Toecutter....you have ruined me!

Last night I was bare witness to a almighty travesty.
Mad Max has always been one of my favourites. Since I was 13 it has. Up until now I have owned the whole series on video. A recent trip to a second hand music/video shop changed that when I came across the original film on DVD for less than two sterlings. Well there are no fancy extras but it was about time I brought my apocalyptic love of australian cinema into the digital realm. So purchased, it has sat on my shelf for a good month until I had time to enjoy it. Last night was that chance.
Credits as usual, stirring, orchestral score sweeps in, opening montage of Halls Of Justice and the sub-title "a few years from now", cut to Roop and Charlie parked up, perving on a young couple fornicating. Its all going swimmingly. Then the radio chatter is suddenly clearer than I remember, you can make out the dispatch voice. Hang on....NO! Un marked on the DVD case, I have been suckered into the original US home video release version. They dubbed there voices. I had heard about this and my friend had fallen prey to this trap many years prior. Now I had to.
Why did they have to ruin it. I could barely make it past the opening pursuit of the Nightrider.
This was, as I learned a few years prior, due to the American Distributors fear that audiences would not take kindly to heroes with Aussie accents. It ruined my night in more ways than one. Avoid this version at all costs. It removes a lot of the grit found in the original dialogue, replaces the slang words with more "american-isms" and spoils your fun.
On a much better note, I started work on my speaker cabinet today. Yes, I am building my own housing for the Cuntstack.

P.S. If anyone knows where I can obtain the Mad Max OST then holler. I have been searching for years.

Albums that shaped Oliver #1

This is the album that set me off. Released in 1991 by Warner Brothers, mostly due to Mike Pattons day job. They unleashed one of the most schizophrenic albums in the alternative rock climate. Mr Bungle took every single style of music they could think of and constructed one of the most musically dazzling, and head fucking bizarre albums I had ever heard. I loved Faith No More, but Bungle took that a step beyond. Every note is so perfect and needed. The instrumentation is beyond approach. I spent a long time learning all the basslines to this album until I got to the stage where I could enarly play along to it track by track. Sadly that talent is no longer with me. its gone downhill since then.
Bungle wore costumes and odd masks long before Slipknot and those chumps. Mr Bungle had John Zorn produce the album..case closed.
Well here is the self-titled debut by this amazing band. Influential without a doubt, especially to me.

Mr Bungle

Get involved. Let Bungle into your life.

Why the 89 version of the Punisher is better than the 04 version.

Following on from my recent charity shop, VHS buy of the 1989 movie adaptation of The Punisher it got me thinking about how much better this version is. I used to rent this from the video shop all the time when I was a kid nearly every weekend. It was The Punisher and The Goonies in rotation.
Now, this is a controversial topic almost. A lot of people would argue the toss over this one with me. But I stand firm in my beliefs that the 1989 version with Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr ( my second favourite black man) is far better. The 2004 version starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta(?) lacked the gritty violence of both the comics and the 89 version. Fair enough, his costume was more faithfull to the original and it referenced the comics a lot more, but the addition of the three neighbours spoiled it somewhat for me. The Punisher was far to human or at least showed his emotions far to much. Something that Frank Castle always had under control.
Now the 1989 version didn't have the costume, but Dolph Lundgren's face is lit to look like the skull. His stubble and the two black eyes are the skull. Plus he had no reservation about using guns and violence, something that they toned down so much in 2004. Dolph blows people away left, right and center. Point blank range with shotguns, impaling them with harpoon guns. Its all in there. He looks like he lives in the sewer, he lacks all the fancy gadgets they introduced in 2004.
1989 Trailer.....

2004 Trailer....

Thomas Jane does a decent enough job of embodying Frank Castle but the addition of John Travolta ruined it for me. The dropping of the mafia ( despite the Saints being some kind of crime family) and the bright weather took away any atmosphere the film created. Now the Dolph version of Frank is so much better. He hardly talks, he has a very dry wit that is sparringly used and he has tons of guns..exactly what the Punisher is meant to have. The supporting cast are decent enough, the gangsters are nasty enough and Dolph's Castle is a lot more believable than Jane's. I rest my case.
Well thats it really, just a little rant after I watched both last night. What a pointless post eh?
Fook.

We played a gig in Manchester last night with Melt Banana and Kong. Both bands where sweet. We sucked due to fighting each other onstage. Something that I imagine was pretty funny to watch. So as a ode to fighting here is some top notch fighting music....

Bracewar - Self Titled LP

Angry, mosh-tastic, fast hardcore. Members of Trash Talk included.
Being in a band is so ace/shit.
We are playing The Old Wharf in Birmingham on Sunday 17th ( this week) with Battletorn and Throats. both good. Lets hope we can make it as far as finishing a whole set this time.


FUCK YOU ALL.

Ah Temptation!

The new Coalesce album is available on some blogs. Well ahead of its release. What do I do? I need to hear it but I want to wait, but can I? Anyone that knows me knows how much I love this band. So the chance to hear new material before the release date is proving too tempting, bastards. I have the link sat in my bookmarks, taunting me.
I was exactly the same with the final Cursed album, I of course bought it when I could but I had to hear it before that day. This might be a similar situation.
But Oliver did get some bargains this week. From the unmined, treasure chest of charity shop shopping. Oxfam to be exact. For the price of 10 queen heads, I got....

Paul Simon - Gracelands LP
Rainbow - Rising LP
In/Humanity - The History Behind The Mystery LP + 7"

And 2 classic films for my video collection ( thats right, video collection)

The Punisher, the original not the shoddy Travolta remake...


And Patrick Swayze's best film by a country mile....


Superb you more than likely will agree.
So to readress the balance placed on my feeble mind of the imminent Coalesce album..here is something that I have spent more than a fair share of time listening to. Awesome, lo-fi, male/female vocal ambience. Ida, Will You Find Me. Superb stuff.

Ida - Will You Find Me

Enjoy dickheads.