la belle et le couteau - vingt

Goddamn, Anagram!

Jeff Peers, Anagram bass god, recently announced the band's last show would be Friday, April 13 at the Silver Dollar in Toronto with Sun Ra Ra Ra The Soupcans and Cut Flowers ($10, 9pm, no advance tickets). With the band members living in different places and at different points in their lives, I'd heard rumours that a break-up was a possibility (so the news did not come as a complete shock) but it's still makes me really sad and not a little bit angry as well, I'm surprised to say.

Can I talk about them in the past tense? It reads weird to me but -



Anagram were better than just a good band or even just a really good band. They exemplified a certain indefinable quality the best bands have, a spirit and creativity that seems tied to the zeitgeist in which they operate; they are of a time and place. I certainly didn't have the world's greatest show attendance in the last decade but, given what it was, I have no problem stating that Anagram were the best live band in Toronto and parts beyond. Who was better?

They had their own sound and they explored it intelligently and with a solid sense of style over a series of consistently great recordings; they knew each other live as players and could effortlessly jam out awesome slabs of noise seemingly tirelessly. Their songs have urgency and energy, pitching Matt Mason's growl against his brother Willie's angular guitar grooves into crescendoes that never ceased to get crowds jumping and moshing (or stumbling around into each other at the very least).







For me personally, Anagram had a huge amount of resonance. Drummer Clayton Churcher had bootlegged my first band Starkweather's tape to CDR years ago (and did a very nice job at that), and three-quarters of Anagram were in Panzram's Ghost, who played our songs. I felt really honoured, not just for the recognition and the (admittedly very nice) idea that you'd inspired someone - but for the prescient fact that these Anagram guys were actually really good at what they were doing and fun to watch and listen to right from the get-go.



They were kind enough to say I'd influenced them early on and I can return the compliment by noting that they inspired me to start No No Zero going in the first place - because they made going to shows fun again and made playing music look fun again and I wanted in on this energy and I wanted in on these shows. Without Anagram, it's fair to say there probably wouldn't have been a No No Zero.


So that's a bit of why I'm sad about the news. In a nutshell, because they put on fun shows and made great records and I'll miss that. I'm angry as well because they deserved better, more recognition, both from this city and the music world in general. I'm not naive enough to think the music industry or scene or whatever has anything to do with fairness or who deserves what - but, still, as I'm at pains to point out, Anagram were a pretty unique case to me.

They were special. Not only a really good band but one from my hometown of Oshawa, and not only that, but they acknowledged this and even sang about it. That is so rare as to be quite noteable. They were cool, down to earth people, they played great music and we got to play a lot of shows together and have a lot of good times.



I'm bummed because I felt sure that they were going to 'break through' and attain some higher level of success and I felt (and feel) they deserved it and could've really made a go of it. No No Zero played Montreal a few months ago and Anagram were the band people kept asking me about: why don't they come to Montreal? When are they going to play here?

I'm a greedy fan and I can't help wishing they had another album in them - but Majewski was a powerful note to end on, and their covers 7" is a fun cap to that. I am so glad the world got a recorded version of Anagram doing The Cleavers' "Fish" (not to mention Leonard Cohen's "The Butcher"). When you're done, you're done, and I respect that. Everything ends. I hate to leave my house nowadays, but I will be there April 13 and I will drink and jump and mosh and stumble around awkwardly.



To make this show even more of a must-attend/bummer, Sun Ra Ra Ra will also be playing their last set this night. These guys came along later in the timeline but No No Zero played a few shows with them too, and I always loved their crazy noisey psychedelic sets and felt like they were kindred spirits. They were great to see and cool guys too, and I am very sad to hear of their passing also. Also they were the best band at Four Corners 2.

Nuff respect, Sun Ra Ra Ra.

2011 Sleazy Meanz Pics In Review

Here I am like that doctor on the island in that Stephen King story, eating pieces of myself, regurgitating this stuff like it's NEW when it's only in review. To wit, I stumbled across Best of Tumblr the other day. This page will rank your tumblr posts monthly by popularity. Wheeeeee! What does the internet like?

Intrigued, I submitted the Sleazy Meanz mostly-NSFW-photo-tumblr which is sort of the sexy (?) flip side of this blog in a way - and the following are the photos this site came back with, surprisingly (relatively) free of the XXX that often makes its way there.

So now, in chronological order (with a bit of 2010 to get us warmed up first), I offer to you what are apparently the most popular pics (plus one very rude gif) of my tumblr --

May 2010


Algae, that's what it's all about, really. When No No Zero started, I'd send press pics of algae instead of band photos. I sort of think of us as an algae kind of project, gradually killing off healthier, indigenous musical acts. Or just generally grossing people out.

If I look at GoogleNews as I'm typing this, I find the expected bad news about the green slime's effect on the globe, but the big news of the day is of algae's ongoing possibilities as an alternative source of energy. Pond scum: that's some interesting stuff.

This photo looks like a level in a videogame.

June 2010


I like the fact that this lady is doing her laundry - which is something I do a lot of, and an activity which in my opinion deserves a sexier reputation than it has. The lighting is nice here, the subject is actually holding laundry, her return of the viewer's gaze is great, the circle on the door mirrors her face. I'm not thinking of Uzumaki at all.

July 2010


Boobs are sexy and ponytails are sexy. Big boobs + ponytails = SEXY.

August 2010


The Cauldron. The alley north of Howard. OPEN 7 NIGHTS A WEEK

October 2010


This was a free show we did for Daniel's wonderful Eyesore Cinema store. Sadly, it wound up being drummer Mark Jarrett's last show with No No Zero so that's a bittersweet memory. But the poster's great.

This was just before artist Ryan Halpenny started incorporating all manner of wyld wallpaper crazy styles in his work, something foreshadowed quite literally here in the dotwork on the shadows, smoke, and stockings.

December 2010


Not sure what to say about this one. Balls and shaft. She's got her technique down and everything, doesn't she?

Sometimes gifs don't work and they just show up as frozen images. That's frustrating. When you get those precious few seconds of motion though, woweeeee. I just love it. One of my humble goals for 2012 is to actually learn to make my own gifs.

January 2011


For January of last year, I posted nothing but milk and lactation-themed photos (and I posted a lot of them). This prompted the one and only time a person IRL has mentioned the site to me ('I liked all them milk pictures, that wuz good').

February 2011


This was one of the funnier results from the Best of for me. Initially, I thought this guy was suffering The Shame Of The Blowjob With Pube Interferrence, but I guess it's more that her braces are literally pulling them out and he is reduced to crying in agony. And his pain looks a bit like a clump of pubic hair so that's funny too.

March 2011


Bettie Page popular? No surprise there. I think this was originally from the Bettie Pages though I could be mistaken.

April 2011


This is from a double LP called Distance Between Us by Don Bradshaw Leather (released in 1972). It's like a bad acid trip concerto or something, creepy music for dark rites. It's a wonderfully chilling listen. And of course the artwork is great too.

May 2011


I think this is from an H.G. Lewis movie? Used to watch a lot of these with my main man Jay many years ago. I've mentioned him on the blog before and I just heard he had some major surgery so this bleeding woman's face is for you, Jay. Get well soon, good buddy.

June 2011


I love the idea of a proper Victorian lady fighting off the stork as it tries to present her with a baby. Visually, the way the lady's umbrella continues the diagonal line of the stork's body and bill works well.

July 2011


This got reposted like crazy. I guess people find the idea of a porn descrambler funny? It really is sort of absurd. I remember watching scrambled porn (having no other option) in the hopes of catching an odd breast emerge from the chaos, maybe half a millisecond of some frenzied rutting before waves of fuzz reclaimed the screen. It was a frustrating way to seek relief, let me assure you.

August 2011


Here we see Mr. Peter Sotos doing one of his slideshow readings. You may or may not have heard, but PURE FILTH - his long-awaited collaboration with Mr. Jamie Gillis (discussed here as long ago as March 2008) - finally has a publication street date and it is: July 17 2012. Feral House are pretty much gouging us for the book, but Sotos readers will be used to that. Of course, if they sent me a copy for review, I'd be the happiest pervert in all the land.

September 2011


I believe this is from Coffin Joe's hellacious 1967 film This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse. Hey, have you seen Coffin Joe do his thing with Heavy Trash? Pretty neato.

October 2011


I was hoping this was a series but, alas, no. Lady Cop was a one-shot DC comic from 1975 with an interesting story and a fantastic cover.

November 2011


You might think at first sight that Hara-Kiri was some way-out porn mag - but the truth is actually far more interesting: it was an artistic satirical magazine (employing such major talents as Moebius and Melvin Van Peebles) which prided itself on its provocation (readily seen in this gallery of covers).

December 2011


And I'm very pleased to close here with a smashing photo of the splendid Mr. Benny Hill. Keep your chin up, everybody!

2011 Film In Review

I'm the first to admit I didn't see a lot of new films in 2011. I think I only actually went to the cinema twice - to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and to see Thor. Two visits a year is about par for the course for me nowadays, for all the usual reasons - price mostly, but also the ads, the cellphones, and the general boorishness of audiences. Sadly this past year, the only two dedicated video stores where I live went out of business as well.

It wasn't always this way. From the time I was a kid, I'd venture out at least once a week to watch movies on the big screen. I got to the drive-in a few times every summer. With the advent of the video store*, obscure rentals became an overriding obsession (eventually leading to the weird world of mail-order video). I loved movies so much by the end of first year university, I decided to major in Film Theory. I suppose it's just as well I didn't actually finish that degree, since having a B.A. Major in Film Theory is about as useful as a ceiling fan in a hurricane.


So once I was in and now I'm out. Way out. If I haven't conveyed just how out of touch I am nowadays, please note that many of the titles I looked up for inclusion here actually came out in 2009 (and were therefore omitted). These aren't in any numerical order. I have three broad categories: just plain good movies, flawed good movies, and movies that really disappointed me.


Good Movies

A Top 7 of 2011 was fairly easy to come up with. These were films that surprised me and took things in unexpected (wonderful) directions, or else showed applause-worthy style or skill. Or both. Or all three. They're movies that fully committed to what they were doing and did it with gusto. Yes, some of these are technically 2010, so blow me (please blow me).

Kill List
I Saw The Devil
13 Assassins
Hobo With A Shotgun
The Woman
Super
Black Swan


I would include a further 10 films in this category which simply didn't appeal to me quite so much as the Top 7 but were still essentially really great or at least interesting movies.

Troll Hunter
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Drive
Midnight In Paris
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Tabloid
Trust
The King's Speech
True Grit
Beats, Rhymes and Life


Flawed Good Movies

Next up are flicks I mostly enjoyed but had a few dumb moments or a third act that went awry, things like that. They were okay in other words. I'd still recommend them if you're looking for something to watch but with some reservations. Please note: Drive Angry was, for me at least, so single-mindedly awful (aside from William Fichtner) that the whole thing became awesome and hilarious, and that merits its inclusion here.

Killer Elite
Margin Call
Hanna
Source Code
Thor
Captain America
Green Lantern
X Men: First Class
127 Hours
The Ides of March
Super 8
Drive Angry


Disappointing Movies

I'm tempted to put Thor here because it was really the biggest disappointment of the year for me (I'm a big Kirby-era Thor fan) but I also have to confess that it could have easily been ten times worse than it was, and all in all I probably just had unfair expectations.

Anyways, these were flicks that may have had one of two good scenes but overall just left me cold.

The Thing
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Blitz
Season of the Witch
The Rite
Black Death


*my favourite video stores being Suspect Video and Eyesore Video!
RENT MOVIES HERE OR THESE STORES DISAPPEAR.