Playlist for February 4th, 2011

THERE ARE SOME SELECTIONS IN THIS WEEKS PLAYLIST THAT INCLUDE ADULT LANGUAGE!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Lux Interior, vocals
Poison Ivy Rorschach, guitar

So, as the blog progresses, I will periodically put out a list as a tribute to an artist or group that I greatly admire.

This weeks list is just that.

On February 4th, 2009, the musical world lost a great artist, Lux Interior, the lead vocalist of the Cramps, who died of an aortic dissection.

The Cramps were a band that mixed good ol' rock 'n' roll with a love of monster movies, trash culture and things that are so wrong, they are good.

Over the course of their 3 decades, the Cramps, with their core of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach, helped bring the music world a vision of delinquency, political incorrectness and good times for all to enjoy.

Many great artists were a part of the Cramps galaxy, including Kid Congo Powers from the Gun Club and Jim Sclavunos from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (who has been described as an "infamous elegant degenerate").

With their sound firmly rooted in blues and rockabilly, the Cramps have performed many great covers over the years and, one day, I'll begin a series of "songs the Cramps taught us" (a phrase that not only plays on the Cramps album "Songs the Lord Taught Us", but is also the name of a great series of albums)

As a side note, if you want to see something beyond description, check out the Cramps Live at the Napa State Mental Hospital, a live show the band actually held and recorded at the Napa State Mental Hospital in California in 1980.

Crazy, man, crazy!!!

This week's list includes tunes from many of their albums along with a few live recordings.

Enjoy!

Movie Night - Barton Fink

Barton Fink stares down the hallway of the Hotel Earle

Barton Fink is a serious writer.

He takes pride in his knowing, deep down, what the "common man" is thinking and wants in life.

When he is hired by Capitol Movie Studios to write a wresting picture starring Wallace Berry, he moves from New York to Los Angeles, taking up residence in the Hotel Earle.

After an uncomfortable meeting with his neighbor, Charlie, it becomes clear that Barton is in the throws of a bad case of writers block.

Struggling to, not only finish his movie script, but keep his sanity, Barton Fink is a movie that has been dissected and written about since its debut.

Check it out!  (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)

Movie Night - American Grindhouse

In what will be the first of at least a couple/few movies I'll be watching today (thanks to the weather event I am calling "The Big Dump"), I present to you a documentary on movies to begin my cinematic day.

The claim is made that about 5 seconds after the invention of motion picture film, the first idea for an exploitation movie was thought up.

This is very believable when you watch this movie, a brief but thorough filmography with clips of movies from the late 19th century to 21st century (bound to be) classics such as Black Dynamite.

Running the gamut from sex, violence, drugs and other "taboos", American Grindhouse gives a good rundown of, not so much a genre of film, but a cinematic movement.

A movie that, as many of the taglines from the clips claim, is for ADULTS ONLY!!!

Check it out! (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)