News

You read that headline right. The Billy Nayer Show is dead. That's what I learned in an email I received yesterday. Is it appropriate that this death coincides with Uncle JJ's thirtieth birthday? Perhaps it is...

If you don't know who the Billy Nayer Show were, you've been missing out. Missing out in a major way. I'm not talking about missing out like you missed that ambidextrous pitcher dueling with the switch hitter in the minor league baseball game last week (watch here). I'm talking you missed out hearing that Kennedy had been assassinated and you were living in Dallas in '63. The Billy Nayer Show have been one of my favorite bands for years. Fronted by Cory McAbee, BNS has been the creative force behind of some of the most amazing projects of the last twenty years. If you haven't seen their movie, The American Astronaut, don't just rent it, buy it. It's a western/musical set in space. Equal parts Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon, Gunsmoke, and the last half hour of An American In Paris. If you've never seen the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials, Gunsmoke, or An American In Paris, I don't know if you can be helped. If you've seen The American Astronaut, then you know what I'm talking about and forcefully recommend it to anyone you know. It's a rare breed of movie that even those who claim to not like "weird stuff" get right into. Who doesn't like musicals? Who doesn't like beautiful black and white photography? See the movie. If you don't like it, write to me (getalifepunk@gmail.com), and I'll explain why you're wrong.

To write about BNS and not write more about their fearless... feared... their leader Cory McAbee would be plain just bad writings. Cory is one of the most creative people I have ever met. The guy is inspiring before he even begins talking. And when he does, you'll more than likely find yourself laughing as well as slightly awed. I'll never forget the mad doctor that emerged from his side-burned face when I asked him about the potato prints he used to make. His face wrinkled up and his hands became miming pincers as he described the process of turning a potato into a tool for creating some of the most amazing prints you'll ever see. When I was working on my senior art gallery (aka the SCU art department thesis) it was no surprise that one of my linoleum block prints portrayed the grizzled stare of Cory as Samuel Curtis in The American Astronaut. The guy's creativity makes you want to produce better and better work.

You would think I would find it hard to write at a time like this. At a time when one of my favorite bands has died. You obviously didn't read the rest of that email. It goes on to explain that although The Billy Nayer Show is dead, something new and different, but somehow familiar has arisen from the ashes. Enter Cory and company's newest endeavor, American Astronaut. A new band to take the place of the old band. The old band with a new outlook. American Astronaut looks to be more of the same high-impact creativity and acerbic humor, but with a new name and a new outlook. See, a few years back Cory and company, (Frank Swart and Bobby Lurie) relocated to Brooklyn from San Francisco. After settling in, dealing with promoting The American Astronaut (movie), and an entirely new pace of life, the boys are finally saying goodbye to California. American Astronaut's first EP is aptly titled, Goodbye California. When visiting their website (www.americanastronaut.com/band), click on the picture to see and hear some of the usual badassery you would expect from Cory and friends, in their ode to washing their hands of the Golden State.

As much as I am saddened to see The Billy Nayer Show die, I am pleased as punch to see American Astronaut emerge. Get on the website, buy the movie, listen to the music, tell all your friends. Creativity of this quality deserves all the support it can get. Why deprive yourself of all this awesome?

For more informatiom:

American Astronaut Band

The Billy Nayer Show

The Smallest Star Blog: The Official Blog of American Astronaut.

- Hank

Dan Melchior's newest LP came out yesterday. I'd totally forgotten that there was a new release coming soon. Soon, as it turns out, came rather unexpectedly. Suffice it to say, I was excited as hell. The thing is, I love me some Dan Melchior. He is one of the rarest of musicians to pass their sonic vibrations through my ears. Over the last twelve years, Melchior's style has noticeably changed. He, like many musicians, has evolved and slowly moved bit by bit away from his original sound. Unlike many bands that do attempt to grow and change as artists, Melchior has managed to do it without wrecking what there was to like about him in the first place. It's a given that when he puts out something new, I wind up loving it. His new album is no exception.

"Christmas for the Crows" is similar to his previous two releases, "Fire-Breathing Clones on Cellular Phones" and "Hello, I'm Dan Melchior - aka singer-song-ranter." It's a multi-instrumental, droning, stomp-fest. Imagine someone equally influenced by Billy Childish and The Beatles. The brunt of Melchior's lyrical output (sung in true Chatham - Medway style) deals with modern society, technology, and miscommunication leading to the downfall of just about everything. I don't know how he would react to being called an apocalyptic writer, a herald of the end times, but there is no denying that that's his angle. The album frequently saunters off into long, repetitive instrumental breaks before returning to Dan and his warnings of our (and his own) imminent doom. Listening to his albums gives me the feeling Dan thinks hope is out there, somewhere, but we're too far gone for it to make any difference. At least with "Christmas for the Crows" we'll have some killer tunes to listen to while we rot.

Check him out on the myspace.

Buy his new album, Christmas For The Crows, as well as everything else at Dan's Store.

- Hank

Well... this is mostly cool shit. And then there's the Terminator 2 Blu-Ray B.K. wants. Which I'm sure looks pretty good, but I'm no longer convinced is cool. I'm not 12 years old anymore. B.K. had been 12 at one time, but he never knew what was cool.

- Hank

I don't tend to get too bent out of shape when a celebrity dies. I'll grant you that Heath Ledger's death at 28 hit close to home, but normally I give these dead celebrities the same clout as any other dead stranger. To treat a celebrity's death as different from anyone else's places a value on life that I don't agree with. Perhaps I've been relatively lucky and not had anyone die whose work I cared about tremendously...

Now, I can honestly say that the news of Roy Scheider's passing truly upset me. If you can't guess why his death has had this effect on me, you probably don't know me that well. If you do know me well, and have been around on the 4th of July, you have, no doubt, seen me sitting there, completely engrossed by one of my favorite movies of all time, Jaws. If you know me well, you'll know that I often say something is "one of my favorite _______ of all time," but you will also know that in the case of Jaws, this is actually true. One of my greatest victories was when I got a button for Jaws, that I proudly wore on my jacket. One of my greatest defeats was losing said button while out one night in San Diego.

I have read 4 books about the making of Jaws. I know and hold dear worthless (in the real world) minutia about the movie. I don't tend to re-watch movies very often since there is only so much time in the week between radio shows, but I make sure to watch Jaws every year. I think it's one of the ten best movies ever made. It's credited with ruining movies, heralding the summer blockbuster. It's well-known for its problematic shoot. Its script was mostly re-written during production. Steven Spielberg had tremendous vision, directing Jaws at the age of 28. Spielberg made fascinating use of the color yellow throughout the movie. It has one of the most recognizable scores in the history of cinema. There are a great many technical facets that can be discussed to assist in heaping praise upon the movie. Jaws is a technical marvel. But, when you look at the core of the movie, despite the story being about a giant, killer fish, you find the humanity of the three principle characters.

Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Roy Scheider make Jaws one of the most memorable movie-going experiences ever. Forget about the Shark. Forget about the music. Watch the scene after Scheider's Chief Brody has been slapped by the mother of a dead boy. A boy who shouldn't have been in the water had the Chief been given the control he wanted. Watch Scheider's Brody, sitting at the dinner table, watch his son mimic his movements and move accordingly. Watch Scheider ask his son for a kiss, the only warmth a tired and beaten man can think of. Later in the same scene, watch as Scheider fills his mostly empty glass of ice water with wine and drink it in one gulp. The tired and beaten man coming up with new sources for warmth.

Look at the scene in the cabin of the Orca, the boat owned and operated by Robert Shaw's shark-hunting Quint. Watch Shaw and Dreyfuss' marine-biologist Matt Hooper trade off tales of the scars they've accumulated over the course of their travails. Watch Scheider react to their locker room antics. When Shaw gives one of the most engrossing and awesome monologues in the history of film, watch the reactions of the two men listening to this actor act. Watch them re-act to him.

I know, I know. There's a shark out there. A huge shark. A shark that is gonna wreak havoc on these men, on humanity, in the remaining thirty minutes of the movie. But, it's these performances that make Jaws so entertaining. Don't get me wrong, watching that dorsal fin cut through water is fucking badass. Seeing the shark for the first time, in a close-up (well over an hour into the movie), jump out of the water at Chief Brody is mighty entertaining. But, it's only as entertaining as Roy Scheider's reaction allows it to be. "You're gonna need a bigger boat..."

Jaws is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is a technical marvel. It's a blockbuster movie. It's larger than life. But it would be nothing without those three actors. Shaw died before I could miss him. Dreyfuss has turned into something of a cad over the years. Which means Scheider was all there was left. I'm not saying his death hurt a lot. But, I'd be lying to say it didn't hurt a little.

- Hank

Here's a list of what I loved that came out last year.

1. Black Lips - "Good, Bad, Not Evil"
2. The Lamps - "Lamps"
3. White Blue Yellow and Clouds - "Introducing White Blue Yellow and Clouds"
4. Panda Bear - "Person Pitch"
5. Miss Alex White & The Red Orchestra - "Space & Time"
6. Haunted George - "Pile O' Meat"
7. Wooden Shjips "Wooden Shjips"
8. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - "The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford"
9. Harlan T. Bobo - "I'm Your Man"
10. Andrew Bird - "Armchair Apocrypha"
11. Earth - "Hibernaculum"
12. Jennifer Gentle - "The Midnight Room"

Just so no one misundertands, the output of both The Lamps and Black Lips in 2007 was exceptional. Great 7"s & great albums. I think those two records ("Lamps" & "Good Bad..") are vastly stronger releases than much of the rest of the top 12 list. I don't skip tracks when I listen to either of them. Mighty impressive crap all around.

There were some great re-issues last year. Check out, in no particular order:

- The King Khan & BBQ Show (LP release on In The Red w/ demos)
- The Chrome Cranks - "Diabolical Boogie" (A 2 CD set from the BEST band you've never heard.)
- Zodiacs - 7" (Norton)
- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - "Jukebox Explosion" (In The Red)
- Brainbombs - "Brainbombs"

My top single of the year, leaving me eagerly anticipating a full-length release:
- The Boston Chinks - "Coltrane" (7" Goner)

A note to Jay Reatard: "Take it easy buddy. More doesn't equal better." I'm sure he'd like to punch me in the face for a statement like this. I think he's amazing, but The Final Solutions and the Terror Vision records, while good, aren't great. His EP on In The Red was better. His 7" on Goner was great. I just don't know how to digest all of this in less than 6 months.

Dan Melchior's "Madame Nhu" 7" (plastic idol records) reminds me that everything this guy puts out is fucking badass. If you've never heard him, go to his myspace here, and check him out. Then go buy anything you can get your hands on. It's not all exactly the same, but it is all great.

- Hank