The killer must kill

This weekend I'm in the mood for another round of black gloved maniacs, crazy 70's fashions and red herrings. Last May I held my first giallo marathon. Now the time has come for a second helping of J&B and giallo madness.

Femme Fatale Friday

Christina Ricci brings the weekend.

They Call Us Death: A Conversation with Calabrese

by indrid13

Long time readers of the site will remember we spoke to Horror Punk legends Calabrese last summer (check that interview out right here. Well, the boys are back with an all new collection of ghoulish anthems entitled “They Call Us Death”! I recently had the pleasure to ask Bobby and Jimmy some questions about the new release and all sorts of other dark delights heading our way!!!

Let's talk about your new album, Calabrese III - They Call Us Death. What was the recording process like for the album?

Bobby: It was pretty nuts! Naw, not really, but I needed to start off with a bang, ya know? Ha!　　But anyway, it was a really cool process. I think it was a lot less laid back than usual, and it seemed to have a total sense of urgency when recording it. At that point, we were playing so many shows, practicing all of our old shit, we just never focused/concentrated on the new album, so I think we woke up one day and realized time flew right fucking by! We hustled and kicked our own asses to finish the new album, and I think it came out really great!

Do you have a favorite track from the album?

Bobby : I really like, "Violet Hellfire," 'cause it makes me, as a guitar player, sound like a finger-flyin', guitar slingin', million fucking bucks. Aside from that, I'd say, "They Call Us Death," It's our title track, it's about death and it's got a grip of ass-kicking, face-punching riffage!

The cover art, by the Goon's Eric Powell is amazing. How did you hook up with Eric, and how involved were you with the overall design?

Jimmy: We met Eric at DragonCon in Georgia a few years ago, and then last year he asked us to play at his Goon 10th Anniversary show. When working with Eric, we just told him we wanted the cover to look like a 1970’s horror magazine, like Eerie or Creepy. He asked for some reference pictures of us, and the next thing you know he painted that amazing album cover!

Could you tell us a little bit about the exclusive cards your fans can get by pre-ordering the new album? How did each of you come up with your alter-egos featured on the cards?

Bobby: Yeah, we wanted to give something special to those who pre-ordered, 'cause last time we gave out signed shrunken heads, which was way cool, but not 100% Calabrese related, ya know? The postcard idea, of us in various monster forms, came up after we realized we couldn't agree on one single thing! So we each went our own way, Jimmy as ass-kicking Ash, Davey as a demon-wolf and me as a messed up looking vampire. None of that pretty boy shit! We call it, "Three Portraits of Death" for a reason.

Last time we spoke a bit about your upcoming comic book. How's it coming along?

Jimmy: D.W. Frydendall is currently working on coloring the first issue. But right now, we are focusing on the new CD. But once things settle down, we’ll focus on a clear release date for issue #1!

I'm also a fan of your new blog. Please tell our readers all about it!

Bobby: Ahh, yes! As some may know, Jimmy runs the Calabrese blog (http://calabrese666.blogspot.com) but I do my own thing from time to time. I wanted to keep it strictly rock and roll related, but it's kinda morphed into whatever I want, which is both fun and nonsensical. I can ramble on about Star Wars, beer, album reviews, Halloween decorations, whatever's game for me. I figure calling it "Face Melting Rock and Roll Mania" blog will pretty much encompass all of my likes, dislikes and general insanity! I do keep it pretty "behind the scenes," though. I usually post photos Calabrese never used, maybe some more interviews of ourselves later on in future weeks...everything Jimmy ain't doin'...I'm doin'! Check out the madness here:http://bobbyvampcalabrese.blogspot.com

Has Calabrese ever thought about creating exclusive vinyl figures (perhaps as a limited edition) like the Mediacom Danzig line?

Bobby: Of course we thought about it! And it would be AMAZING! We have no idea how to do it, or would most likely not have the funds to support such a massive undertaking, but I think that would be one of our ultimate goals. I really, really wanna have a handful of my own action figures displayed in Castle Greyskull and the Ewok Village. But hey, I never thought we'd have a comic of ourselves, and that's gonna happen...so we'll see, ladies and gentleman...we'll see!

While we are on the subject of different venues of representing the band, have you ever considered an animated music video?

Bobby: Yeah, actually, this exact idea came up! For a hot minute, we were close to having an animated video, sliced with real video of ourselves. Kinda like that Ah-Ha music video mixed with the one of Paula Abdul dancing with that wolf-dog-thing. Needless to say, it would be amazing! But if that ain't the case, we'll probably be working with our good friend again, Brian Pulido, who did the first video for, "Voices of the Dead." Hey, we want the best, so we stick with the best!

I know we've talked about this a bit outside of the interview but, have you seen any good horror movies lately?

Bobby: Me and Jimmy both recently saw, "The House of the Devil.” It was way cool, but the ending kinda sucked. To be honest though, I almost DO kinda dig the ending, though, out if it's sheer absurdity (it almost felt like an old-school, Italian horror type ending) but I won't say too much and give the whole damn thing away. But it's worth a viewing. Oh yes.

Anything else you'd like to tell the good folks reading this?

Bobby: If you haven't pre-ordered the new album, "They Call Us Death"...do it! You'll snag yourself the signed, "Three Portraits of Death," and bragging rights of owning the album before a lot of other people. Thanks for the support, guys!

Thanks again guys for another kick ass interview! Everyone should head here: http://www.calabreserock.com and pre-order “They Call Us Death” today!!

Hump Day Posters: 1983 vol. 1

Panboredom

Pandorum (2009)

Director: Christian Alvart

Writers: Travis Milloy, Christian Alvart

Starring: Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Cam Gigandet, Eddie Rouse, Norman Reedus

"I can't remember any of my life before this flight began."

In the year 2174 the Earth is dying due to overpopulation and war. So earth sends the space ark "Elysium" on a mission to colonize a distant earth type world. Bower (Foster) awakens from hyper sleep with a case of memory loss. Seems it's a side effect of being in hyper sleep for so long a time. Little by little he starts to remember his mission and that he may have a wife somewhere on the ship, asleep like he was. Lt. Payton (Quaid) soon awakens from hyper sleep as well.

Payton stays behind while Bower goes to fix the ship's reactor. Bower's remembered that he's the ship's engineer and that the reactor is going to go boom. Bower meets up with a female scientist (Traue) who likes to use kung fu at the drop of a hat. They run afoul of strange primitive monster like hunters who have taken over a large portion of the ship and like to hunt humans. Meanwhile Payton finds a frightened officer (Gigandet) who might be suffering from a type of space crazies called pandorum.

The trailer to Pandorum made me think of Event Horizon. Which isn't surprising since that film's director Paul WS Anderson produced Pandorum. There's a bit of Alien and Predator in here as well. I'm not a Paul WS Anderson hater, I've enjoyed some of his films. But the biggest problem I've had with most of them is their plainness. Slick looking and filled with action but lacking in anything that gives a good Sci-Fi action film that specialness. Just look at the first three Alien films, Predator or the first two Terminator films. They've all got a special something about them. The biggest problem I've had with his films and Pandorum is that I never gave a damn about any of the characters. Every character introduced was bland then the last. I never once cared about them or if they survived. We're not even given much background on any of them expect for a few lines here and there. Quaid and Foster are good actors who deserve better then what their given to work with here. Reedus of the Boondock Saints film is wasted in a role that's barely five minutes long. The monsters also suffer from being very bland. They seem more goofy then threating. The origins of the creatures is given short shift for more bland kung fu scenes. There's a couple of twists here in the plot. Both of which you'll see coming from a mile away.

It's really surprising to me just how many positive reviews this film got on IMDB. I don't know what they saw in it. I didn't hate the film. If it had been badly made or made me hate it, that would have one thing. It's well made. But it's just so boring that I was checking the time reaming counter constantly. I'll take a bad film over a boring one any day.