Mongo Nation

The best sci-fi/slasher/buddy comedy/exploitation/road picture of the decade thus far?

By Jeremy Azevedo

Anyone who knows me could tell you that I spend a great deal of my time watching relatively obscure movies. In my pursuit of those rare gems that get skipped over on account of everybody’s too busy watching “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. I most often find myself eyeball deep in some real shit.

The problem with most B movies is that they often realize halfway through production that the original idea wasn’t that great to begin with and just give up, resulting in a half-hearted mess. Either that or they try to hard to be an A picture because they don’t know their place. Oftentimes, the best that you can hope for is that the film would at least be unintentionally funny. But every once in awhile you see a B movie that is executed flawlessly by people that:

1. Understand the wants and expectations of the B movie audience and…
2. Actually have the chops to pull it off, without ever looking like they’re trying too hard, to appear is if the humor (intentional or not) came to them effortlessly, and to capture the spirit of fun that makes people want to make and watch these kinds of movies in the first place.

“Dahmer Vs. Gacy” is one such movie.

Directed by cult favorite Ford Austin, “Dahmer Vs Gacy” is, on the surface, a horror/comic take off on “Freddy Vs Jason”. You’ve got your two serial killing icons, you make up some excuse for them to exist in the same time and place, and you see what might happen when the two finally meet. As the kind of kid who collected serial killer trading cards to piss my parents off, I was quite pleased to see two of my “favorites” as the titular characters. And as a Guns N’ Roses fan, I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised to see original G N’ R drummer Steven Adler make a cameo as well!

Born in a lab as part of a secret military program to breed soulless super-killers, a freak accident allows the two maniacs to escape and go on a massive killing spree across America, ultimately culminating in the showdown that we are promised by the film’s title. Along the way, they garner the attention of a bloodthirsty media, in a nod to more “serious” (though some would argue, equally campy) serial killer fare like “Natural Born Killers”. They also attract the ire of Ringo, a holy soldier to whom God (voiced by Harland Williams) speaks to through the power of crazy, as well as a shit ton of ninjas.

Yes, ninjas. Read the rest of this entry →

Sean Bones on reggae, tacos and hipsters!

Welcome to “Taco the Town”, the most delicious interview show on the Interwebs!

Because we accidentally demolished our studio during a super-intense game of “Fireball Island” that got a little out of control, we’ll be talking to famous musicians, authors, robots, ninjas, robot ninjas, actors and models in the one place that everyone can agree on: The Taco Stand!

Today we’ll be talking to hipster reggae rock band Sean Bones, a broup that started as a seasonal swimwear line and became the band that elitist record shop clerks and a handful of journalists at Pitchfork know and love today! Sean Bones joined us for tacos in sunny Echo Park to discuss their new album, “Rings”, Sean’s movie “Wah Do Dem”, how they got into reggae in the first place and whether or not Norah Jones wears her Grammys around her neck like Flavor Flav wears clocks. Check it all out right here, exclusively on CraveOnline!

Is Cage finally on the verge of mainstream success?

By Jeremy Azevedo

For a listener that’s not already intimately familiar with Cage as an artist, your initial response to Depart From Me may be something like “WTF is this? Some kind of goddamn emo-rapcore Linkin Park shit?”

And you would only be half wrong. With the lion’s share of the producing having been recorded by former Hatebreed guitarist F. Sean Martin, there is most definitely a rock sound to this record. And I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t just a touch emotional. But don’t think for a second that there’s any similarity to be found between Depart From Me and a more traditional rapcore album like the Hollywood Undead’s Swan Song, because they couldn’t be further apart stylistically in theme and content.

Cage is well know for his dark subject matter and self-loathing tirades against himself, and Depart From Me is certainly no exception to the status quo in that regard. But where this is the sort of thing that is played for laughs by an artist like Eminem, you never doubt for a second that Cage speaks every word with utmost sincerity. Although he’s come a long way since his excessively violent and negative “Alex the Worm King” persona from Movies For the Blind, the crippling depression expressed by Cage on this record will weigh heavily on an attentive listener. F. Sean Martin and El-P’s beats are almost hypnotic on several of the tracks, demanding that you follow Cage right down whatever drain he’s spiraling down.

One particularly miserable song, “I Found My Mind in Connecticut” is one of the most painfully honest and depressing songs you will hear coming from any rap artist, detailing Cage’s time spent at F. Sean Martin’s house recovering from a particularly hairy breakup. Later, on “Captain Bumout”, Cage outlines his inability to enjoy being at a nameless club, dancing with some random chick and pretending to have a great time. Anyone that’s ever experienced social anxiety would relate to the conceit that drinking crappy, overpriced well drinks and dancing with vacuous strangers to shitty pop DJs in a crowded club filled with seemingly happy people might make one “hope somebody pulls a gun out and sucks the fun out and levels the playing field for Captain Bumout”.

Not every song on this record is a slow jam to suicide to, however. There are a couple of apprehensively joyous songs about dating teenagers, telling people to “Kick Rocks” (translation: f**k off) and even a song about Cage’s fatter days (called “Fat Kids Need An Anthem”) that sounds quite similar to to the Suicidal Tendencies classic, Institutionalized. Toward the end of that song, Cage intones: “They say you are what you eat, that means I went from shit to a vegetable!” In fact, quite a few of these tracks on Depart From Me reminded me of Suicidal Tendencies, Joy Division or the Circle Jerks, which cannot be said for many any hip-hop records I’ve heard. It’s a refreshing experiment that keeps you listening, if for no other reason than that you can’t believe how well the indie-rap and punk rock styles mesh together. P.O.S. is probably eating his beanie cap in a fit of jealous rage over this right now.

If you though Kanye West was being innovative by making an entire record in Auto-Tune, then you probably couldn’t find your ass with both hands and wouldn’t understand this record. But those of you who already appreciate Cage to begin with, or even have any interest at all in seeing hip-hop evolve beyond showing off how many nonsense words you can make rhyme over endlessly repetitive samples, Depart From Me may rank as one of your favorite albums this year. Avant-garde from start to finish, Depart From Me shatters every barrier that separates indie rap from indie rock and electronic music like bastard cousins meeting for the first time at an S&M Bar in hell. Depart From Me is sick, sad shit for a sick, sad world… but at the same time, gives you hope for advancement, artistry and growth.

I award this album 9 out of 10 Unicorns Fighting a Robot Dolphin:

+1 if you are a fan of El-P, XO Skeletons, Weathermen or Head Automatica
-1 if you are really put off by the frequent inclusion of guitar samples and relatively simpler rhyme schemes

Datarock on their new album, Red, and tacos!

Welcome to “Taco the Town”, the most delicious interview show on the Interwebs!

Because we accidently flooded our studio putting on a live theater version of the classic film “Point Break”, we’ll be talking to famous musicians, authors, friendly ghosts, professional wrestlers, Muppets, actors and models in the one place that everyone can agree on: The Taco Stand!

Today we’ll be talking to members of the immensely popular Norwegian electronic group Datarock, who we were delighted to discover are almost as big fans of the taco as we are! Bassist and drummer T-Man and L.A. Gear chowed down with us in the Mobile Taco Party Van before their show in LA so we could discuss their new album, Red, their love of tacos, whether or not they are from the future, gangs, video games, Norwegian babes and why they don’t just record their songs in Spanish. Check it all out right here, exclusively on CraveOnline!

Brother Ali on Ryhmesayers, Atmosphere, P.O.S. and destiny…

By Jeremy Azevedo

Brother Ali is one of the most recognizable figures in underground hip-hop, in part because he’s a rather large albino man with the tenorous voice of an old time preacher man.

Additionally, he’s also notable one of the biggest artist’s on Rhymesayers, which is itself arguably the biggest indie label in the hip-hop game. We talked to Brother Ali backstage at Paid Dues about the label he calls home and the inspiration that keeps he and his label-mates going. Check out that video here:

Brother Ali backstage at Paid Dues ‘09

Brother Ali performing “Forest Whitaker” off of his album, “Shadows on the Sun”

Brother Ali performing “Take Me Home” off of his album, “The Undisputed Truth”