6 R E A L L Y  S C A R Y  F I L M S 

Last Halloween I picked some scary album covers, now is time for some scary films. The Exorcist, The Omen or Hellraiser are way too predictable choices to make this kind of list. Bloodsucking Freaks, Dead Alive or Re-Animator are gore movies made for laughs (out loud). There's also a lot of vile artless crap out there unworthy of mention. So what to expect here? 6 non-obvious, non-hysterical, state-of-the-art scary and shocking movies. 

Tras El Cristal
Agustí Villaronga. 1987

Forget about Inglorious Basterds, Tras El Cristal offers a really twisted revenge against nazi atrocities. After WWII a sadistic german doctor settles in some place at Catalonia to resume his activities (which include torture and abuse against children) until he tries, unsuccesfully, to commit suicide jumping from a window. The failed attempt leaves him quadriplegic and connected to an iron lung, so the family hires a male nurse to take care of him. But, guess who the nurse turns out to be; a former victim of the doctor. At this point the revenge begins. Beautifully photographed and artfully crafted, this film is nonetheless a ride into human's scary depths.

Nekromantik
Jörg Buttgereit. 1987

¿A visceral -literally-, metaphor of society's degradation? -read reviews like this one in allmovie to get the point-, ¿Or just a fucked up joke?, this movie can bring the chills even to the most Halloween enthusiasts because on the surface it deals with one of the most decaying -again, literally- taboos, just look at the cover and the pun-intended title to figure it out. At least some of this flick's most creepy scenes are shot in a psychedelic way with a romanti(k) piano soundtrack.

Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1975

This film portrays some of the scariest monsters ever to hit the screen. But this ones are well-educated, suit-wearing human aristocrats. An adaptation of Marquis De Sade's book 120 Days in Sodom, Salò takes place in a 1944's fascist Italy mansion, where the aforementioned aristocrats decided to have some fun with a group of kidnapped young boys and girls. But their concept of fun is everybody else's concept of terrifying attitudes and hardcore perversion. 

Singapore Sling
Nikos Nikolaidis. 1990

An unfortunate detective is investigating a crime when he get stucked in the middle of nowhere at night, it's raining, but soon a lady and her daughter will take him to their house.  Mother-daughter relationship has never been so close. Living in a distant house somewhere in Greece both of them are like any other family; kill people for fun, bury them in the backyard, mummified their dad so they can have sex with him in a bondage fashion, practice cannibalism, get sexual aroused by puking and like to make jokes, because after all this movie has elements of...  comedy. This black and white feature from greek director Nikolaidis is a film noir -very noir- with high artistic values despite the mayhem it depicts, actors break the fourth wall talking direct to the camera in a comedic manner, the classic music are tastefully placed between raining and storms sounds and you get the feeling -if you're a film aficionado, of course- that you just watched a twisted, nihilistic piece of art, as shocking as it may be. 

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Shinya Tsukamoto. 1989

In this surreal industrial/apocalyptic movie's first scene we see a guy in a desolate factory cutting his right thigh with a knife to insert a rusty piece of metal in the wound, just to discover there's a lot of moving maggots inside of him. That's when you realize you're into something different, but you know, this is a Japanese movie, you were totally expecting something like that. Our maggot-infested-leg friend is the Metal Fetishist and is later accidentaly killed by an innocent couple in the streets who then get rid of the body and continue with their lives as if nothing had ever happened... but the man isn't dead, not in spirit. Soon the fetishist tries to make a comeback via the body of his killer, who begins to experiment a creepy mutation into a flesh and metal creature. Another scene includes that dude trying to penetrate his girlfriend with a giant drill/penis, until he finally manages to do it. The use of industrial music, stop-motion and flashbacks adds tension to an already stressing movie like this. A classic.

Eraserhead
David Lynch. 1977

A nightmarish journey involving a dark city, a non-stop-crying deformed baby, gallons of blood and a decapitated body whose head are taken to a pencil's factory and turned into... yes, erasers. For those with a sensibility towards cinema the experience of watching this could be compared with a masochistic enjoying some kidney stones, while the visuals and sounds are certainly disturbing one could only admire the work of a rising talent. As a pretentious neophyte I must state that, along with The Elephant Man, this is Lynch at his finest.

PRETTY&INSANE

While I'm a big Japan fan, I'm not really into manga or anime -even though the girls are always hot as hell-. But when it comes to the work of painfully rad artists like Shintaro Kago I think of turning into a transgender cosplay weirdo and start to scare the shit out of everybody in the streets. Below some of Kago's stuff you'll see some paintings by other Japanese artist whose name is uncertain since the website -4xxxx.org- is entirely in Japanese and suffers from a messy interface. 

Shintaro Kago

Mysterious artist 

from a mysterious and messy website

15 BANDS/ARTISTS 
MISSING IN ACTION

There are some bands/artists who seem to create music for your very own pleasure, translating some of your most cryptic states of mind and complex emotions into sounds that take you to an endless trip in which you find yourself behind the wheel. No passengers. Eventually you give a ride to some hitchhikers that are not aware of their hitchhiking condition until they get into your sound vehicle. Many of them will want to get their asses off almost immediately, while others would probably enjoy your driving. 

Turns out that some of those bands/artists of mine faded into Nowhereland without asking my permission to, and while I'm certainly pissed off about that, I'm also grateful that they stepped into the way to give my trip a soundtrack that will last until my car collide into heaven's door sending me to fly through the windshield.

1. Add N To (X)

They used to spend time between collecting vintage synths/analog equipment and doing many kinds of drugs while producing a sound that became a landmark all of their own. Their live shows were a perfect chaos where bodily fluids and music filled some of the coolest clubs in Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. If loving a band like this is wrong, I don't give a fuck about being right.

2. Plone

Rob Mitchell, one of the founders of Warp Records, signed the Birmingham trio Plone; an oddity in the label's roster by then (along with fellow brummies, Broadcast). It was around 1998, a time when Warp's warhorses were names such as Aphex Twin or Squarepusher, which Plone had absolutely nothing to do with, they were one of the prettiest sounding bands I've ever heard. When Mitchell died of cancer, the band were dropped from the label and subsequently dissolved. We miss you, a lot. One of Plone founders, Billy Bainbridge went on to form Seeland with Tim Felton (former Broadcast guitarist).

3. Komeda

"The best kept secret in music industry", that's what it used to be written in this impossibly good swedish band's website -now sadly extinct as the band itself-. Producing some of the finest jazz-inflected indie-pop with a scandinavian touch -their sublime first album was entirely sung in swedish-, this quartet soon became a trio and then a zero-member unit, which is a total bummer. Some people tend to compare them with Stereolab, which isn't an absurd thing since both bands are somehow informed by vintage sounds and krautrock. Komeda's music is more playful and colorful though -and if you ask me, I'd say is way more fun too-.

4. Takako Minekawa

Beginning as a child actress in some japanese TV shows -you know, that ones with extra use of captions and pop-up images, which japanese call waipu-, Mrs. Minekawa soon find her way into music borrowing elements from french pop, experimental electronics -frequently inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk or Stereolab- and even exotica -Esquivel anyone?-. Her music life made her cross paths with fellow japanese sound artist Cornelius, whom she married and had his child. Now she's a full-time mom and wife with no time to produce music, and that's sad news for me and long-time fans. 

2014 UPDATE: She's back! A couple of albums in collaboration with Dustin Wong -of Ponytail fame-; Toropical Circle -2013- and Savage Imagination -2014-, are the reason of some of my occasional smiles now.

5. eX-Girl

Don't be fooled by their Japanese faces, Japanese language or Japanese music's uniqueness, they didn't come from Japan but from Kero Kero, a distant planet dominated by frogs. Blending noise-rock, psycho-choral -psychoral?- and electronics into a beautiful mess of a sound, this girls became darlings of Mike Patton, Jello Biafra -who signed them to his Alternative Tentacles label- and... me, before returning to their planet leaving no trace at all. 

6. Erase Errata

No Wave vibe almost three decades later and coming from the opposite coast: San Francisco. What does that means? well, it means that this three girls incorporate fresh elements to the noisy cocktail with a "sucka-free" attitude. Their harsh and powerful sound is truly missed, but at least Jenny Hoyston -singer/trumpetist/guitarist/keyboardist came out with a side-project called Paradise Island, a little more claustrophobic and introspective, but equally interesting. But, wait... it's been like, 4 years since the last PI album, right? so, do I have to add it to this list? 

2015 UPDATE: They're back...! well, not anymore, I mean, they released and album, Lost Weekend, after an 8-plus year hiatus, but a couple of months later, they said, fuck it, we have family, jobs and other personal projects to do. It was fun while it lasted, guys. 

7. Metalchicks

Yes, another girl band, and yes, another japanese one. This one's a side-project from Buffalo Daughter's suGar Yoshinaga and former OOIOO's Yuka Yoshimura. By the name you can tell there's a metallish sound in their music, but what the name doesn't reveal is that there's a highly techno influence too, so you can dance while playing your air guitar -which is a pretty cringeworthy thing to do-. Their last album so far, has been 2006's St. Wonder, which serve as a soundtrack for the japanese film Warau Michael. Hey chicks, we're still waiting for your next release as you state in your website a couple of years ago!

8. Epo-555

Danish shoegazers with beautiful electronic arrangements, Epo-555 released two albums before evaporating like their melodies six years ago, leaving us waiting for more and whining about it. At least we have Mew, some may say.

9. Shitake Monkey

If pop music in general were like Shitake Monkey's we'd live in a perfectly fun world. Make no mistake, these guys were all pop, infectious like a cold coming from your girlfriend's mouth -just to mention a suitable body part... and a suitable virus-. The reggae/pop/rock/joy coming from their instruments are perfect for a beach trip, a night out or a workout session. 

10. Clockcleaner

Sludgy, dense and noisy. Hailing from Philadelphia the three-piece goth-punk-rockers of Clockcleaner -a type of powerful heroin sold in the Philly streets around the 80's-, left a trace of chaos and disdain for other bands like Nirvana -whom they refer to as "dogshit"- and fellow Philadelphian's Man Man or Dr. Dog. If you're looking for a bloody-sounding hell of a band, look no further and go for your Clockcleaner fix as soon as possible.

11. Dealership

I was in Berkeley twice last year and let me tell you it was rather boring, little did I know by then that Dealership hail from there -I thought they were from San Francisco-. The standard indie-rock band with two-part vocal harmonies and sugary sound which after two albums and one EP disappeared in the silent and near-empty streets of that city, maybe they took the BART to a livelier place.

12. pApAs fritAs

Reaching extreme levels of cuteness, this trio from Boston share the two-part vocal harmonies and sugary sound of Dealership, but used to add some serious amount of groove to the mix, everybody loved the Indian drummer-vocalist Shivika Asthana and her sweet voice along with the neverending happy/sad vibe of the whole band's sound. For those who don't know, pApAs fritAs is the spanish-sounding pronunciation of the phrase: Pop Has Freed Us.

13. Out Hud

Incredibly fun band Out Hud hail from the not-so-incredibly-fun city of Sacramento. After two albums and a lot of sweat coming from all the dancefloors that played their music, these guys split and went on to become !!!, a band that comes nowhere close to the awesomeness of Out Hud, so I'm still waiting !!! to split and become Out Hud again. 

14. Queen Of Japan

This was an electro band from Munich whose album Headrush, a compilation of covers from Soft Cell, Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Kiss, etc, became one of my favourites of the genre. One can't say that they faded into obscurity because they've always lived there.

15. Adult Rodeo

Anyone who knows me are aware of my Kevin Blechdom's fanaticism. What does it have to do with Adult Rodeo? well, it was the first band she was in. Her brother, Rob Erickson -Lumberbob- started the band with his girlfriend to produce an alternative-country sound and called his sister Kristin Erickson -Kevin Blechdom- to join in and play keyboards. They released two albums -The Kissyface (1999) and Texxxas (2000)- before Blechdom hooked up with fellow electronic experimentalist Bevin Kelley to create the duo bLectum from bLechdom -which later split, leaving both of them to pursue separate careers-. Adult Rodeo released one more album -Tough Titty (2004)- before disappearing from the face of the earth -or say, the web-. 

SIT & WAIT TIL WE ARRIVE TO YR COUNTRY

We, SLSK users, don't care.

WHO TOOK THE BOMP? 

Directed by Kerthy Fix. 2011

It's been 8 years since This Island, the latest album of feminist combo Le Tigre so far. Remember those days when they used to be on every single cover of hipster publications? Remember those days when the word hipster wasn't abused to shit? Remember those who "love Le Tigre!" while listening to Deceptacon for the first time? 

Some may find this documentary/road movie a little outdated due to the vanishing of the trio from the scene for such a long time. At the other hand, there's people like me -and maybe, you-  for whom this feature is a warm reminder of how fun this band is. Shown in a couple of theaters last February in New York and available for streaming since last year, Who Took The Bomp? was filmed during the promoting tour for This Island -2004/2005- in countries like Australia, Japan, Germany, etc. Biographical details and experiences are told by the band itself, including curious facts like that one when Kathleen wrote "Kurt Cobain smells like Teen Spirit" in some wall at the frontman's house... at a time when that song wasn't even written. Footage from Le Tigre playing live, being interviewed in radio shows, fooling in the backstage and hotel rooms are all part of this hour-plus movie. A welcome addition to the "rockumentary" genre.

Here it is in its entirety, straight from the bompalompalomp.

Update: Is not available anymore, don't blame me but the inconsiderate vimeo user who removed it.

SEXO, DROGAS Y GRUNGE

Para quienes tenemos una cédula que empieza con 13, los 90's son nostalgia; los años donde empezamos a afinar algunos aspectos de nuestros gustos y personalidad. El "coming of age" como mientan en inglés. Por suerte fue una década movida en cuanto a sucesos relevantes a nivel cultural y teníamos, tanto la edad suficiente para entenderlos, como la edad insuficiente que nos hacía más impresionables. Por eso para quienes entrábamos en los teens desarrollando una peligrosa dependencia musical, cualquier tendencia que viniera de la "contracultura" era más que bienvenida. Es lo que pasó, por ejemplo, con el Grunge; de repente en nuestras casas el champú duraba más y ahora, sorprendentemente, nos gustaba usar camisas -sólo de cuadros, duh... obvio-. 

Pasamos un susto cuando Cobain fue atendido de emergencia en Roma por ingerir accidentalmente sus antipresivos con champán. Un par de meses más tarde, nos desolamos cuando también accidentalmente se disparó en la cara. Como siempre, salieron los  paranóicos para quienes todo es una conspiración y decían que Courtney lo había mandado a matar, etc, etc. Por eso Hole siempre fue mal visto por muchos pelo-sucio/camisa de cuadros. Y aunque mi higiene capilar para ese momento también era escasa, el Live Through This fue un disco que rodó en cualquier CD player que tuviera cerca. Me daba igual la tipa, ni la admiraba, ni la odiaba, pero la música que hacía me gustaba. Recuerdo que también me gustaba el estilo inexpresivo y tieso de la baterista, que resulta ser la protagonista de este documental : Hit So Hard.

Photo by Ana Grillo for Frameline35

Aunque el estreno oficial va a ser a mediados de abril, ya se proyectó el año pasado en el marco de festivales como el SxSW de Austin, Cannes y el International LGBT Film Festival de San Francisco, que era donde yo estaba en ese momento. Otra que quería ir a ver a ese festival era L.A. Zombie, de Bruce La Bruce, un director del que he leído mas no visto sus películas, así que pensé que podría ver ésta, todo por amor al arte... transgresor.  Sin embargo leí un par de sinopsis antes y me di cuenta que mi cacareado gusto por el cine de transgresión tiene sus límites. Disculpen mi mente cerrada y pacata, pero se me iba a hacer un poco incómodo presenciar imágenes gore mezcladas con porno gay y eyaculaciones sangrientas en pantalla gigante dentro de una sala donde yo sería la verdadera "minoría". "Ehmmm... mejor voy el día que pasen el documental de la baterista ex-junkie."

La tarde de la proyección había movimiento en los alrededores del Castro Theatre, gente con pintas estándar, vari@s con pintas bastante producidas y otros con pintas nada producidas -sin ropa- que suelen pulular por esa calle. Poco antes que me acercara a la taquilla para entregar los $9, me abordó una chica  -del grupo "pintas bastante producidas"- cuya barbilla lucía orgullosamente, largos y numerosos pelos posteriormente teñidos de verde y que estaban debajo de una boca sonriente que me dijo "take it, it's for free, enjoy the movie!". Así traspasé el umbral hacia la gran sala victoriana del Castro para ocupar el asiento respectivo, que para mi sorpresa, era detrás de la fila donde estaba sentada Patty Schemel -la baterista ex-junkie.

Originalmente no se había planeado hacer ningún documental, lo que ocurrió fue que hace un par de años, Patty le pidió a P. David Ebersole que editara todo el material que ella había filmado con Super 8 mientras estuvo tocando con Hole en los 90's. Ebersole, al ver todas esas imágenes y conociendo la vida loca loca que había llevado la baterista en las últimas 2 décadas, sólo pudo decir: "Hay que hacer un documental con esto". Voilá: Hit So Hard.

Para un C.I. N° 13.XXX.XXX, ver ese material audiovisual es una terapia en nostalgia que vale la pena experimentar. Con testimonios actuales de vari@s amig@s de Patty, entre los que vemos a Nina Gordon- Veruca Salt, Kate Schellenbach -Luscious Jackson, Roddy Bottum -Faith No More, o Courtney Love, que sigue intepretando su papel de mira-que-trashy-soy, nos vamos involucrando con la protagonista; la niña de pueblo que un día  descubrió que era lesbiana y rockera. Si a esto le añadimos filmaciones caseras inéditas de Frances Bean, Kurt Cobain y Love, el ejercicio en nostalgia y vouyerismo farandulero está satisfecho. Además de eso está la narrativa que Patty hace de su "vida y casi muerte", con un humor denso pero efectivo que nos hace reír en momentos, por ejemplo, en los que recuerda cuando luego que la botaran de Hole quedó viviendo en la calle, teniendo que prostituirse con hombres para pagar su next shot. Obviamente la intención de su humor no es banalizar las circunstancias sino auto-flagelarse y demostrar su arrepentimiento ante aquella vida de sex, drugs & drugs. Aunque eso no le quita la gracia que tiene para contar cosas por el estilo -lo que nos hace sentir menos culpables por reaccionar con, cuando mínimo, sonrisas ante situaciones tan dark como esas.

Al final de la película hubo una sesión de preguntas y respuestas con Ebersole, Patty y la audiencia, donde le preguntaron por ejemplo a qué venía la inclusión del material inédito de los Cobain, a lo que la batera contestó que se trataba de una contextualización de cada momento por el que ella pasaba y puesto que fue una de las amigas más cercanas de Kurt, su muerte fue un punto clave. Y es que en ningún momento uno puede sentir una intención de "explotación" hacia la figura del suicida, así que: a lugar con esa pregunta malintencionada, amiguita, ¿No te diste cuenta que ella también aparece en ese material?. Otra preguntó la opinión de Patty con respecto a lo teatral de los testimonios de Courtney -que siempre que aparece en cámara está comiendo y hablando con la boca llena, "The Courtney Love Show" le llamó- y si ésta le había pedido disculpas por haberla botado del grupo, otra respuesta comedida de Patty y gracias por haber venido.

Hit So Hard, Castro Theatre. LGBT International Film Festival 2011. Photo by Ana Grillo for Frameline35 

A pesar de seguir el patrón ""adicción = todo mal / rehabilitación = todo bien", Hit So Hard se salva de caer en el pipote de panfletos "las drogas son malas" porque no se esfuerza en dejar un mensaje políticamente correcto sino que es sencillamente una especie de "diario" audiovisual cuyas entradas cuentan, casi a modo de road movie, cómo fue el trayecto del pueblo a la ciudad, de la ciudad al submundo y del submundo a la sobriedad. 

Aquí abajo el trailer, con thumbnail de alguien que necesita atención -y se la siguen prestando.

Oh! You Pretty Sounds *Xiu Xiu*

Xiu Xiu Always (Febrero / marzo 2012)

Comenzando con unos beats que te arrastran al baile, Hi, la canción que abre el nuevo disco de Xiu Xiu, se presenta como la incursión más cercana al synth-pop por parte de Jamie Stewart y compañía. "If you are wasting your life say hi, if you are alone tonight say hi, if there's a hole in your head say hi...", canta Stewart a modo de llamado para todos aquellos cuya intensidad emocional y desencanto personal puedan indentificarlos con el enfant terrible de este grupazo californiano, quien por supuesto dice "...Hi, hi, hi, hi...". Así transcurre gran parte de Always, entre la ya acostumbrada desesperanza de sus letras y los ritmos más bailables que el grupo ha confeccionado en su trayectoria. 

Como en los discos The Air Force (2006) y Dear God I Hate Myself (2010), las labores de producción estuvieron a cargo de Greg Saunier, baterista y fundador de otro grupazo californiano como lo es Deerhoof, a quienes Stewart siempre ha nombrado como influencia. 

Para esta encarnación Xiu Xiu se transforma en quinteto, lo que significa que tanto los arreglos como algunas letras han venido de varias cabezas, sin que eso suponga el sacrificio del sonido y tópicos escabrosos que caracterizan al grupo. Siguen habiendo momentos de aspereza sónica y crudeza lírica, sobre todo en canciones como I Luv Abortion, tensamente recitada por Stewart, quien suelta frases como "You're too good for this world", Black Drum Machine, que habla acerca del abuso infantil y fluye melancólicamente hasta desembocar en un final donde la voz quiebra en desesperación o Factory Girl, que aborda el tema del acoso sexual del que son víctima muchas trabajadoras chinas que dejan la mayor parte de sus vidas en fábricas. 

Como novedades en el campo vocal encontramos Smear The Queen y Honeysuckle, donde Angela Seo y la nueva integrante, Bettina Escauriza, hacen duetos con el intenso de Stewart. Y no digo "intenso" como descalificativo, la intesidad no tiene que ser siempre vista como un defecto o una postura arrogante, sino como una manera de ser que no se elige, simplemente es. Por eso las letras, la música y el histrionismo vocal de la mente maestra detrás de Xiu Xiu, que lo hace sonar casi siempre al borde de un colapso emocional, están más que justificados para muchos de los que seguimos, en mayor o menor grado, su carrera. Y Always nos da razones de sobra para seguir haciéndolo.