On Commodity Cheese and Bo Diddley’s scooter: Norton Records hits 25 (2011)

NOTE: This Q&A originally appeared on WMSE's now defunct blog, Sonic Diet. Sadly, Billy Miller passed away in 2016. Meanwhile, his wife and business partner, Miriam Linna, has continued Norton Records, started the awesome Kicksville Radio, and is currently resurrecting the legendary Kicks Magazine, to name just a few wonderful things she puts out in the world. It seems the show I mention has disappeared from the WMSE site, but here is my playlist to honor the label hitting 25.

Gino Domenico/Associated Press

Without hesitation, I will tell you that Norton Records is my favorite label. Where else would I have been turned on and corrupted all these years by the likes of Hasil Adkins, Link Wray, T. Valentine and the Flat Duo Jets or found out about the Readymen, Ron Haydock and the Figures of Light? The New York-based label was born out of Kicks magazine in 1986 by Miriam Linna and Billy Miller. The husband and wife duo, who just released their 200th LP on Norton and have put out another 300 45’s, also perform together in the A-Bones. They’ve even started a publishing arm, Kicks Books, to spread the Norton gospel to the literary world. Miller and Linna were kind enough recently to respond to a few questions, which you can read below. I will pay tribute to Norton’s anniversary today on Zero Hour from noon to 3 p.m. Tune in and don’t forget to pledge! 

What does it mean to you personally for Norton to hit 25? If you were to be awarded some sort of rock-n-roll memento to recognize your anniversary, what would you wish for? 

Miriam Linna: It doesn’t feel like 25 a-tall. Feels like 25 weeks. Seriously. The Capitol tower. 

Billy Miller: Bo Diddley’s scooter. 

How difficult was it to put out your first release, Hasil Adkins’ Out to Hunch? How many copies were initially made? 

BM: We had somewhat of a built in audience though our Kicks magazine coverage of Hasil and we had plenty of his tapes to choose from. We originally made 500 copies. 

Was there ever a time in the early history of the label when you thought about not continuing? Were there other labels or people at the time that you looked to for guidance or inspiration? 

BM: We never considered stopping. There’s always more projects than time, actually. We were friends with Donn (Fileti) and Eddie (Gries), who had the doo wop/R&B label Relic and they answered a lot of our questions. But we didn’t pattern Norton after any label in particular. 

ML: We’ve had some really challenging times, but we’ve not ever considered stopping. The guys at Relic were the people we looked up to the most. 

What has been your biggest selling release? 

BM: Here Are the Sonics!!! Over the years, Norton has uncovered an incredible amount of wonderful, forgotten music. 

What do you look for when deciding if something might make a good release? 

ML: Personally – my favorite realm is the unknown. Totally unknown old music, at least unheralded and unissued! I HATE it when people call us a reissue label. That’s the last thing we want to be. 

In the past few years, Norton has put out excellent albums and 45’s by the Tandoori Knights, Girls at Dawn, Bloodshot Bill and other current musicians after a period without many new acts joining the roster. Did you ever consider focusing strictly on reissued material? 

ML: Watch that “reissue” tag, Andy. Old stuff is where we are at but when new artists come along with their heart and sound in the right place, we’ll see their sounds out on Norton. New stuff not the norm for Norton. 

How would describe Norton’s influence on independent music/labels over the last 25 years? 

ML: Jeepers, dunno. If anything, to encourage people to listen to decent music and to love 45’s in particular. To give unknown recordings a chance, to realize that popular does necessarily not equal good, then again, neither does obscure. If you can glean the heart and soul of a crazy little Norton record by some lunatic you never heard of, then the job is done, and if you can dig the back story of that record, then we’re all the better for it. 

What new or upcoming releases can you tell me about? What else is on your slate? 

ML: Six volumes of Southwest mayhem – unissued stuff, super scarce recordings – which grew out of the volumes on Long John Hunter and Bobby Fuller. Giving the SW the same treatment as we gave the NW with the Sonics, Wailers, and loads of unknown Northwest combos from the late 50s thru about 1966. Also, finally, the Del-Aires collection will come out, the guys from Horror of Party Beach. The Del-Aires, like so many Norton releases, were originally hatched as Kicks magazine stories that just growed. Kicks mag may be gone, but Kicks Books paperback line is just beginning, hatched from Andre Williams’ rehab sensation Sweets. Next up, This Planet is Doomed (Sun Ra), followed by Save the Last Dance for Satan (Nick Tosches) followed by Pulling the Train (Harlan Ellison) followed by Kim Fowley’s trilogy! Look out, glittering illiterati! 

Words of advice for someone starting an independent music label? 

BM: Don’t expect your day to end at 5:00. 

ML: We never went into it as though we were starting a label, so we don’t have advice by experience. The first album – Hasil – was a one-off to feed the frenzy after the Kicks story… then Esquerita popped out of jail and landed in our laps and suddenly, we had two albums. It kind of just mushroomed. We had day jobs for the first ten years of the label, if that says anything! It’s a different world now, maybe easier with the internet and communication being fast, free and easy, but on the other hand, there are the same trials with actually making a piece of plastic, or 500, and getting them sold. I guess that’s easier now too with the electronic world we’re living in. Aw heck, advice would be don’t bite off more than you can chew, be prepared to eat commodity cheese for a long while. 

Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found (Continuum Books, 2009), by Joe Bonomo

Note: I wrote the following book review for Country Standard Time way back in November 2009. In my most recent Turner's Picture Palace, I wrote about a more recent take on The Killer, Ethan Cohen's fab 2022 documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind. You can follow Joe Bonomo's writing at https://joebonomo.substack.com/ or purchase the book here.


Have you ever left a concert buzzing and beaming, sweaty and soul-fried, awakened, made a true believer - an overwhelming feeling in your gut that you just witnessed musical history? Joe Bonomo certainly has and he's never forgotten. It's with this spirit he skillfully investigates what some call one of the greatest rock-n-roll performances of all time, Jerry Lee Lewis' April 4, 1964 show at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany.

The resulting album, "Live at the Star-Club Hamburg," despite being highly revered by fans and other musicians alike, is currently not in print in the U.S. (it is available from Germany-based Bear Family on compact disc and on a newly released vinyl version). The performance, dubbed the "very essence of rock & roll" by allmusic.com, serves as the centerpiece of Bonomo's book, which follows Lewis mostly from the period after his 1958 wedding scandal to a pre-teen cousin through his success on the country charts in the late 1960s and early '70s.

A professor at Northern Illinois University and author of a wildly entertaining book on The Fleshtones, Bonomo is a capable researcher and engaging writer who often shares his experiences as a music fan to good effect. His introduction to Lewis as a pre-teen in the 1970s came through a budget-line LP compilation with a lifeless, re-recorded version of Breathless that left Bonomo with little appreciation of the Killer, who he decided was "strictly Fifties and strictly out of it." He would later learn, of course, to appreciate Jerry Lee, but the youthful experience helps him consider the theme of "sincerity" and Lewis' "battles" with it, which he explores throughout "Lost and Found."

Bonomo also recalls great live shows he's attended from the Rolling Stones to the New Bomb Turks and the small number of great live albums he's listened to. He writes, "Until a live album ... can replicate tinnitus or a chest full of illicit smoke or the helpless urge to grope the painted-on Jordache ass of the girl standing in front of you, a live album risks failure." The celebrated Star-Club performance is detailed extensively from the seedy section of Hamburg where it occurred to the career of Lewis' backing band that night, the Nashville Teens.

Enlightening interviews abound including producer Jerry Kennedy, the recently departed Shelby Singleton and Jim Dickinson, and contemporary artists such as Dave Alvin, John Doe and Jim (Reverend Horton Heat) Heath. The Killer himself would not agree to be interviewed for "Lost and Found," and while his audacious voice is certainly missed, Bonomo has managed a thoroughly exciting and thoughtful story that should delight both Jerry Lee Lewis fans and anyone who's had their world shook up by a live performance.

Turner's Picture Palace: August 2024

 

For seemingly forever and a day, we’ve lived in a sequel-saturated, this-that-and-the other cinematic universe/IP world, so it’s fun to read some anonymous reporter in a 1936 edition of the Altoona (Pa.) Tribune bitching about there being too many goddammed vampire movies since Dracula strolled into Hollywoodland: “When Universal made Dracula a few years ago, there was no way of knowing that the wraiths of every vampire that ever scared an old maid would come out once more from the dark corners of the earth. However, they swooped in great numbers on the wings of night, to cast their shivery shadows almost endlessly on the theatre screens of the world.” Written in response to Dracula’s Daughter appearing in old Altoona, the article ends hopefully that this silly sequel business might finally be done: “Perhaps Dracula’s Daughter will set the wings of superstition at rest and take the claws out of the vampire.”

But of course, I watched Dracula’s Daughter on Universal’s Dracula: Complete Legacy Edition Blu-Ray collection, which over six films, captures Drac’s doings in the Golden Age-time period before and after this Altoona (character) assassination. And I loved it, lured in by Gloria Holden’s nightmare eyes and broken soul, the moody and sensuous black and white cinematography of monster movie master George Robinson, and the delightful abundance of snooty British humor. Maguerite Churchill is stunning and often hilarious as psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth’s fiancée and secretary, Janet, who often seems like she has just escaped from a screwball comedy set.

Meanwhile, the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald dismissed the movie as nonsense, but seemed to have a much firmer handle on sequels and Hollywood: “Students of Bram Stoker will know that this should be final; and that there’s no fear of the future appearance of Dracula’s granddaughter. But students of Hollywood will not be quite so sure.”

Yes, I watch too many movies, but I also own way, way too many, including an always-growing pile of box sets. In addition to the Dracula box set, last month I focused on digging into box sets from Arrow, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Criterion, and others. Some of my favorites included my first “Bruce Li” movie (the charismatic and highly appealing Bruce Liang), Bruce and the Iron Finger (1979, not to mention a scene-stealing, ride-em-cowgirl performance by Nami Misaki as a kinky villain), Melvin Van Pebbles’ life-affirming Don’t Play Us Cheap (1972), the mind-blowing Voodoo Heartbeat, aka, The Sex Serum of Dr. Blake (1970), and If Footmen Tire, What Will Horses Do? (1971, more below on that).

Killer: As I watched Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022), loving every second of the Ethan Cohen documentary and it’s all Jerry, all the time approach, I wondered if the notoriously God-fearing but hell-raising Lewis had seen If Footmen Tire, What Will Horses Do? as it made its way around Southern churches and community centers. Surely, he would identify with its we’re-all-going-to-hell-because-of-our-heathen-ways message and its deliriously unhinged, bloody way of telling it. But then I consulted my copy of Nick Tosches’ Hellfire : The Jerry Lee Lewis Story and was reminded that in 1971, Jerry Lee lost his mother; his divorce with Myra Gale Lewis was finalized; she married the private dick who had investigated him and his lyin, cheatin’ ways; he was sued for allegedly attacking a woman at a Memphis supper club; and, finally later in the year, he got remarried –  and separated two weeks later. So, a busy man, a beat (but not out) man. Not much time to think about communist invasions and infiltration. Tosches captures this sad, sordid tale in a chapter with the fantastic title “The Secret Parts of the Night.”

The King of Cult’s Little Brother: I came to The Cat Burglar (1961) through Roger Corman’s The Intruder (1962), a movie I rewatched in August with my movie club, again struck by the performance of Leo Gordon, who is such a strong part of an incredibly fierce, tough movie. Gordon served as a screenwriter for several Corman movies, including The Wasp Woman, The Terror, and Tower of London and had numerous other writing gigs and an extensive acting career. He also worked with Gene Corman on The Cat Burglar (at one point was to be called The Case of the Black Book) – a ripping crime tale, filmed on location in L.A., depicting the downfall of a minor criminal with a code who tangles with spies and thugs over a briefcase containing some sort of dastardly Cold War-formula. Goes down easy over 65 entertaining minutes. Said The Anniston Star: “Producer Gene Corman’s conviction that realistic stories call for complete set realism, resulted in the film’s feel of urgency and suspense which Leo Gordon’s taught script demanded.” Gordon and G. Corman teamed up again in 1967’s pro-flamethrower Tobruk, a movie R. Corman would borrow from frequently, starring Rock Hudson and George Peppard, and 1970’s You Can’t Win Them All with Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson.

Other crime favorites from the month included Dead End (1937), Hayseed (2023), Blonde Ice (1948), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and Mystery Street (1950), all first-time watches. There’s a fascinating story about Frances Glessner Lee, a female forensics pioneer who was involved in the real life story behind Mystery Street in a recent Boston Globe magazine article – unfortunately, behind a paywall.

At the Movies, Mostly Blah: I had much less success in theaters in August than I had in July, but I didn’t make it to a couple I wanted to see (I’m looking at you, Strange Darling and Sing Sing). What I did see largely left me cold, slightly entertained sometimes, or annoyed: I’m trying to not look at you, Borderlands (2024), Blink Twice (2024), and Mother, Couch (2023). I did enjoy watching Coup! (2023) 1 ½ times – thanks to the summer storm that knocked out power to the theater during my first viewing. It’s a pandemic movie set during that other pandemic, the Spanish Plague, with characters and motivations that could have been ripped out of current news stories and social media posts. In the lead role, Peter Sarsgaard absolutely carries the movie, but Sarah Gadon is also memorable as the sensible wife of a pompous fake played by Billy Magnussen (stay out of his pool, peasant, or there will be consequences). 

I had better luck streaming new and newish movies, especially Al Warren’s Dogleg (2023) on Mubi. You’ve seen the set-up before: various seemingly unrelated segments coming together at the end (Slacker, Short Cuts, etc.) Warren’s film has plenty of its own pleasures, especially Warren as Alan, a “balding film director,” who loses his girlfriend’s dog at a gender reveal party. We see the indie movie within an indie movie he’s making and the diverse characters he meets as he attempts to locate “Roo.”

Black and White – and, yep, Deadly: I also managed to watch a handful of black-and-white horrors (dare I go all black and white for my annual all-horror October –yes, I will!) and two that stayed with me the most were Alex Nicol’s The Screaming Skull (1958) and Jean Yarborough’s King of the Zombies (1941). Neither movie was especially what you might call good, but both are highly watchable in their own ways (and besides, when the hell has “not good” stopped me?).

The Screaming Skull’s low-budget thrills contain zero ounces of fright, but they look pretty damn cool. I also guess I hate-watched it too, hoping for the condescending, mansplaining Eric Whitlock (portrayed convincingly assholish by John Hudson) to get his. Spoiler: he gets his. A column by Dick Williams in the June 28, 1958 Los Angeles Mirror reported that American International Pictures “Prexy” James Nicholson had recently screened The Screaming Skull and Bert I. Gordon’s Attack of the Puppet Master at his home for his teenage daughters and their friends. Mr. B.I.G., and his then wife Flora were even in attendance. Reported Dick: “The twin bill fared well. But Nicholson says they don’t hesitate to give the horse-laugh to anything they don’t like or consider phony.”

The pleasure of the cheap, cheap looking King of the Zombies almost exclusively comes from watching Mantan Moreland perform. He is consistently funny and truly captivates in every scene he’s in, which is, fortunately, most of ‘em!  The movie is unquestionably racially insensitive, and it offers interesting insight to read coverage of the movie in Kansas City, Missouri’s African-American newspaper, The Call, from when King of the Zombies appeared there in August 1941. In its review, The Call notes Moreland’s popularity, writing that he is “second only to Rochester in fan mail.” Legendary actor and comedian Eddie “Rochester” Anderson’ was a regular on Jack Benny’s radio program at the time. Other news in The Call that day was decidedly darker. Lewis Gordon, a 40-year-old prisoner in Trenton, Georgia, died after being crammed in a  7-by-7 ½ cell with 22 other prisoners who had been protesting because of conditions at the prison camp: “It developed in the testimony that guards were asked repeatedly for an hour and a half before they were released, to take Gordon out because he was dying, but they laughed.” 

In June 1973, Moreland was interviewed by The Independent in Richmond, California. He talked about how fellow Monogram Pictures actor Frankie Darrow, who would later work as a 5-foot-3 stuntman, a “kid actor” at the time, would get beat up and bruised frequently for defending Moreland every time someone called him a “Black something or other.” But Moreland said he still would have done it the same way: “Sure, I used to roll my eyes, and today they’ll tell you that’s bad. But people came out the theaters laughing, not mad at anyone.” He died just a few months later on Sept. 28, 1973.

 

Hoodoo Gurus Back in the U.S.A.

Note: This story I wrote first appeared in 2023 in the Shepherd Express in Milwaukee. It marked the Hoodoo Gurus' first return to the United States after several decades. The legendary Australian band is mounting another American tour in September, the "Back to the Stoneage Tour," which hits Madison at the Barrymore Theater on Thursday, Sept. 19. Tickets are still available. Dave Faulkner and band are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut album, 1984's Stoneage Romeos. 

The mighty Hoodoo Gurus are loose in America for the first time in decades and eager to make you Turn On.

The legendary Australian garage rock band, which celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2021, hits Milwaukee on Saturday night at Shank Hall for a sold-out show.

While the band has done a few dates on the coasts in the U.S. this century, it was the 1990s when the Hoodoo Gurus last ventured on such a far-flung tour across America that will take them to nearly 20 states in less than a month, says front man Dave Faulkner.

The band made its U.S. return directly from a series of large venue shows in Brazil. The American shows have been decidedly cozier – largely in clubs – but no less rocking, according to social media reports.
“We’re playing as strong as we ever did,” Faulkner says. “I think that’s what most people who come to the show wonder: What are they going to be hearing and seeing? And we think this group is as good as you’ve ever heard us, with more insight into what we try to do as well.”

Hoodoo Gurus and their management had the displeasure of rebooking this American tour several times after being stopped repeatedly since 2020 by COVID-19 as flare-ups and related restrictions occurred in Australia and elsewhere.

“We postponed it once, then, of course, we postponed it again, and then we had to postpone a third time,” Faulkner says. “And I think it was the third time, I said, ‘We can’t do this to people. It’s been three years.’”
The fourth time was the charm apparently. The Tour that Seemed It Would Never Happen finally commenced in New Orleans on April 25, where Faulkner chatted by phone.

“I’m living and breathing in the United States,” he says. “And I’m getting ready to play, so it’s all happening, baby.”

Chariot of the Gods, Hoodoo’s Gurus first album since 2010’s Purity of Essence and only their third this century, came out last year to largely positive reviews.

Faulkner says the band had wanted to take off 2020 from playing shows and record and release the album in time for the Hoodoo Gurus’ 40^th anniversary, but COVID again played a part in delaying the band’s plans.
Even before the pandemic, however, Faulkner says they decided to make the album a little different from past recordings and not just head to a studio for a set time and knock it out.

“We decided to do a few boutique-style singles,” Faulkner says. “We’d go in a record a couple of tracks for a single, and then pull everything down and go away for a month or so and then come back and start again.
“It was kind of like how we did our first album, Stoneage Romeos, because at that time we didn’t have enough profile in the marketplace. Nobody knew who we were, so we had to make a few singles.”

Most of the recent singles, “Answered Prayers,” “Carry On,” “World of Pain,” and “Get Out of Dodge,” ended up on Chariot of the Gods. Another single, the angry, yet decidedly catchy, anti-Trump anthem, “Hung Out to Dry,” is only available on the double vinyl release of the album.

“We would just make the songs right there, and not think about the overall approach of the record, just make them as they come,” Faulkner says. “It made the songs have their own unique character because the drums never sound the same, and we were given space, so it didn’t sound like it was coming off a production line, Henry Ford-like, where everything sounds like everything else and everything’s black like the Model T.”

 This approach was slowed down more by COVID protocols in Australia that prevented band members from being in the same rooms for three months. While many musicians are successful completing their parts of songs on their own and sharing recorded files with other band members who might be far away, that approach doesn’t work for Hoodoo Gurus, Faulkner says.

“We have to be a room together communicating, working with our parts and feeling it,” he says. “It’s an experience rather than you do your beat and I’ll do my beats. The beats always have to be connected rather than done separately.”

The album’s name comes from the 1968 novel Chariots of the Gods: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past by Erich von Daniken, which explored the idea of “ancient astronauts.”  Faulkner says the book made a big impact in pop culture when he was a teenager despite its ridiculous claims.

“It’s a fictional novel, but it’s supposed to be a science fact that the aliens made the Pyramids and other large structures around the world,” he says. “It’s pretty silly, the whole thing, and I kind of like that.”

Faulkner compares it to modern reports of people using horse medicine and other bizarre “remedies” for COVID.

“There are many people who will take advantage of the vulnerable and impressionable and making them think they know more than they do,” he says.

There seems to be a pretty good chance this is not the last time you will hear from the Hoodoo Gurus. Maybe soon, maybe not, Faulkner says.
“Every record we’ve made has been we’ve thought would be the only record we made and the end of our story,” he says. “It captures everything we want to say. Then a few years go by, and you think I’ve got a few more ideas, and you make another one.”

To conclude, here’s a still essential question from the previously referenced “(Let’s All) Turn On” as Hoodoo Gurus returns to Milwaukee: 

“Waiting for my man, baby, can the can/I wanna hold your hand, remember Sam the Sham?”

Hoodoo Gurus performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13, Shank Hall. The show is sold out.

Move Your Ass: It's Graduation Day

 Note: This review first appeared in Drive-In Asylum's 1981 Yearbook Special in 2023. It is now sold out, but the zine is currently working on a 1980 Yearbook Special, and I wrote a review of Battle Beyond the Stars for it. Look for it soon!

Despite being thoroughly trashed by critics in 1981, the Herb Freed-directed Graduation Day is a mostly appealing -- and often funny -- slasher enlivened by a cool cast, quirkiness, and sleaze. 

The adults are all self-absorbed and clueless and are either dismissing, ignoring, scolding, harassing, or banging the students. This is all filtered through the busyness/craziness of a high school graduation week but also one that is in the aftermath of a student-athlete’s death on the track field. 

Principal Guglione (Michael Pataki) actively despises the students and tells his secretary Blondie (E.J. Peaker), with whom he’s having an affair, to come in his office quickly – “like a bunny.” Pataki and Peaker are hilarious as an office/sex duo who fight over having to deal with those damn, worried parents who want to know why their kids haven’t come home yet from last night.

Coach George Michaels (Christopher George) is an intense, black-haired SOB track/gymnastics coach who says things like “move your little ass, Sally” to students and sees himself as a misunderstood, Great Molder of Young People, shitcanned because of a blood clot.

 Anne Ramstead (Patch Mackenzie), on leave from the Navy, comes to town after her younger sister’s death and is met with disdain by certain portions of the local population who call her a “lesbo,” “bitch,” and “weird” – all within the first 20 minutes of the movie. Mackenize is quite effective as a tough, tormented sibling who wants answers and isn’t afraid to use a little Kung Fu -- or squeeze the balls of taxpayers/sexual predators -- in the process. 

The movie’s title sequence almost seems like a TV drama or Afterschool Special with footage of a high school track event, propelled by a sports-appropriate disco song, a crowd that can’t get enough track, and athletes in action, on the track and off. But it ends with the victory of Laura Ramstead (the late Ruth Ann Llorens) in the 200-meter race – and her subsequent collapse and death.

After that opening, we see members of the track team being picked off, one by one, in various bizarre and bloody ways by an unseen, black-gloved killer, followed by a close-up of their stopwatch.

We come to know various students like Doris (holy shit, that is Vanna White), and Laura’s boyfriend, Kevin (E. Danny Murray), whose home can best be described as an art assault; and also friendly Dolores (Linnea Quigley), who romances her boyfriend by telling him, “I am going to nail your ass tonight,” and passes music class by the skin of her, er, by her naked skin. We also meet music teacher/playboy Mr. Roberts (Richard Balin) who after introducing his “snake” to an underage student and is pranked, knows who the real “scumbag” is.

One of Freed’s most exciting scenes takes place at an outside roller rink, conveniently adjacent to the wooded area near the school where some murders have already taken place, while a glam band, Felony, rocks out and a delirious layer of lights swirls.

On the trail of the killer, incapably, are Officer MacGregor (Virgil Frye), who keeps a joint in his gun and can’t find his badge, and Detective Halliday (Carmen Argenziano), who describes the students as “about to fly out of their nest and shit on the rest of us.”

Graduation Day was scripted by Freed and his wife Anna Marisse, who died in 1984, from a story by co-producer David Baughn, who previously worked with Freed on 1976’s Haunts and 1980’s Beyond Evil, and earlier had been a sales agent for Russ Meyer.

Notably, Freed points out in an accompanying interview on Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-Ray that he “never came close to horror again” and indicates it was due to a “self-reckoning” over the violence depicted in the movie and the “contamination” of the slasher scene.

MOVIE MOVIE Returns ... In 4-D!

 

Last time I “officially” talked to Derek Davidson in 2020 (we talk unofficially, mostly about movies, like all the damn time!), it was amid a frenzy of creative activity for the New York City musician with his long-running band The Electric Mess. But that group sadly broke up in 2022, and Derek has started anew with MOVIE MOVIE, a cinematically charged garage pop supergroup featuring members of The Above (Frank Caira, vocals and guitar) and Twin Guns (Andrea Sicco, lead vocals and guitar), as well as Davidson (bass and keyboards) and his Electric Mess bandmate Alan J. Camlet (drums and percussion). MOVIE MOVIE’s second full-length, the fantastic and varied In 4-D! is out digitally and on CD through Bandcamp. Topsy-Turvy will release it on vinyl in late September or early October.

I recently chatted with Derek about his new group, new album, and more:

When I last interviewed you, you were still with The Electric Mess. Can you tell me about the end of that band and how MOVIE MOVIE came together? I wouldn’t go so far as to say we were a Covid casualty, because after about 15 years, we might have hit the point where it was time to start doing other things, but right when the pandemic started our fifth record had come out and a Spain/France tour booked in May of 2020 canceled, and no local shows for a while, and we just never regained momentum after that. It was probably the catalyst we needed to officially make the split. But by the same turn, with all that down time I was able to write new songs and make demos and didn't want to wait around to see if the Mess would ever regroup. I wanted to hit the studio to record our debut EP, so the bands did overlap for a bit. In fact, MOVIE MOVIE's debut show was the Electric Mess’s second to last show.

Coming from the Electric Mess, what did you have in mind for MOVIE MOVIE? In a pretty short time, you guys have put out two albums and an EP. Can you keep up this pace? Ha! Well, as I said, with so much downtime in 2020, I was having a creative burst, writing new songs, but also I had a bunch of songs on tap that were slated to be Electric Mess songs once we came back. Some we actually worked on once or twice, others we never got to try. A couple of them turned up on the Now Playing EP, and about four of them are on the new record, In 4-D! Our first LP Storyboards was all new songs since I was so inspired how the EP went. I thought those fit the best. When we recorded them, The Electric Mess still hadn’t called it a day, so for the new one I had a small backlog I was able to tap into. Andrea contributed two songs to Storyboards, some unused Twin Gun ideas he gave me to choose from.

So many good songs on the new album (“You Can’t Hide from the Lies,” “Damaged Goods,” “Anywhere But Here” “I Want You Back (Again)” and others are early favorites). How does the songwriting process work for MOVIE MOVIE? Creatively, all the songs for this band I make very detailed demos going in before I present them to the band. Andrea studies them, comes up with his ideas, guitar-wise and vocally what he feels comfortable with, Alan gets his drums parts, and Frank runs some background vocal suggestions by me, which are usually right on the money. I consider him our not-so-secret weapon, since the vocals and harmonies in this band are the most important part to me. We rehearse a couple times and then just hit the studio to record. There’s no weeks of rehearsals or arrangement meetings or playing songs endlessly live when you're sick and tired of them when you'll finally do record. This keeps everything fresh. “You Can't Hide From the Lies” was definitely one that developed after we recorded the basic tracks, initially I thought it would be like a ‘70s Gordon Lightfoot type song, but turned into a 1980s prom song! Andrea added multiple guitar parts, and I added lots of keys and strings, so that one really needed to develop and be fleshed out, though the basics were all there. That one vocally is my favorite on the record, Frank and Alan on backups and harmonies really shine. “Damaged Goods,” on the other hand, the basic track was done in literally one take, with overdubs later. But what you hear is us just banging it out. That was an Electric Mess leftover.

What movie references have you cleverly hidden from me in the songs? Haha, I have to admit, I can’t think of any direct movie references or inspirations. “Lone Warrior,” from our last album, was inspired by Paris, Texas, and “Born to Win,” obviously the title inspired by a classic, but at the moment I can’t think of any Easter eggs or anything cryptic. If it comes to me, I'll let you know! However, the structure is supposed to be a flashback, from the 1960s through modern day, covering garage, psychedelic rock, glam, into New Romantic, post-punk, ending on arena rock. The original title was Flashbacks, but I thought too much like Storyboards in the one-word title, so In 4-D! It keeps it in the movie realm and especially the cover by Darren Merinuk.

Have you had any opportunities to play the songs live? We played one show recently, our first of the year, and we played all new songs, 7 of 10 from In-4D! It was a bit of a challenge, since as I said all the songs are basically studio creations to start, and then we need to actually learn how to play them live. This record has a lot of bells and whistles, not literally, but playing some of them live takes some adjustment, particularly “You Can’t Hide from the Lies,” which is rather lush.

You’ve maintained your relationship with Soundflat beginning with the Electric Mess and are one of the few American bands on the Cologne, Germany-based label. What is that relationship like? Soundflat is great, and Marco Traxel, the head of the label, is my rock ‘n’ roll guardian angel! He put out four Electric Mess records, and our last LP and now this one. Of course, MOVIE MOVIE is on their subsidiary called Tospy-Turvy, which are bands and records he likes that aren’t the typical 1960s garage style Soundflat favors. It’s nice being out in Europe, since we have toured in Spain already in November 2023, and plan to go back in spring 2025. Our EP came out on Ghost Highway/KOTJ, so it’s great having a base there. Record labels aren’t a charity, so it’s good to know our record sold well enough for Topsy-Turvy to do our new one.

 

 

Turner's Picture Palace: July 2024

I watch way too many movies. Each month for the last year or so, I've shared my favorite new watches in list form with a few friends. This month I turned it into a "movie notes" thing. Next thing you know, I decide it's a new monthly column for Paperback Zero. Why not? Let's go:

Hitmen and Hitgirls (revisited) -- Somehow watched four movies this month about hitmen: (ranked) LaRoy, Texas (2023); Looper (2012); The Outside Man (1972); and Hit Man (2023). Loved the hell out of LaRoy, Texas, which I wish I had caught in a theater. It reminded me of ‘90s neo-noir movies like Red Rock West (1993, also about a person accidentally stealing a hitman gig and the real hitman being an unhappy camper), Clay Pigeons (1998), and U-Turn (1997). Steve Zahn adds high hoot. As usual, the French are noir hip: LaRoy, Texas was the Grand Special Prize winner at the 2023 Deauville Film Festival. Oui, oui. The Outside Man, in fact, is directed by a Frenchman, Jacques Deray, but set delightfully in early ‘70s LA. I could probably switch my ranking order between any of the top 3, but Linklater’s Hit Man was definitely last. It was a light romantic comedy that I found mostly un-charming and sitcom-like. Honestly, I would also place the crazy, sleazy high school hitgirl movie I saw in May, Malibu High (1979), above it.

The American Nightmare -- I had a very special double feature over the July 4 holiday from 1975: Day of the Locust (first time watching) and Nashville. I got the idea because the two movies played together in drive-ins when they were released, which I know first-hand now had to make for a long, odd bummer of a night (but in a good way!). The two movies include politics, country music, assassination attempts, riots, and the late Donald Sutherland stomping a bratty child to death. I followed these tender takes at America a few weeks later with another look at the good ol’ USA and our capitalistic life plans: Seconds (1966). Former Miss Bay View (Milwaukee) at the South Shore Frolics (which croaked a few years back, iced by high prices and hipsters), Salome Jens gets buck nekkid during an unforgettable hippie wine festival ceremony that was a real event filmed for the movie that involved cinematographer James Wong Howe supposedly using seven handheld cameras (and winning an Academy Award in the process). Jens, a Bay View High graduate, offers this lovely quote about l-i-v-i-n’ in Milwaukee: "the only time I can imagine contemplating suicide would be if I was told that I had to go back and live in Milwaukee forever."

Black(and white)out: After the real-life assassination attempt on a populist creep, combined with another birthday, and general country shittery, I decided to watch mostly black-and-white movies from mid-month on. Some of my favorites: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), The Chase (1946), Street Scene (1931), Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and fuck yeah, Sam Fuller’s Underworld, U.S.A. (1961). 

My favorite was probably Out of the Fog (1941), which also features the camerawork of Howe, who gives us all sorts of foggy fun. It’s an early noir that features two immigrant friends who just want to fish and buy a better boat but fucking John Garfield, a true prick in this, wants to bully them, steal their money, and nail the one’s guy daughter, played nail-rifically (see top photo) by Ida Lupino. Excellent dialogue in this, including, “In America, any man can be a king on the installment plan.”  

And this bit of “g” dropping, American Dreaminess delivered by good guy Eddie Albert to Ida Lupino, after she starts itchin’ for John Garfield: “Just doin’ the simple things – takin’ a walk on the boardwalk on a Sunday afternoon, watchin’ the people and the ocean. I could get a real kick outta just watchin’ you put on a new dress. It’s inside of you, Stella, with your heart spillin’ over with love for the things you’ve got, that you can hold on to forever; that’s where you’ll find what you’re lookin’ for.”  

At the Movies: During the pandemic, as movie theaters began to close, I made it a goal to go to theaters more frequently. Around 2020, I also read a New York Times article that predicted technology in 2040 (which I now can’t find) that portrayed a theater-less future. Including July, I’ve gone to 63 movies in theaters since I began tagging them on Letterboxd in 2022. To further encourage my theatergoing, but also to watch more newer movies, I purchased an AMC A-List membership in July, which lets me watch up to three movies a week for $20 a month. I made it to six movies in July, and I enjoyed them all honestly, but my favorites were probably Kill (2023) and Oddity (2024). Kill was bloody as hell, but poetically so (especially the title sequence, which comes about 30 minutes into the movie!) in a way that Sam Peckinpah would have probably loved or cursed at. Oddity was much more subtle but was creepy and fun and reminded me a little (but on a much lower budget) of The Lair of the White Worm (1988), which Roger Ebert compared to Roger Corman Poe's movies, which probably explains why I liked Oddity so much!

Yesterday's Newspaper is Dead:  From an 1975 interview with director John Schlesinger by Tom Shales of the Washington Post upon the release of The Day of the Locust: "Schlesinger talked about putting 'the reality of the place' on film and then admits that the phrase is a contradiction in terms. The reality of Hollywood? Throughout the film the characters turn their backs on reality. They walk out of the movie theater when the newsreel comes on. 'But that’s true of everyone, today as well,' says Schlesinger. 'The quicker the means of communication, the quicker the news is forgotten. People watch television, they hear about the horrors of Vietnam, then a baby cries or whatever and they leave the room or look away and it is forgotten. Yesterday’s newspaper is dead, no matter how real and appalling its news was. That’s always the way.'"

*All photos from IMDB