More Crappy Music Videos Of Crappy Songs From Crappy Horror Movies

Ever since this entry was posted the other day, I sensed a (silent and invisible) clamoring for more bad videos from horror movies. So here's a few more for your enjoyment.

Apparently, I won't stop until my entire page is filled with resource-hogging web-based flash players.

Enjoy:

Alice Cooper - "He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)" - Friday The 13th Part 6 (1986)


Megadeth - "No More Mr. Nice Guy" - Shocker (1989)


Thor And The Tritonz - "We Accept The Challenge" - Rock n Roll Nightmare (1987) - This one is beyond awful, in a really wonderful way.


Johnny Steele - "Power of The Night" - Critters 2 (1988)


Creed - "What If" - Scream 2 (1999)


AC/DC - "Who Made Who" - Maximum Overdrive (1986) - All right, this one is not really a bad song, but the movie is awesomely terrible.


See also: Don't Sleep On The New A Nightmare On Elm Street Trailer

"28 Days Later" Retold In One Minute

The University of York Filmmaking Society are out to save us some time.

Don't Sleep On The New "A Nightmare On Elm Street" Trailer

Below is the trailer for Michael Bay's A Nightmare On Elm Street. This remake, set for release in April 2010, will complete the triumvirate of the über-slashers, joining reboots of the Halloween and Friday The 13th franchises. This is also the first time anyone besides Robert Englund has portrayed Freddie Krueger on the big screen, with Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen's Rorschach) taking over the famed glove and striped sweater.

Naturally, after seeing what Bay did with the Friday The 13th remake (and anything else, for that matter), my expectations for this are very low. But regardless, it's still kind of exciting to see Freddie back in action again. The 1984 classic scared the crap out of me.

Here's the trailer:

And furthermore, to mark this occasion and to keep with the loose musical theme of bazookaluca, I thought about looking back at some of the less celebrated aspects of the franchise. And by that I mean the terrible videos from the various Nightmare soundtracks.

The first two movies relied solely on scores, but when the decision was made to feature hair-metal band Dokken on the 1987 soundtrack for Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, a precedent was set and several terrible songs followed.

Here they are for your enjoyment (personal favorite, The Fat Boys):

Dokken - "Dream Warriors" - Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)


Vinnie Vincent Invasion (feat. Mark Slaughter)- "Love Kills" - Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)


The Fat Boys - "Are You Ready Freddy" - A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)


Whodini - "Anyway I Gotta Swing It" - A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)


Romeo's Daughter - "Heaven In The Backseat" - A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)


The Goo Goo Dolls - "I'm Awake Now" - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Great Moments In Photoshop

New Cursive Video For "Let Me Up"

Cursive just released the video for the third single off of Mama, I'm Swollen, "Let Me Up".

It's quite the awesomeness. Check it:

Marilyn Manson's Past Indiscretions Finally Start Catching Up To Him

So Marilyn Manson has the Swine Flu. He took to his Facebook page and announced:

"So I have officially been diagnosed, by a real doctor, with THE SWINE FLU, I know everyone will suggest that fucking a pig is how this disease was obtained. However, the doctor said, my past choices in women have, in 'no way' contributed to... me acquiring this mysterious sickness. Unfortunately, I am going to survive. M."

Of course, my mind immediately went to very first image I ever saw of Manson—riding a pig in the 1994 video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)":



I'm not implying anything by this, just a thought.

The Internet Loves Me

The internet loves me. That's why it gifted me these two pictures today:

First, from BoingBoing, a Bearsharktopus, the most dangerous beast on land AND water.

And then, from The Superficial, this pic from a Katy Perry video shoot where a gentleman appears to be wrangling her breasts.

Chalk this day up as a win.

Steve Albini's Greatest Recordings

Audio engineer and musician Steve Albini's résumé reads like the index of L'Histoire de le Rock Indépendante—it's littered with notable names. It might have something to do with the fact that his rates are downright affordable, but then again, he also offers clients something unique—his discerning ears, decades of experience behind the board, and an ascetic (if not oppressive) recording philosophy.

Basically, if you want your record to reflect the sound of your band playing live in a room, Steve Albini is your man.

And when he's not recording other bands, he's fronting his own; starting with Big Black ('82-87), Rapeman ('87-88), and more recently, Shellac ('92-Present). These bands are the embodiment of his aesthetic—abrasive, angular, and cranky.

Albini is also a Journalism major from Northwestern University, so his ideology is present through many of his writings for zines such as Matter and Forced Exposure, his 1994 manifesto "The Problem With Music" (still relevant, in many ways), or even the occasional scathing/hilarious editorial, such as this one.

But perhaps the best tribute to the man's work is the music itself. So, I've put together a playlist of some of his best, most notable work (with a few exceptions—I was limited to my own music library and to Lala's 50 song playlist maximum).

So here it is, if you have four hours to spare, enjoy. It's quite a ride:

Is Pearl Jam A Sellout For Partnering With Target To Release "Backspacer"?

Pearl Jam is releasing their new album, Backspacer, exclusively at Target and at independent record stores across the country this Sunday. A decade and a half ago, to my teenage self, knowing that Pearl Jam would enter into a (sort of) exclusive partnership to distribute an album with a huge corporate retailer like Target would have been interpreted as nothing short of high treason. At the time, the word "sellout" was generously peppered into my everyday conversation.

Presently, however, I find myself totally unaffected by this.

Maybe the idea is made easier to swallow by Backspacer being sold concurrently at independent record stores as well as Target. After all, indie record stores have always been a retail venue championed by the band as well as myself, having worked at one for five years.

Or perhaps it's the fact that Pearl Jam is merely pursuing this business model out of necessity and, unequivocally, on their own terms. After all, they're the biggest independent band in America (they're no longer under contract with any record label in the US), so they had to pick a feasible strategy to distribute the album. Target is certainly a capable mass distributor (not to mention that it's way classier than Wal-Mart) and offers itself as a powerful partner.

And while both of these are alleviating factors, perhaps more than anything I'm just not as uptight as I once was about this sort of thing, and neither is the current musical climate for that matter. The stigma once tied to rock bands with corporate partnerships is all but dead; just barely moribund in select niches. Even your average hardcore indie-rock fan could care less with whom a band chooses to ally itself to finance, promote, and/or distribute their music nowadays. This is quite a recent development, but perhaps not as an alarming one as once thought.

I mean, the following ad would have been enough to make my blood boil when I was 16:

But now, I'm actually happy to see it. This ad will reach millions of households and perhaps some kid will go out and buy a Pearl Jam record because of it. Is that really so bad? Isn't the point of making records for people to listen to them?

It took nearly a couple of decades for Pearl Jam, as well as many of their contemporaries, to figure out that, as a band, it's impossible to control who listens to your music, no matter how hard you try to limit your exposure. If you're not comfortable with the spotlight, maybe you're in the wrong business. You might as well embrace it and see where it takes you. You might be happier for it in the end.

I'm certainly pleased that I don't have to waste any more thought on the idea of "selling out". I've got bigger fish to fry...

Q And Not U, Where Are You?

I miss Q And Not U immensely. I think their influence on a lot of current bands has gone largely unnoticed.

Unfortunately, they broke up in 2005, but they still remain my second favorite band on Dischord Records behind Fugazi.

Bazookaluca's Greatest Hits

According to an article in the New York Times, only 5% of blogs are kept up regularly.

I've managed to maintain this blog for nearly five years now.

So, take that, unfavorable statistical data!

What started on MySpace as nothing more than a place to jot down daily footnotes and random observations to an audience of a few friends, has grown a bit in scope and purpose over the years (if not in actual traffic.)

My very first entry was the track listing of a mix CD I had made that day.

Those were the days... no wit, no pics, no bothersome multimedia embeds; just plain and factual text—unadorned and austere.

Of course, that eventually got a bit boring, so I started writing about more pertinent topics, such as culturally insensitive Olive Garden commercials, ninja-themed game shows, and/or finding the worst MySpace band ever. You know, critical investigative journalism.

So, as a sort of half-assed retrospective, I dug up what I consider some of the finer moments of bazookaluca (what's been published on Blogger, anyway) to share with you. I also have links to these on the right, below the features menu, and will leave them up for a bit. I hope you'll take the time to read through them and leave a few words if you feel compelled. I always appreciate your comments.

Thanks for reading.

09/13/06 An Open Letter To Ethnic Food Marketers
10/08/06 Good Idea, Bad Idea
12/10/06 Musings On Metal Mania
06/30/07 Of All The People
12/04/07 A Stubborn Notion
02/17/08 One Thing I Love About Japanese People
04/04/08 It's Already Been Broughten
04/22/08 Guy Fiery Is A Douche
05/24/08 Ode To Heavy Metal
05/31/08 Attack Of The Hollywood Clones
07/08/08 Dreams Of Post Rock
10/20/08 Rats Off To Ya!
12/01/08 Chinese Democracy
01/09/09 Buying Stocks On The Day Of The Crash
02/16/09 Hacked Road Signs
02/20/09 Musings On Brokencyde
05/21/09 Aped Album Cover Designs
06/16/09 Japanese Robots From My (Italian) Youth
08/18/09 Saxual Healing