Yearly Archives: 2007

Clockcleaner – 9.13.07, Philadelphia, PA, First Unitarian Church

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Clockcleaner

Clockcleaner – 9.13.07, Philadelphia, PA, First Unitarian Church

Though Clockcleaner’s Myspace page features a photograph of Philip K. Dick, if the band were to have a science fiction doppelgänger, it would more likely be Harlan Ellison than Dick. Like Ellison, who is more known for his persona, editorial rants before his stories and general outspoken views, Clockcleaner is likewise known (and celebrated across the web) for their caustic antics and disdaining opinions of the Philadelphia music scene. Clockcleaner legend has garnered the band press everywhere from Vice Magazine (check out the Vice Web-isode on VBS.tv Practice Space) to the Philadelphia Weekly, which most recently declared Clockcleaner “Philly’s most hated band”.

The question is: Is Clockcleaner really chaotic evil? Clockcleaner’s recent gig at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia proved two things, the first being that “No, Clockcleaner is not the anti-Christ”, and the second being that the overall weirdness of a venue can always outdo whatever schtick your band has up its sleeve. Go to Google and type in “First Unitarian Church”. Click the first hit and take a good gander at the church ladies and bingo night. The dimly lit basement where Clockcleaner frontman John Sharkey dry-humped a fan onstage may very well be the same place bingo night is held. But for all of Clockcleaner’s antagonism, the band’s act is just that, an act. From bassist Karen Horner’s opening announcement that she broke her finger “fingering” her boyfriend, fans and band alike seemed in on the joke. Albeit, a lot of the jokes were fairly crude, but they were jokes nonetheless.

In the end it is nice to know that there are bands like Clockcleaner out there who want to do more than just play music by putting on a show and stirring people up in an attempt to shake complacency and mediocrity. Hopefully Clockcleaner will continue to stir the shit and eventually challenge their newly anointed nemesis, the Philly band Man Man, to a rock-off, milk challenge or whatever. That will be a show that no one will want to miss.

Click here to see photos from the show.

Marah – 9.7.07 Philadelphia, PA, Johnny Brenda’s

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Marah - Live at Johnny Brenda's 9/7/07

Marah – 9.7.07 Philadelphia, PA, Johnny Brenda’s

Certainly, songs and showmanship are important to any band when it comes to making it. However, more important is timing, luck and who gets behind your music. It’s unfair but a reality, just as it has never seemed fair how a truly incredible band like Marah barely even makes a blip on the radar. With their forthcoming Angels of Destruction, Marah will have released six proper studio albums, a slew of EPs, a DVD, a live album and a Christmas album in there somewhere. Yet outside Philadelphia, they are virtual unknowns. As Bob Hill recently pointed out in Crawdaddy when writing about Marah’s spiritual cousins, The Hold Steady:

There is no Lester Bangs to saddle-up alongside Lou Reed, no Landau to proclaim the future of rock ‘n’ roll, no William Miller to tell you Russell Hammond isn’t really the golden god he claims to be. There is only a watered-down wasteland of Web logs, anointing bands like the Cold War Kids and the Arcade Fire as the second coming. That type of atmosphere is the bane of great retro acts like the Hold Steady, Marah, and Jesse Malin.

While bands like The Hold Steady are perhaps now on their way to success and do suggest that great music can make it, Marah has been left behind, still playing the local circuit. And as usual, their first of two shows at Johnny Brenda’s found the band in top form. Most excitingly, their live set proved what everyone knew too, that without misdirected production values, songs like “Float Away” are forces to be reckoned with.

In the end though Friday Night, September 7, 2007 came and went at Johnny Brenda’s. And whether anyone ever recognizes them or not, that night Marah were gods and floated away with the best of them.

Click here to see photos from the show.

Quote taken from Bob Hill’s article “The Wild, The Innocent, and The Craig Finn Shuffle”, Crawdaddy, March 16, 2007.

Interview with Steve Barnett, Director of Mindwarp (1990)

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Ever so often a B-movie comes along that goes beyond its modest budget and genre trappings to do something more, something unexpected, something prophetic and just sometimes even better than the films it predicts. The virtually unknown Mindwarp (1990), directed by Steve Barnett, is one of these movies. Showing a debt to author William Gibson and pre-dating films like *The Matrix* (1999), directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, unlike the *The Matrix*, *Mindwarp* does not fall prey to romantic triteness. Whereas *The Matrix* naively suggests that the global-everyman (or nondescript-mannequin as played by Keanu Reeves), could fight and change the system, *Mindwarp* realistically posits that ideals put into practice are more apt to fail than they are to succeed. *The Matrix* remains at its best, like *Star Wars* before it, a cultural event, and at worst, a hackneyed intellectual hodgepodge told and sold with martial arts and leather trench coat cool. *Mindwarp* conversely is never easy to swallow. Hiding its compelling story in high-concept gore, the film features the legendary talents of both Angus Scrimm and Bruce Campbell. With its supergroup cast, you would expect that the film would be as well known as Scrimm’s and Campbell’s respective calling cards, *Phantasm* (1979), directed by Don Coscarelli, and *The Evil Dead* (1981), directed by Sam Raimi. Yet the film has yet to even see a proper DVD release. And it needs one desperately along with a commentary from its director Steve Barnett. For now Mr. Barnett, who is no longer directing but is working as a vice-president of post production at 20th Century Fox, has kindly answered a couple questions here.

Interview follows:

How did your involvement with *Mindwarp* come about?

After editing trailers and features for Roger Corman’s Concorde Pictures, I directed BACK TO HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD for him in 13 days. Rodman Flender, the executive on that film, recommended me to the producers of MINDWARP. This was the first movie for Fangoira Films and they needed someone who could bring it in on time and looking like a real movie. I had a pretty good take on the material, and I took a chance in telling them that the script was a terrific yarn that fell apart in the second half. I guess they agreed, since they hired me. I worked with writers Mike Ferris and John Brancato (aka Henry Domonick) and the producers to get the story working better in the second half and then beating it to within the confines of the very limited budget. My wife had turned me on to William Gibson cyber-punk, and this show fit into that world very neatly. Ferris and Brancato created a wonderfully twisted world (five different worlds actually) filled with bizarre and memorable characters. I managed not to screw it up too badly.

Continue reading Interview with Steve Barnett, Director of Mindwarp (1990) →

Ch-ch-ch-anges

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With the month of September just around the corner we are rapidly approaching 3 solid years of Protozoic. We’ve held 2 Protocons (soon to be 3), posted a glut of content, made a better follow-up to [The Wicker Man than Nicholas Cage](http://www.protozoic.com/2006/11/21/the-wicker-man-ii-fowlpurgisnacht/) and even started to collaborate with other websites like [The Disability Guru](http://www.thedisabilityguru.com/). Protozoic stands as the most successful site Tim and I have ever run, namely because our friends actually read it and contribute to it. We hope it stays that way.

With the rather momentous anniversary approaching, it seemed like a good time to reevaluate and redesign the site. This redesign will attempt to streamline things a bit, and cut some extraneous stuff, but retain the charming (or off-putting) randomness of the old site. The idea isn’t really to sell out just yet, cause no one is “buying it”, but we are going to attempt to do a couple things pretty well so we might actually get ourselves an audience. Changes will continue to occur over the next couple of weeks and if you have any suggestions, be sure to mail us or leave a comment. We’d love to hear them.

The Hold Steady – 8.9.07 Brooklyn, NY, Prospect Park

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Hold Steady

The Hold Steady – 8.9.07 Brooklyn, NY, Prospect Park

In a recent interview Iggy Pop talked about the difference between playing music in 1965, as opposed to 2007.

“In 1965, when great young white artists in the English-speaking world were successfully re-channeling hillbilly and black music– you know Bob Dylan, Ray Davies, Pete Townsend, Keith Richards– they didn’t get any money at first. They were all broke. All those giant people had to stay around quite a while to cash in because the industry ripped them off more efficiently. The information wasn’t as widely available as it is now. Now, like I’m sure the Killers have a great record deal, and a lawyer to track their publishing and a guy to renegotiate their European cash flow streams and all that. It’s just different. I don’t know why.” – Iggy Pop

Certainly, the statement must hold true for some bands. However, contrary to Iggy’s statement, in the era of internet boom, surely just as many artists (if not more) are getting ripped off by charlatans, bandits and thieves in that ephemeral dream of making it, cashing in and getting paid to do what you love. And of the bands who are out there, you get the feeling that The Hold Steady have paid their dues.

When singer Craig Finn thanked the audience for the opportunity to play for them at the free show in Prospect Park, NY, on August 9, 2007, one was left with the profound sense that the man was truly humble. And what a show. Not only was the band incredibly tight, but there was that wild-alive electricity between the band and the audience you get 1 in every 10 shows. So if, like me, you came 3 years late to The Hold Steady, my advice is go out, buy all their albums now and catch them live.

Click here to see photos from the show.

Iggy Pop quote taken from Pitchforkmedia</a href> interview by Bret Gladstone. Click here to read the full article.</a href>

All lined up and nowhere to go

the mindlab
All lined up and no where to go by ezwal

The lighting in this shop made these watering cans look like art. The lady thought I was a little strange for taking this picture.

Taken in a flower shop in Brooklyn, NY, sometime in February. The roll was dated from March, but it was a slow month for me and was left over from the previous one.