not taking the time to really dissect an interesting story, but I think that as long as I recognize my infinite capacity for complete ignorance, then I can make the efforts to overcome this problems and grow up a little. Not much, mind you, but a little.
If ever there was a post asking for a Hitler analogy it’s this one.
Anybody not of Viking blood say “hheeyy.”
Stupid vikings. Eating each others brains is so amazonian.
“Daniel,
Isn’t it funny you mentioned Hitler and not me?”
That was why I asked if it counted. Seemed to me like the principle was the same. I’m going to go ahead and admit that I don’t know what you’re trying to say, and I don’t understand why it’s a problem for me to refer to a guy who stabbed an unarmed man in the head with a pocketknife as “crazy.” Perhaps we can agree to disagree on the definition of the word.
Kilian,
That was funny.
Daniel,
I wasn’t so much disagreeing with you,as I was pulling choice words like “crazy” from your point and using them to vent my disdain for how the media handled Varg. It’s stupid to drag this on, but I have always gotten the impression that Varg’s killing of Hieronymous was supposed to be this insane out of this world, inhuman Viking bloodfest… and that’s the problem I have with it. So, when I make it out to be some kind of kinder-killing… I’m just playing devil’s advocate to give it a little perspective… My Godwinian perspective if you will.
Sorry for smearing shit on your walls John.
And R.I.P. Marvin Zindler.
Marvin Zindler died??!! who’s next, Bum Philips?!!! (or is he already dead)?!!!
rosa, i have lots of funny photos from that big xmas party, including one of vaughan and kyle embracing (with steve passed out in a chair next to them); dave dove and rusted shut hugging & mugging for the camera; me with (of all things) contact lenses! (pre- mountain man).
funny to think how so much has changed…. except christina still smokes, now and then.
oh, and i dug brown bunny. would love to see the unedited version but as far as i know it’s unreleased.
“I also have just outed myself as being a bigger nerd than I usually care to let on…”
Nerd.
I made a Drew Barrymore XMAS ornament? Wow…I have some vague memory of that…hmmm. You know, I always thought that the Brown Bunny blowjob was fake…I remember hearing that it was a prosthetic…that’s spelled incorrectly, huh? But I think the Gallo penis was a sort of “Boogie Nights” type of thing. I actually met Chloe once, sort of, up here in NYC…danced to the Smiths, as well. Christ…long story, forget it.
For the record, Bum Phillips is still alive. He lives on a ranch near Goliad, TX. I heard him on the radio this morning, in fact. His greatness is yet undiminished.
tom: you HAVE to send me some pic scans. that’s hilarious. alcohol induced love-ins (minus the kissing). i have ONE picture of me and ramon (with long hair!) on the piano at home. i’m wearing these big hollywood producer glasses. i miss those glasses.
i’ve seen all the folks you mentioned within the last year and they are healthy and happy (err..as happy as don walsh can be). update: i started smoking (again) and steve is on the wagon. has been for years. we tight.
matthew!